Thoughts and postings from an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. , , , , . Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com Columnists Press Releases US Secretary of State John Kerry told Congress that Pakistans government and military are very cooperative and very engaged in the fight against terrorism while Senator Bob Corker accused the country of outright blatant duplicity for supporting the Afghan Taliban. Kerry and Corker squared off on Pakistan on Feb. 23 during a State Department budget request hearing. Corker challenged Kerrys omission of Afghanistan in his opening statement, and then said he witnessed that continued duplicity on Pakistans part during a recent visit to Afghanistan. They [Pakistan] continue to support the Taliban, the Haqqani network, and give safe haven to al Qaeda, Corker, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, noted. He then objected to the US governments recent approval of the sale of F-16 fighters and other equipment worth nearly $700 million to Pakistan. He claimed that zero US taxpayer dollars will go to subsidize Pakistans purchase until such a time as they do the things that we know they could do to stop helping to destabilize Afghanistan. Kerry rose to Pakistans defense, and called the situation in the country a very complicated mix. The government itself, the military has been very cooperative and very engaged in the fight against terrorism, Kerry stated, noting that Pakistani soldiers have been killed during military operations in the tribal areas. Kerry then claimed that there are entities that complicate our efforts very significantly, without naming them. This is almost certainly a reference to Pakistans Inter Services Intelligence Directorate, which is more commonly known as the ISI. The ISI is known to support the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani Network, (a Taliban subgroup), and a host of Pakistani jihadist groups allied with al Qaeda, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harakat-ul-Muhajideen. While Kerry treats the ISI as an entity separate from the military and government, the ISI is actually part of Pakistans military. ISI directors have served as the Chief of Army Staff, the highest military rank in Pakistan, and arguably the most powerful person in Pakistan. Kerry also claimed that the Pakistani military drove the Haqqani Network into new locations during its ongoing offensive in North Waziristan, known as Zarb-e Azb. While the Pakistani military has said the offensive in North Waziristan has targeted all jihadist groups based there, this is untrue. Zarb-e Azb has only focused on groups that actively oppose the government, such as the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. These organizations are often referred to as the bad Taliban as they do not take direction from the ISI and the military, and focus their efforts inside Afghanistan and India. Organizations like the Haqqani Network and the Hafiz Gul Bahadar Group are called good Taliban as they do not attack the Pakistani state. However, these groups do support al Qaeda and the so-called bad Taliban. The Pakistani military gave sufficient notice before the launch of Zarb-e Azb in June 2014 that allowed the Haqqanis and the Hafiz Gul Bahadar Group to vacate North Waziristan. The Haqqani Network is known to have relocated to the neighboring tribal agency of Kurram. Not a single senior or mid-level Haqqani Network leader has been killed or captured during the 20 months of Pakistan military operations in North Waziristan. Pakistans long line of duplicity in Afghanistan, as Corker concluded in his exchange with Kerry, continues to this day. This duplicity can be seen with the Pakistani states relationship with Siraj Haqqani, one of the Afghan Talibans two deputy emirs who is the operational commander of the Haqqani Network, and the Talibans Quetta Shura. According to The New York Times Carlotta Gall, Siraj moves freely around Pakistan, and has even visited the Pakistani intelligence headquarters of the Afghan campaign in Rawalpindi. Other Haqqani Network leaders are known to travel to the gulf to raise money for the Taliban and al Qaeda. The leadership of the Afghan Taliban, which is based outside of the Pakistani city of Quetta and is known as the Quetta Shura, receives direct support from the ISI and the military. The Taliban openly recruits inside Pakistan and runs training camps and command and control centers throughout the country, but most prominently in the tribal areas and the provinces of Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Afghan Taliban is open about its relationship with al Qaeda, and in August 2015, the group accepted al Qaedas pledge of allegiance. Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. Awarded best new fashion blog 2012 and best established fashion blog 2013 by Cosmopolitan magazine. Shortlisted in the 2013 Company Blog Awards for best personal style blog and best fashion blog. This is a blog to inspire those who want to live a stylish, well travelled life on a budget. Proving that you don't need much money to dress cool, and you don't need to earn big bucks to be able to see the world! Apple has attorneys on deck and court papers drawn up, ready to respond to a federal court order to help the FBI devise a way into the San Bernardino shooters iPhone 5c. The Cupertino company has a three-pronged legal strategy, revealed in new details from insiders close to the case. Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., Apples lead attorney, told the Associated Press that Apple plans to tell a federal judge in papers to be filed Friday that Congress should decide whether the company must help the FBI, not the court. Apple also plans to fight the governments use in this case of the All Writs Act, a law from 1789 that has been interpreted for modern times to give law enforcement a lot of power to get information from companies. The government here is trying to use this statute from 1789 in a way that it has never been used before, Boutrous told the Los Angeles Times. They are seeking a court order to compel Apple to write new software, to compel speech. Apple will argue that software is a form of free speech, and that the government cant force Apple to write a version of its code that goes against its beliefs. Apple signs each piece of software it releases, and would have to do so for the version of iOS that the FBI wants the company to develop and push to deceased shooter Syed Rizwan Farooks iPhone. Compelling the company to write and sign code that violates its principles goes against the First Amendment. An unnamed Apple executive told Bloomberg that the free speech argument wont be the crux of its defense. Boutrous joins Apple legal counsel Bruce Sewell and outside counsel Ted Olson, the former solicitor general of the United States who successfully argued for the legalization of gay marriage in front of the Supreme Court, on Apples legal team. The company is expected to respond on Friday to U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pyms order. Tim Cook will sit down with ABC News anchor David Muir on World News Tonight at 6:30 p.m. Eastern to talk about Apple vs. FBI, so be sure to tune in for more detail on the case. Apple reportedly wants to take itself out of the equation when it comes to decrypting data on a criminal suspects iOS device. Company engineers are working on a solution that would make it impossible for Apple to help law enforcement break into an iPhone and gain access to the encrypted data contained within, according to The New York Times. The report is yet another storyline to come out of the continuing saga of Apples battle with the Federal Bureau of Investigation over the iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino, California shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. That iPhone, running iOS 9, is locked with a passcode and thus all data on the phone is encrypted until the device is unlocked with the proper password. The FBI believes the phone contains information relevant to its investigation of the San Bernardino attack in December. Thus the law enforcement agency wants Apple to create a special version of iOS that could be used to unlock the iPhone. The important difference with the special version of iOS is that it would let a computer take unlimited guesses at the handsets four-digit passcode, known as a brute force attack. Typically, iOS doesnt allow rapid brute force guessing of passcodes. Theres also an added security feature users can activate that automatically erases data on an iPhone after 10 unsuccessful attempts at cracking the passcode. Its not clear if the data erasure feature is enabled on the iPhone used by Farook. Creating a special version of iOS is only half the problem, however. The reason Apple could technically create this version of iOS and use it on the iPhone 5c is thanks to the phones troubleshooting system, according to The Times. This system allows Apple to install a new version of iOS onto a phone without a passcodea convenience feature created in case a malfunctioning iPhone needs to be reset. That opening is at the heart of how the FBI wants Apple to get a special version of iOS to interact with the iPhone 5c in question and allow the brute force password cracking. For its part, Apple doesnt want to create the special version of iOS saying the technique used in the San Bernardino case could be used over and over again, on any number of devicesat least for now. The Times says Apple is working hard to close the troubleshooting loophole, making it impossible for Apple to comply with future orders to unlock iPhones. That change couldnt come sooner for Apple, as apparently the company is already fighting at least a dozen requests similar to the San Bernardino case. Why this matters: Theres no doubt that if Apple was ultimately forced to help unlock the phone the hack would be effective. Noted iPhone jailbreak developer Will Strafach (also known as Chronic on Twitter) recently wrote an opinion piece for BGR where he says a four-digit passcode on an iPhone could be cracked in under an hour. Apples current efforts to close the troubleshooting system workaround wouldnt affect the San Bernardino case but it could potentially save Apple from dealing with a similar legal fight again. After Thailand's Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) recently announced that it would abolish the recordation system for well-known trade marks, many questions about the status of well-known marks remained unanswered. This article will discuss whether well-known marks are still protected in Thailand, who has authority to determine whether a mark is well known, and whether a similar recordation system will be reestablished in the future. Abolition of well-known marks recordation system The Notification of Cancellation of Rules of the Department of Intellectual Property Regarding Recordation of Well-Known Marks BE 2548 (2005), issued on September 9 2015, stated that the DIP's recordation system for well-known trade marks was abolished because the Board of Trade Marks already has criteria to determine whether a mark is well known. For the sake of harmonisation, the DIP cancelled its recordation system. Protection of well-known marks As Thailand is a member of the Paris Convention and the TRIPs Agreement, protection of well-known marks still exists in Thailand despite the recordation system being abolished. Under Section 8(10) of the Trade Mark Act, a mark which is identical or very similar to a well-known mark to the extent that it may cause confusion among the public as to the owner or origin of the goods is not registrable. According to the Ministerial Notification regarding Rules on Determination of Well-Known Marks, dated September 21 2004 which applies to all government organisations, from the DIP to the Supreme Court the following criteria should be used to determine whether a mark is well known: the mark has been used on goods or services by way of distribution, or has been used, advertised, or used by other means in the usual manner and in good faith; the mark has been widely used, whether in Thailand or abroad, in the usual manner and in good faith to the extent that it is well known among the general public or those in the relevant industry in Thailand; the mark has been used to the extent that its reputation for quality is generally accepted among consumers; and such use is done whether by the applicant or the applicant's authorised representative or licensee, whether locally or abroad. Current system In the absence of the previously existing recordation system, the following authorities can now determine whether a mark is well known: Trade mark registrars: At the examination stage, trade mark registrars have a duty to reject the registration of a mark which is identical or similar to a well-known mark and may cause confusion among the general public as to the owner or origin of the goods. Board of Trade Marks: The Board of Trade Marks, which acts as an appeal authority for decisions of the registrars, still has the authority to decide whether a mark is well known. If a case is appealed to the Board of Trade Marks, the applicant or opposer may argue that its mark is well known. The Board of Trade Marks will then make a decision on the well-known status of the mark in accordance with the Ministerial Notification, taking into account factors such as acknowledgement of the public in Thailand; the amount of sales or revenue generated by the mark; the market share of the applicant's business; and so on. The applicant or opposer should submit evidence in support of these factors, such as magazines, product samples, invoices, bills of lading, advertisements, trade mark registration certificates, awards and judgments with favourable decisions. In Thailand's civil law system, however, court judgments are merely persuasive and do not hold binding precedence. Courts: The Intellectual Property and International Trade Court (IP&IT Court) and the Supreme Court can also make decisions on the well-known status of marks based on the Ministerial Notification. According to Supreme Court Decision No 6113/2555, recordation is not mandatory. The fact that the opposer did not file a recordation was not a significant reason to decide that the mark was not well-known. It was determined that all facts must be considered in accordance with the Ministerial Notification, such as evidence proving the well-known status of the mark. There is no indication that a recordation system for well-known marks will be re-established in the future. A single committee which is authorised to make a binding decision on whether a mark is well known would be welcomed, because multiple authorities issuing non-binding decisions can be burdensome to trade mark owners, who need to prove their mark's well-known status at every different stage and in every similar case. In the future, if a system to record well-known marks is established which binds all relevant government authorities, owners of well-known trade marks will benefit tremendously because it will reduce costs and time to prove that a mark is well known. Sukontip Jitmongkolthong Ploynapa Julagasigorn Tilleke & GibbinsSupalai Grand Tower, 26th Floor1011 Rama 3 Road, Chongnonsi, YannawaBangkok, Thailand 10120Tel: +66 2653 5555Fax: +66 2653 5678bangkok@tilleke.comwww.tilleke.com The Patent Office considered an appeal filed by Brouwerij L Huygne company, Belgium on the decision of the examiner to refuse recognition in Russia of International Registration number 1141648 for goods in class 32 and services in class 43. The trade mark according to the International Registration is a depiction of a decapitation device, the guillotine, brought into general use by Dr Guillotin. For those who do not immediately understand there is also the word element "La Guillotine" across the device. Initially the examiner refused registration in Russia arguing that the word and the picture of guillotine abuse public interest, the principles of humanity and morals when applied to goods such as mineral waters and juices (often consumed by children). The applicant did not agree to the decision of the Patent Office and argued that the beer La Guillotine is produced by one of the famous breweries in Belgium with 500 years of history. He also argued that the beer was timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the French revolution and that the beer was of high quality. The applicant explained that the trade mark also carried a humorous meaning, namely it could be understood as "cutting off" thirst. The Patent Office could but did not engage in repartee to state that a more appropriate connotation could be that the beer could "cut off' the mind after cutting off thirst, if consumed to excess. Anyway the Patent Office did not develop this idea and was satisfied with the request of the applicant to limit the goods to beer (thus "cutting off" children from the picture). Additionally the applicant stated that the trade mark, even if not registered, was used in Russia from 2009 to 2012 and was distributed by Russian companies Force Trade Ltd and Westbridge Ltd. Besides, the trade mark in question is registered in a number of countries where French is the official language including Benelux, France and other European countries. The fact of registration of the trade mark in European countries is of special importance because Russia ratified the Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation with the European Community. Article 54 of the Agreement obliges Russia to ensure the same level of protection of intellectual property as exists in the European Community. The Collegium of the Patent Office while accepting the appeal noted that depiction of a device for beheading people on the products such as waters, juices and other non-alcoholic drinks could indeed elicit negative emotions among consumers especially if such products could be consumed by children. However, since the applicant limited the list of goods and services to class 32 beer the collegium decided that it was possible to grant protection for the trade mark. The liberal attitude of the Patent Office in this case may be compared to a harsher approach of the OHIM in its decision on the appeal by Couture Tech Limited from BVI (case number 1509/2008-2). The applicant in that case sought to register the coat of arms of the former Soviet Union for some goods, such as perfume, jewellery, leather and badges. The registration was rejected because it could 'be perceived as an offence to the basic values and principles of the European Union". Even though the Soviet symbol was not understood by young people over 30 the Office rejected the appeal of the applicant. In contrast to that, the US Federal Circuit's en banc reversal of In Rem Tam of December 22 2015 decided that refusal to register disparaging marks is unconstitutional and provided a detailed discussion to that effect. Different patent offices. Different decisions. They only testify to the fact that examination of trade marks and perception of trademarks by patent offices, by ordinary people and experts may be quite different. The conclusion: never surrender and fight to the end. Vladimir Biriulin Gorodissky & PartnersRussia 129010, MoscowB. Spasskaya Str25, stroenie 3Tel: +7 495 937 6116 / 6109Fax: +7 495 937 6104 / 6123pat@gorodissky.ru www.gorodissky.com Following the Myriad decision in the United States, the High Court of Australia recently denied the patent eligibility of isolated genes of BRCA1 DNA. Along with the Alice decision from the United States, this is truly a new wave. What we patent reflects the most fundamental social decisions in our patent system. It is worth seeing how Korea is riding on this wave and balancing its system. Unlike the United States, isolated genes and other biological materials such as proteins, small molecules and herbal extracts are all patentable in Korea. Although Myriad's BRCA patent applications were never granted (three BRCA1 patent applications were filed in Korea but the applicant did not respond to the issued office action), it is well established in Korea that genes, cDNAs, vectors and other biological materials isolated from nature are patent eligible regardless of their sources. Human genes are, therefore, patentable. Although it is in a legally separate issue, proving utility of claimed genes is often discussed on the same level with the patent eligibility. To this issue, the Korean court states that specific, substantial and credible utility is required for genes to be patented (Patent Court Decision 2007Heo5116). Cells and Higher life forms such as plants and animals are also patent eligible subject matter. This is also true for stem cells and stem cells may be patented by defining cells by their origins, expression markers, morphological features, functions and preparation methods. In Korea, inventions liable to contravene public order or morality cannot be patented (Article 32). Stem cells and higher life forms may be affected by this provision more than any other types of inventions for ethical reasons. Korean patent law also protects plant varieties. A plant variety can be separately protected by the Seed Industry Law under the UPOV Convention. Methods of medical treatment for humans cannot be patented in Korea. Although the Korean Patent Law does not explicitly prohibit patenting medical method claims, the courts are clear that these claims cannot be patented primarily because of the concern about the misuse of privately owned patent rights against public health. Practically, they are rejected for lacking industrial applicability. It is quite unique that Korea distinguishes humans from other animals in this category of inventions. Method of medical treatment for animals which explicitly exclude humans from the treatment subject can be patented. This may be unfamiliar or feel strange to applicants whose jurisdiction does not distinguish humans from animals. When claims do not distinguish human from animals, this defect can be easily cured by amending claims to exclude human from the claims even if there is no basis in the detailed description. If treatment is performed using a pharmaceutical substance, method claims can easily be converted to pharmaceutical composition claims. Therefore, patent eligibility only becomes an issue when this conversion is not possible, that is treatment by medical surgery. Similarly to medical treatment method claims, diagnostic method claims cannot be patented when they require a human body to carry out the invention. However, these claims may be redrafted in the claim format "A method for providing information for diagnosis..." which is then patentable. In Korea, medical use of a pharmaceutical composition must be claimed as a type of a second medical use claim such as "A pharmaceutical composition comprising X for treatment of Y". This also applies when X is a new compound. As the method of treatment claims are not allowable, claiming combination therapy is not easy in Korea although not impossible. Claims need to be cleverly drafted as composition claims, although there may be some uncertainty or unclearness in the claim wording. In this regard, a recent court decision about dosage regimen may shed a gleam of much-needed light in the darkness. The Supreme Court of Korea for the first time held in its en banc decision that a dosage regime could be a patentable technical feature (Supreme Court Decision 2014Hu768, May 21 2015). In the IT field, patent eligibility is most often discussed for software and business method inventions. Luckily, both are patentable in Korea. KIPO revised examination guidelines for computer-related inventions in July 2014, and the revised guideline presented five typical claim formats allowable; method, product (for example, "a computer device"), program storage medium, data storage medium and compute program claims. According to the guideline, the computer program must be claimed as "stored in storage medium" to be patentable. Patent eligibility reflects a nation's policy. Each country has a varied set of subject matters that are sometimes slightly different or more varied, which reflect the nation's cultural, economic and political views. Despite the differences, the patentable subject matters of each country all share a common foundation in that they were selected to serve society's wellbeing and desire. Patentable subject matter in Korea Not patentable subject matter in Korea Isolated genes, cDNA Inventions contrary to public order or morality (Article 32) Stem cells, animals Method of treatment for humans Plants, plant varieties Method of diagnosis for humans Medical use (pharmaceutical composition) Algorithms Dosage regime, cosmetic method Method of treatment for animals Software, business methods Min Son Partner, Hanol IP & Law E: minson@hanollawip.com HANOL Intellectual Property & Law 6th Floor, 163, Yang Jae Cheon-Ro, Gang Nam-Gu Seoul 06302, Republic of Korea Tel: +82 2 942 1100 Fax: +82 2 942 2600 hanol@hanollawip.com www.hanollawip.com The 2015 Patent Act amendment changed the long-established rule, and determined that the employer may select in advance whether the right to obtain a patent for an employee invention belongs to the employer or the employee when the invention is made. The amendment comes into force on April 1 2016. Current system The current employee invention system is as follows, assuming that the right to obtain a patent for the employee invention belongs to the employee: The patent right for the employee invention could be transferred from the employee to the employer by agreement, employment regulation or other stipulation (stipulation). When the employee transfers the right for the employee invention to the employer, the employee shall have the right to receive reasonable value. Where the stipulation provides for the above value, the payment of value shall not be unreasonable in light of circumstances where a negotiation between the employer and the employee had taken place in order to set standards for the determination of the said value, the set standards had been disclosed, the opinions of the employee on the calculation of the amount of the value had been received, etc (negotiation, disclosure and opinion). Where no provision setting forth the value exists or where it is recognised that the amount of the value to be paid is unreasonable, the amount shall be determined by taking into consideration the amount of profit to be received by the employer from the invention, the employer's burden, contribution, treatment of the employee, etc. Problems of the current system The following problems have been pointed out in the current system: The ownership of a patent right is unstable because companies are not able to have the right to obtain a patent for an employee invention belong to themselves when the invention is made. The current system is not able to satisfy the various needs about economic profits for employee invention. It is unclear how the procedures of negotiation, disclosure and opinion should be followed in each specific case. New system In order to solve these problems, a new employee invention system is being introduced. 1) The right for employee invention is enabled to belong to the employer The right to obtain a patent for an employee invention is enabled to belong to the employer by stipulation. The instability in the ownership of a patent right will be eliminated. Some small and medium-sized companies, universities or research institutions may desire to have the right for the employee invention belong to the employee; if so, the system that such right belongs to the employee can be selected. 2) Right to receive reasonable remuneration or other economic profits An employee has a right to receive reasonable remuneration or other economic profits. Such economic profits include any profits other than money such as bearing of costs for studying abroad, providing stock option, and promotion causing salary increase. 3) Guideline for procedures to determine the details of the economic profits Negotiation, disclosure and opinion shall be considered in determining whether the economic profits for the employee invention are deemed to be unreasonable. The minister of economy, trade and industry will publish the guideline for the procedures concerning negotiation, disclosure and opinion. The JPO is publishing a draft guideline which reveals focal points about the procedures. Practical tips The amendment applies to employee inventions made after April 1 2016, whereas the current system applies to employee invention made before that date. In future R&D, it is preferable that companies record the details of the process by which an employee invention is made so that they can trace the date when the invention is made. The stipulation should be amended if companies desire to have the right for the employee invention belong to themselves. The provision of the stipulation should be clear that the right belongs to the employer when the invention is made. Companies are able to flexibly determine the economic profits for their employee according to their business type, scale and employee's needs. However, economic profits other than money may be evaluated differently by each employee. Companies should design the economic profits so that they will not be regarded as a disincentive for employee invention and explain the contents of the economic profit to their employees concretely. Companies should follow the guideline which will be published after April 1 2016 to reduce the legal risk. The draft guideline published now explains concretely what will likely cause unreasonableness of the economic profits in each stage of negotiation, disclosure and opinion. Companies need to follow the procedures when determining the economic profits so that the profits should not be regarded as unreasonable. In addition, in order to prove the facts for denying unreasonableness of the economic profits in the lawsuit which may be filed by their employees, companies should maintain a record to demonstrate how the procedure was conducted, such as meeting minutes of the negotiation and distribution materials to the employees. Takanori Abe Tomohiro Kazama ABE & PartnersMatsushita IMP Building1-3-7, Shiromi, Chuo-ku, Osaka, 540-0001, JapanTel: +81 6 6949 1496Fax: +81 6 6949 1487abe@abe-law.comwww.abe-law.com Bad faith filings by registry pirates in China continue to pose enormous challenges to brand owners, large and small, foreign and domestic. Chinese pirates, well-informed about the current limitations of the law, have become increasingly adept at extracting ever higher compensation from victim companies. These victim companies often have little choice but to pay up in order to eliminate potential obstacles to the production and distribution of their brands in China. In May 2014, the National People's Congress passed an amendment to the PRC Trademark Law that introduced several provisions intended to permit victim brands to address bad faith registrations and thereby cut down on the overall number of filings and their related administrative burden. Regrettably, each of these new tools has proved to be of limited utility to date (see below). However, recent decisions by the Chinese Trademark Office (CTMO) in oppositions involving "serial pirates" suggest a potentially important policy shift in the making. Article 7 Good faith The CTMO's ground-breaking decisions are based upon Article 7 of the Trademark Law. Newly-added in 2014, this provision requires applicants to abide by the principle of good faith when applying for marks, thereby implicitly prohibiting the filing of applications in bad faith. During the drafting process, many brand owners had hoped that Article 7 would provide a safety net for resolving disputes over bad faith registration that would not otherwise be actionable under the law's other provisions (see below). But Chinese authorities made clear during the draft law's consultation period that Article 7 could not be solely relied upon to sustain an opposition. As a result, it had been assumed that Article 7 would only be useful in unusual situations, and only following costly appeals to the Beijing IP Court and the Beijing Higher People's Court. Fortunately, the CTMO began issuing decisions in late 2015 that suggest a willingness to apply Article 7 even in decisions in the first instance. CTMO decisions In 2014, the well-known US supermarket chain Whole Foods filed oppositions against two applications by a local serial pirate for the mark 365 Everyday Value covering food and beverage items in classes 29 and 32. In decisions issued on December 28 2015, the CTMO ruled in favour of Whole Foods. The contents of the decisions addressed the use of Article 7, but also included other apparent innovations. The CTMO's holding in both oppositions was explicitly based on Article 7 of the Trademark Law. To ensure compliance with the Trademark Law's procedural requirements (ie, the fact that Article 7 could not sustain an opposition by itself), the CTMO referenced Article 7 by means of reliance on Article 30 of the law, which provides a general prohibition against registration of any marks "that do not conform to the law." The existance of pirate's bad faith was confirmed by the CTMO based on evidence he had filed for over 150 other trade marks, many of which were deemed "famous" in China and had been the subject of numerous prior oppositions and invalidations by the victim brand owners. The CTMO's decisions did not address whether Whole Foods' mark was "famous" or whether it had previously been used in China. Nor did the decisions assess whether the goods covered by the pirate marks were "similar" to the goods or services of Whole Foods. The foregoing suggests that the CTMO did not regard these factors as preconditions to protection under Article 7. Finally, the CTMO decisions noted that the pirate had failed to provide a "reasonable explanation" for applying for the 365 Everyday Value mark. This is potentially significant since (as compared to UDRP rules), the PRC Trademark Law does not require alleged bad faith pirates to prove their "good faith" interest in filing for marks. The CTMO's decisions therefore suggest that, once an opposing party has presented reasonable evidence of bad faith, the burden can be shifted to the alleged pirate to prove its good faith. Whole Foods does not appear to be the only beneficiary of the CTMO's new policies. In another opposition involving the famous Swiss watch brand DOXA, the CTMO rejected an application by a pirate that had filed over 2,000 trade marks, including many globally famous brands. Take-aways The pirate in the above Whole Foods case is not expected to appeal. (Indeed, the pirate did not file arguments or evidence in response to the oppositions before the CTMO.) As a result, only time will tell whether the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) and the courts will support the CTMO's approach with respect to Articles 7 and 30. It likewise remains to be seen whether the CTMO will adopt the same policy in other bad faith registration cases it deals with in the near term that involve a different fact pattern. Regardless, victim brands are well advised to cite Articles 7 and 30 in oppositions and invalidations against serial pirates or indeed any case where bad faith is evident but the evidence does not appear to neatly satisfy the requirements found in other provisions in the law. In cases that are already under judicial appeal, the courts may well reject any new arguments on the basis they were not raised in earlier proceedings before the TRAB. In that case, consideration can be given to filing a fresh (and much cheaper) invalidation to the TRAB, rather than persevering with further appeals before the courts. Other grounds for addressing bad faith piracy The CTMO and TRAB have previously relied upon other long-standing provisions in the Trademark Law to address serial pirates, including Article 4 (intent to use), Article 10(1)(8) ("unhealthy influences on society") and Article 44 ("registrations obtained by deceptive or other improper means"). However, more recently the CTMO, TRAB and courts have refrained from citing these provisions in oppositions and invalidations involving bad faith registrations, thus underscoring the potential value of the above decisions. In the meantime, bad faith registrations that do not involve blatant evidence of serial piracy can be addressed under the following provisions. The chances of success under each will depend greatly on the facts and evidence available, as well as the subjective views of the TMO and TRAB examiners. Article 15: This provision prohibits unauthorised filings by an agent, representative, or a party with whom the victim brand has had a "business or other relationship". Of course, most registry pirates do not have prior business relations with the victim brands, nor do they engage in competing businesses thus undermining the value of this new provision. Article 32: This provision permits action against bad faith filings that violate prior rights, including copyright, rights in personal names, trade names and "merchandising rights". Article 32(2) also offers protection where the victim brand has been used and achieved a definite degree of fame before the pirate's filing date. However, Chinese law requires that such use and fame occur in China, rather than overseas, thus (again) undermining the practical utility of this provision in many cases. Article 19: This new provision in the Trademark Law allows oppositions or invalidations against trade marks filed by trade mark agencies other than those needed for their own operations. However, Article 19 is not at present applied to cases where the trade mark agency has assigned its application or registration before a decision is issued in an opposition or invalidation thus providing trade mark agencies with an easy way to avoid harm. Draft Rules from Supreme People's Court (SPC) In October 2014, the SPC issued a draft regulation for public comment intended to assist courts in handling appeals involving bad faith registrations, among other things. Drafting of this regulation stalled in 2015, but there are indications the SPC has resumed research and drafting. It remains unclear when it will be issued. (See previous articles published in Managing IP December 2014, May 2015 and November 2015.) SIPS Hong Kong Lockhart Road No 3 Wanchai, Hong Kong China mail@sips.asia Tel: +852 2866 6400 Fax: +852 2866 6408 Back in April 2015 we reported that one of the China antimonopoly agencies (SAIC) published the IP Misuse Rules, which became effective then. What followed after that surprised everyone. The other anti-monopoly agency (National Development and Reform Commission, NDRC), which was at the centre of the attention of the global IP/antitrust community for last couple of years due to its investigation into Qualcomm and InterDigital in China, announced in the summer that it was asked by the State Council to draft guidelines on IP misuse. NDRC issued a preliminary draft in October 2015 and issued an updated version in January. At the beginning of January, the third anti-monopoly agency MOFCOM announced its draft IP misuse guidelines are ready, though these are not publicly available. Almost immediately SAIC published online its draft IP Misuse Guidelines, including the English version. The patent office (SIPO) also announced that it is preparing its own version of the guidelines. This means China is going to have four versions of IP misuse guidelines, which will all be submitted to the State Council Antimonopoly Commission for final review and consolidation. Chinese press reported that the State Council will publish its first version in the first half of 2016. One of the key issues in the earlier October 2015 NDRC draft is the applicability of the guidelines to non-FRAND encumbered patents. It arguably may hold patent owners that have a dominant market position in a product sector to have violated the Chinese antimonopoly law if the patent owners refuse to license or charge "excessive" royalty fees. People have put a lot of hopes in the latest draft to watch if any improvements were made. However, the new draft does not resolve it either. NDRC now removes the section on SEPs and treats both SEPs and non-SEPs under the section of "abuse of dominant market position". This remains highly problematic to those patent owners that have strong portfolios. It seems that the NDRC is tired of the controversies and tries to adopt a single approach to deal with either SEP or non SEPs. The concept of "innovation market" is deleted from the NDRC draft, as some people have been criticising it for being too confusing. As an alternative, the guideline states that "the influence of exercising IPRs on investments on R&D, or innovation activities should also be considered". A detailed method is also given for calculating the market share of the relevant technology market. Notably, the SAIC draft guidelines still retain the concept of innovation market and even provide a methodology when the innovation market should be defined and analysed. The new guideline have re-defined the types of agreements which may raise competition concerns, which include joint R&D, patent pool, cross licensing, standardisation, price restrictions, exclusive grant-back and no-challenge clauses. Notably, it separates those rules to regulate IPR agreements signed by competitive business operators and those by non-competitive business operators. For the first type of agreements (Section II(i)), the guideline includes four different circumstances joint R&D; patent pooling; cross-licensing; and standard formulation. It is stated that the first type of agreement is supposed to cause more antitrust concerns. For the second type of agreements (Section II(ii) ), the guideline also covers four different circumstances price constraint; exclusive grant-back; non-challenge clause; and other restrictive clauses. The guideline recognises that all eight circumstances may help improve efficiency, but also may have the impact of eliminating or restricting competition, or hampering innovation. Some detailed factors are given to be adopted in case-by-case decision. Interestingly, SAIC Guidelines have fairly similar rules to those in the NDRC guidelines. The guideline has also incorporated the safe harbour rules and specified a certain market threshold (15% for competitive business operators and 25% for non-competitive business operators). Based on this threshold, some agreements entered by business operators may be exempt from penalties because they do not seriously exclude competition. Notably, this is inconsistent with the conditions for safe harbour stipulated in the SAIC IP Misuse rules (20% for competitive business operators and 30% of each counterparties). The inconsistency may cause conflict and great confusion in practice. The guideline entails standards for determining whether an IPR owner has a dominant position (Section III(i)) and, if so, whether it has abused that position (Section III(ii)). It lays out six types of abuse behaviours which include unfairly high royalty fees, refusal to license, tying, impose unreasonable conditions, discriminatory treatment and injunctive relief etc, which both apply to SEP and non-SEP licensing. This arguably will cause greater concern to many people. For example, in the part of "unfairly high royalties", seven factors are listed which apply to the analysis for all types of IP. We expect that lots of efforts and attention will be devoted to the IPR Misuse Rules in China. Experts have to choose when and how to participate in the commenting processes. Whoever is going to consolidate the four sets of IP misuse guidelines could certainly use lots of help from the international legal community. He Jing Liu Liangyong AnJie Law Firm26/F, Tower D, Central International Trade Center6A Jianguomenwai Avenue, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100022, PR ChinaTel: +86 10 8567 5988Fax: +86 10 8567 5999wuli@anjielaw.comwww.anjielaw.com In a recent ruling (February 2 2016) the Court of Appeal The Hague assessed the validity of a patent and SPC of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The Court further decided on awarding costs based on European directive 2004/48/EC. Validity of SPC In first instance Mylan BV requested invalidation of the Dutch part of European patent EP 0 566 709 of Janssen. The District Court rejected invalidation of the patent because it had expired. However, the SPC was invalidated for lack of inventive step of the patent claims. The Court of Appeal confirmed this decision. It considered that the combination of two active ingredients into a single preparation was obvious over a disclosure relating to administration of the two compounds in two separate preparations. Synergy of the combination could not be relied on in assessing inventive step because this effect was considered to be inherently present in the prior disclosure as well. The decision and reasoning are in line with a decision of the German Bundesgerichtshof, but deviate from the decision of the Spanish Seccion de la Audiencia Provincial de Navarra, which considered the Spanish part of the patent inventive. The same case is also pending before the courts in Hungary and Italy, but these have not yet issued a decision. Litigation costs In first instance Mylan was not awarded full litigation costs, which decision Mylan appealed against. The Court of Appeal confirmed the decision because it considered that Articles 1019 and 1019h of the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure (implementation of directive 2004/48/EC) only relate to costs of enforcement of IP rights. Invalidity proceedings, as in the present case, in which a threat of infringement was insufficiently substantiated, are outside the scope of the directive. This is in agreement with the CJEU decision of November 15 2012 (C-180/11 Bericap-ruling), and with an earlier ruling of the current Court of Appeal where costs were awarded in invalidity proceedings (Danisco-ruling, February 26 2013). Contrary to the present case, the invalidity proceedings were started by Danisco with the intention to defend against an impending infringement claim, and litigation costs could therefore be awarded. UPC Next year the Unified Patent Court will be operational. Then (if the patent owner has not filed an opt-out) such invalidity proceedings will have to be held before the UPC and parallel proceedings in different countries (except for Spain) will no longer be necessary. It will be interesting to learn how the UPC will rule on awarding recoverable costs. Marijke Westra V.O.Johan de Wittlaan 72517 JR The HagueThe NetherlandsTel: +31 70 416 67 11Fax: +31 70 416 67 99info@vo.euwww.vo.eu A new collective agreement on employee inventions, negotiated between two major parties of the Swedish labour market, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Naringsliv) and the Council for Negotiation and Cooperation (PTK being a body of 25 trade unions), has recently entered into force in Sweden. The new agreement, commonly known as The Inventor Agreement, applies to employee inventions reported to the employer as of December 1 2015. With the exception of a provision regarding an employee's right to fair compensation, Swedish legislation on employees' inventions is non-mandatory. In practice, The Inventor Agreement is the applicable legal framework for governing under what conditions the rights to patentable employee inventions are transferred to the employer. The agreement applies to those parties bound by the agreement, being a significant proportion of Swedish companies engaged in R&D. Although the re-negotiated agreement to a large extent is identical to the former agreement, a few notable changes have been made. Firstly, significantly higher compensation levels to employees are recommended and have been linked to an officially indexed amount established yearly. This year's recommended minimum amount is approximately 2,200. Furthermore, the ultimate time limit for initiating legal action to solve a dispute concerning compensation has been changed to being calculated 10 years from the patent application date, rather than 10 years from the reporting date of an invention to the employer. A new special arbitration tribunal to settle disputes regarding compensation has been established and a possibility to request a maximum of four years stay of proceedings has been introduced in order to facilitate the establishment of a disputed invention's value. A final novelty worth mentioning is that unlike other arbitration tribunals, summaries of the arbitration awards will be made publicly available, thus providing some kind of case law from these cases. Marcus Eilenberg ZaccoArne Jacobsens Alle 15DK-2300 Copenhagen S DenmarkTel: +45 39 48 80 00Fax: +45 39 48 80 80contact@zacco.comwww.zacco.com The use of hyperlinks may be considered as a trade-related copyright infringement under certain circumstances. There are three types of hyperlinks: (1) deep linking: when a link redirects to another website where illegal works are hosted; (2) inline linking: when a link opens directly a file that contains a work; and (3) surface linking: when a link redirects to the home page of another website. The first two types of links may be considered as an unauthorised use of works. In fact, in Mexico there is already a precedent in which our authorities determined a trade-related copyright infringement for the use of deep linking. The website that provides the links redirects to illegal websites that host works without the authorisation of the copyright or neighbouring rights holder. Such activities are considered as an act of public communication of works by making them available to the public. So it becomes necessary to have the authorisation of the copyright or neighbouring rights holder to use works in such a way. This trade-related copyright infringement may be confirmed by making the analysis, of such activities in light of the three-step test contained in the Berne Convention, which is the basis of every copyright exception: Certain special cases. Do not conflict with a normal exploitation of a work. Do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author. Hyperlinking is not a special case of exception: it conflicts with the normal exploitation of the work since the use of the work does not consider any kind of remuneration to the copyright owner and it prejudices the legitimate interests of the author since the original authorisation to use the work was different (in most cases, the use is authorised by a restricted access). Exceptions to hyperlinking may be legally applicable when the three-step test is duly completed. Mauricio Llanes Olivares Pedro Luis Ogazon No 17 Col San Angel 01000 Mexico DF Tel: +5255 53 22 30 00 Fax: +5255 53 22 30 01 olivlaw@olivares.com.mx www.olivares.com.mx Recently, the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) had to decide on the request of a complainant, himself sued for patent infringement, to become a party in an ex parte reinstatement procedure concerning the allegedly infringed patent. After the European patent was maintained in opposition in amended form, the patentee failed to perform the required validation steps in time before the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO). Having been informed by the GPTO about the loss of his German patent, the patentee requested reinstatement and simultaneously performed the required validation actions. A third party, sued for infringement of this patent, intervened before the Patent Office and requested to become a party to the reinstatement procedure, because it was directly affected by the outcome of the reinstatement. The GPTO rejected the request to become a party and granted restitutio in integrum to the patentee for his patent. The Federal Patent Court and the BGH confirmed this decision. In its decision (XZB4/14, Verdickerpolymer II), the BGH argued that the patent law provides the possibility for a party being sued for patent infringement to intervene in a procedure at the Patent Office only under particular circumstances, for example an intervention of the accused infringer in a continuing opposition procedure. This being lex specialis, the BGH denied a general possibility of intervention in any other Patent Office proceedings by a third party being affected by the outcome. Reinstatement proceedings are generally an "intermediate procedure" in a main procedure, such as examination, grant, or in the decided case, a validation procedure. There, intervention is not provided in the law. While in opposition proceedings, where intervention is implemented in the law, the intervener may become a party to a reinstatement procedure, the BGH concluded that there is no legal basis for becoming a party as intervener in ex-parte proceedings at the German Patent Office. Norbert Hansen Maiwald Patentanwalts GmbHElisenhof, Elisenstr 3D-80335, Munich, GermanyTel: +49 89 74 72 660 Fax: +49 89 77 64 24info@maiwald.euwww.maiwald.eu According to the Australian Reef Pilots (ARP), Australia is now the fourth biggest cruise market in the world. Part of the boom in cruising has to do with more specialty cruise ships coming to the region. The smaller size cruise ship segment seems purpose-designed to transit the remote waters of the Kimberley coast. However, larger-vessel cruise companies are now expressing interest in touring this remote and rugged north-west region as well as the Great Barrier Reef. In fact, the number of cruise ships using ARPs services has increased by more than 89 percent since 2010. Last year, ARP saw record demand for pilots between Broome and Darwin, and expects 2016-17 will see the Kimberley coast enter the mainstream market. In Northern Australias Great Barrier Reef, the draft limit in the Inner Route the passage that lies between the mainland and the outer reef between Cairns and Cape York is 12.2 meters (40 feet). The maximum size of cruise ships that normally transit the area is approximately 265 meters (869 feet), which carry about 2,100 passengers. So passages like the Torres Strait can only be plied at certain times and at restricted speeds to control squat. Its also necessary to pay careful attention during course alterations to minimize heel, and of course, for the comfort of passengers, says Captain Ian Perry, ARP Pilot and Pilot Trainer. Captain Perry is one of 44 highly experienced ARP marine pilots who regularly shepherd vessels through the shipping channels of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. One of the most environmentally-sensitive regions in the world, the Reef is heritage-listed, and ARP are known as the unofficial Guardians of the Reef. In addition to offering pilotage through the Great North East Channel, Hydrographers Passage, the Inner Route, Torres Strait, Whitsunday Passage, Cape Flattery and 2 Mile Opening as well as other special cruise ship corridors, ARP also provides advisory services through non-mandated pilotage areas. Many of those areas outside of our compulsory pilotage areas are quite navigationally demanding with strong tidal streams, currents, and especially in the Kimberleys, which have a huge range of tides to 13 meters, explains Capt. Perry. We offer this specialized knowledge of cruising grounds around Australia, not just the Barrier Reef. Some current surveys and charts are based on information that goes back to the 19th century, so additional information we can supply to the ship is important for these off-the-beaten-track places. ARP has implemented a very robust and modern Pilotage Operations Safety Management System (POSMS), which was officially approved by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in October 2014. A group of ARP pilots and management worked alongside well known and respected marine safety expert Captain Ravi Nijjer to research more than a century of accident reports from the Reef, as well as marine incidents from around the globe in order to put together a safety management system relevant to ARP operations. The POSMS has since been augmented by a training framework which outlines how it is introduced and taught to new and existing pilots. This makes ARP the first pilotage company in Australia to have a fully integrated on-the-job training framework for its safety management system. Training involves on board real-life experiences with a licenced pilot and mentor pilots, as well as time with bridge simulators. The course is only for ARP pilots and is based on their procedures and systems. The one-day internal training gives an overall induction to the Safety Management System and covers eight areas such as the philosophy of safety management systems, a pilots role and obligation in coastal pilotage, Great Barrier Marine Park environmental information, weather and tidal information and marine incident reporting and investigations. The Standard operating procedures section covers 10 sub-topics, including compulsory pilotage limits, navigation chart requirements, go/no-go decisions, risk assessment, anchoring and emergency anchoring, and pilot embarkation and disembarkation. A continual assessment of the POSMS ensures that the latest information is always relayed to every ARP pilot. Additional ongoing training that pilots must undertake includes courses such as a one-week advanced pilot training course, a one-day helicopter underwater escape training (taken every four years), and a four-day bridge resource management course. The Torres Strait and Great Barrier Reef simulation program developed by ARP and Smartship Brisbane (an Australian simulation center) helps fine-tune the POSMS in the challenging conditions pilots face when passing through the Prince of Wales Channel in the Torres Strait. We also attend advanced marine pilot training courses to develop skills and broaden experiences, says Capt. Perry. Those are done with pilots outside of the Reef pilotage of ARP such as port pilots and other marine experts. Its a great opportunity to feed on other peoples knowledge and for general improvement. The two principal tenets of POSMS are error management and dynamic risk. The one-day training is typically given to groups of four or five pilots. From that point on, you learn to use it [POSMS] and refer to it. It was written by pilots. It wasnt imported from elsewhere, said Capt. Perry. Reef pilots can be challenged by myriad issues like sea conditions, extreme weather changes, tides, etc. Naturally they have to have a very good understanding of the rules and regulations that apply specifically to cruise ships as well as other vessels such as the landing of passengers in case of emergency, arranging port access, and the like. Regulations are very strict when it comes to the discharge of gray water in Reef areas. All ships must carry a permit and pre-plan where to make an exit and re-enter the Reef, and ARP pilots help execute these additional legs, plan the logistics and suggest appropriate places. Settling in on board quickly is crucial to a pilots effectiveness, especially since the cruise ship must stay on schedule. And, of course, all aspects of the voyage must be pre-planned and covered well before the pilot gets on board. Becoming an accepted member of a ships command team, being in a position to assist with a variety of things that do not normally arise in other shipping pilotage jobs, and mastering a great array of equipment can be challenging. We need to be familiar with many things. Also considering the 500 miles of the Inner Route (the passage can be anywhere from 24 to 50 hours pilotage, depending on the ships speed) with its series of short passages interspersed with more intensive pilotage sections, managing rest is essential for pilots. A fatigue management plan is also part of the POSMS. Its essential to manage rest during the passage sections so youre rested for the pilotage sections, said Capt. Perry. If you cant manage your sleep, I dont know if you can do this job. As a group, ARP is continually in a process of identifying hazard, assessing risk, taking action to eliminate or reduce risk and monitoring and reviewing the constantly changing circumstances. This is a key difference in comparison to port pilotage, as the ARP work in a much more time-extended environment. Even with technological advances such as Portable Pilot Units, ECDIS, GPS, DGPS and better under-keel clearance management and monitoring, Capt. Perry stresses that bridge resource management is essential to minimizing human error. In fact, he thinks it is as significant as most technological advances. The challenges are still coming to grips with the role of the modern day pilot in terms of error management, particularly following what weve learned about the Costa Concordia accident, he told Maritime Reporter. Cruise lines are committed to non-compulsory pilotage because they understand the additional assurance that it provides. It is part of their and our due diligence. According to Capt. Perry, a number of pilotage organizations are copying or taking pieces of the POSMS program on board, for example at ports around Australia, including Fremantle, Cairns and Port Philip and elsewhere worldwide. ARP has also won several awards in the past few years and has been recognized by the Transport & Logistics Industry Skills Council (TLISC), with the 2015 Innovation and Excellence in Workforce Development Award in the maritime Sector for the competency-based training of its Pilot Boat Launch Crew. Our goal is to provide highly competent pilotage practices and have a depth of current local knowledge that can provide first-class systems to all ships, and of course cruise ships and their particular industry requirements, said Capt. Perry. In total, ARP operates a fleet of six pilot launches and five land-on helicopters as well as pilothouses located in Mackay, Cairns and Thursday and Yorke Islands in Torres Strait. In addition, the group also provides Great Barrier Reef relief Masters, port pilots in Australia and New Zealand, towage specialists, marine surveys, and provision of charts, voyage management, launch operation and hire. You might consider that at one time, a pilots role in life was to protect a ship from the environment. says Capt. Perry. Some pilots feel that we are now there to protect the environment from the ship. And I am certainly of that second school of thought. ARP have been guarding the Great Barrier Reef for more than 125 years. The group has certainly seen changes over the decades in operational improvements and modern innovations, but some things never change. The technical advances make life so easy, Capt. Perry sums up. But you still have to look out the window. (As published in the February 2016 edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News - http://magazines.marinelink.com/Magazines/MaritimeReporter) Choosing next generation communication systems for professional marine operations can be a daunting task. Not to worry: John Haynes provides a primer. Over the past decade we have come to expect fast, seamless global communications from a single device that fits in our pocket. The age of the smart phone and tablet enables multiple voices talking in a conference call and real time transfer of data, ranging from documents to photos and videos. In the modern bridge, most crew members have a GPS in their pocket which can identify where that person is on the planet. For the traveling mariner, communication devices such as the iPhone or iPad can be loaded with navigation apps. However, there are distinct differences between having vast amounts of data and knowing where you are in real time, to actually navigating and passage planning. A challenge when the marine sector moved from paper charts to digital charting was too much complexity plus a lack of uniform menus, commands and controls across different navigation systems. Commercial objectives drive innovation in design, but the danger of feature creep can be adding functions to an electronic device for no reason. On a dark and stormy night, or at high speeds, a navigation system that delivers the minimum amount of relevant and clearly presented information should be the design and usability objective. How the navigator or captain transmits information externally and onboard to various crew members from engine room to deck crew can also be critical. Marine Communications Evolve & Adapt The traditional system for external marine communication is VHF radio. Combined transmitters and receivers operate on standard international frequencies or channels. Aerials mounted high can give a ship to ship VHF range of over 50 nautical miles. Range between small boats with low aerials can be less than 5 nautical miles in certain conditions. This limited range of VHF is a benefit in crowded waters as it reduces the overlap of radio traffic between small vessels. A vessel in distress wants other vessels in range to come to their assistance, as they will often be first on the scene in areas where there is limited rescue coverage. Mariners on small craft are still trained in VHF techniques with focus on the mayday distress call. Digital Selective Calling (DSC) capability allows a distress signal to be sent with a single press button on the radio which can be integrated with onboard GPS to transmit position. There is now a strong link between GPS and communication as the digitally generated location is expected to be more accurate than human error interpreting a position or confusion from spoken words and numbers in a voice only distress call. However, in day-to-day communications, voice is still used. A simplex system only allows communication in one direction at a time while a duplex system allows each person to speak simultaneously and hear each other at the same time. A two-way system is like talking on the telephone. Headsets combine speakers and microphones which can also be incorporated into helmets. On professional vessels headsets should have industrial grade hardware that resists corrosion and be engineered for comfort. For the marine environment, a headset usually wraps around the back of the wearers head so that when leaning over to handle a line or look down a ladder climb, the headset does not fall into the water or onto the deck. Grabbing for a falling headset can be fatal if the operator needs both hands for their task. Hands free microphones can also offer safety benefits. Wind, wave and engine noise combine to make communicating among crew members difficult. High volume and poor quality communications can result in misunderstood radio messages, accelerated crew fatigue and slow reaction times. Many marine operations need to listen clearly to military, police, fire and emergency VHF transmissions, but due to external noise, radio calls can be missed or have to be repeated. If communication among crew members requires shouting it can create a situation where work and safety messages are subject to interpretation errors. By turning the radio volume up crews can be subjected to short term ringing in the ears and long term hearing damage. The latest low noise or noise cancelling systems are designed to give high quality communication combined with hearing protection. Slow moving workboats are well served by communications that have evolved from industrial land based systems. However, as small boat operations increase both operating speeds and demands on crews, the next generation of maritime communications may be using technology that has been developed for military and security applications. As the expectations for communications performance grows, it is worth considering how military and security roles are driving changes and improvements in the systems. Milspec quality is becoming an industry norm for portable electronics in harsh marine environments. Next generation systems may have a net function with other types of communication, including the ability to transmit data to or upload images from mobile units. Various systems designed for military and security applications could improve safety and efficiency for the offshore sector, renewable energy, wind farms, fish farming, aquaculture, survey and scientific work. The main difference between military and civilian for some communication systems may simply be the use of encryption. Solutions Abound for a Changing Workplace UK based-Drumgrange has developed the Diamond intercom & radio combiner system as a digital system for use on RHIBs, high-speed craft and small vessels. The compact system is designed as a combined communications solution for military, coast guard and commercial open boat applications. The Diamond system provides voice connectivity between users and on-board radios. It also integrates existing boat alarms, for example engine warning alarm, to support boat and crew safety. Suzanne Coop, Business Development Manager for Drumgrange told MarineNews in November, The Diamond system was developed to stringent end-user requirements for operations in harsh maritime environments. The system balances intuitive functionality and ease of use with a robust, low-maintenance design. In high tempo operations the system enables crew members to have independent access to both secure and non-secure communication networks, uninterrupted hands free intercom facilities and full control of voice-activated comms. The intercom & radio combiner system can accommodate any radio and user combination with up to eight radios and eight users as a basic system. Key features include user-specific VOX sensitivity control and users have the ability to personalize voice-activated comms at any time. The ergonomic design is for single hand operation during high-speed transits at sea. The system is ruggedized for land and maritime use, waterproof to minimum IP67 and will work with most headset configurations, including binaural headsets which enable users to have a different communications input through each ear. Intercom systems can use hard wired or wireless equipment for onboard communication between crew members. There may be a master control on the system or individuals can select what they want to hear. Some systems allow operators to listen to external radio and comms transmissions while listening to onboard crew conversations. Safety benefits of onboard intercoms include situational awareness on the vessel and commands that do not have to be repeated in demanding marine environments. Whether a Superyacht or a commercial vessel, docking maneuvers put high pressure on crew communication as the risk of injuring a crew member or damaging the ship is high. This is no time for a radio battery to go flat or a microphone to fail. Separately, the Drumgrange Maritime Interdiction Operating System (MIOS) is designed to expand operational capability for patrol and boarding operations. MIOS incorporates automated navigation, position tracking, video and data links between a command vessel and deployable remote assets, including interdiction craft and boarding parties. The MIOS C3 system was developed by Drumgrange using MOTS (Military Off The Shelf) software and hardware. Specialist features include hands-free voice comms, an integrated comms helmet, portable computer, digital scanner and camera, secure digital imaging, hazardous gas detectors, position and track data. Coop adds, This marine C3 system provides the command team, interdiction craft and boarding party with simultaneous, instant updates of asset location and the developing tactical situation. Still another system offered by UK-based Ultra Electronics Graytronics Marine Communications & Intercom System is designed to provide clear audio under extreme conditions for civil forces and in military applications. Intercoms used in an open marine environment suffer from background noise from engines and wind turbulence around the microphone. To overcome this noise, Ultra Electronics has designed speech processors which modify the audio signal and allow only specified frequencies to pass through, greatly reducing noise and increasing speech clarity. Bede ONeill, Business Development Manager at Ultra Electronics explains, Graytronics communication and intercom systems enable multiple radios, secure and non-secure, to be integrated with crew intercoms and marine safety helmets. A typical system comprises master control box with connections for radio operators, crew intercoms and one to six radios. The wireless option enables the crew to maintain communications while remote from the wired intercom, a necessity when performing Search and Rescue operations. Fully backwards compatible with existing installations, Graytronics Wireless delivers a key system enhancement with minimal disruption to installed systems. Other system options include integration with waterproof loud hailer, waterproof loudspeaker, waterproof radio fist microphone and waterproof mobile telephone module. Notably, Ultra CCS Graytronics Communications systems are fitted on the U.S. Coast Guards new Long Range Interceptor-II Cutter Boats. Patrol vessels are used increasingly around the world to protect large areas of water and coastline. The ships boat is then launched to board a suspect craft. Visit, Board, Search, Seizure (VBSS) are maritime boarding actions that range from counter-narcotics and anti-piracy to conducting immigration, customs, safety and fisheries to other compliance inspections. Boarding team communications is part of C3 (Command Control Communication) that enables VBSS and military teams to board other vessels with the option to talk radio to radio or to a wider network, including the boarding team boat crew and mother vessel. Luxembourg-based SAVOX Communications Group also has operations in Finland, Germany, France, the UK, the US, Canada and China. The SAVOX IMP Mobile Platform is designed to deliver clear, reliable and robust communications for military, SAR, law enforcement and professional missions. SAVOX IMP offers a lightweight Ethernet based digital solution where the man is the communication interface. Configurable and scalable the system can be configured for small crews or large vessels. The programmable software enables integration of intercom, radio and high speed data transfer. The SAVOX user interface or Personal Control Unit (PCU) is a lightweight and ergonomic voice prompted unit providing control of intercom functions and instant access to two tactical radios. The PCU can be operated with one hand whilst wearing gloves, even when moving at speed in rough sea states. The IMP has an adaptive VOX algorithm allowing high quality voice operated communication on open boats whilst travelling at high speeds. At the core of IMP is a digital 100Mb Ethernet backbone. This data highway provides high capacity voice and data distribution using Ethernet protocols. It allows integration with navigation aids, engine management systems and video data which can be distributed to key user positions for complete command and control of the vessel. SAVOX IMP is user configurable and has no system master, meaning quick and easy set up, adds Mikael Westerlund, SVP Global Marketing at SAVOX Communications. Every workboat needs effective communications for a rapidly changing menu of mission sets. Without a doubt, matching the right system to the right mission has become more than just a nice vessel upgrade. Todays increasingly sophisticated workboats therefore come with a host of comms options. Which one is right for you? That depends on your mission. And for every workboat mission, there is a communications solution to match. We are on the brink of an extraordinary revolution that will change our world forever. In this new world everyone, everything and everywhere will be connected in real time. We call this the Networked Society, and it will fundamentally change the way we innovate, collaborate, produce, govern and sustain. The transport industry will benefit from this evolution writes the communications technology and services provider Ericsson, which recently has entered into strategic cooperation with both Inmarsat and Cisco The development of integrated fast on-line computer technologies, new satellite link capabilities, and efficient cloud storage capabilities of information have resulted in huge opportunities for utilizing vast amounts of data for optimizing all kinds of operations. In order to use this new technology leap, global communications technology providers are entering into strategic cooperation. There is a growing number of companies specializing in providing consultancy and software services aiming at lowering their clients energy bills. Within the maritime industry the focus is on optimizing shipping operations to save costs. There is already now a huge amount of data potentially available within the maritime industry, considering the number of ships carrying vast amounts of goods to and from the numerous ports worldwide. To date, only a fraction of this information is used, but times are changing. In December, ClassNK reported that it had established a Ship Data Center in Tokyo to support the utilization of data gathered from ship operations. Regarding the big amount of ship data today being gathered, the company reports, However, the approach to data capture is still very fragmented with similar data being sent to several vendors and analysis still being carried out almost entirely on a ship-by-ship basis. To make larger gains, an effective platform capable of centralizing and managing such diverse data is essential. ClassNKs Data Center though starts small, with trials using one container vessel. The Data Center is to serve as an information hub to independently manage the utilization of big data in the maritime industry. It aims at maximizing the benefits of big data for the industry with minimum cost and burden, such as the annual monitoring, report and verifying of fuel consumption for vessels 5,000gt or larger which call at any EU port, under the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) regulation by the EU required from 1 January 2018. The number of companies offering high-level technologies for optimizing ship operations is increasing. A pioneer was Finnish Eniram, soon followed by ABB, with its EMMA, and also, as in the example above, by similar technologies developed by ship classification societies. Sophisticated technologies developed by companies like Laros, from Greece, and GreenSteam, from Denmark, pave way for growing ship data markets. Sensors are installed onboard to gather the data analyzed by software comparing it with optimal and displaying the data both onboard and sending it ashore, where increasingly sophisticated systems process and present it. All types of ship data is gathered, depending of the ship type at least including trim, speed and propulsion machinery and navigational data, up to recording hundreds of different data sources for sophisticated cruise ships, which also have completely separate systems looking into the consumer behavior and onboard hotel and restaurant business operations. The technical data is typically first processed by computers onboard comparing performance with pre-stored statistical ship data. Some pre-processed data is sent ashore to the shipowners office for further analysis. Typically also the system provider receives the data in order to be able to process it further for the shipowner. The trend is towards sophisticated systems where data processing is automated as far as possible. Eniram, established in 2005, has its system installed on some 250 ships already, many of them sophisticated cruise ships. Increasingly focusing on its Analytics Services, the company can provide more insight in the performance of the vessels and the fleet, such as the fleet budget follow up. From the cumulative database gathered one can extract trends, correlations and even develop new products. Ship specific tasks include, for example, looking into the effects of changing the propulsion system, or the application of fresh hull painting on a vessel, comparing the data from some months before a dry-docking with data after the changes. The potential of detailed data analysis is huge. As an example, the four percent estimated annual savings from using Enirams system onboard 12 of Royal Caribbean Cruises cruise ships saves $12m annually. The goal is to reach 14 percent in energy savings. Meanwhile ABB Marine recently set up its own Marine R&D laboratory (profiled in the November 2015 edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News) to bring together all of their offerings for the marine industry as well as the research and development work. The laboratory is to work also on its Integrated Operations, based on its commitment to the Internet of Things, Services and People, joining up the shore operations to what happens onboard. ABBs Marine Advisory Systems is continuously further developed. The ship data is also transferred to a cloud-based application providing forecasting and benchmarking across the fleets of vessels. The EMMA system was originally developed to cater for the need in the cruise and ferry sectors whereas another Advisory System brand, the Octopus Advisory Suite, was developed for handling specific needs within the oil and gas industry, within offshore work, and for optimizing the routes of cargo vessels, such as container vessels and LNG carriers, to provide a safe journey with minimized vessel motions and accelerations. On latest cruise ships more than 1,000 different signals are gathered. LAROS The ship information platform Laros, developed by Greek company Prisma Electronics Group, uses wireless communication between the sensors and the server onboard. The onboard data is sent ashore to the main data center as compressed binary data, either saved on the cloud or on a dedicated server. After analysis and data mining for different purposes, it is used by the owner and the charterers and authorities where applicable. Key Performance Indicators are then produced from the data. This data needs to be presented to the right people in the right way, to fleet managers and ship owners through web applications or to use it internally or with the classification society through pdf or excel reports, Serafeim Katsikas, CTO of Laros tells Maritime Reporter. The real problem now is that there is no dedicated and approved standard way to analyze data such as hull performance or operational performance of the ship. There are only the EEDI and EEOI, he notes referring to IMOs Energy Efficiency Design Index and Ship Energy Efficiency Operational Index. This is what the maritime sector is running into right now. What will it do to handle all this data? Including the cargo control there are 2.5 million measurements per day, some of which are processed already onboard. Mr. Katsikas describes how their data today is automatically sent ashore through satellite links once every hour to assure all the data is transmitted, because of the satellite links. In some places there is a problem with the connection. In a critical situation, such as in an accident this can be changed down to say every two minutes. As they are continuously sending up more satellites, maybe in the future the ship has direct access to the cloud computing or to the Big Data analysis system. In two years time Laros has been installed in some 150 tankers, container ships and bulk carriers. The amount of data gathered by Laros is in total 1,188,000 measurements per hour. The data is though automatically processed, and accessed by a desktop computer and even a mobile phone, where critical information can immediately be recognized. In order to be able to utilize this new type and amount of data efficiently, Serafeim said that changes ashore, among the shipowners, are needed. We are talking about changing the way they manage their ships and the way their company is operating daily. They need to build a new framework inside the company, hire an engineer that has a background in energy efficiency for example, and build a team around him, before investing in this type of systems. Danish company GreenSteam has in two years reached commercial speed in its operations, with 40 ship installations under its belt, and claims a three months pay-back time for its system. Among references are such companies like Brittany Ferries and Smyril Line. We see us as a company providing Big Data for marine fuel efficiency, said Daniel J. Jacobsen, CTO of the company. The methods we use can be summarized under the definition of machine learning. Vessel and fleet performance can be accessed from any standard browser, anywhere. Automatic alerts are given when attention is required. Inmarsat and Ericsson in Strategic Agreement In November, Inmarsat, the global satellite communications services provider, and Ericsson, the communications technology and services provider, announced they have signed a strategic agreement that is intended to facilitate the sharing of maritime cargo, logistics and vessel operational data to help streamline the maritime supply chain. The two companies will jointly develop services, solutions and applications to drive industry standards for satellite connectivity and application integration in the maritime industry. Ericsson will handle the distribution of Inmarsats XpressLink, the combined L-band and Ku-band VSAT network for the maritime market to be extended to Inmarsats new Fleet Xpress when it becomes available on the market. Everyone is talking about big data, but eventually it is the deployment of applications onboard and the end-to-end management of integrated intelligence, that will ultimately change the way the maritime industry operates; making it more efficient, greener and unlocking greater value, said Ronald Spithout, President Inmarsat Maritime. With Fleet Xpress, the worlds first mobile hybrid Ka/L-band high-speed broadband service, embedded in and enabling world-class solutions from Ericsson, we are re-defining maritime connectivity. This transformational agreement will open up opportunities for vessel operators and managers to capture intelligent data immediately, said Ronald Spithout, President Inmarsat Maritime. The agreement will pave the way for integration with Ericssons Maritime ICT Cloud and global connectivity including both Ka and L-band. We are happy that the reliability of the Inmarsat constellation of satellites and operational standards are recognized as the best fit in the Ericsson road map of integrated services, Spithout said. Ericsson believes that the Internet of Things has the potential to generate tremendous value for the maritime industry. Partnering with the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services is the best means of helping the maritime industry to realize this value. Together with Inmarsat we will jointly develop fully integrated services, solutions and applications, and work toward establishing maritime industry standards for satellite connectivity and application integration, said John Taxgaard, Head of Maritime at Ericsson. Ericsson has developed the Connected Vehicle Cloud, which enables application developers, government organizations, businesses and automotive manufacturers to reach automotive drivers and passengers with services and information. Ericsson observes that shipping companies are increasingly investing in machine-to-machine communications, which creates a need for full mobile coverage onboard vessels, as well as cost-efficient, high-bandwidth connectivity over satellite links. To make the most of this connectivity, shipping companies will need to modernize their ICT environments. The Connected Vessel concept is based on an open and horizontally layered model with solutions for connectivity, connectivity and device management, and service and information management, the company announces. Noting that at present ships rely on manually updated traffic, cargo, port, weather and safety information that is sent point-to-point rather than made available to all parties simultaneously via a network, Ericsson is introducing its Maritime ITC Cloud which will connect vessels at sea with shore-based operations, maintenance service providers, customer support centers, fleet/transportation partners, port operations and authorities. At the same time, the offering supports services used to manage fleets, monitor engines and fuel consumption, oversee routes and navigation, and ensure the well-being of the crew. Ericsson is to provide everything from satellite connections to application support in one complete package, and manage operation of the Maritime ICT Cloud on behalf of its customers. Ericssons Maritime ICT Cloud solution connects vessels at sea to shore-based operations such as maintenance service providers, customer support centers, fleet/transportation partners, port operations and authorities. Enabled by Inmarsat, the Maritime ICT Cloud will ensure that trucks will spend less idle time at ports, cargo will spend less time in transit, and producers will be better able to plan their shipments, the companies announce. In recent years Ericsson has supplied complete mobile satellite connectivity to ship fleets, such as the 400 container vessels of Maersk Line. Another key step forward in Ericssons company transformation, as Hans Vestberg, President and CEO, Ericsson, puts it, is its recently announced cooperation with Cisco aiming at creating future networks combining the know-how of both companies. Ericsson will together with Cisco, leader in IP-networking, offer end-to-end leadership across network architectures for 5G, cloud and IP, and the Internet of Things. Ericsson expects this strategic partnership to generate $1 billion or more of additional sales by 2018 for the company. Another high-end example of a company specializing in data processing is the technology company Maana, recently funded by over $14m by Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Intel and GE. Maana has come up with sophisticated algorithms analyzing and combining big data to find useful information automatically and come up with relevant conclusions which would be impossible to find manually. Eniram has estimated that there are some 56,000 potential vessels in the world which have a potential to invest in their system, based on fuel consumption and achievable savings. There is still some way to go but with the efforts now invested by many, we will see the main world fleet monitored on our computer screens in a not too distant time frame. (As published in the February 2016 edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News - http://magazines.marinelink.com/Magazines/MaritimeReporter) The USS Ashland, carrying elements of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, left Sattahip, Thailand, Feb. 21, 2016 following the completion of Exercise Cobra Gold 16. This was the 35th iteration of Cobra Gold, which is designed to advance regional security and ensure effective responses to regional crises by bringing together a robust combined task force from partner nations sharing common goals and security commitments in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. CG16 began Feb. 8, 2016 . The 31st MEU Marines went to bases across Thailand to train alongside 27 participating or observing partner nation services including the Royal Thai and Republic of Korea Marine Corps. The Marines participated in events ranging from the Amphibious Capabilities Demonstration in Rayong, to spending a day with local children at the Child Protection and Development Center in Chonburi. The Marines worked together with the partner militaries on everything from amphibious assault vehicles to humanitarian assistance operations, according to Capt. Joseph Fontanetta, the Alpha Company Commander, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. CG16 helped the Marines form strong long-lasting bonds with their partner nations. The 31st MEU Marines finished their training for Cobra Gold, Feb. 21, 2016. Before the U.S. Marines left their camps and headed back to the Ashland they exchanged farewells and personal gifts with their counterparts to show their appreciation for each other. Even though we are from three different countries, we all share similar experiences, said ROK Marine GySgt. Hong, Suck Joon. We have a strong brotherhood that we all share through the Marine Corps. The 31st MEU started to load the Ashland and prepare to leave Thailand, Feb. 18, according to Cpl. Jacob Rizzo, embark non-commissioned officer with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. We took three days to fully load and prepare the Ashland to leave again, said Rizzo February 21 we set sail to continue the MEUs spring deployment. The Balkanization of Europe When my mate Steve Keen took me to meet Yanis Varoufakis for dinner last week when we all happened to find ourselves in Athens together, I at least sort of regretted not having the time and space to talk to Yanis about his DiEM25 project for the democratization of Europe. It was a private occasion, there were other people at the dinner table, Steve and Yanis had no seen each other for a while, it was simply not about that. I did think afterward that it would be great to do this kind of get together more often, and get ideas running, but then realized we are all workaholics and we all live thousands of miles apart, so the odds of that happening are slim at best. And that in turn made me think of how inspiring the years were when I toured the world with my Automatic Earth partner in crime Nicole Foss, how important it is to have people around to bounce off your ideas of whats going on, how much faster that crystallizes your own ideas. But as things are, and as they happened, I didnt have that time with Yanis. And not nearly enough with Steve either, for that matter, who has/is a brain that I would love to pick for days if not weeks, hes such a brilliant mind. When you have just a few hours, though, the time is filled with drinking wine and catching up with whats happened in each others personal lives, it had been 3 years since we met, and professionally, since Steve knows Nicole very well, they did quite a few presentations together, yada yada. Immensely gratifying, of course, to be able to renew a friendship like that, but almost as frustrating to not be able to expand on it. But to get back to Yanis: I think I have two major problems with his DiEM25 project. One is that, as I have written umpteen times before, the very structure of the EU (self-)selects for sociopaths to take up its leading positions. None of them have been democratically elected, and that would be very hard to begin with because no Greek or Portuguese has ever heard of, or has any connection with, some guy from Finland or Poland with a name they cant pronounce. It wouldnt just take democratization, youd have to rewrite the entire machine from scratch. The second is that I dont think the EU will last long enough to pull through the democratization process he envisions, and appear at the other end of the tunnel in 2025. I just dont see it. For one thing, because the whole world is set to be hit with the most severe financial crisis in its history between now and then, and Europe will be in the eye of the storm center of that crisis. Talk about democratization, well-intended and needed as it may seem, will be on a back-back burner when that hits. I first said about a year ago that Angela Merkel should call a UN emergency meeting over the refugee crisis, but she still hasnt yet. The EU problem in a nutshell: Merkel is the de facto leader of both the EU and Germany. When EU interests, or interests of one or more other EU nations clash with German ones, she has no choice but to pick the German side. Because the Germans elected her, not Europe. You can either hand over German sovereignty to Brussels or you can fall into trap after trap. These traps will not hurt Germany most -since Merkel calls the shots-, they will hurt the poorer nations first and most. But it is still the worst model one could ever have invented. And since neither Germany nor any other EU member is willing -or ever will be- to give up that sovereignty, theres only one option: leave the EU. There are many ways in which European sovereign nations can work together, open borders, promote trade and all these things. The worst possible way is through a bureaucracy like the EU, which may promise an equal voice and treatment and opportunities for all countries, but down the line will always be controlled by the biggest ones. Its not a coincidence that Germany has a trade surplus. The clampdown on Greece to keep French and German banks safe should have made clear once and for all where the EU fails. If its any consolation: the big economies, too, will fall. But chances are that before that happens, the union will have splintered apart back into its separate member states. Britain toys with the Brexit idea, the Czechs say if Britain leaves therell be a Czexit, Holland wants a referendum on EU membership (Hexit), Marine Le Pen patiently waits for the French economy to go south so she can be elected president and fulfill her promise to take France into a Frexit. And those are just a few examples. Trouble brews just about everywhere. And there is of course no bigger trouble than the refugee situation. If only European nations would stop bombing the places the refugees were from, that would send a signal that theyre serious about this. But instead after the Paris attacks France and Britain increased their bombing efforts in Syria, supported by Germany and Holland. If that doesnt say enough about where their priorities lie, what can? The Balkanization of Europe is well on its way in, appropriately, the Balkan area and surrounding nations. A conference on closing borders in Austria yesterday was attended by Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. But not Greece or Germany. These are not all EU members, but most would like to be. Greece doesnt like it one bit, it has threatened to block all EU decision until this is resolved, and recalled its ambassador to Vienna today.. Six countries has (re-)introduced border checks: Belgium, France, Austria, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Many more have have erected razor wire fences. Hungary has the loudest voice; it announced a referendum on refugee quota yesterday. Quota that by the way are not worth the paper theyre written and translated into 20-odd languages on. Out of 160,000 agreed on, only some 500 refugees have been relocated. The EUs response so far has been a sort of para-military police force, Frontex, and now even NATO. As if refugees are a military threat. Its amusing to see that many nations accuse Greece of not closing its borders properly, but never explain how that should be done when that border happens to be at sea. Just like theyve never sent the people or equipment they vowed to make available. The EU in the end is proving to be toothless. A German newspaper reports that a government document in Berlin talks about 3.6 million refugees in the country by 2020. That can only make one wonder what Europe will look like in 2020. But more importantly, we should wonder what Greece will look like in, say, a month from now. Since Frontex and NATO cant stop the refugee flow any more than Greece itself can, and borders to countries to the north are closed, tens if not hundreds of thousands of people may get stranded in the country. Europe has played a major role in turning Ukraine into a failed state, and did the same in Libya, Iraq and Syria. Unless someone shows some leadership soon and the chaos is stopped from spreading further, Greece could well be next on the list. What I personally find deep black hilarious is that many if not all of the countries involved have signed a whole slew of both European and international laws, but even something as elementary as the Geneva convention gets thrown out the window seemingly at will. Just as black is the question: do refugees also have the right to asylum when theyre fleeing your own bombs? The worst choice the EU -and Berlin- have made is to ally with Turkeys Erdogan the way they have. And to force this inane alliance on Greece too. Erdogan plays everyone off against everyone while pocketing millions from ISIS oil sales to refugee smuggling, and now stands to be paid 3 billion per year to -not- stop refugees from sailing from Turkey to Greece. Erdogan will soon start talking about Aegean territorial rights too. There are bad partnerships -the US and EU with Saudi Arabia, just to name another example-, but relying on Turkey to stop the refugee flow is a real whopper. You could just not bomb Syria, and ask Jordan and Lebanon how you can assist with the refugee situation thats overwhelming their nations, and even rebuild what youve just bombed. Making a deal with Erdogan only seems to highlight that Europe really couldnt care less. That they truly see the crisis as their crisis, and not that of the refugees. That its the people living in Berlin and Vienna and Amsterdam who get the short end of the stick, not those no longer living in Aleppo. So when do we get to see a real Balkanization, with armies in streets and confronting each other on borders? And what will the EU leadership and Hollande and Merkel do when that time comes? No, I dont see an EU left in 2025 to be democratized. I see a lot of old rifts in Europes future. And thats without even having asked how Europe is going to save its banks -and banking system- this time around. Or how theyre planning to tell their present and future pensioners that sorry, but the coffers are empty. These things will start to play out well before 2025. It wont be a good time to be a refugee living in Europe. By Raul Ilargi Meijer Website: http://theautomaticearth.com (provides unique analysis of economics, finance, politics and social dynamics in the context of Complexity Theory) 2016 Copyright Raul I Meijer - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. Raul Ilargi Meijer Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. State of the Global Markets Report 2016 Dear Investor, State of the Global Markets Report -- 2016 edition, one of the most anticipated annual reports for investors and technical analysts, has just been released, and the first 10,000 copies can be reserved right now 100% free. After that, it goes to $99 per download, where it will stay for the rest of the year. This report flies off the virtual shelves every year, and with this year being especially volatile so far, we arranged with the publisher to give you an immediate heads up so you can be among the first to get access. This 50-page, chart-filled report may be the most valuable publication you read this year. It will help you avoid the dangerous pitfalls and spot the biggest opportunities in the year ahead. Want to know what's inside? Click this link to start reading it now. If you want a little context first, take a look at these headlines: Wall Street makes worst ever start to a year (Financial Times) Dow Tumbles Nearly 400 Points on China Worries (Wall Street Journal) World markets plunge as oil drops below $27 a barrel (CNN) Expect gold prices to be massively volatile (MarketWatch) Notice anything interesting? The thing that jumps out at me is how massively contrary today's reality is compared to most experts' projections for 2016 just a few short months ago. Not getting off to a great start, are they? Now consider this: In the first week of this year, the Wall Street Journal polled 10 well-known fundamental analysts for their year-end forecast for the S&P 500. They projected on average the S&P to reach 2,193 by the end of the year. The lowest forecast was 2,100. The highest was 2,300. Now that's interesting enough, but get this: These same experts from the same poll one year ago projected the S&P to reach 2,201 by the end of LAST year! Fast forward to today, investors and analysts have been in a panic as the markets ended 2015 well off those projections and kicked off 2016 with its worst start EVER. U.S. stocks, Chinese stocks, gold, oil, the entire European Union -- all are at pivotal junctures right now, and we're only two months into the new year. If you want to prepare for the rest of 2016 and equip yourself to adapt to rapidly changing trends around the world, I encourage you to follow this link and claim your copy now. You will get instant access to Elliott Wave International's annual State of the Global Market Report -- 2016 Edition, one of the most widely circulated annual reports for investors and technical analysts. The State of the Global Market Report provides a premium-level look inside the world's largest independent financial forecast firm's big-picture forecasts for 2016. It gives you a snapshot of what's already occurred then focuses you squarely on what Elliott Wave International's team of global analysts sees for the rest of 2016 and beyond. At about 50 chart-filled pages, it may be the most valuable publication produced each year to help investors position themselves wisely for the year ahead, avoid the dangerous pitfalls, and catch and ride the biggest, fastest-moving opportunities. You may not read every line of this globally focused report, but we guarantee you will benefit from the insights that apply to your favorite markets. Please follow this link to start reading the report now >> Sincerely, EWI P.S. We know most investors are interested mostly in U.S. markets, but there's an advantage to looking abroad, too. EWI has a keen understanding of how markets around the world fit into the global big-picture. After all, the Great Depression started in Europe then crossed the Atlantic to the Americas. So it's important you keep an eye on the global big picture. As a result of reading this report, you'll see what we EWI's sees right now and for the rest of the year -- both threats AND opportunities on a global scale. Click this link to learn more and download your free report now. About the Publisher, Elliott Wave International Founded in 1979 by Robert R. Prechter Jr., Elliott Wave International (EWI) is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. A severe storm possibly a tornado caused extensive damage in the Ararat community in western Patrick County on Wednesday afternoon. Patrick County Emergency Management Coordinator Steve Allen said that at least 15 homes were damaged. Two of the homes including a mobile home and lots of farm sheds were destroyed. Also, "hundreds of trees" were blown down by high winds, Allen said. A church also sustained damages, he said, mentioning that they included a broken stained glass window. Nobody apparently was injured during the storm, he added. In a prepared statement, Patrick County Sheriff Dan Smith said Wednesday night that the countys dispatch center began to get phone calls of high winds, fallen trees and damaged houses in the area between Squirrel Spur Road and Raven Rock Road at about 1 p.m. Sheriffs deputies and emergency volunteers responded. "Some residents have been displaced from their homes due to the extensive damage," Smith said. Numerous emergency workers, utility crews, Virginia Department of Transportation employees and American Red Cross representatives remained on the scene Wednesday night, he said. Smith could not be reached by phone for further comment on the storm or the damages. In his statement, Smith said that the Patrick County Sheriffs Office will maintain a strong presence in the area through the remainder of the week and "anyone caught looting will be dealt with accordingly." Emergency officials set up a "staging area" at the intersection of Ararat Highway, Squirrel Spur Road and Unity Church Road. They did not allow the media to go beyond the intersection to view the storm damages. The National Weather Service will send a team to Ararat today to determine if the damages were done by a tornado or strong straight-line winds, said Chris Fisher, a meteorologist at the Blacksburg weather service office. Allen said he perceives that some damages were done by straight-line winds and some were done by a tornado. While some damages were lying in the same direction, "you go 200 yards and stuffs going in every which direction," he said. Billy Ray George believes a twister occurred, based on what he and his wife heard. George, who lives on Ararat Highway, said he and his wife were watching television coverage of strong storms in the area when his wife heard a roar and then their home lost electricity. He soon heard the roar, too, and they sought shelter, he said while driving his truck through the staging area after the storm. He said it sounded like a freight train the same type of noise that many tornado victims have said they heard just before twisters struck. George said his house was not damaged. The weather service also heard reports of fallen trees and structural damages in Ararat, Fisher said. "This is not the way that Ararat likes to get on the map" (gain recognition), George chuckled. Much of central and eastern Virginia and North Carolina, including Pittsylvania County and Rockingham County, N.C., were placed under a tornado watch until Wednesday night. Martinsville and Henry and Patrick counties were not included in that advisory. A tornado warning was issued by the weather service for parts of Danville and Pittsylvania County after radar detected rotation in a storm near Swansonville. Fisher said trees and power lines were reported to be down in that area, but emergency officials there believe the damages were caused by high winds. The weather service placed Martinsville, Henry County and southeastern Patrick County under a severe thunderstorm warning until 2:30 p.m. after radar detected a dangerous storm in the Penn Store area of Patrick that was moving northeast at roughly 55 mph. Meteorologists determined that quarter-size hail large enough to damage homes and vehicles and wind gusts as high as 60 mph could be part of the storm. Moderate rain began falling in uptown Martinsville at about 1:45 p.m., accompanied by a few bursts of wind and rumbles of thunder. Within a half-hour, the rain had stopped and the sun was peeking through remaining clouds that were moving north quickly. The sky remained dark to the south. A flood watch was in effect until 7 p.m. for the entire area. Up to two inches of rain, with higher amounts in some areas, was expected to fall onto ground already saturated from recent winter storms. Fog enshrouded parts of the area during the morning and early afternoon. Motorists reported that fog near the Smith River in the Fieldale area was so thick, and bright due to sun shining through it, that it was almost impossible to drive through it. But Martinsville and Henry County seemed to sustain few damages due to the strong cold front that caused the storms as it passed through the area. Fisher said he heard a report of a fallen tree in the Axton area. Henry County Public Safety Director Matt Tatum and Martinsville Emergency Management Coordinator Robert Scott did not know of any damages occurring due to the storm that passed through the county and city. Following the storms, high winds occurred across the area Thursday night. Gusts as high as 33 mph were reported by weather instruments at the Blue Ridge Airport in Spencer. Scott said city crews were working to restore power to parts of Mulberry Road and Highland Street where winds had knocked down electrical lines. Appalachian Powers website showed that as of 9:30 p.m., more than 2,000 customers in Patrick County and at least 500 in Henry County were without electricity. Further details of those outages were not available. THURSDAY'S WORD is sham (Sham). (1.) Example: The proposed legislation is a farce and a sham; (2.) He was a sham, totally unqualified for his job as a senior doctor. WEDNESDAYS WORD was repose (re poz). Definition: A formal or literary term used to mean the act of resting, or the state of being at rest; freedom from worry or to rest on something for support.; be lying, situated or kept in a particular place. Example: Justice Antonin Scalia will lie in repose in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court before his funeral, according to tradition. The Fieldale Community Center and Pools fundraiser has met the first leg of its goal to raise at least $35,000 so that work can start on the pools. Jane Eggleston, treasurer of Fieldale Heritage Inc., said a little more than $35,000 had been raised, and all donations have been documented and are available for public view. Eggleston said Andrew Kahle, president of the board of Fieldale Recreation Center and Pools, has organized clean-up days in and around the community center. One will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday. Anyone who wants to volunteer is welcome. Bea Bullard of Heritage Inc. said it has been amazing how people have offered to help. For example Denton Boardwine of the Fieldale Cafe placed a donation box at the cash register in the cafe where anyone can drop in their change. Bullard said more than $300 had been raised this way. If you would like to help with the fundraising that still has a long way to go, according to Eggleston, make checks payable to Fieldale Heritage Inc., P.O. Box 590, Fieldale, 24089. The Stroller has toured several of the stone churches in the Meadows of Dan area that were built by Bob Childress nearly 100 years ago. Jo Dkyes, professional storyteller, will present the story of Bob Childress, based on the book, The Man Who Moved a Mountain by Richard C. Davis at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 6 at the Historic Courthouse in uptown Martinsville. Childress was a man whose wisdom and vision changed hundreds of lives and who built, without knowing a thing about architecture, five stone churches, all still standing today, nearly a hundred years later. Copies of the book have been donated for door prizes. Light refreshments will be served. Driver safety classes for drivers age 50 years of age and older will be taught on March 10 and 11 at the Martinsville Senior Center. Martinsville Senior Center in conjunction with the AARP Smart Driver Course will sponsor the eight-hour classroom refresher course on driver safety. The class will be taught from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the senior center. It is specifically designed for the ages mentioned. There is an auto insurance discount for participating in the course; however, you will need to consult with your individual agent or company regarding the discount The fee for AARP members is $15 and $20 for non-members. Bring a bag lunch. The class is limited. Register by calling 403-5260. The Stroller talked to Melissa Felts in Ararat on Wednesday following the storm that played havoc on that area. She is the safety officer for the Ararat Fire Department and Rescue Squad. Felts was managing the fire and rescue phone because of a wrist injury. But, she said the damage from Wednesdays storm that possibly was a tornado, will be enormous. Felts said trees and power lines were down, many homes and businesses had structural damage, and one house had been completely destroyed, according to Felts. She said fire and rescue personnel, police, etc. were out in force, getting tarps to cover some of the damaged homes until the owners could salvage their belongings. In Defence of Marxism is committed to safeguarding your privacy. At all times we aim to respect any personal data you share with us, or that we receive from other organisations, and keep it safe. 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Please let us know if you have any queries or concerns whatsoever about the way in which your data is being processed by emailing the Data Protection Manager at webmaster@marxist.com Carmelo Anthony, Evan Turner New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, left, looks for an opening around Boston Celtics guard Evan Turner, right, in the second quarter of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Dec. 27, 2015, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Carmelo Anthony strongly denied a recent rumor saying he rejected interest from the Boston Celtics prior to the trade deadline, according to the New York Daily News. Anthony told the newspaper that the Knicks never approached him about waiving his no-trade clause. "No," Anthony said. "Heck no." ESPN's Ian Begley reported early Thursday that when the Celtics expressed some level of interest in Anthony, the New York Knicks star turned them away. Begley wrote that while it was unclear whether Boston and the Knicks ever held any "formal discussions," the Celtics were told Anthony held "no desire" in accepting a trade to their team. Because of the no-trade clause, he holds control over his future even if the Knicks decide to explore the market. Despite another losing season, Anthony has given no indications he wants out. The talks would have been interesting for Boston, albeit maybe not wise, as described here. But Anthony doesn't want to listen to any more trade chatter, and maybe we should take his lead: Ms Senior 9.jpg Ruth Harcovitz, crowned the Ms Massachusetts Senior America 2015 Queen at the pageant held at Holyoke High School on Sunday, April, 12, 2015. The pageant is for women over 60. (DAVID MOLNAR / THE REPUBLICAN) (Staff-Shot) HOLYOKE With a focus on talents, life philosophy and evening wear, the Ms. Massachusetts Senior America Pageant welcomes women 60 and over to participate. "It's an opportunity to get involved with the community. The winner participates in all of the local parades, does speaking engagements and performs at senior centers and nursing homes," said Joanne Impoco, an organizer for the event. While the pageant is open to contestants from the entire state, most contestants reside in Western Massachusetts. The pageant will be held May 22 at 1 p.m. at Holyoke High School. The winner of the state pageant will go on to the national competition held in Atlantic City, Impoco said. There will be an orientation meeting for those interested in participating on Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Holyoke Senior Center. "It's amazing to see these women display their talents and come out in their beautiful evening wear," Impoco said. There is no swimsuit competition. For more information please contact Impoco at 413-525-7065 or Lorraine Gorham at 413-534-1318. MAYNARD Even though it was determined to be a low-credibility bomb threat, officials temporarily evacuated Maynard High School on Tuesday morning after a woman found a note saying there was a bomb at the school on Tiger Drive. "After a thorough search of the high school, we determined there was no risk to the safety of students, staff and faculty," Maynard Police Chief Mark W. Dubois said, adding that the incident remains under investigation. Maynard wasn't the only Eastern Massachusetts school to receive such a threat on Tuesday. Officials at Woburn Memorial High School were faced with a similar scenario after receiving a robo-call that contained a bomb threat, Fox25 reports. Woburn police determined that threat was unfounded and cleared the scene. The incidents on Tuesday followed multiple bomb threats at various Massachusetts schools on Monday, when at least 10 schools in the eastern part of the state were targeted by hoaxsters. This winter has been especially tough for Bay State school officials, who have been grappling with a spate of threats that have continued virtually unabated since January. In Maynard, a resident called police around 7 a.m. to report finding a note on her car's windshield that indicated there was a bomb at the Tiger Drive high school. Authorities determined the threat to be a "low risk," police said. Only a few students had to be evacuated because the note was found before the start of school on Tuesday, police said. Students who arrived during the bomb scare were sent to neighboring Fowler Middle School. Maynard police and firefighters were assisted by school officials and maintenance staff. School officials allowed students to return to the high school around 8 a.m., after a search of the building turned up no suspicious devices. Massachusetts Senate Chambers 2011 The Massachusetts Senate Sergeant at Arms is seen in the Senate chambers in this photo from 2011. (Charles Krupa / Associated Press file) BOSTON - Embattled state Sen. Brian Joyce bolted into the Massachusetts Senate chamber on Thursday, avoiding reporters who were clamoring for a comment about the joint FBI-IRS raid at his Canton law office last week. Joyce was at the State House for a formal session of the Senate the same day the Boston Globe ran another story, in what has become a lengthy series, raising the allegation that the Milton Democrat blurs his private life and public office. The Globe reported prosecutors are eyeing Joyce's role in a solar project at Stonehill College in Easton. Joyce announced earlier this week that he will not run for re-election later this year, hours after a state representative from Milton, Walter Timilty, took out nomination papers for Joyce's Senate seat. Joyce entered the Senate chamber by getting out of the elevator closest to the entrance, and while inside the chamber, he chatted with colleagues, looked at his phone, and went over documents on his desk. Joyce, who through statements has denied any wrongdoing, apparently slipped out of the State House later in the day, leaving his colleagues to answer reporters' questions. Sen Brian Joyce, target of a federal investigation, walks into formal session, says nothing to us #fox25 pic.twitter.com/xOeRghXaHX Sharman Sacchetti (@SharmanTV) February 25, 2016 Sen. Bruce Tarr, the top Republican in the state Senate, said he hopes Joyce is in communication with his constituents and noted that a grand jury has been empaneled. "I think he needs to think about resigning," said Tarr, R-Gloucester. Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, struck the same notes as earlier in the week when asked whether Joyce should resign. "We are awaiting the due process to be completed," Rosenberg said. "The investigation's ongoing. If any matters are resolved in a way that requires the Senate to take action, we will do so. We support due process." Rosenberg added: "Due process is due process. Until it's completed, there's really nothing else to say." Asked whether he spoke to Joyce, Rosenberg said, "I said hello and asked him if he was ready for today's debate. And he said absolutely. He had done his homework and he was ready." State Sen. Thomas McGee, a Lynn Democrat who also serves as chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, also said the investigation into Joyce remains "ongoing," and added that the senator has a right to due process. "With the ongoing investigation, there's a whole long way to go. I think it's important to remember that we all have a right to due process and that process is underway," McGee said. "I think to comment further based on what's happening with an ongoing investigation, I think is not fair to anyone. That's as far as I'm going to go in commenting on that," he said. The Massachusetts Republican Party has called for Joyce's resignation from the Senate, while Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a right-of-center nonprofit, has unsuccessfully lobbied the state Senate to launch expulsion proceedings against Joyce. Shira Schoenberg contributed to this report. henry thomas justin hurst talbert swan.jpg City Councilor Justin Hurst's (center) criticism of the 'black leadership" in Springfield this week for its alleged failure to speak out on important racial issues has sparked some activists, such as Urban League President Henry Thomas III, left, and Greater Springfield NAACP President Talbert Swan II, right, to strike back, saying his comments were wrong and "insulting." (THE REPUBLICAN FILE) SPRINGFIELD -- City Councilor Justin Hurst's criticism of "black leadership" in Springfield this week for its alleged failure to speak out on important racial issues has sparked some activists to strike back, saying his comments were wrong and "insulting." The reaction followed Hurst criticizing local black leaders including the Springfield Chapter of the NAACP and the Urban League of Springfield for being among groups that rallied in support of Victoria Rowe, a young black appointee to the Springfield Historical Commission. Hurst suggested the groups were rallied by the mayor's office to support Rowe, while not being vocal on many other issues important to the black community. Leaders of the two named groups fired back on Wednesday. "To suggest - and I take this personally - to suggest that we were rallied by the mayor's office and used as puppets is insulting," said Talbert W. Swan II, president of the Springfield chapter of the NAACP. "And to suggest that we have not spoken to larger issues is equally insulting. I have been actively advocating for our community for the last three decades when he (Hurst) was playing on a playground somewhere." Henry Thomas III, president and chief executive officer of the Springfield Urban League, said he believes Hurst's remarks were "unfortunate, but I respect his right to be wrong." "The Urban League, in its 103-year history, has never needed to be rallied to show up when its constituents are being treated unfairly," Thomas said. "The issue of that evening was not about black, white or brown. It was simply about equity. "A double standard for one's participation in public service - Victoria Rowe - should not be tolerated irrespective of race," Thomas said. "I am afraid Councilor Hurst missed the point of the evening badly." Among his comments, Hurst said he is "quite baffled when I take a look at the many significant issues that these same folks had a chance to make their voices heard on that this issue (Rowe) is the one that the 'Black Leadership' chose to hang their hats on." While Rowe's appointment was approved by the City Council by a 12-1 vote, there was news that some councilors were opposed in advance of the vote, including Ward 4 Councilor E. Henry Twiggs, who questioned if Rowe had the experience in historic preservation issues to serve on the commission. Twiggs voted for Rowe on Monday in crowded council chambers, with Hurst casting the only "no" vote. Both councilors are black. Supporters of Rowe said they believed that Twiggs' initial opposition was politically motivated because Rowe ran against him in the 2015 election, losing to Twiggs. Twiggs denied any political motivation. Hurst criticized the mayor's chief of staff, Denise Jordan, and mayoral aide Darryl Moss, both black members of Mayor Domenic J. Sarno's administration, saying the two "have repeatedly run black candidates against black incumbents for seats on the City Council and School Committee, thus ensuring the black community remains divided." Swan said it is misguided to think that the black community becomes divided if a black candidate runs against a black candidate. In a predominantly black ward, the likelihood of two black candidates running for the same seat is high, he said. "No one says a white community is divided if a white candidate challenges a white incumbent," Swan said. "Further, it is somewhat insulting to suggest that simply because an incumbent is black, that black people have an obligation to support that individual. We are more intelligent as voters than to keep someone in office simply because they are black." Hurst, when contacted Wednesday evening, said he stands by everything he said. "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion," Hurst said. "While I have heard the NAACP speak out on some issues, there has yet to be the level of coordination between the NAACP, the Urban League, clergy and other leaders around substantive issues that have a significant impact on the community. And this particular issue around the Rowe issue is not substantive." Hurst said it was obvious to him that the controversy on the Rowe appointment was "choreographed," but he hopes the energy will be used to address more significant issues. At-large City Councilor Bud L. Williams, said he agrees with Hurst that black leaders need to speak out more on the issues. Williams said he strives to do so himself as a black leader in the community. "I think African American elected officials need to be more visible, more involved in the community such as attending neighborhood council meetings," Williams said. In addition, Williams said he plans to have a council subcommittee meeting on March 10 to discuss racial issues facing the city. Among issues of importance to the community, Williams said there needs to be more focus on promoting jobs and training, minority hiring and minority-owned contractors. "I will talk about things going on - the casino, residency, the Mill Street jail, race relations," Williams said. "The black leadership should be at the forefront." NORTHAMPTON -- Placing a small and ultimately divisive banner Black Lives Matter banner on City Hall doesn't do much to alleviate racism in the area, according to activists and academics who spoke at a forum hosted by WHMP Wednesday night. Those who participated in the forum -- designed to elicit discussion around the question "Do black lives matter in Western Massachusetts?" -- repeatedly circled back to two topics: Local law enforcement's relationship with the black community, and the white community's lack of full understanding when it comes to the prejudice people of color often experience. The two hour-long forum attracted about 30 people to the Parlor Room on Masonic Street. At the end of the event, 17-year-old Northampton resident Aisha Diallo brought attention to empty chairs in the audience. Among the panelists were Zion Scott Barbour, a Northampton High School junior; Jeff Napolitano, director of the American Friends Service Committee of Western Massachusetts; Traci Williams, Smith College activist; Trevor Baptiste, Amherst Regional School Committee chairman; and Bill Strickland, professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst' W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies. Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper also intended to participate, but did not attend because she had the flu. Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan stood in for the chief. The aforementioned banner, put on City Hall in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and supported by Mayor David J. Narkewicz, continues to spark commentary from both Black Lives Matters movement supporters and critics. "I look at it as not showing Northampton as progressive, I see it as tolerant," Barbour said. "There's a difference between tolerance and equality. You can accept we drink out of same water fountains ... but true equality is not until you look at us as equal." Black members of the panel were asked by moderators if they feared the local police. Responses were mixed, and national incidents of African-American men being killed at the hands of white officers were woven into the talk. MassLive spoke on Thursday with Kasper, who listened to the forum online. "Have I ever engaged in this or witnessed it on the street?," Kasper said of racial bias in local policing. "No I haven't. But I hear people saying they feel like they're being treated differently. I need to be aware of that. I need to know that this is people's perceptions." Local police Napolitano was firm in his stance that Northampton isn't really "in a bubble" that's impervious to racism as many progressive white residents like to think. He brought up the case of Jonas Correia, who alleged that Northampton Police officers took him to the ground, maced and unlawfully arrested him in March 2013 outside of a Pleasant Street bar. The incident was captured on video. The city agreed last month to Correia $52,500 in an out-of-court settlement. Bar said to a lesser extent, he's felt the effects of racial bias by local police officers. The teen, now 16, described an incident in which a Northampton officer allegedly hit him on the head with a baton while crossing the street when he was 10. He said that more recently, he and his friends have been asked to show their hands downtown because officers thought they were dealing drugs. Reached Thursday afternoon by phone, Kasper said she has not witnessed this sort of behavior within her force. But she acknowledged she sees things through the lens of a white police chief, and that she's working to make sure that these problems are both prevented and addressed. Although she was Northampton Police Department's Captain of Operations for a number of years, she said such issues had not been brought to her attention until she met with local people of color at a meet-and-greet before she took the chief post. "To me at that time, it was surprising for me to hear," Kasper said. "I hadn't heard formal complaints of profiling. Now, after 7 or 8 months I've been chief, I've put a lot of thought and energy and consideration into this." Mandatory anti-bias training for Northampton patrol officers and sergeants coincidentally began Wednesday, Kasper said. The chief also appointed Officer Ryan Tellier as a multicultural communities liaison, a role meant to make non-white residents more comfortable approaching officers. Tellier himself is white. "Why are they being put out into the street if they haven't gotten this training already?," Barbour asked at the forum. Kasper said she wished she could have answered that question at the event. She said anti-bias training is woven into the police academy's curriculum, and that the extra training is reinforcement of those concepts. "I'm not putting police officers out on the street who don't already have a lot of training already in these issues," Kasper said. Still, Strickland, who was involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the '60s, maintained that the police "are predatory in regard to black people." Williams, who said her two sons and daughter have all had negative run-ins with the police, said the larger question is, "Are black folks treated differently from white folks in Northampton?" "And I think the answer is yes," she said, later adding, "If there is racism that is endemic in society ... it becomes that much more dangerous when you give somebody a badge and a gun and empower them with decision of life or death." Sullivan said it's crucial to have Latino and black officers on police forces, and that starts with the recruiting process. He also noted that the Northwestern District Attorney's Office has a responsibility to "do the right thing." He used racial profiling in traffic stops as an example. "If we don't think a stop is proper, we don't go forward with it," Sullivan said, adding that unreasonable search and seizure is a violation of constitutional rights. Williams noted that dismissing cases doesn't help those who are killed by police, and that it doesn't prevent such traffic stops from occurring. "To dismiss a case posthumously ... it doesn't help," she said. "I'm certain that I would rather have my family back rather than money deposited into my account." Baptiste said he doesn't believe law enforcement is intrinsically "bad," or that "pro-black bodies" sentiments portrayed by the Black Lives Matter movement are anti-police. But he added that the fact that he is a Morehouse College graduate, holds a Ph.D and dresses well will not stop him from being accosted by officers. "Out of all the police, if there are bad police, it is black people who are going to feel that," Baptiste said. Kasper said she is glad these discussion are happening, but that they are only the tip of the iceberg. "I like to focus on solutions and actions that I can do to make things better," Kasper said. "We've heard about what's happened in the past. Now what can we do?" Dr. Ruth Potee Dr. Ruth Potee will discuss addition and the developing brain at tonight's presentation. (Opioid Task Force) A medical doctor who is an expert in addiction and the adolescent brain will speak tonight in Easthampton. Dr. Ruth Potee will deliver a presentation on the physiology of drug and alcohol addiction and explore practical ways to help children, teens and adults avoid, manage or escape the destructive brain disease. A physician at Valley Medical Group in Greenfield, Potee is board certified in family medicine and addiction medicine. She is a member of the Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region, and medical director for the Franklin County House of Corrections, overseeing care for 300 inmates. In addition, Potee is school physician for the Pioneer Valley Regional School District. In that role, she has provided training for many school nurses on adolescent substance abuse and addiction. OTF POTEE LECTURE from Searchlight Films on Vimeo. Dr. Potee earned her medical degree from the Yale University School of Medicine in 1999. "It is so important for everyone to understand the difference between the teen brain and the adult brain, and how drugs and risky behaviors impact them differently," said Ruth Ever, coordinator of the Easthampton Healthy Youth Coalition. "When we understand what's at stake, it helps everyone make better decisions to protect our youth, from the city policy level to the family house rules." The event is free and open to the public, and part of the coalition's effort to support and strengthen families and the community in Easthampton. The Coalition is funded by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy through the Easthampton Public Schools. If you go: What: "The Teen Brain: Under Construction;" a talk by Dr. Ruth Potee Where: Easthampton High School Auditorium When: Feb. 25, 6:30 p.m. Admission: Free and open to the public; sponsored by the Easthampton Healthy Youth Coalition EPL0228_VetDon3.JPG Springfield- Gumersindo Gomez (yellow shirt) joins members of "Flash Flood Auto Club" who donated food to the Bilingual Veterans Outreach Center of Mass Inc., in Springfield. (Damaris Perez-Pizarro | El Pueblo Latino) (Damaris Perez-Pizarro | El Pueblo Latino) SPRINGFIELD The Andino brothers of Springfield have a passion for their community and for cars. After forming an auto club a few months ago, they decided members would raise money for charitable causes in Western Massachusetts. "We want to do things that make a difference in our community," said Frank Andino, who along with his brothers Rene Andino and Jeremy Lebron and their sister Ciara Gonzalez are all involved in the Flash Flood Auto Club. For their first fundraising event, the group stood outside Walmart on Boston Road and collected food and monetary donations. The food went directly to the Bilingual Veterans Outreach Center in Springfield. Monetary donations were collected for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) awareness. "These are causes that are personal to us," Andino said. The siblings' mother, Wanda Pierce, went with the members of the auto club to drop off three carloads full of food to the center. "As far as raising money for SIDS, I had a baby, their brother, who died of that, which is why this is so personal for all of us," she said. "What they are doing is about more than just cars, it's about giving back to the community they live in." Springfield -From left to right Brian Parker, a veteran, grabs donated food from Flash Flood Auto Club members Jeremy Lebron and Ciara Gonzalez. (Damaris Perez-Pizarro | El Pueblo Latino) Gumersindo Gomez, executive director of the veterans center, said he is grateful for any community support given to veterans. The center has three caseworkers in Springfield and one in Boston, each with caseloads of more than 200 families. "Last year alone, we had 265 new veterans reaching out for services," he said. "There is a lot of need out there. Many of these men and women come back and they can't get work, mentally they need a lot of help and their families can't take it. Some of them cannot financially support their families, and many end up homeless." Gomez said the donations will go toward families in need of food. "There is a great need and we are grateful to groups like this who step up and help," he said. morse.greentie.JPG Holyoke Mayor Alex B. Morse (FILE PHOTO) HOLYOKE -- Mayor Alex B. Morse said Wednesday he doesn't necessarily see limits on his authority resulting from changes the City Council is considering about the hiring of towing and outside law firms. "Like any good executive, I make sure the city and its taxpayers are getting the best deal possible before I contract with any company, be it a tow contact or an outside legal firm. If the council wants to discuss how the process works, they are entitled to do that and I'll let their conversation unfold," Morse said in a text message. "I don't believe I have lost any authority. I think the (City Council) wants more influence, which they are entitled to debate. But the city charter grants the mayor sole authority over the execution of contracts and that will not change, nor can it change without my approval," he said. The council Ordinance Committee Tuesday continued discussing proposals to change how the city hires towing and outside law firms and to require that the budget that the mayor submits in the spring for the subsequent fiscal year be balanced. The committee tabled consideration of those orders for later discussion. Currently, the mayor has exclusive authority to award contracts to companies that do police-ordered towing of vehicles and to hire outside law firms. Ward 3 Councilor David K. Bartley filed the proposal to open municipal towing contracts to public bidding. The city would benefit by the more open process and the chance of getting better deals through competition, he said. Ward 7 Councilor Todd A. McGee, chairman of the Finance Committee, proposed that the hiring of outside lawyers to represent the city also be put out to bid. The bid process can potentially offer cost savings to the city, look to attract local firms and keep the process open and fair, McGee said. Council President Kevin A. Jourdain and Ward 2 Councilor Nelson R. Roman filed the balanced-budget proposal. The goal is to have the budget balanced when the fiscal year begins on July 1 instead of the recent years' practice of waiting for the state to certify the amount of free cash available to the city and balancing the budget five months into the fiscal year, Jourdain said. Also, last week, the City Council voted 13-2 to override two vetoes issued by Morse. The overrides mean that new ordinances will be established giving the council greater say over approving the use of municipal property by license in certain cases and in accepting state statutes. Jourdain said the City Council has voted to override every veto that Morse has issued since becoming mayor in January 2012. Assistant City Solicitor Kara Cunha has advised the Ordinance Committee that while the council can establish an ordinance requiring that the budget that the mayor submits for a subsequent fiscal year be balanced, it's unclear how such an ordinance could be enforced. The reason that the practical carrying out of such an ordinance would be in question lies in the state law that grants the mayor authority to determine a budget's maximum amount of spending, she said. Morse questioned whether the council even would approve the towing proposall. Even if the council does approve that measure and the one about hiring outside law firms, and requires a public bidding process, it would still be the mayor ultimately who decides the awarding of that city business, he said. "First, I don't think that will necessarily pass the council. And if it does, it really doesn't alter the process. It would still be my decision. I would just be required to look at proposals, which I already do in some way anyway," Morse said. But the City Council proposals would establish a change. The change would be that the mayor would be required to look at proposals that were chosen for him, by the bid process. That would effectively limit the range of authority the mayor now has over awarding of such contracts because now, there is no kind of official limit on tow or outside legal companies the mayor can consider. "To some extent yes, but practically any company on the rotation now would most likely be able to bid for the contract if that does happen to take effect one day," Morse said. The Law Department still must examine whether the City Council proposals would be legal under state law, he said. "(It) just adds more red tape at a time we are trying to make government more efficient and business friendly. Doesn't necessarily change the outcome," Morse said. grandmas.jpg This notice about the upcoming Wistariahurst Museum exhibit in Holyoke was on Facebook. (IMAGE FROM FACEBOOK) HOLYOKE -- Wistariahurst Museum will offer a new exhibit March 5 to April 24 celebrating grandmothers. Using stories and photographs, the exhibit -- "Our Grandmothers of Holyoke: Empowerment and Legacy" or in Spanish, "Nuestras Abuelas de Holyoke: Empoderamiento y Legado" -- will examine generational relationships, a press release said. "This exhibit of photographs and bi-lingual text, curated by Waleska Santiago, curator and museum educator, narrates stories of women in general, and Latinas in particular," the press release said. "It draws attention to concepts of family, challenges faced by grandmothers raising their families, gender expectations, and the connections between grandmothers and their adult grandchildren who reside in Holyoke," the press release said. Gallery viewing hours at the 238 Cabot St. museum are Thursday and Friday 3 to 7 p.m. and Saturday noon to 4 p.m. with $5 admission. Admission is free Thursday nights, the press release said. An opening reception is planned for 2 to 5 p.m. on March 5 with a snow date of March 12. "Visitors can chat with the curator, participants and scholars, and enjoy light refreshments at the opening event. If visitors bring their 'Abuela' and are inspired, they can make use of recording equipment at the museum to capture a story of their own special relationship," the press release said. Assisting Santiago on the project in the community have been Nelson R. Roman, the Ward 2 representative on the City Council, and Maria Cartagena, the press release said. "For me, being a Puerto Rican, Catholic male, there was no greater influence in my life than 'mi Abuelita' (my grandmother)," Roman said in the press release. "The Nuestras Abuelas project has allowed me to honor her legacy, and connect with other Latinos in Holyoke in a meaningful and substantive way. " For information call (413) 322-5660 or email wistariahurst@gmail.com Related Photos: Holyoke 1876 to 1990 comes alive as Wistariahurst Museum puts 1,000 postcards online hpcc.jpg The water wheel on display outside the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center off Appleton Street in Holyoke is seen in September 2015 photo. (DAVE ROBACK / THE REPUBLICAN) HOLYOKE -- An experimental, solar-powered "microdata center" called MassNZ will be unveiled beside the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center at 100 Bigelow St. Friday at 10:15 a.m. "MassNZ reinforces Holyoke's growing reputation as a leader in green energy, a hotbed of innovation and a magnet for academic and industrial investment," Mayor Alex B. Morse said in a press release. "It will also serve as an educational asset for local high schools and community colleges." The experimental nature of the small Mass Net Zero Data Center (MassNZ) -- at 200 square feet, about the size of a one-vehicle garage -- lies in learning how much energy can be relied on from such a renewable source as solar. The goal is to help in powering an institution such as the computing center, an academic research hub that features thousands of computers that are "voracious users of energy," one official said. Solar panels are located next to the small facility. Inside it are renewable cooling systems as well as batteries and micro-flywheels for energy storage, along with computer server, storage and network systems, said the press release from Pamela Jonah of Howell Communications in Boston. The facility and solar panels take up an area 100 feet long by 30 feet wide, John T. Goodhue, computing center executive director, said in a phone interview. The Holyoke Gas and Electric Department (HGE) provided the battery packs that are inside the facility and the connections linking the facility to the power grid, HGE Manager James M. Lavelle said in a phone interview. The $165 million computing center opened Nov. 16, 2012 between Appleton and Cabot streets. The property formerly was Mastex Industries, which made fabric used for airbags and Armed Forces and industrial uses. The partners in the computing center are Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Massachusetts, Boston University, Northeastern University, EMC Corp., of Hopkinton, an information storage, back-up and recovery firm, and Cisco Systems Inc., a California-based internet network equipment maker. Among topics researched at the computing center are how atmospheric aerosols impact climate, understanding micron-sized particles' movement inside acoustic fields, designing data security systems, mapping Lou Gehrig's Disease, studying banana blight in Costa Rica, ways to predict earthquakes and the science of how fluids move, according to Goodhue and the computing center website. "Data centers play an indispensable role in our increasingly connected world, but they are voracious users of energy," UMass-Amherst Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy said. "MassNZ is a hands-on research and educational resource that will help us understand how to decrease a data center's energy footprint and increase its use of renewable energy in an era when we are striving to reduce dependence on fossil fuels." Executive Director John T. Goodhue discusses components of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center in a tour Sept. 2, 2015. Christopher Hill, principal research engineer and director of research computing at MIT's Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate, the new facility addresses the three obstacles faced by data center's that rely on thousands of computers and so much energy. "There are three major obstacles to research in sustainable data center design: availability of experimental infrastructure to enable realistic prototyping and evaluation, availability of realistic use cases from a state-of-the-art green data center and real-time visibility into the utility infrastructure that provides data center power," Hill said. The computing center is tax exempt, but in 2013 agreed to pay the city $80,000 a year based on the annual tax revenue due on the property before the center took over the seven parcels that comprise the site. ae day after 2.jpg Customers outside the Kohl's store in West Springfield. (The Republican file photo) Kohl's will shutter 18 stores this year as the retailer tests out a handful of scaled-down stores. The announcement came Thursday after the retailer revealed its fourth-quarter earning results, which reported a 1 percent increase in overall sales in 2015. "While the decision to close stores is a difficult one, we evaluated all of the elements that contribute to making a store successful, and we were thoughtful and strategic in our approach. We are committed to leveraging our resources on our more productive assets," Kohl's CEO Kevin Mansell said in a statement. The company will release a list of the underperforming locations it will close at the end of March. When Kohl's will close the 18 stores was not revealed There are 1,160 Kohl's locations nationwide, including 25 in Massachusetts. There are stores on Boston Road in Springfield and Riverdale Street in West Springfield. SPRINGFIELD - Suspected drug dealers lost nearly 9 pounds of cocaine in 72 hours as state, city and federal agents raided two homes in Springfield, law enforcement officials said. On Monday, the Hampden County Narcotics Task Force seized two kilograms, or 4.4 pounds, of cocaine and arrested a city man during a raid on his Adams Street home. Juan Rosario Juan Rosario, 37, of 71 Adams St., was charged with cocaine trafficking, over 200 grams, and conspiracy to violate narcotics laws. Another two kilograms of cocaine were confiscated on Jan. 19 when agents converged on 35 Pine St. Two Springfield men - Samuel Hernandez, 40, and Pablo Torres, 46 - were charged with trafficking, over 200 grams, and conspiracy to violate narcotics laws. The raid was led by state troopers assigned to the Hampden District Attorney's office and agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. In Springfield District Court, Judge William Boyle set bail at $500,000 for Hernandez and $250,000 for Torres. Bail information on Rosario was not available Wednesday. Both raids took place after the Department of Homeland Security intercepted cocaine deliveries made by mail. Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said collaboration between city, state and federal agents prevented a total of 4 kilograms of cocaine from reaching the street. The raids are part of a broader campaign against drug dealers and traffickers operating in the county, Gulluni said. "They profit from the scourge of addiction, which destroys lives, families and communities," Gulluni said. The Hampden County Task Force includes members of the Springfield, Holyoke, and Chicopee police departments; the Massachusetts State Police and the Hampden County Sheriff's Office. NORTHAMPTON -- Out-of-town developers hope they can turn the site of St. John Cantius Church, closed for over six years now, into senior living apartments complete with retail space. The developers -- Michael R. Sacenti of East Longmeadow, a principal with New England Urban Senior Living LLC, and David L. Sanders, founder of HPD Cambridge in St. Louis, Missouri -- said the 10 Hawley St. church itself would be returned to its "original condition" and transformed into a restaurant that would be open to the public. Sanders said a three-story building with around 60 one- and two-bedroom units would be built on the property, as well as room for retail shops on the lower level of the complex. The space in front of that structure would be widened it into "a public plaza and gathering place," Sanders added. The property has not yet been sold to the developers by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. Plans must first be approved by the city, according to Sacenti. Sacenti and Sanders held a community forum Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the church's social center, where they unveiled their plans and collect public feedback. If the city approves the plans, it would be at least two years before tenants could move in, Sanders said. But that's a big "if," he added. After they meet with city officials this week, the developers will gauge interest and decide whether or not they will apply for land use and zoning approvals. From that point, there would be 30 days of internal review before city boards can consider it. St. John Cantius and four other Northampton parishes were closed in Jan. 2010. Sanders, who has helped develop more than 100 campuses for seniors across the U.S., said the church's site, just around the corner from the city's Main Street, is an ideal location for still-mobile but aging people. "The reason we were attracted to Northampton is there are a huge amount of services and shopping and places to eat and to be entertained," he said. This is a reversal of the prevailing senior living trend, Sanders went on to say. Such apartments are usually pushed out to remote locations. For those living in those communities, it often takes a shuttle bus or a ride from a family member to make it to the market. Unit rental costs would be "mid-priced compared to existing competition," Sanders said. The team conducted a market study and found that there is "very much a demand and a need for large number of independent units in the area," he added. The developers also met with community stakeholders and city officials in October. Concerns from residents mainly focused on parking, traffic and other potential negative impacts on the dense downtown neighborhood, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Sacenti said his team is willing to tweak their rough design plans after they receive input from the public and the city this week. He also said he wants to maintain the historical integrity of the structure, both its interior and its exterior. "There's lots of people who would tear down the church and build a pharmacy or a small office retail building," Sacenti said. "That wasn't what we wanted to do. We wanted to take this site and bring life back to it." SPRINGFIELD The relocation of the Western Massachusetts Correctional Addiction Center to Mill Street is well underway with construction expected to begin between March 1 and April 1. "The process with DCAMM is done," said Steve O'Neil, community affairs officer for the Hampden County Sheriff's Department. O'Neil was referring to a 10-year lease signed by the state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, building owner Jeremy Lederer and Sheriff Michael Ashe. "We are going full steam ahead with the project," Ashe said. "While respectfully engaging with the community," O'Neil added. The program will be relocated to the former Ring Nursing Home at 149-151 Mill St. after being pushed out of the city's South End to make room for the MGM Springfield casino. The program is temporarily located at the Holyoke Geriatric Authority. O'Neil said he is working with residents to establish a neighborhood advisory committee which will consist of representatives from non-profits and businesses in the neighborhood as well as community members. Ward 3 City Councilor Melvin Edwards, who also serves as the president of the Maple High Six Corners Neighborhood Council, said nominations for the four available resident slots are being evaluated now. "I would like to see two people who are supportive of the project sit on the board as well as two people who have concerns or are against the project," he said. Edwards said there will be a discussion about the committee appointments during the next scheduled meeting of the neighborhood council which is set for March 8 at the Mason Wright Retirement Community. While there have been mixed reactions about the relocation, with residents expressing concerns about their lack of involvement in the decision making process, there have also been local leaders who have spoken in favor of the facility including the Revival Time Evangelistic Center's senior pastor Steven R. Williams as well as Archbishop Timothy Paul Baymon, of the Greater Springfield Council of Churches. Williams said his congregation worked with the inmates at Howard Street through a Bible study program and never had any issues. He wrote a letter supporting the relocation. "I don't play politics and I stand as my own man. ...The residents of Howard Street are not violent criminals, they are people like you and I who just need an opportunity for treatment and recovery. ... On behalf of me and the Revival Times Florence Street church congregation we support and welcome the sheriff's department relocation," the letter states. O'Neil said the sheriff's department and the addiction center staff will gain the support of the majority of the community in the coming months. "Our experience after 30 years on Howard Street is that they were lamenting our leaving," he said. "We will win the majority of the neighborhood over, we are confidant about that." FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, file photo, Philip Chism, left, appears in Salem Superior Court where a judge declared the Massachusetts teenager charged with raping and killing his math teacher competent to stand trial, in Salem, Mass. Chism's lawyers plan to make opening statements Monday, Nov. 16, 2015. (Ken Yuszkus/The Salem News via AP, Pool, File) (Ken Yuszkus) Prosecutors want 17-year-old Philip Chism to serve at least 50 years in prison for the killing of his 24-year-old high school teacher, according to reports from Boston.com. A jury found Chism guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated rape and armed robbery in December. Essex County prosecutors said Chism followed the math teacher into a bathroom at the school in October 2013 and killed her. Authorities said Chism was found with a bloody boxcutter and a pair of women's underwear, along with Ritzer's driver's license and her credit cards. Ritzer, a graduate of Assumption College in Worcester, was found dead and half-clothed in the woods behind the school a day after she did not return home from work. Boston.com reports that prosecutors want Chism sentenced to life on the murder charge and to serve at least 25 years before being eligible for parole. Prosecutors also want a judge to sentence Chism to life for the aggravated rape and robbery charges with the possibility of parole in 25 years. The prosecutor is asking the sentences to run consecutively, according to Boston.com. The defense wants Chism to serve 26 years. Chism will be sentenced Friday in Salem Superior Court. proposedbiomass.JPG The proposed biomass plant in East Springfield (THE REPUBLICAN FILE) SPRINGFIELD -- The city's Public Health Council voted to keep open a public meeting on the controversial plans for a biomass plant in East Springfield, after councilors said they wanted more time to research the issue. The hearing, which had its first session on Jan. 20, will lead to an eventual vote on whether the council will initiate site assignment proceedings for the project -- a regulatory step supported by critics of the plant, but which attorney's for developer Palmer Renewable Energy say could lead them to file a $200 million lawsuit against the city. Council member Dr. Jeffrey Scavron said that he had reached out for input from the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards but had not heard back, and requested more time to make inquiries. "That's the thing on my agenda I still feel uncomfortable about," he said. Springfield Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris said she had intended to close the meeting, which had been kept open following the lengthy discussion on Jan. 20, but added that she had no issue with the council taking more time on the matter. The council needs to review transcripts of the Jan. 20 meeting before a vote is held. "We have a lot of reading that needs to be done," Caulton-Harris said. Caulton-Harris also announced the resignation of council chair Gloria Wilson, whose successor will be appointed by Mayor Domenic Sarno. "She resigned because she is in school and did not feel she could devote the amount of time she needed to this discussion," Caulton-Harris said. The Jan. 20 hearing featured detailed presentations from both developer Palmer Renewable Energy and opponents of the project. Critics highlighted alleged pollution and health risks while the company's attorney told the council that efforts to block the project are unlawful -- and could trigger a $200 million lawsuit against the city. Palmer Renewable Energy's engineering and health consultants delivered testimony defending the project, telling the council it was safe and efforts to block it unlawful. While critics, including Michaelann Bewsee, a long-time opponent of the project and an activist with Arise for Social Justice, argued that the emissions limits set by the Department of Environmental Protection are not sufficient to protect public health. The hearing sought to address competing claims by the project's attorneys and local opponents of the plant. It was punctuated with applause for the project's opponents from the crowd of approximately 75 residents who attended the two-hour hearing at Central High School and overwhelmingly opposed the project. SPRINGFIELD&$8212 Did you know that the elevators in Springfield City Hall were at one time powered by water pumped from the Connecticut River? Visitors to Springfield City Hall come to pay bills, get licenses and other documents, all part and parcel of a modern life. But once inside, they are surrounded by the past. A past that included hallways lit by gas lamps, ornate artwork and building details that made frequent use of gold leaf. City Hall is part of the Springfield Municipal Group which comprises City Hall, Symphony Hall and the campanile clock tower. Completed in 1913, the current building replaced the original city hall that was destroyed by fire in 1905. On hand for the dedication was President William Howard Taft who called the Springfield Municipal Group "one of the most distinctive civic centers in the United States, and indeed the world." As you click through the photo gallery above, picture President Bill Clinton standing on the steps of City Hall in 1996 thanking the Pottenger School Choir for performing during his visit. Picture President John F. Kennedy speaking on those same steps in 1960. And if you walk up those steps, picture the thousands and thousands of people who have climbed those steps over the years, and will for years to come. Again this year, the Montana Department of Commerce will be organizing a vibrant internship program that seeks to provide our interns with the most robust and rewarding experience in state government. Our 2016 Intern Class will be hired as a group, will have group activities, and will gain a holistic understanding of the entire Department, our mission, and our culture. Each intern will have individual work assignments and perform duties as directed by his or her supervisor. Director Meg OLeary will be welcoming the 2016 Intern Class personally and the Deputy Director Doug Mitchell will be meeting with the interns regularly. Each week there will be an event set up with a notable leader from the public or private sectors to share leadership mentorship and answer questions. Last years notables included; Chief Justice Mike McGrath, Lt. Governor Angela McLean, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau. This program has been received very well from the past class. Here are just a few comments made by members of the 2015 Intern Class. "Being a part of the DOC Intern Class of 2015 is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life and look back on fondly." "Thank you for an amazing summer and giving me the opportunity to grow and learn from influential and inspirational people." "Im taking away tangible skills from this internship." If this process excites you, check out the following positions list below: Descriptions of Internship: GIS Technician: This position will work with the Census and Economic Information Center (CEIC) of Research and Information Service. The focus of this position will be to assist with Census boundary updates in preparation for the 2020 Census. During spring the position will focus on the Block Boundary Suggestion Project (BBSP), which is Phase 1 of the 2020 Redistricting Data Program with the US Census Bureau. The Census Bureau is currently preparing boundaries for the 2020 Census. The smallest boundary upon which all other boundaries are built is the Census Block. For the first time the Census Bureau is allowing states to influence the boundaries for these Blocks. This position will assist the CEIC GIS Coordinator in communication with and training counties and cities across Montana on how to use custom Geographic Update Partnership Software (GUPS), which utilizes QGIS. In areas of the state that do not have GIS resources the GIS staff at CEIC will conduct GoToMeeting webinars to collect suggestions and input them into GUPS. To aid in communication ArcGIS Online will be utilized to produce web apps with the proposed boundaries and suggested changes. During the summer the focus of this position will be to assist with the Census Designated Places (CDP) update project in preparation for the 2020 Census. Qualifications: Experience in ArcMap 10.2 and other GIS programs, QGIS desired, but not required. Experience with ArcGIS Online, WebApp Builder, Word, Excel, and building databases. Communication skills: demonstrated excellent verbal and written communication. Ability to work with several different people both in office and remotely. Project management skills, ability to work independently, demonstrated success in taking initiative, organizing steps associated with complex projects and successfully completing those steps in a timely manner. Additional Information: This spring position will be part time and hours will be dependent on the interns availability. The summer position will be full time. This position will aid with additional Census boundary projects and mapping/GIS needs within the Department of Commerce and the research and Information Services. Full Time or Part Time Hourly Wage: $12.00/hr. Application Process: Letter of interest, Resume, Proof of College enrollment, and one reference letter. Please send all application materials to: Department of Commerce Human Resources PO Box 200501 Helena, MT 59620 Montana State Government and the Montana Department of Commerce do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, or sexual orientation), age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, marital status, creed, political affiliation, veteran status, military service, retaliation, or any other factor not related to the merit and qualifications of an employee or applicant. "I think a lot of them leave out of state, either because they grew up here and they want to try something different, or they need to go out of state to find a good paying job for their major," said Janay Whisman, the recruiting coordinator at UM Career Services. "We have a company here, Submittable http://www.submittable.com , thats local and looking to add, I believe, 500 within the next few years. (Its) a technology software company, so were hoping we see that trend change a bit (so) we can keep our students here in Missoula, but everything takes time," said Whisman. By Josh Kristianto, KTVM Reporter, [email protected] Full Story: http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/UM-official-says-many-students-leave-state-for-higher-paying-jobs/38177684 A new office at the University of Montana offers resources for researchers, entrepreneurs and hobbyists interested in using unmanned aerial systems, also known as drones. The Autonomous Aerial Systems Office http://www.umt.edu/aaso/ will celebrate its launch with a public fly-in on UMs Oval from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday, March 3. Members of the public and the UM community are invited to bring their own UASs to practice flying under a closed safety net. AASOs small drones also will be available for the public to fly, and staff members will provide safety and flying instruction. Full Story: http://news.umt.edu/2016/02/022416dron.php Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank. by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, February 24, 2016 To promote a new, limited-edition cognac, The Martell House and agency AKQA have created a stereoscopic 3D VR that takes mobile users on a virtual journey from Cognac, France to Shanghai, China. A Google Cardboard (VR) headset is needed to view the La French Touch experienceand the brand also created first-of-its-kind limited-edition Martell cognac packaging that turns into a functional VR headset. The experience is optimized for iOS8+ or Android 4.4+ and works on any popular mobile browser. (A non-3D 30-second teaser can be viewed on YouTube.) The limited-edition cognac, La French Touch by Martell, was created by Etienne de Crecy, a pioneer of the House cult music movement. advertisement advertisement An original soundtrack composed by French musician Danger accompanies the video. The experience pushes the boundaries of WebGL for the mobile Web with fully immersive, 360-degree game play allowing viewers to explore their surroundings by turning their heads, reports AKQA. Players take control of an animated swift bird image (Martell Houses symbol), flying through 3D animations that pass a river and Paris at night and cross mountains and an ocean, before arriving at a bar in Shanghai. Along the way, players can collect items to score points and share their achievements on social. The experience is available in English, Vietnamese, simplified Chinese for mainland China, and traditional Chinese for Hong Kong and Taiwan. La French Touch by Martell celebrates French Art de Vivre in a contemporary way, and we wanted to go further with this cutting-edge virtual journey, said Martell brand director Quentin Meurisse. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, February 24, 2016 Vacuum cleaning company SharkNinja recently ran an infomercial that featured Brigetta Barone, a Texas resident who said she bought the DeluxePro after looking at online reviews. In the spot, Barone calls attention to an Amazon.com review by M. Jeffrey McMahon, who touted the Shark Rocket. McMahon, received the product for free from Amazon because he participates in the company's invitation-only Vine program -- which gives reviewers merchandise in exchange for critiques. Amazon disclosed the information about Vine at the top of the review, but Shark's spot didn't include a similar disclosure. That omission is problematic, according to the industry self-regulatory watchdog National Advertising Division, a unit of the Better Business Bureau. advertisement advertisement The organization said in an opinion released Wednesday that the infomercial should have "clearly and conspicuously" disclosed that McMahon received the vacuum cleaner for free -- even though Amazon, and not Shark, provided the product. "NAD determined that Sharks infomercial included the endorsement not just of Brigetta, but also the endorsement to which she refers which is from Amazon.com," the watchdog wrote. The opinion came in response to a broader challenge to Shark's infomercials by Dyson, a rival vacuum cleaner company. "Shark did not disclose that this reviewer of its product had a material connection to Shark -- a free vacuum provided in exchange for his review," the NAD stated. "This is a material connection which requires disclosure pursuant to the FTC Endorsement Guides." SharkNinja, formerly known as Euro-Pro, said it will comply with the NAD's recommendations in the future, according to the decision. Dyson successfully challenged Shark's use of online reviews in the past. Last July, the NAD told Shark to stop boasting that its vacuum cleaner draws "more 5-star ratings online" than other brands. The year before, the NAD said Shark can't tout itself as "America's most recommended" vacuum cleaner when the boast stemmed from the company's interpretation of online reviews. by Tobi Elkin @tobielkin, February 24, 2016 Global publisher Bauer Xcel Media leans heavily on header bidding and programmatic media buys to monetize the traffic it generates from social media and other channels. In fact, 20% to 30% of its inventory is sold through header bidding -- and it's planning to increase that percentage this year, said Christian Baesler, president, Bauer Xcel Media, speaking on Wednesday at MediaPosts Programmatic Insider Summit in Phoenix. Bauer's a traditional media company that has put programmatic media and header bidding at the heart of its business model. Bauer Media properties bring in $2.5 billion in annual revenue, $120 million in digital revenue, and has 11,000 employees in 20 countries. The German-based business has 1,000 brands worldwideprint, digital, radio and TV properties-- and its largest markets are the U.K., Germany, the U.S. and Australia, with publications including InTouch Weekly, Life & Style, First for Women and Womans World. advertisement advertisement What matters the most to us is the relevance and quality of the content, Baesler said, responding to a question about how hes realizing the CPMs to support his business model. The model we have wouldnt have been possible 10 years ago. Today its about having the right audience and the data we make available to advertisers. Our sales proposition is that we optimize for viewability and engagement rates around relevant ads. We maintain a good ratio of relevant ads to content. We try to work with specific partners and do optimization, header bidding and private marketplace transactions. Baesler said a lack of ad clutter matters a lot. But it depends on what a publisher is looking for: Whats the amount of ads? What are the viewability metrics? What is the user experience? And how is a publisher measuring the user experience? It could be revenue per reader, lifetime value of a reader over time and other metrics. Bauer tests to see if there's a dropoff in engagement with ads. In the end, its looking for the lifetime value of a reader. Publishers must weigh the benefit of intrusive ads and high CPMs against how much each reader is worth over a lifetime, Baesler said. On ad blocking, Baesler noted that Germany has the highest ad blocking rate of any countrymore than 40%. The answer? You can ask someone to pay for content, but for the kind of digital brands we have, it wont work unless everyone else does it too. Theres always another place to see this type of content for free, he said. Baesler said if publishers start with the notion that programmatic is driving CPMs down, thats the wrong perception. If advertisers work with premium publishers that are generating traffic, they dont have to worry about fraud, engagement rates and viewability. He maintains that efficiency and targeting abilities have been improved. He advocates setting up private marketplace deals based on more first-party data and audience data. The risk of fraud goes down if you carefully choose your partners, he said. Bauer currently works with five header bidding partners -- OpenX, Sonobi, Amazon A9, YieldBot and IndexExchange -- and will sign deals with five more in the near term, Baesler told Real-Time Daily. Header bidding will become the new standard for how ads are served. Advertisers have full access to all inventory." Traditionally, there was a waterfall with IO/RFP bases on top getting the best inventory. Now, through header bidding, every advertiser has access to all the inventory. A wide variety of advertisers can compete on the same level with traditional, direct sales, for example. Baesler added, "We want as many possible demand sources in the header." From an audience standpoint, with header bidding, advertisers get a bigger pool of people to target. One criticism of header bidding is that if you buy audiences, youre not buying context that matters. Baesler said this issue can be resolved with the right content and context. Paying a higher CPM might be worth more to an advertiser if it gets in front of exactly the right, highly engaged audience. While Bauers digital revenue is tiny--$120 millionBaesler aims to increase it to $1 billion over time. How? By entering into gaming, travel and ecommerce, and trying to own part of the transactions. Were also building our own ad network so we are not only looking at contextual signals, but well build a data collection based on our own data and external data. For example, a reader who is reading about Kim Kardashian's trip to Miami won't get an ad for flights to Miami. Rather, data targeting will show more relevant ads for beauty products she's recently searched for. The English version of Bauers teen brand J-14 has 5.7 million fans on Facebookthese fans were achieved organically and not via paid media. Were writing about the right celebrities, and weve figured out ways to translate Facebook traffic to our websites organically," he said. Almost all Bauers revenues come from third-party sources or programmatic media. Theres no digital direct sales team. We found that by focusing on growing the content organically, we could build a profitable business from day one. We have high engagement with our posts, Baesler said. by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, February 24, 2016 Google's decision to eliminate paid-search text advertising down the right hand rail of search engine query results has indeed pushed up the cost per click (CPC) on keyword for paid-search advertising, confirms one agency. Performics U.S. President Scott Shamberg told Search Marketing Daily on Wednesday the agency sees higher CPCs in the first couple of days, but as the market settles he doesn't think it will become more difficult to bid into the top four positions. "We're seeing double the cost for some keywords," he says. Marketers will need to become more strategic in their bidding approach, but that has always been the case, Shamberg says. "The first couple of days in the week there is usually higher traffic online as companies jockey for position, but that's to be expected." advertisement advertisement Shamberg says the agency executives have had some discussions about reevaluating the combination of paid-search advertising, product listing ads (PLAs) in Google Shopping and search engine optimization to generate more content, but none of the clients are seeing a dramatic shift. Performics, a performance marketing arm of Publicis, works with Nestle, Kohls, Hertz and Toyota, among other brands. Shamberg has not seen a shift in market share to Bing or Yahoo based on Google's decision to change the layout. "Sometimes you might see it based on less inventory on Google, but we have not seen a shift or influence in the past 48 hours," he says. Google made the decision, in part, for desktop searches to look more similar to mobile search results. Shamberg believes it will push even more desktop paid search advertising bids and buys to the mobile Web, supported by the Accelerated Mobile Page framework that officially launched Wednesday. "It will become a signal on how PLAs work with paid search, and how desktop search traffic plays with mobile search traffic," he says. "It's another tool for Google to push consumers to mobile." Shamberg also believes conversion optimization will take priority at brands as the market shakes out. It will make their SEO program increasingly relevant and take some pressure off competing for less page search ads on Google. by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, February 24, 2016 Earlier this week, the Pew Research Center reported that 51% of Americans sided with the FBI in its battle with Apple over a locked iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. But a new survey by Ipsos for Reuters casts doubt on Pew's findings. The Ipsos poll, released today, says that 46% of respondents agree with Apple in its well-publicized fight with the FBI. More than one in three -- 35% -- disagree with Apple, and 18% aren't sure of their position. The results are from an online survey of 1,500 people. The FBI wants Apple to create software that will disable a security feature that prevents hackers from repeatedly testing different passwords on the phone. Apple says that once such software exists, it could be used to hack other devices. Late last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym in the Central District of California granted the FBI's request. Apple is mounting a legal challenge to that order. advertisement advertisement What accounts for the different poll results? One factor could be that Ipsos pollsters told respondents of Apple's concern that complying with the FBI's request would set a precedent. A large majority of respondents (69%) said they would not give up email privacy -- even to help assist in thwarting terrorism; an even larger proportion (75%) said they would not give up text-message privacy to help thwart terrorism. More than half of respondents (55%) said they believed the government would "spy on iPhone users" once it had the software to do so. While the results are worth noting, ultimately it is up to the courts to decide whether to force Apple to create software that could enable hacking. If so, the technique almost certainly will be used by authorities on other phones. Already, the FBI has reportedly asked judges around the country to order Apple to help access iPhones or iPads on at least 15 occasions since last October. Those requests are currently pending in seven different federal courts, by J. Max Robins , Featured Columnist, February 24, 2016 Donald Trump may rue the day late last August when he had Jorge Ramos tossed out of a press conference shouting go back to Univision. The Donald took umbrage that Ramos would have the impertinence to grill him about his draconian, racist immigration rants, and had his goons show him the door. Getting the jackboot from The Donald no badge of honor, as it may have seemed to some like-minded correspondents at the 1968 Democratic National Convention appeared to reignite Ramos ambitions, and take his anchor brand as the Latino Walter Cronkite beyond his aging Hispanic fan base. As NPRs David Folkenflik recently noticed, Ramos chases three quarries: voters, viewers and relevance. Part of the Ramos plan is to embrace Facebooks recently unveiled feature, Facebook Live, to reach a digital native audience that spends relatively little time getting news from TV. The numbers have been striking for these unvarnished video streams of Ramos on the campaign trail. On the night of the Iowa Caucuses, his Facebook Live communiques were viewed by 2.6 million people. On New Hampshire primary day, three long live reports on the platform were watched 4 million times. advertisement advertisement I figure that this is quite a different audience than the one that watches Ramos as co-anchor of Univisions signature nightly newscast Noticiero, or the Sunday public affairs show Al Punto, as well as his weekly news magazine show America on Univisions English-language sister network Fusion. The emergence of Ramos as a 57-year-old Facebook video Latino news superstar is happening in tandem with a multiplatform Univision drive to register Hispanic voters, dubbed Vote for America. This does not bode well for Master Trump. As Ramos recently told The New York Times, legions of young Latino voters are getting involved in presidential politics because of Donald Trump not because they like Donald Trump, but because they want to vote against him. The one-two punch of Univisions voter registration drive and Ramos social media advocacy journalism is a savvy way to expand the companys audience and brand. Its reminiscent of MTVs efforts in consort with Rock the Vote during the 1992 White House race, which brought tens of thousands of new voters to the polls, with one William Jefferson Clinton the main beneficiary. Ironic that Univisions efforts may do likewise a quarter-century later for Hillary Clinton. So there are charges from the GOP that Univision is in the tank for the Democrats, especially given that Haim Saban, who controls Univision, is is big Hillary supporter. In addition, Ramos daughter has been working on the Clinton campaign. It would be naive to say all of that isnt a factor, but most central is that Univisions Vote for America campaign, at its essence, is a case of smart public service marketing. The advocacy journalism of Ramos is in in sync with the Univision community, and an expert use of social media video tools across platforms, aimed at what has long been noted as a community vastly tapped into the Web. But make no mistake: Univisions voter registration drive does not bode well for Trumps primary rivals for the Republican nomination, either. Marco Rubio may share a Florida base with Ramos and Univision and be the son of Cuban immigrants, and Ted Cruzs father may be Cuban. Still, both men support the same relentlessly oppressive immigration policies that put them out of step with much of the diverse Latino community that is the Univision base. In 2012, President Obama garnered 71% of the Latino vote, and its a pretty good bet that none of the current GOP field will do much better in November. And if its The Donald, I think its even better odds that the Democrats rack up even bigger numbers from Hispanic voters. Earlier this week, when Univision announced its Vote for America campaign, it made me wonder how you say schadenfreude in Spanish? If I run into Jorge Ramos, I will be sure to ask him. If he doesnt know the word, he certainly knows the feeling. If not for Trumps schadenfreude-ian slip, theres a chance none of this would have happened. But it has, and maybe that will help make American great again. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, February 25, 2016 Regulators in New Jersey have approved Charter's proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, provided that the company offers low-cost broadband and invests in customer service. The Board is satisfied that its approval of this merger will afford customers with improved customer service and access to increased broadband speeds, Richard S. Mroz, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, said in a statement issued Wednesday. The company is seeking to acquire Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in a deal valued at an estimated $89 billion. Charter, which previously secured approval from New York state regulators, is still awaiting decisions from regulators in California, as well as federal officials with the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission. advertisement advertisement Merger opponents say the deal would leave two companies -- Charter and Comcast -- in control of at least 70% of Web connections at speeds greater than 25 Mbps, which is the FCC's new definition of broadband. Opponents, including Dish, Public Knowledge, Consumers Union, the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild, West, have warned regulators that the post-merger Charter "could limit consumer access to a stand-alone broadband service, or raise the price of stand-alone broadband in a way that favors its own bundle of services." Critics also say Charter could discriminate against over-the-top services that allow consumers to watch video without paying hefty cable TV fees. Charter has promised regulators that it will follow some of the net neutrality rules for at least three years as a merger condition, even if the regulations are vacated in court. The company also promised that it won't cap broadband data, or charge customers based on their data consumption, for at least three years. In addition, Charter said it won't charge content companies like Netflix extra fees to interconnect directly with Charter's servers. In New Jersey, where Time Warner currently serves around 30,000 residents, regulators are requiring Charter to offer low-income households $14.99 broadband at speeds of at least 30 Mbps downstream, as a condition of the deal. State authorities also say Charter must invest at least $750,000 in customer service improvements, among other conditions. Separately, New York City's Joshua Breitbart, special advisor for broadband in the mayor's office, recently asked the FCC to require Charter to "invest in their network sufficient to maintain a state of the art system" as a merger condition. by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, February 25, 2016 Television has retained center stage status in political advertising amid a rapidly developing digital space. This is partly due to the fact that many of these developments have enhanced TV advertising. But also because the digital advancements on desktop or mobile wont necessarily trump the comfortable passive interaction one has with TV. According to Media Monitors, presidential nominees, and their contributing super PACs have been widely taking advantage of television advertising opportunities in 2016. Across 60 top Designated Market Areas (DMAs) studied by Media Monitors, Democratic nominees and their PACs have been controlling the airwaves. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has the highest number of spots at 9,834 in the period from Jan. 1 to Feb. 21 of this year. He is followed relatively closely by Hillary Clinton, whose campaign and contributing organizations aired 8,667 spots. The Republican with most ads aired in the relevant DMAs was Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (including his Conservative Solutions PAC) with 4,222 ads aired. He is followed by Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who each had a tad over 2,000 ads to their name. advertisement advertisement Significantly, Jeb Bushs failed campaign focused heavily on negative advertising, particularly against former mentee Marco Rubio. Jebs super PAC Right to Rise USA ran 1,123 TV ads against Rubio in the specified period. Other data shows the significance TV holds in the minds of voters. The Television Bureau of Advertising released a GfK study that again puts TV at the forefront of influencing voter behavior. 70% of respondents in a study conducted right after the gubernatorial election in Kentucky in November 2015, pointed to a strong preference for TV for developing political awareness. 51% said TV was the most influential medium when it came to actually changing their vote. Surprisingly, TV was also a strong influencer for millennials -- it outpaced social media six to one in the heavy social-media savvy demographic. TV sites were also considered the most common online news source, with 61% of respondents identifying such sites. 74% of respondents also attested to watching video ads online. Clearly, Kentucky does not represent the entire country, but taking such a poll directly following an active election cycle offers a fascinating view of how Americans away from the coasts interact with political information. These reports are more evidence to buttress TVs staying power as we approach Super Tuesday. by Philip Rosenstein , February 25, 2016 A study of the programmatic landscape in South Carolina and Nevada shows that presidential campaigns and super PACs have been using a variety of strategies, resulting in significant differences in total impressions and average clear prices. Index Exchange conducted a study of political ads placed through their programmatic platform on over 30,000 publisher properties. In the week leading up the GOP South Carolina primary and the Democratic Nevada caucuses, Right to Rise, Jeb Bushs Super PAC, garnered the highest number of impressions among both parties. Ted Cruzs Super PAC Stand for Truth spent the most overall. Sen. Bernie Sanders spent significantly more through the platform than Hillary Clinton did, but fell far short of the total impressions the former Secretary of State attained. advertisement advertisement When it comes to pricing, the landscape takes shape. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders paid a hefty CPM averaging $15.56. This is compared to an average of $1.13 for ads placed by Hillary Clinton. Sanders was clearly vying for a more specific and in-demand target group than the Clinton campaign. This most likely included particular minority and age groups in both South Carolina and Nevada. African Americans make up a big portion of Democratic voters in South Carolina, a demographic in which Sanders heavily trails Clinton. Nevada is considered the first Hispanic test and Sanders looks to have done relatively well with that demographic. He claimed to have won among Hispanic voters, but that stat has been questioned in light of scant polling. Results in South Carolina are yet to come for the Democrats. With Sanders high clearing prices, we may see a shift in support within certain demographic groups if his message resonates. Hillary Clinton, with a strong African American support base, continues to reach as many potential voters as possible with a broader approach. by Erik Sass @eriksass1, February 25, 2016 While Reddit remains a relatively niche social content platform -- used by a modest 7% of U.S. adults -- its users are highly engaged and turn to the site for news of all kinds, including politics. Thats according to the results of a new survey of Reddit users conducted by Pew Research Center, which highlights the sites importance as a political barometer in the 2016 presidential race. Overall, 78% of Reddit users say they get news from the site, with 45% saying they learn about the presidential campaign from the site in any given week. That finding echoes the number of Facebook and Twitter users who get political news and information from those social networks, at 52% and 43%, respectively. As Reddit users skew young, male, and liberal, the site is especially important for Democratic politicians hoping to reach out to young voters. In 2012, President Obama conducted an Ask Me Anything Q&A session on the site in August 2012, which attracted over 20,000 comments. advertisement advertisement On that note, discussion among Reddit users seems to have forecast early interest in Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders, whose success has since proved an unexpected challenge to establishment choice Hillary Clinton. In the months leading up to the first presidential debates in fall 2015, Sanders was mentioned 165,000 in comments on Reddit, compared to 85,000 for Clinton and 73,000 for Donald Trump. Reddit has also proven a popular place for Sanders supporters to organize, with the subreddit SandersForPresident generating over 200,000 comments in the three-month-long study period. However, its worth noting that these figures represent a small proportion of the overall activity on Reddit, with 350,000 comments mentioning a presidential candidate in the three-month study period, constituting less than 1% of the more than 165 million comments left on the site during the period. Pew also noted that Reddit sends a considerable amount of traffic to external publishers, with fully 62% of posts studied linking to another Web site. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, February 25, 2016 Facebook says that users can't proceed with a lawsuit accusing the company of violating an Illinois biometric privacy law, because the company's terms of service provide that all disputes are governed by California's laws. The plaintiffs "agreed to be bound by Facebooks terms of use," Facebook says in papers filed on Wednesday with U.S. District Court Judge James Donato in San Francisco. "That agreement formed a contract between Facebook and the plaintiffs. And that contract requires that this case be dismissed with prejudice." The social networking service's come in response to a potential class-action lawsuit centering on the company's faceprint database. The complaint -- filed by users Carlo Licata, Adam Penzen and Nimesh Patel -- stems from Facebook's automatic photo-tagging feature, rolled out in 2010. That feature recognizes users' faces and suggests their names when they appear in photos uploaded by their friends. To accomplish this, Facebook draws on its vast store of users' photos. advertisement advertisement Licata alleges that Facebook's compilation of that database runs afoul of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, which requires companies to obtain written releases from people before collecting face geometry and other biometric data. The Illinois law, passed in 2008, also requires companies that gather biometric data to notify people about the practice, and to publish a schedule for destroying the information. Facebook has argued that the case should be dismissed for several reasons, including that its terms of service say California law applies to all disputes. California doesn't have a law comparable to Illinois' biometric privacy measure. Facebook argues in its latest papers that Licata, Penzen and Patel all agreed to the company's terms of service when they signed up for the site. Lawyers for the consumers counter that Facebook hasn't provided any evidence showing it notified the plaintiffs about the terms of service, or that they agreed to the terms. Donato is scheduled to hear arguments next week over that question. But class counsel also argues in its papers that even if the users agreed to the company's terms of service, Illinois law should still apply because the state has a policy interest "in the biometric privacy rights of millions of Illinois residents." Facebook has also argued that the Illinois law doesn't apply to data gleaned from photos. Donato isn't expected to address that question at next week's hearing. Anyone who thought Facebooks mobile app was already ad-heavy, think again. The social giant on Thursday began a broad release of an interactive full-screen unit named Canvas. Facebook built Canvas in collaboration with brands and agencies giving them a fully customizable space on which to build multimedia stories, a Facebook spokeswoman said. Advertisers can use a mix of video, still images, text and call-to-action buttons. Facebook is particularly proud of the units fast load times. Canvas loads nearly instantaneously when someone taps on a News Feed ad, the spokeswoman said. In tests, the unit loads as much as 10 times faster than the standard mobile Web, by Facebooks calculations. No niche unit, Facebook is hoping for broad adoption with Canvas. As such, the unit is immediately being made available to any brand around the world; it works on both Android and iOS at launch. Building the ads require no code or software. advertisement advertisement Facebook declined to discuss pricing on Thursday. In tests, brands like Coca-Cola, Lowes, Taiwanese computer maker ASUS, and French beauty brand LOccitane reported positive results with Canvas. Promoting its aluminum bottles, Coca-Cola said a Canvas ad reached nearly 16 million people, and had an average view time of 18 seconds. On average, Lowes and mobile users spent 28 seconds exploring its Canvas ads. In an effort to improve overall user experiences, faster loading times are key to Facebooks mobile strategy. To that end, the company continues to expand its Instant Articles initiative. At the risk of turning off users, Facebook is also embracing an increasingly aggressive ad strategy. By the second quarter of the year, the company is even reportedly planning to begin putting ads directly into Facebook Messenger. American Brain Tumor Association funds first comprehensive study of 15-39 year-old population. A new report published in the journal Neuro-Oncology and funded by the American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA) finds that malignant brain tumors are the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in adolescents and young adults aged 15-39 and the most common cancer occurring among 15-19 year olds. The 50-page report, which utilized data from the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States (CBTRUS) from 2008-2012, is the first in-depth statistical analysis of brain and central nervous system (CNS) tumors in adolescents and young adults (AYA). Statistics are provided on tumor type, tumor location and age group (15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34 and 35-39) for both malignant and non-malignant brain and CNS tumors. "When analyzing data in 5-year age increments, researchers discovered that the adolescent and young adult population is not one group but rather several distinct groups that are impacted by very different tumor types as they move into adulthood," said Elizabeth Wilson, president and CEO of the American Brain Tumor Association. "For these individuals -- who are finishing school, pursuing their careers and starting and raising young families -- a brain tumor diagnosis is especially cruel and disruptive," added Wilson. "This report enables us for the first time to zero-in on the types of tumors occurring at key intervals over a 25-year time span to help guide critical research investments and strategies for living with a brain tumor that reflect the patient's unique needs." Although brain and CNS tumors are the most common type of cancer among people aged 15-19, the report shows how other cancers become more common with age. By ages 34-39 years, brain and CNS tumors are the third most common cancer after breast and thyroid cancer. "What's interesting is the wide variability in the types of brain tumors diagnosed within this age group which paints a much different picture than what we see in adults or in pediatric patients," explained the study's senior author Jill Barnholtz-Sloan, Ph.D., associate professor, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Scientific Principal Investigator for CBTRUS. "For example, the most common tumor types observed in adults are meningiomas and glioblastomas, but there is much more diversity in the common tumor types observed in the adolescent and young adult population. You also clearly see a transition from predominantly non-malignant and low-grade tumors to predominantly high-grade tumors with increasing age," Barnholtz-Sloan said. There are nearly 700,000 people in the U.S. living with brain and CNS tumors and approximately 15 percent of these tumors occurred in the AYA population during the 2008-2012 time frame analyzed in this report. Approximately 10,617 brain and CNS tumors are diagnosed among adolescents and young adults each year and are the cause of approximately 434 deaths annually. "The American Brain Tumor Association's recognition of this understudied population, and their commitment to data and information sharing should be applauded," added Barnholtz-Sloan. "There are clearly unique characteristics of the 15-39 age group that we need to more comprehensively understand and the information in the ABTA report starts that important dialogue." Monash University-led research has shown that the evolution of human teeth is much simpler than previously thought, and that we can predict the sizes of teeth missing from human fossils and those of our extinct close relatives (hominins). A new study published in the journal Nature, led by evolutionary biologist Dr Alistair Evans from Monash University, took a fresh look at the teeth of humans and fossil hominins. The research confirms that molars, including wisdom teeth, do follow the sizes predicted by what is called 'the inhibitory cascade' - a rule that shows how the size of one tooth affects the size of the tooth next to it. This is important because it indicates that human evolution was a lot simpler than scientists had previously thought. Dr Alistair Evans explains how our fascination with where we come from, and what our fossil ancestors were like, has fuelled our search for new fossils and how we can interpret them. "Teeth can tell us a lot about the lives of our ancestors, and how they evolved over the last seven million years. What makes modern humans different from our fossil relatives? Palaeontologists have worked for decades to interpret these fossils, and looked for new ways to extract more information from teeth," Dr Evans said. Dr Evans, a research associate at Museum Victoria, discussed how this new research has challenged the accepted view that there was a lot of variation in how teeth evolved in our closest relatives. "Our new study shows that the pattern is a lot simpler than we first thought - human evolution was much more limited," Dr Evans said. Dr Evans led an international team of anthropologists and developmental biologists from Finland, USA, UK and Germany, using a new extensive database on fossil hominins and modern humans collected over several decades, as well as high resolution 3D imaging to see inside the fossil teeth. The team then took the research a step further by applying the findings to two main groups of hominins: the species in the genus Homo (like us and Neanderthals), and australopiths, including specimens like Lucy, the famous fossil hominin from Africa. Dr Evans explained that while it was discovered that both groups follow the inhibitory cascade, they do so slightly differently. "There seems to be a key difference between the two groups of hominins - perhaps one of the things that defines our genus, Homo," Dr Evans said. "What's really exciting is that we can then use this inhibitory cascade rule to help us predict the size of missing fossil teeth. Sometimes we find only a few teeth in a fossil. With our new insight, we can reliably estimate how big the missing teeth were. The early hominin Ardipithecus is a good example - the second milk molar has never been found, but we can now predict how big it was." Another author on the Nature paper was Professor Grant Townsend from the University of Adelaide's School of Dentistry. The study examined teeth of modern humans, including those in one of the world's largest collections of dental casts housed at the Adelaide Dental Hospital. "These collections of dental casts are critical to finding our place in the hominin evolutionary tree, and advancing knowledge in the oral health of Australians," said Professor Townsend. The findings of the study will be very useful in interpreting new hominin fossil finds, and looking at what the real drivers of human evolution were. As well as shedding new light on our evolutionary past, this simple rule provides clues about how we may evolve into the future. Participants as adherent to using gel with sex as taking a daily pill for HIV prevention. A reduced glycerin formulation of tenofovir gel was found safe when used daily and around the time of sex, according to the first extended safety study of a rectal microbicide1 for HIV prevention from anal sex. Presented at the 23rd Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2016), the study, led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Microbicide Trials Network (MTN), also indicated that participants were as likely to follow through using the gel with sex as they were to using daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) - a prevention strategy in which people who are HIV-uninfected take a daily pill to reduce their risk of infection. The Phase II study, MTN-0172, began in September 2013 and enrolled 195 men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women at sites in Peru, Thailand, South Africa and the United States, including Puerto Rico. MTN-017 participants -12 percent of whom were transgender women - cycled through three study regimens which each lasted eight weeks: reduced glycerin tenofovir gel used daily, reduced glycerin tenofovir gel used before and after anal sex, and daily use of the antiretroviral tablet Truvada (emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), developed by Gilead Sciences, Inc. This design allowed researchers to collect information about the gel's safety and acceptability in the rectum, and compare it to the use of oral Truvada, which was approved for use as PrEP by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012. Most side effects from study products in MTN-017 were minor, indicating the gel was safe, and there were no significant differences in adverse events among the gel regimens compared to oral Truvada. Overall, participants were highly adherent in MTN-017, with most following through in using their assigned products 80 percent of the time or more. Participants were similarly adherent to using gel before and after sex (93 percent) as they were to taking daily oral Truvada (94 percent). They were less adherent, however, when using the gel on a daily basis (83 percent). Adherence in MTN-017 was measured by a combination of responses to daily questions sent by text message, number of returned gel applicators and blood tests to confirm the presence or absence of drug. When asked about preferences, participants reported they preferred oral Truvada to the gel, but found the before and after sex gel regimen as easy to use as oral Truvada. When asked about the likelihood that they would use the study products in the future, participants said that they would be as likely to use the gel before and after sex as they would to take oral Truvada. Forthcoming analyses from MTN-017 will shed light on how much drug was absorbed in the blood, rectal fluid and tissue, and assess whether use of the products caused changes in cells or tissue. "The results from MTN-017 demonstrate there is a place for rectal microbicides used around the time of sex in future HIV prevention efforts," said Ross D. Cranston, M.D., associate professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who led the study with Javier R. Lama, M.D., M.P.H., investigator and director, HIV Prevention Intervention Studies, IMPACTA PERU Clinical Trials Unit, Lima, Peru. "While we have more to learn from ongoing analyses of tissue and blood testing, the completion of this study was a significant undertaking and represents a major step forward in the development of a rectal microbicide for people at risk of HIV from anal sex." MTN-017 was a larger follow-up trial to a previous study, MTN-0073, that found the reduced glycerin formulation of tenofovir gel was safe and acceptable to both men and women who used it in the rectum daily for a one-week period. The gel used in both studies was formulated with less glycerin to address gastrointestinal side effects experienced by some study participants who used an original vaginal formulation of tenofovir gel in an early study called RMP-02/MTN-0064. "The MTN-017 findings come at a pivotal time in the field of rectal microbicides, setting the stage for future studies and complementing ongoing research into new products and delivery methods," said Ian McGowan, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator of the MTN and professor of medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "Research is already underway at MTN to expand the pipeline of rectal microbicide products in order to find the right product to move forward into an effectiveness study." Globally, racial and ethnic minorities, MSM and transgender women are disproportionately affected by HIV. Although most microbicide research has focused on products for vaginal use, the risk of becoming infected with HIV from unprotected anal sex may be 20 times greater than unprotected vaginal sex, in part because the rectal lining is only one-cell thick compared to the vagina's multiple layers. A University of Manchester study has shed light on a chain of events that allows tumour cells to thrive in tough environments, identifying potential new ways to diagnose and treat cancer. Because of the rapid nature of cancer growth, tumours often lack a fully functioning blood supply. This leads to low levels of oxygen within the tumour - a condition known as hypoxia. Lack of oxygen is known to lead to more aggressive tumours with a higher chance of spreading throughout the body. However, to overcome these low oxygen conditions, cancer cells need to evolve alternative ways to produce energy; controlled by a range of signalling molecules, most importantly Hypoxia Inducible Factors (HIFs). The latest research from a research group at The University of Manchester looked at cells in various oxygen environments and compared their metabolic fingerprint - the hallmarks of energy production. The team explored those features linked to HIF and those that acted independently, in two different types of cancer cell, in order to fully understand how each process interacted. Professor Kaye Williams, who led the study, said: "If we deprive cells of oxygen in controlled conditions, we can see which new processes kick in to overcome hypoxic stress. We can only stop cancer in its tracks when we understand all of its survival mechanisms." The experiments revealed four different fingerprints - patterns indicating how the cells respond to different oxygenation conditions. This insight offers a different way to target cancer growth, by identifying specific processes to block with new drugs - in order to only affect tumour cells. These findings also could also be a tool to aid diagnosis and prognosis. "By looking for these metabolic fingerprints in patients, we could better understand the level of hypoxia present in each individual tumour. Such knowledge would aid doctors when choosing how to best treat their cancer," added Professor Williams. Advertisement The researchers have since begun testing the capsule in mice, and hope to move on to human cancer trials within a few years. Their early results appear in theThe study involved a pre-clinical model of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that has developed resistance against the drug daunorubicin. Specifically, when molecules of daunorubicin enter an AML cell, the cell recognizes them and pumps them back out through openings in the cell wall. It's a mechanism of resistance that study co-author John Byrd of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center compared to sump pumps that draw water from a basement.He and Carlos Castro, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, lead a collaboration focused on hiding daunorubicin inside a kind of molecular Trojan horse that can bypass the pumps so they can't eject the drug from the cell."Cancer cells have novel ways of resisting drugs, like these pumps, and the exciting part of packaging the drug this way is that we can circumvent those defenses so that the drug accumulates in the cancer cell and causes it to die," said Byrd, a professor of internal medicine and director of the Division of Hematology. "Potentially, we can also tailor these structures to make them deliver drugs selectively to cancer cells and not to other parts of the body where they can cause side effects.""DNA origami nanostructures have a lot of potential for drug delivery, not just for making effective drug delivery vehicles, but enabling new ways to study drug delivery. For instance, we can vary the shape or mechanical stiffness of a structure very precisely and see how that affects entry into cells," said Castro, director of the Laboratory for Nanoengineering and Biodesign. In tests, the researchers found that AML cells, which had previously shown resistance to daunorubicin, effectively absorbed drug molecules when they were hidden inside tiny rod-shaped capsules made of DNA. Under the microscope, the researchers tracked the capsules inside the cells with fluorescent tags.Each capsule measures about 15 nanometers wide and 100 nanometers long - about 100 times smaller than the cancer cells it's designed to infiltrate. With four hollow, open-ended interior compartments, it looks less like a pill a human would swallow and more like an elongated cinder block.Postdoctoral researcher Christopher Lucas said, "The design maximizes the surface area available to carry the drug. The way daunorubicin works is it tucks into the cancer cell's DNA and prevents it from replicating. So we designed a capsule structure that would have lots of accessible DNA base-pairs for it to tuck into. When the capsule breaks down, the drug molecules are freed to flood the cell."Castro's team designed the capsules to be strong and stable, so that they wouldn't fully disintegrate and release the bulk of the drugs until it was too late for the cell to spit them back out.And that's what they saw with a fluorescence microscope - the cells drew the capsules into the organelles that would normally digest them, if they were food. When the capsules broke down, the drugs flooded the cells and caused them to disintegrate. Most cells died within the first 15 hours after consuming the capsules.This work is the first effort for the engineers in Castro's lab to develop a medical application for the DNA origami structures they have been building.Though DNA is stereotypically called the 'building blocks of life', engineers today use natural and synthetic DNA as literal building blocks for mechanical devices. Previously, the Ohio State engineers created tiny hinges and pistons of DNA.As Castro pointed out, DNA is a polymer - albeit a naturally occurring one - and he and his colleagues shape it into tiny devices, tools or containers by exploiting the physical interactions of the bases that make up the polymer chain. They build chains from DNA sequences that will naturally attract and bind with one another in certain ways, so that long the long polymers automatically fold up, or 'self-assemble', into useful shapes.In the case of this DNA Trojan horse, the researchers used the genome of a common bacteriophage, a virus that infects bacteria, and synthetic strands that were designed to fold up the bacteriophage DNA. Although the folded-up shape performs a function, the DNA itself does not, explained Patrick Halley, an engineering graduate student who is doing this work to earn his master's degree."One of the hardest things to get across when you're introducing this technology to people is that the DNA capsule doesn't do anything except hold a shape. It's just a static, rigid structure that carries things. It doesn't encode any proteins or do anything else that we normally think of DNA as doing," Halley said.In keeping with the idea of DNA origami manufacturing, Castro said he hopes to create a streamlined and economically viable process for building the capsules - and other shapes as well - as part of a modular drug delivery system.Byrd said the technique should potentially work on most any form of drug-resistant cancer if further work shows it can be effectively translated to animal models, though he stopped short of suggesting that it would work against pathogens such as bacteria, where the mechanisms for drug resistance may be different.Source: Eurekalert Advertisement More Colorado residents went to the emergency room for pot-related reasons too, but the rise was far smaller -- just 44 percent, or 70 per 10,000 in 2012 compared to 101 two years later.The study was based on visits for marijuana-related symptoms at the emergency department of UC Health's University of Colorado Hospital."Anecdotally, we noticed that most out-of-towners were in Colorado for other reasons, such as visiting friends or on business," said lead author Howard Kim, an emergency medicine physician at Northwestern Medicine."They ended up in the ER because they decided to try some marijuana," added Kim, who began the study when he was a resident at the University of Colorado School of Medicine."This may indicate that out-of-state visitors are unprepared for the adverse effects of marijuana use."Side effects of cannabis can include anxiety, hallucinations, high blood pressure, heart palpitations, stomach pain and vomiting.Eating too much edible marijuana products, like cookies or brownies, can also lead to adverse effects."People eating marijuana products often don't feel any effect immediately, leading them to eat another edible," Kim said."Then they've ingested multiple products, so when the effect finally kicks in, it is much stronger."Most of the cases were mild. Patients were given "supportive care and went home after a few hours, but some were admitted for further observation," the study said.Researchers said other states in which recreational marijuana is legal -- including Alaska, Oregon and Washington -- may be experiencing similar spikes in emergency room visits.Senior author Andrew Monte, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, urged other states considering legalization to adopt pre-emptive public health education campaigns.Source: AFP Liberal Saudi journalist Nadine Al-Budair, who lives in Qatar, penned an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai in which she wondered how Muslims would have acted if Christians had blown themselves up in their midst or tried to force their faith on them. She called on the Muslim world to be introspective and enact reforms, instead of condemning Western attitudes towards it. The following are excerpts from the article:[1] Nadine Al-Budair (image: Alraimedia.com) "Imagine a Western youth coming here and carrying out a suicide mission in one of our public squares in the name of the Cross. Imagine that two skyscrapers had collapsed in some Arab capital, and that an extremist Christian group, donning millennium-old garb, had emerged to take responsibility for the event, while stressing its determination to revive Christian teachings or some Christian rulings, according to its understanding, to live like in the time [of Jesus] and his disciples, and to implement certain edicts of Christian scholarsOC "Imagine hearing the voices of monks and priests from churches and prayer houses in and out of the Arab world, screaming on loudspeakers and levelling accusations against Muslims, calling them infidels, and chanting: 'God, eliminate the Muslims and defeat them all.' "Imagine that we had provided an endless number of foreign groups with visas, ID cards, citizenships, proper jobs, free education, free modern healthcare, social security, and so on, and later a member of one of these groups came out, consumed by hatred and bloodlust, and killed our sons on our streets, in our buildings, in our newspaper [offices], in our mosques and in our schools. "Imagine a Frenchmen or a German in Paris or Berlin leading his Muslim neighbor [somewhere] in order to slaughter him and then freeze his head in an ice box, in a cold and calculating manner... as one terrorist did with the head of an American in Riyadh years ago.[2] "Imagine that we visited their country as tourists and they shot at us, blew up car bombs near us, and announced their opposition to our presence [there] by chanting: 'Remove the Muslims from the land of culture.' "These images are far from the mind of the Arab or Muslim terrorist because he is certain, or used to be certain, that the West is humanitarian and that the Western citizen would refuse to respond [in this manner] to the barbaric crimes [of the Muslim terrorists]. Despite the terrorist acts of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, we [Muslims] have been on [Western] soil for years without any fear or worry. Millions of Muslim tourists, immigrants, students, and job seekers [travel to the West] with the doors open [to them], and the streets safe [for them]. "However, how much longer [will this last]? Today things are different. [Western] anger [at Muslims] is apparent, and they make scary declarations. One who recently championed [these views] is Donald Trump, who demanded to bar Muslims from entering the U.S. "It is strange that we [Muslims] believe we have the right to condemn such statements rather than address the implications of some of our extremist curricula, our education, and our regimes, and be ashamed [of them]... It is strange that we condemn [the West] instead of addressing what is happening in our midst - the extremist ways in which we interpret the shari'a and our reactionary attitudes towards each other and the world. It is strange that we condemn instead of apologizing to the world. "How would you react if a European blew up a theater in your city or a caf that your son frequents? What would you do if you heard curses against your religion and faith every Sunday, as they hear [against theirs] from some of our imams on Fridays and other days? "Imagine being in Amsterdam, London, or New York and knowing that students [there] learn as part of their curricula that you are an infidel, and that killing you is jihad that leads to the virgins of paradise. Would you extend your stay there to the end of the summer, or stay away? [Would you] blow yourself up [as the Muslim terrorists do], or would you do less than that: [Merely] conquer your rage and demand to ban Christians from entering Arab countries. What would you do? "[Imagine] the war that would break out had Westerners shed their values in the face of the bloody crimes committed by foreigners, and if Western or Christian counter-radicalism had emerged in our Arab cities? "After all these farces, some Arab analyst comes out touting a pathetic message, and reciting the same words in his friend's ear that he has repeated millions of times: 'Those [Muslims who commit terrorism] do not represent Islam, but only themselves.' "This is all we [know how to do] - absolve [ourselves] of guilt. Endnotes: [1] Al-Rai (Kuwait), December 15, 2015. In a January 17 article titled "Educating Europe's Refugees as Important as Feeding Them," prominent Saudi journalist 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, the former editor of the London-based daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat and former director of Al-Arabiya TV, addresses the issue of the Syrian refugees arriving in Europe. He argues that Europe, and in particular Germany, is capable of absorbing the refugees economically. However, he says, the real challenge is intellectual and social. Namely, the refugees must be prevented from falling prey to extremist groups within Europe's veteran Muslim communities that will seek to radicalize them. To preempt this danger, says Al-Rashed, it is important not only to feed and house the refugees but to strengthen them intellectually, so that they integrate with society on the basis of co-existence and mutual respect and resist the lure of extremism. He also notes that these values are not foreign to the refugees, for they are part of their Muslim and Middle Eastern culture that has collapsed in the last three decades due to the spread of extremism and violence. The following is an English version of Rashed's article published January 17 on Al-Arabiya's English-language website.[1] 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed (Alarabiya.net) Muslims Extremists In Europe May Turns The Refugees Into Opponents Of The Society They Live In " More than a million refugees have arrived in Europe from around the world, who may be deemed as easy prey for extremist groups. These groups reached Europe before the influx of refugees and they enjoy greater freedom of expression. They are also more engaged in social activities. The more recent refugees, on the other hand, went to Europe in search of a new life. Yet, many of them may end up becoming the target of extremists looking to expand their presence. They are intent on producing terrorists and spreading an extremist ideology that turns these refugees into opponents of the very society they live in. "Ever since Syrians started fleeing their war-ravaged country in large numbers, they headed to Europe via Turkey. This marked the beginning of a new phase in the crisis, which will probably continue even if the Syrian conflict is resolved. A million refugees, most of whom [are] Syrians, is not a big number in a continent inhabited by around 300 million people. The number is also not a complication for Germany, the biggest refugee hosting country, as its huge economy can sustain them. But the challenge posed by these refugees is bigger on intellectual, social and security fronts. "What is as important is educating them so that they integrate with society easily and confront attempts by extremists to radicalize them. "There are real threats facing these refugees who are victims of the repulsive war which has unjustly displaced more than 10 million Syrian people and a few million Iraqis. The refugees in Europe are vulnerable to exploitation and to being used in this game which is getting more complicated and dangerous. There are powers fighting over them in Europe such as those who oppose refugees, parties protesting over unemployment and groups supporting [the] Syrian and Iranian regimes. Of course the most dangerous are extremists and people cooperating with terrorist groups such as ISIS and Al-Nusra Front." Educating Refugees As Important As Food And Housing "It will be in the interest of German and European authorities in general to preemptively address this problem by not letting these refugees fall prey to extremists who influence them under the pretext of humanitarian support. These refugees must be intellectually equipped to live with dignity and co-exist in the new society which has hosted them; a society which respects their rights and beliefs and expects the same from refugees. European governments and people are currently focused on helping these refugees. They are being provided food and housing while their papers are processed. However, what is as important is educating them so that they integrate with society easily and confront attempts by extremists to radicalize them. "Governments can do nothing but threaten to expel anyone who is proved to be engaging in extremist activities, as has been seen in Germany. This approach only addresses a small percentage of the 1 million refugees. The biggest challenge is to intellectually strengthen the majority from attempts being made by extremists to turn refugees from being thankful to hateful and into extremists who reject their new society and clash with it. "I am confident that it is possible to spread the culture of co-existence and tolerance, which can be derived from the refugees' Muslim and Middle Eastern culture that has collapsed in the last three decades due to extremist and hateful ideologies and ongoing wars." Endnotes: Introduction Over the past five years, MEMRI has published hundreds of reports related to jihadi groups using Twitter, and has worked with Members of Congress and briefed numerous government agencies about this issue, in Washington DC and throughout Europe. MEMRI first saw jihadis use Twitter in early 2011, when the Taliban adopted it[1] ; in September 2013, the Somali Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen took it to another level when it live-tweeted its attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya.[2] Another turning point came with the tweeting of images of videos of the Islamic State (ISIS) beheading of James Foley and other Western and American hostages; after this, Twitter began to suspend terrorist accounts as a policy. However, this marked a cycle for Twitter - it removed accounts as a result of bad PR and then, when media stopped paying attention, the jihadi accounts came back in larger numbers. Most of these accounts returned quickly, some hundreds of times; Twitter's efforts up to now could be described as insincere. Throughout this time, MEMRI has been highly critical of Twitter for enabling jihadi groups, including ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and others, to thrive and proliferate on its platform. MEMRI has consistently maintained that Twitter is the heart and soul of cyber jihad, and that it has been negligent and guilty of enabling jihad against the U.S. However, the past few weeks have seen some positive developments, though it is too early to tell whether this is another move similar to Twitter's previous actions following bad PR. The following report details actions taken by Twitter that suggest that it could indeed be serious this time about changing its policy regarding jihadi content on its platform. Twitter Announces It Had Shut Down 125,000 ISIS-Related Accounts On February 5, 2016, Twitter announced that it had suspended 125,000 ISIS-related accounts in the past six months. It said in a much-quoted statement: "We have increased the size of the teams that review reports, reducing our response time significantly. We also look into other accounts similar to those reported and leverage proprietary spam-fighting tools to surface other potentially violating accounts for review by our agents. We have already seen results, including an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter."[3] The 125,000 figure leads to many questions, among them: Does it include the same accounts that have been shut down literally hundreds of times? Does it include accounts that keep coming back and remain active at this time? How many of these shut accounts are now back up? How effective is this removal? Change Of Leadership At Twitter Even though it is unclear whether the purging of jihadi content on Twitter is temporary or permanent, one factor that may indicate that it is a real policy is that in late January 2016, Twitter announced that many of its longtime senior leaders were leaving the company: Vice Presidents Alex Roetter (Engineering), Kevin Weil (Product), Katie Jacobs Stanton (Media) and Skip Schipper (Human Resources) all, according to CEO Jack Dorsey, chose to leave of their own accord.[4] The new leadership now in place could allow more of a major policy shift with regard to the jihadi content. Jihadis' Mounting Anger At Twitter Whatever the actual number of accounts Twitter has actually shut down, it is unprecedented. The MEMRI JTTM's monitoring of jihadis on Twitter has found that accounts are being shut down daily and most are not coming back. This, in addition to MEMRI's monitoring of jihadi accounts on Twitter, has enraged jihadis, and they have reacted angrily online (see below). Twitter's sweeping suspension of accounts is like Facebook's far-reaching removal of jihadi accounts from its platform; Twitter may now be following its lead. As an apparent result of these account shutdowns, jihadis' use of the encrypted communications app Telegram is continuing to grow. In 2014, following the Foley beheadings and Twitter's temporary removal of hundreds of jihadi accounts, most of which were quickly relaunched, jihadis migrated to other social media platforms - Vk, Friendica, Diaspora, and more - for a few weeks, but soon returned to Twitter and continued to operate unimpeded. As noted, it is too early to tell whether Twitter is truly turning over a new leaf and will adhere to a policy of jihadi account suspensions, or will repeat what it did in 2014. New Video By ISIS Supporters Includes Threat To Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey In one response to Twitter's removal of jihadi accounts, on February 23, 2016 the hacker group Sons Caliphate Army (SCA) released a video titled "Flames of Ansar" (Flames of [ISIS] Supporters) via their Telegram channel. The video included a message to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as well as to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, mocking them: "To Mark and Jack, founders of Twitter and Facebook and to their Crusader government. You announce daily that you suspended many of our accounts. And to you we say: Is that all you can do? You are not in our league. If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete your sites, Allah willing, and will know that we say is true." The video included photos of the two with bullet holes.[5] Top ISIS Writer Asks Twitter, Telegram To Halt Their Suspension Of Jihadi Accounts Many ISIS activists have been complaining online against Twitter's purging of their accounts over the past few weeks. For example, on February 12, 2016, Mu'awiyya Al-Qahtani, aka Ibn Al-Siddiqqah, a prominent writer and supporter of the Islamic State (ISIS), published an article calling on the founders of Twitter and Telegram to stop suspending pro-ISIS accounts and to instead counter the ISIS message and let people decide for themselves. The article was posted on Twitter as well as on the leading ISIS-affiliated jihadi forum Shumoukh Al-Islam. Mocking Twitter and Telegram, Al-Qahtani stated that even with technology on their side, and with plenty of money and millions of employees, they still fear what they consider to be ISIS' "primitive propaganda." He went on to call the suspension and deletion of accounts "a trick of cowards." Reactions On Twitter And Telegram To Twitter's Shutdown Of Jihadi Accounts "Twitter is suspending supporters' accounts within hours. Get ready, by Allah's name, what you have written has bothered them in their sleep. Write more, terrorize them, and tease them with your tweets." Twitter.com/nn88nmm6/status/697695759429431296, February 11, 2016 "Telegram has become almost equal to Twitter now with the way they delete dawlah channels" - English-language Telegram account belonging to jihadis who were very active on Twitter, were shut down, and moved to Telegram. "Some ISIS supporters' accounts are cursing Jack, Twitter founder, as if he is the one responsible for suspending their accounts. Jack doesn't care about you. It is the gangs' unit of the CIA that is suspending your accounts." Twitter.com/yamama700/status/688755420907868160, January 17, 2016 "Twitter has announced that it had increased the number of their staff who are tasked with suspending accounts belonging to ISIS supporters. Since the beginning of the year, it has suspended 150 thousand accounts." Twitter.com/saad_alshamy63/status/697287524620836864, February 9, 2016 "Twitter has started the war against ISIS supporters' accounts. What are you going to do?" Twitter.com/tootiiii651/status/682435677703794688, December 30, 2015 "Interesting paradox. Twitter suspends [ISIS] supporters' accounts as soon as their followers exceed 100 and doesn't suspend the accounts of the sheikhs of Jihad and the scholars of Al-Qaeda such as Al-Siba'i and Al-Qahtani." Twitter.com/shaeshalbakre33/status/690621900410785792, January 22, 2016 "To the supporters of the #Islamic_State start spamming all the Rafidites [Shi'ites] accounts. Make Twitter management busy, and launch some attacks on the accounts #Amaq_Agency" @DR_WQ, February 8, 2016 "After the #Beheading of the Jews campaign, Twitter will get more enraged to delete more supporters' accounts. But we will never give up as long as we are alive." Twitter.com/kg102_200/status/652149636421939200, October 8, 2015 "Following suspension of the group's accounts ... ISIS supporters' threats are targeting Twitter founder and employees" Twitter.com/a_l_i_1_2/status/697101126764777472, February 9, 2016 "America's Twitter is suspending ISIS supporters' accounts. Russia's Telegram is suspending their channels. Then comes a son of sixty six dog and says that ISIS is an agent" Twitter.com/HaniSaiid/status/667690116220108802, November 20, 2015. "I only came on twitter to annoy kufaar and following the latest news. I'm in no need of followers since I'm always getting suspended" @bint_dutches11, February 10, 2016 "So I'm suspended again on #Twitter... Hahaha can't decide whether to make a new acct again or stay off it now... #decisionsdecisions" One comment states: "I was in the list of anonymous fags (control sec ) but I used to evad[e] the supensions by changing my @ after every hour" "Abu Mujahid" tells anyone needing Twitter and Facebook accounts to contact him privately on Telegram. Announcement posted on a private Telegram channel called the "Caliphate Media Army 2" Pro-ISIS hacking entity Sons Caliphate Army provides private link on Telegram that explains how to obtain a new Twitter account The Sons Caliphate Army channel on Telegram announced, on February 7, 2016, that it would soon be giving away Facebook and Twitter accounts Pro-ISIS Telegram channel "Secret Raids Channel," provides a link to a Twitter account that is used to disseminate hashtags and links to anti-ISIS Twitter accounts so that they can be attacked. Item forwarded from the Caliphate_State1 Telegram channel that publishes items for members to copy and tweet from their own Twitter accounts. "Allah willing, every day at 8 pm, 10 tweets will be sent out to [be used as] raids using Twitter hashtags. You don't have to do anything but copy the tweet and publish it on Twitter, to reach the greatest number of Muslims." The channel adds that doing so is a form of jihad, and that anyone who needs a Twitter account should contact it privately. The Caliphate_State1 Telegram channel asks members to copy the 10 items that it posts daily and tweet them from their own Twitter accounts. Caliphate Cyber Army (CCA) on Telegram forwards a message from Radical Bird in which she notes the crucial role of ISIS supporters' operations on Twitter. She calls Twitter a true field of jihad, and urges ISIS supporters to continue to open new accounts on it every time theirs is shut down. On February 6, 2016, CCA ridiculed Twitter for shutting down tens of thousands of "terrorist" accounts: "Is this all you were capable of doing, oh losers?" It then boasted of hacking tens of thousands of Twitter accounts, and threatened to take over the Twitter website entirely: "We don't want to know how to hack [Twitter] accounts, we will take the entire [Twitter] website, oh worshippers of the crossOC" CCA threatens: "If you do not pay heed, Twitter will become like this in the future." Retweet of CNN February 10 tweet about Twitter losses. "#What is Twitter famous for... double standard. Deleting ISIS accounts and leaving accounts belonging to Saudi Arabia." Twitter.com/malcolm14x/status/667765839463104513, November 20, 2015 *Steven Stalinsky is Executive Director of MEMRI Endnotes: Review: Hansal Mehtas latest directorial venture Aligarh is a powerful look at the countrys inherent problem with homosexuality. Based on the real-life story of linguist and author Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, the movie delves into its subject matter with aplomb and makes many other statements that will cause you to question your own assumptions about Indian societys ridiculous double standards when it comes to love and same-sex love. Professor Siras (Manoj Bajpai) is the head of the linguistics department at Aligarh University who is charged with homosexuality and suspended from his job. When a reporter Dipu Samuels (Rajkummar Rao) tries to understand Siras, the movies subject matter opens up in a beautiful symmetry. Samuels tries to get legal aid for Siras and the context of the year 2010 when the Delhi High Court decriminalised homosexual acts comes to the fore. Manoj Bajpai delivers a stunning performance as Professor Siras. So involved is Bajpai in his character that you forget who is playing Siras. From the droopy shoulders to the tear-ridden eyes and the inner angst that Siras carries, each and every emotion is captured and played with perfection by Bajpai. This truly is a masterclass in acting from one of Hindi cinemas most underrated actor. He gets brilliant support from Rajkummar Rao who plays his boisterous counterpart. Aligarh has been receiving rave reviews at various film festivals and the reason is clear. Mehtas understated focus on homosexuality and effective use of metaphors means that the audience is more involved in Prof Siras fight than they realise. In one scene for example, Siras is listening to an old melody in his own house when his reverie is broken by outsiders. His obsession with locks also has meaning. The metaphor goes on to gain strength throughout the movie in which Siras innate introverted-ness is challenged by a frenzied class of people who only keen on disturbing his peace of mind. The film does suffer from certain issues but the actors manage to iron them out without spoiling the screenplays fabric. Moreover, in a country where the issue of gay rights is still being fought bitterly, a movie that records their side of the story is positively encouraging. Most people associate gay love as something unnatural and weird and try to justify their abhorrence for it by giving it religious or societal context. But, as Professor Siras lawyer asks, What business do neighbours have to peep into someone elses bedroom? What, indeed? Aligarh packs power in every punch beginning from the quiet opening scene until its final heartbreaking shot. Do not miss this one. Watch the trailer here: Researchers from Queen's University in Ontario, Canada have developed the first fully coloured touch-enabled flexible display. Dubbed the "ReFlex, the phone's basic hardware consists of a 720p display developed by LG coupled with a small phone processor running Android 4.4 "KitKat". But the ReFlex's marquee hardware feature is its "bend sensors", which are mounted behind the display to give off tactile feedback. Roel Vertegaal, one of the directors at Queen's University's School of Computing describes how the feature can be used for reading e-books or online magazines: "When this smartphone is bent down on the right, pages flip through the fingers from right to left, just like they would in a book," Vertegaal said. "More extreme bends speed up the page flips. Users can feel the sensation of the page moving through their fingertips via a detailed vibration of the phone. This allows eyes-free navigation, making it easier for users to keep track of where they are in a document." YouTube Vertegaal expects the technology to appear in consumer electronics within the next five years, and although this technology has been theorized before, there's still something amazing about watching it in motion. In case you are wondering how this is possible, check out this video of the flexible screen smartphone. (This article originally appeared in the Business Insider) The Alternate Foreign Minister for European Affairs, Nikos Xydakis, will carry out visits to northern European capitals in the coming days. These visits are being carried out within the framework of a tour of European countries that has so far taken Mr. Xydakis to Germany, Holland, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary, for meetings with his counterparts. The aim of these visits is to brief collocutors on Greeces positions on matters of common European interest, as well as on the refugee crisis. Schedule of visits: On Thursday, 25 February, Mr. Xydakis will be in Sweden, where he will meet successively, in Stockholm, with Deputy Foreign Minister Annika Soder, the Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister for European Affairs, Hans Dahlgren, and the Moderate Party representative on foreign policy issues, Karin Enstrom. On Friday, 26 February, Mr. Xydakis will be in Finland, where he will have successive meetings, in Helsinki, with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Timo Soini, Foreign Ministry Secretary General Samuli Virtanen, the Secretary General for European Affairs at the Prime Ministers office, Kare Halonen, and Interior Minister Petteri Orpo. Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Mardas attended the Ministerial meeting marking the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Development Programme, which took place in New York City on Wednesday, 24 February 2016. In the context of the thematic session on Eradicating poverty Leaving no one behind, he set out his views, emphasizing the mechanism of subcontracting and its potential role in reducing poverty. In accordance with this mechanism, the main contractor, usually industries of developed states, can subcontract work to businesses in developing countries. More specifically, the principal contractor can outsource a portion of the production of a product, such as, for example, the manufacturing of certain parts of vehicle. In this way, the subcontracting mechanism helps to develop industry, capitalizing on the human resources in poor countries, while also limiting recession trends in developing economies. To this end, Mr. Mardas proposed a series of tax incentives for industries in developed countries that opt to make use of the subcontracting mechanism. These incentives must be agreed within the framework of the World Trade Organization, of course. Taking advantage of his presence in New York City, Mr. Mardas also met with investors, including executives from Monarch, Alden, Perry Capital, York Capital, and the Oppenheimer Fund. S. SHOUKRY: Today it is a great pleasure for me, as Foreign Minister of Egypt, to be receiving the Foreign Minister of Greece on his first visit to Egypt. The Minister and I maintain friendly relations, as do the two countries. Greece and Egypt enjoy a great and long common history and cooperation. The political ties that have been developed over time have contributed to the forging of excellent relations of historical importance. Over the past 18 months, there has been intensive cooperation between Greece and Egypt, with exchanges of high-level visits. There were many meetings with the Foreign Minister of Greece in international organizations, and there is an ongoing dialogue for finding solutions and promoting the two countries common interests. Of course, there is also the trilateral cooperation between Greece, Egypt and Cyprus. There is also communication on the political level for the resolution and handling of all the challenges and problems, whether in the Mediterranean region or, more generally, in the wider Middle East region. In our meeting today, we looked at various issues, including the strengthening of bilateral cooperation, mainly in the economic sector. We also explored issues of common interest. There is a common line and agreement with regard to the way to confront the challenges, particularly in sectors bearing on security. Once again, I thank the Greek Foreign Minister, and I would like to thank all of the members of the Greek government, which truly supported Egypt at a very difficult time, following the revolution of 25 January 2011. Greece succeeded in conveying to its European partners the real state of affairs that existed in Egypt, and not what other countries wanted to propagate. It was an important task that the Greek political leadership carried out in order to convey the reality of the situation prevailing in Egypt. Finally, Egypt managed to complete the political roadmap it set out at the beginning of President Sisis term in office, including the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections. It is a plan that has been completed. I thank Greece for standing at Egypts side, and we look forward to expanding our cooperation in the near future. N. KOTZIAS: I thank you for the invitation, the hospitality, and for the substantial and constructive talks we had; talks we will continue during the luncheon. Egypt and Greece are two countries with great civilizations that met many times over the course of history. For us, Egypt is the heart of the whole Arab world. This city was the birthplace of great representatives of Arab culture, of song, of cinema. We are not linked only by geostrategic and economic interest, but also by our history and culture. For us, the stability and security of Egypt is the cornerstone of the stability and security of the Eastern Mediterranean. We defended the rights of Egypt in all the international fora, because this is dictated by the interests of the European Union itself. The rise of jihadism and terrorism is a common foe. We see as positive, and recognize, Egypts role in the political solution of the Libyan problem. We are together in the effort to bring peace to Syria. Syria is the source of the major problem of the refugee influxes that are testing the European Union itself, and not just my country. Greece and Egypt, together with Cyprus, have developed a very successful trilateral cooperation. It is so successful that a number of Arab countries, like Jordan and Lebanon, have also asked to form trilateral cooperation formats. My friend the Egyptian Foreign Minister and I discussed the further development of cooperation within this trilateral format. Today, this evening, I am going to Cyprus, and I will convey the positive messages there. But we also had an excellent conversation about the proposals for developing a more general system of security and stability in the Mediterranean. Egypt and Greece, because they are good and strategic friends, will take initiatives in this direction. We are very pleased at the project carried out in Suez. We are also very pleased with the new cooperation between the two countries in the sectors of ports, investments and trade. We are continuing to discuss energy cooperation, following the wonderful discovery in Egypt, the Zohr deposit. We are pleased at the way the Egyptian government defended the rights of Christians; rights that were in great jeopardy a few years ago. We thank Egypt for its contribution to peace and stability in the region, for protecting all religious and social groups, and for this very warm welcome today. JOURNALIST: Talk to us about the talks on the situation in Syria, as well as about Turkeys involvement in and stance on developments in the Arab world. S. SHOUKRY: As you know, the situation in Syria is truly brutal. The country is facing death on a daily basis. As we have observed from the constant efforts to resolve the situation, the military mediation of third countries is not accepted in Syria. That is why we believe that the only path to resolution of the Syrian crisis is political dialogue and the finding of solutions that are acceptable to all of the factions in the country. The International Support Group for Syria has taken many positive steps in the direction of resolving the crisis. On the other hand, the Arab world, and the Arab League in particular, refuses any military intervention in Syria by countries outside the region. Of course, we criticized the fact that Turkey is carrying out strikes in Iraq and Syria. JOURNALIST: The largest influx of migrants into Greece is coming from Turkey. Is Turkey exerting pressure on Greece to accept the migrants? N. KOTZIAS: First of all, the refugees in Greece resulted from wars in which we did not participate. That is, we are paying for the wars of others, many of who are wagging their finger at us. Moreover, the refugee flows arose because of an absence of necessary funding for the camps in Jordan and Lebanon. Just as we insisted in the EU on revising the 2013 conclusions on Egypt, which is making an important transition, we also insisted on the need for a European political strategy for Jordan and Lebanon. The European Union started to discuss these issues after a years delay. The third cause of the refugee issue in Greece is that a number of countries are not implementing the decisions on readmission of migrants; when, that is, they return from Greece to Turkey, from the EU to Pakistan, and so on. You will have seen that for two weeks we discussed in NATO the implementation of a decision that could be implemented very easily. One of the causes of this is the difference between the military and the politicians in Turkey itself. Moreover, the clashes within Turkey have caused a new current of displaced Kurds. So we have various causes that are creating a flow, which passes through Turkey. Turkey, too, is suffering from these refugee flows and it is paying the cost of these flows. However, there are those who are doing business in Turkey through the refugee crisis. There are illegal networks including a portion of the mechanism for stopping this phenomenon trafficking in refugees and playing with this issue. The European Union made an agreement with Turkey, and that agreement has to be implemented. But the non-implementation of the agreement is the fault of certain European states that tend to exercise foreign policy in our region using 19th-century methods. The refugee issue is a complex problem that requires complex solutions, but its current core has to do with a rational, democratic, political solution in Syria. JOURNALIST: Regarding cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean, cooperation on delimitation of the EEZ is also foreseen. How is that process moving forward? S. SHOUKRY: There is certainly interest in activating the cooperation with Greece in various sectors: economic, political, cultural as well as in the security sector. We are working to shape this relationship through achieving frameworks that will bring benefits for both countries. We are interested in the development of cooperation in the maritime sector and natural gas, as well as within the framework of the trilateral cooperation between Greece, Cyprus and Egypt. All of these are being formulated in accordance with the technical and economic factors that determine this issue. JOURNALIST: What is the method, and what actions will the government take in the coming days, for there to be an agreement with NATO, which is the only hope for preventing the refugee flows? N. KOTZIAS: With regard to NATO, first of all you know that I dont usually comment when we are in the midst of negotiations. Turkey was initially interested in an agreement based on which NATO would shift towards Syria. We have no such interest. The second point is that NATO will help with monitoring and limiting the flows in the territorial waters between the islands of the eastern Aegean and the Turkish coast. I see that, in the negotiations on the plan for implementing this decision, there are different opinions on individual issues for which solutions can and must be found. We are making a positive contribution. What cannot happen is for any request or negotiation to move ahead outside the framework initially set. That is why today, in todays negotiations, we made it clear to all sides. It turned out, in the end, that it is others who are worried about what was initially agreed upon. SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) Authorities say a horse and a dog were killed, and another horse was sickened, after the animals ate poisoned cookies that apparently were deliberately left for them to eat. Sonoma County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Sgt. Cecile Focha said Tuesday deputies recently identified a person of interest in the poisoning case, but authorities would not give any details. The San Francisco Chronicle reports (http://sfg.ly/1SRCDG1) the animals became ill on Feb. 12 after someone planted the homemade cookies on the woman's property in an unincorporated area of Sebastopol. Necropsies on the horse and dog that died revealed they had ingested oleander, a plant that is poisonous to horses, dogs, cats, cows and birds. Deputies said the case appears to be an isolated incident, and authorities have warned neighbors near where the poisoning occurred. HURON COUNTY The Legislature will review findings from the Flint water crisis with the help of Hurons own, Rep. Ed Canfield. Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof and House Speaker Kevin Cotter announced Tuesday the creation of the Joint Committee on the Flint Water Public Health Emergency. Chaired by Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, the panel includes two Democrats and four Republicans including Canfield, a first-term representative and Sebewaing physician. I think that is why the speaker chose me; I have tested children my whole career for lead poisoning and exposure, Canfield said. I certainly have dug into this as a scientist and physician in the last couple months. Canfield said hes met with colleagues in the physician community. One was Dr. Eden Wells, the states chief medical executive. He said hes toured the Flint water treatment plant and spoke with University of Michigan-Flint leaders. They havent come to a consensus in reviewing crisis findings so far, Canfield said. Canfield says the committee hasnt set goals yet and will wait to review investigative reports from the Auditor General and Attorney General and other sources. As you can imagine, this is the talk of the town in Lansing, he said. But from Canfields perspective, the media may have blown the situation out of proportion. Not to be mistaken that this is a tragic situation and it should have never happened but I am not sure that we are going to find the effects of lead poisoning is going to be severe as what is discussed in the media at this point in time, Canfield said, adding its going to be less of a concern than what the media will have you consider. That was the case in Caseville, whose public works supervisor said one media report didnt show an accurate representation of the citys water system. MLive Media Group published a listing of lead levels in drinking water tracked by the Department of Environmental Quality for more than 1,300 municipalities. A sole entry for Caseville showed 13 parts per billion of lead. Thats below the Environmental Protection Agencys threshold of 15 pbb but it was also a number taken at only one home, according to Dave Quinn, the citys supervisor of public works. We found five with no lead at all and five with detection of it, Quinn told the Tribune (http://bit.ly/1Um1T6N). Only one home was a 13 and the others (with lead) were 2s and 3s. I got a lot of calls on this (lead issue) after that article in the Bay City (Times). Theres no explanation. It just shows that Casevilles lead level is high which isnt the case. According to Canfield, most Flint children are going to live and function well. He said he ultimately wants to bring closure for parents. Theyre going to be the most studied children in the nation, he said. The newly formed committee wants to answer burning questions from the public on how the crisis happened and ensure it doesnt again, Canfield said. However as with most legislative endeavors, politics are already factoring in. I think people will certainly highlight political perspectives on this, Canfield said. From my perspective, I want to look for answers. Answers, he says, that could influence new policy as a result of the crisis. CASS CITY Its a substance that generally hasnt shown favoritism toward any demographic. However, the heroin epidemic is reaching a younger and younger age each day. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, teenagers have reasonably easy access to heroin. Nearly 30 percent of 12th grade students surveyed said heroin is an easy drug to obtain. Almost 13 percent of eighth grade students said they could get the drug if desired. Michigan State Trooper Mark Swales will present The Rise of Heroin and Underage Drinking for parents in the Upper Thumb. Its going to be two different presentations rolled into one, Swales told the Tribune. One is specifically regarding heroin and how weve seen a rise in abuse in the state and nation. The other, I put together and Ill discuss the underage drinking issues and some warning signs that go along with it. The presentation, free of charge, will take place from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. March 12 at the Charmont in Cass City, 6138 Cass City Road. Lunch will be included. Swales, of the Caro Post, is entering his second year of presenting and getting more involved with children and their communities. One thing Swales has noticed with users is where their paths started. The biggest problem among users comes from (their) prescription pain pill addiction, he explained. A lot of users will openly admit thats where their addiction started. Heroin is a lot cheaper to buy that some pain killers. Swales does believe heroin is becoming a problem in the Upper Thumb and he referenced two recent heroin-related deaths in Tuscola County. He said his talk will be mostly about awareness. Its not necessarily to out the users but, instead, to make everyone aware of the dangers, he said. Space is limited and for those interested, registration is required. To register by phone call Kristi Pitts at 989-269-3319 or Sheila Luedtke at 989-673-1723. You can also register by emailing either Pitts or Luedtke at kpitts@hchd.us or sluedtke@tchd.us. Even if there is no concern (for the parent), I think its a lot of good information for the community to have, he said. ... There is a problem and we need to do something about it. Moshe Yaalon says Iran aims to destabilize the Middle East and other parts of the world and is training, funding and arming "emissaries" to spread a revolution. He says Tehran is the anchor of a "dangerous axis" that includes Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, Saana and other cities in the region. Israel considers Iran the biggest threat to the region, citing its support for anti-Israel militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. Yaalon said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart Wednesday that the war in Syria has resulted in "widespread infiltration by murderous, merciless terror organizations." Hundreds of members of The American Legion gathered before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees on Wednesday to hear their leaders slam the Veterans Affairs Department for failing to hold VA employees accountable for conduct they say should have had them fired. "VA has described accountability as a top priority in the aftermath of scandals blamed for costing some veterans their lives, the payout of questionable performance bonuses, and ill-fated efforts to discipline executives who were found to have abused their positions," Legion Commander Dale Barnett said. But that's not what veterans have seen, he added, most recently when the VA's move to discipline senior executives was overturned on appeal and the employees sent back to work, the previous jobs and salaries in restored. "Veterans do not see this as accountability," Barnett told the lawmakers. Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia and chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, told the Legionnaires that legislation was coming that will strengthen the department's leadership's hand when it comes to disciplining employees. "I have committed myself to see to it that before this term is over this year, hopefully by the 31st of March, we'd begin the process of passing comprehensive omnibus bill that incorporates the bills we all know need to become law," Isakson said. The Legion earlier on Wednesday announced it had awarded Isakson its National Commander's Distinguished Public Service Award, which is given annually to an elected official who has established an outstanding record in support of those principles advanced by The American Legion. At the hearing, Isakson said the coming legislation will include a number of proposals by VA Secretary Bob McDonald, including one that would convert Senior Executive Service-level employees, including administrators and directors who manage the agency's medical centers, to Title 38 employees, including professional medical staff such as doctors and nurses. Title 38 employees do not have the same Civil Service appeals process as SES employees. The latter may appeal disciplinary actions to the Merit System Protection Board, which is where the actions against several recent workers were overturned. The final arbiter in a disciplinary appeal involving Title38 workers would be the VA secretary or his designee. Isakson said comprehensive legislation will also include language to protect whistleblowers from retaliation, which has been a frequent complaint against the VA. Isakson said "99.9 percent of the employees in the VA do a great job," he said. "They are brought down and torn down from incidents like what happened in Pennsylvania, when people who are disciplined can lose their jobs, have those jobs restored for no apparent reason." Isakson was referencing the case of Diana Rubens, director of the Philadelphia regional office until VA demoted and transferred her for using her position to obtain the job while picking up more than $400,000 from the department in relocation costs. She appealed her demotion to the MSPB, which found in her favor and sent her back to Philadelphia. VA also took disciplinary action against Kimberly Graves, who was reassigned from her job as regional director of the St. Paul, Minnesota, office for similar reasons. But that decision, too, was overturned by the board. The Legion also said the VA must do a better job of bringing down its backlog of appealed claims. Since the department made first-time claims a priority in 2010 and diverted more money and manpower to processing the paperwork, the appeals backlog has mushroomed to more than 400,000. But beyond the simple growth in new appeals is another problem, according to the VA -- the law that allows veterans to continue an appeal year after year. In one often-mentioned case, a veteran has been appealing his VA-rejected claim for 25 years. Rep. Corinne Brown, a Democrat from Florida and ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, asked the Legion panel what they recommend. "Tell me, 'What do we do when the appeals process [goes on]?'" she said. "At some point 'No' might be the answer not for my constituents, 'No' is never the answer! But for someone else, 'No' might be the answer," she said to laughter. Louis Celli, veterans affairs and rehabilitation division director for the Legion, said it comes down to making a system that veterans believe in. "We have to instill faith in the system," he said. "Our veterans do not have enough faith in the Department of Veterans Affairs adjudication system to know their claim was processed accurately the first time. "If we could get that adjudication system improved and processed the first time we wouldn't have the 440,000 appeals that we're dealing with today," he added. The joint hearing was the first of several that the lawmakers will be holding with veterans' organizations. On March 2 the panels will hear from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and on March 3 from Paralyzed Veterans of America, Vietnam Veterans of America, Blinded Veterans of America, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, National Guard Association of the United States, AMVETS, Wounded Warrior Project and Gold Star Wives. On March 16 the lawmakers are scheduled to hear from the Fleet Reserve Association, The Retired Enlisted Association, the National Association of Directors of Veterans Affairs, the Military Officers Association of America, Air Force Sergeants Association, the American Ex-Prisoners of War organization, the Non-Commissioned Officers Association, Jewish War Veterans, and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. -- Bryant Jordan can be reached at bryant.jordan@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bryantjordan. WASHINGTON The U.S. Senate recently confirmed Lisa S. Disbrow as the new under secretary of the Air Force to ensure efficient and effective management of Air Force resources. In this position, Disbrow oversees the Air Force's annual budget of more than $120 billion and serves as the co-chair of the top Air Force corporate decision-making body, the Air Force Council. "Being prior Air Force and having walked in those shoes helps me understand and appreciate the challenges and stresses our Airmen face on a daily basis," Disbrow said. "I know when we are creating visions of how it will be implemented in the field, because I have been there. We have incredibly bright people in the Air Force and I get a sense of how valuable every single person is and how hard they work." Working with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the vice chairman prior to her current position, Disbrow gained a lot of understanding of the issues the service leaders faced. "That insight will help me enormously in my new position because I saw things across the full spectrum of issues, and to see and understand the joint operations side is a huge benefit for me," Disbrow said. "The insight to processes like (Office of the Secretary Defense), budgeting and programming, (just to name a few) is invaluable to me here and I am completely amazed at the people who come from outside and can do this job; it's a lot of complex, moving pieces." Disbrow discussed her top priorities, starting with ensuring Airmen know and feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. "The work we do is important and I want every Airman to know how much they matter," Disbrow said. "The vice chief and I want to make sure Airmen who are separated or retired with symptoms of (post-traumatic stress disorder) get what they need. Taking care of Airman has been the number one priority for the secretary of the Air Force since she took charge and one of the best ways to do that is by growing the force. "We just got approval to plus up our numbers so the question we need to ask is, as we grow, how do we bring capable and diverse people into our ranks?" Disbrow asked. "We need a wide range of skills and a diverse group of people with different ways of thinking. It will help our Airmen out enormously to grow quick, but we need to make sure we are growing with the right people." She also wants to push hard for top-line dollars the Air Force needs to support the Defense Department and the nation. "I want to make sure we get what we need to focus on getting the mission done," Disbrow said. "I also want to invest in our IT infrastructure because it supports every mission we have. We need to be able to modernize that so it can continue to support the growing needs of the Air Force." As under secretary of the Air Force, Disbrow is also charged with providing for the welfare of more than 664,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian Airmen and their families. "Every morning when I walk in through the (Pentagon) River Entrance, I pause and think about the enormity of the things going on here and how I play a role in all of that - it's very exciting," Disbrow said. Disbrow also discussed the role every Airman plays in the overall Air Force mission. "Every person, no matter the rank, (has) a critical role to play in the mission and we need them to think about ideas on how they can make things better for the next person or for the next mission," Disbrow said. "Our people are highly valued. Airmen for life - that's what I want them to think. I want them to know they are part of something really important and we need their ideas. Every single person is mission critical." Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford indirectly but strongly rejected Thursday the campaign statements of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump that "torture works." Put on the spot about Trump's remarks by Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat from Minnesota, Dunford didn't respond directly but made clear that torture was out of bounds for a military that embodies American values. "One of the things that makes me proud to represent this uniform is that we represent the values of the American people," the general said in testimony before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. While he never mentioned Trump's name, he said, "When our young men and women go to war, they go with our values." Dunford added, "When we find exceptions," and U.S. troops abuse prisoners, "you can see how aggressively we address those exceptions. We should never apologize for going to war with the values of the American people. That's what we have done historically, that's what we expect to do in the future. And again that's what makes me proud to wear this uniform." McCollum appeared to stun the committee and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in forcefully calling for comment from Carter and Dunford on Trump's statements that as president he would authorize methods for the interrogation of prisoners and terrorist suspects that went well beyond waterboarding, which has been banned by President Barack Obama. In a campaign appearance in South Carolina last week, Trump said that he supported waterboarding and similar interrogation techniques because "torture works" in the questioning of terrorists. "Don't tell me it doesn't work -- torture works," he said. "OK, folks? Torture -- you know, half these guys [say]: 'Torture doesn't work.' Believe me, it works. OK?" In posing her questions, McCollum said the panel was deliberating on funding for the military that would be available for the next president, and "a leading candidate for president is telling the American people and the world that torture works. He says he will use torture to help defeat" the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, she said. "I find these rants frightening and dangerous to our nation," McCollum said. She asked Carter and Trump, "Do you support allowing U.S. troops or the intelligence community to use torture?" Carter sought to avoid the question. It was a "fair question," he said, but "I feel very strongly that our department needs to stand apart from the electoral season so I respectfully decline to answer any questions that arise from the political debate going on." Carter said that Dunford as a uniformed officer was under even more constraints, but the general seemed eager to answer. Carter relented and said that if Dunford commented on the "general question of how we try to conduct ourselves as a military -- that's fine." When Dunford concluded his remarks, McCollum said "Mr. Chairman, I'm assuming the values of the American people do not include torture." Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, a New Jersey Republican and chairman of the committee, said "I agree," and then quickly sent the questioning to another lawmaker. Should Trump become president and he authorize the use of torture in interrogations, it may require U.S. troops to put themselves in jeopardy by violating Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibitions on the use of torture and prisoner abuse in general. The Army and Marine Corps field manual on counterinsurgency, FM 3-24, which was co-authored by then-Gen. David Petraeus, also warns against prisoner abuse and harsh interrogation techniques under the section on "Ethics." "Article VI of the U.S. Constitution and the Army Values, Soldier's Creed, and Core Values of U.S. Marines all require obedience to the law of armed conflict. They hold Soldiers and Marines to the highest standards of moral and ethical conduct," the manual states. "No person in the custody or under the control of DOD, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, in accordance with, and as defined in, U.S. law," the manual states. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. The temperature in Trondheim, Norway, may climb to around the 20 degrees Fahrenheit, but that's cold enough to throw Marine units used to training in the North Carolina heat off their game. Some 1,900 Marines with Camp Lejeune's 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade and other units are now preparing for a nine-day live-fire exercise designed to test their ability to operate in the cold and snow. Known as Cold Response, the exercise is an annual challenge that is notable this year for its sheer size: In all, 16,000 troops from 15 different countries are set to participate. The operations officer of 2nd MEB, Col. Will Bentley, told Military.com a comparable-sized force had not assembled in the region for an exercise since 1995. For the Marines, the exercise serves a dual purpose: In addition to training with allies and counterparts, the Norway deployment gives them the opportunity to inspect military gear stowed away in climate-controlled caves, waiting for the next mission on this side of the world. Part of an initiative called Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway, the caves first opened in 1982 and now hold enough gear to support the operations of a 15,000-man Marine expeditionary brigade for 30 days. Bentley said he had been impressed with the quality and the condition of the equipment stowed in the caves as it was hauled out for inspection. "All the gear is just immaculate, inside and out," he said. "Everything is just in extremely good condition." Apart from a small issue that had to be fixed on a Marine Corps assault amphibious vehicle, he said, the gear was ready to use. In addition to the gear in the caves, the Marines brought with them about 6,000 major pieces of equipment for the upcoming exercise, including tanks, AAVs, artillery pieces, Humvees and support equipment -- "a logistician's dream," Bentley said. The live-maneuver exercise will run March 1 to March 9, featuring two battling notional forces and allowing troops to practice higher headquarters and control group operations as well as live fire and movements in the snow. According to Marine Corps officials, this is the first Cold Response exercise that will feature Marine explosive ordnance disposal technicians, who will work and train alongside Norwegian explosive ordnance disposal, or EOD, technicians as they learn how cold weather and snowy conditions affect their operations. Although the weather has been comparably temperate for the Arctic Circle, Bentley said it's cold enough to highlight the challenges of working in a new environment and force Marines to learn how to do familiar tasks in a new way. "Getting out of a vehicle, your perspiration freezes almost immediately. It's learning how to take gear off to do heavy work, then putting it back on to maintain warmth," he said. "Communication, the ability to formulate words gets difficult in the cold it's just part of learning as we go." -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. Air Force Gets Its Own Combat Dive Badge After Using the Navy's for Years Air Force officials said there is a notable distinction between Navy divers and their divers, which was a key reason for... Russia's official media Wednesday played up a report that the U.S. may have supplied Javelin anti-tank missiles to Syrian Kurds as the U.S. and Moscow traded accusations ahead of a tentative truce in the civil war that is supposed to start Saturday. Continued fighting has blocked international aid convoys from reaching some areas, forcing the United Nations World Food Program to resort Wednesday to an airdrop of supplies to the northeastern city of Deir ez-Zor, which has been under siege by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. British diplomat Stephen O'Brien, the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, told the Security Council, "Earlier this morning, a WFP plane dropped the first cargo of 21 tons of items into Deir ez-Zor." The "high altitude" drop was challenging, he said, but initial reports from teams on the ground indicated that the "pallets have landed in the target area as planned." It was not immediately clear what type of aircraft was used or which country supplied the plane, but a relief airdrop would not be a first for the UN. Last year, the WFP used a C-130 cargo aircraft from Australia to deliver humanitarian relief to East Timor. Russia last year claimed to have airdropped relief to Deir ez-Zor. The U.S. military has thus far ruled out airdrops in Syria, where the UN estimates that as many as 500,000 civilians are in need of relief. The charge about the U.S. supplying Javelins to the Kurds stemmed from a video posted on social media showing a suspected ISIS vehicle being destroyed by a missile near Shaddadi, the northeastern Syrian town that was taken back from ISIS last week by fighters of the U.S. backed Syrian Kurdish Popular Protection Units. Russia's government-funded RT television said, "If the Kurdish YPG fighters have been armed with Javelin anti-tank missiles by Washington, it is a move that will not go down well with Turkey. Ankara has been shelling YPG forces, which Turkey views as a terrorist organization, as well as government troops on Syrian territory since mid-February." The Washington Post, which first reported on the video and the possible use of a Javelin, cited State Department spokesman John Kirby as saying that "nothing has changed about our policy of not providing the YPG with weapons." However, the U.S. has coordinated frequent airstrikes in support of the YPG and airdropped ammunition to the group last year in defense of the besieged town of Kobane. The "fire and forget" FGM-148 Javelin features what is called a "top attack flight profile" designed to hit an armored vehicle from the top where the armor is thinnest. The weapon also can be used in the direct attack mode against buildings and other targets. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization and has been hitting the group with cross-border artillery fire. The U.S. has also sought to rein in the YPG. Last week, Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent resolve in Baghdad, called on the YPG to stop fighting with other U.S.-backed rebel groups in Syria. The latest proposed "cessation of hostilities" in Syria worked out by Russia and the U.S. was expected to begin this Saturday, after a previous "cessation" set for last Friday failed. However, there were still open questions on how the truce would be implemented and monitored, and which groups among the various rebel factions would agree to cooperate. In an Oval Office meeting Wednesday with Jordan's King Abdullah II, President Obama said "We are very cautious about raising expectations on this. When Abdullah said he had his "fingers crossed," Obama said "We'll see." At a news conference Tuesday, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter had a large "dose of skepticism" on whether Russia would live up to the agreements in the proposed truce. --Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Members of the United States Armed Forces are eligible for a number of special tax benefits. Additionally, Armed Forces reservists, regardless of duty status, can take advantage of tax-related benefits, such as considerations for travel and business expenses, military differential pay and tax deferral status. If you are an Armed Forces reservist and travel more than 100 miles away from your home to perform reserves service (such as drills or meetings), travel-related expenses can be subtracted directly from the income reported on your tax return as an adjustment to income. You do not have to itemize deductions to take advantage of these benefits. Also, unlike most other employee business expenses, the deduction for these expenses is not subject to the standard 2% Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) limit. Allowable expenses include those that cover overnight transportation, meals, and lodging. Reservists can deduct additional employee business expenses only if they itemize deductions on Schedule A (rather than take the standard deduction). Itemizing is generally a better option if you have enough deductions to exceed the standard deduction for your filing status A professional tax preparer like Jackson Hewitt can help reservists understand these and the other job-related deductions available. Reservists called to active duty may receive military differential pay from their employer to represent the difference between their regular salary, prior to being called to active duty, and the amount being paid by the military. Military differential pay is voluntary by an employer and has special rules. For example, the pay is not considered wages and therefore is not subject to Social Security, Medicare, or income tax withholding. The income should be reported on Form 1099-MISC (Box 3) and on Form 1040 (Line 21) as "other income" when filing a tax return. Additionally, this pay will not qualify for the combat pay exclusion. Even though this income is not subject to any withholding, it is still considered taxable. Another benefit for reservists called to active duty is that they may qualify for a deferral of taxes owed if you can show that your ability to pay taxes was affected by your military service. The deferral is not automatic; you will need to apply for it. When applying, you must show how your military service impacted your ability to pay. You must have received a notice of tax due, or have an installment agreement with the IRS before applying for the deferral. The deferral does not extend deadlines for filing any tax returns. Many tax benefits exist for all members of the military, regardless of the branch of service or duty performed. However, the rules are complex and change often. Being aware of the many tax considerations can help military men and women take advantage of all of the relevant credits and deductions. A list of additional rules and tax benefits available to military service members is available at www.jacksonhewitt.com. In a stunning reversal, the Cubs have re-signed outfielder Dexter Fowler to a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2017, tweets Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. Hell receive $8MM in 2016. The mutual option is for $9MM with a $5MM buyout (tweet). The Cubs have placed Zac Rosscup on the 60-day DL to make room on the 40-man roster. Recent reports had Fowler agreeing to a three-year, $33MM deal with the Orioles, but Fowler denies he ever agreed to terms per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times (tweet). Jon Morosi of Fox Sports (tweet) confirms the Orioles did not believe they had a deal in place with Fowler. The signing reportedly fell through when Fowler demanded an early opt out after one season, tweets Bruce Levine of 670thescore.com. Per Jon Heyman (tweet), the Orioles did not want to lose a first round pick (compensation for Wei-Yin Chen) to sign a player for one season. When Baltimore balked, he turned down the $33MM guarantee for $13MM from Chicago. The re-acquisition of Fowler also puts a new light on the Chris Coghlan trade which was announced about a half hour ago. The Cubs will now lose their second round draft pick for signing John Lackey. When Fowler appeared to be Baltimore-bound, they would have lost the associated compensation pick. The addition of Fowler will give the Cubs plenty of outfield flexibility. They could opt to move Jason Heyward to his natural position of right field. Jorge Soler and Kyle Schwarber may share left field or another arrangement could be reached. Given that Fowler isnt viewed as a positive defensive center fielder, its possible Heyward will remain penciled in up the middle. The club now has a wealth of outfield depth with Ben Zobrist and Javier Baez also in the mix for reps. At the press conference announcing the deal, GM Theo Epstein told reporters, this is it. Were not trading anyone else. We feel great about our outfield mix. Fowlers high OBP profile should fit well anywhere within the Cubs lineup. Heyward and Zobrist are also candidates to bat first and second with Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Schwarber, and Soler as middle of the order threats. Fowler batted .250/.346/.411 with 17 home runs and 20 stolen bases in 2015. The switch-hitter has a history of better on base percentages including a career .363 OBP. His return takes pressure off Schwarber and Soler to perform at high levels. Its interesting to note that Fowler is now guaranteed less than the $15.8MM qualifying offer. The mutual option as structured appears very unlikely to be triggered by both sides. Way back in November, MLBTRs Tim Dierkes predicted a four-year, $60MM contract for Fowler. Assuming the option is declined, Fowler will re-enter free agency prior to his age 31 season. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. GRAND RAPIDS, MI - After announcing the sale of two downtown office buildings this week, the managing partner of Franklin Partners said they are not pulling up their stakes in West Michigan. Don Shoemaker said they are getting ready to unveil their plans for the Keeler Building at 56 N. Division Ave. and are working on developing a vision for the Display Pack Inc. building it acquired last year at 1340 Monroe Ave. NW. "We also have offers on other properties downtown," said Shoemaker, one day after announcing they had sold 99 Monroe, a 12-story office building, and 25 Ottawa Ave. SW, a six-story office building. He declined to name the properties they are hoping to acquire. Next week, Franklin Partners plans to begin rolling out its vision for the 102-year-old Keeler Building, Shoemaker told The Grand Rapids Press and MLive in an interview on Thursday, Feb. 25. Their plans involve gutting and rebuilding the seven-story building for offices with retail on the ground level, Shoemaker said. The company plans to release conceptual drawings for the building next week, he said. "It's going to be a massive project," Shoemaker said. After replacing all of the building's mechanical systems, windows and interior walls, "it will be a new building in a great old shell," he said. RELATED: Developer buys downtown's Keeler Building, plans to invest $10M The Display Pack Inc. building north of downtown Grand Rapids is likely to become a housing development with about 200 apartments, Shoemaker said. Franklin Partners bought the 96-year-old building for $7 million last year. Display Pack is expected to stay in the building for about a year as it transitions to a new factory near Cedar Springs, Shoemaker said. Privately-held Display Pack makes thermo-formed packaging for consumer products, printed paperboard and plastic trim components for the auto industry. Based in suburban Chicago, Franklin Partners has been a player in West Michigan's commercial real estate market for the past 13 years, starting with its 2003 purchase of a sprawling Bosch Corp. factory in Kentwood. The partnership has since bought, redeveloped and sold at least 17 downtown and suburban office buildings and factories that were once occupied by Steelcase Inc., Smiths Industries Aerospace and Zondervan, a religious publishing house owned by Harper Collins Publishing. The common theme for all of its acquisitions has been to find an under-utilized property, redevelop it and find new tenants, Shoemaker said. If a buyer emerges for the redeveloped property, Shoemaker said his investors may decide to take the cash and invest it in a new venture. "What excites us as a company is finding something that needs a new vision," said Shoemaker. "We don't buy fully leased assets that are already developed. We get excited about turning a property around." In the case of 99 Monroe, Franklin Partners upgraded the amenities in a 12-story office building that had grown outdated and was only 40 percent filled. The owners who bought the building for $23.3 million in 2004 sold it to Franklin Partners for $11.8 million eight years later. Shoemaker declined to disclose their sale price to Vision Real Estate Investment, a fledgling real estate firm that was looking for a cash-flow producing property. RELATED: Fledgling real estate firm buys 12-story downtown office building For 25 Ottawa, Franklin Partners paid $6.8 million for a 125-year-old building that had been rehabbed about 20 years earlier. After a makeover, Spectrum Health agreed to rent the top five floors of the six-story building for its information technology team. Shoemaker also declined to disclose the sale price of the "Twenty-5" building to Kalamazoo-based Catalyst Development Co. LLC, a firm which also manages about 1.5 million square feet of commercial property in Detroit and Kalamazoo. RELATED: Historic downtown office building sold, new retail tenants announced While most of the partnership's properties are for sale if the price is right, Shoemaker said they are careful to choose a buyer who will be good to the tenants they leave behind. "I think our tenants in those buildings would be our best references on the next projects," Shoemaker said. "It's just as important for us to agree on prices as it is to find the right buyers who will take care of our tenants." Jim Harger covers business for Mlive Media Group. Email him at jharger@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook or Google+. GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Jeff Butzow, the fishmonger at Fish Lads in the Downtown Market, is getting ready to don a butcher's apron. This summer, the owner of Fish Lads, LLC will open 'Carvers: Grand Rapids Finest Meats,' an artisan butcher shop that will replace Montello Meat Market, which closed late last year. Carvers will be located next to Fish Lads in the indoor Market Hall, Downtown Market officials announced in a press release on Thursday, Feb. 25. Like Fish Lads, Carvers will offer lunch and dinner menu items that will include house-made pastrami and corned-beef sandwiches, a variety of gourmet burgers and steak frites. Butzow, who has operated Fish Lads since the market opened in September, 2013, said his decision to expand into a "land and sea" operation was easy to make. "During the past two and a half years, the Downtown Market has allowed us to develop an experience for our customers, not just a place for sales," Butzow said in a news release. "Adding an establishment that values both high-quality product and experience to the Market is integral to moving Grand Rapids' food community forward." "Great butchers operate with three principles in mind: pride, passion and provenance," Butzow said. "Our vision with Carvers is to bring the same high-quality, local products to local tables that people have come to expect from Fish Lads and the rest of the Downtown Market." Customers will find cases fully stocked with a variety of high-end beef, pork, poultry, and lamb at an "approachable price," according to the news release. "Beef options will include 100 percent grass-fed, 100 percent locally-raised American Kobe, and a high-end choice option. Among a variety of pork options, customers will find Heritage pork and house-smoked bacon. "A limited quantity of in-house, dry-aged meats will also be available and customers looking for exotic meats will have the opportunity to special order." Butzow is a Traverse City native who worked as a fishmonger in Seattle's Pike Place market for 15 years before moving back to Grand Rapids in 2013. The addition of a Carvers is one of several changes underway at the $30 million market, which opened 21/2 years ago at 435 Ionia Ave. SW. Last week, market officials announced Chris McKellar, the founder and owner of Love's Ice Cream, is adding a pizzeria called "Rocket Pies" and moving into a currently occupied by Relish Green Grocer. The new location will also serve to expand Love's Ice Cream's shop and provide seating for 40 guests. Construction also has finally begun on the Social Kitchen and Bar, a casual sit-down restaurant that announced it was arriving one year ago. A spokeswoman for the market said the restaurant is scheduled to open in March. Jim Harger covers business for Mlive Media Group. Email him at jharger@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook or Google+. UPDATE: I-94 reopened at midnight, according to MDOT. 21-year-old Ann Arbor woman killed in I-94 crash ANN ARBOR, MI -- Police expect eastbound I-94 to be closed for several hours due to the fatal crash west of U.S. 12. Authorities were called about 6:10 p.m. Feb. 24 to the eastbound I-94 near U.S. 12 for a crash between a semi-truck and a car, said Joyce Williams of Huron Valley Ambulance. A semi-truck hauling cars struck a passenger vehicle, forcing both off the road, according to a release by the Pittsfield Township Department of Public Safety. The car was forced into the tree line, according to the release. The passenger in the vehicle was killed and the driver was critically injured. Michigan State Police are investigating the incident. Police could be seen searching the shoulder of the road near a car carrier at the crash site. A Nixle alert from the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office noted that the road would be closed at I-94 and U.S. 23 for several hours. Eastbound I-94 traffic appeared to be backed-up to State Road at about 8:30 p.m. Staff photographer Junfu Han contributed to this story. Darcie Moran covers cops and courts for MLive and The Ann Arbor News. Email her at dmoran@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter @darciegmoran. ANN ARBOR, MI -- The University of Michigan is taking the lead role on a proposed light rail project in Ann Arbor as it enters the next phase of study and conceptual design. Following the completion of an alternatives analysis led by the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority -- which identified light rail as the preferred mode for the so-called Ann Arbor Connector -- the university is expected to lead the Connector project through a two-year environmental review and preliminary engineering process that's estimated to cost $3 million to $4 million. "The intention is that the university would lead that phase of the project, but it's still the same collaborative effort that we've had going forward," said Steve Dolen, the university's parking and transportation services director. The university is continuing to partner with the city, the AAATA and the Downtown Development Authority. Each of the project partners is expected to contribute funds for the next phase, but Dolen said the university is willing to fund a big portion of it. Once the next phase is completed, it's expected to take another 12 to 18 months for final design/procurement, followed by two to three years of construction and testing. If all goes as planned, the system could be up and running within six to 12 years, but it's going to require hundreds of millions of dollars in capital funds. The project partners on Wednesday released a 59-page report that marks the conclusion of the alternatives analysis study that started in 2012. AAATA CEO Matt Carpenter said they're going through a federally prescribed process to position the Connector for potential future funding under the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts program. "If you want to get some federal money to help you with construction of any sort of fixed-guideway transit system down the road, you need to enter the New Starts pipeline, and the alternatives analysis study is the first step in that path," he said. The newly released report outlines the recommended route and mode of transit for the Connector, favoring rail transit over bus rapid transit. While bus rapid transit would have lower initial capital costs, annual operating costs would be substantially higher than a light rail system, and the forecast level of passenger demand would exceed the practical capacity of a bus rapid transit system, the report concludes, indicating larger rail transit vehicles in one- or two-car configurations could handle the forecast level of passenger demand. "A hybrid light rail/streetcar vehicle is recommended," the report states, suggesting the size of the vehicle can be tailored to meet demand and fit into the Ann Arbor environment. "Advances in 'wireless' technology offer safe, unobtrusive power systems and electric powered vehicles are clean and quiet." The proposed system is being described by the project partners as a light rail system. Sue Gott, university planner, said more refinement will occur in the next phase. The preferred Connector route, as described in the new report, is 4.78 miles in length with nine stops. The cost estimates presume a construction year of 2025, showing an estimated $560-$680 million in capital costs to build the system using 2025 dollars. The net additional cost to operate and maintain the Connector is estimated to be $3.4 million in 2025, or $4.32 to $5.18 per passenger trip. The Connector is intended to provide faster, more reliable, more comfortable and sustainable transportation to an estimated 30,000-plus daily riders. Dolen said there already are about 7.5 million passenger trips per year on U-M buses. "In this high-capacity corridor alone, between North and Central Campus, there's over 50,000 trips a day in that corridor," he said. "Of those trips, 30,000 of them are done on U-M and AAATA buses, so that level of ridership really meets or exceeds the demand that is carried on many other advanced systems in other communities around the country, so we're already operating really at a high capacity and demand." He added, "As you might imagine, with that level of ridership, we're stressed. Our current systems are stressed to meet that demand efficiently, reliably and conveniently, so a high-capacity system operating in its own right-of-way will reach those stops more reliably, more efficiently. So, this advanced system will not only help us with today's capacity issues, but it sets us up for the future." To reduce the impacts along streets with limited widths, the preferred route identified in the new report follows a one-way east-west loop through downtown using a combination of Washington Street, Liberty Street or William Street and extending west as far as Fourth Avenue, Ashley Street or First Street. After running through U-M's Central Campus via North University Avenue, it would leave downtown via Washtenaw Avenue to Glen Avenue to Fuller Road, then follow the train tracks past the U-M Medical Center before crossing the Huron River and cutting up to U-M's North Campus via Bonisteel Boulevard and Murfin Avenue. It would then travel east out Plymouth Road to a park-and-ride lot that's recommended near U.S. 23. As a future second phase, it's anticipated the Connector could extend south from downtown to the Briarwood Mall area near State Street and I-94. "The messiness of the downtown street system and how to serve it is the other area that will be more closely evaluated and refined in this next phase of work," said Eli Cooper, the city's transportation program manager. "There are a couple of areas where the finer-tip pen will be necessary, but I think the key pieces are a couple of stops in the downtown, Main Campus, Medical Campus, North Campus and the North Campus Research Center, which also borders on some of the activity areas in northeast Ann Arbor. "And then ultimately in the vicinity of Plymouth and Green Road, one of the opportunities is truly to create a model of intercepting vehicles at or near the edge of the city and allowing for the individuals to come in and the vehicles to stay at the edge of the city, and that really is a benefit for everyone in the community. "For the residents, it's less competition for space on our streets. For the residents, it's a high level of advanced transit that enables people who are in the northeast part of the city to have likely a local connector bus to feed them to a high-speed transit spine, so there's a lot of value and benefit for residents." The proposed light rail system would go in a dedicated lane, embedded largely into existing roads. The service is expected to be 43 percent faster than standard buses at rush hour, while increasing capacity by an estimated 52 percent. "One of the big assets that this project has is the ability to be a win-win situation for the entire community and also the university," Carpenter said. Dolen said the Connector ridership numbers are largely driven by university activity related to health care, employment, academics, research and visitors. The ridership generated by the university's activity is expected to help the Connector project compete for federal funds. Now that the alternatives analysis is complete, Cooper said the recommended light rail system now goes to the public for review. "Not only do we believe we have a good project, but we have actively engaged with the community over the past decade, and we anticipate continuing to do so," he said, noting there are two public meetings to discuss the project on March 24, one from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the downtown Ann Arbor library on Fifth Avenue, and another from 6-8 p.m. at the Traverwood Branch Library. "There's a lot of work behind us," Cooper said. "And I think if we continue to stay together as a group of partners, and if the statistics we've analyzed are accurate, which I believe they are, we should be in a very highly competitive stance with the federal program, and answering the unanswered questions and moving forward." Project partners said it hasn't been determined yet how costs would be split if the system is constructed and they haven't yet had discussions about whether local voters might be asked to approve a tax increase. It also hasn't been decided which entity would actually operate the system. The hundreds of millions of dollars needed to launch the system are expected to come from a combination of federal and state dollars, the university, public-private partnerships, fares, local funding sources and innovative funding strategies. The alternatives analysis report indicates the New Starts program can provide up to 80 percent of the capital cost to construct fixed-guideway transit systems, though federal funding generally does not exceed 50 percent of the project cost. It also mentions parking revenues, tax-increment financing and the Southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority as a potential funding sources, as well as private sources. Cooper noted the vision for the Ann Arbor Connector traces back more than a decade. It was one of three key components of the city's 2006 Model for Mobility, along with east-west commuter rail from Ann Arbor to Detroit and north-south commuter rail from Howell to Ann Arbor. The Connector was later articulated in the city's 2009 Transportation Plan Update adopted by the City Council. Discussion and study has continued since. "The germination of the idea really lies with some very thoughtful city planning that occurred a decade or so ago," Carpenter said. In addition to the city, U-M, AAATA and DDA, other partners on the alternatives analysis study included the Southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, Washtenaw Area Transportation Study and Michigan Department of Transportation. Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com. MONITOR TWP, MI -- When Mary Courtemanche started feeling contractions at home in West Branch during a winter storm at 3 a.m., she knew her baby daughter would enter the world soon, but figured she had enough time to get to the hospital. She didn't make it. About seven hours later on Thursday, Feb. 25, her husband Darcy Courtemanche delivered little Josie Courtemanche in an SUV on the shoulder of southbound Interstate-75 in Bay County's Monitor Township, near the Wilder Road exit. "I felt the contractions, but my water hadn't broken yet," she said. "I hate sitting in hospitals, so we waited a little bit. I thought there was enough time." At about 10:15 a.m. Thursday, her water broke in the car as the couple traveled from West Branch to MidMichigan Health Center in Midland. Ten minutes later, she was holding her newborn baby inside the couple's white Chevrolet Suburban. "After my water broke, I felt two more contractions and told Darcy she's coming now," Mary Courtemanche said. "He said, 'Are you serious?' We pulled over, opened the door and got her just in time. "He did such a good job helping to deliver her." Josie measured in at 6-pounds, 5-ounces, and 19-inches long at MidMichigan Health medical center in Midland.. Courtemanche said she wrapped the baby in a sweatshirt and kept rubbing her back until she could get into an ambulance. Bay County Central Dispatch advised the couple to get off the interstate and pull into the Michigan Department of Transportation Office at 2590 E. Wilder Road. Courtemanche, who is a teacher at Sterling Elementary, said her husband was driving as quickly as he could to the hospital, but a nasty winter storm that dropped 8-10 inches of snow slowed him down. "We couldn't pass anyone and there were so many cars in front of us," she said. The couple has three other children, son Gabe, 11, and daughters Frankie, 10, and Charlie, 1. Darcy Courtemanche knows baby Josie will have quite the story to tell when she's older. "Never did I think I would be delivering my baby in our car," he said. For now, the couple is looking forward to bringing her home. "It has been a crazy day," Mary Courtemanche said. "We're just so excited to have her in our lives." BAY COUNTY, MI -- Nearly 1,000 Consumers Energy customers in Bay County were without power Thursday in the aftermath of a large winter storm. "In Bay County right now, we have 937 customers that are still affected," said Consumers Energy spokeswoman Debra Dodd at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 25. "We're out in force working today. We expect to have the vast majority of customers' (services restored) by later tonight. Some in the harder-hit areas -- including Genesee, Saginaw, and Gratiot counties -- may not be on until midday tomorrow." Statewide, there are about 25,000 Consumers customers without power, down from about 60,000 Wednesday night, Dodd said. Click here to see a map of the outages throughout the state. "We're working just as quickly as we can to restore people," she said. "The roads did hamper us last night." She added that there reports of down power lines. If you coming across a downed line, stay at least 25 feet away and call 911 or Consumers at 1-800-477-5050. "We'll come out and make it safe," Dodd said. Phil Newton, director of Bay City Electric Light & Power, added that he thought all of his agency's customers had their power restored by 11 p.m. Wednesday. He added there may still be some sporadic outages. On the traffic side of things, fewer than two dozen crashes were reported. "Between yesterday and today, we handled 21 crashes," said Michigan State Police Sgt. James Lang, adding that the figure is for Bay, Saginaw, and Midland counties. "I think the forecast was accurate and people paid attention. It kept people more on the cautious side." The crashes were limited to minor property damage and minor injuries, Lang said. "We had maybe half a dozen cars in ditches," added Bay County Undersheriff Troy Cunningham, adding deputies had the department's two military-style Humvees ready to go if a situation called for them. "I think the media did a great job letting the public know this big storm coming," Cunningham continued. "I think that kept a lot of people home and really reduced people out driving. The media blitz was really a big help for law enforcement." Sam Merrill SAGINAW, MI -- It was 1999 when longtime WNEM TV5 news anchor Sam Merrill decided to leave the mid-Michigan station for a dream job in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Reflecting on his time at the station, he admitted it was difficult to leave TV5. "I think part of it is because the TV station is such an institution here and is such a big part of people's lives," he said. "It's special to be part of that." Merrill died unexpectedly Thursday, Feb. 25, after collapsing at his Saginaw Township home. He was 55. Here is a timeline of his life and career: * Feb. 1960: Merrill was born in Maryland. As a young boy, his family moved to Pittsburgh, where he lived for eight years. * 1971: Merrill's family moves to Plymouth, Michigan. * 1984: Merrill graduates from Central Michigan University. He went on to work TV jobs in Cadillac, Lansing (WILX) and Flint (WJRT). * 1987: Merrill takes a public relations job in Flint Mayor Matt Collier's office. * 1990: Hired at WNEM TV5 as a weekend anchor. * 1991: Promoted to anchor a new 5 p.m. newscast, which began as a temporary program to update viewers on the Gulf War. The show became a permanent fixture, even after the station promoted Merrill to the main 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. His personality and news savvy kept the station at the No. 1 spot for the next nine years. * 1999: Merrill departs WNEM to become a morning news anchor at WTAE Pittsburgh. "It's going to be a big change and being in a bigger market is a little daunting, but I'm looking forward to it," he told The Saginaw News about the job. * 2002: Returned to WNEM as main anchor for the nightly newscasts. He said he couldn't get used to the early morning hours his Pittsburgh job required. He needed to be at the station at 2:30 a.m. and would typically clock out at about 2 p.m. each day. His first week back on the job at WNEM came in the middle of a Flint mayoral recall election, which ended up being one of the biggest local stories of the year. "I'm really nervous, but I'm fired up," he told The Saginaw News at the time. * 2015: Merrill's longtime co-anchor Katie O'Mara leaves station due to health complications. Colette Boyd was named Merrill's co-anchor. * 2016: On Feb. 19, Merrill interviews Leroi Kocsis in the middle of a 22-hour-long standoff with police. Kocsis, who eventually took his own life, told police he wanted to go on-air with Merrill to "tell his side of the story." PONTIAC, MI -- Defense attorney Neil Rockind wonders how blind justice really is. His client, Charles Warren Jr., 69, of Waterford, was involved in an auto accident last August. Warren's utility trailer collided with State Trooper Chad Wolf, a 38-year-old married father of four from Fenton. Wolf, who was patrolling on a motorcycle, became pinned beneath Warren's trailer and dragged for 3.8 miles to a rest area in Holly where Warren pulled over to see what was wrong. Warren said he didn't know he'd hit Wolf until he stopped. State police say Warren, who was described as remorseful and "very cooperative" following the crash, abruptly switched into Wolf's lane on Dixie Highway while attempting to merge onto I-75 north. He's now facing two felonies that each carry a possible punishment of 15 years in prison, reckless driving causing death and failure to stop at the scene of an at-fault fatal accident. Clarkston District Judge Kelley R. Kostin, who attended Wolf's funeral, ruled Wednesday after a preliminary examination there is enough probable cause for Warren to stand trial. While Rockind acknowledges the tragedy and loss felt by Wolf's wife and children, he wonders if Warren isn't being held to a different standard because of Wolf's profession. "If this case didn't involve a trooper, and instead involved a young 18- to 20-year-old on a crotch-rocket, would we be here," Rockind said he asked in court. Oakland County prosecutors believe Warren's disregard for traffic laws directly caused Wolf's death; and he should have reasonably known he'd been in a collision and stopped, rather than driving several miles. Rockind said, based on the evidence he heard from witnesses and crash investigators, he believes both charges should be dismissed. "Leaving the scene of an accident was basically that Warren felt a bump and discovered that his trailer was dragging a bit," Rockind said. "And that was evidence ... he should have known he was in an accident." Rockind said there "isn't a shred" of evidence to support the prosecution's "theory all along" that Warren switched lanes, and his client never told investigators that's what happened. Crash investigators did enter into evidence a photo showing where they believe Wolf's motorcycle first made contact with Warrens trailer on the rear-passenger side. Questions of possible conflict of interest came up related to the judge's attendance of Wolf's funeral, but Kostin said she had no personal dealings with the trooper, only knew him through court proceedings and attended the funeral as a representative of the court; none of those things biased her judgement. "This was one of the most inexplicable rulings that I've witnessed in 23 years," Rockind said in a prepared statement following Kostin's ruling Wednesday's. "Other than to say that I'm stunned and disappointed, there isn't much to say. "We proved that the charges were unwarranted and without basis and the judge found probable cause anyway." Warren will now be arraigned in Oakland County Circuit Court on both felony charges against him. Detroit bullet crime scene.JPG (MLive.com File Photo) Detroit's Most Wanted: Search for 43-year-old Timothy Terry https://t.co/maU9Ufpu4l Posted by CrimeInTheD on Tuesday, November 3, 2015 MIDDLETOWN, OHIO -- A fugitive suspected killer from Detroit was nabbed by U.S. Marshals in Middleton, Ohio Wednesday. Timothy Terry, 43, is accused of waiting for Rehk Imhotep, 42, outside a northwest Detroit Home Depot on the morning of Oct. 12. Imhotep, a construction worker, was shopping for supplies and shot by Terry upon exiting, police say. Rehk Imhotep obituary A first-degree murder warrant was issued for Terry the same day, according to online Wayne County court records. U.S. Marshals learned Terry was residing in Ohio and arrested him at a residents in Middleton Wednesday. He's jailed in Butler County, Ohio awaiting extradition to Detroit. WXYZ-TV, who listed Terry as one of "Detroit's Most Wanted," spoke with friends who believe Terry shot Imhotep over a business dispute, because Imhotep never completed work he'd already been paid for. Terry has prior convictions from 1997 for assault, arson and cocaine possession. He has three other previous felony cases -- the most recent in 2002 -- that were dismissed. DETROIT, MI -- After leading police on a high-speed chase, a 24-year-old suspect's vehicle skidded off the road, through a vacant lot and into a fence after being rammed by state troopers in Detroit about 9 p.m. Wednesday. But he wasn't ready to give up quite yet, police said in a statement Thursday. He took off on foot. "Troopers pursued the driver on foot until he tripped over his pants falling to the ground," state police said. "Troopers struggled with the driver until a taser was deployed in order to take him into custody." The chase began in an east side neighborhood located in Detroit's Ninth Precinct, one of the most violent places to live in the state, based on per capita crime statistics. State police assigned to the Special Enforcement Section Secure Cites Partnership Patrol in the neighborhood spotted the suspect driving about 80 mph. They attempted to stop him and he fled, at times reaching 90 mph on westbound I-94, weaving through traffic, exiting and reentering the highway and driving in the opposite direction of traffic. When the chase became too dangerous, troopers backed off, but used highway cameras operated by the Michigan Department of Transportation to follow the suspect, eventually catching up with him and using a precision immobilization technique to force him off the road. As of 2014, there were nearly 300 cameras in the Detroit area monitoring highways with a 2-mile zoom capability. Detroit police attempted to assist in the chase, but while en route crashed into a 2010 Jeep Commander with three occupants. Detroit Police Officer Dan Danikowski said one of the two officers and a female passenger in the Jeep were treated and released for minor injuries. One of the occupants was also arrested for possession of a concealed weapon inside a motor vehicle. Marcus Hightower DETROIT, MI -- Detroit Police Chief James Craig said the victim suffered so many injuries, her body couldn't be positively identified by relatives. The Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office on Wednesday night, based on DNA analysis, officially confirmed what investigators suspected: The dead child was 4-year-old Savannah Walker, who was the subject of an Amber Alert issued about 2 a.m. Saturday. She was believed to have been with Marcus Hightower, who's since been charged with murder in the deaths of Savannah and her mother, 38-year-old Heidi Walker. Both bodies were discovered Saturday morning at a vacant house on Lakeview that was set ablaze, police believe by Hightower. A cause of death for the mother and child hasn't been released. Heidi and Savannah Walker were last seen with Hightower in Detroit at a home on Cadillac Boulevard. Hightower had been on parole for various felony convictions stemming from an August 2007 arrest. U.S. District Court records summarizing the arrest say Hightower, while driving his girlfriend and their infant daughter, fired a handgun out the window. Detroit police attempted to pull Hightower over, but he fled nearly eight blocks before crashing into a pole. Police were helping the mother and her daughter when more shots were fired nearby, and a limping man believed to be Hightower, fled on foot. He was later arrested at his brother's home in Detroit. Hightower turned himself in to Detroit police Sunday after he was named a person of interest in the Walkers' disappearance. He's charged with five felonies, including felony murder, two counts of first-degree murder and two firearms crimes. Craig said he spoke with an adult daughter of Heidi Walker, who told him that Hightower and Walker had been in a sometimes-violent relationship. "According to the older child ... there were domestic violence instances between the suspect and the victim," Craig said. Walker and Savannah were first reported missing on Tuesday, Feb. 16, in Livingston County. Walker's adult daughter went to the police with "sketchy" information that her mother might be dead, according to the Livingston County sheriff and undersheriff. A deputy did some work on her case, including tracking Walker's cell phone to Detroit, and then recommended she contact authorities with jurisdiction, such as state or Detroit police. Craig said Monday he could not yet say how the victims had been killed, and questioned the level of communication between Livingston officials and Detroit police, who weren't notified until state police issued the Amber Alert. My "suggestion is, why don't you take a look at that and see if you could have done anything differently," Craig said Monday. FLINT, MI -- Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will visit a Flint-area church tomorrow. Ryan Hughes, state director for the Sanders campaign, said Sanders is scheduled to participate in a community forum discussing Flint's water crisis and environmental Justice on Thursday, Feb. 25. The forum will be held at Woodside Church, located at 1509 East Court Street in Flint. Hughes said the event will have a panel discussion with Flint residents affected by the Flint water crisis, as well as union members who will speak about how the Flint economy has been affected. Following the panel discussion there will also be a question and answer segment, Hughes said. Doors open at 1 p.m. and the event is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. People interested in attending must RSVP. The event is free and open to the public. For security reasons, people attending are asked to no bring bags, and limit what you bring to small personal items such as keys and cell phones. Weapons, sharp objects, chairs, and signs or banners on sticks will not be allowed through security. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made a Feb. 7 stop at House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church in Flint to discuss the water woes. Sanders has made calls for Gov. Rick Snyder's resignation over the issue. Sanders and Clinton are set to square off in a March 6 presidential debate in Flint to be aired on CNN precipitated by the ongoing water crisis over elevated levels of lead found during tests. Admission is first come, first served to the Sanders event Thursday. To RSVP click here. FLINT, MI -- Flint Mayor Karen Weaver has declared a snow emergency for the city as a winter storm moves through the area. Weaver is working with other city officials to actively monitor the snowfall and road conditions, according to a news release from the City of Flint. Due to the evolving winter storm, Weaver declared a snow emergency, pursuant to the state Emergency Management Act. The snow emergency will remain in effect until 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25. During this time period parking on city streets is prohibited as road crews work to plow streets. The city has fully staffed crews working 12 hours shifts and fleet crews are also on staff in case emergency truck repairs are needed, according to the release. Plow trucks are not expected to get to residential streets until Thursday at the earliest. Residents are urged to stay off the roads if possible, according to the release. The Michigan Department of Transportation is bringing in extra crews Wednesday night and Thursday to help clear snow off roadways in Flint. Anna Heaton, deputy press secretary for Gov. Rick Snyder, said MDOT will pay Genesee County Road Commission trucks to plow two state trunk line roads, freeing up city plows to focus on secondary streets. The state plows will focus on the trunk lines and clearing areas in and around the water distribution sites at Flint fire stations so residents can still access the sites during the storm that may dump up to one foot of snow in the city. Here are some snow forecasts for specific locations: Saginaw/Bay City - 8"- 10" Midland - 8"- 10" Grand Rapids - 8"- 10" Lansing - 8"- 10" Flint - 8"- 10" Kalamazoo - 8"- 10" Jackson - 6"- 8" Muskegon - 6"- 8" Ann Arbor - 5" - 7" Detroit - 3" - 5" Rev. Deborah Conrad of Flint's Woodside Church answers questions about Flint's ongoing water crisis during this month's Concert for a Cause on Friday, Feb. 19, 2016 at First Congregational Church in Saginaw. Donations from the event went towards a new water filtration system for Woodside Church. FLINT, MI -- Pastor Deborah Conrad of Woodside Church in Flint offered a blunt assessment of the systemic issues she said are at the root of the city's water crisis ahead of an appearance by Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Sanders is making a stop in Flint after a Feb. 15 visit to Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti ahead of the candidate's March 6 debate with challenger Hillary Clinton in Flint. "I think we need a wholesale replacement of the folks in charge. The issues we are facing now are not unrelated to the past 35 years of public policy, the austerity, the poor revenue sharing, the blaming black people for everything that goes wrong in our country, or the immigrants, or Muslims, or the mass incarceration issues," Conrad said. "This water issue is not unrelated to those public policies." Sanders' visit comes after he said Gov. Rick Snyder should resign over the water crisis. Clinton also called for some accountability during a Feb. 7 speech at House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church in Flint. Conrad said the visit by Sanders to the East Court Street church came about after they were asked by someone in the community if they would have the space to host the community forum on the water crisis and environmental justice. "We have a lot of community groups that use the building, a lot of community events that happen here," she said. "We think it is part of our stewardship and responsibility." The church has been involved in social actions for decades, Conrad said, from the Underground Railroad, marching at Selma, counter protesting on behalf of immigrant children, fair housing movement, marriage and income equality, racism, and environmental justice. Conrad said a water committee was formed at the church more than one year ago, after issues arose of access and affordability "and then found out the water was poisoned and then we adapted and done everything we can to be helpful in that regard." The committee has worked as an informational resource for the congregation, pointing out actions planned, and served as a liaison to community groups operating in the community including the Flint Democracy Defense League. Conrad added the systemic issues are not the only factors that led to the city's water crisis. "We are living right now the result of how we've been voting for the last 35 years," she said. We need to change how we vote." FLINT, MI -- Two appointees of Gov. Rick Snyder met with a private company to consider a new water disinfection system for the city of Flint nearly a year ago and were warned of the potential for health and infrastructure problems tied to a cancer-causing byproduct of heavy chlorination. A representative of Michigan-based Somnio Global said the March 9, 2015, meeting ended without a deal to bring the company's disinfection system to Flint, but the encounter was another early warning of the seriousness of problems with the city's water at a time residents were told it was safe to drink. Harvey Hollins, Snyder's director of Urban and Metropolitian Initiatives, and former Flint emergency manager Jerry Ambrose were among those scheduled to attend the March 9, 2015, meeting to discuss what was described as a "possible solution for the Flint water matter," according to an email written by Hollins' assistant at the time. Records related to the meeting were among more than 20,000 documents released by Snyder's office earlier this month. State Department of Environmental Quality staffers were scheduled to attend the meeting, arranged by a Lansing lobbyist, and emails about the meeting were marked "high importance," but a spokesman for the governor said he doesn't believe information from the meeting was shared with Snyder. "At the time of the March meeting, the concerns were about the color and odor of the water, and the Department of Environmental Quality at the time believed the water to be safe," Snyder Press Secretary Dave Murray said in an email. "The administration was relying on the word of its experts. We now know that there were problems within the department and have made changes." In addition to issues of the smell and taste of Flint water at the time of the meeting, the city was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act due to high levels of total trihalomethanes (TTHM). Plant operators also struggled to control bacteria in water months earlier, and a series of boil water advisories were issued after the city changed its water source to the Flint River in April 2014. The state helped to finance a return to Lake Huron water in October 2015 after the governor acknowledged mistakes in how the state responded to problems with water in Flint, particularly rising levels of lead. Information attached to state emails in advance of the meeting with Somnio include a briefing paper in which the company discussed its "cost effective method for destroying potentially harmful bacteria and viruses" as well as TTHM, a byproduct of chlorination. "(TTHMs), when ingested can encourage the growth of free radicals that can destroy or damage vital cells in the body," the document says. "Besides cancer, exposure to (TTHMs) has been linked to other health issues including asthma, eczema, heart disease and higher miscarriage and birth defect rates. "Further, high (levels) of chlorine also poses serious risk to the aging infrastructure." Steve Annear, Somnio vice president of operations, said he left the 2015 meeting believing Flint's water problems were "further downstream in the distribution system itself" rather than at the treatment plant. Furthermore, Flint already had a form of ozone treatment at its water plant. "At the time, the smell and discoloration of the water (were the primary concerns)," Annear said. The meeting took place "before today's problems (were known)," he said. Annear said Somnio was a client of The Sterling Corporation, a Lansing lobbying firm that bills itself as "a premier Republican communications company" on its Web site and boasts of "influential relationships with government decision makers (and) political leaders." Documents have also shown Hollins and Ambrose, both of whom were appointed by Snyder, knew of a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak -- possibly tied to Flint River water -- 11 months ago -- something the governor has said he only learned of only last month. Ambrose, a staunch defender of Flint water quality at the time, was warned of the Legionella crisis and the potential that it was tied to Flint water in a March 10, 2015, email from the Genesee County Health Department's environmental health supervisor. The Flint area experienced a spike in Legionnaires beginning in summer 2014 that resulted in 10 deaths in 18 months. Officials have said they can neither rule in or out a link between the outbreak and the city's water. Two weeks after having been told of the Legionnaires' outbreak, Ambrose called Flint's water "safe by all ... standards" and blasted the City Council for voting to end the use of river water. "It is incomprehensible to me that (seven) members of the Flint City Council would want to send more than $12 million a year to the system serving Southeast Michigan, even if Flint rate payers could afford it. (Lake Huron) water from Detroit is no safer than water from Flint," Ambrose said at the time. CLAYTON TWP., MI -- Police are warning residents about a possible scam involving claims that they won jewelry. Clayton Township police have gotten fraud complaints after residents said they received a postcard from United Merchandise Clearing House (UMC). The postcard states that a parcel is being held valued at $50 containing jewelry, according to a post on the Clayton Township Police Department's Facebook page. The postcard looks officials, police said, and directs residents to call a phone number to claim the parcel. The cost is $11.95 processing and delivery fee, according to the post. An officer with Clayton Township called the number and was advised they had won a pearl necklace. The person on the phone then requested the officer's credit card information, according to the post. Amanda Emery is a police reporter for MLive-Flint Journal. Contact her at aemery@mlive.com or 810-285-0792. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook. FLINT, MI -- A bipartisan proposal from lawmakers including Michigan U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters may provide millions of dollars to help Flint begin infrastructure repairs to bring some relief to the ongoing water crisis. The proposal includes $100 million towards the federal Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for subsidized loans and grants in 2016 and 2017 to any state that receives an emergency declaration due to a public health threat from lead or other contaminants in a public drinking water supply system. A portion of the proposal offers a state option for debt forgiveness to any state with a public health threat in the water supply system can use DWSRF dollars to allow for debt forgiveness, which Stabenow said could open the way for $20 million in past loans by the city to be relieved. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, left, and Sen. Gary Peters. Stabenow and Peters have been joined in the proposal effort by Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chairman, as well as Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., Rob Portman, R-Ohio and other senators. "We are basically putting something forward that will be extremely meaningful for Flint and other states infrastructure funding," said Stabenow, with Peters adding "This has been a long effort we have been working on in a bipartisan way." Senate Democrats blocked an energy bill three weeks ago after Republicans rejected the idea of providing federal aid. The proposal is not expected to be part of the energy bill, but follow a vote on the energy bill. Other pieces of the new proposal, which Peters said could be voted as soon as Thursday or next week, include $700 million in Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation funds -- with $70 million in credit subsidies -- for infrastructure repairs across the nation. Another $50 million has been targeted for public health as part of the proposal, including $17.5 million to conduct a health registry to monitor health in a community with lead contamination in the local drinking water system, and $2.5 million to create an advisory committee to review federal efforts related to lead poisoning, research, and services. Three $10 million allotments over the 2016 and 2017 fiscal year budgets are marked for the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Fund, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Healthy Homes Program, and U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. A public notification of no later than 15 days after being alerted of an excessive lead level in a public water system shall be required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, if the local municipality or state does not notify the public of the results. Stabenow hoped there would be no haste in getting the proposal up for a vote to aid infrastructure in cities across the country, including Flint. "We have to have an immediate fix," she said. WASHINGTON - Gov. Rick Snyder and former Emergency Manager Darnell Earley are scheduled to testify next month in front of a U.S. House committee investigating the Flint water crisis. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has announced that Snyder will be called to testify Thursday, March 17. He will be joined by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy. Earley is set to testify March 15. He will be joined by former Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, former EPA Administrator Susan Hedman and Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards. Earlier this month, Snyder declined an invitation from House Democrats to testify before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. However, Snyder said Feb. 12, that he has asked Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, for the opportunity to testify "to explain how the local, state and federal governments combined to fail the people of Flint." Chaffetz called for U.S. Marshals to "hunt down" Earley after he did not appear at the first hearing earlier this month. Earley was expected to appear today, Thursday, Feb. 25, to be deposed, but instead was added to the upcoming hearings. Earley was the emergency manager of Flint at the time the city changed its water source to the Flint River in April 2014. The committee heard testimony Feb. 3 from Edwards, Flint resident LeeAnne Walters, and officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and DEQ. U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, the ranking member of the committee, wrote a letter Monday, Feb. 22, calling on Chaffetz to request documents from Snyder and his staff on their role in the city's water crisis. Snyder announced hours later that he would release emails from members of his administration involved in the city's water crisis. Snyder's office released nearly 300 pages of emails from 2014 and 2015 earlier this year after he promised during his State of the State address to make his correspondence about the water crisis public to ensure that residents have answers about "what we've done." More than 20,000 other documents have also been released by the Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Treasury, Department of Technology, Management and Budget, and Department of Agriculture and Rural Development as part of multiple FOIA requests. Officials with Snyder's office could not be reached for comment. The city is in the national spotlight after elevated blood lead levels were discovered in some Flint children after the city changed its water source from Lake Huron water purchased from the Detroit water system to the Flint River in April 2014, a decision made while the city was being run by a state-appointed emergency manager. State regulators never required that the river water be treated to make it less corrosive, causing lead from plumbing and pipes to leach into the water supply. Even though the city reconnected to the Detroit water system in October, local and state officials have warned pregnant women and young children against using the water unless it has been tested because lead levels continue to exceed what can be handled by a filter. Ted Cruz Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, answers a question during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News at the St. Anselm College Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman) (David Goldman) WASHINGTON - Sen. Ted Cruz has placed a hold on legislation that would help provide millions in aid to Flint in response to its water crisis, according to a report from Politico. The report claims Cruz, one of the front runners for the Republican presidential nomination, has placed a "soft hold" on the funding package to give him more time to study the details of the plan, his spokeswoman is reported as saying. The spokeswoman, Rachael Slobodien, told Politico that she didn't expect Cruz to hold up the bill permanently. Democratic Michigan Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow have partnered with Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., to propose $220 million in aid to help cities such as Flint. The proposal includes $100 million towards the federal Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for subsidized loans and grants in 2016 and 2017 to any state that receives an emergency declaration due to a public health threat from lead or other contaminants in a public drinking water supply system. Only Michigan has declared such an emergency, meaning it would be the only state to qualify for such assistance. A portion of the proposal offers an option for debt forgiveness to any state with a public health threat in the water supply system for debt forgiveness, which Stabenow said could open the way for $20 million in past loans by the city to be relieved. Senate Democrats blocked an energy bill three weeks ago after Republicans rejected the idea of providing federal aid. The proposal is not expected to be part of the energy bill, but follow a vote on the energy bill. Other pieces of the new proposal, which Peters said could be voted as soon as Thursday or next week, include $700 million in Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation funds -- with $70 million in credit subsidies -- for infrastructure repairs across the nation. Another $50 million has been targeted for public health as part of the proposal, including $17.5 million to conduct a health registry to monitor health in a community with lead contamination in the local drinking water system, and $2.5 million to create an advisory committee to review federal efforts related to lead poisoning, research, and services. Three $10 million allotments over the 2016 and 2017 fiscal year budgets are marked for the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Fund, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Healthy Homes Program, and U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. A public notification of no later than 15 days after being alerted of an excessive lead level in a public water system shall be required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, if the local municipality or state does not notify the public of the results. The entire Politico report can be read here. Staff writer Roberto Acosta contributed to this report. GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The Grand Rapids City Commission fired off a letter to Gov. Rick Snyder and the sponsors of legislation historic preservationists say threatens to weaken protections and create barriers to establishing and maintaining historic districts. Mayor Rosalynn Bliss read the letter expressing concerns over the negative impact to the audience at the Tuesday, Feb. 23, city commission meeting. She said the letter was accompanied by proposed text amendments to HB 5232 and SB 720. Related: Historic preservation vs. private property rights in Michigan House bill "Historic districts in Grand Rapids have been used effectively as a positive neighborhood and economic development tool and have been central to revitalizing both business districts and entire city neighborhoods," according to the letter, addressed to Rep. Chris Afendoulis, R-Grand Rapids township, who sponsored the legislation along with Sen. Pete MacGregor, R-Cannon Township. "We remain hopeful that recommendations made by the city will be fully incorporated into the legislation to avoid weakening an effective tool." Local preservationists, including Christopher Reader with the Grand Rapids Historic Commission and Rebecca Smith-Hoffman, a longtime leading preservationist in Grand Rapids, have been calling for the city to send a strongly worded resolution to Lansing similar to Ann Arbor, Oakland County and other communities. "It (the legislation) would definitely damage the historic district," said Reader, who spoke at the meeting. "It would be hard to create new ones and create arbitrary standards." "I think the city should communicate its opposition as strongly as possible and in every way possible." Smith-Hoffman thanked the commission Tuesday but said she was disappointed they did not join other communities in passing a resolution in opposition to the legislation. "Grand Rapids has been a national and state leader in this movement for almost 50 years and to not have us on that list is a bad thing I think," she said. "I hope we can make this go away." The legislation, in part, would end any historic districts in the state after 10 years and force residents and preservationists to reapply every decade. Renewing a district's standing would also become cumbersome, requiring a two-thirds of property owners to approve the measure, as well as a majority vote in the next election of the city. There are also concerns about current protections being eliminated because the bill allows city leaders the ability to get rid of a district. Preservationists say it also would broaden what property owners can do in a district. Bill sponsors and supporters want to shift power away from local historic preservation boards and make establishing new districts and keeping existing ones more difficult. At this point in time, Bliss said Afendoulis is actively meeting with city officials and listening to their concerns and discussing the issues. She said that is very important. "If there is going to be a bill impacting historic preservation and historic districts, we want to be able to have amendments and changes made that address our concern," said Bliss about not passing a resolution but working through the current process. "I think it is important to honor the work that is currently being done but also send a very strong message. They (Afendoulis and MacGregor) know this is a core issue for us." Below are few of the proposed amendments the city is suggesting: Remove the two-thirds owner consent language. The city recommends a two-thirds vote of the local legislative body, not of property owners. Remove the new language that would require approval of the legislative body to proceed with demolition by neglect. Recommend that the current appeals process remain to help ensure consistency from community to community. The legislation to revise the 46-year-old law stunned many and had them questioning who was pushing the changes. Some East Grand Rapids residents hired a Lansing lobbying firm to move the new legislation forward. Related: Affluent suburb behind push to dismantle Michigan historic districts The city's letter was also sent to Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive; House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mount Pleasant; Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint; and Rep. Tim Greimel, leader of the House Democrats. Monica Scott is the Grand Rapids K-12 education writer. Email her at mscott2@mlive.com and follow her on Twitter @MScottGR or Facebook NORTHERN MICHIGAN -- When state police stopped a vehicle for expired plates, the driver flashed a Michigan State Police badge and told troopers he was retired from the department. He even told police that "you can go home now." Troopers weren't buying a word of it. The man was arrested and taken to jail. State police say they were on routine patrol in East Jordan when they stopped a vehicle with expired plates about 4:25 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24. The driver, a 45-year-old Charlevoix man, displayed a state police badge and told troopers "you can go home now." Soon after, he told troopers he planned to leave the stop and not cooperate with them. He then resisted arrest before troopers physically took him to the ground and handcuffed him. He was taken to the Charlevoix County Jail on charges of impersonating a police officer, resisting and obstructing police and having expired plates. E-mail John Tunison: jtunison@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/johntunison Large waves on Lake Michigan crash against the pier in St. Joseph, Mich., on Oct. 9, 2015. The high waves, nearing 7 feet, and 20-knot winds, prompted the rescue of a surfer. (Courtesy: U.S. Coast Guard Station St. Joseph) WEST MICHIGAN -- The Coast Guard is urging people to be cautious if they venture out to the Lake Michigan shoreline to catch large wave action during Wednesday night's storm. Waves are expected to average about 20 feet with the occasional 25-footer during a marine storm warning in effect until 7 a.m. Thursday. The warning covers a point located five nautical miles off the Michigan shore to a point in the middle of the lake. It extends from off the coast of Manistee south to the Michigan-Indiana border. Coast Guard search and rescue experts warn that docks, breakwalls, piers and rocks may seem like ideal places to take pictures or video of waves battering the shore, but it's easy to get swept off a wall or pier by rough waters. People are advised to stay 25 feet away from the water, especially in areas near breaking waves. "Wearing a life jacket or having a flotation device is always advised when near the water," Cmdr. Leanne Lusk, Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan's chief of response, said in a release. "It's helpful to make sure someone knows where you are going and when you plan on being back." The Coast Guard suggests watching the giant waves on online webcams or from lakefront parks and parking lots. DELTA COUNTY, MI -- A woman was found dead in an apartment on Wednesday in Escanaba, police said. Around 12:40 p.m., Escanaba Public Safety officers were sent to an apartment building in the 800 block of 2nd Avenue South. Police were dispatched for a welfare check for a person who had not been seen or heard from in several days. Officers forced entry into the apartment and found a deceased 41-year-old woman. The circumstances of her death are unknown at this time and additional investigation is ongoing. Don't Edit The Grand Rapids Press Forests: A major Michigan resource Michigan has approximately 20 million acres of forested land, which plays a key role in the state's recreation and timber product industries. On Feb. 22, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources released a report detailing the current health status of state forests, highlighting threatening insects, diseases and what's being done to improve the state's urban and rural forest land. Don't Edit MLive.com | Joel Bissell Factoids: More forest than any other Midwest or Northeast state In addition to its 3,200 miles of shoreline and 5.5 million acres of wetlands, Michigan has more forest land than any U.S. Northeast or Midwest state. Michigan ranks 22nd in land area and 10th in forest land area among U.S. states. Forest covers 19.3 million acres or 53 percent of land in Michigan. Of these 19.3 million acres, 65 percent (12.5 million acres) is privately owned, 14 percent (2.7 million acres) is federally owned, and 21 percent (4.1 million acres) is owned by the state. Don't Edit MLive file | Jon M. Brouwer Economic importance of Michigan forests A recent Michigan State University study values Michigans forest products industry at about $17.8 billion annually. The DNR wants to increase that to $20 billion. Forest recreation and tourism are also big parts of Michigans economy. The state park system, established in 1919, includes over 100 parks and recreation areas covering 285,000 acres. These facilities host over 21 million visitors a year. The DNR also manages nearly 140 state forest campgrounds, including a dozen equestrian campgrounds, and Michigan state game areas encompass more than 340,000 acres. Don't Edit MLive file | Rex Larsen 49 of 62 worst forest pests well established in Michigan According to Michigan State University researchers, state forests have dealt with more than their fair share of invasive insect and pathogen pests. This is not a new phenomenon white pine blister rust, for example, was present in Michigan by 1917. More recent invaders include Dutch elm disease, gypsy moth, several European sawflies, pine shoot beetle, along with beech scale and beech bark disease. The worst of the worst, emerald ash borer, got its start in Michigan and has become the most destructive forest insect to ever invade North America. At least 49 of the 62 high impact invasive forest pests in the U.S. are well established in Michigan. Effects of these unwanted alien insects and pathogens include substantial economic costs and sometimes profound changes in native forest ecosystems. A recent study showed economic costs of invasive forest insects in the U.S. exceed $4 billion annually. These costs, largely borne by municipal governments and homeowners, do not include the ecological effects on other plants, animals and ecosystems. Don't Edit Don't Edit 03Q Leaf blight exacerbated by harsh winter, late spring frost After suffering through two years of extremely cold winters in 2013 and 2014, many areas of Michigan were lambasted by a hard, late spring frost in May 2015. Many newly developing oak leaves were killed by this late frost. Oak canopies with heavy leaf loss developed new leaves by late in June. This killing frost was followed by unseasonably cool, wet weather through much of June. As a result, maple and oak tree leaves were subject to attack by leaf fungi. The most common leaf blight was caused by Anthracnose fungi, which appears as dead areas or blotches on leaves. Thankfully, leaf blights do not generally kill trees. Don't Edit MDARD HWA targets Michigan hemlock trees Michigan has been fighting the arrival of the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), for years. HWA is an exotic insect native to Asia that's busy devastating eastern hemlock stands in 11 northeastern states. The bugs suck sap from young hemlock twigs, causing the needles to dry out, and eventually, causing the tree to die. HWA appears as a presence of white, cotton-looking masses on the underside of branches where needles attach. Eradication involves removing and destroying infested trees and treating nearby areas with pesticide. In Michigan, the bug was first discovered in 2006, in a stand of trees grown in West Virginia and shipped to the Harbor Springs area for residential landscaping. In 2001, the state passed a quarantine law that prohibits shipment of fir nursery stock and fir timber products into Michigan from states infested with HWA. Don't Edit 03Q BWA: Thankfully, not here yet The state enforces a similar quarantine to protect Michigan 1.9 billion balsam Christmas and landscaping trees from the balsam woolly adelgid (BWA), another sap-sucking bug that attacks balsam and Fraser firs, cauing twig gouting and eventually death. BWA was accidently introduced into Maine in 1908 from Europe and now infests firs in southern Canada, the Pacific Northwest and the northeastern U.S. While we dont have BWA in Michigan, it could be introduced into the states landscape in a number of ways, including on infested nursery stock, firewood, logs and vehicles and then spread by wind, birds and other animals which can carry it for miles, said Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development director Jamie Clover Adams. And, once its here, its difficult to detect and eradicate. Don't Edit 03Q Still in early stages of latest spruce budworm outbreak A native pest, the spruce budworm, is damaging trees across the entire western Upper Peninsula, areas in the eastern U.P. and areas in the northeastern Lower Peninsula. The worms drop as caterpillars from treetops on webs and feed on tree growth in the spring. Repeated budworm defoliation can cause top-kill and death in older and stressed trees. Balsam fir older than 60 and spruce over 70 years are prime targets. Periodic budworm outbreaks are a part of a natural cycle and Michigan is at the beginning of the next regional outbreak. Historically, epidemics have occurred on a 30- to 50-year cycle. The last epidemic ended in Michigan in 1982. The latest outbreak started in 2014. Don't Edit 03Q Redheaded sawfly outbreaks increasing The redheaded pine sawfly damaged young plantation red and jack pine in areas of the Northern Lower Peninsula for the second year. A site in Montmorency County is estimated to have 100 acres heavily defoliated by the sawfly, with several hundred acres affected to a lesser degree. Reports of sawfly activity were numerous from the Huron National Forest to the Tawas City area. The eastern U.P also reported sawfly populations in 2015. Sawfly outbreaks tend to build regionally. If these populations continue to build in 2016, the DNR says young red and jack plantations should be monitored in late June and early July while larvae are small. The sawfly is easily controlled with pesticides. Don't Edit Don't Edit MLive file | Bradley S. Pines Scale insect may be causing white pine decline The DNR thinks a small bug may be causing a decline in white pine trees in the north-central Lower Peninsula. The agency has identified a scale insect, matsucoccus macrocicatrices on samples of white pine collected on state land in Crawford County last summer. Scales are sucking insects that insert tiny, straw-like mouthparts into bark, fruit, or leaves of trees, shrubs and other perennial plants. While some species of scales cause no apparent harm, others can seriously damage host plants. The matsucoccus scale has been implicated in white pine deaths in Georgia, North & South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. There's evidence a fungus, therrya pini, may also be a factor in Michigan white pine deaths. Feed damage by the scale may be creating opportunities for the fungus to invade the tree, the DNR said. Don't Edit 03Q Fungal pathogen invading more counties Heterobasidion Root Disease, caused by a fungus, has been increasing across western Lower Peninsula counties over the past 6 years. Trees infected by HRD suffer from thinned crowns, reduced height and trunk diameter, as well as slower shoot growth. Circular pockets of dead and dying trees within a forest mark the progression of the disease. New detections were made in 2015 in Barry, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Montcalm, Newaygo and Oceana counties. The disease has been detected on private, private industrial, state game areas, state forest land and national forest land. Theres concern that a statewide increase in the number of pine plantations, as well as the practice of multiple thinnings over the life of plantations, may actually favor proliferation. Don't Edit 03Q Oak wilt infection still hitting Michigan hard The state has been aggressively combating oak wilt with the help of federal grants and staff over the past several years. The fungal pathogen is in 46 Michigan counties, with addition of Allegen 2015 as the newest to the list. The disease mainly affects red oaks, including northern red oak, black oak and pin oak. Red oaks often die within a few weeks after becoming infected. The infection progresses more slowly in white oaks, which have greater resistance. Once an oak is infected, the fungus moves to neighboring trees through root grafts. The disease has hit state parks hard. Wounding of a red oak tree through carving initials, pruning branches, or natural means like storm damage between April and August makes the tree vulnerable to the disease, which is largely spread through sap-feeding beetles. Don't Edit Gun Lake Tribe Beech bark disease a long-term fight Since discovery in Michigan in 2000, beech bark disease (BBD) has spread widely through Michigan's forests. This disease is triggered by a white scale insect that attaches to bark and feeds on sap. Feeding damage allows fungi to invade the tree, which inhibits the flow of sap, causing a general decline in tree health and eventually death. Michigan has 7 million acres of beech-containing forests. The DNR began experimenting a few years ago with planting naturally disease-resistant trees in seedling orchards in an effort to develop genetically resistant trees. It's a "very long term" solution for saving the American beech species. Don't Edit MLive file photo Success so far on Asian longhorned beetle The Asian longhorned beetle is an exotic pest that attacks several species of North American hardwoods, including all species of maple. The beetle has been detected in New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Ontario, Canada. It has not been found in Michigan, although the DNR says a potentially devastating load of infested firewood is only a four-hour drive from our border. DNR testing focuses on trees near fire rings that may have been exposed to infested firewood. Zip codes are used to identify campsites visited by campers from infested states. Don't Edit Don't Edit MSU Jack pine budworm population continues to build Jack pine budworm populations continued to build slowly in 2015. There was a 15 percent increase in aerial survey detection of budworm defoliation in 2015. Most of the damage occurred in jack pine stands in the central and eastern areas of the northern Lower Peninsula. Approximately 1,000 acres of defoliation were also mapped on the east end of the Hiawatha National Forest in Chippewa County in the Upper Peninsula. In total, nearly 118,000 acres were defoliated by jack pine budworm in 2015. The jack pine budworm is a native insect to Michigan. Periodic outbreaks can lead to dieback and mortality in older, over-mature jack pine stands. Harvesting older stands of jack pine help reduce the risk of widespread mortality. Don't Edit Q All but 3 counties in ash borer quarantine The emerald ash borer continued its advance across the Upper Peninsula in 2015. With the addition of Baraga, Dickinson, Marquette and Menominee counties to the list of quarantined areas, only three of Michigan's 83 counties remain outside an area where it's illegal to remove ash material or hardwood firewood. The entire Lower Peninsula has been quarantined since 2006, when the state essentially wrote off the entire peninsula's ash population. Although people can freely move firewood throughout the Lower Peninsula, it's not advised because it can still be a vector for other hardwood tree diseases. The invasive beetle was first discovered in Michigan near Detroit in 2002 ground zero to the species North American invasion. Approximately 50 million Michigan ash trees have been killed or are dying from the beetle, which is thought to have arrived from Asia in shipping crates. It first turned up in the Upper Peninsula in 2005. Don't Edit 03Q New aerial survey mapping debuts The DNR and U.S. Forest Service conduct aerial detection surveys (ADS) for insect and disease damage over most of state forest land every year. Surveys are intensified in July when defoliation events are peaking. Large areas of defoliation caused by bugs like spruce budworm, jack pine budworm, aspen tortix, forest tent caterpillar and gypsy moth are mapped. Data helps monitor damage and changes in pest populations from year to year, and functions as an early detection tool for emerging problems. Data is uploaded into a national server used to inform tactical decisions by local forest managers on the ground. The state begins widespread use of a new Digital Mobile Sketch Mapping (DMSM) system this year. Don't Edit MLive file | Emily Zoladz Want to help? Adopt a 'sentinel' tree Backed by the Michigan Invasive Species Grant Program, foresters are trying to educate the public on the risk posed by invasive pests and seek help in early detection. Part of that involves creation of a "Sentinel Tree Network" across Michigan. Volunteers would agree to "adopt" an individual tree, then periodically monitor and report on the tree's condition 2 or 3 times a year. As the network expands, more "eyes" will be looking at trees for unusual signs or symptoms that may indicate a new invasive pest. Volunteers don't need to be professional foresters or arborists, but they should have enough expertise to identify the species of their tree, measure its diameter and assess its general condition. Volunteers submit information about their tree through the on-line MISIN website. To date, at least 100 people have volunteered to adopt a Sentinel Tree. For more information, contact Russell Kidd, Eyes on the Forest outreach coordinator at Michigan State University: kidd@msu.edu. KALAMAZOO, MI -- Big names will be making their way to Kalamazoo's very own Miller Auditorium, as revealed Wednesday evening during the 2016-2017 season announcement event PNC Broadway in West Michigan Series. The Broadway shows added to next season's schedule include "The Book of Mormon," the popular religious satire musical which follows two Mormon missionaries as they attempt to share their scriptures with the inhabitants of a remote Ugandan village. The nine-time Tony Award winning show will anchor the series and play a limited one week engagement Oct. 18-23, 2016. People will be especially thrilled to know that "The Lion King," one of the most requested titles that has yet to be performed at Miller, will be coming to Kalamazoo for the auditorium's 50th anniversary during their 2017-2018 season. According to The Lion King's website, over 80 million audience members worldwide have seen the show, which is the third longest-running Broadway play and has won 70 major theatre awards internationally. During its 2016-2017 season, Miller will also host "Dirty Dancing" Oct. 1 and 2, 2016, "RENT," which is currently on its 20th anniversary tour, Nov. 11-13, 2016, "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella" March 24-26, 2017, and "Motown the Musical" May 9-14, 2017. To set the stage for what's to come, Curtis Wiley Jr. and Moeisha McGill of "Motown the Musical" performed a few numbers from the show for people attending the event. Wiley and McGill have both been a part of the Motown family for a few years and have parts of the show that are special to them. For McGill, she loves to do Dancing in the Street: "It's one of my favorite songs. In the show, it's the time where you see things go from the street to the stage, as it shows the transition of Motown from its incubation period to when it becomes this amazing show." "The Jackson 5 were a critical part of the Motown legacy...When little Michael Jackson opens his mouth to sing, it's gonna feel like time stops, like someone has pressed the pause button on the universe," Wiley said. "You'll want to see it over and over and over again." Kathy Stuut and Maxine Gordon, attendees of the event, love making an evening of the theatre and always attend dinner before the shows. "I'm excited to see Dirty Dancing, because I love the movie!" Stuut exclaimed. "I could watch it over and over." Stuut was also pleased to see The Lion King on the list, as she's been waiting years to see it and will finally get the chance to do so. As for Gordon, she's looking forward to The Book of Mormon: "I've heard so much about it...just to think it's a musical!" PNC Broadway in West Michigan Subscriptions are available now. For more information, contact the Miller Auditorium Ticket Office at 269-387-2300, 1-800-228-9858 or online at www.millerauditorium.com. Chelsea Purgahn is a multimedia specialist for MLive. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter, and email her at cpurgahn@mlive.com. GRAND HAVEN, MI - Communication is the crux of human interaction It's how we learn. How we love. How we grow. Joy Gonzalez has lived her entire year life learning to communicate without the full function of her hearing. But recently, that all changed thanks to Casa de Esperanza, a charitable organization founded by the Bill and Lori DeWitt in 2004. It was the need to communicate across languages that brought Grand Haven residents Bill and Lori DeWitt and Joy Gonzalez, a 25-year-old graduate student from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, together. Fifteen years later, it's one of the reasons their partnership remains as strong as ever, despite the challenges they've faced along the way. Gonzalez has lived her entire life learning to communicate without the full function of her hearing. But recently, that all changed thanks to Casa de Esperanza, a charitable organization founded by the DeWitt's in 2004. The Grand Haven-based faith ministry serves the people of Honduras. Over the past 12 years, the organization has served 8,000 patients with free dental and medical care clinics, distributed more than 7,200 Bibles and provided 6,000 volunteer hours to those in need. Gonzalez was fitted with specialty hearing aids Feb. 12, a development that has opened up a world of sound she never dreamed she would hear. It's something she's still getting used to. "Everything is a new sound and new experience for me," she said. "I listen really different now, and it is a little bit difficult to adapt but I am trying to do my best." Flashback 15 years, though, and it was Gonzalez helping the DeWitts to communicate when she served as their interpreter during one of their annual "brigades" or mission trips to Honduras. Gonzalez has struggled with her hearing throughout her life. As a means of understanding her teachers during elementary, junior high and high school, she learned to read lips in both English and Spanish. During their many trips to Honduras, the Dewitts have learned of the hardships many people in the country of 8 million face. Many receive generic hearing aids that do not offer the maximum support required. This is exacerbated by the fact that there is no support to help patients maintain their hearing aids from normal wear and tear. Gonzalez was fitted with hearing aids two previous times in her native country at ages 10 and 13, but neither pair worked, resulting in years of frustration at school. "I remember in third grade one teacher said I could not remain in class because she did not have time to teach me," Gonzalez said. "I didn't understand this because I always had this problem in my life. I changed school, and my mom told me to save for my next hearing aids, and I didn't hear any better with them." Her fortune began to change upon meeting the DeWitts. The relationship led to Dr. Dan Fox, a Muskegon physician, fitting Gonzalez with her first American pair of hearing aids in 2007. That opened the door for her most recent fitting. Gonzalez will return to Honduras on March 1 where she will continue her education at Unitec University in San Pedro Sula. Having already achieved a four-year degree in marketing and international business, she is currently working toward an M.A. in finance and hopes to develop a foundation to help others who have hearing issues. "I think Casa de Esperanza is amazing," Gonzalez said. "I'm happy with what they do for the people of Honduras because they help people get an education, and I know how hard they work. I feel like I grew up with the help of Casa de Esperanza, and now I want to help people just like me as my way of giving back for all the blessings I received." The Dewitt's next brigade to Honduras will be in February 2017 where Gonzalez will once again serve as their interpreter. "Our goal is to bring hope to people in need throughout Honduras," Bill DeWitt said. "We promote self-sufficiency and spiritual growth through Christian-based supportive housing, training and skill development." Anyone interested in receiving further information should contact Lori DeWitt by phone at 616-846-7740 or Dr. Bill DeWitt at 616-318-6766 or on e-mail at: bdewittdds@gmail.com Brandon Champion is a journalist for MLive.com. Email him at bchampio@mlive.com and follow him Facebook and Twitter. BIRCH RUN, MI -- Presidential hopeful John Kasich plans to attend a GOP fundraiser in Saginaw County three days before Michigan's presidential primary. Kasich's campaign staff confirmed he would attend the Saturday, March 5, "Lincoln Day gala" in Birch Run on Wednesday, Feb. 24, according to event organizers. The fundraiser at the Birch Run Expo Center is put on by the Saginaw County Republican Party. The venue is located in the tiny village of Birch Run and, just six months ago, hosted thousands drawn for an appearance by GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. Buy tickets: Lincoln Day gala in Birch Run Tickets to the Lincoln Day event cost $50 each and give attendees access to a cash bar cocktail hour at 6 p.m. followed by a 7 p.m. dinner catered by Sullivan's Black Forest. Organizers from the county party invited all GOP presidential candidates, though they did not expect any to confirm in advance as Kasich has done. But with a GOP presidential debate in Detroit on March 3 and the Michigan primary on March 8, organizers anticipate a few of the candidates to stop by Birch Run as they work the state. "We have a lot to offer because we're right on the I-75 corridor," organizer Greg Schmid said. "I think we offer them a pretty good venue." In nationwide polling, Kasich has consistently trailed fellow candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, but recent polls have placed the Ohio governor ahead of Ben Carson. But in polls of Michigan primary voters Kasich is, on average, second only to Trump. At a recent campaign event in Georgia, Kasich reportedly said he wasn't sure if it was his "purpose" to be president in answer to a question from a man in the audience about frontrunner Donald Trump "running away" with voters. Despite that statement, Kasich remains in the race for the Republican nomination. Lincoln Day events are major annual fundraisers held by local Republican Party groups. Often held in the spring, Lincoln Day in Saginaw County was moved back to August in 2015 to accommodate an appearance by Trump. Related: Top 10 moments at Trump event in Birch Run Trump drew a sold-out crowd of more than 2,000 to the Birch Run Expo Center on Aug. 11 and helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for the Saginaw and Genesee County Republican parties. The prior Lincoln Day event was a March 2014 breakfast at the Saginaw Country Club that drew about 150 people. The March 5 event will be held at "The Loft" venue inside the Birch Run Expo Center. The 12,500-square-foot space can seat up to 400 people, according to the venue's website. The event features guest speeches from any presidential candidates who attend, a keynote address by U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, music by Justified Quartet, a "special tribute" to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a presidential primary straw poll and appearances by state Sen. Ken Horn, R-Frankenmuth, and state Reps. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw Township, and Gary Glenn, R-Larkin Township. Republican presidential candidates will attend a debate at the Fox Theatre in Detroit on March 3 and Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders plan to debate in Flint on March 6. Michigan's presidential primary takes place on Tuesday, March 8, as do primaries in Hawaii, Idaho and Mississippi. It puts the state relatively in the middle of the pack, in terms of the 2016 presidential primary season. Michigan's precedes primaries, caucuses or party conventions in 26 other states, but comes after the contests, including about a dozen states on March 1, known as "Super Tuesday." Mark Tower covers local government for MLive/The Saginaw News. Contact him at 989-284-4807, by email at mtower@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. MIDLAND, MI -- A small Midland County airport has been named "airport of the year" by the Michigan Department of Transportation. The MDOT Office of Aeronautics announced Tuesday, Feb. 23, that Midland's Jack Barstow Airport earned the honor this year. The airport was recognized for its efforts in promoting general aviation with the development of an observation and education gateway project, according to a press release from MDOT. MDOT Aeronautics Commission Director Michael Trout said the airport earned the award by "providing an opportunity to discover aviation programs and history while enjoying the dynamic airport environment." Airport manager Brian McManus accepted the award, and said the airport is helping ensure the next generation of aviation enthusiasts. The general aviation airport is located in northwest Midland, adjacent to the Midland County Fairgrounds and the Midland City Forest. Its airfield encompasses over 500 acres and serves the needs of 65 based pilots, many of whom fly for recreation and business. The airport has 2 runways, about 40 hangars and handles about 20,000 take-offs and landings each year. A 2,100-square-foot terminal building that opened in 2005 includes a pilot's lounge, a conference room and an aviation weather service to assist pilots with flight planning. Though owned by Midland's city government, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and State of Michigan provides the majority of funding for capitol improvements at the airport. The Office of Aeronautics on Tuesday also announced C&S Companies of Livonia was chosen for the Robert G. Peckham "Consultant of the Year" award. Recognized for their work in aviation engineering services and the development of a quality air transportation system, C&S Companies has served more than 100 airports across the country, ranging from small general aviation to commercial service and large hub to military installations. "C&S has been willing to be flexible with all stakeholders to deliver projects on schedule and under budget," Trout said. "They have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in the aviation industry." Accepting the award for the company was Sarah Underwood, Kelly Jost and Abeer Khatib. This is the 25th year the MDOT Office of Aeronautics has presented the awards, intended to recognize "outstanding service to Michigan aviation." Mark Tower covers local government for MLive/The Saginaw News. Contact him at 989-284-4807, by email at mtower@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. MIDLAND, MI -- The name of a Midland sailor who was killed while trying to save the life of a U.S. Marine in Afghanistan in 2011 will not be forgotten. Gov. Rick Snyder on Tuesday, Feb. 23, signed legislation that designates the U.S. 10 bridge over Eastman Avenue in Midland as the "Corpsman Aaron D. Ullom Memorial Bridge." Ullom was a 2009 Midland High School graduate serving on his first deployment overseas at the time of his death in 2011. When enemy fire came upon his patrol, the U.S. Navy hospital corpsman ran from cover in a shallow ditch to help an injured Marine. While applying a tourniquet, Ullom suffered a fatal gunshot wound. Related: 'Brave' sailor Aaron Ullom, 20, of Midland, killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan The U.S. Navy posthumously presented Ullom with the Purple Heart. His family and local lawmakers have worked toward naming the bridge after Ullom in an effort to permanently honor his sacrifice. State Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, is the bill's primary sponsor. "Our country remains the beacon of liberty in the world because of the courage of patriots like Corpsman Aaron Ullom, who too often make the ultimate sacrifice," Stamas said. Ullom's family expressed their support of Stamas' bill during both Senate and House transportation committee hearings. "My hope is that people will go by the bridge, see his name, smile and be proud of him and his service," said Debi Ullom, Aaron's mother. "He would say that he doesn't deserve this, but I believe that he earned this honor." The Michigan House of Representatives on Feb.9 approved Senate Bill 513 in a 105-0 vote, sending the bill to Snyder's desk. The Michigan Senate had previously passed Stamas' bill in December, in a 37-0 vote. With Snyder's signature, the bill became Public Act 21 of 2016. "This memorial bridge is about showing our tremendous appreciation for Aaron's service and dedication to the country he loved," Stamas said. "May it long stand as a permanent reminder of a native son and American hero who gave his life saving a fellow soldier in defense of our freedom." A life remembered: U.S. Navy Corpsman Aaron 'Doc' Ullom died saving the life of a Marine State Reps. Gary Glenn, R-Larkin Township, and Tom Barrett, R-Potterville, spoke in support of the bill on the House floor. "When Ullom was on duty in Afghanistan, in combat with the Taliban, he was under cover," Glenn said. "But when his commanding officer was hit, he left his cover to provide first aid to his commanding officer and, in the performance of that duty, lost his life in 2011." Barrett, chairman of the House Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, said Ullom's actions serve as a "great reflection" of the commitment among the military's men and women to give up their lives to help those serving alongside them. "Our corpsmen and our medics are asked great things on the battlefield, and this is a reflection of the true risks that they take everyday on the battlefield," he said. Glenn petitioned for the support of his colleagues in the House. "I ask the House for its support to honor this son of Michigan who did something that used to be a value that all shared, and he obviously still did," he said. "To do his duty to his country, to the Marines to which he was assigned, even at the cost of his life." Stamas pointed out that the naming of the bridge will have no fiscal impact on state or local government. Under state law, the Michigan Department of Transportation can place markers indicating the name of a memorial bridge only "when sufficient private contributions are received to completely cover the cost of erecting and maintaining those markers." Mark Tower covers local government for MLive/The Saginaw News. Contact him at 989-284-4807, by email at mtower@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. LANSING, MI -- A state lawmaker from Midland will lead a joint committee tasked with reviewing the circumstances surrounding the Flint water crisis and preventing it from happening again. State Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, will serve as chairman of the Joint Committee on the Flint Water Public Health Emergency, according to a press release from Stamas' office. Stamas promised to work toward the committee's goals of taking testimony on the mistakes "at all levels of government" that led to the situation in Flint and exploring potential solutions to prevent a similar disaster in the future. "Every Michigan resident deserves effective government at all levels and assurance that it meets its primary purpose -- protecting the public's health and safety," he said. "No parent should have to worry about the safety of their children's drinking water. I share the frustration and outrage that so many people feel about the breakdowns that led to this terrible situation." Stamas' 36th Senate District includes the counties of Alcona, Arenac, Gladwin, Iosco, Midland, Montmorency, Oscoda, Otsego and Presque Isle. Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, and Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter, R-Mount Pleasant, announced the creation of the joint committee on Tuesday, Feb. 23. "This new committee will allow us to work together to review the investigative findings from this crisis and build solutions that help this community move forward," said Cotter. The joint committee will provide recommendations for legislative action after reviewing the findings of ongoing investigations into the Flint water emergency. Its work will begin once it has received and reviewed the results of the first investigation, expected to be completed within the next few weeks. Cotter said Tuesday that the Michigan Auditor General and others are conducting the investigation. The new joint committee is made up of three members from each chamber of the Michigan Legislature, two of whom are Democrats and four of whom are Republicans. In addition to Stamas, its members are: * Rep. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan (co-vice chair) * Sen. Jim Ananich, D-Flint (co-vice chair) * Sen. Joe Hune, R-Hamburg * Rep. Ed Canfield, R-Sebewaing * Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor Ananich, the ranking Democrat on the committee and a Flint city resident, said the Michigan Legislature has a responsibility in "getting to the bottom of this crisis" and preventing anything like it from happening again. "We are the officials most directly accountable to the citizens affected, so we should not rely on the findings of others who are just now looking into the situation from a number of different angles," he said. "At the same time, we can't go into these hearings with one hand tied behind our backs. We need to have every tool available to us, including subpoena power, and no potential solution should be off limits. The people of my community deserve nothing less." The state senator introduced a resolution, SR 133, on Feb. 20 that would grant the committee subpoena power. The resolution was referred to the Senate Committee on Government Operations. Ananich also suggested the joint committee be divided equally by political parties to avoid the appearance of partisanship and to hold at least one of its hearings in the city of Flint. He has stressed that every issue should be fair game -- including, but not limited to, calling any witness, considering changes to the emergency manager law or discussing the gaps in the current FOIA exemptions. Federal lawmakers have already began their investigation into the crisis. The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform previously heard testimony from Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards, Flint resident LeeAnne Walters, and officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and DEQ. That committee is expected to also hear testimony from Gov. Rick Snyder and former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley. The House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee has also taken testimony from individuals connected to the crisis Mark Tower covers local government for MLive/The Saginaw News. Contact him at 989-284-4807, by email at mtower@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. SAGINAW, MI -- The Saginaw County government joined many schools, businesses and other offices Wednesday, Feb. 24, in announcing its offices would close early due to worsening weather conditions. Saginaw County Controller Robert Belleman reported all county governmental offices closed early Wednesday, at 4 p.m., and will remain closed all day Thursday, Feb. 25. The snowstorm is expected to dump up to 10 inches on much of Michigan Wednesday. Winter storm: Complete coverage It didn't start snowing in Saginaw until about 9:15 a.m. Wednesday, but area schools were closed all day in anticipation of a potentially dangerous afternoon commute. According to MLive Chief Meteorologist Mark Torregrossa, road conditions could prove dangerous for motorists later in the day Wednesday through Thursday, Feb. 25. Interstate 75 could be hit particularly hard. If you must drive on I-75 Wednesday or Thursday, check these live traffic web camera images from the Michigan Department of Transportation first. Track the storm sweeping across Michigan with this live regional radar: Get more weather updates from MLive's Mark Torregrossa here. Mark Tower covers local government for MLive/The Saginaw News. Contact him at 989-284-4807, by email at mtower@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. Mideast Iran US FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007 file photo A veiled Iranian woman walks past graffiti art characterizing the U.S. Statue of Liberty, painted on the wall of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. A U.S. citizen whose son has been detained in Iran for the past four months was also taken into custody after returning to the country this week, his lawyer confirmed Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Baquer Namazi and his son Siamak Namazi, who is believed to be detained since October in Iran, are dual U.S.-Iranian citizens. However, Iranian authorities do not recognize dual nationality and treat such citizens as exclusively Iranian. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, FIle) (Vahid Salemi) TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- A U.S. citizen whose son has been detained in Iran for the past four months was also taken into custody after returning to the country this week, his lawyer confirmed Thursday in what is the first such action against an American national in Iran since last month's prisoner swap between the two countries. The Iranian lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabei, told The Associated Press that he has not been able to make contact with his client, Baquer Namazi, despite his efforts and was told by authorities that he would "be informed later" about the case. The ailing, 80-year-old Namazi is being held in Tehran's Evin prison, he added. Tabatabei said he believes it is unlikely Namazi, who was detained on Monday, will face "political charges" but that he is probably held "for some investigation only." "It is unlikely that he will be charged," the lawyer said, without elaborating. Both Baquer Namazi and his son Siamak Namazi, who is believed to be detained since October in Iran and also is held in Evin prison, are dual U.S.-Iranian citizens. However, Iranian authorities do not recognize dual nationality and treat such citizens as exclusively Iranian. Tabatabei said he was asked to represent both Namazis by Effie Namazi, Baquer's wife. He has not made contact with the son either, he also said, and only learned from Effie Namazi that her son faces accusations of "cooperation with the hostile government of the United States." The son's case is still in the "preliminary investigation" phase, the lawyer said. He added that he intends to argue that since Iran is not at war with any country, there is no "hostile" nation toward Iran. Earlier this week, Siamak broke a "several days-long hunger strike" after his mother was able to reach him by phone and persuaded him to give up the fasting, Tabatabei said. The Namazi family and friends first reported the news of Baquer's arrest on Wednesday. "I must share the shocking and sad news that Baquer was arrested," Effie Namazi wrote in a Facebook post. "Now both my innocent son Siamak and my Baquer are in prison for no reason. This is a nightmare I can't describe." Effie said he husband suffers from "serious heart and other conditions" that require medication. Appearing at a Senate panel hearing Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he was engaged on the matter but couldn't comment because of privacy considerations. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. Department of State has "no higher priority than the protection of U.S. citizens overseas" and takes its obligation to assist U.S. citizens abroad seriously. According to Haleh Esfandiari, a friend of the family and a Mideast expert at the Wilson Center, Baquer Namazi worked for the United Nations and at one point as a World Bank consultant, while also being a civil society activist. Esfandiari, who was detained herself in Iran for more than three months in 2007, expressed shock at the detention, describing Baquer as a "not at all political" person who consistently spoke out against U.S.-led economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The family lived outside New York for a period after the Islamic Revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah in 1979, though later returned to Iran, she said. According to a Daily Beast article last year, the family has played a key role in trying to bridge ties between the long-time foes. It said Baquer Namazi was a governor of the oil-rich province of Khuzestan under the shah who was allowed to emigrate to the U.S. in 1983. Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman who also advocated a warmer U.S.-Iranian relationship, was not included in January's prisoner exchange that saw five American freed from Iranian prison and U.S. sentences, charges or warrants dropped against 21 Iranians in a deal that Kerry helped finalize. Those allowed to leave Iran included Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian. Iran denies having any knowledge of the whereabouts of Robert Levinson, a former FBI investigator who disappeared in the country in 2007. The younger Namazi had been specifically criticized in hard-line commentary ahead of his arrest as Iranian conservatives warned against easing hostilities with the U.S. He also had written several articles about international sanctions on Iran. In a 2013 opinion piece published by The International Herald Tribune, he described shortages of medical supplies and urged the West to "relax and rationalize" the restrictions so such goods could reach Iran. Nations removed many oil, trade and financial sanctions on Tehran after last month's U.N. confirmation that Iran had rolled back its nuclear program in accordance with last year's seven-nation agreement. After his release, Rezaian said his Iranian interrogators told him over his 18 months in detention that his newspaper didn't know of his plight and the U.S. government wouldn't lift a finger for his release. Oil Spill on Grand River Workers under the supervision of the Department of Environmental Quality and other agencies deploy an oil boom on the Grand River near Jackson in May 2014 after hundreds of gallons spilled in the downtown area. The writer argues that Gov. Rick Snyder should redirect the DEQ to its primary job of protecting the environment. (MLive.com files) Chris Kolb Chris Kolb is president of the Michigan Environmental Council. By Chris Kolb The Flint water crisis has underscored the important regulatory role played by the Department of Environmental Quality and the consequences when it fails to do its job. Following the resignation of the former DEQ director, the department needs a strong leader to take the helm and restore public trust in its willingness and ability to protect the health of Michigan families and our environment. I've worked in Lansing a long time -- as a state representative, as president of the nonprofit Michigan Environmental Council and in other public policy roles -- and I can't remember another period when the DEQ was so sorely in need of a culture change. The department's current, minimalist approach to regulatory oversight -- one in which mere "technical compliance" is good enough -- must evolve into an approach that truly protects the public. It's up to Gov. Rick Snyder to appoint a new leader who will build a more responsive, respected and effective department. From my perspective, here's what he should expect from a new director: Embrace the DEQ mission. In recent years there has been a notable shift at DEQ away from environmental protection and toward economic development. The state already has an agency to do that -- it's called the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. One is enough. While there is an obvious need to balance protection with development, it is often falsely framed as an either-or choice -- as if healthy people and a healthy environment aren't part of a vibrant economy. The new director must put DEQ's focus back on its primary job of protecting human health and the environment. No other agency has that role. Simply doing a better job is not enough. The next DEQ director should aim to develop the top environmental protection agency in the country. That's how high the bar must be set if we are to restore Michigan's reputation after Flint and protect our Pure Michigan way of life. Aspiring to be number one will also help the department attract and retain the best and brightest employees. Empower staff with clear expectations. For obvious reasons, the new director must be well-versed in the issues and policies involved in environmental protection. Just as importantly, she or he must develop clear policy goals and a clear plan to accomplish those goals in a transparent manner. The director must also ensure that DEQ staff has the necessary resources, skill sets and experience to achieve the department's mission, goals and objectives. The new leader must empower employees to make decisions based on clear expectations and well-formulated and understood criteria. This is especially true in the permitting process. DEQ staff needs a clear understanding of what is required of permit applicants, and why, so they can make decisions with confidence and a firm footing in sound policy. That's also good for businesses, which want assurance that, if they meet certain requirements, they will receive their permit. And it's good for the public, who deserve to know their health and environment are being protected through a transparent process that sets clear permit requirements and terms of enforcement. Reconnect with scientists and health experts. The next leader must break down bureaucratic silos within the department and barriers between DEQ and related agencies like the DNR and the Department of Health and Human Services. Better collaboration between departments will ensure that decisions are made with good input from scientists, health professionals and natural resource experts. We cannot allow important decisions to be made in isolation from additional perspectives and information that can greatly improve outcomes for our environment and public health. Only by emphasizing these priorities can the incoming director rebuild the public trust--and even trust within the department--that has been shattered by the Flint crisis. Michiganders must have confidence that, when a decision is made, the department is truly looking out for human health and the environment. That will be a long, uphill climb. To get there, Gov. Snyder must appoint a director who will rededicate the department to its primary mission; empower DEQ employees to pursue that mission; secure the resources and expertise needed to achieve it; and work with partners to get the job done. That's the only way to mend the DEQ's broken reputation and attract smart, talented people to help the department provide the quality of life Michigan residents deserve. Do you have a guest column on a statewide topic to share? Email Opinion Curator Dan Hawkins at dhawkins@mlive.com. And be sure to check out our guidelines for submission. AUBURN HILLS -- This one wasn't much of a game. The Detroit Pistons opened up a large lead early and never surrendered it en route to a 111-91 toppling of the Philadelphia 76ers Wednesday night at The Palace of Auburn Hills. The win, Detroit's second in a row, moves the Pistons (29-29) back to .500. Afterward, Stan Van Gundy complimented his team's defensive effort to reporters, saying they played about 42 minutes of it to his liking. They held the 76ers (8-49) to 39.8 percent shooting and 33 percent through the first three quarters. Philadelphia scored 42 first-half points and didn't crack 50 until 5:50 remaining in the third quarter. Only one Philadelphia starter scored in double figures, rookie Jahlil Okafor, with 13 points. The remainder of the starting lineup combined for 28 points. The Pistons also outrebounded the 76ers 50-40 and held them to 11 second-chance points. You can watch a portion of Van Gundy's postgame news conference by clicking the video above. -- Download the Detroit Pistons on MLive app for iPhone and Android -- Like MLive's Detroit Pistons Facebook page As the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) prepares to start working alongside National League for Democracy-appointed ministers, Keiichiro Nakazawa, JICAs chief representative in Myanmar, spoke to The Myanmar Times about policies, priorities and the NLDs options for reform. Does the fact that the new government has so much popular support make it more likely that the Japanese government, through JICA, and Japans private sector will want to support Myanmar? We are very excited that the new government will be formed based upon the results of a free and fair election and will work for the people. I have great respect for the reform efforts made by the current [Union Solidarity and Development Party] government what they have done is really remarkable. But at the same time I have great respect for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD who have struggled for decades to achieve democracy in this country, and I believe everyone including Japans parliament and private sector is trying to fully and sincerely assist the new government to make Myanmar a more stable and prosperous country. Some Japanese firms seem concerned about how the new government and its policies might affect how they do business in Myanmar. Are they right to be concerned? I am pretty optimistic about contributions that Japanese firms will make to Myanmar under the new government. NLD economic committee members clearly told us that they are willing to invite foreign private direct investment. Given that the new government seems very interested in Yangon urban development, for example, Japanese firms experience in making densely populated urban areas more functional using efficient and environmentally friendly public transportation systems would definitely make a big difference. Who have you been working with in the NLD? We have had many discussions with the NLDs economic committee, which is one of the central focal points for discussion on many economic policy priorities, but there are others such as the national health network, education committee, farmers affairs committee and labour committee, which we have contacted. Were comfortable talking with NLD representatives across the different areas, although it will only be after the ministers are selected that well meet our government counterparts for formal decision-making. Are you concerned about policy decision-making being overly centralised under the NLD government? My sense from our discussions with NLD members on many policy points is that they are very freely discussing the issues at hand. I dont get the sense of any constraint or restrictions on what they can consider and express, which means they can freely debate the effects of policies on peoples welfare and can make decisions. Weve discussed with the current government how to better delegate authority within each ministry and the demarcation of responsibility among various ministers in order to make efficient and quick decisions. People in the various ministries understand the bottlenecks and constraints and have tried to streamline decision-making procedures, and I think this could be enhanced under the new government. People in the NLD have also told us that a bottom-up approach could be one clear difference between the new government and the USDP, which was characterised more by top-down decision-making. On the economic development front, what are the priorities for JICA? Japan has been focusing on the Thilawa special economic zone [near Yangon]. That could be a priority after the new government is formed, as it could be a model case for inviting foreign direct investment and become an engine for economic growth and for creating employment. But power supply and water supply will be critical and that could be a priority in terms of infrastructure. How much agreement is there between international financial institutions over the approach to developing the power sector? The Asian Development Bank has been working on the Energy Master Plan, the World Bank has worked on the National Electrification Plan aimed at providing electricity to all villages across the country and we worked on the National Electricity Master Plan. All three agencies worked extensively together as some areas are very much related. There are of course some points that need further discussion. These include how to make tariffs more reasonable and how to improve the organisational structure of the power sector. Some may say that some functions of ministries need to be privatised or corporatised, or that the generation and transmission of power needs to be handled by different agencies. But these are always points for debate. What does JICA suggest is done to reform the tariff system? Tariffs in Myanmar are lower than in most other countries in the region. There are subsidies and cross-subsidies from the industrial sector to the domestic sector. But thats the case in many countries across the world. Whats important is that the government clearly understands the pros and cons of different subsidies and approaches. In other countries in which Ive worked subsidies aimed at helping poor people benefit the rich instead. If a subsidy is clearly aimed at helping poor people to access power and is achieving that aim, thats the important thing. But cross-subsidies should not be the default position. The situation in Myanmar needs to be reviewed so that subsidies are clearly targeted for certain groups rather than across the board. JICA is heavily involved in addressing Yangons traffic issues. What are the priorities there? Were very concerned about the traffic, and weve assisted the Ministry of Rail Transportation, Yangon Region government and YCDC in working out an urban development plan and urban transport master plan. A few of our suggestions have been implemented under the current government, and we want the new government to look at these plans more carefully. Were assisting the improvement of the circular railway, and have recommended building inner and outer ring roads. Flyovers are sometimes necessary but alone they cannot solve the problem. Yangon needs a combination of software and hardware. For example, on the software side the traffic signal system needs to be improved, and our traffic signal system experiments on the 8 Mile junction worked well. The current government also tried to adopt our suggestion for a new Bus Rapid Transport (BRT), which is a good start. But the current trial of just two BRT bus routes is just a small part of our recommendations. There are many bus companies or owners operating different lines and sometimes duplicating services. Streamlining the bus route system is important, but we also need to provide incentives to bus drivers and companies to follow traffic rules. We hope the new parliament will carefully review our recommendations, and apply them. Express ferry services between two major towns in Tanintharyi Region have been forced to close as the regions road network improves, rendering the service unnecessary, according to local operators. The boats made their last journey in January after operating for nearly two decades, according to industry sources. Three companies Ayeyarnaddy, Hifi Express and Fortune Express had been running a regular service of 10 ferries since 1999. Each company ran one daily ferry from Dawei to Myeik to Kawthaung, transporting between 100 and 200 passengers each day. However, as the regions road networks have improved, the demand for ferry services have fallen, said the manager of Hifi Express, who wanted to remain anonymous. New border gates with Thailand at Mawtaung and Htee Khee have also encouraged passengers to travel by road rather than sea. At the end of 2015 when the weather was not so good we still had passengers who wanted to take the ferry, he said. But this year, there has been no demand. We dont know when we can start running the business again. In the meantime we have to pay the cost of staff and maintenance. The ferry, which previously left from Sin Phyu Pin village in Thayetchaung township, 8 miles from Dawei, would leave at 5am and reach Kawthaung at around 3pm, said local resident Ko Zaw. Three years ago one journey on the ferry cost K70,000 but the fees were cut to K40,000 three years ago, he said. In the past, the service was particularly popular with people who wanted to migrate illegally into Thailand and Malaysia via Kawthaung, said local Dawei residents. However, the new border gate at Htee Khee cut the travel time, distance and fees by nearly half for those travelling from Dawei, compared with the ferry trip, said the Hifi Express manager. The gate is four hours by bus from Dawei. The route has become popular with migrant workers as it is possible to pass through the gate with a temporary passport, he said. As Myanmar's fashion world grows larger and more colourful, a host of talented individuals are making their mark including the men and women behind the camera. The Myanmar Times spoke with three of the industry's most popular photographers to find out what makes them click. Jason Kyaw Zay Ya has been Jason since one of his teachers at Singapore University told him it was easier to pronounce. He got his diploma in Communication Design at Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts. Photography was my minor back then. I took it up as a major at RMIT University, Melbourne, in 2010-13, he said. He founded his photo studio Sense in 2013 and started working as a photographer for local fashion magazines. The clothes you choose, the way you style, shows who you are. People judge by first impressions before you even start talking. Thats why fashion is very important for me, for you, for everyone. My biggest challenge? We dont have enough professionals stylists, creative directors and you have to try to get the audience to understand what fashion editorial means. It took some doing. Fashion editorial is not about how nice the models look, its more about creation, he says. His favourite photographer is Matthew Rolston. Hes not just a photographer, he also works as an art director. I like the way his work is always unique, and the way he always works with his own crew. Good fashion photography or editorial needs a good team behind it stylist, designer, make-up artist, model, and photographer. If you can achieve that, it doesnt feel like work any more. Everyone has their own strengths and weakness, but its teamwork that counts. In the end, we just help each other out. Maybe more international brands will come in Myanmar over the next 10-15 years. As soon as the industry moves forward, everything else will get a boost. Its very hard to set up a shoot with internationally recognised brands. Styling clothes from international labels with your own creation and featuring that editorial on international platforms will help our industry grow. He selects equipment depending on the location. Normally I would always bring two flashlights, a reflector and my lens. Each shoot is different. A photo shoot takes time. Including preparation, it can go on all day. Post-processing takes even longer. I set aside two to three days for each editorial or shoot, he said. I want my clients to be aware of how I work before they come to me. I think each photographer has different art directions. Aung Kyaw Tun This Yangon-based fashion and commercial photographer has always had a passion for fine arts, and has developed his photography skills over the years. I had an opportunity to start as a professional photographer when the editor-in-chief of MODA saw my work and asked me to start shooting fashion editorials for the magazine. Since then his work has featured regularly in magazines, commercials and other media. Fashion means expressing your individuality or identity through your style, he says. He studied graphic design in university and worked on a few photography projects and workshops as part of his coursework. I am mostly self-taught from tutorials and books, but I started learning photography when I did it for a living. Favourites include Richard Avedon, Mario Testino and Annie Leibovitz. My biggest challenge has been the lack of creative freedom and not being able to express my aesthetic and creative mind to the full, he said. Its all about teamwork. Every role in the team is important in creating a great image. Fashion is a constantly evolving industry, and keeping up is hard. People can lose their way while trying to fit in. Staying true to yourself is very important, he said. Every shoot is different, so the lighting equipment is varied. A reflector and a soft box will be enough for most shoots, he said. I find retouching photos is much easier than taking photos. A great fashion photograph is not only capturing an image but also telling the story behind the image and provoking emotion, he said. Communication with my clients is very important in order to create a great working experience. Understanding each others perspective and negotiating terms is mostly what I work on before a photo shoot. Haw Kham Win Originally from Shan State, Haw Kham Win lives in Mandalay, where he graduated from the University of Medicine. A lifelong fan of movies, he now likes to expose features and ideas. I capture various lifestyles and personalities in different ways. This is particularly interesting when you use an SLR camera. He has experimented with various lighting techniques. I learned by myself, and also in Shanghai, Beijing and Bangkok. He acknowledges many influences. Ive learned from different photographers. I really respect their skills, ideas and technique. Theyve helped me improve. For him fashion is not just a word: Its alive all around us. A Mandalay-based fashion photographer since 2014, he shuttles between Mandalay and Yangon. Im very fond of Myanmar traditional styles and I think there are one or two things we can teach the world. Our lifestyle can be very interesting and exciting. Everybody has different ideas, in commercials, in fashion, in creation. Stylists, models and designers are very good in their fields, he said. An excellent creation cannot be produced by one person working alone. More and more people are getting interested in fashion. And I think the world is getting more interested in our Myanmar fashion, he said. Typically, he travels light to a photo-shoot, taking only one camera, one reflector and one flash. Normally I only do one shoot a day. Before I start, I have to make the preparations, in discussion with the stylist, the make-up artist and the designer. Archeological research from the French Archeological Mission together with Myanmar archeologists over the past three years has unearthed a series of Bronze Age cemeteries and a settlement in upper Myanmar. Last week, on February 17, Pryce, director of Mission Archeologique Francaise au Myanmar (MAFM) who leads the mission, and his team presented their findings at the French Institute in Yangon. Their research, conducted from 2014 to 2016, has provided a unique look into life in the Nyaunggan Bronze Age. Bronze Age settlements in Southeast Asia are very rare. There are maybe four in Thailand and a couple in southern Vietnam. It seems that the settlement sites in Oakaie village are very big, Pryce said. Excavations to the south of Oakaie village in Butalin township in Sagaing Region have indentified where Bronze Age people lived and shows that many of them worked in the production of stone adzes, beads and bracelets. Pryce said the findings should be a source of proud for the people for Myanmar and that they allow for the recovery of valuable information about the ways of life of our ancestors. Myanmar people should be proud of these sites. It is quite special and [the sites] should be protected because they are very easily damaged. Unfortunately, agriculture and illegal looting tend to destroy sites as a whole and the potential information about the past is lost forever, Pryce said. The MAFM was founded in 1998 when the Mandalay Department of Archaeology, under the Myanmar Ministry of Culture, excavated an ancient cemetery on the northwest corner of an extinct volcanic crater at Nyaung-gan, also in Butalin township. The burials contained stone, pottery and bronze grave goods. In 1999, Myanmar archaeologists invited regional specialists, including professor Jean-Pierre Pautreau from the French National Center for Scientific Research, to assist the Myanmar teams and to form research partnerships. The joint teams first excavation took place in 2001 at Hnaw Kan, an Iron Age cemetery located at the northern end of the Samon Valley in upper Myanmar where they found glass, carnelian and agate beads. Whereas Professor Pautreau concentrated on Myanmars Iron Age, I wanted to investigate the Bronze Age. We wanted to do this to understand the prehistoric transition, compared to the neighboring countries Thailand and China, said Pryce. In 2013, Pryces team excavated the Iron Age cemetery at Kan Gyi Gon, 50-60 kilometres west of the Samon Valley south of Mandalay, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture. They excavated 53 inhumations together with burial shrouds, coffins and funerary jars. The archeologists used a bucket flotation technique to recover tiny fragments of charcoal which enabled them to determine that the cemetery was dated about 500-200 BC, except for the burial jar of one infant that was from about 1000-840 BC, possibly the Bronze Age. At the National Museum in Nay Pyi Taw, many of the excavations are on display. As the oldest foreign archaeological collaborative project in Myanmar, I was extremely proud to see that the Myanmar-French archaeological team was responsible for excavating 80 to 90 percent of the Iron Age sites presented in the Prehistoric Gallery, Pryce said. Its not just hot season thats on the way: Stand-Up Yangon is coming back to 50th Street Bar & Restaurant on March 1 after a hiatus for the years shortest month. Also returning is the events headliner, Daniel-Ryan Spaulding, who delivered a lights-out show on December 8 that left the audience falling out of chairs and in one case, bounding up on stage for some unexpected participation. One of the first openly gay comedians to tour in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, the Canadian-Croatian comedian has received accolades in more than 40 countries over the global comedy circuit. Fresh from the Fringe World Festival in Perth with stops along the way in Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia Spaulding is sure to come bearing the bold, confessional material and high-energy persona that delighted Yangon patrons last year. Local audiences will also be excited to welcome back Myanmar-born comedian Nigel Tu. Currently the leading Myanmar comedian in Beijing a selective category, by his own admission Tu is known for a deadpan, short-story style punctuated by stick-with-you one-liners that has carried him to stages across Asia, and earned the designation of One to Watch by Time Out Beijing. As usual, the headliners will be supported by a selection of Yangons own expatriate stand-ups to warm up the audience with stories and observations about life in Myanmar. So if your Tuesday-night schedule is looking predictably free, ward off the rising temperatures with a cold drink, good company and a great laugh. The next instalment of Stand-Up Yangon is March 1 at 50th Street Bar & Restaurant. Tickets are K8000 in advance, and K10,000 at the door. Cost of ticket includes one Carlsberg draught. For reservations, contact 01-397060, or see the events Facebook page for more details. While walking down Nawaday past trendy coffee shops like Press Office, Craft and Easy, I realised that True Coffee had moved into a crowded neighbourhood, one packed with already-beloved coffee joints. Surely, the Thai chain had something special, something to set it apart from its competition down the block. If you make the same assumption, may I warn you the only thing that sets True Coffee apart is the sound of screaming throngs of school-children pulsing from the school across the street. (Teachers be warned: True offers no escape from students.) That, and its utter lack of atmosphere. We tested out this particular caffeine joint in the context of a pre-work fix, so the atmosphere needed to be cool, calm and reticent enough not to rattle our uncaffeinated nerves. Given the total lack of patronage, it was all of the above perhaps to a fault. In fact, our relative unease came not from the lack of joe in our bloodstreams, but instead from the lack of background noise. Even a throwback to Norah Jones circa 2009 wouldve been an improvement over the sound of echoing footsteps. The cavernous interior, complete with numerous wobbling tables and uncomfortable chairs, gave the impression of a place expecting to be jam-packed, though youll soon learn why it wasnt. The decor in this coffee shop leaves much to be desired, but my favourite feature was the recipe for a mojito on the wall. Our attempts to order one were unsuccessful. The entire staff nervously came to observe us placing our orders I would be on edge too after enduring three hours in the hollow silence of that wood-panelled lair. Their menu offered selections that could, if executed properly, take a coffee-shop junkie easily from breakfast through to dinner. Yet somehow, after just moments inside, my guest and I were ready to leave. We opted to ignore the pasta and rice menu (about K5800 per plate) and looked to the sandwich offerings for more time-appropriate dishes. One typo on their menu read build your own, which should be corrected to say take what we have or dont have. The building process is purportedly meant to go as such: bread, dressing, vegetables, meat and then cheese. For the panini (K5500), there was only once choice of bread. Since I opted out of the meat (ham or bacon) I asked for all of the vegetables (wilted iceberg lettuce, tomato, black olive, onion). Their dressing list, according to the cashier, was no dressings and their wide selection of cheeses included and was entirely limited to cheddar. My guest ordered the ham, bacon and cheese club sandwich (K5200) on whole wheat with much to his disappointment an Americano (K3000), not a coffee. Surprisingly, for a chain that sounds as though it would serve some true coffee, their entire menu consists of espresso- or sugar-based drinks. At least the espresso was decent. The food arrived on wood chopping boards a nice touch and gave the impression of a rustic meal worth diving into. To be fair, the food looked much better than it turned out to be. The panini, completely devoid of grill char, left much to be desired. That is, unless you enjoy melted pre-sliced packaged cheese product with the saddest array of standard salad veg between slices of white bread. Even if I was a meat eater, I doubt bacon could have saved this poor excuse for a sandwich. My guests club sandwich was an enjoyable stack and properly imitated the joy of feasting on a true club. However, none of the ingredients were particularly good on their own and he noted that the bacon was terrible for Western standards but does a decent job representing itself in Myanmar. Take that how you will. True Coffee could really benefit from a smoothie menu but their closest item is under the Blended Cream category and is a syrupy strawberry concoction. I was particularly excited for the iced Thai tea (K3900) from their Traditional Thai drink menu. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, it ended up being sickeningly sweet even for Thai standards and outrageously overpriced considering that the street equivalent in Bangkok goes for under US$1 and is made from actual brewed tea. In the end, I finally realised what set this particular coffee chain apart from the steep Nawaday competition: laminate wood panelling, and lots of it. It lines the floors and the walls and does much to enhance the sounds of your footsteps as you walk out the door for the first and last time. True Coffee 5C, ground floor, Grand Nawaday Condo, Nawaday Street, Dagon township Restaurant Rating: 1.5/5 stars Food: 3 Drink: 4 X-factor: 1 Value: 3 Service: 7 The Ministry of Culture has backpedalled on a decision to ban visitors from ascending pagodas in Bagan. The edict, announced on February 22, prompted criticism from the tourism industry as well as from within the ministry. In barely 24 hours the ministry clarified its position, saying visitors would be banned from ascending all but five pagodas its previous policy. The ministry took the unpopular original decision because a medical company had conducted a cultural show on Pyathagyi Pagoda in the second week of February. It was to come into effect on March 1. We allowed it back as usual, said U Zaw Zaw Tun, a director in the Ministry of Culture, without providing any further explanation. Even Deputy Minister for Culture Daw Sandar Khin was critical of the decision. She posted on Facebook that she had not been consulted on the decision and it did not represent her views. They sent the announcement letter on the evening of February 22 and then they posted it on the ministrys Facebook pages without getting suggestions and opinions, she said. Visitors will still be allowed to ascend Shwesandaw, Thitsarwady, Pyathetgyi, Taung Guni and Myauk Guni. Bagan-based Ministry of Culture official U Thein Lwin said decisions of this nature required consultations. We need the views of people from many sectors, like culture, tourism and the general public. A decision like this cannot just be implemented by one [department], said the deputy director general of the Department of Archaeology, National Museum and Library. He said stakeholders, the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, and travel associations should be included in talks. Were working on implementing a better policy for the future. This was a great example for public awareness, but it was wrong that they made such a sudden decision, U Thein Lwin said. Guides were happy that they were able to take tourists back on the temples within 24 hours after the ban. We very happy and delighted to return to climbing on Bagan pagodas and hope to get a better way to maintain the pagodas in the future, Ma Ghantgaw Naing, a guide for Italian tourists, said. The Myanmar government has said it will not respond to Amnesty Internationals annual report, in which the rights group yesterday criticised it for failing to address religious discrimination and human rights abuses. The report also alleged there was an ongoing climate of impunity for security forces. U Zaw Htay, a director in the Presidents Office, told The Myanmar Times that the government would not respond, but declined to give a reason. Ive already read the report. We wont respond and I cannot say any more, he said. In the annual report, Amnesty International touched on the countrys rising nationalism, the civil war, the limits of freedom of expression and assembly, and ongoing impunity for the military for human rights violations. The advocacy group accused the government of failing to address rising religious intolerance mainly against the countrys Muslims and incitement of further discrimination. The authorities failed to address incitement to discrimination and violence based on national, racial and religious hatred, the report said. The introduction of the four laws to protect nationality and religion, introduced by a Buddhist nationalist group known by its Myanmar acronym Ma Ba Tha, could entrench widespread discrimination and fuel further violence against minority groups, the report stated. It drew attention to the huge exodus of Muslims from Myanmars Rakhine State as a consequence of appalling living conditions in internally displaced persons camps. Amnesty International also voiced concern about the high number of prisoners of conscience still in jails, as well as the continued arrest of peaceful protestors, who are often persecuted under outdated and oppressive laws. While President U Thein Sein promised the reconstitution of a committee to examine the cases of remaining prisoners of conscience, the report called its formation into question. The new Prisoners of Conscience Affairs Committee would be promptly carrying out prisoners of conscience affairs at the grassroots level. However, by the end of the year, there was no information regarding its mandate, resources or activities and it was unclear whether it was operational, the report said. At the end of January this year, there were 88 political prisoners incarcerated while another 412 activists were on trial for political actions, according the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which had been included in the committee in 2013 but was not invited to participate again in 2015. The government excluded us [AAPP] when they formed the new committee and the committee hasnt held a meeting until today. So, we should say the committee is inactive, said U Tate Naing, AAPP secretary. Amnesty further criticised the government for obstructing access for aid agencies to conflict zones. It said the special rapporteur on human rights faced difficulties carrying out her mandate due to restrictions, while the government has refused to allow the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a country office. Downpours beyond the countrys northwestern border, along with deforestation, have created a significant surge in the level of the Ayeyarwady River, the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology warned yesterday. The river rose about 3.7 metres (12 feet) within 16 hours in Myitkyina, Kachin State, before falling 1.5m (5ft). Downstream at Bamaw and Katha, Sagaing Region, water levels rose about 2.4m (8ft) and fell 90 centimetres (3ft). The department has warned farmers cultivating the riverbanks and fishermen and other boat users to be on the alert for a further rise of about 1.5m (5ft) around Katha within the next two days. A rise of 1.5-1.8m (5-6ft) is also predicted in Mandalay, Sagaing, Myinmu, Pakokku and Nyaung Oo in Mandalay and Sagaing regions during next two to four days. Over the next five to 10 days, a rise of about 1.5m (5ft) is expected in Chauk, Minbu, Magwe, Aunglan, Pyay, Seiktha, Hinthada and Zalun, Ayeyarwady Region. Meteorologist U Tun Lwin posted on his Facebook page on February 22 that continuous rain northwest of the border, upstream of the Malikha River, would bring a surge. Transboundary rainwater and deforestation will raise river water levels, he wrote. Health officials are preparing to treat the effects of high temperatures as warnings of a powerful El Nino effect continue to multiply. Following a planning meeting last week in Nay Pyi Taw, treatment guidelines have been drawn up and hospitals alerted in the lower and central Myanmar. Dr Mya Wanna Soe, deputy director of the medical care department, told The Myanmar Times, According to data from weather department, temperatures will increase more than usual this year because of the El Nino effect. We have prepared medical treatment for high temperatures and are increasing medical support in all public hospitals. The weather phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, said to be the strongest ever, is expected to bring both drought and flooding to many parts of the country. Last year, hospitals in the central part of the country were instructed to make preparations. But this year, we are also preparing in Yangon and Bago regions, he said. The effects of the weather pattern that started to form last year could reach full strength in mid-2016. As a result, hot and dry conditions can be expected throughout the country. Mandalay, Magwe and Sagaing regions in particular would be severely affected by a strong El Nino. Dr Tun Tin, township administrator of North Dagon, said health authorities had issued new guidelines for the treatment of ailments related to high temperatures, and doctors and nurses had received additional assistance. He said the most common likely cases would include heat shock and hypovolemia, a reduction in the volume of blood circulating in the body that causes dizziness and nausea. A Kachin politician yesterday blamed China for undermining Myanmars efforts to root out rampant opium poppy cultivation. In defending an urgent proposal put to parliament, MP U La Gan Zal Jone said that more than 10,000 acres of opium fields that residents want destroyed in Kachin State are owned and run by the rich neighbouring country. These poppy plants are commercially operated by nationals from the neighbouring country so it disgraces our countrys sovereignty, he said. U La Gan Zal Jone, who represents Kachins Waingmaw township where thousands of anti-drug vigilantes were locked in a stand-off with police called on parliament to support field eradication missions. The proposal was put to the floor at the urging of Christian anti-narcotics group Pat Ja San. Despite being notorious for their hardline, militia-inspired tactics, including publically beating drug users, kidnapping dealers and donning military fatigues, the group was described to parliament as a community-based organisation made up of mothers and children in Shan and Kachin states who oppose illegal narcotics. They were also described as providing education to local poppy growers and rehabilitating drug addicts. Yesterday, Pat Ja San re-launched an eradication campaign after being locked in a stand-off with Kachin State authorities for nearly a week. Around 2400 mostly young, Christian, ethnic Kachin volunteers have been permitted to clear two northern Kachin sub-townships, Sadon and Kan Pai Tee, with around 200 troops expected to provide security. A representative of the poppy cultivators also lobbied parliament earlier this week, and threatened that if the vigilantes proceed with the clearance campaign farmers will have to use arms to stop them. Farmers have previously asked that the eradication campaigns be delayed for a year as harvest season approaches, and they need time to find an alternative income. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, opium poppies are produced primarily by subsistence farmers who rely on money generated from poppy cultivation to stave off food insecurity, debt and poverty. Pyithu Hluttaw representative U La Man Naw Aung from Ingyanyan township of Kachin State yesterday seconded the urgent proposal to support the eradication campaign. In fact, these poppy plantations are commercially operated by wealthy people from the neighbouring country who are afraid of losing their business and thats why they are trying to disturb the community-based anti-narcotics organisation, U La Man Naw Aung told reporters. Pat Ja San vigilantes have previously sought help from the government and the Tatmadaw to pursue their campaign against local poppy growers, but the officials began blocking the missions after farmers responded with deadly force to earlier attempts to destroy the crops. A teenage member of Pat Ja San was shot dead while trying to strip fields last month, and on February 3 a clearing team accompanied by soldiers clashed with angry cultivators. Pat Ja San has requested the National League for Democracy wade into the issue. The request puts the NLD in a tight spot mediating between ethnic armed groups, the military and impoverished farmers. Poppy cultivation serves as a major source of revenue for several ethnic armed groups, as well as corrupt military and government officials. The NLD is currently in the midst of power-sharing negotiations with the military, in which the commander-in-chief is believed to have lobbied for control of the chief minister positions in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states. Myanmar is the leading opium producer in Southeast Asia, and is second in the world only to Afghanistan. The proposal to support the anti-narcotics campaigners was approved with 357 votes for and 10 against, with five abstentions. It is scheduled to be discussed tomorrow. Translation by Zar Zar Soe The government has presented a draft plan for a transfer of power ceremony to the National League for Democracy, the Presidents Office announced in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday. The handover has been discussed by committees set up by both the government and the NLD, the information ministry said. Due to its large majority in parliament, the NLD will select the president and thus form the new government, which will enter office on or about March 30. Presidential spokesperson U Ye Htut told The Voice that the government committee had asked the NLD to respond by March 17 on the transfer plan, indicating any changes they wanted. U Ye Htut declined to confirm the exact date of the transfer meeting, citing security concerns. He said the government side was preparing all the necessary documents to be handed over to the NLD. NLD spokesperson U Win Htein confirmed that the documents had been requested, but declined any further comment about the outcome of yesterdays meeting. The governments committee comprises chair U Hla Tun, Information Minister U Ye Htut, Presidents Office director U Zaw Htay and Construction Ministry deputy director general U Maung Maung Ohn. The NLD has tasked central executive committee members U Win Htein and U Myo Aung, along with former Yangon University rector U Aung Thu. The committees have met three times since December and have agreed to meet again in early March. With majorities in both the upper and lower houses of the national parliament, the NLD will nominate two of the three presidential candidates. The military will select a third. On February 8, Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Speaker Mahn Win Khaing Than announced a March 17 deadline for nominations. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is currently blocked from the top job due to section 59(f) of the constitution, which bars those with foreign children. In a major nationwide overhaul of education, the government is to hire and train more than 100,000 primary-school teachers to work in a revitalised system, the Department of Education has announced. The extra teachers represent a 25 percent boost to the current workforce, which stands at about 400,000. The scheme will also entail an overhaul in the organisation of local schools, ensuring a better ratio of teachers and school principals to students. This is a long-term effort to reform basic education that will begin this year. We will employ and train 100,000 teachers, and will start by hiring already-qualified teachers in the coming [2016-17] academic year, the statement said. As laid down by government policy, each primary school will comprise a head, six teachers and a support worker. This could prove a challenge to implement, as many teachers are reluctant to work in rural areas. U San Lwin, of the Department of Educational Planning and Training, said, There are two or three primary teachers in a village school. Some schools have too many teachers. The ratios are unbalanced, so we need to send the teachers where they are needed. We will put in place a system where teachers can carry out the new curriculum from kindergarten. The training will take place between January and May at the central, state and regional, and township levels. U Soe Win Oo, chair of the Myanmar Federation of Private Teachers, said he welcomed the program but was concerned that the massive influx of new teachers might stretch the education budget. I hope there is enough in the budget to ensure the teachers are properly paid, he said. If we want to change the education system, we need both qualified teachers and adequate government support. Translation by Khine Thazin Han The Tatmadaw has increased the pressure on Shan and Palaung armies fighting in northern Shan State to cease hostilities, warning of a planned clearance operation unless they pull back to the original border of their respective territories. The military-run Myawady newspaper said yesterday that more than more than 20 separate clashes had taken place between the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army-South and the Taang National Liberation Army between September 25, 2015, and February 19. The report accused both the RCSS and the TNLA of committing a range of abuses, including burning villages, detaining Buddhist monks and murdering villagers. The TNLA has previously been accused of executing seven men from Mine Gone village in Kyaukme township on February 7, but it is the first time such accusations have been levelled against the RCSS. Displaced people in Namkham township have accused the RCSS of laying mines and looting, however. The Myawady article said that the head of the Tatmadaws Northeast Region Command had complained about the territorial expansion to the nationwide ceasefire joint monitoring committee in Shan State, the deputy leader of the RCSS and the Myanmar Peace Center. However, the RCSS responded by sending more reinforcements to the area. Unless both sides pull back, the Tatmadaw will clear the region of both armed groups according to the 2008 constitution, it said, without giving further details. Tatmadaw spokesperson Colonel Myat Min Oo said yesterday that providing any more information could compromise the effectiveness of the planned military operation. If we talk about warfare publicly, it could lead to deaths, he told The Myanmar Times. The issue was raised during meetings in northern Thailand on February 22 between a government team led by chief peace negotiator U Aung Min and an RCSS delegation headed by the groups leader, Lieutenant General Yawd Serk. U Hla Maung Shwe, a senior advisor to the Myanmar Peace Center, said yesterday that Lt Gen Yawd Serk agreed during the meeting to pull back his troops to the old RCSS territorial boundaries. While the fighting appeared to have entered a lull on February 19, in recent days fresh reports of clashes have emerged from both the Kyaukme and Namkham areas. According to an RCSS sergeant based on the front lines in Kyaukme, the Tatmadaws battalion 77 had clashed with TNLA troops at Mine Gone village in Kyaukme township - the site of the alleged murder of the villagers earlier this month - on February 22. RCSS Sgt Sai Tee said yesterday that his troops were on high alert and expecting more clashes. TNLA soldiers have shot two or three times at us this afternoon, he said. I think they will launch an offensive against us tonight. While he was aware that the Tatmadaw planned to clear the area of troops from both sides, Sgt Sai Tee said he could not leave without orders. So far, we havent got any command from our superiors. Mai Eik Kyaw, a TNLA liaison officer, said the Tatmadaw attacked using a helicopter gunship on February 22, leaving one Palaung soldier injured. The same day, the TNLA clashed with the RCSS in Namkham township. The situation is still tense between the troops in northern Shan State. We have had 20 clashes in recent months, he said. The first serious clashes between the RCSS and TNLA broke out in late November, shortly after the signing of the nationwide ceasefire agreement. The RCSS was one of eight groups that signed the deal, while the TNLA was blocked from doing so by the government due to its links to fighting in the Kokang region of Shan State. When fighting between them flared again, on February 7, the TNLA accused the RCSS of cooperating with the Tatmadaw, an allegation that the Shan group has denied. U Hla Maung Shwe said the Tatmadaw and RCSS had clashed once during the recent outbreak of fighting. Political analyst U Yan Myo Thein said the fighting had flared in northern Shan State due to armed groups prioritising their self-interest over peace. He accused them of dishonesty and suggested the incoming government would need a new strategy to manage the issue. The NLD government will have to reconsider the U Thein Sein governments work on peace and come up with a new strategic plan for the peace process, he said.However, the RCSS responded by sending more reinforcements to the area. Foreign donors have agreed to provide US$75,000 to keep the peace process running until the National League for Democracy-backed government takes office at the end of March, negotiators said yesterday. The Peace Support Group (PSG) a consortium of donors that includes the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Finland, Switzerland, Italy and Australia agreed to provide the funds yesterday, during a meeting of the Union Joint Monitoring Committee, said U Shwe Khar, the committees secretary 1. The decision came at the end of the three-day JMC meeting. The funding has been allocated to support the establishment and operation of joint monitoring committees under the nationwide ceasefire agreement. The committees are to be formed at the national, regional and sub-regional levels, and are designed to ensure communication between signatories in order to reduce outbreaks of conflict. But the amount allocated falls well short of the $23 million that negotiators estimate is needed to fully implement the ceasefire over the next three years. In todays meeting, we reached an agreement with the PSG that they would support the financial need of our process. [The $75,000] will be a bridge before we get $23 million for three years, he said. During yesterdays meeting, donors yesterday expressed reservations about the partial success of the ceasefire only eight of about 20 armed groups signed the pact and uncertainty over the incoming National League for Democracy governments policies toward the peace process. In northern Shan State, conflict has also increased following the signing of the ceasefire in October. But U Shwe Khar said he was confident the money would soon flow in. Im sure they will decide to support us, he said. Negotiators had originally said on January 7 they believed $21 million would be needed over three years, but U Shwe Khar said this was revised upward after costs were calculated in detail. Colonel Wanna Aung, a JMC spokesperson, said the $75,000 would enable stakeholders to continue the process of setting up monitoring committees at the state and region level. One has already been established in Shan State, while Tanintharyi Region and Mon State will also soon get monitoring committees. The Union-level JMC meeting was the first to be held since the Union Peace Conference kicked off in January. Aside from funding, participants reviewed the outcome of the peace conference, and discussed conflict reduction efforts and the opening of more state and region JMC offices. The offices will be opened in every state and region in which an ethnic armed group that signed the ceasefire is present. The committees will comprise 14 members five from the government, five from the ethnic armed groups and four civilians. U Shwe Khar said they were integral for reducing conflict. After setting up the committees, the armed groups and Tatmadaw will be in regular contact and that will help to reduce fighting, he said. 25.02.2016 LISTEN Actor Kwaku Manu has cautioned Ghanaians to be prayerful and pray against spirits of death hovering around the country. In a video posted on You Tube, the actor is heard saying, We have to back Ghana up with prayers, we are not in a good state, if we are not prayerful this year anything can happened and it will be because of politics. What happened in Tafo and the murdering of the Member of Parliament at East Legon is an indication that we have to be careful. If a minister or Member of Parliament can be murdered in his own home even though he has security, how much more lay people like you and me? he asked. He ended the video by urging Ghanaians to be more patriotic, keeping in mind that we have nowhere to go if anything happens to this country. We are the hope of Africa, I mean when neighbouring countries have issues, they run to us for help and that should be an indication that if things don't go well, we have nowhere to go, he said. Tema based rap artiste, Willy Maame, who is signed to Doe Music label has disclosed that, his lyrical contents cant be compared to any Ghanaian rapper apart from Hiplife legends; Obrafour and Okomfour Kwadee. Boasting of his lyrics, the Adaka hitmaker said the likes of Kinaata, Cabum, Flowking Stone, et al cant match his storylines and punchlines when it comes to rap music in Ghana. The rapper, who recently released a Hip-hop jam dubbed Kumasi Asei Me was bragging during an interview with KJM on Daybreak Hitz show on Accra based Hitz FM on Wednesday, February 24, 2016. No Ghanaian artiste can compare himself to me in terms of good storylines. Nobody! I can boast of my lyrics and Im proud of it, he stated categorically. Okomfour Kwadee is the only Ghanaian act whose storylines can be compared to mine, he continued. Kofi Kinaata is not my classhe can never rap better than me. I like Kinaata and his music but I believe in myself and I know what I can do. He comes no closer to my songwriting and delivery, Willy Maame added. Willy Maame was on the show to premiere his latest inspirational track called Ebenezer before making those statements. The song which features Nero X was produced by Tubani Beatz and its expected to drop tomorrow, February 26. Watch the full interview below. Perth (Australia) (AFP) - South Africa tormented Australia as they built a commanding lead on the fourth day of the opening Test in Perth on Sunday. At lunch the visitors were 508 for seven in their second innings, an overall lead of 506 with three wickets in hand, having looked out of the match on the second day. The injured Dale Steyn was not expected to bat and would not bowl in Australia's second innings due to a shoulder injury that has ruled him out for at least six months. Vernon Philander was 63 and Keshav Maharaj was 19. It was largely a miserable morning session for the beleaguered Australians, with the home side having two dismissals overturned by decision reviews, while a catch was dropped. Quinton de Kock, who had been dropped when he had scored just one on Saturday, was adjudged caught behind for 28 from the bowling of Josh Hazlewood by umpire Aleem Dar, who has made a number of incorrect decisions in the match. Australia's Josh Hazlewood (C) unsuccessfully appeals after a review decision for a dismissal against South Africa's Quinton de Kock (R), on day four of their first Test match, in Perth, on November 6, 2016 The review showed it came off the thigh pad. De Kock was again given out lbw to spinner Nathan Lyon on 47, this time by Nigel Llong, only for the review to reveal the ball brushed his glove. Philander also enjoyed a life on 29, when Hazlewood dropped a simple catch on the boundary. Australia finally claimed the wicket of de Kock for 64 to end a 116-run partnership with Philander. De Kock mistimed a drive and was caught in covers by Voges from the bowling of Mitchell Marsh (2-77), who was probably the pick of the Australian bowlers. South Africa's massive total was underpinned by 141 from JP Duminy and 127 from Dean Elgar, the pair putting on 250 for the third wicket to strengthen a remarkable comeback after their terrible first day. Australia will have to produce the greatest-ever fourth innings run chase at the ground to win the match. But the home team will take heart from the 2008 Test between the two sides, when South Africa chased down 414 on the final day with ease. Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced three Coptic Christian teenagers to five years in jail for contempt of Islam after they appeared in a video reciting Muslim prayers. A judge in the central Egyptian province of Minya also sent a fourth defendant, aged 15, to a juvenile detention centre for an indefinite period. Defence lawyer Maher Naguib said the four had not intended to insult Islam in the video, but merely to mock the beheadings carried out by jihadists of the Islamic State group. The video was filmed on a mobile phone in January 2015 when the three teenagers who were sentenced to five years were aged between 15 and 17. The four had not yet been arrested as of Thursday and Naguib said he planned to appeal the judgement. "They have been sentenced for contempt of Islam and inciting sectarian strife," Naguib told AFP. "The judge didn't show any mercy. He handed down the maximum punishment." In the video, one teenager can be seen kneeling on the ground and reciting Muslim prayers while others stand behind him, laughing. 25.02.2016 LISTEN The name Evhe is synonymous with many things in Ghana, Togo and Benin, West Africa. So that others may understand that Western heathenism and democracy is not the only system of government and economic know-how, African people must begin to research their own indigenous systems of economics and production to facilitate ease in transitioning to the Kingdom system of government. The Kingdom system of government is an eternal government from heaven where Yahweh and his Al (Lamb) reside. The Lamb of God is Yeshua ha Mashiach and he was slain as the atonement for human sin and heathenism. Amen. I am a prophet unto the nations for a reason. I was called, trained and equipped with the anointing of God to declare judgement on the heathen races of the earth. This includes the heathen Catholic "church" system of harlotry which is really the system of the beast of Revelation 13. Intertwined with this evil system is the harlotry known as freemasonry. Today, we are going to learn the terms for entrepreneurship in Evhe as well as those for marketing. Here are just a few terms for those who are interested in Evhe as a second or third language. Evhe Immersion is available through email for those interested. asitsatsa meaning looking for a favourable business venture asim meaning market place ga meaning money (todays currency) hotsui meaning cowry shell or old currency of Evhe people sika meaning gold or currency of the Kingdom of God klosalo meaning silver dzsiww meaning design ksinnu meaning property or personal wealth adzikpkp meaning economics (indigenous Evhe term) tstslta meaning entrepreneurship (modern Evhe term) The Evhe language is very rich in terms for wealth creation. This wealth creation is according to a different system of economic production that does not leave people in huge amounts of debt. Debt is frowned upon in Evhe society. Unfortunately, the modern Western economic system does not see things this way. This reality leaves many wondering why in the Kingdom economic system we are always blessed despite downturns in the economic cycle of the heathen. In the future we will know more about what is called in Evhe, laa nuoo (the beast system). Mawu neyra mi (God bless you). The above terms are significant with respect to knowing and understanding the essence of Evhe beliefs in economics of the non-capitalist and non-Catholic order. In case you would like to know more about how to learn Evhe and the culture of the Kingdom of God, please contact the following email address: [email protected] Thank you. Religious leaders in the country have been urged to lead the way towards a peaceful environment as preparations for the November general elections continue. NDC parliamentary candidate for the lower West Akyem Constituency in the Eastern Region, Shirley Naana Ampem, says religious leaders should prevail on politicians and their supporters to conduct themselves well during the election period. There is the need for pastors, Imams and traditionalists to educate the people on the need for political tolerance to promote peace and tranquility before, during and after the elections," she said. Shirley Naana Ampem made these remarks when she presented a number of bibles and Qurans to the Christian and Muslim communities in the constituency. She also urged religious leaders to be politically neutral and suggested to political parties to organize seminars, symposia and other programmes to educate their supporters on their codes of conduct, political party laws and other electoral legislations. "This will ensure that supporters of political parties tolerate their opponents to avoid antagonism, intimidation, use of 'machomen' to cause mayhem," she explained. The Imam of Asamankese Sabon Zongo, Sheikh Isahaku, commended the initiative adopted by the politician. He assured her that the Muslim community in the country would play a significant role in the country's bid to ensure a peace during and after the elections. President Mahama will later Thursday morning deliver his last State of The Nation Address in his first term to Parliament, and he is expected among other things to reiterate his commitment to peaceful, free and fair elections. It will be a significant event, unlike anything the President has ever done before. Yes, he has given three State of The Nation addresses. But he has never stood before the peoples representatives knowing that this could be his very last appearance as President before the august house. That in itself makes todays address big deal for the president. He must get it right because, as it has always done, this address will set the tone for the rest of the year a year in which Ghanaians will decide if he stays as President or leaves as a one-term Head of State. The State of The Nation Address has also become more of a platform for Presidents to tell Ghanaians not so much the state of the nation but make grand policy promises of what they plan to do in the future. It was President Mahama who last year boldly claimed before parliament that he will not manage the power crisis but rather fix it. Today he must answer the question: where is he in the process of fixing that crisis? The President is expected to point to the improvement in the electricity supply situation and refer to the many Independent Power Production agreements government has signed as one of the long-term fixes. On corruption, the President will reiterate the progress made so far by the Attorney-General, Marrieta Brew Appiah-Oppong, in retrieving loans illegally paid to firms caught up in the GYEEDA scandal. Crucially, the President is expected to provide an update on the implementation of the progressively free SHS policy that begun with day students. President Mahama will also use the opportunity to assure the country of a peace general election and reiterate his commitment to adequately equip the security agencies ahead of the polls. He is expected to touch on the controversy surrounding the former Guatanamo Bay detainees resettled in Ghana and assure citizens of their safety. We will not only pay attention to what he says but also what he doesnt say and how he says what he says. Will he for instance wade into the voters register controversy? We will know for sure in less than four hours. Paul Afoko, the suspended national chairman of the New Patriotic Party has stated that his younger brother Gregory Afoko is innocent in the murder of the Upper East regional Chairman Adams Mahama. The Accra District Court on Tuesday committed Afoko, to stand trial at the High Court on March 23, 2016 for the commencement of his murder trial. Reading his judgment, the presiding magistrate, Mr Koku Worlanyo, said based on the evidence presented by the prosecution, there was a compelling case for the accused to answer at the High Court. Afoko and Asabke Alangdi have been charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit crime and murder. But speaking on Starr Chat Wednesday, Mr. Afoko told host Bola Ray that his younger brother is innocent and the truth will prevail soon. Gregory Afoko is my younger brother who has been falsely accused of killing the late Adams Mahama...my opinion is that my brother is innocentand the truth will prevail, Afoko said. "I have handed over my evidence to the lawyers and some members of my party have some questions to answer" he added. 25.02.2016 LISTEN On February 24th 1966, Ghanaians woke up to the rude shock radio announcement in the early hours of the morning that the government of the President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, had been overthrown, and the myth surrounding him had been broken, that the CPP (the only recognised party) was a proscribed party, and that Parliament had been dissolved, that the Constitution was suspended to be substituted by military decrees, and all Ministers, District Commissioners, CPP party functionaries and apparatchiks were dismissed, and for their own safety, they should report without fail to the nearest police station. I was 16 years old then and in middle school standard seven. I was the office boy at my school, the Winneba Methodist Boys School. Early on that day, I went to school and went into the detached office of the headteacher to attend to my daily chores. I could not hold the news of Nkrumahs overthrow lightly, for at 16, I was politically conscious but not mature enough, though I understood a lot, and I decided to pray about it. I knelt down in a corner of the office and offered my prayers that the dark clouds which had gathered over Ghana should pass over if it was the will of God. Truth be said, growing up, we had known no other leader but Nkrumah whose name had been sung about and we had read books on him such as Kwame Nkrumah of the New Africa. Later in the day, many people in Winneba, as in many other places in Ghana, took to the streets to jubilate and hail the gallant soldiers who had done the dirty job of their masters. Many people still were in disbelief and utter consternation as they decided to be cautious with their outward expression of their inner emotions, as many people for and against the regime, were in utter state of shock, defiance, disbelief, nonchalance, and confusion. Some hard-core CPP functionaries disguised themselves as women and fled to neighbouring villages to go and hide or lie low and watch the unfolding events from afar. Throughout the country, informed sources believe that more than 3000 political prisoners were released, much like the re-enactment of the French Revolution prisoners held in the Bastille by the Ancien Regime and the monarchy headed by Louis XVI and her wife, Marie Antoinette. One of the political prisoners who was released was a prominent lawyer and merchant from my mothers house, Mr Baiden-Amissah, also popularly known by his native name of Kweku Damboley. I used to watch the skies a lot from the outside of my house in Winneba. There were no cell phones then, and no TVs or tablets in those days to distract our attention. We used lanterns inside our houses, and our mothers used hurricane lamps outdoors to work on smoking their fish in those mud kilns. Electricity was a luxury in a few elite homes. We found electricity in the streets as street lights, provided for by the town and city councils. Dumsor or load-shedding was unknown. All we knew then was that our government, under the great Osagyefo, was a forward ever and backward never proactive and progressive government of action. There were informants everywhere who would report any fault or any misdeed to the authorities for prompt action. It was believed that those informants included youthful members of the Young Pioneers Movement which was spread all across the country, and located in all the schools in the country. Even though I admired the Young Pioneers a lot for their colourful uniforms, I never got the chance to wear their uniform and be called Comrade. They wore some greyish khaki shorts with short sleeved khaki shirts and black boots with white pair of socks, a broad hat like the one worn by the Second World War British soldiers. Their neck scarves bore the green, white, and red colours of the CPP. Even though corruption was extant, it was low and relative in magnitude. Sometimes, I think that a bit of dictatorship counts very much, depending on the nature of the people, their obedience or their contumacy or obstreperousness, the stage of development in the embryonic stage, among other variables. No great nation became great without some measure of some dictatorial rule by a strong character or champion or tank-commander leader like Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Peter the Great of Russia, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Chairman Mao Tse Dung of China, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Fidel Castro of Cuba, inter alia. Lee Kuan Yew and Dr Mahathir Muhammed of Singapore and Malaysia respectively were visionary leaders like Nkrumah and they were his contemporaries. No two conditions are the same. While they succeeded in developing their respective countries, Nkrumah failed in some aspects because he was betrayed by his own people who did not understand him at the time. Nkrumah would not have achieved what he achieved had he been a soft leader. He was compassionate and believed in John Stuart Mills greater good for the greater number possible, or Baumols optimality, and Pareto optimal economic models. Days before Nkrumahs overthrow, we noticed some unusual star constellation to the east towards Accra. Those were the days when few people had electricity, so the night skies were brightly-lit with twinkling and sparkling stars. We began meditating on that strange star configuration, and the elders observed that it was unusual and it could portend something significant to happen. Lo and behold, the 24th February 1966 coup! Maybe the astrologers and astronomers among us would do their calculations backwards to that date and tell us the star constellation which appeared in the east from Winneba at the time. Maybe we could be told the import of that appearance 50 years ago today. Maybe I am superstitious. Of course, most humans are, or else we will not be having many religious faiths. Nkrumahs enlightened principles culminated in his centralist cum eleemosynary economic policies of income redistribution via free education, subsidised medical care, and the construction of quality secondary schools in all nooks and crannies of Ghana under the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GET), which was chaired by my paternal uncle, Nana Sir Ayirebi Acquah. Strangely enough, when in 1965 I had passed the Common Entrance Exam with flying colours to enter GSTS in Takoradi, I could not make it because my father had no cocoa farm to qualify me for CMB (Cocoa Marketing Board) scholarship. Well, I ended up taking the line of least resistance to enter teacher training college. Thanks to Nkrumahs foresight and excellent liberal education and health policies. We all in Ghana, one way or the other, benefited from Nkrumahs largesse, yet some of us bury our heads in the sand like ostriches and pretend we do not see anything good Nkrumah did towards our obtaining a generous liberal education. On 24th February, 1966, some people decked themselves with leaves and painted their bodies with white clay, wore red wrist and head bands and were clad in black mourning clothes, and they improvised placards splashed with the harshest and meanest words ever against Nkrumah. They carried mock coffins and said they were going to bury Nkrumah before his eventual demise. I wonder on hindsight now whether we were digging ourselves then into our current unmitigated morass and imbroglio of our economic gravitas. Many detractors made unsavoury statements, decrying Nkrumah as a dictator, autocrat, among others. People composed profanities and obscenities songs against Nkrumah, some saying that his girlfriend was one Esi Eluah (Eduwah) of Takoradi who allegedly had twisted genitalia. Cartoonists went to town to shop, showing bizarre cartoons of naked Nkrumah kneeling before the standing mummified body of a behemoth black lady with outstretched arms, legs astride, who was believed to be Kankan Nyame or fetish to whom Nkrumah prayed daily, with seven white handkerchiefs tied at intervals on both outstretched hands. Many illiterate people craned their necks to look at those faked photos doing the rounds. Propaganda at its apogee! B.A. Bentum, the OATUU (Organisation of African Trades Unions Union) Secretary-General led a posse of workers to burn heaps and heaps of books on Nkrumah and socialist ideology in front of masses of onlookers in Accra. The Ghanaian public was bombarded daily with lots and lots of propaganda on radio, on the misdeeds of the Nkrumah regime. Nothing good in education, health care, infrastructure development, social emancipation, inter alia was attributed to him and his regime. Today, you the reader, from your experience at the time and accounts of his regime, what do you think? Are we back to square one or progressing under the current dispensation? There were days thereafter we heard rumours upon rumours that Nkrumah was marshalling forces to invade Ghana from Guinea, where he had sought political asylum after the coup. He found himself and his large entourage trapped midway between his final destination, Ho Chin Min City (Hanoi) in North Vietnam, and Accra in Ghana. Nkrumah was so much infatuated with love for Ghana such that he would not have dared do such a demeaning and infra dig act of invasion with foreign troops. He and his large retinue were caught with the sad news of his overthrow in Peking (Beijing), China where Chou en Lai, the then Premier broke the sad news to him. He was caught between the rock and a hard place. Tanzanias Julius Mwalimu Nyerere, Malis Modibo Keita, and Gamel Abdul Nasser of Egypt had all offered him political asylum but he finally decided to go to Sekou Toures Conakry in Guinea, West Africa. One day, soon after his overthrow, some soldiers arrived at the erstwhile Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute (KNII) with some huge bulldozers. They tied iron cords to the head statue of Nkrumah which was mounted at the end of a huge concrete sword measuring about 70 feet high and which was said to have been designed by a famous Bulgarian woman sculptor. The bulldozer pulled hard, and the concrete structure and the statue of Nkrumahs head came crashing down on the concrete pavement below, scattering in all directions at what is now known as Liberation Square at the North Campus of University of Education, Winneba.. The wanton destruction of the relics of history reminded one of Kweku Ananse story whereby Kweku collected all the wisdom and intelligence of the world and monopolised it. He finally decided to take his hoard in a gourd and go and store it securely on top of the tallest tree. As he ascended the tree, the gourd containing the wisdom of mankind suddenly broke loose and it came crashing down, whereon the wisdom scattered in all directions. Hence, today wisdom or intelligence is not the exclusive preserve of any race or family or tribe or nation. It is normally distributed among all mankind. So is it why the wisdom which scattered in Ghana is making it difficult to be united? The pillage by the soldiers also reminded one of the sack of the ancient library of Alexandria in Egypt by one Muhammed Ibn Aas in AD 642, or the sack of Rome in 410 AD by the descending hordes of Barbarians led by Alaric the Great. Anecdotal records state that the soldiers, who invaded the sanctuary of Flagstaff House on that fateful coup day of 24th February 1966, helped themselves greedily to gold bars and other state wealth in a looting spree with gleeful abandon. It was during the time Nkrumah was overthrown that we discovered the Winneba guys who held high positions in the army such as Colonel Yarboi, Lt Colonel Dontoh, formerly of the Recce Squadron based in Ho, and later of the Loyalty Garment Group of Companies. One day, Lt Col Dontoh paid a courtesy call on us at his alma mater, the Winneba Methodist Middle Boys School, which had had illustrious alumni such as General Nunoo Mensah, Dr Alex Quayson Sackey, K.K. Taylor, E.N. Abbam (Quantity Surveyor-General), Dr Don Arthur, among others. He wore his full military uniform with insignia and regalia, and he had come with armoured Saracens or small armoured cars and some huge tanks mounted with some hideous looking big guns. He called at Robertsville, a prominent elite home in Winneba. Lt Col Dontoh and Dr K. A. Busia were all said to have been mentored by our then Omanhene or paramount chief, Nana Ghartey V, who was a Methodist reverend minister till the time he was enstooled. Many rumours made the rounds that the coup which occurred in the wee hours of that fateful day, had led to massive slaughter of many loyal soldiers and undercover agents in the Presidential Guard at Flagstaff House, the official residence of Nkrumah. Some lucky ones among them disguised themselves and fled the country. It was time for the opposition members in exile to come home. Prominent among them was Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia, who had been a fugitive at Oxford University in the U.K, and at other points, he had lived in the Netherlands. Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, the erudite and talented organiser, and one time staunch Nkrumah stalwart, and astute and shrewd Finance Minister, also came home under the military junta headed by retired Major General J.A. Ankrah. He had fled into exile in the USA, after having allegedly been accused of having stashed away 10 million pounds. The coup plotters were led by Lt Colonel Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, IGP J.W.K. Harley, Police Commissioner A.K. Deku, Lt Col. Ocran, Major Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa, the latter having excelled in his military studies, and having at one time received honours from Nkrumah whilst a secondary school student at Cape Coast. Most of the elite or top brass in the Ghana Armed Forces had had training from Sandhurst in the UK, though Brigadier Kattah was said to have trained as a Ranger in the USA, West Point. In the heat of the coup, Nkrumah despatched his Foreign Minister, Alex Quayson Sackey, to go and represent him at the OAU meeting in Addis Ababa, but lo and behold, Quayson Sackey made a detour and instead landed at the Accra International Airport where there was a heavy military presence awaiting him. Immediately on his arrival, he was hurriedly bundled and whisked away from the aircraft by gun-toting soldiers and led to a hurriedly convened press conference where he denounced Nkrumah and said that on arriving in London, he had changed his mind to go to Addis Ababa and had instead made a beeline for Accra on account of his wife and childrens welfare in Ghana. That press conference was beamed on black and white TV throughout Ghana. An attempted counter-coup was staged by Lt Arthur, Lt Yeboah, and Lt Poku in April 1967, but it was quelled and it culminated in the untimely death of Lt General E.K. Kotoka, the architect of the February 24th, 1966 coup detat, which was believed to have been orchestrated by a condominium and syndication of some powerful western powers, namely Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and the USA. Observers believe that the stupendous economic and developmental achievements chalked by Nkrumah, and the sterling patriotic zeal he exhibited in the cause of Ghana and Africa during his tenure has not been matched by any of our subsequent Ghanaian leaders, past or present. To be hyperbolic, all the educational achievements of subsequent leaders put together cannot match that of Nkrumah, including his Accelerated Educational Plan which was championed by his stalwart, Kojo Botsio, hence Botsio certificate. When we were young, we were told, Nkrumah never dies, and Nkrumah is our messiah. Perhaps, that is true metaphorically. Was Nkrumah a victim of the Cold War? 24th February 1966 evokes mixed feelings among Ghanaians. Was it a day of shame, or the day of blame of Nkrumahs ultra-leftist tendencies? History is the impartial judge of all human actions. May the souls of all departed, opposition and pro-government, rest in eternal peace! We look forward to a united and prosperous Ghana, whether NPP or CPP or NDC. Long live Ghana and the Nation of Ghana. Kwesi Atta Sakyi 25.02.2016 LISTEN The first President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was unconstitutionally ousted from office through a military and police coup detat on February 24, 1966. This year marks exactly 50years since the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) government was overthrown. According to declassified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1999, the then US government had been trying to influence some people to overthrow President Nkrumah since 1964. Apparently, Dr. Nkrumah was seen as an ally of the then Soviet Union and Eastern Europe during the Cold War. But the pan-Africanist leader declared his stance and made the famous statement, We neither face East nor West; we face forward. On February 21, 1966, President Nkrumah left Ghana for Hanoi, the Democratic Republic of North Vietnam, at the invitation of President Ho Chi Minh to resolve the Vietnam War. Ghana was left under the control of a three-man Presidential Commission. Consequently, the CIA backed-coup in Ghana was carried out at the dawn of February 24, 1966, while Nkrumah was still on peace mission in Asia. Among the key figures who staged the revolution were Col. E.K. Kotoka, Major A.A. Afrifa, and the then Inspector-General of Police, Mr. J.W.K. Harley. The famous coup-makers cited Nkrumahs Preventive Detection Act, corruption, dictatorial practices, oppression, and the deteriorating economy of Ghana as the principal reasons for the uprising. In the early hours of 24th February, 1966, Col. Kotoka announced on the state radio that, Kwame Nkrumah is overthrown, and the myth surrounding him is broken. Let me ask the burning question. How did the overthrow of Nkrumah contribute towards national development? Did the countrys fortunes improve after Nkrumahs government was toppled? Well, your guess is as good as mine. Regrettably, the long term goals, policies, and vision of Kwame Nkrumah became a mirage, to say the least. Many Ghanaians took to the street and jubilated over the first infamous revolution which forced Dr. Nkrumah into political asylum until his death in the 70s. Like every human, Nkrumah had his strengths, weaknesses, achievements, failure or downfall. For instance, the one-party state Nkrumah created in the CPP, the declaration of Presidency for Life by Osagyefo, and the imprisonment of his opposition without trial were quite unfortunate. Meanwhile, some political analysts and historians have justified the Preventive Detention Act (PDA) which was passed into law in 1958. The Act empowered Nkrumah to imprison his enemies (opponents) without trial for up to 5years (later extended to10 years). The PDA was described as a necessary evil because of the spate of bomb attacks and assassination attempts on Osagyefos life. Besides, the best way to defend is to attack. There were at least seven attempts to assassinate him during his presidency. Today, there is a paradigm shift in our history. Kwame Nkrumah, who was once vilified by his own people following the 1966 coup, is now credited for exemplary leadership in Ghana and Africa as a whole. The achievements of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah distinguished him among his contemporaries on the Continent. His ideology for pan-Africanism, Africa liberation, and self-governance also earned him an enviable reputation worldwide. Following his indelible legacy on the Continent, Nkrumah was adjudged Africas greatest Man of the Millennium in 2000. His social policies and style of leadership were impeccable. It is unfortunate to admit that successive administrations have, over the years, abandoned most of the projects and policies of Osagyefo. Poor maintenance culture in particular has been the bane of this country. He is fondly remembered for the improved roads, schools, hospitals, factories, the Akosombo Dam, the Tema Harbour and the economic stability, just to mention a few. The former Chairperson of the CPP, Samia Nkrumah, hit the nail right on the head when she attributed the countrys economic woes to the overthrow of her father, President Kwame Nkrumah. Even though Dr. Nkrumahs economic and social policies were undeniably the best, his opponents made every effort to discredit him. Undoubtedly, he is so far the best President Ghana and even Africa has ever had. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah demonstrated patriotism and eschewed parochialism as a visionary leader. Lets mourn him for his exceptional leadership which was wrongfully deposed 50years ago. It is not surprising that in June 2009, the late President JEA Mills commissioned the Nkrumah Centenary Celebration Planning Committee to organise a befitting ceremony on Nkrumahs 100th birthday. Lets draw inspiration from the achievements, ideology, and vision of the great man who led Ghana to independence from British colonial rule for the purpose of nation building. Following the overthrow of the CPP administration, Dr. Nkrumah sought political exile in Conakry with his Guinean counterpart, President Ahmed Sekou Toure. He was appointed Co-President of Guinea until his death on 27th April, 1972. He died at the age of 63. Revolutions are brought about by men, by men who think as men of action and act as men of thought, Kwame Nkrumah. ASP James Annan Gt. Accra Regional PRO Senior Correctional Centre [email protected] Geneva (AFP) - All sides in Libya's chaotic conflict are likely guilty of war crimes, including torturing, raping and executing prisoners, the UN said Thursday, urging the world to do more to bring the perpetrators to justice. "A multitude of actors, both state and non-state, are accused of very serious violations and abuses that may, in many cases, amount to war crimes," UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement. A report released Thursday documenting abuses committed in Libya between 2014 and 2015 warned the situation had deteriorated dramatically during that period. Libya has had rival administrations since the summer of 2014 when the recognised government fled Tripoli after the Fajr Libya militia alliance including Islamists overran the capital. A power vacuum since the 2011 toppling of dictator Moamer Kadhafi has fostered the rise of the Islamic State (IS) group in the country, which is currently headquartered in the former dictator's hometown of Sirte, but control of Benghazi remains divided between a collection of militias. Thursday's report details how most major armed groups in the country "have carried out unlawful killings," mainly executing people they had taken captive and assassinating those seen voicing dissent. The six-member investigation team behind the report was only able to visit Libya briefly during their year-long probe due to the dire security situation in Libya but conducted interviews with more than 200 victims and witnesses. They described how bodies of people detained by different armed groups and the Libyan National Army, were found bearing clear evidence of torture and execution. - Repeatedly raped - The report also details widespread and horrific torture by different factions, including beatings with plastic pipes and electrical cables, prolonged suspension in stress positions, electrocution and lack of food. According to the report, a number of detainees had been tortured to death. The report, which was ordered by the UN Human Rights Council, said thousands of people were currently in detention, most without any proper examination of their cases, and many in secret detention centres. Sexual violence, while difficult to document, appears to be rife in places of detention, the investigators said. They detailed one case where a woman said she had been abducted in Tripoli by members of an unidentified armed group, before being drugged and repeatedly raped over six months. After her escape, she discovered she was pregnant. The woman said she had seen six girls as young as 11 who were sexually abused by members of the same group. The investigators also decried the forcible recruitment of children by armed groups, including those linked to the Islamic State, who celebrated the practice. The report cited two boys, aged 10 and 14, who said they had been forced from their families to take part in IS weapons training, using live ammunition, and watch videos of beheadings. "One of the most striking elements of this report lies in the complete impunity which continues to prevail in Libya and the systematic failures of the justice system," Zeid said. Thursday's report called on the Security Council to list the "individuals responsible for violations or abuses" and slap them with sanctions. They also complained that the International Criminal Court tasked with investigating the abuses did not have the resources to do so properly. Kofi Buah, Ministry Of Petroleum 25.02.2016 LISTEN It is now clear that the crippling load management is giving way to sustainable supply of electricity in Ghana. However, to sustain the gains that have been chalked in the power sector over the last few months, our gas supply sources must be made to match up with the country's demand to guarantee optimal thermal generations. As it is widely reported, the demand for lean gas will hit a record high of 265 million standard cubic feet daily (mmscfd) in 2020 and subsequently reach 584 mmscfd by the last quarter of 2030 from the current demand of about 19 mmscfd. Gas infrastructure has been crucial to thermal power generation, and has a potential of saving the country of huge foreign exchange reserves. Gas industry has been described as a game changer for obvious reasons. Light crude oil is quite expensive and cost the country dearly to import. However, Ghana has a huge potential of proven gas reserves that can be harnessed for her economic benefits. Unfortunately, the gas sector requires huge capital investments to explore and produce that is beyond the financial means of the country. This calls for attraction of foreign direct investments in exploration and production sectors to harness the country's gas potential as soon as practicable. EPRI is however aware of some of the government's strategic interventions and partnerships that have been struck by the Petroleum Ministry with some oil and gas production companies. A number of deals with these companies are aimed at unearthing the gas potential of new discovery fields for the benefit of the country. Apart from the one billion dollars investment in the Ghana National Gas Project, which is producing about 120mmscfd of lean gas for thermal generation and almost half of the country's LPG for domestic consumption, Tweneboa, Enyera, Ntomme (TEN) discoveries are estimated to deliver its first gas in the third quarter of 2017. This has the potential of producing about 80 million standard cubic feet (mmscf) of gas per day. Another critical intervention that has yielded $7 billion investment is the Sankofa Project being spearheaded by ENI. This singular intervention receives financial supports from the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) which has been world-wide acclaimed. This collaboration between ENI and Vitol Energy is aimed at developing the Sankofa and Gye Nyame fields to provide adequate gas for optimal operations of the thermal plants for the next 20 years. Arguably, this is considered as the biggest gas sector investment in the sub-region. The Sankofa project is expected to produce 200 mmscfd of gas by 2018. The gas from Sankofa project has an estimated value of 1.15 trillion cubic feet over its production life. With this volume of natural gas, it can be used to produce about 1,100megawatts (MW) of electricity. This can boost the country's generation capacity far beyond the anticipated target of 5,000MW by the government. However, one significant threat that can undermine these efforts is an unabated plummeting fuel prices globally. The downward trends of fuel prices have become disincentive to many investors in both exploration and production sectors. Many energy companies have pulled back investments in new oil and gas projects due to the near collapse of fuel prices. For example, Qatar Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have cancelled their plans to build a $6.5 billion petrochemical plant in the Emirate until further notice. It is therefore refreshing that the Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi, has given the assurance that the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) Sankofa Gas Project will continue as planned despite the falling crude oil prices. This is commendable risk assumption giving that further investments in the industry have been curtailed by some super majors. Oil and gas industry is full of risk taking, especially at this time when fuel prices are not attractive. The biting effects of these trends are greatly felt by independent oil and gas companies all over the world. The minority in Ghanas parliament has raised issues regarding the contract sum, risk management, gas pricing and return on investment turns out to be shallow and lack merit. In every working democracy, it is the considered responsibility of the minority to hold the government accountable and in check. However, many of the issues raised by the minority were not convincing and lacked substance. Most of their concerns ignored the current happenings in the industry. It comes across as the usual partisan call to gain mileage without due consideration of global prevailing circumstances. Anyway, the ministry of Petroleums response is quite revealing and convincing. And therefore suffice it for now. It is envisaged that if all these gas potential fields are harnessed properly, Ghana will be producing over 500mmscfd of gas by 2019. This includes but not limited to 120 mmscfd from Jubilee Oil Fields. The Sankofa project alone will bring on board about 200million and TEN oil fields will come on stream with an estimated production of 80 mmscfd. The total gas volumes of these sources are projected to generate about 3,000 megawatts of electricity. This is a piece of good news considering the fact that a growing number of energy pundits have already predicted gas supply deficit in the near future. Another success story that will augment the existing gas potential is the introduction of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in the country. EPRI has recognized the frantic efforts made by the Ministry of Petroleum in conjunction with Ministry of Power to establish a Floating Storage and Regasification Plant close to Tema Thermal Corridor with the capacity of about 120 mmscfd. This intervention if well implemented could provide enough gas to power every thermal plant situated in that enclave. It is commendable to point out that cabinet has also given approval for the interconnection of Ghana Gas pipeline with West African Gas Pipeline to ensure optimum gas supply. This interconnectivity is to enable reverse flow of gas between the two gas pipelines to serve the connected countries in case the volume of gas supply increases. As it stands now, the West African Gas Pipeline supply lean gas for only Tema Power area, while the Ghana Gas Pipeline provide lean gas to Aboadze thermal power alone. This means that a highly pressured lean gas in the WAGP can only serve thermal plants in Tema and vice versa. This is exactly what the cabinet decision sought to address by March this year. It is therefore, implies that a highly pressured lean gas in the pipelines in one case should be enough to serve the two thermal enclaves when the project is completed somewhere in March. It is therefore projected that Ghana will soon phase out the use of light crude oil in the generation of electricity. President John Dramani Mahama declared, at the recent UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP) held in Paris France, that the use of crude oil to generate electricity in Ghana will cease by 2020. This will be made possible due to proven reserves of gas already stated. Many countries have considered the use of gas as a transitional power source as part of short term strategic plan towards preservation of the environment. Minister of Petroleum, Hon. Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah recently announced that "80% of our source of power will come from thermal generation with gas as the critical feed stock." However, in the view of EPRI, this should remain a transitional measure and other power sources such as renewables and "clean coal" power plants should be explored and deploy proportionately to ensure security of supply. Even though poor rainfall patterns have made hydropower source almost redundant, it can still play a significant role in the generation mix. Policy makers should not discount it completely in the generation mix albeit it's dwindling capacity. Putting our eggs into one basket could be dangerous to our electricity security in the long term. With these strategic interventions and investments put into action by the government and other stakeholders, EPRI is therefore convinced that the current stable supply of electricity can be sustained. But to make this dream come into fruition, the Gas Master Plan should urgently receive cabinet approval to guide the country's gas policy, transparent regulatory framework, funding sources, gas pricing policy and infrastructure requirements as well as institutional mandates for the agencies under the gas sub-sector. It might seem gloomy now in the power sector, but the future prospects are brighter with right policies, strategies and interventions, coupled with determined, collaborated efforts to be implemented by inter-ministerial and sectorial deliberate actions aimed at overcoming any impediments. The only tool that will defeat the realization of this dream will be complacency on the part of the government and other stakeholders. Alhaji Mustapha Iddrisu Energy Policy Analyst Energy Policy & Research Institute (EPRI) 25.02.2016 LISTEN The quickness with which the operatives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would have all the significant institutions and landmarks in the country named after their icons and political patrons and benefactors is incredible. And so I was not the least bit surprised when Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, the Minister of Labor and Employment, recently suggested that the University of Development Studies (UDS) be named after the NDCs founding patriarch, Chairman Jerry John Rawlings (See Name UDS After Rawlings Haruna Iddrisu Graphic.com.gh / Ghanaweb.com 2/23/16). The Tamale-Central Member of Parliaments argument is that former President Rawlings demonstrated vision and selflessness when he donated some $50,000 awarded him by the directors of the U.S.-based World Hunger Project for the establishment of the northern Ghana-located University of Development Studies. I have absolutely no qualms with Mr. Iddrisus fearless proposition, as the Minister himself recently put it before a packed auditorium of students of the Kufuor-created Wa, Upper-West, campus of UDS, except for the glaring fact that Mr. Iddrisu strangely failed to issue the same call for the even more imperative need for the countrys flagship academy, the University of Ghana, to be renamed after the intellectual, cultural and political giant who singularly championed its seminal establishment in 1948. We must also quickly observe that Danquah did all this without having had the privilege and opportunity to assume the reins of national governance. The putative Doyen of Gold Coast and Modern Ghanaian Politics would also, through tireless and brilliant research, cause the erstwhile Gold Coast Colony to be renamed Ghana in March 1957. Indeed, if the Labor and Employment Minister had any respect for Ghanas history and the protagonists thereof, Mr. Iddrisu would have progressively added his voice to that of the thunderous chorus of voices that first advocated for the University of Ghana to be renamed after the man who made it possible for Legon to be established at least a decade before it would have been established, in the authoritative words of Rev.-Prof. Robert Addo-Fening. That Mr. Iddrisu is himself a bona fide product or graduate of the University of Ghana, and not the University of Development Studies, makes his rather brazen proposition all the more grotesque. You see, the original title of this column was How Many Institutions Did Rawlings Name after Acheampong? In other words, it goes without saying that the most progressive postcolonial military ruler that Ghana ever had was Gen. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, and not Flt.-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings. And so it is not clear precisely why Mr. Iddrisu chose to so flagrantly insult the intelligence of Ghanaians, as well as rudely play fast and loose with the truth of the reality of postcolonial Ghanaian history. If Mr. Iddrisu thinks that the mere fact of him being a Ghanaian of northern descent authorizes him to make such a scandalous proposition, then he is in for a rude awakening. Suffice it to say, at least in passing, that Chairman Rawlings has done more harm to the interests of our country than just about any postcolonial Ghanaian leader. Rawlings has uniquely contributed to the gross retardation of the countrys intellectual and cultural development clock; and that, of course, includes the development of Ghanas higher educational system. That Chairman Rawlings would callously and unconscionably shut down all the major public universities in the country, while he smugly shipped all his four known children abroad for schooling, at some of the most expensive academies in Europe and the United States, ought to inform Mr. Iddrisu that his political icon is anything but selfless and visionary. We must also quickly note, for the benefit of those who may not already be in the know, that the very conception of a university of development, and not just development studies, in the northern-half of the country, far predates Chairman Rawlings on the national political scene and was, in fact, in the works when the Limann-led democratically elected Peoples National Party (PNP) was overthrown by the very same Chairman Rawlings that Mr. Iddrisu would now have honored with the renaming of the UDS. We shall make time to further discuss this sticky subject of the imperative need to honoring and venerating our leaders and heroes in the offing. For now, suffice it to observe that respect and veneration are multi-pronged and cross-partisan, and not the expedient fruits of impudent political opportunists. *Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs 25.02.2016 LISTEN The insensitivity of the John Dramani Mahama led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government towards teachers in Ghana is sad and very unfortunate. Lets start from students who will eventually come out as teachers. It was out of their little allowance they earned that they use to feed on as students under training and this same allowance was used in buying handouts and other petty things that will aid their education. But this was scraped off without looking at the ripple effects on parents and the students at large. Then came another mind boggling policy which am yet to hear the voices of various stake holders in the country on it; the dismissal of students after failing on a second attempt on a referred paper. This is outrageous, to say the least. So which leaders made this wrong decision? If Professor Allotey had to re-write for seven times on a paper why should students be subjected to this insensitivity, or is it another attempt by government to reduce the number of teachers coming out because they cannot be paid? There must be some explanation and answering to these questions. What is being wished for the thousands of students who are being sacked across the country? Armed robbery, hooliganism or what? The entire training college fraternity is being called upon to stand up against this insensitivity! The question is what will be next from the NDC government? That we dont know. So lets rise up to straighten our future. #Operation abolish this insensitivity policy The Coalition to Elect Nana Addo & Bawumia (CENAB) Ashanti Region and some student bodies have launched a Red Friday and Wednesday. This calls for all students to use red shirt or band on Fridays and Wednesdays until this bad policy is abolished. All Professions can boast but the teacher taught them all. Spokespersons: Felix Gyambibi Regional Cordinator. 0277742185 Daniel Yaw Geraldo Secretary 0243072381 Opoku Mensah Yaw Communications Director 0242267214 25.02.2016 LISTEN Wa wa wa wa. We have recently been discussing your ongoing courageous struggle to liberate yourselves from more than 100 years of occupation, first by the Netherlands, briefly and brutally by Japan during World War II, and now by Indonesia. In that regard, we would each like to share a brief message with you, our friends from West Papua. From James: I have been very impressed with the information gleaned from my son Robert Burrowes after his recent meeting in Brisbane with your leaders Octovianus Mote, Benny Wenda, Jacob Rumbiak and Rex Rumakiek of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua. The work and dedication you have been devoting to the cause of freedom for West Papua has inspired me to recall my own experience with some of your ancestors during my 4 years with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during World War II, which included 2 years as a coastwatcher. Ten months of this time was spent in enemy-held territory as a signaller. I am 92 years old now, but in those days from 1942 to 1945 I was Sergeant James Burrowes VX136343 in 'M' Special Unit of the Allied Intelligence Bureau, known as the 'Coastwatchers'. Our intelligence role for the war effort was described by Admiral Halsey, Commander of the US 7th Fleet, in these words: 'Without the Coastwatchers, the Pacific War would not have been won!' Therefore, in this context, I would like to briefly relate the contribution of some of your Papuan ancestors who were also coastwatchers, assisting and being part of parties infiltrated into Japanese-held territory. Those I can name include Papuans known to us as Yali, Mas, Buka and Mariba although I can name many others such as Golpak, his son Kaole, Yauwika, Rayman and Ishmael. Some, including Sgt-Major Simogun, are famous and were duly honoured with the British Empire Medal and/or Loyal Service Medal for their fighting service. I mention the first four named for a specific reason. I recall one very notable incident when eleven coastwatchers paddled ashore in rubber crafts from a submarine at Hollandia (now Jayapura, the capital of West Papua) only to be wrecked by the surf, losing most of their equipment, before being ambushed by the Japanese. Five coastwatchers (including Papuans Mas and Buka) were killed and those remaining (which included the Papuans Yali and Mariba and the Indonesian known as Lancelot) somehow managed to escape and, after incredible hardship, later rejoined allied forces. On a personal note, I am lucky to be here today. I was selected to go on that Hollandia venture but, at the last minute, the signaller Jack Bunning replaced me after recovering from sickness. He was one of the men killed! I am also lucky to be one of the handful of Australian coastwatchers still alive to tell our story. I would be thrilled if any survivor or relative of any of the Papuans named is still able to connect with this experience from some 72 years ago. I have included a photo of the Hollandia party (in which you will see the four Papuans), a photo of Sgt-Major Simogun, and two photos of myself from way back then and now. I sincerely wish you the very best of success in your long-term struggle for independence. You helped us to preserve the independence of Australia from Japan. Best regards Jim Burrowes From Robert: When I was a child, each year my father would take me to the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne at the beginning of July. I would listen to an old man talk about the sinking of the Montevideo Maru, a Japanese prisoner of war ship that was sunk during World War II, killing all of the 1,053 Australian prisoners of war on board. I would watch my aunt crying as this story was told. One of the prisoners on this ship was my father's older brother, Robert (Bob), who had been captured at Rabaul during the Japanese invasion on 22 January 1942. Bob was a member of the 34th Fortress Engineers of the Australian Imperial Force and had been responsible for installing guns at Praed Point in Rabaul Harbour. Apart from his older brother, my father also lost his twin brother Thomas (Tom) during the war. Tom was a member of the RAAF's 100 Squadron and the Beaufort Bomber on which he was a wireless airgunner was shot down over Rabaul on his first mission on 14 December 1943. My childhood is dotted with memories of my uncles: wearing Bob's war medals to school on ANZAC Day, going to the Shrine of Remembrance each year, and listening on those rare occasions when Dad talked about his brothers. Sometimes, when asked, Dad would also talk about his own experience during the war. He was a member of 'M' Special Unit, a coastwatcher operating behind enemy lines in Japanese-occupied New Guinea. Whenever he talked about his experience and the efforts of fellow coastwatchers, Dad would invariably mention their heavy reliance on the Papuans who also served as coastwatchers. In his words: 'Without them there would have been NO Coastwatchers as they were the ones guiding us, carrying all our gear, building our thatched shelter, cooking, protecting us as sentries you name it.' In 1966, the year I turned 14, I decided that I would devote my life to working to end human violence. This is more than a life passion: It is why I live. One of the things that I have learned is that we can use thoughtfully applied nonviolent strategy to defeat occupying powers. I wrote a book on how to do this. See The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense: A Gandhian Approach. http://www.sunypress.edu/p-2176-the-strategy-of-nonviolent-defe.aspx Just as Papuan ancestors helped my father and fellow coastwatchers to play a key role in defeating an occupying power, it is now my duty and great privilege to help the people of West Papua to defeat another one. Papua Merdeka! Robert J. Burrowes Biodata: James Burrowes served in New Guinea during World War II. Jim's war service and the death of his two brothers inspired Jim's son Robert to seek and apply nonviolent ways to resolve conflict. Robert's email address is [email protected] and his website is at http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com 25.02.2016 LISTEN Former Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Justice, Martin A.B.K. Amidu, has raised issues with the composition of the Elections Steering Committee established by the Electoral Commission (EC) to supposedly ensure smooth and peaceful elections on November 7, 2016. The inauguration of the 18-member committee by the Chairperson of the EC, Charlotte Osei, has been a source of a raging controversy relating to claims that some of the committee members are known loyalists of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). This has led to the resignation of one of them Dr Karl Mark Arhin a card-bearing member of the party who was its Deputy Director of Elections and International Relations. Members of the committee were drawn from various state agencies, including the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), National Service Scheme (NSS), National Peace Council (NPC), Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), Ghana Police Service and others. But in a statement, Citizen Vigilante as Amidu is fondly called indicated, There were and are very objective reasons why each of the institutions to which objection was raised should not be on a Steering Committee of the Electoral Commission. According to the man, The Commission on Haman Rights and Administrative Justice, the National Media Commission, the National Commission for Civic Education and the National Peace Council as independent constitutional and statutory bodies, will be compromised, should their members or Executive Secretaries serve on the committee of another independent constitutional body, specifically charged with the conduct of the elections. . He asked rhetorically, Would the framers of the Constitution not have added the mandate of 'collaboration with the Electoral Commission in the conduct of elections' to their respective functions if it was intended that they should partner the Commission in supervising elections in Ghana? Even though he expressed disappointment in the Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA), Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG and some individuals who have questioned the appointment of the supposed NDC members onto the committee, he insisted, The Electoral Commission has no constitutional mandate to set up such a Steering Committee to share its electoral functions with it. That, he said, is because The Electoral Commission has held several elections without inviting representatives of other independent constitutional and statutory bodies to partake in the constitutional functions entrusted to it. He therefore wondered why it has now resorted to the establishment of the said steering committee, which basis has been questioned by the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC). It is my hope that the independent constitutional and statutory bodies will do the proper thing in withdrawing their representation from the Steering Committee on constitutional objective grounds and not on the grounds of the subjective, dangerous, speculative and unproven allegations being peddled around, he emphasized. By Charles Takyi-Boadu 25.02.2016 LISTEN About 115 Ghanaian soldiers, who returned into the country after serving with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, are angry at how their paymasters paid them their allowances. The Ghanaian Battalion (Ghanbatt 3) troops, who usually receive their end of operations dollar allowances in the countries where they serve, said they were paid upon arrival in Ghana on Thursday, February 18, under floodlight. The Ghanbatt 3 soldiers were earlier paid half of their allowances after serving six out of 12 months in South Sudan. They were expected to receive the rest after completing the whole one-year exercise, which ended last week. According to the aggrieved soldiers, upon completion of the service, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) paid each soldier $5,000 balance in lower denominations, which they said would affect the value of the money when they converted the money into Ghana cedis at the forex market as they don't operate dollar account. They claimed that they were paid in lower denominations as a ploy to cheat them so that they would lose part of the money at the forex bureau. Some soldiers said they had to go through the trouble of carrying their remaining allowances in $10 denomination compressed into sacks to the forex market before they could get the local currency equivalent of what they had. Others accused the finance officer of the GAF of using the monies due them for private transactions and later breaking them down in smaller denominations before giving them out. . But the GAF told DAILY GUIDE that the finance officer pays the peacekeeping troops based on the denominations they receive from the Bank of Ghana (BoG), adding that the payment in $10 denomination was in compliance with a new directive by the Ministry of Finance and the BoG. The GAF disclosed that BoG usually pre-financed the allowances of the troops before the UN reimburses them. The troops received their allowance here in Ghana because as at the time they were leaving South Sudan, the BoG had not received the monies from the UN so they pre-financed. The BoG would be reimbursed once the UN releases the money and this is what happens most of the time, a military source told this paper. He added that the troops who recently returned from Mali, also received their allowances in lower denominations for serving with the United Nations Mission there. The peace keeping allowance is a major source of revenue to cushion soldiers. By Nii Ogbamey Tetteh [email protected] The Writer 25.02.2016 LISTEN WHEN King Solomon finished praying, heaven came down in its fullness. Fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifices and God's glorious presence (Shekinah) filled the temple so much that the priest could not enter into the temple again. The presence of God came down with fire and cloud. When we do the things we should do, God will manifest His presence in and around us. If you carefully follow these principles we've been talking about, you will immediately spark-off an unprecedented move of God in your life or fellowship. God is always there waiting for us to pull the right cord and His presence will rush towards us. He is ever-ready. When we obey, purify ourselves, praise and pray, we would be enveloped by His glorious presence. Fire The first thing that happened when King Solomon finished praying was that fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the offerings and sacrifices (2 Chronicles 7:1). Fire came down! You cannot have dealings with God without encountering the fire of His presence. And his fire will always bring revival, purification, anointing, protection and manifestation of His glory. Moses, Israel, Gideon, David, Elijah, John can all testify to this. Revival The fire of God is an agent of revival. Read the bible very well, each time the fire of His presence descends in the midst of His people, they rededicate themselves and vow to keep His commandments. No wonder He manifested so much in this form to the children of Israel between Egypt and the Promised land. They (Israel) had so many challenges and often threatened to return back to Egypt. So, God kept manifesting supernaturally to them in order to keep their faith aglow. Each time they became weak or about to backslide, He comes to 'fire-up' their faith. The fire of the presence of God will always revive our faith and relationship with Him. It keeps our relationship with Him exciting, warm and interesting. Without His presence, our walking with Him will be very boring, unappealing. But when we grow weak, He supernaturally assures us of His presence. It also purifies and transforms every part of our life - spiritual and physical. It is the same with our health and business. When the fire comes, every part of our life will be revived instantly. This is what we need today. We need the fire of His presence in our lives, in our families, in our ministries. We need the fire of God in our church and also in our nation. Anointing The fire of God's presence also comes with anointing. Anointing is the divine empowerment to achieve divine purposes or missions. When God gives an assignment, He also equips you by releasing the anointing (grace) to fulfil that particular mission. This is very important because no divine mandate can be achieved by human ability. Moses' encounter with the fire of His presence automatically and totally changed his life. It was during this encounter that God shared His vision to deliver the people of Israel from their oppressors and promptly anointed Moses for the task. Hear Him, "now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh. You will lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt... I will be with you. And this will serve as a proof that I have sent you: when you have brought the Israelites out of Egypt, you will return here to worship God at this very mountain" (Exodus 3:10 -12). The fire of His presence signifies the full backing of God in any circumstance, and also His eagerness to bring about His intentions. We need the fire of His presence today. We need the fire to fulfil His programme for us. Any Christian of this generation without the fire of God in his/her life may not go far in this end-time. Any church without the fire of His presence will not achieve much, and will be an easy prey to the kingdom of Satan. Or haven't you seen churches where agents of darkness are members and are even in control? This can only happen where there is no fire of His presence. The fire will sift the fake from the original. Protection The fire of His presence will also bring protection. Yes, the true and dynamic churches and Christians are always protected by this divine phenomenon. You will often hear and see the demonic powers shouting and scampering for safety from the fire of God during deliverance ministrations or spiritual encounters. Yes, sometimes, you may not see it, but they always do. They know the potency. Any dynamic child of God emits fire because he/she has activated the presence and the image of God. We must be like our father. The Bible clearly made us to know that there is a constant emission of fire from God's presence, "And from the throne came flash of lightning and the rumble of thunder. And in front of the throne were seven lamp stands with burning flames" (Rev. 4:5). We have also heard the agents of darkness narrating how 'strange fire' stopped them from reaching Christians. This fire of His presence adequately protected the Israelites as they left Egypt towards the Promised Land. The bible said that it was with them day and night. Just check out what happened as the Egyptians were about overrunning the Israelites. It provided a very dramatic divine protection for them. Exodus 14:19-20 say, "Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to a position behind them, and the pillar of cloud also moved around behind them. The cloud settled between the Israelite and Egyptian camps. As night came, the pillar of cloud turned into a pillar of fire, lighting the Israelite's camp. But the cloud became darkness to the Egyptians, and they couldn't find the Israelites. I pray that the fire of God will always protect you from the enemies - in Jesus' Name! God still does the same today. If we always stay in the presence of God, then tell me that enemy that will risk playing around with us? The word of God said that our God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. Back to Solomon at the temple dedication, when the children of Israel saw the fire and the glorious presence of God, they fell down, worshiped and praised Him. When the presence of God descends people will willingly serve God. It will no longer be all these mechanical worship. They will surrender everything to Him. The Bible says that the people shall be made willing in the day of His power. When the people see His glorious presence they will on their own volition submit to God. To bring down and permanently dwell in His presence is all we need today. With it, we would celebrate like the Israelite and also have peace, joy and rest. Begin now to pray until you see all these coming to pass in your life and ministry. Till next week God bless you! Rev Agbo is the author of the book Power of Midnight Prayer. Website; Pastor Gabriel N Agbo (author) on AuthorsDen Tel: 08037113283 E-mail: [email protected] So it turns out that the World Bank has openly endorsed Dr Bawumias prophetic assertion that Agriculture in Ghana has plummeted to disgraceful levels. Well, how can that not be when NDC Ministers have deserted their responsibilities to the offices that they hold to practically sleep at radio stations to be on every programme defending the fallible goofs of President John Dramani Mahamas government? The NDC thieving machinery has at all material times touted that under their auspices, Agriculture has improved drastically. What a heinous lie! Agriculture is said to be the biggest employer in the three Northern Regions, but in Ghana under President John Dramani Mahama, according to the World Bank, it has nose-dived from 65% of GDP to 23%. Is that a better Ghana or a bitter Ghana? The World Bank has also told us that in spite of the dwindling productivity in Agriculture, this industry still provides 43% employment in Ghana. If the NDC government had put its weight and investment in this sector instead of stealing and overpricing projects, there would be no redundant Ghanaian. The danger that looms though is that in the rural areas, Agriculture is the only source of employment, which spells doom if it should continue in its freefall. This is a clear case of lack of vision on the part of the President, his Ministers, and the NDC Party that is in power. Employment In the cocoa farming industry has plummeted, too. Ghana yields half the expectation per acre cultivated than Cote DIvoire (Ivory Coast) due to the redundancy of the fertiliser and agro-chemical programmes. These have been reduced to serve only NDC card-bearing farmers with just a few others from different political parties for camouflage. The disturbing fact is that even the card bearing members of the NDC receive chemicals in tots and not the full amounts needed to treat their farms with. Or are farmers being told to gulp the tots to get drunk and make merry? Government imports fertilisers and chemicals to share to farmers, but they find their way onto the free market where they are too exorbitant to be accessed by farmers. Is it any wonder that farmers of the three Northern Regions have been left to their fate when there are vast lands suitable for all types of grain production? The lies and deceptions of John Mahama and his government have spilled over, throwing dust in the eyes of the nation. Unfortunately, the ignoramuses who form the core of their empty-headed communications team cannot find an iota of decency and respect to keep mute if they have nothing to say at all. They shamelessly debunk the truth calling writers of factual articles liars, fools, criminals, and so on. They just lie through their teeth. They must be ashamed for the disservice they are doing to Mother Ghana all in the name of politics. No matter ones affiliation or loyalty to a political party, nothing must derail their loyalty to Ghana. But are there loyalists amongst them? The massive unemployment in those three Regions: The Upper West, Upper East, and Northern regions, is most troubling. Young folks waste due to the excessive business of doing nothing, sitting in circles consuming large volumes of pito with the hope that with the rise of a new days sun a miracle will descend in their midst to make things happen. Unfortunately, that sunrise just adds to the blistering heat that evaporates the little hope they had fostered the day before. What are the NDC Ministers of State who hail from those upper regions doing to ameliorate the deteriorating situation of their people? What are the parliamentarians doing to help their constituents? They cannot even maintain the hopelessness of the status quo let alone do something about it. The situation worsens with each passing day, yet they are in the capital city, Accra, feasting on buffet banquets, blowing millions of cedis on unnecessary travel, and stealing the nation. Children walk for miles to and fro sources to fetch water for their households before going to their schools, which are often miles away, too. What hope is left for these poor children who have to walk all these miles on bare feet? And John Mahama insultingly goes public with his I care propaganda fitting a child with sandals while his son drives a BMW or a land cruiser to go shopping. NDC, John Mahama, what iniquity is this at all? GOD save Ghana. #IAmForChange President John Mahama Thursday paid glowing tribute to the late Abuakwa North Member ofParliament, Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu. He described the MP who was stabbed to death at his East Legon home early this month as a real gentleman who always walked away with a smile. The president opened his fourth and final State of the Nation address in his first term in office with somber, reflective words. He said even though as MP for Bole, he and JB Danquah-Adu stood on different sides and pointed out what was wrong with opponents, we did it with respect. President Mahama said the Abuakwa North MP genuinely loved Ghana, and his absence from the House is both seen and felt. Bodies being loaded into truck for burial 25.02.2016 LISTEN The Kintampo Municipal Government Hospital, in conjunction with the Kintampo Municipal Assembly and the police, has jointly organised a mass burial for 10 unclaimed bodies of last Wednesday's accident victims on the Kintampo Tamale highway. The 10 bodies, including two children, five men and three women, were buried last Sunday after the bodies had gone bad and emanating offensive odour into the community. Their families could not be traced, thereby, forcing the hospital's authorities to take the necessary action to get rid of the bodies. Some of the bodies which were identified and collected by families were also buried at Kintampo, with the support of the municipal assembly, the police and some religious organisations. . At the Brong Ahafo Regional Hospital at Sunyani where some of the injured victims are receiving treatment, nine persons are still on admission but are responding to treatment. They include Emmanuel Baaba, six; Amidu Ibrahim, eight; Sandra Zabrae, two-and-half years and Comfort Atia. It would be recalled 61 passengers last Wednesday lost their lives after the bus on which they were travelling collided with a truck loaded with tomatoes at Kintampo. Fifty-eight bodies were deposited at the Kintampo Government Hospital morgue, while three were deposited at the Techiman Holy Family Hospital morgue. When a team of ministers of state visited the Kintampo Government Hospital last Thursday, the medical superintendent of the hospital, Dr Bismark Owusu-Fosu, complained about the limited facilities at the hospital and explained that a similar accident in the area had overstretched the capacity of the mortuary. From Daniel Yao Dayee, Sunyani [email protected] 25.02.2016 LISTEN Tigo Ghana has sent scores of its workers home, as it commences a major restructuring exercise. The dismissal of the workers, which commenced last week, is still ongoing and has so far affected the company's commercial, marketing, call centre, PR, HR and procurement wings, among others. Persons familiar with the development said majority of the sacked workers did not see the move coming and it is unclear how many workers have been affected. Sources say close to 80 workers have been affected. This is not the first time the telecom company is embarking on such a move. In mid 2014 Tigo dismissed a number of its workers in a redundancy exercise. . Tigo had hinted the move was 'to ensure its ability to compete in highly competitive market and build a sustainable business.' It added that it has become necessary for it to review its operation based on a thorough evaluation of the company's structure and strategic objectives. Tigo had about 4.4 million subscribers as at August 2015 according to figures from the regulator of the telecom industry, the National Communications Authority (NCA). Further checks also revealed that some of the company's subsidiaries in Africa are also embarking on similar moves. Tigo Rwanda in December last year laid off about 70 of its workforce accounting for at least 20 percent of the firm's total workforce in that country. Meanwhile, efforts to get a response from the company over the matter proved futile. Citifmonline 25.02.2016 LISTEN The Electoral Commission (EC) has set March 29, 2016 for a by-election in the Abuakwa North Constituency in the Eastern region to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP). The seat became vacant after the gruesome murder of Joseph Boakye Danquah Adu, MP for the Abuakwa North constituency at his residence. J.B. Danquah was stabbed to death at his Shiashie residence in Accra on February 9. The police subsequently launched an investigation into the matter, which led to the arrest of one Daniel Aseidu, popularly known as 'Sexy Don Don' and other suspects. He has been arraigned before court. In accordance with Article 112(5) of the Constitution, as amended, EC would open nominations for the election on March 1 and 2 at the district office of the Commission. According to a statement signed by Amadu Sulley, Deputy Chairman (Operations) of the EC, nomination forms could be obtained from the district office or the regional office of the Commission in Koforidua. Candidates for the election shall provide two recent photographs with red background, showing the full face and both ears. The filing fee for the election is GH1,000. All interested candidates and political parties are to take note and be guided accordingly, Mr Sulley said. [email protected] By Nii Ogbamey Tetteh . Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia 25.02.2016 LISTEN New Patriotic Party (NPP) vice presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has blasted the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration for plunging the country into huge debt despite the enormous resources available to it. Dr Bawumia, an astute economist, insisted that the Mahama government had borrowed $37 billion out of which it could account for only $7 billion under its so-called massive infrastructural projects. What is clear to me (and confirms my long held suspicion) is that members of this government, handed the mandate to manage our destinies as a nation, do not read, the NPP vice presidential candidate stated in reaction to a statement issued yesterday by government to counter his earlier analysis on the heavy debt burden inflicted on the country by the NDC administration. So far, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, are running away from the current debt position of the country as at December 2015, as they claim that they are still doing reconciliation two months after the end of the year. Both the Finance Minister and BoG Governor Kofi Wampah are relying on a September figure of GH92 billion. With government contracting GH6 billion in loans monthly through the capital market, it is believed that the total debt is currently hovering around GH110 billion as government continues to borrow to service interest on debts. Dr. Bawumia stated, If you sum the cost of all the loan financed projects listed in the green book, including those with artistic impressions, it is less than $7 billion. Meanwhile, the government has borrowed the equivalent of $37 billion, so where is the rest of the money? Travesty Of Justice I will repeat again that it is in fact a travesty that Ghana before the discovery of oil was spending a higher proportion of its income on infrastructure investment than after the discovery of oil and the massive increase in the debt stock, Dr. Bawumia insisted. The renowned economist, at the National Financial Literacy and Investment Summit organised by the University Students Association of Ghana (USAG) at the University for Development Studies, Wa Campus, under the theme: The Role of Financial Discipline and Investment in National Development, last weekend exposed the NDC government's propaganda while highlighting the massive mismanagement of the economy under President John Mahama. NDC Response However, a statement signed by Communications Minister Dr. Edward Omane Boamah yesterday chided Dr. Bawumia for his analysis, describing it as 'false' and 'misleading.' It is instructive that after years of living in denial that these projects don't exist, he has finally acknowledged their existence except that he wants to tread down the path of discrediting them for partisan gain, the minister underscored in the statement. . The government said, Dr. Bawumia's latest untruths are only a last-gasp effort to create doubts about the unprecedented investments made in all spheres of our national life by President John Dramani Mahama's Government. It is borne out of a morbid fear that the overwhelming evidence provided in the 210-page book, shatters the many unsustainable falsehoods churned out by him, the NPP and their allies about the performance of President Mahama. The NDC government also accused Dr. Bawumia of making claims without source and described it as false and a desperate attempt to find basis for the flawed conclusions he churned out at the event. You don't Read! An unperturbed Dr. Bawumia hit back strongly yesterday, saying government officials, including ministers, do not read. Worse of all, as I said on 14th February, 2015, at a forum at the University for Development Studies, what is most unfortunate about this whole episode is the fact that the government doesn't even seem to know how much it has borrowed. I have on several occasions tried to educate the government on what the true value of their borrowing is but try as I do, it is clear the government is committed to either not reading and understanding the extent of their reckless borrowing or is only following their usual path of deceit and propaganda. The NPP stalwart said, Amazingly, after adding some GH20 billion to the debt stock in 2015 alone, the government still wants to insist that the value of borrowing they have done, in dollar terms, has actually decreased. This exposes the deception in the method the government is applying on our debt stock, in attempt to hide the real value of monies that have accrued to them. Falsehood Dr. Bawumia also accused the government of lying in the release by Dr. Omane Boamah about capital expenditure during the NPP administration (2001-2008), saying I doubt the Finance Ministry handed these figures to the Minister (Omane Boamah), but whatever be the case, it exposes the level of incompetent and deceitful governance we have today. All they have done is to repeat the same claims which have been discredited. For me, the people of Ghana remain the best judges on the issue of whether they have had their due from this government, considering the unprecedented resources and opportunities they have had since they won power. Judgment Day He articulated, After having more than 10 times the resources of the NPP through unbridled borrowing, astronomic increases in tax rates and favourable external conditions (which they did nothing to precipitate), the people of Ghana will judge if such huge resources have been invested in their lives. I remain convinced that the people of Ghana will judge and judge well. This conviction is strengthened on a daily basis as I go round the country and interact with the people of Ghana. By William Yaw Owusu 25.02.2016 LISTEN The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave Awaits alike th' inevitable hour;- The paths of glory lead but to the grave. Elegy written in a Country Churchyard Thomas Gray IN DAYS OF YORE or IN BYGONE DAYS,we had Twi language textbooks: 'Kan Me Hwe' (could be translated as: 'Read Me and See'). I recall reading about an uncle travelling from the village to the city and the expectations of goodies on his return: Wofa him ne nsa , Kofi hin ne nsa, Amma him ne nsa, wohwee wofa atiko, wofa atiko adom. Wofa would return with toffees and biscuits for the kids. Among the people travelling on the Metro Mass Transit that had the horrible accident at Kintampo last week Wednesday were some on whom other people depended great expectations. But like Pip in Charles Dickens 's 'Great Expectations', these were expectations that would never be realised. The expectations would include: gifts of toffee, biscuits and bread. Their benefactor had taken a journey of no return. The harrowing aspects of the Kintampo accidents were captured in the following words: Pictures coming from the Kintampo accident are heartbreaking, especially those of the innocent kids whose remains were arranged on a mortuary trolley awaiting autopsy. (DAILY GUIDE editorial: Saturday, February 20, 2016). Kintampo captures the imagination and fancy of historians, geographers and literary scholars. Historians may recall the movements of the earlier settlers, as well as the administrative role of the town in the colonial days. Geographers will tell you stories about the marvelous waterfall and the equidistance of the town from Paga and Accra respectively. It is, arguably, the heart of Ghana, and most suited to be Ghana's future capital just as Cape Coast was the capital of the Gold Coast in the 19th Century, being shifted to Accra in the latter part of the 1800s. Literary scholars may capture the alluring landscape and the scenic beauty of the environment and spin these in delectable verses in prose and poetry. The Metro Mass Transit Company is said to have instituted an investigation into the accident. While we await the report of the committee, certain facts remain undisputable and are worth pondering over. The Bolgatanga bound MMT bus which left Kumasi that fateful Wednesday afternoon had developed faulty brakes at Techiman which was said to have been repaired by the driver. The problem created by the faulty brakes at Techiman recurred on reaching Kintampo, and on reaching the Kintampo Waterfalls area, the bus hit a cow, and then ran into a cargo truck when the driver swerved to avoid a collision with a fuel tanker. Such a collision could have been avoided if the bus was not speeding. The mutilated bodies of the dead were collected onto trucks, taxis, vans and any other available vehicle to the Kintampo Government hospital and nearby hospitals. Some of the survivors were airlifted to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and Sunyani Regional Hospital for intensive care. . The whole accident scene was painted red with the splittered and splintered tomatoes covered with a hob nob of broken wooden boxes and pieces of metalsa sad spectacle of debris for a well intended journey. The reports had been silent on ambulances conveying the dead and living, thus confirming reports that the Kintampo Government Hospital lacked an ambulance. A delegation of the government went to the accident scene. This 'high-powered' delegation included. Honorable Fiavi Kwetey, the Minister of Transport, Honorable Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Honorable Eric Opoku, the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister; Mr John Kudalor, the Inspector General of Police; Dr Albert brown- Gaise, the Chief Fire Officer The irony of the situation is that just a week or so earlier, Honorable the Minister of Health had declared that some thirty or so ambulances imported by his Ministry lacked the accoutrements that would pass them for description as 'ambulance'. So, how were the vehicles imported into the country? Did they pass through the processes laid down in the Procurement Act? So many questions: no reliable answers. The Kintampo Accident has broken the hearts of many a Ghanaian; all are tempted to ask many questions, some technical, some mundane some spiritual and some simply pedestrian. A survivor of the accident threw in a spiritual dimension: he declared that he was carrying human parts. He had shown these to the driver who had done the essential rights for a safe passage. But is it true that other passengers on the bus were carrying human parts of their dead relatives being carried to the north for burial and other funeral rites. But, assuming there were, how did they affect the technical structure and stability of the bus? Alhaji Dauda, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development gave the assurance that government would pick up the medical bills of the injured. One is reminded that the National Road Safety Commission was established to curtail the number of accidents in the country; but so many years after its establishment, we still continue to write about blood letting on our highways. What do we do to ensure sanity and stop this haunting carnage on our roads? Nana Akomea, speaking for the New Patriotic Party, suggests as a pragmatic measure, the need for a policy to require mandatory installation of speed alarms in all long distance passenger buses. The loud warning alarm which would sound any time a driver goes beyond an agreed limit would check speeding in long distance passenger buses and hence reduce avoidable accidents. In a press statement, the NPP Communications Director stated: The spate of horrendous, tragic vehicular accidents on the nation's roads has caused immense sorrow to many families and the nation at large. One such recent accident occurred at the Winneba Junction, when a passenger bus whilst engaged in overtaking, ran head long into a tipper truck. Over a dozen Ghanaians lost their lives instantly in this accident. Just last Wednesday, 17th February, at Kintampo, a passenger bus, also in an attempt to overtake, ran headlong into a cargo truck. Over 60 Ghanaians have so far lost their lives in this accident. According to one survivor, the driver of the passenger bus was speeding recklessly. The pictures and footage from these accidents have drawn shock and tears from many Ghanaians. The common thread in these tragic accidents has mainly been reckless driving, manifest in over speeding by drivers of long distance passenger buses. One pragmatic measure that has long been advocated and agreed is the need for a policy to require mandatory installation of speed alarms in all long distance passenger buses. Government should immediately initiate processes to legislate this policy to make it mandatory for all long distance passenger vehicles to be fitted with speed alarms. This will be the best way ensuring that those who have died at Kimtampo would not have died in vain. We do not want to hear of such a story again! Africanus Owusu-Ansah [email protected] 25.02.2016 LISTEN Two bad nuts in the Ghana Police Service have been nabbed for alleged extortion as contained in a story elsewhere in this edition. It is a matter of joy that the Ghana Police Service has unearthed such undesirable elements in their ranks; and as we are told, has begun investigations into the unacceptable activities of the two cops who were using their privileged positions as police officers. They are not the only bad nuts. Like other human institutions, there are many more who should be flushed out. Unfortunately, it is not easy identifying such characters who would until their cups are full, continue to tarnish the image of what should by all standards be a noble institution. No society underpinned by civility with the rule of law straddling it can exist without a law enforcement department the police. It is therefore important that the law enforcement department, like it should be in other parts of the civilized world, takes a conscious effort at ridding itself of bad nuts such as the two men in custody now. There is no human institution without bad nuts: it is the leadership of such places which should unleash measures to flush out such elements. The Police Intelligence and Professional Standards Unit must be commended for its swoop on the supposedly bad guys, who we have learnt have operated this module for some time now. . The IGP, experienced as he is, did well by ordering a search in the houses of the alleged criminals in uniform an exercise which yielded telltale stuff which added more footnotes in the bad testimonial of the cops. But for their arrest the two would have been in the extortion occupation for the long haul. It is interesting to note that none of the victims of the reported criminal activities of these bad guys mustered courage to report them to their superior officers, preferring to part with the paltry coins for their peace. The reason for this is simple. Members of the public find it difficult to have access to superior officers of the police. A commercial driver, for instance, cannot simply walk into a police station and demand to see the district or divisional commander with a view to reporting the suspicious conduct of a cop. Not only would he not be allowed to see the commander by the constable at the counter his first port of call but would be subjected to some questions first posed by the constable before even considering allowing him in. He would most likely be protective of his defaulting colleague. How can an ordinary man in the street challenge a suspicious cop engaged in an illegality without risking a shot with a trumped-up charge of seeking to attack the cop who is not authorized to engage in the duties he is undertaking in the first place? It would be in the interest of law enforcement for the IGP to think out measures that would make superior police officers accessible to members of the public. This way bad nuts can easily be reported for the necessary action. With concerted efforts and the cooperation of members of the public, the bad nuts who give the police a bad name would be indentified and shown the exit. The two cops in police custody 25.02.2016 LISTEN Officials of the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards (PIPS) Unit have apprehended two constables for allegedly extorting monies from unsuspecting members of the public, most of them drivers at Tabora Junction, a suburb of Accra. The arrested policemen are Constable Musa Azuma with Service Number 48572 who purportedly posed as an Inspector and Constable Faati Tinob Jacob with service number 48838 stationed at the Police Visibility Unit of the National Patrols Department. Whereas Constable Musa Azuma, stationed at Aperade in the Eastern Region at the time of his arrest was said to be wearing a police uniform with an inspector's lanyard and bars, Constable Faati Tinob reportedly donned his uniform and his accompanying rank. They were apprehended on the night of February 18, 2016 at Tabora Junction by the PIPS team deployed to inspect and monitor personnel on duty. Speaking to DAILY GUIDE, Superintendent Cephas Arthur, Director in-charge of the Police Public Affairs Department, said personnel from the PIPS were deployed to monitor their colleagues at their various duty posts as part of the reaffirmation of public confidence programme. On reaching Tabora Junction that night, the team saw the two cops performing Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) duties. Upon seeing the PIPS officials, the suspects took to their heels in different directions. Constable Musa who was in the inspector's uniform, was immediately arrested but Faati Tinob sped off using a motorbike with registration number M-14-GR 1594, but was later arrested, according to Superintendent Cephas Arthur. Preliminary investigations revealed that Constable Musa Azuma was not an inspector as his uniform suggested. When a search was conducted on the two, it was discovered that Constable Musa Azuma had an amount of GH82.00 and two Gota brand service radio sets on him while Constable Faati Tinob also had an amount of GH165 on him. Investigations also revealed that Constable Musa Azuma, who was working in Accra, was on transfer to Akim Aprade in the Eastern Region to work but after reporting himself at his office, he returned to carry out the alleged nefarious activity. They were later detained at the Nima Police Station pending investigations. Upon receiving the news, Mr John Kudalor, the Inspector General of Police, ordered that the two be paraded before him for interrogations. Upon interrogations, the police boss directed that their various houses be searched. When the police conducted a search in Constable Musa Azuma's house, they discovered a riot control amour vest, four pellet-proof vest, two driver's licenses, a police camouflage with inspector's lanyard, a pair of military trousers, two military caps, two military camouflage bags and a military pair of shorts. The Police Administration has since interdicted the two cops pending further investigations. Superintendent Arthur urged individuals who might have fallen victim to their activities to report at the police headquarters. By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey ( [email protected] ) The President John Dramani Mahama has stated that over 54, 000 children from four different regions have been enrolled into various schools under the Compulsory Education program. The President delivering his last State of the Nation Address under his first term to Ghanas Parliament, said in June 2015, over 10,000 'Made in Ghana' sandals were distributed as part of his social intervention program. He added as a result of a directive he gave last year that school textbooks should be printed in Ghana, 1,400 new direct jobs have been created as a result of that directive. Mahama also revealed that the Education Ministry has also introduced two new programs in that sector, Teacher Professional Development where the aim is to train 95% of teachers in Basic level by 2020. Under the Provision of Teaching and Learning Materials, about 10,000 school supplies have been distributed and over 30,000 teachers trained in ICT. President Mahama who promised to construct 200 Day Schools in four years said over 200,000 jobs when the schools are completed. According to him, this is the biggest expansion of education in the history of Ghana. He added that enrollment in tertiary education has been 6.3% and 8.9 for polytechnics. He said 816 direct jobs have been created from the University of Health and Allied Science in Ho which government has set up and has admitted over 800 students. The Project Coordinator of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Trade Capacity Building (TCB) Programme for Ghana, Mr Victor Mills has called for a policy direction on internal trading controls in Ghana. He said the UNIDO-TCB programme, funded by the Swiss government through the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), and in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) is making an important contribution to strengthening Ghanas quality infrastructure and integrating quality standards into the Ghanaian production for exports. He stressed the need to ensure production for the domestic market also conforms to relevant quality standards. Mr. Mills made the comments when an evaluation team from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) Calidena Project met with the UNIDO- TCB team to share ideas and discuss areas of further interventions in the area of metrology and laboratory testing in the country. The focus of the meeting was to assess extent of interventions to avoid duplication of efforts. Madam Carola Heider, the PTB - Calidena Project Co-ordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa led the PTB team. She said PTB is ending the first phase of its programme which focused on quality assurance of agricultural products through metrological and testing services in Ghana and the Calidena project has partnered with GSA in that regard. She was confident that more of such interactions with agencies like the UNIDO -TCB Programme for Ghana will be helpful in promoting conformity standards in Ghana. The UNIDO TCB programme has supported a number of testing laboratories to obtain international accreditation; there has been no duplication of efforts and is currently supporting a few Inspection bodies in Ghana to be accredited to ISO/IEC 17020. The UNIDO Trade Capacity Building Programme in Ghana is aimed at improving the export competitiveness of Ghanaian exports. President John Mahama has hit hard at the Central Bank for sleeping on the job while some microfinance companies milk unsuspecting customers of their life earnings. The Managing Director of DKM microfinance Dr. Martin Delle and three others are standing trial for fraudulent breach of trust. Delle is on a GHC80 million bail while the others, including the Chief Executive Officer of God Is Love Fan Club; Nortey Noel and managing director of Jastar Motors Charles Asum had their bond set at GHC50 million and GHC20 million respectively. Customers of the financial institutions are aggrieved because the accused persons convinced them of a 50 per cent interest offer on investments in three months. Based on the information, a number of people were said to have deposited various sums of money in the suspects companies. However, on the maturity dates, the clients found the offices of the suspects locked when they went to collect their money. Speaking during his State of the Nation address in Parliament Thursday, Mahama said lack of effective supervision on the part of the Central Bank resulted in the scam. While commiserating with the numerous customers who were fleeced, the president tasked the Bank of Ghana to intensify its liquidation proceedings against DKM in particular, to reimburse legitimate customers of their original deposit amount. He added: Government has a concern for the poor unsuspecting clients. Mahama has therefore called on Parliament to fast track the Ghana Deposit Protection bill which will protect the small depositors in funds like this. 25.02.2016 LISTEN Maverick politician Afrifa Yamoah Ponkoh has rubbished reports that he has passed away. The former Chief Executive of the Ejisu/Juaben Municipal Assembly charged members of the general public, especially his supporters, to disregard the false reports. According to him, he is ready to lead the campaign of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the upcoming elections in the Ashanti region. Reports that Yamoah Ponkoh had passed away spread in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, some weeks ago. Even though the rumours spread for some days, the outspoken politician surprisingly did not come out to debunk them publicly. Yamoah Ponkoh finally broke his silence on the disturbing issue during an interview with King Edward of Hello FM on Monday. I even laughed over reports that I am dead and gone, he said, reiterating that such reports do not worry him. . Yamoah Ponkoh said he doesn't know the source of that report. I was not worried about the false report because there is no truth in it, the NDC member, who is noted for his tough talk, maintained. Yamoah Ponkoh indicated that he would vigorously campaign for the NDC ahead of the 2016 general elections. He said President Mahama had performed excellently since he assumed office and would be re-elected as president. Mr. Ponkoh stated that the NDC campaign in the Ashanti region would be massive, adding that he would play a leading role to help the party win the forthcoming general elections. From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi 25.02.2016 LISTEN The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has extended its condolences to the bereaved families of the unfortunate road accident which claimed over 60 lives at Kintampo in the Brong Ahafo Region. It described the accident as regrettable and disturbing while condemning the spate of road carnage in the country. Mr Issah Khaleepha, General Secretary of the Union, in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency, urged its members to exercise the greatest caution to avert such occurrences in the future. It's unfortunate that the carnage had occurred at the time drivers are being congratulated for the massive reduction of road accidents in 2015, the statement said. We wish to take this opportunity to encourage our members, social partners and other stakeholders that through collaborative efforts they should endeavour to give off their best towards the realisation of set targets, it said. The statement urged them to monitor the professional conduct of drivers to minimise road accidents. It also advised the GPRTU members to continue to work together in harmony to curb such unfortunate incidents in the transport industry to ensure progress. GNA 25.02.2016 LISTEN The Northern Youth for Peace and Development (NYUPED) has urged the National Road Safety Commission to petition parliament on the amendment of laws on the use of tricycles as a means of public transportation in the country. According to NYUPED there is the need for the acceptance of the 'Auto-Rickshaw Tricycles' as a major means of transportation in the country especially in the three Northern regions. It said the amendment of the laws would help the overwhelming engagements in the current transportation system since tricycles are already having a wide spread patronage by ordinary Ghanaians in carrying-out their daily duties. We call for motorcycles to be used across the country on commercial basis since is already gaining its patronage, we shall propagate it's suitability and safety as a commercial vehicle since most developing countries within west-Africa are using it, the group said in a press release. NYUPED stated that the auto-tricycles are being used as a safe means of transportation in many civilized countries in the world to facilitate major means of transport in remote areas where conventional transporters are unable. . Notwithstanding, His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana took a ride on the tricycle as an endorsement during his recent visit to Wa in the Upper West Region, where these auto-tricycle have been introduced as means of transport to create immediate jobs for the unemployed youth to alleviate poverty especially in the three Northern regions, they said. The leadership of the youth based organisation has consequently called on all stakeholders to act on the urgent call for the acceptance of the tricycle to aid the transportation system in the country. We call on the GPRTU, NRSC, Ministry of Roads and Transport, Ghana Highway Authority and other related public-private transport entities to embrace this call, the statement said. By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri Ernest Boateng presenting the cash to the mother of Benita Dankwa 25.02.2016 LISTEN The family of 29-year-old woman, who was allegedly shot in the chest by the husband, Effort Dankwa is calling for justice for the victim. Mrs. Benita Dankwa survived a ferocious attack while she was seven months pregnant. Seth O. Yirenkyire, father of the victim, said his son-in-law failed to report the incident to the police and also refused to cooperate with anyone. Father of the victim, who is now paralyzed, said the relevant authorities should severely deal with Effort to serve as a deterrent to other people, pleading with the Ghana Police Service and the court to use effective tactics to ensure justice. He made the plea when an Accra-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Love and Compassion International (LACI) donated GH1, 000 to the victim at her residence in Tema to cater for her medical care expenses. The NGO further donated a seed capital of GH500 to be used to open a bank account for her son who was delivered through caesarean section. Ernest K. Boateng, Founder of LACI, mentioned that he heard about the incident in the media and decided to help through his NGO. He promised to continue to offer support to the victim to ensure her recovery and appealed to corporate institutions in the country to provide support for the needy. . The police have so far charged the 33-year-old husband of the victim with attempted murder and he has been granted GH20,000 bail by a Tema court with two sureties to be justified. The case was adjourned to a later date. Reports said that the victim woke up on Saturday, August 8, 2015 at about 5:30 am to discover a hole in her chest and another one at her back. She was rushed to the hospital to seek medical attention and delivered her baby boy through surgery. The victim is currently nursing sores on her buttocks and on her hips as a result of her immobility for over five months, coupled with swollen feet. Investigations conducted by the Tema Community 11 Police revealed that the victim was shot at close range in her chest and the bullet penetrated her body. There was no evidence of break-in at the couple's room. Bullet believed to have been shot from a pistol at close range was found about 2 inches deep in the mattress on which the couple slept on. Blood stains were also found on the bed sheets and the mattress of the couple. From Vincent Kubi, Tema Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Four people were killed when an improvised explosive device seized from Boko Haram Islamists detonated at a police station in northeast Nigeria, a rescue official said on Thursday. "They were all police officers," the Adamawa state coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Sa'ad Bello, told AFP by telephone. "Five or six" others sustained minor injuries and were treated in different hospitals but later discharged, he added. The blast in the Jimeta area of the state capital, Yola, happened at 11:30 am (1030 GMT) and sparked fears of another attack by Boko Haram. The Islamist insurgents have attacked the city before and have targeted police stations and government buildings across the northeast. But Adamawa police spokesman Othman Abubakar said: "There was an accidental explosion in an armoury manned by our bomb squad". He said the device "killed one officer and mildly injured others". He was not immediately available to comment on the higher death toll. "Contrary to speculation, the explosion had nothing to do with any sabotage or attack. We have recovered lots of explosives from these troubled areas," Abubakar added. "Usually we screen them and store them for safe-keeping. We don't know what happened. Possibly this wasn't screened properly." Aliyu Maikano, an official with the Nigerian Red Cross, said the blast "wrought massive destruction on the building" and sparked a fire. Security personnel kept rescue workers at a safe distance because of fears of further explosions, he added. On November 17 last year, at least 34 people were killed and 80 others injured when an IED went off at a lorry park in the Jambutu area of the city. At least 27 people were killed and 96 wounded in a blast at a Jambutu mosque on October 23. Another home-made bomb left at a camp for people displaced by the conflict in Malkohi, just outside Yola, killed seven on September 11. The insurgency has left at least 17,000 people dead since it began in 2009 but over the last year a sustained counter-insurgency has recaptured territory lost to the rebels. The group has since reverted to attacks on "soft" civilian targets such as markets, bus stations and mosques using suicide bombers and IEDs. The Chairman, Nananom, Asofo, Imams, AYA, Zongo Youths, MFGJ GH and all protocol observed. Let me firstly thank God for this program. Equally, the Christ Clergy Council (CCC) in conjunction with Peace Advocacy International(PAI), together with other Religious and Traditional leaders, Civil Society and Youth Groups for putting together this event which is best describe as the process of self-organization. Self-organization is a process where stakeholders come together to fight for a common threatening phenomenon. The phenomenon of skewing almost non provoking issues to Christians-Muslims misunderstandings cannot be over-emphasized and leaves much to be desired in Ghana. This process gives optimism that indeed Ghana will not burn in 2016! This Programme, planned at the last quarter of 2015 for Kumasi and subsequently other regional capital towns in Ghana, from hindsight of recentmisplaced and unprovoked upheavals in Tafo, can be concluded as visionary and pragmatic process for peaceful election year and beyond. Ghana will not burn in 2016! What an audacious remarkfromA Religious Council but prudent in action orientated towards affirming the statement.I believe Ghanaians need to hear the message of change coming from seriousreligious leaders, respectful traditional rulers and the leadership of the business community in order to facilitate our socio-economic development and guarantee our authentic co-existence as Ghanaians.The fact is that a person is first born into citizenship of a nation before being nurtured into a particular religion and culture. We all have the option to choose our friends but we do not have the option to choose our families. Every person born into the citizenship of Ghana has, therefore, the right to decide to pursue a religion of choice without discrimination whatsoever. RELIGION I cherish as insightful how the late Prof. F.J.Streng ,who was a major authority on Religion, a respected pioneer in the field of the History of Religion at the world-renowned Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dallas, Texas defined religion. He posited that religion is a process of ultimate transformation.The substance and insight entailed in this comprehensive definition are a wake-up call for any religious leader and so called metamorphosed religious-political leader. If the beliefs that knit together practitioners of any religion are not existentially relevant, intellectually stimulating and socially refreshing leading to the ultimate transformation of the nation all efforts will be a waste of time and human resources. Thus the strengian definition makes the Abrahamic traditions (Christianity and Islam in particular) very relevant in Ghanas development and overall nation building. Though thevalues, beliefs and moral prescriptions are very dear to the hearts of religious practitioners yet they may not be of significantimportance, if they are not translated into the processes of ultimate transformation in society. Religiosity in the Ghanaian multi-ethnic society largely has a lot to do with the contradictions entailed in the dynamics of trust and deception, good and bad governance, mass indiscipline, mediocre justice and crude injustices. Be that as it may, Ghanaian religiosity has not yet been translated into the processes of nationhood that we can all be proud of. However, one cannot conclude that a nations development is based solely on particular religious tradition, as there are many examples of nations in which the majority of the citizens may or may not practice respective religions but are well- developed or advancing in their development. Examples are such nations as USA, UK, China, India, Saudi Arabia etc, for which each have a particular dominant religion being practised by respective citizenry. It is, therefore, imperative that there should be some fundamental principles that citizens of a nation adhere to which can steer them towards building strong nations. So how should Ghanaians see religion in relation to governance towards nation building? GOVERNMENT Government according to Webster is the organization, or agency through which a political unit exercises its authority, controls and administers public policy and directs and controls the actions of its members or subjects. As agency, it implies governments are not islands on their own, but there are principals who nominate or approve the agency. A government is thus a trusted privilege mandated by the citizens or the electorate.It is in this vein that the Constitution of Ghana emphasizes the inalienable rights of every citizen and the fact that all powers of Government spring from the Sovereign Will of the people. Therefore, ANYONE or INSTITUTION or GROUP/POLITICAL PARTY that attempts or acts in ultra variance against the sovereign will of Ghanaians for their choice of a President and a government is not only UNCONSTITUTIONAL but alsoSACRILEGIOUSand a first degree felony of a crime. Abraham Lincoln, in his famous Gettysburg address, affirmed democracy as the government of the people, by the people and for the people. A government of a section of the people, by the section of the people and the for the section of the people is definitely not democracy as code named winner takes all in Ghana but Aristocracy i.e. a government by elites or superiors. The commoner has no chance and this is a threat to National Security. Again, Government has three main democratic arms i.e. the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. It is at the Legislature, that we have formal participatory democracy by the representation of both government and opposition. A compromised and corrupted Legislature is reflected empirically in the respective characters by the Executive and the Judiciary arms of government. A government headed by the Executive or the President can be affiliated to a political party but the government is responsible and accountable to the people called Ghanaians. Governments do not need political parties in order to govern democratically, i.e. with fundamental principles of Respect for human rights and respect for rule of law. Our country in 2016 is not gargantuan butginormouslycorrupted and polarised than before, our value systems eroded and in fact the sense of patriotism is receiving life threatening support. The deeds of corruption is shamefully defended and acclaimed heroism,all because of partisan politics without sense of right and wrong. The social stability in Ghana is largely due to the development and maintenance of Traditional Governance(Chieftaincy Institution) complementarily to the Elected Central Governance.The principle and character of chieftaincy place emphasis on the central authority of a chief but with procedures of mutual respect by the chief and the subjects. These procedures are time tested rooted in respect of authority, right to be heard fairly and respect for traditional laws. A chief for instance should not lift a hand on subjects nor insult anyone (both indigenes and foreigners) and the chief is expected to be given the same respect reciprocally. Any act of insubordination is rather converted into stated fines which pave the way for anyone to be heard fairly by the chief and an act which also depicts the respect by the offender to the central authority of a chief.What a thoughtful democratic procedures rooted in rich traditions of chieftaincy. Political parties in a caveat aligned themselves to ideologies of socialism or capitalism with neglects to traditions.We do not need President Barack Obama, to diplomatically drew our attention to this deception in 2009, when he addressed Ghanas Parliament.The essential truth of democracy is that each nation determines its own destiny. and each nation gives life to democracy in its own way, and in line with its own traditions. These ideologies are however, tied in the knot of wisdom of divide and rule tactics, for which political actors in the leadership of the parties enjoy the largess at the expense of all. These ideologies are God given fundamental principles of development both human and animals. The nucleus family is the unit of any nation. A child is nurtured, fended for, sheltered until 18years by any responsible parents, this is socialism ideology. After 18 years, the responsibility to take decision and subsequent expectation for the young adult to contribute towards society is capitalism ideology. This timeless principle is also noted in animals when they wean their young ones after certain period after birth. Ideology of governments for countries cannot prudently be different from parents ofthe family as unit of any nation. The timeless ideology of parents for our individual development is APPROPRIATISM. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana ideology is ultimately APPROPRIATISM. I opined in May 2012 How can we have a national democratic discourse in setting out our developmental agenda for the next two decades? Who should even develop this? Should it be a particular political party and what will be the outcome in a contextual implementation when these political parties are locked up in ideological patch of socialism/ capitalism, left-right-centre-wing bookish, theory-based education which does not translate into practical reality of our governance system? My mind finds it difficult to accept the fact that we cannot take majority decisions for our country except we align ourselves into political parties ideologies, even in parliament. This is centuriesindelible legacy of divide and rule tactics, that must be rejected by Ghana, Africa countries and the new world order that believe in the principle of true liberty and respect for human rights. The propensity of dynamics of human behaviors are forcing these ideologies to move to the CENTRE! Our vision for national development is blurred and our sense of judgement highly distorted more than a drunkard. We can no longer control our emotions along partisanship. Not even religion is able to control our emotions and what is left is a tiny spot light of hope ofMulti-Partisan Coalition or IndependentNon-Partisan Presidential Government glowing in the brood darkness of political partisan depravity. NATION BUILDING Most African countries are PAPER NATION according to Nana Lawyer Dr. Moses Oppong, President of Distinguished Scholars of Africa, in a paper titled, Paper-Nations &The Renaissance of Africa.According to Nana Oppong, not one sub-Sahara Africa country exists as true nation because they lack history, mystery and sacred order of true brotherhood to form a true nation. Nation-building, however, is also not synonymous with creating democracy, even though both take time. Rather authority relations are transformed through mutations of political institutions as well as of societal interests, through culture and social structures whose nature is driven by ideas and half-articulated longing of individuals. Nation-building also requires governments with policies designed to alleviate poverty, a greater respect for the law and a judiciary that truly dispenses justice and truth and that protects the highly vulnerable in society. Nation-buildingrequires a government that can implement socio-economic policies to close the poverty gap and to insure the well-being of future generations and honestly take steps to reform the ethnic and religious polarization of its citizenry. The significance of political parties as agents for nation building need to be transformed through political mutation to sacredness orwellbeing. For Ghana,We must also ensure that genuine pragmatic and prudent measures are set up to correct past political blunders.The rift that divided the founding fathers of Ghana into enemies causing socio-political disorganisation over the past fifty (59) years needs divine wisdom for pragmatic reconciliation. THE TRIPOD OF RELIGION, GOVERNMENT AND NATION BUILDING Having attempted to conceptualise the Tripod of Religion, Governance and Nation-Building, one needs toconsider the issue of pragmatic interconnectedness. We need to form a pictorial view of a triangular object, with Nation-Building at the apex and the baseheld together by Religion and Governance.Thus religion and governance form the formidable foundation that can sustain and hold the super structure of nation-building together against the shocks and aggressions of foreign cultures and the tidal waves against the exploration in search for the desired destiny of the nation. It is of great concern that intolerance and disrespect coupled with disturbances within either the religious or governance pillars, respectively or worse off if such disturbances are concurrently happening in both pillars of nation-building, can wrought an incalculable tendency to crumple down the whole nation with high consequences of human lives and properties. The Mahama-led government pillar has been selfrock-shaken to crumbles in all facets of our national life but it's trying to put the pieces together hopefully in 2016. EVERY GHANAIAN, POLITICAL, PARTIES, ALL FAITH GROUPS AND CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS MUST DO ALL WE CAN NOT TO CRUSH THE RELIGIOUS PILLAR IN 2016 FOR POLITICAL EXPEDIENCIES. Nation-building requires faithful traditions that can translate the love and justice of God/Allah/Onyankronponginto the existential human situation.Nation-building requires religions with referent stance on moral principles with ultimate process of raising the red flag with the view to transforming the consciousness of governments initiatives on policies that discriminate against others with high levels of crude injustice. It is improper for government to assume moral authority or pretend to have all the answers to all national challenges. Corruption must be dealt with and governments should eschew the practice of using falsehood to gain power so as to create a just society. NO PRETENSE, NO MANIPULATION BUT PROFESSIONALISM Ghana will indeed not burn with such attitudinal self-organization such as stakeholders of this event have exemplified. It will require no pretense from the government, state institutions, opposition political entities, faith communities, CSO in taking a firm stance in addressing and dealing security threats in clear eyed-terms. NEST, NPC AND EC ENGAGE ON CREDIBLE BVR NO PRETENSE I call on the National Election Security TaskforceAndTechnical Committee (NEST) not to act in pretense of peaceful election to addresssecurity flash-points that will undermine and short change the Sovereign Will of Ghanaians. No security force has overcome the human Will/spirit. The best security service is to prevent and not fire fighting. Prevention is a conscious and deliberate action. One of the pervasive flash points and pretenseof ignorance by the EC and the Political Parties is the creation of Credible Biometric Voter Register (BVR). The ECs independence is not an island onto itself. What ignorance and pretense by the EC on how to clean BVR. What does the EC mean by BVR Exhibition after the limited registration? The EC forum Eminent Panelistss report has stated BVR validation and Nigeria has demonstrated BVR validation by simply Placing of Voters fingers on the AFIS machine to verify respective Biodata in order to validate a voter for 2016 election. The EC and especially its Chairperson Mrs Charlotte Osei must guide her soul and spirit to resist decisions that will culminates in acts of biblical Jezebel character. I pray for her. For election 2016 in Ghana as I declared in 2014 is indeed Election of Armageddon. The NEST without pretense must engage the EC to ensure credible but economic BVR as against NEW BVR. The National Peace Council must equally collaborate with NEST for this common purpose. This will clear perceived manipulation and doubts of credible neutrality by these institutions. NO PRETENSE WITH RESPECT FOR THE LAW GOVERNMENT The government and not the President alonein pretense cannot mock the law and uphold simultaneously. When even the courts orders are not enforced is a mockery of Justice, examples are the orders on Woyome case and Fulanis. From hindsight whenever justice is denied the whole national security is threatened, to the extent that the lives of Fulanis, indigenes, and even the economic value of the cattle will be lost. NO PRETENSE WITH JUSTICE ON TAFO VIOLENT ASHANTI RESEC The stakeholders of the unfortunate upheaval at Tafo must not deny the application of Justice. Though Justice can be tempered with mercy but the clarity of pursuing Justice and the lessons must not be denied the country, especially, the youth. The American reformer and statesman, Frederick Douglas cautionary statement cannot be ignored at this dispensation where Justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. Let me pay homage to the CCC with Apostle Chief Isaac who planned this Programmewith Nananomand chosen Kumasi as the maiden event.The collaboration of Ashanti Youth Association, the Zongo Youth and Machomen for Good Justice Ghana (MFGJ) is a leadership trail blazer and a laudable resolved by all youth groups in Ghana to emulate not to allow themselves to be manipulated by political entities to ensure peace. For Ghana will not burn in 2016 by political EXPEDIENCIES. Let's deal with our fears legally and professionally and not leave our fate to the pretense of prayers and expected miracles for God has given us the power to dominate as stated in the holy bible. To conclude, one of the favourite quotations that the Muslim youth leader, Mallam Abdul Fattah of Accra often quotes is"For surely Allah will never change the grace which He hath bestowed on a people until they change what is in their (own) souls; and verily Allaah is He Who heareth and knoweth(all things)."(Qur'aan: Al-Anfaal, 8:53).For Allaahta'aalaa will never change His blessings and the fortunes of a people unless the people take the initiative to change themselves. Let us go back to the real Ghanaian and not change our souls for evil because of depraved partisan politics emanating out of insatiable greed. Finally, I am most grateful to the Christ Clergy Council and Peace Advocacy Internationalespecially Apostle Chief Isaac who never relented for me to share perspective asa Political Leaderon the topic Religion, Government and Nation building for the maiden Keynote address for this year 2016. Thank You. Jacob Osei Yeboah (JOY2012, IndependentPresident Candidate 2012) Not even religion is able to control our emotions and what is left is a tiny spot light of hope of Multi-Partisan Coalition or Independent Non-Partisan Presidential Government glowing in the brood darkness of political partisan depravity. General Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa 25.02.2016 LISTEN General Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa, one of the key conspirators who organized the February 24,1966 Coup against Nkrumah claims that it was a conspiracy of two ethnic groups. In his book The Ghana Coup Afrifa fails to mention the fact that the Coup was sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States of America. He also disagrees with his co-conspirator Commissioner of Police A.K Deku that the Coup was largely plotted at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra. Afrifa claims that the plot was hatched in Kumasi and that Colonel Emmanuel Akwasi Kotoka was the central figure in it. Excerpt of Afrifas book is published below; A few days after our eventful trip to the north, I visited Colonel Kotoka in his house and we conversed about Nkrumah's forthcoming visits to Hanoi. We agreed that during his absence, a coup should be staged. It seemed that the colonel had been thinking about a coup for some time. He was so happy that we stayed up until the early hours of the morning drinking beer and making plans. I felt so relieved and excited on my return from the colonel's house that I could not sleep that night. The following morning he called me to his office and put certain facts before me to enable us to assess the situation. Without wasting time, the colonel went to Accra to meet Mr Harley, then commissioner of police. The broad plan of the coup was drafted In Colonel Kotoka's office at Kwadaso in Kumasi. After this, the Colonel and I swore to each other that in the event of anything happening to either of us, the one left alive would see the coup through. The Colonel told me that if he was killed or captured in Accra in the course of our preparation, I should continue with our mission and carry it through to the end. So far as I know, the only other person who knew the details of the plan was Mr Harley, whom I had not met at that point. We all agreed that Major-Gen Ankrah should lead our Revolutionary government. I was Colonel Kotoka's Brigade Major, and his staff officer in charge of training and operations. Whatever contribution I made to this exercise was on my Commander's orders. But I would not say this if the Coup had failed. I was prepared to take my place at the gallows and leave my name in history. To us the exercise commenced at 04.00 hours on Wednesday 23rd February 1966 when 600 men representing all the units in our Garrison in Tamale started moving. They were moving to the south and to an unknown destination for a test exercise in connection with the Rhodesian operation. Since November 1965, we had been in the high state of readiness to move into Rhodesia at short notice. We exploited this situation to deceive the intelligence system. Colonel Kotoka and I met the troops between Ejura and Atebubu at 12 hours, and there I was left in Command while he proceeded to Accra to confirm to Mr Harley and Brigadier Ocran that the exercise was going ahead. Meanwhile, Major Coker- Appiah, my trusted friend from Sandhurst, had been assigned responsibility for the arrest of the director of Military Intelligence, Brigadier Hasan, and the Commander of P.O.G.R. Colonel Zanerigu, before the H-hour. The arrest of the late Major -General Barwah was a separate exercise. The director of MI surrendered on orders, and the P.O.G.R. Commander escaped through a window. As for Barwah, he resisted arrest, most unwisely and thereby compelled an officer to adopt other methods which he himself knew would be adopted if he was stubborn. By 06.00hrs on 24th February the Accra police had rounded up most of the Ministers. Not a single shot was fired at the Castle. At the Flagstaff House, our casualties would have been very heavy if the opposition had been trained properly, and by this time most of our men were wounded. We captured the Ghana Radio Station without much incident and at 05.25 hours we were in full control of the studios. I went on radio and asked the now awakened Ghanaians to stay by the radios for important announcements at 6 a.m., and I told them, there would not be the usual news. Just before six o'clock, Colonel Kotoka arrived at the radio station. He shook my hand and said "Well-done, Akwasi". He then went on air and in these words told the nation what had happened. "Fellow citizens of Ghana, I have come to inform you that the military in co-operation with the Ghana Police, have taken over the government of Ghana today. The Myth surrounding Nkrumah has been broken. Parliament is dissolved and Kwame Nkrumah is dismissed from Office. All ministers are also dismissed. The CPP is disbanded with effect from now. It is illegal for any person to belong to it. We appeal to you to be calm and cooperative; all persons in detention will be released in due course. Please stay by your radios and await further details Thus, for the first time we told Ghanaians and the whole world what we had done. This in brief, heralded our new era. At Kumasi, a funny incident happened. At the end of Colonel Kotoka's broadcast, the Ashantis flocked to the bars, drinking and singing the praise of the Armed Forces. Then someone said, "You don't know Kwame Nkrumah. This is one of his wicked plans to test the loyalty of the masses. He wants to find out who is with him, and deal with those who are not". And as if they had been ordered to disperse at gun point, the gathering crowd disintegrated as they run into their houses. This was at Ashanti New Town, one of the United Party's strongholds. Our coup has been described elsewhere as one of the Ashanti invasions. If indeed it was, we hope this will be the last. This description is correct to the extent that the coup was planned in Kumasi, by Colonel Kotoka and Mr Harlley and myself. But Colonel Kotoka and Mr Harlley are not Ashantis. The Ashantis and the Ewes, their tribes, are, however, traditional allies. 25.02.2016 LISTEN New computer science research at the University of Cape Town aims to help students to learn computer programming using their mobile phones. This could potentially be of great help to students in poorer countries, many of whom own a cellphone but dont have access to desktops and laptops. Chao Mbogos doctoral thesis, Scaffolding java programming on a mobile phone for novice learners, proposes that programming environments on mobile phones could include a supporting technique called scaffolding which is specifically designed for mobile phones, based on the needs of learners. It addresses the limitations of mobile phones, such as small screens and small keypads, in their use as typical programming environments. Such a scaffolded mobile programming environment would be particularly useful for novice learners of programming in resource-constrained environments. My experience while teaching first-year learners of programming at a Kenyan university revealed that the learners struggled in the subject mostly because they did not get enough practice. Most of the learners did not own PCs or laptops at home but they owned personal mobile phones that they always carried with them, said Mbogo. She said the solution could be to use cellphones that the learners already have and design applications that consider their limitations, as well as taking into account the needs of learners. The study has shown that this is possible. The study has also shown that it is possible to support learners to learn computer programming using their mobile phones. Mbogo used a six-level theoretic framework to design scaffolding techniques to support construction of Java programs on a mobile phone. The resulting prototype was tested with learners of programming in universities in Kenya and South Africa. The results of the experiments indicated which scaffolding techniques could support the construction of Java programs on a mobile phone. Further, the results indicated the effectiveness of using these scaffolding techniques to construct Java programs on a mobile phone. Mbogo has a BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science from Kenya Methodist University and an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Oxford. Her doctoral thesis was motivated from her experiences while teaching learners of programming at the Department of Computer Science at Kenya Methodist University. She will receive her PhD degree in computer science from UCT on 19 December 2015. Her research was supervised by Professor Edwin Blake and Associate Professor Hussein Suleman in the Department of Computer Science at UCT. Scanning of a human brain by X-rays 25.02.2016 LISTEN It was Thursday morning on the fifty-fifth day of 1966, and in the month of February, when the radio boomed with an announcement that a joint military and police operation had taken over the reins of government. There was a coup d'etat, the first successful one in Ghana, which broke whatever myth surrounded the Convention People's Party (CPP) regime led by Osagyefuo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. It was the eighth successful coup in Africa. Some named it the End of Tyranny, and others claimed it was Ghana's Day of Shame. Today, as we celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the overthrow of the Nkrumah regime, we do so against the backdrop of the clarion calls by the new CPP to Ghanaians to drop the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) during the November 7, 2016 General Elections, and return this country back to the socialist rule started by Dr. Nkrumah. I ask what new thing can they implement in governance that is unique to Nkrumah, since everything good he did has been executed by successive governments. Let us examine some things done during Nkrumah's regime that are lost on us now and are possibly left for the new CPP will do. Preventive Detention Act (PDA), which handed indefinite jail terms without trial to anyone, even with the least suspicion of making any act or speech that could suggest treason or an anti-Nkrumah attitude. This PDA is still defended by Nkrumaists as the best at that time. So will the new CPP reintroduce it? The National Assembly (Disqualification) Act (NAA) sought to disqualify from the House those who failed to carry out their parliamentary duties. The PDA was used to detain vocal opposition members of Parliament (MPs), and then the NAA was used to kick them out of the House. This was a simple method of reducing opposition members in Parliament, making the CPP annex the seat through bye-elections. Will the new CPP reintroduce this law? Force Report Act (FRA), which threw into jail with heavy fines anyone who uttered a word deemed to be an insult or scandalous to the persons of Nkrumah and any of his ministers. Today, we freely insult our presidents and ministers, calling them failures among others, with the Nkrumaists shouting the loudest. In case the CPP forms a government, will they reintroduce FRA to make sure we fail to point out their mistakes? The Chiefs (Recognition) Bill made it a criminal offence for anyone to treat as deposed any person recognised by the government as a chief, and to treat as chief anyone not recognised by the government as such. Will the new CPP government reintroduce this law and ensure all chiefs and traditional leaders are from the CPP stock? These are but a few things that the new CPP may reintroduce. In fact, in 2004, their flagbearer, Mr. Aggudey, leaked out plans of the CPP to put a stop to free speech and expression, when he said as part of his party's manifesto, his government would reintroduce the Criminal Libel Law. One important thing that Nkrumah introduced, and which Nkrumaists continue to defend, was his life-presidency and one party state. Will it be something new that the new CPP will reintroduce into our constitution, and carry on the dream of a president for life and a one party state? Mind you, if they were able to change Ghana's Constitution to suit Nkrumah, then what can't they do to our current imperfect constitution? -What child and youth policy will the new CPP introduce? Will it reintroduce the formation of ideological camps to train children to grow to believe that the president is more powerful, and can be relied upon to provide all their needs than God can? Ghanaians should never forget those days when the Young Pioneer Movement was a powerful assembly of children and youth who even adults kowtow to. These young citizens were made to think Nkrumah was God, and had it not been the Catholic Youth Organisation movement instituted in every Catholic school, all youth at that time would have been completely brainwashed and made to adore Nkrumah, as they should have adored God. The then Anglican Bishop of Accra spoke against this and was deported. What agriculture policy will the new CPP government implement? Will it reintroduce the state farms system, where workers just go to clock in everyday, but use state inputs and machinery to cultivate their own farms, or will it restart the importation of snow ploughs from Russia instead of tractors? Today, the new CPP is shouting hoarse against acts of corruption, but will never talk about what happened in the CPP regime. When Krobo Edusei, then Minister of Industry, was relieved off his post for acquiring funds beyond his means to build a mini castle and buy a golden bed worth 3,000 or over 465,000 (GH2,570,000) in today's present value, nothing was done to make him to, at least, retrieve the loot to the state. He was, however, later reinstated to government and awarded a cabinet post of agriculture. Will the new CPP reward their corrupted ministers of state by reassigning them other fat portfolios? How can this new CPP fight corruption then? In fact, we heard of internal corruption within the new CPP, with charges against one of its losing presidential candidates, and do we hear of acts of corruption in some other party which is in the charge of a socialist Nkrumaist? Still on corruption, will the cost of projects be inflated eight times over like the construction cost of the bungalows and administration block of the shoe factory built in the CPP era? Will the President's Contingency Fund, which is not subject to parliamentary scrutiny, be reintroduced? Nkrumah is said to be corruption-free and had no property or even a bank account, so then who owned the 1.8 million Guinea Press? Assuming, without admitting, that Nkrumah was not corrupted, then it will be obvious what some of his people, past and present, are. They should bring back Nkrumah from the dead, for it seems none of his disciples is clean. What about rule of law? Will the new CPP reintroduce the executive powers given to Nkrumah to dismiss judges who do not make a ruling in his favour? May I refer Ghanaians to the Kulungugu Bombing trials, when justices of the Supreme Court who dismissed charges against three of the accused, namely CPP's Tawiah Adamafio, Ako Adjei (both cabinet ministers) and C.S.S. Crabbe (a CPP national executive officer), found themselves dismissed on December 8, 1962 and a retrial ordered, which convicted the three. In an era of free market economy, will the new CPP reintroduce a closely knit command economy and nationalise all industries and businesses in the country? Ivor Greenstreet had drawn hints of nationalisation in recent newspaper reportages. Whenever will these socialists learn that during the CPP regime of Nkrumah, the only industries which boomed and survived the communist rules were in the private sector? We had the cocoa industry and the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) Aluminum smelter among others. Even with Valco, Nkrumah drew the worse deal for Ghana, when he agreed to allow Kaiser to set up a plant in Ghana and draw on bulk of the electricity and pay much lower than the going commercial rate for electricity. Kaiser refused to mine bauxite in Ghana to feed the factory by telling Nkrumah that Ghana's bauxite was inferior, whereas it was the fear of nationalisation of the industry that informed that decision. And, finally, will the new CPP introduce a system where government funds would be withdrawn out of accounts? I remember that out of the 240 million (40.6 billion or GH231.7 billion in today's present value) seed capital given to us by the British in 1957, the money dwindled to 500,000.00 (77.5 million or GH441.75 million in today's present value) by February 11, 1963. Meanwhile, that year, the external debt of Ghana hit 184 million (28.5 billion or GH162.5 billion in today's present value). The overthrow of Nkrumah had nothing to do with the economic mess and corruption, but rather, because of his fatal decision to interfere with the army, the way he did with other sectors of state. Setting in party spies to infiltrate the army and break its cohesion, and the undue salaries and benefits given to his own Presidential Guards, who were mainly drawn from his Nzema tribe, made the army have deep and dangerous resentment. And they struck when the time was ripe: Thursday February 24, 1966. The Nkrumaists today keep blaming some conspiracy between the UP Tradition and the CIA for the toppling of Nkrumah. In recent CIA files, the agency distanced themselves from the February 24 coup. That this event was welcome news for most Ghanaians was manifested in some top CPP government and party officials who condemned Nkrumah after the overthrow. Even if the CIA aided the coup makers, what about Libya's role in the overthrow of the Nkrumaist pro-socialist government in 1981? They even set up a military base in here. That the NLC was all UP is another fallacy. Why will J.A. Ankrah plan to form his own party, when the Progress Party, an offshoot of the UP, was formed? And one member of government with the rank of Brigadier was a full Nkrumaist. Forty-five years out of our fifty-nine years of independence has been under some form of socialist rule, and we are not out of the woods yet. The new CPP could only come and experiment with the new world order, and, trust me, they will make such a mess, for the Cockerels have nothing new to offer. Commonsense with Daniel Dugan 25.02.2016 LISTEN Gay rights activists who were beaten during Sydneys inaugural Mardi Gras in 1978 have received a formal apology in the New South Wales parliament. Cheers rang out at the parliament following the apology in Sydney. The march, borne out of solidarity for New Yorks Stonewall movement, called for sodomy laws to be abolished and an end to discrimination. But it was met with unexpected police violence, mass arrests and public shaming. Fairfax media has apologised for outing the 53 people involved by publishing their names, addresses and occupations. It is unclear whether the NSW Police Force will issue a separate apology. The apology received a standing ovation on the Parliament floor and within the public gallery, which included some of the original 78ers. I hope its not too late that you can accept an apology but also we want to recognise that for all of that pain that you went through, you brought about fundamental change in this society and fundamental change for the many gay and lesbian people like myself, who can be open and relaxed about ourselves, member for Sydney suburb Coogee, Bruce Notley-Smith, said. Independent MP Alex Greenwich thanked the 78ers for helping NSW become the gayest parliament in Australias history. . We are all here because of your bravery, your courage, your sacrifice, he said. The march was held on a global day of activism to commemorate the Stonewall riots of 1969, which followed police raids on New Yorks Stonewall Inn gay bar. A crowd of around 500 Sydney demonstrators reportedly swelled to around 1500 as equal rights activists marched along Oxford Street chanting ho-ho-homosexual. Peter Murphy was 25 when he was detained during the mass arrests, singled out and bashed, thoroughly. There were just two police present and only one of them beat me, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Over the past four decades, Sydneys annual gay and lesbian Mardi Gras has grown into a vibrant mainstream event. Local media says the rally is expected pump almost $40 million into the NSW economy. -bbc 25.02.2016 LISTEN Adenkrebi (GAR), Feb. 24, GNA - Infanta Malaria Prevention Foundation (IMPF) in collaboration with Inesfly Africa has handed over a clinic facility and nurse's quarters to the Ghana Health Service Regional Directorate at Adenkrebi in the Ga East Municipality. The GHa 250,000 clinic would serve over 200,000 people in the area and its surrounding communities. Mr John Kwao Sackey, the Municipal Chief Executive Officer, Ga East Municipal Assembly unveiling the clinic commended the two organisations for their efforts to promote quality health care delivery in the country. He also acknowledged the students of Calvin School in Michigan in the United States, who through their initiative brought the two organisations to construct the facility. He said several efforts were being made to address healthcare concerns of the community, which includes the Millennium Development Goal four, five and six, which seeks to reduce child morality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other communicable diseases. The MCE said as a key agent of development of the municipality, it was their health mission to collaborate with partners in and around the municipality to achieve these goals. He implored health officers, who would be posted to the facility to see it as their civic responsibility towards the improvement of healthcare delivery in the country. 'Please be professional, hardworking, dedicated and respectful towards the people you are to serve,' he added. He also urged the traditional authorities to own the facility and maintain it properly in order to derive the maximum benefits Mr Michael Sjodin, the Chief Executive Officer of Inesfly Africa said the mission of the company was to contribute through their innovative solutions to improve the environment and help eradicate the endemic disease affecting human race. He said it was also part of their development agenda to effect change in the places that needed it most and working along with the Foundation, who had the same vision goes a long way to help the community. 'We want to help reduce and in the long term eradicate the effects of airborne vector diseases',' he added. He said the facility being painted by Inesfly Africa paint would prevent insects from entering the clinic and it would last for two years, which would be repainted in the second year. Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, Chairperson, IMPF said the Foundation was committed at providing all resources possible for mothers to stay alive, stay in sound health and be able to take care of their children. She said the Foundation has decided to focus their major efforts towards raising funds to provide many CHPS clinics as possible. 'We look forward to seeing under five morality figures improve in a year's time from this CHPS facility,' she added. She expressed the hope that this facility would make a dramatic difference in the health of the people of Ahenkrebi and its entire surrounding areas. Nana Okai Ankamah I, Chief of Ahenkrebi expressed gratitude to all and sundry, who have contributed in diverse ways towards the construction of the clinic. He, therefore, appealed to the two organisations to provide other basic social amenities for the community and its environs to enable the youth to contribute their quota to the development of these communities. GNA Kumasi, Feb 25, GNA - Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Nathan Kofi Boakye, the Ashanti Regional Commander, has warned people not to act outside the law, saying, that would not be tolerated. He made reference to recent violent incidents at Tafo, Agona, Agogo and Mampong and vowed to bring to justice anybody found to have breached the law. Identified offenders would be arrested by the police and put before the court to answer for their crimes. He was addressing a parade held at the police training school at Patasi in Kumasi to review their operational performance. DCOP Boakye said it was important for people to use legal processes to address whatever grievances. He rejected public criticism about the police handling of the Tafo violence and said they acted professionally. He reminded senior police officers to properly brief their subordinates on when and where to use their weapons. GNA Accra, Feb. 25, GNA - The Surprise Awards for Excellence (SAE), has presented a Citation of Honour to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Nathan Kofi Boakye in appreciation of his commitment to law enforcement and order. The award scheme seeks to recognise, honour and reward deserving individuals and institutions who have chosen to pursue the path of excellence and add value to their customers among others. Mr Gideon Ofosu Adjei, Chief Executive Officer of the SAE, presenting the citation to DCOP Boakye, said he was the fourth person to be recognised under the awards scheme. He said it was to celebrate and encourage success as well as recognise exceptional contributions of certain key individuals and organisations to the development of the nation. Mr Adjei said the scheme sought to promote growth and improvement in the various categories of service and also serve as an avenue through which industry players would be encouraged to do their best. He has over the years exhibited excellent leadership in policing, and his professionalism and open-door administration in the Ghana Police Service has been one of a kind. The citation presented to DCOP Kofi Boakye reads: 'Your exhibition of open door administration, hate for nepotism and tribalism, dislike for discrimination against the marginalised has since brought transformative change in the region and obviously translated into the reduction of crime rates in the region of post.' As the Ashanti Regional Commander, DCOP Kofi Boakye has spearheaded a lot of operations that have combated crime and brought notorious law breakers to book. The Former Greater Accra Regional Commander has changed the face of policing in the Ashanti Region and has ensured that security becomes a part and parcel of development. He was the Western Regional Police Commander for 10 months before his transfer to Kumasi. Before he took over the administration of the Western Regional Police Command, he was the Director of Education at the Police Training School in Accra. GNA 25.02.2016 LISTEN Sunyani, Feb. 25, GNA - Mr. Mansur Mohammed Zacharia, the Sunyani Municipal Disease Control Officer, has called for stepped-up media education and good sanitation practices, as part of aggressive measures to control the spread of elephantiasis in the Brong-Ahafo Region, as nine cases were recorded in the Municipality last year. He said though the nine sufferers have been put on treatment, it's a wake-up call for preventive efforts towards its spread and containment to be put in place, since cases of the communicable disease according to disease surveillance reports, have also been found in other parts of Brong-Ahafo - Wenchi and Dormaa Ahenkro. Elephantiasis, a parasitic infection that causes extreme swelling in the legs and arms, is spread by infected Anopheles mosquitoes from human-human. Mr. Zacharia told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Sunyani that the debilitating nature of the disease can cause deformities to its victims but assured that it is treatable adding "it is however unfortunate that bad sanitation practices was fueling its spread". He denied as superstitious the widely-held conception that elephantiasis is a curse or linked to witchcraft and emphasized that it is a contagious disease which could be brought under control, provided the communities ensure good and proper sanitation practices. GNA Wa, Feb. 25, GNA - The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has appealed to the youth not to allow themselves to be misused by politicians to perpetuate violence before, during and after the 2016 general polls. The Commission in its quest to promoting peaceful election for 2016 has identified the youth as major actors in maintaining the peace of the nation. It has therefore embarked on a nationwide E-constitutional games aimed at preparing the youth, especially those in senior high schools to promote tolerance among themselves and their peers in defending the Constitution. Mr. Samuel Asare Akuamoah, Deputy NCCE Chairman Responsible for Operations, made the appeal when he addressed students of second cycle schools in Wa and urged those of them who were not up to 18 years not to involve themselves in the voter registration. He said the practice where some youths less than 18 years registered to vote during elections often discredited the voter's register and if allowed to continue, could ignite confusion among politicians and jeopardize the results of the elections. Mr. Haruna Husheini Sulemana, Upper West Regional Director of NCCE, admonished the students to cultivate the habit of tolerance among their peers and community members and save Ghana out of 'the hands of destruction'. He hinted that as part of the Commission's mandate, similar programmes would be organised for traditional leaders and community members to educate them on their civic rights and responsibilities to preach peace at all times. The programme was on the theme: 'Ambassador for peace in 2016 and beyond' was aimed at sensitising and awakening the spirit of nationalism in the youth as agents for peace. Participating students were drawn from the NCCE Clubs in the 10 senior high schools in the Region and they answered questions bordering on 'Governance, the 1992 Constitution and Security. Nandom Senior School came first and was awarded with a desk top computer and t-shirts. GNA Accra, Feb. 25, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday said he had constituted a technical committee to make proposals that would contribute to a fundamental redesigning of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to address Health Sector financing. He said financing of the health sector remained a challenge, hence the decision to redesign the NHIS to meet the challenges. Delivering his fourth State of the Nation Address in Parliament, President Mahama said despite the NHIS' financial challenges, the scheme had witnessed a major boost in terms of subscription. '2015 saw an active NHIS membership of 11.2 million people and that is 41per cent of our population. Out-Patient utilisation of the NHIS rose to 29.6 million in 2014, from 597,000 in 2005. 'For us this undeniable pattern of increased utilisation of healthcare insurance bears ample testimony to the confidence that our people continue to have both in the scheme and in the health system,' said. President Mahama said Ghana's life expectancy which was 40 years at independence, had now increased by 14 years due to huge advancements in medicine and healthcare delivery. He said the success had been achieved largely due to the country's successes in medicine. 'Our life expectancy was a little over 40 years at independence. Today, life expectancy has increased by more than 14 years. This increase is due to advances in medicine, improvements in health infrastructure and the improved number of health personnel. 'Not only are we living longer in our adult years, more infants are living to see those years. According to the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, there has been a drastic reduction in the rate of infant mortality and under-five mortality. 'Over the last decade, under-five mortality decreased from 111 to 60 per thousand live births. Infant mortality dropped by almost 305 from 64 to 41 per thousand live births. The mothers of these children are also surviving during pregnancy and child birth because antenatal and post-natal care has improved,' President Mahama said. President Mahama said Government was set to invest heavily in education and preventive healthcare for the treatment of chronic and non-communicable diseases due to lifestyle choices in the coming years. 'The investment in preventive health is even more prudent as our nutritional habits continue to change,' he said. GNA Kumasi, Feb 25, GNA - Many health facilities in the Ashanti Region reportedly are being threatened by suppliers with court action over huge unpaid medical supplies. Dr. Alerxis Nang-Beifubah, the Regional Health Director, confirmed this at a performance review meeting in Kumasi and said the unfortunate situation had come about because of the delay in the reimbursement of the care providers for their services by the National Insurance Authority (NHIA). He said the hospitals were now finding it difficult to procure medicines due to their over-sized debts. The severe financial distress, he said, had been worsened by the high utility bills, adding that 'some hospitals are almost getting bankrupt running their generators'. The meeting provided the platform to review the performance of the regional health directorate, discuss planned activities, share best practices and strategize to surmount challenges. 'Universal access to health care; the role of the community' was the theme and it brought together health professionals and other stakeholders including chiefs, civil society and health-based non-governmental organizations. Dr. Nang-Beifubah said despite the challenges, they made some achievements and attributed this to innovation and commitment by the health workers. He cited the decline in maternal deaths from 184 in year 2014 to 178, last year. At the same time, still birth rate climbed down from 1.46 per 1,000 births to 1.45 per 1,000 live births. Besides, family planning acceptance shot up to 22.2 per cent from 19 per cent. Dr. Nang-Beifubah said mass immunization coverage in the region was generally above the national target of 90 per cent. He spoke of scaled-up surveillance on communicable and non-communicable diseases, especially the epidemic prone ones - Ebola and cholera, and said that paid off as the region did not record any such outbreak, during the review period. He, however, expressed deep worry about the poor emergency services with only 26.5 per cent of health staff running emergency services in the hospitals having received the requisite training. He gave the assurance that every effort would be made to improve the situation. Nana Kwaku Amankwaa Sarkodie II, Sewuahene, announced the release of a 120-acre land for the construction of a regional hospital to ease congestion at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), the nation's second largest referral facility. GNA 25.02.2016 LISTEN The duly suspended chairman of Ghanas main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is a very curious creature, if only because Mr. Paul A. Afoko appears to believe that he has every right to grossly insult the intelligence of reasonably enlightened Ghanaians (See Mahamas Murder: My Brother Is Innocent Afoko Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 2/24/16). The fact of the matter is that the elder brother of the man accused of masterminding the brutal and savage assassination of Mr. Adams Mahama, the former Upper-East Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, has absolutely no credibility whatsoever. For starters, in the wake of the acid-dousing assassination of Mr. Mahama last year, Chairman Afoko swarmed the airwaves and vehemently declared that his younger brother, Mr. Gregory Afoko, was totally innocent and had not even been on the scene of the crime at the patently ungodly hour during which Mr. Mahama had reportedly been fatally assaulted. Police investigators would shortly reveal that, indeed, contrary to what Chairman Afoko would have the rest of the world believe, the younger Mr. Afoko had, indeed, callously and unconscionably carried out the attack with the unreserved complicity of some two others, namely, Messrs. Issah Musah and Asabke Alangdi. As of this writing, Mr. Alangdi, together with his wife, was still reported to be on the run. Police investigators have reportedly revealed that it was an Afoko partisan who likely facilitated the timely escape of the Alangdis, who had left behind their newly born baby. At the time of Mr. Mahamas fatal assault, Chairman Afoko had reportedly claimed that the motorbike by which his brother would have committed the crime was found by police investigators to have been ice-cold at the Afoko home, with the prime suspect being fast asleep. It would shortly pan out that none of the alibis concocted by Chairman Afoko who, by the way, was located some 500 miles away in Accra when the brutal murder of Mr. Mahama took place, had passed muster or scrutiny. Once again, we need to significantly highlight the fact that Mr. Gregory Afoko is a well-known criminal convict who reportedly spent considerable time in the slammer. He was also known to have constituted a vigilante group that he used to protect the private political interests of Chairman Afoko in the Upper-Easts capital of Bolgatanga. Even more importantly ought to be stressed the fact that reliable sources indicated that the dying Mr. Mahama had categorically named his assailants and wondered whether these criminal suspects would ever be brought to justice. We must also pointedly observe that Chairman Afoko has publicly admitted that he and the deceased were on the worst of possible terms. And, in fact, shortly before his fatal assault, Chairman Afoko and General-Secretary Kwabena Agyei Agyepong had stormed the Bolgatanga headquarters of the New Patriotic Party without any advance notice to Chairman Mahama. From a widely publicized letter released to the media barely two weeks before his untimely demise, Mr. Mahama vividly recalled how devious and dastardly attempts to tactically sideline Akufo-Addo partisans, on the part of Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong, had culminated in the violent expression of hostilities that had greeted the two presently suspended men at the NPPs Bolgatanga headquarters. The presiding judge of the Gregory Afoko murder case, Mr. Koku Worlanyo, has reportedly observed that based on his examination of evidentiary material submitted by the prosecution, there is a compelling case for the accused to answer at the High Court. Chairman Afoko says that Judge Worlanyo may have grossly misread and/or misinterpreted whatever evidence the prosecution presented to the presiding judge, and that his brother Gregory is totally innocent of the charges preferred against him, and that on March 23, when the Accra District Court commences proceedings in the case, he, Chairman Afoko, and defense counsel would eloquently and thoroughly prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that Mr. Gregory had absolutely nothing to do with Mahamas brutal murder. Well, as the tired old saying goes: Lets wait and see. *Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs The President of Daniel Amoateng Foundation (DANAF) has donated 5 bags of rice, 3 boxes of tomato paste, 10 packs of sachet water, 2 boxes of cooking oil, 3 boxes of canned fish, and toiletries to young offenders of the Senior Correctional Centre (SCC), and cash amount of GH2,000 to Project Efiase fund. In a presentation, Pastor Daniel Amoateng who doubles as an entrepreneur and a motivational speaker revealed that the gesture forms part of activities marking his birthday celebration in the month of February. The prophetic preacher assured the young offenders of Gods unconditional love and salvation for mankind. He advised them to be of good behaviour and submit themselves to be reformed, so as to ensure successful re-integration into society. The Chairman of the Prisons Council, Rev. Dr. Stephen Wengam, received the items on behalf of the Service and thanked the President of DANAF for the show of love. He was pleased to learn that Pastor Amoateng has been following the activities of Project Efiase. Project Efiase is an initiative of the Prisons Service Council to create awareness of the deplorable state of Ghanaian prisons; a fundraiser to improve conditions in the prisons; and a platform to foster public-private partnership (PPP) between the Service and the Industry. The Project was launched by President John Dramani Mahama on June 30, 2015, alongside the 10-year Strategic Development Plan for Ghana Prisons. The proceeds of Efiase will go a long way to compliment governments effort in implementing the 10-year plan. Rev. Wengam assured Pastor Amoateng that the donation will be used for the intended purpose. He, therefore, appealed to corporate institutions, NGOs and individuals to emulate the gesture. Rev. Wengam announced the mobile short code, 9050 for all networks, where cash contribution can be sent through He used the opportunity to allay the fears of corporate bodies, religious bodies, and individuals who intend to donate to Efiase, as the Council will give an account for every penny donated. The Greater Accra Regional Commander and Officer-in-Charge of SCC, Deputy Director of Prisons (DDP), Mr. Chris Larvie, was full of gratitude to DANAF for the kind gesture, describing the move as a fulfillment of Scripture. DDP Chris Larvie hinted that the Centre, which was formerly known as the Ghana Borstal Institute, is the only correctional institution in the country that admits young offenders between the ages of 13 and 20 to be reformed. Pastor Amoateng and his team were taken round the Centre to familiarize themselves with the dormitories, classrooms, workshops, and other facilities. Among some Ghanaian celebrities who accompanied the prophetic preacher were, Emelia Brobbey, Pascal Amanfo, and Timothy Bentum. Other dignitaries present were a nominee of the President on the Prisons Council, Mr. Solomon Appiah; the Second-in-Command (2iC) of SCC, ADP Godwin Hoenyedzi; the head of Education, Supt. Victoria Adzewodah (Mrs); and a few superior prison officers. In a related development, Osompa Foundation donated GH500, foodstuffs, toiletries, and some assorted items to the inmates of James Camp Prison in support of Project Efiase. The Officer-in-Charge of James Camp Prison, Deputy Director of Prisons, Mr. R.K. Asamoah-Fenning, who received the donation expressed his heartfelt appreciation, and he appealed to corporate Ghana to emulate Osompa Foundation. Moroni (Comoros) (AFP) - Nineteen of the 25 candidates in the presidential elections in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros on Thursday challenged the results of the weekend vote and demanded a recount. The candidates threatened to block the election run-off if their demands for new counting are not met. "We need to conduct a re-count," Ibrahima Hissani, spokesman for the 19 dissenters, told a new conference. "There will be no second round before the recount." Among those disputing the results is a former president, Colonel Azali Assoumani, who came third in Sunday's vote and has secured a place in the second round due in April. Hissani said Mouigni Baraka, governor of the island of Grande Comore, who came second, had also signed the petition for the recount. But that claim could not be immediately confirmed. The candidate's target appears to be vice president Mohamed Ali Soilihi, who won the first round of the country's presidential elections with 17 percent of the vote. The three candidates are due to face off in a second round of voting on April 10. Fahmi Said Ibrahim, who had been one of the favourites but trailed in fourth place, had alleged his low count was due to fraud. An African Union observer mission led by former Tunisian president Mohamed Moncef Marzouki had given the vote a clean bill of health saying "apart from few isolated incidents, the entire election took place in an orderly and peaceful" manner. The first round of voting on Sunday only took place on Grande Comore, in accordance with electoral rules that ensure the president is chosen on a rotating basis from one of the country's three main islands. The system was established in 2001 after more than 20 coups or attempted coups in the years following independence from France in 1975. Addis Ababa (AFP) - Ethiopia accused arch-rival Eritrea on Thursday of being behind anti-government protests in the Oromia region last year which led to a violent clampdown by the government in Addis Ababa. The two countries fought a bloody conflict from 1998-2000, but tensions are never far from the surface and were fuelled by protests which erupted last November. We have concrete evidence that some of the people... involved and instigating violence in these particular localities... have their origins from Asmara," the capital of Eritrea, said government spokesman Getachew Reda. Home to some 27 million people, Oromia encircles Addis Ababa and stretches over large parts of the rest of the country. It has its own language, Oromo, distinct from Amharic, the language of Ethiopia's government. Demonstrations erupted last November in Oromia to protest against a government plan to expand the Ethiopian capital. The so-called Master Plan, which was eventually abandoned in January, fuelled land-grab fears among Oromo farmers, from the country's biggest ethnic group. Reda accused Eritrea of working in concert with two Ethiopian movements, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebel group and the Ginbot 7 opposition group exiled in the United States and categorised as terrorists by Addis Ababa. "The Eritrean government is not only working with OLF's leftovers in Asmara but also with Ginbot 7, and they want to infiltrate all troublemakers into Ethiopia," Reda said. He added: "The protests that were being expressed by the people were based on legitimate concerns. But at a certain point, there were political elements involved in hijacking the process. "What transpired... is an absolutely despicable case of criminal gangs roaming village after village and causing innumerable loss in lives." There was a brutal crackdown on the protests, which left over 140 people dead and thousands arrested, according to figures released in January by Human Rights Watch (HRW). In a report published Monday, HRW said the crackdown is still ongoing, asserting that killings and arbitrary arrests were still being reported almost daily. Eritrea separated from Ethiopia in 1991 after a 20-year independence war. The two countries have remained on a war footing since the open conflict around the turn of the Millennium, notably over their 1,000 km-long (620- mile) common border. 25.02.2016 LISTEN Accra, Feb 25, GNA - The Japanese Government through its Embassy in Ghana has handed over a newly constructed warehouse and equipment worth GHE94, 835.00 to the Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS), to assist in building community resilience to the frequent epidemics. The warehouse contains equipment for emergency water treatment, hygiene kits and other gears including personal protection equipment for volunteers for disaster responses. Mr Kaoru Yoshimura, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan, who made the donation, also hand over the keys of two new Land Cruiser four wheel drive vehicles to facilitate the movement of the Red Cross Volunteers and officials on duty. He said the Japanese Government was proud to be involved in efforts at prevention, early detection, management and control of the rampant cholera epidemics and the scare of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), which poses threat to human and economic development not only in Ghana, but in other affected countries with rippling negative effects on the whole world. 'As such, the government of Japan is determined to put forth its best to ensure that Ghana remains Ebola free, and to assist the country to control the occasional outbreak of cholera which unfortunately claims lives when it occurs,' he said. According to Mr Yoshimura, the Japanese Government in 2015 provided a total of 650,000 dollars, of which 500,000 dollars was to be dedicated to the fight against the EVD, while 150,000 dollars was for the control and management of Cholera in the country. He said with respect to these, a warehouse has been built and contains materials needed to equip Ghana in her fight against these epidemics. He congratulated the International Federation of Red Cross and its partner institutions such as UNICEF, the Ghana Health Service and the National Disaster Management Organisation for their collective efforts towards the control and management of Cholera and the prevention of the EVD in the country. Mr Yoshimura said he was confident that Ghana's preparedness for EVD and prevention of emergencies in the future, particularly in the border areas would be strengthened, and encouraged all stakeholders to ensure proper care and maintenance of the facilities. Mr Samuel Kofi Addo, Secretary-General of the Ghana Red Cross Society, thanked the Government and People of Japan for their constant generous support to the GRCS, which enabled them to effectively fulfill its humanitarian and relief mandate, by strengthening community-based preparedness and resilience building against epidemics. He explained that through the support, the GRCS has been able to procure 10 motor bikes, trained more volunteers, enhance the capacity of its District Response Teams, as well as the Sword and Shield Teams to respond within a few minutes of alerts, and equip its National Disaster Response Teams with standard operating procedures. Mr Addo said with the current provision and supplies, which include water purification plant, the GRCS would be able to supply a whole community whose water was contaminated with wholesome water for close to six months. He assured the donors that even though funding has officially ended, and there was a project close out 'we will make sure that capacities built are sustainable and the programmes support continually run. Mr Zakaria Issa, Coordinator, Water and Sanitation for West and Central Africa of the International Federation of Societies of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, said the Japanese Government was encouraging private companies to work with the International Humanitarian Organisation to use its technology for innovative project. GNA 25.02.2016 LISTEN Accra, Feb. 25, GNA - The country's Minerals and Mining Policy developed to ensure that mining contributes to the structural transformation of the economy was launched in Accra by Nii Osah Mills, Minister of Lands, and Natural Resources. The policy sought to link mining with other sectors to catalyze sustainable development, optimize revenue for mineral collection, generate skilled manpower as well as create demand for local goods and services. The Minister said the policy forms the basis of the country's Medium Term Development Policy Frameworks from the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy I and II through the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda II. He said the country since 1983 initiated number of programmes during the Economic Recovery Programme including the rehabilitation and retooling of existing mines and the liberalization of the exchange rate to attract investment into the mining sector. Mr Mills said the policy has gone through broad stakeholder consultations and that the first draft was initiated in 1999 and completed in 2001. He said the Minerals Commission with assistance from the Commonwealth Secretariat, begun a review of the 2001 draft and after various consultations and reviews by independent bodies, the current document was developed. Mr Mills said the highlights of the provisions include regularization of small-Scale mining in the country where they would be assisted to improve upon their operations and ensure that mining is done in an environmentally safe manner to derive its maximum contribution. He urged mining graduates from the University of Mines and Technology to venture into small-scale mining to give it the necessary facelift. Another highlight of the policy is the environmental regulations to ensure that mining is carried out in a modern, safe and environmentally sound manner. The Minister said to further boost the benefits accruing to the economy from mining, there should be a conscious effort aimed at integrating the mining industry with the rest of the local economy. He said the establishment of a gold refinery has attracted a considerable debate, adding that a viable jewellery industry could flourish only if jewelers could have easy access to relatively cheap refined gold. Mr Mills said the country will increase benefits from the mining industry if the industry is recognized as a growth pole to spawn activities in other sectors of the economy through effective implementation of the policy. Dr Tony Aubynn, Chief Executive of Minerals Commission, said Ghana is among three African countries to develop a comprehensive policy in the mining sector. He said the country is well endowed with substantial mineral resources and that Gold is the predominant mineral produced accounting for over 90 per cent of all mineral revenues annually over the past decades. He said the policy would be reviewed after every five years unless dramatic changes occur in the minerals and mining industry, in which case it may be reviewed as and when necessary. GNA Ketan (WR), Feb.25, GNA - Teachers and pupils of Ketan Anglican Junior High School arrived to school to witness human faeces smeared on their premises including on doors, windows and padlocks. A teacher at the school, Mr Matthew Eshun, told the media this was the second time the incident has occurred in three days. He said the first incident occurred last Friday, February 19, and second one was on Monday, February 22, and both incidents distracted classes. Mr Eshun said the Metropolitan Education Directorate of the Ghana Education Service and city authorities were informed the culprits are still unknown and nothing has been done to stop the heinous act. Meanwhile, Mr Marcarious Zoogah, Metropolitan Education Supervisor in charge of Teaching and Learning, confirmed the incident to the GNA saying the circuit supervisor had visited the school while the Education Directorate had held discussion with the authorities of the school, to ascertain the possible reasons behind the action. He said the Education Directorate would hold another meeting with the School Management Committee to find a lasting solution to the matter. GNA 25.02.2016 LISTEN Abesim, (B/A), Feb. 25, GNA - Ghana 's Institutional maternal mortality ratio fell from 216 per every 100,000 live births in 1990 to 144 in 2014, the 2015 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), has revealed. The scenario represents a 7.2 per cent drop in 24 years and according to the report, the current figure of 144 per 1000,000 live births, is still way up the global MDG target of 54 per 100,000 live births. Mrs. Juliette Lampoh, the Country Director of Concern Universal Ghana, a UK international development organization, who disclosed this at the launching of a health project at Abesim, near Sunyani, said though the country had made some progress, the figure could be higher when non-institutional maternal deaths are considered. 'More robust efforts therefore must be geared towards improving the situation to achieve the global target,' she urged. Mrs Lampoh said it was commendable that the country has made some strides in increasing access to maternal health services, more would have to be done to improve quality of care. The Country Director lauded the government of Ghana and other development partners for making it a top priority to improve maternal healthcare to reduce maternal mortality in the country. The 42-month project dubbed 'Citizens' Participation for Accountability in Health service delivery (CiPAH)', is being implemented in the Brong-Ahafo Region by the Concern Universal in partnership with Social Development and Improvement Agency (SODIA), a local NGO. The European Union (EU) is funding the CiPAH project at the cost of cost of 540,161 Euros. It is being implemented in eight districts - Techiman North, Wenchi, Tain, Nkoranza North, Nkoranza South, Kintmapo North, Kintampo South and Tano South. Among other benefits, the project seeks to enhance access to improved maternal care through capacity building and to contribute to improving the effectiveness and quality of health service delivery on maternal health. Mr Aziim Issifu, the Executive Director of SODIA, said the long-term benefit of the project is enormous and appealed to the beneficiary district and municipal assembles to support and make it a success. GNA 25.02.2016 LISTEN Wa, Feb. 25, GNA - Alhaji Amidu Sulemana, Upper West Regional Minister, has said the increasing rate of child marriages is of paramount concern to the Region. He said the situation needed appropriate measures to stop the practice for the good of both the girl child and the boy child. 'Our people need to brainstorm and come out with appropriate strategies to address the issue', he said, adding: 'this practice has plagued young girls and denied them the opportunities of unearthing their talents'. Alhaji Sulemana said this when addressing students of second cycle schools in the Region at a day's drama competition organised to portray the negative implications of child marriage on young girls and the society at large. The Regional Minister said about 21 per cent of girls in Ghana were married before they reached the age of 18 years and the rates could be as high as 39 per cent in the northern parts of Ghana. He said the cause of such child marriages could be attributed to tradition, gender roles, poverty and security. He said the practice has endangered lives and livelihoods and threatened the stability of the society. The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Centre for National Culture and Ghana Education Service organised the drama competition among second cycle school students aimed at helping to eliminate child marriages in the communities. The drama performances were to initiate discussions on the issue of child marriages with the view to eliminating it and providing opportunities for young girls and boys to improve their lots. GNA Accra, Feb. 25, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama Thursday blamed the Bank of Ghana (BOG) for the proliferation of microfinance companies, some of which have swindled Ghanaians of their fortunes. He said the lack of effective supervision on the part of the BoG deprived unsuspecting customers of their life earnings, commiserating with victims with a call on Parliament to fast track the Ghana Deposit Protection bill to protect small depositors who invest in such funds. In a State of the Nation address to Parliament, the President expressed unhappiness with the Central Bank for exhibiting poor supervision that resulted in the scam by the rogue microfinance companies, tasking the BoG to take the necessary steps to ensure that those who lost resources recovered their investment. 'These microfinance companies come under the direct supervision of the Bank of Ghana. 'Unfortunately, lack of effective supervision on the part of the Central Bank has resulted in many cases where microfinance companies licensed by the Bank have breached the rules of procedure they were supposed to follow and have created supposed pyramid schemes that eventually came crashing down,' the president said in the address that lasted for about three and half hours. The President, a former representative in the House for the Bole/Bamboi Constituency in the Northern Region, used the address, which was a Constitutional mandate under Article 67 of the Constitution, to commiserate with his former colleagues and the family of the murdered legislator, Joseph Boakye Danquah Adu and the families of the victims of the Kintampo accident last week that claimed over 70 lives. He commended the medical staff of the Kintampo hospital and all other hospitals where the victims were sent for their quick response to the tragic event in spite of their logistical constraints. President Mahama said government was concerned with the DKM issue, where depositors have lost a whopping GHC 77 million, saying that Ghanaians need to be insulated from such scams by a more robust and supervisory regime by the BoG. 'Government has a concern for the poor unsuspecting clients,' he said. The President responded to a voice from the Minority side calling for the dismissal of the Governor of the BoG saying he (President) cannot fire the Central Bank Governor because Bank of Ghana Act which was passed by Parliament had made that institution autonomous. However, he gave the assurance that government would ensure that the culprits are brought to book. President Mahama said the impunity of the microfinance would not go unpunished. For the past five years, there has been a mushrooming of microfinance companies, who usually offer relatively higher interest on deposits, and this has attracted unsuspecting clients to withdraw their investment from regular commercial banks into the higher returns on deposits offered by the microfinance institutions. The customers of Brong Ahafo-based DKM Microfinance Company are incensed because the DKM finantial institution managed to convince them of over 45 percent returns on their investments quarterly. This assurance made many people deposit various amounts of money in the Bunco bank. But to the chargrin of customers, the DKM's offices were empty and locked when their investments matured and it was time for the company to redeem its obligation to clients. Many depositors have lost their life-long savings as a result of the scandalous operations of the company. The Ghana Deposits Protection legislation when ratified would permanently sanitise and restore the credibility of the microfinance sector and strengthen the BoG's supervisory role. President Mahama's address which was listened to by Members of the Diplomatic Corps, the religious community, traditional leaders, security agency chiefs, political party heads, a cross section of Ghanaian, featured what he called 'evidence based accounts' of his stewardship. The address touched on interventions made to improve the quality of education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, including improvements in the road network, was supported with people who stood up and waved in appreciation of the social interventions being pursued by the government. The minority, however, heckled the President as the cameras were thrown on some beneficiaries of some of the social interventions mentioned by the President. The President announced that government has launched a Teacher Professional Development programme to train teachers across the country in other to enhance the professional skills of about 95 percent of teachers at the basic level by 2020. Also, government has distributed ICT logistics to some schools to train teachers in ICT. Over 30,000 teachers are expected to benefit from the initiative. GNA Sorry, we can't find the content you're looking for at this URL. We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. you are here: business Rail stocks likely to be in news ahead of Railway Budget today Stocks likely to be in the news are: Titagarh Wagons, Texmaco Rail and Engineering, Kalindee Rail Nirman (Engineers), Siemens, ABB India, Cimmco,Stone India, BEML, Gateway Distriparks, Navkar Corporation, Castrol India, Crompton Greaves, GVK Power & Infrastructure. business Hold L&T, SBI: Hemen Kapadia Hemen Kapadia of KRChoksey Securities is of the view that one may hold Larsen and Toubro and State Bank of India. Why dry fruits could be the perfect gift this Diwali | Dry fruit demand up 10% An American hedge fund manager has come out and said Australian housing is in a massive bubble, and that Melbourne and Sydney property prices might fall 50%. Todays Money Morning is sounding an alarm to all Victorians. Prepare for an invasion from the north! Domain reported on the weekend that it now costs more to buy a block of land in an outer Sydney suburb than an actual house in other state capitals across Australia. How long before New South Welshmen start flooding out of the place? Todays Money Morning takes a peek into things to find out Whats driving Sydney real estate? You only have to take a look at the top 10 suburbs for land sales in the six months to December 2015 to see some of the prodigious price rises. See for yourself Source: Domain Click to enlarge Of course, the dominant factor driving these prices in the first place is net migration into New South Wales. I asked buyers advocate Catherine Cashmore for her take. Catherine is the smartest person I know when it comes to Australian real estate. Catherine told me 70% of overseas migrants now settle in NSW or Victoria, predominantly in the major cities. Thats up from about 50% in 2012. Its why Sydney and Melbourne have led the country for this property cycle. But its Victoria that is currently attracting more migrants from interstate than anywhere else in Australia. Thats a stark contrast to the 1990s when Victoria was losing 30,000 people each year. From memory, Queensland was the desired destination back then for Victorians looking for jobs and more sunshine. Not anymore. Migration to Queensland is currently falling. But the worst state is, of course, Western Australia. The commodity price crash has seen the rate of migration plummet. That means you should be looking at Melbourne if youre interested in buying Buy and hold for this asset I know. I know. An American hedge fund manager has come out and said Australian housing is in a massive bubble, and that Melbourne and Sydney property prices might fall 50%. OK. Everyones entitled to their opinion. But do you remember when US fund manager Jeremy Grantham said Australian housing was in a bubble way back in 2010? Or the head of ASIC saying the property market had all the hallmarks of a bubble early last year? Why is it any different today? Or will this latest bit of doom mongering go in the file with all the other ones? It seems like every second week someone claims were in a bubble, pronouncing an imminent collapse. Truth be told, Ill be more worried when there ISNT anyone saying were in a bubble. Dont get me wrong. Im no spruiker for the real estate industry. But its the timing Im interested in. Thats what we study over at Cycles, Trends and Forecasts. Were not ready yet to tell subscribers to stay out of the market. Perhaps a better approach than listening to opinions is to manage your risk appropriately. One way of doing that is committing to playing the long game. You can ride the booms and busts out if you dont plan on selling anytime soon. Take the Parasol family, for instance. According to Business Day, they bought into the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1988. They paid $1.1 million for a two storey building. They can now expect $7.5 million for it today. There have been plenty of property market fluctuations in 28 years including a major bust. But, as we say over at Cycles, Trends and Forecasts, the land market takes the gains in the end. Land value captures everything around it. The sale of the Gatwick Hotel is an even better example What this infamous building reveals The Gatwick is a notorious boarding house on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda. Its been the scene for murders, drug raids and stabbings. A lot of the guests that stay there have drug, alcohol and mental health issues. I know it reasonably well because the Port Phillip Publishing offices used to be down the road from the place. In July last year, the clientele of the Gatwick took major blame for the decline of Fitzroy Street in general. To be blunt, it is the kind of place you cross the street to avoid. Even so, the selling price for the building is expected to be $11 million. It dates back to 1938. Now consider what a Labor MP said last year when the Party considered spending $600,000 in improving facilities at the Gatwick Hotel: The value of the Gatwick isnt in its land, its in its people. Yeah right. In fact, the surrounding properties will probably double once the Gatwick is gone, if they havent already. They take the gain from any future improvements. Land, of course, is getting harder to come by, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. Thats why the next issue of Cycles, Trends and Forecasts will show how this reveals where to look for capital growth in the suburbs. Find out why here. Best wishes, Callum Newman Amid a background of market volatility investors appear to be playing it safe. Equity income and Absolute Return funds feature prominently in the December list of the five most popular funds on Morningstar.co.uk. However, some more gung-ho investors were still keen on higher risk biotech funds. Still top of the pops with Morningstar readers is Bronze-Rated fund CF Woodford Equity Income. The fund has been at top of this list since June last year. Morningstar analyst Daniel Vaughan says the fund manager, Neil Woodford, has delivered outstanding long-term returns. He has proved willing to stick to his strategy even during periods of poor performance and as a result has a long-term track record that encompasses numerous market cycles. The biggest holding is the fund is Imperial Brands (IMB). Two mega-cap pharma stocks, AstraZeneca (AZN) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) are also significant holdings. These stocks have helped the fund deliver strong relative returns in 2015. However, the fund also holds a number of smaller cap stocks, including unquoted names such as Stratfield Medical and Purplebricks. The fund invests primarily in UK listed companies. It also invests in unlisted companies and overseas entities. Its charge was fixed at 1%. The second most popular fund of December was AXA Framlington Biotech Fund. The fund might have lost 18.6% year to date, but it has a 25% annualised return over three years. This fund seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation by investing principally in companies in the biotechnology, genomic and medical research industries worldwide. It invests primarily in US stocks. The fund charges at 1.82%, with Gilead Sciences (GILD) the largest component of the fund. Another UK equity income fund sits in third place: Invesco Perpetual High Income. This is Woodfords former fund, but has been managed by Mark Barnett since March 2014. Morningstar analysts have moved the funds rating from Neutral to Bronze as they see evidence of the team being rebuilt after Woodfords departure, and of Barnetts ability to step up and manage a fund of this size. However, this remains a relatively expensive fund. The ongoing charge of the retail share class is 1.67%. This is 10 basis points above the average in the UK equity-income Morningstar Category, according to Morningstar analyst Daniel Vaughan. Given the turbulent markets it is perhaps not surprising to see a multi-strategy fund in this list. The fourth most popular fund is Standard Lifes Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS). This Bronze Rated fund has one of the most successful track records within the absolute return peer group, according to Morningstar analyst Randal Goldsmith. The fund was launched in May 2008 and since then it has generated a solid return, outperforming its Libor benchmark by delivering an annualised return of 6.5% to investors through the end of Jan 2015, Goldsmith says. It has a well-resourced multi-asset investing team of 44, headed by Guy Stern. The fund charges at 0.84%, which is below the peer group median. In the fifth slot is another equity income fund, offering exposure to a range of sectors and countries. Schroder International Selection Fund Global Dividend Maximiser has a global rather than UK focus. The fund looks fairly well-balanced from a stock perspective, with top sector exposures including financial services (28%), technology (20%), consumer cyclical (13%), consumer defensive (10%) and industrials (7%). The funds objective is to provide income and capital growth primarily through investment in equities or equity-related securities worldwide. The fund will also selectively enter into option contracts to generate additional income. The fund charges at 1.92%. In the wake of Finance Minister Bill Morneaus economic update on Monday (February 22), economists remained upbeat of Canadas prospects in the long run, despite a projected $18.4-billion shortfall this year (and another $15.5 billion next year) that has grown even before the implementation of the governments spending plans.Even with such deficits, the debt-to-GDP ratio should remain low relative to other OECD economies. In our view the government has the flexibility to provide fiscal stimulus to a Canadian economy that badly needs it, National Bank Financial senior economist Marc Pinsonneault told The Globe and Mail.Pinsonneault said that such a move at this time should hardly scare off foreign investors.BMO Nesbitt Burns chief economist Douglas Porter and senior economist Robert Kavcic concurred with this observation, saying that Ottawa can apply a moderate fiscal boost without inflicting lasting damage on its long-term debt outlook.The federal debt-to-GDP ratio has dipped in each of the past two years, and remains relatively low at 31 per cent. Additionally, total government debt (including other layers of government) remains comfortably below levels that prevailed during the mid-1990s when Canadas credit rating fell under pressure, the duo said in a report.Porter and Kavcic added that this optimism needs to be tempered by reasonable caution, though, as an estimated $25-billion-plus every year deficit might prove to be a daunting opponent for the planned Liberal stimulus.The shortfall has prompted various quarters to call on the Liberal government to aggressively go beyond its campaign promises. However, CIBC World Markets chief economist Avery Shenfeld assured that the 2016-2017 deficit is hardly a blow-up, as it would be only about 1.5 per cent of GDP.The only question is whether the modest dose of stimulus pledged in the campaign (roughly a half-per-cent of GDP) is enough to counter the drag on the economy from low commodity prices, Shenfeld said. Although a theater veteran since high school, Misty Muesing is having quite the time in her latest show. As a cast member in Midland Community Theatre's "Around the World in 80 Days," not only is she playing six characters, but she's found an extended family of brothers. Muesing acts with and plays off a cast primarily of male counterparts. "It's been fun and a challenge with all the different characters and their accents and physicalities, but the guys have also been really sweet and supportive," Muesing said. "Around the World in 80 Days" opens Friday at MCT. To be fair, Muesing isn't the only woman in the show. Jennifer Young Cochran is cast as a porter who helps move the story along by moving props and suitcases around to change the setting of the play. But Muesing is front and center in her inaugural show at MCT. "I've done a lot of community theater but MCT feels very professional and it's a great group of people," the Tarleton State University theater graduate said. "They pay so much attention to detail, and it feels reminiscent of doing college or professional theater." But "80 Days" is not Muesing's first show in Midland. She was recently seen in Maverick Players' "Christmas Belles," the second in the Fayro, Texas Trilogy. Muesing reprised her role as Twink Futrelle from the company's first installment "Dearly Beloved" -- but more on that later. Right now, Muesing is enjoying her time with her newly extended family, which includes actors Cody Petty, Phil Tytanic, Matt Scott, Daniel Collins and Joe Thomason. "They are really strong actors and make very distinctive choices, but they've been such fun to work with. I feel like the safest girl in Texas with all these brothers keeping an eye out for me," she said. "This is Jennifer's first MCT show, too, and we both feel so welcomed. And the guys have been sweet. Chivalry is definitely not dead here." That also has been to Muesing's advantage. With six characters to play, five are men. In rehearsals, she found herself studying her fellow actors as well as the multiple characters they all play. "I paid attention to them and how they look. I learned to be more rigid in my movements, and gestures have more meaning for men," she said. "Costumes helped. Once mine was on, I got it. But I learned that suspenders aren't comfortable." After attending Western Texas College in Snyder, Muesing moved to Stephenville to attend Tarleton in 1995. After a stint of theater in Dallas and Fort Worth, she taught in Granbury and Fort Worth. She then moved to Florida and taught theater from 2002 to 2013 before moving to Midland to be closer to family and her son who is in the Air Force and is stationed in Tucson, Arizona. She quickly fell into the theater scene here. "I worked on Summer Mummers that first summer and then I did the Mavericks," she said. "And right now, I'm looking to get back into teaching." As she hopes to return to teaching, Muesing is unsure if she can return to Fayro, Texas. Maverick Players staged the first two shows of the trilogy but Midland Community Theatre will produce the final installment, "Southern Hospitality," this fall. "I have a soft spot for Twink, of course, so yeah, I'd love to play her again," she said. "I'm just going to have to audition to see." The rustling in Midland High School's auditorium on Tuesday afternoon quieted as Rosa Blum, 88, stood from her chair on the stage and grasped the microphone. Blum is a Holocaust survivor and had come from Dallas to share her story with MHS English II students, who are currently reading Elie Wiesels Night. Teacher Sara Saleem wanted her students to hear from a survivor in person, so she asked Blum, who has been telling her story in Texas for the past 35 years, to come to Midland. Blum was just 15 the day the Nazis knocked on her family's door in Romania. It was five o'clock in the morning, and they were given two hours to pack up their lives and get out of the house to be transferred to a ghetto. After almost a year, all of the Jews in the ghetto where Blum, her six siblings, parents and grandmother were living were told they would be transferred again. They found themselves packed "like sardines" into cattle cars. For five days and five nights they traveled toward the largest concentration camp established by the Nazi regime: Auschwitz. She and her family rode in a cattle car with about 130 other people and were determined to not get separated. Waste was piled in pots and pans, the only belongings they were permitted to bring from the ghetto besides the clothes on their backs. During the trip, a woman gave birth to triplets, Blum said. When they arrived at Auschwitz, everything seemed serene at first. "There was a band playing and gypsies performing," Blum said. "My grandmother looked at me and said, 'I have a little time right now; I'd like to comb your hair.'" For a moment, there was a timid sense of relief. As soon as Blum released her pony tail, the door opened and fresh air came rushing in. Blum was pushed out, her long hair flying every which way. Her grandmother told her to find a piece of rope to tie back her hair. Blum returned to the cattle car, where the woman with triplets remained. "I looked down on the floor, and there was a scarf, a beautiful scarf black background and red roses," Blum said. "I asked if it belonged to the woman and she said, 'No, take it.'" She took care in tying her up hair with the scarf, placing her pony tail over her shoulder. "After all, I was 15 years old; I wanted to look pretty." Blum said with lightness in her voice. But her voice became serious again. "As I was standing making myself pretty, I looked up and my mother was about a block from where I was with the kids one baby on one side, one baby on the other side. I screamed to her and she turned. That's the last time I ever saw my mother." Her mother was directed to the line that would lead to the gas chamber, she said. Then, a cart piled with corpses pulled up next to the cattle car, she said. The woman and her three babies was pulled out and pushed on top of the corpses. Blum said that after seeing that she lost consciousness and does not know what she did for the next hour. All she can remember is that the word evil kept echoing incessantly in her head. Blum would remain in Auschwitz until shortly before the end of the war, when she volunteered to transfer to Dachau, another concentration camp. Soon after being transferred, she and the other prisoners were liberated by the U.S. Fourth Army. Then 20 years old, she was able to apply to come to the United States and was placed in Dallas, where she worked as a seamstress. After her talk, Blum sat down as a few students raised their hands to ask questions. One student asked if she still has her tattoo. Yes she says, rolling up her left sleeve and reading the number out loud: "Number 8-1-6-0-0-4." Another student asked what gave her the will to keep going in the concentration camp, and another asks how she coped with losing her family. "Somehow you get strength even when there is no strength available," Blum said. "I remember they used to say at home, 'metal breaks, a human holds out.' That's how the strength had to come It changed me a lot. I look at life different. I value everything. I don't want too much, as long as I can live and go on and do whatever I'm doin'. I'm happy with what I am." Afterward, students lined up to take photos with Blum and shake her hand. One student appeared particularly touched. "This impacted me a lot," said Melynna Morgan, her eyes wet. "What happened in the Holocaust back then, it is possible for it to happen again. Having that knowledge of how they treated the people, how poorly they were treated, it was not necessary. People, they deserve respect. Their whole life (those in the Holocaust) probably worked so hard trying to get to where they wanted to be. I think learning about this and people's experience in the Holocaust will help us open our minds. People are equal, and people shouldn't be separated from their families." Blum enforced Morgans desire to do good for the world. She plans to join the Marines to protect people like Blum, she said. She also spoke of the privilege of being able "to live a life without fear, without too much fear." Morgan's points alluded to the political climate she and her peers are growing up in a nation that is polarized, particularly when it comes to immigration policy and the admission of refugees. This political climate is not so different from the one of 1938, just before World War II began, said David Rosen, who heads the Midland Democratic Party. "I see people who are desperately trying to get away from war and hate and annihilation, and politicians here are saying that they can't come here," Rosen said in a phone interview. "That happened to Jews in 1938. There's a very close parallel. It's our obligation as human beings to help those who are trying to escape annihilation. So, perhaps, the students will see the connection between 1938 and 2016." The suspicion of religious and ethnic minorities and concerns that refugees could be a threat to national security was a heated topic in 1938, as it is today. A 1938 Fortune magazine poll found that more than two-thirds of respondents had a negative attitude toward allowing German, Austrian and other political refugees to come into the U.S. Those refugees were primarily Jews. Just after the November ISIL attacks in Paris, a Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 54 percent of respondents opposed admitting Syrian exiles to the United States. In the 1930s, public opposition to immigration during a time of economic depression, xenophobia, and anti-semitic feelings in both the general public and among some key government officials kept the U.S. from relaxing any immigration policies to let Jewish refugees in, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum website. Fear is what ruled then, and a similar fear is apparent in some of the rhetoric of today's candidates, Rosen said, referring in particular to Donald Trump. "I think we have to remember history and look at politicians who are demagogues, who say we shouldn't let refugees into the United States," Rosen said. "Think if it was your family. What would you want them to be able to do? The people who are supporting (Trump) are so angry and have a hatred for immigrants and Muslims in particular ... It's like a historical figure from the past. ... Keeping people out, deporting immigrants. It's 1938 all over again." James Beauchamp, head of the Midland Republican Party, declined to comment for this article. After all the students' questions had been answered, Blum stated she was tired, but had one last thing to say. "Before I leave, I would like you all to grant me one wish," she said. "The wish is that when you all go home, you give your mother and father a big hug and kiss for me. Because I didn't have anybody to hug and kiss at that age and I want you all to remember nobody is as loyal to you as your parents are. Honor them, love them, obey them and do whatever you can to make life pleasant to each other." LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) A Texas man has been sentenced to 4 years in federal prison in a heroin trafficking case in New Mexico. Prosecutors say 23-year-old Arturo Martinez, of El Paso, will serve five years of supervised release after his prison term. PHOENIX (AP) An 83-year-old Arizona man accused of murdering a Texas beauty queen when he was a young priest in 1960 waived his right to extradition Wednesday. John Bernard Feit will be transported to Texas in the next 30 days, Maricopa County Superior Court officials said. Feit was arrested in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale on Feb. 9 after he was indicted in south Texas Hidalgo County for the killing of Irene Garza, a 25-year-old school teacher. A grand jury brought the charge based on yet-to-be-disclosed evidence. Authorities allege the then-27-year-old Feit killed Garza on April 16, 1960, after hearing her confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, where he was a priest. Her body was found in a canal days later. An autopsy determined Garza, who was named Miss All South Texas Sweetheart 1958, had been raped while unconscious and was beaten and suffocated. Feits arrest followed other investigations over the years, including a grand jury probe in 2004 that concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge him. He had been considered a suspect in the past, and two fellow priests told authorities Feit confessed to them. Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez has declined to comment on what evidence was presented to the grand jury, saying in a statement that authorities would not elaborate until after the extradition process. The Garza case became an issue in the 2014 district attorneys race. Rodriguez promised that if elected, he would re-examine the case. HOGP CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) After nearly a year in space, Americas space champ, Scott Kelly, is just a few days away from returning to Earth and he cant wait. Kelly holds his final news conference from the International Space Station on Thursday. Hell check out Tuesday, riding a Russian capsule back to the planet to end NASAs longest space flight. Hell land in Kazakhstan, then be hustled home to Houston. Fetty Wap could be facing another controversy now that Masika Kalysha has filed court papers claiming he's the father of the baby she's carrying. In the filing, the TV reality star from Love & Hip-Hop: Hollywood, who is born Masika Tucker, claims she had a two-week romance with the Trap Queen rapper from June 28 that ended July 15. She added that they also had sexual relations on numerous occasions four months before going steady, The BoomBox reported. The model is seven to eight months pregnant. Aside from insisting that Wap is the father, she also revealed that she needs financial support to raise the child. In the court filing, heavily pregnant Kalysha requests full legal and physical custody of the little girl, who will soon be born. TMZ reported reported that she demanded $4,500 for rent, $2,000 for baby clothes, $820 for a housekeeper, and that her monthly expenses totaled $17,000. But Masika dismissed the TMZ report on Twitter, saying that she woke up with the fake news. She even labeled the website as "the number one 'remix the truth' a-- source on the planet." She said her rent is not $4,500, and she never mentioned a two-week romance with the rapper. She added that she and Wap are preparing for their daughter's birth and they "want nothing but the best for her," International Business Times reported. If the baby is indeed Fetty's, it would be his third; he has kids from two previous relationships, baby girl Zaviera and a son, Zoovier. Me & @fettywap are preparing for the birth of our daughter & we want nothing but wants best for her. So kindly fk off & mind your business masika kalysha (@masikakalysha) February 22, 2016 P.S. @TMZ Your "source" should learn how to read. No one ever said anything about a 2 week relationship. & I wish my rent was only 4500 smh masika kalysha (@masikakalysha) February 22, 2016 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In less than a month, Baauer is dropping his debut full-length album, Aa. Ahead of the release, the "Harlem Shake" producer has shared a new track, "Kung Fu," which features Future and Pusha T. Future takes on the hook whereas Pusha T rules the verses on the hard-hitting hip-hop production, once again delivering lyrical blows set to ninja-fast synths. Stream "Kung Fu" via Baauer's Soundcloud, below: "Kung Fu" premiered on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show this week. Before dropping the new track, the trap and bass producer discussed the collaboration with the radio show host. Baauer told Lowe: "I was working with Pusha on his project, just giving him some beats and working on some songs. This kind of came through it. This was one of the songs we were working on and I managed to get it for my album," Rolling Stone reports. The producer added: "I was like, 'This is one of my missiles. This is one of the ones I guarantee is gonna make some kind of noise.'" "Kung Fu" is the third taste of the producer's forthcoming highly collaborative album, following "Day Ones" and "GoGo!," Stereogum reports. "Day Ones" features UK MC Novelist and New York City rapper Leikeli47. The producer debuted the grime-influenced track with a live performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last month and followed-up with an American Revolution-themed video last week. Aa (pronounced "Ay-ay") is to include four more collaborative tracks that we have yet to hear: "Way From Me" featuring Tirzah, "Temple" featuring M.I.A. and G Dragon, "Make It Bang" featuring TT The Artist and "Church Reprise" featuring Rustie. The whole album is due out March 18 via LuckyMe Records. Both Future and Pusha T, of course, recently dropped new albums--Purple Reign and Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude, respectively. All three collaborators have their own tour dates coming up. 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle paid tribute to soul music pioneer, Ray Charles, on Wednesday night (Feb. 24) at the White House for the taping of Smithsonian Salutes Ray Charles: In Performance at the White House. Airing Friday, an eclectic string of artists came out to honor the fallen musician with special performances from Usher, Demi Lovato, Jussie Smollett and more. The POTUS opened the night with a moving speech about Charles' rough upbringing in the segregated and poverty-stricken South, the influence of having a strong mother figure in his life, as well as, the impact he had on the music industry. He went on to describe the "Georgia on My Mind" as an artist who encompassed nearly every genre by integrating gospel, jazz, country, R&B, rock 'n' roll, soul, and pop into his songs. Despite promising the audience that he would not be singing, President Obama just couldn't help himself. He led the crowd in a sing-a-long to kickoff the special. "Whatever genre of music he was playing, there was no mistaking his singular sound: that virtuoso piano playing that matched that one-of-a-kind voice," Obama said. "Ray Charles had the rare ability to collapse our weightiest emotions into a single note. He couldn't see us, but we couldn't take our eyes off of him" He wasn't the only one to lend his singing talents for the crowd. The show also included performances from contemporary artists like Yolanda Adams, Anthony Hamilton, Leon Bridges, Andra Day, Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, The Band Perry, Sam Moore, with Rickey Minor as executive music director. Some of Charles' children witnessed the tribute in the audience, along with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and the Rev. Al Sharpton. This will be the last "In Performance" event the Obamas will host during his administration. They have hosted dozens of musical events during his term. The crowd playfully booed him when they realized this was his final round in office. "Over the past seven years, Michelle and I have set aside nights like this to celebrate the music that shaped America," Obama said, adding that it had become one of their most-cherished traditions. "I will not sing. But for our last one, it is fitting that we pay tribute to one of our favorites." Smithsonian Salutes Ray Charles: In Performance at the White House is scheduled to air on Friday (Feb. 26). To catch the hour-long nationwide tribute, tune in at 9 p.m. ET. 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. ST. PAUL, Minn. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is participating at a construction contracting industry day in Minot, North Dakota, March 9. The Corps, in partnership with the Small Business Administration, is hosting this no-cost event at 1600 S. Broadway St., Minot. The seminar begins at 9 a.m. and goes until noon. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. The seminar provides key information on the following areas: Doing business with the Corps of Engineers; Doing business with the North Dakota Department of Transportation; How to find and respond to government solicitations; and Doing business with Minot Air Force Base. To pre-register for the event, please email Dave Kleppe at dave@ndsbdc.org or call 701-328-5857. The nearly 600 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, employees working at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states serve the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. Through the Corps Fiscal Year 2015 $100 million budget, nearly 1,600 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as $155 million to the national economy. For more information, see www.mvp.usace.army.mil. -30- We have independently selected these offers and products because we love them and we think you might like them at these prices. E! has affiliate relationships, so we may earn a commission if you buy something through our links. Items are Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes [] Please enable JavaScript to experience the functionality of this website. - MWEB Sarkodie should have been bigger than ... San Francisco, CA A judge has sentenced former California state senator Leland Yee in a racketeering case to five years despite prosecutors calling for lengthier sentence. In July 67-year-old Yee, who has been free while awaiting sentencing, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering. On Wednesday during his sentencing, Senior District Court Judge Charles Breyer called the weapons allegations against Yee, a gun control advocate, unfathomable. He charged it was frightening that Yee would be willing to go entirely against his public position on guns in exchange for money. In a plea deal, Yee admitted to accepting thousands of dollars in bribes and discussed helping an undercover FBI agent buy automatic weapons from the Philippines. Prosecutors wanted an eight-year sentence to reflect the extent of Yees crimes. Yees attorneys argued for a lighter sentence citing that Yee had a history of public service and his wife was ill. A probe of organized crime in San Franciscos Chinatown led to Yees and dozens of other arrests, including gang leaders Raymond Shrimp Boy Chow, who a jury found guilty of murder and racketeering in January. Governor Brown at the Mother Lode Fair: Photo taken by: Tracey Petersen View Photos Update at 8 a.m.: Californias district attorneys get help from a well known advocate for crime victims in their campaign against Governor Jerry Browns initiative to reduce the states prison population. Marc Klaas, whose daughter Polly was kidnapped and murdered in 1993, claims Browns plan would undermine laws designed to protect the rights of crime victims. The Governor wants voters to increase inmate sentencing credits allowing earlier parole for non-violent felons. As reported below the issue is now in the hands of the state Supreme Court. Update Feb. 26 at 6:15 p.m.: The California District Attorneys Association rebukes Governor Jerry Brown calling for an immediate opinion on his prison population initiative by the state supreme court for fear a delay will drop it from the November ballot. The group remarks that the Governor has no one to blame but himself for sparking a fight over a proposed ballot measure, which has reached the states highest court. Chief executive Mark Zahner points the finger at Brown for creating the emergency by improperly amending an existing initiative last month. Original Post at 4:36 p.m.: Sacramento, CA Governor Jerry Brown is objecting to a scheduling problem with the California Supreme Court, which could push a decision regarding his prison population initiative to sometime next week. As previously reported, yesterday Brown filed an emergency stay request with the high court following a lower court judges ruling that could stall his ballot proposal to increase sentencing credits for adult inmates and allow earlier parole for non-violent felons until 2018. In a court filing Friday, Browns attorney claims that even a four-day delay will make it nearly impossible to gather enough signatures to place it on the November ballot. The court has scheduled responses from Attorney General Kamala Harris, who must issue certain documents before signatures can be collected, and from district attorneys who contend that Brown improperly amended an existing juvenile justice initiative. Browns rebuttal is due late Tuesday. Sonora, CA Staff members for Assemblyman Frank Bigelow and Senator Tom Berryhill will be in Sonora next week. District staff will hold mobile office hours on Tuesday March 1st from 10am-11:30am at the Sonora Fire Department at 201 South Shepherd Street. Staff representing the lawmakers will be available to hear opinions on legislation, and offer help on problems encountered with agencies like the DMV, Employment Development Department or any others. Anyone is welcome to stop by and visit. A vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States is a major issue in any election year. Thats because it becomes one rife with political controversy. With Associate Justice Antonin Scalias death, President Barack Obama insists the U.S. Constitution is clear in that as the president he has a decision to make. But Republicans are crying foul, asking him to leave it to the next president. During a nationally televised interview, Florida Republican and presidential hopeful Marco Rubio said, It has been over 80 years since a lame-duck president appointed a Supreme Court justice." PolitiFact Florida heard the claim and gave it a MOSTLY FALSE rating on the Truth-O-Meter. PolitiFact writer Joshua Gillin says Rubios claim received the rating because of the time issue. The timeline is really, doesnt match up with the way Rubio said it and theres, you know, not really the kind of precedent that hes setting here. SOURCES: No lame duck judicial nominations in 80 years Rubio claims Florida homeowners can no longer set up backyard gun ranges after Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill into law Wednesday outlawing them. The bill was brought to light, in part, because of a St. Petersburg man's decision to build a gun range in his backyard. It turns out there was no law prohibiting it. Joseph Carannante said he built the gun range in his yard to save him time and money. "I haven't even fired a single shot and I'm being threatened with my life," said Carannante. "People swatting my house, I mean, pretty serious stuff." Shooter's World of Tampa offered Carannante a one year free membership at its commercial gun range. The bill (SB 130) that Scott signed into law bans the recreational use of firearms on residential property in neighborhoods where there are one or more homes per acre of land. The law does specify that property owners can still fire a weapon to protect themselves or their property. An Orange County woman who lost her service dog now has the added frustration of being cited for putting up her lost pet signs. I wake up crying, I go to bed crying," said Jackie Brazell. "Its just, its hard. Orange County code enforcement is forcing Brazell to take down all signs by Monday, or be fined $250 each. Brazell and her fiance, Michael Montanez, have been posting signs asking for help finding her dog, Dez, since Jan. 31. The couple said the French Bulldog was playing with neighbors dogs, a few yards away. I started calling for them, and nothing," explained Montanez. "I started walking down the street and he was nowhere to be found. Neighbors from the tight-knit community off of Judge Road by Conway Road started searching for the pup. Since then, the couple has tried everything to track Dez down, spending hundreds on posters and flyers, posting Craigslist ads and creating a Facebook page. Brazell said they sent out a pet Amber Alert to around 1,000 homes in the area, and one man even volunteered his bloodhound to track the pups scent. But, the scent led to the middle of the street, leading Brazell to come to a firm conclusion. That somebody in a car picked him up and took him away," she said tearfully. The woman said the dog helps her cope with her extreme anxiety, a by-product of witnessing a murder years ago. Brazell and Montanez are now checking video from a neighbors surveillance camera on the street, hoping for clues---anything that might lead them to Dez. We dont have kids, so basically, hes our kid," said Montanez. This is my service animal. Hes my life," she said. "I need him back. The family is offering a reward for his return. One of the signs the Brazell family posted in their neighborhood for Dez. (Julie Gargotta, Staff) We called Orange County code enforcement Wednesday and learned that you need a permit to post, even signs for a lost service dog. All of Brazell's signs would cost them over $2,000. In her search for her missing service animal, Jackie Brazell utilized a service called, Pet "Amber Alert," through the company's website. The website said the alert is formatted similarly to Amber Alerts, which notify residents of missing children. There are various levels and packages to choose from, where users can notify thousands of neighbors, as well as animal shelters and veterinary hospitals, of their missing pet via messages and flyers. Recorded messages are sent to cell phones, according to zip codes. While the company said on their website they cannot guarantee the service will lead to finding missing pets, they claim to have a 90% accuracy rate, with a database of over 210 million U.S. telephone numbers. Automated calls are typically sent out within one hour. Florida ranked seventh in the nation for the number of tornado and high winds insurance claims in 2015. Weather experts believe the "El Nino" effect could cause even more weather damage this year. El Nino refers to the warming of sub-tropical Pacific Ocean water. The warming leads to a more active Jet Stream over Florida. The stronger the El Nino, the greater the potential for severe weather in our area. The El Nino this year is one of the strongest since 1950, according to NOAA. 2009, by comparison, was considered a moderate El Nino year. Tornados in Port Orange caused severe damage to houses there. "It was horrendous. It was bad," said Carol Hughes, who survived the tornado by sitting in her closet while the twister passed. A tornado ravaged Carol and Patrick Hughes Port Orange community in 2009, destroying 60 homes. The tornado was so intense, it lifted debris and sent it crashing through walls. The Hughes' have the pictures to prove it. "There were four 4-by-4s that slammed completely through the wall," said Patrick Hughes. Storm experts advise homeowners that in the event of a storm, anything that can be picked up by the wind and subsequently blown against your home should be secured ahead of time. That includes outdoor furniture, potted plants, grill and garbage cans. Because it was wood that penetrated the Hughes wall back in 2009, they no longer own a wooden fence. They replaced it with a PVC fence. It only took one month for the Hughes to get a check from their insurance company to cover damages. But the processing time for insurance claims can vary. "From start to finish for the claim, it was probably a good four to five months. Yeah it was a long time." said Brad Hedges. Hedges lives just two streets over from the Hughes'. The 2009 tornado wiped out his home. "It was totally gone. The roof was completely gone, took the carport, put it like three streets over," said Hedges. Hedges completely rebuilt his home, making it tornado proof in preparation for future tornados. The new home is tied down in various points throughout the house and can withstand higher winds than most prefabricated homes in his neighborhood. A record breaking run for American space duration is about to come to a close as NASA astronaut Scott Kelly returns from nearly a whole year in orbit. It soon will be 340 days in a row living in space on board the International Space Station, a record for Kelly as he's doing his part to find out more about long duration weightless living. "I'd like the legacy of this flight to be that we can decide to do hard things and hard things that will take us further away from the Earth," Kelly said as he participated in his last news conference from orbit. Kelly's mission began last March, as he launched to space. NASA calls his work on the orbiting outpost invaluable, as they have studied him and his health, and will compare his medical, physical and psychological condition to his twin brother, and fellow astronaut, Mark Kelly who remained on Earth and participated in the same study. "I feel extremely fortunate to have been given this responsibility to do this," Kelly said. All told, with four total missions on the ISS, Kelly will have spent 500 days off the planet. He's tweeted stunning pictures of our world, including hurricanes and geographic landmarks seen from 250 miles above the Earth. Along the way he's worked on science in the unique microgravity environment lab, all steps towards sending humans to space regularly and permanently in the future. "I'm hopeful we will learn a lot about longer duration spaceflight, and how that will take us to Mars someday," adds Kelly. And with one last weightless flip, Commander Kelly will soon hand over command of his home of nearly a year. Kelly says this trip for him is like a long camping trip -- no running water meant no real shower. One of the first things he wants to do when he gets home is jump in his pool. Four Russians completed a year in space on the former space station Mir. Kelly and Kornienko, along with and cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, will land in Kazakhstan at 11:27 p.m. Tuesday, March 1 (10:27 a.m. Kazakhstan time on March 2). NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko marked their 300th consecutive day aboard the International Space Station on Jan. 21, 2016. The pair will land March 1 after spending a total of 340 days in space. (NASA) The Florida Department of Transportation held a public hearing Thursday on a project that could impact homes along Clearlake Road in Cocoa. Transportation officials are considering widening Clearlake Road, from Michigan Avenue to Industry Road. The Cocoa City Council this week approved a resolution supporting the project because city officials are concerned about safety. Joe Bush, who lives along Clearlake Road, said it's a challenge to pull out of his driveway most days. "(I've had some) real hairy moments," he said. "It's tough to live on this street." FDOT said 20,000 vehicles travel on the stretch of Clearlake Road every day. Under the project, the road would be widened to four lanes and there would be a 22-foot-wide median, 7-foot-wide buffered bicycle lanes and 6-foot-wide sidewalks on both sides. Cocoa Mayor Henry Parrish said the $25 million project will help grow businesses on the city's north side, as well. "We know we have a lot of companies looking at it right now," Parrish said. "We know that's our bread-and-butter in the future. We have to have great roads to become a better city." Many of the homes impacted would be rentals. The project isn't a done deal and still isn't funded. For more information, call 386-943-5367 or go to the project's website. The Donald Trump juggernaut rolls into Florida, where the GOP front-runner leads Sen. Marco Rubio, 44 percent to 28 percent, among likely Republican primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, has 12 percent, with Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 7 percent and Dr. Ben Carson at 4 percent. Men back Trump over Rubio, 49 percent to 25 percent, while women go to Trump, 39 percent to 31 percent, according to the poll. Twenty-one percent of likely Republican voters said they "would definitely not support" Trump for the nomination, with 26 percent saying no to Cruz and 17 percent saying no to Rubio. It's far from a done deal, though. Five percent of Florida's likely Republican primary voters are undecided, and 30 percent of those who name a candidate said they might change their mind before the March 15 Florida primary. Note: From Feb. 21-24, Quinnipiac University surveyed 705 Florida likely Republican primary voters with a margin of error of +/- 3.7 percent. Live interviewers call land lines and cellphones. Question 1 If the Republican primary were being held today and the candidates were Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump, for whom would you vote? (If undecided) If you had to choose today, would you vote for Carson, Cruz, Kasich, Rubio or Trump? Political philosophy Conservative Gender College degree Total Tea Party White born-again evangelical Very Somewhat Moderate/liberal Male Female Yes No Carson 4% 4% 2% 4% 5% 2% 2% 5% 4% 3% Cruz 12% 28% 19% 22% 6% 4% 13% 11% 12% 12% Kasich 7% 1% 4% 2% 5% 16% 8% 6% 11% 5% Rubio 28% 13% 28% 26% 34% 26% 25% 31% 37% 24% Trump 44% 52% 42% 42% 42% 48% 49% 39% 31% 50% Someone else 1% -- 1% 1% -- 1% -- 1% 1% 1% Don't know/NA 5% 1% 4% 3% 8% 3% 3% 7% 5% 4% Question 2 Which one of these is the most important issue to you in deciding who to support for the Republican nomination for president: the economy and jobs, terrorism, immigration, the federal deficit, health care, foreign policy, climate change, race relations, abortion, gun policy or taxes? Political philosophy Conservative Gender College degree Total Tea Party White born-again evangelical Very Somewhat Moderate/liberal Male Female Yes No Economy and jobs 31% 25% 32% 24% 31% 36% 35% 26% 33% 30% Terrorism 18% 22% 20% 19% 22% 16% 13% 24% 17% 19% Immigration 14% 17% 10% 16% 10% 15% 13% 14% 12% 15% Federal deficit 8% 7% 10% 10% 8% 5% 8% 8% 12% 6% Health care 4% 5% 5% 5% 3% 3% 2% 6% 3% 4% Foreign policy 8% 5% 6% 6% 10% 8% 9% 7% 10% 7% Climate change 1% -- -- 1% 2% 2% 1% 2% 1% 1% Race relations 1% -- -- -- 2% 2% 2% -- 1% 1% Abortion 4% 4% 8% 8% 2% 1% 3% 5% 4% 4% Gun policy 3% 7% 1% 3% 2% 2% 5% -- 1% 4% Taxes 4% 3% 3% 3% 4% 4% 5% 2% 5% 3% Don't know/NA 5% 6% 5% 6% 2% 6% 4% 7% 3% 6% SpaceX has scrubbed its second attempt to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from the Space Coast. Windy weather kept the rocket on the pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Wednesday. We are still waiting to find out why the launch was scrubbed and when the next launch attempt will happen. Thursday was SpaceX's back-up day. Satellite operator SES has been waiting since summertime to launch. The satellite, called SES-9, will provide service to Southeast Asia with high-speed Internet and high-definition television. Live Chat Replay Live Blog LIVE Chat: SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launch Coverage from the Space Coast: Headlines, Launch Schedule, Resources "A lot of it will be aimed specifically at the Indonesian and Philippines marketplaces, where we believe we'll be accessing around 22 million homes," said Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer for SES. The SES launch was delayed for several months after a Falcon 9 rocket with NASA cargo on board exploded in June 2015. The Falcon 9 rocket has been upgraded since the explosion. SpaceX has agreed to burn the upper-stage rocket for a few extra seconds to help get the SES satellite into its proper orbit sooner. "That's a big deal for us," Halliwell said. "It allows us to get into service about one-and-a-half months earlier." While the second stage is helping the satellite get into orbit, the first stage of the rocket will return to Earth. SpaceX landed the first-stage booster on the ground at a landing pad during the company's December launch from the Cape. More fuel is needed to launch the heavy satellite into a higher orbit for Thursday's launch, so SpaceX will attempt to land the rocket booster on a floating, unmanned ship about 400 miles off the Brevard County coast. Three previous attempts to land the booster on a ship have failed. SES is excited about the possibility that one of their future launches will be on a reused SpaceX rocket. "Hopefully it will be a little bit cheaper, and hopefully it will allow us to increase the cadence out of the cape," Halliwell said. "So the reusability is a very, very exciting development for us." SES said it plans to be back out on the Cape this fall to launch two more satellites, SES 10 and SES 11. Ninfa and Ubaldo Ochoa are devastated by the thought they may never see their grandson again. Their grandson, Sean, who recently turned 3, lives with foster parents who want to adopt him. But the Ochoas believe he would be better off with family. "Its been so hard without him," Ninfa said. "Maybe therell be a miracle and we can get Sean home." Child Protective Services removed Sean from his mothers care after domestic violence within the family. Sean lived in a foster home for several months. After a home study returned with positive results, Sean came to live with his grandparents in Lockney in September 2007. "When we remove a child, the first thing we look for is family members (for the childs placement)," said CPS spokesperson Greg Cunningham. "If we can find an appropriate place (with family), thats more likely to be a successful placement." The parents voluntarily relinquished their rights to Sean in January 2008. Ninfa met with an attorney, Barbara Adams, who reportedly told her it would be fine for the mother to visit with Sean as long as Ninfa was there to supervise. In reality, though, the court had ordered that the parents were not to have any contact with Sean unless CPS was notified and present. In February 2008, Ninfa and her grandson went to Wal-Mart in Canyon to shop for a wedding present. While there, she bumped into her daughter, Seans mother, who stopped to talk. A CPS caseworker must have seen them together, Ninfa said. Later that day, Ninfa received a call from CPS asking her to come to the CPS office. When she did, they removed Sean from her care, placed him in foster care and approved him for adoption. "He was looking very scared (when CPS took him)," Ninfa said. "This doesnt seem to be in his best interest." The Ochoas filed a petition within Floyd County requesting guardianship of Sean in March 2008. In August of that year, an associate judge denied the Ochoas request. The Ochoas appealed the decision, expecting to get a hearing within 30 days. But because of scheduling conflicts, the trial was delayed until December 2008. "The law says on any type of termination case the court should hear those cases as soon as possible," said Lubbock attorney Jaime Lopez, who represents the Ochoas. "You dont want the child stuck in foster care or leave them in limbo." By the time the appeal was heard in court, Sean had been with the foster parents for almost a year. The foster parents sought adoption of Sean, arguing that it would be detrimental to remove him from their care after so long. A CPS caseworker also testified that Sean had bonded with his foster parents "That delay (in hearings) is what gave them the benefit," Lopez said. According to Lopez, the judge also didnt want to put the Ochoas in the position of choosing between Sean and their daughter, since he can have no contact with his birth mother. The appellate judge issued a ruling in January 2009, agreeing that Sean should remain with the foster parents. "What did I do so wrong?" Ninfa said. "I dont see how they can claim were dangerous. They (CPS and the courts) all make up their mind what they already have planned. They probably had the adoptive parents lined up." Cunningham, the CPS spokesperson, said the agency does not make adoption decisions. "Its important to note that CPS does not make final decisions," Cunningham said. "We make investigations and recommendations, but in the end its the courts responsibility to make that decision." The Ochoas filed another appeal with the Seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo, which issued its consenting opinion in October: "Given the instances of Appellants failure to follow the safety plans adopted for the child, their inability to recognize the danger presented to the child by parental contact, as well as the prospective plans for the child, we cannot say that the trial courts decision to not appoint Appellants as managing conservators or to order possession or access was arbitrary, unreasonable, or without reference to any guiding rules or principles." The next step for the Ochoas would be to take the case to the Texas Supreme Court. Their attorney discouraged that, however, saying the supreme court would most likely not reverse the decision. As a result, Ninfa and Ubaldo may never see their grandchild again. "If (the foster parents) do adopt him, theyre calling him Jack and taking him to Florida," Ninfa said. "He has a brother that hell never meet." (Contact Hayley Cox at hcox@plainviewdailyherald.com or 806-296-1352.) CLARIFICATION: Ninfa Ochoa said that Lubbock attorney Barbara Adams gave her legal advice in the custody case of her grandson. Adams said she was never retained by Ochoa and did not give her legal advice. Ubers rapid rise to the top of the ride-hailing world has not come without controversy, and, currently, the online taxi dispatch once again finds itself portrayed negatively in the headlines. One of Ubers drivers, Jason Dalton, is accused of gunning down six people in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Feb. 20 in what appears to be a random act of violence. The Associated Press reports, the shootings began Saturday evening and took place over nearly five hours. The Kalamazoo County prosecutor says Dalton picked up Uber passengers after the first shootings and probably after subsequent shootings. For the uninitiated, the San Francisco-based Uber allows consumers with smartphones to submit a trip request which is then routed to nearby Uber drivers, who use their own cars. Dalton was approved to be an Uber driver on Jan. 25 and gave more than 100 rides. We are horrified and heartbroken at the senseless violence in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Ubers Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan said in a statement. Our hearts and prayers are with the families of the victims of this devastating crime and those recovering from injuries. We have reached out to the police to help with their investigation in any way that we can. However, Sullivan defended Ubers safety procedures, which include a background check. No background check would have flagged and anticipated this situation, he said. While that may be true, its important to note that the Kalamazoo killings are far from the first time that Ubers business practices have been called into question. In fact, the AP reports earlier this month, the company agreed to pay $28.5 million to settle two lawsuits that alleged it misled customers about safety procedures and fees. And Uber is facing a separate lawsuit by district attorneys in San Francisco and Los Angeles, who alleged that Ubers checks failed to prevent the company from hiring several felons. But thats not all. According to the AP, last fall an Uber driver in Massachusetts was sentenced to prison for raping a female passenger. Around the same time, a sixth-grade teacher moonlighting as an Uber driver was accused of raping a passenger in South Carolina. And in India in November, an Uber driver was sentenced to life in prison for raping a passenger. Uber is available in some 60 countries and 300 cities worldwide. With that many Uber drivers zipping around, some bad apples are bound to get behind the wheel for the service. But we wonder how many bad apples it will take before Uber takes a long look in the mirror. HARTFORD Lawmakers are considering legislation that would marry the states water fluoridation standards with a federal recommendation issued last year, in turn lowering the maximum amount of fluoride that could be placed in the states public drinking water. During a hearing on the bill this week, some advocates were pleased that the threshold would be lowered but asked that fluoride stop being added to the water supply altogether, citing health concerns. Others, including several dentists, supported the legislation and testified that the mineral prevents widespread tooth decay in adolescents without adverse side effects. Fluoride was first added to the public water supply in 1945 to protect against tooth decay. Last year, the federal government updated water fluoridation recommendations for the first time since 1962. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended a fluoride concentration of 0.7 milligrams per liter in public drinking water. The previous recommendation in place from 1962 until 2015 ranged from 0.7 to 1.2 milligrams per liter. Fluoride is also naturally occurring in water. While the federal government recommends fluoridation levels, state and municipal governments decide whether the mineral should be added to public drinking water. In Connecticut, public water companies serving more than 20,000 people are required by state law to maintain a fluoride content of between 0.8 and 1.2 milligrams per liter. Legislation raised by the General Assemblys Public Health Committee would instead require that the same water companies not add more than one-tenth of a milligram per liter different than the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommendation. Therefore, the maximum amount of fluoride that could be added to the states public drinking water is 0.8 milligrams per liter, instead of 1.2 milligrams per liter. William Nash, president of the Connecticut State Dental Association and a practicing dentist for 38 years in Fairfield, testified in support of the legislation during a hearing before the Public Health Committee Wednesday. The federal government recommended lower fluoride levels last year due to new sources of intake such as food, toothpaste and professional treatment that have arisen in recent decades. The pending legislation allows the state to alter fluoridation levels based on federal recommendations without a change of statute, Nash testified. Fluoridation has a long history of safe and effective reduction of dental decay, also known as dental caries, he said, noting that after fluoridation of public water began in 1962, the number of 12 to 19 year olds with one or fewer cavities increased from 60 percent to 90 percent. Several dentists submitted similar testimony, while state Department of Public Health Commissioner Raul Pino offered his support as well. Pino said that 91 percent of residents connected to public water systems in the state have access to fluoridated water. State Sen. Joe Markley, R-Southington, a ranking member of the committee, said only 13 states in the country mandate that fluoride be placed in the public water system. Three years ago, Markley put forward a bill that would leave it up to municipalities to decide if fluoride should be placed in drinking water. That bill failed. If there is a legitimate question, we probably shouldnt be putting it in the water, he said. Several people argued during the hearing that fluoride in drinking water is unethical and dangerous. They asked that the mandate be removed in its entirety. Some testified that it is unethical to put fluoride in public water. Lindy Urso, an attorney, said there is no way to control the dosage of fluoride when it is administered through drinking water. In other words, one person may drink 12 ounces of fluoridated water daily, while anther may drink 120 ounces, she testified. Clearly the latter person who drinks more is at a much higher risk of experiencing the negative side effects than the former. And it cant be disputed that there are side effects. Urso referred to a 2012 Harvard School of Public Health analysis of 27 studies, mostly from China. Several of the Chinese studies found that high levels of fluoride in children negatively impacted cognitive development. In the Department of Health and Human Services recommendation on water fluoridation issued last year, reference was made to the Chinese studies. The recommendation states that while more research is warranted, the studies omitted processes. A review from the Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks, part of the European Commission, found there was not enough evidence from well-controlled studies to conclude if fluoride in drinking water at concentrations used for community fluoridation might impair the IQ of children, the recommendation states. Thousands of studies have found fluoride to be safe, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But with increased sources of fluoride in food and toothpaste, there has been an increase in dental fluorosis 90 percent of which appears as white spots on the tooth surface. Lowering the fluoride concentration in public water was suggested in part to decrease fluoride exposure during the time of enamel formation, from birth through 8 years of age for most permanent teeth, and further lessen the chance for childrens teeth to have dental fluorosis, while keeping the decay prevention benefits of fluoridated water, last years recommendation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states. Severe dental fluorosis can include the pitting of teeth, though this condition is rare, according to the agency. aragali@record-journal.com 203-317-2224 Twitter: @Andyragz This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Fred Lozano, a veteran of San Antonio TV news for close to 40 years, died Wednesday morning at the age of 67. The news was greeted with tears and accolades by many of his former colleagues. He was fighting leukemia for over a year, said KENS morning newscaster Sarah Forgany, who co-anchored the early news block with Lozano until his retirement in 2012. But he was a private person, so not many people knew. Forgany said she remained close to Lozano after he left KENS, and she was grateful she got to see him one last time on Saturday. RELATED: Lozano was a rock 'n' roller, part of the 1960s Chicano teen combo scene We just clicked and really understood each other, she said, adding that Lozano was a mentor who taught her a lot about reporting the news and respecting our audience. She said she received the news of Lozanos death from Kelly Chapman, his ex-wife and good friend, who co-anchored the 5 p.m. news with him in the 1980s. The two had three sons together: Daniel, 27; and twins Robert and Jack, 24. Lozano was born in San Antonio and graduated from Brackenridge High School. He started as a newsman in radio at KONO in 1970. Soon, TV beckoned, and he was hired as a reporter and anchorman for WOAI, San Antonios NBC affiliate. He left in 1975 when the major market of Los Angeles called. That was invaluable experience, he told the Express-News prior to his retirement, but added that he was happy to return to his hometown in 1977, where he anchored the 5 and 6 p.m. news for many years at KENS. He headed over to the competition, WOAI (then KMOL), for a brief weekend stint but returned to KENS in 1997, where he worked until his retirement in June 2012. On his last day at KENS, friends and family gathered in the stations studio to celebrate the local TV icon. Politicians from Mayor Julian Castro to Gov. Rick Perry wished Lozano a fond farewell via taped messages and proclamations. On Wednesday, many former TV colleagues said they were shocked by his death. KENS sportscaster Joe Reinagel called the news a bust to the gut. I didnt even know he was ill, Reinagel said. He was a great newsman. Deborah Knapp, who co-anchored the 6 p.m. news on KENS with Lozano through the 1990s, said he was such a smart, professional guy. He also had a really fun side, was a joy to work with every day. Sarah Lucero, KENS 6 and 10 p.m. anchorwoman, said she was stunned by the news, describing Lozano as a wonderful man and journalist. Bill Taylor, KENS chief meteorologist, worked mornings with Lozano for four years. He called him a great, genuine guy and one of the best writers ever in our newsroom. WOAIs chief meteorologist, Albert Flores, worked with Lozano for many years during his KENS tenure. I have such great memories working with him and Kelly on the 5 p.m. news, Flores said. We became good friends and frequently played golf together. What a sad day. His colleagues also remembered Lozano as having a beautiful singing voice. Forgany said they would harmonize together all the time during breaks in the morning news. A private memorial and funeral service are planned, according to a statement on the KENS website. jjakle@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate According to a Nashville news outlet notable country music producer and musician Tony Brown was arrested early Tuesday morning in Music City on a domestic violence charge. The Tennessean is reporting that Tony Brown was arrested by Belle Meade police Tuesday just before 1:00 a.m. after an alleged domestic violence incident at his home. The incident stemmed from a disagreement with his wife over a photo shoot that he believed to be inappropriate and "slutty" according to an arrest warrant obtained by People magazine. The woman, Jamie Nicole Brown, and Brown remarried earlier this month after time apart. The violence had occurred late Monday night, the outlet reported, and its alleged he punched and pushed the woman, at one point pulling her hair as well. She was found outside hiding in a car with her dog. Brown was released from jail early Tuesday afternoon after posting bond. According to the Tennessean the woman and Brown had previously been involved in a similar incident back in October 2013. RELATED: Then & Now: Garth Brooks and the biggest stars of country music's '90s heyday Brown, 69, has had a long and lengthy music career in Nashville which has included producing some of George Straits biggest latter day radio hits, not to mention production work on albums by Reba, Lyle Lovett, Rodney Crowell, Pat Green, and Tracy Byrd. Brown is the former president of MCA Nashville and cofounder of Universal South Records, which later merged with another label. Some have said that due to series of influential signings in the 80s he is a key reason that the Americana genre was able to gain an industry foot hold. He spent some time playing piano for Elvis Presley before that artists death in 1977 and Brown also played bass on Bob Dylans classic Blood on the Tracks album. Hes mainly been known for keyboard and piano playing on his musical collaborations and productions. Brown has a court date scheduled next week for this latest charge. Walt Disney Films The Boy and the Beast: Anime film depicts an unlikely alliance between an orphan boy and a warrior beast looking for an apprentice. Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film confirms Mamoru Hosoda's reputation as one of the most interesting writer-directors working in Japanese animation. London Has Fallen: Sequel to Olympus Has Fallen transplants the terrorism across the pond, where world leaders have gathered for the prime ministers funeral. Naturally, the bad guys are plotting to kill them. Its up to the president (Aaron Eckhart) and his Secret Service chief (Gerard Butler) to stop them. Morgan Freeman sounds appropriately solemn as the Speaker of the House. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Do we really need Austin? Nah. RELATED: San Antonio gets own version of Austin's 'I love you so much' wall with a taco twist That fact became increasingly apparent last week when Eater published an article with the egregious headline: "How Austin Became the Home of the Crucial Breakfast Taco." The poorly advised article, penned by New York-based writer Matthew Sedacca, drew widespread criticism from those who know better leading to a petition to oust the writer from Austin. RELATED: Who invented breakfast tacos? 'NOT AUSTIN,' new website says But, did you hear or see anyone from Austin publicly disavow the piece or its clearly wrong assertion that Austin, eager to declare itself the capital of anything, is the breakfast taco destination? No, you probably didn't. And, that's a problem. RELATED: Austin and Houston are where the best tacos are? Let's taco 'bout this Sure, there are good things in Austin: the University of Texas, the excellent divebar Hole in the Wall, Austin transplant-turned-film-auteur Richard Linklater and the record store End of An Ear are all pretty sweet. But, many people hate Austin because it's awful. Scroll through the slideshow for 10 (partially anecdotal) reasons why Austin is terrible. jfechter@mySA.com Twitter: @JFreports More Information House Rules If you are considering buying a nontraditional space to live in here are some things to consider. How to find one: Nontraditional spaces can be found by word of mouth, by driving around looking for "for sale" signs in urban areas, by checking with a commercial realtor or by calling the San Antonio Conservation Society, which keeps an eye on vintage buildings. Livability: While you will be living away from the safety of suburbia, the trade-off is you will be getting a much more interesting space with more square footage and parking. Customizing: To make it your own, you will probably need to address kitchen and bathroom issues. If you're lucky, the only other thing you may need to do is paint and upgrade lighting. If the flow is wrong, you should hire an architect to help with structural changes. Honoring the past: For a more interesting space, you should consider leaving features that reference the original use of the building. For example, Leland Stone left the Roosevelt Branch Library cornerstone. He had bookcases built for his library where ones once were, and he has an old card catalog in his office. Fourteen women were charged with prostitution in a raid on 12 massage parlors in north Houston, the Harris County District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday. Each of the parlors is located along the Farm-to-Market 1960 corridor, according to a release by the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Some had been under the HSCO's watch since 2009. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SAN ANTONIO Mayor Julian Castro and officials from Frost Bank and the Weston Urban development firm unveiled Thursday afternoon a proposal that would, for the first time in a quarter century, bring a new office high-rise to San Antonio's skyline. At an afternoon press conference, the officials outlined the structure of a proposed public-private partnership that would result in several property exchanges, including the city taking control of the Frost Bank tower at 100 W. Houston St., and the construction of a new iconic office tower for the bank. Weston Urban would also develop more than 300 residential units in downtown. This would be, without a question, a major turning point for downtown San Antonio, Castro said in an exclusive interview a day before the announcement. You can see a very bright future with this investment. If the plan comes to fruition, it would be the most significant development in Castro's Decade of Downtown an initiative he's pushed during his five-year tenure to revitalize San Antonio's urban core. If anyone still doubts the 'Decade of Downtown' is happening, here you go, he said. It is. Under the proposal, the city would convey five downtown properties to Weston Urban, Graham Weston's development company, and take ownership of the Frost tower, which is a stone's throw away from City Hall. The city currently spends more than $3.4 million annually to lease office space in several downtown buildings. It would cancel those leases and consolidate its workforce in the Frost building. Included in the transaction would be Frost's parking garage, which has more than 700 parking spaces. Weston Urban would construct a new skyscraper near the Frost tower, on the city block between West Travis Street, Camaron, East Houston Street and North Flores. Frost would be the anchor tenant in the high-rise, consuming some 250,000 of the 400,000 total square feet. Randy Smith, president of Weston Urban, said that while the skyscraper has yet to be designed, it will be an iconic new addition to our skyline. He and Frost officials pointed to the Frost tower in Austin that has become the state capital's calling card. The deal, said Frost Bank Chief Financial Officer Phil Green, is the most tangible evidence the bank can give that it is rooted in San Antonio and committed to this city's downtown. The unsolicited public-private partnership proposal from Frost and Weston Urban is the first the city has accepted since the City Council adopted so-called P-3 guidelines in 2012. City officials will officially request this week that Weston Urban and Frost submit a more detailed proposal the next step in the process. Once it's received, the city will open a 60-day public comment period, during which time it will accept and consider competing proposals. Find the full story at www.expressnews.com or in the Friday edition of the San Antonio Express-News. jbaugh@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Former Rio Grande Valley priest John Feit will be returning to Texas in the next few weeks to face a charge of murder in the 1960 death of McAllen teacher and beauty queen Irene Garza. Feit, now 83, was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Feb. 9, where he has been living in a retirement community. Officials said Feit waived extradition to Texas on Wednesday. He had previously said he would fight it. While he hasnt commented recently, he has told various media outlets in previous years that he didnt kill Garza. We are currently making arrangements with Maricopa County to bring this defendant to Hidalgo County, said Hidalgo District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez Jr. We are one step closer to dispensing justice in this case. Texas officials have 30 days to get Feit back to McAllen to stand trial. Garza was 25 when she disappeared April 16, 1960, after she went to Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen. Feit said at the time that he heard Garza's confession and last saw her standing outside the church. When she didn't come home, a search began that turned into a massive manhunt. Her body was finally found a week later in an irrigation canal. She had been beaten and suffocated. An autopsy showed she was raped while she was unconscious. Feit, then 27, was long considered a suspect in the case it appeared he was the last one to see her alive, his slide viewer was found next to her body and at least two church officials said Feit had confessed to the killing in the years after Garzas death, among other evidence. But he wasn't indicted until this year. The month before Garza disappeared, the then-priest assaulted a 20-year-old woman at a church in Edinburg. That case ended in a mistrial; he then pleaded no contest to aggravated assault and was fined $500. Feit completed his seminary training in San Antonio before he was assigned to the McAllen parish. Three years after Garzas death, Feit left Sacred Heart and moved to a monastery in southwest Missouri. About 10 years later, he left the priesthood. He later married, had children and is now a grandfather. Garza was queen of her high school prom, homecoming queen at then-Pan American College and Miss All South Texas Sweetheart 1958. She was the first in her family to get a college degree and was a popular elementary school teacher. In a dramatic re-enactment Wednesday of a scene likely to have occurred Feb. 24, 1836, William Barret Travis handed the commanders famed victory or death letter to courier Albert Martin, to carry to Gonzales and other points east. Martin, this letter has to make it through. Ride fast, ride hard. Our future and our lives depend on it, said Travis, as portrayed by Ryan Badger, living history coordinator at todays state-owned Alamo complex. Relief is coming for drivers in San Antonio and other major cities across the state. The Texas Transportation Commission approved $1.3 billion for 14 congestion relief projects at its meeting Thursday. In San Antonio, that funding will be put toward projects on Loop 410 on the West Side and U.S. 281 between Stone Oak Parkway and the Bexar County line. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Edward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News Show More Show Less 2 of 3 John Davenport /San Antonio Express-News Show More Show Less 3 of 3 For the first time, VIA Metropolitan Transit is offering free rides on Election Day to riders registered to vote. Starting Tuesday, which is primary election day, riders who show a current, valid voter registration card upon boarding the bus can travel for free throughout VIAs service area on all election days, whether federal, state or municipal. Voters who use VIAtrans, a service for riders with disabilities, can also ride for free. About 20 percent of Donald Trump supporters opposed the executive order to free millions of slaves during the Civil War otherwise known as the Emancipation Proclamation, a new poll shows. The New York Times reported that an online poll of 2,000 people conducted by YouGov and The Economist asked respondents whether they approved or disapproved of the executive order that "freed all slaves in the states that were in rebellion against the federal government." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A feud between the widow of "American Sniper" Chris Kyle and one of the celebrated Navy SEAL's former business partners has resurfaced in the Republican race for a Texas House seat. RELATED: Texas man convicted of killing 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle seeks new trial The Texas Tribune reported Wednesday that lawyers for Taya Kyle issued a cease-and-desist letter demanding that Bo French stop using the Navy SEAL's name and likeness in his campaign mailers by Friday or face legal action. Taya Kyle alleges that French who is running to unseat state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth violated a November 2014 settlement agreement regarding the company French ran with Chris Kyle that "specifically included a provision that you (and others) not use Chris Kyle's name, likeness, logo or image." French and Chris Kyle operated Craft International, a law enforcement tactical training company, prior to the sniper's death in 2013 at a shooting range near Glen Rose. In a lawsuit, Taya Kyle alleged that French and Steven Young, another of her husband's business partners, were trying to push her out of the company by "manipulating Craft's stock, mishandling funds, diverting assets and mismanaging and usurping Craft's contracts," The Dallas Morning News reported in 2014. The lawsuit was later dropped and the November 2014 settlement was met. RELATED: 9-foot Chris Kyle bronze statue, plaza set for May unveiling in West Texas French told The Texas Tribune that he wasn't using Chris Kyle's likeness in any of his campaign materials. However, in a mailer sent to district voters and obtained by the Tribune, French touts the endorsement of "Sgt. Jeff Kyle, USMC and brother of American Sniper Chris Kyle." "When my brother, Chris, got out of the Navy SEALs, few people did as much to help him as Bo French," Jeff Kyle says in the mailer. "Bo was one of a handful who worked tirelessly to help the family, and he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Taya and the kids after Chris's death." RELATED: 'American Sniper' widow Taya Kyle wins Texas shooting competition against world-class sniper In his own mailer, Geren points out the past troubles between French and Taya Kyle. French responded to that mailer in a segment on news station NBC DFW. "I'm not ashamed of anything I've done," French told the news station. "Chris was a great friend of mine and a business partner, and after his tragic death I worked tirelessly along with some of my coworkers to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Taya and the family. Those suits were dropped and a resolution was met, and I'm very pleased with that." jfechter@mySA.com Twitter: @JFreports How can City Council afford City Manager Sheryl Sculleys raises and bonuses when she says the city cannot afford the contracts wanted and, in my opinion, deserved by the police and fire unions? Mary Gomes Bonus for teachers? Re: Sculley in line for pay raise, extension; Manager now earns $400,000 in salary, front page, Feb. 13: I find it hard to understand why public officials such as Ms. Sculley receive a bonus for doing the job they were hired to do. Ive been a public school teacher for more than 30 years and have never received a bonus for doing my job, much less earned more than $100,000, which is Mrs. Sculleys bonus. It would seem reasonable that the people schoolteachers who made it possible for her to be paid more than $400,000 should receive a bonus or at least be paid the amount of her bonus. I wonder what she pays for health insurance. William Hazlewood Faulty logic Re: State Democratic chairman praises Julian Castro for VP, Gilbert Garcia, Sunday: I read this column and started to giggle. Gilbert Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, is trying to convince others that if Hillary Clinton picks Julian, it will be a winning combination. If I follow this logic, we would have a governor named Wendy Davis and a lieutenant governor named Leticia Van de Putte. As a Republican, I sure hope Mr. Hinojosa is very persuasive. A.J. Clark Poor memories Re: Menendez earned full Senate term, Editorial, Feb. 5: I dont usually agree with the Express-News recommending some political candidates, such as Wendy Davis, Leticia Van de Putte, etc., but your choice of Jose Menendez was wise. Joe Bernal wrote that he was disappointed with the choice of Menendez for Texas Senate instead of Trey Martinez Fischer (District needs senator who will protect us all, Feb. 15). Did Joe Bernal forget that Martinez Fischer, along with Van de Putte, was part of the chicken Democrats who left Austin and went to New Mexico and Oklahoma when things got hot in Austin? How soon we forget. Rick Martinez Mission suspended Jeb Bush suspended his presidential campaign. Another Mission Accomplished perhaps? Adela Vega Munoz Southerland Communities, one of Texas premier land developers, continues their fast-paced success story with their new custom-home community, The Canyons at Scenic Loop. Specializing in bringing gorgeous, yet affordable properties to the Texas market for more than 20 years, Southerland Communities, along with its affiliate National Land Partners (the nations largest and most successful buyer and seller of recreational and residential properties), are well known for creating communities with an incredible attention to detail and a total commitment to excellence. Since opening The Canyons in February 2012, Southerland Communities has sold more than 300 acreage homesites on the north side of San Antonios Hill Country, making The Canyons at Scenic Loop one of the best-selling and fastest-growing, new custom-home communities in the area. About The Canyons at Scenic Loop The Canyons at Scenic Loop continues to be the hottest-selling, custom-home community in San Antonio, and the prime setting is why. With the newest phase of high-elevation acreage homesites (on sale now), many people are flocking to the most sought-after area of San Antonios Hill Country to begin creating the magnificent custom home of their dreams. Customer Testimonials "The Canyons is the greatest community! We just love it out here! It's the perfect mix of living in the country, while still being close to the city. Plus, it was in the school district that we wanted." - The Stewart Family "We decided we wanted to move a little bit out of town. After looking at several different neighborhoods, we realized The Canyons was a better situation for us. It still feels like you are in the country, yet you are so close to all of the facilities and shopping . . . and just everything you could ever want nearby." - The Burris Family "We built our forever home here at The Canyons, and we thoroughly enjoy the setting we have chosen for retirement. Our families also enjoy coming to visit us in the Hill Country, and we appreciate all the modern city amenities that come with this gated community." - The Owens Family See More Collapse Ideally located within minutes of Fiesta Texas, The Rim and The Shops at La Cantera shopping centers, the University of Texas at San Antonio, the South Texas Medical Center and more, The Canyons is a great place to experience the Hill Countrys finest location and most picture-perfect, panoramic views that have ever been offered. Excellent financing options with low down payments make these new acreage estate homesites an attainable and affordable reality for families searching for the ideal place in the peaceful countryside of San Antonio to call home. The Canyons at Scenic Loop offers homesites from .5 to 1 acre. These affordable properties are the last of their kind in San Antonio and, once theyre gone, there wont be unspoiled, long-range views like this again. Property highlights include: Conveniently located on Scenic Loop Road Minutes from Interstate 10, The Shops at La Cantera, The Rim, UTSA and the medical center Desirable Northside ISD Gated and secured entrance Underground utilities Build when youre ready If youre in the market for premium Texas acreage in San Antonio, visit The Canyons at Scenic Loop this weekend and see everything this exquisite community has to offer. Custom build your dream home, surrounded by the hills of the beautiful Texas Hill Country and the most relaxing views San Antonio has to offer. Even if youre not ready to build your dream home, now is the time to get the best selection of new acreage estate homesites at The Canyons and take advantage of the Buy Now, Build Later Program. The stressful time-frame requirements many developers impose on new property owners detailing when they have to start building their new home are eliminated at The Canyons. Buy now and build when you are ready at The Canyons. Whether it is six months, one year or 10 years from now, you have the flexibility to choose when you begin your new-home construction and can select the custom homebuilder you prefer. David McCumber, project manager at The Canyons at Scenic Loop, has a genuine enthusiasm for the community that is contagious. Many of the customers who venture out each week fall in love with all the benefits and advantages that come with owning property at The Canyons. Business is booming here at The Canyons, and I would like to personally invite you to come and explore our newest, high-elevation estate homesites with incredible 30-mile views of the Hill Country and San Antonio, McCumber said. Were open seven days a week, from 8:30 a.m. until dark, and would love to take you around our beautiful community here on the north side of San Antonio! Directions to The Canyons Take Interstate 10 West past Loop 1604 to Boerne Stage Road. Turn left on Boerne Stage Road to Scenic Loop Road. Turn left and follow for 1 mile. The Canyons is on the right. Call (877) 333-7925 to schedule your personal one-on-one visit to The Canyons at Scenic Loop or learn more online at www.TheCanyonsTX.com. About Southerland Communities Southerland Communities is one of Texas premier land developers. They specialize in bringing gorgeous, yet affordable properties to market with incredible attention to detail and a total commitment to excellence. Let Southerland Communities help you discover beautiful homesites and lots for sale in acreage communities across the Texas Hill Country. Choose from breathtaking riverfront, hilltop, meadow and woodland acreage, near some of the most desirable towns and cities in Texas, such as New Braunfels, San Antonio, Austin, Bandera and Dallas. About National Land Partners With more than 50 years of experience, National Land Partners (NLP) helps everyday people navigate the journey of land ownership and ensure the land-buying experience is one they will enjoy and remember for years to come. NLP has bought and sold more parcels of land than any single company in the industry, which includes more than 450,000 acres of raw land. Every single piece of land that is cultivated contributes to the companys reputation for integrity and reliability. The goal for National Land Partners when acquiring a new piece of property is to enhance the natural beauty and assets of the land, paying close attention to the appropriate land use and environmental impact. For a complete list of all available communities across the nation where NLP has land for sale, visit www.NationalLandPartners.com. Editors Note: This content is made possible by National Land Partners LLC. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasanantonio.com. Posted on 02/25/2016, 11:00 am, by mySteinbach On February 16, 2016, Steinbach RCMP responded to a report of a stolen car from a residence located on Creekside Drive in Steinbach, Manitoba. Police say that the car was stolen sometime between February 10 and 16, 2016. The car is described as a white 2005 Toyota Camry, bearing Manitoba licence plate DRD 180. If you have any information in regards to this incident you are asked to contact the Steinbach RCMP Detachment at 204-326-4452 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477. You can also submit a tip online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com or text TIPMAN plus your message to CRIMES (274637). The theme for the upcoming GlobeIn March 2016 Box is Memory! More from GlobeIn: Memory goes backward and forward in time. As in, Remember that time we... and Dont forget to... Memory encapsulates our nostalgia for the past, our plans and dreams moving forward, and those pesky little to-dos that will get us there. Each Artisan box will include: Weekly Planner by Marie Mae Co. (Retail Value $18). A stationery company, Marie Mae outsources design work as a way of supporting African artisan-entrepreneurs. Your planner was designed by Ewurama in Ghana. As a child, Ewurama made pictures from the terrazzo patterns in the floors of her home. Today, she is starting her own textile design company. Meanwhile, in Rwanda, the Marie Mae Business school offers its students one hour of training per each product sold. One student, Xavera, dreams of becoming an independent businesswoman able to fund a complete education for her three children and see them, in turn, thrive professionally. In the school, Xavera has developed the elusive and yet vital visionary qualities of the entrepreneur, such as the ability to identify hidden markets right under her nose. She and her coworkers soon plan to pitch local school leaders with the idea of their producing all local school uniforms for the next year. Pretty clever! Made in the US. Designed in Ghana. Each planner provides an hour of Business School training for students in Rwanda. By Lambert Strether of Corrente. TTP/TTIP/TiSA A Comparison between TiSA and GATS (PDF) [Cartel Intersyndical]. Handy chart, sadly with no visible author. NFU Contests TPPs Benefits for U.S. Agriculture [National Farmers Union]. Aside from the actual negotiators, Bernd Lange is one of the few who has access to the secret documents of the free trade negotiations between the European Union (EU) and the USA. It is fair to say that Lange is well informed. He chairs the European Parliaments International Trade Committee and is the official rapporteur for the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) [Deutsche Welle]. This week, the 12th round of negotiations is taking place in Brussels. Lange, a Social Democrat from the German state of Lower Saxony, believes the talks are not making much headway. Of the 25 chapters up for negotiation, the Americans have taken a clear position on less than half, Lange told DW. [Speaker of the House Paul] Ryan is saying that there arent enough votes in the House to ratify the TPP, while suggesting that the USTR has to go back and renegotiate the deal [TechDirt]. The whole basis of TPA [Fast Track] was that once the USTR concluded a deal, Congress couldnt nitpick it. That was Ryans entire argument. And now that the deal is done he wants to nitpick it? 2016 Policy [A] new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows views of Medicare for all are significantly more favorable than single-payer health care [WaPo]. [H]ealthcare stakeholders would go all out against Sanders single-payer plan because they would view it as a threat to their existence. Insurers would go to the mat on that. All the providers and many of the business groups would be concerned about disruption in the current system. Device manufacturers, wholesalers, pharmacies and others would be very concerned about reimbursement rates. This would make the fight against the Health Security Act (the 1993 Clinton administration health reform bill) look like a birthday party [Modern Health Care]. Its like were assuming these people are legitimate, that they deserve a seat at the table. They arent and they dont. You dont compromise with a tapeworm. You kill it. This Is What A Real Wall Street Shill Sounds Like [Paul Krugman, New York Times]. Let me guess. Bob Rubin? Money Billionaire self-funding front runner Trump apparently has ZERO TV ads on in Super Tuesday states. Today sorta last day to add buys [Mark Halperin]. Its hard to imagine a more ginormous upraised middle finger to the political class than that. Lotta rice bowls being broken, there. Voters Hillary Clinton is winning among voters who dont want Sanderss revolution [WaPo]. In Nevada, more voters wanted to generally continue Barack Obamas policies than wanted to change to more liberal policies by a 50-41 margin. Clinton won among that former group, by 75-22, while Sanders won among the latter group by 77-21. Black Feminists Are Divided Over Which Presidential Candidate To Support [Hello Beautiful]. The candidate can quote Kimberle Crenshaw to her purpose. The Trail Im not a Superpredator, Hillary!: Black Lives Matter protestors confront Clinton at South Carolina fundraiser [Salon]. Ashley Williams donated $500 to deliver a message directly to Clinton. Can you apologize to black people for mass incarceration? the activist asked Clinton. Can I talk and then maybe you can listen to what I say, Clinton replied, as the mostly white crowd began hissing at the heckler. My very first speech back in April was about criminal justice reform, Clinton explained to the audience. But you called black kids Superpredators, the activist shot back. Do you want to hear the facts or do you just want to talk, a clearly frustrated Clinton asked, as supporters yelled youre being rude to the young woman. I know that you called black people Superpredators in 1994 please explain your record. You owe black people an apology, the activist demanded before being escorted out by Secret Service. You know what? Clinton said, leaning closer to the woman as she was being pushed out. Nobody has ever asked me before. You are the first person to ask me and I am happy to address it. OK, back to the issues , Clinton said to shouts of thank you from the crowd as the young woman was finally removed from the residence. OK, back to the issues. Heres the video: So Clinton didnt give Madison the mic, then? Ashley Williams interviewed [HuffPo]. Hillary Clinton has a pattern of throwing the Black community under the bus when it serves her politically, Williams said in a statement before the event. She called our boys super-predators in 96, then she race-baited when running against Obama in 08, now shes a lifelong civil rights activist. I just want to know which Hillary is running for President, the one from 96, 08, or the new Hillary? How Cory Booker handles haters on Twitter [WaPo]. I read this as the opening move in a Booker VP boomlet, despite, or perhaps because of, his neo-con connections. Sanders has emerged as far more gifted at the politics of personal charm than the popular image of him as a cantankerous crank suggests. Hes shown a real pleasure for campaigning thats obvious to anyone, managed to turn a career of stubborn commitment to his chosen policy issues into a convincing argument for the sincerity of his convictions, and learned to benefit from the caustic-septuagenarian caricature of himself [New York Magazine]. Personally, Id like to see Sanders turn the cantankerous knob up to 11. He could start by blowing away the Democrat establishment sycophants sorry for the redundancy who insist that Obamas record is beyond criticism (except by Clinton, of course). Because you know whats coming The Only Strategy For Hillary Clinton Is To Scorch The Earth [Buzzfeed]. [Cthulhus] bid for the White House has gotten further than most other imaginary candidacies, and Ive long thought that the secret behind that success is Cthulhus campaign slogan: Why settle for the lesser evil? [The Archdruid Report]. Why Isnt the G.O.P. Trying Harder to Beat Donald Trump? [The New Yorker]. Essentially an interview with Romneys chief strategist, Stuart Stevens. Donald Trump has not tapped into something mystical, Stevens said, before he got off the phone. Hes just running against campaigns that arent running against him. Bet on the guy whos in the race.' Clinton Email Server Hairball Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Wednesday promised that any Justice Department review of possible criminal charges connected to Hillary Clintons handling of classified information would be independent, without regard to politics or outside influence [The Hill]. So Lynch is ruling out a Special Prosecutor. Most observers are focused on an ongoing FBI investigation of the role of classified information in Clintons private email transmissions. But the State Departments inspector general is also on the case, and an IG spokesman told Government Executive on Tuesday his office plans to issue another report on records management and security issues related to the use of non-departmental systems [Government Executive]. This article also reminds us that one of those who could be deposed is Bryan Pagliano, a technologist on Clintons 2008 presidential campaign who helped set up the private server and who invoked his Fifth Amendment rights not to testify last September before the special House panel probing the 2012 Benghazi attacks. Hmm. In an email with the subject bravo! sent on March 19, 2011the day the United States and its allies began bombing LibyaClinton confidant and former employee Anne-Marie Slaughter appears to praise then-Secretary of State Clinton for convincing a reluctant President Obama to take military action in Libya [In These Times]. I cannot imagine how exhausted you must be after this week, but I have NEVER been prouder of having worked for you, writes Slaughter, who worked as an advisor to Clinton in the State Department from 2009 to February 3, 2011, and then remained a consultant to the policy planning bureau. Turning POTUS around on this is a major win for everything we have worked for. An earlier email release, which I reported on previously, showed that Slaughter had spent February 2011 imploring Clinton to involve the United States militarily in Libya, insisting that it would change the image of the United States overnight. Stats Watch Jobless Claims, week of February 20: Initial jobless claims did rise 10,000 in the February 20 week but remain near historic lows [Econoday]. Likely to firm expectations for a solid February employment report. Durable Goods Orders, January 2016: The factory sector bounced back strongly in January, indicated first by last weeks industrial production report and now by durable goods orders which are up a very strong 4.9 percent [Econoday]. Aircraft did add to the gain but when excluding transportation equipment, durable orders still rose 1.8 percent. And core capital goods orders, which had been weakening, bounced back strongly with a 3.9 percent gain. And: The headlines say the durable goods new orders improved. The three month rolling average improved this month and now is slightly in expansion [Econintersect]. Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index, February2016: Once again minus signs sweep across the Kansas City Fed manufacturing report, coming in at minus 12 for the February headline [Econoday]. This is the 12th contraction in a row for this report with only the Dallas Fed, which like Kansas City also covers an energy-dependent sector, posting an even longer and more dismal run. Todays report extends an uninterrupted string of negative regional reports on manufacturing, all for February that cast a cold shadow over strength in todays durable goods report for January. FHFA House Price Index, December 2015: Home-price appreciation is solid but did slow going into year end [Econoday]. The housing sector is uneven, putting home prices at risk where appreciation, given limited wage gains, is a key source of homeowner wealth. I dont know where to begin on that concept of wealth. Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, week of February 21, 2016: Theres plenty of uncertainty, both economic and political, but the consumer comfort index has been holding steady, at 44.2 for only a 1 tenth downtick from the prior week [Econoday]. Shipping: In revealing annual results that saw net losses more than double, Angeliki Frangou, chairman and ceo of Navios Maritime Holdings, described yesterday dry bulk as difficult a market as ever existed in shipping [Splash247]. Honey for the Bears: Raising Money at a $1 Billion Valuation Has Been a Lot Easier Than Exiting for One [Bloomberg]. According to its Global Tech Exits Report for 2015, 70 members were catapulted into the exulted unicorn club of startups with valuations of $1 billion or higher, but only 11 such unicorns exited through IPOs or acquisitions in the same year. So, crudely then, 11/70, 85% of Silicon Valley valuations were bullshit? Is this normal? Honey for the Bears: Energy XXI Ltd. and SandRidge Energy Inc., oil and gas drillers with a combined $7.6 billion of debt, didnt pay interest on their bonds last week. They have until the middle of next month to either pay the interest, work out a deal with their creditors or face a default that could tip them into bankruptcy [Bloomberg]. The U.S. shale boom was fueled by junk debt. Companies spent more on drilling than they earned selling oil and gas, plugging the difference with other peoples money. Drillers piled up a staggering $237 billion of borrowings at the end of September, according to data compiled on the 61 companies in the Bloomberg Intelligence index of North American independent oil and gas producers. $237 doesnt seem systemic, though. Todays Fear & Greed Index: 49, Neutral (previous close: 48) [CNN]. One week ago: 48 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Feb 25 at 10:09am. Testing greed once again. Imperial Collapse Watch Afghanistan war: Just what was the point? [CNN]. Then the bizarre happened. Eyjafjallajokull, a volcano in Iceland erupted in 2010, scattering ash into the atmosphere and grounding aircraft. McChrystal and his team were among those delayed, along with a Rolling Stone reporter. They spoke their minds, found themselves in print, and McChrystal was fired. From that point, the war felt like it changed. Forever. Nice work, Gaia. Maybe Im forgetting, but this seems like the first MSM piece Ive read that outright said we lost the Afghan War. Maybe Trump broke the taboo? Big Brother is Watching You Are Backdoors Real or Virtual? The Logical Flaw in #AppleVsFBI [Uncomputing]. If you think government should not exist (a view I find largely incoherent, but we need to talk about that on its own terms), we should have that political discussion. We should not be having companies build tools whose partly-stated reason for being is to disable vital functions of government without quite saying so. Watch for the glibertarian concepts being smuggled into the Apple vs. FBI discussion Confirmed: Carnegie Mellon University Attacked Tor, Was Subpoenaed By Feds [Vice]. Health Care Shocker: Adminstration gives Iowa the go-ahead to privatize Medicaid [Des Moines Register]. How about Medicare for all? [Science Blogs (BEast)]. From 2007, and still true. Ive got my Medicare card. But I had to wait until I was old to get it. In the meantime I spent a huge amount of money getting coverage. Id have gladly paid for it in my taxes. I wouldnt have had to pay 50% more for the same coverage because of the 30% portion of my private health insurance premiums are administrative costs to a health insurance company whose every incentive is to deny me coverage. Dear Old Blighty Corbyn: Ive Got To Do My Tie Up For The PM [Sky News]. Full of the finest British snark, with Corbyn, to my mind, coming out the winner. Savile report: key points of Janet Smiths independent inquiry [Guardian]. Dame Janet Smith identified 72 people who were the victims of sexual crimes by the late Jimmy Savile in connection with his work at the BBC, including eight rapes. The earliest known incident was the rape of a 13-year-old girl at Lime Grove studios in 1959 and the last known incident was in 2006 at the last recording of Top of the Pops. No evidence that the BBC as a corporate body was aware of Saviles conduct. An atmosphere of fear still exists today in the BBC, possibly because obtaining work in the BBC is highly competitive and many people no longer have the security on an employment contract. Ugly. Jimmy Savile report: Victims lawyer calls Dame Janet Smith report on BBC an expensive whitewash' [Independent]. It is unfortunate that Dame Janet had no power to compel senior managers to give evidence, giving the impression that the whole picture of who knew what has not been revealed. I love the understatement: Unfortunate. Gaia Global warming hiatus debate flares up again [Nature]. There is this mismatch between what the climate models are producing and what the observations are showing, says lead author John Fyfe, a climate modeller at the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis in Victoria, British Columbia. We cant ignore it. Fyfe uses the term slowdown rather than hiatus and stresses that it does not in any way undermine global-warming theory. Gavin Schmidt, director of NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, is tired of the entire discussion, which he says comes down to definitions and academic bickering. There is no evidence for a change in the long-term warming trend, he says, and there are always a host of reasons why a short-term trend might diverge and why the climate models might not capture that divergence. A little bit of turf-protecting and self-promotion I think is the most parsimonious explanation, Schmidt says. Not that theres anything wrong with that.' [A]uthors calculated sea levels over thousands of years by analyzing cores of sediment from the salt marshes and 23 other geological sites around the world [Philadelphia Inquirer]. The research team found it extremely likely that average sea levels rose faster in the 20th century than in any previous century since at least 800 B.C. It clearly illustrates that were living in an unusual time, said Rutgers University professor Benjamin P. Horton, one of the authors. The paper also shows were the cause of this.' The 13 activists who chained themselves to Heathrows northern runway are likely to become the first climate change protesters to be jailed in the UK when they are sentenced on Wednesday morning, despite the support of prominent politicians. [Guardian]. During the trial, the 13 argued that their actions were reasonable, proportionate and necessary to prevent death and serious injury via air pollution and climate change, saying that 31 people a year die prematurely around Heathrow due to its pollution, and thousands die due to the effects of climate change. Class Warfare San Jose, in the heart of Silicon Valley, used to be the best place in the country for kids to experience a Horatio Alger, rags-to-riches life. Is it still? [The Atlantic]. Hahahahahaha. No. Debtors Prison in 21st-Century America [The Atlantic]. Thousands of people throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area are routinely sent to jail because they cannot pay local court fines and fees. These people are poor, and they tend to be black. While there are many terms to describe thisincluding, importantly, unconstitutionalthere is one with historical resonance reserved for such a practice: debtors prison. Nudges Arent Enough for Problems Like Retirement Savings [Eduardo Porter, New York Times]. So, the 401(k) scam puts a whole generations retirement down the tubes, except for those collecting the fees (ka-ching), and here we are! Well, back to the old drawing board! Organizers of a graduate student unionization effort confirmed the campaign has reached a critical point: a majority of graduate students employed by [Harvard] University have signed authorization cards in support of unionization, which satisfies the threshold to call an election to form a union. [Harvard Crimson]. The $100,000 job: Garbage workers [CNN]. News of the Wired Alcohol use among Native Americans compared to whites: Examining the veracity of the Native American elevated alcohol consumption belief [Drug and Alchohol Dependence]. A new generation of airship engineers, some backed by significant government and private investment, is convinced that, given new technologies and new materials, the public can be sold on airships [The New Yorker]. The Visual Series Of Malay Proverb [Tumblr]. Gorgeous! The Unsettling Mystery of the Creepiest Channel on YouTube [Atlas Obscura]. Very much like the footage in William Gibsons Pattern Recognition. * * * Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. And heres todays plant (Tia): Crabapple Floribunda. * * * If you enjoy Water Cooler, please consider tipping and click the hat. Water Cooler would not exist without your support. By Irina Shav, a writer for the U.S.-based Divergente LLC consulting firm with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry. Originally published at OilPrice More than one-third of public oil companies globally face bankruptcy, according to a new Deloitte report that paints a fairly gloomy picture of the U.S. shale patch as it struggles to survive under mountains of debt. The Deloitte reportthe first high-profile report on the current financial situation of global oil and gas companiessurveyed 500 companies and found that 175 are facing a combination of high leverage and low debt service coverage ratios. [] nearly 35 percent of pure-play E&P companies listed worldwide, or about 175 companies, are in the high risk quadrant, Deloitte noted, adding that the situation is precarious for 50 of these companies due to negative equity or leverage ratio above 100. Stock prices of some of these has already dipped below $5, making them penny stocks. The probability of these companies slipping into bankruptcy is high in 2016, unless oil prices recover sharply, a large part of their debt is converted into equity, or big investors infuse liquidity into these companies. Reports about the growing numbers of bankruptcies among U.S. shale producers arent new, but the Deloitte findings reinforce the picture. More than 80 percent of U.S. E&P companies who filed for bankruptcy since July 2014 are still operating (Chapter 11) under the control of lenders or the supervision of bankruptcy judges, according to Deloitte. However, the majority of these Chapter 11 debt restructuring plans were approved by lenders in early 2015, when oil prices were $55-60/bbl. Since then, prices have fallen to $30/bbl, and hedges at favorable prices have largely expired, making it tough for existing Chapter 11 bankruptcy filers to meet lenders earlier stipulations and increasing the probability of US E&P company bankruptcies surpassing the Great Recession levels in 2016. Shale producers amassed huge debts that they are now struggling to service in the oil price downturn. According to AlixPartners, these debts totaled $353 billion for U.S. and Canadian energy companies at end-2015. To compare, Deloitte puts the combined debt of those 175 bankruptcy-threatened companies at more than $150 billion, nearly half of the total for US and Canada. Thats a lot of debt that needs servicing or restructuring. Unfortunately, things in the industry are so bad that the usual solutions dont work as effectively as they normally would. For starters, demand for E&P assets is at best moderate. Then there are the banks, which used to have a soft spot for energy companies when oil was selling for over $100 a barrel. Now that it is hovering around $30, the soft spot is gone and lenders are trimming their energy investment portfolios. Private equity firms are one alternative source of finance for the troubled industry players. Deep capex cuts are another. The efficiency of both options, however, is questionable. Banks, the IEA, and the IMF have warned that oil prices could reach $20. Iran is back on the international market and planning to raise production to pre-sanction levels (around 4 million bpd in 2011.). The worlds number one and two producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, have made a deal to freeze output at current levels, but these levels are record-highs for both countries, so a freeze is unlikely to take care of the glut quickly enough. And its not going to happen anyway. All this spells doom for that unfortunate one-third of producers. There is one alternative to bankruptcysector consolidationalthough the problems with consolidation are similar to the problems with asset sales. Few energy companies are in a position to make acquisitions right now. Whats left? Continuing the optimization of everyday operations. Operating efficiencies are constantly being improved, mainly in the shale patch but also outside it. Costs for 95 percent of U.S. output have fallen below $15 a barrel, says Deloitte. It seems all that is left for the troubled E&Ps is to continue pumping and keep hoping the storm will eventually subside. Not a fascinating prospect, by all means, but the most realistic one. By Linwood F Tauheed, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Missouri Kansas City. Originally published at New Economic Perspectives Bill and Hillary Clinton used a pragmatic, practical, realistic, racist southern strategy to win the White House in 1992. Hillary Clinton tried unsuccessfully to use the same strategy in 2008 against Barack Obama. This is history, whats changed? Hillary Clintons pragmatic, practical, realistic mantra about how she would operate as president can be boiled down to: Take what you can get. In todays political climate this means the same thing it meant in the political climate of Bill Clintons presidency, it means: Take what Republicans give. The Clintons have made a religion of being pragmatic, a virtue of taking what Republicans give; of embracing Republican positions and making them their own. This is not about how a Hillary Clinton presidency would be a disaster for Black and Brown communities because of what her husband has already done to destroy those communities. That past is prologue. No, it goes far beyond that. This is about how Hillary Clinton would operate on her own as president; with the same pragmatic, take what you can get devotion as Bill Clinton. Since those who ignore history are destined to repeat it, and we have history as a record; lets see what weve got! From the Clintons. From the record. On just two issues; welfare reform and mass incarceration. Welfare Reform Hillary Clinton often refers to her work with the Childrens Defense Fund saying how she has long worked for childrens welfare. But, in 1996 President Bill Clinton, with wholehearted support from the First Lady, signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWORA), also known as welfare reform [i]. The problem with Clintons claims, however, is that she betrayed children as First Lady. Under the guise of welfare reform, the Clinton administration worked with Republicans to gut social services, ignoring their own senior officials warnings that, by doing so, they would be plunging over a million children into poverty.[ii] Bill Clintons signing welfare reform wasnt just an unfortunate mistake. The Clintons southern strategy, promising to end welfare as we know it, echoed racist welfare queen dog whistles put into play by Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Bill Clinton ran in 1992 on the campaign promise to end welfare as we know it. In 1996, he with the wholehearted support of Hillary succeeded, passing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWORA). PRWORA was based on legislation first proposed by Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. [iii] Marion Wright Edelman, President and founder of the Childrens Defense Fund had these things to say in 2007 during Clintons presidential campaign against Barack Obama, about her former employees support for welfare reform. Welfare reform is what Republicans gave in 1996, and the pragmatic Clintons took what they could get. In fact, the very name Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act partly comes from House Speaker Newt Gingrichs Contract With America, often referred to as the Contract ON Black America. It was made clear in 2007 that Hillary Clintons boast about helping children was only a cynical campaign tactic. Whats changed the Republicans have become even more committed to destroying Black and Brown families! Twenty years later, the current Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, a sponsor of the Contract With America II[v], makes Newt Gingrich look like a compassionate conservative. Among other conservative policies The Contract With America II would repeal Obamacare. Ryan also wants to privatize social security and Medicare, two of George W Bushs pet projects, and to eliminate whats left of the social safety net, meaning eliminating any and all support for poor families in general, and poor Black and Brown families in particular; that is, whatever Brown families are allowed to remain in this country. This includes eliminating the food stamp program and turning the safety net over to local charities, charities that in hard times would be hard pressed to give life-saving support to families in need. And as the 2000 recession and 2008 Great Recession demonstrates, hard times hit Black and Brown communities especially hard[vi]. Black and Brown communities should expect to again be hit the hardest when it happens again. Imagine what the repeal of Obamacare, or even modification of subsidies for the poor would mean; with privatized Medicare. Think about mom and dad, or grandma or grandpa, or yourself, living on what Goldman Sachs, sees fit to leave them you in their privatized social security investment funds, after fees; without food stamps. Goldman Sachs is delighted to take what it can get, and for them and other too big to fail financial institutions, the gettin is good. Black and Brown families cant afford to take what we can get; that is, be got again. Mass Incarceration The wars on crime and drugs were campaign tactics, later enacted into laws starting with the Omnibus Crime Control Act of 1970, as part of Richard Nixons and later Ronald Reagans southern strategy. Nixons southern strategy was developed by Nixon political analyst Kevin Phillips who said in 1970: Phillips southern strategy was a success. Replace Negrophobe by racist and the reason for the mass movement of former Democratic southern white voters to the Republican party becomes clear. And, Bill Clinton wanted those Negrophobe whites back in the Democratic party. This meant out-doing Republicans in playing on racist fears; promising to end welfare as we know it, and being tough on crime. And so Bill Clinton began dog-whistling to racist whites that he was a New Democrat who would no longer take a back seat to any Republican when it came to standing up to Black and Brown people. In 1992, Bill Clinton campaigned on a platform of being tough on crime, stealing Richard Nixons tag-line. Fulfilling his promise in 1994, Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act; not incidentally the major Senate sponsor was then Senator Joe Biden. The bill was a disaster for the Black and Brown community. Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow writes that: Bill Clinton presided over the largest increase in federal and state prison inmates of any president in American history. Clinton did not declare the War on Crime or the War on Drugsthose wars were declared before Reagan was elected and long before crack hit the streetsbut he escalated it beyond what many conservatives had imagined possible. He supported the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity for crack versus powder cocaine, which produced staggering racial injustice in sentencing and boosted funding for drug-law enforcement. [viii] Bill Clinton has since apologized for his part in escalating the rate of incarceration of Black and Brown men and women. Before an NAACP meeting in Philadelphia, in July 2015; just in time for Hillarys presidential campaign. He confessed: I signed a bill that made the problem worse, and I want to admit it.[ix] Bill Clinton did not start the mass incarceration bandwagon rolling,[x] no that was Richard Nixon. But, he made it worst by jumping on-board, playing racial politics and taking advantage of the fears of racist whites to win the presidency. And, he did not simply sign a bill, language that attempts to avoid responsibility for the tough on crime bill he had campaigned on, lobbied for as president, which had been sponsored by a Senator of the party he was the head of, and which continued the Nixon appeal to racist white voters. What Bill Clinton should really be apologizing for is his pragmatic political calculation of riding the wave of his own racist southern strategy to win back racist whites, while throwing Blacks and Brown communities under the bus; all the while pretending to feel the pain of Black and Brown communities. Black Lives didnt Matter [xi] But, we are not judging Hillary Clinton by the disastrous pragmatic calculations of her husband, she has her own history. Its no secret that Hillary Clinton as First Lady strongly supported President Clintons embrace of the wars on crime and drugs. She herself raised the use of subtle racist code-words to new heights by embracing the super-predator dog-whistle. In support of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, she said this in 1996. They are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called super-predators. No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way but first we have to bring them to heel and the President has asked the FBI to launch a very concerted effort against gangs everywhere. [xii] Notice that Hillary Clinton dismissed any action directed to preventing the problem or rehabilitation, saying we could talk about it. Bill Clinton in apology at least says: And we wound up putting so many people in prison that there wasnt enough money left to educate them, train them for new jobs and increase the chances when they came out so they could live productive lives[xiii] But, the fact is the 1994 crime bill eliminated funding for prison education programs. It eliminated education funding for incarcerated students, effectively gutting prison education programs. Despite a wealth of research showing education increases post-release employment, reduces recidivism, and improves outcomes for the formerly incarcerated and their families, this change has not been reversed.[xiv] And so, we didnt wind up with not enough money to educate and train inmates, it happened by design. During her 2007 presidential campaign against Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton showed it wasnt practical to switch her tough on crime stance as she condemned Barack Obama for being soft on crime for advocating the end of mandatory minimum sentences enacted by the 1994 crime bill.[xv] Certainly, by 2007 Hillary Clinton was well aware of the damage done to Black and Brown communities by the 1994 crime bill. Now, in 2016, Hillary Clinton wants to distance herself from her 1992 and 2007 record, saying: Decisions were made in the 80s and 90s to deal with what was at that time a very high crime rate that was particularly affecting poor people, people of color in the cities, [and] I think that a lot was done that went further than it needed to go and so now we are facing problems with mass incarceration. [xvi] So in 2016 Hillary Clinton makes a pragmatic apology for her previous tough on crime stance; well almost. Saying decisions were made and a lot was done places responsibility on no one; certainly not on her, for her dog-whistling support of bringing super-predator animals to heel. Its a non-apology apology. In 1992 and 2007 Hillary Clinton was tough on crime, but in 2015 she is seemingly apologetic for having been tough on crime. This change in position seems reasonable, a change that can come to anyone who looks back at bad decisions made, but viewed pragmatically Hillary Clinton is simply, doing what [she hopes] will work? In 1992, employing a southern strategy Hillary Clinton is tough on crime. In 2007, running to the right of Barack Obama and pragmatically calculating that she could not win the Black and Brown vote, her 2008 target voters were racist whites, a continuation of the 1992 southern strategy. Hillary Clinton campaigned on being tough on crime by making Barack Obama seem too liberal and soft on crime. But in 2015 the Clinton pragmatic calculation is, as always, that she has to take what she can get, and, since the Republicans want their Negrophobe whites back, and Trump has them sewn-up, she calculates that she must get her firewall of Black and Brown voters. Black and Brown voters are simply flavors of the month. The idea that Black and Brown voters serve as a firewall for any candidate is racist[xvii] in itself, Black and Brown voters must ask themselves can we afford to be got again? Hillary Clinton now says; Its time to end the era of mass incarceration. [xviii] This is also Bernie Sanders position. In fact, there is very little difference between the Clinton and Sanders criminal justice platforms, as written.[xix] And so, the Clinton campaign, needing to find a difference, insists that Sanders promise to end mass incarceration is not possible, while also insisting that her promise to end mass incarceration is possible. Maybe it depends on what the meaning of the word end is. Clinton daughter Chelsea, as a surrogate for the campaign, says that the Sanders plan to end mass incarceration is worrying[xx] and implied that the 35 year US Congressman and Senator doesnt know how a Bill becomes a Law saying My mother understands how the government works. Condescendingly Chelsea also points out that We are not electing a king, we are electing a president, and We need someone who understands what they have to do in the job [as president] but also in partnership with congress, governors and mayors. That is, a president has to understand that they have to take what they can get. Arguing that Senator Sanders doesnt know that a president must work in partnership with congress, governors and mayors is absurd. Since, the Clinton campaign talking points are based on data that clearly shows that among the 2.2 million US inmates, roughly 90 percent are in state prisons and local jails, not federal prison, the argument is that a president cant do anything substantial about mass incarceration without state and local agreement. Apparently, the Hillary Clinton campaign doesnt know what Bill Clinton knows: What every US President, and US Congressman and Senator knows is that the federal government sets the trend. By providing or denying funding for state programs the federal government has tremendous leverage on state policy. In fact,the 1994 federal crime law kept the mass incarceration bandwagon rolling, providing funding for new state prisons. That these new state prisons were overwhelmingly in poor rural areas made them a favorite and much used economic development tool, serving the double purpose of providing employment for mostly conservative white rural voters and incarcerating mostly Black and Brown men and women from urban areas; all courtesy of New Democrat Bill Clinton. Not only was this a win-win for the Clinton southern strategy, it also promoted the rise of the private prison industry. That Hillary Clinton is disagreeing with Sanders over the meaning of the word end, is a tell. An observation from Daily Kos writer Th0rn: Maybe its just me, but is seems like someone like Bernie Sanders, who relies on small donors instead of corporate lobbyists for funding, especially not lobbyists for private prison corporations, and who has been speaking out against the abuses of private prison corporations for quite a while, is the person whos more likely to actually bring about real change on this terribly important issue. [xxii] Any plan to reduce the prison population and end mass incarceration must include plans to support inmates with education and training, before they return to their communities. To not do so guarantees hopelessness leading to recidivism. Given that in the current political climate, Republicans are loath to give funding for inmate education and training, to take what Republicans will give would be a continuing disaster for Black and Brown communities. The pragmatic excuse for not doing so will be, to quote Bill Clinton again, we let so many people out of prison: there wasnt enough money left to educate them, train them for new jobs and increase the chances when they came out so they could live productive lives[xxiii] What is Needed?. Black and Brown communities cannot afford to take what the Republicans are willing to give; they are only willing to give us their contempt. We cannot wait to be pragmatic, to go slow, while we are like frogs in a pot slowly boiled to death. Such a disaster can be avoided. A Democratic president who is willing and able, supported by the Democratic electorate, to stand up for more than take what you can get; a leader who is willing to struggle for what we want, can, with our struggle, get what we need. To those who say we must be practical, and pragmatic and take what you can get, Frederick Douglass is known to have said. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them[xxiv] And, to those who say that believing that big change is possible is unrealistic dreaming Langston Hughes is known to have written: Harlem. What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?[xxv] [i] The betrayal that should haunt Hillary Clinton: How she sold out working women & then never apologized [ii] How Bill Clintons Welfare Reform Created a System Rife With Racial Biases [iii] Hillary Clinton often boasts about helping children, but she betrayed them as First Lady [iv] Hillary Clinton often boasts about helping children, but she betrayed them as First Lady [v] House Republican hard-liners drafting Contract With America II [vi] Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics [vii] Bill Moyers Journal, November 7, 2008 [viii] Why Hillary Clinton Doesnt Deserve the Black Vote [ix] Bill Clinton says he made mass incarceration issue worse [x] Get Your Memes Right: The 1994 Crime Bill Didnt Create Mass Incarceration [xi] The Clintons War on Drugs: When Black Lives Didnt Matter [xii] Hillary Clinton on Super Predators [xiii] Bill Clinton says he made mass incarceration issue worse [xiv] The Crime Bills Legacy, Two Decades Later [xv] Clinton campaign assails Obama for advocating against federal mandatory minimums [xvi] Hillary Clinton Continues To Distance Herself From Her Husbands Crime Policies [xvii] King: The idea of an African-American firewall for Hillary Clinton is deeply insulting [xviii] Why Hillary Clinton Lacks Credibility On Criminal Justice Reform [xix] Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Vary Little on Criminal Justice Reform [xx] Chelsea Clinton: Bernie Sanders plan to end mass incarceration is worrying [xxi] Bill Clinton says he made mass incarceration issue worse [xxii] Private Prison Corporations Stand With Hillary Clinton [xxiii] Bill Clinton says he made mass incarceration issue worse [xxiv] (1857) Frederick Douglass, If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress [xxv] Harlem Study finds surprising variability in shape of Van Allen Belts (Nanowerk News) The shape of the two electron swarms 600 miles to more than 25,000 miles from the Earth's surface, known as the Van Allen Belts, could be quite different than has been believed for decades, according to a new study of data from NASA's Van Allen Probes that was released Friday in the Journal of Geophysical Research("Energy-dependent dynamics of keV to MeV electrons in the inner zone, outer zone, and slot regions"). "The shape of the belts is actually quite different depending on what type of electron you're looking at," said Geoff Reeves of Los Alamos National Laboratory's Intelligence and Space Research Division and lead author on the study. "Electrons at different energy levels are distributed differently in these regions." 1. The traditional idea of the radiation belts includes a larger, more dynamic outer belt and a smaller, more stable inner belt with an empty slot region separating the two. However, a new study based on data from NASA's Van Allen Probes shows that all three regions--the inner belt, slot region, and outer belt -- can appear differently depending on the energy of electrons considered and general conditions in the magnetosphere. 2. At the highest electron energies measured -- above 1 MeV -- researchers saw electrons in the outer belt only. 3. The radiation belts look much different at the lowest electron energy levels measured, about 0.1 MeV. Here, the inner belt is much larger than in the traditional picture, expanding into the region that has long been considered part of the empty slot region. The outer belt is diminished and doesn't expand as far in these lower electron energies. 4. During geomagnetic storms, the empty region between the two belts can fill in completely with lower-energy electrons. Traditionally, scientists thought this slot region filled in only during the most extreme geomagnetic storms happening about once every ten years. However, new data shows it's not uncommon for lower-energy electrons -- up to 0.8 MeV -- to fill this space during almost all geomagnetic storms. (Image: NASA Goddard/Duberstein) Understanding the shape and size of the belts, which shrink and swell in response to magnetic storms coming from the sun, is crucial for protecting our technology in space. The harsh radiation isn't good for satellite's health, so scientists want to know just which orbits could be jeopardized in different situations. Los Alamos has been studying space weather and its effects on national security satellites since the 1960s, when the U.S. launched the Vela satellites to support nuclear treaty verification. Since scientists first began forming a picture of these rings of energetic particles in the 1950s, understanding of their shape has largely remained unchanged--a small, inner belt, a largely empty space known as the slot region, and then the outer belt, which is dominated by electrons and is larger and more dynamic than the others. But this new analysis reveals that the shape varies from a single, continuous belt with no slot region, to a larger inner belt with a smaller outer belt, to no inner belt at all. Many of the differences are accounted for by considering electrons at different energy levels separately. "It's like listening to different parts of a song," said Reeves. "The bass line sounds different from the vocals, and the vocals are different from the drums, and so on." The authors of the study, from Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Consortium, found that the inner belt--the smaller belt in the classic picture of the belts--is much larger than the outer belt when observing electrons with low energies, while the outer belt is larger when observing electrons at higher energies. At the very highest energies, the inner belt structure is missing completely. So, depending on what one focuses on, the radiation belts can appear to have very different structures simultaneously. These structures are further altered by geomagnetic storms. When high-speed solar wind streams or coronal mass ejections--fast-moving magnetic material from the sun--collide with Earth's magnetic field, they send it oscillating, creating a geomagnetic storm. Geomagnetic storms can increase or decrease the number of energetic electrons in the radiation belts for days to months, though the belts return to their normal configuration after a time. These storm-driven electron increases and decreases are currently unpredictable, without a clear pattern showing what type or strength of storm will yield what outcomes. There's a saying in the space physics community: if you've seen one geomagnetic storm, you've seen one geomagnetic storm. But, it turns out, those observations have largely been based on electrons at only a few energy levels. "When we look across a broad range of energies, we start to see some consistencies in storm dynamics," said Reeves. "The electron response at different energy levels differs in the details, but there is some common behavior. For example, we found that electrons fade from the slot regions quickly after a geomagnetic storm, but the location of the slot region depends on the energy of the electrons." Often, the outer electron belt expands inwards toward the inner belt during geomagnetic storms, completely filling in the slot region with lower-energy electrons and forming one huge radiation belt. At lower energies, the slot forms farther from Earth, producing an inner belt that is bigger than the outer belt. At higher energies, the slot forms closer to Earth, reversing the comparative sizes. Learn about the Van Allen Belts and how new findings from NASA?s Van Allen Probes could impact how we protect technology in space. The twin Van Allen Probes satellites expand the range of energetic electron data we can capture. In addition to studying the extremely high-energy electrons--carrying millions of electron volts--that had been studied before, the Van Allen Probes can capture information on lower-energy electrons that contain only a few thousand electron volts. Additionally, the spacecraft measure radiation belt electrons at a greater number of distinct energies than was previously possible. "Previous instruments would only measure five or ten energy levels at a time," said Reeves. "But the Van Allen Probes measure hundreds." Measuring the flux of electrons at these lower energies has proved difficult in the past because of the presence of protons in the radiation belt regions closest to Earth. These protons shoot through particle detectors, creating a noisy background from which the true electron measurements needed to be picked out. But the higher-resolution Van Allen Probes data found that these lower-energy electrons circulate much closer to Earth than previously thought. "Despite the proton noise, the Van Allen Probes can unambiguously identify the energies of the electrons they're measuring," said Reeves. Precise observations like this, from hundreds of energy levels, rather than just a few, will allow scientists to create a more precise and rigorous model of what, exactly, is going on in the radiation belts, both during geomagnetic storms and during periods of relative calm. Collier County Clerk of Courts Dwight Brock and Commissioner Georgia Hiller during a Collier County Commission meeting on Tuesday, September 9, 2014. (Scott McIntyre/Staff) In this corner, weighing in at quite a bit more than he did when he first took office, the six-time defending champion Clerk of Courts, Dwight Brock. And in this corner, the challenger, moving up in weight class to seek countywide office, Collier County Commissioner Georgia Hiller. You can almost hear Michael Buffer at center ring making the introductions before what is shaping up as a heavyweight political fight that will play out in the coming months. Hiller's less-than-surprising announcement Tuesday that she will challenge Brock sets up a marquee matchup between former allies turned rivals. Both candidates bring strengths and weaknesses to the contest that voters, acting as ringside judges, will have to evaluate in what is sure to be a haymaker-filled summer brawl culminating with the Aug. 30 Republican primary. To handicap the bout, it may be useful to look at some of the previous battles each has waged. When Brock first took office in the 1990s he scored a decisive knockout against investment and accounting firms working for the county. The companies had been placing county funds in derivatives, complicated and risky investments that turned out badly for a number of municipalities. Brock sounded the alarm and even hired a firm created by NASA computer scientists to untangle the scheme. He recouped more than $1 million from the firms, to accolades from the county commissioners at the time. Soon after, Brock audited the county's impact fee collections and found developers had been undercharged millions of dollars. By taking on investment bankers and developers, Brock scored wins that resounded with the public, earning him a reputation as a pugnacious watchdog of taxpayer's money. Carrying that title, he took on the very county commission that once had praised him. He claimed the right to audit county operations whenever he wanted, an ability he said was key to being able to fight for the taxpayers. Commissioners balked, and a yearslong lawsuit began. Hiller entered the ring during that time, first as a volunteer in Brock's corner as the lawsuit dragged on round after round. Brock returned the favor, supporting Hiller in her 2010 run for the commission. She quickly compiled a record of her own, but it included her share of black eyes and body blows. Her first two years in office were marked by a string of high-profile defeats, as she was unable to muster the three votes needed to prevail. In 2012, Tim Nance replaced Jim Coletta on the commission and Hiller's fortunes turned. She managed to get both the county airport director and the director of the Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency fired, a pair of Pyrrhic victories since both won breach of contract suits against the county. She fought doggedly to get rid of EMS Medical Director Dr. Robert Tober, a battle that lives on today in the form of Collier County vs. North Collier Fire Rescue. She made a show of changing the county's ethics ordinance, which had been crafted in the wake of the scandals of the 1990s, to make it more lenient toward elected officials and government staff. The Hiller-Brock relationship took on the appearance of tag-team professional wrestling rather than the sweet science when she finally got the votes to end the county's legal fight with the Blocker family, longtime Immokalee landlords. The county had been battling the Blockers over what it claimed was dilapidated housing in an industrial zone. Through several hearings and appeals the county prevailed until Hiller, with the support of Nance and Commissioner Tom Henning, voted to end the litigation and pay the Blockers more than $500,000 for legal fees. Brock agreed to look over the Blockers' books to verify the amount. Brock conducted the review himself in a single afternoon and signed off on the amount, to the amazement of the commission minority, who recalled his standard practice of insisting that every i be dotted and t crossed before cutting a check. Hiller is not without victories. She argued against a much needed beach renourishment and her opposition contributed to delays. Superstorm Sandy late in 2012 created a huge demand for dredging equipment and the price of the Collier project shot up, out of reach of the county budget. Hiller was roundly booed. But she got up off the mat, arguing a project using trucks to haul sand to the beach would work just as well and be cheaper. The ensuing truck haul came off without a hitch, proving her right. Naples Mayor John Sorey, at first exasperated about the delays and the skyrocketing cost, now touts the project as part of his re-election campaign. Meanwhile, Brock has been staggered. An affordable housing program started by a nonprofit group of concerned citizens in 2008 at first passed through with only mild criticism from Brock's office. But after the group's president, John Barlow, ran against Brock in 2012, Brock found more irregularities. He accused the group's members of profiting from their effort. Hiller sided with Brock. Whether the findings were valid or not, the matter smacked of political retribution. More recently, Brock has sued the county staff over purchasing policy. His objections have meant slow payment to hundreds of vendors doing business with the county. Brock's public perception took a beating. Having lost at the circuit court level, Brock is appealing to district court, a move that will entail more legal fees for taxpayers. He says an appeals court decision will provide clarity for all court clerks in the state, but no other clerks are lining up to help with the bills. Hiller has been playing legal rope-a-dope in a lawsuit filed by former supporter Randy Johns of Phoenix Associates. Johns said Hiller hasn't paid him for almost $100,000 worth of renovations to her home. A series of court motions filed by Hiller's attorneys appear only to obfuscate the central question: Was the work done and done properly? Her reticence to promptly pay her contractor will make her jabs at Brock for being slow to pay less effective. Expect Hiller to come out swinging in the primary campaign. Brock will try to fend off her blows, hoping the judges will award points for defense of county funds and see recent events his way. Prediction: A split decision. (Connect with Brent Batten at brent.batten@naplesnews.com, on Twitter@NDN_BrentBatten and at facebook.com/ndnbrentbatten) Left to right, Robert Beatty, dean of the Lutgert College of Business at FGCU, Lois Knox, regional director of the Florida Small Business Development Center at FGCU, and Sandra Kauanui, director of the Lutgert College of Business Institute for Entrepreneurship at FGCU, discuss the Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program, which is geared toward helping veterans create small businesses, at a roundtable discussion at FGCU on Tuesday, Feb. 23. Alexi C. Cardona/Staff SHARE Sandra Kauanui, director of the Lutgert College of Business Institute for Entrepreneurship at FGCU, discusses the Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program, which is geared toward helping veterans create small businesses, at a roundtable discussion at FGCU on Tuesday, Feb. 23. Alexi C. Cardona/Staff By Alexi C. Cardona, Staff Robert Beatty, dean of the Lutgert College of Business at Florida Gulf Coast University, thinks veterans make great entrepreneurs. "The skill sets veterans possess is what entrepreneurs need," Beatty said. "High-motivation, high-commitment, high-task orientation. You have to be able to fail, to fall down and get back up." Veterans in Southwest Florida looking to start or expand their small businesses will now have the backing to do so. FGCU is one of five schools leading the Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program, a new training and mentorship initiative geared toward helping veterans transition from military to civilian life by giving them the tools and support to start a business and see it through. FGCU leaders met on Tuesday with members of the community to discuss the entrepreneurship program. Veterans Florida, a nonprofit organization created by the Florida Legislature to attract veterans to the state by offering employment, training and education, is funding the program for all five schools and is partnering with the Florida Small Business Development Center (FSBDC) at FGCU to offer mentorship. "Looking at the business two years down the road, we want to make sure the owner is working on their business, not just in their business," said Lois Knox, regional director of the FSBDC. "We want to be sure they're still in business two years down the road, that they have access to capital and are able to get loans." The other schools participating in the program are University of West Florida, University of North Florida, Florida Atlantic University and Hillsborough Community College. The program is divided in three phases. Phase one is a seven-week online training covering the basics of entrepreneurship. The second phase takes place on campus in seven sessions spread over three weekends. During this phase, veterans get one-on-one instruction from small business owners and experts who can help them refine their business plans, launch plans and prepare for a competition on the last day. Sandra Kauanui, director of the Lutgert College of Business Institute for Entrepreneurship, said veterans will be going out to do research and customer valuations. The veterans will be divided into groups based on their business industry and have a mentor for each group. "We want to have all the support and resources they'll need to start the business and actually do it," Kauanui said. "You don't get them to a certain point and walk away from them. You have to stay with them and provide support." The last phase involves ongoing mentorship from FSBDC consultants to help run the businesses. The program is open to active duty military or veterans who were honorably discharged. Veterans must also be Florida residents. The program is provided at no cost to participants, and veterans do not need to be enrolled at FGCU to participate. The FGCU program hopes to have 80 veterans; the current enrollment is 58. The program begins March 15. Tony Gonzalez, a Fort Myers resident, is a distributor for IDLife, a company that offers personalized nutrition assessments and products. A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Gonzalez found out about the entrepreneurship program through the American Legion Post 38 in Fort Myers and signed up for it. "I have a product, I have a company backing me, now I have to go get the schooling and training for it," Gonzalez said. "All we need is an opportunity. Most people only need an opportunity and they can run with it." To apply for the Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program, see www.FloridaVetBiz.org. For more information, contact Amy Ridgway, FGCU program coordinator, at 239-590-7324 or aridgway@fgcu.edu. Bonnie Fredeen poses for a photo with David Lawrence Center board president Douglas Johnson, left, and CEO Scott Burgess, right, after she received a Meritorious Service award last week from the board to show their gratitude for her leadership and commitment to the center over the last 23 years. SHARE By Alexi C. Cardona, Staff Before moving to Southwest Florida to work as a human resources director and later becoming the chief operating officer at the David Lawrence Center, Bonnie Fredeen was at a crossroads. With years of experience in human resources and banking operations at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York under her belt, she was considering becoming an independent broker and going into securities. But it wasn't the right fit. In 1992, she landed in Southwest Florida to work at the mental health treatment provider. "I was hesitant at first about the job. It's a totally different environment," Fredeen said. "When you work for a huge corporation, there are strict rules, major corporate for-profit values. Your mission is to make money, and that's not a bad thing. When I came here, the whole concept of not being about money, but having a mission of helping people and serving the community was a huge difference from what I was used to." It didn't take long for Fredeen to adapt to her new environment. "Three to six months into it, I fell in love with who we are and what we do," she said. "I haven't looked back." After more than 23 years of service to the David Lawrence Center, 15 of which were as chief operating officer, Fredeen is retiring at the age of 65. Her last day at the center is March 7. "I'm in awe of her passion, expertise and commitment to bringing wellness to the community," said Scott Burgess, CEO of the David Lawrence Center. "Her legacy is going to live on in all the programs, partnerships and systems she's built here." As COO, Fredeen managed the administrative and clinical directors of acute care services, the Crossroads substance abuse program, community services, outpatient and medical services, information technology, clinical records, staff development, human resources and quality assessment and improvement. One of the major projects she worked on was the Telehealth program, an online counseling platform that helps people with anxiety, loss of a loved one, depression, trauma and relationships. The program began about eight years ago. "At the time, it was unique and exciting for us," she said. "We're still building on that." Fredeen will be working as a consultant for the center to help her successors ease into their new jobs. She will also be working on special projects with the center. "It's been an honor to serve in this position," she said. "I didn't do anything myself. We have an amazing team that keeps the operations ticking." During her free time, she'll be spending a lot more time with her family. She and her husband have six sons and 14 grandchildren and step-grandchildren. "Over the years, I thought I could do it all," Fredeen said. "But it started to feel like I was missing out on things. A lot of my family doesn't live locally, and I have wanted to be able to go and spend longer lengths of time with them and more time with my husband, who's retired. That's really why I made this decision. I love coming to work every day." Fredeen and her husband have already planned for a family visit in April, two graduations in May and a wedding in June, all in different parts of the country. "That's what I want, to be there and to not miss the next generation of my family growing," she said. Two of the center's directors have been chosen to fill Fredeen's shoes. Sharie Boscaglia, quality improvement director, will be named chief administrative officer. Nancy Dauphinais, Crossroads clinical director, will be named chief clinical officer. Both women will assume their new responsibilities on Fredeen's last day. "I never would have thought 25 years ago that this would be my career," Fredeen said. "This job has changed my perception of mental illness and the homeless. A lot of people who come to us are experiencing a life crisis trauma, a major loss, depression, anxiety. That challenges people's ability to go through life everyday. Learning about mental illness and what we can do to get people through it was eye opener for me." SHARE Ted Wolfe captured this image of the Andromeda galaxy using the telescope installed in his Naples home. Astrophotographer Ted Wolfe stands with his telescope in Naples. By Ted Wolfe, Citizen Contributor Astrophotographer Ted Wolfe looks up at the night sky through telescopes from his home in Southwest Florida and photographs it through specialized cameras. His pictures of colliding galaxies, dying stars, supernovas, glowing nebulas, etc., are published in the leading national magazines in the field of astronomy. Exhibits of his pictures have appeared in numerous science museums, universities and institutions, including a 20-month show featuring a large number of his images at the Kennedy Space Center. A full collection of his pictures are on permanent display at the Center for Space Studies at the University of Florida. Probably the most celebrated and photographed galaxy in the sky, other than our own, is Andromeda. It has special meaning to us because it's going to totally absorb us. Our solar system has about another 5 billion years to go in its life. Andromeda and the Milky Way are on a collision course approaching each other from opposite directions. The current distance is 2.52 million light years and the latest estimates place the collision about 4 billion years from now so our solar system will still be around. Actually, there will be several collisions between the galaxies. Its current approach speed is about 259,000 miles per hour (includes our own motion toward it since both galaxies are "falling down" the same gravitational slope in space time). The approach speed will pick up as the two get closer, reaching about 1.2 million miles per hour near the first collision. This speed will carry them through and past each other with the resulting disruption of the gas, dust and star systems. However, gravity will halt their movement and they will turn around, and re-collide several hundreds of millions of years later. Astronomers believe the second collision will be more devastating. So much so that at that time stars like our sun, with its retinue of planets, stand a good chance of being slung out of their orbits. Where we will wind up is anybody's guess, maybe even outside our old Milky Way galaxy, which will then be merged as a smaller component inside the much larger Andromeda. Perhaps our sun will wind up in the "baggage train" trailing along behind the giant, newly merged galaxies, in a stream of following stars. Andromeda or M31, its official name, has long fascinated me. In fact, the very first astrophoto I ever took of any deep sky object was a black and white of Andromeda on Jan. 8, 1998, here in Naples. While I have learned a lot more about astrophotography since then, astronomers have also learned a lot more about Andromeda. While similar in some ways to our own galaxy, it is far larger and more turbulent in nature. Our galaxy is big, about 100,000 light years across, while Andromeda is double our size at about 200,000 light years in diameter. Further, recent studies show there is a thinner halo of gas, dust and stars that extends out from the galaxy's core with a diameter of about 1,000,000 light years. Keep in mind that back in 1998, when I shot that first photo of it, astronomers believed that Andromeda was about the same size as the Milky Way. Then we thought there was only about 30 galaxies in our "local group." Now the count is up to 54 as new, dim, dwarf galaxies are being discovered by more sensitive telescopes. The big two are still Andromeda and the Milky Way though. The larger galaxies are in the process of absorbing the smaller ones, but Andromeda is the biggest, most active feeder in the local group which gives it a very dominant character. It is the biggest shark in our galactic waters. In fact, like a shark, it leaves pieces of its kills spewing around in space. So the outer halo of material mentioned above is such material, related to its absorption and dissemblance of other smaller galaxies over the years. Further, there are streams of stars, now detected by powerful telescopes, that are protruding from various angles of Andromeda. These are also remnants of smaller galaxies literally "eaten" by Andromeda. Two such smaller, victim galaxies can be seen in the above picture. They are the two brightest objects in the picture outside the core of Andromeda. Both are dwarf elliptical galaxies being pulled into it. The one at the top is M32, and the one to the left is NGC205. Recently, the Spitzer Space Telescope has detected an inner ring found just a little off the center of Andromeda. Astronomers now believe that Andromeda drew M32 right through it about 200 to 800 million years ago. A la what will happen to us, M32 will return for its final demise through more encounters at some time in the future. So enjoy this safe view of our aggressive neighbor who is "swimming" toward us. - - - Ted Wolfe has a DVD and Blu-ray available, which features 70 of his deep space images with original background music. For more information, go to naples.net/clubs/eas/sales.html. Ted is a member of the Everglades Astronomical Society. Organized in 1981, it serves the community providing information in all aspects of amateur astronomy. Its goals include educating the general public, schoolchildren and other groups to the wonders of the universe. The Society meets at 7 p.m. every second Tuesday of the month at the Norris Center (public invited). Regular viewing visits to a special, dark sky site in the Everglades are held each month, allowing the general public to observe the night sky through telescopes, under pristine conditions. Information: naples.net/clubs/eas. SHARE Lori Lamendola know someone wants her fancy red dress in this file photo from a previous Treasures in the Trunk. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent Donald Podany of Isles of Capri sells his homemade fishing luresin this file photo from a previous Treasures in the Trunk. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent 1. Saturday: MIYC Open House When you cross the Jolley Bridge entering Marco Island, the first thing you'll see to the right of the bridge is the Marco Island Yacht Club (MIYC). If you've ever wondered what goes on there, Saturday, Feb. 27 is your chance to find out, when MIYC holds an Open House from 1-4 p.m. The event is open to the public, and everyone who loves boating and the water is invited to attend. Visitors will be able to tour the beautiful 7,000 square foot two-story "Old Florida" style clubhouse and its surrounding grounds, learn more about Club activities, boating, dining and membership, and enjoy complimentary light hors d'oeuvres, half price drinks and the festive sounds of live steel drum music. Information: marcoislandyachtclub.net. 2. Monday: Marco in the Civil War era Readily described as "paradise" today, Marco Island was a far different place during the Civil War. Guerrilla style warfare, shipwrecks, pirates, horrific storms and other thrilling adventures were an integral part of this area's historic lore. National award-winning author, internationally acclaimed lecturer and accomplished seaman, Robert N. Macomber tells it all at 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 29 in Rose History Auditorium. Macomber is the author of 12 naval thrillers, all using the word "honor" as part of the title. The "honor" series traces the adventures of protagonist Peter Wake, a third generation New England schooner captain now in the Navy, from 1863 during the Civil War to the Great White Fleet in 1908. These maritime escapades highlight the Navy's critical role in the expansion of America from a continental country in the mid-19th century to a global power in the early 20th century. The Macomber lecture is free to members of the Historical Society; $5 for nonmembers. Macomber's newest novel The Assassin's Honor will be available for purchase and signing after the lecture. Rose History Auditorium is located at 180 S. Heathwood Drive across from the library. Information: 239-389-6447 or theMIHS.org. 3. This weekend: Treasures in the Trunk From 8 a.m. until noon Saturday, Feb. 27, the San Marco Columbiettes will be hosting a Treasures in the Trunk Sale/Fundraiser in the parking lot of the San Marco Catholic Church, 851 San Marco Road, Marco Island. Vendors should be set up by 7:30 a.m. Don't miss this opportunity to sell your new, used or antique "treasures" from the trunk of your vehicle. The cost will be $10 for each vehicle parking spot and $10 additional if you wish to rent a table to place at the rear of your vehicle. All merchandise not sold must be removed by the vendor. Refreshments and home baked items will be available for purchase; 50/50 drawing at 11:30 a.m. Come join us for a morning of fun and the opportunity to shop or sell. Information: Mary Kay Moll at 239-394-1016 or Barbara DeRosa at 239-272-0158. Rendering of plans for Gulfshore Playhouse. (Submitted) SHARE By Harriet Howard Heithaus of the Naples Daily News Philanthropists Patty and Jay Baker held out a strong hand to Gulfshore Playhouse Wednesday, announcing a $10 million matching grant for a proposed theater to be built on Goodlette Road adjacent to the Naples Square development at U.S. 41 South. "We believe in the community and we believe in Gulfshore Playhouse," said Patty Baker, echoed by her husband: "We want to give back to the community we live in. It's Patty's philosophy: 'You should lay eggs for every nest.' " The former president of Kohl's Department Stores and his wife, who jointly backed Broadway musicals such as the Tony-winning "Memphis," have bestowed major gifts on the arts before. The Baker Museum at the ArtisNaples complex was named for them after a $10 million gift to that institution. This offer was announced at a party for theater supporters, who received small gold-painted shovels to commemorate the event. It is a game changer for Kristen Coury, Gulfshore Playhouse founder/artistic director, who has been seeking a dedicated theater for all of her 11 years here. "I feel we are really on our way toward my dream to create a Tony-class regional playhouse in Naples," she said, adding that she is grateful to the Bakers "from the bottom of my heart." The Playhouse development team had already formulated plans for a $28 million theater complex with a 400-seat main theater, a 175-seat black box theater, an art gallery, education rooms and a wine bar. The design isn't final, but literature for its "Next Stage" campaign shows siting would be at the northeast end of that property. "We're a minute out of the end of our feasibility study and a minute out of our architecture selection. But we couldn't really make the next move until now," Coury said. Coury founded Gulfshore Playhouse in 2004, and originally had planned a regional theater building in the Estero area. But she has gathered more support in Naples, where Gulfshore Playhouse has been operating an Equity theater at the city-owned Norris Community Center for at least 10 years. That theater must share its space with other events, and patrons often complain about its lack of tiered seating. There is also another theater downtown, the Sugden Community Theatre on Fifth Avenue South, but it is in use nearly constantly with the Naples Players season, which fields nine plays, and that company's adult and KidzAct classes. Gulfshore Playhouse supporters have already created literature for a "Next Stage" campaign, with a goal of raising $45 million in the next three years. That would include $5 million for the property, $7 million for professional services and fees and $5 million for first-year and contingency-endowment funds. "I've been waiting for this moment. It's a whole new beginning," declared Bob Harden, president of the Gulfshore Playhouse board of directors. Bunny Brooks of Naples has been supporting Gulfshore Playhouse since its first plays. "We're thrilled. We've been hoping that this would happen," she said. "To have a place of our own it's perfect." SHARE Robin Alexander Yanda By Liz Freeman of the Naples Daily News A Collier County woman has lost her nursing license after she smuggled marijuana into the Lee County Jail last summer for an inmate, among other charges, according to state records. The woman, Robin Yanda, 26, of the 600 block of 13th Street Southwest, also engaged in a sexual relationship with the inmate, Florida Board of Nursing records show. Yanda did not fight the nursing board's complaint against her or license suspension after she was arrested last May on seven counts of felony charges. The nursing board revoked her license as a licensed practical nurse on Feb. 5 at its regularly scheduled meeting in Miami. Yanda could not be reached for comment. Yanda began the relationship with the inmate, Robert Loveland, 24, and smuggled cigarettes, dipping tobacco and marijuana into the jail. Near the end of April, 2015, the inmate wanted a quarter pound of marijuana and 20 Xanax pills and told her he would contact her employer if she did not smuggle the items in the jail. The Lee County Sheriff's Office began an investigation based on a tip. The investigation found that Yanda smuggled items into the jail to the inmate in between slices of bread in a sandwich, according to state records. SHARE A fracking bill up for a vote today in a Florida Senate committee drew a smattering of protesters at the Collier County government center Thursday morning. Organized by the Stone Crab Alliance, a Naples-based anti-fracking group, protesters said Senate Bill 318, introduced by Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, does not go far enough to protect the environment and unjustly strips local governments of their power to ban the oil drilling method. Senate Appropriations Chairman Tom Lee, R-Brandon, has said Richters bill might not pass his committee today and would face an even tougher fight in the full Senate. Our position has always been that even if irresponsible oil drilling and fracking is legal, it shouldnt be, Stone Crab Alliance leader Karen Dwyer said Thursday. Even if this bill passes, were going to be escalating our efforts to stop fracking in our communities. Nine protesters carried signs Thursday that said No Fracking Way to SB 318, Its All About the Water, and Water is Floridas Lifeblood in front of the government building that houses Richters local office and County Commission chambers. Protesters were angered by an unadvertised 4-1 vote Tuesday by Collier commissioners to back Richters bill. Lee commissioners have opposed it. Fracking, short for hydraulic or acid fracturing, uses a chemical mixture to draw oil and gas reserves from far underground. Bonita Springs and Estero have banned the practice. A Texas-based oil driller touched off a firestorm over fracking in Florida in 2013 when the company began fracking a well in Collier County. The Department of Environmental Protection fined the company $25,000, revoked its permits and the company eventually left Florida. Oil Pumper SHARE By Arek Sarkissian of the Naples Daily News TALLAHASSEE A key Senate committee chairman said Wednesday a bill to regulate fracking will face a tough battle on the Senate floor because it tosses out local bans on the controversial drilling practice. Sen. Tom Lee, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he believes the bill sponsored by Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, is unfair because it strips power from local governments. The bill, which is scheduled for a vote in Lee's committee on Thursday, would provide statewide regulation over a controversial drilling process where an acid mixture is blasted into rock to free up oil and natural gas. The bill would also do away with any local bans, like those passed by Bonita Springs and Estero. It would also place a moratorium on the drilling method until the Florida Department of Environmental Protection can perform a $1 million study on how it affects the environment. DEP will use the results of the study to create rules, which will be approved by the Legislature. Lee, of Brandon, said he did not believe it was fair to lift the moratorium and allow oil drilling companies to resume drilling, but not allow cities and counties to have a say. "Why does the industry have its moratorium lifted but local governments continue to be pre-empted in their ban to regulate the activity?" he asked. Lee said Richter's bill stood a chance of passing his committee, but its chances of receiving a majority vote in the Senate were not good. "I would definitely say it will be a heavy lift in the chamber," Lee said. Richter said state law regulating oil drilling, which includes fracking, already trumps local laws. His bill would provide regulation specific to fracking. "We're not going to have several ordinances out there," Richter said. Richter's bill is identical to a House version that passed Jan. 27. Both bills include language that would allow local governments to enforce zoning laws that dictate issues such as lighting and traffic at a drilling site. However, none of those local laws can prevent the actual fracking process. DEP brought Richter the bill after a 2014 incident where the Texas-based Dan H. Hughes Co. began to frack in eastern Collier County on the edge of the Everglades. The company refused to stop drilling despite requests from DEP and was eventually fined $20,000. The company also was ordered to place groundwater monitors around the drilling site. Richter introduced a similar fracking regulation bill last year, but it died with the abrupt end of session. Lee invited DEP to his Thursday committee meeting to answer any questions. "I think that will provide us with an opportunity to clear the air and separate fears from the science," Lee said. Estero's temporary city hall. Maryann Batlle/Staff SHARE By Maryann Batlle of the Naples Daily News As early as March, Estero village staff will present councilors with a proposal that could more than double their current salaries. Each village councilor now receives about $3 to $5 an hour. The village charter, Estero's governing document, sets councilor salaries at $6,000 per year, paid each month. The mayor gets $9,000 a year. Councilor Jim Wilson suggested getting in line with the city of Bonita Springs, their neighbor to the south. In Bonita Springs, a councilor makes $16,946.88 a year, which is $1,412.24 a month. The mayor's salary is $22,595.88 a year, which is $1,882.99 a month. Bonita Springs pays 100 percent of each councilor's single health coverage. A councilor pays $70 a month if they add dependents. They can add vision or dental at their own expense. That city also opted into the Florida Retirement System. Bonita Springs contributes 43.24 percent of each councilor's salary to the state system. Nearly a year after the March 17 Estero election that hired them, Wilson decided it was the right time to renegotiate. Estero's elected officials thought being on the council would be a side job, but it's turned out to be far more time consuming than that, said Wilson. His peers on the council agreed, some rather sheepishly. Councilor Katy Errington said she works about 40 to 60 hours a week on village council business. Paying a higher wage would raise the bar on accountability, said Councilor Bill Ribble. The word "volunteer" can make people take their roles less seriously, he said. Younger people may be more inclined to serve if the village offered better pay, said Councilor Jim Boesch. "If you don't do something like this, you're going to end up with a bunch of retired people sitting on the council," said Boesch. Everyone on the inaugural council except Wilson is a retiree. Vice Mayor Howard Levitan, Councilor Don Brown and Mayor Nick Batos hesitated. Though they agreed everyone is working the hours of a full-time job, they said public input would be key for them. Everyone ran their campaigns on the understanding that Estero would have a "government-lite" model, which meant the village would offer low salaries to its council, said Batos. "It's a matter of trust and living up to what we told the residents when we asked them to incorporate and vote for us," Batos said. Estero's council can raise or lower their salaries with an ordinance, according to the village charter. There's no need for a village-wide vote. But if the council takes action, the change would not go into effect "until after the first day of the next regular municipal election." Asking for a salary bump is a touchy subject, said Lynn Tipton, director of the Florida League of Cities university, which offers public service training. "That is a very tough thing to say out loud," Tipton said. Compensation for elected officials "varies greatly" across the state, Tipton said. "It's all over the place," Tipton said. "It's a reflection of the citizens of that area." Up in the Panhandle, it's common for councilors to work for no pay, she said. "They'll pay more than their filing fee to run than they will make as a municipal officer," Tipton said. In other places, like Bonita Springs, perks include health insurance and retirement plans, she said. Librado Aguilar stands with his dog outside of his home, which is need of repair, in Immokalee on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015. The Farm Workers Village is expected to go under rehabilitation by Dec. 15 by the Collier County Housing Authority through a USDA grant. The rehabilitation was supposed to have started seven years ago. (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) By Maria Perez of the Naples Daily News Collier County Housing Authority misspent more than $1.7 million earmarked for a federal housing project in Immokalee, with an independent audit identifying more than twice the amount previously disclosed publicly as misspent on unrelated housing projects. The auditor, Spoor Bunch Franz, determined the housing authority misappropriated $1,178,272 that was supposed to pay for the operation of the U.S. Departrment of Agriculture's 365 affordable rental homes in Immokalee for low-income farmworkers and their families between March 2015 and September 2015. Instead, the money, which came mostly from tenants' rent payments of the USDA operation, was spent in 276 homes owned by the authority and rented to low-income residents in Immokalee. The money was used to pay staff wages and benefits, property insurance premiums, fuel, supplies and other costs related to the independent operation. Before the audit's figures were released publicly, it was known that money was misspent, but an amount was not officially determined. USDA regulations don't allow the use of funds generated by its Rural Development program to pay for expenses unrelated to the project. The auditor's finding was in addition to the more than $500,000 already identified as misspent. That money was earmarked for that same USDA project but the housing authority spent it to keep up an affordable rental dormitory for farmworkers in Immokalee. The discovery of misspent money led to the firing of the housing agency's former director, Esmeralda Serrata, on May 26, but there wasn't a formal estimate of how much had been misappropriated until Tuesday, when the housing authority's board approved the auditor's numbers. Serrata sued the Housing Authority for unpaid wages after she was fired. The complaint said she was fired without cause and without being compensated with severance pay. Serrata and the Housing Authority are going into a mediation process in March. All the homes managed by the agency were built with USDA financing, including 611 in Farmworker Village the largest affordable rental housing community in Immokalee and 30 in Collier Village. The authority uses money generated from the projects, including rent payments, to pay the debt and manage the properties. The older sections of Farmworker Village, with 276 homes, were released from the USDA program in March 2013, after the authority paid off the USDA loans used to build them. But the housing authority improperly kept paying for the costs of the released housing with revenues from the USDA operation. The vacancy rate of the released sections ranged from 97 percent to 73 percent between October 2013 and April 2015. Many units couldn't be rented because the electrical system hadn't been updated. A 2010 USDA inspection had found numerous health and safety in Farm Worker Village. Collier County Housing Authority's former auditor, Malcom Johnson & Company, didn't signal any findings in the housing authority's yearly audits of fiscal years 2013 and 2014, when the authority misappropriated $227,300 and $438,987, respectively for the released housing. Michael Botelho, USDA Rural Development's area director, said the firm should have identified the problems in its audits. Efforts to reach representatives from Malcom Johnson & Company for comment failed. The audit report by Spoor Bunch Franz says their investigation cannot be relied upon to disclose errors, fraud, or illegal acts. However, Bill McDaniel said, the auditors told them that although the audit cannot be used for that purpose, they found no indication of fraud or personal gain. Botelho said USDA will negotiate with the housing authority a way to repay the money to the federal program, in a way that doesn't prevent the housing authority from managing its community successfully. "At the end of the day, we are paying back to the program what shouldn't have been taken out of the program in the first place," McDaniel said. The housing authority is starting a $9.2 million USDA-funded project to rehabilitate its federal program homes. Occupancy rate in the oldest, released sections is up to 44 percent. Bonita Springs mayoral candidates Stephen McIntosh, Peter Simmons and Rick Steinmeyer, seated at right, participate in an election debate at the Naples Daily News with NBC-2 anchorman Chad Oliver, columnist Brent Batten and editorial page editor Alan Bartlett, seated at left, on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, in North Naples. (David Albers/Staff) By Patrick Riley of the Naples Daily News Lopsided campaign contributions paint a picture of a two-man race for mayor in Bonita Springs between Councilmen Stephen McIntosh and Peter Simmons, but Wednesday at the second public debate, outsider Rick Steinmeyer made sure he wasn't forgotten. While Simmons and McIntosh mostly refrained from personal attacks, Steinmeyer repeatedly took jabs at McIntosh, questioning some of his campaign contributions and past voting record. The hour-and-a-half forum, hosted by the Naples Daily News, focused on many of the city's prominent issues, including where to put a high school and what to do with restricted land in the east, but it also discussed topics such as the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound track. Simmons and McIntosh both agreed that expanding gaming would create more jobs and economic growth for the area. Steinmeyer, however, disagreed, saying that the casino owners were funneling money from Bonita to other properties in Miami. He also took the opportunity to call out McIntosh. "Mr. McIntosh got a $1,000 from the Flagler Racetrack and he got a $1,000 from the Flagler Casino," Steinmeyer said, referring to online campaign contribution records. "I wonder what Mr. McIntosh is going to do for the people of Miami." McIntosh remained cordial. "It's about economic development," he said. "It's about jobs. It's 400 jobs, if racing and gambling are allowed at the racetrack. But most importantly the racetrack doesn't want to race greyhounds. They lose money every time they put a dog on the track. But by state law they can't have gambling unless they have dogs." Though many of the questions asked by the three-person panel and the audience focused on current issues and topics, a two-year old discussion about an possible overpass at U.S. 41 and Bonita Beach Road resurfaced. In 2014, city council voted to reject a Florida Department of Transportation study that would have included a flyover at the busy intersection. McIntosh and Mayor Ben Nelson voted against killing the study. On Wednesday, Simmons argued that the overpass "was on the fast track to be a federal flyover." McIntosh disagreed. He said an overpass would have never come to be. "It was a study," he said. "It was a study to look at the potential options, or possible options, 20 years out to determine how you get traffic through that intersection." Steinmeyer, a staunch fiscal conservative, argued that the study would have been a waste of taxpayer money. "What's the matter if it comes from the Bonita taxpayer or the Honolulu taxpayer, it's still taxpayer money and you're not going to build an overpass, so why bother to study?" he said. Candidates were also asked to look toward the future: What would they do to lure business to Bonita and create more jobs? McIntosh said city council was bringing "private investment" downtown and touted the city's "accelerated permitting process." "If you go to Bonita, you'll get your permit in three to five days," he said. "If you go to other areas around here, even the county, it's three weeks to five weeks." Simmons went a step further. "I think we can continue to make it more attractive to do business in Bonita Springs," he said. "The government lite approach, keep taxes low, keep spending low. So it doesn't overburden our taxpayers." Steinmeyer, as he did many times Wednesday, took a vastly different approach. "I don't think we need any more jobs, we don't need any more people in Bonita," he said, to chuckles and laughs from the audience. "I'd raise the impact fees as high as I could get away with so people can pay their taxes before they move here. If you want to live in Bonita, you're going to have to pay. If you can't pay to live in Bonita, go to Estero, go to Naples, go anywhere you want to go." Though Steinmeyer often attacked McIntosh throughout the evening, it was McIntosh who landed the jab that got the loudest roar from the audience. When asked what he would do if he got elected, Steinmeyer said he would first get a haircut. "That's the first time I've agreed with him tonight," McIntosh quipped. By Arek Sarkissian of the Naples Daily News TALLAHASSEE Gov. Rick Scott shrugged off questions Wednesday about whether he is on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's list of possible running mates. "I'm focused on this job," Scott told reporters before shifting into his usual talking points about bringing more jobs to the state. Speculation about Scott being among Trump's running mate choices was spurred by a Tuesday Washington Post article, the same day the New York businessman won the GOP caucus in Nevada. Scott said he has not yet decided if he would endorse anyone before the GOP primary on March 15, but he is drawn to any candidate that, like him, makes job growth a priority. "It's no different from what we get done here and that's get jobs," Scott said. "We need a president who has a very specific plan of how we need to get jobs going in this country, just like we've done in Florida." When Scott was asked if he thought Trump had a chance to clinch the Republican nomination, he said Trump was winning several races. "He keeps winning every race," Scott said, later adding, "It's fun to watch." Scott and Trump share many attributes. Like Trump, Scott was a political newcomer when he ran for the governor's seat in 2010. Also like Trump, Scott vowed to support his campaign through wealth he attained in the private sector, which he said was proof that he could not be swayed by special interests. Scott wrote favorably about Trump's candidacy for the GOP nomination on Jan. 6 with an opinion piece that ran in USA Today. Scott wrote that Trump had tapped into real voter sentiment. Contact Daily News reporter arek.sarkissian@naplesnews.com or 850-559-7620 An aerial view of the Collier Hogan well on Thursday, July 24, 2014. Scott McIntyre/Staff SHARE By Arek Sarkissian of the Naples Daily News TALLAHASSEE A Senate committee rejected a bill Thursday that establishes statewide fracking regulations and tosses out local bans, meaning the proposal is likely dead unless its sponsor can satisfy concerns of lawmakers. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 10-9 against the bill sponsored by Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, with opponents raising questions about the state's handling of fracking. But Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers, kept the bill alive by asking that it be reconsidered. Benacquisto was of the majority on the committee who voted against the bill. Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said he must decide if the bill will be heard Tuesday during what will likely be the last committee meeting of the legislative session. "We would only hear the bill if there was some kind of compromise that would change the outcome," Lee said, adding of Richter, "He's going to have to work with the committee and decide it isn't worth going forward because the compromises necessary may make it of little value to him." Richter said he will work with committee members who voted against his bill and will ask Lee to put it on Tuesday's agenda. "I was not successful in convincing enough of my colleagues that this is a good bill," Richter said. "I still believe this is a good bill." Richter's bill would provide statewide regulation for a drilling process where an acidic mixture is injected into subterranean rock to access oil and natural gas. The bill voids 70 bans passed by cities and counties around the state, including Estero and Bonita Springs. Richter and others have argued that state law currently prohibits local governments from banning the process. When asked why he needs to create another law to invalidate the bans if one already exists, Richter said his bill clarifies that the local bans are not allowed. "We had all of those bans coming forward and I'm not someone to sneak around, so I thought we would put language in there to be clear," Richter said. "We wanted them to know that these were the rules." Lawmakers said they were concerned that Florida's Department of Environmental Protection isn't capable of properly handling regulations related to fracking. DEP officials answered questions from senators about a list of chemicals fracking companies would use during the drilling process. Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, said DEP did not clearly answer questions about the mixture of chemicals that would be hidden by a trade secrets exemption in state public records law. "I don't think I've seen a better tap-dance than DEP on the issue of trade secrets," Latvala said. "Until I get comfortable on that issue I'm a 'no' on the bill." Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, said she was not convinced DEP would be able to protect the state. "I need to do what's right for Miami-Dade, and what's right for our environment and our children," said Flores. Richter said his bill would finally give DEP the authority to stop a company from fracking. The agency had struggled to stop Texas-based Dan H. Hughes Co. from drilling in December 2013 in eastern Collier County, the incident that prompted the bill. "DEP could not stop them," Richter said. "This bill would allow them to stop them." Richter's bill also includes a $1 million study conducted by DEP to determine how fracking will impact Florida's environment. The agency would use that study to create rules that would be approved by the Legislature. A moratorium on fracking would be put in place until the rules are adopted. Contact Daily News reporter arek.sarkissian@naplesnews.com or 850-559-7620 Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee. SHARE By Arek Sarkissian of the Naples Daily News TALLAHASSEE The House passed a plan Wednesday to assign government workers who are new enrollees in the Florida Retirement System to a 401k-style investment plan if the employees don't choose the traditional state pension after nine months on the job. The House voted 72-38 for HB 7107, sponsored by Rep. Matt Caldwell, R-Fort Myers. Current law governing FRS defaults new enrollees to the pension plan after six months on the job if they do not make the choice on their own. The bill, which could reduce the number of government workers on the state pension plan, also would allow relatives of first responders who die in the line of duty to collect long-term survivor benefits if the government worker is enrolled in the investment plan. Families of first responders who were enrolled in the FRS investment plan only get the amount they contributed before the enrollee died. Caldwell's bill will now head to the Senate, where it faces two bills that do not include language to default new enrollees into the 401k-style plan. The sponsor of SB 7012 and SB 7014, Sen. Jeremy Ring, R-Margate, said he opposes the language and will not add it to his bill. Ring believes defaulting new employees to the 401k-style investment plan would destabilize the $161 billion pension fund. "It's a problem and it's controversial," Ring said of the default plan. The FRS pension fund is currently 85 percent funded, which is considered healthy by the Florida State Board of Administration, which oversees its investments. Caldwell said his bill would stop the state from forcing uninformed employees into the pension plan, which requires eight years on the job before they can become eligible. Information provided by the Florida Department of Management Services shows the average state worker stays on the job for four years. "We're not going to punish them anymore by making the bad decision for them," Caldwell said. "This is the better choice for our folks who are choosing to stay on the job for a short time." The bill saw staunch opposition from House Democrats who doubted it would benefit FRS. Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel-Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, said the plan would only erode a benefit that complements low state worker pay. "All they want is a stable retirement when they get out," Rehwinkel-Vasilinda said, adding the FRS pension plan also encourages long-standing state employees to stay. "It's very good to have that institutional knowledge." State executive agency workers represent about 20 percent of the 600,000 people enrolled in the FRS pension plan. More than half of FRS enrollees are county school board employees. Other groups include employees of county governments, sheriff's offices and a sliver of cities. Only a small number of employees are enrolled into the FRS, 401k-style investment plan. Contact Daily News reporter arek.sarkissian@naplesnews.com or 850-559-7620 The national law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP announced that Kelly Lyon Davis, a partner in the firms Naples office, has received the prestigious AV Preeminent peer review rating from Martindale-Hubbell. Davis joins nearly 200 Quarles & Brady attorneys who have been AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell. Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings are designed to assess the legal ability and ethical standards of an attorney. The AV Preeminent rating represents a determination by Davis peers that she ranks at the highest level of professional excellence. Davis practices in the Labor and Employment Practice Group, providing advice and counsel to employers and representing employers in defense of workplace-related litigation. This includes litigating wage-and-hour collective actions, consulting with employers to implement appropriate strategies and policies for workplace compliance matters, advising employers as they establish new employment and independent contractor relationships, including drafting of restrictive covenants, and resolving a variety of disputes arising from employee separations. Davis has been listed in Florida Super Lawyers - Rising Stars (2009present), is President of the Collier County Womens Bar Association, and is on the Board of Trustees for St. Matthews House. In 2014, she was honored as one of Gulfshore Business magazines 40-Under-40 business professionals and, in 2015, she was named a Business Observer 40-Under-40 for the region from Tampa to Marco Island. Davis received her J.D. (magna cum laude, 2006) from the University of Florida Levin College of Law and her B.A. (highest distinction, with honors, 2000) from the Pennsylvania State University. The third and last concert of the Beaux Arts Chamber Music Series presented by Opera Naples will take place on March 8 at the Wang Opera Center, 2408 Linwood Ave. in Naples. The performance will feature the Grammy Award-winning Ying Quartet. As part of its O.N.E Community initiative, Opera Naples has invited orchestra students from Collier County high schools to attend the performance free of charge. The Beaux Arts Chamber Music Series takes place at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10-$35 and are available online at operanaples.org or by calling 239-963-9050. Founded by the internationally renowned pianists, Tao Lin and Dr. Catherine Lan, the Beaux Arts Chamber Music Series is gaining a reputation as a showcase of world-class musicianship. This last performance features the three Ying siblings. Janet Ying (violin), Philip Ying (viola), and David Ying (cello), have performed in major cities across the U.S., at numerous festivals and in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. They have also played in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall and The White House. In 2005, The Ying Quartet won a Grammy Award. In 2003, 2007 and 2010, they were also nominated for the award. Their album, The Ying Quartet play LifeMusic was named editor's choice by Gramophone magazine and was the first in a continuing series of LifeMusic commissions. Opera Naples is also offering Neapolitans and visitors from around the world the chance to purchase a spring music festival series to La Traviata at the Ritz-Carlton Tiburon, the Grammy-Award winning, Ying String Quartet and An Evening in the Palacio de Zarzuela at the Wang Opera Center. Purchase a ticket to La Traviata and one other production and get one free. Established in 2005, Opera Naples strives to enrich the Southwest Florida community by presenting opera performances in a variety of styles including traditional grand opera, American opera, operetta and contemporary works. The non-profit engages internationally renowned performers and directors while nurturing regional-based talent as well. In addition to their artistic performances, Opera Naples offers educational programs such as their Young Artist program, Student Apprentice program and Summer Childrens programs to foster a love of the arts among area youths. To purchase tickets for an upcoming performance or to learn more about Opera Naples, please call 239-963-9050 or visit operanaples.org. Clonmel Centenary Parade is the theme of this year's St. Patrick's Day Parade in the town. It was selected to commemorate the 1916 Rising and groups are encouraged to incorporate this theme into their entries. In this special year of commemoration I encourage as many voluntary groups and organisations as possible to participate in the St .Patricks Day Parade to showcase the vibrant community and civic spirit in Clonmel and across the district, Mayor Pat English said at the Town Hall on Tuesday when he officially launched the parade. Once again the staging area for the parade, which starts at 3pm on Thursday, March 17 is Cantwell Street, adjacent to Upper Irishtown. It will follow the same route through the town centre as in previous years. Plans are well underway and organisers hope it will be bigger and better than ever. To participate in the groups can enter online at www.clonmelchamber.com/parade2016. Updates are available on St. Patricks Day Parade Clonmel on Facebook. Speaking at last week's meeting of Clonmel Borough District Council, Mayor Pat English said that last year's parade was great. The more groups that got involved the better especially in this, the centenary year of the Easter Rising. District Administrator Michael O'Brien stated that dignitaries from three of Clonmel's twin towns - Eysines in France, Costa Masnaga in Italy and Trofaiach in Austria - would visit for St. Patrick's Day. Cllr. Andy Moloney regretted that it wasn't physically possible to get around to the three parades that were held in the district in Clonmel, Cahir and Ballyporeen. Mr. O'Brien said that the organising committees for each parade might sit down for next year and co-ordinate the timing of the parades so that they wouldn't overlap. Fannie Mae has sold a pool of about $13.2 million of nonperforming loans to New Jersey Community Capital. The transaction includes 53 loans, which are secured by properties in the Miami area, according to a Thursday news release. New Jersey Community Capital will acquire the loans through an affiliate, Community Loan Fund of New Jersey. The transaction is expected to close on April 21. "This sale was designed to give homeowners as many options as possible to avoid foreclosure," Joy Cianci, senior vice president of credit portfolio management at Fannie, said in the release. Bank of America Merrill Lynch and First Financial Network were financial advisers to Fannie Mae on the auction. Bhuj - Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam The tragic romance Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was a big success. Not only the star cast and story line but even the shooting locations made it a hit. Many scenes were shot in Rajasthan and Gujarat: Vijay Vilas Palace in Mandvi (Aishwarya Rai's house), Jaisalmer Fort, Bada Bagh, Bhuj (Albela Song). Other half of the film was shot in Italy. Ooty - Maine Pyar Kiya Salman Khan got a big break from the cult film Maine Pyar Kiya. Major shooting happened in Ooty. In the song Dil Deewana Bin Sajna Ke, you can easily notice Ooty lake and Ooty Gardens. Many other scenes were shot in a studio of Mumbai. The green hilly slopes add more beauty to the song, isn't it? Wai - Dabangg All other Salman Khan movies had given him a lover boy image but it was Dabangg which gave him a makeover. Audience just loved his style and dabangg attitude in the movie. Some scenes and songs of the film were shot in Wai and Satara. Most other parts were captured in United Arab Emirates and Dubai. The famous song 'Hud Dabangg Dabangg' was shot in Menavali Ghat in Wai. Even the village shown in the film is Wai. Coonoor - Hum Aapke Hai Kaun Madhuri Dixit and Salman Khan pairing in this movie is just awesome. They created magic at the box office. The major success of this film is also because of its songs. Even today those songs are fresh in our minds. Behind this success of the songs, the scenic locations of Coonoor and Ooty places have played a major role. Most songs were shot in Tamil Nadu's famous destinations. In the song "Yeh Mausam Ka Jadoo ", you can see the landscapes of Coonoor tea estates! Patiala - Bodygaurd Bodygaurd was another action oriented film of Salman Khan. His quirky attitude in the film gave more life to his character. Most of the shooting happened in India, Bardari Palace in Patiala is shown as Divya's house (Kareena). The song 'I Love You' is filmed in Symbiosis University, Pune and the climax scene is taken in Quila Mubarak Ruins in Patiala. Sonamarg - Bajarangi Bhaijaan Bajarangi Bhaijaan was a major hit at the box office. The Salman Khan and the kid Harshali Malhotra (Munni in the film) drew the audience. Another prominent aspect is that of the mind blowing shooting locations. The village of Shekhawati, Mandwa, Sonamarg, Thajwasi Glacier, etc. proved to be a major attracting point to the film. Jodhpur - Hum Saath Saath Hai The famous family drama, Hum Saath Saath Hai was a multi-starrer film. You can see Salman Khan in a lover boy image in this movie. Some parts of the movie were shot in Mumbai's studio and some were filmed in Rajasthan. The song 'Mhare Hiwade Mein Naache More' you can see Jodhpur's Mehrangarh Fort and Jaswant Thada. Many were set designes made in Mumbai's Film City. Lavasa City - Jai Ho Jai Ho was the remake of the Telugu Movie 'Stalin'. The film was not a major hit but it did moderately well. The song 'Baki Sab First Class Hai' was shot in Lavasa City, Pune. Many other locations were mainly from Romania and United Arab Emirates. Lucknow - Dabangg 2 Dabangg 2 is the second part in the Dabangg franchise. The movie was extensively shot in Lucknow, Kanpur and Satara. Dabangg 2 was not a smashing hit like Dabangg but it made decent collection at the box office. Goa - Khamoshi The Musical Khamoshi - The Musical was the directorial debut of Sanjay Leela Bansali. It grabbed the audience through its melodious songs. In the film, the story is about the Goan family and the entire movie is said to be shot in Goa. The clips of amazing coastal area, typical Goan house (Monisha Koirala's house in the film), etc. show a rustic charm. We have just agreed the modalities of NATOs support in responding to the refugee and migrant crisis. NATO Defence Ministers took a swift decision two weeks ago to respond to the proposals by Germany, Greece and Turkey. Since then, intense work has been underway. We will participate in international efforts to cut the lines of illegal trafficking and illegal migration in the Aegean Sea. Because this crisis affects us all. And we all have to find solutions. NATOs Standing Maritime Group 2 arrived in the Aegean Sea within 48 hours of the Ministers decision. It is conducting reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance activities. Our ships will be providing information to the coastguards and other national authorities of Greece and Turkey. This will help them carry out their duties even more effectively to deal with the illegal trafficking networks. We are also establishing direct links with Frontex, the European Unions border agency. We will conduct our activities in the Aegean Sea. Our commanders will decide the area where they will be operating, in coordination with Greece and Turkey. NATO vessels can deploy in the territorial waters of Greece and Turkey. Greek and Turkish forces will not operate in each others territorial waters and airspace. NATOs task is not to turn back the boats. We will provide critical information. To enable the Greek and Turkish coastguards, as well as Frontex, to do their job even more effectively. Our added value is that we can facilitate closer cooperation and assist in greater exchange of information between Greece and Turkey, as both are NATO Allies, but only Greece is in the EU. Todays agreement also means that we are working closer with the EU than ever before. So NATO has a unique role to play as a platform for cooperation. Let me also address the issue of Search and Rescue. The obligation to help people in distress at sea is a general, universal responsibility. It applies to all vessels. Regardless of whether they are part of a NATO or national mission. If Allied vessels encounter people in distress at sea, they have to live up to their national responsibility to assist. In case of rescue of persons coming via Turkey, they will be taken back to Turkey. In carrying out their tasks, our nations will abide by national and international law. The refugee and migrant crisis is a humanitarian tragedy. This is a complex challenge. And it requires all of us to work together to find solutions. NATO is playing its part. (NaturalNews) A new investigation by The Associated Press (AP) turned up dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals and elite SS guards who collected millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in Social Security benefits after they were forced to leave the country.According to the AP, the payments filtered through a legal loophole that provided leverage to the U.S. State Department to convince Nazi suspects to leave the United States. If they agreed, or merely fled the country before being deported, there were permitted to keep their Social Security, government records and interviews with key figures showed.The AP reported further:And, the investigation found, there are at least four living beneficiaries still collecting payments. Two of them have been identified as Martin Hartmann, a former SS guard at the Sachsenhausen camp in Germany; and Jakob Denzinger, who walked the grounds at the infamous Auschwitz death camp complex in Poland.In 2007 Hartmann moved from Arizona to Berlin just before he lost his U.S. citizenship. Years earlier, in 1989, Denzinger fled to Germany form Ohio after he found out that denaturalization proceedings were underway against him.Soon after, Denzinger settled in Croatia; he now resides in a "spacious apartment on the right bank of the Drava River in Osijek," the AP reported, adding that he refused to discuss his case when approached by an AP reporter.However, his son, who still lives in the U.S., confirmed that his father was indeed still receiving Social Security payments , insisting that he deserved them.The loophole gave the Justice Department's one-time Nazi-hunting division -- the Office of Special Investigations -- authority to bypass long deportation hearings, as it boosted the number of Nazis being told to leave the U.S.:"It's absolutely outrageous that Nazi war criminals are continuing to receive Social Security benefits when they have been outlawed from our country for many, many, many years," Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., a senior minority member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told the AP, adding that she will introduce a bill to close the legal loophole.According to the AP's analysis, at least 38 of 66 Nazi suspects removed from the U.S. since 1979 were allowed to keep their benefits.Almost 20 years ago, in 1997, the Social Security Administration voiced displeasure of the use of benefits to pay Nazi suspects; in addition, criticism of the policy reached a number of foreign capitals.The AP noted:He continued to receive Social Security benefits until his death in 1989."It was not upfront, it was not transparent, it was not a legitimate process," James Hergen, an assistant legal adviser at the State Department from 1982 until 2007, told the newswire service. "This was not the way America should behave. We should not be dumping our refuse, for lack of a better word, on friendly states."Eventually, the practice that became known as "Nazi dumping" ended, but the benefits loophole continued. The synergistic autism "spectrum" unveiled Bisphenol A in bottled water, canned foods and more Why Organic Sulfur is So Powerful Benefits of Organic Sulfur OS is not a drug or prescription medicine; it's a nutrient. OS increases enzyme production, substantially increasing immunity. OS increases increases blood circulation (lowers high blood pressure). OS reduces muscle inflammation and promotes muscle healing. Athletes use OS for quick recovery. OS eliminates free radicals. OS is anticancer, because it oxygenates the cells and tissues, creating an aerobic environment where cancer cells cannot exist. OS studies have shown the reversal of osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. (NaturalNews) Could sulfur be the key to saving autistic children from the toxic tragedy that's been besieged upon them? Could organic sulfur crystals actually REVERSE autism? This is to be carefully considered now. Sulfate deficiency has been specifically identified in the cerebral spinal fluid of autistic children and is a KEY feature of autism. Why? The sulfate aids in, and the pineal gland supplies the sulfate. Dr. Stephanie Seneff described the health tragedy live on talk radio recently. She says that if a human being doesn't have enough sulfate (sulfur plus oxygen), he or she can't make new neurons. Plus, the body can't "take out the garbage" -- meaning break down cell "debris" and basically detoxify.These are just a few examples of what is going wrong in the brains of children who are loaded up with Roundup food (glyphosate-laden GMOs), aluminum-laden vaccines and flu shots, and plastic chemicals in bottled water and canned goods. Human organs are also "sacrificing themselves for the greater good" to save the body from all these toxins. This all boils back to insufficient sulfate in the blood, according to Dr. Seneff. The solution is toand help them do that "extra" job that they were designed to do. We're over-taxing the lungs and the liver too, with all these chemicals like aluminum and glyphosate.Common toxins found in food, vaccines and plastics are working synergistically to cause autism. Glyphosate incrops (corn and soy) and in water runoff suffocates sulfate in the body. So does fluorine and chlorine in water. So what's happening inside your body when you consume GM food? You're destroying the mechanism that creates sulfate in the blood. The lungs can't do their job anymore.Top scientists for Biotechnology know this and communicate this to Big Food and Big Pharma as part of a money-making scheme, beyond just trying to increase yield or profits in the crop fields.Remember that 90% of corn, soy, canola and cottonseed oil is GMO. What foods do you eat regularly that contain glyphosate weedkiller and other bug- and human-killing pesticides? No wonder cancer is such an epidemic in America. What toxins are Americans injecting in their bodies that CAUSE autism? Listen to a CDC expert blow the whistle! Did you know that there are alarmingly high amounts of aluminum in vaccines, antacids, antiperspirants and food imported from China? Do you or your child have asthma, emphysema, autism spectrum, Asperger's or respiratory "disorders"? Maybe you just get panic attacks or get confused easily. You too could be suffering a sulfur deficiency, or deficiency in certain organic vitamins and minerals.This is not just some "magic bullet." You must rid your body of toxins. Bisphenol A (BPA) can cause birth defects and ruin fertility. Water bottles that get heated up in your car, or in the delivery trucks, or that have been sitting on store shelves for months, can contain toxic water that's doing the exact opposite of what you thought to your body. Should your first and foremost supplement be sulfur -- washed down with actual spring water that doesn't contain glyphosate or BPA? Consider this thoroughly. Also consider whatreally means. GMO means giant celery with no nutrition. It looks like you're buying a lot but you got nothing. The vegetables are watered with fluoridated water too, so you're eating chemical food grown in chemical water. How will the children heal that have been vaccinated and indoctrinated into this Western medicine and genetically modified (mutated)of a regime? Is this a form of population control?means "glyphosate-cancer-food" for the masses and the "starving countries" around the world. Read the ingredients list of everything you buy and stay an informed consumer. The radio showout of Honolulu is international. Listen to the January 17, 2015, podcast available for free. It's titled: "The glyphosate link to autism and most diseases in general." Organic sulfur (OS) has a cleansing or "detoxifying" effect on the cells within the body and allows the body to remove toxins that have accumulated in all types of cells, including fat cells. OS is used to repair cells which have been damaged, as well as to promote the growth of healthy new cells by allowing the cells to transport oxygen more effectively. ORGANIC SULFUR also makes cell walls more permeable and thus able to allow more nutrients in and allow waste materials to pass out of the cells. Unfortunately, the grand ol' USA has been causing industrial agriculture "mayhem" for a few generations now, ruining the organic sulfur content. With the introduction of the petrochemical fertilizers, which were created to replace manure as fertilizer and to create a cash "crop" for the petrochemical industry, the sulfur in the soil was virtually destroyed. Like sulfur, the cell membrane is another blind spot in medicine. Western Medicine completely depends upon synthetic chemicals to treat symptoms.This is highly valuable information for adults and kids alike. Blog talk radio is really taking off, and natural health enthusiasts know where to turn for the most concise, relevant and current information on Alternative Media -- the truth media, heard 'round the world! Click here to listen to the show:And just where do you find organic sulfur Where do you find natural remedies for just about everything ? Another great question! 'Soviet-style' health care (NaturalNews) Great Britain's socialized health care system has been responsible for more than 1,100 serious medical mistakes in the past four years, according to a recent article published byPatients of the National Health Service (NHS) have become victims of hundreds of "never events" medical mistakes so egregious that they should never happen in any hospital. These never events include such horror stories as a man whose testicle was mistakenly removed instead of a cyst, and a woman who had one of her kidneys removed instead of an ovary.From"The 'never events' also include a woman having her fallopian tubes removed instead of her appendix, the wrong hips, legs, eyes and knees being operated on, and diabetic patients not being given insulin."More than 400 people have suffered due to 'wrong site surgery', while more than 420 have also had "foreign objects" left inside them after operations - including gauzes, swabs, drill guides, scalpel blades and needles. ..."One patient had a biopsy taken from their liver instead of their pancreas."Other patients have suffered when feeding tubes which are meant to be fed into their stomach have been put into their lung instead. This can prove fatal."The list of SNAFUs goes on to include patient mix-ups, overdoses of dangerous drugs , installation of the wrong implants or joint replacements, escapes of prisoners who were being treated (presumably they are among the lucky ones, considering the NHS track record), and patients receiving the wrong blood type during transfusions.The NHS has tried to downplay the seriousness of the problem, with one spokeswoman saying:"One never event is too many and we mustn't underestimate the effect on the patients concerned. However there are 4.6 million hospital admissions that lead to surgical care each year and, despite stringent measures put in place, on rare occasions these incidents do occur."Statistically rare as these incidents may be, there are obviously some major problems with the system particularly at certain facilities, such as Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, where nine "never events" were reported between April and December of 2015.At least one British politician has blamed the country's socialized health care system as being at the root of the problem.As reported byLord Carter was commissioned by British health secretary Jeremy Hunt last year to investigate the state of the NHS . In his report, which was published earlier this month, the Labour Peer concluded that the system needs an overhaul to cut spiraling costs and rampant inefficiency.Responding to claims that cutting costs could "endanger patient safety," Lord Carter wrote, "My experience of the best of the NHS and other health care systems internationally shows that the provision of high quality clinical care and good resource management go hand-in-hand."In other words, socialized medicine systems which aim to provide free or "affordable" health care to citizens, are often subject to bad management and the waste of resources, resulting in poor health care that actually costs more in the long run than a medical industry guided by free market principles. Ebola migrated to her brain Up to half of survivors suffer ongoing health problems (NaturalNews) A British Ebola survivor has been admitted to the hospital for the third time, following the discovery that the virus had been hiding out in her brain for months.Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey, 39, was rushed to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital when routine monitoring uncovered lingering health complications from Ebola. From there, the Royal Air Force airlifted her to the Royal Free Hospital in London, the only hospital in the United Kingdom with a high-level isolation ward for highly infectious patients. It is the third time Cafferkey has been treated at that isolation ward.The Ebola outbreak in western Africa, that began in March 2014 , infected almost 29,000 people and killed more than 11,000 in Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the United States. The outbreak did not end until January 13 of this year, when the World Health Organization declared the last of the affected countries, Liberia, free of the disease.Cafferkey contracted Ebola in December 2014 while working at a Save the Children treatment center in Kerry Town, Sierra Leone. According to Save the Children, she contracted the disease due to a failure to wear protective goggles, opting instead for a face visor. Cafferkey said that the goggles available did not fit her.After she returned home, she began feeling ill, with a high fever. She was diagnosed with Ebola and taken to the Royal Free Hospital. She spent about a month on the isolation ward there, at times in critical condition.In late January 2015, she was discharged. But in October she developed meningitis, which was later found to be caused by the Ebola virus lingering in her brain tissue. She was once again rushed to the Royal Free Hospital and placed in isolation. She again fell into a critical condition and was treated with an experimental drug. In November, she was transferred back to a hospital in Scotland, and eventually allowed to return home."Hopefully this is it - that's the end of it," she said at the time.Unfortunately, that was not the end of it. But fortunately, this time the lingering meningitis was discovered early, and she is in a stable condition."'We can confirm that Pauline Cafferkey is being transferred to the Royal Free Hospital due to a late complication from her previous infection by the Ebola virus," a hospital spokesperson said."She will now be treated by the hospital's infectious diseases team under nationally agreed guidelines."The Ebola virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person while they are symptomatic so the risk to the general public remains low."While it was previously known that Ebola could hide out in bodily tissues for months after recovery, Cafferkey's recurrent problems underline just how poorly understood the virus remains."It is very sad to hear that Ms Cafferkey has once again been admitted to hospital," said Dr. Derek Gatherer, from Lancaster University. "It is now becoming clear that Ebola is a far more complex disease than we previously imagined."Gatherer warned that as many as 50 percent of Ebola survivors will have lingering health problems for an unknown length of time."The meningitis that Ms Cafferkey suffered from at the end of last year is one of the most serious complications of all, as it can be life-threatening," he said. "She was unlucky enough to be one of only a handful of patients in whom it has been seen."Up to half of Ebola survivors will have some or several of this milder range of symptoms. Although not life-threatening, these can be problematic, especially in societies like west Africa where a large number of people make their living from agricultural labour," Dr. Gatherer told the U.K.'s A medical doctor on a mission to save lives The medical community places greater value on drug profits over saving lives with natural protocols Remarkable results from a natural protocol for eliminating cancer The pharmaceutical industry has created a brilliant way to control the intelligence of most doctors (NaturalNews) Few people outside of the scientific community have even heard of it. Yet, the unique antioxidant alpha lipoic acid has established a proven history of regenerating organ tissue plus eliminating some of the deadliest of cancers, including cancerous cells found in the liver and pancreas.. On the next NaturalNews Talk Hour, Jonathan Landsman will feature Dr. Burt Berkson, M.D., Ph.D. who has been successfully curing patients of so-called 'terminal' conditions for years. Find out how using alpha lipoic acid therapy can help you restore healthy liver function and rid the body of life-threatening diseases. visit http://www.naturalhealth365.com/free-shows and enter your email address for show details.In the 1970s, Dr. Berkson started his work with terminal liver disease patients, but later helped people with a variety of life-threatening diseases and conditions. So,Since the time he cured his first two patients, Dr. Berkson has generated little fanfare for his breakthrough treatments. Of course, we can thank the established United States medical community, and a profit-driven drug industry, unwilling and unreceptive to low-cost treatments that sway from established, standard high-cost procedures.You'd be surprised to hear what Dr. Berkson has been told (to his face) about his natural approach toward practicing medicine. One doctor even told him to 'shut up' and just 'quietly do his research' because the money they make is focused on liver transplants, NOT making people healthy. (I guess that's bad for business)On the next NaturalNews Talk Hour, Jonathan Landsman will be talking with Dr. Burt Berkson , M.D., Ph.D., published author and expert consultant to the Centers for Disease Control on alpha lipoic acid and liver poisoning, and the miraculous results he has seen from alpha lipoic acid therapy. He will also be sharing his views on the medical establishment that continues to give alternative treatments the cold shoulder. visit http://www.naturalhealth365.com/free-shows and enter your email address for show details + FREE gifts!Imagine being told you had late stage liver or pancreatic cancer, and that it had metastasized. Your medical provider has given you only a couple of months to live. But then, in your desperate search to preserve your life, you come across an alternative treatment using alpha lipoic acid.You undergo the treatments and your cancer is eliminated, restoring your health. So, why was the treatment not offered as an option to you through your regular provider or oncologist?Since curing two patients dying of liver poisoning as a young resident in internal medicine at a teaching hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Berkson has experienced a cold reception to his use of alpha lipoic acid treatments for liver disease , cancer and other illnesses. Yet, he has published incredible results in scientific medical journals throughout Europe. Like the paper he published in the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies about a woman with pancreatic cancer that had metastasize to her liver.This woman had been given no hope for survival. After first seeing her in December, Dr. Berkson began treating her. By May, the tumors in her pancreas had disappeared and the spread to her liver had vanished.Another example: A man in his 40s, who walked into Dr. Berkson's office after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer - which also had metastasized to his liver. Within three months of treatment through Dr. Berkson, the man was able to go back to work.. Dr. Berkson published the case in a 2007 issue of Integrative Cancer Therapies.Despite these incredible results, and many more like them, Dr. Berkson's work with alpha lipoic acid has failed to gain widespread acceptance by the established medical community. The answer, Dr. Berkson believes, lies in the unwillingness of conventional medicine to consider options outside what are considered to be "standards of treatment." He even relates how egotistical attitudes about accepting new ideas and the learning process can play into reception to alternative treatments within conventional medicine - a phenomenon mostly limited to the U.S. healthcare industry.Scientific journals in the U.S. have also shown little interest in natural healing protocols, likely driven by pharmaceutical companies ignoring alpha lipoic acid research because there are no big profits to be had. Without the backing of big pharma, scientific journals know there is little hope for added revenue from drug company advertising.Dr. Berkson points out that pharmaceutical companies are driven by large profits. A low-cost, natural treatment like alpha lipoic acid is not going to garner attention from big pharma because there are not big profits to be made, making it unappealing to bring to the marketplace.. Discover how alpha lipoic acid can spur organ tissue regeneration and eliminate the threat of cancer. This program will inspire you like nothing you've ever heard before. Join us for a great show!Dr. Berkson has both an M.D. degree and a Ph.D., the latter in microbiology. He serves as the expert consultant on alpha lipoic acid and liver poisoning for the Centers for Disease Control. He has published scientific papers in medical journals throughout Europe, and is a prominent scientific writer, researcher, and sought-after speaker.Dr. Berkson is the author of several books, including The Alpha Lipoic Acid Breakthrough. He is also the former principal FDA investigator for the intravenous use of alpha lipoic acid, a post he held for 23 years. Dr. Berkson practices nutritional and integrative medicine in Las Cruces, N.M., where he sees patients from around the globe. He has worked as a researcher and professor at several institutions, including the Max Planck Institute, the University of Illinois and Rutgers University. He is also an adjunct professor at New Mexico State University and Oklahoma State University College of Medicine. visit http://www.naturalhealth365.com/free-shows and enter your email address for show details + FREE gifts! Monterey County ag official declares GM corn safe because, well, it just is (NaturalNews) Absent even a shred of science-based evidence showing it to be safe, a new variety of genetically modified (GM) pharmaceutical "corn" awaits its planting somewhere in Central California, where authorities have agreed to allow a San Luis Obispo-based biotechnology company to grow it in the open air without any safety testing.A clear act of ecoterrorism against the local agriculture system, the Applied Biotechnology Institute's (ABI) expected planting of GM corn near Lockwood has generated a chorus of outrage within the local community. Like every other GMO in existence, ABI's GM corn, which produces an enzyme known as trypsin that is found naturally in animals, has the potential to contaminate nearby crops and unleash an agricultural apocalypse.There is so much opposition to the crop that ABI has decided to plant it in secret at an undisclosed location, where those with enough bravery to uproot or otherwise destroy it won't have the chance. And the county's agricultural advisory committee sees nothing wrong with the effort, which it speciously likens to growing natural corn.According to the obviously pro-GMO(MCW), John Howard, president of ABI, plans to grow the GM corn for the purpose of harvesting the synthetic trypsin and turning it into a product known as "TrypZean." TrypZean will supposedly replace the natural trypsin added to vaccines, insulin and various other modalities of pharmaceutical quackery."TrypZean is meant to be a plant-based substitute for trypsin," explains MCW.Though ABI has spent some 20 years developing the plant, it has yet to be pored over with a fine-toothed comb to look for any possible threats to other organisms. Instead, Monterey County Assistant Agricultural Commissioner Bob Roach simply declared it to be, based on the fact that corn pollen in general "doesn't travel very far.""There are no wild plants that could be cross-pollinated by corn, and no one's growing any corn around here," stated Roach to MCW. "This project is well suited to be the first commercial planting of a bio-engineered plant in Monterey County. There's very little risk of any kind of harm. It's a non-food crop that's producing a valuable substance."Roach's simplistic dismissal of any potential safety threats glosses over the fact that pollen can still be carried by bees, butterflies and pollinators to other fields, sometimes at relatively large distances. And the Lockwood area just happens to be both rural and agricultural, which means other food crops are, indeed, threatened by GM corn plantings.In a piece published bylate last year, the topic of pollen travel from GMO fields was discussed at length, revealing that the unpredictability of nature can facilitate pollen movement at great distances. A thunderstorm can generate large updrafts that carry pollen hundreds of miles away, stated one grain farmer, noting that he is routinely informed of pollen traveling several miles from the field."Expecting corn DNA to stop hustling around the gene pool once it's been genetically engineered makes as much sense as expecting teenagers to become celibate once they get smartphones," wrote Nathanael Johnson.With this in mind, the prospect of just throwing a bunch of untested corn kernels down smack-dab in the middle of California's Central Valley, the bread basket of America, is absolutely insane. And yet this is exactly what will happen in the very-soon future if the People don't figure out a way to stop it."I am alarmed and very concerned that all it takes to grow a GMO crop in Monterey County is a permit from the county's Ag Commissioner's office," wrote one MCW commenter. The case focused in part on how lower court judges have interpreted a 2013 Supreme Court decision that made it harder for plaintiffs to sue corporations in U.S. courts for abuses alleged to have occurred overseas. SCOTUS draws the line at child slavery Very few are aware of the problem (NaturalNews) The nation's highest federal court in recent days threw out a request by chocolate giant Nestle SA, the world's largest food maker, and a pair of other companies to reject a lawsuit that seeks to hold all three companies liable for using child slaves to harvest cacao in the African nation of Ivory Coast.In rejecting the bid, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a December 2014 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that also refused to dismiss the suit against Nestle, Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Cargill Inc. that had been filed by former child slaves.Originally from neighboring Mali in West Africa, the plaintiffs alleged that all three companies aided and abetted in serial human rights violations via their active, regular involvement in buying cocoa from Ivory Coast, knowing the problem existed. Though the companies were aware of the child slavery issue, they nevertheless offered financial and technical assistance to local cacao farmers to ensure that they would get the guaranteed cheapest source of cocoa, according to the plaintiffs.As reported further by Reuters:In the 2013 ruling of, the high court unanimously tossed a lawsuit filed by a dozen people from Nigeria, accusing the British and Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell Plc of aiding and abetting state-sponsored murder and torture.The justices ruled that the law under which the case was brought, the 1789 Alien Tort Statute, was to cover only violations of international law that occurred within the United States, despite that law previously being used against individuals who committed crimes outside the U.S.Violations elsewhere in the world, according to Chief Justice John Roberts, in writing for the court, must "touch and concern" U.S. territory "with sufficient force to displace the presumption" that U.S. law can only be applied domestically, despite the fact that the case concerned international legal conventions and human rights violations.Additional American firms facing similar types of lawsuits have been very successful in fighting off such cases merely by citing that ruling, though judges have sometimes differed in the interpretation of the nearly 230-year-old law."In the Nestle case, the appeals court said the plaintiffs could update their lawsuit to see if they could meet the higher burden required under the Supreme Court ruling," Reuters reported. "Several business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, urged the court to hear the case."As noted by, the Supreme Court appears to be drawing a line regarding child slavery."Almost always in the corner, if not the vest pocket, of big business, the court on Monday rejected a bid by Nestle and other food giants Cargill and Archer-Daniels-Midland to dismiss a suit brought by plaintiffs from Mali who had been child slaves in Ivory Coast, where their labor was used to harvest the cacao beans used to make chocolate," the site reported.The site further notes that Ivory Coast's two biggest exports are cocoa and coffee, adding that coffee bushes are often "grown in the shade" of cacao trees. Children from nearby impoverished countries are lured by Ivory Coast farmers to work the cacao and coffee bean groves with false promises of good pay that can be sent back home to relatives."Ivory Coast slave owners draw their victims from the impoverished countries of Mali and Birkina Faso. The slaves are boys who, like all slaves, are immediately 'broken'broken physically and mentallyto make them docile. Boys who are rebellious or are caught trying to escape tend to disappear," the site reported.Very few consumers around the world of cocoa and coffee products, however, are aware of the child slavery problem, the site said. There is a big disconnect between the natural products industry and the naturopathic medicine profession, and if we can fix that, the impact could be huge. This is the primary reason I joined the board of trustees at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine just over one year ago. At SCNM, we have hundreds of students who will be tomorrows naturopathic doctors. We also have an incredible Naturopathic Medical Center and Pain Relief Center as well as nine local clinics through our nonprofit SCNM Sage Foundation that offer free health care to those most in need (women and children in domestic violence shelters, and children and families in low income areas). The work is having a big impact on public health Phoenix, and I wonder how big that impact would be if we could scale this nationally. We also have a research department that is studying botanicals, their benefits, and their modes of action in unique ways that I believe will result in some game changing knowledge for the botanical products market. The obvious reasons we need to connect these two communities include: Naturopathic doctors see patients (the people we call consumers) every day and recommend products that our industry provides. Naturopathic doctors are strong advocates for the lifestyles and principles that expand the base of natural product consumers. Naturopathic doctors have the knowledge and training to apply these products to help their patients benefit. But, there is also the not so obvious reason: Graduates of SCNM would make exceptional employees for many companies in our market. In December 2015, I gave a presentation at the college to about 50 students and faculty on the topic of Career Paths for NDs in the Health & Nutrition Industry." A good number of students are passionate about natural health, but do not necessarily want to go into private practice. What do they want to do? You name it. I met incredibly smart, motivated students who were interested in research, formulation, marketing, communications and yes, even sales. Think about this: In addition to formal training as an N.D. with all of that classroom/academic knowledge, each of these doctors also has many hours of actual clinical experience with patients. They have listened to them, examined them, diagnosed them, created treatment plans and monitored them, and all of this was focused on the patient outcome. Would someone like this have a unique value in your company? Let me give you some specific ideas on that: Marketing/Communications: An N.D. with all of this direct experience with patients (consumers) would be well prepared to help you take complex scientific information and communicate in an uncomplicated way, since they do this every day. An N.D. with all of this direct experience with patients (consumers) would be well prepared to help you take complex scientific information and communicate in an uncomplicated way, since they do this every day. Sales : An N.D. could apply his or her knowledge, experience and credibility to differentiate your science/products/value at the point of your customers (and make the sale) : An N.D. could apply his or her knowledge, experience and credibility to differentiate your science/products/value at the point of your customers (and make the sale) Formulation: An N.D. would be able to combine his or her academic knowledge of these ingredients with the actual clinical/patient experiences to create unique and beneficial products. Barriers to this Connection During my presentation and after, I had a lot of discussion with these students and faculty. I learned they have concerns about our industry. They asked about quality problems, trustworthiness, product safety and more. The tone of their questions and comments seemed to largely reflect what we often hear and read in the mainstream press; you know, the bad news about the bad companies making the bad products. I spent a good deal of time explaining that even with these problems, many incredible companies produce high-quality, science-based products with real value. I shared some ways for them to evaluate companies to try to figure out which is which. I also thanked them for their skepticism as it is a key tool that will help them ensure the best for their patients (our consumers). Bottom line is that they just dont know us well enough, nor do we know them well enough. For next steps, I am helping to organize some tours of manufacturing facilities here in the Phoenix area so that students and faculty can see firsthand how products are made. I think this will help them see the reality beyond the scary stories they hear from the media. And after that, we plan to have a job fair so that companies can meet those student about to complete their N.D. programs who are interested in one of the career paths I mentioned above. During Expo West in a couple of weeks, I will be spending some time with Dr. Paul Mittman, the president of SCNM, and Dr. Jeffrey Langland, chair of our research department at the college. If you would like to meet them in person, just drop me a line at [email protected], and I will help to set it up. And if you find yourself in the Phoenix area anytime, I will be happy give you a tour of the college. Together, I believe we can make an incredible difference that benefits the natural products industry, the naturopathic profession and most importantly the patients/consumers we serve. Maybe sharks aren't the loners of the ocean after all. At least, the apex predators of the seas may have a fairly complex social structure. A new study is presenting findings on this at the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting, in New Orleans. In the study, researchers used tracking devices to follow the trails of individual sharks in the open ocean, learning that Sand Tiger sharks, Carcharias taurus, form the type of social interactions frequently seen among mammals but rarely noted in fish. "Higher-order decision-making processes are often associated with mammals, or species that we think of as really smart -- dolphins, elephants, or chimpanzees," Danielle Haulsee, a candidate for a PhD in oceanography at the University of Delaware Lewes, in a release. "Our research shows that it is important for the scientific community to not rule out these types of behaviors in non-mammalian species, as behavior can often give us insight on how species interact with their ecosystems and how resources that humans depend on are distributed around the world." Sand Tiger sharks live off the U.S. East Coast and one of their nurseries was recently found off Long Island, New York. But the species has experienced population declines over recent decades. The research team tracked more than 300 individual Sand Tiger sharks in Delaware Bay over one year. This is the first study to follow free-swimming sharks in the ocean or a bay (rather than in a lab or tank) for such a long period, Haulsee noted in the release. Two of those sharks had encounters with nearly 200 fellow Sand Tigers, along with individuals from other shark species. The sharks seem to group for certain times of the year and head off alone at other times. They also re-encounter familiar sharks in the course of a year. In the late winter and early spring, the sharks seemed to encounter very few other Sand Tigers. This might be because the sharks are occupied with mating and food searches at that time. The balance of time on and time off with other sharks could be explained like this, thinks Haulsee: "If you're living with a group, there could be some kind of protection or information sharing that comes with being in that group," she said. "But if there's a lot of competition for food resources or mating resources, then it's not beneficial anymore to be in a group, and you might swim away from your group and go off on your own." For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN). -Follow Catherine on Twitter @TreesWhales Joining the only complete collection of presidential portraits outside of the White House, a painting of Kevin Spacey as "House of Cards" president Frank Underwood was unveiled at the Smithsonians National Portrait Gallery Monday night. The portrait is a collaboration between British artist Jonathan Yeo and the D.C. museum. Yeo, regarded as one of the preeminent portrait artists of his generation, has painted British Prime Minister David Cameron, actors Dennis Hopper and Nicole Kidman, and activist Malala Yousafzai, among others. When the Smithsonian asked Yeo to contribute a portrait of Spacey to their collection, the artist visited the set of Netflix's "House of Cards" and was inspired by the impact of the show and Underwoods character on popular culture. Yeo and Spacey, supported by the museums curators, decided that the subject should be President Underwood seated at the Oval Office desk, according to a Netflix release. "When the Smithsonians Portrait Gallery first approached Jonathan and me about a portrait of me -- the actor -- I wanted to see if Jonathan could unveil a fully rendered presidential portrait," Spacey said in a release. "It is a real honor to be exhibited at the Smithsonian and a thrill to see Frank take his place among the presidents in this historic setting." The portrait unveiling comes as the Emmy-nominated show is about to launch its fourth season March 4. "It is a great honor to see one of our most renowned series' characters immortalized in the National Portrait Gallery, alongside such esteemed presidential portraits," Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said in a release. "We have watched as the character of Frank Underwood has taken hold in popular culture and this wonderful portrait by Jonathan Yeo is a fine testament to the impact of the character that Kevin Spacey has created." The portrait will hang on public display at the National Portrait Gallery starting Wednesday, through October. Hayward police said Wednesday that a man accused of killing a young San Jose mother, who went missing Feb. 14, is behind bars. The suspect was identified as 23-year-old Esmid Valentine Pedraza,. The resident of unincorporated Hayward has been charged with homicide in connection with the death of Stacey Xanthe Aguilar, according to a news statement. Police said Aguilar's body was found riddled with gunshot wounds at 12 p.m. Saturday in a rural part of Fremont. They believe the 22-year-old was gunned down in Hayward and her lifeless body was dumped off Morrison Canyon Road. Aguilar's boyfriend was taken into custody Feb. 16 on a domestic violence charge related to the victim, police said Monday. They would not specify, however, whether he was suspected of killing Aguilar. As of Wednesday, police had not confirmed whether Pedraza and Aguilar were dating. However, after hearing about Pedraza's arrest, Aguilar's sister confirmed to NBC Bay Area's sister station Telemundo 48 that the pair were in a relationship. "Aguilars murder investigation is still ongoing, so further information about Pedrazas arrest will not be released until the investigation is formally reviewed by the Alameda County District Attorneys Office," police said in a statement. Aguilar's official cause of death remains under investigation and the Alameda County Coroner's Bureau is performing an autopsy, according to police. A person of interest is in custody after Hayward police found the body of a San Jose woman, who was last seen leaving a party Feb. 14, riddled with gunshot wounds. Marianne Favro reports. The victim's mother said Monday that she believed her daughter was in an abusive relationship, and had begged her to return to Mexico. Speaking by phone, Marisol Aguilar did not name the boyfriend but told Telemundo reporters in Spanish: "I didn't know. I didn't know anything. I didn't know he beat her. No one told me. No one told me anything." Stacey Aguilar's 7-year-old son lives with his grandmother who was deported to Mexico. "I want all of this to end," a distraught Marisol Aguilar said. "I want my daughter's ashes to be brought to me." The victim's mother is now trying to obtain a humanitarian visa to the United States so she can return to Mexico with her child's body. Aguilar, who worked as a waitress in the San Jose area, was last seen at a party in Hayward around 1 a.m. Feb. 14, police said. Her family reported her missing the next day. According to a resident of the East Bay house where the party was held, Aguilar was among the attendees. The woman did not want to be identified, and said she did not know the victim personally, but knew her boyfriend who brought her to the party. The woman also said the pair left together. Hayward police said Sunday that they have found the body of a San Jose woman who went missing last weekend, whose parents say she was in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend. Marisol Aguilar did not name the boyfriend by name but told NBC sister station Telemundo in Spanish: I didnt know. I didnt know anything. I didnt know he... After months of controversy in Flint, Michigan over lead-tainted drinking water, safety concerns are now being raised in some Bay Area Schools. Sonoma County Superintendent Steve Herrington wrote to 40 district superintendents Wednesday, recommending schools built before 1989 look into testing their drinking water if it becomes cloudy or has a bad odor. His notice said: "One of our county school districts recently discovered it had lead leaching from the joints of some of its water pipes. This can be an issue in some schools built before 1989. Until that point, lead was still allowed to be used to join pipes together." This move comes after a Healdsburg Elementary School staffer spotted rust in the water in November. School officials say they immediately shut down drinking water sources and brought in bottled water. They received test results in January and notified parents Monday via email of "increased levels of turbidity (cloudiness), manganese, iron and lead." Healdsburg Elementary brought in industrial hygienists, who tested 13 drinking water sources. Three all drinking fountains came back with lead levels above federal standards of 15 parts per billion (ppb). The highest level sampled at Healdsburg Elementary was almost 60 times that, at 880 ppb, found at a drinking fountain next to where students gather for recess. Though, this is not nearly as high as levels found in Flint, Michigan, at 13,000 ppb. "Thats a whole different thing," Healdsburg Unified School District Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel said. "The officials [in Flint] knew about a problem and didnt address it. We found out there may be a concern, didnt even know if we had a problem, and we turned the water off and got clean water for our kids." Since the cloudy water was first reported three months ago, the schools fountains have been shut off and replaced with bottled water stations. Vanden Heuvel says the likely culprits are old pipes, solder and fixtures, as Healdsburg Elementarys main building is more than 80 years old. Though some parents wish school officials would have notified them when the problem arose in November, they say they are relieved to know the school is taking actions. "I was like, 'OK, thats not good. I hope my kid didnt drink the water,' but I feel theyre taking the proper steps in order to ensure students safety," said parent Ani Hansen, who has two children who attend Healdsburg Elementary. Meanwhile, Haley Kanderians daughter now goes to another campus in Healdsburg, but asked her parents to bring bottled water a year ago when she attended Healdsburg Elementary because she felt the water tasted like metal. "It just kind of explains a lot because my daughter has always complained about not wanting to drink the water out of the fountain," Kanderian said. Vanden Heuvel says November was the first time he was notified of an issue with the drinking water, and school officials held off on telling parents until they knew the test results. "We wanted to first know what we were dealing with and have more information so we could speak intelligently. And we wanted to have a plan to fix it," Vanden Heuvel said. The school has set aside $50,000 to $100,000 to re-pipe and change fixtures this summer, and is doing further testing at its other campuses with the help of Sonoma County Department of Public Health. Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Milman says public health inspectors took water samples from Healdsburg Elementary Tuesday, after the school released its own test results. "Theres no risk of current exposure," Milman said. "Its encouraging that very little of a childs daily water consumption comes from drinking fountains." In Sonoma County, there have been only a handful of lead exposure problems and none in Healdsburg for the past eight years, according to Milman. And she says these exposures were due to paint, pottery and medicines and candy from other countries, not from drinking water. Vanden Heuvel says the school district has also looked at school nurse records to look for spikes in acute stomach pain, a symptom of lead exposure, and did not find any. County Superintendent Herrington says the County cannot require districts to test their water unless schools draw from private wells. Herrington says many schools in the Bay Area were probably built before 1989. The Division of State Architect told NBC Bay Area it does not track how many California schools were built before 1989. The Public Health Departments water test results are due back by Friday. The couple at the center of an odd case involving what is likely a wifes dismembered torso and the husbands apparent suicide shortly after had filed divorce papers in San Mateo County Superior Court 15 years ago. Civil court records from 2001 show that Paul Titchener had filed for dissolution of marriage from Shelly Titchener, as well as some sort of unspecified child custody action. According to the courts website, which did not make all the records available, the two were living at separate addresses in Brisbane at the time and were acting as their own attorneys. The end result of this filing is unclear. The disposition fields are blank. Both Titcheners are now presumed dead. "My mother Shelly Titchener and father Paul Titchener have recently passed," read a Wednesday night post on the "Find Shelly Titchener" Facebook page, set up apparently by the couple's son, James Titchener, who asked for privacy. Fremont police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques said officers met with him on Wednesday, in a discussion she didn't detail. A woman's torso was found Feb. 21 by fishermen in the wetlands by the Dumbarton Bridge in Fremont. The Alameda County Coroner has not yet made a positive identification on the body, but on Thursday, Bosques said detectives are "fairly confident" the body belongs to Shelly Titchener. "We still have not found an entire body," Bosques said. Additional evidence and more human remains were found near the same bridge, police said, on Tuesday night. "We do believe there are still remains possibly in the water out there somewhere else," Bosques said. "We don't know." Even though the body was found in Fremont's jurisdiction, Brisbane Police Cmdr. Robert Meisner said Thursday his department is now the the lead agency in investigating the likely connection between the torso found in a bag with the head and limbs cut off and the Bay Bridge suicide of Paul Titchener, which the California Highway Patrol reported on Tuesday. In an email, he said that "several search warrants" have been served, including Paul Titcheners business, the Titchener home and their vehicles. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was president of FXsound.com, a Brisbane company that developed media technology. His profile also states he earned a PhD in electrical and electronics engineering from Stanford Univeristy in 1983, who held multiple patents. Police had not called him a suspect, but a person of interest in his wifes mid-February disappearance. San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe on Thursday said his office has never prosecuted a case against Paul Titchener. And a records check with the Brisbane police department showed officers had never been to the Titchener's homes on a domestic violence call. The "Find Shelly Titchener" Facebook page states that she on Feb. 13, Shelly Titchener was at home when she told her husband she would be staying with a friend for a "couple of days," and "it is possible she was in a mentally incapacitated state," the post reads. Then, on Feb. 15, she was seen walking around the Nordstrom at Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., according to the post. She was reported missing on Feb. 15 when she never returned from the trip to her friend's, and she left her cell phone and lap top at home, the post read. On Feb. 20, a post from Paul Titecher's Facebook page, which identifies the author as her husband, asks for help in finding his wife. Neighbors said the couple was very private and were shocked to hear of the latest developments in the case. Neighbors also reported Paul Titchener recently knocked on doors to ask if anyone had seen his wife. "He came to the door with his son looking for if I had seen anything," said Dave Burke, who lives across the street from the Titchener family. Still, other neighbors who did not want to be identified said the Titcheners did not have a great relationship and that Shelly Titchener often seemed troubled. A sign outside her Brisbane home on Thursday read: "You deserved better Shelly." NBC Bay Area's Kris Sanchez, Riya Bhattacharjee, Kristofer Noceda, Ian Cull and Cheryl Hurd contributed to this report. Bernie Sanders is expected to win his home turf, Vermont, by a landslide margin over Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's Democratic primary, but Clinton is not throwing in the towel. "Clearly, Bernie Sanders is going to take Vermont," acknowledged former Vermont Gov. Madeleine Kunin, a vocal Clinton backer. Kunin, however, has been doing what she can to rally support for the former secretary of state, despite the uphill climb reflected in the findings of a recent poll conducted for Vermont Public Radio by the Castleton Polling Institute. The poll, which surveyed voters who said they were likely to participate in the Democratic primary, showed Sanders leading Clinton, 78 to 13 percent. That VPR poll was conducted between Feb. 3-17, with a total of 895 responses and a margin of error of 3.3 percent. "But it doesn't mean you lie down and give up," Kunin told necn. "It means you still have to encourage the Clinton supporters who are here, and hopefully, earn some delegates to the Democratic Convention." Kunin described Clinton as the most qualified candidate in the field from either party, with impressive foreign policy chops who is ready to assume the responsibilities of the Oval Office on day one. Describing some of her chosen candidate's priorities, Kunin said she is looking to Clinton to build bridges in Washington to raise incomes and fight for affordable child care, equal pay for equal work and paid medical leave. "She is the person who is the most capable to be president," Kunin said. The Democrats are competing for 26 Vermont delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Ten of the Vermont delegates are so-called "super delegates," top party leaders like Vermont Democrats Sen. Patrick Leahy, who has voiced support for Clinton, and Rep. Peter Welch, who recently said he is behind Sanders. The other 16 delegates will be awarded proportionally based on vote totals from citizens participating in the Vermont primary, explained Christina Amestoy of the Vermont Democratic Party. To qualify for any of those delegates, Clinton must win at least 15 percent of the Vermont vote Tuesday, Amestoy added. "The magic number you'll be looking for as you watch the results come in is to see if Hillary Clinton reaches that 15 percent," Amestoy told necn. The Vermont Democratic Party said it will not get behind a specific candidate until after the Democratic National Convention. Amestoy said Vermont Democrats have two excellent candidates to choose from between Clinton and Sanders. Amestoy noted that it has been clear for some time that Sanders will win Vermont, but she said Clinton supporters have been calling the party offices looking for ways to help them support their candidate. "They may not be as loud as the Bernie supporters here in Vermont, but there definitely are Clinton supporters out there," Amestoy noted. To try to reach or exceed that 15 percent threshold, Clinton's campaign is relying primarily on direct mailings and grassroots organizers willing to knock on doors in Sanders territory, said Clinton campaign spokeswoman Julie McClain. "We're having canvasses this coming weekend and phone banks across the state, as we did last weekend in our 'weekend of action,'" McClain said, adding that efforts are underway statewide, fanning out from major communities such as Rutland, Burlington, Montpelier and Brattleboro. A Clinton organizing meeting Wednesday featured a visit from Stephanie Schriock, the president of EMILY's List, a national group that works to get pro-choice Democratic women elected to office. In response to an necn question about Clinton's efforts in Sanders backyard, Schriock said, "Hillary Clinton said from the very first that she was going to fight for every single vote in this country, and that's precisely what she's doing." Another indication of the size of the challenge in Clinton's way in Vermont is the result of a survey released in November 2015 from Morning Consult, which showed Sanders has the highest approval rating of any United States Senator in the country, among the Senators own constituents, at 83 percent. Still, Kunin said she strongly believes there are Clinton supporters in Vermont that grassroots volunteers can reach and energize to vote in the primary. "It's not as lonely as you might think," Kunin said of being a Clinton voter in Vermont. Presidential hopeful and Texas Senator Ted Cruz will attend a fundraiser honoring Gov. Bruce Rauner on March 11. The fundraiser, scheduled to be held at the Palmer House Hilton, is hosted by the Illinois Republican Party. Invitations have been extended to all current GOP presidential contenders, including frontrunner Donald Trump, and some former candidates. Rauner has come under fire due to his handling of the state's budget impasse. Tickets for the invitation-only event will range from a $500-per-person option to a $40,000 Gold Sponsor option. The latter includes seating for 20, an option for a photo opportunity and a one-year membership in the Governors Council. Cruz won the Iowa caucus earlier this month, receiving 28 percent of the vote. His campaign has since faltered after placing third in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Donald Trump has emerged as the clear frontrunner in the Republican race. According to a new poll of Illinois voters conducted by the Paul Simon Policy Institute at Southern Illinois, Trump received 28 percent of votes with Ted Cruz receiving 15 percent, Marco Rubio receiving 14 percent and John Kasich receiving 13 percent. Cruz's Democratic counterparts, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, have both recently opened offices in Chicago. Ward Room's Campaign Round-Up is a weekly post dedicated to keeping voters informed about the state and county's upcoming 2016 elections. Check the Ward Room blog for continued coverage every Wednesday. States Attorney Incumbent Anita Alvarez faces former Assistant States Attorney Kim Foxx and former federal and state prosecutor Donna More in the March 15 Democratic primary for Cook County States Attorney. Alvarez received a $2,500 donation from Kathleen Zellner this week. Zellner is an attorney who has represented the wrongfully accused in criminal and civil courts. In 2013, Alvarez set aside a murder conviction of one of Zellners clients, citing lack of evidence. Alvarez will speak at the City Club of Chicago Wednesday. Challenger Kim Foxx released a TV ad this week attacking Alvarezs handling of the Laquan McDonald case. The ad includes dash-cam footage of the incident. When States Attorney Anita Alvarez did nothing about this murder, she proved our justice system is broken, the ad says. McDonald was shot and killed by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke in October of 2014. Alvarez did not file murder charges against Van Dyke until November of 2015 as dash-cam footage of the incident was being made public. The Alvarez team responded, calling the ad insensitive and unfounded. "Leaving aside the craven exploitation of using the video of a murder victim in a campaign ad, the content is demonstrably false, Alvarez spokesperson Mike Carson told Ward Room. Foxx has been caught telling lies and violating campaign finance laws, and this ad is just another piece of evidence that proves Kim Foxx is a liar who can not be trusted. Foxxs campaign defended the ad in a statement to Ward Room. We want to make sure Cook County voters know whats at stake in this critical election, Foxx spokesperson Robert Foley said. Anita Alvarez failed to take action for 400 days after the murder of Laquan McDonald. Foxx earned an endorsement from the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board this week. "We are endorsing Kim Foxx, a former chief of staff to Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle, over incumbent States Attorney Anita Alvarez, the endorsement read. In a contentious race, Foxx has made clear she understands what this election is all about: Restoring faith in the states attorneys office. Foxx also scored a rare endorsement from the Chicago Teachers Union and an endorsement from Rep. Mike Quigley. Foxx contributed $40,000 to the Democratic party in Cook County which handles get-out-the-vote efforts. Foxx also received a $15,000 contribution from attorney Arthur Loevy. Loevys firm has handled many federal police misconduct cases. Donna Mores campaign received $1,000 from her former boss as a federal prosecutor, former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukis. More also continued to finance her own campaign, donating $80,000 for mailers and consulting from David Axelreods former firm, AKPD Message & Media. Christopher Pfannkuche will run uncontested on the Republican ticket. Illinois senate race U.S. Senate, Rep. Tammy Duckworth, Urban League CEO and President Andrea Zopp and state Sen. Napoleon Harris will face off in the March 15 primary for the Democratic nomination for Mark Kirk's U.S. Senate seat. The three squared off in a televised debate last Friday. During the debate, Zopp claimed her opponents in the democratic Senate primary are not doing enough to embolden the state. "I have taken steps over 30 years to save lives, create jobs, grow businesses something [Harris] can't say," Zopp said. "So, neither has Congresswoman Duckworth. No specifics about any actions that either of you have taken to make a real difference in this state." Zopp also called on Duckworth to engage in further debates leading up to the primary. Zopp claims downstate voters also deserve a debate. "Congresswoman Duckworth doesn't want to do any more debates because she's done very little for the people of Illinois," Zopp said. Duckworth rebuffed these appeals, claiming no additional debates were needed. Duckworth, Zopp and Harris have previously faced off in editorial board endorsement sessions at the Tribune and Sun-Times. "We're debating now and we have debated at least a couple of times already in the last couple of weeks," Duckworth said. Nonetheless, Zopp's camp released a statement Sunday attacking Duckworth's record while urging her to engage in an additional debate on African-American issues. "If you look at her record, particularly on the issues that matter to working families, and specifically, to the issues that matter to the African American community, like job creation, criminal justice reform and gun control, Congresswoman Duckworth been silent during her time in Congress," Zopp said. "Her interests in the issues that matter in our community isnt driven by the fact that she actually wants to get things done, they are driven by political calculation. Yet, she wont come and talk to us about these issues." Duckworth has not addressed Zopp's claims throughout the debates. However, her camp did issue a statement regarding Zopp's appeals for additional debates. "We were pleased with the opportunity to participate in three substantive debates, and are looking forward to spending the final three weeks of the campaign traveling around the state and talking directly with Illinois voters," Duckworth spokesman Matt McGrath said in the statement. If Ms. Zopp failed to make her points to her own satisfaction over the course of three well-covered debates, she has no one to blame but herself. During the debate, Duckworth called into question Zopp's tenure as a member of the Chicago Board of Education. During that time, 50 Chicago Public Schools were closed and CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett became embroiled in a kickback scandal. Byrd-Bennet later pled guilty to a federal public corruption charge. Duckworth, an Army veteran who lost her legs during the Iraq War, promised to continue supporting veterans' issues. Duckworth previously served in the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. "I will spend the rest of my life fighting for veterans issues," Duckworth said. "We are all dishonored when a veteran must lay down his head on the very same streets that he defended." Zopp countered, claiming Duckworth had not acted on some key issues. Zopp claims Duckworth did not create a state-mandated task force to track Gulf War syndrome and that she failed to address long wait times for medical services for veterans. Zopp cited an "epidemic of inaction" in Washington during Duckworth's tenure and asked, "are you going to send somebody to Washington who's going to talk, because talk is cheap." Duckworth also fired shots at incumbent Sen. Mark Kirk. She claims Kirk "has been wrong on every issue of national security since he's been in the House of Representatives." Duckworth specifically questioned Kirk's handling of the Islamic State, claiming he "wants to provide ISIS with new recruits," as result of his policies on Syrian refugees. This followed Duckworths comments at a Chicago Tribune Editorial Board endorsement session wherein she insinuated that Kirks policies encouraged radicalized Iraqi refugees in Texas. Harris continued to be a non-factor during the debates. According to a poll conducted by Lincoln Park Strategies between Feb. 4-7, Duckworth received 64 percent of votes while Zopp received 6 percent and Harris received 3 percent. The poll was conducted for Harris. An additional poll, conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, found Duckworth receiving 52 percent of votes from self-identified Democrats with Zopp receiving 6 percent and Harris receiving 4 percent. In the Republican field. Kirk received 53 percent of votes from likely Republican voters, while Oswego businessman James Marter received 14 percent of votes. 33 percent of respondents remained undecided. Duckworth released a campaign ad Tuesday touting her military and political experience. Harris made a TV appearance in an effort to bolster support, touting his bipartisan efforts in the state senate. Republican incumbent Mark Kirk penned two op-ed pieces this week. In his piece in the Chicago Sun-Times Monday, Kirk broke with Republican lawmakers to support President Barack Obama moving forward with the process to nominate a replacement for the late Antonin Scalia as the ninth member of the U.S. Supreme Court. "As a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Navy Reserve and as a United States senator, I swore an oath to protect and uphold the constitution," he wrote. "That oath is to our constitution, not to a party or any one individual, but to the ideals that bind our nation. I recognize the right of the president, be it Republican or Democrat, to place before the Senate a nominee for the Supreme Court and I fully expect and look forward to President Barack Obama advancing a nominee for the Senate to consider." In his piece in the National Review, also published Monday, Kirk addressed Muslim extremism and condemned Tammy Duckworths statements about his encouraging radicalization through his policies. Tammy Duckworth is a fool, Kirk wrote. She says I am the reason terrorists become radicalized. This is another example of how Duckworth sees the world through a delusional, partisan lens, willfully ignorant of what motivates the enemy and threatens our safety as Americans. Kirk cited ISIS initiative to create a global caliphate, ruled by Sharia law, as reason for radicalization. Kirk also expounded on the U.S.s need to secure borders. Kirk also released a campaign ad to reinforce his ideas on the matter, slamming Duckworths plan to bring 200,000 refugees to the country. The ad claims ISIS used fake Syrian passports to stage the attack on Paris and that the terrorist group continues to print these passports. The ad also highlight 15 terror-related incidents involving refugees. Mark Kirk is leading the charge to stop refugees until it can be done safely, the ad says. Kirk will face Marter in the March 15 Republican primary. 8th congressional district Krishnamoorthi will face state Sen. Mike Noland and Villa Park Mayor Deb Bullwinkel in the March 15 Democratic primary. Krishnamoorthi, the Democratic front-runner for Tammy Duckworths soon the be vacated 8th District House seat, released a campaign ad Tuesday in an effort to drum up further support. In the ad, Krishnamoorthi claims I have a long name and a short time to introduce myself. The ad highlights Krishnamoorthis record and policies. This includes his role as issues director for President Barack Obamas successful 2004 U.S. Senate campaign and his stances on protecting medicare and social security, equal pay for equal work and strengthening gun control. DuPage County Commissioner Pete DiCianni will run unopposed on the Republican ticket. Bill Fraser, an independent, will appear on the ballot for the general election. 10th congressional district Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering will face former Rep. Brad Schneider in the Democratic primary for incumbent Bob Dolds 10th District House seat. Rotering received an endorsement from Sen. Dick Durbin this week, while Schneider received an endorsement from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC. BOLD PAC is proud to give Brad Schneider our endorsement, PAC Chair Tony Cardenas said. I worked side by side with Brad in Congress and, with my fellow colleagues, I know him to be a proven leader dedicated to being a champion for issues important to the Latino community. According to an internal memo from his campaign, Schneider holds a commanding lead over Rotering. Schneider leads 53%-23% with just three weeks to go until primary day, the memo says. He bests her among every constituency and in every region of the district. Among women, he leads 52%-26%. Among pro-choice voters, he leads 55%-24%. Among liberals, he leads 55%-23%. Dold is running unopposed on the Republican ballot. Rotering and Schneider will face off in the March 15 Democratic primary. The general election is set for Nov. 8. Former Chicago mayoral candidate and Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia endorsed Illinois Speaker of the House Mike Madigan in his bid to beat newcomer Jason Gonzales in the race for his 22nd District House seat. Now more than ever, local families need Michael Madigan in the State Capitol fighting for them, Garcia said in a statement. Michael Madigan continues providing the strong leadership that our neighborhoods need to succeed and thrive." Madigan courted Garcia's endorsement for an election that will take place on Chicago's increasingly Hispanic Southwest Side. Garcia lost the 2015 Chicago mayoral election in a run-off to Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Rauner and Garcia are uniting in an effort to take on Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and his Turnaround Agenda. "Governor Rauner has failed to put the needs of our families ahead of his own personal agenda, which in itself is an attack on the middle class," Garcia said. "Michael Madigan has stood up against Governor Rauners dangerous agenda that endangers our local families and families across Illinois. Madigan will face Gonzales, a 41-year-old consultant running his first political campaign, in the March 15 Democratic primary. Joe Barboza and Grasiela Rodriguez will also be included on the ballot, although many believe them to be straw men, propped up by the Madigan political machine to dilute the ballot. Neither candidate has a website or committee information. Madigan, who recently ranked 5th in Chicago Magazines list of the 50 most powerful Chicagoans, has served as the state representative for the 22nd district since 1971. In a statement, Madigan thanked Garcia for his endorsement and laid out his plan to combat Rauner's agenda. At the very heart of that goal is fighting against reckless agendas aimed at driving down the wages of the middle class and struggling families and weakening their standard of living, and fighting against dangerous plans that hold up funding for critical programs that our families depend on, like medical care services for the elderly, breast cancer screenings for women at risk, and affordable child care. Theres nothing unusual about a teenager losing a cell phone, until that lost phone racks up $1,300 in international calls. Thats exactly what happened to 13-year-old Isabela Arias. The Bloomingdale teen lost her flip phone in December, the day before she and her family left for a Florida vacation. While they were gone, someone found the phone and started dialing, over and over again. A whopping 146 calls were made to the Dominican Republic over eight days, leaving the family with a $1,300 bill. "I just thought it was crazy, Isabelas mom Melissa Didrickson said. I thought I was misreading it, the decimal point was off." Turns out, it wasnt. The familys bill is normally $250. When it shot up to $1,500 they called Verizon, certain the wireless carrier would wipe out the fraudulent charges. Im a good customer, Isabelas dad Mark Tarullo recalled. Ive been with you for 10 years. Ive actually never made a long distance call in my entire life, especially on this phone. Still, he said, Verizon wouldnt budge. "I dealt with the fraud team, the billing team, the global team, the customer service team, and nothing, Tarullo said. When he hit a brick wall, he called NBC 5 Responds for help. We called Verizon and got the fraudulent charges wiped out. In a statement, Verizon told NBC 5 Responds it strives to deliver the best customer service and did not do so in this case. The company apologized, and reminded all consumers that any phone that is active can dial internationally, and should be reported lost as soon as possible. There have been no confirmed cases of Zika virus in the state of Connecticut, according to state health officials. While the illness is usually mild, there is a possible link with birth defects and miscarriages, so health officials warn prevention of infection among pregnant women is essential and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is offering Zika virus testing to pregnant women who have travelled in countries where the disease is known to be transmitted. The state Department of Public Health said 127 patients were approved for testing. They have sent 50 specimens to the CDC and received results from five and none tested for Zika virus. With no vaccine or antiviral drug currently available to prevent infection or protect a developing fetus, it is imperative that women in any trimester of pregnancy, women who are planning to become pregnant, and their male sexual partner follow recommendations for prevention, Dr. Raul Pino, the commissioner of the state Department of Public Health said in a statement. The virus is spread to people primarily through mosquito bites, but the CDC has suggested that sexual transmission might be more common than was known before the recent outbreak in the Americas. Pregnant women are urged to postponing travel to areas where Zika virus is circulating among mosquitoes and take precautions to avoid mosquito bites if travel is necessary. Men who travel to endemic areas should abstain from sexual activity with a pregnant partner, or use condoms, for the duration of the pregnancy. We are working with the CDC, obstetricians and physicians throughout the state to test any pregnant woman who has recently returned from countries where Zika is present, and I encourage any woman who is pregnant or planning to become pregnant and returning from one of those countries to consult with their physician to determine if testing is appropriate, said Pino said. While we have not had any positive Zika tests in Connecticut, we remain vigilant in our monitoring of this situation and will continue to keep the public informed. Dr. Philip Armstrong, a medical entomologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station said the mosquito species that is primarily responsible for transmission of Zika virus to people is not found in Connecticut. A closely related species is found in parts of the state, but it is present in low numbers and unlikely to present a risk of Zika virus infection to people, according to the Department of Public Health. When the CAES traps mosquitoes between June and October, they will be testing for Zika virus. The most common symptoms include fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis. A regional jet operated by Mesa Airlines was forced to return to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport shortly after it took off Thursday morning. Mesa Flight 5801 departed D/FW Airport at 7:33 a.m. According to Flightaware.com, the Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-900 was rerouted to return back to the airport. It was not immediately clear what caused the aircraft to return to the airport. The aircraft landed just before 8 a.m., about 30 minutes after taking off. Thursday night, United Express Flight 6183, operated by Mesa Airlines, made an emergency landing at D/FW en route from Washington Dulles to San Antonio. No injuries were reported and the incident is under investigation. Republicans are heading into their only debate in the campaign for the 11-state voting extravaganza of Super Tuesday and the only one of the season steered to a Spanish-speaking as well as English-speaking audience, with CNN and Telemundo as partners. Some things to watch Thursday night: ------ WHO FIGHTS WHOM? Does Marco Rubio take it to Donald Trump, the front-runner who's getting hard to stop? Or mix it up with Ted Cruz, the one he might want to try to put away before making the nomination race essentially one on one? It's a question he's got to answer really soon. Trump's pattern through the campaign has been to lay off rivals until they pick a fight with him -- then to go nuclear against them. He's been merciless in attacking Cruz, and that seems to have taken a toll on the Texas senator. But Rubio? "So far he's been very nice and I think I've been very nice to him," Trump said Wednesday. But he quickly added that probably won't last. ------ WATCHING RUBIO The Florida senator had an untroubled debate last time, after a disastrous one in New Hampshire when his robotic repetition of an anti-Obama talking point earned him ridicule and, by his own reading after the fact, contributed to a poor performance in that primary. He's got a head of steam again, after finishing second in South Carolina and Nevada. But with so much on the line now, his every word and gesture are going to be under the microscope. ------ TRUMP AND IMMIGRATION What will he say on the subject this time, or any subject? And does it even matter? Trump's supporters by and large seem forgiving of his rhetorical trespasses. And Jeb Bush's withdrawal from the race takes one pointed critic of Trump off the stage. The border-state debate, with its Hispanic element, is certain to put his provocative plans for a massive border wall and mass deportation under scrutiny. Here's another safe bet: Trump did well with Hispanic voters in the Nevada caucuses -- that is, the limited number of Latinos who took part -- and he will be in-your-face about that. ------ WHY AM I HERE? Not for the first time, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired brain surgeon Ben Carson will be looking to establish their viability in a contest that is getting away from them. Kasich, in particular, has earned high marks for some of his debate performances -- and he finished second in New Hampshire. But both are trailing nationally as crucial votes approach and pressure to distill the field grows. A natural gas leak that sickened Los Angeles residents and forced thousands from their homes was the largest known release of climate-changing methane in U.S. history, scientists reported Thursday. The blowout from a well at a Southern California Gas Co. storage facility lasted 16 weeks and spewed 107,000 tons of methane, according to a study published in the journal Science. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Preliminary figures from the study were previously reported, but the article includes final results and puts the leak in context with other disasters and other sources of global warming. The leak first reported Oct. 23 at the Aliso Canyon storage facility near Porter Ranch released the greenhouse gas equivalent of 572,000 cars in a year, the report said. The total amount of natural gas released was second only to the collapse of an underground storage facility in Moss Bluff, Texas, in 2004, the report said. In that case, methane -- a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide -- burned off in a fireball so the climate impact wasn't as great, said Stephen Conley, an atmospheric scientist at University of California, Davis, who co-authored the article. "In terms of climate impact, this is the largest," Conley said of the California leak. "If you're specifically looking at that, this is the winner." The total methane released weighed the equivalent of two aircraft carriers and at its peak it discharged enough gas to fill a balloon the size of the Rose Bowl every day. The leak had been gushing nonstop for two weeks when Conley was sent in November by the California Energy Commission to fly his small plane outfitted to measure methane near Porter Ranch. As he took a pass through the invisible plume, he did a double-take at results on a laptop tracking emissions. He was used to flying about a half-mile from a leak and finding methane measurements of 3 parts per million in a big leak and 4 parts per million in a huge one. He was a mile from the leak and the readings were 50 parts per million over the San Fernando Valley. "What the hell is that?" he remembered thinking. "Do I have a problem?" He checked a second instrument and it was no false alarm. "Before we went, no one had any idea the magnitude of it," Conley said. Rob Jackson, an environmental scientist at Stanford University who did not contribute to the study, said it was important to have an independent measure of the emissions. The gas company has not publicly reported how much gas it lost, but said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that about 5 billion cubic feet escaped. That is similar to Conley's measurements. The figure is important because the state is drawing up a plan for SoCalGas to mitigate the impact of the methane emissions. On Saturday, utility officials said the leak was permanently sealed. Thousands of families who relocated to temporary housing to get away from the noxious smell received the all-clear to return home. People living in temporary housing with extended leases will have until those leases run out to return home. SoCalGas issued a statement in response to the report. "It is important to note that experts agree there are no long-term health effects associated with this event. However, methane is a greenhouse gas, and it is important to put the amount of methane released, as it relates to greenhouse gas emissions, into context. According to measurements conducted by California Air Resources Board, the leak totaled less than 1 percent of Californias total annual greenhouse gas emissions," it read in part. As we have previously stated, SoCalGas has committed to the Governor to work with his office and state agencies to develop a framework to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the actual natural gas released from this leak. Our calculation of how much methane was emitted will be a more accurate measurement. Because this will take several more weeks, we are not in a position to comment on, or otherwise confirm, the accuracy of any other researcher. Brawling from the get-go, a fiery Marco Rubio went after Donald Trump in Thursday night's Republican debate, lacerating the front-runner's position on immigration, his privileged background, his speaking style and more. Ted Cruz piled on, too, questioning the front-runner's conservative credentials, as the two senators tag-teamed Trump in a debate that reflected the increasing urgency of their effort to take down the billionaire businessman before he becomes unstoppable. It was a rare night where the bombastic Trump found himself on the defensive. The debate played out as a raucous night of tit-for-tat insults, with candidates shouting over one another so much that it was hard to hear anyone. The showdown came just days before the Super Tuesday 11-state round of mega-voting that could all but lock up the nomination. When Trump faulted Rubio on a deal to buy a $179,000 house, the Florida senator shot back that if Trump "hadn't inherited $200 million, you know where Donald Trump would be right now? Selling watches in Manhattan." In another rough exchange, Rubio accused Trump of shifting his position on deportation, hiring people from other countries to take jobs from Americans and being fined for worker violations. Joining in, Cruz criticized Trump for suggesting he alone had "discovered the issue of illegal immigration." Trump shot back at Rubio: "I hired tens of thousands of people. You've hired nobody." As for Cruz, Trump took a more personal tack, touting his own ability to get along with others and adding: "You get along with nobody. ... You should be ashamed of yourself." Both Rubio and Cruz said that Trump had had to pay a $1 million fine for illegal immigration hiring. The candidates were pressed on why they haven't released their tax returns as promised. The GOP's 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, suggested this week that Trump was holding back because there was a "bombshell" that would be revealed. Thursday night, Trump offered a new excuse, saying that he's been audited by the IRS every year and can't release his returns while that's going on. Rubio and Cruz both promised to release more of theirs in the next two days. Rubio was the principal aggressor of the night, and he held nothing back. Taking on Trump's declaration that he'd build a wall on the Mexican border, Rubio declared: "If he builds a wall the way he built Trump Tower he'll be using illegal immigration to do it." Trump, for his part, insisted that even though officials in Mexico have said they won't pay for his planned wall, "Mexico will pay for the wall." And he said that because Mexico's current and former presidents had criticized him on the issue, "the wall just got 10 feet taller." Trump, known for his frequent use of coarse and profane language on the campaign trail, scolded former Mexican President Vicente Fox for using a profanity in talking about Trump's plan for the wall. "He should be ashamed of himself and he should apologize," declared Trump. After Trump mocked Rubio for his "meltdown" in a previous debate when the Florida senator repeated rote talking points, Rubio swatted right back, scolding Trump for spouting the same things over and over Thursday night: "Everyone's dumb. He's going to make America great again. We're going to win, win, win. He's winning in the polls." When Trump repeated his positions on health care, Rubio pounced again. "Now he's repeating himself," Rubio said with a grin. In the past, Rubio and Cruz had shown little willingness to take on the former reality television star when the national spotlight was the brightest. That all changed in the ninth GOP debate of the campaign, clearly showing the growing sense that Trump is on track for the nomination. The debate's location in Houston gave a nod to the primacy of Texas in the Super Tuesday voting: There are 595 delegates at stake, 155 in Texas. To date, Trump has proved largely immune to traditional political attacks, something he revels in. "I seem to have a very good track record when they do go after me," he said in advance of the debate. The debate audience included former President George H.W. Bush, 91, and his wife, Barbara who missed out on the chance to see their son Jeb take part. He dropped out of the race after a poor showing in the first states to vote. Thursday's debate, with CNN and Telemundo as partners, is the only one of the season steered to a Spanish-speaking as well as English-speaking audience, so immigration could be a closely watched issue. A U.S. citizen whose son has been detained in Iran for the past four months was also taken into custody after returning to the country this week, his lawyer confirmed Thursday in what is the first such action against an American national in Iran since last month's prisoner swap between the two countries. The Iranian lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabei, told The Associated Press that he has not been able to make contact with his client, Baquer Namazi, despite his efforts and was told by authorities that he would "be informed later" about the case. The ailing, 80-year-old Namazi is being held in Tehran's Evin prison, he added. Tabatabei said he believes it is unlikely Namazi, who was detained on Monday, will face "political charges" but that he is probably held "for some investigation only." "It is unlikely that he will be charged," the lawyer said, without elaborating. Both Baquer Namazi and his son Siamak Namazi, who is believed to be detained since October in Iran, are dual U.S.-Iranian citizens. However, Iranian authorities do not recognize dual nationality and treat such citizens as exclusively Iranian. Tabatabei said he was asked to represent both Namazis by Effie Namazi, Baquer's wife. He has not made contact with the son either, he also said and only learned from Effie Namazi that her son faces accusations of "cooperation with the hostile government of the United States." The son's case is still in the "preliminary investigation" phase, the lawyer said. He added that he intends to argue that since Iran is not at war with any country, there is no "hostile" nation toward Iran. Earlier this week, Siamak broke a "several days-long hunger strike" after his mother was able to reach him by phone and persuaded him to give up the fasting, Tabatabei said. The Namazi family and friends first reported the news of Baquer's arrest on Wednesday. "I must share the shocking and sad news that Baquer was arrested," Effie Namazi wrote in a Facebook post. "Now both my innocent son Siamak and my Baquer are in prison for no reason. This is a nightmare I can't describe." Effie said he husband suffers from "serious heart and other conditions" that require medication. Appearing at a Senate panel hearing Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he was engaged on the matter but couldn't comment because of privacy considerations. According to Haleh Esfandiari, a friend of the family and a Mideast expert at the Wilson Center, Baquer Namazi worked for the United Nations and at one point as a World Bank consultant, while also being a civil society activist. She described him as a "not at all political" person who consistently spoke out against U.S.-led economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The family lived outside New York for a period after the Islamic Revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah in 1979, though later returned to Iran, she said. According to a Daily Beast article last year, the family has played a key role in trying to bridge ties between the long-time foes. It said Baquer Namazi was a governor of the oil-rich province of Khuzestan under the shah who was allowed to emigrate to the U.S. in 1983. Siamak Namazi, believed to have been arrested in October, was not included in January's prisoner exchange that saw five American freed from Iranian prison and U.S. sentences, charges or warrants dropped against 21 Iranians. Those allowed to leave Iran included Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian. Iran denies having any knowledge of the whereabouts of Robert Levinson, a former FBI investigator who disappeared in the country in 2007. The younger Namazi had been specifically criticized in hard-line commentary ahead of his arrest as Iranian conservatives warned against easing hostilities with the U.S. He also had written several articles about international sanctions on Iran. In a 2013 opinion piece published by The International Herald Tribune, he described shortages of medical supplies and urged the West to "relax and rationalize" the restrictions so such goods could reach Iran. Nations removed many oil, trade and financial sanctions on Tehran after last month's U.N. confirmation that Iran had rolled back its nuclear program in accordance with last year's seven-nation agreement. ___ Klapper reported from Washington. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report. A new Texas law allowing people to carry guns on state college campuses doesn't go into effect until Aug. 1, but it's already putting a big chill on fiery academic debate, NBC News reported. Professors at the University of Houston have started preparing guidelines for dealing with gun-toting students that include warning faculty to steer clear of "sensitive topics" and dropping hot button issues from their curricula, according to a UH Faculty Senate. The proposed guidelines also advise faculty to no "'go there' if you sense anger" and "limit student access off hours." "It's not official policy," Faculty Senate President Jonathan Snow told NBC News on Wednesday. UH is expected to release it's own "draft policy" on guns in classrooms next week, a university spokeswoman said. Humane law enforcement officers found six dead puppies in a trash can at a Philadelphia home this week after serving a second search warrant at a house suspected to be involved in dogfighting. Also found at the house, located on the 400 block of East Rittenhouse Street in the citys Germantown neighborhood, were another dead dog inside the house and two living dogs one in the backyard and one inside. The Pennsylvania SPCA is now seeking the publics help to figure out how the dogs wound up at the house, which was unoccupied when officers served the warrant. PSPCA officials said the warrant served on Tuesday was the second served at the same house. In September 2014, PSPCA officers also removed four dogs and two puppies from the house, some of whom had untreated bite wounds and other injuries. That seizure led to animal cruelty charges for Wayne Charleston, who was living at the house at the time. Officials said the case against Charleston is pending. When officers entered the house this week, in addition to the dogs, they found blood on the walls, leading them to again suspect a connection to dogfighting. They said theyre unsure whether anyone is living at the house currently and are asking that the public come forward with any information on the property. Humane officers returned to the street Thursday and found three additional dead dogs in a yard across the street from the home. Officials suspect one of those dogs is the mother of the puppies found in the trash can. Anyone with information should contact the PSPCAs cruelty hotline at 866-601-SPCA (7722). Tipsters may remain anonymous. Four college students are suing the city of Providence, Rhode Island, over an ordinance that bans them from living together in a single-family home. The Johnson & Wales University students are joined in the suit filed Tuesday by their landlord, and backed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The city council passed the rule in September after complaints about chronic, out-of-control partying by students in neighborhoods near the Roman Catholic school Providence College and the public Rhode Island College. There have also been complaints over the years about student behavior in other sections of the city around the Ivy league Brown University and the prestigious art school the Rhode Island School of Design. Democratic Councilwoman Jo-Ann Ryan, who pushed the rule, complained that renting single-family homes to students was eroding the character of the neighborhoods. The lawsuit argues that there is no reason to believe that restricting the number of students who live in a single-family home will lead to safer, quieter and cleaner neighborhoods. "On the contrary, the ordinance is an unconstitutional intrusion into the rights of college and graduate students to choose with whom they wish to live, and the rights of property owners to rent their homes to tenants of their choice," lawyers Jeffrey Levy and Charles Blackmun wrote. A spokeswoman for Democratic Mayor Jorge Elorza said the city does not comment on ongoing legal proceedings. Other college towns have passed such rules in the past, and some of those have been struck down, Levy said. A similar ordinance in Narragansett, Rhode Island, was held unconstitutional by a state superior court in 1994, as was one in Prince George's County, Maryland, in 1993. He said Boston enacted a similar ordinance in 2008, but to his knowledge it has not been enforced or challenged. Levy said his clients have not yet been the target of any enforcement action, and he is not aware of any actions against other student renters. He said the ordinance will have the worst impact on students from low-income and middle-income families who can't afford to pay more for rent. A Union City man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and DUI after he crashed a sports car he was test-driving in Ontario in Southern California, killing a used car dealer, police said. Alex Demetro, 28, had allegedly been using drugs when the red Chevrolet Corvette he was test-driving at nearly 70 mph clipped a light pole and crashed into a tree at Mercedes Drive and Concours Street at 12:46 p.m. Tuesday, according to Ontario police. Both Demetro and the car dealer, identified as 43-year-old Warren Smale, were taken to San Antonio Community Hospital in critical condition. The Montclair man was pronounced dead at the hospital, police said. By Wednesday, a makeshift memorial honoring Smale was growing at the accident site. Demetro had been taking the Corvette on a five-minute test drive from a CarMax auto dealership. Smale was riding in the passenger seat and was a CarMax employee, police said. Police said it appears Demetro was high on prescription drugs and was speeding when he lost control of the car and crashed. He was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of drugs. "There's no way to really describe somebody like this," said Smale's father, Dennis. "He knew he had the drugs and he knew he couldn't handle a car and he shouldn't have been showing off." Smale grew up in Pennsylvania and was loved by his family, especially his mother, Shirley, his father said. Dennis Smale said his son was a kind and loving person who moved to Montclair about three years ago to find a promising career. Customers say he found that at CarMax. "I don't really like car salesmen I shouldn't say that but he wasn't pushy, he was very nice," Bonnie Willet said. Glenn and Bonnie Willet bought a silver car from Smale Tuesday. It is possibly the last sale he made before his untimely death. "It was really an excellent experience that we had with Warren," Glenn Willet said. "I only knew him three days but he was a friend." Reacting to the news of his former co-worker's death, Robert Sotela said he was "just shocked, just unbelievable." He described feeling "pretty much devastated to say the least." Sotela also stressed that Smale likely had no idea about Demetro's condition. "If he had any idea that the person that caused the accident was a bad person or under the influence, he wouldn't have taken him out," he said. CarMax officials issued a statement Wednesday expressing remorse for their employee's death. "Today is an incredibly sad day for the CarMax family," it said. "Our hearts and prayers go out to our associate's family. CarMax is working closely with the authorities on the investigation." Meanwhile, the suspect's cousin Paul Demetro also offered a statement on behalf of his family. It said: "On behalf of the Demetro family, we offer our deepest condolences to the family of Warren Smale. Our thoughts [and] prayers are [with] them." People who live in the same East Bay complex as Demetro told NBC Bay Area that they weren't surprised by his actions or arrest. One neighbor asked to stay anonymous for fear of retribution, but deemed the suspect a "hellraiser" who intimidated and got into fights with neighbors. Demetro would "go through here at 40 or 50 mph and then do donuts," the man said, adding that he has struck multiple cars while racing his black Mustang through an alleyway. He also got into a "physical altercation," the neighbor said, which led to him being slapped with a restraining order. The man said Demetro was evicted from his townhouse last month, while Ontario police said that he only recently relocated to Pomona. Union City police confirmed to NBC Bay Area that officers have "contacted" Demetro at least twice in the past. They would not elaborate on whether was ever arrested, but said that previous incidents were not major or violent. Ontario police are asking anyone with information about the crash to contact Officer Brian Olivo at (909) 395-4646, via a tip line at (800) 782-7463 or online at www.wetip.com. NBC Bay Area's Rhea Mahbubani contributed to this report. Presidential candidate Donald Trump is listed as a witness in court documents in a long running civil lawsuit over his now-closed Trump University. According to pretrial disclosures filed with the U.S. District Court in San Diego, the plaintiffs list Trump as one of 23 potential witnesses and Trumps attorneys list him as one of the 32 witnesses they may call to testify. Click here to see the complete witness list from the plaintiffs and here to see the complete witness list from the defense. Two different lawsuits allege Trumps school engaged in deceptive practices and scammed thousands of students who enrolled in response to claims the school would make them rich in the real estate market. Both cases will be tried in San Diego. Trump's attorneys have repeatedly defended the school, claiming the lawsuits are politically motivated. NBC 7 Investigates reached out to Trump's attorney here in San Diego and have not heard back. Cohen v. Trump is a nationwide class action lawsuit; the other lawsuit, Makaeff v. Trump, is a class action in California, Florida and New York. In the Cohen case, a required conference to try to settle the case is set for March 29. In the Makaeff case, a final pretrial conference is set for May 6. With Trump pursuing the GOP nomination, the May pretrial conference date could force him to take a break from his campaign to testify in the case. Recently filed court documents also show the consumer for one case, Tarla Makaeff, has asked to be released from the class action lawsuit. According to the documents, another former Trump client would now become the consumer representing all the other former Trump University clients in the class action lawsuit. Trump's attorneys, Daniel Petrocelli, David Kirman and Jill Martin all based in California, have requested a hearing on March 11 to argue against Makaeff being released from the case. According to the court filing, "Makaeff has been the face of this class action case from the start" and "Plantiffs have relied on Makaeff in each and every key filing." The attorneys are arguing that if Makaeff is allowed to withdraw from the case, then the case against Trump should be dismissed, according to the documents. The court documents filed this month by Makaeff show how the case affected Makaeff. The lawsuit has wound its way through the legal system for six years. Click here to read more about the lawsuit and see the court documents. Makaeff asked the court to be released from the case because of the stresses involved, according to court documents. The document claims the problems began when Makaeff was countersued by Trump attorneys for $1 million in damages. According to the court documents, Makaeff said: "I have been litigating my claims in good faith since filing the lawsuit in April of 2010. Shortly after I filed the lawsuit, Trump University filed a counterclaim, alleging defamation and seeking $1,000,000 in damages. While this Court ultimately struck that counterclaim, it caused me a great deal of stress and anxiety in the 4-year interim because I was very concerned that I could be bankrupted in the process. I have been deposed four times in this case, on January 30, 2012, January 31, 2012, April 13, 2012, and February 10, 2014. I searched for, and produced, relevant documents in response to numerous discovery requests from defendants in this case. I have stayed apprised of the litigation and have traveled to San Diego to participate in the Courts Early Neutral Evaluation Conference in 2011 and Mandatory Settlement Conference in 2015. I no longer wish to serve as a class representative due to intervening personal circumstances. According to the court documents, Makaeff also said, I have suffered significant health problems since this case was filed, which I can detail with documentation for this Courts private consideration, if necessary. Finally, due to the anxiety and high stress that this litigation has caused for the past 6 years, particularly during my depositions, I am very concerned about the toll that the trial would take on my emotional and physical health and well-being. A decision on whether Makaeff can be released from the role in the class action suit will be made April 22. Sonny Low has been identified as a replacement, according to the court documents. A service dog "stolen from the yard of a San Diego Marine veteran was in her ex-husbands possession and was never missing, the mans lawyer told NBC 7 Wednesday. In November 2014, Alexandra Melnick enlisted the help of local media to find her dog Kai, who she said was taken from her Vista backyard. For months, Melnick canvassed North County with fliers of the German shepherd, and on Aug. 31, 2015, she announced she received a tip that Kai was in Aubrey, Texas. On Facebook, she wrote that Kai had ended up with a family that had no idea about his history. "I went through hell for nine months," Melnick told NBC 7 Wednesday. "I can't explain how horrible that was." She said at no point did she know where her dog was. But Melnicks ex-husband, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Pablo Cortes, said the story wasnt true. According to his attorney, Alex Ozols, the dog was with Cortes the entire time because he is the dogs partial owner. "This case is a bad divorce," said Ozols. "These two got divorced; they both wanted the dog, and unfortunately, my client had the dog." Recently, Cortes was arrested and charged with grand theft and receiving stolen property, stemming from the case, so Ozols said he wanted to give Cortes side of the story. The attorney said Cortes and Melnick bought the dog together while they were married, while Melnick said she bought the dog before marrying Cortes. Ozols provided Cortes records of debit card transactions at veterinarians and pet shops. When the couple went through their divorce, no ruling was ever made on Kai's custody, the lawyer said. In divorce papers, provided by Ozols, Melnick lists dog food/vet payments under their expenses. So during the course of their divorce, Cortes took Kai. Soon, Melnick responded by telling the media and police that someone had sneaked into her backyard and stolen the dog. "[Cortes] wasn't a suspect. I didn't think about it," said Melnick. "I don't know, I guess I was naive to think he would do something like this." Nine months later, Melnick said with the help of social meda and organizations she won't identify, she tracked down Kai at her in-law's house, though she initially wrote on Facebook that the dog was with people who didn't know its history. She then got on a plane to get her dog back. According to Ozols, Melnick went to the Texas home of Cortes father, who was taking care of Kai while Cortes was deployed. Ozols said they are not prepared to talk about how Kai got to Texas. Melnick went to court in Texas for a property hearing, and because Cortes couldnt attend, Melnick was given custody of the dog once again, Ozols said. When Melnick returned to San Diego, she did not want to talk with media, but instead posted about Kais return on Facebook. The Facebook page she created, "Bring Kai Home," has since been deleted. This whole thing is a crazy production in order to get custody of her dog back from her ex-husband, said Ozols in an email. But Melnick said the real proof will come in court. "They're grasping for straws, saying anything they can to get anyone riled up to save his military career. Wait until court. There is so much evidence, I can't begin to say," she said. McDonald's is partnering with Chobani to offer Greek yogurt parfaits and smoothies at its Southern California restaurants as the fast-food giant works to transform into a "modern, progressive burger company." McDonald's spokeswoman Lisa McComb said the partnership is limited to a regional test of about 800 restaurants in Los Angeles and San Diego. "It's very premature to determine if it may expand," she wrote. The Southern California restaurants are offering a "Simple Delights Menu" that lists options like apple slices, smoothies and the yogurt parfait made with Chobani. SoCal restaurants also began selling two breakfast bowls this week. One is made with egg whites, turkey sausage, spinach and kale. The other is made with scrambled eggs and chorizo and includes a hash brown. The chain had tested the bowls on a more limited basis last year, which McComb said was for "operational learnings and customer feedback." The change-up comes as McDonald's Corp. fights to step up its image, as sales have slumped amid changing tastes and intensifying competition. CEO Steve Easterbrook, who took over last March, has said he wants to transform McDonald's into a "modern, progressive burger company." One of the biggest moves under Easterbrook was the introduction of an all-day breakfast menu in October, which generated positive headlines for the company. Whether it leads to sustained sales growth remains to be seen. In January, McDonald's said sales jumped 5.7 percent at established U.S. locations in the last three months of 2015, marking its best showing in four years. But the company did not disclose how much of the increase was driven by an uptick in customer visits, versus factors such as price hikes. A Chobani representative was not immediately available for comment Wednesday. The partnership was reported earlier Tuesday in the San Diego Union Tribune. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is asking Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to add the names of 74 American sailors to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Schumer (D-NY) on Thursday called on the Pentagon chief to have the names enshrined on the D.C. memorial. The sailors were aboard the USS Frank E. Evans, a destroyer, when it was split in half after being broadsided by an Australian aircraft carrier during a 1969 training exercise in the South China Sea. Four New York natives were among the dead. The names of the Evans sailors were left off the memorial because the accident occurred outside the Vietnam combat zone. Schumer says an exception should be made for the Evans 74, since the ship had provided combat fire support in Vietnamese waters just days before the accident. D.C. salad eatery Sweetgreen has announced this year's lineup for their Sweetlife Festival. What used to be a two-day event has been condensed to a single day this year, May 14 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. The lineup includes British pop rock band The 1975, American electro-pop act Halsey and Australian DJ and producer Flume. While most of the acts are fairly recently established, there'll be a serving of nostalgia with Blondie taking the stage. Eagles of Death Metal, whose concert at the Bataclan came under fire during the Paris terrorist attacks in November, also joins the lineup. Most of the acts are indie rock, pop and electronic. PARTYNEXTDOOR is set to be the festival's only R&B act, followed by Shamir as the only rap act. Look for funk vibes from Thundercat, the bassist who helped Kendrick Lamar on his latest album, "To Pimp a Butterfly." Last year, Lamar and The Weeknd shared the stage with Goldlink, Vic Mensa, SZA and Raury. Along with the music, there will also be a showcase of food from local Japanese restaurant Toki Underground, hummus place Little Sesame and, of course, Sweetgreen. For the full music and food lineup, visit their website. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. but presale tickets are available if you get the presale code from their Instagram account. General admission is $100; pavilion tickets are $125, and VIP access is $150. D.C. police have used secret technology for years to track cellphones without search warrants -- and a man found guilty of sexual assault is now challenging his conviction because he says use of the tool violated his rights. Since 2003, D.C. police have used cellphone tower simulators known as Stingrays, the Metropolitan Police Department has testified in court. The suitcase-sized devices mimic the signals of the closest cellphone towers. Any cellphone in that area then is redirected to the Stingray, giving the user of the device the ability to determine a suspect's location and more. "This device was a big secret," said Arthur Spitzer of the American Civil Liberties Union of the Nations Capital. Legal experts say the sexual assault case of Prince Jones is the first time D.C. police have admitted to using the devices, The Washington Times reported. Jones was found guilty in 2014 of robbing two women he contacted for escort services through Backpage.com and forcing them at knifepoint to perform oral sex on him, the paper reported. Police learned the phone number Jones used to contact the victims and began tracking the location of his phone without a warrant, Jones' appeal said, according to the Times. Spitzer of the ACLU said police departments across the country are using Stingrays without warrants, violating people's privacy. "The Stingray enables them to track you even when you're inside your house, inside your office, places that police are not supposed to go into without a warrant," he said. D.C. police and U.S. attorneys offices declined to comment. The Metropolitan Police Department signed an agreement with the FBI in 2012. According to that agreement, the FBI can ask local police and prosecutors to dismiss cases rather than disclose information about Stingray technology. Congress is raising questions about that power of the FBI. "I think in this non-disclosure agreement, the [Department of Justice] is foreseeing the exact problem we're having right now," said civil rights attorney Ari Wilkenfeld, who is not involved in Jones' case. "It's going to be a misuse, and when it is, you're going to have to dismiss your cases, as opposed to revealing any information about the technology." D.C. police paid for the Stingrays using a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. They were intended to be used to fight terrorism, according to records submitted in court by the ACLU. "This technology was given to them by the federal government for emergency circumstances, not, theres a bank robber running down the street and were worried he might rob somebody else. This was for terrorism," Wilkenfeld said. D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh (Ward 3), who is a constitutional law scholar, said lawmakers need to keep up with technology. "The ability of the government or have access to our phone data, our texts, our location, to be able to track us from a point in time to whenever, is almost unlimited," she said. D.C. Superior Court is getting ready to swear in a new judge. Judge William Ward Nooter's investiture ceremony will take place Friday at the courthouse. Nooter previously worked as an attorney for what is now the Office of the Attorney General in the District of Columbia and at a law firm where he handled personal injury cases, professional liability cases and employment and insurance coverage issues. He was a magistrate judge from 2000 to 2013. Nooter received his bachelor's degree from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. He got his law degree from George Washington University. Metro riders will likely see more officers patrolling buses and trains as the transit system increases security in response to a shooting aboard a Green Line train earlier this week. Metro Transit Police outlined a new plan Thursday morning, saying riders should expect "sharp increases" in the number of patrol officers at certain times of day. In addition, WMATA signed a $1.2 million contract to hire private security officers from Rockville-based BTI Security, News4's Scott MacFarlane reported. The private security officers will police the agency's revenue facility in Alexandria, as well as escort the technicians who service Metro station fare machines, MacFarlane reported. The private security hired by DC Metro rail #WMATA must provide their own firearms, will work from 4a-6p everyday except Saturday Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) February 25, 2016 The following measures will take effect immediately: Reassign 17 officers to patrol operations. Metro's contract with the private security firm will allow 11 of its officers to start patrolling immediately; an additional six officers will be available in 60 days. The additional officers will be assigned to patrols based on crime trends. Metro's contract with the private security firm will allow 11 of its officers to start patrolling immediately; an additional six officers will be available in 60 days. The additional officers will be assigned to patrols based on crime trends. Relieve existing patrol officers from "revenue protection" duties. Some officers on patrol duties who spend a portion of their time on revenue protection duties will be able to focus on traditional police duties at all times. Some officers on patrol duties who spend a portion of their time on revenue protection duties will be able to focus on traditional police duties at all times. Implement "power hour" deployments , increasing the number of officers on duty during certain times by up to 100 percent. Metro will use overtime to overlap day-shift and evening-shift officers on selected days and at selected locations. , increasing the number of officers on duty during certain times by up to 100 percent. Metro will use overtime to overlap day-shift and evening-shift officers on selected days and at selected locations. Reassign officers on "limited duty" status to key stations to provide additional "eyes and ears." Officers who are cleared to work on limited duty status will be assigned to stations based on crime trends. "Every Metro rider deserves to be able to travel freely without fear, and we will take all appropriate steps to reassure riders and respond to crime trends," said Transit Police Chief Ron Pavlik. "At the general manager's direction, we will take immediate steps to increase patrols using our existing resources." On Tuesday, a man was shot and wounded on a Green Line train that was stopped at the Anacostia. Two teens, ages 16 and 19, were arrested and charged in the shooting. The 16-year-old will be tried as an adult. And earlier this month, six high school students were charged with assault after a man was attacked and beaten in the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station. The teens have been allowed back in school, however, a judge ruled they can no longer ride Metrorail. News4 Transportation Reporter Adam Tuss reported Metro is also working on public service announcements in light of the recent incidents. [370148641, C] A Richmond-area judge had to halt a murder trial after more than half of would-be jurors failed to show up. On Wednesday, Petersburg Circuit Court Judge Dennis M. Martin canceled a scheduled two-day trial, Public Defender Jennifer Gilmore told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Gilmore said 24 of about 60 subpoenaed city residents showed up, with 18 of the 24 being lawfully excused. It's rare for a criminal trial to be postponed for this reason, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Gilmore is co-defending 21-year-old Leon Thomas Archer in the May 2015 shooting death of Shaakira Ross, a 2014 high school graduate. The judge declined to order the potential jurors to explain their absence, telling attorneys he didn't want to antagonize residents already upset with the local government, Gilmore said. Recent protests over the handling of city finances have led Petersburg's City Council to vote to negotiate exits for the city manager and city attorney. Petersburg is located south of Richmond. Two fathers who lost their sons to a drunk driving accident last summer want parents who host teen drinking parties to face possible jail time, WTOP reports. Paul Li and David Murk testified before lawmakers in Annapolis on Wednesday. Their sons, Calvin Jia-Xing Li and Alexander Murk, died last June when their 19-year-old friend lost control on his car on a North Potomac, Maryland, road. The young men and a 16-year-old boy had just left a party at Kenneth Saltzman's home, where police said they had been drinking. Saltzman was later fined paid $5,000 for furnishing alcohol to minors, but Paul Li and David Murk think the penalty for providing alcohol to minors should be much stricter. The men asked lawmakers Wednesday to enact a bill that would impose possible jail time, according to WTOP. Under "Alex and Calvin's Bill", parents would face up to one year in jail for their first offense and two years for a second offense. The bill received a favorable vote from the Senate committee and will now move foward. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has declared a state of emergency as powerful storms ripped through the state, killing three adults and a child. The 2-year-old boy was killed Wednesday as powerful storms ripped through Waverly, in southeastern Virginia, according to state police. The child was in a mobile home that was destroyed in the storm. His body was found about 300 yards from the mobile home, along with the bodies of the two other victims, a 50-year-old man and a 26-year-old man, state police said. Another man was killed in Appomattox County. He was declared missing after his home in Evergreen was destroyed. His remains later were found in the home, state police said in an update late Wednesday. The Virginia National Guard said in a statement that it expects to have more than 50 soldiers on duty early Thursday. Brig. Gen. Paul F. Griffin, director of the Virginia National Guard joint staff, says the initial plan is to provide support for Essex, Richmond, Westmoreland, Sussex and Patrick counties. Officials say soldiers will work in debris reduction teams. They'll be equipped with chain saws and Humvees to help local emergency responders clear fallen trees and other debris. A rotary wing aviation support will be on standby to provide aerial damage assessment if needed. A reported funnel cloud left an 8 to 10-mile path of destruction in Appomattox County. Seven people were hurt, multiple buildings were damaged and many residents are without power. State police in the county were unable to receive emergency calls due to storm damage to infrastructure. In Waverly, eight people were injured by the storm that left a 3-mile path of destruction, NBC12 WWBT in Richmond reported. Residents reported seeing a funnel cloud. In Essex County, 25 injuries were reported, ranging from minor to serious, and at least 30 buildings were damaged. McAuliffe said state emergency officials are closely monitoring storms that continue to lash parts of the state. The emergency declaration Wednesday evening enables state agencies to devote resources to storm response and recovery. Debris from the storm made roads in the area impassable, and there are reports of flooding. State police advised delaying travel in the area. The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for an area in southeastern Virginia, with radar indicating a twister in Waverly. Three people were killed in Louisiana and Mississippi when tornadoes hit there Tuesday. Dozens of other people were injured. The 16-year-old boy accused of shooting a man on a Metro train Tuesday was charged Wednesday with armed robbery, not assault with intent to kill, as previously was expected. Hassan Graves, who will be tried as an adult, was arraigned Wednesday morning along with Andre Broadie, 19, who also was charged with armed robbery. Metro Transit Police had said Tuesday that Graves would be charged with assault with intent to kill. "The investigation is very active and additional charges are possible," Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said in an update Wednesday evening. Graves robbed a man and then shot him after he fought back, charging documents say. The 24-year-old victim was on board a Green Line train approaching the Anacostia station Tuesday afternoon with his girlfriend when Graves robbed him, court documents say. The victim tried to get his money back and punched Graves. That's when Graves shot the victim in the upper back, the documents say. The victim was conscious and breathing when he was taken to a hospital, Metro said. He had been released by 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. Police identified the suspects from surveillance video in the station, News4 reported. D.C. police later saw them walking on the South Capitol Street Bridge. "If you commit a crime, we are going to get you," said Jack Evans, chairman of Metro's board of directors. Graves has been arrested several times previously, including for participation in an armed robbery of a 7-Eleven, court documents say. Broadie's lawyer said his client was at the scene of the alleged crime but didn't hurt the victim. Metro officials said they don't remember a previous shooting on a train. Broadie and Graves were ordered held without bond. They're due back in court March 10. Two men are in police custody for allegedly setting a series of car fires in New Hampshire at the end of January. Police in Portsmouth say 24-year-old Goffstown resident Michael York and 23-year-old Dunbarton resident Adam Carlin were arrested Thursday and charged with setting the fires, causing a violent disruption in a quaint and quiet area of the city. York and Carlin are accused of causing about $30,000 worth of damage, and totaling three of the five cars they allegedly set on fire. The suspects targeted unlocked vehicles, police said, adding they hope this is a lesson learned for all, even though it's a hard one for some. Police say there were also several reports of thefts and one stolen vehicle the same day as the fires. The investigation is ongoing. Five accused members of the "Felony Lane Gang" were arrested in New Hampshire after officers discovered stolen debit and credit cards in their hotel room, police said. Salem police say an officer observed a man and a woman acting suspiciously in the parking lot of a Red Roof Inn, and then started to speak with them. During one officer's chat, another officer learned that the woman, identified as 24-year-old Samantha Proffitt of New Albany, Indiana, had an active arrest warrant in Pennsylvania, according to police. As the warrant was being confirmed, police say she led the officers to her room, where there were three other people. Police add that officers could also smell marijuana coming from the room, and were granted consent to search the room based on this. During this search, police say the officers found items that didn't belong to the people in the room, including debit and credit cards, checks and a driver's license. This resulted in the the arrests of Proffitt on fugitive from justice and receiving stolen property charges; meanwhile, four others were charged with only receiving stolen property: Ashley Beach, 24, of Lauderdale Lakes, Florida; Allen Clark, 26, of Oakland Park, Florida; Courtney Manuel, 27, of Lauderhill, Florida; and Cedrick Jones, 28, of Oakland Park, Florida. Salem police say the Felony Lane Gang is a loose organization nationwide that usually targets parked vehicles outside of gyms and supermarkets. All five will be arraigned Thursday. It's not clear if they have attorneys. Federal authorities have indicted Timothy Burke, the man at the center of a foreclosure rental operation in Connecticut. Investigators say Burke, 64, of Easton, defrauded dozens of Connecticut homeowners in foreclosure by promising to intervene with their lenders, but instead rented out the properties and kept all of the money. The NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters began looking into Burke in 2014 and found that he used many aliases, including "Jimmy" and "Bill." An IRS investigator credits the Troubleshooters with exposing the alleged scheme. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey, in 2003, Burke pleaded guilty to several counts of "equity skimming," duping homeowners into signing over the rights to their properties with a promise of freeing them from their debts, then renting those properties out and keeping all the money. Burke served four years in federal prison. His supervised release was terminated in 2009, and he started his real estate dealings in Connecticut soon after. Now, investigators are looking for other potential victims. Anyone who thinks they may have been victimized is asked to call 860-240-9735. Second amendment rights clashed with property owners' rights at the Maine State House Wednesday afternoon, with lawmakers considering a bill that prevents landlords from banning handguns in subsidized housing properties. Republican State Sen. Andre Cushing sponsored the bill after an incident in Rockland last fall. Harvey Lembo, an elderly and disabled man, was the victim of several home invasions and robberies. He bought a gun to defend himself, and days later, used it on an intruder. The property management company told Lembo to surrender the gun or be evicted. It was against the policy in the subsidized housing to have firearms. "Everyone should have the right to defend their home," said Sen. Cushing. "They should not be denied their second amendment rights because they happen to accept taxpayer funding." The NRA has taken interest in the case, sending out mailings to its members and sending a representative to testify at the legislature's Public Safety Committee hearing. Opponents of the bill argue property owners have a right to decide what tenants can bring to their buildings. One lawmaker pointed out it's not against the law to have a policy against pets. "Tenants routinely give up rights when they move into an apartment building," said Bill Harwood, founder of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition. The committee scheduled a workshop for the bill on March 2, and could vote on the measure at that time. Police in Everett, Massachusetts, have arrested a man accused of driving under the influence of alcohol with a 5-year-old child in the backseat. The incident allegedly happened Sunday in the area of Parkway Pub. Everett Police say a witness told police a man drove into the parking lot with the child in the car. That witness took the keys away from the driver and took the child inside. Police arrived and arrested Amadeo Reyes, 41, of Chelsea. He was charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of liquor and child endangerment while OUI. He was arraigned in court Monday. A 52-year-old New Hampshire man exposed himself twice to a teenage employee at a Hannaford supermarket, police say. Anthony Olisky of Laconia faces two misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure and lewdness. Police say Olisky showed his genitals to a 17-year-old boy who worked at the store when the two were in the men's room on Sunday. The victim opened a stall door to find Olisky exposing himself, according to police. The teen immediately returned to the stall, but police say he could see, between the door and the partition, Olisky masturbating. After Olisky left the restroom to shop, the victim told the store manager and police were called to the scene. Olisky was arrested Tuesday after police obtained a warrant. He was released on $1,600 personal recognizance bail. The suspect is due to appear in Laconia District Court on April 7. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney. New details are emerging in the investigation into Massachusetts State Senator Brian Joyce. The Boston Globe reports that federal prosecutors are looking into the Democratic senator's involvement in a massive solar project at Stonehill College in Easton. Documents show that Joyce represented the school and the company that recently installed solar panels at the college. The project came as the senator pushed for legislation that would make it easier for clean energy projects. Last week, FBI and IRS agents raided Joyces law office in Canton to conduct what a spokeswoman for the FBI's Boston office described as "court authorized activity in connection with an ongoing federal investigation." The exact nature of the probe has not been revealed. Joyce's lawyer, Howard Cooper, said at the time of the raid that the senator was cooperating with law enforcement and believed he had done "absolutely nothing wrong." In January, Joyce agreed to pay nearly $5,000 for using campaign funds to pay for his son's 2014 high school graduation party. The state Office of Campaign and Political Finance said at the time Joyce used campaign funds for personal expenses and failed to disclose campaign finance activity or keep detailed records. Joyce said at the time that there was "no finding of wrongdoing on my part." Joyce recently said he will not seek re-election. Fresh Start - a Women's Day for East of England All Saints Mattishall An opportunity to pray and worship to be challenged, encouraged and inspired to experience Gods power. Hosted by All Saints Church, Mattishall, in association with New Wine. Speakers: Becky Harcourt and Julia Chamberlin. Tickets womenmatv.eventbrite.co.uk All Saints Church, Mattishall, Dereham, NR20 3QF Cost 15 including drinks (10 concessions). Bring your own lunch. Contact name and tel for more details: Sue Cossey 01362 857904 A Fresh Start! A womens day for the East of EnglandAn opportunity to pray and worship to be challenged, encouraged and inspired to experience Gods power. Hosted by All Saints Church, Mattishall, in association with New Wine.Speakers: Becky Harcourt and Julia Chamberlin. TicketsAll Saints Church, Mattishall, Dereham, NR20 3QFCost 15 including drinks (10 concessions). Bring your own lunch.Contact name and tel for more details: Sue Cossey 01362 857904 Magio Strings St Mary''s Church Hickling Tickets from Sandra, Sandra.clarke6@gmail.com Magio Strings are laying a programme from Bach to Beyonce. Free drink and nibbles during the event.Tickets from Sandra, Sandra.clarke6@gmail.com Bouncing Forwards tour St Stephen's Church, Norwich, St Stephens in Norwich will be hosting an evening in October with Patrick Regan OBE, as he explores themes from his book Bouncing Forwards. Patrick is CEO and co-founder of Kintsugi Hope, which came about following a series of trials and ill-health affecting him and his family. Kintsugi is a Japanese technique for repairing pottery with seams of gold, and the strapline of the charity is 'discovering treasure in life's scars'. Prior to founding Kintsugi Hope, he led the urban youth work charity XLP, which he founded in 1996 and led for 22 years. Admission is free. Briston holiday club The Copeman Centre, Hall Street, Briston . A half term childrens holiday with no charge to take part in the fun. The event is open to all children aged 5 to 11 and there will be stories, songs, crafts, and games, based on the life of David: 'the Shepherd King who Liked to Sing!'. The event is completely free but please book places for your children by contacting Matthew on 07910 383682 or at matthewpickhaver@hotmail.com . Sheringham Word and Worship Lighthouse, 62 Cromer Road, Sheringham, Following a successful run of Word and Worship mornings during the summer holidays, Lighthouse will be holding three similar sessions next week, led by Connor Winston with a message from Tim Waller. Lighthouse Cafe will be open when the sessions end, so coffees, teas, cakes, and even bacon rolls will be available for those who wish to stay a little longer and chat for a while. . Music to touch the soul Fountain of Life Church Ashill Come along with your friends to something truly exceptional! Doors open at 2:30pm with refreshments available Light refreshments will also be served during the interval. Children over 5 years old welcome. Free Parking. Accessible facilities The tickets cost 5 and include free drinks and nibbles served before the concert and during the interval. Book your tickets here: https://fountainoflifechurch.churchsuite.com/events/vh8d0jkv This will be a high quality performance of well-known music performed by world-class musicians. Described as 'Music to touch the soul' beautiful classical, jazz, opera, ballards and pop classics will be interspersed with entertaining and moving stories.. The performers, all committed Christians, weave their faith into the performance through the choice of music and their own personal stories. It will be a very special event and perfect to bring friends and family who don't yet know Jesus. There is something for everyone in this very special afternoon concert of well-known music interspersed with entertaining and moving stories from the lives of these world-class musicians. Let the weight of the world be washed from your shoulders as you are delighted by your favourite classical, jazz, and pop classics.Come along with your friends to something truly exceptional!Doors open at 2:30pm with refreshments availableLight refreshments will also be served during the interval. Children over 5 years old welcome.Free Parking. Accessible facilitiesThe tickets cost 5 and include free drinks and nibbles served before the concert and during the interval. Book your tickets here:This will be a high quality performance of well-known music performed by world-class musicians. Described as 'Music to touch the soul' beautiful classical, jazz, opera, ballards and pop classics will be interspersed with entertaining and moving stories.. The performers, all committed Christians, weave their faith into the performance through the choice of music and their own personal stories. It will be a very special event and perfect to bring friends and family who don't yet know Jesus. Thorpe Market fine art exhibition St Margarets Church, Thorpe Market Swallowtail Fine Artists invite you to their fine arts exhibition in November. A collaboration between professional wildlife artist Lorraine Auton, pastel artist Amanda Springall-Rogers and photographic artist Tony College. Each artist uses different, yet complementary approaches to depict principally Natural World subjects. All work (original paintings, limited edition prints, photographs, and greetings cards) will be for sale. Free sketching classes will take place on Saturday 10.30am-12pm and Sunday 2pm-3.30pm with Lorraine Auton. These are suitable for all ages and abilities. Equipment supplied but please feel free to bring your own if you wish. For further details, feel free to contact us via Facebook or contact Lorraine at lorraineauton@btinternet.com. Entry is FREE. Thorpe Market fine art exhibition St Margarets Church, Thorpe Market Swallowtail Fine Artists invite you to their fine arts exhibition in November. A collaboration between professional wildlife artist Lorraine Auton, pastel artist Amanda Springall-Rogers and photographic artist Tony College. Each artist uses different, yet complementary approaches to depict principally Natural World subjects. All work (original paintings, limited edition prints, photographs, and greetings cards) will be for sale. Free sketching classes will take place on Saturday 10.30am-12pm and Sunday 2pm-3.30pm with Lorraine Auton. These are suitable for all ages and abilities. Equipment supplied but please feel free to bring your own if you wish. For further details, feel free to contact us via Facebook or contact Lorraine at lorraineauton@btinternet.com. Entry is FREE. Amanda Futcher back to her old tricks A VETERAN fraudster who has fleeced kind-hearted local folk for years has been convicted yet again - this time for the theft of a charity box. Amanda Futcher, who has 145 previous convictions, has been up to her old tricks following her early release from prison. The 35-year-old, of Newtown Road, was jailed for 28 months in April 2014, prompting police to say her victims had earned a rest from her activities. But her sentence was subsequently reduced after an appeal court ruled it was "manifestly excessive". And at Reading Magistrates' Court yesterday (Wednesday) she pleaded guilty to her latest crime - the theft of a poppy appeal charity box from the Newbury branch of the Royal British legion on Monday. She was both charged and convicted at the hearing on Wednesday and fined 150 for the offence. Investigating Officer PC Emma Cox, from Newbury police station said "This was a particularly emotive crime as the charity box was for the Poppy Appeal, however any crime of this nature will not be tolerated." Take a look at the plan for significant upgrades at Easton's Beach The city's consultants presented conceptual renderings of how possible replacements for the snack bar and carousel buildings might look. Copy Editor/Entertainment Editor Frank Pieper is a copy editor and entertainment editor at The News-Gazette, and the author of Frank's Faves and Frank's Weekend Faves. His email is fpieper@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@frp308). Champaign, IL (61820) Today Abundant sunshine. High 77F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low 52F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Reporter Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk). Today, Huntington Hospital announced that it has received the Healthgrades 2016 America's 50 Best Hospitals Award. The distinction makes Huntington Hospital one of the top 1% of more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide for its consistent, year-over-year superior clinical performance as measured by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. "To be recognized among America's 50 Best Hospitals by Healthgrades is a tribute to our extraordinary physicians, nurses, employees and volunteers," says Stephen A. Ralph, president and CEO, Huntington Hospital. "We will continue to provide our patients with the leading-edge capabilities of a world-class medical institution, ensuring our patients receive compassionate community care and superior clinical outcomes." From 2012 through 2014, Healthgrades America's 50 Best Hospitals Award recipients, as a group, had a 24.4% lower risk adjusted mortality rate across 19 procedures and conditions where in-hospital mortality was the clinical outcome, compared to all other hospitals. During this same period, if all other hospitals performed at the level of America's 50 Best Hospitals Award across these 19 procedures and conditions, 164,116 lives could potentially have been saved. For example, patients treated at a hospital that has achieved the America's 50 Best Hospitals Award had, on average, a 22.1% lower risk of dying during their hospital stay for stroke than if treated at a hospital that did not receive the award. Also, patients treated at a hospital that has achieved the America's 50 Best Hospitals Award had, on average, a 28.5% lower risk of dying during their hospital stay for heart failure than if treated at a hospital that did not receive the award. Variation in hospital performance exists locally as well as nationally. Huntington Hospital is among the hospitals in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA area with some of the best quality care across at least 21 of 32 common inpatient conditions and procedures evaluated by Healthgrades over a period of at least 6 years. "Our analysis shows that there is tremendous variation in care, so it's important for consumers to carefully research and choose a hospital," said Evan Marks, Chief Strategy Officer, Healthgrades. "We commend the recipients of the America's 50 Best Hospital Award for delivering exceptional clinical outcomes that help them stand out from their peers in terms of overall clinical performance." The 50 recipients of the America's 50 Best Hospitals Award stand out among the rest for overall clinical excellence across a broad spectrum of care. During the 2016 study period (2012-2014), these hospitals showed superior performance in clinical outcomes for patients in the Medicare population across at least 21 of 32 of the most common inpatient conditions and procedures as measured by objective performance data (risk-adjusted mortality and in-hospital complications). In the context of the multicentre EU project "INTRICATE" under the management of Renate Kain of the Clinical Institute for Pathology of MedUni Vienna, the effects of infections on the generation of rare autoimmune diseases such as granulomatous polyangiitis (GPA), a systemic disease of the vascular system, are examined. The central result: impaired immune response is significantly involved in these diseases. Patients with autoimmune vasculitis, which auto-immunologically leads to the destruction of small vessels, were examined in order to find out whether the micro-bacterial infestation of the human body i.e. in nasal mucosa or in case of urinary tract infection has an effect. Kain: "Although we were not able to support this hypothesis, the bacterial infestation did not produce significant differences between healthy and diseased test persons. However, it became apparent that the patients' immune response to the infection was impaired and continuously fuelled by a large number of white blood corpuscles. This causes constant infection processes in the body, which are decisively involved in the generation of these autoimmune diseases." This overt immune response was still active even after the infection had long been overcome. At the same time, the researchers were able to demonstrate distinct hierarchies within the immune response - from "good" through "bad" up to "evil". "We have furthermore discovered new, further autoantigens which are directed against proteins" says Kain. These new findings could also result in new therapy options for these rare diseases; approx. 40 people per one million citizens suffer from an autoimmune disease such as vasculitis. Furthermore, so the MedUni Vienna researchers, there is now a very large, unique number of blood samples of more than 400 patients, a "blood database", which could also be helpful to future researches of various autoimmune diseases, due to the current study. Word day of Rare Diseases on 29 February 2016 The World day of rare diseases shall be held next Monday (29.2.). MedUni Vienna focusses on the research of these diseases. Thus, in cooperation with the University Clinics for Dermatology as well as Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine of MedUni Vienna / AKH Vienna and CeMM Research Centre for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy for Sciences, a new centre for the interdisciplinary research and treatment of these rare diseases and non-diagnosed illnesses was founded in 2015 (Vienna Centre for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases/CeRUD). According to estimations, there are between 6,000 and 8,000 different rare or undiagnosed disorders. Approximately five to eight percent of the population suffers from such disease. This affects approx. 400,000 Austrians. Regarding the project INTRICATE is a multi-centre project which was subsidised with nearly six million Euro in the context of the 7. EU Framework program and managed by Renate Kain at MedUni Vienna. The syndicate consists of 11 international partners (8 academic partners, 2 small and medium companies, 1 management company), among those renowned scientists of the Max Planck Society Munich, the University Clinic Groningen, the Technical University Denmark, the Cambridge University, the University Clinic Bonn, the Mayo Clinic and the Stanford University. Five research clusters at MedUni Vienna In total, five research clusters are established at MedUni Vienna. Here, the emphasis is increasingly on basics as well as clinical research at the MedUni Vienna. The research clusters comprise medical imaging, cancer research/oncology, cardiovascular medicine, medical neuro-sciences and immunology. This research is included in the topics of the immunology cluster. A study to be published in the March 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) reports that adolescents with major depression who performed a computer-based task designed to shift attention from sad to neutral to positive word associations showed reductions in negative attention biases and clinician-rated depressive symptoms. 11% of American adolescents suffer from Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Facing a broad range of psychosocial and health problems, these youths are five times more at risk to attempt suicide than peers without psychiatric illness. A novel computer-based task, attention bias modification (ABM), designed to shift attention away from negative stimuli, was found to reduce depressive symptoms in adults. Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today A group of researchers led by Dr. Wenhui Yang of Hunan Normal University, examined the short- and long-term effects of ABM tasks in 45 adolescents with MDD, selected from a school population (n=2731). The authors hypothesized that adolescents who engaged in active ABM training would report greater reductions in depressive symptoms compared with adolescents in the control group, who did a placebo training. Adolescents in the active ABM group completed eight sessions (22 minutes each) over a period of two weeks to shift their attention from sad to neutral words. Nine weeks later, they completed four more sessions (30 minutes each) to shift their attention from neutral to positive words, again spread over two weeks. The placebo training had the same tasks, but shifted attention towards neutral and sad words equally often. The researchers found greater reductions in attention bias score and clinician-rated depressive symptoms for the active ABM group compared with the placebo after the initial two-week training. Moreover, a higher number of participants in active ABM group no longer met diagnostic criteria for MDD compared to participants in the placebo group. After 12 months, the participants in the active ABM group reported even greater reductions in self-reported depressive and anxious feelings. Based on these findings, the authors concluded that ABM may be a potential treatment tool for mild to moderate adolescent major depression. As most adult depression begins during adolescence, training for adolescents with depression may have far-reaching effects across their entire life. The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and healthcare technology firm CipherHealth LLC have launched a customizable care-management platform called View that aims to improve the quality of care for patients with complex health conditions. The platform, which helps engage patients and facilitate more efficient team coordination among providers, was developed in collaboration between the two entities. View integrates CipherHealth's patient engagement software platforms with evidenced-based patient care plans and multidisciplinary care management workflows. These care plans and workflows were developed by UCSF faculty and care management staff to help care for patients with chronic or complex health conditions. "We needed a comprehensive tool that would be able to help us manage our most complex patients across the care continuum and across disciplines," said Gina Intinarelli RN PhD, executive director of Population Health and Accountable Care at UCSF Medical Center. "This enables us not only to understand longitudinal data for one patient, but also to visualize the types of care delivered to larger patient populations. It helps us know how to deliver the right care, in the right place, by the right person." The collaboration built upon a previous vendor arrangement, in which UCSF Medical Center used CipherHealth's patient engagement product, Voice, to automatically call patients after they had been discharged from the hospital to monitor their conditions. Accessible on any web-enabled device, View aggregates patient data from disparate sources to simplify coordination across multiple care teams throughout the care continuum. By providing a single platform for patient data aggregation, View streamlines the care management process and ensures that any provider can easily reference a patient's longitudinal history and be notified of any upcoming procedures or appointments. The solution gives providers a simple and streamlined view of population-level trends, in addition to the individual journey of each patient. "View combines the world of previously separate and isolated care management tools into a single, integrated platform," said Zach Silverzweig, co-founder of CipherHealth. "In today's increasingly digital world, it only makes sense for healthcare providers to use a tool that connects them to one another and to the greater health goals of each patient." In addition to aggregating patient data, View allows seamless, real-time communication between care providers to efficiently and accurately build a collaborative care plan, even when that care involves multiple types of healthcare providers or specialists, who have virtually no interaction with one another. With View, these clinicians can easily reference data entered by another provider, as well as communicate with one another on the patient's progress. This correspondence bridges gaps between the various members of one patient's care team, and leads to a smoother care experience for the patient. In a first for medical science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill pharmacy researchers turn skin cells into cancer-hunting stem cells that destroy brain tumors known as glioblastoma - a discovery that can offer, for the first time in more than 30 years, a new and more effective treatment for the disease. The technique, reported in Nature Communications, builds upon the newest version of the Nobel Prize-winning technology from 2007, which allowed researchers to turn skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells. Researchers hailed the possibilities for use in regenerative medicine and drug screening. Now, researchers have found a new use: killing brain cancer. "Patients desperately need a better standard of care," said Shawn Hingtgen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Care Center, who led the study. The survival rate beyond two years for a patient with a glioblastoma is 30 percent because it is so difficult to treat. Even if a surgeon removes most of the tumor, it's nearly impossible to get the invasive, cancerous tendrils that spread deeper into the brain and inevitably the remnants grow back. Most patients die within a year and a half of their diagnosis. Hingtgen and his team want to improve those statistics by developing a new personalized treatment for glioblastoma that starts with a patient's own skin cells, with the goal of getting rid of the cancerous tendrils, effectively killing the glioblastoma. In their work, Hingtgen and his team reprogram skin cells known as fibroblasts - which produce collagen and connective tissue -- to become induced neural stem cells. Working with mice, Hingtgen's team showed that these neural stem cells have an innate ability to move throughout the brain and home in on and kill any remaining cancer cells. The team also showed that these stem cells could be engineered to produce a tumor-killing protein, adding another blow to the cancer. Lab Diagnostics & Automation eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today Depending on the type of tumor, the Hingtgen's team increased survival time of the mice 160 to 220 percent. Next steps will focus on human stem cells and testing more effective anti-cancer drugs that can be loaded into the tumor-seeking neural stem cells. "Our work represents the newest evolution of the stem-cell technology that won the Nobel Prize in 2012," Hingtgen said. "We wanted to find out if these induced neural stem cells would home in on cancer cells and whether they could be used to deliver a therapeutic agent. This is the first time this direct reprogramming technology has been used to treat cancer." Hingtgen's team is also currently improving the staying power of stem cells within the surgical cavity. They discovered that the stem cells needed a physical matrix to support and organize them, so they will hang around long enough to seek out the cancerous tendrils. "Without a structure like that, the stem cells wander off too quickly to do any good," said Hingtgen, who reported this result in a separate journal called Biomaterials. In that study, Hingtgen and his team added his stem cells to an FDA-approved fibrin sealant commonly used as surgical glue. The physical matrix it creates tripled the retention of stem cells in the surgical cavity, providing further support for the applicability and strength of the technique. Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy March 3 will mark a year since Sweet Briar Colleges previous administration announced it planned to close the college, unleashing powerful emotions on the campus and in the wider college community. For the anniversary next week, the schools new leaders have planned a mix of reflection, celebration and fundraising for the still-standing institution of higher learning, saved by alumnae and their allies. Leaders are calling March, Sweet Briar Forever Month. The school plans to begin events March 3, with a service of reflection and renewal for students, faculty and staff in Memorial Chapel on campus that will feature remarks by the schools chaplain and other speakers, several choral musical numbers, and the singing of the school song. That service is closed to the public, but members of public are welcome at the days other events. We know that this is a really important date for people to mark as a new beginning, a renewal and a rededication toward the future sustainability of Sweet Briar, said Mary Pope Hutson, vice president for alumnae relations and development. At 11:30 a.m. the school will hold a gathering on the quad for alumnae, followed at 11:40 by the planting of a couple new rose bushes in between Gray and Pannell halls, in honor of the movement to save the school. Sweet Briars motto is Rosam quae meruit ferat, or, She who has earned the rose may bear it. At 11:50 the school will ring its bells, and at noon it will host a lunch in Prothro dining hall. All are welcome, and food will be free to alumnae, faculty and staff. On the fundraising side, March 3 will mark the major kickoff date for a campaign to raise $30 million in undesignated funds by June 30. Hutson is looking to raise $500,000 on March 3 alone and $1 million by March 10, the birthday of college founder Indiana Fletcher Williams. College fundraising staff and volunteers have been laying the groundwork for the push since December. One of the lessons learned during the fight to save the school following the closure announcement, Hutson said, was a sense that past leaders and staff had been too narrow in their attempts to ask for financial help for the school, missing people who were capable and willing. There are so many people that were never really asked to support Sweet Briar, she said. We definitely are asking now. Hutson said the school hopes to raise $1 million each from 10 individual donors, who were targeted by the school and courted beginning in early winter. She said those targeted individuals include not just alumnae but friends and supporters of the college as well. Hutson sees that money making up a third of the total, with new pledges bringing in another $10 million. Another $10 million could come from people choosing to accelerate earlier pledges. The school needs about $10 million to make its planned budget for the year without tapping its endowment. School leaders also would like to raise money needed to plug the same budget hole in the next two years this year as well, capitalizing on the momentum and excitement underway. Eventually, Sweet Briar hopes to wean itself away such high levels of giving and instead rely more upon what college leaders hope will be rising enrollment and other sources of increased revenue. The $30 million figure also corresponds to the low end of estimates college leaders have made of the amount of financial damage to the college caused by the prior administrations closure attempt, Hutson also noted. An initiative being finalized between the city and the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lynchburg served to kick off the reelection campaign Wednesday for City Council member Turner Perrow, who represents Ward IV. Perrow, 41, has served on City Council since 2008. Similar to earlier campaigns, Perrow will run as an independent. Council elections for the citys four wards will be held May 3. The brunt of Perrows remarks made Wednesday in City Hall concerned a pilot program involving using one of the citys neighborhood centers for programming by the Boys & Girls Club. Perrow called a racial achievement gap affecting the city schools unacceptable, adding there is a moral obligation as responsible citizens to address the issue. After a conversation with Councilman Randy Nelson regarding the achievement gap and reading about negotiations last year between Lynchburg City Schools and the Boys & Girls Club concerning renovations of the clubs facility on Madison Street, Perrow said it occurred to him if city staff lacks the resources to commit to a true after-school program, then the city should outsource to a private organization that is able to do so. Perrow said he has worked with the Boys & Girls Club and city staff to determine if there is a location in the inner city where a pilot program between the Boys & Girls Club and city could be launched. I am pleased to report to you that these discussions are well underway, and we anticipate an official announcement in the future, Perrow said. Lynchburg Parks and Recreation Director Jenny Jones said in an emailed statement the department has agreed in concept to the club operating an afterschool program in the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Center. We feel that Jefferson Park has unique needs that the Boys and Girls Club is equipped to immediately address, Jones said. According to Perrow, the club will operate in the center rent free and the city would maintain the building. City employees who currently staff the center would transition to other neighborhood centers. This is great news for the children at Yoder, Daniels Hill, Diamond Hill, Fairview, and College Hill as they will now have lower child to staff ratios as well as consistency in staffing, Jones said in the statement. Chris Boswell, president of the board of directors of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lynchburg, said hes excited about nonprofits and public entities coming together to work on a solution or solutions that impact our community. Collective impact is going to be the key to success in our community. And its necessary to make positive strides to solve the problems that are at hand. Without a diploma, Perrow said, young people will face minimum-wage jobs or possibly crime. If implemented across the city, the initiative has the potential to reduce future costs in crime prevention and social services, he added. We dont need more tax dollars or some new government bureaucracy, Perrow said. There are people and organizations in this city with the training, resources and experience to help. Its time we found a way to match them up. Earlier in his remarks, Perrow said during the past eight years the city has improved the viability and tax base of the downtown area, begun construction projects such as the new Heritage High School and experienced a significant growth in population. During his tenure on council, Perrow said he helped to broker a deal in which the city ultimately was awarded $30 million from the state toward the citys costly combined sewer overflow program, fought oppressive regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at a congressional hearing and pushed to modernize Lynchburgs zoning ordinance. Perrow acknowledged he favored repairs to the current Heritage High over new construction, but no single initiative has brought him more personal satisfaction than his role in developing a financial plan to rebuild the school without saddling our citizens with a major tax increase. Ladies and gentlemen, I didnt go to City Council so that I could wallow in obstruction and self pity every time I got out-voted, Perrow said. I promised you I would put our children first, respect your dollars, use my training as an engineer, and reach across the aisle to get things done. Perrow is a graduate of E.C. Glass High School and graduated from Virginia Military Institute with a degree in civil engineering. He currently is employed by the engineering firm Woodard & Curran. He is married to Holly Perrow and the couple has three children. He is a member of the Lynchburg Republican City Committee and received its endorsement in his earlier campaigns. Perrows announcement was attended by former members of Lynchburg City Council H. Cary and Joe Seiffert, Lynchburg Sheriff Ron Gillispie and Lynchburg Circuit Court Clerk Eugene Wingfield. RICHMOND Farmers may soon receive tax credits for donating fresh produce as part of a goal to channel nutritious food to the poor. The bill to create up to $5,000 in tax credits to Virginia farmers who donate fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts to nonprofits serving the needy passed the House of Delegates on Wednesday. The bill carried by Sen. Creigh Deeds, R-Bath County already had passed the Senate and will make its way to Gov. Terry McAuliffes desk. The legislation championed by First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe would apply to 30 percent of the fair market value of donated food. With a $5,000 cap, the credit is available for aggregated donations up to $16,667. The governors proposed budget includes $250,000 for the tax credit that is first redeemable in the 2016 tax year. It sunsets in 2022. Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge County, has companion legislation making its way through the Senate after having passed the House. 10 years ago this week, DC rebooted its entire line and multiverse with the industry-changing 'New 52.' For some heroes like Superman and Batman, it recast them from being grizzled veterans to being more youthful characters. For others like Cyborg, the Blackhawks, and Starfire, it gave them a chance to star on their own for the first time in decades. And it also had room for new concepts, such as Justice League Dark, Gotham Academy, and Justice League 3001. The response may have been mixed, but it wasn't muddled - there were things people really liked, and things people really didn't like. But 10 years on, you can really see how much the 'New 52' revitalized DC (and the superhero comic book market), and can better pick out the gems in the 111 titles DC released as part of the 'New 52' era from 2011 to 2015. If you're looking for your comic book fix, from familiar faces as well more obscure characters, you could do a lot worse than digging into the best DC 'New 52' era comics in our top 10. 10. Prez (Image credit: DC) Few could have predicted DC would revamp a character as obscure as Prez (opens in new tab) as part of the publisher's DC You revamp/new title launch event during 'The New 52.' On paper, it didn't line up with their publishing strategy: It featured a no-name character, was bereft of tangible connection to the DCU at large, and the creative team was largely unknown. But that all worked in tandem to be part of the book's charm. Writer Mark Russell put comedy at the forefront to skewer American politics. To help underline the insanity, artist Ben Caldwell imbued the book with a Disney-like charm that helped sell the jokes and the world. Lampooning both sides of the aisle to hilarious effect without the weight of continuity, Prez was a fun update on an old Joe Simon creation and a bright spot in DC's publishing line. Buy: Amazon (opens in new tab) 9. Animal Man (Image credit: DC) Animal Man (opens in new tab) was one of the initial launches of 'The New 52,' bringing over Vertigo's trademark supernatural elements to a more superhero mold. Buddy Baker gave readers something different in the sea of capes as one of the few leading family men of the new wave, setting it apart from the rest of the pack. As Buddy tackled threats ranging from Hollywood burnout to the threat of the zombie-esque Rot, writer Jeff Lemire delivered a perfect blend of family drama, superhero action, and horror, with comedic elements sprinkled in for good measure, but kept everything in a well-maintained balance. Lemire was backed by an incredible rotating art team of Travel Foreman, Steve Pugh, and John Paul Leon that gave Animal Man a new identity, but kept what made him different back in the '80s intact for a new generation to experience. Buy: Amazon (opens in new tab) 8. Action Comics (Image credit: DC) While Superman as a character took a while to find his footing once 'The New 52' began, its easy to point out when he began his upward trajectory: when Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder took over Action Comics (opens in new tab). Beginning with the 'Doomed (opens in new tab)' crossover, Superman suddenly had an insidious, impossible foe to face, as the Doomsday Virus threatened to turn the Man of Steel into humanitys greatest threat. This extended crossover between the Superman books gave Clark Kent some much-needed spring in his step, as Pak laid down the type of characterization that proved to be a solid middle ground between the well-adjusted Midwestern farmboy of yesteryear and the more angsty Kryptonian orphan of the 'New 52.' Kuder, meanwhile, hit his stride with Superman's adventures, with a clean yet expressive style that paid off dividends during the 'Truth (opens in new tab)' saga, which robbed Clark Kent of both his powers and his secret identity. At its best, Action Comics wound up tapping into some potent real-world drama in the wake of violence in Ferguson, Missouri, as Clark Kent stood up as a defender of his friends and neighbors rather than the police status quo. While this de-powering has since been reversed and the 'New 52' Superman has gone by the wayside, Pak and Kuder brought an ambition to Action Comics that hadnt been seen in quite some time. Buy: Amazon (opens in new tab) 7. Multiversity (Image credit: DC) DC's biggest strength has always been its rich multiverse, and nobody capitalizes on it like Grant Morrison. Aided by some of the industry's most talented artists and colorists, Grant Morrison delivered an event unlike any other with Multiversity (opens in new tab). Presented as a connected series of one-shots each taking place on a different Earth, Morrison took us on an explosive, mind-bending walking tour of the DC Multiverse through all its myriad genres and styles. One month readers would be mixing it up with invaders from Counter-Earth with the pulp-inspired heroes of the Society of Super-Heroes and the next month they would be reveling in a grim, totalitarian landscape with the Charlton heroes that inspired the seminal Watchmen. Though Multiversity sometimes frustrated readers as a monthly work, there is no denying its scope, rich assortment of characters, and its place among the best of 'The New 52' era - and on to be one of the main building blocks of the current DC Omniverse and the 'Infinite Frontier' era. Buy: Amazon (opens in new tab) 6. Grayson (Image credit: DC) Dick Grayson has a messy history with alter egos. Outside of 'The New 52,' he grew out of Robin and couldn't cast off Bruce's shadow as Batman. Inside 'The New 52,' he was unmasked as Nightwing and then cast alter-egos off altogether thanks to Tom King and Tim Seeley with Grayson (opens in new tab). Their elegant reinvention of Dick as a Bond-esque super-spy played to all of Dick Grayson's strengths while finally cutting the Bat-Family's constricting cord. As Grayson, double-agent, everyone's favorite acrobat infiltrated the obviously evil SPYRAL organization in a high-octane thriller of espionage and intrigue. It's incredibly rare for a long-running character to get a truly successful refresh, but Grayson manages to distill Dick's trademark confidence and gymnastics into a role that feels, for the very first time, uniquely Dick Grayson. Buy: Amazon (opens in new tab) 5. Justice League (Image credit: DC) As the flagship of 'The New 52,' Geoff Johns' Justice League (opens in new tab) was admittedly shaky at the outset, but over the past year has solidified into one of the most epic reads in the DCU. Johns has a unique understanding of what makes these characters tick, not just as a team but as individuals as well. Its twists and turns made unlikely heroes and surprising enemies, and Lex Luthor as a Leaguer throughout 'The Amazo Virus' is both inspired and terrifyingly good, showing the fine line that separates him from the rest of the League. It could only be topped by the death of Darkseid, with the 'Darkseid War' diving deep into the Multiverse and flipping Johns own script by corrupting heroes into enigmatic villains. Coupled with top-tier art from Jim Lee, Ivan Reis and Joe Prado, and Jason Fabok, Justice League was never anything less than widescreen in its ambitions, with epic art that matched the scope of the stories. Buy: Amazon (opens in new tab) 4. Swamp Thing (Image credit: DC) From the very start of 'The New 52,' Swamp Thing (opens in new tab) never once took the easy road. Poised as horrifying counter-programming to the superheroics of the rest of the line, Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquettes reboot never made any qualms about what it was and what it did well. While Snyder made his home in Gotham writing Batman, the bayou was where he did his darkest, and most engaging work, balancing tight characterizations with truly scary stories with ambitious scopes. Even after Snyder made his exit, Swamp Thing continued under the deft hand of Charles Soule who ended the series as it began; a tough, yet consistently great horror title that put its lead through the wringer on more than one occasion. While the 'New 52' may stand as a testament to superhero stories and worlds, Swamp Thing made the most of its time beside the capes and did so in bloody style. Buy: Amazon (opens in new tab) 3. Midnighter (Image credit: DC) Launched during the 'DC You' initiative, Midnighter (opens in new tab) quickly became one of the most interesting and ambitious books of the entire era. Writer Steve Orlandos unfiltered characterization and bold storytelling set this book apart from the rest of the DC lineup. In a universe of legacy characters and layers of continuity, Midnighter is fresh and fun to read. The character presents a sort of 'pure' vigilantism that demands respect, yet his methods are unpredictably extreme and laced with well-timed one-liners and social commentary. The icing on this invigorating cake is the daring and dynamic art. Both Aco and Stephen Mooney created notably visceral and engaging pages, but it is Aco's fiercely detailed lines and precise panel layout that have defined Midnighter. Buy: Amazon (opens in new tab) 2. Batgirl (Image credit: DC) 'The New 52''s Batgirl may have started under the auspices of Gail Simone's superb run, but with the creative team of writers Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart, and artist Babs Tarr, it became a legitimate phenomenon. Batgirl (opens in new tab) abruptly changed its tone under the DC You banner, with the new creators introducing a redesigned, social media-conscious lead. This radically re-imagined Batgirl worked its charms on an entrenched fanbase, finding strength in its inability to sit still for a moment. The book also possessed a delightful willingness to make fun of itself as well, and the seriousness of Bat-books in general, as a hyper cartoon with a warm-hearted and genuine character at its center, reflected in every inch of Tarr's kinetic art. Batgirl ultimately appealed to a younger audience without condescending, and like Prez, even parodies those that enjoy it the most. Buy: Amazon (opens in new tab) 1. Batman (Image credit: DC) It's perhaps fitting that the 'New 52' ended once Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo departed Batman (opens in new tab), a book that set the standard for DCs post-relaunch era. Immediately dominating the scene with Greg Capullo's dark, bone-crushing artwork, Batman brought intelligence as well as action to the DCU, as Scott Snyder's first arc introduced the brutal secret society known as the Court of Owls to Gotham City. From that first arc on, Snyder and Capullo have reexamined and reinvented key aspects of the Dark Knight as a concept, such as his relationship with his sidekicks and his worst nemesis in 'Death of the Family (opens in new tab),' Bruce Wayne's rise to superhero status in 'Zero Year (opens in new tab),' his seeming "death" in 'Endgame (opens in new tab),' and his eventual resurrection in 'Superheavy (opens in new tab).' Batman made no bones about taking risks, including the sheer destructive force of the Court of Owls, the introduction of new sidekicks such as Harper Row and Duke Thomas, and Bruce's controversial replacement Jim Gordon, wearing a G.C.P.D.-sponsored robo-bat-suit. Their Batman run stood nearly 50 issues as a symbol of all that DC could accomplish. Boy Thunder's secret identity will be revealed in January's Batman/Superman: World's Finest #11 - but who is he? Boy Thunder is secretly "someone DC fans have known for decades" - but who? Andrew Meyer aims to make Radisson preferred for visitors The hotel, first the Holiday Inn, then the Crowne Plaza, underwent a renovation and rebranding in 2014, complete with a vibrant modern lobby, room updates and new additions to the dining fare. Business Day chatted with the new General Manager in the middle of the hectic Energy Week Conference and in the midst of the Carnival season. Everyone has bricks and mortar when it comes to a hotel, Meyer says. Its the personality that makes the difference, from the front desk to our associates, we all have that Yes I Can mindset, he points to a pin on the lapel of his jacket which bears that exact phrase. We have never encouraged the prim and proper type of service at Radisson, we believe in our staff also bringing their personality out to see how they can be of service to our customers and clients. And to our internal clients as well we work hard to build a space where our staff want to come to work, where work is also fun. Though he only recently arrived in TT in November 2015, Meyer been a part of the hospitality business for over 30 years. The business combines his love for hotels with his love for meeting people from all walks of life. And though, his new position has kept him largely stationed at the Radisson, Meyer has a different viewpoint on the hospitality industry overall. I am a tourism professional and we can only build and develop tourism if the other hotels are successful too. I dont see us as competitors in that sense, we all have a part to play in developing what we offer to the different and diverse clientele that visit and stay with us. As such, his aim for Radisson isnt to be the best in its category, but rather the preferred hotel the iconic structure, Meyer moved quickly to re-open the restaurant, now called 360, for dinner and Sunday brunch as well. For those unfamiliar, the restaurant will easily complete a full revolution while you dine. While we chat over dinner, we are taken from the view of the International Waterfront through downtown Port-of-Spain, ending with the sprawling Northern Range, lit by thousands of house lights and streetlights. There is literally nothing like it almost anywhere else in the world. This is the New York of the Caribbean! he says enthusiastically, something that I myself also always say. Location is one of our number one factors leisure customers mixed with business clients are an interesting mix at the Radisson. So many people come here for a few days for business then hop to Tobago on the ferry next door (at the International Waterfront) and then return to spend a few days with us. Coming from Canada, he finds the mix of big city life with island chill beaches and lots of open water -- to be an exciting mix, particularly as Meyer himself is a seasoned and experienced sailor. In addition to the existing dining options at the lobby level via the lobby bar, the Maple Lounge as well as the Olympia Restaurant, the new GM has also moved to expedite the opening of Caf? Paris, a full service coffee-bar serving up excellent Italian-blend coffees, muffins, cakes and pan au chocolate (or chocolate-filled croissants) with exciting twists such as white chocolate and almond paste too. We worked very hard to get the caf? open, which is currently serving from 6am to 2pm until we expand to full hours. For those interested readers, we have our full menu options on Facebook as well. As we chat, Meyer responds, personally to a customer issue someone left their phone at the lobby bar and checks in a few times with app-based data services on his phone as well as the Facebook Pages and Trip Advisor accounts for the brand as well. Prior to his journey in the hospitality business, he managed his own marketing business, something which shows up well today he responds, personally, to Trip Advisor reports, complaints, comments and queries as himself, letting clients know that they have been heard and working to solve any issues they had, or to pass on commendations where they happen too. I used to say that the hospitality business is a career choice not a job, but now I think its more of a life choice. Hours dont mean anything a hotel is open 24 hours a day and guests will always have needs, regardless of the hour. The changing economic climate isnt a concern for this business and he believes it shouldnt be for the country either. Previously serving as GM for the Holiday Inn, Montreal as well as the Regional Director of Sales at eight hotels, he believes that everything eventually rights itself. I have learned to keep my eyes on the prize to put in the hours as needed and tend to the details. Since I have arrived here, I can see lots of entrepreneurial spirit in Trinidad, lots of creativity and a tremendous amount of connection between people from all areas of the country. Trinidad has it all. No drop in tourism The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting from several days to a week. Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon. However the main concern of many persons, especially women of child-bearing age, is the possible link between Zika and microcephaly in babies. Microcephaly is a relatively rare condition which leads to abnormal smallness of the head, a congenital condition associated with incomplete brain development. Following the current outbreak of the Zika virus in Brazil, there has been an increase in the number of babies born with microcephaly but there is no definitive proof at this time that the increase is linked to the babies mothers having contracted Zika while pregnant. Speaking with Business Day last Friday (February 19), Cudjoe placed some of the credit for the lack of Zika-related cancellations by tourists on the Health Ministrys proactive approach to fighting the virus. I want to commend the Ministry of Health because even before the WHO (World Health Organisation) declared a public health emergency on February 1, we had declared a national public health emergency three days prior, on January 29. Noting the even more important role tourism plays for Tobagos economy, Cudjoe said the Tobago House of Assemblys (THA) Division of Health and Social Services started a Tobago Preparedness Programme (TPP) several weeks ago. While the virus is present in some Caribbean countries, information coming from other tourism ministries and stakeholders throughout the region is that it (Zika) hasnt yet posed a major threat to visitor numbers and I hope it doesnt. Cudjoe cited data from a February 3 to 5, 2016 survey of Travel Leaders Group (TLG) agents, the findings of which were shared with members of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) via email on February 10. The survey indicated that for clients in their 40s and 50s, nearly 90 percent of agents said there were no cancellations, while 93 percent of agents said they had no cancellations for clients 60 and older. In terms of destination weddings, almost 95 percent of agents said they have had no cancellations and just over 93 percent reported no cancellations for their honeymoon clients. However when it comes to tourists in their 20s and 30s, just over 74 percent of TLG agents said none of their clients were cancelling their travel due to the Zika virus. The survey, conducted February 3 to 5, is based on responses from 1,102 Travel Leaders Group agents, including responses from Travel Leaders Groups flagship Travel Leaders brand and Nexion, Protravel International, Results! Travel, Tzell Travel Group and Vacation.com units. Asked about cancellations by women who are pregnant or possibly pregnant, the Tourism Minister told Business Day the survey showed that 74.1 percent of agents stated none of their clients in their 20s and 30s are cancelling and not re-booking their travel because of the Zika virus. Another 21.6 percent said that six or fewer clients are cancelling their travel plans while 11.1 percent of agents said cancellations were limited to one or two clients. (Of those) clients in this age range (who) did cancel their travel due to Zika, 89.8 percent of the cancellations were due to a pregnancy or possible pregnancy, Cudjoe said. In addition, the minister said members of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) and the CTO met during a conference call two weeks ago to bring each other up to date with whats happening with Zika in our respective countries. Weve also been exchanging emails regularly. Describing the current Zika outbreak as an issue of public interest, Cudjoe urged the public to base their actions on findings and not feelings; I dont endorse reports/ statements which try to scare the public or visitors. We must do our best to educate the public and tourism stakeholders about the most effective ways of informing visitors about how to reduce their risk of being bitten by mosquitoes. Also we need to ensure that everyone, from one-room and two-room guest houses to hotels, keeps their surroundings clean and free of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Cudjoes advice to tourism stakeholders is similar to what CTO Chief Executive Officer, Hugh Riley, told Business Day during a previous interview. Noting the seriousness of the situation and its possible impact on Caribbean tourism if potential visitors stay away in fear of contracting the virus, Riley said not only do regional bodies have to protect the 40 million people who live (here), we have to protect our guests, and we have to protect our prospective guests. If we can remove the habit of the mosquito, if we can control that, then we can control the spread of the virus. Its as simple as that. So it is certainly within the control of the people of the Caribbean to deal with this. The CTO head added that he has not seen an effort like this before in all of the years that Ive been involved in the tourism sector. The CHTA got together with us (CTO) and with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to collect information from all the authoritative sources, which we then use to advise our members on how to deal with the business of prevention and control, Riley stated. GBS a fundamental shift in how business manages shared services Shared services is a rapidlydeveloping business model that has become a major component of financial transformation for businesses. The industry currently employs more than 750,000 finance professionals around the world, and it looks set to grow into the future too. To meet the skills demanded by working in this sector, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) recently launched its Global Business Services (GBS) Qualifications, a suite of three qualifications which are the first dedicated to finance and accounting in shared services and GBS. Based on its expertise in this field, ACCA has specially designed this new professional qualification for the shared services sector, at three levels: - Certificate in Global Business Services: Includes an independentlyassessed online course and covers all the basic knowledge and skills required by global shared services employees. - Diploma in Global Business Services: Includes the five modules of the above certificate and ACCA syllabus-related financial and accounting management knowledge. This diploma boosts employees financial expertise so that they can succeed in more challenging roles. - Advanced Diploma in Global Business Services: Places a greater focus on advanced financial management, management accounting and performance management, improving employees high-end professional skills. Successful completion of the GBS Qualifications not only helps employees acquire the specialist knowledge required for shared services work, but also takes their studies in the ACCA Qualification a step further, laying a firm foundation for their progression to fully-fledged finance talent. In view of the growth of the shared services sector around the world, ACCA has listened to the needs of CFOs and companies and introduced this suite of qualifications to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the sector. But GBS is more than just meeting efficiencies. It represents a fundamental shift in how businesses think about and manage shared services and outsourcing. Potentially, GBS places a new premium on the value that the retained finance function can actually produce by freeing it to perform higher-level tasks. It could be a game changer for finance by redefining the value it brings to business and to its clients. Challenges remain for many organisations when it comes to ensuring that people working in senior shared service and transformation roles do not face additional barriers in making the transition to the top finance job of Chief Financial Officer (CFO). This was the main finding in a report from ACCA about shared services and the challenges it faces. Speaking to CFOs and leaders in Shared Services, the report revealed that while some organisations increasingly prize the value of the finance transformation experience for finance leadership, leaders in the area continue to see some difficulties in making the transition. The report also considered whether finance shared service and transformation roles are valuable in the career path to becoming a CFO. Drawing on the insights of executives from some of the worlds leading enterprises such as Deloitte, Pepsi, and Accenture, the report provides honest advice for those who may be considering a finance transformation career move. CFOs today need to be able to bring real strength in areas such as transformational leadership and change, the ability to run finance operations efficiently and understand the value and use of technology. Senior finance transformation roles provide opportunities to gain some of these very valuable skills but the report suggests, as always, that career moves here need to be planned carefully if the ultimate ambition is to be CFO. For ACCA and many of its members, GBS represents a genuinely different way of running, managing and governing the back office, incorporating finance, to create more value. When functional silos are broken down and processes managed end-to- end, there may be new opportunities not only to create additional operating efficiencies and reduce cost through added scale, but also to generate revenue and produce insights that enhance business performance. In a GBS structure, having deep finance skills is no longer enough as professionals must work within a cross-functional, matrixed construct. This can only be seen as a good thing, with the finance professional often leading the way in bridging gaps and breaking down silos. GBS demands a culture shift. There is no doubt, however, that the ways in which finance professionals interact with professionals in other functional areas becomes of paramount importance. Barriers between processes must be broken down to fulfil the promise of GBS. To lower these barriers new capabilities must be developed, including influencing skills and the ability to compete for and manage resources in other functional areas. This is a challenge, but with the right development and training, success can only be the end-game for those working in, or considering working in, the GBS sector. Brenda Lee Tang is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. As head ACCA Caribbean, Ms Lee Tang leads ACCAs business and key relationships in the Caribbean and is responsible for advancing ACCAs strategy in the regio Jamaican tells of love gone sour The Minister was accompanied by Chief Immigration Officer Charmaine Gandhi-Andrews, and Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security Maria Joseph. During his three-hour visit, Dillon met with the 120 male detainees and 37 female inmates who were all pleased to see the Minister in person. One of the most emotional meetings for the Minister was his interaction with a young Jamaican woman who came to this country and fell in love with a Trinidadian man who she later married. The woman claimed that after the wedding, she began having issues with her new husband and the relationship turned sour. She said her husband was the one who turned her in to the Immigration department and now she wants to be reunited with her family in Jamaica. Dillon promised the young woman that he would ensure that the processes are speeded up that she could be returned to Jamaica in the shortest possible time. The Minister also spoke with detainees from the Caricom region and also those detainees from countries such as Syria, Russia, Colombia, Nigeria, Ghana, India, China, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Canada and UK. The Chinese detainees wrote their concerns in English on pieces of paper and handed it over to the minister while Dillon spoke some Spanish with the detainees who could only speak Spanish. A Spanish translator was on hand to also assist the Minister. During the tour of the facility, Dillon observed that some of the areas were a bit cramped but he promised to have that dealt with. Following his meeting with the detainees and tour of the facility, Dillon told Newsday that his visit was to examine the conditions of the detainees at the Aripo Detention Centre. We had interaction with the detainees both male and female and head of the facility and also the officers who provide security for the detainees. In discussion with some of the detainees, several issues were raised with respect to the time they have been spending there, and how long it takes to process some of them, they are concerned that tickets are not being provided for them to return home. Coming out of that I am going to review the system and the processing of these detainees with the view to speeding up or expediting their stay at the Centre. He maintained that the detainees are not in cells but rather in dormitories. In A Flas River levels sinking lower Even more pleasant was finding that in this biting dry season, there was still water in the river. Arriving just after nine in the morning, I found quite a few groups of people already at the river, some beginning to settle in with the intention of spending the entire day. The first group I came upon included three guys from the USA. What brought them to this spot? Here seemed a convenient and more enjoyable spot than the highway at OMeara, to wait for a hiking outfit heading further east to hike to the Matura river basins. At the waters edge, one woman relished a soak in the cool waters. A man had set up camp on the higher banks across the river. In a shady spot, he had erected a large table, pot, stove, chairs, dishes and other accoutrements needed to cook and partake of his Sunday lunch at the riverside. Across from him, on the near side of the river, another gentleman who gave his name as Ali was sweeping the area where his car was parked on the banks of the river. He too intended to make a cook, and spend the day here with his family. But as Ali chatted with me, he couldnt help pointing out that while here is a lovely place to spend the weekend outdoors, there are problems. One was the litter left by people who came on the Saturday had sullied an otherwise beautiful site. Another issue was that some of the concrete picnic tables and benches were broken. The cause for this? According to Ali, water damage from the periodic opening of the sluice gates at the nearby Hollis Dam in years past. When they open the flood gates, water come down. It reach quite out there, he said pointing to the main road. However, one factor that may soon affect the number and frequency of people coming to this spot was the water level in the river. While there was water in the river, enough to take a dip, it was observably low. Water here is usually gushing. You actually have to steady yourself or it would throw you down, said Ali of the powerful water flow that once existed in the river. Now look. It almost stagnant. Indeed it was. As I watched three people who had just arrived , wade easily upstream, the dry seasons impact on the rivers volume was evident. And with each passing day seemingly hotter than the previous, there may be even less water in our rivers when Easter rolls around; a time when more people flock to rivers and other water spots. Environmental scientists and climatologists have noted that extreme weather conditions whether prolonged dry seasons or excessive rainfall in the wet season can cause fluctuations in water levels of rivers. A study of ten river basins on four continents, conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), revealed that changing rainfall and temperatures would have an effect on rivers until the year 2050. Mark Mulligan, a London- based climate change scientist who led the IPCC study, stated, What we do know is that we cannot be confident about hydrological stability. Some rivers could become wetter and then drier, or vice versa. They key message to countries is: Become more adaptable. With severe dry spells experienced last year, and similar if not worse predicted for this year, river levels are practically guaranteed to sink lower. So as I prepared to leave well before noon, and observed the many other car loads that arrived since I did, I wondered just how much longer we would be able to enjoy a river lime on a blisteringly hot day on this island in the sun. Furthermore, are we doing anything significant at government and society levels to adapt to these obvious environmental changes and their impact on our way of living? Mosquitoes: good, bad or both? Most mosquitoes are ectoparasites, which means they feed on the outside of their hosts. They use their proboscis or mouthparts to pierce the skin of their prey and consume blood, thereby acting as a vector; transmitting diseases from one organism to another. It is mainly the female that does this as the nutrients in blood are needed to help produce eggs. Males typically feed on nectar and plant juices. Once breeding occurs, the life cycle of a mosquito goes through four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. In most cases stagnant water is needed as the medium for laying eggs and for the larva and pupa to live. Mosquitoes are responsible for over a million human deaths globally, and serious illness in millions more. Species within the genus Aedes, for example, the stripy-legged Aedes aegypti, are regarded as the main vectors for transmitting diseases in the Caribbean. Some of the diseases they transmit include dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and Zika. Perhaps by now most people have already been convinced that mosquitoes offer nothing good, but this may not completely be the case. Mosquitoes are important sources of food for various animals. Bats and birds feed on mosquito adults, whereas fishes and frogs may feed on the larva. Some mosquitoes also act as pollinators, feeding on nectar from various plants. Mosquitoes thus form an important link in food webs and life cycles, and their absence would have knock-on effects on animal and plants that we do fully appreciate having around. Although nature enthusiasts may be in favour of birds and fishes having a source of food to eat, this argument may be unlikely to influence the majority of people in favour of mosquitoes. However, keep in mind that if there were no mosquitoes, other animals would also be affected and this could have cascading effects on humans. It is also important to note that only a tiny fraction of mosquito species, such as Aedes aegypti, are vectors of diseases while many hundreds of others exist in relative harmony with humans. Thus, eliminating those species that do not act as vectors may represent a loss to the ecosystem whilst at the same time not actually improving human quality of life. Though fondness for mosquitoes may be small, it is important to highlight that it is actually humans that help their dispersal. Studies have shown that female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes may spend their lifetime within a narrow range and will fly on average only 400m from around the urban homes where they hatched. As such, it is people that help spread mosquitoes and not the mosquitoes themselves so some responsibility for their distribution lies with us. In line with this, most cases of dengue are caused by mosquitoes breeding in the victims backyard or in that of their neighbour rather that from further afield; the same is likely to be true for the other diseases. What then can be done, or what should we do? It has been well publicised that people should keep their surroundings clean and ensure that pools of stagnant water are not exposed for mosquitoes to breed. Some examples of aquatic habitats that would be suitable for mosquitoes to lay eggs around our homes include discarded items such as tyres, damaged appliances and paint cans, buckets, barrels, ornamental containers, and even animal drinking pans. These should be removed, or emptied at least every four days. People should also take measures to ensure that when transporting goods, containers that may later carry water are thoroughly checked for mosquito eggs. If we reduce the ideal settings for mosquitoes around our homes and be more vigilant with containers we are travelling with, it may help curb their population and dispersal. Here in Trinidad and Tobago, we have another weapon up our sleeve guppies! Did you know that over the last century, these tiny drainfish from Trinidad have been introduced to rivers and water containers as a mosquito defence tool in places including India, Australia and parts of Africa? In India, for example, it is commonplace to add Trinidadian guppies to water troughs in malarial regions, as guppies survive extremely well in small tanks and readily consume mosquito larvae. It can be extremely effective, although outside Trinidad, this strategy carries the risk of introducing an exotic fish (the guppy) to a foreign ecosystem, potentially causing negative effects. Here, in the native home of the guppy, we have no such worries - and an abundance of these fish in our drains and ditches could be rehomed in our outdoor water containers. Indeed, in El Salvador, one of the countries worst affected by the current Zika outbreak, they are already employing a different species, the sambo fish, in this way. However, even if we enacted all of these strategies, it is very difficult to fully control or eliminate Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, due to their impressive resilience and adaptation to changes in the environment. For example, the eggs are capable of withstanding long periods of drought and some have even been known to use septic tanks while undergoing development as eggs into adults. It is thus imperative that entomological studies are conducted before and during vector control measures. It is also necessary that humans adapt as well for example, by wearing long sleeves at dusk and dawn and using repellent. Finally, we urge that control measures focus on the target species, and in urban areas; not all species of mosquitoes need to be attacked as most are harmless and some are even useful! For more info on our natural environment contact the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists Club at admin@ttfnc. org or visit our website at www.ttfnc.org and our Facebook or YouTube pages. The clubs next monthly meeting will be held on March 10, 2016 at St Marys College, Port-of-Spain. Lecture: Amphibians of the Aripo Savanna by Renoir Auguste. BULLETS FOR SCHOOLBOYS The victims have been identified as Daniel Hall, 16, of Tunapuna and Stephan Singh, 17, of Enterprise, Chaguanas. Hall was a Form Four student of the Aranjuez North Secondary School and school officials confirmed that he had attended classes on Tuesday prior to being murdered. Singh sources said, attended the St Augustine Secondary School. Police officers who were called to the scene after residents of St Johns Road heard rapid gunfire, came across the bodies of Hall and Singh, with the latter suffering a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Hall was found with a .38 revolver stuck in his pants waist. Police were yesterday trying to ascertain if the schoolboys had criminal records and/or court cases. The double murder, which has sent to national rate to 74 for the year so far, comes amid a time when issues of school violence and lawlessness have been very much in the public domain following several incidents including a plot by gangsters to invade a school and shoot dead a security guard and teacher; and another incident where a student pulled down his pants and exposed his genitals when he was confronted by a security guard over his behaviour. According to reports, at about 4.30 pm on Tuesday, residents contacted the police after hearing rapid gunfire from a river close to a track off St Johns Road. Three men were seen running along the road. One was holding a gun as he ran. A party of Northern Division officers led by Ag Insp Vetus Hernandez and including Sgt Rennie Katwaroo along with others visited the scene and the area was cordoned off. The teenagers bodies were removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James for autopsies. Joy Hall yesterday told Newsday news of her sons murder came as a great shock to her. Me son grew up fearing God and although he was like any other teenager, I never knew him to be involved in crime, Hall said. She added that her son was the third of her seven children and members of her family are in a daze over his killing. Hall said she does not know the other victim Stephan Singh and added that she is seeking answers over her sons murder. Right now I do not feel like even talking. My boy is dead and I dont know why. What is really going on in this country, where so many young people are being slaughtered, the grieving woman said. This incident is the second double- murder of schoolboys this year. On January 23, Success Laventille Secondary School students Denilson Smith, 17, and Mark Richards, 15, were dragged out of a PH (private-hire) taxi they were passengers in along a road in Laventille and then gunned down. Both died in their school uniforms. No arrests have been made in the two double-murders. He came to kill my daughter My daughter never knew the type of person she got involved with and by the time she found out and tried to leave...it was too late, Chadee said yesterday during an interview with Newsday. During the interview, the younger Chadee, 35, remained warded at San Fernando General Hospital under police guard and still in a critical but stable condition. She has been unable to eat, drink or speak since her throat is severely damaged by the acid. She has a pretty face and he always promised to disfigure it and that is why he threw acid on her, Chadee said. On Monday at 5.20 am, the 40-yearold man jumped through a kitchen window to enter the house. The dragged Chadee, a mother of three, into a bedroom before locking the door. He then used a knife to slash Chadee across the left side of her face. He then went to work with the acid. On the other side of the bedroom door, a terrified Doris Chadee, hearing her daughters screams, begged the man to stop, asking him what he was doing to her daughter. He told me that when he done, I could go inside and see for myself, Chadee sobbed yesterday. During the attack, she alerted neighbours but the attacked had by this time, left the house and ran off. Up to last night, he remained at large and is considered armed and dangerous by police. Chadee told Newsday when the man entered the house he not only had the acid and knife, but also duct tape and two pieces of rope. He came to kill because he always threatened to do so and then burn down the house, after the relationship ended. Neither Doris Chadee nor her three grandchildren (Rachaels children) - who were all in the house at the time - were injured. Since the incident, Chadee said, she and her grandchildren have moved out the house. The children however have not been to school since Monday. They have been crying and calling for their mother. They are really scared...but God is good, Chadee said. She is praying for her daughters full recovery and the arrest of the attacker. Police, meanwhile, vowed no stone will be left unturned in their efforts at arresting the suspect who has several outstanding warrants for cocaine possession. Police Youth Clubs in schools may be the answer Speaking at the weekly police press briefing at Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain, she called on the Ministry of Education to incorporate police youth clubs in all primary and secondary schools. She said the Police Service acknowledges it has a key role in helping shape and mould the lives of youths especially those deemed to be vulnerable to negative influences. She disclosed that in 2015, there were 45 serious crimes involving students committed in schools, compared to 57 in 2014. The number of reports of criminal offences against teachers and principals were 37 in 2015, compared to 44 in 2014 and there were 239 minor offences committed by students in schools in 2015, down from 280 in 2014. Joseph said the focus on youth development was part of a long term policing strategy, and it is in tandem with one of the goals of the TTPS. To this end, we have, in collaboration with our stakeholders, established a number of initiatives geared towards positive youth engagement. These include, the police youth clubs, Caring Intervention for Troubled Youth (CITY), school visits and lectures, outreach programmes, police youth club liaison officers, residential training programmes for youth club members, and leaders, she said. Joseph also recommended that the CITY programme be expanded to all nine divisions with the support and endorsement of the Ministry of Education. Asked if a parent could be held responsible for the misbehaviour of their children, TTPS Public Information Officer, acting ASP Michael Pierre - who was also at the press conference - said, not necessarily. We have to look at school misbehaviour holistically, and regarding the childs behaviour, it might be more prudent to communicate with the parent, bring in the parent and have parental intervention, and that is also part of the mandate of the CITY programme, and it does bear results, Pierre said. Parents of exposed students called in Newsday was told that the parents of two of the offending students classmates have also been called in by senior school officials in connection with the same incident. It was reported that the guard confronted a group of students who were behaving in an unruly manner on the school compound after classes were ended for the day. On being confronted, one of the students pulled down his pants and exposed his genitals to the guard who was left speechless by such disrespect. The student pulled back up his pants as he and his classmates laughed loudly and walked off. The guard then reported the incident to his superiors who in turn filed a report to the school principal EMA: Red Sea substance not toxic The sea was turned blood red on Tuesday morning, after a junior employee of the Stuart Brothers Limited (SBL), a few metres away from the medical facility dumped the food colouring in a drain . The employee was tasked with making a red food colouring for a customer, and used the wrong one and panicked . Managing director of the company, Gregory Wight on Tuesday, said 75 to 100 kilolitres was dumped. An official in the EMAs Communications Unit told Newsday yesterday that the food colouring was identified as Amaranth Red five percent which was organic and non hazardous. Get the news faster. Tap to install our app. Access Newser even faster. Click here to install our app on your desktop. X (Newser) Medical marijuana is now legal in Australia. Parliament passed a measure Wednesday with amendments to the Narcotic Drugs Act that will allow marijuana to be grown for scientific and medical reasons, CNN reports. "This is an historic day for Australia and the many advocates who have fought long and hard to challenge the stigma around medicinal cannabis products so genuine patients are no longer treated as criminals," Australia's health minister says in a statement. It's not clear when patients with a prescription will be able to actually get cannabis, as regulations need to be instituted and producers need to apply for licenses. One expert says medicinal marijuana could start being grown within a month, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Recreational marijuana is still illegal in Australia. (Read more medical marijuana stories.) (Newser) The mayor of a village in New York was accused of sleeping with a village worker's wife during a raucous public meeting on Tuesday, the Journal News reports. "Mr. Delhomme is trying to use his power to get into my house," 48-year-old maintenance worker Reginald Alfred said during the meeting's public comment period. "He destroyed my house. He destroyed my family. I have two daughters." Spring Valley Mayor Demeza Delhomme denied the allegations, but that wasn't the end of it. You screwed his wife and you say you dont know him? Gawker quotes one angry village trustee. I saw him in my house for Thanksgiving with the food inside, the New York Post quotes further accusations from Alfred. Alfred appeared to have public approvalif not proofon his side. The crowd cheered his accusations while booing Delhomme's denials. If you really did this, you should be ashamed of yourself, the Post quotes one Spring Valley resident. The meeting, while extreme, was not out of place in the village of 32,500. Gawker notes Delhomme has been a "bad mayor, in general." He was secretly recorded saying he wouldn't approve any projects from Jewish developers, and he once declared himself "king of the village." He even forced a city employee to install a generator for his girlfriend in the middle of a snowstorm. Delhomme admits Alfred's wife works at his bank, but he wouldn't say whether or not he knows her. He says he filed a police report against Alfred following the meeting. (Read more infidelity stories.) (Newser) In a bit of an ironic twist, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney is publicly calling on Donald Trump to release his tax information and speculating on what the Republican frontrunner might be hiding, CNN reports. "We have good reason to believe that there's a bombshell in Donald Trump's taxes," Romney said Wednesday. "Either he's not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasn't been paying taxes we would expect him to pay." The New York Times describes the move by Romney as "taking a page out of the playbook" of Democratic Sen. Harry Reid. Reid and others had to pressure Romney to release his financial information in 2012 only for it to be revealed he was paying less than 15% in taxes. Trump has already admitted he pays as little in taxes as possible and has also disputed outside estimates of his net worth. He responded to Romney's claims in typical Trump fashion. "Mitt Romney, who totally blew an election that should have been won and whose tax returns made him look like a fool, is now playing tough guy," Trump tweeted. In a Wednesday night interview with Anderson Cooper, Trump said he'll decide "over the next couple of months" whether he'll release the documents. As for the "bombshell," there is none, "other than I pay a lot of tax and the government wastes the money." (Read more Donald Trump stories.) (Newser) A new detail has emerged in the death of Antonin Scalia: The US Supreme Court justice spent his last hours with members of the International Order of St. Hubertus, a "secretive society of elite hunters," the Washington Post reports. Public records reviewed by the Post revealed that some of the men staying at the Cibolo Creek Ranch when Scalia died there on Feb. 13 are members of the order founded some three centuries ago. Ranch owner John Poindexter, along with Scalia's traveling partner, C. Allen Foster, both hold leadership positions within the order. Scalia's association with the group is unclear. In an email, Poindexter acknowledged that group members have been guests of the ranch, adding, "I am aware of no connection between that organization and Justice Scalia." Private planes connected to two other men who have held leadership positions in the order's Texas chapter landed at the ranch for Valentine's Day weekend, records show. As for Scalia's death, Poindexter told the sheriff that after dinner and a chat, the justice retired for the evening. Poindexter knocked on his door when he didn't show for breakfast; it was then they found Scalia dead in bed. Founded in 1695 in the modern Czech Republic, the International Order of Saint Hubertus (the patron saint of hunters) was a "knightly order," according to its website. Among the group's tenets is promoting "the concept of hunting and fishing as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity." And its motto is "Deum Diligite Animalia Diligentes" or "Honoring God by Honoring His Creatures." (Honoring how? And which creatures? Gawker inquires.) Members drape themselves in green robes and have titles like "grand master" and "protector of the order." Read the whole story here. (Read more Antonin Scalia stories.) (Newser) Two months ago, Egypt's chief investigator said there was no evidence that the October crash of a Russian passenger plane in Sinai was a terrorist act. Now, in what the New York Times frames as an "unexpected admission," a reversal. In a wide-ranging speech on Wednesday, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi referenced "those who downed the flight" while speaking on terrorism. "What were they hoping for? Just to hit tourism?" He added that their aim was also to damage relations, including those with Russia. The majority of the 224 people on the plane were Russian tourists. But another part of Sisi's speech made headlines as well. While speaking of the country's financial straits, he had an idea for his people: Donate about 10 cents a day to the government. Indeed, "if it were possible for me to be sold, I would sell myself." And so in this world of boundless possibility, someone tried to make that happen. A political activist listed the "slightly used" Sisi on eBay (free shipping!), and the bidding hit $100,000 before the listing was taken down Wednesday afternoon, Mashable reports. (Read more Egypt stories.) (Newser) The bucket list trip was all about making memoriesjust not the kind a Phoenix family is now stuck with. Terminal cancer patient George Alvarado brought his wife, Christina Fabian, and 7-year-old son, Giovanni, to Bellingham, Wash., to visit family. But when they boarded an Allegiant Airlines flight back to Phoenix on Monday, Giovanni had an allergic reaction to a dog on board, reports KTAR. "He started to get hives," Fabian tells KING5. The plane was delayed 90 minutes before the airline decided to remove the family for safety reasons. "We understood," Fabian says. But as they disembarked, passengers clapped. "Thank you for your insulting, ignorant, insinuating comments that minimized my son's experience, and make a horrible memory at the end of my husband's life," writes Fabian on Facebook. "Shame on you for being so cruel." Allegiant has apologized to the family over the incident, though the family doesn't blame the airlineonly the clapping passengers and one flight attendant they accuse of having a "bad attitude." Says Alvarado: "You don't know how much time people have or why they are hurting. Just be nice. Be kind." (Read more Allegiant Airlines stories.) (Newser) Today in the Bizarre Lawsuits Dept.: Christian Slater's dad, Thomas Knight Slater (stage name: Michael Hawkins), is suing his ex-wife and his son for "intentionally malign[ing] and defam[ing] him," thus leading to the ruination of Hawkins' would-be acting career. Hawkins, now 80, was a soap opera actor in the 1970s and last appeared in Midnight Run in 1988 (his stage name then was Michael Gainsborough). He says his ex and Slater publicly claimed he has manic-depressive schizophrenia, and the result was that he was "blacklisted in the showbiz community," the New York Daily News reports. The National Enquirer gleefully reports that the lawsuit comes months after the tabloid revealed that Hawkins is "living off of food bank handouts." As TMZ notes, Hawkins' complaints stem from an interview Slater did last year. Per Page Six, Slater, who had just reconciled with his father after being estranged for nine years, said in the Interview article, "Hes a manic-depressive schizophrenic. Hes always had troublehe was a fantastic actor and extraordinarily charismatic and very, very good looking, but he had a really difficult time working with directors, collaborating with people." Per Hawkins' $20 million defamation suit, which he prepared himself sans lawyer, "Neither of the defendants has a medical credential, or the ability to diagnose manic-depressive schizophrenia, and even if that were the case, they would be bound not to disclose it to the general public." He says he was humiliated and suffered emotional distress and the "destabilizing of his well-being" while having "any hope of ever acting again ... dashed into pieces." (More on the strange lawsuit here.) (Newser) The last confirmed American prisoner held in Iran now has company in the form of his own dad. US-Iranian national Baquer Namazi, 80, was arrested in Tehran on Monday, his wife writes on Facebook, per CNN. He's the father of businessman Siamak Namazi, who was detained in October but left out of a recent prisoner swap. "Now both my innocent son Siamak and my Baquer are in prison for no reason," says Effie Namazi. "This is a nightmare I can't describe." Iran hasn't confirmed Baquer's arrest publicly, though Effie says he was sent to Evin Prison "as far as I have been told by those who took him." Siamak is also being held there. Effie says she wasn't able to find out more and a lawyer "couldn't get any information or get to see him." Effie adds that Baquera former Iranian provincial governor and UNICEF official, per Reuterssuffers from heart conditions and other ailments and needs medicine. "I am extremely concerned and worried sick for Baquer's health." A family friend tells CBS News that Baquer is "not at all political," and suggests Iranian authorities "want Siamak to make concessions that he wasn't willing to make." Asked about Baquer's arrest at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, John Kerry said, "I am very familiar with this and I am engaged on it specifically, but I am not permitted due to privacy reasons to go into details here," per the New York Times. US intelligence chief James Clapper has suggested Iran is holding Americans "as bargaining chips for US concessions." (Read more Iran stories.) (Newser) A lawyer says a South Carolina woman died in police custody last year because she was denied a basic necessity: water. Joyce Curnell, 50, was suffering from sickle cell disease, alcoholism, and hypertension, when she went to the emergency room with stomach flu last July. She was treated and released into police custody on July 21 over unpaid court fines, reports the Charleston Post Courier. Even though Curnell was vomiting "within minutes" of arriving at her cell at Charleston County jail, staffers failed to provide her with medical attention as advised by doctors at the hospital, according to court documents filed Wednesday against the jail's medical contractor, Carolina Center for Occupational Health. She was found dead 27 hours later, per the New York Daily News. A doctor serving as an expert witness for Curnell's family blames the womans death on a "series of conscious violations." She says vomiting would have activated Curnell's sickle cell disease, which can make it more difficult to fight dehydration. "Simply put, Ms. Curnell died because she was deprived of water," she says. Court documents say there's no record of jail staffers providing Curnell with water or intravenous fluids. Medical staffers "refused to provide any medical attention to (her) whatsoever" and denied Curnell access to her medication, the court documents allege, reports WCIV. Curnell's death was the result of a "deliberate failure," the lawyer adds. "Providing access to reasonable medical care to those under police custody is a necessity, not a privilege." Curnell is black, and the ACLU says it is monitoring the case. (Read more South Carolina stories.) It's not just the tech titans who support Apple in the debate over unlocking of San Bernardino shooter's iPhone. It seems the crowd is also on its side. FBI had sought Apple's cooperation in unlocking the phone of Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the shooters who along with his wife left 14 dead on December 2 in San Bernardino. Citing data security concerns, Apple has claimed that the government wants it to create a backdoor in the iOS. Apple has expressed concerns that complying would set a legal precedent that could be exploited by governments in the future. FBI has asked a court to order Apple to comply. In a poll by Reuters and Ipsos, 46 % Americans support Apple's stand while 35 % said the company should comply. According to Apple Insider which reported the findings of the poll, the exercise reflected political views; 54 % democrat voters supported Apple while 37 % republicans did. The poll also showed an age divide in opinion, with younger people likely to support Apple. Authorities have maintained that the request to comply is isolated to investigations in the San Bernardino attack. Tech giants including Google's Sundar Pichai, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey have taken Apple's side. Microsoft founder Bill Gates however opined that Apple could comply this once. Meanwhile, Apple has reportedly stated it received government requests since last October to 12 unlock devices. Complying would require compromising the privacy of millions of its users, the company claimed in a federal court. At least eight people have been killed in the two days since by a stormy weather unleashed tornadoes along the East Coast. According to CBS News, five deaths were recorded Wednesday with at least three reported in Virginia alone. Two men and a two-year-old were among the dead when a twister tore through their mobile home. The severe weather has also left several thousands without power. CNN reports that 52 tornadoes have been reported in the two days since the storm engulfed the country. A tornado watch was setup along the East Coast. Twisters descended in Virginia, Florida and North Carolina on Wednesday. Rain and hail were witnessed in parts of East Coast while strong winds gusting over 100 mph were felt in Florida. Several people reported chaotic traffic conditions and escaping the twisters by fate. Rescue workers were seen helping the injured and those trapped in debris. Many homes in Virginia were left destroyed in the wake of tornadoes. Gov. Terry McAuffile declared emergency in the state. Though the threat of tornadoes was said to be over, weather professionals warned that the system could bring snow to areas around the Great Lakes. Fairbanks, AK (99707) Today Periods of snow. Temps nearly steady in the low to mid 30s. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 90%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches.. Tonight Cloudy with snow showers mainly during the evening. Low 26F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 60%. Patna: Stating he had no expectations from Railway budget, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today opposed the Centres decision asking state governments to invest in railway projects. I do not have any expectations from railway budget. Though the nation has always big expectations from railway budget...Railway minster is my friend and wish him best, Kumar, he said while talking to reporters after the cabinet meeting. The Central government should work for development and expansion of railways across the country, he said. State governments have been asked to make investments in the railway projects of the concerned state. In how many areas and sectors, the state government will invest. The development and expansion of railways are the responsibility of the Central government, Kumar said. RJD leader Lalu Prasad had yesterday criticised the BJP government at the Centre for pushing railways to serious crisis. Stating that Railway ministry should not allocate token funds, Kumar said that people have huge expectations from railways whose various projects are pending in the state. There are many projects which have crossed their deadlines too, he added. Centre is talking about private investments in railways which are in bad shape, Chief minister said and added that itwas the Centres responsibility to develop railways in a manner that its benefits should be passed on to all people. Railways play a bigger role in unifying the country, he added. Nitishs grand secular alliance partner and RJD leader Prasad, who had served as Railway minister in the UPA I government, had shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the recent flawed policy moves of Railways. The decision to recklessly increase financial leverage manifold by signing MoUs for borrowing of 40 Billion US dollar from institutions like LIC and JICA, that too for un-remunerative and cash guzzling projects like Bullet train is likely to prove suicidal, Prasad had said. New Delhi: After serving 42-month-long term, Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt on Thursday walked free from Pune's Yerwada Central Jail. He was sentenced for five years after being convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case. He is likely to visit Siddhivinayak Temple after reaching Mumbai in a chartered plane. Sanjay Dutts friends also registered their happiness over the release. I know Sanju (Dutt) on a personal level, and Im delighted that he will finally return home in one-two days to his family and friends... Weve been waiting eagerly for the day, and we have always been praying for his safety, Manoj said at a promotional event for Aligarh here last evening. Rajkummar Rao says he is happy with Dutts release as he has respectfully completed his jail term. Its great news, very happy that hes returning. Im a big fan of him, having grown up watching his films. He has respectfully completed his term; the mental pressure is also over now. Hell be an amazing guy, hell be back all over again, Rajkummar said. Dutts release on February 25 will be 103 days ahead of the end of his full prison term. Before the Supreme Court upheld his conviction in 2013, he had spent 18 months in jail during the investigation and trial phase. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : An EU court today threw out an attempt by US drinks giant Coca-Cola to get trade mark status for a new design of its iconic fluted bottle throughout the 28-nation bloc. Invented in the United States as a tonic drink in the late 19th century, Coca-Cola is a triumph of modern-day marketing, with its contoured bottle one of the most widely recognised global brands. In 2011, the company introduced a flat surfaced bottle but European Union authorities rejected its trade mark request because they said the new design lacked any distinctive character. The General Court of the EU, the blocs second highest court, ruling on a company appeal, said there was no reason to change that view, with the new design simply a variant of its predecessor. The General Court finds that the sign at issue is devoid of the distinctive character required for registration under the Community trade mark regulation, it said. In those circumstances, the General Court dismisses in its entirety the action brought by Coca-Cola. The judgment features drawings of the new Coke bottle from the side, the top, and at a forward-leaning angle. Coca-Cola can in theory appeal to the European Court of Justice, the EUs highest court. There was no immediate reaction from the company. For all the Latest Lifestyle News, Food News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Barcelona: Chinese handset company Xiaomi has unveiled its latest flagship device Mi 5 here as it looks to compete head-on with larger rivals like Samsung and Apple to capture a bigger share of the global smartphone market. Priced RMB 1,999 (USD 305 or about Rs 21,000) onwards, Mi 5 will be one of the first devices with Snapdragon 820 processor to be commercially available. It features up to 4GB RAM and 128 GB flash memory. Sales will start from March 1 on Mi.com and Mi Home outlets in China. It will be made available in selected global markets at a later date, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said. Our latest flagship has been in the making for 19 months, and its the most beautiful device we have unveiled so far. With several tech breakthroughs built into Mi 5, it is insanely fast. I am extremely excited to start 2016 on such a strong note, he added. Mi 5 builds upon the design language of Mi Note, featuring 3D glass. It weighs 129 gm and has 3000 mAh battery and a front fingerprint sensor. It supports 4G+ network (Cat 12) and VoLTE. Founded in 2010, Xiaomi has grown to become the worlds fifth largest smartphone maker. According to research firm IDC, Xiaomi shipped 70.8 million units in 2015, posting year-on-year growth of 22.8 per cent from 2014. The overall smartphone market grew 10.1 per cent to 1.43 billion in 2015 from 1.30 billion units shipped in 2014. Xiaomi had a global market share of 4.9 per cent, behind Samsung (22.7 per cent), Apple (16.2 per cent), Huawei (7.4 per cent) and Lenovo (5.2 per cent) till the end of December 2015. IDC said Xiaomi still gets close to 90 per cent of its sales from China. Xioami sells its products in countries like India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Brazil. New Delhi : RJD President Lalu Prasad today said Railway Budget has cheated people as it has nothing to offer. He also said there was no concern for safety aspect in the Budget. It is all over. It has derailed. There is nothing in the Rail budget. It has cheated people. Let the financial Budget be presented, it will be further finished..., Prasad told reporters here. Prasad, who served as Railway minister during UPA I, said that he had achieved a surplus of Rs 60,000 crore during his tenure as the Railway minister. He had not even asked from the government to support the Rail Budget. There are unmanned railway crossings in the country where hundreds of people die every year, he said, adding that there is no concern for safety aspect in the Budget. Trains are not running on time, Prasad said adding that the budget should have come out with alternate options to generate income. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today presented the Railway Budget 2016-17 in Lok Sabha in which it has not proposed any changes in passenger fares and freight rates. Islamabad: Pakistan today said a team of special investigators probing the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase will visit India soon to collect evidence. The special investigation team will shortly visit India to collect evidence on the airbase attack, Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said. He, however did not give any date for the visit. The special investigation team, that included experts from civilian and military intelligence agencies, was set up by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last month to probe the January 2 attack. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said last week that India had already agreed to the visit of Pakistani experts to collect evidence. Pakistan has already lodged an FIR into the Pathankot attack which has paved the way for the prosecution of anyone who is found guilty of involvement in the attack. The FIR by the Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab police, however, did not name Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, whom India has accused of having masterminded the deadly assault. On the meeting of the foreign secretaries of the two countries, Zakaria said there was no hurdle for it. He, however, refused to give any date for such a meeting, which was initially planned for mid-January but was postponed due to the Pathankot attack. Zakaria said the officials of the two countries were in touch to work out the date for the meeting. Responding to a question, Zakaria rejected that the struggle in Kashmir was anyway linked to terrorism. He also expressed concern over the exceptional treatment given to India by the Nuclear Supplier Group. Pakistan is a peaceful country and also wants peace in this region. We are, therefore, against any arms race, Zakaria said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Bengaluru: Under attack from the Opposition over his luxurious watch, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddarmaiah today said he would declare it as a state asset and hand it over to the government. About the expensive watch I was wearing, which has been discussed almost everyday and reported in the media, I have this much to say that I will be declaring it as the state asset and deposit it with state secretariat, he told reporters here. The controversy was fuelled by former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy who had claimed the diamond-studded Hublot watch was worth Rs 70 lakh and had been gifted to Siddaramaiah and that he had proof for his claims. Siddaramaiah revealed that the expensive watch was gifted to him by his close friend (NRI) Gopal Pillai Girish Chandra Verma who visited India last July. The full name of the person who gifted this invaluable watch is Gopal Pillai Girish Chandra Verma. He had come to India in July last year. I know him since 1983 and whenever he visits India, he meets me, the Chief Minister said. Siddaramaiah further clarified, Verma gifted me the watch, even though I was not keen on accepting it. However, he insisted that I accept it and I accepted because of our long friendship but I did not know how expensive it was. The CM said he would furnish relevant documents of the watch to the Lokayukta and Income Tax. The Chief Ministers decision to declare the watch as a state asset comes in the backdrop of criticism from various quarters. State BJP President and MP Prahalad Joshi had sought a probe by the Enforcement Directorate to find out the owner of the watch and whether customs duty had been paid for it. A complaint had been filed by city-based activist S Bhaskaran with the state Lokayukta seeking Siddaramaiahs prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act for accepting the expensive gift and not declaring it before appropriate authorities. Reacting to Siddaramaiahs announcement, Congress MLC V S Ugrappa, who had yesterday suggested three options including declaring the watch as a state asset, welcomed it. Seeking to turn the tables, he asked Kumaraswamy to declare his luxurious assets, including cars and watches, as state asset. Replying to a query, Ugrappa said the Chief Minister was busy with recent by-election, and Taluk and Zilla Panchayat polls and hence could not find time to come out with facts about the controversy earlier. Kumaraswamy had argued that the Chief Minister should have come out openly the very next day the watch controversy came out in public. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : 21st century is witnessing a lot of drastic changes, revolutions and the best thing thats happening to the world is acceptance. Acceptance of looks, physical attributes for which one can be mocked off at. Proving the fact that beauty has no definition and it comes in all shapes and colours model Aamito Lagum responded the perfect way to the racists who mocked her naturally pouted lips. The famous make up brand MAC cosmetics shared a backstage close up of Aamito, a Ugandan fashion model showing her lips at NYFW. The close up was attempted to highlight their new shade of deep purple lipstick Royal Romance. But the picture began to receive a slew of hateful, racist comments on models appearance and ethnicity. Sooner MAC deleted all the hateful, bigoted comments from there posting an Instagram with the text "All ages all races all sexes." While Lagum responded to this series of hateful comments in the perfect way. posting a headline detailing the incident with the comment My lips giving you sleepless nights before thanking Mac for the lipstick colour which she said she would be buying three of. Lagum has won African modelling reality television programme in 2013. She has modelled for Marc Jacobs, Paul Smith, Bottega Veneta and H&M, she has also appeared in magazines including British Vogue and Vanity Fair. Royal romance at @ohnetitelny #AW16. #MACBackstage #NYFW A photo posted by MaAaC Cosmetics (@maccosmetics) on Feb 17, 2016 at 6:50pm PST New Delhi: Education Minister Smriti Irani on Thursday appeared to slam Sitaram Yechury by quoting Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar who allegedly committed suicide at the hostel room of Hyderabad Central University. She read out a text from Rohiths Facebook page about Yechury. The text was posted back in November 2015. "I have a letter from Rohith's Facebook page about Mr Yechury. In November 2015 he wrote, 'Mr Yechury talking about reservation is funny...he wants reservation in private sector. I am in this doubt that Yechury sees his party as a private agency. And he's waiting till the amendment is made so that he can convince his party to take Dalits into his party'," she said. "When I came to this House, what excited me most was the fact that I would meet political stalwarts," the Education Minister said. She also said that many people have termed her 'anpadh mantri'. "Let me declare there are many who have called me 'anpadh mantri' (illiterate minister). I do not claim I am as erudite a speaker as Yechury Ji. I am accused of drama so let me quote Macbeth. 'Fair is foul and foul is fair' - that is how Macbeth begins, indicating that nothing is at it seems," she said. She also said that she spoke to Rohiths mother but never disclosed it publically. "I have not ever publicly disclosed it, but I also spoke to his (Rohith's) mother," Education Minister Smriti Irani said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A team of Delhi Police took JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in connection with a case of sedition, to an undisclosed location after he was sent to one day police custody, from Tihar jail. The student leader was moved out of Tihar jail at around 8.30 pm for questioning, a senior police officer said without disclosing the location where Kanhaiya was taken by the cops. The police had applied for the production warrant of Kumar yesterday on the ground that he was needed to be confronted with the other two JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya in view of the discripencies in their statements regarding the controversial JNU event. Kanhaiyas counsel while opposing the police custody said that there was no connection between Kumar and the other two students arrested in the case as they belong to different student wings. The police had arrested Kumar on February 12, a day after a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy was registered at Vasant Kunj (North) Police Station in connection with an event in the varsitys campus in which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. California has lots of water but too much abusive regulation prevents it from flowing (BigGovernment.news) Everyone knows that California is mired in a four-year-old drought that has been punishing in many respects. With that in mind youd be surprised to learn that the state actually has enough water for all, but as usual, liberal nanny state government is preventing it from flowing. As reported by Watchdog.org, a new desalination plant that opened recently but took 18 years from start to finish to complete, at a cost of $1 billion, is emblematic of how stifling bureaucracy has helped cause water shortages in some areas and is preventing additional water from becoming available in a state that grows more than half the nations produce. Californias second most-populous county, San Diego County, is literally awash in excess water, thanks to years of careful water management and planning. And now, the new desalination plant near Carlsbad is set to come online, meaning the county has a water problem of a different nature than much of the rest of the state, where bureaucracy and mismanagement have magnified the effects of the drought. Unlike other parts of California, San Diego has 99 percent of the water needed for normal usage, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. But statewide conservation mandates have applied equally to areas that have plenty of water and those that dont, so the result here has been water piling up unused while local water agencies raise rates to make up for lost sales. As for the plant itself, critics mostly environmentalists have pointed to the plants high cost and virtual irrelevance as reasons why it should never have been built. But considering the lawsuits filed by these groups, and the state-imposed hurdles investors had to jump through in order to get the plant built, are in large part responsible for the price tag. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. Watchdog.org reported further: Such negative news can be used by opponents of these facilities to call for more caution. Indeed, several environmental-related lawsuits were filed against this plant, so desalination has its share of opponents. And a nearly identical project in Huntington Beach is being held up by the California Coastal Commission, an environmentally oriented state agency thats worried about the effect of the giant intake tubes on ocean plankton. But a closer read of the story shows clearly the technology was never the problem. The problem was political and regulatory. And, as Bloomberg Politics noted, Proposed in 1998, the project was beset by legal and regulatory challenges that held up construction until the end of 2012. The investor was even more concise and spot-on: We realized there would be certain political risks, but not at this level. In the end it took more time to get approval for this one desalination plant that it took to design, approve and build most of the 60-year-old State Water Project, Californias massive system of dams, pumping stations and aqueducts that bring water to the states north and more arid south. The problem was never technology or the process desalination. It was, and remains, politics. See also: Watchdog.org San Diego Union-Tribune Bloomberg Politics BigGovernment.news is part of the USA Features Media network of sites. For advertising opportunities, click here. Submit a correction >> U.S. quietly shipping more and lethal weapons to Europe with addition of tanks, artillery in secret Norwegian caves (NationalSecurity.news) Not that the Pentagon has ever been overtly public about its war preparations, but quietly, steadily the Defense Department is getting ready to fight in Europe. That is, if it comes to that. The most recent evidence that the Pentagon considers the likelihood of war in Europe much higher than, say, in the years following the end of the [first] Cold War with [the then-USSR-allied] Russia, is the deployment of U.S. Marine Abrams tanks and heavy artillery in secret caves in Norway. As reported by CNN, the aim is to bolster U.S. military capabilities along NATOs frontier with an increasingly belligerent Russia. Any gear that is forward-deployed both reduces cost and speeds up our ability to support operations in crisis, so were able to fall in on gear that is ready-to-go and respond to whatever that crisis may be, Col. William Bentley, operations officer for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, said in a statement last week. The deployment of the new equipment to the Cold War-era caves is reflective of the United States and NATOs rising concern over a Russia that is rearming and reasserting itself in the region and globally. Russia shares a nearly 122-mile-long common border with Norway, a border that was heavily militarized during the Cold War. Also, Russias Northern Fleet is headquartered in Murmansk, about 100 miles from the border. In October, Norways Chief of Defense, Adm. Haakon Bruun-Hanssen, told reporters that Russia has shown that they are willing to use military force to achieve political ambitions. The Norwegian caves, which are climate-controlled, are located throughout the central portions of the country. U.S. equipment was first stored there in 1981, at the beginning of the Reagan administration and came to be seen as part of President Ronald Reagans defense buildup some say eventually led to the Soviet Unions collapse a decade later. Following the end of the Cold War the U.S. questioned the need to continue storing equipment there and maintaining the cave complex, said Magnus Nordenman, director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council. CNN reported further: In a bid to save the cave facilities, the Norwegian government agreed to shoulder the cost of maintaining the caves during the 1990s, according to Nordenman, who has discussed the caves with the Norwegian Ministry of Defense. The secured cave complex is a modern and robust facility, staffed by about 100 Norwegian and U.S. personnel, and it contains enough equipment to support 15,000 Marines, according to Nordenman. The equipment in the caves has been used to support operations in Iraq. Of the equipment being stored, about 6,500 pieces will be used in an upcoming training exercise, Cold Response 16, which will be conducted later this month with NATO allies, the Marines said. The announced cave deployment plan comes within days of a Defense Department announcement that it was spending $3.4 billion for the European Reassurance Initiative, to better deter Russian aggression directed at NATO allies. That initiative will include forward-deploying more equipment and prepositioning it in the Baltic States, Poland and central Europe. Image: Stars & Stripes See also: CNN NationalSecurity.news NationalSecurity.news is part of the USA Features Media network of sites. Submit a correction >> TORONTO, Feb. 25, 2016 /CNW/ - Representatives of the Canadian Federation of StudentsOntario will be available to comment on the 2016 Ontario Budget immediately following its release on Thursday, February 25. Students presented a number of recommendations to government for the provincial budget including a 50 per cent tuition fee reduction; eliminating provincial education tax credits and moving the money into non-repayable, needs-based grants; post-residency fees for graduate students; targeted grants to support low-income students; an Aboriginal languages preservation fund; a paid experiential education fund; a Sexual Assault Support Division within the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities; OHIP for international students; and a campus mental health fund. STUDENTS RESPOND TO 2015 ONTARIO BUDGET: DATE: Thursday, February 25, 2016 TIME: 4:00 p.m. PLACE: Queen's Park Gallery WHO: Rajean Hoilett, Chairperson Gabrielle Ross-Marquette, National Executive Representative JUST THE FACTS: Tuition fees in Ontario are the highest in Canada . In 2011, data collected by Statistics Canada showed 53 per cent of university enrolments and 42 per cent of college enrolments came from students in the highest income quartile of families, highlighting a socio-economic divide on campuses across the province. are the highest in . In 2011, data collected by Statistics Canada showed 53 per cent of university enrolments and 42 per cent of college enrolments came from students in the highest income quartile of families, highlighting a socio-economic divide on campuses across the province. The average debt for a student who must take on financial assistance to go to school is $27,000 after a four-year degree. Collectively, students in Canada owe $15 billion to the federal government and Ontario students owe $2.6 billion to the provincial government. after a four-year degree. Collectively, students in owe to the federal government and students owe to the provincial government. Ontario has the lowest per student funding in Canada , 23 per cent below the Canadian average. Public funding now accounts for less than half of university and college operating budgets. At some institutions less than 40 per cent of funding comes from the government. The Canadian Federation of StudentsOntario unites more than 350,000 college and university students in all regions of the province. SOURCE Canadian Federation of Students Image with caption: "Student budget priorities (CNW Group/Canadian Federation of Students)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160225_C2338_PHOTO_EN_628964.jpg For further information: Rajean Hoilett, Chairperson, at 416-925-3825 (office) or 289-923-3534 (cellphone) or [email protected]; Gabrielle Ross-Marquette, at 416-925-3825 (office) or 647-918-9864 (cellphone) or [email protected] WHY ARE CHRISTIANS SO MEAN AND NASTY? By Chuck Baldwin February 25, 2016 NewsWithViews.com Lets be honest with one another: the nation as a whole is little more than a reflection of its churches. We can blame the government all we want (and there is plenty of blame to go around), but it is the churches, not the government, that are most culpable for our nations ills. Far too many professing Christians are just as mean and nasty as any unchurched person you will ever find--maybe more so. A sizeable portion of our professing Christians today are gossiping, slandering, backbiting, nosy, meddlesome, temperamental, mean-spirited, authority-hating, self-absorbed, whining little babies. They walk around with a chip on their shoulder just daring anyone to knock it off. If given the opportunity by gullible followers, they will destroy any church and any pastor they can. Truly, the words of Saint Jude apply to huge numbers of professing Christians today: Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. (Jude 1:8, 10 KJV) As a veteran pastor of over four decades of ministry, I have both seen and tasted the bitter caldron that these Christians have poured upon unsuspecting souls--all in the name of God, of course. I will take an educated guess and suggest that somewhere between one-fifth and one-fourth of all of the churches in America are splits off of an existing church because of the bitterness and discontent of a few troublemakers within the church. The damage done to pastors families by these vultures is incalculable. I know a pastor and his family that lived in a church parsonage (pity the pastors family that is forced to live in a church parsonage) who, upon returning from vacation, found all of their furniture and belongings on the front lawn and new locks on the doors. I know pastors who have been falsely accused of all manner of impropriety by hateful, vicious church members. Pastors wives have been held up to the most vile and venomous attacks imaginable. I personally know of dozens of preachers kids that refuse to attend anybodys church today because of the abuse they saw their parents go through at the hands of these good Christians. And it seems the more dedicated a pastor is to truth, the more vicious are the attacks against him. The panty-waist, ear-tickling, stand-for-nothing pastors have the largest and most devoted followings. But put a real prophet in the pulpit, and in no time there will be a Creek uprising against him. In fact, many of these bigger corporate churches are comprised of church wolves who, after devouring a good patriot pastor across town, will flee to the wolfs lair of the corporate church--under the safety of the corporate pastor--along with other wolves. Of course, these carnal Corinthian Christians prey on the spiritually immature and gullible within the church. They put on the mask of piety, spirituality, and love. But the goal is to undermine the pastors work and hopefully (in their minds) drive the pastor out. They have the facade of an angel, but in reality, they are the instruments of Satan to divide and spoil the church. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do you want to know why so many good pastors dont seem to have the energy to engage the freedom fight? Ill tell you why. Most of them are up to their armpits in discontent and disruption. Its very hard to be a shepherd and watchman when you find yourself being forced to be a cross between a spiritual firefighter and babysitter. Most pastors spend the vast majority of their workweek putting out church fires that are started by spiritual arsonists and changing the spiritual diapers of spoiled, bratty Christians. It is the most exhausting work on the face of the earth. Help lead the charge for freedom? Are you kidding? Its all these pastors can do to lead a peaceful church business meeting. When we talk about the Black Regiment pastors of Colonial America, remember that those pastors had the dedicated, unflinching, dynamic support of their congregations. Those people loved their pastor; heeded his spiritual counsel; prayed for him; encouraged him; stood beside him; supported him and his family; and treated him and his family with tender loving care. When a pastor is loved and supported in such a way, he is free to courageously stand as a watchman and shepherd over the souls of men and over the liberties of his community. Take that away, and the pastor is reduced to a state of sheer self-preservation. Its hard to lead an army from a cave. There is no question that we need a revolution of liberty in this country. But like it or not, there will NEVER be any kind of lawful, lasting revival of liberty without the approbation of Heaven--and without the instruction, inspiration, and leadership of Gods men. The unchurched patriots reading this can scoff at what I am saying all they want: it doesnt change the truth. Without men such as John Leland, John Witherspoon, Jonas Clark, Joab Houghton, James Caldwell, et al., there would never have been men such as George Washington, Patrick Henry, Sam Adams, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson, et al. And without the faithful and dedicated men and women within the churches of those Black Regiment preachers, there would never have been a Black Regiment to begin with. Angry, self-willed, rebellious, hate-filled Christians are not only a curse to their pastor and church; they are a curse to liberty itself. They are doing the devils work of subverting the work of God (including the work of liberty) within the church and, therefore, within the community and country. Sitting home and sending out a barrage of hate-filled emails is doing NOTHING to restore liberty. Hate will NEVER win hearts and minds. And thats whats happening: we are losing the war for the hearts and minds. And one of the biggest reasons we are losing this war is because we have supplanted and destroyed the one position that is most necessary to winning the war for the hearts and minds: the courageous and inspired patriot pulpit. The congregations of Jonas Clark and John Leland did not agree on everything no more than Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson agreed on everything. But they understood the Natural and Biblical principles of liberty enough to be able to fight together for the cause of freedom and independence. Before they ever won a War of Independence, they won the hearts and minds of the colonists with the love and understanding of liberty and Law. Without the undergirding principles of Law and love, there can be no RIGHTEOUS indignation. Hatred and bitterness against evil is meaningless without love and affection for righteousness. And if Christian people are filled with hatred and bitterness against the most fundamental spiritual principles of truth and honor within the church (and tons of them are), how in the name of common sense can we expect the world around us to successfully engage in something as complex as political liberty within a nation? Without the undergirding principles of Law and love, there can be no approbation of Heaven. And without the approbation of Heaven, there can be no lasting liberty. Before we will ever have a revival of genuine liberty within our nation, we must have a revival of genuine spirituality within our churches. And that will not happen until churches get really serious about learning and applying the immutable principles of Law within their own hearts. And that includes the Law of God relative to the way Christian people treat their pastors and one another. In the church, there is plenty of room for disagreement, but no room for division. What is missing from the hearts and minds of so many professing patriots (Christians and otherwise) is old-fashioned humility. We refuse to hold ourselves accountable. We refuse to be taught. We know it all. We are never wrong. And if we are, we would never admit it. We refuse to submit to lawful authority. Bullheaded, stubborn, self-righteous people are totally unqualified to fight a freedom fight. They dont even understand the meaning of the word freedom, much less understand how to wage a righteous, disciplined, and honorable fight to preserve or reclaim it. He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8 KJV) And as far as our civil magistrates are concerned, here is Gods standard: He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. (II Samuel 23:3 KJV) Unfortunately, there is very little humility or fear of God being demonstrated in the lives of most civil magistrates or citizens--including Christians. Perhaps the last serious--and truly humble--candidate for President of the United States was Congressman Ron Paul. But he was ultimately rejected by proud, war-thirsty Christians within the Republican Party. Sadly, most proud people are not even capable of recognizing true humility when they see it. It is so foreign to them; they dont even know what it looks like. Judgment must begin at the house of God. How are we going to fix the White House if we cannot even fix the church house? P.S. I recently delivered what might be the most important message for RIGHT NOW that I could ever deliver. It is entitled The Right Of Revolution As Justified In Natural And Revealed Law. The DVD of this critical message contains the Biblical and Natural Law principles that have been so long forgotten and that are so desperately needed. These are the principles that our Founding Fathers (Christians and unbelievers alike) firmly understood and applied to Americas fight for independence. And these are the principles that this current generation of Americans MUST relearn if we are to have any chance of reclaiming the liberties that are so quickly slipping away from us. As I survey the political and spiritual landscape of America, I believe this message is of the HIGHEST PRIORITY. I urge readers to get this DVD. O rder my sermon DVD The Right Of Revolution As Justified In Natural And Revealed Law, click here. The stage may be set for the arrest of immediate past Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde over... The stage may be set for the arrest of immediate past Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde over alleged financial crime and corruption.The Senate Thursday asked its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to comply with relevant Sections of the Constitution that empowered it to issue a warrant of arrest on Lamorde for refusing to appear before it when invited.The 11-man committee investigated allegations of financial crimes and corruption brought against Lamorde by Dr. George Uboh, a human rights activist.Chairman of the investigative Committee, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, presented the report of his committee to Senate in plenary Thursday.Anyanwu told the Senate that after a series inviting Lamorde to appear before the committee to tell his own side of the story on allegations of financial crime and corruption leveled against him by Dr. Uboh, the former EFCC boss failed to honour the invitation.The committee chairman specifically referred to three letters of invitation written to invite Lamorde to appear before the committee dated 19th August 2015, 3rd November 2015 and 11 November, 2015 which he said did not convince Lamorde to appear before the Ethics and Privileges Committee.He noted that on receiving the letter of invitation dated 19th August, 2015 from the Committee, Lamorde wrote the Committee through his Special Assistant to claim (1) That due to time constraint and the nature of their operations, the EFCC Chairman was unable to appear before the Committee, and suggested 31st September, 2015 as a more convenient date he would appear before the Committee;(2) That if what the Committee wanted was comprehensive information of all recoveries forfeited and/or restituted funds and property in defence of the said allegations, then the Committee must wait until September, 2015 when it (EFCC) would submit its annual report to the National Assembly.(3) That the petitioner, Dr. George Uboh was an accused person in a case instituted against him by EFCC (FRNV George Uboh, CR/21/09) before Hon. Justice A.J. Aledetoyinbo of High Court 3 of the Federal Capital Territory Judicial Division on charges bordering criminal breach of trust;(4) That the petitioner was once convicted by a US Court for engaging in credit card fraud.Anyanwu told the Senate that after his committee digested the contents of Mr. Lamordes response, it again invited Mr. Lamorde to appear before it, advising him not to confuse the invitation of an investigative committee to appear before it to say his own side of the story as a public servant over a serious allegation against his person, with EFCCs routine annual report responsibility to the National Assembly, or the Senate Presidents previous invitation to a briefing.The Committee chairman said that Lamorde further responded through his Special Assistant That he was at St. Petersbury, Russia, attending the 8th Annual Conference and General Meeting of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) and that he had been there since 29th October, 2015.Anyanwu said that Lamorde again requested for a new date and time to enable him to honour the invitation.He noted that when the committee received Mr. Lamordes second letter of excuse, it decided to write a third letter of invitation dated 11 November, 2015; this time, threatening that it would no longer accept flimsy excuses for his non appearance.He said that after going through the facts available, the Committee observed that having waited in vain for the appearance of Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde since 24th November, 2015 and not seeing or hearing from him, it was forced to conclude that Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde wants to evade investigation by the Committee.Anyanwu noted that Consequently, the Committee reasoned that the only way to get the former EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, to appear before it was to invoke the powers of the Senate in Section 89(1c&d) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and compel his appearance.He said that the Committee was convinced that unless this line of action was taken, the National Assembly might be drawn into consequential disrepute in the future.The Committee therefore recommended in its submission (1)That to save the National Assembly, as the highest law-making body of the nation, from irreparable damage to its reputation and capacity to summon, the former EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, be compelled to appear before the Committee to answer for activities of his tenure.(2)That to effect recommendation 1 above, a warrant of arrest be issued by the Senate for his arrest.Anyanwu said the Senate may wish to consider and adopt the recommendations of the Committee as proposed.Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu intervened by raising a Point of Order.Ekweremadu referred the Senate to Sections 88(1) and 89 (1c&d) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended.He said; Subject to the provisions of this constitution, each house of the National Assembly shall have power by resolution, published in a journal or the official gazette of the federal government to direct or cause to be directed, an investigation into (a) any matter with respect to which it has powers to make laws. (b) the conduct of affairs of any person, authority ministry of government, department, charged with the responsibility of executing or administering laws enacted by National Assembly and disbursing or administering money appropriated or to be appropriated by the National Assembly.So on the basis of this section that this enquiry is being conducted.Now the subject under investigation has refused to come; what do we do?That is what is now covered by section 89 which says;For the purposes of any investigation under Section 88 of this Constitution and subject to the provisions thereof, the Senate or the House of Representatives or a committee appointed in accordance with section 62 of this constitution shall have powers to:(1) Procure all evidence written or oral, direct or ask as it may deem necessary and examine all persons as witnesses whose evidence (2)may be relevant to the investigation(2) Require all evidence to be given on oath(3) Summon any person in Nigeria to give evidence at any place or produce evidence in his possession.(4) Issue a warrant to compel the attendance of any person who after having been summoned, fails, refuses or neglects to do so and does not excuse such failure, refusal or neglect to the satisfaction of the House or the Committee in question and order him to pay all cost due to have been occasioned in compelling his attendance by reason of his failure, refusal or neglect to obey the summons and also impose such fines that may be prescribed for any such failure shall be recoverable in the same manner as a fine imposed by a court of law.(5) The warrant issued under this section may be served or executed by any member of the Nigerian Police Force or by any person authorized by the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives as the case may be.Ekweremadu said that what is required here is for the committee to issue a warrant of arrest and then the President of the Senate will direct the Police to effect the arrest.He added, It is not the business of the Senate in plenary to do so otherwise we will be offending this part of the constitution.So the issue of warrant of arrest is not something that we will take a resolution on, the resolution has already been taken by the committee.If there is any consequential order that needs to be made, the committee can deal with that and direct it through the Office of the President of the Senate who will direct the Police to effect the warrant.Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki sustained Ekweremadus Point of OrderSaraki said; The issue has been well spelt out by the Deputy Senate President, he has clearly referred to the constitution.Based on the Constitution this matter does not need to come to us at plenary.It should be left at the level of the committee and in accordance with section 89 of the Constitution. So I will sustain the point of order of the DSP.Anyanwu had, reeled out Ubohs allegations against Lamorde to include:Anyanwu said that Uboh prayed the Senate to stop from receiving further allocations from the Federal Government until it accounts for the huge remittable funds recovered which the Commission is still holding back, contrary to the EFCC Act, 2006 and financial regulationsTen out of 11 members of the committee endorsed the report presented by Anyanwu except Senate Deputy Leader, Senator Bala Ibn NaAllah (Kebbi South.) Benue State Governor, Mr. Samuel Ortom, on Thursday lamented that the killings currently going on in Agatu Local Government Area of his s... Benue State Governor, Mr. Samuel Ortom, on Thursday lamented that the killings currently going on in Agatu Local Government Area of his state is getting out of hand.He said the situation which had led to the death of many people and the destruction of several settlements had deteriorated to the stage that he decided to come and brief the Presidency.Ortom spoke with State House correspondents after meeting Vice President Yemi Osinbajo behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.Media reports had it that at least 145 persons had been killed in 25 villages in the local government.The attacks on the communities by herdsmen which started on February 22, 2016, are said to be ongoing.Ortom confirmed that many people have been killed in the attacks while many other people from the affected areas have been turned to refugees.He said he could no longer sit back in the state and watch the ugly events unfolding without seeking help from the Federal Government.The governor said, There are issues in my state especially the invasion of herdsmen in one of my local governments, Agatu Local Government.While we are making our own efforts to ensure that we maintain law and order, I thought it was necessary to also brief the Presidency.We also discussed other issues of interest. I think that the situation in Benue, especially in Agatu is getting out of hand. The Chief of Army Staff, Leuitenant General Tukur Buratai on Wednesday held a closed door meeting with Borno Elders to discuss ways out ... The Chief of Army Staff, Leuitenant General Tukur Buratai on Wednesday held a closed door meeting with Borno Elders to discuss ways out of insurgency.The meeting which took over three hours, from about 3pm till 6:25pm, was held behind closed doors at the Headquarters of the Theatre Command in Maiduguri.Although, the COAS did not speak to the press after the meeting, the Chairman of the Borno Elders Forum, Ambassador Usman Gaji Galtimari in an interview with newsmen said, most of the issues discussed were security issues that are not supposed to be made public.However Galtimari expressed hope that very soon, the lingering crisis posed by insurgents will be over.He called on all and sundry to support government and security operatives in their effort to defeat insurgents.We are here with my members to deliberate on issues which I cannot disclose to the public for now, all aimed at how best to restore peace to our dear land, and we are hopeful that at the end out it all, we will succeed, he stated.The meeting was attended by Ambassador Galtimari, the Secretary of the forum, Dr. Bulama Mali Gubio, Former governor of Borno state, Alhaji Ashiekh Jarma, Alhaji Lawan Badawi, Alhaji Gambo Gubio and Alhaji Garba Satomi among others. Vice President Yemi Osibanjo and Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, said on Thursday that Nigerias journey towards industrialization... Vice President Yemi Osibanjo and Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, said on Thursday that Nigerias journey towards industrialization required an enabling environment that can only be forged through partnership between the public and private sectors.The duo, however, said President Muhammadu Buhari has started the journey for economic rebound on the right path with the fight against corruption.They spoke at the Shehu Musa YarAdua Centre, Abuja, during the opening ceremony of a two-day summit organized by Leadership Newspaper with the theme: Industrialization in the States: A Leadership Summit.Osibanjo, who delivered a key note address, said Nigeria is facing an exciting times given the present economic challenge as all eyes are on the leaders at all levels to fix the economic within the shortest period.He said time has come for the federal and states governments as well as those in the private sector to move the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) from planning to implementation stage.The vice president, who was represented by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Okechukwu Enelamah, said the Buhari administration is poised to take away the motivation that comes from corruption in other to sanitize the system, restore investors confidence and build institutions for sustaining growth and development of the country.Oshiomhole on his part said, Now with the method adopted by our President to fight corruption, the National Security Adviser to the President will not allow anything to happen to money meant for security, let alone to share it to politicians who have no business with it.Also the governors of Kano and Bauchi States, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Mohammed Abubakar, said there is need for consistency in policy formulation and implementation in the country to drive the nation towards genuine industrialization. The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has asked the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, to prosecute Governor Ayodele Fayos... The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has asked the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, to prosecute Governor Ayodele Fayose; former Ekiti State Mopol Commander, Gabriel Selekere; and an Assistant Inspector General of Police, Bala Nasarawa.The party said the men and others indicted should be prosecuted for their alleged criminal manipulation of the June 21, 2014 governorship election that returned Fayose to power.APC said its petition followed a leak of a secret audio recorded by the Army Officer, Captain Sagir Koli, of the 32nd Artillery Brigade in Ekiti State two days to the election.According to a petition by the State Chairman of the party, Olajide Awe, entitled (1) Criminal Complaint Conspiracy, Bribery, Threats and Use of Military to Perpetuate Electoral Fraud Against the People of Ekiti State; (2) investigation of the role of the Nigerian Police Force in the Ekiti State Gubernatorial Elections June 21, 2014, the party brought Arases attention to the content of the audio tape detailing criminal acts planned by those mentioned or whose voices were captured in the tape.The party noted that on February 8, 2015, the audio recording capturing the voices of Fayose, Commander of 32 Artillery Brigade, Bri-Gen Aliyu Momoh; Senator Iyiola Omisore; Police Affairs Minister, Jelili Adesiyan; Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro and others, at a meeting where they conspired and strategised to rig the June 21 governorship election was released to the public.Awe said, The import of this audio recording is the revelations of criminal acts, which were planned and perpetrated by these men.The above listed persons conspired to tamper with the constitutionally and statutorily laid down procedure for the conduct of election. Section 1(2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) provides that; The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall not be governed, nor shall any person or group of persons take control of the Government of Nigeria or any part thereof, except in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.But Fayoses Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, has said the Supreme Courts refusal to review its judgment on the leadership dispute within the Anambra State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party was enough signal for APC.He said the judgment ended the APCs pipedream of returning to power through an orchestrated review of the Supreme Court judgment that validated Fayoses election. Apparently irked by the corporate bad image some Nigerian citizens in foreign lands attract to the country, Governor Rochas Okorocha has ... Apparently irked by the corporate bad image some Nigerian citizens in foreign lands attract to the country, Governor Rochas Okorocha has called for a comprehensive list of Imo sons and daughters serving various jail terms in the United States of America prisons. Okorocha, who made the call on Wednesday, when he played host to the United States of America Consulate General in Lagos, Mr. John Bray, also asked for the offences which they were accused of, tried and convicted.I am appealing to the Government of the United States of America, to furnish Imo State Government the comprehensive list of all our sons and daughters serving various jail terms in the USA.We would also like to know the offences for which they were tried and convicted, Okorocha said. The leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Front, NDPVF, Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo has said that contrary to the perception in ... The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, yesterday in Anambra State, embarked on spiritual warfare in its agitation for the release of t... The prayer and fasting which started at exactly 7am and ended at about 3pm in some locations of the state where members trooped outen masse without the usual display of IPOB flags and banners, was aimed at Gods intervention for the release of Mr. Kanu, actualization of Biafra, and the alleged intimidation, harassment, and killings of the members of the group by military operatives, whom they said will not go free for the innocent blood they are shedding. Detained leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu in court. In a statement issued after their prayer at a location in Ukpor in Nnewi South Council Area, IPOB Media and Publicity Officer, Mr. Emma Powerful called on the Bishops and priests of the Catholic, Anglican Churches and Pentecostals Pastors to be prayerful for the restoration of Biafra and for the release of Mr. Kanu. Nigeria is dwindling to irredeemable situation under the All Progressives Congress, APC, government of President Muhammadu Buhari.Biafra is the only answer to the problem Nigeria is facing now. The APC government is confused and the people who led Nigeria into this mess, the APC henchmen, their so called national leaders who wanted change at all cost, are now all dumb. They have no answer to the problems they have created.The only answer now is Biafra.We are not joking about this spiritual declaration. We have been praying and fasting. No bloodshed of Biafrans will go unpunished.The APC members who are deeply religious should go and ask questions about the consequences of the atrocities they have committed with the killing of innocent youths who were praying at Aba, innocent youths who were peacefully agitating in Onitsha whom the military killed.When we were taking those they shot dead to hospitals, their blood was revolting against the APC government and the party which will never know peace until they leave IPOB and other Biafra agitating groups alone, he said.He also urged the churches to pray ceaselessly because the people being killed are their members and children of God who were exercising their constitutional rights of peaceful protest and non violent agitation, adding that they should equally pray for Mr. Kanu who is facing unjust trial. Mr Powerful described Kanu as God sent from United Kingdom, where he has everything going for him but decided to come to Nigeria and suffer and liberate the marginalized and humiliated sections of Nigerians that are asking for freedom.We want Chukwuokike Abiama(God Almighty) to reveal the truth in the next court and to the world, for Mr. Kanu our innocent leader, to disgrace and blind the enemies of Biafra and those who want to use Biafra and Mr. Kanu to gain cheep popularity in their misguided government that is heading for the rocks he said. A Lagos State High Court in Ikeja has convicted one Friday James of armed robbery and sentenced him to death by hanging. The convict, ... A Lagos State High Court in Ikeja has convicted one Friday James of armed robbery and sentenced him to death by hanging.The convict, a middle-aged man, was said to have robbed one Olanrewaju of her jewellery worth about N100,000.The convict, who was said to be armed with a gun and a machete, was said to have also attacked and inflicted injuries on Olanrewajus husbands head and hands with his weapons.The state prosecutor, Mr. Akin George, told the court that the convict committed the crime on February 17, 2012 at about 3am in the Ikeja area of Lagos.According to George, the crime was contrary to Section 297 Criminal law of Lagos State 2011, and Section 295 (2) (a).The trial judge, Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye, on Tuesday found James guilty on the two counts pressed against him by the state.The judge said the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubts.Justice Ipaye had last week Wednesday convicted Omoilodan Seun and Gbenga Kayode of conspiracy, armed robbery and attempted armed robbery and sentenced them to death by hanging.The convicts were said to have robbed one Alhaji Jinadu of phones and money on November 2, 2011 on Ayangburen Road, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos.The convicts were also said to have waylaid and robbed one Rilwan Gbadamosi and his wife on November 9, 2011 along the same Ayangburen Road in Ikorodu.The court found them guilty on the three counts pressed against them by the state. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has amended the charges of destruction of evidence filed before the High Court of the Federa... The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has amended the charges of destruction of evidence filed before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Maitama, Abuja, against the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh.With the amendment, another count of obstruction of officers of the commission has been added to the initial two, and the PDP spokesperson will be made to take a fresh plea to all the three counts when the matter comes up before Justice Ishaq Bello on Friday.The amended charge has been filed before the FCT High Court and served on Metuhs lawyers on Thursday.Before the amendment, the EFCC had on January 21 arraigned Metuh on two counts, including destruction of his statement on January 5, 2016, allegedly to prevent it (the statement) from being tendered as evidence in court.In the second count, Metuh was accused of mischief which he was said to have committed by tearing the said statement with intent to cause wrongful loss or damage to the property of the EFCC.He had pleaded not guilty to the two counts and the trial judge, Justice Bello, had fixed Friday for trial.But the defendant will have to take a fresh plea with the fresh amendment to the charges.Metuh was said to have torn a statement which he made to the commission under caution on January 5, while he was being investigated for the charges of fraud bordering on the 400m which he collected from the Office of the National Security Adviser in November 2014.However, under the additional third count, the PDP spokesperson is accused of obstructing officials of the EFCC on the same day.According to the anti-graft agency, the said offence is contrary to and punishable under section 38(2) of the EFCC Establishment Act 2004.The law provides for a punishment of maximum of five years jail term or N20,000 fine or both imprisonment and fine. The Federal Government has called for the abolition of visa requirement among the members of the Developing Eight (D-8) Countries Organis... Lai Mohammed The Federal Government has called for the abolition of visa requirement among the members of the Developing Eight (D-8) Countries Organisation for Economic Cooperation to ensure free movement of people and trade.The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the call when he met with the Secretary General of the organisation, Dr Seyed Ali-Mohammed, on Wednesday, in Abuja. The D-8 countries areandOne area that I think D8 must to work on and if really they want to succeed, they must make sure that there is no barrier in term of visa among those eight countries. You cannot grow any trade talk less of tourism, if I cannot have easy access to Malaysia, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan.You can imagine the volume of trade that will develop over night if only you can make sure that if I want to go to Iran that there is bilateral agreement between Nigeria and Iran, between Nigeria and Pakistan and among those eight countries that there will be free movement of people.It is free movement of people that will guarantee free movement of trade. So, this is one area that I believe that you need to work hard on.Mohammed, who commended the organisations focus on tourism development, said the provision of infrastructure was critical to the development of domestic tourism.According to him, until you develop domestic tourism, you cannot have international tourism.In his remarks, Ali-Mohammed said the purpose of his visit was to intimate the minister about the organisations resolve to focus on tourism development as the area of cooperation among member countries.The meeting today I am enthusiastic about tourism. Very recently, on the proposal of member states, we came to conclusion that tourism or so could be one of our priority areas. The caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party at the House of Representatives on Thursday demanded the release of the Deputy National Chairm... The caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party at the House of Representatives on Thursday demanded the release of the Deputy National Chairman of the party, Mr. Uche Secondus.The caucus claimed that the reason given by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for arresting Secondus was flimsy and did not connect the former PDP Acting National Chairman to a crime.The Minority Leader of the House and leader of the caucus, Mr. Leo Ogor, who gave the position of the group at the National Assembly, said the members had yet to comprehend how a car gift by a private individual would be the reason for arresting a political party official.Ogor noted that the arrest of Secondus had given credence to the view held by the PDP that the anti-corruption war of the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government was targeted at the opposition.I am calling on the EFCC to release him and apologise to him if they have nothing else against him, he stated.He noted that the same APC government that was harassing PDP officials had also received vehicle donations and funds for its campaigns for the 2015 general polls.Ogor spoke more, The recent arrest of our deputy national chairman has been of major concern to us. This points clearly to the unrelenting agenda to destroy the PDP and obliterate viable opposition by the ruling party.I think it is something that calls for concern and the time has come for every Nigerian to also start asking questions. What actually is going on? Is the EFCC actually playing somebodys script? Or, it is a form of intimidation, trying to gag the opposition parties? The allegation against our deputy national chairman is that he was given vehicles by a private business man, either as political patronage or some level of contribution. SOMERS POINT -- A South Jersey hospital is warning more than 200 patients that they may have been exposed to HIV or hepatitis as a result of alleged drug tampering by a former employee. Shore Medical Center sent out letters last week to inform 213 patients who received intravenous morphine or hydromorphine medicines between June 1, 2013, and Sept. 17, 2014, that they could have been exposed to HIV or hepatitis B or C. The letters follow an investigation of alleged drug tampering by an employee at the hospital. "We have been working with public health authorities to determine if patients could have been exposed to blood borne pathogens at Shore through contact with this employee's blood," according to a statement issued by Shore Medical. Frederick P. McLeish, 53, of Egg Harbor, who worked as a registered pharmacist at Shore Medical, was arrested in January after a year-long probe, according to the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office. Authorities alleged that between July and September 2014, McLeish removed morphine from vials intended for use in preparation of intravenous solutions for patients and replaced the drug with saline solution. He was charged with drug tampering, theft by unlawful taking and possession of a controlled dangerous substance and jailed on $20,000 bail on Jan. 21. Patients are being tested to determine if any were infected. "We are providing free testing and support through every step and are partnering with local health department agencies during this testing period in order to be extremely cautious," Shore Medical said in its statement. The hospital has also set up a dedicated call center for patients and family members who may have additional questions. The call center phone number provided in the letters is 609-653-3900, hospital officials confirmed. The Press of Atlantic City spoke with a patient who received the letter and has since tested negative for the three diseases. She expressed dismay that it took this long for patients to be notified. "We are talking a year and a half that people could have been exposed and getting sick from this," Arlene Polmonari told the Press. Officials have not indicated how many patients have been tested, if any tested positive, how possible transmission could have occurred or whether McLeish will face additional charges. No additional charges have been filed in the case since last month, according to the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office. "The matter has been charged and indicted, and the indictment is pending trial in court," according to a statement issued on behalf of county Prosecutor James P. McClain. "Because the case is an active prosecution, it would be inappropriate to make further comment at this time." McLeish faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. Powerful winds brought down trees and power lines overnight Wednesday, leaving thousands of PSE&G customers without power for a period of time. Most of the power had returned by early Thursday morning, but about 300 customers remained without service, according to PSE&G spokesman Claude Sikavi. The National Weather Service Thursday morning reported minor-to-moderate flooding near the Ramapo River, affected towns along the river. Floodwaters were expected to recede by Thursday afternoon. The winds brought down a tractor-trailer truck on the George Washington Bridge Wednesday night, blocking westbound traffic. The truck was headed to New York City and flipped over in the westbound lanes, according to CBS2. There was also a report of a vehicle accident with no injuries in Saddle Brook shortly before 2 a.m. #Happeningnow,extremely strong winds flips over tractor trailer traveling on the George Washington Bridge. pic.twitter.com/miHwrrZxu4 NYPD 33rd Precinct (@NYPD33Pct) February 25, 2016 Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook. MOUNT HOLLY -- New Jersey Natural Gas, whose plans to build a $130 million pipeline were approved by the state last month, is suing Burlington County over its policies dealing with county roads. County spokesman Eric Arpert said Burlington, like most other counties and towns, have a comprehensive set of permits and rules that allow the county to maintain authority over its 506 miles of roads and any work that is done on them. But at issue is the freeholders' adoption of a revised manual on Dec. 28. "Given the timing and the nature of the freeholders' action, it was obviously taken to empower the county to deny NJNG's forthcoming road opening permit applications and thus prevent us from installing the Southern Reliability Link," company spokesman Michael Kinney said. "To prevent that, we filed suit to invalidate that policy." The 28-mile, 30-inch natural gas pipeline would begin in Chesterfield and continue through North Hanover, Upper Freehold, Plumsted and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst before connecting to the company's system in Manchester. NJNG filed two petitions with the state Board of Public Utilities: one seeking approval to build and operate the pipeline and a second determining that the project is reasonably necessary and waiving the local zoning and land use ordinances and regulations. The BPU on Jan. 27 approved the first petition, but a decision still has to be made on the second. The board's approval was subject to conditions -- road opening permits from the affected counties and municipalities being among them. "That condition explains the county's need to hastily adopt a policy that would empower it to refuse approval of such permits in its sole discretion and thus block or delay construction of the SRL," the lawsuit reads. Burlington County Freeholder Director Bruce Garganio said Burlington County would not be bullied by NJNG, who he says does not want to play by the rules. "Our road opening policies are our only ability to impact on this project," he said at the freeholder meeting Wednesday. "This board will vigorously oppose this attack by New Jersey Natural Gas, just as we have actively opposed the proposed route for this pipeline." The lawsuit contends that the county's attorneys conceded at a BPU hearing that the project was reasonably necessary and there was no feasible alternative route, but three weeks later, approved the road policy. NJNG is claiming that a manual didn't exist before it was first proposed in November, but the freeholders' resolution suggests that the first version was adopted in 1963 with an addition following in 1997. The portion of the pipeline that would run through Burlington County would almost exclusively be on county roads, the suit says. "We will fight aggressively as we defend our ability to protect our roads and our residents," Garganio said. Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include more details about the complaint and comment from NJNG. Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook. FB 1 redacted.jpg The Facebook page of "Kim," who scammed a New Jersey man of $50,000. (Courtesy Facebook) When we feature scams in this space, it's common for readers to wonder how someone could fall for it, whatever the scam. They sometimes blame the victim. Say the person should have known better. Should have researched better. Should have seen the red flags. But still, millions of people fall prey to scammers every year. As long as crooks find victims, we'll write about how it happened, hoping that you, dear readers, learn something that you can use to protect yourself or to warn your loved ones about fraud. That's why Frank wrote to us. He wanted us to tell the story of how he was duped out of $50,000 in a Facebook scam so others can learn from his mistakes. Frank said he feels "utter embarrassment and shame about the whole ordeal." "I was not using correct judgment," he said. "I have destroyed my life, my self-respect and the trust of my own family." So let's not judge. Let's learn. Here's what happened. In June 2015, Frank received a Facebook friend request from a woman named Kim. She said she was stationed in Afghanistan as a drill sergeant with the U.S. Army. The profile photo shown on the Facebook page for "Kim." The photo is blacked out to protect the woman's identity in case her photo was stolen by a scammer. "As we were talking on Facebook, she asked me to help her get a couple of consignment packages out of Ghana and into the States to be delivered to me," Frank said. He said yes. She immediately told him how to get in touch with a shipping company called Say Cargo Express Inc. "The packages contained, according to Kim, $10.5 million in cash and $70,000 in gold bars," Frank said. "She assured me that once delivery was made that I would receive a percentage." Frank was then put in touch, via email, with two men who were supposed to represent the shipping company. Benson Liu Xianfu was the logistics operations manager, and Andrew Critendon was person in charge of the package delivery. Frank said he was told "in order for things to be done legally," they hired an attorney named Tony Lithur. More on Lithur in a moment. Frank was told to send $3,000 for legal fees via Moneygram, and he did. That's when the scammers -- probably smelling the cash -- kicked it up a notch. "I kept getting emails from Benson and Andrew stating money was needed for a gold fee from the Ghana government which was $17,000, and an IRS Fee which was another $17,000 because of the package contents," Frank said. And he paid. Next, there was a storage fee of $9,000 for customs. This dragged on from August until Christmastime, Frank said. On several occasions, Frank said, he thought he was getting the package, but it never came. Instead, he was told another fee had to be paid for one reason or another so the packages could be released. "[It] cost me everything. Multiple bank accounts and CDs along with an entire retirement account," he said. "I am also paying on a loan I made from my work 401(k)." Frank finally realized he was taken. He filed a police report in January. "To be honest, when she brought the proposal about the consignment I was skeptical, but in the back of my mind I thought, 'Why would someone from the U.S. Army want to scam me?'" Frank said. FOLLOWING FAINT TRACKS We reached out to the Army to see if we could verify whether the "drill sergeant" who contacted Frank was the real thing. But given the number of current and former military personnel, having just a person's name isn't enough to verify someone's service. A spokesman said scams targeting those who have trust and/or sympathy for the military are all too common. The Army's Criminal Investigation Command even has a warning on its web site. So we checked out "Kim" on her Facebook page. She posted quite a few photos of the military, but we had no way to verify if Kim was a real person a scammer using a real service member's name and photos to trick people. That's why we've redacted the names and photos you see with this story. The Facebook page managed by "Kim" hadn't shown a new post since August 2015. So we went a step further, sending "Kim" a friend request, which "she" accepted in quick time. She didn't, though, respond to our message to chat. We also sent messages to several men who had wished her a happy birthday on her page. Those who responded had never met "Kim" personally, and they all only had contact with her online. None reported they were ever asked for money. So reached out to Facebook to verify "Kim's" identity through Facebook, and to learn what the social media giant does to combat this kind of fraud. While we waited for a response, we looked at the attorney who was named in the deal: Tony Lithur. Based on news reports, we determined that Lithur is a real guy -- an attorney with a firm called Lithur Brew & Company in Ghana. We reached out to him over LinkedIn and through his company's web site, but he didn't respond to our messages. One of many emails received by Frank, requesting money for the alleged shipment of gold. We also know it's not uncommon for scammers to impersonate real people, so we don't know if the real Lithur was involved in this deal. We're guessing he wasn't, but that the scammers simply picked the name of a high profile attorney in Ghana to make the deal look legit -- just in case Frank Googled the names of those who contacted him for this deal. We couldn't find anything on the other names Frank had as contacts, so we went to Say Cargo Express, a real shipping company based in Anaheim, Calif. The company's sales director, Doug Childers, said the company's name was used in scams several years ago. "They said someone was claiming they got emails on the same exact scam this person fell for," Childers said, referencing Frank's story. He said that Frank's contacts, Benson Liu Xianfu and Andrew Critendon, are not and were never employees of the company, and he wants readers to know Say Cargo Express is a legitimate company whose name was used without the company's permission. "We had zero involvement in this," he said. As we figured. Then we heard back from Melanie Ensign, who works on the security communications team at Facebook. She said her team determined that "Kim's" account violated its community standards, and Facebook removed the profile from its site. "The account was impersonating another person, which we don't allow," Ensign said. She said users can report questionable profiles to Facebook for investigation. She also offered that the Federal Trade Commission warns against money transfer scams and encourages consumers to report them to law enforcement. So, dear readers, let this be a lesson to you. And let it be a lesson that you share with your friends and family, even if you think they'd never fall for such a scam. "Never trust any unknown person wanting to be your Facebook friend," Frank said. "Also never go along with any 'get rich quick' proposals." Wise advice. Check out link from the Army's Criminal Investigations Command for information on where to report military impersonation scams. Have you been Bamboozled? Reach Karin Price Mueller at Bamboozled@NJAdvanceMedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KPMueller. Find Bamboozled on Facebook. Mueller is also the founder of NJMoneyHelp.com. Stay informed and sign up for NJMoneyHelp.com's weekly e-newsletter. CAMDEN -- A 21-year-old Delaware man will have his first court appearance Thursday after surrendering to authorities on charges he killed a city man earlier this month. The Camden County Prosecutor's Office said Tajmir Wyles, of Middletown, De., turned himself in to Camden County Police on Wednesday night after he was pursued for weeks by U.S. Marshals. Wyles is accused of shooting and killing 22-year-old Nicholas Rowser on Feb. 7 at about 4 p.m. in the area of Mount Ephraim Avenue and Morton Street. He remains in Camden County Jail and is scheduled to appear before Judge Edward J. McBride Jr. at 1:30 p.m. to be arraigned on one count of first-degree murder. Michelle Caffrey may be reached at mcaffrey@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ShellyCaffrey. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. CAMDEN -- A 67-year-old Cherry Hill man was sentenced to 25 years in state prison on Wednesday after being convicting of secretly filming a young girl who lived in his home. The Camden County Prosecutor's Office said Sylvester H. Chew was found guilty by a jury in June on 66 total counts of criminal charges including creating child pornography, invasion of privacy and endangering the welfare of a child. Assistant Prosecutor Kelly Testa argued during the trial that Chew hid cameras in a bathroom and bedroom to take videos and photos of a young girl who was living with him over the course of three years while she was nude. In addition to filming the girl, who was between the ages of 9 and 12 when the crimes occurred from April 2008 to August 2011, Chew also tried to convince the victim to sleep naked and pose for photos with him while naked. Chew was found in possession of the images of the victim, as well as other children, after his actions were reported to authorities by an adult in 2011. Michelle Caffrey may be reached at mcaffrey@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ShellyCaffrey. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. The column that says Millville doesn't look a day over 149 years old. -- Good morning! -- "The City of Millville was charted Feb. 26, 1866, and on Feb. 26, 2016, the city will celebrate 150 years. Our kick-off event will be Feb. 26, 2016, 6 p.m. at the Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts located at 22 N. High St., Millville, NJ 08332. We will have a gallery set-up, a small presentation and light refreshments. "If anyone would like to submit a picture or item for the gallery please contact the Recreation Department. "A committee has been formed to plan events throughout the year. So if you would like to join in please attend our next committee meeting on Thursday, March 10, 2016, 6 p.m. at City Hall, fourth floor Commission Chambers, located at 12 S. High St. "For further information contact Millville Recreation at 856-825-7000, ext. 7394." - Samantha Cruz -- Greenwich Presbyterian Church is hosting a presentation by Dr. Larry Niles titled "Saving the Delaware Bayshore for the Benefit of Rural Communities" on Friday from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. The church is located at 630 Ye Greate Street. -- "Dr. Larry Niles' presentation will focus on the ongoing battle to save the horseshoe crab and the Artic-nesting shorebirds that depend on them to complete their long-distance flights to their breeding areas. This battle reflects the challenges facing all wildlife on the Delaware Bay and provides a practical framework to restore the bay to its past glory. Dr. Niles, a biologist, is presently pursuing independent research and management projects on shorebird ecology and conservation and habitat conservation through planning and restoration. He and his, Amanda Dey, were a part of the PBS Nature documentary "Crash: A Tale of Two Species." - Greenwich Presbyterian Church -- Millville Army Air Field Museum has a trip scheduled to Dover Air Force Base on March 19. Admission is free to the museum but seats on the bus cost $40. There are no lunch facilities on site but the bus will stop at Cracker Barrel in Pennsville on the way back. The bus is leaving Millville Municipal Airport at 8:30 a.m. and is expected to return at 6:30 p.m. Reserve seats by calling 856-327-2347. -- The Inspira Play Zone is opening up at the Cumberland Mall on Saturday. A grand opening celebration will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It will be located in the Boscov's Court and the theme of the play zone is produce -- including a berry archway, an apple slice climber and a healthy snack slide. The play zone is enclosed and carpeted. Activities during the grand opening include Zumba line dancing, kid-oriented activities, food sampling and giveaways. -- Each one of these columns ends with a "My Kind of Town" tagline and I decided to start taking submissions. If you think you have a good tagline to put at the end of the column, send it to ben@njadvancemedia.com. -- MY KIND OF TOWN: Where Kathleen Procopio leaves a large vacuum for all she's done for Millville. Don E. Woods may be reached at dwoods@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @donewoods1. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. South Jersey residents upset with their landline service with Verizon will be able to air their grievances with the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) soon during an upcoming meeting. A state senator wants the Board of Public Utilities to hold a hearing on Verizon service in South Jersey. (File Photo) The meeting comes from months of petitioning by 16 South Jersey communities upset with Verizon and the company's use of antiquated copper landlines. "After board staff's careful review and consideration of a petition filed by 16 southern New Jersey municipalities and the County of Cumberland, Verizon's response to the petition and the petitioner's recent reply to the company's response, board staff will schedule a public hearing to be held in that region for the purpose of hearing directly from residents and the businesses community about Verizon's landline phone service quality," said Richard S. Mroz, president of the BPU. The meeting was at the behest of state Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-1) and Mroz spoke with the senator Wednesday before the announcement. Residents from Atlantic, Salem, Cape May and Gloucester counties all signed a petition due to their displeasure with Verizon and the fact that the telecommunications company has failed to maintain its copper lines in the more rural communities. The residents would like to see the landlines replaced with fiber optics or at least have the copper lines properly maintained. "This is not the middle of Wyoming or Kansas," Van Drew said. "We should be able to access technology to be able to compete." Van Drew pushed for a meeting in his district so it would be easier for residents to voice their concerns to the BPU. Cumberland County has taken the lead on collecting the petitions and dealing with Verizon and the BPU when it comes to upgrading the landlines in South Jersey. "We're gratified that the board is going to move forward and we appreciate the support we have been given by Sen. Van Drew's office," said Ted Baker, solicitor for Cumberland County. According to Verizon spokesman Ray McConville, the company is aware of the meeting and plans to attend to hear customer complaints. The meeting date and location is not scheduled yet but, according to Van Drew, will most likely be in April or May. Don E. Woods may be reached at dwoods@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @donewoods1. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. Woman came to 'party on Bourbon Street,' stole bicycle, SUV to get home, police say You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Schools with most special needs students should get extra money: Stephen Hales Gates at Chef Menteur, Rigolets should be part of 2017 master plan, coastal staff says WASHINGTON (AP) The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a subpoena to Donald Trump. The nine-member panel sent a letter to the former president's lawyers on Friday, demanding his testimony under oath by mid-November and outlining a series of corresponding documents. The decision by lawmakers to exercise their subpoena power comes a week after the committee made its final case against the former president, who they say is the "central cause" of the multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It remains unclear how Trump and his legal team will respond to the subpoena, if at all. A Shenandoah woman has been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for selling meth. Katherine Elizabeth Lynn, 29, was sentenced on Monday in Fremont County District Court to up to 10 years in prison for the distribution of methamphetamine. Lynn pleaded guilty to a Fremont County felony charge and a Page County felony charge, both involving the distribution of methamphetamine in Shenandoah. Lynn will not be eligible for parole until she has served at least one-third of her sentence under Iowas mandatory minimum sentencing law. According to court records, on Aug. 18, 2015, the Fremont County Sheriffs Office Narcotics Unit, with the assistance of the Shenandoah Police Department, conducted a narcotics investigation where Lynn exchanged methamphetamine for prescription drugs in Shenandoah. Lynn was subsequently arrested in Page County in connection with the investigation and found to be in possession of methamphetamine. On Nov. 26, 2015, the Fremont County Sheriffs Office Narcotics Unit conducted another narcotics investigation where Lynn conspired to exchange methamphetamine for cash. Lynn was arrested in early January 2016 on a Fremont County arrest warrant and has remained in custody at the Fremont County Law Enforcement Center. Lynn will begin her sentence at the Iowa Correctional Facility for Women in Mitchellville. Fremont County Attorney Corey Becker and Page County Attorney Carl Sonksen prosecuted the case. Community Its now easier than ever to connect and chat with others in your local area. You can connect with your community by asking general questions, give area updates and recommendations and even let your community know about local events that are taking place. Alberta company fined for destroying fish habitat on Lake Manitou An Alberta company has been fined $25,000 for shoreline work that affected a fish habitat. Alberta Corporation Number 866321 pleaded guilty to unlawfully destroying fish habitat in Lake Manitou and was fined $25,000. An Alberta company has been fined $25,000 for shoreline work that affected fish habitat on Lake Manitou. Photo: Wikipedia An Alberta company has been fined $25,000 for shoreline work that affected a fish habitat. Alberta Corporation Number 866321 pleaded guilty to unlawfully destroying fish habitat in Lake Manitou and was fined $25,000. Court heard that in January 2013, conservation officers became aware of shoreline work on Lake Manitou. Through an investigation, it was determined that the president of the Alberta company had contracted an excavating firm to dredge the lake bottom and create a sheltered harbor attached to the lake. Prior to court, the company rehabilitated the shoreline and dredged the area back to its natural state. The company also donated $60,000 to Manitoulin Streams for future fisheries management work on Lake Manitou. Justice of the Peace Michael Kitlar heard the case in the Ontario Court of Justice, Gore Bay, on Feb.10. To report a natural resources violation, call the MNRF TIPS line at 1-877-847-7667 toll-free any time or contact your local ministry office during regular business hours. You can also call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). We chat with Beer Store boss and Sudbury native, Ted Moroz It may surprise some to know that the president of The Beer Store grew up in Sudbury, and paid his way through Laurentian University by working part-time at a local Beer Store. The Beer Store president Ted Moroz will be at Laurentian University Thursday evening to speak about his own career, and The Beer Store's role as a corporate citizen, during a talk at the Fraser Building's Alumni Hall at 5 p.m. Supplied photo. It may surprise some to know that the president of The Beer Store grew up in Sudbury, and paid his way through Laurentian University by working part-time at a local Beer Store. Ted Moroz returns to his alma mater Thursday evening to speak about his own career, and The Beer Store's role as a corporate citizen, during a talk at the Fraser Building's Alumni Hall at 5 p.m. Moroz graduated from Laurentian with a bachelor of political science, and went on to complete his master's in the same field at Ottawa's Carleton University. When he graduated in 1988 he wanted to go on to do an MBA part-time, and find a job on Parliament Hill to help cover his schooling. But that proved to be difficult. The economy was in very poor condition and jobs were very hard to come by, he said. Moroz had six years of part-time experience with The Beer Store at that point, and decided he had nothing to lose by applying for a job at the Toronto head office. He started as a management trainee, and worked his way up the chain from there. I was definitely ambitious and interested in learning more and doing more, Moroz said. In 1994, he returned to Sudbury, where he accepted a human resources job with The Beer Store that covered all of Northern Ontario. That was just awesome, to get back to my roots, he said. Over the next decade he moved on to a number of senior management positions, and in 2009 became president of The Beer Store. Moroz said he took over the top job at an interesting and exciting time for the industry. In early 2015, in the wake of allegations from the Toronto Star that the Beer Store had maintained a monopoly on private beer sales in the province through backroom dealings and fundraising with all major political parties in the province, The Beer Store opened up its ownership structure. Before 2015, The Beer Store was owned by three large multinational corporations Labatt Brewing Company (AB InBev), Molson Coors Brewing Company and Sleeman Breweries (Sapporo). On Jan. 7, 2015, the company announced it would make it easier for small brewers to list their products in its more than 450 stores across the province, and would give them an opportunity to buy new preferred shares in the company. Today, 25 Ontario brewers owned preferred shares in The Beer Store, Moroz said. With last year's changes, small brewers were able to list two of their products at five Beer Store locations near them at no cost. Previously, brewers had to pay an initial fee of $2,880 to list their brands, and an additional $230 for every store that carries their beer. Sudbury's own Stack Brewing took advantage of those changes when it announced earlier this month local Beer Store locations would carry its products. We're really pleased to have Stack Brewing at The Beer Store, Moroz said. It just adds to the wonderful selection we have. That selection includes 500 brands from around 100 brewers, he said. The other big change for The Beer Store was the announcement last year the province would allow beer to be sold in Ontario grocery stores. Ontario plans to have up to 150 stores with beer on their shelves by May 2017. Sudbury's two Walmart locations made the initial cut of 58 retailers that would carry beer by mid-2016. But Moroz said more retail competition won't affect beer prices in Ontario. At The Beer Store, at least, it is the brewers that set the prices for their products, and Ontario is limited by higher commodity taxes than some surrounding jurisdictions. The commodity taxes in Ontario on beer are 30 times higher than they are in neighbouring states like New York and Michigan, Moroz said. Despite the high taxes on beer, Moroz added Ontario has some of the most competitive beer prices in Canada. As for his talk Thursday, he said he is excited to reach out to post-secondary students and share his own story with them. I see this as an opportunity to speak with the students, and I can't wait to do that, he said. Our company is a very large employer of post-secondary students, because we're busy when they're not. Storm warning ended: Now it's time to dig out (9 photos) Environment Canada has cancelled the winter storm warning for Greater Sudbury, but we all know what that means it's time to dig out. City crews are out in force clearing major arteries. Photo by Heidi Ulrichsen Environment Canada has cancelled the winter storm warning for Greater Sudbury, but we all know what that means it's time to dig out. After the snow ends, the forecast calls for a mix of sun and cloud this morning, with local blowing snow into early this afternoon. Winds will be from the north at 40 km/h, but gusting to 60 km/h. The temperature will be about -9 this morning, but will start falling slowly over the day. By tonight, skies will be partly cloudy, with a cold north wind blowing at around 30 km/h, gusting to 50 km/h. The temperature will hit a low of minus 19, but the wind chill will make it feel like -28. Tomorrow, expect a mix of sun and cloud with winds from the southwest at 20 km/h in the afternoon. Expect a high of -8, but the wind will make it feel like -28. Friday night look for a low of -9 with a 40 per cent chance of flurries. Councillors back initiative to get more women involved in politics While equal rights under the law is something that most Canadians take for granted, it wasn't so long ago that half the population was denied the right to vote. As we inch closer to the 100th anniversary of women gaining the vote in Canada, Sudbury city councillors have approved a women in politics initiative that aims to encourage more female involvement in politics. File photo. While equal rights under the law is something that most Canadians take for granted, it wasn't so long ago that half the population was denied the right to vote. As we inch closer to the 100th anniversary of woman gaining the vote in Canada, Sudbury city councillors have approved an initiative that aims to encourage more female involvement in politics. At the risk of aging myself, when my grandmother was born, women didn't have the right to vote, city clerk Caroline Hallsworth said at Tuesday's council meeting. The initiative includes an all-day event in September with speakers and a workshop to get women thinking of running to learn more about the process. You really need a couple of years head start to get ready to run for office, Hallsworth said. We're hoping to break down barriers. The goal is to find former politicians who can inform and mentor a new generation of female politicians ahead of the municipal vote in 2018, as well as provincial and federal elections expected around the same time. Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh said she's gotten a lot of feedback since news of the city's plan to encourage women to run hit the news. There's been nothing but positive responses backboth male and female, McIntosh said. And Ward 4 Coun. Evelyn Dutrisac said it was a great way to ensure there are strong candidates in future elections. This is such an excellent initiative, Dutrisac said. Politics is something that is worthwhile (and) having a mentor is so important. What we want is the best candidates presenting themselves women or men. A report on the initiative that was approved Tuesday said encouraging women to run is an effective way to get them involved in politics. Through conversations and research staff has uncovered a common thread: women typically don't make the move from considering running for office to actually throwing their name into the ring until they are asked to do so or they are told that they should, the report says. As one councillor stated during an interview, 'knowing how few women there are, you don't know what you're getting yourself into.' " In Greater Sudbury, four of the 12 members of city council are women, or about 30 per cent. That's slightly higher than the provincial average of 27 per cent. The statistics in the table reveal that across Ontario, when women make the decision to run they are 10 per cent more likely to be elected than their male counterparts, the report says. The rate was even higher in Sudbury in the 2014 local vote, where four of the eight women who ran won a seat on city council. They are Dutrisac, McIntosh, Ward 11 Coun. Lynne Reynolds and Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann. The September event planned as part of the initiative is being called Women in Government Day, and will bring together women interested in running for office with women who have already gone through the process. It is hoped that the day will facilitate open discussions with respect to the barriers women face, both perceived and actual and identify solutions to address them and provide them with the tools to do so and ultimately encourage more women to seek office in our community, the report says. The second event, referred to in the report as "mentor speed dating," will match potential candidates with a mentor who will support them as they decide whether to run for office. It is the ultimate hope that by stripping away as many of the unknowns as possible ... this project will encourage more women to join in the political process and run as candidates in our next election. EVANSTON, Ill. --- Almost 300 girls will experience the thrill of science during Northwestern Engineerings 45th annual Career Day for Girls on Saturday at a daylong workshop, Engineering: Find Your Element. By participating in lab activities, including drawing pictures with bacteria, testing out 3-D printers and experimenting with floating concrete, girls from the Chicago area will get a unique opportunity to get inside the mind of an engineer and experiment with cutting-edge technology. Engineering: Find Your Element, which is designed to encourage young women to consider engineering in their educational and career goals, will take place 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Feb. 27, at Northwestern Universitys Technological Institute, 2145 N. Sheridan Rd., Evanston. Sponsored by Northwestern Engineering and Northwesterns chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, the event will include an engineering design competition, laboratory tours, hands-on experiments and a panel discussion about a variety of engineering majors and how to pursue them. Throughout the day, young women will be able to meet with current female engineering students, faculty and alumnae. Northwestern Engineering alumna Hannah Chung, co-founder and chief creative officer of Sproutel, will kick off the program with a keynote address at 9:15 a.m. in the Technological Institutes Ryan Family Auditorium. Sproutel is the creator of Jerry the Bear, a platform to engage children in play-based education, which has received praise from President Barack Obama to business mogul Warren Buffett. Students participating in the lab tours (10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) will have the opportunity to simulate chemical reactions on a computer, draw a picture using colorful bacteria, create a floating concrete figurine, explore 3-D printing and learn what it takes to build a car that runs on solar energy, among other activities. In the afternoon, middle school students will rotate through three different hands-on activities (1:15 to 3:30 p.m.). High school students will separate into two groups to hear about various aspects of engineering (1:15 to 2:30 p.m.). After the panels, all high school students will participate in a mini-design competition (2:30 to 3:30 p.m.). Career Day has been held at Northwestern annually since 1970, when only 4 percent of the students in the McCormick School of Engineering were women. Today, nearly one-third of Northwestern Engineering students are women. This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post on February 24, 2016. By Laura Beth Nielson The Republican-controlled Senate's refusal to consider, hold hearings for, or even meet with any Supreme Court nominee proposed by President Obama is not "just" partisan politics as usual. It is not even a very bad case of partisan politics. It is dereliction of duty, constitutional abdication, a violation of the oaths of office they took when they became Senators, and disturbs the balance of power in the United States putting our democracy at risk. When US Senators take the oath of office, they swear (or affirm) they will "support and defend the constitution." Article II Section 2, paragraph 2 of the United States Constitution is so clear as to be transparent: "The President shall have power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate . . . [to] appoint. . . Judges of the Supreme Court." The Constitution -- the document our Senators swear to support -- does not say anything about the President's authority and the Senate's responsibility for this task ending any time before the term of presidency does. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that each branch of government is capable of fulfilling its constitutional obligations. Refusing to keep our highest court fully staffed is irresponsible. Our Constitutional Democracy is founded on and works because of the system of checks and balances and the separation of powers. These are constitutional principles that many of us learned about in junior high school and that have served our Democracy well for over 200 years. When one branch abdicates its duty, it throws the entire system out of whack. To put this into perspective, consider Illinois. Here in Illinois, we have been in a budget stale mate for seven months because our governor and state legislature cannot do their jobs. They cannot compromise and pass a budget for this year (don't even think about next year!). But, that does NOT mean Illinois is closed for business. It means the programs that courts deem to be "essential" are being funded via court orders. Therefore, areas of government expenditure that impact businesses and have powerful representatives in the courtroom get funded while service agencies for families living in poverty, state-supported affordable higher education, and other important state functions go unfunded. Illinois' legislature and governor may be holding fast to principled decisions, but they also are subverting the Illinois constitution and are allowing, indeed forcing the third branch of our state government, the courts, to make funding determinations which amount to making all of the policy decisions about how our state functions. One branch of government, in many ways the least able to do so, is running our state. When two branches refuse to or are unable to do their jobs, the work of governing does not stop; it moves to a different venue. One that may be far less able to make the kind of informed policy decisions that a legislature and executive can make given their roles. Stalemates at the Federal level have added significance because in addition to domestic policy, the Federal government maintains our safety and security. That important task is shared by the legislature which sets policy and appropriates funds, the executive, who enforces those laws, and the courts which ensure judicial processes that balance enforcement with due process and fair treatment for those accused of crimes. Handicapping the highest court in the land puts all of these important functions at risk. Like their counterparts in Illinois, our elected Federal officials cannot agree and the stalemate between President Obama and Congress has resulted in the second-least productive Congress in modern history. And now this obstreperous bunch seeks to undermine the court by leaving Justice Scalia's chair empty for at least a year. Congress and President so deeply at odds, handicapping the courts is short-sighted and dangerous. To be sure, replacing Justice Scalia is an important task that may have jurisprudential implications for decades. Our Senators have the prerogative and the responsibility to take this job seriously, but this does not extend to total abdication of Constitutional responsibility. How many of us have jobs where we can simply refuse our clear obligations without being terminated? The dysfunction that has characterized US politics for the past decade, the failure of Congress to act, and the multiple attempts to repeal "Obamacare" rather than dealing with pressing matters, threatens our Constitutional principles. Americans should demand action by writing to their Republican Senators, resist characterizing this stale mate as "politics," and instead name it what is: an abdication of constitutional responsibility. And we should vote for candidates who will follow their oath of office and do their jobs. Our constitution requires it. - Laura Beth Nielsen is an Associate Professor of Sociology and the Director of Legal Studies and the Alexander Hamilton Project at Northwestern Legal Studies at Northwestern University. United States Attorney for the District of Nebraska, Deborah R. Gilg, announced today that she will host a press conference, along with several other law enforcement officials, to announce the arrests of several individuals involved in a methamphetamine conspiracy investigation in central and western Nebraska and northeastern Colorado. The press conference will be at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 26, at the Nebraska State Patrol Troop D meeting room located at 300 W. South River Road in North Platte. The joint operation, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, included investigators from the Cooperative Operation for Drug Enforcement (CODE) Drug Task Force, Western Nebraska Intelligence & Narcotics Group (WING), and the Central Nebraska Drug and Safe Streets Task Force (CNDSSTF) and Colorado law enforcement authorities. This yearlong operation resulted in the federal indictment of 63 individuals for Distribution of controlled substance, possession of controlled substance with intent to distribute and conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. This is an incredible effort involving nearly thirty law enforcement agencies, said Gilg in a press release. The coordination and cooperation in this investigation is a tremendous tribute to the selfless dedication we see time and time again with our law enforcement agencies. Two years ago we were gathered in North Platte to honor many of these same law enforcement officers who were being recognized with an award from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). That HIDTA award, from a case that began in 2012, ironically spun off into this drug conspiracy involving this operation. The information on the indictments and the defendants will be available at the press conference on Feb. 26. The names of those arrested in Lincoln County and Dawson County: North Platte Federal warrant: Anthony Apodaca, 27, Virgil Apodaca, 24, Lee Benson, 45, Mary Bockman, 32, Jody Casillas, 54, Teresa Enninga, 43, Janet Fontenot, 36, Christopher Gonzales, 32, Rachel Humphrey, 35, Richard Keith, 37, Jesse Klemptner, 25, Donald Morrissey, 37, Louis Ortega Jr., 33, Sheri Queen, 41, Martin Radel, 45, Roxane Reynolds, 42. North Platte Delivery, dispense, distribution, manufacturer, hazardous drugs-two counts: Cynthia S. Valentine, 25, Tia Eggers, 35, Edward D. Hagert, 36. Lexington Federal indictment: Enrique Martinez, 42, Jesus Quezada, 23, Jose Valtierra-Pacheco, 52, Roy Vieyra, 58, Courtney Coleman, 35 Lexington Federal contract: Wendy Pulido, 40 Experienced Bulldogs captain James Graham has urged David Klemmer not to change his intense style of play, after the NSW and Australia representative was suspended for his side's season-opener against the Sea Eagles. With Klemmer rubbed out for one game after taking out the legs of Storm forward Kenny Bromwich in their trial win last weekend, Graham said the positives outweighed the negatives when it came to addressing the 22-year-old's aggressiveness. "I think David has certain attributes that makes him the player he is. He definitely doesn't want to be missing games and the club and everyone involved doesn't want him missing games, but David plays the way he plays," Graham said of the 120-kilogram behemoth. "In doing what he does it can have some implications and sometimes it leads to suspension. But I guess do you want to change that, and change the way he is? I'd probably say no. "Obviously he can learn from it but I think sometimes when you play on the edge like him it's just going to happen. He can maybe be a little smarter with it but you wouldn't want to change fundamentally what David Klemmer is all about." Graham has other concerns to worry about first and foremost with ankle and rib injuries impacting his game time in the Storm trial, though he said he'll be right for the Sea Eagles in a week's time. "It was nothing serious," he said. "If there were a game this weekend I would play so I can't see any reason why in Round 1 why I won't be ready to go." Nonetheless, with the NRL cutting down the interchange to eight for the 2016 season, Graham said he is expecting very little change on the paddock from a personal perspective. Renowned for playing big minutes for the Bulldogs, Graham insisted it was a reasonable prospect for his 30-year-old body to keep doing what it's achieved previously despite knee and hamstring issues derailing the backend of the Englishman's 2015 season. "It's sustainable for me. You have your pre-season to work on your conditioning and stuff, the injuries I've suffered previously have been unfortunate and I'm all recovered now," he said. "You look at someone like Paul Gallen at the age of 34 who is still knocking out huge minutes for Cronulla, New South Wales and Australia. I'm hoping I can do the same." A full wrap of the day's important NRL Fantasy news that could impact your Fantasy selections. Pick your NRL Fantasy side now - Young Newcastle forward Joseph Tapine (2RF, $269,000) has pushed through a late move to the nation's capital on a four-year deal commencing in 2016. While he looked like a handy selection if he remained at the Knights, he might not see the same sort of game time at the Raiders. However his move might also have implications for Fantasy favourite Shaun Fensom. Read more. I'm glad Joe Tapine gets to play first grade this year but I'm concerned for Shaun Fensom's #NRLFantasy output. Chris Kennedy (@CKennedy80) February 24, 2016 - He isn't guaranteed to start in Round 1, but if selected Melbourne teen Curtis Scott (WFB/CTR, $130,000) could provide great coverage as fifth or sixth WFB. Read more. - Struggling to decide who to splash the cash on in your second row? NRL.com's Andrew Bryan breaks down the best 2RF options. Read more. - Panthers captain Matt Moylan (WFB, $349,000) is targeting a Round 2 return after scans revealed a minor stress fracture in his back. Read more. Video - J5djM5MTE6ZUjTjwCeU-kTt_fiBwagf3 - South Sydney premiership-winning centre Kirisome Auva'a (CTR, $139,000) is battling his cousin Hymel Hunt for the right centre spot vacated by Dylan Walker, and if selected, is a prime cash cow in the notoriously tricky CTR position. Read more. - Miss any injuries or suspensions? The casualty ward is back for 2016. Read more. - Titans utility Daniel Mortimer (HLF/HOK, $370,000) doesn't matter where he lines up in the Gold Coast 17, but wants to play big minutes. Capable of slotting in at hooker or in the halves, Mortimer's versatility might see him resigned to a bench role again in 2016. He'll need to average more than last year's 41.4 to see any increase in value. Read more. - Bulldogs prop David Klemmer (FRF, $356,000) has been suspended for Round 1, after being found guilty but successfully downgrading his dangerous throw charge at the NRL judiciary on Wednesday night. But don't rush to get his replacement the opening round the NSW Origin prop will be back for Round 2. Read more. Videos first featured at raiders.com.au Well, Ive been to more meetings than normal. And normal has its fair share of meetings. A few: Theres the Forward Committee of St. Victor/Our Lady of Knock working on linkage between the two churches: Soon to be expanded to three? Calumet City Board of Trustees: Thanks to Castaways Bowling for a substantial donation. The Mayors committee to interview the final candidates for the CCPD Chiefs job: Some really excellent choices. A meeting of Vicariate VI of the Archdiocese of Chicago (South Chicago and the South Suburbs): Some troubling numbers, but an opportunity for growth through change. A group to work on the branding and imaging of Calumet City: Wouldnt Jake and Elwood, or at least their hats, on the smiley towers look cool? And Wednesday was the meeting of the Calumet City Chamber of Commerce met in the Community Room of the Library. The food from Andys on River Oaks Drive was an attraction and quite tasty. But the focus of the meeting was an address by Mayor Michelle, a kind of State of the City address. And contrary to what some social media and idle chat would have you believe, all is not doom and gloom in Cal City. As might be expected, the mayors view of the work of her administration is pretty positive. The reality is that there are positive signs in Cal City. Our bond rating ticked up some time ago and it has held at an "A" rating. The city tax portion of our property tax bills hasnt gone up for three years now. The three largest departments of city government police, fire, and public works do a very commendable job. That is the Mayors assessment, but it is also mine and many other peoples. Through the organizational efforts of City Clerk Nyota Figgs, 50,000 bottles of water were delivered to Flint, Michigan. A pat on the back also goes to Brian Booker, owner of Wess Towing for transporting the donation. A lot of what people find troubling about Cal City are about economic and cultural forces certainly not in anyones control. Things change. Thanks for reading. The opinions are solely those of the writer. George Grenchik is a longtime Calumet City resident and retired instructor at Bishop Noll Institute in Hammond. He can be reached at gjgrenchik@aol.com. WESTVILLE Imagine you're a college student in a technical early-morning class still tired from the day before that was filled with part-time work, classes and research. It's anatomy and physiology. You have to concentrate. You have to remember a hundred terms such as medulla oblongata, a portion of the brain stem between the spinal cord and the pons. Then there's the melanocyte, a specialized melanin-producing cell found in the deepest layer of epidermis. And the lacrimal gland, a tear-secreting gland on the superior lateral portion of the eyeball underneath the upper eyelid. A Purdue University North Central professor has created literally a novel way to help students remember complicated terms and functions. Professor Scott Simerlein writes a little ditty to help students and he sings them to a popular tune students will remember. Simerlein's sister, Professor Mitzi Simerlein, who teaches anatomy and physiology at Ivy Tech Community College in Valparaiso, also sings the songs to her students. For example, Simerlein used "Hakuna Matata" from Disney's "Lion King" to create a musical mnemonic for the medulla oblongata and the midbrain: "Medulla oblongata! Pyramids are its thing. Medulla oblongata. It controls vomiting. It regulates your heartbeat, blood pressure and breathing." He and his sister used "Jingle Bells" to help students remember the organelle, a minute living structure of a cell with a specific function in the body. Some students say they wake up in the middle of the night humming a song. Sophomore Jamie Kutzer, of Valparaiso, said the songs help immensely. "It's a multifaceted course. There are a lot of things to remember," she said. "It's very complex, so it helps to understand it better and absorb it when you associate it with something you can relate to, like a song or something funny." Kutzer said students can't sing aloud during tests, but she certainly thinks about it during the exams. "It's cool. It really helps me to remember certain things that are difficult to retain," she said. Also LaPorte County's poet laureate, Scott Simerlein said that works well with creating lyrics. "The hardest part is picking a song, one with a peppy tune and enough notes in it that you can get all of the syllables for the complex terms that will make up the song," he said. Freshman Logan Castro, of Chesterton, a prenursing major, said the songs are "goofy" but they help. He said he studies a lot but will listen to the songs as part of his review. "He's a really great professor. I've seen his sister around Ivy Tech. I am also taking a microbiology class at Ivy Tech," Castro said. Sophomore Jesenia Perez, a nursing major, said she especially remembers her favorite "Simersongs." She said the songs pop into her head during tests. The Simerlein siblings are also both chiropractors, following in the footsteps of their grandfather, father and an uncle who have a practice in Porter County. Both profs practiced for about 10 years before getting into education. Both also have taught in LaPorte County middle and high schools, and both have taught at Purdue North Central as well as Ivy Tech. Scott Simerlein said he started teaching at PNC in 2005 on Saturdays. "It was a blast. The students in the class on Saturday had some life experience, and it was great," he said. "The first semester I started teaching, I began creating the songs. Blood flow is always something that students struggle with." "It took me years to come up with a song for blood flow," Simerlein said. "I wanted to do something with Sonny and Cher's, 'The Beat Goes On,' but there weren't enough syllables." The Simerleins finally recorded it to the tune of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," made famous by the Andrews Sisters in 1941. Mitzi Simerlein said her students have just as much fun with the songs. "A lot of my students say they have me on alert so that when another Simersong is released, they look at it," she said. Altogether, Simerlein said he has written about three dozen songs, and produced seven of them, along with five videos. "We're up to about 2,000 views on the first four videos," he said. "In addition to Indiana and Illinois, we've had views from as far away as Canada, Mexico and South Africa." Simerlein said they don't make money from the recordings and don't hold any copyrights. He said using the Disney songs is considered a "parody," and shouldn't cause any problems. "We both adore Disney. It would be great, a dream come true, if they wanted to connect with us and do a CD together," he said. "We could have the Simerlein siblings Disney-style." President Barack Obama signed a customs bill Wednesday that contains added protections for the domestic steel industry, whose advocates hailed it as a "good news day" and even a "great day." "Duplicitous foreign countries and foreign companies have been circumventing our trade laws to dump illegal steel into our markets for far too long," said U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, who serves on the Congressional Steel Caucus. "I was proud to support the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 in the House of Representatives and I am pleased that President Obama has now signed it into law. Visclosky said the bill provides improved tools that will greatly assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection in its efforts to prevent illegal steel imports, thus saving American jobs. The Steel Caucus will work to see that the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 is enforced, Visclosky said. It empowers U.S. Customs and Border Protection to initiate investigations into steel dumpers who duck tariffs on steel imports, such as by misrepresenting the country it came from. A flood of imports has caused an unprecedented crisis for U.S. steelmakers, who announced 12,000 layoffs last year. ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel, two of Northwest Indiana's largest employers, lost a combined $9.4 billion as imports seized a record 29 percent market share, which hurt sales and depressed prices. The steel industry is in crisis, and we need to know that our laws are being vigorously enforced to fight back against importers who try to cheat at our rules," American Iron and Steel Institute President Thomas Gibson said. U.S. steelmakers and their workers are suffering partly because of "trade schemes" that let illegally subsidized steel flow in, Gibson said. "This law will now provide the U.S. government the ability to investigate these schemes and, therefore, enable the steel industry to seek remedies and help preserve American jobs that have been lost due to these and other unfair practices," he said. "We appreciate the administration's commitment to work with Congress and enact this crucial legislation, and look forward to working closely with them to ensure thorough implementation of these new tools." The bill will help American workers, but more is needed, Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul said. "The playing field is now a little more level for American workers and businesses who are victims of unfair trade practices like foreign dumping and predatory subsidies," Paul said. "This is a step forward, but the bill missed the opportunity to address currency manipulation, which continues to cause American job loss." Theater lovers will have the opportunity to enjoy the new Broadway musical "If/Then" as it plays Chicago's Oriental Theatre through March 6. The touring production of the musical, with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, music by Tom Kitt and direction by Michael Greif, stars Anthony Rapp, Jackie Burns, Tamyra Gray and Matthew Hydzik. "I always am very happy to be a part of things that are new and contemporary and that reflect what it's like to be alive today," said Anthony Rapp. Rapp, a former Joliet, Ill., resident, starred in the original Broadway production of "Rent" as well as the film "Rent." He's also done a variety of Broadway shows including "Six Degrees of Separation," "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," and others. Film fans will know him from movies such as "Adventures in Babysitting," "Dazed and Confused," "A Beautiful Mind," "Roadtrip" and more. The actor has also done much television work. In "If/Then," presented by Broadway in Chicago, Rapp portrays character Lucas, a college friend of main character Elizabeth, who is beginning a new life in New York and is presented with two possible paths she can take. Rapp called the "If/Then story "emotionally rich" and finds the concept interesting. The fact that we can all take certain turns in life that will make our journeys turn out differently is extremely interesting, he said. The actor said while he likes film and television work, there's something special about the stage. "I enjoy live performance the most," Rapp said. For Rapp, whenever he takes on a role or gets involved in a creative work, he said it has to be something that "rings true" with him. "It has to have something to say and has to be something I believe in," he said. About his work in the original production of "Rent," Rapp said he had no idea how popular the production would become. "I didn't know anything about it when I first got involved with it," he said. "I didn't know it would become such a cultural icon." Although "Rent" comes out of the '90s, Rapp said "it transcends its time." The actor said he's enjoys touring with the "If/Then" cast, which is made up of a lot of great performers. Rapp toured for the very first time at the age of 10. "I was in 'The King and I' with Yul Brynner," he said. FYI: "If/Then" continues through March 6 at The Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St., Chicago. Visit BroadwayInChicago.com. It's been 20 years since Michael Flatley debuted his lively "Lord of the Dance" productions. Flatley, known for taking the art of Irish Dance to new heights around the globe, comes back to town next week for a final tour as a performer in his latest "Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games" production. "Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games" will be performed Wednesday at The Chicago Theatre. The show debuted on Broadway last fall after having great success on London's West End and is currently on a U.S. tour. "This is going to be my last performance in Chicago," said Flatley, during a recent telephone interview from his London home. "I'm very excited to be coming back. It's going to be fabulous," he said, adding he's looking forward to seeing his mother and siblings who live in Chicago's South Suburbs. "I don't get back to this side of the states much. London is the center of the planet for us now," he said. Flatley, a native of Chicago's Southwest Side, is the creator and was largely the star of his acclaimed Irish dance shows 'Lord of the Dance," "Celtic Tiger" and "Feet of Flames." The dancer, now in his late fifties, recently announced he's giving his final onstage performances with "Dangerous Games." His last performance will actually be on March 17, St. Patrick's Day, when he takes the stage at Caesar's Colosseum in Las Vegas. "In one way, it's bittersweet," he said about hanging up his dancing shoes. "But it's something I've been gearing up for for quite some time. "Over the last 20 years, my body has taken a severe beating," he said. Flatley added he wants to set aside time for his family now. "I want to spend more time with my beautiful wife and son," he said. Putting his body through all the work and strain needed for the heights he achieved in his career, he said, was definitely an arduous task. "It's not easy but I'm happy I did it," Flatley said. "It's a good feeling knowing I accomplished my dream. But, it's my time to pay the piper," he added, referring to the pain in his body. Flatley's "Dangerous Games," is similar to his other shows in that "there's always a good versus evil" theme. "But the rest of the show is really unrecognizable...There's a whole new score, new costumes, lights, sound and a big 3D screen," he said. Flatley said he's proud of the young dancers that star in the show. "It's incredible the talent. They're fantastic." A recent project involving Flatley will be the debut, this summer, of an Opus Media Book about his shows and career. "It's a huge coffee table book," he said. "It's a celebration of my career and will have a collection of photographs new and old." He said 90 percent of the photos have never been seen before. Flatley said there are many great things about being from Chicago. "But the best part about Chicago is the work ethic. People there know the value of a dollar and they treat their friends well," said Flatley, whose late father owned and operated a plumbing business on the South Side. Flatley added Chicago fans are also the best and extremely loyal and enthusiastic. "Anyone who's been to a Chicago Bulls game or Chicago Blackhawks game knows the meaning of the word fan," he said. "I'm proud to be coming to my hometown for the last time. What an honor to be from Chicago. I love it." FYI: "Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games" will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 2 at The Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St., Chicago. Tickets are $49.50 to $149.50. CALUMET TOWNSHIP The person of interest in the slayings of former local radio host Velia "Val" Taneff and her daughter remains in police custody in Ohio. James A. Lohnes, 44, of Crown Point, refused extradition to Lake County where he is accused of stealing Taneff's 2003 Cadillac STS. Though police have identified Lohnes as a person of interest in the double homicide, he has not been charged in the slayings as of Wednesday. Mark Back, spokesman for the Lake County Sheriff's Department, said the investigation into the double homicide remains ongoing. According to court records from Bryan Municipal Court in Ohio, Lohnes is being held pending a signed warrant from the governor. In Lake County, an application to return Lohnes to the county was filed earlier this month in his two pending cases. Lohnes was arrested about 11:05 p.m. Jan. 16 on the Ohio Turnpike near Montpelier after a state trooper saw him walking near Taneff's vehicle that was parked along the side of the road. He was charged in Ohio with operation of a vehicle while intoxicated. He was expected to stand trial on the charge this week, but the case was dismissed Tuesday, according to court records. According to a motion, the traffic-related charges in Ohio were dismissed because there was a lack of evidence and the charging officer wasn't available for the trial. In addition to the auto theft case, Lohnes also faces in Lake County three counts of criminal confinement, strangulation, battery resulting in moderate bodily injury and battery resulting in bodily injury. Those charges stem from a Jan. 6 incident that happened at Taneff's home in the 2300 block of West 44th Avenue in Calumet Township. He is accused of putting his arm around a man's neck and punching him, according to the affidavit. Velia Taneff kicked Lohnes to get him off of the man, according to court records. The man drove Lohnes home once he calmed down, because he feared of what might happen next. The person Lohnes is accused of trying to strangle is the same person who called police asking them to do a welfare check on Taneff after he wasn't able to reach the elder Taneff. On Jan. 17, police found Lana Taneff's body in the basement of the home. She had been strangled to death, authorities said. Velia Taneff's body was found in an upstairs apartment of a building next door to her home that she owned. She, too, had been strangled to death, police said. Using OnStar, police traced Taneff's missing car to Ohio. When Lake County Sheriff's Department detectives interviewed Lohnes in Ohio, he told them the elder Taneff had allowed him to use her car for the weekend. Two of Velia Taneff's children told police their mother would never let anyone borrow her cars, noting that even they weren't allowed to drive her Cadillacs. LAKE STATION A week after a 6-year-old girl was sexually assaulted, strangled to death and dumped into a river, mourners memorialized her by throwing rose petals into the water. Alicia Rodriguez was being watched by her mother's boyfriend, Joseph Luis Gorbea Jr., on Oct. 19, 1996, when he took her to a home in the 2800 block of Henry Street in Lake Station. Gorbea, who was 19 years old at the time, sexually assaulted the girl, which seriously injured her, according to court records. He later admitted that he strangled the girl, put Alicia in her mother's car and drove to the Liverpool Road bridge. According to court records, he threw the girl into Deep River. Divers found the girl's body the next day, and an autopsy later determined she had been sexually assaulted. The young girl's homicide rocked the community, spurring rallies against child abuse and vigils in her memory. Gorbea initially told the girl's mother, Marisol Rodriguez, that Alicia was missing. Following two days of police questioning, Gorbea admitted to assaulting the girl and throwing her into the river. Gorbea told police various versions of what happened, and he at one point implicated another man in the homicide. That man was not charged in the homicide, though rumors circulated at the time of the community taking justice into their own hands. The Lake County prosecutor's office had sought the death penalty against Gorbea, but a plea agreement with defense attorneys was hammered out by 1998. Gorbea pleaded guilty to murder, child molesting and rape charges. As part of the agreement, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, which spared him from facing death. When he entered the plea agreement, Marisol Rodriguez told The Times, "There is nothing on this Earth that could possibly be just for what he's done, but at least he is now admitting to what he did." Gorbea's troubling upbringing was outlined at his sentencing hearing. He was born in New York City to young parents who would lock him in his bedroom while they partied. His grandparents eventually brought him to Lake Station, but he ended up associating with various gangs, including the Gangsters Disciples. Gorbea remains incarcerated at the Indiana State Prison. HOBART | Neighborhood Spotlight program organizers are focusing on the next step in the initiative to revitalize the northwest side of Hobart. Dale Polomchak, the Hobart Family YMCA executive director, told the city's Redevelopment Commission Angelina Mendoza has been hired as the program's project manager. The Hobart Family YMCA is the convening organization for the Neighborhood Spotlight initiative. To help fund the position, the Neighborhood Spotlight initiative received $10,000 from the Legacy Foundation. Polomchak said the Hobart Family YMCA is providing a $10,000 match for marketing and media. Throughout last year, six working groups for the Neighborhood Spotlight initiative met regularly to help develop a quality of life and place plan. Each of the groups affordable housing, engagement/leadership, environment/ecotourism, business development, workforce development and infrastructure/transportation developed several goals and objectives in the plan. We will get the working groups together again and re-energize to now go out and implement some of the goals and objectives they identified in the quality of life and place plan, Polomchak said. Each group will be asked to focus on one goal that is most relevant and most achievable for the panels. There are a variety of objectives identified in the quality of life and place plan. The engagement/leadership group intends to create a youth council. The infrastructure/transportation panel sets out to redevelop Old Ridge Road and Liverpool Road as complete streets by the end of 2020. One of the goals for the affordable housing group indicates it will collaborate with entities, such as businesses or nonprofit organizations, to help rehab at least three properties in the northwest area each year. The Valparaiso Police Department is seeking high school students who demonstrate good citizenship and have an interest in a law enforcement career. The department is sponsoring its annual Junior Police Academy. The Jr. Police Academy consists of 13 classes on designated days. Only high school juniors and seniors are eligible to attend the course. Students learn about the day-to-day activities of the Valparaiso Police Department. Some of the topics presented include traffic enforcement and traffic crashes, crimes against young people, physical tactics, K-9 and SWAT education and teen drug use. Space is limited and applications are available at the Valparaiso Police Department, 355 S. Washington St., or at Valparaiso High School from the school resource officer. All applications must be completed, including a signature from a parent, and returned to the Valparaiso Police Department. Additional information about the academy can be found on the departments website at www.valparaisopolice.org (Community Relations Division Page) or by contacting the Academy Coordinator Chris Allison at 462-2135 or by email at callison@valpopd.com. Additional information is also available on Junior Academys Facebook page. To be eligible for the academy you must be a Porter County high school student. Applications must be returned to the Valparaiso Police Department by 6 p.m. March 15. Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson announced Wednesday that his office is dropping the charges against five teens accused of raping a woman on a Brownsville playground last month. NY1's Lori Chung filed the following report. Speaking for her client, Ethan Phillip, one of five teenagers who learned they will not be prosecuted in the alleged gang rape of a young woman in Brownsville, Attorney Abdula Greene said "He's happy. The family's very happy. They're pleased." "You can only imagine. He's 15. The trauma that he experienced, the embarrassment when this news story first broke," Greene said. District Attorney Ken Thompson says he is dropping the case because the alleged victim has stopped cooperating after accusing the teens - Travis Beckford, Onandi Brown, Denzel Murray, Shaquell Cooper and Phillip - of raping her at gunpoint in Osbourne Playground last month, where she was drinking with her father. Thompson says, "The complainant has recanted her allegations of forcible sexual assault and the existence of a gun," and that "She also refuses to cooperate with any prosecution against her father, who was engaging in sexual conduct with her." Attorneys for the teens are now grateful that the case is being dismissed. "They did what you would have liked the New York City Police Department to do. They did a thorough investigation," said Kenneth Montgomery, the attorney for Murray. Montgomery represents the youngest of the five teens, who maintained that they found the 18-year-old having sex with her father before she agreed to have sex with them as well. "The lesson to be learned is that, listen, even if someone offers you sex in that position, it's unhealthy for many reasons, and make a wiser choice," Montgomery said. With the possibility of prison time no longer a threat, it's a thought community leaders hope everyone takes to heart. "We don't think that there was a criminal issue here. We think that it was a moral issue. They had an obligation to pick that sister up and get her to safety," said community organizer Tony Herbert. The district attorney said the behavior of those teenagers and the girl's father was both reprehensible and wrong, but a hearing is expected to be held next week to formally drop the charges. For its part, the NYPD has closed its investigation on this case. Last year, the city launched the Jamaica Now Action Plan to revitalize the neighborhood and boost the local economy. NY1's Clodagh McGowan has more on how the initiative is developing. Jamaica is already home to a bustling transportation and shopping hub. Now, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Borough President Melinda Katz want to revitalize the overall community too. Last April, they unveiled an ambitious $153 million plan to invest in the neighborhood's infrastructure. "The Jamaica Now Action Plan is a very innovative initiative, workforce development initiative for the Jamaica area. And it's holistic in its design to make sure we make smart growth as well as improve the livability of Jamaica," said Nakita Vanstory, the communication chair for the Jamaica Now Leadership Council. The Jamaica Now Action Plan's Leadership Council is a group of community stakeholders working together to ensure the plan fulfills its mission. "People from the community are invited to be a part of this council. Business owners, providers, different people. So everyone has a little bit of say about how everything is rolled out," Vanstory said. So far, the action plan lists 26 initiatives like improving transportation and housing options, as well as creating jobs and attracting new businesses the area. "We have workforce development going on to make sure that we are creating jobs in the community and with the community as well. So both employers and employees, and that's an exciting part," Katz said. Sixteen of the 26 initiatives are set to go into effect within the next three years. Officials say Jamaica will be the first neighborhood in Queens to get free public Wi-Fi this spring. "We are very excited about that. It will literally be a game-changer," Katz said. Residents NY1 spoke with are happy to learn of the developments and have some suggestions of their own. "We need our subway beautified and cleaned up a little so that people feel comfortable coming here to shop," said Terry Robinson, a Hollis resident. "They could add a little more restaurants too, you know," said Antwan Chisolm, a Jamaica resident. If you'd like to follow the developments, head to queensbp.org/jamaica. PITY poor, beautiful, elegantly dressed Susan Traherne, an English woman with a terminal case of ineffable feelings, something she apparently caught while working with the Resistance during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. Though it's a genteel condition and neither fatal, in and of itself, nor disfiguring, it makes her frightfully tiresome to be with. She's restless with society and rude to the men who love her. Even worse, it affects the way she talks. ''I have a weakness,'' she might say, ''I like to lose control.'' Or, ''I want to believe in you, so tell me nothing.'' But then everybody around Susan Traherne talks in the same peculiar mixture of prissy cliches from bad drawing room comedies (''Please, don't patronize me'') and sarcastic aphorisms (''As an empire collapses, there is little to believe in. Behavior is all.'') Susan Traherne (Meryl Streep) is the heroine of ''Plenty,'' David Hare's adaptation of his play, directed for the screen by Fred Schepisi. Or perhaps I should say, ''brought to the screen'' by Mr. Schepisi, as if it were some kind of literary treasure that couldn't be compared to grubby things ordinarily shown in movie theaters. In fact, ''Plenty,'' which opens today at the Beekman and other theaters, is a quite faithful film version of a play that was somewhat less than great to begin with - a muddled attempt to equate the emotional langueurs of Susan Traherne with life in postwar Britain. Susan, as is supposedly demonstrated by her work in France, had set out to make a difference in the world, only to discover that the new world is just as money-grubbing as the old, its politicians equally opportunistic and sadly short-sighted. Nureddin al-Atassi, who was deposed as President of Syria in 1970 and imprisoned for 22 years, died Thursday in a hospital in Paris. He was 63 years old. He died of cancer of the esophagus less than two weeks after arriving here for treatment, officials said. Mr. Atassi was President from 1966 to 1970, when he was overthrown in a coup by Hafez al-Assad, who was then commander of the Syrian Air Force and who is now the President. Mr. Atassi had led the hard-line wing of the Baath Party that seized power in a coup in 1966. After Mr. Assad took power in November 1970, Mr. Atassi was placed under house arrest. Amnesty International said he was later transferred to the notorious Mezze military prison in Damascus, but was never charged or put on trial. Alisa Marie Bellettini, a former television producer who created the popular MTV fashion show House of Style, naming the supermodel Cindy Crawford as its first host, died on Feb. 16 in Sacramento. She was 61. Her sister Gina DeHerrera confirmed the death but did not give a cause. With Ms. Crawford at the helm, House of Style was both glamorous and approachable, an attempt, begun in 1989, to mix the worlds of style and music in a way that would appeal to young viewers. It was youth culture produced by young people for young people, said Alison Stewart, a former producer of the show, which ran until 2000. House of Style has been resurrected as a series twice, shown mostly on the web, in 2012 and 2014, and it is on the Internet that many of its memorable moments live on: Ms. Crawford talking about healthy food with the hip-hop group Onyx, shopping with Duran Duran at Sears, joking with Will Smith on the set of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. One famous episode depicted the model Naomi Campbell applying zit cream to her face. A long-running fight between regulators seeking to curb speculation in the commodities markets and traders is heading into its next round. An advisory committee of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission composed largely of representatives from the energy and trading industries has recommended that the regulator abandon its plans to limit the number of futures contracts a trader can hold on certain commodities, including oil and natural gas, according to a copy of the recommendation that was reviewed by The New York Times. Such a reversal on so-called position-limits rules, if ultimately adopted by the agency, would hand a big victory to Wall Street. The C.F.T.C. Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee says in its report, being released on Thursday, that the regulator should not make the proposed limits final and that it finds scant evidence they are necessary. It adds that if the agency does proceed, it will need to make significant changes. Updated, 9:48 a.m. Good morning on this blustery Thursday. Its called the ice cream hibernation. It comes when the roughly 250 Mister Softee trucks that swarm the five boroughs with their music-box jingles and their cones, sundaes and shakes vanish in October. Its a relatively seasonable business in New York, Jim Conway, vice president of Mister Softee, said of his trade. But people dont realize that right now is among the busiest times for Mister Softee. That is, when the ice cream trucks migrate to the companys New Jersey headquarters for overhauls. Think new paint job, new ice cream machines and new generators so that your soft serve doesnt go too soft come summer. The trucks will get back to business in April. At a smaller, mom-and-pop ice cream operation, the trucks are fast asleep. Van Leeuwens fleet of ice cream trucks, nicknamed Kangaroo, Panda, Turtle and Bobcat, are really just hanging out at its Brooklyn headquarters, Kaye Whitacre, the truck manager, told us. A woman whose 2-year-old daughter died in a fire after being left home alone in a Brooklyn apartment was already the subject of an inquiry initiated this month by New York Citys child welfare agency that focused on whether the girl had been left unattended, a law enforcement official said on Wednesday. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing investigation, said the investigation of the woman, Leila Aquino, by the Administration for Childrens Services was active when a fire tore through her apartment in a three-story rowhouse on Monroe Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood on Tuesday morning. Asked on Wednesday if the agency had previously opened an investigation into Ms. Aquino, an agency spokesman, Chris McKniff, said privacy rules prevented him from commenting. He said the agency was investigating the circumstances surrounding the fire and the death of Ms. Aquinos daughter, Kalenah Muldrow. Ms. Aquino, 20, was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Wednesday night on misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child. Bernie Sanderss campaign is making incredible strides, but huge hurdles remain. On Feb. 18, a Fox News poll became the first national poll to show Sanders with a lead over Hillary Clinton. This week, Reuters published the second poll to show Sanders with a national lead. There is tremendous enthusiasm among Sanderss supporters, and their overall numbers appear to keep growing as time passes. But thats one of the problems: Hes running out of time. First, there are stiff structural barriers for his candidacy. As The New York Times reported this week, the way delegates are awarded based on vote tallies in congressional districts and some other areas favors Clinton over Sanders because she is more likely to win in those delegate-rich districts. And, as Politico reported this week, many of Sanderss staunchest supporters, college students, will be on spring break when primaries are held in the states where they go to school. In fact, Politicos analysis is that of the March 5-26 primary and caucus states, more than half a million college students from 14 states will be on spring break at the same time that the presidential campaign train chugs onto their campuses. And then there are the primary calendar problems. The South Carolina Democratic primary where Clinton is a heavy favorite to win is Saturday. That contest will be followed three days later by Super Tuesday. Half the contests on that day will be in the South, which has not been particularly favorable in recent history to Democratic candidates not from that region, and where black voters who still heavily favor Clinton over Sanders make up a disproportionately large share of all Democratic primary voters. In the last few days that Rubio strategy has come under withering fire from many of my fellow conservative pundits. As John Podhoretz of Commentary wrote yesterday, Republicans who are horrified at the prospect of a Trump presidency actually need a champion, not just a likable-enough alternative. Against a force like Trump, being available and plausible is not enough: The still-extant not-Trump majority in the G.O.P. will not remain a majority for long without a candidate whos actually willing to make the not-Trump case. So what is Rubio waiting for? What is his campaign thinking? Most likely, some version of this: Over the last few weeks, as Rubio has mostly ignored Trump and mostly attacked Ted Cruz, Cruzs numbers have gone downward in the region where he absolutely has to win, the Southland, and Rubios have steadily improved. Rubio was able to sneak past Cruz in South Carolina, hes pulled ahead of him in new polls from Georgia and Oklahoma, and hes even pulled within few points in a new poll out of Cruzs home state of Texas (though two others show a larger Cruz edge). As a result, it is suddenly possible that on Super Tuesday Rubio will win more delegates across the South than Cruz, which would put the Texas senators campaign on life support. Over that same period, meanwhile, Trumps battleground numbers have mostly held steady, rather than spiking in the wake of his New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada wins. Hes at 29 percent in the Oklahoma poll, 28 percent in the Texas poll (where his unfavorable number is at 50 percent), and averaging 33 percent in the two most recent Georgia polls. These numbers leave him vulnerable to a last-minute Rubio surge (and in Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada, late deciders broke for Rubio), and even in victory they dont promise a runaway lead in the overall delegate count after Super Tuesday. So if youre the Rubio campaign, looking at this landscape, you might say: Why change what were doing when were actually gaining ground? Why give Cruz a new lease on life by starting an ugly war with Trump just days before the S.E.C. primary might all but finish off the Texans chances? Why act panicked about Trump when hes still so many hundreds and hundreds of delegates away from the magic 1,237? Why not do everything you can to get an effective two-man race before you face the slings and arrows of Trumps outrageousness? From their perspective, theres no reason to play Churchill yet because Trumps advance is less Hitler-in-France than Napoleon-in-Russia, and theyre like Marshal Kutuzov, the much-maligned Russian commander whose wait, wait, wait strategy was vindicated when winter overwhelmed the French. (With winter, in this case, being Trumps relatively high unfavorable numbers relative to Rubio, his poor performance in general election polls, the ad campaigns that havent yet been unleashed against him but will be, etc.) Berlin IMMIGRATION and Customs Enforcement calls the detention site in Dilley, Tex., a family residential center. But to the 2,000 migrant children and mothers who live there, its something else: People who say this is not a prison are lying, Yancy Maricela Mejia Guerra, a detainee from Central America, told Fusion last year. Its a prison for us and a prison for our children, but none of us are criminals. The Dilley center holds people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a government agency, but it is run by the Corrections Corporation of America, Americas largest private prison and detention company. It is one part of a worrisome global trend of warehousing immigrants and asylum seekers at remote sites maintained by for-profit corporations. The United Nations estimates that one in every 122 people on the planet is displaced. This is a crisis that requires a humanitarian solution; unfortunately, some people view it as a business opportunity. In recent decades, many Western governments have increasingly outsourced prisons to private companies, claiming that doing so saves money. As the number of migrants and asylum seekers has grown, governments have found a new use for the private-prison model. It has become a multimillion-dollar industry. The company Hero Norway runs 90 refugee centers in Norway and 10 in Sweden, charging governments $31 to $75 per refugee per night. Australias government has contracted the company Broadspectrum to manage two detention camps in Nauru and Papua New Guinea for asylum seekers. In Britain, Prime Minister David Camerons government awarded the security firm Serco a seven-year contract in 2014 worth over $100 million for running the Yarls Wood immigrant detention center. In 1988, the Senate confirmed Anthony Kennedy, who had been nominated by Ronald Reagan the previous November. A counterexample is Abe Fortas, whose nomination to be elevated from associate justice to chief justice in the summer of 1968 was killed by a filibuster by Republicans and Southern Democrats. But thats a horrifying bit of history for Republicans to rely upon, because the main reasons for opposition to Fortas were that he favored civil rights and was Jewish. His ethical lapses mostly emerged later. Republicans suggest that its standard for a Supreme Court vacancy to be held over when it occurs during an election year. Since 1900, I can find only one example of something close to that happening: In the fall of 1956, after Congress had adjourned and Senate confirmation was impossible, William Brennan received a recess appointment, then in 1957 was nominated and confirmed. Its ironic that this tumult should bedevil a replacement for Antonin Scalia, who emphasized the constitutional text. The Constitution gives no hint that the Senates advice and consent for nominations should operate only in three out of four years. If Republicans block Obamas nomination, Scalias vacancy will last more than a year, compared with a historical average of resolving nominations in 25 days. To date, the longest Supreme Court nomination in American history lasted 125 days, and it looks as if we will easily break that record this year. The larger issue here is obstructionism. When I was growing up, the G.O.P. was the serious, prudent, boring party, while the Democrats included a menagerie of populists, rascals and firebrands. Today its the G.O.P. that embraces the George Wallace demagogues, and its aim is less to govern than to cause gridlock. Thats not true of everyone the House speaker, Paul Ryan, seems to have genuine aspirations to legislate. But to be a Republican lawmaker today is too often to seek to block appointments, obstruct programs and shut down government. Politics becomes less about building things up than about burning them down. This past weekend, the artist Mark Dion was standing in the midst of his apartment in Upper Manhattan, looking very relaxed after having just dispatched boxes upon boxes which were filled with countless smaller boxes from his living room down to Chelsea for his latest gallery showing. When I say this room was full, he said genially with a sweep of both arms, I mean it was full. It was mayhem. But now its calmed down again. Which was only partially true. Dion and his wife, the artist Dana Sherwood, live amongst a lovely and quirky melange of objects taxidermy and coral specimens and curios not unlike the Renaissance wunderkammers that have long inspired his work. As an artist, but also an explorer, collector and environmental activist, Dion has long been fascinated with the intersection of chaos and order specifically, our attempts to impose the latter on the former through scientific disciplines such as archaeology and taxonomy. And for much of his career, this preoccupation has found beautiful expression in his use of the cabinet both as a piece of sculpture and as a metaphor for how people have tamed nature and arranged artifacts to make (sometimes dubious) meaning. Im interested in how objects in a cabinet become almost pictoral, he says. But at the same time, they never leave the realm of being actual objects and not merely representations. For his new show, which opens today at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, he continues this examination of the cabinet in its various guises, whether its a 17th-century kunstkammer, a trophy cupboard or even an aviary. By choosing specific kinds of display cases, Im framing things within different intellectual traditions whether thats the wunderkammer, which still has one foot in the hermetic and magic tradition, or the Enlightenment museum with its more scientific approach, he says. Dion is a soft-spoken and humorous polymath, whose interests sprawl in every direction. Spend an afternoon with him, and you will hear him discoursing eloquently on any subject you might bring up, from evolutionary theory to the workings of modern capitalism to the films of Peter Greenaway (whose obsession with systems of representation, be they numbers or zoology, overlaps with his own). All the while, he will constantly range around his home to retrieve numerous treasures and trinkets to animate his points. For Miuccia Prada, the mens show was a preview to what she was feeling for womens wear, said the hairstylist Guido Palau backstage in the hours before Pradas womens collection. And Miuccia wanted to continue the same look we created for the women in Januarys show. That look is romantic in a way that is typical of Prada with a profoundly red lip and classically curled hair, but all a little bit off-kilter. Its the sort of hairstyle that was a great do at one time but now its worn in, Palau said. Along with his team, the hairstylist went through long steps of shaping the hair into undulating, face-framing waves and then they destroyed it. If you keep hair looking rich and shiny, it looks rich and wrong for Prada, he said. The hairstylist loaded on Redken Wax Blast and Hairspray 23 until hair became dull and rigid. Make sure shes hard! he commanded over a models head backstage. We do all the bad things you should never do to good hair, but thats what makes it look modern, he said. It looks like maybe shes ravaged, or maybe shes come off of a boat where there was a bad storm. Mount Charleston Its not even close to being the tallest mountain in the state, but Mount Charleston is somehow the eighth most prominent peak in the entire country, if that kind of thing interests you. What that essentially means is that the mountain seemingly pops up from out of nowhere. Less than 40 miles out of Las Vegas, Charleston Peak, as its also known, feels like a completely different world. For one thing, its cold. And theres snow lots and lots of snow. Its also phenomenally pretty, the air is clean and crisp, and you wont believe that mere hours ago you were trying to convince a bouncer at Tao to waive the cover. Theres a nice hike that begins at the parking area of the campground, as well as a big sledding hill that some kids were enjoying. If youre planning to climb the roughly 4,000 additional feet to the summit, come with the right equipment. Its gonna be snowshoes and crampons all the way up, the woman working at the visitor center told me. A guy tried it today but he turned back because the snow was up to here, she said, indicating a line at her stomach. The 10.3-mile North Loop trail will take you all the way to the top, if youre up to the task. (A fire compromised parts of the South Loop trail, the path typically taken.) Red Rock Canyon No, not Red Rocks, the place on which John Tesh once inflicted his music, but the nearly 200,000-acre Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, just 15 miles west of Las Vegas. The gorgeous rust-colored outcroppings of sandstone are the most obvious attraction the auburn cliffs, some thousands of feet high, look down on Joshua trees, agave and other flora and fauna of the eastern Mojave Desert. Theres hiking, camping, bouldering and sheer face rock climbing, and, if youre more the stationary type, a 13-mile scenic drive that loops around the canyon. Admission to the park is $7 per vehicle and $3 for pedestrians. If youre feeling extra frugal, though, you can make a turn onto Calico Basin Road, just northeast of the main entrance; slowly zigzag north and west until you find yourself at the end of Sandstone Drive, and park your car in the lot there. (Youll know when youve reached the end. There wont really be anywhere else to go.) Several hiking trails of varying degrees of difficulty are now at your disposal: Layer up (its hot in the sun and surprisingly chilly in the shade), grab your water bottle and enjoy the beauty and vivid colors of the ancient rock formations. PORTLAND, Ore. Defendants charged with leading an armed occupation at a federal wildlife refuge in rural southeastern Oregon this year formally pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in a hearing here at Federal District Court, saying little and sitting obediently a stark contrast to the days when they drew world attention by broadcasting their view that the United States government had illegally usurped lands across the West. The 25 men and women face up to six years in prison on charges that they impeded federal government employees from performing their duties in occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in a 40-day standoff. At a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors in Federal District Court said they still intended to file more charges based on evidence compiled after the last occupation holdouts surrendered earlier this month. The government anticipates that the discovery issues in defendants case will be some of the most complicated in the history of the district, prosecutors said in a filing with the court earlier this week. Supporters of the defendants have said the trial, which could start as early as mid-April, would be another venue for articulating the occupiers anti-government message. But at Wednesdays hearing, Judge Anna J. Brown, made it clear that she would be in charge, and that grandstanding or delaying would not be tolerated. When an assistant United States attorney on the case, Ethan D. Knight, told the court that 90 days of further work lay ahead in marshaling the new evidence, she told him flatly that that was too long. A man who sued to stop foreclosure of his home shot three law enforcement officers trying to serve an eviction notice Wednesday, killing one and wounding the others, the authorities said. The officers fired back, killing the gunman. One officer had life-threatening injuries and the other less serious injuries, a Colorado Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman said. The man opened fire with a rifle after Park County sheriffs deputies went to the home near Bailey, about 45 miles southwest of Denver. A law enforcement official identified the gunman as Martin Wirth. He owned the two-story home until March 2014, when Fannie Mae took ownership, according to the Park County assessors office. He asked a federal judge to block the county from selling his home or evicting him and to strike down several state laws. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit. Mr. Wirth ran unsuccessfully for the State Senate in 2014 as a Green Party candidate. Those resources have let CNN embark on one of the most aggressive campaign coverage plans, with reporters trailing every major presidential candidate and stationed in each early-nominating state. We dont have to make choices anymore, Mr. Feist said, about where to go or whom to cover. The scoops have rolled in. When a Black Lives Matter protester was roughed up at a Trump rally in November, Jeremy Diamond, who covers Mr. Trump for the CNN website, was the only reporter to capture the incident on video. Maeve Reston and Scott Glover, both former Los Angeles Times reporters, were the first to call into question key elements of Ben Carsons autobiography, in a story that broke first on the CNNPolitics website before going on to drive the television news cycle. Ive worked at a bunch of places, and Ive never been at a place that felt more central to the coverage of the presidential races, said Jake Tapper, a newcomer to the CNN political team since the past cycle, who will be moderating the Republican debate on March 10 in Miami on CNN. And this comes at a time when other broadcast news organizations are actually in many cases lessening or pulling back their coverage on politics. Not all of the reviews have been raves. Critics, competing candidates, and rivals in the news media have suggested CNN is obsessed with Mr. Trump, as Joe Scarborough of MSNBC put it last fall, pointing to CNNs seemingly insatiable appetite for interviews with Mr. Trump (often on the phone), coverage of and discussion of his campaign. Some CNN employees reportedly complained as did Charles Barkley, the former N.B.A. star who is a commentator on Turner Sports, a corporate cousin. In an interview, Mr. Zucker gave a pat explanation: Mr. Trump is more likely to say yes to his bookers. You can say what you want, but Donald Trump has been willing to subject himself to interviews, Mr. Zucker said. And just because hes willing to do it and others werent necessarily willing to do it, doesnt mean that he should be penalized because the others wont do it. And we shouldnt be penalized for not doing it because the others wont do it. He added, in a jab at the harder-to-get Senator Marco Rubio of Florida: The phone lines work from Miami, too. WASHINGTON From the White House to the Capitol to the campaign trail, the entire Democratic power structure on Wednesday mobilized to break through Republican opposition and clear a path for President Obama to name a Supreme Court successor to Justice Antonin Scalia. Mr. Obama enticed by a history-altering opportunity telephoned senators and pulled one aside on Wednesday, took to the Internet to detail his careful deliberation over potential nominees, and reproached Republicans for siding with extreme elements in their party. Hillary Clinton rallied African-American voters in South Carolina. Democratic leaders in the Capitol pressed the White House to name a nominee quickly, and the Democratic National Committee rallied liberal pressure groups. In what appeared to be a political feint, one potential nominees name leaked out, Nevadas Republican governor, Brian Sandoval, a candidate seemingly calculated to demonstrate the depths of Republican obstreperousness. The president invited senior Republicans and Democrats to the White House Thursday to discuss the process, then postponed the meeting Wednesday night after it became clear Republicans were unlikely to show. Mr. Obama insisted that in private conversations, Republican bluster was tempered. Theyre pretty sheepish about it, he said. WASHINGTON People who want to buy health insurance in the federal marketplace outside the annual open enrollment period will now have to provide documents to show they are eligible, the Obama administration announced on Wednesday. In the last two years, insurers say, many people went without coverage and then signed up under the Affordable Care Act when they became sick and needed care. Insurers say that people who sign up after the deadline tend to generate more claims and more costs, raising premiums. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, representing state officials, complained recently that consumers are not required to provide documentation to substantiate their eligibility for a special enrollment period. The new policy requires people to submit documents like a birth or marriage certificate if they want to sign up after the deadline using any of the most common special enrollment periods. These are available after a marriage or the birth or adoption of a child. They are also available when people move permanently to a new address or lose coverage provided by an employer, a government program or other source. Fractured, chaotic Libya has leapt back into the headlines this week, with a breakthrough in its tangled civil war and a vicious display of Islamist extremisms lengthening shadow. The country has been in turmoil since the fall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011, after 42 years of eccentric dictatorship. Many Libyans hoped his ouster and death would herald a new era of democracy in the oil-rich nation. But the armed groups that overthrew him swiftly turned on one another, and the country plunged into anarchy. Here are several key points. Q. Who has control on the ground? A. Everyone and no one. Different pieces of Libya are controlled by different militias, which may be organized by town, tribe or religious conviction. They are all vying for supremacy in something like a real-life Game of Thrones. The conflict is driven by fear, grievance, ambition and money, especially the countrys dwindling but still considerable foreign exchange reserves, now estimated at up to $85 billion. Cuba has given some prominent dissidents one-time permission to travel overseas, weeks before President Obama is expected to visit and call for greater freedoms in Cuba. Officials contacted half a dozen dissidents who were imprisoned during a 2003 crackdown and released as part of a deal brokered by the Roman Catholic Church in 2010 and told them they could make one trip abroad, said Hector Maseda Gutierrez, one of the dissidents. He turned down the offer because it excluded four other former prisoners, including Jose Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba. SYDNEY, Australia Responding to the military challenge from China, the Australian government on Thursday announced a robust increase in military spending, including the biggest expansion to its navy since World War II. A defense white paper issued by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls government said 12 new submarines, 12 combat patrol vessels and nine antisubmarine frigates would be added to the current fleet. Over all, 5,000 more personnel would be recruited for the Australian military and military spending would be increased to 2 percent of the countrys gross domestic product by 2021, in keeping with a pledge that Australia made to the United States as part of its commitment to share defense responsibilities in the Asia-Pacific region. As Americas closest ally in the region, Australia works with Washington on military operations and intelligence matters, and it has promised the Obama administration that it will invest in a stronger military. The 80-year-old father of an Iranian-American detained in Iran since last fall has himself been arrested in Tehran, his family said on Wednesday. Baquer Namazi, a former United Nations Childrens Fund official and the father of Siamak Namazi, was taken into custody on Monday, his wife, Effie Namazi, announced in a Facebook post. Ms. Namazi said she believed her husband, also an American citizen, had been taken to Tehrans infamous Evin Prison, where their son has been in custody since October. This is a nightmare I cant describe, Ms. Namazi wrote. Mr. Namazis arrest came on the heels of the recent prisoner exchange between the United States and Iran that did not include his son, a business consultant. Four Iranian-Americans, including Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter, were freed as were seven prisoners held by the United States. The exchange occurred as the accord that limited Irans nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of Western sanctions was about to go into effect. A Bahraini court on Wednesday sentenced a secular political figure to a year in prison over a 2015 speech calling for change in the kingdom. The man, Ibrahim Sharif, the former secretary general of the National Democratic Action Society, was convicted of inciting hatred. The court dismissed a charge that he had promoted the toppling of Bahrains government. In his speech, he said opponents of the government protested peacefully while the authorities used violence to put down demonstrations. Bahrains majority Shiites began protests in 2011, demanding more political rights in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. CAIRO After months of cautious silence, Egypt acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that terrorists had downed the Russian jetliner that broke up over the Sinai Peninsula in the fall. The authorities made the unexpected admission after strongly urging Egyptians and the world for months to await the results of an international investigation Egypt is leading. The crash dealt a serious blow to Egypts vital tourism industry: an important source of hard currency for the country, which relies heavily on imports. Those who downed the flight, what were they hoping for? Just to hit tourism? President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi asked, almost casually, while on the subject of terrorism near the end of a long speech about the countrys development plans for 2030, which was broadcast live. No, but also to hit relations. To hit relations with Russia. Hours after the October downing of the Airbus A321-200, which killed 224 people, Egypts local Islamic State affiliate claimed responsibility. The group said it had brought down the plane with a bomb concealed in a soda can. UNITED NATIONS When the World Health Organization wanted to know how the war in Syria was affecting the mental health of those forced to flee their homes, the agency hired someone known less for her expertise than for her connections: The consultant, Shukria Mekdad, is the wife of Faisal Mekdad, the deputy foreign minister of Syria and a powerful defender of the governments war effort. Her appointment has led critics to question the aid agencys impartiality. Jennifer Leaning, a professor at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, questioned what she called the optics of hiring a senior Syrian government officials wife as a consultant on something as sensitive as mental health. Not least, Ms. Leaning said, it would call into question any data Mrs. Mekdad gathers on the mental health of Syrians displaced by a war her husband has helped prosecute. At this point it reflects a degree of tone-deafness that is not appropriate, Ms. Leaning said. The W.H.O. chief in Damascus, Elizabeth Hoff, defended the choice, saying that her team includes people from all political camps. I didnt recruit them based on their names or their connections, Ms. Hoff said. I also have people in my office who are strongly with the opposition. Mrs. Mekdad, she went on, plays no prominent role in the office, and was brought on as a consultant for the mental health assessment project after she had served in the United Nations resident representatives office in Syria. 50 Years Ago The Whitney has moved on to its fancy new digs. It has left the old place shuttered for two years to renters. Dont worry, the tenant wont trash the building. Its the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it has a healthy respect for history. When the Met Breuer is unveiled next week, the building, inside and out, will be largely unchanged from when it opened in 1966. Heres how the The New York Times covered that opening. Milton Esterow, the former longtime owner of ARTnews but then a reporter for The Times, started things off: Three weeks before its public opening, Mr. Esterow wrote on Sept. 8, the museum has generated something of a debate among curbside critics. Who were not wholly pleased. Comments on Madison Avenue yesterday, he reported, ranged from it looks like a fortress and it looks like a garage to its striking, romantic and they ought to tear it down and build it rightside-up. Ada Louise Huxtable, the Times architecture critic, who went on to win the first Pulitzer Prize awarded for criticism, was an early champion of the building, and her appraisal appeared the same day. Saying it had an extraordinary urbanity, she spoke to some of the concerns of the curbside critics. The taste for the disconcertingly top-heavy, inverted pyramidal mass grows on one slowly, she wrote, like a taste for olives or warm beer. Modersohn-Beckers ambition might have been called masculine in earlier times. Going by the number of self-portraits she painted, she certainly had a healthy ego (which Otto complained about). The grave demeanor and large dark eyes of Coptic portraits are especially evident in her self-portraits and paintings of her sister Herma. It is thought that she is the first woman to paint a full-length nude self-portrait and also to paint herself pregnant, and nude, which she did twice before she was actually expecting. The exhibition contains one of her largest paintings, Reclining Female Nude of 1905-06, depicting an earth-mother type who is at once chaste, sensuous and strong, rendered in heavy textures that the artist inexplicably called runes. The work strains against its academic traces and doesnt quite break free, but its combination of scale, rendering and surface tension is imposing, almost sculptural. It belongs to a history of reclining nudes that reaches from Titian through Manets Olympia to Matisses Blue Nude, painted the next year, and exploded in Picassos Les Demoiselles dAvignon, also of 1907. Presaging artists like Nicole Eisenman and Dana Schutz, Modersohn-Becker painted from a female, implicitly feminist point of view, granting women and also children a memorable emotional complexity through the physicality of her paint and the solidity of her forms. She often painted them out in the open, alone with the birch trees of Worpswede, at liberty, without sentimentality. Her scratched, patchy paint surfaces make her subjects engaging as forms, evoking a gritty realism within a kind of timelessness. Prime examples here include Child Seated by a Birch Tree and Two Girls Sitting in a Landscape, both from 1905, and the etching Two Peasant Girls, from 1902. In three paintings from 1901, she turns lone birch trunks, seen up close, into expressive figural presences. Modersohn-Becker is often considered, with Lovis Corinth and Kathe Kollwitz, to be a precursor of German Expressionism. But she also channels a kind of plain-spoken monumentality that evokes Breugel. At the end, her figures become increasingly chiseled, even angular, almost anticipating early Cubism. We can only imagine the effects of encountering that style on the future trips to Paris that Otto promised when they reconciled. She might have become one of those great outliers like Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich or Marsden Hartley born, like her, in the 1870s who all adapted Cubism to their own divergent purposes. As would Hartley a decade later, and Max Beckmann still later, she was already merging strands of French and German modernism. Were left to compare and contrast and to speculate, as did an exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bremen that began in 2007, titled Paula Modersohn-Becker and Art in Paris Around 1900. And on page 150 of Ms. Radyckis biography, Modersohn-Beckers sturdy, knowing self-portrait of 1906 faces a remarkably similar one Picasso painted of himself the same year. It holds its own, and not just because both artists are stripped to the waist. PHILADELPHIA Remember how insane the 1960s felt, every day? someone asked me at a preview of the traveling exhibition International Pop, which is making its final stop here at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Absolutely I remember, and the show brash, manic and acid-tinged took me right back there. Maybe because the name sounds snappy, Pop Art has a reputation for being light and bright, and some of it is: Roy Lichtensteins larky comic-strip outtakes, Andy Warhols Silver Clouds. But a lot of its images are grim: electric chairs, police dogs, fighter planes, body parts. Under Pops sleek veneer lay traces of the social and political pathogens that made the 60s in America so jumpy. From day to day you never knew what disaster youd wake up to. Less familiar is Pops status internationally. And it did get around. It flourished, sometimes under other names, in Britain, France and Germany. It cropped up, at once embraced and mistrusted, in Argentina and Brazil, countries under the thumb of dictatorships; and in an Eastern Europe penned in by Soviet Communism; and in Japan, where memories of Hiroshima and the material rewards of Western occupation made for intensely conflicted art. In different times and places a combustive mix of realism and religion has given rise to some of the worlds greatest art. The European Renaissance was one such era. Another was the brief Kamakura period of Japan, from 1185 to 1333. Kamakura: Realism and Spirituality in the Sculpture of Japan, a spellbinding exhibition at Asia Society, features wonderfully vivid representations of Buddhist divinities. The first piece visitors encounter may not seem to agree with modern notions of realism. Its a dark, nearly 22-inch-tall head of a guardian king, whose ferocious expression appears more cartoonish than naturalistic, carved from Japanese cypress sometime in the 13th century. But he has an intense psychological presence in the smooth rendering of his deeply knit brow, gaping mouth revealing tongue and teeth, and bugged-out eyes made of rock crystal with pupils painted on the reverse, a signature innovation of the period. Originally attached to a whole, armor-clad warrior, this object does more than just symbolize a mythic character. It also seems to be an incarnation of divine ferocity, as if it were appearing in a dream or a hallucination. More than realism, this is visionary realism. In Buddhist lore there are four guardian kings, whose mission is to defend temples and the Buddha from evil doers and to scare away fools and knaves ill-equipped for enlightenment. Guardian king images were particularly popular during the Kamakura period, partly because of anxieties about the threat of invasion by Mongols, who Japanese forces managed to repel in 1274 and 1281. Also, the period followed a time of violent domestic strife among warlords that caused the destruction of many temples and artworks. The Kamakura period ushered in a rebuilding and the creation of numerous vigorous new artworks. The strength of the director Katie Mitchells fiercely empathic staging is to locate the play firmly within the stricken mind of Grace (Michelle Terry), who traverses the blasted terrain of Alex Ealess industrial torture chamber of a set as if life itself was one prolonged and awful hallucination. Ms. Mitchell keeps in check the plays various strands, which include a gay couple Carl (Peter Hobday) and Rod (George Taylor) whose love is tested to the limit and beyond, and Tinkers own infatuation with an unnamed dancer (Natalie Klamar) who dares herself to speak the words I love you amid an overpoweringly gray landscape that snuffs out such sentiments at every turn. As much a prose-poem as a play, Cleansed here emerges as a hypnotic piece of dance-theater as well. Ms. Mitchell and Joseph Alford, the movement director, bring to the 100 minutes (no intermission) the eerie sense of an existence lived both in rewind and replay whereby sensation is dulled one minute and searingly acute the next. Through it all, the fearless Ms. Terry moves in a state of near-undress more or less throughout, her face communicating the terror that comes from having seen and absorbed more than ones fair share of horror and yet against the odds, endured. Switch off your head; thats what I did, advises the brother, Graham (Graham Butler), for whom Grace cannot stop mourning and who becomes part of his sister in a way that cannot be revealed here. Yet not everyone is able to switch off, as Kanes too-short life reminds us at every turn. For all the ferocity in which it traffics, this production, like the play itself, feels like a gesture of love. For black-ish, its characters and its audience, it was finally time to have The Talk. Within the show, The Talk was the conversation that African-American parents have with children about the realities of police brutality against black citizens. Between the show and its audience, however, The Talk was the acknowledgment that black-ish is about a family in which that conversation was eventually going to happen. Wednesdays remarkable episode, Hope, pulled off both about as well as you could imagine: It was funny but heartbreaking, nuanced but not mealy-mouthed, blunt but not despairing. It firmly established black-ish, if there was any doubt, as a sitcom thats not just timely but up to the challenge of its times. The action in Hope started as a lot of topical sitcom episodes do, with a family watching the news on TV. The story was about a young black man brutalized by the police on video, with an indictment decision pending but which one? The episode made the confusion part of the joke: Was it Chicago? Cincinnati? Charleston? Who can keep track? (Watching the episode, I had to Google whether the case with familiar scenes of protest and coverage from CNNs Don Lemon was fictional.) Weve lived this scene many times, after all, since black-ish began in September 2014, a month after unrest broke out over the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. On the one hand, its timing was perfect: Here was a sitcom that was not only about a black family but asked what it means to be black today. The Enron accounting scandal happened nearly 15 years ago, but the announcement on Thursday of a new accounting rule shows that its impact is still being felt in corporate America. The Financial Accounting Standards Board, the body that sets accounting rules, has issued a final rule that changes how companies account for most of their leases. Though leases are similar to loans, companies have long been permitted to exclude most leases from their balance sheets. As a result, investors looking at a companys financial statements may have struggled to calculate its true financial obligations. The new rule requires that the most common type of lease be included on a companys balance sheet, potentially giving investors a more accurate picture of a companys health. Regulators started to consider a change in lease accounting after the collapse in 2001 of Enron, whose executives made the company look stronger than it was by keeping some of its financial obligations off-balance sheet. HSBC is adopting the just add Goldman Sachs recipe plan for its investment bank. The London-based bank is recruiting Matthew Westerman, a former top partner at the Wall Street firm, to help lead a reordering of HSBCs operations serving big global clients. His arrival implies that the banks ambition to crack the top league requires fresh impetus. Mr. Westerman and HSBC have some history together. The Goldman veteran, who held several top investment banking jobs at the bank run by Lloyd C. Blankfein over a 16-year period, is a longtime adviser to HSBC and knows Asia, HSBCs most fertile territory, well. He and Robin Phillips with whom Mr. Westerman will co-head HSBCs newly created global banking division should have enough to do to keep them from the kind of power struggle that often imperils such co-executive partnerships. HSBC is folding hundreds of commercial banking clients into the new unit, as well as adding in corporate and asset-backed finance businesses a reversal of their separation into a stand-alone arm in 2013. The head of investment banking at HBSC, Samir Assaf, reckons this will help with cost-cutting. It sends an odd signal to shareholders, though. HSBC has tried and failed to grow in higher-margin corporate finance businesses before, notably under the deal-maker John Studzinski, who now works at the Blackstone Group. Rivals including Barclays are considering moving the dividing line between corporate and investment banking to maximize cross-selling opportunities. But it feels a little too soon for HSBC to do so given it outlined a series of investment bank targets barely over six months ago. Lawmakers heaped criticism on an advisory committee report to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission recommending that the agency scrap its proposed rule on position limits in derivatives trading. The report and a dissenting opinion were presented at a meeting of the commission on Thursday. The report, which was approved 8 to 1 by the Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee, says that federally mandated position limits are not necessary and that the C.F.T.C. should not enact the rule it has been working on. It adds that if the agency goes ahead with the rule, it needs substantial changes. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, sent a letter to the C.F.T.C.s commissioner, J. Christopher Giancarlo, on Thursday asking him to withdraw the report, saying that the committee, which was established as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms, was skewed toward energy industry insiders and that its conclusions were not supported by the record, much less presented for public debate. The report, Senator Warren said in the letter, is nothing more than a recitation of industry talking points. The committee composed largely of representatives from the oil and gas sector, for-profit futures exchanges, and proprietary traders is an industry insider group that produced a product reflecting the highest hopes of the industry for as little regulation as possible. The messy merger highlights the fallout from the steep drop in the price of oil and natural gas. Consumers are benefiting from inexpensive gasoline, but the record-low prices are causing severe pain radiating from the Texas Panhandle to Wall Street. The low prices combined with high levels of debt could push 175 global exploration and production companies more than a third of the industry into bankruptcy, according to a report by the consulting firm Deloitte. Oil giants like Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron have laid off workers as profits have plunged. On Wall Street, banks that made big loans to energy companies are bracing for big losses. This week, JPMorgan Chase increased its reserves for bad energy loans. As the troubles in the energy industry broaden, the risks around Energy Transfers Williams acquisition have increased and the companys financial picture continues to dim. In February, Energy Transfer replaced its chief financial officer, Jamie Welch, a former investment banker at Credit Suisse who helped structure the deal. On a conference call on Thursday, an analyst asked why Mr. Welch had left, and Mr. Warren said, The decision was made by me that we needed to make a move and we did, without elaborating further. Another looming problem: Under the terms of the deal, Energy Transfer has to pay $6 billion in cash to Williams as part of the cash-and-stock acquisition. To do that, it has to either raise additional debt or sell assets. With energy prices still slumping, neither option is particularly attractive. On top of that, there is also a risk that one of Williamss biggest customers, Chesapeake Energy, could file for bankruptcy. Short of filing for bankruptcy itself, Energy Transfer is stuck buying Williams because of stringent deal terms, according to several people involved in the transaction. Williams shareholders, however, could still vote down the merger. What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? Whats their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source. Learn more about our process. From the minute they announced the deal, everything that they needed to go right for this deal to work hasnt. Its all gone the other way, said Keith C. Goddard, chief executive of the investment management firm Capital Advisors of Tulsa, Okla., which owns 220,000 shares of Williams. Mr. Goddard said he would vote no on the merger. At what point do these directors say, Were not doing this deal? The deal to put Sharp in Taiwanese hands would be a messy milestone. The future of the company, an ailing maker of display TVs, was shaping up to be an acid test of Japanese reform. Now, a putative deal with Foxconn of Taiwan has descended into farce. On Thursday, Sharp unveiled a long-awaited plan to sell control to various arms of the contract electronics giant for about 489 billion yen, or $4.4 billion. But hours later, Foxconn said it was poring over last-minute material information couriered over by Sharp and could not sign anything yet. It was not meant to be like this. When Foxconn recently overtook a state-backed rival, the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, as the leading bidder, that seemed like a promising sign of change in corporate Japan. Victory would mean the board picked the most compelling pitch, not the establishment favorite even if the bidder was a foreigner. In truth, the picture is more nuanced, because Foxconns bid is far more respectful of the status quo than Innovation Networks breakup proposal, and softer on creditors, too. Failure at this stage would embarrass all concerned. And the communications breakdown does not bode well for any deal in the future. The two companies have already differed publicly about whether Foxconn was the preferred bidder. Sharp now looks either desperate in leaving it so late to share important data points, or confused in failing to understand Foxconn. Analysts who were already withering about the deals rationale will take even more convincing. All the relevant financial regulators recently got together and released proposed rules regarding the treatment of failed broker-dealers under Dodd-Franks Title II (also known as orderly liquidation authority). The proposed rules are long, and there was little attention. But there was one interesting bit: namely, the assertion in the proposed rules that when Dodd-Frank says there is to be an application for a protective decree under the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 as to the covered broker or dealer, it does not actually mean there would be a case filed under the Securities Investor Protection Act. That is not the way I understood the statute. And I suspect it was not the way most lawyers outside the regulators, at least understood the statute. Dodd-Franks treatment of failed broker-dealers has always been a bit confusing. In short, the law seems to contemplate that an orderly liquidation authority proceeding will be commenced against the broker-dealer and that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will take control over a large part of the operation by moving assets into a bridge bank, although perhaps here we should call it a bridge broker-dealer. This is a newly created company unlike most broker-dealers it can be given a federal charter that will keep operating the broker-dealer for at least an interim period. Economists have long cast some doubt on Chinese official figures, which show a huge economy that somehow manages to avoid the peaks and valleys that other countries regularly report. In recent years, China made efforts to improve that data by releasing more information more frequently, among other measures. It also gave its financial media greater freedom, even as censors kept a tight leash on political discourse. But the party now sees reports of economic turbulence as a potential threat. The same goes for data. Many economic indicators are on a downward trend in China, and economic data has become quite sensitive nowadays, said Yuan Gangming, a researcher at the Center for China in the World Economy at Tsinghua University. The restrictions illustrate the Chinese governments competing priorities, said Leland R. Miller, president of China Beige Book International, which surveys Chinese companies. The environment is getting tougher and tougher to operate in, he said, though he added that his company had not been told to rein in its activities. We are going to continue to see crackdowns on people telling a different story than what Beijing wants to hear, Mr. Miller said. At the same time, Beijing appears to be conflicted on this issue, because it recognizes that without independent gauges, commercial relations and foreign direct investment will suffer, due to growing skepticism over official data. Last September, Markit Economics, a British company, and Caixin Media, based in Beijing, stopped publishing preliminary results from a monthly survey of purchasing managers at Chinese factories. The preliminary results, which came a few days before the two firms and the government separately released complete numbers, often affected markets. As a result, officials at Chinas statistics bureau objected to the early release, according to people with knowledge of the official order. A spokeswoman for Markit declined to comment, while Caixin representatives did not respond to a request for comment. Philippe P. Dauman, the chief executive of Viacom, has been ordered to sit for a deposition in the legal battle over the mental competency of the media mogul Sumner M. Redstone, a New York judge ruled during a hearing Thursday. The development is a victory for Manuela Herzer, the former companion of Mr. Redstone, who claims in a lawsuit that Mr. Redstone, who is 92 and in frail health, lacked the mental capacity to remove her from a directive that would have put her in charge of his health decisions. Mr. Dauman replaced her on the health directive. Mr. Redstones lawyers have called the suit meritless and said that Ms. Herzer is motivated by money. On the same day that Mr. Redstone changed the health directive in October, he removed Ms. Herzer from his estate plan, in which he had planned to leave her $50 million and his Beverly Hills mansion worth about $20 million. Ms. Herzer has said that she is fighting the court battle out of concern for Mr. Redstones well-being. A Los Angeles judge is scheduled to decide at a hearing Monday whether to dismiss the suit. SeaWorld acknowledged on Thursday that it had sent company employees to pose as animal rights activists to protect the company from credible threats. The companys chief executive, Joel Manby, said that several employees went undercover, but that SeaWorlds board of directors had ordered an end to the activity. The admission came after the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals accused a SeaWorld employee last year of infiltrating its ranks and even joining several protests against the amusement parks system. On Thursday, PETAs executive vice president, Tracy Reiman, said that SeaWorlds statement confirmed that the company has employed more than one spy to infiltrate and agitate at PETA. Fashion Week is not normally the first event that comes to mind when one thinks of the perfect time to hold a political fund-raiser. But perhaps that is because one is not Anna Wintour, the artistic director of Conde Nast and editor of American Vogue, publicly declared Hillary Clinton supporter (she wore a customized Hillary Made for History T-shirt to Marc Jacobss show during New York Fashion Week) and former high-profile fund-raiser for the Obama campaign. Indeed, in the free evening between London and Milan fashion weeks, Ms. Wintour helped organize a pair of Clinton fund-raisers in the British capital, both featuring Chelsea Clinton, the candidates daughter, who is six months pregnant. They were a photo-and-cocktail reception hosted by the Washington native Elizabeth Pierson Sainty at the Stair Sainty art gallery in Mayfair, and a cocktail-dinner at the South Kensington home of Natalie Massenet, the American-born founder of Net-a-Porter.com and chairman of the British Fashion Council. The designers Alber Elbaz, Christopher Bailey of Burberry and Tom Ford were among the couple of hundred guests paying $500 each for the gallery event ($1,000 including a photo with Chelsea Clinton) or $2,700 for the dinner. Mr. Elbaz, who cannot vote as he is not an American citizen, said he went to support his partner, Alex Koo, who is. Mr. Bailey, who is British, is a friend of Chelsea Clinton. MILAN After Gucci postponed its show on Wednesday for more than an hour over a late plane from London, the first day of Milan Fashion Week tipped into delay after delay with dominolike effect. Spare a thought for celebrities caught in the chaos: young stars, like the sister-and-brother acting pair Dylan and Hopper Penn, found sitting in an otherwise empty front row at the Fay show. The two feature in the brands latest campaign and had flown in especially for the collections unveiling. Its our first Fay show, said Ms. Penn, fresh from shooting covers for Vogue Brazil and Vogue Korea. I didnt even know about the brand until we were hired. We came in late last night and are headed to London tomorrow to visit our mom, who is shooting there, she added. Their mother is the House of Cards star Robin Wright; their father is the actor and political activist Sean Penn. MILAN Its evening in Milan or at least on the runways it is. Forget athleisure, wellness and wheat grass (though green juice is having a moment in the land of espresso); there are other things in life to dress for. Like dark, louche nights of the soul, a cabaret in Weimar Berlin or sunset dreams of swooning and spooning in a misty cityscape to name a few of the scenarios that showed up in early shows. We cant all be jogging all the time. Unless, of course, you are Fausto Puglisi. Though he name-checked liturgical vests, mosaics and Sicilian churches, the usual mix of unapologetic mythological bling was notably toned down this season in favor of bomber jackets paired with extreme couture stiff A-line skirts, color-blocked knits and coats (burgundy, aquamarine, pink and purple) and stretched-out sweatshirt dresses. MILAN Proceedings kick off bright and early on Thursday with the 9:30 a.m. show by Max Mara, an Italian label long known for its steadiness, reliability and sartorial conservatism, which, as of late, has been trying to move beyond that reputation. From there, it is on to Costume National and then to Fendi at 12:30 p.m., where Karl Lagerfeld will, no doubt, offer up lashings of leather and fur for its latest fall extravaganza. After a quick pick-me-up espresso or three (the fashion week version of lunch), and a flurry of accessories appointments around town, it will be time for Emilio Pucci and a second collection from its Bright Young Thing designer, Massimo Giorgetti. Mr. Giorgetti, formerly of MSGM, made waves with his debut collection shown last fall, packing it with multicolored sequins, fluffy sandals and geek-chic glasses while staying true to the brands heritage think quirky modernist shapes and eye-popping prints. Lets see what he comes up with next. Come 6 p.m., it is Pradas time to shine, and the pressure is mounting on one of the biggest luxury houses in Milan. The show comes weeks after the company reported a second year of flatline sales, hurt by a slowdown in China, a strong American dollar and the November terrorist attacks in Paris. Can Miuccia Prada pull it out of the bag? A prosecco pit stop is next at Pomellato, which calls itself the worlds first pret-a-porter jewelry brand. It is hosting an interactive presentation at Bar Jamaica (perhaps there will be takeaway sparklers?). And the day ends with Jeremy Scott, fresh from showing his own collection this month in New York, as he unveils his latest flashy and unashamedly trashy offerings for Moschino at 8 p.m. A film festival for children might sound, on the surface, like a safe and festive zone sunshine, puppies, hugs and happy families. But any young reader or moviegoer knows better. From the Brothers Grimm to The Wizard of Oz to Harry Potter, some of our darkest stories are the ones we conjure up for and about children. This years edition of the New York International Childrens Film Festival is well stocked with somber and hair-raising stories (all with generally happy and heartwarming resolutions, of course). Lessons about life and growing up are delivered through young characters who lose parents, fall ill, dodge bombs and bullets, and survive a pre-global warming trek across the Arctic. The festival, which runs from Friday through March 20 at seven theaters around the city, also has its share of lighter or more purely inspirational tales. The centerpiece screening is Mark Osbornes adaptation of The Little Prince, which has set box-office records around the world for a French animated film. In this version, the Aviator of the Saint-Exupery book, now old, meets an overscheduled young girl and tells her his stories of the alien little prince. And the closing film, The Idol, is a drama based on the story of Mohammed Assaf, who overcame a series of obstacles to enter and win the Arab Idol singing competition. But the festival opens on Friday with Mamoru Hosodas The Boy and the Beast, a sprawling, alternately lively and melancholy story about a fatherless boy who runs away into Tokyos teeming Shibuya district after his mother dies. Like many Japanese animated films, its set in parallel worlds, with young Ren escaping the police by fleeing down an alley and into a land of magical talking beasts, where he becomes the apprentice of a swordsman who looks like a cross between a bear and a buffalo. To describe Glory (Taylor Richardson), the severely autistic 11-year-old girl at the center of Jack of the Red Hearts, as a holy terror is putting it mildly. During a full-blown tantrum, she bites and scratches, and she demands constant attention and endless patience to deal with her uncontrollable behavior. Unlike most movies about children with disabilities, this film, directed by Janet Grillo, from a screenplay by Jennifer Deaton, doesnt sugarcoat the challenges faced by Glorys parents, Mark (Scott Cohen) and Kay (Famke Janssen), who are at their wits end taking care of her. It also goes one step further than most such films by visualizing the world through Glorys eyes. She is drawn to peering through crystal globes, which give everything a giddy rainbow aura. Unafraid of heights, she also likes to climb trees and stand on the roof of her house. Her parents have gone deep into debt exploring one treatment after another for their daughter, and their marriage is threatened. Kay has had to give up her job to care for Glory. Mark is a loving father and good sport but he has his limits. Im tired, he says. I dont want to feel like were co-workers in a mental hospital. The prominent senior rabbi of a Bronx synagogue who drew scrutiny for having naked sauna chats with boys as young as 12 is stepping down. The rabbi, Jonathan Rosenblatt, had fought hard to keep his job at the Riverdale Jewish Center after the publication of an article in The New York Times in May describing the sauna sessions, and many congregants rallied to his defense. But hundreds of other members quit in anger over Rabbi Rosenblatts conduct and the synagogue leaderships tolerance of it, forming a breakaway congregation. The Riverdale Jewish Center, a Modern Orthodox congregation in the affluent neighborhood of Riverdale, has lost more than half its members since last year. Ask James L. Manning, the pastor of the Atlah Worldwide Church, why he is involved in a legal battle to save his redbrick building in Harlem from foreclosure, and he gives the same answer he employs when talking about many of the worlds problems. Its primarily about my very vigorous opposition to the sodomy activity going on in this community, he said. Mr. Manning, who is known to post his thoughts on a giant signboard outside his church at West 123rd Street and Malcolm X Boulevard, has for years promoted his belief that certain parties carry out the devils work. They include, but are not limited to, gay people (whom Jesus would stone), President Obama (black Hitler) and immigrants (boycott them). These views have long provoked neighbors and others, many of whom have staged protests outside the church. But Mr. Mannings latest battle centers on issues more prosaic than ideological: His church, according to New York City, has not paid its bills. Specifically, the church has never paid its water and sewage bills, according to the citys Department of Environmental Protection. Mr. Manning insists he has defaulted on purpose, based on his conviction that Atlah should be allowed the same relief as other city religious institutions, and not be required to pay for those services. On Feb. 17, a bus filled with Turkish soldiers stopped alongside a car at a red light in Ankara. Moments later, a dark column of smoke rose over what had been considered the most secure district of the Turkish capital. A suicide car bomb had ripped through the military bus, killing 28 and injuring more than 60. The next day, Turkeys prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, announced that the suicide bomber had links to the Kurdish militia known as the Y.P.G., or Peoples Protection Units. It is strange that after little more than 12 hours of investigation, the Turkish government felt confident in accusing the American-backed group. The key to this twisted geopolitical situation lies in one of the most confusing battlefields in recent history, around northern Aleppo, in Syria. Close to the Turkish border, the regime of President Bashar al-Assad , aided by Russian air power, is advancing against a coalition of rebel groups. Many of these have support from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar; some also receive anti-tank missiles from the C.I.A. These groups increasingly find themselves also fighting a group called the Syrian Democratic Forces, or S.D.F., a coalition of Syrian Kurdish Y.P.G. fighters and about a dozen moderate Sunni rebel groups, of which the largest group is Jaysh Al-Thuwar. The S.D.F. has enjoyed American air support in its battle against the Islamic State, or ISIS, since the fight for the town of Kobani in 2014. Recently, it also began getting Russian air support as it engaged rebel groups in northern Aleppo this year. The Islamic State, hostile to all groups, is still a presence around Aleppo, though it has mostly stayed out of the current fighting there. Everybody does it, is an excuse expected from a mischievous child, not a presidential candidate. But that is Hillary Clintons latest defense for making closed-door, richly paid speeches to big banks, which many middle-class Americans still blame for their economic pain, and then refusing to release the transcripts. A televised town hall on Tuesday was at least the fourth candidate forum in which Mrs. Clinton was asked about those speeches. Again, she gave a terrible answer, saying that she would release transcripts if everybody does it, and that includes the Republicans. In November, she implied that her paid talks for the Wall Street firms were part of helping them rebuild after the 9/11 attacks, which was good for the economy and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists. In a debate with Bernie Sanders on Feb. 4, Mrs. Clinton was asked if she would release transcripts, and she said she would look into it. Later in February, asked in a CNN town hall forum why she accepted $675,000 for speeches to Goldman Sachs, she got annoyed, shrugged, and said, Thats what they offered, adding that every secretary of state that I know has done that. WASHINGTON This is the speech President Obama did not make on his foreign policy (with thanks to Stephen Heintz, a shrewd observer of Americas role in the world): My fellow Americans: I have based my foreign policy on some tough realities that are hard to talk about because no American likes to hear about the limits of our power. But those limits have grown. American power in the 21st century cannot be what it was in 1945 or even in 1990. To say this is to be accused of defeatism, of managing American decline and of giving up on American exceptionalism. That is why I have pursued an implicit foreign policy rather than an explicit one. That is why I waited so long to give this speech on my doctrine of restraint. No president wants to make a speech called The Consequences of the End of the American Century. Its political suicide. Implicit has meant letting actions speak. Some say I have failed to understand the theater of American leadership. Ill leave the strutting on the world stage to others. Our world is more interdependent than ever. China, India and other nations have grown rapidly, ending an era of Western domination. The Chinese economy has quintupled in size since 1990. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq consumed trillions of dollars but did not bring victory. The enemies we face, often groups of violent extremists, cannot be vanquished through conventional warfare. To the Editor: Study Questions the Use of Doctor-Assisted Death (news article, Feb. 11) exposes the ethical concerns of extending this practice to psychiatry in the Netherlands. While the Dutch law specifies that mental illness needs to be untreatable, the validity of that claim is questionable from the JAMA Psychiatry study. While assisted-dying laws do not apply to psychiatry in the United States, I have concerns about the assurance from the president of Compassion and Choices that administration occurs by mentally competent, terminally ill adults. First, in Oregons Death With Dignity Act, there is no requirement for an evaluation by a mental health professional. Second, the requirement that the patient receive a diagnosis of a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months can turn out not be the case. It is not uncommon for people to defy those odds. Psychiatrists are best trained to diagnose mental illness. If depression is present, once treated, there can be a lifting of spirits, desire to stay around longer and rediscovery of a sense of meaning in life. In both the United States and the Netherlands, evaluation by a psychiatrist should be required before a monumental decision to end ones life occurs because of a premature false sense of hopelessness. Call it The Buzzing Dead. Infestations of what scientists have dubbed zombie bees have spread across both the West and East coasts in recent years. The honeybee hordes, while not actually undead, are the unwilling hosts to a parasite infection that researchers think drives the drones to act erratically, or zombielike, in the moments before they die. To better understand the parasitized swarms, John Hafernik, an entomologist at San Francisco State University has recruited people countrywide to join his hunt. The big question for us was, Is this a San Francisco thing? Or something that is taking place all over the country that has not been noticed by biologists before, he said. SAN FRANCISCO The legal wrangling over a federal court order requiring Apple to help law enforcement break into an iPhone intensified Thursday, with the company filing its formal response and asking the court to drop its demand. Other technology companies Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo also moved to throw their weight behind Apple in court. The companies said they planned to file one or more briefs backing Apple next week in federal court in California. The flurry of legal activity by the companies came as the F.B.I. also escalated the matter, calling on Congress to settle the question of when law enforcement should get access to citizens private data. Apple earlier this week had also asked for Congress to step in. The larger question isnt going to be answered in the courts, and shouldnt be, James B. Comey Jr., the F.B.I. director, said in a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee earlier on Thursday. Its really about who do we want to be as a country and how do we want to govern ourselves. WASHINGTON The head of the F.B.I., battling Apple over unlocking an iPhone used by one of the killers in a December rampage in San Bernardino, Calif., called on Congress on Thursday to settle the question of when law enforcement officials should get access to citizens private data. The larger question isnt going to be answered in the courts, and shouldnt be, the F.B.I. chief, James B. Comey Jr., told lawmakers at a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee. Its really about who do we want to be as a country and how do we want to govern ourselves. Apple has argued that granting the governments request to build software to unlock the phone at issue would compromise the security of all the devices used by its hundreds of millions of customers. But Mr. Comey said the case was unlikely to be a trailblazer, because encryption technology is changing so quickly. The San Bernardino litigation is not about us trying to send a message or establish some precedent, Mr. Comey said. It really isnt. Its about trying to be competent in investigating something that is an active investigation. Yet the pipeline is more fruitful than tech companies make it out to be. Among young computer science and engineering graduates with bachelors or advanced degrees, 57 percent are white, 26 percent are Asian, 8 percent are Hispanic and 6 percent are black, according to American Community Survey data. At the top 25 undergraduate programs, nearly 9 percent of graduates are underrepresented minorities, according to Education Department data analyzed by Maya A. Beasley, a sociologist at the University of Connecticut. But technical workers at Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter, according to the companies diversity reports, are on average 56 percent white, 37 percent Asian, 3 percent Hispanic and 1 percent black. One issue is that black and Hispanic computer science and engineering graduates are less likely than white and Asian ones to go into tech jobs. Forty percent of young Asian graduates do so, compared with 16 percent of black graduates and 12 percent of Hispanics, according to American Community Survey data. Meanwhile, 10 percent of black computer science and engineering graduates have office support jobs, which include administrative support and accounting jobs, compared with 5 percent of white graduates and 3 percent of Asians. Ms. Beasley studied why talented black students ended up in lower-paying, lower-status careers for her book Opting Out: Losing the Potential of Americas Young Black Elite. Those who studied science and technology were less likely than white students to stick with their majors when they felt they were underperforming, she found. Those who did stick with their majors were less likely to apply for technical jobs. They often pursued nonprofit or business work instead, she said, sometimes because they had heard negative things about the culture at tech companies, and seen how few black people worked there. The Archdiocese of St. Louis is encouraging Roman Catholics to scale back ties with the Girl Scouts, advising church members to think twice about membership and even about buying their cookies. The warnings came in a letter from Archbishop Robert J. Carlson and in a statement on the archdioceses website about how the church is distancing itself from the Girl Scouts, which it says supports transgender rights, homosexuality and other stances at odds with Catholic values. In the letter addressed to priests, followers and scout leaders, Archbishop Carlson announced two new measures. He instructed pastors to discuss alternatives for the Girl Scout troops that meet on parish property. He also disbanded the archdioceses Catholic Committee on Girl Scouts, which sponsored Catholic programs for the scouts, and formed a new entity called the Catholic Committee for Girls Formation that will include alternative youth leadership programs. About 515,000 Catholics live in the archdiocese, which includes the city of St. Louis and 10 surrounding counties. Girl Scouts is exhibiting a troubling pattern of behavior and it is clear to me that as they move in the ways of the world it is becoming increasingly incompatible with our Catholic values, the archbishop wrote in the letter, dated Feb. 18. At 19, Mark DeFriest was sentenced to four years in prison after stealing some tools. That was in 1980. Hes been behind bars since mostly. Mr. DeFriests initial crime in Florida was arguably a misunderstanding. He took tools that his deceased father had bequeathed to him before his fathers will had been legally processed. Since then, Mr. DeFriest, now 55, has remained a prisoner because of his 13 escape attempts, seven of them successful, earning him the nickname Prison Houdini and more than 30 additional years of incarceration. On Wednesday, Mr. DeFriest had a chance to gain his freedom legally during a parole hearing in Florida. Instead, the parole commission gave him six more months, with an effective release date in August, so that he can complete a transitional program that teaches life skills, Mr. DeFriests lawyer said. Heres our analysis of the Republican debate, and our fact checks. _______ The field is shrinking, but the stakes are getting higher. The five remaining Republican presidential candidates will gather in Houston on Thursday night for their final debate before Super Tuesday on March 1. With Donald J. Trump having won three of the first four states, the pressure will be on Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to blunt his momentum. For Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and Ben Carson, the battle will be to keep their campaigns afloat. Heres how to follow the action: On Television The debate begins at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time and will be broadcast on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Espanol. It will also be translated live on Telemundo, a Spanish-language channel. Online CNN will stream the debate live on its website and mobile platforms with no login needed. Telemundo.com and Telemundo Newss YouTube channel will also stream the event. The most valuable currency in politics is emotion. And the coin of the 2016 Republican presidential race has been anger and fear. Im very angry, declares Donald J. Trump, who has won three straight contests. The victor in Iowa, Senator Ted Cruz, warns in hushed tones that the United States faces the abyss. Senator Marco Rubio, stoking conservative anger by accusing President Obama of deliberately damaging the nation, tells voters, There may be no turning back. Its no surprise, then, that Gov. John R. Kasich remains a pauper in the Republican campaign. Alone among major contenders, the second-term Ohio governor doesnt employ applause lines about the evils of Mr. Obama or apocalyptic portraits of American decline. He laughed in an interview at the language employed by his rivals. Heres our analysis of the Republican debate, and our fact checks. _______ Donald J. Trump has won three nominating contests in a row, and Thursday nights face-off in Houston is the last best chance for his rivals to slow him down before Super Tuesday next week, when 12 states will vote. We asked New York Times political reporters what they would be looking for in the Republican debate. _______ Mr. Trump is clearly sensitive about the charge from his rivals that he cannot win support from a majority of Republican voters. Im curious whether he will do anything in the debate to appear like a leader who can unify the party and appeal more broadly to the different Republican factions. Is he capable of elevating his debate performance and appearing more presidential, or will be continue to act like the toughest guy on the stage? Patrick Healy _______ Marco Rubios path to the nomination is so treacherous at this stage that he cant just have a good debate, or even a really good debate. He has to have the biggest night of his campaign, cutting Mr. Trump down to size, inflicting real damage on Ted Cruz and showing Republican voters that Mr. Rubio is both angry and sane enough to be their standard-bearer. Michael Barbaro _______ Mr. Trump is entering the debate with three straight victories under his belt. If Mr. Cruz and Mr. Rubio cant find ways to have breakout moments that will propel them into Super Tuesday, its hard to see what will stop Mr. Trump. Maggie Haberman _____ As a retired E.M.S. paramedic, I am appalled at what I am reading here. These hospitals failed the most basic training of security that we all knew cold in the 80s. Rule 1, while cops and security are often needed to deal with psych-related situations, their service weapons go nowhere near that environment. A cop used to secure his weapon before going into the psych ward or E.R. If an officer was needed to ride with the E.M.S. crew to ensure their safety in transporting a psych emergency, his weapons were handed off and secured by another officer before he got anywhere near the patient or ambulance. This was common sense back then. What happened? Andrew, Atlanta _____ Mental health professionals were generally opposed and often saw the increasing presence of weapons on security personnel as a function of the decline of mental health services. _____ I am an African-American man. I am also a registered nurse. I currently work at an inpatient unit at a large urban hospital, where, on a typical day, at least 10 percent of the patients have some form of mental illness. Any experienced non-psychiatric nurse knows that there is no such thing as a non-psychiatric nurse. We come in contact with mental illness in the course of our work on a regular basis. Some of the mentally ill people we encounter will be verbally, physically and even sexually abusive. We come to expect it and prepare ourselves to deal with it appropriately. Perhaps its because Im a nurse and value life, but I think whether its being slapped, spat at, punched, assaulted with a feces-filled diaper (most of which has happened to me in the last year), or otherwise having a patient show me his or her rear-end (literally and figuratively), the appropriate response does not include busting a cap in it. Hospitals are intended to be places of healing. Guns are intended to cause maximum injury up to and including lethal. They have no place in hospitals. I have found that a calm, respectful, soothing or firm tone, active listening and sometimes just space and time can often effectively de-escalate a violent situation. The guards should never have entered Mr. Peans room without a nurse there to ensure his wellness. Stephen Knight, New York _____ I have 20 years experience as a triage nurse in a psychiatric emergency department. The treatment of this vulnerable patient is an outrage. Patients will be psychotic, delusional, combative and perhaps have weapons. They will require physical and chemical restraint. They are sick. They are mentally ill. In my professional career, at no time has any patient ever required anyone to use a weapon to intervene effectively. These patients can be restrained safely by adequate numbers of trained, professional staff. This type of patient is frequent and the behaviors anticipated. There is clear negligence on the part of the hospital in its lack of staff training. What a shameful story on the treatment of the mentally ill. Emergency Psychiatric Nurse, Toronto _____ One reader who worked in both law enforcement and hospital security talked about the nonstop drama of the E.R. _____ When I retired as a police officer after 32 years, I worked security at a very busy emergency room. As a cop I was armed with a gun, pepper spray, and baton. I wore body armor at all times, carried handcuffs, and had access to all sorts of offensive and defensive equipment. As a security officer in the E.R. I had only my hands and my wits. In 32 years of police work I doubt that I faced physical confrontations more than 20 times. I never fired my gun except to kill injured animals. I never used pepper spray or my stick. I was assaulted once without injury. Individual school districts in places like California and Illinois have adopted rules barring transgender students from restrooms that correspond with their gender identity. Federal officials have intervened and threatened to cut off Title IX funds to districts that do not allow transgender students to use their preferred bathrooms and changing areas, though some conservatives have questioned the governments interpretation of that rule. The South Dakota legislation would seem to put the state in conflict with the Obama administrations interpretation of the federal Title IX law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity that receives federal funds. Mr. Lewis said last week that he would probably continue to use the mens restroom at school even if Mr. Daugaard signed the bill. Even supporters of the legislation acknowledge that a school district will probably be sued if it becomes law. This bill would put schools in a very difficult situation, where they have to decide whether they want to comply with federal law or theyre going to follow what their state is mandating, said Heather Smith, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, which opposes the bill. Mr. Deutsch, the bills sponsor, said he was unaware of major disputes over transgender bathroom access in his state and acknowledged that the bill was entirely preventative. But he suggested that not enacting it could also lead to lawsuits, and that in a small, rural state like this, thered be an outrage from students if a transgender youth were given full access to showering and changing facilities. The bill has support from the Heritage Foundation, the Washington-based conservative research group, and the Roman Catholic bishops of South Dakota. The teaching of the Catholic Church is clear: Ones gender, male or female, is determined by God and not a matter of personal choice, the bishops said in a statement last month. They added that the bill would respect the innate dignity of all persons in our schools. Mr. Deutsch said he felt terrible that transgender children feel under siege, and noted that his bill would allow transgender students to request a separate accommodation if they did not want to use the bathroom corresponding with their sex at birth. The South Dakota Legislature approved a bill this month that would require public school students to use bathrooms and other facilities that correspond to their biological sex, defined in the bill as a persons chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth. Under the measure, schools would need to find other accommodations for transgender students, whose gender identity does not correspond with the biological sex they were born with. If the legislation is signed by Dennis Daugaard, the states Republican governor, South Dakota will become the first state to enact such a law, and transgender students, their parents and their supporters criticize it as discriminatory. On the other side of the debate, some schools say allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice could violate the privacy of other students. I developed the bill because I dont want my four daughters to shower with people with male anatomy, Fred Deutsch, the Republican state representative behind the bill, told The Rapid City Journal. The board believes that Dr. Clicks conduct was not compatible with university policies and did not meet expectations for a university faculty member, Pam Henrickson, the board chairwoman, said in a statement released Thursday. The circumstances surrounding Dr. Clicks behavior, both at a protest in October when she tried to interfere with police officers who were carrying out their duties, and at a rally in November, when she interfered with members of the media and students who were exercising their rights in a public space and called for intimidation against one of our students, we believe demands serious action. Dr. Click had no immediate response, according to Status Labs, a public-relations firm that has been working for her. But in an interview last week, she offered something of an explanation for her conduct on the video, saying it represented just one moment in her career. When I watch it, I am embarrassed and sorry, she said. I see someone dealing with a high-stress situation who gets flustered. I see a moment where I feel like Im not representing my best self, and I see somebody whos trying to do her best to help marginalized students. After the November clash, she quickly apologized for her conduct toward photographers. And the group organizing the protests, ConcernedStudent1950, released a statement endorsing the right of the news media to enter the site. But prosecutors brought a misdemeanor assault charge against her, which will be dropped as part of a deal, if she completes community service and probation. The episode diverted attention from the subject of the protests, racism experienced by black students, which they said the university had not taken seriously and had done nothing to combat. A series of racist incidents, including death threats against protesters that resulted in arrests, increased tension on a campus already roiled by unrelated conflicts, including a dispute over graduate teaching assistants health care and their attempt to unionize, and the universitys decision, under pressure from conservative lawmakers, to sever ties to Planned Parenthood. NAIROBI, Kenya Security forces and their allies in Burundi have beaten people with rocks, bricks, gun butts and iron bars; they have abducted suspects and extorted money for holding them; and they have buried victims in mass graves, a leading human rights group said on Thursday. According to a report from Human Rights Watch, the group that made the claims, the violence is deepening and becoming more sinister in Burundi, a small Central African country that has been embroiled in a political crisis for nearly a year. Government forces and the ruling party are treating suspected opponents with extreme cruelty and viciousness, said Daniel Bekele, the executive director of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch said that it had recently interviewed more than 60 people in Bujumbura, the capital, and that the findings pointed to an alarming new pattern of abductions and possible disappearances. BEIJING Whether you are alive or dead, the Chinese authorities have made clear that there is just not that much room for you. Days after the government ignited a public outcry with urban development guidelines that called for an end to gated residential communities, a directive that encourages family members to be buried together or to have their remains disposed of in environmentally friendly ways has drawn criticism online. Many commenters have linked the two measures, since both address the issue of population pressure on tight land supplies by asking citizens to change their way of life, and death. On Wednesday, nine ministries including the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Development and Reform Commission released a joint directive, dated Feb. 19, laying out the plan encouraging smaller graves and shared plots. It also asks cities to provide incentives for degradable urns, scattering ashes and burials at sea. Breaches of burial rules by party officials, like building elaborate tombstones, will be investigated and rectified, it says. Mr. Bantleman and Mr. Tjiong, who spent 13 months in jail during a highly publicized police investigation and criminal trial, have vehemently maintained their innocence. The school, whose students come from more than 60 countries and include the children of Western diplomats and wealthy Indonesians, insists that no children were sexually assaulted. Relatives of the three boys named as victims in the case asserted that the two men, along with the schools principal, had drugged and raped the boys and other students in the schools administrative offices in early 2014, and that they had videotaped the assaults. No such videotapes were ever found, and the Indonesian police did not question any of the employees who were posted in the administrative offices, which the school says are full of staff members and students throughout the day. The principal was never arrested or charged. Mr. Bantleman and Mr. Tjiong have been free since August, when the Jakarta High Court overturned their convictions and ordered their release. But they were barred from leaving Indonesia after the attorney generals office appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court, meaning that Mr. Bantleman could not return to Canada. His brother Guy Bantleman, who has acted as a spokesman for the family, said by email from Canada that Mr. Tjiong had been taken into police custody Thursday morning. He said that Neil Bantleman was not in Jakarta and that the family was in discussions with the Canadian Embassy about his return to the capital and possible arrest. Information is limited on what the Supreme Court reviewed the panel was only named on Monday of this week and why they made their decision, Guy Bantleman said. We are still gathering information on the decision. United States officials declined, without explanation, to provide the text of the resolution. The proposed measures, according to a United States official, would ban the trade of conventional weapons, luxury goods like jet skis and Rolex watches, and aviation fuel to North Korea, which could effectively ground its national airline. It would also place prohibitions on dozens of new companies and individuals accused of trafficking in illicit nuclear material. In what may be the toughest proposed measure, all North Korean cargo entering or leaving a country must be inspected by that country. The mandatory cargo inspection applies to anything going to and from the D.P.R.K., according to an American official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the talks. If it is on your territory, in your ports or in your airports, theres a requirement to inspect cargo to and from the D.P.R.K., the official said, using the initials for the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. In addition, 31 ships that have been known to traffic in illegal nuclear goods are to be banned from docking in any port. It is impossible to verify whether countries sending or receiving North Korean goods will carry out the inspections. However, they will be legally binding if the resolution is adopted. HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam When Nguyen Viet moved back to Vietnam from Britain in 2014, he was hired to write design guidelines for a redevelopment project in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. He had just earned his masters degree in urban design and planning, and was eager to make an impact. But before he could finish writing the guidelines, a building on the project site a 1929 Art Deco apartment beside the former Rue Catinat, once a central artery of French-colonial Indochina was demolished. What I realized is that they have very little power, Mr. Viet, 28, said of his fellow urban planners. The fates of the buildings were being decided by someone else. The buildings along the Rue Catinat, now Dong Khoi Street, helped this sprawling city of about eight million, formerly called Saigon, earn the nickname the Pearl of the Orient. Colonial-era travel writing describes tree-lined boulevards flanked by grand hotels with wide verandas. CALAIS, France Somewhere between the Good Chance Theater and the One Spirit Ashram Kitchen sits the School of Arts and Trades, not to mention the Hamid Karzai Restaurant and Arts in the Village. Amid it all, countless ragged tarpaulin tents house grim-faced migrants, who are tended to by dozens of earnest European volunteers, distinguished by exotic body piercings and dreadlocks. This is the camp called the Jungle, home to perhaps 1,000 or 3,000 refugees, depending on who is doing the counting. While not Europes largest migrant camp, it may be its most emblematic. It is certainly its most convenient, less than two hours by train from Paris or London. That has helped make the Jungle a magnet for celebrities, and for just about every benevolent and not-so-benevolent organization on both sides of the English Channel and the migrant issue to make their case. ROME After months of political infighting and decades of battles by gay people for civil rights, Italys Senate on Thursday approved the countrys first law granting legal recognition to civil unions, but stopped short of giving same-sex couples the right to stepchild adoption. The paring of the adoption provision was crucial to passage in the Senate, where the bill faced enough resistance that Prime Minister Matteo Renzi tied its fate to a confidence vote on his government, which passed handily, 173 to 71. The bill also grants some civil rights to unmarried couples, who have historically been largely ignored under current legislation. The bill, which Mr. Renzi called historic on Twitter after sealing an agreement over the text on Wednesday, now goes to the lower house of Parliament, where it seems certain to pass in coming weeks. BEIRUT, Lebanon The hospital in the northern Syrian town of Maarat al-Noaman was not just grazed, or damaged, by the airstrikes last week. It was destroyed, taking a direct hit that pancaked its three stories into one, entombing and killing 25 people, including nine staff members. It was struck at around 9:02 a.m., just as day-shift workers and patients were arriving; then again at around 9:05. As rescuers swarmed around, another explosion struck at 9:45, and another at 9:48. That same morning, two airstrikes hit the National Hospital on the other side of town, which was treating nurses injured in the attack on the first facility. This detailed account, provided by the director of the hospital, which was supported by Doctors Without Borders, is one example of why many Syrian medical workers in insurgent-held areas and human rights groups believe medical facilities are not just being hit by stray bombs or indiscriminate attacks, but have long been deliberately targeted by the Syrian government and its Russian allies. It is a measure of the deep mistrust that gravely challenges prospects for a truce set to begin Saturday. I had the feeling they were trying to kill me, said the director, Dr. Mazen al-Saoud, 55, in a telephone interview from Maarat al-Noaman, his hometown. Wherever I went, there was bombing. The police initiated the prosecution of the Coptic teenagers after a Muslim classmate discovered the video. Three of the teenagers were sentenced to five years in prison, while the fourth, who is still under 18, is to be detained at a juvenile detention center. Image The poet Fatma Naoot in 2008. Ms. Naoot was given a three-year sentence in January for a Facebook post that criticized the slaughter of animals for the Muslim feast Eid al-Adha. Credit... Hamed Mossad/Agence France-Presse Getty Images The teenagers did not attend Thursdays hearing, and their lawyer said they would appeal the decision. Their parents have sent them to uncles and aunts outside of Minya, Mr. Naguib said. They feared for their safety. They are all terrified and crying now. The Egyptian justice system has been under scrutiny over the investigation into the death of Giulio Regeni, an Italian student whose mutilated body was discovered on a roadside in early February. His body had extensive bruising and cigarette burns, signs of torture that are frequently associated with the Egyptian security forces. On Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said Mr. Regeni might have been killed as a result of criminal activity or a personal dispute, but made no mention of accusations from Italy that the security forces were involved. The Italian had many relationships with people near where he lives and where he studied, the ministry said in a statement that some human rights activists took as a sign that the police were trying to divert suspicions elsewhere. On Friday, Iranians will go to the polls to elect members of Parliament and the Assembly of Experts. Heres why this matters. Q. Whats at stake? A. Iranians will elect a Parliament that passes laws and a clerical council that is technically in charge of naming a successor to the supreme leader when he dies. But analysts say that the choice of a successor to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 76, will in all likelihood be deemed too important to be left to the assembly it will instead confirm preselected candidates. The assembly also monitors the supreme leader, but that function has minimal effect. Q. Is Iran a democracy? A. Its a hybrid country with religious and civil institutions. It has an elected president and Parliament, with limited powers. It also has a Supreme Leader who wields civil and religious authority and a Guardian Council, which comprises six religious experts and six legal experts to interpret the Constitution. Q. Doesnt the supreme leader control everything? A. Yes, and no. The supreme leader has final say on all matters of religion and state. But he also needs to balance the demands and interests of competing power centers like the Revolutionary Guards and the judiciary. Ayatollah Khamenei, according to the Constitution, cannot annul Fridays vote. Parliament and the Assembly of Experts are officially independent powers, but parliaments particularly the departing one take their cues from him. A Swedish teenager rescued from the Islamic State said she had never heard of the militant group known as ISIS before running away with her boyfriend to join the extremists at their base in Iraq. After she was freed by Kurdish special forces, the teenager, Marilyn Nevalainen, told the Kurdish television station K24 in Erbil, Iraq, that she didnt know what ISIS means, or Islam until her boyfriend suggested in 2014 that they leave Sweden to join the group. First we were good together, but then he started to look at ISIS videos, Ms. Nevalainen, 16, said in the interview. He said he wanted to go to ISIS and I said no problem. The couple boarded a train in May 2015 and traveled across Europe to Turkey. From there, they went to Syria and then took a bus, operated by the Islamic State, to Mosul, Iraq, a city controlled by the militants. The dancer Farruquito is heir to one of the most renowned Gypsy flamenco dynasties in Spain, but when he performs at City Center on March 10, it will be his first New York appearance in 13 years. His dancing in the 2001 New York Flamenco Festival, when he was 18, inspired superlatives and heated comparisons: a charging bull, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. His return in 2003 was that years hottest ticket, and soon his brooding allure was hailed on People magazines 50 Most Beautiful list. So why have his New York fans had to wait so long? In 2003, Farruquito was driving his BMW without a license when he raced through a red light in Seville at double the speed limit, struck a pedestrian and left the scene. The victim died. Farruquito, after first saying his younger brother had been at the wheel, confessed and was convicted of manslaughter. He was sentenced to a 16-month prison term, but because he had no prior convictions, he did not go to jail. The prosecution appealed, and in 2006, Farruquito was sentenced to three years in prison three years he had to serve. That prison term ended in 2010. Since then, members of Farruquitos family have appeared in New York in a show directed by him, but he has had trouble obtaining a work visa. When he was granted one, for a tour scheduled for June 2014, management and financing problems caused those shows to be moved to September and then, at the last minute, canceled altogether. Improvisao, the show that Farruquito, now 33, is finally bringing here as part of Flamenco Festival New York, is a return in several senses. (He is to perform the show in San Francisco on Tuesday, March 1; Miami on March 3; and Boston on March 6.) Over Skype recently, he discussed it in Spanish, his manner of speech as gentle as his dancing is flamboyant. The concept is simple, he explained: Musicians play and he dances, everyone improvising in the moment. HURRICANE MILLS, Tenn. I really didnt mean to knock his teeth out. Over a lunchtime bowl of chicken noodle soup in the glass-walled dining room of her modern, hillside mansion here, Loretta Lynn was recounting a scuffle she had with her hard-drinking husband a few years before she started writing and singing the succinct, forthright songs that made her the undisputed queen of country music. Her eyes, a brilliant star-sapphire blue, still blazed at the memory. Ms. Lynn, 83, was eager to talk about Full Circle (Sony Legacy), her first new album since 2004 and the first selection from a huge trove of recent recordings. The album is due on Friday, March 4, the same day PBS will broadcast the premiere of an American Masters documentary, Loretta Lynn: Still a Mountain Girl. (Ms. Lynn wasnt enamored of the film title: Its hills, not mountains.) Lately she has been writing new songs and completing ones she started decades ago, working with younger collaborators like the songwriter Todd Snider and longtime friends like John Carter Cash. And she continues to draw lessons from a life in which hard work, talent, instinct and stubborn determination have sustained her for more than 50 years as a country star. Whos Gonna Miss Me?, a new song on Full Circle, asks, Whos gonna want to follow in my footsteps?; generations of country songwriters already have. Ms. Lynns tale of tooth-wrecking dated back to a Saturday in the early 1950s. Born Loretta Webb in 1932, she had married at 15 and moved from her Kentucky hometown, Butcher Hollow, to Washington State with her husband, Mooney Lynn, nicknamed Doo. They already had four children. That Saturday Doo arrived as she was holding a toddler in each arm: Ernest Ray, who still plays guitar in her band, and Cissy. What moves you most in a work of literature? What moves me is, I think, the trifecta of memory, love and the passage of time. The close observation of character, of the moment as it passes suffused with love. The writer who says: Here I stood! I loved the world enough to write it all down. Whats the last book that made you cry? Thinking back, I fear I havent wept over a book in a long time, which makes me worry about myself, or does that represent growth? The last book I remember weeping, really weeping, over was Kafkas Metamorphosis, which sounds like a strange choice for weeping over, except that my father had recently died, and Gregors transformation into an insect reminded me of the sudden vagaries of the body and illness. The last book that made you laugh? I laughed out loud reading Jonathan Franzens Corrections; Mary-Louise Parkers Dear Mr. You and Tina Feys Bossypants. The last book that made you furious? The newspaper makes me so furious every day because of the state of the world that I dont know if there is room in my consciousness for books to make me furious. There isnt enough anger in me to spend it on books. Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? Your favorite antihero or villain? Elizabeth Bennet and Peter Pan. What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most? I read and reread voraciously particularly the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. Ive been reading them to my older daughter now and realizing why they were of such consequence to me. The heroine, Betsy, grows up at the turn of the century outside Minneapolis and realizes she wants to be a writer from the age of 5. No one thinks thats strange, and in fact her friends print her stories in their best handwriting to send them to the Ladies Home Journal for publication. Her characters are so well loved reading the books you get the idea that you can be a happy feminist, by living with determination and humor and surrounding yourself with people you love. The book suggests that people from the Midwest (Im from Illinois) can be writers, and retain a sense of irony. And still try to be good. (I am a card-carrying member of the Betsy-Tacy Society. And the A.C.L.U.) What book read for school had the greatest impact on you? And which book did you hate reading as a student? For 11 years, June Jo Lee, an ethnographer, has been traveling the country, talking to Americans about how they eat. She has often been in offices, observing white-collar workers. In one interview, a 20-something administrative assistant at an architecture firm in Seattle told her, I dont think I ate at a table at all this week if you dont include my desk at work. In Chicago, Lee talked to an I.T. specialist who lunched in front of his computer and assiduously avoided the break room; anyone who ate in there was odd. Another guy said that each week he would bring in a crudite party platter from Costco and graze from it when he got hungry. Schooled in anthropology, Lee works for the Hartman Group, a consulting firm. She helps clients like Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Nestle, Whole Foods Market and Google better understand how people think about and consume food so they can repackage products and design new ones, find novel distribution methods or keep their own employees productive and well fed. After all her conversations, note taking and analysis, Lee summarizes her findings like this: The way people eat at work is pretty sad. For anyone, finding a job in Silicon Valley can be a mysterious and befuddling process. Google used to routinely conduct 25 interviews over the course of six months before settling on a candidate. They also asked all applicants, no matter their age, for their SAT scores. And the questions they posed to interviewees were strange enough to warrant pop-culture parody. In The Internship, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilsons characters are asked during a Google interview: Youre shrunken down to the size of nickels and dropped to the bottom of a blender. What do you do? Google likes to hire people who possess something it calls Googleyness, an amorphous measure of how well they will fit in. Its not easily defined, but it includes things like enjoying fun and appropriately coping well with ambiguity. This emphasis on culture fit isnt unique to Google; it seems to have spread across industries as work hours have lengthened and eaten into our leisure time, and as offices, especially in the valley, have further blurred the distinction between work and leisure. What a candidate might be like in a conference room at 10 a.m. has become almost as important as what hed be like playing Ping-Pong after a few beers from the office kegerator. It should come as no surprise that hiring for culture fit can be self-reinforcing. In 2014, Google for the first time released data on the makeup of its employees, revealing the sort of work force its recruitment strategy yields. Only 2 percent of its employees were black, and 3 percent were Latino. Seventy percent were men. And, as at most tech companies, Asian-Americans made up a disproportionately large share of employees. Google has claimed, like many companies across all industries, that the problem is not entirely of its own making, but far upstream: There simply arent enough qualified women and minority candidates applying. The business would first present itself to new clients as a cleaning company. Thats because potential customers already know what a cleaning company is, and theyre often looking for a new and better one. But once the clients were sold on the high quality of the cleaning service, they would come to realize that Q (as employees call it) could do so much more. Every new client was given a wall-mounted iPad with an intuitive app. Someone could request through the iPad, say, more paper towels or an exterminator or furniture assembly or a walls being put up or taken down. Q would take care of all the details, quietly and quickly. At first, Teran was worried that his new idea would force him to make a horrible choice. He wanted to create a company that could pay a solid living wage to its workers and offer them good benefits. But he couldnt figure out how to make the numbers add up. After seeking advice from anyone he could find, he found himself talking to Dervala Hanley, who was then the vice president for global strategy at Starbucks. She told him that the answers to all of his questions were in a book: The Good Jobs Strategy, by Zeynep Ton, a professor of operations management at M.I.T. The book offers a careful study of a handful of large companies that have been able to pay their workers well above prevailing wages while also keeping overall costs down and earning a healthy profit. Typically, companies see workers entirely as a cost, something that reduces profit; as a result, many try to minimize the number of workers and the amount they are paid. But as Ton points out, when a company deploys its workers in smart ways, those workers can become a source of profit instead of just a cost. Q is a perfect example: Teran doesnt see his cleaners as simply cleaners. Instead, they are the essential link between Q and its clients. Teran told me that the best way to see this was by looking at a spreadsheet he had asked his chief financial officer to create. It was a simplified version of Qs own profit-and-loss statement alongside that of a fictitious competitor, based on standard industry data. The spreadsheet assumes that Q and its competitor, Non-Q, each begin with 100 clients, meaning 100 offices to clean every day. Non-Q pays $9 an hour for its workers; by hiring them as independent contractors rather than as salaried employees, Non-Q is also able to avoid paying Social Security taxes, overtime and other costs. Q, by contrast, pays $12.50 an hour plus benefits and Social Security taxes. This means that Non-Q realizes a total profit, per office, of $9,660, while Q makes a profit of only $7,980. It seems, at first blush, that Q has a terrible business model. The more customers it has, the further Q will fall behind the competition. But over time, the picture changes. The cleaning industry is famous for steep turnover in employees and customers; as with many commoditized, low-cost businesses, the end of every contract is an opportunity to see if someone else can do the job more cheaply. Industrywide, roughly half of a cleaning companys customers will choose a different firm every year, and it frequently costs about $1,750 in marketing and sales to acquire a new customer. Also, roughly half of a cleaning companys employees will leave in any given year, and it costs around $150 in advertising and human resources to refill each slot. Teran believes that by paying workers more and training them to stay in close contact with customers to make sure they are satisfied he can drastically reduce both turnover numbers. But its important to remember that this generation was shaped by a recession, an unprecedented crush of student debt and a broad decline in the credibility of all kinds of institutions. Stability is an abstract concept to these young workers, so they instead tend to focus on creating a rich, textured life now, rather than planning for a future obscured by uncertainty. How these desires map onto companies like Google and Facebook is clear, given their strong roots in philanthropy and innovation. But the high ranking of national-security employers also speaks, just as clearly, to millennials hope to make a difference in the world. Companies that want to attract the best young workers are already finding that they need to accommodate these wishes. The question is whether, when millennials are running things, they will abandon these priorities as youthful indiscretions or establish them as the norm. Maybe one day, even the N.S.A. will have nap pods. Quietly, New York City is adding movie theaters. True, the Ziegfeld has closed, but last month, Brooklyn gained the Syndicated; this week, the Lower East Side welcomes the Metrograph Theater. To mark the occasion, the Metrograph begins its life with Surrender to the Screen, 16 films whose plot lines feature the film-going experience. The selections on opening day Friday, March 4 are pure New York: Woody Allens The Purple Rose of Cairo and Martin Scorseses Taxi Driver (which pivots on Robert De Niros porn-movie date with Cybill Shepherd). The first weekend also includes cinematic landmarks like Jean-Luc Godards Vivre Sa Vie and Peter Bogdanovichs The Last Picture Show, as well as Joe Dantes seldom seen, uncommonly sweet Matinee, starring John Goodman as a B-movie producer who opens his latest horror flick, Mant half man, half ant, all terror in Key West, Fla., during the Cuban missile crisis. (Reservations suggested; 7 Ludlow Street, metrograph.com.) When he arrived in New York about three years ago from Knoxville, Tenn., the actor Conrad Ricamora crashed briefly with friends in Brooklyn. He then settled into a studio in a high-rise rental building in Long Island City. It cost a little more than $2,300 a month. He was content living there, at least for a while. But the location started to wear on him. Mr. Ricamora, 37, is now playing Lun Tha, one of the young lovers in the revival of The King and I, so work for him means Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side. The subway trip between home and the Lincoln Center stop at West 66th Street, about 20 minutes on a good day, could take 45 minutes when the trains stalled. That is not crazy bad, but I wanted to be able to walk to work, he said. The subway never made him late. (If it had, three understudies from the ensemble stood ready to take over.) But afterward, he couldnt easily hang out with the cast. The later he stayed out, the longer the wait for the train. A Chicago Embrace No American city seems to be marking the anniversary of Shakespeares death as enthusiastically as Chicago, where a huge citywide festival, spearheaded by the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, continues for the better part of the year. We wanted to make sure it was a mash-up of extraordinary but extraordinarily surprising work, said Criss Henderson, the companys executive director. I think Shakespeare would have wanted it that way. The long list of events includes Chicago Shakespeares production of Othello: The Remix as well as the ambitious Tug of War, a two-play adaptation of six of Shakespeares history plays, created and directed by Barbara Gaines, the companys artistic director. Pull up a chair, too, for Culinary Complete Works. Chefs around the city were asked to use a particular play as inspiration for a dish or dishes, and dozens of Chicago restaurants are participating. To begin, mofonguitos: green plantains fried, mashed with garlic and olive oil, then popped into a lemon squeezer, making rough cups that look like craters. Into their maws go knots of hot, plump shrimp and a web, quickly melting, of Parmesan. At Leche y Miel Restaurant, in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, mofonguitos are gloriously undainty hors doeuvres, the plantain base dense but starkly crunchy, the shrimp still preening with heat. They arrive staggered on an angular white plate whose austerity belies the foods frank pleasures. In a neighboring bowl may be a more minimalist appetizer of chickpeas boiled with mirepoix and fried so crisp that they pulverize under the teeth. Freckled with smoked paprika, they are a loftier stand-in for bar nuts, the kind of small plate as likely to be found at glossy restaurants downtown as at this quiet Latin spot in the shadow of a McDonalds, near the end of the No. 1 line. Rideiby Pena, the chef, and his wife, Altagracia Pena, opened Leche y Miel in December 2014. Both have roots in the Dominican Republic; Mr. Pena grew up there, and Ms. Pena in Washington Heights, where they now live. They attend church nearby, which is how they found the space, a former pizzeria flanked by a Carvel ice cream parlor and a jujitsu studio, facing the elevated train tracks. In the end, Hayden asserts, the Congress of the United States had no impact on the shape of the C.I.A. interrogation program going forward. Congress lacked the courage or the consensus to stop it, endorse it or amend it. But thats an overly narrow and legalistic interpretation of what transpired. Hayden himself admits the C.I.A. had to pull back on its most egregious interrogation methods after the outcry in Congress over abuses that were exposed by the press. I decided that the C.I.A. program as we were recrafting it would be worth the freight and that we could buy down the tariff if we aggressively briefed Congress and solicited some public support from it, he writes, and if we briefed the American people in as open a way as possible; and if we quietly informed our allies more fully of the parameters and limits of what we were doing. For General Michael Hayden, playing to the edge means playing so close to the line that you get chalk dust on your cleats, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, a pro-C.I.A. group, said in a recent newsletter. Except that Hayden went well over the chalk with the N.S.A.s warrantless data-mining programs. In a now-famous 2004 showdown with the White House, Deputy Attorney General James Comey (currently the director of the F.B.I.) threatened to resign unless the program was put on a firmer legal foundation. When the New York Times reporter James Risen got wind of the programs, Hayden took the damage-control lead, ultimately persuading the papers editors to sit on the story for nearly a year until Risen forced its hand by including it in his book State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration. Haydens wily account of the Risen episode, as well as his views of other journalists, will probably generate media buzz. He is mostly disdainful of reporters who lust after espionage porn exposing C.I.A. spying foibles, no matter the risk to national security. He sneers at Risen (irresponsible), others who are hopelessly agenda-driven (the former Times reporter Tim Weiner, The New Yorkers Jane Mayer) and those who are consistently anti-Bush (like the former blogger Andrew Sullivan). Of course he has nothing but scorn for Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, Boswells to the N.S.A. leaker Edward Snowden, an incredibly naive, hopelessly narcissistic and insufferably self-important defector. (Nor do I escape his pique: For reporting in 2006 that the incoming House intelligence committee chairman Silvestre Reyes couldnt tell me whether Al Qaeda was Sunni or Shia, he says I was tough and knowledgeable, but . . . specialized in snark.) Hayden is no slouch in that regard, either, taking multiple shots at Barack Obama. More Hamlet than Patton, he calls one of the presidents landmark speeches on combating terrorism. When Obama visits the C.I.A. and urges the assembled work force not to be discouraged by the administrations release of torture memos, because weve made some mistakes. Thats how we learn, Hayden says, the agency consensus was that Obama sounded a lot like Mister Rogers. Even so, he writes, the election of the Republican senator John McCain would have been more disruptive to the way America produced intelligence than the election of Barack Obama. Haydens candid takes on his encounters with important foreign officials are more sober. Iraqi President Nouri al Maliki was pretty dark. The Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani and his advisers were disconnected from, and somewhat cavalier about the levels of violence. The Pakistanis really were the ally from hell. Bashar al-Assad is Michael Corleones hapless brother Fredo. His thinly disguised Israeli counterpart is tough, tireless. A proud product of blue-collar Pittsburgh, Hayden hints that he would have told far more stories about C.I.A. successes had agency censors let him. As it is, he dances around Israels role in knocking out a Syrian nuclear reactor, as well as the agencys management of drone strikes. Amid all the killing, the spymaster remains stoic. PARIS IS AMONG the most multicultural cities in the world: More than one in three residents of the greater metropolitan area are either immigrants or the children of immigrants. Yet in many realms, France has been limited by its own xenophobia. One of the few places where intercultural encounters do in fact take place in the capital is in restaurants. Take Miznon, where the Israeli chef presents his boeuf bourguignon in a pita; or the small Kurdish place on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis called Urfa Durum, where the flatbreads are baked to order. Or, best of all, Le Baratin in the multiethnic (Moroccan plus Southeast Asian plus Congolese, to name a few) Belleville neighborhood, a restaurant beloved by the citys chefs, natural wine makers, bohemians, writers and painters. Here, the Argentine-born chef Raquel Carenas food mirrors her neighborhoods complicated makeup, with dishes like traditionally French roast Lozere lamb alongside Arab-Sicilian fennel contorni and Moorish-Spanish quail escabeche. Le Baratins food gives diners a romantic, even hopeful vision of Paris: one thats open-minded, inclusive and as respectful of the past as it is forward-thinking. Thats the first development thats changing the Paris food scene. The second is whats happening to the native cuisine itself. For much of the 20th century, the purveyors of la gastronomie Francaise wanted nothing to do with outside influences. But these days, French cuisine and its champions are seizing the opportunity to innovate. An Exhibition of Paintings Showcases the Collaboration of Painter and Poet What started as a desperate question sobbed into the telephone by Doris Days characterhaunted by an unseen stalkerin the 1960 lm Midnight Lace now encapsulates the latest exhibition of paintings on display at New York Universitys Fales Library and Special Collections through May 8, 2016. Why Are You Doing This To Me? Philip Monaghan and David Trinidad, a Collaboration of a Painter and a Poet illustrates the lm scenes referenced in Trinidads poem The Late Show through a series of 74 paintings by Monaghan. In this new collaboration, Monaghan and Trinidad depict the feelings of the heroines captured in the lmswomen who saw themselves as trapped in a masculine culture where they felt as ill at ease. Each actresss circumstance and character aws result in them becoming victims, over and over again, explains Fales Director Marvin J. Taylor. Why Are You Doing This To Me? is free and open to the public from 10:30 AM through 5:30 PM Monday-Friday in the Tracey/Barry Gallery, Bobst Library, Third Floor, 70 Washington Square South, (at LaGuardia Place), NYC. [Subways A,C,E, B,D,M to West 4th Street; 6 line to Astor Place; R train to 8th Street.]. For more information the public may call, 212 992 9744. Fales Librarys Downtown Collection houses the David Trinidad Papers, and the exhibition will include relevant archival material from Trinidads creation of The Late Show. Visitors will be able to follow the process of the poems creation, which is an elegy to his mother and the bonding experience they shared while watching 1950s and 60s womens movies together. The Downtown scene has a long history of poet and painter collaborators, said Taylor. For Monaghan, the scenes depicted by Trinidads poem reference his life as a gay man. For example, as Caroll Baker lies dying in an oxygen tent in Harlow, Monaghan recalls visiting friends in the hospital during the AIDS epidemic. Monaghan also notes that gay men share with the women in these lms the experience of struggles with alcoholism, betrayal, controlling partners, and suicide. The exhibition derived its name, Why Are You Doing This To Me? from a line in Midnight Lace (1960), where Mrs. Preston, played by Doris Day, sobs into the telephone, Why are you doing this to me? Trinidad selected this scene as the eighth vignette and the 28th line of the title poem of his volume The Late Show (Turtle Point Press, 2007). In conjunction with the main exhibition at Fales, 80 Washington Square East Gallery [@80 Washington Square East, NYC] is presenting a new series of companion street windows, featuring three paintings from the show which depict the actresses Doris Day, Kim Novak and Audrey Hepburn as they dissolve in their roles as victims of the films in Trinidads poem. About Philip Monaghan A painter noted for his visual collaborations with poets, Philip Monaghan was born in Rockville Center, New York and raised in the suburbs of New York City and Houston, Texas. He attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, receiving a BFA in Studio Art in 1976. In 1977, he moved to New York City to attend Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where he received an MFA in Studio Art in 1979. Part of the 1980s East Village fashion and art scene, Monaghan was friendly with artists including Andy Warhol,and worked as an art director and branding expert for various retail companies in New York and Milan. From 1986, Monaghan held a variety of posts at Limited Brands, involved in positioning and creative direction for the companys iconic brands. He retained top talent such as Patrick Demarchelier, Bruce Weber, Steven Meisel and Peter Lindbergh. He retired in 2001 and dedicated himself to a fine arts practice. In 2011, Fales Library at New York University mounted an exhibition of Monaghans paintings titled At Moments Like These He Feels Farthest Away, a visual response to Tim Dlugoss poem Gilligans Island. Philip Monaghan lives in New York City. philipmonaghanstudio.com About David Trinidad David Trinidad was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1953 and raised in the San FernandoValley. He attended California State University, Northridge, where he studied poetry with Ann Stanford and edited the literary journal Angels Flight. He founded Sherwood Press in memory of his late friend, poet Rachel Sherwood. Trinidads first book of poems, Pavane, was published in 1981. In the early 1980s, Trinidad was one of a group of poets active at the Beyond Baroque Literary/ Arts Center in Venice, California. Other members of this group included Dennis Cooper, Bob Flanagan, Amy Gerstler, and Ed Smith. As editor of Sherwood Press, he published books by Cooper, Flanagan, Gerstler, Tim Dlugos, Alice Notley, and others. In 1988, Trinidad relocated to New York City. He received his Master of Fine Arts from Brooklyn College in 1990. He taught at Rutgers University and The New School. In 2002, Trinidad moved to Chicago to teach at Columbia College, where he co-founded the literary journal Court Green. His personal papers are archived at Fales Library at New York University. About Fales Library and Special Collections: The Fales Library, comprising nearly 358,000 volumes and over 11,000 linear feet of archive and manuscript materials, houses the Fales Collection of rare books and manuscripts in English and American literature, the Downtown Collection, the Marion Nestle Food Studies Collection, and the general special collections of the NYU Libraries. The Fales Collection was given to NYU in 1957 by DeCoursey Fales in memory of his father, Haliburton Fales. It is especially strong in English literature from the middle of the 18th century to the present, documenting developments in the novel. The Downtown Collection, founded in 1993, documents the downtown New York art, performance, and literary scenes from 1975 to the present and is extremely rich in archival holdings, including extensive film and video. The goal of the Downtown Collection is to comprehensively collect the full range of artistic practice and output of the Downtown scene, regardless of format. This research collection, built on a documentary strategy, supports the research of students and scholars interested in the intersection of the contemporary arts and other forms of cultural and artistic expression. The NYU Division of Libraries is a global system comprising five libraries in Manhattan and one each in Brooklyn, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. Its flagship, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library on Washington Square, receives 2.6 million visits annually. For more information about the NYU Libraries, please visit http://library.nyu.edu Tuesday, the Alabama House of Representatives approved a bill that, if passed by the Senate, would provide wireless broadband access in all of the states K-12 public schools. The Wireless Infrastructure Renovation for Education Act, sponsored by Rep. Donnie Chesteen, R Geneva, and championed by House Education Budget Committee Chair Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, is included in the House Republican Caucus Right for Alabama Agenda that was announced prior to the start of this years session. Passage of the WIRED Act will place Alabama first in the nation in terms of broadband access in public school classrooms, Chesteen said, according to a House press release. For many years, Alabama was at the bottom of most public school performance measures, but this legislation will allow us to lead the way in providing 21st Century technology and infrastructure without making additional demands on Alabama taxpayers. The WIRED Act will provide grants to local school systems for the purchase, installation, or upgrade of wireless broadband infrastructure by leveraging available federal e-rate dollars. The state already has designated $12 million for the WIRED Acts implementation, Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn. We would be leveraging federal e-rate grants that would pay for a good portion of it, he said. Three out of five schools in the United States lack broadband infrastructure, Republican GOP caucus leaders said last month. Hubbard compared having iPads in schools countered that having iPads in schools without wireless Internet is like having a refrigerator without electricity. School systems that have already purchased wireless broadband that meets standards may use the grants to purchase wireless devices, pay off existing debt dedicated toward wireless capabilities, or purchase other hardware or software needed to enhance the digital learning environment, according to the House press release. Each school system will be tasked with developing a detailed technology plan, and the State Department of Education will provide a report on implementation progress to the chairmen of both chambers education budget committees twice a year. I would like to recognize Senator Dial for his vision and his tireless leadership on this issue and I look forward to continuing to work closely with him, Chesteen said in the release. If Alabamas workforce is going to continue competing with other states for jobs, investment, and economic development projects in the future, access to wireless broadband in the classroom is not just an option, it is an absolute necessity. The bill will move on to the Senate. Will controversy spur the beloved burger institution In-N-Out to change its beef policy regarding antibiotics? The Irvine-based chain is under fire by a coalition of advocacy groups demanding it stop selling beef from suppliers who routinely use antibiotics. Some 50 organizations, including Friends of the Earth, Center for Food Safety and Consumers Union, sent a letter to In-N-Out today. As a hamburger restaurant known for its high-quality, fresh ingredients, In-N-Out should be a leader on this issue, said Jason Pfeifle, a spokesman for the group. Its time for the company to set a strong antibiotics policy that will help push the meat industry to do the right thing for public health. The privately-held In-N-Out, which typically shies from the public eye, responded immediately with a statement from Keith Brazeau, the companys vice president of quality. Just as humans sometimes need antibiotics for their health, cattle sometimes need antibiotics to ensure their health and welfare, he said. He said the chain, founded in 1948, is committed to working closely with suppliers to ensure they follow best practices by the Food and Drug Administration and the American Veterinary Medical Association. Our company is committed to beef that is not raised with antibiotics important to human medicine, and weve asked our suppliers to accelerate their progress toward establishing antibiotic alternatives, he said. Collectively, these efforts help ensure optimal animal health and welfare, preserve medically important antibiotics for human use, and ensure safe, affordable and abundant food. The coalition said In-N-Outs response is not good enough as the FDAs policies allow routine use of antibiotics on animals that are not sick. The FDAs policy prevents antibiotics for the purpose of speeding up animal growth. But it does not stop the routine uses of the same antibiotics administered to counter the disease risks that are exacerbated by crowded, stressful, and often, unsanitary conditions, Pfeifle said. Last year, California adopted the toughest limits in the nation on the use of antibiotics in healthy livestock, barring their routine use to prevent illness or promote growth. The law, which goes into effect in 2018, curbs the overuse of antibiotics in livestock, which limits the effectiveness of the medicines in both animals and people and contributes to the spread of dangerous, drug-resistant superbugs. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls antibiotic resistance one of the worlds most pressing health problems and estimates that 23,000 Americans die annually as a result of antibiotic-resistant infections. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The federal governments attempt to compel Apple to create a back door for the iPhone used by the San Bernardino terrorists raises the most important questions of liberty in our society. The feds are ordering Apple to create something that does not exist. Occasionally, Congress has compelled private individuals to include in a product some feature already in existence as a condition of selling the product. Airbags, for instance, must be installed in new cars. If airbags did not exist, it would be a stretch for the feds to compel auto manufacturers to invent them. If they did so demand, however, it would be pursuant to a specific law passed by Congress, or, at the very least, a regulation by the National Transportation Safety Board, a federal agency empowered by Congress to issue rules of this kind. In the Apple case, there has been no specific law passed by Congress and no regulatory agency rulemaking. The federal government relies on a 1789 law, the All Writs Act, and a 1977 Supreme Court opinion upholding the reach of that law to a case it claims is similar. Neither is sufficient. The 1789 law was written just as courts were being set up under our new Constitution. The federal government had, from the end of the Revolutionary War until the ratification of the Constitution, been relying on state courts. The new government created new, federal courts, and it was necessary, at the start, to give them the same authority to issue all writs, just like the state courts, or the common-law courts of England, had. The law was ministerial only, creating no new rights in the federal government. The 1977 opinion on which the federal government relies allowed a federal magistrate, who had already issued a valid search warrant, to use the All Writs Act to order the New York City phone company to lease a phone line to allow the placement of a pen register a device that records phone numbers of outgoing calls on a local bookies phone line. The Supreme Court noted that the phone company was a government-regulated utility, that Congress had only a few years before passed a law compelling telecommunications companies to assist in analogous situations (involving wiretaps, not explicitly pen registers), and, most tellingly, that the phone company was not burdened, since it had used exactly the same kind of device for its own purposes (to monitor customer billing). The Apple case is different in every respect. There is no congressional enactment remotely relevant; the company is being ordered to create something that does not exist; and the damage to Apples reputation in doing so is enormous. The feds denigrate Apples position as driven by marketing. But Apples refusal to create a back door is at the heart of the product it wishes to present to the public. Newspaper reporters have gone to jail rather than identify their sources to law enforcement, to preserve their reputations for confidentiality with future sources. Apple should similarly be allowed to develop a reputation for preserving its customers confidentiality. In the 1977 case, the Supreme Court said the burden imposed on the third party (the phone company in that case) had to be considered. Here, it is enormous. Foreign cellphone producers will be able to say that their products do not have a back door, whereas, if this order is upheld, the world will know that no iPhone is secure from the U.S. government. Additionally, private hackers could break into the feds computers and steal the back door like they broke into the federal governments employee personnel records last year. Consumers would make their choice, to Apples extreme detriment; and, even more important, to each of ours. Our liberty is at risk in a way much greater than the pen register on the New York bookies phone. The risk to our liberty from that case was that, if a legitimate search warrant had been issued against any of us, the police could find out the phone numbers we called. What the federal government wants of Apple, by contrast, will defeat the assurance to all of us that the information we place on our cellphones is private. Apples CEO Tim Cook stated: Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software which does not exist today would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someones physical possession. Tom Campbell is a professor at Chapman Universitys Fowler School of Law. During his five terms in Congress, he served on the Judiciary Committee. These views are his own. Apple should prevail in its effort to refuse to break into a cellphone, but the fight to protect privacy will be lost if Congress passes a law requiring access to encrypted information. Federal magistrate Judge Sherri Pym ordered Apple on Feb. 16 to provide reasonable technical assistance to investigators seeking access to the contents of an iPhone 5C that had been used by Syed Rizwan Farook. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people and seriously wounded 22 others in a shooting rampage in San Bernardino in December. Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to the court order, including via a public letter, declaring that such software does not exist and that creating it would be too dangerous because it would provide a back door into any cellphone. On Friday, the Justice Department filed a motion to compel Apple to comply with Judge Pyms order. The matter will be decided by a federal district court, but with appeals certain to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Specifically, the government wants Apple to develop software to circumvent a protection on this and later versions of the iPhone that prevents unauthorized access. The phone has a feature that, if activated, results in the phones contents being wiped clean if a wrong passcode is entered 10 times. In fact, it takes a longer time to try again after each failed attempt. The Justice Department wants Apple to devise a program that will allow it to try unlimited times to access the phone until it is successful. With a four-digit password, there are only about 10,000 combinations, and access could be gained fairly quickly with these features deactivated. The public battle is being portrayed as pitting protecting privacy against safeguarding national security. Although that is the underlying issue, the legal question here is much narrower: Can a court, without statutory authority, force Apple to create new software? I think the answer is no, and Apple should win this legal fight, assuming Apple is, in fact, being asked to create something new. If a document describes how to circumvent the password and privacy features on this iPhone, a court can obtain it by subpoena. If a person working at Apple knows how to do this, the court can force the individual to testify. This information would be provided in secret to safeguard privacy and the technology. But Apple insists that software does not exist to achieve what the federal government desires. The government cannot gain by warrant or subpoena what does not exist. Nor is there legal authority for a court to compel Apple to write new software. Judge Pym relied on a 1789 statute, the All Writs Act, which provides that a federal court may issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law. In simple English, this allows courts to issue orders needed to carry out their rulings. But the orders must be in accord with principles of law, and no law requires that Apple devise software to open its phones to the federal government. Nor has any prior court case interpreted the All Writs Act as broadly as the Justice Department is urging here. In United States v. New York Telephone Co., in 1977, the Supreme Court said that a court could order a phone company to put on a pen register a device on a telephone that monitors the numbers a person calls or receives calls from. But pen registers already existed, and there was a specific federal statute that authorized the federal government to have pen registers installed on phones. This is not a precedent for a court using the All Writs Act in the absence of a statute and where it requires creating new software. Although Apple should win this round, the larger issue looms in Congress: Should it require cellphone manufacturers to create a way to break encrypted communications on their products? If Congress passes such a statute and the current impasse between Apple and the Justice Department could provide the impetus for its enactment it would be constitutional so long as it had strict privacy safeguards. The law, for example, could provide that the government could have access to encrypted content only if it could show a compelling need for the information and no other way to gain it. Apple and privacy advocates will vehemently object to such a law. They will argue that, once such a back door for access is created, it could be exploited by hackers or by foreign governments to persecute individuals. These are powerful arguments against creating a means for access to encrypted information. The governments dismal record with regard to privacy provides strong reasons for concern. The counter-argument, of course, is that terrorists use encryption to communicate, and there may be instances where preventing a terrorist act of devastating proportions requires access. Ultimately, Congress must weigh these competing concerns in deciding whether to enact such a statute. If it does, Apple and other companies are unlikely to successfully challenge it. Congress can regulate how products are made, and there are no absolute First Amendment rights, including to encrypted communications. But it is for Congress through a statute, not a federal judge using a 1789 law, to decide how to balance national security and privacy. Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the UC Irvine School of Law. WASHINGTON Apple Inc. on Thursday asked a federal magistrate to reverse her order that the company help the FBI hack into a locked iPhone, accusing the federal government of seeking dangerous power through the courts and of promoting a boundless interpretation of the law. The filing represents Apples first official response since the judges order last week and builds upon arguments voiced by the companys chief executive and supporters. The Justice Department is proposing a boundless interpretation of the law that, if left unchecked, could bring disastrous repercussions for digital privacy, the company warned in a memo submitted to Magistrate Sheri Pym. The government says: Just this once and Just this phone. But the government knows those statements are not true, lawyers for Apple wrote. The dispute broke into public view last Tuesday when Pym directed Apple to help the FBI gain access to a phone used by one of the assailants in the San Bernardino, California, attacks. The filing was made the same day that FBI Director James Comey defended the governments approach during separate appearances on Capitol Hill, where he stressed that the agency was seeking specialized software for only one phone as part of an ongoing terrorism investigation. The Justice Department wants to bypass some security features on the iPhone so that it can try as many passcodes as possible without the data being erased. But Apple said the specialized software the government wants it to build does not currently exist and would require significant resources and effort to develop, including the work of six to 10 engineers working two to four weeks. The magistrate judge suggested in her ruling that the government would be required to pay Apples costs. No court has ever authorized what the government now seeks, no law supports such unlimited and sweeping use of the judicial process, and the Constitution forbids it, Apple said. It accused the government of working under a closed courtroom process under the auspices of a terrorism investigation of trying to cut off debate and circumvent thoughtful analysis. The government wants to compel Apple to create a crippled and insecure product, the company said. Once the process is created, it provides an avenue for criminals and foreign agents to access millions of iPhones. Apple pointedly noted the U.S. government itself fell victim to hackers, when thieves stole the personal information of tens of millions of current and former federal workers and their family members from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. The dispute broke into public view last Tuesday when Pym directed Apple to help the FBI gain access to a phone used by one of the assailants in the San Bernardino attacks. Anaheim Hills artist and resident Sandra Grassi Nelipovich will exhibit a selection of her original Batiks on Silk paintings this weekend in the Invitational section of the 56th Hillcrest Festival of Fine Arts. The festival, which is staged by the Hillcrest Congregational Church, runs from 10 a.m., to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Nelipovichs original works will include her fanciful themes in both framed and matted pieces. Part of her collection will also be showcased in the festivals boutique, featuring smaller original pieces, note cards and limited print note cards. A Chicago native and graduate of the University of Illinois, majoring in art education, Nelipovich did graduate work in Florence, Italy, at Northwestern University and at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she learned the art of Batik. She first began doing batiks on silk while teaching in the Oak Park, Illinois schools. Applying a new and modern approach to the old technique of Batik, the artist creates fanciful works of art that have a unique primitive feeling. The batiks are done in the traditional manner, dipping each piece in dye between each waxing. The intricate designs and many colors are created through a long process of numerous dye baths and waxings. Her smaller pieces typically take a week to 10 days to complete; a major piece can take three to four weeks. Nelipovich has an impressive resume of achievements including designing and executing a batik fabric for fashion designer Barbara Jaxs collection; creating illustrations for Jolly Robin Press, Music Publisher; and her batik art gracing the covers of the American Speech Language Hearing Associations 2008 quarterly publication covers. Among her accolades are a first place award, mixed media at the Orange County Fair, Adult Fine Arts Exhibition in 2013, first and third place in the 2014 Naperville (IL) 29th Riverwalk Fine Art Fair and Anaheim Art Association 51st Open Juried Fine Art Show. She most recently won a second place award, mixed media at the 2015 Orange County Fair, Adult Fine Arts Exhibition and a first place and honorable mention awards, mixed media in the 2015 Anaheim Art Association 52nd annual Open Juried Art Competition. Her works have also been exhibited in galleries and shows in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois and New Jersey. Admission and parking are free for this weekends Festival of Fine Arts. A portion of the proceeds from purchases benefit the churchs charitable activities. Hillcrest Congregational Church is at 2000 West Road, La Habra Heights. For additional information call 562-947-3755 or visit hillcrestfestivaloffinearts.com. WOMENS CONNECTION HOSTING EARLY ST. PATRICKS DAY FUN A St. Patricks Day celebration is planned for the next luncheon meeting of the Anaheim, Orange and Villa Park Womens Connection on March 8 at the Alta Visa Country Club. And all women in the community are invited. Doors open at 10:30 a.m., for shopping from local vendors with lunch and program to follow at 11:30 a.m., with the day concluding at 1:30 p.m. Valerie Sinex from Wild Birds Unlimited will offer unique suggestions for bringing song, color and life into your yard during her special presentation. Murray Mangan will share his vocal talent. Guest speaker Diane Mangan discusses how she discovered The Greatest Love of All. Cost of the lunch is $20 and those wishing to attend should contact Barbi Zipperian at 714-280-9062 by Friday to make a reservation. PLANS SET FOR EASTER EVENT The seventh annual Easter Festival featuring The Great Easter Egg Hunt, will be sponsored by the Anaheim Hills Rotary Club from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 19 at Ronald Reagan Park. In addition to the fun Easter egg hunt, this years event also includes egg decorating and crafts, games, a balloon maker and photos with the Easter Bunny. Food will also be available for purchase. There will also be an opportunity to shop in the Easter Village showcasing local vendors. Some of these include Origami Owl, Inked Souls Customs, Tastefully Simple, Bathologie, Young Living Essential Oils, Perfectly Posh, Scentsy and Tupperware. Activity sponsors include: Easter egg hunt, Roy Jefferson, State Farm Insurance; Easter Bunny photo booth, Bryan Smith, Postal Annex and Eric and Jonelle Strickland; crafts, Sharon Boyd, 1st Team Realty; food booth, SYSCO Foods; and games Scott Day, Coldwell Banker, Jane Reutze, Bankers Life. There is no admission charge to attend this popular community event. For additional information visit the Rotary Club website, anaheimhillsrotary.org. Contact Sharon Hlapcich at 714-998-4604 or smhlapcich@sbcglobal.net Today, a new addition to Orange Countys arts landscape arrives as the Hilbert Museum of California Art, on Chapman Universitys west campus in Orange, opens its doors to the public. Philanthropists Mark and Janet Hilbert of Newport Coast have promised Chapman University about 240 works for the museum, which will have free admission. Chapman put the value of that art at more than $7 million in 2014, when the Hilberts made their gift. The new museum is housed in a former commercial building that Chapman bought in 2002, across from the Orange train station, though plans are to eventually move it to the former Villa Park Orchards Packing House two blocks away. Along with giving the paintings, the Hilberts donated $3 million for the creation and support of the current and future museums. California Scene art is the museums focus. Its a style that depicts everyday life in California and that has, at times, been overlooked, especially after the art world turned its focus to modernism after World War II. Nonetheless, its an important style that documents Californias past, Mark Hilbert said as he walked through the building one recent weekday morning. The museum is dedicated to narrative art, meaning its art that tells a story, Hilbert said. The story is California and its people. Its an important story, because after all, the people of California brought things to the world such as Hollywood, Silicon Valley and popularized surfing, just to mention a few things. By a loose definition, the California Scene covers works from as early as the mid-1800s, around the time of the states admission to the union, to as late as the 21st century. But the golden age of the style was in the middle of the 20th century, according to guest curator Gordon McClelland, who organized the opening exhibit and has written more than a dozen books on California art and history. SENSE OF PLACE, TIME This first exhibition, Narrative Visions: 20th Century California Art from the Hilbert Collection, includes roughly 100 paintings that contain all sorts of stories, from the Depression as it affected Californians to depictions of Americas naval might in World War II to snapshots of Orange County as it once looked. Its the idea of linking social history with art, McClelland said. Thats what this show does. He pointed to the earliest work in the exhibit, a 1913 painting of elaborate theaters at night on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. Streetlights are glowing glass globes, and a woman is dressed in the style of the time. It has just, again, sense of time and place, which a lot of these do have, McClelland said. As you look at them, it feels that theyre visually conveying a space in time. A lot of these paintings do convey that period that they were done in, and thats one of the elements that Mark has always focused on. Some are scenes from the Depression: a despondent man and a woman trying to console him as behind them, people enjoy a ride on the carousel that was popular at Lincoln Park in Los Angeles at the time (If I Had the Wings of An Angel, 1937). There are the stories of minorities, like the black woman touching up her lipstick at a nightclub in the 1943 painting Touch-up. All captured are San Franciscos Chinatown (a colorful dragon is paraded in Chinese New Year from 1960), Newport Beach (Balboa Pavilion, 1960) and a dramatically changing Los Angeles. Some of the more recent works veer into abstraction, like the landscape reduced to green shapes highlighted in yellow and orange in the 1989 A Hazy, Somewhat Muggy Day. Hilbert calls San Dimas Train Station by Millard Sheets the signature piece of the collection. The watercolor, sharply drawn in 1933, shows the small train station under a dark gray sky, with two figures lit by individual cones of light. It has a mood of loneliness and isolation and has been compared to Edward Hoppers famous Nighthawks, which came almost a decade later. You get a sense of this kind of quiet, rural area (that) just evokes certain feelings on a deep level (and) becomes an icon, Hilbert said. The paintings also tell the stories of the artists themselves. Mary Blair, Overlooking Palos Verdes (1934) is Lee Blairs portrait of his wife, fellow artist Mary Robinson Blair, at a clifftop picnic overlooking the ocean. Both worked for Walt Disney Studios, on movies including Dumbo and Fantasia. Fletcher Martins Lad in the Fleet is a peek at that artists life. Martin was a prizefighter when he was in the U.S. Navy, and this dramatic painting captures a moment of a boxer, his chest tattooed with a ship, resting in the corner of the ring between rounds, wearing a worried look. A lot of these artists came to California in the late 20s and 30s because of the studios, Hilbert said. Artists came to paint backdrops, design sets, create animation and make movie posters. That was the work they were paid to do, and in their free time, they painted scenes from their lives and what they saw around them. They left behind a treasure trove of art. 25 YEARS COLLECTING Hilbert said he and his wife built their collection over a quarter of a century, visiting Europe and its major galleries 25 times to develop an eye for composition and quality. It started with a need to decorate their house in Palm Springs on a budget 25 years ago. Our wallets were empty and the walls were empty. We went to the consignment stores, where we could buy art for less money. Thats when we ran into the California style of painting, he said. I just fell in love with this group of paintings. Growing up in California, in Pasadena, he could relate to the stories in the paintings. He thinks most who come to the museum will be able to connect to the works as well in that way. The plan is to eventually move the museum to the former Villa Park Orchards Packing House on Cypress Street. In his final State of the University speech today, retiring President Jim Doti will give more details about the packing house project, said university spokeswoman Mary Platt. Initially, Chapman had hoped that the museum would open in the packing house as soon as the fall of 2017. Now, however, there is no set date, as Chapman and the city must work carefully together on a project like this, Platt said. Future exhibitions could borrow from others collections, including private collections, Hilbert said. And those with California Scene paintings in their homes will see the style recognized and hopefully reach out to the museum, Platt said. As for why the Hilberts picked Chapman as the place for their collection, Hilbert said, We liked that this university is a happening place. It was growing and expanding. And of course the city of Orange, which in and of itself is a little historical community, it was a perfect fit. Contact the writer: aboessenkool@ocregister.com IRVINE Peggy Schmidt and her mother Mary Lee made a beeline for a bright red pedicab giving free rides near the Jeffrey Trail. Mary Lee Schmidt, 85, visiting her daughter from Missouri for a couple of months, said she normally heads to one of Irvines senior centers while Peggy works. But the choices at the new Trabuco Center go beyond her typical game of pinochle or bridge. The center, at 5701 Trabuco Road, opened Saturday with Zumba and yoga class demonstrations, and trips on the nearby Jeffrey Open Space Trail via Pedego electric bikes and pedicabs, bikes with a driver and connected seats for two passengers. Mary Lee fished her iPhone out of her purse for a quick photo, struggling a bit to wake up the device in the seat of the pedicab. See, you should take a computer course, Peggy said, laughing. The 7,500-square-foot centers classes and programming are aimed at active retirees and has rooms for lectures or exercise classes, a lounge, free Wi-Fi and patio courtyards. The center also features a fitness center with several treadmills, cardio equipment and weight machines. Of Irvines more than 248,000 residents, about nine percent are 65 years and older, according to 2014 U.S. Census data. About 43,000 people are 55 years and older. Mayor Steven Choi said the Trabuco center aims to attract recent retirees who may still balk at the term senior and serve a growing area of the city north of I-5. We want to remove that psychological barrier, Choi said. When someone retires, they have to reassess what to do with their time, and a place such as the Trabuco Center can make that process easy, he said. We want to help (seniors) stay fit and active instead of say, Oh, Im out of the mainstream now, Choi said. The Trabuco Center joins two existing senior centers in Irvine: the Lakeview Senior Center and the Rancho Senior Center. The Trabuco Center is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information: cityofirvine.org or 949-724-7300. Contact the writer: mnicolai@ocregister.com or 714-796-7990 Will a penny promotion save J.C. Penney Co.? In a move to win back customers, the troubled retailer is launching Get Your Penneys Worth, a marketing campaign that includes deals for a penny. The promotion debuts Sunday. Sale items during the first week include only those with JCPenneys private label Arizona. Customers must purchase one item at full price to get a second item for a penny. The launch of this new brand promise underscores our strategic focus on building private brands and revenue per customer to create sustainable loyalty, said Mary Beth West, chief customer and marketing officer for JCPenney, in a statement. In January, the company announced it would shutter seven stores in smaller markets in a move to cut costs and make the retailer more profitable. None were in Orange County. The 114-year-old retailer has struggled in recent years. The chain hasnt reported a profit since 2010. Its sales are down almost 40 percent compared to its peak in 2006. In 2014, Marvin Ellison became chief executive of the company. He has since tested many changes to the chains nearly fatal attempt to reinvent itself four years ago, according to Fortune magazine. The reinvention refers to former CEO Ron Johnson, who attempted to reposition JCPenney as a trendy department store. Johnson ditched popular coupons and sales and instead used an everyday low pricing scheme. The effort failed. Sales suffered and some of the chains older customers stopped shopping at the department store. Some argued that Johnson, a former Apple executive, tried to make the chain too much like an Apple store. Under Ellisons reign, the company has reported a 3.9 percent increase in comparable stores sales during the 2015 holidays compared with 2014s holiday season. Some of the changes made by Ellison include improved inventory management based on real-time sales data and increasing sales made by existing customers. The chain also has plans to improve its e-commerce including offering same day pickup for online orders and an improved app, according to Fortune. In an effort to spruce up the brand, the company enlisted InStyle magazine last year to upgrade its in-house the salons. The retailer also has Sephora boutiques inside some of its stores, which are helping to drive sales. JCPenney has also been increasing its private-label brands. The brands amount to roughly 51 percent of all sales. The company has made two moves this year aimed at millennials. On Feb. 12 the company launched Belle + Sky, a private label brand aimed at younger customers, in 500 stores. The brand was piloted in some stores last fall. After more than 30 years of not selling major appliances, the company decided to re-enter the business. On Feb. 1, it added appliances to 22 pilot stores in San Antonio, San Diego and Tampa, Fla. The move is aimed at millennials entering the real estate market, the company said. The decision was made after the company realized many customers were searching for appliances on jcp.com. In April, one third of stores will launch a center core layout. Fashion jewelry, accessories, footwear and handbags will be featured in an accessories area organized by brand, color and style. The company also announced this month some major shakeups to its executive team. Ken Mangone, executive vice president of product development, design and sourcing, is retiring. Val Harris, former vice president of product development, design and trend for womens businesses, was promoted to senior vice president of product development and design. Mike Robbins, senior vice president of supply chain, took over responsibility of the companys sourcing. In January Joe McFarland was appointed executive vice president of stores. Contact the writer: hmadans@ocregister.com or Twitter: @HannahMadans IRVINE Dunkin Donuts fans waited outside patiently early Wednesday in anticipation of the opening of the East Coast giants first Irvine location. The shop, at 15415 Jeffrey Road, opened at 5 a.m. Irvine resident Chi Ly and her boyfriend Tim Chau, also of Irvine, were the first walk-in and drive-through customers, respectively. They won $250 gift cards. The first 100 customers in the door of the 24-hour store, which opened at 5 a.m., were given free coffee mugs. Franchisee Brad Anderson and his business partner Joe Haupt opened Orange Countys first Dunkin Donuts last year in Laguna Hills, also open 24 hours. The group owns the rights to develop 10 Dunkin shops in South Orange County and the surrounding area. Dunkin Donuts plans to open 1,000 locations in California. Nearly 200 are in the works for the greater Los Angeles area. Besides Laguna Hills, Dunkin Donuts has opened locations in Santa Ana and Westminster. This year, more Dunkin Donuts shops are slated for Yorba Linda and Villa Park. Staff writer Nancy Luna contributed to this report. Contact the writer: sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com Egyptian tour guide Samir Abbass assumed Tejal Gala was simply another young teen tagging along with her parents perhaps a bit bored at times, perhaps at risk of suffering the numbing effects of too much information. In the beginning, I looked at her as any other kid, Abbass recalled. I did my best to get her engaged, even by giving gifts to make sure I didnt lose her interest. But he soon realized 13-year-old Gala was not the kind of girl to wonder about what she was missing out on at home as she gazed blankly at tombs and pyramids. She surprised me with her deep knowledge of the history of Egypt, including subjects I normally dont talk about because they are rather complicated and academic, Abbass said. For months before her familys vacation, Gala filled the pages of a notebook with information. I got so hooked that I just kept researching, she said. Mythology was the first thing that got me really interested, and then hieroglyphics. It just snowballed. By the time she boarded a plane, she had unwittingly started a book that included a family tree of the gods and goddesses. While visiting Egypt, she consumed two more notebooks, chronicling and organizing everything she could absorb. At some sacred sites, tour guides but not tourists are discouraged from pontificating. Abbass suggested she stand in for him. He told her, You can talk here but I cant, so why dont you tell everyone what were looking at, Galas mother, Veenat, said proudly, Other tour guides who heard her asked if shes Egyptian. Nope. Tejal Gala, whose grandparents hail from India, was born and raised in California. Now 17 and a senior at Foothill High, the Tustin resident recently published her book four years in the making about the country she finds so fascinating. Egypt holds great mystery, Gala said. Titled Egypt Unraveled, the book is a sort of a history for dummies, categorizing the complex subject of Egyptian history in five chapters: mythology, hieroglyphics, pharaohs, pyramids and modern Egypt. Illustrated by artist Sean Allum, Galas creation is straightforward and accessible edification without pedantry. Gala, her parents and two younger brothers traveled to Egypt over spring break in 2012. That summer, she began typing and polishing her research. But it wasnt until 2015 that she got serious about self-publishing it, after her father helped her locate an illustrator. Ironically, she doesnt see herself as either a historian or a writer. In all my years of school, Ive shown a knack for math and science, said Gala, president of her schools robotics club. English and history are two things I dont really associate myself with. But I love learning about everything. This semester, the straight-A student is taking an advanced math class independently. And as a child, she taught herself Hindi, even crafting tests. Being by myself is not tedious at all, Gala said. Im never bored. Gala qualified to join Mensa, the international organization for people with exceptionally high IQs. Now Gala is waiting to hear back on her college applications. And, no, she did not send her book to admissions offices. Youre really not supposed to do that sort of thing, she said. I didnt want to annoy them. The book can be purchased on amazon.com for $20. She said she has no plans of shopping it to major publishing houses. I thought about that, but then I did research on how to get a book published, she said. I read that if youre writing a nonfiction book, you have to have credentials adding, in all sincerity, and Im just a regular person. Contact the writer: sgoulding@ocregister.com When H.J. Garrett wanted to open a furniture store, he and his oldest son, John, jumped into the family Buick and drove to San Diego from Redwood City, scouting potential locations. Of all the towns the pair visited, Costa Mesa stood out. He just felt the growth was going to be better in Orange County, said John Garrett. And he was right. John Garrett was in his early 20s when he and his dad set off on their trip. This year hell turn 78. After 55 years of running H.J. Garrett Furniture with brother Jim Garrett, 74, the duo have decided to retire from the business. They expect it will take up to six weeks to clear out the stores inventory of plush love seats, ornate lamps, side tables and sectionals. The building that houses the store is also for sale, and there are buyers interested in the site. When the family opened the store, the neighbors were of the bovine variety. Across the street, cows grazed on land owned by Orange Coast College, John Garrett said. The neighborhood grew and we grew with it, he said. These days, the stretch of Harbor Boulevard surrounding H.J. Garrett Furniture is lined with chain stores: Kmart, Payless, Rite Aid, Valvoline. Amid those known brands, H.J. Garrett stands out with its distinctive black scalloped awning, one of a few independent family stores remaining in an area that has recently lost other standbys, including the Grant Boys and Amelias Restaurant on Balboa Island. This has just been a staple, said Cindy Brenneman of Costa Mesa. I dont know what itll be like driving down Harbor Boulevard and not seeing H.J. Garrett. With the announcement of the stores closure this month, customers like Brenneman have stopped by to bid the brothers farewell. One such customer was 81-year-old Marie White, who resides on Balboa Peninsula three miles away. She began shopping at H.J. Garrett 40 years ago, when she was a newlywed. On a recent Tuesday, she stopped by to pick up a few odds and ends for a side table. Its sad, White said of the closure. John Garrett marveled at the number of people who stopped to say goodbye each day since he and his brother announced they would close the store. For 55 years, its been fun. The customers have been loyal, John Garrett said. The faces come back to you as they come in. You remember the color schemes of their homes. The customers arent the only ones who are loyal. I told them Id stay until the bitter end, said Elaine Graves, 66, an 18-year employee. Originally from Detroit, John and Jim Garrett moved with their family to Santa Monica as young men. For a spell, John Garrett worked at a hardware store in Pacific Palisades, where he saw celebrities like Ronald Reagan, Eddie Albert, Anne Baxter and, perhaps the highlight, Audrey Hepburn. I still havent gotten over that, he said of his brief encounter with the Breakfast at Tiffanys star. Three years later, the Garretts opened the family store in Costa Mesa, first on Park Avenue, then on Harbor Boulevard. Running the store spanned three generations of Garretts. Even as the end of his life neared, H.J. Garrett didnt want his sons to close the store early when his health declined. He couldnt understand anyone wanting to close when you could come down here and do this, John Garrett remembered of the father he, like everyone, called H.J. It was more businesslike. More recently, business has slowed. John Garrett chalked it up to an increase in online shopping and the skyrocketing cost of living in Southern California, which makes it harder for young people to set down roots and afford quality furniture. He pointed to other independent furniture stores in the area that have closed: Lloyds of Long Beach and Chandlers Furniture in Santa Ana. The latter survived more than 100 years and was one of the countys oldest stores when it shuttered in 1989, according to news accounts. As customers milled about at H.J. Garrett on a recent Tuesday, trying sofas and eyeing recliners, an overhead speaker system softly played the Contours 1962 hit Do You Love Me? The brothers knew the answer to that question. Contact the writer: lwilliams@ocregister.com, 714-796-2286 Red Hill Lutheran School, an outreach of Red Hill Lutheran Church in Tustin, hosted Grandparents/V.I.P. day Feb. 12. The patriotic-themed event, held in the Red Hill Lutheran Church Sanctuary, was attended by more than 300 grandparents and V.I.P.s, and over 200 students. After the colors presentation and singing of the National Anthem, the schools third-fifth-grade dance team kicked off the event with a high-energy performance. Pastor Seth Britton welcomed the attendees and led the Sanctuary in the opening prayer, while Principal Cindy Jordan emceed the event. Jordan acknowledged all of the grandparents in attendance and highlighted those that have served as educators, and those that have served our country in the Armed Forces. We thank you for the sacrifices that you have made throughout your life for us and the commitment you have to your family as evidenced by your presence here today, said Jordan. Though you may not realize it, you have left a legacy for all of us, and we are truly grateful. We hope you enjoy our patriotic celebration. The assembly concluded with students honoring military heroes that have served in the Air Force, Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines by singing the Armed Forces salute. NORWALK U.S. Senate candidate Kamala Harris said Wednesday that she isnt picking sides in Apple Inc.s fight with the FBI over accessing a locked and encrypted iPhone used by used by a gunman in the December San Bernardino shootings that left 14 dead. Harris, the state attorney general and the leading candidate to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer, told reporters that a solution needs to be worked out that balances the interests of public safety with a technology industry that frequently faces questions about consumer privacy and snooping. We want law enforcement to have access to the material that we need to be able to save lives but the issue is also what we are going to do in terms of policy going forward, Harris said. What will the protocols be going forward? asked Harris, a Democrat. Under what circumstances and conditions should there be access? The dispute over the iPhone presents a tricky political quandary for any Senate candidate in California, home to Apple, Facebook and Google. Government records show Harris Senate campaign has received checks from employees of the three companies, and last year she appeared with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg to promote safer online communities, especially among younger people. Sandberg has given the Harris campaign over $5,000. As the states top prosecutor, Harris position also represents a partial break with the FBI. Agency director James Comey has said in an online post that Apple owes it to the San Bernardino victims to cooperate. Last week, Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym in California ordered Apple to create specialized software to help the FBI hack into the iPhone. The heads of Facebook, Twitter and Google have all sided with Apple on the grounds that complying with the governments request would ultimately undermine data privacy. I dont think its as simple as taking one side or the other, Harris said. There are details that have to be worked out. A spokesman for Harris chief rival, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-California, did not immediately return a phone call. More than 700 high school students from 18 schools across Southern California came to Laguna Hills High School to compete at its 24th annual Model United Nations Conference on Saturday. The conference gives students a chance to discuss foreign affairs through a simulation of the United Nations, and exhibit skills in public speaking, research and debate, said Carri Geiger, an event adviser and teacher at Laguna Hills High School. Students are assigned to one or more of the 23 U.N. committees. Each committee discusses real-world issues with the goal of coming together for a solution. For example, the World Health Organization committee debated on how to resolve an Ebola outbreak, while the U.N. Security Council discussed nuclear nonproliferation. Students are assigned countries, and have to represent their country and that countrys policy, said Laguna Hills High School student Calista Shang, 17. Sometimes you have to represent policies that you dont necessarily agree with. The committees open with a speech on the issue, then student delegates raise a placard with their countrys name on it when they want to speak. Every few minutes, there is a caucus, in which the students meet in blocs of countries with similar opinions and write a resolution to present to the committee. The goal is a resolution, but on top of that, there are awards for best delegates, Geiger said. Winners are selected by the student chairs of each committee. The best delegate, and its all student-selected, is decided based on all the speeches, Geiger said. It works on research, debate, negotiations skills and at the end there are awards given to the best delegate and the best runners-up as well. For many students, including freshman Brooke Spencer, 15, from Trabuco Hills High School, it was their first time at the event. It can be a challenge trying to get your point across, Spencer said. Spencer represented Venezuela on the U.N. Security Council and two resolutions that she worked on were passed. We did a lot of research a few weeks before the conference, she said. But when you win its like all the hard work you put in was worth it. Samar Arshads resolutions didnt do as well. The 17-year-old from Mission Viejo represented Argentina on the topic of collapsing bee colonies. Her country was trying to end the use of pesticides that are lethal to the bee colonies. Our resolution didnt pass, she said. We were saying to stop using pesticides but no one wanted to stop because it was bad for the economy. It was really frustrating actually, she said, but there is nothing you can really do. You just move on to the next topic. At the end of the event, the students met in the gym for the closing ceremonies and awards. Mario Humerez, 17, from Somerset High School in Bellflower was recognized during the event for his work on the UNICEF committee. Humerez represented Haiti, on the issue of child marriage. My resolution was the opening of safe zones for victims that were spouses before the age of 18, he said. Somerset was the only continuation high school at the event. This is huge for our school right now, said Somerset adviser Michael Mazuera. Our students are considered at-risk of not graduating, and we proved today that no matter where a student comes from, what their background or demographic they come from, they can still be successful. BENGHAZI, Libya French special forces have been helping Libyan troops fight Islamic State militants in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi for two months, two Libyan military officials said Wednesday. The French combat squad, consisting of 15 special forces, carried out four military operations against Islamic State and other militant groups in Benghazi, the officials told The Associated Press. They said that French forces work with Libyan troops to pinpoint Islamic State militant locations, plan operations and carry them out. They had also been training Libyan forces, they added. According to the officials, the French forces were setting up an operations room in Banina air base in Benghazi alongside British and U.S. teams. They said that in addition to the special forces, a French intelligence unit is working with Britain and the U.S. units to collect information on the location of Islamic State militants and their numbers. Similar teams are also operating out of an air base in the city of Misrata, located to the east of the Islamic State stronghold of Sirte, the officials said. The Libyan officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The French defense ministry declined to comment, citing a policy against commenting on special forces activities. The Libyan officials said the presence of Western forces was not welcomed by ultraconservative Salafist factions, who are allied with Libyas eastern army and perceive the foreign intervention as an occupation. Washington is counting on the UK, France and Italy to join the international coalition against Islamic State extremists gaining ground in Libya. Last week, the U.S. carried out airstrikes against the extremist groups position in the western city of Sabratha, killing dozens of fighters as well as two Serbian hostages. Libyas chaos, five years after the uprising that led to the ouster and killing of longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, has allowed Islamic State to take control of several cities. The divided country is ruled by two parliaments: an internationally recognized body based in the eastern city of Tobruk and a rival government, backed by Islamist-allied militias, that controls the capital, Tripoli. The United Nations brokered a deal last year to unite the countrys various factions. A new unity government is awaiting endorsement by the eastern parliament. The unity government could pave the way international military intervention against Islamic State. Also on Wednesday, Islamic State affiliates in Libya briefly took over the security headquarters of the western city of Sabratha, beheading 12 security officers before being driven out early in the morning, two city security officials said. The incident highlighted the enduring presence and unpredictable striking power of the local militants in the city, which serves as a hub for migrants heading to Europe. Taher al-Gharabili, head of Sabratha Military Council, told The Associated Press that the gunmen exploited a security vacuum by deploying in the city center as the military was occupied conducting raids elsewhere. A second security official said that the militants used the headless bodies of the officers they killed to block the roads leading to the security headquarters which they occupied for about three hours. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the total number of officers killed in the occupation and ensuing clashes reached 19. Sabratha has become the latest Libyan power center for the local Islamic State affiliate. On Monday, Italy said it has agreed to allow American drones to be armed and take off from an air base in Sicily, but only to defend U.S. forces while they target Islamic State extremists in Libya. An Italian defense ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity as the government hasnt announced the deal, said Rome and Washington reached agreement last month. Permission will have to be asked of the Italian government every time, and decided on a case-by-case basis, for the drones to take off from Sigonella air base to protect military personnel deemed at risk during anti-Islamic State operations in Libya and elsewhere in northern Africa. Permission wont be granted for offensive missions under the arrangement. So far the U.S. drones based in Sigonella have neither been armed nor requested to be used, the official said. The city of Anaheim has taken the local lead in deploying secret technology that can intercept cellphone communications and used the systems to assist investigations involving at least three other Orange County law enforcement agencies, the Register has found. Officials in the countys largest city, however, have yet to adopt and release publicly a state-mandated policy spelling out when the devices will be used, as well as how theyll handle and protect the data collected. Investigators from the Orange County Sheriffs Department, which polices most of South County, Brea and Buena Park, have made use of information from Anaheims cellphone transmission catchers, which are sometimes called stingrays in reference to the brand name StingRay, officials said. More than a dozen other local police agencies in Orange County either referred questions back to Anaheim, said they were not aware of information from the system being used by their cities or did not respond to inquiries. The state law, signed by the governor in October, required cities operating the systems to publicly adopt policies governing their use as of Jan. 1. Its intended to ensure that Californians are at least generally aware when local officials decide to deploy cell-catcher technology. The devices mimic wireless telecommunications towers and can trick cellphones into connecting to them rather than the towers. Police then can collect data from the phones, including phone numbers and GPS points. Their use has grown increasingly controversial, particularly as it has spread from federal to local agencies. Legal challenges seeking information on the tracking devices have been filed against Anaheim and other cities. Law enforcement agencies say the equipment can be a vital asset in fighting terrorism, drug trafficking and other major crimes and is subject to prior court or judicial review. Anaheim Police Chief Raul Quezada, in a letter to the community, said the agencys cellphone tracker cannot identify the operator of a cellphone, cannot intercept the content of calls or texts and our personnel do not have the ability to listen to calls or read text messages using this device. The federal government must approve local agencies purchase of the equipment and places strict limits on what can be disclosed about it. Experts say the technology was developed to help U.S. intelligence agencies in overseas operations. The American Civil Liberties Union, defense lawyers and some constitutional law experts argue that the bar for such review is lower than that for a formal wiretap and that too little is known about when and how the systems are used and the types and volume of information captured by investigators. Anaheim city and police officials declined this week to discuss the state law requirements or provide additional details on their systems or their use. This is pending litigation, and we do not have additional comment, said spokeswoman Ruth Ruiz. State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, who wrote the law requiring local catcher disclosure, said the requirement is clear for cities. If you have these devices, you had to adopt privacy and usage policies for them in public by Jan. 1, he said. If you dont have those policies in place, youre breaking the law. Less clear is whether other cities that use information gathered by the technology but dont own or operate the systems themselves must adopt public policies. As of Wednesday, it appeared that none of the Orange County agencies that acknowledge using information from the catchers has publicly approved policies governing their use or posted disclosures on their websites, as the new law requires. My concern is whether there are sufficient safeguards to ensure the protection of privacy with regard to this technology, said Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law scholar and dean of UC Irvines School of Law. I think public knowledge of this technology is an essential first step. Alameda County became the first agency in California to comply with the new state law requiring disclosure. The policy says the program will be managed by the District Attorneys Office and that the equipment will not be used to capture calls, text messages or email content. TOP SECRET Anaheim has had the intercept devices since at least 2009, according to documents obtained by the ACLU in its lawsuit and released publicly. The systems can pinpoint the location of a cellphone. During the process of finding a targeted cellphone, some devices, known as dirt boxes, can sweep up the data from thousands of unsuspecting mobile phone users who have no connection to the investigation, according to the ACLU. A settlement conference in the ACLUs suit against Anaheim is scheduled for Friday. If no settlement is reached, a trial will begin June 24, Price said. Anaheim, and the local agencies it has assisted, arent alone in using the technology. Some 60 other local police agencies have them, including those in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, New York City and Chicago, according to the ACLU. I cant believe the numbers of stingrays and dirt boxes out there, Hill said. I cant believe that the deployment of all this technology is terror-related. Compared with their federal counterparts, local law enforcement agencies appear to use the catchers in a wider array of investigations, such as homicide, grand theft and kidnapping, local police officials said. Stringent secrecy agreements with federal officials and the devices manufacturers prevent them from saying any more. Hill focused on the issue after Santa Clara County began considering a $500,000 expenditure for the technology. We were asking, Whats it going to be used for? And the answer was, We cant tell you, Hill said. How long are you going to use it? We cant tell you. County officials stressed they had signed a nondisclosure agreement and refused to release even that document, Hill said. Anaheim has spent at least $540,000 on intercept devices, according to a tally of invoices produced in the ACLU lawsuit. Anaheims decision to buy the equipment never went to a public discussion and vote. Instead, they were classified as covert purchases, which require only the signatures of the city manager and police chief, according to heavily redacted city documents provided to the ACLU. Covert purchases do not require a competitive bidding process. City records say covert purchases are permitted when the knowledge of the purchase may give individuals the necessary knowledge on how to defeat the device, thus compromising numerous investigations. After Anaheims use of the systems was reported last year, the police chief wrote an open letter to the community. The devices are used only after a court order signed by a judge, Quezada said, except for emergencies that could result in death or serious injury. Then, Anaheim submits a warrant for judicial review for the prior operation of the device, he said. Those warrants and court orders remain sealed by the courts. One community critic, Hugh Glenn, who posts on the Anaheimblog.net blog, wrote that the chiefs response amounted to, Trust us; well never misuse this technology. Another new law signed in October, Senate Bill 178 by Sen. Mark Leno, seeks to protect against misuse by requiring a search warrant, wiretap order, subpoena or the like before local police can use the devices, except for emergencies. Critics say it still may be too easy for police to use them without sufficient oversight. In September, the U.S. Department of Justice issued guidelines on cell-site simulation devices on the federal level. The rules require all federal law enforcement agencies to obtain a search warrant before using the cell-tracking devices. The rule also applies to state and local agencies involved in federal investigations. CONFIDENTIAL SOURCE In one of the only local cases where officials have acknowledged using the technology, Buena Park police in 2014 requested Anaheims help surveilling a suspected serial bank robber. The suspect subsequently was arrested and pleaded guilty to 12 bank robberies, said Sgt. R. Chris Nunez. For those facing criminal charges, its often not clear when evidence gleaned from those devices makes its way into a prosecutors case, attorneys said. Official paperwork may simply cite a confidential source, said Tustin defense attorney Brian Gurwitz, who spent 13 years as a prosecutor. Right now, if you have a client picked up for transporting narcotics but he was originally pulled over for speeding, and then his car was searched thats a clue you should start looking at whether the police used StingRay or other surveillance technology, Gurwitz said. Police departments in Anaheim and Sarasota, Fla., are among the agencies that have made the confidential source argument to hide the use of such equipment, according to Jessica Price, one of the lead ACLU attorneys in the Anaheim lawsuit. Gurwitz handled a narcotics case in which he strongly suspected such a device was used. He filed a motion demanding the source of confidential information used against his client, and my client quickly was given a good deal, Gurwitz said. Last year, The Washington Post detailed the case of Tadrae McKenzie of Tallahassee, Fla., who was accused of robbery with a deadly weapon, punishable by at least four years in prison. McKenzies defense team figured out that investigators must have used a StingRay device to gather evidence, and a judge ordered police to show the device. Rather than comply, prosecutors offered McKenzie a plea bargain: six months probation. Gurwitz, the defense attorney, said: Historically, law enforcement always wants as much secrecy as possible Its up to a strong defense bar, and independent judges, to make sure these technologies are used for legitimate law enforcement purposes only, and not indiscriminately. We are still a free society, Hill said. Apple a backdoor getting past the encryption technology in cellphones is a major conversation we have to have today. We have to be vigilant in whatever decision is made. Actions have to be taken to protect our rights. Once we lose them, were not going to get them back. Contact the writer: tsforza@ocregister.com or lleung@ocregister.com Occupational licensing laws are like the redheaded stepchild of labor policy. Their regulatory burden has grown substantially over the years. During the 1950s, only about 5 percent of the population was subject to licensing laws, but now approximately 30 percent of the population must jump through government hoops just to work in the occupation of their choosing. This means that occupational licensing affects far more people than labor unions or the minimum wage, yet it receives little attention. A pair of recent hearings one in Washington, D.C., and one in California attempted to shine some light on the damaging effects of these regulations, however. We are told licensing laws are necessary to protect consumers and ensure quality services, but the empirical data say otherwise. The economic literature is riddled with studies about the effects of occupational licensing on physicians, lawyers, optometrists, pharmacists and many other professionals. They overwhelmingly show that more restrictive regulations do not improve safety or service quality, and a number of them even point to negative effects because the costs of arbitrary fees, examinations, education requirements and other mandates reduce competition. These studies also demonstrate that licensing significantly increases prices and practitioners profits while reducing job growth. This explains why efforts to implement or enhance licensing regulations almost always come from existing business interests not consumer interests and why the existing practitioners are often grandfathered in, so that they do not have to abide by the stricter regulations placed on their future competitors. A lot of times, who has greater political clout determines who gets to do the work, University of Minnesota economist Morris Kleiner, a renowned authority on occupational licensing, told a U.S. Senate subcommittee this month. He recounted how the American Dental Association has fought with dental hygienists over a program to care for poor childrens teeth because the ADA wanted to require supervision by a licensed dentist. Similar turf battles have been waged by licensed architects against interior designers and doctors against nurse practitioners. The urge to regulate is particularly strong here in California. In a 2007 study for the Reason Foundation, I found that California requires a state license for 177 different job categories the most of any state in the nation and nearly twice the national average of 92 occupations. Does the Golden State really need to license auctioneers, dental assistants, furniture upholsterers, landscape workers, travel agents and tree trimmers? California even tried to license pet groomers in 2012. At a California Little Hoover Commission hearing, Dick Carpenter of the libertarian Institute for Justice noted the wide disparity in the number of occupations licensed and the burden of licensing requirements from one state to another. He also questioned the irrationalities in their respective licensing schemes, noting, for example, On average, cosmetologists are required to undergo 372 days of training, and [emergency medical technicians] just 33. At least there seems to be a bipartisan recognition that licensing laws have gotten way out of control. Even Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., asserted at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing: I think its clear that we have some unnecessary occupational licensing, and that that can harm workers and consumers in a number of ways. Especially in an age of Yelp, Angies List, Consumer Reports and numerous others, consumers easily can find quality practitioners. Many industry groups offer their own voluntary certification programs, which ensure that qualifying businesses meet certain quality standards without shutting out others trying to earn an honest living. Policy-makers can maximize entrepreneurship, competition, innovation, job growth and consumer choice while minimizing costs to consumers simply by legalizing work and eliminating occupational licensing laws. The White House is mounting a two-pronged strategy to force through a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: relying on allies to shame the Republicans for their obstruction while showing President Barack Obama in high-minded deliberations over the next nominee. In the latest glimpse of the counter-offensive, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada blasted Republicans on the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, while Obama published a blog post on an influential, non-partisan legal site describing his criteria for a Supreme Court nominee. Reid said on the Senate floor that the Judiciary chairman, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa, had surrendered every pretense of independence and adopted a narrow, partisan mission of obstruction and gridlock. Grassleys committee would vet and hold hearings on any nominee. Obama, meanwhile, wrote on SCOTUSblog that the court decision is one to which I devote considerable time, deep reflection, careful deliberation, and serious consultation with legal experts, members of both political parties, and people across the political spectrum. The goal, according to Democrats and liberal advocates allied with the White House, is to ratchet up pressure in particular on Grassley and Senate Republicans who are vulnerable in elections this November. That may fracture Senate Republicans and raise the political costs of obstructing a nominee for Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who seeks to maintain control of the chamber after Novembers elections. The Obama administration is already examining at least one centrist Republican for the nomination: Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, according to a person close to the process who spoke on condition of anonymity. Sandoval also met with Reid while in Washington this week. Reid later said he would support his home- state governor if nominated. Neither Governor Sandoval nor his staff has been contacted by or talked to the Obama Administration regarding any potential vetting for the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, said the governors spokeswoman, Mari St. Martin, in an e-mail. The White Houses consideration of Sandoval was reported earlier by the Washington Post. Leftward Tilt The stakes are obvious. If Obama can win Senate approval of a replacement for Scalia, the new justice would almost certainly tilt the court leftward, yielding a new 5-4 majority on issues such as gun control, campaign finance, abortion and perhaps even the death penalty. Grassley and other Judiciary Republicans said in a letter yesterday that they would hold no hearings or votes on any Obama nominee. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said the letter was shameful and irresponsible in a statement. Justice Not Politics, an Iowa-based group with a self- declared mission of fair courts, began airing television ads Tuesday in the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, media markets calling on Grassley to hold a hearing on Obamas nominee. The ads feature video of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OConnor telling Congress, lets get on with it. Given Republican opposition, Obama is likely to announce a nominee before the Senate recesses on March 21. That would balance the need to demonstrate urgency and provide the longest possible window for confirmation against an imperative to show the public a thoughtful, careful nomination process, said two former administration officials. The White House will likely wait until after the March 1 Super Tuesday presidential primary elections, making the weeks of March 7 and March 14 the most probable window for an announcement, one of the former officials said. The people asked not to be identified because the White House hasnt publicly discussed its strategy for the court battle. Altered Dynamic Naming a nominee is also an opportunity to alter the political dynamic as the Republican position shifts from an abstract political fight to obstruction of an individual with personality and a life story. I think it will be very difficult for Mr. McConnell to explain how, if the public concludes that this persons very well qualified, that the Senate should stand in the way simply for political reasons, Obama said on Wednesday. The situation may evolve over time. Vetting Sandoval, or floating his name as a potential nominee, may be the White Houses first step toward pressuring Republicans. Asked whether a Sandoval pick would change his mind on blocking any Supreme Court nomination this year, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah said, I dont think so. I think very highly of him, Hatch said. But he declined to say if Sandoval was qualified for the court. Texass John Cornyn, the number two Republican in the Senate, said Wednesday that a Sandoval pick wouldnt change his view. Its not about the personality, he said. Picking Diversity Given that Obama has already nominated record numbers of minorities and women to federal judgeships, as well as his personal commitment to diversity in the judiciary, he is likely to again choose a woman or minority, said Ed Pagano, a former lobbyist for the Obama White House and former chief of staff to Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, the top-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. Refusing to consider the nominee may then escalate the political discomfort for the all-white, all-male Republican members of the Senate Judiciary who signed Grassleys letter. All the white male senators who signed the letter could be perceived politically as being heavy-handed and unfair, particularly to a woman or minority nominee, Pagano said. Among options available to Senate Democrats to create more pressure to advance the nominee are holding mock hearings of their own, photo opportunities with Obamas choice, and, possibly, forcing some form of procedural vote on the Senate floor to put Republicans on record. In the meantime, the White House has sought to publicly demonstrate the thoughtful deliberation Obama is devoting to his decision. Thick Binder Reporters and photographers were summoned on Friday for the opportunity to record images of Obama as he walked from the West Wing of the White House to his residence carrying a thick binder of potential nominees to study over the weekend. The nomination may be consequential even if Republicans maintain their obstruction. Any Democratic successor will face great political pressure to re-nominate Obamas selection, with Senate Republicans opposition becoming a cause celebre among Democrats and liberal legal activists, said a Democratic strategist and former administration official. The Senates refusal to consider an Obama nominee may keep qualified candidates on the sidelines, but its unlikely to harm the prospects of the person winning confirmation under a Democratic successor, said Melissa Hart, a law professor and director of the Byron R. White Center at the University of Colorado. If in fact this gets stonewalled, the next Congress will understand that has nothing to do with the candidate and will likely consider the candidate again, Hart said. While there has been some speculation that Republicans could consider a court pick in its lame-duck session after the election, McConnells statement on Tuesday was unequivocal, making clear the GOP position is that the next president should fill the vacancy. McConnell could face a scenario in which a new, Democratic Senate and a Democratic president choose a more overtly liberal justice. That isnt probable, since Democrats are unlikely to have a large majority even if they win the chamber and must defend seats in the 2018 elections. And at least for now, 60 votes are still required to overcome the minority partys filibuster of a court justice. DANA POINT Serena Chuc couldnt get enough of looking at the bright green and blue species of coral on the ocean floor. Thanks to special software from a researcher at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, the 13-year-old Capistrano Beach girl could see the different types of coral and find out why they look the way they do. She also learned about key components of reef habitats and why coral can be found in so many spots in the worlds oceans. I thought it was really interesting because coral is so beautiful and it can adapt to live in all different waters, Chuc said. Chuc, a student at Shorecliffs Middle School in San Clemente, was among more than 100 middle school girls from Orange, San Diego and Los Angeles counties who took advantage of a girls-only ocean science conference Saturday at the Ocean Institute. The event was part the institutes 11-year effort to get girls in middle and high school interested in all types of ocean sciences with hands-on training and workshops. Presentations were held aboard the institutes research vessel, the Sea Explorer, and at the institutes labs. Eight female scientists from institutions including UCLA, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Algalita Marine Research and Education were on hand to help the girls explore careers in such areas as oceanography, marine ecology, biochemistry and deep sea science. We want to give them a snapshot of what careers are available, said Karen Jhawar, director of environmental programs at the institute. Ashly Carabetta, a graduate student at Scripps, explained what it was like to dive into the ocean and map coral species. Juli Goldstein, a marine mammal veterinarian, was a big hit, too. She helped create Dolphin Tale, a 2011 family film that tells the true story of Winter, a bottlenose dolphin rescued off the Florida coast. Winter lost her tail after becoming tangled in a rope attached to a crab trap and was fitted with a prosthetic one. Goldstein spoke aboard the Sea Explorer as the group sailed out of Dana Point Harbor for a whale-watching excursion. Jhawar said the conference is meant to show the girls that these scientists from different ages, backgrounds and lifestyles were also once trying to decide what to become when they grew up. Meeting and working with accomplished female scientists gives the girls an opportunity to see they can do the same thing, she added. For Chuc the day was more than worthwhile. As a little girl, I always loved jumping into the ocean and swimming and snorkeling, said Chuc, who has attended three of the sessions. I just love learning about the ocean. I want to become a marine biologist, and I definitely need a head start. Contact the writer: 714-796-2254 or eritchie@ocregister.com or Twitter:@lagunaini The Russian National Orchestra, which performed Wednesday night for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County in Segerstrom Concert Hall, is a luxury model, a Rolls Royce of orchestras. It would probably be good to hear it play just about anything, though it couldnt quite redeem everything on the menu on this occasion. The orchestra is on a 25th anniversary tour of the U.S. next stop Manhattan, Kansas with Carnegie Hall in its sights. The group was formed in 1990 as a private institution and got off to a good start, letting the world know with immediately acclaimed recordings. It last played here in 2008. Founding conductor Mikhail Pletnev was on the podium Wednesday and the all-Russian program was a bit odd. It featured Shostakovichs Festive Overture, Tchaikovskys Piano Concerto No. 2 (not a typo) and Stravinskys 1945 suite from The Firebird. None other than Yuja Wang was the soloist in the concerto. The Tchaikovsky work is rarely heard and it was evident why fairly early in the proceedings. Though it has some good moments here and there, it is mostly hilariously bombastic and bird-brained, with so much filler arpeggios and scales in endless sequences, as the composer changes keys that youd think Tchaikovsky was making sausage, not a concerto. Oh, and it goes on and on and on, 42 minutes here. Its main purpose would seem to be to give the unfortunate soloist a good workout, and at this it succeeds magnificently, with machine-gun octaves till the cows came home, presto somersaults and all other kinds of virtuoso froth and whiz-bang. It may have been a waste of her time to learn this folderol, but man did Yuja Wang learn it. The performance was impressive even by her standards. In short, she managed both blinding speed and explosive power with the utmost clarity of articulation and texture, and never tired. Her poetic asides were warm and gentle and singing, no big deal but always tasteful. Pletnev and the orchestra supported calmly and efficiently. Concertmaster Alexey Bruni and cellist Alexander Gorgelf, co-soloists with the pianist in the second movement, were eloquent despite the material. Wangs encore was Earl Wilds arrangement of Tchaikovskys Dance of the Four Swans, played with ultra-feathery elegance. Shostakovichs Festive Overture is probably festive only by Soviet standards, by which we mean its rather militaristic and imposing and the rejoicing (it was written for the 37th anniversary of the Communist Revolution) feels a little forced. Nonetheless, orchestras seem to compete to see who can play it the fastest and Pletnev and the orchestra were right up there, all the while making it sound easy and graceful and really loud. Taking his bow, Pletnev looked like it hadnt been all that fun. He is an undemonstrative conductor, but plenty meticulous. His Firebird was well reasoned and patient, nothing forced, everything in its time. It was on the slow side, the ends of the Rondo and the Lullaby long drawn out. The plush textures and warm phrases sounded more Russian (or German) than French (there is plenty of Impressionism in Firebird), and the performance looked back more towards Scheherazade than it did forward to The Rite of Spring. Thats OK. The strings of this orchestra are its glory and they somehow combine burnished luxury of sound with a clarity and precision (never stiff) that allows you to hear individual players within the unit. There were glowing woodwind solos and shining brass. In all it lacked a certain intensity that Firebird is capable of, but it was beautiful. The romping encore was Dance of the Buffoons from Tchaikovskys The Snow Maiden. Contact the writer: 714-796-6811 or tmangan@ocregister.com Irvine-based Pacifica Hotels has bought the San Simeon Pines Seaside Resort in Cambria for an undisclosed sum. San Simeon Pines is located in central California near Hearst Castle and local wineries. The resort includes a private beach trail. The 9-acre resort has 60 guest rooms, a solar heated pool and is just steps from Moonstone Beach. It was built in 1959. Adam Marquis, executive vice president of Pacifica, said there will be guest room renovations in the spring. Alan Reay, president of Irvine-based real estate company Atlas Hospitality Group said he expected Pacifica to do a massive upgrade. The group, he said, controls most of the hotel product on Moonstone Beach in Cambria. Its been a busy year for Pacifica. In January, the group bought the Milner Hotel in downtown Los Angeles for an undisclosed price. Reay said the hotel would likely undergo major renovations and be converted to Pacificas Wayfarer brand. Wayfarer offers both hotel-style and dorm-style rooms with common areas. There is a Wayfarer in Santa Barbara. Pacifica owns and operates six properties on Cambrias Moonstone Beach and a total of 34 hotels. The hospitality group was created in January 1993 as a branch of real estate developer West Financial Corp. In 2015, around $1.4 billion was spent on hotel purchases in Orange County, according to Atlas Hospitality. Contact the writer: hmadans@ocregister.com or Twitter: @HannahMadans The fat cats just keep getting fatter at our expense, according to a report from As You Sow, an Oakland-based nonprofit founded in 1992 to promote environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building and innovative legal strategies. Its report ranked the 100 most overpaid CEOs of S&P 500 companies, adding that CEO pay grew 997 percent over 36 years an astonishing number. But while some of the largest and most successful U.S. companies, including a few here in Orange County, pay their top leadership quite handsomely, there are many more CEOs in America that make nowhere near what that handful in the S&P 500 does. Indeed, a report from the American Enterprise Institute last year suggested that allowing the compensation for a few hundred CEOs of multinational corporations to represent pay for the CEOs at more than 7 million private firms in the U.S. was missing the forest for the trees. Drawing upon comprehensive data from a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report, AEI found that a more complete analysis of company heads compensation revealed nowhere near the same scope and disparity of pay with that of employees. In 2014, the BLS reports that the average pay for Americas 246,240 chief executives was only $180,700, wrote AEIs Mark J. Perry, a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigans Flint campus. Moreover, the real CEO-to-worker pay ratio has not been increasing, as is frequently reported, but instead has been remarkably constant over the past 13 years, averaging 3.8-to-1 in a tight range between a maximum of 3.89-to-1 in 2004 and a minimum of 3.69-to-1 in both 2005 and 2006. While whether CEOs at major corporations are making too much is best left between them, their boards of directors and shareholders, we feel Americas CEOs are getting a bad rap. Say goodbye to $2 gas. Over the next week, gas prices are expected to rise between 20 cents and 35 cents a gallon, GasBuddy analysts predict. We knew this was going to come, but didnt expect the prices to rise that dramatically, said Allison Mac, a Gas Buddy petroleum analyst. Prices have been low because stations are trying to get rid of winter blend gasoline. So theyve been dropping very dramatically, more than they should be, like a blow-out sale. Now that were putting in summer blend gas at the stations, the prices are going to start increasing. After a quick rise in prices, Mac expects them to plateau. All gas stations must switch to the summer blend by April 1. The mix reacts better in higher temperatures but costs roughly 10 cents a gallon more to make. As refineries switch to the gas, maintenance issues often arise which can cause partial or complete refinery shutdowns. An explosion during a switch at the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance last February put the plant offline. Mac added that the refinery will reopen soon, which should nudge gas prices down. Advocacy group Consumer Watchdog warned Thursday that the slide in gas prices could end abruptly as early as Friday. Drivers in Southern California should fill up now, because gasoline prices are going up quickly and not coming back down for a while, said Jamie Court, the groups president, in a statement. The average price of gasoline on Thursday was $2.35 a gallon in Orange County, down around 12 cents from a week ago and 46 cents from a month ago. Some stations, especially Costco and Berri Brothers locations, have had gas prices under $2 this week. Court said Costco and unbranded independent stations will still have deals on gasoline for the next few days. Mac added that in the next few weeks there will be a very wide range of prices at the pump. Stations that are still trying to get rid of winter blend gasoline will have lower prices while stations that have already switched to the summer blend will see an uptick in prices. Contact the writer: hmadans@ocregister.com or Twitter: @HannahMadans A Cal State Fullerton expert believes religion is a positive force in the lives of long-term inmates. Jason Sexton, a University Honors lecturer who specializes in theology, is studying how prison churches affect prisoners while theyre incarcerated and after they are released. His research focuses on the interracial and intergenerational components of prison churches. Through his research, Sexton who, in the 1990s, was incarcerated for three years by the California Youth Authority hopes to learn more about churches in California prisons, specifically those associated with the Christian faith. There is a humanity that I think the prison church embodies that is extraordinary, Sexton said. My goal is to give an interdisciplinary account and hopefully the most serious account of the incarcerated church, he said. Sexton is interviewing about 50 formerly incarcerated people, the majority of whom were imprisoned in California prisons for a significant amount of time. Some have been directly involved with churches while serving time in prisons, others have not. His interview sources are male and female adults, as well as juveniles. I think the best way of understanding it is by the accounts of those who have experienced it, he said of prison churches. Questions Sexton plans to address include: Is there hope for rehabilitation while in prison? What types of reformation agents are available? Why do incarcerated individuals join religious communities? I am trying to use theological concepts to make sense of it, he said. There are a number of reasons as to why a prisoner will turn to religion. Motivation, direction, meaning for life, hope for the future, peace of mind, positive self-esteem and change in lifestyle, are counted among positive reasons, Sexton writes in his 2015 article, Toward a Prison Theology of Californias Ecclesia Incarcerate. His writings are based on research done by Harry R. Dammer, professor and chairman of the sociology and criminal justice department at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania in his paper Reasons for Religious Involvement in the Correctional Environment. Insincere reasons for which prisoners may become involved include protection, a designated time and place to meet with other inmates, interaction with women volunteers and access to prison resources. My research has shown that those with long-term sentences who participate in the churchs life nearly always have a positive experience, if any experience in the prison can be quantified in this way, Sexton said. Some out here have told me they miss the community they enjoyed with the incarcerated church, where they just had each other, in a kind of deep familial bond, he said. Most noteworthy to Sexton is how races intertwine in prison churches. Your race dictates everything (in prison), he said. It showcases the structures that are at play in the prisons. But when it comes to prison churches, race doesnt seem to be as significant. Prison churches transcend racial barriers and participants will oftentimes assist one another in overcoming hardships like drug addiction and violence, Sexton said. These churches are also transcending generations of prisoners. Sexton is interested in whether age is a factor in how churches attract or affect participants. When it works, it seems to me that Christians uniquely care for their own in ways that display a special solidarity, he said. And when this happens, coupled with the interracial dynamic, its quite unique in the carceral context. Sextons fundamental goal lies in evaluating Californias prisons and reformation opportunities through his analysis. According to Sextons article, since 1980, the prison population in California has nearly grown sixfold The California Department of Corrections reports the states prison population is at about 127,000. The issue is hard-pressing because many incarcerated individuals in California prisons will one day be released and should be able to transition back to the workforce and positively contribute to society, Sexton said. He believes an alliance between prison churches and churches on the outside could prove beneficial in the transition of former inmates back into life outside of prison. I am curious to see how theology can help us understand (California prisons) better and do better with it, he said. The interviews conducted by Sexton with former prisoners will be housed in CSUFs Center for Oral and Public History, which holds the largest oral history archive in the state. The center will assist Sexton, who is writing a book on his research and findings, in transcribing his interviews. In the future, he hopes to learn more about prison churches of other faiths represented in California prisons and compare the findings to his research on Christianity. Recently, Sexton was awarded a $10,000 grant from Brookfield Residential Properties, Inc. for his ongoing research. Contact the writer: amarcos@ocregister.com SANTA ANA An Orange County judge on Thursday granted a retrial for a man twice convicted of a double murder the latest case to unravel amid the controversy over the use of jailhouse informants by local police and prosecutors. Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals found that authorities withheld evidence from defense attorneys in the case against Henry Rodriguez, who is serving a life sentence for his role in the 1998 shooting death of a pregnant Fullerton woman. Goethals is the same judge who removed the District Attorneys Office from the penalty phase trial of confessed Seal Beach shooter Scott Dekraai, another case that involved the alleged misuse of a jailhouse informant and withheld evidence. In Thursdays ruling, Goethals said prosecutors failed to turn over records that showed a key witness in Rodriguezs 2006 trial was a seasoned jailhouse snitch who previously gathered evidence for law enforcement agencies in several cases. The factual record in this case is troubling, the judge said in his eight-page ruling. Rodriguez, a 39-year-old Anaheim man who has been imprisoned for 17 years, will get a third trial. He will return to court April 11. As the judge announced the ruling, Rodriguezs mother, Virginia, wiped away tears. Said his father, Enrique Rodriguez, Justice came to us today after 17 years, and we hope the trial will be the same way. The Orange County District Attorneys Office vowed to appeal the judges decision. We respectfully but vigorously disagree with Judge Goethals ruling, said Susan Kang Schroeder, the district attorneys chief of staff. We will continue to fight for our victims: Jeanette Espeleta and her unborn daughter, Alyssa. At least six murder and attempted-murder cases have unraveled in the wake of hearings in the Dekraai case into defense allegations that prosecutors and police improperly used jailhouse snitches to obtain evidence against defendants after their arrests. Under the law, authorities are barred from attempting to elicit incriminating statements from a suspect who is already represented by an attorney. In November, Superior Court Judge Richard King granted a new trial for Eric Ortiz, who was convicted of murder but contends he was set up by a jailhouse informant. King ruled that Ortiz could not receive a fair hearing after four sheriffs deputies refused to testify in court on grounds of self-incrimination. In the latest case, Rodriguezs attorney, James Crawford, said prosecutors used an informant to gain incriminating statements and then withheld the evidence from the defense. During last weeks hearing, Deputy District Attorney Eric Scarbrough argued that prosecutors were not legally required to turn over the offices Defendant Informant Index card about informant Michael James Garrity, contending it was work product and did not contain key evidence for the defense. Moreover, Scarbrough said, just because Garrity previously served as an informant doesnt mean it was relevant to this case. The idea that an informant has worked as an informant before, thats insufficient evidence to prove that he was working as an informant in this particular case, he said. In 2000, a jury found Rodriguezs friend, Richard Tovar, guilty of killing Tovars girlfriend, Jeanette Espeleta, 20, who was eight months pregnant. He wanted to avoid paying child support. Prosecutors allege Tovar enlisted Rodriguez to help him dump the body in the ocean off Long Beach. Rodriguez, though not present at the time of the killing, helped with the planning, prosecutors said. Tovar is serving a sentence of life without parole. In a separate trial, Rodriguez was convicted in 2000 after making statements about the crime to Fullerton police detectives. But a state appellate court panel overturned that conviction three years later, ruling that detectives coerced his confession and failed to inform Rodriguez of his right to remain silent. While he awaited his second trial in 2005, Rodriguezs defense team learned that the prosecution had Garrity, an informant who authorities said obtained a new confession from Rodriguez. At the time, prosecutor Cameron Talley said Garrity wasnt a veteran informant but rather a concerned fellow inmate who happened to talk to Rodriguez without police involvement, which is legal. Crawford, looking for evidence that Garrity had been working with police, requested internal jail records but was told in court by Deputy County Counsel Laura Knapp that the records were confidential. Superior Judge Frank F. Fasel allowed Garrity to testify during the trial, stating at the time, There is nothing else before this court to indicate that Mr. Garrity was an agent as related to Rodriguez. In the trial, Garrity testified that Rodriguez referred to the pregnant victim as shark bait and told the informant that her body was stored in a trunk for a few days before Tovar and Rodriguez dumped the body in the ocean. Rodriguez was convicted again and sentenced to 40 years to life in prison. A decade later, as the countys snitch scandal unfolded, Crawford obtained Garritys jailhouse records, known as TRED records, which showed that Garrity was a confidential informant for the Orange County Sheriffs Department, Riverside County authorities, and homicide detectives in Fullerton and Anaheim. In one note to sheriffs deputies, Garrity wrote, I have been informing to the Fullerton homicide detectives about the Henry Rodriguez case. This year, as an evidentiary hearing was underway on Rodriguezs request for a new trial, Crawford obtained what he called smoking gun evidence a note card from the district attorneys own Defendant Informant Index. The index card for Garrity, unsealed by Goethals this month, said Garrity worked as an informant and received consideration on cases in Orange County. The February 2005 entry notes that prosecutors have documents detailing Garritys history as an informant and instructs a prosecutor to refrain from providing copies to defense unless ordered by the court. In closing arguments in the hearing last week, Crawford said prosecutors had the responsibility to turn over that information to the defense. They had the duty to look into Mr. Garritys background, he told the judge. The people didnt ask for classification records, no request to the Sheriffs Department and they failed to disclosed that he was a (confidential informant) on their own index. They put the stamp of approval on his forehead, saying Mr. Garrity was a confidential informant. The District Attorneys Office on Thursday noted that Judge Fasel in March 2005 sealed most of Garritys records at the behest of the Orange County Sheriffs Department, which contended the records were confidential. Prosecutors said the defense did receive a portion of the records in summary form. Crawford commended the judge for his decision. The people hid, concealed and lied about the fact that Mr. Garrity was a well-established informant, Crawford said. They should do the right thing and dismiss the case, because they shouldnt be allowed a third bite of the apple. Contact the writer: 714-834-3773 or kpuente@ocregister.com SACRAMENTO Attorneys for a recently paroled transgender inmate said Tuesday that California has agreed to drop its challenge to a court order that could have provided her with state-paid sex reassignment surgery. The settlement wont help Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, who was released from prison in August. She served time for fatally shooting Franklin Gordon Liefer Jr., 26, following an argument in a Fullerton bar in November 1985. Norsworthy, then 21, was convicted of second-degree murder after she shot Liefer three times. He died six weeks later. But her attorneys at the the San Francisco-based Transgender Law Center said the settlement means that an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of San Francisco will stay on the books as a legal precedent that could help other transgender inmates nationwide. A one-paragraph court filing Tuesday by the attorney generals office and an attorney for Norsworthy says the lawsuit has been settled. It does not provide details on the settlement terms. However, the Transgender Law Center said the state also agreed to pay nearly $500,000 to cover attorneys fees and costs. In April, Tigar ordered the state to provide Norsworthy with the surgery. It was just the second time that any judge in the United States directed a state prison system to provide the operation, and the previous order in a Massachusetts case was overturned. The state appealed Tigars ruling, but Norsworthy was paroled one day before a federal appeals court was to hear the case. Even though I have been released, this settlement means that there is an undisputed legal precedent out there for all of the transgender people still suffering in prison today, Norsworthy said in a statement released by the Transgender Law Center. In October, California prison officials set the nations first standards for determining when transgender inmates should receive the surgery. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Jeffrey Callison declined comment. A spokeswoman for the state Attorney Generals office, which represented the department, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Register contributed to this story. Many mainstream Republicans in Orange County like many nationwide are stunned by Donald Trumps continuing momentum, with sentiment ranging from dismay and condemnation to ambivalent acceptance. Even with Trumps strong showing Tuesday in Nevadas GOP caucus, many still hold out hope that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio can catch up and emerge as the nominee. Trump won 46 percent of the vote in Nevada, resulting in his third victory of the four states contested so far. Its hard for me to believe that most Republicans would support a candidate whos so over-the-top, said attorney Michael Capaldi of Newport Beach. The Republican has joked that Trump should wear a clown nose to debates and on Wednesday called him an illusionist. Orange County, whose longstanding reputation as a GOP stronghold largely continues although the partys advantage over Democrats has been shrinking for 25 years, has often seen divisions among Republicans at this stage of the race. In February 2012, many in the county still supported Newt Gingrich over eventual winner Mitt Romney. But Trump prompts a new and different set of questions than other candidates in recent memory. Hes not a conservative, and he doesnt have the consistency that you find in anybody who believes in their politics, Capaldi said. Its frustrating to see this man out in front who doesnt seem to have any commitment to any of the partys values. Capaldi cited Trumps past use of eminent domain to try to seize private property and his comments supporting single-payer health care, an approach in which the government would have a bigger role than it does now. Capaldi is among those who point to national polling that consistently shows Trump topping out with about a third of the Republican vote, arguing that he cannot win a majority of the GOP vote. They also cite polls like that from The Associated Press this month that show he is seen unfavorably by 58 percent of adults surveyed, that 54 percent definitely would not vote for him and that Hillary Clinton would beat him in a faceoff. Those statistics buoy the hopes of those who want Rubio to prevail as the Republican field shrinks. Trumps support is from a lot of fringe people who dont really look at the issues, who are just angry, said Dale Dykema, who owns several companies, including one that provides financial services to mortgage companies. Capaldi and Dykema, both members of the well-heeled GOP Lincoln Club of Orange County, expect next weeks Super Tuesday when 11 states hold primaries to be an indicator of whether Trump could falter. Fifteen more states hold primaries before the end of March. California is in the last batch of states to run primaries, with five holding them June 7. Both Capaldi and Dykema are wary of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and say Rubio has the best chance to beat Clinton. Trump champion Villa Parks Deborah Pauly, a member of the county GOPs governing Central Committee and a Tea Party favorite, agrees it would be preferable that Trump had a longer, more committed history as a Republican. But she scoffs at those who marginalize him. I see that the establishment is very frustrated with somebody they cant control, Pauly said. Trumps success is the product of the failure of the Republican Party and the Republican establishment. She dismisses the idea that theres a ceiling of about 36 percent to how much support Trump can garner from GOP voters. She says Cruz and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are also outsider candidates and that if they dropped out, their supporters would likely turn to Trump. And she brushes aside the idea that Trump cant beat Clinton. Clinton has already beat Clinton, Pauly said. Newport Beach small-business owner Teresa Hernandez is among those favoring Trump, though its not without mixed feelings. He makes me cringe when he speaks, said Hernandez. I am scared what he is going to say. But I also love him. I want someone who is going to turn the tables over in Washington. I want someone who has backbone and wont be bought and knows how to out-negotiate the lobbyists. She worries that Rubio and Cruz are too young and could be more susceptible to caving in to special interest pressure if elected. Trump (is) rough around the edges, but he wont be bought and hes enough of a narcissist to come through on his promises (to) bring back jobs, build up the economy, she said. Image issues Some Trump critics in the GOP worry that the billionaire businessman and reality TV star is damaging the Republican brand particularly among Latinos in a way that could hurt GOP candidates in other November races and beyond. The party becomes seen as more of a right-wing entity with Trump, said Dykema, whos been involved in Latino outreach projects for the GOP. When I say right-wing, I dont mean hes a conservative. I mean hes on the fringe. And I cant believe its going to help with Hispanics. Specifically, critics point to the Trumps characterization of many of those crossing the border as criminals and rapists, his proposed deportation of everyone in the country illegally and his proposal to build a wall along the southern border. Hernandez countered that it remains up to the GOP as a whole to recruit and elect more Latino candidates, and to pass immigration reform if it is to connect with the Latino community. But more than anything, Latinos want jobs, and if the economy gets better and the process to come across legally gets streamlined, things will change, she said. I am willing to overlook all of The Donalds flaws. There are also concerns that many Republicans might not bother to vote in November if Trump is the nominee. While Fred Whitaker, chairman of the county GOP, remains neutral on Republican candidates, he is staying focused on making sure county Republicans vote on Election Day. As we get closer to having a nominee, youll see people pulling together, he predicted. Indeed, both Capaldi and Dykema indicated they would likely if grudgingly vote for Trump if he were the nominee. Another Lincoln Club member, Newport Beach businessman Buck Johns, would also prefer Rubio, but he says he would vote for Trump with great enthusiasm if hes the partys choice. Hes added a delightful dimension to the race, Johns said. Hes elevated the debate in some ways. Hes helped us get away from some of the crazy political correctness. A lot more people are paying attention because of him. Contact the writer: mwisckol@ocregister.com In 2015, a young boy was discovered by stunned customs officials hiding in luggage via the airport scanner. X-ray images capture he youngster tucked up in the trolley suitcase as he tried to get into Spain. The luggage belonged to a 19-year-old woman who police became suspicious of after noticing she was nervous. They pulled her to one side and, believing she may have been smuggling drugs, scanned her luggage only to find something much more surprising. When he was found, the boy stuck his head out of the suitcase and said, in French, Hello, my name is Abou. Police arrested a man from Costa de Marfil, who was believed to be the boy's father. He tried to get through the same checkpoint about an hour and a half later, saying he lived in the Canary Islands. The woman was acting as a carrier for a substantial fee. Were used to reading about people struggling to find a decent job, or any job, really, but this story is about a small town clinic that has been unable to attract any applicants for a job that pays over $400,000 a year. While the people of Norman Wells are struggling to find a hairdresser willing to move in and tend to their needs, another small town halfway across the world is dealing with an even more pressing problem. Tokoroa, town in the Waikato region of New Zealands North island, is finding it hard to attract young doctors willing to work for a salary most people would kill for $400,000. Dr Alan Kenny, co-owner of Tokoroa Family Health clinic, has been trying rather desperately to fill the position of GP, but he hasnt received a single application in four months despite the huge salary hes offering. Hes also promising no weekend or night duties and co-ownership of the clinic, but that hasnt gotten anyone interested either. Photo: Jennifer Whiting Unfortunately, 61-year-old Dr. Kenny has to cater to the clinics 6,000 patients all by himself and is finding it quite difficult. Its a huge problem to find replacements or find locums, he said. Last year, I cancelled a holiday because I couldnt get a locum and this year I am probably going to have to cancel a holiday, and its just tough for me. Dr Kenny believes that the lack of interest has to do with young doctors not wanting to practice in a small town like Tokoroa, because the 13,600-strong rural town is perceived as a dead-end place to work. While he agrees that the job is nowhere near as exciting as a similar role would be in a big city like Auckland, he says that the plus side is the ridiculous income, over double the average income of a GP. I can offer them a really, really amazing income; its incredible, he said. My practice has exploded in the last year and the more patients you list, the more money you get. Photo: Aden Miles /Fairfax NZ But it just gets too much at the end of the day, he added. Just because I earn lots of money doesnt mean I want to work my butt off. And he really does have to work very hard, sometimes seeing over 40 patients a day. Thats way over 25, the number recommended by the Royal College of GPs. He works from 8.30am to 6pm straight, without even breaking for lunch. And thats why hes really keen on hiring a helping hand. His greatest worry is that hell never be able to find a replacement when he eventually retires. I love my work and I would like to stay but I hit my head against a brick wall trying to attract doctors, he said. If its hard enough to get doctors to work alongside me, its going to be a devil of a job to get doctors to replace me. Auckland has the biggest medical school and most kids who go to medical school come from wealthy families in the Auckland area, he added. If they recruited more students from rural areas, they might actually come here. But the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners believes that it is only slightly more difficult to fill GP positions in rural areas. The feedback that we get from registrars and other young doctors who have worked in rural practice is that most of them have enjoyed the diversity of the practice and being part of the community, and would consider it a career option, said chief executive Helen Morgan-Banda. Dr Kenny assures young doctors that practicing medicine in Tokoroa wouldnt involve a sacrifice of lifestyle. In fact, of the 30 years that Dr Kenny has practiced in Tokoroa, hes lived there for only 13, moving to the nearby town of Cambridge when his children were old enough to attend high school. Many of the towns other doctors come in every day from Cambridge, Taupo, or Rotorua, which are all towns with better amenities. Source: New Zealand Herald In a rather extreme display of patriotism, a Turkish truck driver is suing his own wife for insulting the nations president. He told reporters that she would say unspeakable obscenities whenever President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared on television, despite knowing that it bothered him. The latest incident occurred a few days ago during one of Erdogans televised speeches. Ali Dinc repeatedly warned his wife Gulcan not to curse the man, but she did it anyway and even dared to change the channel, earning his wrath. The wife apparently went ahead with the insults, telling Ali to record and lodge a complaint if it upset him so much. So he did just that he recorded the insults as evidence and then lodged a complaint with prosecutors in Izmir city. I kept on warning her, saying why are you doing this? he said, speaking to Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak. Our president is a good person and did good things for Turkey. Photo: DHA Even if it is my father who swears against or insults the president, I would not forgive him and I would file a complaint, he added. I would do it again. I loved her, but I dont love her anymore. If shed only have insulted me, I could have accepted that. But I cant accept her insults against Erdogan. Gulcan was not one to go quietly though in response to her husbands complaint she filed for divorce. The couple have been married only three years. Photo: Wikipedia This incident comes in the wake of growing intolerance in the nation several bloggers, journalists, scholars, and even ordinary citizens have been jailed for insulting President Erdogan. Last month, the president filed a $32,000 lawsuit against opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu for calling him a dictator. And Feyzi Isbasaran, former MP and former member of Erdogans party, was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for insulting the head of state on Twitter. Even two young boys, aged 12 and 13, were jailed for four years after ripping up posters of Erdogan in October last year. Sources: Hurriyet, Todays Zaman Wi-Fi health advocate Cecelia Doucette is urging the Westhampton Library to quickly pull the plug on Wi-Fi, citing dangers to patrons and especially children. The newly expanded library board is resisting so far. Not only is wired internet access safer, it is also faster and more reliable than Wi-Fi, said Doucette in an email yesterday to the library board headed by Tom Moore, husband of Westhampton Beach Mayor Maria Moore, and the six other board members. Cecelia Doucette Doucette provides links to a number of sources that support claims that Wi-Fi does not belong in a public place like a library. Especially at risk, they say, are children, babies, fetuses and senior citizens. The French National Library, Paris, the largest such facility in France, opted for fully-wired internet access in 2008 after considering whether to use Wi-Fi throughout. WH library director Danielle Waskiewicz has emailed Doucette that the board will take up the issue at its regular meeting March 16. Doucette wrote to the library trustees as follows: I stumbled across this issue three years ago, and have done in-depth research. I shared this with my children's school district, Ashland Public Schools in Massachusetts, and they did their due diligence. They have implemented the attached Best Practices for Mobile Devices as a first step in safeguarding our students and staff. When they read the fine print that comes with each device, they asked themselves, "Why wouldn't we do at least what the manufacturers tell us to do?" Ultimately, non-industry funded scientists urge us to use only hardwired technology which is safer, faster and more reliable than wi-fi. Our public health officials were not aware of potential harm from wi-fi radiation at that time either, so I have worked with Mass. Senator Karen Spilka to introduce legislation to start informing the public on ways to protect themselves. Please feel free to see Bill 1222, which has just been reported out favorably by the Joint Committee on Public Health. (L to R) Tom Moore, husband of Westhampton Beach Mayor Maria Moore and president of the library board, Robert Santucci, Mary Anne Yutes, Eric Mirell, Barbara Matros, Susan Rosenberg and Jennifer Mendelson. I understand your concerns that this issue seems to be coming out of left field, and we all love our cell phones and wi-fi devices. Surely, if there were health issues surrounding wi-fi, we would know about them, right? Unfortunately, the telecommunications and energy industries have deployed the tobacco industry playbook whereby if they can suppress evidence of harm and create sufficient doubt, consumers will continue to buy their toxic products. Harvard's Law School Center for Ethics in June published the Captured Agency report which details how the FCC is being run by the industries it presumably regulates. This is how the FCC has been able to suppress evidence of harm, and how we have now come to be bathed in wi-fi radiation 24/7. They have put profits over public health. The health fallout is now happening, and I hope you will take an active role in protecting your citizens by removing wi-fi from the library and providing information as a community service. Feel free to peruse and share my research repository as a starting point to your own investigation. Here in Ashland, a member of the Friends of the Ashland Library got curious and did his own research. He then put together our six-part film and discussion series on "Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) and Health" to help inform the public. I have also received a grant to place a wi-fi radiation meter into circulation in our library collection. The Acoustimeter is now available for our residents to measure and remediate their technology spaces. I believe both of these initiatives are the first in the U.S. for a public library, but both could easily be replicated at the Westhampton Library too. Again, I know this is a lot to digest, but please let me know if I can provide you with any additional information as you begin to learn about potential harm from wi-fi radiation. Thank you for your time and consideration, Cece Doucette Loading... OilVoice will be with you shortly... LINCOLN At a conference focused on digging safety here Wednesday, an investigator with the State Fire Marshals Office showed an audience a picture of the fire-gutted Ms Pub building. This could have been prevented was written beneath the image. The official didnt name the building or discuss the details of the explosion, which the Omaha Fire Department has determined was gas-fueled after a contractor digging in the area in January struck a natural gas line. The fire marshals investigation is ongoing. The Ms explosion, which destroyed the restaurant, the Nouvelle Eve boutique and several apartments, underlined the need for safe digging practices. Expect safety. Demand safety, and if the company you work for doesnt practice it leave, Dave Miguel, an underground safety expert told an audience of contractors, excavators and construction workers. Miguel showed newspaper clippings of construction workers and supervisors throughout the Midwest who had ignored safety procedures and paid for their mistakes with their lives, or the lives of their workers. After seeing the examples, it makes you more cautious, said Fred Hartman of Sarpy County Public Works, who attended the daylong Excavation Safety Summit, a free event sponsored by Common Ground Nebraska. The group promotes safety, protection of underground utilities and the free 811 Call before you dig Nebraska One Call service. Nearly 600 contractors, excavators, construction equipment dealers, utility regulators, safety experts and investigators attended the event at the Lancaster Event Center in Lincoln. The summit, which launched six years ago, attracts a larger audience each year, said Jill Geyer, treasurer of Common Ground Nebraska. The first year there were about 100 registrants, she said. The summit also walked the audience through an 811 request to locate and mark utilities at a simulated excavation site. The demonstration included what happens when a contractor ignores the rules and hits a gas line: 811 and 911 must be called and the utility called. The state attorney general can assess a fine of up to $10,000. And the utility may bill the contractor for the damaged gas line, the escaped gas, repairs, labor and other related costs. In the Ms fire, the contractor North Central Service of Minnesota didnt report to 811 that it had hit a gas line for more than five hours, according to 811 records. It hasnt responded to requests for comment. David Geiger, co-owner of Geigers Construction Inc. in Sidney, Nebraska, named Contractor of the Year at the event for the companys safety record, advised excavators to always call 811 Nebraska One Call. He advised other contractors to treat the area in which youre digging as if it were next to your own home. Former U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is returning to Nebraska to help an old friend. Hagel will be the star attraction at a fundraiser for Lou Ann Linehan, a longtime political aide to Hagel who is running for the Nebraska Legislature. The March 2 fundraiser at the Indian Creek Golf Club in western Douglas County will be open to the public. Linehan and Hagel were a tight political team for more than a decade, starting when Hagel returned to Nebraska in the mid-1990s and decided to run for the U.S. Senate. Linehan ran his successful 1996 race for U.S. Senate, when he defeated then-Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson. She later served as Hagel's Senate chief of staff for nine years. She also served about seven years at the U.S. State Department, including five years in Iraq as a civil servant. Linehan is one of two Republicans and one Democrat running to succeed State Sen. Beau McCoy in District 39, which encompasses western Douglas County and includes the communities of Elkhorn, Waterloo and Valley. Her opponents are Pat Borchers, a Republican and former dean of the Creighton University School of Law, and Bill Armbrust, a Democrat and an Elkhorn-area farmer. Those wishing to attend the fundraiser can email the following address: merrilee.faubel@gmail.com Mamata Banerjee to reshuffle West Bengal Cabinet today | All you need to know A new Trinamool Congress in six months? What we know Mamata will make an "emphatic" comeback, claims Madan Mitra West Bengal oi-PTI Kolkata, Feb 24: Trinamool Congress leader Madan Mitra, an accused in the Saradha chit fund scam, today brushed aside question on whether he had been sounded by his party's leadership for a ticket to fight the coming Assembly election in West Bengal, saying it was a party 'secret'. Mitra said, "That's my party's secret, I am not going to divulge to the media. The decision of my party will be my decision. Mamata Banerjee takes very calculative decision and I am going to follow her instructions. I will like to stress that it's the party which has made me, not the other way." Mitra expressed confidence that his party would win at least 225 seats in the Assembly election and said that Mamata Banerjee would make an emphatic comeback. He went on to say that Mamata's winning record had eclipsed the record set by legendary former chief minister B C Roy. Mitra was talking to reporters today while being produced before Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sougata Roy Chowdhury at the Alipore Court in connection with the saradha scam. "Just like it is difficult to break Sachin Tendulkar's record, it will be difficult to break Mamata Banerjee's record even in 100 years... A person (Banerjee) who has broken Bidhan Chandra Roy's record.. I am sure that the people of Bengal will bring back Mamata Banerjee," Mitra said. He characterised the proposed coalition between the Congress and the CPI-M as an "alliance of robbers" and "tie-up between notes (rupees)". He had fought on a Trinamool Congress' ticket and won from Kamarhati Assembly constituency in 2011 after defeating Manas Mukhopadhyay of CPI(M) by a big margin. Mitra, who was arrested on December 12, 2014, had surrendered before the court after his bail was cancelled by Calcutta High Court on November 20. PTI You don't talk to me: Sonia Gandhi told Smriti Irani in Parliament over 'rashtrapatni' row Smriti Iranis quotable quotes from Parliament speeches Feature oi-Lisa Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani gave a very emotional and fiery speech yesterday as reply to the charged day-long debate in the Parliament on Rohith Vemula's suicide and JNU issue. The speech had Twitter flooded with messages praising the minister. One tweet was from Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. The minister who was seen in combative mood said that she will resign if proved that she was trying to saffronise education. She also gave numerous instances where she had promptly replied to letters coming from the likes of Oomen Chandy and Shashi Tharoor. Some very hard hitting quotes from her yesterday's speech include: "Listen to what I have to say. You accuse us of being intolerant, be tolerant. I am giving my answer. Or do I claim to be a victim of my circumstances and say that I am married to a micro-minority family. I am a woman, and hence you did not allow me to speak in this House. Do not play politics with me." "I am not going to apologise for doing my duty." "My name is Smriti Irani. I challenge you to identify my caste." "Even Indira Gandhi lost power, was out of power, but his son never supported slogans of India's destruction." "If we make a battlefield out of campuses, vote banks out of kids, what will a few astray students from JNU raise slogans about? This nation will be led to the brink of anarchy by a politics that makes an opportunity out a dead student." "I declare that if Rahul Gandhi had asked me to go to JNU together and tell the students that the tricolour you are ashamed to hoist, and the nation that you wish to be destroyed, it is this same university from where students have gone and lost their lives on the border so that you can chant anti-national slogans in this campus. Rahulji did not do such a thing." Here are some more quotes from the passionate minister's speeches that she made on the floor of the Parliament. Smriti Irani on 7th of August in support of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj: "Do they want to say that Parliament is a stage? Calling an elected leader's speech theatrics is disrespecting the mandate of the people. "Sushma ji's speech is a challenge for the Opposition to get proof against her. It's easy for Sonia ji to give a byte, but is not easy for her to give a speech without reading it out from a paper. "Being a woman, I want to ask: Lok Sabha Speaker is Parliament's pride. Is this the respect Congress has for women? In their protest against the Speaker, they took off their shirts. Is this what Rahul Gandhi preaches to the Congress party?." Smriti Irani on 28th April 2015 defending decision of scrapping four-year undergraduate programme programme from DU. "The programme would have produced 77,000 students (each year) with degrees without any worth. Had they been on the streets, were we ready to meet that situation? If I have protected their future, why are they hurt?" "This scheme was in blatant violation of the National Education Policy and 40 programmes under this scheme were not permitted by the President of India." US Presidential elections: Why the Indian economy is unfazed by Trump's victories Feature oi-Pallavi By Pallavi Owing to his power and social stature in the USA, Donald Trump's victory may be imminent. But Indians, you have nothing to worry. Trump may have a strategy against the immigration policy of USA, he may be against employment being swept away by other nationals, but at the end of the day, US economy is highly dependent on skill sets, especially from India. A hard-core Republican, Trump had argued that a large number of H1B visas are being granted to people belonging to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) background. Trump strategises to raise the minimum wage bar of outsourced manpower, which will cost the companies more and in turn reduce outsourcing. Techies defenceless? Freshers who are aspiring to work in USA, may be disappointed, if Trump became the President, but the Indian economy will be idifferent. Indian companies, however, will end up acquiring local companies. [Read: Will bring back jobs from countries like China, India: Donald Trump] While employment will increase in India, USA will have to saft to find eligible professionals in his own country. Eventually, the States has very low talent pool and depends highly on outsourced labour as there are fewer enginners, doctors or scientists, or even graduates or undergraduates in the US. Clearly, Trump's sole agenda is to win and that too at any cost. Right now, he is wooing the working class white voters, who are striving to achieve better jobs in the STEM. New visa system: Blessing in disguise If barred from entering USA, the Indian talent pool will not go waste. It would also be an economical turn about for India as brain drain will be stalled and the intelligence can be used for the development of the country. However, the J-1B visa cancelleation that comes with the termination of H1B visas would cause a serious problem. This would put an end to the Indian professionals going on exchange-based educational and cultural programs and later work there. 50-50 chances of win All said and done, the probability of Trump's victory is questionable for the very fact that 88% of the 1 million Indian-Americans registered voters support Barack obama, who has a more liberal attitude towards India. [Read: US Prez polls 2016: Donald Trump wins South Carolina] On the flip side, the history of India-US ties during the Republican regime may go in favour of Donald Trump. For instance, Indo-US Nuclear deal of 2005 has taken the bilateral relations between the two countries to a different level. Both of them also share a compatible nuclear deal where both the countries benefit. Moreover, Donald Trump may prove to be useful for the Indian economy as the political interests and the ideas of the Republican party are shared by India. Republicans back free trade and encourage foreign investment, visa vie the protectionist democrats. Besides that, the countries have similar understanding when it comes to fighting terrorism. [Read: Donald 'trump'ed, but why?] Thus, Trump's victory in the US presidential elections hold little significance in the Indian scenario, given the independent nature of the latter's economy. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2016, 13:30 [IST] No time for Soni Sori & tribals under attack: Has our media lost its backbone? Feature oi-Shubham In India, we have a media which is known for its patriotic zeal but strangely, this perenially over-excited group has remained mostly quiet on the attack on Adivasi rights activist and Aam Aadmi Party leader Soni Sori in Chhattisgarh on February 20. Tribal activist Soni Sori faced a gruesome attack; yet hardly there was any coverage on her pain Sori was attacked with an acid-like substance which left her injured. Her motorcycle-borne assailants are yet to be traced. It is believed that the attack was part of a bigger campaign in Bastar district of the mineral-rich central Indian state to drive out those who dare to ask uncomfortable questions to the government. Yet, the media, which has felt so much disturbed by a group of students' slogans in a university campus, has largely chosen to ignore it. If the students who were expressing dissent over the functioning of the State are "anti-nationals", wasn't the attack on an Indian who fights for the rights of her compatriots anti-national, too? Anybody questioning the authorities are being targeted Besides activists, journalists, scholars and lawyers are being hounded out of the state where the nexus between the State and mining corporates has left free speech crippled. The police also ordered Sori to leave Bastar but the iron-hearted avtivist refused to do so and continued her fight for the Adivasis who have fallen victims to the State versus Left extremism battle in these parts. Sori reportedly faced atrocity in the police custody in late 2011 but despite the odds, she has been leading a movement which has taken on the State over killing of Adivasis in fake encounters, arbitrary arrests, torture and sexual assault of their women by the police and security forces. She planned to undertake a 200-km march from Bijapur, which was set to end in Jagdalpur on March 8, the International Women's Day, but was attacked before it materialised. Soni is recovering and refuses to lose, which is a great news But Sori's assailants and those who masterminded the attack would be disheartened to know that she is recovering and has promised to return to Bastar. Sori's struggle inspires everyone of us but the media of this country, which has shamelessly joined hands with elements who have taken refuge under the Tricolour to criminalise dissent and control free speech. The attack on Sori is a similar effort to criminalise and silence dissent, which is an indispensible part of a democracy but the media chooses to look away and ignores its basic duty of raising awareness about the reality in parts of the country that are far too remote from the middle-class's drawing rooms. Why media doesn't find interest in Soni Soris? The mass media deliberatly ignores the plight of Soni Soris for a number of reasons. Has corporate control left the media without a backbone? First, the corporates' control over the mass media ensures that issues that are not consistent with the business lobbies' interests do not get a space they deserve. Our prime time shows on news channels hardly take up the issue of land grabbing, be it in any state and that is not without a reason. They pick up whistle-blowing individuals at the most but never really focus on the deeper roots of the problems. The news channels are so obsessed with party politics today that they forget their basic duty towards the society Second, the highly opinionated bosses of today's electronic media shamelessly serve the middle-class by constantly generating a negative wave directed at one particular party or another. This obsession with party politics turns them blind towards issues that concern human well-being and demand a social panacea. These journalists, if they are at all, know that their hollow business of raising the TRPs will only run as long as they bash a Modi or a Mamata or a Rahul Gandhi because their viewers hate politicians. But then, what about the basic duty that the media is supposed to do: Creating mass awareness? Editorial heads are mediocre in identifying crucial issues and build on them; they are happy with a clerical way of functioning Thirdly, the media today is in a state of decay and those who run it are mediocre in identifying issues and build up on them. The editors and their foot soldiers act more like intellectual clerks (though they are neither intellectuals nor clerks) who survive more on corporate or political affiliations and mostly do not have the guts to pursue the cases of Soni Soris and others who are regularly put to torture and deprived of their basic rights. They instead focus on bashing students, who they know are helpless to retaliate. World Trade Organisations Ruling Against Indias Solar Plan Feature oi-Lisa In response to the complaint lodged by the US against India's National Solar Mission, World Trade Organisation (WTO) said that certain provisions of India's National Solar Mission were actually inconsistent with international trade norms. The ruling came from a three member panel which was chaired by former New Zealand trade envoy David Walker. The biggest problem that the US has with India's National Solar Mission is that India seeks to install 100 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2022 and for that it has made it mandatory that a certain percentage of cells and panels should be manufactured locally. As being part of WTO means that a country cannot put such domestic content requirements India as per WTO has flouted the rule. As per WTO all countries should be open to trade every time else the country is dubbed as one that is following protectionism. This comes under Article 2.1 of the Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS) and Article lll 4 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994. The ruling came after a delay of two months as India and the US were unable to come to an agreement on the changes suggested by India to its solar power programme. Reaction of US solar industry leaders The US solar industry leaders who gain from this ruling as they will get to sell their components were obviously appreciative of it. US Trade Representative's (USTR) Office called a ruling as a major victory that would speed up the spread of solar energy across the globe and it will also help increase clean energy jobs in the US. USTR's Michael Froman said, "This is an important outcome, not just as it applies to this case, but for the message it sends to other countries considering discriminatory localisation' policies". Dan Whitten, vice president of communications for the Solar Energy Industries Association, "This decision helps us bring clean energy to the people of India, as that nation's demand for electricity rapidly grows". Response of climate change advocates Advocates of climate change were not happy with the WTO ruling and called it a harsh kick on the gut to climate co-operation. The advocates went to extent of calling out the US hypocrisy as during Paris climate talk the nation pushed for big policy changes and when it comes to really appreciating efforts from emerging nations like India the US reacts in very different way. The other point here that needs to be brought out is that almost half of all the states in the US also provide some degree of subsidy for the use of local renewables. Ilana Solomon, director of Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Programme, on the preliminary ruling when it was issued in August last year had said, " Sam Cossar-Gilbert, a program coordinator at Friends of the Earth International said, "The ink is barely dry on the U.N. Paris Climate Agreement, but clearly trade still trumps real action on climate change". He further added, "Trade policies are preventing a sustainable future." Canada too had faced such an ire in 2012 This is not the first time that WTO has ruled in such a manner. In 2012 in response to a complaint filed on behalf of Japan and the EU, it had ruled against the government of Ontario's green energy program which incentivised renewable producers to source goods and services from inside the province. Future course for India India has an option to appeal against the WTO ruling. India can appeal to the WTO Appellate Body however, it has to be noted here that when Ontario government had appealed against WTO's 2012 ruling Canada had lost. Arvind Kejriwal arrives in Punjab on 5-day political visit India oi-IANS By Ians English Chandigarh, Feb 25: AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal started his five-day visit to Punjab on Thursday to boost the political prospects of the Aam Aadmi Party. Kejriwal, who arrived here on a regular flight from Delhi, drove immediately to Sangrur town in Punjab. He was received here by top AAP leaders of the Punjab unit and some party leaders from Delhi. "I am starting my five-day trip of Punjab today. I will be visiting villages and meeting with common people," Kejriwal told the media after landing here. "We will meet families affected by the drugs problem. We will try to understand their problems. We will meet families of farmers who committed suicide and understand their problems too. The AAP philosophy is that we meet people, listen to their problems and find solutions," he said. "Other parties make their manifestoes in air-conditioned rooms. We go to villages and homes of people," Kejriwal said while taking a dig at other political parties. Kejriwal will travel to Punjab's three regions - Malwa, Majha and Doaba, during the visit, starting from Sangrur and Bathinda districts in the agriculturally-fertile south-west Punjab. Kejriwal will visit Ferozepur and Faridkot districts on February 26, Khadoor Sahib, Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts on February 27, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar districts on February 28 and finally go to Ludhiana, Fategarh Sahib and Patiala districts on February 29. AAP philosophy is that we meet people, listen to their problems: Kejriwal "He will interact with various sections of the society comprising families of distressed farmers who have been committing suicides, members of Dalit families and unemployed educated youth and know the concerns of the women folk about their safety and security," an AAP spokesman said. He will meet the business community, comprising traders and captains of industry, to know the problems faced by them in the state. The Congress in Punjab had earlier said that it will oppose Kejriwal's visit if the Aam Aadmi Party does not change its agenda for the state. "Kejriwal should not play with fire by instigating the sentiments of the people of Punjab. This is a very dangerous style of politics being done by the AAP," Congress leader and Ludhiana MP Ravnit Singh Bittu had said. Kejriwal had addressed a major AAP rally last month at the Maghi religious fair in Punjab's Bathinda district. The AAP is posing a serious political challenge to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance and the Congress, which have dominated Punjab's political space for decades, in the run up to next year's assembly polls. IANS Social Worker-Politician rahulborole Is Working Day & Night To Help The Needy With Food, Masks & Water Board exams: 426 students expelled for cheating on Day 1 India oi-PTI Patna, Feb 24: At least 426 students, including girls, were expelled after being caught cheating during the Intermediate Examination that started today. The control room set up in Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) said a total of 426 students were expelled across the state on the first day of the examination. Maximum 49 students were expelled in Munger district, followed by 48 in Aurangabad for using unfair means in the examination, the control room said. The BSEB has been making elaborate preparation to conduct a cheating-free examination this year to erase the bad name the state had earned after photographs of parents and friends supplying chits to examinees at a centre in Vaishali district had gone viral last year. New Education minister Ashok Choudhary had on several occasions talked about stringent arrangements to check copying in the board exam. A total of 11.57 lakh examinees are writing the Intermediate examination in Bihar at 1,109 centres. Despite putting elaborate arrangements, reports of cheating came from examination centres in many districts. Media reports highlighted that people vandalised a school in Chapra after they were not allowed to copy. People were shown climbing a school building in Vaishali district to provide chits to examinees at a centre. PTI BJP slams Chidambaram for his remarks in Afzal Guru case India oi-PTI New Delhi, Feb 25: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, who held the home and finance portfolios in the UPA government, on Thursday came under attack from BJP for comments attributed to him regarding Afzal Guru, who was hanged after being convicted in the terror strike on Parliament in 2001. Reacting to Chidambaram's remarks, BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma called it "unfortunate", saying it is an "insult" to the martyrs of Parliament attack and the judiciary. Also read: Afzal Guru case was perhaps not correctly decided: Chidambaram says in interview "It is a very unfortunate statement. It is an insult to the soldiers who were martyred in the Parliament attack and also the judiciary," Sharma said. Chidambaram has been quoted as having said in a newspaper interview that he felt it was possible to hold an "honest opinion" that the Afzal Guru case was "perhaps not correctly decided" and that there were "grave doubts about the extent of his involvement" in the Parliament attack. Afzal Guru was hanged on February 9, 2013. Chidambaram was Union home minister when Afzal Guru's mercy plea was rejected by the previous UPA government in 2011. PTI Has Smriti got 'facts' wrong on Vemula in her fiery speech in LS? India oi-Shreyas Telangana/New Delhi, Feb 25: Putting up emotional face coupled with aggressive eyes, the HRD Minister Smriti Irani countered the allegations of the opposition in Rohith Vemula's case by delivering a speech on the floor of the house (Lok Sabha) which she claimed she was refuting the opposition charges by presenting the 'facts'. Irani said "the Telangana police had informed the High Court of the state that no doctor was allowed near body of Rohith Vemula". No doctor went near the body until 6.30 am the next day. The Minister told this in the LS as BJP MPs clapped to her statement. Irani quoting the Telangana police report said "According to a report submitted to the Telangana high court, the police had reached Rohith's hostel at 7:20 pm when they found the body. The police said that when they reached the hostel, they found the room open and the dead body was on the table. A hand written suicide note was found. The suicide note that was left behind does not blame anyone. This is not my submission. This is what the police said." Further reading the document said ""No one allowed a doctor near this child, to revive this child. Instead, his body was used as a political tool. No police was allowed till 6:30 am the following morning. Who tried to help this child? The ones who passed judgement are not the ones appointed by the BLP- led NDA but by the Congress party." Astonishingly her fact (as she climed) on Rohith Vemula case appears to be bombed. The HRD Minister charged the opposition, mainly Left and the Congress parties of using the dead body of Rohith Vemula as a 'political tool'. What could come as embarrassing for the Minister and the BJP is the statement of the doctor on duty, Chief Medical Officer of the Hyderabad Central University M Rajashree. The statement of this doctor who attended the body of Dalit research scholar contradicts the statement of Smriti Irani made in the parliament which is 'temple of democracy' according to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Statement of doctor who attended Vemula's body contradicts Irani In a brief telephonic interview with OneIndia M Rajashree wondered as to how Irani made such statement. The doctor said security officials found the body in New Research Scholars hostel room ( room no 207). "I got a call on January 17, informing about the incident at around 7.20 - 7.30, following I rushed to the spot in a matter of 3 to 4 minutes." Rajashree continued, "I met group of students in the lobby of the hostel and I was accompanied to the spot by the students." By the time doctor reached the spot the body was removed from the ceiling fan. "I examined Rohith Vemula and after 10 minutes we declared him dead," Rajashree confirmed. Immediately after learning Vemula was dead, the same was informed to the Vice Chancellor of the Hyderabad Central University. "The VC inquired on the possibility of reviving the body but I informed it is not possible," doctor divulged. This was reported to the local police. The Doctor said same statements were recorded in the police record. The minutes of the examination of the body has been recorded even in the health book. Rajashree said the body was cold, bloody abdomen, protruding tongue, froth coming out of the mouth. There was no sound of breathing and no heart sound. The police were present all through examination of the body, Rajashree added. When asked about Irani's statement, Rajashree wondered how she made such statement. "I don't know weather she lied or not but what I have said is the fact and the same was recorded by the police." OneIndia News Rajnath Singh to launch website enabling citizens to contribute to welfare fund for martyrs' families I condemn Patiala House Court violence: Rajnath India oi-IANS By Ians English New Delhi, Feb 25: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday, Feb 25 condemned the violence in the Patiala House Court and promised action if Delhi Police was found doing "injustice" in the case. Many journalists, including in media report, were beaten up by a group of lawyers in the court. BJP legislator O.P. Sharma, who assaulted a CPI activist outside the court, was arrested and released on bail. "The Patiala House Court incident is unfortunate. I strongly condemn it. The MLA was arrested (for) assault and an FIR was lodged against him. The investigations are going on. Let it happen," said Singh. The minister said he spoke to Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi immediately after the violence on February 15 when the case concerning JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, charged with sedition, was taken up. A second round of violent attacks took place in the court two days later. "I said strict action must be taken. If Delhi Police is found to be doing any kind of injustice in the case, the court will take appropriate steps against them. Delhi Police makes all possible efforts to maintain law and order in the capital," added Singh. IANS LIC 3.0: India's biggest ever IPO opens on May 4; Price band at Rs 902-949 per share Indian equities trade flat ahead of rail budget India oi-IANS By Ians English Mumbai, Feb 25: Ahead of the presentation of the railway budget for the next fiscal year, key Indian equity indices opened flat on Thursday, with additional caution due to the expiry of contracts for futures and options trading. Among the other peers in the Asia-Pacific region, China's Shanghai Composite fell sharply and so did the Shenzhen Composite, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and Australia's S&P/ASX 200. But Japan's Nikkei 225 and South Korea's Kospi registered gains. Back home, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE opened at 23,105.16 points, as against the previous close at 23,088.93 points. Around an hour into trading, it was quoting at 23,086.56 points, down 2.37 points, or 0.01 percent. The Nifty of the NSe was quoting at 7,008.35 points down 10.35 points, or 0.15 percent. "On Wednesday, the US markets closed in the green as oil prices stabilised, helping the index to recover from an intraday decline of some 2 percent. The European markets ended with a steep decline of about 2 percent led by dip in the commodity stocks," Angel Broking said. IANS Prosecutions story may be attractive but should be backed by evidence ISIS makes life threats to Facebook, Twitter heads India oi-PTI London, Feb 25: The dreaded Islamic State miltant group has made life threats to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a new video which shows their photos riddled with digitally added bullet holes, mocking the social media websites' attempts to block terrorist content from their platforms. In the 25-minute video, the IS claim they are fighting back against efforts by the social media giants to wipe their platforms of accounts promoting terrorism. The video includes a direct threat to the tech entrepreneurs, branding them allies of the American "Crusader government". Pictures of Zuckerberg and Dorsey can be seen being blasted with a hail of bullets in the amateur footage which emerged. The video, titled "Flames of the Supporters" and released by a group calling themselves "the sons of the Caliphate army", ends with a direct threat to the two men, The Sun reported. A slide toward the end of the video reads, in English: "To Mark and Jack, founders of Twitter and Facebook and to their Crusader government. You announce daily that you suspended many of our accounts and to you we say: is that all you can do? you are not in our league. If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete you (sic) sites, #Sons_Caliphate_Army". In a separate slide, they also claim to have hacked more than 10,000 Facebook accounts, 150 Facebook groups, and more than 5,000 Twitter accounts. Two scholars who track ISIS activity online confirmed that the video was posted to multiple ISIS forums, including some on the social media platform. ISIS and related terrorist groups have targeted Dorsey at least twice in the past year. A group of self-identified ISIS supporters threatened the Twitter founder and CEO in March of 2015 for closing hundreds of their social media accounts. In its threat, the group claimed that Dorsey and his company started a "war" against the Islamic State, and that the "necks" of Twitter employees have "become an official target to ISIS soldiers and supporters." Twitter seems to have only stepped up its efforts to wipe ISIS off its platform since then. A few weeks ago, the company announced it had suspended more than 125,000 accounts for threatening or supporting terrorist acts over the past several months. Twitter also said it has grown its team that looks into reports of terror activity on its network. Zuckerberg reiterated his stance and Facebooks policy on helping to fight terrorism online. A Facebook spokeswoman did not immediately respond to request for comment on this weeks threat. A Twitter spokesman reiterated the company's policy and progress on suspending accounts that promote terrorism or any violent threat. PTI Jat quota row: Identity of non-Jats under fear India oi-Jagriti Rohtak, Feb 25: Identity of non-Jats in violence hit Haryana has come under fear. People were wary of telling strangers their surname in view of unrestrained, brute violence in Haryana's Rohtak district between February 18 and 21. The violence resulted into loss of damage to private property when Jat agitators went on rampage seeking OBC quotas for themselves. Non-Jats in Haryana prefer to introduce themselves by their first name only. "It's because of the riots and the way they (rioters) behaved. If the person talking to you is a Jat, he may feel offended by our words. The situation is not good," Udayveer Sawhney of Rohtak's Qila Road was quoted as saying by the Times of India. Violencemongers damaged establishments of many non-Jats in the state. Jat row: Commuters attacked, women sexually assaulted by goons Lovleen Tuteja, who is also part of BJP's media cell, confirmed that people were wary of telling strangers their surname. "The way our homes and shops were targeted, we want to be doubly sure that the person in front won't harm us. It's only after we are satisfied that we share our surnames," Loveleen said. Prativindhya Saini, a management student, said differences had cropped up between classmates and that suddenly friends from the Jat community aren't friendly anymore. "The way things are now, there's fear regarding even good friends from the community," Prativindhya said. Its not only non-Jats, - even Jats are uncomfortable about revealing their caste these days. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2016, 12:20 [IST] Truth has come out, says Sasikala in reaction to OPS's remark before panel On Jaya's birthday, K'taka tells SC that her birthday gift is not a legal source of income India oi-Vicky Bengaluru, Feb 25: It was quite ironic that on a day (February 24) that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister celebrated her birthday the state of Karnataka decided to argue on the money that she received as a birthday gift in the Supreme Court. The argument was about Rs 1.5 crore, which is part of the disproportionate assets case. The prosecution said that it was not a legal source of income. The other argument that Karnataka put up was about a belated intimation made by her to the Income Tax department regarding a loan raised by Jaya Publications. This was one of the many important submissions that the Karnataka government made before the Supreme Court, which was hearing an appeal challenging the acquittal of Jayalalithaa and three others in the disproportionate assets case. The arguments in the case will continue today as well. Dushyanth Dave arguing for the state of Karnataka is expected to conclude his arguments today. In the past two days, Dave advanced before the Bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy several important points and sought her conviction. How can a birthday gift be a legal source of income? The Karnataka government stressed hard on the point that gifts received from party cadres, especially in cash cannot be termed as a legal source of income. Dave asked the Supreme Court whether such gifts fall under the category as legal income. Some leaders are equated to the status of God by their cadres and supporters. Dave pointed out that Jayalalithaa had received Rs 1.5 crore as a birthday gift from her cadres. This has been termed as a legal source of income, Dave also added. There has to be a mechanism to check this. At the moment there is no such mechanism and the Supreme Court must take steps in this regard, Dave also pointed out. If there are no checks and balances in this regard, it becomes a free for all situation. Politicians will escape criminal liability under the Prevention of Corruption Act and begin terming all ill gotten wealth as a birthday gift. Further the prosecution also pointed out that they had no intimation about the Rs 15 crore loan that was taken by Jaya Publications. There was no intimation during the period of 1991 and 1996. Instead, it was after this period that the Income Tax officer was intimated about this amount. This is belated and an after thought on her part, Dave also argued. Today Karnataka would have to clarify before the Bench about the amount that was spent on the wedding of V Sudhakaran. The prosecution had claimed before the trial court that the expenditure was at Rs 6.45 crore. However, the trial court reduced the amount to Rs 3 crore as there was no evidence for the rest. The Supreme Court has sought to know about the remaining Rs 45 lakh. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2016, 8:36 [IST] JNU row: Revealed! Umar Khalid has Naxal links India oi-Mukul New Delhi, Feb 25: Here is yet another shocking revelation about JNU scholar Umar Khalid who is under the eye of the storm for raising anti-India slogan in university campus. Reportedly Maharashtra Police has established his link with Left-wing extremists . JNU: Who is Umar Khalid whose story has many hits and misses? According to TOI report, anti-Naxal operations wing of the state police has got proof of it. Police sources said that Khalid had gone to Nagpur to meet his JNU co-scholar Hem Mishra. In August 2013, Gadchiroli police had arrested Hem Mishra for alleged links with the Naxals. He was allegedly acting as a courier between Delhi University professor GN Saibaba and top CPI (Maoist) leaders. Mishra was granted bail by Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on August 4, 2015. Reports say that when Hem Mishra was released from Central jail after getting bail from the court, Khalid had gone to meet him. Ravindra Kadam who is the Inspector general of police (IGP) of Nagpur range has confirmed that Khalid was in Nagpur to meet Mishra. Earlier, Khalid, along with four other accused, Anant Prakash Narayan, Ashutosh Kumar, Rama Naga, Anirban Bhattacharya, returned back to the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus late on Sunday. Addressing students in front of the admin bloc at the campus, Khalid said, "My name is Umar Khalid and I'm not a terrorist," Khalid, who fled the campus after the matter became serious, said, condemning the media trial that branded him a terrorist."The attack (on the university) is not because of the program which was organised on Feburary 9, but because the government needs an excuse to attack us" . JNU has been on the boil over the arrest of its students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges after some students organised a meet to mark the anniversaries of executions of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front co-founder Maqbool Bhat. Anti-India slogans were raised at the gathering. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2016, 11:43 [IST] Kanhaiya gets support from his village India oi-Pallavi New Delhi, Feb 25: It was an important day for the villagers of Masnadpur in Begusarai as Knahaiya's hearing was going to take place. Extending their support to their son, art students of Shantiniketan and Patna painted the walls of his house, demanding greedom from feudalism, capitalism and Brahmanism. One of the graffitis on the wall showed a huge crocodile crawling towards JNU students with an open mouth. In another one, Kanhaiya is shown addressing a crowd carrying red flags and "Red Star" written in Bold fonts. An Azadi poem was also written in bold. The villagers waited eagerly for th ehearing, but were dissapointed when they deferred the plea. While his parents and younger brother are staying in the village, his elder brother and uncle are in Delhi extending their support to him. [Read: Arrested JNU students deny raising 'anti-national' slogans] Meena Devi, Kanhaiya's mother said,"The Prime Minister would know our pain if he tries to look at it from our point of view...but, we've full faith in our son and the judiciary." OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2016, 11:30 [IST] Security at all time high as Lashkar, JeM look to strike at heartland Death keeps no calendar: The writing on the truck that JeM terrorists came in LeT, JeM get 'candid support' from Pak: Army Chief India oi-PTI New Delhi, Feb 25: Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag on Thursday, Feb 25 slammed Pakistan for giving "candid support" to terror groups like JeM and LeT as he called on the international community to join hands in combating the menace. Days after suspected LeT operatives struck in Pampore in Jammu and Kashmir, Suhag hit out at Pakistan, saying, "Terrorist groups like LeT and JeM get candid support from across our western borders." The attack at Pampore left three army personnel dead, including two Captains of the Special Forces. Two CRPF personnel, too, were killed by three heavily armed "foreign" terrorists who were shot dead after a fierce 48-hour-long gun battle. At a seminar organised by army think tank CLAWS, Suhag also said that the spreading influence of Islamic State, in particular through social and other forms of media, has thrown up challenges of global and regional security. "What is worrying is that these groups can no longer be dismissed as regional manifestations of violence," he said. Noting that such jihadist outfits take advantage of the international connected systems of finance, commerce and transit to stay flexible and reach any part of the globe, Suhag said it was "necessary for international community to fight this menace as one by sharing of intel and adoption of training techniques from each other". He added that the 9/11, 26/11 and recent Paris attacks have changed the perception among world leaders regarding the threat from terrorism. The Army Chief said, "We need to address not only the methods but also the factors that contribute to the spread of terrorism. "The main threat comes from fundamental ideology and twisted interpretations which are promoting radical thinking." BJP leader and spokesperson M J Akbar, who also spoke at the event, termed Pakistan a "sanctuary of jihad". PTI LS passes Election Laws (Amendment) Bill India oi-PTI New Delhi, Feb 25: The Lok Sabha today passed a bill to grant voting rights to people who became citizens of the country following the exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh, even as the Opposition questioned the delay on part of the government in bringing the measure. Moving the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2016 for consideration and passage, Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda urged the members to pass the Bill without delay. The minister had introduced in the Lok Sabha the Bill to amend Section 11 of the Delimitation Act, 2002 and Section 9 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. The Bill was later passed unanimously by a voice vote. Gowda urged the House to pass the bill in the current session to enable the grant of voting rights to the people in these enclaves. "EC is already working on it. The central government will provide all assistance to the state so that the people who have come from Bangladesh can be given the basic rights in the upcoming elections in West Bengal," the Minister said. The term of the 294-member West Bengal Assembly ends on May 29 and elections are to be held before that, hence there was a sense of urgency for early passage of the bill. Congress member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said it was imperative on the part of the government to ensure voting rights to the people, especially when the time was too short due to the impending elections. TMC member Kalyan Banerjee and Shiv Sena's Anandrao Adsul too favoured passing the legislation at the earliest. Lashing out at the government for "inordinate delay", RSP MP N K Premachandran questioned the reasons for delaying the Bill when the 100th Amendment Constitution Bill was passed in July last year. "Why was the Centre sleeping over it for all this time," he asked. Echoing Premachandran, CPI(M) leader Mohammad Salim too questioned the delay on part of the Centre and the state government to expedite the process of granting voting rights to people living in these enclaves. Supporting the Bill, TDP MP Jayadev Galla said when the government was giving voting rights these citizens, it should also consider giving voting rights to NRIs. PTI 'This may give sleepless nights to some': Eknath Shinde on sharing dais with Sharad Pawar Not just future of Sena but democracy at stake, says Uddhav Diwali 2022: Major sites to be illuminated in Mumbai between Oct 22-29 Mumbai: Gathering of 5 or more, loud speakers, illegal processions banned for a fortnight from Nov 1 Malala Yousafzai watches Neerja in London; Sonam Kapoor thanks her India oi-Sandra Mumbai, Feb 25: Sonam Kapoor's critically acclaimed film Neerja has been receiving rave reviews and this time Kapoor has a new fan in none other than Noble Peace Prize recipient Malala Yousafzai. Yousafzai attended a private screening of the film in London, where she currently resides. Kapoor on the other hand, was elated and tweeted: "I am stronger than fear' and for #Neerja 'fear gave her courage! Thank you #MalalaYousafzai for attending a private screening of #Neerja in London. I'm so glad you liked the film." Also read: Amul gets nostalgic! gives a tribute to national hero Neerja Malala was shot in the head by Taliban militants in 2012 for working for education of girls in Pakistan. After the attack she was shifted to London where she currently resides. Malala is known for her courage and her fight for women's education for which she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. OneIndia News Dhanteras 2022: How much gold can you buy from Dubai Punish builders for dust pollution: NGT to Delhi authorities India oi-PTI New Delhi, Feb 25: The National Green Tribunal on Thursday, Feb 25 directed civic bodies and public authorities in Delhi-NCR to check air pollution caused by dust emanating from construction sites and initiate action against real estate developers violating environmental norms. The green panel also asked the municipal corporations to strictly impose a fine of Rs 50,000 on builders who are violating the Environment Ministry's 2010 guidelines on constructions. "All corporations and public authorities must concentrate on builders who are raising huge constructions and causing air pollution and not following mandatory pollution norms," a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said. It also directed the municipal corporations to file a separate list of offenders and specifically name the builders involved in the violations. The tribunal's direction came while hearing a case related to air pollution in which it had issues notices to 84 noticees to show cause why environmental compensation of Rs 50,000 not be imposed upon them for causing pollution. While issuing notices to them, the tribunal had directed the corporations concerned to ensure their presence. When 84 noticees appeared in the tribunal today, the court room got jam-packed prompting Justice Kumar to direct the registrar to deal with them. "It is shocking of you (corporations) that you have not brought any builders before us. It is very unfair that builders who are raising multiple storey and house-owners who are building their private flats are being imposed same amount of fine. The violations committed by builders is 100 times more than them," the bench observed. During the hearing, advocate Balendu Shekhar, appearing for East Delhi Municipal Corporation, told the bench that it has issued 440 challans for construction violation out of which 50 people have already paid the amount of Rs 50,000 imposed on them. Cracking the whip on the real estate sector, the tribunal had last year announced the fine of Rs 50,000 on those causing air pollution caused by dust emanating from construction sites in the National Capital Region, as it made wearing of masks by construction workers mandatory. While announcing the Rs 50,000 fine on violators, it had also directed every builder and owner to put tarpaulin sheets around area of construction and said no person including builder and owner would be permitted to throw construction material on roads or colonies. PTI Tension after slogans raised against a religion in Meerut India oi-PTI Meerut, Feb 25: Tension prevailed in Sardhana area here as activists of Arakshan Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (ABSS) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) raised slogans against a particular religion after a condolence meeting. The sloganeering took place yesterday after a condolence meet for a dalit youth, Kuldeep, from Muzaffarnagar who was killed in Sonipat on February 21 during the pro-quota stir by the Jat community, police said. Activists of ABSS and AIMIM had gathered at Ambedkar Dharamshala at Bhatwada for the condolence meet, SP (Rural) Pravin Ranjan said. After the meet, they marched in procession to submit their demands to Sardhana Tehsildar when some of them blocked the road and raised slogans against a particular religion. Police today booked nine persons - ABBS' tehsil president Amit Gautam, General Secretary Gaurav Parcha, AIMIM city president Wali-ur-Rahman and six others - for hurting religious sentiments and blocking road, but no arrest has been made so far. Extra force has been deployed in the area to prevent any untoward incident, the SP (Rural) said. PTI Virbhadra DA case probe held up due to HP HC order: CBI to Delhi HC India oi-PTI New Delhi, Feb 25: CBI today told the Delhi High Court that its investigation in the disproportionate assets case against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and others has been "held up" due to an order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, which has put a restraint on his arrest. The agency told a bench of Justice Pratibha Rani that Himachal Pradesh High Court's interim order of October 1, 2015 restraining CBI from arresting, interrogating or filing a charge sheet against Singh, was hampering their ongoing probe. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) P S Patwalia, appearing for CBI, submitted that the agency would file an application seeking to vacate Himachal Pradesh HC's interim order. "The interim order passed by the Himachal Pradesh High Court says that you (CBI) cannot interrogate him (Singh), arrest him or file charge sheet against him without its permission. Our investigation is being held up. It is hampering the probe," Patwalia said. The bench, which posted the matter for April 4, was hearing Singh's plea seeking quashing of an FIR lodged against him by CBI. As the hearing commenced, Singh's counsel sought adjournment and Patwalia said that a short date should be given in the matter. To this, the bench said, "I cannot give you a short date. I will give date as per court's diary." Patwalia, however, told the bench that he can argue the matter today itself and said, "We want the interim order to be modified. I will move an application seeking to vacate the interim order." "Kindly hear me on the interim order today. I have never read this kind of order in my whole career. In default, they (Singh and others) are succeeding," the ASG said. CBI had earlier pleaded before the high court that it has jurisdiction to register and investigate the disproportionate assets case. The agency had also sought dismissal of Singh's plea to quash the FIR against him, alleging that his prayer was "frivolous and not maintainable". PTI Will replicate Delhi model in Punjab if we form govt: Kejriwal India oi-PTI Sangrur, Feb 25: Claiming that ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance in Punjab was confronted with a "tsunami of anti-incumbency", Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday, Feb 25 said the party will replicate the Delhi anti-corruption model if AAP is voted to power in the state. Kick-starting his five-day visit to Punjab, where Assembly elections is due early 2017, Kejriwal claimed that the party would form its government in Punjab as the present dispensation is "confronted with a tsunami of anti-incumbency." "Corruption would be eradicated in Punjab after we come to power. The Delhi experience would be replicated in Punjab where 52 officials have been nabbed," he said. Terming as "cruel joke" the "meagre compensation" paid by the state government to farmers for the damaged crop, Kejriwal promised adequate compensation to them if AAP comes to power. "We have done it in Delhi where compensation of Rs 50,000 per hectare was given for farmers in 307 villages for their damaged crops, which was never done by any previous government," Kejriwal said while addressing different gatherings. Kejriwal met wives of farmers, who recently committed suicide due to heavy debt. "I think the compensation of Rs three lakh announced by the state government for families of farmers, who committed suicide, was also embezzled by corrupt officials and politicians as on the ground, no such compensation was given to any family," he said in Sunam district. Kejriwal promised that if voted to power in the state, the AAP government would provide necessary health and education facilities. PTI Britain registers agreement with European Union at the UN International oi-PTI United Nations, Feb 25: Britain has registered at the United Nations the agreement that it reached last week to try to keep the United Kingdom in the European Union. British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft yesterday said that under the UN Charter, member states have to register decisions that are at the level of a treaty. "That puts beyond doubt that the deal that the prime minister agreed is legally binding and irreversible in international law," he said. The agreement was key to Britain's announcement of a referendum on June 23 on whether Britain should remain in the EU or leave the 28-nation bloc. Prime Minister David Cameron said the deal with the EU would give Britain more control over its future, lessen welfare payments to migrants, and protect Britain from being absorbed into a feared European "superstate." The referendum is expected to be hard-fought, especially because Cameron's Conservative party is divided, and the "out" campaign has the support of popular London Mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative and possible future prime minister. EU President Donald Tusk, who oversaw the deal that Cameron brokered with the 27 other EU leaders, insisted Wednesday that an "out" vote in the British referendum would "change Europe forever. And it will be a change for the worse." Rycroft said there is an issue about when the agreement with the EU enters into effect, because part of it only applies if Britain votes to remain in the EU. "But officially it has entered into force now, and it has effect on June 23 if indeed the UK votes to remain in the EU," he said. AP Donald 'did not insult Mexicans': Melania Trump International oi-PTI Washington, Feb 25: Donald Trump's wife Melania, in a rare TV interview, on Thursday defended her husband's fiery rhetoric on immigration, denying the Republican White House frontrunner had painted Mexican migrants as rapists. The Slovenian-born former fashion model defended her husband's incendiary call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, first made in the wake of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. "What he said is it will be temporary and it's not for all the Muslims," Melania Trump told MSNBC. Also read: Donald Trump registers third straight victory, wins Nevada Caucuses "We need to screen who's coming to the country." And she denied Trump had insulted the Mexican people when he notoriously claimed in his announcement speech last year that the country was sending crime, drugs and rapists across the border. "No, I don't feel he insulted the Mexicans. He said illegal immigrants. He didn't talk about everybody," said the 45-year-old. Trump's third wife, who is now a US citizen, said she had scrupulously respected immigration laws since moving to the country 20 years ago. "I followed the law the way it's supposed to be," she said. "You should not just say, 'Okay, let me just stay here and whatever happens, happens.'" Two years after moving to the United States in 1996, Melania married the real estate mogul a quarter century her senior, drawn to him, she said, by "his mind." "Amazing mind and very smart. Very charming. Great energy," she said. While Trump's grown children have repeatedly joined him on the campaign trail, his wife only recently stepped up her appearances at his side -- including at victory parties in New Hampshire and South Carolina -- saying she prefers to stay focused on raising their nine year-old son Barron. It's amazing what's going on," she said in today's interview. Also read: Donald Trump says even a murder would not deter his supporters "We're having fun. I like to keep it -- life as normal as possible for my son and I'm a full-time mom. I love it so I decided not to be in the campaign so much but I support my husband 100 per cent." she has kept a low public profile, Melania said she followed the news "from A to Z," and was on the phone with her husband several times a day. "Do I agree all the time?" she said. "No, I don't, and I tell him that. I tell him my opinions. I tell him what I think. Sometimes he listens, sometimes he doesn't." PTI F-16 deal with Pakistan will affect aspects of Indo-US ties: PACOM International oi-PTI Washington, Feb 25: The United States' decision to sell eight nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan would affect "some aspects" of Indo-US relationship, a top American military commander has said, amid India's strong protest over the deal. "With regard to the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, while I don't have a professional opinion on that sale itself, certainly it will affect some aspects of our relationship with India," the US Pacific Command (PACOM) Commander, Admiral Harry Harris, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing yesterday. Harris, who will visit India next week, was responding to question from members of the House Armed Services Committee. "I know that I will be asked about it when I go to India, and I hope to be able to tell them that that sale is just one aspect of many military sales that we make across the world, and that we view our relationship with India very importantly," Harris said. "I hope that we can work through this sale, and their perception of it, to continue to improve our relationship with India," Admiral Harris said, responding to a question on F-16 from Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard, the first ever Hindu Congresswoman elected to the US House of Representatives, expressed serious concern over the Obama Administration's decision to sell the fighter jets to Pakistan. "There's a potential sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan that I and other members of Congress have expressed very serious concerns about, given the fact that Pakistan has long harboured and given safe haven to various terrorist groups that continue to launch destabilising attacks within India, as well as Afghanistan," she said. "The recent release of Hafiz Saeed, one of the masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, where six US citizens were killed, even at the protests of the United States -- there are a number of other concerns that we have," she said. "But in particular, I'm wondering if you can talk about how, as you and others have spoken of the importance of this opportunity to strengthen our relationship with India, as we head into a strong partnership into the future and the benefits that that brings us, what impact could this sale of F-16s have on our relationship with India and the work that you and others are doing to strengthen that?" Gabbard had asked. India had summoned US Ambassador Richard Verma to convey its "displeasure and disappointment" over Obama Administration's decision to sell eight F-16 fighter jets worth nearly USD 700 million to Pakistan. India disagreed with the US' rationale that such arms transfers help Pakistan in combating terrorism and believes the US military aid to Pakistan goes into anti-India activities. The Pentagon had said that the F-16 aircraft will facilitate operations in all-weather, non-daylight environments, provide a self-defence/area suppression capability, and enhance Pakistan's ability to conduct counter-insurgency and counter terrorism operations. PTI PMS Google boss backs Apple in encryption battle with FBI International oi-PTI Paris, Feb 24: Google chief Sundar Pichai today expressed his support for Apple in its standoff with the FBI over unlocking an iPhone as part of a terror probe, warning that creating so-called "backdoors" into encrypted communications could have "bad consequences". "We want to take a very strong stance against any form of backdoor whatsoever," chief executive Pichai said during a conference at Paris's Sciences Po university, as he waded into the controversy. "When you create backdooors it leads to very, very bad consequences which always ends up harming users." Apple has found itself at the heart of a closely watched legal battle after a US judge ordered the tech giant to find a way to unlock the encrypted iPhone of US citizen Syed Farook, a gunman in last year's deadly San Bernardino shootings. "User privacy is at the heart of what we do," Pichai added, though he noted the company had in the past cooperated with authorities when due legal processes had been followed. His remarks echoed those made in a series of tweets last week, in which he wrote that giving "law enforcement access to data based on valid legal orders" was "wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices & data". Apple has won the backing of a number of Silicon Valley firms in its legal fight, with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg saying Monday that he was "pretty sympathetic" with Apple's quandary. AFP 'Views of fringe elements': India to Qatar on BJP leader's remarks on Prophet If Qatar doesnt do better on terror funding, it risks joining Pakistan in the Grey List Qatar's food security crisis and what India is doing about it Qatar, Kuwait urge citizens to leave Lebanon International oi-PTI Doha, Feb 24: Qatar and Kuwait today became the latest Gulf states to urge their citizens to leave Lebanon due to tensions over the pro-Iranian Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah which backs the Damascus regime. Doha's foreign ministry, in a statement on the official Qatar News Agency (QNA), called on citizens in Lebanon to "leave for their own safety" and said no Qatari nationals should travel there. Earlier today, in a statement cited by the official KUNA news agency, the Kuwaiti embassy in Beirut also advised Kuwaitis to postpone any planned travel to Lebanon. The mission said all citizens should leave "except in extreme circumstances," and advised those who stay to exercise caution and avoid unspecified, unsafe areas. Qatar and Kuwait join Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in issuing travel warnings for Lebanon. Riyadh, which supports the Syrian opposition, has also halted a USD 4-billion military and police funding programme for Beirut in response to what it said were "hostile" positions linked to Hezbollah. Riyadh's ambassador in Lebanon, Ali Awad Assiri, said today that Lebanon must apologise for failing to join other Arab nations in condemning attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran last month. "This has upset the kingdom and (Lebanon) has to repair the error with wisdom and courage," Assiri told AFP. The attacks on Saudi missions in Iran, which followed the kingdom's execution of influential Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, prompted Riyadh to cut diplomatic ties with Tehran. Syria's war has exacerbated political rivalries within Lebanon, which has been without a president for almost two years because of fierce disagreements between Hezbollah and its rivals, some of whom are supported by Riyadh. Meanwhile, the spokesman of Yemen's internationally-recognised government accused Hezbollah of training Shiite Huthi rebels and orchestrating attacks on Saudi Arabia from Yemen. The government has evidence of "Hezbollah's involvement in the Huthi war on the Yemeni people," Rajih Badi said in a statement to the official sabanew.net agency. Hezbollah militants are present in "the battlefields along the border with Saudi Arabia," said Badi, urging "international legal measures" against the movement. Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition battling the Iran-backed rebels in support of the Yemeni government. AFP What does the US actually want in Syria? US Navy to sail more in contested parts of S China Sea International oi-PTI Washington, Feb 25: The US Navy plans to increase "freedom of navigation" operations in the South China Sea as Beijing continues its military buildup in the contested waterway, a US admiral has said. The sailings involve a US warship coming within 12 nautical miles of islets claimed by China as a way of rebutting Beijing's assertions of sovereignty. Since October, the Navy has carried out two such freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, saying the missions are an important way of upholding international law. "We'll be doing them more and we'll be doing them with greater complexity in the future," Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, yesterday told lawmakers in Washington. "We'll fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows." China's claims to almost all of the South China Sea are widely disputed and the body of water has long been viewed as a potential flashpoint. China is using dredgers to turn reefs and low-lying features into larger land masses for runways and other military uses to bolster its claims of sovereignty in the region. Satellite imagery released by a Washington think tank this week shows China is installing radar facilities on its artificial islands. China has also deployed surface-to-air missiles and lengthened a runway to accommodate fighter jets on one such islet, Woody Island. "China's intent to militarize the South China Sea is as certain as a traffic jam in DC," Harris told the House Armed Services Committee in reference to congestion on the streets of Washington. He did not offer specifics on the upcoming freedom of navigation sailings but suggested they be carried out by a type of destroyer that "is well able to defend itself should those operations go awry." AFP eBaums World 21 Oct 2022 It was reported back in June of this year that pop sensation Shakira had caught long-time husband and soccer player Gerard Pique.. President Muhammadu Buhari has approved another four-year tenure for the Rector, Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger state, Dr Abubakar Dzukogi. The Registrar of the polytechnic, Alhaji Hussaini Enagi, made this known in a statement issued in Minna on Thursday. Enagi quoted a letter signed by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, a copy of which was made available to the Polytechnic Management, to confirm the reappointment of the rector. I write to convey to you the approval of Mr President, His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, for your reappointment as Rector, Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger State. The appointment is for a second and last tenure of four years, with effect from 21st May, 2019 in line with the Federal Polytechnic Act CAP. F.17, Section 8, the letter quoted the minister as saying. According to Enagi, the minister stressed that by the rectors reappointment, his second tenure will terminate on Feb. 15, 2021, upon his attainment of 65 years in line with the condition of service in the polytechnic sector. Enagi said that the minister urged the rector to strive to justify the confidence reposed in him while wishing him a very successful tenure. Theregistrar, on behalf of the management, staff and students of the institution,congratulated the Dzukogi on his reappointment. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Dzukogi was first appointed rector of the polytechnic by the Federal Government on May 22, 2015. The State High Court in Jos, on Thursday adjourned to April 9, hearing in ex-Gov. Jonah Jangs alleged N6.3 billion fraud case to enable prosecuting counsel conclude submissions. Jang and Yusuf Pam, a former cashier in the Plateau Government House, were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) over fraud allegedly committed between Sept. 2010 and Oct. 2014, NAN reports. The duo is facing a 12-count charge bordering on conspiracy and money laundering, allegedly committed when Jang was governor of Plateau. The EFCC had alleged that the defendants conspired to defraud the state of N6.3bn, via illegal acts. The anti-graft agency said the acts were contrary to, and punishable under sections 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition Act) 2011, as amended. When the case came up for continuation of hearing before Justice Daniel Longji of High Court IV, Jos, on Thursday, two prosecution witnesses were taken into evidence. However, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), the defense Counsel to Jang, applied for an adjournment to enable him attend to some pressing needs. My Lord I am aware we have earlier fixed March 5, March 6 and March 7, for this case, but I am afraid I cannot continue up to tomorrow due to a pressing issue before me. I will like to apply for an adjournment if it pleases My Lord since l have conferred with my learned silk, the prosecuting counsel, Mr Rotimi Jacobs, for understanding, Ozekhome pleaded. Longji then granted the adjournment of the case, as sought, to April 9 and April 10, for continuation of hearing. Hundreds of women on Thursday staged a protest in Ogu area of Rivers State following alleged arrest of some men in the community. Among those allegedly arrested were Opekere Nathan, who is an aide to the lawmaker representing Ogu Bolo constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Evans Bipi by unknown gunmen. One of the leaders of the protest, Christiana Tamunoberetoani, said men in military uniforms invaded the town on Wednesday night and whisked some men away to unknown destination. She said, We are here to let the nation know what is happening in Ogu. We are a peaceful community. Last night, some military men came into our community and picked some of our people. They broke into their houses and arrested them. They did not even report to the security agencies in our place. As it stands, over seven people have been arrested. We are condemning this act of intimidation and we call on the military to stop this unlawful arrested and release our people. The women also took their protest to the police station, the DSS office and the Military check point all in Ogu town. A Dutch threesome model who died after a drug-fuelled swingers party in Malaysia was dead before she plunged naked from a 20th floor apartment, an inquest heard. Ivana Smit, 18, was found dead on a sixth floor balcony of an upmarket high rise in Kuala Lumpur on December 7, 2017. She had been partying at the home of US tycoon Alexander Amado Johnson, 45 and his wife Luna Almaz, 31, who claim they had been having sex with Ms Smit before she died. Malaysian coroner, Mahyon Talib, ruled today that no crime had been committed although there was evidence of struggle, including trauma to the back of her head and the DNA of Mr Johnson being found under her fingernails. Ms Smits family lawyer, Sankara Nair, expressed outrage over the ruling as he reportedly said: Surely a dead body cant walk over and take a dive? Somebody threw her body down. Ms Smits uncle, Fred Agenjo Weinfold, told The Sun last April that they believe there was a crime. She had the world at her feet. We simply dont believe she killed herself or it could have been an accident, he said. She promised she would be in Belgium for the Top Model final but she came back in a casket. Announcing the ruling, Talib said: Grip marks on her arm, the trauma at the back of her head, the broken bottles and Alexs DNA under Ivanas nails suggest that there might have been a possibility that there was a struggle. She agreed with a Dutch pathologist, who had concluded Ivana likely died in the apartment. She said: We cannot know what actually happened between the three of them. A post-mortem found Ms Smit had cocaine, alcohol and high levels of PMMA, an amphetamine sometimes sold as ecstasy, in her system. Police ruled it an accidental death following an investigation and made the s Share this: Business / Companies by Staff reporter VimpelCom Limited says it still owns a majority stake in Telecel Zimbabwe Limited, as negotiations with the government over the 60 percent by out continue.Last year, VimpelCom was pressured by president Robert Mugabe's administration to sell its stake in the mobile operator to Zarnet after its offers to a variety of foreign and local investors was blocked on the basis that previous sales had not yielded any capital gains tax for the cash-strapped government.Telecel is Zimbabwe's smallest mobile telephone operator with over 2,4 million subscribers. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has implored Kwara electorates to ignore the threat by the opposition to attack them during the Saturdays Governorship and State Assembly elections. The minister stated this on Thursday in Ilorin at the final rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to canvass vote for its Governorship candidate, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and other candidates. Mohammed who is APC leader in the state, said opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), having suffered defeat in the Feb. 23 Presidential and National Assembly elections was deliberately creating panic to prevent voters from coming out. Read Also: Four to die by hanging in Kwara He said the President had ordered the security agencies to deploy their men to cover the elections and protect all voters from any form of intimidation and harassment. There has been a lot of panic being deliberately created by the opposition having seeing the handwriting on the wall in the last elections. They want to intimidate people and prevent them from coming out to vote. Please do not be intimidated by anyone. Nobody can tell you not to come out to vote. Please come out en mass to vote for APC on Saturday. The President has given the directive to all security agents that anyone who dares to disrupt Saturdays election action will have himself to blame. After voting, ensure that you wait to protect your votes until counting and accompany them to the collation centres. `We will get our total independence from our oppressors on Saturday, he said. Mohammed said that the last election was the part one of O to Ge (Enough is Enough) and the part two is coming up on Saturday. He said the people should use their votes to completely exit the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his lieutenants from Kwara. The minister said that the people had been deceived for so long and they should use their vote on Saturday to get their final liberation. NAN Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Swiss listed multi-strategy fund of hedge funds ALTIN AG on Thursday categorically rejected the proposals of Alpine Select AG to pay out a substantial dividend and to recall three long-standing members of the Board and replace them with appointees nominated by Alpine Select. In a statement, ALTIN said that its board recognizes Alpine Select as an important shareholder of the company and proposes the election of Thomas Amstutz as a new member of the Board. Earlier, ALTIN has agreed to schedule an Extraordinary General Meeting on 18 March 2016 to be held at 2:00pm (CET) in Zug, Switzerland on the request of Alpine Select and another shareholder, Absolute Invest AG. ALTIN said, "The Board of Directors strongly feels the measures brought forward by Alpine Select will be detrimental to the interests of ALTIN and its shareholders. The Board of Directors of ALTIN are categorically opposed to the requested distribution of a gross dividend of CHF 68994120 (CHF 20 per share before deduction of 35% Swiss withholding tax) out of the retained earnings for a number of fundamental reasons." The firm cited the following reasons: Reich Lists 3 Ingredients Necessary for Change that Bernie's Campaign Includes Robert Reich (Image by courtesy of Robert Reich) Details DMCA My guest today is economist, author, professor of public policy, political commentator and former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich. Welcome back to OpEdNews, Bob. JB: We last spoke back in 2014. Lots has happened since then. A few weeks back, you wrote a great Op-Ed piece, The Volcanic Core Fueling the 2016 Election[1.26.16]. What is the volcanic core you're referring to? Tell us more, please. RR: Hi, Joan. I'm referring to a large and growing commitment to wrest control of our democracy and economy back from the moneyed interests -- Wall Street, big corporations, and billionaires. It's becoming a movement. You can see it in the Sanders campaign, for example -- especially among young people who poured into the Iowa caucuses February 1st. But I also see some evidence of the same movement in Republican campaigns. JB: You mention in your piece that there are many voters who are weighing their options and deciding between Sanders and Trump. That's counterintuitive and also astounding. Can you explain the phenomenon for us? Is it something that is particular to 2016 or have you seen it before? RR: I've never seen anything like it before, and I was flabbergasted when I began hearing it from voters on my book tour -- mostly from "red state" voters in the South and the Midwest. When I asked them to explain, they talked about crony capitalism, political corruption, corporate welfare, the Wall Street bailout, the Trans Pacific Partnership, the escalation of big money in politics, and so on. What's so striking is that many of them described themselves as conservative Republicans or Tea Partiers, but they sounded like Bernie Sanders. JB: That is really fascinating. And quite unexpected. You wrote in your OpEd piece, "It's about power -- whether those who have it will keep it, or whether average Americans will get some as well." I think that's exactly on target. And it may be so, but aren't candidates' actual policy plans important to the voters, too? RR: Of course, but politicians don't have a prayer of getting their plans enacted without the public behind them. And that's why movement politics is so important. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 couldn't have become realities without the Civil Rights movement. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 wouldn't have stood a chance without the growth of a strong labor movement. Movement politics is especially important in times like these, when the moneyed interests have such a chokehold on our political system. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Gary Null, PhD. With only 148 Americans officially killed in action and only 467 wounded, the Gulf War seemed to be a shining victory for our military and its leaders. However, this victory has cast a long, lingering shadow. Today we know that nearly 200,000 of our Gulf service men and women are suffering from a debilitating and sometimes deadly syndrome. The suffering our military personnel have endured from Gulf War syndrome is outrageous in and of itself; however, the US government's decades-long denial that the illness even exists has compounded the problem tremendously. Clearly there is a sadistic irony being played out. We asked brave Americans, whether in the reserve, National Guard, or enlisted troops, to serve in dangerous environments, including Afghanistan and Iraq. We exposed them to biological and chemical agents, experimental vaccines, and environmental toxins -- ranging from the byproducts of air pollutants released from burning oil wells to depleted uranium (DU). After they are brought home, not only do they not receive adequate medical treatment, but the government even denies the existence of their very serious health conditions. As a result, many veterans have filed bankruptcy. Their conditions are not covered under any veteran program. A 2015 US Department of Housing and Urban Development report estimates that nearly 48,000 veterans are currently homeless on any given night, which accounts for approximately 11% of the entire homeless American population.(1) Since it is difficult to determine the actual number of homeless veterans, this figure is likely conservative. Due to the government's serious neglect, too many veterans are now destitute, homeless, and hungry, having spent tens of thousands of dollars and depleting their life savings in an unsuccessful attempt to relieve their ailments. As former Senators Don Riegle Jr. (D-MI) and Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY) so adeptly observed, "The veterans of the Gulf War have asked us for nothing more than the assistance they have earned. Our refusal to come to their immediate assistance can only lead others to question the integrity of the nation they serve." (2) We did it to ourselves. Pesticides, PB, nerve gas released by destroying Iraqi facilities--all are cases of friendly fire. That may explain why government and military leaders have been so reluctant to acknowledge what happened, just as they tried to cover up Agent Orange after Vietnam. Certainly, the government should have been facing the problem honestly and doing research from the start to identify diagnostic tests and treatments. (3) When you finally get into the VA system, what happens is, they'll lose your records. I went to appointments, ended up waiting four, five additional hours for the doctor simply to find my medical records or the X-rays that they took two or three days earlier. When you do get an exam, the doctor will say, 'I've got five minutes. Tell me your problem.' Then they won't record your symptoms. You hear stories about doctors where their stethoscopes were not even in their ears. You hear stories about soldiers going in there like me, with rashes and respiratory problems and the doctors not even writing it down. Then, even though we're sick, they don't do any tests. Lung function tests, sinus X-rays, chest X-rays -- they weren't doing any of that. Then for the few tests they did run, such as blood tests, in my case, they knew I had an immune deficiency -- nobody ever looked at the results. ... Unfortunately for many veterans who get out of the service and don't have any health insurance, the VA is our only option. And our only option has crashed and burned under the stress of so many hundreds of thousands of vets coming in and looking for help.(5) I believe that percentage will go up significantly. The amount of retaliation that's going on in every facility throughout the nation for decades, if the employees are encouraged that they can come forward honestly, I believe that the VA will be 90 percent of their cases. (15) Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Progressive Content Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing. To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here. Business / Economy by Staff Reporter The Minister of Foreign Affairs Simbarashe Mumbengegwi says Zimbabwe all weather friendship with China will not be affected by the recent move taken by government to stop all diamond mining activities in Chiadzwa to allow for the consolidation of the sector.In an interview with the ZBC in the capital on Thursday, Minister Mumbengegwi said government is moving ahead with those who are willing to work with government on that exercise.Mumbengegwi said invitations were extended to those companies that were willing to come on board and that the consolidation of the diamond sector is not unique to Zimbabwe alone.Mumbengegwi said the mega deals sealed during President Xi Jinping's visit and at any other time will not be affected by the recent move.A five member ministerial delegation visited Chiadzwa diamond fields on Wednesday on a fact-finding mission after panners stormed the area in the wake of a government directive to all mining firms there to cease operations and vacate the area within 90 days. Prchard Parks Maya Clinard Orchard Parks Maya Clinard, far right, took runner-up in singles at this past weekends Section VI Girls Tennis Championships at... Boys soccer peaking into sectionals It was not an ideal start to the 2022 season for the Orchard Park boys soccer team, dropping its first... A plan to build a 15-story tower near Portland State University with 424 apartments and a ground-floor supermarket won the Portland Design Commission's approval last week, despite neighbors' contention the project may not comply with zoning code. The commission voted 3-0 to approve the project, by Chicago developer Core Spaces. The property at the northeast corner of Southwest Fourth Avenue and Harrison Street is owned by Portland's Goodman family and is currently a parking lot. The building has been in the pipeline since 2014, and it took six meetings between the city and developers along with large-scale changes to the design before commissioners were satisfied. Last week's hearing lasted nearly three hours. "This experience has been truly eye-opening for us," said Chad Matesi, senior vice president of development at Core Spaces, at the hearing. "We've never experienced anything like it. ... The interaction that we've had with [city] staff, with the neighborhood ... has created a project that is much different than when we started and also, I think, more successful than when we started." In addition to the grocery store, the ground floor of the building will have 5,000 square feet of other retail space. The project will include underground parking spaces for at least 208 vehicles - 137 for residents, 66 for the grocery and five for the additional retail space. The site abuts a pedestrian trail and Pettygrove City Park. The above-ground square footage comes to nearly 355,200, which is perhaps the figure that most irks the neighbors. The dispute centers on a concept called "floor area ratio," defined as the relationship between a building's total floor area and the size of its footprint. Cities use zoning to put limits on floor area ratio and, in the process, regulate the size of new buildings. The proposed building at Fourth and Harrison would have a floor area ratio of nearly nine to one. The building would fall into two Portland zones, "Central City" and "South Auditorium," each of which normally limits the ratio to six-to-one. But in the "Central City" zone, developers can win "bonus" floor area ratio if their projects include a residential use. The Core Spaces proposal is mainly a residential project, so the city is awarding the bonus. The bonus is an extra three-to-one ratio, meaning the Fourth and Harrison proposal falls within the allowed limit. The neighbors, though, point out that the maximum floor area ratio in the South Auditorium zone is six-to-one, and the city's code language in the South Auditorium plan says, "Where the regulations of this chapter conflict with the regulations of the Central City plan district, the regulations of this chapter prevail." In a Jan. 25 letter to the city, nearby resident Joel Thorson wrote that the city's interpretation of its zoning code "flies in the face of common sense, historical fact, and plain English." "The South Auditorium district is overlaid on, and completely enclosed by, the underlying City Center plan district," Thorson wrote. "The South Auditorium overlay was created to ensure special protection - beyond that afforded by the City Center plan - for its exceptional architectural and landscaping features, green spaces, pedestrian experience, and value to the general public. It exists, in other words, because it is by nature more specific than the general City Center district." But in a city staff report, land-use planner Staci Monroe said there is "no conflict" between the two zones' regulations. "The South Auditorium plan district does not include any regulations that explicitly prohibit additional floor area ratio above the maximum, either through a bonus option or transfer from another site," Monroe wrote. "Because the South Auditorium plan district does not contain bonus floor area ratio regulations and does not contain any prohibition on bonus floor area ratio, there is no conflict." Monroe also pointed out that the adjacent Cyan building, which is on the lot north of the Fourth and Harrison site and also in both zones, took advantage of a similar bonus in 2006. The neighbors have said they do not oppose development at the site, but they feel the Core Spaces proposal is out of scale with the neighborhood. The Design Commission quibbled with other aspects of the project but largely did not discuss the issues surrounding floor area ratio. Commission chairman David Wark, who abstained from voting, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. -- Luke Hammill lhammill@oregonian.com 503-294-4029 @lucashammill oysters.JPG Oregon Oyster Farms recalled all its oysters harvested from Yaquina Bay after a norovirus outbreak reported in Lincoln County. (File photo) Oregon Oyster Farms has recalled all of its shucked and shellstock oysters that were harvested from Yaquina Bay after several reports of norovirus on the Oregon coast. The Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Department of Agriculture and Lincoln County Health and Human Services are working with Oregon Oyster Farms to investigate the cause of the norovirus outbreak, which has sickened 17 people. All recovered, although one person is hospitalized. Norovirus is the most common foodborne illness in Oregon and the U.S. It is highly contagious and can cause severe inflammation of the stomach and intestines, called gastroenteritis. The symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, stomach pain, headaches and body aches and fever. People with weaker immune systems, like young children, seniors and people with other illnesses, are especially susceptible to dehydration when dealing with norovirus. Symptoms usually pop up within 12 to 48 hours of being exposed to the virus, and can last up to three days. Authorities recommend staying at home for at least 48 hours after being infected, and to wash your hands with soap and warm water after using the bathroom, because the bacteria is resistant to alcohol hand gels. All 17 people who had norovirus reported eating oysters between Feb. 12 and 14 at restaurants in Lincoln County. It is likely that the reports are connected, because the same strain of norovirus was found in the stool of three of the people who fell ill, and in an unopened jug of Oregon Oyster Farms oysters. Oregon Oyster Farms, based in Newport, stopped harvesting oysters from Yaquina Bay on Feb. 15. It is recalling all the Yaquina Bay oysters sold to restaurants and retail stores throughout Oregon, including its on-site shop in Newport. The recall extends to oysters sold to wholesalers in New York and Massachusetts. The recall applies to you if you have Oregon Oyster Farms products with the sell-by date from Feb. 19 through March 8 in the form of: half-gallon plastic tubs pint plastic tubs 10 ounce plastic jars Raw and Ready-to-eat Shucked Oysters Or, if you have in-shell oysters in plastic mesh bags with the harvest dates of Feb. 5 through 15. If you have any of these products, state officials recommend throwing them away. You can also return them to the place you bought them for a full refund. For more information, call Oregon Oyster Farms at 541-265-5078. Meanwhile, state officials are trying to figure out when the contamination occurred. It could have been in the oyster beds or after the oysters were harvested, said state public health veterinarian Emilio DeBess, who works for the Public Health Division's Acute and Communicable Disease Prevention Section. "You're really taking your chances when you don't cook oysters before you eat them," DeBess said. "Our recommendation is that people avoid eating oysters or any shellfish unless they're cooked thoroughly, especially individuals who are immune-compromised, elderly or children." This is not the first norovirus outbreak for Oregon Oyster Farms. A 2010 recall came at the beginning of the Newport Wine & Seafood Festival. -- Molly Harbarger mharbarger@oregonian.com 503-294-5923 @MollyHarbarger News / Africa by Staff Reporter A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD Grade Five girl shocked the Matero Local Court when she narrated how her 18-year-old lover occasionally had intercourse with her in the bush and behind their house.This was a case in which Jack Banda, 40, of Kabanana Township sued Philip Daka of the same location for damages after impregnating his daughter.Times of Zambia reported that Banda said he was not interested in marrying off his daughter but wanted Daka to pay damages as his daughter was still a grade five pupil whose education cycle had been disturbed.Banda said when he called Daka's family for discussion over his daughter's pregnancy, he was insulted and told that his daughter was a sperm chamber' for engaging in sex at a tender age.He said he felt insulted because his daughter was too young and that Daka had taken advantage of her age."Why did he do this to my daughter surely in the bush, what type of a man is he?" asked Banda amid sobs.When questioned, the pregnant girl aggressively said Daka took her in the bush and had sex with her three times.She said he also had sex with her behind the house at night three times and told her he would marry her.She explained that she wondered why Daka refused to pay damages as he used to engage in sex with her without protection and promised to marry her."This man told me he loved me and told me he enjoyed sex without protection, but I wonder why he chased me when I told him I was pregnant" she said.In defence, Daka said he only had sex with Banda's daughter once and that she could not be pregnant.He said he was not responsible for the pregnancy and that Banda's daughter had several boyfriends in the locality.He also said Banda's daughter was not a v.irgin when he had intercourse with her and that he did not know that she was 15 years old.Magistrate Lewis Mumba ordered Daka to pay for damages and later detained him for the Police to charge him with defilement, stating that the issue was not civil but criminal since he slept with a minor. lightbar Officer Gerardo Gutierrez, a 43-year-old Vancouver resident, was arrested pending two misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree assault for domestic violence, Camas police said. (The Oregonian/File) Officer Gerardo Gutierrez A Vancouver police officer is on administrative leave after being arrested by Camas detectives Wednesday afternoon. Officer Gerardo Gutierrez, a 43-year-old Vancouver resident, was arrested pending two misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree assault for domestic violence, the Camas Police Department said in a news release. Gutierrez is an eight-year Vancouver Police Department veteran and is currently serving as a school resource officer, police said. The case is under investigation, police said, and Gutierrez was booked into the Clark County Jail. He has 17 years of law enforcement experience, according to the city of Vancouver website. The news release didn't specify whether Gutierrez is on paid or unpaid administrative leave. Vancouver police officials asked Camas police to start an investigation on Tuesday, according to the news release. The request came after an alleged "domestic violence situation" involving a Vancouver officer was reported to Vancouver police on Sunday. -- Jim Ryan jryan@oregonian.com 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015 psu.JPG A proposed payroll tax would raise more than $35 million each year for Portland State University. (RICK BOWMER/The Associated Press) Portland's chamber of commerce leader believes a proposed payroll tax that would benefit Portland State University violates the state's constitution. Sandra McDonough, Portland Business Alliance president, filed a petition Wednesday challenging PSU's tax proposal in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Wednesday was the deadline to challenge the prospective initiative's ballot language. The chamber of commerce had already teamed up with State Sen. Betsy Johnson in Salem to try and derail the proposed payroll tax, which is designed to raise more revenue for PSU. Now McDonough wants a judge to determine whether the proposed tax meets the state's single subject requirements for initiatives and referendums. The proposal, a one-tenth of one percent tax on wages paid by employers for businesses performed in the Metro regional government's service area, would collect between $35 million and $40 million annually for PSU student scholarships, more faculty positions and advisers. Metro's service area includes a population of more than 1.5 million people in Portland, and parts of Washington and Clackamas County. According to McDonough's complaint, the proposal "is administrative and exceeds Metro's jurisdiction." Backers of the payroll tax also filed a challenge Wednesday, arguing that Metro, which had the job of submitting the ballot title and description, failed to approve clear and accurate language. The ballot language "does not plainly phrase the chief purpose" of the proposal and misstates other key aspects of the proposed legislation, according to co-chief petitioner Peter Zuckerman. Zuckerman argued that the Metro-approved ballot language "does not contain an impartial statement summarizing the measure and its major effects," including that the tax would be paid by employers rather than employees. Zukerman proposed more explicit ballot language that indicates the tax is one-tenth of one percent and only affects the Metro service district, not the entire metro region. If the proposal survives legal scrutiny, the petitioners will have six months to collect 34,124 valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot. -- Andrew Theen atheen@oregonian.com 503-294-4026 @andrewtheen oregon buddhist vihara The Oregon Buddhist Vihara, located at 148 S.E. Walnut St. in Hillsboro, has been a spiritual home for Sri Lankan Buddhists for more than a decade. According to the plan for a new temple, this home and accessory buildings on the property would be torn down. (Samantha Swindler/The Oregonian) Sri Lankan Buddhists in Washington County have gathered at a small house in downtown Hillsboro for more than a decade, but now they're taking steps to build a larger, more traditional temple. The head monk at the Oregon Buddhist Vihara, located at 148 S.E. Walnut St., applied to the city of Hillsboro for approval of a plan to build a two-story temple on the property, according to a public notice. A hearing is set for 6:30 p.m. March 16 at the Hillsboro Civic Center, located at 150 East Main Street. The temple's resident monks could not be reached for comment. Drawings attached to the public notice show a temple with two main buildings attached by a glass walkway. The northern building, which would face Southeast Walnut Street, would contain a meditation hall for services, according to the notice. The southern building would house the two resident monks, Sunday school space and a library. "The beautiful entrance, the unique roof similar to that of the dalada maligawa, and the tranquil courtyard all ivoke tranquil memories we have of Sri Lankan temples that we grew up with or have visited," the temple's website says in a page detailing the new project. Sri Lankan buddhists celebrated the opening of the Oregon Buddhist Vihara in June 2005. It was founded by the Venerable Pallebage Chandasiri, who served at a temple in Los Angeles for 10 years before moving to Oregon. Theravada Buddhism is dominant in Sri Lanka, where roughly 70 percent follow Buddhism. Theravada is one of two major forms of the religion and is prominent in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. Buddhists from Japan, China and Korea typically follow the other form, called Mahayana. -- Melissa Binder mbinder@oregonian.com 503-294-7656 @binderpdx Furry bundles of love, joy and fun in the form of a litter of Bernese Mountain Dog puppies provided a very real healing experience for Julia Thompson and her daughters Zinnia and Ruby of Portland. In April 2015, 5-year-old Zinnia had surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor. She underwent radiation and chemotherapy. A caring friend sought to help ease some of the young girl's pain and stress by matching her up with a litter of puppies owned by Jennifer Brightbill of Brechbuhler Bernese Mountain Dogs of Oregon City. The result was an afternoon of fun and excitement for a very brave little girl (and her sister Ruby, 3) as well as an excellent socialization opportunity for the puppies. Jennifer Thompson Trepanier (no relation) of Southwest Portland organized what she calls "Pile of Puppies," and she hopes this is just the beginning. Trepanier spent the bulk of her teen years with a rare autoimmune disease called Dermatomyositis that affects 3,000 to 5,000 children in the United States yearly, according to the Myositis Association. With the disease came extreme weakness, pain, monthly IVs, and an operation to place a port in her chest. During the visit with Zinnia, the child asked to see her port scar and then showed her own. "In that moment, I got the shivers because it felt like I came full circle. It was as though I suffered as a child, so that now, as an adult, I could bring joy to children who are suffering. I was bridging my two passions: my love for animals and my calling to help those who suffer," Trepanier said. Pile of Puppies' maiden voyage last November was the visit to Zinnia's house. But Trepanier wants to expand the idea by creating a service that matches ill children with dog owners raising a litter of pups - first in the Portland area, and then possibly throughout the Northwest and California. Pile of Puppies maintains a Facebook page with information on how to get involved. Trepanier is especially looking for breeders who are planning litters to discuss the possibility of a puppy visit. Trepanier also hopes to connect with families who want this type of experience for their children. (Message Trepanier directly via the Facebook page.) The window of opportunity for visits like this can be very small. Trepanier has to juggle the health needs of the child (a doctor's OK will be required) with the best time for breeders to bring puppies for a visit. Most puppies are ready to go to their new homes between eight and 12 weeks. This leaves only a small window of time to organize and schedule a Pile of Puppies visit. Trepanier hopes breeders will contact her directly even before the puppies are born. The logistics of creating this experience for children is daunting, but Trepanier is willing to put in the time. "When you are severely sick, when you have no energy for anything or are in pain constantly," Trepanier said, "the best remedy are furry little bundles who unconditionally love you and ask nothing in return." By Cliff Thomason Watching the governor come out with two wage-increase proposals, then support a third this month was troubling. The self-appointed champion of disenfranchised and poverty-stricken voters was starting class warfare on a level never witnessed in Oregon. With the passage of HB2177 in 2015, Kate Brown pushed through her signature "motor voter" law, stating she wanted 300,000 new voters to engage in the political process. But what she didn't say was they could only vote on things she saw fit for them to vote on. This month, she watched SB1532 whisk through a legislative short session with an emergency clause attached to it. She made no secret; she was giddy with anticipation at her desk, ready to sign SB1532. All the while Republican opponents asked for more time and scrutiny on such an important issue. Not only did the short session not allow for solid collaboration and policy by lawmakers, but by attaching an emergency clause to the bill, the constitutional right of voters to take this issue to the ballot has been denied with the stroke of a pen. Integrity and transparency are what she promised; she is delivering the opposite. Oregon is known as appreciating equality for all regardless of status. SB1532 states that some are more valuable than others. I have to tell my daughter she is worth more than a woman in Roseburg but less than a man in Portland because of her regional classification. A hospitality worker at a highly ranked hotel on Oregon's beautiful coast could make less than a comparable worker at an economy hotel near a truck stop on Interstate 5. Oregon's Constitution speaks to this disparity. Article I, section 20 of the Oregon Constitution currently states: "No law shall be passed granting to any citizen or class of citizens privileges, or immunities, which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens." The regional minimum wage is a direct violation of Oregon's Constitution. Had Brown not been so intent on raising wages through a 35-day session, the constitutionality of such an overreach might have been considered. Not only did she not consider the state Constitution when signing this bill, she also denied the constitutional right of citizens to vote on the matter. I ask that the attorney general investigate the constitutionality of SB1532. No class of citizens should be placed above or below others simply based on geographical characteristics. * Cliff Thomason is an Independent Party of Oregon gubernatorial candidate. Haneda Airport.JPG Jets at Haneda Airport near Tokyo, Japan, in a 2009 file photo. Haneda is slated for increased international traffic, while the better-known Narita Airport, well outside Tokyo, will continue with an emphasis on budget commercial carriers. (AP Photo) By the editors of the Yomiuri Shimbun We hope the functions of Haneda and Narita airports, the two airports that serve the Tokyo metropolitan area, will be strengthened further so they capture more of the demand for air travel from abroad. Japan-U.S. aviation negotiations reached an agreement to increase the number of routes between Haneda Airport and the United States. Ten new daytime landing and takeoff slots for round-trips between the two countries will be set at Haneda, and direct flights from Haneda to U.S. East Coast cities, such as New York, are expected to take to the sky as soon as this autumn. Currently, Haneda's only routes to the United States are flights to Hawaii and the West Coast that depart late at night or early in the morning. No airline company has established flights to the U.S. East Coast, because the planes would arrive there late at night or the early morning. A flight taking off from Haneda during the daytime would reach the U.S. East Coast by early evening local time, making this a convenient route for passengers. This can be expected to increase the number of business travelers and holidaymakers flying between Japan and the United States. We hope Japanese and U.S. carriers will thoroughly ensure the safety of flights on these routes and compete fiercely to improve the services they offer. The number of passengers from Southeast Asia and China, whose economies have grown quickly in recent years, is continuing to rise. Tapping into this robust demand and boosting the number of tourists to Japan is a major element of the government's growth strategy. In 2020, Tokyo will host the Olympic Games and Paralympics. From the perspective of convenience for visitors to Japan, it is hugely significant to beef up the number of routes and flights to and from Narita and Haneda, which are gateways to Japan. Narita still has role This increase in flight routes was realized because daytime slots, which had been filled to capacity, became available due to the construction of a runway and improved air traffic control technologies. The government plans to ease flight restrictions over central Tokyo in a bid to further increase arrivals and departures at Haneda. By boosting the number of possible flight paths, the government aims to enable Haneda's runways to be used more efficiently. Some residents in areas that would come under the paths taken by these new flights have voiced concern about the risk of accidents and noise pollution. The government has indicated it will minimize the negative impacts of these flights by taking such steps as reducing landing fees for low-noise aircrafts and restricting the time frame during which these flights can operate. It will be essential to gain the understanding of these residents by repeatedly giving detailed explanations of these measures. There are fears that Haneda's increased links to overseas destinations could result in the decline of Narita. However, Narita's role as an international hub for the Asia-Pacific region still remains important. The construction of a third runway at Narita is being considered. To ensure this runway would be an effective investment, meticulous demand forecasts and discussions with local residents should be steadily conducted. The number of passengers who use Narita is rising as a result of last year's opening of a terminal that exclusively serves low-cost carriers. The airport will need to continually strive to attract budget airlines that are expanding their business. Narita likely will have to further differentiate its market from that of Haneda. (c) 2016, The Japan News This editorial appeared in Thursday's editions of the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Shimbun. CUBA2.JPG Tourists ride in vintage American cars as they pass the U.S. Embassy in Havana earlier this month. (AP Photo) By the editors of Bloomberg View With all due respect to Mick and Keith, a Rolling Stones concert is no longer a life-changing experience. Neither is a visit from a U.S. president, necessarily. Change in Cuba -- where these two events are scheduled for successive days next month -- depends most of all on the Cuban government. President Barack Obama's trip to Cuba on March 21 is not, as its critics contend, a vote of confidence in President Raul Castro's government. It is simply an opportunity for Obama to acknowledge both the successes of his policy and its limits. More than a year after the normalization of ties began between the U.S. and Cuba, there are tangible signs of progress. Commercial flights and ferry service from the U.S. will soon resume, bringing even more American travelers to Cuba. U.S. cellular companies now provide service on the island, and Internet access has improved. The first U.S. factory on Cuban soil in more than half a century will soon open. And serious talks have begun on issues such as investor protections, telecom regulations and environmental protection. Like the hundreds of millions more dollars in U.S. remittances now lifting the fortunes of ordinary Cubans and fueling small businesses, these developments can have a powerful cumulative effect. For one thing, they raise popular expectations and put the onus for change squarely on Cuba's government. Moreover, even with the embargo intact, a visit from a hugely popular American president may help to convince the Cuban people that the U.S. is no enemy. So you can expect an eloquent speech or two. But soaring rhetoric about free expression is meaningless without support for those who depend on it to criticize the Castro regime, which has increased its persecution of them. Obama can also help his credibility by recognizing that, for most Cubans, daily life is much as it was. The government retains overwhelming control of the economy. Bringing about positive change in Cuba won't be quick or easy. And a lot of what counts as change in Cuba is something that came to the rest of the world a long time ago (see: Stones, Rolling). But recent developments in Latin America -- Chavismo's crackup in Venezuela, the election of a new president in Argentina, and the cease-fire in Colombia -- make change in Cuba more likely. So, too, will Obama's trip. (c) 2016, Bloomberg View 1windenergy.jpg A bill moving through the Legislature would force Oregon's biggest utilities to abandon coal-fired plants by 2030 and move to 50 percent renewable power by 2040. (The Oregonian/OregonLive file photo) Oregon Public Utility Commission Chairwoman Susan Ackerman's testimony about an anti-coal bill lacked the rhetorical punch of her colleague, who condemned an early version of the proposal in an email as "absolute crap." But her comments this week to legislators, while cleaned up for a political audience, hit some of the same notes in describing the effects of HB4036, which would require utilities to stop importing electricity from coal-fired plants by 2030 and set a target of meeting 50 percent of energy demand with renewable sources by 2040. While the commission neither supports nor opposes the bill officially, it's hard to see a lot of enthusiasm in such comments as these. The ban on importing power generated by out-of-state coal plants would be "both costly and ineffectual," she said. "It will raise customer rates but it will not actually reduce the amount of carbon emitted from those plants in the air as compared to a future without that (ban)." Oregon may claim it's meeting its greenhouse goals, but not by achieving any actual reductions, she added, saying "it's an accounting scheme." In other words, the bill is more about giving Oregonians meaningless bragging rights than creating effective policies that achieve what legislators -- supposedly -- want: reduced carbon emissions. Oregonian editorials reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom. are Helen Jung, Erik Lukens, Steve Moss and Len Reed. To respond to this editorial: Post your comment below, submit a , or write a . If you have questions about the opinion section, contact Erik Lukens, editorial and commentary editor, at or 503-221-8142. This is not a surprise. Anyone who genuinely wanted to restructure energy policy to be effective, efficient and sustainable would not have sought to ram through these massive changes in a short session. Nor would they have so readily cut the utility commission out of the development of the bill, which was hatched by an invitation-only collection of environmental groups, renewable energy advocates, PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric leading up to the legislative session, as The Oregonian/OregonLive's Ted Sickinger has reported. It should raise Oregonians' suspicions that the group felt that input from the commission tasked with regulating those utilities and ensuring Oregonians receive reliable service for fair rates was just too darn inconvenient to seek. Commissioners, who got wind of the bill as it was taking shape, were able to do their own evaluation of the proposals, identifying many flaws that they believed the governor's office and the public should be aware of. But when the bill's backers issued a Jan. 6 press release touting the benefits of the proposal they brokered, Ackerman was muzzled by the governor's office and told to keep the commission's concerns quiet until they talked further. So even as reporters sought the commission's views to counter the one-sided kumbaya hype emanating from the environmental groups and utilities, Ackerman could not share the commission's concerns about the potential costs to consumers, the ineffectiveness of reducing carbon, and the absence at the table of experts looking out for the public. Turns out that legislators also found the utility commission's alarms too inconvenient to consider. The bill sailed through the House, despite the commission's testimony about its flaws and the sweetheart provisions for utilities that would be borne by ratepayers. It was not until the bill reached the Senate's Business and Transportation Committee, chaired by former public utility commissioner Sen. Lee Beyer, D-Springfield, that the bill was amended to build in a little more control for regulators. Ackerman's testimony is worth a listen, especially in light of backers' shameless efforts to spin the bill as a big win for the environment. As Ackerman repeatedly noted that the ban on importing energy from coal-fired plants will not reduce carbon, Sen. Chuck Riley, D-Hillsboro, asked if there could be reductions if other states followed Oregon's lead. The question pleased the bill's environmental organization backers who tweeted about Riley's "good point." Unfortunately, that good point isn't backed by good logic. As Ackerman pointed out, the coal plants operate in coal-producing states like Montana, Wyoming and Utah, which are highly unlikely to vote to close them down. The impotence of the Oregon bill on the operation of these coal plants is a point that even the utilities concede, Ackerman noted. If Oregon really wanted to work on a policy that would reduce carbon, it should be examining carbon taxes or a cap-and-trade program, she said. But forcing this bill through with all its sweeping changes would sap the state's ability to structure and pass something more meaningful. If legislators believe that reducing carbon emissions is a top priority, then they should focus their attention on the most effective way of doing so in a process that's not artificially constrained by ballot measure threats or self-serving deadlines. Unfortunately, the Legislature and Gov. Brown are making it clear that phantom benefits, as long as they make us sound good, are good enough. -- The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board plant.jpg Bullseye Glass on Southeast 21st in Portland, which had used cadmium and arsenic. (Steve Duin) By Mary Peveto Recently, The Oregonian/OregonLive's editorial board asked why it took the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) so long to begin monitoring air quality after the U.S. Forest Service alerted them to elevated levels of arsenic and cadmium in several Portland neighborhoods. We believe there is an even bigger question at play: Is a bureaucratic state agency the right entity to protect Portlanders' public health? DEQ's real delay should be measured not in months, but in years. Yes, the agency clearly dragged its feet between May 2015, when DEQ staff first learned about the U.S. Forest Service's findings, and February 2016, when the public did. But the news about elevated cadmium and arsenic in Portland was hardly "new" to DEQ in 2015. In fact, the unusually high concentration of the cadmium and arsenic -- along with diesel particulates and a dozen other toxics in Portland's residential neighborhoods -- has been on the agency's radar for more than a decade. I know because the agency shared this information more than five years ago with me and all the members (including industry representatives) of DEQ's Portland Air Toxics Solutions Advisory Committee. DEQ staff told the committee members at that time -- just like it says today -- they had no explanation for the high levels of cadmium, arsenic and lead monitored near Harriet Tubman Middle School in North Portland since 2005. But they knew then -- just as they know now -- that these are dangerous levels with serious public health risks. Industry's response? We don't believe you. Why no action in 10 years? Oregon's DEQ is still operating with antiquated rules written primarily by and for the benefit of polluters. There are no enforceable limits or basic pollution monitoring required for even the largest polluters in our state, much less the type of smaller industrial operations scattered throughout urban neighborhoods that are the focus of this latest crisis. Without state-level enforcement or attention to public health impacts, the battle for our kids' and communities' health has become a David vs. Goliath fight. I came to this issue in 2009 only after I stumbled on a national study showing that Chapman Elementary School -- the school all three of my daughters attended -- ranks among the worst 2 percent in the country for schools at risk of toxic industrial air pollution. My neighbors and fellow parents founded the grassroots organization Neighbors for Clean Air, to take on the battles that our state regulators would not. Operating on a shoestring budget, we have had to get creative to find ways to hold industrial polluters (who are operating within the letter of laws they helped write) accountable for the dangers they pose to our children's health. Using good neighbor agreements and odor regulations, we have been successful in winning small battles against big polluters like Esco, Vigor Industrial and Intel. But the stakes are too high to leave this up to DIY air emissions regulations, especially considering that the folks most impacted are the ones who have the least resources to mount the effort needed to protect their families. DEQ and the Multnomah County Health Department all know that areas with the highest concentrations of communities of color and lowest incomes also have the highest levels of deadly air pollution. We are encouraged to see Gov. Kate Brown and our congressional delegation taking action to hold DEQ accountable. And we believe serious reforms are indeed needed at an agency that has withered under unrelenting (and well-funded) pressure by big business. But we remain skeptical that the level of necessary change will be possible as long as Portland's air quality lies in the hands of a state agency. If this were in our hands, we'd implement rules today that would address the greatest danger by requiring industrial facilities to do comprehensive individual risk assessments like California and Washington require of their businesses, and by establishing an enforceable diesel standard. Instead we must wait on a state agency to yet again study the risk. In today's political environment, it often takes a scandal to drive change. We hope that the flurry of activity around this latest crisis is enough to result in the investment and structural change that will ensure there isn't yet another neighborhood air toxics crisis in the wings. * Mary Peveto is president of Neighbors for Clean Air. Rufus Post Office The rural post office in Rufus, Oregon -- population about 250. (Beth Nakamura/Staff) Postage stamps and voting: Regarding "Buying a postage stamp is a burden for many would-be voters," (Feb. 23): The authors think that purchasing a postage stamp is too much expense and trouble for voters. They think putting an envelope in the mail takes too much time and is inconvenient. Is it more convenient to go to a polling place and stand in line to vote? Is a 49-cent stamp too much to pay to exercise our voting privileges? What about the thousands of people who don't bother to vote? Perhaps the writers would like state officials to come to their homes to help them fill out the ballots? I love being able to vote by mail. It's a privilege for which I am happy to purchase a stamp. Stamps can be purchased in many places, including supermarkets. So why is it such a burden to get them? Theresa Verboort Hillsboro * I tend to lean pretty strongly toward the liberal end of the political spectrum, but I find myself agog at the suggestion that the requirement to put a stamp on a completed ballot somehow represents a burden for Oregon voters -- in any sense of the word. The op-ed's authors, Mario Parker-Milligan and Nikki Fisher, admit that "49-cent postage is obviously not exorbitant." Rather, they argue, it's finding time to buy postage while working multiple jobs. This is utterly laughable. Costco sells stamps at cost. Office Depot sells stamps at cost. Fred Meyer sells stamps at cost. Safeway sells stamps at cost. Assuming a person isn't starving, that means he or she must necessarily be buying groceries somewhere. That person can just add a packet of stamps to the next grocery run. Today's stamps will be valid forever, even after rate increases. A voter who can't figure this out is not smart enough to cast a ballot intelligently. Are we really turning into the lifeless blobs depicted in the surprisingly dystopian movie "WALL-E" -- incapable of taking any independent action? Tim Roberts Tigard News / Africa by Staff Reporter A 68-year old Zimbabwean man Musa Dlomo, who was described as a hardcore criminal in court, has been slapped with a six-year jail term for stealing a Toyota truck.The Voice reported that the accused was given a six-year sentence after being found guilty of stealing a car belonging to Minetech PTY/LTD on August 9 last year.Passing sentence, Principal Magistrate Dumisani Basupi said that the accused's mitigation does not favour him at all."In 2001, the accused was convicted for escaping from lawful custody while in 2008, he was convicted for unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition and also entering the country illegally. In 2010 he was convicted for theft of motor vehicle and being found in possession of a firearm and ammunition," said Basupi.In his mitigation, Dlomo pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy and give him a non-custodial sentence. The magistrate further stated that the accused's tendency to repeat offences that he has previously been punished for portray him as a hardened criminal.In addition Basupi said that the vehicle worth P150,000 had been recovered,therefore he has no doubt that Dlomo did not benefit much from the theft.Basupi advised the accused to appeal at the High Court if he is not pleased with the conviction or sentence or both. Facts of the matter are that the managing director of Minetech reported the car stolen after he found it missing from the company's premises situated at the Light Industrial Area. He later learnt that police at Masunga found it in the possession of the accused after they arrested him at Mapoka in the North East district.The managing director did not permit anyone to drive the vehicle in question because it was still being repaired at the time.The magistrate added that the second prosecution witness, Edwin Mkandawira, a mechanic at Minetech, also corroborated the managing director's version.Mkandawira, Basupi said, was still working on the car when it was stolen. terminal.JPG (Courtesy of Port of Vancouver) By Alishia Topper and Amanda Fritz The cities of Portland and Vancouver stand together in opposing the largest proposed oil terminal in North America. The Tesoro-Savage project would move 360,000 barrels (15 million gallons) of crude oil each day on trains, store oil in massive tanks along the Columbia River's shores and ship oil to foreign and domestic markets. The plan poses an unprecedented threat to the public health, safety and environmental integrity of our region. Even as the two largest cities on the Columbia River speak with a united voice against an oil terminal in Vancouver -- both of our city councils have opposed the Tesoro project -- we recognize that it is Washington's Gov. Jay Inslee who has the ultimate authority to protect our communities from dangerous oil trains. As elected officials, the health and safety of our communities are our top priorities. We've heard from thousands of people -- including firefighters, health professionals, businesses and local longshoremen -- that oil trains pose unacceptable risks. The raw data support their claims. Since 2013, over a dozen oil train accidents have cost lives, spurred multiple evacuations and saddled communities with billions of dollars in property damage and environmental cleanup costs. Vancouver's firefighters union recently told the Port of Vancouver that the city lacks adequate training, staff and equipment to effectively respond to an oil terminal emergency. They are not alone. Multnomah County concluded that emergency response agencies in Oregon also are underequipped and understaffed to deal with an oil train spill, fire and/or explosion. Beyond public safety risks, we share our communities' concerns about the impact of an oil spill on the Columbia River. Tribal members, longshoreman, fishermen -- people who rely on the Columbia to feed their families and work along its banks -- understand the magnitude of this threat. We hope Gov. Inslee looks to people on the frontlines when he makes a final decision. Vancouver and Portland are moving beyond proposals to be fossil fuel hubs. Vancouver's historic downtown waterfront is undergoing an unprecedented transformation. Developers are refurbishing a former industrial site into an attractive new waterfront center for business and recreation that will soon feature restaurants, housing, retail and a park. And in November, Portland passed a landmark fossil-fuel resolution that ensured our region will do its part to invest in clean energy while resisting proposals to make the Columbia River a pass-through for fossil fuels. In Vancouver and all across Washington and Oregon, hundreds of thousands of people have urged Gov. Inslee to deny the Tesoro project. During hearings and in thousands of phone calls, emails and letters from our constituents, we heard repeatedly and persuasively from physicians, tribal members, firefighters, business owners, climate activists and unions that we cannot accept the unthinkable risks associated with a massive influx of oil train traffic. There is simply no reason to put the best this region has to offer in jeopardy to facilitate what would be the nation's largest crude oil transfer terminal. On behalf of the thousands of residents who contacted us, we urge Gov. Inslee to stop the Tesoro-Savage project in its tracks. * Alishia Topper serves on the Vancouver City Council, and Amanda Fritz serves on the Portland City Council. Bloomberg.JPG Former New York Mayor and U.N. special envoy for cities and climate change Michael Bloomberg, center, talks with diplomats last month at U.N. headquarters. Bloomberg sees an opportunity emerging in presidential politics after Hillary Clinton's blowout defeat in New Hampshire combined with Donald Trump's ascension in the tumultuous Republican race. (AP Photo) By Paul Schwartzman In a wildly chaotic presidential election starring a tycoon-turned-reality television star from New York and a socialist from Vermont, is there room for yet another billionaire from Manhattan's East Side? That is a central riddle facing former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg as he contemplates a third party bid for the White House. Donald J. Trump's resounding victories in South Carolina on Saturday and in Nevada's caucuses Tuesday have solidified his status as the Republican's frontrunner. On the Democratic side, Sen. Bernie Sanders's unexpected surge - and landslide win in New Hampshire - have kept him in the race even as Hillary Clinton has regained some momentum following her narrow victory in Nevada last weekend. What remains unknown is whether Bloomberg, 74, is willing to insert himself into a contest that remains unpredictable even as the field of candidates winnows. Bloomberg went out of his way last week to bemoan a campaign he described as a "race to the extremes," with candidates exploiting Americans' loss of faith in a political system that is "corrupt, gridlocked and broken." "That's why you see the current candidates out there doing well, and not the conventional ones," Bloomberg told a gathering at a Manhattan book party, an apparent reference to Trump and Sanders. Looming over the deliberations is the question of which party a Bloomberg candidacy would hurt more. With polls suggesting that Bloomberg would draw more Democratic than Republican voters, it makes little sense that Trump's surge would prompt the former mayor to run. That said, Bloomberg's viability may be strengthened if Clinton is damaged by a drawn-out nomination process. Bloomberg proved his capacity for defying naysayers 15 years ago, when he captured New York's City Hall. But New York is not the United States, and it's far from certain that swing-state voters would embrace a former Republican known for opposing guns, smoking and big-gulp sodas. Nor is it clear that a measured, sober-toned business executive could command an electorate that so far has rewarded unceasing bombast over pragmatism. "You don't solve problems by pointing fingers or making pie-in-the-sky promises," Bloomberg told the gathering last week. "You solve them by bringing people together around common goals, promoting innovation, demonstrating independence, and recognizing that compromise is not a bad word." Bloomberg's potential as a candidate is rooted in what the Gallup organization has identified as an ever-broadening swath of American voters who define themselves as independent and express dissatisfaction with both the major political parties. For those voters, familiar names such as Clinton and Jeb Bush may seem like more of the same; meanwhile, Sanders, Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, may be too extreme, creating opportunity for Bloomberg, a former Democrat who turned Republican before declaring himself unaffiliated in 2007. "There is a broad constituency, and there will be a broader one still, given the polarization of this election," said Douglas Schoen, Bloomberg's pollster, who recently wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed article entitled "Why Mike Bloomberg Can Win." "He'd be the only one talking about bipartisan consensus and bipartisan decision-making and results-oriented policies," Schoen said. "In a particularly unstable political situation like the one we're in now, where there's so much anger, it's impossible to write off any credible candidate." Bloomberg would face daunting challenges, not the least of which would be prevailing in enough states to reach the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. American voters have never elected a third-party candidate to the presidency. In 1992, when he faced President George H.W. Bush and then-Gov. Bill Clinton, Ross Perot managed to draw 19 percent of the popular vote. But he did not win a single state. On a logistical level, Bloomberg's campaign would need to quickly assemble an army to gather more than 900,000 signatures needed to qualify for the ballots in all 50 states, with a litany of rolling deadlines beginning this spring. "Every state has a different process for getting on the ballot, and it's implicitly designed to make it very difficult," said Reed Galen, a Republican strategist who advised Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. "Is it plausible for him to get on the ballot? Yes. Easy? No." Perhaps more crucially, Bloomberg would need to sell himself to a public that is largely unaware of him. A Quinnipiac poll earlier this month found that 56 percent of American voters had not heard of Bloomberg, the owner of the media company that bears his name. And a new poll this week from the Associated Press showed even more dire numbers - that a majority of voters of both parties would not even consider voting for him. Ed Rollins, the Republican strategist who advised Perot in 1992, recalled that the Texas billionaire's appearances on Larry King's CNN talk show galvanized a massive effort to get him on ballots across the country. Unlike the enthusiastic hordes propelling Trump and Sanders, the strategist said, Bloomberg "has none of that. He has a billion dollars but there's not a movement for him." "My sense is that people telling Bloomberg to run are his New York dinner companions who are not happy with their choices," Rollins said. "That's not a constituency or a movement. Arguably, he was a good manager of New York. But the vast majority of Americans don't care about New York." New York's political establishment ridiculed Bloomberg when he ran for mayor in 2001. No matter his wealth, the argument went, a political novice running as a Republican could never win in a city awash in Democratic voters. "He was seen as another one of these rich guys who had nothing better to do," said Bill Cunningham, a former Bloomberg adviser who recalled that his own friends said he was "crazy" for signing on with the mogul's campaign. While the Democratic nominee, Mark Green, was weakened by a savage primary battle that year, he still held a formidable lead over Bloomberg as the general election campaign began. Bloomberg's willingness to spend $50 million of his own fortune on the campaign allowed him to inundate New Yorkers with television ads and mailings. His proven financial acumen became ever more attractive after the September 11 terrorist attacks decimated New York's economy. And an 11th hour endorsement from then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani - exalted at that point for his handling of the 9/11 aftermath - was tantamount to a blessing. But Bloomberg also closed the gap by identifying and, over the course of many months, methodically appealing to 800,000 New Yorkers who were unaffiliated with either the Democratic or the Republican parties. It was an effort that his advisers tout as key to his narrow victory. For all that, said Kenneth Sherrill, a Hunter College political science professor, "Everyone was flabbergasted when he went over the top. No one expected it." Still, Bloomberg's success in New York may have little bearing on how he would fare in a presidential race, the outcome of which is determined not by the popular vote but by the Electoral College. "What works in New York doesn't necessarily work in the rest of the country," said Stuart Rothenberg, the editor of a non-partisan newsletter covering state and federal campaigns. "He's the guy whose known for being against guns and soft drinks. Is that going to play in Fairbanks, Alaska, or the suburbs of Indianapolis?" Competing in a three-way race, Bloomberg's progressive stances may not be problematic if he needs only to win a plurality against opponents such as Trump and Sanders. But his success would depend on so-called independents remaining estranged from the two major parties by November - and on their willingness to expend their vote on a candidate whose viability is uncertain. Despite claims of political independence, voters' "partisanship runs pretty deep," Rothenberg said. "There are people who say they're independent who aren't really independent. They don't want to throw their vote away." Then there's the question of which party a Bloomberg candidacy would damage more. A recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll showed Sanders in a close two-way contest against Trump, but losing to the reality television star if Bloomberg were on the ballot (Bloomberg placed third). Ultimately, Bloomberg's challenge would be to identify those states in which he could win a plurality and put together the necessary electoral votes, an analysis Rothenberg undertook this month in a column in Roll Call. What Rothenberg concluded is that Bloomberg would have little chance in what Gallup and he have identified as the country's 20 most conservative states, including Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Bloomberg would also face imposing challenges in the country's most left-leaning states, such as Oregon, Vermont, Massachusetts, Michigan and Maryland. There's little question, though, that Bloomberg's candidacy would upend the current list of key swing states in the general election - states including Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida, Colorado and Virginia. Where Bloomberg could find success, Rothenberg said, is in states such as California, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey - all states that typically vote Democratic. Ohio is the only swing state on that list. And with so many states likely out of reach, Bloomberg "would have to run the table" in those and other states. "That won't be easy. My bottom line is I don't see it." Trump's and Sanders' success may have made the art of political predictions risky, Rothenberg said, but the math isn't adding up, "even for Michael Bloomberg with all his money." "When you look at the puzzle," he said, "it's, at the least, very, very difficult." (c) 2016, The Washington Post The Washington Post's Scott Clement contributed to this report. Skyler Payne rolled his eyes enough times during his plea hearing in Clackamas County Court on Wednesday that the judge presiding over the hearing abruptly stopped reading his charges aloud. "If you're having any doubts," Judge Heather Karabeika told the 30-year-old man, "you need to talk to your lawyer about that." She then asked if his eye-rolling was an admission of guilt. Payne eventually pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon and menacing for attacking his then-girlfriend with a bamboo stick in Oregon City last August. Oregon City police said Payne flagged down emergency responders near a field in the 13000 block of Clackamas River Drive on Aug. 29, 2015. He led them to his 23-year-old girlfriend Amanda Wiessner, who was passed out at a nearby homeless camp. She was taken to a hospital, where staff noticed marks on her neck that appeared to show she had been choked. Investigators interviewed her, then arrested Payne. Bryan Censoni, a Clackamas County deputy district attorney, said in court that Payne and his girlfriend were both used drugs and were homeless at the time. Jealousy plagued their relationship, Censoni said. Payne abused the woman several times over two days, which included attacking her with a bamboo stick on the day he reported her unconscious, the lawyer said. Payne's attorney David Viuhkola described his client as a college graduate who had no criminal history other than a citation for driving under the influence of intoxicants in 2010. "This was just a very unfortunate situation," Viuhkola said of the latest case. Payne, 30, was sentenced to three months in the county jail. After two months he will be allowed to serve the rest of his sentence on home detention. He now lives in Union County. Karabeika ordered him to serve three years of probation, have no contact with the victim and receive a mental health evaluation and treatment. Other charges of coercion, strangulation as well as additional counts of unlawful use of a weapon and fourth-degree assault were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. -- Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com 503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey A man who bought stock in publicly traded Lithia Motors -- only to find out a month later that its board of directors had approved a $1.05-million-a-year payment to its former CEO for the rest of his life -- has filed a lawsuit asking a jury to undo the decision. Marty A. Jessos' lawsuit states that former CEO and retired Executive Chairman Sidney DeBoer "performs no ongoing services to the Company as either executive officer or director to justify this payment." The suit chalks up the payments by the Medford-based company as "excessive" and a "waste of corporate assets." Lithia Motors is the seventh-largest auto retailer in the country, with 140 stores. Jessos' lawsuit touches on a frequent frustration over the compensation paid to the leaders of American companies. Although such lawsuits may not be often seen in Oregon, nationwide they are quite common, industry watchers say. Many face an uphill fight and often aren't successful, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Executive Compensation. In September 2015, Lithia Motors announced that DeBoer was retiring as executive chairman and that the company would start paying him the $1.05 million a year in 2016. The package also includes a $42,000-a-year car allowance and insurance reimbursement worth about $64,000 annually. The suit alleges that DeBoer is being paid for past service to the company, and that "constitutes an illegal gift of corporate assets." But according to the suit, DeBoer owns 52 percent of Lithia's shareholder voting rights -- meaning he has the power to boot the directors from the board if he so wishes. As a result, the suit claims that DeBoer has exercised his influence over the board -- leading the directors to approve his lavish compensation package. Tom Dobry, a Lithia spokesman, didn't offer comment to The Oregonian/OregonLive about the specifics of the lawsuit. But Dobry did state, in part, in an email: "The transition agreement was disclosed and discussed in the Company's Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on September 17, 2015." Lithia Motors was started as an Ashland dealership by Sidney DeBoer's father, Walt DeBoer, in 1946. After his father's death in 1968, Sidney DeBoer bought the store and became CEO -- helping expand the company and take it public in 1996. Sidney DeBoer relinquished his role as CEO to his son in 2012, but continued working for the company as executive chairman, making about $3.2 million a year. Though he's the retired executive chairman, he still holds the position of chairman of the board of directors. The company's Form 8-K states that DeBoer collects a $210,000 annual salary for that role, which is the same amount the board's other directors make. In fiscal 2015, the company reported revenue of more than $5.3 billion, and a net income of $138 million. In 2015, Lithia Motors became a Fortune 500 company, ranking 482. It joined only two other Oregon companies on the list: Nike and Precision Castparts. The suit lists as defendants Lithia Motors as well as all seven members of the board: Sidney DeBoer, his son and current CEO Bryan DeBoer, Thomas Becker, Susan Cain, Shau-wai Lam, Kenneth Roberts and William Young. Portland attorneys Christopher Kayser and Cody Hoesly are representing Jessos. Read the lawsuit here. -- Aimee Green 503-294-5119 Screen Shot 2016-02-24 at 3.09.42 PM.png Richard James Sanderlin was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the first-degree sodomy of a 7-year-old girl he'd been babysitting. The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, overturned that sentence and told a Coos County Circuit judge to re-sentence Sanderlin after considering Sanderlin's mental problems. (Coos County Sheriff's Office) The Oregon Court of Appeals opened the door Wednesday for judges to give lighter sentences to adults who commit serious sex crimes against young children instead of the mandatory 25 years that a state law now demands. The court ruled that the long and automatic sentences under Jessica's Law -- used for child molesters who rape, sodomize or sexually penetrate children younger than 12 -- might not apply to some defendants with mental health problems. Although the ripple effect of the decision remains to been seen, defendants likely will start arguing for shorter sentences by providing evidence that they suffer from various problems, including post traumatic stress disorder from abuse they suffered as children, depression, anxiety disorders and intellectual deficits. The ruling came in the case of Richard James Sanderlin, who investigators say was 62 when he was babysitting a group of children in summer 2013. He took a 7-year-old girl up to his bedroom and sodomized her after sending the other children outside to play, authorities say. The girl told one of her parents. When confronted, Sanderlin confessed, investigators say. He soon became suicidal, sought help at a local hospital and confessed again to mental health professionals there and later to police, authorities say. Coos County Circuit Judge Richard Barron found Sanderlin guilty of first-degree sodomy and first-degree sexual abuse. During a sentencing hearing in March 2014, Sanderlin's defense attorney argued that Sanderlin shouldn't be sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 25 years under Jessica's Law because the prison term was unconstitutionally long for his crimes and amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. Sanderlin's attorney pointed to a psychologist's report stating that Sanderlin had suffered strokes and as a result had dementia, impaired intellectual function, compromised judgment and trouble controlling his impulses. The judge found that he couldn't take into account Sanderlin's mental health problems. The judge also found that 25 years for Sanderlin's behavior wasn't a disproportionate amount of time for the crime and as a result he was required to sentence Sanderlin to the full term. "This was a 7-year-old girl," the judge said. "... And performing sodomy on her, I don't think 25 years is going to shock anybody's conscience." But the appeals court overturned Sanderlin's sentence and sent the case back to Coos County Circuit Court, saying the judge should indeed consider Sanderlin's mental health in deciding whether to make an exception to Jessica's Law. The appeals court noted, however, that after giving weight to Sanderlin's mental problems, the judge still could decide to sentence Sanderlin to the same sentence. Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier, who prosecuted Sanderlin, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he didn't notice any physical or mental deficits in Sanderlin during the trial. Sanderlin had previously been "gainfully employed," Frasier said, and was considered competent enough to babysit the group of children on the day he committed his crimes. Frasier said he offered Sanderlin, who had no criminal history, a 12 1/2 year prison sentence as part of a plea deal that would have spared the 7-year-old girl from going through the trauma of testifying. But Sanderlin turned it down, and upon sentencing, came forward with the mental impairment defense. The appeals court decision has the potential to be wide-reaching, Frasier said. "I do think the case opens a door," Frasier said. "Now how wide a door, I don't know. We'll have to wait and see." Criminal defense attorneys applauded the ruling. They have frequently argued that mandatory minimum sentences amount to Draconian one-size-fits-all justice and don't allow judges to consider a defendant's unique and varied circumstances. Marc Brown, the chief deputy public defender assigned to Sanderlin's appeal, said he is not aware of a case where a judge has sentenced a Jessica's Law defendant to less than 25 years. Jessica's Law was signed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski 10 years ago. Most states have a version of the law, modeled after Florida legislation created in response to public outrage over a convicted sex offender who kidnapped a 9-year-old Florida girl from her home, then raped, murdered and buried her. Wednesday's decision was made by a three-judge panel of the appeals court: Timothy Sercombe, Douglas Tookey and Roger DeHoog. Read the opinion here. -- Aimee Green 503-294-5119 SALEM -- A bill to shield the identity of the officer who killed Oregon standoff spokesman LaVoy Finicum probably won't clear the Senate before session ends. "It's a complicated issue, and there's not a lot of time," said Senate President Pro Tem Diane Rosenbaum, D-Portland, who chairs the rules committee where the bill is parked. The bill passed the House 55-3 on Feb. 17 and is waiting for its first hearing. "Things can change, but right now it's not scheduled," Rosenbaum said. House Bill 4087 would conceal the identity of an officer who uses deadly force for up to 90 days. A judge could only issue an order if there's an imminent, specific threat to an officer's life. That is the case for the officer who shot Finicum, according to Rep. Jeff Barker, D-Aloha, who introduced the measure at the request of Oregon State Police. Supporters say it is critical to protect the Oregon State Police officer who shot Finicum last month. But some civil liberties and advocates and media groups worry it could be used to protect police misconduct in perpetuity. Finicum, 54, was killed Jan. 26 along a wooded stretch of highway 20 miles north of Burns. The Arizona rancher was driving three other militants to a community meaning in John Day, nearly a month after the group seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters. An aerial FBI video shows Finicum exit his Dodge Ram pickup with his hands raised, then appear to reach for a pocket on the left side of his jacket before getting gunned down. Police said he had a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. -- Ian K. Kullgren 503-294-4006; @IanKullgren SALEM -- A question buzzed through the Oregon Senate late Wednesday, an hour before a scheduled 5 p.m. floor session: Where are the Republicans? Staffers spotted empty parking stalls in the Senate garage. They also saw empty desks when walking through the warren of offices where lawmakers do their work. Some Republicans skipped committee hearings. Later, when the floor session started as scheduled, Democrats couldn't help but notice the 12 empty desks. Where were the Republicans? They were gone. With just 17 of 18 Democrats on the floor, and without at least one Republican, senators lacked the bipartisan 20-member quorum they need to convene. "You've got to have a quorum to do the work of the Senate," a weary President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said from the dais at 5:13 p.m. as Democrats milled about the chamber. Some were bemused, others frustrated. A handful of House Republicans, gawking at the spectacle, had joined them. The coordinated no-show -- unheard of in recent memory -- threatens to send this session's partisan tensions to a new zenith. It also comes, crucially, as time runs out to pass bills before the Legislature's March 6 deadline to adjourn. Efforts to set new renewable power standards, along with measures on affordable housing, renter relief and gun control, all hang in the balance amid a growing backlog of bills. That backlog has accumulated thanks to another tactic Republicans have used with some relish this session: forcing bills to be read aloud before votes, some for hours. That read-aloud rule is part of the state's constitution. And Republicans and Democrats traditionally vote unanimously to suspend it. Not this year. Upset that Democrats had teed up a host of contentious subjects for the 35-day session, from the minimum wage to renewable power, Republicans have largely refused to provide that courtesy. That's softened in the House, after a major minimum wage increase moved to Gov. Kate Brown's desk last week. But Senate Republicans have held firm. Their insistence has added hours to the legislative process. It's also created a pileup of bills awaiting action -- leading Courtney to consider night and weekend sessions, like Wednesday's, and to think twice about moving bills that might spark further fights. By 5:20 p.m., Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, issued a statement acknowledging the walkout and admitting that a slowdown was precisely the point. If senators want to pass bills, he said, they'll have to do it during regular business hours. "This session we've seen the Democrat majority put their partisan agenda ahead of both the needs of Oregonians and the law," his statement said. "Senate Republicans will not work late into the night to fast track an agenda pursued by the Democrat majority that features back room deals between Democrats and special interests and numerous broken promises of collaboration and compromise." Ferrioli also said his members would be back in the morning. Floor sessions typically start at 10:30 a.m. "Senate Republicans will be back tomorrow to fight against this extremely partisan, destructive agenda," he said. Ferrioli's biggest target appears to be House Bill 4036, one of the most expansive pieces of environmental legislation in decades. Ferrioli told the Portland Business Journal earlier this week that he would do whatever it took to stop it. The bill would require that ratepayers at Oregon's two largest utilities, Portland General Electric and Pacific Power, stop paying for power from out-of-state coal plants by 2030. It would also require that utilities serve half their customers' demand with renewable power by 2040. To work around delays, legislative leaders have discussed stuffing HB 4036 into another bill that's already passed the Senate and gone to the House. That amended bill would still have to return to the Senate for approval -- but final votes on another chamber's amendments traditionally go to the front of the line. Republicans have also threatened to hold firm against land-use bills sought by developers as part of a deal on lifting Oregon's ban on affordable housing mandates. Lobbyists, worried their bills might die, followed Ferrioli to his office after a committee hearing earlier Wednesday. It's unclear what's in store Thursday morning when lawmakers return to work. As Courtney's 5:30 p.m. deadline passed, he stood up again and spoke. Instead of calling in the Oregon State Police to bring in wayward Republicans, he resignedly called it a night. "I guess they're not coming," he said. "I want to thank you for being willing to do the work. This does not make me happy. This makes me sad." -- Denis C. Theriault 503-221-8430; @TheriaultPDX SALEM -- A bill that would limit default gun sales when background checks take longer than expected is "unlikely" to emerge from a divided, work-choked Senate -- meaning Oregon lawmakers could end this year's session without passing any gun-related legislation. House Bill 4147 remains on hold in the Senate's rules committee after barely clearing the House on a 31-28 vote Monday. That vote had initially been set for Friday but had to wait because support among Democrats, particularly among wary moderates, was so soft. "It's unlikely this late in the session," said Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, who also made clear, given her traditional support for gun measures: "I hate to see any gun bill not make it." The bill would make Oregon gun-buyers wait a few days longer to obtain a firearm if their background checks encounter complications. Right now, sellers can proceed -- at their discretion -- if a check takes longer than three days. That's in line with federal law. HB 4147 initially sought to make buyers wait as long as it took for a background to come back. To stay alive in the House, it was eventually amended to make buyers wait 10 days. The bill emerged after a mass shooting at a Charleston, S.C., church that left nine people dead. The suspected gunman, federal authorities found, was allowed to purchase his weapon even though his background check slipped past the three-day window. Clerical errors kept an inexperienced investigator from learning, within the waiting period, that the suspected gunman had disqualifying drug offenses. Critics of HB 4147, in a tense House debate, argued that no amount of extra time would have unearthed that mistake. House Democrats acknowledge that a so-called "Charleston loophole" would not be closed. But they've argued that HB 4147 will still keep more guns away from people barred from having them -- including domestic violence abusers and other potential mass shooters. And yet with tensions flaring in the Senate -- leading to an awkward Republican no-show Wednesday, forcing leaders to abandon a nighttime floor session -- some would-be supporters privately see HB 4147 as too tepid to justify fighting things out in their chamber. Data from the state police found delays in just 8,467 -- or 3.2 percent -- of the 262,838 background checks conducted last year. Most went through within minutes. Buyers whose checks faced delays, however, were five times more likely to be denied. Of more than 600 denials in the last four months of 2015, 52 involved a fugitive from justice and 205 were from would-be buyers with felony convictions. Dozens of other denied buyers had convictions for assault or menacing. The bill's sponsor, House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland, has promised more money to help the Oregon State Police better process background checks as well as work through a backlog of rape kits. The Legislature's budget chairs and leaders have backed up that promise. -- Denis C. Theriault 503-221-8430; @TheriaultPDX Portland's teachers union announced Thursday that it is endorsing Jules Bailey in the race for Portland's next mayor. In a prepared statement, Portland Association of Teachers President Gwen Sullivan called Bailey, a Multnomah County commissioner and former state legislator, "the candidate for working families in Portland." "He understands better than any other candidate in the race the challenges our students' families are facing: poverty, homelessness, hunger," Sullivan said. "He has the experience we need to help address the high cost of housing and the lack of good family-wage jobs in Portland." Bailey, who attended public school in Portland and graduated from Lincoln High, said "My teachers helped shape my life and prepare me for the job of mayor. I'm honored to have them on our team." Along with Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler, Bailey is considered one of the two most viable of the 12 candidates for the mayor's seat. The teachers' endorsement could prove helpful to Bailey because the union has shown it can turn out volunteers to knock on doors and call voters. Bailey has pledged not to accept more than $250 in contributions from any person or organization. State campaign finance records indicate Wheeler has raised more than $450,000 and Bailey has raised $110,000. In 2012, the Portland teachers union endorsed candidate Jefferson Smith, who lost to Charlies Hales. Hales opted to serve only one term. The mayor's seat will be contested on the May 17 ballot. If one candidate gets at least 50 percent of the votes, he wins. If not, the top two vote-getters will compete in the November election. -- Betsy Hammond esi_hq_steve_morgan_wikimedia.jpg ESI is Oregon's oldest technology company, predating even Tektronix. It now makes laser tools for electronics manufacturers. (Steve Morgan/Wikimedia Commons) David Nierenberg Camas investor David Nierenberg, a former critic of Electro Scientific Industries who became a cheerleader for the company, stepped down from the company's board Wednesday saying "things are better now." Nierenberg's D3 Family Funds is ESI's second-largest shareholder, with 2.76 million shares, 8.9 percent of the total. Those shares are worth $20.2 million at Wednesday's closing price. ESI is Oregon's oldest technology company, predating even Tektronix. It now makes laser tools for electronics manufacturers. When Nierenberg began acquiring ESI shares a decade ago, he argued the company was hoarding its cash and delivering little return to investors. He joined the company's board in 2010 and stayed through steep declines in ESI's business triggered by the collapse of its key market in memory chip business. The company replaced its chief executive in 2014 and began a broad rebuilding in search of new markets for its technology. ESI's financial performance has remained tepid - it has lost money in each of its past 12 quarters, but the company forecasts around $50 million in revenue this quarter - a 33 percent jump from a year ago - amid a series of new product introductions. Shares that were trading around $4 a share last summer closed Wednesday at $7.32, near their highest point in a year. New CEO Ed Grady and board Chairman Rick Wills - former CEO of Tektronix - have ESI on better footing now, according to Nierenberg, and he said that makes it a sensible time to step aside. He said he has no plans to reduce his stake in the company, though. "Things are clicking," Nierenberg said. "I went on to try and make things better. I think with the help of all these colleagues things are better now." -- Mike Rogoway mrogoway@oregonian.com 503-294-7699 @rogoway News / Africa by Staff Reporter A LUSAKA man has dragged his best friend to court for engaging in sex with his wife on several occasions.Wallance Soko, 37, of Lusaka's Kabanana area testified in the Matero Local Court how his best friend, Panganani Tembo used to engage in sex with his wife and on this particular night, he spent the whole night with his wife in his one-roomed house within their area.This was a case in which Soko sued Tembo for adultery after he found his wife with Tembo around 04:00 hours near his (Tembo)'s home following a tip on February 3, 2016.Times of Zambia reported Soko told the court that Tembo knew his wife well as he used to visit his home and sometimes ate food prepared by his wife, but still went ahead to engage in sex with her."Tembo knew that this woman is my wife; he was my best friend and he came to my house on several occasions, even ate nshima prepared by my wife."He has no excuse of not knowing her, I want him to pay me for committing adultery with my wife," he said.He explained that he used to hear rumours from his friends that Tembo was flirting with his wife but because he had no proof, he decided to keep quiet over the matter.He said after confronting his wife for coming back home late, she went to spend the night at Tembo's house.When brought in as a co-witness, Soko's wife Yandika Mvula admitted engaging in sex with Tembo and said he was her boyfriend.Soko's wife testified that she had sex with Tembo on several occasions, especially in lodges whenever her husband went out on duty.She said during the night she spent with Tembo he manage to engage in sex with her on a sofa.In defence, Tembo said he was not aware that Mvula was a married woman as she used to frequent bars.Tembo said Mvula spent the night with him but that he did not have intercourse with her because she was "not my type"."I didn't know that this woman was my best friend's wife. Moreover, I did not even touch her when she came to my house; she slept on a sofa while I slept on the bed," he said.In passing judgment, Magistrate Lewis Mumba, sitting with Pauline Newa, asked Tembo to pay Soko K15, 000 and advised the couple to go for counselling. BAILEY, Colo. -- A man who spent years fighting the foreclosure of his Colorado home and ranted online about police and corporate corruption shot three law enforcement officers trying to serve an eviction notice Wednesday, killing one and wounding the others, authorities said. The officers fired back in this forested mountain community, killing the gunman identified by police as 58-year-old Martin Wirth. Eight officers from the Park County Sheriff's Office went to the snow-covered two-story home in a hillside neighborhood north of the town of Bailey to serve what authorities described as a "high-risk" eviction notice. The well-maintained houses sit on big lots, with room for horses to graze in an area popular with hunters and anglers. Wirth appeared on the deck of his home when the officers arrived, then went back inside, according to the Park County sheriff's office account of the shooting. Officers followed him in, and Wirth fired on them, prompting them to return fire, sheriff's officials said. The shooting killed Cpl. Nate Carrigan, a 13-year veteran of the sheriff's office. One of the wounded officers underwent surgery for life-threatening injuries and was in critical condition. The other was treated and released from a hospital after a bullet grazed his ear, Colorado Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Susan Medina said. Medina declined to say why the sheriff's office considered it a risk to serve Wirth with the eviction notice. "They had background information about the suspect in this case, but we're just not going to talk about it at this time," she said. Wirth owned the home until March 2014, when Fannie Mae, the government-controlled mortgage company, took ownership after he lost a court battle over his foreclosure. After Wirth lost his case in state court, he sued Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, the state attorney general and a judge in 2013. The federal lawsuit claimed that state foreclosure laws were unconstitutional and that Wirth and his unnamed guests were "in imminent danger of being wrongfully deprived of home and property while also being threatened with an armed and forcible entry onto the property and into the home." He asked a federal judge to block Park County from selling his home, evicting him or forcibly entering the house and to strike down several state laws. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit last September. A website by a group called the Colorado Foreclosure Resistance Coalition includes undated posts that called for supporters to join Wirth in "non-violent eviction resistance." The website includes a video of a man identified as Wirth railing against mortgage companies as criminals. A call to the group, whose website says it is part of the Occupy movement, was not immediately returned. Tim Holland, who was involved in the Occupy Denver movement with Wirth, struggled to reconcile the shooting with his memories of Wirth as a "sweet, quirky, kindhearted guy." "It seems to me that he was just pushed to the end of his rope, and he tried every single approach to addressing his grievances, and at the end, he chose to not let them take his house away from him," Holland said. "It's the middle of winter in the mountains. Where was he going to go?" Wirth ran for the state Senate in 2014 as a Green Party candidate, but he lost to an incumbent Republican. In a questionnaire to candidates by The Denver Post, Wirth wrote of corruption in the political system, his support for Colorado's marijuana laws and the plight of the poor. When asked whether he supported the death penalty, Wirth wrote, "Killing people to show that killing people is wrong is a piece of idiotic hypocrisy." He wrote disparagingly of police, the federal government and corporations on his candidate page on Facebook and praised former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked millions of documents about government surveillance. He made regular posts criticizing leading presidential candidates from both parties. Neighbor Terry Rogers, a counselor and pastor at Platte Canyon Community Church, said he did not know Wirth well and believes no one in the area did. "He was pretty reclusive," said Rogers, who could see law enforcement vehicles responding to the shooting across a snow-covered pasture from his driveway. The area of rocky, pine-covered hills is about 45 miles southwest of Denver where several camps host Girl Scouts and other youth during the summer. The neighborhood is several miles outside Bailey, a hamlet of just a few restaurants and shops. There, a gunman took several girls hostage in a high school classroom a decade ago, killing one before himself. Sam Lung, who lives nearby, said he often hears gunshots in the area, which has a target practice site. He said people often shoot in their backyards, "practicing their Second Amendment rights." He said he did not hear the gunshots Wednesday. "It is a dark day," Medina said. -- The Associated Press Nora Beck Nora Beck of Portland, Oregon, answers a reporter's questions Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, in front of the Pantheon in Rome. The Lewis & Clark professor and her wife Liz Joffe went to court in Bologna after realizing they had no legal rights over their non-biological children in Italy, even though each had adopted the other's biological child in the U.S. The court refused to hear the case. (The Associated Press) ROME -- Italy's constitutional court refused Wednesday to hear a same-sex adoption case involving two Oregon mothers, putting aside the question amid intense debate in Italy over legal recognition of civil unions and gay adoption. The court decided that the case presented by the tribunal for minors in Bologna was inadmissible. Nora Beck, a musicologist at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, her American wife, Liz Joffe, and their two children moved to Italy in 2013 for a sabbatical year. Beck, whose late mother was Italian and who spent summers and some academic years in the country as a child, had tried to pass her Italian citizenship onto the rest of her family, but could only extend it to her 11-year-old biological son. Joffe gave birth to their 12-year-old daughter. The Portland couple went to court in Bologna after realizing they had no legal rights over their non-biological children, even though each had adopted the other's biological child in the U.S. If Joffe died, for example, Beck would have had no custody rights over their daughter in Italy. Italy, an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country where the Vatican wields influence, was condemned last year by the European Court for Human Rights for being the only nation in Western Europe that doesn't recognize gay marriage or civil unions. The Senate is poised this week to approve civil unions after Premier Matteo Renzi bowed to fierce opposition and agreed to drop a proposed measure that would have allowed gays to adopt the biological children of their partners. Amid such an uncertain legal landscape, the Bologna tribunal kicked the case to Italy's highest court, which ruled Wednesday that the lower court had erred in treating the issue as a question of an adoption by Italians of a foreign child. The constitutional court said the case instead concerned Italian recognition of a foreign court's ruling involving foreigners: the adoptions that were approved years ago by Oregon courts. As a result of the tribunal's error, the constitutional court ruled its petition inadmissible and refused to hear it. The timing of the case before the constitutional court was coincidental, but Beck was back in Rome on Wednesday with her daughter while the justices were deliberating behind closed doors. After moving back to Portland after the sabbatical, the family has continued to spend vacations with Beck's family in Gressoney-La-Trinite in northwest Italy. And Beck said she was hopeful that the Bologna court would eventually recognize the adoptions and grant her daughter the same benefits of Italian citizenship that her biological son enjoys. "My mother wanted this for my children," Beck said in Italian after the decision came out. "Their 'nonna' wanted my children to be Italian." -- The Associated Press LAS VEGAS -- Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said Thursday he is not interested in being considered for the U.S. Supreme Court at this time, and he has told the White House so. The Republican governor issued a statement the day after The Washington Post reported the White House was considering him as a potential replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Senate Republicans have said they will not consider a nominee from President Barack Obama during an election year. "Earlier today, I notified the White House that I do not wish to be considered at this time for possible nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States," Sandoval wrote. "The notion of being considered for a seat on the highest court in the land is beyond humbling, and I am incredibly grateful to have been mentioned." He offered no reason for his decision but said he also expressed his position to Sens. Harry Reid, Dean Heller and Mitch McConnell. The Senate's vetting process for any nominee is expected to be viciously political, if hearings take place at all. Sandoval's mention was thought to be a way around Republican senators' resistance to considering an Obama nominee. Heller, a Republican from Nevada, last week suggested the next justice could be a Nevadan. He said Thursday he hopes Sandoval's name will come up again later. "As a friend and former colleague of Gov. Sandoval's, I believe he is eminently qualified for this position," Heller said. "But, I support his decision to withdraw his name from consideration for the Supreme Court vacancy. I hope the next president will consider him in the future." Sandoval, 52, is a former federal judge and popular second-term governor. -- The Associated Press Hugh Hefner In this Nov. 4, 2010, file photo, Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner poses for photos at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Hefner has pledged $37,500 to save the newspaper at his high school alma mater. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) (Jae C. Hong) What do Roger Ebert, Jeff Bezos and Hugh Hefner have in common? All three men helped save a newspaper at some point during their lives. On Wednesday, the man who founded Playboy chipped in $37,500 to rescue the Steinmetz Star, the newspaper belonging to his high school alma mater. The publication was in danger of halting production after more than 80 years after Chicago Public Schools officials declared the money just wasn't there anymore during a censorship struggle between students and administrators. Hefner graduated from Steinmetz College Prep located in Chicago's Belmont Cragin neighborhood, in 1944. After hearing about the publication's financial struggles, the Playboy founder pledged $7,500 annually over the next five years to keep the paper afloat. This puts Hefner among strange company, indeed. In 2013, Amazon founder Bezos went all-in and bought The Washington Post for $250 million amid declining readership and advertising. And the year before that, when The Daily Illini at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagn faced a $250,000 deficit, the paper enlisted acclaimed film critic Ebert as its fundraising cheerleader. You can read the letter to Steinmetz Principal Steven Ngo from Hefner's personal assistant in the tweet below: @romenesko Hugh Hefner Saves Embattled School Newspaper of His High School Alma Mater https://t.co/1zIjvkCsKH pic.twitter.com/bX3rJS3GVn Justin Breen (@BrEpicBreen) February 24, 2016 H/T Jim Romenesko --Eder Campuzano 503.221.4344 @edercampuzano ecampuzano@oregonian.com Donald Trump's supporters believe his success so far in the GOP presidential primaries heralds a rebirth of the real Republican Party, the one that has been lost over the past few decades to the insidious creep of Washington cronyism, incompetence and corruption. Other Republicans see the opposite: the death of the party of Ronald Reagan, the wholesale dismantling of conservative intellectualism. They see the real-estate magnate's Republicanism as being all about self-aggrandizing bluster and fear-mongering, and they note that in years past he has expressed liberal views on key issues such as abortion. As a result, some of them want to do something about it -- like leave the Republican Party if he's nominated for president. National Review, the publication founded by the late conservative intellectual icon William F. Buckley Jr., tried to derail the Trump train last month by devoting an entire issue to attacking the businessman. "Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones," the editors wrote. "Donald Trump is a menace to American conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it underfoot in behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as the Donald himself." After an attack like that, there's really no wiggle room for an honorable reconciliation if Trump becomes the party's leader. So unless Florida Sen. Marco Rubio or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz somehow manages to overtake Trump in the race for the GOP nomination, there's only one thing for the magazine's editors and like-minded conservatives to do: abandon the Republican Party and create an alternative. And it is being pondered, to one degree of seriousness or another. Weekly Standard co-founder Bill Kristol first floated the idea back in December. Crowd-sourcing: Name of the new party we'll have to start if Trump wins the GOP nomination? Suggestions welcome at editor@weeklystandard.com Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) December 20, 2015 Former Republican New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said he's looking into a third-party run for the White House, though he doesn't have the conservative bona fides Kristol seeks. No other serious names have come to light, but one could certainly imagine Cruz taking up the challenge. Such a schism in the Republican Party actually has been brewing for a long time. Bill Buckley's son, Christopher Buckley, broke with the GOP in 2008 and announced his support for the Democrats' candidate, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. The younger Buckley argued that the Republican nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, had gone too far in his attempts to appeal to the party's far-right wing, noting that the McCain campaign was airing "mean-spirited and pointless" attack ads. Worse, there was McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the vice-presidential nominee. "What on earth can he have been thinking?" Buckley wondered, calling Palin fundamentally unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Eight years later, Palin has endorsed Trump. Christopher Buckley isn't the only apostate who might seriously consider following Kristol into a new party. "If Mr. Trump and [Hillary] Clinton were the Republican and Democratic nominees, I would prefer to vote for a responsible third-party alternative," former George W. Bush speechwriter Peter Wehner recently wrote in the New York Times. The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf offered this week, "It's almost impossible to imagine George Will or Kevin Williamson supporting Trump." Friedersdorf pointed out that Glenn Beck has declared, "I know that I won't go to the polls. I won't vote for Hillary Clinton and I won't vote for Donald Trump. I just won't. And I know a lot of people that feel that way." Those are some big names in the conservative movement. But you probably shouldn't expect their distaste for Trump to come to much. Party spinoffs have happened many times before, and it pretty much never pans out as planned. Former President Theodore Roosevelt famously bolted the Republican Party in 1912 and ran as a third-party candidate. He came in second, ushering Democrat Woodrow Wilson into the White House. In Great Britain, former Home Secretary Roy Jenkins and MP David Owen left the Labour Party in 1981 to form the Social Democratic Party. For a while it looked like the SDP would displace the increasingly radical Labour, but the new party's performance at the 1983 elections disappointed and it lapsed into irrelevancy. Republican Party insiders are all too aware of the historical precedents. And the desire to win back the White House after eight years of President Obama nags at them. Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and other establishment figures have already indicated they can live with Trump as the nominee. And, beyond the leadership, the pull of party allegiance is strong for the average voter too. "Republicans could nominate a ham sandwich and still get 45 percent of the vote," the Washington Post's Dana Milbank wrote in January. On Wednesday, New York's Chris Collins and California's Duncan Hunter became the first members of Congress to endorse Trump. "I think you have more Trump supporters in Congress," Hunter said. Still, not all Republicans will be willing to come in from the cold to warm themselves by Trump's fire. Eight years ago, Christopher Buckley said his father would have understood his decision to quit the party, quoting him as once saying, "You know, I've spent my entire lifetime separating the Right from the kooks." In fact, the elder Buckley once stiff-armed the GOP himself. Unable to stomach liberal Republican New York City mayoral candidate John Lindsay, he ran for mayor on the Conservative Party ticket in 1965. He managed to garner 13 percent of the vote. -- Douglas Perry AX210_1CB0_9.JPG Hillary Clinton looks to blunt Bernie Sanders' momentum with a big win in Saturday's South Carolina primary. (The Associated Press) The South Carolina Democratic primary took place on Saturday, February 27. This post provides news, analysis and results from the contest. Update (February 28, 6:30 a.m. PT): Final results Final results of the South Carolina Democratic primary: Hillary Clinton: 271,514 votes (73.5%) Bernie Sanders: 95,977 votes (26.0%) Update (February 27, 5:10 p.m. PT): Clinton's victory speech With her thumping victory in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared, "This campaign goes national!" She also made clear that she is now focusing not just on Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, but also on Republican front-runner Donald Trump. "We don't need to make America great again," she said, riffing on Trump's ubiquitous campaign slogan. "America never stopped being great. But we do need to make America whole again." She said that the political debate in this country needs to be conducted with "love and kindness, even when we disagree," and with a recognition that "we really are in this together." Dipping into her regular stump speech, Clinton declared that the "middle class needs a raise" and called for a clean-energy revolution and "jobs that can't be outsourced." Her victory in South Carolina, coming on the heels of her win in the Nevada Caucus, sends Clinton into the important, multi-state Super Tuesday contests with much-needed momentum. Update (February 27, 4 p.m. PT): Hillary Clinton wins Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has won the South Carolina Democratic primary, multiple news sources project. And it looks like it's a big win. Just as important, she earned it. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, looking for a shock knockout that would cause the Clinton campaign to collapse in a heap, spent $2 million on TV and radio ads in South Carolina and put 200 staffers on the ground. His bet failed. His New Hampshire momentum didn't make it to the Palmetto State. Sanders' call to overturn the "rigged" economic system resonates with South Carolina's Democrats, but voters believe Clinton is more likely to be able to do something about it. An astonishingly high African-American turnout -- about 61 percent of the electorate -- was big for Clinton. Bigger still: 80 percent of voters said they wanted a candidate with the experience to make things happen in Washington, D.C. That meant Clinton, known for working across the aisle during her time in the U.S. Senate, rather than Sanders, a proud outsider who has had a hard time achieving legislative results. The campaigns now turn quickly and completely to the 11-state Super Tuesday contests next week. With a sweep on March 1, Clinton will once again look like the inevitable nominee. But Sanders is betting on pulling out victories in Massachusetts, Minnesota and a couple of other states to keep his insurgent campaign going strong. Update (February 27, 2:30 p.m. PT): Exit polls Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's embrace of President Barack Obama in recent weeks appears to be paying off in South Carolina. Early exit-poll data from ABC News indicates Clinton will score a big win over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The exit polls show: * About 70 percent of South Carolina Democratic voters seek to "continue Barack Obama's policies" * Only about 20 percent want an agenda that's "more liberal" than Obama's * About 80 percent are looking for a candidate "with experience in politics rather than from 'outside the establishment.'" * Seven in 10 South Carolina Democratic voters say Clinton is honest * Six in 10 South Carolina Democratic voters say Sanders is honest Update (February 27, 1:55 p.m. PT): Reich backs Bernie "This extraordinary concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the very top imperils all else - our economy, our democracy, the revival of the American middle class, the prospects for the poor and for people of color, the necessity of slowing and reversing climate change, and a sensible foreign policy not influenced by the 'military-industrial complex,' as President Dwight Eisenhower once called it. It is the fundamental prerequisite: We have little hope of achieving positive change on any front unless the American people are once again in control." -- Robert Reich Reich is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton. I endorse Bernie Sanders for president of the United States. He's leading a movement to reclaim America for the many, not the few. Robert Reich (@RBReich) February 27, 2016 Update (February 27, 12:35 p.m. PT): Clinton in her element Hillary Clinton wishes every state could be like South Carolina. Bernie Sanders is glad most of them aren't just like the Palmetto State. African-Americans make up 55 percent of the Democratic electorate in South Carolina. And polls indicate Clinton will win around 65 percent of their vote. "When you watch Bernie, it's like he's taking a cram course in how to communicate in [traditional black] churches; it doesn't feel natural," former South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges, a Clinton backer, said this week. "Nobody disputes he's being earnest, but there's a feeling he doesn't quite get it." Clinton, he said, "is very natural in settings talking about issues of race, with African-American women in particular." As a result, Clinton has finally had a week of campaigning where she's felt the wind at her back. Writes Politico: "Gone are questions about her authenticity. Here, black voters say Clinton's history as a civil rights stalwart -- she first visited the state as a college grad investigating the problem of youths incarcerated in adult jails for the Children's Defense Fund -- trumps any trust issues that dog her elsewhere." Confident that he won't be giving a victory speech tonight, Sanders is making campaign appearances Saturday in Texas and Minnesota. Still, it's important for the Vermont senator to score a strong showing in South Carolina, even if it's second place. Every delegate counts, and the Palmetto State's pledged delegates are handed out based on the percentages of the vote the candidates receive. Update (February 27, 11:00 a.m. PT): Ambassador Colbert In case you missed it, "Late Night" host Stephen Colbert said this week he wants Hillary Clinton to become president so she can name him an ambassador. But he's only interested in "one of the good countries. I'm talking about Japan or France or ... Narnia." That's not all Colbert wants from Clinton. He wants her to take it easy on Donald Trump in the general election, assuming she wins the Democratic nomination and Trump scores the Republicans' shield. He doesn't want the real-estate mogul to slink away in shame after a November loss. "For the sake of my show, it would make me very happy if Donald Trump keeps running for president forever," Colbert said. "You can win, just let him keep talking." Watch the clip below: Update (February 27, 9:15 a.m. PT): What's at stake Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to win South Carolina by a wide margin today, but that doesn't mean there's nothing in it for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Palmetto State offers 53 pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention, and they are parceled out based on the percentages of the vote the candidates receive. That means the Sanders campaign wants a strong second-place finish. A blow-out win for Clinton won't just be bad publicity for Sanders; it will drop him ever further behind in the delegate count. That's why he kept campaigning in the state this week even though Clinton maintained a sizable lead in the preference polls. Thanks to his outsider status, Sanders needs every delegate he can muster. So far, Clinton has a huge lead in delegates due to her success in wooing "Super Delegates," party apparatchiks who can choose a candidate as they see fit, regardless of the vote, and can switch allegiance between now and the convention. In terms of pledged-delegate votes, Clinton and Sanders are neck-and-neck. The candidate who gets to 2,382 delegates overall will win the nomination. Update (February 27, 8:10 a.m. PT): Bernie is ready for action Bernie Sanders has reached the pinnacle of American fame: he's now been immortalized as an action figure. Tens of thousands of dollars have poured in to Kickstarter, easily smashing product-design company FCTRY's $15,000 goal. The company says it will give $1 to the Sanders campaign for every Bernie action figure it ships. Watch the company's video below. But this probably is not a sign that Sanders will stage a stunning, come-from-behind, action-hero-like triumph over Hillary Clinton in today's South Carolina Democratic primary, where polls are now open. FCTRY has already sold some 20,000 Hillary Clinton action figures, launched via Kickstarter last year. Clinton led Sanders by double digits in the final South Carolina polls ahead of the vote. But at least now, thanks to FCTRY, the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is a fair fight. S.C. Democratic primary preview (February 26, 7 a.m. PT) Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could use a big win. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, already has one. He crushed Clinton in the New Hampshire primary earlier this month. Clinton, however, has only two close-call wins in the Iowa and Nevada caucuses. After her squeaker victory in Iowa, where she had been leading in the polls for months, she admitted to a "sigh of relief." The South Carolina primary on Saturday probably will be her long-delayed moment in the sun. She's up by an average of 24 percentage points in the preference polls. The polling site FiveThirtyEight.com gives her a 99 percent chance of winning. A week ago, Sanders thought he could pull a surprise in South Carolina. In the warm afterglow of the New Hampshire primary, anything seemed possible. "Bernie invested a lot of time and money and has a sizable operation here," a Charleston County Democratic Party official told Politico. But the Nevada Caucus results seemed to halt his momentum enough for Clinton to take advantage in South Carolina, the first Southern state on the calendar. African-Americans, who make up a sizable part of the Democratic vote in the Palmetto State, have been Clinton's most reliable constituency. And she isn't taking them for granted, making clear at rallies and other campaign events that their concerns are a true priority for her. "Ending systemic racism requires contributions from all of us -- especially those of us who haven't experienced it ourselves," Clinton said in a recent Facebook Q&A. "White Americans need to do a better job of listening when African-Americans talk about the seen and unseen barriers that you face every day. We need to recognize our privilege and practice humility, rather than assume that our experiences are everyone's experiences. So I'm going to keep spreading this message -- and not just in front of African-American audiences. I'm going to keep talking to every kind of audience about this." It seems to be working in South Carolina. Reporters following the Sanders campaign say he is now "all but writing the state off." Sanders, for his part, says he isn't conceding anything. But he is tamping down expectations. "We came to South Carolina, and, if you look at the polls, we were at 7, 8, 9 percent in the polls," he said this week. "We were 50, 60, 70 points behind. We have waged a very vigorous campaign. We have closed the gap very significantly." Maybe he has and maybe he hasn't. Clinton is looking for a double-digit win, which her campaign believes will help re-establish the notion that she's the inevitable nominee as she and Sanders barrel toward the multi-state Super Tuesday contests next week. -- Douglas Perry A former West Linn High School teacher was sentenced to two months in jail on Wednesday for groping two male students at a home in Lake Oswego last year. A Lake Oswego municipal judge also ordered Jonathan Peachey to serve three years of probation after his release from the Clackamas County Jail and register as a sex offender. He also will have to complete sex offender treatment, can't have contact with underage relatives without supervision, and cannot interact with any other kids without permission from his probation officer. He pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual abuse on Feb. 3. Additional charges of furnishing alcohol to a minor and first-degree official misconduct were dropped as part of a plea agreement. Supporters of the former teacher and the families of the boys he admitted to abusing packed the small courtroom in Lake Oswego City Hall. Peachey refused to look at the parents of the two boys -- who were 17 and 14 at the time of the abuse -- as they read statements before the court. They referred to him as a pedophile who betrayed their trust, detailed how their children remain fearful of him and wary of strangers, and accused him of trying to groom other potential victims. "Very likely, you've been doing this for many years," said the father of the older victim, who is now 18. "This is not the first time, just the first time you got caught." Peachey worked for the West Linn-Wilsonville School District for 12 years and taught Spanish and English language development. He was also adviser for the school's ski club and link crew, which helps freshmen make the transition to high school. He resigned in October 2015, a month after his arrest and when he was placed on leave from the district. Both of the boys were West Linn High School students and at least one of them had Peachey as a teacher, according to Lake Oswego Deputy City Attorney Jerry Seeberger. The abuse occurred last July and September at a home owned by friends of Peachey who routinely let him house-sit there, Seeberger said. The 17-year-old had just come out as gay at the time and confided in the teacher, Seeberger said. Peachey took the boy out for dinners and they spent time together at the Lake Oswego home. At times, they would share the same bed. One night last July, the boy told police that Peachey grabbed his genitals while they were lying in bed, the prosecutor said. The boy claimed Peachey said he loved him. The boy said he was uncomfortable and left. He told a friend, the friend told his mother, who is a teacher. The teacher then notified police in September. The 14-year-old boy said he was sleeping at the Lake Oswego home earlier that month when he awoke to Peachey touching his genitals, Seeberger said. He suspected Peachey was drunk. The boy is a relative of the homeowners who had recently moved to Oregon from California. While his parents were away, Peachey suggested he and the boy sleep in the same room and the teen's 17-year-old sister sleep in another room. The mother of the 14-year-old said in court that a therapist diagnosed her son with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder based on his encounter with the former teacher and that he no longer wants to attend West Linn High School. Her husband, a police detective in California, is remorseful that he wasn't there to protect his son, she said, and the boy's account of abuse by Peachey was initially discredited by many of his peers and their parents because of Peachey's popularity at the high school. "Our move to Oregon has become a nightmare that cannot be undone," the mother read in a statement authored by her son. "I would do anything to move away and never come back because I see Mr. Peachey in my mind everywhere I go." The mother read a Facebook post in court that she said Peachey wrote on his page after pleading guilty in which he still maintained he was innocent and claimed he only admitted guilt because he didn't have the money to finance a trial. "I was not proven guilty," she read. "Although not ideal, I am choosing to have this over with and move forward. I have nothing to hide." Peachey's attorney Erik Bucher said his client "adamantly" denies inappropriately touching the boys while they were sleeping and dismissed assertions that he is a predator. People who know Peachey, Bucher said, "know he was a fantastic teacher and still is a fantastic person." "My client made some very poor decisions and it's something that he can't go back in time and fix, but he is very sorry," Bucher said. "He just wants to move on with his life at this point." The attorney said Peachey did "cuddle" with the older boy in bed, but never touched him inappropriately. Peachey touched an "intimate part" of the younger boy when they once wrestled, but no misconduct occurred after that. "He didn't have a problem with that until (the other boy) came forward with his many allegations of sexual abuse. Then it became an issue," Bucher said. He also said that his client didn't just want to avoid trial because of the financial aspect, but also because he didn't want the boys to be attacked in court. Peachey made no statements in court. A small crowd of spectators, including the parents of the two victims, gathered outside the municipal courtroom as he was led into the hallway by police officers and handcuffed. -- Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com 503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey News / Africa by Staff Reporter A LUSAKA man narrated before a local court how his wife complains that he does not satisfy her in bed.The man said his wife further complained that he did not prolong his sexual acts, which had affected their sexual style because he does not make her reach orgasm.This was in a case where July Simushi, 40, of Kanyama Township sued Juliet Mulala of Makeni for divorce because he was tired of begging for sex from her.Times of Zambia reported that facts before the court were that the two got married in 2003 and had two children, but dowry was not paid.He said he used to get tired from work and managed to have sex with his wife in a short period on some occasions.Simushi said because of her not being sexually satisfied she resorted to sleeping with clothes on, a situation he said was unbearable.He said besides begging for sex, his wife would spend money on useless' items, making it hard for the family to have three proper meals in a day."When I give Mulala K1, 000 for ration she says it is little, she demands for K2, 000 but I pay school fees and house rentals separately."She has been saying that I am not man enough in public and we differ because she denies me sex," he said.Simushi said his wife would only have sex with him when he has money, stating that she would give excuses every day.In defence, Mulala said that all was well in their marriage until last year when her husband refused to have sex with her because he had a girlfriend.She said she denied him sex because he did the same when he had a girlfriend and that he would come home shaved on his private parts.In passing judgment, Magistrate Nyendwa dismissed the claim for divorce because it was not a legal marriage as dowry was not paid.She told Mulala to instead sue Simushi for child maintenance if she was not happy with the verdict. News / Africa by Staff Reporter A TWENTY-NINE-YEAR-OLD business woman of Lusaka West has sued her husband addicted to smoking cannabis on grounds that he is insane and threatens to kill her.Times of Zambia reported that Gorret Mwanza sued Raphael Kaunda, 40, of the same area for divorce after the two failed to resolve their marital disputes.Mwanza testified in Court that her husband smoked cannabis and was a heavy drunkard who spent all his salary on alcohol.She said her husband's continued smoking of weed' had made him insane to an extent that he was taken to Chainama's mental rehabilitation centre.Mwanza said her husband broke household goods whenever the couple differed, compelling the family to stay without most items, including a television set for fear that he might break the purchased ones."I am tired of this behaviour. For that reason, I cannot stay with this man anymore as our marriage has broken down irretrievably, he might end up killing me one day," she said.Mwanza claimed that at one point, Kaunda took her to the bush at night and beat her up while boasting that as a former commando, he would kill her without any hesitation."Most of the times, my husband would beat me at night in my sleep. One day I might just die because I only have one life which I need to protect," she said.In defence, Kaunda said he was not ready to be divorced since Mwanza was his second wife and denied being a cannabis smoker.He claimed he was a good husband who forgave her when she committed adultery with their neighbour."How many times will I marry? I want to keep my children with Mwanza who is my second wife now after divorcing the first one," he said.But the court granted the couple divorce and ordered the duo to share property acquired together while in marriage. News / Africa by Staff Reporter THE Kanyama Local Court has heard how a man usually refuses responsibilities each time he impregnates his wife.This was a matter where Harriet Mbilika, 48, sued her husband, Pearson Mulowa, 50, of New Lusaka West for divorce for neglecting his responsibilities and deserting her each time she became pregnant.Times of Zambia reported that Mbilika explained to Senior Court Magistrate Daniel Phiri, sitting with Magistrate Ackim Phiri at Kanyama Local Court, that Mulowa was not a caring man and that she had suffered at his hands since they got married.She narrated that whenever she was pregnant, Mulowa refused responsibility and told off the children that he was not their father, a situation she said was disturbing and confusing to the children.Mbilika further stated that when she started a business, Mulowa beat her because he suspected that the customers were her boyfriends."When I started a business at a tavern, he beat me and told me he was never going to allow me to have my own business."I don't understand, he knows he can't fend for the family or pay school fees and paying rentals," she said.She said she was tired of sleeping in a one-roomed apartment with her six children because the husband could not afford to rent a bigger house.Mbilika said Mulowa was so jealous that he did not allow her to mingle with her friends, and had stopped her from going to church.The court separated the couple amid protests by Mulowa who said he loved his wife and children.He said he would have killed his children if he did not love them.Mulowa knelt down before Mbilika in court to ask for forgiveness, but Magistrate Phiri ordered him to compensate Mbilika K6,000 with an initial payment of K1,000 followed by monthly installments of K300.He was also ordered to pay child maintenance fees of K750. At this time of the year I am often asked for recipes that contain no meat. As soon as the period known as Lent begins, there are people who abstain from meat on Fridays and other holy days. It is indeed an old tradition of fasting and preparing for the celebration of Easter. For some, the idea of a meal without meat seems unthinkable. But I have often been in places where dishes prepared with other ingredients are simply delicious. And the country that probably comes to mind first is Spain. The first time I traveled to Spain was in the late 70s when I was still a teenager. I had a wonderful time discovering the capital, Madrid, on my own and certainly enjoyed the many dishes I had during my short stay there. Back then, my budget meant I had to find very inexpensive places to eat. So I ate lots of rice, fried eggs and vegetable dishes All were tasty. Years later, my Danish wife Susanne and I participated in an overseas study program through Central Michigan University and spent a summer studying in Alicante. The city is located on the Mediterranean Sea and is the perfect size for me. It is big enough so that there is lots to see and discover but not overwhelming. Since Susanne and I were there for several weeks, we were both able to discover much about local culture including the culinary traditions. Both of us still remember the local markets full of all sorts of cured meats and sausages, fish and cheeses. But we also were amazed at the seemingly unending variety of fruits and vegetables. While in Alicante, we lived at the home of a very friendly Spanish lady named Ester. Once she found out I was interested in local cuisine she was more than happy to provide advice and cooking lessons. One of the most popular and typical dishes of the region is paella. Ester had several pans for preparing paella that she referred to using the same word although they can also be called pallero or pallera. The pan is rather flat and shallow, allowing for a thin layer of rice topped with all sorts ingredients. The first time she prepared rice for me she used rabbit and chicken (the latter because Susanne didnt particularly enjoy the idea of eating rabbit). After sauteeing vegetables, she added the medium grain rice and then bouillon and saffron. The sauteed rabbit and chicken pieces were added last. It was great. Ester told me that there we unending recipes using fish and vegetables and following the same basic method. On a trip to the same area years later during Lent, I discovered exactly what Ester meant. In one restaurant, I enjoyed a very delicious and almost creamy plate of rice with fresh tuna fish. The rice had been prepared following the same method Ester had used. And the rice and the nice chunks of freshly sauteed tuna fish were indeed very tasty. In another small restaurant I noticed rice with seasonal vegetables on the menu. Although I was wondering what seasonal vegetables could be during the cold months of the year I had to remember that the weather in that part of Spain does not get as cold as it does in Michigan. And the rice dish contained what I had seen in many local vegetable markets - carrots, onions, green and red bell peppers. It was wonderful and very filling. During that stay in Alicante, I also came across a dish that is very typical along much of the Mediterranean coast and the Balearic Islands. It is called coca. It can best be described as similar to a thin crust pizza with all sorts of toppings but usually not cheese. And coca can also be prepared using sweet ingredients. I fell in love with coca because it is fairly easy to prepare and can be made with so many fresh products. The first slice of coca I ever ate was prepared with tomatoes, red bell peppers, onions and zucchini. It was actually served cold and was a wonderful accompaniment to a glass of local wine. I noticed cocas in all sorts of restaurants prepared with all sorts of vegetables they were all good. We may not be in Alicante and there are certainly no native palm trees growing outside. But one can still enjoy some very traditional foods from the area of Alicante here at home. If you dont have a traditional pan for preparing paella many local stores carry large, flat skillets made of stainless steel and with a handle on each side. Be sure to get one that has a lid. Such pans will do the job. And for the coca you simply need a large baking sheet. There is no reason why meatless foods cant be delicious. Enjoy the challenge and the cultural experience! Greg Lopez is a Midlander who loves food and travel. He combines both in a monthly column for the Daily News. Arroz con verduras - Rice with vegetables 3 tablespoons Spanish olive oil 1 tomato, skin removed and diced 1 red bell pepper, stem and seeds removed and diced 1 small onion, skin removed and finely diced 1 garlic clove, peeled 1 1/2 cups fresh cauliflower, cut into small pieces and washed and drained 1 carrot, peeled and cut into thin slices 1 tablespoon sweet Spanish paprika 2 cups medium grain rice 4 1/2 cups warm vegetable bouillon 1/2 teaspoon ground saffron Pour the olive oil in the skillet and heat over medium heat. Add the tomatoes, red bell pepper, onion and garlic clove. Sautee for 2-3 minutes or until the onion is transparent. Add the cauliflower pieces and the carrots. Saute 15 seconds and the add the paprika. Pour in the rice and stir about 20 seconds. Add the bouillon and saffron and stir once and do not stir again. Cook over medium heat until the rice is completely cooked. This should take about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and place the lid on the pan and allow to sit for 20 minutes before serving. Coca de verduras - Vegetable coca 1 portion homemade pizza dough or bread dough 2 medium tomatoes, diced 1 green bell pepper, stem and seeds removed and finely diced 1 red bell pepper, stem removed and finely diced 1 zucchini, stems removed, cut in half lengthwise and cut in thin slices 1 tablespoon sweet Spanish paprika 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, finely chopped salt and pepper to taste 5-6 tablespoons Spanish olive oil Vegetable oil spray for the baking pan Spray a large baking sheet with a thin layer of oil. Roll out dough as thinly as possible and cover the baking sheet with dough. Put all of the vegetables, the paprika and oregano in a large salad bowl. Sprinkle with salt (about 1 1/2 teaspoons) and pepper and mix well. Sprinkle with oil and spread evenly over the dough. Bake in a preheated 380 degrees Fahrenheit oven in the middle of the oven about 30-35 minutes or until the vegetables are completely cooked. Note: This is usually eaten cold but also tastes nice served warm. It is cut into slices like a pizza. News / Africa by Staff Reporter THE freight train was making a delivery when, without warning, it suddenly derailed after a 200m railway track had been stolen, and all that was left was sand and rocks.Daily Sun reported that a few nuts and bolts were the only remains of the railway. Transnet said they towed the train away before reporting the matter to the cops.The train departed from Arlington and was heading for Heilbron in the Free State on Monday. Transnet spokesman Sandile Simelane told Daily Sun:"Transnet Freight Rail does not transport passengers: it is a freight company. The train was en route to Heilbron from Arlington, near Senekal on Monday. It is not clear when the railway line was stolen, but it caused the train to derail. The 200m long line was stolen at Hoogte, a public siding close to Heilbron. The police were informed and the matter is still under the investigation. No one was injured."Simelane said they could not disclose the value of the stolen steel at this stage, as the matter is still under investigation.Arrive Alive had the photos of the derailed train splashed across their website. Advocate Johan Jonck, the website's developer, said: "I could not believe what I was seeing."It is worrying to see the transport industry encountering such a crime."Police spokeswoman Lieutenant Livhuwani Hani said no such case had been opened."I have personally spoken to the Heilbron Police Station commander. I was told that no such case had been opened," he said. Jennifer J. West has been appointed as vice president, Retirement Plan Services business development officer, for Chemical Banks east region. I am excited to welcome Jennifer to Chemical Bank Wealth Management. Her extensive background in the financial services industry will be an asset to us as we continue to grow our 401K services in Chemical Banks east region, said John Kessler, executive vice president and senior trust officer for Chemical Bank. In this position, West is the lead 401K business development officer for Chemical Banks Wealth Management Group, focusing on establishing retirement plans and developing foundation and endowment opportunities throughout Mid-Michigan. She will be responsible for developing strong retirement plans by providing plan design consulting services, fiduciary risk management and plan level fee analysis to retirement plan sponsors. West will be working with prospective corporate clients, municipalities and not-for-profits in the Mount Pleasant, Clare, Midland, Saginaw, Bay City, Owosso and Flint markets. West brings over 17 years of experience in the financial and investment services industry and holds a bachelors degree in business administration from Central Michigan University. Prior to joining Chemical Bank, she served as vice president, business banking lender for 10 years with PNC Bank, and over four years as vice president, channel development officer of PNC Bank-Wealth Management. Amy Conrad, of Bay City, has received a $1,500 college scholarship grant from the Midland PEO chapter. PEO, an international womens group and a philanthropic organization, was formed to assist women through scholarships, grants, wards and loans and supports students to attend PEO Cottey College. The PEO college scholarship grant will ensure that Conrad is financially able to complete her education. The grant will pay for a new computer, printer, toolkit, gas and repairs for her car for the winter semester of 2016. The grant gives Conrad the ability to purchase items needed as a computer science major that are not covered by financial aid. Conrad spent 13 years in Au Gres raising her two children, now ages 27 and 23. In 2012, she was divorced and the next year, her full time position of 12 years, as an office manger in a local accounting firm, was downsized. To make ends meet, she worked two part-time jobs and continued to search for full-time employment. At the age of 46, she went to Delta College and took a Compass placement test. She scored so well that she was invited to join the Honors Program. Conrad finished her first semester at Delta with a 3.85 GPA and was named to the vice presidents list. The Honors Department recommended her for the PEO continuing education grant. In her second semester, Conrad earned a 4.0 GPA. At the end of August, Conrad moved to Bay City, making it possible for her to accept a part-time position as a student employee in the Honors Department, as well as being able to attend college full time in the winter of 2016. She plans to graduate from Delta with an associates degree in computer science in the spring of 2017. Conrad hopes to find work in the field of Internet security or IT. BAILEY, Colo. (AP) A man who spent years fighting the foreclosure of his Colorado home and ranted online about police and corporate corruption shot three law enforcement officers trying to serve an eviction notice Wednesday, killing one and wounding the others, authorities said. The officers fired back in this forested mountain community, killing the gunman, identified by police as 58-year-old Martin Wirth. Eight officers from the Park County Sheriff's Office went to the snow-covered two-story home in a hillside neighborhood north of the town of Bailey to serve what authorities described as a "high-risk" eviction notice. The well-maintained houses sit on big lots, with room for horses to graze in an area popular with hunters and anglers. Wirth appeared on the deck of his home when the officers arrived, then went back inside, according to the sheriff's office account of the shooting. Officers followed him in, and Wirth fired on them, prompting them to return fire, sheriff's officials said. The shooting killed Corporal Nate Carrigan, a 13-year veteran of the sheriff's office. One of the wounded officers underwent surgery for life-threatening injuries and was in critical condition at a Denver hospital. The other was treated and released from a hospital after a bullet grazed his ear, Colorado Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Susan Medina said. Scores of people attended a vigil Wednesday night for Carrigan at Platte Canyon Community Church. Some wrote remembrances and prayers on sheets of paper lining the church walls One note recalled Carrigan comforting a young girl after a chimney fire at her home and sending a firefighter to the house to retrieve her dolls. "Rest in peace, Cpl. Carrigan. We love you," the note said. Medina declined to say why the sheriff's office considered it a risk to serve Wirth with the eviction notice. "They had background information about the suspect in this case, but we're just not going to talk about it at this time," she said. Wirth owned the home until March 2014, when Fannie Mae, the government-controlled mortgage company, took ownership after he lost a court battle over his foreclosure. After Wirth lost his case in state court, he sued Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, the state attorney general and a judge in 2013. The federal lawsuit claimed that state foreclosure laws were unconstitutional and that Wirth and his unnamed guests were "in imminent danger of being wrongfully deprived of home and property while also being threatened with an armed and forcible entry onto the property and into the home." He asked a federal judge to block Park County from selling his home, evicting him or forcibly entering the house and to strike down several state laws. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit last September. A website by a group called the Colorado Foreclosure Resistance Coalition includes undated posts that called for supporters to join Wirth in "non-violent eviction resistance." The website includes a video of a man identified as Wirth railing against mortgage companies as criminals. A call to the group, whose website says it is part of the Occupy movement, was not immediately returned. Tim Holland, who was involved in the Occupy Denver movement with Wirth, struggled to reconcile the shooting with his memories of Wirth as a "sweet, quirky, kindhearted guy." "It seems to me that he was just pushed to the end of his rope, and he tried every single approach to addressing his grievances, and at the end, he chose to not let them take his house away from him," Holland said. "It's the middle of winter in the mountains. Where was he going to go?" Wirth ran for the state Senate in 2014 as a Green Party candidate, but he lost to an incumbent Republican. In a candidate questionnaire he completed for The Denver Post, Wirth wrote of corruption in the political system, his support for Colorado's marijuana laws and the plight of the poor. When asked whether he supported the death penalty, Wirth wrote, "Killing people to show that killing people is wrong is a piece of idiotic hypocrisy." He wrote disparagingly of police, the federal government and corporations on his candidate page on Facebook and praised former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked millions of documents about government surveillance. He made regular posts criticizing leading presidential candidates from both parties. Neighbor Terry Rogers, a counselor and pastor at Platte Canyon Community Church, said he did not know Wirth well and believes no one in the area did. "He was pretty reclusive," said Rogers, who could see law enforcement vehicles responding to the shooting across a snow-covered pasture from his driveway. The area of rocky, pine-covered hills is about 45 miles southwest of Denver where several camps host Girl Scouts and other youth during the summer. The neighborhood is several miles outside Bailey, a hamlet of just a few restaurants and shops. There, a gunman took several girls hostage in a high school classroom a decade ago, killing one before himself. Sam Lung, who lives nearby, said he often hears gunshots in the area, which has a target practice site. He said people often shoot in their backyards, "practicing their Second Amendment rights." He said he did not hear the gunshots Wednesday. "It is a dark day," Medina said. Volz reported from Helena, Montana. Associated Press writers Sadie Gurman and Colleen Slevin contributed to this report from Denver. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette recently issued a warning to the website FlintUnleaded.org and its owner Derek Jones, of Texas, due to potential charitable solicitation violations. The warning addressed the lack of transparency regarding the persons or organization operating the website and warned against non-compliance with Michigans Charitable Organizations and Solicitations Act. Of particular concern, donations to the website purport to benefit a local nonprofit corporation, PAPAS (Pick a Place and Start), but in 2015, that nonprofit was automatically dissolved by Michigans Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs and had its 501(c)(3) status revoked by the IRS both actions resulting from the organizations failure to file annual reports with the state and federal governments. OLIVER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) A nearly 400-foot wind turbine has partially collapsed in a Michigan field about 100 miles north of Detroit. The turbine, part of Exelon Wind Generation's 32-turbine Harvest Wind Farm, fell about 5:20 a.m. Thursday, Oliver Township Supervisor Larry Krohn told the Huron Daily Tribune in Bad Axe. Exelon was looking into the cause of the fall, spokeswoman Kristen Otterness told the Daily Tribune. The National Weather Service reported wind gusts up to 45 mph in the area. "That section of the wind park will be shut down until company officials can determine that the structural failure is isolated and it's safe to return other turbines back into service," Huron County Sheriff Kelly Hanson said. The toppled part of the turbine included the blades, WLEW-AM reported. Krohn said it appears only the wind turbine was damaged. No one was hurt. Last week, a 160-foot, 7-ton turbine blade broke nearby, according to the Daily Tribune. That damaged blade is on a DTE Energy turbine in Sigel Township. ___ Information from: WLEW-AM, http://www.thumbnet.net/id3.htm CHICAGO (AP) The Latest on the winter storm moving through parts of the Midwest (all times local): 5 p.m. The Chicago Department of Aviation is reporting the winter storm slamming the city and northwest Indiana is having a big impact on flights into and out of the city's major airports. About 860 flights were canceled at O'Hare International Airport by Wednesday evening. About 310 flights at Midway International Airport have been canceled, with Southwest Airlines canceling all flights serving the airport. As the evening rush hour got underway, the National Weather Service warned the wet snow falling in Chicago, its southern suburbs and northwest Indiana could make travel very dangerous. The weather service said motorists should avoid the roadways if possible. The Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation deployed 300 plows to main routes to help through the evening commute, and urged drivers to allow for extra travel time. With temperatures expected to fall quickly into the 20s overnight, there's the expectation currently wet roads will become icy. ___ 4 p.m. The U.S. Coast Guard warns that anyone trying to watch storm-tossed waves along Lake Michigan should use caution when standing on docks, break walls, piers and rocks. The agency says Wednesday that its crews have responded on past occasions to rescue people swept into lakes by strong waves. Waves can be in excess of 10 feet, with winds pushing 30 mph or more. The Coast Guard says people should stand about 25 feet from the water and advises wearing a life jacket or having a flotation device. Gale and storm warnings are in effect for much of the lake until Thursday night as severe weather crosses parts of the Midwest. The storm could dump up to 18 inches of snow on some areas before it's finished. ___ 12:50 p.m. Heavy snowfall is forcing the closure of schools and offices in parts of Michigan. Genesee County office buildings and Flint City Hall closed at noon Wednesday and will remain closed Thursday. About a dozen school districts north of Detroit and in the Jackson area already have cancelled classes and after-school activities Thursday due to the storm. WXYZ-TV and MLive.com report that dozens of schools shut down Wednesday afternoon. 12:35 p.m. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has closed many state government offices due to a winter storm that could bring 8-12 inches of snow. All Lower Peninsula state offices closed at noon Wednesday. The State Emergency Operations Center will stay open to manage Flint's water emergency and to monitor storm conditions. The state also will keep open bottled water and filter distribution sites in Flint, which is under a state of emergency because of a lead-contaminated water supply. Snyder is urging residents to be aware of potential carbon monoxide poisoning while using generators in the event of a power outage. A generator hooked up to a propane tank in the basement of a Fenton Township, Michigan, home is believed to be responsible for the carbon monoxide death of a couple and their four children. The home near Flint lost power during a storm Friday night. ___ 11:30 a.m. Many Indiana school districts have canceled classes as a powerful storm threatens to dump up to 18 inches of snow on parts of the state. Dozens of northwestern and western Indiana districts canceled classes Wednesday after the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the region. Twin Lakes School Corp. Superintendent Tom Fletcher says he was already worried about forecasts of 6 to 8 inches of snow and higher amounts in White County, but the blizzard warning made it clear that he should cancel classes for the district's 2,300 students. Fletcher says he's glad he did because the roads are covered in ice and the snow is falling hard. He says the district, like many in Indiana, has e-learning that allows students to continue coursework online. ___ 10:40 a.m. High winds from a winter storm have caused the surface of the Saginaw River in Michigan to flow backward. The river typically empties at Bay City into the Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron, but The Bay City Times reports it appeared to be moving in the opposite direction Wednesday morning. The National Weather Service says winds were blowing from the north around 26 mph with gusts up to 37 mph. As a result, the river's level also has risen. Still, officials say it remains well below flood stage. Along the western portion of the state, winds off Lake Michigan were expected to create waves building to 11 feet by Wednesday night. Gale warnings were issued. Away from shore in Lake Michigan, forecasters say waves of 20 to 25 feet are possible. ___ 9:30 a.m. A number of events are being postponed or canceled in parts of Michigan as a winter storm bears down on the state. Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said Wednesday that due to the storm, she was postponing a Thursday meeting with residents about the city's lead-tainted water crisis. The Flint & Genesee Chamber of Commerce's also moved its ninth annual Jumpstart Conference from Thursday to March 4 due to the storm. The National Weather Service says Flint could get at least 8 inches of snow. Officials are warning people to stay off the roads if possible as the weather worsens. Some schools also are closed for the day Wednesday. ___ 7:45 a.m. Airlines are pre-emptively canceling hundreds of flights at Chicago's two airports as a powerful storm takes aim at parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes region. As of Wednesday morning, nearly 900 flights in and out of Chicago were cancelled. That's according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware.com. The vast majority of the cancellations were at O'Hare International Airport, which serves as a major hub for both United and American Airlines. Other airports in the path of the storm, including in St. Louis and Detroit, showed no significant disruption. Forecasters say the storm could dump 12 to 18 inches of snow along Indiana's coast of Lake Michigan. Motorists are being warned of zero visibility at times on roadways. ___ 7 a.m. A winter storm moving across the Midwest has dumped several inches of snow on the St. Louis metropolitan area, left thousands without power and caused many school districts to cancel classes. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1mXflAI ) reports that about 3 inches had fallen in the St. Louis metropolitan area by 6 a.m. Wednesday. National Weather Service forecasters are predicting another 3 to 4 inches of snowfall in the area before the storm winds down this afternoon. Wind gusts of up to 45 mph are making driving hazardous. Visibility was down to about a half-mile in some areas. Ameren is reporting downed power lines and blown transformers. The utility says more than 17,000 customers are without power on the Missouri side and 9,000 on the Illinois side of the metro region. ___ 6:45 a.m. A powerful storm is moving through parts of the Midwest and could dump as much as 18 inches of snow on some areas before it's finished. The National Weather Service issued winter weather warnings Wednesday for an area stretching from Missouri northeast through Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, with blizzard warnings for counties in eastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana. Forecasters say the storm could dump 12 to 18 inches of snow on parts of Indiana along the coast of Lake Michigan. Flint, Michigan, is expected to get 8 to 12 inches of snow. Motorists are being warned of zero visibility at times on roadways. Chicago is preparing to deploy 140 snowplows to clear roads during the evening rush hour. Wind gusts of up to 50 mph are expected in areas. ___ 6:40 a.m. Some schools closed in Michigan ahead of a winter storm that could bring a foot of wet, heavy snow to parts of the Lower Peninsula. The National Weather Service says a storm system is moving Wednesday into the state, bringing rain that's expected to change into snow. The storm is expected to intensify later Wednesday and leave the highest snow amounts in the state's Thumb region. Flint could get at least 8 inches. The city is facing a crisis with lead-tainted water and officials urged residents to make sure they have enough filters, cartridges and bottled water on hand. In parts of southwestern and mid-Michigan, 8 to 10 inches is possible. In the Detroit area, 1 to 4 inches is expected Wednesday followed by 1 to 3 inches into Thursday. ___ 6:40 a.m. Up to 18 inches of snow is forecast for Indiana's Lake Michigan shores as a winter storm is expected to bring blizzard conditions to the state. The National Weather Service early Wednesday had blizzard warnings in effect for northwest Indiana and winter storm warnings issued for areas including Crawfordsville, Kokomo and Logansport. The harshest weather though was expected along the Lake Michigan coast from Gary to the Michigan border. Forecasters said blizzard conditions are likely midmorning through early evening with wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph. They warned motorists of zero visibility on roadways and white-out conditions. A winter weather advisory was in effect Wednesday for areas south of the storm, including Vincennes northeast to Terre Haute, Indianapolis and Marion. ___ 6:30 a.m. A winter storm moving across Illinois is forecast to bring as much as 9 inches of snow to areas of the state. The National Weather Service early Wednesday issued winter storm warnings stretching from St. Louis north to the Chicago area, including central and southeastern Illinois. Blizzard warnings were in effect from north of Vandalia to Champaign and north to Kankakee. The northwestern parts of the state looked to be unaffected. The warnings were to expire by 9 p.m. on Wednesday. Forecasters warned of hazardous driving conditions, citing strong winds gusting up to 50 mph and locally heavy snowfall. In Chicago, the city said it was preparing its fleet of 140 snow plows for a winter storm that was expected to affect rush hour traffic. OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) The University of Oklahoma has agreed to return a painting that the Nazis stole from a French family during World War II, a lawyer and school officials said Tuesday in announcing a settlement of a drawn-out dispute over the artwork's ownership. Under the settlement, the ownership of impressionist Camille Pissarro's 1886 "Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep" will be transferred to Leone Meyer, a French Holocaust survivor whose father owned the painting when it was stolen, her New York attorney, Pierre Ciric, told The Associated Press. Going forward, the painting valued in its last appraisal at $1.5 million will split its time being displayed at the university's Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in Norman and a museum in France. University President David Boren said in a statement that the school is pleased the painting will still be accessible in Oklahoma and available for educational purposes. He said the agreement also recognizes "the good faith and generosity" of the Weitzenhoffer family, who bought the painting in 1956 from a New York gallery and donated it in 2000 to the university. Boren and the school had opposed the lawsuit on largely procedural grounds, saying prior to the settlement agreement that the school had sovereign immunity. They also argued that Meyer hadn't been diligent in pursuing her claim and that she originally sued in New York rather than Oklahoma as a "forum shopping strategy" to avoid Oklahoma's more restrictive statute of limitations. Oklahoma House Rep. Paul Wesselhoft, a Republican from Moore, had been an outspoken critic of the university's decision not to immediately return the painting. "It's immoral," Wesselhoft said. "I love OU, and it's embarrassing when my school doesn't do the moral thing." Meyer maintained that she was entitled to the artwork because it belonged to her father when it was taken by the Nazis as German forces occupied France during World War II. Swiss records show that Meyer's father had owned the painting, but a Swiss court ruled that its post-war owners had properly established ownership and rejected her claim. In a few months, the settlement will require the painting to be transferred to a museum in France for a period of five years. After that point, it will rotate between museums in Oklahoma and France bearing a label that explains the painting's history, including its seizure by the Nazis and restitution in court. "She could have chosen to keep this painting in some type of private, closed-door type of situation," Ciric said of his client. "Instead, she said she thought it was important for the public to still see this painting." The settlement also requires that after the title is transferred to Meyer, she will donate the painting to an art institution in France either during her lifetime or in her will. The painting was last appraised in 2008 at $1.5 million, according to university spokeswoman Catherine Bishop. Ciric said the painting will likely be appraised again for insurance purposes before it's shipped to France. MidMichigan Health and the COPD Foundation are offering two free programs on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The Community Education Workshop will provide individuals with breathing problems an overview of how the lungs work and how COPD can be managed, and the Professional Education Workshop is designed for health care providers who care for patients with COPD. The Community Education Workshop sessions will address various aspects of patient care and ways to engage your health care team to ensure the optimal quality of life while living with this condition. Session topics include Benefits of Pulmonary Rehabilitation and Why Patients Should Go, with Dr. Carlos Martinez, of the University of Michigan Health System; COPD 101 with 3-D Interactive, Why Youre Short of Breath, with Scott Cerreta from the COPD Foundation; and Building Your COPD Team for the Best Quality of Life Panel Discussion, with speakers from MidMichigan Healths pulmonology, pharmacy, case management, cardiopulmonary rehab and home care departments. A free optional screening and testing will also be offered during the workshop. Attendees can participate in a pulmonary function screening, which will help determine if you have any potential problems with your lungs that may be caused by irritants in your home or workplace. An Alpha-1 testing will also be available. This blood test will measure the amount of Alpha-1 Antitrypsin (AAT) protein found in the lungs and bloodstream to determine if there is a deficiency. Individuals with Alpha-1 deficiency are more likely to have lung diseases at a younger age; however, effective treatment options are available. While all community members are welcome to attend the COPD Community Education Workshop, it is specifically recommended for individuals with lung issues and their family members or support network. The COPD Professional Education Workshop, recommended for respiratory therapists, pulmonologists, primary care providers, nurses and other health care providers, will discuss current literature and research, describe best practices for reducing unnecessary COPD readmissions and summarize the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation and demonstrate expected patient outcomes. Continuing education credits are available. Both workshops will take place on March 2 in the Chemical Bank Conference Room of the Gerstacker Building, located on the campus of MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland. The COPD Professional Education Workshop will take place from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and the COPD Community Education Workshop will take place from 1 to 5:15 p.m. Registration before the event is required for both workshops. Those who would like to register may call 1-866-316-COPD (2673) or visit https://copd-patient-workshop-midland.eventbrite.com for the COPD Community Education Workshop and https://copd-professional-workshop-midland.eventbrite.com for the COPD Professional Education Workshop. WAVERLY, Va. (AP) A powerful storm system swept across the East Coast on Wednesday, killing four people in Virginia and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the region. A girl in Michigan died following a three-vehicle crash on a snowy roadway. A day earlier, the system spawned about two dozen tornadoes along the Gulf Coast, damaging hundreds of homes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. Three people were killed and dozens were injured. Forecasters had warned that more than 88 million people were at risk of seeing some sort of severe weather Wednesday. In the Midwest, heavy snow and biting winds led to mass flight cancellations at Chicago airports and school closings in several states. In Virginia, Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency Wednesday evening. The tiny farming town of Waverly in the state's peanut-growing region took the brunt of the storm. The Virginia State Police said at least five structures were damaged in the town of approximately 2,000. The names of the three people killed there were not released, but state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said in a statement that they were a 2-year-old child and two men, ages 50 and 26. She said their bodies were found about 300 yards from their mobile home. Roads leading into the town had to be closed because of downed trees and debris tossed by winds gusting to 60 mph, Geller said. A 7:30 p.m. curfew was imposed so search and rescue teams could go door to door checking on people. Witnesses said the storm swept through Waverly with little warning. Timothy Williams said a friend had just come by to take his new car for a drive when the storm hit. "It picked the car right off the ground, and put it right back on the ground," said Williams, 44. He said they remained in the car until the storm passed. The storm blew down electrical wires "in a big ball of fire, thrashing all about each other," Williams said. He said they both escaped shaken but uninjured. "I'm just a little nervous and jittery, but overall I'm OK," Williams said. In Appomattox County, a funnel cloud left an 8- to 10-mile path of destruction, injuring seven people and killing one man, state police said. At least 15 structures were destroyed and 25 injuries were reported when the storm passed through Essex County and the town of Tappahannock, about 45 miles northeast of Richmond, state police said. The injuries ranged from minor to serious, but were no confirmed fatalities. In southern Michigan, a 6-year-old girl died following a three-vehicle crash. State police say Harlyn Radley died after the crash Wednesday afternoon near Battle Creek. Investigators say a car driven by the child's mother lost control and collided with another vehicle. A third vehicle then struck the wreckage. Police say speed and heavy, wet snow were factors in the crash. On Tuesday, one of the hardest-hit areas along the Gulf Coast was a recreational vehicle park in the town of Convent, in southern Louisiana. RVs were tossed about and lay on top of wrecked cars and pickup trucks. Two people were killed there, and 31 injured people were taken to area hospitals, said St. James Parish Sheriff Willy Martin. An all-night search of the RV park found no additional injuries or fatalities, the sheriff said. One person was still unaccounted for. Briaxton Lott, 23, was in the trailer park when the tornado hit. The pad where his trailer once sat was empty and he pointed to the remnants of it about 100 feet away. "The whole front end came up and slammed back down, and I grabbed up the baby and the next thing I know we just went rolling end over end," Lott said. Bill Bunting with Storm Prediction Center estimated 20 to 24 tornados hit from Louisiana to Florida on Tuesday. Crews were still surveying so he couldn't be more specific. The storms dumped several inches of rain in Alabama, Georgia and elsewhere, causing flash flood watches. Schools were closed in parts of Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas ahead of the storms. In Mississippi, 73-year-old Dale Purvis died of blunt-force trauma in a mobile home west of Purvis, Lamar County Coroner Cody Creel said. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said an apparent tornado in the Pensacola area significantly damaged more than 70 homes and 24 apartments, leaving three people with minor injuries. He stopped at The Moorings apartment complex, where winds ripped the roof off of at least two buildings. Residents in LaPlace, Louisiana, were cleaning up Wednesday after a tornado ripped up trees, tore roofs from houses and terrified local residents. Nearly 200 homes were damaged. Rose Fuselier, 80, had a gaping hole where her home's front window once stood. "The whole backyard is covered with trees, and then my shed is torn up, too. The roof is gone, and the siding is partially gone," she said. Still, she said others suffered damage even worse than hers: "I lucked out. I lucked out." ___ Becherer reported from Convent, Louisiana. Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana, in LaPlace, Louisiana; Melissa Nelson-Gabriel in Pensacola, Florida; Bill Fuller and Chevel Johnson in New Orleans; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Alanna Durkin Richer and Steve Szkotak in Richmond; Kasey Jones in Baltimore and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report. A Saginaw man has been sentenced to prison after making a no contest plea to charges filed after a domestic assault with a shot fired inside a Midland home in March. Desrik Samar Blakes, 31, was arrested March 18 after Midland Police were sent to a Gordon Street home by 911 dispatchers. A girl had called 911 and told dispatchers her mothers boyfriend was holding a gun to her mothers head and threatening her. Officers later learned a firearm had been discharged inside the home. The suspect tried to run away, but was apprehended in the homes backyard after a short foot chase. The gun was recovered from the neighbors yard, after the suspect threw it over a fence. Blakes was charged with nine counts in connection with the incident: Discharge of a firearm inside a building, felon in possession of a firearm, felonious assault, three counts of felony firearms, two counts of resisting and obstructing police and second-offense domestic violence. Prosecutors also levied habitual fourth offender status in the case. Blakes entered a no contest plea to charges of discharge of a firearm inside a building, felonious assault, two counts of resisting and obstructing police, the domestic violence count and the habitual fourth offender status. Blakes was sentenced by Midland County Circuit Court Judge Michael J. Beale to five to 15 years in prison for the first count, between three and 15 years for each of the second, third and fourth offenses, and one year for the domestic assault. He was given credit for 337 days in jail. The remaining counts were dismissed. Blakes was represented by attorney Lee Burton of Midland, who was appointed to the case. According to Michigan Department of Corrections records, Blakes previous convictions include possession of a controlled substance, delivery or manufacture of marijuana and felon in possession of firearms. News / International by AP WASHINGTON - Women who inserted a vaginal ring coated with an anti-AIDS drug once a month were partially protected against HIV infection, researchers said Monday as they released long-awaited results from two large studies in Africa.The ring proved safe although the protection was modest, reducing overall HIV infection by less than a third. Surprisingly, the ring worked far better in women 25 and older, leaving researchers wondering if the youngest women, who got little to no benefit, simply didn't use the device properly.Women make up more than half of the nearly 37 million people worldwide living with HIV, most of them in hard-hit Africa, and scientists have long sought tools to help them protect themselves when their partners won't use a condom.Despite questions the studies raise, the nonprofit International Partnership for Microbicides said it considered the results promising enough to seek appropriate regulatory approval for wider use in parts of Africa."You can't just say, 'Until something is perfect, we're going to wait,'" said Dr. Zeda Rosenberg, founding chief executive officer of IPM. "We have to give women options.""For a woman to have a prevention tool that she can control is an incredibly important goal," added Dr. Jared Baeten of the University of Washington, who led a National Institutes of Health-funded study of the ring. "I want rings, pills and other strategies to be on the shelf for women so they can make choices for what's going to work for them."Aside from condoms, HIV prevention tools include taking a daily anti-AIDS pill. That so-called "pre-exposure prophylaxis" isn't widely available in poor countries, and other attempts at HIV-blocking vaginal gels haven't yet panned out.But the age disparity found in the vaginal ring studies is so puzzling that the NIH plans to consult with outside experts on next research steps.While women need a discreet form of HIV prevention, "it's going to be absolutely critical" to determine if the younger women really didn't follow instructions, or if there was some biological difference, cautioned Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIH's National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Vaginal rings are sold in the U.S. for birth control, but the anti-AIDS version tested in Africa contained no contraception. Instead, it slowly oozes an experimental virus-blocking drug named dapivirine into the surrounding vaginal tissue. Women would replace the ring once a month, when it was time for another dose.Two studies involving more than 4,500 women in Africa are being presented at the Retrovirus Conference in Boston, comparing women who used the dapivirine ring with those given an identical-looking but drug-free version. It offered modest protection, reducing by 27 percent to 31 percent the participants' overall risk of HIV.But closer inspection of the large NIH-funded ASPIRE study in Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe turned up something odd. Ring users who were 25 and older were 61 percent less likely to be infected while those ages 18 to 21 essentially got no benefit, Baeten said.While the ring is designed to stay in place for an entire month before being replaced, there are signs the younger women didn't use it as regularly, said Baeten, whose results also were published online Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine. He said women had to get comfortable with the how to use a device they'd never seen before, but those who used the ring continuously saw protection that continued throughout the 2-year study."The ring must be used consistently to achieve protection," the IPM's Annalene Nel told reporters Monday as she discussed the second study, called the Ring Study. Conducted in South Africa and Uganda, that study likewise showed a trend toward greater protection for women over 21, she said.While that study isn't completed yet, the IPM said South African regulators asked researchers to switch all the remaining study participants to the dapivirine-coated ring rather than the placebo version.Early studies of those daily anti-AIDS pills also found less protection in younger people, who did better at sticking with the tablets only after their effectiveness was proven, said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, which advocates for a range of HIV prevention tools. He said there is "a global imperative" to answer remaining questions about the ring.- See more at: http://www.whio.com/ap/ap/top-news/study-finds-anti-aids-vaginal-ring-partially-prote/nqWGz/ #sthash .76WxyHl2.dpuf After spending more than a week sharing civil engineering techniques, 54 engineers from the U.S. Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Republic of Singapore Air Force, Republic of Korea Air Force and Japan Air Self-Defense Force concluded the Partner Nation Silver Flag exercise Feb. 19, 2016, at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. The event was the first time partner nations were presented the opportunity to travel to Guam to trade engineering practices with each other and the U.S. Air Force. Previously, Silver Flag primarily consisted of U.S. Airmen, ranging from 120-130 trainees. This is the first Partner Nation Silver Flag that we have done, thats what makes this so special, said Master Sgt. Michael English, 554th RED HORSE acting Silver Flag flight superintendent. We were able to bring four of our closest allies and partners together to train and build the partnerships we need in the event that we need to call on each other for battle. Silver Flag is a U.S. Pacific Command multilateral subject matter expert exchange led by engineers from the 554th RED HORSE Squadron. The exercise is designed to build partnerships and promote interoperability through the equitable exchange of civil engineer-related information. The contingency environment training focused on bare base beddown, sustainment operations and recovery after attack. After the kickoff of Partner Nation Silver Flag, students divided into groups based on their specialties, which included command and control, electrical, power production, heavy repair and emergency management. As the week progressed, engineers trained on properly performing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear procedures and set up a mobile aircraft arresting system, emergency airfield lighting system and high voltage power generation and distribution systems. The training from the USAF was great, along with working with the JASDF, ROKAF and RSAF and learning their techniques, said RAAF Corporal Michael Breen, plumber. The comradery between all of the nations was fantastic. Although most trainees performed tasks they previously had expertise in, some broke out of their comfort zones such as JASDF Capt. Masaki Ishida, civil engineer element chief, and JASDF Staff Sgt. Kazuma Noshita, fire fighter, who joined the CBRN class. What surprised me the most was when I found out I was given students who were not disciplined in the career field, USAF English said. Ishida and Noshita had no background in CBRN operations. When we came together at the end of the week, they were very knowledgeable. They were actually teaching some of the command and control students techniques that I shared with them. That definitely surprised me, but I was happy to see that. For many of the students, this was their first time training with other nations and for some, leaving the country. This was my first time going overseas for training, but these opportunities dont come very often, said ROKAF Master Sgt. Park Cheong Hae, airfield lighting specialist. Although I was nervous, I was very happy I was able to get this great opportunity for training. On the final day of the event, the trainees displayed what they learned throughout the week by conducting one final exercise. Due to the multiple nations speaking different languages, several translators were selected throughout Pacific Air Forces to alleviate the confusion between languages. One of the translators was USAF Staff Sgt. Hyojin Kim, 392nd Intelligence Squadron cryptologic linguist, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, who translated English into both Korean and Japanese for JASDF and ROKAF students. There are many times when there is a communications breakdown because of a language barrier, Kim said. Interpreters are very important, because they bridge that gap allowing seamless communication and understanding between the people. With the help from the translators and communication via gestures, the training gradually became smoother for the participants. By the end of the week, some cadre didnt require translators as much as they did at beginning of the Silver Flag. Concluding the exercise with a cleanup and graduation, the students left Andersen AFB with an added knowledge about the civil engineering career field. In addition, the training allowed Airmen from countries who normally dont interact often with these topics, to build friendships and gain a better understanding on each others customs and courtesies. Building these partnerships and relationships this week is the most important aspect, English said. This training sustains my confidence in the USAF by assuring me and my family will stay safe long after I retire. By enhancing our allies and partner nations abilities, we are making them the best as well. OKINAWA, Japan A ship without Marines is like a garment without buttons. The Marines and Navy come a long way since Navy Adm. David Dixon Porter penned those words to Col. John Harris, the commandant of the Marine Corps, in 1863. Naval ships are no longer made of iron armor backed by wood, and Marines no longer fire muzzle-loaded weapons, but the relationship between the two services is still an integral part of who and what they are. Nowhere is that relationship exhibited stronger than when Marine Expeditionary Units climb aboard Navy ships for a deployment at sea. Since they deployed from Okinawa at the beginning of February, the Marines and sailors of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit have been honing their skills and learning to work closely with their Navy counterparts of the Bonhomme Richard Amphibious Ready Group. The first step in their deployment, and the foundation of the blue-green relationship, is amphibious integration training. (AIT) quite simply is the single most important training evolution that the 31st MEU does, explained Col. Romin Dasmalchi, the commanding officer of the 31st MEU. AIT is where this (Marine Air-Ground Task Force) first interacts with our counterparts in the Navy, the amphibious squadron. These two elements must train and live together and hone amphibious mission skills up front, before the ARG and the MEU sail for their deployment. The biggest hurdle for most Marines getting acclimated to living and working aboard the ship is the ship itself. Space, time and weather have a greater impact on conducting missions on a ship at sea than they do in a garrison training environment. We have come to realize that we give up our garrison facilities when we embark, but we embark on some very capable ships, said Lt. Col. Eric Malinowski, commanding officer for Combat Logistics Battalion 31, 31st MEU. You cant overlook the resources at hand just because theyre Navy blue or Marine Corps green. MEU and ARG mission readiness has to be colorblind. The missions Marines and sailors plan and conduct during AIT are the same they may be called upon to carry out as a contingency force in the Pacific: amphibious raids, vertical assaults, noncombatant evacuations and embassy reinforcements. At the conclusion of AIT, we see a cohesive team that can tackle any of the missions they could be assigned by higher headquarters, said Dasmalchi. This is no small task, the mission could be an intense combat operation, or it could be a humanitarian assistance scenario. The team must be prepared for any mission across the range of military operations. The success of the MEU and the blue-green team starts long before Marines ever set foot on a ship; long before the different elements of the MAGTF even come together to form the MEU. The subordinate elements of the 31st MEU are sourced from as far away as California and Arizona, with the majority of the Marines rotating in as part of the unit deployment program. Prior to their UDP deployments, the Marines invest months in pre-deployment training to prepare themselves for conducting the integrated mission the MEUs are often tasked with. When the separate elements eventually come together to form the 31st MEU, they work on an accelerated timeline in preparation for their deployment when compared to other MEUs across the Marine Corps. Unlike (Continental United States)-based MEUs, which execute a six month workup followed by a six month deployment, the 31st MEU generally gets a two-month workup followed by a two or three month underway period, with the same performance standards and execution requirements, said Lt. Col. Christopher Murray, the commanding officer of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 (Reinforced), 31st MEU. Our MEU requires a measured approach, with safe and professional execution by all Marines at all times. There is no room for error when you skip the crawl, briefly walk, and then run. While serving with the MEU can be intense and demanding at times, working within the strictures necessitated by the shipboard environment creates better trained, more efficient Marines. A MEU deployment offers Marines and sailors the opportunity to operate independently, in a very complex environment, with responsibilities that well exceed those given to them in a garrison environment, said Malinowski. These Marines and sailors also get a graduate-level exposure to the capabilities of a MAGTF and the Navy-Marine Corps team. As a result, they are head and shoulders above their peers in experience, understanding and maturity. For the Marines and sailors with the MEUs battalion landing team, working with the MEU also affords the companies and platoons the opportunity to specialize in insertion methods and mission sets not usually attributed or regularly available to a standard infantry battalion, according to Lt. Col. Mark Carlton, the commanding officer of Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 31st MEU. They get enormous value out of being able to focus on one thing at a time, while still maintaining those core (Mission Essential Tasks) that we expect out of infantry battalions, according to Carlton. The challenges of AIT now behind them, the Marines and sailors of the 31st MEU and the ships of the ARG look forward to their time at sea in the Asia-Pacific, ready to respond when the call arises. The role of the MEU has changed in that now, more than ever, this MAGTF must be ready at a moments notice, explained Dasmalchi. In the past 30 days alone, we have seen examples from across the spectrum. Whether it is provocation from a potential adversary, or a partner or ally in need of humanitarian assistance, we must be ready to move out either as the initial strike or the helping hand. WASHINGTON, February 23, 2016 It is important for the U.S. military to continue its rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command told the Senate Armed Services Committee today. Navy Adm. Harry Harris Jr. noted that four of the five strategic problem sets that Defense Secretary Ash Carter has stressed -- China, North Korea, Russia and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant -- are in Pacoms area of operation. Id say that we can't rebalance fast enough, Harris told the committee. But there is more work to do, and we must not lose the momentum. Asia-Pacific Regional Issues The South China Sea is an international waterway thats vital to world trade, Harris said. Disputes between China and some other Asia-Pacific nations over ownership of some islands in the area, he said, threaten to disrupt that trade as well as regional peace. Also, North Korea has been disturbing the peace with its nuclear program and effort to build ballistic missiles, Harris said. Earlier this month, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said North Korea is the worlds most unpredictable nuclear threat. Pacom is focused on the threat North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un poses, and Harris said he is working with regional allies to contain North Korea. But other areas also concern the Pacom commander. Russia is revitalizing its ability to execute long-range strategic patrols in the Pacific to include the basing of its newest strategic ballistic missile submarine, he said. The Russians have also increased bomber flights around Japan. Terrorism also presents a threat in the region, as demonstrated by recent terrorist attacks in Bangladesh and Indonesia, Harris said. The attacks underscore the fact that violent Islamic extremism is a global concern that must be crushed, he added. There have been changes in the region that will change the strategic landscape, Harris said. We've continued to strengthen our alliances and partnerships, he told the senators. Japans peace and security legislation authorizing limited collective self-defense will take affect this year. This legislation and the revised guidelines for U.S.-Japan defense cooperation will significantly increase Japans ability to work with us. Important Relationships The same is true with the U.S.-Philippines alliance, Harris said. The Philippines is a treaty ally of the United States, and in January the Philippine Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the two countries. This should provide significant partnership and access benefits, the admiral said. Harris told the panel he is particularly pleased about the burgeoning U.S. relationship with India. As the worlds two largest democracies, we are uniquely poised to help bring greater security and prosperity to the entire region, he said. Two visionary policies are now coinciding as the United States rebalances west to the Indo-Asia-Pacific and India implements its Act East policy. Harris also praised the close and continuing cooperation with Australia. I rely heavily on Australia, not only for its advanced military capabilities across all domains, but importantly for Australias warfighting experience and leadership in operations around the world, he said. Harris said he needs continued investment in future capabilities. I need weapons systems of increased lethality that go faster, go further, and are more survivable, he said. If funding uncertainties continues, the U.S. will experience reduced warfighting capabilities, so I urge Congress to repeal sequestration. PACIFIC OCEAN As a prisoner of war (POW) during the Vietnam War, Cmdr. James B. Stockdale was the epitome of fortitude and love of country. When his captors told him he was going to be used for propaganda, Stockdale slit his scalp with a razor, purposely disfiguring himself, so that his captors could not use him in a video. When they covered his head with a hat to try again, he beat his own face with a stool until it was swollen beyond recognition. Stockdale was shot down in his Douglas A-4 Skyhawk Sept. 9, 1965, during an escalation of bombing raids and the beginning of open warfare against North Vietnam. After ejecting from the aircraft, he landed in a nearby village and was captured. For more than seven years, Stockdale endured mental and physical torture at the notorious Hanoi Hilton (Hoa Lo Prison). As the senior naval officer at the prison, Stockdale felt it his duty to coordinate the resistance to Vietnamese torture; he provided his fellow prisoners with a mission and a goal they could all work toward: to Return with Honor. Routinely beaten and denied medical treatment for his severely injured leg, Stockdale spent four years in solitary confinement, locked in leg irons at night, with nothing but a concrete slab to sleep on. Whenever he had the opportunity, he unified and organized the other prisoners and ensured they used the code of conduct to govern their actions. He helped to spread secret communications known as the Smitty Harris Tap Code among his fellow POWs. Later, when his captors discovered Stockdale had information that could implicate his friends in activities the North Vietnamese deemed evil, Stockdale slit his own wrists so that they could not torture him into a confession. The crew knows Vice Adm. Stockdale's story and the story of those who served alongside him in the prison system, said USS Stockdale (DDG 106) Commanding Officer Cmdr. Sean T. Grunwell. They know what the human mind is capable of, through their example. When we start to get down or think we have it difficult, we have a vivid reminder of what people before us have gone through. It keeps us focused on the mission. James C. Collins quotes Stockdale in his book Good to Great, I never lost faith in the end of the story, I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade. Stockdale was released as a prisoner of war Feb. 12, 1973, during Operation Homecoming. He received the Medal of Honor March 4, 1976. Stockdale went on to achieve the rank of vice admiral, served as president of the Naval War College and was a vice presidential candidate in 1992. As much as Stockdale was a pillar of strength and excellence, so was his wife during his tenure of abuse and punishment. Sybil Stockdale fought for the rights of Vietnam POWs during the 1960s and 1970s. USS Stockdale, sponsored by Sybil Stockdale, was christened May 10, 2008. I feel fortunate to be on this ship. I think he would agree that the ship also honors Mrs. Stockdale, said Grunwell. It is an absolute honor to be connected to two great patriots; I know they would both be very proud of this ship and the crew. Switch to the dark mode that's kinder on your eyes at night time. Switch to the light mode that's kinder on your eyes at day time. News / International by Tech Reporter Islamic State has released a 25-minute video featuring the faces of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg being riddled with mock bullet holes.Isis has begun to respond with increasing urgency as Facebook and Twitter have attempted to block terrorist content on the network. Representatives from both companies were among those who met senior White House officials in January to discuss how to deal with terrorism online.During the latest video, overwritten text proclaims: "If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete you [sic] sites, Allah willing, and will know that we say is true".In the video the terrorists claim they control more than 10,000 Facebook accounts, 150 Facebook groups and 5,000 Twitter profiles.A Twitter spokesperson said the company wouldn't be releasing any response, mostly because these threats are now so common."It just happens all the time," the spokesperson said. All the time? With Dorsey's face?"All the time," the spokesperson confirmed. Isn't that a little scary?"Welcome to our everyday life."The spokesperson declined to detail exactly how many threats the company has received, though the video seemed to specifically be targeting Twitter for closing Isis related accounts."You announce daily that you suspend many of our accounts," the text reads."And to you we say: Is that all you can do? You are not in our league."Officer Wilson Ng from the San Francisco police department said he wasn't aware of any "credible threats" against Twitter HQ, yet what is more remarkable is how unremarkable these threats have become.A widely circulated Isis statement in March 2015 was addressed directly to Dorsey: "Your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you," it reads. "You started this failed war. We told you from the beginning it's not your war, but you didn't get it and kept closing our accounts on Twitter, but we always come back."The post features an image of Dorsey's face overlaid with the cross sights of a gun."But when our lions [brave men] come and take your breath, you will never come back to life," the post reads.Twitter, which posits itself as a "global town square", has had to reckon with a difficult reality: they're a major pathway for Isis propaganda. The company has shut down about 125,000 Isis-related accounts, a move which has had significant impact curtailing the terrorist network's reach, according to a recently released report from the University of Washington.New Isis accounts pop up, but, as many new users soon realize, it takes some time to get as many followers.Facebook is also pushing for an aggressive response to Isis. The company's COO Sheryl Sandberg has even suggested the social networks can engage in their own warfare against Isis using "a 'like' attack"."The best thing to speak against recruitment by Isis are the voices of people who were recruited by Isis, understand what the true experience is, have escaped and have come back to tell the truth," she said. "Counter-speech to the speech that is perpetuating hate we think by far is the best answer."German Facebook users organized a campaign to "like" the Facebook page of the neo-Nazi party and then post positive messages on the page, she said as an example. "What was a page filled with hatred and intolerance was then tolerance and messages of hope," she said.The US government has lately been tapping social media giants to help in its fight against Isis' spreading influence. A secretive summit in San Jose in January involved companies including Apple, Facebook and Twitter and senior security officials including National Security Agency director Michael Rogers. The goal was to launch a social media campaign against Isis.A briefing sent out to the Silicon Valley executives beforehand and obtained by the Guardian read: "We are interested in exploring all options with you for how to deal with the growing threat of terrorists and other malicious actors using technology, including encrypted technology. Are there technologies that could make it harder for terrorists to use the internet to mobilize, facilitate, and operationalize?" If the Academy Awards are Sunday night (and they are), then it must be time for that self-imposed ritual known around here as "The Six (or So) Degrees of Oscar Separation." The purpose of this annual gauntlet: to demonstrate once again that nearly all entertainment roads lead either to, or from, Pantagraphland. You just dont realize it. Nor, we suspect, do the nominees. Here, then, are several more reasons why those clueless red-carpet walkers should be genuflecting at our Twin City limits: Charlotte Rampling, best actress nominee for 45 Years, once cavorted through a futuristic world in 1975's Zardoz where her co-star, clad in a kind of sci-fi diaper, was Sean Connery who, the following year, traded in the diaper for a more becoming soldier's uniform in the World War II epic A Bridge Too Far whose roster of all-stars also included past Oscar nominee James Caan who, 25 years later, was down to supporting roles, as in Elf, in which he played the biological dad of Santa's helper, Will Ferrell ... who three years later starred in Talledega Nights: The Story of Ricky Bobby" whose supporting cast was a veritable viper's nest of Pantagraphland ex-pats, including ISU theater alums and Illinois natives Gary Cole (of Park Ridge) and Jane Lynch (of Dolton), and U of I alum Andy Richter, late of Yorkville. Christian Bale, supporting actor nominee for The Big Short well, let's just fast-forward through all those pesky degrees and cut to the chase began his career as a kid in 1987, starring in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun opposite ISU theater grad John Malkovich, then entered adolescence four years later in Disney's flop musical Newsies which, 20 years later, became the hit Broadway show of the same name which co-starred Class of 2010 IWU alum, So Think You Can Dance? contestant and recent choreographer of IWU's Giant ... Evan Kasprzak. Kate Winslet, supporting actress nominee for Steve Jobs, had one of her first big pre-Titanic successes starring in another serving of Oscar bait, 1995's Sense and Sensibility," playing one of the three lovelorn Dashwood sisters of which another was played by longtime Oscar companion, Emma Thompson who three years earlier had been part of the cast of another Oscar meltdown, Merchant Ivory's Howards End whose upscale cast included an alumna of Merchant Ivory's prior 1986 Oscar-fest, A Room With a View, Helena Bonham Carter whose fiance in the film, Cecil, was played by Daniel Day-Lewis a million miles away from his own Oscar-winning turn three years ago as former Bloomington speech-maker and man about town, Abe Lincoln. Cate Blanchett, actress nominee for Carol, is best known to the moviegoing masses as Galadriel in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy whose supporting cast includes past Oscar nominee, Brad Dourif (for his Billy Bibbitt in 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) who, let's be frank, can't always take the award-earning roles, witness his turn in 2009's Halloween II remake which was directed by impending Bloomington-Normal visitor Rob Zombie and, in a cameo as himself, recent BCPA record-setter Weird Al Yankovic whose own one-shot movie starring role was in 1989's UHF whose supporting cast included Anthony Geary, part of the legend of TV's General Hospital whose cast included, for a time, B-N native, BHS grad and 1969 Miss Illinois winner, Patsy Whitecotton as nasty Barbara Reed, a wealthy divorcee who ran around with the Quartermain family, she once told us, and spread gossip." Leonard DiCaprio, best actor nominee for The Revenant, was part of Martin Scorsese's much-nominated The Departed whose all-star supporting cast included Alec Baldwin who 10 years later found himself providing vocals for SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (hey, they can't all be a Scorsese movie) whose supporting vocal cast include legendary Baywatch personality David Hasselhoff who eventually landed a role as a celebrity judge on America's Got Talent where two years ago ISU alum and Gamma Phi Circus star Christian Stoinev wowed the world, with a little help from four-legged partner Scooby by balancing the weight of his body via finger inserted into a glass bottle (it still hurts to think about it). Finally, for much-needed closure, we offer our annual attempt to tie an Oscar winner to our favorite Pantagraphland connection to cinema heritage: 1957's giant-grasshopper classic, "Beginning of the End, in which Paxton and most of Ford/Livingston counties are eaten by radiated bugs the size of Amtrak cars. So: Bridge of Spies, the Steven Spielberg-directed espionage drama, was co-scripted by, of all people, the Coen Bros. (Joel and Ethan) who just a few years ago were offering up more Oscar catnip via their remake of John Wayne's 1969 Oscar triumph, True Grit which featured, in Wayne's role of Rooster Cogburn, Jeff Bridges scion of Hollywood royalty, via his actor-dad, Lloyd Bridges whose own film career was revived in 1980 when he spoofed himself in Airplane! which co-starred Peter Graves, who, thank our lucky stars, played the scientist whose experiments in an ag lab located just outside of Paxton city limits triggered the Beginning of the End! Coming soon Scheduled to open in area theaters next weekend (March 4) are: London Has Fallen: Just one week into pulling divine-duty as Set in "Gods of Egypt," Gerard Butler is back with a second big action opus, this one a sequel to Olympus Has Fallen. Instead of a White House siege, it's off to the U.K., where the (fictional) British prime minister passes away, and his funeral becomes the target of a terrorist organization out to destroy some of the worlds most powerful leaders. The only hope of stopping it rests on the shoulders of "Olympus'" president of the United States (encoring Aaron Eckhart) and Secret Service head (encoring Butler), with a little help from an English MI-6 agent (newcomer Charlotte Riley). Also back for seconds are Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell and Sean O'Bryan. The Other Side of the Door: Horror thriller about a family whose idyllic existence is shattered by a tragic accident that takes the life of their young son. The inconsolable mother learns of an ancient ritual that will bring him back to say a final goodbye. She travels to an ancient temple, where a door serves as a mysterious portal between two worlds. But when she disobeys a sacred warning to never open that door ... well, go figure, this IS titled "The Other Side of the Door," after all. Sarah Wayne Callies and Jeremy Sisto star. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: An adaptation of journalist Kim Barkers wartime memoir, "The Taliban Shuffle," which recounts Barkers experiences covering conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with Tina Fey in the role ... meaning, of course, it'll lean more toward dark comedy as it deals with Barker's fish-out-of-water experience and the challenges of being a woman in wartime Afghanistan and Pakistan. Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina and Billy Bob Thornton co-star. Zootopia: Disney's latest animation offering is set in the modern mammal metropolis of Zootopia, a melting pot where animals from every environment live together. But when optimistic Officer Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) arrives, she discovers that being the first bunny on a police force of big, tough animals isnt so easy. Determined to prove herself, she jumps at the opportunity to crack a case, even if it means partnering with a fast-talking, scam-artist fox, Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), to solve the mystery. Other vocals provided by J.K. Simmons, Idris Elba, Alan Tudyk, Tommy Chong, Octavia Spencer and Bonnie Hunt. Film clips March at the Normal: Bringing the Normal Theater's month of March in like a lion is roaring lion MGM's 1936 disaster classic, San Francisco, with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, 3/1. Thereafter: Alfred Hitchcock's nature-based disaster opus, The Birds (1963), 3/3 and 5 ... Norway's own aquarian disaster epic, The Wave (2015), 3/4 and 6 ... Francois Truffaut's seminal The 400 Blows (1959), 3/10 and 12 ... Hitchcock/Truffaut (2016), the film record of the two directors' historic '60s interview session, 3/11 and 13 ... John Ford's classic The Quiet Man (1952), with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, 3/15 ... Oscar nominee Brooklyn (2015), 3/17 and 19 ... Youth (2015), with Michael Caine, 3/18 and 20 ... Stripes (1981), 3/18 (late show) ... Tom at the Farm (2015), 3/24 and 26 ... 45 Years (2015), 3/25 and 27 ... John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China (1986), 3/25 (late show) ... and, play ball. The Sandlot (1993), 3/31. Freebies: The Princess Theater in LeRoy is back with a free matinee at 11 a.m. Saturday, Pixar's The Good Dinosaur. News / International by Staff Reporter AN EGYPTIAN toddler has been sentenced to life in prison by the country's military court. This is despite the army stating the actual suspect is a 16-year-old teenager with the same name.The three-year-old boy, Ahmed Mansour Qorani Sharara, was convicted last week with 107 others for allegedly killing three people and sabotaging public and private property.Newes24 reported that the incidents took place during the time of the overthrow of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.The incident was perpetrated by outlawed Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood.The problem is that Ahmed was only one-year-old at the time the alleged crimes took place.The Egyptian military said in a Facebook post it was a case of mistaken identity following uproar after Ahmed's conviction. It stated that the authorities had actually meant to try a teenager (16) with the same name. That too may also be incorrect though, according to The New York Times.Police spokesman Abu Bakr Abdel-Karim said in a television interview that the wanted culprit was actually the toddler's 51-year-old uncle, whose name is similar to Ahmed's.The boy's father, Mansour Qorani Sharara, made a distraught plea on national television to the military not to take him away."I swear I don't want to upset anyone," Mansour Sharara told TV station Elebrashy while crying."They told me they will take my child. No one will take my child."Police had allegedly taken Ahmed's dad into custody when they first tried to arrest the boy. It happened after the cops realised that Ahmed was still a toddler.The contradictions between the cops and military statements have made many observers and criminal justice experts question the state of the country's justice system. The army is yet to apologise to the family for the distress. Breastfeeding is, in fact, one of nature's miracle. There are countless studies that proved that a mother's milk is the best nourishment for a growing infant. As of the latest study on breastfeeding, it was mentioned that universal breastfeeding can potentially save around 800,000 lives per year of both the mother and the breastfed infant. According to a study published by the British medical journal "The Lancet" it was mentioned that breastfeeding can "prevent 800,000 child deaths per year." In addition to the studies that were published on the journal, Telegraph added that a team of scientists from the Federal Universal University of Pelotas in Brazil focused on the research from 28 other reviews on breastfeeding studies for them to get the conclusion published on the journal. Our new breastfeeding Series - potential to prevent 800 000 child deaths per year https://t.co/LU0WTs2G0U #LancetBF pic.twitter.com/iQtQjAjzZg The Lancet (@TheLancet) January 29, 2016 As per Professor Cesar Victoria, the study lead, "There is a widespread misconception that breast milk can be replaced with artificial products without detrimental consequences. The decision not to breastfeed has major long-term negative effects on the health, nutrition and development of children and on women's health." "This report underpins and reinforces why breastfeeding is the most appropriate method of providing nutrition for a baby," Janet Flayne of the Royal College of Midwives said about the importance of breastfeeding, "It also highlights the pressing need to promote and increase the uptake of breastfeeding in the UK and globally." Dr Nigel Rollins from the World Health Organization, on the other hand, stated that women who refuse to breastfeed should not be discriminated as they too need support. "The success or failure of breastfeeding should not be seen solely as the responsibility of the woman," Dr Rollins pointed out about the factors that influence the non-breastfeeding mothers."Her ability to breastfeed is very much shaped by the support and the environment in which she lives. There is a broader responsibility of governments and society to support women through policies and programmes in the community." One of the last places that many parents will allow their children to go to would be a pot dispensary. But for this Girl Scout, being close to a pot shop means being able to sell cookies -- lots of them! Indeed, this girl from Portland, Oregon, with the help of her aunt, set up her mini cookie store right outside Foster Buds Marijuana Dispensary. Based on Parenting news, she used a three-word advertisement sign which says, "Satisfy Your Munchies," and it was quite effective considering that they immediately had several customers right after setting up their table laden with Girl Scout cookies. The scout was trying to raise money, which she will be using for a trip during the summer to a horse camp. The idea of selling Girl Scout cookies outside the pot dispensary was hers originally. While some people thought that it was an ingenious move, there were also those who expressed their disdain against the parents of the scout. One Facebook commenter said that allowing a "daughter posted up in front of an adult business selling cookies is beyond a bad idea as a parent." On the other hand, there was also one which commended the marketing strategy employed by the girl in selling Girl Scout cookies -- having no semblance of illegality. Oregon Live reported that as far as the owner and staff of the marijuana dispensary are concerned, they were "proud" to have the Girl Scout selling cookies outside their shop. In addition to that "proud" feeling, the shop gave customers who bought cookies a discount on a certain type of marijuana. Sarah Miller, the spokeswoman of Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington, said, "Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington recommends that if a minor cannot enter a premises unaccompanied, she should not sell Girl Scout Cookies in front of the premises." She also said that selling in front of a pot dispensary is rare. The recent Portland incident is not a first. Last year, a San Francisco Girl Scout was able to sell more than 200 boxes in only a few hours when she used a similar tactic of selling Girl Scout cookies near a pot dispensary. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was recently urged by medical specialists to properly label combination of medications to warn the public of their effects to a person's health. A petition online is now being pushed by practitioners, researchers and even academics to put black box warnings for opioid analgesic and benzodiazepine medicines. The petitioners specifically asked the FDA to warn the public about taking both drugs, according to Forbes.. "We believe that this black box warning is a critical first step in raising awareness around the danger of co-prescribing these medications," Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen said. Wen claimed that they are putting their hope that the FDA will act promptly on this matter. "We expect the agency will take this petition from front-line public health leaders very seriously, and have already had initial productive conversations with them," she added. The petition was given to the agency on Monday by 41 officials from different health departments and state universities, The Washington Post said. They asked the FDA to maintain their transparency and provide proper warnings to the people. It was also highlighted that these types of medications can be really dangerous and risky when consumed together for a prolonged period of time. There are cases when this happens especially when doctors give opioids for pain then benzos for muscle contractions. "This is a national public health emergency," Wen said in a Modern Healthcare report. "Those of us who are frontline providers, we see the toll that overdose has in our jurisdictions." Asked about how the warning for each medication should be written, Wen said it should be written this way: "WARNING: CONCURRENT USE WITH BENZODIAZEPINES/OPIODS REDUCES THE MARGIN OF SAFETY FOR RESPIRATORY DEPRESSION AND CONTRIBUTES TO THE RISK OF FATAL OVERDOSE, PARTICULARLY IN THE SETTING OF MISUSE." With this simple warning, doctors claim that deaths from these dangerous medications combination will be lessened and avoided. From 1996 to 2010, the American Journal of Public Health claimed that overdoses from these medications climbed to about 400 percent. News / National by Stephen Jakes POLITICAL commentator Pedzisayi Ruhanya has challenged former Vice President Joice Mujuru to name shame the culprits whom she claim shot her husband before setting his house alight in 2011.Mujuru speaking to the United Kingdom based Sunday Times said her husband General Solomon Mujuru was shot before being set on fight but could not disclose the names of the suspects.Ruhanya said General Solomon Mujuru aka mukoma Nhongo like Generals Tongo, Lookout Masuku and Nikita Mangena was not just an ordinary citizen and war vet," he said. "If indeed the general was shot at and the authorities know about it as said by former VP Joyce Mujuru; it is in the public interest that she names the culprits. This is the greatest test of your courage and resolve as an opposition leader Joyce. Fear no one Teurai; shame these cowards and traitors. This could be a defining moment to you as a leader prepared to confront these political honchos."Five years after Solomon died his death seem to be a continuous cause for debate. Parents of middle school children in San Francisco strongly oppose the proposal to hand out condoms to the students. The mothers, fathers and guardians of these kids claimed that they are not yet ready for this exposure at a very young age. The parents greatly expressed their concern to the vote of the San Francisco Unified School Board to make condoms available to the students, ABC13 reported. "We have to sign a consent form for them to go on a field trip, but we don't need to know if they're getting a condom?" a parent was quoted by the same report as saying. For her part, parent Nikkie Ho also said that it would be too early to give their kids access to this contraceptive. "We're talking about between 11 and 14 years old. And they are not ready for it, so I don't think this is appropriate," she added. Some parents blasted the distribution of condoms as something very "casual" which the children can just get when they need it. In their decision to allow students access to condoms, the San Francisco Board of Education said in an RT report that they simply want to aid youngsters to make health decisions. "We want to engage students in discussions about their reproductive health so they are equipped to make healthy decisions," school district's director of safety and wellness Kevin Gogin said. "There is no research that supports providing condoms in schools increases sexual activity." Students will only be allowed to have condoms after their consult with a nurse in their respective schools. This came after the district surveyed schools and found out that 5 percent of those in middle school are already sexually active. "But of that 5 percent, only about 50 percent are accessing condoms. So we need to reach those other students. Every life is important for us," Gogin explained. Kate Middleton is reportedly encouraging Prince William to fix his ever-receding hairline. The Duchess of Cambridge appealed to her royal husband after he was taunted by military friends at a recent event in Anglesey, Wales. Kate and her grandmother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth, were embarrassed by the light-hearted snickering, according to The Hollywood Gossip. Both agreed that the bald look wasn't appropriate for the future king. Allegedly, Prince William's concerned grandma is willing to sponsor $30,000 for his hair transplant. "The future King must look younger and vibrant, and this will be achieved only if William has a full head of hair," said an insider. "Experts in hair transplantation have been dispatched to Kensington Palace - in secret of course Royal courtiers reveal." The royal couple traveled to Anglesey last week to witness the ceremonial disbandment of the Royal Air Force Search and Rescue. The organization had been running for 75 years until the UK government handed the role to civilian contractor Bristow Helicopters in 2013, per BBC News. "We have been doing this for 75 years and I think the big point about today is the air crew, the engineers and the other support staff that have all worked together to rescue literally tens of thousands of people through the decades," Wing Commander Mark Dunlop boasted. Prince William served for SARF from 2010 to 2013. During his military tenure, the duke earned the rank of Flight Lieutenant and had captained in 156 search and rescue operations, saving a total of 149 people along the way. The royal couple also had a meet and greet session with SARF personnel, including the duke's former comrades. Talking about his reunion with Prince William, RAF winchman Rik Maving said, "It was nice to see him again. He hasn't changed much apart from he's lost a bit more hair. Hey, we're all getting older!" Missouri state jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $72 million for the damages to the family of a woman who died of ovarian cancer last year. The decision was made after her death was linked to the company's talcum powder. According to NBC news, on Monday, Feb 22, jurors in the court of St. Louis awarded the family of Jacqueline Fox of $72 million for the damages after the company failed to warn users about the potential danger of talcum powder. The verdict came after Fox's family filed a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson -- claiming that Jacqueline, from Birmingham, Alabama has used the company's Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for feminine care for more than 3 decades before being diagnosed three years ago with ovarian cancer. Hence, she died October 2015 at the age of 62. Jere Beasley, a lawyer for Fox's family said the company is totally aware of the possible risk of talc, but despite its danger the manufacturer didn't warn users about it. The company, "knew as far back as the 1980s of the risk," Beasley said during the press conference. And yet resorted to "lying to the public, lying to the regulatory agencies." And while Fox's family is happy about the decision, Johnson & Johnson, on the other hand, is disappointed with the outcome of the trial. "We have no higher responsibility than the health and safety of consumers," Carol Goodrich, spokeswoman for the company said. "We sympathize with the plaintiff's family but firmly believe the safety of cosmetic talc is supported by decades of scientific evidence." Now, Fox's family is entitled $10 million for the actual damages and another $62 million as a punitive award. Nevertheless, attorney James Onder told the Guardian that he expects that the world's biggest maker of health care products, Johnson & Johnson, to appeal the verdict. A recent record of pet abduction caused an outcry in China. A guide Labrador dog named Qiaoqiao has been snatched from his blind owner while taking its daily walk on Feb. 23, Tuesday, outside Beijing. Thirty-five hours later, around 6:50 p.m., the dog has finally been returned to its owner with an apology note attached to its collar. On the letter it said, "We were wrong... we really beg your pardon." The details of the abduction were recorded through a security camera. A van which was allegedly from north China's Hebei province drove past Qiaoqiao and its owner while they were walking on the street in Shunyi district. One of the people inside the car stepped out and grabbed the dog inside. The motive of the abduction still remains unclear, as reported by BBC. But based on the China's recent records, pet abduction is quite common in China whether it's on the streets or in the comforts of their homes. Thieves then kill these pets, dogs or cats, or sell them for their meat in the market. "Qiaoqiao always accompanied me. She was like a friend to me," said Tian Fengbo, Qiaoqiao's owner. "Now I feel like I've lost a close friend," Fengbo said in an interview he had with the local media after his dog went missing. He also said that his guide dog was already been living with his family for almost five years and since then has already became a part of it, as posted by Mid-Day. Angry netizens shared their feelings towards what happened to Qiaoquiao and his owner using their different online social media accounts saying: "What kind of monster must you be to slaughter a blind man's dog." Another angry netizen also said, "Is this the kind of nation China aspires to be? Dogs are man's best friend, not food." The Court of Appeal has recently granted permission to a woman to appeal in a posthumous case that involves her dead daughter's stored frozen eggs. The mother has been banned from using the frozen eggs to conceive a grandchild. The Guardian reported that the hope of a 60-year-old British woman to be allowed to conceive a baby using her dead daughter's frozen eggs were kept alive after the court ruled that she could bring an appeal to lift the ban. The woman's daughter, who died of cancer at the age of 28, had her eggs frozen in 2008 after fearing that cancer treatment might leave her unable to bear children. "It seems to me that it is arguable that the HFEA and the [high court] judge took too stringent an approach to the question of special directions," Lord Justice Treacy said in a two-page decision. "There had been a failure to approach the available evidence correctly in relation to ... a conversation between the [daughter] and the mother." According to the Family Law, the woman and her husband are seeking to transport their dead daughter's eggs to a fertility treatment clinic in the United States after they were denied treatment in the U.K. The parents sought permission from the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA ) to export the stored eggs; however, their request was not granted. Challenging HFEA's decision, the couple applied for judicial review to the High Court. But the High Court judge has initially refused their judicial review in June 2015. "My husband and I welcome the Court of Appeal's decision to allow our appeal to go forward," the woman said in a statement after the recent development of their case. "We were naturally devastated by the previous ruling of the court which (if not overturned) will mean that our daughter's stored eggs will have to be destroyed." "We hope that the Court of Appeal will recognize the overwhelming evidence of her wishes," the mother added. "We know that the chances of conceiving a grandchild are very small, but in the unlikely event we are successful, it would mean the birth of a child who would be loved and cherished by us and the rest of our family." Consumer rights advocates have called the government officials to peel back "natural" food labels for misleading consumers. They said that the term was not clearly defined and regulated by any agency. A recent survey conducted by Consumer Reports National Research Center revealed that 62 percent of consumers are environmentally and socially conscious when it comes to the food they eat. These consumers would usually purchase products with a "natural" food label, with the assumption that these were produced without pesticides, artificial ingredients, organisms or hormones. Because of these findings, Consumer Reports has petitioned the FDA and USDA to ban the use of "natural' food labels. "Ideally, we'd like to see federal regulators ban the natural label, but if they don't get rid of it, then they must give it real meaning," Dr. Urvashi Rangan, director of the Consumer Reports Food Safety & Sustainability Center, said in an article of their website. "For foods regulated by the FDA, we believe the 'natural' label should be reserved for foods that are organic and contain no artificial ingredients," Rangan added. "We also believe verification should be required to ensure that foods labeled 'natural' truly meet that definition, like the process currently used for the term 'organic'." Consumer reports cited various products including "Del Monte Fruit Naturals" which contains artificial preservatives, 'Kraft Natural Cheese' which includes cellulose powder and '100% Natural Wesson Vegetable Oil' which possesses genetically modified ingredients. The FDA has responded to the petition by asking public comment. "That word pulls you in and makes you feel like for some reason that's a better food," Jane Maynard, a San Diego resident who blogs about healthy meal preparations, told NBC News. "Everything says 'All Natural', right? So that doesn't really tell you anything." Moreover, the Grocery Manufacturers Association has opposed to the petition for food labeling changes. They also filed a petition to the FDA arguing that the agency should continue to allow the use of "natural" labels on products containing genetically modified organisms. An infant girl with cancer was found dead in Syracuse, New York on Feb. 23 and according to police reports, it was the father of the child who is responsible for her death. Ryan Lawrence, admitted the crime of burning his own child and dumping her body in the lake after the police found him. In a news report published by Syracuse.com, Maddox Lawrence, 21 months old, was first reported missing by her mother, Morgan, on the evening of Feb. 20. She said that her husband along with their daughter were supposed to pick her up from work that day, but that didn't happen. She then filed for an Amber Alert the next morning, but it was cancelled on Feb. 23 after police found her daughter's body around noontime. The publication made a follow-up report about the case and said that Ryan Lawrence, the child's father was now charged with second-degree murder for burning and killing his own daughter. Lawrence confessed to the police that he murdered his child in Labrador Hollow, south of Syracuse on Saturday. He then drove to Destiny USA and finally dumped her body in the Onondaga Creek. The alleged culprit would still have to undergo trial to wait for his final sentence until the prosecutors finished due process of his case to make sure that he is guilty beyond reasonable doubt and that his confession was acquired legally and not forced by the authorities. According to the DA, a grand jury would be involved in this case and all information about this murder would be submitted to them starting next week. In an article published by ForEveryMom.com, they described how the mother of the child fought just to fund the medication of her infant and it was definitely a heartbreaking moment for her to see what happened to the child she was fighting for. Ryan also told the police that he has been jealous of his toddler for getting all the attention from his wife. Deonte Carraway, former choir director and school aide, is now facing federal child pornography charges after he allegedly made videos of children performing sexual acts, prosecutors announced Tuesday, Feb. 23. The pornographic videos involved students with age ranging from nine to 11 years old. Rod Rosenstein, the United States Attorney, said Carraway was charged with eight federal child pornography charges which carry a life sentence. As reported by wUSA, he has also been accused with "one count each of child sex abuse, second-degree sex offense, attempted second-degree sex offense, third-degree sex offense, fourth-degree sex offense and second-degree assault." The pornographic videos were filmed by Carraway from different locations: Judge Sylvania Woods Elementary School in Glenarden, Md., several homes, at a pool, a church and a community center. There he even engaged in the children's sexual acts and directed how the children should perform the act. "How I get the videos is the kids would send them in the chat," Carraway wrote in a statement with accordance to the court documents. "I would hide them but I really do care for the children," he added. The diligence of one family member led to the discovery of the crime. Within 24 hours after the report has been filed, Carraway was in custody. The suspect also admitted to the investigators that he's responsible for the making of the videos and that he was luring the kids to do the act. He said, "I know it was wrong. I'm a bad person. I'm no child of God for doing this." Prosecutors say that up to date, there are already over 40 child pornographic videos that were discovered. Also, as posted by Fox News, the FBI agents are still searching for other victims, so if anyone has information regarding the crime please call them at 1-800-CALL-FBI or 1-800-225-5324. Reports about Queen Elizabeth II being mad about Kate Middleton, as she is turning out to be an out-of-control diva has been circulating the net and this is not the first time the two were reported to have issues with each other. The Duchess is facing a lot of claims referring to her pregnancy and even to her possible divorce with the Duke of Cambridge. According to IBT, all these reports surrounding Middleton's personal life in the palace came out after giving birth to Princess Charlotte. And among these reports includes the Queen being mad about the way she spends money labeling her an "out-of-control diva." Gossip Cop published this news saying that the Queen went furious when she found out that Middleton used a helicopter to go to London while she took the train instead. The publication's source said that the Queen thinks that the lavish way that Middleton is spending money is creating a bad image for the family. Based on Life & Style's report, as cited by IBT, the cost of the helicopter ride was $5,000 and it is not the only thing that the Duchess has been spending a lot of money on. There are no confirmations if these claims were indeed true, but Gossip Cop already stood up and debunked the whole thing anyway and said stories are false. There are still a lot of people who are assuming that there may be some truth to these reports since this is not the first time the two were reported to have some friction. IBT wrote that back in March 9, 2015, there were news about them having an argument pertaining to child rearing. They also cited an article published by Life & Style back in Aug. 25, 2015 the feud between the Queen and the Duchess became so intense that the latter wanted to break some royal traditions including moving out of the Kensington Palace and taking her family to the countryside where life is much simpler and more quiet. News / National by Stephen Jakes Political commentator Pedzisayi Ruhanya has said late Vice President Joshua Nkomo had seen long back ago that Zimbabwe was bleeding due to rampant corruption and lack of peace among political parties.''We are enveloped in the politics of hate. The amount of hate that is being preached today in this country is frightful. What Zimbabwe fought for was peace, progress, love, respect, justice, equality, not the opposite. And one of the worst evils we see today is corruption. The country bleeds today because of corruption'',Nkomo of April 12, 1986, at the burial of ZIPRA Commander Lookout Mafela Masuku said."You were prophetic; 30 years on we see it. Philosophers never die," said Ruhanya."It is appropriate that the site chosen for Lookout's grave lies near a memorial to those who fought against Hitler. Lookout fought against fascism, oppression, tribalism and corruption. Any failure to dedicate ourselves to the ideals of Masuku will be a betrayal of him and of all those freedom fighters whose graves are not known," Nkomo said in1986.He said Lookout while in Parirenyatwa (General Hospital) he requested to be able to say goodbye to his friend Dumiso. The request was refused. "No!" By our own government!"He is not being buried at the Heroes' Acre. But they can't take away his status as a hero. You don't give a man the status of a hero. All you can do is recognise it. It is his," Nkomo said."Yes, he can be forgotten temporarily by the state. But the young people who do research will one day unveil what Lookout has done." Are you ready to step out of your comfort zone, and step into a bar with no menu? Its a trend thats establishing itself in Berlin at the moment, and can be found in bars across the US too: as patrons youre invited to leave your decision-making skills at home and open yourself up to the possibility of a custom-made drink, inspired perhaps by your own childhood memory, current mood or feeling, stirred into a personalized cocktail. Its like a mood ring in a cocktail glass. Established bars like Rum Trader in Berlin have earned a reputation for spectacular service, and set the bar (literally) for the ultimate no menu experience. At Rum Trader if youre one of the lucky fourteen patrons who has nabbed a seat inside, youre invited to choose between gin or rum, and a drink is whipped up especially for you, based on your answer to a series of questions. Other craft cocktail bars in the city, like Schwarze Traube and Bar Marques, are adopting the no menu policy as well. Florian Rupp is the Bar Manager at Bar Marques, a somewhat hidden bar on Graefestr in Kreuzberg, Berlin. Head for the restaurant of the same name, and look for the stairwell which will take you to the bar in the basement. Rupp told us that at Bar Marques, the no menu philosophy stems from their desire to provide the best service its all about the guest. So how does that unfold at the bar? We are service-focused, and we want our guests to have a conversation with us. Hosting is everything at Bar Marques and it starts when the guest arrives and ends when he leaves, says Rupp. I think the problem often is that people dont understand menus and might order the wrong drinks, because they misunderstand the description. So its our job to speak with our guests, find out how theyre feeling, and figure out which drink they are looking for. Atmosphere is as important as the drinks; we see it more as a service tool. And we can get nerdy about the cocktails from time to time, but that usually just happens if the guest is looking for that experience. Then we either make a suggestion or, through our discussion, well just make something. It is our responsibility of course that the drinks are good if not, we bring something else! In the end its about detail, and we are kind like translators. The Bar Marques opened four and half years ago, and though it was initially run without a menu, over the years a menu crept in to the bar service. When Florian took over last September, he brought back the no menu philosophy. We decided to scrap the menu because we like our guests, Florian says. Whats most important, is that its not about us, its about the guest and their needs, which is something I dont see too often at other bars. In the US, Bryants Cocktail Lounge in Milwaukee claims to have been reviving the ethos of the cocktail at their bar for the last 75 years. Their reasoning for scrapping the menu can traced back to Bryants founder, according to their website, As a forward thinking mixologist, Bryants founder Bryant Sharp felt that a cocktail menu limited the choice of the customer by directing them to a few popular choices. In fact, many of our best cocktails would sound a little funny on paper. A cherry bourbon drink with lemon? A green concoction with whiskey, gin, and apricot brandy? Most people would pass right by these drinks without a thought, which would be a shame given these are some of the best drinks in our inventory. We agree with Bryant that it would be a shame to have a menu get in the way of a truly special cocktail experience. If you cant beat them, join them: while The Berkshire Room, a craft cocktail lounge in Chicago, does have a menu, they have also incorporated an option to forego the menu, with a Dealers Choice so patrons can discover off-menu items created by the Berkshire bartenders. Daring drinkers get to mix and match, selecting a spirit, type of glassware and a flavor profile and then leaving it up to the bartender gods. Benjamin Schiller, the Beverage Director of the Fifty 50 Group, which includes the Berkshire Room, told us why they provide this option to forego the menu. The idea behind the Dealers Choice was to make craft cocktails more approachable to our guests. Quite often, people feel intimidated by unknown and esoteric ingredients that seem to work their way onto cocktail menus, and we wanted to devise a way to cater to as many guests as possible, while alienating none. At first, we thought our Dealers Choice would be a novelty, a nice accompaniment to the rest of our menu. But we were proven wrong almost immediately. The Dealers Choice is our most talked about feature, it has been overwhelmingly positively received, and weve carried the concept over to our newest bar, The Sixth. Attaboy Bar in New York has been building its reputation as a no-menu establishment since it took over the former space of Milk & Honey three years ago, with former Milk & Honey bartenders, Sam Cross and Michael McIlroy, at the helm. McIlroy told me by email from Sydney where theyre currently running an Attaboy Pop-up why they run the bar without a menu. Weve never had a menu at Attaboy. Its a process we continued from Milk and Honey (which was in the original space), a bar that my business partner, Sam Ross, and I ran for eight years. Sasha Petraske, the late owner of Milk and Honey was already running his bar without a menu, and proclaimed that it was because he didnt get around to printing menus in the early days. What happened though, is that the staff was able to customize every single drink according to personal preference. And this is why we dont have a menu. Attaboy has been a great success, if the rave reviews, and the announcement for planning a Nashville Attaboy at the end of last year, are any indication. So take a closer look at your local cocktail bar and find out what their stance is on the menu: a humble guide, or a restriction to the creativity of its bartenders and the enjoyment of its patrons? So, whatll it be? Ronald Wimberlys artwork is a protest against immobility. Known for illustrating the 2007 comic biography of rapper M.F. Grimm, Sentences, and his dynamic reinterpretation of Romeo and Juliet via Coney Island, The Prince of Cats, Wimberlys newest foray perfectly suits his unmistakable aesthetic of speed and style. GratNin, short for Gratuitous Ninja, doesnt cut or jolt or flip along the printed pageit cascades down a digital screen of limbs extended in kinetic combat and characters poised in firecracker tension. Offered solely on the new comic book app St?la, GratNin presents the story of Gowanus kids embracing a legacy of martial-arts mysticism. It joins a cadre of other projects written and drawn exclusively for smartphones. Out today, the comic flows vertically at a ferocious pace to match Wimberlys hyper-stylized modern mythology. Though the artists work has graced a number of colorful projects in the last few yearsincluding She-Hulk at Marvel and sci-fi epiphany Prophet at Image2016 will see the release of new original projects from the Brooklyn creator, including the neo-gothic gentrification parable Sunset Park and alternative history Civil War epic, Slave Punk. Paste emailed with Wimberly to discuss the way of the ninja and creating comics for the smart phone. Paste: Lets start with the origins of the project. Whats the inspiration? Ronald Wimberly: I grew up in the 80s, the end of the Showa era and the final act of Japans, post-war economic trouncing of America. I grew up surrounded by Japanese exports and cultural commodities. It was the decade of the Ninja. Ninja came to symbolize unstoppable, shrewd, subversive power. This obviously stuck with me. Right before I dropped out in the 4th act of my time at Pratt, I joined the Static Fish, the Pratt Comic club. I had made one comic before I discovered [French artist Moebius graphic novel] Arzach. I decided my next comic would be silent. I would focus on storytelling. I couldnt think of a subject. Silenceaction, Gratuitous Ninja, GratNin for short, was born. Its evolved over the years as a playground for me to work out different things. Its finally solidified into what Im doing for St?la. GratNin Art by Ronad Wimberly Paste: The majority of your works take place in Brooklyn, addressing specific locales. The Prince of Cats covered Coney Island, your upcoming project Sunset Park highlights gentrification in the titular area and now GratNin takes aim at Gowanus. Why is Brooklyn such a constant muse for you? Are these works in dialogue with one another? Do they share a universe? Wimberly: I live in Brooklyn, baby. If I move, the stories will change. Its why Ive been reluctant to move; its easier this way. I hope to do some international stories, too. One day, Id like to do a story about my hometown, Washington, D.C. Brooklyn was the home I chose. Most of my adult life stories take place in this theater. So when I write about things or imagine things, I work with the palette that I have. Writing can be hard enough, its easier to have something familiar or easily observable to start with, an underpainting, a melody to build on. From Prince of Cats on, all of my personal works take place in the same universe. Paste: Looking into the last two questions, I definitely felt a pre-Giuliani Zero-Tolerance New York City on this project. Were you of age to ever visit the grindhouse theaters before they were gentrified away? What films or media made the biggest impact? Wimberly: Lol, way too young for that. I got here in 97. And I was spending most of my time in Brooklyn. If I remember correctly, not long after, Giuliani would institute curfews in the area. THAT really changed the vibe. But by then, the grindhouse theater was bootleg DVDs from Chinatown. I think youd have to be in your 50s, at least, to remember the Hi, Mom! days of 42nd street and such. I saw the old NY on the occasion my great gramma would take me on church trips to plays and such. I remembered thinking it looked like Ghostbusters. For me, when I first got to NY, actually it was the summer of 96, I was visiting Pratt for portfolio review. Kids had just come out; that was influential. I was influenced by drinking beers and smoking blunts in the street. Around that time, I wasnt really watching anime or grindhouse movies that much, but I grew up watching them on channel 20 or 50 in D.C. On my way home, crossing the Manhattan bridge, my Mom interrupted my Ron G tape I copped from the East Village. I took off my headphones. Did you hear? A rapper got shot, she said. It was Biggie. GratNin Art by Ronad Wimberly Paste: You tend to experiment with format and media type in your works. The Prince of Cats merged poetry with comics, youve said that Sunset Park will use the format of gothic novels. At first glance, GratNin seems to incorporate some grindhouse kung fu elements. Does this work innovate in a parallel manner? Wimberly: If youre asking about GratNin innovating in a parallel manner to Prince of Cats, yes, somewhat. Im still figuring out my work process on St?la. It presents unique problems to solve. Drafting GratNin, I took on new formalist constraints along the way. Limiting myself to a certain amount of screen heights per episode, palette, defining page height, etc. Ive even used some poetic repetition, but its nothing as strict as Prince of Cats. With GratNin Ive been looking at what Sanpei Shirato (The Legend of Kamui) did with the genre. Thinking about what he said about contemporary life with the ninja genre vs. what Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto) has said; playing with the tropes in both those and other ninja stories. Ive been thinking a lot about what it means to try and make a new work in the tradition of Sanpei Shiratos work while remaining true to my personal experience. How much do I want to flirt with pastiche? I keep a Tumblr feed of things I make, scan or find that are related to the themes in GratNin. GratNin Art by Ronad Wimberly Paste: One of the characters throws a Proust Knuckle (or is that the character?). Should we expect more martial art that combines iconic literary figures with fighting feats? How much do those literary figures themes represent the techniques/characters? Wimberly: Sure. The character is a young chunin by the name of Mo. Shes kind of bookish; she has many interests. She is appropriating her senseis advanced techniques into her own style and renaming them without knowing the full effect of the original techniques; also, she cant read many kanji and cannot understand the names of the techniques shes stealing. The literary themes relate directly to the techniques and are named after their effects. But she also names techniques after other things. Fairly early on she uses a technique named after Andy Warhol. Paste: GratNin, even in title alone, seems more thematically light-hearted than Sunset Park and Slave Punk. Whats this project allow you to articulate that the other ones dont? Wimberly: This project is very indulgent. This is an action comic influenced by shonen. It essentially has many of the same themes as Sunset Park, but its a different take on those themes. Something thematically unique to GratNin is that it deals with appropriation; Its a way for me to have a conversation about appropriation in a way that didnt happen with Prince of Cats but was sparked by the conversations Id have about Prince of Cats. Paste: Regarding appropriation, are you referring to the act more generally or in terms of manga specifically? What are your personal guidelines for respectful appropriation, or is that even the language to accurately address the situation? How does that apply to GratNin? Wimberly: I was referring to the act more generally AND in terms of manga. GratNin isnt really a strict pastiche. I use some manga language as its useful. There are several mangaka whose work I respect, and since Ive learned my craft mostly from experimentation and studying the work of artists I respect, I have, at least I hope, adapted the language of those mangaka to my language. As for GratNin specifically, I have looked at Sanpei Shirato in how he used genre as a tool to address social issues. I am also interested in continuing or countering dialogues on race, sex, gender and ethics that I have found in shonen manga. My goal is to continue the discussion with the manga vernacular, though I often just slip into my own thing. I dont have guidelines for respectful appropriation. I just try and see the world as is and not as commodity. I try to put myself out there as honestly as possible. But the viewer sees the work through their lens. A picture of my mother could be pornography to someone else. GratNin Art by Ronad Wimberly Paste: Tell me about the process of designing comics for mobile only. Was there a huge adjustment from designing comics for print/desktop/responsive devices? Did you have to rethink concepts like the infinite canvass? Wimberly: Its been an evolving process. I did an infinite-ish canvas before for a GratNin story called Loan Sharks, so it wasnt completely unfamiliar. Coincidentally, I like East Asian art with flat aesthetic and perspective, so thinking about space in this way was fun for me. I dont use the same sort of perspective, at least not yet, but Ive had a lot of fun with this constraint. I started out working more digitally, even considering working on my computer exclusively, but I gave in and went back to paper. I like the feel of it. Its less efficient, but its an indulgence I keep for myself; its sensual. It helps me get through the process. I dont particularly enjoy drawing on the computer yet. I made drawing on paper a reward for finishing my writing/breakdowns. It has long been said by disenchanted left-wing people that America has no left wing partyjust a right wing and a moderate right wing party. This has been the case for years until recently with the candidacy of Bernie Sanders. One would think liberals would be ecstatic. While many are, once again, the left is cannibalizing itself in the face of opportunity. Im just going to say this: Hillary supporters are pessimistic and politically blind. Theres no other way of putting it. They are mostly Baby Boomers, many of whom base their votes on an assumption of Republican narrative dominance that has been for years since the realignment of the south, but no longer exists. For the sake of electability they are afraid of embracing ideas they think are too radical even though they may agree with them. But here are five charts from the nonpartisan PoliticalCompass.org which places candidates on a political spectrum based rough estimations of their ideology. Each one should serve as a wake up call about what is actually too radical. The X-axis is the economic scale, and the Y-axis is the social scale: This graph shows where Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders fall on a political spectrum in comparison to the GOP. Well keep referencing this as we go on, but for now, something very interesting should stand out: Bernie Sanders is closer to the middlethe objective political centerthan any other candidate running. Now heres 2008 primary election: Both Hillary and Obama ran to the left of Hillary Clinton in 2016, and much closer to Sanders now. Even John McCain ran to the left of her. But, this is a primary, following 8 years of the unpopular George W. Bush, and even then, Obama had to shift to the middle during the general. So lets also look at that graph: If this graph proves anything, its that the Democrats can get elected running on a more liberal platform than Hillary is willing to adopt. Barack Obama definitely did tack to the center from where he was in the primary, but hes still a far cry from his rival, John McCain. Bob Barr is almost identically placed with Hillary 2016. Now well compare to 2012: This chart is disturbing because it shows that on the economic scale, Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary is to the right of Barack Obama four years ago in a general. This begs the question: Where would Hillary end up on the spectrum if she wins the nomination? The 2012 spectrum also shows that the president ran far to the right of where he campaigned from four years prior. However, there are factors that likely influenced this decision: he had succeeded in a major legislative battle in passing the Affordable Care Act, and was fighting off rumors about his religion and ideologysome of which Clinton helped fuel in her 2008 primary race against him (but Ill get to that later). Take a look at the chart from the 2004 presidential election: This chart is damning, and should bother Democrats. Not only is Hillary Clinton in 2016 nearly identically placed with George W. Bush in 2004 economically, but Barack Obama in 2012 is only a moderate shift to the left of his predecessor eight years earlier. However, 2008 Obama was to the left of John Kerry. These graphs show the rightward shift that occurred following the realignment of the south which resulted in the loss of Americas left-wing party. That said, with the exception of 2016 Hillary, they indicate a pendulum shift the other waywhich means that the American people are much more moderate than the current GOP, and even more centrist than the right wing Hillary Clinton is in 2016. And so, can we allay fears of Bernies radicalism? The tendency to surrender the center, and shift to the right in response to GOP pull is a serious problem for the Democratic Party that shows it never got over the loss of the south. This in turn has disheartened liberal voters which has fueled continued rightward pandering in a vicious cycle. Indeed, this is how FDRs Democratic Party became the weak mess it is today. Under the leadership of New Democrat President Bill Clinton the party handed the GOP control over the national dialogue, and by extension, the narrative, ensuring every liberal candidate would face an uphill battle to sell his or her message over the next decade. John Kerry is among the many casualties of what can only be described as cannibalism within the party. Responding to the weakened state, Democrats have capitulated over and over on issue after issue. Hillary Clinton is continuing the cycle. Shes repudiating the leftthis time, targeting Sanders for being unrealistic on economics. The most recent example of this is Clinton surrogate Paul Krugmans latest attack on a study supporting Sanders proposals which lacked any substantive analysis. Clinton is spreading the narrative that the left and economics are not compatible-even though Sanders proposals look an awful lot like FDRs New Deal. She is unwittingly starting a fire that future Democrats will have to put out in an effort to win southern white voters in a general election. *It is worth noting that this isnt the first time Clinton has done this. In the 2008 election, she circulated a picture of President Obama dressed in traditional Somali garb in order to stir fears the he was a Muslim. The questioning of his religion has haunted the president ever since.* Simultaneously, Clinton is resorting to these tactics because shes ignoring the defining issues of our time: the wealth gap and systemic corruption that have resulted from years of a laissez-faire regulatory approach to the economy and campaign finance. This election, and every election following until change occurs, will come down to these issues. By not addressing them, the Democratic Party is missing the forest that is is long-term party dominance, for the trees that are shortsighted fears of change. Hillary Clinton is hurting the Democratic Party, and ensuring Americas left remains unrepresented. Her ambition and lack of judgment are liabilities. Enough is enough. As you make your way down designer-lined Madison Avenue toward 50th street, youll approach a short and wide neo-Italian Renaissance-style brick building that looks odd in its surroundings, where everything else is tall, thin and shiny (not just the people). You start to picture the rich people that lived here in the past, maybe the Rockefellers, and wonder what its used for now. If only it could be your hotel. But all travelers know the world palace rarely means anything of royal standards when it comes to hotels. Alas, you get closer and see that beyond the large courtyardodd for Manhattanthe words The New York Palace rest above the front entrance in gold letters. You get that giddy feeling you did as a child when playing dress up. You get to be Serena van der Woodsen for a few days! Yes, this is the hotel the blond beauty lived at in Gossip Girl. Oh yeah, and in real life it once housed Henry Villardone of the nations most prominent financiersand the Archdiocese. First Impressions Magic happens when you walk under the wrought iron vines that form an archway at the front gates and enter the courtyard of this U-shaped estate that is the LOTTE New York Palace. Youre not just imagining the twinkling; you can see the shimmer of many massive chandeliers through the huge arched windows of various ballrooms and such. Suddenly, youre Cinderella, or Prince Charming. Upon entering the lobby, youre faced with lots and lots of gold, and a balcony the stretches across the structure and is held up by giant pillars. Then you notice the huge gold chandelier hanging from a high ceiling over a grand staircase. Once youve picked your jaw up off the marble floor, take the staircase down toward a bank of elevators. On this lower level, the hotels multiple restaurants are tucked into corners, including the dark and mysterious Lobby Lounge, but if you turn right at the bottom of the staircase, the black marble will lead you to reception. Unfortunately, there are no guest rooms in the mansion, instead they are all in the massive tower attached to the back of it. Dont worry, that doesnt mean your room will be any less royal. Depending on which part of the hotel youre staying infloors 41-54 are considered The Towerstake the corresponding elevator that marks your regal arrival with gold doors and old-fashioned wood interiors. The Room Unlike most NYC hotels, this one actually gives guests some space. The rooms on the lower floors (5-41) scream elegance with floral upholstery in earth tones, luxury bed linens backed by cream leather headboards, marble bathrooms with Molton Brown amenities, dark wood furniture and massive windows. We recommend booking a cathedral view room, which puts you smack in front of St. Patricks (unless sleeping so close to a cathedral creeps you out, which wed completely understand). The higher up you go, the better the view gets (obviously), which can include 30 Rock and the Empire State Building. Then you have the suites, and then The Towers. The Tower suites are considered a hotel within a hotel, and follow a bit of a different design scheme, with more sophisticated art adorning the walls (not just pictures of dainty flowers like most hotels throw on there), wall-to-wall windows with insane views high above the city, and custom leather furniture. The extra money spent on these rooms also gets you huge closets and bathrooms (with a bidet beside the toilet and a separate bath and shower), more chandeliers than youve ever seen in one space, and a lighting panel that has buttons for every situation imaginable (reading, relax, etc.) These suites go from standard to themed with pianos, more chandeliers, floor to ceiling windows, palm trees, black painted walls, and gold curtainsnot all in one suite, of course, that would be a decorative disaster. Oddly enough, this super fancy NYC hotel allows pets. Their Pampered Pooch package gets your pup a bed and leash to keep, a 30-minute walk, and treats. I took advantage of this and brought my mutt, whos so spoiled she didnt even bother with the dog bed, she went straight for the real one. The best part about the rooms is that you cant hear any of Manhattans madness. What Pops Photo by Chung Chu/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND I was especially giddy about the hotels exterior, which is as rich as its history. It was built in 1882 as Villards private residence and was modeled after the Palazzo della Cancellaria in Rome. Today this four-level palatial brick estate is one of the few standing reminders of Manhattans Gilded Age. When the hotel opened in 1980 as The Helmsley Palace, The Villard Mansion had been restored to its original grandeur; artisans and craftsmen made detailed drawings of every room and floorboards were individually removed and labeled to enable exact repositioning after repair. This was all done so that all the rooms and sections could be re-laid in precisely the same way to reproduce the landmark-protected interiors. During this process, they kept everything they could, from decorative plasterwork and railings to paintings, chandeliers and stained glass. While Lotte redesigned many of these rooms when they took over, they mastered the Neo-Italian Renaissance style when doing so. What used to be drawing rooms and ballrooms are now the most beautiful conference rooms and event halls youll ever see, with gold painted crown molding and ceilings, huge windows with dramatic curtains, marble pillars, decoratively-carved walls, original photographs and paintings, and so much more. We highly recommend wandering around to peak into some of these grandiose rooms; its like walking through a museum set up as a maze. If anything, take a few moments to stand outside in the courtyardthe original Madison Avenue carriage entrance for the mansionand admire how the building proudly stands up against the skyscrapers of this city and takes you back in time. The Locale Well, youve got one of the most famous cathedrals in Manhattan on your doorstep, Rockefeller Center steps away, and if you insist, Times Square only a few blocks west. Otherwise, walk nine blocks north for a quiet stroll through Central Park. Wed say this is a pretty central location. Maggie Parker is Paste Magazines assistant travel editor. This past Tuesday, Austin, Texas passed a new set of regulations targeting the way short-term rentals, like those found on Airbnb and HomeAway, are handled within the citys limits. The most contentious issue surrounding the city councils 9-2 vote in favor of new restrictions centered on how residentially based short-term rentals (known as Type 2 STRs) not occupied by the property owner will be handled. Following a hold on issuing Type 2 STR permits through March 2017, under the newly passed laws STRs will be gradually phased out of the city and then banned by April 2, 2022. The crackdown comes on the heels of the citys attempts to address the more seedy Type 2 STR locations that attract and house disruptive residents and tourists, aka the party houses. The effort is linked to an increase in reported disturbances by permanent residents who reside near the temporary living quarters. In other words, local Austin voters dont want to live near said party houses. Rental marketplaces like Airbnb and Expedias HomeAway are opposing the new regulations. HomeAway is perhaps the more vocal of the two, as the majority of Airbnb properties meet the requirements of the restrictions. 87 percent of trips booked to Austin on Airbnbs platform feature four or fewer guests, while 85 percent of Airbnbs hosts share the homes in which they live, a spokesperson for the company told the Daily Dot. The additional regulation set to go through March 2017 requires that no more than 10 adults or six unrelated adults stay in a property. During the council meeting, the Daily Dot reports that Councilmember Kathy Tovo labeled several of the vacation residences as mini-hotels 100 percent of the time that prevent access to available housing for Austin residents and their families who would occupy the space full-time. During the city council meeting, more than 200 Type 2 STR supporters and HomeAway employees vocalized their disagreement with the ban. Many noted that the citys new regulations may have the opposite intended effect of making affordable housing more accessible by making it less available. So far their efforts have remained unsuccessful. Member of HomeAways Government Relations team Walter Gonzalez spoke out about the companys displeasure with the Austin City Councils decision, noting that the company will continue to contest the new laws, which disproportionately disservice the compliant property managers. [Well] continue to advocate for the responsible property owners and managers and hope that through continued discussion, we will have a chance to readdress this issue with the council, Gonzalez said. The citys mayor Stevey Adler has also vocalized his opposition, proposing an amendment that would delay the phase-out timeline and making clear his intention to revisit the laws after the March 2017 moratorium expires. Theres an interesting story to be told about Eugene Cernan, one of the astronauts on Apollo 17, NASAs last Apollo mission before the space program was shut down. Its not necessarily to be found in The Last Man on the Moon, Mark Craigs documentary portrait of the man. Many of the biographical details Cernan and others offer of life as an astronautthe rigorous training process, the close-knit community fellow astronauts and their families, the anxieties of space travel they all experienced in different wayswill be less than revelatory to anyone who has either read Tom Wolfes 1979 book The Right Stuff or seen Philip Kaufmans 1983 film adaptation (without the playfully ironic tone both artists brought to their respective works). But outside of being chosen by NASA to participate in their Gemini and Apollo space programs, and eventually getting a chance to walk on the moon himself, Cernans personal life frankly seems pretty unremarkableits most dramatic event being his divorce from first wife Barbara and eventual remarriage to Jan Nanna. Perhaps Craig is aware of the near-squeaky-clean nature of his central figure; this might explain some of the filmmaking. Lorne Balfes score, for instance, ranges from choral settings and meditative Brian Eno-like ambient sound fields to more bombastic Hans Zimmer-like cues. The film also features clever patterns that imply Cernans introspective side: At a few points, editors David Fairhead and Dan Haythorn intercut archival footage with shots of Cernan walking around by himself or sitting on a couch and staring up at the ceiling, the juxtaposition suggesting a sense of mental recall on Cernans part without him saying a word. Craig even gets away with one cutesy bit of Catch Me If You Can-style animation, connecting it to an impression Cernan articulates during the sequence of his initial encounter with and eventual training regimen at NASA as being akin to a spy movie. Theres more to these bits of formal play, however, than Craigs way of artificially jazzing up one mans life story. Note the touchingly humbled way Cernan talks about his experiences out in space onboard Apollos 10 and 17as if those adventures represented the closest this otherwise average all-American Joe came to seeing God. Beyond Cernans obvious nostalgia for a bygone era of space travelan era he talks about relentlessly to this day, even as some of his friends wonder aloud whether his inexhaustible efforts are worth ita subtler and more spiritually resonant theme emerges: that of an utterly ordinary American who got a glimpse of the extraordinary. Perhaps the copious biographical details, as banal as they may be, are ultimately necessary to emphasize just how lucky Cernan was to travel to the farther reaches of our universe. When The Last Man on the Moon ends with Cernan voicing his own takeaway from his experiencesI walked on the moon. What cant you do?the moment for once feels less like an inspirational platitude than one of hard-won wisdom. Director: Mark Craig Writer: Mark Craig Starring: Eugene Cernan, Alan Bean, Charles Duke, Gene Kranz, Jim Lovell, Barbara Cernan Butler Release Date: February 26, 2016 Kenji Fujishima is a freelance film critic, contributing to Slant Magazine, Brooklyn Magazine, The Playlist, and the Village Voice in addition to Paste. He is also Deputy Editor of Movie Mezzanine and former editor-in-chief of In Review Online. When hes not watching movies and writing and editing film criticism, hes trying to absorb as much music, art and literature as possible. He has not infrequently been called a culture vulture for that reason. In an exclusive interview today, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained to ABC News anchor David Muir why he refused to create software that would help the FBI break into an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters. Muir: To some people at home listening to this argument who understand where you're coming from who might say this was a terrorist attack on U.S. soil and if ever there was a case that Apple would make some sort of exception that this might be that moment. Do you really want to plant the flag on privacy and safety on Syed Farook's iPhone? Cook: "I think safety of the public is incredibly important -- safety of our kids, safety of our family is very important," Cook said. "The protection of people's data is incredibly important, and so the trade-off here is we know that doing this could expose people to incredible vulnerabilities." "I think safety of the public is incredibly important -- safety of our kids, safety of our family is very important. The protection of people's data is incredibly important, and so the trade-off here is we know that doing this could expose people to incredible vulnerabilities. This is not something that we would create [a Master Key]. This would be bad for America. It would also set a precedent that I believe many people in America would be offended by. And so when you think about those that are knowns, compared to something that might be there, I believe that we're making the right choice.' Muir: "But in your quiet moments do you have any concerns that you might be able to prevent a terrorist attack by breaking into that phone?" Cook didn't want to answer that directly. Instead Cook replied, "David, some things are hard and some things are right. And some things are both. This is one of those things." Muir asked Cook, "You have talked with the President before on these issues of privacy and security. Are you disappointed there wasn't more dialogue with the administration before this swift action from the Justice Department? Cook swiftly answered, "Yes and I think there should have been. This filing we found out about the filing from the press and I don't think that's the way the railway should be run. And I don't think that something so important to this country should be handled in this way." From Cook's statement, it's clear that all of us who owned an iPhone prior to the iPhone 6 were always in a position of being incredibly vulnerable to hackers. Hmm, I don't remember Apple ever making that very important point during any iPhone keynote. ABC has stated on their website that their extended interview with Apple's CEO will be available online at ABCNews.com immediately after 'World News Tonight.' ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 6pm PST and sporadically over the weekend. Apple's super supplier Foxconn just became more valuable with their successful acquisition of Sharp, a company that they've been pursuing since 2012. In a rare case of Japan relinquishing a venerated brand to a foreign buyer, Sharp Corporation's board approved a plan Thursday for the Foxconn Technology Group to take over the company for $US$6.24 billion. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) notes that "An iPhone's most expensive component is its touch screen display, making up more than 20% of manufacturing costs, which is why Mr. Gou is eager to supply them. Sharp is one of three suppliers of iPhone screens. Foxconn's move for Sharp comes as it seeks to be a supplier of next-generation iPhone screens to compete with Samsung Display Co., according to people familiar with the matter. Samsung makes 95% of the world's supply of organic light emitting displays, which are thinner, brighter and can make devices more flexible, according to Beijing-based display research firm Sigma Intell. Apple plans to introduce OLED displays into iPhones as early as next year, but doesn't want to be solely reliant on Samsung for supply, said a person familiar with Apple's product road map." For more on this read the full WSJ report. Earlier this month Foxconn provided photos taken inside a meeting room at Sharp's headquarters that showed Mr. Gou and Sharp President Kozo Takahashi shaking hands and beaming, as noted in our cover graphic, as they signed various documents related to the deal in-the-making. UPDATE 1: At around 3 a.m. the Wall Street Journal tweeted that the Sharp deal may be on hold as noted below. UPDATE 2: 6 a.m. The Following is from the Wall Street Journal's Follow-Up report: "Foxconn Technology Group said Thursday it is delaying the signing of a definitive takeover agreement with Sharp Corp. due to new details that the Japanese electronics maker disclosed a day earlier. Foxconn didnt elaborate in its statement, but people familiar with the matter said that the Taiwanese iPhone assembler is putting the Sharp deal on hold after reviewing the Japanese firms future financial risk. The people said Foxconn received a list of about 350 billion yen worth of contingent liabilities from Sharp on Wednesday. Contingent liabilities are costs that a company might face in the future, based on the outcome of lawsuits, accounting changes, supply contracts or other uncertainties. The people said Foxconn is reviewing the 100-item list and the company hasnt given up on the deal. We already notified Sharp on the same day [before Sharp held its board meeting on Thursday] that our side had to clarify the contents," Foxconn said in its statement. "We have to postpone the signing before both sides can reach an agreement. We hope to clarify it quickly and to bring this deal to a successful conclusion.'" About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 6pm PST and sporadically over the weekend. News / National by Mashudu Netsianda A MAN from Bulawayo who allegedly stabbed his family's maid 10 times using a kitchen knife after she turned down his sexual advances, is seeking bail pending trial.Vincent Chikowore, 24, of Gwabalanda suburb, has filed an application for bail pending trial at the Bulawayo High Court citing the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) as the respondent.Chikowore, who claimed that he fatally stabbed Dudzai Hungwe after she had seduced him, argued that there were no compelling reasons to justify his continued detention at Khami Remand Prison."It's accepted and conceded that the allegations against the applicant are serious but contended that this alone doesn't justify denial of bail pending trial. Applicant prays that he be admitted to bail as there are no compelling reasons to justify his continued detention," said Chikowore's lawyers Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners.The lawyers argued that the ends of justice would not be prejudiced by Chikowore's release and challenged the state to prove the existence of the reasons justifying their client's continued stay in remand prison.Chikowore seeks an order that compels him to deposit $100 as bail and to continue residing at his given address pending the finalisation of the matter.As part of the bail conditions, the applicant is also offering to surrender his passport and to report at the Bulawayo Central Police Station twice a week as well as not interfere with state witnesses.Sifiso Sibanda, the prosecutor, opposed the bail application, arguing that there was no guarantee that Chikowore would not abscond if granted bail."It's respectfully submitted that the granting of bail pending trial to the applicant wouldn't be in the best interest of justice. The state has a strong case against applicant and with that knowledge he isn't likely to stand trial if granted bail. Wherefore the respondent prays for the dismissal of the application for bail pending trial," said Sibanda.Chikowore and his mother were tenants at the house they had moved into hours earlier on the day he allegedly killed the maid.He allegedly asked their maid to have sex with him at around 1PM on December 31, 2015, when his mother had gone into the city to see her daughter off to South Africa.The maid refused.Chikowore was angered by Hungwe's decision and tried to force her.Hungwe then reached for the knife in a bid to scare him away and a fight ensued which resulted in Hungwe cutting his fingers.Chikowore then grabbed the knife and stabbed her 10 times and she died instantly.When Chikowore's mother returned, she discovered that the maid had been killed. There was a pool of blood in the bathroom where the maid's body was lying.A report was made to the police and Chikowore was arrested a few days later having been on the run since New Year's Day. Despite the FBI's ongoing battle with Apple over a court order relating to the opening an iPhone owned by terrorist in the San Bernardino California attack, the two are working together to fight ISIS. Seeking to bolster its effort to counter ISIS messaging on social media, the Obama administration assembled a high-tech dream team to battle the terrorist group online. CNN confirms that the first meeting was conducted at the Justice Department on Wednesday, with executives from Apple, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, MTV and BuzzFeed in attendance offering input to top counter intelligence officials, according to an industry source familiar with the meeting. The CNN report further noted that Nick Rasmussen, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told the group the administration is making strides in combating ISIS on social media, where the terrorist army has inspired potential lone wolf assailants to carry out attack. "We've seen more aggressive takedowns across social media platforms, which is a really good thing," Rasmussen was quoted as saying by the source at the gathering. Apple's participation in the meeting was notable, given the high-tech firm's clash with the administration over the company's use of encryption to shield customers' data on its popular smart phones. An agenda of the session obtained by CNN showed nearly fifty technology firms and community groups participated, along with a cross-section of U.S. government agencies, including the Justice Department, the National Security Council and the State Department. The British Embassy was also included in the manifest. The agenda showed sessions dedicated to briefing the technology companies on ISIS's messaging strategy, and developing plans to counteract the terrorist propaganda with "counter-narratives and optimistic messaging." About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 6pm PST and sporadically over the weekend. As voters continue to go to the polls across the country in primaries and caucuses, were hoping to get a clearer picture of who Buddhists in the US support. As such, Ive designed a simple poll to find out who Buddhists support in the upcoming US presidential race. Please complete it as fully as possible and share it with friends/sangha members/etc to get the largest body of data possible. The poll is open to Non-Buddhists and to individuals outside of the US as well. The poll will provide data on Buddhist political leanings generally, as well as specific information based on age, gender, income levels, racial/ethnic background, and location. Under religious affiliation, individuals can select Buddhism along with other religions if they choose, and within Buddhism can select multiple schools. With just 10 questions, the poll should take less than five minutes to complete. Comments in the comment section below (on this blog) are welcome. The poll closes MONDAY, February 29 at noon MST (2pm EST). A breakdown of results will be posted shortly thereafter. (This may not work on iPhones if you dont see it below, click here) UPDATE: The initial surveymonkey poll was limited to 100 responses, which came in quickly. Those will be assessed along with the ones that continue to come in over the next 4 days on this form. Loading Still not seeing the survey? Try here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1rmwkIlgM5ITmERbsTQcq20tz5FmB3pCPxf4FXAgTcWQ/viewform As results from a 2014 Pew Research poll show, Buddhists in the US are 16% Republican/lean Rep., 69% Democrat/lean Dem., and 16% Independent/no lean/other. Stay in touch with American Buddhist Perspectives on Facebook: Yes, the Pope last week suggested that women in Zika-affected areas might appropriately, and morally, choose to use contraception. Earlier this week, theologian Janet Smith responded with Contraception, Congo Nuns, Choosing the Lesser Evil, and Conflict of Commandments, which laid out the theological basis for objecting to contraception, and reasons why the case of the Congo nuns is not the same as Zika-fearing women now. Today, an article in the National Catholic Reporter, of all places, links the Congo nuns in a different way: Any woman can protect herself from rape and its consequences. In his definitive study, Rape Within Marriage: A Moral Analysis Delayed, Edward J. Bayer affirms that physicians in early 1960s Congo gave women religious anovulant drugs and that their actions later found papal approval. Bayer talks about much more. He states that when a married woman clearly should not bear a child whether due to disease or illness or other (presumably temporary) condition she may in effect protect herself if her husband is unwilling to cooperate. In other words, in a case of marital rape, or a more grey area of a husband refusing to cooperate with natural family planning, contraception is morally acceptable. But whats really going on in Latin America? Certainly this interpretation suggests its a backwards place where women are helpless and uniformly abused by men. And, indeed, when the government of El Salvador recommended that women defer pregnancy for two years (or, presumably, until the risk of babies with microcephaly is either solved through mosquito eradication or vaccination, or at least better understood and hopefully quantified as more minimal than now thought), this was considered as a foolish and unrealistic proposal for a Third World country. (See here for the BBC report and here for the New York Times.) But take a look at these numbers: Source: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN For comparison, the TFR Total Fertility Ratio for the U.S. is 1.87 (or was in 2013). This means that for virtually all Latin American countries, family planning isnt a pie-in-the-sky laughably unrealistic suggestion, but is happening right now, to such an extent that five of those countries, including Brazil, Colombia, and El Salvador, have below-replacement fertility rates, and nearly all of the others have rates not much higher, and theyre on a downward trajectory. In fact, for all of Latin America and the Caribbean, the TFR is 2.1, and actually slightly lower for the World Banks category of developing than all of LATAM: 2.12 vs. 2.14. This is a far cry from the rate of 5.0 in Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance. Now, perhaps its as simple as women in these countries tending to have a small number of children, then get sterilized, so that they dont really have much choice in the timing of their pregnancies. These statistics dont say, of course. And Im not really able to find anything on types of family planning used in those countries. But this is still a worthwhile corrective to the image of women in these countries as helplessly having one baby after the next, and the knee-jerk reaction that the Catholic Church must (as its likewise urged with respect to Africa and AIDS/high population growth) endorse condoms to solve the problem. (Image from http://www.freestockphotos.biz/stockphoto/16735) Many conservatives have argued, and continue to argue, that same-sex parenting is a threat to parental rights. An article by conservative writer and professor Melissa Moschella, titled To Whom Do Children Belong?, is a case in point. Moschella argues that marriage equality will lead to state-owned children. Now first of all, that is one hell of a slippery slope. But secondly, for a variety of reasons, the arguments she makes fail badly. Lets take a look, shall we? A crucial aspect of liberty is respect for subsidiarityin particular, recognition that the family, based on marriage, is a pre-political community with natural and original authority over its internal affairs, especially the education and upbringing of children. Redefining marriage in law to include same-sex couples undermines the principled basis for the primacy of parental childrearing authority by obliterating the link between marriage and procreation as well as the norm of conjoined biological parenthood that conjugal marriage laws help to foster. What was once almost unanimously understood to be a normative idealthe intact biological family composed of married mother and father with their biological childrenis now culturally (and to a large extent legally) demoted to being merely one among an increasingly wide variety of family forms. Right off the bat we have a problem. What the family looks like has varied drastically over time and from society to society. Even several hundred years ago, blended familiesthose with step-parents and half-siblings, etc.-were incredibly common due to high mortality. It was also common for unmarried adult children to live in the home, and for grandparents to remain in the home. In fact, the intact biological family composed of married mother and father with their biological children was a post-WWII invention, brought about by new housing patterns, new living arrangements, and changing birth and death rates. And thats without getting into other societies and time periods where children have been raised by the community rather than their parents and family units looked completely different. I am trying to wrap my brain around how ahistorical Moschellas view of the family is, and it hurts. She is making what ought to be a rookie mistake. Even today, its clear that the dethroning of the intact biological family has very little to do with marriage equalityor rather, the cause and effect run opposite that posited by Moschella. You cant blame the fact that four in ten children are born out of wedlock on marriage equality. In fact, the increase in alternative family forms over the past several decadesincluding blended families, single parents, and grandparents raising their grandchildrenhas likely contributed to our increasing societal acceptance of same-sex relationships and families. One more thing. Note that Moschella says the intact biological family has been demoted to just one among many family forms. This seems odd to me, because I dont see a demotion of the intact biological family so much as increasing acceptance of other forms along side it. I am married and my husband and I have two biological children. My daughter has a friend whose mother got pregnant in high school and is raising him with the help of her parents, and another friend who has an older step-sister who lives with her mother. That these families are more accepted than they would have been in the past has not hurt me or my family in the least. What Moschella is upset about is not the demotion of the intact biological family but rather the increasing acceptance of other family forms alongside it. I could draw the curtains on Moschellas post here, but Im going to soldier on. The view of marriage as a mere creature of the state to be redefined at will goes hand in hand with the idea that children belong primarily to the state, which then delegates (limited) childrearing authority to whomever the state defines as the childs parents. We see this trend in Canada, where the 2005 bill redefining marriage to include same-sex partnerships replaced the term natural parent with legal parent throughout Canadian federal law. Say what? Am I to understand that Moschella doesnt believe in adoption? Because it ought to be transparently clear that switching the term from natural parent to legal parent is about accommodating for adopted children, not about asserting that children belong to the state. In fact, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Childwhich Canada has signedstates that children have the right to be raised by their biological parents unless their biological parents have chosen to give them up. No one is talking about the state taking each child at birth and then assigning them out a la The Giver. But lets talk about that word limited for a moment there. When Moschella writes about the state grants limited childrearing authority to whoever they define as the childs parents, what is she talking about specifically? Does she have a problem with the fact that parents are required to send their children to school (or otherwise educate them)? Does she have a problem with the fact that the state has banned child abuse and neglect? My point is this: It makes sense to put some limits on parental authority. There was a time when fathers could legally kill their children, no harm no foul, because their children were their property. Does Moschella want to return to those days? I doubt it. How do we determine what limits should be put on parental authority? Through the democratic process. We as a society have decided that children have a right not to be beaten, and that children have a right to adequate food and clothing, and so forth. What, really, is the alternative? To allow parents unlimited childrearing authority is to legalize child abuse and neglect. Anyway, back to Moschella: Similarly, in at least nineteen US states as well as the District of Columbia, same-sex partners can now both be listed as parents on a childs birth certificate, substituting politically correct legal fiction for the implacable (hetero)sexism of biological reality. I can see why this might sound shocking to conservatives, but Moschella is leaving out a very important point. Adopted children typically have an original birth certificate, and an amended birth certificate. The original birth certificate is sealed in the court adoption records, and the amended birth certificate shows the adoptive parents names. The states Moschella mentions merely allow same-sex parents to adopt a child just like opposite-sex parents. It is adoption that is substituting politically correct legal fiction for . . . biological reality not same-sex parenting. According to one estimate, same-sex couples are currently raising 4% of the nations adopted children. If Moschella is so very concerned about making sure families are based on biology, and that birth certificates always and forever reflect biology, she would be better off combatting adoption laws than combatting marriage equality. Anyway, back to Moschella: We also see the state encroaching on parental authority in order to enforce the new orthodoxy regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. Equality requires teaching that all family forms are equally good, and public schools do this by introducing diversity-oriented activities and readings including books like Mommy, Momma and Me across the curriculum. I wonder, would Moschella be similarly concerned if white supremacist parents were protesting against schools reading books about Martin Luther King Jr. or books with African American child protagonists? Believe me, there are parents made very very unhappy by black history month. Just how far does Moschella take parental authority, exactly? Does the parent have the right to isolate a child from everyone and everything they disagree with? California, New Jersey and the District of Columbia have made it illegal to give counseling to minors who have sexual-identity issues that in any way discourages them from fostering those tendencies, regardless of whether or not the child would like to receive such counseling, and regardless of whether or not those issues seem to stem from earlier traumas such as sexual abuse. Similar bills are pending in fifteen other states. There are obviously some fundamental disagreements going on here, but I do want to note that laws banning conversion therapy for minors are in a way similar to laws banning the use of faith healing on children. What does Moschella think of those laws, I wonder? Unlimited parental authority over childrens upbringing would suggest that parents have the right to deprive children of needed medical care in the same way that they would have the right to subject their children to harmful and dangerous gay conversion therapy. Is that really where Moschella wants to go? From here Moschella talks about this awful worried Gay-Straight Alliances that recruit teens and subvert the values their parents are trying to teach them. Im wondering if Moschella knows much about LGBT teen suicide rates, and the role of Gay-Straight Alliances can play in preventing such tragedies. Moschella is also very upset that some LGBT teens are removed from their homes by social services. Did Moschella blink an eye when Leelah Alcorn walked in front of a truck, I wonder? What does she think about the fact that nearly half of homeless youth are LGBT teens kicked of the home by their conservative parents? Is that a parents right, too? Moschella returns to education, lamenting that some political theorists advocate making diversity education programs mandatory in all schools. Im not going to get into everything she says in this areaits quite repetitiveexcept to note, again, that we already have diversity education in other areas like race and religion. We are a diverse society, and its important for children to learn to navigate that diversity. But the real problem with Moschellas logic is that there would be a push for diversity education even without marriage equality. What shes really upset about here isnt marriage equality but rather the normalization of homosexuality. Now sure, the two are in some sense related, but the fact that diversity education includes transgender identities should make it obviously that marriage equality, which she has made the center of her article, is not the driving factor here. And then theres this: The current German law against homeschooling originated during the Nazi era. Yet despite its questionable pedigree, this law continues to be unabashedly enforced in contemporary Germany. Even when challenged as a violation of parental rights, it was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights in Konrad v. Germany (2006) on the grounds that the states interest in integrating children into the larger society trumps the rights of parentsgrounds that echo the arguments of political theorists like Gutmann and Macedo. As a result, parents have no choice but to send their children to state-approved schools, even if they believe the environment or curriculum to be harmful. Let me ask two questions. First, should parents be permitted to deny their children modern medicine if they believe it is harmful? In other words, our standard cannot be whatever the parent says goes. We can discuss exactly where we draw the linehow much leeway parents have before they hit limitsbut having limits on parental authority shouldnt be something we even need to discuss. Second, does society as a whole have a stake in ensuring that children are not locked in their rooms for years at a time, without human contact? If yes, then we can argue about whether the German courts went too farafter all, many would argue that homeschooled children can be integrated into larger society without a problembut we can at least grant that society does have some interest in ensuring that children have interactions with individuals outside their families. Of course, all of this is without even discussing the rights of the child. We can talk about societys interest in ensuring that children are educated, or not abused, or prepared to integrate into a diverse world, but we need to also consider the rights of the childsomething Moschella doesnt do. But lets skip forward and wrap up this article, shall we? If Gutmann, Macedo, Harris-Perry and others are correct, and children do belong to the larger community at least as much as they belong to their parents, then the states views about the best way to raise and educate children should trump the parents views, and there is no principled basis for opposing the sorts of intrusive state actions described above. By treating marriage and family as a mere construct of the state, and denying the normativity of the intact biological family, the majority in Obergefell have effectively enshrined this statist vision of childrearing in our law. But if the intact biological family is a natural pre-political community if parents, not the state, have primary and pre-political educational authority over their children then the family is effectively a little sovereign community within the larger political community, and, like any sovereign community, it has the right to direct its own internal affairs free from coercive external interference (except in clear cases abuse, neglect, or serious threats to public order). Oh okay, so Moschella is okay with the state interfering in clear cases of abuse or neglect. I wonder how she defines clear exactly. What Moschella is saying is not that the government shouldnt put limits on parents rights but rather that the government should only put the limits on parents rights that she is okay with. How very convenient. Let me ask you this. What does marriage and the family look like if the state gets out of the picture? Well, it looks like it does now, except perhaps even more so, as divorce would be as simple as moving out. What does parenting look like without the states involvement? Parents are free to give their children to a relative or other person if they dont want to raise them, and without the state enforcing parental rights, we might see less of a focus on parents and more of a focus on extended families and wider communities. Moschella doesnt want the state defining marriage, parenting, or childrearing, but what she doesnt realize is that her ideas of what is natural or normative for marriage, parenting, and childrearing dont hold up without the state defining them into law. In other words, shes upset not that the state is involved but that the state is changing the rules, but she nevertheless thinks shes upset that the state is involved. Theres something very ironic about that. After writing this article, Moschella wrote a second article in which she further addresses adoption and child abuse. I will be addressing that article in another post, probably early next week. Patna: Despite tall claims of the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) chairperson Lalkeshwar Prasad to conduct cheating-free inter exams in Bihar, nearly 500 students from various centers across the state were expelled after being caught cheating through various means including the old-fashioned cheat sheets and 21st century high tech methods like earphones with Bluetooth connectivity. {gallery}newsimages2016/feb/022416{/gallery}Prasad, who during a press conference in Patna on Tuesday had said that all eleven hundred test centers in Bihar had been equipped with multiple CCTV cameras along with the presence of security guards, however, downplayed the report of large scale cheating saying some incidents were minor and there was nothing to be concerned about. Prasad's statement aside, there were reports of students and their wards stealing CCTV cameras from the test centers just minutes before the exams officially commenced. As if that was not enough, students even staged a protest to 'protect their right to cheat' in the exam. In Saran, angry students pelted stones at the vehicle of BSEB officials for trying to conduct exams in fair manner. The maximum number of students caught cheating were in Munger (54), followed by Aurangabad (48), Chhapra (46), Sheikhpura (40), Jehanabad (34), Rohtas (28), Bhojpur (26), Siwan (22), Vaishali (16), and Patna (15). In Patna, District Magistrate Sanjay Agrawal and Development Commissioner Anand Kishore visited several schools to ensure tests were being conducted without use of unfair means. They also reminded the examinees not to endanger their future by indulging in such acts as once expelled, it would be very difficult for them to re-take the exams. More than 11.5 lakh students are appearing in the tests in Bihar. Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday inaugurated a host of new schemes that are expected to make the life of Patna'ites a little easier than what they are. Among the new programs that were electronically inaugurated by the Chief Minister included flagging off of 141 buses, some to ply in the state capital while others going to different parts of Bihar; official opening of the multi-storied parking lot outside Buddha Smriti Park, and the opening of the electronic traffic light system in the state capital. Two of the 70 buses to ply in Patna are reserved for women only that will include a female Home Guard jawan on board to keep the passengers safe from miscreants and criminals. All other buses have a capacity of 32 passengers out of which eleven are reserved for women. While the ticket between Gandhi Maidan and Patna Junction and other destinations in Patna from Gandhi Maidan is Rs. 5 for an adult, children under the age of 12 would pay only Rs. 3. People going to IIT (Bihta), Paliganj, Hajipur, Parsa, Biharsharif, Danapur, Khagaul, Naubatpur and Agam Kuan would be able to catch appropriate bus from the Gandhi Maidan terminal. The multi-level parking at Buddha Smriti Park is capable of accommodating 500 vehicles. Works are going on to add a ramp and an escalator from the Patna Junction side to make it easier to reach the parking decks, officials said. The Chief Minister also inaugurated the electronic traffic light system developed by BUIDCO to seek relief from traffic congestion that Patna is known for. While the lights had been operational on trial basis for nearly a month, lights at 60 crucial intersections became fully functional on Wednesday with the inauguration by Kumar. Another 37 lights would become operational in less than a month. People of Patna will also be able to take advantage of the 'e-municipality' service designed to obtain online forms and certificates, like death and birth certificates, following the inauguration of the service by Kumar. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister admitted that he felt embarrassed by the collection of garbage by the side of the road. Just days after a recent survey put Patna in the top ten filthy cities in the nation, Kumar chastised the Mayor of Patna Afzal Imam and the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials for constantly at daggers drawn with each other at the cost of the city's hygiene. "It is sad that the VIPs who come to Patna complain to me about the filthiness of the state capital. I would suggest the two of you (the Mayor and the PMC) work out your differences and take steps that make Patna look good and not bad," the Chief Minister said adding if the situation did not improve in the coming days, the government would be forced to take actions against them. "We're not used to seeing growth in our check business," said Deluxe's Tracey Engelhardt, who reports a 6% to 7% increase in revenue for check orders from businesses and consumers in each of the last three quarters, driven by various factors originating from the pandemic. News / National by Staff reporter President Robert Mugabe yesterday upgraded Psychomotor minister Josiah Hungwe to a full Cabinet minister bringing to two the number of Cabinet ministers from Masvingo.Masvingo had lost a Cabinet slot when Energy minister Dzikamai Mavhaire was fired in 2014, leaving Tourism minister Walter Mzembi as the sole minister from the province.Hungwe was sworn in at State House together with commissioners of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) and National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC).Hungwe was appointed minister in 2013 after Zanu-PF's electoral victory, but did not sit in Cabinet.The Psychomotor minister will now attend Cabinet meetings after his elevation. Iran's Hard-Liners Accuse Britain Of Backing Moderates In Upcoming Vote 02/25/16 By Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL Iranian President Hassan Rohani (left) and former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani have called the insinuation an insult to voters' intelligence. Iranian President Hassan Rohani (left) and former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani have called the insinuation an insult to voters' intelligence. Iranian hard-liners are trying to undermine their moderate opponents ahead of the February 26 parliamentary elections by alleging that their list of candidates is supported by Great Britain. The vote will pit moderates against hard-liners running for the parliament's 290 seats and the 86-member Assembly of Experts that could choose Iran's next supreme leader. Many prominent reformists have been reportedly barred from running by the conservative Guardians Council that screens all candidates for office in the Islamic republic. "The British government is evil, and when it supports only some of the election lists, we should be worried," said Ayatollah Hassan Mamduhi, a member of the Assembly of Experts. Speaking to the Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Mamduhi added that "those candidates that are being supported by Britain" should declare their innocence. Many pointed the finger at the BBC, claiming that the British news service had told Iranians which candidates to vote for. Spreading lies against competition (cartoon by Keyvan Varessi, Ghanoon daily) Among these accusers was ultraconservative cleric Ahmad Khatami, also a member of the Assembly of Experts, who claimed that "arrogant powers" are intent on an "infiltration" of Iran's center of power. "Isn't it interference by the British media to present a list of candidates and tell [people], 'Vote for this, don't vote for that'?" Khatami said over the weekend. The Persian service of the BBC appears to have angered Iranian hard-liners due to its popularity and attempts to provide Iranians with news and information they don't get from heavily censored Iranian state broadcasts. The news portal Mashreghnews.ir posted pictures of several people in the western province of Ilam holding signs that said "I will not vote for the BBC candidate." The "British list" allegations prompted a sharp reaction from Iranian President Hassan Rohani, a self-proclaimed moderate, who said the intelligence of Iranian voters should not be insulted. "There is no need to add color to the old face of worn-out colonial [powers] and belittle the people," Rohani was quoted as saying on February 24. Rohani's ally, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, also dismissed the allegations of British meddling. "Such interpretations regarding a 'British list' [of candidates] is an insult to the Iranian people's wisdom," Rafsanjani said on February 23. 'House Cleaning' Both Rohani and Rafsanjani are running for the Assembly of Experts, which is tasked with monitoring the performance of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 76, and choosing his successor should he die or become incapacitated. Pro-reform activists have called on voters to back an alliance of reformist and moderate candidates to provide a counterweight to hard-liners in the parliament and the Assembly of Experts. cartoon by Mohsen Zarifian, Iranian daily Etemad Among those who have taken to social media to encourage Iranians to vote for moderates is Parvin Fahimi, whose son, Sohrab Arabi, was killed in the 2009 crackdown that followed the disputed reelection of former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. "I will vote for the list of reformists, the list that has been endorsed by [former reformist President Mohammad] Khatami," Fahimi said in a video while holding a picture of her dead son. : + . . Posted by on Tuesday, February 23, 2016 The daughters of Iranian opposition figures Mir Hossein Musavi and Zahra Rahnavard have also announced that they will participate in the elections despite "pressure and shortcomings." Musavi and his wife, Rahnavard, as well as reformist cleric Mehdi Karrubi, have been under house arrest since February 2011 for repeatedly challenging the Iranian establishment and condemning human rights abuses. Karrubi's family has urged voters to participate in the elections to push for a "house cleaning" in the parliament and the Assembly of Experts. Copyright (c) 2016 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org Experts on Iran Elections: Expect More of Same 02/25/16 By Cecily Hilleary, VOA This week, Iranians will select a new parliament and Assembly of Experts in twin elections that many Western analysts regard as a defining moment in Iran, one which will test the countrys openness to reform and the future of the nuclear deal. But, some observers close to Iran believe that regardless of whether reformists or conservatives come to power, the ultimate power holders in Iran will remain unchallenged. President Hassan Rouhani has been encouraging people to actively participate in the election (source: Iranian daily Shargh) The elections taking place Friday are significant for two reasons: First, in the aftermath of the nuclear deal, President Hassan Rouhani is hoping for a parliament that will support his desire to open up Irans economy up to foreign investment and trade-not to mention uphold its end of the deal, now that its assets have been released and most sanctions lifted. Second, the Assembly of Experts, whose chief job is to monitor, dismiss and elect Irans Supreme leaders, may get their chance to name a successor to the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is elderly and said to be in poor health. But even if moderates do realize a victory in Fridays vote, analysts doubt they will be able to usher in any meaningful reforms. To understand why, one only needs to examine some key elements of Irans political structure. Iran's Ruling Structure Iran's Ruling Structure Top down management The Supreme Leader, Irans top political and religious leader, is tasked with safeguarding the theocracy formed by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. His successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, controls all branches of the government, the military and the press, and has final say on foreign policy, military and security matters and Irans nuclear policy. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are, in essence, an ideological army originally created to protect the supreme leader from foreign intervention or a military coup. Over time, the IRGC have evolved into a powerful force that permeates all aspects of Irans society, politics and economy, both over- and underground. They are believed to control a big chunk of the countrys GDP. The Guardian Council is made up of six religious jurists appointed by the supreme leader and six lay clerics named by the head of the judiciary, who himself is appointed by the supreme leader. The Guardians decide who may or may not run for office, and because the supreme leader can dismiss any of them at will, they are perceived as his yes men -- or, as Khamenei himself put it, the governments seeing eye. The Assembly of Experts is a group of 80 Islamic scholars whose chief job is to monitor, dismiss and elect Irans Supreme leaders. Because they are vetted by the Guardian Council, they can be seen to have been indirectly appointed by the supreme leader, noted Iranian-American political scientist Majid Rafizadeh. And the Guardian Council only vets candidates based on their religious authority and their loyalty and fidelity to the supreme leader. artwork by Ghanoon daily Parliament, the 290-seat body that drafts laws, ratifies treaties, and supervises government spending. Parliament has some wiggle room on policy, said Rafizadeh, but it basically looks to the supreme leader on fundamental policies. And when the Supreme Leader favors a policy, regardless of whether the Parliament is moderate or reformist or hardline, it goes along with the Supreme Leader, because thats just how the system works, he added. The president, the highest-elected leader in Iran, heads the executive branch of the government, the national security council and the council of cultural revolution, which is tasked with preserving religious nature of the Islamic Republic. It has been the rule in Iranian politics that once a president is elected, he wants to put some distance between himself and the supreme leader because after all, he cannot ignore a rather sizeable segment of the Iranian public that wants to have more reformist policies adapted, said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, professor and chair of the political science department at Syracuse Universitys Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. That said, Rouhani ultimately answers to the supreme leader and is mindful of the fact that parliament has the power to recommend a presidents removal from office. Vote rigged from outset? The Guardian Council this month eliminated half of the roughly 12,000 candidates who signed up to run for the Assembly and parliament, most of them moderates. Given this and the power configuration in Iran, Boroujerdi said he doesnt expect much to change. At best, I expect the reformists will be a small minority within the parliament, but not necessarily a force that is going to be facilitating what President Rouhani really wishes for, he said. Indeed, say experts, getting what he wishes for could ultimately hurt him. Consider what happened to former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, who was elected for two consecutive terms on promises of more jobs, more freedoms and a free market. The reformists took over the parliament, and the next thing you know, the IRCG, basij [paramilitary] and police, they shut down newspapers, they shot at point blank range the political strategies of Khatemi, and they just silenced him, said Harvard scholar Majid Rafizadeh. Later, the government accused Khatemi of sedition and has since banned him from appearing in the media, speaking in public or leaving the country. The media ban, however, did not stop Kahtemi from issuing a video message on YouTube this week in which he urged voters to select reformist candidates: Nor does there appear much chance that the Assembly of Experts, if given the chance this term, will name a reformist Supreme Leader. That decision, said Boroujerdi, may already have been made. If we accept the premise of the argument that the current supreme leader is a micromanager, my sense is that he might have handpicked his successor and might therefore tell the Assembly of Experts, here are my last wishes, Boroujerdi said. Just like you saw with Ayatollah Khomeni when he passed away -- he basically had already suggested the Khamenei as his successor. Iran to Spend $36 Million on Internet "Smart Filtering," to No Avail 02/25/16 Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran The Iranian government, in a joint project with several domestic universities, is spending $36 million to develop what it calls smart filtering in order to strengthen its Internet censorship capabilities. Smart filtering refers to the selective blocking of content within a website, as opposed to the complete blocking or shutting down of an entire website. The initiative, announced by deputy Communications and Information Technology Minister Ali Asghar Amidian in an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) on February 18, 2016, reflects growing concern among hardliners in Iran over the states ability to control the citizenrys access to information given the huge growth of Internet use in the country. It also reflects an unspoken acknowledgement of the states movement away from the wholesale blocking of websites that have become widely used in Iran, by both the citizenry and state officials. According to Asadollah Dehnad, the acting director of the Telecommunications Company of Iran, who was quoted by Citna, the Iranian technology news agency on January 18, the average Iranian spends more than two hours a day on Telegram and that means many times more than watching [state] television. It has been almost a decade since Iranian officials promised to introduce smart filtering. To date, however, they have had little success. While Iran can selectively filter content created inside Iran, Internet experts have long questioned the technological feasibility of smart filtering more broadly. The real target for the Iranian state censors are websites and applications hugely popular with Iranians that are based outside the country, and as long as these companies servers are hosted outside of Iran and encrypted, there is little likelihood of smart filtering capabilities. Earlier, on August 4, 2015, Communications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Vaezi noted that because Internet users in Iran had jumped from three million to 20 million in only two years, we plan to implement the [smart filtering] project by the end of this year (March 22, 2016), no matter how much it costs. Speaking to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Colin Anderson, a researcher on Irans Internet policies, criticized the decision on developing new censorship tools. Iran has one of the slowest and most unstable Internet connections in the region, in part due to issues of past management of the network and the requirements of filtering. Instead of more mandates for more interference and control, the Iranian government should seek to improve the resiliency and interconnection of Iran to the global Internet, Anderson said. How will the budget for smart filtering be spent? Although Iranian officials claim a number of universities, namely Shahid Beheshti, will be receiving funds for helping the smart filtering project, it is likely that the necessary hardware and software would be imported from abroad. In recent years, Beijing, which boasts of having spent $770 million on its Great Firewall of China to control all incoming and outgoing online traffic, has been Irans main supplier of Internet censorship tools. In 2012, the FBI published a report accusing Chinas ZTE Corporation of selling a $130 million Deep-packet inspection (DPI) system to Iran - a powerful surveillance system capable of monitoring landline, mobile, and Internet communications. According to a Reuters report, the sale, which at the time was in violation of international sanctions on Iran, included powerful U.S.-made surveillance products manufactured by U.S. firms like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Dell, and Symantec. The fate of the Islamic Revolution is tied to cyberspace, said hardline ideologue Rahimpour Azghadi on February 17, 2016. We can use existing tools and capacities to spread the great message of the Revolution. Official media in hypocritical war with Internet The wide popularity of Telegram has led to frequent calls by extremist circles to ban the instant messaging application. Notably, the Gerdab website, run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards cyber crimes unit, has denounced the app for carrying content in violation of Internet morality laws, even though many Iranian hardline activists and media outlets host their officials pages on Telegram. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenis page alone has nearly 220,000 followers. Domestic search engines, Gorgor and Parsijoo, have also been developed by state agencies at a cost of millions of dollars to provide content results that are more selective. British embassy resumes operation in Tehran 02/25/16 Source: Radio Zamaneh Iran's foreign ministry announced that the British embassy will begin consular activities in Tehran on Wednesday February 24. A spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry said the resumption of consular activities at the British embassy is in line with earlier agreements between the two countries. The British embassy in Tehran was shut down in December of 2011 after protesters stormed the embassy, irate over British support for international sanctions against Iran. After the event, all diplomatic ties between the two countries were severed. Following the nuclear agreement between Iran and the 5+1, British Foreign Minister Phillip Hammond travelled to Iran on August 23 to reopen the embassy in Tehran and re-establish diplomatic relations. Hammond announced at the time that the Iranian embassy in London would also reopen. The best 2-in-1 laptop 2022: our picks of the best convertible laptops These are the best 2-in-1 laptops you can buy right now Your antivirus may protect your computer, but a VPN protects your computer where it touches the internet, sending your web traffic from your computer to the internet via an impenetrable tunnel. VyprVPN has a robust offering of servers across the world, as well as a strong privacy policy, but it offers fewer features than its competitors and at a higher monthly price. VyprVPN does the job, but you simply get more (sometimes for less) with our Editors' Choice picks. What Is a VPN? Once your VPN is activated, all your network traffic travels through an encrypted tunnel between your computer and a server controlled by the VPN service. Nobody, not even someone on the same local network as you, will be able to see your online activities. Your ISP, which can sell your anonymized data, also will be blind to your activities. Sites that try to identify you by your IP address see one of the VPN service's IP addresses instead. VPNs also help circumvent online censorship by letting users tunnel out to a country with more open internet laws. They are used every day by activists and journalists operating in countries with repressive internet controls. VPNs are excellent tools, but they can't protect against every ill. We highly recommend enabling two-factor authentication wherever it's available, using a password manager to create unique and complex passwords for each site and service, and installing antivirus software. How a VPN Works How a VPN Works How Much Does VyprVPN Cost? VyprVPN has done away with its tiered pricing and now offers all features to all users. I appreciate the move. The company has three subscription options: a two-year plan for $60, a one-year plan for $45, and a per-month plan for $12.95. The company does not offer a free version, but it does provide a 30-day money-back guarantee. When I compare VPN pricing, I look most closely at the monthly subscription option. The current average monthly price for a VPN is $10.18, which is quite a bit cheaper than VyprVPN. Furthermore, several quite good VPNs manage to beat that average. Mullvad VPN, for instance, has a flat 5 monthly fee ($5.91 at time of writing) VyprVPN's annual pricing is far more competitive. The company's $45 subscription comes in well below the $72.72 industry average. In fact, there isn't a VPN of equal or better quality that costs less. That said, I caution against jumping in with a long-term commitment right away. Instead, I advise that customers start with a short-term subscription in order to test whether the VPN will work with all the sites and services they require. VyprVPN has discontinued its limited free trial option, but other VPNs offer free subscriptions. TunnelBear provides 500MB of data per month and Hotspot Shield allows 500MB per day. ProtonVPN, however, is the best free VPN because it has no data restrictions, and has a flexible pricing system to boot. Previously, VyprVPN users were limited to just three simultaneous connections at some pricing tiers. This restriction is also gone, and I'm glad to see it go. Customers can connect up to five devices at the same time, which is the industry average. That might be changing, however. Several companies have begun offering more simultaneous connections, and a few have done away with such restrictions altogether. Avira Phantom VPN, Encrypt.me VPN, Ghostery Midnight, IPVanish VPN, Surfshark VPN, and Windscribe VPN all let you use an unlimited number of devices with a single account. (Note that Encrypt.me and IPVanish are both owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company.) The company does offer its own secure DNS, a NAT firewall, and allows BitTorrenting on its servers. These are common features, but it's always good to see them. Less common is VyprVPN Cloud, formerly called VyprVPN Server. It's intended to supply an additional layer of security when accessing cloud server services, and it currently works with Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean, and VirtualBox. It's definitely more geared toward business VPN needs. While VyprVPN nails basic VPN protection, it comes up short on advanced features. Multihop connections, which route your data through multiple servers, are not available. Split-tunneling, which allows you to choose which apps send traffic through the VPN, is not available. Nor does the company offer access to the Tor anonymization network via VPN. While several top-rated VPNs include these features, only ProtonVPN has all three. What VPN Protocols Does VyprVPN Offer? VPNs have been around for a long time, and as a result, there's more than one way to create an encrypted tunnel. I prefer OpenVPN. This is open-source technology, which means that it has been picked over for any potential security issues. The heir apparent to OpenVPN is WireGuard. This is a new open-source protocol that has only just started seeing adoption in the mainstream, which includes VyprVPN. In addition to WireGuard, VyprVPN supports L2TP/IPsec, OpenVPN, and its own custom Chameleon protocol. All four protocols are available on iOS, macOS, and Windows. Android does not support IPSec, and Linux only supports OpenVPNalthough the company notes that WireGuard Linux support is coming soon. Only a few VPN services opt to create their own protocol, but doing so isn't as crazy as it might sound. In the world of encryption, creating a new or proprietary protocol is a dangerous game. A small, unnoticed flaw could render it completely useless. But the company says(Opens in a new window) it uses "the unmodified OpenVPN 256-bit protocol for the underlying data encryption." Vypr's 256-bit Chameleon protocol is designed to circumvent sites and services that block VPNs. The company says it is particularly useful in countries, such as China and Russia, where the government has enacted strict controls over internet access. TunnelBear and other VPN services offer their own branded versions of censorship-circumventing technology. How Many Servers Does VyprVPN Have? VyprVPN says it has servers in 64 countries(Opens in a new window) across the globe. That's a strong showing, surpassing many of PCMag's top-rated VPNs. On average, most VPNs cover about 53 countries. This is important because more server locations means more opportunities to spoof your location. It also means better odds of finding a nearby server while traveling; a nearer server will tend to be faster and deliver lower latency than one farther away. ExpressVPN covers more ground, with 94 countries, but VyprVPN still has an excellent mix of locations available. I'm especially glad to see VyprVPN covering Africa and South Americatwo entire continents often ignored by VPN companies. VyprVPN also has servers in locations with notably repressive internet laws, including Hong KongChina, Russia, Turkey, and Vietnam. The total number of servers offered by a VPN company is influenced by the number of subscribers and doesn't necessarily indicate better service. Having more options is always nice, however. VyprVPN has about 700 individual servers, which is a little below average but is still more than much of the competition. NordVPN and CyberGhost currently boast over 5,200 servers. Some consumers are concerned about VPNs using virtual servers. These are physical servers that run several software-defined servers on them. The issue is that a virtual server can be configured to behave like a server in one country when it's actually, physically located in another. This isn't necessarily a problem. Some VPN companies smartly use servers in safe locations to provide coverage for more dangerous regions. A VPN needs to be clear about when your data is routed through a virtual server location. In a blog post, the company's CTO(Opens in a new window) wrote that virtual servers are located within the listed country, except in situations where that's not possible because of privacy or security concerns. That seems smart, not sketchy. VyprVPN fails, however, to indicate clearly to customers which servers receive this treatment, and should fix that in future versions of its apps. How Does VyprVPN Protect Your Privacy? Given the insight that a VPN has into your online activities, it's important that it takes steps to protect your privacy and be a good actor with your data. In its privacy policy(Opens in a new window), VyprVPN does an excellent job explaining exactly what information it collects about you when the VPN is activated. I appreciate how concise and easy to read this privacy policy is, and that it is light on confusing legalese. VyprVPN is owned by Golden Frog, GmbH, which is headquartered in Switzerland. That country is reportedly not subject to mandatory data retention laws that affect VPNs. The company has written extensively about why it chose Switzerland as its base. The company says that it does not log your true IP address or the IP assigned by VyprVPN, nor does it log the start and stop time of your VPN session. That's more privacy than even some of the top VPN companies afford customers. The company also says it does not monitor traffic or web content of customers, which is exactly what you want to hear. The company's privacy policy also assures that the custom DNS service provided by VyprVPN does not log any information. It also promises to neither throttle your traffic, nor block traffic from a particular application or protocolbasically promising to not mess with your Torrents. Importantly, Golden Frog does not sell customer information to third parties. That's excellent. Notably, Golden Frog says that it requires a subpoena for supplying law enforcement with identifying information in the event of a criminal case. The company also says that, in civil cases, it will neither sell nor provide information unless directed to do so by a court order. The company describes the information it would release in these circumstances as, "minimal information reasonably calculated to identify and no more." I'd like to see the company go further and be unable to comply with such requests in a meaningful way, although most VPN companies have some information on hand in order for customers to manage their accounts. Some VPN companies have begun commissioning third-party audits, to verify aspects of their product or policies. In 2018, VyprVPN had its no-log policy assessed(Opens in a new window), and released the results. NordVPN has done a similar evaluation, while TunnelBear has committed to releasing annual audits. I'm glad to see VyprVPN following this trend. VyprVPN says that it goes to great lengths to protect its server infrastructure. Unlike NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and others, it has opted not to use RAM-only servers. Instead, it owns all its own hardware, and protects it with a variety of security featuresfrom Automatic BIOS recovery to chassis intrusion detection. The company says these servers are encrypted and don't write connection state information to disk, providing some of the same protection RAM-only servers afford. Hands On With VyprVPN In my testing, I installed VyprVPN on an Intel NUC Kit NUC8i7BEH (Bean Canyon) desktop running the latest version of Windows 10. The installation process is fast and easy, and I was up and running within minutes. VyprVPN has seen a visual refresh since the last time I looked at it. It now sports a snazzy purple color scheme with three very mobile app looking buttons for settings and selecting a server at the bottom. When you're connected, the Disconnect button lights up with a bold orange gradient. This all adds up to a slick, snappy client. It's a welcome improvement. Getting online is a simple matter of clicking the connect button. You'll be automatically connected to the server VyprVPN judges best. One mild annoyance: The first time you use the app you have to click the Connect button before you're prompted to log in. It feels a little bit like a fake out. The server selector lacks a map, which I find enormously useful. When a VPN lacks a server in a region I need, a map helps find the next-best option. A search bar at the top makes short work of browsing the list, and a handy latency measurement next to each server can help you find the nearest option. VyprVPN doesn't let you select specific servers, however, limiting you to a list of cities. Most people will be fine with that level of control. I especially like that VyprVPN made its settings panel so clear and easy to understand. It shows you the current status of each option, and you can tap to learn more and change that option. Want to know if Public Wi-Fi protection is worth using? Just tap. From the settings, you can change the DNS resolver or VPN protocol. Most people will not need to change these. I did note that VyprVPN did not work with my default OpenVPN TAP driver, but the backup option worked fine. A Kill Switch blocks your internet traffic should the VPN become disconnected, and the Automatic Reconnect option will keep trying to get you back online if you lose your connection. When you use a VPN you expect it to guard your private information, so I always check to see if it has actually changed my public IP address and secured my DNS requests. VyprVPN definitely secured my IP address, and in doing so obscured my ISP, too. The DNS test results from DNSLeakTest.com showed that VyprVPN was not leaking my DNS information. That's all excellent. Can You Use VyprVPN With Netflix? Streaming video services, and Netflix in particular, have been very aggressive about blocking the uses of VPNs. I had no trouble streaming content from Netflix while connected to a US-based VyprVPN server. Keep in mind that the situation might change by the time you read this. Blocking VPNs is a cat-and-mouse game, after all. The best VPNs for streaming Netflix could all end up blocked tomorrow. Beyond VPN Though VyprVPN brings many security features to bear, other services go further. Hotspot Shield VPN includes free subscriptions to several security and privacy tools. NordVPN offers a password manager and an encrypted file locker for additional fees. ProtonVPN is itself a spinoff of the respected ProtonMail. I assume that more VPN companies will diversify their offerings, especially as customers demand more value from providers. Speed and Performance Using a VPN generally degrades your web-browsing performance, simply because your internet connection takes a more circuitous path. To get a sense for what kind of impact a particular VPN has on web browsing, I perform a series of tests using the Ookla speed test tool. For an exhaustive explanation of how I test VPNs, be sure to read my feature aptly titled "How We Test VPNs." (Note that Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, which also owns PCMag.) While most of the other VPN services saw marked improvement year over year, VyprVPN did not. Note that I did not use the newly released WireGuard protocol in this testing. My testing showed that VyprVPN increased latency by 118 percent. It reduced download speed test results by 90.8 percent and reduced upload speed test results by 96.1 percent. You can see how VyprVPN compares in the chart below with the top performers among the nearly 40 services we tested. According to my results, Hotspot Shield VPN is the fastest VPNs on the market, although Surfshark is right behind it. VyprVPN's results were significantly less impressive, placing it within the bottom five performers. However, I caution readers against choosing a VPN based solely on speed. For one thing, my results will certainly differ from yours. For another, overall value and security features are far more important than the latency you might experience. Due to COVID-19, we have been unable to access our test network at PCMag Labs. In August 2020, I tested VyprVPN's WireGuard implementation and retested the service with OpenVPN on my home networkwhich is significantly slower and more cluttered than PCMag's test network, and therefore not comparable with our previous testing. I found that WireGuard showed markedly better performance than my previous testing, but so did VyprVPN with OpenVPN. Surprisingly, the difference between these two new data sets was not as large as I would have expected. With little to compare it to, and testing on my mediocre home network, this is merely anecdotal, but I look forward to resuming regular testing once it is safe to do so. VyprVPN on Other Platforms VyprVPN is available for Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS. You can also configure your Linux machine to use VyprVPN, install a special APK onto Android TV devices, or configure your router to use VyprVPN, further extending your protection. A Strong VPN Option Pricing has always been an issue with VyprVPN, and while the company has made improvements, it is still expensive for monthly subscribers. VyprVPN also doesn't include any of the additional features that would help justify its price tag. Other services offer much more for much less per month. That said, VyprVPN supports its VPN protection with the assurances of a good privacy policy and full ownership of its server fleet. The company covers much of the globe, including several regions completely ignored by competitors. Its app is simple, easy to use, and includes the latest technology, such as WireGuard, and unique options, such as its Chameleon protocol. If you don't need (or want) all the bells and whistles, and find that VyprVPN does work with the sites and services you require, its affordable annual subscription is a good deal. If it's a poor fit, or you need more flexibility, consider Editors' Choice winner ProtonVPN, which has more features and more pricing options, but will cost more per year. Other winners include Mullvad VPN, NordVPN, and TunnelBear VPN. VyprVPN 3.5 (Opens in a new window) Check Price (Opens in a new window) Pros Strong commitment to customer privacy Latest VPN technology Good geographic distribution of VPN servers Snazzy new client Affordable annual subscription View More Cons Expensive monthly option Few additional privacy features Poor speedtest results, pre-WireGuard The Bottom Line VyprVPN offers the latest VPN technology in a simple and approachable package, along with excellent global coverage. It's expensive, however, unless you commit to an annual subscription. As the latest and greatest mobile phone technology is unveiled at MWC in Barcelona, I have to sing the praises of my mobile phone. It appeared on the market in 2011 and is still kicking. It annoys my friends when I pull out a spotless, scratch-free phone, which is commonly in the same pocket with my keys. It has no bumper or case. The specs match most of the new phones. In fact, it was the rollout of the new Lumia 650 that prompted me to write this column. My nearly 5-year-old phone matches the 650's specsexcept my phone can shoot a 1080p movie and the 650 cannot. It also has more pixels-per-square-inch than the 650, too. And it came unlocked. This magical phone is the Galaxy Nexus by Samsung made on behalf of Google. Four years ago, PCMag gave it four out of five stars and named it an Editors' Choice. That it still holds up specifications-wise(Opens in a new window) shows that the Galaxy Nexus was, suffice it to say, over-built. It pioneered the idea of a phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot. It does USB tethering and incorporates NFC. It includes the standard gyroscope, accelerometer, and GPS package as well as a compass. It has front- and rear-facing cameras; the 5-megapixel rear camera is the only thing topped by newer phones. The screen is a bright AMOLED beauty and is just the right size at 4.65 inches measured diagonally. Did I mention there is not a scratch on the thing? So what is my point? One good phone can last five or more years and everyone does not have to buy a new phone every 12 to 24 months. It is a waste of money to spend a fortune on these devices, as though we were living in the 1950s, when we were somehow convinced that trading in the car every single year for a new model was a good idea. That was necesary when the car started falling apart within 12 months, but as reliability became important, the whole ideal disappeared quickly. In the 1950s, the psyche of the country was changing rapidly. Detroit managed to tap into that change by making models from one year to the next that were often radically different in appearance, advancing the idea of trading in and trading up. This kind of worked with the mobile phone since Apple pushes design as much as it can. And some argue that Cupertino's phones fall apart after about a year, like the cars did. The first iPhone does look old-fashioned when compared to the iPhone 5, which was the pinnacle of iPhone design. Samsung is doing everything it can to differentiate its look from Apple's, but how far can you really go? There are no phone equivalents of the "fin" era of Detroit epitomized by the 1957 Chrysler and culminating in the 1959 Cadillacs. The phone has become a commodity more than an item of fashion (although Apple continues to push the fashion notion and gets away with it). The real era of the mobile phone as a fashion statement, necessitating a need to upgrade, was actually at a fever pitch in the late 1990s with battles between the flip phone and the candy bar, with and without a keyboard. Think Danger(Opens in a new window), Palm(Opens in a new window), BlackBerry(Opens in a new window), Motorola(Opens in a new window). The smartphone changed all this and its touch-screen-centric nature killed the all the previous ideas and replaced them with the equivalent of a K-car platform as epitomized by the 1987 Dodge Aires. Yes, you can make the phone jewelry-like, as with the iPhone 5, but for the most part, the phone is pretty much the same-looking slab from one to the other. So you put a cool case on the phone; you can also put a flame decal on the Dodge Aries. Whatever you do, I can still pull out my 2011 unscratched Nexus Galaxy, put it next to yours and say, "So what's really the difference?" And follow up with "So why are you buying a new phone every year?" Who bought a new Dodge Aries every year? To me these are the questions that should be asked at the MWC. And the question you should be asking yourself. Your wireless mouse or keyboard may be putting your personal data at risk of attack. Cybersecurity firm Bastille this week revealed a major vulnerability in most non-Bluetooth devices (those connected to a PC via a USB dongle). The flaw leaves billions of PCs and millions of networks open to a potential hack, or "MouseJack(Opens in a new window)." Using radio wavesand about $15 worth of hardware and a few lines of codethe attacker can insert keystrokes or malicious code and access sensitive information. "MouseJack poses a huge threat, to individuals and enterprises, as virtually any employee using one of these devices can be compromised by a hacker and used as a portal to gain access into an organization's network," Bastille CTO Chris Rouland said in a statement. And since the cyber assault happens at the keyboard or mouse level, no PC, Mac, or Linux machine is safe. Affected manufacturers include Logitech, Dell, and Lenovo, though most non-Bluetooth wireless dongles are exposed, Bastille said. "Wireless mice and keyboards are the most common accessories for PCs today, and we have found a way to take over billions of them," said Marc Newlin, Bastille's engineer responsible for the MouseJack discovery. "What's particularly troublesome about this finding is that just about anyone can be a potential victim here, whether you're an individual or a global enterprise." While some vendors can patch the flaw with a firmware update, many dongles were designed to not be updated. Bastille suggests consumers check with their manufacturer to find out if a fix is available. "To our knowledge, we have never been contacted by any consumer with such an issue," Asif Ahsan, senior director of engineering at Logitech, told PCMag in a statement. "We have nonetheless taken Bastille Security's work seriously and developed a firmware fix." All users should ensure their Logitech Options software is up to date. Lenovo also developed firmware aimed at eliminating the vulnerability in the 500 Wireless Combo Keyboard and Mouse. The only catch: You'll have to replace your current set with a new one. The exchange, a company spokesman said, will be processed for free. More details can be found online(Opens in a new window). Dell, meanwhile, identified its Wireless Keyboard Mouse bundle (KM632 and KM714) as vulnerable, suggesting that consumers reach out to the company's tech support for help. "In the meantime, customers can largely contain this vulnerability by activating the operating system's lock screen when not using the system," a Dell spokeswoman said. A fired-up Tim Cook sat down for an interview with ABC's David Muir this week, during which he likened the development of a backdoor mobile operating system to cancer and argued that the issue was not privacy versus national security, but one of public safety. "We have no more information about this phone," Cook said. "The only way to get informationwould be to write a piece of software that we view as sort of the software equivalent of cancer." The phone in question belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters. It's currently in the possession of the FBI, which wants Apple to disable a feature that wipes a phone after 10 incorrect password guesses. In order to do that, however, Cupertino would need to create another OS that could open the encrypted device. Cook argues that's a slippery slope, and says the workaround will inevitably end up in the wrong hands. Our phones, he continued, have "incredibly detailed information" about our lives, from personal emails and texts to financial and health data and the location of our family members at any given time. "There's probably more details about you, on your phone, than there is in your house," Cook said. "So it's not just about privacy, it's about public safety. No one would want this kind of information to be available. No one, I don't believe, would want a master key built that would turn hundreds of millions of locks. Even if that key were in possession of the person you trust most, that key could be stolen." Cook acknowledged that if Apple could create the backdoor and know for a fact that it would not fall into the wrong hands, it would do so. But in this day and age of prolific hacking, that's impossible, he said. "It is, in our view, the software equivalent of cancer," he reiterated. "Is this something that should be created? Technology can do so many things, but there are many things technology should never be allowed to do. And the way you not allow it is to not create it." Cook also took the FBI to task for making this battle public prior to discussing it with the company. Apple found out about the order from the press, he said. In the weeks after the shooting, Apple cooperated with officials as best it could, Cook said. The only thing it could not do was provide access to the physical phone. For example, Apple instructed the FBI to take the phone to where it had previously connected to a network - like the shooter's apartment - and plug it in overnight. That way, he said, the content on the device would back up to iCloud, and Apple could pull it down. Unfortunately, a county official changed the password associated with the Apple ID after the shooting, meaning that backup would not work, Cook said. "I wish [the FBI] would've contacted us earlier, so that would not have been the case," Cook said. Going forward, Cook thinks Congress should address this issue - if only so that the fight will be in public. Cook said he would also talk soon to President Obama about the issue. "This is not about this phone, this is about the future. I do see it as a precedent that should not be done in this country or any country. This is about civil liberties and is about people's ability to protect themselves. If we take encryption away, the only people that would be affected are the good people, not the bad people." Apple has until Feb. 26 to respond to the court; Cook says he wants the feds to withdraw their case. As for whether Apple will argue on First Amendment grounds, Cook said that's "up to the lawyers," but it's not his primary focus. "My primary focus is, as I've said before, is on the customers who will then be vulnerable and the trampling on civil liberties," he said. If necessary, Apple will take the fight to the Supreme Court, but "at the end of the day, we have to follow the law just like everybody else." He encouraged those who support Apple to speak out. "What is going on right now is we're having our voices be heard," but overall, this is a "very uncomfortable position," Cook acknowledged. "I've never felt the government apparatus before." Cook's interview came as the New York Times reported(Opens in a new window) that Apple is developing new security measures that make it impossible for the government to crack a locked iPhone. Cupertino is also eyeing stronger encryption of customers' iCloud backups, the Financial Times said(Opens in a new window), citing anonymous sources familiar with the company's plans. Silicon Valley executives have rallied around Cupertino in its stand-off with the government. But the American public appears torn. A recent Pew Research Center study suggested 51 percent of people say Apple should unlock the phone. Protesters in nearly 50 U.S. cities, however, back the tech titan in its encryption fight. Since it began developing Windows 10 ($139.00 at Microsoft Store)(Opens in a new window) , Microsoft has dedicated itself to creating applications that provide a uniform Windows experience across smartphone, tablet, and desktop devices. Yesterday, the Redmond, Washington-based company took this mission a step further. By agreeing to acquire mobile app development company Xamarin Inc., Microsoft intends to help its developers build universal apps that run on all major mobile and desktop operating systems (OSes). In combination with Microsoft's existing suite of app development tools, Visual Studio, Xamarin will provide developers with a single solution to develop, test, and deliver mobile apps across all OSes, Microsoft said in a statement(Opens in a new window). Perhaps more importantly for Microsoft, Xamarin's expertise would help it expand the number of apps available for Windows phones. As of July 2015, there were only 340,000 apps available on the Windows Phone Store compared with 1.6 million Android apps and 1.5 million iOS apps, according to data compiled by research firm Statista(Opens in a new window). Windows phones have only 1.1 percent of the global smartphone market share. For businesses, this marriage would provide an app bridge between the three major OSes that could help to propel Microsoft forward in the arms race for app and hardware enterprise adoption. "As mobility makes a gradual move to the enterprise, enterprises continue to look for ways to develop front-end applications more efficiently," said Al Hilwa, Program Director of Software Development Research at IDC, in an email. "In particular, they are looking to leverage existing developer skills they have built up over the years in Java and .NET programming models and repurpose them for modern mobile development. Xamarin hits exactly this spot and effectively makes Microsoft a serious player in cross-platform software development." Last week, Microsoft unveiled the Lumia 650, a metal smartphone with a removable battery and expandable storage. At the time of the release, Microsoft said, in a statement, the Lumia 650 would "bring first class to business class" by providing "the perfect balance between work and personal needs." Xamarin has more than 15,000 customers in 120 countries, including Coca-Cola and JetBlue. More than 1.3 million developers have used its technology to create mobile apps. Microsoft was in the final stages of negotiations to acquire Xamarin back in 2014, according to a CRN(Opens in a new window) report. However, the deal was not finalized at the time. Right now it is unclear what Microsoft will pay for Xamarin. Microsoft declined to provide additional comment on this story. However, The Wall Street Journal(Opens in a new window) reports that the acquisition is expected to close at around $400-500 million, according to sources close to the deal. Microsoft is expected to retain all 350 of Xamarin's employees, and Xamarin will retain its branding after the deal closes. News / National by Staff reporter The governing Zanu-PF party is set to beat a fringe opposition party in a special vote for a parliamentary seat next week.The March 5 vote, for a seat in Mhondoro-Mubaira one of 210 in Parliament's lower house, in the first big electoral test this year and will be keenly watched.A presidential proclamation has ordered the holding of a by-election to fill in the vacant Mhondoro-Mubaira constituency seat, formerly held by Sylvester Nguni, a key ally of ousted Vice President Joice Mujuru.Nguni lost the seat in terms of Section 129(1)(k) of the constitution after being expelled from Zanu OF for links to Mujuru's opposition Zimbabwe's People First Party. Kijk hier om dit artikel in het Nederlands te lezen. Because we believe in proper journalism, we set off to do some extensive 'field work' beforehand by strapping a Gear VR to our heads, and although we're not unanimously enthusiastic about it we can see the advantages of virtual simulated sex scenes. At the moment, VR misses enough pixels, and because of the curvature of the lenses a massive, naked giantess is sitting on a well trained male body which is most decisively not mine. But awkward as VR-porn's first experience may be, Paul is sure it'll be a big turning point that will transform the industry. Porn is a decision maker Paul likes to make parallels to other carriers of digital media where the porn industry has had a decisive role. In the 80s there was the battle between Betamax and VHS, and when the big American studios almost unanimously decided to release their movies in the latter format, Betamax was as good as dead. The same thing happened 8 years ago, when the battle between HD-DVD and BluRay was decided by the porn industry. Porn was a deciding factor in the battle between Betamax and VHS, and BluRay and HD-DVD With VR, porn won't be exactly the deciding factor, but "it's influence will be undeniable", says Paul. "Think about it. In the future you can buy two headsets: one that will allow you to watch porn, and another that won't. Which one are you gonna chose?" More possibilities It's the reason Paul is in Barcelona on the Mobile World Congress. Naughty America (unfortunately) doesn't have a booth, but that's what Paul wants. He wants to talk to the manufacturers of VR-headsets, to explore the possibilities of allowing adult content into the app stores. It's one of the biggest obstacles right now. He specifically wants to meet with Samsung, who made the most popular headset of the moment: The Gear VR. "It's still way too difficult to watch porn on a VR-headset", Paul tells us. "You have to download the video, put it on the phone, navigate to it..." In an ideal world, Naughty America can make its own app where subscribers can see new videos, or if all else fails at least stream movies in a browser. At the moment, that's impossible. Viewers are subjected to a complicated and diffuse system only those with the highest urges are willing to overcome. Hardcore fans Only real fans still pay for porn, and especially for VR Only the real fans want to go through all the trouble, and it's those fans that Naughty America has set its sights on. The studio, like so many others, has been torn apart for years by a massive amount of free 'tube sites' like PornHub and Xvideos, which offer short videos and live on banner ads. For the majority of viewers, that's enough; nobody pays for porn. Except with virtual reality. That's where Paul sees a business model. "The tube sites are going to feel the rise of VR," he almost smirks. Viewers want mostly quality in VR, because it's 'an experience'. That means high production values, filming in 4K, long videos with famous actresses, and that's something tube sites don't offer. Hard to come by Less than 10% of Naughty America's current videos are filmed in virtual reality, although Paul says it has the basic technique under control now. "We know how to make it. Now we just have to expand on that, improve it, and make it a proper business model." VR-porn is only available when you pay for it At the moment, there's not a lot of places where you can download VR-porn. Besides Naughty America, there's VirtualRealPorn, which focuses solely on that genre. There's a gay alternative, VirtualRealGay, which is still a lot less popular. Both sites use a subscription model where users can pay a monthly wage for access. Videos can be downloaded onto phones and used with devices. For most actors, VR-porn is still difficult to get acquinted with, although there are pornstars like Ela Darling that have made VR their sole career. Technological hurdles "We keep experimenting, especially with 360 degree videos" However, there are still a lot more obstacles to overcome in this particular branch of filming. At the moment, everything is pretty similar. Almost all videos are shot from a POV-perspective, with the actress in front of you doing most of the work. Also, most videos aren't truly VR yet. The only porn right now is in 180 degrees. "It's not really interesting watching porn and looking behind you to see a wall," Paul says. This should change in the future. "Then we'll film orgies from the middle," Paul brainstorms. That's not easy though, because it's difficult to film porn in VR. "You have to record something, stop, see if it works, and then continue." Experimental phase That makes VR-porn still in an experimental phase. Naughty America is still searching for the right business models, the right way of shooting, what hardware is available... Everything is being researched. Paul specifically refuses to say anything about the process of filming, because that could help its competitors - and Naughty America is still one of the few studios seriously working on VR. "VR is the future of porn" Of course, there's always the risk the industry is betting on the wrong horse, and that virtual reality remains a niche that won't catch on. But that's not what Paul believes: "There's a reason Facebook bough Oculus. If Mark Zuckerberg is behind virtual reality, it says something." One thing's clear though: It has to be more accessible for users. "If you tried it once, you want nothing else. In the end, VR-porn should feel the same as 'the real thing'." We can't do much but hope for that. If a U.S. court grants the FBIs request for Apple to help it unlock a terrorism suspects iPhone, the case will likely open the door to many similar law enforcement requests, the agencys director said Thursday. A ruling in favor of the FBI by a California judge will be instructive for other courts, FBI Director James Comey said during a congressional hearing. A decision in the San Bernardino mass shooting case will guide how other courts handle similar requests, he added. Lawmakers questioned the broader impact of the FBIs request, and a judges initial ruling in favor of the agency, during a hearing on worldwide security threats before the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. Its important for law enforcement agencies to have access to criminals communications, but the FBI request doesnt seem to have a limiting principle, said Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat. Is there a way through negotiation that we can arrive at cases where its appropriate to seek this relief and cases where its not? If the FBI wins in this case, it could lead prosecutors to seek tech vendors to help defeat security protections on devices even in misdemeanor cases, Schiff said. The FBI wants Apple to defeat the iPhones password security tool that wipes the device after 10 wrong passwords are entered and to kill a short delay limiting how quickly passwords can be input. The agency wants the ability enter an unlimited number of guesses using password cracking software. Apple has opposed the FBIs request, arguing that law enforcement agencies shouldnt ask tech vendors to help them defeat security controls that protect user data from hackers. The technology involved in this case, the combination of an older iPhone 5C and its operating system, reportedly iOS 9, may serve as one limit on further law enforcement requests, with tech vendors possibly unable to comply with other smartphones or OSes involved. The case may not be a trailblazer because of technology being a limiting principle, Comey said. If the FBI prevails in the case, Apple would be forced to write new software to defeat the password security on the phone, noted Representative Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat. Where does this authority end? Himes said. Is it the position of the FBI that it has the authority to compel the inclusion of code in a new device? Himes asked Comey to paint a very bright line for where he believes the FBIs authority ends. I dont think I can by virtue of expertise, or should, by virtue of my role, Comey answered. The San Bernardino case is not about us trying to send a message or establish some precedent. Its about trying to be competent in investigating a terrorism case. A debate over encryption and law enforcement access to devices needs to happen in the courts, at the Department of Justice, and in Congress, added Comey, who began raising concerns about law enforcement access to encrypted digital communications in late 2014. Theres a broader policy question that we all have to grapple with that is far broader than any one case, he said. Some members of the House panel appeared to side with the FBI. I would think its different if youve got two people whove killed 14 folks in a terrorist attack versus some divorce lawyer trying to find out who a philandering husband may have been talking to, Representative Lynn Westmoreland, a Georgia Republican. There is a total difference there, and I think the American people sense that. Its been a rough week for Blu-ray cracking software makers and their users. On Wednesday, Slysoft, makers of AnyDVD and AnyDVD HD ripping programs, replaced their entire website with a single message: Due to recent regulatory requirements we have had to cease all activities relating to SlySoft Inc. We wish to thank our loyal customers/clients for their patronage over the years. Although Slysoft hasnt given much more of an explanation, an employee in the companys forums suggested that Slysoft CEO Giancarlo Bettini has been under massive pressure from copyright groups and governments for nearly a decade. MyCE also notes that the company, based in Antigua, was fined $11,000 for copyright violations in 2014. The legal precedent may have prevented Slysoft from working with service providers. The good news for current AnyDVD owners is that the software they paid for will continue to work, at least for DVDs. Certain Blu-ray discs will work with the software as well, but results will vary for others that require access to an Online Protection Database. This database could theoretically get shut down at any time, preventing further ripping. AnyDVD isnt the only software apparently affected by a copyright crackdown. On Thursday, DVDFab makers Fengtao Software announced that it will never attempt to decrypt or circumvent AACS 2.0, a new copy protection measure thats included in the latest 4K Blu-ray discs. Ars Technica points out that AACS 2.0 was already tricky to crack permanently, as it includes an extra protection layer whose encryption keys can be updated at any time, but DVDFab wont even try. Why this matters: Although users of ripping programs have long maintained that theyre allowed to make a personal copy of the media they paid for, that doesnt stop the movie industry from going after purveyors of these programs. While weve seen some high-profile clashes before, makers of ripping programs have always found a way to survive. With the closure of Slysoft, and the new copy protection that DVDFab wont attempt to defeat, it seems the movie industry has won a big victory, at least for future optical media. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article listed the incorrect title for UCR Assistant Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications James Grant A package sent from the Netherlands to Riverside last week contained a puzzle that pictured sweet-looking cake pops in shades of pink, blue and green. And mixed in with the 1,000 puzzle pieces were 1,015 bright purple Ecstasy tablets. Alerted to the special delivery by federal officials, Riverside police busted the man who received the drugs Wednesday, Feb. 24, at an apartment near UCR. Police collected drugs with an estimated value of $23,250, Sgt. Andrew Misenheimer said. Detectives acting on a search warrant found 125 Ecstasy pills and 90 Xanax pills in the apartment, in addition to the drugs delivered inside the puzzle. Sung Hee Jeong, 21, was arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance for sale and taken to the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility, where jail records say he remained Thursday. Ecstasy is a mood-altering drug most commonly used by college-age people. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, which inspects international mail, discovered the drugs and handed the package off to Homeland Security investigators in Riverside, who partnered with the Riverside Police Department. Detectives then watched as the box was delivered to the 3000 block of Iowa Avenue and Jeong walked it back to an apartment. Jeong isnt a UCR student, and the apartment isnt in a UCR housing complex, though the building is set up like a dorm with common areas and separate rooms, Misenheimer said. Jeong lives at the Iowa Avenue apartment but is from Tujunga, police said. Misenheimer couldnt be sure that Jeong was going to sell the tablets to UCR students, but the circumstances surrounding the bust indicated that he probably would have, Misenheimer said. I mean, this is in a college area, these are college-age people, so theyre most likely going to sell them to other college-age students in the area, he said. Asked about drug use on campus and the universitys efforts to combat it, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications James Grant said in an emailed statement: UCR takes the safety and health of its student population very seriously, and provides information about the dangers of illegal drug use to all of its students, faculty, and staff. The statement noted that the suspect had no known ties to UCR, and said the university would continue to monitor the case and cooperate with authorities. Misenheimer said this was his first call to the university neighborhood in his eight months leading the narcotics team. I will say, though, that those types of drugs are common with college-age students, he added. A 2014 survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that more 18- to 25-year-olds use Ecstasy (also called MDMA) than any other age group. In a powder form, Ecstasy is called molly. MDMA and molly will pose a continuing, albeit relatively low, threat to the United States, particularly to young people, a 2015 report from the Justice Department says. Drugs come into the U.S. from the Netherlands less frequently now than they did in the early 2000s, said Riverside Homeland Security Investigations Group Supervisor David Wright. Wright said 15 years ago, Ecstasy came from the Netherlands more than anywhere else. But lately, the drug also commonly comes in from China, Vietnam or Canada. Hemet police officers arrested a 24-year-old San Diego man who they say fought with them after he tried to carjack drivers in an area of Hemet Tuesday, Feb. 23, authorities said. Antwione Ewing, 24, was arrested on suspicion of robbery, attempted carjacking and resisting arrest through force or fear. He was booked at Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility with bail set at $60,000, online jail records show. Police say they received multiple calls that Ewing was attempting to enter cars that were stopped at a stoplight in the 4100 block of West Florida Avenue in Hemet. Police believe that only a short time before that, Ewing entered a nearby car dealership, stole a key there and tried to use it to get into cars. Officers arrived to the area and tried to detain Ewing. While they were eventually able to put him into their police car it took some effort, according to a Hemet police news release. It says he fought with officers and kicked them as they took him to the car. The fighting continued when Ewing was taken to a local hospital for a medical clearance. He continued to fight with officers and assaulted a nurse while he was there, the release says. Ewing was eventually booked into jail. Contact the writer: 951-368-9693 or agroves@pressenterprise.com A fire late Wednesday, Feb. 25, in Nuevo partially burned the exterior of a strip mall. Firefighters responded to the fire about 10:43 p.m. in the 29000 block of Nuevo Road, according to a Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department news release. When they arrived, the fire was well established in the rear of the strip mall and power lines were down. Tires at the rear of a structure in the strip mall and the structure itself were also well involved in fire, the news release aid. At 11:45 p.m., firefighters were still battling the blaze. The majority of the fire burned the buildings exterior, some tire piles and a power pole. A former Temecula Prep coach pleaded guilty to felony child endangerment Wednesday, Feb. 24, to end a case where she was accused of trading more than 800 sexual text messages with a 16-year-old male student in early 2015. Brittany Nichole Fleming, 30, of Murrieta, was sentenced to 180 days in custody and five years formal probation during a hearing at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley. The resolution was a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorneys Office made after consulting with the victims family, John Hall, district attorneys spokesman wrote in an email. It was a difficult case for everybody involved, said Nic Cocis, Flemings defense attorney, and both sides worked hard to get the case resolved. In an interview with investigators, the boy said he was flattered by the attention but knew it was inappropriate because of their age difference, according to court records. She had been coach of the girls basketball team at Temecula Preparatory School in French Valley. Her husband contacted Murrieta police after finding messages on her cell phone. Fleming may spend her custody time in a work release program or home detention. She will not have to register as a sex offender. Apples stance against the Justice Department regarding consumer privacy in light of the recent shooting in San Bernardino brings a biting question back to the national spotlight: Just how much should the government know about its people? This question last made headlines in 2013, when Edward Snowden carried out one of the biggest U.S. intelligence breaches in history and showed the nation our idea of privacy may well be a false reality. If you asked me three years ago, I, like the rest of the crowd, would have given my own two cents on the governments deceitful actions. But that was when the consequences were intangible. When we only saw a courageous whistleblower speak out for the sake of our saved playlists of cat videos that we wished to keep private. When we didnt have reason to believe that the government might have been intruding for the greater good. Over these past few months, Ive watched my community tremble with the aftermath of its loss. The greater good was compromised, and in the midst of it all, we ask ourselves: Was it worth it? Apples voice represents those of the many who continue to fight against the governments requests for more intrusive access. But I truly believe that the governments primary purpose is to protect its people. And if that requires the sacrifice of the individuals right for the sake of humanitys, then so be it. After all, what difference does it make if we have nothing to hide? Trisha Kurup Chino Hills Obamas Gitmo legacy Re: Obamas Guantanamo plan hits wall of opposition [Front page, Feb. 24]: President Obama doesnt miss a beat in orchestrating his insidious legacy of fundamentally transforming America. Indeed, he is determined to release more terrorists from Guantanamo back into rejoining the terrorist jihad and transfer the remaining terrorists to federal prisons increasing the danger to our people. Of course, if Congress does not approve Mr. Obamas proposed actions to close Guantanamo, he will surely circumvent Congress and the Constitution again with his all-too-frequent, monarchial executive actions. Daniel B. Jeffs Apple Valley News / National by Walter Mswazie A BUSINESSMAN from Chiredzi and a Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) officer died on the spot when their vehicles collided head-on at the 95km peg along the Ngundu-Tanganda Road.Masvingo police spokesperson Inspector Charity Mazula said the accident occurred on Monday at around 5AM.Insp Mazula identified the deceased as Augustine Nyikadzino, 50, of Tongaat Hullet and Taruona Ndava, 37, of ZPCS Chiredzi.She said the bodies were taken to Chiredzi Hospital mortuary for postmortem."I can confirm receiving a report of an accident which claimed a Tongaat Hullet worker and businessperson and a ZPCS officer. The two vehicles were involved in a head-on collision and they both died on the spot. They were trapped in the wreckages of their extensively damaged vehicles," said Insp Mazula.She said Nyikadzino was driving a Nissan Hardbody vehicle while Ndava was driving a Mazda Demio.Both drivers had no passengers on board.Insp Mazula said Ndava allegedly encroached into Nyikadzino's lane resulting in the collision.She said the damaged vehicles were taken to Chiredzi's Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) for inspection.In a different incident which happened on Sunday at around 5:45 PM in Chivi, a woman, Marvelous Makusha, 23, of Mhiti Village under Headman Madyangove area, was fatally struck by lightning at Uravhi Business Centre while coming from church.Insp Mazula said Makusha went to church in the morning and on her way back, it started raining and a bolt of lightning struck her, killing her on the spot.Police attended the scene and took the body to Chivi Mission Hospital for postmortem. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, this week became one of the first congressmen to endorse Donald Trumps surging bid for the Republican presidential nomination. We dont need a policy wonk as president. We need a leader as president, Hunter, who represents Temecula, told POLITICO. Im in. And Ive been in. From POLITICO: Noting that he and Trump see eye-to-eye on a number of issues, including border security, manufacturing and national security, Hunter said he also likes Trump for another reason. I dont think Trump wants my endorsement, Hunter said, while also remarking that he has not heard from the candidate himself. And thats one reason why I like him, he added. Trump said earlier Wednesday that endorsements mean very little. Besides Hunter, Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., also endorsed Trump. The Hunter and Collins endorsements are significant because at this point, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has dominated the endorsement battle, collecting support from dozens of representatives, senators and governors as he becomes the GOP establishments favorite to win the nomination. Those endorsements, however, havent helped Rubio win a primary has Trumps momentum builds with victories in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Its possible Trump might have the nomination locked up by the end of March, according to an analysis in Vox. While hes no Louie Gohmert or Steve King, Hunter has made his share of controversial comments. In a 2013 appearance on C-SPAN, Hunter suggested using tactical nuclear weapons to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb. He added: It is part of the Middle Eastern culture to get the best deal that you can. People barter back and forth and try to get the best deal for each other. Iran is the epitome of that, they have lied over and over. In 2014, Hunter said at least 10 Islamic State fighters were caught trying to cross into Texas from Mexico, a claim vehemently denied by federal Homeland Security officials and debunked by PolitiFact. In January, Hunter, a Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, called Navy Secretary Ray Mabus a greater threat to the Marine Corps than ISIS for supporting opening all Marine combat roles to women. Finally, Hunter made waves or at least smoke by vaping during a congressional hearing on the use of c-cigarettes on airplanes. He said he did so to show that vaping is harmless Corona voters wont be choosing their mayor anytime soon. The Corona City Council voted Wednesday, Feb. 24, to keep the status quo regarding how the mayor is chosen. Today, one of five council members is appointed by their colleagues as mayor. There are no term limits, but the general rule is that after a council member serves one year as mayor, another person takes over. On a 3-2 vote, the council decided not to send voters a measure to make the change. A measure that will be on the November ballot will ask voters whether they want to switch to a system in which they choose council members from five voting districts. Coronas five council members currently represent the entire city, not one particular district. Some council members have argued that a move to districts could offer better representation to minorities and avoid potential legal violations experienced by other cities around the state. Mayor Jason Scott and Council members Dick Haley and Karen Spiegel voted to keep the mayor as a rotation, saying that a separately-elected mayor could wield more power than other council members and create an imbalance. Haley said rotating the mayor keeps a level playing field and helps brings fresh ideas each year. Councilmen Eugene Montanez and Randy Fox favored a switch to let voters pick the mayor. Montanez said an elected, citywide mayor would function as an umpire to clear up disputes among districts vying for public funds. Douglas Johnson, a city-hired consultant, said roughly 75 percent of like-sized cities elect their mayor separately, which many use as a counterbalance to reduce infighting among district representatives. But Haley advised the council to trust the plan they crafted two years ago and not go in with the flavor of the week. How a mayor is chosen is one of many issues the council has discussed placing on the ballot this fall. For the past nine months, members also have discussed the possibility of switching from a general law to a charter form of government. If a charter governed the city, residents could introduce council term limits. The change would also mean Corona isnt bound by the California Elections Code, and could establish its own dates, rules, and procedures for elections. Scott said no convincing arguments surfaced to support such a drastic change and the council decided against it in January. Several community meetings will be held over the next five months to discuss the proposed council districts. At least three maps will be presented for the publics comment, Johnson said. One rough draft was released in September. To encourage discussion, the city will host outreach events at schools and other neighborhood venues, City Manager Darrell Talbert said. The council will eventually select a map to place on the November ballot. REACH THE REPORTER: 951-368-9644, poneill@pressenterprise.com, @PE_PatrickO Microsoft Corp. backs Apple Inc. in its fight with the U.S. government over unlocking a terrorists iPhone, said President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith. The company will file an amicus brief to support Apple next week, Smith said at a congressional hearing to discuss the need for new legislation to govern privacy, security and law enforcement in the age of Internet-based cloud services. Apple is refusing to comply with a court order requiring it to create tools that will make it easier for FBI investigators to unlock the phone used by one of the attackers in the December massacre in San Bernardino, California. Asked about Apples contention that the case is about more than one phone, Smith said every case has implications for others. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said Thursday at a different hearing that the government isnt looking to send a message, but acknowledged that the case may set a precedent. Apples Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has vowed to fight the order, saying the software required to access the phones contents doesnt exist and creating it would potentially put billions of iPhones at risk of being hacked or spied on by governments. Apples response to the court is due Friday. Microsoft has so far not commented on the case beyond participating in a statement last week from an industry group that said while its extremely important to deter crime and terrorism, no company should be required to build back doors to their own technology. Microsoft itself is fighting the U.S. government over an order to turn over a suspected drug traffickers e-mails that are stored in one of the companys data centers in Ireland. Apple has backed Microsoft in that case, which is waiting on the ruling of an appellate court in New York. Earlier this week, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told Bloomberg Television he was disappointed by reports that he supports the U.S. government in this dispute, saying it doesnt accurately reflect his opinion. That doesnt state my view on this, he said in an interview on Bloomberg Go. The extreme view that government always gets everything, nobody supports that. Having the government be blind, people dont support that. The Financial Times reported that Gates sided with the U.S. government, saying that the court order requiring Apple to help unlock the phone was a one-time request and no different from accessing bank and telephone records. RELATED: Encryption is hardest question Ive seen says Corney Attorney general defends FBI stance in fight with Apple Court action for victims and families will be filed next week FBI or Apple: Where do you stand on phone-hacking debate? Gates disappointed by reports he backs FBI FBI and Apple take it outside the court Q&A on the Apple vs. Justice Department court fight Apple to tell judge: Congress must decide Apple-FBI Row Spurs Senate Bill Complete coverage of the San Bernardino shooting, aftermath In late November, at a fancy hotel in San Francisco, Jose Ochoa stood in good company. Alongside a superior court judge, a retired major general, and the founder of a public charter high school, the alcohol and drug counselor received a 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Community College League of California. Jose Ochoa is the perfect example of what California Community Colleges are supposed to do in the communities, Bertha Barazza, his former Mt. San Jacinto College counselor, wrote in her nomination letter. Community college helped Ochoa leave behind gangs, drugs and jail, and embark on a life of building up people who are broken, he said, quoting his late pastor Barbara Rosales. I lead by example, said Ochoa, 54. To be a good leader, you have to be a good servant. Ochoa is co-founder of Addiction Counseling and Treatment Services in Riverside. He believes everybody deserves a second chance and mentors to help guide them. I dont give up on people because Barbara (Rosales) didnt give up on me, he said. Rosales founded Crossroads New Life Ministries in Hemet, where in 1994 and 1995 Ochoa accepted Jesus, kicked a 15-year heroin addiction, and was exhorted by Rosales to go to college and do something with his life. Ochoa, a first-generation Mexican-American, was born in 1962 in El Paso, Texas. His father raised his son to be honest, but Ochoa got lost growing up after his family moved to Placentia, where he stole bikes, broke lights and fell into the street life. Ochoa showed promise in high school he got into Cal State Fullertons college-prep Upward Bound Program but after a friend died in his arms after being shot in a gang fight in 1978, Ochoa lost himself for 15 years. He left high school, became addicted to heroin, abandoned his family, roamed with gangs, and went to prison four times, where he eventually got his GED. Ochoa wasnt long out of prison when he found Rosales ministry and began to turn his life around. She encouraged him to start classes in 1996 at Mt. San Jacinto College. He started taking computer science classes sporadically at the San Jacinto campus. When Barazza became Ochoas guidance counselor in 2000, she convinced him to focus on alcohol and drug studies. She became a mentor, encouraging him not only to learn but to participate in student government. Ochoa was hungry for knowledge, Barazza said. The more he learned, the more he wanted to learn. Surprised, Ochoa found himself a natural fit for student government and leadership, and his confidence increased. Soon he was advocating on behalf of community college students in the state capital. He also made honor roll, deans list, and Whos Who Among Students in Americas Junior Colleges. Ochoa graduated in 2001, yet remains involved with the college, where he currently mentors students with backgrounds similar to his. Kenneth Prado, a 2012 alcohol and drug studies graduate, said Ochoa showed him that people who made mistakes can still help others. He taught that we need to forgive ourselves and not let our past dictate our future, said Prado, who struggled with drug addiction and spent time in jail before starting college in 2009 at age 38. Ochoa views his work more as a ministry than a mission, but in a self-aware moment he finds another meaning. Im the author of my life and I want to finish it well, he said. Contact the writer: community@pressenterprise.com Inland Southern California couldnt be a better place for a Thursday, Feb. 25 solar energy conference, say its UC Riverside hosts. The region has ample sunshine, and both big and nearby demands for electricity, said organizer Alfredo A. Martinez-Morales, the managing director of the universitys Southern California-Research Initiative for Solar Energy. We have a big electricity load along the coast and we have a lot of resources here, he said. That makes this location a very attractive place for solar development. Dubbed Opportunities for Solar: Ways Forward for Inland Southern California, the conference at the universitys Bourns Technology Center is geared to help business people, local government officials, academics and others learn about the latest technical, regulatory and policy changes affecting this fast-growing industry. Panel discussions will cover state of technology, the emerging role of energy storage, permitting processes, financing, economics, and community strategies to encourage solar development. The conference comes on heals of big wins for the industry. In December, Congress extended a tax credit that in effect pays 30 percent of the cost of solar systems that was set to expire at the end of the year. The credit is now good for projects that start construction before the end of 2019. It then drops to 26 percent in 2020 and 22 percent in 2021. And last month a divided California Public Utilities Commission shot down efforts by the states investor-owned utilities to reduce the compensation received by owners of rooftop solar systems for their contributions to the power grid. The commission approved rules requiring utilities to keep net metering, the compensation system that requires utilities to credit solar system owners for the electricity they send to the power grid at the same rate consumers pay for electricity. California leads the nation, by far, in solar energy development. An industry report this week found that enough new solar panels were put up in 2015 in the Golden State to produce nearly three times the electricity as second-place North Carolina. Contact the writer: 951-368-9471 or ddanelski@pressenterprise.com Watercolor artist to give talk in Loma Linda LOMA LINDA Watercolor artist Jim Salchak, a member of the National Watercolor Society, will address the Loma Linda Cultural Arts Association on the importance of selective vision at the March meeting of the Loma Linda Cultural Arts Association. Salchak will demonstrate how design, value, and color work together to produce a strong composition, according to a news release. The meeting is 2 to 4 p.m. March 6 at the Loma Linda Senior Center, 25541 Barton Road. Admission is free for Loma Linda University students. Other non-member guests are asked to make a $5 donation. Staff report HEMET Forty-two players competed in District 7s annual rookie shuffleboard tournament Feb. 20-21 at Sierra Dawn South Easts courts. George Baslak from Foothills of Hemet Club emerged the champion. David OGwynn from Villa Del Monte took home second place, third place went to Jackie OGwynn from Villa Del Monte and fourth place to Cheryl Dewberry from Hemet Muni. Staff report RIVERSIDE The Alvord Educational Foundations second annual Spirit Run and Health Expo is Saturday, Feb. 27 at Norte Vista High School, 6585 Crest Ave. Check-in is 7:30-8:45 a.m. The event is a fundraiser for the foundation. Runners will leave Norte Vista High and run along the La Sierra trails before returning to campus. There will be games, music, performances, raffles, giveaways and free health screenings. Registration forms and information: alvordeducationalfoundation.org. Staff report ONTARIO San Antonio Winery is holding a Girl Scout Cookie & Wine Pairing event 1-3 p.m. Sunday. The wines are from around the world and admission is $30 per person. Information: sanantoniowinery.com. New board members sought for Hemet Library Foundation HEMET The Hemet Library Foundation is seeking applications for three openings on its board of directors. has openings for three new Board members. The Foundation is seeking applicants who have an appreciation for the Library and an understanding of the vital role it The foundation provides financial support for librarys programs and equipment. Applicants may email a letter of interest to contacthlf@thehemetlibraryfoundation.org or call board President Michael Huerta at 951-490-9068. A contact form is available at thehemetlibraryfoundation.org/contact.html, as well. Letters of interest are due by March 1. Staff report RIVERSIDE The Community Foundation is accepting proposals for grants through the Riverside Youth Grantmakers Fund through March 4. The funds are for projects, programs or activities that address issues facing local youths, or projects that are of interest to the Youth Grantmakers. Information and grant application: 951-241-7777 or thecommunityfoundation.net. Staff report SAN JACINTO MOUNTAINS The Girl Scouts will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, Feb. 27 to celebrate the re-opening of Camp Skyland Ranch, which first opened as a Girl Scout camp in 1961 by Long Beach Girl Scouts. It closed in 2008. Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council bought the 191-acre property in December, according to a news release. The site contains two lodges, nine cabins, several camping shelters, a barn and orchards. The Girl Scouts have raised $1 million in a capital campaign to turn the property into a science camp. Its fundraising goal is $3 million. Information: girlscoutssangorgonio.org Staff report REGION The Riverside County Department of Waste Resources is seeking volunteers to help with its backyard composting program. Volunteers must attend a training course for eight Tuesdays and are asked to volunteer 40 hours. They will staff Saturday morning workshops, give classroom and community group presentations and do outreach. The training class is 6-9 p.m. April 12 through May 31 in Moreno Valley. Riverside County residents may volunteer. Candidates must apply online at rcwaste.org/opencms/recycling/mastercomposter.html#training. Information: 951-486-3200 or WasteCompRecyc@rcwaste.org. Staff report Send items for possible inclusion in Community Notes to community@pressenterprise.com. A 25-year-old New York man was sentenced to 55 years to life in state prison Wednesday, Feb. 24, after a Victorville jury found him guilty of charges in a sex crimes against a minor case, according to a San Bernardino County District Attorneys Office news release. The offenses occurred from August 2012 and November 2014 when the female victim was ages 5 to 7. The defendant, Jonathan Anthony Mendez,was her mothers boyfriend, the news release stated. A San Bernardino County Superior Court jury found Mendez guilty last month of three counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child age 10 or younger and two counts of lewd act upon a child. The victim was present in court for the sentencing and accompanied by Dozer, one of the district attorneys two facility dogs trained to provide support for child victims in court. Deputy District Attorney Melissa Pedroza, who prosecuted the case, read the victims statement during the sentencing hearing. The only thing worse than the grossly-outdated, mildly horrifying show that is Wife Swap (woah, easy on the misogyny vibes there guys), is the even more horrifying state of Australias internet speeds, which crawl at such a glacial pace that if youre reading this article in the month of February in the year 2016, then hey its having a good day. This v. depresso element of living in Australia which, quite frankly, they should put on the visa application forms with a Are you suuure? is satirised spectacularly in the Wife Swap parody Wifi Swap, in which two everyday women swap lives, homes, and most importantly, wifi speeds. What will happen when their lives and rerouted and disconnected? says the voice-over, and quite honestly if whoever wrote that line doesnt take a dozen bows / snap of the fingers, then what has YouTube comedy writing come to. In the six-minute web series, Tarryn from Sydney, Australia, swaps places with Christina from NYC, USA, and experiences the dizzying euphoria that comes watching TV hows that dont buffer, arrive on time, and are always available in your country; Christina loses her fucking mind. We laugh, but only to hide the pain. Source / Photo: ARSFIST. News / National by Walter Mswazie A MAN allegedly beheaded his HIV positive younger brother with a kitchen knife to "save him from the pain of taking medication all his life."Brighton Gijima, 25, of Village 10 Chizvinzvi Resettlement, in the Ndali area of Chiredzi, woke up in the wee hours of Saturday morning and cut off 13-year-old Tafadzwa's head.Sources close to the family said Brighton informed his bedridden mother that he was putting his brother to rest before slitting his throat.It is suspected Tafadzwa was born with the disease but was yet to fall ill.Masvingo police spokesperson Charity Mazula yesterday said Brighton, who briefly fled the scene, has since been arrested."Brighton was apprehended on Sunday and he led the police to indications, he showed them where he had hid the knife, one kilometre away from the scene," said Insp Mazula.She said Tafadzwa's body was taken to Chiredzi Hospital mortuary for post-mortem."I can confirm receiving a report of murder from Chiredzi's Chief Tshovani. A man killed his 13-year-old brother by slicing his neck leaving the head hanging by a thread, using a kitchen knife," said Insp Mazula."The suspect, who has no history of mental illness, has since been arrested after briefly fleeing the scene and he is assisting the police with investigations."Chief Tshovani told The Chronicle Brighton was sleeping in a hut while Tafadzwa, said to be HIV positive and on Antiretroviral Therapy (ARV), slept outside due to hot weather."Brighton woke up and armed himself with a kitchen knife before going outside where Tafadzwa was sleeping. Tafadzwa was sleeping with a relative, 12-year-old Oliver Magaisa."Without warning, Brighton grabbed and dragged his victim by the right hand to a two-roomed house," said Chief Tshovani.He said Brighton had long told his bedridden mother that he wanted to "mercifully" end Tafadzwa's life due to his HIV status, but she did not take him seriously.Chief Tshovani said Brighton shoved Tafadzwa into the room and tripped him to the floor.He said Brighton produced a knife before reaching for his brother's neck.Tafadzwa screamed, attracting the attention of his grandmother, Kias Magaisa, 67, who found Brighton killing his brother."She screamed for help and Brighton fled," he said.Other villagers woke up to investigate but found Tafadzwa already dead with his head hanging by a thread of flesh.Chief Tshovani said Brighton, Tafadzwa and their ill mother had just returned from their home in Zaka due to her deteriorating condition."Brighton doesn't belong to my area in Chiredzi, his father is in Zaka. They had to come back to live with a maternal grandmother due to the mother's deteriorating health. Killing someone because they're ill is unheard of in this community."Inspector Mazula said the suspect showed no signs of mental illness during interrogation and indications.In Zimbabwe, euthanasia, also known as mercy killing of a terminally ill or seriously injured person, is illegal. Storm systems have brought severe weather to the East Coast and the Midwest. Virginia Tornadoes killed four people and left a path of destruction in Virginia, the hardest-hit state. Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller says a 2-year-old child and two men, ages 50 and 26, were killed in the town of Waverly during the storm. Police say a funnel cloud left an 8- to 10-mile path of destruction in Appomattox County, Va., where one man was killed. Maryland Flooding brought on by torrential rain from a storm system that caused damage along the East Coast has closed a section of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in south Baltimore. City Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kathy Dominick said by phone Thursday morning that flooding closed Interstate 295 between the Baltimore beltway and Interstate 95 in both directions. Dominick says the closure affected the morning commute, but officials hope lanes will reopen by the evening rush hour. She says water couldn't drain off the roadway, but crews are working to clear any blocked drains in the area. Louisiana The National Weather Service says at least eight tornadoes hit Tuesday in Louisiana, where two people were killed. That eight tornadoes include four EF-2 tornadoes that were responsible for the major damage in Convent and LaPlace, along with an EF-2 in Livingston Parish and one in Paincourtville. Meteorologist Fred Zeigler tells The Associated Press the tornado that destroyed a Convent trailer park and killed two people was an EF-2 tornado, with winds of 111-135 mph. Other EF-2 tornadoes were confirmed in Livingston, Paintcourtville, and the one in LaPlace, which destroyed or badly damaged at least 200 homes in several subdivisions. The four other tornadoes were an EF-0, with winds of 65-85 mph. GAP -- More than 100 Amish were gathered in a barn on Seldomridge Road here Wednesday when the winds suddenly and violently kicked up. Beth Engel, pastor of the nearby Pequea Presbyterian Church, also in Gap, said attendees would later say it felt like the "barn was breathing," as what is now a confirmed tornado passed over them and cut a path through surrounding Salisbury Township. Of the roughly 100 people inside the barn when the tornado hit at around 8 p.m., none were seriously injured. And only minor injuries were reported elsewhere in the storm's path. As for the cleanup, it was well underway on Thursday, with a swath of damage stretching an estimated six miles and consisting of shorn roofs, leveled buildings and tossed cars. The Whitehall Amish schoolhouse off of Kauffroth Road in Gap was destroyed by the winds. Only a cinderblock foundation remained on Thursday. Meanwhile, trees were flattened on nearby hillsides and debris strewn across surrounding fields and roadways like the wreckage of a plane crash. The school, which teaches students between the ages of six and 13, is located steps from the Seldomridge Road barn. A young Amish man who declined to be identified in this article said he was in the barn when the tornado hit. There was no one in the schoolhouse at the time. He said the entire building shook but that he couldn't remember much else, because "it was over so quick." He said there wasn't time to be afraid. Another woman, who similarly declined to speak on record, said she heard the entire barn shifted on its foundation, around those gathered inside it. The effects were felt even miles away. Dave Stoltzfus said he was at a friend's home in nearby Honeybrook when he felt the winds pick up and the walls of the home start to rattle. "It was real big. The walls were shaking. It was really windy," Stoltzfus said. Damage estimates are still being tallied, but the county's Emergency Management Agency says at least 40 buildings were damaged, most, if not all, by high winds. At the Pequea Presbyterian Church, Pastor Beth Engel said the winds even tore large trees from the ground and upended gravemarkers, some nearly 300 years old. "We need to see if the insurance will help with this, but we haven't contacted anyone yet" Engel said, along with the cemetery's treasurer, Nancy Arment. "I was up all night praying about it," Engel said, adding that she was just glad no one was seriously hurt. At the fire station in nearby White Horse, a large, mostly Amish crowd gathered for lunch Thursday and obtained their work assignments for the remainder of the day. A man with a microphone addressed the hundreds seated at long folding tables positioned throughout the fire hall, soliciting those of them with masonry skills for one repair job and those with driving skills for another. Some went to the Whitehall school to help with the cleanup and rebuilding there. Others were directed to a large commercial chicken farm on Millwood Road that had been decimated the night before. Mel Lantz, safety officer with the White Horse Ambulance Service, said one-half of the sprawling structure had collapsed and another half had been heavily damaged in the storm. "One (half) came down last night. The other might have been a partial collapse," Lantz clarified. He said emergency crews worked in the area until roughly 2 a.m. Thursday and returned at daybreak. Only fire police needed to direct traffic around the damage remained on duty through the night. A few road closures remained in effect Thursday in places where heavy equipment was being used in the cleanup. Lantz said there are no damage estimates at this time but that he expects the amount is "going to be pretty significant." He added,"I haven't seen anything like this before in my experience. We've had twisters in the area but nothing like this." UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect official reports indicating more than 100 Amish were in the barn at the time of the tornado over unofficial reports that put the number as high as 200. The number of Pennsylvanians who have had their gas or electricity shut off in Pennsylvania has reached record-breaking levels in recent years. According to a PennLive analysis, the number of Pennsylvania households that have had their service terminated by the state's regulated gas and electric rose from an annual average of 81,000 in the 1990s to 312,000 in 2014 - nearly four times higher. Advocates for low-income Pennsylvanians blame that rise on a 2004 law change, known as Chapter 14, that made it harder for customers to negotiate payment plans when they get behind on their bills. They charge that those shutoffs mean Pennsylvania's poorest residents are increasingly living in life-threatening cold or using sources of heat, like kitchen ovens and space heaters, that pose fire risks. That fear raises a key question: How many Pennsylvanians die each year after their gas or electricity is shut off? Furthermore, has there been an increase in deaths as more Pennsylvanian households have had their service shutoff? Unfortunately, the answer to each of those questions isn't so simple. Since 2009, the Public Utility Commission has required utility companies to report to it anytime there's a death in a household that was formerly served by that utility. Those reports include information on the person who died, their address, the date of the incident, a statement of the circumstances involved and, if available, the cause of the incident. However, the commission's regulations treat that information as accident reports, which may not be open for public inspection except by order of the Commission. The commission declined PennLive's request to view any of those reports. However, Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, a spokesman for the commission, released a tally to PennLive, spanning 2009 to 2015, on the annual number of incidents - like fires and incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning or hypothermia - where a death was reported at a location where service had been terminated. He also released the total number of deaths for each year because certain incidents, like a fire, might cause multiple deaths. However, without information on the circumstances of each incident, it's difficult to draw clear conclusions about what role, if any, a shutoff had in the cause of that death. "The fact that a death has occurred at a particular location does not speak at all to what exactly happened there," Hagen-Frederiksen said. In addition, without annual tallies on all deaths and incidents in households that formerly had utility service before 2004, when utility terminations began to rise drastically in Pennsylvania, it's impossible to draw clear conclusions about whether deaths have increased as utility terminations have increased. Joseph Rhodes, a former commissioner of the Public Utility Commission and state lawmaker, faced similar difficulty exploring the link between deaths and utility terminations in 2006. Rhodes was contracted by the Democratic House Appropriations Committee to write a report on the impact of chapter 14 after its implementation in 2004. At the time he wrote this report, he said he was aware of no conclusive evidence of fatalities or serious injuries attributable to the provisions of the law. Rhodes added that it was unclear what that meant. "After all, such utility tragedies are normally quite rare," he wrote. "Therefore, we cannot conclude much from the absence of recent utility tragedies." Irrespective of deaths, there is also limited data, current or historical, on the number of fires caused by households that are using alternative heating sources - like open ovens or space heaters - because their gas or electric service was terminated. Cory Angell, a spokesman for the Office of the State Fire Commissioner, said that the office maintains a database of fires reported across Pennsylvania but that it couldn't easily drill down its statistics to determine what fires were started by unsafe heating sources. In addition, Pennsylvania fire departments are encouraged, but not required, to report that data. Consequently, its database of incidents isn't comprehensive. Brian Enterline, chief of Harrisburg's Bureau of Fire, said that part of the difficulty of analyzing statistics on use of unsafe heating source, either in his department or others, is that a fire started by something like a space heater could be categorized by the responding firefighter in several different ways, like an "electrical malfunction" or an "accidental fire" or "heating source too close to combustibles". "There's not one particular way to write that up," he said. While Enterline couldn't say whether fires caused by unsafe heating sources had increased in Harrisburg, he said, speaking generally, that it was concerning to hear that utility shutoffs had risen. As an example of the risks of using unsafe heating sources, Enterline pointed to a fire the department responded to during Harrisburg's record-breaking blizzard. The house didn't have heat and was relying on 14 to 15 space heaters. "That's a perfect example," he said. "There was a space heater that was too close to the bed and caught the bed on fire." Whether there is data or not to show an increase in fires caused by unsafe heating sources, advocates for low-income households are certain that poor Pennsylvanians are increasingly relying on them due to the statewide rise in shutoffs. Freyda Kornblum, operations manager for the Eastern Service Workers Association, a Philadelphia-based organization for people who fall outside of traditional trade unions, has seen that firsthand. "We have a member right now who's living in a boarding house and they have space heaters in every room because the central heat is not on," she said. "And the stove is kept on all the time - it's definitely not safe." And, although her organization might not have hard numbers, Kornblum said it often saw how easily those living conditions could turn deadly. Kornblum pointed to news reports of a Philadelphia man who died in a blaze started by his kerosene heater last year - the man had been using it to stay warm because of a lack of central heat. "People are forced into having to do that to stay warm," Kornblum said. But, beyond the danger posed by utility shutoffs, Kornblum said that families living in extreme cold may face different, but equally concerning, consequences: They might face sleeplessness and other ill-effects, their pipes might freeze and burst, and parents might lose custody of their children to welfare agencies for fears over unsafe living conditions. Kornblum added she has increasingly seen families evicted because their tenancy agreement requires their utility service to be on. Ultimately, she said, the rise in shutoffs has devastated families. "It's disturbing," she said. "It says something about the way things are being run and it's not consistent with how it should be." "We have definitely seen more people who have been forced into homelessness," Kornblum said. Graphic by Nick Malawskey Pennsylvania State Police Academy Pennsylvania State Police cadets at a fitness session for the media at the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey in 2014. (CHRISTINE BAKER/File photo) Cheating allegations at the State Police Academy prompted a review of testing practices, as well as the removal of 29 cadets who were likely involved to date. "We won't tolerate anyone who lies, cheats or steals," Commissioner Tyree Blocker said, following a Senate budget hearing in Harrisburg. "The public has, and rightfully so, an expectation that members of the State Police have the highest integrity and I am insistent on that." Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Tyree Blocker Blocker said the investigation of cheating, which was discovered by a staff member in December, has expanded beyond the individual cadets involved to include a review of the testing procedures themselves. Police sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity previously told PennLive that a cheat sheet was found at the Hershey academy. Sources familiar with the academy's training regimen -- which includes written exams and tests of driving ability and physical fitness -- have said that some of the test materials haven't changed between classes, leaving open a possible vulnerability in the process. "That's part of the ongoing investigation to address our whole testing methodology," Blocker said. "We're making sure to address those in a very comprehensive manner." Blocker, who was confirmed by the Senate in December, said the academy's 144th class began with 116 cadets. In addition to the 29 who were implicated in the cheating incident, another 18 cadets left for a number of other personal reasons. That left 69 cadets in the class, which is scheduled to graduate in March. The cadets who were implicated in the cheating incident left through a combination of being dismissed and resigning, he said. Such cadet classes normally see some degree of attrition, although the cheating incident led to concern about the ongoing staffing shortfall due to retirements. "What we will look at as we move forward (will be to) determine how many troopers we need in future classes to make up for the shortfall in the 144th class," he said, following the hearing. Blocker said the investigation has not implicated any members of the academy staff or cadets in the 145th class, but added that investigators are still working. "We're working very diligently at bringing some closure to the investigation," he said. "I want to make it clear: We will not leave any stone unturned when it comes to the integrity of the Pennsylvania State Police." The State Police Academy in Hershey. The commissioner and several of his top staffers were at the Capitol to answer questions about Gov. Tom Wolf's budget plan for the agency. With that regard, Blocker said he believed the agency had "the resources and level of expertise to address this issue." Cadets receive a $1,200 biweekly salary during their time at the academy. After graduation, the cadets begin an 18-month probationary period at their assigned troop. They are not required to reimburse training costs if they leave before completing the academy, regardless of how they leave. The cheating investigation had not prompted any review of that compensation, Blocker said. Changes to staffing at the academy, meanwhile, had already been in the pipeline prior to the investigation. UPDATE: The crash has been cleared A crash on Route 283 has closed all westbound lanes at Clover Leaf Road in Mount Joy Township. The incident was reported around 7:10 p.m. Heavy rain and strong winds caused power outages and weather alerts throughout central Pennsylvania, but it is unclear if weather was a factor in the crash. For more traffic information, follow live traffic updates, accident reports and road closures below from PennDOT, Total Traffic Network and other Twitter sources. Get a look at conditions on local roads -- via PennDOT traffic cameras -- anytime here on PennLive. For Pennsylvania Turnpike updates and possible travel delays visit the Turnpike website here. Tweet us at @pennlive with any incidents you see on your commute or send a submission to submissions@pennlive.com. shapiro, smith.jpg Dr. Scott Shapiro, a Montgomery County cardiologist and president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, and Alexis Miller, senior vice president for individual and small group business for health insurer Highmark Inc. Pennsylvania doctors say they will be forced to pay the price for what they deem poor business decisions that caused health insurer Highmark to lose hundreds of millions on customers covered as a result of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Highmark recently notified doctors it will cut their payments by 4.5 percent for medical care provided to people covered by Obamacare plans. Dr. Scott Shapiro, the president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, reacted in a written statement, saying "health care professionals are about to bear the brunt of poor financial and business planning at one of the state's largest health insurers. Hopefully, patient care won't be negatively impacted, but only time will tell." Shapiro further pointed to Highmark's large financial surplus, which stood at about $4.5 billion in mid-2015, and said Highmark should use that money to cover the losses rather than shift it to doctors. Highmark's 2015 loss on Obamacare plans, which still isn't finalized, is expected to reach about $500 million, according to Alexis Miller, Highmark's senior vice president for individual and small group business. Highmark attributes the Obamacare losses to new customers who may not have previously had insurance, and who turned out to be sicker, and in need of more medical care, than Highmark expected when setting premiums. Many insurers around the country are facing the same problem. Miller said Highmark has taken assorted steps to stem the losses, including raising premiums, eliminating some coverage offerings and changing others, reducing broker commissions, and more closely managing the care of chronically-ill patients with the hope of reducing their costs. Miller said Highmark needs cooperation from additional stakeholders, including doctors, in order to make the Obamacare market viable. Asked why Highmark doesn't use its surplus to cover the losses, Miller said the market must be self-sustaining, and dipping into reserves isn't a practical solution. She added that the state insurance department didn't grant Highmark the full premium increase it had requested. The 4.5 percent payment cuts pertain to about 270,000 Highmark customers covered by ACA plans, including many who bought coverage on the electronic marketplace, or exchange. However, they don't apply to the majority of Highmark members, who get coverage through a group plan at work. Overall, doctors will lose only about a half-percent of their revenues, according to Miller, who didn't have a figure for the total savings Highmark expects. "I'm sympathetic to how this might look to the medical society," Miller said. "We have to kind of work with all the stakeholders and work together to make the market viable ... In the grand scheme of things it's a relatively modest impact on the [doctors'] fee schedule." Highmark isn't cutting payments to hospitals. Asked why not, Miller said doctor contracts are more flexible and there's "precedent" for such adjustments, while cutting hospital reimbursements would require hospital-by-hospital negotiations. The medical society's Shapiro said "Sadly, Highmark's plan of correction only punishes providers and vulnerable patients. Nowhere in their letter to the Pennsylvania Medical Society did they state that their executives will be reducing their compensation for the mistake of not estimating utilization correctly." He further said, "Highmark's decision to shift responsibility for their utilization miscalculation does nothing but jeopardize health care delivery in Pennsylvania by bullying both health care providers and their patients." Shapiro is a cardiologist who works in Montgomery County. Many health insurers around the country underestimated the amount of medical care that would be used by new customers gaining coverage through the ACA. Some other major insurers stayed out of the market the first year, 2014, out of fear of pent up demand for medical care among people who had gone a long time without care, and may have been insurable because of their illnesses. Before the ACA, insurers could look at the medical histories of customers and set appropriately high premiums or reject them. But the ACA bans that practice, known as medical underwriting. Insurers now must accept everyone, regardless of their preexisting conditions, and have less latitude in charging higher premiums to people with serious medical conditions. Miller pointed out that the federal government hasn't fully kept its promise to offset losses of insurers who set premiums too low during the initial years of Obamacare. While insurers have received some of these payments, Congress has cut part of the program. Also, an arm of the program designed to shift money from insurers who charged too much to insurers who charged too little hasn't helped much, because few insurers have collected more in premiums than they paid out for medical care. Note: this story was updated to correct the name of Alexis Miller, who is Highmark's senior vice president for individual and small group business. In a case his lawyer called "terribly tragic," a 24-year-old man was sentenced to state prison Thursday for causing an alcohol-related crash that killed his father. Benjamin Feith Dauphin County Judge John F. Cherry sentenced Benjamin Feith to 4 to 8 years behind bars three months after Feith pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle and other charges from the October 2014 accident in Derry Township that killed 45-year-old Walter D. Feith. The penalty, set in a plea agreement, also covers Feith's guilty plea to 19 counts of possessing child pornography on his cell phone. First Assistant District Attorney Fran Chardo said a state evaluation showed the Feith didn't meet the criteria to be deemed a sexually violent predator for the child porn possession. The younger Feith was charged by police seven months after the fatal one-car crash on Homestead Road. Police said his car left the road and hit a tree. His blood-alcohol level was 0.12 percent, above the 0.08 limit used to gauge whether motorists are too drunk to drive, investigators said. Feith said nothing before Cherry sentenced him. His paternal grandmother watched the proceeding. Defense attorney Bryan McQuillan said Feith has been living with his grandmother in Missouri since the accident. McQuillan said Feith suffered severe injuries in the crash, including brain damage "the extent of which is still unknown." He said Feith also has to live with the emotional pain of having caused his dad's death. "This is a terribly tragic case," McQuillan said. "He is going to have to live with that the rest of his life." News / National by Staff Reporter The government has distributed a total 46 215 metric tonnes of maize to rural households who will be requiring food aid in the 2015/2016 season.Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Tapiwa Matangaidze told the ZBC News that eight rural provinces in the country have received a total 46 215 metric tonnes since October 2015.Figures from the ministry indicate that Manicaland province has to date received 5 340 tonnes, Mashonaland Central 5 419, Mashonaland East 3 308, Mashonaland West 8 794, Masvingo 8 582, Matabeleland North 4 718, Matabeleland South 3 546 and Midlands 5 925 tonnes.Matangaidze says government had initially allocated 6 000 metric tonnes per province, but however in recognition of the need, an additional 3 000 has been further allocated.The Zimbabwe Vulnerable Assessment Committee report produced in 2015 had initially revealed that 1.5 million people would need food aid.However, the ministry revised that figure upwards saying actual figures would come up after the 2015/2016 livestock and crop assessment amid indications the figure will hit 3 million. News / Regional by Nqobile Tshili A NATIONAL Railways of Zimbabwe's (NRZ) goods train transporting maize from Zambia to Bulawayo derailed yesterday near Hwange.NRZ workers had a torrid time warding off locals who wanted to loot the grain.It could not be ascertained if the maize is part of a government consignment to avert hunger.Last week, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa revealed that the government had acquired 115,000 tonnes of maize from Zambia.Witnesses said the train was pulling about 10 wagons.They said the train and its wagons careened off the railway line before landing on its side.NRZ's public relations manager Fanuel Masikati said the parastatal was investigating the cause of the accident."I can confirm that one of our goods trains derailed near (TJ) Thompson Junction just before Hwange. Investigations to establish the cause of the derailment will commence soon," said Masikati.He said the train was loaded with maize coming from Zambia.Masikati, however, declined to disclose if the maize was part of government imports."What I can tell you is that it was transporting maize from Zambia to Bulawayo," he said.Masikati said NRZ employees were guarding the maize because some locals were trying to loot it yesterday morning."If it wasn't for the employees, people could have looted the maize. The employees are monitoring the consignment to ensure that no one gets near the trolleys," he said.Masikati said the NRZ would have to replace sections of the railway line.NRZ is facing viability challenges with most of its equipment having outlived its 25-year lifespan.Last year, the parliamentary chairperson on Public Accounts Committee Paurina Mpariwa (MP), said NRZ needed over $700 million to get back on its feet as most of its wagons are outdated and costly to maintain. Canadian teacher Neil Bantleman, right, hugs his wife Tracy, left, after he was released from Cipinang prison in Jakarta, Indonesia on Aug.14, 2015. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said the Canadian government "is deeply dismayed and shocked" by an Indonesian Supreme Court decision to overturn the acquittal of Canadian schoolteacher Neil Bantleman. In its decision, the high court also ordered both Bantleman and an Indonesian teaching assistant to serve 11 years in prison instead of the 10 years they initially received for sexually abusing three young children at a prestigious international school in Jakarta. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Achmad Ibrahim Lawyer Arunan Selvaraj, centre, flanked by his legal associates speaks to The Associated Press during an interview at his office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. A Malaysian woman is suing Malaysia Airlines and the government for $7.6 million in damages over the loss of her husband on Flight 370, which disappeared mysteriously in 2014. The lawyers say more lawsuits are expected over the next few days ahead of a two-year filing deadline over air accidents set by a global aviation agreement.(AP Photo/Joshua Paul) News / Regional by Sukulwenkosi Dube A MAN who tried to bribe a police officer at Plumtree Border Post will spend the next nine months in prison.Gatsha Masotsha, 44, of Hillside suburb in Bulawayo, was intercepted by police officers while in possession of 80 litres of petrol which he was carrying in plastic containers.The cops ordered him to pay a fine at the Environmental Management Authority office at the border post for improper storage of fuel.Masotsha offered one of the police officers, Sergeant Archford Muguta, P400 to evade arrest.Plumtree magistrate Livard Philemon convicted him on his own plea of guilty to bribery.He sentenced Masotsha to 12 months imprisonment and suspended three months for five years on condition that he does not within the period, commit an offence of a similar nature.Philemon said Masotsha deserved a custodial jail term."People who fight against corruption are failing because of people like you who go around offering bribes so that justice doesn't prevail."In the process you will be hindering law enforcement agents from carrying out their duties."People like you deserve a jail sentence so that you can be taught a lesson," he said.In mitigation, Masotsha told the court that he offered a bribe as he thought that was what the police officer expected him to do upon being arrested.He said he was not aware the fine for his offence was only $20.Prosecuting, Rose Sibanda said Masotsha was intercepted on January 24."Masotsha arrived at the Plumtree Border Post driving a Toyota Ipsum coming from Botswana. He was intercepted by police officers at the gate."The police found 80 litres of petrol which was stored in plastic containers instead of jerry cans. The cops arrested Masotsha for transporting a hazardous substance in an unsuitable container," said Sibanda.She said instead of complying with the police, Masotsha went on to offer one of the police officers money in exchange for his release.Sibanda said the police officer did not entertain Masotsha's plea leading to his immediate arrest and the police confiscated the money which was meant for the bribe. As Petersburg Borough administrators draft a local marijuana ordinance, borough manager Steve Giesbrecht asked questions for the Borough Assembly, and the community, to answer regarding commercial marijuana regulations in the borough. What you have also is a list of six questions that we need some guidance on to fill in the blanks on this ordinance before we finalize it enough to bring it back to the assembly for a vote, Giesbrecht said. Giesbrecht and other staff have been creating a draft ordinance and found it most helpful to copy and paste from the boroughs alcohol ordinance. I actually took our current alcohol ordinance, used that as a base, and made some minor changes to it to add the marijuana things to it, Giesbrecht said. It worked much, much better for the attorney and we ended up with something that meets the needs of the borough. The six questions, along with a little context, are as follows: Should the borough have a separate local license for marijuana facilities? The state currently issues business licenses but there is a local option. The borough currently doesnt issue business licenses. It does have a sales tax registration for new businesses. Giesbrecht recommended the assembly not require a local business license. Its just an extra level of administration and hassle, Giesbrecht said. Should the borough allow a marijuana facility on borough owned property? This basically means that the borough assembly could ban a person from opening up a marijuana business on land it leases from the borough, including retail, cultivation, manufacture or testingthe four types of permits the state issues. Each permit must be owned by a separate party, meaning an individual couldnt grow and sell marijuana. Should the borough allow onsite use of marijuana at a retail location? State regulations allow the consumption of marijuana in retail locations, but like anything related to state statutes and regulations, local municipalities can choose to be more restrictive. Should the borough limit the hours of operation for a retail marijuana store? State statute requires retail marijuana establishments to be closed from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. The borough could require closing times more in line with local bars, which is from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. on weekdays and 3 a.m. to noon on Sundays. Should the borough set a maximum number of permits within the community? The state, like Colorado and Washington, hasnt set a maximum of any type of marijuana permits. It comes down to the question of if you want to let free enterprise run and allow the state to sell as many permits as they want or does the Borough Assembly want to say were only going to allow one retail permit or one manufacture permit or something like that, Giesbrecht said. Should the borough restrict any one of the four types of locations associated with marijuana business? Simply put, if the Borough Assembly restricted one type of permit, it could be tough for a local industry as a whole to succeed. The Borough Assembly also voted for itself to become the Local Marijuana Regulatory Authority but, according to Giesbrecht, the body wont see much action. You probably wont have to do anything, Giesbrecht said. This is set up that if somebody applies to the state and does not get an answer in a timely fashion they then can apply to the local, whoever the committee is, and say hey will you grant my permit? The borough also needs to have an authority set up to receive any potential marijuana tax revenue, should the state decide to engage in revenue sharing. The assembly also has the option to create an excise tax, similar to the extra tax on tobacco, on marijuana products. Borough Assembly members Eric Castro and Jeigh Stanton Gregor, along with Petersburg Police Chief Kelly Swihart are headed to Wrangell on March 1 to learn more about and ask questions of state regulations during a public meeting with Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office Director Cynthia Franklin. The assembly will likely begin the process of approving a marijuana ordinance in March. Individuals can also view these questions and provide feedback on the boroughs website. The Petersburg Borough Assembly tabled a discussion regarding the takeover from the state of several dock facilities within the borough. In a January 21 letter, the Assembly wrote the state to request the transfer of state owned facilities Papkes Landing, Kupreanof and Entrance Island docks to the Petersburg Borough. In a February 11 letter from the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities Commissioner Marc Luiken, the commissioner said he applauds the boroughs willingness to accept responsibility and stewardship for the harbor facilities. He also cited the states handover of the boroughs middle, north and south harbors along with checks in 2003 and 2006 totaling more than $6 million to assist in those harbors operation and maintenance. The states financial situation has changed with the declining price of oil and we are unable to make those kinds of cash offers, Luiken wrote. A week later ADOT harbor engineer Mike Lukshin wrote a letter offering the borough $732,883 to take over the three harbor facilities. At the Borough Assemblys Feb. 22 meeting, Mayor Mark Jensen was less than excited about the offer. During our comprehensive plan when we had the engineer assess just the two facilities, Papkes and Kupreaonf, the total bill to fix those two facilities was $2.5 million, Jensen said. Mike Bangs expressed a similar concern earlier in the meeting during the public comment period. I would encourage the assembly to wait on this, to not take any action, Bangs said. Theres a lot of unanswered question and they arent offering enough money to fix the docks let alone maintain them in the future, Bangs said. It would be really hard to figure out how to fund maintenance and operation of them. Jensen, along with the rest of the assembly, was concerned about whether or not the borough would get the land with the infrastructure. Jensen said Lushkin told him that if the borough didnt accept the offer, and if the docks fell into disrepair, the state would remove them. Two of these facilities (Papkes and Kupreanof docks), it would be very important to keep them in place but how do we afford to do it? Jensen asked. How do we come up with a plan and take these and fund them? Assembly member Cindi Lagoudakis said there are too many unknowns at this point to make a decision. I think the state needs to sort some of this out and maybe it would be best to table this discussion, not say no but leave it out there until they can get us more definitive information, Lagoudakis said. Ruth Margarith Lee Powels died on the evening of her 92nd birthday, Feb. 17, 2016. She was a resident of San Ramon, Calif. for many decades. She was a native of Petersburg, Alaska, the daughter of two Norwegian immigrants Harold Lee and Magnhild (Husby) Lee. Her father was the captain of the famous "good ship" fishing boat Vesta. Ruth became known around the small island town as "Sis Lee." In high school Ruth wanted to be a pilot and began taking flying lessons in Alaska. However, when WWII broke out she enrolled at the University of Washington and became a registered nurse at Tacoma General Hospital. She met a handsome, young Naval officer, David J. Powels and married the love of her life in 1946. David became a civil engineer, and had a long career with Chicago Bridge and Iron Co. In the years that followed, they moved all around the world before settling down in San Ramon. They enjoyed traveling the world and cruising the oceans during their 68 years of marriage. Along the way they had three children; Jim, David Jr., and Pamela. Ruth was extremely supportive of her children and encouraged all their endeavors. The family spent a significant amount of time enjoying their beautiful property at Lake Tanwax in Washington state near Mt. Rainier. She loved the outdoors and passed the love of the outdoors on to her children with her husband through many family camping trips and adventures. Ruth had a very loving and mothering nature. She focused her life on being a homemaker and raising her children. We will all miss her great smile, sense of humor and the way she always looked at the bright side of life. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and youngest son David, as well as three older brothers; Allan, Eldor and Harold, Jr. She is survived by her son Jim Powels (Cyndi), daughter Pam Schmucker (Ronald), grandchildren Jim Powels Jr., Julian Crouch, Erica Lee Schmucker, and Ronald David Schmucker and three great-grandchildren. Ruth will be united with her husband at the Tahoma National Veteran Cemetery in Kent, Wash. on Feb. 29. A memorial service will be held on Monday, March 14 at 2:00 pm at Grace United Methodist Church, 19901 San Ramon Valley Blvd., San Ramon. PharmaTimes Media invites you to join us in Atlanta, Georgia on April 17 2016 for a celebration of excellence in clinical research. Taking place at the luxurious Ritz-Carlton Hotel on April 17 2016, tickets are available NOW for an early bird reduced rate of $460USD. From March 17 2016, tickets will be charged at the full rate of $500USD. Visit www.usclinicalresearcher.com for more information and contact Helen Palmer-Wickens at helen.palmerwickens@pharmatimes.com to book your tickets. The prestigious annual Clinical Researcher of the Year The Americas competition, organised by PharmaTimes Media, is judged by an independent steering committee of high-level industry leaders, benchmarking entrants skills against those of their peers in a learning environment. Comprising both a practical, educational Finals Day and an evening gala dinner awards presentation, the competition celebrates the top clinical researchers in the Americas today. Entrants will be informed whether they have made it through to the Finals the week beginning March 7 2016. For the first time, the Clinical Researcher of the Year The Americas competition will take place in association with the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) 2016 Meeting & Expo. Taking place in Atlanta, Georgia, from April 16-19 2016, the ACRP 2016 Meeting & Expo is uniquely focused on supporting clinical trials training and development through education, exchange, and peer-to-peer engagement. The conference provides clinical research professionals with more than 100 sessions and workshops addressing more than a dozen topics critical to the clinical research process. Visit www.acrp2016.org to register. US regulators have approved an extended-release version of Pfizers Xeljanz for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), giving patients access to the first once-daily, oral JAK inhibitor for the condition. The US Food and Drug Administration has cleared the drugs use for treatment of moderate to severe RA in patients who have had an inadequate response or intolerance to methotrexate. Xeljanz (tofacitinib) is already approved in more than 45 countries around the world for the treatment of moderate to severe RA as a second-line therapy after failure of one or more disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. The introduction of the first and only once-daily oral JAK inhibitor for the condition gives patients a new treatment option and builds upon Pfizers tradition of developing patient-centered therapies, said Michael Corbo, category development lead, Inflammation & Immunology, Pfizer Global Innovative Pharmaceuticals Business. Opinion / Columnist The claim by the leader of the newly formed Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) party, Dr Joyce Mujuru, the former Vice President of Zimbabwe that her husband, General Solomon Mujuru was shot before being burnt is just a political smokescreen meant to make her get sympathy from the electorate.It is surprising that the learned Mujuru wants the public to sympathise with her through malicious and unsubstantiated claims when she failed to act and reveal the said truth when she was in government and power to do so. Her claim that General Mujuru was killed by some "people in power" is so strange now as she failed to name them when the inquest on the death of General Mujuru was being carried out. Dr Mujuru's claim that her husband was killed before he was burnt by the fire shows that she is desperate for support, hence trying to seek support using unsupported allegations.Dr Mujuru should be aware that no aorta of false claim would bring her support from the electorate as people are aware that Mujuru's actions are devoid of anything genuine claims. Mujuru was in government for more than three decades and she knows quite well the operations of all government departments. She is quite aware of how grievance and procedure actions are carried out in all government departments.If Mujuru is close to reality on what she is claiming today, she could have consulted with the relevant government departments in trying to unearth the reality surrounding the death of her former husband General Solomon Mujuru. For Mujuru to come out now claiming that the General was shot dead before he was burnt by the fire shows how desperate she is in trying to use the dead to get sympathy from the living.Actually Dr Mujuru has realised that using the dead to hunt for supporters is a good way as the people tend to have soft spot with such moves. Recently she addressed some ZPF Matabeleland leadership in Harare in which she told them that the issue of Gukurahundi cannot be closed if the reality concerning that unfortunate era is not opened. Dr Mujuru knows quite well that she has no clear policies that could be of help to the electorate unless the issue of those who dead controversially is revisited.Addressing some alleged PF leadership from Matabeleland North in Harare recently, the PF party leader Joyce Mujuru told them that the Gukurahundi victims should be compensated and those who lost their parents should be assisted to get the identification documents. Mujuru sought again to put herself in a good standing to the Matabeleland regions by going against President Mugabe's assertion in 1999 that the Gukurahundi era was "a moment of madness", saying that it was wrong to refer that period as such. Mujuru wanted to appear good to her Matabeleland North audience by disowning what she also supported during her time in government that the time of Gukurahundi was "a moment of madness" as espoused by President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.That act of disowning what she used to believe in and acted upon has become Dr Mujuru's trump card of seeking political friends through such shenanigans. Mujuru knows quite well what took place during the Gukurahundi era and with her position in government she could have done something to show that she had heart on what was taking place. He silence over the whole issue shows that she was in support of everything that was taking place,In fact Mujuru needs to realise that the issue of Gukurahundi is something which cannot bring her votes as she failed to denounce that when she was still in government. It is an open secret that Mujuru has no people at heart because she failed to act with sympathy to those who were in need of help when that was necessary for her to assist.Actually those who suffered a lot during that time with a lot of people losing their lives know quite well that everything happened under Joyce Mujuru's watchful eye as her fallen husband General Solomon Mujuru was the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. If Mujuru is genuine with what she wants people to believe today that she has heart and feeling sorry for what happened during that time, she could have told her then influential husband General Mujuru to stop that brutality against the innocent individuals. Instead she saw nothing wrong about that because she enjoyed that era as if she was watching a horrific movie on her flat TV screen.Dr Mujuru's silence over what happened during the Gukurahundi era is now synonymous with her silence over revealing those whom she now claims that they were behind the unfortunate death of her former husband General Mujuru. Why did she kept quiet for a long time only to say it now just because she was dismissed from both government and ZANU PF? Does she mean that her comfort zone in government was better than her instinct in revealing the truth about the death of her former husband? This shows how unorganised the ZPF leader is all about. He failure to reveal the truth when it was necessary on to say it later shows that even if she is elected to be the Zimbabwean leader she would cover a lot of important things as long they keep her enjoying her comfortable zone.While it is wrong for this writer to dwell more on hearsay, but Dr Mujuru's silence over the death of her husband in which today she is alleging that top government people could be behind the General's death cements the rumour that she was behind her husband's death. Some school of thought are alleging that Dr Mujuru was no longer comfortable to be associated with being called the General's wife since they were divorced hence the move sought to eliminate him so that she was to move freely with no strings attached to herThe fact that now she is alleging that those in power know everything about the death of the most decorated General in the country point to the fact that she was also part to that exercise since she was also part and parcel of those who were also in power. So she must not hide behind the finger and want to confuse the nation over that unfortunate death of the General but she should tell the nation the whole thing and be strong enough to confess the reality. Cheap politicking has no room in this modern day Zimbabwe. Opinion / Columnist Is Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) maintaining order or creating disorder on motorists in the Harare Central Business District (CBD)? The anarchy ruling in the capital city is so amazing that pedestrians' lives are put under siege by speeding motorists that are always in a cat-rat chase relationship. This has become a regular routine in the city. Is this the final death knell on the compliance of the capital city's by-laws? Is ZRP failing or capitalizing on this inundating matter?Motorists informally referred to as 'Mushika-shika' pirating the short distances in the city, especially, Market Square - Fourth Street/Copa Cabana, City - Avondale are the most hardcore nuisance. They know no law at all. Police are always fighting them on a daily basis with no significant success. Does this indicate failure by the ZRP to police the area competently? Or they are deriving covert benefit out of this anarchy, or they are fighting symptoms instead of addressing the causes.The Mushika-shika Operators are fond of lawlessness as they are in constant chase by the police for violating a vast array of traffic by-laws. When put under pressure by the police, they scary off in all directions at thunder lightening speeds thereby endangering the lives of ordinary citizens, especially pedestrians and other motorists. Numerous tragic incidents are on record for fatalities caused by these rowdy transport operators.For how long can the nation afford to condone such recklessness in the capital city? What are working strategic solutions that can be done in our city in order to eradicate forever this anarchy?While the Mushika-shika Operators are wrong, the ZRP also owes the public an explanation why they cannot restore permanent law, order and peace in this crime stricken sector.ZRP is urged never to engage into high speed chase of motorists in this densely populated city centre as this risks possible crucification of innocent residents like what has been witnessed before. What is the purpose of using number plates if the police cannot utilize them to curb traffic crimes?ZRP is challenged to act now to rescue this desperate situation which is threatening to deprive the capital city of its orderliness. And the city authorities equally share the same blame leveled against the police on city traffic for failing to create a conducive environment for motorists in the capital city where they concentrate on harassing motorists, rather than finding lasting solutions that appease the residents' expectations. Opinion / Columnist On 4 February 2016, at a hastily organized rally for the First Lady, Amai Grace Mugabe, in Mashonaland Central Province, at Kanyemba Secondary School to be precise, Vice President, Phelekezela Mphoko, made bizarre, reckless and dire-tribe remarks that surprised many in the nation. The remarks, coming barely 36 hours after another wayward member of the discredited and cantankerous G-40 grouping, Sarah Mahoka, had made unprovoked, unprecedented and shameless public ridicule of the nation's Vice President, Emmerson Mnangagwa in the presence of President Mugabe, left Zimbabweans wondering whether the wheels of discipline in the ZANU PF Party machinery had finally come off.In typical Mphoko trade mark where talking takes precedence to thinking, the Vice President wasted no time when he took to the podium. He told all and sundry, that President Mugabe would not be succeeded by a Karanga. This was a shocking remark but a revealing one though. Mphoko went further to reassure a rather lethargic crowed; that they should go to sleep peacefully knowing full well that the notion of a Karanga take over after President Mugabe was a far-fetched dream that was not realisable. If anyone had any lingering doubts about what Mphoko meant by his vaguely presented address, the vagueness cleared off when he, together with his close associates, which included the First Lady, Grace Mugabe, Saviour Kasukuwere, Jonathan Moyo, Sarah Mahoka and Patrich Zhuwao took to the floor, dancing to the 'Zezurus are unconquerable' lyrics that was being played. The prevailing atmosphere at the rally clearly pointed to the reaffirmation of what Mphoko had underscored in his address. It was like celebrating ethnic tensions.While one understands the shameless and unrestrained emotional outburst directed at V.P. Mnangagwa by that political neurotic, the primary school drop -out called Mahoka, whose wayward behaviour, typifies that of yesteryear's she-been queens, notorious for picking quarrels with opponents in public, it is difficult to understand V.P. Mphoko's mental balance when he makes such outrageous and senseless remarks particularly in the full knowledge that one of the contestants in the Presidential succession race is a Karanga.While Mphoko was undoubtedly singing for his supper, he also confirmed what we had long suspected, that he was indeed a stranger to the history of ethnic conflicts that has ravaged many nations particularly in Africa. He has no appreciation whatsoever, of the devastating effects of civil wars in Nigeria, Rwanda, Burundi, D.R.C and Southern Sudan to name just but a few. It is unfortunate; that a whole Vice President of a nation, a senior government official who is supposed to lead by example, displays such brazen levels of ignorance, to fundamental issues such as tribal conflicts, particularly so, when Africa is littered with skulls of men, women and children whose lives were prematurely terminated on account of civil wars caused by reckless leaders like Mphoko. We must, without any further delay, remind this man about the dangers of playing ethnic politics, particularly at this juncture when ZANU PF, the governing political party in the nation, is literally burning.Nature has it that any human being has the potential to start a war, which by its very nature, is blind and will consume anything that stands in its way.Mphoko, who is behaving like an agent of doom and despair, must be stopped now or he will plunge this nation into a civil war. Opinion / Columnist Robert Mugabe: The Thing and its Doubles The Making of the Leviathan The Art of Deconstructing a Killing Machine Dinizulu Mbikokayise Macaphulana is a Pretoria based Zimbabwean Political Scientist and Semiotician: dinizulumacaphulana@yahoo.com At this late hour in the long day of Zimbabwean politics; the true Robert Mugabe is standing up to be seen. So many who are close to him; and have been for decades; are getting to know the man from his many shadows. Robert Mugabe "the thing in itself for itself" is out to play and politically in Zimbabwe the proverbial chips are down. In the exposition of this article everything that Robert Mugabe is presently doing in Zimbabwe, and what is happening to him, should not have been such a surprise if we kept our eyes on the real Robert Mugabe and not the many things and shadows of himself that he has, over many years, scattered around to fool and confuse even the circumcised. As early as 1995, when some sceptics and critics mooted the importance of him considering retirement, Robert Mugabe warned that he will leave power only in "the Mugabe way." We concentrated on the school bully arrogance of the statement and forgot to probe the deeper nuances of the phrase, and today we are face to face with the "Mugabe way." And even those among us who have eaten with lions and laughed with snakes are shivering at the immense cruelty of the "way" Robert Mugabe discharges his Mugabeism. There is no myth or enigma to what Robert Mugabe has become, never mind the fictions and artefacts of himself that he has circulated to throw attention away from his vulnerable self, the man is a fragile monster created by a clique in the ZANLA military outfit of the liberation struggle. The Leviathan has grown full circle, swallowing its way up, and is now prepared to swallow ZANLA itself symbolically and, if it needs be, physically. As I write this article, Robert Mugabe is about to show the world that the war veterans that produced him and that he turned into a political militia can be crushed to fine dust as part of the Robert Mugabe "way" of dealing with adversity and managing his tricky exit from active politics, by retirement or natural incapacitation.In describing what he called "the thing in itself for itself" Hegel meant the ability of human beings and other things to be everything except what they seem to be. Judging by the many descriptions that Robert Mugabe has received from different writers and observers from different vantage points one would conclude that there are many Mugabes or that the real Robert Mugabe remains unknowable. Edgar Tekere describes Robert Mugabe as an ambitious but reluctant politician who keeps bleeding grudges, is naturally angry, and does not hesitate to crush even those who elevated him to power with merciless brutality. Geoff Hill describes Robert Mugabe as having had a Jesuit upbringing from the Catholic Mission run by Father O' Hea in Kutama, even as a Catholic youth Robert Mugabe kept to himself and appeared to everyone as someone who was about himself from start to finish.Robert Mugabe grew up as a bitter and an angry youth who looked up to his mother. At his old age presently, the mother's boy has found another mother figure to look up to, his wife Grace Mugabe. Psychologically, when Robert Mugabe seeks a good leader he imagines a dear mother rather than a strong father that he never had. The anger that Robert Mugabe has bottled up within himself is projected in what Heidi Holland describes as scary paranoia and fear that people around him are all out to get him and therefore he should get them first. This anger also drove Robert Mugabe to build a leadership style that makes him a feared rather than loved Machiavellian prince. Fear, in the observation of Peter Godwin, is what the angry Robert Mugabe uses to control the party faithful hence the many pictures where many war types are seen kneeling and shivering before him.The portrait of Robert Mugabe as a "perpetually terrified man" was also pressed home by Enos Nkala who described Mugabe as a dangerous coward who expects those close to him to dramatize their loyalty to him. It is cowardice and fear that led Robert Mugabe to build around him what Paul Moorcraft has called "a war machine" made out of spies, mafia types and other dangerous people with spectacular covert abilities.Martin Meredith draws a picture of a deceptive Robert Mugabe who on the outside projects civility and polish while concealing a crude and unfinished individual within. Robert Mugabe is a sophisticated evil genius who is not corrupted by power but who tends to corrupt whatever power he holds. Easily, Christopher Hope finds Robert Mugabe comparable to venal tyrants of the world such as Milosevic Slobodan, Hendrik Verwoerd and Ian Smith himself.In a strong way, Robert Mugabe is all the above and more. As a freedom fighter and politician but one who tends to attack the same freedom he fought for, Robert Mugabe belongs to a class of dangerous people that Plato described as those "who may love humanity but hate human beings." This kind of people passionately speak for freedom and justice, and are willing to die for these ideals, but do not hesitate to practice injustice and to limit the freedom of others.Growing up full of anger as he did, Robert Mugabe wa a typical Mama's Baby, a fragile Sissy who never threw blows or wrestled with other boys. The nearest he came close to combat was in ranting and cursing, throwing bitter invectives at his adversaries. As he grew older the anger turned to bitter hatred that desperately needed venting out. He largely kept his own company and buried himself in books. From books he amassed phrases and aphorisms, and built an impressive archive of quotes that made him a magical orator, but sadly not a polished thinker.Robert Mugabe entered politics as a fire eating orator and some kind of an intellectual. He had a compelling and bewitching manner of putting arguments across and he electrified his audiences with his passion, and anger. The men of action, guerillas such as Rex Nhongo and Josiah Tongoogara needed such a person in the political wing of ZANU-PF. These guerillas were men of hardihood who believed in expiring even their own comrades in arms in the name of the struggle. Masiphula Sithole did a good job chronicling the "struggles within the struggle" where guerillas literally conspired against and finished each other off in the most brutal of manners. For a leader, these dangerous men found an angry and eloquent Robert Mugabe, literally exploding with bottled hatred and rage from childhood. It was a recipe for historical disaster. The fragile Mama's Baby had found some hard boys from the bush to whom human life was not more than that of a chicken. The sissy had found a "war machine" and was going to use it. Rex Nhongo first and Josiah Tongoogara next were influential in replacing Ndabaningi Sithole with Robert Mugabe in 1974. Robert Mugabe struggled to get acceptance from such African leaders as Samora Machel, Kenneth Kaunda and even Julius Nyerere who later became his fanatic backer. Amongst the politicians, Edgar Tekere was also key in getting Robert Mugabe accepted as a leader, even Joshua Nkomo who became a bitter enemy to be destroyed worked overtime getting Robert Mugabe accepted as a leader of ZANU-PF. At the risk of diminishing liberation fighters, the guerillas in their nobility were mostly men of action and spent less time in the habit of thinking, relegating all that to Robert Mugabe who became a god and was relied upon for ideas.Sadly, Robert Mugabe, unlike Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere and even Jomo Kenyatta was never really an intellectual in the true sense of the word. He never competently traded in the intellectual habits of generating and polishing ideas. Robert Mugabe was trained as an academic in the cold sense of the word, those fellows who dutifully collected and passed on the received colonial ideas from the mission school without rigorous interpretation and domestication. These are the fellows who were trained to be accessories and functionaries of the colonial machinery. It is for that reason that for all his storied learning, Robert Mugabe does not have any writings or archive of thoughts that can be called a philosophy, or Mugabeism. There is a collection of invectives and rantings such as "so Blair keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe." These rantings excite soldiers and other securocrats and do not motivate any sober intellection. In the description of Socrates, Robert Mugabe would be a good sophist, those poetic guys who say what the audience will enjoy but go on to do what is in their agenda even if it is evil. A sophist is unlike the philosopher who values ethics, truth and justice, he is an opportunist who utters words for their sound and not sense, rhythm and rhyme and no reason at all.So dear readers, Zimbabwe became godless when an angry sissy and a sophist found a killing machine under his charge and spell. From the Rhodesian regime he selectively inherited more monsters like General George Peter Halls, Ken Flower, Colonel Lionel Dyke and other dangerous military and intelligence types. Robert Mugabe was not interested in inheriting experienced engineers, scholars, economists or any technocrats, he wanted killers. In this way Robert Mugabe became, simply, another Ian Smith. Margaret Dongo sounded very rude when she said Robert Mugabe cannot fire a pistol but in justice the man cannot even throw a neat blow, but he has over years become a Leviathan, a crocodile that boasts a massive infrastructure of violence, overt and mainly covert.As a good sophist who loves himself and his family, and who hates and fears even his friends Robert Mugabe at his late age is back at work. He is a dangerous and angry man who fears himself and what he has built. Since 1996, the CIO that used to be known as a dangerous secret force of assassins with dark glassed was beefed up with spooks and a sophisticated crop of intellectuals and strategists who plan the drama of Zimbabwean politics the way movie writers craft their scripts. These spooks are well paid and motivated technocrats some of them, and they keep Robert Mugabe informed and in charge. These are the guys who built a ten headed monster called Baba Jukwa that was able to destroy itself when its job was done.Using this intelligence machinery, Robert Mugabe is successfully managing and manipulating his succession. Largely, for the security and happiness of his children when he is gone Robert Mugabe is using his spooks to destroy the war machine that he built over years. Trusted and also feared and hated organs of the war machine are being crushed to dust. Knowing them well, having been part of his monstrous infrastructure of violence and systematic distribution of pain and suffering, Robert Mugabe may not leave people like Emmerson Mnangagwa with power, and alive. If they don't die physically they have to be killed symbolically and castrated beyond any measure. The Godfather, even if he is a sissy one, has to urgently blunt his boys.To think of Robert Mugabe now one has to imagine the old village wizard who before he dies he destroys his tikoloshes and goblins so that his children may remain in peace. The poor war veterans don't understand what is happening to them with all the beatings and gassing but the sissy and the sophist is only angrily destroying what he built. The person who will succeed Robert Mugabe will not be another Mugabe with all the power and instruments of violence. Many people who thought they knew Mugabe, who are close to him and thought they were loved and trusted by him are wondering what happened to their man. Nothing happened; the man is being himself, "the thing in itself for itself." Robert Mugabe is way too angry and jealousy to create another Mugabe, a Leviathan. Sydney Sekeramayi, Robert Mugabe's personal choice, if he is not eclipsed by Dr Amai who trusts no one but herself, will have enough power to crush some small enemies but not enough to be another Robert Mugabe. It is for that reason that the political opposition in Zimbabwe should take advantage of the fact that Robert Mugabe is eroding his own power and that of ZANU-PF to unite and come up with a political force that will be able to share power in Zimbabwe if not totally seize it. Opinion / Columnist Mthwakazi Republic Party is reliably informed that, there is a lot of corruption taking place at Beitbridge Border Post. ZIMRA Officials working with ZRP, Private Security guards, Touts and the Immigration Officials are fleecing our people their hard earned money.We are also informed that VID is also involved in the corruption schemes at the Border Post as well as along the road from the Post to Bulawayo.Our members who are involved in Cross border transport business are complaining that these culprits are taking away a lot of money forcing them out of business. We are reliably informed that traders are forced to carry between R5 000-00 to R10 000-00 for bribes at the Post and for toll gates from SA to Bulawayo. These amounts exclude salaries for their workers, duty fees and many other expenses that they incur to get by and make a living.This is the breakdown of the bribe charges at the border post for cross border transport operators. As soon as transporters enter the Zimbabwean side from South Africa, they are required to buy:1. what is called Manifesto from touts around the Border for R20-002. Pay R100 to private security guards employed at the Border for them to open the bay for one's vehicle to enter the Post so that you are searched.3. Paying touts for CIDs a minimum of R1000-00 so that they facilitate one's vehicle to be searched by ZIMRA failure of which one can spend the whole day without being attended to.4. A few meters from the searching bay there are CID officials who demand R300-00 from every car that passes them failure of which one is told to off load one's trailer. After that one is required by law to go to the CID office at the Border where one is required to produce all the papers of one's vehicle, so they check whether one's vehicle is a stolen one or not. If one's papers are in order one is instructed to see private security guards outside before the signing of any paperwork.The private security guards then demand for a payment of R50-00 before a code is given and being asked to go back to the office to collect papers. The reason why people are asked to go outside the offices is primarily to avoid bribes being exchanged in the offices as offices have cameras. The code given by guards is confirmation of payment of a bribe.Before one reaches the last gate to come out of the Border there are ZIMRA officials who demand a payment of R1000 for a pass called a Gate Pass, failure of which there is a threat to offload one's trailer again.At the last gate the VID await to charge $50-00 bribe to avoid being taken to a VID depot, where usually one required to pay more.The Immigration officials who work with the police demand R300-00 bribe from every one without a passport. A hundred meters from the Border post gate there is a ZR Police traffic road block where one is required to pay a R100-00 bribe failure of which one risks being issued with many unreasonable fine tickets as punishment for failure or refusal to pay a bribe.From Beitbridge Border Post to Bulawayo it's about 320 kilometers, and it's supposed to be a four hour long journey. Omalayistha end up spending between 12 to 13 hours because of roadblocks.There is a minimum of 13 road blocks on that road including Gwanda and Bulawayo VID inspectors.At every road block one is required to pay a bribe of a minimum of R50-00 and VID charge exorbitant bribes of between $20-00 and $50-00 or else one's vehicle will be required to go to the depot or be impounded.Lastly but not least as MRP we are worried and we view this as the implementation of the ZANU PF Satanic 1979 Grand Plan making sure that there is no one from Mthwakazi who must prosper.All the said corrupt people manning these important public offices are all Shona and they do these corrupt activities against Mthwakazi people. We therefore encourage all Omalayistha owners, drivers and everyone concerned to demonstrate against this corruption and resist wicked, oppressive and exploitative system.The minister responsible of ZIMRA must make take urgent action to investigate this corruption and root it out.The ZRP Police based at the nearby police station are also accused of coming to Border when they are off duty to help ZIMRA officials in the self-enriching corrupt schemes.FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE IN OUR LIFE TIMEMbonisi Gumbo MRP Secretary For Information and PublicityContact us on: mrpselfdetermination@gmail.com Technology / Science by Tech Reporter NASA has revealed that a massive meteor crashed into the Atlantic ocean earlier this month with the force equivalent to an atomic bomb. However nobody had a clue that it had happened.Despite having the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb (around 13,000 tons of TNT), this particular fireball was actually pretty small, exploding over the South Atlantic ocean on February 6.Travelling at anywhere over 33,000mph these objects will superheat, compress and then 'vaporise' many kilometres above the Earth's surface.It's this process which causes the huge release of energy and in the case of Chelyabinsk, caused almost a city's worth of windows to shatter, injuring thousands in the process.As astronomy blogger Phil Plait points out this occurrence, while dramatic, is actually not that uncommon."Impacts like this happen several times per year on average, with most going unseen."So why hasn't a city or populated area been hit by a meteor yet? Well Plait has a beautifully simple answer:"The Earth is mostly water, and even where there's land, it's sparsely populated overall."Despite worries of population overcrowding, the human race is not as big a target for potentially devastating meteors as we'd like to think.That said, NASA still runs the Near Earth Object Program, an initiative which tracks thousands of objects which could potentially collide with Earth over the next 100 years. MEDIA QUESTIONNAIRE Name of Publication Established (Give exact date) ADDRESS TELEPHONE FAX NO NAME OF EDITOR Name of Printer Language Frequency Please attach a copy of declaration certificate Off Days Please specify whether morning, evening or state the date of issue Date on which the first issue was brought out Any special edition Price per copy Annual subscription Editorial Objectives and policy Appeal to any special community, class or section News services subscribed to Special regular features (i.e Womens or Children page etc) & when appearing Steve Domahidy Details: Triple butted 3/2.5 alloy titanium hardtail frame (Sm. Med. Lg.) 27.5+ (3 tire clearance) or 29 wheel compatible Pinion P1.12, twelve-speed gearbox Comes with Gates belt drive and front and rear Gates cogs 120-140mm fork compatible 30.9mm internal dropper post routing. 148mm Boost rear-hub spacing 4.25 lbs. for medium frame (no gearbox) $4,999 frame and drivetrain kit Contact: Geometry updated to reflect 140mm fork Triple butted 3/2.5 alloy titanium hardtail frame (Sm. Med. Lg.) 27.5+ (3 tire clearance) or 29 wheel compatible Pinion P1.12, twelve-speed gearbox Comes with Gates belt drive and front and rear Gates cogs 120-140mm fork compatible 30.9mm internal dropper post routing. 148mm Boost rear-hub spacing 4.25 lbs. for medium frame (no gearbox) $4,999 frame and drivetrain kit Contact: Domahidy Designs About the Titanium All-Mountain Pinion Hardtail This is what you get for $4999 (rear hub not included) The Gates Carbon Drive system is a proven winner. Pinion's 12-speed gearbox runs 6,000 miles between services. Ready to Ditch the Derailleur? The DD Titanium AM Pinion hardtail's asking price is steep, but once you get over the sticker shock and start adding up the prices of the Pinion gearbox, Carbon Drive, and then subtract the cost of a conventional drivetrain and crankset, it starts to look more realistic. Throw in that free thousand-dollar Industry Nine wheelset and the pie gets even sweeter. If you are gearbox curious, Steve Domahidy's new all-mountain hardtail may be the gateway drug you have been waiting for. For more information, contact the The DD Titanium AM Pinion hardtail's asking price is steep, but once you get over the sticker shock and start adding up the prices of the Pinion gearbox, Carbon Drive, and then subtract the cost of a conventional drivetrain and crankset, it starts to look more realistic. Throw in that free thousand-dollar Industry Nine wheelset and the pie gets even sweeter. If you are gearbox curious, Steve Domahidy's new all-mountain hardtail may be the gateway drug you have been waiting for. For more information, contact the Domahidy Designs website or on-line store. Pre-orders qualify for a free Industry Nine wheelset. isn't afraid to stick his neck out when it comes to mountain bike design. He and Chris Sugai co-founded Niner Bikes when the 29er was either off the radar or a swear word among rank and file riders. Domahidy struck out on his own a number of years ago and has been involved behind the scenes as a designer and consultant for other brands and more recently, has launched a modest range of road and mountain frames under the "Domahidy Designs" label.His latest brainchild, the Domahidy Designs Titanium All-Mountain Pinion Hardtail, is intended to fill the role of a very capable and durable fun bike that should require little or no maintenance, even for those who live and ride in the UK. Domahidy sells it as a frame kit that includes a triple butted 3/2.5 titanium frame, a 12-speed Pinion gearbox, and a Gates Carbon Drive toothed belt with drive sprockets for $4995 USD. Customers who pre-order the kit will receive as a thank you, an Industry Nine Back Country 27.5+ or 29 wheelset worth $1000 USD. Delivery is slated for mid-summer according to Domahidy and company.Domahidy Designs hails from Colorado, USA, where the bikes are developed and tested. The Titanium All Mountain Pinion frames are produced in small quantities from triple butted 3/2.5 titanium in Taiwan. According to Steve, the geometry is on the conservative side of modern, with a relatively slack, 68-degree head angle (67 with a 140mm fork) - and with oversized tubes and beefy construction intended to take a beating in the hands of seasoned technical riders. The frame is designed to accept 148mm Boost rear hubs, and either conventional 29er wheels or 27.5-plus wheels with tires up to three inches wide. Internal dropper post routing is included. Adjustable rear dropouts allow the belt drive to be properly tensioned and also provides the option for a different final-drive gear. Sizes are small, medium and large. Weight for the medium sized frame, sans-gearbox, is pegged at 4.25 pounds (1.93kg).A machined-titanium mounting interface replaces the threaded bottom bracket you'd find on a conventional frame, and it bolts directly to the twelve-speed P1.12 Pinion gearbox, which includes the crank arms and a Gates cog-belt "chainring." Domahidy says that the gearbox adds 1.75 pounds (.77kg) to the equivalent weight of a SRAM 1 x 11 derailleur drivetrain. Pinion's claim is that the 12-speed gearbox has more evenly spaced selections with a wider range than SRAM's one-by-eleven can attain (even the 12-speed that is rumored to be in development).Those unfamiliar with the Gates Carbon Drive will be happy to know that the 11-millimeter-pitch cog-belt does not stretch and needs no lubrication and, reportedly, its efficiency matches that of a roller chain in real world conditions. Single-speed riders who run the Gates drive report that it is whisper quiet and incredibly long lasting. Domahidy uses it because it remains efficient in dusty or wet conditions that would put a roller chain in the hurt locker. His motto for the new bike is: "Ride, rinse and repeat." From Our Firehouse to Yours COOKS - It is sort of strange how things get started, some projects take a lot of time and thought, others are off the cuff ideas. In the case of... Seul Choix Haunted GULLIVER - The big fundraiser for the Gulliver Historical Society, Haunted Lighthouse is coming this weekend to a real haunted Lighthouse located in Gulliver, Mich. Seul Choix Pointe Lighthouse is... Next on the To-Do List: Ikigai Many moons ago, I worked as a career counselor, first for a college and then for a nonprofit in a... Voters need a third option at the polls I ran for a public office a few years ago. After winning a battle with Genesee County Parks the NRA... Wendy Wolcott best choice for Mott College We have a very special candidate running for Mott Community College Board of Trustees in Wendy Wolcott. Mrs. Wolcott is... Smith and Goyette are not fine men I am responding to Tamara Carlones editorial regarding Davison School Board members Matthew Smith and Nicholas Goyette. I disagree with... Daytime highs at the Baikonur Cosmodrome have been hovering in the fifty-degrees-Fahrenheit range. For Kelly and Kornienko, it should be refreshing, but there won't be much time to relax. "Right after we get out of the Soyuz, they'll put us in the chairs that people often see sitting nearby the spacecraft," Kelly told The Planetary Society during Thursday's press briefing. "And then from there, we go into this medical tent. Once we're inside the medical tent, we're given a little bit of time to adjust. But then we go through about an hour of what's called the field test, that is various different types of experiments." The idea of the field test is to see how well astronauts landing on a planetary surface like Mars can functionwithout assistanceafter a year of weightlessness. Or, as NASA puts it: When you land, can you stand? "Some [tests] are physical, kind of like an obstacle course, where you run around obstacles and stand up from a sitting position, and jump and stand," Kelly said. "It looks at our ability to adjust to those different positions. So it's pretty extensive stuff that we do pretty soon after we get back." The experiments won't stop there. For the next year, scientists will continue collecting samples of blood, urine and saliva from the two crew members as they re-acclimate to gravity. The resulting science wont come quickly. NASA cautions it could be anywhere from six months to six years before the public sees published results from the one-year mission. Not all of Kelly and Kornienko's in-space bodily samples are even back on the ground yet. Some remain stored inside station freezers, awaiting a SpaceX Dragon capsule to bring them home. Out and About Audio Article Atascosa County Anti-Bullying Rally Oct. 19 Poteet Strawberry Festival grounds, main pavilion, 6-8 p.m. Guest speaker Batman & Co. and... JISD Supt. McAllister announces retirement Audio Article The retirement of Jourdanton ISD Superintendent Theresa McAllister was announced at the meeting of the school board held on Oct.... Devin Verstraelen Wins Winter Super Stack Main Event; Mike Smith Takes High Roller February 24, 2016 Lyle Bateman Contributor The annual Deerfoot Inn & Casino Winter Super Stack series has come to a close for another year. The final weekend featured the two marquee events of the series: the C$1,500 Main Event and the C$5,000 High Roller. In a series that was already huge, the three-day Main Event set a record for the most registrations ever in a Main Event at Deerfoot, soaring past the 300 mark to a total of 305 entries. That topped out the prize pool at over C$405,000 which not only crushed the Main Event guarantee of C$200,000 but went on to more than cover the full series guarantee of C$330,000. With three Day 1 starting flights, the Main Event started off modestly on Friday with Day 1a. By the time registration closed after the dinner break, 62 players had entered. Each Day 1 played a total of 10 one-hour levels and, by the time the first group was finished, just 15 players remained with chips. Phil Sousa and Thomas Taylor led the way as the only stacks over 200,000, but other notables to finish the day with chips included Bo Fric, Kris Steinbach, Scott McMorran, Steve Worr, Devin Verstraelen, and Jordan Cossette. Day 1b was nearly twice the size of the first day, with 116 players getting their cash to the cage before the end of dinner. Thirty-nine players managed to complete the 10-level day. Chad Winnick sat atop the chip counts with 212,800 and the only player on Day 1b to crack 200,000. Other notables to get through Day 1b were Chris Bowers, Sal Haji, Ryan Smith, Mike Smith, Sheraz Nasir, Giulio Rosati, and James Sikora. The third Day 1 flight was the biggest, topping out at 127 entries. Even with the extra field size over Day 1b, the same number of players, 39, remained at the end of 10 levels of play on Day 1c. Sol Begren was the player with the most chips at the end of the day with a stack of 275,000. Among those joining Bergren on Day 2 were his brother Robin Bergren as well as Dustin Centanni, Dilovan Hussein, Cindy Kerslake, and Shaun Hegarty. Day 2 kicked off with 93 players all eager for a piece of the prize pool that topped C$400,000. The money was split 31 ways with C$92,000 posted as the first-place prize. Only a third of the players returning would share in that money, however, so most who came back for the start of Day 2 still went away empty-handed. Players battled through the early levels, whittling down the field, but the money bubble didn't burst until after the dinner break. In dramatic hand-for-hand action at the end of Level 17, Taylor was eliminated on the bubble in a three-way pot while tournament short stack Kory Stephenson survived with a triple-up on another table. The plan for Day 2 was to decide on the final table, to be played out on Day 3. After nearly 15 grueling hours at the tables, the field was finally down to just nine players remaining. Some of those falling along the way to that final table included Centanni (22nd C$4,100), Steinbach (14th C$5,300), Smith (13th C$5,700), Haji (11th C$7,100), and the final-table bubble, Ravi Bedi, who collected C$8,150 for 10th place. Leading the way onto the final table was a familiar face on the Calgary poker scene. With over C$250,000 in career tournament earnings, much of it on Calgary poker tables, it wasn't much of a surprise to find Fric at the top of the chip counts for the final day. Cindy Kerslake finished Day 2 in second spot the only other player over 1,500,000 chips. With over C$150,000 in career earnings, Kerslake was a serious threat with a big stack. In addition to Fric and Kerslake, the final table included Sikora and Verstraelen, both of whom were very short-stacked, as well as Irish import Shaun Hegarty. It came down to Hegarty and final table short stack Verstraelen heads-up for the title. After players made a deal three-handed, Fric finished in third for C$56,510. Hegarty, who showed quiet dominance at the table all through the tournament, and Verstraelen, who nursed the smallest stack at the start of the final table into a shot at the title, battled for about half an hour before Verstraelen cracked the Irishman's aces in a huge hand that decided the tournament. With only two wins under his belt in smaller Alberta events, Verstraelen still managed to amass well over C$150,000 in lifetime earnings. As per the deal arranged, Hegarty's second-place finish was worth a total of C$64,192 while Verstraelen pocketed C$71,798 for the win, bringing his lifetime earnings over C$200,000, and giving him his first win in a major Main Event. Winter Super Stack C$1,500 Main Event Final Table Results Finish Player Prize 1 Devin Verstraelen C$71,798 2 Shaun Hegarty C$64,192 3 Bo Fric C$56,510 4 Dilovan Hussein C$32,500 5 Rick Mask C$24,300 6 Brian Lee C$18,500 7 Giulio Rosati C$14,200 8 Cindy Kerslake C$11,200 9 James Sikora C$9,500 Mike Smith Takes Down First C$5,000 High Roller As the early levels of Day 2 of the Main Event were well underway and the start time for the unprecedented C$5,000 High Roller approached, the buzz around the poker room was whether the event would even run. Several players expressing interest were still playing in the Main Event, but firm commitments from payers to sit down at a table were initially hard to come by. With just a couple of confirmed players when the start time arrived, the tournament clock started running, but players opted to sit out, waiting for more entries. After almost a full level of no action, play started three-handed between Allen Butkovic, Davey Singh, and Gerry "Cash" Carter. Once play began, it didn't take long to get fresh chips at the table. Before the second level was finished, John MacNaughton jumped into the action. Play continued four-handed for a couple levels, but by the time both tournaments were finished their dinner break, it was clear the High Roller would not only run, but be a decent success for such an expensive tournament. Two more entries during the dinner brought play to six-handed and another two before the end of the night brought total entries to eight by the close of play on Monday evening. Registration remained open for three levels of Day 2, and there was even more action to come to the table. Carter came into Day 2 with the chip lead, but he'd face tough competition from Mike and Ryan Smith, among four new entries to start Day 2. Mike Smith was on a points hunt after finishing 13th in the Main Event, and jumped into the High Roller in hopes of securing the High Point Champion title. Day 2 of the High Roller proceeded as the final table of the Main Event was playing down on the next table, and as players busted from there, some decided to put some of their Main Event winnings down on the high roller. Kerslake and Sikora both busted from the Main and bought right into the High Roller. By the end of the late registration, a whopping 15 entries were recorded (including two bullets fired by Umang "Ronnie" Dattani), making the first C$5,000 Alberta tournament in recent memory an unqualified success. Carter, one of the original players to sit down at the start of Day 1, finally succumbed to the younger players in fourth place, leaving Kristof Slaski, Butkovic, and Mike Smith on a huge money bubble. With third place paying nothing and second paying C$27,400, players started talking about a deal that might see some money cut out of first and second to pay third. Once the numbers were run based on stack sizes, the players were ultimately unable to reach a deal, and play continued three-handed. It would take another hour of play before players started talking deal again, and with the stacks much closer in size, it was easier to reach an agreement. Butkovic locked up the most money, securing C$23,885, while Mike Smith locked up C$19,205 and Slaski banked C$18,470. The deal left C$6,840 to play for, so players agreed to an extra C$5,000 up top, with second getting an extra C$1,840 and third going home with only the previously banked amount. After the deal was done, play proceeded quickly. Slaski was quickly the third-place finisher, and Butkovic and Smith got it in on a hand where Butkovic shoved a flopped open-ended straight draw and bricked the final two streets, sending his entire stack, the High Roller title, and the High Point Champion honours to Mike Smith's pair of kings. Winter Super Stack C$5,000 High Roller Results Finish Player Prize 1 Mike Smith C$24,205 2 Allen Butkovic C$25,725 3 Kristof Slaski C$18,470 Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+! Sharelines The Winter Super Stack came to a close with Devin Verstraelen winning the C$1,500 Main Event Trooper Werner Foerster was murdered in 1973 by black nationalists Sudiata Acoli and Assata Shakur. (Photo: NJ State Police) The New Jersey Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed a lower court decision ordering the parole of a man convicted along with longtime fugitive Joanne Chesimard in the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper. Sundiata Acoli has been serving a life sentence for his role in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that ended in the death of Trooper Werner Foerster. An appeals court in 2014 found Acoli was wrongly denied parole and ordered his release, but the state Parole Board and the Attorney General's Office petitioned the state's highest court, asking them to throw out the ruling. Their 4-1 decision means Acoli will have to appear before the Parole Board for a full hearing before he is eligible for release, NJ.com reports. Acoli, then known as Clark Edward Squire, was convicted of the murder of Foerster alongside Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, who later escaped prison and fled to Cuba, where she remains New Jersey's most wanted fugitive. Court documents show that Acoli's gun went off while he struggled with Foerster after another trooper pulled over a white Pontiac containing Chesimard, Acoli, and James Costan in the early hours of May 2, 1973. Chesimard then shot and wounded the other trooper, James Harper, before executing Foerster with his own gun. Costan, also known as Zayd Malik Shakur, was shot and killed at the scene. The three were associated with black nationalist groups including the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. Supporters of the Foerster family and the New Jersey State Police have created a Change.org petition to fight the release of Acoli in any future parole hearing. For over 25 years International Procurement Services has provided security solutions to government agencies, international companies and high net worth individuals supplying surveillance, debugging sweep team services, countermeasures and consultancy services and now, along with REI, Audiotel, Shearwater, Scanna, Flir and QCC equipment ranges, they have added ShieldSak to their product range. ShieldSak is a lightweight fabric bag that is proven to block RF, infrared, skim and quick scan signals that are capable of reading your critical information on your mobile phone or RFID chipped products. Gerry Hall, Managing Director at IPS, said, "At IPS, we tested many so called 'phone shielding devices' only to find that most failed even the most elementary tests. Apart from general uses such as boardrooms, secure business meetings etc., law enforcement agencies will appreciate the uses of this equipment in situations where immediate shielding is critical." He continues, "The ShieldSak is one of the only such devices to have been fully laboratory evaluated - a copy of which is available on request." The ShieldSak is a "Faraday Cage" made into a lightweight fabric bag which is woven from several types of metal with a Velcro closure that simply blocks all electronic signals and radio transmissions from reaching data transponders, so that any active mobile phone will completely disappear off the grid with 5-10 seconds after being sealed within a ShieldSak. It won't ring, and it can't be tracked. Additionally, any item fitted with an RFID chip, such as passports, credit cards, ID cards cannot be tracked, or remotely scanned once inside the ShieldSak. This bag was originally made exclusively for the U.S. Military and government departments and is now available for all types of mobile devices including, but not limited to: smartphones, tablets and the popular iPad. Some devices (like the iPhone) contain a tracking device that cannot be turned off; but, with the ShieldSak, they are irrelevant. About IPS For over 25 years, UK-based International Procurement Service (IPS) has been supplying the Intelligence Services, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Special Forces and Ministry of Defences of many countries with counter surveillance equipment, countermeasures training, and procedural training to governments, law enforcement agencies and sweep teams worldwide. IPS are international distributors for REI, with exclusivity for the United Kingdom. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) took to the Senate floor to blast Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans while revealing the absurdity of their argument against considering President Obamas Supreme Court nominee. Sen. Franken (D-MN) said: It is our duty to move forward. We must fulfill our constitutional obligation to ensure that the highest court in the land has a full complement of justices. Unfortunately, it would seem that some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle do not agreeand they wasted no time in making known their objections. Less than an hour after news of Justice Scalias death became public, the Majority Leader announced that the Senate would not take up the business of considering a replacement until after the presidential election. Quote, [t]he American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice, he said. The only problem with the Majority Leaders reasoning, M. PRESIDENT, is that the American people have spoken. Twice. President Barack Obama was elected and reelected by a solid majority of the American people who correctly understood that elections have consequences, not the least of which is that when a vacancy occurs, the President of United States has the constitutional responsibility to appoint a justice to the Supreme Court. The Constitution does not set a time limit on the Presidents ability to fulfill this duty. Nor, by my reading, does the Constitution set a date after which the President is no longer able to fulfill his duties as Commander in Chief, or to exercise his authority to, say, grant pardons or make treaties. It merely states that the President shall hold office for a term of four years. And by my count, there are in the neighborhood of 11 months left. If we were to truly subscribe to the Majority Leaders logic and extend it to the legislative branch, it would yield an absurd result. Senators would become ineffective in the last year of their term. The 28 senators who are now in the midst of their reelection campaigns and the 6 senators who are stepping down should be precluded from casting votes in committee or on the Senate floor. Ten committee chairs and 19 subcommittee chairs should pass the gavel to a colleague who is not currently running for reelection or preparing for retirement. Bill introduction, and indeed the cosponsorship of bills, should be limited to those senators who are not yet serving in the sixth year of their terms. If the Majority Leader sincerely believes that the only way to ensure that the voice of the American people is heard is to lop off the last year of an elected officials term, I trust he will make these changes. But I suspect he does not. Rather, it seems to me that the Majority Leader believes that the term of just one elected official in particular should be cut short. Which begs the question, M. PRESIDENT, just how short should it be cut? As I said, by my count, approximately 11 months remain in Barack Obamas presidency. 11. Now, 11 months is a considerable amount of time. Sizable. It has heft, to be sure, but I wouldnt call it vast. Then again, theres a certain arbitrariness to settling on 11 months. After all, its just shy of a full year. Perhaps, in order to simplify matters, an entire year would be preferable. Or maybe just six monthshalf a year. Its a difficult decision, M. PRESIDENT. If only the American people had a voice in selecting precisely how much time we should shave off the Presidents term. . But M. PRESIDENT, suggesting that the Senate should refuse to consider a nominee during an election year stands as a cynical affront to our constitutional systemand it misrepresents our history. The Senate has a long tradition of working to confirm Supreme Court justices in election years. One need look no further than sitting Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Supreme Court nominee appointed by a Republican President and confirmed by a Democratic Senate in 1988, President Reagans last year in office. So when I hear one of my colleagues say that, quote its been standard practice over the last 80 years to not confirm Supreme Court nominees during a presidential election year, I know thats not true. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print President Barack Obama announced Tuesday his intention to close Naval Station Guantanamo Bay military prison (Gitmo) in Cuba. The prison has served as a detention camp for terrorists since shortly after the 9/11 attack. The population has been comprised of mostly al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Gitmo is located in southeastern Cuba on the coast of, yes, Guantanamo Bay. A chronological track of Guantanamo Bay can be found here. The closure announcement marks the second attempt to shutter the facility in roughly 7 years. There was a failed January, 2009 Obama executive order with the same intent. The order was sidetracked ten months later after prisoner relocation problems and the refusal of Congress to fund it. Early indications are that in the time remaining of his lame duck administration, this closure attempt will be deja vu all over again as Marco Rubio went into hysterics upon hearing the news, and John Kasich characterized the detainees as the worst of the worst thereby relegating vicious murderers who hacked their victims to pieces after torturing and killing them, to runner-up status. Republican legislators predictably stood in line to denounce the move. Their numbers were joined by a few Democrats. The U.S. has leased the 45 acres that Gitmo stands on for about 113 years. Guantanamo Bay came into existence 4 months after 9/11. Nearly 800 terrorists have been housed at Gitmo over the years. Some 90 or so remain. There have been suicides, hunger strikes and at least one heart attack, but few charges. The president intends to ship some of the residents off to foreign prisons. Those left over would be held in assorted U.S. prisons. Named as potential detention centers were the federal facility in Leavenworth, Kansas, a Naval brig in Charleston, South Carolina and a couple of Colorado prisons and the possible revival of an old choice that well examine later. As reported, Rubio and Kasich, and other overwrought elected official types were inconsolable. Terrorists in our prisons; right here in the USA? Unthinkable! A little 20th century history music please. If the Nazi military machine wasnt a terrorist organization, I dont know what was. Our military lost, as in met with violent deaths, almost 300,000 wonderful young men and some women as well, in that action. Most were killed by the Germans. Nearly 700,000 were injured. Thats a combined million plus casualties. My dog-eared Websters describes terrorists as appalling persons or things committed to violence in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands. Pretty much covers the Nazis, wouldnt you agree? After the Nazis slaughtered our American heroes, we captured a number of those terrorists and put them in prisons. Prisons located in virtually every state in the union. A total of 425,000 German POWs occupied 700 camps in 46 states. Most were confined in barbwire spaces with a single watchtower. And we cant safely accommodate a few dozen bad guys, no matter their intentions in modern prisons with high caliber weaponry and solitary confinement cells that render an individual essentially helpless? Heres that interesting prison sidebar I wrote about earlier. It merits further scrutiny. A month before initially attempting to shutter Gitmo, Obama declared that it was the administrations intention to house around 100 detainees in a little used prison, the Thomson Correctional Center, located in an Illinois city by the same name. Congress again refused to fund the effort and it never materialized. In January of 2015, word came out that the feds had purchased this humble joint for $165 million, with every intention of turning into a high security showplace with all the latest institutional bells and whistles designed to house, as Kasich put it, The worst of the worst. Its an interesting piece of timing that this state-of-the-art, maximum security prison would spring up and be ready for the worst of the worst at the same time the closing of Gitmo was near the top of the presidents agenda. The Website, Counterpunch has been reporting that the facility has appointed a warden and will supposedly be operational sometime in 2016. The site pointed out that the Justice Department has referred to the facility as ADX USP Thomson, a designation that would suggest the highest level of security for the likes of those with terrorism convictions. A new home for a few Gitmo grads, or, come to think of it, ISIS? As usual, there appears to be a whole lot of stuff going on that were not aware of. As Alice once exclaimed, things are getting Curiouser and curiouser. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Donald Trump the self-proclaimed outsider says if nominated, he will likely choose an insider for vice president. In a Q&A at Regent University for CBN the Christian Broadcasting Network Pat Robertson at his side, he told the crowd, Were going to probably choose somebody thats somewhat political. Asked by Pat Robertson, In your selection as president, what criteria would you use to pick somebody? Trump answered, to applause, Pro-life. We want It starts with that, starts with it. A very conservative, a very, very smart, I mean like Judge (Antonin) Scalia would be a perfect He was a perfect representative. So far, so good. The Evangelical crowd heard what it wanted, and thats what CBN advertised in their coverage. Somebody who wants to protect the pre-born and let the post-born die in droves. But that wasnt the only VP question asked, and the other the one focused on by CNN in their coverage got a different answer: What are the most important qualities you are going to look for in a vice presidential candidate? Trump answered, The main quality that you want is somebody who can be a great president if something happens do you, dont you think? Thats gotta be number one. Here he looked at failed 1988 presidential candidate Robertson of all people, as if for confirmation, and as if he had any answers. So somebody who is a political insider and pro-life in other words, pretty much any Republican you care to name, whatever their outsider pretensions. Trump explained, not failing to plug himself, And then I would want somebody who can help me with government. So most likely that would be a political person, because Im business, and Im very good at what I do and all of that and Im also very, very political youve see me. When you can get zoning on the West Side of Manhattan to build almost 6,000 units of housing and you have to go through New York City politics, believe me, thats tough. Thats as tough I dont say Israel-Palestine (to chuckles from Robertson) but its about as tough a deal (to general laughter) the single toughest deal. He did show a modicum of reality when he admitted of Israel-Palestine, I view that as the single toughest deal. Were going to give it a shot A lot of good people have gone down trying to give that one a shot. What is interesting is that he thinks an insider VP will pave the way for a 100-day Trumpalooza with a magic wand: I do want somebody thats political, because I want to get lots of great legislation we all want passed. Hes going to need a wizard, not a politician. Bernie Sanders has drawn criticism because of a lack of visible support for his agenda in Congress. Trump will have the same problem, or worse. Look at Obamas problems and a much more modest agenda. Trump told Robertson that Obama wasnt able to get things done, because he couldnt work with representatives and senators. He thinks he can. In fact, as The New York Times Jennifer Steinhauer tells us this morning, the Republican race has put Trump on a collision course with Paul Ryan, who will chair the Republican national convention: As Mr. Trump inches closer to being the partys presidential nominee, Republicans fear he wont back the conservative agenda pushed by Mr. Ryan, the House speaker. Fireworks, anyone? Steinhauer says Trump stands in opposition to the Republican orthodoxy represented by Paul Ryan & Co., but then as Catholic leaders have pointed out, Ryan stands in opposition to Christian orthodoxy. Lets be blunt: Jesus Christ couldnt get legislation pushed past Paul Ryan and the House of Representatives. And Trump, if elected, will find out how Obama has felt for the past 7 years, minus the racism. As Obama has learned, you cant make a deal with people who refuse to negotiate, who see compromise as betrayal of their rigid and reality-free ideology. And where sheer hatefulness is concerned, Trump will meet his match in the House. But there is another overlooked problem in all this people should be talking about. Trump presents himself as the ultimate rebel, the outsider come in to shake up the system with his business acumen and deal-making. If he chooses a political insider as VP, and something happens to him, what about his outsider agenda? He appears to be forgetting that an establishment Republican isnt going to pursue a Trump agenda. That is most likely because there is no other Trump. He is a party of one, and if hes not here to bless us with his presence, we might as well have somebody running the country who knows his a** from a hole in the ground. Perhaps America could be thankful for this small blessing if there were indeed such a thing as a Republican who knew his a** from a hole in the ground. Sadly, there are none. This seems to be truly a cult of personality, a cult of Trump personality to be specific. Even talking about a VP, Trump mostly talked about himself. A VP is generally a non-entity until called upon, but a Trump VP will be a shadow of a non-entity. Told to be free to name names, Trump said no doubt as Sarah Palin clenched its too early Dont worry, Sarah. America clenched too. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print So as America is on the verge of a minor Constitutional crisis, one where recalcitrant Republicans refuse to follow Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, President Obama appears desperate to appease the anti-American Republican obstructionists. The so-called Appointments Clause in Article II is fairly straight-forward and certainly not ambiguous is stating that He (the president) shall nominateJudges of the supreme Court. It is then the constitutional duty of the Senate to either confirm or deny the Presidents nominee; something Republicans refuse to do. Senate Republicans claim the Constitution is wrong and that any currently-serving President is prohibited from adhering to Article II and the Appointments Clause. In a unilateral decision likely handed down by the religious right and the Koch brothers, Senate Republicans, among many conservatives, claim the responsibility to nominate a replacement Justice is reserved for the president elected in the next general election following a Justices retirement or demise; providing it is a Republican president. Now, none of the Republican claims are true and in fact are contrary to the plain language in Article II, but that point has been made ad nauseam. Still, Senate Republicans decided there will be no hearings on any Obama nominee because they continue refusing to acknowledge that the American people used their voices twice to elect Barack Obama to be President; and choose replacement Justices for the Supreme Court. Since the President believes in honoring his oath of office to uphold the Constitution, he is rightly going ahead and auditioning prospective nominees to replace Antonin Scalia. Curiously, the first name surfacing as the Presidents possible choice to replace Antonin Scalia is another Antonin Scalia. One pundit posed the possibility that President Obama is simply trolling Senate Republicans by floating Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval as Scalias replacement; one certainly hopes that is the case. Supposedly there is some preliminary vetting underway to dig into Sandoval, a staunch conservative Republican, but there is already a world of information that informs putting Brian Sandoval on the nations High Court is simply replacing the deceased Antonin Scalia with an Antonin Scalia with an Hispanic name. A Sandoval choice will give the religious right, anti-womens rights groups, the Vatican, the Koch Brothers, the fossil fuel industry and Utah Mormons exactly what they crave; a hard-right leaning conservative Supreme Court for the next generation. Dont believe it? Some folks are labeling Sandoval a moderate Republican, but those folks are completely wrong; even in todays political environment they are completely wrong. It is interesting, too, that the President is floating a name of a Republican governor who was a very vocal supporter of armed sedition against the United States government. Sandoval also opposes solar energy, sane gun safety laws, thinks the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is unconstitutional and he will maintain the Vatican-5s anti-women bloc for decades. The first clue that Sandoval does not belong on the Supreme Court, much less in the Nevada governors mansion was his ardent support of Cliven Bundys armed sedition against the federal government. Sandoval not only lashed out at the federal government officials executing two federal court orders, he assailed the Bureau of Land Management for managing federal land that Sandoval claims belongs to the Kochs by way of the Nevadas legislature. He did, after all, not only meet secretly with the seditious Bundys to commiserate over the abomination of the government owning any land, he also supported and signed legislation illegally transferring 7-million acres of federally-owned land to Republicans to sell off to the Koch brothers mining, logging, and fossil fuel industry. The Koch brothers and Utah Mormons are of the devout belief that the federal government has no right to own land that belongs to the Koch brothers for profit and the LDS church by manifest destiny. Maybe President Obama is unaware that his possible Scalia replacement is also a not-so-stealthy Koch acolyte like Scalia. Sandoval is also notorious for claiming the Affordable Care Act is patently unconstitutional because it is what the Koch brothers believe. It is curious why the President would even consider a conservative with a pre-conceived notion that a legally-passed law certain to come before the Supreme Court again is unconstitutional; But likely because it is what the Kochs want, they are cheering the Presidents possible choice to give them what they want. Speaking of giving the Kochs what they want, Sandoval has revealed his devotion to big energy companies and opposition to renewable energy sources; particularly solar energy. Does the President comprehend that another Koch-devoted Scalia on the High Court will doom whatever he may have accomplished to combat global climate change? One seriously wonders if the President just picked a name out of a hat and hoped it was a name not submitted by the Koch brothers. Maybe the President is just trolling Senate Republicans, because Brian Sandoval is not only no kind of moderate anything, he is another Antonin Scalia all the way down to being a Roman Catholic like Scalia who opposes same-sex marriage and funding for womens reproductive health. Sandoval also supports; using public money for private religious schools, immediate construction of the Keystone pipeline, he opposes all gun controls and believes the 10th Amendment supersedes federal law; it is why he supports the selling off all federal lands to the Koch brothers mining, logging, and oil enterprises. Perhaps the Obama Administration will discover some socially-redeeming benefit to even considering another Scalia on the High Court, although it is beyond comprehension there is anything remotely beneficial. For any American sickened over the devastation the Vatican, Koch, and corporate-5 have already wrought on America, the idea of another couple of decades of Koch-religious acolytes destroying the Constitution and democracy is a nightmare. It is stunning that Barack Obama would deliberately destroy his legacy by replacing one Scalia with another Scalia with an Hispanic name as if Americans wont notice their as their democracy is being completely dismantled. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a moderate Republican, took himself out of consideration for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday as Senate Republicans dug in on their vow not to act on any nominee by President Barack Obama. Asked if the White House was disappointed by Sandovals decision, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters, Hes obviously entitled to make decisions about his own career. Sandovals name surfaced as a possible nominee on Wednesday but Senate Republicans quickly said they still would not hold hearings or vote on any Obama nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the Feb. 13 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Obamas appointee could pivot the court to the left for the first time in decades. Sandoval, a Mexican-American who was Nevadas first Hispanic governor, did not offer a reason for his withdrawal. Earlier today, I notified the White House that I do not wish to be considered at this time for possible nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States, he said in a statement. The notion of being considered for a seat on the highest court in the land is beyond humbling and I am incredibly grateful to have been mentioned. Earlier on Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton expressed concern about Sandoval, urging Obama to pick a true progressive. But Nancy Pelosi, the top House of Representatives Democrat, called it a good idea for Obama to consider Republicans as well as Democrats. Obama will convene a meeting next Tuesday with Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and its Judiciary Committee to discuss a court nominee, Earnest said. The Republican-led Senate must confirm any nominee. Sandoval, 52, was appointed a judge by Republican President George W. Bush before becoming governor in 2010. He took a traditional Republican stance backing gun rights but held more moderate views on social issues, supporting abortion rights. Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley on Thursday reiterated that the Senate would not act on any Supreme Court nominee until the next president takes office in January 2017, following the Nov. 8 presidential election. Republicans hope to win back the White House then. The fight over the Scalia vacancy got nastier as Grassley went to the Senate floor to accuse Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of childish tantrums after Reid called Grassley the most obstructionist judiciary chairman ever. Reid responded: A childish tantrum, when were asking him to do his job? (Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann, Richard Cowan, Ginger Gibson and Susan Heavey; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Bill Trott) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is holding up the passage of a federal aid bill for Flint, Michigan as residents continue to struggle with a lead poisoning crisis. Bloomberg reported, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has placed a hold on a deal to vote on S. 2012 and funding for Flint, Mich., Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. tells reporters. Bloomberg BNAs Ari Natter reports Schumer said Cruzs objection stems from the part of the deal providing funding to Flint, without elaborating further. Sen. Cruz uses the Senate as a personal platform to boost his presidential campaign on a regular basis, but even for Cruz, placing a hold on a bill that would help the people of Flint is a new low. The main Republican objection to the bill is that they believe that the people of Flint should have to pay for their own federal assistance. Earlier in February, Senate Democrats blocked the energy bill because Republicans were dragging their feet on an aid package for Flint. Earlier this month, Harry Reid called out Cruzs fellow Texas Sen. John Cornyn for hypocrisy on Flint. Reid said: Last year Texas was devastated with historic flooding, it was the federal government that stepped in to provide disaster relief for the people of Texas. Who stepped in? The federal government stepped in to help the people of Texas. Thats why I was disappointed to see the senior Senator from Texas say: While we all have sympathy for whats happened in Flint this is primarily a local and state responsibility. He didnt say that when the flooding was taking place last year. Ted Cruz is showing why he and every other member of his heartlessly hypocritical party are not fit to lead the country and should not be trusted with the presidency in 2016. Portfolio English Edition's premium content is available only for subscribers Learn about the hottest news of the day, along with immediate follow-up analyses and 1000's of exclusive articles with full access to the premium content. Register and apply for a 14 days free trial period. Forty-two years before the #OscarsSoWhite debate, a lone woman of color stood up against Hollywood. In 1973, Native American actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather refused Marlon Brando's Oscar in front of millions of viewers. On Brando's behalf, she used the opportunity to make a political statement decrying the stereotyping of Native Americans in movies and TV and to support American Indian Movement activists at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. Some in the audience booed, but others found it inspiring even years after the event. Jada Pinkett Smith recently wrote to Littlefeather saying that watching a clip of the Oscars speech provided validation for her boycott of the Oscars this year. For those watching that night, everything probably seemed normal as presenters Roger Moore, who was about to take over from Sean Connery as the new James Bond, and Liv Ullmann, a favorite of director Ingmar Bergman, read off the lead actor nominees. The nominee pool was actually more diverse than it is this year: It included Paul Winfield, who, had he won for his performance in "Sounder," would have been the second black winner of the award in Oscars history. Brando won, of course, for his role in "The Godfather." But he wasn't there to accept the honor. Instead, Littlefeather took the stage. When Moore tried to hand her the Oscar, she held her hand up and politely refused it. ADVERTISEMENT The audience didn't get to hear the contents of the letter that Brando gave her to read aloud that night, which included comments on not only the academy but also on the effects of racism in Hollywood in general: "It's hard enough for children to grow up in this world. When Indian children watch television, and they watch films, and when they see their race depicted as they are in films, their minds become injured in ways we can never know." Littlefeather says she was effectively blacklisted in Hollywood after her speech, but she received support from civil rights figures such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow, Coretta Scott King, who thanked her for her gesture. Since then, Littlefeather has taught at universities, been involved with film projects such as the 2009 "Reel Injun," a 2009 documentary that explores how Native Americans are portrayed in Hollywood, and continued her activism. Recently a lot of the conversation has been stuck in a black-versus-white question, but many are pushing for more diversity, the idea that there should be room for everyone on the screen. Yes. How many Native American sitcoms are there? There should be tons, we have the greatest sense of humor in the world. There's a sitcom in Canada called "Mohawk Girls," and it's great. It's just about growing up. It's funny for everyone, but there are cultural things that really resonate if you're Indian, if you've been on a reservation. We live in a diverse society and we all need our stories to be told, and we deserve to be represented accordingly on movies and television. What did you think of Jada Pinkett Smith's video? When I heard about it, I immediately thought that I had to talk to her. I wrote her an email congratulating her on her stance because it was something that really needed to be done. That was an act of courage. Many credit your Oscars speech with bringing attention to the occupation by American Indian Movement activists at Wounded Knee. Marlon Brando was an excellent strategist, and he knew that, that year, the Academy Awards would be broadcast via satellite to millions of people all over the world. The FBI had put a news blackout on Wounded Knee so that people couldn't hear from (the activists). This was a way to get around that. When people saw that broadcast, all hell broke loose. It put a lot of attention on the FBI's actions. ADVERTISEMENT Do you think people who speak out today about the Oscars should be worried? I think everyone should speak their piece. If you can't speak out, write it. I think people should make statements. If you're not going to watch, say why. I made a statement, and that's why we're having this conversation today. Everyone should express themselves, just like they say in that song. What about Chris Rock? He'll be hosting the Oscars, and a lot of people have called for him to either boycott it or to make a statement. Do you think he should say something? I think Chris Rock will say something, in his own way. He's an incredibly intelligent person, incredible comedian. I think that he will make jokes that will go far over people's heads. I was watching videos of Richard Pryor (who hosted the Oscars in 1977 and also joked about the lack of black nominees) the other night. He injected such humor and brilliant thinking into his sketches. He talked about racism in a way that no one else could, in the way he addressed it. Charlie Hill too, he was our Indian comedian. He talked about the missionaries trying to commit or convert us, in this really brilliant way. ORANGE, Calif. Her goal in life is to grant wishes like a princess in a fairy tale. What better way to pay back the wish that was granted to her more than two decades ago? Ayesha Kazim, 30, of Orange, Calif., recently signed up to volunteer at Make-A-Wish. She works for Disney (a fitting job for someone who dreams of granting wishes) in the online travel department. She's awaiting her first Make-A-Wish assignment. She already has figured out what she's going to tell the first person she meets with a life-threatening illness. "I'm here," she will say. "My parents didn't think I would be here. So don't ever give up." Disney said it will donate $5 up to $1 million for every picture shared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that shows someone wearing mouse ears. Kazim had her picture taken in mouse ears last Tuesday at Disneyland, where she was telling her story to offer hope to people who may be going through similar horrors to those she endured as a child. ADVERTISEMENT 5 operations Kazim carries a scrapbook with a kindergarten photo of her holding a book under her right arm and smiling. She remembers the pain. "I couldn't hold that book with my left arm," she said. She was living in Olney, Md., at the time, and she remembers wearing a purple sweatsuit when the phone call came with her test results. She was rushed to a hospital in Washington, D.C., where she had the first of five operations. That scrapbook also holds a drawing a doctor made of the tumor. When she was 5, she got a diagnosis of rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer of the muscle tissue. Doctors gave her parents a best- and worst-case scenario. At best, she might live to see her 16th birthday. At worst, she had about six months to live. She went through chemotherapy and radiation, and by the time she was 7, the cancer had spread to her shoulder. She had lost all her hair, and her brother pushed her in a wheelchair. She remembers her father praying in the hospital. Her family grimly braced itself for what would happen next. It was at one of the low points that Kazim's family was connected with Make-A-Wish. She wanted to go visit a Disney park in Europe but she told she couldn't stray very far from her hospital. ADVERTISEMENT So she choose Disney World, which was a two-hour flight away. "This was going to be our last trip as a family," she said. "To think about it that way is terrifying." 'Magical trip' It wasn't the end. It was the beginning. Kazim remembers eating peanut butter ice cream with Reese's Pieces for breakfast. She remembers how nice everyone was to her and her family her father, Fazlur; her mother, Seeta; a brother, Ijaz; and a sister, Samina. "It was a magical trip," she said. "My dad said he didn't realize how compassionate people could be." She remembers Chip and Dale, the chipmunk characters, pushing her wheelchair. She rode Space Mountain 10 times in a row. "I never thought about why we were there," she said. "We were just there. My whole family acted normal, and it was perfect." ADVERTISEMENT Something else happened to Kazim on that trip. She fell in love with Disney and Make-A-Wish. "That trip reaffirmed what my parents taught me about charity, caring and giving," she said. "That's what Disney is all about hopes and wishes and dreams coming true." Disney connections Kazim has been cancer-free since she was 7. She still has trouble moving her left arm, but she's doing physical therapy to help her deal with the pain. And in July 2012, her boyfriend, Suresh Francis, proposed to her at Walt Disney World in Cinderella's Castle. Kazim and her husband live in Orange, just a few miles from Disneyland. Working at Disney has fulfilled one of her lifelong dreams. Occasionally, she will handle the travel arrangements of a child with cancer. "I say, 'Oh, my God, I had cancer, too,'" she said. "I make a connection with them. And when they say this might be our last trip, I tell them, 'Once you get here, everything is going to be fine.'" Alex Rackley was a 19-year-old member of a criminal gang. In May 1969, gang members suspected that Rackley had been disloyal. They kidnapped him and brought him to a house where he was tied up and tortured for two days, mainly by having boiling water poured over much of his body. He was also beaten with a blunt object in the face, groin and lumbar region, as Wikipedia describes it. After two days of torture, Rackley confessed his disloyalty to his gangof which, in fact, there was never any evidence. You can listen to his confession, because the gang taped it. After a few preliminaries, Rackleys trial begins with a monologue by a woman who identifies herself as Ericka Huggins. This is a partial transcript of what Huggins says: Ericka Huggins, member of the New Haven Chapter Black Panther Party, political education instructor. On May 17th at approximately 10 oclock, Brother Alex from New York was sleeping in the office; this is a house that we use as an office. And I kicked him and said, Motherfucker, wake up! Because we dont sleep in the office, and we relate to reading or getting out. And so Brother Alex picked up a book, selected military writings of Mao Tse-Tung, and began to read. I was talking to Brother George and Warren and George looked over at Alex and said, Brother, I thought you couldnt read. You told me you couldnt read before. What you reading? You know, and so the brother said, I cant read. So why you got the book? Why did you lie to the sister? Because I didnt know it. So then the brother got some discipline, you know, in the areas of the nose and mouth, and the brother began to show cowardly tendencies, and began to whimper and moan. So we decided he was a motherfucking phony, that he was lying, and that if he lied to us, he lied to other party members and the people. So that, George began to give him other disciplinary [pause] things. Like, you know, a stick was taken to the brother, you see, because he was acting like a coward, and acting like a non-Panther. And as I said before, he was lying. This is a disgrace to the peoples revolutionary struggle. Sit down, motherfucker. Keep still. [Rackley apparently tried to move here.] And he then said that he had no conception of what revolution was or what a revolutionary was, you see. So he was taken down to the basement for a while, and he came back up, and it was decided he should leave the house, but we decided, you know, that he shouldnt leave the house, that he should go back down to the basement again And then Brother George began to discipline him again He said that he lied to us, to the party and to Brother Landon [Williams, a Panther enforcer visiting from the West Coast] about the fact that he could not read, because he did read the 10-point program. So then we began to realize how phony he was and that he was either an extreme fool or a pig, so we began to ask questions with a little force and the answers came out after a few buckets of hot water. OK. So that is basically what happened with Brother Alex, and hes going to begin to tell us what, you know, whats really going on. You see. We have to know this. Here is the tape: After another day or two of torture following his confession, gang membersmercifully, perhapsshot Rackley to death. It didnt take long for the authorities to unravel the crime, and they prosecuted a number of gang members for murder. Several were convicted, but following a highly politicized trial, the jury was hung as to the more senior members of the gang, Ericka Huggins and Bobby Seale, despite Hugginss incriminating voice on the tape. Bobby Seale was a co-founder of the Black Panthers, but he was whipped, raped and driven out of the party by the psychopathic and drug-addled Huey Newton. Seale no doubt participated in many of the crimes committed by the Panthers, but he might have been innocent of Alex Rackleys murder. The story of the Black Panthers is a sordid one, but it is fondly remembered on many college campuses. Like, for example, the University of Minnesota. A professor there sent me this. Click to enlarge: The Black Panthers, a Love Story. That isnt quite how Alex Rackley, Betty Van Patter, and more than a dozen other Panther murder victims saw it. The love story stars political activist Bobby Seale and political activist, scholar, and writer Ericka Huggins, who will grace the event with their physical presence. What a thrill! And this, of course, is all about faculty diversity. What else? You can read more about the event here. Everyone involved, including the events sponsorsthe Higher Education Recruitment Consortium, the University of Minnesotas Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the Robert J. Jones Urban Outreach-Engagement Center at the University of Minnesota, the Office for Equity and Diversity of the University of Minnesota, and the Office of University Relations of the University of Minnesotashould be deeply ashamed. The Universitys president, Eric Kaler, has said that he wants to meet with me in my new capacity as President of the Center of the American Experiment. I will indeed meet with President Kaler, and I will tell him what I think of his universitys sponsorship of this homage to a vicious gang of murderers. LOS ANGELESThis Saturday, the Tom of Finland Foundation is hosting a fundraiser for erotic photographer Rick Castro as part of its upcoming Tom's Garage event at Faultline Bar in Los Angeles. Castro is a professional photographer and the curator of Antebellum fetish art gallery in Hollywood. Recently, Castro won the Artist Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tom of Finland Foundation for years of commitment to the erotic art community. Among hist best-known works are "13 Years of Bondage" and "Hustler White." "On February 14, I was attacked on the Metro Red Line. I sustained a leg injury which has put me out of commission," said Castro in a public statement. "As an independent artist, taking time for healing has placed a huge financial burden to contend with." Those wishing to show their support can do so February 27 at the Tom's Garage party at Faultline Bar at 4216 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. The party gets under way at 9 p.m. For more details on the event, click here. Those not able to attend the fundraiser can show their support by contacting Rick Castro at [email protected] regarding donations or purchasing art from Antebellum art gallery. For more about Rick Castro and Antebellum fetish art gallery, go to AntebellumGallery.Blogspot.com. While each award program is unique, we are looking for quality work that: Provides a synopsis with details regarding your campaign, project or work. Putting your synopsis in dramatic story form will never hurt your chances. Neither will presenting us with a new idea. Provides attachments that would help our esteemed team of judges take the measure of your work. Shows us clear, bold and creative ideas that prove positive impact on your business or client in a positive way. Our judges look very kindly on entries that exhibit an ingenious variation on an older or tested idea. Shows us you took a brave leap to flawlessly engage wide audiences with innovative PR and marketing. Your work should be authentic. It should have made a lasting impression that changed the minds of many, was shared amongst strangers but most important, made a difference. You may submit the same work for multiple categories in fact, we encourage it! If your works scope is deliberately wide, why not seek recognition in multiple categories? Please be sure to read all category descriptions carefully, and then highlight different aspects for each category. The government of Somalia has said that about 200 peacekeepers were killed in an al-Shabaab attack on an AU military base in the country last month. Somali president, Hassan Mohamud, said on Thursday in Mogadishu, that the attack was one of the most devastating Islamist attacks on AU troops in Somalia. He said more than 180 Kenyans were killed when al-Shabaab Islamist stormed the base in the southern village of el-Adde on January 15. When about 180 boys, just nearly 200 Kenyan troops, are killed in an area inside Somalia, it is really compulsory for me as the president of Somalia to go to Kenya to say, Very sorry for your losses, the president said. Mohamud said Kenyan troops form part of a 20,000-strong AU contingent helping Somalia battle al-Shabaab, which was affiliated with the international al-Qaeda terrorist network. (dpa/NAN) Somali officials and witnesses said five people were killed and more than 10 injured Thursday in explosions in central Mogadishu that partially hit the presidential palace. A security official said on condition of anonymity that the blasts injured junior government workers inside the palace. A government official, Mohamed Aden, who blamed the explosions on insurgent group al-Shabaab, said the victims also included women and children. He said the insurgents may have fired mortars from vehicles. Earlier Thursday, Somali president, Hassan Mohamud, revealed at least 180 Kenyan peacekeepers were killed in an al-Shabaab attack on African Union (AU) military base in Somalias southern village of el-Ade last month. The figure, if accurate, would make the January 15 attack the groups largest success against AU troops in Somalia. A 20,000-strong AU contingent is helping Somalia battle the insurgents, who are seeking an Islamist state in Somalia and are affiliated with the international al-Qaeda terrorist network. (dpa/NAN) The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested Donald Chidi Amamgbo, said to be a cousin to a former Petroleum Resources Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report. Mr. Amamgbo, who is chief executive of Mezcor Oil and Gas limited, Tridax Oil and Gas Limited, Lynear Energy Limited and Bulk Strategic Reserved Limited, was arrested in Lagos at about 4.20 P.M Thursday. Investigators told PREMIUM TIMES that evidence gathered so far suggested the oil mogul might have acted as front for Mrs Alison-Madueke, who granted him approval to lo lift Nigerian crude oil without any requisite experience. Through his companies, Amamgbo lifted crude oil and gas worth billions of dollars over a period of four years, an official said. A search conducted in the office and premises of Mezcor Oil and Gas Limited at No. 5 Sannar street, Wuse 2, Abuja yielded documents which included payments for the purchase of houses and vehicles. Sources at the anti-graft agency said the investigation was continuing. When contacted, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, said, I am told there is something like that but I dont have the details. The former ministers husband was earlier arrested and released on February 18 as part of the investigations into her stewardship at the oil industry. Mrs. Alison-Madueke herself was arrested on October 2, 2015 in London by the UK National Crimes Agency for alleged overseas corruption and money laundering. After former Vice President Goodluck Jonathan became acting president, Mrs. Alison-Madueke was appointed Nigerias first female petroleum minister in February 2010, a position she held till May 29, 2015 when Mr. Jonathan left office. Mrs. Alison-Maduekes tenure as petroleum minister turned out one of Nigerias most controversial, amid unending allegations of corruption. Under her watch, dubious oil marketers stole trillions of naira of oil subsidy money. She retained her position after the House of Representative investigated the scandal and indicted the minister. Probes by independent audit firms, including the KPMG and Pricewaterahousecoopers, confirmed billions of dollars of oil money were missing, the most notable being $20 billion in 2014. Mrs. Alison-Madueke also supervised a corrupt NNPC, which shady deals had been exposed by PREMIUM TIMES several investigations and confirmed by government and independent auditors. Long before her stint in the oil and gas sector, Mrs. Alison-Madueke was investigated by the Nigerian Senate on allegation she paid N30.9 billion to contractors while she held office as transportation minister. In 2009, the Senate also indicted Mrs. Alison-Madueke and recommended her for prosecution for allegedly transferring N1.2 billion into a private account of a toll company without due process. Regardless of the mounting criticisms against her stewardship, Mrs. Alison-Maduke got elected in November 2014 as the first female president of oil cartel the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The former minister consistently denied any wrongdoing. In June, after leaving office, she rejected all allegations of embezzlement, saying she never stole from Nigeria. The Senator representing Kaduna Central senatorial district, Shehu Sani, has assured that the missing Chibok girls will be found, but counseled that the Federal Government must negotiate with some persons to extract the girls from their current danger. He also said that current events in the country had revealed that the reign of bloodshed by Boko Haram in the last seven years was sustained by the greed of a few who profited from the situation. Mr. Sani spoke in Akure on Wednesday as a discussant at a symposium held as part of the 40thAnniversary of Ondo State and the seventh anniversary of the Olusegun Mimiko-led administration. Something that has bothered some of us here in line with the insurgency is, when will the Chibok girls be freed, he asked. Someone said the Chibok girls will never be free, but I can tell you that they will be free and they are alive. Mr. Sani had in the past been named as a contact person through which the Nigerian government sought to negotiate with Boko Haram. A civil society leader at the time, Mr. Sani later accused the former Goodluck Jonathan government of not showing sufficient commitment to the proposed talks. Speaking in Akure, the lawmaker noted that besides the use of force, the government must explore other ways of rescuing the girls. There are two ways to get them: the first is to use force to free them and before you apply force, you have to know where they are. You also have to weigh the consequences of raiding the camp with such number of persons, because the insurgents have nothing to lose, he said. The second option is to explore ways of extracting them out through negotiation and negotiation is still possible. There are a few people, not a panel of eminent Nigerians or a panel, there are a few people who the government needs to reach out to, he said. Mr. Sani also explained that the girls could be rescued in the first instance, because the parties could not make concession. They said they were going to free the girls on the condition we freed their people. And when we came to the negotiating table, and the government said it cannot free the terrorists because they have done a lot of harm, he recalled. The senator also said that Boko Haram is a terrorist group with a leadership and a theocratic agenda. For those who have been following events in the last six to seven years, we have seen how some of us from the north, particularly myself, I tried to find an alternative means of addressing the problem of the insurgency, he said. I took the risk of reaching out to the insurgents and initiating a process of dialogue, about three to four times and it was sabotaged by those who were benefitting from the bloodshed and I think the unfolding events in the country clearly shows to all Nigerians that there were people who see that seven years of bloodshed, of mass murder, of genocide as an opportunity for them to amass wealth. It is not possible to say that an insurgent group or people not more than two to three thousand have proved so difficult for a nation of 175 million people to crush. A nation like ours with a reputable armed forces and have performed creditably well in peace keeping missions in Liberia and sierra Leone and Congo and other countries of the world. It was so clear that some see it as an opportunity, like the Chinese saying, some people see crisis as a struggle, others see it as an opportunity. That is why it dragged on for so long, but I hope with the present administration, at least progress has been made in terms of degrading the capacity and ability of Boko Haram to take up territories. Mr. Sani further explained that the initial strategy of the insurgents was to send terrorists to bomb targets, but they metamorphosed into an ISIS group, taking over territories and imposing their Islamic rule, but now have been forced to return to hitting soft targets. Four persons have been confirmed dead while a few were injured by an explosion at a police anti-bomb squad office in Yola, Adamawa State, the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, said Thursday. The injured were being treated at the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, NEMA tweeted hours after the blast. Witnesses had said earlier that many police officers were feared killed by the explosion. The blast, which occurred shortly before noon, affected all buildings within the office of the Anti-Bomb Squad, including the State Investigation Bureau (SIB), and Motor Traffic Division (MTD). The Commissioner of Police in Adamawa State, Mohammed Gazali, said most of the victims of the explosion were police personnel. He did not give figures of casualties. Mr. Gazali said the blast was caused by bombs recovered from Boko Haram insurgents and warehoused by the police alongside other crime exhibits. Policemen were mostly affected and we dont know the actual casualties for now as the place is not yet safe for us to go in, Mr. Gazali said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the explosion also affected the walls of nearby Majalisa Primary School where some pupils were injured. The state Commissioner for Information, Ahmad Sajoh, confirmed that the pupils sustained minor injuries and had been treated and discharged from hospital. The attack threw the city into panic as many residents hurried home, while businesses closed for the day. A PREMIUM TIMES reporter who was at the scene of the blast shortly after it occurred said security personnel warned of another possible blast, creating more confusion. He said neighbouring buildings including the Jimeta Central Primary School, as well as headquarters of NITEL, post office, as well as the Jimeta central prison, were all affected by the blast. President Muhammadu Buhari said Thursday in Mecca that the federal government would welcome support from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for its ongoing efforts to rehabilitate parts of the country affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. Speaking at a meeting with the Secretary General of the OIC, Iyad Madani, Mr. Buhari urged the organisation to send a fact-finding mission to the ravaged states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa to see the damage done by terrorists. The president told Mr. Madani that the fact-finding visit would help the OIC determine the scope of assistance it can offer to Nigeria for the rehabilitation and resettlement of internally displaced persons. Mr. Buhari also tasked the OIC to act urgently in support of the restoration of peace, law and order to Libya which, he said, had been breeding the terrorists causing mayhem in West and Central African countries, following the fall of the Ghaddafi regime. The president said that it was only by educating people properly about Islam that terrorists would be deprived of legitimacy and a basis for the recruitment of followers. He therefore urged the OIC to assist the federal government in bringing true knowledge and enlightenment to all Nigerians. The president however agreed with Mr. Madani that Islam had been wilfully misrepresented by terrorists. The acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, has reassured lawyers and judges that comments attributed to him in recent media reports regarding the conduct of judicial officials were not intended at impugning their integrity. According to him, his comments and activities of the commission should not be interpreted to mean a blanket indictment of all lawyers and judges but rather directed at a few bad eggs within the system. There is no way one can make a blanket statement on the integrity of lawyers and judges. Nigeria is blessed with some of the best lawyers and judges on the African continent. My worry is that the bad ones amongst them are giving the good ones a bad name, he said. He emphasized that the commission deeply appreciates the support of most conscientious, upright and patriotic members of the bar and bench (including defence counsels), leading to the commissions unbeaten prosecution and conviction record. Mr. Magu stated further that mindful of the fact that judges are constrained from publicly responding to criticism against them, the commission only employs legal and administrative procedures, including investigation of errant judicial officers and laying complaints against them before the National Judicial Council. He also said the commission charged to court and secured convictions against a number of lawyers. The EFCC boss invited all patriotic members of the bar and the bench to join the renewed campaign against corruption and money laundering, while exposing the corrupt among them. There is no blanket condemnation of lawyers and judges. But the corrupt few will not be spared, he added. President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday in Mecca welcomed an offer by the Islamic Development Bank, IDB, to organize a financing round-table in Abuja to mobilize more funds for investment and development of infrastructure in Nigeria. The president of the IDB, Ahmed Ali, made the offer at a meeting with Mr. Buhari, who is currently on an official visit to Saudi Arabia. Mr. Ali assured Mr. Buhari that the IDB will work with its traditional partners such as the Saudi Fund, the Kuwait Fund, Arab Bank for Development in Africa and the Abu Dhabi Fund to increase the quantum of funding available to Nigeria. Welcoming the offer, Mr. Buhari restated his governments determination to revamp and diversify the Nigerian economy rapidly. The days of Nigeria as a big oil producer with plenty of money are gone. We need all the support we can get to diversify our economy as quickly as possible. We also need to rehabilitate our infrastructure, develop the domestic capacity to feed ourselves and export the surplus, the president said. Mr. Buhari also welcomed IDBs plan to fast track the take-off of the Bilingual Education Program, aimed at integrating the Almajiri system of education with Western education in Nigeria. The IDB had already provided $98million for the Bilingual Education Program in Adamawa, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Osun and Yobe States. The bank plans to support similar projects in other states of Nigeria. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has said that the Aide de Camp to former President Goodluck Jonathan was being held on the instructions of the Nigerian Army. Ojogbane Adegbe, a colonel, has been detained since February 11, his lawyer said. Mr. Adegbe is challenging his arrest and continued detention by the anti-graft agency. An FCT High Court has fixed March 1 for ruling in a Fundamental Human Rights suit filed by Ojogbane Adegbe, a colonel and former Aide de Camp (ADC) to President Goodluck Jonathan. The judge, Yusuf Halilu, fixed the date after hearing the arguments of the parties in the suit. At the resumed hearing of the case, Mr. Adegbes lawyer, Ogwu Onoja, told the court that the former ADC filed an application pursuant to the provisions of the law and the rules of the court. Mr. Onoja urged the court to declare that his clients arrest and continued detention by EFCC since Feb. 11 was unconstitutional and violated his right to personal liberty guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution. He prayed the court to make an order directing EFCC to immediately release the applicant from unlawful detention. Mr. Onoja submitted that the arrest and detention of Adegbe by EFCC violated his right to personal liberty and freedom of movement guaranteed by Section 35 and 41 of the 1999 Constitution. The applicants counsel contended that EFCCs action violated Articles 5, 6 and 12 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. He also asked the court to make an order mandating EFCC to release the plaintiff on bail pending hearing of his case at the competent court of jurisdiction. Mr. Onoja argued that there was no material evidence placed before the court to show that the plaintiff was detained on the directive of the Nigerian Army as claimed by the EFCC. Opposing the application, the EFCC Counsel, Musu Benda, informed the court that the respondent filed a counter affidavit challenging the plaintiff`s motion. Mrs. Benda contended that Mr. Adegbe was not detained by the EFCC, adding that the ex-ADC was undergoing questioning and was kept on the directive of the Nigerian Army. The EFCC counsel, therefore, urged the court to dismiss the application for lack of merit. (NAN) Nigerian authorities should investigate claims that a businessman threatened freelance journalist Augustina Armstrong-Ogbonna over her investigation into his company, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. Armstrong-Ogbonna, who won the 2015 United Nations Foundation Prize for humanitarian coverage, said she was threatened by Emmanuel Iheanacho, a former interior minister, while investigating allegations that his company, Integrated Oil and Gas, was dredging around Irede community in the commercial capital, Lagos, without government approval and without an environmental impact assessment, according to news reports. Iheanacho denied the allegations about his company to CPJ. Armstrong-Ogbonna told CPJ that when she contacted Iheanacho for comment while writing the story he threatened her and told her not to publish. The journalist included the alleged threats in her report, writing that Iheanacho warned me not to publish any story or else I will put myself in the firing line. He threatened to visit my office. The story was published on the Environews website on February 15, and broadcast and discussed on two radio stations including Radio One 103.5 FM. Armstrong-Ogbonna told CPJ that on Monday, Raymond Gold, the Irede community spokesman she quoted as a source, was arrested on accusations of breaching the peace through a provocative story reported in the media. The community spokesman called Armstrong-Ogbonna from court on Tuesday and told her police were acting on Iheanachos orders and planned to arrest her too. The journalist told CPJ she plans to report the threats to police. We are concerned by this report of a powerful public figure seeking to intimidate a journalist, said CPJ West Africa Representative Peter Nkanga. We call on the authorities to investigate these threats against Augustina Armstrong-Ogbonna in a timely and thorough manner. Funke Treasure Durodola, the general manager at the government-owned station Radio One 103.5 FM, told CPJ that Iheanacho visited the stations offices in Lagos last week and reported Armstrong-Ogbonna to the stations management. Armstrong-Ogbonna told CPJ Iheanacho accused her of being paid to write the story to tarnish him. Durodola said the stations legal department was looking into every aspect of the matter. Iheanacho denied threatening Armstrong-Ogbonna and told CPJ she was spreading falsehood about him. He said he has reported Armstrong-Ogbonna to all security agencies, including the police, for smearing his reputation. When CPJ asked Lagos state police spokeswoman Dolapo Badmus about the threats and claims that police, acting on Iheanachos orders, planned to arrest the journalist, she responded by text message, saying that Armstrong-Ogbonna needs to petition the police and provide evidence for the threat to be investigated. SOURCE: Committee to Protect Journalists The national chairman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Ali Sheriff, on Thursday said he would take the partys campaign to grassroots but vowed not to work with those causing crisis in the party. Mr. Sheriff stated this when a delegation of the Arewa Social Media Forum led by Yusuf Dingyadi paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja on Thursday. He said the crisis in the party was man-made and self-inflicted, adding that he would ensure the return of the party to the grassroots to ensure viability ahead of 2019 elections. We have the mandate of the party members and leaders to reposition the party and we will not work with anyone who will create crisis or violence in the party, no matter their positions. The party has suffered enough for its mistakes, and members and indeed Nigerians are looking forward toward a repositioned PDP, he said. He said PDP lost the presidential election to the APC due to injustice and frustration of members by some leaders in the party. Earlier, Mr. Dingyadi said youths had been neglected for long in the northern part of the country. (NAN) The Nigerian government will offer free healthcare to 100 million Nigerians in the next two years under the countrys new health agenda, the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has said. Pregnant women across Nigeria will also enjoy free antenatal and delivery services, particularly at the primary healthcare level, the government said. The minister disclosed this while speaking on a current affairs programme, The Osasu Show, broadcast weekly on African Independent Television. Mr Adewole said in order to achieve that target, the government would revitalise the primary healthcare services and adopt the universally accepted concept of one primary healthcare centre per political ward. Women with uncomplicated pregnancy and those with uncomplicated past will be expected to visit the primary healthcare centre, Mr.Adewole said. One of the things we want to do under the revitalised PHC programme is that each of these revitalised, reinvigorated PHC will have an industrial borehole so that we can offer water to the people, clean drinkable water, Mr. Adewole said. There will be solar electricity so we can have the ability to keep our vaccines in safe conditions. We will then use this new reinvigorated primary healthcare centres for the focus of community development nationwide. The primary healthcare facilities, according to the minister,will be managed by nurses, mid-wives and village workers so as to accommodate cultural differences in different parts of Nigeria. If we do not (do this), people will not use the facilities. We are not going to import someone from Port Harcourt to work in Sokoto. We are looking at people in the Sokoto environment who speak the language and understand the culture. The new model we are operating will also have villager workers who will oscillate between the facilities and the community and we will promote ownership by telling them the facilities are theirs and not for the federal government or state but that it belongs to them as a community. Mr. Adewole said for a start, the federal government would deliver 110 primary healthcare centres in the next three months across the country. When we flag it off, it is going to be one PHC per day to show Nigerians that we mean business, he said. We will surprise everybody! The minister said President Muhammadu Buharis administration was different from other past administrations in Nigeria. We are serving under a leadership that is totally committed to supporting the poor, he said. We have an agenda that is entirely pro-poor and as we havementioned we will not just make vague promises, we will deliver. Mr. Adewole said the federal government also intends to change the national health insurance from being voluntary to compulsory and universal, so that the healthy will care for the sick and the rich will care for the poor. The Shia Islamic Movement of Nigeria says it has severed ties with a panel set up by the National Human Rights Commission to investigate the December 2015 alleged attack on the chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai, by Shia members. While the army claimed Mr. Buratai was under attack, the Shiites said troops killed hundreds of its members. The group accuses the rights commission of bias in its investigations. A judicial commission of inquiry set up by the Kaduna government is also investigating the clash. A statement by Ibrahim Musa, president of Media Forum of the Islamic Movement on Thursday, said the movement resolved to discontinue its participation with an investigation by the human rights commission. The movement said at the time of setting up the panel, the tenure of the governing council of the commission had expired, and that the Executive Secretary of the Commission lacked powers to decide on petitions, cases and complaints of violations of human rights received from individuals or other persons or communities. Secondly we are uncomfortable with the methodology adopted by the National Human Rights Commission relating to the complaint filed, the group said. We find it odd that we are unable to confront the complainant in the petition and test the veracity of all his assertions. The group said a letter stating its position had been sent to Tony Ojukwu, chairman, panel of Investigation National Human Rights Commission. If it can be remembered shortly after the armys attack on the Islamic movement, the Chief of army Staff quickly rushed to the NHRC, claiming that an attempt was made on his life. Later the Islamic Movement tendered its memorandum on the absurd claims made by the army General to the Commission. However with the current development, the impartiality and credibility of the investigative panel has been compromised, we will therefore cease any cooperation with the panel on this matter, the group said. At least 20 children have been killed by measles in 18 local government areas of Sokoto State in the last 23 days. The executive secretary of Sokoto State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Sani Labaran, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto on Thursday. Mr. Labaran described the situation as an epidemic. He said the deaths were recorded out of the over 300 cases reported to hospitals and primary healthcare centres in the 244 wards across the state. Mr. Labaran said several of the children afflicted by the disease were currently receiving treatment at various health facilities across the state. The situation has been brought under control, with many of the affected children, aged 0-59 months treated and discharged from the hospitals. Adequate drugs and medicament had been distributed to hospitals across the state, he said. Mr. Labaran further said adequate cold chain materials and vaccines had been distributed across the state. He said that there was plan by the agency to purchase solar-powered refrigerators for the various PHCs in the state to sustain the efficacy of the vaccines. The executive secretary regretted that most of the children afflicted by the epidemic were those whose parents rejected the vaccines conducted in the last three years. Mr. Labaran therefore advised parents to avail their wards of the opportunity of routine immunisation to prevent further loss of lives. (NAN) For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME. Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire. Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever. Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation. View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union. Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history. Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words. Mohammad Fateh Ali said Tehran will give $7,000 to families of martyrs of the intifada in occupied Jerusalem and a further $30,000 to every family whose home the occupation has demolished for the participation of one of its sons, according to local news reports. Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh. blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter. . ..Commentary Magazine..24 February '16..In recent weeks, publications like the have been reporting about post-nuclear deal Iran and speculating about which sector of its society will benefit the most from the cash windfall that will result from the end of international sanctions on Tehran. The short answer to that question is that very little of the billions that will flow into Iran will find its way to ordinary citizens . Instead, most of it will wind up in the coffers of the government, its Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the companies that terror group and the regime control.But it wont be just the IRGC and the entities directly under the ayatollahs control that benefits from Western largesse. Irans ambassador to Lebanon has announced that Iran will now be offering new cash bonuses to Palestinian terrorists.As the Times of Israel reports:It should be noted that the Palestinian Authority already pays pensions to the families of Palestinians that have been jailed by Israel for terrorism. Indeed, PA TV has a regular program profiling such people and treating them as heroes and martyrs. This is an integral part of a political culture that considers Jews to have no rights to any part of the country, including pre-1967 Israel. More importantly, Palestinian public opinion, egged on by the official media of both Fatah and Hamas, treat attacks on individual Jews, including women, children and the elderly as acts of heroism, not crimes.But the offer of cash bonuses from Iran to those Arabs who seek out random Jews for slaughter in what is known as the stabbing intifada, lends added legitimacy to a society that has legitimized terror.It should be noted that during the past few months, 32 people have been killed in the terror surge that began when the PA and its leader Mahmoud Abbas spread the lie that Israel was planning to harm the mosques on Jerusalems Temple Mount. Though apologists for the Palestinians have tried to place the blame for the violence on Israeli policies, the bloodshed is rooted in hatred for Jews. As the Palestinians have made clear they view Jews sitting in Tel Aviv cafes as being as much of a legitimate target as those living in remote West Bank hilltop settlements. Moreover, the Palestinians refusal to negotiate, let alone accept repeated Israeli peace offers, gives the lie to the idea that more concessions from the Netanyahu government or territorial withdrawals would magically end the conflict.But Irans willingness to inject its financial power into the already toxic Palestinian political culture ought to particularly worry an Obama administration that has sought to create a new detente with Tehran.On the same day as Irans cash for terror offer, reports were published of meetings in Tehran with representatives from Hamas. The agenda was apparently another Iranian financial offer, this time to help fund Hamas terrorism against Israel.Iran was Hamass chief sponsor during the second intifada. But the group broke with the Iranians when Hamas joined other Sunni Muslim groups in calling for Syrian dictator Bashar Assads ouster. But now, thanks to military intervention by Iran, its Hezbollah auxiliaries and Russia (as well as American acquiescence to Irans foreign policy goals in the wake of the nuclear deal), that Assads continued rule is assured, Hamas has reconciled with its former patron. The IRGC is planning to funnel even more aid to Hamas that will allow it to continue its terror tunnel-building program in Gaza as well as to replenish and upgrade its rocket arsenal.Of course, Iran is interested in more than just helping Palestinians who kill Jews. They wish to expand their influence among Palestinians as part of their push for regional hegemony that so scares Arab nations like Egypt and Jordan as well as Saudi Arabia. This has created an upside down regional alignment that finds these Arab states allying themselves with Israel as they seek mutual protection against an increasingly aggressive Iran.Irans desire to make mischief and to maintain pressure on Israel isnt new. But the nuclear deal that President Obama imagined would be the start of a new and more peaceful era is giving Tehran the economic muscle to make the region even more dangerous. Instead of helping Iran to, as President Obama hoped, get right with the world, those who argued that the deal was good for Israel must now account for the fact that the Wests cash will now subsidize the slaughter of Jews. DUBLIN, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/rtq8rc/automotive) has announced the addition of the "Automotive Transmission Systems - Global Strategic Analysis" report to their offering. This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Automotive Transmission Systems in Number of Units Factory Fitted in Light Vehicles in Thousand Units by the following Segments: Manual Transmissions, Automatic Transmissions, Automated Manual Transmissions, Continuously Variable Transmissions, Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT), and Other Transmission Systems. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Rest of World. Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2013 through 2020. Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research. Company profiles are primarily based on public domain information including company URLs. The report profiles 61 companies including many key and niche players such as: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. ( Japan ) ) BorgWarner Inc. (US) Chongqing Tsingshan Industrial Co., Ltd ( China ) ) Eaton Corporation Plc ( Ireland ) ) FPT Industrial S.p.A. ( Italy ) ) General Motors Company (US) Groupe Renault ( France ) ) Hyundai Motor Company (Korea) Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. ( Japan ) ) Honda Transmission Manufacturing of America, Inc (US) JATCO Ltd. ( Japan ) ) Magna International Inc. ( Canada ) ) GETRAG KG ( Germany ) ) Oerlikon Graziano ( Italy ) ) Ricardo Plc (UK) Shaanxi Fast Auto Drive Group Company ( China ) ) TREMEC (US) Torotrak Plc. (UK) Torvec, Inc. (US) Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft ( Germany ) ) Xtrac Limited (UK) ZF Friedrichshafen AG ( Germany ) Key Topics Covered: 1. Industry Overview 2. Noteworthy Market Trends & Drivers 3. Product Overview 4. Product Introductions/Innovations 5. Recent Industry Activity 6. Focus On Select Global Players 7. Global Market Perspective Total Companies Profiled: 61 (including Divisions/Subsidiaries 79) The United States (24) (24) Canada (1) (1) Japan (15) (15) Europe (31) (31) - France (5) (5) - Germany (10) (10) - The United Kingdom (8) (8) - Italy (3) (3) - Rest of Europe (5) (5) Asia-Pacific (Excluding Japan) (8) For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/rtq8rc/automotive Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com SOURCE Research and Markets NIEUWEGEIN, The Netherlands, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ballast Nedam has sold its current portfolio of 4 offshore wind inspection and maintenance contracts to Deutsche Windtechnik BV. The transaction also includes two staff members involved and is effective from January 1, 2016. It allows further growth for the team and the business, in an environment which is exclusively oriented at the wind industry. The sale involves 5-year inspection and maintenance contracts for the following projects: Eneco Luchterduinen, a 129 MW offshore wind farm owned by Eneco and Mitsubishi Corporation; Prinses Amaliawindpark, a 120 MW offshore wind farm operational since 2007, and under the care of Ballast Nedam since 2009. It is owned by Eneco; Butendiek, a 288 MW offshore wind farm near the Danish border in the German North Sea, owned by a group of international investors; Westermeerwind, a 144 MW offshore wind farm, which is currently being built between Lemmer and Urk in the IJsselmeer. Siemens Nederland is the EPCM contractor for the wind farm and operates it on behalf of the owners. This transfer of offshore energy maintenance contracts is in line with Ballast Nedam's strategy to focus its activities on the working areas of housing and mobility, following the sale of its offshore activities at the end of 2014. Deutsche Windtechnik BV is the Dutch subsidiary of Deutsche Windtechnik, one of the largest German and European independent service providers for the wind industry. Almost 800 employees take care of almost 3000 wind turbines in Germany and across Europe. Deutsche Windtechnik began providing its services in the offshore segment eight years ago. Service teams from the offshore units are currently working at 4 offshore wind farms. Ballast Nedam targets its strategic focus at successfully acquiring and carrying out integrated projects in the working areas of housing and mobility in the Netherlands and internationally. Ballast Nedam also works on projects where it can make a difference for the client with its expert knowledge and skills. Ballast Nedam applies a differentiated market approach for its three divisions. With further industrialization of the building process through the use of innovative modular concepts and standardization Ballast Nedam creates enduring quality at the lowest possible life cycle costs for its clients and society. The Ballast Nedam Depositary Receipt is included in the Amsterdam Small Cap Index (AScX) of Euronext. (http://www.ballast-nedam.com ) PRN NLD SOURCE Ballast Nedam VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone") (TSX: CS) today announced that management will attend the following investor conference: BMO Capital Markets 25th Global Metals & Mining Conference in Hollywood, Florida. Darren Pylot, President and CEO will be presenting on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 5 p.m. ET. The associated presentation will be available at: http://capstonemining.com/investors/events-and-presentations/default.aspx. About Capstone Mining Corp. Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company, focused on copper. We are committed to the responsible development of our assets and the environments in which we operate. Our three producing mines are the Pinto Valley copper mine located in Arizona, US, the Cozamin copper-silver mine in Zacatecas State, Mexico and the Minto copper mine in Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has two development projects; the large scale 70% owned copper-iron Santo Domingo project in Region III, Chile, in partnership with Korea Resources Corporation, and the 100% owned Kutcho copper-zinc project in British Columbia, Canada, as well as exploration properties in Chile. Capstone's strategy is to extend the lives of our current mines with mineral resource and reserve expansions, maintain the optionality on the Santo Domingo development project, prudently progress the exploration portfolio and grow through acquisitions in politically stable, mining-friendly regions. We will pace our growth with our financial capacity, ensuring we retain, as a priority, sufficient financial flexibility to meet the requirements of our existing operations and our committed development projects, while maintaining an adequate cushion to deal with market volatility and operating risks inherent in the mining industry. Our headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and we are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Further information is available at www.capstonemining.com. For further information please contact: Cindy Burnett, VP, Investor Relations and Communications +1-604-637-8157 cburnett@capstonemining.com Related Links http://www.capstonemining.com SOURCE Capstone Mining Corp. -- Publication in American Journal of Cardiology Demonstrates Reduced Target Lesion Revascularization Rates at One and Three Years Post-Treatment Compared to Durable Polymer Everolimus-Eluting Stent -- DURHAM, North Carolina, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Micell Technologies, Inc. announced that data have been published from a retrospective cross-study propensity analysis comparing MiStent Sirolimus Eluting Absorbable Polymer Coronary Stent System (MiStent SES) to XIENCE V Everolimus Eluting Coronary Stent System (Xience). The lead author on this paper is Alexandra J. Lansky, M.D., Director, Yale Cardiovascular Clinical Research Program, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. The analysis was conducted independently by Dr. Lansky and Dr. Robert A. Byrne, Interventional Cardiologist, German Heart Centre, Munich, Germany with funding from Micell Technologies, MiStent's developer. The paper, "Comparison of the Absorbable Polymer Sirolimus-Eluting Stent (MiStent) to the Durable Polymer Everolimus-Eluting Stent (Xience) (from the DESSOLVE I/II and ISAR-TEST-4 Studies)," was published by The American Journal of Cardiology. The abstract is available online. The objective of the propensity analysis was to account for baseline differences in patient risk by comparing clinical outcomes of the MiStent SES to the Xience, a durable polymer coated everolimus-eluting cobalt chromium coronary stent, at 12 months and annually up to three years post-implantation. The pre-specified primary endpoint was target lesion failure (TLF) at 12 months and three years comparing pooled data from the DESSOLVE I and DESSOLVE II studies of MiStent SES to the everolimus-eluting Xience arm of the ISAR-TEST-4 study using pre-specified baseline and lesion characteristics. Clinical and angiographic endpoints were compared between the two treatment groups in the matched cohort. Secondary clinical endpoints included the patient-oriented composite of major adverse cardiac events defined as death, myocardial infarction (MI), and target vessel revascularization. More than 800 patients (MiStent = 153 and Xience = 652) were included, with propensity matching in 204 (MiStent and Xience = 102 each). The propensity-matched analysis demonstrated reduced TLF and target lesion revascularization (TLR) rates at one and three years for MiStent SES as compared to the Xience stent. There was no significant difference in target vessel myocardial infarction (MiStent 1% versus Xience 2%, p=0.57) nor in definite/probable stent thrombosis (MiStent 0% versus Xience 1%, p=0.31). MiStent SES (n=102) Xience (n=102) P-Value TLF 1 Year 3.0% 8.0% 0.08 TLF 3 Year 5.0% 12.5% 0.07 TLR 1 Year 1.0% 6.0% 0.05 TLR 3 Year 2.0% 8.4% 0.04 At three years, there were no differences between the groups in cardiac death (MiStent 2.0% versus Xience 2.1%, p>0.99), or in target vessel myocardial infarction (MiStent 2.0% versus Xience 3.1%, p=0.34). There were no additional late or very late stent thromboses in either group. "Based on data from a well-matched patient population with three-year follow up, MiStent's unique drug-release kinetic may confer benefit within the first year, compared with the benchmark Xience stent," said Alexandra Lansky, M.D. "In addition, it appears that this benefit is sustained up to three years." These results, hypothesized to be due to MiStent's improved device design, are being confirmed by DESSOLVE III, a 1,400 patient, 20 center, all-comers randomized clinical trial, which completed enrollment in December 2015. The DESSOLVE III trial also includes an optical coherence tomography (OCT) sub-study evaluation of 60 patients at six and 24 months post-treatment to evaluate and compare for superiority of MiStent SES against Xience in the progression of in-stent percent volume obstruction and frequency of neoatheroma formation over time. Dennis Donohoe, M.D., Micell's Chief Medical Advisor said, "Given the scarcity of randomized trial data, we felt comparing MiStent to a market leader would provide valuable information to the physician community. We are grateful to Dr. Lansky and her colleagues for conducting a rigorous assessment of data spanning three years and including hundreds of patients. We are encouraged that their findings provide preliminary evidence of the favorable safety and effectiveness of MiStent versus Xience." MiStent SES has CE Mark in the European Union and is being distributed exclusively by STENTYS around the world with the exception of the United States, Canada, China, South Korea and Japan. STENTYS is currently conducting a controlled launch in select countries in Western Europe, the Middle East and Asia. About MiStent SES MiStent SES is designed to optimize healing in patients with coronary artery disease. The rapidly absorbable coating of the MiStent SES, which contains crystalline drug (sirolimus) and an absorbable polymer, is intended to precisely and consistently provide for local drug delivery and limit the duration of polymer exposure. These characteristics potentially reduce the safety risks associated with currently commercially available drug-eluting stents. Using an approved drug (sirolimus) and polymer (PLGA), Micell's patented supercritical fluid technology allows a rigorously controlled drug/polymer coating to be applied to a bare-metal stent. The MiStent SES leverages the benefits of a cobalt chromium coronary stent system, a state-of-the-art, thin-strut, bare-metal stent, which has demonstrated excellent deliverability, conformability and flexibility. EU approval of MiStent SES was supported by clinical data from two studies, DESSOLVE I and II, which demonstrated superior in-stent late lumen loss rates and an excellent safety profile. Four-year data were presented in October 2015 at the 27th Annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Conference by Alexandra Lansky, M.D., Director, Yale Cardiovascular Clinical Research Program, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. Highlights of the data include no target lesion events in the DESSOLVE I study and sustained clinical outcomes in both DESSOLVE I and II through four years' follow-up. There have been no probable or definite stent thromboses in either study. Importantly, MiStent SES continues to show a low combined target lesion revascularization (TLR) rate for DESSOLVE I and II of 2.7% at four years' follow-up, which is consistent with the previously demonstrated lack of late loss progression in the DESSOLVE I study. About STENTYS STENTYS is developing and commercializing innovative solutions for the treatment of patients with complex coronary artery disease. STENTYS' Self-Apposing Stents are designed to adapt to vessels with ambiguous or fluctuating diameters in order to prevent the malapposition problems associated with conventional stents. The company's product portfolio includes MiStent SES, a coronary DES with a new drug delivery mechanism that is designed to match vessel response. MiStent SES is marketed through STENTYS' commercial network in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. More information is available at http://www.stentys.com. Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements include words such as "anticipates," "estimates," "expects," "projects," "intends," "plans," "believes" and words and terms of similar substance in connection with the results of a post-marketing clinical program and the commercialization and sale of the MiStent SES in Europe and other markets. We caution readers that the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are predictions based on our current analysis of, and expectations about, future events and speak only as of the date of this press release. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the following: the results of any further clinical trials and studies; our ability to obtain regulatory approval of the MiStent SES in other jurisdictions; the successful development and commercialization of the MiStent SES in Europe and other markets; the ability of the MiStent SES to effectively and successfully compete with current commercially available drug-eluting stent technologies in Europe and other markets; and our ability to maintain and protect our proprietary stent coating technology. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially and adversely from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statement contained in this press release. Micell, Micell Technologies, the Micell Logo, MiStent and MiStent SES are among the trademarks of Micell Technologies, Inc. Contact for Micell Technologies Arthur J. Benvenuto, Chairman & CEO +1 (919) 313-2104 Related Links http://www.micell.com SOURCE Micell Technologies, Inc. DUBLIN, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/dpmzlp/north_america) has announced the addition of the "North America Occupancy Sensors Market - Growth, Trends & Forecasts (2014-2020)" report to their offering. This comprehensive report forecasts the North America Occupancy sensors market to be valued at $1.19 billion by 2018, growing at a CAGR of 20.92% over the 2014-2020 period. Latest advancements in occupancy sensors such as image processing occupancy sensor (IPOS), intelligent occupancy sensor (IOS), and micro-phonics in the manufacturing of occupancy sensors made grab more market share in a variety of fields. The key applications of occupancy sensors are in residential, commercial, educational, healthcare, retail and hospitality buildings. The largest industry of occupancy sensors is in residential and commercial buildings due to a massive growth in the construction sector in various regions across the globe. The North America Occupancy Sensors Market is segmented on the basis of Type (Wired & Wireless), Technology (Passive Infrared and Microwave), & Industry (Residential, Offices, Hotels, Healthcare, Educational, and Others). Key Topics Covered: Market Definition for North America Occupancy Sensors along with identification of key drivers and restraints for the market. Market analysis for the North America Occupancy Sensors Market, with region specific assessments and competition analysis on regional scale. Identification of factors instrumental in changing the market scenarios, rising prospective opportunities and identification of key companies which can influence the market on a regional scale. Extensively researched competitive landscape section with profiles of major companies along with their strategic initiatives and market shares. Identification and analysis of the Macro and Micro factors that affect the North America Occupancy Sensors market on a regional scale. Companies Mentioned: Honeywell Eaton Schneider Electric Legrand Leviton Cooper Industries Ge Philips Hubbell Automation Texas Instruments Johnson Controls Pammvi Group Lutron Electronics Report Structure: 1. Introduction 2. Key Findings 3. Market Overview & Dynamics 4. Introduction 5. Porter's Five Forces Analysis 6. Market Segmentation 7. Company Profiles 8. Investment Analysis 9. Future of North America Occupancy Sensors Market For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/dpmzlp/north_america Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com SOURCE Research and Markets DUBLIN, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/q585pg/south_korea) has announced the addition of the "South Korea Pressure Sensors Market - Growth, Trends And Forecasts (2015 - 2020)" report to their offering. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 ) The South Korea Pressure sensors market is expected to increase to $0.39 billion by 2018 at a CAGR of 5.56% over the period 2015-2020. The pressure sensors market is mainly driven by increasing demand from the automotive segment that uses pressure sensors to a greater extent for various applications (TPMS, exhaust gas pressure of EGR System). Government regulations mandating the use of pressure sensors in automobiles have also contributed to the growth in demand for pressure sensors. Consumer electronics is analyzed to be the fastest growing application segment for pressure sensors. The increasing production of motor vehicles in South Korea, rapid level of industrialization in this region, lower cost of operations, cheaper land, large population, and a growing middle class are all contributing to the growth of the pressure sensor market over the forecast period from 2014 to 2020. The market is dominated by Piezoresistive and Capacitive sensors as they are heavily used in automotive, medical, petrochemical, Oil and gas industries. Optical and resonant solid-state sensors are expected to exhibit high growth over the forecast period due to their applications in hazardous environments. Technological advancements and nanotechnology applications are the future opportunities for pressure sensor market. The South Korea Pressure Sensors Market is segmented on the basis of Technology (Piezoresistive Sensors, Capacitive Sensors, Electromagnetic Sensors, Resonant Solid State Sensors, Optical Sensors and Others) and End User Industry (Medical, Industrial, Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, Automotive, Consumer Electronics and Others). Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Key Findings 3. Market Overview & Dynamics 4. Introduction 5. Porter's Five Forces Analysis 6. Market Segmentation 7. Company Profiles 8. Investment Analysis 9. Future Of Pressure Sensors Market Companies Featured Bosch Honeywell Infineon Omron Panasonic Freescale Stmicorelectronics Murata Electronics Epcos Ssi Technologies Kavilco Measurement Specialties Mo US er Electronics Sick Ag Keyence For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/q585pg/south_korea Media Contact: Laura Wood Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets NIEUWEGEIN, the Netherlands, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Number 2016.005 EN Not for release, publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Japan, or any other jurisdiction in which such release, publication or distribution would be unlawful. Announcement of: withdrawal of general standing order to acquire any and all depositary receipts of ordinary shares Ballast Nedam offered through the Stock Exchange of Euronext Amsterdam 2,693,282 depositary receipts acquired by Renaissance Infrastructure under the standing order, representing approximately 1.22%% of all issued and outstanding depositary receipts with an aggregate value of approximately EUR 807,984.60 ; ; 218,251,409 depositary receipts currently held by Renaissance Infrastructure, representing 99.07% of the total number of depositary receipts; delisting of depositary receipts on 26 February 2016 ; and ; and initiation of statutory buy-out procedure (uitkoopprocedure) at a buy-out price of EUR 0.30 per depositary receipt on 26 February 2016 . The private limited liability company Renaissance Infrastructure B.V. with its seat in Breda (the "Offeror"), a company controlled by RC Ronesans Insaat Taahhut A.S., and the public limited company Ballast Nedam N.V. with its seat in Nieuwegein ("Ballast Nedam") jointly announce that the Offeror as of today (17:40 PM CET) has withdrawn its offer to acquire any and all depositary receipts of ordinary shares Ballast Nedam ("Depositary Receipts") offered through the Stock Exchange of Euronext in Amsterdam ("Euronext Amsterdam") at a price of EUR 0.30 per Depository Receipt. Depositary Receipts acquired by the Offeror At 17:40 hours CEST today, 25 February 2016, being the expiration time of the general standing order to acquire all Depository Receipts through Euronext Amsterdam for the price of EUR 0.30 per Depository Receipt (the "Standing Order") communicated by the Offeror and Ballast Nedam in the press release issued on 28 January 2016, 2,693,282 Depositary Receipts, representing approximately 1.22% of all issued and outstanding Depositary Receipts (excluding 332,500 treasury Depositary Receipts held by Ballast Nedam) and representing an aggregate value of approximately EUR 807,984.60 (at the offer price of EUR 0.30 per Depositary Receipt), had been tendered under the Standing Order, that have all been acquired by the Offeror. Depositary Receipts held by the Offeror As communicated by the Offeror in the press release issued on 28 January 2016, the Offeror already held 215,558,127 Depository Receipts (representing 97.85% of the total issued capital of Ballast Nedam). Consequently, following the Depository Receipts tendered under the Standing Order, as of the date hereof the Offeror holds 218,251,409 Depositary Receipts, representing 99.07% of the total number of Depositary Receipts. Delisting of Depositary Receipts As announced in the press release of 28 January 2016, Euronext Amsterdam has agreed to co-operate with the delisting of the Depository Receipts from Euronext Amsterdam, effective tomorrow, 26 February 2016. Statutory buy-out proceedings In order to acquire any Depositary Receipts not owned by the Offeror as of the date hereof, the Offeror will commence statutory buy-out proceedings (uitkoopprocedure) in accordance with the Dutch Civil Code, against a buy-out price (uitkoopprijs) of EUR 0.30 per Depositary Receipt (or ordinary share represented by such Depositary Receipt). This means the Offeror will seek to obtain all Depositary Receipts (or ordinary share represented by such Depositary Receipt) not tendered under the Standing Order by court order. For more information, please contact the bank through which you hold your Depositary Receipts. Exchange Agent ABN AMRO Bank N.V. Corporate Broking (HQ7050) Gustav Mahlerlaan 10 P.O. Box 283 1000 EA Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel: +31 20 344 2000 Email: corporate.broking@nl.abnamro.com The Offeror Renaissance Infrastructure B.V. Claudius Prinsenlaan 144 4818 BN Breda The Netherlands Ballast Nedam Ballast Nedam N.V. Ringwade 71 3439 LM Nieuwegein The Netherlands About Ballast Nedam Ballast Nedam targets its strategic focus at successfully acquiring and carrying out integrated projects in the working areas of housing and mobility in the Netherlands and internationally. Ballast Nedam also works on projects where it can make a difference for the client with its expert knowledge and skills. Ballast Nedam applies a differentiated market approach for its three divisions. With further industrialization of the building process through the use of innovative modular concepts and standardization Ballast Nedam creates enduring quality at the lowest possible life cycle costs for its clients and society. The Ballast Nedam Depositary Receipt is included in the Amsterdam Small Cap Index (AScX) of Euronext. (http://www.ballast-nedam.nl) About Renaissance Construction Renaissance Construction is a leading international contractor operating in general building, heavy industries and power, manufacturing and chemical plants, transportation and social infrastructure sectors. With its 30,000+ employees and operations in 20 countries, Renaissance Construction ranked 37th in Engineering News Record (ENR)'s largest international contractor companies in 2015. Its home markets are Russia and Turkey, with significant operations in Turkmenistan as well as CIS region, the Middle East, Switzerland and Germany. Other Renaissance Group businesses include investments in commercial real estate in Turkey and Russia, healthcare concessions and energy generation investments resulting in an asset base of more than USD 5.0 billion. (http://www.ronesans.com) This press release will also be available in the Dutch language; the English version will prevail over the Dutch version. PRN NLD SOURCE Ballast Nedam HOUSTON, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In theatres, April 5th, 2016, the Award Winning film WARx2, 30,000 Army Suicides will be distributed Nationwide Via Tugg, Inc. and profits will be donated to military charities. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160225/337481 People all over the world want answers to the questions about unexplained phenomena associated with suicide among soldiers and the radicalization of youth. Since 2009, over 30,000 US soldiers and veterans have committed suicide. Is this the war of ghosts and spirits, spiritual warfare, mind control, or mind attack using ghosts and spirits? While this topic is very common in the Middle East, Africa and other foreign cultures and traditions, this may be a new concept to most current generations of our Western society. Middle Eastern Radical Terrorists use ghosts and/or spirits to brainwash and recruit young westerners to become terrorists. The film is entitled WARx2 because it illustrates the fact that US soldiers may be fighting two wars. One is the physical war, meaning gun war and the other is the spiritual or unseen war such as the war of ghosts and spirits. Interesting particulars are explored considering ghost fights vs. gun fights. Among other things WARx2 answers the tough question: Why are suicide terrorists like those who perpetuated the attacks of 9/11/2001 able to override fear and pain? WARx2 tries to uncover the link between these two very serious national security issues through research, experiments, and interviews about spiritual attacks, mind attacks, or mind control from ghosts and/or spirits. The filmmakers use all available means, including Almighty God, Science, holy books like the Bible, and various religions, beliefs, cultures, traditions, etc., to explain that the devil (evil spirits) exists and can cause deadly ghostly and spiritual attacks on us living people. It's time to learn the sixth sense, the signs and symptoms, and how and when to protect yourself, family and friends. WARx2 focuses on non-fictional real life accounts and practical aspects of this serious concept and uses all available resources to describe the mechanism of these spirits, ghostly attacks and spiritual warfare. Contrary to popular belief, WARx2 will show that there are ways for people to detect and protect themselves against spirits and ghostly attacks. Viewers of the film, WARx2, will gain understanding about mind control, spiritual attacks, and ghostly attacks that may be sent by people from different cultures. They will also learn how the enemy may use ghosts and spirits to fight and retaliate. Law enforcement officials and civilians will learn how to deal with potential suicide terrorists in airplanes and other areas. With this detailed information, the Strasson Group hopes to prevent future US Military suicides and prevent the youth from joining foreign terrorist groups in the future. For more information visit https://www.tugg.com/titles/warx2 or email [email protected] Phone- 281-908-5060 For more details about WARx2 Film please visit WARx2 pages and websites: www.warx2.com https://twitter.com/warx2themovie https://www.facebook.com/Warx2TheMovie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3695244/ http://www.fandango.com/warx2_179761/movieoverview http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/warx2/ http://www.metacritic.com/movie/warx2 http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=warx2.htm http://www.movies.com/warx2/m70528 Media Contact: Bernie Olaf Director, WARx2, 30,000 Army Suicides Email Phone: 281-908-5060 SOURCE Strasson Group DENVER, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BookFuel, a company that provides professional self-publishing services to aspiring authors, announces the launch of FundMyBook.com to help authors publish with the help of sponsorships and other support by friends and family. FundMyBook.com provides a viable option to any writer who may have been intimidated by the effort required by other crowdsourcing sites or the expense of self-publishing. Authors participating in FundMyBook.com should have a goal of raising a minimum of $5,000. This covers not only the cost of publishing their book through BookFuel, but also the fulfillment of the finished book or other rewards, which the backers choose. BookFuel offers extra support by promoting their authors' campaigns through BookFuel's own social media channels something other crowdfunders do not offer. "This is giving authors who want to professionally self-publish their material another option they didn't have before," said Bill Van Orsdel of BookFuel. "There are stories out there that deserve to be told and shared, and we're helping authors do that with the involvement of the people in their lives who most want to help make that happen." While other crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo allow authors to crowdfund their projects through separate publishing and writing sections, these sections are included in a plethora of other categories, making it difficult for writing projects to stand out. These other crowdfunding sources also don't provide the social media exposure or the help planning for the costs of the reward fulfillment that FundMyBook.com does for aspiring authors. Van Orsdel explained that the idea for FundMyBook.com came about as a result of seeing authors struggle to cover the costs of self-publishing, which can typically amount to thousands of dollars when professional services such as cover design, editing, printing, distribution and marketing are taken into account. Many self-publishing companies also take a percentage of every book sold, which needlessly reduces the author's income. Authors who use FundMyBook.com are charged a 5% platform fee if they apply their funds to publishing through BookFuel. If they decide to take the money raised and use it elsewhere, there is a 10% service fee. Any author who uses BookFuel, whether they use FundMyBook.com or not, keeps 100% of their rights and royalties for every book sold. "We wanted to make self-publishing even easier and more accessible to a greater number of people," stressed Van Orsdel. "This furthers our mantra of eliminating the gate-keeper mentality pervasive in the publishing industry and giving authors the tools and resources they need to be in control of the work they are passionate about." About BookFuel BookFuel was founded in 2011 to offer aspiring authors a self-publishing alternative that would allow them to keep all of the rights and royalties for every book they sell. The company's subscription model delivers all of the services authors need to help them reach their publishing goals. BookFuel launched FundMyBook.com in 2016 to help authors crowdfund the cost of publishing their book. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/337204 SOURCE BookFuel Related Links http://BookFuel.com DALLAS, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Huggies announced its Natural Care Extra Sensitive Wipes has received Innovative Technology designation from Vizient, Inc. the largest member-owned health care company in the country. The designation was based on reviews of Natural Care Extra Sensitive Wipes by hospital experts who attended Vizient's Innovative Technology Expo in November. "Huggies is dedicated to delivering solutions that advance newborn care, and we saw an unmet need for a baby wipe that is gentle enough to be used on premature infants' delicate skin," said Aric Melzl, director, Huggies brand, Kimberly-Clark. "Incorporating nurses' real-world experiences and more than 20 years of wipes research and development, we designed NICU-specific wipes for premature babies. We are honored Vizient has recognized our Huggies Natural Care Extra Sensitive Wipes with the Innovative Technology designation." The annual event provides medical technology suppliers the opportunity to demonstrate their product and gain direct feedback from onsite clinical experts and health care providers on the impact their products may have on improving clinical care, safety, or benefits to an organization's care and business model. "Vizient is committed to providing our members with leading-edge technologies that deliver new clinical and operational benefits from what is currently available in the market today," said Debbie Archer, director of procurement and leader of the Innovative Technology program for suppliers. "After reviewing Huggies Natural Care Extra Sensitive Wipes at our annual Innovative Technology Expo, the hospital experts who attended agreed the product offers unique and incremental benefit over other products available on the market today, and recommended it for the Innovative Technology designation." Huggies Natural Care Extra Sensitive Wipes provide a gentle clean for babies' skin. The wipes, intended for hospital use, were designed in partnership with NICU nurses to gently glide across delicate newborn skin without leaving behind excessive wetness. Huggies Natural Care Extra Sensitive Wipes were created with a mild, water-based formula that is free of alcohol, fragrance and dyes. Vizient is the new brand identity for the organizations formerly known as VHA Inc, UHC, and Novation. Since 2003, more than 2000 new and innovative products and technologies have been submitted through the Vizient Innovative Technology program. Vizient works with member-led councils and task forces to identify and review potentially innovative products. If it is determined that a product is innovative, a contract may be awarded outside of Vizient's competitive bid cycle. To learn more about Vizient's Innovative Technology program, visit www.novationco.com/expertise/technology. About Kimberly-Clark Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries. Every day, nearly a quarter of the world's population trust K-C brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds the No. 1 or No. 2 share position in 80 countries. To keep up with the latest K-C news and to learn more about the Company's 144-year history of innovation, visit www.kimberly-clark.com or follow us on Facebook and Twitter. For media inquiries, contact: Meghan Robson Edelman 312-240-3055 [email protected] Terry Balluck Kimberly-Clark Corporation 972-281-1397 [email protected] [KMB-B] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160106/319953LOGO SOURCE Huggies Related Links http://www.huggies.com BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Electronics amassed a total of 33 awards at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016 including the event's top honor, Best Mobile Handsets & Devices Award, securing status as the most honored company at the show. The awards recognized the Modular Type innovation behind LG's latest flagship smartphone, the LG G5 and Friends, demonstrating how the company is at the forefront of mobile communications. LG G5 and Friends earned top honors from Android Authority, Digital Trends, Trusted Reviews and Ubergizmo, among others. LG G5 & Friends Win At Mobile World Congress LG G5 & Friends Win At Mobile World Congress "The initial response to our new LG G5 has been phenomenal and rewards the effort our experts have made to create something genuinely innovative and unique in the smartphone space," said Juno Cho, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. "The G5 and its Friends modules are aimed at giving consumers a more playful smartphone experience and these awards suggest that we have offered something truly different in the market." LG unveiled the G5 to high acclaim before a 2,000-strong crowd prior to the main MWC event. The flagship smartphone is a brand new design with a sleek, metal uni-body featuring a Slide-out Battery and a Modular Type design that gives a greater smartphone experience. Complete with LG Friends, a collection of companion devices, the G5 can be transformed into a digital camera, Hi-Fi player and more. With an estimated 100,000 attendees, MWC 2016 is the mobile industry's keystone event. Awards won by LG at MWC 2016 include: GSM Association (GSMA) Best Mobile Handsets & Devices: LG G5 4gnews Major Revelacao: LG G5 Alphr Best Smartphone: LG G5 Android Authority Best of MWC 2016: LG G5 / LG Friends Android Central MWC Top Pick: LG G5 / LG Rolling Bot / LG 360 VR Android Pit Best Innovation: LG G5 BGR MWC 2016 Winner: LG G5 / LG Rolling Bot Chip Chick Most Innovative: LG Rolling Bot Computer Bild Best Innovation: LG G5 & Friends Digital Trends Top Tech of 2016 Winner: LG G5 Top Tech of 2016 Audio: LG Hi-Fi Plus Expert Reviews Best of Innovation: LG G5 Best Smartphone: LG G5 Know Your Mobile Best of Innovation: LG G5 Best Smartphone: LG G5 Men's Health Editor's Choice: LG G5 MobileGeeks Best Smartphone: LG G5 Most Innovative Company: LG Electronics Slashgear Best Smartphone: LG G5 Best Accessory: LG Rolling Bot Techradar Best in Show: LG G5 & LG Rolling Bot Best Phone: LG G5 Best Wearable: LG 360 VR Techspot Best of MWC: LG G5 Tom's Guide Best of MWC: LG G5 Tom's Hardware Best of MWC: LG G5 Trusted Reviews Best of MWC 2016: LG G5 Ubergizmo Best of MWC: LG G5 / LG Friends For more information about new LG MobileComm products at MWC 2016, please visit www.LGnewsroom.com/MWC2016. About LG Electronics MobileComm USA, Inc. LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A. Inc. based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the U.S. sales subsidiary of LG Electronics, Inc. a global innovator and trend leader in the global mobile communications industry. LG is driving the evolution of mobile forward with its highly competitive core technologies in the areas of display, battery and camera optics and strategic partnerships with noted industry leaders. LG's consumer-centric products -- including the flagship premium G Series models -- incorporate unique, ergonomic designs and intuitive UX features that enhance the user experience. The company remains committed to leading consumers into the era of convergence, maximizing inter-device connectivity between smartphones, tablets and a wide range of home and portable electronics products. For more information, please visit www.LG.com. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160225/337441 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160225/337442 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160202/328865LOGO SOURCE LG Electronics USA Related Links http://www.lg.com DUBLIN, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Adapt Pharma, Limited (www.adaptpharma.com) today announced the United States (U.S.) commercial availability of opioid antagonist NARCAN (naloxone hydrochloride) Nasal Spray, for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose, as manifested by respiratory and/or central nervous system (CNS) depression. NARCAN Nasal Spray is the first and only FDA-approved naloxone nasal spray. It is now available as a ready-to-use, needle-free, 4 mg concentrated dose of naloxone in a single spray. As the first of its kind, NARCAN Nasal Spray provides an effective alternative to currently available opioid overdose emergency treatments. NARCAN Nasal Spray is not a substitute for emergency medical care. See indications and important safety information below. On January 25, 2016, Adapt Pharma announced a partnership with the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, as part of its work to scale naloxone access efforts nationally. Through this partnership and in close collaboration with state departments of education, Adapt Pharma will offer a free carton of NARCAN Nasal Spray to all high schools in the United States. NARCAN Nasal Spray is available for public interest pricing through U.S. Communities Cooperative Purchasing Program, an organization providing products at a discounted price to local and state government agencies, school districts (K-12), higher education institutions, and nonprofits. Through this cooperative, NARCAN Nasal Spray is available at $75 per dual-pack ($37.50 per dose).1 NARCAN Nasal Spray is also available through AmerisourceBergen Corporation (ABC), Cardinal Health, Inc., HD Smith and McKesson Corporation, as well as online directly through NARCANNasalSpray.com. NARCAN Nasal Spray is also available from select specialty distributors. "The U.S. is facing an unprecedented opioid overdose epidemic, and we are grateful for the opportunity to officially provide the communities on the frontline of this battle a ready-to-use, needle-free, effective emergency treatment," said Seamus Mulligan, Chairman and CEO of Adapt Pharma. "Opioid overdoses can occur anywhere and at any time. By making NARCAN Nasal Spray available, we hope to increase everyone's access to emergency treatments across the U.S., when every second matters." Adapt Pharma is responsible for all U.S. commercial activities for NARCAN Nasal Spray including promotion and distribution. It is available in a carton containing two blister packages, each with a single NARCAN Nasal Spray containing a single 4 mg dose of naloxone hydrochloride intranasal spray. For questions regarding NARCAN distribution, please call 1-844-4NARCAN (462-7226). ABOUT NARCAN NASAL SPRAY NARCAN Nasal Spray is indicated for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose, as manifested by respiratory and/or central nervous system depression. NARCAN Nasal Spray is intended for immediate administration as emergency therapy in settings where opioids may be present. NARCAN Nasal Spray is not a substitute for emergency medical care. Always seek emergency medical assistance in the event of a suspected, potentially life-threatening opioid emergency after administration of the first dose of NARCAN nasal spray. If the desired response is not obtained after 2 or 3 minutes, administer an additional dose of NARCAN Nasal Spray using a new NARCAN Nasal Spray. If the patient responds to NARCAN Nasal Spray and relapses back into respiratory depression before emergency assistance arrives, administer an additional dose and continue surveillance of the patient. If there is still no response and additional doses are available, administer additional doses of NARCAN Nasal Spray every 2 to 3 minutes using a new NARCAN Nasal Spray with each dose until emergency medical assistance arrives. Additional supportive and/or resuscitative measures may be helpful while awaiting emergency medical assistance. Please see Indications and Important Safety Information below. Full prescribing information for NARCAN Nasal Spray, including important safety information, is also available at www.NARCANNasalSpray.com. AVAILABILITY OF NARCAN NASAL SPRAY Once launched, in early 2016, we expect NARCAN Nasal Spray will be available at retail pharmacies. Qualifying group purchasers may source NARCAN Nasal Spray directly from wholesalers and distributors. To place a pre-order immediately or for assistance in sourcing NARCAN Nasal Spray please contact Adapt Pharma's dedicated Customer Service Team at 844-4-NARCAN (844-462-7226) or email [email protected] NARCAN NASAL SPRAY INDICATION AND IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION Indication NARCAN (naloxone hydrochloride) Nasal Spray is an opioid antagonist indicated for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose, as manifested by respiratory and/or central nervous system depression. NARCAN Nasal Spray is intended for immediate administration as emergency therapy in settings where opioids may be present. NARCAN Nasal Spray is not a substitute for emergency medical care. Important Safety Information NARCAN Nasal Spray is contraindicated in patients known to be hypersensitive to naloxone hydrochloride. Seek emergency medical assistance immediately after initial use, keeping the patient under continued surveillance. Risk of Recurrent Respiratory and CNS Depression : Due to the duration of action of naloxone relative to the opioid, keep the patient under continued surveillance and administer repeat doses of naloxone using a new nasal spray with each dose, as necessary, while awaiting emergency medical assistance. Risk of Limited Efficacy with Partial Agonists or Mixed Agonists/Antagonists : Reversal of respiratory depression caused by partial agonists or mixed agonists/antagonists, such as buprenorphine and pentazocine, may be incomplete. Larger or repeat doses may be required. Precipitation of Severe Opioid Withdrawal : Use in patients who are opioid dependent may precipitate opioid withdrawal and acute withdrawal syndrome. In neonates, opioid withdrawal may be life-threatening if not recognized and properly treated. Monitor for the development of opioid withdrawal. Risk of Cardiovascular (CV) Effects : Abrupt postoperative reversal of opioid depression may result in adverse CV effects. These events have primarily occurred in patients who had pre-existing CV disorders or received other drugs that may have similar adverse CV effects. Monitor these patients closely in an appropriate healthcare setting after use of naloxone hydrochloride. The following adverse reactions were observed in a NARCAN Nasal Spray clinical study: increased blood pressure, musculoskeletal pain, headache, nasal dryness, nasal edema, nasal congestion, and nasal inflammation. See Instructions for Use and full prescribing information in the use of this product. Full prescribing information for NARCAN Nasal Spray, including important safety information, is also available at www.NARCANNasalSpray.com. To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Adapt Pharma, Inc. at 1-844-4NARCAN (1-844-462-7226) or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch. ABOUT U.S. COMMUNITIES U.S. Communities was founded in 1996 as a partnership between the Association of School Business Officials, the National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities and the United States Conference of Mayors. U.S. Communities is the leading national government purchasing cooperative, providing world class government procurement resources and solutions to local and state government agencies, school districts (K-12), higher education institutions, and non-profits looking for the best overall supplier government pricing. ABOUT ADAPT PHARMA Adapt Pharma is a privately-held pharmaceutical company committed to positively impacting the lives of patients. Adapt Pharma's strategy is to identify, evaluate, selectively acquire and enhance the value of late stage development, and FDA approved, pharmaceutical products. Adapt Pharma's company headquarters is in Dublin, Ireland and its U.S. headquarters is in Radnor, Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit www.adaptpharma.com. For Media Inquiries Thomas Duddy, Adapt Pharma Executive Director, Communications Mobile: 610-730-0747 Email: [email protected] Access to Public Interest Price is restricted to qualifying entities and subject to terms and conditions. 2016 ADAPT Pharma, Inc. NARCAN is a registered trademark licensed to ADAPT Pharma Operations Limited. NAR4-33-16 ADAPT Pharma, Inc. Radnor, PA. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160225/337690LOGO SOURCE Adapt Pharma Related Links http://www.adaptpharma.com KELOWNA, British Columbia, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Thanks to the collapse of the Canadian dollar, Valiant Recovery, a rehabilitation center in British Columbia, is currently welcoming Americans into its treatment programs for a fraction of the price they would pay for addiction treatment in the United States. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/336911 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/336912 "Canada's loss is the United States' gain," said Royce Dockrill, CEO of Valiant Recovery. "Under the current financial circumstances, clients can receive premium quality addiction treatment at government-funded rehab prices." Because of the 2014 Canadian oil collapse and subsequent central bank initiatives, the Canadian dollar has declined to nearly 70-percent of the U.S. Dollar. Economists do not expect it to return to a healthy 80-percent for at least another year, which means that Canadian goods and services are currently available to Americans at a prodigious 30-percent discount. The cost of luxury addiction treatment at Valiant Recovery, and standard addiction treatment at Valiant Recovery's satellite facility, The Crossing Point, are comparable with United States rehab prices. The luxury program comes to a total of $18,000 per month while the standard program caters to the average income earner at $10,500 per month. Converted from Canadian to U.S. currency, that brings the cost of treatment down to $13,000 per month for the luxury program and $7,500 per month for the standard program. Not only are Valiant Recovery's prices discounted to Americans, but it is also conveniently located near the U.S. border. Both treatment facilities are only 75 miles north of the Washington border town Oroville in Kelowna, British Columbia, which has its own international airport. Kelowna has long been a desirable destination for travelers from the U.S. because of its mild temperatures and scenic beauty. U.S. Passport holders can remain in Canada for up to six months without a visa, which is more than enough time to complete any of the treatment center's programs. Valiant Recovery and The Crossing Point regularly treat U.S. clients who are looking to recover from their addiction and substance abuse problems outside of their usual surroundings. "Travelling in order to attend a rehabilitation program is actually the recommended method of receiving treatment," Dockrill said. "Separating yourself from your usual triggers, destructive relationships and objects of your addiction to place yourself into a secure, neutral environment allows you to safely reconstruct your identity." Now more than ever is the time to take advantage of Valiant Recovery's services. In the world of addiction treatment, discounted services are unheard of. Mental health services of any kind are a highly specialized process that require a very specific operating budget. People who make a U.S. income have a rare opportunity to receive the equivalent of a 30-percent discount on a 30, 60 or 90 day treatment program that will give them the tools necessary to recover from their addiction or substance abuse problem. In addition to the discounted rate, potential clients have the option of applying for financing plans that will allow them to pay for treatment in installments. When a healthy, functional life is what you stand to gain, the reasons not to enroll are few. Money is one of the most common reasons people do not connect with the addiction treatment they need. Inpatient addiction treatment is a considerable investment, and even addicts and substance abusers who are in danger of irreparable physical and mental damage often shy away from treatment because of financial reasons. What they do not realize is that the long term consequences of addiction and substance abuse wreak havoc on finances, relationships, employment standing and personal health. Valiant Recovery and The Crossing Point are privately operated rehabilitation centers in Kelowna, British Columbia. All clients receive private or shared bedroom options, healthy meal plans, private counseling sessions and a variety of recreational opportunities. In addition, the luxury and executive treatment programs offer on-site amenities such as a hot tub, sauna, game room, gym, movie theatre, business center and massage therapy. Clients are able to check into treatment the same day of enrollment. Contact: Royce Dockrill Email www.ValiantRecovery.com 116-7841 Hwy97 Kelowna, British Columbia Canada V4V 1E7 1-877-618-6464 SOURCE Valiant Recovery New Delhi, Feb 20 : The telecom ministry has done an internal assessment on viability of the handset 'Freedom251', being touted as the world's cheapest smartphone at Rs.251 (less than $4), and found such a device cannot be offered for not less than Rs.2,300-2,400, say informed sources. "An internal assessment was done by the telecom ministry from the day the phone was launched. Officials have found that such a handset cannot be offered for less than Rs.2,300-2,400," an official source told IANS. Noida-based startup, Ringing Bells, which is promising the world's cheapest "Make in India" smartphone, on Friday claimed to have received nearly five crore registrations in just two days of opening up for online pre-orders. Ringing Bells president Ashok Chadha told IANS that since the company will hand over 25 lakh "Freedom 251" phones to the people who have registered for it online, the firm is now considering whether to stop the registration process which was supposed to go on till 8 p.m. on February 21. Taking the world by surprise, the firm on Wednesday launched "Freedom 251" smartphone that, it said, has been developed "with immense support" from the government. There are, however, some apprehensions about its final appearance and performance. It looks similar to an Apple iPhone. All the icons of the built-in app are a pixel-to-pixel copy of Apple's iOS icons. "Freedom 251" has a Android 5.1 operating system, a 4-inch qHD IPS display, a 3.2-megapixel primary and a 0.3-megapixel front camera. The smartphone comes with pre-installed apps like Swachh Bharat, Women Safety, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter, among others. Kabul, Feb 20 : At least 35 Taliban militants were killed, over the past two days in military operations in Baghlan and Badghis provinces of Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday. "A total of 15 armed Taliban were killed in Baghlan province since Friday," Xinhua quoted a police official as saying. Seven more militants sustained injuries, the official said. There was no casualty on the security personnel, he added. Dand-e-Shahabudin and Dand-e-Ghori districts have been regarded as Taliban hotbed threatening the provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri. The government forces, in efforts to dislodge militants from the said areas, launched a major offensive around one month ago which has claimed scores of lives from both warring sides as well as non-combatants. Government forces onslaught continues in Dand-e-Ghori and Dand-e-Shahabudin areas amid Taliban stiff resistance. Taliban militants also destroyed several power pylons and thus plunged Kabul into darkness over the past three weeks. Similarly, military operations in parts of the restive Badghis province have left 20 militants dead since Friday, an official said. "A cleanup operation involving units of national army and police was launched in Badghis province on Friday," the official said. Eight security personnel were injured during the operation, the official added. Meanwhile, Taliban outfit in an online statement confirmed clashes in Badghis and Baghlan provinces, claiming its fighters have inflicted casualties on government forces in Sang-e-Atash district of Badghis, besides killing seven soldiers and injuring six others in Dand-e-Shahabudin over the past couple of days. New Delhi, Feb 21 : At least 10 Indian sailors have been rescued from pirates in Ivory Coast, a week after their ship was hijacked off the west African nation, but one more Indian and a Pakistani crew member remain captive, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Sunday. "We have rescued 10 Indians with the help of (the) Nigerian Navy," Sushma Swaraj tweeted. She said the Indian bulk carrier, Genco Maximus, was hijacked with 11 Indian crew members by pirates off the Ivory Coast on February 13. "On our request the ship was followed by Ghana and Nigerian Navy," the minister said, adding efforts were on "to rescue 11th Indian and a Pakistani crew member from the pirates." New Delhi, Feb 22 : A retired professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has come down heavily on Vice Chancellor M. Jagdeesh Kumar for letting the varsity plunge into an "unprecedented crisis" and said allowing police inside the campus was a "disaster" by him. "Within two weeks of your taking over as vice chancellor of JNU, the university has been plunged into an unprecedented crisis over an event, which was not very unusual in JNU or any other university," retired professor Chaman Lal, who also studied in the university before becoming a faculty member there, said in a letter to Kumar. He said young students all over the world in liberal universities learn the lessons of their democratic and civil rights, express concern for social or national and international issues. The best examples were of the US, where, in many universities, during the US action in Vietnam, or even recently, the country's policies in the Middle East of exporting "democracy", causing the disasters in the Arab world or elsewhere had attracted students' wrath against their government but none of them was arrested, charged with sedition or termed anti-national, which happened in JNU Chaman Lal said. He also accused the vice chancellor of having failed to protect the rights of students and the university because him being a misfit in the post. "I really feel sorry for you, you should have known JNU better before accepting this challenge. It is better not to wear the shoes which does not fit one's feet," he said. He also expressed surprise that as a guardian of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Jagdeesh Kumar has not uttered even a word on those "state protected black coated lawyers" who attacked Kanhaiya Kumar. "Professor M. Jagdeesh Kumar, as a scientist, you perhaps have little exposure to social sciences or humanities, whose scholars or students know that in student age, there are rebellious tendencies among youth, even inside home and parents don't kill their children for their rebellious tendencies, over the period by life experiences, youth mollifies," he said. He said that "destroying India" slogan seems to be the handiwork of some vested interests from outside the university to trap JNU students. Chaman Lal also quoted the letter of Vishwadeepak of Zee News, who resigned from the channel citing the reason that how the TV channel conspiratorially trapped Kanhaiya Kumar into the treason charge and planned all stories on JNU with a specific agenda. "As a vice chancellor, you are duty bound to protect the life and limb of all its members - faculty, students and staff. If you cannot, then your moral authority will be greatly affected inside JNU, even if you get full outside support from MHRD and home minister and Delhi Police. Moral authority has a greater force than 'danda' force, sir," Chaman Lal said. Mumbai, Feb 23 : Amid the ongoing Jat agitation in Haryana, actress Mallika Sherawat has appealed to the Jat community to maintain peace. The Jat protesters are demanding reservation under the OBC category in government jobs and educational institutions. The "Murder" actress, who comes from a small village in Hisar district of Haryana , took to Twitter to make her appeal. "My appeal to the jaat community to maintain peace and nonviolence #JaatReservation #jaatagitation #haryana," Mallika tweeted. The actress is known for her bold performances in films such as "Khwahish" and "Murder", and was last seen on screen in the 2015 film "Dirty Politics". Last week, actor Randeep Hooda, who belongs to the Jat community, also urged Jats to refrain from using violent measures and to seek a way out of the problem in a peaceful manner. Statistics show that there has been a mark improvement in the GCE General and a drop in the GCE Technical. Also, there has been an improve... New Delhi : Tokyo, Feb 23 (INAS) Japanese Defence Minister General Nakatani on Tuesday said the country's civilians still have control over the Self-Defence Force. He downplayed the report that senior officials in the SDF demand a bigger role than the civilians in drafting the next three-year overall operation plan, the Japan Times reported. Nakatani said that both the civilians and officials were still deciding who will take part in drafting the plan, which will reflect the new security laws taking effect in March. These will expand the SDF's overseas role. Nakatani rejected the notion that the Joint Staff will have the final authority. "The basic policy will be drafted with the assistance of both civilian and uniformed defence officials," said Nakatani, adding that "ultimately I will be fully in charge of making decisions." His comments were in response to a report that the Joint Staff wants to have a bigger role in drafting the defence ministry's basic policy for the overall operation plan. The law outlining the role of the defence ministry was revised last year, stripping civilian bureaucrats of their authority over uniformed SDF officers and placing them on an equal footing. Following the revision, the defence ministry's operational policy bureau, which drafted basic policy, was abolished. Its mission was partially split between the Joint Staff and the ministry's Defence Policy Bureau. Agra, Feb 23 : The library of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan's eldest son Dara Shikoh was once a popular meeting point of scholars, writers and religious leaders and stands as a testimony to the high level of intellectualism and academic excellence that existed in those times, experts said here on Tuesday. Cultural activists, conservationists and book lovers gathered at the library complex on Tuesday to debate on "Tehzeeb-e-Agra" (culture of Agra) as part of the third edition of the Taj Literature Festival that begins on February 26. The speakers were on the opinion that though Agra's socio-cultural profile was cosmopolitan, modern and secular during the Mughal period, the Taj city lost its sheen and stature after independence. A recent survey by journalism students of the Central Hindi Institute on the 'tehzeeb' of Agra revealed that the city was now considered synonymous with foul language, dirt and squalor, crime, and poor civic sense. "The linguistic vulgarisation is clearly reflected in the obscenities and abuses mouthed by commoners," said Maark Jaat, one of the members of the group that conducted the survey. Some of the experts spoke on Dara Shikoh's unique contribution to scholarship. "His library was the centre of scholarship and excellence. Sufi saints regularly met to discuss mysticism and theology, with Dara Shikoh himself initiating the discussions," said conservationist and writer Rajiv Saxena. Zed Hasan, who wrote the book "Dara Shikoh: Sufi Mystic scholar", was also present. Dara Shikoh (1615-1659) was Shah Jahan's eldest son and would have succeeded him. But he was defeated in battle and subsequently assassinated by his brother Aurangzeb. Dara Shikoh, whose name in Persian means "possessing such magnificence as Darius", set up libraries in many places, including one in Delhi. The best known one in Agra, also called his haveli, was taken over by the British in 1881 to be converted into the Town Hall, according to the 1921 Agra Gazetteer. Dara Shikoh was a great scholar of Persian and Sanskrit. Despite the ravages of wars and his involvement in political crises, he still found time to translate and write books. "His chief mission was to explore the commonality between Hinduism and Islam and how the gap could be bridged," said Ashok Jain, director of the Taj Literature Festival. Several important works including the Upanishads were translated into Persian during his time. The library had enclosures for book binders, painters and translators. Dara Shikoh also brought thousands of books from Europe for this library, according to Syed Jafri, director of the Mirza Ghalib Research Academy. "This structure does not boast of power or royalty but symbolises the spirit of Sulah Kul, Din-e-Ilahi and the later day secularism. The library stands as a testimony to the high level of intellectualism and recognition of academic excellence. It should, therefore, be included in the tourist circuit for visitors," said Surendra Sharma. The red sandstone building is now in the possession of the Agra Municipal Corporation. Some parts of the complex have been encroached upon, but in its heyday, the building had a scholarly ambience. The central hall with highly decorative painted windows, stone-carved shelves with proper ventilation and air passages and natural light filters speak of the taste and passion of Dara Shikoh. In course of time, the library lost its patrons. During the British period, it was briefly used as a court and later for government offices and for the civic body. Taj Literature Festival organising committee chairman Har Vijay Bahia said there was a need to highlight Dara Shikoh's contribution and inform the younger generation about his work. New Delhi, Feb 24 : Craft revivalist and textile conservationist Madhu Jain, who is known for promoting indigenous forms of textile weaving and design, completes 29 years in the fashion industry and will celebrate the milestone through a retrospective showcasing her love towards Ikkat. Scheduled to take place in the capital on Thursday, Jain will showcases her brand-new Uzbek-inspired Ikkats, alongside a work of her signature Andhra Pradesh and Odisha Ikkat. Into these she has infused the Buddhist Mandala design inputs from the rich textile traditions of Thailand. "My fresh collection showcases a confluence of two cultures -- Indian and Uzbek -- that share so much in common. Seeing the unifying threads in the traditional weaves of two different regions is something that enthuses and challenges me," she said. "I then set about seeing how I can amalgamate the beauty in each to produce a totally new weave that nonetheless stays true to the distinctiveness of the individual cultures." Jain said, "In Andhra, for instance, Ikkat fabric is produced on pit looms, and semi-circular frames are used in the preparation of warp and weft. The design sensibility leans towards geometricals." "In Odisha, Ikkat is inspired by temple motifs and also by nature. So, you will notice parrots, flowers, elephants, and deer. And also, Navagunjara, an animal that is considered to be an incarnation of Vishnu. Uou will find it incorporated in Odisha's traditional Pattachitra paintings. I took both sets of elements and combined them to come up with contemporary weaves that remain rooted in the traditional forms," said the designer. Jain's forte lies in developing textiles in distinctive combinations of two different weaving traditions to create new textiles, high on quality and design. In her 29-year career, the designer has experimented extensively with textiles and continues to innovate to craft unique blends that are characteristically true to her natural fibres label. Even for her latest collection, Jain has worked with master weavers to create a convergence of two distinct styles with a colour palette that is largely influenced by Indigo. Beijing, Feb 25 : As China is preparing to host a meeting of G20 central bankers and finance ministers in Shanghai, a proposal to devalue the yuan is only "media hype", said Finance Minister Lou Jiwei. "There isn't such an item on the agenda," Lou said on Wednesday. According to Beijing-based private-sector consulting firm Anbang, China has "no interest whatsoever" in the rumoured proposal by international bankers, the People's Daily reported. In the run-up to the meeting scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Chinese policymakers said they would like to see the participants devote more time and energy on rebooting global economic growth rather than focus on short-term deals that may result in more uncertainties and not solve any problems. In Shanghai, the G20 central bankers and finance ministers will concentrate on topics including global growth, infrastructure investment, the reform of global financial governance, restructuring of sovereign debt, global tax cooperation and the financing of environmental programs, according to Chinese media reports. As for a one-off revaluation of the yuan, Lu Feng, an economics professor with Peking University, said it is "simply implausible". A radical devaluation or major rise in the yuan will not serve the interests of any major economy, Lu said. China will not experience a major collapse because of a recent increase in capital outflows, as long as good investment opportunities exist in the country. If the two largest economies, China and the US, can maintain growth, there is still a chance that the global economy will avoid another crash, Lu added. Mumbai, Feb 25 : Ahead of the presentation of the railway budget for the next fiscal year, key Indian equity indices opened flat on Thursday, with additional caution due to the expiry of contracts for futures and options trading. Among the other peers in the Asia-Pacific region, China's Shanghai Composite fell sharply and so did the Shenzhen Composite, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and Australia's S&P/ASX 200. But Japan's Nikkei 225 and South Korea's Kospi registered gains. Back home, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE opened at 23,105.16 points, as against the previous close at 23,088.93 points. Around an hour into trading, it was quoting at 23,086.56 points, down 2.37 points, or 0.01 percent. The Nifty of the NSe was quoting at 7,008.35 points down 10.35 points, or 0.15 percent. "On Wednesday, the US markets closed in the green as oil prices stabilised, helping the index to recover from an intraday decline of some 2 percent. The European markets ended with a steep decline of about 2 percent led by dip in the commodity stocks," Angel Broking said. Hyderabad, Feb 25 : Prime Minister of Mauritius Anerood Jugnauth has undergone cataract and glaucoma surgery at a private hospital in Hyderabad. The 84-year-old has completely recovered and will be flying back early next week, said doctors at Maxivision Super Speciality Eye Hospital. Kasu Prasad Reddy, chief surgeon and co-chairman at Maxivision, told reporters on Thursday that it was a complicated cataract surgery as Jugnauth also had glaucoma. "Cataract operation becomes difficult with glaucoma and the chances of complications will be more but the operation was smooth," he said. While right eye was operated upon on Sunday last, the surgery on second eye was performed on Thursday. Each surgery lasted for half an hour and did not require any hospitalisation. The prime minister, who is staying at a star hotel, will undergo a checkup on Sunday before returning home. Jugnauth chose Hyderabad as the city has best medical facilities and among eye hospitals, he preferred Maxivision for its advanced technologies, said Kasu Reddy, who performed the second surgery. The PM was scheduled to address the media but backed out in the last minute on the ground that it's a private visit. "One of the main reasons for which I have decided to receive treatment in India was the good reputation of this country in terms of specialists, medical products and surgical procedures," a statement by the hospital quoted him as saying. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Focusing on the development of railway freight corridors, union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday announced the development of the Delhi-Chennai, Kharagpur-Mumbai and Kharagpur-Vijayawada freight corridors on a priority basis. Presenting the railway budget for 2016-17, Prabhu said the railways has proposed to develop freight corridors between Delhi-Chennai (north-south), Kharagpur-Mumbai (east-west) and Kharagpur-Vjayawada on the east coast. According to him, the three projects will be on high priority to ensure structuring, award and implementation in a time-bound manner. The projects will be funded through innovative models including public-private partnership (PPP) mode. He said all the contracts for the civil engineering would be awarded before the close of the financial year. Prabhu said since he assumed office contracts worth Rs.24,000 crore have been awarded against contracts worth Rs.13,000 crore in the last six years. He said as the railways are focused on increasing freight revenue and expand the freight business, it is essential to build more dedicated freight corridors. Mumbai, Feb 25 : A few die-hard fans of Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, who became a free man on Thursday, are celebrating his freedom in style here. Mumbai restaurateur Khalid Hakim, owner of Mughalai eatery Noor Mohammadi Hotel, has started doling out free "Chicken Sanju Baba", a signature recipe created by Dutt in 2010, to all patrons and fans. The special limited offer opened at noon on Thursday and will continue till midnight, Hakim said adding that the place was already overcrowded with eager people waiting to gorge on "Chicken Sanju Baba". "It was in 2010 on one of his visits that he created a special gravy-based chicken dish for us and we named it after him as 'Chicken Sanju Baba' on the menu card. Dutt also gave me his written consent to prepare and sell it to our patrons," said Hakim, who is the third generation owner of the 93-year-old restaurant (opened in 1923). Bandra's famous eatery, "Bhaijaanz Restaurant" is offering a flat 50 percent discount to mark Dutt's release and has launched a new dish "Bhai-Baba Chal Mere Bhai" which will be served free to all customers. "It is a combination of minced mutton and chicken as Salman Khan loves mutton and Sanjay Dutt relishes chicken. This is our humble tribute to their great friendship," said the restaurant manager. Incidentally, "Bhaijaanz Restaurant" is the country's first themed eatery after Salman Khan, opened last year by five fans and friends -- Rahul Kanal, Zafar Yusuf, Tabrez Shaikh, Sohail Siddique and Khursheed Khan -- who also attended the same school where Salman studied. "Everything in our restaurant is inspired by our beloved Salman, his life, his physique, his roles and characters he enacted on screen, his likes and his famed bikes, memorabilia, etc," said the manager of the eatery which opened last year. The restaurant balcony was designed like the one at Salman Khan's home in Bandra Bandstand where thousands of fans flock daily, the items on the menu were named and designed after his movies or his personal tastes and the eatery has proved popular with its clientele. An auto-rickshaw driver and hardcore Dutt fan, Sandeep Bachche was celebrating his idol's release differently by offering free rides for the day to commuters in Bandra. "Many years ago, I was given medical help by the Dutt family and I am forever indebted to them. When he returned to complete his sentence in May 2013, I vowed that I would roam bare-feet till he comes out of prison. Now, I shall start wearing footwear again," Bachche told the media. As a tribute to his diehard fan worship of Dutt, Bachche's friends and colleagues have nicknamed him "Munnabhai SSC", a fact which he proudly tells everybody. London, Feb 25 : Not just your employer or spouse, even computers programmed to monitor people's body language can tell whether they are bored or not, says a study. Body-language expert Dr Harry Witchel from University of Sussex found that by measuring a person's movements as they use a computer, it is possible to judge their level of interest. This can be done by monitoring whether they display the tiny movements that people usually constantly exhibit, known as non-instrumental movements. According to Dr Witchel, if someone is absorbed in what they are watching or doing, there is a decrease in these involuntary movements. "Our study showed that when someone is really highly engaged in what they're doing, they suppress these tiny involuntary movements. It's the same as when a small child, who is normally constantly on the go, stares gaping at cartoons on the television without moving a muscle," Dr Witchel explained. The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, could have a significant impact on the development of artificial intelligence (AI). "Being able to 'read' a person's interest in a computer program could bring real benefits to future digital learning, making it a much more two-way process," the author added. In the study, 27 participants were faced with three-minute computer sessions that ranged from fascinating games to tedious readings from European Union (EU) banking regulations. At the same time, video motion tracking technology was used to measure their movements. For two comparable reading tasks, the one that was most engaging resulted in a 42 percent reduction in non-instrumental movement. "The findings can also help us create more empathetic companion robots which may sound very 'sci fi' but are becoming a realistic possibility within our lifetimes," Dr Witchel noted. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday proposed commissioning of Wi-Fi services at 100 rail stations this year and at a total 400 in the next two years. "The process has begun to introduce Wi-Fi services at stations especially for youth and business travellers. I propose to commission Wi-Fi services at 100 stations this year and at 400 stations in the next two years," Prabhu said while presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17 in parliament. Indian Railways has partnered with Google in this endeavour. Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai, during his visit to India in December last year, said: "In our attempt to provide internet access to people, we have decided to provide Wi-Fi at 400 railway stations in association with RailTel. The first 100 stations will come online by 2016-end." Prabhu also said that this year, a Track Management System (TMS) application was launched. "With this, activities of track inspection, monitoring and maintenance have thus been switched over to an IT platform, and automatic alerts in the form of SMS and e-mails are being generated," the minister said. Fair Use: This site/blog may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as provided for in section Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Per said section, the material on this site/blog is distributed without profit to readers to view for the expressed purpose of viewing the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. Any person/entity seeking to use copyrighted material on this site/blog for purposes that go beyond "fair use," must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Chennai, Feb 25 : Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital on Thursday announced hiving off its commercial finance division into a separate wholly owned subsidiary. In a statement, Reliance Capital said the board of directors approved the transfer of its commercial finance division into a separate wholly owned subsidiary. The move aligns with the existing corporate structure of Reliance Capital having all its operating businesses as a wholly or majority owned subsidiaries. The commercial finance business has an aggregate asset under management (including securitised portfolio) of Rs.15,049 crore as on December 31, 2015. "All operating businesses of Reliance Capital Ltd., except the Commercial Finance business, are held in its wholly or majority owned subsidiaries. Accordingly, to align the overall operating structure, it is proposed to transfer the Commercial Finance division of the Company into a wholly owned subsidiary," Sam Ghosh, executive director and group CEO, Reliance Capital, was quoted as saying in the statement. "This will also facilitate the treatment of the company as a Core Investment Company (CIC) in terms of applicable RBI regulations," Ghosh added. The proposal will enhance management focus on Reliance Commercial Finance and also provide flexibility to the company to unlock value through stake sale, Reliance Capital said. The demerger will be soon filed for requisite approvals and would be effective from April 1, 2016, subject to necessary court and regulatory approvals. As per the scheme, the commercial finance division of Reliance Capital would be merged into Reliance Gilts Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital, and this merged entity would be renamed Reliance Commercial Finance Limited. Reliance Capital would be applying to the Reserve Bank of India for registering itself as a CIC, post the transfer, and this move would also facilitate the application of banking licence, as and when the RBI policy permits. Islamabad, Feb 25 : Pakistan had extended full cooperation to India over investigation in the Pathankot airbase attack, a foreign office spokesman said here on Thursday. "Pakistan extended full cooperation to India over the Pathankot incident," Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said. On January 2, heavily armed terrorists attacked the Indian Air Force station at Pathankot, part of the IAF's Western Air Command. Seven security personnel and a civilian were killed in the attack. All six terrorists were eliminated by the security forces in the gun fight that continued till January 5. Kolkata, Feb 25 : Crediting the Mamata Banerjee government with bringing all-round peace and development in West Bengal, Governor K.N. Tripathi on Thursday said no communal incident occurred in the state under the Trinamool Congress rule. "The state has remained free from political disruptions during the last five years compared with the preceding five years. No incident of communal violence has been reported. All communities are living together in peace and harmony," Tripathi said in his address at the beginning of the 19th session of the assembly. Incidentally, according to union home ministry records, at least 77 communal incidents were recorded in Bengal from 2012 to 2015 in which 20 people were killed. As per details given by union minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju in July last in the Lok Sabha, Bengal recorded 23 communal incidents in 2012 in which nine people were killed; in 2013, 24 such incidents were recorded in which one person died; and in 2014, six people were killed in 16 communal incidents. Between January and July 2015, 14 incidents of communal violence were recorded in which four people were killed and 68 others injured. Pointing to police infrastructural development, including setting up of 83 new police stations and five new police commissionerates, Tripathi said the crime rate in West Bengal had decreased by 60 percent during 2011-2014. Tripathi also credited the Banerjee government for establishing peace in Jangalmahal- the Left Wing Extremism-affected areas of the state, which comprise the forested stretches of Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore districts. "In Jangalmahal, 404 civilians and 48 police personnel were killed in 2009 and 2010. However, during the last three years, no such incident has taken place there," said the governor. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Delhi police were professional in handling an "anti-national and anti-constitutional" event on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, the home ministry said on Thursday in the Rajya Sabha in response to a calling attention motion on law and order situation in the national capital. The home ministry statement, which was tbled earlier in the upper house, was read out by Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju. The minister also backed the police over the Patiala House courts incidents, in which students, media persons and others were roughed up, and said they could not have used force as the space was limited. "The Delhi police was exercising restraint in the Patiala House court complex. It did not use force because there was a full possibility of stampede due to limited space in the court premises and use of tear gas would have interfered with the working of the court," the statement said. The home ministry backed the city police saying they handled recent incidents "professionally". "Recently, police acted as per law in the anti-national and anti-constitutional incidents in the Jawaharlal Nehru University," Rijiju said as opposition members objected, saying "no" in chorus. "A group of students in the university tried to vitiate the atmosphere but it remained limited to the university premises," Rijiju said. "The incidents that took place in the last few days were handled by Delhi Police in a professional manner. Therefore, I am not in agreement that law and order situation in Delhi has deteriorated," the minister added. The statement said Delhi Police shoulder several responsibilities, including safety of VVIPs, security of embassies, security of the Parliament Hhouse and Rashtrapati Bhavan. "In this background, to my understanding Delhi Police is performing efficiently and patiently, and I am not only satisfied with its performance but also would like to compliment and thank the 60,000 personnel of Delhi Police. It is their toil and labour that ensures this city is peaceful," the statement said. "I would request every member of this house to realise that the constabulary of Delhi Police performs its duty 12 to 16 hours a day." Responding to questions raised by members later, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said: "Delhi Police has multi-dimensional responsibilities. Saying they are not fulfilling responsibility will be unfair. I am not claiming Delhi Police is perfect..." "In one year, there has been no incident of communal violence in Delhi; this is also an achievement." Opposition members tackled Rajnath Singh by questioning him as to why JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was booked under sedition charges, but those who attacked students and journalists in Patiala House Courts complex were given bail soon after they were detained. Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said: "There was custodial beating (of Kanhaiya Kumar). On a doctored video, Kanhaiya Kumar has been charged with sedition and on a genuine video FIR was lodged and they were given bail." "The way MLA beat up people, the lawyers... why are they out, why not in jail for five-ten years?" Azad said, referring to a BJP legislator who was seen in a video footage attacking a man at Patiala House courts complex. How long one should be in jail would be decided by the court, Rajnath Singh responded to Azad. To this, the Congress leader said: "What sentence they serve depends on which article they are booked under." Dissatisfied with the home minister's response, Congress members walked out of the Rajya Sabha. The police acted against students of the JNU for allegedly raising anti-India slogans at an event organised on February 9 to commemorate the third death anniversary of Afzal Guru, the parliament attack convict who was executed in 2013. Later on February 15, some lawyers allegedly beat up students and media persons at Patiala House courts complex where Kanhaiya Kumar was being presented before a judge. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday condemned the violence in the Patiala House Court and promised action if Delhi Police was found doing "injustice" in the case. Many journalists, including an IANS reporter, were beaten up by a group of lawyers in the court. BJP legislator O.P. Sharma, who assaulted a CPI activist outside the court, was arrested and released on bail. "The Patiala House Court incident is unfortunate. I strongly condemn it. The MLA was arrested (for) assault and an FIR was lodged against him. The investigations are going on. Let it happen," said Singh. The minister said he spoke to Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi immediately after the violence on February 15 when the case concerning JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, charged with sedition, was taken up. A second round of violent attacks took place in the court two days later. "I said strict action must be taken. If Delhi Police is found to be doing any kind of injustice in the case, the court will take appropriate steps against them. Delhi Police makes all possible efforts to maintain law and order in the capital," added Singh. Guwahati, Feb 25 : The Ulfa faction, which is currently pursuing peace talks with the government, on Thursday decided to lead the movement for Scheduled Tribes status for six ethnic communities in Assam. The Ulfa faction led by its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, which has been negotiating peace since 2010, will meet all the ethnic communities in a convention next month here to chalk out plans to carry forward the join movement for ST status. "For years, the six communities have been fighting for ST status separately and now we will lead them for ST status to be accorded by the centre and protect the interests of all the indigenous communities." "We will try to convince those organisations who opposed the demand for ST status for the six communities," a senior leader of the pro-talks group, who was released on bail in 2008, said. Six indigenous communities including Tai Ahom, Moran, Muttock, Chutia, Koch Rajbongshi and the tea tribes have been demanding for years that the Centre accord ST status to them saying that their ethnic identity and culture is facing threat due to migration from neighbouring Bangladesh. The ST status would bring reservation in jobs and other benefits. Representatives of the six communities had met the Ulfa leaders here on December 22 last year and requested them to lead the movement and put pressure on the Centre. The Ulfa group's decision to lead the ST movement comes at a time when the ruling Congress in Assam and BJP are engaged in a blame game over the issue. While Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said the state government moved the centre repeatedly for fulfilling the demands of the six communities. Kolkata, Feb 25 : Actor Parvin Dabas, who will be seen in "Jab Tum Kaho", says Indians are "not that nice to each other" in their own country, whereas they stick together while abroad. "We are not that nice to each other in our own country but the great thing is when we go abroad, we stick to each other. We do so much 'India-Pakistan' here and in Pakistan, but abroad Indians and Pakistanis are friends," Dabas told media persons here when quizzed on his role in Karan Johar's "My Name is Khan". Known for doing script-backed and character driven movies, the "Khosla Ka Ghosla" and "Ragini MMS2" actor believes in variety. "I have done a lot of different kind of films. You should not just confine yourself to one particular genre, saying this is art. You have to perform in all kinds of films," he said. Debutant filmmaker Vikram Shankar's "Jab Tum Kaho" explores blind dating. Lead actress Ambalika Sarkar makes her debut, while another actress Shirin Guha was seen in "Lootera". New Delhi, Feb 25 : Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda on Thursday thanked Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu for increasing the outlay for rail projects in Himachal Pradesh by more than 51 percent over the last year. He said the state's allocation had been increased from Rs.255 crore in 2015-16 to Rs.310 crore in 2016-17. "It will give a big boost to the rail network in the interiors of the hill state and will benefit not only the common man but also give a big push to the tourism industry by providing greater connectivity," Nadda said in a statement here. Two new projects -- gauge conversion of Pathankot-Joginder Nagar line and a new line from Joginder Nagar to Mandi -- have been approved, said Nadda, who belongs to the hill state. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Female companion, or in some cases husbands, of a pregnant woman can now be present to provide support to her during child birth at public health facilities. The decision by the Union Health Ministry to allow "birth companions" during deliveries at public health facilities can reduce Maternal and Infant Mortality Ratio in the country, said a statement by the ministry. The ministry said the presence of a female relative is a low-cost intervention that has proved to be beneficial to women experiencing labour. Birth companions are women who have experienced the process of labour and provide continuous one-to-one support to other women experiencing labour and child birth. "While several measures have been taken up by the Ministry over the years aimed in reduction in MMR and IMR, this step signifies India's commitment under SDGs to further accelerate initiatives with specific focus on quality parameters of the interventions," the ministry said. The current Infant Mortality Rate of India stands at 52 per 1,000 live births while the Mother Mortality Rate stands at 167 per 1,000. Among the guidelines the ministry set for eligibility includes the birth companion has to be a female relative and preferably one who has undergone the process of labour, should not suffer from any communicable diseases. The World Health Organisation promotes labour companionship as a core element of care for improving maternal and infant health. Ahmedabad, Feb 25 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother, who was admitted briefly to the Civil Hospital in Gandhinagar on Wednesday, is now fine and has returned home, family sources said. According to family members, Hiraba was admitted for a routine health check up and then sent home. Hiraba, who lives near here with her son Pankaj Modi, an officer in the Gujarat information department, was taken to the hospital in an ambulance around 4 p.m. and was admitted to the intensive care unit. Paresh Vora of the hospital said she had age related illness. Her ECG, blood pressure measurement and X-ray tests were conducted. "She was fine and sent home," he said. Sources in the hospital said she had cough and breathing problems. Pankaj Modi termed it a routine check-up and said "she is fine". What is Catholic Data It may strike you as strange but this blog isn't mainly about religion. It is to show the eclectic nature of a Catholic world view--we seek truth no matter the source. I will be posting interesting stuff that I feel is important to Catholics in the modern world to be good citizens, other Christians, or just people of good-will in general, will find helpful information here; well I hope you enjoy it. My main purpose is to show information and some fun, that can help us to make better decisions and be better informed. Let us make a better world for everyone, so the "birds of the air can find rest" editor: Bill Strom Kodungalloor (Kerala) : Kodungalloor (Kerala) Feb 25 (IANS) The prestigious Muziris Heritage Project of the Kerala Tourism department will be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee in Thrissur district on Saturday. The Muziris Heritage Project is an effort to conserve and showcase a culture of more than 3000 years. From as early as 3000 BC, Kerala had established itself as a major centre for spices, with the ancient port of Muziris as its hub. As the focal point of commerce for over 2500 years, this bustling seaport traded everything from spices to precious stones with the Greeks, Romans and the rest of the world. To reinstate the historical and cultural significance of the legendary port of Muziris, the Government of Kerala had initiated the Muziris Heritage Project with active support of the central government. Muziris was a key port and the centre of trade between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean regions. Pepper, precious stones, silk, beads, ivory and pottery were exported from here to West Asia and Rome in exchange for gold coins, glass, wine and wheat. For centuries, the land of Kerala mesmerised Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Arabs, Chinese, Romans and Greeks, welcoming them to come and trade and even settle there. The port of Muziris is mentioned in the 1st century travelogues, ancient Sangam texts and Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder's encyclopaedic work, Natural History. Muziris mysteriously disappeared one day and researches point to the port's location then as the mouth of the Periyar river in Kodungalloor near here. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday said the government will have the draft bill ready for setting up an independent Rail Development Authority to govern the rail tariff and other aspects. Presenting the railway budget for 2016-17 Prabhu said: "We hope to have the draft bill ready after holding extensive stake holder consultations." He said the independence of the proposed institution will be ensured through arms length relationship with the railway ministry and transparent selection process of the people. The government had proposed setting up of Rail Development Authority last year. In January 2016, the ministry came out with its concept paper on the regulatory authority for railways. As per the concept paper the authority will undertake four key functions: fixing tariff, ensuring fair and level playing field for private investment in railways, determination of efficiency and performance standards and dissemination of information. The 14th Finance Commission in its report had endorsed the railway's initiative to set up a tariff authority through necessary amendments to the Railways Act, 1989. Agra, Feb 25 : The Allahabad High Court has warned of 'coercive proceedings' against two senior officials while hearing a public interest litigation to save the forest land around the famous Soor Sarovar bird sanctuary on the Delhi-Agra national highway. The Taj Trapezium Zone Authority chairman as well as the principal chief conservator of forests have been told to be personally present in the chief justice's court or face coercive proceedings. The two officials had neither filed replies nor appeared before the court despite directions on January 4 and 27. According to lawyer Sundeep Agarwal, the high court vide its February 23 order placed on notice the two respondents that if they "do not file their reply by the next date of hearing (March 18), the court will be constrained to invoke its jurisdiction under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, by directing them to show cause why steps be not taken for punishing them for contempt". Petitioner-environmentalist Devashish Bhattacharya told IANS that the forest land around the Keetham Lake was under encroachment. The officials had arbitrarily reduced the eco-sensitive boundary of the lake forest from 10 km to just 250 metres to help the construction of a leather park, he said. A notification is yet to be issued in respect of this eco-sensitive buffer zone between the Mathura Oil Refinery and the world heritage monument the Taj Mahal, for whose conservation and protection from pollution a series of initiatives have been taken. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Ten Indians are among the 16 crew members rescued in Nigeria from a ship hijacked off the Ivory Coast earlier this month, a senior official said on Thursday. While one pirate was killed and six pirates apprehended during the rescue operation, one Indian and a Pakistan national were still in the custody of the other pirates. "Merchant vessel Maximus owned by Dubai-based Warm Seas company with a crew of 18 was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on February 11," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here. The crew had 11 Indian seamen, including the ship's captain. "The vessel was under charter to a South Korean company and was in its bunkering position when the incident occurred," he said. According to the spokesman, the Indian mission in Ivory Coast alerted the country's authorities on February 12 besides alerting the Indian missions in Ghana and Nigeria as the vessel was suspected to be sailing in that direction. "On our request, the Ghana naval ships operating in the region were tasked to track the ship," he said. The pirates changed the name of the vessel to MT Elwins and it was followed by the mother ship of the pirates. The vessel, instead of entering the waters of Benin, steered southwards and entered international waters towards Nigeria on February 14. "The issue was taken up with the Nigerian authorities, after which the Nigerian navy immediately launched operations to locate the vessel," Swarup said. He said five Nigerian ships were deployed for the operation and the hijacked vessel was finally intercepted by the Nigerian navy around 7.30 p.m. on February 19. "During the operation, one pirate was killed and six pirates were apprehended," the spokesman said. "No crew member sustained injury during the operation. Sixteen crew members were rescued by the Nigerian navy, including 10 Indians." However, two crew members - an Indian identified as Rohan Ruparelia and a Pakistani - were taken hostage by the pirates when they disengaged. "Our mission in Abuja (Nigeria) has recommended that the rescued crew members proceed back to India to their families. An Indian doctor has also been sent on board the Maximus to offer trauma assistance to the crew members," Swarup said. "The Nigerian authorities are presently interrogating the apprehended pirates and are also analysing the data seized from the pirates in order to identify the location of the hostages," he said. The Indian mission in Nigeria is also in touch with the shipping company as well as the family members of the Indian national taken hostage and efforts were on to secure his safe release. Ahmedabad, Feb 25 : The Pakistani Marine Security Agency (PMSA) on Thursday impounded two more Indian boats off the Gujarat coast along with 12 fishermen. Pakistan officials had earlier taken into custody 16 Indian boats along with 88 fishermen. As many as 53 Indian fishing boats with more than 315 fishermen have been seized by the neighbouring country's agencies since October last year. The two boats (one from Okha and the other from Porbander) with a dozen fishermen were captured by the Pakistani marines near the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in the Arabian Sea off Jakhau coast, National Fish Workers Forum secretary Manish Lodhari said. He said the two boats had ventured into the sea for catching fish some five days ago. Earlier on February 7, a day after the arrest of 11 Pakistani fishermen and their boat from Indian waters off the Gujarat coast, the PMSA had seized two Indian boats off the Okha coast with 12 fishermen on board. Lodhari said that the Pakistani officials had seized over half a dozen Indian fishing boats along with more than 50 fishermen on January 25 from near the IMBL off the Porbandar coast. On December 20 last year, 10 Indian boats with 68 fishermen were also captured by the PMSA off the Jakhau port of Gujarat. Almost a dozen Indian boats with over 60 fishermen were captured by the Pak Marines in October last year, according to Lodhari. Mumbai, Feb 25 : A few diehard fans of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who became a free man on Thursday, celebrated his freedom in style here. Mumbai restaurateur Khalid Hakim, owner of Mughlai eatery Noor Mohammadi Hotel, started doling out free "Chicken Sanju Baba", a signature recipe created by Dutt in 2010, to all patrons and fans. The special limited offer opened at noon on Thursday and would continue till midnight, Hakim said adding that the place was already overcrowded with eager people waiting to gorge on "Chicken Sanju Baba". "It was in 2010 on one of his visits that he created a special gravy-based chicken dish for us and we named it after him as 'Chicken Sanju Baba' on the menu card. Dutt also gave me his written consent to prepare and sell it to our patrons," said Hakim, who is the third-generation owner of the 93-year-old restaurant (opened in 1923). Bandra's famous eatery "Bhaijaanz Restaurant" was offering a flat 50 percent discount to mark Dutt's release and launched a new dish "Bhai-Baba Chal Mere Bhai" to be served free to all customers. "It is a combination of minced mutton and chicken as Salman Khan loves mutton and Sanjay Dutt relishes chicken. This is our humble tribute to their great friendship," said the restaurant manager. Incidentally, "Bhaijaanz Restaurant" is the country's first themed eatery after Salman Khan, opened last year by five fans and friends -- Rahul Kanal, Zafar Yusuf, Tabrez Shaikh, Sohail Siddique and Khursheed Khan -- who also attended the same school where Salman studied. "Everything in our restaurant is inspired by our beloved Salman, his life, his physique, his roles and characters he enacted on screen, his likes and his famed bikes, memorabilia, etc," said the manager of the eatery which opened last year. The restaurant balcony was designed like the one at Salman Khan's home in Bandra Bandstand where thousands of fans flock daily, the items on the menu were named and designed after his movies or his personal tastes and the eatery has proved popular with its clientele. Colaba's popular Gokul Bar and Restaurant owner Dinesh Pujary -- a Dutt fan -- offered 300 chilled beers on-the-house between 3-6 p.m. to celebrate the actor's release. "We were overwhelmed to see queues of people outside waiting for their one free bottle of any beer of their choice... We completed the freebie offer within the first two hours," said the hotel's marketing advisor Albert Amanna. An auto-rickshaw driver and hardcore Dutt fan, Sandeep Bachche was celebrating his idol's release differently by offering free rides for the day to commuters in Bandra. "Many years ago, I was given medical help by the Dutt family and I am forever indebted to them. When he returned to complete his sentence in May 2013, I vowed that I would roam bare-feet till he comes out of prison. Now, I shall start wearing footwear again," Bachche told media persons. As a tribute to his diehard fan worship of Dutt, Bachche's friends and colleagues have nicknamed him "Munnabhai SSC", a fact which he proudly tells everybody. Ranchi, Feb 25 : US Ambassador to India Richard Verma on Thursday met Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das to discuss the potential for investment and business in the state. Verma said that the current $150 billion business between India and America is set to go up to $500 billion. Raghubar Das told Verma that there was ample potential of investment in Jharkhand in the areas of mining, automobile, IT, defense, education and clean energy. "The state has 40 percent minerals of the nation. Land bank has been established to sort out the problems of land acquisition. Jharkhand investment office has been opened in New Delhi where state related information can be secured," the chief minister stated. Ambassador Verma has been on two days' visit to Jharkhand. He met regional business leaders at a programme hosted by the Jharkhand Chapter of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to discuss opportunities for deeper and broader economic engagement between U.S. and Indian companies. At the conclusion of his visit on Thursday Ambassador Verma said, "I had fruitful meetings with Chief Minister Raghubar Das and Governor Draupadi Murmu regarding the opportunities for strengthening collaboration in trade and investment, education, health, and anti-human trafficking efforts in Jharkhand. Lucknow, Feb 25 : BJP president Amit Shah said on Thursday the party will get a majority in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and exhorted its cadres to inform the people about the Narendra Modi government's achievements. "There is no challenge before the party in 2017 as the state's people are fed up with caste politics unleashed by parties like the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)," the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said while speaking to workers after inaugurating a renovated party office on the Vidhan Sabha Marg here. Shah warned them to be careful against divisive politics of regional politicians and ensure that a development-oriented BJP government was voted to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017. He also sought to know from Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi whether he was with nationalist or divisive forces like the ones who raised anti-India and pro-terrorist slogans at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus in Delhi recently. New Delhi, Feb 25 : The Supreme Court on Thursday barred the media from reporting the proceedings for making agitators accountable for the destruction of public and private properties during agitations as they were "sensitive". Recording at the hearing's commencement that they "required the media not to report the proceedings of this case, which are sensitive in nature", a bench of Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice C. Nagappan in their order said: "We are recording the same in our order and hereby affirming our direction that the media (electronic as well as print) shall not report the proceedings of this case till the final decision." The court then referred the issue to be heard a three judges bench as on an earlier occasion in 2009, the same issue was dealt by a three judge bench. "During the course of hearing, a counsel for the petitioner invited our attention to the decision of this court in destruction of public and private properties, wherein the issue, which is subject matter of consideration, was debated upon. "We are also informed by a counsel that the above matter was dealt with by a division bench of three judges. Since the issue under consideration is important, and the earlier matter was also considered by a bench of three judges, we are of the view, that this matter should also be placed before a division bench of three judges," the court said in its order. It then directed the registry to "seek appropriate instructions in this behalf from the chief justice of India for listing of this case" as it directed further hearing of the matter in the first week of April. The apex court on February 24 had said it would lay down guidelines to act against people damaging public property and holding people to ransom in the course of their agitation as it had wondered where was the country heading. The court order prohibiting the media from reporting the proceedings in the case came in the course of the hearing of a plea by Gujarat Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel challenging the invoking of sedition charges against him. Gujarat Police has accused Hardik Patel of sedition for an incident in Surat wherein the Patidar leader was caught on camera telling one of his followers that instead of committing suicide, he should take revenge on the policemen. New Delhi, Feb : Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday won the appreciation of Lok Sabha members, including those from the opposition as well as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, while replying to questions in the lower house. The road transport and highways minister, through his replies during the question hour in the lower house, not only satisfied the opposition members but also clearly impressed them. The opposition parliamentarians could be seen thumping the desk and heard making positive remarks after the minister's replies. Gadkari, responding to questions on increasing accidental deaths on Indian roads, stole the show shortly before Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu entered the Lok Sabha to present the railway budget for 2016-17. Gadkari earned praise from opposition members when he said that his ministry had decided to make mandatory air-conditioning of drivers cabins in trucks. He was again hailed by parliamentarians cutting across party lines when he said: "We are planning to establish trauma centres after every 100 km on national highways." The minister admitted that accidental deaths in the country top such lists across the world and was a matter of great concern for him and his ministry. He cited the steps taken by his ministry to curb the menace, which was again welcomed by the Lok Sabha members. Gadkari said he refused to accept that most road accidents took place due to the faults of drivers. "I don't agree that most accidents take place due to faults of drivers only. Road engineering is a major cause. So I have told officers who make (Detailed Project Report) DPR that they will be punished if there were faults in road engineering," he said. He also urged members to make their drivers undergo mandatory eye checkup to see whether they suffered from cataract or not. The entire house hailed Gadkari for his candid answers, including Speaker Sumitra Mahajan who observed: "The minister has satisfied everyone through his answers." There were light moments too when Gadkari said, "It will embarrass you, which I don't want to but it is fact: How many of you go to a RTO office for a driving licence?" The entire house burst into laughter amid thumping of desks by the members. Mediate with Steve Pearl My knowledge of employment law, neutrality, and natural tenacity allow me to resolve cases effectively. Contact Haward Cho at Haward@ADRServices.org or (213) 683-1600 to calendar a mediation. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Functioning for nearly the whole day after a long time, the Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed an intense debate on the recent incidents in JNU and Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide, even as HRD Minister Smriti Irani's reply was cut short due to protests which lead to its adjournment for the day. As the house saw proceedings without any disruptions due to protests, the debate saw several heated-up moments, where the treasury and opposition members engaged in fierce arguments. Taking on the opposition over their criticisms, Irani, the human resource development minister, said she is called the "anpadh mantri" (illiterate minister). "I do not claim I am as erudite a speaker as (CPI-M general secretary Sitaram) Mr. Yechury. But since people blame me for having a flair for drama, let me quote from 'Macbeth' and say "fair is foul and foul is fair" that is how 'Macbeth' began indicating that nothing is as it seems," she said starting her reply to the short duration discussion. She even said that she has been cautioned over getting agitated. "I have been cautioned, Smriti don't get agitated," the minister said. Defending the government actions, Irani said it was not the first time police entered the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus. She also said that she talked to Vemula's mother often, but people don't know about it. However, touching upon the JNU issue, Irani referred to "Mahishasur Martyrdom Day" observed in JNU, when the scene got ugly. As she read out a document on Mahishasur Puja, referring to the demon slain by the goddess Durga, which she said came from JNU, it created a huge uproar among the opposition. "When they went to JNU they wanted insult of gods and goddesses be within freedom of speech. What was the need for (Congress vice president) Rahul Gandhi to accept such insult of gods," Irani said amid ruckus in the house, leading to its adjournment for the day. The debate, which was started by Communist Party of India-Marxist's (CPI-M) Yechury, saw opposition parties condemning the police action in the JNU incident, and violence at Patiala House court, as well a the circumstances around the suicide of Vemula, following his suspension from the University of Hyderabad. Yechury accused the NDA government of attempting to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra and demanded that a house committee probe the issues arising out of the unrest in JNU, Hyderabad University and other institutions. The government's undue "interference which is not sanctioned by the law" in the working of the educational institutions is aimed at promoting their agenda of Hindu Rashtra, he said while initiating a debate on the issue. "It's an effort to replace secular India with a Hindu nation," he said. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, meanwhile said the government agreed that there should be freedom in universities, but questioned how can "vandalism" be condemned while "sedition" is called free speech. "What happened in Patiala House (court) is condemnable. But vandalism is condemnable, and sedition is free speech? Nobody can subscribe to this ideology and least of all should Congress party subscribe to this ideology," Jaitley said, intervening in the debate. His reference to "vandalism" was to the incidents on February 15 of some students and media persons being roughed up at Patiala House courts complex where Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested for sedition, was being presented before a judge. "Of course vandalism should be condemned," Jaitley said. "We all know what (executed parliament attack convict) Afzal Guru represented... He was not protesting against 'Manuvaad',' capitalism', or 'Brahmanism' that they will raise slogans against Manuvaad and capitalism on his martyrdom day," the minister said, referring to the event organised on February 9 at the JNU where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. BJP's Bhupendra Yadav said that what has been happening in the JNU is not "freedom of expression" but "expression of freedom from India", referring to campus events where students allegedly voiced support for Kashmiri separatists. "Freedom of expression is there in the constitution. But what happened in JNU, was it freedom of expression or expression of freedom from the country? Was it freedom of speech or speech for freedom?" he asked. New Delhi, Feb 25 : The NHRC on Thursday issued notice to the Delhi government's health department and Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi over alleged inaction in the abduction of a pregnant woman from a hospital here. "The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that an expectant woman went to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan hospital on February 6 for delivery along with her mother-in-law. "However, she was allegedly lured away by some persons from the hospital premises and returned home only the next day evening in a delirious condition without her newborn child," a commission statement said here. Following the incident, her husband informed the Delhi Police but no action was taken. "The commission has observed that the report raises the serious issue of violation of human rights, following which a notice has been issued to the health department and the police commissioner, calling for a report in the matter within two weeks." According to a report with the NHRC, the victim could not tell where she was taken and where she delivered the child except that some persons dropped her at the Bhajanpura traffic signal. "The family alleged that she was abducted by some persons in collusion with the hospital staff who got her delivery done," the statement added. Shillong, Feb 25 : Police seized a huge cache of explosives, including 47 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), on Thursday, averting a major crime in Meghalaya's East Garo Hills district. The IEDs were planted by rebels of the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) and the United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) in Doengkhugre area and in a village in Durama hill range, police said. "Altogether, we seized 40 IEDs and at least 15 Molotov cocktail bombs from two locations and thus averted a major tragedy," Davies Marak, district police chief of East Garo Hills, told IANS. He said a suspected overground worker of the GNLA, who is believed to have planted IEDs, has been arrested. However, police refused to divulge his identity citing security reasons. Marak said the seizure of bombs followed a fierce gunfight with GNLA rebels led by their deputy commander-in-chief Rupanto Marak, who escaped from the spot. "SWAT commandos are still continuing with the combing operation to track down the escaped rebels," the police official said. The GNLA, fighting for a separate Garoland in western Meghalaya, has also forged an alliance with Bangladesh-based rebel group A'chik Special Dragon. It also has links with the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak Muivah, United Liberation Front of Assam and National Democratic Front of Bodoland. New Delhi, Feb 25 : About 400 railway stations across the country would be re-developed through the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu announced on Thursday while presenting his budget for 2016-17. "In a landmark decision, the cabinet has approved re-development of 400 stations through PPP. This is expected to be the largest transit oriented development in the world and, hence, involves complex decision making," he said. Apart from this measure, the ministry is exploring availing multilateral financial investments to develop other stations and partnering with state governments, he said. "On the basis of a bankable structure for private participation, it is proposed to undertake a bidding process for a few large and medium stations during the course of the next financial year," Prabhu said in his 75 minute budget speech in English. The PPP cell will also be strengthened to improve ease of doing business with the railways. In view of urgency to provide connectivity to ports across the 7,517km coastline, the minister said rail connectivity to ports at Nargol and Hazira in Gujarat would be taken up in the ensuing fiscal under PPP. To expand freight business, the railways plans to build three more dedicated freight corridors - north-south connecting Delhi to Chennai, east-west from Kharagpur in West Bengal to Mumbai and east coast from Kharagpur to Vijayawada. "The three freight corridors will be put on high priority to ensure structuring, award and implementation in a time-bound manner through innovative financing mechanism, including PPP," Prabhu said. The railways will develop new frameworks for PPP mode to spur rail infrastructure growth, he said. "We will be at the forefront of infrastructure growth by forming joint ventures with states, developing new frameworks for PPP, scouting international markets for rupee bonds or engaging with multilateral and bilateral agencies," the minister said. Admitting that the magnitude of investment calls for abandoning the business as usual approach and innovating to find new ways of sourcing funds and executing projects, he said the capital plan for 2016-17 had been pegged at Rs.1.21 lakh crore. "We have for the first time incorporated a statement in the 'Pink Book' of sanctioned works a list of partnership projects being undertaken with state government and other agencies," Prabhu added. Rome, Feb 25 : A large-scale deployment of Western troops in Libya is "unthinkable" and "absurd", Italy's Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti said on Thursday. "Can you imagine... what it means to intervene with a military occupation? It is unthinkable, it is absurd, no one has ever considered it," Pinotti told the private Canale 5 TV channel amid reports that special forces are already on the ground to fight the Islamic State militant group. She declined to comment on a report by Le Monde newspaper of a secret French operation. "Unilateral action has never helped Libya," Pinotti said in an apparent reference to air raids against then Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 that were initially conducted by France, Britain and the US. "As soon as the Libyan government is installed and begins to stabilise the country, it will need security back-up such as trainers and protection forces, something Italy is willing to do," she added. Libyan troops should fight on the ground against IS, but only upon the request of a national unity government, Pinotti said. Lawmakers from Libya's internationally recognised parliament in Tobruk have yet to hold a confidence vote on the proposed UN-backed unity government amid in-fighting and reports of threats against MPs. The North African country has descended into chaos after the NATO-backed ouster of long-time dictator Gaddafi in 2011, with rivals governments in Tobruk and Tripoli, each backed by a multitude of militias. IS, which has come under pressure in Syria and Iraq from the international coalition against it, has exploited the turmoil in Libya to expand its presence there and has recently threatened its oil installations. Italy will allow armed US drones to depart from Sigonella air base in Sicily as part of defensive missions to protect special forces from IS attacks in North Africa, Premier Matteo Renzi said earlier this week. Italy will authorise the defensive military strikes on a "case by case" basis, Renzi said in an interview on Tuesday with RTL radio. A member of the anti-IS coalition and Libya's biggest buyer of oil and gas, Italy has a particular interest in defeating Islamist militias and stabilising its former colony, where the turmoil is fuelling the smuggling of tens of thousands of migrants to Europe across the Mediterranean. Agartala, Feb 25 : Tripura's Left Front government Thursday night criticised Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu for neglecting the northeastern states in the 2016-17 rail budget. "The railway budget presented in the parliament by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has neglected the northeast by not providing adequate funds for the new constructions and on going constructions of railway infrastructure in the region," Transport Minister Manik Dey told reporters. "Six years after the finalisation of a new India-Bangladesh railway project -- Agartala (India)-Akhaura (Bangladesh), the railway minister has allocated only Rs.150 crore while the project required Rs 1,000 crore," he said. The Agartala-Akhaura railway project was finalised in January 2010 when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during her visit to New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the railway project with Hasina during his visit to Dhaka in June last year. "The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) led central government prepared the railway budget to appease the corporate sector," Dey said adding that no new trains were introduced and no major railway project announced in the budget for the northeastern region comprising eights states. He said that Tripura's three MPs - Jitendra Chowdhury, Sankar Prasad Datta (both Lok Sabha) and Jharna Das Baidya (Rajya Sabha) - and the state government had urged the prime minister and railway minister on a number of times to set up a railway division and a railway recruitment board in Tripura, but the budget has neglected all these. "Though there are proposal to increase allocation of meagre funds for some of the railway projects in the northeastern states, but there is no specific reference about many on going projects in the region," Dey added. February 25 : Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] polit bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan has launched a blistering attack on the State government for its decision to change the logo of the Kudumbashree mission, the women Self Help Group (SHG). The new logo of the Kudumbashree mission is a lotus, which incidentally is the election symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Taking exception to the decision to change the logo of Kudumbashree mission, Pinarayi Vijayan posed a few pertinent questions through a Facebook post on Thursday. Asking why the logo was changed, he wrote that the people had the right to know who was behind the decision to effect the change. He also sought to know who designed the logo, who sanctioned the change, and what was the estimated cost for effecting the change. Around 25,000 products from Kudumbashree bearing the old logo was already on the market, he wrote, wondering what was wrong with that logo. He concluded his post by taking a dig at Oommen Chandy and the Congress, saying that the people are capable of understanding the politics behind the active role played by Oommen Chandy in making lotus the new logo of Kudumbashree. The CPI(M) had in a statement the other day condemned the decision to change the logo of Kudumbashree, alleging that the move was aimed at appeasing the BJP. Stating that the Kudumbashree mission functioned under Social Welfare Minister M K Muneer, the statement alleged that Muneer and Oommen Chandy were aware of the change and that the Chief Minister was helping the RSS and Hindutva forces dividing the society. According to a report in the Times of India, even as Kudumbashree sources acknowledged that the new logo resembled the BJP election symbol, they said that the logo was changed to make it look more appealing when products are exported to other countries. The logo change assumes a political connotation since it comes at a time when the CPI(M) has been accusing the Congress and the BJP of being hand in glove to script the downfall of the CPI(M) in the State. The Kudumbashree mission was launched by the Left Democratic Front Government in 1998 as a microcredit-based scheme aimed at poverty alleviation and women empowerment. The number of prospective tenants continued to rise in June along with the average branch registering 79 new tenants per branch compared to 70 on average in May. Year-on-year, this figure is the highest recorded for the month of June, according to the latest Private Rented Sector report by ARLA Propertymark. Despite the average branch registering a record number of tenants, it is still down on pre-lockdown figures when there was an average of 82 prospective tenants registered per branch in February. The number of rental properties on the market in June continued to pick up, with the number of properties managed per branch reaching an all-time high for the month of June. Regionally, Yorkshire and Humberside saw the highest number of properties managed, with an average of 264 per branch and Wales had the lowest number of properties on their books, with an average of 104 per branch. The number of tenants experiencing rent rises increased in June, with 29% of agents witnessing landlords increasing rent compared to just 14% in May. This continues to be the lowest number of rent increases for the month of June since 2016. The average time properties were empty between tenancies decreased to four weeks in June from five weeks during May. This is still the longest period on record properties have remained void between tenancies for the month of June, with a previously consistent figure of three weeks. Phil Keddie, president at ARLA Propertymark, said: Our latest figures show that the rental market is continuing to pick up following the COVID-19 lockdown. The record-breaking supply of rental stock and demand from tenants for this time of year paints an optimistic picture for the summer months, indicating that the market will be more active than the usual seasonal lull. As the market continues to recover from the pandemic, its essential that everyone continues to keep up with their rent in order to sustain the market and help boost the economy during these uncertain times. Mobile crane that crashed into Woodlands POSB branch removed SINGAPORE - Work to remove the mobile crane that crashed into a Housing Board block in Woodlands Town Centre was finally completed by 3am on Thursday (Feb 25) morning. It took just minutes for the crane to be hoisted off the ground and moved away from the wall. Preparation works began around midnight, when the roads were closed for two rescue cranes to move into the site. They were there to extract the crane which had fallen on its side and become stuck in the side of a POSB bank branch at 7am on Wednesday morning. The crane had skidded off the road and fallen onto its side while making a turn at the junction of Admiralty Road and Woodlands Centre Road. No one was injured in the incident, which left a hole around 2m wide in the side of the POSB branch. On Thursday morning, construction workers in hardhats were seen entering the large hole which the arm of the fallen crane had punched into the side of Block 2A Woodlands Centre Road. Other workers fastened thick cables from the two rescue cranes around the fallen machine, as curious onlookers gathered behind a police cordon. Part of the northbound side of Woodlands Centre Road was closed for the operation. Among the bystanders was taxi driver Mohd Anuar Kasim, 59, who was driving the night shift. "I was going to get a coffee so I wanted to see what was happening," he said. Watching the operation from the third-floor common corridor of the neighbouring Block 1A was resident Mohamed Noor Abdullah, 57. The road closure began around midnight and the two cranes were in position by 1am, he said. They spent a while removing debris from the site before work began on the fallen crane. At around 2.20am, the two cranes began to lift the fallen crane and manoeuvre it out of the building. With loud bangs and crashes, the crane arm started to emerge. With its arm freed, the suspended crane was pulled slowly away from the building and hoisted into the air. The two cranes slowly manoeuvred the fallen crane towards the road, snapping a few branches off a nearby tree in the process. By 2.30am, the fallen crane was being held aloft in the middle of the junction of Admiralty Road and Woodlands Centre Road. The crane, still on its side, was lowered into the bed of a waiting trailer. Removing the crane from the building took barely 10 minutes, but it was not until 3am that the fallen crane was fastened to the trailer and the two rescue cranes could relinquish their load. At around 3.05am, the trailer and its cargo finally set off along Admiralty Road. Earlier in the day, engineers from the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) had assessed the damage. Part of an adjoining linkway structure was also damaged. According to a BCA spokesman, the structural integrity of the building was not affected by the crash. Array Architects Welcomes Dwight Young, AIA "Dwight's dedication to improving healthcare environments is proven by his loyal client following in the Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland markets." - Andy Vogel, AIA, LEED AP, Principal & Studio Director Array Architects is pleased to announce that Dwight Young, AIA, joined the firm's Columbus Office as a Senior Associate in late 2015. With an emphasis on strategic organizational development, Dwight approaches each project with lean operations, clinical excellence and ROI as priorities. Dwights healthcare experience, coupled with his in-depth understanding of the technology necessary to create BIM-driven documents, makes him a highly-regarded resource by clients and collaborators alike. Dwight has joined the firm's healthcare bloggers with his thoughts on Behavioral Health and lessening the overcrowding often found in emergency departments across the country. His ideas focus on what critical actions need to be taken, and how health systems can repurpose spaces to quickly and safely care for their constituents. The firm's expansion into the Columbus market complements a presence in Cleveland where the firm has been for over 10 years. Array was instrumental in University Hospitals' Vision 2010 initiative - an over $1B investment in the healthcare services provided in the Cleveland area. Since 1983, Array Architects has been recognized as one of the nations leaders in healthcare facilities design and offers a full complement of knowledge-based services, including planning, architecture, interior design and advisory services from eight office locations. The firm's devotion to a healthcare-exclusive practice springs from a strong belief in the power of design to improve patient outcomes, maximize operational efficiencies, increase staff satisfaction and provide remarkable results for clients. This week, Huntington Beach Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram donated $7,500 to the Huntington Beach Police and Community Foundation with a joint mission of supporting a safer community. The Huntington Beach Police and Community Foundation offers direct support to promote public safety and enhance the programs and services offered to the citizens of Huntington Beach. The organization strives for a safer city for those who live, work, and visit Huntington Beach, and by working together with the Huntington Beach Police and Community Foundation, Huntington Beach Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram is proudly supporting another local organization that makes a positive impact on the city. By working together, the dealerships staff feels that local businesses and community leaders can forge the way for increased awareness of collective interest while breaking down the barriers of insularity to lead to a greater sense of identity, solidarity, contribution, and trust. The local police thanked Huntington Beach Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram for their contribution to the Huntington Beach Police and Community Foundation. A big thank you to the Huntington Beach Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram team and their customers for supporting the men and women serving you in public safety. Together we all make a safer Huntington Beach, said Robert Handy, Chief of Police. More information is available at http://youtu.be/kuVoGw8_Zn0. About Huntington Beach Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Huntington Beach Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram is a new car dealership in California retailing over 10,000 vehicles per year. Professor Dimitri Monos It has been tremendously exciting to collaborate with the Omixon team over the last two years and to see the benefits of this technology spread further across the HLA community. Global molecular diagnostics company Omixon, headquartered in Budapest with US offices in Cambridge, MA, announced today that Dr. Dimitri Monos, Director of the Immunogenetics Laboratory of The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, will join their team as Chair of the companys Scientific Advisory Board. Professor Monos was the principal inventor of the Holotype protocol, which was licensed to Omixon in June 2014, combined with Omixons dual algorithm genotyping software, HLA Twin and sold globally as Holotype HLA - Omixons flagship product for HLA genotyping by NGS on the Illumina MiSeq. Holotype HLA offers a whole gene NGS-based approach to HLA genotyping, has been in routine clinical practice since December 2013 with over 2000 samples analyzed. A 6-participant double-blind Alpha Study has also been conducted by Professor Monos to determine the reproducibility (99.7%) of this technology in other labs with 99.8% accuracy and 0.2% ambiguity. The higher resolution genotyping results pave the way for improving transplantation outcomes through a more refined assessment of donor compatibility, and will expedite the donor selection process from bone marrow registries. It also provides an advanced tool for research in immunological diseases, infectious diseases, and pharmacogenomics. Professor Monos says, it has been tremendously exciting to collaborate with the Omixon team over the last two years and to see the benefits of this technology spread further across the HLA community. In the 20 months since licensing the technology, Omixon has developed global distribution channels to all major markets, completed a worldwide Early Access Program with participants in 13 countries and made product advancements to increase the number of loci covered since launch from five to eleven, among a host of other improvements. Professor Monos will join the team at Omixon in this new role with the company to provide the necessary scientific leadership in HLA and beyond. Omixons CEO Tim Hague says, Professor Monos has already pioneered the development of a best in class assay, and with his scientific input to the product development process, Omixon will be able to grow a portfolio of products to address the genotyping needs of all HLA labs. A single technology for both bone marrow and solid organ transplant programs, that is more informative with virtually no ambiguities, which is simultaneously easy to introduce and cost effective - this is a very attractive proposition for Immunogenetics labs, says Tim Hague. NGS has already caught the eye of a number of labs that support solid organ transplantations in addition to the bone marrow workflows. Extending the number of loci from 5 to 11, reducing turnaround time and having a simple automated protocol are all critical to labs interested in HLA typing for solid organs. Importantly, these additions to Omixons products are just the start with more announcements to be made later this year for multiple product lines, says Mr. Hague. Professor Monos notes that characterizing the HLA genes could be important for expanding the horizon of the biological role of HLA from transplantation further into pharmacogenomics, disease associations and as a companion diagnostic. This new technology is a cause of expansion not contraction. Labs will rapidly see an opportunity for new advancements in science and as well as clinical practice. It has already been documented that mutations in the transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains influence T cell responses, while intronic sequences of the HLA genes harbor miRNA Sequences important in both T and B cell signaling; this in my opinion suggests that our community should thoroughly and systematically characterize the HLA sequences at every opportunity. ABOUT OMIXON Omixon is a global molecular diagnostics company, headquartered in Budapest, Hungary, that commercializes disruptive innovations specializing in targeted applications for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Data. The Omixon Holotype HLA product combines a targeted HLA Assay and the Omixon HLA Twin software to deliver the most accurate high-resolution HLA genotyping available. In addition to analyzing targeted data from any NGS instrument, Omixon Target HLA can be used to analyze the HLA region from Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) and Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) data. Omixon maintains an active grant-funded research program and assists scientists and clinicians to analyze the most challenging genomic regions including HLA, KIR, ABO, BRCA and CFTR. For more information, visit http://www.omixon.com NIQUEA.D has released The Heirloom Treasures Collection, which features all new chains, bracelets and sentimental charms for bespoke accessorizing. Dominique Schurman, CEO of Schurman Retail Group, today announced that luxury brand NIQUEA.D has released The Heirloom Treasures Collection, which features all new chains, bracelets and sentimental charms for bespoke accessorizing. The collection is available in three flagship NIQUEA.D boutiques as well as select PAPYRUS stores nationwide, and online at NIQUEA.D. We are so pleased to launch this beautiful Heirloom Treasures Collection with bracelets, necklaces and charms to our customers, said Schurman. With these new pieces, we will continue to innovate the custom gift giving experience, while helping create unique memories and story telling for their friends, family and loved ones. The Heirloom Treasures Collection is a curated group of charms, bracelets and chains that can be customized in a myriad of combinations to suit what you treasure most. Simple or monogrammed chains (starting at $18) and bracelets (starting at $38) can now be personalized with over 90 new charms that start at just $10. There are also engraving options for select pieces and customers can select from a variety of charms to share a story. Youll find a myriad of combinations to celebrate a milestone or cherish a special moment such as birthdays, graduations, new parents, travel enthusiasts, family members and so much more. ABOUT NIQUEA.D NIQUEA.D is a lifestyle brand conceived and developed by Schurman Retail Group. The name originates from Dominique Andrea Schurmans name, the companys CEO and brand visionary. NIQUEA.D adds a unique, luxurious and vintage-inspired brand to our portfolio of lifestyle retail concepts. Items like premium greeting cards, jewelry, leather bound journals, handbags, desk accessories and luxury candles can be found in three stand-alone boutiques as well as in PAPYRUS stores across North America. Initiated and launched in 2011, NIQUEA.D is proud to offer its Flagship Boutiques in Danville, California and New York, New York--bringing to life a true oasis of irresistible treasures designed to intrigue and inspire. NIQUEA.D is poised for an exhilarating journey ahead, brimming with an abundance of exciting developments on the horizon. Visit NIQUEA.D for product information and store locations. ABOUT SCHURMAN RETAIL GROUP Schurman Retail Group is the largest privately held specialty retailer of personal expression products in North America. Established in 1950 as an importer of European paper products, the company now comprises a dynamic family of more than 400 retail stores and four retail brands: PAPYRUS, NIQUEA.D, Carlton Cards and American Greetings. The Inside Counsel Revolution: Resolving the Partner-Guardian Tension by Ben W. Heineman, Jr., former General Electric General Counsel and a founding father of the inside counsel movement, describes the past, present and future of this transformation. He takes a critical and careful look at the central role of General Counsel in advancing the core mission of todays corporation: to achieve high performance with high integrity and sound risk management. He explains how to resolve the critical tension facing inside counselbeing partner to the board of directors, the CEO and business leaders, but ultimately being guardian of the corporation. Corporations began to hire more sophisticated and accomplished inside lawyers, not just to reduce the cost and influence of outside law firms, but also to meet a leadership imperative as corporations faced an ever-expanding agenda of business in society issues. There has been an exponential growth in risks and opportunities affecting the performance of the corporation from legislators, regulators, enforcers, the media, interest groups, competitors, non-governmental organizations, the public and geopolitics in different complex markets all across the globe. Helping to navigate these crosscurrents, Heineman maintains, has placed the General Counsel at the right hand of the CEO and the board of directors. The General Counsel, writes Heineman, must have the character and independence to speak her mind, the courage to stand up in contentious groups and situations, the capability to see problems from many angles, to analyze risk, and to self-confidently help articulate a vision for the company. She must hold three fundamental rolesas technical expert, wise counselor and accountable leaderand be able to execute them simultaneously. Backed by examples and case studies from companies like GE, Siemens, Enron, Google, Wal-Mart and dozens more, Heineman advances a robust and sophisticated approach for addressing a corporations most pressing issues. The General Counsel must play a central role in establishing an integrity culture, addressing complex global legal risk, setting ethical standards beyond what law requires, participating in crisis management, defining corporate governance including pay for performance with integrity, and ultimately, defining corporate citizenship. Heineman has written a definitive volume that not only details the key functions and dilemmas of the inside counsel as a lawyer-statesman, but provides a framework for resolving the critical partner-guardian tension between General Counsel, CEO and board. BEN W. HEINEMAN, JR. is a legendary and transformative figure who dramatically altered the role, power, status and prestige of the general counsel in corporations and shifted power from outside law firms to inside law departments. He was Senior Vice PresidentGeneral Counsel for General Electric from 1987 to 2003 and then Senior Vice President for Law and Public Affairs from 2003 until his retirement in 2005. He served under CEO Jack Welch and then Welchs successor Jeff Immelt. Heineman's model for the modern inside law department is now widely followed in major corporations in the United States and, increasingly, in Europe and Asia. Prior to GE, Heineman was a Rhodes Scholar, editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal, law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, public interest lawyer, assistant secretary for policy at HEW and Supreme Court litigator. Since his retirement, Heineman has taught at Harvard and Yale professional schools and has written and spoken extensively on business, law, policy and ethics in the context of globalization. Editors note: Advance reader copies and author interviews are available by emailing Jill Nuppenau at jill.nuppenau(at)americanbar(dot)org. If you publish a review of this book, please send tear sheets or a copy for our files to Jill Nuppenau, c/o ABA Publishing, 321 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60654. This new book is available for pre-order on http://www.amazon.com and also as an e-book. Ankerwycke, launched in December 2014, is the consumer-oriented imprint of the American Bar Association, one of the largest voluntary professional membership organizations in the world with more than 400,000 members. In 1215, Magna Carta was sealed underneath the ancient Ankerwycke Yew tree, starting the process which led to rule by constitutional law in effect, giving rights and the law to the people. Today, the ABA's Ankerwycke line of books continues to bring the law to the people. With legal fiction, true crime books, popular legal histories, public policy handbooks, and prescriptive guides to current legal and business issues, Ankerwycke is a contemporary and innovative line of books for everyone from a trusted and vested authority. Follow Ankerwycke on Twitter @AnkerwyckeBooks. Camarillo Chamber of Commerce (http://www.camarillochamber.org) and Dignity Health St. John's Hospitals (http://www.dignityhealth.org/stjohnsregional/), executive sponsors of Startup Weekend Ventura County, announce today that Startup Weekend Ventura County will award $10,000 in seed fund to the winner of IoT (Internet of Things) Healthcare and $10,000 in seed fund to the winner of IoT Agriculture at its March 11, 12 and 13, 2016 event. The winners will be selected by a panel of judges made up primarily of CEOs of local corporations. The award will carry no interest or repayment obligations. The winner must incorporate to receive the money. Ventura County is home to a number of top-rated hospitals in America. Dignity Health and Hospital Corporation of America both have significant presence here, says Gary Cushing, CEO of Camarillo Chamber of Commerce. Ventura County also has its roots in farming. Thanks to its temperate climate, crops are grown year round. There remains an acre of irrigated farmland in Ventura County to every acre of city. It makes sense for us to promote innovation in both healthcare and agriculture. We believe a no-strings attached seed fund could help an emerging startup get going sooner, adds Martin Shum, organizer of Startup Weekend Ventura County. It takes money to raise venture capital. This funding is made possible by our generous sponsors. Providing high quality, compassionate, affordable health care is what we do. And we do it well, says Darren Lee, President & CEO of the two Dignity Health St. Johns Hospitals. But we know there are other people, organizations, and corporations that do other things well - and better than we do. Together, we can do so much more than we can do on our own. We invite you to link your areas of expertise with ours and help us to improve the quality of life for others. Startup Weekend Ventura County (http://startupweekendvc.com), organized by Dignity Healths SJPVH and SJRMC and the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce, will be held on March 11, 12 and 13, 2016 at Rancho Campana High School in Camarillo, California. This 54-hour event invites entrepreneurial agriculturalists, farmers, physicians, healthcare professionals, engineers, programmers and system developers to address healthcare and agricultural needs with innovative IoT solutions. ### At Startup Weekend, you'll be immersed in the ideal environment for startup magic to happen. In just 54 hours, you will experience the highs, lows, fun, and pressure that make up life at a startup. As you learn how to create a real company, you'll meet the very best mentors, investors, cofounders, and sponsors who are ready to help you get started. Youll be surrounded by smart, passionate people and with the best tools and approaches at your disposal. Youll take giant leaps toward creating a business, becoming a founder, and connecting with the right people and resources. For Immediate Release Vistatec has announced a global recruitment drive to hire 50 localization professionals who will play a critical role in continuing to grow the companys global services business. Most of the positions will be created in Vistatecs HQ in Dublin, Ireland with the remainder to be created in the US and other locations worldwide. The expansion is supported by the growing demand for Vistatecs industry leading services. Vistatec is looking for the very best talent to fill these positions across a variety of functions including Linguistics, Project Management, Sales and Technology. Vistatec works directly with some of worlds largest brands to help optimize their global commercial potential by creating compelling, impactful, high quality target language versions of products and services. The move is a growing indicator of the global content explosion. Vistatecs services and technologies deliver everything from translation and localization, content creation, language quality services, global digital marketing, media services, consultancy, technology and engineering solutions. Tom Murray, CEO Vistatec commented: These are very exciting times for Vistatec. We are extending our global team to help support our customers through a changing and expanding content landscape. Organizations can now fully leverage technology and data in their localization strategy. These elements can all help to make the customer experience richer and more compelling in an online and offline environment. These new jobs will assist us in expanding the worldwide support our customers require. Were looking for highly driven and talented individuals who want to be part of our successful business and technology story. Siobhan Gantly, Head of Human Resources added: We are recruiting 50 new professionals across many different countries, as we continue to invest in people to build a best in class global workforce. This is a terrific opportunity for people who want to be a part of the Vistatec story. The most compelling global brands rely on content every day to create captivating experiences for their customers. At Vistatec, our teams take content, in any form, and align the intended impact with the most effective localization methodology, so that the end user experience and outcome is consistent regardless of language or locale. This is something that requires exceptional people who understand what it takes to be successful on a global scale. For more information on career opportunities at Vistatec, please visit our careers page http://www.vistatec.com About Vistatec Vistatec has been supporting some of the worlds most iconic brands to optimize their global commercial potential since 1997. Vistatec is one of the worlds leading localization solutions providers headquartered in Dublin, Ireland with offices in Mountain View, California, USA. Think Global Media contact Simon Hodgkins, Chief Marketing Officer, Vistatec. info(at)vistatec.com http://www.vistatec.com Spring Dance Hot Tubs, a local hot tub retailer with three locations in the Philadelphia region, is proud to announce that they were recognized twice as regional industry leaders among hot tub dealers by Watkins Manufacturing Corporation brands Hot Spring Hot Tubs and Caldera Spas. The awards presented at the National conferences in Coronado, CA this past January were: -2015 Territory Dealer of the Year by Hot Spring Spas, the worlds number one-selling brand of hot tubs -Eastern Area Dealer of the Year from Caldera Spas Regional Hot Tub Dealer of the Year award nominees were carefully evaluated for business, retail and marketing excellence, customer experience, sales performance and representation of the Hot Spring Spas and Caldera Spas brands. Our Territory Hot Tub Dealers of the Year are truly role models for our entire dealer community, said Mike Dunn, Executive Vice President for Watkins Manufacturing, maker of Hot Spring Spas. These retailers are committed to growing their businesses and they have succeeded! But more importantly, they demonstrate exceptional care for their customers. We are thrilled to be recognized by a Fortune 500 Company like Watkins Manufacturing and Masco Corporation, said Dan Sine, President of Spring Dance Hot Tubs. We are proud to represent the best hot tub brands in the industry like Hot Spring Spas and Caldera Spas and to be recognized locally as a regional leader is testament to the incredible team we have of talented sales professionals, service technicians, customer service representatives and marketing and support personnel. Consumers wanting to find the Spring Dance Hot Tubs location closest to them are encouraged to visit the company website for more information. The website address is http://SpringDanceHotTubs.com ABOUT SPRING DANCE HOT TUBS: Spring Dance Hot Tubs, Inc. is a value based, family-owned business committed to excellence and integrity with over 25 years of experience in the hot tub industry. We have three locations in Jamison, Pa, Exton, Pa and Marlton, NJ serving Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Philadelphia counties, as well as the surrounding communities. Our Mission is: "To promote health, relaxation and family-togetherness through the sales of high-quality hot tubs and related products, one backyard at a time, and to provide outstanding customer service that exceeds our customer's expectations." To learn more call 215-491-7446 or go to: http://www.SpringDanceHotTubs.com. ABOUT WATKINS MANUFACTURING CORPORATION: Watkins Manufacturing was established in 1977 in Vista, California, and is the worlds largest manufacturer of hot tubs, including Hot Spring Spas, Hot Spot Spas, Caldera Spas and Freeflow Spas. The Watkins Dealer network extends into all 50 states and over 60 countries. Watkins is a division of Masco Corporation, a Fortune 500 company whose products include Delta Faucets, KraftMaid Cabinets, and Behr paint. We are honored to announce that Dr. Rami K. Batniji has been selected as one of Castle Connollys Top Doctors in California for the second year in a row. Dr. Batnijis attention to detail, dedication to his work, and commitment to patient satisfaction has led him to be one of the most highly respected otolaryngologists in the country. Each year Castle Connolly Medical Ltd publishes their Top Doctors list in order to enable patients to find the best doctors in the country. Candidates for this honor are nominated by their peers through an extensive survey process of several thousands of doctors. Castle Connollys physician-led research team then screens the candidates based on a number of factors to include their education, training, and medical assignments. This meticulous process ensures that only doctors who are among the very best in their specialties receive this prestigious honor. Dr. Batnijis love for otolaryngology began at a young age where he observed his father work in the same field. During his time at medical school he became more interested in the attention to detail and meticulous work required for facial plastic surgery. He felt it was the perfect field to combine his lifelong loves of medicine and art. Dr. Batniji focuses solely facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, and he is honored to be able to help people reconstruct areas of their face that have been affected by trauma and illness in order to provide them with the best quality of life possible. He also enjoys being able to help people live the life of their dreams through aesthetic changes and other corrective surgeries. Dr. Batniji has been dedicated to otolaryngology for over three decades. He received his Doctorate of Medicine degree from Albany Medical College and completed his residency at Albany Medical Center. From 2004 to 2005, Dr. Batniji served as the Chief Resident in Otolaryngology at the same hospital. He further refined his skills at the Meridian Plastic Surgery Center where he completed a fellowship in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He is certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology and the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Dr. Batniji has worked at and been affiliated with a variety of well-respected surgical centers to include Hoag Memorial Presbyterian Hospital, Newport Beach Surgery Center, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, and Garfield Medical Center Hospital. He is active with a number of societies and serves on a myriad of committees in order to continue his professional growth. We are honored to have a dedicated professional like Dr. Batniji head our team, and we know he will continue to distinguish himself in his field through his tireless efforts to improve the lives of his patients. Batniji Facial Plastic Surgery 361 Hospital Road #329 Newport Beach, CA 92663 https://www.drbatniji.com CM Truck Beds is attending the 2016 NTEA Work Truck Show, taking place in Indianapolis, Indiana. This annual show will be March 2-4, where CM Truck Beds will have an interactive booth set up, with new and existing products available for fleet and commercial buyers at the show. Established in 1964, as the Truck Equipment and Body Distributors Association, the organization has grown and now today represents nearly 1,800 companies. The NTEA provides in-depth technical information, education, and member programs and services, as well as producing the Work Truck Show. The Association maintains its administrative headquarters in suburban Detroit and government relation offices in Washington, D.C. and Ottawa, ON, Canada. The NTEA is dedicated to furthering the growth, profitability and professionalism of its members and functions as the hub of the work truck industry. The Truck Show will review recruiting and retaining skilled employees, new product lines and industry alliances, government regulations, and current market and equipment trends. As one industry, one association, and one resource, the Work Truck Show will provide everything attendees need and more. CM Truck Beds is the household name for truck bodies and has been building household factory beds for more than 20 years. Their dedication and loyalty to producing only the best body haulers have made them the most highly recommended truck bed manufacturer in the country. Standing by their reputation but always looking to the future, CM Truck Beds is proud to stand behind their battle tested haulers. For more information about CM Truck Beds, visit their website at http://www.cmtruckbeds.com The NTEA Work Truck Show will take place March 2-4, hours, location, and admission are listed below: Wednesday and Thursday 10:00 am 5:00 pm Friday 9:00 am 12:00 pm Location: Indiana Convention Center Indianapolis, IN Humm, an on-premise real-time feedback platform, and MedSpring Urgent Care, today announced a partnership aimed at improving the patient experience through the use of Humm-powered feedback tablets in 33 locations across the country. After a successful pilot launch at three MedSpring locations in mid-June 2015, MedSpring has deployed Humm in all of its urgent care centers nationwide, including locations in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Houston. MedSpring has always been committed to gathering patient feedback, but paper surveys provided insight long after the patient had departed, leaving little room for meaningful improvement. Now, every MedSpring patient has the opportunity to provide instant feedback via Humm-powered tablets, provided to the patient at the end of every visit. The tablets come pre-loaded with 7 questions that gauge satisfaction across a number of areas, from wait times to facility cleanliness and quality of care. Completed feedback sessions are sent to MedSpring center directors in real-time, enabling immediate action and improvements across the business. Feedback sessions are also tracked over time, with daily and weekly reports that allow the centers to uncover trends, opportunities for improvement and best practices. MedSprings DNA is built on delivering an exceptional experience for its patients and guests. said Nerissa Sardi, Vice President of Marketing at MedSpring Urgent Care. Humm was the best solution available to help us consistently deliver on that promise by providing us with a way to streamline our feedback loop and quickly take steps to improve when we see we may be missing the mark. To date, MedSpring has utilized Humm to collect more than 91,000 pieces of feedback from patients. With the intelligence gathered via Humm, MedSpring has been able to reach out to patients within minutes of them voicing a concern. The instant feedback also allows center staff to more rapidly address operational issues like center temperature or wait times. MedSpring has a long-standing commitment to patient satisfaction and transparency, as evidenced by the public reviews posted to its website, said Bernard Briggs, co-founder and CEO of Humm. Were excited to help them move beyond reputation management to experience management with instant patient feedback. Now, MedSpring can take action and improve the patient experience, all in real-time. About MedSpring Urgent Care MedSpring Urgent Care focuses on delivering quality medical care, exceptional service and great value to patients. MedSpring operates 33 centers in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Houston. For more information, including thousands of patient reviews and cost-savings compared to an ER, please visit http://www.medspring.com. About Humm Every day, hundreds of companies rely on Humm to better understand and improve their guest experience in real time. Founded in 2012, Humms on-premise feedback platform helps healthcare and hospitality brands quickly collect and take immediate action on guest feedback before they ever walk out the door. Humm is headquartered in Austin, TX and used by more than 300 healthcare and hospitality brands including Yale-New Haven Hospital, Marriott, and Disney, with more than 850,000 pieces of feedback collected every month. For more information, visit http://www.hummsystems.com. Roundedcube (http://www.roundedcube.com), a technology company focused on strategy, experience design and technology, has announced Chief Technology Officer, Benjamin Vidal, has been named a "Technology Most Valuable Professional (MVP)" by Sitecore (http://www.sitecore.net), the global leader in customer experience management software. Benjamin Vidal has been contributing insight to the Sitecore and Roundedcube community for over ten years. This year a total of 177 people were named a Sitecore Technology MVP. Sitecore describes the recipients as: An individual who actively participates in online and offline communities to share his or her knowledge and expertise with other Sitecore partners and customers. Individuals were chosen for their expertise using the platform and contributions of knowledge to the Sitecore community. I am honored to be an MVP this year, said Vidal, Sitecore has a really great experience platform that Ive been excited to support for the last 11 years. As Chief Technology Officer, Vidal has played an integral role in Roundedcubes continued success. Roundedcube works strategically with clients to provide innovative solutions to achieve their business goals. With over 200 Sitecore projects and counting, Roundedcube continues to expand their Sitecore expertise. About Sitecore Sitecore is the global leader in experience management software that enables context marketing. The Sitecore Experience Platform manages content, supplies contextual intelligence, and automates communications, at scale. It empowers marketers to deliver content in context of how customers have engaged with their brand, across every channel, in real time. More than 4,600 customersincluding American Express, Carnival Cruise Lines, easyJet, and L'Orealtrust Sitecore for context marketing to deliver the personalized interactions that delight audiences, build loyalty, and drive revenue. For more information, follow us at @sitecore or visit http://www.sitecore.net. About Roundedcube Roundedcube is a technology company focused on strategy, experience design and technology. With particular strengths in e-commerce, customer experience management (CXM) and mobile, Roundedcube, a Sitecore Gold Partner, delivers enterprise-level digital marketing technology solutions. With offices in Saint Louis, Missouri and Houston, Texas, Roundedcube serves companies representing many different industries across the country. Incorporated in 2002, Roundedcube is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. For more information, please visit http://www.roundedcube.com. Representatives celebrate Yazoo County School Districts energy savings performance contract at construction kick-off Feb. 24, 2016. Becky Fisher, superintendent; Tom Taylor, assistant superintendent Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, today announced the start of construction on a $4,207,972 million energy savings performance contract (ESPC) project with the Yazoo County School District in Yazoo City, Mississippi. The comprehensive energy efficiency project will transform the districts high school by implementing state-of-the art infrastructure upgrades and improve campus safety throughout the district. The project will reduce the Yazoo County School Districts utility budget by 26 percent, saving over $92,000 in annual energy expenses or $2.5 million over the life of the project. The Yazoo County School District faced aging infrastructure challenges including a failing chiller system at the high school and poor exterior lighting, which caused uncomfortable classrooms and unsafe campus environments. Working with Schneider Electric, the district leveraged the ESPC funding model to improve energy efficiency in three school buildings its high school, middle school and Linwood Elementary to enable a safer and more comfortable learning environment. Upon completion of the project, the high school will receive a new HVAC and boiler system and updated drop ceiling to improve occupant comfort. All three school buildings will receive new interior and exterior lighting for increased safety, updated plumbing fixtures, an IT enterprise management system and centralized building automation systems to increase visibility into energy management. Our entire district will benefit from updated technology and the installation of reliable, state-of-the-art equipment, said Becky Fisher, superintendent, Yazoo County School District. Schneider Electric was instrumental in helping us discover energy efficient strategies and obtain an ESPC to be able to move forward with this project. The guaranteed energy savings ensure we can complete the necessary upgrades in our schools without investing huge upfront capital. The ESPC project will generate significant energy savings for the Yazoo County School District. In addition, the project will have substantial environmental impacts of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 507 tons, which is equivalent to removing 109 cars from the road or powering 65 homes. It is great to be able to help school districts like Yazoo County find energy efficient solutions to address aging infrastructure problems, said Tammy Fulop, vice president, Schneider Electric. Were thrilled to kick-off construction on this project and create more modern schools with centralized controls to optimize efficiency and ultimately reduce utility expenses that can be reinvested into valuable programs. In the past 23 years, Schneider Electric has successfully implemented more than 550 ESPC projects across the nation and helped clients around the world save more than $1 billion. This project delivery method helps publicly funded entities make capital improvements over longer payback periods and offers many long-term benefits such as improved facility efficiency, occupant comfort, financial management and environmental protection. About Schneider Electric Schneider Electric is the global specialist in energy management and automation. With revenues of $30 billion in FY2015, our 170,000 employees serve customers in over 100 countries, helping them to manage their energy and process in ways that are safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable. From the simplest of switches to complex operational systems, our technology, software and services improve the way our customers manage and automate their operations. Our connected technologies reshape industries, transform cities and enrich lives. At Schneider Electric, we call this Life Is On. http://www.enable.schneider-electric.com Bluestream Database Software Corp.a provider of DITA-enabled Content Management System (CMS) solutionsis delighted to announce the release of XDocs 4.1. XDocs CMS version 4.1 offers an exciting new Knowledge Base with both enhanced features for content delivery and a tight integration to the production environment. Bluestreams Nenad Furtula, VP Sales and Marketing, says, Finding relevant, up-to-date information in sizable bites is fast becoming the de facto standard for search. Serving up a relevant topic vs. an entire publication (i.e., PDF) has far more appeal and value for the end users and information seekers. Combined with the exponential rise in mobile technology (namely smartphones and tablets), delivery platforms such as the Bluestreams Knowledge Base are fast becoming the norm for information delivery. The new Knowledge Base allows information seekers to search, browse, find, and share content faster and more efficiently. The content displays in responsive web design and the easy-to-configure administrative settings allow for the easy application of corporate branding. The Knowledge Base lists many features for information seekers, such as: Modernized UI and content delivery model Multimedia display Ability to filter content by product Convenient filter for content by version Easy-to-navigate rendered DITA structures and links Easy-to-share relative content links with customers and colleagues Powerful search Interactive customer feedback Readily-available PDF downloads of content Support for multilingual content Because it is tightly integrated with the content production environment, the Knowledge Base in XDocs 4.1 increases the speed of content delivery with an automated pull of approved content from the production server. The automated pull of content enables users to perform scheduled content updates. Additionally, in 4.1, the Knowledge Base blends seamlessly with the XDocs CMS content creation, reviewing, management, and localization management tools. About Bluestream Bluestreams flagship product is the XDocs Content Management System (CMS), a standards-compliant single-sourcing solution that enables technical communicators to create, manage, and store large volumes of both XML and non-XML content. XDocs enables organizations of all sizes to realize the benefits of DITA at a lower cost than the competition while providing a comparable or better quality systemthus offering unparalleled value. Bluestream customers range from Fortune 100 organizations seeking complex cross-departmental DITA solutions to small businesses containing single author documentation teams. Bluestream has been in business since 1997 and has customers in many verticals, among them software, oil and gas, health care, military, manufacturing, and finance. Bluestream Media Contact Nenad Furtula, VP Sales and Marketing nenadf(at)bluestream(dot)com Bluestream Database Software Corp. 200 1168 Hamilton Street, Vancouver, Canada Tel: +1.604.669.4469 The Pillow Factory has announced the publication of its Pillow Management Program Guide. The Pillow Factory division of Encompass Group provides more pillows to American healthcare facilities than any other industry resource. The company began manufacturing pillows here in the U.S.A. more than thirty years ago and is today the market leader. Because pillows are such a common part of everyday life, we tend to think theres nothing very complicated about them. But in the healthcare environment, thats just not the case, said Michelle Daniels, Encompass Director of Marketing for The Pillow Factory. With our decades of experience, weve learned a lot about the selection, management, use, and care of a healthcare facilitys pillows. Weve put all of the key points in this concise guide: covers/tickings, size options, loft levels, cleaning options, etc. We think itll be a great tool for anyone managing healthcare inventories. Daniels continued, We understand the challenges healthcare organizations face every day and are committed to partner with our customers in the selection of pillows with the appropriate fabrics and fillings, delivered on time and on budget. Current Pillow Factory products include DreamAngel and Brilliance pillows for launderable comfort and performance; RevolutionaryCARE, Easy Care, Comfort Care; CareGuard Plus, Pro-Barrier for fluid and stain resistance; and Personal Pillows for single-patient-use providing maximum breathability and freshness. The Pillow Factory division of Encompass has strong relationships with multiple GPO and Government affiliates, and actively supports industry organizations such as AHE and ALM. The Pillow Management Program Guide and samples are available on request. Contact Michelle Daniels at (770) 626-2061 or michelle.daniels(at)encompassgroup(dot)net. About Encompass Group Encompass is one of the worlds leading manufacturers and marketers of reusable textiles, professional apparel, and disposable and single use medical products. Encompass believes that every patient, resident, caregiver, and family member should feel Safe and Comfortable in todays healthcare environments. The way Encompass enhances the healthcare experience is by developing innovative products that are reliably delivered and cost effective for all providers. Encompass is a privately held company headquartered in McDonough, Georgia. Markets served include Acute Care, Long-Term Care/Senior Care, Retail Health Care Apparel, Hospitality, and Government Operations. For more information, please visit http://www.encompassgroup.net, email info@encompassgroup.net, or call at (800) 284-4540. # # # Cambro Flex Station for Schools With so many uses and configurations, the Flex Station is the perfect solution for schools searching for better ways to offer reimbursable meals and snacks. Cambro launches its latest addition to its mobile vending line of products: the Flex Station. From cafeteria to classroom, the Flex Station allows foodservice operators to be in more places and reach more kids to meet participation goals for breakfast, lunch or any meal time. Fully customizable, the Flex Station will help reduce serving time and give kids time to eat by setting up portable Grab-N-Go stations in convenient locations. With so many uses and configurations, the Flex Station is the perfect solution for schools searching for better ways to offer reimbursable meals and snacks, says Stuart Sharp, Vice President of Strategic Sales at Cambro Manufacturing. Flex Station Features & Benefits: Easy to assemble, configure and adjust Requires minimal storage space Simple to maneuver through hallways Optional Camchillers keep food fresh Works with a variety of food pans and food boxes Ideal for breakfast in the classroom, fresh fruit and vegetable programs, boosting a la carte sales, supper or summer feeding programs About Cambro Cambro Manufacturing, based in Huntington Beach, California, is a leading manufacturer of equipment and supplies for the foodservice industry worldwide. For more information about Cambro visit http://www.cambro.com or contact Cambro Customer Service at 800.833.3003. Local Space Housing Association Local Space is registered social housing provider and was established 10 years ago with the support of London Borough of Newham. Local Space owns a small portfolio of circa 1,800 units. It plans to increase the portfolio by another 800 properties in the next four years in East London and Essex. Local Space specialises in providing temporary housing in the East London area, supported by guarantees from London Boroughs of Newham, Hackney and Waltham Forest. It also provides Keyworker accommodation. Due to the unique arrangements, it has some of the top operating margins in the sector and ranks in the top quartile of housing association in terms of financial performance. The credit rating report states Local Space has very skilled and experienced management, with a clear and prudent financial strategy benefitting from a close relationship with local authorities as a partner in the pursuit of social responsibilities. Richard Clark, Local Spaces Chief Executive, said: We are very happy to receive this top recognition from S&P. Our strategy of specialising in niche market segments, understanding our clients needs, meeting those requirements well and our partnering approach shows that it can result in sector leading financial performance. It shows that being small is not a barrier to success and; we are really excited about the future of Local Space. Joel Inbakumar, Local Spaces Director of Resources, said: We are pleased with the endorsement of our enterprise profile and financial performance by S&P. It will help us access new sources of long term funding at competitive terms to support our growth plan of delivering an additional 800 homes in the next four years for the homeless people in Newham. Adrian Bell, Head of Debt Markets at Canaccord Genuity, said: We are delighted with the rating outcome for Local Space. The rating accurately reflects Local Spaces top notch financial performance while it places due emphasis on the quality of rental income, because of the respective Local Authority guarantees. ENDS For more information contact: Joel Inbakumar Resources Director Local Space Ltd Tel: 020 8221 4000 http://www.localspace.co.uk Manu Nair Vice President - Debt Markets Canaccord Genuity Tel: 0207 523 8022 http://www.canaccordgenuity.com Bel Brands USA has expanded on the 28th floor of the South Tower and maintained its current premises on the 28th and 30th floors. After evaluating market alternatives, we ultimately concluded that the most compelling solution for Bel Brands was within its existing building, where the company will be able to effectuate meaningful upgrades cost effectively through a revised lease. Savills Studley represented Bel Brands in its lease extension and expansion of the companys North American Headquarters at 30 South Wacker Drive (The CME Center), where it took 40,336 square feet, a 15% increase from its original footprint. Bel Brands USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Fromageries Bel - a world leader in branded cheeses based in Paris, France - has expanded on the 28th floor of the South Tower and maintained its current premises on the 28th and 30th floors. Executive Vice President and Co-Head of Savills Studleys Chicago office, Robert Sevim and Executive Vice President and Director, Joe Learner represented the tenant in the lease negotiations; Joe Gordon of Tishman Speyer represented the landlord in house. Savills Studleys Renae Bradshaw led all workplace strategy efforts on behalf of Bel Brands. As Bel Brands USA is experiencing growing success in North America, the company needed to expand its workforce and engaged Savills Studley to look at how it operated spatially through a study of its workplace environment. By conducting an analysis of real estate and workplace requirements, we were able to provide Bel with a strategy to reduce costs while increasing workplace effectiveness, attracting talent and supporting high growth, said Bradshaw. After evaluating market alternatives, we ultimately concluded that the most compelling solution for Bel Brands was within its existing building, where the company will be able to effectuate meaningful upgrades cost effectively through a reconstituted lease agreement, said Sevim. We were able to arrive at a mutually beneficial arrangement between Tishman Speyer and the tenant, which had been a loyal headquarters occupier of the building for several years. President and CEO of Bel Brands USA, Frederic Nalis, added, Our expansion and workplace improvements at 30 South Wacker Drive allows us to elevate our brand identity and company profile within the thriving Chicago business community. It is a positive and exciting reflection of our continued success and growth. About Savills Studley Savills Studley is the leading commercial real estate services firm specializing in tenant representation. Founded in 1954, the firm pioneered the conflict-free business model of representing only tenants in their commercial real estate transactions. Today, supported by high quality market research and in-depth analysis, Savills Studley provides strategic real estate solutions to organizations across all industries. The firms comprehensive commercial real estate platform includes brokerage, project management, capital markets, consulting and corporate services. With 27 offices in the U.S. and Canada, and a heritage of innovation, Savills Studley is well known for tenacious client advocacy and exceptional service. The firm is part of London-headquartered Savills plc, the premier global real estate service provider with over 30,000 professionals and over 600 locations around the world. Savills plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (SVS.L). For more information, please visit http://www.savills-studley.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @SavillsStudley. About Bel Brands USA Bel Brands USA, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, manufactures and markets Bels global branded Mini Babybel, The Laughing Cow, and Boursin, as well as local brands including Merkts, Kaukauna, Price*s Pimiento, Wispride and Owls Nest. Bel Brands USA operates three productions sites: Brookings, South Dakota; Leitchfield, Kentucky; and Little Chute, Wisconsin. The mission of Bel Brands USA is To delight people with a great tasting, unique cheese experience that fits their lifestyle. Bel has nearly 900 employees in the U.S. For six years in a row, Bel Brands USA has been named one of Chicagos 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For. Bel Brands USA is a subsidiary of Paris-based Bel Group, a world leader in branded cheeses. For more information, visit http://www.belbrandsusa.com or http://www.mini-babybel.com/ or on Twitter: @belbrandsusa. About Bel Group Bel Group is a world leader in branded cheese. Its portfolio of differentiated and internationally recognized brands, including such products as The Laughing Cow, Kiri, Mini Babybel, Leerdammer, and Boursin, as well as some 20 local brands, enabled the Group to generate sales of $3.5 billion in 2013. Nearly 11,000 employees in some 30 subsidiaries around the world contribute to the Groups success. Bel products are prepared at 28 production sites and distributed in over 130 countries. Visit http://www.groupe-bel.com for more information. # # # The InfoSnap solution will change the face of registration for our school community, positively impacting staff efficiency and communication efforts with our families. PowerSchool Groups InfoSnap Online Registration is providing Alabamas Decatur City School District with an intuitive solution for new and annual student registration. The streamlined process will improve business processes for administrative staff and increase parent satisfaction. Seamless integration between the InfoSnap solution and Decaturs student information system (SIS), InformationNOW, will result in accurate data by the first day of school. Our decision to move registration online was parent-driven. Families were inundated with paperwork every school year and expressed a need for completing this process online, said Kathy Rains, Supervisor of Technology at Decatur City School District. The InfoSnap solution will change the face of registration for our school community, positively impacting staff efficiency and communication efforts with our families. The electronic format allows families who have more than one child in the district to snap data from one student to another. SmartForm technology, an intuitive tool built into the solution, collects relevant data based on previously entered information or choices (grade, activities, medical history, etc.). The data submitted by families is reviewed, polished, and formatted to meet district policies and then delivered into InformationNOW, resulting in up-to-date records on the first day of school. Decatur City School District is comprised of 8600 students and 17 schools, which werent cohesively managing standard registration the same. We werent aware of all the inconsistencies from school to school. Were streamlining that process by implementing a comprehensive and innovative online solution, notes Rains. Prior to selecting the InfoSnap online registration solution, Decatur City School District staff reached out to several local districts that use the same product. The InfoSnap solution was highly recommended by our peers who complimented the platform and the customer service provided, said Rains. The district will also utilize the Language Localization feature to meet the needs of its diverse population by providing multilingual forms to families in English and Spanish. The online solution will launch on April 27, 2016, for Pre-K and Kindergarten programs. About PowerSchool: PowerSchool, the #1 leading provider of K-12 technology solutions, serves more than 40 million users and over 15 million students in 70+ countries, playing a central role in K-12 education around the world. PowerSchool provides industry leading best-in-class secure, compliant school operations solutions including Student Information System and Student Enrollment solutions, including online applications, school choice lotteries, new and annual student registration designed specifically for Pre K-12 independent, charter, and public schools of any size. PowerSchool also provides innovative digital classroom capabilities, enabling a consistent user experience for managing attendance, grading, assignments, assessments and analytics to empower teachers and drive student growth. Andrea Maack Icelandic perfumer and visual artist "The new look of Andrea Maack and our new fragrances represent a natural progression of the brand to complement the desires of our social media and e-commerce savvy customers," says Founder and Creative Director, Andrea Maack. Andrea Maack, the renowned visual artist and eponymous fragrance brand today announced the launch of a new web-store on http://www.andreamaack.com and unveiled a new brand identity with the release of two new fragrances, DUAL and Soft Tension. The web-store is currently available to EU customers. Collaborating with perfumer Alienor Massenet while at IFF in Paris, France, Maack and Massenet took inspiration from Maacks upbringing and the barren Nordic landscape to deliver a forthcoming range of scents that embodies elements of Andrea's travels, artistic explorations and revisitation of her profound relationship with Iceland. The new unisex collection caters to the modern fragrance lover, whose penchant for social media and e-commerce are only matched by their desire to engage on and offline with Maack's immersive scent universe, and particularly through Instagram (@andreamaack). With these releases, Maack is introducing a new uniform, highly photogenic brand identity for the fragrance vessels. The striking black bottle and box were designed in collaboration with Maddalena Casadei at Studio Irvine in Milan, Italy, with graphic design by Tommaso Garner, who interpreted Maacks original paintings to complete the new brand look. The Andrea Maack web-store ships to Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom. Additional currencies such as GBP and USD, as well as shipping to the US will be introduced in the coming weeks. Customers can also purchase DUAL and Soft Tension at Madison Ilmhus in downtown Reykjavik, Iceland or STORM in Copenhagen, Denmark. DUAL is a unisex sport fragrance inspired by the calming water of the natural hot springs in the Icelandic Highlands. DUAL mimics the feeling of fresh water on the skin and the intense color spectrum surrounding the hot spring lagoons. The powerful, uplifting aromas of ginger, lemon and pink pepper coexist with the grounded woody elements of dry amber and cedarwood, resulting in an enlivening scent experience. Ginger-Lemon- Pink pepper-Dry amber-Cedarwood Soft Tension is a sensual white musk inspired by a thick mysterious fog. Like a white desert, the fog is a place to get lost in and let go. Soft Tension is a bold mix of musks combined with freesia that grounds itself in the skin. Black raw materials are mixed with white ones, such as mate absolute, cedarwood and moss, creating the soft tension. Freesia-Musk-Mate Absolut-Cedar wood-Moss Andrea Maack will continue to introduce new, exciting fragrance and beauty essentials designed to fit effortlessly into the modern lifestyle. About Andrea Maack Andrea Maack is an Icelandic fragrance brand and revered conceptual artist. Her fragrances unite the worlds of scent and fine art. Approaching scent as a subject matter, for her first ever perfume creation, Maack posed the question: Can you create a fragrance inspired by a drawing? Maack was commissioned to explore this question with a series of scented art exhibitions worldwide. Through these exhibitions, her installations slowly morphed into her eponymous brand. In 2011, The Art Series fragrances that originated in Maacks art installations were launched internationally. The fragrances are carried by respected retailers such as Harvey Nichols, Henri Bendel, Neiman Marcus, Printemps and have been featured in prestigious fashion and art media such as Vogue, Elle, AnOther, Frame, Glamour and Marie Claire. As Maacks brand continues to grow, she is evolving her scent universe to be social media and e-commerce focused, adding new dimensions to the fragrance experience including how she presents scents online and how the fragrances are packaged. The black bottle features elements of her own identity, with a timeless and sophisticated design that speaks to both sexes. Andrea Maack is proud to have received a marketing grant from the Icelandic Technology Development Fund. For more information, visit andreamaack.com. PREMEDEX Chronic Care Management Over the past three years, we have made tremendous progress. Knowing that youve helped an individual feel more confident and assured is the biggest reward for our entire team, remarked Van Willis, President and Founder of PREMEDEX. PREMEDEX will be featuring its leading Chronic Care Management (CCM) solutions as part of the Metro Atlanta Chamber pavilion at HIMSS 2016, at Booth #2065. PREMEDEX CCM solutions are being quickly adopted by physician practices of all sizes throughout the United States, to help these practices better monitor patient health for those designated as having a chronic condition. Recognized as a market leader in addressing needs for enhanced patient care management, PREMEDEX solutions are now deployed at both physician practices and well-known hospitals throughout the nation. PREMEDEX solutions also serve emerging Accountable Care Organizations. PREMEDEX has managed over 1.2 million patients in conjunction with providers across the country to ensure that patient needs are addressed in a timely manner. With timely follow-up and direct interaction, PREMEDEX also alerts physicians and client hospitals of potential patient medical issues, which in many cases can be addressed prior to being escalated to emergency treatment or hospital admission. Over the past three years, we have made tremendous progress in helping our partners improve their operating performance. More importantly, the PREMEDEX team remains focused on improving the quality of patient care and follow-up, as a routine part of our CCM program, or as they transition from a hospital environment back to their home. Knowing that youve helped an individual feel more confident and assured is the biggest reward for our entire team, remarked Van Willis, President and Founder of PREMEDEX. About PREMEDEX PREMEDEX provides a technology enabled service platform via a cloud-based subscription model. The PREMEDEX platform and staff of healthcare coordinators streamline the communication process with patients and enable providers to capitalize on chronic care management, capture transitional care management revenue, reduce avoidable readmission, and improve patient outcomes. Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival QuickDraw artist Amy Lay paints a moose in Jackson Town Square for one of the September festivals famed events. Many of the events are open to the public at no charge, offering visitors a budget-friendly introduction to Jackson Hole. Art captures the glories of nature when the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival takes over the town of Jackson, Wyo., during one of the most beautiful times of year in the valley. The 32nd annual installment of the fall festival will take place Sept. 7 -18, 2016, announced Maureen Murphy, director of special events for the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce, organizer of the festival. The autumn timeframe is considered a best time to come to Jackson, with the long days, moderate temperatures and surrounding mountains ablaze with colorful fall foliage, creating an atmosphere destined to inspire both artists and art lovers. With more than 50 family-friendly events including art auctions, spectacular home and ranch tours, food and wine tastings and gallery openings featuring top Western painters and sculptors its easy to fill a visitors itinerary for the full 12 days of activities. And many of the events are open to the public at no charge, offering visitors a budget-friendly introduction to Jackson Hole. Among the many favorite events returning to the festival this year will be the Palates & Palettes Gallery Walk where more than 30 Jackson art galleries open their doors to showcase magnificent art accompanied by complimentary food and wine. Another appetizing event is the Taste of the Tetons where guests can sample delicious creations by the valleys top chefs while sipping wine on Jacksons elk antler-framed town square, the hub of many Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival events. A marquee event of the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival returning to town is the Western Design Conference (WDC), taking place Sept. 8-11 at the Snow King Events Center with its annual exhibit and sale of the latest in Western-inspired contemporary functional art. The four-day WDC brings together a juried selection of best-in-the-West craftspeople and their one-of-a-kind work, attracting design lovers and collectors from around the globe. Interior design and architecture enthusiasts will enjoy the return of the Showcase of Homes tour, where select residences allow visitors to peek behind usually closed doors to see the work of some of Jackson Holes finest designers. Visitors also have the unusual opportunity to meet the designers and architects, who are available in homes to talk shop. Another event that gives guests a chance to interact with artists is the always exciting QuickDraw, where a talented selection of artists is given exactly three hours to complete plein air masterpieces on Jackson Town Square. The artists paintings and sculptures are then featured in a live auction where a spirited crowd begins the bidding. About the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival: Conveniently located just 20 minutes from the Jackson Hole Airport, Jackson, Wyo., is served by major airlines including Delta, United, American and SkyWest. Reservation information for Jacksons numerous hotels, as well as a complete schedule of Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival events taking place Sept. 7-18, 2016, may be found at http://www.jacksonholechamber.com. For additional information, contact Maureen Murphy at Jackson Hole Chamber, 307.733.3316. Media Contact: Amy Stark, WordenGroup Public Relations, amy(at)wordenpr(dot)com, 307.734.5335 Most aspiring entrepreneurs can benefit from targeted advice from someone who has successfully navigated the startup path. Quorums newest signature program, Entrepreneur IQ, addresses this need. Over the course of a year, two seasoned entrepreneurs will host monthly office hours in Quorum for the startup community. Entrepreneur IQ (short for Entrepreneur In Quorum) launches with Philly Startup Leaders President and Pet360 Founder, Brock Weatherup. Entrepreneur IQ will kick off with a reception for members of the entrepreneurial, innovation and business community to meet Brock, learn more about the program and network. The reception will be held on March 2, 2016, from 5:30 7:30 p.m. at Quorum, the Science Centers entrepreneurs clubhouse. Entrepreneur IQ is sponsored by Fox Rothschild. Brocks office hours will take place on March 10, April 4 and May 18. For more information or to sign up, email mktgintern(at)sciencecenter(dot)org. Brock Weatherup is a consumer technology and marketing business leader and entrepreneur. Weatherup joined PetSmart in September 2014 as Chief Digital Officer and Senior Vice President after building and selling Pet360 to PetSmart for $160M. Prior to aggressively growing Pet360 as CEO, Weatherup served as CEO at Fathead LLC and held several leadership positions with InterActiveCorp, Ticketmaster.com, ReserveAmerica.com, Match.com and Citysearch.com. Brock holds a Bachelors degree in Marketing from the University of Colorado, Boulder, is a Board Member of the Adirondack Nature Conservancy, and in addition to serving as President of Philly Startup Leaders, is a mentor/advisor to numerous startups including PSL Startup Bootcamp and Dreamit Ventures. Brock also currently serves as a Managing Partner of Atai Ventures angel investments. Entrepreneur IQ Kickoff Reception: 5:30 p.m. Registration & Networking 6:00 Remarks by Brock Weatherup 6:30 Networking 7:30 p.m. Adjourn There is no charge for the kick-of reception, which will take place at Quorum at the Science Center, 3711 Market Street, Suite 800. Space is limited and advance registration is encouraged. Online registration is available at: http://sciencecenter.cal.basecampbusiness.com/node/2267866 About the Science Center The University City Science Center is a dynamic hub for innovation, and entrepreneurship and technology development in the Greater Philadelphia region. It provides business incubation, programming, lab and office facilities, and support services for entrepreneurs, start-ups, and growing and established companies. Since it was founded in 1963, graduate organizations and current residents of the University City Science Centers Port business incubators have created more than 15,000 jobs that remain in the Greater Philadelphia region today and contribute more than $9 billion to the regional economy annually. The Science Center is leveraging its history as the nations oldest and largest urban research park as it joins forces with Wexford Science + Technology, a BioMed Realty company, to expand its footprint and rebrand its physical campus as uCity Square a true mixed-use community of ingenuity. For more information about the Science Center, go to ucscreview.org. Automatically Deploy and Update Printers Using PrinterLogic, IT simply makes the change via a web-based portal and all printers are automatically updated within seconds. PrinterLogic, the leading Enterprise Print Management solution provider that enables businesses of all sizes to eliminate print servers, announced today that it will be demonstrating how it solves the headaches associated with Electronic Medical Record (EMR) printing at the HIMSS 2016 Conference & Exhibition, which will be held in Las Vegas on February 29-March 4. PrinterLogics on-premise web-based application completely eliminates the need for print servers, delivers centralized print management and empowers end users to install their own printers with a single click. In addition to day-to-day printing issues, Healthcare IT professionals deal with the added complexity of printing from EMR systems. In situations where print servers are still needed for back-end printing, much of ITs time is spent keeping printers in sync. Using PrinterLogic, IT simply makes the change via a web-based portal and all printers are automatically updated within seconds. What: Demonstration of how to manage EMR Printing in any environment with PrinterLogic's on-premise web application. Where: Booth 2475, HIMSS 2016, Venetian / Palazzo / Sands Expo Center - Las Vegas, Nevada When: February 29 - March 4 Not attending HIMSS 2016? Click here to download a free whitepaper on EMR printing. About PrinterLogic PrinterLogic is the world's leading Enterprise Print Management solution for server-less remote site printer deployments. With more than 1,500 customers in over 120 countries, PrinterLogic enables organizations of all sizes to eliminate print servers. PrinterLogic's single integrated printer management platform is an on-premises web application that simplifies the management, migration, and deployment of printers while drastically reducing cost. For more information, or for a free trial, please visit http://www.printerlogic.com. Questions? Watch our video or connect with us on Twitter at @PrinterLogic or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube,Instagram and Google+. Savills Studley has hired Harlan Hollander and Jason Fray as Senior Vice President and Senior Managing Director, respectively, of the firms Hackensack, New Jersey office. Savills Studleys conflict-free business model of representing only tenants in their real estate decisions was an important attribute of the firm. Savills Studley, the leading commercial real estate services firm specializing in tenant representation, has hired Harlan Hollander and Jason Fray as Senior Vice President and Senior Managing Director, respectively, of the firms Hackensack, New Jersey office. Hollander, formerly an Executive Director at Cushman & Wakefield, boasts more than a decade of experience in commercial real estate, specializing in corporate advisory and tenant representation services. He has developed strategic real estate solutions for numerous New Jersey-based companies, including the recently announced 350,000-square-foot lease extension in Holmdel, NJ for communication services firm Vonage; the largest deal of the year in the state of New Jersey. Additionally, in 2014 and 2015 Hollander was a key member of the brokerage team that represented Valeant Pharmaceuticals in its original 310,000-square-foot headquarters lease and 300,000-square-foot expansion at Somerset Corporate Center in Bridgewater, NJ. Hollander has completed the largest offices deals in New Jersey in each of the past three years. Prior to his career as a broker, Hollander practiced law at a Manhattan-based law firm, specializing in litigation. Savills Studleys conflict-free business model of representing only tenants in their real estate decisions was an important attribute of the firm. As a lawyer, I understand the complications of working on both sides of a transaction and Savills Studley eliminates that uncertainty for their clients, Hollander said. Fray, a 15-year industry veteran, and also formerly of Cushman & Wakefield, joins Savills Studley with significant experience in both tenant representation and capital markets advisory services. His previous clients include United Technologies, BNP Paribas and Kessler. Frays unique, tenant-focused approach enables him to create custom commercial real estate solutions tailored specifically to each clients occupancy needs. I was drawn to Savills Studley not only because of the firms commitment to tenant representation, but also because of its growing global platform. I am excited to begin new relationships with companies looking to expand beyond New Jersey, as well as developing existing opportunities regionally, Fray said. Savills Studley has recently established several new offices in growing real estate markets across the United States, including Phoenix, Austin, Minneapolis and Baltimore. In addition, the firm has completed several high-profile acquisitions, highlighted by the purchase of Real Facilities in Toronto, a major tenant representation consulting firm in Canada and Cooper Brady Partners in Silicon Valley, a top performing firm in one of the nations hottest markets. We are delighted to get two high-caliper, seasoned veterans in the New Jersey real estate market that complement our global tenant representation platform. Their experience and deep client relationships blend perfectly with our entrepreneurial workplace, said Chris Marx, senior vice president and branch manager of Savills Studleys New Jersey office. About Savills Studley Savills Studley is the leading commercial real estate services firm specializing in tenant representation. Founded in 1954, the firm pioneered the conflict-free business model of representing only tenants in their commercial real estate transactions. Today, supported by high quality market research and in-depth analysis, Savills Studley provides strategic real estate solutions to organizations across all industries. The firms comprehensive commercial real estate platform includes brokerage, project management, capital markets, consulting and corporate services. With 27 offices in the U.S. and a heritage of innovation, Savills Studley is well known for tenacious client advocacy and exceptional service. The firm is part of London-headquartered Savills plc, the premier global real estate service provider with over 30,000 professionals and over 700 locations around the world. Savills plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (SVS.L). For more information, please visit http://www.savills-studley.com and follow us on Twitter @SavillsStudley and LinkedIn. At Intermountain Precision Genomicss in-house laboratory, experts analyze the DNA and genetic makeup of a cancer patients tumor, enabling detection of the individual genes with errors in a persons cancer to determine treatment options. Intermountain Healthcare has been invited this Thursday, February 25, to the White House Precision Medicine Initiative Summit. The event, which includes an address by President Barack Obama, will bring together a small group of leaders from the federal government, private sector, academia, research organizations, and health provider organizations such as Intermountain. The initiatives goal is to transform the way health is improved and disease is treated. Precision medicine is an innovative approach that takes individual differences in genetics, environments, and lifestyles and gives medical professionals the resources to specifically identify treatments and target illnesses of each patient. Intermountain will be represented at the White House Summit by Lincoln Nadauld, MD, PhD, executive director of Intermountain Precision Genomics, which focuses on the treatment of cancer. The summit will be webcast live at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live. Also, on Friday, February 26, Intermountains president and CEO, Dr. Charles Sorenson, and Dr. Raj Srivastava, Intermountains Research medical director, will meet with Vice President Joe Biden in Salt Lake City. In meetings with Intermountain leadership and other Utah medical organizations, Vice President Biden will discuss the administrations moonshot effort to cure cancer. Intermountain has been studying precision medicine extensively for the past several years and has developed its nationally leading Precision Cancer Genomics program. The program has been recognized for being able to conduct DNA testing that typically matches advanced cancer patients with medications that lengthen lifespan and improve quality of life, all at about the same cost of traditional cancer therapies. At Intermountain Precision Genomicss in-house laboratory, experts analyze the DNA and genetic makeup of a cancer patients tumor, enabling detection of the individual genes with errors in a persons cancer to determine treatment options. The testing is proprietary to Intermountain Healthcare, but access to it is available to oncologists anywhere. The testing serves patients with late-stage cancer who have failed in a traditional treatment method. Intermountain is the only integrated healthcare system in the nation with the capability of testing and providing treatment for the greatest number of actionable gene mutation types, offering the most advanced next-generation sequencing available. In addition, Intermountain is typically able to gain access to limited distribution and specialty drugs for its patients. Nearly 80% of the patients treated at Intermountain Precision Genomics have been connected to targeted drug therapies. No other healthcare system has had comparable success. Unlike traditional chemotherapy, which focuses on destroying rapidly dividing cells, targeted therapies identify other features that are more specific to cancer cells. These medications work in individual ways, but all interfere with the ability of the cancer cell to grow, divide, repair, and/or communicate with other cells. Intermountain Precision Genomicss expertise is enhanced by the fact that Intermountain Healthcare has the nations largest biorepository, started in 1975, which stores more than three million tissue samples used for the advancement of cancer and other research. Intermountain Precision Genomics has recently published several studies related to this ground-breaking cancer therapy, including: Precision Medicine To Improve Survival Without Increasing Costs In Advanced Cancer Patients These results are significant and encouraging, said Dr. Nadauld. They underscore the value of precision medicine to patients today, offering increased survival without increasing costs. Intermountain has collaborated with Syapse, a technology company, to utilize software to help with this process. The software provides a web-based interface for oncologists to order molecular tests, view genomic results and molecular tumor board interpretations, make a treatment recommendation, and order drugs targeted to a patients specific genomic makeup. Syapse and Intermountain are leading the way in the clinical implementation of precision medicine, turning the Precision Medicine Initiatives vision of improved cancer care into a reality for patients in the community, said Jonathan Hirsch, Syapse founder and president, who will also attend the summit. Our work has demonstrated that precision medicine improves survival and reduces costs. We believe that precision medicine will be the core enabling technology for health systems to transform to at-risk, value-based care. Intermountain Healthcare is a Utah-based, not-for-profit system of 22 hospitals, 185 clinics, a Medical Group with some 1,400 employed physicians and advanced practice clinicians, a health plans division called SelectHealth, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare through high quality and sustainable costs. For more information about Intermountain, visit intermountainhealthcare.org. A recent report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) examines the standards-based policies that have dominated the national landscape over the last few decades. The report explores whether states adoption of standards-based policies predicts low-income students achievement trends in fourth and eighth grade math and reading from 2003 to 2013. A review of the report finds that it employs inappropriate research methods, fails to adequately define its approach, and reports only incomplete findings from its analyses. The reports claims far outpace its meager evidence. Sharon L. Nichols, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, reviewed Lessons From State Performance on NAEP: Why Some High-Poverty Students Score Better Than Others for the Think Twice Think Tank Review Project at the National Education Policy Center, housed at the University of Colorado Boulders School of Education. The report, according to Professor Nichols review, does not adequately describe variables or analytic methods, and the data and methods used do not allow for any causal findings. Yet the report uses causal language such as, According to our analysis, states typically saw a jump in outcomes due to standards-based reform (emphasis added). The data and methods used, even if the associations were much stronger than those shown in this study, could not possibly support such conclusions. Also, while the report claims to analyze changes across five separate two-year intervals, it only reports findings for 2009-2011, with no explanation of why or any documentation of the representativeness of that single interval. The positive results the report does find, Professor Nichols points out, are statistically significant only at the generally unacceptable 0.10 level of significance. Further, while the report includes effect sizes, it does not report the percentage of the variance explained in the model. The report contends that its analysis strongly supports the policy recommendation that states embrace the Common Core and its aligned assessments. But the study is far too weak to do this. As Professor Nichols explains, Even if the omissions and shortcomings of this report were remedied, the analysis only provides a very narrow snapshot of how policy might connect to practice. The strident call for Common Core at the end of this report is misplaced given [its] mismatched goals, questionable analysis and selected findings. Find Professor Nichols review at: http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-CAP-standards Find Lessons From State Performance on NAEP: Why Some High-Poverty Students Score Better Than Others, by Ulrich Boser and Catherine Brown, published by the Center for American Progress, at: https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/23090515/NAEPandCommonCore.pdf The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) Think Twice Think Tank Review Project (http://thinktankreview.org) provides the public, policymakers, and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected publications. The project is made possible in part by support provided by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice: http://www.greatlakescenter.org/ The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Visit us at: http://nepc.colorado.edu/ Find Documents: Press release: http://tinyurl.com/hadqv2z Review: http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-CAP-standards Report reviewed: https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/23090515/NAEPandCommonCore.pdf CereScan, the nations leader in providing statistically measured brain diagnostics, has been selected as one of the top 60 social ventures for the 2016 CO Impact Days and Initiative Showcase on March 4, 2016. The functional brain imaging and analytics company was chosen from more than 280 Colorado applicants to participate in the first of its kind, statewide marketplace for impact investing. CereScan is a brain science and analytics company that includes what is believed to be the countrys largest and most complete functional brain imaging data warehouse. The CereMetrixTM database will unite the Companys brain imaging with vital medical data to give practitioners access to the information needed to make better, faster diagnostic decisions for complex brain conditions. ***** CereScan, along with the other chosen ventures, will convene at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) to meet face to face with accredited investors in order to seek millions of dollars of impact investments. The chosen social ventures will have the opportunity to showcase their ability to provide a return on the impact investor's investment, while improving Colorado communities, to more than 200 accredited investors. This is the first time in the U.S. that 200 accredited impact investors will come together for a statewide marketplace, where they can connect with each other, learn, and have intimate access to social ventures representing projects, for profits, nonprofits, and funds at any stage of growth, said Dr. Stephanie Gripne, Founder of the Impact Finance Center and creator of CO Impact Days and Initiative. This is a first for impact investors and social ventures. ***** The goal of CO Impact Initiative is to catalyze $100 million in impact investments into Colorado social ventures in the next three years, and it is kicking off with CO Impact Days on March 2-4. CO Impact Days encourages a new breed of impact investors and community members to Learn. Connect. Invest. The name of the gathering says it all, said CereScan Chair and CEO, John Kelley. CO Impact Days provides a unique platform for CereScan and similar socially conscious organizations to effectively connect with potential financial resources within our realm. Our success will undoubtedly have an impact on a local and a national scale in the area of brain diagnostics and clinical research into brain disorders. CO Impact Days innovation is uniquely possible because Colorado is home to a number of national leaders in impact investing and a thriving and collaborative community of social venture entrepreneurs in both the for profit and nonprofit sectors, philanthropists and investors who are committed to growing Colorados economy and creating valuable jobs while ensuring our state remains one of the best places to work, live, and play in the U.S. Voting for the Peoples Choice Award will close on Monday, February 29 at 5p.m. The company with the most votes will receive the Award on Friday, March 4th, which will include a five-minute presentation on the stage of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House! To advocate on behalf of CereScan, please cast your vote at http://woobox.com/qh6kj7/gallery/j2Lhh19DHGU (no sign-up required). ***** Among the more than 200 accredited impact investors, foundations, and family offices participating in CO Impact Days and Initiative are Gary Community Investments, Colorado Health Foundation, The Denver Foundation and Innovest Portfolio Solutions, along with Linda Appel Lipsius, Andrew C. Currie, Rich Hoops, Jim and Melanie Davidson, and Jenn Vervier. About CereScan CereScan combines state-of-the-art SPECT and PET/CT brain imaging technologies with a patient centered model of care to provide the highest level of neurodiagnostics anywhere. Using quantitative functional brain imaging, advanced imaging software, and an extensive library of clinical data, the CereScan medical team provides physicians with unmatched objective diagnostic information. CereScan helps patients and their physicians better understand the neurological basis of their conditions. In a variety of legal settings, CereScan provides objective evidence to attorneys and their clients regarding traumatic and toxic brain injuries. For researchers, CereScan provides independent pre- and post-treatment measures of organic changes in the brain along with measures of symptoms related to the brain disorder of interest. For more information, please call (866) 722-4806 or visit http://www.CereScan.com. About CO Impact Days and Initiative CO Impact Days is the first of its kind effort to create a statewide marketplace for impact investing; identifying, connecting, and celebrating Colorado's top social ventures and impact investors from the Western Slope to the Front Range. CO Impact Days will to bring together Colorados top 60 social ventures, 200 impact investors, and 500+ community members to Learn. Connect. Invest. For more information or tickets, visit http://www.coimpactdays.org or contact Molly at molly@coimpactdays.org. CO Impact Initiative, created by the Impact Finance Center and led by Dr. Stephanie Gripne and a steering committee of community leaders is a 3-year strategy to elevate and accelerate impact investing in Colorado, catalyzing the flow of $100 million in investment capital into Colorado social ventures that deliver positive impact on the states communities, economy and natural environment. Soha Systems, an innovator of enterprise remote access as a service for suppliers and contractors, will demonstrate Soha Cloud in Booth North Expo #N4508 at the RSA Conference 2016, February 29-March 4, 2016 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Soha Cloud offers a new, centralized controlled approach to secure and easy remote access that does not require device specific software or direct access to the network. In todays connected world, business partners need access to applications on your network, said Haseeb Budhani, CEO and co-founder at Soha Systems. However, up until now there has been no way to securely, easily and cost-effectively provide these suppliers and contractors with the access they need to get their jobs done. Conventional VPNs, remote desktop products and proxies are not sufficient to effortlessly enable third party access while protecting the enterprise. With Soha Cloud, no one can get to applications directly because they are hidden from the Internet and public exposure. Sohas unique dual-cloud architecture closes all inbound firewall ports while providing authenticated end users access to only their specific applications. Soha Cloud integrates data path protection, identity access, application security and management visibility and control into a single service. CEO Haseeb Budhanni and Vice President of Security Mark Carrizossa, the former principal security architect for Walmart eCommerce, will be at Sohas booth during RSA to explain more about the benefits of the solution and share success stories from customers, such as the Arc of Ulster-Greene and Bugcrowd, which have improved their security posture with Soha Cloud. To set up a meeting with Soha executives or to get a demonstration of Soha Cloud at RSA, contact Soha at info(at)soha(dot)io. About Soha Systems Soha Systems is an innovator of enterprise remote access as a service for suppliers and contractors. Our service, Soha Cloud, enables a new, centralized controlled approach to secure and easy remote access that does not require device specific software or direct access to the network. The Soha Cloud service can be deployed in minutes for 3rd party access to corporate applications in data centers and hybrid cloud environments. For more information, visit http://www.soha.io and join the conversation on Twitter @SohaSystems. Harris-Mann Climatology. Long-Range Weather Forecasts During the Presidential elections years, heat and dryness builds in over the crop-growing areas of the Midwest that ultimately leads to lower yields. Harris-Mann Climatologys annual spring and summer outlook predicts more trouble for California and other parts of the West that have been locked in a 4-year-plus drought. The company also predicts the western drought to expand eastward into the crop-growing regions of the central U.S. around the late spring and summer season. California was depending on flooding rains from the strong El Nino this year. However, its been an unusual El Nino this season as most of the moisture has stayed to the north of the Golden State, says Meteorologist Randy Mann. According to Harris-Mann Climatology, many stations in California and other parts of the West are actually below normal levels. Places like Los Angeles and Sacramento, California are reporting moisture totals less than last year at this time. Climatologist Cliff Harris says, Were starting to see the dryness in the West expand to the Great Plains. Many areas that saw record floods in 2015 are now seeing the mud turn to bricks. Harris-Mann forecasters point out similar patterns that have occurred about every 4 years. Harris says, During the Presidential elections years, heat and dryness builds in over the crop-growing areas of the Midwest that ultimately leads to lower yields. This will translate to higher grain and soybean prices later this year. Harris-Mann Climatology is also forecasting a snowier winter season across the northern portions of the United States as well as southern California. According to Mann, The warm El Nino is weakening and there are predictions of a colder La Nina sea-surface temperature pattern in the south-central Pacific Ocean by late this year. We often see colder and snowier seasons when the Pacific waters get colder. Harris-Mann Climatology also provides detailed monthly temperature, precipitation and snowfall forecasts for most U.S. and Canadian cities, plus outlooks for the following 12 months for over 6,000 world cities. They have recently added short 30-second videos for over 200 major world cities that describe when is the best time to travel based on historical climatology. The company offers a daily advisory weather and commodity service for farmers and traders. For more information, you can go to their website at http://www.LongRangeWeather.com. Lucernex Arbys is the second largest quick-service sandwich chain in the U.S. and we are proud to support their continued growth, stated Joe Valeri, President and co-Founder of Lucernex. Lucernex is proud to announce that Arbys Restaurant Group, Inc. (ARG) has chosen Lucernex to provide cloud-based Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS) software solutions. ARG will be utilizing Lucernexs Capital, Program & Project Management and Site Selection solutions to assist the ARG Development Team in the tracking, support and development of new ARG and franchisee Arbys restaurants. Lucernexs IWMS software solutions will also be used by ARG to assist in offering counseling and guidance in the overall development and acceptance process for Arbys franchisees. These cloud-based solutions also give ARG the capability to roll out and track multiple restaurant remodel projects efficiently. Arbys is the second largest quick-service sandwich chain in the U.S. and we are proud to support their continued growth, stated Joe Valeri, President and co-Founder of Lucernex. We believe that we can successfully support ARGs IWMS software real estate development needs, and provide additional software solutions for real estate life cycle management in the future. Lucernexs complete Real Estate Lifecycle Management solution gives customers the ability to manage and constantly improve their real estate portfolio. Our cloud-based solutions are fast, reliable, secure, and fully configurable for organizations of all sizes and industries. About Lucernex Lucernex provides cloud based Integrated Workplace Management Solutions (IWMS) to both emerging and enterprise companies around the globe. Our analytics, market planning, site selection, contract management, project management, facility management and maintenance management solutions are used by our valued customers every day and helps them drive revenue, reduce costs, ensure compliance and mitigate risk. For more information please visit us at http://www.lucernex.com About Arbys Arbys, founded in 1964, is the first nationally franchised sandwich restaurant brand, with more than 3,300 restaurants worldwide. The Arbys brand purpose is Inspiring Smiles Through Delicious Experiences. Arbys restaurants feature Fast Crafted service, a unique blend of quick-serve speed and value combined with the quality and made-for-you care of fast casual. Arbys Restaurant Group, Inc. is the parent company of the franchisor of the Arbys brand and is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. Visit Arbys.com for more information. Rare Disease Advocate Candace Lerman is headed to Washington, D.C. for Rare Disease Week which runs February 29 - March 3 to educate U.S. Senators about the need for the Orphan Product Extensions Now Accelerating Cures and Treatments (OPEN Act). This legislation would allow rare disease patients to use FDA-approved drugs deemed safe and effective for other conditions. Candace is the founder of RareCandace.com, where she blogs about issues surrounding her rare blood disorder, Immune Thrombocytopenia, and the Florida Director for the Rare Disease United Foundation. She also writes numerous articles on topics involving rare diseases, orphan drugs and biotechnology, and is a Juris Doctor candidate at the Shepard Broad College of Law at Nova Southeastern University. Candace had a successful visit with lawmakers in the House of Representatives last year, in which she helped advocate for the OPEN Act, which was included in HR 6, the 21st Century Cures Act. She hopes to have the same level of success with her Senate visits next week. Candaces most recent article for the International Pemphigus and Pemphigold Foundation discusses her off-label use of the chemotherapy drug Rituxan (the type of use that would be permitted to all rare disease patients through the OPEN act), which put her rare disease in remission. Despite the fact that there are over 7,000 known rare diseases and most of them have no FDA approved treatment, the OPEN Act has not been made a priority for the Health Education Labor and Pension committee. But Candace hopes that after Rare Disease Week and visits from her and other advocates, the committee will see the importance of the bill. Candace will also be attending Rare Disease Day at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland on February 29, where she will meet with patients and researchers to discuss biomedical research impacting the rare disease community. The National Institutes of Health will also display artwork from Rare Disease United Foundations Beyond the Diagnosis art exhibit in honor of Rare Disease Day. Terry Robberson Were at a very unique inflection point... This is a great environment for people to learn, expand themselves and seize opportunities. Entomo, Inc., a leading provider of channel revenue management software and services, today announced that Terri Robberson has joined the company to lead human resource efforts. Terri is a seasoned HR executive with more than 20 years of experience in a variety of industries, including software, online travel, financial services, and consulting. Her experience spans early-stage through Fortune 500 companies. Most recently, Terri focused on helping companies with HR-related best practices and solutions while running his own consulting firm, HRDifference LLC. Im thrilled to join Entomo at this point in our companys trajectory, said Terri. Were at a very unique inflection point mature enough to support Fortune 1000 enterprise customers, while maintaining the agility and camaraderie of an emerging growth company. This is a great environment for people to learn, expand themselves and seize opportunities." Previously, Terri was Vice President of Human Resources for Expedia, Key Bank, Morgan Stanley and held senior leadership roles for Neopost and Harris Corporation. Were thrilled to have Terri join our team as we enter this next phase of growth, said Sanjoy Chatterji, founder and CEO, Entomo. Talent drives our success and Terri will be instrumental in helping us scale the company to keep up with customer demand. About Entomo Entomo is a leading provider of cloud-based channel management software and services. Sometimes called ERP for the channel, we help businesses effectively manage distribution channel complexity to maximize revenue, reduce costs, improve partner performance and collaboration and ensure compliance at all levels. Entomos SmartHub is the industrys most flexible, scalable, and comprehensive enterprise channel management platform, enabling automation and simplification of all channel-related workflows and processes. Entomo is SSAE16-compliant and supports the channel management activities for global enterprises including Broadcom Corporation, Dolby Labs, Elo Touch Solutions, Keysight Technologies, Kingston Technology, Microsemi Corporation, OCZ Storage Solutions, Qorvo Inc., and Targus International. Entomo is privately held and headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, with offices in the Silicon Valley, Asia, and Europe. Midwest Equity Mortgage Named Top Mortgage Employer While our customers already know the type of service we can provide, its refreshing to hear that our staff enjoys being on our team. Midwest Equity Mortgage has been listed in National Mortgage Professional Magazines Top 100 Mortgage Employers to work for nationwide. Their January 2016 issue polled readers about their employers based on criteria such as compensation, marketing support, corporate culture, training resources, internal communication, and innovation. To further narrow down the list of Top Mortgage Employers, NMP Magazine then weighted factors that were more important to their readers. Corporate culture, for example, was a major factor with the majority of Mortgage Professionals polled. We are extremely honored to be listed as one of the top mortgage lenders to work for. While our customers already know the type of service we can provide, its refreshing to hear that our staff enjoys being on our team. Midwest Equity Mortgage was listed in the Top 100 mortgage employers to work for nationwide. There is a lot of competition both as a lender and an employer in this booming homebuyer and refinance market. Midwest Equity is committed to making the loan process as easy as possible for their customers. Along with their A+ rating from the BBB, Midwest Equity Mortgages recognition from NMP Magazine now makes them the preferred choice both by customers and Mortgage Professionals alike. ABOUT MIDWEST EQUITY MORTGAGE Midwest Equity Mortgage is an industry-leader in todays competitive and complex mortgage environment. They are a direct loan lender with the highest rating from the Better Business Bureau, so you can put your trust in them from start to finish of the process. Midwest Equity Mortgage prides itself on its top-notch, professional, and courteous service including a FREE Mortgage Analysis with one of their Loan Experts. Find out more at MidwestEquity.com # # # For all press related inquiries regarding Midwest Equity Mortgage, please contact JET Advertising at 630-782-8100. Awards Party Trends & Insights Punchbowl, the gold standard in online invitations, today revealed new trends and party insights for Hollywoods biggest night. With the Awards show just days away, Punchbowl conducted a survey to understand how people plan to celebrate. According to the survey, 82% of respondents turn to social media for party inspiration, followed by magazines and media sites. They search for themed food and game ideas, which were cited among the most important elements for the Awards party. Punchbowl also found that 33% of hosts choose black-tie attire for the occasion and the go-to menu items are creative buffets and fancy hors doeuvres. While Hollywoods biggest night celebrates the best of the big screen, its the small screen that matters for Awards show watch parties. In fact, 61% say a quality TV and sound system is critical for the party and 50% of respondents plan to have multiple screens in front of them while watching Sundays show for posting to social media during the broadcast and browsing red carpet looks. Additionally, 91% prefer to send online invitations for Awards show parties. Online invitations are a terrific way to quickly bring your friends together, said Matt Douglas, CEO, Punchbowl, Inc. Our free invitation collection allows hosts to send beautiful, personalized Awards show invitations to guests right from their phone, tablet or desktop. Punchbowls survey also revealed the following: 28 guests on average are invited to the party 33% say themed cocktails are important 14% prefer to wear costumes inspired by the nominees 11% included a potluck list for their party 29% do not think it is important to see the nominated films prior to the show Punchbowl has received critical acclaim and industry recognition for its usability and simplicity. Hosts can easily create, personalize and send beautiful online invitations from their phone, tablet or desktop at Punchbowl.com or through the sites iOS or Android apps. The platform was the winner of the 2015 MITX award for Best User Interface. To see the Oscars Online Invitation Collection visit: http://www.punchbowl.com/oscars-invitations About Punchbowl, Inc. Punchbowl is the company behind the critically acclaimed website Punchbowl.com, the new gold standard in online invitations. The site includes the Characters Kids Love online invitation collection, which features iconic, beloved characters. More than 90 million people have sent and received online invitations and digital greeting cards from Punchbowl. The company was founded by technology entrepreneur Matt Douglas, is located in Framingham, MA, and is backed by Intel Capital and Contour Venture Partners. To learn more, visit http://www.punchbowl.com/company. Dan Waite Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP has been named Firm of the Year for Nevada by Benchmark Litigation, recognizing the countrys most distinguished litigators and their firms for their work over the past 12 months. Nominees were chosen based on extensive research including interviews with peers and clients, according to Benchmark Litigation, an annual guide focusing exclusively on leading litigation firms and attorneys in the United States. Firm of the Year awards were announced this month. The guide identifies law firms and their attorneys that have displayed the ability to consistently handle complex, high-stakes cases in multiple jurisdictions, and are consistently recommended within their respective business and legal communities for the quality of their litigation professionals and trial work. Its certainly an honor to have our firm recognized as Nevada Firm of the Year, said Dan Waite, managing partner of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christies Las Vegas office. We are pleased that the Benchmark researchers received such positive feedback from clients and peers, and appreciate everyones contributions in helping the firm achieve this recognition. In addition to being named Nevada Firm of the Year for 2016, Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie also was recognized by the editors as a Highly Recommended law firm with multiple Litigation Star attorneys in the annual 2016 Benchmark Litigation guide released last fall. Howard Cole, Von Heinz, Dan Polsenberg and Dan Waite are Nevada litigation star attorneys from Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie, according to the publication. Firmwide, a total of 20 Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie litigators in Nevada, Arizona and Colorado were singled out in the 2016 Benchmark Litigation guide, which stated the firm is confirmed by peers as definitely a big name in these parts and now more than ever a firm to be reckoned with for litigation. Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie is committed to delivering outstanding results for our clients, as demonstrated by this recognition, said Litigation Practice Group Leader Mike Plachy. Clients benefit from our diversified talent, complementary skill sets and geographic reach for high-quality and effective legal support. With more than 125 litigators in ten offices across the western United States, Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie attorneys have successfully handled complex matters involving multiple parties and substantial economic claims in state, federal, appellate and bankruptcy courts in multiple jurisdictions, including cases garnering national media coverage. About Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP is built on the strengths of legacy firms Lewis Roca Rothgerber and Christie, Parker & Hale, providing clients across a wide range of industries with representation in litigation, intellectual property, business transactions, gaming, government relations and other practice areas. With approximately 300 attorneys, Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie offices are located in Albuquerque, Colorado Springs, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Phoenix, Reno, Silicon Valley and Tucson. Trident University, Academic Excellence - Compassionate Commitment TASC is a recognized third party administrator with an extensive network of respected clients. We look forward to helping their employees meet their educational and future professional goals. - James Shiver Trident University Internationals (Trident) Outreach & Partnerships team is excited to announce an Education Services Agreement (ESA) with Benesyst, a TASC Company. This ESA helps to ease the process of returning to school for TASCs employees, their families, as well as TASCs extensive network of client organizations, employees, and their immediate families. TASC has been an industry stalwart for over 40 years, delivering benefit management services and technologies to clients in a broad range of industries. TASC is a recognized third party administrator with an extensive network of respected clients. We look forward to helping their employees meet their educational and future professional goals, said James Shiver, Director of Strategic University Alliances. As part of their BeneScholar program, TASC works with client organizations to provide education assistance program administration and discounts for employers. Programs such as these are key drivers of increased employee performance, morale, and retention. Trident, a leading 100% online post-secondary institution that offers degrees at the bachelors, masters, and doctorate levels, is committed to its community of adult learners and over 28,000 alumni. Founded in 1998, the University is regionally accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Senior College and University Commission. For any media inquiries, please contact Daniel Sloan at daniel.sloan@trident.edu. About Trident University Founded in 1998, Trident University International (Trident) is a leading online postsecondary university serving adult learners. Trident developed the Trident Learning Model, which employs case-based learning in an online setting to teach real-world relevant critical thinking skills to enhance the lives and careers of students. Trident offers high-quality bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs, led by a qualified faculty team, over 80% of whom have doctoral degrees. Visit http://www.trident.edu, Tridents Facebook page, or call at (855) 290-0290 to learn more about Trident's wide range of bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs. Veterans Business Battle offers live streaming of the event, Feb. 26 and 27 We are passionate about helping entrepreneurs get their start and feel there is no better chance to highlight the opportunities ByTheCrowd.com gives business start-ups than at Veterans Business Battle. Roger Janik, Veterans Business Battle board member The EO-Houston Veterans Business Battle, a business plan competition for military veterans, will also be the launching pad for a new crowdfunding platform aimed at funding entrepreneurial ventures. The competition, held at Rice University Feb. 26 and 27, includes 16 finalists from across the country whose ideas were selected from more than 125 applications. The finalists pitches will be live streamed on the site BytheCrowd.com, a new crowdfunding site aimed specifically at investing in entrepreneurial ventures. The sites unique crowdvesting approach allows the public to fund existing businesses through financial investments and use the power of the crowd to ensure the venture becomes a permanent, financial success for all stakeholders. Veterans Business Battle will be the first event live streamed on the site. It can be accessed at http://bythecrowd.com/content/pages/vet-biz-battle The live stream will begin at 9 a.m. on Feb. 27, when the first presentations begin. Website users will be able to watch presentations, vote on their favorites, and contribute money toward the start-up businesses. Finalists will be presenting their ideas to a panel of selected investors at the live event. We are passionate about helping entrepreneurs get their start and feel there is no better chance to highlight the opportunities ByTheCrowd.com gives business start-ups than at Veterans Business Battle, said BytheCrowd.com founder and Veterans Business Battle board member Roger Janik. The finalists include both existing small businesses poised for growth and new technologies. All finalists are honorably discharged military veterans, many who have served in combat. Winners of investment packages and cash prizes, as well as the voted-upon crowd favorite, will be announced the evening of Feb. 27 at the Veterans Business Battle awards dinner. About Veterans Business Battle Veterans Business Battle was established in 2015 by The Houston chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization and Rice Universitys Veterans in Business Association. The competition aims to foster entrepreneurship among veterans, grow veteran-owned businesses and give back to veterans seeking to make a difference in the business world. More information is available at http://www.vetbizbattle.com. Since the early 2000s, state and federal regulators have focused on initiatives to enhance senior protection in part by policing abusive industry sales practices. Now, regulators are shifting their focus and asking financial advisors to help identify and avert senior fraud, according to IMCAs February 2016 Legislative Intelligence. This months Legislative Intelligence summarizes recent senior protection policy initiatives that would encourage a proactive role by the financial services industry. The proposals ultimately would call on firms to report financial exploitation of vulnerable seniors, place holds on suspicious transactions or disbursements, and provide immunity from lawsuits for these actions. While the proposed rules are well-intentioned, questions remain about whether state and federal rules are coordinated well enough to avoid confusion due to uncertainty over non-uniform rules, according to Legislative Intelligence. Some of the non-uniform provisions include defining a senior as age 60 or 65 and older, making reporting by firms mandatory or voluntary, and differing in the maximum number of days a firm can stop disbursements of client funds for suspicious activity. In addition, under the congressional legislation, banks, credit unions, brokerdealers, and investment advisory firms are eligible for immunity, while the state or broker-dealer rules would limit immunity to the securities industry. The future of the proposals remains uncertain. Stand-alone bills rarely are approved by Congress, and the state model rule likely will take years to be adopted nationwide. The result could be patchwork requirements state-by-state, at least in the next couple of years. Regulators may be focused on engaging firms at the moment, but they have not forgotten enforcement. The top 2016 exam priorities for FINRA and the SEC include reviewing investment advice to investors with retirement accounts, to seniors, and to other vulnerable investors. See IMCAs January 2016 Legislative Intelligence report for details. Click here to read the entire report on the recent regulatory focus on financial exploitation of seniors. Contact: Ryan Hoffman, Communications Director. P: 303.850.3079 E-mail: rhoffman(at)imca(dot)org. Twitter:@IMCA About IMCA Established in 1985, Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA) is a nonprofit professional association and credentialing organization with more than 10,000 individual members and certificants worldwide. IMCA members collectively manage more than $2.477 trillion, providing investment consulting and wealth management services to individual and institutional clients. Since 1988, IMCA has offered the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) certification, which earned accreditation by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in April 2011, making it the first financial services credential in the United States to meet international standards (ISO 17024) for personnel certification. IMCAs Certified Private Wealth Advisor (CPWA) certification is suited for wealth management professionals working with high-net-worth clients. In 2015, IMCA conferences and workshops hosted more than 4,000 attendees. IMCA and Investment Management Consultants Association are registered trademarks of Investment Management Consultants Association Inc. CIMA, Certified Investment Management Analyst, CIMC, CPWA, and Certified Private Wealth Advisor are registered certification marks of Investment Management Consultants Association Inc. Investment Management Consultants Association Inc. does not discriminate in educational opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law. Turner Construction Company is pleased to announce that Mike Bruskin, David Duffy, Dan Kahn, Dan McGuckin and Chris Verbeek have been promoted to vice president, effective February 1, 2016. Mike Bruskin is now serving as vice president and director of procurement. Mike joined Turners Connecticut office in 1987 as a field engineer, also serving as a cost engineer and an assistant engineer before his promotion to project engineer in 1994. As a project engineer, he worked primarily in Connecticuts Main division, serving briefly as a project engineer for the Special Projects Division, until his transfer to procurement in 2004, where he served for a year before earning a promotion to procurement manager in 2005. In 2013 he was named director of procurement for the company, his most recent role. David Duffy is now serving as vice president and construction executive in the Federal Services Group. David joined Turners Boston office in 1986 as a field engineer, a role he served in until his transfer to the Washington, DC office in 1990, where he accepted an assignment as an assistant superintendent. He was promoted to superintendent in 1993, and project manager in 1999. In 2003 he was promoted to senior project manager. Two years later he was named project executive and, in 2015, he was named construction executive for Federal Services Group, his most recent role. Dan Kahn is now serving as vice president and construction executive in the Seattle office. Dan joined Turners Seattle office in 1989 as a field engineer. In 1991 he moved to the Special Projects Division as a project manager, serving in that role until his promotion to project engineer at the World Trade Center project in 1996. In 1999, Dan was promoted to project manager for Main, and worked on the Seattle Waterfront Marriot project. In 2003, he transitioned into the role of business development manager and in 2007 he accepted an assignment as manager of preconstruction services, a role he served in until 2010 when he was named construction executive, his most recent role. Dan McGuckin is now serving as vice president and construction executive in the Southwest. Dan joined Turners Los Angeles office in 1982 as an assistant engineer, and served as an engineer and a superintendent in Los Angeles until his transfer in 1989 to San Diego, where he accepted an assignment as a project engineer. In 1994 he transferred to Arizona working as a project manager. He transferred back to San Diego in 1999. Dan was promoted to senior project manager in 2005 and project executive in 2006. He was named operations manager of the San Diego office in 2013 and in 2015 he was named construction executive, his most recent role. Chris Verbeek is now serving as vice president and director of corporate development. Chris joined Turner in 2010 as a senior project manager in the corporate development group. He has worked on the acquisition of New York-based EE Cruz and the purchase of a majority share in Edmonton, Alberta-based Clark Builders. In 2013, he was promoted to director of corporate development, his most recent role. Park Cities YMCA We are extremely pleased with the progress on the project. It is exciting to realize in just six short months we will have a state of the art YMCA, which can better serve the Park Cities community for generations to come. On the morning of February 25, a topping out ceremony was held at the new Moody Family YMCA in the Park Cities to officially commemorate reaching the final height of the new building, which is marked at 44 ft. Adolfson & Peterson Construction (AP) is serving as the general contractor for the new state-of-the art YMCA which is located at 6000 Preston Road in University Park. Construction has been underway since April 2015 on this project which will replace the original YMCA built in 1951. The project has overcome numerous challenges such as record rainfall, which resulted in a loss of 39 days of production; yet the project team has successfully implemented a recovery schedule to finish on-time in July 2016. Designed by Good Fulton & Farrell Architects, the new complex will provide 58,500 square feet of amenities. In comparison with the original building, it will have an indoor therapy pool, expanded health and wellness space, locker rooms and lobby area along with a 300 space underground parking garage. The Moody Family YMCA in the Park Cities will also be the first YMCA to program a Rise school, which is focused on providing early childhood educational programs for children with and without developmental disabilities. The commitment of the entire project team is the foundation for success on this project, said Corbett Nichter, Senior Vice President with AP. From the very beginning, the entire team owner, architect, contractor, subs has been aligned towards a common goal: to build a quality facility that will serve the clients of the YMCA for many years to come, all while being a great neighbor to the University Park community. Todays ceremony marks another milestone in the journey to opening the new Moody Family YMCA, said John Palms, Park Cities YMCA Board of Management Chair. We are extremely pleased with the progress on the project. It is exciting to realize in just six short months we will have a state of the art YMCA, which can better serve the Park Cities community for generations to come. Time Lapse Camera Footage: http://oxblue.com/open/a-p/pcymca About Adolfson & Peterson Construction Adolfson & Peterson Construction is a U.S.-based, privately held firm that is consistently ranked among the top 50 construction managers and general contractors in the nation. Founded in 1946, the company has built longstanding commitments to the regions in which it operates and is known nationally for its innovative and collaborative approaches within the building industry. Adolfson & Peterson Construction serves the education, multifamily, healthcare, energy, commercial, municipal and senior living market segments from its offices in Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Tacoma. For more information, visit http://www.a-p.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. About Park Cities YMCA The Y is one of the nations leading nonprofits strengthening communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. Across the U.S., 2,687 Ys engage 21 million men, women and children regardless of age, income or background to nurture the potential of children and teens, improve the nations health and well-being, and provide opportunities to give back and support neighbors. Anchored in 22 North Texas communities, the Dallas Y has the long-standing relationships and physical presence not just to promise, but to deliver, lasting personal and social change. About GFF Good Fulton & Farrell is an award-winning multi-disciplinary design firm based in Dallas, with a staff of more than 100 offers architecture, interiors, planning and landscape architecture on a national and international basis. Good Fulton & Farrell serves as the overall corporate umbrella for three divisions: Good Fulton & Farrell Architects, comprising six distinct studios specializing in different practice areas; GFF Interiors, offering full-service interior design capabilities across a full spectrum of building types; GFF Planning, providing land use planning, campus master planning, urban design, landscape architecture and zoning processing assistance. Professor Cecil Hunt of The John Marshall Law School in Chicago has been named Author-in-Residence at St. Johns University School of Law. Hunt was named Author-in-Residence after his article, The Jim Crowing Effect: Denial, Human Rights, and Dignity, in Racialized Mass Incarceration, was chosen for publication in the St. Johns University School of Laws Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Empowerment. The editorial board of the Journal deemed Hunts piece the best article published of the 2015-2016 academic year. As part of Hunts appointment, he will visit St. Johns to meet with deans, faculty and students to discuss the topic of his article and various aspects of race and society in America. Hunt has taught at John Marshall since 2004. He teaches Property; Secured Transactions; Human Rights, Race, and Mass Incarceration; International Human Rights; and International Comparative Constitutional Human Rights. Before joining the faculty at John Marshall, Hunt taught at Suffolk University Law School, Touro Law Center and University of Seattle Law School. Hunt received his bachelors degree from Harvard College and his law degree from Boston College Law School. About The John Marshall Law School The John Marshall Law School, founded in 1899, is an independent law school located in the heart of Chicago's legal, financial and commercial districts. The 2016 U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Graduate Schools ranks John Marshall's Lawyering Skills Program fifth, its Trial Advocacy Program 16th and its Intellectual Property Law Program 17th in the nation. Since its inception, John Marshall has been a pioneer in legal education and has been guided by a tradition of diversity, innovation, access and opportunity. InnerGroup available now for iPhone, iPad and Android We dont collect or store any personal information to sell, we dont own the messages and media that users send via InnerGroup, and we dont have a back door People who like the fun, speed and convenience of social media apps but are concerned about having their personal details harvested by strangers, companies or even cyber criminals -- can now get the communication features they want without compromising their privacy with the new app InnerGroup by developer Santo Porpiglia. Available for iOS and Android devices at no cost and with no ads, InnerGroup lets users start or join a tight-knit group that is comprised exclusively of members (which the app calls groupies) who have been invited. Anyone else who wants to join the exclusive social media party must request access from the groups creator, and there is no group size limit. Inner Group offers users enhanced security & privacy: Groupies can send each other secure, end-to-end encrypted texts, videos, picture messages, and audio. No data is stored, collected or sold by InnerGroup and user activity is not tracked all usage is private to the users devices. Groupies dont have to worry about their contact information or address book being exposed, since they dont need to provide their email address or phone number to use the app. The only way this happens is if they intentionally choose to share their information either with a specific individual, or with the whole group. Once a post is delivered to each groupie, it is automatically and permanently deleted from the InnerGroup server. As such, the only place the post lives is on each groupies device (unless they wish to delete it). Furthermore, if and when a group owner chooses to delete a group, all posts are automatically deleted from each groupies device. Group owners can also prune their group by removing individual groupies, and even update their join code to prevent banished groupies from trying to sneak their way back in. They can also use the Group Lock feature that only allows groupies to comment on posts (group owners can temporarily disable this feature and allow groupies to post if desired). While InnerGroups security features are enterprise-grade, using it doesnt require an engineering degree. The apps intuitive design makes starting and joining groups very easy, and sending and receiving posts is as simple, fun and fast as Facebook and other popular social media apps -- but without the security concerns or spam worries. There is no cost to send or receive posts, and there is no size limit (other than those imposed by individual users devices). We dont collect or store any personal information to sell, we dont own the messages and media that users send via InnerGroup, and we dont have a back door, commented developer Santo Porpiglia. Whats more, conversations and posts cant be tracked, intercepted or monitored, and groupies address books are never accessed by us or anyone else. InnerGroup, the unique new social media app that lets users share secure, end-to-end encrypted texts, videos, pics and audio, is available now for iOS devices from the App Store at https://itunes.apple.com/app/innergroup/id998498733, and for Android devices from Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonnyporpiglia.innergroup. There is no cost to download the app and no ads. Additional app information is available at http://www.innergroupapp.com. For all other app information or media inquiries, contact Mark Johnson on behalf of Santo Porpiglia at +1 408 757 0156 or press (at)appshout(dot)com. About Santo Porpiglia Based in New York, USA, Santo is talented developer with a degree in Computer Science from New York Institute of Technology. With a passion for apps that offer privacy and secure data storage for end-users, Santo is building a portfolio of well-received apps for both iOS and Android. As a startup or small business owner, understanding how you can leverage inbound marketing to drive growth is key to your success. Elyse Flynn Meyer, Founder of Prism Global Marketing Solutions, an inbound marketing agency and HubSpot Gold Partner, is excited to speak at Arizona State University's Entrepreneurship & Innovation SparXX Community Workshop, Inbound Marketing and Social Media Secrets to Success. This workshop is intended for entrepreneurs and small business owners to learn more about how to leverage inbound marketing and social media to grow and scale your business. The workshop will be a presentation and open panel format to ask any questions small business owners may have on marketing for their business. Joining Elyse Flynn Meyer on the panel is Anna Brice, Owner of Pinnacle Peak Marketing, and Caitlin Waters, Digital Communications Manager at SocialWhirled. This event will be held on February 29, 2016 at 5:30PM at SkySong in Scottsdale, Arizona. Learn more and register online today. I am thrilled to be speaking at this upcoming SparXX Community Workshop on inbound marketing and social media. As a startup or small business owner, understanding how you can leverage inbound marketing to drive growth is key to your success. These community workshops are a wonderful way for small business owners to ask their questions of industry professionals to get real-time feedback. I'm excited to be a part of the continually growing startup community in Arizona, says Elyse Meyer, Founder of Prism Global Marketing Solutions. What is the SparXX program at Arizona State University? The goal of the SparXX Community Workshop Series, a program of the Arizona State University Office of Entrepreneurship + Innovation (E+I), is to engage community members in a series of workshops on entrepreneurial and business topics that are frequently requested. SparXX supports the advancement of our entrepreneurial ecosystem both at ASU and in the greater Arizona community. About Prism Global Marketing Solutions: Prism Global Marketing Solutions is an inbound marketing agency and HubSpot Gold Partner providing strategic online and inbound marketing consulting and support to B2B organizations. Prism Global Marketing Solutions understands the constraints of marketing time and budgets, and finds the most unique and effective solutions for their clients to achieve the greatest return on investment from their marketing strategy. Services include: inbound marketing, digital marketing, search engine optimization, lead generation, marketing strategy, marketing automation, social media marketing, and marketing analytics. http://www.prismglobalmarketing.com Lattice Technology Common uses include assembly process planning with digital mock-up, work instructions, technical illustrations, design reviews, electronic spare part catalogs and service portals. Lattice Technology, Inc., an industry leader of digital mock-up and technical communication solutions for the manufacturing industry, today announced Lattice3D Studio version 14. This latest release of the companys XVL authoring tool contains features that improve productivity and increase functionality for companies that design their products using any of the mainstream 3D CAD solutions including CATIA, Inventor, Pro/ENGINEER (Creo), Solid Edge, SOLIDWORKS, NX and other popular 3D CAD systems. Lattice Technology delivers solutions that build on top of an organizations existing 3D design data, allowing companies to leverage 3D CAD model data beyond engineering to all segments of the product lifecycle. Manufacturing and engineering companies use the innovative technology as the backbone for repurposing 3D model data across the extended enterprise. Common uses include assembly process planning (using digital mock-up), work instructions, technical illustrations, design reviews, electronic spare part catalogs and service portals. To simplify and streamline updates when engineering changes occur, associativity to the native CAD model is retained. Our mission is to enable companies to leverage their 3D models from any CAD system throughout their extended organization. These purposes may include digital mock-up of their assembly process for planning, in-house documentation for assembly or end-user manuals and service procedure documentation, said Koichi Kobayashi Vice President Lattice Technology Inc. With this release, we continue to enhance our industry-leading solutions that give manufacturing companies the capability to repurpose the largest of models for planning and technical documentation purposes. The most significant features of Lattice3D Studio version 14 include advances in: Design ReviewEliminates false positives using expected interferences with both static and dynamic interference analysis. UsabilityImproved element selection and highlighting of selectable elements Technical IllustrationAdds Anchor Lines feature to align callouts quickly and easily SupportAdds support for Windows 10 and latest 3D CAD releases for CATIA, Inventor, Solid Edge, and SOLIDWORKS About Lattice Technology, Inc. Lattice Technologys powerful software tools set the standard for technical communication for the manufacturing enterprise. Using Lattice Technology solutions, engineers and non-engineers alike can easily simulate assembly processes and create work instructions or technical illustrationsdirectly from 3D engineering data. Solutions from Lattice Technology benefit companies who produce products with high part counts, complex geometry, detailed manufacturing processes or any ongoing lifecycle support requirements such as documentation, maintenance, and training. Target industries range from those developing large products such as airplanes and automobiles to small, complex machinery and medical devices. Founded in 1997, Lattice Technology, Inc. is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and Denver, CO, USA. For more information, visit http://www.lattice3d.com. Lattice Technology is a registered trademark of Lattice Technology, Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Marketing Analytics 2 Action by IBM Partner Cresco With perfecting the offering internally, we can now use IBM technologies to help monitor and analyze customer intelligence, marketing strategies and real-time social media marketing initiatives. IBM Premier Analytics Business Partner and Reseller, Cresco International, today announced Marketing Analytics 2 Action (MA2A) - a new offering available to cross-industry organizations to effectively reach out to customers and leverage real-time, customer journey analytics to make faster, predictable and targeted decisions. On the heels of winning the 2016 IBM Beacon Award in the Marketing Excellence category as a finalist, Cresco International provides the very same offering it uses internally to get deeper customer analytics to understand its customer potential and needs by leveraging IBM Analytics products. This offering is now available to organizations and marketing teams in order to better understand customer journeys, sentiments and targeted marketing campaigns in a proactive manner, ultimately reducing customer churn and increasing brand loyalty. The IBM Beacon Award in Marketing Excellence is awarded to IBM Analytics business partners who deliver exceptional solutions to drive business. "Marketing Analytics 2 Action is now such a valuable offering to be able to provide to our clients," said Sanjeev Datta, Practice Director for Cresco International. "With perfecting the offering internally, we can now use IBM technologies to help monitor and analyze customer intelligence, marketing strategies and real-time social media marketing initiatives. We see it crucial to create Marketing Analytics 2 Action as an offering that can really help companies take their customer intelligence through targeted marketing with insight on the customer journey to a whole new level." Marketing Analytics 2 Action is a products suite offering: > Customer Journey Analytics > Social media and predictive marketing analytics > Marketing automation > Campaign management > Predictive intelligence For more information about Marketing Analytics 2 Action visit: http://www.crescointl.com/offerings/marketing-analytics-2-action/. In addition to receiving the IBM Beacon Marketing Finalist Award, Cresco was also recently awarded the 2016 IBM North America Top Performing New Business Partner Award - an award given by IBM and Ingram Micro that recognizes overall revenue performance in 2015 as a new IBM Business Partner. About Cresco International Cresco International is a certified IBM Premier Analytics business partner providing analytics software, training, consulting, cloud and support services. For more information about Cresco, visit crescointl.com, or email info(at)crescointl(dot)com. The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation has announced the schools that will receive grants to acquire automated external defibrillators (AEDs) through its You Can Save a Life at School AED Grant Program, made possible by the Hillsdale Fund. The grants to elementary and secondary public, parochial, and charter schools will enable them to acquire recertified AEDs, designed to help save lives threatened by sudden cardiac arrest. Schools also may opt to apply the grants to acquire new AEDs. The lifesaving devices will be provided by Enerspect Medical Solutions, a partner of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, which carries all AED brands. The Foundation announced the grant opportunity last fall. Applicants were asked to complete an online application and submit an essay describing their school, its population, and why it needs an AED. Applicants were also asked to commit to follow the Cardiac Emergency Response Plan, recently developed through a collaborative effort of the American Heart Association, Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, and other nonprofit organizations. The Foundation received dozens of applications and will award grants to schools that fulfilled application requirements and have the greatest need. Schools without any AEDs and a population of 100 or more students, and schools with one AED and a population of 500 or more students, were given the highest priority. The Hillsdale Fund is pleased to support the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation initiative to improve survival from sudden cardiac arrest in school settings, said James Richardson, MBA, CCEMT-P, Aspen Colorado Ambulance District director, who is a director of the Hillsdale Fund and a member of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation Board of Directors. Grants for AEDs will be awarded to the following schools: 1. Bendle Public Schools, Burton, Michigan 2. Charlevoix Public Schools, Charlevoix, Michigan 3. Cordova School District, Cordova, Alaska 4. Ellsworth Community School, Ewen, Michigan 5. Father Marquette Catholic School, Marquette, Michigan 6. Hamady High School, Flint, Michigan 7. Joshua Academy Charter School, Evansville, Indiana 8. Leonardo DaVinci School for Gifted Learners, Green Bay, Wisconsin 9. Lincoln Elementary School, Green Bay, Wisconsin 10. McAuliffe Elementary, Green Bay, Wisconsin 11. Stanton Township Public Schools, Atlantic Mine, Michigan 12. Vincentian Academy, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We are happy to be able to help these schools prepare for sudden cardiac arrest by providing automated external defibrillators as part of a comprehensive cardiac emergency response plan, said Mary M. Newman, MS, Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation president. The availability of these lifesaving devices will increase the likelihood of survival from sudden cardiac arrest, whether it strikes a student, staff member, parent or visitor. We commend these schools for having the vision to prepare for sudden cardiac arrest in their communities. And we thank the Hillsdale Fund for making this grant program possible. Sudden cardiac arrest strikes nearly 360,000 people outside hospitals each year, including 7,000 youth under the age of 18. The average survival rate is 10 percent, but when events are witnessed and bystanders intervene, survival rates are three times higher. For more information, visit the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation here. About the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation is a national community benefit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to raising awareness about sudden cardiac arrest and saving lives. Programs include educational campaigns for secondary schools and colleges and the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Network, an online community that provides peer support and opportunities for survivors and family members to participate in awareness, advocacy, and research initiatives. About the Hillsdale Fund The Hillsdale Fund, Inc., an independent foundation based in Greensboro, North Carolina, was established in 1963 by members of the Lunsford Richardson family. Mr. Richardson was the founder of the Vick Chemical Company. About Enerspect Medical Solutions With 30 years of experience in the emergency medical response market, the Enerspect team offers solutions focused on strengthening emergency response systems to improve overall medical outcomes through training and innovative technology solutions. If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity. PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move. Welcome to Line Danci Read more [...] New stores are opening in Tulsa and Cleveland, while a store in Rhode Island is celebrating its fifth anniversary as an indie this weekend. It was formerly a Waldenbooks. Events Festival Neue Literatur (Feb. 25-27): This annual festival features authors from Germany, Austria, and the U.S., and takes place in a variety of venues in New York City, including Book Court in Brooklyn and McNally Jackson in Manhattan. Search for Meaning Book Fest in Seattle (Feb. 27): This years festival features more than 50 authors, including keynoter Tracy Kidder, author of Mountains Beyond Mountains. Openings Magic City Books to Open in Tulsa: The newly formed non-profit Tulsa Literary Coalition is planning to open a for-profit indie bookstore in the Brady Arts District early next year. Cindy Hulsey, executive director of the coalition, will take on the role of general manager of the bookstore, which will include a cafe, meeting room, and newsstand. Visible Voice Books Could Reopen in Cleveland: A former funeral home might seem like an unlikely spot for a restaurant and a bookstore. But bookstore owner Dave Ferrante, who recently purchased the building, thinks it might work for the bookstore he closed in 2014. He still has 60,000 books in storage and would like to reopen the bookstore alongside former neighbor Crust restaurant. Other News Wakefield Books Celebrates Its 5th: Wakefield Books in Wakefield, R.I., is marking its fifth anniversary this weekend with a storewide sale. This is one of the few indies to rise from the ashes of a Waldenbooks. Inklings Staff Raise Money for Coworkers Heart Transplant: Mimi Applebaum, a bookseller at Inklings in Yakima, Wash., was diagnosed with carcinoid syndrome cancer of the liver 16 years ago. Because of the disease, she needs a heart transplant. A newly formed committee of past and former Inklings booksellers is trying to raise $85,000 to cover Applebaum and her husbands expenses; they will have to relocate 200 miles from their home. Tax-deductible donations can be made for Applebaum at the National Foundation for Transplants website. ABFE Joins Protest Over Cancelled Play in Miami: American Booksellers for Free Expression joined the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund, and Arts Integrity Initiative in signing a statement protesting the North Miami Beach JCCs decision to cancel Crossing Jerusalem after four performances because its message was inappropriate and troublesome. Book Exchange in Kokomo Struggles: Trying whatever I can brainstorm to keep this bad boy open, owner Monica Pratt posted on Facebook last week. When she bought it a couple years ago, business was down. But she hasnt been able to turn it around and is looking for the community to support it. Closings St. Marks Last Day Sunday: After nearly 40 years, the iconic New York City bookstore in the East Village will close for good at the end of the day on February 28. President Obama today announced Carla Hayden, CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, as his nominee to become the 14th Librarian of Congress. The selection comes after months of speculation, following the January retirement of James Billington, a Reagan appointee who took the post in 1987. If approved by the Senate, Hayden will replace associate director David Mao, who is currently serving as the the librarys interim director. In a statement, the appointment of Hayden was hailed by officials at the American Library Association, who had urged the president to appoint a professional librarian to the postin fact, there hasnt been a professional librarian leading the Library of Congress on a full-time basis since Lawrence Quincy Mumford retired in 1954. The White House reportedly approached author Walter Isaacson about the job last year (who declined). The President could not have made a better choice, said ALA president Sari Feldman, who called Hayden uniquely positioned to lead the Library of Congress. We look forward to working closely with her to further librarians bedrock principle that all Americans everywhere deserve and must have equitable access to the information that they need to succeed and lead productive lives in the digital age. Hayden, who served as president of ALA from 2003 to 2004, would be the first woman and first African American Librarian of Congress. In 2010, she was nominated by Obama to be a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board. And in 1995, she was the first African American to receive Library Journals Librarian of the Year Award, in recognition of her outreach services at the Pratt Library. Last year, Hayden was in the news as the nation was captivated by dramatic images of unrest in Baltimore, after Freddie Gray was killed in police custody, and the Enoch Pratt Free Librarys Pennsylvania Avenue branch was at the epicenter of the protests. Through days of discord, the library stayed open, serving the community with services and a safe haven. If confirmed, Hayden will step into a job that will be under intense scrutiny. Since Billington's retirement announcement last year, the Library of Congress has been publicly criticized for falling behind in the digital age. In a blistering June 10 article in the New York Times, former University of Michigan librarian Paul Courant said that, in terms of technology, the library has basically been a bust. And former Harvard University librarian Robert Darnton (who had even called for Billingtons resignation at one point) observed that Billington just sat on the sidelines while the digital revolution took place. Hayden will also be the first Librarian of Congress to be term-limited. Last fall, president Obama signed a law dictating a 10-year term limit to the office. Although historically there hasnt been a defined term for the position, over the years it had evolved into a lifetime appointmentthere have only been 13 librarians of Congress since the library was chartered in 1802, and only six since 1900. In addition, among many political issues simmering in the digital information age, Hayden may have to deal with a proposal made last year by two lawmakers to remove the Copyright Office from under the purview of the Library of Congress, and to establish it as an independent agency. The AAP (Association of American Publishers) applauded the discussion draft, calling it the critical first step towards crafting legislation to equip the Copyright Office with the tools and authority necessary to realize the full potential of copyright and creativity in the digital age. The ALA opposed the proposal. In a statement, AAP officials suggested the copyright issue could be critical. While acknowledging Haydens "long and distinguished leadership," AAP neither supported nor opposed her nomination. "The publishing community, which has historically contributed so many of its works to the Librarys collections through the deposit requirements of the Copyright Act, looks forward to the Senate confirmation process where we hope to learn more about Dr. Haydens views on the future of the Library," the statement reads, "and, unsurprisingly, on the importance of copyright and the need to modernize the Copyright Office." Correction: Walter Isaacson was approached about the Librarian of Congress position, not offered the job. March will see the release of new books from bestselling author Karen Kingsbury as well as Robert Cargill, the host of the History Channels Bible Secrets Revealed. Also coming are a look at how Christians have invented stories about Jesus in Bart D. Ehrmans Jesus Before the Gospels and an introduction to Chan Buddhism with Chan Heart, Chan Mind. Fiction March 1 A Heart Once Broken by Jerry S. Eicher (Harvest House, $14.99; ISBN 978-1-4104-8846-6). The first book in the St. Lawrence County Amish series follows cousins Lydia and Sandra, their friend Rosemary, and the object of each of their affections: the handsome Ezra. A Daring Sacrifice by Jody Hedlund (Zondervan, $12.99 , ISBN 978-0-3107-4937-0) blends faith angles and morality in a re-telling of Robin Hood, but with a female protagonist. Gods Not Dead 2 by Travis Thrasher (Tyndale, $14.99; ISBN 978-1-4964-1361-1). Based on the film, this novelization examines evidence of Jesuss life and responds to skeptics who say that Jesus is a contrived figure of ancient mythology. March 8 The Goodbye Bride by Denise Hunter (Thomas Nelson, $12.99, ISBN 978-0-7180-2373-7). When Lucy Lovett wakes up and realizes shes engaged to a man she doesnt remember, she has to find her way back through amnesia to the real love of her life. March 15 Miriam by Mesu Andrews (WaterBrook Press, $14.99, ISBN 978-1-6014-2601-7) reveals the story of the seven deadly plagues in Egypt as told from the perspective of Moses sister. March 29 Brush of Wings by Karen Kingsbury (Howard, $22.99; ISBN 978-1-4516-8753-8) is the latest in the popular Angels Walking series that feature divine intervention, second chances, and a group of friends whose lives could affect the future of the country. Nonfiction March 1 When Anything Goes by Leslie Williams (Abingdon, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-6308-8126-9) makes a case for why Christianity is still relevant in an increasingly spiritual-but-not-religious world using personal experiences and a search for why we believe what we believe. Bound to Be Free: Escaping Performance to be Captured by Grace by D. A. Horton (Nav Press, $14.99; ISBN 978-1631464676). Acknowledging the pressure Christians feel to lead a good life, the book uses Scripture to make a case for Gods unconditional love. I Am N: Inspiring Stories of Christians Facing Islamic Extremists by the Voice of the Martyrs (David C Cook, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-4347-0987-5). Compiled by a nonprofit for persecuted Christians, these true stories showcase the unwavering faith of N, also known as followers of Jesus the Nazarene. Way of Love by Norman Wirzba (HarperOne, $26.99, 978-0-0623-8581-9) argues that Christianity has shifted away from love, making a case for why believers need to focus on Gods compassion rather than on political, cultural, and religious battles. Apostle: Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve by Tom Bissell (Pantheon, $28.95, ISBN 978-0-3754-2466-3) explores the mysterious lives and legacies of the Twelve Apostles as well as their relationship with Jesus. March 8 Chan Heart, Chan Mind: A Meditation on Serenity and Growth by Master Guojun (Wisdom, $14.95; ISBN 978-1-6142-9262-3) is an introduction to Chan Buddhism. Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of the Savior by Bart. D. Ehrman (HarperOne, $27.99; ISBN 978-0-0622-8520-1) uses extensive research to examine oral tradition and its role in the New Testament. March 10 Unashamed: Drop the Baggage, Pick up Your Freedom, Fulfill Your Destiny by Christine Caine (Zondervan, $19.99, ISBN 978-0-3103-4070-6) includes personal stories about living with shame while laying out steps for moving beyond the past. March 15 The Cities That Built the Bible by Robert Cargill (HarperOne, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-0623-6674-0). Using archaeology as well as biblical history, the book explores what roles Bethlehem, Babylon, Jerusalem and more played in creating the Bible. Having a Martha Home the Mary Way: 31 Days to a Clean House and a Satisfied Soul by Sarah Mae (Tyndale Momentum, $15.99, 978-1-4143-7262-4) looks at homemaking beyond cleaning and organizing to building a place where people feel loved and at peace. Night Driving: A Story of Faith in the Dark by Addie Zierman (Convergent Books, $14.99, ISBN 978-1-6014-2547-8) is a memoir that reflects on the ups and downs of a lifetime of faith. March 22 Why Be Jewish?: A Testament by Edgar Bronfman (Twelve, $26 ISBN 978-1-4555-6289-3). Published posthumously, CEO of Seagrams Bronfman addresses secular, disaffected, and unaffiliated Jews while sharing highlights from his own personal experience with Judaism. Check out what's creating a buzz in the religion and spirituality publishing world today, from a book on Queen Elizabeths faith coming out this April to X-Files star Gillian Andersons self-help book that includes spiritual tools. Marking Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday this April, a new book on the monarch is coming from the Bible Society, the church group HOPE, and the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC). In the foreword to The Servant Queen and the King She Serves, Her Majesty thanks God for his steadfast love," according to the Mirror U.K. Reports over at the Frisky indicate that Gillian Andersons self-help book WE: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere includes tools that are practical, psychological, and spiritual. The book, co-written with journalist Jennifer Nadel, is coming from Simon & Schuster in September. A British-born Muslim writer living in Toronto discussed her new mystery series that follows a Muslim detective. Loosely based on the 2006 terrorist plot in Toronto, Ausma Zehanat Khans book The Language of Secrets came to her after researching the most extreme forms of jihadist ideology. "I couldn't understand how young men raised in Canada would harm their fellow citizens based on their reading of Muslim tradition," the author told The Denver Post. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Eleven educators, executives and researchers will receive the Purdue University 2016 Distinguished Agriculture Alumni Award, the College of Agriculture's top honor. They will be presented the award March 4 during a ceremony at 3:30 p.m. EST in the North Ballroom of Purdue Memorial Union on the West Lafayette campus. A reception will precede the ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public. The DAA award recognizes Purdue Agriculture alumni who have demonstrated outstanding accomplishments, made significant contributions to their professions or to society in general and exhibit high potential for future professional growth. The 2016 class brings to 219 the number of alumni who have received the award since it was created in 1992. "Our 2016 distinguished alumni are terrific examples of what Purdue Agriculture graduates every year - farmers, scientists, educators, entrepreneurs and business executives who become leaders in their fields," said Jay Akridge, Glenn W. Sample Dean of Purdue Agriculture. "We are very proud of each of them and what they have accomplished to this point in their careers. And, we are even more excited about what they will yet accomplish in the future." This years award recipients are (degree, year and Purdue department): * Tahirou Abdoulaye (M.S. 1994, Ph.D. 2002, agricultural economics), impact economist with International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria. * Mary Beth Adams (B.S. 1980, M.S. 1982), forestry and natural resources), research soil scientist, U.S. Department of Agricultures Forest Service, Morgantown, West Virginia. * Martin F. Berry (Ph.D. 1988, food science), senior principal research engineer, Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., Lakeville, Massachusetts. * Jay Hood (B.S. 1987, horticulture and landscape architecture), director of landscape architecture, Littlejohn, Orlando, Florida. * Thomas H. McKinney (B.S. 1980, agricultural economics), president and general manager, McKinney & McKinney Inc., Kempton, Indiana. * Jack Odle (B.S. 1982, animal sciences), William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina. * Sergio Pascholati (B.S. 1983, botany and plant pathology), professor, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, Piracicaba, Brazil. * Jeffrey T. Troike (B.S. 1982, animal sciences), CEO and president, Ceres Solutions LLP, Attica, Indiana. * Dexter Wakefield I (M.S. 1988, Ph.D. 2001, youth development and agricultural education), assistant professor of agricultural education and mechanics, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas. * Karl Weiss (B.S. 1992, agricultural and biological engineering), vice president, Earthmoving Division, Caterpillar Inc., Dunlap, Illinois. * Kristin Whittington (B.S. 1992, animal sciences), owner and president, Landmark Enterprises LLC, Edinburgh, Indiana. Writer: Keith Robinson, 765-494-2722, robins89@purdue.edu Source: Jay Akridge, 765-494-8391, akridge@purdue.edu Agricultural Communications: (765) 494-2722; Keith Robinson, robins89@purdue.edu Agriculture News Page Boyd Patterson is my choice for Criminal Court judge. I had the opportunity to work with Boyd on arson related cases during his time in the District Attorney's office. Crimes related to arson sometimes lack eyewitness account but have strong circumstantial evidence. It is understandable how lawyers may not feel comfortable in taking these cases to court, but I found Boyd to be fair and willing to accept the challenge. I ask all my brothers and sisters in fire and police, and the citizens of Hamilton County, to vote for Boyd Patterson. James Whitmire Retired City of Chattanooga Fire Marshal * * * I would like to recommend Boyd Patterson for Criminal Court judge. I have known him for many years and have always found him to be a man of honesty and integrity. I know Boyd to be an effective and dedicated leader in our community. His forward thinking, along with his innovative ideas, will serve not only to remove criminals from our streets but also to prevent crime and help redirect potential felons. Please give Boyd your consideration. David Jabaley * * * I am writing to you in support of Mr. Boyd Patterson, who is running for Criminal Court judge. I first met Boyd Patterson in 2010 at a fundraiser for the Rape Crisis Center, for which he was the keynote speaker, and I have had the privilege of knowing and working with him since. I served as the nursing director for the Rape Crisis Center for eight years and I would like for you to know about Mr. Pattersons contributions to our agency. Mr. Patterson was a founding member of our Sexual Assault Response Team. As the first representative from the District Attorneys Office, Mr. Patterson provided needed guidance and insight, and when necessary, provided diplomatic intervention on behalf of victims with law enforcement. Though he had little direct connection to the prosecution of these cases as our victim population is typically adult, Mr. Patterson attended our monthly meetings faithfully, and was an integral force in the development of our team. Mr. Patterson also assisted me in the training of our SANEs, or Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners. At his suggestion, we conducted a mock trial. A Jane Doe case was created, and in an empty courtroom, each nurse was able to take the stand to provide testimony. Mr. Patterson acted as both a prosecutor and defense, cross-examining each participant. Though familiar to some, to most of us in the medical field, the courtroom can be extremely intimidating. The experience Mr. Patterson provided has been indispensable. Again, Mr. Patterson provided this on his own time and at no benefit to himself. His motivation was the recognition that there was a need, and that this service to us, would result in service to victims. That is the foundation of who Boyd Patterson is. His wisdom, experience, and impeccable integrity will make him an excellent Criminal Court judge. He has my complete confidence and support. Amy Griffin, RN WASHINGTON Republican leaders who view Donald Trump as a pox on their party have finally settled on a strategy: Resist him as long as they can. Then figure out how to retreat gracefully. Most mainstream Republicans still worry that Trump, who has dominated early GOP nominating contests and is poised to scoop up an even bigger bounty of delegates next week on Super Tuesday, would make a bad president. And they hold deep concerns that his incendiary rhetoric and ideological smorgasbord of ideas could damage the party, politically and philosophically, so profoundly that it might never recover. But even as many party elites have fallen in line behind Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in recent days believing him the best hope to defeat Trump they no longer dismiss the billionaire celebrity or insist that it will all work out, as it usually does for the establishment in GOP primaries. A lot of longtime Republicans, probably a couple weeks ago, had to sit down and think, You know, this could happen, said Trent Lott, the former Senate majority leader from Mississippi who is now a Washington lobbyist. For many in the party establishment, that reckoning amounted to an existential crisis, a moment to reflect on where their core beliefs end and where their practical political instincts kick in. If Trump wins the nomination, his combative relationship with the establishment will end in an embrace, though perhaps an uneasy one, predicted Lott, who is backing Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Theyre not going to sign up, and theyre not excited by the prospect, Lott said of his fellow party standard-bearers. But I think theyre thinking that if he becomes the nominee he runs the table and becomes the nominee were certainly going to support him if it comes to Hillary or Bernie, he added, referring to Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Its a slow process. Several establishment figures, including former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Reagan administration Education Secretary William Bennett, said in recent days that Trump had reached out to them to talk policy, sending a broader signal that he may be able to win over at least a few establishment allies. And others have sounded notes of increasing acceptance. Oh, yeah, I think I can work with Donald Trump, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader from Bakersfield, Calif., told MSNBC this week, giving Trump a 50 percent chance of grabbing the nomination. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, told Politico on Wednesday that he was supporting Trump, becoming the first member of Congress to endorse him. At the same time, the anti-Trump forces remain divided over how to confront Trump whether to attack him head-on now, or wait until the field winnows so that a single candidate can take him on. Many of the GOPs traditional mega-donors, including casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers, have not spent money in the primaries, neither to support a candidate nor to try to take down Trump. Rubios supporters have pressed Kasich to withdraw. Kasich, who believes his support will increase in a few weeks when contests move to the Midwest, has resisted. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the only candidate to defeat Trump in a nominating contest, also has asserted that he is the best candidate to beat Trump, though his campaign is troubled and many in the GOP establishment view him with equal or greater disdain. Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon, is also keeping the field relatively crowded, even though he has little chance of winning. That dynamic helps Trump, who has solid support from about one-third of Republican primary voters. Trump has now decisively won contests in New England, the South and the West, while placing second in the Midwest. But many party leaders and donors still want to wait until at least mid-March, when larger winner-take-all states such as Florida and Ohio vote, before resigning themselves to a Trump nomination. I dont think youre going to see a lot of folks accepting the inevitable until we get through the heavy delegate states and the math starts to harden, said Josh Holmes, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and president of Cavalry, a consulting company. Were just not there yet. One of Rubios Washington-based financial backers explained the Machiavellian political calculus a little more bluntly. Theres plenty of time to make nice with Trump, he said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about the thinking among elite Republicans. But you dont need to do that now, when theres time to take him out. Some leading figures on the right insist there is no conscionable time to join the Trump bandwagon, citing his inconsistencies on issues including abortion, his nativist rhetoric, or his rebuke of other principles that have come to define the modern conservatism. Those who are deluding themselves thinking that if they support Trump, he will support them, will instead find themselves slowly compromised on both their integrity and values, commentator Erick Erickson wrote this week on the Resurgent website, in an essay titled I Will Not Vote For Donald Trump. Ever. And waiting almost certainly plays to Trumps advantage. He not only probably wins if the field remains crowded, he may also win a two-man race. After coming first in the South Carolina primary Saturday and the Nevada caucuses Tuesday, Trump mocked pundits for saying his GOP opponents votes combined could defeat him if some of them would drop out. They keep forgetting that when people drop out, were going to get a lot of votes, Trump told supporters at his Tuesday celebration at the Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas. Polls seem to back him up, with increasing numbers of Republicans saying they could accept Trump as their nominee. That has some Republicans arguing that the establishment should not go down without a more robust fight. They throw their hands up in frustration as they see Cruz, Kasich, Carson and Rubio fending off attacks from one another instead of focusing on Trump with their campaigning and advertising dollars. Its looking at the Daytona 500 and saying You know, if there hadnt been X, Y and Z cars in the race, I could have won, said Stuart Stevens, a former campaign advisor to Mitt Romney. You race the field. You have to beat the person in front. Yet many party elites already have accelerated the process of coming to terms with a Trump nomination. Ron Kaufman, a former Romney adviser who backed Jeb Bush until the former Florida governor dropped out Saturday, said he still would prefer a more centrist conservative candidate. But, he said, he believes Trump will not seem so absurd as time moves on. In the 1980 Republican primary, Kaufman supported George H.W. Bush against a former Hollywood actor. I remember saying, God help us if Ronald Reagan is president, and a lot of people felt that way, he said. WASHINGTON Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., endorsed Hillary Clinton for president Wednesday, joining the majority of congressional Democrats who are supporting her bid for the partys nomination over Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders. Reids support, revealed during an interview with CNN, came just a few days after the Democratic presidential campaign rolled through the Silver State. He became the 40th Senate Democrat to back her bid, according to Roll Calls Endorsement Tracker. I think the middle class would be better served by Hillary, Reid told CNN. I also think shes the woman to be the first president of the United States thats a female. Despite his unwillingness to endorse before the Nevada caucuses, Reid who pushed for his states presidential preference contest to take place earlier in the cycle in order to gain more influence was not uninvolved. In the days before the caucuses, Reid called the head of the Culinary Union to encourage its workers to take time to participate. And Catherine Cortez Masto, the Democrat whom Reid endorsed to replace him in the November election, announced her support for Clinton and campaigned for her over the nine days before the caucuses. Clinton has most of the Democratic senators on her side, while Sanders has no Senate endorsements. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and a favorite of the progressive base with which Sanders has tried to align, has notably withheld her endorsement, so far. WAVERLY, Va. (AP) Tornadoes tore through towns as far north as Pennsylvania, heavy snow canceled hundreds of flights in the Midwest and power outages left tens of thousands of residents from the Carolinas to New England in the dark as severe weather raked across a broad swath of the country for a third day. The storms Wednesday claimed at least a half-dozen lives, three of them in the tiny town of Waverly, Virginia, where a 2-year-old child and two men, ages 50 and 26, were killed during the storm, said Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller. Their bodies were found about 300 yards from their mobile home. On Tuesday, a tornado that ripped through a recreational vehicle park in Louisiana left two people dead, and a man died of blunt-force trauma when storms hit in Mississippi. At least five structures were damaged in the town of approximately 2,000 and roads leading into town had to be closed because of downed trees and debris tossed by winds gusting to 60 mph, Geller said. In Appomattox County, a tornado left an 8- to 10-mile path of destruction, injuring seven people and killing a 78-year-old man, state police said. Edward Keith Harris was found outside his home in Evergreen late Wednesday, Sheriff Barry Letterman told a news conference Thursday. At least 15 structures were destroyed and 25 injuries were reported when the storm passed through Essex County and the town of Tappahannock, about 45 miles northeast of Richmond, state police said. The injuries ranged from minor to serious, but there were no confirmed fatalities. In Waverly, Larry D. Turner, 50, Devine J. Stringfield, 26, and 2-year-old Ivan T. Lewis died Wednesday afternoon when a twister hit Turner's mobile home in a neighborhood sandwiched between railroad tracks and U.S. 460. Their bodies were hurled 300 yards across the highway and into a field adjacent to a cemetery, police said. The toddler's 30-year-old mother, whose name was not released, was also in the trailer but survived. She remained hospitalized Thursday. Police did not release any further details about the victims, but a state lawmaker and neighbors described Turner as a caring neighbor, fun-loving guy, and concerned citizen who was deeply involved in his community. The toddler's mother was Turner's girlfriend, and Stringfield was her brother, said neighbor Timothy Williams. Williams, whose own trailer two doors down from Turner's was destroyed, described Turner as "a good dude" who sometimes came to Williams' house to hang out and watch TV. Williams said he also was a frequent guest of Turner's. "He loved to cook," Williams said. "Every time I was over there, he was cooking." State Del. Roslyn Tyler, who represents part of Sussex County where Waverly is located, said she had known Turner for about 30 years, and that he was a strong advocate for his community. Whenever someone in Waverly needed help in an emergency, she could always count on a call from Turner, Tyler said. "He came from a big family in that particular area and knew everybody," she said. In southern Michigan, a 6-year-old girl died following a three-vehicle crash. State police say Harlyn Radley died after the crash Wednesday afternoon near Battle Creek when a car driven by the child's mother lost control and collided with another vehicle. A third vehicle then struck the wreckage. Police say speed and heavy, wet snow were fact In South Carolina, Darlington County Corner Todd Hardee said in a statement that Michael Gaines Sr., 58, had stopped on a road near his home Wednesday to remove debris from the road when a pine tree fell on him. Sheriff Wayne Byrd said the victim was being a good Samaritan when he was killed. The line of storms moved across Pennsylvania and the New York City area Wednesday night, bringing strong winds and heavy rains that knocked down trees and caused scattered power outages. The storms spawned at least two tornadoes in Pennsylvania. One damaged dozens of homes and barns and leveled an Amish schoolhouse with 100-mph winds as it carved a path of destruction over a 5-mile stretch of rural eastern Lancaster County. The National Weather Service also confirmed that a tornado touched down near Wyalusing in Bradford County, where several buildings were reported damaged. A crew was already at work Thursday rebuilding the Amish schoolhouse, which roofer Derek Cummings said looked like it had been hit by a bomb. He said it was hoped the 1,200-square-foot, one-story school could be rebuilt in a week. Emergency management officials said they had no reports of deaths or injuries. In the Midwest, a powerful storm brought heavy snow and biting winds, leading to mass flight cancellations at Chicago airports and school closings in several states. The Chicago Department of Aviation reported more than 1,100 flights had been canceled at the city's two major airports by Wednesday evening. Bill Bunting with National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center estimated 20 to 24 tornados hit from Louisiana to Florida on Tuesday. On Tuesday, one of the hardest-hit areas along the Gulf Coast was a recreational vehicle park in the town of Convent, in southern Louisiana. RVs were tossed about and lay on top of wrecked cars and pickup trucks. Two people were killed there, and 31 injured people were taken to area hospitals, St. James Parish Sheriff Willy Martin said. In Mississippi, 73-year-old Dale Purvis died of blunt-force trauma in a mobile home west of Purvis, Lamar County Coroner Cody Creel said. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said an apparent tornado in the Pensacola area significantly damaged more than 70 homes and 24 apartments, leaving three people with minor injuries. He stopped at The Moorings apartment complex, where winds ripped the roof off of at least two buildings. Residents in LaPlace, Louisiana, were cleaning up Wednesday after a tornado ripped up trees, tore roofs from houses and terrified local residents. Nearly 200 homes were damaged. Rose Fuselier, 80, had a gaping hole where her home's front window once stood. "The whole backyard is covered with trees, and then my shed is torn up, too. The roof is gone, and the siding is partially gone," she said. Still, she said others suffered damage even worse than hers: "I lucked out. I lucked out." MOLINE -- Deere & Company chairman and CEO Sam Allen said Wednesday 2016 looks like another challenging year, but added the ag economy's slowdown is not a cause for alarm. "We do not, in other words, see this as a repeat of the 1980s for America's farmers," Mr. Allen said at the annual stockholder's meeting at Deere headquarters. "Deere's record of performance provides a sturdy foundation for the company to capitalize on trends of great power and promise. They include a growing global population and an emerging middle class in many parts of the world. "Indeed, farm cycles come and go. Crop supplies and, certainly, crop prices sometimes swing widely from one year to the next." Mr. Allen said Deere's latest forecast calls for sales to decline 10 percent, or by more than $2 billion, with earnings of $1.3 billion in 2016. Earnings for 2015 were approximately $1.94 billion. "To put those figures in context, they represent a sales decline of over $10 billion, compared with our record year of 2013, and an earnings decrease of almost $2 billion," he said. "The reductions are mainly due to much lower demand for farm machinery, especially for larger, more profitable models." Despite the challenging outlook for 2016, Mr. Allen said the company still posted its sixth-highest-ever level of sales and earnings in 2015. Deere has approximately 60,000 employees worldwide and about 29,000 in the U.S. and Canada. The company has approximately 7,800 employees in the Quad-Cities' area, company spokesman Eric Hodson said. While the company does not disclose a layoff total for specific cities or locations, it has approximately 1,500 employees on indefinite layoff at factories in Iowa and Illinois. In the company's annual report, Mr. Allen said the large-ag market in North America "has dropped over 50 percent in the last couple of years. That's generally our leading source of profits." He said the current downturn in the ag markets is due to too much supply. "We've had bumper crops on a global scale for several years now, which has caused prices for grains and oilseeds to move lower," he said in the report. "Demand, however, has continued to grow as it does almost every year." Mr. Allen added that today's crop surplus is not excessive and can be "absorbed pretty fast" in case of a widespread drought or other event that disrupts production. "If that were to happen, you can bet it would have a positive, and likely rapid, impact on commodity prices and farm incomes." Mr. Allen said while times are challenging, the investment community has taken note of the changes made to the company's business model. "Deere stock, though well off its record highs, has shown a good deal of resilience compared with its performance in farm slumps of the past," he said. After the meeting, former CEO Robert Lane said he was impressed with Mr. Allen's presentation. "I think what you have is a company running its basic businesses very, very well," Mr. Lane said. "I think the shareholders, employees and customers have to be very delighted, along with the continued investment in research and development." Mr. Lane said the company's focus on becoming the global leader in precision agriculture, a field that includes auto tracking, yield monitors, remote equipment monitoring and data management, "will serve the company well." ROCK ISLAND -- Wednesday night was a long one for both champion speller Kyle Skinner and runner-up Abigail Bunce, as the two battled it out through 29 rounds for the chance to represent the Quad-Cities region at the Scripps National Spelling Bee from May 29 to June 4 in Washington, D.C. After the seventh round, two spellers remained from the 74 competing. While there were many close calls, Mr. Skinner, a seventh-grader at North Scott Junior High School in Eldridge, Iowa, spelled both "masala" and "Fahrenheit" to end the contest and take home the regional championship trophy. The regional bee took place at Centennial Hall on the Augustana College campus. Miss Bunce, a sixth-grader at Geneseo Middle School, said she had fun even though she didn't win. She said the late night might have had something to do with her performance in the last rounds. "It's 9:30. Yeah, that explains most of it," Miss Bunce said. "So there was like 15 rounds, at least, in between at least us, and it was crazy." It is possible neither Miss Bunce nor Mr. Skinner will be back to the competition next year, even though both are eligible to compete. Miss Bunce is moving to Rochester, Minn., this summer, and Mr. Skinner said next year he "might let someone else do it." "Since I did well, it might just be good just to leave it here," he said. When asked if he would come back and defend his title if he won the national spelling bee, he was quick to say "nope." "I'm going to be done if I win it all. That's it," Mr. Skinner said. Mr. Skinner said he has "a busy life." In addition to spelling the spelling bee, he is also in the school band and choir, and he plays basketball. "I'm just kind of surprised because it took so long getting here," Mr. Skinner said. "Every year I just try to, like, make sure I do well in these bees, geography and spelling." Mr. Skinner said he was sad to hear that his school was no longer going to be participating in the geography bee, but that his spelling-bee win makes up for it. Although Mr. Skinner walked off the stage with the first-place trophy, he said the glory does not belong to him. "I have to give the glory to Jesus Christ," Mr. Skinner said. "He is my savior, and that is who I live for." Mr. Skinner said his busy schedule had not allowed him a lot of time to work on the spelling bee this year. To help himself, he remembered tips and tricks about the words. "That's why I was asking a lot about the origin (of the word)," Mr. Skinner said. "I can remember certain facts about the origin, especially Russian, because I am kind of learning it, so that will help me." While this is the first time Mr. Skinner will be competing in the national spelling bee, this will not be his first trip to Washington. His great-aunt and great-uncle live there. He said he was looking forward to seeing them again. But his focus will be on the spelling bee. "It will be fun to compete in D.C.," Mr. Skinner said. The Dispatch/Rock Island Argus and Augustana College are co-sponsors of the regional spelling bee, and Alcoa is the presenting sponsor. ANKENY, Iowa An Iowa state agency on Wednesday denied an application from a national company wanting to build a $14 million, 72-bed psychiatric for-profit hospital in the Iowa Quad-Cities. Tennessee-based Strategic Behavioral Health, which proposed the project, has noted that Iowa like most of the nation has a severe shortage of psychiatric services. But Genesis Health Systems in Iowa and UnityPoint Health-Trinity's Robert Young Center in Illinois opposed SBH's request for a certificate of need that would have let the company move forward with the project. On Wednesday, the five-member Iowa Health Facilities Council voted 2-2 on the SBH request, with one member absent, according to Ken Croken, vice president of communications for Genesis Health System in Iowa. Mr. Croken said an affirmative vote was needed for the project to advance. The council's role is to decide whether large health-care projects are economically feasible or would drive up costs by duplicating what's already available. "It all relates back to a redundancy of driving the cost of care up," Mr. Croken said. "Beds are not the problem; we have lots of beds," he said. "What we don't have are the skilled staff required to help patients leave those beds and return to their families and productive lives." Mr. Croken said Genesis rolled out a plan several years ago to expand behavioral health services in the Quad-Cities. "By 2017, we'll complete that plan, bringing our total (behavioral health inpatient) bed count from 18 to 60," Mr. Croken said. In a Wednesday statement, Unity Point Health-Trinity President/CEO Rick Seidler said they "remain committed to working with all providers in order to continue developing our care delivery system. "Our goal remains to make the most efficient use of the resources available to us to improve consumer access points, help patients manage their entire course of treatment and get them to the most appropriate, least restrictive level of care that provides them the best outcome for their condition," he said. "Today's decision has no bearing on that." Republicans refusing to hold a vote or hearings on any candidate nominated by Obama have complicated his sales job as he seeks a replacement for Antonin Scalia. Though Obama insists he'll put forward an "outstanding candidate" no matter what the GOP says, the White House is hard-pressed to offer a convincing scenario in which that person gets confirmed. Overnight, Obama's nominee will become the face of well-financed, high-intensity, election-year campaigns both for and against that will rage across the country. Though guaranteed at least a footnote in the history books, the nominee will have little ability to influence the debate and even less control over how the chapter plays out. For a Supreme Court hopeful, the scenario is less than ideal. High-ranking judges and others fit for consideration tend to be loath to throw themselves into the middle of public controversy. "As much as you tell them it's not really about them, judges don't engage in politics and take pride in their impartiality," said Christopher Kang, who prepared lower-court nominees for confirmation as former deputy White House counsel. "It can be hard for them not to take it personally." To be sure, a Supreme Court seat is most jurists' dream job. Anyone asked to serve in the coveted, lifelong post would find it hard to turn down. And there could be some hope. Despite the GOP's hard line, Republicans could relent and confirm Obama's nominee especially if he picks a so-called consensus nominee someone so well- regarded that Republicans lack a compelling rationale to reject him or her. Among those Obama is considering is Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada, said two people familiar with the process, who weren't authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity Obama waxed hopeful on Wednesday that GOP opposition would fizzle once the "abstraction" is replaced with a living, breathing person. "Let's see how the public responds to the nominee that we put forward," he said in the Oval Office. But unlike most Supreme Court nominations battles, which typically run a few months, this one is likely to turn into a circus that just won't end. If Republicans hold their ground on refusing a vote, Obama will ostensibly keep pushing his nominee until his presidency ends in January 2017. If a Democrat wins the White House in November after an unsuccessful Supreme Court push, Obama could renew his efforts during a lame-duck session of Congress or his successor could take up the baton. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign wouldn't say whether she'd consider re-nominating Obama's pick if elected, but in a statement she called the GOP position "an offense to the president and to the American people who elected him." Already, two politicians whose names were floated as possible contenders took themselves out of the running. California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is running for U.S. Senate, said she wasn't interested, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar has said she doesn't want to be considered. Influential groups are poised to jump into action once Obama announces a nominee, digging through old yearbooks, scouring writings and speeches. Party campaign committees, legal groups, electoral super PACs and even the presidential candidates are expected to join the public fight for or against Obama's nominee. Senate Republicans, fighting to preserve their delicate majority in November, will all make a similar argument: Elect us, or a Democratic-run Senate will allow Obama's nominee thru, said a senior Republican official, who requested anonymity to discuss the party's internal campaign strategy. History shows just how rough the process can be. In 2005, George W. Bush nominee Harriet Miers was slammed as ill-prepared, suffered the indignity of having to redo parts of her Senate questionnaire, and forced to admit her bar license was once suspended. She eventually withdrew. Justice Clarence Thomas famously described his own televised confirmation spectacle, with its allegations of past sexual harassment, as "a national disgrace" and "a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks." Dim prospects for confirmation could give an edge to candidates who already enjoy lifetime appointments to a federal bench, as opposed to current bureaucrats or elected officials. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson have both been floated as possibilities, but keeping their day jobs would be complicated. Current federal judges wouldn't have that problem, and as an added benefit, they've already undergone a thorough public examination. Several of those under considerations including Sri Srinivasan, of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Jane Kelly, of the Eight Circuit were unanimously approved by the Senate. "If he nominates a sitting judge, it won't affect that judge that much in terms of what they do," said M. Miller Baker, who worked on the Judiciary Committee's legal staff during the Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg confirmations. Indeed, it was once tradition for rejected justices to simply go back to their former gig. Clement Haynsworth and John J. Parker both returned to circuit court positions after Senate rejection. Press release submitted by Midwest Writing Center SPECTRA Celebrates its 20th Show on Thursday, March 10th with Boening, Bredle, McGlynn, and Wetlaufer, with Musical Guests Mountain Swallower What: Midwest Writing Center presents SPECTRA 020: Boening, Bredle, McGlynn, and Wetlaufer, with musical guests Mountain Swallower When: Thursday, March 10th at 8 p.m. Where: Rozz-Tox (2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island, IL) The SPECTRA Reading Series returns to Rozz-Tox on Thursday, March 10th to celebrate its 20th show with four brilliant poets: Justin Boening, Jason Bredle, Karyna McGlynn, and Valerie Wetlaufer. MWC Press will also be celebrating the release of Jason Bredle's chapbook Meditations in a Helicopter About to Explode Over a Guy Covered in Chum, Surfing Off of Shark Bay Beach, winner of the Susan K. Collins/Mississippi Valley Poetry Chapbook Contest. Copies will be available at the event. Visit the MWC Press bookstore for more info: www.mwcqc.org/books/meditations-in-a-helicopter/. The event will also feature a special musical guest, Mountain Swallower. Opening readers are TBA. SPECTRA is also open to submissions from local writers to read as openers at upcoming events, including 3/10. If you would like to considered for a SPECTRA reading, please send up to 3 poems or 1 prose piece (fiction/nonfiction, 2000 words max) to mwc@midwestwritingcenter.org with the phrase SPECTRA Submissions in the subject line. We look forward to reading your work. Please contact Ryan Collins at the Midwest Writing Center for more information about SPECTRA or any other MWC programs: (563) 324-1410 | mwc@midwestwritingcenter.org. This event is free and open to the public. Donations gratefully accepted. Bios for Featured Readers: Justin Boening is the author of two books of poemsNot on the Last Day, But on the Very Last (Milkweed, 2016), which was selected for the National Poetry Series, and a chapbook, Self-Portrait as Missing Person (Poetry Society of America, 2013). A recipient of the Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Prize, he has received awards from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Bucknell University's Stadler Center for Poetry, and the Poetry Society of America. His poetry appears in journals such as Copper Nickel, Kenyon Review Online, Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, and Narrative Magazine, among others. He lives in Iowa City and is a senior associate editor at Poetry Northwest. Jason Bredle is the author of four poetry collections, including Carnival, selected as an Editor's Choice for the Akron Series in Poetry, and Standing in Line for the Beast, winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize. The recipient of a fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council, his work has been anthologized in 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, Poems About Horses, Seriously Funny, and New Poetry from the Midwest, among other places. He lives with his family near Chicago. Karyna McGlynn is the author of Hothouse (Sarabande Books 2017), I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl (Sarabande Books 2009), and three chapbooks: The 9-Day Queen Gets Lost on Her Way to the Execution (Willow Springs Editions 2015), Alabama Steve (Sundress 2014), and Scorpionica (New Michigan Press 2007). Her poems have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, AGNI, Ninth Letter, and The Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day. Karynas honors include the Hopwood Award, the Verlaine Prize, and the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry. She recently received her PhD from the University of Houston, where she was the Managing Editor of Gulf Coast. She is currently the Diane Middlebrook Fellow in Poetry at the University of Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Valerie Wetlaufer is a poet, editor, and educator. Her first book of poetry, Mysterious Acts by My People (Sibling Rivalry Press 2014), won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry. Her second book, Call Me by My Other Name (Sibling Rivalry Press) debuts in 2016. Valerie holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah, an MFA in Poetry from Florida State University, and an MA in Teaching from Bennington College. She lives in Cedar Rapids, IA. The 2016 season of SPECTRA manifests thanks to the generous support of Friends & Patrons of the Midwest Writing Center and the Illinois Arts Council Agency. It was perhaps the ultimate selfie Cpl. Jhon Espinal snapping a photo of himself and the cast figure he modeled for in November 2015, the flesh-and-blood Espinal making the same sand-in-his-eyes grimace as his doppelganger. The figure is an ammunition gunner deploying from a UH-34D helicopter in a Vietnam War scene for the National Museum of the Marine Corps. The scene will be on display when the museum reopens April 1 after a three-month closure for the installation of two new aircraft. Museum staff unveiled the new cast figures for their originals to see Feb. 18. Espinal introduced himself to the figure: Cpl. Espinal, meet Cpl. Espinal. Hey, thats me, he told to the assembled group, almost in awe. Im going to live for the next 100 years! The figure, crafted in resin, was true to life down to the vein popping from Espinals temple, the sweat drops rolling down his forehead, and the shading on his lip. Upon close examination, flecks of dirt are visible on the teeth which is appropriate, as the figure would be blasted in the face with sand. Im speechless, Espinal said, examining the figure from all angles and rubbing its bald head. He couldnt stop smiling. I cant stop looking at him. He looks just like me. I always wondered what I would look like without hair, he added. Now you know what you look like winking at a girl, too, joked Gunnery Sgt. James Breedlove, who modeled for the figure of the co-pilot in the helicopter scene. Breedlove said seeing his cast figure was surreal. He said his first thoughts were Is that really me? Is that what I look like? I think its awesome, he said. Cpl. Thomas Allen, who portrayed the M60 gunner in the scene, said seeing his cast figure for the first time was kind of scary, honestly. I didnt think theyd be that lifelike, he said. I didnt realize how big my head was. Quantico Marines whod like to model for cast figures at the museum will have more opportunities. Chuck Girbovan, Exhibit Services Chief, said that over the next four years, the museum will be casting an additional 50 figures for the new galleries, which will present the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. That is more than we cast when we first opened the museum, he said. Girbovan said the museum will work with the sergeant major of Marine Corps University to find Marines to model for the new figures. Well give them a list of the jobs, age ranges and ethnicities were looking for, and theyll look out across Quantico to find Marines to match, he said. Writer: auphausconner@quanticosentryonline.com More Media Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park invites the public to participate in a free one hour, ranger-guided program on Saturday, March 5 at 2 p.m. This program will discuss President Andrew Jackson and how he can be viewed not only as an American hero, but perhaps also as a scoundrel. Parking for the program will be at the Gateway Site, 10 Hamm Road in Chattanooga. Special Event signs will also be placed along Manufacturers and Hamm roads to help guide visitors to event parking. Officials said, "In the election of 1832, Americans flooded the polls and overwhelmingly re-elected 'Old Hickory' to the White House, touting him as one of the nations greatest presidents, despite his decision to support the controversial Indian Removal Act of 1830. However, in recent years that decision has tarnished the luster of his greatness, even causing some to petition for his removal from the twenty dollar bill. History can be a harsh judge, but was Jackson to blame or was he merely carrying out the wishes and intentions of our nations founding fathers?" Visitors are encouraged to wear weather appropriate clothing, to bring a portable chair, and water. For more information about programs at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, contact the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at 706-866-9241, the Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center at 423-821-7786, or visit park website at www.nps.gov/chch. The government will issue a call for expressions of interest in the next few weeks in conjunction with the regional governments in areas served by the trains which will otherwise be withdrawn. However, the government will not provide any subsidy to new operators. The result of the tender will be announced on July 1. The services to be tendered are: Paris Austerlitz - Cerbere Paris Austerlitz - Hendaye (Irun)/Tarbes Paris Austerlitz - St Gervais/Bourg St Maurice Paris Austerlitz - Nice Luxembourg - Nice/Port-Bou, and Strasbourg - Nice/Port-Bou. These trains form part of the TET contract for conventional long-distance services agreed with the government in 2010. The government has given SNCF notice that it will cease funding overnight services on all routes except Paris - Briancon and Paris - Rodez/Latour de Carol from July 1. Figures released by the government show that usage of overnight trains has fallen by 25% since 2011 and that these trains represent 25% of the losses from the TET operation whilst carrying 3% of the passengers, each of whom the government says benefits from 100 of subsidy per ticket. SNCF decided in 2007 to remove all sleeping cars from overnight trains and to provide only low-quality couchette cars. As a result, passengers who were paying higher fares to travel in sleeping cars have switched to hotels and daytime air or TGV journeys rather than downgrading to travel in high-capacity couchette cars. New York Air Brake LLC, part of the Knorr Bremse Group, is commemorating Engineers Week 2016, Feb. 21-27, through a lineup of events that reaches out to future engineers and highlights the contributions of the companys own. Established in 1951, Engineers Week celebrates the positive contributions engineers make to society, and is a catalyst for outreach across the country to children and adults. It is nationally observed the third week of February each year. NYABs annual celebration of Engineers Week features an open house for local students, as well as presentations by guest keynote speakers and senior leadership to the companys engineers. We reach out to the young people in our community on a consistent basis, said NYAB Vice President of Engineering Bill Kleftis. Engineers Week is an opportune time to punctuate those efforts with a special program, engaging students in activities to raise awareness and spark interest in engineering. During this week, we also honor the work of our engineering ranks with a celebration spread over three days. These highly skilled men and women share an innovative spirit that is central to the success of New York Air Brake, which is built on technological innovation. Safety glasses and smiles On two consecutive days during Engineers Week, Feb. 25-26, NYAB will host its fourth annual Engineering Open House, welcoming middle and high school students into its facility. Students will see engineers at work and learn about the many types of engineering performed at NYAB. Each day, some 125 students will engage in tours, demonstrations and hands-on activities. Divided into groups of 25 and participating in the activities round-robin style, the students will come together for lunch, when NYAB engineers will join them. To get a true sense of engineering and the creative problem solving that happens here, there is no substitute for an up-close view, and thats what our open house gives the students, said NYAB Director of Systems Development Engineering John Reynolds. Our activity leaders are enthusiastic and engaging, and they bring out a lot of smiles and wide eyes in the students. Some of these young people, we hope, may begin to envision themselves participating in this kind of work one day. NYAB is a supporter of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education opportunities. The Engineering Open House is one of several ways that the company supports local schools in developing these interests in students. As part of its internal Engineers Week celebration, NYAB recognized seven engineers who contributed to the four patents granted to NYAB in 2015. In addition, NYAB filed 14 new patent applications in 2015. Through their work, NYAB engineers affect all of our lives for the better. We couldnt be prouder of them for the passion and commitment they bring through these doors every day, Kleftis said. The company is dedicated to celebrating them and providing opportunities to grow. An example of NYABs dedication to its engineers growth is the Engineering Development Program (EDP), which features a three-year rotational employment aimed at new engineering graduates with undergraduate or advanced degrees. In the EDP, a powerful blend of practical experience and career mentoring enables participants to make immediate contributions while fostering their professional development and advancement, NYAB said. As part of the EDP, NYAB also offers the TSE (Technical Skills Enhancement) program, an 18-month rigorous engineering curriculum that offers diverse technical skills training and features the mechatronics educational curriculum at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), in Rochester, N.Y. NYAB helped develop the curriculum and also enjoys a longstanding relationship with the institute. This year, NYAB is engaged in a research initiative that will provide further opportunity for engineer growth. The initiative includes a $3 million lab investment and expanded research relationships with academic partner institutions. For example, NYAB is now a sponsor of CAMP (Center for Advanced Materials Processing) at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. Our lab investment and broadened relationships with RIT and Clarkson will help accelerate our research into new materials and processes, and promise to bring new technology and value to the rail industry, Kleftis said. New York Air Brakes engineers are key to making that promise a reality. Last year, NYAB and Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC, working in conjunction with RIT, created the Knorr-Bremse North America Mechatronics Laboratory at RITs Kate Gleason College of Engineering. Inside the nearly 1,000-square-foot laboratory are five equipment stations that use fully functional Bendix and NYAB technology to provide hands-on experience with vibration, pneumatic controls, and valve control software. The laboratory serves both RIT students and engineers from NYAB and Bendix, which is also a member of the Knorr-Bremse Group, is a North American manufacturer of l active safety and braking system technologies for commercial vehicles. In addition to its training and development programs, NYAB also employs engineering interns, allowing students to gain real-world, on-the-job experience. The Peruvian headquarters of Claro have been inspected by the country's telecom authority shortly after users reported interruptions to pay-TV and Internet services. According to the Organismo Supervisor de Inversion Privada en Telecomunicaciones ( OSIPTEL ) , Claros activity has been supervised over recent days to protect consumers' rights, as problems with fixed telecom services were reported on 22 February.OSIPTEL got hundreds of complaints through social media and its call centre reporting problems in 17 districts of the capital, Lima, and Callao. And more complaints were received from the regional departments of Huanuco and Lambayeque.The telecom authority has not yet revealed the results of the investigation or whether it will fine Claro for breaking regulations. Yet, it has stated that the operator may be liable for a paying fine of between $50,000-$150,000 and compensating every subscriber who suffered a service interruption. Movistar Play, Telefonica's over-the-top (OTT) service, will be launched in eight Latin American countries before the end of the year. Already available in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Spain totalling over 500,000 subscribers Movistar Play will this year be launched in Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama and El Salvador. The OTT expansion was announced at Mobile World Congress , being held this week in Barcelona.Although no official release date has been announced, Peru will likely be the first country to welcome Movistar Play before summer.We have 1.2 million subs to Movistar TV in Peru and we want to close 2016 with over 1.3 million, which is why we will bring all our new video features to the market, said Jose Antonio Cassinelli, director, residential services, Telefonica Peru Movistar Play is a multiscreen platform with a wide video-on-demand (VOD) catalogue and access to some live linear networks. The service is available for mobile and connected devices, computers and smart TVs.Indeed, Telefonica will also be launching its smart set-top box (STB), Smart Deco, in Peru this year. The wireless box enables any TV to become smart, making it possible to install different apps and access the VOD catalogue on the main screen.In addition to boosting its OTT presence, Telefonica plans to expand within Latin America this year by increasing its HD offering, investing in differential content and developing new VOD and TV everywhere services. Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is deploying Juniper Networks technology to deliver multi-terabit-per-second Internet speeds to feed escalating regional demand for voice, video and data services. Traffic dynamics like mobility, video and cloud-based services are transforming traditional networks. STC has moved quickly to accommodate the constant increase in Internet traffic and continues to enhance its business through innovation, said Adrian Pickering, vice president, Middle East and Africa, Juniper Networks.The infrastructure contract includes PTX5000 series packet transport routers for the expansion of STCs fixed and 3G/4G mobile Internet backbone, serving customers across the Middle East. The project also includes Junipers SDN-ready MX2020 3D universal edge router.The upgrade will provide increased capacity with international providers, accommodating national and international customers who share critical voice, data and multimedia applications between facilities.We invest in our network to stay ahead of our customers ever increasing expectations for more bandwidth and new applications and services ... This is an impressive leap forward in network capacity and performance to meet customer expectations, said Nasser Al Nasser, senior vice president for technology and operations, Saudi Telecom Company. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III announced Wednesday a $3 million settlement with Festiva, a network of vacation and timeshare companies, for alleged violations of the federal Telemarking Act, federal Telemarketing Sales Rule, and the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act.Under the terms of the settlement, Festiva has agreed to provide $1,250,000 in cash restitution and up to $1,000,000 in loan forgiveness for eligible Tennesseans, and make a $750,000 payment to the State of Tennessee.In addition, Festiva has agreed to specific guidelines prohibiting unfair, deceptive, or misleading acts or practices in connection with their telemarketing and face-to-face sales of vacation or timeshare products.Certain consumers who purchased vacation or timeshare products from Festiva companies, including Festiva Adventure Club and Etourandtravel, will be eligible to have their Festiva contracts cancelled and receive partial refunds of the money they have paid to date. In addition, some consumers who financed their Festiva purchases will be eligible to have the entire balance of their Festiva loans forgiven.Tennessee prides itself on being one of the top tourist destinations in the country. Our office has zero patience for the type of activities exhibited in this instance and will take swift action against companies that do not play by the rules, General Slatery said. We hope this settlement will remind consumers to always do their homework and research a company before turning over hard-earned dollars to that company.Todays settlement resolves allegations that Festiva operated a telemarketing and direct mail enterprise that used fraudulent and deceptive tactics to lure Tennesseans into attending high-pressure sales presentations designed to sell them expensive vacation memberships and products.According to complaints reviewed by the Tennessee Attorney Generals Office, consumers were misled into believing they had won or been selected for a valuable prize, but to claim the prize, had to comply with many undisclosed requirements including a lengthy, high-pressure sales presentation.Once consumers purchased their vacation or timeshare products, they learned the vacations were different from what was promised at the sales presentation or during the telemarketing call. Onerous rules and terms allegedly made the products difficult to use, and desirable vacation locations were difficult to book because of unavailability.The defendants, all headquartered in Asheville, NC, include Festiva Development Group, Inc., d/b/a Festiva Adventure Club, Festiva Real Estate Holdings, LLC, f/k/a Festiva Resorts, LLC, Festiva Resorts Adventure Membership Club Association, Inc., Festiva Sailing Vacations, Inc., Human Capital Solutions, LLC, f/k/a Festiva Resort Services, LLC, Resort Travel & Xchange, LLC, f/k/a Festiva Travel & Xchange, LLC, Patton Hospitality Management, LLC, f/k/a Festiva Management Group, LLC, Zealandia Capital, Inc., f/k/a SETI Marketing, Inc., Zealandia Holding Company, Inc., f/k/a Festiva Hospitality Group, Inc., as well as Festiva principals Donald K. Clayton and Herbert H. Patrick, and Festiva marketing executive Richard A Hartnett. Additional Florida and Arkansas-based defendants were later added to the case including Etourandtravel, Inc., Escapes Travel Choices, LLC, and Festiva/Etourandtravel principal J. Lance Croft.Known eligible consumers will be notified by mail by the Tennessee Attorney Generals Office in approximately one month. Tennesseans who believe they may be eligible to share in the Festiva settlement are encouraged to contact the Tennessee Attorney Generals Office by April 30.Any Tennesseans who believe they may be eligible to participate in this settlement, or have questions about the settlement, should call the Tennessee Attorney Generals Office at 615-741-1671. Ex-head of real estate company gets 5 years for embezzlement at Bank of Moscow MOSCOW, February 25 (RAPSI, Artem Ponomarev) The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow has sentenced Svetlana Timonina, former chair of Premier Estate company, to 5 years in prison for embezzlement at the Bank of Moscow, RAPSI reported from the courtroom on Wednesday. A prosecutor earlier demanded 7 years in prison for Timonina. According to investigators, Boris Shemyakin, president of Kuznetsky Most Development LLC, and Timonina, his vice-president, established Premier Estate LLC allegedly to borrow funds from the Bank of Moscow on behalf of third parties. Premier Estate LLC obtained a 12.7 billion-ruble ($166 million) credit at the Bank of Moscow while the real estate companys charter capital amounted to 10,000 rubles ($131). The defendants transferred the borrowed funds to Yelena Baturina, the wife of former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, and to Oleg Soloshchansky, head of Baturinas construction company Inteco. Furthermore, the land plot they bought from Baturina was used as collateral in transactions with the Bank of Moscow. Timonina and Shemyakin have been charged with fraud under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code. Shemyakin has denied the charges. He was released on 10 million rubles ($131,000 at current exchange rate) bail in 2011, but in the spring of 2015 the Tverskoy District Court in Moscow ruled that the money be turned over to the state in view of the fact that Shemyakin has been living in London. Timonina who has pleaded not guilty was released, but restricted. Ousted opposition-minded Russian mayors detention extended for three months MOSCOW, February 25 (RAPSI) The Kirovsky District court in Yaroslavl has extended the detention of ousted Yaroslavl Mayor Yevgeny Urlashov, who stands charged with soliciting a bribe, for three months, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday. The criminal case opened against Urlashov is one of the biggest bribe cases in Russia recently, considering Yaroslavls population (600,000) and the fact that Urlashov, an opposition candidate, defeated the candidate from the ruling party at the 2012 mayoral elections. Investigators believe that Urlashov and his accomplices extorted a bribe of 45 million rubles (about $692,000) from businessmen. The police arrested Urlashov on July 3, 2013. He pleaded not guilty and said that his prosecution was politically motivated. Urlashov, a member of the ruling United Russia party in 2008-2011, was a candidate for the opposition during mayoral elections in 2012. He achieved a landslide victory over a United Russia candidate Yakov Yakushev. A member of billionaire-turned-politician Mikhail Prokhorovs Civic Platform party, Urlashov planned to run for the Yaroslavl regional parliament in September 2013. On July 18, 2013, Urlashov was removed from his mayoral post. In December 2014, a court found another accomplice of Urlashov, Maxim Pokalainen, guilty on bribery charges and sentenced him to five years in prison. IWPR, February 22, 2016 By Mohammad Ibrahim Speasalay Soala gazes at her prized high school diploma with tears in her eyes. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Zarghuna Ana high school in Kandahar province, she had dreamed of going on to study medicine. But her hopes were dashed when her father and older brother said that they would not allow her to carry on her education. As a doctor, Soala said, she would have been able to serve the wider society and help rebuild her country. Conservative traditions now meant that her studies were at an end. If I had known that they would not allow me to go on to higher education, then maybe I would not have struggled so hard throughout the 12 years [of school], she said. I wanted to serve the women of Kandahar in the field of medicine after graduating from university. My father and older brother killed my hope. What good will this certificate do me now? Soalas older brother Asadullah said that he could not face the humiliation of friends teasing him because his sister was allowed to go to university. My conscience can not accept my young sister leaving the house every day and studying together with young men she does not know in the same class, he said. I am also ashamed of my friends mocking me. If they say even one bad word about my sister, my honour wont be able to bear it. Access to education has improved significantly in the southern province of Kandahar since the fall of the Taleban in 2001. But even those families who send their daughters to school are often unwilling to allow them to continue studying past the age of 15, let alone go on to higher education. Hazratmir Totakhail, the head of Kandahar university, said that although 2,060 high school graduates had taken entrance exams to begin studying for a degree last year, only 230 of them were female. The prospects for younger girls hoping to finish high school are even starker. According to Kandahars department of education, there are 75,000 girls currently at school in the province. However, statistics indicate that only a handful go on to finish high school. Education spokesman Nazar Mohammad Samimi told IWPR that only 528 girls had graduated from high school in the last academic year, reflecting the fact that many families did not allow girls to continue past year six of their education. Many families in Kandahar face this problem; and I think that this is worse in the districts, agreed Shogofa Sahar, the head of the womens affairs sections of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in Kandahar. She said that only 14 incidents of girls being forced to curtail their studies taken had been reported to them over the last year, but the numbers were clearly much higher. Most cases of girls being denied further education were simply not reported. The chance to chance to continue studying was a human right, Sahar continued, and the community needed to support talented young women so that they can in turn could go on to serve society. Zalmai Toryal, the head of the teachers training institute of Kandahar, also said that many families in Kandahar refuse to allow female family members to continue their education. In addition to cultural traditions, Toryal said that concerns over security led many families to prevent girls continuing their studies. Another factor is that many young women end their education when they get married. He said that 1,346 students study at his institute, of which only 321 are girls. If you look at the number of our students, you will notice the low level of female students attending the teacher training institute. Although we arranged special facilities for them, still the families are not ready to send their daughters to academic institutions. Islamic scholar Maulawi Abdul Bari Madani said that there was no religious reason to prevent girls and young women from pursuing their studies. The religion of Islam orders its followers to learn Islam never prevents the education, where hijab [modest dress] is observed, he said. Civil society activist Abdul Aziz Akrami said that one issue was the fact that, unlike high schools, colleges were co-educational. One of the reasons that many families in Kandahar that are not willing to send their daughters to universities and teacher training centres is that there both girls and boys study together, he said. If classes for girls and boys were separated, this might help solve the issue. Toryal agreed that this might encourage more young women to continue studying. He said that his institution was encouraging their female staff to undertake more teaching hours. We also tried to give our female teachers more classes so that we can achieve a women- dominated educational environment, he said. Ruqia Achikzai, head of the provincial department of womens affairs, said that she was had held meetings across the province to try and convince families that they should let girls continue with their education. We have talked with girls and their families about this issue to let them know that girls need to have access to higher education so as our society can have a brighter future. Girls, too, need qualifications from academic institutions. This report was produced under IWPRs Promoting Human Rights and Good Governance in Afghanistan initiative, funded by the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan. IRIN, February 25, 2016 By Jared Ferrie Both Afghanistan's government and NATO are investigating an Afghan special forces raid on a clinic in which three people were said to have been executed, including a teenage boy. But Afghanistan and NATO have a history of impunity in such cases, casting doubt on whether the investigations will reveal the truth and bring accountability. Just before midnight on 17 February, Afghan forces, allegedly backed by foreign soldiers, raided a clinic run by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan in Wardak Province. Bjorn Lindh, a spokesman for SCA, told IRIN that soldiers accused the clinics staff of treating Taliban fighters. After the manager of the facility was tied up and other medical personnel forced with him into a room, two patients and a 15-year-old boy on visit were taken to a nearby shop and summarily executed, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a statement Tuesday. The NATO mission initially denied foreign involvement in the operation, saying on 18 February that it had no operational reporting of any coalition or US activity in the vicinity of any hospitals in Wardak". The UNAMA statement, however, confirmed the presence of international military, backing up reports by SCA staff. The SCA said its employees saw at least two soldiers wearing foreign uniforms who spoke in a language that sounded like English. The NATO mission, known as Resolute Support, told IRIN that it still could not confirm the presence of international military, and said it had assigned its Joint Casualty Assessment Team to look into the incident. The Afghan government is conducting an investigation, Colonel Michael Lawhorn said in an emailed statement. Additionally, RS is conducting a preliminary inquiry, to determine whether there are any credible allegations of civilian casualties. Lindh told IRIN that SCA is not satisfied with the response and wants an independent investigation. It is preparing a formal complaint to the Afghan government and NATO, and will ask the Swedish government to apply diplomatic pressure on Afghanistan to ensure that the incident does not get swept under the rug. We are well aware that very little has happened (after past incidents), he told IRIN. But we hope we will be able to put pressure that will make something happen. The history of such investigations over the past 14 years since the US invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban does not bode well for the possibility of justice and accountability this time around. The American military has investigated and prosecuted only a handful of its soldiers. Its unfortunately quite rare that incidents in which international forces are implicated in extrajudicial killings or other abuses against civilians are properly investigated, said Patti Gossman, a senior researcher on Afghanistan for Human Rights Watch. Afghan officials also do a very poor job investigating such incidents by their own forces, she told IRIN. To our knowledge, no Afghan military personnel have been held accountable for serious abuses. A spokesman for Afghanistans Ministry of Interior, which oversees the special forces, was not available by phone and did not respond to an email seeking comment. Lindh said his staff didnt know why the two patients and the boy were taken from the clinic and executed. But they have an indication of why the SCA clinic was targeted. The staff was treated in a harsh way; some of them beaten, he said. Soldiers accused them of giving care to the Taliban. Under international law, it is illegal to target healthcare facilities regardless of the affiliation of patients they are treating. However, hospitals and clinics have increasingly come under attack by both pro-government forces and insurgent groups according to UNAMA. In its 2015 annual report released earlier this month, UNAMA noted an increase in the number of conflict-related incidents deliberately targeting hospitals, clinics and health personnel, including searches by Afghan special forces supported by international military forces on clinics. In at least one instance last year, destruction rained down on a health facility from the air. As pro-government forces were fighting in October to push the Taliban out of the provincial capital of Kunduz, which they had occupied, a US airstrike hit a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontiers. Patients as well as staff were among the 42 killed and 43 injured. Afghan and American officials made contradictory statements in the aftermath of the attack, with the US military finally determining that human error was at fault. But UNMISS was not satisfied with the explanation and in its annual report demanded an independent, impartial, transparent and effective investigation. Groups such as the Taliban and Daesh, as the so-called Islamic State is known in Afghanistan, also carried out numerous attacks on clinics throughout 2015. UNAMA also documented increased intimidation and threats against healthcare staff and institutions by Anti-Government Elements, said the report. Overall, there were more civilian casualties last year than in any since UNAMA began keeping records in 2009, with anti-government groups responsible for 62 percent of the record 11,002 Afghans killed or injured. As we see a surge in inflation globally, it is now critical that everyone is aware of the implications this will have along every step of the insurance and reinsurance value chain. realclearworld Newsletters: Mideast Memo It would be easy to dismiss this week's elections in Iran as little more than well-orchestrated Kabuki theater. After all, it is widely understood by most outside observers that the Iranian government is, in all reality, ruled by a tiny class of theocrats -- or "mullahs," as some prefer -- and militant ideologues. Indeed, while a great deal of media attention has been paid to Friday's twin elections -- one to fill the majlis, Iran's 290-seat parliament, and the other to fill the 88-person clerical body known as the Assembly of Experts -- one might be forgiven for disregarding both votes as a mere sideshow. While Iran most certainly has resembled a vibrant democracy in recent weeks, it's crucial to note that the threshold for participating in Iranian elections is remarkably high, and that most reformers and liberals are often disqualified from participating well before the first vote is even cast. What this leaves behind is a monochrome collection of candidates ranging from conservative to even more conservative -- what Iran analyst Karim Sadjadpour described in an interview with the Washington Post as a spectrum ranging "from pitch black to dark grey." Analysts, moreover, must be careful not to confuse process for genuine participation. Iran is a self-proclaimed Islamic republic, and the two features often find themselves in conflict. The result is a Byzantine-like system with competing power bases, but all ultimately beholden to the diktats of one man: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Furthermore, while the Assembly of Experts is indeed a powerful body comprising many of the country's most influential clerical figures, it remains unclear just how much influence it possesses. And though it is ostensibly tasked with the all-important job of selecting the country's next supreme leader, it has arguably never truly fulfilled that responsibility. The Islamic Republic has had just one succession of power in the supreme leader's office in its 37-year history, and experts believe the Assembly had a rather muted, if not entirely ceremonial, role in that selection process, which followed the death of the regime's revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. "Whenever Ayatollah Khamenei passes from the scene, his successor will almost surely be determined by another back-room deal among the gray eminences of the Islamic regime," argues Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution. "Their position in the Assembly of Experts is likely to be largely irrelevant to that outcome." Beyond the systemic ennui in the country's halls of power looms the shadow of the 2009 presidential election. For many international observers, the taint of that vote -- one widely believed to have been stolen by then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- still lingers in the mind. The crackdown and persecution of protesters and reform-minded Iranian political figures that followed that election has likewise contributed to the rather small crop of reformists participating in this year's polls, compelling some to cry foul. "None of the [Assembly] 'experts' are atheists. None of them are secularists. None of them are agnostic. None of them are liberals under any conceivable definition of the word liberal. Certainly none of them are Christians, Jews, or Baha'is," writes journalist and foreign affairs analyst Michael J. Totten. "They're all Islamic theologians or they wouldn't even be in the Assembly of Experts." While such criticisms are not entirely without their merit, they also miss an important point about Iranian politics post-Ahmadinejad. Although some in Western media and policy circles lament the 2009 protest movement as a missed opportunity to overthrow the current Iranian regime, the Green Movement in truth resembled something more akin to a civil rights movement than a revolutionary one -- a culmination of public dissatisfaction with Ahmadinejad's economic mismanagement and combative behavior toward the West. The 2013 presidential election was a repudiation of that legacy, and a signal to the country's various power bases that sanctions and isolation were taking far too heavy a toll on Iranians of every political persuasion. Ahmadinejad left office a diminished figure, and in 2015 his successor, centrist cleric Hassan Rouhani, reached a once unthinkable nuclear agreement with the United States other world powers. Though those aforementioned hues of grey may look dissimilar to most Western observers, to Iranians they make a world of difference, and they represent the choice between a decent life full of economic and social opportunity, and one without. Should Rouhani and his allies within the establishment achieve electoral success this week, it could set the tone for Iranian leadership for years to come, and more importantly, enable the current president to fulfill his campaign pledge to improve the economy heading into the 2017 presidential election. An even friendlier parliament would go a long way toward helping the 67-year-old Rouhani -- who may have bigger political ambitions than just the president's office -- to do just that. "These elections will not change Iran's foreign policy, nor will they jeopardize the nuclear deal," writes Al-Monitor's Arash Karami. "A cooperative parliament can, however, allow Rouhani's ministers to focus on the difficult challenges ahead of them rather than being constantly summoned to parliament, as they have been in record numbers." So is Iran a real democracy? Perhaps that is the wrong question. What continues to plague Iran -- and indeed much of the Middle East -- isn't a deficit in participation and process, but rather one in accountability and opportunity. While it may assuage our liberal sensibilities to outright dismiss Iranian democracy, our objections do little to improve the daily lives of Iran's young and ambitious population. For most Iranians, citizenship since the 1979 Islamic Revolution -- and even prior to that -- has meant compliance, or, at best, quiet speculation. One man, to paraphrase English philosopher John Stuart Mill, managing the affairs of a mentally passive people. That is why these elections matter. Although most of the predominantly aged males elected this week will, at least outwardly, espouse a rigid range of conservative principles, their views on Iran's proper place in the world -- isolated vs. engaged, successful vs. insolvent -- will depend largely on Rouhani and his cohorts' freedom to continue their agenda. To achieve that, they must have the numbers. More on this: Do Iran's Elections Mean Change? -- The Iran Primer Hope Goes Hand in Hand with Pragmatism in Iran -- Al-Monitor No, Iran Is Not a Democracy -- World Affairs Journal How Iran's Election Could Make History [Video] -- Vox Feedback Questions, comments, or complaints? Feel free to send us an email, or reach out on Twitter @kevinbsullivan. And be sure to check for all of the latest news and analysis on the Middle East at RealClearWorld.com. Inspired by both the Oscar-nominated movie The Woman in Gold, about a woman who sued Austria for the return on her familys artwork stolen during WWII, and a study of artist Gustav Klimts portrait, the work taken by the Nazis, GPS students in a Spanish IV Honors class recreated similar legal proceedings in a mock trial at the Hamilton County Courthouse on Wednesday. In the oldest courtroom in Hamilton County, used by Hamilton County Chancellor Jeffrey Atherton, the students debated, argued, presented evidence, and persuaded the student judge in the bench trial where all points of view were presented. The girls wrote the script, wore legal and period costumes, and were in character for the entire two-hour Mock Trial, according to their teacher, Dr. Maria Carlone. Because its a Spanish class, the entire script was written and performed in nearly flawless Spanish. After watching a sample mock trial on YouTube earlier in the month, the girls wrote arguments, detailed the various positions, conducted research, and practiced. They filled the roles of all witnesses and lawyers, often objecting to the judge and having their objections sustained or overruled. Among the characters portrayed were Maria Altman, the Austrian woman who brought the suit; a museum curator, a Nazi familiar with the list of art stolen for the Reichs museum; and the artist, Gustav Klimt. Klimt was presented as a contemporary even though he passed away before the historic legal proceedings. It is very hard to do what they are doing, especially in another language, and they have done beautifully, says Dr. Carlone, who is also the World Languages Department chair at GPS. The girls have not only learned a lot of Spanish, but they have learned about art and have learned about the judicial system in the U.S. It has been a wonderful interdisciplinary learning experience. Fine Arts Department Chair Cathie Kasch provided background about the artists life and the stolen portrait. Drama teacher Erin Schmidt provided costumes and taught techniques for voice projection and character development. Special thanks to Chancellor Atherton and his staff for allowing the GPS class to experience the courtroom environment. It was to be expected. The "deal" hashed out between British Prime Minister David Cameron and the European Union is enticing other countries to rake in some goodies of their own. Thus Cameron's campaign to keep Great Britain inside the European Union is already having a detrimental effect on European solidarity. Cameron needed a deal with the European Union as a motif; a tangible reason to convince doubting voters in the upcoming referendum on the United Kingdom's EU membership to vote Remain, and not to leave the European Union. Cameron needed something to show for his efforts in Brussels while campaigning at home to remain in the Union. In this he barely succeeded. Those who were in favor of leaving the European Union were expected to be unconvinced. Even if Cameron had come back to London carrying bags of money and a write of unassailable sovereignty, there still is a substantial part of the population, especially in England, that wants the blue and gold flag removed from the island, full stop. The big question is whether Cameron's deal will convince those on the fence to come down on the Remain side. But whatever the outcome of the referendum set for June 23, Cameron's gambit is already having repercussions. It appears to have triggered precisely what many politicians on the Continent feared. Among the points agreed upon with the government leaders and the EU leadership is an arrangement under which children of EU citizens working in Britain will receive lower child benefits. Eastern European countries railed against this proposal, and with reason: Many of their people work in Great Britain, and the British benefits are a boon. Eastern European nations united in the so-called Visegrad Group (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary) fear that other countries may want to copy that provision -- if not to save money, then because it makes electoral sense in right-wing and hard left-wing quarters. And lo and behold, not 24 hours after Cameron crowed victory in London, some countries voiced their interest in requesting the freedom to lower child benefits for EU workers in their countries. All this has many a pro-EU pol gritting his or her teeth. Solidarity among EU nations is already increasingly out of favor, and provisions like these do not help. The willingness from leaders such as Germany's Angela Merkel to come to a meaningful compromise with London itself is fostering polarization between Continental and British politicians. In the Dutch parliament, pro-EU parties warned Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte not to give in to blackmail from London just for the sake of keeping Great Britain in the Union. The Great Unraveling All this is happening at a time when solidarity is under severe attack anyway, thanks to the ongoing refugee crisis. The Schengen treaty guaranteeing the free movement of citizens in the European Union is under stress. Belgium suspended the treaty along its border with France; Austria is reinstating tight border controls with so-called transit countries such as Hungary, through which refugees try to reach Germany. This move follows in the footsteps of the likes of Slovenia and Hungary itself, while Macedonia -- not an EU member -- is building razorwire fences along its borders with Greece. Bulgaria -- an EU member state -- is gearing up to do the same. The last thing the European Union needs right now is one of its major players, Great Britain, creating more havoc should Cameron lose and the Leave-vote win. Some EU capitals fear that this would be the starting sign for a new round of negotiations to keep Great Britain in the European Union, resulting in more unraveling of EU treaties. This is why the French and Belgian governments insisted on an agreement for a so-called self-destruct mechanism, which would see the European Union nullify its compromise agreement with London if Britain votes to leave. Of course, the power plays among EU states are what drive some capitals to want to keep London in the European family, and others to throw them out. Germany doesn't want to be left alone to deal with France. Germany and countries such as the Netherlands were content to side with Great Britain every now and then to seal off the off-and-on Rome-Paris axis. Poland, meanwhile, is seeking a bigger seat at the table, while Southern European nations would rather see France strengthened so as to weaken Germany's tough austerity politics. But throughout all of this, it is worth remembering that many EU countries have been wary of Great Britain's membership ever since former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously stormed into Europe demanding that London "get its money back." In the past decades, successive British governments have demanded exception after exception, up to the point where one wonders whether British membership is anything more than just a handy battering ram at the negotiating table. If Great Britain is going to create only bigger headaches for the European project, it is perhaps best to say goodbye to Albion. Chances are that in the not too distant future, England -- maybe without the then-independent Scotland -- will come knocking on Brussels' door again. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 02/24/2016 ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. Former star Emily Maynard has revealed her past was even more difficult that people realize.When Maynard first appeared on Season 15 of The Bachelor starring Brad Womack , she shared her sad story of how she had been engaged to former NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick but he died in a tragic plane crash in 2004. Shortly after he passed away, Maynard learned she was pregnant with his daughter."Things haven't been super easy for me," Maynard, whose book I Said Yes will be released next week, told People. "As great as things are now, it's been a struggle for me. My life definitely isn't perfect. Is anybody's?"But Maynard's situation was even more grim before she began dating Hendrick when she was 16-years-old. Maynard apparently went through a "really hard" time while attending boarding school in Florida as a young teen."I didn't feel like I fit in," Maynard, now 30, admitted.The eighth-season star experienced feelings of worthlessness and unhappiness to the point where she attempted to kill herself. Maynard was hospitalized twice in a six-month span -- once for threatening suicide and another time for overdosing on prescription pain pills."It really was a cry for help," Maynard explained. "I never really wanted to end things. I just wanted attention. It makes me sad to think about. I was so focused on the part of my heart that was empty that I couldn't see beyond where I was."Once Maynard welcomed her daughter Ricki, now 10-years-old, she battled through a "couple of years" that were "so hard" without Hendrick at her side.As a single mom who just lost the love of her life, Maynard confessed to People, "I didn't know if I was coming or going. I was lost. I went to therapists but I knew nothing they would tell me was going to make me feel better. Mine was an issue of the heart that I needed to work out myself. And I knew that time would do that."Maynard went on to get engaged three more times. Her engagement to Womack ended in 2011 with the former Bachelor admitting he had "dodged a bullet." The couple began encountering problems shortly following ABC's March 2011 broadcast of the show's season finale.When Maynard starred on in Summer 2012, Jef Holm proposed. However, they broke up in October of that year following two months of reports their relationship had been on the rocks.Some of the speculation had been that Maynard cheated on Holm while other rumors claimed Holm was just hungry for the limelight.The pair reportedly reunited and decided to give their relationship another shot in December 2012 but things fell apart again later that month. A source told Us Weekly at the time Holm ultimately "crushed her."Maynard is now happily married to her "very best friend" Tyler Johnson. They wed in June 2014 and the former reality TV star gave birth to a son named Jennings in July 2015.When looking back on her life, Maynard admitted, "Of course I have regrets. But I don't regret doing the show. It showed me what I want and what I don't want. Honestly, it was a blessing in my life." , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Westin Hotels and Resorts, the industry-innovator brand of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc, is set to debut on the bustling streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Summer 2017. "The Westin Milwaukee is a highly anticipated addition to our growing portfolio and is poised to energize the lodging market at the heart of this city's vibrant downtown," said Bob Jacobs, Vice President of Brand Management, North America, Westin Hotels & Resorts. "From our iconic Heavenly Bed to our Gear Lending partnership with New Balance, we look forward to welcoming guests to The Westin Milwaukee, ensuring that they leave feeling better than when they arrived." According to the press release of Starwood in Business Wire, the new hotel will offer 220 guestrooms and suites. Guests of the hotel can enjoy the stunning views overlooking Lake Michigan and the downtown skyline. In addition to the 9,000 square feet of well-appointed meeting facilities, a unique fine dining restaurant and lobby bar, guests can also enjoy the Westin brand's signature nutrient-rich SuperFoodsRX menu, the WestinWORKOUT gym and Westin's innovative programs. "The Westin Milwaukee will mark an important debut for Westin, paving the way for the further development of Starwood's lifestyle brands in this key mid-western market," said Allison Reid, Senior Vice President of Development, North America, Starwood Hotels & Resorts. "Having recently surpassed 200 hotels globally, the Westin brand continues to gain momentum in North America and around the world, propelled by the success of its distinctive well-being positioning and the enthusiasm of owners and developers who are eager to bring the brand to new markets." The Westin Milwaukee is financed by BMO Harris and Anchor Bank and will open on the US Bank campus at the heart of downtown. Jackson Street Holdings will have the ownership of the hotel while White Lodging will be responsible for the management. "The Westin Milwaukee will be connected indoors to over 3,000 people working in downtown and will be the closest hotel to Lake Michigan, offering business and leisure travelers a unique well-being proposition, as only Westin can," said Chris Anderson, Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer with White Lodging. "We're thrilled to continue our great relationship with Jackson Street, especially playing a role in a beautiful addition to the Milwaukee skyline and the introduction of an elevated wellness brand to the market." The Florida housing market continues to stay strong on January of this year with total single-family home closed sales at 16,529, 2.7 percent year-over-year increased compared to the same month of last year. "Florida's housing market remains on a steady path," said 2016 Florida Realtors President Matey H. Veissi, broker and co-owner of Veissi & Associates in Miami. "While inventory levels are tight, the months' supply of homes for sale remains stable and distressed property sales continue to fall. The current market offers a great opportunity for sellers, who are getting nearly 94 percent (for existing single-family homes) of their asking price at the closing table; existing townhouse-condo sellers are getting more than 93 percent of their asking price. And while mortgage rates are inching higher, they remain historically low, which gives consumers more buying power." According to the press release of Florida Realtors in PR NewsWire, the statewide median price for a single-family home in Florida has increased by 13.7 percent year-over-year to $199,000 while townhouse-condo properties' median price gained 10.9 percent to $152,000 as compared to the same month last year. "Overall, statewide sales growth remained slow in January, but it's important to note that this trend has not been uniform across all price points," said Florida Realtors Chief Economist Dr. Brad O'Connor. "Taking a closer look at the data, what we are seeing are large year-over-year declines in properties selling for less than$150,000. Sales in this price range, which comprised over a third of January's total sales, were down by nearly 17 percent compared to January 2015. Sales of homes in price tiers of $150,000 or more, on the other hand, were actually up over 14 percent, year-over-year. Basing on the current sales pace, the inventory for single family homes in January is at 4.5-months' supply while townhouse-condo properties has 5.9 months' supply. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has appointed Dr. David Moroney as medical director of provider network innovations. Dr. Moroney will provide medical oversight for BlueCross innovation pilot programs as well as provider partnerships, Patient-Centered Medical Homes, and the Tennessee Health Care Innovation Initiative. He will supply clinical direction for the advancement of high-quality, cost-effective ways to improve health care for BlueCross members, said officials. Dr. Moroney has a passion for pushing the envelope of health care delivery and finding effective ways to make quality treatment more affordable and accessible for our members, said Larry Nall, senior vice president of provider network management for BlueCross. We are thrilled to have someone with his expertise and accomplishments on our team. Before joining the provider network innovations team, he served for six years as chief medical officer of BlueCare Tennessee, a BlueCross subsidiary operating managed care for Medicaid and special-needs populations statewide. Dr. Moroney joined BlueCross in 1998 as medical director of the Chattanooga region. In this role, he supported medical management and clinical liaison functions across all lines of business. He also implemented disease management programs, served as clinical leader of the regional provider relations team and provided support for commercial account management. Between 2004 and 2005, Dr. Moroney served as medical director for a managed care operator in California, Virginia and West Virginia. He returned to BlueCross in 2005 as the senior medical director of quality improvement, where he led corporate initiatives promoting clinical quality improvement through measured performance. He developed and implemented various hospital and physician pay-for performance programs, and achieved an excellent status for the Medicaid MCOs initial NCQA accreditation. Prior to joining BlueCross, Dr. Moroney practiced general pediatrics for 18 years as a partner in a private group practice. He also served as clinical associate professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. Moroney earned his bachelors degree in biology from the University of New Orleans and his medical degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine. He earned a masters degree in health administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Moroney completed a residency in pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is a board certified pediatrician and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Investors who are looking for new opportunities in Australia's property market should check out the middle-ring Brisbane and Adelaide suburbs. These two areas have been identified as the new property hotspots in the cooling markets of the country according to specialists. They say that Brisbane and Adelaide, particularly those areas near popular schools are offering potential income growth and capital gains, as reported by Financial Review. According to predictions, Brisbane will have the strongest growth in 2016 when it comes to property prices at 3 percent. This is based on the latest NAB Residential Property Survey, The Courier Mail reported. While NAB forecast Adelaide growth to be not that much at 0.2 percent, recently released CoreLogic RP Data Property Market Indicator Summary suggested that prices in the city will catch up. Adelaide home prices rose 0.7 percent over the past week and 1.3 percent last month, the highest increases among other capitals. Meanwhile, Financial Review said capital gains in the former hot markets Melbourne and Sydney are going to slow down. Perth and Darwin, the mining boom towns, on one hand will continue to see falling rents and prices. The situation in other parts of the mainland will remain dawdling. "No longer is just being in the market a guarantee of profit," says Jason Black, managing director of broker The Australian Lending and Investment Centre. "The smart money is looking for pockets of excellence in existing hot markets and further afield to other markets formerly left in the shadow of Melbourne and Sydney." Economist Jonathon Tepper, founder of Variant Perception, said via The Motley Fool that "Australia now has one of the biggest housing bubbles in history." According to Tepper's prediction, the country's housing market could decline by as low as 50 percent in Melbourne and Sydney, and 80 percent in mining towns. Miami Heat's Goran Dragic just scored a Miami mansion worth a whopping $7 million. According to Realtor, with his recent purchase, the Heat guard now has the most expensive real estate transaction. The previously most expensive mansion on the area belonged to singer Enrique Iglesias who sold his home for $6.7 million in October 2013. Listing details of the property reveal that the 6,500-square-foot Mediterranean-style mansion sits on a 23,000-square-foot lot. It has a total of seven bedrooms and five full bathrooms. It also has an office and French doors which leads to the outdoor pool. It also has an iron staircase and a wine cellar. The master bathroom features a large soaking tub. The two-story house was sold unfurnished, but the master bedroom located on the second floor includes a walk-in closet. A spacious sitting area is also located on the second floor. The kitchen has built-in cabinets, a cooking island and a pantry. The exterior of the mansion includes 120 feet of private waterfront, and the gorgeous backyard includes mosaic fountains, a cabana, an outdoor kitchen and a play area perfect for kids. The backyard also offers stunning bay views of Miami Beach and the city views of downtown Miami. It was also said to be the perfect place to enjoy the sunrise and sunset. Since the home is located in a gated community, Dragic can ensure his security and privacy. The listing agent reveals that the community is one of the very few ones in the area which offers privacy like those in Bal Harbour, Fisher Island and Indian Creek Island. The location of the property is also close to two of the best schools in the area which are the Cushman School and Miami Country Day School. The Miami Design District is also a short walk away, while the artsy Wynwood is also not too far. Man kidnapped after Tinder hookup On Saturday night, Feb. 13, a man met up with a woman he met on Tinder at the Travel Inn on West Broad street. After having sex with the girl, two black men came out of the bathroom and assaulted him, according to Athens-Clarke County police. There is a story coming out of the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Veterans Administration Hospital this week where police were called when a surgical scrub nurse seemed addled, struggled to sign on a computer and was unsteady on his feet. When police asked him if he knew why they had been called, the nurse allegedly replied, I guess it had something to do with me being drunk. It seems not a day goes by that the Veterans Administration isnt shamed or blamed so why dont we euthanize the program, give our veterans and their families cost-free health insurance and allow our heroes to go to any hospital or doctors office they choose. Read this right: In 2009 the budget for the VA was $87.6 billion (with a b). Five years later in 2014 it was almost double: $152.7 billion (with a b). As a matter of fact, 2014 was when it was discovered 40 Armed Forces veterans died in Phoenix because the wait times were too long. It was and still is -- scandalous, so bad that the Secretary of the VA resigned. Eric Shinseki expressed outrage and frustrating as he did so, saying the blatant wait times werent nearly as bad as the lack of integrity at certain facilities. That breach of integrity is irresponsible, it is indefensible, and unacceptable to me, he said publicly. I said when this situation began weeks to months ago that I thought the problem was limited and isolated because I believed that. I no longer believe it. It is systemic. I was too trusting of some and I accepted as accurate reports that I now know to have been misleading with regard to patient wait times. A fallout was that an urgent investigation was ordered for 111 notorious facilities, including the VA Out-Patient Care complex in Chattanooga, and while it is anything but funny, we are still waiting for the results. It has been whispered that of 77 centers, 52 have been found negligent but nobody knows anything, which is irresponsible, indefensible and unacceptable to Americas taxpayers. Rep. Mike Coffman (CO-R) just wrote a scathing report on the VA and his view is far better than mine. A combat veteran with 21 years of service, the Congressman serves on the Armed Services Committee and is the chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee for the Veterans Affairs Committee. His take? Just last week, a report on the Colorado Springs Community Based Outpatient Clinic, or CBOC, revealed lengthy wait times and a failure to add veterans to the Choice List. In fact, 64 percent of veterans at CBOC did not receive timely care in the audiology, mental health, neurology, optometry, orthopedic, and primary care services. Further, the inspector general also determined VA staff failed to add veterans to the Veterans Choice List allowing them to seek timely care from a private physician as required by law. If past actions are at all indicative, under the current administration, it's not likely that anyone will be held accountable, he wrote in a guest editorial. Last year, the VA gave out hundreds of millions in cash bonuses and, if anything, these bonuses have played a key role in fostering the culture of corruption that has fed this scandal-plagued agency. For example, cash bonuses were given to VA's Veterans Health Administration personnel for reducing the time that a veteran has to wait to receive care at the VHA. Unfortunately, what really happened was a systemic manipulation of patient wait times across the VHA where two sets of books were kept, an official set to ensure employee bonuses and secret set with the real schedules, Coffman wrote. If that doesnt make you mad, this will. Coffman revealed that when Secretary McDonald was asked if he would support legislation that, in cases of fraud, would call for bonus money to be returned, the top VA guy said he would not support that. Anybody smell smoke? Corruption at VA is not the only problem; bureaucratic incompetence is the norm for the agency. The Colorado lawmaker, who is furious that incompetency is forcing more money from the taxpayers yet veterans are suffering worse, said, There is no better symbol of VA's bureaucratic incompetence than the mismanagement of hospital construction projects. In 2013, a Government Accountability Office investigation found that the VA had four hospitals under construction, including the Aurora (Colorado) hospital, averaging $336 million over budget and 35 months behind schedule. Cost overruns for the four hospitals are now estimated at $2 billion (with a b just in overruns!) Naturally, no one has been held accountable for the cost overruns and the construction delays at these major hospital projects. To add insult to injury, Glenn Haagstrom, who oversaw the construction of all four hospitals, received $64,000 in bonus money, some of which was awarded after the GAO report was published. In summary, our VA is horribly out of control. With all the generals and genius in our military, America is being robbed at the expense of our soldiers, where the crime includes abuse. Lets put this catastrophe to sleep and pull the plug. Just like the Pennsylvania scrub nurse, we need to sober up and head in a different direction. The annual Bulldawg Brawl has been a popular boxing and charity event in Athens for the last five years, but for the sixth annual Brawl for a Cause, the game has changed. Instead of just UGA students fighting UGA students, University of Florida students will be bussed in from Jacksonville this year to go head-to-head with UGA students for their respective charities. Its difficult to gauge the cultural influence of something until decades later. History often forgets fads and trends while influential culture is often morphed into current trends without appreciation for its roots. Despite an announcement by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents that tuition will not increase for the 2016-2017 school year, a proposal made by members of the University of Georgia Staff Council to reduce tuition costs for the spouses and dependents of employees was passed by the University Council at its Feb. 17 meeting. Owner Maurilia Hernandez at La Fogata in Mountain Gate SHARE The popular chimichanga A mini taco at La Fogata Mexican Restaurant The Divorced Eggs on the breakfast menu La Fogatas humble exterior By Marc Beauchamp Dont be deterred by the humble surroundings (a mini-mart next to a Chevron station) La Fogata on Wonderland Boulevard in Mountain Gate serves up some truly delicious and authentic Mexican food. Its worth the short drive north of Redding to sample the cooking of owner Maurilia Hernandez and her husband, Juan Alvarez, both natives of central Mexico. We had brunch there one morning last week. My wife raved about her Divorced Eggs two fried eggs separated by beans and rice, one smothered in red salsa, the other in green salsa and sprinkled with cotija cheese. I had the popular chimichanga, on the Almuerzo (lunch) menu a deep-fried burrito with shredded beef topped with lettuce, guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo and cotija cheese. With beans and rice, it was a lot of food for just $6.99. Hernandez, a friendly and welcoming young woman, also recommended I try a traditional mini taco ($2), a staple in Mexico. Theyre simple and easy to go, she explained. I washed it down with a toronja (grapefruit)-flavored Mexican soda. Theres also a selection of Mexican beers and Coca Cola, made in Mexico the old fashioned way with cane sugar. Her favorite item on the menu is the camarones al mojo de ajo (garlic shrimp). Other popular items include the breakfast burrito, the macho burrito, the Michoacan carnitas, the La Fogata fajitas and the spicy camarones ala Diabla (the special on the day of our visit). La Fogata (the bonfire) is a sort of family affair. Hernandezs father, Uriel Hernandez, started the restaurant in 2008. She took it over four years later. Besides her husband prepping and cooking in the kitchen youre apt to see one of more of their four children Juan Diego, Nelida, Elias and Valentin hanging around the restaurant. About half her business is takeout. Her customers come from around the Shasta Lake area as well as people passing through on I-5. One couple in Mount Shasta regularly orders mini tacos to take home, she told me. Hernandez, 30, came to the U.S. with her family from Zacatecas when she was two so her English is perfect. But she and her husband are making sure their children will be bilingual. I asked her what shes learned about the restaurant business. Patience is the key. Just make the customers happy. Ask questions of the customers so you can always improve. My only advice: Keep it up! And Ill be back soon for an order of camarones al mojo de ajo. go now La Fogata Mexican Restaurant Address: 14361 Holiday Road (Exit #687), Mountain Gate Phone: 276-9136 Hours: Monday - Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Social media: Facebook Owner: Maurilia Hernandez Established: 2008 Sample menu items: Breakfast burritos $5.99 Divorced eggs $8 4 mini tacos $4 Chimichanga $6.99 Michoacan carnitas $11.95 Camarones ala Diabla $13.95 Capt. John Slaughter is a 102-year-old resident of Roland Park Place in Baltimore. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun/TNS) SHARE Dr. Walter Ehrlich, M.D., Ph.D., is a 100-year-old resident of Roland Park Place in Baltimore. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun/TNS) By Andrea K. McDaniels, The Baltimore Sun BALTIMORE Each Thursday, Dr. Walter Ehrlich can be found along busy 41st Street in Roland Park, surrounded by signs protesting excessive war and expressing concerns about climate change. The 100-year-old regularly talks with family on Skype, sends emails and recently learned to use the Uber transportation app. Ehrlich is among a record number of centenarians in the United States. The number of Americans who celebrated 100 years or more of life increased more than 43 percent from 2000 to nearly 72,200 in 2014, the latest year for which data is available, according to a recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Studies have shown common factors such as Ehrlichs active lifestyle and ability to connect with the modern world may increase a persons chances of such a long life. Many centenarians come from families who live a long time, indicating that there is a genetic component, research shows. Living a healthy lifestyle that includes regular exercise, balanced meals and no smoking also can increase the odds of a long life, studies have found. Health experts say other factors in the rise of the number of 100-year-olds include safer workplaces people arent working in as many dangerous jobs and medical advancements against once-deadly infections and other illnesses. One of the most significant factors is that fewer people are dying from heart disease the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S. Jeremy Barron, medical director of the geriatric medicine outpatient office at Johns Hopkins, said treatment has improved so much that cancer is expected to eventually surpass heart disease as the leading killer of older people. The trend also has consequences. An aging population puts added pressure on families, the health care system and other parts of society. Researchers and geriatrics specialists are working to better understand this impact. Having so many people grow too old at one time is entirely new to us, and we have a lot of learning left to do, said Renee S. Fredericksen, a specialist on aging who sits on the executive council of AARP Maryland. About 1,800 Maryland residents are 100 or older, according to the Maryland Centenarians Committee Inc., which tracks that population using Social Security data. The group has held a celebration for centenarians every May since 1993. The group also has asked these senior citizens about the keys to a long life. The responses varied: Some attributed their longevity to spirituality, while others said they remained single and avoided the stresses of marriage and raising children. Some ate healthfully, and others said they drank a glass of wine every day. The graying of America has spurred the growth of industries to meet their needs. Senior travel groups and housing communities cater to the elderly, and health care providers are tailoring services for them. This summer, St. Agnes Hospital became the second in the state to open a separate emergency room catering to seniors. Holy Cross in Silver Spring opened what was considered the nations first senior emergency care center in 2008. The health conditions of centenarians also vary; some need extensive care and suffer from chronic conditions, while others live independently in their own homes or in retirement communities. I think the longevity explosion we are having is a double-edge sword, said Carmel Roques, president and CEO of Keswick Multi-Care Center community for seniors. We do everything we can to prolong peoples lives. But it also has a downside, which is lots and lots of older adults with chronic illnesses. Some of these people end up in nursing homes, but others wind up under the care of relatives, including sons and daughters who also are themselves elderly and dealing with declining health. We now have people in their 70s and 80s taking care of parents, Fredericksen said. It can be hard on families. For the most part, the older we become, the more intense the need for care in our daily lives becomes from help getting dressed, cleaning, eating and managing our finances, Fredericksen said. We slow down, we become frail, and medical incidents happen more frequently at an older age than a younger age. Some older people must learn to live on their own as the years stretch on, which can lead to isolation and mental health problems, specialists on aging said. The hardest thing for most of them is that so many of the people who were in their lives are dead, said Odessa D. Dorkins, the founder of the Maryland Centenarians Committee Inc. It can be very lonesome for them to outlive their friends, outlive their family and outlive their spouse. At Roland Park Place retirement community, where Ehrlich and five other centenarians live, the staff tries to provide residents social interactions and the ability to make new friends and dont feel lonely or isolated, said Becki Bees, director of marketing for the facility. Barron, of Johns Hopkins, said getting seniors more involved could benefit society as well. There are a lot of older people who would like to be engaged in the community and giving back in terms of working, volunteering or mentoring, Barron said. I think there is a lot of opportunity for older people to help society that we are not taking advantage of. When older people are involved in meaningful activity, it improves their quality of life. (EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE) Ehrlich, a Czechoslovakian-born veteran who was wounded as a soldier and tank driver during World War II, half-jokes that he probably should have died many times before. The retired medical doctor and physiologist says he has been lucky, but he recognizes he is slowing down. He wears hearing aids and has to keep his legs propped up because of circulation problems. He suffers from macular degeneration and carries around a magnifying glass to read. A special machine magnifies the print of the several newspapers he reads each day. This past weekend, he lost his second wife, who was 83. Ehrlich said there are still many things he enjoys about life. He follows politics and looks forward to a mayoral debate that will be held at Roland Park Place soon. He goes to the theater and never misses his weekly protest. On his 100th birthday, he didnt want a big party. Instead, his three children came over to spend time with him. Ehrlich said he doesnt mind aging, as long as I can enjoy life and see my children. Jack Slaughter, 102 and also a resident of Roland Park Place, said he doesnt want to be a burden to his three children. His wife of 74 years died two years ago, and he has had to adjust to living by himself. The Navy veteran and former real estate agent has outlived many of his friends. There are only three people alive from his Naval Academy class. He doesnt think theyll have a reunion. He spends a lot of time on the computer and still cooks for himself his specialty is fried eggs. He used to walk a couple of miles a day but now goes about a half-mile a day using a walker. But his health is good. The only medication he takes is a diuretic for swelling in his legs. I think Im doing OK for an old man, he said. 2016 The Baltimore Sun Visit The Baltimore Sun at www.baltimoresun.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. SHARE By Jessica Skropanic of the Redding Record Searchlight Flying is difficult enough without drunk passengers making it worse. While a drink on a flight may not be a problem for some people, others may not know when to stop. They also may not know the rules and penalties that can result from bad behavior while under the influence. Drunk airline passengers made several headlines in August, a high traffic time for fliers. Katherine Goldberg, 25, was reported to have had more than 16 ounces of whiskey before she sexually assaulted a flight attendant on a Virgin Atlantic flight from South Africa to London. In addition to sexual assault, she was charged with being drunk on an aircraft. The Moscow Times reported a 39-year-old passenger acting strangely and performing an erotic dance on a flight from Moscow to London. The flight returned to Moscow and the passenger was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced drunk. Skier Robert Vietze, 18, may have blown his chance to compete in the 2014 Olympics when he urinated on the leg of a sleeping 11-year-old passenger on a JetBlue flight from Portland, Ore., to New York. He'd had eight drinks before boarding. The New York Post reported on Aug. 12 that Vietze later told police he didn't realize he was urinating on her leg. The port authority met the plane at the gate and four police took Vietze into custody. Read more at http://nyp.st/ngM6yb. Being drunk on an aircraft is a violation of Federal Aviation Administration rules. The same FAA Code of Federal Regulations that restricts intoxicated crew members also prohibits passengers traveling under the influence. The FAA's General Operating and Flight Rules section 91:17 says that " ... except in an emergency, no pilot of a civil aircraft may allow a person who appears to be intoxicated or who demonstrates by manner or physical indications that the individual is under the influence of drugs except a medical patient under proper care to be carried in that aircraft." The decreased pressure from altitude may exacerbate symptoms of intoxication. Cabins are pressurized to simulate conditions at about 6,000 feet, according to Columbia University's Health Promotion Program website. A reduction of oxygen to the body, especially the brain, can produce dizziness and other symptoms of intoxication. Lower oxygen levels, and possible dehydration from dry air and the diuretic effects of alcohol, may mean a person feels or appears more drunk in a plane after consuming the same amount of alcohol as they would on the ground. Go to http://health.columbia.edu/services/alice. People who know better than to mix alcohol with drugs may not think of these dangers when faced with the anxieties of flying. Consuming alcohol is counter-indicated with anxiety-reduction drugs like Valium. Always check with your doctor or pharmacist before drinking in the air or on the ground if you take any medication. Regardless of the reasons, passengers causing trouble under the influence of alcohol or other substances may have to pay for it; literally. If the plane has to land, the drunken passenger may be sued by the airline for costs accrued by the delay. Passenger Russell Petrie said he had no memory of taking an American Airlines flight from Seattle to Miami in 2008, according to news sources relating eyewitness accounts. Petrie, then 30, was already drunk when he boarded the flight shouting "let's party and have some drinks." He'd ordered five vodkas before flight attendants refused him more alcohol. He then fondled one of the attendants. The flight made an unscheduled landing in Denver where police took Petrie into custody. Petrie faced reimbursement of $7,757 to American Airlines for the cost of rerouting the flight, up to a year in jail and a fine of $10,000. If passengers know another passenger is intoxicated they should tell a flight attendant to inform the captain, especially if the imbibed person is harassing passengers. Flight attendants can refuse alcohol to any passenger, and refusing might stop a problem before it escalates. Go to http://bit.ly/pF89XS to read the FAA's rules on alcohol and drugs on airplanes. SHARE Carson Nathaniel Cook Date of birth: June 29, 1983 Vitals: 5 feet, 11 inches; 155 pounds; brown hair, blue eyes Charge: Burglary A man recently featured on Shasta's Most Wanted surrendered to authorities Wednesday at the Shasta County Jail, corrections officers said. Deputies arrested Carson Nathaniel Cook, 32, on three warrants for burglary and probation revocation. He was booked in the jail, where authorities said he'll remain in custody pending his next court appearance. Cook was featured as one of Shasta's Most Wanted on Sunday. Shasta's Most Wanted, featured in the Record Searchlight in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, targets people who have failed to show up in court for sentencing after being convicted of crimes. Authorities say they have seen an increase in criminals failing to appear in court since the onset of Assembly Bill 109. Also known as prison realignment, the state program shifted certain state prison inmates to county supervision. Redding Police Chief Robert Paoletti said court appearances have been going up since the rollout of the program. Five new people are added each week. Those caught will be held until at least their next court appearances. Shasta County Secret Witness is offering a reward of up to $250 for information leading to an arrest. Anyone with information is asked to call 245-6540 or 243-2319. The feature appears Sundays in the Record Searchlight's Northern California section and on Redding.com. SHARE By Joe Szydlowski of the Redding Record Searchlight Redding police say two men arrested with a truck full of property stolen during a recent crime spree are indicative of a different type of thief. The pair, Clayton Ryan Rhodes, 21, of Cottonwood, and Joshua Carl Ruggles, 28, of Redding, were taken into custody after two victims of separate thefts tracked them down to the Redding Wal-Mart and called police, said Sgt. Shawn McGinnis with Redding police investigations. They were arrested Tuesday morning after committing a string of property crimes the previous several days, he said. "When we were interviewing them here, we had to wake them up every five to ten minutes," McGinnis said. "They'd been up two days straight no sleep. That's not uncommon, stealing everything that's not tied down." Among the items stolen were a duffel bag in plain view in a car and a credit card they used to buy $18 worth of chocolate at the Wal-Mart where their victims and police caught them. They also went around the parking lot eyeing cars and the beds of pickups. They stole a leaf blower from the bed of one truck, McGinnis said. In their spree, they also had used bolt cutters to steal a $400 Yeti cooler, which was secured, he said. They filled it with meat theyd stolen from a backyard freezer, McGinnis said. The pair were stealing to fuel their methamphetamine and heroin addictions. But heroin users, he said, are more sophisticated and in a way more collaborative criminals, ones that people and businesses should take extra care to guard against. They use cell phones and social media to communicate and coordinate, McGinnis said. They're much more tight knit, and are feeding a habit that requires constant use to avoid agonizing withdrawals. That means they need cash to use several times a day. While meth can impair thinking, possibly even leading to temporary psychosis, heroin users in pursuit of a high are much more lucid thieves. "Usually the meth has more of a scattering effect (on the mind). They're not quite as organized about it the way the heroin addicts are because of how the drug interacts with their mind," he said. He said many employees are told not to pursue shoplifters, a fact the thieves exploit. One thief will let others know about an opportunity using a phone or social media like Facebook . Then they may come by and swipe from there as well. They also share information about Proposition 47, which reduced some lower level property and drug crimes to misdemeanors, and other laws. "They'll also ask us questions related to the law, (such as) is this prison eligible or just time in jail," McGinnis said. Nonetheless, heroin addicts will get desperate to use and stave off the excruciating withdrawal, and McGinnis said they're behind the "vast majority" of armed robberies. McGinnis said people should secure their valuables out of view in vehicles. He also said don't leave a gun in a vehicle, and always be alert for suspicious activity and report it to the police. "A lot of people will store guns in glove boxes, center consoles. We get lots of firearms stolen," he said. "They're locked in vehicles but they're still stolen and end up on the street." SHARE A disembodied voice from the other end of Jeb Bush's Apple Watch inadvertently joined the conversation Jan. 12 while the Republican presidential hopeful was meeting with the Des Moines Register's editorial board. But Jeb had no idea where it was coming from. "Hello? Hello?" the voice repeated as the candidate glanced around the table for an explanation. When it was finally pointed out to him that the disturbance was emanating from a contraption on his wrist, he realized a man he had called earlier with a campaign pitch was calling him back. As opinion writers, you're not supposed to feel sorry for politicians who come seeking your approval: They're seasoned; they know what they signed up for; they have money and staffs to advise them. But that day I felt sorry for Jeb. His deer-in-the-headlights look over the phone call seemed symbolic of a larger problem with his campaign: He was out of his league, unprepared for this new world in which wrist watches offer conversations and political swagger and self-assuredness trump appeals to reason. A world in which the old rules of decorum no longer apply, and if you show vulnerability, you'll be eaten alive. Jeb did that, and Donald Trump pounced. And last week, with no wins and only 6 percent support in national polls despite a war chest of $125 million including his super PAC, the party's once great hope for retaking the White House quit the race. You could see the seeds of his unraveling that day. For all of Jeb's administrative experience, studied positions and wonkish talking-points, he was on the defensive. He'd let Trump get under his skin, and it showed. He was earnest but prickly and fragile, though with good reason. As 538 blog reported, by last August Trump had attacked Jeb more on Twitter than all the other candidates combined. But Jeb failed to take the reins back, to define himself equally assertively. Even as he plaintively tried to assure us he was truly strong, truly energetic and unconcerned with the attacks on him, the amount of time he spent doing that suggested otherwise. He said: "I've been disparaged, beaten up, but I've got my big boy pants on so it doesn't bother me." Not the sort of imagery that shouts of stature. He said: "I've been liberated from all this, 'Who's winning, who's losing.' I lose interest in half a sentence." Not convincing or reassuring. He said: "There's nothing low-energy about me," then launched into a story about how, at age 21, he got married on a Saturday and that Monday started a job. Not really relevant since it was 42 years ago. Jeb's frustration was warranted. "Is my tone angry enough for the current thinking?" he demanded. "I could probably take it up a notch." But the thing is, you're not supposed to announce that, just quietly figure out what you need to do and do it. I first met Jeb in 2001 when, as Florida's governor, he had come in to meet with writers of the Fort Lauderdale paper where I was a columnist. It was pre-9/11, his brother was president and the Bushes seemed to run the world. Jeb was confident and in control, if a bit impatient with questions. He was popular. Floridians considered him the smarter Bush brother, the one who should be in the White House. But by this Monday, Jimmy Fallon was joking about Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio scrambling to pick up Jeb's nonexistent supporters. Seth Meyers joked the campaign logo, "Jeb!" had been replaced with "Job?" While Bush's poor performance dispels the notion of dynastic inevitability and anointed party picks, which is good, you can't say it discredits the pivotal role of money in elections. It's just that Trump can fund his own campaign. If his ascendancy is any indication, many Americans have swapped serious policy discussions for a cult of personality. That can't be progress. Rekha Basu is a columnist for the Des Moines Register. SHARE California has long led the nation in protecting public access to public information, with one glaring exception that took hold in the late 1970s: Police records have become increasingly off limits. The dubious rationale for blocking disclosure is that it is a private matter and none of the public's business when a police officer fires a weapon, is found to have lied during an investigation or is disciplined for misconduct. Far from being a beacon of transparency, California when it comes to the public's ability to assess the performance of its law enforcement agencies is the nation's information black hole. A bill by state Sen. Mark Leno, a Democrat from San Francisco, would restore the disclosure that Californians once considered a basic element of police oversight here, as it still is in many other states. There will no doubt be fierce opposition from officers and their unions to any effort to pare back the special privileges they have won over the last several decades. But Senate Bill 1286 is a wise package of reforms that would help to instill some needed public confidence in police agencies. Leno's proposal would allow the public to get information about police investigations into officer shootings and other serious uses of force. It would grant access to records of officer misconduct and lies not allegations or complaints, but actual findings. It would allow people who file complaints to find out what happened in response. And it would restore to cities and counties the option of conducting public hearings into allegations of police misconduct. Courts would be able to protect records from disclosure on an adequate showing of risk to the officer in question or to another person. And nothing in the bill would do anything, nor should it, to undermine the constitutional protections afforded officers accused of a crime. Contrary to the claims of some critics, the bill would not gut the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in 1976. That measure was meant to protect officers from unfair interrogations in much the same way the Constitution protects criminal suspects from being railroaded, although it arguably goes further than it should (for example, by giving officers time to get their stories straight before being required to answer questions). Yet there should be little quarrel with the notion that officers ought to enjoy some reasonable procedural protections. By contrast, California has been ill-served by a follow-up 1978 statute, passed by the Legislature and signed by Brown in the early years of the tough-on-crime era. This law prohibits police agencies from publicly releasing personnel records, which were deemed to include not just complaints but even findings of misconduct. Disciplinary records were still accessible in Los Angeles and some other cities when custody of the documents moved outside the agency for appeals and reviews: for example, by a police oversight commission or a civil service commission. But the cutoff became total a decade ago under a ruling by the state Supreme Court in the case of Copley Press Inc. vs. Superior Court. In the post-Rampart era, when even police chiefs were pressing for more public disclosure and accountability, the Copley ruling pushed information about police practices, discipline and uses of force further out of reach than ever before. It became more difficult for the public to assess how well police agencies identified problem officers and corrected patterns of excess force. There is, to be sure, good reason to protect employees from being needlessly and publicly hounded for mistakes they have made or controversial but appropriate actions they have taken. Just as teachers deserve some privacy for their personnel records, so, too, do police. But officers are entrusted by the public with the power to carry weapons and take lives, so the line between actions that deserve "privacy" and those that are very much the public's business must be drawn with public safety and police accountability in mind. Besides, officer "privacy" may reasonably be deemed to extend to personal financial matters, family or other information that is not job-related. It strains the definition of the word, however, to allow "privacy" to encompass a performance record of dishonesty or scrutiny of a deadly use of force. This editorial originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times. Coinciding with END IT week to help shine a light on slavery and human trafficking, Senator Bob Corker convened a hearing on Wednesday featuring leading advocates and survivors who urged the U.S. to purse a greater leadership role in ending modern day slavery. Thursday marks the END It Movements third annual Shine A Light On Slavery Day when supporters from around the U.S. and around the world will raise awareness and call for action. Today with this hearing we are marking the annual effort to draw attention to these horrific circumstances inflicted on girls and boys, women and men, said Senator Corker. End It Day is an opportunity for us to say enough is enough. More importantly, its a day for us to not just understand what is happening but to do something about it. Cindy McCain, co-chairwoman of the Human Trafficking Advisory Council at The McCain Institute, highlighted the work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who are utilizing innovative methods to target traffickers. There are increasing numbers of people dedicating their lives to fighting trafficking every day and some NGOs that do outstanding work, said Ms. McCain. The McCain Institute has had the honor of partnering with THORN, Digital Defenders of Children, to help get their innovative Spotlight tool into the hands of over 2,000 police departments in 49 states. THORNs work on the pervasive use of the Internet to buy and sell human beings for sex, using the brightest minds in technology to disrupt trafficking networks, and save victims one at a time is making a difference. The global battle against human trafficking has many shifting fronts and there are a variety of weapons, like the Spotlight tool, available to combat it. Free the Slaves Executive Director Maurice Middleberg presented his organizations successful Community Based Abolition Model that involves four primary components: (1) educating and mobilizing vulnerable communities; (2) enhancing legal protections; (3) increasing access to basic social and economic services; (4) and liberating and reintegrating slaves. With proven methods of intervention available, the primary challenge facing the anti-slavery movement, Middleberg argued, is the need to bring these and other global efforts to scale, which demands a relatively modest investment in additional resources and U.S. and global leadership to raise the issue on the international agenda. Dedicating just two-cents for every dollar earned annually by traffickers, Middleberg suggested, would substantially improve international assistance for anti-slavery groups. We must match the nobility of our intentions and words with the actions and resources that will change the lives of millions, said Mr. Middleberg. There is no better place than the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to create a political environment conducive to bold action. Evelyn Chumbow, who was trafficked from Cameroon to Silver Spring, Md., at the age of 10 and abused by her adoptive family, described her experiences in forced labor captivity and how she eventually escaped, earned a degree, and went on to support victims like herself. Noting how traffickers came to her parents with promises of a better education in the United States, Ms. Chumbow emphasized education and awareness as key to preventing vulnerable populations from succumbing to these false promises. Many victims come from impoverished areas where there is little to no opportunity for advancement, she said. They have a skewed reality that a foreign country will offer more opportunity. However many find themselves enslaved. Additionally, those that have even escaped from their situation find themselves re-victimized due to lack of job opportunities. Leah, an advocate with the non-profit A21 Campaign, detailed her tragic story of survival from the sex-trafficking trade and reiterated the need for education and awareness to save future victims. On Wednesday Senator Corker introduced bipartisan legislation known as The End Modern Slavery Initiative Act, which will help eliminate slavery and human trafficking worldwide. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously passed the legislation last year. In December 2015, the Senate passed the fiscal year 2016 omnibus appropriations bill, which included funding for the initiative. It is time for us to work together to move this bipartisan piece of legislation to passage and enactment, Senator Corker said. Those interested in Senator Corkers efforts to end modern slavery can join the conversation online using the hashtags #EndSlaveryAct and #EndItMovement. They also can show support by posting a photo of themselves holding up their hand marked with a red X. An example is here. Read more about The End Modern Slavery Initiative Act here. SHARE I must take issue with the Feb. 14 letter to the editor written by Greg Beale. For one thing, it was very insulting. Beale talks about " stupidly voting the way we are ...". And then says, "It's time adults take command of the ship." Those comments are directed at those of us who support Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. I can't speak about Trump and his supporters, except to say I believe they are as sick of the status quo as the left is. I can speak about Sanders. I have had an interest in him for about 10 years. He is a man with principles and integrity. He does not stop telling what he believes is the truth because the polls say something different. Sanders is a Democratic Socialist, not a Socialist. During his speech about Democratic Socialism he said, "I don't believe that government should take over the grocery store down the street, or control the means of production But I believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a fair deal." I believe the country is ready for someone who is willing to stand up to the big banks and billionaires who have been in charge for the past 40 years. Sanders is that person. He has a vision of what our country can be. He may not be able to get everything he wants to do through Congress. What president has? But, rest assured, he will continue to fight for us to the end of his presidency. Bernie is talking to those of us who have had it with the establishment. Those of us who don't believe the so-called moderates have our best interests at heart. What have these "moderates" Beale talks about done for working people, seniors, and the poor over the past 40 years? I am 68 years old and have seen trade deals take away American jobs, schools go downhill, the infrastructure fall apart, unions be destroyed, big banks be bailed out while the people paid for it, and politicians try to destroy or privatize Social Security and the U.S. Postal Service. Most or all of the Western European countries have universal health care. Even Israel, to which we send billions of dollars yearly, has it. Yet even with the Affordable Care Act we don't have everyone covered. And our costs are still much higher than in other countries. As for education, in the past a person needed a high school diploma to get a good job. Now he or she needs a college education. We need to make college free just as we have for students in first through 12th grades. Sanders has a plan for it. A tax on Wall Street speculation will pay the cost. Germany has eliminated tuition. Chile is doing the same next year. Finland, Norway, and Sweden don't charge for college. Why can't the greatest country on Earth do what these countries have done? If we are going to compete in a global economy, we need an educated populace. And what about fixing Social Security? All the politicians, except Sanders, make it sound so complicated. It's actually very simple to fix. I wonder how many people know that the Social Security maximum tax base is $118,500, yet those making more than $18,500 annually get to draw the maximum amount when they retire. Why not just raise that cap? That is Sanders' common-sense approach. It doesn't sound very extremist to me. We would then have Social Security on a sound financial footing for years to come. Go to www.ontheissues.org/senate/bernie_sanders.htm and check on Sanders' voting record. Also, go to his website. You will find information on the issues and how Sanders plans to pay for the changes he proposes. There are many Sanders volunteers in Shasta County. If you see them with a sign or at a table, say hello and pick up some information. Volunteers for Bernie Sanders in Shasta County has a Facebook page called Shasta County Working for Bernie Sanders. Christine Mitchell lives in Redding. A crime lab technician walks past bullet-riddled windows at a Wendy's restaurant in Omaha on Wednesday. Police say a robber was killed by officers Tuesday night, along with a crew member of the "Cops" television show. (Nati Harnik / Associated Press) OMAHA, Neb. The brother of a crew member for the TV show "Cops" who was killed by a police bullet in 2012 while filming a shootout has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Omaha. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by Trevor Dion, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, on behalf of his brother's estate, alleges that Omaha police were negligent in the Aug. 26, 2014, death of Bryce Dion. Advertisement Dion, 38, was killed during a shooting at a fast-food restaurant in midtown Omaha as officers interrupted an armed robbery. The lawsuit alleges a lack of communication and coordination among dispatchers and all officers arriving on scene contributed to Dion's death, and also blames the decision to invite the filming crew to go with officers. "Cops" is a reality TV show that depicts law enforcement officers in action. Advertisement The lawsuit describes a situation in which officers and the filming crew arrived at the restaurant and confronted the suspect, Cortez Washington. Dion positioned himself in the restaurant where and when officers instructed him, the lawsuit says. Washington fired a realistic air gun during the confrontation, and officers returned fire. One bullet fired at Washington hit Dion at a gap in his bulletproof vest, hitting him in the chest; he died about 20 minutes later. Washington also was killed. The officer who fatally shot Dion arrived at the scene after the TV crew and first-responding officers, according to the lawsuit. "It is not known whether the newly arriving officer was informed that the first officers at the scene were accompanied by a television filming crew deployed in strategic locations to film events as they occurred," the lawsuit said. Three officers involved were placed on leave while an investigation was conducted and returned to work about three weeks later when Dion's shooting was determined to have been an unforeseeable accident. The lawsuit also challenges a state law that caps damages against government entities at $1 million, saying it's unconstitutional and that the family seeks more than the cap allows. Trevor Dion's attorney, David Domina of Omaha, said Dion and his parents decided to sue after the city ignored a tort claim filed last year. Under state law, governments have six months to accept, deny or ignore such claims. After the six months, the claiming party may sue. Omaha City Attorney Paul Kratz said Thursday that the city will fight the suit. Advertisement "The city does not believe we have any liability in this situation," Kratz said. An Omaha police spokesman referred questions to Kratz's office. Associated Press Barbara Murphy, of Park Forest, wears a head piece in support of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during a rally at Daley Plaza Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the tenacious rival to Hillary Clinton, brings his Democratic presidential campaign to Chicago on Thursday, appearing for a televised event at the University of Chicago before holding a rally at Chicago State University. The collegiate settings underscore one key to Sanders' populist base younger voters who welcome his call for free college tuition and his criticism of income inequity. Advertisement The events come less than three weeks before Illinois' March 15 primary election in which he faces the former secretary of state, who was born in Chicago and grew up in Park Ridge. In part, Sanders' visit is aimed at showcasing a long-haul national strategy for his campaign. On Saturday, Sanders and Clinton face off in the South Carolina primary. Clinton has held double-digit leads over Sanders in polling there, largely because of support from African-American voters who make up about half of that state's Democratic turnout. Advertisement Though Sanders insisted Wednesday he had not given up on the Palmetto State, his schedule for the week showed him traveling to a variety of other states, including several March 1 "Super Tuesday" states, when a dozen primaries and caucuses are being held with 880 nominating convention delegates at stake. In holding the rally at Chicago State, Sanders will be making his appeal at a school with a majority African-American student population, including many nontraditional older students, as he tries to cut into Clinton's advantage among black voters. Chicago State also has been hit hard by a lack of state funding from the lengthy budget impasse in Springfield. University officials this week announced that the school will skip spring break and end the semester early to try to deliver degrees before it runs out of money. Doors open to the Sanders event at 6 p.m. at the university's Emil & Patricia Jones Convocation Center at 9501 S. King Drive, with the rally program scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m. Prior to his Chicago State appearance, Sanders will appear at his alma mater, the University of Chicago, for a televised sit-down with Chris Matthews as part of MSNBC's "Hardball College Tour." Attendance at that event is limited to students who were invited. The show airs at 7 p.m. Sanders has made several visits to Chicago, including a September rally at the U. of C. where he discussed his call for a $15 federal minimum wage, 12 weeks of guaranteed paid family medical leave and pay equity, saying it will require a "political revolution" to carry out his agenda. Clinton and Sanders have been engaged in a close campaign in the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. But Clinton has a big lead in national convention nominating delegates, projected at 502 to 70, because hundreds of Democratic superdelegates party leaders and elected officials have pledged to support her at the convention this summer. A total of 2,383 delegates are needed to win the Democratic nomination. Sanders is scheduled to travel to Ohio on Thursday. Ohio holds its primary with Illinois on March 15. Illinois has 102 delegates who are elected that day; Ohio has 93. Advertisement rap30@aol.com Twitter @rap30 'It is all over. It has derailed. There is nothing in the Rail budget,' Lalu Prasad said. Two former Railway ministers-- Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad--and a leader of Trinamool Congress, which held the Rail portfolio thrice, on Thursday trashed the Railway Budget as "disappointing" and a "big zero". Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan said the railway budget was mere "jugglery of words" while the NCP dubbed it as "housekeeping budget" which was "directionless" and devoid of goodies for the common man. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar while describing the budget as "disappointing" said it did not have anything impressive in terms of cleanliness and safety. Kumar, a senior JD(U) leader also said he was not impressed by the decision not to raise passenger fares. "With the decline in international oil prices, they should have actually lowered the train fare...no increase in fare could serve the purpose of breaking news, but it's not a big deal in view of falling international oil prices," Kumar told reporters in Patna. Kumar, who was the Railway Minister during Prime Minister A B Vajpayee's term, said there were no "concrete proposals" for enhancing safety or to check delayed running of trains. "Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is a personal friend. My good wishes are with him but there is nothing in the Railway Budget to cheer about," Kumar said. "The depreciation reserve fund has dwindled to less than 40 per cent under the present regime. Hence, there is no impressive allocation of funds on enhancing safety," he said. During his tenure as Railway Minister, Kumar had created a safety reserve fund of about Rs 17,000 crore for making journeys safe and secure. Lalu Prasad, who is RJD President, said the Budget has "cheated" people as it has nothing to offer. He also said there was no concern for "safety" aspect in the Budget. "It is all over. It has derailed. There is nothing in the Rail budget. It has cheated people. Let the financial Budget be presented, it will be further finished...," Prasad told reporters in Patna. Prasad, who served as Railway minister during UPA I, said that he had achieved a surplus of Rs 60,000 crore during his tenure as the Railway minister. He had not even asked from the government to support the Rail Budget. The Trinamool Congress described the budget as a "big zero" and said there was nothing new at all. "The Railway Budget is a big zero. Last year it had no depth. This year too. Nothing new at all. Freight rates and passenger fares were increased earlier. Zero plus zero equals zero," TMC national spokesperson Derek O'Brien said in a statement. Besides West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Dinesh Trivedi and Mukul Roy of TMC had held the Railway portfolio. "(Suresh) Prabhu's first railway budget was directionless and this one has also failed to meet expectations", Chavan, former Maharashtra Chief Minister, said in Mumbai. Railway Budget fails to meet Tamil Nadus expectations: Jayalalithaa Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday welcomed initiatives announced in the Railway Budget like a Rail Auto hub in Chennai and no increase in fares, but said it has however failed to meet the expectations of the people of the state on the whole. She said the first ever Rail Auto Hub to be set up in Chennai would cement the city's position as a major automobile manufacturing centre. "I am happy that the Railway Minister has spared the common person and not levied any increase in the rail fares," the chief minister said. She also welcomed the announcement of the Delhi-Chennai (north-south) dedicated freight corridor, but said it and the one proposed on East Coast, terminating in Vijayawada, "ought to have been extended" to Thoothukudi (in Tamil Nadu). "This would have fulfilled Tamil Nadu's long standing request to create a Chennai-Thoothukudi dedicated freight corridor," Jayalalithaa said in a statement. She thanked the Railway Minister for upgradation of Nagapattinam and Velankanni stations and urged that similar steps be taken for pilgrim centres like Rameswaram. Hailing enhancement of passenger amenities, she said measures to improve redressal mechanisms were positive, too. However, service quality and grievance redressal to the common man who may not be digitally literate nor owning a smart phone should also be ensured, the chief minister said. She said the Railway Minister seemed to have been "buffeted by the headwinds" facing him in terms of the overall slowdown in the international economy and the possible impact of the Seventh Pay Commission. With the Railway capital expenditure expected to be stepped up substantially to Rs 1.21 lakh crore, it was "surprising that no specific projects" was announced, including several projects in Tamil Nadu which she had requested. She said no specific plans for upgradation of suburban transit system in Chennai was a "major omission." As regards "new structures", it was unfortunate that only a "token consultation" was held with states before finalising the draft MOU which "lacks clarity". "The present structure where 75 per cent of the equity and the entire land cost are to be met by the states, with all control with the Ministry of Railways, is simply unacceptable," she said. Jayalalithaa said her government was prepared to engage with the Railway Ministry on reworking the MoU to ensure a more balanced and acceptable draft. "On the whole, the Railway Budget has failed to meet the expectations of the people of Tamil Nadu. With no new trains and no new railway lines announced, the budget belied the sense of expectation," she said. Dr Ramchandra Siras, whose life has inspired the film Aligarh, was a man determined to be a freak in the show called Life, says Vaihayasi Pande Daniel. IMAGE: Manoj Bajpayee, right, plays Dr Ramchandra Siras, left in Aligarh. Dr Siras was not a man you forgot meeting. Sweet. Affectionate. Thoughtful. Always rather polite. What you remembered most, though, was that he struck you as a tad strange. An oddball. It was his idiosyncrasies that made him memorable. Like the sheep who had stubbornly wandered away from the flock. The type who liked to pakau his khichdi alag se (be different from the herd). A man determined to be a freak in the show called Life. He would land up many an evening at our little bungalow in Kanke, Ranchi (then in Bihar, now in Jharkhand), on a social call, with a frequency that was not always welcome. But my mother, forever calm and a bit fey, never seemed to mind and graciously entertained him. His clothes were nondescript. Never crisp. No sharp dresser was he. Rumpled white or yellow shirts. Always in a pair of dusty, tatty, chappals. He had a particularly peculiar gait. He scuffled along curiously, in a way that was almost feminine. Once he arrived, he seemed reluctant to leave. He would invariably spend a couple of long hours on each visit, chatting with my mother about his life and issues and, I think, even poetry, in a mildly dreary way. He seemed a lonely, friendless, man. My tender-hearted mom never knew how to tell him to go home or cut the conversation short. Four cups of chai and several plates of biscuits later, even as the clock was inching up to 9 pm, Dr Siras showed absolutely no signs of wanting to depart and would often be invited to join us for dinner, as my mother hurriedly disappeared in the kitchen to add a little water to the dal, or peas to the aloo sabzi, to make sure her food went around. He would wander back out into the night, headed for home at some late hour, thereafter. We could be certain he would be back, a few days too soon. This was around 1981-1982. Dr Siras, at 36, was studying for a postgraduate degree in clinical psychology at the central government-run Central Institute of Psychiatry, which my father was heading at the time. Shortly after, my dad resigned to take a job in America, leaving us back in Ranchi in my mother's care. But we youngsters had gotten to know the students fairly well and all of them, including Dr Siras, would drop by. Dr Siras grew up in Nagpur and had a mother and sister back there. He came to Ranchi with a degree in psychology and linguistics already under his belt. Somewhere along the way he also earned his PhD in Marathi. In Ranchi, he lived in a small spartan room at the institute's quaintly named Boys' Hostel. He survived with difficulty, I only learned much later, on a government stipend of about Rs 60 a month. My mom's good food must have been, no doubt, a lifesaver. At some point shortly afterwards, I left Ranchi. As did Dr Siras. We lost track of him. I remember reading in horror a newspaper report in 2010 about a dastardly sting operation, mounted by a local television channel, on a gay professor in Uttar Pradesh, who was filmed having sex with a rickshaw-wallah. My blood boiled when I read further that the poor man committed suicide after the university, where he had worked for 20 years, terminated his employment. Though he fought through the courts to be reinstated and won, he apparently did not get the university's revokement letter till after his death. My anger and disbelief only swelled when his miserable death, at the hands of the rottenest journalism, received hardly any notice. Let alone outrage. Was there no punishment due to the television channel? Or to its prying reporter? How dare he invade a person's privacy in such a shabby manner? I was a journalist myself and remember filing the awful case in the back of my mind thinking I would investigate and write about it. But I didn't. It was only when I was in Ranchi, December 2015, for my mother's funeral, that I was told that the ill-fated professor at the Aligarh Muslim University was our unfortunate Dr Srinivas Ramchandra Siras. His fellow batchmates, some who went on to become senior professors of psychiatry at the Central Institute of Psychiatry, are reassured that at least film director Hansal Mehta thoughtfully gave Dr Siras cinematic justice in Aligarh. Dr Siras, a Hindi film bhakt, would have been delighted to know that a movie was made on him. Says Dr Vinod Kumar Sinha, director professor of psychiatry at CIP: "I was shocked by Siras' death when I came to know from someone that it is the same (Siras), our old Siras. It was unbelievable. And it hurt me. I don't know this filmmaker, but I do admire him for bringing up this issue. He has to be commended for his effort." /p> Dr Siras is still remembered vividly for his many eccentricities among his peers in Ranchi, if not for his singularity and colourful personality. Dr T Sudhakar Bhat, who once worked at CIP, now lives in Sullia, Karnataka, after retiring from central government service. He earned a postgraduate degree in psychiatry and got admission into the course the same year as Dr Siras. "I did not have much contact with him. But I remember clearly a man, slovenly dressed, dark and lean, moving around in Hawaii chappals. His talk was very circumstantial." Dr Sinha, on the other hand, knew Dr Siras rather well and recalls him fondly. "He was my next door roommate... We were allotted rooms next to each other. What was peculiar, right from day one, was that he was a bit of an odd man out, in the sense he hardly mixed with any one of us." "Later, I became quite friendly with him, because he used to talk to me (more than the others). Why, I don't know. But there was a particular point when he would talk to me everyday. He was affectionate towards me. And outspoken. Whenever he talked, people would keep mum after he spoke. They just smiled. A kind of sarcastic smile in reply." "While we ate at the hostel mess he cooked himself. Very plain food -- rice, dal and one sabzi, that's all (Dr Siras was vegetarian). He was very fond of listening to old Hindi film songs, those 78 rpm records which disturbed us, no doubt about it." Dr Sinha woke each morning to Dr Siras's gramophone spinning tirelessly and went to sleep with it too, Lata Mangeshkar singing endlessly, late into the Ranchi nights. "Siras was also very fond of knitting. While walking from the hostel to the institute, he always knitted pullovers. He carried a bag in which he had yarn. He said he was knitting for his nieces. He didn't have many topics to discuss -- films, music and cooking. Raj Kapoor was his favourite actor. And Awara and Shri 420 his favourite films." Dr Sinha remembers Dr Siras discussing some personal issues and he must have spoken about this to my mom as well. Like the fact that he had a bungalow back in Gokulpeth, Nagpur. And that his mother wanted him to either marry or marry again, and discussions about who would inherit the house. My father Dr Shashi K Pande, who interviewed Dr Siras for his admission to CIP, a procedure he had instituted, says: "Although I do not recall now the interchange of questions asked of him and his responses, he obviously impressed the interviewing panel that consisted of three of us." "Unquestionably, his interest in becoming a professional in clinical psychology was serious and sincere. He easily qualified. Since I resigned the directorship of CIP only three months after Siras began his work/studies at the institute, I did not get to know him." "I do recall Siras visiting our bungalow sometime in those three months -- students often came -- and after learning from my wife that cauliflower was my very favourite vegetable and that a particular spice used in its preparation -- particularly used in Maharashtrian cuisine -- was unavailable in Ranchi, he very kindly brought it for her from his native Nagpur," my father recalls. "A nice person. A little odd. He was different from other people. The way he used to talk. The way he used to walk. His interactions. At times a little shy. At times a little rash," recalls Dr S Haque Nizamie, former professor of psychiatry and director at CIP. Another batchmate, Dr Pisharoty Chandran, who now works as a medical officer in Thrissur, Kerala, says Dr Siras summoned up an image of someone "a bit different," but though he was a loner, he was not loath to mingling with others. And everybody remembers the never ending Bollywood songs that floated out of his room. No one ever saw Dr Siras wear a proper pair of shoes or knew if he owned any. It was always "slippers". Maybe the flipflops contributed to his weird stride which was, according to Dr Sinha, because "he walked on his toes." Dr Siras seemed to always sport a shawl, even if he liked knitting cardigans. While he had effeminate aspects to him, no one remembers him coming out with his homosexuality, though he was often outspoken. Recalls Dr Sinha: "We would talk about sexuality. We discussed it openly. In those days, in the classification of psychiatric diseases (based) on the international classification of diseases, homosexuality figured as a mental disease... He used to raise questions. Homosexuality is not a disease. Why does it figure as a mental illness? We had discussions." Dr Siras was very careful about his money -- he had to be -- but his one extravagance was watching Hindi films. Since he didn't have many friends he invariably went off to Ranchi to see them alone. And walking! The nearest theatre was at least 13 km away and beyond. A tendency to happily lean towards eccentricity was not Dr Siras's only trait. He also suffered from epileptic fits. As Dr Bhat remembers: "He often had injuries on his forehead because of falls. He was also known to wander about without purpose sometimes. It is difficult to say whether they were epileptic fugue states." On one of his solitary jaunts to Ranchi city and back, to spend a few precious, magical hours with Raj Kapoor or Rekha, Dr Sinha recalls Dr Siras probably had a fit. "In that aura before getting the attack he (wandered) into Raj Bhavan (where at the time Bihar's governor spent his summer months, since the city was the state's summer capital)." He was discovered by the Bhavan's guards, either post fit or pre-fit, and beaten up badly. The CIP's new director was contacted and told that one of the students was caught trespassing. Poor Dr Siras was brought back to Kanke in an ambulance and treated for epilepsy. It was then that Dr Haque, who was hoping to specialise in epilepsy, conducted one of his first electro encephalograms. The vigorous alpha activity in his brain, that manifested itself flamboyantly in the EEG, confirmed that Dr Siras was indeed epileptic. It was not clear how much of Dr Siras's character was due to epilepsy. Says Dr Sinha: "Those days it was called epileptic personality. He provoked anger in you or was too blunt. Mostly people used to get angry with him." His colleagues were horrified beyond belief to hear, some time in 2010, of his suicide and know of the poor investigation it received. Says Dr Haque: "It was shock, pain and disbelief. Unlikely that in today's world somebody would be killing himself for this reason. The kind of things that happened to him. The kind of social pressure. The way he was hounded." "At the same time, I don't know, because when one has a burden like this to live with, they are also prone to depression," adds Dr Haque. "You can't really say that before he did it he was not in depression. (The manner of his death) was obviously tragic." Dr Haque was saddened that after Dr Siras' death, "nobody made any noise. Nothing. It was small news. That was the end of it." "If Siras was hounded and the film will ensure him justice, as an ex-classmate I would be happy," says Dr Chandran. Was the sequence of events that lead to Dr Siras' death probable? Could he have been having an affair with a rickshaw-wallah that offended people at the university? Did he commit suicide in anguish as believed? Says Dr Sinha: "When he was at CIP we never saw him indulging (his preferences) although we all change over time. I have my strong reservations about (what happened). Whether it was forced upon him, the rickshaw-wallah thing and all. I have my doubts. Maybe he took pity on the rickshaw-wallah and brought him to feed him as was expected from Siras." "I have a feeling he was framed. Was it suicide or was he really murdered? He had been thrown off the campus. Perhaps some sort of gay activity (that the university did not approve of) led to this episode. I have a feeling there was jealousy." Dr Siras was doing quite well for himself at AMU in 2010 in the department of Marathi, gaining professorship and becoming head of the department of modern Indian languages. Dr Sinha feels someone may have gotten jealous and wanted him out, using his homosexuality to cast him in a bad light and then frame him. How heartbreaking that Dr Siras' favorite song -- says Dr Sinha -- was Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Ye; Kahan Shuru Kahan Khatam, Yeh Manzilein Hai Kaunsi, Na Woh Samajh Sake Na Hum (Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai, 1960, starring Meena Kumari, Raaj Kumar and Nadira). (This is a strange story. One does not know where it begins and where it ends. What kind of destiny is this? Neither of us understood it.) When Hansal Mehta's Aligarh releases on February 26, several of us who knew him back in those good ol' Ranchi days will flock to the cinema halls to see Dr Siras finally get justice. And cheer. In hindsight, I am happy my late mom had the patience to sit those long hours with Dr Siras and be there for him in her little way. Maybe she is still offering him cups of tea somewhere in the Great Hereafter. 'All their idealism, intensity of emotions, acute sense of right and wrong, and burning passion for public causes can never serve as justifiable grounds to be touted by students of any country, let alone of India, with all its fragility and vulnerability, to question its unity in the name of freedom of expression,' says B S Raghavan. IMAGE: JNU students demand Kanhaiya Kumar's release on the campus in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani brought forth a gasp of disbelief when her appointment was first announced. Lacking any kind of manifest pretensions to scholarship, and, on the contrary, trailed by tales of fudged educational qualifications, there was widespread scepticism about her fitness for the job. Soon enough, several stories began circulating about her supposedly abrupt and abrasive behaviour among those who had encounters with her. Reputed academics and professionals of national standing in various fields who had to deal with her as minister talked of her penchant for tongue-lashing. Over time, though, she seems to have impressed everyone who met her with her lightning grasp of issues, clarity of thinking, masterly command over both English and Hindi and sparkling humour -- making for a brilliant personality. Some heads I know of famous academic institutions readily credit her with intellectual acuity and demonstrable vision in handling her portfolio. We have now to add to all this political acumen of a high order. I have been keenly and closely watching the way leading lights of the National Democratic Alliance, in general, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, in particular, are comporting themselves, and I have no hesitation in asseverating, after her scintillating performance in Parliament during the debate on the happenings in the Hyderabad and Jawaharlal Nehru Universities, that she bids fair to be counted as the most effective campaigner for the BJP, and its pillar of strength, next to Narendra Modi himself. She has torn to shreds the Opposition's accusations with her convincing rebuttals, leaving political opponents in disarray and making them seem abettors and accomplices of forces working against the nation's unity, integrity and security. It was certainly a political feat unmatched by any other luminary in recent memory. Chapeau, Smriti! It is good that the government, instead of waffling and wobbling, has taken a tough and unambiguous stand on an issue that has a vital bearing on the nation's stability and survival. All their idealism, intensity of emotions, acute sense of right and wrong, and burning passion for public causes can never serve as justifiable grounds to be touted by students and youths of any country, let alone of India, with all its fragility and vulnerability, to question its unity and endanger its security, or to encourage others to do so, in the name of freedom of expression. The bleeding hearts of civil society who take their side, either out of a genuine sympathy, ideological motivation, or political opportunism, should realise that they also have a pivotal role as parents and guardians. It is their paramount duty to cooperate with, and support, the law-enforcing authorities and the government to prevent their wards from committing such excesses. IMAGE: HRD Minister Smriti Irani in full flow in the Lok Sabha on February 24, 2016. 'She bids fair to be counted as the most effective campaigner for the BJP, and its pillar of strength, next to Narendra Modi himself,' says B S Raghavan. France, which gave the world the resounding clarion call for liberty, equality and fraternity, as a curtain-raiser to the French Revolution, and guillotined a king and his queen to uphold the cause, is cutting down on freedom of expression to combat threats to security after Paris was struck by terrorist attacks in November last year. French authorities now have powers to conduct police raids without warrants and put suspects under house arrest without prior judicial authorisation. They can also ban public demonstrations, shut down Web sites and disband groups deemed a threat to public order by the government. The police can detain terrorism suspects for up to 144 days without charges. The government is seeking new powers, including the ability to hold someone for up to four hours to check his identification and the authority to search bags and vehicles near 'sensitive' sites by order of a prosecutor. The proposed law would also allow the government to put someone returning from a 'terrorist theatre of operation,' like Syria or Iraq, under house arrest for up to a month. A provision in the policing bill would let prosecutors eavesdrop on cellphone communications with a judge's authorization, using technology currently available only to intelligence agencies, which were granted enhanced capabilities after the attacks in January 2015 at the Paris offices of a satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, and a kosher supermarket. The new bill would also give prosecutors powers similar to those of investigative judges, including the ability to tap phones, use hidden cameras and analyse electronic communications. France can strip a person of citizenship if he or she is convicted of crimes that violate the 'fundamental interests of the nation,' including terrorism, if the person is a naturalised French citizen who is also a citizen of another country. A new measure would make it possible to strip the citizenship of dual citizens born in France who were convicted of terrorism. Recently in Spain, two puppeteers were arrested and jailed because in a street play they showed scenes of violence such as the hanging of a judge or raping of a nun. In France and Germany, persons can be arrested and convicted even for making statements doubting the occurrence of the Holocaust perpetrated during Nazi rule. India is not out of sync with the prevailing currents of opinion in other longer established democracies. For instance, in the United States, the National Security Agency has carried out complex electronic surveillance domestically and abroad since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The agency had been monitoring international calls and emails without warrants. In 2007, President George W Bush signed a law further strengthening the government's authority to eavesdrop on international calls and email without warrants. In 2015, President Obama signed a law setting some limits to the government to conduct surveillance operations, but still they are sweeping enough. Under the provisions of the US Patriot Act, anyone shouting or displaying slogans such as the ones seen and hear at the gathering at JNU would be immediately picked up and put away by the FBI, without any such protest or political agitation as was mounted in India. In those genuine and mature democracies, patriotism and loyalty to the country are regarded as inviolate, binding principles and political differences are not allowed to come in the way of any preventive or punitive action taken. My appeal to the Opposition political leaders: Be Indians first, and do not tear asunder the fabric of security and unity of the country for your narrow, selfish political ends, or under a misguided notion of civil liberties. B S Raghavan is a former chief secretary, West Bengal. IMAGE: JNU students protest against the police crackdown on the campus. Photograph: PTI 'The government has displayed a tin ear in its responses to the JNU protests by using the sedition law -- and by encouraging lawyers who wear their political affiliations on their sleeves to display utter contempt for the Constitution.' 'The Modi Sarkar has over three years of its term to run. But it may well have already sown the seeds of defeat,' says Devangshu Datta. "Is this Narendra Modi's Theek hai moment?" a friend asked a couple of days ago as we watched the pseudo-patriots performing at Patiala House court. I had no difficulty understanding that apparently cryptic remark. Cast your mind back to the dim-distant past of December 2012; to the gang rape and murder of 'Nirbhaya' and to the events it sparked off. Do you remember the crowds of young men and women marching through central Delhi asking for justice, for safety -- indeed for any signs that an administration run by geriatrics cared for the youth? Those days, when the Delhi police demonstrated its professional expertise at using expired tear-gas shells and water cannons? Finally, (drumroll!) Manmohan Singh spoke. It was the usual anodyne pap prime ministers dish out when they are compelled to make speeches they would much rather not. As Dr Singh wound down, and obviously after he thought the mike had been switched off, he asked, 'theek hai? (Was it ok?).' It wasn't. The United Progressive Alliance continued to rule for another 16 months. But it had lost the youth vote. Modi is reckoned a much better public speaker than his predecessor. No doubt, as and when he gets around to referring to the incidents that have dominated the headlines for the past few days, he will say memorable things. Grieving mothers, puppies, catchy acronyms -- Modi has already introduced so many new elements to public discourse. He is also unlikely to say something unguarded while the cameras are live. He is all too aware of when he is on display. But the Bharatiya Janata Party may indeed have lost a large chunk of the youth vote that fell into its lap after the 2012 gangrape. What interested me was that my friend did not refer to our esteemed prime minister as 'Modiji' or as 'Namo' or even as plain 'Modi'. He used one of the derogatory nicknames that are inevitably coined for any political personage. My friend is a businessman from West Delhi, the scion of a Punjabi refugee family. He is a diehard BJP supporter and an erstwhile 'Namo' fan. If he's lost his reverence, there has been a tectonic shift in attitudes somewhere. A polarising figure may be an effective politician so long as the aura remains; if he or she is being referred to in comedic terms by erstwhile supporters, the aura has evaporated. Student agitations are peculiar things. They can change embedded political dispensations, (not always for the better) and even when they don't seem to work. In the 1960s students changed the map of the subcontinent. Students in Lahore and Karachi toppled Ayub Khan. In Dhaka, students helped bring Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to power (India's defence forces played a large role as well). The students who backed Jayaprakash Narayan in the 1970s helped force the Congress out after the Emergency. Some of them are part of the current dispensation. But they have either forgotten their youth, or they have little influence in decision-making. The Naxal ideologues of Bengal and Andhra set up a template for armed struggle, which continues to plague vast tracts of India to this day. The All Assam Students Union changed the politics of the northeast's largest state. The Mandal movement led to an ongoing shift in the way political power is sliced up between castes and caste is certainly part of the text and subtext in the current narrative. The latest demonstrations were centred on JNU. But versions have been playing across India's campuses for a while. There have been multiple agitations across campuses, by student groups with nothing in common with JNU's esoteric politics. The government has displayed a tin ear in its responses by using the sedition law -- and by encouraging lawyers who wear their political affiliations on their sleeves to display utter contempt for the Constitution. The Modi Sarkar has over three years of its term to run. But it may well have already sown the seeds of defeat. 'What we have heard from the Sri Lankans is their desire to have a foreign policy that allows Sri Lanka to best advance its own interests rather than a foreign policy that relied solely on one relationship.' 'We think this is an attitude that makes a lot of sense. India and Sri Lanka have many areas of shared interests, and it's certainly welcomed by us to see that deepening of those ties.' IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena in Colombo, March, 2015. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters On the eve of the first-ever US-Sri Lanka Strategic Dialogue in Washington, DC, Nisha Desai Biswal, the Obama administration's point person for South Asia, lauds Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not only immediately visiting the island nation after its January 8, 2015 election, but also pledging a strong commitment to an economic partnership with Sri Lanka. Biswal, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, acknowledged in an exclusive interview with Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com, that as India was an undisputed power in the region, on issues such as this that was envisaged to assist in the economic development and rehabilitation of Sri Lanka -- wracked by over two-decades of war -- it was only natural that the US would consult with India, as Washington would with Delhi on issues in the Asia-Pacific region and/or the Indian Ocean region. On the eve of the first-ever US-Sri Lanka Strategic Partnership Dialogue what's the rationale for it? We are calling this a Partnership Dialogue between the United States and Sri Lanka and we're very excited that later this week, we will be launching our first Partnership Dialogue. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera is going to be in town with a delegation and we have Secretary of State John F Kerry and Under Secretary Tom Shannon who is going to actually chair the dialogue, and various other bilateral meetings that are being teed up for this. What we are particularly pleased is that US-Sri Lanka relations are really focusing on the broad and enormous potential. We have always thought that Sri Lanka was an important partner for the United States. In the past, we have been somewhat constrained in being able to talk about the broad areas of partnership because there were a number of issues where we felt that the previous government was not being responsive and not making progress. With the new government under the leadership of President Maitripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, what we have seen is that there is a very strong desire on the part of that government to have positive, productive and elevated relations with the United States and with the broader international community. And just as importantly, a very strong commitment to address and make progress on areas of longstanding concern about accountability stemming from the terrible conflict that wracked Sri Lanka for so long, and for trying to really, sincerely, and actively promote reconciliation, promote justice for victims of that conflict. So, we see that we have a partner in the government of Sri Lanka as we've always seen a partnership with the people of Sri Lanka, but also now with the government to try to advance a broad, a comprehensive relationship between our two countries and between the two peoples. The last few months, in fact I guess with Secretary Kerry getting out there, you all have been very bullish on Sri Lanka. The change of policy has been quite dramatic. What really prompted that sort of dramatic change, and how sustainable do you believe it is? Are you confident about the reconciliation process? First of all, I would say that the dramatic and robust engagement from the United States has been more than anything a result of the dramatic and robust efforts by the Sri Lankan government to address areas that have been areas of longstanding concern, and what we see as the best opportunity for the Sri Lankan people to really put the past behind them and to realise a future that is more prosperous, more inclusive, more enduring peace for the country. We, the United States, want to be a full partner and a supporter in Sri Lanka's journey towards peace and reconciliation and enduring prosperity. We have long felt that this country has tremendous potential and now we see an opportunity to help in realising that potential. In terms of confidence, the issues that Sri Lanka is grappling with across all fronts are enormous challenges and they will require enormous resolve and fortitude by the government and by the Sri Lankan people, all communities, to try to go down this path. What we do see is commitment and we want to help strengthen that commitment by providing our partnership, by providing assistance where we can, encouragement, to take this very difficult road, but one that is ultimately in the interest of Sri Lanka. How does the US plan to help in this sort of development process to make it sustainable, and in this reconciliation process in terms of tangible benefits? Are you guys going to walk the walk? We're already walking the walk. We have already substantially increased our assistance, particularly our technical assistance, to Sri Lanka in all facets of the various aspects of governance that Sri Lanka is looking to strengthen and to create more accountable systems, more transparent systems. So we've provided assistance to strengthening the judiciary, help in addressing some of the different commissions that Sri Lanka has established to look at transparency, to fight corruption. So we're already doing that. But in addition, we understand that it's also important to address the economic aspirations of the Sri Lankan people. This is another area that we are actively looking at. Late last year, you saw the announcement from the Millennium Challenge Corporation that Sri Lanka was going to get a threshold programme, which would help address some of the areas that continue to be of concern. If all goes well, that would set Sri Lanka up potentially to be a compact State with the Millennium Challenge Corporation which carries with it sizeable economic assistance. In addition, we're looking to see how we can work with the government of Sri Lanka to put in place the kinds of policies and programs that would facilitate trade and investment. And those are important, again, for all communities in the north and the south to see a Sri Lankan economy that starts to really achieve its potential. I know that there are areas that other countries are also looking to engage with. Prime Minister Modi was, I believe, one of the first if not the first head of State, to visit Sri Lanka after the January 8 election, and he has pledged a strong commitment to an economic partnership with Sri Lanka. We've seen similarly that our European friends, the UK, Japanese friends and others are also engaging with Sri Lanka and what Sri Lanka has found is that the international community is there to be a partner, a supporter for the progress of the entire country. IMAGE: In May 2015, US Secretary of State John Kerry called on Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Reuters And in terms of your helping out in transparency in terms of reforming the judiciary, etc, have you had some American lawyers and others go out there to talk about best practices? And in terms of sustainable development, is the USAID (US Agency for International Development) ramping up its activities? Yes, yes, and yes. We have had multiple delegations of technical experts from all parts of our government that have been and are continuing to go out to see what and how we can facilitate. First and foremost, we absolutely recognise that this is all Sri Lankan led, and Sri Lankan owned. But where they are desirous of our support and assistance and where we think we can bring some best practices and some tools, we are more than willing to do that. USAID has been steadily ramping up their programmes and expanding their programmes. I believe the Assistant Administrator for Asia, John Stivers, was just in Sri Lanka and visited multiple parts of the country, again in an effort to better understand how US assistance can be most impactful. And we see that trajectory only continuing in the coming months and years. We also have had visits to Sri Lanka by Under Secretary Tom Shannon, (US) Ambassador (to the United Nations) Samantha Power, along with, as you noted, Secretary Kerry's visit last May. In terms of the reconciliation process, Sri Lanka has been vehement in saying that it is going to do it independently -- it doesn't need any foreign assistance or intervention or anything like that. Is the US fully on board with that? First of all, we worked very closely with Sri Lanka in supporting a resolution in Geneva that was for the first time co-sponsored by the government of Sri Lanka and co-introduced by the government of Sri Lanka. And we stand firmly behind the commitments that were in that resolution and we are confident that the government of Sri Lanka, that the president and the prime minister, have reaffirmed their commitment to live up to the stipulations of that resolution. The process by which you get to that is one that needs to be carefully thought through by the government through a transparent and consultative process that includes the input of the victims and other constituencies. And I am confident that as they undertake that kind of a process that they will come up with a formulation that will allow them to have a process of accountability that is credible, first and foremost, to victims, but also meets the international tests of credibility. US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai Biswal. If not the first (overseas) trip, one of the first trips by Prime Minister Modi was to Sri Lanka. President Sirisena was out there to India on his first trip, and also Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. Are you satisfied that the Sri Lanka-India relationship is back to the good old heydays? Because there was a clear bent towards China during the Rajapaksa regime, it caused a lot of heartburn to India at the time. What we have heard from the Sri Lankans, and what we fully endorse and appreciate is their desire to have a multi-faceted foreign policy that allows Sri Lanka to best advance its own interests rather than a foreign policy that relied solely on one relationship. We think that this is an attitude that makes a lot of sense and certainly India and Sri Lanka have many areas of shared interests, and it's certainly welcomed by us to see that deepening of those ties. We don't think there has to be a zero sum approach, but that Sri Lanka can have and manage good relations with all of its neighbours and we certainly encourage that. But you and other senior official administration officials, recognising India as sort of the undisputed power in the region, have always said that Washington has always consulted with Delhi on issues on Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and during the time of the campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, there was coordination too. Does this still remain the same? Have you briefed India, for instance, on the new US-Sri Lanka Strategic Partnership that you are launching? We have a very deep relationship between the United States and India and we certainly have a great deal of shared interests on the Asia-Pacific region, on the Indian Ocean region, and as a part of that, we have regional consultations with our Indian counterparts on all of the areas of shared interests. We consult with them on Middle East policy, we consult with them on East Asia policy, we consult with them on Africa policy, and we consult with them on South Asia and Central Asia policy. So yes, we have robust dialogue with our Indian counterparts on sharing perspectives, on how we see the world, how they see the world, areas of convergence as well as discussions where our perspectives may differ. So in that sense you have briefed India on this envisaged US-Sri Lanka Strategic Partnership? We certainly have had conversations about the nature and the trajectory of US-Sri Lanka relations as we have understood from them what their objectives are in India-Sri Lanka relations. I don't know that we've discussed specifically the partnership dialogue, but you know, this will be the first launching of that and I look forward to seeing what we are able to accomplish with our Sri Lanka colleagues and look forward to continuing that as well. In this (US-Sri Lanka) Strategic Partnership, is there a military component to it? I know that Sri Lanka used to get International Military, Education and Training funds, but besides that -- and, of course, during the LTTE campaign there was a lot of military assistance, security assistance, not just from the US but from various other partners. But is there a military component in this Strategic Partnership? Certainly, the security partnership is an area of discussion. As Sri Lanka moves down the path of addressing areas of accountability and justice, we also want to work with the government and the military to explore areas of cooperation and partnership between the United States and Sri Lanka. We have always kept ties between our two security forces, have worked with the government of Sri Lanka and with the Sri Lankan military on things such as humanitarian de-mining and on maritime cooperation. We have not in recent years had active participation or cooperation with the Sri Lankan army. Again, as Sri Lanka moves down a path towards addressing a lot of the open questions from the conduct of the final days of the war, I think we are also open to exploring areas of cooperation between the United States and Sri Lanka's military. Former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai on Thursday said that the affidavit submitted to the Gujarat high court in 2009 about Lashkar-e-Taiyba links of Ishrat Jahan and her accomplices, who were killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004, was changed at the "political level". "I would not know because it was not done at my level. I would say it was done at the political level," he told Times Now channel when asked whether the affidavit was changed at the political level. The then UPA government had submitted two affidavits - one that the four, who were killed in an alleged fake encounter, were terrorists and the second saying there was no conclusive evidence - within two months in 2009. Pillai said Jahan could be an unwitting player in the hands of Pakistan-based terror group LeT and favoured a probe into the statement of David Headley on her terror links. The former home secretary said that there was no doubt that those killed in the alleged fake encounter in Gujarat had links with Lashkar. "They were LeT activists. She (Ishrat) knew that something was wrong. Otherwise an unmarried young Muslim woman would not have gone with some other men," he told reporters. Commenting on whether it was a fake encounter, Pillai said the CBI had already investigated that issue and filed a charge sheet. "The real issue is whether it was a real encounter or fake. The CBI had probed that," he said. The former bureaucrat said LeT did put her name on their website as a martyr, which was later withdrawn. "There was no direct evidence, except that LeT put her name on the website. So, I would say may be she was an unwitting player." Complimenting the intelligence bureau, Pillai said it was a highly successful operation and the IB knew well before that the LeT people were coming. Asked about Headley's statement before a Mumbai court that the 19-year-old Mumbra girl was a LeT member, he said it was a matter of investigation. "I think there should be further investigation into Headley's statement." The CBI, which took over the probe from the Gujarat high court appointed special investigation team, had filed a charge sheet in August 2013 saying the encounter was fake and executed in joint operation by the city crime branch and subsidiary intelligence bureau. The CBI had named in its charge sheet former Special Director in Intelligence Bureau Rajinder Kumar and three other IB officials with murder and criminal conspiracy in the Ishrat encounter case. However, the home ministry had denied sanction to prosecute the IB officials. Ishrat, Javed Shaikh, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter with the Gujarat police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004. The city crime branch had then said that they were LeT terrorists and had landed in Gujarat to kill the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Fearing another situation like Rohith Vemula, authorities of Darbhanga medical college and hospital in Bihar have forced a Dalit MBBS student to submit an affidavit with police to make it clear that he would not commit suicide if he is not declared pass in the final year examination, officials on Thursday said. The student, 52-year-old Kapil Dev Chaudhary was frustrated after he failed to clear the MBBS final exam for 22 years. Chaudhary sent series of messages to the head of the department, threatening that he will commit suicide if he is not declared pass this year in the final exam. After the head of the department of medicine, Dr B K Singh informed me about series of SMS sent to him by Chaudhary. The situation could develop like the one created in Hyderabad University after Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula committed suicide. I was afraid of such thing and approached the police," said DMCH principal R K Sinha. Sinha informed Darbhanga district officials including DM, SP and lodged a first information report at the local police station. Chaudhary, who appeared before the police on Wednesday, admitted that he had sent the messages to the department head between January 31, 2016 to February 15. "Sir, now I am 52, now pass me. I want to become a doctor. I wanted to become a doctor and serve the nation. Therefore, I should be awarded pass marks in the paper. Otherwise I will commit suicide," Choudhary wrote in one of his messages. In another message, he wrote, "Good morning Sir... I have seen you for 21 years. No meeting now. Now you will meet my body." Chaudhary was admitted to the undergraduate medical course at DMCH in 1995. He managed to pass gradually in all parts of the MBBS course but failed to clear the final year examination. Chaudhary, originally hails from Nawada district of Bihar, lives in Patna's posh locality, Boring Road and his son is pursuing his MBBS from AIIMS. Image for representation only Global Scholars will host and present a Global Shakespeare Forum on Tuesday, March 1 in room 1085 of the Health Science Center beginning at 2:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. The Chattanooga State Community College honors program officially changed its name to Global Scholars several years ago. Since that time, Global Scholars have experienced international events, participated in global awareness projects, and now will add to their learning experience through the humanities by hosting the Global Shakespeare Forum. Global Scholar students Chandler Kennedy and Marcus Brummett will present case studies of Shakespeares influence across the globe followed by a panelist discussion and a question and answer session. Faculty panelists include Jason Huddleston, assistant professor of English; Juan Santillana, Spanish instructor; and Evans Jarnfeldt, assistant professor of Theatre. Actors From The London Stage panelists include Samuel Collings, Chris Donnelly, Ffion Jolly, Patrick Moy, and Claire Redcliffe. A reception that includes a meet and greet will follow the discussion from 3:45-4:30 p.m. For more information about the event, contact Amanda Bennett, Honors Specialist at 423-697-2577 or email Amanda.bennett@chattanoogastate.edu. Former Union minister Farooq Abdullah on Thursday said India will not be able to keep Kashmir if the forces who see Muslims of the country with suspicion and pit the minority community against the majority are not reined in. "A storm is brewing in India which is ringing alarm bells and, if we do not understand this, if we continue fighting Hindus with Muslims, then I am telling them from here that they (Centre) cannot keep Kashmir. This is the truth even if you do not like it," Abdullah said addressing National Conference workers on the first death anniversary of the partys former general secretary Sheikh Nazir. Abdullah said Muslims were not the enemies of the country but were still seen with suspicion. "Today, a Muslim is seen with suspicious eyes. Is a Muslim not Indian? Has he not sacrificed anything? Have you forgotten Brigadier Usman (the highest ranking officer of Indian Army killed in the Indo-Pakistan war of 1947)? He sacrificed his life for saving the country. "Have you forgotten those soldiers who were Muslims and fought for the nation and are fighting even today? Muslim is not the enemy of India. Control these elements who label Muslims as enemies," he said. Abdullah said India lives in the hearts of Muslims. "For Gods sake, do not take this country in that direction where we can place Hindus and Muslims separately. This is not the India Mahatma Gandhi, (Maulana Abul Kalam) Azad, Sher-e-Kashmir (Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah), Jawaharlal Nehru and others built," he said, adding there is no difference between "our God and yours". "If there was any difference, my blood would not have been red but green and yours saffron and Christians of some other colour...God has created us all alike. Try to mend differences and unite the hearts," Abdullah, a former Chief Minister and Union Minister said. He said the dialogue process between India and Pakistan has to be taken forward irrespective of the incidents like Mumbai and Pathankot. "Peace can be established if you win peoples hearts and that can happen when you address the basic issues here along with firmly holding the hand of friendship (with Pakistan). "Pathankot and Mumbai (attacks) will continue to happen because some people want India and Pakistan to remain far from each other and fight with each other. We have to fight those powers and that will happen only through the process of dialogue," he said. He favoured an open border between the two countries for greater people-to-people contact. The former chief minister reiterated that this part of Kashmir will continue to be with India, while the other part across the Line of Control (LoC) will remain with Pakistan. "I am telling you honesty that we have to live with India only. Keep this in mind that the other part will live with Pakistan...But our demand is that our autonomy be restored. The honour which you (Centre) took away should be restored," he said. Sleuths questioning Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, the Jawaharlal Nehru University students held in a sedition case, are having a tough time cracking the duo with the former denying his involvement in any sloganeering and the latter challenging claims that the slogans were anti-national. Delhi Police on Thursday continued their interrogation of Umar and Anirban but remained tight-lipped about developments in the case citing high courts order to maintain utmost secrecy. The duo along with three other students, who gave a hard time to the police as they searched for them across cities for over 10 days, resurfaced on the varsitys campus late on Tuesday night. Umar and Anirban thereafter surrendered to police. Police are also waiting for the production warrant of JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar, who is in judicial custody, so that the three can be questioned together. A police source said Umar and Anirban are presently being interrogated by two separate teams led by Assistant Commissioner of Police rank officials. The duo is being quizzed about the slogans raised during the February 9 event at JNU and the identities of others involved in the controversial event. Police are also asking them what they had done as the main organisers to stop the raising of the alleged anti-India slogans during the protest against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, the source said. While Umar has maintained that he did not engage in any sloganeering, Anirban asked the investigators how the nature of slogans were anti-national at all, the source said. While Umar has told police he was in Ghaziabad after the event, Anirbans whereabouts during the period are still unclear, the source said, adding that police are also trying to track down the ones who sheltered Umar and Anirban. When Kanhaiya was questioned, he had dissociated himself from the controversial event, which led police to conclude that Umar and Anirban -- whose names were earlier spotted on the posters for the programme -- were the main organisers of the event. Umar and Anirban have been shown the raw footage of the event and they have spotted some foreign elements that are yet to be identified. While some of the outsiders are suspected to be from other central universities in the national capital, there also were people from other states, especially Jammu and Kashmir, at the protest, the source said. Umar and Anirban were sent to three days police remand by a city court on Wednesday after their surrender at midnight and subsequent arrest in the sedition case. The South Campus Police Station, where the duo are being held, was turned into a makeshift courtroom following an order by Delhi high court to maintain confidentiality during their remand proceedings. During the hearing, the police demanded seven days custody of the duo and also applied for the production warrant of Kanhaiya. There was high drama on Wednesday as media persons were made to chase a police vehicle which was used as a decoy. Police resorted to such tactics following the maintain confidentiality order from high court. The face of a person seated inside a vehicle leaving South Campus police station was covered with a muffler, prompting a posse of media personnel to chase it till another police station in south Delhi around 2.30 pm. With court proceedings held in a room there, South Campus Police Station was turned into a virtual fortress with at least two companies of police personnel deployed in the area and all roads leading to it blocked. The magistrate arrived at 6.30 pm. Soon after, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Prem Nath, who is heading the probe, was seen entering the police station. The hearing then continued for around two-and-a-half hours. Earlier on Wednesday, Delhi high court ordered police to maintain confidentiality during the remand proceedings of Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban and directed the police to ensure that no one suffers even a scratch and there is no ruckus. The court order came during the hearing on Kanhaiyas bail plea after it was informed that the JNUSU president along with Umar and Anirban were apprehending threat to their safety and security during production before Patiala House courts for remand proceedings. Lawyers had allegedly assaulted Kumar when he was brought to Patiala House Court for remand proceedings in defiance of a Supreme Court order. Two days earlier, when Kumar was to be brought to the court, the same set of lawyers had thrashed journalists and JNU students and teachers. A Delhi court on Thursday sent Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union President Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in a sedition case, to one day police custody after the prosecution said that he was needed to be confronted with the other two arrested JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. "The student leader was moved out of Tihar jail at around 8.30 pm for questioning," a senior police officer said without disclosing the location where Kanhaiya was taken by the cops. The court allowed the police plea seeking one day custody of the student leader, who was arrested on February 12 and sent to judicial custody five days later, a source said. The police had applied for the production warrant of Kumar on Wednesday on the ground that he was needed to be confronted with the other two students in view of the discrepancies in their statements regarding the controversial JNU event. While opposing the plea, Kumar's counsel, Bankim Kulshrestha, said that the police already had got five days' custody of his client and it had sufficient time to interrogate him in the matter. The counsel further said that there was no connection between Kumar and the other two students arrested in the case as they belong to different student wings. The police had arrested Kumar on February 12, a day after a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy was registered at Vasant Kunj (North) Police Station in connection with an event in the varsity's campus in which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. The case was registered on the basis of a video footage of the event obtained from a Hindi news channel. While Kumar was arrested, at least five others including Khalid and Anirban went absconsing after the event. They resurfaced in JNU campus on Monday night and surrendered before the police. Khalid and Anirban were on Wednesday sent to three days' police remand by a city court, after their midnight surrender and subsequent arrest in a case of sedition. The police maintained "confidentiality" in the case proceedings in pursuance of an order by Delhi high court. The high court had ordered to "maintain confidentiality" during the remand proceedings of Kumar, Umar and Anirban and directed the police to ensure that no one "suffers even a scratch" and there is no ruckus this time. The high court order came during the hearing on Kumar's bail plea after it was informed that the student leader and two arrested co-accused -- Umar and Anirban -- were apprehending threat to their safety and security during production before Patiala House courts for remand proceedings. Lawyers had allegedly assaulted Kumar when he was brought to Patiala House Court for remand proceedings, in defiance of an Supreme Court order. Two days earlier, when Kumar was to be brought to the court, the same set of lawyers had thrashed journalists and JNU students and teachers. Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag on Thursday slammed Pakistan for giving "candid support" to terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiyba as he called on the international community to join hands in combating the menace. Days after suspected LeT operatives struck in Pampore in Jammu and Kashmir, Suhag hit out at Pakistan, saying, "Terrorist groups like LeT and JeM get candid support from across our western borders." The attack at Pampore left three army personnel dead, including two captains of the special forces. Two Central Reserve Police Force personnel, too, were killed by three heavily armed "foreign" terrorists who were shot dead after a fierce 48-hour-long gun battle. At a seminar organised by army think tank, Centre for Land Warfare Studies, Suhag also said that the spreading influence of Islamic State, in particular through social and other forms of media, has thrown up challenges of global and regional security. "What is worrying is that these groups can no longer be dismissed as regional manifestations of violence," he said. Noting that such jihadist outfits take advantage of the international connected systems of finance, commerce and transit to stay flexible and reach any part of the globe, Suhag said it was "necessary for international community to fight this menace as one by sharing of intel and adoption of training techniques from each other". He added that the 9/11, 26/11 and recent Paris attacks have changed the perception among world leaders regarding the threat from terrorism. The army chief said, "We need to address not only the methods but also the factors that contribute to the spread of terrorism. "The main threat comes from fundamental ideology and twisted interpretations which are promoting radical thinking." Bharatiya Janata Party leader and spokesperson M J Akbar, who also spoke at the event, termed parts of Pakistan as a "sanctuary for jihadis". Capitalizing on Chaos: AQAP Advances in Yemen Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Michael Horton Publication Date 19 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 4 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Capitalizing on Chaos: AQAP Advances in Yemen, 19 February 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 4, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56ceaf854.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has more men, is better equipped and funded, and holds more territory than at any time in its history. The only point at which the organization has enjoyed comparable strength was in the aftermath of the popular uprising against former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011. However, the conditions that allowed AQAP to seize and hold territory after the 2011 uprising are far more pronounced now than they were then. These include: disarray within the Yemeni Armed Forces, severe and increased poverty, economic turmoil, an absence of governmental authority, and widening sectarian divisions. All of these factors make Yemen - particularly southern and eastern Yemen - fertile ground for the expansion of AQAP. In March 2015, Saudi Arabia launched "Operation Decisive Storm," a campaign that ostensibly aimed at restoring the internationally-recognized but exiled government of Yemeni president Abd Raboo Mansur al-Hadi. Hadi and his government had fled the Yemeni port city of Aden for the safety of Saudi Arabia as Yemen's Houthi rebels advanced. The Houthis - who refer to themselves as Ansar Allah (Supporters of Allah) - are a Zaidi Shi'a movement that has deep roots in northwest Yemen. They are now nominally allied with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and military forces loyal to him, but are believed by Saudi Arabia to be backed by Iran. The resulting ten month-long naval blockade by Saudi and its allies and their thousands of airstrikes on civilian and military targets across the country have failed to dislodge the Houthis, who remain in control of the capital, Sana'a, and much of northwest Yemen. The airstrikes and the naval blockade have, however, succeeded in ravaging the poorest country in the Middle East. The United Nations estimates that more than eighty percent of Yemen's population of 26 million are now in need of humanitarian assistance (UNOCHA, January 2016). Yemen's already limited infrastructure has been decimated and what little central government control there was before the war no longer exists. Perhaps most seriously, the months of war are dismantling the social structures that have long provided Yemen with a measure of at least localized stability. This multi-front war in Yemen is a gift to groups like AQAP and the Islamic State. Both organizations thrive in areas where poverty and sectarian tensions are pronounced. AQAP, and, to a lesser degree the Islamic State, have consequently lost no time in capitalizing on the chaos in Yemen. Filling the Void The Saudi-led coalition succeeded in forcing the Houthis and allied forces to vacate Aden and the parts of southern Yemen that they briefly occupied. However, the coalition, and the exiled Yemeni government that it supports, failed to secure these areas, including the temporary capital of Aden. The Saudi-led campaign relies heavily on airstrikes and thus far has deployed only a limited number of ground troops, many of which are mercenaries (Middle East Eye, December 23, 2015; al-Bawaba, December 14, 2015). The retreat of the Houthis and military forces allied with them from parts of southern Yemen left a vacuum that AQAP has been quick to fill. Shortly after the initiation of Operation Decisive Storm in March 2015, AQAP took over al-Mukalla, Yemen's fifth largest city and the capital of Hadramawt governorate. AQAP has long maintained a presence in the Hadramawt and in the neighboring governorate of Shabwa. These are both areas where the Houthis have little or no influence. The elements of the Yemeni Armed Forces and security services deployed in Mukalla offered little resistance to the takeover. Following their takeover of Mukalla, AQAP advanced throughout the southern parts of Hadramawt. The only real resistance that AQAP faced was in the northern part of the Hadramawt where forces under the command of Major General Abdul Rahman al-Halili, commander of Yemen's First Military District, blocked their advance. While AQAP was halted in its attempts to push into the northern parts of Hadramawt, the organization is expanding across much of southern Yemen. AQAP has infiltrated its operatives into Aden where it enjoys a complex relationship with a matrix of anti-Houthi, separatist, and Salafi militias. During the four-month battle to evict the Houthis and their allies from Aden, which ended in July 2015, AQAP operatives worked closely with many of the militias fighting the Houthis, some of which were backed by the Saudis and the Hadi government. AQAP's operatives, particularly at more senior levels, were far more experienced fighters than the often raw recruits that made up the bulk of the militias fighting the Houthis. AQAP has also effectively inserted its operatives into the bitterly contested city of Taiz. Houthi allied forces and a loose alliance of "popular committees," pro-government, and Salafi militias are battling each other for control of the strategically and culturally important city. AQAP's seasoned and increasingly battle-hardened operatives are comparatively well-versed in urban warfare, bomb making, and assassinations. While an overwhelming majority of those fighting against the Houthis and their allies are opposed to AQAP and its ideology, the need for well-trained and relatively disciplined fighters has likely trumped such ideological differences; some of those fighting against the Houthis increasingly view AQAP as a useful source of well-trained, disciplined fighters. Beyond infiltrating operatives into large urban areas like Aden and Taiz, AQAP is also now holding more territory than it ever has in its history. As mentioned above, AQAP has occupied Mukalla since April 2015 (Yemen Times, April 6, 2015). In early December 2015, AQAP launched an offensive in the governorate of Abyan, located to the west of Hadramawt. AQAP last occupied parts of Abyan in 2011, when it took over the towns of Zinjibar and Ja'ar and declared Abyan to be an "Islamic Emirate." By December 5, 2015, in a repeat of 2011, AQAP had secured the towns of Zinjibar and Ja'ar as well as the surrounding areas. Just as it has in other parts of southern Yemen, AQAP filled the void left by an absence of both government-controlled military forces and those controlled by the nominally pro-Hadi popular committees. In the latter's case, the popular committee forces had successfully pushed Houthi and allied forces out of Abyan but subsequently moved onto the neighboring governorate of Lahej to resist a renewed Houthi offensive, leading to a power vacuum in Abyan. Just as it has done in Mukalla, AQAP targeted key political figures in Abyan - and particularly those figures that cannot be easily co-opted or bought off. For instance, during its takeover of Zinjibar and Ja'ar, AQAP killed Ali al-Said, a mid-level commander within the Abyan-based popular committee (The National [UAE], December 3, 2015). The organization also targeted five other key tribal and militia figures. Despite the assassinations, AQAP's commanders have largely implemented the same "light-footprint" strategy in Abyan that they have used in Mukalla (al-Jazeera, September 16, 2015). As will be explained below, this new light footprint strategy arises from the lessons that AQAP learned in the aftermath of its 2011-12 takeover of parts of Abyan. Lessons Learned and a New Strategy In June 2012, a coalition of tribal militias - referred to as popular committees - and units from the Yemeni Army forced AQAP to withdraw from the parts of Abyan that they controlled. The leadership of AQAP had, however, already learned a great deal from the year during which they held and-to some degree governed-territory for the first time. In May and August of 2012, the emir of AQAP, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, now deceased, wrote two letters to his counterpart in al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). [1] Here Wuhayshi sought to impart some of the lessons learned by his own organization in the preceding months. Foremost among these lessons was the need for al-Qaeda to take a more gradual approach to imposing Sharia law and, in particular, to enforcing severe punishments for relatively minor offences. When AQAP took control of parts of Abyan and the neighboring governorate of Shabwa in 2011, the organization stoked local and specifically tribal anger when it flouted long-established tribal laws and traditions in favor of its own reductionist interpretation of Islamic law. As an example of this, AQAP sought to end the traditional trade in, and consumption of, the mild narcotic qat. Qat is viewed as halal, or permitted by many tribal religious authorities in Yemen, and is a core part of the Yemeni economy. AQAP's prohibition therefore struck at both traditional and economic sensitivities. AQAP's heavy-handed approach to governance in Abyan and Shabwa through the qat ban and other comparable measures cost it critical local support. As a result, while units of the Yemeni Armed Forces played a key role in evicting AQAP from its strongholds in Abyan, it was tribal militias made up of men from the governorate that proved critical to defeating AQAP - at least temporarily. Wuhayshi and his deputies - including the current AQAP emir, Qasim al-Raymi - used the lessons learned in 2011-12 to redesign their organizational structure and most importantly their approach to governing and holding territory. AQAP's takeover and subsequent management of Mukalla are both clear examples of these changes. AQAP's takeover of Mukalla in early 2015 was swift and resulted in few casualties and relatively little damage to private property. In the days and weeks following their takeover, AQAP targeted those members of the local government and security apparatus who did not accept their authority. However, after they consolidated their hold on the city, AQAP's leadership left the day-to-day governance of the city to a local council. As part of their effort to indigenize their organization, AQAP began referring to its members who operate in the Hadramawt - Mukalla is the capital of the governorate of the Hadramawt - as the "Sons of Hadramawt" (al-Jazeera, September 16, 2015). In addition, just as Wuhayshi counseled in his letters to the leader of AQIM, AQAP has maintained a relatively low profile in Mukalla. AQAP for instance provides security for the city and has undertaken some "public works" programs like repairing water mains and providing aid in the wake of the November 2015 cyclone. [2] AQAP's more recent campaign to retake Abyan in December 2015 appears to be of a similar design. Those members of AQAP who are active in Abyan refer to themselves as the "Sons of Abyan" and, apart from targeting a few key figures within the popular committees, the takeover has been relatively bloodless. Much as it has done in Mukalla, it is likely that AQAP will maintain its light footprint strategy and work to re-insert itself into the local governing structures in Abyan. Out-maneuvering the Islamic State in Yemen For all its advantages, AQAP's light footprint strategy is replete with risks to the group. Foremost among these is AQAP's potential to be perceived as lacking radical zeal by more hardline militants. . This perception could intensify what is already a simmering conflict between AQAP and Islamic State. Since the Houthi-led offensive and Saudi Arabia's subsequent commencement of Operation Decisive Storm in March 2015, the Islamic State - which had only a limited presence in Yemen - has expanded. In March 2015, the group claimed credit for four suicide attacks on two mosques in Sana'a (al-Bawaba, March 20, 2015). These attacks killed more than 140 people; Islamic State claimed to be targeting what were predominately Zaidi mosques. However, as with the majority of mosques in north Yemen, the two mosques that were targeted were used by both Zaidis and Sunnis. Notably, AQAP condemned the bombing of the mosques (Middle East Eye, March 20, 2015). Islamic State's attacks in Yemen have largely been directed at targets associated with the Houthis. The militant Salafi ideology that Islamic State and AQAP embrace means that both groups view all Shi'a as heretics. While AQAP is also locked in a battle with the Houthis, its leadership has thus far been careful not to target mosques and other strictly civilian targets. This is not to say that AQAP is not just as brutal and dangerous an organization as Islamic State; however, AQAP takes a pragmatic view and, following its 2011-12 experience, is keenly aware of how important it is to not lose the still limited local support that it enjoys. For instance, local support is critical for maintaining supply chains and evading detection. [3] AQAP is therefore engaged in a delicate balancing act: it must restrain itself and its operatives so as not to alienate and anger local people in the areas that it has nominal control over yet it must also prove that it is as dynamic and "Islamic" as Islamic State. In addition to the lessons that AQAP learned from its 2011-12 attempt to hold territory, the tactics of Islamic State in Yemen have also forced AQAP to moderate its own tactics. AQAP therefore appears to be pursuing something of a "middle way" in Yemen. Its light footprint strategy allows it to hold territory and enables it to claim that it is making progress toward establishing the caliphate that al-Qaeda (and Islamic State) desires. Yet at the same time, the strategy means that it is able to make the most of its still limited, albeit rapidly increasing, resources. For example, by leaving day-to-day governance to local councils, it is able to effectively co-opt local and regional stakeholders while being able to focus on battling the Houthis and Houthi-allied forces, which remain the primary threat to AQAP. The Near or Far Enemy? The debate about whether to pursue the near or far enemy remains contentious within both al-Qaeda central and AQAP. AQAP has a history of pursuing both the near enemy in the Yemeni state and now the Houthis and the far enemy in the West. Since the beginning of the civil war in Yemen, AQAP has focused most of its efforts on attacking the near enemy. The Houthi offensive that saw the Sana'a takeover in September 2014 also put considerable pressure on AQAP. With their allies in the Yemeni Army, the Houthis pushed south into al-Bayda, Abyan, and Shabwa areas where AQAP has long operated and exerted influence. The Houthis and their allies were initially successful at pushing AQAP out of these areas, to the extent that many of AQAP's operatives fled east to the Hadramawt, where they subsequently regrouped. The Houthis' push into the south however inflamed what were minimal sectarian divisions and helped - at least to some degree - bolster local support for AQAP and the Salafist militias that fought alongside them. With the entrance of Saudi Arabia and its allies into the war in March 2015, AQAP was therefore able to rapidly regroup and seize large amounts of military hardware and cash from Yemeni Army installations, and banks - in particular, the Yemeni Central Bank branch in Mukalla. AQAP's counter-offensive against the Houthis and allied forces has been its primary focus in the eleven months since Saudi Arabia entered the war. Only now does AQAP arguably have the operational room and resources to again focus on the far enemy. Most worryingly, AQAP now enjoys more resources and operational freedom that it ever has before. However, with parts of the country, namely Taiz, Lahej, and al-Bayda still being bitterly contested by a host of militias and state-backed forces, AQAP's short-term focus is likely to remain on the near enemy. In addition to now having considerable resources and operational freedom to carry out attacks on the far enemy, AQAP may also be motivated to at least partially renew its focus on the far enemy by Islamic State. The Islamic State's attacks in Yemen have focused on sectarian and high profile targets, including a deadly attack on the governor of Aden, the temporary headquarters of the Yemeni government in exile, and the presidential palace in Aden (al-Jazeera, December 7, 2015; al-Arabiya, January 30). These attacks are audacious and belie the fact that Islamic State's branch in Yemen is still - relative to AQAP - a small organization. While AQAP has made significant progress in terms of seizing territory and growing its organization, it has generally eschewed high-profile attacks in favor of fighting along more traditional lines. This is a key part of its light footprint strategy but the lack of high profile attacks also leaves it vulnerable to criticism from hardcore members of the jihadist community. An attack on a Western target, whether that be in Yemen or abroad, would demonstrate the fact that AQAP remains a dynamic force that is still committed to and capable of "global jihad" and thus reassure its hardline supporters who might otherwise be attracted to Islamic State. Outlook The ongoing civil war and the destruction wrought by eleven months of aerial bombardment by Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners ensure that Yemen will remain fertile ground for the growth of both AQAP and Islamic State over both the medium and long-term. Terrorist organizations by their very nature are predatory, adaptive, and thrive in power vacuums like the one that exists throughout much of Yemen. AQAP in particular has proven itself to be highly resilient and capable of learning from its mistakes and modifying its organizational structure accordingly. The ability to learn and evolve has been clearly demonstrated by AQAP over the last two years. Despite drone attacks that have successfully targeted some of its senior leaders, AQAP has retained and improved upon its ability to interface with local stakeholders, plan and participate in relatively complex offensive operations, and perhaps most importantly, it is also learning how to govern through proxies. Over the medium and even long-term, AQAP's future in Yemen looks secure. While it may be compelled to take a more combative approach to confronting Islamic State, this is unlikely to significantly weaken AQAP. The only real potential threat to AQAP's expansion in Yemen are stability and assertive and efficient governance at the local and federal levels. However, neither stability nor the formation of an effective government appear likely. Even when the war in Yemen does end, AQAP will continue to benefit from the destruction of the country's armed forces, infrastructure, and perhaps most importantly, the intensifying hatred between rival political and religious groups. Michael Horton is an analyst whose work primarily focuses on Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Notes: [1.] See: http://www.longwarjournal.org/images/al-qaida-papers-how-to-run-a-state.pdf [2] See: https://news.siteintelgroup.com/Jihadist-News/aqap-video-focuses-on-cyclone-relief-efforts-for-civilians-in-hadramawt.html [3] In December 2013, AQAP apologized to the Yemeni people for what its own communique described as a "brutal" attack on the Yemeni Ministry of Defense and the hospital inside the ministry. The attack left 56 dead. AQAP took full responsibility for the attack and promised to pay blood money to the relatives of the dead. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Kashmir Jihadism and the Threat to India Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Animesh Roul Publication Date 19 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 4 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Kashmir Jihadism and the Threat to India, 19 February 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 4, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56ceb00a4.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website It is increasingly evident that each time the relations between India and Pakistan improve, India-focused jihadist groups from across the Pakistani border attempt to disrupt it with attacks in the Indian states of Kashmir, Punjab, and elsewhere. The inevitable aim of these is to upset the possibility of amicable dialogue between these two populous and nuclear-armed nations. The latest example of this occurred in January when the high-profile Pathankot Air base in the Indian state of Punjab was attacked by militants. The United Jihad council (UJC, also known as Muttahida Jihad Council), based in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PAK), claimed responsibility for the incident. The attacks and ensuing gun battle at the strategically crucial Indian airbase went on for three days and killed 13 people, including seven Indian security personnel and six militants. UJC Spokesperson Syed Sadaqat Hussain has since threatened similar attacks elsewhere in the country while chiding the Indian establishment for its alleged Pakistan-phobia (Dawn [Karachi], January 4). Days later, the chief of UJC, Syed Salahuddin, also supreme leader of Hizbul Mujahideen, criticized the Pakistani government in a similar vein for its alleged stand in support of India, saying that "Pakistan is not just an advocate, but also a party to the longstanding Kashmir conflict" and that it "should play the role of a patron [to groups like UJC] rather than of an adversary" (Express Tribune, January 20). Salahudin's comments were issued alongside the Pakistani government's crackdown on the leaders and infrastructures of another constituent of UJC, Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), as the group's militants were suspected of being involved in the Pathankot attack. Rejecting the claim by the UJC as a ploy to divert attention and to confuse their investigation, Indian security agencies investigating the attack have tracked at least four Pakistan-based militant operatives as the prime architects of January's Patahnkot attack. All are affiliated with Pakistan-based Jaish-e Muhammed, including its chief, Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar, as well as Ashfaq Ahmed, Haji Abdul Shaqur, and Kashim Jaan. While Azhar allegedly oversaw the operations, his brother Asghar and two others were in touch with the militants once they made their way inside the airbase. India shared with Pakistan, the telephone numbers and the identity of the suspected Jaish handlers, among other evidence. Initially, the Pakistani government was said to have acted on information provided by Indian agencies by detaining at least 12 JeM operatives for their alleged involvement in the Pathankot terror attack and sealing branch offices of the JeM located in Bahwalnagar, Bahawalpur, Multan, and Muzafargarh (Daily Pakistan, January 13). It also claimed to have taken Masood Azhar into protective custody (Dawn, January 15). On the ground, however, JeM leadership denied any such detentions or arrests. Moreover, over a month after the incident, Pakistan's Special Investigation Team (SIT) concluded that there was no substantive evidence to suggest that Masood Azhar or JeM were responsible for the deadly assault (Express Tribune, February 8). In order to secure the safe release of JeM's supreme leader Masood Azhar from an Indian prison, his fellow militants had previously orchestrated the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 in late December 1999, the December 2001 Indian parliament attacks, and a number of coordinated attacks in Jammu, Kashmir, and elsewhere in India. Most UJC militants, who are either camouflaged under new group names or operating under newly-floated hybrid strike units (e.g. as Al-Shuhada Brigade, Shaheed Afzal Guru Squad and Highway Squad), are largely part of the exiting jihadist groups such as Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM). These groups often operate collectively. This tactics help anti-India agencies in Pakistan to keep the vexed Kashmir conflict live and relevant, drawing international attention to the contested nature of the territory, and towards the so-called popular insurgency, while also maintaining a level of deniability. The Pathankot events were not isolated developments as far as Pakistan-based militants are concerned, but were rather a part of a well-orchestrated militant surge. For instance, one report by the Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) in April of 2015 warned that six Pakistan based militant groups, including HM, LeT, and JeM, were preparing to launch attacks on security installations in India (India Today, April 1, 2015). These militant groups have both collectively and independently been attempting to reinvigorate terror infrastructures in Kashmir and beyond, apparently with the patronage of Pakistan's political, military, and intelligence agencies. There have been many instances of similar violent and well-coordinated strikes in Kashmir and Punjab in the last few years, all emanating from Pakistani soil. Almost after a decade of relative calm in the region, the December 5, 2014 serial attacks in Kashmir and Srinagar killed 21 people, including 11 security personnel and two civilians, in three separate incidents. The fatalities also included eight Pakistani militants who carried out multiple strikes, including an attack at the Indian Army's 31 Field Regiment Ordinance Camp at Mohra, Baramulla district (Reuters, December 2014). The latest Pathankot events are reminiscent of July 2015's Dinanagar (Punjab) attacks where Pakistani militants launched multiple assaults, including an attack on a police station that killed at least seven, including a senior police official. The militants were equipped with sophisticated arms and ammunitions, including a U.S. Night Vision Device (NVD) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). The U.S. has confirmed that the NVD used in the attack was in use in Afghanistan in 2010 and was lost during battle (IBN Live, September 16, 2015). Exactly how it reached the militants who were slain in Gurudaspur remains a mystery. The involvement of Pakistan Army's Border Action Team (BAT) and heavily armed militants in attacks in India has been confirmed on many occasions in the past as a part of a persistent and deliberate attempt by sections of Pakistan's army, intelligence agencies, and alleged non-state actors sponsored by the state to underline the peaceful atmosphere in neighboring Indian states (The Economic Times, January 20, 2015; First Post, August 18, 2013; DNA India, May 19, 2014). Context for the latest increase in attacks is these groups' desire to revive anti-India militancy in the India's Kashmir region, which has seen a decline in pro-separate militancy in the past few years. The Pathankot attacks and the resulting clamor in India for immediate action against the perpetrators has brought about a significant development. In Pakistan, for the first time, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs issued a four-page policy paper on Kashmir, suggesting that "Pakistan should not encourage calls for active support to armed, banned, militant groups in Kashmir" (The Express Tribune, February 1). At the same time, however, it should be noted that in recent decades, Pakistan's Kashmir policy has consistently adhered to few time-tested methods, such as pressing for diplomatic dialogue with India while consistently backing India-focused jihadists in the aim of creating the impression of a broad-based and popular insurgency in Kashmir. The Pathankot attacks occurred just one week after the December 25, 2015 surprise meeting between Indian and Pakistani prime ministers in Lahore. The attacks led to the cancellation of scheduled follow-up talks between respective foreign secretaries and cooled the warming diplomatic relations between the two countries (The Hindu, January 15). The events therefore illustrate both patronage of militant groups by elements of the Pakistani security establishment opposed to improved relations with India, and also underline the resulting resilience of Pakistan's Kashmir-centric jihadi infrastructure, which continues to pose a threat to Indian national security. Animesh Roul is the Executive Director of Research at the New Delhi-based Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict (SSPC). Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation The Battle for the Euphrates: Turkey's Response to Kurdish Expansion Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Wladimir van Wilgenburg Publication Date 19 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 4 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, The Battle for the Euphrates: Turkey's Response to Kurdish Expansion, 19 February 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 4, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56ceb06b4.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website In an unexpected move on December 26, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), captured the Tishreen Dam close to Manbijin, Syria (YPGrojava, December 30, 2015). This operation, conducted with support of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, crossed a key Turkish "redline." It also opened the way for the YPG to attack Islamic State in Manbij and Jarabulus and to expand Kurdish-controlled territory in the area. Moreover, the YPG took the Menagh Military airbase with Russian air support on February 11 from Turkish-backed rebels in Aleppo's countryside (Hawar News, February 11). This brings the Kurds closer to creating a united Kurdish administration, and will push Turkey to take more measures to prevent the expansion of YPG-held territory into the 60 mile (100km) strip along the Syrian-Turkish border (which is still partially controlled by Islamic State). In addition, on February 13, Turkey started shelling YPG positions close to the Menagh Airport with artillery (YeniSafak, February 13). Crossing Turkish "red lines" Prior to the SDF's capture of the Tishreen dam, the Turkish National Security Council had made clear that any incursion west of the Euphrates River by Kurdish forces would be a "violation" of a Turkish red line (TRTworld, July 1, 2015). Turkish tanks and artillery have previously fired on YPG and YPG-aligned FSA-rebels trying to cross into Jarabulus on July 27, 2015, in an attempt to enforce this red line (Now, November 29, 2015). In 2015, the YPG claimed the Turkish army had targeted their forces 22 times with heavy weaponry around Tal Abyad and Kobani (YPGrojava, December 31, 2015). In response, the YPG warned Turkey not to violate the Syrian-Turkish border (Basnews, January 31). Despite the Turkish warnings, the Kurds - with coalition support - proceeded to cross the Euphrates. In Tishreen, located some distance south of the border, they were out of the range of Turkish artillery and tanks. The SDF halted their operations after advancing more than 4 miles (6 km) from the river, most likely on instructions from a U.S.-led coalition that fears provoking a significant Turkish response. As a result, despite previous warnings, the Turkish response has so far been limited; the Turkish PM nonetheless warned that Turkey would not allow any hostile groups to cross the Euphrates (Daily Sabah, December 27, 2015). For the United States, it is important for the Kurds to take Tishreen Dam in order to isolate Raqqa, Islamic State's self-declared capital, from Islamic State-controlled territories east of the Euphrates. Meanwhile, for the SDF, the move opens the way into the Euphrates Valley and Manbij. Furthermore, the Kurdish advance means that, in the event of an U.S.-coordinated attack by the SDF on Raqqa, it would be more difficult for Islamic State to send fighters from Aleppo to Raqqa to support the group's fighters there. However, it is also clear that the SDF is eager to move towards Manbij in order to later create a contiguous Kurdish-controlled territory along the Syria-Turkish border by taking the remaining Islamic State-held stretch of the border between Azaz and Jarabulus. The U.S., however, will not support them with airstrikes to achieve this aim. A potential solution for the SDF is to garner Russian support. This year, Assad - backed with Russian support - managed to completely encircle the northern countryside of Aleppo (Kurdistan24, February 5). Consequently, the YPG moved closer to Azaz. Although the SDF will continue to work with the U.S.-led coalition in the countryside of Raqqa and Hasakah, it will also work with Russia in Aleppo's countryside against the Islamic State and Syrian rebels. Turkey and Turkish Proxy Forces Turkey seeks to prevent the Kurds from creating a contiguous territory along the Turkish border and halt the union of their three local administrations in Kobani, Efrin, and Cizere; these entities are dominated by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). In a recent meeting with Turkish journalists, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would not allow the YPG to expand in this area. "We are only against the PYD establishing a corridor in northern Syria," he asserted (Daily Sabah, February 1). The Kurdish move across the Euphrates is likely to lead to increased Turkish support for ethnic Turkmen insurgents from the Free Syrian Army to take Islamic State-dominated villages in Syria (Daily Sabah, January 15). Turkey will also increase support for Arab fighters in Azaz to push back the YPG advances. The Azaz rebels have asked for heavy weapons to fight the YPG (AA, February 12), and Turkey started shelling YPG positions in Aleppo's countryside. In an early indication of these trends, Turkish-backed rebel groups such as the Turkmen Liwa Sultan Murad brigade, the Shamiya Front, and the Sham Legion launched operations on January 9 that seized control of several villages with Turkish artillery support after the SDF crossed the river (Daily Sabah, January 17). Moreover, there were clashes between the Islamic State and the Turkish army, with the Islamic State in particular saying that they had recently fired on Turkish soldiers trying to enter Jarabulus, a border town under their control (Amaq News Agency, February 4). The Turkish army has meanwhile reportedly fired hundreds of artillery shells at Islamic State targets in the region (Daily Sabah, January 15). Turkey is also attempting to clear the border of Islamic State-laid mines (Now, January 19). It appears the U.S. will support Turkish-backed FSA rebels with airstrikes to help them take control the border crossings of al-Rai and Jarabulus from Islamic State, since this would stop Islamic State access routes from Turkey into Syria. So far, however, the Turkmen rebels have not made major gains, and the Islamic State militants are resisting strongly, indicating the importance of holding the border area for their own ambitions. Meanwhile, Russia is also bombing Turkish-backed rebels opposed to the Russian-backed forces of President Bashar al-Assad. This will make it very difficult for Turkish-backed rebels to resist Islamic State, the YPG, and the Syrian regime simultaneously. Therefore, Turkey will back Syrian militants with artillery against the YPG. At the same time, Turkey has attempted to decrease Western support for the YPG by emphasizing the links between the YPG and the PKK in meetings with Western officials, attempting to portray the YPG as a terrorist organization (Daily Sabah, January 28). Turkey recently successfully managed to exclude the PYD and YPG from the Geneva peace talks on Syria, although Russia had backed the PYD's inclusion (Daily Sabah, January 29). U.S. Dependence on the YPG An additional complication is that the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition still needs the SDF to take Raqqa and al-Shaddadi, despite Turkish opposition to the group. As a result, a 13-person delegation led by U.S. Presidential Envoy Brett McGurk visited SDF forces in northern Syria at the end of January, soon after the PYD's exclusion from the Geneva talks, angering Turkey (Hawar News Agency, February 2). The U.S. is using an airstrip in Rmeilan to further materially support SDF forces (Al Jazeera, January 20). One motive for this clear continued support from the U.S. for the PYD is the Obama administration's goal of eliminating Islamic State's hold over Raqqa, Syria and Mosul, Iraq before the end of President Obama's second term in January 2017. Therefore, the U.S. needs the Kurds to finish the job. If the YPG does decide to move towards Manbij and Jarabulus, it is possible that Turkey would attack YPG forces with artillery and tanks. Turkey is already shelling the YPG positions to protect Syrian rebels in Azaz from the YPG and Russia. However, Turkey is not likely to use ground troops, fearing a Russian response after the country shot down a Russian jet in November (Daily Sabah, November 24, 2015). Turkish jets were consequently excluded from Syrian airspace following the shooting down of the jet and the Russian decision to provide air support to Assad in September 2015. Recently, Russia has increased air support even further, leading to the Syrian government and allied Shia militias encircling Aleppo and cutting Turkish supply lines to the city from Azaz (Al Masdar, February 4). Conclusion Turkey is not likely to directly intervene with significant military forces in northern Syria to stop YPG advances as a result of Russian threats. However, Ankara will support Turkmen militias against the Islamic State and artillery in order to preempt Kurdish attempts to take control of the border strip. This is leading to increased tensions between Islamic State and Turkey, notably leading to the terrorist group bombing a group of German tourists in central Istanbul on January 12 (Daily Sabah, January 12). These tensions over the region will lead to clashes between Turkish-backed rebel groups and the YPG for the control of the Euphrates and border area. Furthermore, separate clashes between Assad-backed forces and increasingly hard-pressed Syrian insurgent groups will make it more difficult for anti-Assad rebels to focus on fighting the Islamic State and the YPG. This makes it possible for the YPG to connect their administrations with either Russian or Western air support. Turkey will moreover increase its anti-YPG propaganda and simultaneous pressure on the West to stop working with the YPG; Turkey will continue to highlight the YPG's links to the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by the EU, the U.S., and others. However, Turkey's attempts to delegitimize the PYG will likely have its limits, as the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State needs the YPG to ultimately liberate Islamic State-held Raqqa and Shaddadi, and it will continue to work with them until its aims are achieved. Wladimir van Wilgenburg is a political analyst specializing in issues concerning Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey with a particular focus on Kurdish politics. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Al-Shabaab Attacks in Somalia Suggest New Hardline Strategy Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author James Brandon Publication Date 19 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 4 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Al-Shabaab Attacks in Somalia Suggest New Hardline Strategy, 19 February 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 4, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56ceb2544.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Al-Shabaab, the Somali Islamist militant group, has conducted a range of attacks during the last few weeks, significant both in their scale and their increasingly direct targeting of civilians that suggest the group may be undergoing a strategic shift. In the first attack, five al-Shabaab militants attacked the popular Lido beach area in Mogadishu with bombs and guns on January 21, killing at least 25 people. The majority of the victims were ordinary Somalis enjoying their day off; the beach area is often visited by local families (Horseed Media, February 13). The attack reportedly prompted a surge in anger towards al-Shabaab and sparked demonstrations against the group (Horseed Media, February 1). Dutch media later reported that the attack had been "masterminded" by Ismail Muse Ahmed Guled, a Netherlands national of Somali origin, who is also believed to have organized other al-Shabaab attacks (NL Times, January 22). In the second large-scale attack to occur in recent weeks, on February 2, an al-Shabaab militant smuggled a bomb onto a Daallo Airlines passenger jet at Mogadishu's airport. The bomb, hidden in a laptop, exploded shortly after take-off. The blast blew a small hole in the fuselage and killed the attacker, although the plane was able to land safely. After a ten-day delay, al-Shabaab issued a statement claiming credit for the attack, saying that it had been targeting Western intelligence officials and Turkish soldiers who were on the plane and that the bombing was "retribution for the crimes committed by the coalition of Western crusaders and their intelligence agencies against the Muslims of Somalia" (Horseed Media, February 13). However, it later emerged that the attacker had been checked into an earlier Turkish Airlines flight, and when this flight was cancelled, decided to bomb the Somali airliner instead after being offered a seat on the flight (Al-Jazeera, February 7). In a further development, al-Shabaab militants briefly captured the southern port town of Merka on February 5, before being ejected by Somali and African Union forces the following day (Horseed Media, February 6). The attack was an unusual departure from the group's usual hit-and-run guerrilla tactics. Although al-Shabaab has never shied away from killing civilians, the vast majority of its attacks have targeted the military, government, or perceived 'spies' and 'apostates' rather than ordinary Somali civilians. The latest attacks therefore mark a substantial departure from this trend; Al-Shabaab's increased focus on maximizing civilian casualties is likely driven by a range of factors. These include rising competition from the Islamic State's local Somali affiliate, whose growth and increasing prominence has the potential to lead to al-Shabaab factions breaking away, affecting al-Shabaab's supply of recruits and funds. Al-Shabaab remains a loyal affiliate of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State's key jihadist rival. The latest attacks by al-Shabaab may be seen as an attempt to compete with the more extreme Islamic State for radical audiences, even at the expense of more mainstream Somali public opinion. It is possible that the shift in targeting may indicate increased radicalization within al-Shabaab, perhaps driven by hardliners and more ideological foreign fighters who have less hesitations about attacking Somali civilians. Underlining this potential new trend is that the airline bomb plot originally targeted a Turkish airline; if the attack had succeeded this would have also been perceived as a significant assault by al-Shabaab on Turkish interests. Given Turkey's ambiguous attitude toward other al-Qaeda regional franchises, notably its tolerance of Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, such an attack would have doubtlessly prompted Turkey to take action against the group. The original plot, had it been executed successfully, may have even sparked Turkish action against al-Qaeda more widely, and could have exacerbated tensions between al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda's leadership, indicating an arguably new trend of recklessness in al-Shabaab's targeting strategy. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation After Jakarta Attacks, Indonesia Takes Action Against Militants Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author James Brandon Publication Date 19 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 4 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, After Jakarta Attacks, Indonesia Takes Action Against Militants, 19 February 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 4, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56ceb2d84.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Since the Islamic State-linked attacks in Indonesia's capital of Jakarta on January 14, the most significant jihadist attack in the country in a decade, the government has taken a series of steps against domestic jihadists. In the week following the attack, 18 people were arrested, including both individuals suspected of being linked to those responsible for the attack, as well as those tied to separate groups (Jakarta Post, February 23). Since then, a range of further arrests and raids have been carried out by Indonesia's police and specialist counter-terrorism forces, leading to a total of 33 arrests (Straits Times [Singapore], February 15). On February 15, the country's counter-terrorism unit, Densus 88, shot and killed one suspected militant from the East Indonesia Mujahidin jihadist group in Bima, in West Nusa Tenggara (in the east of the country) and arrested another (Jakarta Post, February 15). In another raid, on February 3, the authorities arrested another East Indonesia Mujahidin suspect who was believed to have previously attended militant training camps in Poso, Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province (Jakarta Post, February 3). Arrests of suspected Indonesian militants have also taken place abroad; one Indonesian is reported to have been arrested in February in Saudi Arabia as part of a wider crackdown on foreigners believed to be linked to the Islamic State (Jakarta Post, February 1). In addition to these developments, the authorities also appear to have stepped up investigations into groups active in and around the capital in a bid to prevent any further attacks. For instance, the head of Indonesia's police, Gen. Badrodin Haiti told a government committee that the police had identified three separate terrorist groups active in the Greater Jakarta area (Tempo [Indonesia], February 15). These groups had been planning to attack a range of targets including the city's main police station, as well as individual police officers out on patrol. General Haiti also claimed that one of these groups was believed to have received 1.6 billion Indonesian Rupiah ($120,000) from sources in Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey, a portion of which had been distributed to jihadist groups in the Philippines. This information highlights the concerning trend of Indonesia's latest generation of jihadists being well-connected to both militants in the Middle East and to militants elsewhere in the South East Asia region. In addition to increased police raids on suspected militants, the government has also taken steps to bolster its legal armory. In particular, the government has sought to amend the 2003 terrorism laws that were passed after the Bali bombings, to allow greater action against suspected militants (Jakarta Post, February 16). Measures proposed include expanding the definition of terrorism to allow the authorities to take action at an earlier stage against nascent militant groupings, to allow the police to hold terrorist suspects for a maximum of ten months (an increase from the current six months), and to allow more evidence gathered by the intelligence agencies to be used in court. An additional proposal involves identifying ways to limit and/or criminalize communications between Indonesian radicals with militants based abroad. Although some human rights organizations have criticized the proposals, in practice, the amendments reflect that Indonesia's current laws, which make it very difficult for the government to take any action against militants and extremists who are not actively preparing attacks, are out of sync with international norms and are widely believed to have substantially hampered the country's ability to action against domestic extremists. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Leaders of Chechnya and Ingushetia Unite Against Salafists Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Mairbek Vatchagaev Publication Date 18 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 33 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Leaders of Chechnya and Ingushetia Unite Against Salafists, 18 February 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 33, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56ceb3864.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Ingushetia is presently engulfed in a dispute over accusations made by the Chechen government and religious authorities against the activities of Salafist clerics in the republic-Khamzat Chumakov and Isa Tsechoev. Chechnya's leadership was once considered totally hostile toward Ingushetia as a whole, but the situation is now more complicated. Ingushetia's mufti, Isa Khamkhoev, and the leaders of the Qadiriyya and Naqshbandi Sufi tarriqas (spiritual orders) in Ingushetia, have allied with Ramzan Kadyrov (Eadaily.com, February 3). Ingushetia's mufti made this alliance with Chechnya's governor, refusing to heed the demand by the governor of Ingushetia, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, to step down. This is not the first time that a conflict with the republican authorities pushed Ingush public figures to seek Grozny's protection. However, Ingush society usually condemns such protection seekers. After Khamkhoev aligned himself with Chechnya's mufti and Kadyrov, civil organizations of Ingushetia spoke out against Ingushetia's mufti and asked the Chechen authorities not to interfere in the republic's affairs. Moreover, the Ingush activists called on Moscow to rein in Kadyrov and determine whether his statements against Ingush clerics qualified as extremist. At the same time, despite Kadyrov's attacks on the Salafist preacher Isa Tsechoev, Ingushetia's rights activists declared the preacher the winner of the Heroes of the Civil Society competition (Galgayche.org, February 12). Thus, Ingushetia's activists came in support of those religious leaders whom the Chechen authorities threatened with physical violence. On the other hand, Yevkurov, Ingushetia's governor and Kadyrov's bitterest enemy of the past 4-5 years, unexpectedly came out in support of the Chechen ruler (Onkavkaz.com, February 7). Yevkurov may have been trying to deescalate the situation. However, the Chechen authorities supported the Ingush mufti while the governor of Ingushetia asked him to resign multiple times publicly-on TV, at meetings with civil society activists, during government meetings, and so on (Kommersant, February 11). Yevkurov's support for Kadyrov should be interpreted as support for the Sufis and an attempt to limit the influence of Salafist preachers in Ingushetia-Khamzat Chumakov and Isa Tsechoev. Kadyrov reciprocated by stating that he had a telephone conversation with Yevkurov and that they agreed on joint ideological actions against the Salafists. This surprise rapprochement between the governors of Chechnya and Ingushetia sparked rumors in Ingushetia that Moscow had decided to merge the two republics into one entity, as they were prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Yevkurov was even forced to respond to the rumors, saying: "No merger is in sight and cannot be. Neither I, nor Ramzan Kadyrov raised this issue in our conversations. Our republics are developing, economic issues are resolved, social conditions are improving. We should help each other, do things together. Everybody has his own territory, his own republic and it is good that way!" (Yug.svpressa.ru, February 5). Kadyrov also clarified his position about the unification of Chechnya and Ingushetia: "In regard to the provocative talks about my desire to unify the Chechen Republic and the Republic of Ingushetia, I can say that I will never agree with that. I swear that no one is against the merger as much as I am! Chechens and Ingush are brotherly people, but each republic has its own problems and tasks. We should not add them together" (Gazeta.ru, February 5). On February 10, the Security Councils of Chechnya and Ingushetia held a joint session in Grozny-a development that was a surprise to residents of both Chechnya and Ingushetia. The heads of the two bodies, Chechnya's Vakhit Usmaev and Ingushetia's Ahmed Dzeitov, presided over the meeting, during which officials discussed a range of issues related to countering terrorism and extremism (Lentari.ru, February 12). Some Ingush websites perceived the joint meeting as proof that Moscow has secret plans to merge the two republics. "The process of the amalgamating Ingushetia into Chechnya is becoming increasingly obvious, despite the rhetoric of the two governors," one source was quoted as saying (Magaslife.com, February 12). In reality, amalgamation is probably not an option now, and the two republics simply met to coordinate actions against Salafists after a nudge from Moscow. One of the outcomes of the alliance between the Ingush mufti and the Chechen leadership is that Chechen Sufis will, from now on, call themselves Ahlu Sunna Sufis of Chechnya (Instagram.com/p/BBtAZzaiRu, February 12). Thus, the government is trying to snatch that term from the Salafists, who have claimed it previously in the North Caucasus. The term will become eroded, because many different groups will use it for themselves and Salafists will stop being the only "people of Sunna." At the meeting with the Ingush spiritual leaders, Kadyrov noted for the first time that talks between the Dagestani authorities and the Salafists caused tensions in the republic. The Dagestani authorities did not react to Kadyrov's statements, but they could mean that Moscow has chosen the same policy in Dagestan as in Chechnya-the eventual complete banning of Salafism. If Kadyrov did not misspeak, and this really is Moscow's new policy in Dagestan, it will likely backfire, because there are tens of thousands of Salafists in Dagestan and outlawing them will result in new clashes and strengthen the armed Islamist underground opposition. Russia is slipping into a severe crisis and frantically seeking a way to prevent an uprising in the North Caucasus. However, every move Moscow makes in the region strengthens the armed Islamist underground there, making Russia worse off. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Lee University will host Candy Carson, wife of presidential candidate Ben Carson, from 11 a.m. to noon on Monday to talk about family, life, politics, and other small topics. The event will take place in the Walker Lecture Hall in the Science and Math Complex. Mrs. Carson has had an extraordinary life, going from the inner-city streets of Detroit, to the halls of Yale University, to a Presidential campaign, said Jerome Hammond, vice president for University Relations. She is exactly the kind of person we want Lee students to meet. Mrs. Carsons recent book, A Doctor in the House contains the details of her unlikely journey, including her life with the celebrated neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, candidate for the 2016 GOP nomination. The calling of a neurosurgeon isn't easy to live out, she writes in her upcoming memoir. The life of a neurosurgeon's wife isn't much easier. But its been worth it all. The Carsons met at Yale University and have stayed together through triumph and tragedy, creating an inspirational story of overcoming odds, said officials.. While at Yale Mrs. Carson triple-majored in music, psychology and pre-med. She also holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. Mrs. Carson is a former concert violinist and the coauthor of four books with Dr. Carson. Together Dr. and Mrs. Carson founded the Carson Scholars Fund, an endowment that rewards young people for exceptional academic and humanitarian accomplishments." The Monday event is free and open to the public. For more information or to RSVP, contact Bethany McCoy at 614-8598. Surkov and Gryzlov: Russia's New Negotiators on Ukraine (Part Two) Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Vladimir Socor Publication Date 23 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 36 Related Document(s) Surkov and Gryzlov: Russia's New Negotiators on Ukraine (Part One) Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Surkov and Gryzlov: Russia's New Negotiators on Ukraine (Part Two) , 23 February 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 36, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56ceb56e4.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Russia's new representative in the Minsk Contact Group "on the implementation of the peace plan in the East of Ukraine," Boris Gryzlov, has been closely associated with President Vladimir Putin for nearly 20 years, since Putin was still working in St. Petersburg. The new envoy takes over this assignment with an enhanced status as presidential plenipotentiary. Putin's appointment of Gryzlov parallels the assignment of Putin's aide Vladislav Surkov to operate the Russian side of the backchannel with Washington, in which Ukraine and Syria are being discussed as a package. Both envoys replace professional diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in those roles. The Kremlin is taking over control of the negotiations from the foreign ministry in these two negotiating formats, while Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov continues to represent Russia in the "Normandy" format (see Part One, in EDM, February 19). Gryzlov headed the pro-Putin political organization Yedinstvo, first in St. Petersburg and then in Russia's State Duma (1999-2001), the direct precursor to the Yedinaya Rossiya (United Russia) party of power. Gryzlov was internal affairs minister in 2001-2003, and retains, from that time to date, the status of a permanent member of Russia's Security Council. Gryzlov became Yedinaya Rossiya's leader and the State Duma's chairman for two consecutive terms (2003-2011) and chairman of the board of the nuclear energy holding Rosatom (2012 to date). He takes over the Minsk Group assignment from Azamat Kulakhmetov, Russia's former ambassador to Syria, who continues serving under Gryzlov in the Minsk Group (Kommersant, January 17). The new envoy practically invited himself to Kyiv for talks with President Petro Poroshenko, on January 11. Gryzlov (just like Surkov) is blacklisted by the European Union, the United States and Ukraine, as part of sanctions over Russia's annexation of Crimea (prior to Russia's military intervention in Ukraine's east, for which they are also co-responsible). Gryzlov's landing at Kyiv airport also breached Ukraine's ban on Russian civilian flights in Ukraine's airspace and their use of Ukrainian airports (Russia has similarly banned Ukrainian flights). Moscow achieved a precedent-setting breach of personal sanctions affecting its top officials. Apart from this, Moscow is asking Kyiv to negotiate about Ukraine's southeast with a Russian official who has been sanctioned internationally precisely for his role in the seizure of Ukrainian territory. But the Ukrainian government evidently felt that it could not afford to refuse this visit. Gryzlov's Kyiv visit amounted to bypassing the Minsk Contact Group, to which he is accredited. On Putin's behalf he carried some new proposals for discussion with Kyiv bilaterally, without having submitted them in the multilateral Minsk Group. This move could also be seen as attempting to bypass Donetsk-Luhansk (which are represented in the Minsk Group) and offer a more salable deal to Ukraine, without Donetsk-Luhansk's co-authorship, even if pre-consulted with them. According to some Kyiv insiders, Gryzlov outlined a "road map" toward the implementation of the Minsk Two armistice, asking Ukraine to undertake the following steps in this order: enact a general amnesty law for war-related crimes in the Russian-controlled territory; negotiate and agree with Donetsk-Luhansk on a law for local "elections" to be staged in that territory; validate those elections' outcome, and bring the law on the "special procedures for local self-government" in that territory into effect; and finally, enshrine that law in Ukraine's constitution (Moscow would accept adding that amendment to the constitution's transitory provisions, not necessarily the body of the text). Those are preconditions to allowing Ukraine to restore control of its own side of the Ukraine-Russia border in the Russian-controlled territory (under the Minsk armistice, Ukraine is supposed to negotiate with Donetsk-Luhansk about some form of joint control of that border). With this, Moscow would hope to see the start of discussions with the European Union about easing the economic sanctions. Notably, Gryzlov (Moscow) showed no interest in quibbling about the special electoral law for local elections in Donetsk-Luhansk-a matter left to the Minsk Group entirely (Dzerkalo Tyzhnya, January 15-21; Apostrof, February 5). President Poroshenko minimized publicity around Gryzlov's visit before going public himself with his counter-proposals on national television. Without mentioning Gryzlov's roadmap, Poroshenko outlined what amounts to Ukraine's roadmap, with its own sequence of steps: a reasonably lengthy period of a full ceasefire, with full and unimpeded access for the monitoring operation; withdrawal of illegally stationed forces from the Donetsk-Luhansk territory; restoration of Ukraine's control on its side of the border (alternatively, deployment of an international contingent of police personnel along the border). No valid elections could be held in Donetsk-Luhansk without those basic security guarantees (Ukrinform, January 24). Hardly anyone in Kyiv harbors illusions that Moscow would accept those proposals and that chronological sequence. Kyiv seeks to forestall a possible Western imposition of sham elections in the Russian-controlled territory. Such elections would, in the existing circumstances, guarantee the success of Russia's proxies and legitimize the Donetsk and Luhansk "people's republics." The Minsk Contact Group is currently debating the technical modalities for such elections, in the absence of basic security conditions, let alone a legal and democratic environment. A meeting of the Minsk Group is scheduled to be held on February 24, after a month-long hiatus. According to Ukraine's delegate, Roman Bessmertnyy, the negotiations are not afloat, but "sinking below the water line" in terms of security guarantees for any political process (Apostrof, February 22). Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Russia's Cost-Benefit Interest in Syria Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Roger McDermott Publication Date 23 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 36 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Russia's Cost-Benefit Interest in Syria, 23 February 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 36, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56ceb62c4.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website As Washington and Moscow join efforts to initiate a ceasefire in war-torn Syria, there is growing evidence that Russian policymakers believe the cost-benefit side of the military intervention is yielding political dividends. Despite the low-cost and low-risk side of the military equation, limited in terms of the deployment size or sustaining this even over the long term, Moscow perceives its diplomatic benefits as outweighing any potential damage. Indeed, as the frequency of bilateral contact on Syria with Washington continues to grow, Moscow interprets this as confirming its indispensability. Russian analysts appreciate the complexity of the conflict, noting that the intervention is unlikely to offer any military solution. Yet, the political and diplomatic impact of Russian air operations, and signs of success in aiding the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) reveal careful planning. For instance, Moscow's air campaign in Syria is reportedly also closely tied to a "multi-layered" intelligence system functioning on the ground alongside its coalition partners (Bmpd.livejournal.com, February 18). One factor frequently raised by Western experts is the potential for Russia's assertive foreign and security policies to be scaled back due to straightened economic times. However, despite trimming the overall defense ministry spending plans, there seems little prospect that economic considerations will drive the Kremlin to change its Syria policy. A source close to the defense ministry leadership told Vedomosti that military expenditure will be reduced this year by around 5 percent. Apparently, since the economic crisis began, the defense ministry was compelled to reduce its budget, with an approximate reduction for 2015 at around 3.8 percent. Based on current defense budget plans, the spending levels for 2016 will be cut by 160 billion rubles ($2.1 billion). Although these cuts appear quite significant, it is unlikely to have any real bearing on capabilities or on the ongoing air operations in Syria. Procurement priorities will remain the same, with some delays and projects moved around in order to compensate for such budget cuts. This is likely to delay lower priority areas such as on conventional weapons systems for the Navy and the Air Force. Vedomosti's interlocutor is convinced that the 5 percent cut to defense expenditures will have no implications for the air campaign in Syria, which he characterizes as planned from the current budget and at relatively low "annual costs" (Vedomosti, February 19). Clearly, the cost-benefit analysis is viewed very differently in Moscow. One Russian Middle East expert with close ties to the Kremlin offered a range of perspectives on plausible scenarios for ending the Syria conflict. Vitaliy Naumkin, the head of research at the Institute of Oriental Studies, sees no possibility of creating a "no-fly zone" in Syria, nor does he consider as serious the threat of Turkey or Saudi Arabia deploying ground forces in the conflict. On the latter issue, Naumkin believes that Turkey and Saudi Arabia are merely "making loud noises," and that their "saber-rattling" is designed to pressure Damascus and the countries that support it. Indeed, Naumkin places the emphasis on settling the conflict squarely on the diplomatic process, though some parties to the conflict have vested interests in its continuation: "There is no other way out. Agreement has to be reached in any case because a military victory for anyone, which all conflicting sides are counting on, is in reality impossible. There should be national conciliation in Syria" (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, February 16). Consequently, the Kremlin-connected expert assesses the conflict as highly unpredictable, with a great number of scenarios for its future course being possible; Naumkin sees the sluggish diplomatic process continuing until the main players (Russia, the United States and the European countries) impose a decision. Yet, there are potential complicating factors, not least Russia-Turkey tensions, or the difficult relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, February 16). These considerations, perhaps reflecting a sober and realistic picture presented to the Kremlin by the Russian expert community, raise the question as to the nature of Moscow's calculus in its Syria intervention. It is unclear if the Kremlin ever believed that the military campaign alone could yield success in terms of delivering a resolution of the conflict. What seemed to drive Kremlin policy was the need to protect Russia's interests, prop up the al-Assad regime, avoid a Libya scenario from unfolding in Syria, and guarantee that Moscow would be included in any conflict settlement. In fact, it seems that far from Russia becoming involved in a "quagmire" in Syria, the longer-term and careful defense planning that preceded the deployment was geared toward avoiding precisely such risks. Two factors are important in this regard: the way Moscow views modern warfare and the lessons it may have drawn from Donbas, as well as the considerable though less well scrutinized intense scale of logistical support for its operations in Syria (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, February 19). Moscow has invested considerable effort in supporting its deployments in Syria, especially in relation to using its reformed military logistics system: Materiel-Technical Support (Materialno-Tekhnicheskogeo Obespechniea-MTO). Considerable fine tuning went into the MTO over the past two years. And although problems remain, the operation in Syria has witnessed an efficient development and use of air and sea lines of communication. The combat service support effectively delivered by the MTO could only have been implemented so smoothly on the basis of long-term planning. In this case, it is most likely that contingency plans for military intervention in Syria began several years ago, with an increase in their priority levels approximately one year prior to commencing operations. The advances in the MTO infrastructure are also reflected in the ongoing construction of fueling stations at several airfields (Krymsk, Lipetsk, Engels, Kursk, and Domna Koltsovo), with an additional 23 facilities planned by 2020. The MTO is also involved in the delivery of advanced fuel products to extend the range of cruise missiles, using Detsilin-M fuel (Voyenno Promyshlennyy Kuryer, February 17; Bmpd.livejournal.com, February 16). Ultimately, in defense terms, the Kremlin' use of hard power in Syria is rooted in its asymmetric and limited use of military power. It judged the SAA as the weaker player against the rebels and Islamic State and planned accordingly. Russian air power and on-the-ground training for the SAA gradually shifted the balance away from the rebels, while Russian diplomats rapidly distanced themselves from al-Assad's aspiration to retake all lost territory: Moscow's limited use of military power in Syria was never intended to achieve "total victory." Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation The PLA's New Organizational Structure: What is Known, Unknown, and Speculation (Part 2) Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Kenneth Allen, Dennis J. Blasko, John F. Corbett Publication Date 23 February 2016 Related Document(s) The PLA's New Organizational Structure: What is Known, Unknown and Speculation (Part 1) Cite as Jamestown Foundation, The PLA's New Organizational Structure: What is Known, Unknown, and Speculation (Part 2), 23 February 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56ceb8044.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Note: This article is part of a series examining changes to China's Military organizational structure and personnel. Part 1 examines what is known and unknown. Part 2 contains speculation as to changes that may occur in the future. Parts 1&2 are available as a single document at the bottom of this page. As discussed in Part 1, the "unknowns" about China's ongoing military reorganization far exceed the "knowns" as the major changes are revealed in a deliberate yet piecemeal fashion. Part 2 moves further into the realm of speculation, focusing on two key areas. The first area of speculation addresses the complex and understandably politically sensitive area of reforming the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) cumbersome grade and rank system to meet the requirements of the reorganized system. This process will affect every member and organization in the PLA; some will benefit and some will not. It is likely to be a challenging process. The second area of speculation examines the various ways that the top leadership organ of the PLA, the Central Military Commission (CMC), might evolve to better "command" as well as represent the interests of the PLA and Chinese armed forces overall. Understanding the dynamics of these two speculations, as well as the outcomes, will be essential building blocks for future analysis of the motives and the implications of this iteration of PLA reorganization and reform. Possible Changes to the PLA's System of Grade and Ranks In the PLA, every organization and officer is assigned a grade from the platoon level to the CMC to designate their position in the military hierarchy. Organizationally, units can only command other units of lesser grade levels. Officers are assigned grades along with military ranks. Each grade from military region leader down has two assigned ranks, while some ranks, such as major general, can be assigned to up to four grades. This is one of the PLA's defining features, as an officer's grade is more important than his rank. [1] Although no official reports on the reorganization have mentioned a change to the grade system, there are at least four possible adjustments based on the changes that have occurred. First, the Military Region (MR) Leader and Deputy Leader grades will likely be renamed Theater Leader and Deputy Leader, respectively. Second, the Division Deputy Leader grade may be renamed Brigade Leader. This would reflect the fact that over the past decade the PLA has been shifting several components from a division and subordinate regiment structure to a brigade structure with subordinate battalions. In addition, there is a third possibility that the entire structure may be reorganized by adding or eliminating both a Leader and Deputy Leader grade or adjusting units from one grade to another. For example, there has been speculation that all Corps Leader- and Deputy Leader-grade operational and support organizations, such as group armies and the 15th Airborne Corps will be downgraded to Division Leader; however, the Corps Leader and Deputy Leader grades likely will remain for functional and administrative departments (gwy.yibys.com, September 9, 2015). A fourth possible adjustment is to abolish the entire grade structure and rely solely on ranks. The grade structure originated with the PLA's predecessor, the Red Army, in the 1920s and underwent several adjustments since then; however, it will have to be replaced with some type of structure indicating rank. [2] One of the driving forces to change the grade structure is presumably the result of a previous round of reforms. In 2003, 200,000 personnel (85 percent of whom were officers) were downsized, their positions taken by an expanded corps of tens of thousands of noncommissioned officers (NCOs). Though they filled an important personnel gap, they currently have no grade themselves and are referred to as "acting" () leaders. There is also speculation that the entire rank structure may be altered in an attempt to clarify and simplify the personnel system and make seniority, authority, and responsibility levels more transparent. [3] As shown in Table 1 of Part 1, each grade up to MR Leader has a primary and secondary rank where, as a general rule, officers receive a rank promotion every four years up to colonel and a grade promotion every three years up to Regiment Leader (China Brief, February 4). After that, the rank and grade promotions, which are rarely simultaneous, are based on available billets, requirements and mandatory retirement ages. Furthermore, mandatory retirement ages are based on their grade, not their rank or time-in-service. [4] One Grade, One Rank? Based on a review of various unofficial media reports, one possibility for rank structure reform is that the PLA will cease to have two grades per rank, wherein one rank can be assigned to more than one grade. This is a logical step in rationalizing the PLA's rank system, a process that began with the PLA's eighth force reduction of one million personnel that started in 1985 and reduced the number of MRs from 11 to 7. As part of the 1985 reform, the PLA transitioned from 18 grades to 15 and reestablished ranks in the PLA in 1988. From 19881994, each grade had three ranks, before the system was simplified to two grades per rank. Senior Colonel Rank A second possible rank structure reform involves the abolition of the senior colonel () rank, or that the PLA will re-introduce a new 4-star flag officer rankor both (gwy.yibys.com, September 9, 2015). Senior colonels currently may have positions in the grades of division deputy leader, division leader, or corps deputy leader-level. Based on their grade and position, the retirement age for senior colonels ranges from 5058 years old. Elimination of this rank would be a reasonable step to take in conjunction with the options for restructuring grades, units and responsibilities discussed elsewhere in this paper. 4-Star Flag Officer One of the driving forces for the adoption of a "4-star" flag officer rank is the PLA's growing foreign military relations program, such that a "4-star" general or admiral meets with his "4-star counterpart." Although this matters in terms of protocol from a visual perspective, it does not necessarily mean that they are co-equals. [5] To date, one of the challenges for U.S. military leaders has been to figure out who their PLA counterpart has been. As a general rule, the U.S. Secretary of Defense (SecDef) and China's Defense Minister (DefMin) are considered counterparts and host each other; however, it is important to keep in mind that they are not true counterparts in terms of responsibilities. [6] In addition to hosting the DefMin, the SecDef has also hosted five of the six CMC vice chairmen during visits to the U.S. [7] The question is who will receive four stars. One possibility is that all CMC vice chairmen and members and some Theater Leader-grade officers will receive a fourth star, while certain Theater Leader- and Deputy Leader-grade officers will have three stars, Corps Leader- and Deputy Leader-grade officers will have two stars, and Division Leader-grade officers will have one star. There are many other options, each with downstream consequences for rank, grade and structural reforms. For example, one alternative approach is that Corps Deputy Leader-grade officers could receive one star and the Senior Colonel rank could be eliminated; such a move would require redefining the organizational positions and associated rank for all billets at the colonel to major general levelsa major undertaking for any military. Table 1 shows a possible grade and rank structure and demonstrates the complexity of the system. For purposes of this article only, the following unofficial acronyms are used: DM (Defense Minister), JSD (Joint Staff Department), PWD (Political Work Department), LSD (Logistics Support Department), and EDD (Equipment Development Department), PLAA (PLA Army), PLAN (PLA Navy), PLAAF (PLA Air Force), PLARF (PLA Rocket Force), PAP (People's Armed Police), and HQ (headquarters). Table 1: Possible Grade and Rank Restructuring Grade Rank Organizations CMC Chairman Vice Chairmen None Possible 4-star general CMC Member Possible 4-star general DM, JSD, PWD, LSD, EDD Theater Leader Possible 4-star general PLAA, PLAN, PLAAF, PLARF, PAP, 5 Theaters Theater Deputy Leader 3-star general 3 Theater Navy HQ, 5 Theater Air Force HQ, possible Theater Missile Force HQ, some academic institutions, equipment research academies Corps Leader 2-star general Group armies; airborne corps; Rocket Force bases; some administrative and functional departments; some academic institutions Corps Deputy Leader Possible 2-star general Naval bases; PLAAF bases and command posts Division Leader 1-star general Divisions, naval zhidui (flotillas), air divisions, airborne divisions, aircraft carrier Brigade Leader Colonel Brigades, air wings, strategic missile subs Regiment Leader Lt Colonel Regiments, naval dadui (squadrons) destroyers, nuclear powered subs Regiment Deputy Leader Major Frigates, conventional powered subs Battalion Leader Major Battalions; flight and maintenance groups Battalion Deputy Leader Major Company Leader Captain Companies; fight and maintenance squadrons Company Deputy Leader Captain Platoon Leader 1st lieutenant Platoons Who Will Be on the CMC? One of the biggest unanswered questions so far is who will be on the "new" Central Military Commission and when will it reflect the new PLA force structure. Currently, the two vice chairmen and eight members of the CMC since the 18th Party Congress in 2012 continue to serve in their same positions (MOD, January 1; www.81.cn, January 28). Table 2, which provides a matrix with eight possible CMC manning options (O-1 to O-8) ranging from a very small CMC to a large CMC, demonstrates the complexity of the process. Each option poses a different set of senior level personnel issues with potential political as well as interpersonal ramifications for the leadership. Prior to 2016, the leaders of the General Staff Department (GSD), General Political Department (GPD), General Logistics Department (GLD), and General Armament Department (GAD) were CMC Members because that was the grade of their organization, while the commanders of the PLAN, PLAAF, and PLA Second Artillery Force (PLASAF) were "upgraded" based on a "policy promotion" () to CMC Member grade even though the grade of their organization was only a MR Leader grade. As a result, it is reasonable to anticipate that anyone who serves as the leader of a CMC Member-grade organization in the future will also be an automatic CMC Member. It is also reasonable to expect that commanders of the services will continue to serve on the CMC. However, it is not necessary that every Theater Leader grade officer will automatically become a CMC Member. For example, there is no indication that the Theater-grade leadership positions at the Academy of Military Science, the National Defense University and the People's Armed Police will be added to the CMC. It is assumed that the CMC will continue to have two uniformed vice chairman; however, this too could change. For example, during the 1980s and 1990s, there were various uniformed vice chairman-level billets, including a secretary general, deputy secretary general, first vice chairman, executive vice chairman, and first secretary. [8] In addition, the number of uniformed vice chairmen has also ranged from six or more in the 1970s to three in the 1990s and early 2000s. As such, there would be a precedent for adding a third vice chairman. The following bullets briefly discuss the information in each option. Option 1: The CMC retains the same members as prior to the reorganization. Option 2: The PLA Army commander is added. Option 3: The commander of the Strategic Support Force is added. This would follow the precedent set by the inclusion of the commander of the Second Artillery commander on the CMC. Option 4: The commanders of the five theaters are added; however, to further confuse the issue, if the Central Theater is, in fact, only a Theater Deputy Leader-grade organization, then the possibility exists that it the commander will not be able to be a CMC Member, because he would have to "skip a grade." Option 5: Given the increasing emphasis on the People's Armed Police (PAP) as a component of the CMC, there is a slight possibility that the commander could be added. Option 6: Given that the reorganization focuses on a three-tiered structure of "CMCtheater commandstroops" command system and an administration system that runs from the CMC through various services to the troops, the commanders of the administrative organizations (PLAA, PLAN, PLAAF, PLARF, and PAP) are not included, such that only the operational commands (e.g., theaters) and PLA Strategic Support Force (PLASSF) are included (www.81.cn, November 26, 2015). Option 7: The Commander of the Strategic Support Force is not included because the Strategic Support Force is not a service. Option 8: Only the Defense Minister, Chief of Staff (e.g., Chief of the Joint Staff), and Director of the Political Works Department are included (Sina.com, January 11). [9] This is a possibility, because the Logistics Support Department and Equipment Development Departments may be downgraded to Theater Leader, since the previous General Logistics Department and General Armament Department were already one-half step below the General Staff Department and General Political Department, and their counterparts from the MR Leader down to the Regiment Leader grade organizations were all one full grade below the Headquarters Department and Political Department. Table 2: CMC Member Options Grade O-1 O-2 O-3 O-4 O-5 O-6 O-7 O-8 CMC Member DM JSD PWD LSD EDD DM JSD PWD LSD EDD DM JSD PWD LSD EDD DM JSD PWD LSD EDD DM JSD PWD LSD EDD DM JSD PWD LSD EDD DM JSD PWD LSD EDD DM JSD PWD Theater Leader PLAN PLAAF PLARF PLAA PLAN PLAAF PLARF PLAA PLAN PLAAF PLARF PLASSF PLAA PLAN PLAAF PLARF PLASSF 5 Theaters PLAA PLAN PLAAF PLARF PLASSF PAP 5 Theaters PLASSF 5 Theaters 5 Theaters When determining who can serve as a CMC Member, both time-in-grade and time-in-rank must be taken into consideration. The July 2010 group of promotions demonstrated the path to full general, which combines rank and grade promotions consisting of three observable steps (China Brief July 22, 2010, and China Brief, August 5, 2010): Step One: Lieutenant generals (LTGs) in a MR Deputy Leader-grade move laterally to a second position in the same grade. to a second position in the same grade. Step Two: After three or so years, they receive a grade promotion to an MR leader-grade position, and to an MR leader-grade position, and Step Three: After three years or so as a LTG in an MR leader-grade position, they receive a rank promotion to full general. [10] to full general. In order to become a CMC member-grade officer, an officer first serves in one of the above MR leader-grade billets; however, not every officer who serves in one of these billets becomes a CMC member. Historically, previous CMC Members have held their 3-star rank for a minimum of two years before they became CMC Members. Therefore, although at least four of the theater commanders and the new PLA Army commander currently have held the grade of MR Leader for more than two years, they only received their third star in July 2015 and may not be eligible to receive a policy promotion to CMC Member until they have at least two years' time-in-rank, which means mid-2017 (China Brief July 22, 2010, and China Brief, August 5, 2010). [11] In recent practice, however, there have been a number of exceptions to the time-in-grade and time-in-position standards that appeared to be the pattern in 2010. [12] It is not yet clear who will become members of the CMC and exactly when the change in personnel will occur. This may be a phased in process over the next 20 months, or it might not occur until the 19th Party Congress in late 2017 when several members are due to retire. Whatever happens, there should be a large changeover in the CMC. Based on the existing pattern of age requirements (retire at age 68; continue to serve at age 67), six members should retire, while four members of the current CMC could stay on based on age, including Fang Fenghui (April 1951), Zhang Yang (August 1951), and Wei Fenghe (February 1954). Zhang Youxia (July 1950) will be 67 and, although on the cusp of retirement, should also still be eligible to remain. A potential CMC lineup in 2017 would include Fang Fenghui and Zhang Yang as vice chairmen, Zhang Youxia as the Defense Minister and perhaps vice chairman, and Wei Fenghe continuing as commander of the Rocket Force. The timeline for revamping the CMC, should it happen before the 19th Party Congress, has several possible steps. Prior to 2017, in conjunction with changes now underway, the CMC might be expanded from 10 uniformed vice chairmen/members to 11 or 12 with the addition of the Army (GEN Li Zuocheng) and possibly the Strategic Support Force commander (LTG Gao Jin). [13] These changes would pose two "process" issues in that Li is not a member (full or alternate) of the Party Central Committeeand the CMC is a Central Committee organization. And LTG Gao, while an alternate member of the Central Committee, has only been in an MR leader grade position as President of the PLA Academy of Military Science (AMS) for one year and only a LTG since Aug 2013. The expansion of the CMC at this time remains in question. One possible course of action is that Li could be added to the Central Committee at the next plenum in the fall of 2016 and Gao could be promoted to full general this summer, paving the way for him to also be promoted to the CMC at the next plenum. Alternatively, any change to the CMC could wait until 2017 permitting due course retirements and reducing policy exceptions for promotions. Conclusions Although official Chinese and PLA media articles have laid out the general policy issues and reforms at the CMC, service headquarters, and theater command levels, there has been no indication about who will become the new generation of CMC leaders. Other important details, such as the organizational structures of the services and theater commands or the details of how operational units will be affected by the reforms, have also not yet been announced. Even after the official announcements are made, many gaps in the information made public, such as the structure for the first-, second- and third-level administrative and functional departments for the various organizations, remain. Constant close attention and continuing analysis is necessary to better understand the inner complexities of this complex bureaucratic structure. The past two years must have been a period of high anxiety for many PLA personnel as they awaited word on how their jobs would be affected by the reforms. Some, though probably not all, operational units equipped with older generations of weapons likely will be cut from the active force; some units, such as large caliber towed antiaircraft artillery units in the Army and Air Force, may be transferred to the reserves. A variety of local headquarters could also be consolidated or eliminated. Some personnel billets traditionally allotted to the Army could be assigned to the other services to better balance the force. In the next few years, those who were not demobilized will nonetheless have to cope with even more change as units are shifted among headquarters and possibly reorganized internally. As the various headquarters become operational, it will likely take some time for all the functional offices to adjust to their new duties and de-conflict overlapping responsibilities. At the same time, many personnel will feel increased scrutiny from the super-charged discipline inspection and audit agencies tasked to root out corruption. A peacetime objective of the reforms is to reduce graft and corruption in the PLA. Success in this regard will be visible through disciplinary actions taken against those identified through more active inspection and auditing protocols. However, the PLA's success in its battle with corruption will be hard for outsiders to judge, given the sensitivities surrounding the problem and its relationship to larger political issues in the Party and country as a whole. In this period of transition from the old to new system, it is possible that combat readiness in some units could suffer until all the kinks are works out. While the stated goal is to increase the deterrence and combat capabilities of the PLA, the true effectiveness of these reforms cannot be judged until the PLA is put to the test of modern, extended combat against a capable opponent. So far, there is little evidence pointing to the emergence of a more balanced, truly joint force before 2020. Even after personnel reductions and organizational changes are finished, the Army will likely be more than twice as large as any other service. For some time into the future, Army officers will continue to dominate the CMC and theater command headquarters indicating the degree of difficulty the PLA faces as it attempts an historic shift to abandon the "traditional mentality that land outweighs sea," as proclaimed in the 2015 white paper on "China's Military Strategy." Increasing the percentage of non-Army officers in senior leadership positions, especially at the CMC level and potentially including theater commands, will be a gradual process taking many years. It will also require changes in the PLA's system of academies and universities to better prepare officers from all services to assume joint leadership and staff assignments. Nonetheless, the senior PLA leadership appears to be cognizant of the problems it faces and recognizes that this series of reforms will take years to implement and fine-tune. More changes will be necessary in the decades ahead. These reforms are but the latest chapter in a multi-decade, multi-generational military modernization and transformation process that began in the late 1970s and is scheduled to continue until the mid-century target of 2049, the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic of China. [14] Kenneth W. Allen is a Senior China Analyst at Defense Group Inc. (DGI) and a concurrent Senior China Analyst with the USAF's China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI). He is a retired U.S. Air Force officer, whose extensive service abroad includes a tour in China as the Assistant Air Attache. He has written numerous articles on Chinese military affairs. A Chinese linguist, he holds an M.A. in international relations from Boston University. Dennis J. Blasko, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired), served 23 years as a Military Intelligence Officer and Foreign Area Officer specializing in China. Mr. Blasko was an army attache in Beijing from 19921995 and in Hong Kong from 19951996. He is the author of The Chinese Army Today: Tradition and Transformation for the 21st Century, second edition (Routledge, 2012). John F. Corbett, Jr., an Analytic Director with CENTRA Technology, Inc. since 2001, specializes in China, Taiwan, and Asian military and security issues. He is a retired US Army Colonel and Military Intelligence/China Foreign Area Officer (FAO), and has served as an army attache in Beijing and Hong Kong. He has published articles in The China Quarterly and The China Strategic Review and has contributed chapters to the NBR/U.S. Army War College series of books on the Chinese military. Notes 1. See Kevin Pollpeter and Kenneth W. Allen, eds, The PLA as Organization v2.0, p. 1015. . 2. Zhu Jianxin, Guo Fei, Ji Haitao, Officer System: Comparison and Reforms (:), Beijing: Academy of Military Science Press, December 2006, pp. 3637. 3. The PLA did not have a rank system until 1955 and subsequently abolished it in 1965. The current rank system was implemented in 1988. 4. Xu Ping, ed., Record of New China Implements Military Rank System (), Beijing: Gold Wall Press, June 2010. According to the Chinese Military Encyclopedia, the first ranks Regulations were passed on July 1, 1988 and amended on May 12, 1994. The Regulations were amended again on July 1, 1998. The Regulations were last amended on December 20, 2002. The 1988 Regulations re-established officer ranks after they were abolished in 1965. Of note, the National People's Congress (NPC) passed a Military Service Law in May 1984 that laid the ground work for reinstituting ranks, but the follow-on PLA Officer Rank Regulations were not implemented until 1988. The 1984 Law was amended on December 29, 1998. Song Shilun and Xiao Ke, eds., Chinese Military Encyclopedia (), Beijing: Academy of Military Science Publishers, July 1997, Volume 4, p. 392. ; . The Military Service Law of the People's Republic of China () was adopted on May 31, 1984 by the Second Session of the Sixth National People's Congress. 5. Pollpeter and Allen, Chapter 3 on the Ministry of National Defense, p. 85116. 6. See Kenneth W. Allen, Christopher M. Clarke, John F. Corbett, Jr., and Lonnie D. Henley, "China's Defense Minister and Ministry of National Defense," in Kevin Pollpeter and Kenneth W. Allen, eds., The PLA as Organization v2.0, . 7. Kenneth Allen and Phillip C. Saunders, "PLA Foreign Relations under Xi Jinping: Continuity and/or Change?," National Defense University, Forthcoming mid-2016; Other examples of the mis-match between U.S. and Chinese counterparts during state-to-state visits include the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), heads of the Air Force and Navy, and commander of Pacific Command. The CJCS has been a rough equivalent to the two CMC vice chairmen, but was also considered a counterpart to the former Chief of the General Staff (COGS), who served as the director of the General Staff Department. It is not clear who CJCS's new counterpart will be under the reorganization. The responsibilities of the new Joint Staff Department (JSD) and its Director are much more limited in scope than the responsibilities of the former General Staff Department and the COGS. At least five functional subdepartments were removed from the GSD and resubordinated to become new CMC functional organs. Other GSD responsibilities were assigned to the new Army Headquarters and the Strategic Support Force. As such, while the Director of the JSD may be first among the leaders of the CMC subordinate staff elements (except perhaps for the Director of the General Office) it does not appear that he will be a true counterpart to the U.S. CJCS in terms of duties and responsibilities. Whereas the Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CSAF) and the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) have direct PLA counterparts (e.g., the PLAAF and PLAN commanders, respectively), the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA) previously did not have a direct counterpart until the new Commander of the PLA Army was appointed in January. Meanwhile the Commander of Pacific Command (COMPACOM) has visited China more than any other person holding a leadership position. Although he does not have an exact counterpart, various Deputy Chiefs of the General Staff (DCOGS) and MR Commanders have hosted him and vice versa. He will most likely continue to deal with the new theater command commanders and Deputy Chiefs of the Joint Staff Department. 8. "The Central Military Commission," in Hu Guangzheng, ed., China Military Encyclopedia Version 2, Military Organization () Volume 1. Beijing: China Encyclopedia Publishing House, July 2007, p. 2231. 9. Although the head of the former General Staff Department was identified as the Chief of the General Staff (), the head of the new Joint Staff is known only as the Chief of Staff (). 10. Since the rank-to-grade adjustment in 1994, all Military Region (MR) leader-grade officers in the PLA have received their third star, but it is not always at the same time they assume their billet. 11. Li Zuocheng, Song Puxuan, Liu Yuejun, and Zhao Zongji were all promoted to full general on July 31, 2015. The commander of the Central Theater, Han Weiguo only received his second star at the same time. 12. Six of the ten officers promoted to full general/admiral in 2015 were exceptions. ADM Miao Hua moved to a MR-grade position in 2014 with less than two years as a LTG; then was promoted to full admiral having served in two MR-grade positions in one year. Five others were promoted after having only served two years or less as a LTG and/or less than three years in a MR-grade position. In hindsight, one could speculate these were "policy" exceptions preparing the way for the current reorganization now underway. 13. Generals Li and Gao were born in October 1953 and April 1959 respectively, meaning that they would be eligible for the CMC based on mandatory dates of retirement. Dates of birth are from DOD's Directory of PRC Military Personalities, March 2015. 14. See Phillip C. Saunders and Joel Wuthnow, "A First Cut at the Organizational Restructuring of the Chinese Military," National Defense University's Joint Forces Quarterly, forthcoming, early 2016, for additional information about the reorganization. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Handover of Oil Assets to Chechen Authorities: Start of Devolution of Power in Russia? Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Valery Dzutsati Publication Date 22 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 35 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Handover of Oil Assets to Chechen Authorities: Start of Devolution of Power in Russia?, 22 February 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 35, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56ceb9444.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Chechnya is gearing up to establish control over its oil-extracting business. The procedure for handing over the Rosneft affiliate Chechenneftekhimprom to the Chechen authorities is expected to be completed in March. For the first time in many years, Grozny is close to acquiring full control over the oil business in the republic. Chechnya's governor, Ramzan Kadyrov, appears to have outsmarted the giant Russian state oil company Rosneft and its head, Igor Sechin, who is reportedly a close associate of President Vladimir Putin. The Chechen authorities accused Rosneft of failing to invest in oil extraction and refining and vow to revive the republic's oil sector (Onkavkaz.com, February 18). Sources close to the Chechen leadership have said Kadyrov intends to force Sechin to rid Rosneft of all its remaining assets in the republic. Low oil prices and the existence of prospective oil fields in Siberia make doing so quite profitable for Rosneft. Oil extraction in Chechnya started long ago and many of its oil fields have been exhausted, while deeper oil fields require greater investment to exploit-something Rosneft apparently did not want to do. Oil extraction in Chechnya was a small fraction-0.23 percent-of Rosneft's total. Despite the impracticality of controlling oil extraction in Chechnya, the political symbolism of handing over the assets to the republic is quite significant. The republic's oil business was one of the main flashpoints in Russian-Chechen relations during the past 25 years. The Chechen quest for independence from Russia in the 1990s was partly based on its oil reserves and oil refineries. Prior to the second Russian-Chechen war of 1999-2000, the republic's three oil refineries could jointly process 20 million tons of oil per year. Chechnya's oil-processing enterprises accounted for 6 percent of Russian gasoline and up to 90 percent of the oil products for the country's aviation industry. After Russian forces levelled the Chechen oil industry and established control over the republic, Moscow started investing in the oil industry in Chechnya in an effort to rebuild its war-torn economy (Meduza.io, February 16). Now, the Chechen authorities are set to take control over what is left of the oil industry once again, this time with the approval of Moscow. Handing over the oil industry in Chechnya to the regional authorities is not merely an economic question, but also a major political one. The Russian opposition has accused the Chechen leadership of masterminding the murder of prominent Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, in Moscow, in February 2015. Since then, Kadyrov has made a number of controversial statements that put him at odds with large parts of Russian society, which may dislike the Russian opposition, but tends to dislike ethnic non-Russians even more. Some Russian analysts see a struggle going on between the Russian security services and Kadyrov, with the former having appealed to Putin to let them remove Kadyrov from power, to no avail (Newrezume.org, February 17). Instead of removing Kadyrov from power, or at least somehow undermining his authority, the Kremlin announced that it is handing over critical assets to the Chechen government. Is it a sign of devolution of power from the center to the periphery in Russia or a local victory for Kadyrov? Russia's economic downturn is evidently taking a toll on Moscow's centralizing efforts in the country. The central government has already had to rewrite the budget for 2016, because it was drafted based on the assumption that the average oil price would be $50 dollars per barrel-$35 per barrel as the worst scenario. However, oil prices have dropped to $30 and lower since the beginning of 2016 (Vedomosti, January 11). Moscow will soon have no money to send to Chechnya or the rest of the North Caucasus, meaning that it will have to drastically reduce government subsidies. Hence, the Kremlin may be trying other ways of sustaining the region in an effort to keep the local elites happy. This particularly applies to the Chechen Republic, which on the one hand still lacks the necessary tools to sustain itself but on the other hand has substantial armed forces that have to be provided for in order to ensure they remain under control. Handing over the oil industry to Grozny appears to be a way to appease the republican elites and is simultaneously a sign of approval for Ramzan Kadyrov. As the next step, Moscow will likely have to expand its accommodations for Kadyrov's government. Perhaps more important is the significance of this move for the other North Caucasus republics, particularly its implications for neighboring Dagestan. Dagestan reportedly has substantial oil and gas deposits that its officials are not allowed to touch without Moscow's approval. The devolution of power is likely to accelerate further if the leadership of Russia changes. But even with Putin in charge, it seems that regionalization of the country is slowly taking place; and the possibility that Chechnya could regain control over its energy resources has enormous implications for the rest of the North Caucasus. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation For Moscow, Talks Are About Sowing Discord, not Solving Conflicts Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Pavel K. Baev Publication Date 22 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 35 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, For Moscow, Talks Are About Sowing Discord, not Solving Conflicts, 22 February 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 35, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56ceb9ab4.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website A ceasefire in Syria, which appeared possible if not probable in early February, has again turned out to be unreachable. And in hindsight, it is rather obvious that it never had a chance. The deal that was negotiated on the side lines of the Munich security conference between United States Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was the high point of the high-level event. Though the Munich conference also registered a warning from Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about the risk of a "third world war" (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, February 15). Medvedev's "New Cold War" address was generally discouraging, but the deal on Syria generated some positive expectations, despite the fact that it was not really a deal but rather a "memorandum of understanding" (Rbc.ru, February 12). No mechanism was created for enforcing the ceasefire and no real commitments were made, but many in the West were inclined to believe that, moving into its fifth month of risky intervention, Russia understood the futility of pursuing a military victory on the ground. Moscow, however, had no intention of checking its offensive against Aleppo, whose fleeing inhabitants have added to the exodus of refugees flowing toward Europe. Russia sees the capture of the ruins of this major city as a possible turning point in the deadlocked civil war (Rbc.ru, February 8). The Russian high command hopes for a resonant victory, and in order to deflect accusations of heavy civilian casualties, it deployed to the Latakia airbase the most modern Tu-214R electronic surveillance plane, which should improve targeting (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, February 20). This operation perfectly complements Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's intention to continue the war until the complete victory over all rebels. Yet, Moscow has sought to distance itself from such an inflexible position (Polit.ru, February 17). It is far more beneficial for the Russian leadership to combine the relentless airstrikes with diplomatic maneuvering aimed at securing a major and, essentially, a deliberately disruptive role in any negotiations on the Syrian catastrophe (Novaya Gazeta, February 17). The space for such maneuvering is created by the discord in the US-led coalition, which cannot reconcile the military goal of defeating the so-called Islamic State with the political goal of removing the al-Assad regime from power. This discord has escalated in the course of the battle for Aleppo, as Turkey had bombarded the forces of the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) to the north of this city, and then was hit by terrorist attacks. Turkey is now coming quite close to making a decision on when to start a ground offensive across the border (Forbes.ru, February 19). Russia knows perfectly well that the US administration is caught between upholding the alliance with Turkey and supporting the YPG. Therefore, Moscow sought to exaggerate this dilemma by proposing a United Nations Security Council resolution that would preventively condemn Turkish intervention (Kommersant, February 20). The move was duly blocked, but as Turkey finds support in Saudi Arabia for more direct pressure on al-Assad, Syrian Kurds are working closer with al-Assad's government troops-and spreading stories about a possible "big war" alongside Russia in the region (Newsru.com, February 19). Moscow almost certainly has no intention of starting such a war and, in fact, has no capacity for expanding its Syrian intervention and few good options for minimizing the accumulating damage to Russia's international status from its actions (Politcom.ru, February 19). Yet, President Vladimir Putin exploits every opportunity to push the coalition partners further apart, promising the king of Saudi Arabia not to increase Russian oil exports and impressing upon the concerned Europeans that only Russian interference makes possible the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian cities (Rbc.ru, February 19). The most important of these connections is with the United States: and while President Barack Obama is deeply frustrated with Putin's games, he is still compelled to call him again and again (Slon.ru, February 15). Obama is right on target, stating-to much irritation in the Kremlin-that Russia is stuck in the Syrian quagmire (Vedomosti, February 17). Yet, Washington still has to communicate to the Russian top brass the exact locations of US special forces operating in Syria in order to prevent casualties from the consistently erratic Russian air strikes (Rossiiskaya Gazeta, February 18). The goal of Moscow's multi-channel communications appears to be to create a situation where no external party (with the obvious exception of Iran) would be able to intervene pro-actively in the Syrian war. Some Russian experts argue that this dissuasion is perfectly in line with US interests because Washington has no inclination to do anything in this disaster zone (Gazeta.ru, February 19). Obvious similarities can be perceived in this Russian use of negotiations as a tool of manipulating conflicts in Syria and in Ukraine (Kommersant, February 16). The so-called "Minsk process" that produced an agreement one year ago did not stop the Debaltseve battle but pushed Germany and France to commit to a political format that was patently unworkable (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, February 16). None of the parties to the conflict had any expectations of a full implementation of the deal; yet, all sides are in agreement that there is no alternative to this arrangement. Meanwhile, the ceasefire is violated by 50-70 gunfights every day. Undoubtedly, Russia is in dire economic straits, and Putin is firm set on a course that is driving the country deeper into this disaster. He is aware that Russians are becoming less and less interested in the Syrian adventure; a possible victory in Aleppo is unlikely to change this attitude. At the same time, the massive "patriotic" mobilization achieved with the annexation of Crimea is dissipating faster than would otherwise have been the case because domestic concerns about shrinking incomes deafen people to the drumbeat of propaganda. Putin cannot wait for his sky-high approval ratings to slip and needs to find another target for applying military force-increasingly the only reliable instrument of his survival policy. Talks with Western "partners" are not merely a means of camouflaging Russia's next proactive move, but also levers for widening the cracks in the transatlantic camp and tools for compromising US leadership. Containment is a costly and often unpopular strategy, and the Western allies' periodic shortcuts for opting out are legitimated by quite reasonable suggestions for "understanding" Putin's rationales. He counts on this Western timidity dressed as political realism. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Security Regime on Latvia's Eastern Border Needs Substantial Investment Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Olevs Nikers Publication Date 19 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 34 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Security Regime on Latvia's Eastern Border Needs Substantial Investment, 19 February 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 34, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56ceba154.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Different time zones and long geographical distance separate Latvia from the southern borders of the European Union, which, since last year, has been absorbing an unprecedented influx of thousands of displaced persons escaping war and poverty in Syria and the wider Middle East or looking for a better life in the richest European countries. Latvia, with its much smaller economy and lower standard of living has generally not been a serious destination goal for these refugees or migrants. Nonetheless, in a show of solidarity with the other members of the EU, Latvia has pledged to admit up to 776 asylum seekers over the coming two years (Lsm.lv, September 9, 2015). But the flood of refugees from the Middle East moving through Southeastern Europe is not the only problem that currently worries the Latvian government or its security services. In fact, growing numbers of migrants have been illegally crossing Latvia's border from the East. The recorded cases of such violations has increased from 196 persons in 2014 to 501 persons last year. Latvian Border Guard statistics collected last year note that officials detained 144 persons illegally crossing the border in 2015, which is the largest number of detainees since Latvia joined the Schengen Zone on December 21, 2007. Up to 95 percent of these detainees were illegal immigrants from Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq (Rs.gov.lv, accessed February 17). "Generally, these people come from Russia. In light of the ruble's devaluation and low wages, they are trying to migrate to Europe," noted State Border Guard representative Colonel Vladimir Zaguzovs (TVNET.lv, January 12). And the problem of such illegal crossings is further exacerbated by cases of trans-border smuggling. The fact that greater attention should be paid to the issue of migrants and refugees coming across the EU's collective eastern border was raised by Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics during the last informal meeting of EU foreign ministers (Gymnich), in Amsterdam, on February 5-6 (Mfa.gov.lv, February 6). Almost unprotected, Latvia's 449-kilometer-long eastern border-that is, its border with non-EU countries Belarus (173 km) and Russia (276 km)-is in need of substantial investment. According to former prime minister Laimdota Straujuma, fundamental improvements to this border, which is also the external border of the European Union and the Schengen Area, will require several tens of millions of euros (TVNET.lv, January 12). The Latvian-Russian border alone will necessitate new infrastructure, including additional fencing, which is estimated to cost 17 million euros ($19 million). Officials in the Ministry of Interior (MOI) have prioritized strengthening border crossing point infrastructure, boosting construction and maintenance work, as well as increasing the number of border guard service employees. According to the plan, the MOI expects to hire around 263 additional border guards in the coming years (Latvijas Avize, August 10, 2015). Among the most immediate goals are securing the border crossing points with biometric visa issuance and verification machines as well as providing necessary software and Internet connectivity at border checkpoints. Also this year, Latvian authorities are scheduled to resume the longer-term renewal of their fleet of border security aircraft, including the purchase of two small unmanned surveillance aircraft. Furthermore, they will begin installation of a sensor and video surveillance system along Latvia's "green" (land) border and sensor systems along its "blue" (maritime) border. Between 2015 and 2018, the MOI, in collaboration with several other agencies, plans to spend about 38 million euros ($42 million) in total on border security improvements. Border strengthening work is expected to be completed by 2019 (Latvijas Avize, August 10, 2015). Strengthening the physical border will take time. Therefore, in the meantime, parliamentary members want to make sure that the Latvian security services actively screen all potential legal asylum seekers that will be sent to Latvia. The security services will be expected to check migrants for any possible criminal records or past connections to violent non-state organizations. The new Latvian government, which was approved by the parliament on February 11, is committed to improving the country's eastern border as well as the strength and capabilities of its military forces. The government has committed itself to boosting defense funding to 1.7 percent of GDP in 2017, and 2 percent of GDP by 2018. It also plans to improve Latvia's self-defense capabilities by strengthening the combat readiness and response time of the National Armed Forces as well as enhancing the presence of the Armed Forces in the country's easternmost regions (Ventas Balss, February 9). The Baltic States-Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia-have become much more concerned about their border security since the beginning of 2014, when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine began. For example, Estonia-whose eastern border is currently in a similar condition to Latvia's-plans to invest 75 million euros ($83 million) to strengthen security along its frontier with Russia (Skaties.lv, October 18, 2015). Specifically, Estonia will renew the network of border markings and improve its border video surveillance system. Estonia also plans to construct a fence, about 110 kilometers long and 2.5 meters high, along its entire eastern border. In the continued absence of a common external border protection strategy for the EU's eastern and southern flanks, planned border security investments, like the aforementioned plans by the Latvian and Estonian governments, represent an important step forward in the Baltic region. Granted, such border security investments represent only the first steps in the Baltic States' long-term development of more secure and effective control over their territories. However, in so doing, these countries will not only be strengthening their own national borders, but also the external borders of the European Union as a whole. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Darfur: UN deeply concerned over thousands of newly-displaced people in region's north Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 24 February 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Darfur: UN deeply concerned over thousands of newly-displaced people in region's north, 24 February 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56cec1c340b.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. 24 February 2016 - The top United Nations humanitarian official in Sudan said today she is deeply concerned about the plight of more than 85,000 newly displaced civilians in North Darfur state who have fled their villages in recent days as a result of an escalation of conflict in the region's Jebel Marra area. The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Marta Ruedas, said in a press release that this past Monday, she visited Tawilla, west of El Fasher on the fringes of the Jebel Marra, where more than 22,000 people, mostly women and children, have gathered in recent weeks next to an existing camp for displaced people. "Seeing hundreds of women and children in Tawilla and speaking to the local authorities there very much brings it home: that civilians continue to bear the brunt of conflict every day and their protection is our paramount concern," Ms. Ruedas stressed. The UN, along with international and national organizations, and the Sudanese Red Crescent Society, are delivering assistance to those in need, and more is on the way, but the massive influx of new arrivals in recent days has "put a strain on what was an already logistically complex operation," the UN official said. Ms. Ruedas also said an 11-truck convoy left El Fasher yesterday with more aid, including food, for Sortony, where there are more than 63,000 newly-displaced people taking refuge next to a UN peacekeeping site. To date, the United Nations and its partners have not been granted access to key locations reportedly affected by civilian displacement in Central Darfur, despite reports of wide-scale movement of people and potential emergency need. Calling for immediate access to all people in need so that those affected can receive the humanitarian assistance they require, Ms. Ruedas in particular urged all parties to the conflict to allow the UN and its partners to reach displaced people in Central Darfur. As of 20 February, there are 22,261 newly displaced people in Tawilla, of whom 18,974 are verified, and 63,223 newly displaced people in Sortony, of whom 41,530 have been registered, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). According to the Kebkabiya Smallholder Charitable Society, a non-profit organization, and Oxfam International, there are also 2,018 displaced people in Kebkabiya. This brings the total of displaced in North Darfur State as a result of the recent Jebel Marra hostilities to 87,502, the UN official said. 'Everyone is losing' in the Syrian conflict, UN relief chief tells Security Council Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 24 February 2016 Cite as UN News Service, 'Everyone is losing' in the Syrian conflict, UN relief chief tells Security Council, 24 February 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56cec24a40b.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. 24 February 2016 - While welcoming the recent announcement of a cessation of hostilities in Syria as a "long-awaited signal of hope," the top United Nations humanitarian official today echoed the calls of the world body and the international community at large for the parties involved to work towards a more durable ceasefire and facilitate conditions for increased protection and humanitarian aid. "Enough is enough. This brutality must come to an end," the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordination, Stephen O'Brien, told the UN Security Council during a briefing on the situation in Syria at UN Headquarters in New York earlier todayThe international community and the parties to the conflict must seize the momentum created around the nationwide cessation of hostilities to bring a political solution to the crisis.. "It is hard to believe that this conflict can be resolved as long as there continues to be a complete absence of protection of civilians. The agreement on cessation of hostilities must finally and unequivocally produce what this Council's resolutions and the basic tenets and obligations under international law could not achieve thus far: an immediate end to all targeted or indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, and enhanced protection of civilians," he added. Mr. O'Brien lamented that next month will mark the "grim anniversary" of the conflict that had torn Syria apart for five years. "It has been a relentless period of violence and destruction. The Syrian people have seen their country torn apart, loved ones killed or injured, and millions of people displaced, either inside the country or in the region and beyond," he said. "They have suffered far too much and for far too long." Providing the Council with an update on humanitarian access, Mr. O'Brien noted that despite intensified fighting, the UN had continued to scale up assistance to people in need, "albeit at great personal risk." Humanitarian Convoys As of 17 February, UN/Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoys had reached Madaya, where 62 trucks reached 40,000 beneficiaries; Zabadani, where three trucks reached 1,000 beneficiaries; and Foah and Kefraya, where 18 trucks reached 20,000 beneficiaries. The second and last part of the deliveries was tentatively planned for 28 February, he noted. A humanitarian convoy on its way to the besieged Syrian town of Madaya (file). Photo: OCHA Syria As part of agreements facilitated through discussions in Munich earlier in February, 62 trucks in Madimayet, reaching 40,000 people, had been delivered, although the process "has not been straightforward," Mr. O'Brien said. Another convoy to Madimayet was planned, which he stressed must happen this week. In Kafr Batna in eastern Ghouta, 15 trucks had delivered assistance to 10,000, although that process had also encountered complications. The date of the next convoy has yet to be approved, Mr. O'Brien said, insisting on immediate approval to allow the convoys to deliver. "Humanitarian operations cannot continue to be bogged down by unnecessary and unacceptable restrictions, obstructions and deliberate delays that are costing people their lives," Mr. O'Brien said. "In order for people in dire need to receive the assistance they so desperately require, the system must be urgently simplified," he stressed. First WFP Air Drop Mr. O'Brien also said that earlier this morning, a World Food Programme (WFP) plane had dropped the first cargo of 21 tonnes of items into Deir ez-Zor. Initial reports indicated that pallets had landed in the planned target area. In all, the UN and its partners had reached 110,000 people in besieged areas, and had approval to reach a further 230,000, including through the airdrops in Deir Ezzor. Approval was still needed for an additional 170,000 people, the UN official said. "I cannot emphasize enough how high the stakes are at this moment in the conflict," Mr. O'Brien said. "The Syrian people - who are rightly sceptical of the international community's desire and ability to bring about an end to this hideous war after years of inaction - need to see an immediate difference in their daily lives on the ground because, up till this point, it is they who continue to bear the brunt of this crisis as violence has become more widespread, systematic and extreme." Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien addresses the Security Council on the situation in Syria. UN Photo/Manuel Elias In total this past month, the UN and its partners had reached millions of people in need with assistance through all available routes, Mr. O'Brien said. Specifically, the WFP had delivered food for 3.6 million people; the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) had provided water, sanitation and hygiene supplies for more than 2 million people; and the World Health Organization (WHO) had delivered nearly 660,000 treatments. Significant amounts of supplies had been delivered during February through cross-border operations authorized by the Council. During the first three weeks of the month, food assistance reached some 960,000 people, representing a 48 per cent increase compared with the same period in January, Mr. O'Brien said. Health supplies had also been delivered for some 300,000 people in February. Large multi-truck conveys were cross the three-border crossings of Bab al-Salam, Bab al-Hawa and Ar Ramtha on a nearly daily basis. "We will continue to stay and deliver, but we do remain concerned about the impact of fighting and insecurity on humanitarian access and operational space, in particular to eastern Aleppo city. This fragile access to people in need must be safeguarded at all cost," he said. "While the United Nations and its partners are ready to take advantage of any opportunity to reach people in need, granting access should never be dependent on political negotiations or ad hoc deals on the ground," he stressed. "Protecting civilians and facilitating humanitarian assistance are legal obligations that are incumbent on all parties to the conflict at all times and for all types of assistance. It is a fundamental and irrefutable tenet of international humanitarian law and it must be respected," he added. In that regard, he reiterated a call to the Government of Syria to urgently approve the more than 40 outstanding requests for inter-agency convoys to deliver assistance to hard-to-reach and besieged areas. He also called upon non-State armed groups and listed terrorist groups to fulfil their obligations. 'There are no winners' "In the Syrian conflict, there are no winners; everyone is losing. But the highest price is paid by Syrian men, women and children who are witnesses their country, their homes and their families being torn apart," Mr. O'Brien said. "This war has to end. Much as we try, the delivery of humanitarian assistance can only address the symptoms, not the root causes. The international community and the parties to the conflict must seize the momentum created around the nationwide cessation of hostilities to bring a political solution to the crisis. I cannot stress enough that we must not let this opportunity pass. We cannot take away this glimmer of hope from the people that need it the most," he concluded. Is Myanmar's peace accord a sham? Publisher IRIN Author Yola Verbruggen Publication Date 24 February 2016 Cite as IRIN, Is Myanmar's peace accord a sham?, 24 February 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56cec6244.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. More than 5,000 civilians in Myanmar have been displaced in the past couple of weeks by heavy fighting between two ethnic armies, one of which signed a recent national ceasefire accord while the other was excluded. The Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, which was signed last October and aimed at ending 60 years of civil war, has fallen far short of its objective. Only eight of 15 groups invited to sign did so, while others were not allowed to take part in negotiations. Myanmar's semi-civilian government, which took power in 2011 after 49 years of military rule, launched a peace process as part of a sweeping political and economic reform programme. But rather than creating the conditions for peace, some critics say the NCA has exacerbated tensions between groups that signed and those that didn't, which has led to the current clashes. There is hope that the new government led by Aung Saan Su Kyi's National League for Democracy, which won a landlside victory in Myanmar's historic November elections, will strengthen the peace process. But Suu Kyi and her party will have no authority over the negotiations, which are led by the military. Some have even accused Myanmar's military, known as the Tatmadaw, of cynically using the NCA as a strategy to weaken ethnic armed groups by dividing them against each other. The United Nationalities Federal Council, an umbrella organisation for nine groups that did not sign the accord, accused the military of using the NCA as a "military and political weapon". "We strongly condemn the current government and Tatmadaw's acts of causing racial hatred among the ethnic nationalities, with the military-political strategy of divide and conquer," the UNFC said in a statement on Monday. The military has no spokesperson and rarely speaks to media. But Radio Free Asia reported that a member of the military's NCA negotiating team had told one of the main rebel groups, the Restoration Council of Shan State, to withdraw fighters from areas where it has been taking on another ethnic armed group, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army. The RCSS has signed the peace agreement, but the TNLA was excluded. Clashes broke out in the Shan State townships of Kyaukme on 7 February and Nahmkan on 9 February, according to the UN emergency aid coordination body, OCHA. Relief supplies have been provided to about 4,000 displaced people in Kyaukme, but aid groups are having trouble reaching another 1,200 people in Nahmkan because of the conflict, OCHA said in a report on Tuesday. The RCSS was not available for comment, but the TNLA says its rival has increased its troop presence in Kyaukme and Nahmkan from about 80 to 1,700 since signing the accord. "They come and try to control the TNLA and the areas where we stay," Tar Panla, a TNLA spokesman, told IRIN. "If they withdraw, there is no need to fight anymore." Tom Kramer, a Myanmar researcher with the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute, said the military must have allowed the RCSS to reinforce its presence in northern Shan State. "Would this have been possible before the NCA? I don't think so," he told IRIN. Kramer said the NCA negotiations must be opened up to all of Myanmar's more than two dozen armed groups if it is to be a meaningful tool for achieving peace. If not, the agreement may be used by the military to turn groups against each other. "It is an old pattern of divide and rule, a long-standing Tatmadaw strategy," he told IRIN. "This whole NCA has been set up for failure." The recent clashes and reports of abuses against civilians have alarmed members of the international community that back Myanmar's peace process. The United States embassy said in a 19 February statement that it was "particularly concerned by alleged human rights violations targeting ethnic Shan and Palaung communities". The European Union, which funds the government-led Myanmar Peace Center in leading negotiations, warned on Tuesday that the fighting "undermines trust" essential to peace and reconciliation. "Reports of forced recruitment of civilians by armed actors, rearmament of certain groups and the alleged use of landmines are deeply disturbing," the EU added. Slipping through the cracks of a broken system Publisher IRIN Author Tania Karas Publication Date 24 February 2016 Cite as IRIN, Slipping through the cracks of a broken system, 24 February 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56cec69f4.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. On a street corner in central Athens, Shir Muhammad grips his backpack straps and cranes his neck to look for the bus. The block, located near Victoria Square, is packed with refugees and migrants speaking a jumble of Farsi, Pashto and Arabic dialects. The baby-faced 16-year-old, who cannot read or write, is a long way from his native Afghanistan. In the past month he has climbed mountains and dodged border guards' gunshots in Iran, rode a bus through Turkey, and crouched in a tiny rubber boat across the Aegean Sea to Greece. Now he is headed to Macedonia, the next in a series of countries he will have to traverse to reach Austria, where he knows no one. Muhammad didn't have much of a choice. His mother and father feared for their eldest son's future as the Taliban launched deadly attacks last autumn in their home province of Faryab. They raised more than $5,000 to pay smugglers and told Muhammed to hurry, before Europe closed its borders to refugees. "They were crying," Muhammad said, staring at his shoes as he described hugging them goodbye. "They told me, 'This is your obligation. There is no hope for you here, no opportunities.'" The teenager joins tens of thousands of minors fleeing their homes for Europe without family to protect them along the route. In Greece, the gateway to Europe for the majority of migrants, these young people are slipping through the cracks. The country's overburdened and underfunded asylum system is struggling to detect them within huge migratory flows. As a result, unaccompanied children are not getting the special protections they are due under international law. Most of those identified quickly leave the Greek shelters where they are placed, bowing to pressure from their parents - and smugglers - to continue their northbound journeys. Aid groups and officials warn that lone children from conflict-torn nations are vulnerable to human trafficking, violence, sexual exploitation and other forms of abuse. In an alarming 30 January report, European police agency Europol estimated that more than 10,000 children who entered Europe in the past two years have 'disappeared'. Although many may have simply reunited with family or moved on to other countries, there are fears that a significant number have fallen into the hands of criminal networks. To be reported missing, however, they must first be identified as minors travelling alone. Greek authorities registering migrant arrivals rely on them to self-report their ages. But many minors throw away their passports or claim to be 18. Others pass themselves off as members of other migrant families. "Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors are not being identified in Greece," said Yonous Muhammadi, president of the Greek Forum of Refugees in Athens. "They don't want to be trapped in Greece even one day. That's why they don't say their real ages until they reach Germany and Sweden and Finland." In addition, Greek officials doing registrations on the islands often aren't trained in conducting age assessments or identifying vulnerable cases, such as victims of human trafficking, said Marleen Korthals Altes, Save the Children's senior child protection adviser in Greece. The group has documented instances where Greek police record unaccompanied children's ages as 18 in order to wave them through the country. Muhammad, for example, carried registration papers from the island of Chios listing his birthdate as 1 January, 1996. Indeed, of more than 856,000 migrants and refugees who arrived last year in Greece, just 2,248 were registered as unaccompanied minors, according to the National Center for Social Solidarity (EKKA), the government agency responsible for placing them in shelters. This figure - clearly a tiny percentage of the actual number - was lower than the 2,390 unaccompanied minors Greece registered in 2014, a year that saw only about 45,400 arrivals. By contrast, Macedonia, the next country along the Balkan route to northern Europe, admitted 18,123 unaccompanied minors in the second half of 2015, according to the interior ministry. Sweden, the most popular destination for unaccompanied minors, registered 35,369 requests for asylum by such children last year, while Germany registered 14,439, according to their respective migration agencies. Shelters treated as way stations In a sparse government office in Athens, Christos Dimopoulos' phone never stops ringing. The social worker, who heads EKKA, is solely responsible for placing newly identified unaccompanied children in one of 432 beds across Greece's 17 shelters. A team of medical workers and psychologists then evaluate the child to determine any special needs or evidence of trauma. More than 90 percent are boys aged 14 to 17 from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan. But some girls arrive alone too. The stories Dimopoulos hears are increasingly desperate. "We had a nine-year-old girl from Syria who came alone to Lesvos with her four-year-old brother," he told IRIN. "The mother was already in Greece, but she couldn't wait any longer for a way to bring them here legally." They were reunited in Greece after more than four months apart. Only two of the Greek islands, Kos and Lesvos, have shelters for unaccompanied children. They are run by Athens-based NGOs Praksis and METAction. Another is being built on Samos. Unaccompanied and separated children found on the other islands are kept in police custody until they can be transferred to shelters on the mainland. "There is a serious lack of appropriate forms of care," Korthals Altes said. "Detention has a long-lasting psychological impact on a child." To ensure children safely reach the mainland shelters, METAction workers escort them on the plane or overnight ferry. But the homes are open facilities. Children stay an average of 51 days, according to EKKA data. Eighty percent leave to continue their journeys, going against the advice of legal advocates and social workers. The shelters nearly emptied in late summer of 2015, when a "humanitarian corridor" for refugees opened between Greece and Germany via the western Balkans. Children who had been in Greece for months or years saw it as their chance to move on. At one point, just 30 percent of shelter beds were filled nationwide. But the shelters have been filling again since November, when several Balkan nations implemented border controls barring admission to all nationalities besides Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis. Since Sunday, Afghans have been barred as well. Now, shelters are mainly filled with children of the "non-approved" nationalities. Dangerous journeys trump legal options Unaccompanied and separated children in Greece have three legal options: apply for asylum in Greece, where they can stay until age 18 but, due to a prolonged financial crisis, likely won't receive proper housing, schooling and social support; apply to be moved to another European country through the EU's refugee relocation scheme, which is only open to certain nationalities (but not Afghans); or, if they have relatives elsewhere in Europe, apply for family reunification. Earlier this month, two Afghan sisters sat outside a shelter in a tree-lined Athens suburb, weighing their options. They were 14 and 16 but looked younger beneath colourful headscarves. Authorities on Lesvos separated them from the group they'd arrived with one month earlier and placed them at the shelter, which is called Mellon, the Greek word for 'future'. "Our mother sent us to Europe with two of her friends," the older sister, Amena,* told IRIN. "They said, 'If you want to have a good life, you have to leave now.' "We walked through the mountains in Iran, in a valley with snow," she continued. "It was very bad, scarier than the sea." They spent the last of their money on a smartphone to call their mother on Viber and WhatsApp. Each day, she tells them to leave Greece immediately for northern Europe, Amena said. But lawyers have advised them to apply for reunification with a relative in Austria. "We haven't decided yet whether to wait or to go alone to the Macedonia border," Amena said. "[Reunification] takes so much time. There is a kid here who after seven months didn't get reunified yet." The challenge for child social workers, psychologists and attorneys is to convince the children to pursue legal options that take months rather than potentially dangerous journeys with smugglers that take days. Greece lacks a formal guardianship system, a problem aid groups say encourages unaccompanied children to take matters into their own hands. "You can see on their faces, they've made up their minds," said Antonia Moustaka, a lawyer at a Praksis home in Athens for 24 unaccompanied boys aged 13 to 17. "All we can do is advise them on the dangers of the journey and legal procedures for asylum in each country." Moustaka has convinced at least a few to stay in Greece while they pursue family reunification. Syrian cousins Mahmoud, 16, and Fouad, 13, arrived together last summer from Damascus. Their parents sent them separately to Turkey, and together they took a boat to the Greek island of Kos. "It was easy because I've faced death so many times in Syria," said Mahmoud, whose father was tortured to death in a Syrian prison and whose cousin was killed by a barrel bomb just metres away from him. "Even if it seems quite dangerous to you, to me it was easy," he insisted. Last week, Fouad was sent to live with cousins in England, while Mahmoud's case has been delayed for no apparent reason. He claimed to be happy in Greece, where he is attending school for the first time in years. "I feel that I lost my childhood," Mahmoud said. "I became my family's protector very young. I would have wanted to be a child a little longer... Here, it is good. It is calm." Social worker Irida Pandiri, with the nonprofit Association for the Social Support of Youth (ARSIS), oversees a shelter for 30 unaccompanied boys near Thessaloniki, in northern Greece. Beside her desk she keeps photos of children who have passed through her care. "If they don't want to stay, we cannot oblige them to stay," Pandiri said. "Always I have it on my mind, did we do our best? But we are not police. We can't keep them locked up." Many children leave in secret. But sometimes they leave a note. "I love all of you," wrote one boy above a drawing of a rose. "You are always in my memory." "Thanks for treating me like a brother," wrote another who included his WhatsApp number and Instagram username. "Goodbye guys :-) and please pray 4 me." Usually, they call or text Pandiri when they've reached their destinations. But many children never check in, so it's unclear whether they are missing or safe. In one case, a teenage Afghan boy who ran away from an ARSIS centre was fatally hit by a train in Macedonia. More border controls, more dangers Once children leave Greece, it is unlikely they will be detected as unaccompanied en route to northern Europe. National authorities in the Balkans, overwhelmed by thousands of daily arrivals at their borders, are unable to properly screen for unaccompanied and separated children or victims of trafficking, say aid groups. In December, three NGOs along the Balkan route - ARSIS in Greece, La Strada in Macedonia and Atina in Serbia - set up a referral system to hand off unaccompanied children to their partners in the next country. Usually, the NGOs try to pair them with a group from their own country to travel with. Children under the age of 14 are deemed too young to travel alone and referred to national social services. In the last year, Belgrade-based Atina has seen 10 cases of children who had been sexually abused by traffickers, said director Maja Savic. And as countries have narrowed the list of nationalities they will admit, she has seen a rise in exploitation and violence against children from the non-approved nationalities. "Those children have become easier targets," Savic said. "Traffickers will tell them, 'I'll get you papers that say you are from Syria'," then force them into sex work, particularly if the children don't have any money left. She worries that additional border closures will put more children at risk. Criminal networks are not the only concern. Volunteers and aid workers interviewed by IRIN last month at the Greek-Macedonian border said that people of the "non-approved" nationalities, including unaccompanied teenagers, are forcibly returned every day to Greece after sustaining severe injuries at the hands of Macedonian authorities. As borders continue to tighten, making children's northbound journeys difficult or impossible, Greece's shelters will soon overflow, and the problem of protecting unaccompanied children is likely to grow. The UN says children now make up 36 percent of migrants and refugees making perilous sea crossings to Europe, compared to one in 10 last June. Many arrive in Europe alone. Youths like Shir Muhammad represent a beacon of hope for families whose homelands are descending into chaos. "They told me to go to Austria and go to school," Muhammad said before boarding a bus toward the Macedonian border. "Leaving home was the scariest moment. Since it is my obligation, I will get there." *Indicates name changed to protect privacy The Lee University Symphony Orchestra will perform its spring concert on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Pangle Hall under the direction of Maestro Bob Bernhardt. The concert will begin with waltzes from Lehars operetta The Merry Widow and will conclude with two movements of the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 2, subtitled The Little Russian, the first of which will be conducted by graduate student Daven Haskett. This concert will be Hasketts symphony conducting debut. The Symphony Orchestra sponsors an annual Student Concerto Competition for Lee students; the six winners of this years competition will be featured performers in this concert and include Yong-En Huang, violin; Yu-Ting Huang, piano; Yu-You Lo, piano; Tricia Logsdon, soprano; McKenzie Stephens, mezzo-soprano; and David Stoeltzing, flute. Maestro Bernhardt joined Lee's School of Music in the fall of 2011 as an artist-in-residence and conductor of the Lee Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Bernhardt also serves as music director emeritus and principal pops conductor of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera and principal pops conductor of the Louisville Orchestra. He was formerly the music director and conductor for 19 seasons with the CSO, and is the first to hold the title Emeritus. Recently named principal pops conductor of the Grand Rapids Symphony in Michigan, Maestro Bernhardt is also a frequent guest conductor for the Boston Pops and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. The Symphony Orchestra ensemble of select instrumentalists performs one major concert each semester. Its musicians frequently participate in operatic, choral, and other concerts on campus. The concert is a free, non-ticketed event and is open to the public. For more information, call 614-8240. First UN Syria airdrop lands in trouble Publisher IRIN Author Annie Slemrod Publication Date 24 February 2016 Cite as IRIN, First UN Syria airdrop lands in trouble, 24 February 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56cec75a4.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Only a few hours after UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien told the UN Security Council that a 21-ton World Food Programme airdrop had successfully been made to the besieged Syrian city of Deir Ezzor Thursday, the WFP said something had gone wrong and local activists said the aid was either damaged on landing or fell wide of its mark. "The operation faced technical difficulties and we are debriefing crew and partners in Deir Ezzor to make necessary adjustments," the WFP told IRIN in an emailed statement, which continued: "...the team will try again when possible High altitude drops are extremely challenging to carry out and take more than one trial to develop full accuracy." Some 200,000 people live in besieged parts of Deir Ezzor, a government-held city surrounded by the so-called Islamic State. WFP would not provide any further details, but a well-placed source told IRIN that "some of the cargo was damaged when it hit the ground". UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric also told reporters the WFP was still trying to get information on where the aid ended up. "They're trying to reach local partners to ensure that the aid was received...There may have been some difficulties in terms of the pallets," he added. The Justice for Life Observatory in Deir Ezzor, an activist reporting group, also said the cargo was significantly damaged and that the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) had only been able to collect 3 of 6 containers because half had fallen into areas that are difficult to access. Humanitarian negotiator Jan Egeland said on Twitter that "SARC and local NGO in charge of securing drop zone, assembling aid and distributing according to needs". For its part, the well-established Local Coordination Committees activist network claimed the Syrian army had siezed some of the aid. Earlier in the day, O'Brien told the Security Council that the UN's first airdrop in Syria had apparently gone to plan. He said initial reports from SARC were that "pallets have landed in the target area as planned." IRIN understands the cargo was mixed, not only food. Despite operational risks, O'Brien told the council, there were benefits in some parts of the country to using airdrops "as a last resort". Between 400,000 and two million Syrians are living under siege (the numbers differ depending on who is counting), and until recent talks led by the US and Russia, aimed at a partial ceasefire and better humanitarian access, aid organisations had effectively ruled them out because aid drops, even at low altitude, are notoriously difficult to carry out. Just last month, the WFP told IRIN that it wasn't considering dropping aid to Syria. "What we need is unimpeded access, and we can't consider airdrops at this time," the organisation told IRIN by email at the time. "Airdrops require approvals for use of airspace, staff on the ground to organise and distribute, and a drop zone that is clear of obstacles. Those conditions are not met in besieged areas of Syria." Survivors of violence in Malakal face new crisis Publisher IRIN Author Justin Lynch Publication Date 22 February 2016 Cite as IRIN, Survivors of violence in Malakal face new crisis, 22 February 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56cec7bb4.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. A new humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Malakal, South Sudan, just days after an attack by government soldiers on a camp sheltering displaced people - the challenge of caring for tens of thousands of survivors. Around 18 people died in the violence that began on Wednesday night following growing ethnic tensions between Dinka and Shilluk communities in the camp. Government soldiers broke into the UN-administered Protection of Civilians (PoC) facility and were involved in the fighting that intensified on Thursday, sending people fleeing the wild gun battles and a fire that destroyed half the camp. Some 15,000 people, mostly Nuer and Shilluk, have taken shelter in a small, narrow strip of land near the UN Mission in South Sudan peacekeeping base, 500 meters from the PoC. Around 5,000 mainly Dinka have fled into nearby Malakal town and the protection of the largely Dinka army. Around 25,000 people are still living in parts of the PoC that escaped destruction. It has created an alarming humanitarian situation that asks aid workers to do the near impossible - provide immediate services for 20,000 people suddenly displaced from their original site of refuge, and to plan the rebuilding of the camp. "There is a general sense of insecurity so people have moved outside of the Protection of Civilians site," said John McCue, head of operations for the International Organization for Migration in the capital, Juba. "It's completely untenable, it's too small, it's too crowded there is nothing that can be done, the priority needs to be on UNMISS showing the population that they are able to provide security within the PoC. It's the only solution. Otherwise we are looking at a major health risk." Some people have returned to the camp - even the sections that were torched - regarding it as a better option than the overcrowded, squalid conditions outside the UNMISS base. "That place was not good," said one man, who gave his name only as Hassan, indicating where thousands of displaced are building temporary shelters. "No food, no water," said his colleague, Emmanuel. "All of the food was here, but the violence (destroyed it)". Malakal town, where mainly Dinka fled to, is heavily militarised. Almost all men wear uniforms, weapons slung on their back, pacing the streets of South Sudan's second largest city, which has been repeatedly fought over by government and rebel forces since 2013. Here, there appear to be more services for the displaced - the Nile river is nearby to provide water and sanitation, and it is less crowded. The displaced in town are digging in for the long haul. Angelina, who used to live in the PoC but fled to Malakal on Thursday, said many people are carrying their belongings from the camp to town "until the government tells us where to go". UNMISS blamed Among the Nuer and Shilluk who have taken refuge near the UN base, there is a sense of dismay at the failure of the peacekeepers to protect them. Many say they will return to the PoC only if UNMISS can guarantee their protection. "I saw yesterday the [UN] soldiers run away. What happens next time, I don't know," said Emmanuel, who like Hassan had returned to the PoC on Friday. "I saw many people die. I don't know what happened with UNMISS." An UNMISS statement said its peacekeepers had exchanged fire with men "allegedly donning SPLA [army] uniforms" shooting into the base. The 15,000 displaced outside the peacekeepers' base have thrown up makeshift tents just centimetres apart - a clear fire risk as they are forced to use open fires to cook food and heat what water is available. Rebuilding the PoC will take time. Two medical clinics inside the camp were destroyed - either victims of the spreading fires or the looting that came after. It appeared that at least some of the fire in the PoC was caused by deliberate acts of arson. Sections where one ethnic group lived are a pile of ashes, yet a few feet away housing of another group was untouched by the flames. South Sudan collapsed into civil war in 2013 when fighting broke out between soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar. The conflict quickly took on ethnic overtones. The UN warned last week that as a result of the war, 2.8 million people - nearly 25 percent of the population - are in urgent need of food assistance, and at least 40,000 people are "on the brink of catastrophe". Dilek Dundar in Washington: "We hope that Can and Erdem will be released" Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 24 February 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Dilek Dundar in Washington: "We hope that Can and Erdem will be released", 24 February 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56cec85740b.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Today Reporters Without Borders (RSF) held a panel discussion in Washington on Turkey's crackdown on journalists, focusing on Can Dundar and Erdem Gul's detention. Can's wife, Dilek Dundar, investigative journalist for The Washington Post Dana Priest, Hurriyet's Washington DC correspondent Tolga Tanis, The New York Times investigative journalist James Risen, and award-winning investigative journalist Carl Bernstein were featured on the panel. The event demonstrates solidarity of the US journalism community with the current situation in Turkey. During Dilek Dundar's trip to Washington, DC, she met with US government officials, members of Congress, and journalists in order to raise awareness about her husband's case. She said she "hope[s] for an independent decision from Turkey's Constitutional court and that Can and Erdem will be released soon." Turkey's Constitutional court is expected to decide tomorrow whether or not to release Can and Erdem while they await their trial, set to begin March 25. In a video message broadcast at this morning's event, the investigative journalist Carl Bernstein who shared the Pulitzer Prize with Bob Woodward for his coverage of the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post remarked that Turkey has "instituted a methodical crackdown on the media, using the smokescreen of terrorism to justify the arrest and detention of numerous distinguished journalists whose only crimes have been the pursuit of the truth." Tolga Tanis, Washington DC correspondent for Hurriyet, echoed Bernstein's remarks: "when you do your job in Turkey as a journalist, you end up in jail." Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist for The Washington Post Dana Priest highlighted how much American journalists rely on foreign journalists to "tell the truth", encouraging fellow journalists to "get over [their] hesitancy to be an advocate." Editor of Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, Can Dundar was arrested on November 26, 2015 with Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul as a result of the accusations made against them by President Erdogan and the head of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), after they published evidence of MIT arms deliveries to Syria. They have been detained since then, and Turkey's public prosecutors have requested "aggravated life sentences without possibility of pardon." The Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times journalist James Risen denounced the "outrageous" charges brought against Can and Erdem and Turkey's "ridiculous crackdown on journalism." He also highlighted the importance of Can and Erdem's story for the American people, particularly since "American reporters often rely on foreign journalists for what's going on on the ground." "Freedom of information is currently under attack in Turkey, with a growing crackdown on independent reporting, and an uptick in cyber-censorship and arbitrary arrests and prosecutions," said Delphine Halgand, the US director of Reporters Without. "The misuse of anti-terror law to prosecute Can Dundar and Erdem Gul is only the latest in a series of similar cases in Turkey, and is one of many developments that show growing authoritarianism and a blatant erosion of press freedom." "Given that the current climate both in and around Turkey is becoming increasingly dangerous, the government is operating within a difficult context. But narrowing the space of free debate and cracking down on the expression of dissent serve to further divide and weaken the country", said Johann Bihr, the head of RSF's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk. Turkey is ranked 149th out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Council suspends investigative magazine for one month Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 23 February 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Council suspends investigative magazine for one month, 23 February 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56cec87e40b.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is worried about the investigative bimonthly L'Evenement's sudden suspension by Burkina Faso's High Council for Communication (CSC). The magazine has been suspended for a month from 19 February for allegedly revealing "military secrets." The sanction was imposed because an article in the magazine's 10 February issue about an attack on a munitions depot in Yimdi by former members of the presidential guard was accompanied a map of the various munitions depots used by the army in the past and now no longer in use. When military prosecutors questioned L'Evenement director Germain Nama Bitiou and editor Newton Hamed Barry on 18 February, they appeared to be satisfied by Bitiou's explanation that the article had simply aimed to show how the military managed its infrastructure, and that the former depots had no strategic value. The two journalists were very surprised when the CSC announced the paper's suspension the next day without contacting them and without giving them any chance to present their arguments to the CSC's members. "We condemn this measure, the way it was taken and the reasons given," said Clea Kahn-Sriber, the head of RSF's Africa Desk. "Known for incisive investigative reporting, L'Evenement is one the leading publications in a country whose media have distinguished themselves by the courage and seriousness of their reporting during the difficult events of the past two years. It would be a pity if the new government yielded to the temptation to censor so soon after the restoration of democracy." Accusing the CSC of "ill will," Bitiou said: "There is a dangerous shift in the CSC, which has gone from being a media regulator to 'media judge.' In its allegations, the CSC confuses many things or tries to use them clumsily to justify its decision." Defending his magazine's record and the criticized articles, he said: "I can understand that some people (...) may have been annoyed by this information but it is not wrong (...) What do people expect of journalists unless it is making sure their facts are right!" On 15 October 2015, a month after an abortive coup attempt, the CSC cited the national situation as grounds for calling on the media to "refrain from publishing or broadcasting strategic military or defence information or any other information that could endanger state security or compromise the actions of the defence and security forces in the field." Bitiou added: "If what we very roughly put on a map (...) constitutes secrets then we need to be really worried about the failure to protect our secrets!" Two cases of armed unrest (in November 2014 and September 2015) were contained in Burkina Faso and were followed by a transition to democracy and elections recognised as legitimate. The country is ranked 46th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2015 World Press Freedom Index. Fourth journalist murdered in Mexico since start of 2016 Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 24 February 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Fourth journalist murdered in Mexico since start of 2016, 24 February 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56cec89640b.html [accessed 21 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is alarmed by the wave of violence against media personnel in Mexico, where another journalist was murdered last weekend, the fourth since the start of the year. After two murders in Oaxaca state in January and one in Veracruz state in early February, Tabasco state was the site of the latest killing. The victim was Moises Dagdug Lutzow, a radio journalist who had received many threats. He was stabbed to death in his home in Villahermosa, the state capital, on 20 February A PRD party federal deputy from 2006 to 2009, Dagdug owned a radio station, XEVX-AM La Grande de Tabasco, and hosted a programme called "De Frente a Tabasco" - broadcast on 89.7 FM and on the CanalTVX.com website - in which he often discussed crime and openly criticized corruption and related issues in Tabasco. "How many murders will be needed before the Mexican authorities finally tackle this problem?" said Emmanuel Colombie, the head of RSF's Latin America desk. "The frequency with which journalists are killed in Mexico is dramatic. The federal government must demonstrate its determination to contain this spiral of violence, provide media personnel with protection, and end the reign of impunity throughout almost the entire country." According to initial reports, Dagdug had just got back home when he was attacked by several intruders, who stabbed him as he resisted and then left in his car. Several journalists in Villahermosa told RSF they were very shocked by Dagdug's murder. RSF's supports their call for a "serious and responsible" investigation by the Tabasco judicial authorities, who are currently working on the theory that his murderers were ordinary burglars. This seems very unlikely especially as Dagdug's car was found abandoned a few kilometres away with just brandy and the murder weapon inside. The other three journalist murdered in the space of the past few weeks are Anabel Flores Salazar in Veracruz on 9 February, Reinel Martinez Cerqueda in Oaxaca on 22 January, and Marcos Hernandez Bautista in Oaxaca on 21 January. Mexico is ranked 148th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2015 World Press Freedom Index. Judge Rob Philyaw says most of what he does happens behind closed doors. The Hamilton County Juvenile Court judge addressed members of the Rotary Club Thursday at the Convention Center to give an overview of Juvenile Court and how it serves the community. He began by educating about the group called CASA (court appointed special advocates). Started in 1977 in Seattle, CASA made its way to Chattanooga about 30 years ago. The group works to obtain better information on the children Juvenile Court judges make decisions on. Judge Philyaw said it is a citizens advocacy group that investigates things that are not completely discoverable like custody of the child and child neglect in order to help make the best decision for the child and give that child a voice. Hamilton County has about 40 well-trained CASAs. Over the last 32 years, the judge said there have been over 1200 volunteers. Last year alone, CASA served 103 local families with no cost to the county. The CASA crew makes for an excellent staff that truly cares about the children they help, he said before transitioning to the topic of ACEs (adverse childhood experiences). A childs environment has the potential to impact that child negatively. ACEs play out in the form of a loss of a loved one, divorcing parents, poverty, and violence in the home. The architecture in the brain in childhood is so much more delicate, Judge Philyaw said. He explained how the first few years of a persons life and experiences help formulate the brain. In those first few years of life, childrens brains are activealive. He recalled two occasions since he has been judge where the babies in the courtroom had flattened skulls from sitting in car seats all day. The architecture of their brains was damaged, he said, from child neglect. He urged Chattanooga as a community to find ways to buffer ACEs and help children who suffer from them to recover. We cant control everything, he said, but some things we can. Regarding Juvenile Court, the judge said, Its a busy place. He has a staff of 99 people who he often tells: No body goes to Juvenile Court because they want to. They go there because they have to. Because children and parents do not fondly anticipate Juvenile Court, Judge Philyaw regularly stresses to his staff their job to make the process efficient and personable. He said he works with people who truly care about what they are doing. Im very proud of my staff. He manages a yearly budget of about $7 million. Juvenile Court has seven full-time courtrooms that hear thousands of cases each year. The two main categories of cases are family law cases and delinquency cases. Family law serves children of divorcing parents and children born outside wedlock, which happens to be nearly half of all children in Hamilton County, the judge said. Issues like visitation rights, custody, paternity, and child support come before Juvenile Court in family law cases, the ultimate goal being to reunify the family. But when reunification is just not possible, Judge Philyaw is faced with the serious and grave job to terminate paternal rights. Its the death of parenthood to help place a child in what foster care calls a forever family. The judge defined delinquency matters as anything that would be criminal if committed by an adult. In the state of Tennessee, one is an adult if he or she is 18 or older. Judge Philyaw said Juvenile Court treated juveniles differently than adults. The overriding charge is to reach and rehabilitate children who commit offenses without tagging them as criminals so they can learn from their mistakes and continue with life as law-abiding citizens. Judge Philyaw said he does not sentence juveniles to confinement, but may send them to treatment facilities like Youth Development Centers. Its not for everyone, he said. In some instances, if the child continues to reoffend, the judge may consider transferring that child to Criminal Court, thus stripping him of his minority to protect the public and reach that individual. We dont save every child. We dont reach every child, Judge Philyaw said in closing. But we live for those bright moment that we do. Man Charged In Last Fall's Oak Street Beach Stabbing And Robbery By Mae Rice in News on Feb 24, 2016 10:26PM Daniel Morales, 20, was charged in relation to the knifepoint robbery and shooting in October (photo via the Chicago Police Department) A third man has been charged in an October knifepoint robbery at Oak Street Beach, in which three men robbed a 27-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman, then stabbed the man in the arm when he tried to fend off the attack. Daniel Morales, 20, was charged with two felony counts of robbery armed with a dangerous weapon and a parole violation in relation to the incident, according to a police statement released Wednesday. Two other men, Noe Mondragon and Luis Salgado-Camargo, were arrested and charged in relation to the incident back in October. The robbery victimsformer Royal Air Force member Neil McCarthy and his girlfriend, Carisa Lernerwere attacked in the 1100 block of N. Lake Shore Drive, just before midnight. (Its worth noting that this was on McCarthys first-ever day in Chicago.) They surrounded us and circled us," Lerner told the Tribune in October. "They were like, 'Hey give us your money, iPhones, whatever.'" They both gave up their valuables, but then one man started grabbing me and going into my pockets. He didn't believe me," Lerner told the Tribune. McCarthy then jumped on the men harassing Lerner, who stabbed him in the arm and gashed his hand. McCarthy was treated for his injuries at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and released. He told the Tribune, in summary, It was a pretty action-packed night." ORANGE, Calif. Her goal in life is to grant wishes like a princess in a fairy tale. What better way to pay back the wish that was granted to her more than two decades ago? Ayesha Kazim, 30, of Orange, California, recently signed up to volunteer at Make-A-Wish. She works for Disney (a fitting job for someone who dreams of granting wishes) in the online travel department. She's awaiting her first Make-A-Wish assignment. She already has figured out what she's going to tell the first person she meets with a life-threatening illness. 'I'm here,' she will say. 'My parents didn't think I would be here. So don't ever give up.' Disney said it will donate $5 up to $1 million for every picture shared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that shows someone wearing mouse ears. Kazim had her picture taken in mouse ears last Tuesday at Disneyland, where she was telling her story to offer hope to people who may be going through similar horrors to those she endured as a child. Kazim carries a scrapbook with a kindergarten photo of her holding a book under her right arm and smiling. She remembers the pain. 'I couldn't hold that book with my left arm,' she said. She was living in Olney, Md., at the time, and she remembers wearing a purple sweatsuit when the phone call came with her test results. She was rushed to a hospital in Washington, D.C., where she had the first of five operations. That scrapbook also holds a drawing a doctor made of the tumor. When she was 5, she got a diagnosis of rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer of the muscle tissue. Doctors gave her parents a best- and worst-case scenario. At best, she might live to see her 16th birthday. At worst, she had about six months to live. She went through chemotherapy and radiation, and by the time she was 7, the cancer had spread to her shoulder. She had lost all her hair, and her brother pushed her in a wheelchair. She remembers her father praying in the hospital. Her family grimly braced itself for what would happen next. It was at one of the low points that Kazim's family was connected with Make-A-Wish. She wanted to go visit a Disney park in Europe but she told she couldn't stray very far from her hospital. So she choose Disney World, which was a two-hour flight away. 'This was going to be our last trip as a family,' she said. 'To think about it that way is terrifying.' It wasn't the end. It was the beginning. Kazim remembers eating peanut butter ice cream with Reese's Pieces for breakfast. She remembers how nice everyone was to her and her family her father, Fazlur; her mother, Seeta; a brother, Ijaz; and a sister, Samina. 'It was a magical trip,' she said. 'My dad said he didn't realize how compassionate people could be.' She remembers Chip and Dale, the chipmunk characters, pushing her wheelchair. She rode Space Mountain 10 times in a row. 'I never thought about why we were there,' she said. 'We were just there. My whole family acted normal, and it was perfect.' Something else happened to Kazim on that trip. She fell in love with Disney and Make-A-Wish. 'That trip reaffirmed what my parents taught me about charity, caring and giving,' she said. 'That's what Disney is all about hopes and wishes and dreams coming true.' Kazim has been cancer-free since she was 7. She still has trouble moving her left arm, but she's doing physical therapy to help her deal with the pain. And in July 2012, her boyfriend, Suresh Francis, proposed to her at Walt Disney World in Cinderella's Castle. Kazim and her husband live in Orange, just a few miles from Disneyland. Working at Disney has fulfilled one of her lifelong dreams. Occasionally, she will handle the travel arrangements of a child with cancer. 'I say, 'Oh, my God, I had cancer, too,'' she said. 'I make a connection with them. And when they say this might be our last trip, I tell them, 'Once you get here, everything is going to be fine.'' Evan Simmons doesn't believe financial literacy should be limited to adults. Simmons, executive director of Junior Achievement of Abilene, said the subject should be approached the way schools do reading. Or math. Though 18-year-olds may be at the best age to learn something like reading, Simmons said, literacy is taught starting in the earliest grade levels. So why not do the same with financial information, he queried, such as basic economic concepts, including supply and demand, and bank account management. On Wednesday, Simmons and a number of volunteers from Junior Achievement took their message of financial literacy to Lee Elementary School. "We focus on the basic concepts," Simmons said. "We've learned we've got to start them young, educating on the basic principles early so they have a solid foundation when they get older." Simmons said the focus at schools such as Lee, where a majority of students are classified as economically disadvantaged, is on providing solid role models. For many students, home life may not include parents following budgets or demonstrations on how to set goals and achieve desires. So when students are exposed to ideas, such as a specific career possibilities, they often react with surprise before their enthusiasm kicks in, he said. Junior Achievement, which has operated locally since 1983, has partnerships with eight area school districts, including the Abilene and Wylie independent school districts. Simmons said that throughout the course of the school year, volunteers will have entered 318 classrooms, affecting the lives of about 6,000 students. At Lee, which welcomed JA volunteers for the first time, the program was funded through a grant from the Dian Graves Owen Foundation that was designed to increase the presence of the organization in schools classified as economically disadvantaged. The students seemed to respond positively, said Andy Blessing, principal at Lee Elementary. "The volunteers cover some of the (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) requirements but they do it in a way that's different from what their teachers can present to them in class," Blessing said. "Sometimes, the students are more receptive to (opportunities) where it's not their teacher talking to them. It's a good change of pace." Fifth-graders Isaiah Vasquez and Alexia Garcia, in LeAnn Dowdy's class, said they enjoyed their lessons with the JA volunteers. When asked what they'd like to be when they grow up, Isaiah said he'd like to work as an investigator with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while Alexia said she wants to go into home health care. "I like helping others, especially in tough times," Alexia said. "At first I wasn't thinking of what was going to happen in the future. But (the volunteer) reminded me how many people are out there helping their communities with their jobs. I thought I want to help my community out as well." Isaiah said the volunteer also played a game with students asking them to assign prices to a pair of scissors and a bottle of glue. He said one price was high and the other low, with the idea being to demonstrate how pricing can affect how many items are sold. The class also filled out forms similar to resumes, on which they listed job skills and the educational experience needed for certain careers. Twitter: @TimothyChippARN Apple Inc. is justified in resisting a federal court order to unlock an iPhone used by one of the shooters who killed 14 people during an attack in San Bernardino, California. Few would disagree that fighting terrorism is the nation's top security priority, but it should not be pursued at the expense of the privacy rights of all Americans. If Apple is compelled to create an unsecured operating system for iPhones as part of a government fishing expedition, the personal information for all smartphone users would be put at risk. Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot 35 people at a civic services center in San Bernardino on Dec. 2, killing 14 and wounding 21. Police later killed Farook and Malik in a shootout. Authorities believe the Islamic State inspired the attack. Farook was an environmental health specialist with San Bernardino County. The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to retrieve data from Farook's county-issued iPhone as part of its probe into the massacre. Apple has written its iPhone operating systems to be secure from hacking even by Apple engineers. The iPhone in question requires a four-digit passcode to gain access, and entering the wrong code 10 times automatically wipes out the data stored in the device. A federal district court judge in California has ordered Apple to create software that would enable the FBI to gain access to the phone's data. Apple is resisting the order. In a letter to customers, the company's CEO, Tim Cook, said compliance with the order would have a chilling effect. 'In the wrong hands, this software which does not exist today would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone's physical possession,' Cook wrote. The Justice Department, contending that the order applies only to Farook's phone and would not pose a threat to the privacy of other iPhone users, has filed a motion demanding that Apple be forced to comply with the court order. Documents unsealed on Tuesday in a federal court in Brooklyn, however, show the government has asked Apple to unlock at least a dozen iPhones in cases across the country, multiple news organizations reported. As Cook warns, if the government prevails, the existence of the software would present a security risk for all smartphone users. State and local law enforcement would seek access just like their federal counterparts. The National Security Administration could secretly obtain the same authorization from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Foreign governments, recreational hackers and crime syndicates would attempt to obtain the code. The government's fishing expedition is unlikely to produce much useful intelligence. Farook and Malik destroyed their personal phones, but not Farook's work-issued iPhone, according to the San Bernardino Sun. The Times reported the FBI already has retrieved data from Farook's iPhone, backed up on Apple's iCloud service, leaving only about one month's worth of data untouched. The risks to privacy are too great and the anti-terrorism value too low for the government to prevail. Apple has a duty to its customers indeed to all smartphone users to resist this planned invasion of their privacy. Knoxville News Sentinel Johnny Downing, Abilene I have known Terry Joy and his wife for 58 plus years. Both these individuals have lived their lives based on honesty and integrity. Terry's opponent in the Callahan County sheriff's race has accused him of resorting to 'tactics' to demean his campaign. As Terry's life and work history speak for themselves, he doesn't have to resort to 'tactics' to run a campaign. Terry spent 39 plus years in law enforcement, 36 as a Texas game warden and served as a supervisor in both the Midland and Brownwood districts. These encompass 20 counties. He also received the prestigious honor of game warden of the year. Terry's life and work history are both an open book. I would challenge his opponent to offer voters the same, as I feel that if you are running for a public office, there should be no reason to withhold anything from your past, as his opponent has done in his previous employment in Stevens County. Qualifications: 2,731 training hours Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, 5,391 total TCOLE training and education hours. TCOLE firearms instructor, TCOLE field sobriety instructor, certified law enforcement instructor, substitute teacher in the Texas prison system for three years. Not enough room for his civic work. Do the research on each of these candidates work histories and qualifications and you will vote Terry Joy for Callahan Country sheriff. Thursday is expected to be sunny with a high close to 57 and a clear nightly low near 31 with a slight breeze all day long. This week the highs may peak anywhere from the high 50s to the 70s while the nights could get as low as the 30s to the mid-50s. There could be a 20 to 30 percent chance for precipition Tuesday. Your seven day forecast: Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 57. North northeast wind 5 to 15 mph. Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 31. North northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south after midnight. Friday: Sunny, with a high near 64. South wind 5 to 15 mph. Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 41. South wind around 10 mph. Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 72. Southwest wind 10 to 15 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. South southwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 75. South southwest wind 10 to 15 mph becoming north northeast in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 48. North northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming east southeast after midnight. Monday: Sunny, with a high near 76. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 55. Tuesday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 73. Breezy. Tuesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 44. Breezy. Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 60. Breezy. Check Out This Crazy Mirage Of The Chicago Skyline At Sunset By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 25, 2016 7:21PM A mirage version of Chicago's skyline (photo by Seth Brown) St. Joseph, Michigan, is far enough from Chicago that residents shouldnt physically be able to see any of Chicagos skyline, St. Joseph resident Seth Brown told Chicagoist. He estimates the two cities are 60 miles apart as the crow flies. Maybe someone with great eyesight could catch a glimpse of our five or six tallest downtown buildings, Brown said, but its nearly impossible. Nevertheless, just after sunset on Feb. 20, Brown, 33, snapped the above photo from a viewing deck in St. Josephs Lookout Park, a narrow Lakeshore property. It shows the Chicago skylinethough so small, its a bit hard to recognize. Heres another version of the photo, with key landmarks labeled: Brown attributes the photo primarily to a skyline mirage phenomenon. Via email, Brown explained the scientific phenomenon, and how it affected his photo as follows: When we see weather conditions featuring extremely clear/dry air, and a temperature inversion caused by warm air higher above cold air closer to the surface of the lake, this situation creates the mirage of seeing a "skyline" when in fact only the tips of the tallest five or six buildings downtown should be visible. This explains why, in the photo, you will notice taller buildings look less distorted than shorter ones. Shorter buildings are actually a mirage while taller buildings create silhouettes which are actually visible by direct line of [sight]. So... my photo is actually a combination of "real" and mirage. Browns photo looks fairly realistic, but if you doubt the mirage phenomenon is real, you can see a more surreal version of this phenomenon in this YouTube clip: If you look closely, Browns photo above has surreal elements, toothough not as prominent as the video's. [D]istortion has created a skyline in which buildings surrounding Willis Tower look only marginally shorter, Brown said, when in fact Willis Tower is significantly taller than surrounding buildings. Brown would knowhes something of a skyline sighting hobbyist. I have made a habit of viewing most sunsets where conditions for spotting are good, he said. [h/t Reddit] Advertisement - Continue Reading Below This just in... A woman walks in front of a television screen displaying a broadcast of local channel TVB at a restaurant in Hong Kong, Feb. 25, 2016. A Hong Kong television station has been swamped with complaints after it stopped using the city's lingua franca, Cantonese, on its prime-time news show, opting instead for Mandarin and subtitling it with the simplified Chinese characters used in mainland China. Hong Kong's media watchdog received more than 13,000 complaints from the public about the changes brought in by free-to-air broadcaster TVB, local media reported. The network, however, defended its decision on Thursday, calling criticisms by lawmakers "specious" and saying that the overall airtime given to Cantonese programming remains the same. TVB chief executive Lee Po-on said it was important not to discriminate against people educated across the internal border in mainland China, who only read the simplified form of written Chinese. Owing to the huge variety in spoken forms of Chinese, many of which are mutually unintelligible, subtitling is widely used in all forms of programming in Chinese-speaking regions of the world. Lee was responding to criticisms from pan-democratic lawmaker Claudio Mo, who said TVB was starting to sound like a mouthpiece for the ruling Chinese Communist Party, adding that she feared Cantonese could go the way of the Tibetan and Uyghur languages in China. But he denied the change had been made to please Beijing, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reported. No need for such change Leung Kwok-hung, a pan-democratic member of the city's Legislative Council (LegCo), said there was no need for such change to accommodate mainland Chinese in the city. "They can just learn traditional characters while they're watching TV," Leung said. "Here in Hong Kong, we use traditional characters, and the radio and television programs are all in Cantonese, and they should learn it from us." "There's no need for simplified characters and Mandarin in a city that speaks Cantonese," Leung told RFA. TVB's controversial move comes amid a growing public debate over suggestions from education officials that teaching materials in Hong Kong's schools should also include simplified Chinese characters. A number of Hong Kong residents told RFA's Cantonese Service that they saw no need for a shift to wider use of Mandarin or simplified Chinese, a major theme in the recently popular dystopian Hong Kong movie "10 Years." "There is no need whatsoever to hardwire the ability to read simplified Chinese into the primary and secondary school curriculums," a mother who gave only her surname Kwun told RFA. "It is ridiculous; it's just change for the sake of change." A student at a high school in the high-income district of Kowloon Tong said it was unclear where the government was going with the proposals. "We students don't know who to follow," the student said. "When they recruit teachers, they say that they must be fluent in traditional characters, and not use simplified Chinese." Ho Hon-kuen, vice-chairman of the concern group Education Convergence, said traditional Chinese characters are a vital part of the city's heritage, and should be treasured. Many have argued that most people in Hong Kong can already understand simplified Chinese script, a view which Ho appears to share. "There's no need for this to be formally entered into the curriculum," Ho said. But Wong Wai-sing, deputy chairman of the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, said the row over simplified Chinese was a storm in a teacup. "They're not talking about swapping traditional characters for simplified characters across the board; they are merely suggesting that students should be able to read and write simplified characters," Wong said. "I think some people are taking this completely out of context so as to heighten tensions between Hong Kong and the mainland." But he admitted that the Hong Kong government is likely under some political pressure in the wake of the 2014 pro-democracy movement and the Mong Kok riots earlier this month to look as if it is moving to "maintain stability." Patriotic education program Pan-democratic lawmaker Helena Wong, however, said some of the government's proposals for changed textbooks were in line with Beijing's calls for more "patriotic education" in Hong Kong's schools, which sparked mass protests in 2009. "For example, they wanted to delete all the references to freedoms and human rights and justice, and replacement them with concepts like respect for the law and education on the Basic Law," Wong said in a reference to the mini-constitution under which Hong Kong has been governed since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule. "I think that there are political motivations behind these proposals," Wong said. "This is the road to a politicized curriculum." Prince Wong of the academic activism group Scholarism that launched a campaign that eventually forced Hong Kong officials to drop Beijing's "patriotic education" program in the city's schools, said the group is against the teaching of simplified Chinese characters. "We are very strongly opposed to this," she said. "Actually, you usually acquire some knowledge of simplified characters anyway when you are in high school." "I don't understand why the education department suddenly wants them taught," she said. Meanwhile, Hong Kong lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen, who represents the education sector in LegCo, said there would be little to be gained from such a move. "I don't think that this would be of much use [to students] given the sort of linguistic environment we have in Hong Kong," Ip said. "It could even lead to a backlash." "I can't think of any good practical reasons for aiming to make Mandarin a medium of instruction," he said. Hong Kong was promised a "high degree of autonomy," including a separate legal system and the protection of its existing freedoms for 50 years after the handover. But Britain's foreign minister Philip Hammond accused Beijing earlier this month of a "serious breach" of the 1984 handover treaty after Hong Kong bookseller Lee Bo was "involuntarily" taken to mainland China across the internal immigration border. Reported by Lin Jing for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Xin Lin for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie. Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang on Thursday handed down jail terms of 14 and 12 years to husband-and-wife Protestant pastors following a crackdown on churches in a region known as "China's Jerusalem." Protestant pastors and married couple Bao Guohua and Xing Wenxiang of the Holy Love Christian church were sentenced to 14 and 12 years' imprisonment respectively by the Wucheng District People's Court in Zhejiang's Jinhua city. They were both found guilty of "encroachment," "running an illegal business," "disturbing public order," and "concealing financial records," their congregants told RFA. Local police and official media had accused the couple of living "greedy lives," reporting that jewelry and cash from congregants' donations were found in the couple's home. "Xing Wenxiang was sentenced to 12 years, while Bao Guohua got 14 years," a Holy Love church member told RFA. The court also handed suspended jail sentences to 10 other church members, who were allowed to walk free after the sentencing, the church member said. "The others are all back at home now ... they were all sentenced on four criminal charges," the church member said. Others also held The sentences came after the authorities detained at least 16 pastors and other church members in and around Zhejiang's Wenzhou city during confrontations with the authorities over a long-running cross removal program in the province. China is home to an estimated 60 million Protestant Christians, some 23 million of whom are members of the government-backed Three-Self Patriotic Movement, as required by the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Chinese religious believers may practice only five officially recognized religions, and only in officially approved religious premises. The ruling Chinese Communist Party oversees every aspect of religious life, including organizations' activities, employee details, and financial records. It also appoints religious personnel, and vets religious publications and seminary applications, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its 2016 annual report. Last year, Zhejiang authorities launched a regional campaign targeting visible church crosses for demolition as "illegal structures" in the name of civic pride. But HRW cited an internal provincial directive as saying that the campaign is designed to reduce the prominence of Christianity in the region. "At least a hundred Christians have reportedly been briefly detained for resisting the demolitions since the start of the campaign in early 2014," the group said in a statement on its website. And Bao and Xing aren't the first to face jail time for their opposition to the demolitions. At least one church leader, Huang Yizi, was convicted of "gathering crowds to disturb social order" and jailed for one year last March, HRW said. 'Hostile forces' Last June, a top party official told religious leaders that "hostile forces" from overseas are using religion to infiltrate China, and called for a campaign to "Sinicize" the nation's religious activities, it said. And in August, the National Peoples Congress (NPC) changed the Criminal Law to lengthen prison penalties for organizing and participating in groups designated "evil cults" by the government to a maximum of life imprisonment. Earlier this month, the Chinese Communist Party issued new guidelines banning its members from following any religion, even after they retire from official life, amid an ideological campaign by President Xi Jinping targeting any activity seen as "importing" values and cultural practices from overseas. Xi has cited religion in particular as a means by which "hostile foreign forces" seek to exert a subversive influence in China. Reported by Hai Nan for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie. An injured member of the Pat Jasan antidrug activist group arrives at a hospital in Myitkyina, capital of northern Myanmar's Kachin state, Feb. 25, 2016. More than 30 antidrug activists were injured Thursday in three attacks by unknown armed assailants in northern Myanmars Kachin state, as they attempted to destroy opium poppy fields, a local lawmaker, a medical official and an activist said. Assisted by police, about 26 teams of locals and members of the antidrug, Christian Pat Jasan group were clearing fields in the Kanpaiktee and Sadon areas as part of a poppy eradication campaign unpopular among those who profit from the multibillion-dollar trade, when they were ambushed, said Lagan Zai Jung, a lawmaker representing Kachin states Waingmaw constituency. Some villagers said they were attacked with landmines along the way, he told RFAs Myanmar Service. Some vehicles were damaged. The group was shot at with automatic weapons. Attackers armed with guns, machetes, grenades and slingshots, targeted the teams as they made their way to fields near Htan Mo Kham and Sinjiang villages in Waingmaw township, said Lameng Guan Gyar, a Pat Jasan member. The assailants also burned some of the groups cars. Of the 30 people wounded, 29 ended up in the hospital, said medical superintendent Aung Ngwe Zan. Eleven of the 29 are currently in the surgical ward, while the rest are in the orthopedic and emergency wards, he told RFAs Myanmar Service. One person had wounds in the abdomen, and another on the shoulders, he said. How bad they are will be determined soon after checking their ultrasound results. Well then decide whether they should undergo operations. Tu Raw, a leader of the Pat Jasan group, suggested that the attackers, who used semi-automatic weapons and remote-controlled mines, were government or local militia forces. The weapons used in the attacks are those normally used by groups/organizations permitted by the state, and the area is under the control of the Tatmadaw [Myanmars defense forces], border guards and militias. There are no other groups, and so there is no doubt about these weapons. The Pat Jasan group, formed two years ago and made up of mostly ethnic Kachin members with ties to the Kachin Baptist Church, received permission to resume its drug eradication campaign in the Waingmaw area on Feb. 23 after a weeklong standoff with state authorities over security concerns. Farmers, local militias and corrupt government officials who profit from opium and heroin sales oppose the groups activities. Myanmar is the world's second-biggest producer of opium after Afghanistan, and most of its poppies, which are used for opium and heroin, are grown in Kachin and Shan states. It is also a producer of methamphetamines commonly sold as yaba tablets. Antidrug motion passed Myanmars lower house parliament on Thursday passed an emergency motion submitted by Lagan Zai Jung for the government to encourage and support public participation in drug eradication campaigns. Parliament has approved the proposal today, and so further steps will come to officially urge the government to take stronger measures, he said. Twenty-three lawmakers, including three military members of parliament (MPs), discussed the proposal, despite no-shows by government ministers or their representatives who were supposed to participate in the deliberations. Among the 13 government ministries invited to attend the session were defense, home affairs, border affairs, agriculture and the investment commission. Nevertheless, the motion passed with 357 votes for, 10 against, and five abstentions, according to a Myanmar Times report. While some lawmakers have supported the destruction of opium fields in Kachin state by the antidrug activists, military MPs said the Pat Jasan group was illegitimate because it was not a registered organization. Lieutenant Colonel Thein Htut, a military lawmaker, said during an early February meeting among residents from Maosetung village, the local tactical commander, police officers, village leaders and representatives of opium eradication teams, the village chiefs made it clear that local residents would accept only organizations that had registered with the government, and that they did not want social or religious groups or self-acclaimed drug eradication teams destroying poppy fields. Narcotic drugs like heroin and yaba are being sold openly, as if they were legally approved, in a long row of about 60 huts about only 200 meters (656 feet) from the police station, Tin Soe, a lawmaker representing Hpakant constituency in Kachin state, told parliament. The Pat Jasan Group helped with the July 1, 2015, arrest of Daw Kaing from Longin village, who had been trafficking in the area for about three years, he said. Police seized from her home 300,000 yaba tablets, 415 plastic soapboxes of heroin, 600 penicillin bottles of heroin, 2,300 plastic pipes containing heroin and yaba, two vehicles, and two diaries and notebooks, he said. There were many more cases like that, Tin Soe said. Making ends meet But Win Naing, a lawmaker from Mogaung, disagreed, saying that local drug seizures and arrests in parts of Kachin state were insignificant. The amount of drugs being seized was disproportionately small compared to the amount being distributed, he said in parliament. Among the seizures, there were only eight cases that involved more than one million kyats (U.S. $810) and only six cases that involved less than 10,000 kyats (U.S. $8.11) from which we could say the arrests were very superficial. Many villagers have cultivated opium poppies for decades in order to make ends meet, said Saing Gaung Sahein, a lawmaker from Maukme. They never made a lot of money, but those with an eye for business took over on a commercial scale, he said. These people use modern machinery on a large scale instead of hoes and other small farm implements. They have used modern chemicals and fertilizers to turn it into a big business. Lagan Zai Jung, however, said most of the people who work the fields in the Waingmaw area are Chinese with considerable investment potential that allows them to buy farming machinery and install water pipes deep in the jungle to irrigate poppy fields Our ethnic people cannot do the production on this scale, he said. It seems to be done as a well planned, long-term strategy from their [the Chinese] side. Lwin Ko Latt, a lawmaker representing Thanlyin, said the government has a duty to eradicate opium and heroin in the country. Destroying these poppy fields to save the countrys image is the responsibility of the government, he said. The daily papers said opium cultivation is being done in Waingmaw township which is under government control. Then it must be the negligence of the authorities concerned. Pat Jasan has asked the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which will take over as the ruling government party in about a month, for an official policy of support. Reported by Win Ko Ko Latt, Kyaw Myo Min, Khin Khin Ei, and Zarni Htun for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. China refused in December to renew a work visa for French reporter Ursula Gauthier, effectively expelling the veteran journalist Beijing had accused of 'supporting terrorism' for her reporting from Xinjiang, home of the Uyghur minority. Gauthier, who had lived in China for more than 16 years in stints that began in 1979, spoke to Mamatjan Juma of RFAs Uyghur Service about her reporting and subsequent treatment at the hands of Chinese authorities and the state media which vilified her after her report in L'Obs magazine rejecting Chinas effort to present a spate of violence in Xinjiang as similar to jihadist terrorist attacks in France. RFA: Before, during the 80s, you said Xinjiang wasnt as developed as it is right now, but it was not as tense. China is saying that We brought development, and we did this and we did that, we improved the living standards of the Uyghurs. So why do you think that all the so-called happiness that China is talking about didnt bring any happiness to the Uyghurs? Gauthier: It didnt bring happiness to anyone, in fact. Not even the Han. I mean, this kind of development is very quick, but it doesnt help to bring equality and good living standards to everyone. So everywhere in China you have the same problems. The only difference is that in Xinjiang and in certain areas, in minority areas, this is even more visible. Because you have this difference between minority and majority, and you see that people from the majority are taking advantage of the system. And mostly in the minoritynot everyonebut mostly they dont have any advantage from this system of development. But everyone knows its basically the same phenomenon even in the mainland, what they call inside China. Its more or less the same situation. Its a very unequal process. RFA: Yes, but during the 80s we didnt see these many attacks in the Uyghur region. And its increasing. And in 'inland China' we see resentments but we dont see attacks like that by the Chinese, so if you compare that . . . Gauthier: Well, I dont agree. There are many attacks by Chinese people, disgruntled people. But they dont publicize it. For instance, at one time we heard so much about people who were going in the schools and who were killing a lot of children and their teachers, and then after a while we didnt hear about it because, in fact, the authorities said, 'Do not report about those questions.' And then we heard also about people going to hospitals on TV. You have everywhere this kind of rage expressing itself when one person is, who knows, maybe a bit psychologically unstable or having special difficulties, and they do this. You have it also in nei-di, Chinese China, but they speak about it more in the minority areas. Thats all. Thats the difference, I think. RFA: So youre saying that the attacks that happened in the Uyghur region, theres nothing different from the attacks happening in inland China by the Chinese people against the civilians. Gauthier: I would say there is one difference, which is that in the minority areas the people have a clear consciousness of whats going on in terms of political pressure, political exploitation, and they know that its not their people who are really at the head of this movement, and its people coming from inland China. They know that. So it seems directed towards the authorities, and given that the authorities are mainly Han people, it seems to be racial or maybe ethnic. But the fact is its the same thing everywhere. But when its Han people who attack Han people, you dont say that its ethnic. In fact, its a rebellion against the authorities. RFA. So as you said, you lived in China for 16 years. Were you always harassed while in China as a journalist because of your controversial writings about China? Or was this the first time that you faced this much pressure by the Chinese government? Gauthier: I didnt have this kind of pressure beforehand. At the beginning, I was really amazed. I was shocked, because I had had unhappy encounters with policemen, but it was while I was doing my reports. And in the field, when you go to places where something is happening, something sensitive, its normal that some journalists meet with policemen and then we sometimes have rough moments. But never have I seen someone telling me What you wrote is not OK. That was the first time. RFA: Can you tell us about this latest article, which caused your expulsion from China? Gauthier: This article is a kind of analysis of what happened after the Paris attacks, and the fact that Chinese authorities tried to paint themselves as being in exactly the same situation as French people after the attacks, saying, We too are under the same kind of attack. And at first I was shocked, because its not true. And then they used this one specific event that happened in [Bay County] and they said that this event proves that China is under the same kind of attack from the international jihadi movement. And whatever we know now about what actually happened there came from Radio Free Asia. And what we knew at that time, for at least two months, the Chinese authorities didnt say anything, they never even mentioned this event. And then all of a sudden, this becomes a jihadi attack. If it were really a jihadi attack, they would have told about that from the beginning. So its so obvious that this was a manipulation, and it was really important for me as a French journalist to make an article to tell the difference between what happened there and what happened in Paris. And that is what didnt please them. That was the point where they were angry at me. RFA: In your article you also pointed out that in the Baicheng [Bay] attack, there were some women and underage children. Is this why you say that it was totally different from the Paris attack as well? Gauthier: Well no, thats not why, because the fact is that what we know of this attack is that it was done by three people, three men, who are not young jihadis as we now know well from the portrait of the jihadi attackers in Russian countries. They were rather old men who had women and children [with them] and who did this for a motive we dont really understand yet. They attacked a mine and the boss of this mine, and then they went on a rampage, and they killed everyone who was working in this mine and then the policemen who came to the mine. So from my analysis, from what we know of the kind of people who were doing this, and the kind of situation, the kind of place where it happened I mean, if it is a terrorist attack it has be in a very central place. Its not like in a very lost place very far from the city center. So to be a terrorist attack, it has to make a big impression on the people who hear about that. And the people who did this attack, they certainly knew that nobody would speak about this attack, because the Chinese government wouldnt allow the news to go out. So the whole purpose of doing a terrorist attack wasnt there. So for me it wasnt a terrorist attack. It was a bloody attack. It was murder, mass murder, but you cannot call that terrorist simply because many people died, because many innocent people died. RFA: The Chinese government asked you to apologize, and they also called you a terrorist lover, terrorist supporter, and they even intimidated you with expulsion, and you never moved. What made you stand fast? Why didnt you change your mind and say, Yes it was a terrorist attack? Is this because you know the Uyghur situation well? Gauthier: Yes, yes, I know the situation. I know that there are very bloody attacks. I dont like violence, and Im certainly not okay when violence is [committed] toward innocent bystanders. I hate that, but I think that in this situation, its a consequence of years and years and years of incredible pressure and repression. So maybe it cant be excluded that some jihadi-minded people use this situation in order to fan some feelings. But if you want to fan feelings, you have to go to the center of Urumqi. You dont do that in a lost place far away in Aksu [prefecture]. It doesnt look much like a terrorist attack, so why call it a terrorist attack? RFA: After your article was published, the Chinese government-affiliated newspaper Global Times conducted a survey on whether your visa should be extended or not. And they said 200,000 netizens voted against it. When you saw this number, what did you think? Gauthier: Well, let me tell you that the Global Times has no reputation at all in the eyes of real professionals. I mean, we know that the Global Times is just a mouthpiece [representing] one tendency inside the Communist Party which is the most radical, nationalist tendency. So if those people want to say anything, they dont care to go to the length of doing a survey. They just pretend they did it. I dont even believe that they did it. Theyre manipulating the whole public opinion. Thats all. Thats what theyre doing, so I just dont care about what they say. RFA: We know that there are some Chinese-paid online commentators. Do you think some of them were involved in that negative opinion? Gauthier: I think so. I read carefully most of the commentaries, and it seemed to me that a minority of them were paid commentatorspeople who wrote good French but who were using the kind of ideas and arguments that you find in what you call the 50-cent bunch of people, and they are using basically the same ideas. So I think some of them are paid, yes. RFA: We know that there is some rising Islamophobia in Europe and Paris in particular following the Paris attacks. And Uyghurs are Muslim people. Do you think it is controversial for you to write such a powerful article to call on China and the international community to differentiate Uyghur attacks from international terrorism? Gauthier: I had a very strong support from the media community. It was really strong. I didnt have very [much] from the government, and I think the reason is not because its about Muslims. The reason is because they have, they want, they expect, they hope they would have very good relationship with Chinapolitical, economical, commercial, etc. Thats the reason. I dont think its the fact that its about Muslims has played a role in it. I dont think so. But maybe in the larger community of French people, one part of the French were less supportive because they perceived the Uyghurs primarily as Muslims. But as I tried to explain in my article, this has little to do with religion. This is classic repression of a majority on a minority. I mean, Tibetans are not Muslim, but they are the same thing, they are repressed as well. They react differently. They burn themselves to death. Sometimes also they do resist in more violent ways. Its a cultural difference I think, more than a religious difference. So for me, the religious element is not the principal, its not the main one. And people who think that its about religion, they are wrong. RFA: Did supporting Uyghurs bring any kind of inconvenience to you and to your life and your family? Gauthier: Well no, not specifically the fact that it was Uyghurs. I mean, the fact that I was singled out by China, yes. Especially because I had very violent attacks from netizens, probably paid by the Chinese government to come and slander me on my Facebook page or to write about me very horrendous things on Chinese websites and forums. I think that was the main effect that could have impressed me. But it didnt. RFA: So we can say that you endured an intensive information battle with China. During these times, what is the point that makes you most comfortable? Is it because of being the voice of suppressed ethnic groups or staying on the opposite side of a dictatorship, or your resolution of holding a journalistic code of ethics? Gauthier: I think the third one. Im a journalist. I have been there. I have seen things. You cannot make me say what I havent seen, and you cannot make me not say what I have seen. So, you know, its my job, its what I do. And even China cannot make me change my mind about that. So they should understand that most of the journalists are like-minded. I mean, we dont like people dictating to us. And fortunately I could visit, so maybe other people are not as fortunate. Because they have more to lose. I can come back to my work, I can come back to my magazine, come back to my home and my family. One thing that I regret is that I cannot do field research any more in China, which was the thing that I enjoyed most. But there are other things that I can do about China, and I will do it. RFA: Will you write such articles about Uyghurs and about China in the future? Gauthier: Certainly, certainly. There is not a hint of hesitation. RFA: How would you describe the current situation in the Uyghur region? Gauthier: I think its very sad, a very difficult situation for people there. If you want to thrive, you have to do compromises with the authorities. And as soon as you begin to compromise, one of the most difficult things is that the authorities request from people who work with them to spy on others. This is the most difficult thing, and if you want to do business or you want to become a public servant or anything, you have to do this. You have to be a traitor with your own people. Or if you dont do that, you know that you will stay in a situation where the opportunities are very few and you wont have a good future for you and your family and your children. So I think its a very cruel situation. RFA: And China says that those measures will bring stability for China and the region in many ways. Do you see that this will bring stability, or will it bring more violence against the Chinese government? Gauthier: I think that the stability is a consequence of using force, of using brute force. And violence also is a consequence of using brute force. So maybe at the beginning it will be more stable, but then at the end it cannot be stable. I dont see how people will stand this situation in the long term. I dont think its very sustainable. Recent moves by China to place anti-aircraft batteries and radar systems on disputed islands in the South China Sea violate Vietnams sovereignty and pose a threat to regional stability and peace, a Vietnamese government spokesman said on Thursday. The status quo is being destroyed, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Hai Binh told reporters at a ministry press briefing, according to a Feb. 25 report by VietnamNet. Chinas moves have militarized the South China Sea and threaten the security of air and ship traffic through the strategically important region, Binh added. By introducing radar, surface-to-air missiles, and jet fighters into the contested Paracel and Spratly Island chains, China has also violated Vietnams undisputable sovereignty over the two island groups, Binh said, quoted by the Associated Press on Thursday. Accusations last week that China has placed anti-aircraft batteries on Woody Island in the Paracels have raised tensions in a region already grappling with Beijings claim to sovereignty over most of the South China Sea. Woody Island, which the Chinese call Yongxing, is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. The island contains an artificial harbor, an airport, roads, army posts, a helicopter base and other buildings, AP reports. Some of the worlds busiest sea lanes traverse the South China Sea, which is also a rich fishing ground and may contain petroleum reserves under the sea bed. Taiwan and China both claim nearly the entire sea. Vietnam and the Philippines also have large claims, while Brunei and Malaysia have smaller stakes to waters and features that lie much closer to those nations than they do to faraway China. A senior Afghan official says Pakistan has been tasked with bringing a group of 10 influential Taliban representatives to Islamabad during the first week of March to take part in direct talks with the Afghan government. The Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not specify which Taliban figures Pakistan would try to contact. But he said the 10 were identified by the government in Kabul as the most influential people among Taliban factions, including the Haqqani network. The task was given to Pakistan by four countries trying to arrange direct peace talks from the so-called Quadrilateral Coordination Group -- which includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and the United States. That group announced on February 23 that it expects direct talks to start in Islamabad during the first week of March. But the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban's political office in Qatar told RFE/RL later on the same day that is was "unaware of plans for talks" and that it had not changed its preconditions for joining the peace process. Those preconditions include the withdrawal of all foreign troops in the U.S.-led coalition from Afghanistan, recognition of their office, removal of the Taliban from UN terrorist blacklists, and the release of Taliban inmates from prisons. Some Taliban delegates met in Islamabad during the summer of 2015 with Afghan officials for an initial round of peace talks. But the fledgling peace process was derailed by the revelation that the Taliban's founder and spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had been dead for more than two years. A power struggle between rival Taliban factions then emerged with rival field commanders expressing loyalty to different leaders. The Taliban's Qatar office says it is the only "authorized and responsible entity" that can represent Afghanistan's Taliban at peace talks. With reporting by AP, Reuters, and Tolo-TV Disco And Tiki Collide In 'Rum-Soaked Harmony' At Logan Square Pop-up By Anthony Todd in Food on Feb 25, 2016 3:25PM Anvil Bar & Refuge (right) is taking over Lost Lake (left). Photos via Facebook. In the 1970s, disco helped kill Tiki culture in America. At least, it did according to the folks behind Lost Lake, Logan Square's awesome tiki bar: "The pillars of the original tiki movement laid-back vibes and quality, handcrafted cocktails could not coexist with the demand for super speedy service, dance floors, bell bottoms, and drugs." Well, history is about to be re-written, as Lost Lake gets re-vamped next week into "Texas Tiki Disco." The somewhat insane mashup comes from Anvil Bar & Refuge, an acclaimed cocktail bar in Houston. They'll be taking over Lost Lake from Sunday, Feb. 28 to Friday, March 4, and serving tropical takes on classic cocktails, punch bowls, 1970s dinner party snacks (from Thank You, next door) and plenty of great disco music. Why the takeover? Well, Paul McGee and the Lost Lake crew are taking a "research trip" to Martinique, and someone has to man the barand that someone is Anvil's Bobby Heugel. We're particularly excited about Heugel's "Break Even" program that he's bringing up from Texashe serves one ounce pours of rare and expensive spirits at cost, giving customers a unique opportunity to try some great stuff. I'll give the last word to McGee and company, since they said it better than we could: "Join in the experiment as Bobby Heugel and his team exercise the booze-fueled conspiracy theory that tiki and disco are not opposing cosmic forces, and can indeed exist in a spectacular rum-soaked harmony!" An anti-Turkish party has joined the government of Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian in a deal highlighting Yerevan's failure to normalize ties with Ankara. At Sarkisian's invitation, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun) took three ministerial posts for economy, education, and local administration, and appointed two regional governors. The agreement with Sarkisian's ruling Republican Party (HHK) on February 24 "marks the beginning of a long-term political cooperation based on common values and joint goals and action plans," HHK Deputy Chairman Armen Ashotyan told journalists. Armenia and Turkey have clashed over Armenian demands that Turkey take resonsponsibility for the massacre of ethnic Armenians during the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Dashnaktsutiun, a socialist party that has antagonized Ankara by making territorial claims in Turkey, currently holds five seats in Armenia's 131-member parliament. Dashnaktsutiun went over to the opposition in 2009 after Armenia and Turkey signed an agreement to normalize relations. The pact would have led to the opening up of the border between the two neighbors, but it has since languished without ratification in both countries' parliaments. Based on reporting by AFP and Interfax Austria and its Balkan neighbors have agreed to tighten border controls and warned they may eventually have to shut their borders entirely. At a meeting in Vienna on February 24, ministers from European Union members Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bulgaria, joined with Balkan states Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia in issuing a declaration saying, "It is not possible to process unlimited numbers of migrants and applicants for asylum" and limits must be established to protect "internal security" and "social cohesion." "The migration flow along the Western Balkans route needs to be substantially reduced," said the 19-point document, laying out ways to curb the migrant flow, including refusing entry to "migrants not in need of international protection" and persons "without travel documents, with forged or falsified documents, or migrants making wrongful statements about their nationality or identity." The declaration calls for common standards of registration and entry criteria for those with realistic chances for asylum, and urges all EU member states to refuse entry to those who do not satisfy the entry conditions. Austria has recently capped the number of asylum seekers it will accept daily at its borders to 80, and limited the number of refugees it will let pass through the country. That has led to more border restrictions being introduced further south. Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner called for "a chain reaction of reason" rather than a potentially disastrous accumulation of refugees on borders that have been fortified. "We must reduce the flow of migrants now," she said, "because the refugee question can become a question of survival for the European Union." While Austria is still in favor of a common EU solution to the migrant problem, the EU needs short-term "national measures" to staunch the flow, she said. Austrian officials said the joint declaration will be presented to a meeting of EU interior and justice ministers on February 25 in Brussels. The move to impose joint restrictions in the Balkan region follows the failure of an EU plan agreed to in September 2015 to relocate 160,000 people among EU members under mandatory quotas. Only 598 have been relocated so far, with former communist members of the bloc opposing the plan and filing legal challenges. The joint declaration provoked a denunciation from Greece, which was not invited to the meeting and which has been left with thousands of migrants stranded at its border with Macedonia because of the new restrictions. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras lashed out at states that "not only erect fences on their borders but at the same time do not accept to take in a single refugee." Macedonian authorities have been turning away all Afghans and allowing only Syrians and Iraqis to cross at a very slow pace. But the influx of people reaching Greek islands from the Turkish mainland continues unabated, leaving tens of thousands of migrants stranded in Greece. WATCH: As countries across the Balkans prevent migrants crossing their frontiers, large numbers of people are finding themselves stuck at various border crossings. "We need a larger political consensus on this issue," Tsipras said, adding that the blockades were causing a "mini-humanitarian crisis" on Greek soil. "We will not allow our country to turn into a warehouse of souls." With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has announced the deportation of a Russian journalist for "committing acts that harm the interests of Ukraine." The journalist, Maria Stolyarova, who had been embroiled in a controversy since using profanity on-air late last week, is barred from entering Ukraine for five years. SBU spokeswoman Olena Hytlyanska shared the announcement on her Facebook page on February 24 that Stolyarova got a "one-way ticket" out of Ukraine. Stolyarova, who had been working in Ukraine since 2015, was sent to her native Russia under the supervision of SBU personnel. The Security Service also published a two-minute video showing officers at the airport reading Stolyarova the deportation order, which she signs before leaving the room with an accompanying officer. WATCH: Maria Stolyarova Receives A Deportation Order (natural sound, no English subtitles) The SBU began their investigation into Stolyarova, who worked as an executive editor of a news program broadcast on Ukraine's national Inter TV channel, after she was heard behind the scenes during the February 21 broadcast. As the program's correspondent was interviewing relatives of activists killed during 2014 Euromaidan protests, Stolyarova's voice could be heard saying, "Let's end with this s**t." Some Ukrainian viewers expressed outrage, viewing her language as a sign of disrespect toward the dead protesters, who in Ukraine have been dubbed the "Heavenly Hundred." "Shame on Inter, as long as Stolyarova works there," Ukrainian political analyst Taras Berezovets wrote on Twitter. "Shame on Ukraine, as long as Inter is unpunished for offending the memory of the Heavenly Hundred." Stolyarova has said the incident was misunderstood. In a Facebook video, she said the moment had actually been a technical mistake -- she was speaking to her colleagues and by accident pressed the wrong button. She published a video from the newsroom in an effort to prove it. "Yes, really, there was an irreparable technical mistake on air," she said. "This was my mistake. It's a pity for a person who has been working on TV for 17 years, but it's not deadly, because it was live, four stages at a time. Believe me, it's terribly, terribly nerve-racking." Two days after the incident, on February 23, Inter, a network widely seen as having a pro-Russian bent, published a statement saying that Stolyarova was not directly affiliated with the channel and that a separate company, National Information Systems (NIS), produces the program. "Inter considers it unacceptable that explicit language was broadcast. It imposes full responsibility for what happened on NIS, since the technicality of live broadcasting doesn't allow the channel to eliminate errors of a program's producers," the statement reads. Stolyarova terminated her contract with NIS the day after Inter's statement, but that was not enough for many Ukrainians, who quickly began investigating Stolyarova's past. 'Very Polite' Separatists Ukrainian journalists investigating her social-media accounts reported that while working for Russian RenTV channel and covering the Moscow-backed conflict in eastern Ukraine, she often expressed favorable views of pro-Russian separatists. Among the images retrieved by journalists from the private Facebook posts (in which she uses the first name "Matilda") are several photos of her with separatists in Donbas. In one, dated May 2014 when the conflict was at a boiling point, Stolyarova is surrounded by three armed men in camouflage -- allegedly all members of a separatist battalion. The caption reads: "The very polite Vostok battalion. My favorite guys in Donetsk!" Russian soldiers who invaded and occupied Ukraine's Crimean peninsula ahead of its eventual forced annexation in early 2014, were originally referred to as "little green men" and later given the "polite people" moniker in an attempt to improve their image. In another post from March 2014, shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed a document annexing Crimea despite international outrage, Stolyarova claimed that "for her family Crimea has always been Russia." After those posts went public, Stolyarova told Ukrainian website Detektor Media that her job at the time required her to share posts in support of pro-Russian separatists. "Let's not forget that I am a public person. I needed to gain trust and my posts, as well as photographs, could have been dictated by that," she said. Stolyarova added that her actual views are different, but she did not specify. "The fact that I left [Russia] after resigning [from RenTV] proves that everything in my life has changed. After you spend three months at war here and there, you begin to see things differently," she said. Some journalists in Ukraine who write for foreign media outlets have criticized the SBU decision to deport Stolyarova. According to the Russian Medizaona website, 136 Russian citizens are currently under investigation in Ukraine in connection with the conflict in eastern Ukraine. More than half of them are on Ukraine's wanted list. According to a 2015 Pew Research Center report, 72 percent of Ukrainians have an unfavorable opinion of Russia. Yevhen Holovakha, deputy director of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, told Tyzhden magazine that two-thirds of Ukrainians have anti-Russian sentiments and consider Russia to be an aggressor, while more than 80 percent consider Russia to be an enemy. "A psychological wall between Ukraine and Russia is already built," he said. The Daily Vertical is a video primer for Russia-watchers that appears Monday through Friday. Viewers can suggest topics via Twitter @PowerVertical or on the Power Vertical Facebook page. A transcript of today's Daily Vertical can be found here. TBILISI -- The Day of the Soviet Occupation is being observed in Georgia on February 25, 95 years after the country was overrun by the Soviet Red Army. Special events -- including exhibitions, theater performances, and concerts -- were being staged in the capital, Tbilisi, and other Georgian cities. Government officials and senior lawmakers laid flowers to the memorial complex to Georgian cadets killed fighting against the Soviet invasion that started on February 17, 1921 and ended four days later with the Soviet victory. Soviet control of the Caucasus nation lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Georgia has commemorated the Day of the Soviet Occupation on February 25 since 2011, with workers across the country given the day off as a national holiday. Iran could chart its course for the next decade and beyond when hard-liners and moderates clash on February 26 in elections for parliament and the powerful body that will choose the country's next supreme leader. Much could be riding on these elections -- from potentially picking Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's successor, to lining up allies for pragmatist President Hassan Rohani reelection bid, to slamming the door on a comeback bid by the country's marginalized reformists. Not since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 has the Assembly of Experts election, usually a dull affair, attracted such huge attention. Iran's theocratic system vests the Assembly of Experts with the power to pick and dismiss the supreme leader, who has the last word on religious and political affairs. Khamenei is 76, and unconfirmed rumors have swirled in recent years about his health. Since its members are elected every eight years, the new 88-member assembly could play the dominant role in choosing his successor. Moreover, the next supreme leader is likely to be picked from the ranks of the assembly, all of whose members must be Islamic theologians. "This is why the supreme leader and his allies want to make certain that they have someone in place who is amenable to their point of view," says Scott Lucas, an Iran specialist at Birmingham University in Britain and editor of the EA World View website. Lucas notes that Hassan Khomeini, a grandson of Islamic revolutionary and original Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, has been disqualified by the Guardians Council, the clerical vetting body responsible for overseeing Iran's elections. The 43-year-old Khomeini is thought to be sympathetic toward reformists and backed Rohani in the 2013 presidential election, and his potential candidacy and revolutionary pedigree have attracted considerable attention. Pragmatist former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani shone a light on the Assembly of Experts vote in December when he suggested that the body might be open to choosing "a council of leaders if needed" instead of a single supreme leader who rules for life. Rohani and Rafsanjani are both members of the assembly -- Rafsanjani presided over the Assembly of Experts in 2007-11, in fact -- and are up for reelection. Under Iran's constitution, a transitional "leadership council" is permitted until a supreme leader is selected by the assembly. But Rafsanjani appeared to be calling for a permanent council, a notion that is fiercely rejected by hard-liners. Reformists Looking For Comeback Reformists boycotted the last parliamentary elections in 2012, prompted by the harsh government crackdown on the opposition Green Movement after the disputed presidential election in 2009. The current 290-seat parliament is dominated by conservatives and hard-liners. This year, reformists have united with moderates within a bloc called the Alliance Of Reformists And Government Supporters in hopes of more effectively challenging their rivals. "What we're seeing is probably the most significant attempt [to win seats] since the repression of the reformists since the early years of the 21st century," says Lucas, who adds that many reformists regret their previous decisions to boycott. "Now, the idea is that 'we're certainly not going to get all the reformists we want in and the moderates we want in, but if we can get this bloc in we will have more influence certainly more than we have since 2012 and we'll be able to push back the hard-liners.'" A reformist ex-president, Mohammad Khatami, even reemerged for a rare public appearance in the weeks before this month's elections to try and get opposition voters out in large numbers. (Khatami has been subject to a domestic media ban since his support for the opposition in the wake of the disputed 2009 elections.) In a YouTube video put out by a group called Khatami Media, the 72-year-old theologian and former two-term president cited Rohani's election win in 2013 and urged voters to help the reformists take a "second step." WATCH:: Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami Urges People To Vote For Reform (in Persian, no subtitles) Khatami and fellow ex-President Rafsanjani also encouraged Iranians to select candidates backed by reformists in the Assembly of Experts vote. However, Ali Vaez, a senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG), says that, by disqualifying the vast majority of reformist candidates, the Guardians Council vetting candidates for all of Iran's elections might have essentially precluded a reformist comeback. "But despite their own exclusion, reformists are encouraging the electorate to turn out at the polls, lest they waste the opportunity to elect moderates and sideline hard-liners," Vaez says. Rohani's Future President Rohani has a lot riding on the elections, which many observers see as a test of his popularity following the landmark nuclear deal reached with world powers last year. A more reform-minded parliament could boost the prospects for Rohani's expected reelection bid in 2017, says Vaez. "A friendlier parliament in the aftermath of the nuclear deal could allow Rohani and his allies to advance their other objectives," he says, referring to Rohani's stated desire to loosen restrictions on society and the press. "Should the opposite occur and an uncooperative parliament emerge, Rohani risks lame-duck status, jeopardizing his odds of reelection in 2017." Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of the London-based political-risk-analysis group Cornerstone Global Associates, says Rohani would also likely get a freer hand in pursuing more engagement with the West. "If the results are overwhelmingly in favor of hard-liners, the relations with the West will suffer; but that is unlikely to happen," Nuseibeh says. INFOGRAPHIC: How Iran Is Ruled (click to proceed) Iran says it will pay thousands of dollars to the families of Palestinians killed during protests or while attacking Israelis on the streets. Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad Fathali told reporters in Beirut on February 24 that every family of "a martyr of the intifada in Jerusalem" would be paid the equivalent of $7,000. He added that Iran will also offer $30,000 and a monthly stipend to every family whose home has been demolished by Israeli forces because of a family member's participation in the street violence in Israel. The Palestinian attacks have killed 28 Israelis and a U.S. citizen since October, while at least 168 Palestinians have been killed in the violence protesting Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Israeli officials say 111 of those Palestinians were killed while attacking -- usually with a knife -- Israeli soldiers or citizens. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the statement "demonstrates again Iran's role in encouraging terror." "Following the [international] nuclear agreement [that Tehran signed with six world powers last year], Iran continues to be a major player in international terror," it added. Israeli army bulldozers on February 23 tore down the homes of two Palestinians who killed five people in attacks in the occupied West Bank and Israel last year. Based on reporting by Reuters and dpa Kazakh ombudsman Askar Shakirov says the country's citizens complained to him the most in 2015 about their rights being violated by law enforcement officials. Shakirov announced his conclusions about 2015 during a meeting with President Nursultan Nazarbaev late on February 24. He said that Kazakh citizens also complained to him about their rights being violated by courts and jails as well as other state bodies. The majority of some 1,340 complaints received in 2015 were filed by residents of the capital, Astana, the city of Almaty, the Almaty region, and in central and eastern Kazakhstan. Shakirov said human rights violations were confirmed in 19 percent of the cases in which the ombudsman received a complaint. He said that in those cases, measures were taken to compensate or improve the plight of those whose rights were violated. Based on reporting by KazTAG and Kazinform Interior ministers from the European Union, Turkey, and the Balkans held fresh talks on February 25 amid major differences over ways to contain an escalating migrant crisis. The latest displays of disagreement, which led Greece to recall its ambassador to Austria, prompted Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn to warn at the Brussels meeting that the bloc was heading toward "anarchy." Asselborn was speaking after EU members Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Slovenia joined forces with five non-EU Balkan states to announce common steps to restrict entry to migrants, while separately Hungary announced a referendum on refugee quotas. The 28-member bloc, which has been struggling to cope with a surge in migration that saw more than 1 million new arrivals last year, has been criticized for its failure to show a united front in protecting the rights of the refugees. More than 100,000 migrants have reached Europe so far this year, most of them coming over the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the Greek islands and then on to the Balkans. EU member Greece, who was left out of the Austria-brokered agreement, reacted angrily to the news, recalling its envoy to Vienna and warning it would not become Europe's "Lebanon," a state that has found itself awash in refugees as conflict rages in the region. Speaking ahead of the Brussels meeting, Greek Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas criticized "unilateral" actions that affect Greece. "A very large number [of participants] here will attempt to discuss how to address a humanitarian crisis in Greece that they themselves intend to create," Mouzalas added. Fingerprinting New Arrivals Mouzalas was particularly critical of other Balkan countries that endorsed the Vienna deal, which included non-EU Balkan nations Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. "Greece will not accept unilateral actions. Greece can also carry out unilateral actions. Greece will not accept becoming Europe's Lebanon, a warehouse of souls, even if this were to be done with major [EU] funding." Lebanon hosts the largest per-capita number refugees in the world, including 1 million Syrians, but also many Palestinians. The measures announced on February 24 in Vienna include the fingerprinting of all new arrivals and the rejection of those with fake documents or none at all. Many of those arriving in Europe have fled the five-year war in Syria, but economic migrants have also joined their ranks. Under the deal, only those deemed in need of protection would be accepted as refugees -- a condition that could restrict refugee status to Syrians and Iraqis. Macedonia already enacted the measures at its border with Greece over the weekend, barring entry to Afghans, who make up many of the migrants. Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner defended the deal, describing it as a "chain reaction of reason." Mikl-Leitner on February 25 warned that the refugee crisis could threaten the EU's very survival if it is not brought under control. Meanwhile, a decision by EU member Hungary to hold a referendum on possible mandatory quotas for refugees prompted criticism from Brussels. The Hungarian referendum -- for which a date has yet to be set -- was announced on February 24 by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who said Brussels has no right to "redraw Europe's cultural and religious identity." European Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud told a news briefing in Brussels, "We fail to understand how it [the referendum] would fit into the decision-making progress agreed to by all EU member states under the treaties." Hungary voted in September against an EU-agreed quota system to allocate 160,000 asylum seekers among member states under which Budapest should accept some 2,300 migrants. So far Hungary has taken none, and even built a fence, topped with razor wire, along the borders with Serbia and Croatia to keep migrants out. EU Response Slammed The EU's lack of a coherent response to the crisis has also been criticized by rights groups. "The European Union, the world's richest political bloc with a total population of over 500 million people, singularly failed to come up with a coherent, humane, and rights-respecting response to this challenge," said London-based Amnesty International in its annual report released on February 24. Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International's deputy program director for Europe and Central Asia, said the EU appeared content to simply pass the hot potato to other parties. "There are no effective mechanisms for processing the refugee claims, and in fact the countless summits that European leaders had were mostly designed to find ways of stopping the refugee influx rather than addressing these issues and striking agreements with third countries, for instance, Turkey, on how those could absorb the refugee influx," Krivosheev told RFE/RL. Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on February 25 that its members have agreed to a plan for their ships in the Aegean Sea to help Turkey and Greece work against the criminal groups that are smuggling migrants into the European Union. Relations between Greece and Turkey -- both alliance members -- have traditionally been tense. Since a deal reached on February 11 by NATO defense ministers to deploy ships to the Aegean, Greece's defense minister has accused Turkey of trying to undermine the operation. Stoltenberg, speaking after late-night talks in Brussels, said that Greek and Turkish forces will refrain from entering each other's territorial waters or airspace. However, other NATO vessels will be able to sail in the territorial waters of both Greece and Turkey. He said any migrants rescued from the Aegean Sea by the NATO operation will be returned to Turkey, which is receiving 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to build camps and help take in more refugees. WASHINGTON NATO Supreme Commander Philip Breedlove said Russia has decided to become an adversary of the West and presents an "existential threat" to the United States and its allies. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, meanwhile, accused Russia of intimidating its immediate neighbors, and said he doubted whether Moscow was still committed to strategic stability on nuclear weapons. The comments by Carter and Breedlove, in testimony before two congressional committees on February 25, reflected the deepening concern and ongoing shift in thinking in Washington about how to respond to Russian moves in Europe and the Middle East. Breedlove has been one the most vocal critics of Russia among top U.S. military brass since Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in March 2014 and subsequently backed separatists fighting Kyiv's forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly dismissed assertions by U.S. and European officials that it presents a threat to the West, portraying the accusations as dangerous saber-rattling. Breedlove told the U.S. House Armed Services Committee that Russia was seeking to "rewrite the agreed rules of the international order," and undermine unity in Europe. "Russia has chosen to be an adversary and poses a long-term existential threat to the United States and to our European allies and partners," he told the committee. Carter, speaking before the House Appropriations Committee, asserted that Russia seemed intent "to erode the principled international order that has served us, our friends and allies, the international community, and also Russia itself so well for so long." "Moscows nuclear saber-rattling," Carter said, raised questions about Russian leaders "commitment to strategic stability" and "whether they respect the profound caution that nuclear-age leaders showed with regard to brandishing nuclear weapons." Russia's military doctrine updated in recent years laid out new guidelines for the use of nuclear weapons, and Russia's ongoing deployment to Syria has been widely seen as a showcase for new weaponry and a training ground for new military tactics. "To be clear, the United States does not seek a cold, let alone hot war with Russia. We do not seek to make Russia an enemy, even as it may view us that way," he said. "But make no mistake -- we will defend our interests, our allies, the principled international order, and the positive future it affords us all." The United States and NATO has moved slowly to adjust to Russian actions, which have included increased bomber and fighter-jet flights near NATO members' borders, as well as the military deployment to Syria, Russia's largest in decades. The Pentagon's budget request for the coming fiscal year includes a $3.4 billion quadrupling of spending to bolster European defense. And NATO recently announced plans to begin rotating up to a brigade-sized, multinational force into some Eastern European and Baltic States, in an effort to reassure alliance members. In a markedly acerbic statement posted on Facebook late on February 25, Russias Defense Ministry mocked the statements by Carter and what it said were similar comments by CIA officials. Such tide rises every year at the same time. The reason is simple: discussion of the military budget for the next year. It is not the thing to be impressed by, the ministry said. It is important to keep in mind the fact that since the middle of the previous century the Russian threat has been the Pentagons most sellable threat to both the U.S. Congress and to its NATO partners, the ministry said. What would they have done without us? There's Free Chili In The Loop Today, Courtesy Of San Antonio By Anthony Todd in Food on Feb 25, 2016 4:34PM Photo via Shutterstock. It's a cold, grey day, and what's the best thing for a cold grey day? If you answered chili, then you have a real treat in store, as the city of San Antonio is in town and they brought free chili. If that sounds a little odd to you, we agreewhen was the last time a strange city gave you free food? It sounds like something your mother warned you against in elementary school. Well, it's all part of a campaign to encourage Chicago to San Antonio tourism (which, given the weather, actually sounds pretty great right now). From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the corner of Adams and Wacker, the Tamale Spaceship truck will be handing out free chili. No strings, just free deliciousness. Even better, if you're a history nerd, it's the same recipe that San Antonio brought to Chicago in 1893 to serve at the World's Columbian Exposition. Go get some chili! The first Oscar-winner in Pakistan's history is back in the Hollywood limelight this weekend as Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy's unflinching new documentary about "honor killings," A Girl In The River: The Price Of Forgiveness, competes for an Academy Award. The 37-year-old Chinoy's previous film about acid-attack victims, Saving Face, won the top prize for a documentary short in 2012. (UPDATE: Chinoy Won The Oscar. More Here.) Chinoy spoke via e-mail with RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal correspondent Bashir Ahmad Gwakh about her shortlisted film, which revolves around Saba Qaisar, a 19-year-old girl from Pubjan Province whose father shot her in the head after she married without the family's permission. She also talked about the tribal pressure that eventually forced Qaisar to withdraw charges, the 1,000 or so honor killings a year that plague Pakistani society, and the Oscars. RFE/RL: Tell us about the case of Saba Qaisar? How did you find her and where does the case stand? Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy: I read about Saba's story in the newspapers shortly after the incident took place and I knew I had to share her story with the world -- her only "fault" was falling in love. I then contacted the head of the hospital where she was being treated and went to visit her. At the time, I wasn't sure what would happen with her case, but ultimately she ended up forgiving her father after being pressurized by the village elders. RFE/RL: What does your documentary find? Tell us about the status of women going through domestic violence and families whose loved one was killed in 'honor killings'? Chinoy: The film really brings to reality the kind of patriarchal and conservative mindset that women are up against. I went to speak to Saba's father after he was arrested and he had so much hatred in him. He was still adamant that Saba was in the wrong and he felt justified trying to kill his own daughter. He felt it was his duty as a father and husband to protect his family from the "dishonor" that Saba brought upon them by falling in love and getting married. The interaction that I had with him spoke volumes about the kinds of choices we women have in the world and how our lives are impacted by the decisions taken by others. The very fact that women are currently unable to make their own policy decisions in certain parts of the country is an alarming reality, and pushes us further away from being the owners of our own stories and fighters for our own rights. Ever year, hundreds of women are killed in the name of honor; and although honor killings are prevalent in Pakistan, they are considered a taboo subject by many. There is a perception that somehow these murders fall under the purview of the family and that they shouldn't be questioned or challenged. To me, they have always been premeditated, cold-blooded murders justified under the guise of culture or religion. I wanted to tell the story of a victim of honor killing because I wanted to start a national discourse about this issue and build momentum to garner support for key legislation that better protects women from such violence. RFE/RL: Do you think Pakistan needs to strengthen laws to prevent honor killings? What are your recommendations for lawmakers and the government? Chinoy: The law, as it stands, sees honor killing as an offense against the individual and not the state, and hence the victim can choose to "forgive" the perpetrator. If the victim is killed, which is often what happens in such cases, the family of the victim has the right to forgive the perpetrator. So when a father kills his daughter, his wife can forgive him; and when a brother kills his sister, his parents can forgive him. This is how the current law is being misused. After the screening of A Girl In The River: The Price Of Forgiveness at the [Pakistani Prime Minister's] House, the Prime Minister [Nawaz Sharif] asked his team to redraft laws on honor killings to help ensure that perpetrators are punished and victims are protected. RFE/RL: Why do we see an increase in honor killings? How can it be prevented? Chinoy: The prevalence of such attacks stems partly from structural inequalities that make it difficult for women to access the judicial system in addition to longstanding cultural practices that support gender discrimination. The perpetrators know that they will only serve a few years in jail if they are found guilty. The lack of liability coupled with an embedded patriarchal system allows for honor-killing crimes to run rampant -- and this is exactly what we need to tackle in order to get justice for the victims of honor killing and prevent it from occurring again. RFE/RL: How do you feel about your documentary being nominated for an Academy Award? What's your next project? Chinoy: I am proud to be representing Pakistan on such a prestigious platform -- that [it is also] for the second time. I am grateful that the SOC Films production was able to share the untold story of A Girl In The River: The Price Of Forgiveness with a global audience. Since the start of my career, I have always endeavored to share the stories of those who cannot do so themselves. To be acknowledged for this work is always very humbling, and on such a giant platform like the Oscars makes it surreal. But for me personally, it will be an even bigger win if we, as a nation, take this opportunity to acknowledge that we have a problem and pass the Anti-Honor Killings Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2014. It is time we change the law and stand up for the victims of this heinous crime. (Editor's note: The bill was passed by the provincial legislature on February 25.) Currently, we are working on a sequel to 3 Bahadur, which was an animated feature film that we released in the summer of 2015. In order to continue its legacy and further inspire the children of Pakistan, we are hoping to release 3 Bahadur Part 2 in cinemas nationwide in December 2016! RFE/RL: How was your meeting with Prime Minister Sharif? What did you discuss and what was his response on honor killing? Chinoy: The prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, has vowed since the Oscar nomination to eradicate honor killings. As a father and a grandfather, it is important for him to make that gesture, not only to the women of Pakistan but also to the women of his own family. The support that we have received from the prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, will help change the mindset of society. If we can begin to amend the law and address loopholes in the current legislation, then we can slowly begin to protect the women of Pakistan and send out a strong message that this practice is nothing but a stain on our society. Russia has been sending in thousands of recently mobilized troops to reinforce the defense of the southern region of Kherson, where Kyiv's forces have been making major advances in their offensive to retake territory occupied by Moscow, the Ukrainian military said, as fresh Russian strikes on civilian targets were reported on October 21. "Up to 2,000 mobilized Russians arrived in the temporarily captured Kherson region to replenish losses and strengthen units on the contact line," the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement on October 21. Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, Russian protests, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here. "At the same time, the occupation authorities issued an order to prepare for the evacuation of the so-called banking institutions and Russian medical workers and teachers," the statement said. Ukraine is trying to drive Russian forces in Kherson back east across the Dnieper River that bisects the country. Russian soldiers on the western bank, where the city of Kherson is located, are reportedly close to being cut off from supply lines and reinforcements. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said on October 20 that Ukrainian forces mounted 15 attacks on Russian military strongholds in the Kherson region in what appears to be the start of a major push to liberate the region and the strategic city of Kherson. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said the Kremlin's forces repelled Ukrainian attempts to advance with tanks on the Kherson villages of Sukhanove, Nova Kamyanka, and Chervoniy Yar. Neither claim could be independently confirmed. The city of Kherson, with a prewar population of about 284,000, was one of the first urban areas captured by Russia when it invaded Ukraine, and it remains the largest city it holds. The city is an important objective for both sides because of its key industries and a major port on the Dnieper River. Moscow-installed officials have urged residents to evacuate and allow the military to build fortifications. Officials said 15,000 residents of an expected 60,000 had been relocated from the city and surrounding areas as of October 20. Kherson is one of the four partially occupied Ukrainian regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally seized following Kremlin-orchestrated referendums denounced as sham by Ukraine and the West. Putin declared martial law in the Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions on October 19 in an attempt to assert Russian authority in the annexed areas as Moscow faced battlefield setbacks, a troubled troop mobilization, increasing criticism at home and abroad, and international sanctions. In a video address to EU leaders gathered for a summit in Brussels on October 20, Zelenskiy warned that Ukraine suspects Russia has mined the dam and units of the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant on the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine, and if it were blown up, more than 80 settlements, including Kherson, would be in danger of flooding. Zelenskiy said Ukrainian workers have been thrown out of the facility, leaving Russians in control. He asserted that Russia "has already prepared everything to carry out this terrorist attack." He called for an international observation mission and the return of Ukrainian personnel to ensure the mines are removed from the dam and its units. Zelenskiy's comment came two days after Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed head of the Kherson region of Ukraine, announced an "organized, gradual displacement" of civilians from four towns on the right bank of the Dnieper River to the left side. Saldo accused Ukrainian forces of planning to destroy the dam and also warned of "an immediate danger of flooding." The Moscow-appointed deputy head of the Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, encouraged people to cross over to the left bank of the Dnieper River and posted a video of a column of buses on Telegram. Kyiv has denounced Moscow's move, calling it a "deportation" of Ukrainian civilians to Russia. Over the past 10 days, Russia has also unleashed a wave of deadly attacks on Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure using artillery, air strikes, and Iranian-made suicide drones that destroyed 40 percent of the country's energy grid and prompted Kyiv to introduce rolling electricity restrictions for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion eight months ago. WATCH: Ukrainian forces first got their hands on FH70 155-millimeter howitzers courtesy of Italy in May and received training in Estonia. RFE/RL journalists met with a frontline FH70 crew and watched them in action against Russian forces. Early on October 21, a series of blasts rocked the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhya, authorities said. Missiles hit an industrial facility in Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Separately, Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Sinegubov said five people had been wounded. No further details were immediately available about the Zaporizhzhua blasts. Zelenskiy told EU leaders that the Russian attacks against civilians and infrastructure are aimed in part at provoking a new wave of migration of Ukrainians to EU countries. "Russian terror against our energy facilities is aimed at creating as many problems as possible with electricity and heat for Ukraine this fall and winter and for as many Ukrainians as possible to go to your countries," he said. This should be "answered immediately," primarily by more air-defense systems sent to Ukraine, the president said, speaking by video conference from Kyiv. "We must do everything possible to make it completely impossible for Russia to destroy our energy system with missiles and drones," Zelenskiy said in the virtual speech, calling on Ukraine's partners to provide systems "to create a truly reliable air shield." With reporting by Reuters, AFP, dpa, and BBC There are new steel threads on the old Silk Road. RFE/RL's Tajik Service, known locally as Ozodi, just reported that Uzbekistan has completed construction of the Angren-Pap railway line. It's quite a feat for Uzbekistan, especially as it was built much faster than original estimates. But it is symbolically also a sad reminder of the direction in which the five Central Asian states are heading. The Angren-Pap connects the Tashkent area with Uzbekistan's eastern Ferghana Valley region. The line is 123.1 kilometers long; some 2,100 meters of new bridges were constructed and two tunnels, one of which is 19.1 kilometers long, were built. The project cost some $1.9 billion, some of which came from loans from the World Bank and Islamic Bank of Reconstruction and Development. The reason for building the line? So Uzbek trains no longer need to transit through Tajikistan. The governments of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan -- or more specifically the presidents of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan -- are not on good terms and haven't been for about 20 years. The borders established during Soviet times left a spur of Tajikistan jutting up into Uzbekistan, partially dividing Uzbekistan's section of the Ferghana Valley from the rest of the country. During the Soviet days, the train between Margilan, in eastern Uzbekistan, and Tashkent went by way of Khujand, Tajikistan. This line continued running after the collapse of the Soviet Union. That is how I usually traveled between the Uzbek capital and Ferghana Valley in 1992. Gradually, passenger trains have been phased out. RFE/RL's Tajik Service spoke with Tolibboy Ashurov, a representative of Tajikistan's Sughd region, where Khujand is located, who said that even cargo trains have reduced service. In the past, "up to 4 million tons [of cargo] a year" of Uzbek freight passed through Sughd region, Ashurov said. "The transit of Uzbek goods brought some $28 million annually to Tajikistan's state coffers, but in recent years the volume of transit has dropped sharply," he added. The new railway clearly benefits Uzbekistan. But conversely, it puts Tajikistan in a horrible situation. For one thing, Angren-Pap removes one of the few aspects of Uzbek-Tajik relations that really required some level of cooperation between the two governments since Uzbekistan needed the old line through Tajikistan to ship goods. Without this small bargaining chip, Dushanbe has no leverage to convince Tashkent to allow trains to reach Tajikistan, and all trains to or from Tajikistan must pass through Uzbekistan's territory. That's already been a problem, for instance when Tajikistan was having construction material shipped by rail for use in building hydropower plants (HPPs). Tashkent objects to Tajikistan building HPPs on rivers that flow into Uzbekistan. Uzbek customs officials stopped and searched trains bound for Tajikistan; those with construction materials were turned back. These delays in railway traffic through Uzbekistan also led to food and fuel shortages in Tajikistan. Sign Of The Times So one could view the Angren-Pap line as an example of a failure of the Uzbek and Tajik governments to reach some agreement that could have kept the old line working smoothly and saved Uzbekistan nearly $2 billion. It stings a little worse realizing Uzbekistan originally planned for the project to take five years to complete but Tashkent pressed for the railway line to be completed faster and in the end it took just a bit more than two years. This situation cannot be blamed solely on Uzbekistan. It is a failure that other Central Asian governments share. Tajikistan started construction of its own railway to bypass Uzbekistan in 2008. Turkmenistan completed a new line in 2011 that was built to bypass Uzbek territory but that was after Uzbekistan constructed a new railway to avoid Turkmen territory in 2009. Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran just launched a railway (North-South Transport Corridor) linking the three countries in December 2014. But that is the only railway line built in post-Soviet Central Asia that actually connects two Central Asian countries. All the other railways built since late 1991 were built to other countries (Kazakhstan-China, Turkmenistan-Iran, and Uzbekistan-Afghanistan) or to avoid having to transit a neighbor's territory. It says something about relations between the five Central Asian countries. Ozodi's Abdullo Ashurov and Farruh Yusupov of RFE/RL's Uzbek Service contributed to this report Amnesty International said Russia plans to send home three Syrian asylum-seekers who were detained in Daghestan, a plan the group said violates international law. The British-based rights group said the three men were slated to be flown to Damascus on February 25, even though the United Nations refugee agency asked Moscow specifically not to. It wasn't immediately clear when the men were detained, but Amnesty said they were flown from Makhachkala, the capital of Daghestan, which borders Chechnya, to Moscow on February 24. There was no immediate response from Russian authorities to Amnesty's statement. Amnesty said not a single person had been granted refugee status in 2015 in Russia, but it's unclear how many Syrians in total may have applied for asylum there. The group said two other Syrian asylum-seekers are also being held. A court in the Russian city of Astrakhan has rejected a request for the early release of the son of leading Crimean Tatar politician Mustafa Dzhemilev. Khaiser Dzhemilev was arrested in May 2013 by Ukrainian authorities in connection with the shooting death of a friend. He has said that he shot his friend by accident. After Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in March 2014, authorities in Crimea's Russia-imposed government took over the case and transferred Dzhemilev to the Krasnodar region of southern Russia. A Krasnodar court in June 2015 sentenced Dzhemilev to five years in jail on charges of theft, inflicting death by negligence, and possessing a firearm. In September, Russia's Supreme Court reduced his prison term to 3 1/2 years. His 72-year-old father, Mustafa Dzhemilev, is a Ukrainian lawmaker and a well-known Soviet-era human rights activist. A former chairman of the Mejlis of Crimean Tatar people who strongly opposed Crimea's occupation and annexation by Russia, he is currently living in Kyiv. He claims that Russia is holding his son hostage. Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax The Kremlin has said that Moscow and Washington have been exchanging information about a planned cease-fire in Syria that is due to come into effect on February 27. But Russia's Foreign Ministry on February 25 accused some officials in Washington of trying to sabotage the cease-fire deal by speaking of an alternative "Plan B" if Moscow and Damascus fail to take serious steps toward negotiating a political transition in Syria. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made the remarks about a "Plan B" in testimony to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 23. He said "the proof" of the sincerity of Moscow and Damascus would "be in the actions that come in the next few days." Staffan de Mistura, the UN's Syria envoy, says he will announce on February 26 the dates for a new round of talks between Syria's warning parties. Neither the Islamic State militant group nor the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front are parties to the cease-fire deal, and neither will be involved in the upcoming peace talks. Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and TASS Two sailors, one Russian and the other Nigerian, have been kidnapped from a ship belonging to French oil-industry-services company Bourbon off Nigeria's coast, the company says. The ship was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, but the crew managed to send a distress call. Nigeria's navy assaulted the ship and rescued most of the crew. However, the hijackers got away with two hostages, authorities said. Bourbon saidon February 24 that 10 crew members were "back on board the vessel in Onne port, safe and sound." In April 2015, another of the company's boats was attacked off Nigeria and three crew members were taken hostage. They were freed unharmed one month later. In recent years oil company employees have become a target for armed groups, which also regularly sabotage the oil infrastructure in Nigeria, Africa's top crude producer. Oil accounts for some 90 percent of OPEC-member Nigeria's foreign-exchange earnings. Based on reporting by AFP, AP, and TASS Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has accepted a Russian proposal to lift mutual bans on cargo truck transits the two countries imposed earlier this month. Infrastructure Minister Andriy Pyvovarskiy told a cabinet meeting in Kyiv on February 24 that Russia had proposed lifting all limits on road cargo. With Russia moving to lift its ban, Yatsenyuk said Ukraine would reciprocate. He added that Ukraine may involve law enforcement officers to ensure safe transit of Russian trucks, some of which have been held up by protesters in Ukraine recently. Russian Deputy Transport Minister Nikolai Asaul told Interfax that "all the restrictions have been lifted permanently" as of February 25. Ukraine banned Russian trucks from crossing its territory on February 15 after a similar ban was imposed by Moscow, in their latest tit-for-tat retaliatory moves over the conflict in eastern Ukraine between the government and Russia-backed separatists. Based on reporting by AFP, TASS, and Interfax Ukraine has signed a deal with U.S. agriculture giant Cargill to build a major grain-export terminal that Washington's ambassador said could help turn the embattled country into an agricultural "superpower." The $100 million deal with Ukraine's M.V. Cargo firm came despite jitters over a political crisis in Kyiv this year and an ongoing conflict with Russia-backed separatists in the east. "Ukraine is already one of the world's great agricultural producers, but it should be an agricultural superpower," U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt said at a signing ceremony for the deal on February 24. About a quarter of the world's black-earth land is in Ukraine, making it a natural global center for food production, and agricultural exports already reached $16.5 billion in 2015, he said, urging Kyiv to stay on the path of economic reform to attract more such deals. Major global corporations like Cargill "are looking for a government and a presidency that demonstrates a clear commitment to continued progress on the rule of law, to include the critical issue of anticorruption reform," he said. Ukrainian officials said the agreement marked an important show of trust in Ukraine's future by a top corporation. "This was a first step made by Ukraine that makes our American partners see us as a truly reliable and good place for making investments," Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said. Agriculture Minister Oleksiy Pavlenko said Ukraine -- for centuries one of Europe's great breadbaskets -- expects to export a record 37 million tons of grain between July 2015 and June 2016. Ukrainian officials said the new grain port in the Odesa region will have an initial annual loading capacity of 5 million tons, and could later be expanded by about 50 percent. Cargill said it expects the terminal's construction to be completed in about two years. "This new port will benefit Ukrainian farmers, the overall economy and global food security," Cargill executive Andreas Rickmers said. "It will add to our footprint of port facilities in the Black Sea region and confirms our intention to keep investing in Ukraine's agricultural sector." Cargill is a 150-year-old food conglomerate that operates around 500 cargo vessels a day. Forbes magazine has ranked it as the largest U.S. unlisted company. With reporting by AFP and Interfax 6 Despite reforms in the area of child protection, the number of children living and working on the streets has increased. And contrary to general perceptions, not all have chosen to follow this path. Ruslan, for example, lost his leg when a drunken security guard accidentally shot him on an abandoned construction site. Lacking documents such as a birth certificate, he was unable to have access to education or social services. Since this photograph was taken at the Gldani Crisis Centre (now closed), World Vision has assisted children such as Ruslan, and he now has a passport. Lincoln Park Is Getting An Indoor Skydiving Facility This March By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 25, 2016 8:43PM Three indoor skydivers at iFLY (photo via Facebook) iFLY, an indoor skydiving company, is bringing its signature simulated free falls to Lincoln Park this spring. This will be the first-ever indoor skydiving facility within Chicago;s city limits, a representative for iFLY told Chicagoist. The facility will open on March 7 at 800 W. Scott St., and will be similar to iFlys existing Chicagoland facilities in Rosemont and Naperville. Heres how iFLY works, for the uninitiated (and for those who only skydive outdoors, in the actual sky): After a training classsafety first!guests in put on red, astronauty suits and experience simulated falls in vertical wind tunnels. Its hard to explain the technologyiFLY themselves call it a wall to wall cushion of air in a flight chamberbut heres an Instagram video that shows their technology in action, sort of. (Theres a typo in the caption, though; they mean exits, not exists.) A video posted by iFLYChicago (@iflychicago) on Jan 15, 2016 at 9:51am PST This photo, meanwhile, captures what people look like in a typical state of freefall. Seen at #FlyFest: Beard in a wind tunnel! #iFLY #XGames #XGamesAustin A photo posted by iFLY Indoor Skydiving (@iflyindoors) on Jun 7, 2014 at 9:56am PDT Every stint in the wind tunnel/flight chamber involves all freefall time the good stuffno airplane jump and no hard landing, according to the iFLY Facebook page. Hard to argue with that? But seriously, I tried indoor skydiving (though not at iFLY), and if you're afraid of heights but still like to experience things, it's a semi-cool, approachable version of real skydiving. A note for the curious, though: Indoor skydiving can be a little awkward, because youre lying flat, facedown, and crazy gusts of wind are blowing straight up at you. Like, into your face. This prompts some people to instinctively open their mouths and drool profusely? (Definitely not me, though. I am an elegant woman who would never.) Just saying, it's maybe not a great first date activity. Lawmakers Want Illinois To Stop Making Prisoners Pay For Their Incarceration By aaroncynic in News on Feb 25, 2016 7:00PM Alan Mills, Executive Director of the Uptown People's Law Center with Illinois State Representative Kelly Cassidy and Illinois State Senator Daniel Biss. State Representative Kelly Cassidy and State Senator Daniel Biss have both introduced bills in the legislature that would prohibit the Illinois Department of Corrections from suing inmates for the cost of their room and board. Its just wrong, said Biss at a Wednesday morning press conference at the Thompson Center. Its practically and completely backwards thing to do. We know painfully well how difficult it can be for people coming out of the criminal justice system to find employment, housing, become integrated into society. More than 40 states allow for lawsuits against prisoners in this manner, and Illinois has been able to sue inmates for the cost of their incarceration since the '80s. According to a November 2015 investigation by the Chicago Tribune, the state hadnt pursued such suits until 2015. Of the 31 parolees or inmates sued since 2010, the state netted $512,000, the majority from just two inmates. The majority of those inside the Illinois prison system are poor, and many times inmates exiting the system have barely the clothes on their back and few resources on the outside to get their lives back together. The practice of suing those inmates or parolees leads to higher recidivism, which in turn ends up costing the state more money, according to proponents of the legislation. Calling the practice predatory, Rep. Kelly Cassidy said: The odds are stacked against the men and women coming out of our prison system and attempting to put their lives back together. Any barrier to reentry is a path to recidivism. We need ot be doing everything in our power to remove those barriers, not add more. Its time we take these steps to repeal a relic of a time when our criminal justice system was almost single-mindedly focused on retribution, she added. In many of the cases, the state ends up suing former prisoners that come into small amounts of money either during or after their incarceration. Alan Mills, Executive Director of the Uptown Peoples Law Center, which advocates and provides legal aid to both prisoners on the inside and former inmates, called that a Sisyphean process. These guys go through hell in prison, they get out and begin to make a little bit of headway and the state comes and takes all that away. Its absolutely crushing, he said. With a budget of more than $1.4 billion a year for IDOC, Mills also says suing prisoners makes no fiscal sense: It means more people go back in again, or it means people go on public aid...So in the end it doesnt save anything, keeping these people in prison at an average cost of $28,000 per year. Its a terrible thing, we need to stop doing it. Its unclear whether Gov. Bruce Rauner would support a measure, but Biss told reporters he was hopeful that given the legal costs of pursuing prisoners in such lawsuits and the financial costs of recidivism, he would be open to signing it. Rauners office did not immediately return a request for comment. Since 1950, the earliest year reliable data is available, there have been 33 people killed by tornadoes in Virginia, according to the National It looks like nothing was found at this location. Maybe try a search? Search for: Search You are here: Home China plans a national database of cultural relics to protect the country's traditions, authorities said Wednesday. A cultural relic of the Liao Dynasty (916 to 1125) is on display at a museum in Yangzhou, East Chinas Jiangsu Province, Jan. 25, 2016. [Photo: China News Service] The government will strengthen protection of cultural relics facing severe threats and prevent fire, theft and destruction, according to a statement released after a State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang. The registration system of cultural relics will be improved and a database of resources established. More museums will be opened to the public for free with the support of government finance. The development of private museums will be encouraged. The government is also considering insurance products for cultural relics protection. A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. SATURDAY New River Polar Plunge Festival New River Valley communities come together to raise awareness and funds for the athletes that participate in Special Olympics Virginia. In order to raise awareness they will plunging into the New River. Fundraising minimum is $50 per person. Those who raise $100 will receive a commemorative T-shirt, and those who raise $300 will receive a plunge beach towel. The New River Valley Polar Plunge is a part of a four-event, statewide tradition that has raised millions of dollars for Special Olympics Virginia. For more information, visit specialolympicsva.org. 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Dudleys Landing in Bisset Park, Radford, 1601 New River Drive, Radford. Prices vary. 951-2918. THURSDAY Third Annual Blacksburg Chili Crawl at the Library Celebrate National Chili Day with some of your favorite Blacksburg restaurants all under one roof. Confirmed participants include The Blacksburg Taphouse, Cafe de Bangkok, Gillies Restaurant, PKs Bar & Grill, Pita Vera, Souvlaki, Cabo Fish Taco, Wikiteria Cafe and Zeppolis Italian Restaurant and Wine Shop. Noon to 2 p.m. Blacksburg Library, 200 Miller St., Blacksburg. Free. 382-6969, ext. 221. THURSDAY Arts Fusion at the Taubman Museum A program that provides opportunities for persons in the early stages of Alzheimers disease and related dementias, and their caregivers, to participate in cultural art programs. Through partnerships with regional organizations, Arts Fusion offers monthly docent-led discussions of museum and gallery exhibits. 1 to 2 p.m. Taubman Museum 110 Salem Ave. S.E., Roanoke. Free. 342-5760. THURSDAY >> SUNDAY Theatre Roanoke College: These Shining Lives Based on the true story of four women working in a clock factory in the 1920s, this play, by Melanie Marnich, chronicles the many challenges that these women face. Their story is one of courage and hope. Tickets available at roanoke.edu/events. Thursday through Saturday, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.; Sunday, 2 to 4 p.m. Roanoke College Olin Theater, 221 College Lane, Salem. $7 adults; $5 seniors/students. 375-2333. TUESDAY Lunchbox Lecture Edwin Lacy is one of the 12 keepers featured in the book, Keepers of the Tradition, and in the exhibit that is currently on display at the museum until May. He will discuss his role as founder of the Wild Goose Christian Community church in Indian Valley, which includes old-time mountain music. Noon to 1:30 p.m. History Museum And Historical Society Of Western Virginia, 1 Market Square S.E. Suite 3, Roanoke. $10 for members; $15 for non-members; $5 for students. 342-5777. SATURDAY Hike and Brew Join Walkabout Outfitter and Merrell Footwear to demo the Merrells Capra hiking boots with a pint to follow at Soaring Ridge around 3 p.m. First 25 attendees will receive a free pint on Merrell. This event includes giveaways, a raffle for free Merrells boots and free food hosted by Walkabout Outfitter. Noon to 6 p.m. Mill Mountain Discovery Center, 2000 J.P. Fishburn Parkway, Roanoke. Free. 777-0990. FRIDAY >> SUNDAY Roanoke Boat Show A unique, once-a-year opportunity to see every dealer on Smith Mountain Lake and compare products by touching and seeing what the dealers have. Includes exciting exhibits of boating equipment, related products and services and more. For more information, visit theberglundcenter.com. Friday, 1 to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free admission Friday; $7.50 Saturday and Sunday. The Berglund Center, 710 Williamson Road, Roanoke. 853-5483. Annie Lin shares these photos from the Taubman Museum's Chinese New Year Celebration held Feb. 6. She writes, "Saturday, February 6, 2016, Chinese New Year was held at the Taubman Museum at 12 noon to 3 pm, there were opening ceremonies with Mayor David Bowers & Delegate Sam Rasoul; and Jay Saunders, Local Colors Board President; Beth Lutjen, Local Colors Executive Director; Cindy Petersen, Taubman Museum of Art Deputy Director of Education; and Pearl Fu, Ambassador of Goodwill. "Before 12 noon, I went to the up stair to see the Art display. There were college students, they came from Christiansburg and Blacksburg. They liked my Chinese outfit. We got a group picture. So Cool! "The following program included David White, Shaolin Dragon Martial Art Academy. 1550 Dance Group-Tibetan Dance. Blacksburg Chinese School-Chinese Yo-Yo. Roanoke College- Dance "Jasmine Flower", and Jane Wang's studio-Violin Performance. "My son, Jerry Wu and I went there and sat in front seats. Jerry and I wore red T-shirts printed with 2016 monkey pictures on it. Jerry wore an Empire hat; I wore Empress hat, and a Chinese style skirt. (I bought it in Beijing, China.) "While Mayor Bowers said '2016 is the year of the monkey.' He asked who want to show a monkey to everyone. Mayor Bowers said 'Annie & Jerry came to the stage.' I showed my two monkey glove puppetry. (I bought it in Taiwan.) The other people showed a monkey jumping, and rolling over. Everyone clapped hand to us. "Jerry liked to watch David White's Shaolin Dragon show. The Dragon got closed to him. We watched Yo-Yo and dances performance. We had our pictures taken with them. Here was a gentleman blowing a Hulusi ( ) instrument. (Cucurbit flute). See! Jerry held it on his hand just for a picture to be taken. "The hulusi or cucurbit flute is a free reed wind instrument from China. It is held vertically and has three bamboo pipes which pass through a gourd wind chest; the center pipe has finger holes and the outer two are typically drone pipes. It is not uncommon for a hulusi to have only one drone pipe while the second outer pipe is merely ornamental. The drone pipe has a finger hole, which allows it to be stopped. Advanced configurations have keyed finger holes similar to a clarinet or oboe, which can greatly extend the range of the hulusi to several octaves. "Through the shows, they had questions, they asked audience, if you raise a hand to get right answer. You will get a prize. I raised my hand and got correct answers many times. Jay Saunders said 'Annie Lin, you already won one time.' I said 'I answered one more question for my son Jerry.' Whatever in their questions, I knew all of the answers. "As a finale, they sang along 'Gong Xi, Gong Xi' and traditional red envelope ceremony-children invited to the stage to receive their red envelope from Pearl Fu. We had a picture taken with Jay Saunders, Beth Lutjen and Pearl Fu. I went to the stage and stood beside Pearl. My honor to sing 'Gong Xi Gong Xi' with everyone. "Jerry and I really enjoyed the year of the monkey Chinese New Year celebration at the Taubman Museum. Thank you to the sponsors and see you next year." You can view the photos in the slideshow above or click here for an alternate view. Just over two years after Waynesboro reserve police officer Kevin Quick was murdered, the suspects in his death faced the jurys verdict. On Wednesday, that jury came back with a verdict of guilty on all counts for the six defendants. Daniel Mathis, Shantai Shelton, Mersadies Shelton and Kweli Uhuru, also known as Travis Bell, were all found guilty of taking part in Quicks murder. Gert Wright III, aka Halisi Uhuru, (no relation to Kweli Uhuru) and Anthony Stokes were found guilty of obstruction of justice and racketeering. They were accused of being members of a gang called 99 Goon Syndikate, a regional division of the Bloods street gang founded in Los Angeles. Federal authorities said they derived intelligence into the groups activities through seized gang records, and they charged the defendants from central and northern Virginia with participation in an organized crime ring from December 2012 to April 2014 whose members killed Quick and tried to cover it up. All total, the group faced 35 different charges linked not just to Quicks death, but also a series of robberies that took place around Louisa County in the same time period. Quick left his mothers home in Afton in January 2014, traveling to the apartment in Albemarle County where his daughter and her mother, Yadi Weaver, lived. At the apartment complex parking lot, Quick was kidnapped and then later killed by a gunshot wound to his head. His vehicle was found in Louisa County and his body was located about a week later in woods along the boundary of Fluvanna and Goochland counties. Prosecutors expressed their satisfaction with the result, with surprise that it came so soon. Im glad we could do this for the Quick family, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Huber said. The case was turned over to the jury about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and just over 24 hours later, they came back with the verdict. Rusty McGuire, Louisa Countys commonwealths attorney, who also served as a special prosecutor in the case, thanked the range of law enforcement agencies who collected evidence and worked on the case. All total, he estimated that 10,000 work hours were spent putting the case together. Youve all learned a lot about Louisa County [through this], McGuire said. We are a very small, rural county that this gang terrorized for five months. Next comes the sentencing phase of the case. In Virginia, when a defendant is found guilty, a pre-sentencing report is developed over the course of a two- to three-month period. That report details the defendants life, including his family history, education, criminal record and medical history. A sentencing recommendation is also made, based on that information. Brian McGinn, public information officer for the U.S. Attorneys Office, said that under the guidelines, Mathis, Shantai Shelton, Mersadies Shelton and Kewli Uhuru all face mandatory life sentences. Typically, a judge would decide between the life sentence and death, but before leaving office, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ruled that the death penalty could not be considered in this case. The others will face up to 40 years in prison, McGinn said, speaking of Halisi Uhuru and Anthony Stokes. Now that the verdict has been read, the defendants will no longer be kept together, as each will have their own sentencing hearing. An exact date for those hearings has not been set, with Judge Glen Conrad telling the courtroom it would be sometime this summer, possibly late July. An attempt was made last year to stage the trial at Charlottesvilles federal courthouse. Those proceedings were halted twice by anomalies that defense attorneys argued could have turned the jury against their clients. Before the first witness had testified, the judge declared a mistrial and later moved the case to Roanoke. The case was heard in Roanoke by an anonymous jury, a unique circumstance prompted by security concerns. President Xi Jinping explained the concept of the Community of Common Destiny to the outside world for the first time in March 2013 when he addressed the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He said mankind "has increasingly emerged as a community of common destiny in which everyone has in himself a little bit of others". Since then, the concept has evolved to cover China's outlook on its bilateral ties with countries such as Pakistan and its relations with regions such as Asia and Africa. In the three years that President Xi Jinping has been in office, he has traveled the globe to win support for China's new solutions, initiatives and strategies. He has visited more than 40 countries on 20 trips during this time to outline new concepts proposed by the country, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the Silk Road Fund and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Observers said the country's leadership and its diplomats are trying to help China and its friends to achieve greater impetus for growth and to improve global governance. China started to reinforce diplomatic efforts soon after Xi proposed co-building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road when visiting Kazakhstan and Indonesia in 2013. The Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives, which are aimed at improving cooperation with countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. In 2014, during his trips abroad, Xi called for development strategies to be linked with countries such as Mongolia, and this trend has been increasing, according to news releases and speeches. In May last year, China and Russia released a joint statement to help dovetail the Belt and Road Initiative with the Eurasia Economic Union initiative, led by Russia. The EEU, established at the start of last year, is an economic union of states located primarily in northern Eurasia. Such efforts were promoted further during Xi's trip to the Middle East in January. Addressing the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo on Jan 22, he mentioned the word "links" three times during his speech, calling for better efforts to dovetail production capacity and think tanks between China and Arab countries. On Dec 22, Foreign Minister Wang Yi used the word "links" 15 times when delivering a speech on China's diplomatic efforts at a think tank seminar in Beijing. He said China would make more intensive efforts to link strategies with various countries this year, including those in South Asia. Wu Bingbing, a professor of Middle East studies at Peking University, said such efforts by China show that the country is flexible and is viewing the issue not solely on an economic front, but also culturally. The desire to match shared interests lies behind the efforts to link different strategies, Wu said. He said Xi's diplomatic drive had taken time to cover all the major regions because China was taking a responsible and prudent approach that required observation and thought, behind which lay "great sincerity". Guo Yanjun, deputy director of the Institute of Asian Studies at China Foreign Affairs University, said Xi's desire to link strategies showed that China was not acting solely in its own interests but for common development with all countries. China's calls to build the Community of Common Destiny were aimed at showing that a shift in power on the global stage could be achieved peacefully, Guo said. WAVERLY Two men and a 2-year-old boy were killed as their mobile home was destroyed in a tornado that struck Waverly, southeast of Petersburg, Wednesday afternoon, said Corinne Geller, a state police spokeswoman. Another storm believed to have been a tornado caused major damage near Appomattox. Appomattox County Sheriff Barry Letterman confirmed late Wednesday that a man missing man in the Evergreen community was found dead after his home was destroyed. Officials say seven people have been reported injured in Appomattox County. By midnight Wednesday, there had been at least eight reports of tornadoes in Virginia, but only the Waverly storm had been confirmed as a tornado by the National Weather Service. The weather service plans to survey several storm tracks on Thursday to determine if they were tornadoes. A 50-year-old male, 26-year-old male and 2-year-old male were killed when their mobile home was destroyed in the storm, Geller said in an emailed news release about the Waverly storm. All three were found approximately 300 yards from the mobile home. The bodies were transported to the Office of the Medical Examiner in Norfolk for positive identification. She said there were at least four other structures damaged in the small town. There were no reports of any missing persons. According to the Appomattox County Public Safety Director Bobby Wingfield, multiple homes in multiple areas of the county have damage as a result of the storm. Some houses were destroyed in the Evergreen and Red House areas. As a result of the storm, the Virginia State Police Appomattox field office was without power and phones. Sgt. Michelle Anaya added that eight people were injured by the storm in Waverly. Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency late Wednesday after an afternoon and evening of strong storms and apparent tornadoes, according to the governors office. In a statement, the governors office said the emergency declaration will clear the way for public safety agencies including the Virginia National Guard, Virginia State Police, the Department of Emergency Management and the Department of Transportation to devote every available resource to storm response and recovery. McAuliffes office said he will visit storm-stricken areas including Waverly and Appomattox on Thursday. A planned meeting of regional leaders in Annapolis, Md., will be rescheduled. State Del. Roslyn C. Tyler, who represents the part of Sussex County that includes Waverly, said she is following the news from Richmond. I have seen some of the devastation that Waverly has encountered and I am going to do my best as their representative to see that they get the emergency services that they need. She said in an emailed statement that state police began responding to incidents of severe storm damage in the town of Waverly along Route 40 about 2:40 p.m. Yasin Omer, whose family owns the Waverly Convenience Store at Virginia 40 and U.S. 460, said a tornado touched down about a quarter mile from his business. Customers were inside as the wind began picking up and blew trash barrels around the gas pumps, he said. The worst of the winds was over in less than five minutes. The building was shaking. It was really scary, he said. His business was among the few to retain power in the aftermath of the storm and many people came in through the evening to express concern about the storm victims and others in the community. Omer said he knew the three who were killed. Timothy Williams said a friend had just come by to take his new car for a drive when the storm hit. It picked the car right off the ground, and put it right back on the ground, said Williams, 44. He said they remained in the car until the storm passed. The storm blew down electrical wires in a big ball of fire, thrashing all about each other, Williams said. He said they both escaped shaken but uninjured. Im just a little nervous and jittery, but overall Im OK, Williams said. The (Lynchburg) News & Advance contributed to this report. Madison Ellis Marye, 90, died peacefully at his home Tuesday, February 23, 2016, survived by his beloved wife, Charlotte; daughter, Charlotte; son, James; four beautiful grandchildren, Madison Tyler, Jim, Julia, and Emily; and one great-granddaughter, Romina. Madison was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather who was lovingly called "Opa" by his grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Juliana MacLachlan Marye.He loved the small communities of Shawsville and Elliston where he grew up, and his passion was his beautiful wife, Charlotte, and his farm. Madison, an iconic personality to his family, had an absolutely wonderful life filled with adventure and service to his nation as a Soldier for 20 years, and most beloved state, The Commonwealth of Virginia. As a young man, Madison heard and read of Germany's invasion into Poland on September 1, 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II. As a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 7, 1941, the United States entered the War. Madison joined the United States Army and began his military career as a private at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, assigned to the 65th Infantry Division. He deployed to combat in Europe as a machine gunner, and earned the Combat Infantry Badge as a 19-year-old Soldier. Madison's 20-year military career would also carry him to the frozen terrain of Korea in 1950, and later into the jungle of Vietnam in 1965. He would often comment that he went from the rank of Private to Major, further than he ever expected to get. He served his country in uniform, faithfully and honorably for 20 years, retiring after his tour of combat in Vietnam in 1965. After leaving the Army, he ran a successful gas business and the family farm in Elliston. A life-long Democrat, Marye ran unsuccessfully for the House of Delegates in 1972. In 1973 he ran and was elected to the Virginia Senate. In his 29 years there, he served on many committees and was most proud of his seat on the Senate Finance Committee and his chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture Committee. The latter put him in direct contact with some of the leading environmental and land use issues of the day. He was known for his fierce defense of a refundable beverage container bill, known as the "Bottle Bill" which was highly opposed by the bottling industry. He was more successful in 1999 when he introduced a bill reducing the tax on food purchased for human consumption. Senator Marye was a strong proponent of funding for education and was particularly proud of the institutions for higher education in his district: Virginia Tech and its Cooperative Extension Service, Radford University and New River Community College. As a senator, he had many friends on both sides of the aisle and was known for his ability to use humor and wit to disarm critics and bring consensus on difficult issues. His "Uncle Billy" stories were legend in the State Capitol and in his district. In 2010 Marye and his wife placed a conservation easement on 562 acres along a scenic stretch of Route 460 in Montgomery County. He said he decided to "put his deed where his mouth was" to preserve the beauty of his home valley. His grandson, Madison Tyler, will continue the legacy of family farming. The family would like to thank Nurse Vicky Cordy and Dr. Julia Hemphill for their care of Madison, and also extends gratitude to Madison's close friends, Bill Ryan and J. R. Richmond. The family will receive friends from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, February 26, 2016, at Horne Funeral Home. The Funeral Service will be held 10 a.m. Saturday, February 27, 2016, in the Horne Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Herbert Williams officiating. Interment will be private. Following the Funeral Service, the family will gather with friends at the Meadowbrook Center, Shawsville, in the Community Room, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. for refreshments. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made in Madison's memory to the Mountain Valley Charitable Foundation, 267 Alleghany Spring Road, Shawsville, VA 24162. Online condolences for the family may be left at www.hornefuneralservice.com. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rob Portman of Ohio and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, for example, have all backed McConnell. Among the most vulnerable, only the most imperiled of all, Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, has taken a more nuanced position. He says that the Senate should at least hold hearings and vote on Obamas nominee. The vacancy will also help liberals whose cases are pending before the court, according to the aides. On that issue, staffers from both parties agree. Fifty-four percent of Republican aides and 60 percent of Democratic respondents said the court was now more likely to rule the way Obama wants it to on the cases its hearing this year. There are a plethora of cases important to the administration before the court, including a challenge to the mandate in Obamas health care law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152) that health insurers cover contraception, a case on university affirmative action, and another challenging the way labor unions collect dues. In each case, Scalias absence shifts the odds in favor of the liberal side, because it would deadlock the court 4-4 and allow a lower court ruling to stand. The top medical authority aims to root out the practice of reselling hospital outpatient appointments, a health official announced Wednesday. Jiao Yahui, an official with the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), said the campaign will be rolled out across Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In addition, Jiao said, policy will follow that aims to address the deep-seated problems feeding hospital appointment scalping. A system is needed that would see patients go to different hospitals according to their illness, rather than crowding big hospitals regardless of their actual needs. Moreover, referral services will be promoted, so that patients can book doctor visits via their community doctors or family doctors, Jiao said. Hospital appointment scalping entered media spotlight earlier this year following a video posted online that showed a woman in a furious fit of rage with a scalper after she failed to get an appointment. The woman said she had been waiting for an outpatient appointment for two days, and still could not get a ticket. A scalper offered her an appointment for 4,500 yuan (684 U.S. dollars), a huge markup on its 300 yuan face value. The video amplified public ire over access to medical care. BEAUTY queen Laura Gregory has failed in her bid to take on a new title - but she wont be off for the catwalk for long. Former Miss Intercontinental England and Miss Scuba UK finalist Laura did not get into the last three of the Miss Tourism Sri Lanka contest on Sunday, February 21. Despite missing out on the main title, Laura (28), from Laughton en le Morthern, was successful in the Nature Queen mini pagaent in the competition. She was one of 20 ambassadors from across the globe who have been touring Sri Lanka to experience charity dinners, street parades, street food markets and cultural events before the final grand pageant. Organisers hoped the event would promote Sri Lanka as a tourist destination. Laura said: Unfortunately, I didnt get a place in the top three. I have, however, made some new lifelong friends including winner Vera from the Netherlands and especially my room mate Miss USA. I did win the mini pageant Nature Queen so I am coming home with a crown and lots of lovely gifts from our sponsors. The other delegates and I got on really well and Im sure we will stay in touch. There were lots of tears as I said my goodbyes and headed off to the airport. Ive been away more than two weeks so Im really looking forward to catching up with my family and I have a fashion show booking for next week at the NEC so I wont be off the catwalk for long. Another student ID theft case has been reported in central China's Henan Province. Victim of a student ID theft, Wang Nana is now seeking help from the educational authorities to get the imposter's illegally gained college diploma annulled. The imposter used Wang's ID to get a place at college. [Photo: china.com.cn] 33 year old Wang Nana was born in a village in Shenqiu County, Henan Province. She gave up her studies in 2003 after she sat for the national college entrance exam and failed to receive an admission notice. Just like millions of other young people from rural parts of China who fail to pass their exams, she became a migrant worker. For many it's a defining moment in their lives. 12 years later, she began to realise that something was wrong. An application for a credit card was declined because the personal information that she'd given didn't match official data. Wang was told that the records stated that she had a college diploma. On her application however, she was claiming to be a high school graduate. That was when Wang realized that her name must have been used by someone else. After many months of investigations, she built up a picture of what must have happened: the vocational college located in the city of Zhoukou, in Henan Province did indeed send out an admission letter, but it must have been intercepted before it reached her. The letter was later sold on for 5,000 yuan to someone who used it to enroll in the college in September, 2003, using Wang's name and ID number. The imposter graduated in 2006 and became a teacher with her illegally obtained college diploma. So far it is unclear who stole Wang's admission letter, or why the 'fake' Wang Nana was not exposed when she enrolled at the college. Currently, Wang is seeking the help of the education authorities to get the imposter's college diploma annulled. Wang says, unless this is done, she'll never be able to get a loan or credit card due to the inconsistent personal information held on file. Wang Nana is by no means the first victim of ID theft in China. Back in 2009, nationwide outrage was triggered by the case of Luo Caixia, whose identity was stolen by a police official and used to get his daughter into university. The scandal ended up with the cancellation of the imposter's university diploma. Junior diamond company TransHex said it reached an agreement with the National Union of Mineworkers to change the production shift system at its ageing Lower Orange River operations in South Africa. The operations consist of the Baken and Bloeddrif mines. The Lower Orange River operations would change from a four-shift system, running seven days per week, to a three-shift system, working a five and a half day week. TransHex said overburden stripping rates and the volumes of gravel mined and treated would be adjusted to ensure the most sustainable model for each mine going forward. The change is in line with the company's strategy of responsibly managing the ageing Lower Orange River assets in the final years of their economic life cycles by optimising mining and treatment volumes, together with cost reductions and improvements in efficiencies across the board, it said. The aim is to extend the viable life-of-mine of each operation for as long as possible, whilst constantly managing the risks inherent to mature alluvial mines. Meanwhile, about 22 percent of its workforce (125 employees) in South Africa have accepted voluntary retrenchment packages, effective 29 February 2016. It said the majority of the volunteers were older employees with long service. TransHex also has a stake in the Somiluana mine in Angola. It was also a partner in a consortium that bought the Namaqualand diamond mine from De Beers. Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished Russian government nominated candidates to sit on Supervisory Board of ALROSA 25 february 2016 News (PRIME) - The Russian government has slated candidates to be elected as representatives of the Russian Federation and independent directors to the Supervisory Board of ALROSA. The Russian Prime Minister signed an appropriate instruction on February 22 and it was published on the governments website. The stake held by the government in ALROSA is 43.92%. Anton Siluanov, Finance Minister, Alexei Chekunkov, CEO of the Foundation for Development of the Far East and Baikal Region, Andrey Zharkov, President of ALROSA, Alexander Galushka, Russian Federation Minister for Development of the Far East, and Sergei Barsukov, Department Director at the Ministry of Finance, were recommended to be elected as representatives of the Russian Federation. Oleg Grinko, Chairman of the Board of Savings and Investments, Pavel Ulyanov, Energy Business Director at Rusal Global Management, and Oleg Fyodorov, Member of the Supervisory Board of ALROSA, are to be elected as independent directors. The government proposed to elect Alexander Vasilchenko, Department Deputy Director at the Ministry of Economic Development, Andrey Glinov, Department Deputy Director at the Ministry of Finance, and Marina Mikhina, Advisor to the Head of the Federal Property Management Agency, as members of the Auditing Commission. ALROSA is the largest diamond producer in Russia accounting for about 26% of global diamond output and for 95% of diamond production in the Russian Federation. The company is mining diamonds in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and in the Arkhangelsk Region developing 11 kimberlite pipes and 16 alluvial diamond deposits. In 2014, ALROSA produced about 36.2 million carats of diamonds and its revenues from rough and polished sales reached $ 5.05 billion. Early signs were mixed for Canadian stocks Thursday morning, as traders weighed another set of earnings from the nation's biggest banks. TD Bank and CIBC both reported inreased quarterly profits this morning, potentially helping financial stocks trim steep weekly losses. The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 23.17 points, or 0.18 percent, to 12,740.27, as banking shares tumbled 2 percent. Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) said first-quarter profit rose 7.9 percent on growth in its Canadian and U.S. retail banking. The lender raised its quarterly dividend 7.8 percent to 55 cents a share. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO) announced a profit for its first quarter that advanced 9 percent from last year. Lowlaw (L.TO) grocery chains reported adjusted net earnings of C$363 million, compared to C$396 million last year. Adjusted earnings per share were C$0.88, compared to C$0.96 last year. U.S. crude oil was down 5 cents at $32.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis Beijing has been rated as the city with the highest number of billionaires in the world for the first time, a credit that has long been with New York. However, the top 10 billionaires listed in a new report by China-based firm Hurun are mostly Americans. This is the fifth year of the ranking by Hurun's. Bill Gates retains the Number 1 spot with a fortune of $80 billion, even after having donated $17 billion to philanthropy. The 60-year old Microsoft chief becomes the first person alive today to have created a $100 billion fortune. He is way ahead of the second-placed investor Warren Buffet ($68 billion) and third-placed Spanish fashion tycoon Amancio Ortega ($64 billion) in the Hurun Global Rich List 2016. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, at 31, is the youngest member of the Top 10. With a net worth of $37 billion, Michael Bloomberg shot into the top 10 for the first time on the back of a rise in sales at his media group. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, former Prime Ministers - Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and Saad Hariri of Lebanon, and 8 ruling royal families also have found a place in the list of world's billionaires. The oldest billionaire on the list is 100 year old David Rockefeller Sr, and the youngest are Evan Spiegel, 25, and Bobby Murphy, 26, both founders of Snapchat. Despite global slowdown, the number of world's billionaires went up by 99 to 2188 from 68 countries, in another record-breaking year for the world's billionaires. A total of 568 billionaires are now living in China, compared with 535 in the United States, amounting to almost half of the billionaires on the planet, the report said. India retained the third spot with 111 billionaires. Real Estate, Manufacturing and Technology has generated most number of billionaires in China, while Technology overtook Investments to become the main source of wealth for American billionaires, followed by Retail. Beijing is the new "Billionaire Capital of the World", snatching the title from New York for the first time. 100 of the billionaires live in Beijing, up 32 from last year, while New York has 95, according to the Hurun list. Led by Beijing, 5 Chinese cities make the top 10 cities for super wealth creators. The other cities are Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou. Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report, said, "Despite its own slowdown and falling stockmarkets, China minted more new billionaires than any other country in the world last year, mainly on the back of new listings. Growth in billionaires for the rest of the world was held back by a slowdown in the global , the strengthening of the US dollar and the drop in oil prices. The number of billionaires, however, has jumped 50% since 2013." For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News About 1 in 5 Donald Trump voters are against freeing slaves. Nearly 20 percent of Trump's voters said the slaves should not have been freed during the Civil War, according to a New York Times report citing statistics from a YouGov poll. The survey asked respondents if they supported or disapproved of "the executive order that freed all slaves in the states that were in rebellion against the federal government," or the Emancipation Proclamation. The Times noted that Trump has "built a significant part of his coalition of voters on people who are responsive to religious, social and racial intolerance." Meanwhile, another 70 percent of Trump's supporters from South Carolina wanted to see the confederate flag still flying at the state capitol, while more than 30 percent of Trump supporters said they thought gays and lesbians should be banned from entering the country. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com More Political Blogs Traffic accidents claim lives of 56 in Sanaa in 2015 SANAA, Feb. 25 (Saba) At least 56 people were killed and 142 others were wounded in 120 traffic accidents in Sanaa province during 2015, a security official said. In a statement to Saba, the deputy director of police in the province, colonel Abdullah al-Aqar, explained that the accidents were divided to 45 running over accidents, 49 collisions and 24 capsizing accidents. He pointed out that the material losses resulting from those accidents amounted to about 99 million riyal. The excessive speed, negligence in the vehiclesmaintainance and not abiding by the traffic instructions are among the main reasons of the traffic accidents, al-Aqar added. BA Saba Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Whatsapp Whatsapp Telegram Telegram Email Email Print Print [25/February/2016] EU Parliament votes for arms embargo against Saudi Arabia BRUSSELS, Feb. 25 (Saba) - The European Parliament voted on Thursday overwhelmingly in favor of an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia. A majority of 359 MEPs have voted for an EU-wide ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, according to BBC. The European Parliament called on Britain, France and other EU governments to no longer sell weapons to a country accused of targeting civilians in Yemen. The parliament's vote is not legally binding, however the resolution urged EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini to launch an initiative to impose an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia. The European MEPs said Britain had licensed more than $3 billion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia since Saudi-led forces began military operations in Yemen in March last year. Fellow British lawmaker Alyn Smith, a Scottish Nationalist, said the embargo on Saudi Arabia is unprecedented, stressing that it "reflects growing frustration at the conduct of war in Yemen by the Saudi Air Force," he said following the resolution's adoption. Saudi Arabia is a top arms client of the UK and France, he said, accenting "there is evidence that these weapons have been used in gross violations of international law in Yemen, where thousands of civilians have been killed since the start of the war in March 2015." In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched an aggression on Yemen. Since then at least 7,000 people have been killed and more than 35,000 injured. Earlier this year a UN panel investigating the Saudi-led bombing campaign said it had found "widespread and systematic" attacks on civilian targets in violation of international humanitarian law. According to the UN, conservative estimates indicated that over 700 children have been killed and more than 1,000 injured. The U.N. says famine looms as over half the population, or 14.4 million people, face hunger. Clinics and hospitals have been repeatedly hit. AF Saba Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Whatsapp Whatsapp Telegram Telegram Email Email Print Print [25/February/2016] The Zika virus (ZIKV) is likely to hit Shanghai, and mosquito control is the most effective way to prevent an outbreak of the epidemic, the Shanghai Morning Post reported on Thursday, citing Lu Hongzhou, a clinical specialist with the World Health Organization and the Party chief of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center. The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said it has made contingency plans and is ready to combat the virus. It has prepared 33 beds for emergency wards, which will be used to quarantine patients in the case of an outbreak. On Monday, China's National Health and Family Planning Commission said that Zhejiang province, Shanghai's neighbor, reported two new cases of ZIKV infections, bringing the total number of infections on the Chinese mainland to five, all imported from other countries. The father, 38, and son, 8, from Yiwu, Zhejiang province, were diagnosed with the disease following a recent trip to Fiji and Samoa. Previous studies have found that ZIKV infections are mainly caused by mosquito bites. The Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention have stepped up monitoring of mosquitoes and provided the public with information on mosquito control. The WHO has predicted a total of 4 million cases of ZIKV infections across the world, according to Zhu Tongyu, the director of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center. Tornadoes slammed the U.S. states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida Tuesday afternoon, killing at least three people and injuring more than 30 others. At least seven tornadoes hit southeast Louisiana, southwest Mississippi and Florida, according to local TV station ABC13. In Convent, Louisiana, two people were killed and more than 30 others were injured, including seven in critical condition, after a tornado destroyed a trailer park, which is home to more than 300 people. Power supply to tens of thousands of residents in the state was cut off. In Lamar County, Mississippi, one person was killed. Six people were injured in Pensacola, Florida. Meanwhile, in Slidell, the largest city situated on the northeast shore of Lake Pontchartrain and St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, a lightning strike hit the building where the weather service is located, knocking out the radar systems. A first-of-its-kind journey along India and Pakistan border What binds the two most talked about nations - India and Pakistan together? What makes the U.S. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush pauses as he announces that he is suspending his presidential campaign, at his South Carolina primary night party in Columbia, South Carolina, February 20, 2016. [Xinhua] Jeb Bush had it all. The son of a president and the grandson of a senator, Bush had former White House advisors and power brokers behind him. Loyal Republican Party fundraisers were a phone call away. And they were loyal: Bush raised US$150 million for his campaign, the most of any Republican candidate, and spent tens of millions of dollars on TV ads attacking his rivals. But none of that was enough to stave off inevitable defeat. After placing fourth in South Caroli-na's primary, 14 points behind Ted Cruz and a fraction of a point ahead of John Kasich, Jeb Bush dropped out of the presidential race. It had been a long time coming. For months he was stuck at 4-5 percent in national polls, with no sign of forward progress. Now Marco Rubio and John Kasich, whose supporters had long been calling on Bush to leave the race, will compete for most of Bush's support. Jeb Bush was cursed. For all the good the Bush name did, it was also a heavy weight around his neck. "Jeb!", who dropped the family name from his logo, was constantly hounded by questions and comparisons to his unpopular brother. It didn't help that when asked about the Iraq War, he fiercely defended George W. By the end of the campaign in South Carolina, Jeb was desperate enough to invite Dubya to campaign on the same stage as him. It seems kind of unfair in a way. Jeb didn't cause the Iraq War. It wasn't his fault that George was unpopular. He didn't choose to be born a Bush, but he was going to be classified as part of the "establishment" no matter what his politics. If he had access to that much money, why not use it? The other candidates are using any money they can get their hands on from anyone they knew. Hillary, with her connections to Democratic Party royalty from having married a future president, has $184 million in her PACs. For as much as Jeb's privilege helped him throughout his life, including this past year, it also had hurt him. Would a candidate with Jeb's record of conservative accomplishments as governor, without the connection to George Bush, without the attachment to the political elites, but also without as much campaign cash, have done better? There's no way of knowing, as Jeb's whole life is intrinsically linked to his family. Moreover, Jeb did a bad job campaigning, independent of how much his name helped or hurt him. Still, it is true that no matter whom we are, much about us is chosen for us at birth, fated to us, good or bad, and impossible to separate from us. Americans, especially in an anti-establishment mood this year, resent entitlement. Jeb seemed like he felt entitled to their votes. From the start he tried to intimidate other candidates from run-ning, by raising a "shock-and-awe" campaign his own team bragged about. On the other hand, Marco Rubio was the son of a bartender and a maid (as he tells voters in every stump speech), who immigrated to America with nothing in order to escape Cuba. He seems the exact opposite of Jeb Bush. While Bush grew up attending prep schools and got connected with successful business partners in Miami who wanted to put the president's name on their stationary, Rubio grew up in cramped quarters in Las Vegas and Miami and took debt to pay for college that he didn't pay off until well into adulthood. But on the other hand, Rubio's parents' life story is actually quite helpful to him campaigning. Citing their and his hardships, he paints himself as a compassionate success story who under-stands the plight of the working class. Voters turned off by privilege and entitlement flock to him and feel good about themselves for living in a country where anyone can rise up to be president - and for voting to make it happen. Of course, Rubio didn't choose his parents either. For most of his life his background didn't help him. His name didn't get him meetings with businessmen, like it did for Jeb and George, and it didn't let him leapfrog all the low-level political positions most politicians need to build their ex-perience. His first elected position wasn't governor. He actually had to be elected to a seat as City Commissioner for West Miami and work his way up. We all play the hands we are dealt. Rubio turned bad cards into a full house, and Bush flopped with aces in his hand. In fact, of the five candidates left in the GOP race, three were the sons of immigrants (Trump's mother was an immigrant), one was the son of a poor single mother (Carson), and only one was also the son of great privilege, Donald Trump. Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, and Rubio all rely on their humble upbringings to help win them votes. Minorities have historically faced discrimination in the U.S. and still do from some people but the status of those candidates as Hispanic or black is also an asset for a party that is trying to expand its demographic appeal. However, Trump has attacked each of them for their race and heritage. He said that Cruz and Rubio were both ineligible for the presidency based on where they or their parents were born. He released an ad that called Carson a "violent criminal," based on a story from his childhood about him stabbing a classmate. The GOP race now can be said to be a contest between an old-fashioned establishment of racist whites who think they should be entitled to a better job based on their race rather than their skills and abilities, who support Trump's plans to restrict immigration and trade, versus a diverse meritocracy that represents where enlightened Americans would like to see their country go, a meritocracy where Rubio's and Carson's race and lack of means doesn't hold them back if they work hard enough. One's family and background will always have an influence on them. All the money in the world can be redistributed, but if one's parents spend more time reading to their children and raising them, that, too, could have an impact on helping them. In the end, life isn't always fair, but you have to make the most of it with what you have. The tough world of electoral politics may be one of the best metaphors for the struggles of life. The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. I give my consent to Sakshi Post to be in touch with me via email for the purpose of event marketing and corporate communications. Privacy Policy Flash In a fierce battle for food, I recently watched four seagulls fight for a long, fatty eel as they flew over the Huangpu River. Standing on the riverfront in Lujiazui as I stared at the determined birds, I thought about how much they are part of the Bund and its surroundings. And yet it's the iconic skyline that tourists and locals marvel at, instead of the flocks of gulls that hover over the water. To most they are a nuisance. In the West, seagulls are among the most disliked birds, and are often referred to as rats of the sky, or flying rats, for their threatening behavior and tendency to scavenge and steal food. In some cities, they have started to live entirely off garbage and frequently steal food straight from people's hands. Their aggressive search for anything edible has drawn the scorn of locals who have gone as far as to poison and kill the birds. In a 2014 study in the UK, 95 percent of respondents even said that they "detest" seagulls. But to me, the gulls that populate the Huangpu and Bund area between November and March are interesting birds to observe. From 7 to 10am, a dozen species of herring gulls, also called Vega gulls, Mongolian gulls and Heuglin's gulls are actively searching for food, constantly flying above the water to scan the river for prey. When one gull spots a fish, it will dive in to catch it. In that moment, the other gulls seem to turn around instinctively and will soon swarm the successful hunter to steal the fresh prey. Sometimes a gull rips a fish from another gull's bill, only to loose it to yet another competitor seconds later. It's fascinating to watch. Few people know what a long way these birds have come to fish in the Huangpu River. Every year, the gulls leave their breeding grounds in Siberia and Mongolia in search for warmer waters. They arrive here in mid-November and stay until March, when the weather allows for their return north. Like other birds, the gulls migrate in fixed routes, with the juveniles following the adults in fall to learn the route to their wintering grounds. Most of them are found in the Bund area, Paotaiwan Wetland, Chongming Island, Nanhui Dongtan as well as Dianshan Lake. Shanghai has been the herring gulls' winter palace for hundreds of years due to its good habitat conditions and rich food source. Although they prefer fish and shrimp or other seafood, they will also eat small rodents and smaller birds. The mud banks at the Bund, where the Suzhou Creek enters the Huangpu River, are a habitat for certain fish species, which has attracted the gulls. As some gulls can live up to several decades, I can't help but think about how they have witnessed Shanghai's rapid transformation, with ever taller buildings welcoming them each season. Gulls were already here when the first fishermen arrived, and quickly learned that ships will leave small fish and shrimps behind a welcome and easy snack for the birds. Apart from the abundance of food, the Bund area is also a safe haven for the birds. They've long been used to passing boats and ships, and there are almost no other distractions. The best spot to observe the gulls on the Bund is by the riverfront in Lujiazui, conveniently located near the Lujiazui station of Metro Line 2. Most gulls gather in the northern area closer to the estuary. About the gulls Mongolian gull Scientific name: Larus mongolicus The Mongolian gull is about 55 to 68 centimeters in length with a wingspan of 140 to 155 centimeters, weights approximately 1.125 kilograms. It has long neck that is thick at the base and pointed at the head when stretched, but appears full-chested when relaxed. The adult Mongolian gull has a round head that's typically white with any winter streaking usually faint and restricted to the lower hindneck. The juvenile has dark brown upperparts with pale-fringed feathers giving it a scaled appearance. The head is almost white with contrasting black bill and brown-streaked neck and breast. As a migratory species, the Mongolian gull breeds east of Mongolia's Lake Baikal, in northeast China and Korea. They winter mainly around the Yellow Sea, Korea and on China's southeastern coast. Black-headed gull Scientific name: Chroicocephalus ridibundus The black-headed gull is a relatively smaller gull with 37 to 43 centimeters in length and a wingspan of 94 to 110 centimeters. It weighs 195 to 325 grams. It's grey and white, with a pale grey mantle and wings, a dark, chocolate-brown hood and distinctive white leading edge, with only a small black spot on the tip of the wings. This species breeds in western Europe to northeastern Yakutsk, southeastern Russia, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Koryakia and the northeast of China. It winters in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the coast of east China, usually south of the Yangtze River estuary. Common gull Scientific name: Larus canus The common gull is about 40 to 46 centimeters in length with a wingspan of 110 to 125cm. It weighs about 394 to 586 grams. The medium-sized gull has a rounded head, plain face and rather gentle appearance. The adult Common gull's breeding plumage has grey wings, a prominent white tertial crescent that separates the grey of the wings from the black primaries. The head, neck, underparts and tail are white. But in winter, the ear coverts, nape and neck-sides are narrowly streaked or more broadly flecked brown, and the head streaking can be heavy. The Common gull breeds across Eurasia and northwest North America and in eastern Russia, from Sakhalin to Yakutia and Chukotka to Kamchatka as well as northern China. It winters from October to April in Japan, Korea, the East China coast and occasionally Taiwan. Black-tailed gull Scientific name: Larus crassirostris The black-tailed gull is 44 to 48 centimeters long with a wingspan of 126 to 128 centimeters. It weighs 436 to 640 grams. It's a medium-sized, long, narrow-winged gull with a broad black tail-band. The white head appears relatively flat-crowned and is further accentuated by a long bill. It is found in the east Asia, from north Sakhalin to the Japanese coast and offshore islands, offshore Korea, Shandong and Fujian provinces in China as well as Taiwan. It winters in areas ranging from Hokkaido in northern Japan to Taiwan and south China. SNc Channels: Search About Salem-News.com Feb-24-2016 17:00 TweetFollow @OregonNews Turkey: Support for Al-Qaeda, Intentional or Not? Commentators see Davutoglu's impetuous reaction as yet another proof of Ankara's support for infamous terrorists. Protest in Azaz against the #YPG in #Aleppo city as well as #Russian airstrikes. Courtesy: syria.liveuamap.com (SALEM, Ore.) - As the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies placed a tight security belt around Aleppo, all guerrillas adhering to Fatah al-Halab joint operation room, al-Nusra Front and Ansar al-Sharia nearly lost all their supplies lines stretching across the Turkish border area and Bab al-Salameh border crossing , going beyond the Turkish-Syrian border to Kilis refugee camp. Meanwhile, the Syrian Army declared that its next step is to secure the rebel-held Azaz city in order to preclude renewing the flow of arms and terrorists to Aleppo. As the Syrian crisis entered its fifth year, the ruling AK Party brought home nothing but humiliation as all its attempts to bring down the Syrian government proved futile. The Syrian Arab Army and its Kurdish allies made rapid advances toward the key Syrian border town of Azaz, whipped Ahmet Davutoglu who was in a state visit to Ukraine, into an unprecedented frenzy by calling the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as Russian mercenaries. The Kurdish militias had prominent role in assisting Syrian Arab Army's efforts to liberate several cities in Aleppo. Before embarking on a visit to Ukraine, the Turkish Prime Minister reiterated that his administration won't allow the fall of Azaz and vindicated the bombardment of Kurdish positions as a measure to thwart Kurds from wresting control of rebel-held areas, vowing that Ankara will react decisively if Kurdish YPG forces get closer to Azaz. As western-backed armed groups and al-Qaeda's Syria branch (al-Nusra Front) reached a truce with the so-called Islamic State, Davutoglu's reckless comments reveals Turkish unequivocal support for ISIS terrorists. Commentators see Davutoglu's impetuous reaction to the news of Syrian Arab Army's advances near the border with Turkey and the imminent collapse of radical mercenaries as yet another proof of Ankara's support for infamous terrorists, namely ISIS. It should be noted, in the case of retaking strategic border towns such as Azaz, Mare' and Shaykh Issa, Ankara's hopes to reverse the tide of the war will fade away. Foreign-affairs | Human-rights | Military | Business | Most Commented on Articles for February 23, 2016 | Articles for February 24, 2016 | Articles for February 25, 2016 Flash MongoliaAntoine Cuesta poses at Lake Baikal in Siberia on December 6, 2015.(Antoine Cuesta) With a 25-kilogram backpack he calls "home," Frenchman Antoine Cuesta has arrived in Shanghai as part of a globetrotting odyssey done on a shoestring. Cuesta, 21, has visited 18 countries in the past four months, hitchhiking for transport and relying on the generosity of strangers for food and accommodation along the way. He is driven by wanderlust. "I want to see the world and meet people from different cultures," he told Shanghai Daily. Foreign backpackers are not uncommon on the streets of Shanghai, though hitchhiking is not a popular way of traveling around in China's big cities, according to Xing Xiaoyun, front desk manager at the Etour Youth Hostel in Shanghai. Cuesta sleeps where fate drops him every evening. He has caught 40 winks on hotel lobby sofas, in trucks and in gas stations. For food, he often finds kind-hearted restaurant owners or charity organizations where a meal is free or very cheap. "I try to avoid hotels or even youth hostels because I want to seize as many opportunities as I can to mingle with locals," he said. The Chinese seem to take a benign view of backpackers. "China's policemen are very kind to foreigners and always ready to help," he said. "And people on the streets here walk up to me and offer help. They see me with a big pack and think I must be lost." Born in Grenoble in the French Alps, Cuesta said the travel bug bit him when he was 12 and traveling with parents in Morocco. "I saw the hard lives of children my age, who were denied the pleasures of life that I had," he said. "They had no opportunity to travel, so I realized how blessed I was that I could and began dreaming of seeing the world." Cuesta dropped out of university when he was 20 and started working at several jobs to save up for his trip. Last September, he headed off, with two cameras, an iPad, two T-shirts, two pairs of trousers, two jackets and two sleeping bags. His backpack also carries a tent, small stove, towel, water bottle, two pairs of shoes and a diary. Cuesta doesn't have detailed travel plans; neither does he use a road map. After arriving in a new country, his itinerary is usually determined by the recommendations of friends he makes along the way. His journey to date has taken him to the US, Ireland, Spain, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxemburg, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Mongolia. His favorite stops so far? Lake Baikal in Siberia and China's Great Wall. Fluent only in French and English, Cuesta often resorts to body language to communicate. He asks friends to help him write self-introductions and requests for accommodation in local languages. Cuesta said Chinese people, especially in big cities, tend to be a bit cautious about picking up hitchhikers. "To get a ride from one city to the next in China, I usually stand at a gas station with a sign written in characters about my next destination," he said. On the trip from Mongolia into China, Cuesta said he was standing on a highway verge with his thumb out when a truck driver stopped and took him to a local police station. Authorities there arranged for him to take a long-distance bus to Beijing at no charge. From Beijing, he traveled to Xi'an. He was unsuccessful getting a ride from a highway tollbooth, so he walked to a gas station where staff offered him a meal and found a willing driver heading for Shaanxi Province. The Xi'an-to-Shanghai leg involved two free bus rides to Wuxi in neighboring Jiangsu Province, and then a ride into Shanghai from two music teachers. Most of those stop to give him lifts in China are men, including a young expat office worker and an English teacher, said Cuesta. Sometimes drivers provide free accommodation. For his first two nights in Shanghai, Cuesta napped in the lobbies of the Jinjiang Tower Hotel and the Four Seasons Hotel. He also spent one night in a 24-hour McDonald's restaurant before a French girl living in Shanghai contacted him through Facebook and offered him a spare bed in her apartment. Finding food is easier than finding a bed, Cuesta said. On the first day in Shanghai, he ate in an all-you-can-eat Mexican restaurant on Huaihai Road for 50 yuan ($7.67). He also eats at sidewalk food stalls. "I stay longer in a place if I like it or if I befriend interesting people," said Cuesta, adding that he plans to remain in Shanghai for a while longer. "The food is cheap and good here. I love Shanghai and its atmosphere." Cuesta said his journey has been without major setbacks, except when his wallet was stolen in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. Luckily, he doesn't carry much money. The Frenchman said he expects to keep globetrotting for another three to five years, hoping to visit all continents. He said he plans to compile his experiences and photos into a book someday. For now, he's already thinking about his next destination: Japan. Another car wash company is coming to Salina The growth of car wash services have been increasing in Salina the past few years, with another coming after approval by the city. Flash Argentina's Environment and Public Space Ministry fumigation brigade members spay insecticide in an area of Saavedra Park, in an effort to control the Aedes aegypti mosquito, in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, on Feb. 11, 2016. (Photo: Xinhua/Martin Zabala) Travel agents across China are advising outbound tourists to be extra cautious as three of the country's five Zika patients caught the virus while on vacation. East China's Zhejiang Province has reported three cases. All three had been on the same tour of Fiji and Samoa. Lu Binbin, an executive with a Hangzhou travel agency, said travelers should avoid places with a Zika problem. Symptoms of the Zika virus, which spreads to people through mosquito bites, include fever, joint pain, a rash, conjunctivitis, headache and muscle pain. Many countries in South America have been labeled risky, including Brazil, which will host the Olympic Games this year. Lu said the risk of infection will be reduced during the second half of the year when temperatures drop in the Southern Hemisphere. China's National Tourism Administration has urged travelers to keep up-to-date with information from the World Health Organization, Chinese government and tourism destinations. Travel agencies also asked outbound tourists to protect themselves against mosquito bites to prevent potential infection. With five confirmed infections, China is on high alert against the virus. In Shanghai, health authorities have prepared emergency sickbeds and held training sessions for staff. Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center (SPHCC) plans research on how the virus develops and its long-term impact. "Currently there is no specific treatment for the Zika virus or any vaccine to prevent infections," said Lu Hongzhou, an SPHCC professor. "We must step up efforts to stop its spread." The National Health and Family Planning Commission urged the public to stay vigilant as the spread of the illness cannot be ruled out in some regions where the mosquito population will increase as the weather warms. Efforts will be stepped up to quarantine the infected and reduce the number of mosquitoes, said the commission. 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe [KAMPALA] Two large phase III trials in Sub-Saharan Africa have shown promise of protecting women from HIV infection by 27-31 per cent. The two trials, A Study to Prevent Infection with a Ring for External Use (ASPIRE) and The Ring study, aim to identify complementary HIV prevention strategies for women. ASPIRE and the Ring study have shown that a monthly vaginal ring having the antiretroviral drug, dapivirine, can safely help avert HIV-1 infection in women, it was announced this week (22 February) at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. It is a big step towards self-initiated HIV prevention among women. Anatoli Kamali, MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit on AIDS I am excited. It is the first time we get something for women, says Clemencia Nakabiito, a principal investigator with the Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) in Uganda conducting ASPIRE, noting that the ring could reduce viral load in the country. Anatoli Kamali, deputy director of the MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit on AIDS, who is involved in the Ring study in Uganda, adds: It is a big step towards self-initiated HIV prevention among women. ASPIRE showed that the monthly dapivirine ring safely reduced HIV infection overall by 27 per cent compared to a placebo, whereas The Ring study reduced HIV risk by 31 per cent overall, and by 37 per cent among participants older than 21 years old. ASPIRE was led by the US National Institutes of Health-funded MTN while the Ring study was directed by the nonprofit International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM). But both trials show that an uphill task remains in finding a solution for young people. For young women ages 18-21 years old, HIV risk reduced by 15 per cent in the Ring study, but there was no protection in ASPIRE. Kenneth Mwehonge, programmes officer of the Uganda-based Coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development, tells SciDev.Net: Young women and youth have the highest infection rates. It is a disappointment because it leaves our young women with no protection. ASPIRE enrolled 2,629 HIV-negative women ages 18 to 45 years old at 15 clinical research sites in Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe, whereas the Ring study enrolled 1,959 women in South Africa and Uganda. Both trials started in 2012 but although ASPIRE ended in 2015, the continuing the Ring study is reporting results early, following a recommendation of its independent data and safety monitoring board that the study proceed to final analysis, according to a statement issued by IPM this week (22 February) As with previous trials involving other HIV prevention methods, adherence to the prescribed use appeared higher among older women, which might explain higher levels of efficacy in these age groups, says a statement released this week (22 February) by AVAC, an advocacy group for HIV prevention worldwide. Adherence was about 80 per cent generally, more than we ever had in any ring study, says Flavia Matovu, a researcher at Uganda-based Makerere University and a principal investigator involved in ASPIRE, noting that young women are less likely to take things seriously.According to Matovu, further studies are under way to understand HIV prevention among young women, especially the reasons for not adhering to the rings.It is not easy to abstain or use a condom. A tool that can be used by young women is very crucial, Matovu adds. This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Sub-Saharan Africa English desk. [NAIROBI] Policymakers and researchers have become increasingly convinced that science, technology and innovation (STI) is the key to unlocking Sub-Saharan Africas development potential and I tend to agree with this line of thought. Indeed, many experts are of the view that STI is a vital ingredient for socio-economic growth in the global South. As I delve deeper into this subject, I try to seek answers on how African countries can place STI at the heart of their development blueprints as a positive strategy. To my knowledge, African countries and other developing nations are not doing enough to take advantage of the possibilities that STI offers to transform the lives of their citizens, especially the rural poor. We journalists need to amplify the voices of the most vulnerable and the marginalised in society. Gilbert Nakweya I attended a meeting of the Kenya Environment and Science Journalists Association in Kenya last week (20 February) during which a question relating to whether STI knowledge is adequately shared among policymakers and researchers arose. Journalists, development communication practitioners, scientists and policymakers discussed the status of science journalism in Kenya, and STI featured prominently as they debated the challenges and opportunities of communicating science. Although Kenya was credited for increased coverage of STI issues over the last five years, participants were concerned that important issues such as climate change, energy,, research and development (R&D) and water and sanitation were not adequately covered although they are crucial to the countrys transformation. Patrick Likobele, an agro-ecosystems and environmental management student at Kenyas University of Nairobi, said he expects to learn more about the environment from the media, I agree with Likobele that there is a knowledge gap that can be narrowed by journalists following up on issues at meetings that promote STI and R&D, such as the upcoming United Nations Environmental Assembly in Nairobi (23-27 May). Journalists ought to get stories from credible sources and write articles that promote STI to bridge the knowledge gap among policymakers, scientists and communities. Benson Ochieng, the executive director of the Institute for Law and Environmental Governance in Kenya, challenged journalists to improve climate change reporting and demonstrate its centrality in national and global development agenda such as the UNs Agenda 2030 on sustainable development.Mariana Rufino, a research scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research in Kenya told journalists that it is important for them to own the processes of STI initiatives in Africa and understand how technologies work.We journalists need to amplify the voices of the most vulnerable and the marginalised in society, while paying particular attention to children , women and physically challenged people. Communicating STI can be a useful catalyst in achieving this goal.This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Sub-Saharan Africa English desk. FLORENCE, S.C. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Florence crowd on Thursday she intends to strengthen the Affordable Care Act and crack down on gun lobbyists and manufacturers that contribute to gun violence in America. Clinton called the Affordable Care Act one of President Barack Obamas greatest accomplishments and said she will defend it from Republican attacks during her presidency. She said to reverse affordable healthcare would hurt millions of people who desperately need it. Ill make sure it goes even further and is even better, she said to a burst of applause. Before there was Obamacare there was what they called Hillary-care, because I was working to achieve that in the early 90s and I know hard it was to do what the president got done. Imagine a tomorrow where 100 percent of us have healthcare, and its quality healthcare, affordable healthcare. About 300 people were gathered at the Cumberland United Methodist Church in Florence for the event. Check back with the Morning News and SCNow.com for more on the Hillary Clinton rally in Florence. Flash European Council President Donald Tusk on Wednesday said the European Union (EU) would respect the decision of British people with regard to the country's decision on whether or not to stay in the EU. European Council President Donald Tusk testifies before the European Parliament in Brussels February 24, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] Tusk made the remarks when making an opening statement at a plenary debate at the European Parliament, saying "if the majority votes to leave, that is what will happen. It will change Europe forever. And it will be a change for the worse." "On the other hand, if Britain decides to stay, I hope the European Parliament will also ensure that the agreed settlement is transformed into the necessary legislation and will enter into force," he said. Tusk noted that 28 heads of state and government unanimously agreed and adopted a legally-binding and irreversible settlement for Britain in the EU. He said leaders agreed to do all this in a way that does not compromise the EU's fundamental values such as the freedom of movement and the principle of non-discrimination, and without compromising the future development of the economic and monetary union. He said a decision concerning a new settlement conformed to EU treaties and cannot be annulled by the European Court of Justice. But it will only enter into force if the British people vote to stay. If they vote to leave, the settlement will cease to exist. "Despite many difficulties, the leaders did not walk away from the negotiation table because we were fully aware of the stakes involved, namely keeping the UK in the EU and the future geopolitics of Europe," he said. "Only the British people can and will decide that. What we could do on our side was to agree a new settlement for Britain within the EU. And we did," said Tusk British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday announced that Britain would hold a referendum on June 23 to allow people to come to a decision on Britain's EU membership. The announcement was made a day after British and EU leaders reached a deal on Britain's "special status" in the bloc. You are here: Home Flash The one-week race of Iranian candidates for parliament seats will end Thursday and will be followed by a waiting period until the results are out. From 12,000 registered candidates, 6,229 qualified candidates, including 586 women, are competing for 290 parliament seats for four-year terms. Namely, some 21 people are competing for seats in the country's parliamentary election. In Tehran, over 1,000 candidates are competing over a mere 30 seats. For Friday's vote, the principalists, or conservatives as they are commonly referred to, are hoping not to lose their current sovereignty in the coming parliament. The following figures are the notable mostly incumbent parliament members, among the principalist factions: Ali Larijani: Larijani was born in June 1957 and is an Iranian scholar, politician and Iran's incumbent parliamentary chairman. Larijani was a former commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). In previous governments, he served in a number of posts, including: government deputy minister of labor and social affairs led by Mir Hossein Mousavi; deputy minister of information and communications technology and acting minister of culture and Islamic guidance in Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's cabinet. In 1994, he was appointed as head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) or state TV, and was in office until 2004. He then became security adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in August 2004. Larijani was a presidential candidate of the conservative alliance during Iran's 2005 elections but failed to earn enough votes. In 2005, he was appointed by Khamenei as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and took a tough stance on Iran's nuclear dossier during negotiations with world powers. In 2008's parliamentary elections, Larijani won a seat from the religious city of Qom. In May 2008, Larijani became parliament speaker and was reelected for the post in the following years. Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel: Haddad-Adel was born in May 1945 and is an Iranian scholar, politician and former parliament chairman. Following Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, Haddad-Adel became a member of the Islamic Republic Party and served in several governmental posts, including: deputy of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry in 1979 and Education Ministry deputy from 1982 to 1993. Since 1995, he has served as head of the Iranian Academy of Persian Language and Literature - except for the period in August from 2004 to 2008. He is also executive director of Iran's Islamic Encyclopedia Foundation. Haddad-Adel, the incumbent parliament member, has served in parliament for 13 years in four terms. He was one of the conservative candidates in 2013's presidential elections in Iran, but withdrew four days before elections. He has been a loyal principalist in the Iranian political scene. Since 2008, he has been advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Currently, he is a member of parliament, as well as a member in the High Council of Cultural Revolution and the Expediency Discernment Council. For the upcoming parliamentary elections, he is designated at the top list of Grand Coalition of the Principalists. Mohammad-Hassan Aboutorabi Fard: Aboutorabi Fard was born in 1953 and is a conservative Shiite cleric and currently the first deputy parliament speaker in Iran. He attended the seminary of Najaf city in Iraq during his teens, and returned to the country before Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Following the Islamic revolution's victory, he served as head of the ideological and political department of Iran's Defense Ministry and was present in the battle with Iraqi forces which raided the country between 1980 and 1988. He has been a member of Iran's Combatant Clergy Association of Iran since 1986, the pragmatic-conservative clerical party. Also in 1986, he was appointed as interim Friday prayers leader of Iran's Qazvin city and has remained in the post since then. Aboutorabi Fard was a Qazvin parliamentary representative from 2004 until 2012, and since 2012 represents a Tehran legislator in Iran's parliament. He registered for Iran's 2013 presidential elections, but later withdrew from the campaign. For the upcoming parliamentary elections, he is on Principalists Grand Coalition list. Ahmad Tavakoli: Tavakoli was born in March 1951 and is a conservative representative from Tehran in the Iranian parliament and former director of the Majlis Research Center. Tavakoli was labor minister under Mir Hossein Mousavi, Iran's last prime minister from 1981 to 1989. He was also a presidential candidate in two previous Iranian presidential elections, running against moderate former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and previous reformist president Mohammad Khatami. He founded Resalat, a conservative newspaper, then headed to the United Kingdom to study economics at Nottingham University, where he received his PhD. Tavakoli is a critic of capitalism, and is supportive of the government's role in controlling the economy. He was also a fierce critic of former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his economic and domestic political stances. He too is on the Principalists Grand Coalition list for Iran's Feb. 26 parliamentary elections. Yahya Al-e Es'haq: Al-e Es'haq was born in June 1949 and is an Iranian economist and politician who served as minister of commerce in Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's administration from 1993 to 1997. He has been head of Tehran's Chamber of Commerce since 2009. Al-e Es'haq was one of 2013's potential candidates for Iran's presidential elections but did not meet the necessary qualifications required by the Iranian vetting legislative body of Guardian Council therefore he was declined. Recently, he has been critical of the country's politics, believing that "The political influence on Iran's economy is traumatic and must be stabilized." He also believes that providing a secure environment for long-term investment can launch an economic boom in Iran. He considers oil-free economies as the strategic solution to Iran's economic problems, saying that "For years, we've deliberated implementing an oil-free economy in the country, but so far we have failed in reaching this important target." Iran's Parliament will be capable of dismissing cabinet ministers through no-confidence votes and impeaching the president in case of misconduct in office. Parliament will also draft legislation, ratify international treaties, and approve the national budget. The forthcoming Iranian elections are crucial as moderates and reformists, propelled by President Hassan Rouhani's administration, are keen on outnumbering conservatives in the coming parliament. Flash South Korea and the United States are expected to launch a joint working group next week to discuss the deployment in the South Korean territory of a sophisticated U.S. missile defense system, Yonhap news agency reported Thursday citing a government source. The source was quoted as saying that the joint working group would be launched next week due to shortage of time to finish the forming of it within this week. Preliminary talks between Seoul and Washington have already started to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korea. The talks are reportedly discussing various preparations to launch the working group, including who will represent each side. The joint working group was originally scheduled to be launch on Tuesday, but it was delayed at the request of the U.S. side, according to the report. Seoul and Washington jointly announced the start of missile defense talks on Feb. 7 when the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched a long-range rocket, which the allies see as a prohibited test of ballistic missile technology. The rocket launch came amid ongoing discussions at the UN Security Council about tougher new sanctions against what Pyongyang claimed was its first H-bomb test on Jan. 6, the fourth of its nuclear detonations. South Korean Defense Ministry's vice spokesman Nah Seung-Yong told a regularly scheduled press briefing that the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) command has been preparing with the Seoul ministry to launch the joint working group on behalf of the Pentagon. After the USFK command completes internal discussion with the U.S. government, the command will make preparatory talks with the Seoul ministry based on the internal conclusion, the vice spokesman said. The launch of the working group is widely expected to draw anger from neighboring countries, especially China and Russia, as the THAAD's radar covers far beyond the DPRK. The X-band radar is known to locate missiles as far as 2,000 km, spotting missiles in the territories of China and Russia bordering the DPRK. China has expressed strong opposition to the THAAD deployment as it impairs China's security interests directly. "No country should impair others' security interests when pursuing its own," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a daily news briefing Wednesday. The company has set aside $20m to $100m to invest in acquiring 40 new ships for dredging, Humpuss president director Theo Lekatompessy said. Humpuss is assessing a possible cooperation with an unnamed Dutch or Belgian company for the business.Indonesian President Joko Widodo is spending trillions of rupiah to build and expand new ports as part of his maritime infrastructure initiative to bring down the country's logistics costs. Humpuss's plan will raise the company's capital expenditure this year to $254m from the initial $154m allocated for buying tankers and LNG carriers. The company will fund up to a quarter of the investment with its internal cash, with the remainder coming from bank loans, Theo said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Courtesy of Lee Marcus Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy of Lee Marcus Show More Show Less 3 of 3 A bald eagle based at a Palo Alto zoo who had gone missing after flying away during a demonstration at a local park earlier this week, was spotted Thursday afternoon, raising hopes that it will soon return to its home nest, officials said. Sequoia, who is nearly 28 years old, was doing a regularly-scheduled flight demonstration on Monday at Byxbee Park in Palo Alto when she got distracted by another bird and flew off like a terror after it, said John Aikin, director of the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo, where the majestic bird lives. Slowly, quietly and surely, the homeless tent cities that have snaked along Division Street for months are disappearing as campers pack up to beat a Friday deadline set by San Franciscos mayor for them to be gone. There were still as many as 100 people in tents and makeshift plywood houses Wednesday, but the pockmarks of empty sidewalk in what used to be solid lines of encampments grew throughout the day. Mayor Ed Lee said Tuesday that the tents had to be cleared within 72 hours, declaring that the health hazard of vermin, used narcotics needles and open-air trash had become intolerable for residents, businesses and the homeless themselves. By Tuesday evening, the city Department of Public Health had posted signs along Division, a wide avenue with Highway 101 roaring overhead, declaring that the tent area between South Van Ness Avenue and 11th Street was unsanitary and a public nuisance. The letters, the complaints from people here, the health issue it just all hit a crisis point, Sam Dodge, the mayors point person on homelessness, said Wednesday as he watched several campers pack up. People want shelter. We are trying to do everything we can to help them. Offering help Street counselors from the citys Homeless Outreach Team have been saturating the area since last week, offering help. On Wednesday, eight teams plied the street, driving people away in vans to shelters, referring people to drug rehabilitation clinics and warning tent dwellers that they had to try to find alternatives to the street by Friday. City Hall and police officials did not say what they will do if people remain when the 72 hours are up. The law says public camping is illegal, so they could be arrested. But virtually nobody in city government was embracing that option with any eagerness. Our hope is that by Friday, people will have found better situations, said Rachael Kagan, spokeswoman for the health department. Varied reactions Harry Johnson, 32, carefully stowed his toiletries into a small bag as he waited for a friend to arrive to drive him to the citys new Pier 80 shelter. I just want the harassment to end, he said. Its stressful having to move my tent here, move it there all the time. I want a job. I want a place to live. Maybe they can help me. A couple of encampments away, Gerald Hair, 53, snarled as he worked on a broken generator with grease-covered hands and said neither he nor anyone else in his cluster at Division and Florida Street was about to leave easily. They can't move us, Hair said, sitting in front of his small tent covered with a blue tarp surrounded by clothes, electrical equipment and junk as the late afternoon sun beamed on his bearded face. I aint got nowhere to go better than this. This is as good as it gets. Heavy rains this winter began driving homeless campers to spread their bags along Division. The overhead shelter of Highway 101 has made it a popular homeless camping spot for more than a decade but the drenching break in a four-year drought, coupled with gentrification disrupting typical encampments closer to downtown, made the street population mushroom. By early February, about 250 people were living on the sidewalks. Many swept up regularly and tried to keep their camps tidy, but others scattered needles, feces, bottles of urine and other trash around, and fights and thefts erupted with increasing frequency. A lot of my customers say they dont even want to come anymore, said Jason Huang, who runs the Folsom Auto Body Center on Division. I find needles in my driveway every morning, people doing drugs, screaming, crazy people. Its not good. It needs to go. Shelter beds Many of those who left this week have gone to the Pier 80 shelter, 3 miles south of downtown. Some simply moved their tents a few blocks away from Division Street. Others were finding open beds at other shelters throughout the city. Trent Rhorer, head of the city Human Services Agency, said that 95 people had moved into Pier 80 this week and that there are plans to take in 55 more. Other shelters could take in an additional 35 or so, he said, and the city Navigation Center at 16th and Mission streets which specializes in helping homeless campers could take another dozen or so. That would leave about 50 of the original 250 people in the camps with no other options. Some said they would stay in their tents if police arrive, while others said they would just move. You have 800 people on the wait list for shelters already, some elderly and disabled, Jennifer Friedenbach, director of the Coalition on Homelessness, said Wednesday after touring Pier 80. They need more places for people to go. Small fraction She noted that those along Division Street represent a small fraction of the more than 3,000 people who live outside all the time in the city a little less than half of San Franciscos total homeless population. By clearing Division, the citys just responding to vitriol in the media and some people who are complaining, Friedenbach said. We really have a hard time with folks who are in encampments being destabilized with no alternatives. All along the wide avenue between South Van Ness and 11th, the word in the homeless tents ranged from gratitude at having shelters available to frustration or defiance. We just always feel like we have no place to go, but Im hearing good things about that Pier 80, said Melissa Iacovone, 31, as she packed up her tent. Im a little wary. But look, she said, waving a hand at the dwindling clusters of camps around her. This is over. We had a nice run, I guess. But its really over. Chronicle staff writer Jenna Lyons contributed to this report. Kevin Fagan and Peter Fimrite are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com and pfimrite@sfchronicle.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Brisbane Police Dept. Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Brisbane Police Dept. Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Police are investigating a possible connection between a Brisbane woman reported missing more than a week ago, a female torso found in the muck near the Dumbarton Bridge on Sunday, and her husbands apparent suicide off the Bay Bridge on Tuesday night. While Fremont police officials confirmed Wednesday that they are looking into whether the three incidents are linked, they stressed that the remains that were discovered have not yet been identified. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Division Street, where scores of homeless have erected a tent city on the northern edge of San Franciscos Mission District, was quiet Wednesday night despite the looming threat of a 72-hour order to vacate the camp issued by the city on Tuesday. After the commuters made their way home and the bars closed, there was little left to hear other than the occasional rumble of a big-rig chugging along the freeway overhead and the occasional rustle of someone readjusting a tarp. Not everyone at the encampment slept through the night, though, and not everyone hanging around was homeless. Mark Johnson, a San Francisco native who was raised in the Haight and spent nearly four years sleeping on the streets of the city, came down to the camp early Thursday morning to visit with a friend, who goes by the name Tennessee. Johnson said theres a lack of empathy for the homeless because most people cant imagine ever walking in their shoes. No one raises their hand when theyre in school and says I want to grow up to be homeless, he said. There are a lot of smart and intelligent people out here. Homelessness can happen to anybody. Johnson had been successful for many of his 49 years, he said, working construction and living in a spacious loft just around the corner from where the encampment sprouted when the winter rains hit late last year. I was doing real well, he said. I had a great place with a new Mazda sitting out front. My pockets were swollen like they had the mumps. After falling into drug use and overstaying his welcome on couches of family members, however, Johnson ended up homeless and desperate. It was tough, man, he said. To be homeless at 40 years old? I used to cry everyday. Johnson, unlike his friends along Division Street, was able to pull himself out of life on the streets. He got connected with the citys Homeless Outreach Team, got a degree from Merritt College in Oakland and scored himself a room near Sixth and Howard Streets in the South of Market area. Hes also enrolled in rehab and is seeing a therapist because he still has a few screws loose, as he put it. Tennessee, though, hasnt been so fortunate as of yet. The 50-year-old ex-con is currently making his home in a makeshift wooden trailer he built himself. Hed heard about the impending sweeps, but the citys option, a newly-christened shelter three miles away at Pier 80, was not for him, he said. If they want Pier 80 to be an attractive option then why is there barbed wire surrounding the place? he asked. Makes you wonder if its there to keep people out or keep people in. Tennessee said hed been rousted from other spots around the city, Fourth and Harrison streets most recently, before he came to Division about four months ago. They want to kick us out of one tent and put us in another? No thanks, he said. Asked where hed go if push came to shove, he nonchalantly replied one block over or one block down. Around 5 a.m., a pair of city trucks, accompanied by a police car, pulled up a block down from where Tennessee was staying and workers emerged with garbage bags and brooms. They were only there for the trash around the encampment, though, and the tents remained where they were. At least for one more day. Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale Salesforce.com Inc. forecast first-quarter revenue and profit that will exceed analysts projections, getting a lift as corporate customers shift more spending to cloud services. Sales in the period that ends in April will be $1.885 billion to $1.895 billion, the San Francisco company said Wednesday. Analysts on average had estimated revenue of $1.86 billion. The company said that fourth-quarter sales also topped predictions. CEO Marc Benioff, a pioneer in the market for cloud computing, is investing in new products and acquisitions to fuel growth as Salesforce benefits from the growing interest among businesses to access software through the Internet rather than installing it on their own machines. Almost 60 percent of organizations are adopting cloud services beyond one or two small applications, according to IDC. Salesforce shares rose about 9 percent in after-hours trading. They had declined less than 1 percent to close at $62.52, leaving them down 20 percent this year. The companys shares took a hit this month along with those of other software companies after Tableau, a maker of data-analysis and charting software, saw its value plummet by half in one day following results that fell short of some estimates. That raised concerns among investors that Salesforce which reached all-time highs in December could also stumble. Investment UPS to take stake in Deliv UPS, looking for ways to get goods to shoppers faster, is investing in Menlo Park same-day delivery company Deliv. Deliv, founded nearly four years ago, works with Macys, Kohls and other retailers to deliver online orders. Shoppers select same-day delivery when theyre about to buy something from the retailers website, and Delivs workers get it delivered. Retailers pay Deliv for its service and the stores usually charge customers. At Kohls, for example, shoppers pay $9.95 for same-day deliveries on orders above $75 and $14.95 for orders below $75. UPS says the investment will help it observe the same-day delivery market. Deliv did not specify how much UPS is investing. Other investors include mall operators General Growth Properties Inc., Taubman Centers Inc. and Westfield Corp., which also work with Deliv. Deliv said it will use the cash from UPS to expand. Acquisitions Microsoft buys Xamarin Microsoft Corp. said it agreed to buy San Francisco startup Xamarin in the tech giants latest move to attract more software engineers to write programs using its cloud services. Integrating Xamarin into Microsofts Visual Studio will improve developers ability to build mobile applications across Apples iOS, Googles Android and Microsofts Windows by making it easier to share code among the different operating systems, Scott Guthrie, Microsofts executive vice president of cloud and enterprise, wrote Wednesday in a blog post. The terms of the deal werent disclosed. Satya Nadella, Microsofts chief executive officer, has been working to bolster the companys mobile capabilities as part of a broader push to sell more cloud services to reinvigorate growth. He has been focused on adding tools that would allow developers to build apps for multiple platforms. That way, Microsoft can sell its cloud services to programmers who arent just building for its Windows operating system and better compete with the likes of Amazon.com. The combination of Xamarin, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Team Services, and Azure provides a complete mobile app dev solution that provides everything you need to develop, test, deliver and instrument mobile apps for every device, Guthrie said. The partnership between Xamarin, founded in 2011, and Microsoft goes back several years: some of Xamarins technology has already been integrated into many of Microsofts services, Guthrie said. The tech giant considered an acquisition or investment in Xamarin in 2014, people with knowledge of the issue said at the time. Xamarin has more than 15,000 customers and more than 1.3 million developers using the products, Guthrie said. Some of its clients include JetBlue Airways Corp., Honeywell International Inc. and SuperGiant Games. Social media Did burglar stalk victims? A maintenance worker is charged with using Instagram to track dozens of college women in order to burglarize their Orange County homes and sorority houses. The Orange County Register reported that Arturo Galvan of Menifee appeared in court on Tuesday. He has pleaded not guilty to burglary and remains jailed. Galvan allegedly tracked at least 33 women and stole more than $250,000 worth of items. Fullerton police say he would spot women in public places such as coffee shops or malls and then try to track their locations through Instagram. Police say Galvan obtained their home addresses from geotagged photos. Galvan allegedly stole laptops, jewelry and underwear from the victims, who were students at Chapman University and Cal State Fullerton. Chronicle News Services Number of the day 500 miles Thats how far your Tesla can be towed free to fix a warranty problem up from the previous limit of 50 miles the Palo Alto company announced Wednesday in a news release. Yes, the tow truck will take you only to the nearest Tesla Service Center in North America and yes, Tesla realizes that almost all its car owners live within 50 miles of a center, but We want to ensure all Tesla owners are receiving the best service, regardless of location. Other number of the day 18 percent Thats how much Restoration Hardwares stock fell in after-hours trading Wednesday, as the Corte Madera company warned that earnings would fall short of expectations. The company said some items are not shipping as fast as it hoped because vendors are struggling to increase production, and sales in some regions are struggling because of oil price fluctuations. Like 2.0 On Facebook, you could Like something without really liking it. But the Menlo Park social network is changing all that, giving users five icons besides the traditional thumbs-up to indicate how they feel: a heart for love, and faces that show surprise, anger, sadness and amusement. These buttons, called reactions, appear on phones when users hold down the Like icon and drag their finger to select from among the options. The Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techbriefing This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate More than 13 years after San Francisco police officers stormed Thurgood Marshall Academic High School and sparked public outcry for what was criticized as an excessive response to a hallway fight, officials with the U.S. Department of Justices community-policing division met with dozens of community members in the schools theater to hear their latest concerns around the citys police force. The gathering was the first of three community listening sessions to be conducted by the Justice Departments Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, known by its acronym COPS, which was called in by police Chief Greg Suhr and Mayor Ed Lee following the fatal shooting of Mario Woods on Dec. 2. Many of the community members who attended Wednesday expressed frustration that the issues that they said existed in 2002 when at least 60 San Francisco baton-wielding police officers and sheriff's deputies responded to a hallway fight at the predominantly African American school still exist in San Francisco: Racial profiling. Different treatment from the police in different neighborhoods. Fear of law enforcement in certain communities. People of color fatally shot by officers. This is not something that just began this is something thats been going on and on for years, said Drew Jenkins, 40. I got shot 10 months after I got back from college. The worst thing that I had to go through after getting shot was getting interrogated by the police. Community members invoked the names of those killed by police, with members of the Justice for Mario Woods Coalition leading chants calling for the firing of Suhr. They called for more thorough investigations into the fatal shootings of Alex Nieto, Amilcar Perez-Lopez and Woods. Many criticized the review as just a show to appease the community after video of the Woods shooting was shared on social media, sparking public outcry. The Justice for Mario Woods Coalition had called for a federal civil rights investigation into the Police Department following the shooting, similar to the type that the Obama administration opened in cities including Chicago, Cleveland and Ferguson, Mo. Such an investigation would include not just a review of the Woods shooting, but also a look into the departments practices and policies with any recommended reforms made mandatory. After the 1991 Rodney King beating in Los Angeles, Congress gave the Justice Department power to force reforms at police departments. The COPS review is a collaborative, two-year process. Any reform recommendations produced from the review would be just that recommendations. This is not what the community asked for, said Phelicia Jones of the Justice for Mario Woods Coalition. This is nothing more than window dressing. This is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig and telling us its Beyonce. We the community realize this is not an investigation. Were happy someone is here to hear the community, but we dont want to be treated like these are the counselors and were a therapy group, said Frank Williams, director of the Senior Ex-Offenders Program. Noble Wray, chief of COPS policing practices and accountability initiative, said the skepticism was not surprising. He said that while he understood where the community members were coming from, they play an important role in holding the Police Department accountable and making sure they follow through with the COPS recommendations. And an ongoing COPS review, Wray said, does not mean there cant also be a civil rights investigation, should investigators discover the need for one. Overall, Wray said the meeting, which took place a little over a mile from where Woods was shot, went as he expected. Theres a lot of hurt in this community and rightfully so thats why were here, Wray said. We want to hear from the perspective of the community. On one side, some of it is listening and hearing what the issues are, everything from use of force, stops, searches and seizures and things like that. We do listen for content, but we also know that a part of it is allowing for people to express themselves and vent and get their emotions out. Thats also a very important part of healing and understanding what is going on. The next COPS meeting will take place March 8 at 6 p.m. in the Mission High School auditorium. Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo Ron Chapple/Getty Image Two alleged gunmen believed responsible for separate shootings this month in Oakland that left two men dead and two others wounded have been arrested, officials said. U.S. marshals and Oakland police arrested Daniel Casey, a 32-year-old Oakland resident, Feb. 17 in connection with the shooting death of 35-year-old Albert Easley, who was killed in a drive-by shooting on the 1000 block of 24th Street in West Oakland on Feb. 11, officials said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate With employment rules for 277,000 schoolteachers at stake, a state appeals court seemed skeptical Thursday of a judges decision that Californias tenure and seniority laws are unfairly saddling poor and minority students with incompetent teachers. The long-standing laws require schools to show good cause for firing teachers who have worked for at least two years, and require districts to base layoffs on seniority, dismissing the least-experienced teachers first, with some exceptions for special skills. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu declared both laws unconstitutional in June 2014, ruling after a trial that they make it prohibitively time-consuming and expensive to remove incompetent teachers and violate the right of all students, particularly low-income and minority students, to equality of education. The laws remain in effect during an appeal by the state and teachers unions. On Thursday, two of the three justices on a Second District Court of Appeal panel in Los Angeles questioned the connection Treu found between the tenure laws and the educational woes of poor and minority students. Administrators in charge School administrators have the ultimate decision and have the power of assignment of teachers to particular schools, noted Justice Judith Ashmann-Gerst. She said the link between teachers job security and the sufferings of educationally deprived students was not so clear. Justice Brian Hoffstadt asked critical questions of both sides but suggested that Treu had given short shrift to the actual effects of the job-security laws in the classroom. Even if some students are being harmed by ineffective teachers, Hoffstadt asked, do the statutes inevitably cause this result? Presiding Justice Roger Boren, the third panel member, and the only one appointed by a Republican governor, seemed more receptive to the laws challengers. Were permitted to look at real-world experience, he said, citing expert testimony about the expense of firing tenured teachers. There isnt anybody in this room who hasnt had a bad teacher sometime. Ruling in 90 days A ruling is due within 90 days. In view of the importance of the case, it seems likely to reach the state Supreme Court within a year. Nearly every state grants tenure to teachers, protecting them from arbitrary or politically motivated dismissals. But California is one of only five states that provide tenure in two years, a period that Treu found too short to properly evaluate a teacher. The judge also said dismissing a tenured instructor can take two years or more and cost $50,000 to $450,000, or even more. The suit, Vergara vs. California, was filed by nine students and sponsored by the nonprofit Students Matter, founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Welch. Their lawyer, Theodore Boutrous, described the tenure law as permanent employment, and told the court that California makes it harder than any other state to dismiss teachers with seniority. Job protection laws School districts cant get grossly ineffective teachers out of the system because of the job-protection laws, Boutrous said. There are no benefits to these statutes. Courts ... are the only hope for these students. But Deputy Attorney General Nimrod Elias, the states lawyer, said reports from many of the states more than 1,000 school districts showed they had no difficulty removing unqualified teachers. Michael Rubin, lawyer for the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers, said Treu had ignored the benefits of the job-security laws, which make the teaching profession more attractive by requiring valid grounds for dismissals. Charter schools Rubin also said there was no evidence that charter schools in California, which are not covered by tenure laws, do better than public schools. Any time you have a disappointed student or a disappointed parent, they shouldnt be able to challenge (state education laws and) blow up the entire system, Rubin said. He said educational policy is a subject for the Legislature, not the courts. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko On Thursday, staff and parents of students at Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District received a letter from Jeffrey Holmes, Superintendent about active shooter swatting calls taking place at multiple school districts across the state. Swatting calls are hoax reports of threats made to police which insight panic. Police say similar types of false threats have occurred at multiple schools across the state Thursday. These threats included 911 calls to police across the state claiming that schools had an active shooter. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Just when it seemed that Hillary Clinton had squeezed all the campaign cash she could out of Connecticut, the rejuvenated Democratic presidential front-runner is about to return. This time, to Litchfield County, the bucolic refuge of celebrities and monied weekenders who tend to lean left. Back on track after her Nevada caucus victory last weekend over liberal Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton is scheduled to visit the states northwestern corner on March 18 for a big-ticket fundraiser, according to an invitation obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media. Admission starts at $2,700 per person. There is also a $5,400 price tier that includes a photo with Clinton and a VIP reception option for those who bundle at least $10,000 in donations. Clintons latest cash raid is being organized by the congressional Democratic troika of U.S. Sen. Christopher Murphy, 5th District Rep. Elizabeth Esty and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Yale Law School classmate of the former secretary of state and first lady. I think the prospect of Donald Trump being the likely (Republican) nominee is bringing into focus the seriousness of what this is all about, Esty told Hearst Thursday. I think (Clinton) has the whole package. Im looking at who can best lead the country, and thats what I think the American people will be looking at as well. The host information for the event was available only upon request for would-be contributors to Clintons campaign, according to the invitation, which lists Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman as special guests. Hearst has learned that Clintons latest visit to the state will take her to Roxbury, which is home to a number of celebrities, including Daniel Day-Lewis, Dustin Hoffman and Stephen Sondheim. Republicans unleashed a fresh round of criticism over Clintons use of a private email server to back up some of her communications when she was secretary of state, including classified materials. Lets hope that shes not going to email the invitations out, because its very clear that she doesnt know how any of that stuff works, or at least thats what she claims, said J.R. Romano, Connecticuts GOP chairman. Clinton leads the entire presidential field in money raised in Connecticut, with a haul of more than $1.8 million. Most of that has been mined from Fairfield County, including the Gold Coast locales of Greenwich, Stamford and Westport. The northwestern part of the state is a potential untapped frontier for Clinton, who visited the Litchfield home of actress Susan Saint James for a fundraiser when she first ran for the U.S. Senate. Theres a lot of money in these hills and a lot of Democrats, said Audrey Blondin, a Litchfield attorney and Sanders organizer. Blondin said Clintons four-figure entry fees stand in sharp contrast to the $27 average individual donation to Sanders. Litchfield County is home to a throng of liberal celebrities, including actresses Christine Baranski and Mia Farrow, who Tweeted Tuesday, Bernie Sanders has made Hillary Clinton a better candidate. neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy COLUMBUS, Ohio In the Republican presidential campaign, Ohio Gov. John Kasich is the hug-addicted happy warrior, a Mr. Nice Guy swimming in a tank of sharks. Thats not quite the governor Ohioans know. After his election in 2010, Kasich butted heads with unions and Tea Party activists alike. He barreled into Columbus with a tone that was anything but patient, warning Statehouse lobbyists if youre not on the bus, we will run over you with the bus. By his own admission actually, a boast he shook everything from top to bottom. Kasich preaches a similar line against the status quo in his White House bid, but his manner sets him apart from the slash-and-burn tone of a race with the hard-charging, bombastic billionaire Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at the top. He sees himself as the adult in the room, projects serenity in the face of tough odds for his prospects and soldiers on with the conviction that: We will never be as strong as we need to be, and our politicians will never be as good, if we spend our time tearing somebody else down. As he put it to Georgia lawmakers this week: We can fight, we can argue, but it should never be personal. In Columbus, Kasich quickly found himself in a bruising fight with labor activists as well as at the center of an intraparty struggle that caused the state Republican chairman to resign. Kasich pushed a Medicaid expansion past the Republican-controlled Legislature, in effect signing on to a key part of the federal health care law conservatives love to hate. After my first year, I was the most unpopular governor in America, Kasich recently told a crowd in Worcester, Mass. Nobody likes that title, but it didnt bother me at all. In protest of a bill limiting the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions, labor activists paraded through Ohio cities and showed up at Statehouse hearings in throngs. Citing security concerns, Kasichs Public Safety Department locked the Statehouse doors. Kasich didnt spearhead the 2011 legislation, but a spokesman for a group that successfully fought back the restrictions at the ballot box said he still must own how it was handled. There is nothing wrong with Gov. Kasich having his political beliefs, but he cannot have it both ways, said Dennis Willard, of the group We Are Ohio, an advocacy group. He cant say that hes a uniter if hes signing bills that many of us believe hurt workers, minorities, women and voters. MIDLOTHIAN, Va. Sheila Covert is worried about Donald Trump. A loyal Republican voter from swing state Virginia, Covert calls the businessman bombastic and says theres just no substance in his boastful campaign rhetoric. But if Trump does become the GOP presidential nominee? Well, Id definitely vote for him, said Covert, an 81-year-old from the Richmond suburb of Powhatan. After a pause, she added, But I hope and pray it doesnt come to that. Covert is part of a legion of skeptical Republican voters across the United States coming to grips with the prospect that Trump, a candidate whose appeal they simply cant understand, may end up being their partys best chance for retaking the White House. The real estate mogul has scored three commanding primary victories in a row, including Tuesday in Nevada, and enters next weeks delegate-rich Super Tuesday elections in strong position. Interviews with about two dozen frequent Republican voters in Virginia an important general election battleground and one of several states with a primary next week reveal the complex mix of emotions Trump evokes within in his own party. Among those who dont plan to vote for Trump in the primary, theres shock, confusion and anxiety over his candidacy. But theres also a grudging acceptance of the billionaires political staying power and a feeling that despite his many flaws, he would be better than another four years with a Democrat in the White House particularly if that Democrat is Hillary Clinton. He says things you cannot imagine a president saying, said Michael Glunt, a 42-year-old landscaper from Midlothian. But if Trump faces off against Clinton in November, Glunt will cast his ballot for the GOP nominee. In this particular case, I would vote for him, Glunt said. Hillary Clinton, I dont trust her. Theres no trust. The voters interviewed represent a tiny sliver of the electorate. But their views illuminate the debate within both parties about how a Trump nomination would play out in November, particularly as that prospect becomes more real with each voting contest. Democratic officials are betting that Trumps over-the-top rhetoric, particularly about women and immigrants, would turn off independents and some Republicans in battleground states like Virginia. Some anxious GOP leaders share that concern, contributing to the sudden rush of lawmakers and other party officials rallying around Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as an alternative. 1 Prison plan blocked: A California judge on Wednesday blocked Gov. Jerry Browns proposed ballot initiative to reduce Californias prison population, siding with district attorneys who argued that it improperly bypassed normal procedures. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang blocked Attorney General Kamala Harris from issuing documents the title of the initiative and a summary of what it would do that would let supporters begin gathering signatures for Browns proposal. The ruling could delay signature-gathering for Browns initiative beyond this year and possibly push it to the 2018 ballot. 2 Court clears Perry: Texas highest criminal court on Wednesday tossed the second and final felony charge against former Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday, likely ending a case the Republican says helped sink his short-lived 2016 presidential bid. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed the abuse-of-power charge, which was filed after Perry threatened and then carried out a veto of state funding for a group of public corruption prosecutors after the Democratic head of the unit refused to resign. The court said veto power cant be restricted by the courts. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The full moon rose last night on a Philippines blown inside out by an act of rebellion. At the gates of two of Manilas military camps, the people are guarding the soldiers. That was me, writing as an overheated young journalist almost exactly 30 years ago. I was describing the extraordinary early hours of the largely nonviolent but deeply dramatic People Power political revolution that, with brave crowds of citizens resolutely facing down military armor and steel, tore away the Philippines shrewd and long-standing authoritarian president, Ferdinand Marcos, and sent him off into ignominious exile in Hawaii. People Power, as a reflection of peaceful change, created a wave in the waning days of the Cold War that spread across the planet. It inundated entrenched practices, policies and leaders, and eroded sinister behavior in well over a dozen countries. Before the striking photo of a man stopping a Chinese tank in Tiananmen Square, 1989, there was Manila, 1986. Nowhere in the world has a revolution been won by radio, television, peoples power and prayer, said one Filipino participant at the time. But the anniversary should not just be a celebration of those inspirational events; it is also a cautionary tale, one that has application here, today, for us. It is a lesson about what it takes to effect real political change. Policy wonks, aspirationalists and absolutists are themselves not sufficient to meet the needs of a fractured and complicated nation. Witness the Philippines. When they first occupied the presidential palace in 1965, Marcos and his famously extravagant and striking wife, Imelda, were called the Kennedys of Asia. They had good fortune, good looks, a dazzling Clintonesque political partnership and the luck of youth. But after 20 years, murderous maintenance of a repressive state was destined to blow the Philippines apart at the seams. The trigger had been pulled three years earlier, Aug. 21, 1983, with the wanton, daylight murder of popular Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino. He was shot barely out of sight of cameras and passengers on the Manila airport tarmac as he got off a plane, escorted by soldiers. The only assassin I fear, Aquino had told me three weeks earlier in the Bay Area, is Marcos. The day of Aquinos funeral was biblical. Drenching monsoon rains. Lightning bolts striking men from their tree perches. The towering grief and thundering rage of a million Filipinos breaking loose for a whole day from the threat and burden of dictatorship. You could almost feel the earth of the countrys history moving underneath your feet. Fast-forward internationa l media attention to February 1986, when Aquinos widow, Cory, in her signature canary yellow dresses speaking at huge rallies, became her late husbands unlikely successor and ran against Marcos for president as a champion fighting tyranny. When Marcos forces tried to steal an electoral victory, high-ranking members of his own military rebelled. I was in one of those insurgent bases, running for cover, when helicopter pilots, ordered to fire, refused and landed to join the cause. What had been a country ruled by guns, goons and gold saw its future in confrontations of nuns versus guns. And the nuns, along with hundreds of thousands of regular Filipinos, won that face-off. In barely four days. Like many of my journalistic colleagues back then, I was tempted to portray the Disney version of the People Power revolution: Aquino a pious, tragically widowed, humble housewife juxtaposed against Marcos, a calculating, murdering, thieving dictator. Clear good versus unalloyed evil is a story that always sells. But its never that simple . Marcos had a deep understanding of his people while Aquino seemed little interested in the poor. But he had considerable blood on his hands and she had impressive spine, with the people and their thirst for justice at her back. And he was driven out. I stayed in the Philippines during those years between the Aquino assassination and well past People Power to see the real world that existed beyond what an exceptional Filipino journalist, Sheila Coronel, called the mythical space where the wildest political dreams can come true. What I learned from the determined Filipinos who stared down Marcos was that the real cost of transformation, should it ever come, is never small, simple or a script of Madam Secretary. It just as often can involve great violence, amnesia in the passage of time, political failure, luck, accident and unanticipated action by people unaccustomed to being actors in the pages of history. The promise of genuine and lasting change carries with it absurdities and contradictions like the longtime human rights lawyer jailed by Marcos and made a Cabinet minister by Aquino. When farmers marching on the now-People Power presidential gates were fired on soon after Aquino took power, I asked the minister how he could justify turning on the very people he used to defend. My f riend, he said, from the commanding heights of power, things look very different. Reality is complicated, and bending it toward justice does not end with big events or astoundingly theatrical moments. Those moments are, much more often, beginnings. There is no matching, closing bookend to those four extraordinary days in February 1986. And there never should be. The search for a righteous world is never done. Today, more than 25 percent of Filipinos still live in poverty. Cronyism and corruption abound. The next president after Aquino was jailed for taking payoffs. Next chapters arent always better ones. Imelda Marcos, her son and daughter are back in the Philippines, two of them members of Congress, the third a governor. Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr., a senator, is running for vice president. Aquinos son, Benigno Noynoy S. Aquino III, is just now leaving the presidency . As we debate promises of transformational claims from both poles of our own American presidential contest, we should not be distracted by short-term, ephemeral, adrenalized news bursts and countdown clocks. Provisional calls for change new, continuing or revolutionary all tend to underestimate whats needed to bring it ab out. Even seismic historical shifts involving great courage and commitment do not by themselves deliver on the promise of a more just society. The peoples power that ushers in real change and rejects villainy lies in all of us, standing vigilantly in front of a despots tanks, literally or figuratively. The history lesson today, courtesy of those who participated three decades ago in the successful revolt against Marcos, is that nothing less is required. Phil Bronstein is the former editor of The San Francisco Chronicle and the executive chairman of the board of the Center for Investigative Reporting. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at www.sfgate.com/submissions. Revolution Revisited Kim Komenich won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for his news photos of the final years of the Marcos regime. Komenich, who teaches photojournalism at San Francisco State University, used his 1980s photos (some published here) to reconnect with individuals in 2010 to document how People Power had shaped their lives. The photos are gathered in his book Revolution Revisited (2016), online at www.revolutionrevisited.com/blog and in an exhibition until March 15 at the Philippine Consulate, 447 Sutter St., San Francisco. The archival photos of 1984-86 are used with permission of the copyright holder, the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Its a common scene: Scores of teenage girls laughing and chatting around Fishermans Wharf, taking selfies and enjoying each others company like old friends. What may be uncommon is this is lunchtime on the first day of Modeling Camp, an experience that conjures up images of self-absorbed, beauty-obsessed young women who want to get an edge over their peers. That couldnt be further from the truth, says director Heather Cole, who has run the nationwide program for 20 years. Our motto is approach life with confidence and style, but what were teaching is that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, she says. (Our camp) is about teamwork, being kind to others and helping build self-confidence in everyone. Its no secret that buzzwords like teamwork and self-confidence are standards in most summer camp descriptions these days, be they day camps or sleep away camps. Research from the American Camp Association shows that parents and staff, as well as the campers themselves, report significant growth in several areas, including leadership, independence, social comfort, values and decision-making. To find these values in modeling, music and theater camps shows that building character is as important a lesson as learning how to care for your skin, play the oboe or perform your own play. In the last 10 to 15 years, I have seen camps evolve, says Cole. Parents want to give their kids have as many experiences as possible, and life skills are part of that. Coles modeling camps not only help young girls gain confidence in their looks, but also in their poise, interview skills and ability to handle adversity. For the 11- to 17-year-old campers who are mainly girls, those are vital lessons to be learned at a very critical age, she says. Learning teamwork and compromise is also a huge component of Berkeley Rep School of Theatres summer programs, director Mary Beth Cavanaugh says. We offer so many skills to help kids connect with people with confidence, she says. There are moments of ecstasy, and moments of real fear. Her program, like Modeling Camp, requires no prior experience for the young campers, and they will be charged with writing and producing their own unique performance piece based on a fairy tale, mythology, short story or poem. Its great for kids to explore deep and important themes, Cavanaugh says. In the camp, there are advanced young thespians to kids who have never been on stage before. Diversity plays a big role in Berkeley Reps camps, and to that end, scholarships and other financial aid are available. I see kids from very different backgrounds develop lifelong friendships, she says. Of course, that tends to happen when young people are thrown together in intense situations, which the three-week camps are. The most moving aspect of the camp is that the campers show so much empathy for one another, Cavanaugh says. Some kids are from underprivileged backgrounds, some are from affluent backgrounds, but they all come together and especially help those kids who struggle. And the result, besides building character, are kids who understand the hard work required to put on their own performances. They must create they deconstruct a piece of work then construct it again, with them all doing the acting, directing, staging, props, lighting ... everything, she said. The Berkeley Rep also offers a three-week film intensive program for high school students, in which students will write, direct, edit and produce their own short films. Like Modeling Camp, the theater campers may face adversity, such as when an idea is shot down, Cavanaugh says. But thats part of life learning to take rejection, not take it personally and move on with a project, she says. Like modeling and acting, performing music seems like a singular experience, but that too is a fallacy, says Stacey Hoffman, executive director of Living Jazz and the popular Jam Camp West,a sleep-away camp located in Loma Mar in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Jam Camp West takes on all musicians, from those who have only dreamed of playing to seasoned young performers. But it gives them the opportunity to focus on an area of music from instrumental to beatbox to songwriting and take intensive classes, participating in a performance on the last day of the weeklong camp. Were not band camp, Hoffman says. Were designed to be an alternative to traditional band and orchestra camps. Nestled in the redwoods, there is no interference from cell phones or other technology, and kids can focus on their craft and each other. Scholarships and financial aid are available. Our contemporary curriculum appeals to a diverse group of kids, she says. We offer a transformational experience. Campers who may have never played before suddenly realize what they can do. Its just thrilling for the kids. Thrills are what summer is all about, and mastering new skills in a fun environment is great for young kids and teens even those skills like character-building and self-confidence that they may not know are important, but their parents do. And so will the world around them. Find Schools, Camps and Activities View a database of Bay Area schools, summer camps and activities at sfgate.com/campguide. WASHINGTON At a time when politics has veered toward division and exclusion, it is somehow fitting that Harper Lee, the apostle of empathy, made her exit. After the success of her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee chose to live a quiet life in a quiet South Alabama town, involved in the local Methodist Church, doing laundry at the XL Laundromat, occasionally going to Atlantic City to play the slots. But in all the years since the books publication in 1960, people (like me) have found reading it a momentous event in their lives. From her tranquil hometown, Lee must have known that her novel required in English class, found tattered in a used bookstore, reclaimed from a box in the basement was causing lightning, and earthquakes, and pealing church bells. Abraham Lincoln called Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Toms Cabin, the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war. While not responsible for starting it, Lee was the little woman who made the values of the civil rights movement particularly a feeling for the god-awful unfairness of segregation real for millions. To Kill a Mockingbird is occasionally mischaracterized as childrens literature. It is an adult story dealing with pathetic loneliness, an accusation of rape, the strangely sexual content of bigotry, a complete failure of justice told from the perspective of a child. And Lee gave us the reason for this device. When one child in the story, Dill, cries and retches after seeing injustice in the courtroom, Dolphus Raymond (the outcast father of mixed-race children) says: Things havent caught up with that ones instinct yet. Let him get a little older and he wont get sick and cry. Maybe thingsll strike him as being not quite right, say, but he wont cry, not when he gets a few years on him. Lee wanted her readers to see injustice as if they were seeing it for the first time, before rationalizations and hardness form. Lee was too good a novelist possessing a keen eye for hypocrisy and cruelty to have a rosy view of humanity. The Cunninghams are dirty and lice-ridden. The Ewells are bigoted, welfare-dependent and fully capable of child murder. You get the sense that Lee is not nearly as naive as Atticus Finch, who does, in one large case, see good where there is only evil. But it is Lees point that human beings often improve on closer, more sympathetic inspection. Scout finds that the family cook, Calpurnia, is not really tyrannical, and that Raymond is not actually a drunkard, and that Aunt Alexandra has loyalty and steadiness beneath her boarding school manners and that Boo Radley is not a malevolent phantom but a guardian angel. The nasty old racist Mrs. Dubose facing death without the crutch of morphine is, to Atticus, the bravest person I ever knew. Real courage, he says, is when you know you are licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. All these cases are illustrations of the central, familiar moral insight of the book. If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, Atticus advises his daughter, youll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, ... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it. For Lee, this point demands more than observation. By actively treating people as individuals, they can respond with unexpected virtue. In the book, Walter Cunningham is part of a lynch mob. When Scout causes Cunningham to recall that he is a father, he walks away from violence. Men and women can be better than the mob, when they remember their hidden dignity, their secret honor. Lee defends the possibility of the awakened conscience. Right now, the world of adults seems increasingly like Lees Maycomb, with a tiny religious minority stigmatized and targeted for exclusion, and another minority accused of being criminals and rapists, demonstrating the strangely sexual content of bigotry. And though we know it is not quite right, there are few who can manage tears. Once again maybe always there is a great drama in what Lee called the secret courts of mens hearts. Let us hope with Lee that people are better than the mob and capable of imagining the lives of strangers. And whatever the outcome, Atticus more real than any living politician urges us to see it through. With performances of live-scored films like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the San Francisco Symphony is poised for another spring and summer of concerts and events designed to introduce families and children to the joy of live orchestra music. The symphonys series Music For Families will feature everything from family-friendly performances to a partnership with the Exploratorium and discounted tickets for patrons under 17. Edwin Outwater, director of summer concerts and a conductor with the symphony, said the program is a great way for families to learn more about the organization and the music it creates. He also hopes it inspires them to see the beauty of live performances. Were in the inspiration business ... (and) exposing kids to any kind of art is really important, he said. Theres a lot of ugliness and shallow things in the world and just showing kids what real beauty is and introducing them to profound and beautiful things like (the symphony), it makes the world a better place. As part of the program, the symphony will offer children half-priced tickets to all concerts, and has planned several films during which the orchestra will perform a live soundtrack. You can watch it on TV, but theres nothing compared to seeing something like E.T. with a live orchestra, Outwater said. Its amazing to these kids just hearing that sound. Later in the summer, families with fidgety youngsters or anyone wanting to enjoy music and some fresh air, can watch free concerts at Stern Grove and the Waterfront. These outdoor events often attract a diverse and enthusiastic audience from around the Bay Area and are usually lighter with more pop offerings, symphony spokesperson Lisa Petrie said. Each concert will feature live music demonstrations and other activities to teach the audience about instruments or songs being played. In addition to the concerts, the symphony has partnered with the Exploratorium, a hands-on science museum, for several events. The Pier 15-based museum will offer both interactive lobby activities such as a giant tuning fork, and on-stage experiments demonstrating the principles of sound vibration, pitch and amplification, Petrie said. We are excited to team up with the Exploratorium this season, as one of the worlds most knowledgeable institutions on hands-on, interactive learning, Ron Gallman, the symphonys director of education said in a statement. We are fully aware of the importance of STEAM learning (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) in todays world, and look forward to presenting a scientific component to our audiences, along with the discovery of great symphonic music. The Music for Families program was launched in 1993 and its primary goal is to introduce all children and their parents to orchestral music. Whether parents have any prior experience attending live concerts or playing music isnt important, Outwater said. One week prior to each concert, families who have purchased tickets receive information about the upcoming concert and what type of music they can expect. Outwater said the information is designed to encourage families to educate themselves about the music they will hear and the musicians playing it. In the age of the Internet, if you want to find out about a piece of music youre going to hear, you can watch a video, you can look at performance notes ... its never been easier thanks to YouTube and Google, he said. San Francisco Symphonys Music for Families The San Francisco Symphonys Music for Families series has several events planned from now through the end of summer. Details are forthcoming, so check the website frequently for updates. Tickets for concerts are $15-$64 and children under 17 years old are half price. To purchase tickets or for more information, call (415) 864-6000 or visit www.sfsymphony.org. After a rocky 2015, Gov. Scott Walker has begun trying to rehabilitate his political standing in Wisconsin. Walker spent much of last year running for president, only to see his campaign disintegrate while racking up more than $1 million in debt. The Legislature controlled the states political agenda, while Walker took lumps for cutting higher education funding, trying to gut the state Public Records Law and overseeing a job-creation agency mired in controversy. A year after winning his third election in four years, his job approval level had dropped more than 10 points to an all-time low of 37 percent. But since exiting the presidential race in late September, Walker has redirected his attention to state governance while floating the possibility hell run for a third term in 2018. In October he kicked off a Working for Wisconsin tour of factories, schools, and health care clinics to tout his policies. In December, he quietly launched a series of invitation-only meetings dubbed the 2020 Vision Project to solicit feedback on future initiatives from citizens in all corners of the state. And in a State of the State address devoid of major initiatives, he offered proposals to assist student loan borrowers and pledged any savings from potential changes to state employee health insurance would fund public K-12 education two policy areas more typically linked to Democrats. Reaching out to a broad swath of the public is what former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, who was elected a record four times to the post, said Walker needs to do to boost his appeal, but even that might not be enough to win a third term. I would advise him not to even consider it, Thompson said in an interview. You cant win when youre at 38 percent approval rating. The state is divided. The hurdles are too high for him. Walker shrugs off any pessimism about his prospects based on his low approval rating, noting hes been there before after tens of thousands of protesters bellowed against his changes to public sector collective bargaining only to come up short in the 2012 recall election. In 2011 my poll numbers were so low that Time Magazine called me Dead Man Walker, Walker said last week, a reference he made during the presidential campaign when his poll numbers tanked. For us its just steady. We dont get too high when things are good, we dont get too low when times are challenging. We just persevere going forward. Taking notes After five busy years in office, Walker has entered the first stretch when hes not in the thick of a state budget, state or national election, or both. That has afforded him the opportunity to spend more time connecting with local officials and residents across the state. At a recent invitation-only meeting in Kewaunee, Walker led the discussion in jeans and a plaid button-down shirt jotting down answers on a whiteboard, according to participants. The questions, they said, included: Whats good about Wisconsin and your community? What do you want your community to look like seven to 10 years from now? And what can be done to ensure that vision? That Walker took notes and spent time after the discussion talking to each of the 34 participants impressed John Pagel, a Kewaunee County Board member and Walker supporter. Pagel also said he was surprised that Walkers job approval rating has dropped in the Fox Valley more than other areas of the state given the low unemployment in the area. It was just a regular old Joe coming to the meeting, Pagel said. Hes just trying to show that he really cares. I think it will improve what his ratings are. Its easier to solve problems if youre doing it together rather than everybody pulling in the opposite direction. Cathy Pabich, a retired librarian and environmental advocate from Algoma who signed the 2012 Walker recall petition, said she was disappointed the format didnt allow for more dialogue about problems facing the state. She said water quality issues have been a major concern in her area, but after hearing about those issues at the meeting, Walker didnt mention them in his State of the State address. The governor didnt address what was being shared, Pabich said. He recorded it. He listened. But I cant say he gave us a response to any of the issues that were raised. Pabich, who was referred to the governors office for an invitation by Rep. Joel Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, said the audience was made up of mostly Walker supporters. Pagel said he didnt have a read on the political composition, but noted there were several local elected officials, business owners, school superintendents and four high school students. Walker plans to lead a couple of similar meetings each week over the course of the year, spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said. The events are not open to the general public or the media, though Walker has touted their diversity, noting they include principals, farmers, small-business owners, local government officials, retirees, veterans, teachers, construction workers, union members, parents, high school students, nurses, charitable organization leaders, superintendents, insurance agents, ministers, college students, machinists, law enforcement and a librarian. These meetings provide an opportunity for Governor Walker to listen to a diverse group of people in a setting that allows for a candid discussion about issues important to them and their communities, Patrick said. Our ultimate goal is for people to feel comfortable and not intimidated, so they provide honest and unvarnished feedback. Kory Kozloski, executive director of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said Walkers invite-only events arent helping move the state forward. With his approval record at all-time lows, Walker is doing everything he can to distract voters from the GOPs misplaced priorities, Kozloski said. Approval drop widespread Walkers efforts to connect with citizens have yet to show up in his job approval numbers, which were at 48.6 percent in a composite of the four Marquette Law School polls taken before the 2014 election. In a composite of the last four polls since August his job approval level is 38.2 percent. Last months poll found 61 percent of respondents do not want Walker to run for a third term. Republican strategist Mark Graul didnt put much stock in Walkers current polling slump. I dont think theres any question that his presidential run caused him some turbulence here in Wisconsin, Graul said. Part of the thing about Gov. Walker is he did so much, so fast, people are like, OK, whats next, guy? When you get into the meat and potatoes of governing it doesnt get as exciting as some of the generational reforms he was able to enact. Walkers job approval rating has dropped significantly among both Republicans and independents, though not among those who describe themselves as very conservative. The decline in his approval is widespread, poll director Charles Franklin said. It crosses most political and demographic boundaries, though its larger in some groups than in others. Among Republicans Walkers approval level dipped from 92.5 percent in fall 2014 to 84.2 percent more recently. Walkers support has plummeted the most among self-described independents and independents who lean Republican. Among the latter group his approval level fell 22.3 points to 60.9 percent, though Franklin noted those voters are more likely than self-described independents whose approval of Walker dropped 19 points to 23.2 percent to vote for Walker if he runs again. Walker also has seen his support evaporate in the northern part of the state, where his approval level is down 21.2 points, and the Fox Valley region, where it is down 16.5 points. In the conservative stronghold of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties, Walkers approval level is down 10 points to 54.9 percent. The one place his approval level increased over the past year, by 5 points to 28.5 percent, was in Milwaukee County, though Franklin noted the increase was not statistically significant because of a smaller sample size. In September Walker signed a bill committing $80 million from the state over 20 years to a new Milwaukee Bucks arena, a move that was panned by some conservative groups. Josh Robinson, a national Republican strategist who was the political director of the Republican Governors Association in 2011 and 2012 and involved in developing the get-out-the-vote messaging strategy for Walkers recall victory, said the key for Walker is to do what he does best: communicating directly with the voters. As the presidential election clears out, voters in Wisconsin will be able to focus more on the governor, Robinson said. In the polling we did, leadership, making the tough decisions was something that independents were driven toward. They could possibly disagree with him on other issues, but him being a leader, making the tough decisions Wisconsin needed was what resonated with independents. The Government Accountability Board released hundreds of pages of previously sealed documents Thursday in a settled lawsuit related to the now-dead criminal investigation into Gov. Scott Walkers recall campaign. But they reveal little new about the high-profile case. The Wisconsin Club for Growth and director Eric OKeefe filed the lawsuit in Waukesha County in May 2014 against the GAB, the states nonpartisan elections and ethics agency, claiming the agency abused its power by overseeing the secret John Doe investigation. The parties settled in December, with the GAB agreeing to follow state law in the future, though GAB director Kevin Kennedy maintained the agency had done so during the John Doe investigation. Nothing in the settlement establishes the GAB did anything wrong. Most of the court documents have been under seal because of a secrecy order, though some have already been released and others, including the names of those under investigation and evidence in the investigation, remain under seal. However, many of those details were previously released by mistake in another case, showing that Walker, OKeefe and other Republican political operatives were under investigation. One document released Thursday refers to OKeefe as a person of interest in the investigation, which the Wisconsin Supreme Court halted in July saying the underlying legal theory was invalid. No charges have been filed in the case. On Thursday, the GAB provided to reporters more than 500 pages of documents it filed in the case after Waukesha County Circuit Judge Lee Dreyfus Jr. allowed them to be included in the public court record. The judge ruled Wednesday that a smaller subset of documents related to the John Doe investigation could be released, clearing the way for all of the records to be filed publicly. The court filings unsealed by the judge today show that the Government Accountability Board approached its role in the investigation in a lawful, serious and unbiased manner, GAB spokesman Reid Magney said. This was borne out in the Dec. 17 settlement agreement to end the litigation, which contained no findings of wrongdoing or liability by the board or its staff. The board fully complied with applicable laws governing our agency and the conduct of investigations. The GAB filings include responses to allegations made by the Wisconsin Club for Growth and arguments about records sought by the plaintiff. The GAB said it planned to make available to reporters additional case documents filed by the plaintiffs as they became available from the Waukesha County courthouse. Still to be released are thousands of pages of depositions, internal GAB emails discussing the case and other exhibits filed by the plaintiffs. Wisconsin Club for Growth lawyer Edward Greim provided a sample of those Wednesday that he said rebut the GABs claims that it was nonpartisan and dispassionate. One was an email from then-GAB lawyer Shane Falk reacting negatively to John Doe Judge Gregory Peterson quashing more than 30 subpoenas in January 2014, which effectively halted the investigation. This is a bad joke, right? Falk wrote in an email to John Doe special prosecutor Francis Schmitz. Are you serious? This is so pathetic, it is almost funny. In a statement, OKeefe said the documents show GAB staff were motivated by partisan bias. Today marks the successful conclusion of our struggle to expose the inner workings of the unconstitutional investigation that the GAB tried for so long to keep secret, OKeefe said in a statement. We are confident that once Wisconsin taxpayers and legislators review this record, they will never allow this to happen again. Some case documents were previously released, including in leaks to the Wall Street Journal editorial page, which chastised the GAB as the Legislature was debating a bill that replaced the agency with separate bipartisan ethics and elections commissions. Some emails showed Falk, previously a Democratic appointee to the old state Elections Board, referred to the Walker campaign coordination as a bastardization of politics and that the state was being run by corporations and billionaires. Other previously released documents showed Schmitz had doubts about the underlying legal theory behind the John Doe investigation after serving five search warrants and 29 subpoenas, but Falk encouraged him to press the case. In October, after the Wisconsin Supreme Court halted the investigation saying the legal theory was invalid, Schmitz said he no longer had misgivings about the legal theory. The Supreme Court removed him from the case in December, but three district attorneys who were part of the investigation are planning to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Parts of Kennedys deposition that were previously released showed Kennedy had been told by top IRS official Lois Lerner, who later resigned amid controversy, that the agencys criminal division might investigate the type of coordination between a campaign and a tax-exempt organization that was at the heart of the John Doe investigation. State Journal reporters Mark Sommerhauser and Molly Beck contributed to this report. Results of a new Marquette Law School Poll to be released Thursday will for the first time show Wisconsin voters' temperature on the Supreme Court race between Justice Rebecca Bradley and state Appeals Court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg. The poll also takes a look at voters' opinions in the presidential primaries. Wisconsin's presidential primary and the Supreme Court election fall on April 5. The last Marquette poll, released in late January, showed Gov. Scott Walker still had a lot of work to do rebuilding his support in Wisconsin, four months after ending his presidential bid. The poll found 38 percent of registered voters approve of Walker's job performance, which was unchanged from the last poll in November. And only 36 percent say they would like Walker to run for a third term in 2018, one point higher than a poll in late September. The poll also found Democratic challenger Russ Feingold is holding a double-digit lead over incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson. The 50-37 Feingold lead is similar to the November Marquette poll. Johnson defeated Feingold in the 2010 U.S. Senate election. The past three polls have showed Feingold leading by margins of 5, 14 and 11 points. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A Houston man, formerly a player for the Green Bay Packers, has been arrested for his alleged role in a drug trafficking and money laundering ring that reached from here to California and Georgia. Christopher Darkins is accused in Georgia in a federal indictment that names 31 people. He is charged with one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana. The ring, which allegedly moved marijuana and cocaine, sent drugs through the mail from Houston and California to various parts of Georgia for distribution. It allegedly operated from 2012-2014, and was also connected to money laundering and firearms, according to federal authorities. He was arrested Wednesday by the U.S. Marshal Service in Houston. Darkins, a running back who was on the Packers in 1996 and 1997, has already started to fight the charges. A hearing is scheduled for today in Georgia to hear his contention that the charges should be dismissed. In a court filing, Darkins states he is "a public figure whose reputation is being tarnished by these unsubstantiated associations with alleged illicit activity." Read the full indictment below. He further states that he finds it curious that authorities would bring the charges on the eve of an event recognizing his life's accomplishments, but he does not name the event in court filings. A corporate Web site lists Darkins a managing director for OFSCap, a firm "with a focus and expertise in corporate strategy development and execution as it relates to market penetration, capital raising, and strategic partnerships." Prosecutors contend the case includes more than 15 gigabytes of evidence, including audio and video tapes. Drug proceeds were allegedly put in banks with branches in Georgia, with account holders rapidly pulling the money out of bank branches in Texas and Northern California, according to court papers. In addition to pushing drug money through the banking system, cash was also allegedly moved by car and commercial aircraft. There is not much information on Darkins in the indictment. Among the defendants having an allegedly higher profile was Ira Jackson who has been tied to a Bentley Continental, a GT Coupe and jewelry, such as a gold Rolex watch and a Johnny Dang Miami Cuban chain bracelet with .475 round diamonds. Gov. Scott Walkers approval rating remains near its all-time low, with just 38 percent of respondents approving of his job performance in the new Marquette Law School Poll. Walkers approval has fallen sharply since a year ago, when he was re-elected to a second term. April was the last time his approval rating was higher than 40 percent. Since then, Walker exited the presidential race after his support collapsed, and he and state lawmakers handled thorny issues such as funding cuts for universities and a scuttled attempt to roll back the states open records law. The poll also examined, for the first time, state lawmakers approval. It found Republicans controlling the Legislature with 31 percent approval and 60 percent disapproval, while minority Democrats had 39 percent approval and 49 percent disapproval. Poll director Charles Franklin said its tough to interpret those numbers without past results to which to compare them. Legislative bodies, as a group, almost always poll poorly, he said. The poll shows Wisconsinites souring on key indicators of the states well being, including its jobs picture. In the race for the White House, physician Ben Carson has vaulted past another political outsider, businessman Donald Trump, into first place in the Wisconsin Republican primary campaign, the poll found. Hillary Clinton kept a solid lead over her next closest competitor, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, in the Democratic presidential race in Wisconsin. But Sanders fares better than Clinton in the polls general-election matchups with Carson, Trump and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Voters sour on states economy Walkers approval rating in the last Marquette poll released in September, days after he exited the Republican presidential race was 37 percent. That was Walkers lowest approval since Marquette began polling his job approval in early 2012 and matched the lowest approval he registered in any public poll since he took office in 2011. Approval of GOP state lawmakers broke along ideological, as well as partisan, lines in the poll. Republican voters who described themselves as conservative or very conservative gave GOP lawmakers, who control both houses of the Legislature, overwhelmingly high marks. Self-described moderate Republicans were more divided. They gave GOP lawmakers 42 percent approval versus 44 percent disapproval. Fifty-seven percent of respondents to the new poll said Wisconsin is lagging other states in job creation, with 31 percent saying job creation is about the same as other states and 6 percent saying Wisconsin is creating jobs faster than other states. The results depict a state thats increasingly pessimistic about its economy even as its jobless rate recently hit a 14-year low of 4.3 percent. In August, 50 percent said Wisconsin was lagging in job creation, 36 percent said it was about the same and 9 percent said Wisconsin was adding jobs faster than other states. In October 2014, 42 percent said the state was lagging, 38 percent said it was about the same and 13 percent said jobs were growing faster than other states. The responses may have been swayed by recent announcements of plant closings at GE in Waukesha and Oscar Mayer in Madison. Seventy percent of poll respondents said they heard about the closures. Carson surges past Trump The new poll found Carson getting 22 percent support among Republican respondents in Wisconsins GOP presidential primary. Trump and Rubio are next with 19 percent support. The September poll had Trump leading the Republican field with 20 percent support, followed by Carson with 16 percent and Rubio with 14 percent. Interviews for the poll were conducted with 803 registered voters, via cell phone or landline, from Nov. 12-15 immediately after the last GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee. Carsons lead in the poll is within its margin of error: plus or minus 4.2 percentage points for the full sample, 6.6 points for Republicans or 6.1 points for Democrats. Two of the leading Republicans, Carson and Rubio, lead Clinton in potential general election matchups in Wisconsin both by 45 percent to 44 percent margins. Clinton holds a comfortable lead over Trump in the poll, 48 percent to 38 percent. Meanwhile, Sanders the self-described democratic socialist who represents his partys left flank leads Carson, Trump and Rubio in head-to-head matchups. Sanders leads Carson 47 percent to 41 percent, Rubio 46 percent to 42 percent and Trump 52 percent to 35 percent. The lead prosecutor in the halted John Doe probe into Gov. Scott Walkers recall campaign had doubts about his legal theory in November 2013, a month after issuing nearly three dozen subpoenas and search warrants, according to documents filed Thursday in a related lawsuit. But with the support of the retired judges who serve on the Government Accountability Board and the encouragement of GAB staff, former U.S. attorney Francis Schmitz continued to press the case that Walkers campaign violated the states campaign finance laws by not reporting coordination with Wisconsin Club for Growth and other organizations. In an interview Friday, Schmitz said he no longer has misgivings about the legal theory. I raised those issues with the GAB staff and convinced myself that we were following the correct course, Schmitz said. I still believe we were on sound legal footing. The heavily redacted documents were filed Thursday in an ongoing lawsuit against the GAB and director Kevin Kennedy by the Wisconsin Club for Growth and director Eric OKeefe and were provided to the State Journal by the GABs lawyer. They include new information about the GABs deliberations related to the controversial investigation, which the state Supreme Court stopped in July after targets of the secretive probe challenged subpoenas that were issued in October 2013. In a 4-2 decision, the court said campaigns can coordinate with outside groups engaging in so-called issue advocacy which typically involves thinly veiled campaign ads but didnt address the prohibition on coordination with groups that pay for advertisements expressly advocating for the election or defeat of a candidate. Schmitz has asked the court to reconsider its decision. On Friday, Walker signed into law changes to the states John Doe law that would prohibit using such probes to investigate campaign finance violations, corruption and other political crimes. On Wednesday, the Assembly passed a bill dismantling the GAB, though its future in the Senate remains uncertain. Republicans have argued GAB staff overstepped their bounds in pushing the John Doe investigation, though the retired judges who serve on the GAB board have defended the agency. In one email exchange in November 2013, GAB lawyer Shane Falk described a conversation with Schmitz in which Schmitz admitted he hadnt read a key court decision at the heart of the investigation. Essentially, he was whining that I was beating him up too much and he is really trying to get up to speed on the law, Falk wrote. Bottom line, he is really questioning the validity of the case. Edward Greim, a lawyer representing Wisconsin Club for Growth and OKeefe in their lawsuit brought in Waukesha County against the GAB, said the records show the nonpartisan elections and ethics agency was more involved in the investigation than it has previously disclosed. The GAB has claimed they are standing off on the side and are giving advice when its needed, Greim said. Theyve alternatively claimed they have a parallel civil investigation that happens to be running alongside. If you read these, theres no way that either one of those stories can be true. Paul Schwarzenbart, a lawyer representing the GAB in the lawsuit, said agency lawyers, as experts in the area of campaign finance, provided the Milwaukee County District Attorneys office and Schmitz advice on state campaign finance law. The emails reflect the give and take between the many lawyers involved in this case analyzing complex issues, which include internal GAB conversations and conversations with Mr. Schmitz, Schwarzenbart said. GAB minutes revealed The court filing reveals for the first time minutes from the June 20, 2013, GAB meeting at which five retired judges unanimously authorized the GABs involvement in the John Doe investigation. The GAB was also considering a civil forfeiture case against the John Doe targets. At the meeting, ethics and accountability division administrator Jonathan Becker advised that the penalties for the alleged violations could be in the millions of dollars. After being presented with the evidence, GAB chairman Judge David Deininger observed that it appears these are very blatant offenses by individuals that are usually pretty savvy and wondered why and how they could be so careless, according to the minutes. Becker and Falk offered arrogance and possible ignorance of the finer points in the law as possible explanations. At the August 2013 GAB meeting at which special prosecutor Francis Schmitz was introduced, Judge Thomas Cane asked Schmitz about his political background amid a concern that the public perception will be that this investigation is a political witch hunt, according to the minutes. Schmitz responded that he joined the Republican Party when applying for a U.S. Attorney job in the early 2000s and had minimal contacts with some party officials at that time, but nothing extensive. He indicated that he had not made campaign contributions and was not currently active in any political party. He has subsequently stated in court filings that he voted for Walker in the 2012 recall election. As of March 2014, the John Doe investigation had cost $161,537, and was expected to cost an additional $454,000, according to minutes of a later meeting. 5 warrants, 29 subpoenas One email describes five physical search warrants being served on Oct. 3, 2013, plus 17 subpoenas in the Madison area and 12 subpoenas served outside of Madison in places such as Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. The documents show investigators obtained nearly 1.7 million emails. Within a week of the warrants being served, lawyers for Wisconsin Club for Growth and OKeefe complained to Schmitz that the tactics were heavy-handed, according to an email in which Schmitz described the conversation to Falk. The filing includes Tweets in support of the 2011 protests over Walkers collective bargaining changes for public workers from Nathan Judnic, a GAB attorney who was involved in the internal John Doe discussions. Stand in solidarity. Kill the bill. Support public employees and their right to bargain. Rally @ Capitol @ noon Tues. and Wed, read one. Judnic was also referenced in the November 2013 email from Falk in which he described Schmitzs uncertainties about the investigation, saying WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW. Nates and my worst fears were just realized. In a December 2013 email exchange, Steve Biskupic, an attorney for Walkers campaign, complained to Schmitz about the phrase criminal scheme of (redacted) and that it didnt include the word alleged. Previously released documents show that the redacted section referred to Walker. Schmitz forwarded Biskupics email to Falk and said, I could swear that we discussed this and were going to change it to alleged scheme, but I guess with all the back and forth we missed it. Falk responded, It is what it is (and is factually correct, albeit a legal conclusory argument) and I know others in this office would prefer that we state things much much stronger. GAB split on probe At the GABs May 21, 2014, meeting, staff recommended taking steps to pursue a civil complaint against parties being investigated as part of the John Doe proceeding. Those parties names are redacted in the court filing. At the same meeting, Judge Harold Froehlich, whom Walker appointed to the board in 2013 instead of reappointing Deininger, brought a list of 11 concerns with the GABs role. He argued the investigation should have ended in September 2013 when the board didnt follow statutes in reauthorizing the investigation after 90 days. It did so on Sept. 25, 2013, 96 days after authorizing it. The board voted 4-2 to continue its involvement, over objections by Froehlich and Judge Elsa Lamelas. The board also voted 3-2 at its July 21, 2014, meeting to continue the investigation, but because one member was absent, the motion failed. Then at its August 2014 meeting, the board passed a resolution 5-0 with one member absent to allow GAB staff to continue assisting parties to the related litigation, and to reconsider its investigation pending the outcome in the courts. MILWAUKEE Two months before Wisconsins presidential primary, the state may play a larger-than-expected role in selecting the Republican and Democratic nominees. The Democratic National Committee scheduled Thursday nights debate between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at UW-Milwaukee because Wisconsin will be a battleground state in the general election, DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Thursday. The Republicans also held a debate here in November. The debate itself featured several Wisconsin references. Clinton challenged Sanders college affordability plan, saying it would require buy-in from governors and she doubted Gov. Scott Walker would support it. In response to a question about racial disparities in the criminal justice system, she said the statistics from Wisconsin are particularly troubling and referenced Dontre Hamilton, a black man who was fatally shot by a Milwaukee Police officer. We have to go after sentencing, which is one of the problems here in Wisconsin, Clinton said. Wisconsins April 5 primary could also draw a lot of attention from both Democrats and Republicans. The odds are that it will matter, said Democratic strategist Paul Maslin, a veteran pollster for presidential candidates going back to Jimmy Carter. I dont see this race getting resolved anytime soon even if Hillary Clinton is able to come back and start winning not only South Carolina and Nevada, but most of the states on Super Tuesday. Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, speaking with reporters on behalf of Republicans at the Democratic debate Thursday, agreed. Pulling into South Carolina, there is no magic demographic coalition that either one of these two candidates is going to be able to build, Kleefisch said of Clinton and Sanders. Without a nice coalition, I think the further primary states are going to matter more and more. ... The same can be said of the Republicans. So far this year, the first two nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire have winnowed both fields, but neither contest has a resolution in sight. Clinton won a razor-thin victory in Iowa while Sanders won by more than 20 points in New Hampshire on Tuesday. Wisconsins primary takes place in a stretch of the calendar with few other contests, so starting in a month, candidates will begin to make several stops in the state. It also comes after a majority of delegates are parceled out, so Wisconsins role will still depend on what happens on March 1, also known as Super Tuesday. Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabatos Crystal Ball at the University of Virginias Center for Politics, said Sanders has to perform well in states like Wisconsin in order to maintain his momentum, especially with Clinton receiving the lions share of endorsements from Democratic party leaders and officials whose votes at the Democratic National Convention arent bound by primary results. Sanders needs to win a whole lot more states in lopsided fashion like he did in New Hampshire, Kondik said. We may have a situation where Sanders keeps fighting, but cant make up the delegate deficit if the superdelegates stick with Clinton. Wisconsin has political characteristics that could benefit Sanders: an open primary, a predominantly white population, progressive liberals, and active college campuses, Kondik said. Sanders would need to win Wisconsin decisively like he won in New Hampshire, Kondik said, to win the nomination. So far two of Wisconsins superdelegates U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore have backed Clinton. No Wisconsin superdelegates have endorsed Sanders. Baldwin, a Clinton campaign representative at Thursday nights debate, said the foundations of Clintons campaign in Wisconsin are starting to take shape, but she wouldnt expect there to be a 72-county infrastructure at this point. I think its going to be a very competitive race for some time to come, but which week in March or April it is hard to say, Baldwin said. She said Democrats should support Clinton because she is a progressive who gets things done. Sanders will have campaign staff on the ground in Wisconsin closer to the April 5 primary, campaign manager Jeff Weaver said after the debate. I expect Sen. Sanders will do very well, he said. Natalie Benge, 20, a Marquette University nursing student who supports Sanders, is representative of the kind of voters drawn to the outsider candidates appeal. He really just amps me up, said Benge, wearing a Nurses for Bernie T-shirt and Bernie sticker. She came to UW-Milwaukee to show her support, but was unable to get a ticket to the event. Benge is from the state of Washington, but said she is considering voting in Wisconsins primary so that her vote makes a difference. One of the things I like about him is hes been fighting for the same things for so long, Benge said. It shows how reliable and truthful he is. In the most recent Marquette Law School Poll, Sanders had pulled nearly even to Clinton, who led 45-43 among likely Wisconsin Democratic voters. In August, Clintons advantage over Sanders was 44-32 with several other potential candidates such as Vice President Joe Biden still considering a run. A closer look at the most recent poll shows Clinton has a larger advantage in the Milwaukee area, with its large minority population, where she led 65-23. In the Madison area, with a large student population, Sanders led 55-31. This isnt going to be resolved until one manages to dip into another ones bases, UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said. Sanders has to make inroads with minority voters and older voters. The establishment in the party has rallied around Hillary Clinton. In the old-growth forest on Inverness Ridge, there are moments when the sun pours through the canopy in golden beams. Its all you need to know how lucky you are to be alive. At other times, a cloud deck can settle on the forested ridge. Everything drips with water. Inverness Ridge can look something like a rain forest on Kauai and feel just as special. On the crystal days of late winter and spring between storms, the flanks of the ridge provide several breaks where you can take in some of the Bay Areas most spectacular views. At the right spots, to the west, the view extends over Drakes Bay, the Chimney Rock Headlands and across miles of ocean; to the east, you can see across the southern end of Tomales Bay and beyond miles of foothills of west Marin. Its not a hard climb to reach Inverness Ridge at Point Reyes National Seashore. The climb is just steep enough to make it feel youre alone, despite being within reach of the Bay Areas 8.6 million residents. In addition, according to park statistics, there are few visitors Mondays through Thursdays. Ive had weekdays where I saw no one for hours. Inverness Ridge is the primary mountain divide at Point Reyes National Seashore in west Marin. On their visits to Point Reyes, many pick more famous destinations: Point Reyes Light, Chimney Rock Headlands, Limantour, the elk herd at Pierce Ranch out to Tomales Point, Abbotts Lagoon, Drakes Estero, the Coast Trail out of Palomarin, Sculptured Beach, Alamere Falls, Drakes Beach, Muddy Hollow and so many others. Over time, I keep returning to Inverness Ridge, where each trip feels unique and stands apart. The best access points are at a trailhead near the Bear Valley Visitor Center, with virtually unlimited parking, and at the trailhead for the Sky Trail, with a small parking lot and overflow area nearby on the shoulder of Limantour Road. From each of these launch points, you can self-style a number of trips that can fit your level of fitness and ambition. All of these are 10s. Bear Valley Trailhead Wittenberg Loop: From the south end of the parking lot, the Bear Valley Trail starts like a service road. In about five minutes (0.2 of a mile), youll reach a cutoff on the right for the Mount Wittenberg Trail. Take it and away you go. Youll climb 1,200 feet in 1.8 miles, along a forested ridge with occasional breaks for views to the east across Olema Valley. You emerge at a junction, where you turn left to Sky Trail. On clear days, the views are of Drakes Bay and the ocean. Sky Trail then continues in and out of the forest and you will arrive at a series of cutoff trails on your left. Each descends to the Bear Valley Trail, where you turn left to return to parking. The return trail options are, in order, with total distance: Meadow Trail (4.8-mile loop), Old Pine Trail (7-mile loop), Baldy Trail (9.2-mile loop). Bear Valley Loop: South of Bear Valley Visitor Center, start at the Bear Valley Trail. It is an easy, wheelchair-accessible (soil cement) route that is very popular and crowded on weekends, 4.1 miles one-way to Arch Rock and the gorgeous Marin coast (since the collapse last year, the spur route to the cliffs is closed). On the return trip, you can leave the crowds behind by taking Sky Trail, a rhythmic climb up Inverness Ridge to the Wittenberg Trail, then turn right and sail down to Bear Valley (10.8-mile loop). Tom Stienstra/Tom Stienstra / The Chronicle Sky Trail Trailhead Sky Camp: The trailhead is in a small parking lot at a spur on the left side of Limantour Road. On weekends, the lot often fills with campers and you may end up on the shoulder of Limantour. The trail starts as a fire road (signed, with a gate, elevation 840 feet). It rises amid forest and lush understory, with bracken ferns, forget-me-nots and other wildflowers (as spring arrives). The hike is 1.3 miles, one-way, with a climb of about 200 feet to Sky Camp at 1,025 feet. When you reach Sky Camp, explore spur routes to campsites on the west side of the ridge, which lead to spectacular views of Drakes Bay (2.8 miles, out and back). Coastal Loop: From Sky Camp, you can extend the trek into an ambitious loop hike down to the beach and back, where the hits just keep on coming. After taking in the views at Sky Camp, continue south on Sky Trail (occasional ocean views to your right) and into old-growth forest of Douglas fir and bishop pine for 1.9 miles to the junction with the Woodward Valley Trail. Turn right, sail downhill for 2 miles before emerging out of the forest with sensational ocean views straight ahead. You arrive at the Coast Trail, where you turn right (with lunch at Coast Camp) and walk 0.8 of a mile to a junction with Laguna Trail. To complete the loop, turn right on Laguna, go an easy mile to Fire Lane, then turn right and pay for your pleasure: 2.3 miles, 800-foot climb, steep in spots, back to Sky Trail. 9.6-mile loop. Always a favorite. Tom Stienstras Outdoor Report can be heard at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 12:35 p.m. Saturdays on KCBS (740 and 106.9). Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com If you want to go Cost: Access, parking, brochure/map, free. Weather info: (415) 464-5100, ext. 2, then 1. Park rules: No dogs on trails. Mountain bikes allowed only on signed service roads, some trails. Trail map: Point Reyes National Seashore, $9.95, www.tomharrisonmaps.com. How to get there To Bear Valley Visitor Center: From San Francisco, take U.S. 101 over the Golden Gate Bridge and continue north for 7.5 miles to the exit for San Anselmo and Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. Take that exit, merge onto Sir Francis Drake and drive 20 miles west to Olema and Highway 1. Turn right and drive a short distance to Bear Valley Road. Turn left and drive 0.7 of a mile to the entrance road on the left (signed for Seashore Information). Turn left and drive to the parking lot for the Bear Valley Visitor Center. To Bear Valley Trailhead: At Bear Valley Visitor, trailhead is located on southwest end of parking lot. Trailhead for Sky Trail: From Bear Valley Visitor Center, drive out of parking lot to Bear Valley Road. Turn left and drive 1.3 miles to Limantour Road on left (signed Hostel and Limantour Beach). Turn left and drive 3.4 miles to spur road for trailhead parking on left (signed). Note: Small parking lot often is filled by campers on weekend; if full, rangers permit parking on far shoulder of Limantour Road, directly across from trailhead parking lot. Note: Slower, scenic routes available from Lucas Valley Road in north Marin and Highway 1 from south Marin. Distances: 19 miles from San Rafael, 32 miles from Golden Gate Bridge, 35 miles from Berkeley, 46 miles from Pacifica, 58 miles from Concord, 82 miles from San Jose, 96 miles from Sacramento. Contact: Bear Valley Visitor Center, (415) 464-5100, ext. 2; www.nps.gov/pore. Tom Stienstra Frederik Andersen made 26 saves in his fourth career shutout, Sami Vatanen scored on a power play in the second period and the Ducks beat Buffalo 1-0 in Anaheim on Wednesday night for their season-best sixth straight victory. The resurgent Ducks climbed two points back of the Pacific Division-leading Kings. Anaheim is 20-4-2 since losing back-to-back games road games against the Islanders and Rangers, Dec. 21-22. Immigration Debate Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester is . The Associated Press reports Wester says, The U.S. policy on detaining immigrants fleeing violence in Central America is unjust, and the federal governments obsession with enforcement is hurting families. Bridging the Citys Budget Gap SFRs Elizabeth Miller reports city councilors at last nights meeting to use surplus water fund money to pay off a $33 million bond, which will save the city almost $8 million in interest costs over the life of the bond. The city is also considering increasing gross receipts taxes, instituting a franchise fee and $4 million in budget cuts to eliminate the citys $15 million deficit. Mea Culpa After for years, Darren White, a longtime supporter of Gov. Susana Martinez, is launching a public relations campaign to persuade potential cannabis patients that he's had a change of heart and no longer opposes medical marijuana. In fact, White and Albuquerque attorney Jason Bowles, who SFR first identified as finalists for a last fall, plan to sell patients the medication after they complete state licensing requirements. Still, White tells KRQEs Alex Goldsmith that . Plants Seized Meanwhile, a married couple are suing Bernalillo County for seizing dozens of medical marijuana plants they were inside their home. Martinez Still Neutral Donald Trump may be picking up lots of Republican delegates ahead of this summers nominating convention, but Gov. Susana Martinez, the chair of the Republican Governors Association this year, is so far on the presidential race. Yesterday, she told KOB she still has no interest in joining the eventual ticket as the . Instead, shes SF Judge Reminisces After a decade of service, Santa Fe Municipal Judge Ann Yalman is getting from the bench. She tells SFRs Elizabeth Miller both of the candidates vying for her job, Ignacio Gallegos and Virginia Vigil, would be fine for the court. . Tracking Lobbyist Spending Lobbyists and their employers spent $236,828 on gifts, wining and dining for elected officials, their guests and staff during the 2016 legislative session, according to data journalist Sandra Fish at New Mexico In Depth. . Fish says that number is only a portion of what was spent during the 30-day session because it captures only those times lobbyists spent $500 or more on a single event. Water Supply Risks Environment reporter Laura Paskus writes that a new study shows climate change will have a big impact not only on the states rivers but also on in the decade to come. Holistic Homebuying CNBC is taking a long look at the challenges Americans, and low-income minorities, face buying homes close to home. for a lot of New Mexicans, according to Mike Loftin, an affordable housing executive based in Santa Fe. Santa Fe Reporter [Content Note: Racism; police brutality; injustice. Additional content note for references to sexual violence at link.]T. Greg Doucette, a criminal defense lawyer in North Carolina, in a 43-part tweetstorm earlier this week, detailing a case in which bullshit charges were "thankfully" dropped against his client.If you can't view the images at the above link, you can also find the thread on Twitter All of the Dick Smith stores in Australia and New Zealand are to close within the next eight weeks after the receivers said they had received no acceptable offers for the business. The electronics store went into receivership on Jan 5. It brought in external consultants after disappointing trading in October and November and launched what it described as "significant marketing activity" to try to boost sales in the run up to Christmas and compete with rivals JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman. The only stores unaffected by the closure are those in airports. It had been thought the NZ stores would find a buyer because the most recent results had shown it to be profitable, reporting earnings of A$903,000 in the year ended June 30, 2015. "While we received a significant number of expressions of interest from local and overseas parties, unfortunately the sales process has not resulted in any acceptable offers for the group as a whole or for Australia or New Zealand as standalone businesses," said receiver James Stewart of Ferrier Hodgson. "The offers were either significantly below liquidation values or highly conditional or both". There are currently 301 Dick Smith stores in Australia with 2,460 staff and 62 stores in New Zealand employing about 430 people. Stewart described it as a disappointing outcome for the employees "We would particularly like to thank the Dick Smith employees for their support and patience during the receivership process". New Zealand employees made redundant will be ranked as preferential claims and are expected to be paid in full up to the statutory limit of $22,160. Secured creditors are owed about A$140 million and unsecured creditors about A$250 million. Dick Smith was valued at A$520 million when it was listed on the ASX in 2013 for $2.20 a share by owners Anchorage Capital Partners. They had bought Dick Smith from Woolworths in 2012 in a deal reportedly worth A$115 million. By the time shares were suspended on the ASX, they had fallen 84% to 35.5 Australian cents. BusinessDesk.co.nz Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Mainfreight Investor Day / Market Update GFI - Greenfern - Offer closes 27th Oct MCY - Quarterly Operational Update VCT - Operational performance for the 3 months ended 30 Sept 2022 NZL - Forestry Estate Acquisition October 21st Morning Report Air New Zealand Limited Retail Bond Offer Books Close Spark welcomes C-band spectrum allocation AIA - 2022 Annual Meeting Chair & Chief Executive Addresses MOVE Completes Purchase of Vessel for Trans-Tasman Service The New Zealand dollar gained against its trans-Tasman counterpart after figures painted a gloomy outlook for capital spending in Australia, adding to signs of sluggish growth in its economy. The kiwi rose to 92.68 Australian cents at 5pm in Wellington from 92.48 cents immediately before the release, and 92.16 cents yesterday. The local currency increased to 66.46 US cents from 66.42 cents at 8am and 66.17 cents yesterday. Australia's currency fell after Bureau of Statistics figures showed overall investment rose 0.8 percent in the December quarter, snapping four quarters of declining capex, while estimating an 18 percent drop in planned expenditure for 2015/16. The slowdown in Australia's resources boom has wound back spending intentions, and the nation's policymakers have been getting to grips with the need to diversify the economy. "The Aussie private capex headline number looked okay," but the estimates "caused the Aussie to come off," said Mike Johnston, senior dealer at HiFX in Auckland. The trans-Tasman currencies got a boost in the Northern Hemisphere trading session as oil prices bounced from their lows, and HiFX's Johnston said the waxing and waning of risk sentiment will continue to drive the local currency. New Zealand government figures today showed annual inbound net migration reached a new record in January while short-term visitor arrivals stayed strong. HiFX's Johnston said the kiwi will stay under pressure on the expectation the Reserve Bank will cut the 2.5 percent official cash rate this year. New Zealand's two-year swap rate was unchanged at 2.41 percent, and 10-year swaps fell two basis points to 3.07 percent, a new record low. The kiwi rose to 74.65 yen from 74.04 yen yesterday, and increased to 4.3420 Chinese yuan from 4.3206 yuan. It advanced to 60.29 euro cents from 60.05 cents yesterday, and climbed to 47.68 British pence from 47.30 pence. The trade-weighted index gained to 72.38 from 72.06 yesterday. BusinessDesk.co.nz Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Mainfreight Investor Day / Market Update GFI - Greenfern - Offer closes 27th Oct MCY - Quarterly Operational Update VCT - Operational performance for the 3 months ended 30 Sept 2022 NZL - Forestry Estate Acquisition October 21st Morning Report Air New Zealand Limited Retail Bond Offer Books Close Spark welcomes C-band spectrum allocation AIA - 2022 Annual Meeting Chair & Chief Executive Addresses MOVE Completes Purchase of Vessel for Trans-Tasman Service New Book Blends 12 Step Recovery with Bible Study hugh@economypr.com CLEVELAND, Feb. 25, 2016 / "AA is very careful not to align with any specific religion, and that's a good thing," said Binyamin. "At the same time, there are many religious Christians and Jews in the program who would like to connect their faiths with recovery more directly. That's the idea behind this book. It gives the recovering alcoholic inspiration to stay sober through reading the Bible." The book goes through the first five Books of the Bible (The Torah, or Pentateuch), offering 365 sequential verses and an accompanying recovery-oriented interpretation for each day of the year. For example, referring to the story of Noah's Ark (Genesis 7:11), the book relates a traditional interpretation that the Ark miraculously expanded to accommodate all the animals with the notion that God can help the recovering addict grow spiritually in response to life's challenges. Though the book references many traditional Jewish Torah commentaries in its inspirational sections, it has been written for a general audience. "Any person of faith can derive inspiration from this book," Binyamin added. The title of the book comes from Exodus 3:12, where God tells Moses "For I will be with you" when God instructs Moses to tell Pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery. For the author, this idea resonates with the idea of having faith that "God is with you" in recovery asking for freedom from the "slavery" of a powerful addiction. "For I Will Be With You" is published by HB Publications, LLC, a Cleveland-based publisher of fiction and non-fiction books. Boruch Binyamin is the pseudonym of a 50 year old Jewish man who is in recovery from alcoholism. For more information, visit Share Tweet Contact: Hugh Taylor, 310-383-7041, EconomyPR.com CLEVELAND, Feb. 25, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- A new book, "For I Will Be With You: Daily Reflections on Recovery from the Bible," launched today, offering people in 12 step recovery programs a daily Bible verse and its interpretation from a recovery perspective, the publisher announced. Written by Boruch Binyamin, a religious Jew who has been staying sober through the Alcoholics Anonymous program for 14 years, the book blends traditional Jewish Torah study with the step work of AA and related addiction recovery programs."AA is very careful not to align with any specific religion, and that's a good thing," said Binyamin. "At the same time, there are many religious Christians and Jews in the program who would like to connect their faiths with recovery more directly. That's the idea behind this book. It gives the recovering alcoholic inspiration to stay sober through reading the Bible."The book goes through the first five Books of the Bible (The Torah, or Pentateuch), offering 365 sequential verses and an accompanying recovery-oriented interpretation for each day of the year. For example, referring to the story of Noah's Ark (Genesis 7:11), the book relates a traditional interpretation that the Ark miraculously expanded to accommodate all the animals with the notion that God can help the recovering addict grow spiritually in response to life's challenges. Though the book references many traditional Jewish Torah commentaries in its inspirational sections, it has been written for a general audience. "Any person of faith can derive inspiration from this book," Binyamin added.The title of the book comes from Exodus 3:12, where God tells Moses "For I will be with you" when God instructs Moses to tell Pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery. For the author, this idea resonates with the idea of having faith that "God is with you" in recovery asking for freedom from the "slavery" of a powerful addiction."For I Will Be With You" is published by HB Publications, LLC, a Cleveland-based publisher of fiction and non-fiction books. Boruch Binyamin is the pseudonym of a 50 year old Jewish man who is in recovery from alcoholism.For more information, visit www.foriwillbewithyou.com International Day for the Unreached to Focus on Billions Who Have Never Heard Gospel Alliance of Evangelistic Ministries Calls on Churches, Other Faith-based Organizations and Individuals to Pray, Advocate, Serve and Share for Sake of the Unreached Contact: Marge Densley, 704-999-4964; Press kit: www.inchristcommunications.com/dayfortheunreached NASHVILLE, Feb. 25, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- An alliance of globally focused ministries has designated May 15, 2016, as the International Day for the Unreached, a one-day event intended to inspire and mobilize Christians to reach out to more than 2 billion people around the world who have yet to hear the gospel. The event, announced during a press conference at the annual National Religious Broadcasters convention today in Nashville, is sponsored by the Alliance for the Unreached, a group that includes Reach Beyond, Bibles For The World, Operation Mobilization, The Seed Company and Missio Nexus. "In America, it's easy to get comfortable and complacent. But we want to remind people that there are literally billions of people around the globe in desperate need of the good news of Jesus, but have never heard His name or story. We're called to bring it to them," said Wayne Pederson, Reach Beyond president. Scores of Christian leaders are urging people to get involved. Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren made a direct appeal to all Christians: "With more than 2 billion people who haven't had a chance to meet Jesus, it's time for the Body of Christ to take a radical stand and say, 'This has to end in our generation.' Join me in committing to pray, give, go, and advocate for those who need to know Christ by participating in the International Day for the Unreached." Evangelism has fallen on hard times in North America. Barna Group examined evangelism habits over two decades and found a disturbing trend. In a summary titled "Is Evangelism Going Out of Style?," Barna President David Kinnaman concluded: "Evangelism is on the decline among key demographics, especially among 'Busters' and 'Boomers' who make up nearly two out of three active Christians today." It isn't just evangelism at home that is suffering. "As many believers in North America have lost concern about their neighbors who don't know Christ, it's becoming even harder to be concerned about people around the world who they will never meet," said Marv Newell, senior vice president of Missio Nexus. Some American churches are losing their zeal for foreign missions. At the same time, these trends are cultivating a fresh sense of urgency for Christian leaders who are promoting the International Day for the Unreached as an event to raise awareness of the dilemma and search for solutions. George Verwer, founder of Operation Mobilization said, "The birth of OM in the late 1950s stemmed from the lack of the gospel in places like Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan and other unreached nations. Today, we have yet to meet our goal to spread the gospel to all nations and peoples, but I pray the next generation will do better. This event is a mega step in the right direction." "Part of our role in the Bible translation movement is to help the church understand the tremendous need for Scripture among so many language groups and communities," Rev. Samuel Chiang, president and CEO of the Seed Company. "There is a historic opportunity with efforts such as the International Day for the Unreached to bring awareness to the worldwide church to finish the work together, in this generation." The Day for the Unreached will include a variety of efforts to raise awareness. Many major radio networks and stations around the country will promote the event for weeks leading up to May 15. Pastors around the country are urged to preach sermons on the topic, while small groups focus on Jesus' command to go to the nations. Individuals will also be called to join a 30-day prayer movement, interceding for the salvation of the unreached. People interested in learning more about the unreached or to get involved can download a free Great Commission Action Guide from the website, DayForTheUnreached.org. An abundance of other resources will soon be available at the site, including bulletin inserts, sermon outlines, promotional posters, web banners, videos and radio spots. Information is also available on the International Day for the Unreached Facebook page at www.facebook.com/dayfortheunreached. Perhaps it's fitting that The International Day for the Unreached falls on Pentecost Sunday, the day the Holy Spirit came upon the first followers of Jesus, empowering and charging them to share the gospel with people from all over the world. This renewed emphasis on world evangelism has some looking forward as well. "Let's not forget that the return of Christ is tied to every nation hearing the good news," said John L Pudaite, president of Bibles For The World. "We're not saying we can usher in the Second Coming. But we can be a part of a last days move of God that is foretold in scripture. And that's both a privilege and a profound responsibility." Individuals, churches and media outlets can learn about creative ways to participate in the International Day for the Unreached by visiting DayForTheUnreached.org. The Day for the Unreached (www.dayfortheunreached.org) is an initiative of the Alliance for the Unreached, a group of evangelistic ministries including Reach Beyond (www.reachbeyond.org) Missio Nexus (www.missionexus.org), Bibles For the World (www.biblesfortheworld.org), the Seed Company (www.theseedcompany.org) and Operation Mobilization (www.omusa.org). For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Marge Densley at 704-999-4964or mdensley@inchristcommunications.com. Press kit available at www.inchristcommunications.com/dayfortheunreached Decouverte en images de Remix OS 2.0, le systeme dexploitation qui permet a Android dinvestir le monde des PC desktops. La premiere version de test de Remix OS for PC avait ete devoilee lors du CES 2016 de Las Vegas par Jide Technology (voir a ce propos larticle Android part (enfin) a lassaut des PC ). La seconde est divulguee dans le cadre du Mobile World Congress 2016 de Barcelone. Remix OS est un systeme dexploitation desktop sappuyant sur Android et ses applications. Une potentielle future star dans le monde des ordinateurs de bureau. La mouture beta de cette solution propose la correction de nombreux bogues, le support des systemes UEFI, celui des puces x86 32 bits (en plus des processeurs x86 64 bits), la possibilite dinstaller lOS en parallele a un autre systeme dexploitation (double boot) et la prise en charge des mises a jour OTA (over the air), ce qui simplifiera lapplication de futurs upgrades. Le support des composants et peripheriques des PC est egalement ameliore. Android pour le desktop Rappelons que Remix OS est compatible avec un large ensemble dapplications issues de Google Play, dont la suite Office de Microsoft. Le support des processeurs x86 32 bits redonnera une nouvelle vie a danciens PC. Remix OS permet de faire fonctionner applications et jeux dans des fenetres du bureau. Menu demarrer, barre des taches et centre de notifications sont proposes en standard. Nous vous proposons de decouvrir cet OS nouvelle generation en images. no images were found A lire aussi : Une version PC dAndroid en approche Remix Mini de Jide, le PC Android qui monte Pine64 : un ordinateur ARM 64 bits a 15 dollars Credit photos : Jide Technology WASHINGTON: The United States' decision to sell eight nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan would affect "some aspects" of Indo-US relationship, a top American military commander has said, amid India's strong protest over the deal. "With regard to the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, while I don't have a professional opinion on that sale itself, certainly it will affect some aspects of our relationship with India," the US Pacific Command (PACOM) Commander, Admiral Harry Harris, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing yesterday. Harris, who will visit India next week, was responding to question from members of the House Armed Services Committee. "I know that I will be asked about it when I go to India, and I hope to be able to tell them that that sale is just one aspect of many military sales that we make across the world, and that we view our relationship with India very importantly," Harris said. "I hope that we can work through this sale, and their perception of it, to continue to improve our relationship with India," Admiral Harris said, responding to a question on F-16 from Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard, the first ever Hindu Congresswoman elected to the US House of Representatives, expressed serious concern over the Obama Administration's decision to sell the fighter jets to Pakistan. "There's a potential sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan that I and other members of Congress have expressed very serious concerns about, given the fact that Pakistan has long harboured and given safe haven to various terrorist groups that continue to launch destabilising attacks within India, as well as Afghanistan," she said. Read Also: Millennials Spends Most of the Time Online: Study Sanders Accuses Republicans Of Racism To Delegitimise Prez LONDON: In the 25-minute video, the IS claim they are fighting back against efforts by the social media giants to wipe their platforms of accounts promoting terrorism. The video includes a direct threat to the tech entrepreneurs, branding them allies of the American "Crusader government". Pictures of Zuckerberg and Dorsey can be seen being blasted with a hail of bullets in the amateur footage which emerged. The video, titled "Flames of the Supporters" and released by a group calling themselves "the sons of the Caliphate army", ends with a direct threat to the two men, The Sun reported. A slide toward the end of the video reads, in English: "To Mark and Jack, founders of Twitter and Facebook and to their Crusader government. You announce daily that you suspended many of our accounts and to you we say: is that all you can do? you are not in our league. If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete you (sic) sites, #Sons_Caliphate_Army". In a separate slide, they also claim to have hacked more than 10,000 Facebook accounts, 150 Facebook groups, and more than 5,000 Twitter accounts. Two scholars who track ISIS activity online confirmed that the video was posted to multiple ISIS forums, including some on the social media platform. ISIS and related terrorist groups have targeted Dorsey at least twice in the past year. A group of self-identified ISIS supporters threatened the Twitter founder and CEO in March of 2015 for closing hundreds of their social media accounts. Read Also: Millennials Spends Most of the Time Online: Study Trump Wins Nevada Caucus: Projections BENGALURU: In any society, the well being of each of its members is of utmost importance for the society itself to thrive. This well being of the crowd is also referred to as Quality of Living. As individuals, we always look for a better environment and a better crowd with whom we would prefer to mingle. We seek out places with lower pollutions and crime rates and better education among other general amenities. Mercer in New York has come up with a list of 230 cities worldwide based on their quality of living. The survey is dubbed Quality of Living Rankings 2016. The first on the list is Vienna. The Austrian capital has been rated as the city that provides the best quality of living for the third consecutive year now. Fellow European cities Zurich and Munich occupy the 2nd and 4th positions respectively. Auckland and Vancouver along with the previous three make up the top five of that list. Ranked at 26, Singapore is the highest ranked Asian city followed by Seoul on 73 and Dubai on 75. India has a lot of catching up to do as the quality of living is pretty poor compared to most of its compatriots. Hyderabad, the highest ranked Indian city, is placed at lowly 139 followed by Pune on 144, Bangalore on 145, Chennai on 150 and Mumbai on 152. The National capital New Delhi is the lowest of the lot, placed at 161, just below Kolkata which is at 160. Even though the stats are against them, there is still hope for improvement in the coming years for the Indian metropolitans. With innovative startups in varying fields popping up left, right and centre, investors are looking at India as their opportunity to carry their businesses further with Bengaluru and Hyderabad as the main hubs of interest. The vocational and westernized cultural pull of these cities has seen large influx of the educated populi in search of a more fashionable life style. With such a drastic change in the community, there is a cry for better sanitation, pollution check and education. With the government coming up with initiatives like the Swachh Bharat a.k.a Clean India, the odd-even rule in Delhi, where on alternating days cars with even and odd number plates should not be driven and also the make in India initiative, it is a hopeful sign of better things to come. Read Also: Trump Wins Nevada Caucus: Projections Bihar Acts Tough Against Cheating in Board Exams BANGALORE: Today Google and TechHub announce their global partnership, bringing more opportunities to TechHubs 700+ tech startups around the world. TechHub, the global community for tech entrepreneurs, announced that their partnership with Google for Entrepreneurs will benefit startups from India for the first time. Google supports TechHubs work to help hundreds of tech companies scale up their businesses. Now TechHub members in Bangalore, other TechHub locations of Riga and Bucharest, plus Madrid, Warsaw and London will have access to programmes and assistance from Google, including Google mentors, the Google for Entrepreneurs international demo days, GFE Exchange and Google Cloud Platform credits for qualifying startups. Elizabeth Varley, TechHubs global Co-founder and CEO said, We are excited to bring this partnership to India to increase TechHubs support to Indian startups. In Bangalore we see a huge variety of startups creating innovative products, and we want to help them succeed both in India and all around the world. TechHub and Google for Entrepreneurs is a strong partnership that will empower Indian entrepreneurs to go global from the very beginning. David Grunwald, Google for Entrepreneurs Head of EMEA Partnerships said We are excited to expand our work with TechHub beyond Google for Entrepreneurs's Campus network, where we have collaborated successfully over a number of years. TechHub's 'community first' values and their focus on supporting founders and startups with education and programs align perfectly with the goals of Google for Entrepreneurs." TechHubs community is global: members hail from 60+ countries and every member can access Googlers in six international cities. TechHub membership gives each entrepreneur access to every TechHub in the world and all the programmes and opportunities available there including flagship events like Startup Funeral, and the monthly TechHubTuesday Demo Night. Around a third of members base their teams full time in one of TechHubs spaces, with the majority of members accessing the benefits of TechHub through its rich programme designed to help startups face the challenges of building and growing a global tech company. Elizabeth Varley, TechHubs global Co-founder and CEO said TechHub continuously works to improve the way we support entrepreneurs through every part of the startup lifecycle - idea to exit. Our programme helps founders deal with challenges at the different stages of developing their company and product, whether its their first time or fifth time starting a company. TechHub and Google for Entrepreneurs have the same approach - using both relationships and data to truly understand startups. Talking about the TechHub and Google #GoGlobal message, TechHub Madrid member Miguel Elizondo, Co-founder and CEO of Festrip said: From the very beginnings of Festrip, we have firmly believed that the only way to succeed is to go global. As soon as we learnt of TechHub Madrid, we wanted to be one of the first Spanish companies to join their community... and we made it! Our expectations have been surpassed. TechHub has provided us with a great, inspiring space full of potential partners and advisors, and have put the knowhow of their network to work for us. Thanks to this, we have closed deals in Madrid and London, with more in the coming months. TechHub and Google for Entrepreneurs are hosting a partnership launch celebrations at TechHub Bangalore on Wednesday 24thFebruary. Read Also: Hope To Get Funds For Start-Up Programme In Budget: Nirmala 10 Indian Sportspersons and Their Tryst with Startup Business handcuffs.JPG (Staten Island Advance Photo) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A total of six Staten Islanders are among seven suspects indicted in the theft of about $500,000 in heating oil from a terminal in Brooklyn. The seven suspects stand accused of stealing the oil -- amounting to hundreds of thousands of gallons -- from Buckeye Partners, which owns and operates a terminal located at 722 Court St., between January and July of 2014. Alleged conspirator Scott Vitello, 39, of Lauderhill, Fla., managed the terminal. Authorities identified the Staten Island suspects as: Bart A. DiCarlo, 26, a terminal operator; Angelo Guadagno, 51, who acted as a broker; Alexander Cocchiola, 57, the owner of Cypress Fuel; Paul Ciliento, 37, the owner of Boomerang Trucking; Peter D'Arco, 65, the owner of SJ Fuel, and Frederick DeCicco, 48, a driver for MDC Services. All of the suspects face charges of felony grand larceny in the New York Supreme Court indictments announced by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. and Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson. Vitello and DiCarlo allegedly sold oil at a fraction of the retail cost in the scheme where the tanker trucks were filled with the discounted fuel at the terminal more than 50 times, often late in the evening or early in the morning, according to prosecutors. Efforts made by Vitello and DiCarlo to avoid detection included dismantling counters that tracked the number of gallons dispensed at the loading racks and changing the positioning of several security cameras at the terminal, authorities said. Guadagno acted as a broker who negotiated prices, scheduled pick-up times, and made arrangements for Cocchiola and Ciliento to steal heating oil from the terminal. D'Arco and DeCicco also worked directly with Vitello and DiCarlo to coordinate the illegal pick-ups, according to prosecutors. The indictments follow a long, multi-agency investigation in what authorities regard as widespread fraud in the heating oil industry. Among the agencies involved are: Manhattan District Attorney Office's Rackets Bureau; NYPD's Organized Crime Investigation Division ("OCID"); NYC Business Integrity Commission ("BIC");NYC Department of Investigation ("DOI"); NYC Department of Consumer Affairs, and New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Last November, seven Staten Islanders were among 44 persons and nine companies charged in multimillion-dollar, citywide scams in which customers, including five borough schools, were shortchanged on heating oil deliveries, authorities announced Tuesday. "More than 50 individuals and nine companies working in and around the City's heating oil industry have now been indicted in connection with this alleged widespread fraud," said Vance said. "Today's indictment represents a continuation of that investigation, as well as my Office and our partners' commitment to rooting out fraud in this industry. The heating oil industry should now be on notice to clean up its act." MaryEllen Elia "Allowing these young people to get professional licenses will open up a new world of economic opportunity for them," said State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, of the Board of Regents vote to give undocumented immigrants the opportunity to apply for certification and a teaching license.. (AP Photo/Mike Groll) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Undocumented immigrants in New York State will now have a chance to apply for teacher certification and professional licenses. The state Board of Regents Wednesday quietly voted on the controversial issue. The panel voted in Albany to adopt regulations that would allow certain individuals who came to the United States as children to apply for teacher certification and professional licenses from the state Education Department. The department issues licenses for 53 professions. In June 2012, the Obama Administration implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, which allows individuals who came to the U.S. as children, and meet established guidelines, to request consideration of deferred immigration action for a period of two years, subject to renewal. According to the state Education Department, the federal DACA policy applies to young people who derive their immigration status from their parents, many of whom are undocumented. As a result, most of these individuals have no current mechanism to obtain legal residency, even if they have lived most of their lives in the U.S. "These are young people who came to the U.S. as children," said State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia. "They are American in every way but immigration status." "They've done everything right," she continued. "They've worked hard in school, some have even served in the military, but when it's time to apply for a license, they're told 'Stop. That's far enough.' "We shouldn't close the door on their dreams. Allowing these young people to get professional licenses will open up a new world of economic opportunity for them." DACA recipients are authorized to work, but because of their immigration status, are currently prohibited from obtaining professional certification and licenses in teaching pharmacy, dentistry, engineering and other professions. The Regents' action, which is subject to a public comment period before it's finalized, will open up the professional licensing process in New York State to DACA recipients. Requirements for certification and licensing have not changed; DACA recipients must still meet all other requirements before their applications can be approved. Teachers, for example, must complete required hours of classroom observation and student-teaching, as well as pass exams in several areas, to meet the state licensing requirements. REACTION SWIFT Democrats in the state Assembly praised the action. "This is a tremendous win for New York's students," said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-the Bronx). The Speaker noted Democrats have been pushing for the Dream Act in New York, which would allow undocumented immigrants in the country illegally to access state financial aid for college. Republicans have opposed the measure. Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore-Brooklyn) said the Regents vote should not have taken place without input from the Legislature. "The Board of Regents should not be making changes of this magnitude -- which could impact on teachers who are already licensed and are having difficulty finding employment -- without debate and a vote by the Legislature," she said. "The lack of urgency from Washington to reform and enforce immigration laws are leading to policies like this all over the country," Malliotakis added. Staten Island Community Education Council President Michael Reilly, who is seeking appointment to the Board of Regents, noted DACA recipients have attended schools in the U.S. alongside American-born citizens, and said the federal government leaves few options for DACA recipients to obtain citizenship. "Whether we agree or not with the (Regents) decision, the fact is, a majority of these undocumented immigrants have grown up attending schools here in the United States," Reilly said. "Many have focused their studies in one of the 53 professions licensed by the state Education Department, including teachers, engineers, dentists, pharmacists and a host of others. . . Unfortunately, the federal policy doesn't incorporate a path to citizenship. Hopefully that will change." NWS SPECIALED A speech therapist works with a student. A shortage of preschool providers has resulted in delys for some special needs students who need services. (Staten Island Advance) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Four-year-old Jazmiah Vasquez is a happy child, who enjoys going to school every day, her mom says. In her all-day pre-K class at Wonder Years Pre-school, she's learning social skills, pre-literacy and math skills. She's also supposed to get speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy, and be assigned a special education support intervention teacher, in compliance with her individual education plan (IEP). After waiting more than three months to start getting services, Jazmiah started to receive speech therapy, but she still wasn't getting her other services, according to her mom, Lisa Vasquez, because "they can't find her a provider." "I was told there is a shortage of providers for the preschools," she said. "I've been calling and calling everyone, the state, the Department of Education, and nobody calls me back. "I feel like my child is invisible; no one cares," Vasquez said. Across Staten Island and New York City, the number of schools with preschool students with special needs has swelled in the last decade, and continues to grow. Meanwhile the number of support professional providers -- psychologists who evaluate special needs children and determine what services they need -- and the speech therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists and special education student intervention teachers -- has declined. That translates into larger caseloads and and longer wait times for families seeking placement and services for their children. MORE PAPERWORK, LESS TIME And the larger caseload has been made even more unmanageable by piling paperwork, which robs providers of time that should be spent serving children. The DOE has already been struggling to keep up with evaluations and caseloads under its "Shared Plan for Success" reforms. To make the situation worse, the DOE's $130 million Special Education Student Information System (SESIS), a Bloomberg-era computer tracking system designed to monitor the progress of students with disabilities, is plagued by glitches, and has done just the opposite. "The program doesn't work and it never has," said Public Advocate Letitia James, who has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education, on behalf of families whose special needs children are not receiving services on their IEP. James called the failure of the SESIS system "one of the department's worst-kept secrets" and has demanded accountability. Michael Weinberg, chairman of the Staten Island Developmental Disabilities Council, who is a parent of a special-needs child, said the provider problem is most critical for early-intervention and preschool programs that serve children from infants to age 5, before they enter the city school system. DO MORE WITH LESS The problem boils down to state funding, he said. "Everything goes back to the budget. Does the mission drive the budget, or the Michael Weinberg, chairman of the Staten Island Developmental Disabilities Council. (Staten Island Advance) budget drive the mission? Clearly it's the latter," Weinberg said. "These programs, whose mission is to prepare the youngest children so that they can receive fewer services as they get older, are being asked to do more with less." Without increased funding at the early intervention and preschool level, special needs children will likely require more costly services as they age, he said. "It's a real problem," said special education advocate Andrea Lella of Families Helping Families, who advocates for parents in the hearing process. She said a simliar condition exists for children waiting for vision therapy, occupational therapy, and neurological evaluations. "Everyone is spread too thin." Staten Island has the highest percentage of students in the five boroughs with an IEP; one in every four Staten Island students has an individual education plan. "We need to open up more classes and providers for special-needs children, at the pre-K level," said Laura Kennedy, director of the Staten Island Early Childhood Direction Center at Staten Island University Hospital-Northwell Health. "Otherwise," she said, "the problem is going to get worse and these children will just get passed along the line as they age." DOE HIRING The DOE says it has been working to attract and hire more service providers. "Over the past two years we've hired hundreds more related service providers -- including more than 300 occupational therapists alone -- to meet the increased demand for services," said DOE spokesman Harry Hartfield. "At the same time we offer incentive programs -- such as loan forgiveness programs -- to recruit more related service providers to work in underserved areas, which has result in substantial improvement in services." Petition, TV Ad Urge Secretary Kerry to Declare Christian Genocide in the Middle East Church leaders, experts and public urge U.S. to follow example of EU, USCIRF and Pope Francis Contact: Andrew Walther, Knights of Columbus, 203-752-4253, andrew.walther@kofc.org WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- A new online petition is urging Secretary of State John Kerry not to exclude Christians from a declaration of genocide at the hands of ISIS. Co-sponsored by In Defense of Christians (IDC) and the Knights of Columbus, the petition can be signed at www.StopTheChristianGenocide.org The petition is being promoted by a new nationwide TV ad that includes quotes by Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio endorsing a genocide declaration for Christians in the Middle East, a position supported by 55 percent of Americans, according to a 2015 K of C-Marist poll. "Christians in Iraq and Syria have suffered injustice after injustice by being kidnapped, killed, having their homes and churches confiscated or destroyed, and being forced to flee for their lives. Because of hit squads, they fear to enter UN refugee camps and, as a result, are then often excluded from immigration to the West," said Carl Anderson, CEO of the Knights of Columbus, who signed the petition and testified on the matter before a congressional subcommittee in December. He added, "After all of this, these people deserve to have the U.S. State Department call what has happened to them by its rightful name: genocide just as the European Parliament, Pope Francis, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and so many other prominent individuals and institutions have already done." IDC Executive Director Kirsten Evans said, "The International Association of Genocide Scholars, over 200 members of Congress and over 70 human rights experts and organizations, spanning the nation's religious and political spectrum, have raised their voices that the treatment of these communities by ISIS meets even the strictest definition of genocide under international law, and must be treated as such." The State Department is required by law to make a designation one way or the other on the matter by mid-March. Signers of the petition "implore" Secretary Kerry "to speak up on behalf of these brutalized minority populations." They conclude by urging him "to declare that Christians, along with Yazidis and other vulnerable minorities, are targets of ongoing genocide," arguing that such a declaration meets the criteria established by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In just its first hours, the online petition attracted some 15,000 signatures, including those of Gov. John Kasich of Ohio; Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York; U.S. Bishops Conference President Archbishop Joseph Kurtz; Leith Anderson, President, National Association of Evangelicals; Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan Prelate, Armenian Apostolic Church of America (Eastern Prelacy); historian Philip Jenkins; human rights experts and activists; and Hollywood Producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. The Knights of Columbus the world's largest Catholic fraternal organization, with 1.9 million members worldwide began its Christian Refugee Relief Fund in 2014, with a particular focus on the Middle East. To date, more than $8 million has been raised to provide housing, food, medical aid, education and general relief to persecuted Christians and other religious minorities, especially from Iraq and Syria, and to raise awareness about their plight, including through a #40BucksForLent effort launched on Ash Wednesday. Additional information is available at www.ChristiansAtRisk.org IDC is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that seeks the protection and preservation of Christians and Christianity in the Middle East through raising global awareness, mobilizing international support, and educating policymakers toward constructive international policies on their behalf. www.indefenseofchristians.org Share Tweet Photos of the Week: November 1 to November 7 Joseph DeNicola Lane is at the intersection of Nedra Lane and Arden Avenue, near P.S. 4 where he was a second grader. (Courtesy of the DeNicola family) CITY HALL -- Two Staten Island streets were renamed for young lives lost. Joseph DeNicola, who died of an allergic reaction after trick-or-treating, and Hurricane Sandy victims Connor and Breandan Moore were honored with new road designations made official on Thursday. A total of eight Staten Island streets were renamed for children and veterans, civic servants and community leaders. "When we rename a part of the city it's because something is important," Mayor Bill de Blasio said before signing a bill renaming the streets, "someone did something great for this city, someone sacrificed who loved our city and served our city, someone epitomized all that was great about New York." Joseph DeNicola Lane is at the intersection of Nedra Lane and Arden Avenue, near PS 4 where he was a second-grader. The Arden Heights 7-year-old died of an allergic reaction after trick-or-treating on Halloween in 2014. The young Moore brothers were swept away from their mother when her SUV was swamped on Capodanno Boulevard at Sandy's height on Oct. 29, 2012. The intersection of McLaughlin Street and Quincy Avenue in Ocean Breeze will eventually be Connor and Breandan Moore Way. The Council measure approved by the mayor on Thursday incorrectly spells 2-year-old Breandan's name as "Breandon" and must be corrected. The Council has to draft an amendment for de Blasio to sign, and that's expected sometime later this year. The intersection of Lisbon Place and Lincoln Avenue in Grant City is now known as Sgt. Donald B. Geisler Way for the Korean War veteran, a prisoner of war who was killed in action. Anthony Manifold Way, at the intersection of Bradford Avenue and Foster Road in Prince's Bay, pays tribute to the World War II hero, missing in action. The intersection of Getz and Katan avenues in Eltingville is FDNY Capt. John R. Graziano Way. Graziano served the Fire Department for 26 years and died in 2015 of an illness connected with his rescue and recovery work after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. School Security Agent Sandra P. Cranford Way will be at the southwest corner of Tompkins Avenue and Hill Street in Stapleton, near PS 14 where her children attended and where she worked for more than two decades. Roberta (Bobbie) Jacobowitz Way will be at the intersection of St. Mark's Place and Hyatt Street, next to the St. George Greenmarket she championed. The southwest corner of Port Richmond Avenue and Richmond Terrace will be named Robert S. Farrell and Donald H. Farrell Way. The two brothers helped run the H.S. Farrell Inc., a landmark family-owned lumber company that closed in 2009 after 121 years. Titone.jpg Assemblyman Matthew Titone is calling on Congress to act, and in the meantime, is proposing a state measure. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Assemblyman Matthew Titone is proposing a bill that would require phone manufacturers selling their wares in New York to develop ways to decrypt and unlock them should a judge issue such an order. The bill comes on the heals of a judge's order to Apple to unlock an iPhone that one of the terrorists in San Bernardino used before killing 14 people. Apple is fighting the judicial order, setting off a debate over privacy concerns, a slippery slope and fighting crime. Titone (D-North Shore) proposes, along with a similar bill in California, sponsored by Assemblyman Jim Cooper, that any new phones be created to aid law enforcement in accessing important data. "We have introduced legislation on the state level because Congress has failed to act," Titone said in a statement. There is no companion bill in the state Senate yet. Titone and Cooper are calling on Congress to require that operating system designers make data available to law enforcement if a search warrant is issued, like in the San Bernardino case. "Assemblyman Cooper and I understand the importance of making smartphone data accessible to law enforcement, which is why we have come together with our appeal to Congress," Titone said. "We applaud and endorse a national commission because that would be vital to advancing the conversation about smartphone encryption by starting a collaboration process between experts, however it is imperative it be formed immediately and required to deliver a report in an expeditious and judicious manner." A bill is being drafted in Congress to put together a commission to consider how to address similar cases, while another bill goes further to require tech companies to assist law enforcement when there is a court order. Despite the court ordered warrant, Apple refuses to create a way to get into the phone. "Encryption provides greater protection to one's phone than one has in one's home, which, has always been afforded the highest level of privacy protection by courts," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement. "Apple and Google should not be able to alter this constitutional balance unilaterally. Every home can be entered with a search warrant. The same should be true of devices." Obama_Guantanamo.jpg President Obama did not attend the funeral for Justice Scalia. As Washington political controversies go, President Obama's decision to skip the funeral Mass for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia over the weekend probably ranks well down the list. There will surely be another red-hot Washington dispute coming along at any minute, so those whose hobby is being indignant won't have long to wait. But while it may be just a tempest that blows over quickly, it's hard not to wonder what message the president was trying to send. And why he would choose this occasion to do it. Mr. Obama and First Lady Michele Obama were among the thousands of people who paid tribute to the late Justice Scalia at the Supreme Court on Friday, but, for whatever reasons, the Obamas made the decision not to attend the funeral at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Saturday. (Vice President Joe Biden, a friend of the Scalia family, did attend, along with many other dignitaries.) With good reason, that was depicted as a snub by the politicians and media outlets that have made denouncing the president their bread and butter. A true hero But there are a lot of other ordinary people, of all persuasions, who saw Justice Scalia as a true American hero because of his dazzling mind, incomparable wit and unwavering commitment to firm legal and moral principles. Count us among them, though we disagreed with his opinions often. If there were a Hall of Fame for great Americans, Justice Scalia would be a first-ballot selection. Of course, such a figure was not without his critics, either. Many on the left saw him as a fearsome opponent of their progressive views and hated the way his witty and incisive opinions could demolish their well-meaning, but squishy, reasoning. No doubt, many of those people cheered Mr. Obama for not attending the funeral. In a recent letter to the Advance, one writer said, "I feel as much sympathy for Scalia as I did for George Wallace, another segregationist." That's typical of the irrationally harsh partisanship of our times, and a lot of it has been directed at Mr. Obama himself. Trump's take Noting the president's failure to attend the funeral, Donald Trump, who parroted the "birther" theme repeatedly before announcing his candidacy, tweeted, "I wonder if President Obama would have attended the funeral of Justice Scalia if it were held in a Mosque? Very sad that he did not go!" Of course, that zinger was a big hit with his supporters, some of whom continue to insist the president is really a Muslim born in Africa. But it's probably worth noting that Mr. Trump, the man who would replace the president, didn't attend Justice Scalia's funeral either. (His arch-rival for the Republican nomination, Sen. Ted Cruz, did find the time.) Nor did Mr. Trump bother to pay his respects to the late justice at the Supreme Court building on Friday, as the president and Mrs. Obama did. Apparently, the billionaire Mr. Trump, who has his own jet at his disposal, was too busy making American great again. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest defended the president's absence, pointing to the Obamas' viewing of Justice Scalia's casket in the Supreme Court building and saying, "What the president thinks is appropriate is respectfully paying tribute to high-profile patriotic American citizens even when you don't agree on all the issues. And that's what he's going to do." He also said, "Some people actually want to use the funeral of the Supreme Court justice as some sort of political cudgel," adding that Mr. Obama doesn't think such "rancor" and "partisanship" is appropriate to the occasion. 'Political cudgel' All true. That cudgel was wielded with barely concealed glee by those in and outside of government who make a career of condemning Mr. Obama. And no doubt, if Mr. Obama had attended, many of those same critics would condemn him for having the gall to disrupt (with his unavoidable phalanx of security, intense press coverage, etc.) the solemnity of the conservative icon's funeral. We've seen and heard this tired act too many times before over the last seven years. So has Mr. Obama and he must be weary of it. But the prospect of such partisan-driven hyper-criticism should not have deterred him. It wouldn't have a few years ago. Instead, Mr. Obama made the deliberate decision not to attend, though he knew the cudgels would certainly come out. And he did this when, as people chanted in his hometown of Chicago during another stormy period, "the whole world is watching." What purpose did it serve, other than to appease left-wing ideologues who hated Mr. Scalia? That seems to be more evidence of the same spiteful streak that the president showed when he allowed the federal allocation to New York City for counter-terrorism to be chopped in half, apparently because New York senior Sen. Charles Schumer, a strong Democratic ally, opposed the president's sketchy nuclear deal with Iran. We get it. Mr. Obama's in the final year of a lame-duck second term and he doesn't feel the need to conciliate political opponents any longer, especially given the way many have trashed him through the years. As someone once said, however, "Politics ain't beanbag" and Mr. Obama, a veteran of the Chicago political battlefield, knew that going in. But to honor a great American such as Justice Scalia was, he should have been the bigger man, put all that aside and gone to the funeral. Trump Clinton composite.jpg Both the Republican and Democratic presidential front-runners have ties to New York. (Advance composite) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- If you're Gov. Andrew Cuomo, you say Hillary Clinton will be the next president. If you're many other prognosticators, you say it will be Donald Trump. If either of those predictions come true, and let's be honest, those betting for any other candidate may very well end up with empty pockets, then there will be a New Yorker in the White House next year for the first time since Franklin D. Roosevelt. That will bring with it any number of benefits, and while New York isn't one of the smaller, sometimes overlooked states, we'll take all we can get. Especially after this most recent stinging proposal from President Barack Obama that the $181 million New York City got this year for anti-terror initiatives will instead be chopped in half. Excuse us, Mr. President, but really? That sentiment was made clear by elected officials from both parties, including Sen. Charles Schumer, who is expected to be the Senate minority leader next year when Harry Reid retires. If Schumer isn't quintessential New York then no one is. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Schumer served in the state Assembly, then the House of Representatives before moving onto the Senate. He stands up for New York, and specifically Staten Island, most recently calling on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to "speed it up a little!" when it comes to approving the plan for a seawall project on the East Shore to protect against future Hurricane Sandy-like storms. There's no shortage of New York pride with Schumer, and having him as the head of his party can only help New York when it comes to getting what it needs from the federal government. Say what you will about Trump or Clinton, but both have ties to the Empire State, albeit not nearly similar to one another. Trump was born and raised in Queens and now lives in Manhattan, where he owns quite a few buildings. He never ran for public office in New York, which is what Clinton's claim to fame is here, never having spent much time in the state until running for the U.S. Senate in 2000. Clinton was born and raised in Chicago, later living in Arkansas, and then of course, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. While he's certainly not the first Staten Islander to be a member of the Republican majority in the House, Rep. Daniel Donovan holds a relatively powerful position in that he is the only member of the New York City delegation in the House who's a member of the majority. "So you could see where there are times when I could be of some help to the rest of the delegation, some help to the rest of the city in presenting and advocating to our leadership in the Republican Party things that are good, not only for the 11th Congressional District, but for the city as a whole," Donovan said recently. If it's not already, New York will be represented in Washington, D.C., pretty strongly next year, regardless of who wins in November. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Several hundred highly spirited Catholic elementary school students packed the gym at St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School in Huguenot on Wednesday evening, cheering their schools' skilled teams who competed in a first-ever robotics match-up. The boisterous, friendly event -- with kids wearing school-specific "robotic" T-shirts and some adorned with colorful face paint -- was the first-ever competition for elementary schools participating in the High School Preparatory Program of the Catholic School Region of Staten Island in the Archdiocese of New York. "Catholic elementary school students are using our Seamless Online Learning Environment and learning Robotics with our staff," said Father Reilly, principal of St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School. "This puts the students of these Catholic elementary schools on the cutting edge of science, technology, engineering and mathematics making them better prepared to meet the changes of a rapidly changing world." Michael Consolmagno, associate director of development at Sea, has worked with the elementary schools since November 2015 to prepare them for the competition. Sea provided each of the schools with a FIRST Lego League Robotics Starter Kit, and has been working closely with the students on building and programming their prototypes. "Our Prep Program gives 7th and 8th graders an advantage by exposing them to curriculum they will encounter on the high school level," said Consolmagno. "At Sea, we've found that the majority of colleges value a strong robotics program when it comes to admissions, and that's one of the main reasons we've adopted it into our Preparatory Program." Sea rolled out its Preparatory Program in September 2013, in conjunction with the Archdiocese of New York. Since then, the program has grown from two elementary-school participants to eleven, including St. Ephrems in Brooklyn, with almost 700 Sea iPads distributed. Participating Catholic elementary schools at Wednesday's competition included: St. Adalbert, St. Christopher, Holy Rosary, St. Joseph St. Thomas, Our Lady Help of Christians, Our Lady Star of the Sea, St. Patrick (with two teams), St. Rita, Sacred Heart, and St. Teresa. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Convicted killer Dante Viggiano is expected to learn Thursday whether he'll spend the rest of his life behind bars. Viggiano is slated to be sentenced in state Supreme Court, St. George, on first-degree murder and other charges stemming from the Aug. 31, 2014, slaying of Peter Gialluisi and the brutal stabbing of Gialluisi's wife, Vincenza, in the couple's Huguenot home. Viggiano, 21, of Great Kills, could be sentenced to life in prison without parole. The minimum sentence he faces is 20 years to life in prison. The defendant was originally scheduled to be sentenced two weeks ago; however, Justice William E. Garnett adjourned the proceeding to Thursday. Last month, a jury found Viggiano guilty of first- and second-degree murder with regard to the death of Peter Gialluisi, 66, and attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault stemming from the attack on Vincenza Gialluisi, now 67. Viggiano was also found guilty of second-degree burglary in connection with a break-in at a Rossville residence between July 19 and 22, 2014. Jurors rejected Viggiano's insanity defense. The victims had just returned from visiting family in New Jersey and walked in on the Great Kills resident around 9:45 p.m. during a home invasion, said prosecutors. Leaving behind a trail of blood, Viggiano made his way to the Huguenot station of the Staten Island Railway and took the train home, prosecutors said. The murder weapon, a large kitchen carving knife, was found in a wooded area across from the victims' home, prosecution witnesses testified. Viggiano's DNA was recovered on the weapon, according to testimony. Viggiano's blood was also found in the victims' home, witnesses testified. Prosecutors allege both of the defendant's palms were cut as he brutally stabbed the victims. Peter Gialluisi was stabbed 16 times, with the fatal incision slicing his carotid artery. One of the blows chipped a piece of his skull, testified a medical examiner. In his summation, defense lawyer Eric Nelson said Viggiano was so mentally ill, haunted by hallucinations and delusions, he couldn't tell the difference between right and wrong when he attacked the victims. Evidence showed Viggiano had undergone three psychiatric hospitalizations between the ages of 16 and 18. He was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs, but stopped taking them when he turned 18. Viggiano did not testify. Prosecutors contended Viggiano's actions in trying to conceal several crimes in the summer of 2014, including the assault on the Gialluisis and the Rossville break-in, demonstrated his ability to plan and think clearly. In a bid to shield his identity, he gave cops a fake name and date of birth when arrested for a car theft, prosecutors said. In addition, he had cased the Gialluisis' home on at least two occasions, including the day before the attacks, said prosecutors. Dr. Jason Hershberger, a forensic psychiatrist, testified that while Viggiano was schizophrenic, in his opinion, the defendant's symptoms on the night of the slaying were not so severe as to distort his sense of right and wrong. COGIC Charities Gives Water and Baby Formula to Flint, Michigan Residents Contact: Robert Coleman Jr., Church of God in Christ, 901-235-2160 MEMPHIS, Tenn., Feb. 24, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) Charities is sending water and ready-made baby formula to residents of Flint, Michigan. COGIC Charities, the benevolent arm of the Church of God in Christ, is providing ready-made infant formula and water to Flint, Michigan residents. For the next couple of months, or until supplies are depleted, several COGIC churches in Flint will serve as distribution centers providing much needed water and baby formula to thousands of Flint residents. COGIC Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake, Sr. says, "There are more than 60 Church of God in Christ congregations in Flint, Michigan. When we heard about the crisis, we immediately began to mobilize and strategize how we as an organization could help our members and residents." He added, "The leadership of the Church of God in Christ cannot stand silent as the innocent children of Flint and their parents suffer the ravages of poisonous water. We stand with these parents, and with all the residents, to call for the speedy, permanent restoration of clean drinking water." The following COGIC congregations will have water and infant formula available free of charge: Greater Holy Temple COGIC Bishop Roger L. Jones Pastor 6702 North Dort Highway Flint, MI 48505 Cathedral of Faith COGIC Pastor Christopher Martin 6031 DuPont Street Flint, MI 48505 (810) 407-8653 International Inspiration Gospel Ministries COGIC Pastor Donald Stevens 901 Brown Street Flint, MI 48503 Pentecostal Tabernacle COGIC Pastor Henry Jamerson 401 Carton Street Flint, MI 48505 (810) 785-4671 Open Door COGIC Pastor Clinton Badon 3925 North Term Street Flint, MI 48506 Lively Stone COGIC Pastor Gene Buggs 1023 Pettibone Street Flint, MI 48507 Redeeming Grace Ministries Pastor George Colter 802 E. Baltimore Blvd. Flint, MI 48505 Greater New Bethel COGIC Pastor Brian Grundy 925 W. Atherton Road Flint, MI 48507 Faith Temple COGIC Pastor Eric Lewis 5802 Fleming Road Flint, MI 48505 Born Again Ministries COGIC Pastor Lissus Walker 3302 Lewis St. Flint, MI 48506 New Jerusalem COGIC Pastor Anthony Newell 617 Stockdale St. Flint, MI 48503 For more information about COGIC Charities "Water For Flint," please visit us at www.cogic.org The Church of God in Christ is one of the oldest Pentecostal denominations in the World and the 4th largest Protestant group in the United States with churches in over 70 countries worldwide and a membership of nearly 6.5 Million adherents. US seafood species highly vulnerable to climate change, study says Posted on 25 February 2016 by Guest Author This is a re-post from Robert McSweeney at Carbon Brief The celebrated seafood of the northeast US, such Maine lobster and New England clams, is under threat from warming temperatures and ocean acidification, a new study warns. Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) assessed the potential climate impacts on 82 marine species that live in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. They found that species living on the seafloor, such as scallops, lobster and clams, and those that migrate between fresh and salt water, such as salmon and sturgeon, are most vulnerable to warming. Seafood industry For the northeast US, seafood is an institution. At more than half a billion dollars, the value of the annual seafood catch off the coast of Maine, for example, is second only to the state of Alaska. The port of New Bedford in Massachusetts brings in more seafood in terms of value than any other in the US. For 33 years in a row, Maine has caught more lobster than any other state and, together with Massachusetts, accounted for more than 94% of the countrys entire American Lobster catch. Cape Cod was named in the 1600s after the abundance of the fish that European settlers caught there. Even the cartoon Family Guy is set in the fictional Rhode Island town of Quahog the common name for a hard-shelled clam. But this culturally and financially significant industry is vulnerable to a changing climate, says the new study in the journal PLOS_ONE. Researchers at NOAA applied a new Fisheries Climate Vulnerability Assessment to 82 marine species in the region. The results classify half of the species as as having very high or high vulnerability. Exposure The study focuses on an area of the Atlantic Ocean off the US northeast coast, as shown in the map below. The assessment uses a combination of data and expert opinion to rate the vulnerability of each species to climate change, says lead author Dr Jon Hare, director of NOAAs Northeast Fisheries Science Center laboratory in Narragansett. He tells Carbon Brief: We evaluated the exposure [of the different species] to warming, changes in salinity, changes in precipitation, ocean acidification, changes in sea-level rise and changes in circulation. The researchers consider the impacts of climate change for the next 40 years under the RCP8.5 scenario, where global greenhouse gas emissions are not curbed. Global emissions are currently tracking just above this scenario. You can see the overall impact of climate change for each species in the chart below. On the y-axis is biological sensitivity, which is a measure of a species ability to move or adapt in the face of change. On the x-axis is climate exposure, which is how at risk a species is to ocean warming, acidification, sea level rise, and so on. The position of the species in the grid indicates its overall vulnerability to climate change. The squares in the bottom left represent low vulnerability (green shading), while those in the top-right indicate very high vulnerability (red shading). In general, species that can travel long distances and feed on a variety of prey, such as Atlantic herring and yellowtail flounder, are less vulnerable, the paper says. On the other hand, species that live on the seafloor, such as scallops, crabs, lobster and clams, have limited mobility to move habitats as the oceans warm, putting their survival at greater risk. Species with hard shells are also threatened by ocean acidification, the paper notes. Fish that move between freshwater and saltwater habitats known as diadromous species are also particularly vulnerable because theyre affected by changes in both types of habitat, says Hare. This includes the Atlantic salmon, which is already anendangered species from overfishing. Increased resilience The study is first time the researchers have applied NOAAs assessment framework over such a large area, says Hare. By using expert opinion to fill in the gaps where no data is available, the framework allows the researchers to work across a range of data-rich and data-poor species in the same assessment, he says. The findings will allow scientists to prioritise their research, says Hare, and also help with managing fisheries sustainably: Managers can use the results to identify potential impacts and start discussions on possible management actions to reduce impacts and increase resilience for species, fisheries, and fishing-dependent communities. Similar assessments are now underway for the Bering Sea in the northern Pacific Ocean and Californias coast, helping to build a better view of how global fish stocks could be threatened by climate change. Location Change for News Conference Regarding Justina Pelletier Suit Against Boston Children's Hospital and Alice Newton Justina Pelletier Sues Boston Children's Hospital and Alice Newton for Civil Rights Violations and Medical Malpractice New Location for news conference is in front of the Massachusetts State House on Beacon St. Contact: Rev. Patrick Mahoney, 540-538-4741 BOSTON, Feb. 24, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Justina, the Pelletier family and Justina's legal team will hold a news conference to discuss the lawsuit on Thursday, February 25, at 11:00 a.m. The news conference will be held in front of the Massachusetts State House on Beacon St. At the news conference, Justina Pelletier and her family will be sharing as well as members of her legal team. Justina was wrongfully and unjustly removed from her family by Boston Children's Hospital and the State of Massachusetts in 2013 which ignited a national debate as well as a media and political firestorm concerning parental rights, medical abuse and the overreach of courts and governmental agencies. Justina is being represented by the KJC Law Firm in Boston, Massachusetts. Rev. Patrick Mahoney, spiritual advisor and spokesperson for the Pelletier family, states; "For almost 18 months, Justina Pelletier and her family had to endure emotional, physical, spiritual and psychological suffering and pain along with major civil rights violations because of the incompetence, neglect and malpractice of Boston Children's Hospital. "This lawsuit holds Boston Children's hospital accountable for their mistreatment of Justina and will ensure that no child or family ever has to endure again the nightmare the Pelletier family experienced." Lou Pelletier, the father of Justina comments; "It's time for parents and children not to be fearful of going to a hospital with a complicated medical history and worrying that their children might be taken because they don't agree with the diagnosis." Justina Pelletier adds: "This should never happen to another family or child ever again." The KJC Law Firm states; "Lou, Linda, and Justina Pelletier, who ignited national debate and a media firestorm when Justina was, at age fourteen, wrongfully taken from her family by Boston Children's Hospital and officials from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have served a 35 page complaint on Boston Children's Hospital. "The law suit alleges that Alice Newton, M.D., Jurriaan Peters, M.D. and Simona Bujourneau, M.D. committed medical malpractice and violated Justina's and her parents' civil rights when they sought to have her parents' custody rights terminated after the parents refused to agree to Children's Hospital's radical 'treatment plan' for their child." For more information please contact: Rev. Patrick Mahoney 540.538.4741 Share Tweet For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent. Agree "If the president proceeds with knowingly breaking the law ... he will be met with fierce bipartisan opposition here in Congress and we are taking all legal preparations necessary to meet with that resistance," Ryan told reporters. "He can't do it because the law is really clear. I'll just leave it at that." Officers with the Park County Sheriff's Office were heading in after Martin Wirth in Bailey, about 45 miles southwest of downtown Denver shortly before 9:50 a.m. when the gunfire began, the Sheriff's Office said. Cpl. Nate Carrigan, a 13-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office, was fatally wounded and two other officers were shot. Police said they returned fire, shooting and killing Wirth. Best Canadian Blog 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 About Kate Why this blog? Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me "what Canadians think". In all that time they never once asked. This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio - "You don't speak for me." (goes to a private mailserver in Europe) I can't answer or use every tip, but all are appreciated! Katewerk Art Support SDA I am not a registered charity. I cannot issue tax receipts. Reconnaissance Man Economics for the Disinterested ...a fast-paced polar bear attack thriller! Want lies? Hire a regular consultant. Want truth? Hire an asshole. Weather Shop Click to inquire about rates. Dow Jones What They Say About SDA "Smalldeadanimals doesn't speak for the people of Saskatchewan" Former Sask Premier Lorne Calvert "I got so much traffic after your post my web host asked me to buy a larger traffic allowance." Dr.Ross McKitrick Holy hell, woman. When you send someone traffic, you send someone TRAFFIC. My hosting provider thought I was being DDoSed. - Sean McCormick "The New York Times link to me yesterday [...] generated one-fifth of the traffic I normally get from a link from Small Dead Animals." Kathy Shaidle "Thank you for your link. A wave of your Canadian readers came to my blog! Really impressive." Juan Giner - INNOVATION International Media Consulting Group I got links from the Weekly Standard, Hot Air and Instapundit yesterday - but SDA was running at least equal to those in visitors clicking through to my blog. Jeff Dobbs "You may be a nasty right winger, but you're not nasty all the time!" Warren Kinsella "Go back to collecting your welfare livelihood."Michael E. 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System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f02261d0)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0226998)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f02261d0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0226998)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0234260)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0226998)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0226998)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e880cdb8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f01f26c8)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f01f26c8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612ebc228d0)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0299660)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612ebc228d0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0299660)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe3c348)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0299660)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0299660)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e880d088)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f047b560)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f047b560)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0239f10)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f06563a8)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0239f10)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f06563a8)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f01429a8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f06563a8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f06563a8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e880d758)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f081ef68)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f081ef68)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0097e98)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f00fa480)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0097e98)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f00fa480)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0237038)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f00fa480)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f00fa480)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e880ce00)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f00fa720)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f00fa720)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 The European Union is reassessing a cap on bankers' bonuses that has come under heavy criticism from some regulators, especially in the UK, and from the financial industry. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, plans to complete the review of remuneration rules in the bloc's capital rules by mid-year, and will "closely consult all relevant stakeholders and member states" in the process, spokesman Christian Wigand said by email. Senior Bank of England officials have consistently attacked the restriction on bonuses of more than twice fixed pay. Credit:Simon Dawson Senior Bank of England officials have consistently attacked the restriction on bonuses of more than twice fixed pay. Andrew Bailey, a BOE deputy governor, said late last year that the cap is "a piece of bad policy, because it creates the wrong incentives". The commission's review comes after many banks, particularly in the UK, turned to giving employees cash allowances depending on seniority, known as role-based pay, to evade the bonus limit. EU lawmakers adopted strict bonus rules to clamp down on the gambling culture they blamed for triggering the 2008 financial crisis. Royal Bank of Scotland Group and HSBC Holdings were among British banks that responded with allowances. The European Banking Authority shot these down in October 2014, finding that in most cases these discretionary payments were neither fixed nor permanent, and were therefore subject to the bonus limit. Western Areas managing director Dan Lougher says weak nickel prices, which pushed the miner into the red in the first half, could be set to improve as highly leveraged producers mull mine closures. Nickel for delivery in three months is trading at about $US8500 a tonne on the London Metals Exchange, the lowest since 2003, after slumping more than 40 per cent during 2015. Dan Lougher: Western Areas well positioned to take advantage of a price recovery. Credit:Ryan Stuart The price slide pushed Western Areas to an interim net loss of $20 million, weighed down by $12.2 million of write-offs and impairments, compared to a profit of $23.6 million a year earlier. Western Areas scrapped its interim dividend, which was 3 a share last year, and announced its board and management had agreed to take a 10 per cent pay cut from March 1. United States retailer Lowe's has set the scene for legal action against Woolworths after writing down the value of its 33 per cent stake in the companies' home improvement joint venture by $US530 million ($737 million). Lowe's booked a $US530 million charge against its investment in the Masters and Home Timber and Hardware businesses overnight, sending net profits plunging to $US11 million from $US450 million. Lowe's net investment in home improvement is about $US930 million ($1.33 billion at current exchange rates), so the write-down represents more than 56 per cent of the book value of its investment. Woolworths could book impairment charges of at least $1.3 billion if it writes down its 66 per cent stake a similar margin. Parramatta MP Geoff Lee was jeered in parliament on Thursday as he reaffirmed the NSW government's commitment to moving the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta. "The Powerhouse move to Parramatta should not be hampered by politically-driven elitist attacks," he said to the sound of heckling and boos from opposition MPs and the public gallery. During the parliamentary debate triggered by a petition that gathered more than 10,000 signatures last year, Lee also said the government made no apology for funding arts and culture in western Sydney, State politicians displayed their indifference to opponents of the plan to move the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta, with less than one-third turning up to listen to Lee and four other MPs discuss the controversial plan. The Turnbull government has vowed to significantly boost Australia's shipbuilding industry with a "continuous build" of surface warships and a rolling acquisition of submarines. While stopping short of promising to build the submarine fleet at home a decision still be made through the competitive bidding process the government is strongly linking the development of a stronger navy to high-tech Australian jobs. About 1500 jobs have been lost so far across Australian naval shipyards, with Adelaide-based ASC warning recently it risked losing a further 1000 because of the so-called "valley of death" in which work dries up between major projects. Jakarta: The Australian government has warned terrorists may be in the advanced stages of preparing attacks in Indonesia. The updated travel advice on the Department of Foreign Affairs' website smartraveller came as Justice Minister Michael Keenan met Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian to discuss the recent Jakarta attacks and Australia's ongoing efforts with Indonesia to combat terrorism in the region. Mr Keenan said it was likely there would be more attacks in South-east Asia as violent extremists sought to inspire young people to take up their cause. "Indonesia and our neighbours are all targets for [Islamic State]-inspired terrorism in the same way as Australia," Mr Keenan said. Beijing: China "really needs" its defences in the South China Sea in the face of a militarisation process being pushed by the United States, and can deploy whatever equipment it wants on its own soil, China's Defence Ministry said on Thursday. China and the United States have sparred repeatedly over the past week following reports China is deploying advanced missiles, fighters and radar equipment on islands in the South China Sea, especially on Woody Island in the Paracels. Annotated satellite images of Woody Island, the largest of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. A US official confirmed that China has placed a surface-to-air missile system on Woody Island. Credit:AP The United States has accused China of militarising the disputed waters. Beijing, for its part, has been angered by "freedom of navigation" air and sea patrols the United States has conducted near islands China claims in the South China Sea. Jakarta: Two former teachers at the prestigious Jakarta Intercultural School have been re-sentenced to jail for allegedly sodomising three preschool boys, in a decision that will send shock waves through the expat community. Canadian teacher Neil Bantleman and Indonesian teacher's aide Ferdinant Tjiong were sentenced to 10 years in prison last year for molesting the boys between January 2013 and March 2014. The conviction was overturned in the High Court last year and the two men were released in August after nearly a year in jail. But Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi said the Supreme Court had upheld the original ruling in the Jakarta District Court. London: The Dutch Safety Board has dismissed Russia's complaints about its findings on the crash of flight MH17, saying none of the extra 'evidence' that Russia had provided was "new or significant". In October last year, the DSB published a report concluding that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in July 2014 after it was hit by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile. A man walks among the debris at the MH17 crash site near the village of Hrabove, Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Credit:AP A total of 298 people were killed when MH17 was blown out of the sky over eastern Ukraine on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, including 38 who called Australia home. After the report was published, Russia sent a detailed list of complaints to the Board detailing evidence it said the Board had ignored or failed to properly consider. Meet "Cricket" the Southern boobook owl, one of the new feathered attractions at this year's Royal Canberra Show which starts on Friday. While the rides and there are three new ones this year and the showbags are always popular, the animals continue to be crowd favourites, whether it's the racing pigs, the livestock, the young ones in the petting zoo. Bird trainer Ravi Wasan with a rare southern boobook owl aka Mopoke. Credit:Elesa Kurtz New this year is the Feathered Friends free flight bird show from Sydney. Bird trainer Ravi Wasan said the show would feature parrots, birds of prey, cockatoos, macaus and barn owls, which were rehabilitated at its Sydney sanctuary, sometimes after injury, or bred on site. Unprecedented television ratings suggest the AFL's revamped preseason format essentially a series of 27 practice games for no prize is a winner with fans. After six matches in the first year that all games are being televised live, there have already been three national average audiences in excess of 100,000 compared to five from 21 games that rated as highly last year. The opening match of the AFL's rebranded 'NAB Challenge' series between Hawthorn and Carlton attracted the biggest TV audience of the Australian rules warm-up exercise. Credit:Getty Images Friday night's hitout between Fremantle and Richmond also delivered considerably better pay TV ratings than an A-League match, though the combined audience for the Melbourne Victory-Adelaide United clash exceeded the figures for the AFL game. Televised on Fox Footy channel virtually head to head with a contest between the A-League's third and fifth-ranked sides, the Dockers-Tigers game drew an average national audience of 125,000 to be the highest rating program on subscription television channels that day. Some call them weeds, but when Costa Group chief executive Harry Debney looks at blackberries he sees an opportunity to make serious cash. Costa will spend $80 million over four years from 2017 to grow its berries division, which includes blueberries, raspberries and strawberries as global demand continues to grow in double digits. Costa Group chief executive Harry Debney with the company's founder Frank Costa. Credit:Josh Robenstone Shares in Costa leapt as high as 5.2 per cent to $2.65 on Thursday after it doubled its net profit in the six months to December 27 and said full year sales were on track to exceed $1 billion for the first time. Mr Debney said a "reasonable percentage" of the $80 million investment will be spent on developing a new blackberry industry to fuel more growth in coming years. Entrepreneur and adventurer Dick Smith has accused the private equity group that listed the Dick Smith electronics stores in a $520 million public float of "destroying" the business and putting close to 3000 staff out of work after receivers, Ferrier Hodgson, announced it was shutting down the troubled chain. The founder of the original Dick Smith business said he had no interest in buying back the rights to the 'Dick Smith' name or any part of the troubled business. "I haven't been involved for 30 years," he told Fairfax Media. "When I owned Dick Smith it was a company selling electronic components. I've never been involved in consumer electronics I don't know how anyone could make any money out of it," Mr Smith said. Contrarian economist Jonathan Tepper this week re-ignited an age-old debate about whether we are in a property bubble, after raising the alarm bell about Australian house prices. He pointed to data including a surge in household debt, a boom in interest-only lending, and much higher house price to income ratios, and predicted a plunge of up to 50 per cent in Sydney and Melbourne property prices. The economic trends he identified are all true. They have been repeatedly highlighted by bodies such as the Reserve Bank, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, and the International Monetary Fund. Alarming as his claims are, however, it is worth setting them against some other economic trends, which analysts say should dampen some of the fears about the property market. Over the last 20 years or so, I've had the rare opportunity of watching soldiers from numerous countries up close in action, sometimes from the wrong end of a barrel. They've included French foreign legionnaires and Swedish troops in Kosovo, Israeli troops in Gaza, Syrian troops in Lebanon, Cambodian troops on the Thai border, Kenyan troops in Somalia, Pakistani troops in the Federated Tribal Areas, and many of the US and other Coalition forces fighting in Afghanistan. As a journalist, to these soldiers I am a double burden; an unarmed, often ill-equipped target that has to be protected, sometimes fed and transported, as well as a target that may turn on his protectors without warning, when the reporting becomes less favourable. When I had a choice to travel with a particular force in Afghanistan, I always chose Australians. Not through any sense of patriotism, but because they were simply the best on the ground careful, disciplined, compassionate, and practical, they always bore the burden with good humour and grace. And the further you were away from headquarters in Canberra, the more mature and truthful the relationship became, based on mutual, wary respect. The Greens are even worse. Many Greens senators and state MPs have been elected on similar margins over the last 20 years and have only built themselves up into the force they are on the back of minor party preferences. Greens leader Richard Di Natale has shown himself to be the consummate machine politician who is prepared to jettison all the warm and fuzzy rhetoric about inclusion and tolerance that he brings to immigration and environmental debates. When a convenient opportunity arises to legislate competition out of the way in the federal parliament, he doesn't worry about inclusion and tolerance then. These new laws are a game-changer for the Greens. Their hypocrisy is writ larger than Xenophon's. In the 2001 Senate election, Greens Senator Kerry Nettle was elected on 4.36 per cent of the vote with One Nation preferences being the clincher. Of the current batch of Green senators, Janet Rice, Sarah Hanson-Young and Peter Whish-Wilson all needed preferences to get elected in the 2013 Senate election. Then the Greens preferenced the big miner, Clive Palmer, as well as Family First's Bob Day. In a recent interview with Radio National's Fran Kelly, Greens leader Richard Di Natale shot himself in the foot when defending his decision to back the new laws. Claiming that small parties can still get elected under the new rules he cited the case of Senator Glenn Lazarus' vote as a Palmer United candidate. He claimed that he would have been elected under the new laws. In case Di Natale forgot, Clive Palmer threw millions of dollars at that Senate campaign and that is the only way that new minor parties will ever be elected again with a million dollar bankroll. If minor parties are eliminated from the Upper House, it is far from fanciful to predict that the Senate will revert to being the house of the landed gentry where massive money and influence will be what it takes to get a new party off the ground and into Parliament. At that point we could see people like Gina Rinehart, James Packer and Twiggy Forrest developing new Senate parties. And, if this happens, the Greens will have to live with that legacy. So now that things have changed federally, will the Greens start to push for changes at a state level? This will be fascinating to observe. Through their national preference co-ordinator, Luke Edmonds, the Greens have traditionally been the most proficient preference harvesters of all. The back room preference deals the Greens did at the last Western Australian state election put Labor and the Liberals to shame. Hence the Greens demonstrably engaged with preference brokers to stitch up a deal with the Shooters Party. During the Cold War, the US and its Western allies proved more than willing to put their commitments to human rights and democracy on hold in the name of self-interest and anti-communism. In Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, wherever there was superpower competition, there was the trumping of democracy by "the national interest", a slippery term that usually just meant not losing to the presumed machinations of Moscow. Sunnylands gathering. Credit:AP The Sunnylands Special Leaders' Summit, held on February 15-16 between ASEAN member states and the US, shows that China is viewed in much the same way as was the Soviet Union, and that the response from Washington is also going to be similar. The joint statement released by the heads of state/government may not mention China, but it is all about Beijing. Articles 7 and 8 refer to the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, and particularly call out the right of freedom of navigation, overflight and unimpeded maritime commerce. All of these have been, at least to those attending the summit, jeopardised by Beijing's increasingly hawkish claims in the South China Sea, most recently installing surface to air missiles on reclaimed islands presumably to make navigation and overflight considerably less "free". I found no credible evidence that the elderly or disabled were threatened. In fact, spokespeople for these groups explained to me how these laws had empowered their members by offering them a choice about the treatment they could ask for at the end of their life. Another surprise: the tiny number of people who use these laws. In the Netherlands, less than 4 per cent of all people who die a year. In Belgium, less than 2 per cent. And in Oregon? A microscopic 0.5 per cent. As one doctor put it: "I cannot imagine why they would expect an avalanche anywhere. It just turns out that people don't want to die!" Having seen the careful way end-of-life medicine is practised overseas, I wondered how Australia, with no law for assisted dying, compared? Here was the next big surprise. It turns out that, even without a law, doctors here have been assisting people to die for years. Not only did I get this anecdotally from most of the doctors to whom I spoke, surveys down the years confirm it. The only problem is unlike overseas we don't really know how much it is happening. Or whether it's being done well, or for the right reasons, or even with the consent of patients, because the absence of a law here means we have no guidelines, no reporting mechanisms, and no system of review. All we have is doctors doing what they believe is best, depending on their personal beliefs. As Marshall Perron, the former Northern Territory chief minister, put it to me: If you want to have a conspiracy with your doctor to put down grandma and inherit the estate, do it here, because today in Australia a doctor can assist a patient to die with no witnesses, no second opinions and no cooling-off periods. I discovered that, despite having one of the best palliative-care systems in the world, even with optimal care, 20 per cent of Australian palliative care patients spend their last days enduring moderate to severe pain. As a past president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Brendan Nelson, put it, there is "a small group of patients for whom no amount of medical treatment is going to relieve their suffering". The stories I heard about what it is like to be one of those patients were harrowing. Most shocking was this: in Australia today, it is ethically unacceptable for someone in unbearable pain to die quickly and painlessly by taking doctor-prescribed medication, as they do overseas. But it is ethically acceptable for that same person to die slowly and painfully, by refusing all treatment, including food and water, until they dehydrate and starve themselves to death. That's hard to believe, but that's the country in which we live. Why should a competent adult who is dying, and who begs for help to die quickly, be told they have to die slowly instead? There is no good answer to that question. But the bigger worry is that not too many of our politicians want to answer it. Worse, and this was the biggest surprise of all, neither, it seems, do the people at the top of our medical professions. Unlike overseas, where doctors took the lead in framing laws to help people die an honest acknowledgment they were already doing it and that guidelines to protect both them and their patients might be a good idea in Australia, the leadership of the AMA, the Royal College of Physicians, and Palliative Care Australia are all against assisted dying. They won't even poll their members to see if they feel the same way. It's probably no coincidence that the one group of medical professionals who favour assisted dying are the ones who see the suffering up close: nurses. Then, of course, there's us. The patients. For 20 years now, whenever we've been asked if we want a law for assisted dying, more than 70 per cent of us have screamed "yes". Interestingly, when doctors themselves are polled outside the profession, more than 50 per cent of them support assisted dying, too. Yet on policy there's little to differentiate Clinton from Sanders admittedly, that's partly thanks to the latter focusing the debate on economic inequality. Clinton emphasises affordable childcare, Sanders affordable college. The main distinction is tone; he speaks radical change, she steady progress. (A consistent theme for Clinton, whose 1969 Student Commencement Speech at Wellesley College eschewed revolution and extolled "the art of making possible".) Sanders says he'll pursue a Scandinavian-style universal health system and take on Wall Street. Now I would love to be proven wrong in calling such aspirations fairytales. But getting the compromised ObamaCare package through Congress cost the current president all his political capital and turned his hair grey. That he succeeded at all owed something to Hillary's failed attempt at healthcare reform in 1993 during her time as First Lady. Could a female Sanders even exist? Could a little-known, revolution-spouting bubbe (Yiddish for grandmother) with unkempt hair and "authentic" dress sense take off like this? Do women get to be mavericks? In a sitcom, maybe. Set against the Bernie Sanders show, Clinton appears rehearsed, uninspiring and self-obsessed. Here is one of many Hillary paradoxes: a distinguished record brings her to this juncture but, because she has a record, it can be used against her. Critics offset her championing of children's health and education, female reproductive rights and gay rights, with her support for welfare cuts in the 1990s and the Iraq war a decade later. And like a heat-seeking missile, scandal seems to find the Clintons; dubious money trails, private email server, sex (his) and consequent cover-ups (his and hers.) New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has accused Hillary of "killing institutional feminism" in the 1990s. Dowd argues the same older feminists now advocating for Hillary had defended Bill's bad behaviour and stayed mute as his allies "mauled his dalliances as trailer trash and stalkers". ROMEO AND JULIET The Playhouse, Sydney Opera House, February 24. Until March 27 For young audiences studying this tale of doomed love for their HSC, this Peter Evans-directed Bell Shakespeare production has plenty going for it. Big design. Believable and attractive leads. A faithful approach to the text, which is delivered clearly and more or less in full. Alex Williams and Kelly Paterniti in Romeo and Juliet for Bell Shakespeare. Credit:Daniel Boud But for those who have seen Romeo and Juliet a time or two (or five, or more), Evans' hodgepodge of ideas and this production's guttering emotional fires makes the ascent to Shakespeare's familiar tragic peak a bit of a trudge. Monochromatic and moodily lit by Benjamin Cisterne, designer Anna Cordingley's set, a derelict-seeming 19th century-style proscenium with adjacent balconies, is handsomely weighty. A Coalition MP has declared he's never met someone who is homophobic, joining a growing chorus of backbenchers attacking a program designed to support gay, lesbian and transgender school students. Attacking Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's claim that conservative senator Cory Bernardi is homophobic, WA Liberal backbencher Luke Simpkins said Labor had been "reduced to name calling". "The moral trump words of which I speak are terms such as homophobia," Mr Simpkins told the House of Representatives on Thursday. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is under pressure to slap down a conservative Coalition MP who has likened the Safe Schools anti-bullying program to grooming undertaken by sexual predators. Outspoken Queensland backbencher George Christensen on Thursday claimed the program recommends pornographic content, sex shops, sex clubs and adult communities to schoolchildren. He also said it directed students to websites that advise students on sex toys and sadomasochism. He singled out the website of LGBT youth organisation Minus18 for particular criticism. The 30-year-old Sports Illustrated bikini model told People as she promoted new cookbook, Cravings, that she selected a female embryo because she was "excited" to see the 37-year-old pianist "with a little girl". Chrissy Teigen wanted to have a daughter for husband John Legend, so she chose a female embryo when undergoing IVF (in vitro fertilisation), but her open admission has been met with a backlash on Twitter. "I've made this decision," Teigen said. "Not only am I having a girl, but I picked the girl from her little embryo. I picked her and was like, 'Let's put in the girl.' " Chrissy Teigen chose a female embryo so John Legend could have a daughter. Credit:Jason Merritt "I think I was most excited and allured by the fact that John would be the best father to a little girl. That excited me," she added. "It excited me to see just the thought of seeing him with a little girl. I think he deserves a little girl. I think he deserves that bond. A boy will come along. We'll get there too, so it's not like we really have to pick. But he definitely is very lucky to have a little girl. And this girl is going to be so completely lucky to have John as her papa, it's crazy!" But Teigen, who Legend penned hit All of Me about, has been criticised for opting for gender selection, a process which is not available in Australia. Just hours after university student Jamie Gao was allegedly shot dead and stuffed inside a surfboard bag, his girlfriend was desperately trying to call him when someone picked up his phone. The voice said "hello" in Chinese and then hung up. A few minutes later someone sent a text message from Mr Gao's phone. A man has been charged over an alleged street race that killed two students, and critically injured a third on a suburban street in Sydney's west on Wednesday. The three Bangladeshi students were travelling along Canterbury Road in Belmore at roughly 3.40am when their Toyota Aurion crashed into a power pole and "disintegrated", police said. The horrific crash killed the driver Fahim Rahman Aunik, 22, and his passenger Saqlaen Utsha. Another passenger, Rifaat Mustafa, is in a critical condition at St George Hospital. For a moment in Queensland politics on Thursday, a mental health patient and "sex predator" was both "at large in the community" and safely ensconced in a Gold Coast hospital ward. Gold Coast LNP MP Ros Bates targeted Health Minister Cameron Dick during question time to ask whether he was aware a "sexual predator at Robina Hospital was accused of sexually assaulting an intellectually disabled inpatient in the mental health unit has absconded three times from the psychiatric intensive care unit and is currently at large in the community". Mudgeeraba MP Ros Bates. Credit:Harrison Saragossi Fairfax Media understands the Gold Coast Hospital and Health service was inundated with requests for information and photos of the patient, including on its Facebook page, from those concerned a mental health patient and alleged sexual assaulter was on the loose, in an area where a school was within walking distance. That prompted the health service to release a statement, later tabled in Parliament by Mr Dick, that "no mental health patients with a history of sexual offending are absent without permission from our hospitals". A Queensland wildlife hospital has given a koala suffering chlamydia the all-clear after a six-week trial of a new vaccine. The vaccine was developed by a team of researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland with funding from the Redland City Council. Flann the koala is ready to be released back into the wild. Credit:Ben Beaden Professor Peter Timms led the trial, which he described as unique because vaccines are usually given as a preventative rather than a cure. Vaccines against chlamydia had already been tested on healthy koalas with positive results, he said, however the disease remained a threat to koalas in the wild. A Zika-infected central Queensland man had a small window in which he could have spread the virus to other people, according to health officials. There was a chance a mosquito could have bitten him, become infected and passed the virus on. But acting chief health officer Sonya Bennett stressed there was "almost nil" chance of the disease establishing a foothold in the local mosquito population and a "very very low" risk to pregnant women. Authorities were spraying to kill the insects in a 200-metre radius around the city's Globe Hotel and doorknocking nearby residents on Wednesday and Thursday in response to the positive test. Descendants of Diggers who fought in some of World War I's most famous battles are outraged at being banned from marching with their family's battalion banners on Anzac Day, under permanent changes to the parade's format. The new marching order will see descendants of those who served in World War I relegated to the back of the parade, departing for the Shrine of Remembrance some two hours after the annual pilgrimage begins. David Laird says changing the Anzac Day marching order is 'institutionalising forgetfulness'. Credit:Simon Schluter The change coincides with the centenary this year of some of the war's most famous battles, including the Somme and Fromelles. Melbourne's laneways - already the envy of locked-out Sydney and the world - are going next-level with the Notel. The Notel is "not a hotel" but six shiny Airstream trailers corralled on the rooftop of a car park in Flinders Lane. James Fry, owner of Fry's Fast Park, bought six retro Airstream trailers in the US, shipped them to Melbourne at a total cost of $A70,00 each, had them lifted on to the unused rooftop with a crane and is ready to fit them out into five-star accommodation in the $1 million project. And fitting with Melbourne's DNA for hidden laneway gems, there will be street art on the wall that abuts Tonic House and its vibrant rooftop space. A murder accused acted in self defence when he fatally shot a neighbour who was behaving threateningly on his Mandurah front lawn, a court has heard. Damian Degioannis is on trial in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, charged with murdering 42-year-old Adam Hall just before midnight on November 13, 2014. A WA truck driver who fatally struck a tow truck worker who had stopped in an emergency lane has been jailed for 20 months. Defence lawyer Anthony Elliott told the jury in his opening submissions on Thursday the pair had been arguing about a set of motorcycle indicators a few days prior. On the night of the killing, Mr Degioannis was defending himself and his guests against Mr Hall, who had been aggressive and threatened to invade the accused man's home, where several guests were inside, Mr Elliott said. On Thursday, a judge gave the French government a green light to begin destruction, although it is not yet known when demolition will begin. Nearly two weeks ago, French officials announced that as many as 1000 refugees and migrants would be evicted from the Jungle's southern area, its most densely populated sector, and relocated to nearby shelters or to other refugee centres across France. Last week, a group of 200 refugees - along with eight British and French non-governmental associations - filed an injunction to delay destruction, alleging that local officials did not have sufficient alternative plans to house the refugees facing displacement. Although the government has claimed that only about 800 to 1000 refugees will be evicted, a census conducted last week by the organisation Help Refugees estimates that as many as 3400 people from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Syria and other places are living in the Jungle's southern section. This figure includes 445 children, 305 of them living alone without their families. About 445 children live in the area of the camp that will be cleared, says one refugee group. Credit:AP The vast majority of the refugees are desperately waiting for clearance to enter Britain, just over 20 miles from Calais. In their eyes, leaving Calais would mean abandoning their chances to cross the English Channel. "We are pleased," Philippe Mignonet, Calais's deputy mayor, said of the court's decision. "We've been asking for that for ages." As for concrete plans to destroy the camp, Mr Mignonet added that, for now, "it's wait and see." Before any demolition begins, however, the refugees and charitable and relief agencies - including L'Auberge des Migrants, Secours Catholique and Care4Calais - are likely to appeal. Berlin: Two men have been convicted of theft and given suspended sentences in the first trials for the New Year's Eve crimes that rocked the German city of Cologne and made many in Europe and elsewhere question Germany's welcome of refugees. A third suspect was convicted under juvenile law and put on probation. Police lead away a man at Cologne's main train station in January. The New Year's Eve sexual assaults and robberies in Cologne were blamed largely on foreigners. Credit:AP The spate of thefts and assaults on women near Cologne's main station, blamed largely on foreigners, caused public uproar as Germany receives a huge influx of migrants. More than 1000 criminal complaints were filed, more than 400 of those alleging sexual crimes. Peat Resources Limited Investigates New Technology TORONTO, ONTARIO (Marketwired) 02/24/16 Peat Resources Limited (the Company) (TSX VENTURE: PET) announces the evaluation of technology-based initiatives in the mobility space, including gesture recognition, image and motion sensing technology, with the advice of Dr. Samuel Peralta. Previously, the Board announced that it is working with Dr. Peralta to evaluate potential new lines of business and the acquisition of intellectual property, and pursue related initiatives. Dr. Peralta has extensive experience in pivot situations, most recently supporting POET Technologies Inc.s successful pivot from a photovoltaic company to a fabless semiconductor company. We are pleased to investigate gesture recognition, image and motion sensing as a new line of business, said Ms. Patricia Mannard, Chairman and CEO of Peat Resources. Its an area with enormous potential, and could serve as the foundation for a new direction for the company. The gesture recognition and touchless sensing market alone is estimated to reach over $23 billion by 2020, said Dr. Peralta. This industry provides ample room for new technologies. Peat will be further assessing the market segmentation of the mobility space, with intent to deliver recommendations to shareholders as required, and an overview at its upcoming Annual General Meeting. Market Reference: Forward-Looking Information This release includes certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future production, reserve potential, exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that the Company expects are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the statements. There are certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. These include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, investors should review registered filings at . Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Contacts: Peat Resources Limited Patricia Mannard (416) 862-7885 ChristianMingle Helps Churches Serve Their Single Members Through New Partnership Program LOS ANGELES, CA (Marketwired) 02/24/16 announced today a first of its kind, co-branded church initiative enabling single Christians within congregations to easily connect with one another on ChristianMingle through dedicated search capabilities, discounted membership fees and exclusive personalized customer service offerings. Among the early churches partnering with ChristianMingle to offer this unique program to their members are Grace Family Church in Lutz, FL and New Horizon Church International in Jackson, MS. Together, their congregations represent over 10,000 single adults. New Horizon Church International is a congregation that wants to see each of our members have opportunities to make lasting, good relational connections, said Bishop Ronnie Crudup, Senior Pastor of New Horizon. We realize that many of our people are single. But with the help of Christian Mingle, we are excited that we now have the means to include everyone in our effort to assist members in finding significant others. This new program provides partner church members a virtual community within ChristianMingle, allowing them to find other members of their church as well as participate in the broader ChristianMingle community. Through badges on members profiles they are able to highlight their affiliation with their church and search for others. Additionally, members receive discounted subscription rates and exclusive profile-creating support from the trusted Relationship Experts at ChristianMingle. After speaking with numerous pastors about their concern with how their single members are participating in the online dating world, we have worked with them to develop a community that shares their values, said Michael Egan, Chief Executive Officer at Spark Networks. This is an important part of our mission to help single Christians around the world and to promote healthy, happy, Christian-inspired relationships. This is just the first step and we are eager to continue to work with our church partners to help them serve their singles congregations. With over one-third of couples meeting online in the U.S. today, ChristianMingle distinguishes itself by offering the comfort and convenience necessary for meeting like-minded people in todays dating environment. Thanks to its faith-based content and effective and proven dating advice, ChristianMingle is responsible for more Christian marriages than any other dating website, per an independent survey recently conducted by Survata on married Christians attending church at least once per year. As the worlds largest Christian dating site, is a trusted online dating leader with over 15 million like-minded members creating meaningful matches and lasting connections. ChristianMingle is owned and operated by , whose mission is to create iconic, niche-focused brands that build and strengthen the communities they serve. Spark Networks shares trade on the NYSE MKT under the ticker symbol LOV (NYSE MKT: LOV). Sangoma Reports Results for Second Quarter of Fiscal 2016 MARKHAM, ONTARIO (Marketwired) 02/24/16 Sangoma Technologies Corporation (TSX VENTURE: STC), a leading provider of hardware and software components that enable or enhance IP Communications Systems for both voice and data, today announced highlights of its unaudited consolidated interim financial statements for the second quarter of fiscal 2016, ended December 31, 2015. Sales for the second quarter of fiscal 2016 were $5.08 million, 49% higher than the $3.42 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015 and 8% above the prior quarter. I am very pleased with our results this quarter, on both the revenue and EBITDA lines, said Bill Wignall, President and CEO of Sangoma. We have now had four complete quarters since the acquisitions in January of 2015, and it is most encouraging to see the integrated company progressing well. We are seeing larger portions of our sales come from new products, as well as from our expanding recurring revenue and services business. This is exactly what weve planned, as it provides some cushion against softer demand for our older products and support for maintaining our very strong gross margins. All in all, a really solid second quarter, one in which the company generated over $1 million of cash from operations. Gross profit was $3.67 million for the quarter, up 70% from last year and gross margin at 72% was slightly higher than expected. Operating expense for the second quarter was $3.53 million, 71% higher than the same quarter in fiscal 2015 and 10% higher than last quarter. The change year over year is mostly due to the expected spending in the two acquired businesses as well as a slight increase in resources necessary to prepare for the upcoming launch of the companys new IP phone business. EBITDA was $0.41 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2016, up from $0.21 million in the same period last year. Operating income in the second quarter was $0.14 million, up from $0.10 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015. Net income for the second quarter ended December 31, 2015 was $0.08 million ($0.002 per share fully diluted), compared to a net loss of $0.16 million ($0.006 per share fully diluted) for the quarter ended December 31, 2014. Sangoma had working capital of $6.46 million on December 31, up from the $6.36 million on June 30, 2015. The company generated positive cash flow from operations of $1.12 million during the second quarter, resulting in a cash balance of $2.92 million, as the company prepared to fund the earn-outs that were coming in January 2016. President and CEO, Bill Wignall, and CFO, David Moore will host a conference call on Monday February 29, 2016 at 12 noon Eastern Standard Time to discuss the quarterly results. The dial-in number for the call is 1-800-319-4610 (International 1-604-638-5340). Investors are requested to dial in 5 to 10 minutes before the scheduled start time and ask to join the Sangoma call. About Sangoma Technologies Corporation Sangoma is a leading provider of hardware and software components that enable or enhance IP Communications Systems for both telecom and datacom applications. Sangomas data boards, voice boards, gateways, PBX, phone and connectivity software are used in leading PBX, IVR, contact center and data-communication applications worldwide. The product line includes both hardware and software components that offer a comprehensive toolset for deploying cost-effective, powerful, and flexible communication solutions. Founded in 1984, Sangoma Technologies Corporation is publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX VENTURE: STC). Additional information on Sangoma can be found at . Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the future success of our business, development strategies and future opportunities. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning estimates of expected expenditures, statements relating to expected future production and cash flows, and other statements which are not historical facts. When used in this document, the words such as could, plan, estimate, expect, intend, may, potential, should and similar expressions indicate forward-looking statements. Although Sangoma believes that its expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date that the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. Sangoma undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or managements estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other events contemplated by the forward-looking statements will not occur. Although Sangoma believes that the expectations represented by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct as these expectations are inherently subject to business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Some of the risks and other factors which could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements contained in the managements discussion and analysis include, but are not limited to changes in exchange rate between the Canadian Dollar and other currencies, changes in technology, changes in the business climate, changes in the regulatory environment, the decline in the importance of the PSTN and new competitive pressures. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Contacts: Sangoma Technologies Corporation David Moore Chief Financial Officer (905) 474-1990 Ext. 4107 TMK Chooses Entuity to Consolidate Network Management BOSTON, MA and LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (Marketwired) 02/25/16 , the absolute best source of network insight, has been selected by TMK, one of the worlds leading producers of tubular products for the oil and gas industry, to manage their enterprise WAN network. TMK clients include companies such as Shell, AGIP, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum and Lukoil. Keeping a global enterprise network operating at peak efficiency is no easy task. A top supplier of products to oil and gas companies in more than 80 countries worldwide, TMK took on the work of researching and implementing a new network management system that would help them improve overall network operations. Their goals were to increase the satisfaction of TMKs end-users, decrease the number of network-related incidents and shorten the recovery time spent on rectifying network issues. Key to meeting these objectives was moving away from using multiple network management tools, which were resulting in inefficient data collection and correlation methodology. TMK needed to find a network management solution that offered IT infrastructure monitoring with a single integrated product. Entuity network management not only met this requirement, but satisfied other criteria, including topology maps that could cover their entire IT infrastructure, strong root cause analysis, and advanced event management that offered features such as event filters and custom event notifications. Entuity was verified during a two-month proof of concept arranged by their local IT supplier, Unicorns, an Entuity Authorized Partner in Moscow. During the pilot program, there were a few devices that were unique to us and they were quickly added to the Entuity software and put under management. Through this exercise we received dedicated assistance from our local partner Unicorns, as well as a fast response by Entuity support. This gave us the confidence that we were making the right decision in choosing Entuity, said Sergey Korablev, TMK IT Director. Entuity is making a big difference in evolving the efficiency, proactiveness and accuracy of TMKs network management and has helped them enhance their networks service delivery performance and end-user experience. Entuity has helped our IT organization solidly improve the TMK end-user experience, said Sergey. Satisfaction levels are much higher throughout the entire company. , visit entuity.com. Connect with us on , and . Entuity takes the work out of network management. Our highly automated, unified, enterprise-class solution puts deep network insight at your fingertips, frees IT staff to focus on strategic projects, and easily integrates with major frameworks and networking environments. Entuitys support and services teams are frequently praised for their rapid response, networking expertise and involvement in special engagements. Founded in 1997 by two senior-level IT executives from the financial industry, Entuity is headquartered in London with US operations in Boston. For more information, visit . Entuity is a registered trademark and SurePath is a trademark of Entuity, Ltd. All other marks and names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. Laurie Azaria Klausner Entuity +1.508.357.6344 Ext. 17 Pyramid Analytics Announces New Partnership With Minburn Technology Group LLC, to Support US Government and Healthcare Customers SEATTLE, WA (Marketwired) 02/25/16 , creator of BI Office, the next-generation business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) platform for enterprises, today announces , LLC as a certified partner to support Pyramid Analytics growth and distribution needs for US Federal, State and Local government customers. Minburn now makes Pyramids products available on the NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement V () Government-Wide Acquisition Contract, which allows all federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, to obtain the latest information technology and associated services. This new partnership with Pyramid Analytics perfectly complements Minburns coveted designation as a Microsoft Licensing Solutions Provider (LSP, formerly known as a LAR), said Tony Colangelo, Minburns CEO and owner. As Microsofts only SDVOSB LSP (Service-Disabled, Veteran-owned, Small Business), Minburn is a prime contractor for more than 30 Microsoft Enterprise Agreements with US Government customers. Those same customers have need for a world-class Business Intelligence and Analytics platform like the one that Pyramid offers. The addition of Minburn Technology Group to the Pyramid Analytics vibrant partner ecosystem is a strategic alliance to support the expansion of Pyramids distribution options, overall success, and presence in the Public Sector markets. Minburn enables customers the contracting options to easily procure products like , so Pyramid can continue to help our customers transform into truly data-driven organizations throughout the world, said Greg Cooper, Senior Vice President, Pyramid Analytics. With the demand growing for scalable, curated data discovery solutions that can also provide robust self-service tools, Pyramid Analytics and Minburn Technology Group have a harmonious mission to help IT professionals and decision makers throughout the world succeed in becoming world-class data-driven organizations. Minburn Technology Group and Pyramid Analytics will be at in Las Vegas on March 1st, 2016. Pyramid Analytics gives professionals what they need to analyze, monitor, and report data, so they gain prompt and undisputed insight about their business. Hundreds of thousands of users, in large public and private enterprises, rely on Pyramid Analytics to make and communicate sound decisions, convincingly. The companys flagship suite, BI Office, is a turnkey, enterprise analytics platform, with fast-performing integrated functionality, that makes it easy to self-serve and share trusted BI content. BI Office enables rapid connectivity of new data sources, on-the-fly data preparation, and interactive visualizations, through an intuitive and familiar interface. Pyramid Analytics combines the simplicity and agility that business and IT users want, with the enterprise-class security and governance that organizations need. Pyramid Analytics clients successfully expand the reach of BI value and scale user adoption via governed collaboration and sharing of dashboards, reports, and advanced analytics across departmental and company boundaries, to all types of user, on any device. Pyramid Analytics talented teams are based in operational centers across the US, UK, and EMEA. To learn more, visit and follow us on Twitter at @, and on . : Leveraging long standing relationships with the industrys leading technology vendors, Minburn Technology Group specializes in providing solutions to the U.S. Federal Government including civilian agencies, Department of Defense organizations, and the Intelligence Community. Founded in 2010 and located in Virginia, Minburn has been certified by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Center for Veterans Enterprise (CVE) as a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). Minburn holds a GSA IT Schedule 70 contract in addition to its SEWP V Group B-SDVOSB contract. Contact: Laura E. Peterson Kauf und Ubertragung einfach und sicher Uns vertrauen Kunden weltweit By Jillian Carapella | February 17, 2016 Tempe Council approves ordinance to help end animal cruelty through unethical dog breeders Jillian Carapella is a sophomore journalism student at Arizona State University. Her primary interests are business journalism and public relations, and hopes to one day live and work in New York City. Tempe City Council unanimously approved an ordinance this Thursday prohibiting animals to be obtained by unethical breeders. Around 40 valley residents attended the council meeting to voice their passionate approval and disapproval for this issue; some so passionate that Mayor Mark Mitchell had to remind the audience to be respectful toward everyone. The ordinance had an approximate 3:1 approval among residents who voiced opinions on the matter, most telling heartfelt stories of cruel neglect theyve witnessed from questionable breeders. 55-year-old Phoenix resident Sherrie Buzby spoke dynamically in front of the council, painting a verbal picture of what its like to walk inside of a puppy mill. Theres no picture that can describe being in a puppy mill, said Buzby. The abuse was so extreme that the animals didnt even have a name; they had no value of any kind but a financial gain. According to Councilwoman Lauren Kuby, Tempe is now the 120th city in the U.S. to pass this ordinance, calling this decision the right side of history. The new legislation states that puppies can only be obtained from an animal shelter, nonprofit humane society or nonprofit animal rescue foundation, with violation resulting in a penalty of up to $500. Im super excited that our government works, said Buzby. It gives me great encouragement to keep fighting for what I believe. Some attendees believe that not only are puppy mills unethical, but they also increase the problem of canine overpopulation. According to Councilwoman Kuby, Arizona even has the second highest euthanasia rate in the U.S. While the majority of residents were thrilled about the result of the ordinance, others were emotional for opposite reasons. (Tempe City Council) shouldve done their homework to properly investigate the situation instead of just writing an outright ban, Animal Healthcare Supervisor for pet stores, Animal Kingdom and Puppies n Love, Michelle Braun said. I get to meet those dogs, and in no way are they from a puppy mill. Braun was not alone in her stance. Others employed by these companies also claimed the pet stores are ethical. A Puppies n Love customer even brought his dog to the meeting to demonstrate how the stores puppies are in no way sickly. Despite this, the council had reviewed data prior to the meeting and determined that USDA standards which govern these facilities, appear to be substandard and inadequately enforced, and that commercial breeders do not meet commonly recognized national best practices for breeding standards, according to the ordinance. We want to make sure our animals are humane, and the city should do the right thing, said Councilman Joel Navarro. Several attendees also believed the lack of transparency among these pet stores proved to be an issue. Councilwoman Kuby even pointed out how there are no set standards for these stores, and sufficient and adequate care doesnt demonstrate high enough ideals. Once youre exposed from this information you cant just walk away from it, said Buzby. Something had to be done. February 24, 2016 PHOENIX On February 19, 2016, the Maricopa County Assessors Office will send out approximately 1.6 million valuation notices for tax year 2017 to all property owners in Maricopa County. Positive, but modest growth continues four year upward trend in single-family residential properties, with an increase in the median Full Cash Value (FCV), of 4.38 percent. This appreciation brings the median single-family FCV up to approximately $181,300 in Maricopa County. Business to Business DREAMING BY DESIGN - The Professiomal Landscaping Service thats family owned & operated for 20+ years that serves the valley and does EVERYTHING ! We have the experts with expertise in Tree Trimming, Pavers, Travertine, Flagstone, Water Features, Lighting, Artifical Grass, Putting Greens, Fire Pits, Out Door Kitchens, BBQs,Custom Gates, Block Fences, Maintenance & much more. You name it, we can do it. Check out Dreaming by Designs ads in the Business Directory of this paper. More info call Dreaming by Design today 602-413-4370 or visit www.dreamingbydesignllc.com. SMILE DESIGN SPECIALIST - Dr. Devi is the dental specialist you can trust for all of your dental needs. Dr. Devi has the highest standards of care for Cosmetic Dentistry, Implant Dentistry and Prosthodontics. Their office is located at 34597 N. 60th Street, Scottsdale. Call 480-488-9655 for an appointment or visit www. drdevi.com. ICEMAN COOLING & HEATING says it wont be long until the Summer heat is back, so be sure to take advantage of their special offers: $25 AC Tune up ($79 value Save $54 includes 39 point inspection), and their Huge Blowout Sale on all units and financing with payments starting at $45 per month. Schedule a Free Estimate Today by calling 480-466-4921. DYNAMIC DOOR SERVICE - Is a Professional owned Garage Door Repair Service that has been serving the North Valley for more than 28 years. They have knowledgeable technicians, and 24 hour emergency service. They are the solution to all Residential and Commerical Garage Door problems, regardless of how simple or complex they may be. Services include: Garage Door Spring replacement, Installation, Panel replacement and Maintenance. 5% Off with Sonoran News Ad. Free quote call Derrick at 480-451-1931. For more info visit dynamicgaragedoorrepair.com. GALAXY CLEANING SERVICES - Our Service is Out of this World and a Step above the rest. Customer Satisfaction is our #1 Priority! No job is too BIG or too small. We service Mansions, Penthouses, Residential Homes, Motor Homes and Apartments. Affordable, Dependable & Owner Operated. Rates are Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly & Move In/Out. We serve Carefree, Cave Creek, Tramonto, Anthem, Desert Hills, Terravita, Troon, Scottsdale & more. 10% Off First Visit. Free quote call Jami 602-944-9000 or visit cleaningbygalaxy.com. GARRETTS HANDYMAN & Remodel Solutions - says Hire a Trustworthy USMC Veteran. He believes No Job is Too Big or Too Small. Specializing in most all Handyman services such as Tile, Painting, Drywall, Welding, Excavation, Tractor Maintenance for Horse Property & much more. Reasonable prices. Call 480-600-6605 or email garrettcontractingllc@gmail.com. AFFORDABLE COMPUTER HELP - Is your Computer Crashing, Have Slow Internet Brousing, Email Viruses, PC Needs Tune- Up? Dont Unplug That Computer....Mark Gogan can Help and he will come to you with his mobile service. Mark has 30 years of Reliable, Honest, Dependable, Computer Support Experience. Call Mark Today at 480-720-0233 for FAST MOBILE SERVICE or visit www.affordable-help.com. OUT WEST FURNITURE & UPHOLSTERY just received a Large Gallery Style Leather shipment including Sofas, Chairs, Sectionals and Loveseats. Also in stock are Leather Headboards, Dining Tables, Cocktail and End Tables all Custom Handmade by local artists in the U.S.A. Out West will pickup, repair and refurbish your furniture. Offering designs by Beverly Sexton and Upholstering by Robert Sexton. Stop by their beautiful showroom at 38252 W. Jacqueline Drive in Cave Creek. Call 480-575-8000 or visit www.outwestinteriors.com. February 24, 2016 JTEDs to receive nearly full funding from state Legislature nixes $30 million cut for technical career education Phoenix After a coordinated lobbying campaign by parents, students, teachers, school leaders and the business community, the Legislature on Wednesday reversed course and eliminated a $30 million cut to the states Joint Technical Education Districts. Last year, legislators inexplicably changed state law to reduce funding to the 14 JTEDs by $30 million or about 45 percent of state dollars beginning in next years budget. However, the districts worked hard to convince legislators and Gov. Doug Ducey the money is needed to keep the schools open to as many students as possible. The lobbying efforts by the JTED Consortium included a strong assist from the states business community. Chambers of commerce across Arizona joined together to convince legislators to reverse the drastic cut. SB1525 now awaits Gov. Duceys signature. The bill has an emergency clause, immediately reversing the cut set to begin July 1. I want to thank the many legislators who came to our defense and fought to ensure the opportunity for high-quality career and technical training for over 100,000 students, said Dr. Alan Storm, the superintendent of the Pima County JTED. Legislators heard the stories of many successful students who participated in our programs and have decided to eliminate the $30 million cut in the funding so we can continue to provide the Arizona business community with a ready workforce, Jeramy Plumb, the superintendent for the Mountain Institute JTED. The 14 JTEDs serve children throughout much of the state and allow high school students to learn valuable skills that lead directly to employment after graduation. Students receive their core education at their home high schools and then attend a JTED program on their high school campus or a local, central campus where they obtain cutting-edge, hands-on training in a wide variety of technical careers such as airline maintenance, auto repair, construction services and more. So many legislators fought for us but none more so than Sen. Don Shooter, Western Maricopa Education Center Superintendent Gregory Donovan said. He understood our needs and the value JTEDs provide. His resolute commitment to restoring the funding for JTEDs pushed the issue to the forefront at the Legislature. February 24, 2016 Thunderbird Artists 21st Annual Carefree Fine Art & Wine Festival set for February 26 28 Juried show features a variety of fine art, live music, wine tastings and more CAREFREE, Ariz. A silversmith and sculptor who create colorful inlay and carved-stone fine jewelry are just some of the more than 100 accomplished fine artists from throughout the country who will exhibit and sell their original pieces of art during Thunderbird Artists 21st Annual Carefree Fine Art & Wine Festival, taking place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday, February 26 28, along Ho Hum and Easy Streets, in downtown Carefree. Were pleased to showcase such a high caliber of talented artists in this juried show, said Denise Dale, Thunderbird Artists vice president. Some of the artists participating only attend a few shows a year, making this a rare chance to meet them. The festivals featured artists, Turza and Andrew Shows, reside in the mountains of New Mexico, 70 miles southeast of Gallup, where they create beautiful, contemporary southwestern inlay jewelry. We both were former art teachers a long time ago, and weve been working together creating jewelry for 38 years, Turza Shows said. Their home and studio is located on 42 acres near the Zuni and Ramah Navajo Indian Reservations, providing a serene setting for their creativity. They find inspiration from the bears, wolves, ravens, owls, coyotes and other natural elements surrounding them. Andrew carves the images, which is a long and tedious process, Turza said. Im the silversmith, handling all of the metalwork and polishing. The talented couple has been exhibiting their necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, bolo ties and more at Thunderbird Artists shows for more than two decades. If youve driven through Cave Creek, youre already familiar with Mark Carrolls work. Yes, hes that sculptorthe talented artist whose captivating stainless steel horse sculptures were installed on Cave Creek Road near both entrances into town in 2014. This is the first year that Carroll, a Cave Creek resident, is participating in Thunderbird Artists shows, giving patrons a chance to see his metal and stone sculptures up close. Patrons will have a chance to view his life-size steel horse sculptures as well as table-top stone carvings. Guests to the festival also can participate in world-class wine tasting. For $10, patrons will receive an engraved souvenir wine glass and six tasting tickets. Additional tickets may be purchased for $1. A vast array of domestic and imported wines will be available from wineries including: D.A. Ranch, Javalina Leap, King Frosch, Oak Creek Vineyards, PRP, Schlossadler International, Sogno Toscano, Su Vino and Desert Diamond Distillery. Admission to the Carefree Fine Art & Wine Festival is $3 for adults, and free for children 17 years or younger. Parking is free all weekend. For more information, call 480-837-5637 or visit www.ThunderbirdArtists.com. MULLET OVER BY JAMES K. WHITE | February 24, 2016 It's been awhile... Guest Editorial By Lawrence SELLIN , PHD | February 24, 2016 The 2016 election for dummies Part 2 On August 5, 2015, I wrote: The two most important issues of the 2016 election are non-partisan. (1) The federal government and the media are, as institutions, hopelessly corrupt. (2) The United States has elections, but we no longer have representative government. None of the problems facing the country can be solved effectively without first confronting those two issues. Those words still ring true and any candidate addressing those issues directly could capture the majority of voters on both sides of the political center. Many Americans now believe that we are no longer citizens of a republic, but subjects of a reigning oligarchy composed of a self-absorbed permanent political class, which services the interests of wealthy financiers at the expense of the wider population. They maintain their authority by an ever-expanding and increasingly intrusive government and use a compliant media to manipulate public perception and opinion in order to maintain the illusion of democracy. To maintain control, both Democrats and Republicans have fostered a culture of dependency. Democrats create dependency by expanding federal mandates and increasing entitlements. Republicans promote dependency by limiting voter choice and co-opting or crushing independent candidates and grass roots political movements. To sustain itself, the corrupt political-media establishment has the power to suppress the truth or interfere with honest inquiry by false authoritative pronouncements or by manipulating the news through the release of misleading information. On January 2, 2014, I called for a "political insurgency" because there are no untainted elections, there is no rule of law, there is no means to petition elected officials or the courts for the redress of grievances and there is no independent press to challenge governmental abuse. In other words, all the traditional avenues to fight the corrupt practices of political expediency and crony capitalism have been blocked. Democrat pollster Pat Caddell recently noted that the 2016 election "is not about ideology, not about issues, it's about insurgency... The system is on the verge of coming apart...The politicians in Washington aren't going to be able to put the genie back in the bottle." According to Caddell, such conditions are largely responsible for the rise of non-political-consultant-class candidates like Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders as well as the weakness of those considered establishment candidates. The political insurgency feature of the 2016 campaign would also explain the fragmentation of the conservative moment. Like the Republican Party in general, American conservatism appears to be fully and openly untethered from any principles. Like the Constitution, conservatism is now whatever you want it to be, and for most but not all, whatever is politically expedient in the pure pursuit of power. The internal conflicts within the conservative movement have widened the already existing fissures, roughly dividing it into three groups: status quo, zealots and anti-establishment nationalists. Status quo conservatives are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican establishment. They are the inhabitants of the House of Representatives Freedom Caucus, who provide a convenient venting mechanism as a substitute for meaningful political reform or opposition to Democrat legislation. They are the political pundits ensconced in the hallways of the National Review, the Weekly Standard, the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, who, during every election cycle, help dress up Republican establishment candidates in appropriate conservative clothing. Conservative zealots tend to espouse a multitude of widely varying conservative "values," but, in practice, often consider Constitutional principles as optional and disposable components, when political expediency requires it. In an effort to resurrect Ronald Reagan, the zealots tend to produce candidates that more resemble Frankenstein. A growing constituency of the fragmented conservative movement is the anti-establishment nationalists, which comprises the largest fraction of Donald Trump supporters. These voters are more insurgents than conservatives and are unlikely to respond to classical conservative or establishment Republican arguments. It is this constituency that is most likely to attract disaffected Democrats and has the greatest potential for disruptive political innovation. Stay tuned. Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a retired colonel with 29 years of service in the US Army Reserve and a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. Colonel Sellin is the author of "Restoring the Republic: Arguments for a Second American Revolution. He receives email at lawrence.sellin@gmail.com. Guest Editorial By Dr. Caleb Verbois | February 24, 2016 Scalia and the Constitution I had the great privilege to hear Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speak on three separate occasions and once to meet him in person after hearing him announce a decision. You can learn a lot about someone by reading his or her work, but some things have to be seen to be fully understood. Scalia was known for his public role as an associate justice and a staunch originalist. But he should be appreciated for much more than thatas a man with a genuinely wonderful sense of humor, as a man who loved his family, and who loved God. However, most of us only really know Scalia through his public work on the Supreme Court, and his insightful, sometimes biting opinions. Scalia was an originalist but he was very careful to define what he meant by that. To understand the Constitution as an originalist did not mean reading it strictly, or narrowly, or as a Republicanit meant recognizing that the Constitution was written by 18th century men in a particular time, context, and with a particular meaning. As an example, Scalia noted that if it were not cruel and unusual in the 1790s to sentence a convicted murder to the death penalty, then the Constitutions ban on cruel and unusual punishment in the Eighth Amendment should not be read as banning the death penalty. That, for Scalia, was an easy question for an originalist to answer. There are much harder questions and Scalia would have been among the first to recognize that originalism has its weaknesses. He once wrote an essay titled Originalism: The Lesser Evil. But he long maintained that it was, quite literally, the only possible way of reading the Constitution for two important reasons. First, originalism requires careful historical and legal reasoning to determine what the terms and language of the Constitution meant when it was written. As Scalia loved to say, that sort of research is literally the only thing lawyers are particularly good at. The second reason Scalia said originalism was essential is because to read it any other way, as a living document or an aspirational text, is to expect lawyers to be something quite different than what they areto expect them to be moral philosophers or policy makers. And really, Scalia asked with a twinkle in his eye, who would pick nine lawyers to be moral philosophers? For Scalia, the only justification for the Supreme Courts power of judicial review to strike down laws that violate the Constitution is that the Constitution has a specific meaning that we can know. If not, there is a real problem. By what authority can the Supreme Court strike down a democratically passed law, if not by an appeal to a specific, clear meaning of the Constitution? That is why Scalia said that moving to any method of interpretation other than originalism would, in the end, destroy the Constitution. If justices are not bound to a specific understanding of the Constitution, we should not pick them on their legal qualifications. We should pick them based on their politics. Scalia was confirmed to the court unanimously in 1986, despite being known as a conservative. He liked to say that would never happen now, because the Senate has realized if they are not picking originalist judges, they are picking people to be judges who will behave rather like senators. Given the politicized nature of the Supreme Court, it is no surprise that Washington is already squabbling over Scalias replacement, less than 48 hours after his death. Democrats are already declaring that Republicans are duty bound to confirm Obamas replacement. Senator Chuck Schumer has been particularly insistent on this. But this is nonsense. Democrats have made it quite clear in the 30 years since Scalia was confirmed that a confirmation hearing is no longer a sure thing, and candidates should be evaluated on their record and method of interpretation. Moreover, no justice has been appointed and confirmed in an election year since 1940. Senator Schumer, in his rush to insist Republicans rubber stamp Obamas appointee, has apparently forgotten his own promise in 2007 when George W. Bush was president, that We should reverse the presumption of confirmation. Scalia was right about the danger that the appointment of justices to the Supreme Court would be politicized if the court itself came to be seen as a political instrument. That, I think, is why it is so important that Scalias successor think about the Constitution as Antonin Scalia did: that is, as a document with a knowable, if imperfect, historical meaningas an originalist. Dr. Caleb Verbois is an assistant professor of political science at Grove City College and an affiliated scholar at the John Jay Institute. He teaches American Politics and Political Theory and specializes in American constitutional thought. February 24, 2016 Border Report Wellton Station Border Patrol Agents arrest 10, seize more than 400 pounds of marijuana Wellton Station Border Patrol agents arrested 10 illegal aliens Feb. 21, caught in the act of smuggling 414 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. from Mexico. Agents assisted by Air and Marine Operations encountered the group traveling through the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge near Yuma Sectors forward operating base, Camp Grip. The drugs are worth an estimated $207,000. All subjects and drugs will be processed per Yuma Sector guidelines. CBP Officers seize $94,000+ in methamphetamine Customs and Border Protection officers arrested a Mexican national for an alleged attempt to smuggle more than 31 pounds of methamphetamine, valued in excess of $94,000, through the Port of Nogales Feb. 19. Officers at the Dennis DeConcini crossing referred Reyna Michelle Navarrete-Leon, 21, for further inspection of her Ford sedan when she attempted to enter the U.S. During the inspection, a CBP narcotics-detection canine alerted officers to the presence of drugs within the vehicles rocker panels. Officers seized the drugs and vehicle, and turned Navarrete over to Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations. Federal law allows officers to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of charges for criminal activity without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless and until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Douglas CBP Officers seize $178K in marijuana Customs and Border Protection officers at the Raul Hector Castro Port of Entry in Douglas arrested a Mexican national on Feb. 17 for an alleged attempt to smuggle more than 355 pounds of marijuana worth nearly $178,000. Officers arrested Miguel Angel Ramos-Joy, 27, after finding multiple packages of marijuana during an inspection of his Ford truck. Officers seized the drugs and vehicle, and turned Ramos over to Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations. Federal law allows officers to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of charges for criminal activity without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless and until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Nogales CBP Officers seize $274K in cocaine TUCSON, Ariz. ustoms and Border Protection officers arrested a Mexican national for an alleged attempt to smuggle more than $274,000 worth of cocaine through the Port of Nogales Feb. 16. Officers at the Dennis DeConcini crossing referred Luis Arturo Lopez-Illingworth, 31, for further inspection of his Chevrolet SUV when he attempted to enter the U.S. as a SENTRI cardholder. After a CBP narcotics-detection canine alerted to drugs within the vehicles dashboard, officers removed more than 26 pounds of cocaine. After revoking his SENTRI privileges and seizing the vehicle and drugs, officers turned Lopez over to Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations. Nogales CBP Officers seize $8.5M in marijuana U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Mariposa Commercial Facility seized more than $8.5 million in marijuana approximately 17,060 pounds from a Mexican national Feb. 12 when he attempted to enter the United States through the Port of Nogales. Officers discovered the drugs within six palletized boxes identified as aircraft parts in a tractor-trailer driven by Gerardo Cruz, 23, of Colonia La Mesa, Sonora, Mexico, following an alert by a CBP narcotics-detection canine. Officers seized the entire shipment and referred Cruz to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations. Nogales Port Director Guadalupe Ramirez praised the efforts that resulted from this seizure. Near record seizures such as this are the result of a combined effort by our officers, canine, and technology. Ramirez concluded, This seizure represents the second largest marijuana interception in Arizonas port history; the most significant marijuana seizure was more than 20k pounds in November of 2013. Federal law allows officers to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of charges for criminal activity without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless and until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. CBP's Office of Field Operations is the primary organization within Homeland Security tasked with an anti-terrorism mission at our nations ports. CBP officers screen all people, vehicles and goods entering the United States while facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel. Their mission also includes carrying out border-related duties, including narcotics interdiction, enforcing immigration and trade laws, and protecting the nation's food supply and agriculture industry from pests and diseases By Linda Bentley | February 24, 2016 MCSO arrests Cave Creek burglary suspect CAVE CREEK On Feb. 11, Maricopa County Sheriffs deputies arrested Jack Lawrence Coey, 22 and charged him with burglary in the second degree, a class 3 felony. Jack Coey Coey, who was said to be living with his father on Egret Street in Cave Creek, is suspected of being involved in a rash of recent thefts and burglaries in the neighborhood, including reports of incidents on Egret Street, Blue Ridge and Hidden Valley drives. With ties to Anthem and New River, Coey was apparently arrested while in the act of stealing bicycles in the Anthem area. Coey was previously arrested in 2011 for dangerous drug possession for sale, a class 4 felony, and a drug paraphernalia violation, a class 6 felony. In a plea agreement, Coey pled guilty to an amended count of solicitation to commit possession of dangerous drugs for sale. The Maricopa County Attorneys Office agreed to dismiss the drug paraphernalia charge and not to allege the weight of the drugs exceeded the threshold. Coey was sentenced to two years probation, a fine of $1,840, directed not to consume any substances containing alcohol, complete 360 hours of community service and participate in counseling, as directed by the Adult Probation Department. Coey was arrested on dangerous drug and paraphernalia violations again in 2012 and, after failing to appear for a court appearance in 2012, a warrant was issued for Coeys arrest and a probation revocation hearing was set. On Aug. 29, 2012, Coey pled guilty to an amended count of possession of drug paraphernalia as a class 6 undesignated felony, which means it can later be reduced to a misdemeanor, with the dangerous drug violation dismissed. Coey was sentenced to 18 months probation to run concurrent with his prior probation order. In addition, Coey was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service, substance abuse counseling and pay a fine of $1,380 to the Arizona Drug Enforcement Fund. Coey was released from probation on Feb. 28, 2014. By Linda Bentley | February 24, 2016 Cave Creek may also be the town too tough to describe CAVE CREEK During Tuesday nights Call to the Public, Carole Perry thanked the town on behalf of the Sonoran Arts League for removing all the barricades and opening traffic lanes during the Hidden in the Hills event. Attorney Craig Simon spoke on behalf of the Roadhouse and Hideaway to let council know about an event coming up that weekend, which he said was a showcase for custom motorcycle builders. Craig Simon (l) and Mark Bradshaw Simon said there would be a shuttle from the Roadhouse to the Hideaway and other businesses, such as Harolds, agreed to allow for overflow parking during the event. He said there would be no on-street parking and everything should go smoothly. Later, answering questions, Hideaway and Roadhouse owner Mark Bradshaw seemed to surprise council when he said this was the 18th year hes been hosting the event, adding it is a much smaller event than Bike Week. Although Town Manager Peter Jankowski indicated both traffic lanes would be open in both directions through town during the event, Bradshaw said that wasnt really possible because of the construction project and there are not two lanes available. Based on advice received from Town Attorney Bill Sims during the executive session held before the public meeting, council voted unanimously to have him review the towns ordinances, definitions and home occupation statutes as they pertain to issues that have arisen at 41355 N. Fleming Springs Road. The property has been the subject of a long-time neighborhood feud over the use of the residential property for a commercial auto repair business. Mayor Vincent Francia When Mayor Vincent Francia called for public comment, Kerry Smith said it was hard to comment without knowing what the options were and seemed backwards. He said the concern was over the operation of a commercial business in a residential neighborhood and Smith recalled the last time the issue was before council there was supposed to be a mediation held between the owners and neighbors. Smith said the issue hasnt been resolved and instead they have added more vehicles to the property. Francia advised Kerry in order for mediation to be successful both parties need to sit at the table. However, he said that didnt happen. According to Francia, the issue has been festering for about five years, began in 2008 when the town allowed home occupations and has been an ongoing topic brought up during Office Hours with the Mayor and Vice Mayor. Councilman Mark Lipsky advised citizens, We take the issue very seriously and aim to get to a resolution that works. Councilman Thomas McGuire said revoking their home occupation permit was a start. Councilman Dick Esser said the issue involves private property rights. However, promises the owners made to remove vehicles hasnt happened. Councilwoman Susan Clancy said, The majority of us believe in private property rights, and the town is seeking a solution that wont have unintended consequences. Councilman Ernie Bunch said the situation arose from a business becoming too successful, which, in turn, led to ignoring the conditions of their home occupation permit. He said the issue was then exasperated by the neighbors and has become an unfortunate situation. Council voted unanimously to take over administration of the median banner program from the Cave Creek Merchants and Events Association (CCMEA). CCMEA Treasurer Marc Peagler said he was there to answer any questions about the program. Vice Mayor Steve LaMar As a follow up to a meeting held about 90 days earlier, Vice Mayor Steve LaMar said the appearance of the banners has not improved and the agreement currently in place does not address any of the issues raised. Jankowski stated there were definitely quality issues with the banners. Peagler told council hes never liked the program, which was supposed to generate a revenue stream for CCMEA, and said, Its just not happening. He went on to say, Its an administrative nightmare for us. LaMar said, We want to make sure our medians are a plus, not a minus, indicating the program could be done away with altogether if staff finds it to be too big a burden. Bunch said the intention of the program, and the only reason he voted for it, was to create revenue so CCMEA wouldnt have to come to council every year for money. Lipsky asked to have the four-day versus five-day work week placed on the agenda. He said he understood why the four-day work week happened and when it happened but didnt understand why it became permanent. Francia said it was implemented in 2008 as a cost-saving measure but then staff preferred the four-day week and the community seems to have accepted it. Just to be clear, when the town went on a four-day work week during the economic downturn in 2008, employees hours were cut from 40 to 32. So, it wasnt just a matter of saving on utilities by closing an extra day. There was substantial savings from the reduction in payroll. When the town got back on its feet and reinstated the 40-hour work week, employees decided they still preferred to be on a four-day work week and they began working four 10-hour days. Esser claimed the four-day week saves the town a minimum of $20,000 per year. He also said some employees, after their hours were reduced, took on second jobs. He said returning to a five-day week would conflict with their other job. Esser went on to say due to the lack of affordable housing in the area, many employees commute and the four-day week saves them money. He said 28 of Arizonas 91 cities and towns are on a four-day week, including 12 small cities and towns. However, no one clarified if any of those cities and towns were on 32-hour or 40-hour weeks or if their town or city halls were open four or five days. Bunch stated it saves money and is looked upon as a perk by employees while the extended hours town hall is open are a benefit to those who conduct business with the town. He said, Over the years people have become accustomed to it. Clancy said she expected to see an analysis and didnt have enough information to make a decision. She said, I cant make a decision based on nothing. LaMar said, I dont know if it was permanent or not but it works. Francia agreed. Lipsky said he had no desire to change it, just thought it needed discussion and stated, We just had it. Council adjourned the regular meeting and convened a work study session on the general plan, to which Francia stated they would devote an hour. Most of that hour, after correcting some poor sentence structure, became a lively discussion about what Western means and what the existing lifestyle is in Cave Creek. It became clear that the town too tough to govern may also be the town too tough to describe. Council got to the section titled Public Participation Program Goals when Lipsky said he didnt think the town did enough to encourage people to attend council meetings. Francia said when people think council is doing a good job they often dont feel a need to show up. He noted they arent afraid to show up or file referendums when they disagree. Lipsky insisted the town should do more to encourage additional public participation. Council got through nine pages when it adjourned and another work study session was subsequently scheduled for Monday, Feb. 22. At 6 p.m. February 24, 2016 District Court denies temporary restraining order against federal voter registration form proof of citizenship requirements FAIRFAX, Va.Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning issued the following statement praising U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Richard Leon's decision to deny a temporary restraining order against the Election Assistance Commission's federal voter registration form's proof of citizenship requirements for Alabama, Georgia and Kansas in the case League of Women Voters v. Newby: "Americans for Limited Government praises Judge Richard Leon for his wise decision to uphold, for now, the federal voter registration form that includes proof of citizenship requirements for Alabama, Georgia and Kansas. Leon's denial of a temporary restraining order against the independent Election Assistance Commission, who made the form, is a victory for the rule of law, and a striking defeat for the Justice Department and its sue and settle racket. "Attorney General Loretta Lynch and her crew of liberal legal henchmen conspired against the Election Assistance Commission by attempting to deny it legal counsel when the federal voter registration form's proof of citizenship requirements were challenged. The Justice Department thought it could rig the case against the Commission. "Fortunately Kansas Sec. of State Kris Kobach was there to argue on behalf of the Commission and the people of Kansas, whose legislature drafted the proof of citizenship requirements, and Judge Leon sided with Kansas for now. The next step will be a March 9 hearing on whether to issue a preliminary injunction against implementation of the new voter registration form. One thing is for certain, Loretta Lynch's Justice Department will be less able to rig that outcome." By Linda Bentley | February 24, 2016 Commission unanimously recommends denial for Meritage rezoning CAVE CREEK During last Thursdays planning commission meeting, Planning Director Ian Cordwell announced there were no cases currently pending, leaving the next planning commission meeting date open. He then introduced the only item on the Feb. 18 agenda; a request by Meritage Homes for a change in zoning from DR-89 (Desert Rural) to Commercial Buffer (CB). Chairman David Smith clarified the request before them was only for a zoning change. Despite the request being for a change in zoning, Meritage presented its request with a conceptual plan for a 56-unit subdivision, made up of duplexes and triplexes on 12.2 acres north of the northwest corner of Carefree Highway and 54th Street. Cordwell stated, as per the general plan and as part of the specific area plan (SAP), an applicant may request a zoning change up to CB. He said he recently learned something new that the town can do conditional zoning. Commissioner Ted Bryda asked if a traffic study had been done for the area. Cordwell said that wouldnt be required until the site plan review. When Commissioner Dick Frye asked if CB zoning would allow for what the applicant was presenting, Cordwell said it would and they could choose to condition the zoning to allow for what was being presented or less. Smith questioned how the project was able to meet the minimum lot size requirement of 6,000 square feet. According to Cordwell, the entire parcel is the lot and each of the dwellings is considered a unit. Commissioner Dan Baxley asked if the roads would be public or private. Cordwell said they would be private with easements for the town for utilities. Greg Davis, representing Meritage Homes, said the SAP allows for multi-family residential (MR) and CB zoning allows for the same. He said the project could be accomplished under either zoning category. He said they were proposing 56 units, averaging 4.4 units per acre, with two points of access, one on 54th Street and the primary access on 53rd Street. Davis said the CB zoning would be transitional from the high intensity of Lowes and CVS to DR with a 100-foot buffer along the northern boundary and trails that would connect to the larger regional trails. He said the product is targeted to three main types of buyers: people who live here today and want to downsize, people in the labor force and single parents who all want to remain a part of the community. Davis said they were told their original design didnt fit in well so they redesigned it to be more Southwest eclectic. He said the units were primarily single story but they offer as an option a second story for those who want a guest room or game room. All have two-car garages. Davis said they were promoting a lifestyle and housing product not currently available in Cave Creek while providing a sustainable transition. He stated the project has less impact than other projects the SAP would allow. He said Meritage estimates the units would be in the high $300,000. Smith said Davis left one group out people who dont currently live here. After it was noted there would be no on-street parking, Baxley asked how long the driveways were. Troy Hill from Meritage said the driveways were a minimum of 18 feet. Davis said there were some that were 22 feet long. Baxley commented his pickup truck is 23 feet long. Frye said the drawings show substantial amounts of brick, stone and metal and asked if Meritage was OK with them making that a condition for approval. Davis said they were. Frye asked how the project will benefit the town. Davis said the residents would spend their money in town and generate additional tax revenue. He said the majority of comments had to do with the density of the project. Davis stated they had run an analysis on the site and thats why it is 56 units instead of 55 to make it financially viable. Responding to questions by Commissioner Susan Demmit, Davis said most of the retention will be on the southern part of the property and there will only be walls along the east and south. During public comment Eileen Wright stated the property was currently zoned DR-89 and the SAP didnt change the zoning. She said CB zoning would be detrimental to the health safety and welfare of the residents in the neighborhood who never thought that would be CB zoning. Wright asked the planning commission to recommend denial and said once rezoned the applicant can do anything. Cheryle Carmitchel said she attended the Meritage meeting, which she found interesting. Carmitchel said she believes Meritage has their best interest in mind, would rather live next to 150 people than CB and stated, I ask you to please listen to us. She noted the 14 acres was not originally included in the SAP and stated it was not a townhome project but duplexes and triplexes. Carmitchel said it should be MR not CB and had concerns about conditional approval. She said, We should start off on the right foot and make this residential. Suzanne Deffenbaugh said shes been here since 2006 and thought she was buying residential property and then Lowes was built. She asked the commission to pause and think what the word commercial means business operating for profit. Deffenbaugh said CB allows for a number of businesses she hopes to not see at that location and pointed out the Meritage brochure for the project indicated the zoning was MR. Kurt Mattson Local sculptor Kurt Mattson said people come to Cave Creek to see the cowboy lifestyle and told the commission, You are the guardians of this lifestyle. When you changed it from Western to eclectic, it can mean anything. He asked the commission to leave the zoning DR-89 or something that goes with our lifestyle. Reg Monachino said the motion is to change DR-89 to CB, but stated this was not a CB project. He also disagreed that it is a transition project. Its a subdivision, said Monachino, Its no different from Dove Valley or Terravita According to Monachino, there is nothing in Arizona statute requiring them to grant a rezoning request. Vice Chairman Bob Voris Vice Chairman Bob Voris asked if Monachino wanted them to deny the request for CB and if he wanted to see any residential. Monachino responded, I dont want to see any subdivision. Mike Durkin said he was opposed to the item before the commission. Although he doesnt live near the proposed project, Durkin stated he thinks of Cave Creek as a community and people being involved in others issues. He said, This is going to impact their lifestyle. I didnt hear the commission ask any questions about the impact on residents. Durkin urged the commission to listen to the citizens who live next to the project and not recommend approval. He said, Once the zoning is approved, this can be anything. Voris noted the planning commission recommended eliminating this acreage from the SAP and said he found it ironic that Durkin and Monachino were both on the council that put it back in. Kerry Smith said if the applicant can do the project without commercial zoning, theres no reason for it. He said homes that adjoin open space are worth 3-4 percent more than comparable homes that dont and homes on large lots are worth 8-12 percent more than comparable homes on smaller lots. Smith said, Were taking away value from the neighbors. Smith also claimed the town has not made adequate provisions for water despite it being the developers responsibility to obtain a 100-year assured water supply. Linda Redwood-Martinez, who said she lives approximately three miles up Spur Cross Road and is unaffected by the project, spoke in opposition because it affects her neighbors. Gabriel Boyd, who lives just north of the project, said, Its a little denser than I would like, but Im OK with it. Boyd said he didnt see why it needs commercial zoning and stated, It definitely needs a traffic study. Larry Pace Larry Pace said he was there when the planning commission took the 12 acres out of the SAP and council snuck them back in. Pace said 56 homes is a subdivision and asked the commission to recommend denial. He said, This density is not us. This just doesnt have the flavor of Cave Creek. Tim Spence, who lives adjacent to the projects southwest corner, said, If they want to put 56 houses on there, let them do it. They can do what they want. They own it. Steve Orgel, who lives just north of the project, said most of the comments hes heard are the same as the reason he lives in Cave Creek, known as ABC: artists, bikers and cowboys. He strongly urged the commission to recommend denial of the CB zoning and said, density is the key issue and contrary to what citizens expect. Referring to Cave Creek as a desert rural, Western town, Orgel said he could see 10 homes but not 56. Mike Noonan said it wasnt so much that he opposed the project but rather the town needed to control how it grows. He said there were properties in town that were already zoned to accommodate this type of project and referenced Rancho Madera, which he called a nice project built in the town core where people could walk to everything. Noonan said, If I were the applicant, I would find property in town for this type of project This doesnt belong on the outside of town. Arthur Robertson stated the applicant said they didnt need CB zoning to build their project and recommended the commission deny the request. When asked if he was opposed to the residential development, Robertson said he wasnt and just didnt like the CB zoning. Davis responded to the comments by saying Meritage is here as an end user, not to rezone and leave. He said the parcels were not necessarily appropriate for DR zoning and they believed this is the most compatible project for the neighborhood. Davis said the decision that the property is not going to remain DR-89 has already been made. He said if MR designation is what the commission recommends to council they were certainly amenable to that. Voris moved to recommend approval and said, Fifteen people told us what they thought. Voris said he found the case particularly interesting because the project doesnt fit into any of the towns zoning categories and was somewhat of a hybrid development that doesnt meet the criteria of zoning for medium or high-density residential, or CB, or requirements of the SAP, of which it is a part. He found the density too much for the area and site size and highlighted parking issues. Because they were not approving a site plan, Voris said nothing obligates or compels the developer to build the project in its conceptual plan. And, if the commission were to recommend approval of what had been presented, and council were to act based on their recommendation, Voris said the property zoning could be changed to commercial buffer, which he said may not be in the best interest of the surrounding property owners or the town. In the alternative, he suggested the developer could withdraw the request, have additional conversations with the planning staff in light of what was said that night and resubmit a proposal. Cordwell was asked to explain how the case is subject to a referendum. Cordwell said council would have two readings of an ordinance to change the zoning and then it would not go into effect for 30 days, during which any person could file a petition for a referendum that would then go to the citizens for a vote. After listening to 15 people and walking the property, Bryda said he couldnt support CB zoning. Commissioner Susan Demmitt apologized to Meritage but said her concern was whether its MR or CB without any assurances it is what they would get at the end of the day, although they could attach conditions. She said the project was a substantial departure from what there is in Cave Creek while noting it is a difficult transitional site. Demmitt recommending continuing the case and have it come back with a set of conditions and a site plan application at the same time. She said it was difficult to make a transition to the large lot properties to the east and north. Frye said he liked the project both conceptually and architecturally. However, he felt the zoning requested is the wrong one. He suggested lessening the density along the borders to the east and north and increasing it somewhere else in the project. Frye also said hes like to see the financial impacts and benefits to the town and have staff put together stipulations. Commissioner Bruce McNeal thanked Meritage and stated the project wasnt unhandsome but he was not infavor of changing the zoning from DR-89 to CB. He agreed with Noonan and said he would like to see residential development built from the inside out. Baxley said maybe he was lost but didnt recall them ever considering this type of development in Cave Creek. Chairman Smith said from a financial aspect, the town would receive around $750,000 in one-time fees. He said the SAP was developed for two reasons Carefree Highway should be commercial but area residents wanted less intensity. He said the SAP was one-lot deep on Carefree Highway but because of a potential lawsuit, these particular lots were reinstated in the SAP. Even if they recommended denial, Smith said it still goes to council, which can approve it. He suggested continuing if the applicant were willing. Davis said his client was not willing to continue because they were under contractual obligations and needed a yes or no vote. The commission voted unanimously to recommend denial. By Linda Bentley | February 24, 2016 CAVE CREEK During Tuesday nights Call to the Public, Carole Perry thanked the town on behalf of the Sonoran Arts League for removing all the barricades and opening traffic lanes during the Hidden in the Hills event. Attorney Craig Simon spoke on behalf of the Roadhouse and Hideaway to let council know about an event coming up that weekend, which he said was a showcase for custom motorcycle builders. By Linda Bentley | February 24, 2016 CAVE CREEK During last Thursdays planning commission meeting, Planning Director Ian Cordwell announced there were no cases currently pending, leaving the next planning commission meeting date open. He then introduced the only item on the Feb. 18 agenda; a request by Meritage Homes for a change in zoning from DR-89 (Desert Rural) to Commercial Buffer (CB). By Linda Bentley | February 24, 2016 CAVE CREEK On Feb. 11, Maricopa County Sheriffs deputies arrested Jack Lawrence Coey, 22 and charged him with burglary in the second degree, a class 3 felony. By Robert Romano | February 24, 2016 "Given the huge divide in the country, and the fact that this President, above all others, has made no bones about his goal to use the courts to circumvent Congress and push through his own agenda, it only makes sense that we defer to the American people who will elect a new president to select the next Supreme Court Justice." By Rick Manning | February 24, 2016 Imagine that the government of Ireland suspected you of nefarious and illegal activity and demanded that Microsoft or Google hand over all of your emails, even though you are a U.S. citizen living in the United States. Fourth Amendment attorneys would be coming out of the walls to assist your fight against the breach of your information stored in the cloud. February 24, 2016 WASHINGTON The Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Environmental Protection Agency in federal court in New York to force it to set limits on perchlorate. Perchlorate is a toxic chemical that has been detected in the drinking water systems that serve up to 16.6 million Americans. Even at low levels, it can present serious health risks to children and pregnant women. February 24, 2016 An interdisciplinary team of researchers at North Carolina State University has developed a composite material that emits light and heat when exposed to specific wavelengths of radiation and that can be customized to have specific mechanical characteristics. The composite holds promise for use in biomedical imaging, drug delivery and therapeutic treatments. February 24, 2016 PHOENIX Governor Doug Ducey today announced members of the Arizona Substance Abuse Task Force a coalition of leading substance abuse experts, providers and community members focused on addressing and reversing the growing epidemic of drug abuse and addiction in Arizona communities by finding the best treatments and reducing barriers to care. The establishment of this coalition was a key component of the governors 2016 State of the State address. Jan. 6 committee issues subpoena to Donald Trump The extraordinary move puts the panel, which the former president has repeatedly criticized as political, into a legal confrontation with Trump. Welcome to SwanseaOnline - your home for the best news, sports and what's on coverage of the city. Never miss a Swansea story with our daily newsletter Sign up to comment on our stories here Follow us on Facebook and Twitter | Swansea City news | Ospreys news | InYourArea When Gemini Planet Imager captured this picture of Beta Pictoris b, it had to block the starlight to keep it from interfering with light from the planet. A new project suggests using tiny satellites to hunt for other worlds closer to the star that can't be spotted with direct imaging. Tiny satellites could hitch a ride into orbit and spot alien worlds from afar, new research suggests. NASA's 2,230 pound (1,052 kilogram) Kepler Space Telescope has discovered thousands of potential planets around other stars. Now, some scientists want to go smaller: They propose searching for new worlds using miniaturized satellites that can fit in the palm of your hand. "We want to be cheaper than sending up a huge satellite, to be able to collect more data in less time for less money," Ameer Blake, an undergraduate student at Howard University in Washington, D.C., told Space.com. Blake and his adviser, Aki Roberge, a research astrophysicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, studied the possibility of using a smaller instrument known as a cubesat to search for a new planet around the star Beta Pictoris, already known to host at least one world, Beta Pictoris b. He presented the results in January at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Kissimmee, Florida. [CubeSats: Tiny, Versatile Spacecraft Explained (Infographic)] "We wanted to know, are there any other planets other than Beta Pictoris b, and if so, where are they?" Blake said. Tiny cubesats are revolutionizing how scientists, students and even private companies explore and utilize space. See how cubesat technology makes satellites smaller in our full infographic (Image credit: By Karl Tate, Infographics Artist) Small but powerful In 2008, scientists used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to reveal a giant planet more than 1.5 times the radius of Jupiter orbiting Beta Pictoris. Circling only nine times the Earth-sun distance from its star, just inside what would be the orbit of Saturn in the solar system, Beta Pictoris b is the closest orbiting exoplanet captured by direct imaging, the technique that essentially photographs other worlds. The method is most sensitive to giant planets several times the mass of Jupiter, and faces challenges when it comes to spotting smaller worlds or worlds close to their star. Hubble Space Telescope images of the edge-on disk of dust and gas that surrounds the star Beta Pictoris. The disk stretches more than 1,400 times the Earth-sun distance in each direction. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Apai and G. Schneider (University of Arizona)) Blake and Roberge are interested in launching a cubesat into space to search for a new world around the star. The evidence suggests the star's system sits nearly edge-on as seen from Earth that is, oriented so we're looking at the edge of the system rather than from above or below. Researchers have seen a debris disk that stretches to over 1,400 times the Earth-sun distance on both sides of the star, and the known planet's orbit also agrees with that orientation. This should allow a cubesat to search for other planets using a process called the transit method, which should be able to see worlds inside the orbit of Beta Pictoris b. Unlike direct imaging, which relies on capturing the light reflected from a planet, the transit method, which is also used by the Kepler telescope, searches for dips in the brightness of the star as a planet moves between it and Earth. Instruments can only detect the transiting planets' presence if they pass between the star and Earth, so the system must lie within a few degrees of being edge-on to Earth. Based on their preliminary study, Blake said that a cubesat should be able to spot the most massive gas giants on a short orbit. "We would definitely be able to see hot Jupiters," he said, referring to the worlds several times the mass of the solar system's largest planet in orbits closer than Mercury's. "We would like to get as small as maybe Neptune-size planets, but things get more complicated when you get to smaller sizes." Stare & collect Several years ago, planet hunter Sara Seager, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, proposed using a fleet of cubesats to survey part of the sky in search of worlds beyond the solar system. Blake said the idea inspired him and his adviser to consider a single instrument targeting only one star. This avoids concerns about focusing or redirecting a suite of satellites. "This is just, stare at one thing and collect as much information as possible," Blake said. Blake said that sending up a single satellite would make a good first step toward an entire fleet. Once the method is proven to work, other satellites could be launched to either discover new worlds or confirm preliminary observations, such as those made by Kepler. When it comes to discovery, however, the search would need to be limited to stars which already demonstrate that their systems are edge-on to Earth. Researchers can identify such stars by observing massive debris disks around them or targeting stars with directly imaged worlds whose orbits are edge-on. Cubesats were first introduced in 1999 as compact satellites that university students could construct to perform experiments and test new technologies. They take the standardized shape of a 4 x 4 x 4-inch (10 x 10 x 10 centimeters) cube, which allows them to hitch a ride into space with other, larger launches. Two will be launched in March 2016 to cover the entry, descent, and landing of NASA's upcoming Mars InSight lander, while other scientists have discussed dropping them off at destinations such as Europa and Enceladus. [CubeSats Are Bound For The Planets (Video)] The biggest challenge for a cubesat mission to hunt for worlds around a specific target has to do with time. The scientific community requires at least three transits three times an object must pass between its sun and the Earth to confirm its status as a planet. Blake's study suggests a maximum of a year and a half for a cubesat orbit, though it may last for only half a year. To confirm a planet would require finding those which circle their stars every two to six months. Blake and Roberge have performed the background study that shows using a cubesat to search for worlds around Beta Pictoris is a viable plan. Their next step is to speak to engineers and instrumentalists to determine what parts would be necessary to construct such a satellite. From there, they can make estimates on what building it might cost though it should come in far less than Kepler's $550 million price tag. "I think it would be great to be able to find exoplanets with less material and preferably in quicker time," Blake said. "It would be just a little better for everybody." Follow Nola Taylor Redd on Twitter @NolaTRedd or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. Nicknamed the "Fireworks Galaxy," NGC 6946 has had nine supernovas observed within it over the past 100 years. It is the site of SN 2008S, a puzzling supernova. A star thought to be responsible for the puzzling supernova SN 2008S may have been falsely accused. Following a spectacular explosion in the so-called Fireworks Galaxy, astronomers rushed to identify the source, settling on a likely star. But new research reveals that the star in question may be innocent after all. If the explosion came from a massive supernova, the star responsible would have been obliterated. However, after taking a new look at the region of the explosion, astronomers have found that the object tagged as the source, or progenitor, is visible once again. "That set off some alarm bells for us," Ashlee Benge, an undergraduate at Goucher College in Maryland, told Space.com. Benge was part of a team led by Ben Sugerman, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Goucher College, that examined the supernova with NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes. Benge presented the results in January at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Kissimmee, Florida. [Supernova Photos: The Explosive Deaths of Stars] "If the thing that had been reported as the progenitor was actually the progenitor, the star would have had to blow up and die, but then go back to the pre-explosion flux which doesn't physically make sense, because the star is supposed to die," Benge said. Wrong place, wrong time At the end of its lifetime, a massive star will explode in a fiery death known as a supernova. The explosion produces a bright light, which can be visible with the naked eye, and sends astronomers scrambling to study the brief flare-up before it fades beyond the limits of detection. On Feb. 1, 2008, an explosion in NGC 6946, known as the Fireworks Galaxy due to its high supernova count, caught astronomers' attention. At first, the object was classified as a "supernova imposter," an explosion that looks like a supernova but has no apparent source when astronomers look through historic optical images, suggesting something else is responsible for the flare-up. After looking at the system at infrared wavelengths, which let researchers peer through dust that blocked visible light, scientists identified a star in the same location as the supernova and determined it was the self-destructing culprit. But Benge and her colleagues weren't quite certain that the star was guilty. Using the Spitzer and Hubble telescopes, they compared the difference in the amount of light in images from the region both before and after the explosion. Not only did they find the alleged source present once again, but they also found that it put out exactly the same amount of light as it was producing before the explosion. This finding suggested two possibilities: Either the dramatic brightening observed in 2008 wasn't a supernova at all but instead a strange stellar flaring, or the convicted star wasn't the source. A cosmic detective story The astronomers studied how the light evolved over time and compared it to the best-studied supernova, SN 1987A. They found that the decay of the element nickel matched that of the established explosion, though there were signs of excessive light in the infrared. According to Benge, the excessive light could result from the destruction of dust. Because the decay of nickel at the beginning of the explosion matched up so well with SN 1987A, Benge thinks it is likely that the flaring came from a supernova. "This is indeed a supernova, but what has been identified previously to be the progenitor is not the progenitor at all," she said. So how did the dust-shrouded star everyone thought was responsible manage to wind up falsely accused? According to Benge, the star simply may have found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time. The source of SN 2008S could lie along the same line of sight but sit behind the dim star. When the progenitor exploded, its light drowned out the light from the star, much like a floodlight would overwhelm the light from a candle between it and the observer, he said. As the light from the supernova dimmed over time, the starlight became visible once again. Benge and her colleagues intend to continue investigating the strange supernova. They plan to examine how the dust around the now-cleared star would have affected observations of the explosion. "There are some very unusual processes going on here," Benge said. Follow Nola Taylor Redd on Twitter @NolaTRedd or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. Adam Hadhazy is a writer and editor for The Kavli Foundation. You can read more from the foundation and their researchers on their Kavli Foundation Expert Voices archive page. Hadhazy contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The secrets of planet formation are becoming harder to keep. In November, using a new observing method, scientists snapped the very first pictures of an extrasolar planet still gathering up mass from its dusty, planetary nursery. Called LkCa 15 b, this immature gas giant has opened a window into the poorly understood process of how planets form. LkCa 15 b came on the heels of the discovery of 51 Eri b, a relatively adolescent world of 20 million years that, at this point in its development, is like a young Jupiter. Though fully formed, 51 Eri b is still radiating heat from its tumultuous birth. This leftover heat provides tantalizing clues about the conditions in which 51 Eri b has grown up. The discovery of both these exoplanets was made possible by a technique called "direct imaging," wherein the faint light from a planet is separated from the overwhelming glare of its host star. Compared to other methods, direct imaging lets astronomers more readily study the atmospheric composition of a newly formed (or even forming) world, providing key insights into these objects' ultimate origins. On January 20, 2015, The Kavli Foundation spoke with three planetary formation experts. The discussion covered promising new ways of studying how giant planets form and whether they can explain the rise of our entire Solar System. From left to right, Bruce Macintosh, Kate Follette, and Ruth Murray-Clay The participants were: Bruce Macintosh, a professor of physics at Stanford University and a member of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC). Macintosh is the Principal Investigator of the Gemini Planet Imager project that discovered 51 Eri b, announced in the journal Science. Kate Follette is a postdoctoral researcher, also at KIPAC at Stanford University. She is the co-lead author on a Nature paper on LkCa 15 b (opens in new tab) and co-author of the 51 Eri b study. Ruth Murray-Clay is an assistant professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and also a co-author of the 51 Eri b study. The following is an edited transcript of their roundtable discussion. The participants have been provided the opportunity to amend or edit their remarks. The Kavli Foundation: How are the discoveries of 51 Eri b and LkCa 15 b helping to complete a "family album" of how giant planets form and develop? Bruce Macintosh: In the family album, so to speak, 51 Eri b is as big as it's going to get, like an adolescent, but still kind of angry, warm and turbulent, again like an adolescent. One could set up the analogy that objects in protoplanetary disks, like LkCa 15 b, are still in utero. But LkCa 15 b already has a solid core. It's formed, which is sort of birth-like, and now it's in the process of growing. It's accreting mass and growing like a child. Kate Follette: The planets, such as 51 Eri b, that we image with the Gemini Planet Imager are indeed like turbulent adolescents. They are fully formed, but in terms of their age as a proportion of the total lifetime of their system, which is billions of years, they're just barely out of the womb. Macintosh: We could say that planets age like dogs. [Laughter] They don't age on a linear scale with people. Ruth Murray-Clay: We've seen a lot of gas giant planets in observational surveys, like from the Kepler space telescope. But these giant planets tend to be very close to their stars. We have a standard picture that gas giants form at distances from their stars where Jupiter and Saturn are found in our Solar System. 51 Eri b doesn't fit that picture. It's a relatively cool world at a more Jupiter-like distance from its star, and we had never seen that before. It suggests that some of these giants must dynamically move closer to their stars as their solar systems evolve. We'd really like to know if that is the right way of thinking about the overall architecture of planetary systems, and 51 Eri b is the start of that. With regard to LkCa 15 b, from a planet formation perspective it's incredibly exciting to be seeing a planet possibly still in the process of accumulating mass, or accretion. It's very difficult to model that process theoretically, partly because we just don't know how accretion happens in young disks and onto planets. So having any sort of observational constraints on those theories like we're getting by studying LkCa 15 b will take us a long way. An artist's impression of a young gas giant planet still swathed in traces of a late-stage protoplanetary disk. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) TKF: To see a baby planet still accreting material, Kate and her colleagues turned to a new method to study LkCa 15 b. Using the Magellan telescope in Chile, they detected the signature of heated, ionized hydrogen gas called "H-alpha" as the gas fell from a protoplanetary disk onto a world just taking shape. Kate, will you be able to use this method to study other planets still taking form? Follette: We certainly hope so. We have a sample of about 20 more objects that we think are good candidates for protoplanets similar to LkCa 15 b because they are in so-called transition disks. These are protoplanetary disks that have big, central cavities that are cleared of all of the gas and dust that usually surrounds a young star. The youngest protoplanetary disks are shaped like pancakes, with material reaching all the way in to the star in the middle. Transition disks, on the other hand, are like donuts, and researchers have long postulated that their central holes are cleared by the gravitational influence of planets. The LkCa 15 b image is significant because it is the first time we've been able to show this to be true by directly imaging a planet inside a disk gap. We know that the central stars in these disks are often still actively accreting material from the disk. Therefore, gas and dust must somehow be making it from the outer disk onto the star, and so you can logically conclude that this material is also falling onto intervening planets. At the same time, because the cavities are cleared of material, we can see all the way down to the mid-plane of the disk sort of like the "midline" on a donut, if you will where we think the planets are forming. Given this setup, we really think transition disks and accreting planets are a sweet spot for this particular type of imaging. The planet is glowing so brightly in H-alpha, it means that we don't have to work as hard to isolate its light emission as we would otherwise when trying to study a dim planet near a bright star. As a result, we can work even closer to the star, all the way to the inside of these disk gaps. Just as a comparison, when Bruce, Ruth and I worked on the 51 Eri b discovery, its star was about 500,000 times brighter than 51 Eri b. The light that my colleagues and I isolated from LkCa 15 b is only a few hundred times fainter than its star. Macintosh: That's like cheating. That's too easy! [Laughter] Follette: Yeah, exactly! Planets develop out of leftover disks of material, called protoplanetary disks, which surround and revolve around young stars. According to a leading planet formation model known as core accretion, gas and dust particles within these disks glom together into larger and larger bodies. Over millions of years, these bodies smash together and build up into full-size planets, with the biggest objects capturing huge, gassy atmospheres before the protoplanetary disks completely dissipate. However, this core accretion model does not work well at creating gas giants in either tight or very distant orbits from their stars. Nor is the accretion process itself well understood. Newer planet formation theories propose that gas giants can migrate in their orbits, toward or away from their stars as a solar system dynamically evolves. In the process, numerous fledging worlds are gravitationally flung out of the solar system or displaced into unusual orbits. Overall, many questions remain about how, where and when planets arise around stars. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) TKF: Could cracking the case of how giant planets form potentially trickle down to understanding how Neptune-size and even rocky, Earth-like worlds form? Murray-Clay: The current dominant model of how gas giants form is that a solid, rock and ice core forms first. The core becomes massive enough to accrete gas from the surrounding protoplanetary disk. With that model in mind, one way of thinking about Neptunes or even Earths is as planets that failed to grow massive enough to become gas giants. For a Neptune, you can ask if it were massive enough to accrete a Saturn-sized envelope, why didn't it? Why did it fail? And for an Earth, you can ask why wasn't there enough material around for it as a rocky core to grow big enough to become a gas giant instead? The theoretical answers to those questions typically depend on how much available mass there is in a protoplanetary disk. Other considerations are how disturbed the disk becomes over time, which affects how long it takes rocky cores to grow, and whether that process takes too long to form gas giants compared to the lifetime of the dissipating gas disk. If the basic ideas that many of us astrophysicists share about planet formation are correct, then those ideas should tell us something about the kinds of architectures that we'd expect to find in planetary systems. If you want to understand why you have an Earth in a solar system, you also need to understand why you don't have a Jupiter. Macintosh: To understand planetary formation processes, a lot of people have tried "archaeological" approaches. This is where you look at the statistics of the planets discovered in mature solar systems and compare these statistics to the predictions from various planetary formation paths. The history of success of that approach is relatively weak, though. It's been very hard to develop a model that successfully predicts the new solar systems we keep discovering. TKF: Do we have a limited or skewed view of planetary formation because most theories are based on the single example of our own Solar System? After all, we did not even know about another multi-planet system around a Sun-like star until 1999. Follette: We are discovering planets that are very unlike what we see in our Solar System, but then again, the field of exoplanetology is so young. The main techniques we have been using to discover exoplanets favor high-mass planets very close to their stars, like for instance the so-called "hot Jupiter" class of worlds. Maybe they are the outliers. They might just be the easy-to-detect, oddball planets of the universe. So the fact that we found a lot of hot Jupiters or closely packed planetary systems may not be indicative of what the norm is in the universe. Murray-Clay: I agree with that. It may be that we're actually being sent down the wrong path by the exoplanet discoveries we're making, not the other way around by starting with our Solar System. Now that can't entirely be true, because from the number of solar systems that Kepler has seen, we can infer that something like 30 percent of stars host "super-Earths." So super-Earths, which have anywhere from two to 10 times the mass of Earth and which we don't have in our Solar System, are clearly a common outcome of planet formation. However, we also don't know what the solar systems seen by Kepler look like in their entirety, because Kepler's data cannot really tell us about any planets in more distant orbits. We really don't know that Solar System-like architectures are not common. TKF: What are some promising planetary formation models or explanations, then, that would account not only for our Solar System, but those strikingly different solar systems we have glimpsed in recent years? Murray-Clay: It may be that there's a range of solar system masses. Very high-mass systems may be more likely to produce gas giants. Those gas giants are more likely to be gravitationally kicked into their inner solar system and therefore be easily observable by our conventional exoplanet detection techniques, like the "radial velocity method" as well as the "transit method" seen by Kepler. Then you get to a little bit lower mass solar systems and you get something like our Solar System. You have some gas giants in this scenario, but they didn't get kicked around very much to inner or outer orbits by the gravity of other planets in the system. Then, you go to even lower mass systems, and there you might end up with systems that have no gas giants at all and just a number of Earths and mini-Neptunes. Within a framework like that, the Solar System is just part of a spectrum of possible solar systems. Astronomers searching for another Earth are getting closer, thanks to recent discoveries by the Kepler space telescope. [ See our full infographic on the types of alien planets here (Image credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Contributor) Macintosh: To some extent, though, it seems like it's getting harder to have a continuum for solar system architectures that includes our Solar System and the Kepler-discovered solar systems. There are not a lot of intermediate solar systems. You kind of end up wanting a more bimodal or trimodal process, where the possible solar system outcomes branch instead of there being a range of possibilities. Murray-Clay: But how would we know that yet? We're only really seeing the very inner parts of some solar systems with Kepler. Macintosh: That's certainly true, but a system like ours with orbits scaled down by 30 percent, or planet sizes scaled up by 30 percent, would be fairly detectable by Kepler. Murray-Clay: There's a lot we don't know yet, though we can say that a large fraction of stars have solar systems that are not like ours. I just think it's still not clear that the Solar System is uncommon. TKF: Complicating matters further, researchers at Caltech, including Kavli Prize-laureate Mike Brown, recently presented theoretical evidence for a new, super-Earth-size world lurking way out in the Kuiper Belt, far beyond Pluto. Could this "Planet Nine," if it's real, scramble our prevailing Solar System planet formation models? Macintosh: Positing that Planet Nine does exist for the sake of discussion, it's not necessarily crazy compared to what we see in other solar systems. We were just discussing that the lack of super-Earths in our Solar System is one way we differ from the majority of the solar systems discovered by the Kepler mission. Now we might have this far-out super-Earth called Planet Nine, but not correspondingly where Kepler sees these sorts of planets in other solar systems. So you need a mechanism to explain how Planet Nine got way out there. We know from observations of giant planets that they can get scattered from the inner parts of solar systems to the outer parts. One example is the HR 8799 system, which has four Jupiter-size worlds. Two of them are orbiting farther out than Neptune. Putting those ideas together that, A, our Solar System could have formed a super-Earth-slash-mini-Neptune; and B, that you could move that super-Earth-slash-mini-Neptune very far out is surprisingly not insane by astronomer's standards. Murray-Clay: I completely agree with Bruce not insane at all. Kicking things out to large orbits is a reasonably common outcome. I'll be very excited if they find Planet Nine, but I don't think it would necessarily change our view of the formation of the Solar System that much. TKF: What upcoming projects and instruments are you all looking forward to that could help further unravel the mysteries of planet formation? Bruce, you were just selected to lead an exoplanet team for NASA's next major astrophysics observatory, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). The direct imaging of exoplanets could be a prime mission for this future telescope, slated for launch in the mid-2020s. Why should we be excited? Macintosh: The most interesting thing with WFIRST will be the ability to characterize the make-up of planets. Analyzing the light that comes from planets can tell you about their composition, which helps you understand how much mass they accreted in their youth versus how much mass they got through some other mechanism. For the first time with WFIRST, we'll be able to do the imaging tricks we do nowadays with the Gemini Planet Imager and Magellan, but do it on mature planetsno longer the adolescents. Middle-aged planets are much, much, much, much, much more common than adolescents, so we'll have a bigger sample to look at. We will actually see something that looks like a Jupiter and see a solar system that is analogous to our own. We'll see things about these planets' formation histories through their compositions that will serve a nice compliment to studies of younger planets. If you're a topical expert researcher, business leader, author or innovator and would like to contribute an op-ed piece, email us here (Image credit: SPACE.com) Follette: As Bruce said, we're moving in a direction that I think is very promising. Looking even further ahead, NASA is studying four large, space-telescope mission concepts right now that might fly in the 2030s. Three of them would be very good candidates for doing direct imaging of exoplanets and/or exoplanet-forming disks. I think there's a real push in the field for one of the next big space missions to include a direct imaging component in its design, which will help us push toward imaging ever lower mass planets and better understand how planets evolve . Macintosh: In the meantime, a lot of very powerful observations are going to be made by facilities like ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, which is now up and running, and the James Webb Space Telescope when it flies later this decade. And when we get the next generation of extremely large, ground-based telescopes with 25- to 40-meter diameter primary mirrors in the 2020s, then, observationally, we really will get right into where planets form at Jupiter-like distances. We'll still have trouble pushing out to where Saturn and Uranus are located. But the next telescope wave will really let us see the equivalent of the inner Solar System caught in the process of forming. Murray-Clay: This will be very important. The Kepler space telescope brought us thousands of planets, but in many cases we're only seeing one, easily detectable planet out of an entire solar system. By understanding the overall architecture of planetary systems in the future, we'll have a much better sense of the overall formation scenario for different kinds of systems. Macintosh: A lot of us are driven by questions about Earth-like planets, of course. How common they are? How detectable might they be? Can we see them? Planet formation theorists like Ruth are trying to understand whether planets like Earth ultimately are a common thing or a rare thing, and whether our Solar System is unique or whether there's a whole bunch of others out there like it. Follette: Never in the history of astronomy have we meaning our star, our galaxy, and so on proven to be particularly special, so it's not likely that our Solar System and its planets are one-of-a-kind. I find this typicality encouraging, because it means there's a chance that we'll image another Earth-like planet during my lifetime. To me, it ultimately means that we're not likely to be alone in the universe either. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates and become part of the discussion on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Space.com. Boeing is one of three teams designing a new spaceplane for DARPA's Experimental Spaceplane-1 program, known as XS-1. The program leads DARPA's space-related budget requests for fiscal year 2017. WASHINGTON For the second consecutive year, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's top-funded space program is an experimental spaceplane intended to make frequent trips to orbit. DARPA asked for $50 million in the Pentagon's 2017 budget request for its Experimental Spaceplane 1, or XS-1 program. That's up from a $30 million the agency asked for during the fiscal year 2016 budget cycle. XS-1 aims to develop a reusable first stage that could carry an expendable upper stage capable of placing payloads weighing up to 1,800 kilograms into orbit. DARPA said the vehicle could ultimately fly 10 times in 10 days and boost payloads into low Earth orbit for less than $5 million per launch. [DARPA's XS-1 Military Space Plane Concept in Pictures] Three industry teams are working on the program: Boeing and Blue Origin; Masten Space Systems and XCOR Aerospace; and Northrop Grumman and Virgin Galactic. In July, all three teams received funding to continue design work and risk reduction activities in preparation for a production contract. DARPA said in 2014 it intended to pick one team in 2015 to work toward demonstration flight in 2018, but now it is unclear when such a downselect will occur. DARPA said in budget documents that it plans to complete system and subsystem designs later this year, as well as coordinate with the Federal Aviation Administration for preliminary flight test planning. A critical design review is planned for fiscal year 2017, the documents said. In October, the Government Accountability Office said none of several Defense Department efforts to field quick-reaction launch vehicles, including XS-1, have advanced past the development stage. In its 2017 budget request DARPA asked for $175 million for its space programs and technology office, significantly higher than the $127 million budget for 2016. In addition to $50 million for XS-1, next year's budget would also include: $45 million for the RadarNet program. an effort to design a deployable lightweight, low-power and wideband-capable communications antenna for cubesats. $33 million for Robotic Servicing of Geostationary Satellites, which would establish a robotics operation in geosynchronous orbit to perform servicing tasks. This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry. NASA has awarded five additional space station cargo-supply missions to SpaceX in a late-December contract with an undisclosed value that industry officials estimate at around $700 million. The contract, signed just before Christmas, was not announced at the time by either party but has been confirmed by both. It brings to 20 the number of missions now assigned to SpaceX under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract first signed in 2008. In contrast, the other company performing CRS missions, Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia, has been assigned just 10 flights and was not part of the end-year orders. [Photos: The Rockets and SpaceShips of SpaceX] NASA spokeswoman Cheryl M. Warner did not directly address whether the new contracts were competed. "We order resupply flights from our commercial providers via the contract modification process based on the mission needs to resupply the international space station," Warner said Feb. 23. NASAs December award of five new ISS cargo supply missions to SpaceX carries an estimated value of around $700 million. Orbital ATK received no awards in what is likely the final mission selection before NASA moves to its CRS-2 contract. (Image credit: NASA) Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX and Orbital ATK signed separate CRS contracts in 2008. The contract has proved resistant to outside analysis because both NASA and its suppliers have invoked commercial sensitivity in declining to disclose details. It has become only more complicated with the passage of time. Originally designed as a service arrangement wherein NASA pays for an agreed-to amount of cargo delivered to the station, the CRS terms and conditions have evolved to account for the number of launchers involved, and not just the kilograms delivered, NASA spokeswoman Stephanie L. Schierholz said Feb. 23. For example, the Orbital contract included an 11th launch, which was subsequently spread out over other missions, she said. SpaceX's original CRS contract was valued at $1.6 billion and was to cover the delivery of 20,000 kilograms of supplies to the space station. The original estimate was that this would cover 12 launches of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon cargo capsule, which is capable of returning experiment hardware to Earth once its mission to the space station is completed. A Dragon capsule leaving SpaceXs Hawthorne, California, headquarters in 2015. (Image credit: SpaceX) Orbital's contract was valued at $1.9 billion and was intended to cover eight launches of Orbital's Antares rocket, which unlike Falcon 9 had not yet flown when the CRS work was booked. The Orbital Cygnus canister is burned up in the atmosphere after each mission and is not able to return payload to Earth. Both companies booked further CRS orders the 9th and 10th mission for Orbital, and the 13th, 14th and 15th for SpaceX in early 2015 as part of CRS contract extensions. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said at the time that the SpaceX work was valued at about $150 million per mission for the three new orders. SpaceX's original CRS contract averaged $133.3 million per lauch mission. Schierholz said CRS is being managed as an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with Orbital and SpaceX under which the companies are promised a maximum of $3.1 billion each. But there is no guarantee that this figure will be reached. Under such an arrangement, NASA is free to pursue work orders with one or the other contractor without running competitive bids for each mission. NASA in January contracted with three companies Orbital and SpaceX, plus Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nevada for a CRS-2 contract covering cargo missions between 2019 and 2024. Each company has been promised a minimum of six missions under the contract, which will cost NASA up to $14 billion between 2016 and 2024. The exact budget will depend on the mix of vehicles needed to meet the station's requirements at the time. NASA said in its statement on CRS-2 that SpaceX and Orbital combined had delivered around 16,000 kilograms of cargo to the orbital complex. It is unclear whether the December award to SpaceX indicates that Orbital's Cygnus is falling out of favor with the agency as it assesses space station requirements in the coming years. "NASA assigns the CRS missions using ISS requirements as the primary determinant for the award," Orbital spokeswoman Vicki Cox said Feb. 24. "We are ready to support additional cargo resupply flights based on NASA's requirements and specific needs for future missions." This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry. Dating comedy 'Mating' will revolve around a different protagonist every season.Jason Katims is ready to take on romance. The Friday Night Lights and Parenthood alum has scored a pilot order at Showtime for comedy anthology Mating, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.Written and created by Stu Zicherman (The Americans, Lights Out, Six Degrees), Mating explores modern mating, with each season exploring a different protagonist's journey. The comedy will center on a recently divorced guy who tries to evolve and connect, one date at a time. A search is under way for the male lead for the year-long anthology, with the lead set for a one-year deal as season two would tell a different story.Zicherman will pen the script and exec produce alongside Katims and his Universal Television-based True Jack Productions. Katims is on board to exec produce the comedy, which was first put in development in August 2014, alongside his True Jack topper Michelle Lee. With the pilot order, Showtime has boarded the comedy as a co-production with Universal Television. STAMFORD City representatives are asking tight-lipped state officials for an update on the planned $500 million transit-oriented development at the transportation center. Its a very important issue for the city, said city Rep. Brien Buckman, D-12, who submitted the issue to the Board of Representatives for review. And its something we havent been updated on for a long time. Were going to hopefully find out a little more on where the project is, the status and what the next steps are. But it may be difficult to get information from state officials, who have kept the details of the negotiations with its preferred developer closely guarded for two and a half years, since news of the project was first made public. The plan would include 600,000 square feet of office space, 60,000 square feet of retail space, a hotel with approximately 150 rooms, about 150 residential units and a new train station parking garage. The state Department of Transportation, raised eyebrows in October when it announced it would spend $1.5 million to repair the existing garage, which is slated for demolition. The garage has been shut since the spring when pieces of concrete began falling from the ceiling. Buckman said officials from both the mayors office and the DOT have been invited to attend the boards State and Commerce Committee meeting on Wednesday for a review of where the project stands. More Information If you go: The Board of Representatives' State and Commerce Committee meets Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Democratic Caucus Room on the fourth floor of the Stamford Government Center, 888 Washington Blvd. See More Collapse Very little news has been released about the negotiations since the project was first announced in July 2013. Judd Everhart, a spokesman for the DOT, would only say this week that the garage repairs are very near completion and that the department expected to make an announcement about the issue soon. Preferred developers Representatives for JHM Group of Companies of Stamford, designated to lead the team that comprises the chosen developer Stamford Manhattan Development Ventures, did not respond to a request for comment. JHM President John McClutchy is a major contributor to state Democrats. The partnership also includes LP Ciminelli Construction of Buffalo, N.Y. , ECCO III Enterprises, of Yonkers, and the Gil Bane Company, which has an office in Glastonbury. Last fall, several news outlets reported that LP Ciminelli is allegedly the focus of a federal investigation into contracts for projects in upstate New York. Its not known if the Stamford project is a part of the investigation. In the past, state officials have said the negotiations with the development team was stalled by its own negotiations with city officials, who claim the states assertion that it does not need local zoning approval for the project is incorrect. Home-rule argument In late 2014, city zoning officials tried to establish local control over the projects details by putting in place regulations that would require the state to come before them. Thomas Mills, chair of the Zoning Board, said the board never heard anything back from the state about the local regulations. I dont think theyre happy with it, he said. At some point there will be an argument over that. Former board member Barry Michelson, who played a key role in establishing the new regulations, said he doesnt think it would be easy for the developer to obtain funding for the project without local approval. It is usually a necessary hurdle to jump for construction projects. Michelson noted that the governor last year proposed the creation of a Connecticut Transit Corridor Development Authority, which critics said would usurp local control. The plan was also criticized for giving the agency the power of eminent domain. That part was removed after loud statewide opposition. The bill was never approved, although some fear that it could be resurrected again this year. I dont get why they dont want to work with us, Mills said. B roadband and mobile customers should be paid compensation automatically if they suffer from poor service, an industry watchdog said today. Telecoms regulator Ofcom said this would ensure that consumers who have experienced the inconvenience of service quality problems do not have to encounter further hassle in order to receive compensation. Under current rules customers have to make a time consuming complaint and prove they have lost out before being entitled to any money back. Ofcom pointed out that automatic compensation systems are already in place in the electricity, gas and water industries. The proposal is included in the regulators Strategic Review of Digital Communications report published today. Richard Lloyd, executive director of consumer group Which? said: People now see telecoms as essential services, so we welcome proposals to raise standards across the industry, with faster, more reliable broadband and automatic compensation for consumers when things go wrong. TODO: define component type apester Ofcom also said that Openreach, the BT company that runs the UKs broadband networks, must be opened up to more competition. BT chief executive Gavin Patterson said: Customer expectations have increased dramatically in recent years and we are keen to work with Ofcom and industry to meet those expectations. I t has already become fashionable in respectable society to argue that Donald Trump is not a conservative. This view, aired ad infinitum after his triumph in Nevada, is now a crutch for those trying to explain the intellectual and moral collapse of the Republican Party. That it is naive, patronising and ironically intellectually shallow has been no impediment to its ubiquity; and because it misunderstands both the US and conservatism it is likely to damage both. What, after all, is conservatism? It is an exercise in social ecology that is sceptical of grand schemes for world improvement, cherishes attachment to the familiar over the far away, and sees humanity through the prism of what Edmund Burke called our naked shivering nature. To be conservative, wrote the late Michael Oakeshott, a dear friend of this column, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss. This amounts more to a temperament than an ideology. Trumps profound nostalgia to make America great again is consistent with it. And yet, in its usually peerless editorial column this week, the Financial Times said: By any conventional measure, his message is not conservative. The paper then lamented Trumps proposed closure of overseas military bases, rescinding of trade deals, plans to erect a wall on the Mexican border, and antipathy toward Muslims. But such measures are consistent with the conservative temperament, not counter to it. Far from preaching the virtues of small government, said the FT, Mr Trump would drastically increase federal powers. This commits the fundamental error of confusing conservatism with libertarianism. You can blame Ronald Reagan for that. He hijacked the Republican Party, turning it into a freedom cult for whom conserving anything was virtually irreligious. His pro-market, internationalist agenda, which many Republicans and the FT laud, was in fact an exercise in social disruption, not preservation, and unleashed a torrent of mobility antithetical to the settled way of life that the likes of Oakeshott and Burke treasured. The Donald understands what many conservatives have forgotten: millions of Americans want, above all, not to be disrupted. Rapid globalisation and technological innovation doesnt excite them. In the poor world, these phenomena help both the impoverished and the rich. In the rich world, they mostly help the wealthy. The real, justified and existential anxiety of that fourth quadrant the rich worlds poor explains the politics of Trump, Ukip and Marine Le Pen. All are a howl against globalisation. The Donald is that howl made flesh. Political language always lags behind social evolution. As evolution accelerates the lag increases. Today, we have yet to develop a vocabulary that makes sense of the revolt against globalisation and the fear of mass disenfranchisement caused by robots. Nationalism is one way of putting the former; perhaps nativism is a better version of that; and nostalgism captures some of the latter, especially when articulated by Trump. There is another tradition too. It is called conservatism and The Donald understands it more intuitively than most of those currently masquerading as its saviours. Amol Rajan is editor of The Independent. @amolrajan I once asked Rupert Murdoch why he was so opposed to the European Union. Thats easy, he replied. When I go into Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice. That was some years ago but things have not changed that much. Size matters. Individual countries buckle but the EU is big enough to resist. British politicians have to fawn to foreign businessmen so they will invest here. The much-maligned bureaucrats in Brussels can afford to be much tougher as Honeywell, Microsoft and Murdoch have found in the past and as Google is finding now. That, indeed, is one of the few real certainties in an EU debate which is largely fact-free. Likewise with governments. Matthew Elliott, of Business for Britain, and in the Brexit camp, says we would be free to negotiate our own trade deals with the rest of the world. He should heed the words of a leading American trade negotiator discussing the slow progress being made on a trade deal between the US and the EU. It was taking time, he said, because the US was having to learn how to deal with an adversary who was an equal. This was in stark contrast with the way the US deals with individual countries. Normally we just fax them our terms and tell them to sign. Yesterday Elliott also told a conference organised by EEF, the manufacturers organisation, that Canada had just done a deal with the EU which abolished 98 per cent of the tariffs of manufactured goods. He failed to mention that the pact took seven years to negotiate and failed to cover services, which are what we export most. Indeed, he failed to mention that trade pacts rarely cover services at all because they are too contentious. After listening to him, the audience of manufacturers voted 82 per cent to 13 per cent to stay in. As anyone trying to follow the EU debate will by now have realised, there are almost no undisputed or undisputable facts to support either side. Brexit is actually a battle of ideas it is about what people want to believe, not about what is provable. We are talking about two contrasting visions of the future. We also make a big mistake in looking to economists for answers because they do not deal in facts either. Theirs is an art not a science; the currency of economics is interpretation and opinion. Of course they can produce facts about how well we have done in the EU but what they cannot do is prove that we would not have done equally as well outside. Thus 30 years ago a large number of coastal towns in the UK still pumped raw sewage into the sea and polluted the beaches. It was Brussels regulation which forced a clean-up. Thirty years ago airlines in Europe were almost all state-owned and charged massively high fares. It was the EU which broke open the cartel and gave birth to easyJet, Ryanair and low-cost air travel. Thirty years ago there was no requirement to allow disabled access to buildings and transport; it is EU regulation which forced the changes to these too. Currently there is a debate about the appalling air quality in central London. But the regulations which we so lamentably fail to comply with were developed in the EU not the UK. But the Brexit camp will argue that we might have got there on our own and all these things might have happened anyway. There is no answer to that. The grass may be greener on the outside, as they say, but there is no evidence to support this because the only other country which has ever left is Greenland, with a population of 50,000 people and a concern only with fish. That is ultimately why it pays to study behaviour, because what people and organisations do gives us a clue as to what is likely to happen. If Japanese car companies built plants here because we were inside the EU, are they more likely to expand them or contract them if we leave? Would the Chinese, who are currently deliberately destroying Europes steel industry by dumping huge volumes of the stuff below cost, decide in future to do a special deal with a generous exemption to Britain? If American drug companies are already trying to break the power of the National Health Service so that they can charge more for their products, will they step up or reduce the pressure with Britain on its own? Likewise the City. Why would an American, Jamie Dimon, the head of one of the worlds largest banks, J P Morgan, say Brexit would cause massive dislocation in the City if it were not true? American and Swiss banks have huge businesses here because it gives them access to the whole of Europe. Will they stay if that access is denied? Even if they do stay, will their best people want to work outside the mainstream? The collapse of sterling this week suggests some have doubts. We do not know in economics what will happen next week or next month; and what will happen in the event of leaving the EU cannot be predicted so there is no point in seeking certainty. There is, however, one fact cited yesterday by the pro-EU MP Damien Green at that same EEF conference. He said his father fought in a war in Europe where millions died; he was brought up in a Europe divided by the Iron Curtain; his children go for weekends in Poznan or Prague as routinely as they go to Preston or Peterborough. The fact is that the EU has made Europe an infinitely better place. To put that in jeopardy by leaving is to play a dangerous game. But Brexit is not about facts, it is about feelings and emotion. Brexit is not about economics, it is about the kind of country people think they want to live in and the kind of people they think they are. It is not a factual matter, it is like faith: you believe or you dont and thats why the outcome is so uncertain. I suppose I should feel school-shamed. Yesterday, as I read how Britain was failing at social mobility, I knew full well that Im deemed to be part of the problem. A report from the Sutton Trust found that despite state schools educating 93 per cent of the population, that translates into just one in three senior doctors, a quarter of the senior judiciary and less than half of top news journalists. Access to the elite jobs, it argued, has scarcely shifted in a generation. I dont qualify as a member of that elite but I am part of the jammy seven per cent. I attended two private schools, including the same one that Tony Benn eventually had scrubbed off his Whos Who entry (Westminster). This could be where I blame my parents. After all, I wasnt the one who chose my education. But that would smack of ingratitude: my parents made huge sacrifices to send me to those schools. I could highlight too how dire my local schools were and how dramatically theyve improved: as a teenager, I remember reading probably in the Standard that Southwark, where I grew up, was at the bottom of some league. Im not sure Id be writing this were it not for my parents decision. What I am sure of, though, is that theres no way any offspring of mine even if I wanted them to could attend the schools I did. Fees have risen much faster than salaries. The middle classes are being priced out and the global plutocrats are moving in. I laughed recently when I saw the headmaster of Westminster warning that boarding schools were now too reliant on super-rich Chinese pupils; Id been saying that for months after walking around Westminster. But I also dont quite buy The Sutton Trusts crude distinction here, with private schools painted as the ultimate enemies of egalitarianism, and state schools its saviours. Friends with wealthier parents than mine attended bog-standard comprehensives. And thanks to scholarships, bursaries and assisted places before they were ditched private schools are not a perfect signifier of privilege either. And is it really so much better to buy an expensive house within the catchment area of a dream state school (possibly selling it as soon as the place is secured), than it is to educate your children privately? Either way, youre buying into a club. Having been to a private school, what I see they can instil is extreme self-belief, even when its wholly unjustified. Good state schools, teachers tell me, now do the same. Over the next two generations, I bet the stranglehold of private schools on the top universities and the professions weakens. Those running Oxbridge access schemes may pat themselves on the back as the share of their intake from state schools rises. The Sutton Trust may cheer this shift. But how much will really have changed? Wont the middle classes have just swapped sending their children into an expensive gilded world for an almost-as-gilded state-run one? If development is progress, pollution is the price to be paid I just spent a long weekend in Delhi. Travelling with Rotary International, I was there to cover its work immunising children against polio. The World Health Organisation declared India polio-free in 2014 a remarkable achievement in a land of 1.3 billion, where many still lack access to clean drinking water. Walking out of the airport, what hits you is that India faces not only the challenges of being a developing country but also those that arise from rapid development. The pollution is choking. Leaves sport a charcoal film. In a downpour, I foolishly stood under a tree and the white stripes of my top turned to slate. Delhi cough is the unwanted souvenir Ive now brought home. A Greenpeace study this week found that New Delhi has worse air even than Beijing. And, according to a study in Nature, more people now die from air pollution globally than from HIV and malaria combined. Im left wondering what it will take for the citizens of New Delhi, Beijing and yes, London, to start fuming about the fumes. Equal pay is still lost on Hollywood Here are some guarantees about Sundays Academy Awards. Winners will use and abuse the word humbled. Come Monday, gown-scrutiny will eat into global productivity. And, for the second year running, no non-white actor will get to deliver their torrent of joy while clutching a gold statuette. MoNique named best supporting actress for Precious in 2010 has argued that the problem runs much deeper than the OscarsSoWhite controversy. The focus should not be on the trophy, she said in an interview with Variety. The focus should be on the paychecks and the unequal wages Anytime you hear Patricia Arquette and Gwyneth Paltrow, when you hear those white women say, Were not getting equal wages. Well, if theyre saying it, what do you think were getting? Even after her Oscars win, MoNique was offered roles with lower salaries than she had been a decade earlier. White actresses should feel aggrieved if they earn less than male co-stars but the campaign for equal pay mustnt sideline those enduring dual discrimination. Staying in or not is a different choice for many Londoners Remember all the talk about London declaring its independence? A 2014 poll found that one in five Londoners wanted the capital to become a city state. Since this is the most pro-EU part of the country, nothing should add to that number more swiftly than the UK voting to leave the European Union. So if June 23 doesnt leave us with in-out ennui, how about a 2017 referendum on whether London stays in the UK, and then a 2018 one on the capital rejoining the EU alone? M uch of the debate on Britains EU membership has centred on the need to reduce the amount of immigration to the UK. However, for businesses reliant on recruiting from the EU talent pool, restricted access to potential employees could prove detrimental. The latest figures show there are currently 2.1 million EU migrants working in the UK, many of whom are helping to fill skills gaps in construction, engineering and IT. For many businesses the need to recruit from abroad stems from a short supply in skills among the indigenous workforce, and multilingual workers can use their languages and cultural intelligence to help businesses communicate with more customers. Inevitably, leaving the EU will create obstacles for businesses hoping to recruit multilingual talent but for organisations reliant on importing and exporting goods even more issues will arise. For this reason among others it is crucial for British businesses to speak up in the run-up to the EU referendum and show why the UK is stronger in the union than on the sidelines. Mark Proctor, managing director, European Automation As predicted, David Cameron came back from the talks on Europe claiming he had secured a good deal. However, this still has to be voted on and ratified by all 27 EU members, which wont happen before the referendum on June 23. It is worth considering how much better this country could be if we kept the 45 million a day that goes to the EU and spent it on British infrastructure and services. Small businesses would not be hampered or prevented from competing with EU businesses and the Government would be able to support our industries against competition. Iceland, Norway and Switzerland successfully trade with the EU but are not part of the EU, and we could too if we vote to leave. Im all for leaving the totalitarian, failed experiment in social engineering that is the EU. Rex Poulton Sadiq Khan is right to point out that Zac Goldsmiths anti-EU views could threaten jobs in London [February 22]. However, as the Labour candidate for the London mayoral elections, his partys leader is Jeremy Corbyn, who appears to loathe the London financial sector and business in general. What assurances can Mr Khan give that he would protect the large number of jobs and taxes generated by this sector in London from Mr Corbyn? Michael Constable Crossrail and its royal connections London is a capital with a truly unique culture and heritage and yet we decide to call Crossrail the Elizabeth line? [February 23]. The Queen already has a place in the history books simply for having been born into the position of the UKs head of state and as the monarch she already receives enough praise and tributes. Is such a label really going to be attached to one of the countrys greatest civil engineering projects? Surely a small shred of imagination could have been exercised? Jon Temple It was an inspired decision to call Crossrail the Elizabeth line as simple and symbolic as the Victoria line, and an apt tribute to the Queen in her 90th year. The only problem is, what will we now call Crossrail2? Few of us would fancy a Charles line. M Dauti, W14 Government must talk to the doctors The British Medical Association has announced further strikes and a legal challenge to the Governments attempts to impose a new contract on junior doctors [February 23]. This is a contract that doctors feel is unsafe and unfair and is opposed by other healthcare unions and the public. When will the Government realise that this contract is clearly not fit for purpose and its imposition can have have no good outcome for patients, doctors or the NHS? It must accept that the only solution is to drop the plans and get back around the table for sensible negotiations. Dr Jonathan Barnes We are working on reducing pollution Regarding your article titled Include pollution in black-cab debate [February 19]: we are taking action to improve air quality. The Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will come into effect in 2020, while black taxis will have to meet new emissions standards by 2018. We are also addressing the growth in private hire vehicles, including whether removing the congestion charge exemption for them would help improve air quality. Leon Daniels, MD for surface transport, Transport for London Childcare expense holds women back As the mother of a young child I know too well the cost of childcare highlighted by the Family and Childcare Trust [February 23]. Compared with other parts of the UK, 10 per cent fewer women in London return to work after having children due to the cost and scarcity of childcare. We cannot go on like this lets start providing the flexible childcare parents need. Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London Fraulein Max Mara was first on the catwalk in Milan today when the Italian luxury label unveiled a collection that suggested it had been looking to Berlin to create its latest autumn/winter offering. Inspired by New Machine Age girls and the idea that some of the most interesting early feminists could be found within the iconic Bauhaus - where female students outnumbered men - the brand debuted flat front trousers, dual layer suit jackets and inspired muscle back dresses which evoked the 1920s. Models sporting dark ruby lipstick, finger wave curls and neat leather gloves severed to confirm the idea that this was a collection with which the brand looked to make the women who made things happen in film, architecture and science to become its heroines. Strong but sultry, this result was an upbeat and entirely wearable Max Mara showcase which is set to delight the 21st century Max Mara customer. After all, like the protagonist on the catwalk today, she too is a woman with a need for a hardworking wardrobe. Max Mara at Milan Fashion Week AW16 1 /16 Max Mara at Milan Fashion Week AW16 Max Mara Models walk the AW16 runway EPA/Daniel Dal Zennaro Max Mara A model walks the AW16 runway Rex Max Mara A model walks the AW16 runway Rex Max Mara A model walks the AW16 runway Rex Max Mara A model walks the AW16 runway Rex Max Mara A model walks the AW16 runway Rex Max Mara A model walks the AW16 runway Rex Max Mara A model walks the AW16 runway Rex Max Mara A model walks the AW16 runway Rex Max Mara A model walks the AW16 runway Rex Max Mara A model walks the AW16 runway Rex Max Mara Natalie Dormer sat front row Swan Gallet/WWD/Rex Accordingly, monochrome stripes, blazers and boiler suits were among the most utilitarian pieces on offer. Keen to allow their customer the opportunity to look feminine but never whimsical, the brand unveiled an angular silhouette and a block colour palette which saw orange appear alongside sunshine yellow and candy floss pink. Patch pockets, a recurring feature throughout, further harness the idea that these are clothes for a woman to work in. And then of course, came the coats. While Max Mara makes a considerable amount of its profits through the sale of office friendly attire, it has long considered outerwear its bread and butter. Rex To this end, its signature camel coat took centre stage today. Refashioned in a host of guises and in textiles from washed alpaca - which gave the collection a lived-in feel - to treated plastic, Max Maras most ubiquitous item was also its greatest strength today. At a show which took place less than twenty four hours after the Italian Prime Minister attended a lunch to open Milan Fashion Week, Max Mara's commercially savvy show seemed particularly apt. "This is a very important moment in Italy because we invest a lot in the future" said Matteo Renzi , "We have a great past, but we need a great future, and this is the challenge. Max Mara is poised for the task. A journalist from London who has been nominated for an Oscar for his first film is almost as honoured to have received praise from his documentarys subject, an internationally revered movie-maker. Adam Benzine, 33, took four years to write, produce and direct Claude Lanzmann: Spectres Of The Shoah, which is competing for the documentary short Academy Award at Sundays ceremony. The self-financed film tells the story of French director Lanzmann and his nine-and-a-half-hour magnum opus, Shoah, a Holocaust documentary that took 12 years to create and is widely regarded as one of the greatest pictures ever made. From Hollywood, Benzine told the Standard: He can be prickly and he was. I just thought that he would never like any film about Claude Lanzmann not made by Claude Lanzmann. Anyway, he said he didnt object to the film. And now that its been Oscar-nominated, he thinks its rather good, which is unheard-of praise from him. Interview of my life: Adam Benzine on Shoah director Claude Lanzmann / Rex Benzine, who grew up in Colliers Wood and studied at Brunel and City universities, moved from Shoreditch to Canada five years ago. He added: Ive interviewed thousands of people but Claude Lanzmann was probably the interview of my life. I will be lucky if I ever get another subject as charismatic and as interesting as him. 'Ive interviewed thousands of people but Claude Lanzmann was probably the interview of my life. I will be lucky if I ever get another subject as charismatic and as interesting as him.' He criticised UK television executives, accusing them of presiding over a crisis that has led to an abysmal situation where a first-time British film-maker can self-finance a documentary and get nominated for an Academy Award and still not find a home on British television. I dont know where people in the UK will be able to see the film, Benzine said. To put it in context, HBO bought it in America, CBC, the Canadian equivalent of the BBC, bought it, ARTE bought it for France and ZDF for Germany, weve sold it to Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Israel, Holland. Its been sold all over the world just not to the UK, which is kind of crazy. There doesnt seem to be a commitment to documentary in this country that has such a rich history of documentary. Spectres Of The Shoah details Lanzmanns extraordinary efforts to get Holocaust survivors to open up about their traumas. It also shows how he went undercover to secretly interview Nazis one of whom put him in hospital for a month and how the five-year editing process very nearly led him to suicide. A lover of feminist intellectual Simone de Beauvoir and friend of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, Lanzmann spent his teenage years fighting in the French Resistance in the Second World War. The 90-year-old, whose own documentary was snubbed at the 1986 Oscars, will be attending the event for the first time, as Benzines guest, and the film journalist has already spoken to Schindlers List director Steven Spielberg to arrange for the two to meet before the ceremony. Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout T ickets for Bruce Springsteen at Wembley Stadium are now on sale. The rock and folk icon, who is currently touring the US, will come to London with his E Street Band in June as part of a tour which will also take in Manchester, Glasgow and Coventry. The Boss will play Manchester on May 25, Glasgow on June 1 and Coventry on June 3 before finally coming to London on June 5. Springsteen has played London many times over the years, at venues including Brixton Academy, the Royal Albert Hall and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, but his performances are still few and far between. Tickets are expected to sell fast indeed - after all, Springsteen is not only a legend in his lifetime, but is also one of the worlds best-selling artists of all time, having racked up over 120 million worldwide album sales. Buy Bruce Springsteen tickets here Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout H ome is... A basement flat between Lambs Conduit Street and Exmouth Market. The posher neighbours call it Bloomsbury Borders. Best place for a first date? Bistrotheque (below) for Saturday brunch. Xavier, the pianist, bangs out Cure tunes. I usually order the eggs Benedict with a glass of fizz. Last play you saw? Hangmen at the Royal Court. It was dark, funny and thought-provoking. Martin McDonagh is very clever in how he asks us to think about the implications of capital punishment. Most romantic thing someones done for you? My wife Kate moving here from Australia. Who do you call when you want to have fun? The architect and designer Thomas Heatherwick. Last time we holed up in the Quality Chop House and then The Eagle pub in Farringdon. Building youd like to be locked in overnight? The Hunterian Museum in Lincolns Inn Fields. It would be brilliantly spooky to be locked in there with all those things floating in formaldehyde. Which shops do you rely on? I do nearly all my eating and shopping on Hanbury Street. The Nomad Barber Shop is good for beard trims, and Meraz Cafe is great for Indian food Gilbert and George (below) are regulars, too. I also love Broadway Bookshop on Broadway Market. Unlike Amazons algorithms, I love the serendipity of human curation. Last album you downloaded? Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk, a massively influential band of the 1980s and early 1990s. Earliest London memory? Screaming and crying, aged seven, because I wasnt allowed to go into the Natural History Museum. The historian Peter Ackroyd said: The whole universe may be found within a grain of London life. I think thats true of London as a whole and the museum in particular. Favourite London pub? The Southampton Arms near Kentish Town. They do the best Scotch eggs in the universe. First thing you do when you come back to London? Head to our local Italian restaurant, Santore on Exmouth Market. What would you do as Mayor? Stop the demolition of Norton Folgate in East London. No one wants things to remain in aspic but to see such unimaginative architecture taking its place is depressing. What are you up to at the moment? Stocking up our bookshop, Libreria, round the corner from Second Home. Were not going to have categories like Science and Fiction, but will organise it by themes such as Terror and Wanderlust. What do you collect? A fair bit of vinyl. I spend far too much money in Rough Trade East. Ever had a run-in with a London policeman? When I was working [as David Camerons special adviser] in Downing Street I had my high-security laptop stolen. I couldnt persuade the policeman that I worked for the PM. He thought it was a hoax and that I was just a bearded brown bloke from East London. Rohan Silva is the co-founder of Libreria, a new bookshop and cultural venue at 65 Hanbury Street, E1 Follow us on Facebook and Twitter: @EsMagOfficial B eautiful countryside, historic cities, soaring fells, sandy shores and celestial stargazing spots: these are some places in Britain that are simply unmissable. If youve spent the past few years sun worshipping abroad, theres never been a better time to fall back in love with the UK. With so many beauty spots just a short car or train journey away from the capital, there really is no excuse not to take advantage of the natural nirvanas that lie on your doorstep. Here are ten brilliant places to holiday at home in this year. Go stargazing on the Isle of Man The clarity of the sky and minimal light pollution make the Isle of Man a unique haven for star spotters. Currently home to 26 of Britain's Dark Sky discovery sites, it has some of the most spectacular skies in Europe. With the naked eye you can easily see the Orion Nebula and the Great Andromeda Galaxy, whose light has been on its way to us for over 2.5 million years. The Island is also ideally placed to see the magnificent sight of the Northern Lights, if conditions are right. Clear night skies in the Isle of Man / David Tiernan/Flickr Hike the Brecon Beacons With mountains and moorland, standing stones and castles, lively waterfalls and breathtaking views across South Wales, the Brecon Beacons mountain range has masses to offer explorers. The National Park is 42 miles wide, so theres plenty of ground to be covered by foot, including Pen y Fan, the highest peak in southern Britain. Make sure to visit the pretty Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal, Sgwd yr Eira waterfall and the Black Mountain Quarries. Visit the Roman Baths in Bath The beautiful city of Bath was founded upon natural hot springs with the steaming water playing a key role throughout its history. Lying in the heart of the city the Roman Baths were constructed around 70 AD as a grand bathing and socialising complex. It is now one of the best preserved Roman remains in the world - 1,170,000 litres of steaming spring water reaching 46 C still fill the bathing site every single day. Visit The Great Bath, its magnificent epicentre and walk on the ancient pavements as the Romans did 2,000 years ago. The Great Bath that lies below street level can also be viewed from the Terrace, which is adorned with statues and shadowed by the great Abbey. Bath's beautiful Roman Baths / Corbis Climb Arthurs Seat Holyrood Park is a 640 acre Royal Park, just a short walk from Edinburghs Royal Mile in the heart of the city. The park's highest point is Arthur's Seat, a dormant volcano, and sits 251m above sea level giving excellent views of the city; it is also the site of a large and well preserved fort. Within the park you can also visit: St Anthonys Chapel, a 15th century medieval chapel; Salisbury Crags, a series of 150 foot cliff faces dominating Edinburghs skyline; as well as Duddingston Loch a freshwater loch rich in wildlife. Soak in the views in Snowdonia A sandy coastline of beaches, spectacular cliffs and glorious estuaries: Snowdonia National Park is an area of outstanding natural beauty with something for everyone. The highlight of this unspoilt area is Mount Snowdon, the biggest mountain in Wales and England at 3,560ft. Those who arent keen on tackling the beast by foot can take a train to the summit for spectacular views across the national park. Tranquil Snowdonia Lake / Getty Images Do a pub crawl in the Cotswolds This idyllic region is defined by rolling hills, or wolds, that run through five counties - Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire. Explore quintessential villages of honey-coloured stone, amble peacefully around picturesque market towns, make a splash in the lake-land area or simply soak in the atmosphere at some of the area's quaint drinking holes. Locals love the Falcon Inn in Wotton-under-Edge and the Horse and Groom in Bourton-on-the-Hill. Ski the Cairn Gorm mountain Dont head to Italy for snowsports this year. Instead, take a train to Scotland. CairnGorm Mountain near Aviemore has a reputation as one of the most beautiful - and sometimes challenging - places to ski in the UK. Whether you're a skier or not, the ride on the train to the Ptarmigan Top Station is a unique experience with an opportunity to take in fantastic panoramic views of the surrounding area. For skiers, there is a wide range of routes on offer, with the longest run running 3.3 kms. In total, 12 lifts including Scotlands only funicular train service the resort, which includes seven green runs, six blue, eight red and one black piste.The resort also has the added attractions of a terrain/fun park. Go sailing in the Lake District England's largest National Park is home to Scafell Pike - its highest mountain, Wastwater - its deepest lake and thriving communities like Keswick and Bowness-on-Windermere. The idyllic Lake District has more than sixteen lakes and numerous tarns plus a stretch of coastline. So there's plenty of opportunity to go rowing, sailing, windsurfing, kayaking, fishing or simply splash about on the shores. Sailing freindly: the Lake District / Corbis Drink a cream tea on the beach in Devon No trip to Devon is complete without a traditional cream tea. With glorious coastlines both north and south, its difficult to choose a spot to pitch your chair in - but South Sands, Bigbury on Sea and Mothecombe are particularly unspoilt. In addition to beautiful beaches and stunning scenery, youll also find National Parks, rustic villages and towns, historic buildings and ruins to explore. Follow us on Twitter: @eslifeandstyle A rmed police were sent to a home in south London tonight after a man was shot in the leg. Police were called to an address in Byland Close, Abbey Wood, at 8.11pm on Thursday following reports of a shooting. A Met spokesman said officers found a man, in his 50s, suffering from gunshot wounds to the leg. He was taken to a hospital in central London where his condition is said to be serious but stable. No arrests have been made and enquiries are ongoing. Transport for London said buses had been delayed and diverted in Finchale Road, near Byland Close, because of a police incident. T his is the moment a man robbed a chemist in south London while allegedly armed with a large kitchen knife. Police said the suspect walked into the store in Durnsford Road, Wimbledon, at 3.15pm on Tuesday, October 13 and demanded money before pulling out the weapon. The victim was forced to open the till and a petty cash box and the robber stole a quantity of cash before fleeing towards Haydons Road. A Metropolitan Police Service spokesman said: The suspect is described as a black man aged in his late 20s to early 30s. He wore a blue hooded tracksuit, white trainers and was carrying a black holdall. Police said they want to hear from anyone who recognises the man in the CCTV footage. Anyone with any information should call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, quoting reference 203621. P olice stormed a West End restaurant to free a waitress and two diners allegedly being held hostage by a suspected knifeman. Customers in nearby pubs and restaurants were barred from leaving as dozens of officers surrounded Bella Italia in Irving Street, off Leicester Square, from 8.50pm last night. The suspect, said to be a waiter at the restaurant, allegedly took the waitress hostage and armed himself with a knife from the kitchen after an argument. Other diners and staff fled before he locked the door, trapping the young woman and a middle-aged couple inside. Police at Bella Italia in Leicester Square / PA Armed officers and riot police with shields stood guard as negotiators spoke to the suspect through a letterbox. He responded by pressing hand-written notes against the window. The stand-off continued for almost two hours before riot officers battered down the door and detained the suspect. The man was arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment at 10.34pm and led into a police van. The three hostages were released without injury. Police removed a knife found at the scene. Hostage situation: Police were called to a Bella Italia branch / Nigel Howard Miss Staniford, a waitress, said: It was pretty terrifying. The police came in and said there was a situation over the road with a man armed with a knife. They said guns werent involved but we needed to all stay inside for our safety. Mr Oliver said: There were about 50 police, five or six police vans. The police were talking through the letterbox - it was like something from a film. It was difficult to see what was going on inside but someone was holding up notes to communicate with police. Police on the scene in Leicester Square / PA Daniel Oliver, 22, and Lauren Staniford, 19, were having dinner at Steak and Co restaurant opposite as the situation unfolded. Miss Staniford, a waitress, said: It was pretty terrifying. The police came in and said there was a situation over the road with a man armed with a knife. They said guns werent involved but we needed to all stay inside for our safety. Mr Oliver said: There were about 50 police, five or six police vans. The police were talking through the letterbox, it was like something from a film. It was difficult to see what was going on inside but someone was holding up notes to communicate with police. Armed police were called to the scene in Leicester Square / PA Razaul Ali, a retail manager from Canary Wharf, who was celebrating his wedding anniversary at Steak and Co with his wife, said: There were suddenly all these police with riot shields and armed police. The police told everyone to stay inside. It wasnt that easy to enjoy the rest of your meal after that. My wife was really worried but I trusted the police to take care of the situation. If guns had been involved it would have been a lot scarier. Joe Delia, 21, who lives in a neighbouring flat, added: Ive just spoken to the manager and he says... it was a new trainee who was taken hostage. He didnt know why or how it had happened. He was in complete shock. A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: Police were called at 8.48pm to a restaurant in Irving Street, to a report of man holding a woman against her will. It was reported that the male intimated he was in possession of a knife. Two other people were also reported to be inside the venue. Officers attended the scene and attempted to engage with the man to resolve the situation. At around 10.34pm a man was arrested by officers. He has been taken to a central London police station. No one was injured. F ive teens accused of gang-raping a woman in New York will have the charges dropped because the alleged victim had consensual sex with them and her own father, a district attorney said. The woman had initially claimed the youths had driven the 18-year-olds father away with a gun before attacking her in Osborn Playground, Brownsville, Brooklyn, last month. But it has now been announced the woman has withdrawn her accusations against the teens, aged from 14 to 17. The teenagers had previously told police that the woman was already having sex with her father in the park when they arrived, and their subsequent encounter was consensual. Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said the woman and her father had provided "multiple inconsistent accounts" about the nights events when quizzed by detectives. He said in a statement: The complainant has recanted her allegations of forcible sexual assault and the existence of a gun, and she does not wish to pursue criminal charges against any of the defendants. She also refuses to cooperate with any prosecution against her father, who was engaging in sexual conduct with her. That night, this young woman's father and the five young men engaged in conduct that was reprehensible and wrong, but because of the lack of reliable evidence, criminal charges simply cannot be sustained. O ne of Britains most manted criminals will walk free from prison in two months after the man he was accused of shooting went missing. Robert Mortby, 28, was accused of opening fire on Richard Walsh at the Rose and Crown pub, in Bermondsey, south London, after a row over a joint of cannabis. However, after starting his evidence at the Old Bailey, Mr Walsh went missing from court forcing prosecutors to abandon the trial. Mortby had appeared on the National Crime Agencys most wanted as police hunted him over the 2012 shooting. He went on the run immediately after the shooting, and was finally arrested when he handed himself in to authorities in Gibraltar in September last year. Before his trial began, Mortby admitted possession of a CS gas canister and possession of a muzzle-loading flint lock pistol when experts rejected his claim that the gun was an antique. But he denied the more serious charges of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and attempted murder. When Mr Walsh did not appear at court yesterday and failed to show up again today, prosecutor Zoe Johnson QC was forced to abandon the trial by offering no evidence against Mortby. Judge Richard Marks QC, the Common Serjeant of London, jailed Mortby for 15 months for the weapons charges, but having spent five and a half months awaiting trial he could be free in a matter of weeks. It was said Mortby, now sporting flowing long hair after three years on the run, shot Mr Walsh twice in the abdomen on 28 July 2012 for smoking too much of the joint they had previously shared. Ms Johnson said the victim recognised the gunman as 'Robert' but during his evidence in court Mr Walsh denied it was Mortby that had shot him. A student who was arrested for holding an offensive banner bearing the faces of leading politicians has had the charges against him dropped. Adam Barr, 24, was arrested last April for holding the sign, which carried images of David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, and Nigel Farage alongside the words All F***ing W***ers Mr Barr, a student at the London School of Oriential and African Studies (Soas), had been due in court on Friday charged with holding an offensive protest banner under section five of the 1986 Public Order Act. The student held the sign during a protest in east London against so-called "poor doors" built by developers for social tenants in plush housing complexes near the City. He was detained under section five of the Public Order Act, which applies to people causing harassment, alarm, or distress in public. after a primary school teacher complained about the banner. The maximum fine for such the offence is currently 1,000. However, the Crown Prosecution Service said last week it would no longer pursue the case due to a lack of evidence. Mr Barr told the Guardian: Im relieved the case has been discontinued. Its amazing it got so far without someone at the CPS realising it breached my freedom of speech. The newspaper reported that Tower Hamlets police, who originally made the arrest, had accidentally destroyed the banner. Mr Barrs lawyer Simon Natas, of the law firm ITN Solicitors, said: Freedom of speech is the lifeblood of democracy and is protected by the law, even when some might find the language used offensive. My client should not have been arrested for exercising his right to free speech and he should certainly never have been prosecuted. M ore than 28,000 London children will miss out on their first choice of secondary school this year, education experts have predicted. It means that record numbers of 11-year-olds will start in September at schools that are not their top preference, according to the Good Schools Guide, which warned that there were not enough secondary schools in London to cope with the number of children needing places this autumn. Last year, around 27,000 children were not given a place at their preferred secondary school, and the Guide has calculated that this years figure will rise by roughly 1,000. Families will be told what school their child has been allocated on national offer day next Tuesday and children in London are expected to be the least likely in the country to get a place at their preferred school. Susan Hamlyn, director of The Good Schools Guides Advice Service, said: There needs to be a plan so that we have enough schools, enough places and enough teachers in every borough. A number of schools that were guaranteed to London for 2016 still havent opened their doors some havent even found a site to build on. Already, a number of schools have dropped plans to open this September, including North Twyford C of E High School in Ealing and Trinity High School in Merton. A London Councils spokeswoman said: It is important to recognise that not all parents and pupils can be offered their first preference, because there is simply not an unlimited number of places in Londons schools. Demand is growing, as we are beginning to see the pressure on primary schools transfer to secondary. Children applying for secondary school can choose up to six schools in order of preference. Official application figures will be published on Tuesday, but the Good Schools Guide estimated that they had risen by at least three per cent, meaning more than 85,000 children have applied for a secondary school place. But the Guide said that the number of places being created had not kept pace with the rise in the number of pupils. Ms Hamlyn added: We look for evidence that the Government is doing the obvious sums. Take the number of school places away from the number of children due to hear about their place and you will be left with a number of children who have nowhere to go. Parents have taken to social media with their worries about getting a good place for their children. One mother said on the parenting website Mumsnet: Even living ridiculously close Im still nervous something will go wrong. Fingers crossed for you all. Another Mumsnet user called Nynaevessister said: It doesnt help that our two closest schools are both highly sought after and also admit via lottery so being close to them doesnt help us at all. A Department for Education spokeswoman said: Despite rising pupil numbers, 95 per cent of parents received an offer at one of their three preferred schools last year. London has already been allocated 960 million for school places up to 2018 and there are 56 mainstream free schools already in the pipeline. Together, this will create tens of thousands of new school places in the capital. Left in limbo: teaching assistant Samantha ONeill with husband Scott and their children Casey, 10, and Bradley, 11 T he devastated parents of a baby girl who died hours after birth following a series of tragic errors by medics today demanded lessons should be learned ahead of an inquest. Emily Radavicius was born with an infection and fighting for life at Chelsea and Westminster hospital when problems in her delivery are thought to have starved her of oxygen. She needed resuscitation but did not respond and her parents Gintare Degutiene, 34, and her boyfriend Linas Radavicius, 45, from Battersea were advised to withdraw treatment. Miss Degutiene told the Standard: If they had done their job properly my daughter would have survived. They found failures in the care I received. Our daughter paid with her life for them to learn something for the future. The hospital has apologised to Emilys parents and admitted liability ahead of the inquest into her death due to open today at Westminster coroners court . Miss Degutiene, a hotel supervisor, went into induced labour at 41 weeks on March 17 last year. There was a 14-hour delay in transferring her to the hospitals labour ward, during which time neither she nor her baby were adequately monitored. She said she and Mr Radavicius had spent nine hours in a waiting room and the babys heartbeat was not checked.When she was taken to the labour ward, she said baby Emily started to show signs of distress which were not acted upon and there were further avoidable delays in her delivery. Miss Degutiene added: They didnt care about us... they just left us. We didnt get the care we were supposed to receive. They said they had made some changes in the hospital after my situation. We have mixed emotions its been almost a year and I just wish it to all be over so we can start another chapter. The couple have instructed specialist medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchells London office to investigate the care provided during the birth. A letter from the hospitals legal team to Irwin Mitchell admitted a number of shortcomings in the management of Miss Degutienes labour and the delivery of Emily and it is clear that opportunities to deliver Emily at an earlier point in time were missed. On behalf of our client we are instructed to admit breach of duty. It is admitted that, on the balance of probabilities, had the labour and delivery been managed appropriately, Emily would have survived. Lawyer Georgie Cushing, representing the family, said they hope the inquest will provide some opportunity for them to learn more about the events leading to Emilys death and whether any lessons can be learnt from it. T housands of drunken yobs and drink drivers are to be ordered to wear electronic ankle tags in a crackdown on booze culture in London. The capital is to become the first city in the UK to adopt a scheme of sobriety tags which monitor the sweat of offenders and can send them to jail if they drink. A London-wide 850,000 project is to be rolled out this year after the success of pilot in four south London boroughs. The 18-month trial involved 113 offenders guilty of offences ranging from drink driving to assault and found 92 per cent stayed sober for up to four months. The majority of the electronic tags, which contain sensors that monitor alcohol in perspiration, were handed out for 75 days. Most offenders were white males in their 30s and the majority were convicted of violence or drink driving related offences. Tagged offenders told researchers that the enforced period of abstinence from drinking gave them time to reflect on their alcohol consumption and its impact on offending behaviour, relationships and work, and an opportunity to break the cycle of routine drinking. The gadgets send an alarm to probation officers if they detect alcohol and anyone in breach can be jailed if they get two or more warnings. A study of the pilot today recommended that in future the ankle tags could be used to monitor domestic violence offenders or alcoholics on treatment programes. Mayor Boris Johnson said today: This innovative technology is driving down re-offending and proving rehabilitation does not have to mean prison. Justice Secretary Michael Gove added: By giving courts this new power and making the latest technology available, we are helping offenders understand the detrimental impact drinking alcohol can have on their behaviour. This innovative approach has delivered impressive results so far and we will be building on them with this this wider London roll out. The new London programme, funded jointly by the Ministry of Justice and the Mayors Office for Policing and Crime, aims at cutting the 13 billion a year cost of alcohol-related crime and making town centres safer at night. A goose was found with horrific and potentially fatal injuries in an east London park after it was shot with a crossbow, RSPCA inspectors say. The injured bird, with the crossbow bolt still sticking out of it, was rescued from Hornchurch Country Park yesterday. When inspector Mitchell Smith took it for an x-ray, he was horrified to see the bolt had gone straight through its pelvis and into the abdomen. Mr Smith said: This is a horrible injury and the goose must have been in a lot of pain. "Horrible": The bolt had gone through the bird's pelvis and into it's abdomen / RSPCA Fortunately he has now received veterinary care at a nearby wildlife hospital but we dont yet know if he will survive this ordeal. The RSPCA say they do not know if the injuries were caused intentionally or not. Anyone with information should call the RSPCA on 0300 123 8018. A teenage motorcyclist is in hospital in a serious condition after a crash with a car in west London. Police and paramedics were called to Twickenham Road, near the junction with Worton Road, Isleworth just before 4pm to reports of a collision. A Met spokesman said a 19-year-old man had been taken to hospital after he suffered serious leg injuries. They are not believed to be life-threatening. The driver stopped at the scene and no arrests have been made. Hounslow officers urged drivers to avoid the area after a section of Twickenham Road was closed in both directions. Transport for London said buses have been delayed and diverted because of the collision. C ommuters suffered panic attacks during a rush hour crush on the Jubilee line, it was claimed. Crowd control measures were brought into force at Canada Water, North Greenwich and Waterloo stations after signalling problems at Stanmore sparked chaos on the line. But commuters complained the measures did little to ease the crush. Some claimed they were stuck in packed queues for almost half an hour. One Twitter user, named Sinead, said: Panic attacks and dangerous overcrowding on the Jubilee Line, will be surprised if no one got seriously hurt, shame on TfL. The 30-year-old charity worker told the Standard: "Canada Water underground was so crowded. "People struggled to get on or off the trains and the closer you got to the train doors the more you started to get crushed." Crowds of commuters waiting at Canada Water sation Tom McDowall / Tom McDowall Laura Jane wrote: Avoid Canada Water at all costs. Overcrowding on two levels for Jubilee line. People being crushed. Knew I should have stayed in bed. Another traveller tweeted: "Here for 25 mins now not being able to get on a single bloomin train! #NorthGreenwichSucks." Transport for London's official account for the Jubilee line tweeted warning commuters of crowd control measures at Canada Water and Waterloo stations. It said: "Please use alternative stations or allow some extra time to enter the station." Pat Hansberry, London Undergrounds operations director for the Jubilee line, said: "I apologise for the disruption to customers using the Jubilee line this morning. "This was caused by a signal failure at Stanmore at around 7.20am. "After investigation, our engineers resolved the fault with services resuming around 15 minutes later. Our staff then worked hard to restore a good service on the line as quickly as possible. M ore than 50 landlords from across London have joined a landmark 2 million claim against Foxtons over allegedly hidden management fees, which saw one charged more than 600 to install a new light. The property owners are furious that the estate agent charges up to 33 per cent commission for work done by contractors on their rented homes. They say the charges were not made clear when they signed contracts for the firm to manage their properties. Foxtons today said it believes the claim is entirely without merit and that the fees are clearly flagged up and represent good value. The action follows Dr Chris Townleys decision in June last year to query a 616 bill for a new security light at his 500,000 property in Forest Hill. When the lecturer asked the sub-contractors to redo the shoddy job he was told they had billed Foxtons 412.50. He says Foxtons informed him it had added 137.50 commission alongside an ad hoc management charge of 10 per cent. They had also charged VAT at 20 per cent. The additional 203 was a mark-up of 49 per cent on the contractors original invoice. Dr Townley launched a legal claim with the support of solicitors Leigh Day, claiming the commission was not covered by the landlords contract. He was seeking 14,000 in compensation for inflated costs for work during the two and a half years that Foxtons managed the property. His battle has inspired a further 54 landlords to come forward. Individual claims range from 4,000 to 200,000 and the total is now 2.19 million. Leigh Day has served the estate agent with a letter of claim, warning it will issue High Court proceedings unless it agrees to enter settlement talks. Dr Townley said: We have the chance to really change the marketplace and change a practice which has cost landlords millions of pounds. Chris Haan, the solicitor leading the claim for Leigh Day, said: It is a landmark case. A spokesman for Foxtons said: We believe our fees represent good value and are clearly communicated to landlords and detailed within the terms of each contract. This case reflects a small minority of landlords and we believe is entirely without merit. T eenagers in London are falling about half a school year behind pupils in other cities and regions around the world, a study has claimed. Secondary school pupils in Shanghai, China, are said to be about three years ahead of students in the capital in maths alone. The study, by researchers at the UCL Institute of Education, used data collected from the 2009 and 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests which measure the abilities of 15-year-olds in reading, maths and science. The results from 1,057 London pupils were compared with others around the world, with students in the capital consistently outperformed in all three areas by teenagers in Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Maastricht, Helsinki, Milan, the Australian states of Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, the Canadian provinces of Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, and Massachusetts and Connecticut in the United States. Only the top 10 per cent of London's 15-year-olds could match the maths skills of the average Shanghai teenager, according to the study. London teenagers did outperform some of their peers internationally - they were up to two years ahead of the poorest performing places, including Rio de Janiero and Mexico State. A Department for Education spokesman said: "London has been a real success story, particularly in improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, as the report authors acknowledge, and our reformed world-class qualifications are ensuring all pupils have the chance to fulfil their potential. "This report is based on a small sample of schools and uses data from 2012, and doesn't take into account the impact of many of our reforms, so should be treated with caution. Nonetheless we are determined to build on our progress, which has led to 1.4 million more pupils in good or outstanding schools since 2010." Additional reporting by Press Association. A n outbreak of norovirus has hit a major south London hospital. Lewisham Hospital has been forced to turn away some visitors after several wards reported cases of the winter vomiting bug, according to a spokeswoman. Restricted visiting conditions have been put in place, meaning only immediate family parents, children and spouses - are allowed to visit patients. Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, has told people who have experienced diarrhoea and vomiting in the last 48 hours or been in contact with someone who has to stay away. Claire Champion, director of nursing, clinical quality and infection prevention and control said: The safety and well-being of our patients is always our top priority. We recognise the value of visiting to our patients and this step has not been taken lightly; however we believe these measures are essential to ensure we protect our patients from this very contagious winter bug, and to keep staff well and able to work. We will review the situation twice a day and restrictions will be lifted when it is considered safe for our patients to do so." The highly contagious virus causes diarrhoea and vomiting and usually lasts two or three days. A n American-style Office for Citizenship and Integration should be set up at City Hall to help improve community relations, a report said today. Mayoral candidates Sadiq Khan and Zac Goldsmith were urged to appoint a new deputy to promote Britishness and encourage better integration in the capital. The report, from think tank British Future, said the new office would help increase the number of Londoners who can speak English so more can take part fully in British life. It would encourage more migrants living in London to take citizenship, with a target of driving up registrations by 100,000 over four years. The office would play a leading role in celebrations for events such as St Georges Day and Remembrance Day, which would be opportunities to make sure everybody is invited to the party, the report said. It would also promote more contact with people from different backgrounds through volunteering. Although citizenship ceremonies were introduced 12 years ago there are concerns in some quarters that they have been a wasted opportunity to promote integration and a shared sense of identity. Polling by ICM for British Future found that 63 per cent of people thought it was better when migrants integrated into society, and only 37 per cent thought they should return home. Nine in 10 migrants speak good English when they arrive but there are still 250,000 living in London who struggle to communicate. Under the recommendations, a new London Citizenship Fund would be set up to pull together 1 million in private donations, with another 1 million coming from the next mayor. Chicago, New York and LA have led the citizenship drive in the US, where migrants earnings increase by nine per cent after naturalisation. The City Hall proposal, supported by civic group London Citizens, also received cross-party backing. Conservative Steve Norris, a former mayoral candidate, said it would make sure everybody shares a common language and can talk to their neighbours as well as celebrating the pride new citizens had in becoming British. Labour MP David Lammy added that the office would be a vital development in turning the rhetoric on the benefits of immigration into reality, as well as preventing new migrants from living parallel lives to their fellow Londoners. British Future director Sunder Katwala said: London is a city of immigration and that brings pressures on people living here, as well as economic and cultural benefits that have helped make our city one of the greatest in the world. Making integration work for people already here and for new arrivals too is one of the keys to Londons continuing success. London is already an integration success story compared to most other world capitals. But with a dynamic individual driving forward a proactive plan, London could do so much more. A tech start-up claims to have hacked an iPhone fingerprint sensor using a fake fingerprint made from Play-Doh. Vkansee said it created the hack to show the superior resolution of its own fingerprint sensors. The company created the false fingerprint by pushing Play-Doh into the cast of a finger made in dental paste. The duplicate fingerprint is then placed on the sensor, which the Standard saw fool the scanning security feature to unlock an iPhone 6. Smartphone sensors currently scan information at 500 pixels per inch, but the company has developed one that works at four times the resolution. Biometric payments are a big talking point at this years Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. MasterCard unveiled fingerprint or selfie authentication for payments instead of a passcode to try to reduce online fraud. New York-based Vkansee said its sensor can capture ridges and peaks in the finger in far greater detail. Even sweat pores are said to be visible, to show the image is from a real person. Company president Jason Chaikin said: We used the Play-Doh to demonstrate that even though the sensors in our phones today are very useful, they have vulnerabilities, which we can show by entering a simple mould of Play-Doh based on your fingerprint. These technologies are now 10 years old and we represent the second generation. We certainly hope to be in phones in early 2017. Mr Chaikin denied that revealing the Play-Doh hack was making it easier for thieves and said vulnerabilities could be closed if they are exposed. He confirmed the company was negotiating with manufacturers, but declined to reveal which, although one demonstration sensor was made from rose gold similar to Apples premium colour. Touch ID is used to unlock an iPhone, and can then be used to authorise services including the App Store. Apple says there is a very high level of security, but declined to comment on the hacking technique. Mark Blunden flew as a guest of Norwegian, a low-cost carrier which flies from London Gatwick to Barcelona and has free wi-fi onboard. For more information: (norwegian.com). S mart bike lights are predicting where potholes will form in London roads and providing data about junctions that are most dangerous for cyclists. ICON by See.Sense also sends a text message to an emergency contact if the rider falls off and is connected to an app that alerts the owner if the bikes motion sensor is disturbed by a thief. An accelerometer knows when to flash brighter and faster as the rider approaches more dangerous situations, such as roundabouts, junctions and cars. If the rider falls off their bike, the app gives them 30 seconds to respond before sending an emergency text to their nominated contact. Innovative: Jemma Nimick, from SeeSense Belfast-based See.Sense showed their latest ICON model at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Single lights start at about 65. The Standard was flown to Mobile World Congress as a guest of low-cost airline Norwegian. For more information visit norwegian.com T he owner of Alton Towers is to be prosecuted over the rollercoaster accident in which several people were seriously injured. Two young women, Victoria Balch and Leah Washington, had legs amputated and three others suffered life-changing injuries after the crash on the theme park's Smiler ride in June last year. The Health and Safety Executive announced on Thursday that the owner, Merlin, faces legal action. The accident happened when a car on the ride collided with a stationary carriage in front on June 2. It was caused by human error, the theme park claimed in November. Hurt in the crash: Leah Washington and Joe Pugh, who was also injured Facebook / Facebook Neil Craig, head of operations for HSE in the Midlands, said: We have today informed Merlin Attractions Operations Ltd that it will be prosecuted for breaching health and safety law. This was a serious incident with life-changing consequences for five people. Injuries: Victoria Balch had her right leg amputated Facebook / Facebook We have conducted a very thorough investigation and consider that there is sufficient evidence and that it is in the public interest to bring a prosecution. The HSE announcement came on the same day that Merlin - which also owns attractions such as Legoland, Madame Tussauds and the London Eye - said it had overcome a fall in revenues at its theme parks to post a pre-tax profit rise of 0.3 per cent to 250 million in the year to December 26, compared with a year ago. It said Alton Towers had a "significant" fall in visitor numbers after the accident, which resulted in the 500-acre theme park in Staffordshire being shut down for four days. D isgraced broadcaster Stuart Hall has spoken publicly for the first time since leaving prison branding people who accused him of sex crimes vindictive malicious people. The former Its A Knockout presenter was jailed for five years for indecent assaults against girls between nine and 17 years old, but was released half way through his sentence in December. Speaking to The Sun, the 86-year-old said he lived one day at a time and was grateful to still be alive. He said: "To go from being a national treasure to the bottom of the pond has been very difficult. "The vindictive malicious people who have impugned me will think again. I'm hoping for fairness from everybody." His comments came the day before a reports was due to be published into the culture and practices at the BBC in the years that he and Jimmy Savile worked at the corporation. A leaked draft version of the report, put together by former Court of Appeal judge Dame Janet Smith, condemned the BBC for its "deferential culture" and "untouchable stars", and criticised it for having managers who were "above the law". A woman who was attacked by Hall as a teenager told The Sun: To me he'll always be the lowest of the low, a vile paedophile who's ruined so many lives. Hall was jailed for 15 months in June 2013 after admitting indecently assaulting 13 girls before it was doubled by the Court of the Appeal, which ruled the sentence was "inadequate". In May last year, he received an additional 30 months in jail - to run consecutively - for two indecent assaults on another girl. Hall, who is a father-of-two, was placed on licence for 15 months after his release and as a convicted sex offender is subject to strict conditions. He was stripped of his OBE for broadcasting and charity work in the wake of his convictions. A young girl has died following a tragic incident in a school swimming pool in Berkshire. The pupil, said to be aged 11 or 12, was pulled unconscious from the water during a lesson at The Abbey School in Reading on February 11. In a statement today, the independent secondary said: We are deeply saddened to confirm the loss of one of our pupils. She was a much-loved member of our school and our thoughts and prayers are with her family. We are unable to make further comment at this time and would ask that everybody respects the privacy of her family and the school community." Paramedics confirmed they were called to an incident at the school shortly after 2pm. A spokesman for the South Central Ambulance Service said: "We were called at 2.24pm to reports there was a female student pulled unconscious from the pool." The girl is understood to have died later in hospital. Neither SCAS or the school confirmed her age. Website getreading.co.uk, which first reported the incident, said she was thought to be in year 7. On its website, the Abbey School describes itself as Berkshire's "leading independent girls' day school", with more than 1,000 pupils aged three to 18 on roll. P rince Harry has been moved by the resilience of earthquake survivors in Nepal, Kensington Palace said today as details of his trip to the country next month were announced. The devastating quakes killed more than 9,000 people last April and May and the prince will meet survivors and learn about efforts being made to restore historic buildings. He will have an opportunity to take part in a trek and visit a national park. The tour will begin and conclude in Kathmandu, where Harry will meet President Bidhya Devi Bhandari. Having served alongside Gurkhas in Afghanistan, the prince will visit the British Gurkha Camp in Pokhara, where he will commend the bravery and service to the Crown of an exceptional group of soldiers. A Kensington Palace spokesman said: Prince Harry is really looking forward to his first trip to Nepal. It is a country he has long wanted to visit. He has been moved by the stories of resilience of the Nepali people following the earthquakes last year and is now eager to learn more about their country and culture. With Britain and Nepal currently celebrating 200 years of co-operation, Prince Harry will experience the strength of the relationship and traditional warmth of the Nepali welcome. A head and shoulders bronze bust of Sir Winston Churchill is expected to fetch as much as 80,000 at auction. The bust is one of just six casts taken from the statue of the former Prime Minister that stands in Parliament Square. Auctioned by Essex-based firm Sworders, buyers have been given a guide price of between 60,000 and 80,000 for the cast, which stands at 34in (86.5cm) high and 51in wide (130cm). The original 12ft high bronze was created in 1971 by Ivor Roberts-Jones, once head of the sculpture department at Goldsmiths College of Art. He said the statues pose was inspired by a mournful Sir Winston inspecting the bomb wreckage of the House of Commons in May, 1941. In 1995, the artist was commissioned to create another cast of the Churchill figure to stand in the Winston Churchill Square in Prague. He said his original mould for his Parliament Square figure had disintegrated and doubted whether Parliament would allow him to make a cast from the statue himself. He produced a clay maquette for a new head but died a couple of months afterwards. After negotiation, his widow Monica Roberts-Jones gave her permission for a copy to be made of the statue in Parliament Square. The auction takes place at Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers on April 12. A trainspotter eagerly awaiting the historic sight of the Flying Scotsman's return to the railways suffered a stroke of bad luck when a train passing in the opposite direction almost completely obscured his view. Ryan Allen was waiting for the train in the village of Little Bytham in Lincolnshire, but just as the famous engine came into view a Virgin train passed in the opposite direction, blocking his view. All that could be seen of the 1923 train was a plume of white smoke over the top of the Virgin service, which eventually passed out of sight, just in time for Mr Allen to film the last of the Scotsman's carriages fading into the distance. However, the 34-year-old, who works for Anglian Water as a leakage technician, clearly took it in good humour as he shared the video to Twitter along with the caption "I had a feeling this would happen." After Virgin Trains caught wind of the video, which has been shared thousands of times, they teamed up with Virgin Atlantic to offer Mr Allen flights to Atlanta. Reaching out on Twitter, a spokesman said: "We feel bad for that photobomb! I hear Atlanta, Georgia has a super busy rail network! Fancy a trip courtesy of Virgin Atlantic?" And Mr Allen, who lives in Spilsby in Lincolnshire, was soon over his disappointment, and gladly took the company up on the offer, and will be taking his partner of 18 years Emma with him. He told the Standard: "I'm over the moon. I still can't believe it. I've always wanted to go to the States. "When people were tweeting about the tickets I thought it was a wind-up." He said he never expected the video to do so well, saying: "I found it funny really. I nearly didn't tweeted it. "I sent it to my mates on Facebook and they thought it was funny, soo I posted it on Twitter. "My phone has been vibrating that much with retweet notifications I had to turn it off as I was at work." Richard Salkeld from Virgin Trains told the Standard: "We thought it was a nice thing to do because he was obviously very disappointed. "We're informed that train spotting is in the top 20 of things to do in Atlanta. "There are 5000 miles of track, so it seemed like the obvious destination to offer to Ryan." T ributes have been paid to a bright and bubbly interior designer who died after a car mounted the pavement in a busy town centre. Kat Garrett, who is in her 30s, was hit by a Land Rover Defender in Bridge Street, Guildford, at about 1.30pm on Saturday. Two other pedestrians were injured in the collision. A man in his 40s remains at St Georges Hospital in a serious condition and a woman in her late 20s suffered minor injuries and has since been released. Ms Garrett, who worked as a project manager for Wimbledon-based Peldon Rose, was pronounced dead at the scene. A spokesman for Surrey Coroner's Court in Woking said an inquest into Ms Garrett's death is yet to be opened. In a statement posted on their website, her employer said: We are very sad to announce that a member of the Peldon Rose family died in a tragic accident at the weekend. Kat Garrett was a highly talented and respected member of our furniture team who brought beautiful energy and was much loved. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this time as they come to terms with such a tragic loss. Friends have also paid tribute to Ms Garrett on social media. Ryan Jenkyns posted on Facebook: I was shocked and immensely saddened to hear of the passing of one of my dearest friends from my days at UCA Farnham, Kat Garrett. She was a bright and bubbly girl who took no nonsense from anyone, but was so close to so many people. And even so many years after leaving uni, she would still go out of her way to get the old gang together for meals out or small parties hosted at her home. Kat's smile would simply light up a room, and the world is now a little dimmer in her absence. 'Bright and bubbly': Victim Kat Garrett Facebook / Facebook Scott Vincent James Alexander said: Deeply saddened to hear the news that an old work colleague has passed away. My thoughts are with Kat Garrett's family at this terrible time. Shannon Ball added: Rest in peace Kat Garrett. Priviledged [sic] to have known you. The Standard has made attempts to contact members of Ms Garrett's family. A change.org petition has been set up calling on Guildford Borough Council and Surrey County Council to take action to help reduce any further tragic deaths, with almost 4,000 people signing in just three days. Surrey Police is continuing to appeal for witnesses following the fatal collision. Anyone with information should call the Surrey Police Collision Investigation Unit on 01483 639922 or call 101, quoting reference 45160014507. To sign the petition, visit https://www.change.org/p/petition-guildfordbc-surreycouncil-take-immediate-action-on-bridge-street. T he Afghan boy who became an online hit after being pictured with a Lionel Messi shirt made out of a plastic bag today received a real signed version from the star himself. Five-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi became known as the Argentinian strikers biggest fan when the photo showing him wearing the homemade shirt made from a striped blue plastic bag went viral. Today the youngster, from the Jaghori District in the eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan was celebrating after getting the real thing from the Barcelona forward himself. Makeshift: Murtaza Ahmadi with his Argentina-style Messi shirt made from a plastic bag / AFP/Getty Images Wearing his prized posession, Murtaza said: I love Messi and my shirt says Messi loves me. Five-time world player of the year Messi is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Childrens Emergency Fund which helped to get the shirt to the boy. Mahdy Mehraeen/UNICEF via AP The star also sent a football and some extra shirts to Murtazas family, including his oldest brother Hamayon, who published the original picture on Facebook. A pple boss Tim Cook has claimed obeying an FBI demand to help them hack into an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers would be bad for America. A US court order has asked Apple to provide reasonable technical assistance to investigators who want to access the phone of Syed Rizwan Farook. Farook and his wife were shot dead in December after slaughtering 14 people and wounding 22 others at a Christmas party in California. The FBI wants to examine what contact the pair had with extremist groups before their killing spree. But Apple claims that helping the US Government override the iPhones security features would make the machines more open to hacking in the future. Mr Cook said he would appeal to Barack Obama over the issue and was prepared to fight his case at the US Supreme Court if necessary. TODO: define component type apester He told ABC News his company was being asked to write a piece of software that we view as sort of the equivalent of cancer" in order to access Farook's phone. The software could "expose people to incredible vulnerabilities", he added, arguing that smartphones contained private information about users and even their families. He said: "This would be bad for America. It would also set a precedent that I believe many people in America would be offended by." Mr Cook added: If a court can ask us to write this piece of software, think about what else they could ask us to write. "Maybe it's an operating system for surveillance. Maybe it's the ability for law enforcement to turn on the camera. I mean, I don't know where this stops." T his was the moment a man in a Batman outfit was arrested at a world famous tourist attraction after allegedly snatching money from a sightseer. The man has been accused of stealing $50 (35) while dressed as the crime fighting superhero near New Yorks Times Square on Wednesday evening. Police said he was posing for pictures with two tourists in the square when he allegedly swiped the cash and dashed off, according to the New York Post. He was arrested by police nearby shortly afterwards. The picture was shared on Twitter by the user A Better Times Square, who said: A dark night for Gotham when fake Batman is led away in cuffs. Police have reportedly been cracking down on the shifty behaviour of some people posing as superheroes or sci-fi characters in Times Square in recent months. People dressed as Darth Vader, Iron Man and Minnie Mouse are among those who have faced criticism or even arrest. A French court has upheld plans to raze part of the Calais Jungle after authorities set migrants and refugees a deadline to leave the area. A judge in Lille ruled the southern section of the makeshift camp can be dismantled except for schools and places of worship, including churches and mosques. State authorities say up to 1,000 migrants will be affected by the move but charities warn as many as 3,455 people could be forced to find new homes. Last week, officials set migrants a deadline of 8pm on Tuesday to leave the camp but it was later postponed following fears over the number of people being displaced. Prefect Fabienne Buccio, the top official in France's northern Pas-de-Calais region, said earlier this month: It's time to tell the migrants of Calais, who live in undignified conditions and give Calais an image that isn't dignified either, that we have a solution for each of you." But aid agencies said there are not enough containers to house those displaced by the bulldozers. Workers fear mass eviction will result in the problems being shifted elsewhere, such as to the swamp-like Grande-Synthe camp along the northern French coast in Dunkirk. Last week, Mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart said clearing the camp was a sensitive situation but that it would keep migrants and refugees away from activists bent on causing disruption. A London student has been putting penguins through their paces on a treadmill as part of research to see how fat ones try to avoid falling over. Roehampton University ecology graduate Astrid Willener discovered that king penguins who had stuffed their stomachs with fish were much more likely to topple to the ground. Her research team, working on Possession Island in the Indian Ocean, showed the birds movements became more erratic if they had eaten more, swaying around while walking. Because king penguins have such a long breeding cycle when they look after their eggs, it is important for them to increase their fat reserves beforehand. Ms Willener explained: They need the time to have an egg, take care of an egg. They might end up fasting for one month so they have to have fat when they arrive and still be able to walk. The researchers wanted to see how penguins coped with that extra weight, knowing that it also meant they were a larger target for predators. She said: When theyre larger theyre not stable and falling down or not standing up properly they can be seen by a predator who will come and eat it alive. Its like a trade-off between being the most fat and staying alive longer in the colony. Part of the research involved filming fat and thin birds taking a 10 minute walk on a treadmill at a speed of 1.4km/h so their gait could be analysed, requiring a few training sessions for each bird. Ms Willener, who has dramatically sped up the video and says no penguins fell, explained: I trained them to stay on their feet because it not good if they fall over, they can hurt themselves. I wanted to measure their movements so I wanted a full walk from them. That was the most important moment or the most difficult moment the moment they started to walk. Although the fatter penguins did not change their stride frequency, they developed a more exaggerted waddle in a bid to stay upright. It is hoped the findings can be used to better protect penguins, by helping to calculate their energy expenditure and the distance they can stray from colonies. K esha fans are gearing up to protest outside Sonys New York offices. To support of the star, who lost her court battle with the record label last week, online activists Care2 will gather outside the headquarters on Friday. Activist Lacey Kohlmoos told Billboard: Whether or not Kesha's music affected someone personally, this case represents the unfair treatment of sexual assault survivors around the globe. It is important for Sony to see the uproar they have caused, so protesters are bringing it right to their front door. Protest organiser Michael Eisele said in a statement: Kesha was offered by Sony to record music with producers other than Dr. Luke. However, Kesha is signed with Kemosabe, Dr. Luke's recording label, which is under Sony Music's umbrella. He added: Therefore, any music Kesha is expected to release will be under his label, have his name on it, earn him profits and will be undoubtedly left to plummet...regardless of who the producer is." Kesha was reduced to tears in court on Friday when a judge ruled that she couldnt get out of her contract with Sony despite alleging that producer Dr Luke has sexually abused her. Dr Luke real name Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald denies the allegations. J ude Law is at the centre of a row after police were called by neighbours over a party at his north London home. Neighbours today described being woken in the early hours of Sunday by really awful music which was likened to a major festival event. One neighbour said the bash, thought to be a birthday party for Laws girlfriend Dr Phillipa Coan, featured a live band and continued until about 5am. Scotland Yard today confirmed it was called just before 2am over the loud noise in the Highgate street, which is also home to George Michael, Kate Moss and Jamie Oliver. Officers did not attend the actors house and referred the caller to Camden council instead. TODO: define component type brightcove Later on Sunday Law, 43, visited the Jungle migrant camp in Calais, where he raised the plight of children living in squalid conditions and read aloud an open letter to David Cameron, calling on the Government to do more. When asked about the party today, Law pointed towards a neighbours house and said: Why dont you ask them about it? One neighbour said: It was really awful, it woke me up all night. It was going on until around 5am. It was like jazz or something, but there was a real band playing, not just music. Another neighbour said: It woke me up. I think a lot of people heard it. There are a lot of people here who are successful people and they like to have parties. It was not very good music. Law bought the four-storey townhouse in 2010, according to Land Registry records. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: Police were called at 1.55am on Sunday to a report of anti-social behaviour loud noise. The caller was advised that it was a matter for the council and environmental health department. Camden council said its noise protection team attended Laws house, asked for the music to be turned down and stayed for 40 minutes to check the noise remained low.@David_Churchill Authorities have released the name of a woman killed in a police chase that began in South Dakota and ended with a crash in Nebraska. Thirty-four-year-old Kerry Peters of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, died in the crash, which occurred just before 4 a.m. Tuesday in Dawes County. County Attorney Vance Haug says a South Dakota sheriffs deputy began chasing a vehicle, driven by Peters, that raced east after being parked on U.S. Highway 18 east of Oelrichs, South Dakota. Oglala Sioux officers soon took over and followed south onto state Highway 41, crossing into Nebraska on Slim Buttes Road. Haug says the vehicle suddenly reversed course and headed north. It struck a tribal police cruiser, injuring the officer, and missed another cruiser. The vehicle went out of control and crashed, catching fire. Thirty-five year old Donny Red Paint, also of Pine Ridge, South Dakota continues to be treated for injuries at Chadron Community Hospital. Twenty-nine year old Pauline WhiteButterfly of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, remains at Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where she was transported by helicopter, for treatment of her injuries. Oglala Sioux Police Officer Ann Mousseau was evaluated for injuries and released from Chadron Community Hospital yesterday. LINCOLN State officials are switching tactics and now are planning a more direct route to help fund levee improvements to protect Offutt Air Force Base, a key step in retaining thousands of jobs there. A trio of state senators introduced legislation Monday for a direct state appropriation of $13.7 million for the 19-mile-long levee project. The change of plans is part of the states full-court press to fund the levee work, seen as a key step to persuade the federal government to commit funds to rebuild Offutts crumbling runway an improvement seen as imperative if the base is to retain the 55th Wing. The $25 million levee project would raise the levee by 1 to 2 feet. Gov. Pete Ricketts and U.S. Reps. Brad Ashford and Jeff Fortenberry have been part of the push to get the runway built and retain jobs. The amendment was introduced Monday by State Sens. Heath Mello of Omaha, Ken Schilz of Ogallala and Dan Watermeier of Syracuse. Proactively budgeting for the levee project demonstrates Nebraskas commitment to Offutt Air Force Base. This amendment will ensure the project is funded and completed in a timely manner, Ricketts said Monday. As uncertainty about federal dollars and Offutts future has grown, the states investment has become critical in securing the bases long-term viability, Mello said. This approach removes that uncertainty, he said. The money would likely come from the states cash reserve fund, Mello said. Watermeier said hes been talking about taking this action for two years. Now, with concerns about Offutt facing the possibility of a base closure or consolidation, Watermeier said he feels a sense of urgency. Investing in infrastructure is where the government should be spending money, he said. Its just Nebraska stating Offutt is a priority for us, Watermeier said. Previously the state had planned to get its contribution to the $25 million project from a new state water sustainability fund. But doubts have been raised about whether the levee project would score high enough in the competitive grant process against other projects to win money from the fund. Controversy also arose among rural interests about giving most of the funds, originally intended for water quantity and quality problems in the states agricultural areas, to a project in an urban area that did little to improve water quantity and quality. The Omaha-based Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District submitted grant requests for the levee as well as $9 million for two flood-control dams. Together, the two requests would have gobbled up all of the money available for similar projects from the sustainability fund, upsetting some rural officials. The Papio NRD had planned to discuss whether to withdraw the request for the two dams to make it clear that the Offutt levee was the top priority for the metro area. John Winkler, the NRDs general manager, said Mondays legislative development changes the calculus for the boards March 10 meeting. If lawmakers approve the new funding proposal, the NRD could withdraw its request for levee funding and leave the request for the flood-control dams. Obviously we need that $13.7 million, he said. It doesnt matter to us where the money comes from. It may be late March or early April before the Legislature acts on the matter. Decisions on the water sustainability fund grants will not be made until May. The water fund was created two years ago amid concerns that the state lacked funds for projects that recharge groundwater and comply with interstate water compacts. In a compromise pushed by Mello, the fund was amended to provide 10 percent of its funds annually to Omahas federally mandated sewer upgrade project. Due to another federal mandate, the 19 miles of levees that protect Offutt Air Force Base and the surrounding area from Missouri River flooding must be built higher. Sarpy County, the cities of Omaha and Bellevue, and the NRD have all committed funds for the $25 million levee project. The NRD has already spent $2 million on engineering and design. The levees not only protect Offutt but Omahas wastewater treatment plant, the highway leading to a new Highway 34 bridge across the Missouri River and land targeted for development in the area. World-Herald staff writers Emily Nohr and Martha Stoddard contributed to this report. PAXTON, Neb. (AP) A former train depot in Paxton and the village of Maxwell have received plaques to commemorate the first time a motorized vehicle traveled across the country. The North Platte Telegraph reports that George Wyman found himself in a downpour on June 7, 1903, as he was taking his motorcycle on a 50-day trip. "He is to long-distance motorcycling that Charles Lindbergh is to aviation," said Tim Masterson, president of the George A. Wyman Project Inc., which maps Wyman's stops and gives plaques to as many of them as possible. For three hours Wyman took refuge at the train depot, which has since been converted into a coffee shop and antique store. He eventually pushed through muddy wagon trails, often walking, rather than riding, and wound up at a Maxwell hotel, where he stayed the night and ate a hot meal. A house now stands where the hotel once was, and the Paxton depot also isn't in its original location. There are about 48 miles between Wyman's stops. Wyman used the Union Pacific railroad tracks to map his motorcycle trek, which occurred less than a month before Dr. Heratio Jackson made the first cross-country trek in an automobile. Unlike Jackson, Wyman traveled alone and only brought tools to self-repair his motorcycle. Leah Fote, who renovated the depot, said she was excited to preserve this piece of Paxton's history. "I thought it'd be cool to be a part of the project," she said. Masterson also contacted Monica Breinig, Maxwell clerk treasurer, to give the village a plaque. Breinig plans to hang it on a light pole in a grassy area across the street from where Wyman stayed. The city plans to place a veterans memorial in the space in May. Both Fote and Breinig said they're excited to be a part of Wyman's journey. Nebraska has 529 cities and villages, 245 K-12 school districts, 93 counties, 23 natural resource districts, 17 educational service units, and six community colleges. These are just some of the hundreds of local governments responsible for levying property taxes in Nebraska. Property tax revenues fund local government, not state government. The state, however, is responsible for setting the rules for how property taxes are levied. This means the state can put measures in place to encourage local governments to control spending over the long term. When taxpayers are demanding structural property tax relief, it is incumbent upon us as state leaders to take action. Slowing the growth of local government spending is the focus of the property tax relief plan I proposed with Senator Kate Sullivan, Chairwoman of the Education Committee, and Senator Mike Gloor, Chairman of the Revenue Committee. Earlier, I detailed LB958 in the Revenue Committee, a bill aimed at encouraging fiscal restraint and accountability by political subdivisions like cities, counties, and natural resource districts. In this column, I want to focus on LB959 in the Education Committee. Like the companion bill in the Revenue Committee, LB959 sets benchmarks for measured growth in spending for school districts, community colleges, and educational service units. This is accomplished through four major reforms. First, a change in the budgeting process to simplify school district budget growth to 2.5 percent plus expected student growth. It also moves predictable annual retirement expenses into the budget base. Right now, schools are able to grow their budgets above this limit without taxpayer approval. In the event of sudden or unforeseen circumstances, schools can still increase their budget with a vote of the people. Second, LB959 limits the percentage schools can put into their reserves annually and limits the unused budget authority a district may carry forward. To maintain flexibility, school districts are still allowed to put money away for rainy days and to carry forward a limited amount of budget authority. Third, it makes a revision to a provision in the state school funding formula called needs stabilization. Previously, the average school district needs in the formula could grow by 12 percent, and fast growing districts had no limits. With LB959, each districts target funding level is limited to five percent plus student growth in the formula. Additionally, if a school district is shrinking, it allows the target funding level to decrease by up to two percent each year. This means needs stabilization can increase or decrease within a range of 98 to 105 percent plus student growth. Finally, the bill removes exceptions which previously allowed school districts and community colleges to unilaterally approve capital projects. If LB959 is enacted, schools and community colleges will need to seek voter approval for qualified capital construction projects. The taxpayers of Nebraska have made incredible financial commitments to our children and our schools. Over the past 15 years, Nebraskas student enrollment has grown about .33 percent annually for a total of five percent, while education spending in our state has grown at a compounding rate of 6.39 percent annually or 138 percent during the same timeframe. LB959 does not remove any tools to maintain or grow this commitment, it simply limits the growth of spending annually, and provides for voter approval on additional spending. This proposal delivers structural property tax relief and still provides adequate resources to Nebraska schools to educate our students to be the leaders of tomorrow. Some argue that not enough of Nebraskas state budget is spent on education. Forty-six percent of our current general fund budget is dedicated to K-12 and higher education. Additionally, Nebraska ranks 21st in Elementary-Secondary Revenue (federal, state, and local sources) per pupil and 18th in Elementary-Secondary Spending per pupil overall. Nebraskans, rural and urban, are demanding property tax relief, and Ive prioritized it for this year. I need you to help me get it done by contacting your state senator and voicing your support. Lobbyists are paid by special interests to spend taxpayer money, and they are already trying to oppose property tax relief. Please visit www.NebraskaLegislature.gov for information on who your senator is and how to contact them. This page is archived. Data published after 5 April 2022 can be found on the renewed website. Go to the new statistics page Published: 25 February 2016 Cuts to government R&D funding in the budget for 2016 Corrected on 3 March 2016. The corrections are indicated in red. Appropriations for research and development will decrease in the budget for 2016 by around EUR 157 million from the year before. In total, government R&D funding will be approximately EUR 1,845 million in the budget for 2016. The share of public research funding in gross domestic product is estimated to fall to 0.87 per cent. The fall is particularly caused by cuts to the appropriations of Tekes - the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, and government research institutes. R&D funding awarded by Tekes will decrease by EUR 107 million in the budget for 2016, and R&D funding of government research institutes will go down by EUR 59 million from the year before. The decrease in the mandate of Tekes continues the support cuts made during the previous Government's term of office. The fall in the appropriations of research institutes is explained partly by the comprehensive review of government research institutes and research funding. Of the administrative sectors, most R&D funding is awarded by the Ministry of Education and Culture, whose share in all public research funding is over one half. The modest rise in R&D funding by the Ministry of Education and Culture in the budget for 2016 is mainly due to the growing outlays of the Academy of Finland. Government budget appropriations or outlays for R&D (GBAORD) in 2016 Corrected on 3 March 2016. The corrections are indicated in red. R&D funding million Share of R&D funding, % Change from 2015, million Real change from 2015, % R&D funding total 1 845,4 100,0 157,0 -9,4 Main administrative branches (ministries) Ministry of Education and Culture 1112,3 60,3 22,3 0,3 Ministry of Employment and the Economy 488,8 26,5 -128,6 -22,2 Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry 72,4 3,9 -22,4 -24,9 Ministry of Social Affairs and Health 69,9 3,8 -12,4 -16,5 Funding organisations Universities 585,5 31,7 7,5 -0,4 Tekes the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation 381,1 20,7 -107,0 -23,2 Academy of Finland 439,0 23,8 23,4 3,9 Government research institutes 197,1 10,7 -59,1 -24,4 Other R&D funding 227,7 12,3 -15,1 -7,8 University central hospitals 15,0 0,8 -6,7 -32,0 Source: Government R&D funding in the state budget 2016, Statistics Finland Inquiries: Heidi Pirkola 029 551 3246, Ari Leppalahti 029 551 3237, tiede.teknologia@stat.fi Director in charge: Mari Yla-Jarkko Publication in pdf-format (163.6 kB) Updated 25.2.2016 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Government R&D funding in the state budget [e-publication]. ISSN=2489-3250. 2016. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 21.10.2022]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tkker/2016/tkker_2016_2016-02-25_tie_001_en.html This page may have been moved, deleted, or is otherwise unavailable. To help you find what you are looking for: Enter Search Term(s): Still cant find what youre looking for? Send us a message using our contact us form. To report a broken link or other problems with the website, please include the URL. Thank you for visiting state.gov. Countries & Areas Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe Thursday, 25 February 2016 14:32:21 (GMT+3) | Istanbul Demand for Turkish merchant bar in the export market is still slack, while merchant bar prices have increased by $10/mt during the past week against the backdrop of the rises seen in import scrap and semi-finished steel quotations in Turkey. Export offers from Turkish merchant bar producers are at the following levels: Product Price ($/mt) FOB Angle 360-380 IPN-UPN 370-390 Flat bar 380-400 IPE 370-390 All prices are on FOB basis and for March shipment. The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) remanded on Thursday Senator Doina Tudor in a case where the MP faces charges of being complicit in bribery. Doina Tudor was taken in handcuffs from the DNA headquarters to the arrest of the Bucharest Police. Upon leaving the building, she said she would maintain her innocence before the Supreme Court.The Senate voted on Wednesday for Doina Tudor's remand and arrest. On this occasion the defendant declared in the Senate plenary sitting that the charges against her have no real ground, lack evidence and insistently professed her innocence.Doina Tudor is being investigated in the case where her former husband Daniel George Tudor, president of the Insurance Supervisory Committee at the time of the offences and subsequently vice-president of the Financial Supervision Authority, is being investigated under house arrest for bribery.Former Senate Secretary general Ovidiu Marian is also being investigated under house arrest in the same case for influence peddling. AGERPRES Writer-policeman Marian Godina this Wednesday released his book titled "Oncoming Flashes" to an enthusiastic audience; attending the event, Premier Dacian Ciolos said that the example of the author should be "a lesson to the Romanian Police." "It doesn't surprise me that Mr. Godina is turning into an icon," Dacian Ciolos said after the launch event.The Premier said that his presence there is an encouragement for the attitude promoted by the policeman."I decided to come to make it very clear that this kind of authentic civic behavior, even in an institution tasked with maintaining public order, enjoys the full support of the government and myself. I think this way the Romanian society can make a recovery to health," said Ciolos.After the launch of the book, Marian Godina confessed that "this had been a week full of emotions" for him. "Today was definitely the most important day of my life," he said, stressing that he takes full responsibility for the aspects in the system he presents in the book and "fear is not for him.""I wanted to produce a change in the Romanian Police and in the mentality of civilians - for them to look otherwise to the policemen, as they actually deserve. Let's not forget that we are actually you wearing uniform," he added."Oncoming Flashes" has already shot to publishing phenomenon after orders for it poured in in a very short time. As many as 20,000 copies were sold so far, according to representatives of the Curtea Veche Publishing House."What I can tell you about 'Oncoming Flashes' is that it is a book that will definitely walk you through all the feelings. You will feel sad, you will laugh with tears, you will amuse yourselves, you will regret (not having bought it), it will stir your pity and revolt, then you'll laugh again. It will definitely train all your mimic muscles," says Godina. Described in the book are moments from his training and experiences from his activity as a traffic policeman, alongside glimpses from his personal life and from the backstage of the key moments brought to the public eye on his Facebook page. AGERPRES Updated at 4:48 a.m. Thursday TOKYO Sharp Corp. announced Thursday it will accept a 489 billion yen ($4.4 billion) takeover by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn, but Foxconn said it was not ready to sign the deal. "We will have to postpone any signing of a definitive agreement until we have arrived at a satisfactory understanding and resolution of the situation," Foxconn Technology Group said in a statement. It did not elaborate. If the deal goes through, Sharp would become the first major Japanese electronics maker to be acquired by a foreign company. Foxconn is a major contractor to Apple Inc., assembling products such as iPhones. Sharp chose Foxconn as its preferred partner in a two-day board meeting ending Thursday. Sharp said Foxconn would gain a 66 percent stake in the company under the deal. Sharp had been considering both Foxconn's bid and an offer from a Japanese government-backed consortium of Japanese investors. Despite Japan's rapid globalization, some have expressed fears a Foxconn takeover will result in the country losing technology to foreign interests. Media reports in Japan that a deal might be imminent had sent Sharp share prices initially higher on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, but they finished 14 percent lower after details of the deal leaked. Sharp made the announcement after trading ended. Osaka-based Sharp has long been a prized brand in Japan, beginning with its sale of mechanical pencils, still known as "sharp pencils" here. It also pioneered hand-held electronic devices. Sharp had its beginnings as a Tokyo-based metalworking shop in 1912. It later made its fame with Aquos flat-panel TVs and nifty Internet-connecting cellphones, long before the arrival of iPhones in Japan. But its finances deteriorated in recent years as prices of LCD panels dropped, and it could not beat competition from Asian rivals. Analysts say Sharp's future remains uncertain even with the takeover because of challenges in restructuring its consumer electronics operations. Sharp suffered a 108 billion yen ($964 million) loss over the nine months through December. It has not released a full year profit or loss forecast. _______ Our earlier story, from Reuters, posted at 9:19 p.m. Wednesday TOKYO Japan's Sharp Corp. on Thursday agreed to a takeover by Taiwan's Foxconn, a source familiar with the matter said, in what would be the largest acquisition by a foreign company in Japan's insular technology sector. The Taiwanese firm, known formally as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., has offered to invest 659 billion yen ($5.9 billion) in Sharp, sources have previously said. Sharp's board earlier concluded a two-day meeting to discuss whether to accept an offer by the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer over a rescue by a state-backed investment fund. The source, who was not authorized to speak on the matter, declined to be identified. A Sharp spokesman declined to comment. Foxconn also declined to comment. Shares in the ailing electronics maker briefly rose over 5 percent but pared gains to last trade flat. Century-old Sharp was once a highly profitable manufacturer of premium TVs and a favored screen supplier to Apple. But it has struggled in recent years as massive investments in advanced LCD plants backfired amid price competition with Asian rivals. The deal comes after five years of courting by Foxconn founder Terry Gou, who sees ownership of Sharp as a way to better compete with Asian rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co. Sharp's liquid crystal display (LCD) panel technology is expected to help consolidate Foxconn's position as the world's biggest assembler of Apple Inc's iPhones and iPads. For Sharp, Foxconn's ample funds will help stabilize its finances while the Taiwanese company's global sales channels could help improve sales. Facebook has invested heavily the past few years in efforts to hire a more diverse workforce. But those efforts don't guarantee a socially accepting workplace. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg issued a companywide memo Thursday chastising employees who, despite his earlier warnings, have been crossing out the phrase "black lives matter" and writing "all lives matter" on Facebook's free expression walls at its Menlo Park, Calif., campus. In the memo, published earlier by Gizmodo, Zuckerberg notes that he has never had to make rules about what can be written on the chalkboards but he considered these acts "malicious." "This has been a deeply hurtful and tiresome experience for the black community and really the entire Facebook community, and we are now investigating the current incidents," he told employees in an internal company posting. He explained that "black lives matter" doesn't mean other lives don't. "It's simply asking that the black community also achieves the justice they deserve." Facebook's workforce is only 2 percent black, despite efforts to recruit and retain diverse candidates. The incident is the latest display of an employee culture at a major technology company at odds with its diversity goals. Twitter Inc. in July scolded employees for holding a fraternity-themed party as the company faced a class-action complaint for gender discrimination. "Black lives matter" is a slogan that took hold in the black community and beyond to protest incidents and a history of police brutality and racial inequality. Facebook declined to comment beyond Zuckerberg's memo. Tony Messenger Tony Messenger is the metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Tony Messenger Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today One year later, Julius Schweich still cant spit the bitter taste out of his mouth. On Feb. 26, 2015, his son, state Auditor Tom Schweich held a gun to his head and killed himself. It was a suicide that rocked the political world and still is playing out in the front pages of national publications. Just this week, the New York Times noted the rising national profile of Missouri political consultant Jeff Roe, the win-at-all-costs operative who is running the presidential campaign of Republican Ted Cruz. Roe was the man behind the mocking radio ad that made fun of Schweichs physical appearance. Some in Schweichs orbit believe the ad contributed to his mental state on the day he died. At the time, Schweich was running for the GOP nomination for governor against Catherine Hanaway, whose campaign was being run by Roe. Schweich died the day before his dad, Julius, turned 80. Last week, Julius sent Hanaway a thank you card, but not the kind most people would send. It thanked her for giving Julius the worst year of his life. It wished her a similarly bad 2016. Thats some thick bile, but the man lost his son, and he blames a vile political atmosphere in Missouri for his death. Still, the elder Schweich says hes turned a corner. He cries less than he has over the past year, and he often is reminded of better days. Like the AC/DC concert in 2009. Last week, Julius noticed in the news that the hard-rock band AC/DC had sold out the Scottrade Arena for a concert. He thought back to 2009, when he and his son, Tom, went to see AC/DC. It brought a smile to his face. We used to do so many things together, Julius told me. That Tom Schweich was a music fan was well-known in Missouri political circles. He liked to play guitar, and during one campaign wrote a song and posted a video of him and some friends performing it. Because this is Missouri, even the song and whether the melody was stolen from another band became controversial. Outside of politics, Schweich had many interests. He traveled the nation seeking hard-to-find Hollywood memorabilia, especially signed photos of old actors and actresses, such as Greta Garbo and Ronald Reagan. He collected historic documents and signatures, from old presidents and other government figures. He was, in a word, human. Its the side of politics too often forgotten. At its core, that was the underlying theme of former U.S. Sen. Jack Danforths eulogy of his good friend last year when he blasted the often hateful nature of Missouri politics. In the wake of Schweichs death, Danforth called on us to remember our own humanity and that of people in the political world who are our colleagues, or opponents, or in my case sources or subjects of news. A year later, Missouri politics is virtually unchanged. It will stay that way until those who spar for power elevate each others humanity. Change wont occur until candidates, their consultants, the press and voters see beyond Democrat and Republican, beyond liberal and conservative, and see the people, and their families, behind the political personas of their opponents. Over the past couple of decades Ive reported on the foibles and falls of countless Missouri politicians, including my own state representative just last week. But its the brief glimpses of humanity not the headline-grabbing failures that stick in my head. There was the time then-state Sen. Jeff Smith and I got kicked out of the House gallery for drinking a beer while listening to a particularly raucous and interesting education debate late one night during a session. There was the letter former Gov. Matt Blunt wrote to my son when he was in Marine officer candidate school, a touching move by a man with class and dignity. There were the conversations with former Speaker of the House Rod Jetton about faith and redemption, or the books former Rep. Sara Lampe sent me to help my wife and me understand the challenges of raising a gifted child. And there was Tom Schweich, even when it was really bad politics, unwilling to walk away from an argument because the truth was his defense. He grasped his own humanity with fragile hands. One year after he lost his grip on life, his memory casts a shadow on a state that seems to have lost its way. UPDATED at 9:18 p.m. Wednesday with photos of victim's car ST. LOUIS Homicide detectives were called to the 4000 block of Bowen Street on Monday afternoon after a 51-year-old man was found dead, police said. Police on Wednesday identified the man as Ricardo Comparini. On Wednesday, they also released photos because they are seeking the car belonging to the victim. The car is a black 2009 Lincoln MKS 4-door with Missouri license SM5-L3Z. Police said the call about the man's death came in at 3:09 p.m. The scene, a few blocks north of Carondelet Park, was inside a one-story house on the block. Police described a gruesome crime scene inside the home and said the man was found dead of severe head trauma. Police did not disclose other details. Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 1-866-371-8477. All calls are anonymous. Callers may be eligible for a cash reward. JEFFERSON CITY Three female interns at the Missouri Capitol reported feeling uncomfortable about compliments, invitations to lunch and inappropriate advances from a man now barred from entering the building. In response, the Legislature asked for and obtained a temporary restraining order Thursday against David Poger, a political operative. Poger cannot enter or come within 1,000 feet of the Capitol and cannot enter adjacent structures. A hearing on the order is set for March 14. The legal action comes after legislative leaders vowed to clean up the culture at the Capitol, bolstering their sexual harassment and intern policies as well as pushing ethics reform in the wake of intern-related scandals that led two lawmakers to resign. Then this month, another lawmaker, former Republican Rep. Don Gosen, resigned and later admitted he had an extramarital affair with an adult who didnt work in the Capitol. Partially in response to last years scandals, the Missouri House fast-tracked a package of ethics measures this year, but they have struggled to get through the Senate. Affidavits submitted by the interns in Cole County Circuit Court detail being approached by an unknown man who made them uncomfortable and, in some cases, would not leave them alone. He was later identified as Poger. One woman reports repeated comments on her appearance and said Poger walked in a predatory fashion around the interns, according to an affidavit. Another details an incident where Poger approached her in the House chamber and pushed the intern pin on her lapel with his finger. Is this harassment? the affidavit says he said. Yes, kind of, the intern reports saying. Yet another intern says he repeatedly tried to speak with her, giving her compliments and asking her to lunch. When the intern reported Pogers actions, he left her alone but would wink at her every time he saw her. Adam Crumbliss, the House chief clerk, said hes since heard from other individuals who say Poger was weird-ing them out in the building. Its not clear why Poger was in the Capitol this year. Poger has worked on Democratic state Rep. Joe Adams campaigns in the far past, but Adams said he wasnt sure why Poger was in the Capitol recently. Ive seen him a few times down there, said Adams, a former University City mayor. I havent had much time to talk to him. State records list Adams as the registered agent of the same company Poger lists on an online resume as his current employer, Public/Private Sector Strategies, a limited liability company based in St. Louis. During his 2014 campaign for the House, records show Adams also paid Poger $600 for fundraising expenses. The Post-Dispatch has not been able to reach Poger. Adams said Poger has a long history of working on political campaigns in Missouri, including a stint with former Democratic U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan. Poger is not connected to Carnahans current run for lieutenant governor. Adams said Poger had told people he was working for U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, and an online resume listed Poger as senior political director for Clay from March 2011 to February 2016. Clays office on Thursday denied that Poger ever had a job with the congressman. He has absolutely no connection with either the congressmans office or his campaign, said Clay spokesman Steve Engelhardt. He at no time was an employee of the congressman. However, Federal Election Commission records show Poger was paid about $1,400 in 2011 by the Clay Jr. for Congress campaign. The purpose was listed as a professional fundraising fee. Poger registered as a lobbyist for two months in 2011 for St. Louis-based IESI Missouri, according to the Missouri Ethics Commission. No one from the company listed at that address, Progressive Waste Solutions, was available to comment. Rep. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, said the order is proof that the new intern and sexual harassment policies are working. This summer, Engler was appointed by House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, to review the House intern policies. Richardson has a zero tolerance policy someone from outside the building was causing problems, and were just not going to put up with it, Engler said. Kurt Erickson and Jack Suntrup of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. BELLEVILLE A local Republican official wants the Illinois Supreme Court to take up his continuing protest against the plan by three circuit judges to avoid facing retention by running instead in the upcoming Democratic Party primary. Dallas Cook, a candidate for a different office, said Wednesday that he would appeal a ruling by a judge in Springfield that rejected his challenge of the electoral strategy. Sangamon County Associate Judge Esteban Sanchez, in a decision filed Tuesday, said the three judges are eligible and not prohibited from filling the vacancies they created. Cook is Belleville city clerk and is running for St. Clair County circuit clerk. St. Clair County Chief Judge John Baricevic and Circuit Judges Robert LeChien and Robert Haida, all of whom would be up for retention before voters this year, turned in resignations effective Dec. 4 and filed as candidates in the March 15 primary. Election requires a simple majority, but the Illinois Constitution requires a 60 percent majority for a judges retention. Cook accuses the three judges of ignoring the intent of the Constitution. He sued after the Illinois State Board of Elections tied 4-4 last month on his protest there, which had the effect of declining his complaint. We will appeal that decision, and we hope the Supreme Court will take it up immediately, Cook said Wednesday. If the three judges are nominated and win in the general election on Nov. 8, they would be sworn into their old jobs two days after their resignations. In 2006, former circuit judge Lloyd Cueto successfully remained on the St. Clair County bench by using the same strategy. Baricevic has said the judges expect there may be a campaign to oust them and would be freer under judicial rules to answer criticisms as candidates for election than for retention. JEFFERSON CITY Missouri's basic aid for public schools is more than $500 million underfunded, but one state lawmaker hopes to change that. Republican Rep. David Wood's measure would reinstate the Foundation Formula's 5 percent cap on spending growth, a move he says could help lawmakers fully fund the formula sooner and trigger early childhood education funding across the state. But some education advocates are wary about such a significant change to the education funding system. "It's hard to be either ... hating it or super excited about it," said Otto Fajen, Missouri National Educators Association legislative director. His organization has not voiced support or opposition to the measure yet. The formula, created in 2005, measures funding levels at high-performing schools and uses that to calculate how much should be spent on school districts across the state, an amount known as the state adequacy target. In it's original form, the formula included a 5 percent cap meant to limit the amount of increases in school district funding to the high performing schools. That cap was removed by lawmakers in 2009, in part, because they were expecting a significant increase in new gaming revenues that did not pan out. A few years later, the target began to grow virtually unchecked. That growth made it all the more difficult to fully fund the formula, a feat that should have been accomplished in 2012. "In reality, (the adequacy target) is going to continue to grow to a point where there's no sense of urgency to try to attempt to fully fund the formula," said Ron Lankford, deputy commissioner of education. If Wood's legislation becomes law, the adequacy target would drop, as would the amount the state needed to funnel toward the formula to fully fund it. Instead of needing about $500 million to fully fund it, Wood said lawmakers only would need about $130 million. In January, Gov. Jay Nixon recommended an $85 million increase for the formula in the 2017 budget year that begins July 1, leaving it $425 million short of being fully funded. Republican House Budget Leader Tom Flanigan has put forth budget plan that would include a $23 million increase for the formula, an amount that could jump to about $70 million if revenue grows as much as Nixon anticipates. Nixon's budget is based on an estimated 4.1 percent increase in revenue, but Flanigan has based his $27.1 billion budget on a more conservative 3.1 percent increase. To make up for the difference, Flanigan plans to implement a surplus revenue fund where money would flow if the state reaches Nixon's projection. Flanigan's budget plan still must be approved by the House Budget Committee before it moves to the House floor. Lawmakers have until May 6 to complete the budget. Fajen said there's some "political leverage" to having an easier-to-reach funding level -- lawmakers "are going to work a percentage harder to reach it." He is, however, concerned about the fiscal implications of triggering early childhood education across the state, especially given the tax cut expected to go into effect Jan. 1. Under a measure signed by Gov. Jay Nixon in 2014, all districts could receive money for early childhood education based on the number of children eligible for free and reduced-cost lunches if the state fully funded the formula. Unaccredited and provisionally accredited districts already are receiving this funding. "It's a good thing for the state to invest in pre-Kindergarten," Fajen said. "But it might not be a good thing for that to get triggered and then create more problems for us being able to fund the formula because it won't go away." A House committee approved Wood's measure earlier this month, but it was then sent back for further review. The committee is having another hearing on it Monday. The bill is House Bill 1943. WASHINGTON If anti-Trump Republicans are looking at the March 15 primaries to derail the front-runner from winning their party's presidential nomination, good luck. An Illinois poll shows Trump holds an almost 2-1 lead over his nearest rival. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton holds a comfortable lead over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic matchup in the state of her birth. Illinois and Missouri are two key states in the March 15 primaries which, if current trends hold, could effectively send both Donald Trump and Clinton to their respective parties' nominations. Depending on what happens in a spate of primaries and caucuses before then, they may not have the absolute delegates necessary to lock up the nomination by March 15, but their delegate leads could be so insurmountable by that time that it would be effectively only a matter of time. Florida, Ohio and North Carolina also vote on that day, one of the richest delegate trove days in both parties. The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University surveyed 422 Democrats and 306 Republicans. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points for Democrats, 5.6 percentage points for Republicans. It showed Trump leading Texas Sen. Tex Cruz, 28 percent to 15 percent, with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 14 and Ohio Gov. John Kasich who is hoping to get a boost from Midwestern states at 13. The poll was taken Feb. 15-20, before former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush dropped out. He got 8 percent in this poll. Among Democrats, Clinton leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 51-33 percent. That's a significant but not overwhelming lead, and results in both Illinois primaries could be heavily affected by the results of March 1 Super Tuesday primaries. BY THE NUMBERS: 16 - Percentage of Illinois Republicans and Democrats who said they were still undecided in their parties presidential primaries, according to a Feb. 15-20 poll taken by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at the University of Southern Illinois. 8 - Percentage of support of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush got in that poll. Bush dropped out after the South Carolina primary on Saturday. ON THE WEB: HE SAID IT: "A part of me is surprised that Donald Trump leads significantly in a state known for its moderate Republicans, from (former Sen.) Everett Dirksen to (ex-Gov.) Jim Edgar to (current Sen.) Mark Kirk. On the other hand, the not-Trump vote, combined together, swamps the pro-Trump vote, with somewhere around one in seven voters still up for grabs." SIU Political Scientist Charlie Leonard. JEFFERSON CITY Following the lead of their colleagues in Illinois, senators in Missouri approved a plan Thursday to hire a private company to make sure welfare benefits arent being paid out to people who are either dead or dont qualify for them. The Senate approved the plan on a unanimous vote. In Illinois, a similar program raised red flags about more than 300,000 people who were receiving Medicaid and other benefits for low-income residents. If approved in the House and signed into law, the Department of Social Services would be required to award a two-year contract with a company that would verify whether Missourians are eligible for Medicaid, child care subsidies and food stamps. The state currently reviews eligibility for various aid programs once a year. The proposal, sponsored by state Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville, requires monthly reviews to see if recipients are eligible. The savings could top $24 million, much of which would be returned to the department for use in other programs serving needy families. The legislation is Senate Bill 607 A slushy, blustery snowstorm that whipped through the metro area Wednesday morning closed a section of interstate highway and downed power lines serving about 40,000 customers. High-power lines that fell across Interstate 270 near Dougherty Ferry Road forced the closing of all lanes for about seven hours. That busy stretch of highway serves nearly 200,000 vehicles per day. If you wanted to pick a bad place for power lines to fall, thats about as good as you can get, said Andrew Gates, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Transportation. Snowfall varied widely across the area before the storm moved toward the Great Lakes region by mid-afternoon. Lambert-St. Louis International Airport had 3.6 inches. Parts of south St. Louis County had five inches, High Ridge had eight, Edwardsville had 5.5 and St. Louis city, less than than three. Western St. Charles County had but a trace. Wentzville and Fort Zumwalt schools remained open, but most of the two-state areas other districts canceled or shortened the school day. Tom Spriggs, a meterologist at the National Weather Service office in Weldon Spring, said the storm lingered over some places as it moved through, causing the uneven accumulations. Snow blown by winds gusting to 40 mph made the morning commute hazardous and continued after the snow stopped, but a high temperature of 44 melted away almost all of the sloppy snow by evening. The forecast is promising, with highs in the 60s over the weekend. Theres a chance of rain Monday. Wednesdays storm boosted to 10.6 inches the areas running total for snow this winter. The annual average is about 20 inches. Patrick Smith, Amerens senior director for metro operations, said heavy snow and wind probably brought down four wooden utility poles in Des Peres, causing 34,000-volt transmission lines to fall across I-270 and douse power in the area, including at nearby Des Peres Hospital. The hospitals emergency generators kicked on as designed, said spokeswoman Simone Valle, but the hospital had to cancel elective surgeries. Power was restored to the hospital by 10:30 a.m. Service also was lost for eight hours at two office buildings next to St. Anthonys Medical Center in South County, but the hospital never was affected, a spokesman said. Smith, of Ameren, said the wintry combination also dropped numerous feeder lines in neighborhoods, causing most of the residential outages. About 40,000 customers on both sides of the Mississippi River lost power, but crews had restored service to all but 4,500 of them by late Wednesday. That number was cut by more than half by Thursday morning. It was the weight of the snow on tree limbs that usually are well outside the (wire) zones, but were pushed by high winds, Smith said. Des Peres Public Safety Director Chief Keith Krumm said closing I-270 caused gridlock on alternative routes, including Ballas Road. Krumm said a utility pole fell onto the engine hood of a womans car on Dougherty Ferry, but she was not injured. He said some motorists on Big Bend Boulevard drove around barriers to the I-270 ramp and added to the jam. I guess they thought that road blocked was meant for everyone but them, Krumm said. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. If the execution is carried out, it too will leave a grieving family, in addition to having lost a little boy who might have survived if he could have gotten to the hospital in time. LONDON MARKET CLOSE: FTSE 100 ends higher; Mordaunt makes UK PM tilt Friday, October 21, 2022 - 17:22 The pound regained some poise on Friday afternoon but remained in precarious territory, after falling below the $1.11 mark in afternoon trade. The pound was quoted at $1.1203 at the close on Friday, down versus $1.1294 at the London equities close on Thursday. It hit an intraday low of $1.1063 not long after midday. Sterling was hurt by continued political uncertainty. Speculation about who will join Penny Mordaunt in throwing their hats in the ring in the race for Number 10 continues. Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, one-time neighbours at Number 10 and 11 Downing Street - but now bitter rivals - have pockets of support from Tory MPs. Adding to the pressure on sterling, disappointing UK retail sales data showed a bigger-than-expected decline in September, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. Retail sales fell 6.9% annually in September, with the decline accelerating from a 5.6% fall in August. It also was worse than FXStreet-cited market consensus, which had expected a fall of just 5%. The pound had initially found some support on Thursday after Liz Truss called an end to her disastrous tenure as prime minister - poking above $1.13 - but has since been dragged lower. The FTSE 100 index closed up 25.82 points, or 0.4%, at 6,969.73 - closing out the week up 1.6%. The FTSE 250 lost 182.38 points, or 1.1%, at 17,206.55, but still managed to gain 1.0% this week, and the AIM All-Share ended down 1.04 points, or 0.1% at 785.40 - but advanced 0.8% over the past five days. The Cboe UK 100 closed up 0.4% at 696.31, the Cboe UK 250 ended down 1.0% at 14,694.15, and the Cboe Small Companies lost 0.3% at 12,240.46. In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.9%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt gave back 0.3%. The Tories have begun to declare their allegiances in the party's second leadership contest of the year as speculation mounts over who will seek to replace Truss at the helm of the party. Supporters of Johnson are backing the former prime minister to make an extraordinary political comeback, while ex-chancellor Sunak and Commons Leader Mordaunt also have the public support of several MPs. Mordaunt become the first to declare her candidacy, with a pledge to re-unite the bitterly divided party. The leader of the House who finished third in the last leadership election said she had been encouraged by the support she had received from fellow Conservative MPs. There has also been no declaration yet from Sunak, who did not answer questions from reporters as he left his home on Friday morning. Whoever does win will face an immediate test, choosing whether to go ahead with the planned Halloween statement setting out how the government intends to get the public finances back on track, Downing Street has said. Work is continuing in Whitehall, led by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, in preparation for the medium-term fiscal plan to be announced on October 31 along with an updated set of economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility. However, a Number 10 spokeswoman said it would be up to Liz Truss's successor to decide whether to proceed with that approach and with the same timetable. In London, blue chip miners helped push FTSE 100 higher. Glencore gained 3.6%, Anglo American 3.1%, Antofagasta 2.7%, and Rio Tinto added 1.6%. Retailers, however, were showing weakness after the disappointing UK retail sales data. A profit warning from Adidas did nothing to help the mood either. JD Sports closed down 6.1%, Frasers 4.0%, Burberry 2.2%, and Next shed 2.9%. On Thursday, Adidas lowered annual guidance as it struggles with "deteriorating traffic" in China and high inventory levels. The sports apparel maker said it has needed to turn to "higher clearance activity" to try and shift stock. It lost 9.0% in Frankfurt. Deliveroo gained 3.6%. The London-based online food delivery service said gross transaction values rose 8.3% annually in the third quarter to 1.70 billion from 1.57 billion, though orders fell by 1.1% to 72.8 million from 73.6 million. Deliveroo said the decline in orders was due to a difficult consumer environment. With economic data on Friday showing that UK consumer confidence remains near record lows, this seems unlikely to change anytime soon. InterContinental Hotels gave back 2.2% but reported strong revenue growth in the third quarter to September 30, saying that high global employment levels are boosting occupancy levels. Revenue per available room, or RevPAR, rose 28% year-on-year and now exceeds its pre-pandemic level, being up 2.7% on the third quarter of 2019. In the third quarter of 2022, the average daily rate increased by 13% compared to a year ago and was up 11% on 2019. Chief Financial Officer & Head of Strategy Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson will leave the company in six months time to become CFO of Flutter Entertainment in the first half of 2023. IHG has started the process of finding a new CFO. The euro stood at $0.9802 Friday evening, down against $0.9822 at the close on Thursday. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JP148.03, compared to JP149.77 late Thursday. The yen was staging a fightback after the open on Wall Street, after nearly hitting JP152 during the Asia session. Stocks in New York opened higher on Friday, with the DJIA up 1.1%, the S&P 500 index up 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.6% higher. Brent oil was quoted at $92.84 a barrel late Friday, down from $93.29 late Thursday. Gold was quoted at $1,643.70 an ounce Friday, up against $1,641.90 from Thursday. In the international economics events calendar next week, Monday will be dominated by a slew of composite PMIs, with Japan overnight followed by Germany, eurozone and the UK in the morning then the US in the afternoon. A quiet Tuesday will be headlined by a US house price index. On Wednesday, there is Chinese GDP, retail sales and industrial production overnight, then on Thursday attention will be on the European Central Bank interest rate decision at 1315 BST. Friday will be headlined by a Bank of Japan rate decision. In the local corporate calendar on Monday, there are half-year results from Dr Martens, while education publishing firm Pearson will issue a third quarter update. Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Since the 17th century American governments have been hiring Native Americans as military auxiliaries, usually as scouts and trackers. The job paid well and the many tribes were often fighting one another or waiting to because of ancient feuds. So it was easy to hire the more expert tribesmen to do what they were eager to do (find and kill their enemies). The use of the Indian Scouts grew after the American Revolution was over and peaked in the late 19th century. There was a major revival during World War II as thousands of Alaskans Eskimos were recruited to patrol the vast arctic borders. Early in the war the Japanese did invade a few of the Aleutian Islands but were soon driven out. All Indian Scouts were officially disbanded in 1947 but the Alaskan Scouts (now part of the 201st Infantry Group) continued to serve during the Cold War, to keep Soviet agents out. That apparently worked because after the Cold War ended Soviet era records revealed that the only Russians who got into Alaska (often with an assist from Alaskan Scouts) were Russians fleeing to the United States. Since (and before) World War II American troops overseas have continued to hire knowledgeable locals as scouts and interpreters. Perhaps the most famous and enduring of these were the Philippines Scouts, who were organized before World War II as the core of the army for the soon-to-be independent Philippines. That independence was delayed a year by Japanese invasion and occupation. After the invasion many of the scouts refused to surrender and headed for the mountains and were a major part of the anti-Japanese resistance. After the war the Scout Rangers became the elite infantry of the Filipino Army. Meanwhile one American tribe, the Tohono O'odham of Arizona (and northern Mexico), still provides a small units of scouts and trackers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and works along a 122 kilometers stretch of the Mexican border. These scouts are called the Shadow Wolves and are sometimes called to assist along other parts of the border. The Shadow Wolves usually has only 12-20 scouts (or Patrol Officers) and currently employ expert trackers from other tribes (Navajo, Kiowa, Sioux, Blackfeet, Yurok, Omaha, Yaqui and Pima). The Tohono O'odham were long neighbors of the Apache. Often enemies, the two tribes were sometimes allies against Mexicans and Americans moving into their territory. In 2012 the U.S. Army finally began replacing its older AN PQ-36/37 FireFinder artillery spotting radar systems with the new and improved AN/TPQ-53. While the new system was an improvement the army began getting more and more reports from users in combat zones of false positives (the radar showing something incoming when there wasnt anything) as well as difficulty distinguishing between artillery shells, rockets and mortar shells. There were also reports that the new system did not handle multiple incoming shells well, being unable to provide data on where it was all coming from. The army halted distribution after 38 of the new systems went into service but delayed production of another hundred until the problems could be fixed. A series of tests were conducted in 2015 to document the problems so the manufacturer could fix them. Once the fixes are completed and verified by more tests the manufacturing will continue. Despite the problems the new system was seen as an improvement. Troops in Afghanistan continued to call the new version "FireFinder" or "counterfire radar" even though the new TPQ-53 is a visibly new and different looking system, each consisting of two trucks (one for the radar the other for the control center and backup generator). For the troops in Afghanistan the TPQ-53 was a success because the most common threat was individual mortar shells being fired at a base. The TPQ-53 was faster and more reliable at dealing with that. The AN/TPQ-53 had been sent to Afghanistan for final testing in 2010. In early 2012 the army ordered 51 of the AN/TPQ-53 systems. Easier to use and repair, as well as more reliable than its predecessor (the AN/TPQ-36/37), the TPQ-53 could also scan all around (360 degrees), rather than just 90 degrees (as with the older system), and was faster as well. The army wants to buy at least 180 TPQ-53s, for about $9 million each. The older FireFinder is cheaper and still gets the job done. This is why some countries (like Iraq) want it. Many Iraqis have seen the older FireFinder in action. They know it works. The older FireFinder (AN/TPQ-36/37) radar had to overcome a bad reputation it acquired when it first came to Iraq. That was often for failing to detect incoming mortar fire. These were problems that were fixed. FireFinder was developed in the 1970s, based on Vietnam experience with enemy mortar and rocket attacks but didn't get a real combat workout until after September 11, 2001. Both the old and new FireFinders are radar systems which, when they spot an incoming shell, calculates where it came from and transmits the location to a nearby artillery unit, which then fires on where the mortar is (or was). This process takes 3-4 minutes (or less, for experienced troops). FireFinder worked as advertised but got little use until U.S. troops entered Iraq. After that FireFinder was very effective and heavily used. Too heavily used. There were not a lot of spare parts stockpiled for FireFinder and several hundred million dollars-worth had to be quickly ordered. The manufacturer has also introduced new components that are more reliable and easier to maintain. Some FireFinders failed to catch incoming fire because the enemy was using tactics that fooled the radar. For example, in Iraq American bases were generally on higher ground than the mortars firing at them. Putting bases on the high ground enables you to watch more of the surrounding terrain. But FireFinder needs a line-of-sight to get a good fix on the firing weapon's position. If the mortar was too far below the radar, FireFinder could not accurately spot where the fire was coming from. Another problem was that if the mortar was too close FireFinder was much less likely to quickly determine where the fire was coming from. So the enemy mortar teams got as close as they could before firing. This still made the mortar teams vulnerable to counterattack by coalition troops but not the immediate (in a few minutes) artillery fire that FireFinder can make happen under the right conditions. At first, the army was going to halt further upgrades on FireFinder, which, after all, was developed back in the 1970s, and begin developing the TPQ-53, a new system that can better deal with the kinds of problems encountered in Iraq. But FireFinder had been so useful that new upgrades were pursued anyway, while work continued on the TPQ-53. The upgrades have also been made available to other users of FireFinder (including allies in the Middle East, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey). FireFinders are still doing most of the work out there, and TPQ-53 wont replace a significant number of them until the 2020s. The Cold War is returning to Europe in many ways. One sign of this is the American reviving the REFORGER exercises. As part of this the U.S. Army plans to store more pre-positioned military equipment in Europe and have brigades move their personnel to Europe for training with that equipment each year. The pre-positioning of equipment continued after the Cold War ended in 1991 but the annual troop movement exercises (REFORGER) to use the pre-positioned equipment stopped. Now it is being resumed with at least one brigade a year being sent to Europe to use the pre-positioned equipment for training exercises aimed at defending East Europe against Russia. Just like the Cold War, except then the Russian armies were already in East Europe and it was Western Europe being defended. This practice of moving troops and equipment as separate entities was a Cold War innovation. To speed the movement of reinforcements from the United States to Europe, in the event that the Soviet Union invading, two divisions had one set of equipment in Europe, and another back in the United States, where the divisions were based. In reality this pre-positioning and troop movement plan also served political demands in the United States that some of the divisions stationed there be brought home. The pre-positioning was a politically acceptable way to withdraw two divisions from Europe. This was done in 1968, but the equipment stayed behind, and was stored and maintained by contractors (German civilians). Starting in 1969 troops from the two withdrawn divisions began flying to Europe each year, firing up the gear, and going out on field exercises. The troops would then return the gear to the storage areas and fly home. These annual exercises lasted until 1988. The experience gained in all those REFORGER exercises made the army and marines confident that they could apply the concept of pre-positioned equipment elsewhere. This also led to the idea, as applied in Iraq from 2004 to 2011 of having the first units to get there to leave their gear behind (if they were being replaced by the same type units) when the troops returned home. This saved a lot of money in shipping costs, not to mention the additional work the troops had to do preparing everything for sea movement. Same deal in Afghanistan and the REFORGER techniques have become standards. One thing that did change was that there were no longer regular movements of troops each year to use the pre-positioned equipment. But there are less regular exercises where the troops are flown overseas, take control of pre-positioned gear and go out and train for a week or two. It is good training and a way to make sure that the pre-positioned material is being maintained properly. China is apparently preparing to increase economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea. This is in response to recent North Korean missile and nuclear tests and North Korea ignoring Chinese criticism and advice. China is apparently now cracking down on North Korean use of Chinese banks. China has long tolerated North Korea using Chinese banks to avoid a growing list of international sanctions. In northeast China, where a lot of this illegal banking takes place, North Korean bank accounts are being emptied. Some of the cash is being switched to accounts owned by locals who have no obvious connection to North Korea. But a lot of the cash is staying cash and despite the risk of theft or getting caught by the Chinese police, North Korea is preparing to use cash transactions despite China now enforcing banking sanctions. China and Russia both agree that North Korea having nukes is a bad thing but China is more concerned about this than Russia or anyone else. China long refused to back the strict UN sanctions on North Korea believing it could persuade North Korea to behave and fix its economy. The United States has been increasingly public in its criticism of the Chinese approach. Since 2015 China has, with little fanfare, been acting on the American requests. This included more public criticism, via state controlled media, of the North Korean leadership. China quietly cracked down on some of the illegal trade with North Korea resulting in overall trade declining 15 percent in 2015. That did not seem to have any impact. Then in late 2015 China announced that if North Korea continued work on its nuclear and ballistic weapons programs North Korea could no longer depend on support from China if North Korea got involved in a war. To emphasize that point China quietly increased cargo checks and border security on the North Korean border with an emphasis on stopping the North Korean smuggling of weapons and technology that is normally tolerated. North Korea may be able to ignore Chinese criticism but they cannot ignore the special kinds of economic pain China can inflict. So far this year North Korea has responded with another nuclear test and another long range ballistic missile test. There are limits to what can be done. China could cut off all trade, which would cause a major economic crisis in North Korea and China would have to clean up the mess if there were a political collapse in North Korea. Chinese trade is essential for North Korea. While that trade only amounts to about five billion dollars a year, it is over 70 percent of North Korean foreign trade. An even bigger problem is that China has not shipped any petroleum products to North Korea for two years. There has been some smuggling, but China since has been the major source of oil for North Korea since the 1990s. This fuel embargo created major problems for the economy and the military. Officially the North Koreans have not backed off because of these Chinese moves. Unofficially there have been a lot of secret negotiations going on between North Korea and China. Both countries know that they need each other and want to reach some sort of deal but so far the North Koreas see nukes and ballistic missiles as essential for the survival of the ruling Kim dynasty. As a side effect of the North Korean mess China is becoming more hostile to South Korea over missiles defense. Because of the latest North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile tests South Korea has sped up its efforts to obtain and put into service the American THAAD anti-missile system. China and Russia joined North Korea in opposing THAAD. South Korea wants THAAD for protection from North Korean missile attack and has openly rejected Chinese objections, even though China has hinted that failure to drop THAAD might result in less trade with China. That was a signal to South Korean voters to carefully consider the cost of defying China. The Chinese will not come right out and say it but they object mainly because THAAD would also make South Korea less vulnerable to intimidation by Chinese ballistic missiles. South Korean voters understand that so the economic threats are having less impact that China expected. South Korean public opinion polls show voters are even more enthusiastic about the high tech and very expensive (over $100 million per launcher and associated equipment) THAAD system now that North Korea has launched another ballistic missile. South China Sea Arms Race China quietly installed a battery of HQ-9 long range antiaircraft missiles on Woody Island in the South China Sea. The HQ-9 is roughly equivalent to the U.S. Patriot. This is a Chinese designed and manufactured system what was introduced in 2001. While never used in combat it has been noted that HQ-9 appears to have benefitted from data stolen from similar American and Russian systems. The radar apparently derived much technology from that used in the Russian S-300 system. The HQ-9 missile has a max range of about 100 kilometers, weighs 1.3 tons and has a passive (no broadcasting) seeker in the missile. This deployment is apparently an answer to increasing American flights through international air space in the South China Sea that China now claims as Chinese territory. While the presence of the HQ-9 will probably not stop American military flights, commercial aircraft will probably comply with Chinese demands that they ask for permission before flying through the South China Sea. To emphasize that point China also began operating navy warplanes (J-11s and JH-7s) from the air strip on Woody Island. Throughout 2015 the airstrip and facilities on Woody Island were upgraded to handle warplanes. China has also been training its marines to operate in the South China Sea. Chinese marines are not stationed where they could be used for an invasion of Taiwan but in the south, where they can grab disputed islands in the South China Sea. China has also amassed a large fleet of navy and coast guard ships and aircraft in the area. A more public reaction to refusal of foreigners to acknowledge Chinese claims on the South China Sea was seen on February 7th when the Chinese military was ordered to a higher alert level. This is rarely done, especially during the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year in the West). Inside China this higher alert level during the biggest national holiday was seen more as a warning to the military to cooperate with the anti-corruption effort the government has imposed on the military. Corruption and slowed economic growth are the biggest threat for most Chinese and the government is trying to fix both problems without letting it become too obvious that government mismanagement is the main cause of all these problems. Despite all this American military commanders in the Pacific have gone on record that the United States considers North Korea, not China, the biggest military threat in the region. China considers the United States a more immediate threat than North Korea which, no matter what it does, is still a miniscule military threat to China. Other nations bordering the South China Sea are more concerned about the Chinese threat and look to the United States for help. Despite the priority attached to the North Korean threat American military leaders point out that the biggest problem with China is not the growing quantity of Chinese ships and warplanes but the increasing quality of those systems. This is being used to pressure the American government to get into an arms race with China to maintain or improve the American (and Western) military tech advantage. An example of this is the fact that China is developing two stealth warplanes. The 25 ton J-31 first flew in 2012 and the 32 ton J-20 in 2011. There are eight prototypes of the J-20 and apparently at least one pre-production model. Both the J-31 and J-20 are expected to enter service by the end of the decade. Japan is also developing a stealth fighter which, if it is completed, wont enter service until the late 2020s. Russia is developing one as well and hopes to have it in service by the end of the decade. Meanwhile the United States has had stealth warplanes since the 1980s and is the only nation with operational stealth aircraft as well as combat experience with this tech. Counter-Terrorism In southwest Pakistan (near the Iran border) several hundred additional police and soldiers have recently arrived to provide more security for the growing Chinese workforce in Gwadar, a city of 100,000 and site of one of the biggest construction projects in the country. Pakistan has assured China that there would be no terrorist violence against Chinese working on upgrading the port of Gwadar. This is a key part of the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This project began in 2013 when China agreed to spend $18 billion to build a road from Gwadar into northwest China. This will require drilling long tunnels through the Himalayan Mountains on the border (in Pakistani controlled Kashmir.) The road and a natural gas pipeline are part of the larger CPEC project. This will make it much easier and cheaper to move people, data (via fiber optic cables) and goods between China and Pakistan. China also gets a 40 year lease on much of the port facilities at Gwadar, which India fears will serve as a base for Chinese warships. The thousands of Chinese coming into Pakistan for this project will be prime targets for Islamic terrorists and tribal separatists in Baluchistan (southwest Pakistan). The people in Gwadar will benefit greatly from the construction and the expanded port. Because of that Pakistan is recruiting another 700 local policemen, whose intimate knowledge of the area will be key in keeping the peace. These new police will serve in a unit dedicated to keep the foreign (mainly Chinese) workforce safe. February 24, 2016: China and the United States agreed on new sanctions against North Korea. This agreement was the result of meetings and negotiations that began shortly after the January 6th North Korean nuclear test. In the past China has made a show of reluctantly going along with more sanctions on North Korea but this time China is making it clear that it is behind the latest round of sanctions and responsible for suggesting some of them. The message to North Korea is that China will not look the other way on any of these new sanctions, or most of the existing ones either. February 8, 2016: In northwest India the first joint military exercise between Chinese and Indian troops took place. Thirty troops from each country spent the day doing joint disaster relief chores. The object of the drill (aside from the diplomatic benefits) was for both sides to discover and eliminate any differences in procedures that would disrupt future joint operations along the border area. Earthquakes are frequent in the area as are avalanches. February 2, 2016: Two Chinese warplanes entered South Korean air space near Suyan Rock (also called Ieo Island or Ieodo). The Chinese pilots apparently soon noted their error and left before South Korean jets could arrive to challenge them. China later denied that the incident even happened and none of their aircraft violated anyones air space. Ieodo is actually a submerged (nearly five meters under water) rock in the East China Sea that is 150 kilometers from South Korea and 245 kilometers from China. In 1987, South Korea built a warning beacon on the rock, which is a navigation hazard to large ships. South Korea officially claimed Ieodo in 1951 and China officially challenged that claim in 1962. In 2006 the Chinese agreed not to challenge South Korean claims to Ieodo, which are supported by the international community. But in 2008 China renewed its challenge apparently as part of a more general campaign that included claims to all of the South China Sea and large chunks of India. BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT) announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire CGSC North America Holdings Corporation ("Swett & Crawford") from Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford. Swett & Crawford is one of the most respected wholesale insurance brokers in the U.S. and has served the commercial insurance marketplace for more than 100 years. Under the terms of the agreement, BB&T will acquire Swett & Crawford for $500 million in cash. The transaction, which exceeds BB&T's acquisition criteria, is expected to add more than $200 million in annual revenue to BB&T Insurance. BB&T expects to record approximately $500 million of goodwill and intangibles as a result of this acquisition. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the first half of 2016. This transaction excludes Swett & Crawford's non-U.S. business which accounts for less than five percent of its total revenue. "Swett & Crawford nicely enhances our insurance business and increases and diversifies our overall fee income profile," said Kelly S. King, BB&T's chairman and chief executive officer. "With its long history and broad offerings, Swett & Crawford is a great strategic fit for BB&T." "We have admired the Swett & Crawford business model for many years," said John Howard, chairman and chief executive officer of BB&T Insurance. "This represents a compelling opportunity to further build BB&T Insurance with the addition of a world-class company with a strong and talented team of industry specialists." Currently, BB&T's wholesale insurance operations include property and casualty broker and managing general agent CRC Insurance Services, Crump Life Insurance Services and managing general underwriter AmRisc. Including its retail operations, BB&T Insurance is the fifth largest insurance broker in the U.S. by revenue. The capital used in this transaction represents a reallocation of the remainder of BB&T's 2015 CCAR approved share repurchases. Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. served as financial advisor to BB&T. Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP served as legal counsel to BB&T in this transaction. Axiall Corporation (NYSE: AXLL) has signed an agreement to sell certain assets of its compound additives business, known as Solucor, and its manufacturing facility located in Bradford, Ontario, to Galata Chemicals of Southbury, Conn. The transaction is expected to become effective at the end of day on Feb. 29, 2016. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The Bradford facility, which includes approximately 60 employees who will transfer with the sale to Galata, manufactures high-quality additives for rigid PVC applications, focusing on a broad mix of process aids and impact modifiers, among other products. Solucor additives have a solid track record of successful performance in their targeted applications dating to their inception in 1994. As we refine our portfolio, we are pleased to have reached an agreement to sell our Solucor business to Galata Chemicals, said Axiall President and CEO Tim Mann. This is our third divestiture of non-core assets since April 2015, which allows us to better focus on our core chloro-vinyls and derivatives businesses. "We are excited to add such a strong, complementary product portfolio and highly experienced team to the Galata Chemicals family, said Galata President Steven McKeown. "The purchase of Solucor is another key step in Galata's growth strategy as we continue to pursue additional strategic acquisitions such as this, said Vishal Goenka, director, Artek Surfin Chemicals Ltd., parent company of Galata Chemicals. Balmoral Advisors, LLC acted as Axiall's financial advisor in the transaction. Canadian Pacific (NYSE: CP) has received over 80 letters of support from a broad cross section of customers for CP's proposal to acquire Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC); 62 of these letters have been posted to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) website. That brings the number of letters from shippers in support of the proposed CP-NS combination to more than three for every one shipper letter in opposition. CP believes that its proposed combination with NS will introduce alternative options for re-routing traffic around areas of congestion, create new opportunities to generate the most efficient route for rail shipments, allow CP-NS to provide end-to-end service to customers and improve overall service for shippers of all sizes across North America. These letters of support demonstrate that shippers with business in both the United States and Canada agree that the proposed combination would be beneficial. "CP is committed to providing the best service at the best price," said Keith Creel, CP's President and COO. "Change is necessary to support continued economic growth, and continued growth in the U.S. economy is dependent on North American rail service meeting current and future demand. Without the ability to add infrastructure or build more track, options to increase capacity are becoming limited." The proposed transaction offers the best opportunity to improve efficiency of the existing network and create much needed incremental capacity without adding infrastructure, all while improving service for shippers. A combined CP-NS railroad would enhance competition and better support the success of the shippers and industries it serves, and satisfy the STB and Canadian regulators. Earlier this month, CP submitted a resolution to NS shareholders to ask their board of directors to meet with CP. CP is also seeking a declaratory order from the STB as a means to better understand the STB's views on the proposed voting trust model ahead of any formal application. For more information on CP's proposal to NS, visit CPconsolidation.com. CONSHOHOCKEN, PA -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- AlliedBarton Security Services, the industry's premier provider of highly trained security personnel, hired more than 5,000 military veterans and reservists in 2015 as part of a commitment to hiring 25,000 veterans and reservists in five years. AlliedBarton has hired more than 17,500 veterans and reservists since commencing this challenge in 2013. "Our consistent commitment to hiring military -- and meeting our 5,000 hires per year goal consecutively -- further demonstrates the strategic link between military and security careers," explained Bill Whitmore, AlliedBarton Chairman and CEO. "Military personnel are very well-suited to the security industry and we -- and our clients -- value their training, dedication and leadership skills. This is an important component of our recruiting strategy, and our commitment to providing high quality, well-trained security teams to help our clients maintain safe and secure environments." AlliedBarton was named a 2016 Military Friendly Employer by G.I. Jobs magazine. Hire Our Heroes(SM), AlliedBarton's military hiring program, is critical to the security leader's recruiting strategy. To reach military hiring goals, AlliedBarton works closely with military assistance groups such as the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, Wounded Warrior Project, Coalition to Salute America's Heroes, the National Guard and others. About AlliedBarton Security Services For more than 50 years AlliedBarton Security Services has provided superior security officer services to protect people, homes and businesses. AlliedBarton tailors security programs to meet clients' needs with committed professionals who enhance clients' brands. The most honored security services provider, AlliedBarton consistently delivers exceptional service which creates a differentiated experience for clients and the people they serve. More than 60,000 employees and 120 offices serve thousands of clients with levels of protection that anticipate needs and build enduring relationships. For more information call 1.866.825.5433 or visit www.alliedbarton.com/hireourheroes. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlliedBartonSecurityServices Twitter: http://twitter.com/alliedbarton LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/alliedbarton-security-services?trk=hb_tab_compy_id_162381 YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/AlliedBartonSecurity Blog: http://www.alliedbarton.com/AboutUs/Blog.aspx Contact: Nancy Tamosaitis Vorticom Public Relations Phone: 212-532-2208 Email: Email Contact Source: AlliedBarton Security Services TORONTO, ON -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Alloycorp Mining Inc. (TSX VENTURE: AVT) ("Alloycorp" or the "Company") announced today that it has entered into an agreement to extend the maturity date of the bridge loan facility (the "Bridge Loan") dated November 14, 2014, which was amended on January 30, 2015, June 1, 2015, June 30, 2015 and November 12, 2015, among the Company, its wholly owned subsidiary Avanti Kitsault Mine Ltd. ("Avanti Kitsault") and Resource Capital Fund VI L.P. ("RCF VI") (the "Extension"). The terms of the Extension provide that the scheduled maturity date of the Bridge Loan will be extended to March 31, 2016, unless RCF VI, in its sole discretion, elects to further extend the maturity date in one month increments thereafter through and until June 30, 2016. No consideration will be payable by the Company to RCF VI in connection with the Extension and the Company remains free to prepay all amounts owing under the Bridge Loan at any time. About Alloycorp Alloycorp is a TSX-Venture listed company headquartered in Toronto with an operations office in Vancouver. Alloycorp's strategy is to become the unique supplier of steel alloy metals. Cornerstone to this strategy is the development of the Avanti Kitsault Project. Parallel to this, Alloycorp is seeking to grow through the acquisition of other assets with commodities that supply to the steel alloys industry. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains certain forward-looking information concerning the business of Alloycorp. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, the anticipated development of the Avanti Kitsault Project, project scope and capital cost, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the opinions of management at the date the statements are made and are based on assumptions and subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; uncertainty of estimates of capital and operating costs, recovery rates, production estimates and estimated economic return; the need for cooperation of government agencies and native groups in the exploration and development of properties and the issuance of required permits; the need to obtain additional financing to develop properties and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs or in construction projects and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2014, which is available at www.sedar.com. The Company is under no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's opinions should change, excepting as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. For further information, please contact: Shawn HowarthVice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations(416) 847-0376 Source: Alloycorp Mining Inc. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- A British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) panel has fined and permanently banned Robert Bruce Rush from the province's capital markets for fraud and illegally distributing securities. The panel found that Rush, a B.C. resident and former mutual fund salesperson, advised an investor that she could re-invest her locked-in pension in higher return investments and do so on a tax-free basis. The investor, a former client of Rush when he was registered to sell mutual funds, agreed to follow this advice, and entered into a series of transactions that resulted in her effectively borrowing against her pension and receiving the cash proceeds therefrom. Rush told the investor about certain investments that were being promoted by a third party and offered through an investment company, one of which was a foreign exchange trading account. The investor agreed to make an investment in a foreign exchange trading account. The investor wrote a cheque for $73,200 payable to Breakthrough Financial Inc., a company for which Rush was the sole director and officer. Rush and Breakthrough Financial committed fraud when Rush told the investor that he would forward the funds to the investment company, but he did not do this. In its decision, the panel noted that a review of Breakthrough's and Rush's banking records indicates that these funds were instead used by Rush to pay personal expenses. The investor received $12,790 as a purported return on her investment, but the rest of her funds have been lost. The panel also found that as neither Rush nor Breakthrough Financial were registered under the Securities Act at the relevant time, both respondents breached securities laws pertaining to registration requirements. Writing about the harm caused by Rush's misconduct, the panel wrote that the investor "has clearly suffered substantial harm from the misconduct of the respondents. The vast majority of the funds given to the respondents has been lost." Rush must pay to the Commission $60,410, the amount determined to be the difference between the monies invested and the purported returns paid to the investor. As there was a clear co-mingling of the funds between Rush and Breakthrough Financial, the panel ordered that they be joint and severally liable for this amount. The panel also ordered that Rush pay an administrative penalty of $200,000. Rush must resign any position he holds as a director or officer of any issuer or registrant, and he is permanently prohibited from becoming or acting as a director or officer of any issuer or registrant, trading or purchasing securities or exchange contracts, acting as a registrant or promoter, engaging in investor relations activities, and acting in a management or consultative capacity in connection with the securities market. Breakthrough Financial was permanently cease-traded by the panel. You may view the sanctions decision on our website (www.bcsc.bc.ca) by typing Robert Bruce Rush, Breakthrough Financial Inc., or 2016 BCSECCOM 55 in the search box. Information regarding disciplinary proceedings can be found in the Enforcement section of the BCSC website. Please visit the Canadian Securities Administrators' Disciplined Persons List for information relating to persons disciplined by provincial securities regulators, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and the Mutual Fund Dealers Association (MFDA). About the British Columbia Securities Commission (www.bcsc.bc.ca) The British Columbia Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating capital markets in British Columbia through the administration of the Securities Act. Our mission is to protect and promote the public interest by fostering: -- A securities market that is fair and warrants public confidence -- A dynamic and competitive securities industry that provides investment opportunities and access to capital Learn how to protect yourself and become a more informed investor at www.investright.org. Contacts: Media Contact: Richard Gilhooley, Media Relations 604-899-6713 Public Inquiries: 604-899-6854 or 1-800-373-6393 (toll free) Source: British Columbia Securities Commission LONDON, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDTI) ("CDTi" or "the Company") will present at CleanEquity Monaco 2016 on March 3rd and 4th at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. CleanEquity Monaco is an annual invitation-only event hosted by Innovator Capital, the London-based specialist investment bank. Other partners and sponsors include Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Covington & Burling, Cranfield University, Parkview, PR Newswire, Deloitte, Gillamor Stephens, Enereau, the Monte-Carlo SBM, The Monaco Economic Board, International University of Monaco and the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. CDTi has been identified by an expert panel as one of the world's most innovative cleantech companies. Mathew Beale, CEO, and Dr. Steve Golden, Chief Technology Officer, have been selected to present to senior financial and strategic cleantech investors, policy makers, legislators, end users and media. About CDTiCDTi develops advanced materials technology for the emissions control market. CDTi's proprietary materials provide high-value sustainable solutions to reduce hazardous emissions, increase energy efficiency and lower the carbon intensity of on- and off-road combustion engine systems. With a continuing focus on innovation-driven commercialization and global expansion, CDTi's breakthrough Powder-to-Coat (P2C) technology exploits the Company's high-performance, advanced low-platinum group metal (PGM) emission reduction catalysts. Key technology platforms include Mixed Phase Catalyst (MPC), Base Metal Activated Rhodium Support (BMARS), Synergized PGM (SPGM), Zero PGM (ZPGM) and Spinel. For more information, please visit www.cdti.comhttp://www.cdti.com/. Company contact Information: Becky Herrick or Cathy MattisonLHA (IR Agency)+1 415 433 3777[email protected][email protected] About Innovator Capital Innovator Capital is a specialist investment bank advising emerging technology companies from around the world. Established in 2003, Innovator focuses on the provision of expert strategic and capital markets advice, transaction arranging and M&A services for private and public companies. www.cleanequitymonaco.com Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151021/279261LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cdti-selected-to-present-at-cleanequity-monaco-2016-300226073.html SOURCE Innovator Capital -- Partnership Enables FlexTrade Users to Improve Workplace Productivity by Communicating with Symphony -- LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- FlexTrade Systems, a global leader in multi-asset execution and order management systems, today announced the integration of Symphony Communication Services LLCs platform with FlexTRADER EMS. The integration brings secure and compliant messaging directly into the trading blotter for any FlexTrade clients using Symphony. FlexTrades integration with Symphony allows traders to communicate and distribute content to both portfolio managers and brokers directly from their trading blotter. Communications can be initiated by the trader, or automatically based on a specific market event or situation. Andy Mahoney, Director of Business Development for FlexTrade UK Ltd in London, believes Symphony is a natural partner for FlexTrade, and forms an integral part of FlexTrades wider open architecture policy. The future of electronic trading will be built on seamless and secure communications, said Mahoney. Integrating FlexTRADER with Symphony ensures our clients can easily receive and distribute content directly from the trading blotter. The potential applications for this integration ensure our clients trading capabilities are kept well ahead of the curve now, and in the future. "We are delighted FlexTrade has chosen to integrate Symphonys workflow productivity application within the FlexTRADER EMS, said Barry Castle, CMO of Symphony. Symphonys ability to provide a secure and compliant communications platform means partners like FlexTrade can deliver complete solutions that unite all participants in time-sensitive trading workflows in a single system. The result for financial services: Improved user experience, better economies of scale and faster response to customers." Over the next few months, FlexTrades integration with Symphony will be expanded to include: Search for information and research on a given instrument directly from the FlexTrade blotter Fixed income liquidity discovery, inventory distribution and price negotiation Capture chat in FlexTrades Transaction Cost Analysis tool (FlexTCA), to ensure all elements of the trading workflow are recorded for regulatory compliance About FlexTrade Systems, Inc. Founded in 1996, FlexTrade Systems, Inc. is the industry pioneer in broker-neutral algorithmic trading platforms for equities, foreign exchange and listed derivatives. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, FlexTrade has a worldwide client base spanning more than 175 buy-side and sell-side firms, including many of the largest hedge funds, asset managers, commodity trading advisors, investment banks and institutional brokers. For more information, visit FlexTrade Systems at www.flextrade.com or follow news of the company on Twitter at www.twitter.com/flextrade or LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/flextrade. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225005153/en/ For FlexTrade Systems, Inc. James Tolve, 516-304-3601 Cell: 516-395-0549 [email protected] Source: FlexTrade Systems, Inc. AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Botanical Council (ABC) has named MediHerb of Warwick, Australia as the recipient of the 2015 ABC Varro E. Tyler Commercial Investment in Phytomedical Research Award. MediHerb, an Integria Healthcare brand, is a leading natural products company that specializes in research-based botanical medicines designed by and for professional health care providers and clinicians. "This is a great honor and a much-appreciated reward for our many years of research into the phytochemistry, quality, and therapeutic properties of medicinal plants," said Professor Kerry Bone, co-founder of MediHerb and director of research and development. The ABC Tyler Award was created to honor one of the most respected scientists in late-20th century herbal medicine and pharmacognosy (the study of medicines of natural origin). Professor Tyler was an early trustee of ABC, dean of the Purdue University College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences for 20 years, and vice president of academic affairs at Purdue. He was the senior author of six editions of the leading textbook in the field, as well as numerous other professional and popular books and articles in the academic literature. Tyler encouraged scientific and product integrity, and envisioned a rational phytomedicinal health care sector that valued the proper evaluation of products' quality, safety, and efficacy. "I am a firm believer that herbal therapy (or phytotherapy) should always be adding to its clinical evidence base, but in a way that respects and is compatible with its traditional principles," said Bone. "Understanding complex modern diseases in their totality and applying subtle but effective, chemically complex interventions underpinned by that knowledge is, to me, the height of rationality. This has always guided our research approach." Integria Healthcare invests more than $5 million in research and development each year, according to the company. Echinacea Premium and Kava Forte are two of MediHerb's most popular clinically studied natural products. "MediHerb and Integria Healthcare have supported around 25 human clinical trials of MediHerb products, 22 of which have been published in peer-reviewed journals," said Hans Wohlmuth, PhD, manager of research and development at Integria. "In addition to clinical trials, MediHerb has funded a large number of phytochemistry and in vitro studies on botanicals. Much of this work has focused on quality issues, an area in which MediHerb has always been a leader." Both Bone and Wohlmuth are members of the ABC Advisory Board. "ABC is pleased to recognize MediHerb for its strong commitment to conducting clinical research on its herbal products," said Mark Blumenthal, ABC's founder and executive director. "I consider MediHerb to be a prime example of Professor Tyler's wish that herb and phytomedicinal companies document the efficacy of their products through appropriate clinical trials." ABC Chief Science Officer Stefan Gafner, PhD, said, "MediHerb is a company that has invested millions of dollars to back up the benefits of herbal medicine with sound science. This philosophy of testing products in human clinical studies as a basis for rational phytotherapy makes MediHerb a much-deserving awardee." Previous recipients of the ABC Tyler Award include Soho Flordis International (2014); Wakunaga Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd. (2013); Horphag Research (2012); Bioforce AG (2011); New Chapter, Inc. (2010); Bionorica AG (2009); Indena SpA (2008); and Dr. Willmar Schwabe Pharmaceuticals (2007). The ABC Varro E. Tyler Commercial Investment in Phytomedical Research Award will be presented at the 11th Annual ABC Botanical Celebration and Awards Ceremony on March 10, 2016, in Anaheim, California. The event, for ABC Sponsor Members, occurs during Natural Products Expo West. About the American Botanical CouncilContact: Public Relations, 512-926-4900 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100430/DC95601LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mediherbintegria-healthcare-receives-abcs-varro-e-tyler-award-for-phytomedicinal-research-300225922.html SOURCE American Botanical Council Prime Minister of Denmark Lars Lokke Rasmussen attends the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, September 25, 2015. REUTERS/Darren Ornitz COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on Wednesday he has invited coalitions partners to new talks in a move he hopes will solve a crisis that is threatening the minority government after only eight months in office. After a meeting with coalition partners he said he will spend a couple of days with leaders of the three supporting parties to discuss additional agreements to planned agricultural reforms that have triggered the political crisis. Rasmussen's centre-right Liberals hold only 34 seats in the 179-seat parliament, but they are supported by the Conservatives Party with six seats, the Danish People's Party with 37 and the Liberal Alliance with 13 -- giving them a majority of one. Rasmussen's environment and agriculture minister has been accused of misleading parliament over the environmental impact of the agricultural reforms. The accusations have been led by the Conservatives, who have already been at loggerheads with the government over future tax plans. "We have decided to spend the couple of days after parliament on Thursday has approved the agricultural legislation package to agree about a additional agreement," Rasmussen said after the meeting. Despite being in government, the Liberals are the third largest party in parliament after the former-ruling Social Democrats and the anti-immigrant eurosceptic Danish People's Party, known as DF. It was thought DF would cause the most problems for Rasmussen's tenure but despite its right-wing leaning, its economic policies promoting more spending and support for the elderly are at loggerheads with the Conservatives' fiscally-tight ideals and the dispute between these two coalition partners is now what is causing headaches for the government. After additional meetings Rasmussen could announce the conflict resolved, seek the resignation of the environment minister or call for a new election if he feels he will no longer retain the Conservatives' support. (Reporting by Annabella Nielsen and Nikolaj Skydsgaard, writing by Sabina Zawadzki, editing by Angus MacSwan and Dominic Evans) Russian warplanes fly in the sky over the Mediterranean coastal city of Latakia, Syria January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki By Tom Perry BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russian warplanes bombed Syrian rebel-held areas in northwestern Syria and government forces pounded a suburb of the capital on Thursday, ahead of a planned halt to fighting that rebels predicted Damascus and Moscow would ignore. The "cessation of hostilities" agreed to by the United States and Russia is due to take hold on Saturday morning from midnight. But opponents of President Bashar al-Assad say they expect the government to press on with its advance, by branding opposition fighters al Qaeda militants unprotected by the truce. Damascus has agreed to the deal, as has the main opposition alliance, although it is only ready to commit for two weeks given its deep reservations. But the government and its allies will be permitted to forge on with strikes against jihadist militants of Islamic State and an al Qaeda-linked group, the Nusra Front. The government also says the agreement could fail if foreign states supply rebels with weapons or insurgents use the truce to rearm. U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday the United States was resolved to try to make the deal work but that "there are plenty of reasons for scepticism." Saying the Syrian government and Russia must live up to their commitments, Obama told reporters after meeting with his national security team: "The coming days will be critical and the world will be watching." Ending the conflict in Syria, he added, could allow all parties to focus on the fight against Islamic State. Fighting in the final days before the truce has focused on Daraya, a besieged suburb of the capital held by fighters the government describes as Nusra militants but rebels say are from other groups, and on the northwest near the Turkish frontier. Four months of Russian air strikes turned momentum Assad's way in a 5-year-old war that has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world's worst refugee crisis and seen Islamic State fighters declare a "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq. The multi-sided civil war has drawn in most regional and global powers, with Western countries, Arab states and Turkey forming a coalition against Islamic State while also backing rebels fighting to overthrow Assad. Russia and Iran support him. BARREL BOMBS The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group that monitors the conflict, said army helicopters dropped at least 30 "barrel bombs" on Daraya on Thursday. Assad's opponents say the army drops oil drums filled with explosives and shrapnel to cause indiscriminate harm in rebel areas. The government blamed groups linked to Nusra for firing mortars into residential areas of Damascus, killing at least one person. A spokesman for rebels in southern Syria predicted Daraya would be the first place where the truce would collapse. "They want to exploit the ceasefire and focus their fire on Daraya to take it. This will be the first breach. We won't accept it," said Abu Ghiath al-Shami, spokesman for the Alwiyat Seif al-Sham group, part of a rebel alliance in the south. A Syrian military source also signaled that Damascus would not stop fighting in Daraya. "There is evidence that the ones there are Nusra Front. They found documents, books, flags that point to the Nusra Front being in Daraya," the military source said. "In any place where there is Nusra Front, we will continue operations." Fighting has also escalated in the past two days in the northwestern province of Latakia, where Free Syrian Army groups backed by Assad's foreign enemies operate close to Nusra fighters and other jihadists. "The regime wants to try to retake all of northern Latakia before Feb. 26," said Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for the First Coastal Division rebel group, speaking to Reuters from the area. 'VERY FIERCE' BATTLES "The battles are very fierce. Yesterday, there were heavy battles in the part of rural Latakia that is still with us," he said, adding he did not expect the government or its Russian allies to abide by the truce: "Three minutes ago, I saw a Russian plane in the sky hitting us here in rural Latakia." The Syrian military source also said operations were taking place in the northern Latakia area. Recapturing areas of Latakia province at the Turkish border has been a top priority for Damascus and its allies since Russia began its strikes. It is one of several areas where the government has made major gains this year. Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Observatory, confirmed heavy air strikes in northern Latakia on Wednesday and Thursday. He predicted the presence of the Nusra Front and like-minded groups would give the government grounds to press on with fighting there under the agreement. One of the main purposes of the cessation of hostilities is to allow aid to reach civilians, especially in besieged areas cut off from supplies. A U.N. airdrop of food to 200,000 people in the besieged city of Deir al-Zor failed on Wednesday, with all 21 palettes dropped by parachute either damaged, landing in no-man's land or unaccounted for, a U.N. World Food Programme spokeswoman said. U.N. adviser Jan Egeland nevertheless said the cessation of hostilities could rescue the civilian population from "the abyss" and end the "black chapter" of sieges. Assad told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday his government was ready to help implement the halt to fighting. The two leaders nevertheless stressed the importance of an "uncompromising" fight against Islamic State, the Nusra Front and other jihadists not party to the truce. 'NO PLAN B' Russian officials have seized on comments by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that Washington would consider a "Plan B" if the ceasefire failed. Russia's RIA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying there was no such "Plan B". Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused "some U.S. officials" of trying to "sabotage" the ceasefire plan. But after more than five years of failure to negotiate any end to fighting, and with Russia's intervention having had a decisive impact on the ground, it was not clear what sort of fallback plan Washington might consider if the truce fails. Bob Corker, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Republican critic of the Obama administration, said of Putin: "I think he understands there's no 'plan B'." The Russians were "now dominating," Corker told MSNBC. "It's totally in Russia's hands now." U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said he would announce on Friday a date for a new round of talks between Syria's warring parties. The last talks were called off this month before they got under way, with rebels saying they could not talk while government troops advanced and Russia bombed. (Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs in Moscow, Tom Miles in Geneva and Susan Heavey, Jeff Mason and Ayesha Rascoein Washington; Writing by Tom Perry, Peter Graff and Peter Cooney; Editing by Peter Millership, Bernard Orr) By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar MOGADISHU (Reuters) - As many as 200 soldiers were killed in an attack on a Kenyan military camp in Somalia by al Shabaab Islamists last month, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told a television station, although Kenya rejected the figure. Kenyan authorities have refused to give a death toll following the Jan. 15 raid, which targeted troops working under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) near the southern Somali town of El Adde. Newspaper pictures of coffins draped with Kenyan flags bringing back dead soldiers after the attack increased the disquiet from ordinary Kenyans and the opposition alike over Kenya's continued presence in Somalia. Al Shabaab later distributed photos purporting to show the bodies of dozens of Kenyan soldiers, many apparently shot in the head. "When about 200 soldiers who came to help your country are killed in one morning, it is not something trivial," Mohamud told Somali Cable TV, a privately owned station. The interview was posted on YouTube on Thursday. "We have been winning for years and months but that El Adde battle, we were defeated. Yes, in war, sometimes something that you do not like happens to you," he said. Kenya sent soldiers into Somalia in 2011 after raids in the border region and kidnappings that threatened the tourism industry in the region's biggest economy and wider regional destabilization. It later joined the AMISOM operation. Al Shabaab's attacks in Kenya have included a raid by gunmen on the upscale Westgate shopping mall in 2013 and a university in Garissa in 2015. Hundreds of people have been killed in al Shabaab attacks in the past two years. Kenya Defence Forces spokesman, Colonel David Obonyo, denied the number given by the Somali president and questioned the source of the information. "It is not true. This information never came from us or anyone in the government of Kenya," he told Reuters. The al Qaeda-aligned militants have been driven out of major strongholds in Somalia by AMISOM and Somali army offensives, but the group still controls some rural areas and often launches guerrilla-style assaults and bomb attacks. Al Shabaab, which has links to al Qaeda and seeks to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed government, initially said it had killed more than 100 soldiers in the attack. The group, which is also seeking to drive the AU force out of Somalia, often says its attacks against Kenyan targets are retaliation for its participation in AMISOM, which also includes Uganda and Burundi. (Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Edith Honan) UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, DC 20549 FORM 6-K REPORT OF FOREIGN PRIVATE ISSUER PURSUANT TO RULE 13a-16 OR 15d-16 UNDER THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the month of February, 2016 Commission File Number: 001-13382 KINROSS GOLD CORPORATION (Translation of registrant's name into English) 17th Floor, 25 York Street, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2V5 (Address of principal executive offices) Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40F: Form 20-F_____ Form 40-F_ X __ Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1):_____ Note: Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1) only permits the submission in paper of a Form 6-K if submitted solely to provide an attached annual report to security holders. Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7):_____ Note: Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7) only permits the submission in paper of a Form 6-K if submitted to furnish a report or other document that the registrant foreign private issuer must furnish and make public under the laws of the jurisdiction in which the registrant is incorporated, domiciled or legally organized (the registrant's "home country"), or under the rules of the home country exchange on which the registrant's securities are traded, as long as the report or other document is not a press release, is not required to be and has not been distributed to the registrant's security holders, and, if discussing a material event, has already been the subject of a Form 6-K submission or other Commission filing on EDGAR. Indicate by check mark whether by furnishing the information contained in this Form, the registrant is also thereby furnishing the information to the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Yes_____ No_ X __ If "Yes" is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the registrant in connection with Rule 12g3-2b: Page 2 This report on Form 6-K is being furnished for the sole purpose of providing a copy of the press release dated February 24, 2016 in which Kinross Gold Corporation announced a bought deal financing for US$250 million. INDEX Table of Contents SIGNATURES EXHIBIT INDEX 99.1 Press Release dated February 24, 2016. Page 3 SIGNATURES Pursuant to the requirements of Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized. KINROSS GOLD CORPORATION Signed: //Thomas Elliott// Vice President, Investor Relations February 24, 2016 Exhibit 99.1 Kinross Gold Corporation 25 York Street, 17th Floor Toronto, ON Canada M5J 2V5 NEWS RELEASE Kinross announces US$250 million bought deal financing Toronto, Ontario February 24, 2016 Kinross Gold Corporation (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters led by TD Securities Inc. and Scotiabank for a bought deal public equity offering of 83.4 million common shares of Kinross at a price of US$3.00 per common share for gross proceeds of approximately US$250 million. The Company has granted the underwriters an option, exercisable at the offering price for a period of 30 days following the closing of the offering, to purchase up to an additional 15% of the offering to cover over-allotments, if any. The offering is expected to close on or about March 4, 2016 and is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals including the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange and the securities regulatory authorities. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to strengthen its balance sheet and improve the long-term liquidity position of the Company by using approximately US$175 million of the net proceeds to repay the credit facilities that were utilized to purchase assets from Barrick Gold Corporation. The remainder of the proceeds will be used to repay debt maturing in 2016 and for general corporate purposes. The Company expects to file a preliminary prospectus supplement to its existing base shelf prospectus dated February 11, 2016 on or about February 24, 2016 and intends to file a final prospectus supplement to its existing base shelf prospectus on or about February 25, 2016, in each case with the securities regulatory authorities in each of the provinces of Canada and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved the contents of this news release. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The Company has filed a registration statement (including the existing base shelf prospectus) with the SEC for the offering to which this communication relates. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement and other documents the Company has filed with the SEC for more complete information about the Company and the offering. You may get these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, the Company, any underwriter or any dealer participating in the offering will arrange to send you the prospectus or you may request it, in Canada from TD Securities Inc. in Canada, Attention: Symcor, NPM (tel: 289-360-2009, email: [email protected]), 1625 Tech Avenue, Mississauga ON L4W 5P5; or you may request them from TD Securities (USA) LLC in the United States. (tel: 212-827-7392), 31 W 52nd Street, New York NY 10019, or from Scotia Capital Inc. in Canada, Attention: Equity Capital Markets (tel: 416-862-5837), Scotia Plaza, 66th Floor, 40 King Street West, M5W 2X6, Toronto, Ontario; or from Scotia Capital in the United States, Attention: Equity Capital Markets (tel: 212-225-6853), 1 Liberty Plaza, 25th Floor, 165 Broadway, New York, NY, 10006. About Kinross Gold Corporation Kinross is a Canadian-based senior gold mining company with mines and projects in the United States, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, Mauritania, and Russia. Kinross maintains listings on the Toronto Stock Exchange (symbol:K) and the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: KGC). Media Contact Louie Diaz Senior Manager, Corporate Communications phone: 416-369-6469 [email protected] www.kinross.com Kinross Gold Corporation 25 York Street, 17th Floor Toronto, ON Canada M5J 2V5 Investor Relations Contact Tom Elliott Vice-President, Investor Relations phone: 416-365-3390 [email protected] Cautionary statement on forward-looking information All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained or incorporated by reference in this news release including, but not limited to, any information as to the future financial or operating performance of Kinross, constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements within the meaning of certain securities laws, including the provisions of the Securities Act (Ontario) and the provisions for safe harbor under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as of the date of this news release. The words expect or intends or variations of or similar such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, should or will be achieved, received or taken, or will occur or result and similar such expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Kinross as of the date of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. These uncertainties and contingencies can affect, and could cause, Kinross actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward looking statements made by, or on behalf of, Kinross. There can be no assurance that forward looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. All of the forward looking statements made in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements and those made in our filings with the securities regulators of Canada and the U.S, including but not limited to those cautionary statements made in the Risk Factors section of our most recently filed Annual Information Form and the Risk Analysis sections of our Managements Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2015. These factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect Kinross. Kinross disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable law. Table of Contents United States Securities and Exchange Commission Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM 6-K Report of Foreign Private Issuer Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 For the month of February 2016 Vale S.A. Avenida das Americas, 700 Bloco 8 Loja 318 Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, RJ. (Address of principal executive office) (Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F.) (Check One) Form 20-F x Form 40-F o (Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1)) (Check One) Yes o No x (Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7)) (Check One) Yes o No x (Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the information contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing information to the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.) (Check One) Yes o No x (If Yes is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the registrant in connection with Rule 12g3-2(b). 82- .) Table of Contents VALES PERFORMANCE IN 2015 Table of Contents www.vale.com [email protected] Tel.: (55 21) 3814-4540 Investor Relations Department Rogerio T. Nogueira Andre Figueiredo Carla Albano Miller Fernando Mascarenhas Andrea Gutman Bruno Siqueira Claudia Rodrigues Mariano Szachtman Renata Capanema BM&F BOVESPA: VALE3, VALE5 NYSE: VALE, VALE.P HKEx: 6210, 6230 EURONEXT PARIS: VALE3, VALE5 LATIBEX: XVALO, XVALP Except where otherwise indicated the operational and financial information in this release is based on the consolidated figures in accordance with IFRS and, with the exception of information on investments and behavior of markets, quarterly financial statements are reviewed by the companys independent auditors. The main subsidiaries that are consolidated are the following: Compania Minera Miski Mayo S.A.C., Mineracao Corumbaense Reunida S.A., PT Vale Indonesia Tbk (formerly International Nickel Indonesia Tbk), Salobo Metais S.A, Vale Australia Pty Ltd., Vale International Holdings GMBH, Vale Canada Limited (formely Vale Inco Limited), Vale Fertilizantes S.A., Vale International S.A., Vale Manganes S.A., Vale Mocambique S.A., Vale Nouvelle-Caledonie SAS, Vale Oman Pelletizing Company LLC and Vale Shipping Holding PTE Ltd. Table of Contents Vales performance in 2015 Rio de Janeiro, February 25, 2016 Vale S.A. (Vale) delivered a sound operational performance, achieving several annual production records in 2015, such as: (i) iron ore annual supply of 345.9 Mt; (ii) Carajas production of 129.6 Mt; and (iii) nickel production of 291,000 t; (iv) copper production of 423,800 t. Gross revenues totaled US$ 26.047 billion in 2015, decreasing US$ 12.189 billion vs. 2014 as a result of lower prices of iron ore fines (US$ 8.614 billion), pellets (US$ 2.030 billion), nickel (US$ 1.394 billion) and others, partly offset by higher sales volumes (US$ 2.060 billion). Quarterly gross revenues totaled US$ 5.986 billion in 4Q15, decreasing US$ 632 million vs. 3Q15, as a result of lower prices of iron ore fines (US$ 739 million), nickel (US$ 112 million) and others, partly offset by higher sales volumes (US$ 325 million). Costs and expenses, net of depreciation charges, totaled US$ 18.846 billion in 2015, decreasing US$ 5.908 billion vs. 2014. Costs decreased US$ 4.223 billion (20%), SG&A and other expenses decreased US$ 1.260 billion (65%), R&D decreased US$ 257 million (35%) and pre-operating and stoppage expenses decreased US$ 168 million (19%) in 2015 vs. 2014. Quarterly costs and expenses, net of depreciation charges, totaled US$ 4.595 billion in 4Q15, practically in line with the US$ 4.649 billion recorded in 3Q15. Costs increased US$ 65 million (2%), mainly due to the sales volume increase in the Ferrous Minerals and the Base Metals business segments. SG&A and other expenses decreased US$ 105 million (63%), mainly due to the positive one-off effect of the adjustment in Asset Retirement Obligations(1) (ARO) recorded in 4Q15. R&D decreased US$ 2 million (2%) and pre-operating and stoppage expenses decreased US$ 12 million (7%) in 4Q15 vs. 3Q15. C1 cash cost FOB port per metric ton for iron ore fines ex-royalties reached the lowest mark in the iron ore industry at US$ 11.9/t in 4Q15 vs. US$ 12.7/t in 3Q15. The reduction in C1 cash cost was mainly driven by the BRL depreciation and by the ongoing cost reduction initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA was US$ 7.081 billion in 2015, 47% lower than in 2014 mainly as a result of lower sales prices which impacted EBITDA negatively by US$ 14.005 billion. Higher sales volumes and lower costs and expenses partly offset the EBITDA impact of lower prices by US$ 1.237 billion and US$ 6.746 billion, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 27.7% in 2015. (1) Provision for mine and other assets closures 3 Table of Contents Quarterly adjusted EBITDA was US$ 1.391 billion in 4Q15, 26% lower than in 3Q15 mainly as a result of lower sales prices which impacted EBITDA negatively by US$ 943 million. Higher sales volumes and lower costs(2) and expenses partly offset the EBITDA impact of lower prices by US$ 57 million and US$ 334 million, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 23.6% in 4Q15. Quarterly adjusted EBITDA was positively impacted by the above-mentioned effect of the adjustment in ARO (US$ 331 million) and negatively impacted by decisions and/or events from previous quarters, with effects in 4Q15, such as: (i) bunker oil hedge accounting program for iron fines (US$ 134 million); (ii) provisional copper price adjustments (US$ 60 million); (iii) provisional manganese ore price adjustments (US$ 28 million); and (iv) the write-off of materials inventories in Base Metals (US$ 31 million). Capital expenditures totaled US$ 2.193 billion in 4Q15 and US$ 8.401 billion in 2015, decreasing US$ 3.578 billion vs. 2014. Investments in project execution totaled US$ 1.366 billion and US$ 5.548 billion in 4Q15 and in 2015, respectively. Sustaining capex totaled US$ 827 million and US$ 2.853 billion in 4Q15 and in 2015, respectively. Total annual capex exceeded the previous guidance by US$ 0.2 billion as a result of a better than expected execution of the S11D project and its associated logistics. Asset sales totaled US$ 3.525 billion in 2015, with US$ 1.316 billion coming from the sale of 12 very large ore carriers to Chinese shipowners, US$ 1.089 billion coming from the sale of 36.4% of MBR preferred shares, US$ 900 million from another goldstream transaction and US$ 97 million from the sale of energy assets. In 4Q15, Vale sold four very large ore carriers of 400,000 tons deadweight to ICBC Financial Leasing. The transaction totaled US$ 423 million. Net loss totaled US$ 12.129 billion in 2015 vs. a net income of US$ 657 million in 2014. The US$ 12.786 billion decrease in income was mostly driven by higher impairment charges recorded in 2015 vs. 2014 and the effect on financial results of the 47% end to end depreciation of the BRL against the USD in 2015. Underlying earnings were negative US$ 1.698 billion in 2015, against positive US$ 4.419 billion in 2014. Impairments on assets and on investments(3) and the recognition of onerous contracts totaled US$ 9.372 billion in 2015. The increase of US$ 8.189 billion vs. 2014 was mainly due to the significant reduction in the price assumptions used for the impairment tests. Quarterly net loss totaled US$ 8.569 billion in 4Q15 compared to a net loss of US$ 2.117 billion in 3Q15. The US$ 6.452 billion decrease was mostly driven by impairments, which (2) Net effect on costs after adjusting for higher volumes. (3) Of associates and joint ventures. 4 Table of Contents were partly offset mainly by the effect on financial results of monetary and foreign exchange variation gains. Underlying earnings were negative US$ 1.032 billion in 4Q15, against negative US$ 961 million in 3Q15. Gross debt totaled US$ 28.853 billion as of December 31, 2015, slightly higher than the US$ 28.675 billion as of September 30, 2015, but in line with the US$ 28.807 billion registered as of December 31, 2014. After the dividends payment of US$ 1.5 billion in 2015, net debt totaled US$ 25.234 billion vs. US$ 24.685 billion as of December 31, 2014 and US$ 24.213 billion as of September 30, 2015, with a cash balance of US$ 3.619 billion. Average debt maturity was 8.1 years with an average cost of debt of 4.47% per annum. EBITDA from the Ferrous Minerals business segment decreased 15% in 4Q15 driven by lower realized prices despite higher volumes and reductions in costs and expenses Adjusted EBITDA of the Ferrous Minerals business segment was US$ 5.899 billion in 2015, 47.9% lower than in 2014, mainly as result of lower sales prices (-US$ 11.414 billion), which were partially offset by real competitiveness gains of US$ 3.477 billion such as: (i) marketing and commercial initiatives (US$ 680 million); (ii) higher sales volumes (US$ 1.599 billion); (iii) favorable renegotiations of chartering freight contracts (US$ 300 million); and (iv) the ongoing cost reduction initiatives (US$ 898 million). Adjusted EBITDA for Ferrous Minerals in 4Q15 was US$ 1.409 billion, US$ 243 million lower than the US$ 1.652 billion achieved in 3Q15, mainly as a result of lower realized sales prices (US$ 782 million), which were partially offset by higher sales volumes (US$ 62 million), lower expenses(4) (US$ 245 million) and lower costs(5) (US$ 188 million). Adjusted EBITDA will no longer be impacted by Vales hedge accounting program since all outstanding bunker oil exposure recorded under this program was settled in 4Q15. Vales hedge accounting program for iron ore fines had a negative impact of US$ 134 million in 4Q15 and US$ 412 million in 2015. Cash flow, measured as adjusted EBITDA(6) less sustaining and growth capex, was US$ 363 million in 4Q15. CFR dmt reference price for iron ore fines (ex-ROM) decreased US$ 10.9/t from US$ 56.0/t in 3Q15 to US$ 45.1/t in 4Q15 whereas CFR/FOB wmt price for iron ore fines (4) The reduction in expenses is mainly driven by the positive one-off effect of the adjustment in Asset Retirement Obligations (ARO). (5) Net effect on costs, after adjusting for volume. (6) Excluding the positive one off effect of the Asset Retirement Obligations (ARO). 5 Table of Contents (ex-ROM) decreased US$ 9.3/t from US$ 46.5/t per metric ton in 3Q15 to US$ 37.2/t in 4Q15 after adjusting for moisture and the effect of the lower FOB sales prices on 32% of the total sales volumes. Product quality measured by Fe content improved from 63.5% in 3Q15 to 63.7% in 4Q15 mostly due to the ramp-up of the N4WS and N5S mines and of the Itabirites projects. Unit freight cost per iron ore metric ton, excluding the impact of hedge accounting, was US$ 14.1/t in 4Q15, US$ 2.3/t lower than the US$ 16.4/t recorded in 3Q15. Unit cash costs and expenses for iron ore fines landed in China (and adjusted for quality and moisture and excluding the positive one-off effect of the ARO adjustment) decreased from US$ 34.2/t in 3Q15 to US$ 32.0/t in 4Q15 on a dry metric ton (dmt) basis. Sustaining capex for iron ore fines totaled US$ 178 million (US$ 2.3/ wmt) in 4Q15, US$ 0.8/ wmt lower than in 3Q15. Physical progress reached 80% at the S11D mine and plant, 57% at the railway and port, and 81% on the railway spur. EBITDA from the Base Metals business segment decreased with lower nickel and copper prices Sales revenues totaled US$ 1.458 billion in 4Q15, US$ 103 million higher than in 3Q15 mainly due to higher volumes that were partially offset by lower LME nickel and copper prices. Realized prices were negatively impacted by US$ 60 million in provisional copper price adjustments. Adjusted EBITDA was US$ 111 million in 4Q15, US$ 82 million lower than in 3Q15, mainly as a result of: (i) lower prices (US$ 158 million), including the above- mentioned negative impact in provisional copper price adjustments; and (ii) the negative impact of the write-off of materials inventories in 4Q15 (US$ 31 million). Adjusted EBITDA was impacted by VNCs negative EBITDA of US$ 107 million in 4Q15. Salobos EBITDA remained in line with 3Q15s EBITDA at US$ 75 million despite weaker copper prices as production reached a quarterly record of 42,000 t in 4Q15. 6 Table of Contents Salobo is expected to reach its full production capacity in 2H16 as rain decreases and higher grade mine faces are accessed. EBITDA from the Coal business segment decreased as a result of one-off effects on costs and lower prices Adjusted EBITDA was negative US$ 149 million in 4Q15, compared to negative US$ 129 million in 3Q15, mainly driven by lower prices and higher costs in Australia. Costs in Mozambique in 4Q15 were in line with 3Q15, after adjusting for the effects of higher volumes whereas costs in Australia increased in 4Q15 due to the write-down of mine development expenses. Moatize II reached 99% physical progress with a capital expenditure of US$ 196 million while the Nacala Logistics Corridor (NLC) reached 97% physical progress with capital expenditures of US$ 259 million in 4Q15. EBITDA from the Fertilizers business segment improved in 2015 mainly driven by lower costs and expenses Adjusted EBITDA for the Fertilizer business segment increased to US$ 567 million in 2015 from US$ 278 million in 2014 with an increase of US$ 289 million mainly driven by exchange rates and commercial and cost savings initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA for the Fertilizer business segment decreased to US$ 117 million in 4Q15 from US$ 197 million in 3Q15, mainly driven by lower sales volumes (US$ 86 million) as a result of the usual market seasonality. In 2015 we successfully reduced our costs and expenses, progressed with the implementation of our critical projects and advanced with our divestment process while maintaining our gross debt position. Despite all our efforts, our accomplishments in 2015 were overshadowed by Samarcos tailings dam failure in the beginning of November. We have been working diligently with Samarco since the beginning and will remain fully committed to supporting the people and the environment of the affected regions. We acknowledge the additional challenges brought by the declining commodity prices and the consequent impact on our cash flow generation. Nonetheless we remain confident in our ability to move through these more difficult times, by maintaining operating discipline and the courage to implement the required strategic actions. 7 Table of Contents Selected financial indicators US$ million 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 Gross operating revenues 26,047 38,236 47,486 48,753 62,345 Net operating revenues 25,609 37,539 46,767 47,694 60,946 Adjusted EBIT 2,734 8,497 17,576 14,430 28,748 Adjusted EBIT margin (%) 10.7 22.6 37.6 30.3 47.2 Adjusted EBITDA 7,081 13,353 22,560 19,178 33,730 Adjusted EBITDA margin (%) 27.7 35.6 48.2 40.2 55.3 Net income (loss) (12,129 ) 657 585 5,197 22,652 Underlying earnings (1,698 ) 4,419 12,269 10,365 23,015 Underlying earnings per share on a fully diluted basis (US$ / share) (0.33 ) 0.86 2.38 2.03 4.39 Total gross debt 28,853 28,807 29,655 30,546 23,143 Cash and cash equivalent 3,619 4,122 5,324 6,078 3,531 Total Net Debt 25,234 24,685 24,331 24,468 19,612 Total gross debt/ adjusted EBITDA (x) 4.1 2.2 1.3 1.6 0.7 Capital expenditures 8,401 11,979 14,233 16,196 16,252 US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 Gross operating revenues 5,986 6,618 9,226 Net operating revenues 5,899 6,505 9,072 Adjusted EBIT 320 834 856 Adjusted EBIT margin (%) 5.4 12.8 9.4 Adjusted EBITDA 1,391 1,875 2,187 Adjusted EBITDA margin (%) 23.6 28.8 24.1 Net income (loss) (8,569 ) (2,117 ) (1,849 ) Underlying earnings (1,032 ) (961 ) (251 ) Underlying earnings per share on a fully diluted basis (US$ / share) (0.20 ) (0.19 ) (0.05 ) Capital expenditures 2,193 1,879 3,747 8 Table of Contents Operating revenues Gross operating revenues in 2015 were US$ 26.047 billion, 31.8% lower than the US$ 38.236 billion registered in 2014. The decrease in sales revenues was mainly due to lower realized prices of iron ore fines (US$ 8.614 billion), pellets (US$ 2.030 billion) and nickel (U$ 1.394 billion) which were partially offset by higher volumes of iron ore and pellets (US$ 1.869 billion) and base metals (US$ 666 million). Gross operating revenues in 4Q15 were US$ 5.986 billion, 9.5% lower than in 3Q15. The decrease in sales revenues was mainly due to lower realized prices (US$ 956 million), partly offset by higher sales volumes (US$ 325 million). The tables below show gross operating revenues by destination and by business segments, with the following highlights: Revenues by destination in 2015 were in line with 2014, with sales to Asia representing 51.3% of total gross revenues in 2015. Contribution by business segment was marked by: (i) the increase in the Base Metals and the Fertilizers business segment share in Vales total gross revenues to 23.7% and 9.2% in 2015 from 20.1% and 6.8% in 2014, respectively; and (ii) the decrease in the Ferrous Minerals business segment share to 64.6% in 2015 from 68.4% in 2014. Gross operating revenue by destination US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 % 2014 % North America 450 409 642 2,008 7.7 2,771 7.2 USA 168 188 278 855 3.3 1,368 3.6 Canada 279 206 361 1,123 4.3 1,393 3.6 Mexico 3 15 3 31 0.1 10 South America 964 1,289 1,769 4,807 18.5 7,308 19.1 Brazil 871 1,191 1,645 4,396 16.9 6,624 17.3 Others 93 98 124 411 1.6 684 1.8 Asia 3,189 3,550 4,798 13,371 51.3 19,590 51.2 China 2,180 2,556 3,091 9,096 34.9 12,657 33.1 Japan 460 498 848 1,959 7.5 3,627 9.5 South Korea 186 171 300 790 3.0 1,555 4.1 Others 363 325 559 1,526 5.9 1,751 4.6 Europe 1,144 1,114 1,556 4,663 17.9 6,697 17.5 Germany 355 332 442 1,437 5.5 2,111 5.5 Italy 111 104 130 461 1.8 849 2.2 Others 678 678 985 2,765 10.6 3,737 9.8 Middle East 170 227 288 969 3.7 1,266 3.3 Rest of the World 69 29 173 230 0.9 605 1.6 Total 5,986 6,618 9,226 26,047 100.0 38,236 100.0 9 Table of Contents Gross operating revenue by business segments US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 % 2014 % Ferrous minerals 3,883 4,367 6,213 16,821 64.6 26,140 68.4 Iron ore fines 2,956 3,290 4,593 12,382 47.5 19,439 50.8 ROM 14 27 42 111 0.4 233 0.6 Pellets 806 908 1,308 3,717 14.3 5,424 14.2 Manganese ore 4 24 92 101 0.4 226 0.6 Ferroalloys 10 3 51 82 0.3 218 0.6 Others 93 115 127 428 1.6 600 1.6 Coal 108 127 201 526 2.0 739 1.9 Metallurgical coal 98 115 181 480 1.8 661 1.7 Thermal coal 10 12 20 47 0.2 78 0.2 Base metals 1,458 1,355 1,948 6,171 23.7 7,694 20.1 Nickel 782 785 1,064 3,412 13.1 4,468 11.7 Copper 413 368 556 1,728 6.6 2,122 5.5 PGMs 96 59 152 404 1.6 564 1.5 Gold 122 115 115 477 1.8 418 1.1 Silver 8 7 11 31 0.1 37 0.1 Others 37 22 50 119 0.5 85 0.2 Fertilizer nutrients 513 747 607 2,386 9.2 2,585 6.8 Potash 33 47 45 147 0.6 169 0.4 Phosphates 387 588 432 1,818 7.0 1,904 5.0 Nitrogen 76 92 108 355 1.4 411 1.1 Others 17 20 22 66 0.3 101 0.3 Others 24 22 257 143 0.5 1,078 2.8 Total 5,986 6,618 9,226 26,047 100.0 38,236 100.0 10 Table of Contents Costs and expenses ANNUAL PERFORMANCE Costs and expenses decreased to US$ 22.875 billion in 2015 from the US$ 29.042 billion recorded in 2014, due to: (i) the impact of exchange rate variations in COGS and SG&A (US$ 4.9 billion), (ii) cost savings initiatives (US$ 1.8 billion), (iii) positive one-off effects from gains on the goldstream transaction recorded in 1Q15 (US$ 0.2 billion) and from the adjustment in the Asset Retirement Obligations (ARO) (7) recorded in 4Q15 (US$ 0.3 billion); and (iv) the reduction in expenses excluding the above mentioned positive one-off effects (US$ 0.7 billion). These reductions were partly offset by higher sales volumes (US$ 1.0 billion) and by the negative impact of the bunker oil hedge accounting program for iron ore fines (US$ 0.4 billion). Costs will no longer be impacted by Vales hedge accounting program since all outstanding bunker oil exposure recorded under this program was settled in 4Q15. After deducting the above-mentioned positive one-off effects and the negative impact of the bunker oil hedge accounting program for iron ore fines, costs and expenses decreased US$ 6.0 billion, a reduction of 20.7%. QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE Costs and expenses decreased to US$ 5.579 billion in 4Q15 from the US$ 5.671 billion recorded in 3Q15, mainly due to the positive one-off effect from the adjustment in ARO (US$ 331 million) and exchange rate variations in COGS & SG&A (US$ 210 million), which were partly offset by higher sales volumes (US$ 282 million) and by an increase in Other Operating Expenses (US$ 154 million). Costs and expenses US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Costs 5,119 5,040 6,892 20,513 25,064 Expenses 460 631 1,324 2,362 3,978 Total costs and expenses 5,579 5,671 8,216 22,875 29,042 Depreciation 984 1,022 1,242 4,029 4,288 Costs and expenses ex-depreciation 4,595 4,649 6,974 18,846 24,754 (7) The annual revision for the provisions for mine and other assets closures generated a positive impact as a result of the life extension of some mines and a revision on the scope of the work needed for closing the assets. 11 Table of Contents Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) ANNUAL PERFORMANCE COGS(8) totaled US$ 20.513 billion in 2015, reducing US$ 4.6 billion in comparison with the US$ 25.064 billion recorded in 2014, despite the increase in sales volumes in iron ore fines, pellets and base metals in 2015. Ferrous Minerals costs decreased by US$ 3.041 billion, Fertilizers costs decreased by US$ 510 million, Base Metals costs decreased by US$ 318 million and Coal costs decreased by US$ 214 million in 2015 vs. 2014. After adjusting for the effects of higher sales volumes, costs decreased by US$ 5.5 billion in 2015 vs. 2014. The cost reductions were mostly driven by exchange rate variations (US$ 4.2 billion) and by the positive results of cost reduction initiatives (US$ 1.8 billion), especially in the Ferrous Minerals business segment, as a result of by reductions in iron ore fines and pellets freight, the ramp-ups of the N4WS and N5S mines, and the Vargem Grande and both the Conceicao I and II Itabirites projects. QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE COGS(9) totaled US$ 5.119 billion in 4Q15, increasing US$ 79 million in comparison with the US$ 5.040 billion recorded in 3Q15, mainly due to the increase in sales volumes of iron ore fines and base metals in 4Q15. After adjusting for the effects of higher sales volumes, costs decreased by US$ 203 million in 4Q15 vs. 3Q15. The cost reductions were mainly driven by exchange rate variations (US$ 186 million) and by the positive results of cost reduction initiatives in iron ore fines (US$ 153 million), which were partly offset by a net increase in costs in other business segments. Further details on cost performance are provided in the Performance of the Business Segments section. COGS by business US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 % 2014 % Ferrous minerals 2,846 2,813 4,278 11,759 57.3 14,800 59.0 Base metals 1,551 1,406 1,718 5,863 28.6 6,181 24.7 Coal 296 239 285 977 4.8 1,191 4.8 Fertilizers 386 536 492 1,763 8.6 2,273 9.1 Other products 40 46 119 151 0.7 619 2.5 Total COGS 5,119 5,040 6,892 20,513 100.0 25,064 100.0 Depreciation 875 861 1,122 3,529 3,857 COGS, ex-depreciation 4,244 4,179 5,770 16,984 21,207 (8) COGS currency exposure in 2015 was made up as follows: 49% Brazilian Reais, 34% US dollar, 13% Canadian dollar,1% Australian dollar and 3% other currencies. (9) COGS currency exposure in 4Q15 was made up as follows: 45% Brazilian Reais, 37% US dollar, 13% Canadian dollar,2% Australian dollar and 3% other currencies. 12 Table of Contents Expenses ANNUAL PERFORMANCE Total expenses decreased to US$ 2.362 billion in 2015 from the US$ 3.978 billion recorded in 2014, mainly due to: (i) a reduction in Other Expenses (10) (US$ 851 million); (ii) SG&A (US$ 447 million); and (iii) R&D (US$ 257 million). After deducting the positive one-off effects of US$ 230 million from the goldstream transaction recorded in 1Q15 and adjusting for the Asset Retirement Obligations (ARO) of US$ 331 million recorded in 4Q15, expenses decreased by US$ 1.1 billion, a reduction of 26.5%. SG&A totaled US$ 652 million in 2015, representing a 40.7% decrease from the US$ 1.099 billion recorded in 2014. SG&A net of depreciation reduced by US$ 357 million in 2015 vs. 2014, as a result of the depreciation of the BRL and of the CAD (US$ 179 million), as well as the simplification of corporate functions (US$ 178 million). R&D expenses totaled US$ 477 million in 2015, representing a 35.0% decrease from the US$ 734 million recorded in 2014. R&D expenses were mostly concentrated in iron ore and pellets (US$ 128 million) and nickel (US$ 103 million). Pre-operating and stoppage expenses totaled US$ 1.027 billion in 2015, representing a 5.6% decrease from the US$ 1.088 billion recorded in 2014. The decrease in pre-operating expenses at VNC, S11D and Vargem Grande Itabirites (11) were partly offset by their increase at Long Harbour and Nacala. Other operating expenses (12) totaled US$ 767 million in 2015, representing a 27.4% decrease from the US$ 1.057 billion recorded in 2014. QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE Total expenses decreased to US$ 460 million in 4Q15 from the US$ 631 million recorded in 3Q15, mainly due to the positive one-off effect of the adjustment in ARO (US$ 331 million), partly offset by an increase in Other Expenses (US$ 154 million) and SG&A (US$ 36 million). SG&A totaled US$ 167 million in 4Q15, representing a 27.5% increase from the US$ 131 million recorded in 3Q15, and a 45.4% decrease from the US$ 306 million recorded in 4Q14. SG&A net of depreciation increased by US$ 29 million in 4Q15 vs. 3Q15, despite the positive impact of the depreciation of the BRL and of the CAD (US$ 5 million), mainly as a result of: (i) (10) Including the positive one-off effects of US$ 230 million from the goldstream transaction recorded in 1Q15 and of US$ 331 million from the adjustment in ARO recorded in 4Q15. (11) Vargem Grande Itabiritos project was concluded in 2014. (12) After deducting the positive one-off effects of US$ 230 million from the goldstream transaction recorded in 1Q15 and of US$ 331 million from the adjustment in ARO recorded in 4Q15. 13 Table of Contents a gain on the reversal of the provision for doubtful debts recorded in 3Q15 (US$ 10 million); (ii) the impact of the collective bargaining agreement for corporate and sales functions located in Brazil (US$ 4 million); (iii) higher expenses for global IT services (US$ 3 million); and (iv) termination of corporate contracts in Australia (US$ 2 million). R&D expenses totaled US$ 119 million in 4Q15, in line with the US$ 121 million recorded in 3Q15, and representing a 49.4% decrease from the US$ 235 million recorded in 4Q14. R&D expenses were mostly concentrated in iron ore and pellets (US$ 27 million) and nickel (US$ 30 million). Pre-operating and stoppage expenses totaled US$ 238 million in 4Q15, representing a 10.5% decrease from the US$ 266 million recorded in 3Q15, and representing a 18.5% decrease from the US$ 292 million recorded in 4Q14. Lower pre-operating expenses at VNC were the main driver for the reduction achieved in 4Q15 vs. 4Q14. Other operating expenses totaled US$ 267 million in 4Q15, representing a 136.3% increase from the US$ 113 million recorded in 3Q15, mainly due to write-off of assets and settlement of insurance claims, and representing a 45.6% decrease from the US$ 491 million recorded in 4Q14. Expenses US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 % 2014 % SG&A ex-depreciation 129 100 247 519 876 SG&A 167 131 306 652 27.6 1,099 27.6 Administrative 150 132 292 603 25.5 1,019 25.6 Personnel 55 56 118 267 11.3 436 11.0 Services 33 26 53 113 4.8 196 4.9 Depreciation 38 31 59 133 5.6 223 5.6 Others 24 19 62 90 3.8 164 4.1 Selling 17 (1 ) 14 49 2.1 80 2.0 R&D 119 121 235 477 20.2 734 18.5 Pre-operating and stoppage expenses(1) 238 266 292 1,027 43.5 1,088 27.4 VNC 93 97 141 394 16.7 549 13.8 Long Harbour 47 65 42 278 11.8 125 3.1 S11D 14 11 15 52 2.2 29 0.7 Moatize 14 25 10 62 2.6 16 0.4 Others 70 68 84 241 10.2 369 9.3 Other operating expenses(2) (64 ) 113 491 206 8.7 1,057 26.6 Total Expenses 460 631 1,324 2,362 100.0 3,978 100.0 Depreciation 110 161 120 501 431 Expenses ex-depreciation 350 470 1,204 1,861 3,547 (1) Includes U$ 67 million of depreciation charges in 4Q15, US$ 83 million in 3Q15, US$ 61 million in 4Q14, US$ 314 million in 2015 and US$ 209 million in 2014. (2) Include the positive one-off effects of US$ 230 million from the gold stream transaction recorded in 1Q15 and of US$ 331 million from the adjustment in ARO recorded in 4Q15. 14 Table of Contents Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization(13) ANNUAL PERFORMANCE Adjusted EBITDA was US$ 7.081 billion in 2015, 47% lower than the US$ 13.353 billion registered in 2014, mainly as a result of lower sales prices in ferrous minerals (-US$ 10.734 billion) and base metals (-US$ 2.195 billion). Lower costs and expenses partly offset the impact of lower prices by US$ 6.746 billion. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 27.7% in 2015. Adjusted EBITDA was impacted by the following effects: (i) gains on the goldstream transaction recorded in 1Q15 (US$ 230 million), (ii) the adjustment in the Asset Retirement Obligations (14) which reduced expenses in 4Q15 (US$ 331 million), and (iii) the hedge accounting related to freight costs which increased iron ore fines costs (-US$ 412 million). Adjusted EBITDA will no longer be impacted by Vales hedge accounting program since all outstanding bunker oil exposure recorded under this program was settled in 4Q15. Adjusted EBIT was US$ 2.734 billion in 2015, 67.8% lower than in 2014. QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE Adjusted EBITDA was US$ 1.391 billion in 4Q15, 25.8% lower than in 3Q15, mainly as a result of lower sales prices in most of our commodities which impacted EBITDA negatively by US$ 943 million. Lower costs and expenses partly offset the impact of lower prices by US$ 334 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 23.6% in 4Q15. Quarterly adjusted EBITDA was positively impacted by the above-mentioned effect of the adjustment in ARO (US$ 331 million) and negatively impacted by decisions and/or events from previous quarters, with effects in 4Q15, such as: (i) bunker oil hedge accounting program for iron fines (US$ 134 million); (ii) provisional copper price adjustments (US$ 60 million); (iii) provisional manganese ore price adjustments (US$ 28 million); and (iv) the write-off of materials inventories in Base Metals (US$ 31 million). Adjusted EBIT was US$ 320 million in 4Q15, 61.6% lower than in 3Q15. (13) Net revenues less costs and expenses net of depreciation plus dividends received. (14) The annual revision of the provisions for mine and other assets closures generated a positive impact as a result of the extension of working life for some of the mines and a revision of the scope of the work needed for closing the assets. 15 Table of Contents Adjusted EBITDA US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Gross operating revenues 5,986 6,618 9,226 26,047 38,236 Net operating revenues 5,899 6,505 9,072 25,609 37,539 COGS (5,119 ) (5,040 ) (6,892 ) (20,513 ) (25,064 ) SG&A (167 ) (131 ) (306 ) (652 ) (1,099 ) Research and development (119 ) (121 ) (235 ) (477 ) (734 ) Pre-operating and stoppage expenses (238 ) (266 ) (292 ) (1,027 ) (1,088 ) Other operational expenses 64 (113 ) (491 ) (206 ) (1,057 ) Adjusted EBIT 320 834 856 2,734 8,497 Depreciation, amortization & depletion 984 1,022 1,242 4,029 4,288 Dividends received 87 19 89 318 568 Adjusted EBITDA 1,391 1,875 2,187 7,081 13,353 Adjusted EBITDA by business area US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Ferrous minerals 1,409 1,652 1,702 5,899 11,321 Coal (149 ) (129 ) (204 ) (508 ) (669 ) Base metals 111 193 582 1,388 2,521 Fertilizer nutrients 117 197 75 567 278 Others (97 ) (38 ) 32 (265 ) (98 ) Total 1,391 1,875 2,187 7,081 13,353 16 Table of Contents Net income ANNUAL PERFORMANCE Vale posted a net loss of US$ 12.129 billion in 2015 compared to a net gain of US$ 657 million in 2014. The US$ 12.786 billion decrease was mostly driven by: (i) lower EBITDA (-US$ 6.272 billion); (ii) higher impairments on assets, onerous contracts and investments(15) (-US$ 8.189 billion), and (iii) higher losses on foreign exchange and monetary variation (-US$ 5.280 billion). This decrease was partially offset by higher deferred taxes (US$ 5.638 billion) and lower financial expenses (US$ 1.681 billion). Underlying earnings were a negative US$ 1.698 billion in 2015, mainly due to: (i) the impact of lower EBITDA (-US$ 6.272 billion); (ii) the financial loss on derivatives(16) (-US$ 975 million); and (iii) loss on equity income from affiliated companies (-US$ 439 million). The negative impact on underlying earnings was partly offset by deferred taxes (US$ 5.489 billion). Impairments on assets and investments(17) and the recognition of onerous contracts totaled US$ 9.372 billion in 2015. The increase vs. 2014 was mainly due to the significant reduction in the price assumptions used for the impairment tests. Impairments on assets and the recognition of onerous contracts (excluding impairments on investments) totaled US$ 8.926 billion in 2015 and were mainly driven by the impact of: (i) the decline in iron ore prices in the Midwestern system and the consequent production plan revision (US$ 522 million on assets and US$ 357 million on onerous contracts); (ii) the decision not to restart the pellet plants in the Northern system (US$ 55 million); (iii) the lower coal prices and the revision of mining plans in the Australian coal mines (US$ 635 million); (iv) the lower coal prices and the increase in logistic costs in Mozambique (US$ 2.403 billion); (v) the lower nickel prices in New Caledonia (US$ 1.462 billion) and in Newfoundland and Labrador (US$ 3.460 billion); (vi) the lower expectations on the recovery of amounts invested in the Rio Colorado potash project (US$ 548 million). The above-mentioned impairment charges were partially offset by impairment reversals, driven by the impact of: (i) the recovery of Onca Pumas nickel production (US$ 252 million); and (ii) the depreciation of the BRL against the USD which benefited the Brazilian phosphate operations (US$ 391 million). (15) Of associates and joint ventures. (16) Composed mainly of bunker oil and commodities. (17) Of associates and joint ventures. 17 Table of Contents Impairment US$ million Impairments on assets in 2015 Recognition on onerous contracts in 2015 Book Value after impairments Dec 31, 2015 Ferrous minerals Iron ore in the Midwestern system(1) 522 357 Pellets plants 55 Others 58 Coal Coal assets in Mozambique 2,403 1,729 Coal assets in Australia(1) 635 74 Base metals Vale New Caledonia (VNC) 1,462 3,725 Vale New Foundland and Labrador (VNL) 3,460 2,353 Onca Puma (252 ) 2,331 Others 62 Fertilizers Phosphate assets (391 ) 3,842 Rio Colorado Project (PRC) 548 20 Others 7 Total 8,569 357 14,000 (1) Includes intangible assets of US$ 81 million. Impairments of investments of associates and joint ventures totaled US$ 446 million, comprising investments made in Samarco of US$ 132 million and Teal Minerals, a joint venture of Vale with ARM, which holds an 80% stake in the Lubambe copper operation, of US$ 314 million. The above-mentioned impairment on Samarcos investments relates to Vales share of Samarcos declared but unpaid dividends and royalties. Impairment on investments US$ million Total impairments in 2015 Book Value after impairments Dec 31, 2015 Iron ore Samarco 132 Base metals Teal Minerals 314 Total 446 0 Net financial results showed a loss of US$ 10.801 billion in 2015, compared to a loss of US$ 6.069 billion in 2014. The main components of the net financial results are: (i) financial expenses (-US$ 1.112 billion); (ii) financial revenues (US$ 268 million); (iii) foreign exchange and monetary losses (-US$ 7.480 billion); (iv) currency and interest rate swaps losses (-US$ 1.502 billion) and (v) losses on other derivatives (-US$ 975 million), composed mainly of bunker oil derivative losses of US$ 742 million. In 2015, the 47% depreciation of the BRL against the USD led to losses of US$ 8.666 billion, of which, US$ 7.164 billion came from the US$ 16.720 billion exposure on the net position of the USD denominated liabilities and USD denominated assets recorded mainly in Vales (parent company) financial statements, and US$ 1.502 billion loss from the mark-to-market of the swap transactions implemented to convert debt instruments into USD. In 2014, the depreciation of the BRL vs. the USD of 13% led to a US$ 2.802 billion loss. 18 Table of Contents At the end of 2014, Brazilian corporate tax legislation was amended by Law number 12.973/13, taking effect in 2015. Under the amended legislation, income from foreign subsidiaries is recognized on an accrual basis for Brazilian tax purposes and top-up taxes are applicable in Brazil up to the standard Brazilian corporate tax rate of 34%. In compliance with the Brazilian legislation, and based on the tax losses carried forward at foreign subsidiaries and on economic and financial projections, US$ 2.952 billion was recorded as a deferred tax asset in 3Q15. QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE Vale posted a net loss of US$ 8.569 billion in 4Q15 compared to a net loss of US$ 2.117 billion in 3Q15. The US$ 6.452 billion loss was mostly driven by the above mentioned impairments on assets, onerous contracts and investments of US$ 9.372 billion, which was partially offset by gains on monetary and foreign exchange variation of US$ 5.290 billion. Underlying earnings were a negative US$ 1.032 billion in 4Q15 after excluding the one-off effects, mainly due to financial expenses result of US$ 246 million and financial losses on derivatives(18) of US$ 289 million. Net financial results showed a gain of US$ 353 million in 4Q15, compared to a loss of US$ 7.176 billion in 3Q15. The main components of net financial results are: (i) financial expenses (-US$ 326 million); (ii) financial revenues (US$ 80 million); (iii) foreign exchange and monetary gains in USD denominated debt (US$ 173 million); (iv) currency and interest rate swap gains (US$ 715 million) as a result of the mark-to-market of Vales swap liabilities driven by the increase in Vales Credit Default Swap (CDS) and (v) losses on other derivatives (-US$ 289 million), composed mainly of bunker oil derivatives losses of US$ 212 million. Differently from the 28% depreciation of the BRL vs. the USD throughout 3Q15 which led to a US$ 6.221 billion loss, the 2% appreciation of the BRL against the USD in 4Q15 led to a US$ 970 million gain, of which US$ 255 million came from the US$ 17.402 billion exposure on the net position of the USD denominated liabilities and USD denominated assets recorded(19) in Vales (parent company) financial statements, and US$ 715 million from the mark-to-market of the swap liabilities. Equity income from affiliated companies ANNUAL PERFORMANCE Equity income from affiliated companies was a negative US$ 439 million in 2015 against a positive US$ 505 million recorded in 2014. The main negative contributors to equity income (18) Composed mainly of bunker oil and commodities. (19) The US$ 216 million gain includes the impact of the BRL appreciation on: (i) the USD denominated debt recorded as financial results (US$ 134 million); and (ii) other assets and liabilities (US$ 82 million). 19 Table of Contents were CSP (US$ 307 million) and Samarco (US$ 167 million) due to the impact of the BRL depreciation on the USD denominated debt of these companies, and Teal Minerals (US$ 129 million). Positive contributors to Vales equity income were the leased pelletizing companies in Tubarao (US$ 106 million), Alianca Geracao Energia (US$ 50 million) and VLI (US$ 46 million), MRS (US$ 43 million) and MRN (US$ 40 million). QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE Equity income from affiliated companies was a negative US$ 37 million in 4Q15 against a negative US$ 349 million recorded in 3Q15. The main negative contributors to equity income were Teal Minerals (-US$ 99 million) and CSA (-US$ 20 million). Positive contributors to Vales equity income were the leased pelletizing companies in Tubarao (US$ 26 million), Alianca Geracao Energia (US$ 24 million), MRN (US$ 20 million), VLI (US$ 14 million) and MRS (US$ 11 million). Underlying earnings US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Underlying earnings (1,032 ) (961 ) (251 ) (1,698 ) 4,419 Items excluded from basic earnings Impairment on assets and investments (9,372 ) (378 ) (9,372 ) (1,152 ) Gain (loss) on fair value on non-current assets (29 ) (48 ) (167 ) 61 (167 ) Deferred Income tax - foreign subsidiaries 2,990 2,990 Shareholders Debentures 252 75 62 963 (315 ) Foreign Exchange 255 (5,025 ) (1,186 ) (7,164 ) (2,119 ) Monetary variation (82 ) (92 ) (71 ) (316 ) (81 ) Currency and interest rate swaps 715 (1,196 ) (524 ) (1,502 ) (683 ) Fair value on financial instruments (80 ) 29 17 (69 ) (115 ) Gain (loss) on sale of investments 97 (61 ) Foreign exchange gain (loss) on equity results (159 ) Tax effects of Impairment 1,164 70 1,164 (57 ) Income tax over excluded items (360 ) 2,111 579 2,717 1,147 Net Income (loss) (8,569 ) (2,117 ) (1,849 ) (12,129 ) 657 Financial results US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Financial expenses (326 ) (352 ) (502 ) (1,112 ) (2,936 ) Gross interest(1) (229 ) (239 ) (259 ) (891 ) (1,148 ) Tax and labour contingencies (19 ) 10 (22 ) (59 ) (91 ) Others(2) 43 15 (56 ) 386 (1,014 ) Financial expenses (REFIS) (121 ) (138 ) (165 ) (547 ) (683 ) Financial income 80 92 55 268 401 Derivatives 426 (1,799 ) (1,087 ) (2,477 ) (1,334 ) Currency and interest rate swaps 715 (1,196 ) (524 ) (1,502 ) (683 ) Others (bunker oil, commodities, etc) (289 ) (603 ) (563 ) (975 ) (651 ) Foreign Exchange 255 (5,025 ) (1,186 ) (7,164 ) (2,119 ) Monetary variation (82 ) (92 ) (71 ) (316 ) (81 ) Financial result, net 353 (7,176 ) (2,791 ) (10,801 ) (6,069 ) (1) The capitalization of interest over assets under construction amounted to US$ 193 million in 4Q15, US$ 195 million in 3Q15, US$ 96 million in 4Q14, US$ 761 million in 2015 and US$ 588 million in 2014. (2) Other financial expenses include the mark-to-market of shareholder debentures which amounted to US$ 253 million in 4Q15, US$ 75 million in 3Q15, US$ 62 million in 4Q14, US$ 964 million in 2015 and -US$ 315 million in 2014. 20 Table of Contents EFFECTS OF CURRENCY PRICE VOLATILITY ON VALES FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE ANNUAL PERFORMANCE In 2015, from end to end, the Brazilian Real (BRL) depreciated 47% against the US Dollar (USD) from BRL 2.66/ USD as of December 30 th , 2014 to BRL 3.90/ USD as of December 30 th , 2015. On an annual average, the exchange rate depreciated by 42%, from an average BRL 2.35/ USD in 2014 to an average BRL 3.34/USD in 2015. Although Vale reports its financial performance in USD, the BRL depreciation impacts its results since the functional currency of Vales parent company, Vale S. A., is the BRL. The end to end depreciation of the BRL against the USD and other currencies caused mainly non-cash losses of US$ 8.666 billion on our earnings before taxes in 2015, driven by its impact on: The net position of the USD and other currency denominated liabilities and the USD and other currency denominated assets (accounts receivable and others) which amounted to a loss of US$ 7.164 billion in 2015, recorded in the financial statements as Foreign exchange. The forward and swaps derivatives that are used to reduce the volatility of our cash flows in USD. In 2015, the changes in fair value and the settlements of the currency swaps from the BRL and other currencies to the USD caused one-off losses of US$ 1.502 billion. The BRL depreciation, on an annual average, had positive impacts on our cash flows. In 2015 most of our revenues were denominated in USD, while our COGS were 49% denominated in BRL, 34% in USD and 13% in Canadian dollars (CAD) and about 75% of our capital expenditures were denominated in BRL. The depreciation of the BRL and of other currencies in 2015 reduced our costs and expenses by US$ 4.862 billion. QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE In 4Q15, from end to end, the Brazilian Real (BRL) appreciated 1.7% against the US Dollar (USD) from BRL 3.97/ USD as of September 30 th , 2015 to BRL 3.90/ USD as of December 30 th , 2015. On a quarterly average, the exchange rate depreciated by 8.7%, from an average BRL 3.54/ USD in 3Q15 to an average BRL 3.84/USD in 4Q15. The end to end appreciation of the BRL against the USD and other currencies caused mainly 21 Table of Contents non-cash gains of US$ 970 million on our earnings before taxes in 4Q15, driven by its impact on: The net position of the USD and other currency denominated liabilities and the USD and other currency denominated assets (accounts receivable and others) which amounted to a gain of US$ 255 million in 4Q15, recorded in the financial statements as Foreign exchange. The forward and swaps derivatives that are used to reduce the volatility of our cash flows in USD. In 4Q15, the changes in fair value and the settlements of the currency swaps from the BRL and other currencies to the USD caused one-off gains of US$ 715 million. The BRL depreciation on a quarterly average had positive impacts on our cash flows. In 4Q15 most of our revenues were denominated in USD, while our COGS were 45% denominated in BRL, 37% in USD and 13% in Canadian dollars (CAD) and about 75% of our capital expenditures were denominated in BRL. The depreciation of the BRL and of other currencies in 4Q15 reduced our costs and expenses by US$ 210 million. 22 Table of Contents Investments Capital expenditures totaled US$ 8.401 billion in 2015 with US$ 5.548 billion in project execution and US$ 2.853 billion in sustaining capital. Capital expenditures decreased US$ 3.578 billion in 2015 vs. the U$ 11.979 billion spent in 2014. Total annual capex exceeded the previous guidance by US$ 0.2 billion as a result of a better than expected execution of the S11D project and its associated logistics. In 4Q15, Vales capital expenditures totaled US$ 2.193 billion with US$ 1.366 billion in project execution and US$ 827 million in sustaining capital. Project execution and sustaining by business area US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 % 2014 % Ferrous minerals 1,087 1,099 2,382 4,946 58.9 7,140 59.6 Coal 464 333 555 1,539 18.3 2,336 19.5 Base metals 533 370 608 1,556 18.5 1,604 13.4 Fertilizer nutrients 97 55 122 257 3.1 320 2.7 Power generation 10 16 59 78 0.9 160 1.3 Steel 3 6 15 22 0.3 222 1.9 Others 8 3 195 1.6 Total 2,193 1,879 3,749 8,401 100.0 11,979 100.0 Project execution Vales investments in project execution decreased from US$ 7.920 billion in 2014 to US$ 5.548 billion in 2015, with the completion of projects, scope optimization and the positive impact of exchange rates. The Ferrous Minerals and the Coal business segments accounted for about 65% and 32%, respectively, of the total investment in capital execution in 4Q15. Project execution by business area US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 % 2014 % Ferrous minerals 894 878 1,523 3,878 69.9 4,836 61.1 Coal 431 311 510 1,472 26.5 2,184 27.6 Base metals 16 10 149 54 1.0 462 5.8 Fertilizer nutrients 13 11 27 45 0.8 63 0.8 Power generation 9 16 56 77 1.4 155 2.0 Steel 3 6 15 22 0.4 222 2.8 Total 1,366 1,232 2,279 5,548 100.0 7,920 100.0 FERROUS MINERALS About 85% of the US$ 894 million invested in Ferrous Minerals in 4Q15 relates to project execution in iron ore, primarily on the S11D project and the expansion of its associated infrastructure (US$ 760 million). 23 Table of Contents Assembly area between System 4 and Transfer House 01 S11D (including mine, plant and associated logistics CLN S11D) reached combined physical progress of 67% in 4Q15 with 80% progress at the mine site and 57% at the logistic sites. The railway spur reached 81% physical progress and the off-shore pile-driving in the north berth reached 99% physical progress. The existing railway capacity increased to 147 Mtpy with the duplication of 59 Km upon completion of 8 segments. EFC (Estrada de Ferro Carajas) railway expansion bridge over the Cajuapara river Caue Itabiritos, with nominal capacity of 7 Mtpy of sinter feed and 16 Mtpy of pellet feed is in the process of ramp-up and final tie-ins. The project was delivered on time and budget with total investments of US$ 926 million and physical progress of 95% at this point. The 5 th line of Brucutu projects concluded its ramp-up in 3Q15. The Conceicao I and the Vargem Grande Itabirites projects concluded their ramp-up in 4Q15. The Conceicao II Itabirites project started in 2Q15 and has been ramping up as planned. 24 Table of Contents COAL Investments in the Moatize II project and in the Nacala Logistics Corridor totaled US$ 196 million and US$ 259 million, respectively, in 4Q15. Moatize II achieved physical progress of 99% in 4Q15 with commissioning on the handling system and cargo testing in one line of the CPP (Coal Preparation Plant) initiated. The two lines are expected to have their cargo testing completed by March. The upgrade of the brownfield sections of the railway was completed in 4Q15. The Nacala Logistics Corridor (NLC) successfully transported and discharged 523,000 tons of thermal coal at the Nacala port, having completed the four shipments of coal as of January 2016. Description and status of main projects Project Description Capacity (Mtpy) Status Ferrous Minerals projects Carajas Serra Sul S11D Development of a mine and processing plant, located in the Southern range of Carajas, Para, Brazil. 90 Delivery of eletrocenters of the mine and plant ongoing Transmission line connecting Carajas to Canaa energized CLN S11D Duplication of 570 km railway, with construction of rail spur of 101 km. Acquisition of wagons, locomotives, and onshore and offshore expansions at PDM maritime terminal. (80)(a) Foundation work on the PDM port expansion ongoing pile driving in the off-shore north berth reached 99% physical progress Duplication of the railway reached 41% physical progress Railway spur reached 81% physical progress CSP(b) Development of a steel slab plant in partnership with Dongkuk and Posco, located in Ceara, Brazil. 1.5 Assembly of the steel structure reached 97% physical progress Civil works reached 99% physical progress Coal Projects Moatize II New pit and duplication of the Moatize CHPP, as well as all related infrastructure, located in Tete, Mozambique. 11 Electromechanical assembly reached 99% physical progress Commissioning on the belt conveyors initiated Testing on one line of the CHPP initiated (a) Net additional capacity. (b) Relative to Vales stake in the project. 25 Table of Contents Progress indicators(20) Capacity Estimated Executed capex (US$ million) Estimated capex (US$ million) Physical Project (Mtpy) start-up 2015 Total 2016 Total progress Ferrous minerals projects Carajas Serra Sul S11D 90 2H16 1,163 4,655 921 6,405 (c) 80 % CLN S11D 230(80) (b) 1H14 to 2H18 1,814 4,467 1,372 7,850 (d) 57 % CSP(a) 1.5 1H16 1,055 188 1,224 (e) 97 % Coal projects Moatize II 11 1H16 558 1,942 105 2,068 (f) 99 % (a) Relative to Vales stake in the project. (b) Net additional capacity. (c) Original capex budget of US$ 8.089 billion. (d) Original capex budget of US$ 11.582 billion. (e) Original capex of US$ 2.734 billion; Out of the original capex - US$ 1.491 billion financed directly by the CSP project. (f) Original capex of US$ 2.068 billion plus US$ 0.45 billion of rolling stock. Sustaining capex Sustaining capital expenditures decreased from US$ 4.059 billion in 2014 to US$ 2.853 billion in 2015. On a quarter on quarter basis, Vales investment increased due to seasonality. Sustaining capital expenditures amounted to US$ 827 million in 4Q15, increasing US$ 180 million vs. 3Q15. The base metals and ferrous minerals business segment accounted for 62% and 23%, respectively, of the total sustaining capex in 4Q15. Sustaining capital expenditures for the ferrous minerals business segment included, among others: (i) the replacement and acquisition of new equipment (US$ 94 million), (ii) the improvement in the current standards of health and safety and environmental protection (US$ 23 million), (iii) the maintenance, improvement and expansion of tailing dams (US$ 17 million) and (iv) operational enhancements (US$ 20 million). Maintenance of railways and ports in Brazil and Malaysia accounted for US$ 65 million. Sustaining investments in iron ore (excluding sustaining investments in pellets plants) amounted to US$ 178 million, equivalent to US$ 2.3/wmt of iron ore fines in 4Q15, a 25.8% decrease vs. US$ 3.1/wmt in 3Q15. This quarter over quarter decrease reflects scope optimization, positive impact of the depreciation of the BRL and the effect of higher volumes. Sustaining capex in the base metals business segment operations was mainly dedicated to: (i) operational enhancement (US$ 371 million), (ii) improvement in the current standards of (20) In this table we do not include pre-operating expenses in the estimated capex for the year, although these expenses are included in the total estimated capex column, in line with our Board of Directors approval process. Moreover, our estimated capex for the year is only reviewed once a year. 26 Table of Contents health and safety and environmental protection (US$ 69 million), (iii) replacement and acquisition of new equipment (US$ 48 million) and (iv) maintenance, improvement and expansion of tailing dams (US$ 21 million). Capex for operational enhancements in the base metals business segment in 4Q15 was 52.9% higher than in 3Q15. The increase was mainly driven by higher than average payments for services related to Long Harbour project in 4Q15, according to the usual seasonality and in line with the 2015 budget. Long Harbour achieved an important milestone of operating exclusively with feed from Voiseys Bay by the end of 4Q15. For 2016, the Base Metals business segment budget for sustaining investments is roughly 25% lower than in 2015. Sustaining capex by type - 4Q15 US$ million Ferrous Minerals Coal Base Metals Fertilizer TOTAL Operations 114 14 419 54 601 Waste dumps and tailing dams 17 3 21 7 48 Health and Safety 19 1 65 8 92 CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility 10 5 10 25 Administrative & Others 35 15 7 4 61 Total 194 33 517 83 827 Sustaining capex by business area US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 % 2014 % Ferrous minerals 193 221 859 1,068 37.4 2,305 56.7 Coal 33 22 46 67 2.3 153 3.8 Base metals 517 360 459 1,502 52.6 1,144 28.2 Fertilizer nutrients 83 44 95 212 7.4 258 6.4 Power generation 1 3 1 0.1 5 0.1 Others 8 3 0.1 197 4.8 Total 827 647 1,470 2,853 100.0 4,061 100.0 Portfolio management Vale sold four very large ore carriers of 400,000 tons deadweight to ICBC Financial Leasing in 4Q15. The transaction totaled US$ 423 million. Sales of assets totaled US$ 3.525 billion in 2015, with US$ 1.316 billion coming from the sale of 12 very large ore carriers to Chinese shipowners, US$ 1.089 billion coming from the sale of 36.4% of MBR preferred shares, US$ 900 million from another goldstream transaction and US$ 97 million from the sale of energy assets. Corporate social responsibility Investments in corporate social responsibility totaled US$ 366 million in 4Q15, of which US$ 269 million dedicated to environmental protection and conservation and US$ 97 million dedicated to social projects. 27 Table of Contents Debt indicators Gross debt totaled US$ 28.853 billion as of December 31 st , 2015, slightly higher than the US$ 28.675 billion as of September 30 th , 2015 mainly as a result of the: (i) distribution of dividends in the amount of US$ 500 million in October and (ii) impact of exchange rate on the translation of BRL denominated debt into USD(21). Those impacts were partly offset by the cash proceeds of US$ 423 million from the sale of vessels in 4Q15. Gross debt was in line with the US$ 28.807 billion as of December 31 st , 2014. Net debt increased by US$ 1.021 billion compared to the end of the previous quarter, totaling US$ 25.234 billion based on a cash position of US$ 3.619 billion as of December 31 st , 2015. Debt position After currency and interest rates hedge, Vales gross debt on December 31 st , 2015 was composed of 24% of floating and 76% of fixed interest rates, and 93% was denominated in US dollars. Average debt maturity decreased slightly to 8.1 years. The average cost of debt, after the above-mentioned hedge, increased to 4.47% per annum on December 31 st , 2015, against 4.37% on September 30 th , 2015. Interest coverage, measured by the ratio of the LTM(22) adjusted EBITDA to LTM interest payment, was 4.8x on December 31 st , 2015 against 5.3x on September 30 th , 2015. (21) In 4Q15, from end to end, the BRL appreciated 1.7% against the USD. (22) Last twelve months. 28 Table of Contents Gross debt to LTM adjusted EBITDA was 4.1x as of December 31st, 2015. Although the vast majority of financing agreements do not contain financial covenants, Vale had 21% of total debt at the end of 2015 with this leverage measure as a financial covenant in contracts with BNDES and other export and development agencies. As a preventive measure, during the last quarter of 2015, Vale reached agreements to increase the upper limit of the gross debt to adjusted EBITDA financial covenant from 4.5x to 5.5x, until the end of 2016. This measure brings more flexibility during a period in which Vale is finalizing its investment cycle. Debt indicators US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 Gross debt 28,853 28,675 28,807 Net debt 25,234 24,213 24,685 Gross debt / adjusted LTM EBITDA (x) 4.1 3.6 2.2 Adjusted LTM EBITDA / LTM interest expenses (x) 4.8 5.3 8.6 29 Table of Contents Performance of the business segments The share of the Ferrous Minerals business segment in the adjusted EBITDA decreased to 83.3% in 2015 from 84.8% in 2014, while the Base Metals business segment increased its share in total EBITDA to 19.6% from 18.9% in 2014 and the Fertilizers business segment improved its share to 8.0% from 2.1% in 2014. The contribution from the Coal business segment and Others went from -5.0% in 2014 to -7.2% in 2015 and from -0.7% in 2014 to -3.7% in 2015, respectively. The Ferrous Minerals business segment contribution to total EBITDA in 4Q15 reached 101.3%, followed by the Fertilizer business segment which contributed with 8.4%, the Base Metals business segment contributed with 8.0%, while the Coal business segment and Others contributed with -10.7% and -7.0% of Vales total adjusted EBITDA, respectively. Segment information 2015, as per footnote of financial statements Expenses Pre Operating SG&A operating revenues and & Adjusted US$ million Gross Net Cost others R&D stoppage Dividends EBITDA(1) Ferrous minerals 16,821 16,562 (10,241 ) (380 ) (128 ) (169 ) 255 5,899 Iron ore fines 12,382 12,330 (7,604 ) (398 ) (121 ) (124 ) 22 4,105 ROM 111 102 (50 ) 0 0 0 0 52 Pellets 3,717 3,600 (2,121 ) 9 (4 ) (24 ) 225 1,685 Others ferrous 428 368 (291 ) 8 (3 ) (2 ) 8 88 Mn & Alloys 183 162 (175 ) 1 0 (19 ) 0 (31 ) Coal 526 526 (839 ) (140 ) (22 ) (61 ) 28 (508 ) Base metals 6,171 6,163 (4,296 ) 44 (111 ) (412 ) 0 1,388 Nickel(2) 4,693 4,693 (3,393 ) (154 ) (103 ) (411 ) 0 632 Copper(3) 1,478 1,470 (903 ) 198 (8 ) (1 ) 0 756 Fertilizer nutrients 2,386 2,225 (1,469 ) (37 ) (82 ) (70 ) 0 567 Others 143 133 (139 ) (160 ) (134 ) 0 35 (265 ) Total 26,047 25,609 (16,984 ) (673 ) (477 ) (712 ) 318 7,081 (1) Excluding non-recurring effects. (2) Including copper and by products from our nickel operations. (3) Including by products from our copper operations. 30 Table of Contents Segment information 4Q15, as per footnote of financial statements Operating revenues Expenses US$ million Gross Net Cost SG&A and othes R&D Pre operating & stoppage Dividends Adjusted EBITDA(1) Ferrous minerals 3,883 3,830 (2,497 ) 120 (27 ) (61 ) 44 1,409 Iron ore fines 2,956 2,945 (1,924 ) 128 (26 ) (50 ) 22 1,095 ROM 14 13 (4 ) 9 Pellets 806 780 (453 ) (7 ) (1 ) (5 ) 22 336 Others ferrous 93 79 (71 ) (4 ) (1 ) 3 Mn & Alloys 14 13 (45 ) 3 (5 ) (34 ) Coal 108 108 (260 ) (9 ) (4 ) (12 ) 28 (149 ) Base metals 1,458 1,458 (1,131 ) (95 ) (32 ) (89 ) 111 Nickel(2) 1,107 1,107 (892 ) (74 ) (30 ) (89 ) 22 Copper(3) 351 351 (239 ) (21 ) (2 ) 89 Fertilizer nutrients 513 481 (319 ) (14 ) (22 ) (9 ) 117 Others 24 22 (37 ) (63 ) (34 ) 15 (97 ) Total 5,986 5,899 (4,244 ) (61 ) (119 ) (171 ) 87 1,391 (1) Excluding non-recurring effects. (2) Including copper and by products from our nickel operations. (3) Including by products from our copper operations. 31 Table of Contents Ferrous minerals Adjusted EBITDA of the Ferrous Minerals business segment was US$ 5.899 billion in 2015, 47.9% lower than in 2014, mainly as result of lower sales prices (-US$ 11.414 billion), which were partially offset by real competitiveness gains of US$ 3.477 billion such as: (i) marketing and commercial initiatives (US$ 680 million); (ii) higher sales volumes (US$ 1.599 billion); (iii) favorable renegotiations of chartering freight contracts (US$ 300 million); and (iv) the ongoing cost reduction initiatives (US$ 898 million). Commercial, marketing and operational initiatives amounted to roughly US$ 680 million and thus positively impacted sales revenues in 2015. Those initiatives were mainly: (i) the increase in the average negotiated premiums for iron ore fines; (ii) the increase in realized prices for FOB sales contracts; (iii) the change in the mix of products; and (iv) the increase in product quality. EBITDA variation 32 Table of Contents Iron ore ANNUAL PERFORMANCE EBITDA Adjusted EBITDA of iron ore fines was US$ 4.105 billion in 2015, 49.2% lower than in 2014, which negatively impacted adjusted EBITDA by US$ 3.971 billion mainly as a result of lower sales prices. Adjusted EBITDA will no longer be impacted by Vales hedge accounting program since all outstanding bunker oil exposure recorded under such program was settled in 4Q15. Vales hedge accounting program for iron ore fines had a negative impact of US$ 412 million in 2015. SALES REVENUES AND VOLUME Net sales revenues for iron ore fines, excluding pellets and Run of Mine (ROM), decreased to US$ 12.330 billion in 2015, 36.1% lower than in 2014. The decrease was a result of lower iron ore sales prices (US$ 8.549 billion), which were partially offset by the sales volumes increase, which contributed with US$ 1.578 billion to sales revenues when compared to 2014. The main factors that contributed to the increase in sales volumes of iron ore fines from the 255.9 Mt in 2014 to 276.4 Mt in 2015 were the annual supply record of 345.9 Mt of iron ore fines (including the acquisition of iron ore from third parties). ROM sales totaled 12.3 Mt in 2015. Vales realized CFR/FOB wmt price(23) for iron ore fines (ex-ROM) was US$ 44.6 per metric ton in 2015, significantly lower than the US$ 75.4 per metric ton in 2014. COST AND EXPENSES Iron ore fines costs totaled US$ 7.604 billion (or US$ 8.720 billion with depreciation charges) in 2015 against US$ 9.532 billion in 2014. After adjusting for the effects of higher sales volumes (US$ 1.023 billion) and exchange rate variations (-US$ 1.442 billion), costs decreased by US$ 1.510 billion when compared to 2014, driven by the ongoing cost reduction initiatives and the ramp-up of both the N4WS and N5S extension mines, Conceicao Itabiritos II and Vargem Grande Itabiritos. Total cash cost at the port (mine, plant, railroad and port, ex-royalties) was US$ 3.825 billion. Cash cost was calculated after deducting from COGS: (i) iron ore freight costs of US$ 2.825 (23) The realized CFR/FOB wmt price is the weighted average price of Vales CFR sales and Vales FOB sales 33 Table of Contents billion; (ii) depreciation of US$ 1.116 billion; (iii) iron ore acquired from third parties of US$ 210 million and (iv) bunker oil hedge costs accounted for as hedge accounting of US$ 412 million. Cash cost per metric ton (ex-ROM and ex-royalties) in 2015 was US$ 14.4/t, significantly lower than the US$ 20.8/t from 2014. SG&A and other expenses significantly decreased to US$ 398 million, 68.4% lower than in 2014, after the adjustment of the US$ 322 million from the Asset Retirement Obligations (ARO). Pre-operational expenses decreased to US$ 124 million, 25.5% lower than in 2014 as a result of the ramp-up of the N4WS, N5S extension, Conceicao Itabiritos II and Vargem Grande Itabiritos. Adjusted EBITDA margin for iron ore fines (excluding ROM and third party ores) was US$ 14.7 /t in 2015. QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE EBITDA Adjusted EBITDA for iron ore fines was US$ 1.095 billion in 4Q15, US$ 127 million lower than the US$ 1.222 billion achieved in 3Q15, mainly due to the decrease in sales prices (-US$ 738 million), which was partially offset by higher sales volumes (US$ 125 million), lower SG&A and other expenses (US$ 258 million) as result of the positive impact of adjustments to the Asset Retirement Obligations (US$ 322 million). Adjusted EBITDA will no longer be impacted by Vales hedge accounting program since all outstanding bunker oil exposure recorded under such program was settled in 4Q15. Vales hedge accounting program for iron ore fines had a negative impact on EBITDA of US$ 134 million in 4Q15. SALES REVENUES AND VOLUME Net sales revenues for iron ore fines were US$ 2.945 billion in 4Q15, 10.1% lower than in 3Q15 due to lower sales prices. ROM sales revenues in 4Q15 were US$ 13 million. Iron ore own production, excluding Samarcos attributable production and third party ore, was 85.4 Mt in 4Q15, a quarterly production record for a fourth quarter and 2.4 Mt higher than in 4Q14. The good operational performance was driven by the ramp-up of the N4WS, N5S extension, Conceicao Itabiritos II and Vargem Grande Itabiritos. Sales volumes of iron ore fines reached 79.2 Mt in 4Q15, 12.3% higher than in 3Q15 and 6.2% higher than in 4Q14 on the back of: (i) production of 85.4 Mt; (ii) acquisition of 3.1 Mt of 34 Table of Contents iron ore from third parties; (iii) deduction of 11.6 Mt of iron ore fines used for the production of pellets; (iv) consumption of 3.9 Mt allocated from product inventories and (v) deduction of 1.6 Mt of ROM sales. CFR sales of iron ore fines increased from 44.9 Mt in 3Q15 to 53.6 Mt in 4Q15, representing 68% of all iron ore fines sales volumes in 4Q15. The increase was mainly due to higher sales to China, which are mostly negotiated on a CFR basis. Net Operating revenue by product US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Iron ore fines 2,945 3,278 4,568 12,330 19,301 ROM 13 24 42 102 215 Pellets 780 883 1,270 3,600 5,263 Manganese & Ferroalloys 13 26 131 162 392 Others 79 101 105 368 526 Total 3,830 4,312 6,116 16,562 25,697 Volume sold 000 metric tons 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Iron ore fines 79,213 70,530 74,603 276,393 255,877 ROM 1,627 3,546 3,552 12,269 14,075 Pellets 10,837 11,961 12,686 46,284 43,682 Manganese ore 568 448 828 1,764 1,879 Ferroalloys 12 3 36 69 150 REALIZED PRICES Iron ore sales in 4Q15 were distributed across three pricing systems: (i) 47% based on the current quarter, month and daily spot prices, including provisional price sales that were settled within the quarter; (ii) 42% based on provisional prices with settlement price based on the market price defined on the delivery date, in which case prices had not yet been settled at the end of the quarter; and (iii) 11% linked to past prices (quarter-lagged). Vales CFR dmt reference price for iron ore fines (ex-ROM) decreased by US$ 10.9/t from US$ 56.0/t in 3Q15 to US$ 45.1/t in 4Q15, being US$ 1.6/t lower than the average Platts IODEX 62% of US$ 46.7/t in 4Q15. Vales CFR/FOB wmt price for iron ore fines (ex-ROM) decreased by US$ 9.3/t from US$ 46.5/t in 3Q15 to US$ 37.2/t in 4Q15, after adjusting for moisture and the effect of FOB sales on 32% of the total sales volumes. Price realization in 4Q15 was impacted by: Provisional prices set at the end of 3Q15 at US$ 51.5/t, which were later adjusted based on the price of delivery in 4Q15, impacted prices in 4Q15 by a negative US$ 1.0/t compared to a negative US$ 0.7/t in 3Q15 as a result of the downward trend curve observed in the IODEX in 4Q15. 35 Table of Contents Provisional prices set at the end of 4Q15 at US$ 41.0/t vs. the IODEX average of US$ 46.7/t in 4Q15, negatively impacted prices in 4Q15 by US$ 2.4/t compared to a negative impact of US$ 1.1/t in 3Q15. Quarter-lagged contracts, priced at US$ 56.7/t based on the average prices for Jun-Jul-Aug, positively impacted prices in 4Q15 by US$ 1.1/t compared to a positive impact of US$ 0.2/t in 3Q15. In 4Q15, iron ore sales of 33.3 Mt, or 42% of Vales sales mix, were recorded under the provisional pricing system, which was set at the end of 4Q15 at US$ 41.0/t. The final prices of these sales and the required adjustment to sales revenues will be determined and recorded in 1Q16. The decrease in bunker oil prices positively impacted the settlement of FOB prices in 4Q15 by US$ 1.0/t compared to a reduction of US$ 1.3/t in 3Q15. Bunker oil prices impacted the settlement of FOB sales prices as the decrease in bunker oil prices led to a lower freight deduction from the IODEX CFR reference price used to determine the FOB price. Price realization iron ore fines 36 Table of Contents Average sale price US$/ metric ton 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Iron ore - Metal Bulletin 65% index 50.09 62.11 82.90 62.12 105.82 Iron ore - Plattss 62% IODEX 46.65 54.90 74.28 55.50 96.70 Iron ore fines CFR reference price (dmt) 45.10 56.00 75.50 54.60 92.70 Iron ore fines CFR/FOB realized price 37.18 46.48 61.21 44.61 75.43 ROM 7.99 6.77 11.82 8.31 15.28 Pellets CFR/FOB (wmt) 71.98 73.80 100.11 77.78 120.48 Manganese ore 7.04 52.14 111.11 58.44 118.15 Ferroalloys 750.00 836.67 1,083.33 904.16 1,125.83 COSTS AND EXPENSES Costs for iron ore fines amounted to US$ 1.924 billion (or US$ 2.183 billion with depreciation charges) in 4Q15. Costs decreased by US$ 131 million when compared to 3Q15 after deducting the effects of higher sales volumes (US$ 280 million) and exchange rates variations (-US$ 63 million). The decrease was mainly driven by lower freight costs (-US$ 122 million), lower materials costs (-US$ 17 million), and lower energy costs (-US$ 9 million). Energy (electricity, diesel and gas) totaled US$ 118 million in 4T15 against US$ 112 million in 3T15. Oil costs, more specifically, in the form of diesel totaled US$ 108 million in 4Q15 against US$ 92 million in 3Q15. Costs increased by US$ 13 million in 4Q15 after adjusting for higher volumes (US$ 10 million) and exchange rates variations (-US$ 7 million). Falling oil prices had a limited positive impact on fuel costs, since there is no direct correlation between prices of diesel in Brazil and international oil prices. Maritime freight costs, which are fully accrued as cost of goods sold, totaled US$ 757 million in 4Q15, showing a decrease of US$ 122 million after adjusting for higher volumes (US$ 143 million) as a result of lower freight rates and lower bunker oil prices when compared to 3Q15. Unit freight cost per iron ore metric ton was US$ 14.1/t in 4Q15, US$ 2.3/t lower than the US$ 16.4/t recorded in 3Q15. This US$ 2.3/t decrease is explained by the positive impact of lower bunker oil prices in our chartering contracts and higher exposure to the freight spot market. Vales average bunker oil price decreased from US$ 296.6/t in 3Q15 to US$ 235.0/t in 4Q15. The impact of the outstanding bunker oil hedge position accounted for as hedge accounting in Vales unit freight cost was US$ 2.5/t with the final settlement of 472,500 tons of bunker oil derivative contracts from the 472,500 tons of contracts that were outstanding at the end of September 2015, totaling a negative EBITDA impact of US$ 134 million. EBITDA will be favourably impacted as of next year as there will be no hedge accounting impact in 2016. For further details, please refer to the The Impact of Bunker Oil Hedging on Vales Financial Performance box on page 49. The acquisition of products (cost of ore acquired from third parties) amounted to US$ 44 million on 2.8 Mt sold in 4Q15. On a per-ton basis, cost of ore acquired from third parties 37 Table of Contents decreased from US$ 17.7/t in 3Q15 to US$ 15.9/t in 4Q15. Other operational costs amounted to US$ 160 million, decreasing from US$ 177 million in 3Q15. Iron ore COGS - 3Q15 x 4Q15 Variance drivers US$ million 3Q15 Volume Exchange Rate Others Total Variation 3Q15 x 4Q15 4Q15 Personnel 185 20 (14 ) 4 10 195 Outsourced services and Materials 274 31 (17 ) (8 ) 6 280 Energy (electricity, diesel & gas) 112 12 (9 ) 3 6 118 Acquisition of products 40 9 (5 ) 4 44 Maintenance 205 22 (19 ) 28 31 236 Maritime Freight 736 143 (122 ) 21 757 Bunker oil hedge 109 21 4 25 134 Other Operational 177 22 (4 ) (35 ) (17 ) 160 Total costs before depreciation and amortization 1,838 280 (63 ) (131 ) 86 1,924 Depreciation 269 30 (18 ) (22 ) (10 ) 259 Total 2,107 310 (81 ) (153 ) 76 2,183 C1 CASH COST Total C1 cash cost at the port (mine, plant, railroad and port, ex-royalties) was US$ 906 million after deducting depreciation of US$ 259 million, iron ore acquired from third parties of US$ 44 million, iron ore freight costs of US$ 757 million and bunker oil hedge accounting effects of US$ 134 million. C1 cash cost FOB port per metric ton of iron ore fines (ex-ROM and ex-royalties) was US$ 11.9/t in 4Q15 vs. US$ 12.7/t in 3Q15, reducing US$ 0.8/t mostly due to the depreciation of the BRL against the USD. C1 cash cost FOB port per metric ton of iron ore fines in BRL increased slightly from R$ 45.2/t in 3Q15 to R$ 45.6/t in 4Q15 (or R$ 44.9/t after excluding the negative effect of R$ 55.5 million of the collective bargain agreement settled with our employees in Brazil). Iron ore expenses, net of depreciation, excluding the positive effect of US$ 322 million of the asset retirement obligation, amounted to US$ 270 million in 4Q15 vs. the US$ 218 million recorded in 3Q15. Expenses increased by US$ 62 million when compared to 3Q15 after adjusting for the effects of exchange rates (-US$ 10 million). R&D amounted to US$ 26 million, the same as in 3Q15. Pre-operating and stoppage expenses, net of depreciation, amounted to US$ 50 million, US$ 27 million higher than the US$ 23 million recorded in 3Q15, mainly due to stoppage expenses in the Southeastern Mining System due to the rupture of the Samarco tailings dam. 38 Table of Contents Unit cash costs and expenses (adjusted for quality and moisture, excluding ore from third parties, ROM and the positive effect of the ARO) landed in China decreased from US$ 34.2/t in 3Q15 to US$ 32.0/t in 4Q15. Evolution of iron ore fines cash cost, freight and expenses Cost and expenses landed in China for iron ore fines 39 Table of Contents Iron ore fines cash cost and freight 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Costs (US$ million) COGS, less depreciation and amortization 1,924 1,838 2,831 7,604 9,532 Costs of ore acquired from third parties 44 40 89 210 443 Maritime freight 757 736 1,037 2,825 3,325 Bunker oil hedge 134 109 412 One-off items 48 48 FOB at port costs (ex-ROM and ex-third party ores)(1) 989 953 1,657 4,157 5,716 FOB at port costs (ex-ROM, ex-third party ores and ex-royalties) 906 868 1,534 3,825 5,079 Sales volumes (Mt) Total iron ore volume sold 80.8 74.1 78.2 288.7 270.0 Volume acquired from third parties 2.8 2.3 3.2 11.1 12.2 Total ROM volume sold 1.6 3.5 3.6 12.3 14.1 Volume sold of Vales own ore (ex-ROM) 76.4 68.3 71.4 265.3 243.7 % of CFR sales 68.0 % 64.0 % 64.2 % 64.1 % 57.4 % % of FOB sales 32.0 % 38.0 % 35.8 % 35.9 % 42.6 % Vales iron ore cash cost (ex-ROM, ex-royalties), FOB (US$ /t) 11.9 12.7 21.5 14.4 20.8 Freight Volume CFR (Mt) 53.6 44.9 47.9 177.1 146.9 Vales iron ore unit freight cost (US$/t) 16.6 18.8 21.7 18.3 22.6 Vales iron ore unit freight cost (ex- bunker oil hedge) (US$/t) 14.1 16.4 21.7 16.0 22.6 Iron ore fines unit cost + expenses adjusted for quality landed in China US$/t 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Vales iron ore cash cost (ex-ROM, ex-royalties), FOB (US$ /t) 11.9 12.7 21.5 14.4 20.8 Iron ore fines freight cost (ex-bunker oil hedge) 14.1 16.4 21.7 16.0 22.6 Iron ore fines expenses(1) & royalties 4.6 4.4 11.0 4.9 9.7 Iron ore fines moisture adjustment 2.6 2.8 4.7 3.0 4.8 Iron ore fines quality adjustment -1.1 -2.1 0.9 -1.9 0.9 Iron ore fines unit cost + expenses landed in China (US$/dmt) 32.0 34.2 59.8 36.4 58.9 (1) Net of depreciation, excluding the positive one-off effect of the ARO adjustment. Iron Ore Fines Costs and Expenses in BRL R$/t 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Costs 45.6 45.2 54.5 47.9 50.1 Expenses(1) 12.9 10.8 16.0 12.2 22.6 Total 58.5 56.0 70.5 60.1 72.7 (1) Net of depreciation. Iron ore pellets ANNUAL PERFORMANCE Adjusted EBITDA for pellets was US$ 1.685 billion in 2015, 43.5% lower than the US$ 2.981 billion recorded in 2014. The decrease of US$ 1.296 billion was mainly a result of lower sales prices (US$ 1.986 billion) which were partially offset by higher sales volumes (US$ 204 million), lower costs (US$ 163 million) and exchange rate variations (US$ 551 million). 40 Table of Contents Net sales revenues for pellets were US$ 3.600 billion in 2015, 31.6% lower than in 2014, mainly due to the decrease in sales prices, from US$ 120.48 per metric ton in 2014 to US$ 77.8 per metric ton in 2015. Sales prices negatively impacted sales revenues by US$ 1.986 billion in 2015 compared with 2014. Sales volumes increased to 46.28 Mt vs. 43.68 Mt in 2014 as a result of the ramp-up of Tubarao VIII pellet plant. Costs for pellets totaled US$ 2.121 billion in 2015 (or US$ 2.436 billion with depreciation charges). Costs decreased by US$ 162 million when compared to 2014 after adjusting for the effects of higher volumes (US$ 119 million) and exchange rate variations (-US$ 540 million). This decrease is mainly due to lower leasing costs (-US$ 63 million), lower diesel costs (-US$ 57 million) and lower materials costs (-US$ 45 million). QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE Adjusted EBITDA for pellets in 4Q15 was US$ 336 million, compared to the US$ 382 million in 3Q15. Adjusted EBITDA was negatively impacted by the lower sales prices (-US$ 18 million), lower sales volumes (-US$ 32 million) and higher costs (-US$ 20 million) in 4Q15 vs. 3Q15. The unfavorable impacts were partly offset by exchange rate variations (US$ 22 million) and higher dividends received from the leased pelletizing plants (US$ 22 million). Net sales revenues for pellets amounted to US$ 780 million in 4Q15, decreasing US$ 103 million from the US$ 883 million recorded in 3Q15 as a result of the lower sales prices of US$ 72.0 per ton in 4Q15 vs. US$ 73.8 /t in 3Q15 and of the 1.2 Mt decrease in sales volumes to 10.8 Mt in 4Q15 from 12.0 Mt in 3Q15. Sales volumes decreased by 1.8 Mt in 4Q15 vs. 4Q14. Production reached 10.4 Mt in 4Q15, 1.8 Mt lower than in 3Q15 mainly due to scheduled maintenance stoppages in some plants. Pellet CFR/FOB prices decreased by US$ 1.8/t, from US$ 73.8/t in 3Q15 to US$ 72.0 per metric ton in 4Q15, whereas the Platts IODEX iron ore reference price (CFR China) decreased by US$ 8.3/t in the quarter. The decrease in Vales realized pellet price was less than the decrease in the average Platts IODEX as a result of higher pellet premiums and the positive impact of pricing systems. CFR pellet sales of 2.4 Mt in 4Q15 represented 22% of total pellets sales and were 0.7 Mt lower than in 3Q15. FOB pellet sales decreased from 8.9 Mt in 3Q15 to 8.5 Mt in 4Q15. Pellet costs totaled US$ 453 million (or US$ 524 million with depreciation charges) in 4Q15. Costs increased by US$ 20 million when compared to 3Q15 after adjusting for the effects of lower volumes (-US$ 53 million) and exchange rate variations (-US$ 22 million). 41 Table of Contents The increase in pellets costs is mainly due to higher maintenance costs (US$ 9 million) and higher leasing costs (US$ 7 million). Pre-operating and stoppage expenses for pellets were US$ 5 million in 4Q15, in line with the previous quarter. EBITDA unit margin for pellets ex-Samarco was US$ 31.0/t in 4Q15, US$ 0.9/t lower than in 3Q15 mainly due to the decrease in sales prices (-US$ 18 million). Pellets - EBITDA ex-Samarco 4Q15 3Q15 US$ million US$/wmt US$ million US$/wmt Gross Revenues / Realized Price 806 74.4 908 75.9 Net Revenues / Realized Price 780 72.0 883 73.8 Dividends Received (Leased pelletizing plants) ex-Samarco 22 2.0 Cash Costs (Iron ore, leasing, freight, overhead, energy and other) -453 -41.8 -508 -42.5 Expenses (SG&A, R&D and other) -13 -1.2 7 0.6 EBITDA ex-Samarco 336 31.0 382 31.9 Manganese and ferroalloys ANNUAL PERFORMANCE Adjusted EBITDA of manganese and ferroalloys was negative US$ 31 million in 2015, US$ 126 million lower than in 2014, mainly due to lower prices (US$ 98 million), lower volumes (US$ 73 million) and higher costs (US$ 46 million) which were partially offset by exchange rates variations (US$ 82 million) and expenses reductions (US$ 9 million). Net sales revenues for manganese decreased to US$ 100 million in 2015, down from US$ 222 million in 2014, due to the effect of lower prices (US$ 108 million) and lower sales volumes (US$ 14 million). In 2015, manganese ore production totaled to 2.441 Mt, slightly higher than in 2014. Net sales revenues for ferroalloys decreased in 2015 to US$ 62 million from US$ 170 million in 2014, mainly due to the effect of lower sales volumes (US$ 118 million) and lower prices. In 2015, the output of ferroalloys was 99,000 t, significantly lower than in 2014. QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE Adjusted EBITDA of Manganese ore and ferroalloys was negative US$ 34 million in 4Q15, US$ 23 million lower than the negative US$ 11 million in 3Q15, mainly due to the impact of provisional prices from previous quarters (-US$ 28 million), which were partially offset by exchange rate variations (US$ 2 million) and higher sales volumes (US$ 1 million). Net sales revenues for manganese decreased to US$ 4 million from US$ 23 million in 3Q15 due to lower sales prices. In 4Q15, production of manganese ore reached 651,000 t, compared to 644,000 t in 3Q15 and 723,000 t in 4Q14. 42 Table of Contents Net sales revenues for ferroalloys amounted to US$ 9 million, increasing US$ 6 million from the US$ 3 million in 3Q15, due to higher sales volumes. Ferroalloys production decreased to 20,000 t in 4Q15 from the 21,000 t recorded in 3Q15. Market outlook - iron ore The price of iron ore averaged US$ 55.5/t in 2015, 42% lower than in 2014. The price reduction was driven by an oversupply of iron ore amid lower than expected steel production in China and in the rest of the world. The price of iron ore decreased 15%, from US$ 54.90/t in 3Q15 to US$ 46.65/t in 4Q15, as steel production deteriorated whilst iron ore supply increased driven by seasonality factors. According to the World Steel Association (WSA), world crude steel production totaled 1.622Mt in 2015, declining 2.8% vs. 2014. Chinas crude steel production totaled 803.8Mt, declining 2.3% year-on-year. The annual production decline was the first one since 1981 as the country continues its transition towards an economy more reliant on domestic consumption and services. Chinas GDP grew 6.9% in 2015, slowing down mainly as a result of a decline in fixed asset investments, and growing only 10% year-on-year vs. 15.7% growth in 2014. Chinese steel demand declined, leading steel mills to rely more on overseas market to maintain their production levels. Net exports of finished steel reached a record 100Mt, rising 25.5% year-on-year, in 2015. The increasing exports from China impacted steel production in other regions such as the Middle East, South East Asia, Europe, where production contracted by 0.5%, 3.6% and 1.8% year-on-year respectively, and to a certain extent India. The excess supply with the high export volumes from China translated into lower worldwide steel prices. The seaborne iron ore supply amounted to roughly 1.410 Mt in 2015, increasing 30 Mt, or approximately 2% year-on-year with additional production from major iron ore players, such as Brazil and Australia. Brazil, Australia, South Africa and Peru increased their exports to China whilst all other regions together reduced exports by 62 Mt, representing a 39% year-on-year reduction. 2016 should still be a challenging year for iron ore producers as no major stimulus is expected from the Chinese government to boost investments. Steel demand and production should remain mild, posing additional challenges for higher cost iron ore producers. 43 Table of Contents Volume sold by destination Iron ore and pellets 000 metric tons 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 % 2014 % Americas 8,549 10,760 11,590 41,187 12.3 44,071 14.1 Brazil 7,346 9,363 10,078 35,665 10.6 37,623 12.0 Others 1,203 1,397 1,512 5,522 1.6 6,448 2.1 Asia 65,574 59,597 62,563 229,268 68.4 208,536 66.5 China 52,898 46,512 46,411 179,470 53.6 156,692 50.0 Japan 7,782 8,548 7,505 29,499 8.8 27,229 8.7 Others 4,894 4,537 8,648 20,299 6.1 24,615 7.8 Europe 15,006 13,014 13,209 53,385 15.9 49,042 15.6 Germany 5,471 5,219 4,660 21,991 6.6 19,075 6.1 France 1,474 1,497 2,103 5,814 1.7 6,242 2.0 Others 8,061 6,298 6,446 25,580 7.6 23,725 7.6 Middle East 2,095 2,401 2,337 9,745 2.9 8,694 2.8 Rest of the World 453 265 1,141 1,360 0.4 3,291 1.0 Total 91,677 86,037 90,841 334,946 100.0 313,634 100.0 Selected financial indicators - Ferrous minerals US$ million 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Net Revenues 3,830 4,312 6,116 16,562 25,697 Costs(1) (2,497 ) (2,447 ) (3,792 ) (10,241 ) (13,063 ) Expenses(1) 120 (153 ) (504 ) (380 ) (1,289 ) Pre-operating and stoppage expenses(1) (61 ) (32 ) (48 ) (169 ) (221 ) R&D expenses (27 ) (28 ) (117 ) (128 ) (329 ) Dividends received 44 47 255 526 Adjusted EBITDA 1,409 1,652 1,702 5,899 11,321 Depreciation and amortization (388 ) (402 ) (548 ) (1,669 ) (1,930 ) Adjusted EBIT 977 1,250 1,107 3,975 8,865 Adjusted EBIT margin (%) 25.5 29.0 18.1 24.0 34.5 (1) Net of depreciation and amortization. Selected financial indicators - Iron ore fines (excluding third party ores) 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Adjusted EBITDA (US$ million) 1,040 1,180 1,060 3,912 7,759 Volume Sold (Mt) 76.432 68.261 71.394 265.313 243.650 Adjusted EBITDA (US$/t) 13.61 17.29 14.84 14.75 31.85 Selected financial indicators - Pellets (excluding Samarco) 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Adjusted EBITDA (US$ million) 336 382 526 1,539 2,579 Volume Sold (Mt) 10.837 11.961 12.686 46.284 43.682 Adjusted EBITDA (US$/t) 31.00 31.94 41.46 33.24 59.04 Selected financial indicators - Iron ore fines and Pellets 4Q15 3Q15 4Q14 2015 2014 Adjusted EBITDA (US$ million) 1,376 1,562 1,586 5,451 10,338 Volume Sold (Mt) 87.269 80.222 84.080 311.598 287.332 Adjusted EBITDA (US$/t) 15.77 19.47 18.86 17.49 35.98 44 Table of Contents MANAGERIAL ALLOCATION CHANGES Vale will promote changes in its reporting estimates beginning 2016. These changes will not modify absolute cost and expense levels but will alter the allocation of costs and expenses by nature or business segments. The main impact of these changes will be in the allocation of costs between (i) SG&A, (ii) ICMS; and (iii) distribution costs intra business unit. The impacts of the proposed changes are as follows: (i) SG&A Currently a disproportionate amount of Vales SG&A expenses in Brazil is allocated to the iron ore division, more specifically to iron ore fines. Upon re-assessing the allocation of SG&A across business segments, a decision was made on the use of different allocation criteria from 1Q16 onwards (ii) ICMS ICMS is a kind of value-added tax in Brazil. Vale is exposed to different ICMS tax regimes in the states where its operations are located. In general ICMS is credited on the acquisition of goods and services and realized upon sales into the domestic market, negotiations of credits with governments and third parties. Historically Vale has accumulated ICMS tax credits without being able to use them fully since exports from Brazil are exempted from the ICMS charge. Given the continuous accumulation of ICMS without use, Vale periodically impairs the excessive tax credits and records the respective losses under other expenses account. In order to reflect the regular nature of the ICMS tax credit impairment, Vale will record them as Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) on a more regular basis as of 1Q16, thus increasing COGS but at the same time not charging other expenses account. The above mentioned changes will not alter absolute levels of costs and expenses for Vales business units as a whole, being only a slightly relocation of absolute amounts between business units and from expenses to costs. (iii) DISTRIBUTION COSTS Currently, Vale includes its distribution costs into its C1 cash cost FOB port in Brazil. However, a higher percentage of these distribution costs are being incurred overseas after the implementation of the pellet plant in Oman, the distribution center in Malaysia and the more frequent utilization of ports in China for blending iron ore. 45 Table of Contents In order to adjust for these recent changes in its supply chain, Vale will report the distribution costs incurred in Oman, Malaysia, China and other facilities outside Brazil as a separate line item, named Distribution Costs. Maritime freight costs and distribution costs will be reported separately. Iron ore fines unit cost + expenses adjusted for quality landed in China After accounting reporting changes US$/t 1Q15 2Q15 3Q15 4Q15 2015 Vales iron ore cash cost (ex-ROM, ex-royalties), FOB (US$ /t) 18.6 16.1 13.1 12.1 14.7 Iron ore fines freight cost (ex-bunker oil hedge) 17.2 16.8 16.4 14.1 16.0 Distribution costs 0.4 0.5 0.3 0.5 0.4 Iron ore fines expenses(1) & royalties 4.6 4.2 3.6 3.9 4.1 Iron ore fines moisture adjustment 3.4 3.1 2.8 2.5 3.0 Iron ore fines quality adjustment -1.3 -2.0 -2.1 -1.1 -1.9 Iron ore fines unit cost + expenses landed in China (US$/dmt) 42.9 38.7 34.1 32.0 36.3 (1) Net of depreciation 46 Table of Contents THE IMPACT OF BUNKER HEDGING ON VALES FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE The total effect of bunker oil prices on Vales financial performance is dependent on the bunker oil hedge previously taken out by Vale. Vale stopped contracting bunker oil hedges since the structural decline in oil prices, but still faces the impact of the outstanding hedge positions. However, costs will no longer be impacted in 2016 since all outstanding bunker oil exposure recorded under hedge accounting program was settled in 4Q15. As previously discussed, bunker oil hedges are recorded as follows: (i) The hedge of the bunker oil exposure associated with our FOB and domestics sales is marked-to-market every quarter and recorded as financial results. (ii) The hedge of the bunker oil exposure associated with our CFR sales is recorded as hedge accounting, being marked-to-market every quarter and recorded in other comprehensive income and impacting costs of goods sold only at the actual settlement dates. Impact of bunker oil hedging in Vales financial performance Concept Current impact Drivers of future impact Freight contract type Hedge accounting Impact of derivative positions in P/L statement Impact incurred in 4Q15 P/L statement Type of Instrument Bunker oil derivative open positions (,000 tons) Average strike price (US$/t) CFR Yes Impact on COGS at settlement date US$2.5/t (US$134 million) increase on iron ore COGS NA 0 NA FOB No Impact on financial results US$242 million decrease on financial results Forward 2,206 508 Zero Cost Collar 2,042 314 - 385 More specifically, the impact of the hedged positions in Vales results can be summarized as follows: (i) Impact on the financial statements related to the derivatives under Vales hedge accounting program: a. In 4Q15: freight costs increased by US$ 2.5/t with the settlement of derivatives contracts in 4Q15, driving COGS up. 47 Table of Contents b. In 1Q16 and subsequent quarters: no impact (ii) Impact on the financial statements related to the trades that are not under Vales hedge accounting program: a. In 4Q15: a negative impact of US$ 242 million recognized in 4Q15 as financial expenses due to the realized loss on the settlements which occurred in the quarter and on the mark-to-market of the open positions on December 31st, 2015. b. In 1Q16 and subsequent quarters: financial results will be impacted by the changes in the mark-to-market of the open derivative positions at the end of each quarter and by the gains or losses related to the settlements recorded in each quarter. 48 Table of Contents SAMARCO DAM FAILURE On November 5, 2015, one of Samarcos sand tailings dam (Fundao) failed unexpectedly, sending 32Mm(3) tailings downstream and impacting several communities including the community at Bento Rodrigues, a small mining town of 600 people. The dam failure resulted in 17 fatalities, with 2 people still missing, and caused extensive property and environmental damage to the affected areas in the states of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo. Immediately after the dam failure, together with the Civil Defense, Fire Department, Military Police and other authorities, Samarco provided first aid, food, water, housing, social assistance and financial aid to hundreds of affected families and individuals. As of now, Samarco has already: (i) finished the recovery of all the seven bridges impacted by the dam failure; (ii) accommodated 369 families who lost their homes (100%); (iii) distributed 2,907 financial-aid cards for residents of the affected communities (75% of total affected families); (iv) provided psychological and social support for 1,185 families; (v) distributed 553 million liters of drinkable water and 59 million liters of mineral water. Both Vale and BHP Billiton, Samarcos shareholders, have been actively involved in supporting Samarco during this crisis. Besides the community and welfare initiatives, Samarco has been monitoring the affected area and carrying out emergency work to contain any tailings movement, reinforcing the dams and dikes structures to ensure the safety of the region. As well as cooperating with the investigations conducted by the Civil & Federal Police, and also the public prosecutors, Samarco, together with its shareholders, also engaged a specialized firm to conduct an external investigation. There is no set date for the completion of the report, due to the complexity of the event. In order to assess the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the dam failure and assist in the development of a remediation plan, Samarco has engaged two external experts: a world class consulting specialist in engineering, environment and environmental emergencies; and another international firm specialized in environmental, health & safety, social and security services. The above-refferred plan will also include programs for the recovery of regional economic activity. The impact of the dam failure on Samarcos activities was mainly the immediate stoppage of its mining operations in the state of Minas Gerais. Vales operation in the Mariana Complex, near to Samarcos mining area, was also negatively impacted with the destruction of a major conveyor belt. Consequently, Vales production in the Mariana region was 3Mt lower in 4Q15 (which was offset by the increase in output from other mines) and will probably be 9Mt lower in 2016 (which will be offset by the increase in output from other mines). Vale has also 49 Table of Contents interrupted the sale of its ROM to Samarcos processing plant in Minas Gerais. As a consequence of the Fundao dam failure, Samarco incurred in expenses, wrote off assets and recognized provisions for remediation, which affected its balance sheet and income statement. Vale accounts for Samarcos results under the equity method, and, therefore, the impacts of Samarcos dam failure on Vales balance sheet and income statement are limited to Vales interest in Samarcos capital as per the Brazilian Corporation Law. Vales investment in Samarco was reduced to zero and no liability was recognized in Vales financial statements. The dam failure had no effect on Vales cash flow for the year ended December 31, 2015. (24). Vale S.A. was summoned by the Federal Union, the States of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo, and other entities in a public civil action filed at the 12 Vara Federal of Belo Horizonte. The action, which was brought against Samarco S.A. (Samarco) and its shareholders, BHP Billiton Brasil Ltda. (BHP) and Vale, requests (i) a freeze on transfer of the mining rights of the three respondents, without, however, limiting their commercial and production activities and (ii) remediation of the damages caused by the failure of the Samarco Fundao dam. The claimants valued the action at R$ 20.2 billion. Vale has adopted the necessary measures to guarantee its right of defense. (24) For more details on accounting effects, please refer to IFRS note 4. 50 Table of Contents Base Metals Annual performance Base Metals adjusted EBITDA totaled US$ 1.388 billion in 2015, representing a decrease of US$ 1.133 billion from the US$ 2.521 billion recorded in 2014. The decrease was mainly due to lower base metals prices (US$ 2.195 billion) and higher costs (US$ 137 million), which were partly offset by favorable exchange rate variations (US$ 594 million) and higher volumes (US$ 498 million). SALES REVENUES AND VOLUME Gross sales from base metals and their by-products totaled US$ 6.172 billion in 2015 against US$ 7.694 billion in 2014. The decrease was mainly driven by lower nickel prices (US$ 1.394 billion) and lower copper prices (US$ 641 million), which were partially offset by higher sales of nickel (US$ 338 million) and copper (US$ 246 million). Nickel production achieved the new annual record of 291,000 t, 16,000 t higher than in 2014, as a result of the higher production at VNC and Onca Puma. Copper production, supported by Salobos ramp-up, totaled 423,800 t, 44,100 t higher than in 2014 and a new annual record. Gold production reached a record 420,100 troy ounces (oz) in 2015, an all-time record, with the continued ramp-up of Salobo. COSTS AND EXPENSES Base metals COGS were US$ 4.296 billion (US$ 5.863 billion including depreciation). After adjusting for the effects of volumes (US$ 168 million) and exchange rate variations (-US$ 594 million), costs increased by US$ 137 million vs. 2014. The primary reason for the higher cost was the increased allocation of VNC pre-operating expenses to COGS. SG&A and other expenses, excluding depreciation, were a positive US$ 44 million in 2015 due to the positive effect of US$ 230 million from the gold stream transaction recorded in the 1Q15. SG&A and other expenses, excluding the positive effects of insurance (US$ 276 million) in 2014 and of the gold streaming transaction in 1Q15, remained stable in 2015 vs. 2014. Pre-operating and stoppage expenses, net of depreciation, totaled US$ 412 million, US$ 117 million lower than in 2014, mainly reflecting the lower expenses with VNC (US$ 129 million) and Salobo (US$ 15 million), which were partially offset by higher expenses in Long Harbour (US$ 26 million). 51 Table of Contents Quarterly performance Adjusted EBITDA totaled US$ 111 million in 4Q15, decreasing US$ 82 million vs. 3Q15 mainly as a result of lower prices (US$ 158 million) and the write-off of materials inventories related to the initial construction of Onca Puma and Salobo of -US$ 31 million, wh Dick Smith is holding "clearing excess inventory" as the chain prepares to close all 62 New Zealand stores. Electronics retailer Dick Smith will close all its stores in New Zealand and Australia over the next eight weeks. The company collapsed in January owing more than $350,000 to staff in New Zealand, $135 million to secured creditors and $11m to trade creditors. Staff had been briefed and about 430 employees in New Zealand and 2460 staff in Australia would be affected. Dick Smith has 62 stores in New Zealand. READ MORE: * Dick Smith sale shoppers will have less consumer protection * Dick Smith customers set to lose from voluntary administration appointment * Dick Smith cuts the value of its stock * Dick Smith backs away from profit guidance after inventory write-off * Dick Smith NZ profit slashed in competitive market * Dick Smith chairman Rob Murray stands by embattled CEO Nick Abboud Challa Challa, an employee at Dick Smith on Karangahape Rd, said staff had not been told anything about the imminent store closures. The store manager had been on a conference call with an area manager on Thursday afternoon, he said. Work colleagues had been worried about the store's future with some already looking for new jobs, he said. There were no customers in store when Stuff visited and "clearing excess inventory" signs were advertised on its windows. Jayden Hughes, sales consultant at Dick Smith Hastings, said there was uncertainty about the company's next steps. "We're waiting on a conference call tomorrow," he said. "The public's known more than we have internally." Hughes said some of his four colleagues had been looking for other jobs since the company went into receivership last month. "It's absolute crap news," said one Dick Smith employee in the Wairarapa. He said he wasn't allowed to comment but wanted to go home and talk to a family member about his next steps. In Upper Hutt, a staff member said employees were waiting on more information about entitlements and outstanding pay. "The brand has been absolutely shredded to bits ... but we do have a loyal customer [base]". He said workers and loyal customers would be upset. He said his colleagues had been looking for work elsewhere but retail electronics was "an absolutely over-saturated market." The store had five staff, he said, some of whom had been at the store "four or five years." Tim Morris, of retail consultancy firm Corialis, said he was not surprised by the move. "It has been a long, obvious trainwreck". He said it had seemed that Dick Smith had lost its way for a number of years. Morris said retailers always needed to know who their target markets were and focus on delivering to them but Dick Smith had lost that. "They used to be the place you went when you had two things and you needed to connect them. You had a VCR and a camera and you needed the cable to connect them. "The guys there knew would help you. Then Dick Smith decided it wanted to sell TVs and left all that behind and tried to be something else, and the others completely smashed them." Dick Smith had not been able to keep up with competitors JB Hi-Fi, Noel Leeming and Harvey Norman, he said. Jaycar Electronics had picked up most of the market for techy, slightly nerdy products and services that Dick Smith had previously catered for, he said. "The guy who started that used to work and Dick Smith and it's just gone from strength to strength. Jaycar is creaming it." Morris said Dick Smith would not be missed. "They've just been so hopeless." Receiver Ferrier Hodgson said in a statement on Thursday that for the past few weeks the receivers and managers had been liaising with interested parties regarding the sale of the Dick Smith and Move business in Australia and New Zealand. "While we received a significant number of expressions of interest from local and overseas parties, unfortunately the sale process has not resulted in any acceptable offers for the group as a whole or for Australia or New Zealand as standalone businesses." "The offers received were either significantly below liquidation values or highly conditional, or both. "Now that all avenues for a sale of the Dick Smith and Move business in Australia and New Zealand have been exhausted, the receivers and managers have no option but to commence a controlled closure program for the entire business excluding Move Airport stores," Ferrier Hodgson said. That process would take eight weeks depending on stock sales. James Stewart, one of Ferrier Hodgson's directors, said it was a "very disappointing outcome". Secured creditors, including major banks HSBC and National Australia Bank, have staked claims of approximately A$140m (NZ$151m) while unsecured creditors including Macquarie Group are owed about A$250m. Retail consultant Chris Wilkinson of First Retail Group said he had been saying for some time that the chain did not "have a life ahead." "The reality is, it lost its way a long time ago, and I think that when you're selling products like electronics, the customers do need a degree of assurance and when in receivership and the issues that went around that, you're really in a position of no return." Wilkinson said there had been a lot of talk about interested buyers but people in the consumer electronics sector were unsure there was any serious interest. The company had moved into a "very tightly defined area where they felt that their own brand was going to be the way forward". "They moved into things like TVs but they never quite got it right. "They were never able to achieve critical mass in a range or an offer so for instance, they had TVs there but they never had enough to be a credible player. They never managed to excel in any category." The bucket is back where it belongs. Bureaucrats are set to lock themselves into an artistic debate as Wellington's bucket fountain can be whole again. In the dead of night, earlier this week, a yellow bucket from Cuba Mall's Bucket Fountain was stolen. And, again, in the dead of night, it was returned to be found outside Cosmic - beside the fountain - early on Friday morning. ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF Whoever stole the bucket decided they would paint the inside of it. Where it had spent the week - coincidentally orientation week for many Wellington students - remained a mystery. Do you know anything more about the bucket's disappearance? Contact newstips@stuff.co.nz READ MORE: * Bucket stolen from Wellington's Bucket Fountain * Wellington's bucket fountain down but not out * Cuba St Bucket fountain's storied history of brickbats, bouquets Wellington City Council - which was about to start scouring security footage in an attempt to track down the thief - was "just happy its back", council spokesman Richard MacLean said. "I don't think anyone is going to waste too much time trying to track down the culprit." The bucket would likely be re-installed next week, after it was checked over for damage. There has though been one change to the bucket during its absence - an intricate and psychedelic pattern has been painted on its interior. Now, an "artistic debate" would be had within council about whether to keep the new paint job, MacLean said. Chris Black was walking past the fountain early on Friday morning when he noticed the yellow bucket shimmering in the water. "I knew it had been missing, I had a look in the pool and it was sitting in there." "It looks like it is in a good state," he said. Black said it was good the culprits had returned their loot. "Any theft is not good, but it was nice they returned it. It is an icon of Wellington," he said. The bucket went missing late on Sunday night, MacLean said earlier this week. It was last seen outside a chemist further up Cuba Mall. Somewhat prophetically MacLean said it would be better if it was "just, say, left back at the scene of the crime". More than 400 beers and ciders were judged in February for New World's Beer and Cider Awards. There's a clink, a swig, a murmur, a slosh. The air is heavy with yeasty fumes, wafting from dozens of unmarked vessels bearing 19 different pilsners. There's the sound of chiming glass, and a brief smatter of applause. It's the sound of triumph. One of the samples has been deemed worthy of gold. The 15 judges, mainly brewers themselves, have gathered for the New World Beer and Cider Awards, to determine New Zealand's best-tasting beverages. READ MORE: * Hop shortage could result in price rise for beer * Why Panhead Supercharger is the best beer in New Zealand * Something big is brewing in New Zealand's craft beer industry Of the 464 entries, those with medals are those you'd recommend to a friend, chief judge Michael Donaldson says. A good beer is a balanced beer, he explains. "You want enough sweetness that you go, 'That's nice', but you don't want it to be like Coca-Cola. "The bitterness just cleanses your palate and makes you want to take another sip." In pale ales, the bitterness comes from hops; in darkers beers, coffee and chocolate notes come from the "roasty, charry" character that defines the genre. With their acidic bite, sour beers differ from their hoppy brethren. Donaldson notes the style has become increasingly popular, due to the ease of making low-alcohol varieties. So too has the pale ale. Indeed, the category had the greatest number of entries in the competition 64. The Indian Pale Ale category had 56. "For a long time, everyone was about big hoppy beers 8-9 per cent double APAs, full of hops and aroma and big caramelly malt," Donaldson says. "That's just been pared back a little bit we're rediscovering, pale ales." Determining which beers deserve bronze, silver or gold across the 13 categories is a collaborative process, based on discussion rather than point scoring. The sloshing of beer poured into a plastic bucket signals a beverage unworthy of a second sip. Donaldson says the most common fault is oxidation, the scourge of bottled beers, where the beverage has aged and grown "a little bit tired". "If the product you've got doesn't have a vibrancy, if it doesn't feel really alive, you can have a problem with it." Craig Bowen, chief steward for Brewers Guild, says faults can also be found in a beer's aroma. Acetaldehyde smells like green apple, sulphur gives a whiff of bad eggs. Donaldson notes there's an occasional "funk" that conjures thoughts of sweaty socks, or cat pee. "It's not a bad thing," he says diplomatically. "But it's quite challenging." Bowen explains unpalatable qualities can be controlled in the brewing process, with adjustments to time, temperature and the quantity of yeast used. "Brewing is more like baking, rather than wine-making," he says. "Wine-making, nature gives you your sugar content and your acidity, whereas with brewing, it's ingredients." "If you and I had the same recipe for a batch of scones, took 'em home but come back tomorrow, they would be slightly different, because I might knead the dough a bit more or your oven might be a little bit hotter... They'll be essentially the same, but subtly different." Donaldson explains beers that merit further debate appear clear, bright, and "sparkly", with pleasant aromas of honey, biscuits, or perhaps buttered toast. Unlike wine, which offers a more direct hit of flavour through its acidity, a good beer needs a generous mouth feel. "You should feel it on the sides, on the back, on the top... it touches all parts of the palate," Donaldson says. "There's no spitting out, which they do in wine judging, because you need it to go down the back of the palate. "Anything that falls short of that is not going to give you the full sensory experience." New Zealand beers are renowned for their tropical fruitiness imparted by creatively utilised hops harvested near Nelson, which Donaldson says are world leaders in developing highly aromatic, rather than bitter, varieties. Passionfruit, lycee, guava, and Savignon Blanc are trademark flavours, compared to the "aggressive" citrus or pine notes in American beers. Donaldson pauses as glasses chime for at least the fourth time that session. "There is no doubt that New Zealand beer is world class" he says. "It's like our wine industry, it's one of the best in the world." Medal winners will be announced in April. The grave of Netherton settler Samuel Chalton is need of repair and his great great grandson, Andrew Chalton is asking locals to help fund the restoration. Time has taken its toll on the grave of an early settler and his great great grandson is crowd-funding to have it restored. Pioneer Samuel Chalton and his wife Ellen originally farmed in Northland when they arrived in the New Zealand from England in 1859. With the goldrush happening in Thames, the couple moved their family to the town in 1869 and opened the first Queen's Hotel as well as being involved in mining. Ten years or so later, Samuel and his family established a farm from raw scrub and bush on the banks of the Waihou River roughly 8km north of Paeroa. Samuel's great great grandson Andrew, who lives in Auckland with his wife Tania, said the 91 acres was classified as waste when Samuel acquired it and he cut the farm out of nothing. "He was literally the first settler there, it was unnamed at that time," Andrew said. "There was Netherton Hall near where he lived in England so he named it Netherton." Doing more research on his family's history, which included discovering that as well as setting up a post office, Samuel gifted land for the school to be established, led Andrew to the historic Shortland Cemetery in Thames to look for his relative's grave. "The first time we came down, there was this layer of dirt all over the grave. We didn't realise how bad it was until we started," he said. Through many Saturdays spent clearing the debris and weeds that had grown over the grave, Andrew was shocked to see it in such a poor state. "The problem is in the old days they would just get the sand off the beach and it would have had lots of salt in it and so it weakened the concrete." After more than 100 years the grave has collapsed and is in need of restoration and Andrew is asking the community to chip in. Tania said it was important for New Zealand to retain as much of its history as it can. "They've done so much and it's about respecting people that have gone before us and done all the things that they have done before us." - To donates as much or as little as you like go to https://explore.givealittle.co.nz/search?q=chalton&q=chalton An anti-TPPA rally held last year marches along to Parliament along Lambton Quay. It may only be a political statement, but Upper Hutt has been declared "a TPPA-free zone" anyway. The Upper Hutt City Council voted 7-4 on February 24 to adopt resolutions promoted by anti-Trans-Pacific Partnership activists. Its decision on eight recommendations came after a vote on resolutions the policy committee had deferred to the full council. They included the declaration that Upper Hutt City Council was "a TPPA-free zone where the constraints imposed by the TPPA, and the changes to national and local legislation to make our area comply with the TPPA requirements are not supported by the Upper Hutt City Council". Mayor Wayne Guppy opposed the resolution, arguing that Local Government New Zealand had issued a statement which suggested the trade agreement would have very little impact on local government. He said the resolution was simply a political statement and would have no impact. "I've always been in favour of the TPPA," Guppy said. "It's about supporting our exporters, and helping businesses to create jobs." Guppy acknowledged there were a few passionate TPPA opponents at the meeting. "But there are 42,000 other people in Upper Hutt who like me want to raise the GDP of this city and make sure our exporters have access to more markets." "Our doors are open for business regardless of what some councillors voted for last night." Trade Minister Todd McClay slammed the council's decision. "This is very short-sighted and must be extremely worrying for the Upper Hutt business community," McClay said. "Their council is telling 800 million potential consumers that Upper Hutt's doors will remain closed to these export opportunities." He said the TPPA would not change the ability of government, including at local level, to fulfil its core functions. "I am surprised that the council has not tried to be better informed." Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce chief executive Mark Futter also expressed disappointment in the council's decision. "We are stunned that one of our city councils has adopted a purely political stance against a central government trade agreement," Futter said. "This decision could undermine opportunities for future business investment, particularly foreign investment into Upper Hutt, as Upper Hutt may be perceived to be seen as a non-business friendly city, with an activist anti-trade Council that makes controversial decisions on a whim." Councillor Angela McLeod was the mover of the council resolution. She said she was sticking up for Upper Hutt against international corporate interests. "We have to err on the side of caution because I don't want any decisions about my community to be hog-tied because somebody is going to take us to the tribunal using the [investor-state dispute settlement process]," she said. Taxpayers' Union spokesman Ben Craven said councillors should stick to delivering quality public services "rather than wasting their time entertaining ideas for which the council has no mandate. "When Councillors stick their noses into the business of central government, it suggests that they're overpaid or don't have enough work to do." How they voted: For: Deputy Mayor John Gwilliam, Mary Armour, Paul Lambert, Glenn McArthur, Angela McLeod, Hellen Swales and Dave Wheeler. Against: Mayor Wayne Guppy, Blair Griffiths, Dean Rabbitt and Steve Taylor. Worried family members stood outside Western Heights High School in Rotorua today after the school received a bomb threat. Schools in Hamilton and Rotorua were in lockdown this morning, following threats the buildings would be bombed. Berkley Normal School in Hillcrest received a bomb threat on Thursday morning. The threats were the latest in a string of cyber attacks on schools around the world. In most cases, schools receive co-ordinated calls with an automated, recorded message making a threat, often in a robot-like voice. READ MORE: * School bomb threat 'from a Wellington number' - principal * Bomb threats to NZ schools 'very similar' to global robo-hoaxes in US, Australia So-called "robo-hoaxes" use technology similar to the automated systems used in call centres. In an email to parents, Berkley principal Nathan Leith said the school was evacuated. "Shortly before midday today, the Berkley school office received a phone call of a threatening nature," he said. "This phone call was similar in type to hoax bomb threats being received by other schools around the country." Leith said the school enacted its emergency plan and contacted police. "All students and staff were evacuated to the back field and accounted for. "Students were released to a late lunch break once the all clear was given." Waikato Police Senior Sergeant Damion Rangitutia said police were at Berkley Intermediate on Thursday morning but were no longer present. And in Rotorua, students at Western Heights High School were forced to leave their classrooms until it had been confirmed that there was no threat. A Rotorua police senior sergeant confirmed police were responding to a hoax bomb call. "A hoax call had been made and obviously the school has done the right thing," he said. "They've [the hoax calls] been all over the North Island. "You have to treat these things seriously." The school was released from lockdown and the students allowed to go home at around 2.45pm. A message on the school's Facebook page thanked students and staff for their co-operation and patience. It said the school would be open as usual on Friday. The jury hearing a case against a man facing eight indecent assault charges and one of male assaults female has retired to consider its verdict. Crown prosecutor John Young and defence lawyer John Westgate made their closing remarks to the jury on Thursday morning, while Judge Bernadette Farnan summed the case up on Thursday afternoon before the jury retired about 3pm. It was the third day of the trial, held at the Invercargill District Court. The man, who has name suppression, faces eight counts of indecent assault against four complainants, and one count of male assaults female. The first five indecent assault charges relate to alleged incidents in Invercargill between 2004 and 2006, while the remaining three relate to alleged incidents in Queenstown in 2009. The male assaults female charge is in relation to an alleged incident in Wellington in 2009. During his closing statement, Young told the jury the complainants relating to the Invercargill charges had no axe to grind with the defendant. None of the complainants had a motive to lie, he said. They had "painted a picture of a ... patterned, criminal offending over a period of time," Young said. But Westgate said all the complainants had inconsistencies in their evidence, some added information in court they did not give in their police statements. People's memories did not get better with time, but worse, he said. In relation to one complainant's evidence, Westgate said it was "starting to sound ridiculous ... almost nonsensical." He labelled another complainant's evidence "slightly strange," and said the jury might begin to think "holy cow this is just starting to get bizarre." Westgate said a further complainant was simply lying, that her story did not stack up, and she was unreliable. Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor Tauranga will open a new chapter later this year as current Mayor Stuart Crosby says he wont be standing for the mayoralty again. The local body elections in October could be the most exciting in a while as the city carefully selects its new mayor. The mayors job is important, but its not as significant as most people may think. He or she is the spokesperson on behalf of the city, they can appoint the deputy mayor, they chair meetings, and they can lead policy and budgets processes. But the mayor is just one of 11 votes. This means divisive personalities would be powerless as the Mayor of Tauranga if they dont have the support of most councillors. Its critical that the next mayor can confidently lead a team of councillors who hold a diverse range of experience, worldviews, and skill levels. Im personally looking for someone who is less focused on pushing through their agenda. I will vote for a candidate who can build a strong team from a diverse mix of councillors. Like President Obama said recently: I have faith in the people to make the right decision. I think Stuart has been a good mayor, especially since his tenure was dominated by dealing with the Global Financial Crisis. I was fortunate to experience the magnificent way he conveyed the Western Bay of Plenty to business and civic leaders in China, Japan and Korea. Often these speeches were impromptu and would have made residents very proud if you heard them. This was at the critical time when the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and University of Waikato were signing agreements with their Asian counterparts for marine science and commercialisation of ideas. But the current council chapter is not over yet. We still have important decisions to make before October. Feel free to email me your thoughts (matt.cowley@tauranga.govt.nz), call/text me on 0276989548, and follow me at www.facebook.com/a.younger.voice. UPDATED: Twenty-seven schools throughout New Zealand received phone calls today which police are describing as being of a concerning nature. For the past two days, schools up and down the country have been evacuated after they received bomb threats which were called in at roughly the same time 12.30pm. Police say officers were dispatched to the schools where they worked with management teams to decide on an appropriate response. As indicated earlier, todays calls may be linked to those received yesterday which initial inquiries indicated have originated overseas. Police are undertaking a number of lines of inquiries to establish the exact origin of these calls. Police are making it clear that while the calls may display a New Zealand number, they can still be originating from overseas. Similar incidents have also occurred overseas in the United States, and more recently, Australia. Until police can rule out any actual threat, we must take all these calls seriously and respond accordingly. The safety of students, teachers and schools are our priority. We understand the fear and concern that this will cause, however we reiterate that so far we have not established any actual threat to any school. How schools responds to these calls is now a matter for their management teams and police. How they respond will be based on their individual circumstances and the information available to them. Police say they will not be disclosing the names of the schools who received calls due to their ongoing investigation and in the interest of preventing calls being made to other schools. EARLIER: Several schools in Northland are believed to be the latest target for bomb threat calls. Police have released a statement saying: they are responding to further incidents involving calls made to a number of schools this morning which are of a concerning nature. Stuff is reporting the schools involved are in Kamo, Kaitaia and Kerkeri. Police are attending at each school and working with school management teams on the appropriate response, says a statement from police. Todays calls may be linked to the events of yesterday, where calls were made to six schools around the country. These calls were of an automated nature and our initial enquires suggest that they may have originated from overseas. Inquiries into yesterdays events are ongoing. Police must, however, take todays calls seriously and assess the appropriate response at each school. The priority for police is to ensure the safety of staff and students. Further information will be released as soon as it is available. The math is simple: two bomb threats plus two disrupted school days equals one very frustrated principal. Brookfield Primary principal Robert Hyndman says they evacuated students and staff from the school after another bomb threat the second in two days - was called in at about 12.30pm today. It was much the same as the computerised call we received yesterday, slightly different wording but the same threat, Robert explains. After receiving the call we evacuated the students and staff immediately, and then called police who sent a few officers to do a walkthrough of the school to clear it. After about 35 minutes police gave the all clear, after which students and staff resumed the school day. But while no bomb was discovered by police, the hoaxes are still having a massive impact on the school. Its not only disruptive to our routines but for some of the children its really quite upsetting, especially the young ones dont understand what hoax means. Also the reality is theres never been any danger to staff or students, but when it keeps happening the kids may start to perceive something thats probably not there. Robert says the school is now waiting on direction from police on how they should handle any further bomb threats in the future. I just wish these bomb threats would stop, says Robert. While there was no danger today, a number of Brookfield students parents have commended the school on how it has handled the situation. One parent who contacted SunLive this afternoon says she is very impressed with the response of Brookfield staff to todays bomb threat. I really appreciated the school evacuating the students, keeping them safe and also keeping them calm. They did a fantastic job given the situation, she says. Brookfield was one of six schools, including Logan Park High School in Dunedin, Wellington High School in Wellington, Tamatea High School in Napier, Burnside High School in Christchurch and, Central Normal School in Palmerston North, that received bomb threats on Wednesday. Today, along with Brookfield, Kerikeri High School and Kaitaia Intermediate School in Northland, and Glendowie School in Auckland also received bomb threats. At this stage its not known whether the other five schools targeted on Wednesday received threats today. NZ Avocado Growers Association Incorporated (NZAGA) signed the Deed of the Government Industry Agreement (GIA) for Biosecurity Readiness and Response in Tauranga, becoming the eighth Signatory to sign the Deed. The signing was attended by the Minister for Primary Industries, Hon Nathan Guy, NZAGA Chair Ashby Whitehead, NZ Avocado CEO Jen Scoular, and representatives from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), the GIA Secretariat and the avocado industry. The decision on whether the wreck of the Rena will be permitted to remain on the Astrolabe Reef will be made public on Friday. The Bay of Plenty Regional Council will issue a media statement announcing the decision, a copy of the executive summary and a link to where the full decision may be accessed tomorrow at 2pm. The panel originally hearing the resource consent application made by the Renas owners and insurers took 20 days to assess the information, after which they reserved their decision which is being made public tomorrow. The Rena struck Astrolabe Reef on October 5, 2011 and subsequently broke up. Much of the wreckage near the upper reef has been cleared in the years since by ongoing salvage operations, but the bulk of the aft section of the wreck now lies in deep water at the base of the reef. The owners and insurers have sought consent to leave the remainder where it lies because of the increasing danger to the salvage contractors operating at about 50m depth. There is also a claim that removing the wreck will cause a great deal of damage to the reef, and the popular diving and fishing location will continue to be barred to the public. On the eve of the decision, Forest & Bird and Nga Hapu o Motiti are now asking the government to maintain the areas exclusion zone for fishing. An application for a two year rahui (temporary closure) of the Astrolabe Reef under the NZ Fisheries Act has been lodged on behalf of Nga Hapu o Motiti. The area sought for rahui covers three nautical miles around a point on Astrolabe Reef, and covers an area of approximately 97km2. Nga Hapu o Motiti spokesman Te Atarangi Sayers is urging the community to support its application. It would be heart breaking to see the wreck left in place, but it would be far worse to stop marine recovery by allowing the premature resumption of fishing. Even before the Rena went aground, tangata whenua had noticed the depletion of fish stocks from the area, says Te Atarangi. Combining an already declining fish stock with significant pollution from oil, cargo, debris and other contaminants has put an already threatened species under even more stress. He says marine life is only just starting to recover and a rahui on the area would allow species and marine life to continue to heal. But the decision whether to endorse the rahui rests with the Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy, he says. We ask our community to make a submission in support of the temporary closure. We ask Nathan Guy to recognise our rahui with urgency. Forest & Bird chief executive Hone McGregor supports the rahui saying a continued exclusion zone would maintain the improvement in the marine biodiversity, and that these benefits are not lost. Submissions on Nga Hapu o Motitis application for temporary closure under the NZ Fisheries Act close on the March 14. In addition to the original 20 day consent hearing, the application involved 23 technical reports, 151 submissions received in response to the application. Lists and transcripts of all submitters, technical advisors, expert witnesses, and information presented at the hearing is available at: www.renaresourceconsent.org.nz A Bay of Plenty farmer will be travelling to Sri Lanka this year as part of Fonterras new volunteer scheme to work with the countrys dairy farmers. Local Troy Doherty will be joined on the trip by fellow Fonterra farmers Tim Phillips from the Waikato, Murray Douglas from Northland, and Marloes Levelink from West Otago. They quartet will spend a month at Fonterras new demonstration and training farm in Pannala, near Colombo, which aims to improve local milk collection, milk quality plus farmers incomes and is due to be opened at the end of this month. While in Sri Lanka, the foursome will also work with farmers and Fonterra supplier relationship officers on areas including animal nutrition, prevention and treatment of mastitis and how to run a farm as a business. Both the farm and scheme are part of Fonterras Dairy Development programme which looks to grow sustainable dairy industries in key markets where they operate, such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia and China. Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka managing director Sunil Sethi says the farmers will share their expertise and knowledge with local farmers, governments and industry players. Fonterra has over 100 years of dairy farming experience and our co-operative structure is built on innovation, an attitude of working together, and a willingness to try new things. This has allowed New Zealand farmers to develop practices and processes that work in New Zealands unique environment and climate. This is what were looking to bring to Sri Lanka, working with partners and farming families to find the best farming system that complements the countrys climate and terrain. Sunil says training and education will help Sri Lankan farmers produce higher quality milk, which will create a more economically viable and sustainable dairy industry as well as help Fonterra meet the growing demand for fresh dairy products. Sri Lankan farmers arent the only ones who are being given the opportunity to learn from Fonterras wealth of expertise. Twelve Indonesian farmers travelled to New Zealand last year as part of the annual scholarship programme that helps develop local dairy farming capability through hands-on training. Preliminary results show close to 90 per cent of the farmers have improved milk quality and almost half are already producing higher volumes of milk as a result of new milk hygiene, animal care and farm management practices. Scholarship participant Adieb Iryanto says hes since introduced a number of new farming practices on his farm as a result of the scholarship programme. I now keep records of my herd and financials making it easier to track the performance and health of individual cows as well as the overall profitability and operating costs of my farm. This has allowed me to look at my farming business and see where I can make changes to become more efficient and productive, he says. "Survivor" contestant Joe Del Campo stood beneath a wall-mounted TV at Blue Agave Mexican Bar & Tequileria in Vero Beach, watching himself as he and his tribe won the immunity challenge. He has survived another week on the popular reality show. On Wednesday morning, Del Campo extended a Facebook invitation to his fellow Vero Beach residents to watch the second week of the highly rated reality series with him at the downtown bar. The small bar was full but it was hard to decipher who was there to watch "Survivor," which was shown on two of four televisions. "It's going to be tough," said Dan Everett, who was among "Survivor" enthusiasts attending the event after reading about the viewing party on TCPalm.com. Everett and his friend Kathy Hutchinson came out to cheer Del Campo on and take a photo. "We hope he makes it to the merge or at least the jury," Everett said. Del Campo, who is contractually prohibited from talking about the show until he is eliminated or wins, said the night was all about having fun as he posed for pictures with fans. The 72-year-old fitness buff, former FBI agent and Navy veteran is a member of the Brains tribe in this season's "Survivor: Kaoh Rong Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II," which marooned 18 strangers on the island Kaoh Rong in Cambodia. The castaways must provide shelter, water, fire and food for themselves and then compete against each other in physical challenges. The sole survivor after 39 days of weekly eliminations wins $1 million. CBS has touted this season as being the most grueling in its 16-year history. Previews tease to harsh weather conditions and multiple medical evacuations. Del Campo is the oldest contestant this season and is tied with Rudy Boesch, a two-time "Survivor" castaway, as the oldest competitors in 32 seasons. Sixteen contestants remain. Survivor airs 8 p.m. Wednesday. Edward F. Klima, Stuart Letter: Global warming is dubious science, and so are initiatives to limit CO2 As a retired oceanographer I think global warming is a scam. The earth's climate is in constant change and has undergone several ice ages lasting 100,000 years and several warming periods lasting 10,000 years. Whatever its role in the climate, man-made carbon dioxide is minimal. Volcanoes contribute the most to atmospheric CO2, followed by decaying animal and plant material. The volcanic eruption in Iceland in just four days negated every single effort made in the last five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet. There are around 200 active volcanoes on the planet spewing out ash at any one time. Mount Pinatubo, erupting in the Philippines in 1991, spewed out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire human race has ever emitted. Further, brush fires across the western United States in most years will negate all efforts to reduce carbon in our world. And this happens every year. What we just found out is that there are 40,000 miles of undersea volcanoes. They are under sea ridges miles down in the ocean. Some put out water at 750 degrees. Could these volcanoes heat up the Arctic and Antarctic? The Paris voluntary agreement has the U.S. giving over $870 million annually to countries to reduce CO2 emissions. This is a free handout without any controls or accountability. The U.S. is also proposing to restrict U.S. companies carbon output. China and India can do what they want and we are restricting our companies. Are we crazy? Kenneth Aquilino, 35, Melbourne; warrant for violation of probation, grand theft. Daniel Stevens, 34, 2300 block of Vero Beach Avenue, Vero Beach; warrant for violation of probation, tampering with evidence. Nicholas Galanto, 28, Vero Beach; out-of-county warrant, Leon County, burglary of a conveyance. David Coutu, 28, 7200 block of Kenwood Road, Fort Pierce; out-of-county warrant, St. Lucie County, grand theft, uttering a forged instrument. John Williams, 34, Cocoa; warrant for grand theft. Gregory White, 22, 6460 86th Lane, Sebastian; warrant for violation of probation, exploitation of elderly or disabled adult with lack of consent. Stephen Munson, 48, 300 block of Bayharbor Terrace, Sebastian; criminal mischief. Lauren Kirimbai, 35, 8700 block of 104th Avenue, Vero Beach; aggravated battery/domestic violence; escape or attempted escape. SHARE By Lamaur Stancil of TCPalm The Indian River County Sheriff's Office received several complaints last week about a phone scam artist trying a new take on an old scheme. For years, the scam artists have called residents pretending to be law enforcement officials. Last week, the caller was claiming to be an officer from Georgia who was calling about federal tax debts, said Sgt. Eric Flowers of the Indian River County Sheriff's Office. In the past, the caller would tell the resident they needed to make a payment by putting money on a prepaid money card and calling back with the card number. However, fewer stores are stocking those types of cards because they have been associated with scams, Flowers said. Instead of asking for cash to be placed on a money card, last week's caller wanted his targets to put the money on an iTunes gift card and to call back with the card number, Flowers said. Scam artists have adjusted their tactics to get money from their victims, Flowers said. The Sheriff's Office had at least four people call about the scam, though none lost money to the caller. Regardless of the agency, officials said no officer or deputy will call someone on the phone and demand money for a debt. Law enforcement officials also discourage people from following the directions of a caller asking you to send them money through Western Union or via any type of money card. MORE SCAMS ON TREASURE COAST The schemes come in various forms. Here are some that have victimized some of your friends, family and neighbors. ALARM SECURITY SURVEY How it works: An individual claiming to be a representative from Vivint Security Company (or any) goes door to door taking an alarm security survey. The person asks specific information about the homeowners house alarms, such as whether they were hard-wired or linked to a cellphone. The person says this is being done on behalf of the Vero Beach Police Department (or any agency) and that the homeowner may be eligible for an upgrade to their alarm system, which would be paid for by the city. How to combat: Always ask for identification. A city solicitation permit is required and must be displayed. If anyone solicits a service door to door without a proper city permit, contact your closest law enforcement agency immediately. Law enforcement agencies do not send civilians to perform surveys, and any claim that a city will pay for an alarm upgrade is false. COMPUTER VIRUSES How it works: You get a call someone saying they are a Microsoft employee and your laptop computer has a virus infecting it. The person convinces you to allow him to install an anti-virus program that would fix the problem. You agree to pay a small fee and provide them with your debit card number. The person walks you through steps to download a program which allows remote access to your computer. The cost for the so-called fix is $25. The next day your bank statement shows a charge originating in China of more than $500. How to combat: Do not provide personal or financial information to the caller, nor agree to make any payments under the callers direction. CRAIGSLIST OVERPAYMENTS How it works: Someone agrees to mail you a check for an item you have for sale on Craigslist, but then notifies you that they accidentally wrote the check for more than they owed. Theyll ask you to cash the check at your bank but send back the difference via Western Union. The bad check will take a few days to bounce, but the money is gone. How to combat: The website advises its users not to conduct transactions through money wiring services and to deal with people in person when possible. EBOLA How it works: You get an email claiming to be from the nonprofit CDC Foundation appealing for more funds and other material support in the fight against the Ebola virus. The phony email is titled Ebola Epidemic, and is purportedly signed by Charles Stokes, the executive director of the CDC Foundation. How to combat: Deal directly with people. Be aware of the organization and where it is based. The email gives the correct address for the organizations headquarters, which, like the Centers for Disease Control, is in Atlanta. But it says to respond by email or phone and gives a Washington, D.C., phone number. FLIGHT CONFIRMATION How it works: A computer virus is sent through a fake email flight confirmation. The email comes attached with a document labeled ticket and when users click the document, it installs a virus on your computer. How to combat: Verify all flight reservations through the airline company online, and avoid the email if you havent booked a flight. FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT CO. How it works: Customers and non-customers for the power company have reported receiving bogus FPL bills in their email. The email demands payment as well as personal information. However, FPL officials said they never send emails threatening to close your account. How to combat: The utility warns anyone who receives an FPL bill that demands personal info to ignore it. Also, delete any email asking for account numbers or passwords. GIFT CARDS How it works: Scam artists steal blank gift cards from a store display and return later to put the same card back on the shelf. When a customer places money on the card, the scam artist is monitoring online for the cards transaction and will steal the money. How to combat: Shoppers can avoid losing their money by inspecting the card to see if the security scratch-off strip covering the online access number is intact. They can also ask a store clerk to verify whether the card has been altered. Also, never pick one a card from the top of the pile and make sure the numbers on the card are hidden from view by the packaging. GRANDPARENTS SCAM How it works: Scam artists are randomly calling senior citizens, asking for Grandma or Grandpa and presenting a desperate situation they are in. The scenarios usually involve the grandchild being in jail and requiring money for bail. How to combat: Law enforcement officials advise that when this scenario arises, ask the caller more questions to verify whether it really is a relative. You should also contact other relatives to verify the family members whereabouts. INSTANT PAYMENT How it works: You want to buy something over the Internet, and the seller asks you to send the money with Green Dot cards, wire transfers or any other instant payment methods. How to combat: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Once youve transferred your money, youll never get it back, and theres no way to determine the identity of the so-called seller. Avoid instant payment; its likely a scam. INVESTMENTS How it works: These are generally targeted at people nearing retirement who are interested in safeguarding cash for their retirement. Ponzi schemes promise high financial returns or dividends not possible through regular investments. Pyramid schemes encourage participants to recruit additional investors through the payment of commissions. How to combat: Ask an unbiased third party to review any financial proposals and check out the company and its agent online. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE How it works: A person, usually male, pretends to be an agent of the Internal Revenue Services Criminal Investigations. The phony agent will claim that the person called has been audited and owes back taxes. The impersonator will attempt to solicit information about how the resident filed their taxes, and will try to convince them to make an immediate online payment to satisfy the tax debt. How to combat: Do not provide personal or financial information to the caller, nor agree to make any payments under the callers direction. An IRS agent would never contact a citizen by phone to notify of an audit or attempt to get them to make a payment for back taxes. Call and report the incident to TIGTA at 1-800-366-4484. Also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their FTC Complaint Assistant at FTC.gov. Add IRS Telephone Scam to the comments of your complaint. JAIL TIME How it works: A caller threatens people with jail time while offering a fraudulent payment plan to stay out. A similar scam has callers claiming residents have outstanding warrants, or civil court penalties owed. The caller is claiming there is an open civil case in their county and that they need to set up a payment plan to take care of it. How to combat: Thats not how clerks offices do business. Citizens who owe court fines or fees will get notices by mail, not by phone. Some clerks offices offer email reminders to individuals who have signed up for payment plans. Dont provide personal or financial information to callers and report the incidents to 911. Anyone who is unsure if they owe money for a court case can contact their clerks office. JOB OFFERS How it works: Its a check scam used to steal money from your checking account. An email arrives from someone offering a job to be a personal assistant. After agreeing, the victim is sent a check and is instructed to deposit the check and get a money gram in another amount and send the money gram to a person in West Africa. The initial check received is fraudulent. Another version involves applying for a job on Craigslist. After speaking with someone the person is hired and told she needs to deposit some checks for the business. The above scenario plays out, using a bank account instead of a money gram. How to combat: If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is. A legitimate business would never ask you to deposit money into your personal account. Notify your local law enforcement agency immediately. JURY DUTY How it works: A person calls claiming to be an officer of the court and after getting some personal information, says you have arrest warrants for missing jury duty and that you can satisfy the warrants by paying a fine. You are sent to a store to buy rechargeable money cards, then give the caller the PIN number from each card. Next, you are told to mail the cards and purchase receipts to someone. How to combat: Know that law enforcement agencies do not make phone calls about arrest warrants. Never give personal information over the phone. Notify police. KIDNAPPING How it works: You receive a phone call demanding money in exchange for the return of a kidnapped family member. The call is from a blocked or private number and involves a man who demands money, and a girl screaming for help. How to combat: Do not provide any information to such a caller. Instead, notify police of the call. LAW ENFORCEMENT How it works: Residents will get a call from someone claiming to be a law enforcement official who has a warrant for the person. They will want payment over the phone to forego an arrest. Sometimes, its an unpaid traffic ticket they said needs to be paid. Some Treasure Coast residents said the callers have told them theyre wanted for tax fraud. How to combat: Law enforcement agencies do not make phone calls for either serving warrants or seeking payment for traffic violations. LOTTERY How it works: The scam artist will inform a person they have won a lottery, often from another country, that can be claimed if a fee is paid. How to combat: The Federal Trade Commission receives thousands of complaints annually about this type of fraud. Legitimate companies do not require payment or the purchase of a product to get the prize. MEDICARE How it works: New Medicare cards are in the mail. At least, thats what a scam artist will tell recipients of the federal program. Theyll also say they need your bank information or your Medicare number to make sure your account is set up for direct deposit. How to combat: Never give your Medicare information out over the phone to anyone other than a physician or an approved Medicare provider. PHONE SCAM How it works: The caller claims to be an officer from another state calling about federal tax debts. Instead of asking for cash to be placed on a money card (stores are stocking them less), the caller wants his targets to put the money on an iTunes gift card and to call back with the card number. How to combat: Regardless of the agency, no officer or deputy will call someone on the phone and demand money for a debt. Law enforcement officials discourage people from following the directions of a caller asking you to send them money through Western Union or via any type of money card. POP-UP ADS How it works: You turn on your computer and a pop-up ad appears from the U.S. Department of Justice, warning the machine had been locked because of illegal activity, such as child pornography. The ad also includes a photo of the computer owner. The only way to unlock the computer is to put several hundred dollars on a Green Dot MoneyPak card and enter the code from the card into the blank field on the screen. How to combat: Never respond to such ads, which are generated from a virus. Keep your anti-virus software up to date. If you do come across a virus that locks your computer, a professional computer repair company can remove it. POSTAL, DELIVERY SCAMS How they work: Third-party companies are offering change of address services to people who are moving. Signing up with them, however, results in an ongoing monthly charge of $17 to $24. You might also receive an unsolicited email about a shipment arriving at your local Federal Express asking you to click a link to print a shipping label for you to take to the store. The link, though, activates a virus that will search your computer for financial information. How to combat: Deal directly with the U.S. Postal Service when setting up a change of address. It will only cost you $1. PHISHING How it works: Youll receive an email that youve won a contest and the company needs to verify your personal information. Links in the email can put a virus on your computer to hunt for sensitive information. How to combat: Dont click on any of the links or attachments and delete the email. If you did click on a link, run an anti-virus scan. You can also spot a fake email by hovering your cursor over any links in the email to see if the URL leads to the business website. PROPERTY SALES How it works: The caller identifies himself as an advertiser to assist in buying or selling your property at no commission. The caller tells the property owner that they would advertise their property at an inflated sales price and all the owner needed to do was to give the company their credit card information or write them a check. How to combat: Never give personal information to a stranger. Immediately report it to law enforcement. Get as much information about the caller as you can so it can be investigated. PUBLIC RECORDS How it works: Some Treasure Coast residents received mail from a company offering homeowners who had recently refinanced their homes a copy of their deed and property profiles for $83. How to combat: Know your public records laws. Deeds are kept by your local Clerk of the Courts office and are available for free from any clerks office website or $1 if you need a physical copy. REVERSE MORTGAGE How it works: Information about homeownership is readily available through the property appraisers website and other public documents. Reverse mortgage scams steal equity from the property of unsuspecting seniors. How to combat: Never sign documents related to a mortgage on a home without consulting a third party, and do not sign documents you dont fully understand. SECRET SHOPPERS How it works: You receive an email or letter from a company in search of people who will test out customer service at a money wiring business. The scam artist sends you a check for a couple of thousand dollars to be used in the wiring exercise. Youll be instructed to keep a few hundred dollars as your payment and wire the rest. However, its a bad check that could ruin your finances. How to combat: Legitimate secret shopper programs exist, but they wont involve a high-dollar amount. SHIPPING PACKAGES How it works: Criminals are using stolen identities to purchase items and ship them to an address. A person will knock on the door of the home and tell the homeowner he or she mistakenly shipped a package to the address. The person says he or she knows this because they have been tracking the package, which is to be delivered that afternoon, and asks the homeowner to call the person when it arrives. Theyll sometimes give a couple phone numbers. How to combat: Do not call the person. Instead, report it to police, and give police the package, if possible. SKIMMING How it works: Reports have been made about automated teller machines that have holes drilled below the card reader. The holes would allow someone to install a device in the machine and get information on ATM cards used there. How to combat: Officials advised ATM users to check the machines they use for tampering. If they find any, call 911. SOCIAL MEDIA How it works: Be it Facebook or dating websites, scammers are creating fake profiles and gradually developing online relationships with people. Eventually, they will ask someone for money for an emergency. How to combat: Verify the person really is who they say they are before you give them any money. SOCIAL SECURITY How it works: Direct deposit is available for Social Security clients. But thieves have been obtaining personal information of Social Security beneficiaries and using it to attempt to open a My Social Security online account on the agencys website. If successful, they use that account to redirect the deposit money to an account they control. How to combat: If you receive a letter from the Social Security Administration that you have opened an online account and you did not, contact them immediately. You also can prevent the intrusion by setting up a My Social Security online account in your name before a scammer does. SWEEPSTAKES How it works: Large sums of cash and great prizes are being offered by scam artists who say theyre representing a sweepstakes program. Theyll tell you theyre in need of a processing or transfer fee of a few hundred dollars to be able to deliver the prize you won. Some scam artists are perusing obituary listings to contact families and tell them the loved one they recently lost had been a winner. How to combat: No purchase is ever necessary to win a legitimate sweepstakes program. WATER QUALITY TESTING How it works: This has been happening in Port St. Lucie but can happen anywhere. People who are not city employees have been contacting residents and asking to be let into their homes to perform water quality testing from plumbing fixtures. The individuals are telling residents they are visiting the residence on behalf of the city. They want to get into your home. How to combat: Any citys employees who perform these tests wear city-issued uniforms, carry city-issued photo ID cards, and drive vehicles that are clearly marked as belonging to the city. If you or someone you know is contacted by anyone claiming to be acting on Port St. Lucie Utility Systems Departments behalf, contact the department by calling its 24-hour service line at 772-873-6400. (Or whatever city you are in, call its city department) STUART There's a 50-50 chance the current round of Lake Okeechobee discharges to the St. Lucie River could last the rest of the year. The discharges that started Jan. 30 almost certainly will last through March and "have a high probability" of running through May, Tom Van Lent, senior scientist for the Everglades Foundation, told the Rivers Coalition on Thursday at Stuart City Hall. Follow our Lake Okeechobee discharge meter for daily updates. Members of the coalition, a consortium of more than 70 businesses, homeowners associations, nonprofit agencies and fishing clubs representing about 300,000 Treasure Coast residents, responded by unanimously approving a resolution calling for: The Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District to immediately stop the discharges. The Florida Legislature and Congress to buy land south of Lake O to store excess lake water and send it south to Everglades National Park, which is starving for more freshwater. The Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott to buy the land using proceeds from Amendment 1, which was overwhelmingly approved by the state's voters in 2014 for acquiring conservation land. Only a drier-than-normal spring and summer would stop the discharges, Van Lent said, and forecasts from the National Weather Service call for wetter-than-normal conditions through the spring. How's the water in your area? The problem: Lake Okeechobee isn't dropping like it typically does during South Florida's winter dry season. When the discharges started Jan. 30, Lake O's elevation was 15 feet 11 7/8 inches. On Thursday morning, it was 16 feet 7/8 inches. So far the discharges have dumped about 55.5 billion gallons of Lake O water into the St. Lucie. That's enough to cover the city of Stuart with 31 feet of water. It's unlikely the discharges will remain at their current level of more than 2 billion gallons a day until the end of the year; but if they did, that's enough to cover Stuart with more than 372 feet of water. TALLAHASSEE A Senate committee killed a measure Wednesday that would have allowed land and water conservation money to go to pumps and pipes for water supply projects, following environmentalists' recommendations and a previous move by the House. That's one of several improvements to a bill that streamlines how the state manages land. Some environmental lobbyists say they are ready to support the legislation but others still have issues. Conservation groups contend dollars from Amendment 1, approved by voters in 2014, shouldn't be used for water and sewer projects. They lobbied sponsor Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, to remove the provision to allow that from SB 1290, which the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government approved unanimously Wednesday. A House committee last week made the same change to its version, which is ready to be heard on the floor. The provision deals with which water projects can receive money through the Florida Forever land-buying program. Currently, water supply projects that "meet the needs of natural systems and the citizens of the state," such as reservoirs, can receive money from the program, but pumps, septic-to-sewer conversions, treatment plants and pipes cannot. Amendment 1 sets aside one-third of real estate transaction tax revenue to buy, restore and improve land and water resources through 2035. Environmentalists wrote and pushed the measure on the ballot to revive funding for Florida Forever after it dropped during the economic recession and want the money used to buy land for conservation instead of water projects. Split on support Audubon Florida Executive Director Eric Draper applauded Simpson's efforts to change the bill, which he said reauthorizes the Florida Forever program and is a sign lawmakers support the program. He also said he now hopes they will put more money into the program, which used to receive about $300 million per year before the recession, but got only $17.4 million last year. Here are other improvements Simpson made to his bill along with remaining issue environmentalists have: Requiring positive conservation outcomes outweigh negative or neutral outcomes when the state swaps land with private landowners that have a property at least 30 percent adjacent to a public land. In exchange, private owners agree not to allow development on their land. Some conservation groups such as the Conservancy of Southwest Florida think the bill doesn't go far enough and want it to prohibit parks from being swapped. Sierra Club wants the Acquisition and Restoration Council, a group of experts representing different state agencies and the governor's office, to determine that positive conservation outcome. Removing a requirement that the state review state lands every 10 years and determine whether to get rid of them if they aren't meeting the goals for which they were purchased. Environmentalists said that would cause land good for conservation to be lost. The Sierra Club is concerned with a provision that requires a property bought by the state to be used for "conservation or recreation" purposes or both, rather than the purpose for which it was acquired. If a land is bought to buffer a spring, for example, that means the state could use it for cattle grazing instead because that can be considered conservation, Sierra Club lobbyist David Cullen said. Draper disagreed with Cullen and said it doesn't make sense to "freeze the purpose of a land" as it might be needed for a different purpose in the future. He also added the changes must be compatible with a property's management plan. For Draper, some of the environmental groups that still have issues with the bill are "nitpicking." "There's not much left in the bill to complain about," he said. Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers STUART Joan Hutchinson, a Stuart resident and wife of noted artist James Hutchinson, died Tuesday of complications from Alzheimer's disease after a brief stay at Treasure Coast Hospice, according to her son, Kelly Hutchinson. She was 83. Joan Hutchinson worked and volunteered at the Elliott Museum. She taught at St. Michael's School, now The Pine School, and Jensen Beach Elementary. She helped start the Florida Flavors cookbook to raise money for the Environmental Studies Center in Jensen Beach, said Kelly Hutchinson of Austin, Texas, the younger of her two sons. Son Kevin Hutchinson, of Stuart, also is an artist. Born in Fort Lauderdale, the second of an Army colonel's three daughters, she had traveled the world before reaching adulthood, Kelly Hutchinson said, including years in occupied Japan. She graduated from Yokohama High School in 1949. 'Mom had lots of stories about the beautiful culture of Japan and how nice the people were to them,' Kelly Hutchinson said. 'She would recall that even though Japan was then an occupied country, the people still were extremely friendly and eager to move forward in the healing of their nation.' After returning to the States, she attended Georgetown University and Florida State University, majoring in education. At FSU, she met James Hutchinson and they were married in 1956 at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Stuart. They lived in the historical triangle-shaped Golden Gate building on Dixie Highway. James and Joan Hutchinson each practiced their love for art and lived a bohemian lifestyle that barely paid the bills. She created oil paintings like her husband did, but she never pursued art as a career, Kelly Hutchinson said. They would often go see their brother-in-law and very good friend, A.E. 'Beanie' Backus, an American artist famous for his vivid Florida landscapes. This further cultivated their love for art. Joan and James Hutchinson shared a fascination with the Seminole Indians, so in the late 1950s they moved to Brighton Reservation, where many Seminoles still lived the traditional way. Kelly Hutchinson recalled his mother told him she was accepted immediately by the Seminole women, while it took his father almost a year to feel welcomed. James Hutchinson was always sketching and painting, so his wife had a lot of social time with the people. She assisted them with cooking and watching the children. Like an anthropologist, she took notes and sketches on their daily routines. 'It took a special kind of adventurous soul to live in a camper tent and enjoy the beauty of the Seminole people and their surroundings,' Kelly Hutchinson said of his parents. James Hutchinson said when he was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2011 that the American Indian tribes were both his neighbors and his inspiration. The two also lived in Hawaii for 18 years, moving back to Stuart several years ago. Being married to a prominent artist didn't shadow her presence at all, her son said. 'On the contrary, she was a graceful and essential part of a romantic team that lasted for 60 years,' Kelly Hutchinson said. 'She enjoyed meeting and befriending all the wonderful people over her lifetime. It was her sincerely warm smile that carried her magic.' The family plans a private memorial service. Those who want to contact the family can sent a message through www.jameshutchinsonart.com under 'Contact.' State Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, reviews information before a Florida Senate session Jan. 13 during the 2016 Florida legislative session. (LEAH VOSS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS) SHARE By Isadora Rangel of TCPalm TALLAHASSEE Fort Lauderdale-based MCNA Dental has been trying for years to change how the state provides dental care to low-income Floridians under Medicaid. This year, a bill to do just that has a powerful sponsor: Senate President-elect Joe Negron, whose sixth-largest donor in his quarter-century political career is: MCNA. Negron's bill could allow companies such as MCNA to contract with the state directly to provide dental care. It pits the Stuart Republican against another powerful group of top donors to his campaigns and political committees: the HMO companies that now have contracts to manage all care under Medicaid, including dental. A similar bill died early in the 2015 legislative session. Since then, MCNA and its executives gave $447,100 to state lawmakers and political committees that support them. The company also deployed former Republican presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry in January to lobby fellow GOP Gov. Rick Scott, Politico Florida reported. This year's bill cleared the House Wednesday and is ready to be heard on the Senate floor. Conflict of donors MCNA has given Negron $95,000 since 2009, including $25,000 to his political committee six days after the Senate Republican caucus designated him the 2017-18 president in December. Founder Jeffrey Feingold and relatives gave $8,100 last year to the campaign of Negron's wife, Rebecca, a Martin County School Board member who's running for Congress. On the other hand, Negron's political committees received $119,500 since 2009 from the group leading the charge against his bill, the Florida Association of Health Plans, and five of the Medicaid HMO companies it represents. Blue Cross Blue Shield, whose affiliate Florida True Health is a Medicaid plan, is Negron's forth largest donor, giving him $100,000 in 2012. Blue Cross hasn't publicly spoken against the bill. Negron said the double dose of donors proves he's an independent thinker on the issue. "I make decisions (based) on what I think it's best for my constituents," Negron said. "I receive contributions from organizations that support an independent (dental) plan, and I receive contributions from organizations that oppose it." The carve out Negron wrote 2011 legislation to privatize Medicaid, switching it from a disjointed network of individual medical and dental plans that were hard for the state to control into a system known as managed care, in which Medicaid is administered mostly by HMOs. With that switch, MCNA lost its dental contracts with the state and now has to subcontract with the HMOs. Negron's SB 994 requires the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration to study whether access to dental care has improved under the current system and present the results to the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott by Dec. 1. Lawmakers would decide, based on the study, to leave dental care as it is or to contract directly with at least two dental care providers in what is known as a carved out system. If the Legislature fails to make that decision during the 2017 legislative session, when Negron will preside over the Senate, dental services would automatically become separate. That's a problem for Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, the only senator who voted against the bill in its three committee hearings. It's normal for the Legislature to take years to pass legislation, Joyner said. And with Negron's bill, the state would be stuck with a carved out system that isn't necessarily better if lawmakers can't act. The Florida Association of Health Plans argues having separate plans will lead to a fragmented system in which patients don't get treated for their whole-body health. "I just want to see some data that justifies this change," Joyner said during a Jan. 11 hearing. "I agree we need to move toward improving (the system), but in the meantime I just can't reconcile voting for a bill that would mandate that we change the law regardless of the report." Better care? Negron said the national trend is to move toward a carved out system. Texas has done it, and 80 percent of children under Medicaid there have seen a dentist. But that's because the state has higher reimbursement rates for providers than Florida, said Audrey Brown, CEO of the Florida Association of Health Plans. While some states increased access to care by carving out dental services, a state's success is tied to funding for the program, making participation in the program easy and active partnership with providers, said Andrew Snyder, project director at the National Academy for State Health Policy. In Florida, 43 percent of children in Medicaid have seen a dentist, according to a January report by the Agency for Health Care Administration. That's the highest score in the history of Florida's Medicaid, Brown said. The companies she represents have a 5-year contract to manage Medicaid until 2019, and Brown wants them to have more time to show they can continue to improve scores. Negron pointed out those companies already subcontract with other dental companies to provide that service, and he questioned why the state can't contract directly with them. It makes sense to separate dental from regular medical services under Medicaid, he said, because people who have private health insurance have different providers for those services. "My guiding principle has always been to do the health care provision under Medicaid as close as possible to health care provided under anyone else," he said. "We view Medicaid more as payment source rather than putting people into a system." Follow Isadora Rangel, Arek Sarkissian and Tampa news partner Jeff Schweers for updates on all the legislative action. Tweets about from:IsadoraRangel2 OR from:ArekSarkissian OR from:jeffschweersTBO Most Treasure Coast lawmakers who eagerly backed Gov. Jeb Bush for president are now supporting U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who placed second in Tuesday's Nevada GOP caucus. It's a move encouraged by state Rep. Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, who stumped for Rubio in New Hampshire and predicted he would garner more support as the raucous race for the White House gears up for Super Tuesday on March 1, when several states caucus or hold Republican presidential primaries. She acknowledged the "tough decision" many of her fellow Treasure Coast lawmakers made in selecting Bush over Rubio, a one-time Florida House speaker and Bush's former political protege. "We are welcoming anyone and everyone who wants to get on board with team Marco," Mayfield said Wednesday. "Gov. Bush was a good governor and he has very loyal followers ... and I'm very proud to have them on board with us now." State Sen. Thad Altman, R-Rockledge, who was pro-Bush, has endorsed Rubio, along with state Reps. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, Marylynn Magar, of Tequesta, and Cary Pigman, of Sebring. NOT ALL ABOARD A noted exception is Florida's Senate president-elect Joe Negron, R-Stuart, who canvassed for Bush in New Hampshire. Reached Wednesday, Negron declined to back Rubio or his rivals front-runner Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Ohio Gov. John Kasich or Ben Carson. "I was honored to endorse and support Gov. Bush because he was a transformational conservative governor who was always there for the Treasure Coast and our environment," Negron wrote in a text message. "I will enthusiastically support the eventual Republican presidential nominee." Indian River Tax Collector Carole Jean Jordan, a former chairwoman of the Florida Republican Party, was a volunteer for the Bush campaign and walked precincts in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. She said Monday she was "just reeling" from Bush's decision Saturday to pull out. Bush's campaign, she said, stuck to its message but couldn't overcome the "very unusual circumstances with a disingenuous bully getting the majority of the airtime." Asked for her second choice in the race, Jordan said she's still mulling her support. "We have several very talented people running for the Republican nomination and some equally not deserving of the nomination," she said. "I will consider that over the next few days." "DYNAMIC PERSON" Altman meanwhile, said while he was "sad" and surprised Bush dropped out, he's now firmly in Rubio's camp. "I think Jeb was the strongest candidate; I am endorsing Marco Rubio now," he said. "Marco is a dynamic person. He brings a lot to the table. They underestimate his experience, but Marco was the most powerful guy in the third largest state in the union as Speaker of the House ... He'll do a great job." Harrell, who served with Rubio in the Florida House, would likely agree. "I was disappointed Gov. Bush decided to step out of the race but I certainly understand he was not getting the traction we all hoped he would," she said Wednesday. "I'm supporting Marco; he was my No. 2 guy all along ... he has a vision for America that is so positive. He wants to really make us the best we can be." SAME PAGE Although he can't endorse a candidate this early in the political season, Martin County Republican Party chairman Donald Pickard said he thinks Rubio will be the largest beneficiary of Bush's dropping out. "They are more or less on the same page," Pickard said, "even though they've spent the last month or so whacking at each other." St. Lucie County GOP chairman Bill Paterson sees Bush supporters voting first for Rubio, then Cruz, then Trump in that order. Of Bush dropping out, Paterson was blunt. "I'm very pleased he left," he said. "I wish he had left earlier. I wish it hadn't been so negative." Paterson said the Common Core education standards and a weak position in illegal immigration doomed Bush, and he regrets that in the final weeks, Bush saw it necessary to attack Rubio. "I'm hoping that friendship can be patched up," he said. Bartholomew Sullivan, a veteran Washington reporter who heads Treasure Coast Newspapers' D.C. news bureau, contributed to this report. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives at a rally Feb. 17, 2016, at the Sumter Country Civic Center in Sumter, S.C. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) By Dacia Johnson of TCPalm Weeks away from Florida's primary, the lastest Quinnipiac University Poll shows Donald Trump leading Sen. Marco Rubio 44-22 percent among Republican primary voters in Florida. Sen. Ted Cruz has 12 percent with Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 7 percent and Dr. Ben Carson at 4 percent according to the poll released Feb. 25. Florida is the single biggest prize of the primary season because it is the largest state to allocate its delegates on a winner-take-all basis. If Sen. Rubio cant win in his own home state, it is difficult to see how he can win elsewhere, Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll said in a news release. Trump, the GOP front-runner, has won three of four primary elections causing some to speculate about his vice presidential pick. A Washington Post blog named Gov. Rick Scott as a potential running mate among others. MORE | Many Treasure Coast Bush backers lining up behind Rubio PRESERVING SUNSHINE: A bill that would have been detrimental to public records access in Florida has been changed. When a government agency refuses to allow a member of the public or media to inspect or copy a public record, the requestor's only recourse is to file a civil lawsuit. Florida Statutes 119.12 says 'the court shall assess and award' reasonable fees to a successful plaintiff in a public records lawsuit. Senate Bill 1220, filed by state Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, would have changed 'shall' to 'may.' The change, though subtle, would have been significant. It would have given the court discretion to withhold awards to successful plaintiffs. However, the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee amended the bill. The new version retains the 'shall' proviso if the court determines the agency violated the law and the requester provided written notice to the custodian of public records at least five business days before filing the lawsuit. The amended bill also stipulates a court may not award attorney fees if it is determined the public request was made for the primary purpose of harassing the agency or causing a violation of public records law. Water from Lake Okeechobee is discharged through the St. Lucie Lock and Dam in Martin County. The discharges began Jan. 30 and Army Corps of Engineers officials said they would continue pushing lake water into the St. Lucie Estuary at a rate of 2 billion to 3 billion gallons of water a day. (XAVIER MASCARENAS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS) By Editorial Board Surely the Army Corps of Engineers would explore all possible alternatives before releasing maximum allowed discharges of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie River. For the record, "maximum allowed discharges" translates into about 3 billion gallons a day the current amount fouling our river and Indian River Lagoon. Given the catastrophic environmental and economic impacts that follow in the wake of these massive discharges, surely the corps would open the spigots all the way only as a last resort. LOL. The joke, if there is one, is on us. Who knew the corps could raise the water level in a Miami-Dade County canal by one foot and send an extra 450 million gallons to 500 million gallons a day to Everglades National Park? Follow our Lake Okeechobee discharge meter for daily updates. It took a request from Gov. Rick Scott proffered in a Feb. 9 letter to corps officials for the federal agency to begin implementing this strategy. The corps approved Scott's request Feb. 16. Federal officials orchestrating the destruction of our river and estuary appear to suffer from a lack of creativity. Either that or they just don't care. Residents at the eastern terminus of the Lake O water disposal system may think massive discharges are a last resort. How's the water in your area? The truth is, flooding the estuaries is often the default when lake levels need to be reduced. The L-29 Canal in Miami-Dade County runs east-to-west parallel to Tamiami Trail on the border between Everglades National Park and Water Conservation Area 3. Raising the canal level by one foot has the potential to help move some excess lake water south, rather than east to the St. Lucie River and west to the Caloosahatchee River. However, even in this scenario, our region would take a back seat to agricultural interests. Any extra space created in the Water Conservation Area by moving additional water into the canal likely will be filled by water drained off the Everglades Agricultural Area. The action by the corps might negate the need for more backpumping into Lake O. But it probably won't make much of a dent in the massive discharges. Once again, agricultural interests trump the interests of Treasure Coast residents. The corps' main priorities are flood control and public safety i.e., preventing a breach of the dike at the south end of Lake Okeechobee. We get that. However, at seemingly every turn, our region appears to be little more than an afterthought. My choice for best picture of 2015 is "Spotlight." This extraordinary movie shows us how reporters and editors at The Boston Globe exposed the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in the Boston area. We'll find out if it wins the Oscar for best picture when ABC brings us the Academy Awards at 8:30 p.m. Sunday. I was the editor of another newspaper that informed the public of sexual abuse by priests. More on that angle later. "Spotlight" already has won a number of awards after receiving rave reviews. Even the Catholic News Service called it "illuminating." The movie takes its name from the Globe's Spotlight investigative team, which began looking into sex-abuse cases in 2001 under then new editor Martin Baron and despite the opposition of Cardinal Bernard Law, who covered up the scandal. Not only a gripping drama, "Spotlight" is the most accurate movie portrayal of how good journalists do their work since "All the President's Men." They knock on doors. They pore over records. They argue among themselves. They stand up to bullying by the powerful. They seek the truth. In the movie, Marty Baron, now 61, is played by Liev Schreiber, who captures the editor's low-key tenacity. Baron grew up in Tampa. His first job out of Lehigh University was in The Miami Herald's Stuart bureau (since closed). He lived in an apartment near Confusion Corner and covered Martin County. After rising up the ranks at the Herald, he moved to The Los Angeles Times and then The New York Times. Baron returned to the Herald as the executive editor in 2000. He directed coverage of the disputed 2000 presidential election vote count in Florida and the return of young Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, for which the newspaper's staff won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. That same year, Baron was named news chief of the Globe. At an editors' meeting his first day on the job, he asked what was being done to follow up a column about secrecy surrounding a case against a priest accused on sexual abuse of minors. No one said anything. Baron decided the newspaper should petition the court to unseal documents that could reveal the role of the Roman Catholic archdiocese. That was the beginning of the Spotlight investigation. In 2013, Baron took over as executive editor of The Washington Post. In 2014, the Post won a Pulitzer for its revelations about spying by the National Security Agency. Ten years before the Globe's disclosures, I was the new editor of the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Massachusetts, west of Boston. Soon after I started, I learned that priests in the Worcester diocese had sexually abused minors but the offenses were kept secret. We started investigating. Men who said they had been victims as boys consented to be interviewed. They asked not to be named. I already had established a policy that anyone quoted in a staff-written story must be named and persuaded the men to let us identify them. We published several stories about such cases on Page 1 under restrained headlines. A monsignor who was executive assistant to the bishop called me to say that I, a Mass-going Catholic, was a disgrace to the church. In 2003, the Globe won a Pulitzer for "comprehensive coverage of sexual abuse by priests." In 2016, I hope "Spotlight" wins the Oscar. Paul Janensch, a seasonal resident of Vero Beach, was a newspaper editor and taught journalism at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. His email address is paul.janensch@quinnipiac.edu. 'Sea Fest For Kids' at the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum is just around the corner on Saturday, Feb. 27, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. With sea-inspired fun, education, vendors, land-based activities, water safety demonstrations and a bounty of adventures, 'Sea Fest For Kids' celebrates our unique coastal heritage with nautical style. Plus there's a bonus treasure for all fourth-grade students! All fourth-graders or home school equivalents can visit national parks, lands and waters all year for free courtesy of the U.S. Government. Visit https://www.everykidinapark.gov/ and follow the instructions for discovering America's natural wonders and historic sites through family outings designed by you! Your family can visit a national park, the Florida Keys, the St. Louis Arch or even walk in the footprints of dinosaurs. So print out your pass today and bring it to the Bureau of Land Management tent during the festival for a credit-card size souvenir pass and then begin your exploration of America's Treasures. Passes are valid from Sept. 1, 2015 through Aug. 31, 2016 and are perfect for spring breaks or family vacations. At 'Sea Fest For Kids,' you'll meet lively characters from Jupiter's past, including pioneers at the Tindall Pioneer Homestead, a real pirate or two on their pirate ship and Living History folks telling civil war tales. Join in crafts and stories geared for the very young, honoring Native Americans under our Seminole Chickee, listen to children's book authors as they read their works aloud, dance to lively maritime music and take a hike through the Outstanding Natural Area. Captain Crossbones and his crew will be teaching young Bucs about the pirate life and how to make a 'really great name for themselves' arghhhh! Maybe even 'walk the plank.' Sea Fest kids can perfect craftiness in arts activities by sculpting a lighthouse or painting a wall mural, and enjoy an old-fashioned Treasure Hunt map filled with clues or go with a new high-tech twist on treasure hunting. Mermaid and pirate costumes are welcome! Participants for the inaugural event include the Jupiter Community High School Drama students, River Center, AustinBlu Foundation, Just Dance Inc, Blueline Surf and Paddle, Bureau of Land Management, Lighthouse ArtCenter, Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue, Macaroni Kid, Beach Guardians Atlantic Coast, Sea to Shore Alliance, the Children's Museum of the Treasure Coast, Author Harvey Oyer III, Professor Clark the Science Shark and Bricks4Kidz. Presenting sponsor for 'Sea Fest For Kids' is Best Version Media and event sponsors include the Jupiter Courier Newsweekly, Treasure Coast Newspapers/TCPalm.com, 97.9 WRMF, 103.1 WIRK, Sunny 107.9, Jupiter Minuteman Press, Macaroni Kid, Michael Rybovich & Sons Boat Works, Atlantic Ts, Pirates of the Treasure Coast, and Tidy Coast Event Services. They'll be plenty of live music and kid-friendly food trucks and ice cream at your favorite hometown Lighthouse. Kids 18 and under are admitted free and adults are $10 per person. Tickets for adults are available online at www.jupiterlighthouse.org. Don't miss this waterfront festival for Kids celebrating our maritime heritage! Visit our Facebook page for updates and additional Sea Fest For Kids information at www.facebook.com/events/1712095915686653 or visit our website at www.jupiterlighthouse.org. 59th International Red Cross Ball's 'spirit of America' M*A*S*H actress Loretta Swit and Red Cross volunteer nurses were honored during this lavish evening. The 59th International Red Cross Ball delivered elegance and a feeling of nostalgia to more than 500 supporters of the American Red Cross, when the highlight of the Palm Beach social season took place Feb. 6 at The Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach. Under the direction of Chairman Jeanne Pidot, the evening honored the history of American Red Cross nursing and celebrated the spirit of America with a nod to the iconic television series, M*A*S*H. 'I am honored to be tonight's chairman for the ball as we celebrate the American Red Cross and the indomitable patriotism of our supporters and honorees,' stated Mrs. Pidot. 'The American Red Cross was founded by a nurse, Clara Barton, and as a nurse myself, I want to celebrate the service of these angels of mercy. Once upon a time, we were all compelled to serve our country, and I invite you to be reminded of the dignity and honor of American volunteerism.' The Honorary Chairman for the evening was Patrick M. Park and the Honorary Vice-Chairman was Patty Myura. Co-Chairs included Veronica Atkins, Paula Butler, Herme de Wyman Miro, Molly Downing, Mei Sze Greene, Suzanne L. Niedland, Bjaye Pilotte, Suzanne Tomsich and Carolyn and John Yurtchuk. The Chairman of the American Red Cross is The Honorable Bonnie McElveen-Hunter. And Chief of Protocol for the Ball was Ambassador Stuart Bernstein. Guests had the good fortune to meet America's legendary television nurse, Swit, who was honored for her humanitarian efforts. As the quick-witted nurse Major Margaret 'Hot Lips' Houlihan on television's most honored series, M*A*S*H, Swit captured the imagination of generations of television viewers. Other honorees that evening were American Red Cross volunteer nurses, Gloria Blair, R.N., June Hewitt, R.N., Vera Hypolite, R.N. and Jean Lewis, R.N, who have 200 years of volunteer experience combined with the American Red Cross. 'Tonight's honorees have a common thread,' continued Mrs. Pidot. 'All five women are tireless advocates for those in need. Their humanitarian efforts exemplify the spirit of America and we thank them for all they do and for being here this evening.' Under the creative designs of Bruce Sutka, the opulent ball included a M*A*S*H-inspired theme with Red Cross 'nurses' greeting the attendees in nurse uniforms from throughout the decades. During the cocktail reception, guests felt as though they are walking onto a TV set. Tents, stage lights, video crews and even a helicopter decorated The Mar-a-Lago Club's circular drive. Ambassadors lined up in the gold and white ballroom for the legendary receiving line. Countries represented were Afghanistan, Brazil, Columbia, Denmark, Japan and Peru, along with former US Ambassadors to China, Denmark and Finland. Also included in the procession were the night's honorees, Swit as well as the four nurses Ms.Blair, Hewitt, Hypolite and Lewis. As guests made their way to dinner, the Grand Ballroom had been transformed into an 'Officers' Club,' with a giant parachute propelled from the ceiling and vintage American Red Cross posters projected onto the walls. Guests danced the night away to the fabulous Sultans of Swing as well as a special performance by talented sister act, Gracie and Lacy. Grand Benefactors for the 59th International Red Cross Ball included Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Greene and Patrick M. Park, Park Foundation. Grand Patrons included Mr. and Mrs. Robert Butler with Patrons including Veronica Atkins, Mr. and Mrs. John J. Cafaro, Patty Myura, Eleanor Patterson Reeves Foundation, Ms. Suzanne L. Niedland, The Honorable Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Mr. and Mrs. Whitney Pidot, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Pilotte and Mr. and Mrs. John Yurtchuk. Grand Sponsors included Herme de Wyman Miro, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Tomsich and Mr. and Mrs. Leo Vecellio. A separate black-tie cocktail reception, graciously hosted by Janet and J.J. Cafaro, took place the evening before the 59th International Red Cross Ball in honor of the ambassadors. Proceeds from the 59th International Red Cross Ball will benefit the mission of the organization -- to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. For more information please contact Jennifer Whitaker at 561-650-9105 or Jennifer.Whitaker@redcross.org. Send items and photos to CarolChatter@aol.com. Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach released the sub-adult loggerhead sea turtle Cici from nearby its facility at 11 a.m. Feb. 17 as 800 of the human kind applauded. Cici had been stranded at Coral Cove Park in Tequesta back in November 2015. So, the release at the beach behind LMC, Loggerhead Park, was the culmination of a great effort. And it was made possible with the help of Jupiter Medical Center, which provided Cici a CT scan that revealed a condition called pneumocoelom. Her 'free air in the coelomic cavity' was determined to be from a ruptured lung. REASONING BEFORE RELEASE Pneumocoelom can be problematic for turtles for several reasons. When gas builds up inside sea turtles, they start to become buoyant to the point that they float on the surface of the water and are unable to successfully dive down. This means they are more vulnerable to being blown ashore or being injured by boats or fishing gear. They can also have difficulty finding food. Figuring out where the pockets of gas were located, using the CT scan, was crucial in preparing Cici for recovery, as treatment for these turtles can vary depending on the location of the air trapped in their bodies. Because buoyancy disorders can be caused by a number of issues, determining the exact problem was no easy task but the turtle hospital and Jupiter Medical staff were eager to help Cici get back to deep waters. Dr. Lee Fox, chief of radiology at Jupiter Medical Center, read the CT scan, and specialists were then able to withdraw six liters of air from where it had built up inside the turtle. HEALTHY & READY Thanks to Jupiter Medical Center and LMC staff, Cici was healthy and ready to return to her ocean home. A history of Cici's journey and final arrangements were conveyed to visitors by one of the center's education docents. About 800 visitors to LMC made a procession to the beach for her release to follow. It was an amazing turnout! About Loggerhead Marinelife Center: Unique among nonprofits, Loggerhead Marinelife Center is a totally free (no charge) cultural facility in northern Palm Beach County, Florida. LMC relies on the generosity of guests, volunteers, and supporters to power their mission of ocean and sea turtle conservation. LMC's 30-year history is one of community, family, and fun. LMC's beachside campus is home to one of the world's most advanced sea turtle hospitals and research laboratories. The center also operates the iconic Juno Beach Pier. For more information about Loggerhead Marinelife Center, visit the facility online at marinelife.org . About Jupiter Medical Center: A not-for-profit 327-bed regional medical center consisting of 207 private acute-care hospital beds and 120 long-term care, sub-acute rehabilitation and Hospice beds, Jupiter Medical Center is reimagining how to restore the community's health and wellness. Award-winning physicians, world-class partnerships and innovative techniques and technology enable Jupiter Medical Center to provide a broad range of services with specialty concentrations in cardiology, oncology, imaging, orthopedics & spine, digestive health, emergency services, lung & thoracic, women's health, weight management and men's health. Treasure Coast residents are waking to a cooler, calmer day after a stormy cool front moved through Wednesday afternoon, briefly forming a funnel cloud near Vero Beach. Indian River County students were kept inside their schools temporarily until the storm passed; schools were released on time. No damage was reported. Thursday is forecast to be drier yet breezy. A lake wind advisory is in effect until 6 p.m. because winds could gust to 30 mph, forecasters say. Skies are to clear and the forecast is for sunny cool weather through the weekend. Early-morning lows are expected to drop into the low 40s Friday and Saturday. Highs should be in the upper 60s or around 70 through Sunday. It should be warmer by midweek next week, forecasters say. The storm system that went through Wednesday is the same one that spawned tornadoes across Gulf Coast states Tuesday night. Tuesday's storms mangled trailers at an RV park, ripped roofs from buildings and killed at least three people in Louisiana and Mississippi. As the front moved into the Treasure Coast, starting around noon, a dark, rotating funnel cloud prompted a tornado warning at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday in Vero Beach. It passed near the Indian River Mall and went eastward, finally going out in the ocean. There were multiple sightings, but they were all of the same cloud, according to the National Weather Service in Melbourne. The tornado warning was discontinued at 1:08 p.m. The funnel cloud came during the first of a series of storm lines, including thunderstorms, that periodically passed through the Treasure Coast, dropping an estimated .071 inch of rain by 4 p.m. Wednesday in Indian River County and half an inch in St. Lucie County, the National Weather Service said. The storms are linked to an unusually strong El Nino that started last year. Because of it, Florida has seen almost twice as many tornadoes 23 as it usually sees this time of year during the winter dry season. Neither Florida Power & Light Co. nor Vero Beach Utilities reported significant outages from Wednesday's storm. An FPL spokesman said they had just a pair of customers lose power. Staff writer Lamaur Stancil contributed to this report. The artificial intelligence component of Googles Level 4 autonomous cars can be considered the driver, whether or not the cars are occupied by humans, the U.S.National Highway Transportation Safety Administration said in a letter released Tuesday. Level 4 full self-driving automation vehicles perform all safety-critical driving functions and monitor roadway conditions for an entire trip. Googles L4 vehicle design will do away with the steering wheel and the brake and gas pedals. Current U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, or FMVSS, dont apply because they were drafted when driver controls and interfaces were the norm and it was assumed the driver would be a human, the NHTSA wrote to Chris Urmson, who heads Googles Self-Driving Car Project. Those assumptions wont hold as autonomous car technology advances, and the NHTSA may not be able to use its current test procedures to determine compliance with the safety standards. Google is the only company so far committed to L4 because their objective is to completely eliminate the human, and thus human error, from driving, said Praveen Chandrasekar, a research manager at Frost & Sullivan. Ford and GM are thinking about similar levels of automation, he told TechNewsWorld. Safety Standards Google had provided two suggested interpretations of what a driver is and one for where the drivers seating position is, and then applied these approaches to various provisions so its self-driving vehicle design could be certified compliant with FMVSS. The next question is whether and how Google could certify that the SDS (self-driving system) meets a standard developed and designed to apply to a vehicle with a human driver, the NHTSA wrote. It must have a test procedure or other means of verifying such compliance. The NHTSAs interpretation is significant, but the burden remains on self-driving car manufacturers to prove that their vehicles meet rigorous federal safety standards, U.S.Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Wednesday. The NHTSAs interpretation is outrageous, said John Simpson, a consumer advocate atConsumer Watchdog. Googles own numbers reveal its autonomous technology failed 341 times over 15 months, demonstrating that we need a human driver behind the wheel who can take control. Youll recall that the robot technology failed 241 times, and the human driver was scared enough totake control 69 times, he told TechNewsWorld. Unresolved Issues Many of Googles requests present policy issues beyond the scope and limitations of interpretations and thus will need to be addressed using other regulatory tools or approaches, the NHTSA stated. They include FMVSS No. 135, which governs light vehicle brake systems; FMVSS No. 101, which covers controls and displays; and FMVSS No. 108, governing lamps, reflective devices and associated equipment. In some cases, Google might be able to show that certain standards are unnecessary for a particular vehicle design, but it hasnt yet made such a showing. Google may have to seek exemptions to prove its vehicles meet FMVSS standards as an interim step because the NHTSAs interpretations dont fully resolve all the issues raised. All kinds of people are working on L4 cars, and theres an indication the NHTSAs going to be relatively accommodating with the granting of exemptions, said Roger Lanctot, an associate research director at Strategy Analytics. The orientation of NHTSA is strongly toward taking the driver out of the driver seat, he told TechNewsWorld. Insurance and Liability Current FMVSS rules will have to change to accommodate Googles request, which will see changes in auto insurance, Frost & Sullivans Chandrasekar predicted, because currently, insurance is decided based largely on the driver and minimally on the vehicle. Further, liability is a huge factor, and that will need to be carefully analyzed as OEMs will end up being largely responsible, he said. This is why OEMs like Volvo, Audi and Mercedes-Benz have stated that in their L3 vehicles theyll assume all liability when the vehicle is driving itself. United States Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, last week introduced legislation to prevent states from passing laws banning the sale of smartphones with encryption capabilities. The ENCRYPT Act of 2016, as the bill is known, provides that a state or political subdivision of a state may not mandate or request that a manufacturer, developer, seller or provider of covered products either design a security backdoor or modify existing security functions to allow the surveillance of their users or allow their physical search by any agency or instrumentality of a state, a political subdivision of a state or the United States. No Backdoors The bill prohibits the use of products or services from manufacturers, developers, sellers or providers to decrypt or otherwise render intelligible information that has been encrypted or otherwise rendered unintelligible. Covered products and services include computer hardware, software, electronic devices, and online services available to the general public. In short, the bill aims to shut off attempts by the FBI, NSA and law enforcement agencies in the U.S. to force high-tech companies to include security or encryption backdoors or otherwise provide access to information on devices. Rationale for the Act I was concerned when I saw the New York State legislators bill that would mandate encryption backdoors, and got more concerned when the California state legislature introduced a similar bill, Lieu told TechNewsWorld. California is a Democratic state, and if a Democratic legislator introduces the bill, I figure it will pass. The FBI, the NSA and other law enforcement agencies have been pressing for encryption backdoors. FBI Director James Comey went so far as to suggest Congress might have to intervene if Apple and Google refused to remove default encryption from iOS and Android, but some lawmakers gave that suggestion a chilly reception. A Weather Eye You cant design a smartphone that would work in different states differently in terms of encryption, because people travel in different states all the time, Lieu pointed out. The issue is not about encryption, per se, he said. Whether you believe in encryption backdoors or oppose them, you can still support the [ENCRYPT 2016] bill, because states shouldnt get into interstate commerce. The bill introduces people to the issue, observed Daniel Castro, a vice president at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, and in some ways, it educates policy makers on the issue. It also sends a signal to the states that Congress is keeping an eye on things, and maybe theyll give the issue some serious consideration, Castro told TechNewsWorld. We need a national policy on this, he remarked. Its not just about screwing up encryption but about how we can do national security really well. New Delhi, India, February 25, 2016: Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has tied up with OYO Rooms, Indias largest branded network of hotels to offer standardized accommodation and a convenient booking platform to Rail travellers. The partnership symbolizes the growing leverage of synergies between the government and homegrown Indian businesses to drive the next wave of innovation. OYO Rooms will power the IRCTC hotel-booking page, offering their inventory and promise of standardized amenities to Rail passengers. Speaking on the tie-up, CMD IRCTC Dr. A.K.Manocha commented, We are committed to drive efficiencies and enhance our service through innovation. OYO Rooms has propelled the hotel market in India towards new horizon and pioneered the standardization of affordable hotel-rooms. This partnership contributes another chapter to the successful narrative of Made in India initiatives and how tech-enabled solutions will power the next wave of innovation. We have made the necessary technology integrations and will be actively communicating about this newly available option through e-mailers, information on e-tickets so that our travellers can explore and utilize these services. Abhinav Sinha, COO OYO Rooms said, We are honoured and delighted to power the hotels-booking engine of IRCTC and serve Indian railway passengers. With this tie-up IRCTC customers will have ready access to OYOs inventory of predictable, standardized and affordable hotel accommodation, across 170 cities in India. As Indias widest and largest network, we feel confident of catering to the passengers needs and look forward to making this alliance a great success. Abhinav elaborated further, OYO Rooms was conceived with a vision to change the way travellers view out-of-home stay. Our aim is to deliver home-like comfort at affordable prices so that wherever you may be travelling to, you would want to stay at an OYO booked through IRCTC-OYO network. The first step towards fulfilling this mandate was to expand our footprint to provide the comfort of a wide network. We are now focusing on enhancing guest experience and making our processes more robust through technology. IRCTC-OYO Rooms will offer nearly 45,000 hotel rooms in over 170 cities in India. The IRCTC portal witnesses 5 to 5.5 lakhs bookings per day on an average. Also, OYO Rooms recently crossed 1 million check-ins across its network. This tie-up offers a hassle-free platform for IRCTC customers to book hotel rooms across 170 cities in India. The partnership is fueled by integration of technologies from both ends and will empower Rail travellers by offering a smooth end-to-end travel-and-accommodation experience. OYO Rooms has successfully created the legacy in Indian hospitality sector, creating a sizeable and new market opportunity. It promises comfortable and delightful stays with assured amenities such as an air conditioned room, complimentary breakfast and Wi-Fi with 247 customer service support. The vision behind IRCTC-OYO partnership is to become the most preferred and trusted hotel brand and to create reliable and affordable Hotel network for Railways Passengers. OYO is backed by the worlds leading investors including the SoftBank Group, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed India. Technuter.com News Service On behalf of the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India (TEMA), The domestic telecom industry welcomes the development of enabling 100 new railways stations with Wi-Fi services. This is a positive development in line with the governments Digital India initiative to bring more internet users online. This would serve to be a great opportunity for the government to encourage domestic Wi-Fi equipment manufacturers to participate in the project and provide level playing field to the domestic players in line with the Make in India campaign. The domestic telecom industry would look forward to more such positive developments in the future and also appreciates the governments efforts to urbanize the Indian Railways infrastructure. Technuter.com News Service LG Mobile's freshly unveiled 2016 flagship smartphone has got to be the most interesting Android handset I've ever seen to date this top-of-the-line release has a bottom tip that you can pull out and replace with modules that can greatly enhance the user experience Update as of April 28, 2015: LG G5 has just been officially launched in the Philippines. It's official SRP is Php 34,990 and it will be out in a number of colors, namely, Gray, Titan, Gold, and Pink. Modules and Imaging Capabilities the LG G5 has two snappers on the rear: One with a standard 78-degree lens and another with a 135-degree wide angle lens, which is - incredibly - the widest available in any smartphone This is an innovative portable Hi-Fi DAC audio player that was developed in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen PLAY to meet the needs of those who seek to enjoy premium sounds that have traditionally only been available through high-end audio devices Design and Specs The raw power of these innards be enough to put LG G5 more or less on the same level as the freshly announced Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge in terms of gaming and overall performance Meet LG G5's Friends Price and Availability The new LG G5 will encourage owners to rediscover the true joy of a mobile life. The G5 and LG Friends are the result of many experts inside LG asking themselves if it was still possible to be innovative and unique in the smartphone space. I think once customers spend a little time with the LG G5, their answer will be a resounding yes. Here's to hoping that LG would include at least one module in the retail package for free TechPinas Smartphone Technical Specs Table (TSTST) Name LG G5 Type Slate Form Factor (Full Touchscreen) Price Category Entry Level Dimensions 149.4 x 73.9 x 7.7 mm Weight 159 grams Available Colors Gold, Pink, Silver, Titan Operating System Android 6.0 Marshmallow with LG UX 5.0 UI Display 5.3 inches (~70.1% screen-to-body ratio), 1440 x 2560 pixels (~554 ppi pixel density), IPS LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, Gorilla Glass 4, Always On Display Processor Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820 chipset, Adreno 530 GPU RAM 4 GB of RAM Internal Storage 32GB of ROM, expandable via dedicated microSD card slot supporting up to 200GB. Camera Main: 16 MegaPixels (f/1.8) + 8 MegaPixels (f/2.4), laser autofocus, OIS, LED flash Front: 8 MegaPixels Video Capture Main: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, HDR, stereo sound rec. Front: 1080p@30fps Audio and Video Playback MP4, DviX, XviD, H.264, WMV, MP3, WAV, FLAC, eAAC+, WMA player Ports microUSB 3.0, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go 3.5 mm audio jack Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth v4.2, A2DP, LE, apt-X, 3G HSPA+; LTE GPS Yes, with GLONASS, A-GPS, and BDS FM Radio Yes Sensors Fingerprint, Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Gyroscope, Barometer, Color Spectrum Network 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, 3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100, 4G Network LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 (TBC) SIM Card Type Dual nanoSIM (most probably the model for the Philippines will have Dual SIM Capability like the LG G4) Battery Removable 2,800 mAh Li-Ion battery Uptime TBD Value-Added Features Modular Design, Dual Camera Module, aptX HD: 24-bit Hi-Fi Wireless Audio, 'Friends' Accessories Support Announcement MWC ~ February 22, 2016 Philippines: April 28, 2016 Availability TP Guesstimate: April 2016 Philippines: April 28, 2016 Price TP Guesstimate: $650 USD or Php 30,000 to Php 31,000 Official SRP in the Philippines: Php 34,990 . Everyone's been talking about innovations presented at-- but this right here is the real deal.As some of you know,was one of my daily smartphones back in 2014. That amazing flagship - replete with top-notch imaging capabilities and now holding a place in the TechPinas Gadget Vault - served me well during its run. However, I didn't upgrade to its follow-up - the- because I thought the 2015 refresh looked and worked too much like its predecessor.But when I saw LG reps demo the key features of the 2016 refresh including its uniqueat MWC in Barcelona, Spain, I was instantly smitten! I was sold! You see,As of today, there are only two plug-and-play modules available for the LG G5. But LG Mobile promised that more will be coming soon.There's the, which is a versatile camera module that you can attach to the G5 through the battery slot to deliver a comfortable grip and convenient control of a standalone camera!This one also has physical buttons for power, shutter, record, zoom, and LED indicator. Likewise, it offers intuitive autofocus and exposure lock, features usually found on point-and-shoot digital cameras. When attached to the LG G5, it even provides anto the rather smallpack that ships with the phone for extended uptime and longer shooting times with friends and family.This accessory allows you to make the most of LG G5's exceptional camera.Reinforcing LG's longstanding reputation as one of the global leaders in smartphone cameras,. The 135-degree lens on the LG's new flagship offers a viewing angle that is around 1.7 times wider than those of existing smartphone cameras and 15 degrees wider than our eyes field of view. The wide angle lens makes it possible for users to capture more landscape, taller buildings or larger group shots without having to position oneself farther from the subject.The LG G5 also features a collection of cool photo effects including. Pop-out Picture combines photos taken by the standard and wide angle lens to create a picture-in-a-frame effect. Film Effect offers a choice of nine different film emulators while Auto Shot automatically captures the perfect selfie shot when a face is recognized.The other module that will available for the LG G5 upon its global launch is theLG Hi-Fi Plus with B&O PLAY stands out for its simple yet elegant Scandinavian design as well as top-notch sound technology. On top of the 32-bit Hi-Fi DAC upsampling technology first introduced on the LG V10, LG Hi-Fi Plus with B&O PLAY also supports 32-bit 384KHz high-definition audio playback.LG G5's modular features are obviously what make it a stand-out in the high-end price echelon. However, its technical specifications and the craftsmanship that went into putting it together also put it in a league of its own.Let's talk about the phone's design. The G5 flaunts a scratch-resistant 3D Arc Glass face that protects itsdisplay as well as thefor selfies and creates a gentle curve on top of the smooth unibody aluminum shell that was crafted with advanced microdizing process. The insulative antenna is quite invisibly integrated into the body without disrupting the seamless look of the. LG designers took the design concept one step further by adding a Shiny Cut CNC-prepared edge for added contrast and a more comfortable grip.At its heart,LG G5 runs its LG-UX-flavoredoperating system with a Qualcomm MSM8996chipset incorporating Adreno 530 graphics, hasfor seamless and super-smooth multitasking, and comes withthat you can augment using thesupporting up to 200GB.Compared to the previous generation top-level Snapdragon processor, Qualcomm Technologies most advanced CPU architecture found on the Snapgradon 820 offers double the speed and power savings. The embedded Adreno 530 graphics demonstrate up to 40 percent faster graphics performance and up to 40 percent more power efficiency compared to the previous generation. LG G5's also supports 4K capture and playback at four times more than the resolution of 1080p or Full HD, enabling users to watch and capture their daily moments in stunning detail and clarity. The processor is also optimized for VR, generating quality pixels and life-like colors to deliver the ultimate VR experience to G5 users. The Snapdragon 820 processor likewise has an integrated X12 LTE modem that supports Category 12 download speeds of up to 600 Mbps and LTE Category 13 uplink speeds of up to 150 Mbps.Along with the formal unveiling of the LG G5, the Korean company is introducing a paradigm-shifting smartphone ecosystem the LG Playground, which aims to strengthen the ties with its partners and introduce various devices and supporting programs to help users fully maximize their LG smartphone experience .As part of the ecosystem, LG is introducing a wide range of companion devices - called '' - that will provide a new mobile experience far beyond traditional smartphone boundaries. Each item will be sold separately when LG G5 hits store shelves around the world sometime in Q2 2016.Theis a goggle that can be connected to the LG G5 though a dedicated cable and works exclusively with this flagship smartphone to simulate a 130-inch TV viewed from two meters away. Flaunting a stylish foldable design and unlike similar devices that require a smartphone to be inserted in the device, the LG 360 VR weighs only 118g (4.16 ounces) and is just one-third as heavy as competing VR goggles while delivering a resolution of 639 ppi. The device supports 360-degree images and videos captured with LG 360 CAM as well as all Google Cardboard content.Theis a compact 360-degree angle camera equipped with two 13 MegaPixel 200-degree wide angle cameras, 1,200 mAh battery pack and 4GB internal memory, which can be supplemented by a microSD card. The LG 360 CAM can be easily connected to the LG G5 allowing users to create 360-degree content and provides 2K video and 5.1 surround channel recording on three microphones to help users effortlessly create high-quality 360-degree contents. Thanks to the partnership with Google, images taken with the 360 CAM can easily be uploaded to Google Street View and YouTube360, adding the fun of sharing creative contents with friends and followers online. The images will also be available for viewing on the LG 360 VR or other smartphones or devices that are capable of 360-degree content.Theis a cool companion device that rolls like a ball while capturing images and videos with its integrated 8 MegaPixel camera. Not just a toy, the LG Rolling Bot can be used as a monitoring system for the home, as a pet care companion as well as a remote controller for compatible home appliances. With an IP camera that can be accessed via Wi-Fi, users can remotely monitor what's happening at their homes through live streaming.(model HBS-1100), the latest in the LG TONE Series, is a Bluetooth headset that has earned the Harman Kardon Platinum grade for its top-notch sound quality. With a Balanced Armature design for minimum distortion, LG Tone Platinum delivers exceptionally sharp and clean sound. Whats more, it is the worlds first Bluetooth headset equipped with aptX HDcodec, delivering lossless 24-bit audio for sound that is quite simply unrivaled in a wireless device.is a set of high-end earphones that's compatible with the high-quality sound of the LG Hi-Fi Plus with B&O PLAY. Designed for audiophiles or just about anyone who considers audio performance a top-priority in a mobile device, H3 by B&O PLAY works with all high-end Android smartphones that are out in the market.With the, users to easily control certain drone models. Paired with LG G5, you can use it to check the video stream from the drone and control the unmanned aircraft with the LG Smart Controller joystick.Currently only available in the LG G5,is the hub application that allows the handset to connect with LG Friends with minimal fuss and effort. LG Friends Manager automatically detects nearby LG Friends gadgets and connects quickly and easily in three simple steps, eliminating the hassle of pairing devices.According to- President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company,Yes. So far, I'm really impressed. I'm greatly looking forward to playing with this release and hopefully, having it in my personal gadget collection. Personally, I think it's a landmark smartphone model as it comes with so many innovations.As of writing, LG Mobile Philippines has yet to announce the official price and release date of the amazing LG G5. Right now, though, I'm guessing that will be launched locally come April 2016 with an SRP in the range of Php 30,000 to Php 31,000.. I'm really eyeing the Cam Plus with the extended battery pack. OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei has revealed that the Chinese handset maker will release its next flagship smartphone by the end of the second quarter of this year. In an exclusive interview with CNET, Pei said he hopes the OnePlus 3 - which will actually be the company's fourth model - will "captivate" users as much as the original did in 2014. The executive was short on details but said the next flagship will feature a new design. As the publication points out, OnePlus doesn't publish sales figures although it claims to have more than 800,000 users on its online forum that share tips, tricks and other experiences regarding their phones. Aside from its attractive price, much of what garnered attention for the three-year-old company early on was the exclusivity generated by its unique invite-only sales model. That gimmick has likely run its course, however, as Pei said OnePlus will begin using more traditional marketing strategies. Pei also told the publication that the US will be very important for his company this year, added that the OnePlus 3 will arrive in the US and other markets as an unlocked device that'll continue to be sold directly to consumers. Best yet, he said OnePlus expects to offer a "better" buying process which (fingers crossed) may mean moving away from the annoying invite-only model. And for the first time, they'll accept credit card payments in addition to PayPal. Free shipping is also sticking around, we're told. The German government has taken the controversial decision to allow intelligence agencies to use malware for the purpose of monitoring people under suspicion. A spokesman for the German interior minister announced on Monday that authorities would be able to use government-developed trojan software to infect a suspect's computers and mobile devices. The only reason the malware can be deployed, however, is if lives are at risk or the state is threatened. Additionally, a court order will be required to use the software. "Basically, we now have the skills in an area where we did not have this kind of skill," said the spokesman. The ministry also pointed out that the program was already endorsed by members of the government in autumn 2015. Privacy advocates are not happy about the ruling, with many groups claiming it crosses the line between the need to monitor dangerous individuals and basic privacy rights. "We do understand the needs of security officials, but still, in a country under the rule of law, the means don't justify the end," said Konstantin von Notz, deputy head of Germany's Green party. The software must not monitor any activities other than communications, but a spokesman from Germany-based hacker association Chaos Computer Club (CCC) has expressed doubt that this really will be the case. Frank Rieger said that the technical capabilities of the government's malware needed to be reduced. "It's almost like you're watching people think, if you're reading as they type," he said. Germany's constitutional court ruled in 2008 that the government must respect an individual's right to confidentiality when it comes to data stored on information technology systems. Monitoring must be limited to a suspect's communications with the outside world. The CCC reverse engineered and analyzed a "lawful interception" malware program used by German police forces back in 2011. The group found that the software could "not only siphon away intimate data but also offers a remote control or backdoor functionality for uploading and executing arbitrary other programs. Significant design and implementation flaws make all of the functionality available to anyone on the internet." Google seems to be having some trouble with Europe's tax laws. Last month, it was reported that Italian police suspect the company has evaded 227 million euros ($247.5 million) in taxes between 2009 and 2013. Now, French authorities have demanded that the tech giant pays 1.6 billion euros ($1.7 billion) in back taxes it allegedly avoided by using complex financial arrangements. "As far as our country is concerned, back taxes concerning this company amount to 1.6 billion euros," an anonymous source at the French finance ministry said. The demand comes after Google reached an agreement with the UK government last month to pay back 3 percent in tax, or 130 million ($181 million). The amount, which covers money owed since 2005, was criticized for being "disproportionately small," especially considering that the UK is Google's second-largest market. Well this is awkward. Google UK pays equivalent of 3% Tax. Google Italy pays 15% in Tax. Well done @George_Osborne https://t.co/fXGkKxw6k9 --- Martin Abrams (@Martin_Abrams) January 26, 2016 French Finance Minister Michel Sapin has ruled out making a similar deal with Google, as he said the sums at stake in France were "far greater" than those in Britain, according to Reuters. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has defended the company's tax practices. "We're a global company. We have to abide by tax laws everywhere, we do abide by local tax laws in every single country," he said. "We're advocating strongly for a simpler global tax system," he added. A number of US tech giants, including Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, have come under fire from the European Commission for using a variety of methods to avoid standard tax rates across the continent. They often achieve this by basing their regional headquarters in countries such as Ireland, which has a much lower corporate tax rate than the rest of Europe. EU tax law states that companies don't have to pay tax in a country where they don't have a "permanent establishment." "If governments don't like these laws they have the power to change them," a Google Spokeswoman said. With the adult coloring book trend still on the rise, its no surprise that a recent slew of sci-fi and comic book-based items have started to crop up, especially in areas that thrive off an entire collector's market. Even if The Doctor Who Coloring Book is only the latest from a fad that might fade as suddenly as it shot to popularity, it can stand on it's own as a unique item of memorabilia. It promises (and delivers) "planets, galaxies, villains, heroes, the Doctor, the Tardis and the time vortex," but it also gives us something more: a touching tribute to more than five decades' worth of Doctor Who. And even though The Doctor Who Coloring Book is being marketed to teens (the drawings might be a bit too complex for the average preschool- or kindergarten-aged Whovian), it's sure to delight any fan of the show that can color within the lines. Created by Penguin imprint Price Stern Sloan, the illustrations in The Doctor Who Coloring Book, like the Tardis, are an intricate set of whimsical gears and bolts. This is probably no mere coincidence: the imagery featured throughout the book speaks to one of the main themes of the series: how each individual by providence of being alive contributes to the unknowable beauty of the universe. But there's a practicality to this, too. The intricacy of detail leaves a lot of room for not just vibrant color, but a chance to add a spark of originality to each picture while maintaining the integrity of the image - or, on the flip side, to completely go all out and make the drawings your own, or stick strictly to the look of whatever it is you're coloring. Concentricity also seems to be a theme, whether it be from a standard circle pattern to jamming in the likenesses of later or earlier doctors into the silhouetted profile of another, really bringing to home the idea of the doctor as a sort of intergalactic matryoshka doll - or, as Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor put it so poignantly before his regeneration into Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor: "We all change, when you think about it, we're all different people; all through our lives, and that's okay, that's good, you've gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. I will not forget one line of this, not one day, I swear. I will always remember when The Doctor was me." While many recent fans of the series might be more interested in the latter regenerations of the Doctor from the 2005 series reboot, the coloring book keeps the show's OG fan base in mind. The pages feature all 12 versions of the character, from William Hartnell's initial iteration of the mysterious, curmudgeonly-yet-lovable First Doctor, which premiered in 1963, to the latest regeneration of the character, Capaldi's blunt, pragmatic Twelfth Doctor, which took on the mantle of the series in December 2013. (And for hardcore fans: even the War Doctor is there.) Much like "all the people" that the Doctor "used to be" crop up in the coloring book, so do the other tried and true heroes of the series: the Doctor's companions. Fan favorites from the First Doctor's first companion, granddaughter Susan Foreman (played by Carol Ann Ford) to Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) make their own string of cameos. As indelible as the Doctor's fellow travelers are, so, too, are the show's villains, which are possibly more celebrated in the book than any character the Doctor in any form would call his friends: Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels alike are given their own one-off pages. To quote another regeneration, the Ninth Doctor: "Everybody lives!" Another key factor in what makes The Doctor Who Coloring Book an excellent item for any collector of show paraphernalia is the inclusion of some of the show's most unforgettable quotes. The one-liners, found on the back of each page, are paired accordingly with every image - a choice that avoids an aesthetic detraction but adds to the overall meaning of any given illustration. And with a matte cover and French flaps, it's equally easy to picture The Doctor Who Coloring Book on a coffee table or a craft room. An added bonus: the coloring book features a visual scavenger hunt with characters, places and things for you to spot, adding another layer of fan-based fun to the whole experience. The Doctor Who Coloring Book is available for purchase via Amazon now. Check out some of the illustrations featured in The Doctor Who Coloring Book below. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Spotify packs up the physical data centers that let users listen to music on the streaming app and moves it to the cloud a Googley cloud, to be exact. Former VMware CEO and VP of Google's cloud businesses Diane Greene, who got instated back in November in the company, and her team must be having a whale of a time to land one of the most popular music streaming apps today, beating the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft's Azure Cloud Services. To continue delivering seamless service to music listeners, Spotify has been buying and leasing data centers for many years now. This move is to take another step toward that direction, bringing music to users more efficiently. With that said, it's also to keep up with the increasing demands in the industry. Of course, Spotify had a slew of choices to choose from, not to mention that Microsoft recently cut down the price of Azure to compete with other platforms. In the end, the company had chosen Google because of how the Mountain View-based firm runs things. "What really tipped the scales towards Google for us, however, has been our experience with Google's data platform and tools. Good infrastructure isn't just about keeping things up and running, it's about making all of our teams more efficient and more effective, and Google's data stack does that for us in spades," Nicholas Harteau, VP of engineering and infrastructure at Spotify, says, noting that BigQuery is "nearly magical." Needless to say, the migration to the cloud will take some time. Spotify carries the process out via a services and data track, according to a blog post of Google Cloud's lead sales engineer Guillaume Leygues. Google has a tall Spotify order to fill: over 2 billion playlists and a search engine that must run 24/7. Nevertheless, this development indicates how the Google Cloud is appealing to big-name technology companies. Despite some Spotify hacks from time to time, the company seems like it will continue to grow for a long time, especially with Google's hand in the mix. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In the century of vast technological advancement, people are not far from having thought-controlled prosthetic limbs. Australian scientists said that within a decade, their device will be helping people in wheelchairs or those who have artificial limbs to put their thoughts into actions. Stentrode, a device just as small as a matchstick, is designed to be implanted next to the brain's motor cortex. It can pick up and transmit signals from the brain, allowing paralyzed people to move. "This technology is really exciting. It's the first time that we've been able to demonstrate and develop a device that can be implanted without the need for a big operation, to chronically record brain activity," said Terry O'Brien, head of the department of medicine at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and a professor at the University of Melbourne. What Is A Stentrode? The device is an implantable device that can read electronic signals from the brain and transmit them to an exoskeleton. It is made from a material called nitinol or nickel titanium, which is designed to withstand expansion and compression without much effect on its function. Stentrode will be inserted into a blood vessel until it reaches the motor cortex of the brain, which makes it less invasive. Once the device is in place, it will expand to press the electrodes against wall of the blood vessel. From this position, it can now detect brain messages and translate them into instructions that can control prosthetics, wheelchairs and other exoskeleton devices. "This has been the Holy Grail for research in bionics - a device that can record brainwave activity over long periods. Inside the blood vessel, it's protected, it doesn't damage the brain vessel and can stay there forever," he added. Human Trials On The Way The researchers conducted laboratory trials on sheep. This time, they want to see if the technology will also work on humans. In 2017, human trials are expected to start in Australia. The groundbreaking technology could offer a lot of benefits especially for paralyzed patients. At present, there are available methods that can access brain signals, but they require open-brain surgeries and become less effective as time passes by. Since the stentrode is less invasive, it can be widely used on patients in the future, if proven effective. The scientists developed the stentrode under DARPA's Reliable Neural-Interface Technology (RE-NET) program, which aims to discover new prosthetic technology that could help improve the lives of people like war veterans who lost their limbs and had brain injuries. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The current El Nino and global warming are prolonging the longest worldwide coral bleaching event to date, said scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who are monitoring the event. The NOAA scientists gave a forecast on the devastating coral loss due to heat stress and disease. The current coral bleaching event around the world started in mid-2014 in the western Pacific Ocean. A report from this week's Oceans Sciences Meeting forecasted the event could extend into 2017. Last October, when El Nino further increased its wrath, NOAA scientists announced that a third worldwide coral bleaching event is also happening. "This time we're in the longest coral bleaching event. We're maybe looking at a two- to two-and-a-half year-long event. Some areas have already seen bleaching two years in a row," said NOAA biological oceanographer Mark Eakin. High ocean temperatures and other conditions cause stress to corals, which then lead to a bleaching event. The corals turn white when they excrete symbiotic algae found in their tissues. These algae are the corals' food source. Without them, the corals become more susceptible to disease. Large corals die in severe coral bleaching incidents, leading to reef erosion, exposure of once-protected shorelines to destructive ocean waves and loss of fish habitat. "On top of that, we've now added what is arguably the strongest El Nino on record," added Eakin, who is also NOAA's Coral Reef Watch coordinator. The first widespread coral bleaching happened during the El Nino period in 1982 to 1983. Its first global incident was recorded in 1988 during another strong El Nino period. When La Nina followed right after, it brought the warm waters to places such as Micronesia and Palau. The second global bleaching event happened in 2010. The El Nino during this time was less severe than the first two but it caused the same destruction to coral reefs nonetheless. Eakin and his team will present the latest news and forecast for the worldwide coral bleaching event on Friday during the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting. The meeting is co-sponsored by the Oceanography Society, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography and the American Geophysical Union. Photo: Matt Kieffer | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Volkswagen knew it was coming ... and that it was just a matter of time. Well, that time has arrived. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that lawyers have filed proposed class-action lawsuits against the embattled automaker in a United States District Court over its emissions scandal. The focal point of the civil lawsuits, which were filed on behalf of 500,000-plus U.S. car owners and dealers, is the allegation that VW knowingly compromised its diesel vehicles to pass emissions tests, participating in fraud by marketing those models in the country. The complaints further allege that VW and its owned Audi and Porsche brands violated federal regulations against racketeering. The company had to feel this on the way, considering U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer announced a committee of 22 platintiffs' lawyers to lead the legal process. Altogether, the lawyers in the committee will have plenty of ammunition to choose from, as they're free to reference accusations in the 500,000-plus lawsuits already filed across the country. "This case arises out of one of the most brazen corporate crimes in history, a cautionary tale about winning at any cost," the plaintiffs wrote in documents filed Monday, as reported by the Journal. "Volkswagen cheated its way to the top of the automotive food chain and spared no victim along the way." So, how much could this possibly cost VW? Well, the Journal points to U.S. regulatory fines separate from the class-action lawsuits' damages revving up to $46 billion in the country alone. This kind of punishment which doesn't include the recall costs the automaker must incur was to be expected, with reports that VW diesel models had emissions as much as 40 times the legal regulations in the U.S. The scary part about these class-action lawsuits are they're just the tip of the iceberg for how bad it could get for VW, as it still must incur costs of recalls and any levying regulatory fines handed out by countries affected. Although VW's recall to fix 8.5 million vehicles in Europe is already underway, the company has yet to reach an agreement to recall nearly 600,000 compromised vehicles in the U.S., as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) rejected the automaker's proposal last month. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Xiaomi intends to sweep U.S. consumers off their feet, but it'll take more than a year before that happens. Global VP of Xiaomi Hugo Barra has outlined the company's plans of expanding to the western market by the end of 2017, moving forward from China as it also gradually touches down in Brazil, India and Southeast Asia. "I think we have to be in the western markets by the end of next year. It's not something we can wait longer," he tells CNET. Xiaomi is considered as the second most valuable startup in the world, possessing the potential to deliver the perfect alternative in the smartphone market filled with Apple's iPhones and Samsung Galaxy models. Considering how the smartphone maker has yet to take a step into the U.S. market, the unveiling of the Xiaomi Mi 5 at the 2016 Mobile World Congress came off as a bit odd. Attendees of the event were expecting to hear some news regarding Xiaomi's expansion plans to other markets, especially because it was held in Barcelona, Spain. However, they were left with nothing but disappointment when Barra stepped off the stage without saying a word about the anticipated announcement. "I was disappointed we didn't hear more about the international markets today. I had an expectation today, particularly because it was an event in Europe, that they had an announcement about their plans to expand into western markets," Ben Wood, head researcher of CCS Insight, tells International Business Times. Just to be clear, the Xiaomi Mi 5 won't be hitting the shelves in Spain anytime soon despite the location of the reveal. The smartphone in question will come with a price tag of $415, sporting a ceramic rear. It will roll out in China first and then to India soon after. On that note, Barra sees the U.S. market as the ideal target to get things in gear in the west. Of course, that entails a more tedious process compared to in China. In the United States, customers often purchase smartphones from carriers, where these companies hold the choice of what devices they are going to put up for sale to the consumers. They'll also subject these smartphones, tablets and other devices through an extensive test for quality assurance. On top of that, foreign manufacturers will have to adjust their devices to be compatible with the spectrum bands used in the country. In other words, manufacturers who want to penetrate the U.S. market will have a difficult time to launch their products, causing the likes of Huawei and ZTE to sell their devices via their own websites or online retailers. "It's the hardest market to enter. There's so many frequencies, the carrier requirements are so steep, but at the same time, if we manage to launch a phone in the U.S., from an engineering perspective, we've arrived," Barra says. According to the executive, Xiaomi is an Internet company, suggesting that it isn't entirely focused on selling smartphones anymore. Instead, it's setting its sight on the active user base it has. Barra notes that there are 170 million people across the globe who use the company's MIUI, which offers home-built Xiaomi apps and services. To boil things down, Xiaomi will still enter the U.S. market in due time, where these impediments and shift in focus are perhaps the reason for a late 2017 launch. Photo: Thomas Nilsson | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Exercising isn't just good for the body, it could boost brainpower as well. A new study in the Netherlands found that adding activities such as running and jumping jacks while kids learn mathematics and spelling could help them perform better academically. Dutch researchers compared standardized math and spelling test scores from 499 students aged 8 years old on average. The kids were randomly given language and math lessons with physical activities for two years. The physically-active group jumped in place for 10 to 15 minutes while they spelled words or recited the multiplication table. During the remainder of the 30-minute lesson, the kids performed basic movements. In the end, the research team led by Marijke Mullender-Wijnsma found that the physically-active group were about four months ahead of their peers in math and spelling. Mullender-Wijnsma said it appears that students focused better with the physical activity. She said kids used both their motor activity and sensory activity to learn. "Children want to move, and they learn a lot by moving their bodies," said Mullender-Wijnsma. "Children can also learn by sitting at a table, but they learn more by being active." Researchers assume that injecting physical activities might cause new blood vessels to form, thus improving students' cognitive performance. "We saw that it really worked, of course -- we were very enthusiastic about it and a little bit surprised," said Mullender-Wijnsma. "We didn't think we would find this big of an effect." The findings are published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics. Benefits For Kids While the exercise method worked well for math and spelling, researchers discovered it had no effect on reading scores. Thus, the activity only works best for subjects that involve a lot of repetition and memorization. The latest study adds to the growing body of evidence that support physically-active lessons in schools. A previous large-scale study in the United States called Physical Activity Across the Curriculum (PAAC) also found that physical activities improved students' academic achievements on standardized tests. The activities also had positive effects on their body mass index (BMI). A similar program had been introduced at the Royal Orchard Middle School in Ontario, Canada. The program, which is known as Actively in Motion (AIM), was conducted by sixth grade teachers Dave Perkin and Laura Badevinac. Badevinac said most kids in the school are active learners. The students need to be hands on and need to move around so they could engage in their studies, although they aren't all athletes, she said. Kids involved in the program begin their day with 40 to 80 minutes of exercise. Perkin said the kids exercise while collecting data for science and math. For example, a topic on flight includes applications on how the birdie flies through the air. "We're using sport and movement to actually teach the curriculum in as natural way as can occur," said Perkin. One of the AIM students, sixth-grader Rhea Hicks, said her grades have improved because of the program. "Being able to do my academics with my physical abilities, it's like a dream come true," she said. Unknown Factors The Dutch research team will test the learning method in children with special education needs. They also plan to expand their study to students aged 9 to 12, but not all teachers are eager to embrace the novel approach. "Some teachers were not fond of physical activity themselves," said Mullender-Wijnsma. "They find they are less motivated to teach these lessons." Sara Benjamin Neelon of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore said weaving the new approach could offer amazing possibilities of helping kids learn while keeping them healthy. However, she said there are still unknown factors. For instance, the study was conducted in the Netherlands, and it is not clear whether the results would be the same in America's diverse school system. Even if it works, Benjamin Neelon said there are practical barriers that could hinder the approach in classrooms. These include training teachers, winning over parents, and finding proper space and time. She also said that the effects in the Dutch study may not even be because of exercise at all. "It might be the novelty. The children are learning in a new way," she said. "They're intrigued." Lastly, Benjamin Neelon said they want to make sure that physical activities do not detract children from learning. Photo: USAG - Humphreys | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Pancreatic cancer continues to be one of the biggest health concerns for Americans over the past few years. More than 48,000 people in the country were diagnosed with the malignancy in 2015 alone, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). About 40,000 of these patients will likely die from the disease. A breakthrough discovery by researchers in the United Kingdom, however, could help pave the way for the creation of better testing and treatment for pancreatic cancer. In a study featured in the journal Nature, scientists at the University of Glasgow found that the pancreatic cancer that many people know of is actually four separate diseases, with each one requiring different diagnoses and therapies. While the malignancy appeared similar in the 456 pancreatic cancer patients they examined, the researchers were able to identify four primary genetic errors that led to the growth of the patients' tumors. These errors are classified as squamous-type, pancreatic progenitor, immunogenic and aberrantly differentiated endocrine exocrine. One aspect that helps make the pancreatic cancers different from one another is the average period a patient is able to survive the malignancy after diagnosis. For example, people who are diagnosed with a squamous-type cancer typically have only four months to live, which is about half of the average survival time seen in other types of the disease. With this discovery, the researchers believe they will be able to help advance efforts in developing new forms of pancreatic cancer treatments. "This is the most comprehensive analysis of the blueprint of pancreatic cancer," study co-author Dr. Andrew Biankin said. "So this knowledge reveals what makes these cancers tick and which ones may be vulnerable to particular treatments by defining the Achilles' heel of every cancer." The findings of the recent study could provide scientists with much needed help in the fight against pancreatic cancer, which has been proven to be a difficult disease to treat. People who are diagnosed with this type of malignancy are often told by their doctothey only have less than a year to live. Only 1 percent of pancreatic cancer patients are able to survive a decade after diagnosis. This survival rate has virtually remained the same for the past 40 years. Biankin and his colleagues hope that by targeting various cancers using particular therapies, doctors will be able to treat malignancies in patients at a genetic level. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Global warming has been on a hiatus since the start of the 21st century and continues to be, a new paper claims. Numerous experts do not believe that global warming has slowed down since the early-2000s. They said studies suggesting hiatus due to decreased global surface warming are exaggerated, lacks scientific foundation or are not backed up by adequate observations. Now, a group of climate experts are determined to refute these claims. The New Paper "There is this mismatch between what the climate models are producing and what the observations are showing," says lead author and climate modeler John Fyfe from Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis. "We can't ignore it." In the observations made by Fyfe and colleagues, they used a measure that includes events that have affected temperature trends over the past decades. For example, they discovered that previous climate models undervalued the cooling impacts of volcanic eruption and amplified the heat produced by solar radiation at the onset of the 21st century. Some scientists are also said to investigate into the irregularities in the Pacific Ocean, including Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which examines sea surface temperatures. All these investigations can affect the climate and hide the trends of warming in the long term. This paper was published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Wednesday, Feb. 24. The Previous Study The recent discussions about global warming centers on the numbers of temperature trends. The previous study, which doubted the global warming slowdown cleared up biases in surface temperature records set by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The researchers' work resulted in a significant increase in warming values and included 2014 records, which was when a new record for the average high temperature was set. The study, led by Thomas Karl from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, looked into global warming rates from 1950 to 1999. They recorded a rate of 0.113 degrees Celsius during this period. The authors also looked into the rates for the period of 2000-2014, which yielded a rate of 0.116 degrees Celsius. Such finding proves that the global warming slowdown claimed by the the famed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2013 was no longer true. Karl's study was issued, June 26, 2015 in the journal Science. Fyfe's Rebuttal Fyfe and colleagues beg to disagree to Karl's study by performing their own investigations. They said that Karl's approach was biased by a time of flat temperatures that occurred from the 1950s to the 1970s. The group argues that greenhouse gas emissions back then were lower and that industrial emissions such as sulphate aerosols were decreasing the Earth's temperature by reflecting sunlight back to space. Ultimately, they presented their own calculations to support their claims. In contrast to Karl's study, the team of Fyfe says that the global warming rate from 1972-2001 was 0.170 degrees Celsius per decade. Such number is higher than the rates he calculated for the 2000-2014, which is 0.113 degrees Celsius. Which Is Which? By the looks of the ongoing debates, nothing is certain. Even NASA's Gavin Schmidt has grown tired of the discussions. He said the talks boil down to definition and academic arguments. He adds that there will always be reasons for deviation in climate trends and why models are not able to capture it. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Findings of a new study challenge the popular notion that its young, tech-savvy, college dropouts forming a Silicon Valley startup that drive innovation in America. It turns out that immigrants could be playing a more important role. More than one-third or 35.5 percent of U.S. innovators through STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) were born outside the country, according to a report released last Wednesday by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). This is despite the immigrant population making up a mere 13.5 percent of all U.S. residents. Immigrant innovators emerge as better educated than native-born one on average, with more than two-thirds having doctorates in STEM. Those born in Europe and Asia were also over five times more likely than the native-born American citizen to have spurred innovation. These findings come on the heels of the heated immigration discussion, an ongoing debate about the H1-B skilled worker visa program in the presidential campaign. The study is based on a survey of 923 individuals who achieved significant awards for innovations or applied for global patents. The median age at which these people brought innovations 47 years old also appears to debunk the renowned image of the Great American Innovator. The idea that these guys just drop out of college and do amazing things in their 20s thats really not the norm, says ITIF President and report co-author Robert Atkinson in an interview, citing that nearly 60 percent had a Ph.D. in one of the four fields. In the report, women and minorities also surfaced as notably underrepresented, representing only 12 percent and 8 percent of innovators. The share of foreign-born women innovators were 5 percent bigger than U.S.-born ones, while African Americans while comprising 13 percent of the native born U.S. population make up a mere 0.5 percent of U.S. born innovators. The surveyed individuals pointed out fund insufficiency, market forces, and government regulatory constraints as factors slowing or preventing commercialization. On the other hand, large companies are hailed as most important contributors here, with about 60 percent of private-sector innovations originating from firms with over 500 employees. The report made two policy recommendations: do a better job enabling women and minorities to obtain STEM degrees, and expand and fortify the immigration pipeline paving the way for highly trained STEM people to perform well in America. These include foreign STEM graduates having a hard time staying legally in the country. Photo: Savannah River Site | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Last Monday, St. Louis jurors ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $72 million in damages to the family of a woman who died last fall at age 62, who had previously recalled using the companys talcum powder for decades. The jury's verdict linked the use of Johnson & Johnsons Baby Powder and Shower to Shower to the womans death from ovarian cancer. Talcum powders are made of talc, a mineral composed in part by magnesium, silicon and oxygen for moisture absorption. The natural form of some talc has asbestos, a known carcinogen whose use has been banned in all commercial products in the United States since the 1970s. We sympathize with the plaintiffs family but firmly believe the safety the cosmetic talc is supported by decades of scientific evidence, Johnson & Johnson maintains in its statement. The woman was diagnosed with a fatal ovarian cancer more than three years ago, and she then joined more than 1,200 women across the United States in suing the company for failure to provide warnings to consumers about talc dangers. Her case is now the first in which the court awarded monetary compensation. Experts have studied the various ways that talc might cause cancer in varying parts of the body. Most have focused on the long-term exposure to talc fibers, which might lead to lung cancer, and whether female users routinely used the powder on their genitals. The American Cancer Societys website states, however, that there are mixed findings on studies in talc miners exposed to asbestos-containing talc. As for ovarian cancer, a pathologist found that the womans ovaries became inflamed from talc, which then proceeded to become cancer. A direct link between talc and cancer through causing inflammation in the ovaries is yet to be established, but Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Daniel Cramer first probed the link between the substance and ovarian cancer in 1982. According to his work, talc exposure raised the risk by 30 percent. Two cohort studies, however, did not show the same association. "We know cohort studies provide much more definitive answers, says Dr. Adetunji Toriola of Washington University. Cambridge professor Paul Pharoah calls it biologically plausible for grains of talcum, if applied on the genital area, to enter the fallopian tubes and result in ovarian inflammation, which could induce disease. Despite the increased risk, Pharoah believes that it is unlikely for a British court to arrive at the same conclusion as jurors in the United States. Even if the association were true, the strength of the association is too small, he argues. In Britain, most powder manufacturers still use talcum even though many in the United States have switched to cornstarch following a related scare in the 1990s. Conclusive evidence of talc causing ovarian cancer would necessitate a randomized clinical trial, which would be barred by ethical concerns. Such trial would deliberately expose subjects to a product believed to cause cancer, Cramer explains. Photo: Austin Kirk | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Henry Cavill discovered that having cool superpowers does not necessarily mean Superman wins everyone's hearts, especially with kids who are completely honest about who they think is cooler between him and Batman. As part of a joint marketing and philanthropic effort, "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" partnered up with Omaze to give fans who donate a chance to win "The Ultimate Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Experience" while benefitting three nonprofit organizations nominated by Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill and Jesse Eisenberg. Cavill visited Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in the British Isles to invite everyone to join the contest. Of course, he did not miss out on trying to get kids on Superman's side. He is seen speaking to several kids and not-so-subtly trying to convince them that Superman is cooler than Batman. Some of the kids did choose Superman but those who did not offered a much more interesting conversation, even from the beginning of the video. "What do you like about Superheroes again? You like that they can fly, that they're super strong, that they can move really fast, they can bend metal and they can shoot lasers from their eyes. Ok... so you like Superman?" Cavill asks two little girls only to be shot down. "No. Batman," the girls were quick to answer. Close to the 1 minute mark, Cavill talks to another group of kids and receives another interesting answer. While one kid likes both superheroes evenly, another says he likes the villains better. Watch Cavill's interaction with the kids below. "The Ultimate Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Experience" offers a fan and his or her friend the chance to win tickets to the premiere of the film as well as fly on a helicopter with Superman or ride in the Batmobile with Batman. Plane tickets and hotel accommodations are included in the prize. So what does one have to do for a chance to win the awesome prize while helping Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI), The SEED Project and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust? For less than $100, you can choose from a base donation of $10 that translates to 100 chances to win, a $25 donation that will give you a digital Thank You card plus 250 chances to win or $50 for a limited edition Batman v Superman adult coloring books plus 500 chances to win. From $100 to $1,000, depending on the amount donated, fans can get various limited-edition Batman v Superman items like heat-sensitive mugs, specially designed shirts, artworks or a personalized video from Cavill. $3,000 and above can get 1/6th scale figurines, exclusive and autographed awesome artworks, dinner with Jesse Eisenberg or a weekend trip with Cavill. For the ultimate Batman fan who has $50,000 to spare, there are a few remaining full-scale Batman statues with plaques signed by Affleck. Omaze is not a newcomer when it comes to giving fans awesome experiences. One of its most recent campaigns was for the HBO series "Game of Thrones" which benefited Red.Org. The winning fan and a friend were taken to Belfast to visit the "Game of Thrones" set and chat with the actors on Feb. 15. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Beijing pushed New York into second place 100 to 95 when it took over this year's "Billionaire Capital of the World" title. Shanghai-based firm Hurun conducts the yearly research and rankings of the world's wealthiest people and their spending lifestyle. Earlier reports suggested China, despite its shaky economy and stock market, is constant in its accrual of wealth and has more billionaires than the U.S. Depending on the methodology used, wealth rankings lists such the Forbes list and the Hurun Report have resulted in slightly different conclusions. According to Hurun founder Rupert Hoogewerf, China's wealth generation can be attributed to Chinese market regulators that permit new IPOs to flood in after holding off new IPOs for a few years. "What we showed today is that at the super-wealth creation level, the Chinese are now leading," said Hoogewerf who added there are more self-made billionaires in China than the U.S. The "Hurun Global Rich List 2016," which ranked 2,188 billionaires from 68 countries around the world, was based on the stock prices as of Jan. 15. It is conclusive of the Chinese market's fall in the past six months by as much as 40 percent. Hoogewerf said if they based their report in the market's health last summer, the total of Chinese billionaires would be almost 150 instead of just 100. "Despite its own slowdown and falling stock markets, China minted more new billionaires than any other country in the world last year, mainly on the back of new listings," said Hoogewerf. Last year, New York gained four billionaires while Beijing minted 32 new ones. Moscow secured the third spot with 66 billionaires. Hong Kong came in fourth with 64 billionaires while Shanghai placed fifth with 50. Real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin is the richest man in China. Jianlin secured the 21st place in the world's ranking of richest individuals. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba made it in the world's top 100 billionaires list. The tech chiefs of phone maker Xiaomi, beverage tycoon Zong Qinghou, and the owners of search engine Baidu and social media firm Tencent also made it in the list. Photo: Mehmet Canli | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Car sharing company Uber lately unveiled that its fleet will get a new type of transportation, namely motorcycles. Dubbed UberMoto, the company's new service is the first of its kind that allows users to hail a ride on two wheels instead of four. The service premieres in Bangkok, a place where car traffic is at staggering levels. Uber, initially a San Francisco startup, is now present in 350 cities in 60 countries. Even if the explosive growth happened over a course of six years, the company has strong global competition from rivals such as Lyft. Local markets also developed their own variants of Uber, such as GrabTaxi in Southeast Asia and Didi Kuaidi in China. Uber is not the first ride-sharing service to introduce motorcycle rides in Southeast Asia, as Grab already offers the two-wheel option for its clients. GrabTaxi claims that it is the largest taxi-booking app in the region, counting more than 60,000 taxi drivers in its network. The company also counts about half a million active users and 2.5 million downloads of its mobile app. The main reason why Uber introduced UberMoto is to help passengers spend less time and money on fares, which applies especially for short distances. UberMoto comes loaded with all standard Uber safety features. This means that motorcycle passengers and drivers can give feedback about each other, passengers are encouraged to share relevant trip details with fellow Uber users and GPS tracking is enabled. What is more, drivers who enlist in the UberMoto program must be vetted by a police background check. Bangkok is far from being a random testing ground for the new service. Uber crafted the moto version of its initial car-sharing program with an eye at developing countries, Reuters reports indicate. One of the main "advantages" that qualified Bangkok is the rate of its surging automotive traffic. Uber brings some figures to back up its choice. More than 1,500 new cars join the Bangkok traffic daily, causing average traffic speeds of 16 km/h (9 mph) tops. Things get even more complicated during rush hours, when the average speed drops to 6.8 mph. With a default two hours a day spent in locked traffic, drivers and passengers alike will be happy to get a quicker alternative of going from home to work and vice versa. Users can hail a two-wheeled Uber ride just as they would with a regular car. Passengers simply tap the UberMoto option from the Uber mobile app, choose the pickup location and preferred method of payment. Then, the screen displays details about the driver, to help the passenger identify the person. To stay in line with Bangkok's street safety regulations, all passengers get a helmet to wear during the ride. Uber touts that UberMoto is the most affordable transportation option in Bangkok, to date. Rates start at 10 Thai Baht (28 American cents), adding 0.02 cents per minute and 10 cents per kilometer. Until the company gets enough feedback, UberMoto will work in certain areas of Bangkok. Uber is optimistic, and expects "demand [...] to be off the charts." With time, it is realistic to see UberMoto drivers hired to offer the service all around Thailand's capital and eventually expand globally. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. San Francisco is next on the list of cities that will get the highly anticipated Google Fiber, as the tech company aims to use existing fiber-optic cables beneath the city. Michael Slinger, director of business operations at Google Fiber, says that high-speed Internet access is about to come to "some apartments, condos and affordable housing properties" in the West Coast enclave. In spite of being one of the blooming technology hubs and early adoption points for Silicon Valley, the city does not host a Web access infrastructure more powerful than most of the U.S. What is more, some smaller urban settlements already have fiber-optic Gigabit connections which offer speeds ten times higher than those present in today's San Francisco. Google Fiber aims to change this situation, but its modus operandi will be slightly different when compared to other cities who received the ultra-fast infrastructure. The plan is to tap into the present optic fiber that lies beneath San Francisco, instead of deploying an entirely new network, Google explains on its Fiber blog. On the bright side, this will make lightning-speed fast connections possible in a timely fashion. On the other hand, only parts of San Francisco have the existing infrastructure, meaning that the availability of Google Fiber will be restricted to a few areas. Even if the impact will be localized, this can still convince rival providers to drop broadband prices for those that do not have access to Google Fiber. "They have to be a credible threat to get Comcast, AT&T and so on, to make change," says Blair Levin, a senior fellow at a Brookings Institution, a research firm. Levin estimates that in a few years, some American citizens will be able to choose between three or four broadband options going toe-to-toe. There is a social component to Google Fiber's expansion, as well. The company aims to link a part of San Francisco's public and affordable housing properties for no extra charge. The initiative should offer poorer neighborhoods access to broadband speeds, thus tightening a social wedge. Also, Google partnered with an NGO to teach people basic Internet skills, such as applying for jobs and creating an email account. In an ironic twist, San Francisco dwellers might get Google Fiber before citizens from Mountain View, California. The joke here is that the latter is where Google's headquarters are located. Photo: William Welch | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Huawei wants to strengthen its smartphones' photographic capabilities, and it recently announced a partnership with Leica to secure top quality cameras for its devices. The OEM plans to increase its already surging market share by implementing the premium quality Leica technologies on its future handset models. "A co-operation with shared premium ambitions and spirit," the companies say about the partnership. According to the announcement, the two corporations will merge their efforts in a "long-term commitment." This means that the passion for crafting high-quality devices and precise engineering skills will join forces to create the best outcome for both parties. "[Huawei and Leica aim] to create a powerhouse in the reinvention of smartphone photography," they added. Neither Leica nor Huawei released any specific information about the new agreement. Initially, Leica worked with Panasonic and the two enterprises went as far as repackaging Panasonic items in order to increase their value. Last year, the Lumix CM1 Android handset from Panasonic rolled out with Leica-branded lens. One potential reason Huawei courted Leica is that the optics company comes with the prestige of a luxury brand. Seeing how the Chinese market is sensible to such leverage, the cooperation between Huawei and a premium-class optics manufacturer was the sensible thing to do. Richard Yu, CEO of the Huawei Consumer BG, underlined that Leica is nothing short of a legend in the photo world and commended the optics company for its revolutionizing contribution to image capturing technology. Leica can gain lift from setting a stronger foothold in the mobile photography market. While Huawei is already on the rise, its pedigree could use some boosting. Signing with Leica has the potential to lead to better global brand recognition of Huawei. In the fall of 2015, Huawei topped national main competitor, Xiaomi, in terms of smartphone sales. Even if the difference between the two Chinese manufacturers is not that great, it stands proof that Huawei has all engines at full speed. Even if the information was not specified, it is likely that future flagship models from Huawei will contain Leica's famous red dot. "Smartphones make a very important contribution to the world of photography and open an important door for Leica to new target groups and fields of application," says Oliver Kaltner, CEO of Leica Camera AG. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Netflix users have no problem spending $8.99 a month to be able to stream all the movies, TV series and original content on the platform. While many choose to do most of their streaming at home on their big TV screen or on their laptops in bed, others use the Netflix app on their smartphones to be able to keep watching once they leave the house. With season 2 of Daredevil about to premiere, we already know we will be glued to our screens until we finish it. This can be worrisome and expensive for those who don't have unlimited data plans for their smartphone. Well, don't worry, Netflix subscribers, because the company announced that it will be releasing a new update for its smartphone app later this year that will help users save money on their phone bills. According Pocket-lint, Netflix said its latest update would help reduce high data charges from consumers' bills by allowing them to limit bitrate using a new data saver button. This new feature will allow users to have more control when it comes to how much data they use. Once the data saver button is toggled on, the app will then use its intelligence to select the bandwidth to stream that will be the most economical for the user. This means the user might have to sacrifice the video quality (like streaming in Full HD 1080p) in order to save some bucks. It's also important to note that the user won't have a say in setting the list of the bitrate, although this may be included in the future. Still, this would allow customers who only have, say, 1 GB of data available to use each month, to be able to watch a quick episode of Judd Apatow's Love without worrying that their binge-watching habit is becoming an expensive one. Netflix will also release a second-screen function that will allow users to read background info on the title they are watching from their mobile devices. This feature will first launch for Android and Chromecast, then later for iOS and consoles. That means users will be able to learn who that actor is that looks so familiar, yet they can't remember their name while watching a series. Speaking of series like Daredevil, Netflix has plans to introduce HDR (high dynamic range) in March, previously stating that the second season of the hit superhero series will launch the feature. However, HDR (which expands the range of contrast and color to provide more realistic images), may not be available for the series' March 18 release. Source: Pocket-lint 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Apple engineers are building a unhackable iPhone which cannot be penetrated even by government agencies Apple engineers have already started developing new security measures that would make it impossible for the governments or federal enforcements from using passcode bypassing techniques to access iPhones or any iOS devices in the future. This breakthrough comes amidst a very public battle between Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over demands that the former open a phone belonging to one of the San Bernardino attackers. FBI Director James Comey has defended the federal agencys request to have Apple open the iPhone to them, saying earlier this week they are not looking for a key to unlock all iPhones, but only assistance for this case. According to the report in the New York Times, if Apple succeeds in upgrading its security, which the experts say it almost surely will, the company will create an important technical task for law enforcement agencies, even if the Obama administration wins its fight over access to data stored on an iPhone used by one of the killers in last years San Bernardino attacks. If the FBI wanted to get into a phone in the future, it would need to find another way to defeat Apple security, setting up a new cycle of court fights and, yet again, more technical fixes by Apple. Experts say that the only way out of this scenario is for Congress to intervene. Federal wiretapping laws require traditional phone carriers like Verizon and AT&T to make data accessible to law enforcement. However, tech companies like Apple and Google are not compelled by such laws and have fought legislation that would place such requirements on them. We are in for an arms race unless and until Congress decides to clarify who has what obligations in situations like this, said Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. The White House has said it will not ask Congress to pass a law that requires tech companies to give the FBI a method by which to access user data. Without Congressional action, the Justice Department is left to fight for access one phone at a time. Companies have always looked for software bugs and patched holes to keep their code secure from hackers. But in the wake of Edward Snowdens revelations about government surveillance, companies have been retooling their products to protect against government interference. Security is also a global marketing strategy for Apple. New security measures would not only help the company in its battle against the government, but also give an assurance to customers and investors. For all of those people who want to have a voice but theyre afraid, we are standing up, and we are standing up for our customers because protecting them we view as our job, Apples chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, said on Wednesday in an interview with ABC News. The technology giant built its recent operating systems to protect customer information. In a recent letter written to customers, Cook said, We have even put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business. Apple argues that complying with the governments request creates a dangerous precedent that would allow the government to compel company engineers to break the security of any device. The U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create, Cook said in a letter to users. Facebook was reportedly used by ISIS & Al-Qaeda to buy Manpads, Grenade Launchers, TOW Missile Launchers etc. While it is already known that social media is being used by users to peddle drugs and small arms, a report states that it is even used to buy and sell heavy military grade arms and ammunition by ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Both the terror groups who are active in Syria and the Middle East are using social media sites like Facebook to buy and sell heavy weapons, guns and ammunition, according to Daily Mirror. The seriousness of the issue can be judged by the fact that Islamic State (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda terrorists could potentially also use Facebook to buy an anti-aircraft rocket launcher capable of blowing a passenger jet out of the sky. The report says that one of the weapons for sale is a Manpads, or man-portable air defence systems, a type of missile launcher capable of bringing down both civilian and military jets. The Manpad is being sold for $67,000 on a Facebook page called The First Weapons Market in Idlib (Syria) Countryside according to the report. The Manpads are sold by Syrian rebels but these weapons could easily find their way in the hands of ISIS or Al-Qaeda and be used to bring civilian airliners down. The report says that another post on the page shows an AGS-17 Soviet-Era grenade launcher available for $3,800. While a members message reads, Quick friends, I need a gun with a silencer. The page also hosts an advert for a TOW missile launcher, which the seller claims comes from The US Pentagon. CIA has already been in midst of a controversy for supplying TOWs to selected rebel groups in Syria and Iraq since the civil war erupted in 2011. The indication that all such arms could land in ISIS hands is that a member of the page and Idlib resident, Youssef Yassim is seen posing with an ISIS flag in his profile and is using the Facebook page to buy a thermal camera used for hunting at night. India to continue disallowing software patents, but copyrights still valid Indias patent office, managed by the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CGPDT), has issued an order dated February 19, which provides revised guidelines for Computer Related Inventions (CRI), in which they have put on hold the modifications that were announced in August last year. In other words, Indias main patent office has said no to software patents in India. The order excludes business methods, mathematical methods, computer programmes, and algorithms from the domain of patentable subject matter. In mid-2015, the patent office had modified the guidelines that allowed the patenting of software that demonstrated technical advancement. Section 4.5.4 of the guidelines published on August 2015 reads that If a computer programme is not claimed by in itself rather, it has been claimed in such manner so as to establish industrial applicability of the invention and fulfils all other criterion of patentability, the patent should not be denied. Subsequently in December, amid concerns raised by stakeholders, it stayed the guidelines. Thus, the status quo on this matter is now maintained. Patents are covered under Section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970, which states, A mathematical or business method or a computer programme per se or algorithms are not patentable. SFLC.in, a New Delhi-based non-profit, said that it teamed up with Bengaluru-based think tank ISPIRT (Indian Software Product Industry Round Table) and other civil society organisations, academicians and start-ups in writing a joint letter to the Prime Ministers Office, concerned ministries and the patent office requesting to recall the guidelines. After a consultation and meeting, the Patent office issued an order dated December 14, 2015, keeping the guidelines in abeyance. The 2015 guidelines could have resulted in making it tough for software developers to revolutionize the expansion of scope of software patentability, said Prasanth Sugathan, counsel at SFLC.in, who represented the organisation at the consultations. The legislature by limiting the scope of patentable subject matter in the field of software wanted our software professionals and industry to innovate and not be stifled by companies holding a stockpile of patents. We are grateful to the Government and the patent office for listening to our feedback and suggestions and preserving the freedom of our coders and entrepreneurs to innovate without shackles, he said. In other words, the patent office is effectively saying no to all patents that are purely software-based. However, software will continue to be protected by the copyright law, but cannot be patented in India under very specific conditions which have been specified as shown below. According to SFLC, the patent office has accepted its three-part test to determine the patentability of CRIs: (1) Openly construe the claim and identify the actual contribution; (2)If the contribution lies only in mathematical method, business method or algorithm, deny the claim; (3) If the contribution lies in the field of computer programme, check whether it is claimed in conjunction with a novel hardware and proceed to other steps to determine patentability with respect to the invention. The computer programme in itself is never patentable. If the contribution lies solely in the computer programme, deny the claim. If the contribution lies in both the computer programme as well as hardware, proceed to other steps of patentability. Such a test will guarantee that applications for patents in the field of software will be rejected and only genuine applications claiming a novel hardware component along with software will be eligible for patent protection. This government initially with its approach towards Net Neutrality and now with its stand on software patents has shown that it is betting big on the innovation economy and will not let anything hinder the freedom to innovate. We hope to continue to work with the Government and the Patent Office to ensure that innovation is encouraged and to limit the grant of irregular patents, said Mishi Choudhary, Executive Director, at SFLC.in in an emailed statement. It looks like that Indian Government has done the right thing by stopping software patents in the country going by the reaction and feedback received. This will definitely help and encourage developers, programmers and innovators to try out new inventions, without any fear of being attacked by patent trolls. Soon Selfie will be your password with Mastercard Selfies which are often shared on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is all set to become a valuable tool in the fight against credit card fraud. Yes, you have heard it right. At least as far as MasterCard is concerned. The company has officially announced its plans to introduce selfie pay security checks in more than a dozen countries at this years Mobile World Congress (MWC). This program is part of MasterCards emphasis on biometrics as a form of security authentication. This feature allows cardholders to use a picture of their face or a fingerprint to verify their identity when making mobile online purchases. We want to identify people for who they are, not what they remember, Ajay Bhalla, MasterCards president for enterprise safety and security, said on the company website. Heres how it works: Customers need to install a MasterCards Identity Check app to their smartphone, PC or tablet. The user then takes a selfie through the app and the image is stored in the companys servers. The user can complete an online purchase as normal. Instead of immediately buying the item, though, a push notification is sent to the users smartphone to verify identity. Then the user can either scan his or her fingerprint or take a short video selfie. Essentially, a users face takes the place of the traditional password. MasterCard says selfie pay will roll out to Identity Check users in more than a dozen countries later this year, as the company is looking for new ways to cut down on identity theft and credit card fraud.. The countries getting the technology in the summer include the UK, US, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The expansion follows a successful trial last year involving the California-based First Tech Federal Credit Union and the Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals. According to a survey by MasterCard, 53 percent of shoppers forget passwords at least once a week, wasting more than 10 minutes to reset their accounts and leading to a third of shoppers abandoning their purchase. People shop on all sorts of devices, and they expect technology to simplify and secure the transaction, said Bhalla in a press release. This is exactly what Identity Check delivers. MasterCard claims this will provide a welcome alternative to passwords, which can either be forgotten or take a long time to input. During its trial in the Netherlands, the company claimed nine out of 10 participants preferred this technology over password authentication. The company is looking at other forms of biometric authentication other than selfies. Mastercard is also now exploring the idea of monitoring your heartbeat or scanning the iris of your eye as a means of identity verification. Ann Cairns, head of international markets for MasterCard told CNBC that the checks could help people in developing markets who may not have official ID documents. If you think about some of the things weve rolled out in some emerging markets, in places like Africa, where people dont have identities because they dont maybe have passports or driving licences, then biometric authentication is a way of saying Im me,' she said. Samsung is building 256GB memory chips for smartphones Samsung, which announced its Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge during MWC 2016 has announced that it is now mass producing the worlds first 256GB UFS 2.0 standard flash memory that are going to be present inside high-end mobile devices. Previously, the largest internal storage found in smartphones was 128GB, but now thanks to the efforts of Samsung, that count is going to increase till 256GB. Joo Sun Choi, Executive Vice President, Memory Sales and Marketing, Samsung Electronics has said the following regarding the companys progress in mass production of large capacity memory chips for high-end mobile devices of the future. By providing high-density UFS memory that is nearly twice as fast as a SATA SSD for PCs, we will contribute to a paradigm shift within the mobile data storage market. We are determined to push the competitive edge in premium storage line-ups OEM NVMe SSDs, external SSDs, and UFS by moving aggressively to enhance performance and capacity in all three markets. Much faster than any version of eMMC, these new flash memory are based on the companys most advanced V-NAND flash memory chips and a specially-designed high-performance controller. According to the statistical data, the new UFS 2.0 memory can handle up to 45,000 and 40,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) for random reading and writing respectively, and is over two times faster than the 19,000 and 14,000 IOPS, which was the bandwidth reached by the previous generation of UFS memory. Coming to the sequential reading metrics, an area where flash memory readily shines, the new standard takes advantage of two lanes of data transfer to move data at up to 850MB/s, and keep in mind that the new speeds that are capable of being reached by this type of memory is nearly twice the speeds that you find in desktop and laptops SSDs that use the SATA III interface. This memory standard from Samsung will be ideal in capturing 4K movies, and playing back those movies thanks to those high sequential read and write speeds. According to additional metrics, 256GB of flash memory will also be able to store approximately 47 full HD movies, allowing you to carry more media in your future mobile devices while you are on the go. In addition, with the advent of next-generation smartphones that support the USB 3.0 interface, users will be able to transfer data much faster between mobile devices. The USB 3.0 interface will allow sending a 5GB equivalent Full-HD video clip (average duration of the movie is 90 minutes) in 12 seconds. Within this new storage environment, mobile users will get to take full advantage of the performance benefits of Samsungs latest UFS memory. Samsung had announced availability of its 128GB UFS memory in February 2015, and in just 12 months, the company has decided to double that storage count, showing how serious the company is in proliferating the amount of internal memory present in a smartphone. However, this could also mean that the company could move away from placing microSD card slots inside its future mobile devices, removing the flexibility factor altogether. Let us hope that Samsung has good things in store for us as far as mobile devices and their storage is concerned. Samsung A 40 anos de Malvinas "Revisar el pasado es pensar el futuro". La frase de la presidenta de Telam, Bernarda Llorente, resume el espiritu del documental coproducido entre la agencia de noticias y el canal publico de TV sobre la cobertura que los medios de comunicacion hicieron del conflicto, plagada de censura y mentiras. Una autocritica necesaria para mirar hacia adelante en un (ya viejo) contexto de fake news y negocio informativo. The Conservatives may be about to choose their last ever prime minister We've noticed you're adblocking. We rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism. We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future. Thank you for your support. Haiti's diplomat Rodrigue welcomed the imposition of sanctions, although he stressed that more measures are needed to restore security in his country. | Read More Short Film: Sunny Le0ne Will make you to quit Smoking In 11 Mins All the Smokers out there. You just got another reason to quit. A short film starring actress Sunny Leone, Alok Nath and Deepak Dobriyal is now going viral and it delivers the 'no smoking' message in a completely innovative way. The videos starts with a young guy played by Deepka Dobriyal counting the last breaths of his life due to excessive smoking. Doctors have given up on him and his father (Alok Nath) asks him for his last wish. While everyone in the family offers him each of his favourite times, one by one, he finally makes his last demand. The son's last wish is to meet Sunny Leone's character, but despite it being fulfilled, he doesn't get a happy ending.It's title 11 minutes refers to the message that every cigarette reduces 11 minutes of a person's life. Watch the video below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU4aPaZhX8k News Posted: 24 February, 2016 Interesting Title For Krishna Vamsi Film With Nandamuri Hero A lot has been spoken and written about Balakrishna's 100th film. The speculation about its cast and crew started months before. Nandamuri family fans are eagerly waiting to know about the director of the film. The names of several ace helmers were linked with this project. Now the latest buzz in the industry is that Balakrishna has asked creative director Krishna Vamsi to write an interesting script for his 100th movie. The director has finished the work and come up with a story line which was liked by the star. As per reports 'Raithu' will be the title for the film and the film plot is about a farmer who fights against the system to change the plight of farmers. News Posted: 24 February, 2016 Heads up to prevent injury from falls Morning walks in my neighborhood are one of the most enjoyable parts of my day. I love the coolness of daybreak and the special sightings of the stag and two does that frequent our open space. I also enjoy my walk because each day at... Signs that point to the best time for retirement Ive been thinking a lot about retirement lately. One of our amazing staff members, who has been with Senior Concerns for the last 13 years, retired last month. It just doesnt seem real. I always thought of Dana as young. Certainly not the person to... Rethinking the mandatory retirement age How old is too old for working at a job? Last week a news story hit my inbox and it really got me to thinking about age and retirement. The article noted that Target Corp. abandoned its mandatory retirement age of 65 for its CEO,... Tips to promoting a healthy nights sleep for children Question: Help, please. My daughter is almost 2 years old and has been an easy child to put into her own bed. Yet in the past few weeks she is purposefully stretching out the bedtime routine longer and longer. She wants more: more stories, more... A former bishop of Ballarat has apologised for failing to halt what he called a "problem with priests" - the widespread and long-lasting sexual abuse of children in Catholic schools across the city. Abuse survivors and their families have waited decades to hear from Ronald Mulkearns, who served as Bishop of Ballarat from 1971 to 1997, and has been accused of failing to prevent rampant child sex abuse by clergy. On Thursday, the 85-year-old appeared via video link from his nursing home, which is less than 3 kilometres from the packed courtroom where the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was sitting. Bishop Mulkearns told the hearing that he'd retired because he wasn't "doing the job as well as I felt I should be doing". Kabul: Afghan officials took delivery of 10,000 automatic rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition as a gift from Russia on Wednesday, another sign of deepening involvement by Moscow in the war-torn country. Dependent almost entirely on foreign aid, Afghan security forces are struggling to secure the country amid a rising insurgency. As the NATO-led coalition's military presence dwindled last year, Afghan leaders reached out to Moscow, which fought a war of its own in Afghanistan during the 1980s, for more Russian-made weapons, including small arms, artillery and attack helicopters. "This donation represents a deep friendship between two nations," Afghan national security adviser Hanif Atmar said at an event marking delivery of the arms shipment. "This important donation is from an important friend of Afghanistan in a crucial time for Afghanistan and the region." ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner John Hinchey has welcomed a probe into child protection systems sparked by the killing of Bradyn Dillon, 8, and said the case highlighted an urgent need for better information sharing on family violence matters. The ACT government announced an independent investigation would examine whether systemic failings were linked to Bradyn's death soon after his father was charged with his murder last week. Candles were lit as a tribute for Braydn Dillon as the community gathered in Jacka on Wednesday. Credit:Melissa Adams Graham Dillon, 37, was arrested at his Jacka home and remains behind bars. The incident prompted ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell to announce on Friday that an external reviewer would investigate the way the Dillon case and others of its type were handled. BPay's peer-to-peer payments service will mark a profound change to how people pay when it debuts on the New Payments Platform, BPay boss John Banfield says, but competitors say a similar system will be running a year before the NPP starts. BPay, owned by the big four banks, won the tender in 2015 to offer the so called "initial convenience service" on the NPP. This will allow P2P payments and payments to and from businesses using simple ID such as mobile phone numbers or emails. CHange on the way ... John Banfield says it was a "comfortable" business when he took over BPay 14 months ago. Now payments is "cool". Mr Banfield claimed it would speed the end of cheques and low-value payments, most of which are done with cash now. "The ICS will propel us back into global leadership in electronic payments architecture. As a foundation for new value-added services, it will kick-start innovation," he said. Melbourne, on the other hand, is forecast to post 7.2 per cent growth in prices in 2016, after a stronger start to the year in Victoria's market. After several years of boomtime conditions in Sydney's property market, house price growth in the city will slow to 2.2 per cent this year, CoreLogic and Moody's Analytics say in new forecasts. Moody's and CoreLogic on Thursday launched a new index that is intended to predict how a wide range of changes in the economy and the property sector will affect the price of residential property. Sydney property values are expected to dip by 0.6 per cent between now and the third quarter of this year. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer It predicts property values in Sydney will dip by 0.6 per cent between now and the third quarter of this year, before recovering and ending 2016 with growth of 2.2 per cent. It forecast growth of 1.6 per cent in 2017 for Sydney. Melbourne's stronger growth of recent months is forecast to continue, with price growth of 7.2 per cent tipped for this year, before it slows to 1.3 per cent next year. "House price growth in Melbourne is outpacing Sydney's so far in 2016, and that will remain the case for the rest of the year. That said, the big gains are over," the report says. Village Roadshow is expecting its film business to have a record full-year result on the back of a strong line-up including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Deadpool and Captain America: Civil War. It comes as the film and theme park business reported a net loss of $3.5 million. However, revenues increased 11.5 per cent in the first half to $523.5 million. Excluding significant items, Village reported a net profit of $22 million, up 45.1 per cent on the first half of the 2015 financial year. The result was marginally above Citi forecasts of $21.9 million. The group's cinema business reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $37.6 million, up from $26.2 million in the previous corresponding period. BHP Billiton was sued in the United States by investors who accused the Anglo-Australian mining company of fraudulently overstating its ability to manage safety risks prior to November's fatal dam burst at a Brazilian mine it co-owned and operated. In a complaint filed on Wednesday in the US District Court in Manhattan, investors led by the Jackson County Employees' Retirement System in Michigan said BHP inflated the price of its American depositary receipts by ignoring safety risks and overstating its commitment to safety before the disaster. Four BHP officials were also sued, including chief executive Andrew Mackenzie and chairman Jac Nasser. Wednesday's lawsuit follows the November 5, 2015 dam burst in Minas Gerais, Brazil's main mining state, at the mine run by Samarco, a joint venture between BHP and Brazil's Vale. Just how many times can you excuse blatant failure by saying, "Well, it's a tough job, and they're doing their best. Mustn't grumble "? At least 80 times, evidently. That's how many rounds of Order of Australia awards have seen women under-represented since the honours were set up in 1975. It happens twice a year, on Australia Day and the Queen's Birthday. We've heard all the excuses: fewer women are nominated; women aren't yet at the top of the tree in their chosen profession. "Just wait until they start running big companies," we're told. "They'll soon show up in the listings!" Pollie perks could again come under the spotlight. Credit:Rob Homer There are answers to these excuses, but I've got no interest in providing them. What matters is where you draw the line between the excusable and the inexcusable, and the awards situation is just inexcusable. And it's getting worse. I reckon I know one big reason why. Details provided under a Freedom of Information request show the Council for the Order of Australia itself is off kilter. In 2000, seven of the 19 members of the council were women; not equal representation, but not bad considering. Currently there are three women out of 17 members (two of the seats are vacant) the lowest number this century. The Turnbull Governments retreat from engaging in any real tax reform is equal parts unexpected and unsurprising. It is comprehensively disappointing for our future prosperity. At some point the governments leadership group decided it didnt have the time or courage to have a conversation with the electorate about the scariest three letters in public policy, G-S and T. The parameters of the debate were changed. Malcolm Turnbull seemed to be promising meaningful tax reform, but now seems to have chickened out. Credit:Andrew Meares Treasury was asked to model the impact of changes to taxes in the federal government's direct control, not all taxes as had been the case in the governments own Re:think tax discussion paper. And this despite two state premiers on opposite sides of the political fence actively raising the topic of increasing the GST. Notwithstanding this solid basis for a holistic discussion and opportunity to retire inefficient state taxes, we now have confirmation that a policy for reform will not go forward to the next election. The NSW Upper House inquiry into elder abuse is a welcome opportunity to try to assess the extent of the problem and to bring it to public attention. They are the prerequisites for fine-tuning laws and protocols surrounding aged care inside and outside the home. The problem of elder abuse physical, psychological and financial isn't immediately apparent unless you or your closest have endured it; unless you have worked in aged care and seen it. The NSW Upper House inquiry into elder abuse is a welcome opportunity to try to assess the extent of the problem and to bring it to public attention. As we live longer, we hope for a peaceful existence with our loved ones or at least in a place that feels like home. Most of us will find that. Submissions to the inquiry closed this month. Many rang alarm bells. "When staff in aged care stop caring, there is a huge potential for abuse," wrote one nurse who has been registered since 1982. "But it is so hard for them to keep caring when there is no support given and no respect from management! Something needs to be done. The average age of a worker in aged care is 48, well above other industries. There is often high staff turnover, as the job satisfaction and rewards are not there when there is no support for staff and no time to care!" Decisions about where and how to spend your final years used to be purely about money as well as the availability of family and health support. They are becoming increasingly about safety as well. This is not the old-style "panic" where the elderly were warned to stay off the streets as crime soared. Indeed, most street and house crime has dropped considerably. The threat of elder abuse emerges far more often from those who care for us as we become less able to fend for ourselves: our family, our friends, care workers, financial advisers and even lawyers. More of us will become dependent on these people as the number of sufferers of dementia in particular increases. There are 342,000 Australians living with dementia and this will rise to almost 900,000 by 2050 without a major medical breakthrough. NSW has about 112,000 people living with dementia, with this number to reach 272,000 by 2050. "Lawyers are central to the process of older people appointing substitute decision makers, often family members," Macquarie University law lecturer Lise Barry says in her submission. "Under the current law, these appointments give the attorney almost unfettered access to an older person's property, finances and legal decisions, highlighting how vulnerable some older people may be to abuse If called upon to witness these appointments, lawyers should take the opportunity to screen for abuse." Maurice Critchley Kenthurst The government is rumoured to be considering caps on negative gearing and to use the proceeds to fund the raising of the $80,000 threshold, which will provide relief to only the top 25 per cent of earners. Malcolm Turnbull is looking like a reverse Robin Hood robs from the poor to give to the rich. A fairer and more equitable alternative would be to merely cap the amount of interest deductions from negative gearing to gross rents received. Similar approaches have been adopted overseas. Catherine Brookes Manly It looks like this government has not changed one bit under Malcolm Turnbull, deciding to do virtually nothing on tax reform and stick to the one consistent policy of the Abbott government in just attacking everything their opponent does. Same dud product with a different salesman; I'm not buying it. Mark Pearce Richmond Timid Turnbull being sunk by dead wood It is obvious that Australia is suffering from weak leadership ("Negative smearing: politics trumps policy", February 25). Let's bring back what we stand for and has always defined us as a nation compassion and decisive leadership. Malcolm Turnbull has surprisingly kept a lot of dead wood in his "new" ministry, which is inhibiting fresh thinking. Labor or Liberal could define their leadership overnight with the closure of offshore detention centres. The fact that they won't do this is the anchor hanging around Australia's neck, preventing this nation from striving forward. We have gone backwards for long enough. David Goldstein Balgowlah The sounds of distant splashing are becoming louder as more and more of his new fans abandon HMAS Turnbull. Initially he looked so good standing erect and handsome at the wheel, with an immaculate uniform and a gleaming smile. The word gravitas was frequently mentioned, because the man compared with his predecessor actually looked (and talked) the part. The fact that some of his new supporters are abandoning ship is partly his own fault, because after all that big talk about it being the most exciting time to be an Australian, the result has been the same old populist scare politics. Meanwhile that ominous rumbling below decks reminds us that some of Captain Abbott's old crew are still aboard. It's a reminder that the new captain shares a name with that chap who had trouble on HMS Bounty all those years ago. Nick Franklin Katoomba Our Prime Minister is looking more like the dog that chased cars but didn't know what to do with it when he caught one. Jack Ray Cheltenham Please allow the intellectuals to make the decisions The CSIRO cuts are another example of the clear anti-intellectual ideology that underpins politics, especially conservative politics ("CSIRO faces growing pressure on job cuts", February 25). Who can forget Senator Nick Minchin and his claim that climate change was a world wide conspiracy of scientists to bolster their income through research projects? Or the Cold War when those who had any claim to be considered "educated" were considered "vulnerable" to the wiles of communism and thus a security risk? However much people would like the world to be simple, as in sport where goals can be kicked, and winners announced, or religion, where good and evil battle it out, we have to look elsewhere. And that elsewhere is the educated, reasoning political leadership of the likes of President Barack Obama, and we had hoped Malcolm Turnbull. As we daily face the consequences of climate change, when water management is looming as the issue of 21st Century, enhancing the resources of the CSIRO seems a logical, reasonable indeed essential decision. Please, Canberra, lead. Ian Muldoon Coffs Harbour Sub funds could be much better spent What are we defending ("White paper reveals broad range of threats", February 23)? The government has announced that it intends to spend $50 billion to obtain 12 new submarines together with the extra cost of maintaining them. It is estimated that to fully implement the Gonski recommendations into schools would cost an extra $5 billion and an extra $5 billion would go a long way to improving our health system. Could we not cut the number of submarines to nine in order to achieve improvements in education and health? Where do our priorities lie? Laurie Dicker Buderim (Qld) The new defence white paper has a glaring omission food security. The decision by Treasurer Scott Morrison to allow the sale of Australia's largest dairy farm to Chinese owners should be seen as a huge blow to our national security. Listed among the "broader range of threats" which Australia faces should be a federal government that doesn't understand that an army marches on its stomach. William Bourke Wollstonecraft Admission falls bit short of an apology Paul Sheehan's mea culpa is a little thin, all context and hindsight ("The story of Louise: police have no case to answer, but I do", February 25). His decision to actually go ahead and write such an incendiary column, published in Monday's paper ("The horrifying untold story of Louise"), clearly demonstrated his willingness to abandon the usual checks and research that should have undertaken when dealing with such sensitive issues, particularly in the current environment. Suzanne Tatam Aranda It takes a lot to admit that you were wrong and were duped, having allowed your predisposition to get in the way of due journalistic diligence. Your admission falls a bit short of the apology due to the Middle Eastern community, but good on you, Paul Sheehan. Don Smith Ashfield Paul Sheehan's retraction of his story is not good enough. His uncritical publication of false allegations as part of a "rape epidemic" not only maligns the NSW Police Force but probably make things even more difficult for all victims of sexual assault. Incidentally, they also impugn all men, particularly those of Middle Eastern descent. Shame, shame, shame. Deborah Campbell Clovelly Kings Cross colour lost to the 'vibrant night-life' In the past, despite some slightly sleazy aspects, Kings Cross was a colourful neighbourhood that attracted a more than usual quota of artistic, eccentric, slightly offbeat characters. I wonder, however, whether those who live there or nearby today are as enthusiastic as Elizabeth Farrelly for the "vibrant night-life" that seems to consist of significant numbers of "incomers" doing little more than drinking throughout the night before emerging somewhat worse for wear and noisily seeking transport back to their own neighbourhoods ("A sanitised city locks us out from more than nightlife", February 25). Ken Knight North Turramurra Elizabeth Farrelly has accurately summarised how not just areas of the city, but places throughout the state, are perishing. NSW has become a "lock-in" state where most people cannot escape the Mike Baird epidemic. It is spreading rapidly wherever money-making deals can be locked-in. Perhaps there should be a green-light-lock-out for all property developers and government authorities, with all decisions controlled by the amber light. The enforced pause would ensure all projects had time to obtain public approval before taking off. Independent costing, and societal and environmental impact reports could be studied and be adjusted before the green light comes into play. Only then will the road ahead be clear for the feet-on-the-ground pedestrians, not just the high flyers. Joy Cooksey Harrington Playground taunts How ironic to hear our "leaders" resorting to personal taunts and bullying over the Safe Schools program ("Shorten, Bernardi joust over Safe Schools", February 25) Viv Munter North Epping Inclinations not a form of sickness Homosexuality, transgenderism, transexuality, lesbianism and heterosexuality are not illnesses or dysfunctions and cannot be caught nor taught ("Fraud! Homophobe! No safe school here", February 25). People who identify with one or other of these inclinations are simply people who identify with one or other inclination. What's more, they (we) deserve as much freedom to express our sense of self as anyone else. Nothing less and nothing more. Hence Safe Schools (places) where all can be. Philip Johnson Edgecliff Cory Bernardi asserts that same sex and transgender people are exercising a "lifestyle" choice. The overwhelming weight of scientific inference if not evidence is contrary to this. Bernardi, as an MP, seems to have made a lifestyle choice to forswear any kind of intellectual curiosity in favour of church dogma. This is the price we pay for a pluralistic democracy but it's worth reflecting that our political forefathers excised church from state for a reason. Peter Spencer Glebe Saga without end The 18-month Margaret Cunneen saga confirms four things: the legal system England foisted on its colonies is unique in that it does not try to find the truth; lawyers who run the system can prolong the process indefinitely; untrained judges are largely passive; a truth-seeking system run by trained judges, e.g. Napoleon's, would resolve the Cunneen matter in a day or so ("The Crown prosecutor and the tow truck driver", February 25). Evan Whitton Glebe Big merger plan will increase state's power The main reason that Mike Baird wants to merge councils is because this would give the state government immense power to build whatever they want even if this harms the community (" NSW council merger plans 'no different to Islamic State' actions: councillor", smh.com.au, February 25). To keep councils totally independent and to make sure that they protect the locals' interest, any potential councillor should not be allowed to be either a real estate agent, a property developer or a member of any political party. Such a huge plan of merging local councils could be totally undemocratic, so we must oppose it. Andrew Partos Seaforth Priestly pomp poser Grahame Burton, not only do many priests and ministers wear long dresses, but on special occasions, they have lovely bejewelled head gear, and big shiny rings on their fingers. We accept this for what it is what is it (Letters, February 25)? Jennifer Carter Oyster Bay When thousands of photographs of women are secretly taken, the lens focused on their breasts, it should cause an outrage. The perpetrator should be sacked; the whistleblower should be applauded; and the employer determined to exorcise the rot from their workplace. Nothing about the State Library of Queensland's handling of the sleazy photographs case aligns with best practice. Credit:Xaume Olleros With determination, commonsense would dictate that the employer would then focus on regaining the trust of their female workers, and the public at large. That's what should happen. But nothing about the case of the State Library of Queensland and the sleazy photographs taken there sits comfortably with best practice. A woman alleges she was raped in August 2002 in the city of Sydney. The alleged perpetrators spoke Arabic. Apparently for years men were raping prostitutes in Kings Cross earning them the name: MERCs. Middle Eastern raping c----. There were a series of gang-rapes in Sydney in the early 2000s in South-West Sydney. Some of the perpetrators were Australians of Middle Eastern descent. Sexual assault is one of the least reported crimes. This woman's sexual assault took place within the time range of these gang rapes. It was not reported. It was based on this constellation of facts and unsubstantiated claims that Paul Sheehan wrote a column connecting Louises claim of sexual assault to a rape epidemic in Sydney in the early 2000s. Police speak to a group of men in Kings Cross. Credit:Steve Lunam The thread that Sheehan uses to stitch together his story is a racist, matter-of-fact, common doxa that constructs a taken-for-granted figure of the Muslim/Middle Eastern/brown man as rapist. This figure reifies a racialised discourse that stigmatises and maligns Muslim men wholesale via the rhetoric of criminalisation. And it works. Because these have become the acceptable terms of how the media presents any story connected (even wrongly) to Muslims. And they are acceptable to a readership that largely takes their truth value for granted. A revival of a brutal play in London showing rape, torture, incest, electrocution, sex assignment surgery and a man having his tongue ripped out has caused audience members to faint and walk out. The National Theatre's production of Sarah Kane's unflinching play Cleansed carries a warning that it contains graphic scenes of physical and sexual violence. Audience be warned: Revival of the Sarah Kane play Cleansed causes walkouts. Credit:National Theatre The story is set on a university campus turned interrogation centre where a bunch of misfits are subject to extreme violence to test the durability of their love. At the hands of their sadistic torturers, they are subject to a chamber of horrors. Hands are chopped off and anal rape depicted. Australia is looking to the US and China for help after discovering damage to the national icebreaker, the Aurora Australis, which remains stuck on Antarctic rocks in gale force winds with 68 people aboard. The crew found the hull of the ship had been breached, flooding water into an area used for ballast water. The Australian Antarctic Division said there was no risk to the icebreaker's stability, or of it leaking fuel. The ship ran aground in Horseshoe Harbour at Mawson research station on Wednesday afternoon after its moorings broke in winds that reached 176km/h. Video from Mawson station, released by the Australian Antarctic Division, showed blizzard conditions that reduced visibility to near zero. Australia's new fleet of 12 submarines will cost at least $50 billion just to build, the Turnbull government's Defence white paper has revealed - at stark odds with public claims by shipbuilders that they can be constructed at a fraction of that price. The price tag of more than $4 billion per boat is spread over the next 30 years, but it does not include lifetime maintenance of the submarine fleet, which is likely to be at least that much again and perhaps twice as much, bringing the total of the program to a staggering $150 billion. The white paper, released on Thursday, outlines Australia's plans to defend itself for the next 20 years. Government ministers complained loud and long. They gave a question time and Labor opposition types didn't ask a single question about the zillion-dollar Defence white paper. Didn't they want to know about all those new submarines, frigates, missiles and the chance of a hugely expanded Defence Force to get its hands on lovely Predator drones? Not a question! Just an irritating drone about tax and such. Didn't the opposition take the defence of Australia seriously? Fairfax Media can reveal Huang was caught up in a far-reaching corruption scandal involving senior government officials in his native Jieyang, a city of 6 million in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, which prompted a hasty departure from his base in Shenzhen. Huang's Beauty Point home in Mosman. Credit:HuwLambert.com Sources with knowledge of the matter say Huang, having been tipped off that a close political patron would be investigated for graft as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive - which includes operations Fox Hunt and Sky Net, left hurriedly for Australia, where he had already explored the possibility of expanding Yuhu Group. Huang has been conspicuously low-profile in China since 2013, with Yuhu's website documenting his every move in Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan - but never on the mainland. Huang says he has had no trouble returning to mainland China. Mr Li Ruipeng (second from left) of Li Guancheng Investment Group (LGIGA) with a number of coalition politicians (including Tony Abbott, McFarlane and Stuart Robert) Last month, he failed to appear at his own company's annual meeting in Shenzhen, where a major strategic decision was announced, refocusing Shenzhen Yuhu's expansion plans toward Australia and away from the mainland Chinese market. Friends in high places: Huang Xiangmo with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. My philanthropic donations don't come with any hidden agenda, and it has nothing to do with China Huang Xiangmo Around the same time Huang was picking up the pieces, another Jieyang entrepreneur was seeking to reinvent himself in Australia. Li Ruipeng is now notorious as the Chinese businessman who fished luxury Rolex watches out of a paper bag, presenting them to Tony Abbott and former frontbenchers Ian Macfarlane and Stuart Robert. Despite representing himself as a billionaire in Australia, Li has left behind a multimillion-dollar trail of unpaid creditors and employees in mainland China, according to court documents obtained by Fairfax Media. Li and several co-accused have been consistent no-shows in court; lawyers acting for those owed money believe he absconded to Australia as his business started to go sour. A Guangdong court ordered his company assets frozen in September 2014. The Jieyang city gate that got Chen Hongping and friends in hot water. Though Huang is listed as a director of Yuhu's Australian subsidiaries, he has chosen not to hold any shares in his name, according to corporate filings. Yuhu's lucrative property operations are majority-owned by his wife, Huang Jiefang, and Huang Jiquan, believed to be the couple's son. The Mosman mansion is also in Huang Jiefang's name. Huang's woes in Jieyang stem from the close political connections which helped him ride from rags to riches during China's real estate boom. In 2009, Huang gave 150 million yuan ($32 million) toward the construction of a grand pagoda-style city gate, citing his close relationship with the city's top official, Communist Party secretary Chen Hongping. Huang Xiangmo playing mahjong with NSW Premier Mike Baird. "One night, it was after 10pm, I was having a chat over tea with Secretary Chen," Huang told the local state-run newspaper in a hagiographic account of his contribution to the city. "When he raised the matter of the Jieyang Tower, he was very impassioned, very worked up. He made no secret that Jieyang's financial situation was inferior to more developed regions, and hoped that I could provide some valuable assistance." Trouble struck when Chen was investigated for corruption in November 2012. A subsequent court indictment alleged that, obsessed with building himself the perfect grave, Chen embezzled millions to construct a luxurious family burial site in accordance with the principles of feng shui. He was formally detained in June 2013, has been expelled from the party and is awaiting sentencing. Huang Xiangmo with former prime minister Kevin Rudd. Ominously for Huang, the indictment also found Chen erred by overspending on the city gate, which features nine 10-metre spires surrounding a giant rhyolite boulder transported from the storied Mount Tai, some 1600 kilometres away in Shandong province. All told, the court found Chen had accepted an "unprecedented" sum of more than 125 million yuan in bribes. Chen's arrest also led to the downfall of his immediate predecessor, Wan Qingliang, who had by then been promoted to party secretary of the city of Guangzhou. Local media ran sordid accounts of the pair sharing the same mistress, adding that Wan flew around on chartered China Southern flights, picking his favourite air stewardesses from a photo line-up on his iPad. Huang Xiangmo with former prime minister Tony Abbott. There is no suggestion that Huang's contribution toward the Jieyang Tower should be construed as a bribe. But Huang's decision to leave at a politically turbulent time proved astute. Even if innocent, staying would have meant putting faith in China's party-controlled judiciary instructed to pry into Wan and Chen's financial benefactors. Another local businessman who donated toward the city gate, Huang Hongming (no relation), was detained in connection to Chen's investigation, his whereabouts still unknown. In a rare telephone interview with Fairfax Media, Huang Xiangmo said he was never affected by Chen's case, pointing out he was never mentioned by name in the prosecution's indictment. "It was a philanthropic act," he said, referring to his contribution to the Jieyang Tower. "I don't have any business or investments in Jieyang, my company doesn't have any projects in Jieyang." He said he had made plans to migrate to Australia as early as 2010, well before he knew Chen was in trouble. He is applying for citizenship and expects to get his passport next month. He denied having any trouble entering mainland China, saying he frequently returned. On his donation to UTS, he said he hoped "Australians could understand China more clearly, and that China could understand Australia more clearly". "My philanthropic donations don't come with any hidden agenda, and it has nothing to do with China," he told Fairfax Media. "My company doesn't invest in China any more; it just has some small residual assets. When the media say I have some [ulterior] motives, I don't know whether to laugh or cry I feel it is unfair, not objective." And of his political donations to both major parties, he said: "I just sometime participate in their activities I feel sometimes their politics are in line with us Chinese-Australian businesses, in line with our standards and ideas. We just support their political views, without raising ours." If Li's efforts to court favours in Australia have backfired, Huang is swiftly moving toward political reinvention. As head of the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China, he gives speeches urging Chinese-Australians to oppose independence for Taiwan, Xinjiang or Tibet. The Scots College council was not going to renew the contract of principal Ian Lambert before it was replaced by the Presbyterian Church last week, a source close to the process has confirmed. On Tuesday, Fairfax Media revealed that the church had taken the unprecedented move of "exercising its constitutional right to govern the college directly", by replacing almost all of the Bellevue Hill school's council with representatives of the church. The church's move came "over governance concerns" with former council members. Dr Lambert's contract was subsequently renewed by the newly installed management committee. It can now be revealed that under Dr Lambert's tenure, Scots promoted six staff members from his former school to senior executive positions at Scots, one of Sydney's most expensive private schools. Gunshot residue was found on Roger Rogerson's pants, shirt, pockets and hat just days after Sydney university student Jamie Gao was executed. But there are three explanations as to how it could have got there. Roger Rogerson leaves the NSW Supreme Court. Credit:Edwina Pickles The first possibility is that he fired a gun. A second scenario is that he was in "close proximity to a gun at the time it was discharged". The federal government has announced the largest shake-up of Defence personnel in a generation with close to 1200 public servants, most of whom are Canberra-based, set to contest new roles within the department. The Defence white paper, released on Thursday, announced the creation of 800 new roles in intelligence, space and cyber security divisions. Another 400 roles will be created in strategic policy, engineering, IT and diplomacy. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull launches the 2016 Defence white paper at ADFA in Canberra with Chief of Defence Force Mark Binskin and Defence Minister Marise Payne. Credit:Andrew Meares But the government has capped the number of public servants within the Department of Defence at 18,200, prompting unions to fear close to 1000 staff will be made redundant given current staffing of around 18,000. According to the white paper, the new roles will be accommodated by ongoing cuts to the bureaucracy and existing staff will be retrained to perform specialist functions. Rob Pyne has vowed to be a thorn in the government's side for as long as it takes to see an inquiry set up into local government in Queensland, referring to his ongoing crusade as as his "mission" and "the most selfless act I have taken in my life so far". The Labor Cairns MP tabled more documents on Thursday, in what has become an on-going event of defiance, with the government so far refusing to budge on its position that there is no need for an inquiry. Former Labor MP Rob Pyne. Credit:Chris Hyde Mr Pyne, a former councillor, has tabled hundreds of pages of documents since he began speaking out on the issue in October last year. The Department of Local Government, at deputy premier Jackie Trad's behest, has examined Mr Pyne's claims and determined there was nothing to substantiate the claims Mr Pyne was making. A Queensland policeman fired his gun at a knife-wielding, mentally unwell man because he feared for his life, an inquest has heard. Laval Zimmer was shot in a confrontation with police in his share house at Kippa-Ring, north of Brisbane, in November 2014. A coronial inquest into the death of Laval Zimmer is underway in Brisbane. Credit:Louie Douvis Constable Cory Lubbock told a Coroners Court hearing on Thursday he fired his gun at the knife-wielding 33-year-old because "at that stage, I thought he was going to kill me". "(I) didn't want to die, so I formed the intention to fire to preserve my own life," he said. The black lives matter movement has shed light on the racial profiling, police brutality and racial inequality experienced by the African-American community across the United States (it has also had an impact upon Australian dialogue regarding race). But apparently some of the employees at Facebook's notoriously white, bro-centric Menlo Park, California office don't agree. In a private memo posted on a company announcement page for employees only, Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that employees have been scratching out "black lives matter" and writing "all lives matter" on the company's famous signature wall. The company, whose staff is only 2 per cent black, is facing the issue head on. "We've never had rules around what people can write on our walls," said Zuckerberg in the post. "We expect everybody to treat each other with respect." The entire message, obtained by Gizmodo, is posted in full below: In a note to staff, Mark Zuckerberg wrote: "I was already very disappointed by this disrespectful behavior before [...] now I consider this malicious as well". We reached out to Facebook for comment, but had not heard back at time of writing. John Skewes was sitting at home in Ballarat on Thursday, reading about all the allegations against and proven crimes by Catholic clergy in the regional city he has lived in all his life. As a victim of abuse himself - not once but twice, although not by Catholics or Christian Brothers - Mr Skewes, 66, decided to drive to the Nazareth House nursing home, a grand Victorian building beside Lake Wendouree. This is where former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns lies in palliative care, looked after by nuns. He is 85. Today he was giving evidence by video link to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. John Skewes joins Wendy Dyckhoff, left, and Gabrielle Short in their vigil outside Nazareth House, in Ballarat. Credit:Simon O'Dwyer There John met two women, Gabby Short and Wendy Dyckhoff, holding a quiet vigil outside the nursing home. Both spent time there as children when it was an orphanage and was ruled by notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, the chaplain. The women say orphanage girls were sexually, physically and emotionally abused by him. Bishop Mulkearns shuffled priests, including Ridsdale, between parishes, where they continued to offend. But it was too much for Mr Skewes, who says the "high level of anxiety" in Ballarat while the royal commission rolls through town triggers his own anxiety, and when he got to Nazareth House, he broke down and cried in the women's arms. He had trouble speaking and forming words. His acute anxiety - caused by the abuse he suffered as a child - literally renders him speechless. A suspicious package that forced the evacuation of Dandenong station and suspended train services on Thursday morning turned out to be a "suitcase of clothing and children's toys". Commuters were evacuated, the police bomb response unit called and a man arrested over the incident. Police cars at Dandenong station after commuters were evacuated over a bomb threat. The 28-year-old West Australian man has been charged with making a hoax bomb threat and false report. He is due to appear in the Dandenong Magistrates Court on Thursday afternoon.. Victoria Police spokeswoman Julie-Anne Newman said the area has since been given the "all-clear". A Federal Court judge has ruled that one of Melbourne's top Islamic schools illegally altered school documents during an investigation by the Independent Education Union of Australia. In a judgment handed down on Thursday morning, Justice Christopher Jessup upheld the union's claim that the Australian International Academy of Education formerly King Khalid College illegally hired more than a dozen teachers on fixed-term contracts. The union argued this was well above the three teachers permitted to be hired on fixed-term contracts under the teachers' award in 2012. Justice Jessup found that the school's head, Salah Salman, and another member of staff, had also contravened the Fair Work Act by refusing to allow the union to inspect copies of school records in 2012. After Fair Work Australia had made an order allowing for an inspection, Mr Salman instructed his personal assistant to change the teachers' contracts, altering their status from a replacement teacher to a full-time employee, the judgment read. Justice Jessup said this was done in order give union officials the impression that "the teacher concerned was not employed on a fixed-term basis, and had not been so employed from the outset". An eleventh-hour bid by the Andrews government to pass the Port of Melbourne sale through Parliament appears to have been scuttled. Unless an unlikely compromise can be reached by the end of Thursday, Labor will be forced to sell the port without the backing of Parliament, relying on special powers introduced by the former Kennett government. The decision has the potential to strip hundreds of millions of dollars from the price, with the lack of bipartisan legislative comfort creating an added layer of risk and legal uncertainty. After weeks of wrangling, the government and the opposition had ironed out 11 of 15 sticking points in a process that was arguably quite constructive. But Labor's insistence on a 30-year compensation clause to the new owner if a future rival port undercuts its business has proved a bridge too far. A childhood friend of a woman allegedly raped 49 years ago said it was a "terrible thing" for her friend to give up the baby son born from the incident, a court has heard. The trial in the Bendigo County Court centres on the allegation made by the complainant, now 65, after her son, who was given up for adoption in 1968, found her and encouraged her to tell police. John O'Connell has pleaded not guilty to the rape of a 16-year-old girl in 1967. Credit:Darren Howe/Bendigo Advertiser A 2014 investigation led to DNA being taken from the son, his mother and the accused, John Thomas O'Connell, who has pleaded not guilty to the charge. The test proved Mr O'Connell was the father of the son, now 48. A month later the FER proposed increasing payments to $65 a fortnight. The reason given was that the principal needed to be paid off in a reasonable timeframe. Negotiations stalled as Pippa's condition made it difficult for her to handle the pressure and respond to demands for information and communication. "My brain just freezes, I can't function at all," she said. A Curtin University specialist in PTSD said what might stress a healthy person would be heightened in an individual with the disorder. My brain just freezes, I can't function at all. "A situation like debt collection could also trigger avoidance strategies like ignoring telephone calls and emails, not opening mail or attending appointments they simply can't handle it," Dr Petra Skeffington from the Curtin School of Psychology and Speech Pathology said. Pippa's fines situation worsened on June 26 after a warning letter was sent advising enforcement warrants would be sent if she did not make contact. On August 13, warrant fees were applied to her account and referred to the Sheriff Office's Criminal Enforcement Team with a new balance of $15,536.35. That increased to $16,682.70 by November 9 with five new infringements. A financial counsellor calculated Pippa's net weekly position as minus $150 a week and supplied an income and expenditure statement to the Sheriff's office on January 19. Her fragile mental state and her debt spiralling out of control have since pushed Pippa into a bleak hole of poverty, fear and lack of perspective on how she could ever recover. Pippa said she quite often ran out of food several days before her disability pension was paid. "I often only eat through the generosity of friends," she said "I used to be able to go to the charity food providers, but I can't do that without a car now they've taken my licence." She is now locked into escalating correspondence with the FER along with input from local politicians including the member for Joondalup, Jan Norberger, and the member for the North Metropolitan Region Martin Pritchard. Despite a clinical psychologist attesting to her condition and an expenditure statement clearly showing she couldn't even meet her existing costs of living, the Fines Enforcement Registry has been unrelenting in its bid to have her increase payment to them. Her driving license has been suspended as a result of the fines, she is now isolated as she is unable to afford public transport to reach her local library and use free wifi to continue to battle her case. The Opposition spokesman on mental health issues, Stephen Dawson, called on the Attorney-General Michael Mischin to show some compassion. "Call off the attack dogs and work with this woman who is clearly stressed, suffering and simply can't afford to pay," he said. Mr Dawson said this was evidence of the government "once again" targeting the poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged. "The Attorney-General needs to intervene and show some leadership in how to work with people who are in difficulties rather than just piling more pressure on them." But a letter to Pippa on February 17 from the Attorney General Michael Mischin's chief of staff, Martin Connolly, said there was nothing his office could to in aid of Pippa's plight. "When an infringement or fine is registered, a number of notices are issued by the FER," he wrote. "Unless payment is received or an approved payment arrangement is entered into, an enforcement warrant will be issued . . . and an enforcement warrant of $163 will apply (to each fine)." Mr Connolly said the FER did not have the authority to review or withdraw fines issued by the court. "Under our system of governance, the government and judiciary are independent of one another," he wrote. "It would not be appropriate for the Attorney General to comment on or intervene in the decisions of our judiciary." Mr Connolly said if Pippa wished to have her driver's licence suspension cancelled then she would have to enter into an approved payment arrangement. "Given your financial circumstances and the supporting documents you have provided, he (the manager of criminal enforcement) has agreed to reduce this to $50 a fortnight," he wrote. "That means it will take me about 14 years to pay off," Pippa said. Pippa has been unable to accept the $50 a fortnight offer because she simply can't afford it and wanted to stick with the $30 she had been paying all along. "It would be wrong of me to commit to an arrangement that I have no confidence I could keep," she said. "If I defaulted on that I could be evicted from my Homeswest home," she said. The manager of criminal enforcement and deputy sheriff, Bradley Wrzoskiewicz, responded by email to Pippa on Tuesday, rejecting her offer of repaying $30 a week to gain her license back. "Your offer is not deemed as acceptable in order to lift your fine suspension," he wrote. Dangerous sex offender Patrick Comeagain, who now goes by the surname Merritt, has been charged with the repeated rape of a 13-year-old girl in Geraldton more than 20 years ago. Cold case detectives from the State Crime Operations Squad interviewed and charged Merritt in relation to the historic unsolved crime on Thursday. Patrick Comeagain outside Perth Magistrate's Court in 2014. Credit:Aleisha Orr Police allege Mr Merritt, then aged 20, was disguised and armed with a gun when he broke into a home on November 3, 1994. Two girls, aged 15 and 13, were alone in the house. A murder accused acted in self defence when he fatally shot a neighbour who was behaving threateningly on his Mandurah front lawn, a court has heard. Damian Degioannis is on trial in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, charged with murdering 42-year-old Adam Hall in November 2014. Damian Degioannis is on trial charged with murdering 42-year-old Adam Hall. Credit:Mandurah Mail Defence lawyer Anthony Elliott told the jury in his opening submissions on Thursday his client was defending himself and his guests against a drug-affected Mr Hall, who was much bigger and stronger, and had been aggressive and had threatened to invade Degioannis' home. The trial continues. A woman has wept while testifying in a Perth court that an Uber Black driver put his hand up her skirt while driving her home. Zeljko Koncarevic, 51, is on trial in Perth Magistrates Court accused of indecently assaulting the 21-year-old woman in his Jaguar in June last year. The alleged assault happened in June 2015. The complainant testified on Thursday that she filmed a Snapchat video for her friends in which she danced with excitement at being driven in a Jaguar. But she later became scared and nervous when Mr Koncarevic placed his hand on her thigh. Richmond: Violent thunderstorms and tornadoes lashed the US Southeast and mid-Atlantic region on Wednesday, killing at least four people in Virginia a day after twisters claimed three lives along the Gulf Coast, authorities said. The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of tornado activity along a line of storms stretching from Raleigh, North Carolina, north to parts of Virginia, Maryland and the Washington, DC area. "We're swamped with tornadoes on the ground here," said Weather Service forecaster Brandon Dunston in Raleigh, North Carolina. Three people were confirmed dead in Waverly, Virginia, a town of some 2300 residents about 72 kilometres southeast of Richmond, the state capital, where at least three structures sustained heavy damage in a mid-afternoon storm, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. Celeste Nurse says she has forgiven the woman who abducted her newborn daughter. Credit:Schalk van Zuydam But Zephany, which means "the Lord has hidden" in Hebrew, was nowhere to be found. She would remain lost for almost 18 years. Zephany Nurse, as pictured on the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children website. "I thought that someone needed to wake me up because this was not happening to me," Celeste said Tuesday, nearly 19 years after her nightmare began. "I thought that it cannot be true." But it was true. And on Tuesday, Nurse came face to face with the person who prosecutors say is responsible. The woman who allegedly stole Celeste's baby and raised Zephany as her own is now on trial. It is an incredible crime, made even more remarkable by its unbelievable climax. For almost two decades, the bizarre story of the vanishing baby with the biblical name has made headlines in South Africa. Although the country has been plagued by similar crimes, Zephany's disappearance was special. Her fate seemed written into her very name. A biblical name, a bewitching case Celeste and Morne Nurse both grew up in the predominantly non-white township of Mitchells Plain, outside the scenic city of Cape Town. He was powerfully built. She was pretty and whisper thin. They met as teenagers, and within a year, they were married and expecting their first child, a daughter they decided to name Zephany. Soon, the young parents-to-be got over their shock. "It was all very exciting," Celeste Nurse told the Cape Argus newspaper three years ago. "We always wondered what she'd be like." Zephany was born healthy and with a full head of hair on April 27, 1997. Three days later, Celeste was shaken awake to find that her daughter was gone taken by a woman posing as a nurse. All that was left were a few traces of the child: Zephany's clothes, a handbag with no hint about its owner and a pillow allegedly used by the thief to fake a pregnancy abandoned in a disused tunnel leading from the maternity ward to the outside world, according to the Cape Argus. "We ran everywhere in the hospital," Celeste said on the witness stand Tuesday. "The baby was nowhere to be found. Missing. Gone." The young couple was distraught. "I was crying my heart out in the foetal position," Morne testified Tuesday. The hospital called the police, but they didn't turn up any more clues. When the parents learned that there was no security at the hospital and no leads on their daughter's whereabouts, their terror turned into anger. "I went ballistic," Morne told the Cape Argus in 2010. "I even knocked over a medicine cabinet and all the bottles broke on the floor." "We came home to nothing," Celeste said in the same interview. For days, the couple clung to the hope that the nightmare would somehow end and their baby girl would be returned to them. Their grief was amplified by the baby gear in their house. Everything reminded them of their Zephany. "At night I lay in bed and heard the cats crying," Celeste said. "Sometimes they sounded just like a baby." Several leads emerged, only to unravel. Shortly before Zephany disappeared, another mother had caught a woman holding her baby and walking toward the hospital exit. When the mother confronted the woman, she handed the baby back and said she was just trying to "soothe" the child. But the mother couldn't identify the woman. When one of the Nurses' neighbours suddenly showed up with a newborn, despite having never appeared pregnant, police investigated. But the baby turned out to be a boy. It would be the last lead for more than a decade. The Nurses had three more kids including a daughter named Cassidy but never forgot their missing firstborn. They celebrated Zephany's birthday every year, often making public appeals in newspapers or on television begging the kidnapper to return the girl. Then, at 3am on July 17, 2009, the Nurses received a phone call that revived their hopes. "I know about your daughter," the female caller said in a hushed tone, according to the Cape Argus. Then she demanded 500,000 rand ($44,450) for information on the girl's location. She told the family to bring the cash to a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Mitchells Plain. The Nurses called the police, and seven hours later, Morne showed up at the fast-food joint wearing a wire. But the caller never showed. Instead, police traced the calls to a woman who lived near Celeste's mother and arrested her for attempted extortion. "I'll never ever give up hope," Morne told the newspaper in 2010. "I can feel it in my gut my daughter is out there and she is going to come home." Zephany was still being hidden. But the girl didn't even know it. An unbelievable breakthrough Everyone kept telling Cassidy Nurse about her doppelganger. Cassidy was a first-year student at her Mitchell Plains high school, but one student after another told her she bore an uncanny resemblance to a senior. They had the same light-brown skin, almond-shaped eyes, broad nose and ample lips. Cassidy felt strangely drawn to the older girl, and they became friends. When she told her parents about the supposed similarity, her father became intrigued. Morne arranged to meet the older girl at a local McDonald's. "We went to McDonald's and I started questioning her," Morne told the court Tuesday, according to the Daily Mail. "I asked what her date of birth was her birthday was the date my daughter was abducted. "She said she didn't look like her own folks, and she told me that she had thought about that over and over," he continued. "I asked her why she thought she looked like me and Cassidy. She laughed and said she didn't know, she said she felt confused. I didn't want to scare her. I wanted to protect her at all costs. I left with the information I was looking for. I went onto Facebook and got more information on this girl, I scrutinised her account. I saw pictures of her and she resembled my kids completely." Then he pulled a photo of the girl's supposed mother from Facebook and sent it to someone. The person, Shireen Piet, said she recognised the woman. She said it was the same woman who she had caught "soothing" her baby shortly before Zephany was stolen in April 1997. Morne didn't tell Celeste at first. He didn't want to break her heart for a second time. Also, the pair had split up a year before. Celeste had battled cancer and won. She also had also met another man to whom she would soon get engaged. But she and Morne remained united in their passion to find their firstborn. Eventually, Morne sent Celeste a photo of the girl. "I just I got that feeling inside, I just grabbed my heart and said this is my daughter," Celeste told CBS. "This is my daughter." Once Morne felt he had the evidence he needed, he took it to the authorities. Police took DNA samples from the girl. And after six excruciating weeks of testing, the results came back in late February of 2015. Finally, Zephany had been found. She had a different name, but she had grown up barely a mile from her biological family. Celeste finally met her daughter on February 26, 2015. "I burst out into tears when I saw her," Celeste told CBS. "And she kept me like this, in her arms the first time when she saw her dad, and when she came to me I just I couldn't stop crying. I couldn't stop crying. I said, finally, I found you. For seventeen years I've been looking for you. "I found you finally. You're mine again." One mother's relief, another's arrest A day after Celeste was reunited with her daughter, the woman allegedly responsible for the 18-year rift was arrested. The woman, a 51-year-old seamstress, has not been named because of South African law. She has been charged with kidnapping and fraud for filing false paperwork regarding her daughter's birth and identity. Zephany's adopted name also as been protected by court order. The trial began Monday in Western Cape High Court. The woman has pleaded not guilty. In a 35-page document explaining her plea, she painted herself as an unwitting victim of a shady middle-woman. The accused said she had been abused and raped as a child, and beaten by boyfriends so severely that she suffered a series of miscarriages. She had even lost a six-week-old daughter, she claimed. When she suffered another miscarriage in 1997, she hid the news from her husband. Instead of telling him, she secretly arranged to adopt a newborn, she wrote. She met the middle-woman at a bus station in Cape Town and was handed an infant wrapped in a blanket, she wrote. She then told her husband, family and friends that the dark-haired girl was her own. "I had on occasions thought about telling Michael and Zephany about the adoption but they had a very close relationship and did not want to destroy it," she wrote in an apparent reference to her husband. She said she had trouble loving the child. "I initially struggled to be close to her," she wrote, according to the Daily Mail. "It took me years to accept her as my own daughter. "Although I was not her biological mother, I raised her as my own child. I recall sitting with her, brushing her hair, bathing her and always wondering where her parents were and why they did not want her as I found her to be pretty and cute," she continued. "I thought I was helping a child who was not wanted and would not be cared for sufficiently by her biological parents." In fact, the child was very much on the minds of her biological parents. And it's unclear if there really was a middle-woman. "She [the middle-woman] told me that the baby's mother is a young girl who wanted to give her child up for adoption. I was told that the baby was mine and the documentation will be sorted out later," the accused wrote in her plea. "I had a bad feeling that something was wrong." Incredibly, Celeste has said she is prepared to forgive the woman even if the legal system cannot. "When I see the woman that took her, I would like to give her a hug," she said last March, after the woman had been released on bail. "When I see her I want to say thank you for what you've done. You've done a good job, look at my daughter, she's beautiful inside out." On Tuesday, the two mothers one accused of kidnapping the other's child shared a strange but tender moment during the trial. Celeste told the court how she had given Zephany her first bath in the hospital, marvelling at her tuft of dark hair. Ford Driving Skills for Life Adds New Drugged Driving Suit as 2016 Tour Continues in the U.S. +VIDEO Program to expand to Europe DEARBORN, MI - February 25, 2016: Ford Driving Skills for Life launches its 13th global tour with the addition of a new Drugged Driving Suit for its U.S. curriculum that's designed to stress the dangers of driving while impaired. The program expands this year as Driving Skills for Life takes its training across the United States and travels to six additional countries worldwide. The 2016 program also provides experiences with a Drunk Driving Suit, which debuted in 2013. Students attending ride-and-drive events will wear both suits to gain perspective on how being impaired can slow movement, reduce coordination, blur vision and make tasks difficult. They'll also learn the importance of safety belt use and pedestrian safety, and about the risks of drowsy driving. "Our 2016 program features some of the newest and most innovative tools available to teach new drivers to be safe and make sound decisions behind the wheel," said Jim Graham, manager, Ford Driving Skills for Life. "Our new Drugged Driving Suit is intended to complement our Drunk Driving Suit, giving students a critical eye into the consequences of impaired driving." Driving Skills for Life takes its training to 15 stops in the United States this year, including Alabama, Arizona, California, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas, as well as other states. The safe driving message also expands globally as the tour travels to Argentina, Bahrain, Finland, Oman, Poland and South Korea. To date, Driving Skills for Life has reached 800,000 new drivers of all ages with free ride-and-drive courses, school and community events, and its interactive website. By the end of 2016, the program will have reached 1 million people in 35 countries. "Despite progress in recent years, teens continue to be overrepresented in motor vehicle crashes and fatalities across the country,"said Jonathan Adkins, executive director, Governors Highway Safety Association. "For this reason, the association and the State Highway Safety Offices are looking forward to bringing this powerful program to even more teens and their parents coast to coast and around the globe." Ford Driving Skills for Life global milestones Ford Driving Skills for Life was established in 2003 by Ford Motor Company Fund, Governors Highway Safety Association and a panel of safety experts with the mission of teaching newly licensed drivers the necessary skills for safer driving and the importance of making good decisions behind the wheel. Through free, hands-on ride-and-drive courses, classroom material and an interactive website, the core curriculum focuses on vehicle handling, hazard recognition, speed management and space management, which account for 60 percent of all crashes. In its first 12 years, Ford Driving Skills for Life provided hands-on training to more than 41,000 teens in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Thousands of teens and parents have used the Web-based curriculum at www.drivingskillsforlife.com. "Ford Driving Skills for Life has grown in both content and reach since it launched 13 years ago,"said Graham. "We focus on parental behavior, because research shows it has an impact on teen driving behavior. And we continue to modify the program to keep up with an ever-evolving world newly licensed drivers must face." About Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services is committed to creating opportunities that promote corporate citizenship, philanthropy, volunteerism and cultural diversity for those who live in the communities where Ford does business. Established in 1949 and made possible by Ford Motor Company profits, Ford Motor Company Fund supports initiatives and institutions that foster innovative education, auto-related safety, and American heritage and legacy. National programs include Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies, which provides high school students with academically rigorous 21st century learning experiences, and Driving Skills for Life, a teen-focused auto safety initiative. The Ford Volunteer Corps, established in 2005, continues Ford's legacy of caring worldwide. Through the Volunteer Corps, salaried employees, union members, retirees and their families participate in a wide range of volunteer projects in their communities. For more information on programs made possible by Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services, visit www.drivingskillsforlife.com. Renewable Fuel Standard Program Under Review of Senate Committee Supporters and opponents both spoke out at an oversight hearing yesterday. WASHINGTON February 25, 2016; NACS Online reported that yesterday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held an oversight hearing on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. Witnesses included: EPA Acting Administrator Janet McCabe; Energy Information Administration Deputy Administrator Howard Gruenspecht; President of the Energy Policy Research Foundation Lucien Pugliaresi; Energy Policy Consultant and Former Special Assistant to the President for Energy and Environment Ronald Minsk; and Executive Director of the Advanced Biofuels Business Association Brooke Coleman. Critics of the RFS focused their arguments on the lack of need of a mandate and how the economic assumptions that the RVOs are based in the statute no longer apply. Supporters of the RFS, on the other hand, shared their disappointment that the EPA didnt go far enough in their released volumes for 2014-2016. Despite the differing views on the RFS, there were two areas of agreement. First, everyone recognized that the development of the cellulosic ethanol market has been difficult and has not met expectations. Second, senators urged the EPA to issue the 2017 volumes on time. Several lawmakers pointed out that the uncertainty created by delays on finalizing the renewable fuel volumes is harmful to the market and discourages the necessary investment in bringing more renewable fuels into the market. One issue of particular concern to NACS that was raised at the hearing was the issue of whether or not the obligated party should shift from the importer and manufacturer to the blender. NACS believes the obligated party should remain with the importer and manufacturer and would oppose any efforts to move this obligation onto the retailer. These concerns were outlined in a letter NACS sent to the committee to be submitted into the hearing record, along with comments NACS provided to the EPA last summer. Though legislative action is unlikely this year, NACS will continue to educate and work with policymakers in ensuring that the fuel retailing industry is protected from harmful and burdensome legislation. IN CONTEXT: The Auto Channel's Acura MDX Article Archive (Text, Images and Video) "We are sharpening our focus on the Precision Crafted Performance DNA of the Acura brand and the 2017 MDX will integrate new styling elements and powertrain technology that takes us another step in that direction," said John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. The Acura MDX is the best-selling three-row luxury SUV of all time and Acura's best-selling SUV, with sales topping 50,000 units in each of the past three years. The 2017 MDX was designed by the Acura Design Studio in Torrance, Calif. and will continue be produced at the company's Lincoln, Ala. auto plant. In early 2017, an additional production source for MDX will be added at the East Liberty, Ohio auto plant. Both plants will use domestic and globally sourced parts. For More Information Consumer information is available at www.acura.com. To join the Acura community on Facebook, visit facebook.com/Acura. Additional media information including pricing, features and high-resolution photography is available at acuranews.com/channels/acura-automobiles. About Acura Acura is a leading automotive luxury nameplate that delivers Precision Crafted Performance through advanced product design and innovative technologies. On March 27, 2016, Acura will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its launch as the first luxury nameplate from a Japanese automaker. Nearly 98 percent of the products Acura sold in America in 2015 were built in America using domestic and globally sourced parts. The Acura lineup features five distinctive models the RLX luxury flagship sedan, the TLX performance luxury sedan, the ILX sport sedan, the 5-passenger RDX luxury crossover SUV, and the seven-passenger Acura MDX, America's all-time best-selling three-row luxury SUV. This spring, Acura will launch its next-generation, electrified NSX supercar as a new and pinnacle expression of Acura Precision Crafted Performance. One Step Better - The Most In-Depth Acura Buyer's Research - Anywhere! Worlds first vehicle platform with three electrified powertrains, making low- to zero-emission mobility accessible to everyone Innovative IONIQ offers customers uncompromised driving experience and design Unveiling of the IONIQ line-up at the Geneva Motor Show is available as live stream High Wycombe, 24 February 2016 - At the Geneva Motor Show 2016, Hyundai Motor is introducing the All-New Hyundai IONIQ line-up, consisting of: IONIQ Hybrid, IONIQ Electric and IONIQ Plug-in. The worlds first model offering three electrified powertrains, IONIQ will make low-to zero-emission mobility accessible to everyone. The new approach of Hyundai Motor delivers an uncompromised design and driving experience through innovative technology, and offers customers the latest connectivity and safety technologies. The All-New Hyundai IONIQ is an important milestone of Hyundai Motors sustainability strategy, bringing to market new innovative technologies and extending the companys product range to support further organic sales growth in Europe. Jochen Sengpiehl, Vice President Marketing at Hyundai Motor Europe, said: IONIQ is an important step forward for our brand. We are bringing a unique new approach to e-mobility, with no compromise on design, driving pleasure and connectivity. And were making it accessible to more customers, further extending our product line-up. The IONIQ Hybrid and IONIQ Plug-in both feature the new Kappa 1.6-litre GDI, direct injection petrol, four-cylinder engine with a class-leading thermal efficiency of 40 per cent delivering 105 PS and 147 Nm of torque. The engine has been tailored to the hybrid application and is combined with the direct responding, smooth shifting six-speed double clutch transmission differentiating the IONIQ from its competitors with a more dynamic driving experience. The mated electric motor enables pure electric driving and delivers instant torque as the chassis with rear multi-link suspension greatly enhances driving dynamics. The IONIQ Hybrids electric motor delivers 32 kW (43.5 PS) with maximum torque of 170 Nm, powered by a lithium-ion polymer battery with 1.56 kWh capacity positioned under the rear seats. In combination with the 1.6-litre GDI engine IONIQ Hybrid offers a system output of 103.6 kW (141 PS) and up to 265 Nm of torque accelerating to a top speed of up to 185 km/h (115mph) with targeted CO 2 emissions as low as 79 g/km (combined). Drivers choosing the IONIQ Plug-in can safely rely on approximately over 50 kilometres (31 miles) of estimated pure electric driving range powered by the potent 8.9 kWh lithium-ion polymer battery. The 45kW (61 PS) electric motor together with the 1.6-litre GDI four-cylinder Kappa engine targets CO 2 emissions as low as 32 g/km. The IONIQ Electric offers pure e-mobility through a 28 kWh Lithium-ion Polymer battery for an estimated range of over 250 km (155 miles). The instantly available maximum torque of 295 Nm is delivered by the electric motor with maximum output of 88 kW (120 PS) through the single-speed reducer transmission accelerating the car up to 165 km/h (103mph). The customer experience inside the IONIQ line-up is enhanced through state-of-the art connectivity features like Android Auto, Apple Car Play as well as Tom Tom live services and wireless charging of your smartphone. Furthermore, the driving experience becomes digital through the 7-inch TFT instrument cluster displaying all key driver information. A holistic and innovative safety package including Autonomous Emergency Braking, Lane Keep Assist System, Blind Spot Detection, Rear Cross Traffic Alert and Smart Cruise Control ensures high safety levels for drivers and passengers alike. All versions feature the sleek aerodynamic silhouette with a class-leading Cd value of 0.24. A fluid exterior shape and natural air flow channels emphasize the aerodynamic body lines and volumes. Blue accents on the IONIQ Hybrid and IONIQ Plug-in emphasize specific elements on the exterior and in the interior for a seamless design. The IONIQ Electric features exclusive copper coloured accents to signify electricity flowing through the cars interior. Thomas A. Schmid, Chief Operating Officer at Hyundai Motor Europe, said: With our pioneering ix35 Fuel Cell electric vehicle and several hybrid and plug-in hybrid models sold around the world, Hyundai Motor already has a proven capability in electrified powertrains. Now, with the launch of our first dedicated model, we are taking the lead as the only car manufacturer with hybrid, electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles in production. The All-New Hyundai IONIQ Line-up will celebrate its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show on March 1 at the Hyundai Press Conference at 10:30 CET on the Hyundai stand (No. 1040). Livestreaming of the press conference at the Geneva Motor Show will be available at: https://livestream.com/HyundaiEurope/GIMS2016 Broadcast of pre-Show begins at 10:15 CET on Tuesday 1 March 2016. All technical specifications are preliminary and subject to homologation. -Ends- About Hyundai Motor Established in 1967, Hyundai Motor Company is committed to becoming a lifetime partner in automobiles and beyond. The company leads the Hyundai Motor Group, an innovative business structure capable of circulating resources from molten iron to finished cars. Hyundai Motor has eight manufacturing bases and seven design & technical centres worldwide and in 2014 sold 4.96 million vehicles globally. With almost 100,000 employees worldwide, Hyundai Motor continues to enhance its product line-up with localised models and strives to strengthen its leadership in clean technology, starting with the worlds first mass-produced hydrogen-powered vehicle, ix35 Fuel Cell. About Hyundai Motor Europe In 2015, Hyundai Motor achieved registrations of 470,130 vehicles in Europe an increase of 10.9% compared to 2014 and replaced 80% of its model line-up to create the youngest car range in Europe. 90% of the vehicles Hyundai sold in the region are models designed, engineered, tested and built in Europe to meet the needs of European customers, served by the companys extensive European infrastructure. This includes two factories in the Czech Republic and Turkey, which have a combined annual capacity of 500,000 units. Hyundai Motor sells cars in 31 European countries through 2,500 outlets. About Hyundai Motor UK Hyundai Motor has sold in the UK since 1982 and since then has sold over 1 million vehicles. In 2005, Hyundai opened its own UK subsidiary, Hyundai Motor UK Ltd, based in High Wycombe. Since 2008, the company has risen from 21st to one of the top manufacturers in the UK and last year sold a record 88,257 vehicles. Hyundai Motor UK employs over 3000 people through its UK operations and dealer network. Hyundai offers a full range of vehicles from the award-winning New Generation i10 city car through to the capable Santa Fe SUV and iLoad LCV. All passenger cars come with Hyundais industry-leading 5 Year Unlimited Mileage Warranty package. Further information about Hyundai and its products is available at www.hyundai.co.uk. For Dogs, its Trick and Treat Its almost Halloween, a great time to teach your dog a trick and give him a treat. Most trainers are fans of trick training. Its not as silly as it... Muzzle is not a bad word If you see a dog in a muzzle, you immediately think the dog is aggressive. Right? Well, this is not always true. Unfortunately, seeing a dog in a muzzle carries... John Kasich may be trudging ahead with less than 10 percent of the Republican vote, but 2016 is only his third-most disheartening presidential bid. In two races more disorganized than Tuesdays Nevada caucusin which the Ohio governor finished in fifth place and claimed a single delegatehe lost the Ohio State University student presidential elections twice, accused the Board of Elections of misconduct, took his case to court, and lost a third time. Kasich was always involved in student government, surging to the lower middle of Ohio State Universitys political pack his first year on campus. He won a seat on the Freshman Senate, where he campaigned to expand dining hall offerings at increased costs. If we want to take food out after meals, our fees will have to be raised to cover the expense,' the young Kasich told the Lantern, Ohio States student newspaper in 1970, adding that the dining halls had lost $14,000 in stolen eating utensils in 1969. His political star grew on campus, perhaps spurred for his advocacy against utensil theft ormore likelyhis meeting with then-president Richard Nixon. Kasich, a conservative even in college, sent Nixon a letter praising him despite the presidents mounting unpopularity. I wrote that I thought the President was trying his best, Kasich told the Lantern. Nixon invited Kasich to the White House, where the two had just a comfortable man-to-man talk, Kasich said. After talking to him, I think that everything Nixon does is for the good of the country and he is willing to sacrifice his political future for our good. The meeting earned Kasich name recognition on campus, not all of it positive. Enjoy your new found newsprint fame as Dick Nixons buddy, but dont kid yourself into thinking that you represent ALL the youth in America, a fellow student told Kasich in a 1971 open letter published in the Lantern. But by Kasichs sophomore year in 1972, his presidential chances seemed brighter than his heros. Just months before Nixons Watergate scandal began to unfold, Kasich launched a bid to become vice president of the Ohio State student government. His platform was to breathe life into an apathetic student body, the Lantern reported. Unfortunately, students were apathetic about Kasich. He and his running mate took second, losing to a pair of candidates who ran on a platform of increasing minority inclusion and improving student-police relations. Undeterred, Kasich gave it another try in 1973, this time running for president as an independent. And this time he had come to take on Ohio States electoral system. All this time, the Watergate story had continued its hold on the front pages of the nations newspapers and in April the University community had its own political uproar to talk about, historian Thomas Mendenhall writes of the 1973 elections in his book The History of the Ohio State University. The Student Government elections, which [Ohio State president] Enarson described as reminiscent of the best of Paraguay and the worst of Cuyahoga County, brought complaints of ballot stuffing and other irregularities. Early in his campaign, Kasich accused Ohio States Board of Elections of being too close to the Student Coalition, the political party whose candidates had defeated him the previous year. 'I think that Jack Stets [director of the Board of Elections] should be investigated first of all because he was instrumental in putting together the Student Coalition and remains very close to it, Kasich told the Lantern. The move backfired. The day after Kasich accused the Board of Elections of bias, one of his fraternity brothers resigned from the board, stating that he might unconsciously show bias toward Kasich. The race grew dirtier on election day. Bad weather, ballot shortages, and a limited number of voting booths led Kasich to call for an extended voting period. Board of Elections director Robert Riley denied the request and accused Kasich of seeking publicity. Hoping to rally support for an extension, Kasich invited all presidential candidates to a meeting. Only two others attended, neither of whom wanted an extended voting period. Still citing substantial evidence" that the election had been mishandled, Kasich called for Rileys resignation and threatened to take the Board of Elections to court, regardless of the races outcome. Days later, Kasich made good on this promise when it was announced that he had lost to opponent Dennis Sargent. Entering a student-run court later that week, Kasichs case seemed strong. He accused the Board of Elections of violating election rules and produced a witness who said he had been allowed to obtain three voting slips. After a series of tense testimonies, the board agreed to set new presidential elections, only to have the ruling overturned by the University Court, which ruled that Kasich had officially lost the election and that the previous results would stand. Aggravated, Kasich circulated petitions calling for new elections and accused the University Court of being illegally composed of judges who had not been approved by the student assembly. But, as in Kasichs presidential and vice-presidential campaigns, student voters werent buying it. His petition efforts failed, and his call for new president Dennis Sargents resignation fell on deaf ears. Ultimately, Sargents running mate, Sharon Farmer, would make it closer to a White House gig than Kasich likely will. The first African-American vice president of Ohio States student government, Farmer went on to become Bill Clintons official White House photography director the first woman or African-American to hold the title. Kasich, meanwhile, would not attempt another presidential biduniversity or otherwiseuntil a short-lived campaign in 2000. He spent his part of senior year at Ohio State planning a student government watchdog group, then abandoning the plans. [Im] realizing that nobody really cares about USG [undergraduate student government], the man who now trails Donald Trump by more than 20 points told the Lantern. And in the face of mass apathy, weve all become apathetic ourselves. A decade ago, the current U.S. vice president wanted to partition Iraq as a political solution to a civil war that ended militarily. Now the current secretary of state believes that partition may be the only viable course left for Syria if and when a ceasefire he co-brokered fails. The odds of such a failure are high, as John Kerry admits, because the whole accord might well be a rope-a-dope exercise by Bashar al-Assad, Vladimir Putin, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to gobble up more territory and destroy more of the mainstream Syrian opposition under the guise of abiding by international diplomacy. Testifying Tuesday before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the secretary said: Im not going to vouch for this. Im not going to say that this process is going to work, because I dont know. But I know that this is the best way to try to end the war, and its the only alternative available to us if indeed were going to have a political settlement. This is an interesting verbal construction to parse not just because one of the architects of a highly ambitious peace plan is confessing to Congress that he has no intention to vouch for his own architecture. And not just because people have been sitting down at tables for five years trying to arrive at an understanding about what Syria is going to be. So far the yield of those sit-downs has been 470,000 dead; tens of thousands confined to torture-room prisons; half the population internally or externally displaced; and half a million of the latter category living as refugees in Europe, where far-right, anti-Muslim political parties aligned with, or financially dependent upon, the Kremlin are now thriving, much to Moscows propagandistic delight. No, what made this testimony remarkable was that it was the first time Kerry crept right up to acknowledging the reality of a catastrophe he has hitherto treated as the subject matter of an academic symposium. Syria, properly speaking, no longer exists. The nation-state cobbled together a hundred years ago by the great powers, albeit with borders periodically rejiggered since, is FUBAR and will henceforward remain a balkanized set of cantons or fiefs ruled by a panoply of antagonistic sectarian insurgencies, proxies, and terrorist organizationssome elements, including the one residing in the presidential palace in Damascus, adequately meeting the definitions for all three categories. And it really doesnt matter if every last Sukhoi fighter jet, Scud missile, and barrel bomb gets put away on Saturday, when the truce is set to commence. I say that because the best-case scenario for Kerrys last-ditch, now-dont-hold-me-to-this prescription for ending a modern and globally transformative holocaust is that war actually continues, only against the right targets, namely al Qaeda and ISIS. These are the two main UN-designated terrorist organizations not party to or expected to abide by the ceasefire. Their spoiler potential for provoking others to violate the terms of the agreement is enormous, as both militancies collectively boast an order of battle greater than that of the mobilized Syrian Arab Army. As Andrew Tabler, a Syria specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, puts it, the central dilemma is gauging what constitutes success for Kerrys quixotic program: Is the bar that fewer people are dying or is the bar that more people are fighting terrorism? If the latter, then how do you accomplish that when every security agency of the executive branch believes that Russia is not going to stop bombing the anti-Assad opposition so long as it can claim it is only hitting terrorists, the Kremlins abiding lie since Sept. 30, when it started bombing? Yes, the Russian Air Force does go after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadis minions on occasion, whenever they dare to interdict Russian- and Iranian-abetted regime advances against other rebel groups, as they are doing in Aleppo. On the whole, however, Putins air war, as the U.S.-led coalition now concludes, has allowed ISIS to acquire terrain where the opposition had previously prevented it from doing so. The best the U.S. has done by way of deterrence is a ceasefire the U.S. thinks is a dud. Then there are the terms of the truce, whereby the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army has exactly two options in the likely event that any of a multitude of actors decides to attack it. It can forbear, or it can pick up its guns and start shooting again, in which case it risks being bombed bythe United States. No, really. According to Hadi al-Bahra, the former president of the U.S.-midwifed Syrian Opposition Coalition, Kerry spelled out the consequences for noncompliance: We are clear, if you dont choose to be part of [the ceasefire] then you are choosing to perhaps make yourself a target. If the prospect of the U.S. Air Force waging airstrikes against its own assets sounds like the foreign policy of M.C. Escher or Kurt Goedel, then consider what has occurred only a week before the ceasefire is set to go into effect. As BuzzFeeds Mike Giglio reported this week, the FSA-aligned Furqa al-Sultan Murad battalion, an anti-Assad faction that has received weapons from the CIA for the purpose of fighting the regime, was recently attacked by the Peoples Defense Units, the Kurdish militia that represents the Pentagons primary ground force in going after ISIS. The Peoples Defense Units have now been accused by British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond of coordinating not just with the coalition but Russia and Assad. Why? Because apart from seeing all Sunni Arab rebels as little more than helpmeets or cutouts of jihadists, the Kurds have a barely concealed ulterior motive: the construction of their own proto-state or autonomous region stretching across northern Syria from Aleppo to Hasakah province, including many villages and towns where Arabs constitute a plurality. Non-Kurds with guns who feel otherwise stand in the way of that project, and so must be disarmed, brought to heel, expelled, or eliminated. Competing sectarianisms in what is ostensibly the same broad military campaign against ISIS has had knock-on effects, which only strengthen the enemy. This week, many were puzzled by ISISs precipitous withdrawal from Shaddadi, its lone remaining foothold in Hasakah province. The Peoples Defense Units marched in with ease and liberated the town. Yet the jihadists tactical retreat was soon followed by a military counterattack and, reportedly, sociopolitical victory as 30,000 Sunni Arabs fled not for Turkey or Aleppo but for caliphate country, into Deir Ezzor, one of ISISs briar patches. According to an activist quoted by the website Syria Direct, they feared arrests, revenge killings, and ethnic cleansing. (ISIS no doubt also realizes that Turkey, the target of more ISIS terror attacks than any other coalition member, still views Kurdish nationalism as a grave national security threat and will therefore not read Hasakahs falling into the hands of the Peoples Defense Units, which are led by the Syrian affiliate of the Turkish-banned Kurdish Workers Party, as a blessing. As ever, ISIS seeks to exploit the latent or blatant vulnerabilities in the alliances against it.) Kurds conquering Syrias northern gateway borderland is proceeding under the unassailable umbrella of U.S. F-18s in the sky and Delta Force commandos on the ground. Yet it is now resulting in de facto population transfers without the bother or headache of any kind of de jure U.S. recognition. Changing the demography of any country is the necessary, if not quite sufficient, precondition for partition. So another way of putting all of the aforementioned is to say that the White Houses Plan B for Syria is already its Plan A. The only question is whether this is by accident or by design. Chris Harmer, a military analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, argues that partition is the unintended consequence of cavalier and improvisational U.S. policymaking, which has been perennially reactive to a crisis that has required forethought and long-term planning. There has been a lot of energetic, perhaps Id say hyperactive diplomacy, but theres no diplomatic credibility to what the U.S. government is doing, Harmer told me. The Russians have more military credibility, so they have more diplomatic credibility with their proxiesIran and Hezbollah listen to what Moscow is saying. The U.S. cant even bigfoot its own proxies. And thats the least difficult part of this equation. Tony Badran of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies is one of a handful of Syria analysts who has argued that it is supremely unfair to deny that the Obama administration has behaved incompetently over the last five years, as a protest movement gradually gave way to an armed insurrection and then, increasingly, a jihadist infiltration. The humanitarian toll and breakdown in international security are unfortunate and unintended consequences of an unchanged policy that was always meant to culminate in a regional re-balance of powers that is now a fait accompli across the Middle East, Badran argues. Obamas vision for any Syrian endgame always conceded an Iranian protectorate contiguous with Lebanon, he said. He has dubbed this respecting Irans equities. Beyond that, however, his template for Syria is at its core a replica of the template he has applied in Iraq: a U.S.-recognized Iranian zone, which cooperates with a U.S.- and Iranian-backed Kurdish zone (in the case of Syria, unlike Iraq, this zone is entirely hostile to Turkey), and then a third, Sunni Arab, kill zone in between. Badrans case is bolstered by much circumstantial evidencethe failure to uphold an Obama-set red line on chemical weapons use by the regime; the anemic and intermittent arming of the FSA units; the acquiescence to Russias attempted aerial annihilation of the latter U.S. proxies; the abandonment of the Assad must go precondition for politically negotiated transitional government in Damascus. But perhaps the strongest corroboration of Badrans thesis is that its essence has been articulated in vivid detail as a viable program for peace by an influential former member of the Obama administration, and one of the few former members to criticize the president for not being more devoted to accommodating Russian and Iranian equities. In December 2015, Phil Gordon, who until recently had been the White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf region, helped outline a U.S. strategy for codifying these new facts on the ground in a white paper for the Rand Corporation. As with Kerrys truce, the first stage involved a multilateral ceasefire to be overseen and implemented principally by the United States, Russia, and Iran. The second stage would be the establishment of agreed zones, a polite way of saying colonial spheres of influence or micro-mandates, to govern Syria. Three of these zones would be contiguous, while one would be like Gaza and the West Bank in a theoretical Palestinian state isolated from each other across longitudes yet somehow politically integrated. A regime-dominant zone, Gordon and his co-writers James Dobbins and Jeffrey Martini suggest, would fall along the Mediterranean coast, from Turkeys southern border all the way through Damascus and Homs. The Kurdish zone would encompass the ascendant Rojava region. The mainstream Syrian opposition, which is interspersed with al Qaedas Jabhat al-Nusra affiliate as well as other questionable Salafist-jihadist factions such as Ahrar al-Sham, would inhabit the non-contiguous zone, the first area of which would be Idlib, Aleppo, and Hama provinces in the north and center of Syria, and the second Deraa in the south. A fourth and final zone would be ISIS-held terrain, a vast tableland of geography, mostly depopulated desert, plus the cities of Deir Ezzor, Raqqa, and Palmyra. This fourth zone would have to be internationally administered as ISIS was steadily pushed out of it by the powers responsible for running three foregoing zones. If push came to shove, which it inevitably would, then foreign garrisons could be brought in to keep the peace. U.S. troops to Kurdistan, Turkish and Jordanian troops to non-contiguous Sunnistan, and Russian troops to Alawitistan. It would fall to the external powers, currently supporting one faction or another, to guarantee adherence to the ceasefire, Gordon, Dobbins, and Martini write. Thus, Russia and Iran would guarantee the regimes adherence; the United States would guarantee Kurdish adherence; and Turkey and Jordan would guarantee the Sunni oppositions adherence. All external parties would collaborate to dislodge ISIS. Nice work if you can get it. This peace plan was billed as the least bad option for a country said to have no good ones on offer. It is difficult to fathom that Barack Obama would, in his remaining year in office, dispatch peacekeeping troops under any pretext to a part of the world he wants out of and which is the cynosure of not one but countless sideshow conflicts. Still, the president who once decried half-baked ideas as if they are solutions may yet bequeath something very much approaching this Dayton Agreement on methamphetamines to his successor. It was, the portrait painter Jonathan Yeo told The Daily Beast, both exhilarating to be at the Smithsonian Museum on Monday, and a little strange. Over coffee at New Yorks Soho House, Yeo said that only a few years before he was told his portrait painting would never amount to much, and so being at the Smithsonian and being asked questions about his art by the assembled press, was thrillingalthough he is no stranger to controversy and media attention. It was strange because the blurring of fiction and reality around the 45-year-old artist felt dizzying. Here Yeo was, alongside Kevin Spaceywho plays scheming President Frank Underwood in House of Cards and who has posed for Yeo before as another character (Richard III)unveiling a painting of Underwood which will hang nearby, though not yet alongside, real presidents portraits at the esteemed museum. The portrait itself features Underwood looking both down from above and directly at the viewer, just as the Machiavellian character breaks the fourth wall to addresses us on the Netflix show, the fourth season of which begins March 4. Spaceys role was originatedeven more archlyby actor Ian Richardson as Francis Urquhart in the original 1990 British version of the show, created by then-Conservative politician (now Peer) Michael Dobbs. In an intense two-hour conversation, the handsome, witty, and loquacious Yeomarried to actress Shebah Ronay, with two daughters, Tabitha, 12, and Yasmin, 9talked about his sitters, who have included Camilla Parker Bowles, Nicole Kidman, David Cameron, Damien Hirst, and Malala Yousafzai. He also discussed the art of the portrait in the age of the selfie, getting the famous to reveal themselves, growing up the child of a politician himself, and living with ADHD. Underwood is a new one for you: a portrait of a fictional character, rather than a real person. You visited Kevin on the set to get it right. The purpose of a portrait is getting at someones real identity. People start off by trying to put their best face on and act a certain way, whether they are actors or not. You have to see them not once but several times to erode that. The public want paintings to tell a story. Its not like 10 years ago, where youd unveil a portrait and the only question was, Does it look like him or not? For this picture, Kevin is certain he is just giving a performance. Kevin thinks this image is 99 percent Frank. I say its 80 percent Frank and 20 percent Kevin, and [laughs] frankly Ive spent enough time with Kevin when hes not in character to know the difference. How did it come about? He was sitting for me as Richard III, and said he was filming this show. It reminded me of the British show, and I said, Youre not going to turn to the camera and do that camp thing of talking to the audience? Kevin said, Yeah, totally. Thats never going to work, I said. I can see the risk, Kevin said, but I think its in the way you break the fourth wall and create the relationship with the audience to this unlikeable character, and a sense of complicity with him. I was still convinced it wouldnt work. I obviously got that wrong, which is why Im in the art business, not the TV business [laughs]. How have you captured Underwood? Its more voyeuristic, less confrontational, if the subject is looking at you, playfully controlling you, saying, Who do you think youre looking at? I painted [British artist] Damien Hirst in a similar pose. Unveiling it must have seemed a pretty surreal blend of fiction and reality meeting and blurring. Yes, a real person in a fictitious program playing someone who does a real job being unveiled by a fictional president in a real gallery in a real city where actual political events happen and where many politicians turned up on the night because they are obsessed with the fictional program which makes fun of their real-life jobs, and who were more excited to be at this event than other political events that week. Did you know it would be such a big deal? We thought about doing it when the [presidential] election was happening, that this might be a time when people pay attention to it. When I realized they were going to hang it in the same gallery as the real presidents I said to Kevin, Isnt there a danger this will look a piss-take, or doing something that wont connect with people? He said, No, trust the audience more than that. He was absolutely right. Who have your most memorable sitters been? The first one I did in America was Dennis Hopper. I met him in London 12 years ago. He was a big art fan. I eventually spent a week with him. Was there a lot of hell-raising that week? Hes certainly a wonderfully unpredictable person. I dont think he was anything like the hell-raiser of days of yore. He still used to smoke a joint in the morning, and wander round the house with sunglasses on. But I think that was pretty tame compared to how he used to be. He was a lovely man and left-field thinker. Are you always drawing people as you spend time with them? At that stage early on I felt drawing was important and crucial to the end portrait. These days a week with someone is an indulgence. The best portraits tend to be done in the studio. Have your final portraits ever offended any of your sitters? I dont think Ive ever offended them. If you get it right, they may not be comfortable with it straight away, but they always come round to it eventually. If you dont really connect with them that can cause problems, but I have the good sense to realize that, and will say, I have a big show to work on or something. I dont say, I dont find you interesting. Im far too English for that. Other times, you can see they are interesting, but it may not be the right moment. What if youre not comfortable with a sitter? There are certain people like Rupert Murdoch (full disclosure: this reporter once worked for the Murdoch-owned London Times) who, like a lot of us, I imagined as a Bond villain, that youd go into his office which would have a bank of video screens on the wallwhich he does haveand a map of the world. I was looking on the floor for where the door to the piranha tank was. And how was he? The surprise when he came in was not that he was a lovely, cuddly guy, but that he has a low-key presence, and was very thoughtful, economical, and precise in what he says. He was a much more wide-ranging, complex character than you would expect. Some things I politically disagree with him about, but other things surprised me, such as his knowledge of painting. Hes a connoisseur of Australian artists. Sometimes not liking a person is not a problem. You wind up reacting to someone so much that it comes out as a passion in the picture. I dont just do portraits for the sake of doing portraits, or old-fashioned society portraiture. I want to make my work interesting a wider audience. And now of course, with smartphones and selfies, people are making portrait painting on a daily basis and showing them to each other. What does that mean for you and your art? A couple of years ago my kids tried to teach me how to use Instagram: If you want to look good hold it there, Show off by putting such-and-such in the picture. 9- and 10-year-olds are making, reading, and deconstructing portrait images in ways that art history students may not have thought about, which means there is a whole generation coming of really sophisticated photographers and consumers of images. Its an extraordinary leap to have made in such a short space of time. Great, but doesnt it take away the point of what you do. If everyone is a potential portrait artist, what is the point of your art? Certainly it makes life harder for portrait photographers. I didnt mean to go into portrait painting, but had to make a living and didnt have another source of income. Im good at faces, and doing them honed my skills as a draughtsman. Because portrait painting was seen as old-fashioned, I was looking for different ways into it, whether that be by using porn or looking at plastic surgery, both of which have featured in my work. In the 20th century, portrait photographers had lauded it over painters because they had this machine, the camera, which never lied. Nowadays that has reversed: People expect a level of control over photos taken of themselves, which makes portrait painting a more risky, exciting prospect. When I started, people like Dennis Hopper and Nicole Kidman were brave to say yes to me, to give me that control. Artists like Alex Katz and Lucian Freud are brilliant, and had a reputation of representing people, but not flattering them. Yes, portraits are traditionally leapt on if its considered theyre not accurate. People certainly expect more from narrative images. Painting was the only form of visual entertainment up until photography arrived in the early 19th century. So in painting, then came impressionism, abstraction: what could it do that was different? In the last few years the authenticity of photography was called into question when the manipulation of photographic images was questioned with things like Photoshop. On top of that, photography now is disposable: You take a picture, swipe to the next one, or delete. But paintings demand you stop and look at them. With figurative subjects, you know a period of time has elapsed over a number of sittings. A relationship between the artist and subject has developed, which you are asked to contemplate. When you do these portraits, you have to think ahead to them still being relevant in 20 years. My interest isnt in surface characteristics, but revealing the sitters personalities. Do you make your pictures with the controversy they may generate in your mind, like your 2007 picture of George W. Bush made up of images culled from porn magazines? At that time I felt I was being pigeonholed as a certain kind of generic portrait artist. I was commissioned to do his portrait and that was withdrawn, and they werent that charming about it. So, yes, I was annoyed about that. If a portrait could be seen as an insult you should wait for a subject worth insulting, and he had said muddle-headed right-wing statements about things like girls getting pregnant. Dennis Hopper said to me: Im not sure its a very good idea. I dont know if you should put it out there. His wife later told me it was because he was a Republican. The reason he was a Republican was that everyone else in Hollywood was a Democrat [laughs], and he wanted to be different. It caused a stir. My website got five and a half million hits in a few days. There was a performance aspect of composing the piece, the challenge of getting the images and using them properly. It took such a long time. What was very clear was that Bush had a confused morality when it came to sex. To do this picture in porn images was such a schoolboy thing, a schoolboy joke disguised as a beautifully constructed picture. The picture also references the prevalence of porn online and in advertising. I was walking down the street with my two young daughters and kept noticing it. When we were young there was mild titillation. Its so extreme now. You grew up in a political family too. Yes, my father (Tim Yeo) was a Tory MP. He got in trouble. He had indiscretions [in 1993 it was revealed he had had a love-child with Conservative councilor Julia Stent; this in the era of the Back to Basics campaign of then-Tory PM, John Major]. Dad was never a moralizer. They [the media] really struggled to find anything on him. They found one thing he said about the consequences of marital breakdown. I think my mum would much rather he have been a Labour politician than Tory. He was interested in politics rather than party politics. He could argue both sides of any issue, which made it quite hard work as a kid. It made you quite good at arguing everything for sport, and in the art world you have to argue off the cuff. You had lymphatic cancer when you were young. How did that affect your life, and your work? I was 22. It was quite useful timing in retrospect. At that time I hadnt been to art school, and I didnt have parental support (as in, financial support). They were like, Yeah, its fine to do this, youve just got to pay for it. I was just getting the hang of it: It wasnt old-fashioned portraiture or contemporary artit was in huge space in between, a massive area for exploration. My illness made me more gung-ho. They gave me an 80 percent chance to pull through. But when youre 20 you assume youll live forever. To suddenly realize you might not makes you think, Fuck it, if Im going to do something Id better get on with it. You dont take anything for granted. It also meant people trusted me much more. People started confessing things to me straight away. People in the public eye felt because Id been through that, and because my dad was in the papers, theywho also felt under scrutinycould trust me straight away. That trust could have taken years to build up otherwise. You need people to know you are the custodian of their secrets, but you also try and put a few things out there on canvas which hopefully people will pick up on. In terms of the presidential campaign you must want to do Trumps portrait? Without a shadow of a doubt. He is the target figure of the whole campaign. Whatever else you say about him, hes ridiculous and his views are terrifying, but hes not stupid. What would your Trump portrait major on? Theres that ridiculous hair, which is getting yellower by the day. Maybe I could give him a Simpsons-like glow, and a tinge greener. Its gone from golden yellow to urine yellow. Imagine it ending up as a lime shade of green by the end. Hed possibly be vain enough to have his portrait done. Hillary is much too risk-averse to take those chances. But shes fascinating, and hopefully she will get the Democratic nomination and win the election. For a portrait artist, shes still a slight enigma. I want to know the thing in her personality that will affect how decisive moments are played out under her. Were you charmed by Tony Blair? At first. Blair was a very good actor: I remember a story of him preparing to make a speech by watching Harrison Ford in a film (Air Force One) playing the president. I followed him on the campaign trail, and did these sketches of him which I wasnt happy with. Jay Jopling (gallerist and artistic godfather of the Young British Artists) told me I had fused conceptual and figurative art and to carry on with it. I had another crack at Blair when he was leaving office, when he looked older and when the public had lost faith with him over Iraq. I suppose you have to not be charmed, in order to tell the truth through that persons portrait. Sometimes the painting of a face has someones biography in it. When I painted Prince Philip, I didnt want it to be one of those old-fashioned paintings that made fun of him, the tabloid joke Prince Philip, to make him look buffoon-ish. He certainly does misjudge situations, but hes really not stupid. He is funny and gets bored easily. I chat to people in that hairdresser-y way so I can get on with my job. But, like Murdoch, Prince Philip wants to know your view on things, and then pick a fight. He asked what I thought about Afghanistan, and when I said, I dont know, what do you think? he said, No, what do you think? Hes also interested in painting. Hes into post-Impressionist painters like Bonnard, not chocolate-box Impressionism. I asked what he thought of the painting Lucian Freud had done of the Queen. I just think he makes everyone look like theyre made of cheese, Prince Philip said. It sounded ridiculous, but one of the things Lucian did show was the green-blue colors in skin, and he had a way of painting people in a flat, slabby way. How did you paint Prince Philip? He has got such an interesting face, with a lifetime of experience in it, and you can see a mischievous intelligence in it. [laughs] He was appalled by how small it was. When he saw it for the first time, he asked, Is that it? Would you like to paint the Queen? I did one of the Duchess of Cornwall (Camilla Parker Bowles) recently, who is great, amazing, down-to-earth, and so normal given the amount of shit she has had to take over the years. Im interested in people at certain points of their lives. I would like to have painted Diana towards the end of hers. Prince Charles interests me at the moment. What about Kate and William? Im interested in the next generation of Royals. I happened to be sitting next to Kate, and we got talking portraiture and child portraiture. She started asking about kids portraits and when the best time to do them was. I said it was best to leave it a little while until they were teenagers. I didnt connect what she was really asking. I was distracted by sitting next to her. My wife was kicking me and making faces. Only later did I realize I might have been talking myself out of quite an interesting commission. Plastic surgery has also featured in your work. Its endlessly fascinating. I was in Beverly Hills, and you see this blond chick, and a minute later you pass her again, and a minute after that you pass her again. But its different women, who you realize all have this generic look as if the same few plastic surgeons are offering the same look. In Europe were still pretty coy about doing it and to be seen doing it. [Laughs] Im not ruling it out myself, if theres no risk, or expense, or outward sign I had it done. But it carries all these risks: most of us think, Make do with a haircut. It changes how we make expressions, and then people become addicted to it. They end up looking their age, just with work done. In the Far East its taboo. I was at a dinner in China with an art dealer, and one guy was sitting at the table totally ostracized. I was told he was a plastic surgeon: All the women knew him, but didnt want to admit it. Are you vain yourself? Totally, but not about my appearance. I have spent years struggling to be an artist. Now people are tuning into my work, and thats good. Maybe its egotism rather than vanity. Its slightly surreal to find myself sitting next to a Hollywood star at the Smithsonian. Only 10 years ago, people were saying my work would never be in a museum, and that I should do it as a sideline. You seem to have a thousand thoughts a minute. [Laughs] Coffee. [Pauses] I got diagnosed with ADD [ADHD] recently. When I first went to see the doctor, the doctor said that everyone thought they had it. People read something in the press, or one of their friends says the medication is great because it helps you get a lot of work done. I did a psychometric test, and was off the scale. I found that the medication, used in the right way, takes my tendency to be sidetracked and distracted and helps make my day more focused. I think most of my creative friends have a version of it, and I dont think its unhelpful. Looking back, do you think you had it as a kid? I think Ive had it all through my life. I had it badly at school (Westminster). I couldnt concentrate at all there. The only time I could was when I was doodling. All my old reports from teachers said Id be fine if I concentrated more. I was asked to address an old boys dinner, which I couldnt believe given the number of times I was almost kicked out of school for disturbing lessons. Would life have been different if youd been diagnosed earlier? If Id been diagnosed and if Id been medicated I would have done better at exams, and I would have done what was expected of Westminster pupils: to go to a great university, get a serious degree, and a proper job. But Im doing this job because I did fuck up my exams, I didnt revise, andlike a lot of creative peopleI bended what little talent I have into making a living out of something I enjoy. Ive been asked how can I be self-taught and not have gone to art school. But why is that more useful than spending half of my waking hours of the last 25 years doing the thing I love. I like drawing faces, I think Im better at it than anyone else. Anything you do for that length of time, you get the hang of, then refine, and discover other things you dont know. Are you kids creative? Theyre both creative-minded, but Im keen not push them too hard. Everyone says to them, Do you want to be like your dad? I remember when I was 12 when my dad went into politics people asking if Id follow his example. I was like, No, fuck off, Im never going to do that. There was nothing more embarrassing than going into the London art world, and not just have a dad whos a politician, but whos also a Tory, and youre a portrait painter. Can you imagine three more uncool things to be? Id have had the shit kicked out of me at art school. I knew my ideas had to be as rigorous as any conceptual artists, and also well-painted. I knew people would be looking for an excuse to say the work wasnt good, or that I was using personal connections. Its why I worked so hard. So, what, and who next? Alec Baldwin, I like. I like complex, creative people. Having prestige shows like the one I had at the [London] National Portrait Gallery gave me freedom to do new work, and allowed me to be pushy with approaching people to think up projects with me. Theres also going to be a big show of my work in Denmark, for which Ive done a series of paintings of Cara Delevingne. She came to my studio and said she liked my paintings. Through those paintings, I wanted to tell the story of how technology has changed the way we communicate images and see ourselves and our identitiespartly because she shares the connection with the generation synonymous with Instagram and selfies. She does those images herself. LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas In November, the Bernie Sanders campaign opened its Arkansas headquarters in a two-story building that previously was a law firm and also a set for an indie movie, God Isnt Dead 2. Call it Bernie Islandbecause everywhere else in this town is Clinton territory, one way or another. A few blocks east of the headquarters, the historic Arkansas Statehouse where then-governor Bill Clinton announced his candidacy in 1991 stands with its large white columns. To the west, theres Does, a steakhouse that the Clinton campaign team made famous during Bill Clintons 1992 run for president. In the distance, the state capitols white dome glows. Thats where the Clintons earned their political stripes. Then theres the litany of places named for one or both Clintonsthe presidential library, a street, an elementary school, a childrens library, and even the states largest airport. But the denizens of Bernie Island are an optimistic bunch. Just because theres this name Clinton in the state doesnt mean were not going to get people, Sarah Scanlon, the Arkansas state director for the Sanders campaign, said. We are engaged and talking about the issues. We have a real shot to get some delegates in the state. On a rainy Tuesday night just days before the March 1 primary, only a few volunteers work in the headquarters. But that doesnt mean that the campaign doesnt have support or volunteers. Scanlon said many people make calls and engage voters online using the campaigns high-tech tools while sitting at home in their pajamas and drinking wine. People in every corner of the state have been seeking Bernie swagyard signs, stickers, copies of The Bernie Gazette and blue rubber bracelets with WWBD printed on themin droves. They even ran out of signs recently, which nearly caused a revolt by supporters. Long before the Sanders brick-and-mortar headquarters opened, a virtual movement was already brewing in Arkansas. It was happening organically, she said. It wasnt like I had to come in and create volunteers. It was more about organizing what was already happening. Scanlon, a veteran of several progressive campaigns, said that many supporters possess no allegiance to the Clinton brand. For every one person who has endorsed her, there are twenty who have never heard her name, Scanlon said. The kids, the millennials, dont have a point of knowledge with the Clintons and they dont have a connection to them. Thats the case for one volunteer, Michelle Ciesielski, 30, who drives 65 miles one-way three times a week from Heber Springs, Ark., to the headquarters. While she phone banks, she cross-stitches a portrait of Sanders. I love Bernie, she said. I believe what he says. I think he is the candidate for the job. Ciesielski grew up with conservative parents in Missouri who didnt like Bill Clinton. When she moved to Arkansas, she quickly learned, though, that many people loved the former president. People I talk to dont like Hillary, though, she said. Hillary has always struggled for Arkansans to like her. When she first arrived in the state with Bill Clinton in the 1970s, many people saw her as a brash, feminist Yankee who refused to take her husbands surname. Then after the Clintons left the White House in 2000, they moved to New York, where Hillary ran and won a seat in the U.S. Senate. That abandonment didnt sit well either. Its been awhile since theyve been around, Ciesielski said. So a lot of us just dont have an allegiance to the Clintons. Still, Hillary has racked up several endorsements by members of the old Democratic guard in Arkansas. She also has the support of the states five superdelegates. The Arkansas Travelersthe loyal band of Clinton friends who recently traveled to New Hampshire on behalf of Hillaryare canvassing Arkansas and Tennessee on Thursday and Friday for her. And Hillary plans to attend an event in Pine Bluff, Ark., on Sunday ahead of Tuesdays primary. There is still a loyalty and respect for their work in Arkansas and that means something here, Mary Rutherford Jennings, Arkansas press secretary for the Clinton campaign, said. And we have a lot of new people coming on board to help, a whole new generation who is engaged in Arkansas politics who may have never even met the Clintons. On that same Tuesday night, the Clinton headquarters, located in a small ground-floor office in a downtown skyscraper, was packed with high school and college students making calls on behalf of Clinton and loading yard signs for delivery. Im supporting Hillary because I want a president who understands the issues that are important to me like Hillary does, Rhianna Taylor of Little Rock said. Hillary cares about the things I care aboutlike helping people pay for college and womens rights. Her time as secretary of state shows that she can tackle many of the major international issues that the president will have to deal with in the next four years. I know that if Hillary is president, Arkansans will have a friend in the White House. None of that fazes Scanlon and her tribe, who think there are plenty of new voters to embrace in the Democratic fold. The Sanders camp has hosted volunteer potlucks, political trainings, and GOTV events throughout the state while building a new progressive base in Arkansas, which has become more Republican over the last two election cycles. One key issue galvanizing Sanderss support in Arkansas is NAFTA and other trade agreements, especially in northwest Arkansas where Walmart, Tyson Foods, and trucking giant J.B. Hunt are based. Job losses to foreign countries have hit that area particularly hard, and wages are often low for workers. One in five people in that part of the state works for one of those three corporations, Scanlon said. They have seen the corporate heads growing richer and richer and pay has remained the same for the workers. They are mad and they are feeling stuck as a lot of jobs have gone to Mexico. Theres a level of anger bubbling there. That resentment may be just what the Sanders campaign needs to shave votes away from Clinton on Tuesday. Were not writing off any part of the state, Scanlon said. We have pockets of progressives all over this state, and I think people are going to be surprised at what weve built. WARRI, Nigeria Maybe youve heard about the two Guantanamo Bay detainees from Yemen who were shipped out to the West African nation of Ghana. Or, well, maybe you havent. Despite the debate raging once more about U.S. President Barack Obamas efforts to close the infamous facility and the refusal of Congress to let him do so, not much attention is paid to the hundreds whove been shipped out over the years, and even less attention is given to what happens in the countries that agree to receive them. In Ghana, in fact, the arrival of two Guantanamo detainees who originally hail from Yemen has brought on a political crisis that makes Obamas problems pale by comparison. Since news broke at the beginning of the year that these two would be coming to one of the regions most peaceful and least controversial nations, Ghana has been wracked by fears it will be drawn into the terrorist vortex, and the fragile government has been struggling to cope with growing outrage. Khalid al-Dhuby and Mahmoud Omar Bin Atefnow the most infamous men in Ghanahad been held at the U.S. prison in Cuba since 2002 without being charged. Both are fighters from Yemen who went to Afghanistan to join the ranks of the Taliban. International coalition forces detained them a year after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks. Both men are suspected of participating in hostilities against U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, but their attorneys have denied the accusations. Atef was deemed a high-risk threat to the U.S. and its allies in a 2006 Department of Defense detainee assessment, which also noted that he had an extensive record of threatening and attacking his guards. The Yemeni nationals were the first of some 16 prisoners penciled for release in January, but because of the ongoing war in Yemen, coupled with the fact of a strong al Qaeda presence there, the men were not eligible for release to their home country. Over the years, 57 countries have agreed to take Guantanamo detainees, usually their own nationals. Thus the Obama administration has whittled the prison population at the U.S. Navy base from 242 when he took office down to 91 today. Ghanas parliamentarians, church groups, civil society organizations, civil servants, and students have all criticized the decision to get Ghana involved. If President John Mahama had to run for re-election right now, instead of this November, he wouldnt have a prayer. Indeed, this government decision may be the most unpopular in Ghanas history. What equipment, instrument, and logistics does Ghana have to monitor the activities of the detainees to prevent trouble? asked Ken Ohene Agyapong, a member of parliament from Ghanas central region. President Mahama has disappointed me. We are better off under corruption than being involved in this world crisis. The overarching fear around the country is that the former prisoners will attract or inspire Islamist violence, which already is a major problem in other parts of West Africa. Mahama is a huge admirer of Obama and has strongly defended the governments decision to allow the Yemenis to live in the West African state for two years, saying Guantanamo Bay was a blot on the human rights record of the world. The embattled Ghanaian leader suggested that a citizen of his country was more likely to die in a road accident than at the hands of the Yemenis, a remark that only served to heighten public anger. Ghanaians in the main are not happy and my government did not handle the process well, however well intentioned, Fritz Baffour, a member of parliament from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), wrote on his Facebook page. We heard about the Guantanamo Bay too from an outside source, Fox News, who revealed it before our government told us about it. Mahama has many people in Ghana saying he received a large amount of money from the U.S., but a Ghanaian official told The Daily Beast that the country received no money for taking the ex-detainees. It would benefit, however, from information supplied by the U.S. about people looking to enter Ghana who might pose a security threat. With elections looming in November, Mahamas decision has cost him a number of allies. Most notably, he has lost the support of the majority of Ghanas large and influential Christian community and has been frustrated to the point of making Bible references to justify a decision he cant reverse but which his people want to be taken back. So where is our Christian passion or where is our faith-based compassion for people? he asked during a press conference in Accra last week. The Bible teaches us to be compassionate even to prisonersthat is, even persons who have been convicted. These people were not convicted. The argument for compassion does not hold, said Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu, president of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference (GCBC), in reaction to Mahamas comments. These people are not refugees. They are people who have been accused of being terrorists. Ghanas very powerful Catholic bishops have been the most vocal of all Ghanas Christian groups. In a strong statement in January, the GCBC called on parliament, religious leaders, chiefs, opinion leaders and civil society organizations interested in the security of Ghana to speak against this unilateral decision. One priest close to the GCBC told The Daily Beast privately that the body is considering reaching out to Ghanas more than 3 million Catholics to organize some kind of protest, a decision that, if taken, could further diminish Mahamas chances of reelection on Nov. 7. It may not take the form of a street protest, the priest said. But the clergy and the laity will make their voices heard. Ghanaian Foreign Minister Hannah Tetteh appeared before Parliament in a closed-door session on Friday to brief the House about the agreements in relation to the acceptance of the two Yemenis. Details were not released because the case is in the courts. But opposition legislator Mathew Opoku-Prempeh on Saturday accused Tetteh of withholding information about the governments decision to shelter the two detainees. Opoku-Prempeh told a local television station that Tetteh was unable to disclose details of the agreement, adding that she did not respond to most of the issues raised about the detainees. The minority in Parliament last week held a press conference on the same issue accusing Mahama of breaching the constitution of the country and announced their intention to impeach him. As for the two former detainees themselves, they are no longer detained and say they are looking forward to rebuilding their lives in Ghana. By way of showing their warmth toward their new home, they recalled a quarter-final match at the 2010 World Cup between the West African nation and the U.S. that ended in a victory for the Ghanaians. When Ghana beat America, we were very happy, said Atef, speaking to Uniiq FM, a local radio station. We made some celebrations. We also told the guards that Weve won! We have suffered, but we are not looking for revenge, Atef said. We want to live in Ghana quietly and peacefully. And we want to put our lives together. I hate when I miss a day of blogging. I know a lot of people like a break, but I dont. I get antsy if I dont write every day. I get itchy. But allow me to take you through my past 24 hours. Humor me and pretend like you care. My last t-shirt delivery was a little delayed because of one thing or another and I could start to feel the heat of my customers wanting their stuff. And rightfully so. When I order something I want it asap, so I get the urgency. Sidenote- can we all agree that everyone should have to work in customer service and/or the food service industry at least once in their life? Just so we all get it I knew there was a good chance my shipment wouldt make it to me on account of the blizzard rolling through Chicago, so Wednesday morning I jumped in my car at 4:30 a.m. (to beat the bad weather) and drove nine hours to get my shirts. I work with a Nebraska supplier because hometown business, ya know? Anyway, I got to Nebraska around 2 p.m., picked up my inventory, and went straight to work until around midnight. Living my dream life, what can I say? Honestly, every shirt I pack even in the wee hours of the morning, I remind myself that it beats the hell out of sitting in a cubicle working for someone else. My personality test confirmed I dont do well with rules or being told what to do, Im pretty sure every teacher/boss Ive ever had would agree to that one as well When I started a year ago with this shirt I had no idea it would turn into what it has. But over the course of a year I have learned a lot about running a business. Lets breeze over a few! *The work (and thoughts of work) never ends. Never ever. I have to make myself stop at night because theres always one more thing I need or want to do. *Sundays are for getting shit done. If I dont put in at least 4-5 hours of work every Sunday my Monday will be hell. Good bye, lazy Sundays. *Vacations are hard. Because when I stop working my business suffers. Customers dont care if youre on a ski trip. So I never fully disconnect. Im always checking emails and trying to keep my head on straight. Im worried about this for our wedding and honeymoon. I want to disconnect fully, but I also want to be able to pay rent So. *I care a lot. Ill be honest, Ive had cubicle jobs where I really didnt care that much. Id do the bare minimum I had to do and get the hell out. I know that sounds terrible, but its true. When you run your own business its totally different. I care about every cent, promotion, connection, email, I put out there. Its me. Its my business. *I care too much. I take things personally. (My personality test warned me of this, as well.) When a customer shoots me a mean email I dwell on it. When someone doesnt like something I get upset about it. *I care a lot because I love it. I wake up feeling grateful (and exhausted) but mostly grateful every morning. I love that I get to start my emails each day on my couch with Harlow on my lap. And then I get to write for an hour. And then I start t-shirt time. (With about five trips to the dog park in between.) But enough chit-chat. I have to head back into the t-shirt room. Those Lets Day Drink shirts arent going to pack themselves. Also, Im sharing an inside look at the life of a t-shirt lady today on snapchat @thedailytay. Man, I could go for a Bloody right now. AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The felony prosecution of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry ended Wednesday when the state's highest criminal court dismissed an abuse-of-power indictment that the Republican says hampered his short-lived 2016 presidential bid. The 6-2 decision by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which is dominated by elected Republican judges, frees Perry from a long-running criminal case that blemished the exit of one of the most powerful Texas governors in history and hung over his second failed run for the White House. A grand jury in liberal Austin had indicted Perry in 2014 for vetoing funding for a public corruption unit that Republicans have long accused of wielding a partisan ax. The unit worked under Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, an elected Democrat. Perry wanted her to resign after she was convicted of drunken driving. Perry was accused of using his veto power to threaten a public official and overstepping his authority, but the judges ruled that courts can't undermine the veto power of a governor. "Come at the king, you best not miss," Republican Judge David Newell wrote in his concurring opinion, quoting a popular line from the HBO series "The Wire." Perry has been campaigning for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz since becoming the first major GOP candidate to drop out of the race last year. He conceded to reporters in Austin on Wednesday that the indictments hurt his candidacy but didn't dwell on the impact, and said he would veto the same funding again if given the chance. "I've always known the actions I took were not only lawful and legal, they were right," said Perry, who spoke at the headquarters of an influential Texas conservative think tank, which has previously christened its balcony overlooking downtown as the "Gov. Rick Perry Liberty Balcony." The court said veto power can't be restricted by the courts and the prosecution of a veto "violates separations of powers." A lower appeals court had dismissed the other charge, coercion by a public servant, in July. Perry had rebuked the charges as a partisan attack from the start, calling it a "political witch hunt," but the dismissal brought accusations of Republican judges doing a favor for a party stalwart. Texans for Public Justice, a left-leaning watchdog group that filed the original criminal complaint that led to the indictment, said Perry was handed a "gift" based on his stature. Even a Republican judge who dissented in the ruling said the decision could leave the public with an uneasy perception that the system went out of its way to clear a famous politician with deep connections. "The constant references to 'Governor Perry' could well be seen by the public as an inference that appellant's position in life entitles him to special privileges and special treatment by this court that others might be denied," wrote Republican Judge Cheryl Johnson, referring to how judges addressed Perry during deliberations. Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history, made just one court appearance in the case and was defiant from the start -- he went out for ice cream after turning himself in for booking at an Austin jail, and smiled wide for his mug shot. Legal scholars across the political spectrum raised objections about the case. Still, the Republican judge overseeing it repeatedly refused to throw it out on constitutional grounds, prompting Perry's appeals. Michael McCrum, the special prosecutor who secured Perry's indictment, maintained that the matter was built on evidence -- not politics -- and deserved to go to trial. He can appeal, but that would be a lengthy process. Combined, the original charges carried a potential maximum of 109 years in prison. Despite his legal problems, Perry had formally announced he was running for president in June, hoping to convince GOP primary voters he deserved another chance after his 2012 bid was undone by a series of public gaffes. But his second campaign lasted barely three months, and he dropped out of the race in September. The former governor spent more than $2 million on top defense lawyers. His latest White House campaign raised barely half that much in its first month, and Perry blamed the indictment for his sluggish fundraising. But polls showed he was badly trailing despite visits to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He was the first candidate to leave a GOP field jammed with 17 presidential hopefuls at the time. ___ Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Jim Vertuno in Austin contributed to this report. They uphold a law which states that the activity of Heathrow - which even Judge Wright admitted has an "indisputable" link to climate change - is lawful, while our attempts to stop that activity, which is having disastrous effects locally and globally, is illegal. The law maintains the right for corporations to make money, at the expense of life around the world, and the police are part of making sure that doesn't change. Increasingly we are seeing police protecting businesses undertaking destructive work from people trying to prevent it - such as the lines of riot cops walking trucks into a fracking site at Balcombe. Compared to protestors in Mexico, we are definitely the lucky ones The immediate threat of prison has been lifted. But it is still hanging over us. This is yet another form of violence. In taking a stand, in fighting to prevent this process of death from continuing, we are told we are to lose our freedom. We are told that the state has the right to lock our bodies in cages, in order to make an example of us, for daring to fight back. Though, laws are generally there to protect property and profit, this is not an inevitability of following the law, but a political decision made to deter future actions. There is a general understanding in British law that peaceful direct action is accepted as a part of the functions of democracy and the typical sentencing is usually light - either a conditional discharge or community service. In our case, that agreement seems to have been broken and we're being threatened with imprisonment. That said, we haven't come off too badly in comparison to others. In the UK over 1,500 people have died in police custody since 1990, many of which have been people of colour. Globally, at least 908 environmental activists were killed between 2002 and 2013, according to Global Witness, mostly in the Global South. In Mexico, an ongoing resistance against a new airport saw "violent repression [that] resulted in two young people dead, 26 women raped by the military police, 217 people arrested, and many injured. Nine leaders of the Atenco farmers were illegally sentenced to 31 years, two for 67 years, and one for 112 years." That we face the threat of six weeks in prison seems insignificant in comparison and we are privileged not to face greater risks. Surrender? Or fight back? It is important that we are honest about what is happening. That we acknowledge the way things are. That we call this what it is: violence. Violence against people, other species, and our world. But we cannot allow fear to hold us back. We can choose to respond. As Derrick Jensen says: "When those at the top tell you that something is going to be profitable and that it will help you, it means they are going to rob you and assault you if you resist. You have two options at that point. One is to surrender. One is to fight back." We need to fight back and this can take many forms. This needn't just mean more people taking direct actions to shut down the fossil-fuel industry - though of course we welcome that. It can be so many things. From learning to relate to each other as humans and resolve conflicts so that we can shut down the prison system; to growing our own food, so that we don't fly it in from the other side of the world; to creating communities of meaningful work, that we don't seek connection and intimacy in drug abuse and consumerism; to changing the way we raise and educate our children, so that they learn to love themselves and each other. Being honest about the violence that permeates this world can then allow us to take stock of the challenge we face but also give us the strength and the courage to fight for a better world. Ali Tamlit is one of 13 protesters facing jail for blockading Heathrow airport to protest against its expansion. This article was originally published by openDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. This version has been updated by The Ecologist to reflect the actual sentences laid down. The Commission's draft renewal says there was an "extraordinarily high" number of comments from the public and member states during the review. Monsanto used to claim it was 'as safe as table salt' The paper does propose some restrictions on the use of glyphosate. National authorities should enforce risk-mitigation measures such as protective clothing for crop sprayers, and ensure the glyphosate used in herbicides they may authorise is the same formulation as was tested by EFSA. The renewal calls for further studies on the endocrine disrupting potential of glyphosate to be completed before August. However, environmentalists said the proposal flew in the face of a censure of the commission by the EU ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, earlier this week for accepting proof of a pesticide's safety after its use had already been authorised. Franziska Achterberg, Greenpeace EU's food policy director, said: "Glyphosate was once described by Monsanto as 'safe as table salt'. Now science is telling us that it's a serious threat for our health and the environment. Ignoring the evidence for another 15 years will cost us dearly. Europe needs an exit strategy from chemical pesticides." A spokesman for the European Crop Protection Association said: "If the European Commission deems a renewal appropriate, we would hope that EU member states would then support such a proposal." Public fears about glyphosate were evident again this week as about 3,000 boxes of 'organic' women's panty liners were removed from store shelves in France and Canada after they were found to contain traces of glyphosate. Greens: a 'scandalous proposal' Commenting on the proposal, Green agriculture and public health spokesperson Martin Hausling said: "It is scandalous that the European Commission is willing to simply ignore the considerable scientific concern expressed about the health risks of glyphosate and is instead proposing to continue to allow its use for 15 more years, without any restrictions. "The finding that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans by the WHO should be leading to a global moratorium on its use. However, the industry lobby has been aggressively pushing to maintain its products on the market, at the expense of human health. "While the European Food Safety Authority gave a positive assessment of glyphosate, this opinion itself has been subject to strong criticism in the scientific community. The European Commission cannot simply be rubber-stamper of EFSA opinions. Given the serious health concerns and conflicting scientific advice, the Commission should be respecting its duty to apply the precautionary principle and not steamrolling through approval of this highly controversial substance. "To make things worse, the Commission is not proposing any legally-binding conditions for the use of glyphosate, despite even EFSA having acknowledged a long-term risk for mammals, and despite the endocrine disrupting properties of glyphosate not having been properly assessed. It is also proposing to permit its use more generally and not just as a herbicide, as was previously the case. "We should not be rolling the dice when there is clear evidence of environmental risks and serious concerns of health impacts. As long as the manufacturers fail to demonstrate an absence of harm in a transparent manner, glyphosate should not be approved for use in the EU. "EU governments must not give in to this perverted logic and should oppose the reapproval of glyphosate at their meeting on 7 March." Arthur Neslen is the Europe environment correspondent at the Guardian. He has previously worked for the BBC, the Economist, Al Jazeera, and EurActiv, where his journalism won environmental awards. He has written two books about Israeli and Palestinian identity. This article was originally published on the Guardian Environment and is republished with thanks via the Guardian Environment Network. This version contains some additional reporting by The Ecologist. SHARE By Gleaner Staff The Elementary District Governor's Cup tournaments will be held this Saturday. Holy Name School will host the District 10 Governor's Cup. Bend Gate, East Heights and Spottsville Elementary will also participate in the tournament, which is sponsored by the Kentucky Association for Academic Competition. There are eight events and only quick recall is open to the public. Quick recall begins at 11 a.m. The District 9 competition will be held at A.B. Chandler Elementary. Sturgis, Uniontown and Morganfield elementaries, all from Union County will also participate. Cairo, Jefferson, Niagara and South Heights will participate in the District 11 tournament. District winners advance to the Governor's Cup Regional competition, which will be held at Cairo Elementary School on March 12. SHARE The following information is based on public records from local and area law enforcement agencies and/or court systems: HENDERSON CIRCUIT COURT Justin D. Kirtz, 42, 800 block of Claymark Way, was sentenced Monday to a total of two years on two counts of first-degree possession of a controlled substance, one count of possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana. Jacob Fulkerson, 24, 800 block of Letcher Street, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of sexual misconduct, amended from third-degree sodomy and third-degree rape. The sentence was conditionally discharged over two years. Edward S. Meredith, 50, Evansville, pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, failure to maintain insurance and driving under the influence. He was sentenced to a total of three years. Britt L. Vinson, 36, 1400 block of Cumnock Street, pleaded guilty Monday to fourth-degree assault, amended from second-degree assault. Vinson was given two years, which was conditionally discharged. Kelli D. Beck, 55, 800 block of North Adams Street, pleaded guilty Monday to tampering with physical evidence and theft of a controlled substance. Sentencing has been scheduled for March 14. Kimberly Burnette, 43, 300 block of South Ingram Street, pleaded guilty Monday to fraudulent use of a credit card under $10,000, theft under $10,000 and theft by deception. Sentencing has been scheduled for March 28. Wesley N. Ice, 31, Petersburg, Indiana, was sentenced Monday to a total of five years for theft under $10,000 and being a second-degree persistent felony offender, driving without a license and driving under the influence (second offense). HENDERSON DISTRICT COURT Several cases were recently waived to the grand jury from district court. Ashley N. Ohrt, 30, 1100 block of Atkinson Street, faces four counts of second-degree unlawful transaction with a minor. Joshua D. Downey, 38, 400 block of Meadow Street, faces a charge of theft of identity without consent. Holli A. Vignone, 34, 900 block of Pebble Creek Drive, faces charges of disregarding a stop sign, failure to stop at a railroad crossing, first-degree possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving under the influence. William W. Bean, 35, 6100 section of Kentucky 136-West, faces charges of theft of shoplifting under $500, first-degree possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. Rudy Studdard, 27, Evansville, faces a charge of theft (shoplifting) of $500 or more. Justin W. Ralph, 22, 800 block of Constanza Drive, faces charges of second-degree burglary and third-degree criminal mischief. Jesse H. Huff, 37, 1100 block of Atkinson Street, faces two counts of second-degree unlawful transaction with a minor. Jamal E. Walton, 20, Owensboro, faces charges of receiving stolen property (firearm), carrying a concealed deadly weapon and theft under $500. Emily D. Hoffman, 30, address unavailable, faces two counts of criminal possession of a forged prescription. Jamie Haines, 27, 1100 block of Woodland Drive, faces charges of receiving stolen property under $10,000 and theft by deception. James W. Deno, 29, 1900 block of Madison Street, faces charges of first-degree assault and tampering with physical evidence. James G. Shelton, 18, 300 block of North Ingram Street, faces two counts of second-degree unlawful transaction with a minor and one count of first-degree criminal mischief. Janice M. Hooker, 38, Evansville, faces charges of theft of an identity without consent and first-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. Cecil D. Davis, 18, 2700 block of Zion Road, faces a charge of first-degree rape. Melinda G. Dunn, 32, 1000 block of Lovers Lane, faces charges of no or expired registration plates, failure to maintain insurance, driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia and first-degree possession of a controlled substance (second offense). Joshua L. Sights, 26, 8500 section of U.S. 60, faces charges of first-degree wanton endangerment, fourth-degree assault, third-degree criminal mischief and third-degree terroristic threatening. Brennan N. Owens, 32, 2700 block of U.S. 41-North, faces charges of one headlight, instruction permit violation, driving under the influence, possession of synthetic drugs, tampering with physical evidence, reckless driving, no operator's license and first-degree fleeing/evading police. Brandi M. Weaver, 37, Owensboro, faces a charge of second-degree forgery. Shawna J. Lewellen, 40, 700 block of Cherry Street, faces a charge of second-degree burglary. EDITOR'S NOTE: Those charged with crimes are considered innocent until they are found guilty in a court of law. Every effort is made by this newspaper to report the final disposition of each case. In the event we fail to do so, a call to our newsroom, 827-2000, will prompt a background check on those cases and, if necessary, a published report on the final disposition. SHARE Gleaner staff An Owensboro resident has been cited for driving under the influence after a one-vehicle crash on I-69 early Thursday morning. Cheyenne M. Shouse, 23, the driver of the vehicle, was injured in the accident, according to Henderson police. She was transported to Methodist Hospital for treatment and cited into court due to her injuries. Shouse faces charges of driving under the influence and failure of nonowner to maintain insurance. Police say Shouse was northbound on I-69 in a 2005 Dodge Neon when it left the road between the Zion Road and the U.S. 41 exits, struck a guardrail then crossed the median into the southbound lanes, where it overturned and came to rest. The owner of the vehicle, Cheyenne Omar, 18, of Henderson, was a passenger in the car when it crashed, authorities said. SHARE Steve Wilson, Henderson Communism not a dream after all This is a letter in response to the opinion of Mr. Brandon Harris in his recent Gleaner letter. In that letter, Mr. Harris praises the communist system while telling us capitalism does not work. He tells us "communism is wonderful and will supply everyone with free housing, education and health care as well as a guaranteed job." If that's the system he longs for, he can receive the same thing in prison. Then Mr. Harris goes on to tell us how Josef Stalin gave the people so many jobs and was the greatest communist leader ever. He left out the part about forced collectivism. Stalin thought he could do a better job by taking over the farms and land. When people resisted, many were executed. In just five years, 10 million people starve to death. It's not know how many people died under Stalin, but it was anywhere from 20 million to 60 million. Great leader, right? Only Mao of Communist China is responsible for more deaths. Roughly 78 million for this communist go-getter! If you want to compare communism and capitalism, just look at North and South Korea. Since the 1960s, South Korea has achieved a remarkable record of growth and global integration to become a high-tech industrialized economy. In the 1960s, the country's GDP per capita was comparable with levels in the poorest countries in Africa and Asia. South Korea is now among the world's largest economies. North Korea has its people starving and some of the worst human rights abuses known today. A perfect communist world would run like a beehive. The queen is at the top and everyone else equal and laboring for the good of all. No one is allowed to have any aspirations or hopes to rise. Human nature can never conform to this way of life because we want more from life. Even people pushing the communist lifestyle will admit there has never been a perfect communist society and the reason it fails is the leadership at the top becomes too power-hungry and people want more out of life than being a worker bee in a hive. Some hate capitalism because they think it's not fair. They think the rich or someone else is taking their share. They want to blame someone or something rather than putting any of the blame on the decisions they made in life and the outcomes they got. Mr. Harris said he would rather live under communism rather than capitalism any day. Well, it's your lucky day. China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba are all still communist and I'm sure they would welcome you with open arms. The United States has created the most powerful, innovative and richest country the world has ever known. This is because people came here and settled here for a chance, not a guarantee. They know the freedoms here allowed anyone to work hard and do things they could never do anywhere else. Capitalism gives people hope. It drives people to work harder. It allows people to dream and have those dreams come true. Do you really think the people of communist North Korea have any of those things? Sure, they have free housing, education and health care as well as a guaranteed job ... according to some they should be happy in their communist utopia. Headed to Cleveland in Search of Wins... Aaron Boone / Photo Credit: Seth Wenig, AP Momentum favors the Game 3 Winner And then they were tied So much for home field advantage. ... Aaron Judge, MVP... Aaron Judge / Photo Credit: LM Otero, AP Judge homers his way to the record books It has been a few days, but I would like to express my ... TGP Prospects Month Open Thread featuring Yankees Hot Stove Join the Yankees Hot Stove guys on the YES Network including Greedy Pinstripes follower (on Twitter) Michael Kay, Jack Curry and Bob Lo... An Ode to the 2009 Yankees This next post is a poem dedicated to the guys we all love, The ones that played defense with a gold glov... Play Today, Win Today... Aaron Judge & Oswaldo Cabrera / Photo Credit: Getty Images Time to start a winning streak The Yankees Great Collapse of 2022 contin... 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(AP) -- The Latest on deadly storm system that spawned tornadoes along the Gulf Coast (all times local): 3:15 p.m. Authorities say two people have died after powerful storms ripped through eastern Virginia, raising the death toll from the tornadoes and severe weather to five. Ron Messina, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said the two people were killed in the town of Waverly on Wednesday. Messina could not provide the victims' identities or details about how they died. Three people were killed in Louisiana and Mississippi when tornadoes hit there Tuesday. Dozens of other people were injured. The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for an area in southeastern Virginia, with radar indicating a twister in Waverly. ___ 2:30 p.m. Police are reporting storm damage in Sussex County in southeastern Virginia from a system that has ravaged the South. State Police Sgt. Michele Anaya says troopers were called to assist local authorities Wednesday afternoon. She did not know the extent of the damage, exactly where it occurred or whether there were any injuries. Anaya said she could not confirm a twister, although the county was under a tornado warning when the damage occurred. Workers who answered the phone at the Sussex County Sheriff's Office and the Waverly Fire Department said all first responders were out and nobody was available to provide information. The storms killed three people in Louisiana and Mississippi on Tuesday. ___ 11:30 a.m. The National Weather Service is investigating two distinct tornado paths that crossed through St. John the Baptist Parish in Louisiana. Forecaster Robert Ricks says one of the paths takes a possible tornado over the western part of LaPlace, where as many as 200 homes were damaged late Tuesday afternoon. Only minor injuries were reported. Officials said that many residents who lost homes during the storm were previously affected by Hurricane Isaac in August 2012. To the west, a tornado ravaged an RV park in Convent, killing two people and injuring about 30 others. The storms killed another person in Mississippi and damaged about 100 homes in Pensacola, Florida. ___ 10:40 a.m. A tangled wall of tree limbs and power lines partially blocked the entrance to The Moorings apartment complex in the Pensacola area. Winds ripped off the top floors of two of the two-story buildings. A large oak tree fell on the side of one building and dozens of cars in the parking lot were smashed under a layer of wood, twisted metal, insulation and other debris. Gov. Rick Scott and Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward toured the complex Wednesday morning, and talked to residents. Angela Barrows is with the management company that owns the complex. She says they were fortunate more people weren't hurt. At least seven tornadoes hit Mississippi and Louisiana on Tuesday. Three people were killed and dozens of people were injured. Forecasters are warning of more tornadoes Wednesday. ___ 10 a.m. Florida Gov. Rick Scott says an apparent tornado significantly damaged more than 70 homes and 24 apartments in the Pensacola area, leaving three people with minor injuries. The rough weather ripped through Pensacola on Tuesday evening and Scott toured the affected areas on Wednesday morning. He stopped at The Moorings apartment complex, where winds whipped the roof off of at least two buildings. Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan says crews are working to restore power to more than 2,700 homes that are still without power. Scott says that he plans to meet with victims of a tornado that left widespread damage in nearby Century last week. The governor says they're working to allocate money from the state budget to help victims of both storms. ___ 8:05 a.m. Florida Gov. Rick Scott is expected to travel to Pensacola to view the damage caused by storms that hit the area. Scott's office says the governor will be in the Pensacola area Wednesday morning. A possible tornado ripped through the city Tuesday evening, snapping trees, downing power lines and destroying at least 24 units at The Moorings apartment complex. The National Weather Service was surveying the damage Wednesday to determine if it was caused by a tornado. There have been no reports of injuries there. ___ 7:40 a.m. Meteorologists at the national Storm Prediction Center are warning of the potential for more tornadoes -- including some possibly strong twisters -- in parts of the Atlantic coast, including the Carolinas and Virginia. In a Wednesday morning briefing, forecaster Jaret Rogers said large hail and a few tornadoes are expected to develop over the region later Wednesday and Wednesday night. He said the storms may include some strong tornadoes. Rogers said some of the larger metro areas at risk of severe weather include the North Carolina cities of Raleigh and Wake Forest. The storms expected Wednesday are part of the same system that spawned tornadoes in Gulf Coast states Tuesday and killed at least three people in Louisiana and Mississippi. ___ 6:55 a.m. A sheriff says an all-night search in the rear of a Louisiana RV park where a tornado hit found no additional injuries or fatalities. St. James Parish Sheriff Willie Martin says three people are still missing and he hopes to locate them Wednesday. He said 30 people were injured and seven are in critical condition. Martin said in an interview on WVUE-TV that heavy equipment will be brought to the RV park to clear the road and move the damaged RVs. When asked what was going on when he arrived at the scene he said: "It was chaos for the first hour." ___ 6:20 a.m. A possible tornado ripped through Pensacola, Florida, on Tuesday evening, destroying an apartment complex and downing trees and power lines. National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Esbensen in Mobile, Alabama, told The Associated Press a team will survey the damage beginning at sunrise Wednesday to determine whether the storm was a tornado. The Pensacola News Journal (http://on.pnj.com/1XMegZY) reports 24 units at The Moorings apartment complex were destroyed. No major injuries were reported. Residents were being bused to a nearby shelter operated by the American Red Cross. ___ 6 a.m. Red Cross volunteers are in the storm damaged areas of Louisiana and will be coordinating with local leaders. According to a news release, Red Cross teams worked through the night at shelters in St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes and provided drinks and meals to first responders in Convent at an RV Park. The Red Cross warns those returning to their damaged homes to watch out for fallen power lines and broken gas lines. ___ 5:50 a.m. The sound of chain saws will be heard all over southeast Louisiana on Wednesday as residents begin the cleanup from a system of deadly storms that killed two in St. James Parish. Authorities worked through the night searching an RV park for at least two people still missing. Two died at the park Tuesday and RVs were overturned and stacked on top of one another. In St. John the Baptist Parish, dozens of homes were damaged on the west side of LaPlace. No one was injured. Entergy reports more than 14,000 outages west of the New Orleans metro area. Over 9,000 are without power in St. John Parish, with 1,700 customers in the dark in Assumption Parish and Tangipahoa Parish has over 1,200 outages. ___ 3 a.m. A deadly storm system that spawned tornadoes in Gulf Coast states Tuesday night is expected to bring severe weather to the Carolinas by Wednesday afternoon. Authorities say the Tuesday storms mangled trailers at an RV park, ripped roofs from buildings and killed at least three people in Louisiana and Mississippi. Police say two people were killed at a recreational vehicle park in the Louisiana town of Convent. St. James Parish Sheriff Willy Martin says authorities were working into the early morning to look for people possibly trapped under the debris there. The Wednesday forecast for the Carolinas calls for possible flash flooding and severe thunderstorms, including damaging winds, hail and isolated tornadoes. Feb. 23 Chandler Hawkins, 41, of 7 Lubrano Pl., was charged with second-degree failure to appear. He was issued a $500 fine and given a court date of March 2. Joshua Troost, 30, of 11 Cobbler's Ln., was charged with two counts of criminal mischief, interference with a 911 call, disorderly conduct, two counts of evading responsibility, traveling too fast for conditions, and driving with intent to harass or intimidate. He was issued a $25,000 bond and given a court date of Feb. 24. Ying Ji Jin, 50, of 207-07 42nd St., Flushing, N.Y. was charged with two counts of permitting prostitution, two counts of promoting prostitution, two counts of prostitution, and unlicensed massage therapy. She was issued a $2,500 bond and given a court date of March 1. Chunyue Shen, 45, of 3420 Parsons Blvd., Flushing, N.Y., was charged with two counts of permitting prostitution, two counts of promoting prostitution, and two counts of prostitution. She was issued a $2,500 bond and given a court date of March 1. William Spielman, Sr., 59, of 14 Mola Rd., was charged with disorderly conduct. He was given a court date of Feb. 24. William Spielman, Jr., 31, of 14 Mola Rd., was charged with disorderly conduct. He was given a court date of Feb. 24. Antonio Trusty, 25, of 276 Union Ave., Bridgeport, was charged with sixth-degree larceny. He was given a court date of March 3. Luis Rosales, 22, of 1 Cliff St., was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal violation of a protective order. He was issued a $10,000 bond and given a court date of Feb. 24. Matthew Walsh, 43, of 10 Los Angeles Ave., was charged with third-degree burglary, fourth-degree larceny and criminal mischief. He was given a court date of Feb. 23. Dakari Tompkins, 21, of 219 Connecticut Ave., Stamford was charged with disorderly conduct. He was given a court date of Feb. 23. Feb. 22 Juan Perez, 43, of 79 Cedar St., was charged with disorderly conduct. He was given a court date of Feb. 23. Odette Rosario, 48, was charged with disorderly conduct. She was given a court date of Feb. 23. Luis Santos, 20, of 9 Vollmer Ave., was charged with possession of a controlled substance or less than four ounces of marijuana and possession of narcotics with intent to sell. He was issued a $5,000 bond and given a court date of March 1. Patrick Elmore, 24, of 28 Taylor Ave., was charged with possession of a controlled substance or less than four ounces of marijuana, possession of narcotics with intent to sell, operating a motor vehicle without a license, and making an improper turn. He was issued a $5,000 bond and given a court date of March 1. Vincent Pascarelli, 60, of 79 Ferris Ave., was charged with operating a motor vehicle without insurance. He was given a court date of March 4. Horace Kelly, 43, of 2023 N. Wolfe St., Baltimore, Md., was charged with first-degree failure to appear. He was issued a $40,000 bond and given a court date of Feb. 29. Feb. 21 Mark Myslinski, 43, of 100 Wolfpit Ave., was charged with second-degree breach of peace and risk of injury to a minor. He was issued a $2,500 bond and given a court date of Feb. 29. McKenna Ryser, 21, of 26 Mandia Ln., Golden's Bridge, N.Y. was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence and making an improper left turn. She was issued a $500 bond and given a court date of Feb. 29. Tyler Sheinberg, 24, of 15 Flax Rd., Fairfield, was charged with second-degree breach of peace. He was given a court date of Feb. 26. Feb. 20 Ashley Trejo, 21, of 49 Meadow St., was charged with second-degree breach of peace. She was given a court date of Feb. 22. Blanca Ortiz, 37, of 3 Goldstein Pl., was charged with fifth-degree larceny and sixth-degree larceny. She was issued an $1,150 bond and given a court date of Feb. 29. WILTON Community chiropractor and trigger point specialist Dr. Elihu Rosen recently marked the 30th anniversary of his practice in Wilton. In a formal announcement to his patients, Rosen expressed his gratitude. "Thank you for allowing me the privilege to serve and provide your care. I've learned an infinite amount of knowledge from you as well," he wrote. "I am so grateful for being a part of this blessed and fortunate community." Rosen graduated in 1982, with a doctorate in chiropractic medicine from the National College of Chiropractic located outside of Chicago. His first practice -- still in business today -- served patients in an Illinois farm community. His very first patient happened to be a local celebrity: The Pork Queen of Kane County. Even after all these years, she and her family remain in contact with Rosen. In 1985, Rosen relocated to Wilton and became the town's first full-time chiropractor, opening an office on Godfrey Place near the post office. In 1999, Rosen shifted his Wilton practice to 465 Danbury Road, across from Mt. Zion Church, where he remains in business today. Rosen's interest in providing health services in a community setting was sparked early in life. His father, a practicing optometrist for more than 40 years, had a successful community-based practice in Brooklyn. Helping around his father's office as a child, Rosen grew to appreciate the personal satisfaction that comes from providing solutions to patients directly and seeing their lives improve. "I liked the idea of making a measurable difference in people's lives," Rosen says. "I also liked the human interaction I witnessed in my father's community practice and knew I would prefer that environment to a lab or corporate setting." During his 30 years of practice in Wilton, Rosen has seen the town grow and change in many ways, and through it all, his presence has been felt beyond the walls of his office. From his involvement at the YMCA and the Chamber of Commerce to his support for local artists to his public lectures and demonstrations, Rosen has developed that community connection he first envisioned as a boy working in his father's office. He also raised two children in Wilton during this time and, as a parent, is equally appreciative of the town's community spirit. "Wilton is a great town for family life," he said. "We have been very happy here." In his exclusive approach to treating patients, Rosen concentrates on trigger points -- areas of stress-induced inflammation within muscle tissue that can result in referential pain patterns within the body. His unique method is known as Sequential Pain Reduction, or SPR, and is trademarked with the U.S. Patent Office. According to Rosen, it is the perfect blend of proprietary and complementary therapies -- including massage, ultrasound, electro-stimulation and laser therapy. "The objective is to release muscle knots prior to the chiropractic adjustment," Rosen says. In Rosen's experience, his approach produces faster relief for his patients and results in fewer visits in the long run. One of the things Rosen has learned from providing chiropractic and SPR therapy to patients for 30 years, although simple, still manages to amaze this veteran promoter of health and wellness: "The patients I have treated for decades are still enjoying life without back pain, and they almost never get sick with the various colds and viruses that plague non-chiropractic patients," he says. "It's extremely satisfying for me to be part of this wellness equation for my patients." If there is one thing about health that Rosen would like people to keep in mind, it is this: The human spine is more than a collection of bones that gives shape to the body. The spine serves a vital biological function, just as the heart does. It is the conduit of neural messages for the central nervous system. Its health is as important as the health of any other major organ in the body. Rosen has three degrees: a dual BA in human biology and American Law from SUNY College in New Paltz, New York; a BS in human biology and a doctorate in chiropractic medicine, both from the National College of Chiropractic outside of Chicago, Illinois. He is a member of both the American and the Connecticut Chiropractic Associations. He is certified in physiotherapy and acupuncture, and he treats both adults and children. SEOUL, South Korea North Koreas description of South Koreas president as an old, insane bitch destined for violent death may take the rivals hateful propaganda battle to a new level of hostility, which is saying something for neighbors with such a long, bloody history of hating each others guts. The North called President Park Geun-hyes predecessors traitors and even rat-like, but the invectives it throws at the Souths first female president tend to be uglier, often casting her relationship with her American allies in crude sexual terms. Carved in two by the Soviets and Americans at the end of WWII, the halves of the Korean Peninsula fought a vicious war in the early 1950s, and have spent much of the years since then promising, and sometimes trying very hard to engineer, each others destruction. North Korea, even as it builds a nuclear arsenal, has in recent decades been outgunned diplomatically, economically and militarily by the richer South; it has therefore relied more on words as a weapon. It has been especially likely to do so under conservative South Korean leaders such as Park and her immediate predecessor, Lee Myung-bak; before Lee took office in 2008, nearly a decade of liberal leaders pushed for cooperation with Pyongyang and sent huge shipments of aid northwards. The Norths attacks may be meant to reduce hopes for unification, which the North Korean elite really doesnt want, because theres no way theyd keep their privileges on the other side, says Robert Kelly, a political scientist at Pusan National University in the South. North Koreas overwhelmingly male-dominated culture may have something to do with it as well. Kelly says Pyongyang may not understand that sexist language disgusts many. Brian Myers, an expert on North Korean propaganda at South Koreas Dongseo University, suggests that young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may either not remember or not care that his country once carefully tailored its propaganda to influence millions of potential leftist sympathizers in the South. Myers says that could be bad news for the near future. If it becomes impossible for a South Korean party devoted to accommodation to come to power in Seoul, he says, Im afraid we could see the North shift more and more toward outright bullying and intimidation. Heres a look at North Koreas long history of insults: MURDEROUS DEMON In perhaps its lengthiest and harshest verbal attack on Park since she took office in 2013, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency on Saturday called her a tailless, old, insane bitch, a senile old woman and a murderous demon destined to meet a sudden and violent death. This was likely a response to her reaction to the Norths recent nuclear test and rocket launch. She closed a jointly run factory park, started missile defense talks with Washington and mentioned the potential for a regime collapse in Pyongyang, something North Koreas dictator is extremely sensitive about. KCNA wrote that Park complains about North Korean nukes, but takes much pleasure and even throws out her underwear in welcoming the murderous nuclear war devices brought in by the American Yankees. North Korea previously called Park a prostitute and said she lives on the groin of her American boss. It has frequently questioned her womanhood because she has no children, which the North labels as an obligation for women. North Korea also frequently refers to the swish of her skirts, a Korean phrase used to describe women seen as overly aggressive. The swishes of Park Geun-hyes skirt, created by her American boss, are so unpredictable theyre dumbfounding, an unnamed spokesman of the Norths Joint National Organization of Working People said in a statement last year published by the KCNA. This is all because the United States black, hairy hands reach deep into Park Geun-hyes skirt. RAT-LIKE The Norths propaganda writers spent years attacking Lee, Parks predecessor, by saying he looked like a rat. In a statement against Lee during his final days as president in January 2013, the Norths Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea compared Lee and his treacherous group to rats five different times, saying that they should be beaten (to death) in time and completely exterminated. In July 2012, KCNA said the death-bed frenzy of Lees group of traitors reminds one of the rat-like hoodlums being dragged to gallows. Lee drew Pyongyangs anger by departing from the rapprochement policies of his two liberal predecessors and slapping the North with broad trade sanctions in 2010 following the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors and which Seoul blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack. FASCIST DICTATOR North Korea has described Park Geun-hye as a worse traitor than her dictator father, Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea for 18 years until his assassination by his spy chief in 1979. The North attempted to assassinate the elder Park by sending a team of 31 commandos across the border in 1968, but they were stopped near Parks presidential mansion in Seoul. Shortly after his death, the Norths official Rodong Sinmun newspaper called Park a a truculent fascist dictator who plunged South Korea into a sea of blood, arresting, imprisoning and brutally murdering (those) ... who called for the democratization of society and the reunification of the country. SLAPS AGAINST U.S. North Korea often extends its insults to the presidents and other key officials of the United States, which Pyongyang labels as an imperialist aggressor and puppet master of the Seoul government. The North hurled racist insults at U.S. President Barack Obama more than once, with Pyongyangs powerful National Defense Commission calling him a monkey in a tropical forest in December 2014 over the hacking row involving the movie The Interview, a comedy that depicts Kims assassination. The Norths state media has called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a wolf with a hideous lantern jaw, and his predecessor, Hillary Clinton, as a funny lady who sometimes looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping. Former U.S. President George W. Bush, who in 2002 bracketed North Korea with Iran and pre-war Iraq as part of an axis of evil, was labeled as a world dictator, and a hooligan bereft of any personality as a human being. His vice president, Dick Cheney, was described by the North in 2005 as the most cruel monster and bloodthirsty beast as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood. Looking for the big games to watch in Week 9? We have them right here. football Brown County, Indiana is a year round vacation destination, where artists and adventurers alike are drawn to the rustic beauty and quiet charm. Brown County Events Calendar - March 2016 Event: Brown County Art Guild Featured Exhibit - Past Member Artists Date: March 1-6, 8-13, 15-20, 22-27, 29-31 Time: Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sunday 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. Place: Brown County Art Guild (48 S. Van Buren Street, Nashville, IN) Phone/Website: 812.988.9185 / www.browncountyartguild.org Admission: Free About: Visit the historic Brown County Art Guild to see a selection of work from past member artists, as well as two floors of all new work from the Guild's current artist members! Event: March Madness at eXplore Brown County Date: March 1-31 Time: See website Place: eXplore Brown County at Valley Branch Retreat Phone/Website: 812.988.7750 / www.explorebrowncounty.com Admission: See website for more info About: Couch potatoes unite and toss those Cheetos aside for some adrenaline and adventure of your own! eXplore Brown County guides will share the Spring Break March Madness with you as you soar 90 feet in the air at speeds up to 45 miles an hour. Part of the Hoosier National Hardwood Forest and filled with animals that have just awakened from a long winter of hibernation, you're sure to see a lot of wildlife too! Join in the joy of celebrating the new awakening of life in the forest and enjoy March Madness Brown County style. Event: Roving Indiana Yarn Crawl Date: March 1-13 Place: The Clay Purl (58 E Main St. Nashvile, IN) Phone/Website: www.rovingindiana.com/ Admission: $7.50 for a passport About: Take part in a fun yarn crawl as you make your way through 14 yarn shops in Central Indiana! Passports are available for pre-purchase at the 14 shops NOW! They are $7.50 again this year. The purchase of the passport entitles the bearer to a 10% discount on yarn at each shop, the free pattern, and the T.C. Steele discounts. Event: 2016 National Maple Syrup Festival Date: March 5, 6 Time: Saturday (9 a.m. - 5 p.m.) & Sunday (9 a.m. - 3 p.m.) Place: Festival headquarters in the Brown County State Park; other events in the Village of Nashville Phone/Website: 812.988.7303 / www.browncounty.com/national-maple-syrup-festival Admission: $10 per person; children 6 and under are free About: Brown County will host the National Maple Syrup Festival for the second year in a row! Head to the Brown County State Park (festival headquarters) for sugaring demonstrations, historical reenactments, guided hikes, Sap School, Maple Market, maple syrup flights, a maple syrup heist challenge course for kids, other children's activities, and so much more! Don't forget to check out the pancake breakfast and various Maple on the Menu dishes around town too! Event: Chris Cakes Pancake Breakfast (part of the National Maple Syrup Festival) Date: March 5, 6 Time: 8 a.m. - 11 a.m. Place: Brown County High School Phone/Website: 812.988.6606 (Ask for Jake Koressel) / http://nationalmaplesyrupfestival.com Admission: Adults $8; Ages 3-18 $5; Children 2 and under are free; $30 for the entire family About: The National Maple Syrup Festival is trying to "think beyond the pancake," but who doesn't love a great pancake, covered in pure maple syrup? Especially when it's made and delivered by a showman like John Young, the owner of Chris Cakes. John travels all over to demonstrate his amazing talents at pancake making and flipping and he'll be in town March 5th & 6th. Event: Brown County Music Celebration Date: March 5 Time: 7:30 p.m. Place: Brown County Playhouse Phone/Website: 812.988.6555 / www.browncountyplayhouse.org Admission: $12 / $11 About: Live concert with rare performances by local professional musicians paying tribute to Brow County's rich musical history. 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award to be given. Happens on the same weekend as Brown County's Maple Syrup Festival! Beer and wine sold in the auditorium. Event: Brown County Art Gallery Exhibit - Signs of the Imagination by Gary Anderson, Hoosier Sign Maker Date: March 5-27 Time: Monday - Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sundays 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. Place: Eyed Gallery (in the Brown County Art Gallery) Phone/Website: 812.988.4609 / www.browncountyartgallery.org Admission: $5 About: His work has been seen everywhere. Gary Anderson of Bloomington Design has been "telling us where to go" for years, but he also has a fantastic collection of signs that stem strictly from his imagination. Signs for wonderful places that don't exist! Head to the Brown County Art Gallery and see this unique exhibit for yourself! An opening reception will be held on March 5. Event: Farm-to-Fifth Tours at Bear Wallow Distillery Date: March 5, 12, 19, 26 Time: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. (at the top of each hour) Place: Bear Wallow Distillery Phone/Website: 812.657.4923 / www.bearwallowdistillery.com Admission: $5 About: Head to Bear Wallow Distillery for some whiskey education! Learn about the role whiskey played in the formation of America during the Revolutionary War. Find out what brought whiskey making to Indiana and learn about moonshining in Brown County before, during, and after prohibition. See the complete process used to make whiskey at Bear Wallow, starting with grains from local farmers, and enjoy the best part of the tour...tasting it! Event: Quaff N Brew Beer School Date: March 5, 12, 19, 26 Time: 11 a.m. Place: Big Woods Village Phone/Website: 812.988.6000 / http://quaffon.com Admission: $5; $10 to add a pint glass About: Do you love beer? Ever wonder how beer is made? Want to learn the difference between porter and stout or lager and ale? Big Woods is offering an exciting class designed to teach you all about the world of beer. Event: 3rd Annual Brown County Youth Music Showcase Date: March 12 Time: 7:30 p.m. Place: Brown County Playhouse Phone/Website: 812.988.6555 / www.browncountyplayhouse.org Admission: $12 / free for those 12 and under About: Check out the 3rd Annual Brown County Youth Music Showcase at the Playhouse. Take part in this benefit for the BETA Teen Center hosted by Kara Barnard and listen to music from talented local youth! Children 12 and under are free, subject to availability. Event: Death March Date: March 12 Time: 7:15 a.m. check in; 9:30 a.m. race Place: Hoosier National Forest (1264 Hunters Creek Rd, Norman, IN) Phone/Website: 317.336.7553 / www.dinoseries.com/death-march/ Admission: $60-$85 About: The Death March is a bicycle race for teams of two to be the first to reach designated cemeteries in and around the Hoosier National Forest. The ride begins and ends at the Midwest Trail Ride Horseman's Camp (MTR) in Norman, IN. This year's event adds a new Parent/Youth division! Event: Second Sunday with the Artists at the Brown County Art Gallery Date: March 13 Time: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Place: Brown County Art Gallery Phone/Website: 812.988.4609 / www.browncountyartgallery.org Admission: $10 per person to paint; free to observers About: Brush up on your skills, learn new ones and play with paint on the second Sunday of each month at the Brown County Art Gallery! Bring your supplies and paint with the artists. Get instruction, tips and have fun! Any medium welcome, within reason. Event: Be a Healthier YOU in 2016 Date: March 19 Time: 10 a.m. Place: Sweetea's Tea Shop Phone/Website: 812.988.6515 / http://sweeteasteashop.com Admission: Free About: Want to be healthier in 2016? Head to Sweetea's for a class that will teach you some alternatives to modern medicine to become healthier in 2016. Explore the use of oils, natural vitamins and tea in your daily routine. You will leave with a general knowledge of how these can help you feel better. During the class you will be able to try some different teas and oils. Some free samples will also be provided! Reservations are suggested but not required. Event: Carrie Newcomer and Jill Bolte Taylor: Transformative Stories Date: March 19 Time: 7:30 p.m. Place: Brown County Playhouse Phone/Website: 812.988.6555 / www.browncountyplayhouse.org Admission: $27.50 About: Beautiful blending of music and the spoken word...don't miss this one-of-a-kind event! Enjoy as Carrie Newcomer's soulful live music accompanies poignant tales delivered by the brilliant brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor. Brown County beer and wine sold in the auditorium. Event: Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre Date: March 19 Time: 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Place: Artists Colony Inn Phone/Website: 812.988.0600 / http://artistscolonyinn.com Admission: $45 About: Let's Have a Weddin'! Join The Artists Colony Inn and Golden Ticket Productions for an exciting Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre adventure. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 6:30 p.m. Advance reservations are required. Call 812-988-0600 to reserve your seat on the bride or the groom's side of the chapel! Event: Comedian Greg Hahn Date: March 26 Time: 7:30 p.m. Place: Brown County Playhouse Phone/Website: 812.988.6555 / www.browncountyplayhouse.org Admission: $20.50 About: Bob & Tom Show favorite! Greg Hahn has appeared on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, Comedy Central, ABC, CBS, and FOX. Dont worry for a second about offending anyone as all the jokes are clean, fun and designed to do nothing other than make people laugh! Hahn's warm-up act is the hilarious Dave Wilson, featuring his Indy 500 stories. Beer and wine sold in the auditorium. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 A total of 217 Indonesians have been detained or deported, mostly in or from Turkey, as they were linked to terrorist groups by their host countries, Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Ministry says. "They are accused of being involved in activities as foreign terrorist fighters," Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said on Tuesday as quoted by tempo.co. The ministry says 200 Indonesians were found in Turkey, five in South Korea (with three people later released), three in Malaysia, two in Saudi Arabia, two in Japan (both were released) and one in Sudan, who was later released. Four other Indonesian citizens were recently deported from Singapore. Nasir said the four were suspected to be affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group. The Indonesian authorities are currently handling the suspects who have returned now to Jakarta, he added. The four suspects have been identified as Muhammad Mufid Murtadho, Untung Sugema Mardjuki, Mukhlis Koifur Rofiq and Risno. National Police chief Badrodin Haiti said they were affiliated with radical ideologist Aman Abdurrahman. Aman is allegedly believed to have orchestrated the terrorist attack that took place in central Jakarta on Jan. 14 from his prison cell on Nusakambangan Island. However, there has not been any confirmation whether the four suspects were involved in the Jakarta attack. The National Police's Densus 88 counterterrorism squad said they have investigated the four suspects who were found to have been en route to Syria. National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Agus Rianto confirmed that the police were still investigating in an attempt to uncover their links to the IS militant group. According to Agus, the suspects flew from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to Singapore. Once they arrived in Singapore, they were investigated by local authorities. The suspects admitted to be in transit to Syria and were on their way to join the IS militia. Singapore police reported the information to the Indonesian National Police. Densus 88 is currently still investigating their links with IS but has not found any proof as yet. (liz/bbn)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jim Gomez (The Jakarta Post) Manila Thu, February 25, 2016 Three decades after a "people power" revolt ousted his dictator father, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was wooing voters on the campaign trail this week in his bid to become the Philippines' next vice president. He has a decent shot at fulfilling that ambition ' polls show he is in second place among six rivals. If he wins, that would put him one step away from the presidency his father and namesake lost in the army-backed public uprising in February 1986 amid allegations of plunder and widespread human rights violations. Thirty years ago Thursday, Ferdinand Sr. and Imelda Marcos and their family fled the country after four days of massive street protests that saw rosary-clutching nuns and ordinary citizens kneeling before tanks and protesters sticking yellow flowers into the muzzles of assault rifles of pro-government troops. At a ceremony attended by President Benigno Aquino III, protest leaders and others re-enacted events from that historic revolt near a monument commemorating it. The younger Marcos made no mention of that uprising when he addressed listeners Monday in a poor village near Manila where supporters of his father live. Instead, he talked about how people have suffered under leaders since his father's departure, tapping into disillusionment over persistent poverty and corruption that plague the country, as well as an ongoing Islamic insurgency in the south. One of those leaders he alluded to without naming him was Aquino, a scion of a political clan whose longstanding rivalry with the Marcoses has shaped the country's political scene for decades. "Our leaders, instead of nurturing and helping us, sowed infighting and divided us into groups," Marcos told the crowd of a few hundred villagers, many of whom chanted his nickname, Bongbong, and wore red, the color associated with his family. "I'm fighting to start a movement to unite the Filipino people," he said on a sparse stage, where he stood with a handful of local town officials, a far cry from the scenes of his family's heyday. Marcos, 58, appears to have a strong following among younger generation who did not witness abuses during the 1972-81 period of martial law under his father or the popular revolt that overthrew him. When asked if he would eventually seek the presidency, he refuses to answer categorically has not ruled it out. Filipino voters cast separate ballots for president and vice president, so often candidates from different parties are elected. "I am perplexed by the viability of Bongbong's candidacy for vice president," said Gerard Finin of the East-West Center in Hawaii. "The longing for a stronger and more effective Philippine state has not faded." Still, sidestepping the past is daunting in a country that still celebrates the Marcoses' downfall each year as a national reminder of how Filipinos once stood up to a dictatorship. In 1986, years before the era of Facebook, Twitter and cellphones, unarmed Filipinos rapidly massed along a highway in Manila by word of mouth and anti-government radio broadcasts to protect the defense minister, the military deputy chief of staff and their forces who defected from an ailing Marcos. The Marcoses lived in exile in Hawaii for many years and Ferdinand Sr. died there in 1989. Imelda Marcos returned to the Philippines in 1991 and her husband's remains were brought home later to his northern hometown of Batac, where it has been displayed in a glass coffin and has become a tourist attraction. Marcos' widow, Imelda, now 86, went to a popular Roman Catholic church in suburban Baclaran district of Manila in a wheelchair Wednesday to hear mass with her aides but apparently was unaware that a group of Marcos-era human rights victims were inside holding a program and recalling how they were tortured and abused by troops. Imelda Marcos, who appeared stoic, quietly left after the communion, according to witnesses. Despite her reputation for extravagance, best exemplified by the 1,220 pairs of shoes she left behind in the presidential palace after her husband's downfall, she and her children enjoy a degree of popularity, particularly in her late husband's northern political stronghold of Ilocos Norte province. She has faced some 900 civil and criminal cases in Philippine courts since 1991 but has never served prison time. Many of the cases have been dismissed for lack of evidence and a few convictions were overturned on appeal. Nearly 10,000 Filipinos won a US class-action suit in 1995 against the Marcos estate for torture, summary executions and disappearances with jurors awarding US$1.9 billion to the victims. More than 7,000 have been compensated after years of waiting. Imelda Marcos twice ran unsuccessfully for president but won seats in the House of Representatives, where she is running for re-election to a third and final term in May 9 elections while a daughter is running unopposed as Ilocos Norte governor. On the same Monday when her son was campaigning, left-wing activists, including those detained during the period of martial law, gathered at a university to launch a coalition against his run for office dubbed the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacanang, or CARMMA. Malacanang is the presidential palace in Manila. Coalition leader Bonifacio Ilagan, who was imprisoned and tortured during martial law, warned that if the young Marcos was elected, he would be tantalizingly close to capturing the presidency, which would give him a chance to redeem his family's name by rewriting history. "He's the number one defender of his father's regime," Ilagan said. "If he wins as vice president, it's almost a complete reversal of what was won in 1986." _____ Associated Press writer Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Haeril Halim and Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 As a backlash against President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's move to delay revisions of an anticorruption law, the House of Representatives is rife with lobbying to block a government-sponsored tax amnesty bill. The Gerindra Party, which was among the factions that rejected revisions of the 2002 Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law, came forward on Wednesday to support scrapping the tax bill from this year's list of priority legislation (Prolegnas). Gerindra lawmaker Supratman Andi Atgas said his party believed that the plan to pass the piece of legislation violated 'the public's sense of justice'. 'The government, in this case the taxation office, must look at the potential loss of state revenues from tax noncompliance ' legal measures should instead be taken,' he told reporters at the House complex. Supratman, who chairs the House's Legislation Body (Baleg), refused to consider the government's interest in the bill, insisting that lawmakers instead focus on other legislation that is in more urgent need of deliberation. Jokowi convinced House of Representatives leaders on Monday to postpone the deliberation of the KPK Law revisions following resistance to the new provisions proposed by the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which is also the main patron of the government. Among the controversial amendments of the KPK Law was a plan to give the antigraft agency authority to terminate case investigations, as well as another that would take away its absolute authority over wiretapping. The proposals were seen as maneuvers to weaken the KPK, considered the country's beacon in the battle against graft. The tax amnesty bill, which the government submitted to the House on Tuesday, was part of an agreement made between the executive and legislative bodies last year. The House said that it would agree to deliberate the tax amnesty bill on condition that the government prepare it for endorsement by lawmakers. After Monday's delay of the KPK Law revisions, the PDI-P suggested that the tax amnesty bill should also be postponed. PDI-P lawmaker Hendrawan Supratikno recently said that Jokowi's decision to allow for time to inform the public of the merits of the revisions should also be applied to the tax amnesty bill, for which he gave the upcoming recess period as a rough time frame, effectively postponing the bill. 'I think we aren't in a place to speak about deficits; the state should be realistic with its budget and not indulge in superfluous programs that end up becoming a burden on the people, including the tax amnesty,' argued Supratman. The tax amnesty bill is expected to pave the way for the repatriation of billions of dollars kept overseas by wealthy Indonesians, but at the cost of immunity from prosecution for possible tax crimes. Armed with such a powerful fiscal instrument, the government would have the upper hand in haggling over this year's revised state budget (APBN-P) so that it could finally devise better-funded programs for the rest of the year. In contrast to the situation with the tax amnesty bill, the government received another ally in rejecting the KPK Law revisions. The National Mandate Party (PAN) has jumped on the bandwagon of parties voicing the need to remove the KPK Law revisions from the Prolegnas. PAN's House faction secretary Yandri Susanto said that the heated debate surrounding the revisions had brought more unwanted brouhaha to the legislative body, especially amid growing public dissent on the subject. Yandri said his party was especially concerned that the ruckus might serve as a smokescreen for parties who were bent on taking advantage of the politically charged situation. 'The PAN faction therefore urges both the House and the government to remove [the KPK Law revision] from the 2016 priority list, as well as from the Prolegnas,' he said. Presidential spokesman Johan Budi said that delaying the KPK Law revisions was the best thing that the President could do to comply with calls from the public. 'The President is firm in rejecting current discussion over the bill because the timing is inappropriate. When it will become appropriate to discuss it, I don't know for sure,' Johan told The Jakarta Post. The spokesman also said that the government would not launch any campaign to reassure the public of the importance of the KPK Law revisions, as claimed by the House, during the delay period. Johan said that the President's decision was simply 'to delay discussing the bill'. _____________________________________ To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama will testify as a witness on Thursday in connection with a graft case on the procurement of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units for schools in Central and West Jakarta in 2014. 'I received information from investigators that the governor will be questioned as a witness in the UPS case handled by the National Police's criminal division,' said National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Agus Rianto on Wednesday as reported by tribunnews.com. The police have thus far named four suspects in the case, including two civil servants: Alex Usman, former infrastructure division head at the West Jakarta Education Office and Zaenal Soleman, former head of the Central Jakarta Education Office. Two city councilors were also named, Fahmi Zulfikar, a Hanura Party councilor and member of the council's Commission E overseeing people's welfare, and M. Firmansyah, a Democratic Party councilor during the 2009 to 2014 period. The police require Ahok's testimony to complete its documents, said Agus. 'With the governor's testimony, I hope that the police can finish the case immediately,' he added. Thursday's questioning will be the second time Ahok has been required to testify with regard to the case. The police questioned him for the first time on July 29, 2015. The UPS procurement was included in the revised 2014 city budget at a price of Rp 6 billion (US$433,839) per unit for each school, with a total budget of Rp 300 billion. Ahok previously said that the procurement was not discussed when the budgetary team had debated a budget document known as the General Budget Policies and Provisional Budget Ceiling and Priorities (KUA-PPAS). Ahok became involved in serious conflict with city councilors due to the UPS procurement because there were two versions of the 2015 city budget bill ' the city administration version and a city council version. The budget double up came to light after the 2015 city budget was returned by Home Affairs Ministry for revision. Consequently, the budget deliberation ended with a deadlock and the city administration was forced to use the 2014 city budget scheme for its 2015 city budget. (bbn)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has said he has already won permission from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) for him and his deputy governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat to run on the party's ticket in the 2017 gubernatorial election. "The PDI-P has given me approval to partner with Djarot. The PDI-P is currently meeting with Friends of Ahok (Teman Ahok)," Ahok told journalists at City Hall on Wednesday. However, the PDI-P has not officially declared its candidates for the gubernatorial election. Teman Ahok consists of Ahok supporters who voluntarily launched a campaign to collect photocopies of Jakartan voters' identity cards to fulfill the legal requirements for an governor who wishes to run in the election as an independent candidate. The group has managed to collect more than 600,000 photocopies of IDs, more than enough for him to run as an independent candidate. Ahok, however, said that if he could not partner with Djarot, he would prefer to choose one of his administration's civil servants as a candidate for deputy governor. Ahok has previously mentioned the names of several civil servants that might run alongside him in the election, including City Spatial Planning and Environment head Oswar Muadzin Mungkasa, Jakarta Financial and Asset Management Board head Heru Budi Hartono, senior civil servant Sarwo Handayani and Jakarta city secretary Saefullah. Ahok said he hoped that such a nomination for the deputy governor position would help repair the image of civil servants, who were considered lazy, corrupt, dishonest and unprofessional. "Changing public perception will increase people's trust in civil servants," Ahok said. In terms of electability, Ahok remains the most likely candidate, according to the most recent poll. His potential contenders include Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil, former law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra, former youths and sport minister Adhyaksa Dault and businessman Sandiaga Uno. (bbn)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Grace D. Amianti (The Jakarta Post) Tangerang Thu, February 25, 2016 State-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II (AP II) has signed a loan agreement with state-run banks to finance a number of expansion projects for its airports, including a new international terminal. Under the agreement, AP II obtained a non-syndicated loan facility worth a total Rp 2.1 trillion (US$156.5 million) from Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) to finance expansion projects at several airports and the newly expanded Terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten. AP II president director Budi Karya Sumadi said on Wednesday that the company, which manages 13 airports in the western part of Indonesia, was planning to expand and renovate several sites in a bid to increase connectivity between cities in the region. This year, the company has the expansion of at least four airports in the pipeline with support from state-owned construction companies. The company will need Rp 60.1 trillion by 2021 to support its expansion plans, with Rp 41 trillion of the total allocated for projects at Soekarno-Hatta airport, including the new Terminal 3 Ultimate. The company expects that Soekarno-Hatta, which is the country's largest and busiest international airport, will be able to compete with its counterparts in neighboring countries, such as Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. 'Soekarno-Hatta airport has relatively small funds to compete with its counterparts in neighboring countries, but we will keep trying to improve its competitiveness as a major transit airport in the future,' Budi Karya said. As part of the efforts, AP II will be ready to operate the first phase of the expanded Terminal 3 Ultimate in May as the construction has reached 93.9 percent completion, according to the company's data. The 42.2-hectare terminal will have a capacity of 15 million passengers in the first phase and 25 million passengers upon its full operation, which is expected to begin in February next year. The expanded terminal is intended to ease traffic at the crowded Soekarno-Hatta airport, which can officially only accommodate 25 million passengers annually, yet currently welcomes over 62 million passengers each year. National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will move its flights to the new terminal by May, accompanied by SkyTeam international airlines, including Air France, China Airlines and Korean Air. Speaking at the signing event, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno said Terminal 3 Ultimate should have a level of quality on par with Singapore's Changi International Airport, which is currently the largest transit airport in the ASEAN region. Meanwhile, the president directors of the three state-owned banks said the loan for AP II was part of their commitment to supporting the country's infrastructure development, which is also one of the major contributors to their total loans. Bank Mandiri president director Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the lender had disbursed Rp 35 trillion in infrastructure loans as of last year, with Rp 3.2 trillion going to airport expansion projects. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 Mobile app developers not only see the technology as a basis for selling things but also for connecting customers with suppliers and producers, even in the case of medicine and food. M-Health Tech has come up with Apotik Antar, an app that provides within-hour delivery of prescription medicine as well as over-the-counter drugs purchased from currently 200 pharmacies in Greater Jakarta to their buyers. The delivery service is carried out in partnership with the Go-Jek app, whose ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers serve as couriers. M-Health Tech CEO Jonathan Sudharta said the business idea come from his passion to elevate Indonesia's health care ecosystem, where access to services is still limited. 'Access to health care in Indonesia is still poor because of the infrastructure barrier, and traffic is also so bad, especially in Jakarta, which got the first rank in the worst-traffic index from Castrol last year,' he told a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday. The app, launched on Jan. 11, is usable only in Greater Jakarta for now. Next month, the CEO said, people in 12 cities would be able to enjoy the service. The system would also be improved to allow for electronic payment in addition to the current cash-on-delivery method. The expansion to 12 more cities follows the availability of Go-Jek, which includes Surabaya, Bandung and Makassar. 'By the end of the year, we target to have reached secondary cities across the archipelago to implement our vision of easing health care access,' said Jonathan, who comes from a pharmacy business family. He said the momentum was right for the business to go mobile. Previously Apotik Antar, established in 2012, was only present as a website linking customers to pharmacies by phone. 'So when people called us, we'd call our partnered drugstores one by one. It was overwhelming, you can imagine,' he reminisced. With the app, the business now receives more than 100 orders daily, compared to 20 to 30 when it was based on the website. The business complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's code of conduct in sharing clients' drugs needs only with authorized bodies, in this case the Indonesian Health Ministry. Various other drugstore brands are also banking on apps to improve their delivery business, such as K24 Klik, Century Apotik Online, Apotek1 and Apotekmart. While Apotik Antar does not stock any drugs but instead only links end users and pharmacies, the names above run their respective apps with stocks of their own. Customer comments on Google's Play Store, where the Apotik Antar app can be downloaded, are generally positive, with users saying the app helps them buy drugs without having to travel. Startup expert and founder of the DailySocial blog Rama Mamuaya called the phenomenon of businesses starting to use apps to enhance customer services 'inevitable'. 'The concept of apps and these tech startups is basically to eliminate the middleman. So it will penetrate any industry that has middlemen and break up the old system. Various business sectors will evolve accordingly,' he said over the phone. The rapid development of startups has prompted President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo to envision Indonesia as a country with advanced tech companies. He has proclaimed a target of seeing two so-called unicorns, or startups with a valuation of more than US$1 billion, each year until 2020. Rama said the target was feasible with the support the industry was receiving from the state today. Jokowi has visited the biggest startup incubator, Silicon Valley in the US, twice since he was inaugurated in 2014 and has opened up the e-commerce business to foreign investors to enhance competition and trigger development. He considered three big startups in the country to almost be unicorns today, namely Go-Jek, ticket marketplace Traveloka and e-commerce site Tokopedia. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 Travelers in Indonesia should be aware of possible "advanced stage" terrorist plans in the nation, reads a statement from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) released on Thursday. The Australian government advised its citizens to exercise a high degree of caution in Indonesia, including in the country's famous tourist destination Bali due to the high threat of terrorist attacks. "Recent indications suggest that terrorists may be in the advanced stages of preparing attacks in Indonesia," DFAT said in a statement published on smartraveller.gov.au on Thursday. DFAT also urged Australians traveling in Indonesia to prioritize their personal safety and be particularly vigilant at places of worship and during significant holidays. "An attack could occur anywhere at any time," the statement says. It also advised exercising particular caution around locations that had low security and places known to be possible terrorist targets such as nightclubs, restaurants, international hotels and airports. The Australian government also advised Australians to reconsider traveling to Central Sulawesi, Papua and West Papua provinces. Central Sulawesi has been the center of the National Police and Indonesian Military (TNI)'s joint Tinombala operation to hunt down Indonesia's most-wanted terrorist Santoso aka Abu Wardah, who is believed to lead terrorist group East Indonesia Mujahidin from the forests of Poso district. Terrorists launched an attack on a police post and a Starbucks cafe on Jl. MH Thamrin, one of Central Jakarta's main roads, on Jan. 14. The attack killed eight people, including four terrorists and injured at least 25 others. "The attack demonstrates the continuing terrorism threat in Indonesia, including in locations frequented by foreigners," the statement says. (rin)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Thu, February 25, 2016 The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Muhammad Ahmad Al Thayyib, visited Jakarta for the first time on Monday to further enhance cooperation with Indonesia in promoting moderate Islam. The Jakarta Post's editor-in-chief Endy M. Bayuni and reporter Anggi M. Lubis interviewed him on various matters, ranging from democracy to homosexuality. The following are excerpts. Question: What is your view of Indonesia and its position in the Muslim world? Answer: As the country with the largest Muslim population in the world Indonesia has assumed a very strategic position for Islam and Muslims. Indonesia also has close and good relations with Al-Azhar Asy-Syarif, which is based on Indonesia's confidence in the role of Al-Azhar in spreading the moderate message among Muslims. Consider the abovementioned, we in Al-Azhar Asy-Syarif pay great attention to various educational, religious and cultural institutions in Indonesia. We provide scholarships in large number to Indonesian students to study in Al-Azhar University. In addition, Al-Azhar also receives Indonesian ulema to attend various training programs on various contemporary issues. This is possible thanks to the cooperation with the Muslim Expert Council of which I am the chairperson. The Caliph of Peace is one of various international peace caliphs that have ventured to various continents. This Caliph of Peace also has the purpose of straightening out various misunderstandings and thoughts and it stresses the importance of respecting the value of morality and humanity, which unite all citizens of a country. Can Islam adapt to democracy and acknowledge the principles of democracy, such as individual freedom and human rights? Islam is not against democracy. Indeed I myself assert that it was Islam that initially confirmed democratic values. The Medina Charter drawn up by Prophet Muhammad, PBUH, at the initial birth of the Islamic state constitutes strong evidence that Islam, a very long time before, laid down a clear constitutional basis and foundation that protects the rights of all citizens, not only among Muslims but also between Muslims and non-Muslims in one community. Several examples indicate the upholding of principles such as freedom and human rights, in which Islam first observed these matters in the Koran and the Sunnah, as well as in the intellectual inheritance throughout this time. Therefore it is impossible to say that Islam is against the values of freedom and human rights. With regard to the method of holding an election for leader, it is truly Allah's blessing that Islam alone provides the basic framework of elections that can materialize the purpose and wishes of the community in the form of justice, equality of rights and noble living. Islam gives freedom to Muslims to determine the proper mechanism and methods to elect leaders that can realize such a variety of purposes. Hence such a mechanism and methods will automatically produce leaders who serve their people and work to materialize their nation's ideals. Nevertheless, we would like to warn everyone that the meaning of democracy in the West has gone beyond proportion; there anyone can take any action toward religions, even removing the role of religion in guiding the life of people and the community. What is your comment on the poor relations between Shiites and Sunnis? It was Al-Azhar that started efforts to make peace between them and hold mutual-understanding events for the Sunnis and Shiites, as at that time the dissemination of Shia teaching was limited only within their own followers. At the time there were not yet any organized propaganda efforts within Sunni areas as there is now. We do not reject the Shia school as a school. What we reject are the efforts to promote this school and its message in various areas inhabited by the Sunni, as these activities are merely politically motivated and will not succeed. Previously efforts such as these have ended in total failure, although supported by very strong financial power. Because what is right remains right before Allah the Almighty as He creates humans and their differences in terms of religion, belief and teaching. Propagating the Shia school among the Sunni at present ' regrettably ' has become a grand design with the purpose of meddling in and controlling various Sunni countries. However, we continue to ask them to live in coexistence, as they have done for centuries without dispute and violence. We hold dearly to several principles that will be briefly discussed and we endeavor to avoid any problems that may create disputes. At present, in Indonesia there has been a heated discussion on homosexuality. What should Muslims do in regard to this? This major propaganda is orchestrated by various international institutions and organizations using all kinds of methods and instruments such as the mass media and seminars, involving a number of celebrated figures and other possible means. The objective is to promote and solidify homosexuality. Al-Azhar, in a previous statement, reiterated that the amoral and satanic propaganda launched by these various, vicious, parties has the purpose of destroying the human moral order respected by all religions and schools, because this moral order is in line with humanity's innate quality (fitrah) created by Allah. Promoting homosexuality and this moral decadence is not a victory for human rights but is a moral disease that undermines humanity's fitrah and is contrary to the nobility granted by Allah to human beings. Homosexuality constitutes humanity's deep moral decadence, a crime against humanity itself, an obvious violation of our humanity and a contamination of freedom. And we certainly reject all these ruthless efforts. Various facets of homosexual propaganda have invaded the Islamic world under the name of 'same-sex marriage'. This is being performed after they successfully launched the propaganda in a number of other countries, hence accepted by religious leaders and groups in these countries. We oppose this sexual deviation being called marriage. In Islam marriage can be only exist between a man and a woman in accordance with the teaching of noble religions, under which the terms and conditions have been stipulated. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jambi Thu, February 25, 2016 The Jambi Police detained on Wednesday dozens of villagers from Pulau Temiang subdistrict, Tebo Ulu district, Tebo regency, following a recent violent clash involving local residents and members of the nomadic Anak Dalam tribe. Jambi Police spokesperson Adj. Sr. Comr. Kuswahyudi Tresnadi said 98 villagers had been taken to police headquarters in the provincial capital of Jambi early Wednesday for interrogation. 'We are investigating the cause of the incident,' he said on Wednesday as quoted by tribunnews.com. On Tuesday, a clash involving Pulau residents and Anak Dalam tribe members broke out after the former alledgedly attacked the latter's camp on an oil palm plantation located a few hundred meters from the village. Tebo Ulu district head Yahoza claimed that the brawl broke out after a physical encounter between villagers and tribe members earlier the same day. During the fight, which was allegedly triggered by a dispute over land use, a villager, identified as Dafri, was severely injured on the forehead, reportedly by someone wielding an axe. 'Pulau Tamiang residents attacked in retaliation, but many tribe members had already fled their camp,' Yahoza said. The mob not only set fire to tents belonging to tribe members but also an office building and facilities belonging to plantation company PT Lestari Alam Jaya (LAJ). Yahoza said dozens of police and military personnel had been deployed to secure the area to prevent further clashes. 'They are on standby even though the situation is returning to normal,' he said. The Anak Dalam tribe traditionally lives in the forests of Sumatra, but has been gradually pushed out by the expansion of oil palm plantations. In December last year, a similar conflict broke out involving the tribe members and villagers from Kungkai subdistrict in Merangin regency. In November, the government announced that it would provide 500 houses to members of the tribe as permanent homes on a 1,000-hectare plot of land outside of forested areas. During a visit to a Anak Dalam community in Jambi, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo promised to provide electricity, clean water and steady jobs to the indigenous people. He told the tribe that the central government would make the necessary arrangements for their accommodation. The move, however, has drawn criticism from activists, who say the tribe's home is the forest. The Indigenous People's Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), for example, has called on the government to instead establish a task force on indigenous people that would protect the rights of such people and preserve their customs. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Julir Pace (The Jakarta Post) Midlothian, Virginia Thu, February 25, 2016 Sheila Covert is worried about Donald Trump. The loyal Republican voter from Virginia calls the businessman "bombastic" and says there's "just no substance" in his campaign rhetoric. But if Trump does become the Republican presidential nominee? "Well, I'd definitely vote for him," said the 81-year-old Covert. After a pause, she added, "But I hope and pray it doesn't come to that." Covert is part of a legion of skeptical Republican voters across the United States coming to terms with the prospect that Trump, a candidate whose appeal they simply can't understand, may become their party's best chance for retaking the White House. The real estate mogul has three commanding primary victories in a row, including Tuesday in Nevada, and enters next week's Super Tuesday elections in a strong position. Interviews with about two dozen frequent Republican voters in Virginia, one of several states with a primary next week, reveal the complex mix of emotions Trump evokes within his own party. Among those who don't plan to vote for Trump in the primary, there's shock, confusion and anxiousness over his candidacy. But there's also a grudging acceptance of the billionaire's political staying power and a feeling that despite his many flaws, he'd be better than another four years with a Democrat in the White House, particularly if that Democrat is Hillary Clinton. "He says things you cannot imagine a president saying," said Michael Glunt. But if Trump faces off against Clinton in November, the 42-year-old will cast his ballot for the Republican nominee. "Hillary Clinton, I don't trust her," Glunt said. Democratic officials are betting that Trump's over-the-top rhetoric, particularly about women and immigrants, will turn off independents and some Republicans in battleground states like Virginia. Some anxious Republican leaders share that concern, contributing to the rush of lawmakers and other party officials rallying around Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as an alternative. While some voters joke about moving to Canada if Trump becomes president, Nancy Bradner is looking at that possibility with some seriousness. A supporter of past Republican nominees including Mitt Romney and George W. Bush, she's now researching Canadian politics, as well as the country's health care system and housing market. "This is the first time in my 68 years that I have truly been scared of what is going to happen in this election," she said. A recent AP-GfK poll, however, showed far more Republicans than not say they'd vote for Trump in the general election, and 86 percent of Republican voters think he can win in November, giving him a 15 percentage point advantage over anyone else. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Bradley Klapper (The Jakarta Post) Washington Thu, February 25, 2016 Iranian authorities have arrested a US citizen whose son has been detained in Iran for the last four months, friends and family said Wednesday, describing what would be the first such action against an American national in Iran since last month's prisoner swap between the two countries. Baquer Namazi, whose son Siamak has been held since October, was arrested on Monday, his wife wrote in a Facebook post. She said she was told he is now in Tehran's Evin prison. "I must share the shocking and sad news that Baquer was arrested," Effie Namazi posted. "Now both my innocent son Siamak and my Baquer are in prison for no reason. This is a nightmare I can't describe." She said she and a lawyer have been unable to get more information or see her husband, who suffers from "serious heart and other conditions" that require medication. Appearing at a Senate panel hearing Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said he was engaged on the matter but couldn't comment because of privacy considerations. "We are aware of reports that a US citizen was detained in Iran," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. "The US Department of State has no higher priority than the protection of US citizens overseas. We take our obligation to assist US citizens abroad seriously." Haleh Esfandiari, a friend of the family and a Mideast expert at the Wilson Center, said Namazi is more than 80 years old and a dual US-Iranian national. "I'm in a state of shock," said Esfandiari, who was detained herself in Iran for more than three months in 2007. Her take: "They want Siamak to make concessions that he wasn't willing to make." Namazi, she said, worked for the United Nations and at one point as a World Bank consultant, while also being a civil society activist. She described him as a "not at all political" person who consistently spoke out against US-led economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The family lived outside New York for a period after the Islamic Revolution that toppled the US-backed shah in 1979, though later returned to Iran, she said. According to a Daily Beast article last year, the family has played a key role in trying to bridge ties between the long-time foes. It said Namazi was a governor of the oil-rich province of Khuzestan under the shah who was allowed to emigrate to the US in 1983. Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman who similarly advocated a warmer US-Iranian relationship, is thought to have been arrested in October. He is the one US citizen known to be detained in Iran who wasn't included in January's prisoner exchange that saw five American freed from Iranian prison and US sentences, charges or warrants dropped against 21 Iranians. Those allowed to leave Iran included Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian. Iran denies having any knowledge of the whereabouts of Robert Levinson, a former FBI investigator who disappeared in the country in 2007. The younger Namazi had been specifically criticized in hardline commentary ahead of his arrest as Iranian conservatives warned against easing hostilities with the US. He also had written several articles about international sanctions on Iran. In a 2013 opinion piece published by The International Herald Tribune, he described shortages of medical supplies and urged the West to "relax and rationalize" the restrictions so such goods could reach Iran. Nations removed many oil, trade and financial sanctions on Tehran after last month's UN confirmation that Iran had rolled back its nuclear program in accordance with last year's seven-nation agreement. (bbn) AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani and Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The Golkar Party is striving to clean up its image by inviting the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police to monitor its congress next April, when party members will vote for a new party chairman. Amid allegations that candidates for the party's leadership race have resorted to vote-buying ahead of the congress, Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie said on Tuesday that the KPK and the police would prepare preventive measures to ensure that candidates did not resort to dirty practices to win votes. 'I previously announced that I would write a letter and we [with the KPK and police] will create a system. We can't just do things the way we want,' he said following a Golkar central executive board meeting. After a period of dual leadership, the country's oldest party is set to hold a national congress in April, during which a new chairman will be elected. Aburizal earlier said that to curb vote-buying he would drop the requirement for candidates to submit letters of endorsement from regional Golkar branches. During Golkar's previous 2014 Bali national congress, a candidate running for the party's top post needed to get at least 30 percent of 529 votes from regional branch leaders nationwide in order to contest the election. A candidate also had to collect endorsement letters from provincial and regency branch leaders. Aburizal won the vote by a landslide, prompting his rivals to claim that the vote had been rigged. Shortly thereafter, current deputy chairman Agung Laksono held another congress that ended with him being chosen as the party's chairman, a development that set into motion a year-long leadership dispute that is expected to be resolved in the upcoming congress. Meanwhile, seasoned Golkar politician Yorrys Raweyai, who was a member of Agung's faction before he jumped ship, said on Wednesday that transactional politics had been a chronic problem for Golkar and the party's central board had decided to do something about it. Members of the central board agreed to write a letter to the KPK and the National Police's detective department to seek counsel on the setting up of an election system that would be free of transactional politics. 'Based on news reports, Golkar appears to be very vulnerable to transactional politics. [The letter to the KPK and the police force] is intended to prevent it and we hope we can lead the way to building a new political tradition and eventually become a model for the nation and other political parties,' he said. Yorrys also said the KPK and police would also advise Golkar. 'They have their own way of working, their own standard operational procedures. We just want to ask for their opinion on how to prevent [transactional politics],' he said. Separately, Agung confirmed that the party central board would send a letter to the KPK and to the Financial and Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) next week. Rumors of transactional politics have swirled following a civil society group's decision to report House of Representatives Speaker Ade Komarudin, a strong contender for the Golkar chairmanship, for allegedly accepting favors from a businessman in the form of flying on a private jet to help him campaign for the race. Ade quickly rejected the allegation and claimed that he had not even declared his intention to run. Earlier this month, seasoned Golkar politician Nurdin Halid, who is predicted to become the head of the party's steering committee, also claimed he had received reports from an unnamed party branch leader from North Sulawesi that one of the candidates had promised the regional party executive S$10,000 (US$7,120) in exchange for an endorsement. __________________________________ To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Erika Anindita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The reunification executive board of Golkar Party delayed on Wednesday the formation of the organizing committee of the party's planned reconciliation congress due to the illness of party chairman Aburizal Bakrie. The board meeting, chaired by party deputy chairman Agung Laksono, decided on Wednesday to reschedule the formation of the steering committee and organizing committee, which will be responsible for organizing the party congress with the main agenda item being the election of a new party chairman. He said a plenary meeting was scheduled for Feb. 29. "The plenary meeting is our important forum that discusses strategic issues such as the formation of an organizing committee. We decided to postpone it. We will wait for his (Aburizal) recovery," Agung told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting at the party's headquarters in Jakarta on Wednesday. Aburizal was scheduled to chair Wednesday's plenary meeting but because of his illness, he authorized the board to make the decision. The members of the party executive board decided to wait until he had recovered to set up the organizing committee.Specific details about Abruzil's illness are still unclear. Although the organizing committee of the congress has not been established, according to unconfirmed information circulating within the Golkar Party's headquarters Aburizal and Agung will be in charge of the national congress. Reportedly, senior politicians -- Nurdin Halid and Agun Gunandjar -- will be the steering committee's chairman and secretary, respectively. Meanwhile, Zainuddin Amali will be chairman of the organizing committee. The national congress will be held from April 10 to 15 as a follow up to the Law and Human Rights Ministry's decree to extend the Riau congress leadership, which expired in 2014. The Riau congress elected Aburizal as party chairman, Agung as deputy chairman and Idrus Marham as a secretary-general. The decree was issued to help the party organize another congress as part of efforts to end its leadership conflict. For over a year Golkar has been split into two factions, one led by Aburizal, who was elected at Bali congress in November 2014, and another one led by Agung, who was elected at a congress in Ancol, Jakarta in December 2014. (bbn)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Thu, February 25, 2016 The government is planning to build a special deradicalization center for former terrorists in Sentul in Bogor, West Java, with the involvement of experts from a range of fields. Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said the government would employ religious leaders and psychologists in the facility, in an attempt to resolve normal prisons' inability to deradicalize the radical because of a lack of funds and resources. "This is not prison for terrorists [...] These are special blocks with maximum security," Yasonna said as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday in Jakarta. The deradicalization program would be separate from the penitentiary management, Yasonna continued, in a bid to anticipate and prevent terrorist convicts from disseminating their radical views among other detainees. Previously, he explained, prison officers were assigned the task of deradicalizing terror convicts; however, this program had backfired, with at least three officers instead themselves converted to radicalism by the convicts. National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) deradicalization director Irfan Idris said that if convicted terrorists were detained in normal prisons, they could disseminate radical teachings among other prisoners. "[Thus] the center is not a special prison, but a place for intensive counseling for ex-terrorists," Irfan told thejakartapost.com, adding that if the government established a special prison for the detention of terror convicts, the result would be a concentration and strengthening of radicalism. The deradicalization center is aimed at ensuring former terrorists do not return to radicalism, he added. (ags)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The Jakarta Police have upheld their decision to name Jessica Kumala Wongso a suspect in the murder of Wayan Mirna Salihin by denying the suspect's claim before the Central Jakarta District Court. During a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, a lawyer representing the Jakarta Police, Dian Perri, asked the judge to turn down the petition. 'The petitioner's claim that the police report is preliminary evidence is not in accordance with the facts. The police used it as a basis to launch an investigation. Therefore, the claim should be set aside,' Dian said as quoted by kompas.com. Dian also denied a claim filed by Jessica stating that the police had acted inappropriately by requesting the immigration office impose a travel ban on her before she was named a suspect in the case. 'A travel ban can be imposed on anyone who is under investigation and not necessarily a suspect,' Dian continued. Jessica's legal team read out 21 objections on Tuesday, concluding that the police had arrested Jessica without proper evidence and had carried out inappropriate procedures during their investigation. The court is expected to decide on Jessica's status by March 2. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Tangerang Thu, February 25, 2016 State-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II is planning to transform the area around the M1 entrance gate at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport into a park-and-ride facility for all airport users. Angkasa Pura II operational and technical director Djoko Murjatmodjo said on Wednesday that all visitors, including workers, could park their vehicles in the area. 'All vehicles will be parked there and they [visitors] will use shuttle buses to get to the airport,' he said as quoted by tribunnews.com. Djoko added that the buses would have 25 seats. 'We will use smaller buses as they can come and go faster,' he said. He said the company was currently designing the area, with the construction date yet to be determined. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The Jakarta Police have uncovered two clinics illegally offering abortion services in Menteng, Central Jakarta. The Jakarta Police's environment division chief Sr. Adj. Comr. Adi Vivid said the two clinics were illegal because their licenses were expired and they employed general practitioners, not obstetricians or gynecologists, to carry out the procedures. He said the police raided the two clinics ' one located on Jl. Cimandiri and another on Jl. Cisadane ' on Feb. 18 and had named seven suspects. Both clinics were located in residential buildings owned by doctors. 'We have detained the suspected owner of the clinic located on Jl. Cisadane. We are, however, searching for the owner of the other clinic,' Adi told reporters in a news conference on Wednesday, as quoted by wartakotalive.com. 'The two clinics have been operating for five years. On average, they received five patients each day.' Adi said the clinics charged Rp 3 million (US$223) to abort a pregnancy under three months and Rp 6 million for more than three months. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Banyumas Thu, February 25, 2016 Islam Defenders Front (FPI) patron Rizieq Shihab canceled his visit to the Al Fattah Islamic Boarding School in Cilongok district, Banyumas, Central Java, on Tuesday, following a protest against his presence in the regency. A coalition of youth organizations in the Banyumas regency had recently voiced significant protest to Rizieq's impending visit, arguing that Banyumas was a secure place and that there was no need for an FPI presence in the recency. While Rizieq was not in attendance, he was replaced by his son-in-law Fikri. Hundreds of attendees wearing FPI uniforms were also seen among the congregation. 'We will ask for clarification from the police as to why such thing could happen. They had guaranteed that no FPI representatives would be allowed to enter the location,' Taufik Hidayat chairman of the Ansor Youth Movement (GP Ansor) Banyumas branch, which was among the members of the youth coalition protesting FPI. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung Thu, February 25, 2016 Two researchers with the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) are busy preparing instruments at their office in Bandung, West Java to observe the total solar eclipse in an effort to prove Albert Einstein's general relativity theory. The instruments are to be taken to and installed at the space observation site in Tanjungsari, Sumedang regency, some 30 kilometers east of Bandung, as part of their preparations to observe the total solar eclipse predicted to occur on March 9. They are scheduled to leave for Ternate, North Maluku, on March 5, with two other teams from the institute to conduct research in Maba, East Halmahera regency, North Maluku. 'We will test the instruments first [in Tanjungsari] before taking them to Ternate,' said research coordinator Farahhati Mumtahana, recently. Farahhati said her team's research would be specialized to prove that the deflection of light track around massive astronomical objects was the effect of gravitation, which would also prove Einstein's theory. 'This is what's normally called a gravitational lens,' said the alumnus of the Bandung Institute of Technology. An example of such an event was the change in the position of the backdrop stars around the solar disc. She said the observation was to be deliberately made during the total solar eclipse because the sky would be dark enough to observe the stars behind the sun. 'We believe that the change in the positions of the stars is the result of a deflection of light,' Farahhati said. She added that long before Einstein came up with the general relativity theory, Isaac Newton had thought of the impacts of the gravitation on the light. The impact of the light deflection was first confirmed by Arthur Eddington in 1919 through a total solar eclipse observation on Principle Island, off the west coast of Africa. Farahhati also said that from 1916 to 2015, there had been 70 total solar eclipses. Yet, she said, not all of them could be used for research purposes on account of various reasons, including short duration, weather, political conditions, etc. 'That's why the observation in Ternate is important for the acquisition of the gravitational lens data by the sun,' she said. She said initial data would be collected during the observation in Ternate. 'Hopefully we will be able to take as many pictures as possible of the stars with a magnitude of less than 10.' The data from this telescope observation, she said, would be stored as the data of the initial positions of the stars. Six months later, a similar observation would be conducted at night on the same space objects and with the same instruments. 'That way the results can be compared to see the deflection,' Farahhati said. She hoped her team would be able to find the magnitude of the deflection. This, she said, could be used as a variable to measure the mass of the sun. 'The biggest challenge for us is finding the focus because the resolution of the camera is too small. We have to consider this because of the limited size of the telescope that we can bring,' she said. She also said that despite its complexity, astronomy was the easiest way to introduce science and technology to younger generations. An observable natural phenomenon, she said, was something small children would not easily forget. Stars, for example, can be observed even with naked eyes. 'This makes children more enthusiastic rather than thronging them with just math and physics,' she said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The government is preparing legislation that will give protection to local construction companies amid the ASEAN single market implementation by requiring foreign investors to work with locals before running a project in the country. The legislation, known as the construction services bill, is now being deliberated at the House of Representatives. An article in the bill stipulates that foreign companies or businesspeople intending to carry out construction work in the country will be obliged to set up a representative office in Indonesia or a joint company with a local construction firm. The representative office will also be obliged to have a joint operation with big national construction firm in the projects and to prioritize the hiring of local workers and the procurement of locally sourced materials and technology, among other things. Foreign workers intending to work in Indonesia will also be limited to experts who obtain government certification and obliged to perform transfer of technology and information. 'Even though we are in a competitive era, it doesn't mean we can be open without any protection for local construction service companies. We have to take a side,' Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said on the sidelines of a hearing on the bill on Wednesday. The minister said the current open market would not be translated into liberalization in the construction sector, even though national companies should also not be too spoiled by protectionism. Basuki also said that the foreign companies would also have to take big projects, which could also mean they could not take projects valued under Rp 50 billion (US$3.72 million) that are currently only allowed to be taken by regional industry players. The bill, which would serve as a revision of the existing 1999 law on construction, will also address other things such as the organization of the construction industry, certification, payment of workers and the criminalization of failing construction. The bill stipulates that the cause of failing construction should be decided by expert assessment and that any legal process involving a construction project should be based on the assessment by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP). The government will also formulate a standardized minimal payment for human resources in the construction sector, especially for the experts, as well as assign the ministry to establish the Construction Service Registration and Certification Body (BRSJK) to take over the role of the existing Construction Development Agency (LPJK). 'Compared to the oil and gas sector, the payment is way too small. This is more of the appreciation of the profession,' Basuki said, adding that the ministry also aimed to boost the competitiveness and the competency of the country's human resources in construction. Legislator Muhidin Mohamad Said said that once it is passed into law the bill would also empower construction associations to certify their members while the certification body gives accreditation to the associations. 'If there is a construction failure or negligence, we can also warn the association, so the association will not just give away the certification,' said Muhidin, deputy chairman for Commission V overseeing transportation and infrastructure. He added that there would be requirements for an association before it is authorized to issue certification, including having a certain number of branches across the country. He said that the bill would likely be deliberated in May this year. Meanwhile, Indonesian Construction Association (AKI) secretary-general Zali Yahya welcomed the government's protection of national industries. 'Competitiveness is inevitable in the global market, but the political will is good,' he said. He also said that since a mere 40 percent of construction workers were certified, he hoped to see more workers get certification following the upcoming deliberation of the bill. ------------------- To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The Yogyakarta Police stopped Solidaritas Perjuangan Demokrasi (SPD), an activist group that supports the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, from staging a rally calling for greater state protection at the Tugu Monument in Yogyakarta on Tuesday as the group had not been issued with a permit. Several police personnel and pro LGBT activists were involved in physical confrontations during the incident. 'We did not allow them to stage a rally in the area around the Tugu monument as they submitted their rally permit request letter at the last minute,' Yogyakarta Police chief Sr.Comr.Pri Hartono told journalists on Tuesday. The incident began as approximately 60 SPD supporters gathered at an empty block of land 1-kilometer away from the Tugu Monument and proceeded to march toward Yogyakarta's iconic landmark. The group were involved in a physical confrontation with several police officers. Pri said he prohibited the LGBT activists from moving toward the Tugu Monument in an effort to prevent them from getting involved in a clash with followers of the Islamic People's Front (FUI), who had previously requested a police permit to hold a rally against the LGBT community at the Titik Nol (Kilometer Zero) area, located 3-kilometers south of the Tugu Monument. After discovering that SPD followers were on there way to the monument, the FUI supporters quickly moved to the area. FUI commander M.Fuad said that his group would not hesitate tougher action if SPD supporters continued toward the Tugu Monument. 'I asked the activists to change their rally schedule to tomorrow [Wednesday] or to another day. I promised that we would protect their rally,' said Pri, adding that the Yogyakarta Police dispatched 300 personnel on that day. During a negotiation, SPD activist Anastasia Suki Ratnasari expressed her group's disappointment for being prevented from entering the Tugu Monument area. 'We submitted our permit request to the police at 11 a.m.,' she said. The SPD spokesperson, who identified herself as Ani, said the rally was aimed at confronting another rally organized by several Islamic organizations at the Titik Nol area. She said SPD activists rejected discrimination and violent actions against LGBT people. 'Please stop hate speech against marginalized and minority groups and cease all banners containing hateful messages directed against LGBT people in Yogyakarta,' said Ani. She further said the SPD had urged the state to fulfill the right of all Indonesian people to feel safe and to grant them the freedom to gather, to express their opinion and to decide their own sexual orientation and identity. Ani said her group would fight against any practice, which would taint democracy such as intolerance, racism, crackdowns on places of worship, and the spread of hatred against minority groups. 'Such practices have in fact continued to occur but this is Yogyakarta's real face, which is often buried under a slogan 'Yogyakarta, the City of Tolerance',' she said. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Trisha Sertori (The Jakarta Post) Gianyar Thu, February 25, 2016 As the sun goes down over Bali, the roadside workshop of a long-life lightbulb recycler blazes into life. Squatting on a sidewalk in Blah Batu beside a box filled with electrodes, lightbulb spirals, pliers and an electric cable, Kadek Sukarja patiently rebuilds the long-life lightbulbs that have become a staple in many people's homes. 'Most people think that if the glass breaks or the light stops working, they have to throw out the bulbs and buy new ones, but I can replace the glass or the electrical components and the bulbs are as good as new,' says the 22-year-old of the energy-efficient bulbs that, while kind to the environment, are pricey to replace. While not all bulbs can be resurrected, Kadek has a nest of recycled bulbs ready for sale at around half the market price of new ones. 'When people bring in their dead bulbs, I check to see if the electrodes that cool the bulb are still OK. If that is all good, I simply change the glass spiral. If the electrodes are broken, I replace those components and reassemble the bulb, so I recycle them,' says the former home builder who learned his skills via the internet. His self-directed learning took a month of trial and error followed by research into suppliers of the lightbulb components. 'The spirals are factory-made in Java. They are the white lights; the factory does not make the yellow lights. Those are from branded companies,' says Kadek. A steady stream of customers roll up on motorbikes to examine Kadek's wares as he takes new spiral bulbs and electrodes, finessing them into life to maintain his ready stock. There are just a handful of lightbulb recyclers in Gianyar. 'There is a woman over in Tegas, and me here in Blah Batu. It's not a job many Balinese do. Most of the recyclers are from Java, maybe because the lightbulb factory is there,' says Kadek, stressing that his light globes are safe, though he is wary of working so intimately with electricity. 'Yes, I am scared of electricity, so I am very careful in my work,' says the young man. At the other end of the lighting spectrum is Vio - The Bulb Gallery, which exports chandeliers, wall and table lights to Europe, and soon South Africa, from Bali. Working with local artisans and technicians, business founder Matteo Molena, from the world's glass capital of Venice, and his wife Vita, are redefining the art of lightbulbs, crafting giant glass bulbs glowing with exposed incandescent filaments. Each bulb is molded and the filaments handcrafted into geometric and linear forms that come alive at the flick of a switch. Molena says the Tungsten filament globes are not energy efficient, with an indoor bulb running at 40 watts, but are decorative works that speak of the skills of Bali's craftsmen. 'The filaments are made by hand, one by one by our team in Renon. Our chandeliers and other light fittings are outsourced to craftspeople in Bali. My wife Vita does most of the design work, she is the creative mind,' says Molena of the lamps that have a distinct and industrial antique European aesthetic. Balancing out the high-energy lamps is Vio's collection of vintage-style light emitting diode (LED) bulbs that achieve a 92 percent energy-to-light conversion rate, the most efficient light source in the world. Traditionally LEDs have been unsuited to antique lighting designs, but working in partnership with a Chinese company, Vio has developed LED globes that look like traditional lightbulbs, opening up low-energy design possibilities, which almost have the look and feel of antique globes. Molena is working to make these super low energy bulbs even more refined. 'We are working to have the LEDs looking even more like filament globes and we have some prototypes, but I feel it is an impossible task to create LEDs with the exact look of filaments,' says Molena. He explains the difficulty is in the technology; filament bulbs with their candlelight tones are incandescent and burn hot. LEDs give off almost no heat at all, with almost 100 percent of the energy used transformed into light rather than heat. It is this extraordinary energy transfer to light that makes LEDs so efficient. 'In terms of electricity conversion, LEDs are at 92 per cent, so that is amazing. As to design, even with LED filament design, I don't think they will be able to engineer an LED that is the same as an incandescent globe. The new filament LEDs, while fantastic, can't be the same as incandescent, because they are from totally different technologies,' says Molena of the bright ideas in lighting that are forging together the elegance of antique chandelier styles and environmental applied science. ' Photo by JP/J.B. Djwan Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 It was 9 a.m. when hundreds of people packed a stage set beneath giant ondel-ondel effigies on Jl. Benyamin Sueb in Kemayoran to take part in the subdistrict's 200th anniversary. The date was picked after 'Mayoran' was mentioned in the Feb. 24, 1816 edition of local newspaper Java Government Gazette for the first time. That date has since been commemorated as the anniversary of the area in Central Jakarta better known as Kemayoran. The area has experienced ups and downs over the years. In 1935, Kemayoran Airport opened and changed the economy of the subdistrict from agriculture- to service-centered. The airport became the main gate to the country, and became known worldwide after the country hosted the first Asia Africa Summit in Bandung, West Java, in 1955. The airport was featured in an edition of Belgian comic series The Adventure of Tintin titled Flight 714 to Sydney, published in 1968. When the airport ceased operations in 1985, all flights were transferred to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang. Years later, Kemayoran has a rapidly developing subdistrict with high-rise buildings, replacing the traditional kampungs. 'I agree that Kemayoran has been growing rapidly over the years, but the growth is not for us. It is only limited to capital owners and people who have businesses in this area,' Rubianto, an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver and native Jakartan told The Jakarta Post. Born in Kemayoran 40 years ago, Rubianto was evicted from his house on Jl. Kemayoran Gempol as another apartment building is set to be built on the land where his house used to sit. 'This place is way different compared to many years ago when I was growing up. Apartments and high-rise buildings are everywhere now,' Gugun Setyawan, 64, told the Post. Gugun sat on the side of the road in his black martial arts attire with fellow members of pencak silat group Sutera Baja, a traditional martial arts group initiated in Kemayoran hundreds of years ago, waiting for their turn to perform in the anniversary celebration. Gugun, also a native Jakartan, and his family moved to Bekasi last year after selling his last piece of land in Kemayoran. The martial arts trainer said many of his neighbors had also left Kemayoran after selling their land to businesspeople who then built high-rise apartments. Sigit Setyawan, another member of Sutera Baja, said both locals and the martial arts group were no longer appreciated and finding it increasingly hard to survive where they hailed from. He said the group won a martial arts competition at the 1973 National Games (PON) in Jakarta, but was losing members as people were no longer interested in preserving the traditional martial art. He added that despite being one of the oldest martial arts groups in Kemayoran, it rarely received invitations to perform at events. 'I actually hoped the local administration could help us survive, but all we've be given are empty promises,' Sigit said. Sigit added that he hoped the local administration would declare the Kemayoran anniversary an annual event and that his group could be considered a permanent performer. 'In that way we can get more acknowledgement,' he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The Attorney General's Office (AGO) questioned on Tuesday former industry minister MS Hidayat as a witness in relation to a graft case implicating telecommunications company PT Mobile-8 Telecom. Junior attorney for special crimes Arminsyah said that Hidayat was questioned because he was a trustee of the company, which was once owned by media mogul Hary Tanoesoedibjo. 'We questioned him as a former trustee and [the interrogation] concluded around 2 p.m. We asked about 14 questions. We asked him what his role as a trustee entailed, who else had roles [at Mobile-8],' he said at the AGO in South Jakarta. The case emerged when Mobile-8, which was at the time owned by Hary, acquired a tax restitution of Rp 10.75 billion (US$774,776) in 2009. In an attempt to acquire such restitution, Mobile-8 allegedly made a series of fictitious telecommunications equipment purchases from Surabaya-based telecommunications provider company PT Djaja Nusantara Komunikasi (DNK) between 2007 and 2009. The case recently came back into the spotlight after the AGO's head of the special crimes subdirectorate, Yulianto, filed a police report against Hary alleging that the MNC Group owner had threatened him through text messages over the case. Shortly after, Hary filed a police report against Yulianto, accusing him of defamation. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 Thirty-six unlicensed handmade weapons were handed over to the military by villagers in Mesuji regency, Lampung, on Wednesday. 'The [firearm] owners trust that the military will protect them so they surrendered the weapons voluntarily,' said Military District 0426/Tulang Bawang commander Lt. Col. Endar Setyanto. In November, Mesuji residents also handed over 27 handmade firearms to the military. The military has encouraged the residents to surrender any unlicensed weapons to security officers. A number of land conflicts between Mesuji residents and companies have occurred since the 1990s, as the companies had allegedly not paid locals for land on which they had established plantations. The cases often claimed the lives of locals. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Thu, February 25, 2016 United Development Party (PPP) lawmaker Fanny Safriansyah has reportedly gone missing after being arrested last weekend. Better known as Ivan Haz, the son of former vice president Hamzah Haz was reportedly caught in a drug raid at a housing complex of the Army's Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) in South Jakarta, conducted by the military police. He was allegedly caught along with 19 military men, five police officials and nine civilians, including Ivan. Ivan's lawyer, Tito Hananta, denied the arrest of his client, saying that he had not been informed about the case. 'I'm still gathering information from [Ivan's] family on this case,' said Tito on Wednesday, as quoted by tribunnews.com. He also plans to meet with Kostrad and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) to confirm the information. A member of House of Representatives Commission IV, which oversees agriculture, food, forestry, plantation and fishery and maritime affairs, Ivan has also been implicated in another case concerning the alleged abuse of a housemaid. The House's ethics council is preparing an ad hoc panel to proceed with the cases. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Wahyudi Djafar (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 During the US-ASEAN Special Leaders' Summit in Sunnylands, California recently, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo delivered a counterterrorism narrative called the 'Indonesian Digital Initiative: Empowering Peaceful Leaders'. This initiative stressed the importance of social media in responding to terrorism and radicalized movements. Not only did the summit result in a joint commitment to eradicate terrorism, the leaders also agreed to jointly promote cyber security and stability. While we need to support the initiative, we have to ensure the policy will comply with human-rights principles and avoid a clash between security needs and citizens' rights. Innovation in information and communication technology has significantly affected the movement of terrorist and other extremist groups. Fully aware that the mainstream media is hard to control, these groups turned to internet-based new media. This strategy has proven effective for spreading their propaganda and agitation as well as for wooing public support for their causes. The social media instruments, particularly those supporting video content such as YouTube, are effectively exploited as a medium of propaganda all over the world. More than that, extremist groups manage to spread arguments justifying their terror acts without disclosing the official counterterrorism statements of their respective governments. They often use a holy war against the western hegemony as their main mission, which sees their violence often gain public sympathy. In short, the extreme groups' communication strategies for steering public opinion are more successful than those of states. A study by Bockstette (2008) found that terrorist groups have focused on strategic communications management as part of their terror acts. For them, strategic communications has at least three purposes: to provide long-term strategy for propaganda and the global spread of information; to maintain their social acceptance; and to intimidate and threaten their enemies. Such a situation is clearly visible in Indonesia, where extremist groups spread the counternarrative of their terror acts in response to official statements from government through the National Police. For example, they glorify the Bali bombers by posting exclusive interviews with them or by sharing their personal testimonies through their networks. Each day, there are more pro-terrorism websites created, following the improvement of internet services and the growing number of internet users in Indonesia. A special report by S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (2009) stated that the internet had been a vital medium for the flourishing of radicalism and terrorism in Southeast Asia. The internet serves as a tool for strengthening religious and political messages aka building the narrative, enhancing commitment and building communities that share the same perspective. The existence of these groups in the future will be largely determined by the success of their narratives on the internet. To address the masses of terrorist propaganda, some countries resort to strategic communications. Some of those initiatives, some run by the state and some by civil-society organizations, turn to terrorism victims, using their voices to promote nonkinetic warfare against terrorism. They also call on former members of terrorist groups to speak out about the impacts of extremism and terrorism. Several countries have established a strategic communications unit specifically designed to work toward the eradication of extremist violence. President Barack Obama formed the Center for Strategic Counter-terrorism Communication (CSCC) in 2011 to identify extremist propaganda on the internet and to quickly launch counter-arguments through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In many countries such a unit involves the public in its operations, which shows how public opinion plays an important role in counterterrorism. The level of success in generating public support will determine the effectiveness of any information campaign and the public's situational awareness of terrorism eradication (Ramsay, 2012). Thus far, Indonesia has mostly relied on kinetic warfare to fight terrorism through coercive law enforcement and use of weapons. Nonviolent methods in the form of counterarguments against terrorism have been minimal. The government has mainly just blocked websites that are thought to propagate radicalism and terrorism, but failed to make full use of the internet. Citizens to some extent have made a difference. Following the Thamrin attack in Jakarta last month netizens independently created digital content to fight extremism and acts of terror. This has inspired the government to involve the public more in terrorism eradication efforts. With the government's plan to make the cyber world its battleground for terrorism eradication, we have to remain vigilant of possible violations of freedom of expression and privacy rights. We have previously heard the government use the counterterrorism agenda as a pretext to push for increased surveillance of cyber activities. What started as surveillance was followed with other actions such as blocking and filtering certain websites, intervening in private information and criminalizing internet users. The government must follow the principles of human rights when preparing its nonkinetic cyber approach, and include the following ideas in its policy, as part of its counter-terrorism narrative. Scheinen (2009) highlighted five main principles in combating terrorism: (i) minimum intrusiveness; (ii) minimum use of private information; (iii) monitoring and regulation of access to private data; (iv) honesty, openness and integrity; and (v) effective modernization. These principles and limitations are crucial to ensuring a balance is found between the terrorism eradication agenda for the sake of national security and the fulfillment of human rights. _____________________________________ The writer is researcher and human rights advocate at the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) in Jakarta. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Michiel Hofman (The Jakarta Post) Paris Thu, February 25, 2016 Shocking numbers of civilians are being killed and injured in Syria, with little accountability from the states involved ' and in particular the United Nations Security Council, the majority of whose members are backing rival sides in the war. In the diplomatic blame-game that has developed, a new kind of arms race has emerged. In the past, Cold War powers went out of their way to claim that 'my bombs are more powerful than yours'. Today, these same Cold War powers now argue over whose bombs are smarter. The attack on the MAdecins Sans FrontiAres-supported hospital in Idlib, Syria on Monday killed 9 staff and 16 patients. Turkey was quick to blame the Syrian government and its allies, Russia denied involvement, while Syria squarely placed the blame on the US-led coalition. The skies above Syria are congested with two different military coalitions ' the Syrian government backed by Russia, and the US led coalition, which includes two additional UN Security Council members, UK and France. None of the parties to the conflict are willing to take responsibility for the destruction of schools, hospitals and other protected sites. But destroyed they are, on a horrifically frequent basis. An independent investigative body is needed to determine the facts. Last week US Secretary of State Kerry claimed that Russia was using 'dumb bombs' in Syria, implying that US airstrikes were smarter and could not possibly have caused civilian casualties. For MSF, this is difficult to take at face-value. In October, our Kunduz Trauma Centre in Afghanistan was destroyed in a US airstrike, whilst between October and January three MSF-supported health facilities in Yemen were hit, two confirmed as being attacked by Saudi-led airstrikes, operating with UK equipment and US targeting advice. These attacks were all presented as 'mistakes', indicating either a lack of precision, or worse, a lack of respect for health structures. In Syria the two coalitions both claim to minimize civilian casualties while maximizing the killing of 'terrorists' ' with little agreement of what constitutes a 'terrorist' and what constitutes a 'moderate'. Hospitals that MSF supports in Syria are bereft of the possible protection of being clearly marked as a hospital or sharing of GPS coordinates, as the Syrian government passed an anti-terrorist law in 2012 that made illegal the provision of humanitarian assistance ' including medical care ' to the opposition, forcing most health structures to go underground and operate without governmental medical registration. The bombing parties can then conveniently claim they were unaware it was a hospital they hit. The medical data from MSF-supported health facilities reveals the shocking human toll of the conflict: 155,000 war-wounded cared for across 70 hospitals, which only cover a relatively small geographic region of Syria. Between 30 and 40 percent of the war-wounded were women and children, an obvious indication that civilians are not protected from attack. Four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council present their air forces as terrorist-fighting humanitarians, pledging to use the same air force that drop bombs to also drop food in besieged zones. But people in besieged areas are primarily dying from war injuries and a lack of medical care. In practical terms, food drops are little more than a public relations exercise Civilians are killed and hospitals are destroyed, while those trying to flee are trapped in besieged zones in Syria, or stuck at the Turkish and Jordanian borders. All four permanent members of the UN Security Council currently participating in the conflict must respect their own resolutions and assure that their own military, as well as their military allies, start to implement the resolutions for which they unanimously voted. "This opinion was initially published in The Observer" ________________________________ The writer is MAdecins Sans FrontiAres (MSF) senior humanitarian specialist. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The police and military should not be supporting Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama's plan to demolish the Kalijodo red-light district in West Jakarta, as such a role is not part of their job descriptions, a human rights activist says. The eviction of people from the land, whose status is still disputed, is not part of the police's responsibilities, while the Indonesian Military (TNI) should completely stay away from such domestic affairs because their duty is to defend the country, public lawyer with the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) Alldo Fellix Januardy said on Wednesday Previously, the Jakarta Police and Jakarta Military Command (Pandam Jaya) expressed their willingness to provide support for the eviction of the sex trade hotspot, which the administration says is occupying state land. "The police should take a neutral position in a situation where there are efforts to violate resident's rights," Alldo told thejakartapost.com, adding that the police and military's involvement in forced evictions in the past had often led to violations of the rights of Jakarta residents. In 2015, the police and military were involved in 67 and 65 forced evictions, respectively, while the Public Order Agency was involved in 108 forced evictions ofJakarta residents accused of occupying state land. Indonesia has ratified the United Nations Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc) convention with the issuance of Law No 11/2005. As such, the government is obligated to protect all citizens by not carrying out forced evictions. Based on the stipulations of the convention, the government is required to talk to the people before the eviction and provide them with fair compensation. LBH Jakarta recorded that from 113 forced-eviction cases, in 95 eviction cases, the Jakarta city administration did not initiate dialogue with residents, while in 72 cases, the city administration did not offer fair compensation to evicted residents. He criticized Ahok for continuing with the forced evictions this year. LBH Jakarta called on the administration to involve civil society groups to help find solutions for spatial planning issues and to avoid forced evictions. (bbn)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Fedina S. Sundaryani and Haeril Halim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The National Police are declining to take the blame for worsening violence against religious minority groups, saying that no specific data proves their involvement. The police were responding to a recent survey conducted by the Jakarta-based religious freedom watchdog, the Wahid Institute, which found an increasing trend of violent opposition to freedom of religion and faith, from 154 cases in 2014 to 190 in 2015, with the National Police, as a state actor, being responsible for the most violations. National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Agus Rianto said on Wednesday that the survey did not give details on police complicity in the violations and failed to specify what constituted a faith-based violation. 'I can't comment on this issue since it isn't specific on which religions were targeted by the police force and what kind of violations they were,' Agus told reporters at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta. Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), which appeared on the list in second place in the non-state actor category, with 21 cases, after unaffiliated citizens who were blamed for 29 cases, also declined to comment on the report. 'I don't want to discuss the issue,' said Amany Lubis, secretary-general of the MUI. According to the survey, the police were prone to violating the rights of minorities. As a law enforcement agency they were frequently involved in conflicts and were thus in a position to use excessive force to disperse demonstrations and prohibit freedom of expression in public. Institute director Yenny Wahid said that the National Police already had enough awareness of religious tolerance and it was officers at the regional level who lacked understanding and were often at a loss as to how to deal with conflicts involving minority groups. 'They usually end up doing favors for the majority and prohibiting the activities of the minority in the name of 'ensuring public security' to avoid a clash,' she said. In response to the survey, the Religious Affairs Ministry has pledged to accelerate the drafting of a bill on the protection of religious believers to provide protection to subscribers of all religions. 'We aim to finish the drafting this year, so that we can start the deliberation with the House of Representatives by next year,' Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said. The ministry has made slow progress in the drafting of the bill since it started early last year. The bill has five main themes: the government's treatment of citizens with beliefs outside the six permitted faiths, restrictions on certain religious teachings, methods for deciding whether certain religious ideologies are deviant and which agency has the authority to decide, the regulation of construction of houses of worship and a stipulation to strengthen the role of the Religious Community Harmony Forum (FKUB). Rights watchdog Setara Institute criticized the draft bill, saying it would clearly serve the interests of the major religions instead of giving protection to religious minority groups, especially with the provision that would sanction the establishment of a council mandated to declare whether a belief was to be considered deviant. Setara Institute deputy chairman Bonar Tigor Naipospos said that under Lukman's predecessors, the bill was labelled the 'religious harmony law', but subsequently the Religious Affairs Ministry changed its name to the 'protection of religious believers law', a new phrase that Bonar said aimed to create the impression that the bill would give protection to beleaguered religious minority groups such as the Ahmadiyah, Shiites and Christians, all of whom have always been the targets of attacks by hard-line groups across the country. 'The government always believes that religious tolerance problems occur because of the absence of rules regulating religious life. However, it fails to understand that there is no harmony without religious freedom,' Bonar said. He said that under no circumstances should the state step in to interpret whether a religious belief was deviant. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dewanti A. Wardhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 A gubernatorial regulation that requires all buildings to develop absorption wells has become a mere paper tiger as many building managements and owners in Jakarta are failing to install them because the obligation is not being enforced. Gubernatorial Regulation No. 68/2005 on absorption wells stipulates that all building owners ' both individuals and legal entities ' are mandated to develop absorption wells to reduce rainwater runoff. The obligation was imposed on all individuals and legal entities with buildings that leave no soil uncovered, those who use deep wells, those whose buildings use groundwater from more than 40 meters deep and all businesses that use groundwater. An absorption well is an underground chamber that collects rainwater and allows it to seep into the soil gradually and reduce runoff. By constructing an absorption well, rainwater could be saved as a water reserve to help fill underground pores that are empty as a result of groundwater depletion. Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama acknowledged that despite the regulation having been issued more than 10 years ago, managers and owners have still failed to fulfill their obligations, whether deliberately or because of a lack of knowledge. The Urban Planning Agency's head of building monitoring, Wiwit Djalu Adji, confirmed that many buildings, especially those in North Jakarta, still failed to adhere to the regulation. 'Many building owners in North Jakarta refuse to build an absorption well because the area is often inundated by tidal floods. Thus they feel an absorption well would be useless as it would overflow,' Wiwit told The Jakarta Post over the phone. Article 5 of the gubernatorial regulation stipulates that all buildings are required to include absorption wells in their blueprints and building plans in order to obtain building permits (IMB), which are required to begin construction. Article 8 of the regulation states that buildings that, for any reason, could not develop absorption wells in their areas must compensate the city administration by planting trees or developing wells elsewhere. However, Wiwit said the city administration had yet to formulate detailed regulations regarding the compensation. Thus, many buildings still skipped it. He explained that the city administration would revoke the building worthiness certificates (SLF) of buildings that continue to fail to abide by the regulation. However, the revocation of an SLF has little to no effect as buildings can still continue operating without one. Last year, former Water Management Agency head Tri Djoko Sri Margianto, who resigned after only five months in office, said that starting this year the agency would carry out a zero-runoff program. He said all developers seeking to construct buildings had to have zero-runoff designs. However, newly-inaugurated agency head Teguh Hendarwan said that the agency had no such program. Teguh, who previously had no experience in water management, said that the agency would instead develop absorption wells in areas prone to flooding and pooling. Water and Hydrology expert Fatchy Muhammad said it was evident, especially during the rainy season, that many building owners still violated the bylaw. Fatchy said that during the rain, no waterways or rivers could absorb all the rainwater and they therefore overflowed and caused flooding. 'What we should be worried about is that during the dry season, the headwaters will dry up and the groundwater level will drop and water will become scarce,' Fatchy said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 After a bitter conflict between rival factions, the country's oldest Muslim-based political party, the United Development Party (PPP), took the first step toward a reconciliation on Wednesday by holding a national work meeting (Mukernas). Rival factions within the party, one led by senior politician Djan Faridz and another by lawmaker Mohammad 'Romi' Romahurmuziy, are expected to join the meeting, which is expected to set a date for the party's national congress (Muktamar), in which party members are expected to elect a new central board and party chairman. PPP deputy chairman Emron Pangkapi said the Mukernas and eventually the party reconciliation would be crucial for the party to prepare for the 2017 regional elections. Emron, who served as an interim party leader in the absence of chairman Suryadharma Ali, who has been jailed for corruption, said the current party leadership had decided to host the Muktamar in the next few months while also attempting to reconcile the differences among the existing camps. 'I call on all our friends to participate in the islah [reconciliation efforts] with any and all groups for the sake of our party's unity,' he said during the opening of the Mukernas in North Jakarta, on Wednesday. Emron said the party needed to be united before the Muktamar, which is expected to take place only 40 days after the Mukernas. A successful congress would ensure PPP's participation in the 2017 regional elections and its involvement in the government's plan to amend the Political Party Law, he said. The country's second wave of simultaneous regional elections is expected to begin in February 2017, but preparation for the polls could take place as early as May this year. 'If we don't make a serious effort to save this party, we will be buried among the list of political parties ' we'd become only a civil society group,' Emron said. The PPP has since 2014 been embroiled in a conflict over who should lead the party. The power struggle within the PPP dates back to the days approaching the presidential election that year with members taking different stances on political support for the two contesting pairs: the Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo-Jusuf Kalla ticket and the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa ticket. Then PPP chairman Suryadharma announced the PPP's support for Prabowo, a decision that was challenged by Romi and his followers, who claimed the chairmanship after the presidential election and pledged to support President Jokowi's administration. In February 2015, the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) annulled a Law and Human Rights Ministry decree that officially recognized Romi's leadership and thus returned control over the PPP to Djan, who was elected chairman to replace Suryadharma after the latter was named a graft suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Last October, the Supreme Court quashed the PTUN ruling and ordered the Law and Human Rights Ministry to drop its support for Romi. Earlier this year, the Law and Human Rights Ministry responded to the Supreme Court ruling by issuing a decree to recognize the party management established during a congress in Bandung, West Java, in 2011, which elected Suryadharma as chairman. The former religious affairs minister, however, is currently behind bars after being convicted of haj funds embezzlement. Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly did not issue a decree recognizing one leadership or the other, despite the Supreme Court ruling recognizing Djan's leadership. During his speech at the Mukernas, Yasonna said the government had no intention of making matters worse, insisting that the ministry only attempted to use the same strategy that successfully pushed the Golkar Party toward effective reconciliation efforts. Suryadharma said he could not accept any decision made during the Mukernas. 'Pak SDA does not give his blessing. There's no such thing as a Mukernas,' his aide Dimyati Natakusumah said. __________________________________ To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 When the police started investigating a number of abortion clinics in Cikini, Central Jakarta, the immediate question from local residents was: 'Why only now?' as they had known about the clinics for a long time. 'I am not surprised. Most of residents here know that those clinics are operating. The middlemen [who liaise between patients and doctors] live in the area,' said Hendi, a resident of Jl. Cisadane 19, whose house is located in front of one of the clinics, as reported by tribunnews.com on Thursday. Hendi, who has been living in the area since 40 years ago, said that he had noted at least 10 abortion clinics operating in his neighborhood, including some that had been in operation for a decade. So far the police have investigated nine abortion clinics, including those located on Jl. Cimandiri No. 7 and Jl. Cisadane No. 19. 'That clinic has been in business for more than 10 years. It's crazy, to think how many lives have been ended there. It could be thousands,' Hendi said, while pointing at the house. He said the abortion clinic on Jl. Cisadane 19 was busy in the evening and most of the patients arrived in cars. 'Most patients are young women. There are patients who come with their mothers and there are those who come with men of approximately the same age as them,' he added. He explained there were groups of people, who offered services connecting patients with clinics. The men who stand by along Jl. Raden Saleh in Cikini approach slow-moving cars that are believed to be people seeking abortion services. Other middlemen just give a signal by waving their hands. Head of Jakarta City Police's specific crime division Adj. Sr. Comr. Adi Vivid said that before raiding the nine abortion clinics on Jl. Raden Saleh, the police had conducted a month-long undercover operation in which two female police officers acted as patients and visited clinics and talked with middlemen. Evidence confiscated during the raids included abortion equipment, human bones found dumped in drains near the clinics and blood inside plastic bags, said a police officer, adding that ten suspects had been arrested, including clinic owners, doctors, nurses, middlemen and those given the responsibility of disposing of fetuses. Adi explained that the middlemen, whose role was to attract clients, could earn up to 40 percent of the total cost of an abortion, which reportedly ranges from Rp 3 million (US$223.66) to Rp 6 million. Hendi said he appreciated the police investigation into the abortion clinics because he believed that abortion was prohibited by all religions. But he also expressed his pessimism that the police would consistently monitor the abortion clinics, saying that it was unlikely the police only recently found out about the clinics as they had been there for years. (bbn)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The newly passed Public Housing Savings (Tapera) Law is meeting growing resistance from employers amid fears it will add costs for businesses already grappling with a weak domestic economy. Indonesian Textile Association (API) chairman Ade Sudrajat said the new law, which requires businesses to set aside funds for their workers' housing savings, put a burden on labor-intensive industries and hampered their competitiveness. 'We already have quite a heavy burden. It will decrease our competitiveness in the global market,' he said on Wednesday. Employers are currently estimated to be already setting aside 30 percent of workers' wages for additional compensation, such as for old-age benefits, life insurance, workplace accident insurance as well as annual wage increases of 14 percent a year. 'Why don't they just let a labor-intensive company, such as a factory with more than 500 workers, provide housing on its own?' Ade asked. The new law does not state the amount of funds that should be allocated by employers for their employees' housing savings, although Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said it would not exceed 3 percent of an employee's salary ' with a maximum of 2.5 percent coming from the worker's wage and 0.5 percent contributed by the employer. Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo) chairman Jongkie Sugiarto said the cut taken out of monthly wages might affect the price of automotive products. 'Additional costs like that will add to production costs. Then each company will have to calculate whether they need to increase prices or not,' he said. The Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) vowed to file a judicial review with the Constitutional Court against the law, which it deems to be a duplicate of the Workers Social Security Agency (BPJS Ketenagakerjaaan) program that also provides assistance for home purchases by its members. The new law, passed by lawmakers on Tuesday, aims to gather the funds to provide housing for low earners in the country, which currently has a backlog of 13.5 million housing units. Formal-sector workers and individual workers are obliged to join the program. The program is expected to collect Rp 50 trillion (US$3.72 billion) to Rp 60 trillion in the first five years and will be merged with the ministry's housing loan liquidity facility (FLPP), which could add up to Rp 33.3 trillion. Meanwhile, Regional Representatives Council member Parlindungan Purba lamented that the government seemed to have overlooked the financing needs for the land, which merely receives 5 percent of the total funds gathered, according to the law. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The Supreme Court has overturned the Jakarta High Court verdict that freed two convicted teachers at the Jakarta Intercultural School for sexual assault. The panel of judges at the Supreme Court, comprising chief judge Artidjo Alkostar and judges Suhadi and Salman Luthan, approved the appeal filed by prosecutors and sentenced Canadian Neil Bantlemen and Indonesian Ferdinand Tjiong to 11 years in prison on Wednesday. "The Supreme Court believes that it has been proven [that two defendants perpetrated sexual harrasment] and it has sentenced them to 11 years," Judge Suhadi told Antara news agency on Thursday. The panel of judges agreed with the verdict issued by the South Jakarta district court in April last year that sentenced the two teachers to 10 years in prison. After receiving the district court verdict the two defendants filed an appeal to Jakarta High Court, which overturned the guilty verdict and acquitted them of all charges. The prosecutors then filed an appeal to the Supreme Court which added another year to their initial prison sentence. The sexual assault case began after a report from the parents of a student of the high-class international school in April 2014. The parents reported that their 6-year-old kindergarten student was sexually assaulted by members of the school's cleaning staff, which was followed by claims that the teachers had also abused students. (rin)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tassia Sipahutar (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 Details of the controversial tax amnesty bill, which is expected to lead to the repatriation of billions of dollars held by Indonesians overseas, have come in for scrutiny, particularly the proposed impunity for tax officials and promises of secrecy for tax evaders. 'Employee[s] of the Finance Ministry cannot be reported, sued, investigated or prosecuted either by civil or criminal law if they carry out duties based on good faith and in line with the provisions of this law,' reads Article 22 of the bill, which was submitted by the government to lawmakers on Tuesday. The article, if approved, would pave the way for ministry officials, including tax collectors, to proceed with amnesty measures without fear of prosecution, adding further controversy to a bill that has already drawn fire for promising to pardon tax evaders who have stashed their funds both offshore and locally. Center for Indonesia Taxation Analysis (CITA) executive director Yustinus Prastowo considered the impunity article to be unnecessary. 'What is it trying to protect? Is there a potential for criminal acts?' he asked, insisting that it was more important for the government to ensure the safety of the data. Article 21 of the bill stipulates that the Finance Ministry will keep secret all data and information in regard to taxpayers and amnesties, with an estimated figure for undeclared assets of around Rp 2.7 quadrillion (US$201 billion) overseas and Rp 1.4 quadrillion onshore. 'Data and information submitted by taxpayers under the tax amnesty scheme cannot be requested or given to other parties [...], except if approved by the taxpayer himself,' according to the bill. The amnesty, expected to come into effect in the second half of this year, may be the government's last card in its efforts to clear the state budget deficit, estimated to range between Rp 200 trillion and Rp 290 trillion as the revenue outlook remains bleak against the backdrop of a weak economy and low oil prices. Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan denied the existence of impunity for tax officials. 'There's no such thing,' he said on Wednesday at the State Palace, adding to confusion over the article in the bill. Meanwhile, Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said that discussions were still ongoing between the government and lawmakers and that the draft bill's content should not be considered as final. The government can guarantee that no data leak will occur as it already had a solid system in place, he added, dismissing any concern that data provided in tax amnesty applications could be used against tax evaders in the future. 'There's no need to worry. We work according to standards,' Darmin said. Rich Indonesians with assets overseas are likely to feel comfortable with the repatriation as anyone availing of the amnesty will be immune from possible criminal prosecution for their tax evasion and will avoid administrative penalties on their declared assets. The bill stipulates that wealthy Indonesians keeping their funds will receive hefty incentives to repatriate the funds, including low penalties of between 1 percent and 3 percent of their repatriated assets ' far lower than the current corporation taxes of up to 25 percent and 30 percent income tax for individual taxpayers. The repatriated assets will be required to be invested in government or state-owned company bonds with a holding period of at least three years. Such rupiah-denominated bonds usually offer a yield of at least 8 percent per year. The bonds can then be switched to other investment instruments such as private company bonds upon request. The repatriated funds can also be invested in the government's infrastructure projects, property and government-priority industries, according to the bill. Deputy Finance Minister Mardiasmo said the ministry would combine the existing database with a new one comprising the identities of amnesty applicants. He acknowledged the need to have state-of-the-art information technology (IT) systems in place as they would support future tax efforts. __________________________________ To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fransiskus Surdiasis (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The controversial initiative of House of Representatives lawmakers to revise Law No. 30/2002 on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) ended in anticlimax on Monday. In a joint press conference with House leaders following a consultative meeting, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo announced that the revision was indefinitely shelved. Public outcry over the proposed amendment could be a reason behind the decision. This is the third failed attempt of the House to curtail the KPK through legislation within four years, and the second under the Jokowi administration alone. In February last year, the House listed the KPK Law amendment as a priority in the 2015 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas). The public challenged the plan before Jokowi made public his stance ' that his newly installed government had no intention to undermine the work of the antigraft body. In October 2015, Jokowi and the House leaders formally dropped the bill from the agenda. The latest move was launched in January, with the House legislation body (Baleg) including the revision among 40 priority bills for deliberation this year. Neither Jokowi and the House leaders have set a definite timeframe for the amendment's postponement. But given the fact that the revision remains in the Prolegnas, the agenda could materialize anyway. Public resistance to the House initiative centers on the perceived motives behind the lawmakers' continuing efforts to revise the law. Despite their political rhetoric, the public deems the plan part of the politicians' efforts to incapacitate the antigraft body, which has arrested dozens of lawmakers since its inception in 2003. The prolonged controversy over the KPK law amendment has in fact revealed a fundamental issue: the absence of a national consensus over the long-term direction of national antigraft policy. The current debate on the revision has only focused on technical issues, such as KPK oversight and KPK authority to wiretap, halt investigations and recruit independent investigators. To gear the debate over the revision toward empowering the KPK, two questions should be addressed. First, in combating rampant corruption in Indonesia, should we denote the KPK as an ad hoc institution serving for a specific period of time, or a permanent institution? When the government and the House set up the KPK in 2003, what they had in mind was a temporary institution, but without a clear time frame. That is one of the reasons why the KPK only operates at the national level, with no branches atthe local level,unlike the Attorney General's Office (AGO) and the National Police. But considering the fight against corruption is 'a war with no end', is the temporary nature of the KPK relevant? Second, in our long battle against corruption, which strategy is better: having one strong institution focusing on corruption (KPK) or several institutions (KPK, AGO and the police) that share the same responsibilities and authority to deal with corruption? If the government and lawmakers intend to revise the KPK law and the public actively participates in the debate, these two issues should be taken into account. Different strategic direction will result in different strategic consequences. First, if we opt to design the KPK as an ad hoc body, then the government has to establish a clear agenda on how to reform the AGO and the National Police to become credible and reliable antigraft institutions. Since the Reform Era began in 1998, internal reforms within the two graft-tainted law enforcement agencies have been half-hearted, if not ineffective. Second, if we decide to design the KPK as a permanent institution with the sole authority to tackle corruption, then the AGO and National Police's authority to investigate corruption should be scrapped. Indonesia will then have a sole credible institution with full authority and responsibility to fight graft. As a consequence, certain regulations need to be revised. To strengthen its legal basis, the KPK's existence should be explicitly stipulated in the Constitution ' this will require a constitutional amendment. The government then has to set up KPK offices nationwide. The commission should also be allowed to recruit investigators, rather than hiring them from the National Police and AGO. Now that the KPK law revision is off the table, the momentis right for a thorough evaluation of the state of corruption eradication in Indonesia and to redesign a well-equipped antigraft body. The revision debate should be put into this context, which aims for an empowered KPK. More than an endless polemic, we need a productive debate and discussion. If realized, this could be a credit to and legacy of Jokowi's presidency. ___________________________________ The writer heads The Jakarta Post's research and information center. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Safrin La Batu and Dewanti A. Wardhany (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 25, 2016 The Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) has found in a study that 95 out of a total of 113 evictions in Jakarta last year violated an international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights, which requires sincere dialogue, the avoidance of violence and the provision of solutions for evictees. The study found that the main perpetrator of evictions was the Jakarta administration, with 96 evictions, the central government with 11 evictions, and private companies with three. State-owned enterprises and development agencies were each responsible for two evictions, the study found. The study, launched Wednesday, found that 95 evictions were carried out without any dialogue and 72 without offering any solutions. More than half of the evictions, or 67, involved military personnel, 65 involved the police, 108 involved Jakarta Public Order officers and 54 used the threat of heavy equipment such as backhoes. LBH Jakarta said the city administration claimed it talked to residents by means of so-called 'familiarizations' prior to evictions but the method was usually one way and did not constitute sincere dialogue. 'These are all against the human rights covenant,' the report said. The covenant, which Indonesia ratified through Law No. 11/2005, stipulates, among other things, the rights of residents during evictions. While the covenant itself considers evictions 'a gross violation of human rights and a prima facie violation of the right to adequate housing', it regulates the mechanism and conditions required before an eviction is carried out. One of the conditions the covenant requires is that there should be dialogue prior to an eviction. It also requires compensation for any damaged property. 'Effective legal recourses and remedies should be available to those who are evicted, including adequate compensation for any real or personal property affected by the eviction,' the covenant says. The report said East and North Jakarta saw the most evictions, each with 31 cases. Central Jakarta saw 23, West Jakarta 14, and South Jakarta 14. The 113 evictions resulted in the destruction of 8,145 houses and 6,283 small enterprises. LBH Jakarta lawyer Alldo Fellix Januardy said on Wednesday that deploying police and military personnel, which the administration did in most of its evictions, increased the occurrence of violence at the time of eviction. 'I myself was the victim of police violence last month,' he said, referring to an incident where he was assaulted by police officers while providing legal assistance to Bukit Duri residents in South Jakarta. He also said that it was beyond the police and military's authority to take part in evictions. 'Based on Article 13 of the National Police Law, the duty of the police is to keep order and enforce the law. What are they enforcing if the status [of the land in question] is not legally clear? If it is not clear the police should conduct an investigation first,' he explained, adding that the military's duty was to protect the state, not to evict people. Alldo said the administration's oft-repeated argument that evicted residents had occupied state land, in many cases, contravened the law because the evictions applied to everyone regardless of how long they had lived in the area. He said that according to Article 1963 of the Civil Code, anyone living in a location for 30 years or more, with good intentions and without complaint from others, had the right to register the land as his or her own. Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama brushed off LBH Jakarta's findings, and asserted that the city administration always carried out dialogue with evictees beforehand. 'LBH Jakarta and those residents always claims things like this. The municipal administration as well as district and subdistrict offices always inform the residents and conduct dialogue before evictions. Otherwise how would they know that they are being evicted in the first place?' Ahok said on Wednesday. He went on to say that the city administration provided a solution by relocating residents into low-cost rental apartments, although some may not move into their new apartment units immediately after eviction. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Hanoi Thu, February 25, 2016 Vietnam is protesting recent actions by China in the disputed South China Sea, saying they threaten peace in the region. The commander of US forces in the Pacific, Adm. Harry Harris Jr., said this week that China has installed new radar on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratly Islands, and media reports say Beijing has sent fighter jets to Woody Island in the Paracels, where it has deployed anti-aircraft missiles. Asked about the reports, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said Thursday that China is conducting activities that seriously violate Vietnamese sovereignty and threaten peace, security and freedom of passage in the region. "Despite protests and concerns by Vietnam as well as the international community, China has continued with actions that not only seriously violate Vietnam's sovereignty, escalate militarization of the East Sea, but also threaten peace, stability in the region, and maritime and overflight security, safety and freedom," Binh said in a statement on the ministry's website. East Sea is the Vietnamese name for the South China Sea. He said Vietnam is protesting the actions and urging China to act responsibly to maintain peace and stability. Binh said Vietnam has "undisputable" sovereignty over the Paracels and Spratlys. Vietnam, China and Taiwan claim all of the Paracels, and the three along with the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim all or parts of the Spratlys. Massive land reclamation by China in the Spratlys and its other recent actions have caused concern among countries in the region and in the United States. US officials say they take no side in the territorial disputes, but support freedom of passage through the area, one of the world's busiest sea lanes. Nicht Ihr Computer? Dann konnen Sie fur die Anmeldung ein Fenster zum privaten Surfen offnen. Weitere Informationen Search The London Foodie London Restaurant by Area By Area - Angel (8) By Area - Archway (1) By Area - Baker Street (4) By Area - Barbican (3) By Area - Bayswater (4) By Area - Blackheath (4) By Area - Bloomsbury (2) By Area - Brixton (3) By Area - Broadway Market (2) By Area - Camberwell (1) By Area - Camden Town (2) By Area - Chinatown (10) By Area - Chiswick (2) By Area - City (39) By Area - Clerkenwell (12) By Area - Columbia Road (3) By Area - Covent Garden (24) By Area - Edgware Road (2) By Area - Fulham (1) By Area - Hackney (21) By Area - Islington (21) By Area - Kilburn (1) By Area - Kings Cross (5) By Area - Knightsbridge (10) By Area - London Bridge (9) By Area - Marble Arch (3) By Area - Marylebone (11) By Area - Old Street (4) By Area - Oxford Street (18) By Area - Queensway (3) By Area - Shepherd's Bush (2) By Area - Shoreditch (15) By Area - Soho (33) By Area - Spitalfields Market (2) By Area - St John's Wood (2) By Area - Tottenham Court Road (7) By Area - Waterloo (4) By Area - Westfield Shopping Centre (1) By Area - Whitechapel (3) By Area - Wimbledon (1) With 2016 now fully on its feet, its finally time to start dishing out the blockbuster fun, although March has just as many smaller delights on the cards too. It took a little while, but weve finally shaken off the last few Oscar stragglers, leaving March nice and open for plenty of brainless fun, between surprise sequels and the long-awaited DC Comics franchise expander. This isnt to say that were completely devoid of interesting releases this month; a Sundance favourite and new helpings from Ben Wheatley and the Coen Brothers should tide us over for now, although theyre unlikely to be the films everyone is talking about. So without much further ado, heres everything notable about March in a nutshell: London Has Fallen (3rd March) Kicking things off first of all is the pretty unexpected, although relatively welcome, sequel to 2013s Olympus Has Fallen (yknow, the slightly bloodier, Gerard Butler-starring White House invasion film). Picking things up a little while after the events of Olympus, London Has Fallen - surprise surprise - moves the action to our own great capital, and once again throws secret service agent Mark Banning (Butler) to the wolves (see: international terrorists) after President Asher (a returning Aaron Eckhart) again finds himself in a whole butt-load of trouble. Youd think he would learn by now. The first film surprisingly managed to nail the classic action-thriller tone brilliantly, serving up a better slice of Die Hard-style fun than anything Bruce Willis or the actual franchise itself has mustered up in years. Although the loss of original director Antoine Fuqua may well end up burying this one; especially since newcomer Babak Najafi has pretty much nothing of note to his name. Time will tell I guess. Goodnight Mommy (4th March) The first critically acclaimed flick of the bunch, this demented Austrian horror has already played to audiences all around the globe, being selected to show at a whole range of top film festivals and picking up multiple awards along the way. The brainchild of directing duo Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, Goodnight Mommy centres around a pair of twin boys who become suspicious of their mother when she returns home from having facial reconstructive surgery and begins behaving, supposedly erratically. Beginning as something of a mystery before gradually itching into something far darker entirely, this one requires a strong stomach but offers plenty of rewards for those who can manage it. Hail, Caesar! (4th March) The latest treat from the always reliable Coen Brothers rockets us back to the golden age of Hollywood, casting George Clooney as a runaway movie star who finds himself being hunted by industry fixer Josh Brolin after going missing during the filming of one of the studios biggest new productions. With a cast list that rounds out with huge names ranging from the likes of Ralph Fiennes to Tilda Swinton, Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill and (obviously) Frances McDormand, the Coens next big step towards total cinematic domination looks set to be another masterclass in witty writing and fantastic spectacle. Not convinced? Try and watch that trailer without smiling; I dare you. Anomalisa (11th March) OK, I lied. I said there were no more Oscar contenders on the cards, but the second week in March sees the release of Charlie Being John Malkovich Kaufmans next project which, oddly, is up against Pixar for Best Animated Film at this years ceremony. No, you didnt read that wrong. Kaufman, whos known for his cynical, pessimistic and incredibly philosophical musings on art and creativity has made an animated film, and if reviews from across the pond are anything to go by, its actually really rather good. Starring David Thewlis as the voice of Michael, an ordinary man crippled by the mundanities of life, Anomalisa uses stop-motion animation techniques (perfected by the same studio that handled Communitys incredible Christmas episode Abeds Uncontrollable Christmas) to tell a very human story, making it the first R-rated film to ever find itself nominated in this particular category. Think Team Americas puppet-sex but, yknow, deeper. The Witch (11th March) The critically-acclaimed new horror from Sundance winner Robert Eggers finally lands in the UK this March, and if rumours are true, theres plenty of legitimate scares on offer. I wont say too much about this one, aside from the fact that it centres around a 17th-century family suffering at the hands of witchcraft. but it already made our more comprehensive list of the hidden hits of 2016, so rest assured, this is surely one to keep an eye on. 10 Cloverfield Lane (18th March) Coincidentally, on the same list is a stunning-sounding new original sci-fi film from Portal: No Escape director Dan Trachtenberg, called Valencia, a name which turned out to be a cover for this secret J.J. Abrams-backed sequel to 2008s massive monster hit Cloverfield. How much Trachtenbergs follow-up shares with Matt Reevess original is still unclear, but from the trailer, it seems to mostly be doing its own thing, which is actually kind of encouraging. Ditching the found-footage gimmick which made its predecessor so marketable, 10 Cloverfield Lane takes on a far smaller vibe, casting Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a young woman held prisoner in a fallout shelter by supposed do-gooder John Goodman. When she eventually escapes however, she finds a certain special creature waiting on the other side of the walls for her. Whether or not you support its secretive marketing is irrelevant, this looks to be an incredibly well-handled new thriller, and if the trailers released so far are anything to go by, theres certainly a lot more surprises in store too. The Boy (18th March) Does anyone remember The Devil Inside? Yknow, that monumentally underwhelming exorcism film that came out in 2012 to absolutely no acclaim whatsoever? You dont? Well, youre certainly much, much more likely to remember director William Brent Bells latest film instead. The Boy stars Lauren Cohan (thats The Walking Deads Maggie to you TV fans out there) as a young American nanny who begins a new job looking after the child of a rather wealthy English family. The kicker here being that the boy in question is not only some sort of devil child (I mean, his name is Brahms - yes, that is apparently a name functioning individuals give to their children), hes also - and heres the really interesting bit - not real. But that doesnt mean hes a ghost, or the devil or some random evil-doer, hes literally not real. Hes made of porcelain or some other weird material. Hes a doll. What pursues such a revelation seems to be some sort of bizarre, twisted haunted-house style tale that aside from apparently being entirely bloodless, also features a number of normal-brained adults that apparently dont find anything weird at all about the kid being called Brahms. Funniest film of the year? Quite possibly. High-Rise (18th March) Theres not an awful lot more to say about Ben Wheatleys latest and most extravagant release to date other than that its really bloody incredible. Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Luke Evans, Elizabeth Moss, Sienna Miller; a cast this eclectic and well-chosen is always going to prove encouraging, but when the film itself is as daring and elegantly crafted as this, well, it just has to be celebrated. An adaptation of a dystopian J.G. Ballard novel about an apartment block whose residents literally lose their sanity, High-Rise is weird, explicit and quintessentially bonkers but Wheatley of course pulls it all off with flying colours. Check out our review from last years London Film Festival if youre still not convinced. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (25th March) The moment weve all been waiting for has finally arrived: DC are finally stepping up their game in the wake of Marvels absolute trouncing of the contemporary superhero movie market, and are for the first time ever, delivering their own superhero team-up. I mean, this is just the lead up to the eventual two-part Justice League extravaganza, but all the big names are here, so its hard to not take note. Despite the ridiculously awful title, Zack Snyders direct follow up to 2013s lukewarm Man of Steel looks to reset the clock somewhat (as in, Nolans Dark Knight trilogy supposedly never happened), dragging back the painfully uncharismatic Henry Cavill to re-don the classic red cape, but also uniting him with a brand new Batman in the form of everybodys favourite former-heartthrob Ben Affleck. As expected the two supposedly do battle, Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) shows up for precisely no reason at all and the new and improved young Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg channelling an even more obnoxious version of Max Landis) stands around maniacally plotting in the background. And all crammed into a two hour movie; fun for all the family. Hopefully somewhere in-between shoehorning in even more comic favourites and de-saturating every colour within a ten-mile radius, Snyder will have remembered to actually add some substance to this one. We can live and hope. Either way, no matter how this one ends up, itll certainly be a mega event, and Afflecks new, older Batman certainly seems interesting. Eyebrows firmly raised. The Club (25th March) Changing pace entirely is No director Pablo Larrains slow, almost nightmarishly stoic drama about a gang of Chilean priests, living out their retirement peacefully in the countryside. But when new figures enter their inner-circle unexpectedly, it delivers a sudden shock to the community and ancient evils from their past begin to get dug up. Aside from being sensationally pretty to look at, The Club can be a little too reserved at times to really make an impact, but for those who value patience and the occasional hard-hitting twist, it should certainly make your list. Zootropolis (25th March) It seems that Disney can almost do no wrong. After well-and-truly knocking things out of the stratosphere with last years latest Star Wars instalment (which is still doing mega-business despite crossing the $2 billion mark), they seem to be squishing themselves back into the animation market with this adorably clever little re-take on talking animals. Going under the title Zootopia in most other countries (the reasons for the name change are still not totally clear), Disneys latest features the voice talent of everyone from Jason Bateman, to Kristen Bell, to Idris Elba, and tangles them all together in an adventure tale about different species being forced to work together to uncover a wider conspiracy. It may not sound overly original on paper, but this one unites the directors of Wreck-It Ralph and Tangled and from the trailer alone seems to deliver plenty of new laughs. Why not give it a try? Disney rarely stumble when it comes to animation. The climate of central Southampton in February was a bitter, freezing and generally rather depressing one. But luckily for the citys candid collection of metalheads, a double dose of sludge rock was about to grace The Engine Rooms in glorious fashion. The first of the dual acts to take the stage was Dublins No Spill Blood (). The group represents an intriguing combination of instruments, formed of keyboardist Ruadhan OMeara, drummer Ror Conaty and bassist/vocalist Matt Hedigan. This irregular combination with an absence of the rock mainstay of lead guitar parts assures for an experience fuelled entirely by pounding and relentless rhythms, especially as Hedigans bass and Conatys drums unite to shake the venue to the ground. To see the often underutilised bass guitar brought to the forefront by No Spill Blood is both engaging and surprising. Hedigan at certain stages even finds himself laying out riffs that are memorable and insanely enjoyable, proving that the bass is more than just an instrument for laying down rhythms in the shadow of a lead guitar. From a performance perspective, it seems that No Spill Bloods set went off without a hitch. Each of their songs provided a rhythmic, mid-paced pummelling that was practically engineered to get heads nodding. Front-man Hedigan interacted with the crowd intermittently throughout the show, thanking them for their attendance in a display that seemed genuine and humbled. The Southampton audiences reception to the band can probably be best described as warm: after a few tracks, the crowd began to build and show greater enthusiasm in the Irish rockers. As the set went on, things just got better and better for No Spill Blood. In the end, they achieved that which every supporting group should do. They made every fan in the building shake off Southamptons winter blues and long to rock out with the eagerly anticipated headliner. No Spill Blood were a tough act to follow, but American progressive/sludge metallers Baroness () certainly did so in glorious fashion. In what was the first show of their headlining UK tour, Baroness showed no signs of jetlag or inexperience: this is a band that has been playing for just over a decade with the stage presence of one thats been doing it for twice as long. Duelling guitarists and vocalists John Dyer Baizley and Pete Adams were visibly elated to be returning to the UK for the first time in over three years, clearly playing their entire set with passion. That being said, to truly and fully enjoy Baronesss new setlist for this tour, you had better be a fan of their two latest records 2012s Yellow & Green and 2015s Purple the latter of which they perform in its entirety. Only a total of three tracks from their first two albums make it into the show. However, with Purple being one of their most acclaimed and commercially successful albums to date, along with the fact that they have not played a lot of the cuts from the record before, it is easy to see why the band chose to emphasise it. And it was a decision the audience was definitely equally receptive to, as entire verses of Shock Me and Chlorine & Wine were recited by Baizley only to be reciprocated back by eager onlookers. To be blunt, Baroness were perfect, providing the south coast with a blistering explosion of rock and enjoying every second of it. Their UK tour has only just begun, so I recommend trying to hunt down those elusive final tickets to any show they play near you. This is the kind of visceral experience that rock n roll was made for. Baroness is touring the UK right now with No Spill Blood. Baronesss latest album, Purple, is available physically and digitally now via Abraxan Hymns. 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Sexual assistants meet carnal needs, but they are also trained to help the handicapped discover and manage their sexuality. The EU member of 10.5 million people is the first ex-communist country where the service is on offer, following nations such as the Netherlands, an early pioneer in the practice, Denmark, France, Germany and Switzerland. It took about two years to get the service up and running using know-how provided by Swiss partners, according to Lucie Sidova, head of the Rozkos bez rizika (Risk-free Pleasure) organisation helping women in the sex industry. Sidova said that like prostitution, the service is not a crime under Czech law. Pik, a bespectacled second-hand charity shop worker, runs a Facebook page promoting sexual assistance and never misses an opportunity to spread the word. Sipping coffee from a cup he has trouble holding, Pik explains that specially trained sex assistants are not out to retain clients, but to ultimately help them find a lover of their own. The task of a sexual assistant is to teach the disabled how to engage with their sexuality and sex toys and the right way to masturbate because no one else will talk to them about that kind of thing, he said. The sexuality of disabled people is a big taboo here, added Pik, who has had one tantric massage from an assistant since the service got the go-ahead from authorities late last year. The range of services varies sexual assistants can go as far as intercourse with their clients, but some draw the line at massages and instruction. I don't offer penetration or even oral sex but only touches, tantric massages, hugs, kisses, nudity, says Iva, an assistant from a town north-east of Prague who calls herself a sex teacher. Some people with mental disabilities or complex handicaps cant even say what they want so I have to use pictures to find out. Iva is one of five sexual assistants working with Risk-free Pleasure. They charge up to 1,200 koruna (B1,775) per session. Many disabled people dont have a partner. They are, say, 35 years old, so I open the door to sexuality for them, says Iva. She insists on only meeting a client a handful of times at most to prevent him from developing too close of a bond with her. Disabled people are often full of pent-up sexual energy, she said, adding that some may be impulsive and aggressive at times. When they release that sexual energy, and its the strongest energy youll find in the body, their mood improves and they are easier to handle, Iva said. Although sexual assistance itself is not illegal, the Risk-free Pleasure NGO still walks a fine line as they can advertise the service but cannot themselves put assistants in touch with clients. That could carry charges of procurement, or pimping, which is a broadly defined crime under Czech law. The service is still in its initial phase Iva said she only had two clients in January but Lucie Sidova is hoping to boost the current roster with additional assistants, including men, in the future. She said they have already received one thank you letter from a man who used a sexual assistant. After many years of looking for a partner in vain, his self-confidence grew so much that he told us he wasnt coming to the next session, that he has a girlfriend now. DSI to call in top monk over tax dodge case BANGKOK: Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya has asked the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to invite the Supreme Patriarch nominee in for questioning over his alleged involvement in a luxury car tax evasion scam. transportcrimereligion By Bangkok Post Thursday 25 February 2016, 08:57AM The DSI has concluded this vintage Mercedes-Benz owned by supreme patriarch-nominee is part of a tax-evasion racket on used cars. Bangkok Post file photo Somdet Phra Maha Ratchamangalacharn, also known as Somdet Chuang, was linked to the case after his signature was found on an illegal registration form for a vintage Mercedes-Benz. The 90-year-old abbot of Wat Pak Nam Phasi Charoen is the acting supreme patriarch and has been nominated by the Sangha Supreme Council (SSC) to become the countrys chief monk. Gen Paiboon said the case must be dealt with in accordance with judicial processes and officers should not be pressured into rushing the case. Efforts must be made to ensure no discrimination is involved in the investigation, he said.T he DSI is in the process of writing to Somdet Chuang to invite him to a meeting. The minister said he told DSI director-general Paisit Wongmuang to invite Somdet Chuang for talks at the DSIs office and to treat him with respect. After the letter is delivered, the DSI will contact his temple to work out a date and time for the meeting. Mr Paisit said the letter is expected to be sent to the senior monk next week. When Somdet Chuang replies to schedule a meeting, Mr Paisit said he would meet the monk to discuss issues surrounding the controversial vehicle. Meanwhile, Prime Ministers Office Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana said he is not ready to propose the appointment of the 20th Supreme Patriarch to the prime minister. He said the National Office of Buddhism is gathering opinions from various parties about the issue. Mr Suwaphan said there are still some issues where an agreement cannot be reached so he cannot yet put the matter before the premier. On Feb 15, about 1,200 monks and their supporters gathered at Phutthamonthon Buddhist park in Nakhon Pathom to demand the government speed up the appointment of Somdet Chuang as the new supreme patriarch. A scuffle broke out between monks and soldiers deployed to monitor the gathering. The monks submitted five demands to the government, including one calling on government agencies to stop meddling in religious affairs. Mr Suwaphan insisted the government has never interfered in the affairs of monks and always respected SSC decisions. Talks will be held with monks about the issue though no arrangements have yet been made, Mr Suwaphan said. Read original story here. Phukets Milo heading for Ratchaburi PHUKET: Milo, the 13-year-old female orangutan recovered from jungle in Pa Khlok last Saturday (Feb 20), will be moved to a reserve in Ratchaburi, where she will stay until she is repatriated to Indonesia, The Phuket News has learned. Thursday 25 February 2016, 01:15PM Milo was taken to the Wildlife Conservation office at Khao Phra Thaeo, before being transported to another wildlife reserve in Phang Nga. Photo: Vicky Kiely Wildlife officers launched a search after Milo disappeared just days before officials from the Khao Phra Thaew Non-Hunting Area Office last Friday (Feb 19) inspected Phuket Zoo, where she had been held for two years. (See story here) During the inspection, Suriya Tanthaweewong, a member of the Board of Directors of Phuket Zoo Co Ltd said, I have no idea where the orangutan is now. It was released at Khao Phra Thaew mountain. Zoo staff released the orangutan somewhere, but I have no idea when or where it was released. Following Milos rescue from the jungle, Piyawat Sukon, Chief of the Khao Phra Thaew Non-Hunting Area Office in Thalang, told The Phuket News, A vet has confirmed that Milo is relatively healthy. She is not stressed and has not suffered any wounds. Milo was taken to the Wildlife Conservation office at Khao Phra Thaeo, before being transported to another wildlife reserve in Phang Nga, he added. From there, Milo will be moved to Khao Prathap Chang Wildlife Sanctuary in Ratchaburi, where she will stay while arrangements are made to have her returned to her native Indonesia, Chief Piyawat said. Khao Prathap Chang Wildlife Sanctuary already has special facilities specifically for orangutans, and was where 14 orangutans were held while arrangement were being made for them to be sent back to Indonesia in November last year, he added. Chief Piyawat said that his office had received many requests from organisations that support and help orangutans to take Milo into their care. However, he added, But we must co-ordinate with Indonesian government officials only. Todd Lemons, Founder of the renowned sustainable eco-preservation NGO InfiniteEARTH, told The Phuket News, If CITES officials are involved, then I would hope Milos future is a little more predictable and humane. This orangutan doesnt belong in a reserve in Phang Nga, where it will surely be poked and prodded by throngs of tourists. Mr Lemons explained, We are partners with the Orangutan Foundation International, founded by the worlds foremost authority on orangutan research, Dr Birute Mary Galdikas. Ive spoken to Birute this morning and she had heard of the incident. She seems to think FORINA (Forum Orangutan Indonesia) is now involved. It could be that Milo is a Sumatran orangutan, in which case we would be unable to accept her into the reserve since Bornean orangutans are a different species. InfiniteEARTH operates a large privately funded orangutan reserve of more than 160,000 acres in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. http://infinite-earth.com/ The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve, created by InfiniteEARTH under the United Nations-led scheme called reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), protects nearly 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres), much of it carbon-rich peat swamp forest at risk of being felled for palm oil plantations. The project secured financial backing from the likes of Russian energy giant Gazprom and German insurance firm Allianz. By investing in the project, companies are eligible for tax deductions for offsetting carbon emissions. Over Rimba Rayas 30-year life, the project will generate about 104 million credits, each representing a metric ton (1.1023 tons) of carbon, reported Reuters in 2012. In total, that equates to 300 million to 500 million euros ($390 million to $650 million), depending on current market rates for REDD carbon offsets, said the report. (See story here) Phuket trucker drives into cables, brings down pylons, injures motorbike rider PHUKET: The driver of a motorbike was injured by a falling pylon this morning (Feb 25) when the driver of a 10-wheel truck attempted to drive the truck under low hanging cables and brought down five pylons in the process. By Darawan Naknakhon Thursday 25 February 2016, 12:54PM The motorbike driver was thrown from the bike and landed next to a wall. Photo: Darawan Naknakhon Police arrived at the scene to find the 10-wheeler parked in the road with a large number of tangled cables caught on its roof. Photo: Darawan Naknakhon Lt Ronaphomi Permpoon from Phuket City Police was call to investigate the incident on Palien Rd in Talad Yai at 6:45am. It was reported that the driver of a motorbike had sustained injuries as a result of one of the pylons falling on him. Police arrived at the scene together with Kusoldharm rescue workers to find the 10-wheeler belonging to Chokpanuchit Co parked in the road with a large number of tangled cables caught on its roof. Along the road five pylons had been damaged, and under one pylon was a wrecked Honda Dream. The motorbike driver was thrown from the bike and landed next to a wall. Rescue workers had already took him to hospital by the time we arrived, said Lt Ronaphomi. The truck driver, 48-year-old Nopparat Ayuttaya, told police that was coming back from Bangkok heading to his company in Rassada. Whilst I was driving some cables suddenly fell down. I did not see them and drove into them which caused the pylons to fall, he said. Lt Ronaphomi added, Electricity Authority officials were notified about the incident and will fix everything and install new pylons. Police have said Nopparat is likely to be charged with reckless driving causing injury and damage to property after they have gathered all information and questioned the driver of the motorbike. His truck has also been seized. Gov. Noem will host veterans fundraiser instead of going to SDPB debate While Rep. Jamie Smith and Libertarian Tracey Quint will be attending the South Dakota Public Broadcasting gubernatorial debate, Gov. Kristi Noem will be hosting a fundraiser for veterans. Apple is doubly vulnerable after taking a hard-line public stance on encryption. Not only does the company risk a defeat before judges who will decide whether it can legally oppose FBI demands to help it hack a terrorists iPhone, but its also susceptible to a setback in the court of public opinion. The company is being portrayed by the government as soft on crime during an election year when candidates are already on record as saying the technology industry doesnt do enough to help combat terror; polling shows the public is divided on whether Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is doing the right thing. While its too early to gauge the impact on the bottom line, the standoff increases the likelihood that the fabled Apple brand develops as much of a reputation for its views on policy issues as it has for its must-have products. Thats a contrast to the days before Cook took the helm, when the company was less likely to air political views. About half of Americans say Apple should unlock the iPhone to assist the ongoing FBI investigation into the San Bernardino attacks, which killed 14 people, according to a survey by Pew Research Center. Some 38 percent said Apple shouldnt do so. There have been more incidents of terrorist threats, which have made the general public more responsive to the government being able to open someones phone, particularly someone like this, said Michel Pham, who teaches branding and marketing strategy at Columbia Business School in New York. Its a risky proposition for Apple. Opinion is broadly split between two camps. On the one hand are those who agree with Cook that helping the FBI hack the handset would be a dangerous precedent that could lead to a stampede of foreign regimes demanding that Apple also help them access the phones of, for instance, political dissidents. On the other side are those who think that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is hindering federal efforts to establish the extent of the San Bernardino terror plot, and is thereby endangering national security. Theyre going to alienate some people if they release it, and theyre going to alienate some others if they dont, said David Reibstein, a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School. For some customers its going to hurt, no question. Donald Trump was among the first to criticize Apples refusal to honor the court order to unlock the phone. The Republican presidential candidate urged supporters at a rally on Friday in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, to boycott the smartphone maker. He later tweeted that hell give up his personal iPhone in favor of a Samsung device until Apple caves to the FBIs demands. The conflict risks diverting attention from a key pillar of Apples success as a brand: its products. When Interbrand ranked Apple the worlds most valuable brand for the third consecutive year in 2015, it highlighted both the efforts to make people feel more secure and how Apple speaks directly about the merits of its product and its benefits to the user. The brand is worth $170 billion, Interbrand said. Every time Apple veers away from talking about its iPhones, iPads and computers, it chips away at its image, according to Columbias Pham. Since taking over as CEO from Steve Jobs, who died in 2011, Cook has defended Apples tax payments before the U.S. Senate, been outspoken about social issues and instigated investigations into the companys supply chain. The product is really what resonates with people - its a brand that makes cool products, said Pham. This is a brand that people hold in a special place in their hearts. Whenever the discourse moves to the brand being something broader than that it creates a little bit of danger. In some respects the conflict serves Apple, by highlighting the strength of its encryption to customers who are concerned about privacy, according to Whartons Reibstein. Thats particularly the case outside the U.S., where consumers are often less preoccupied with the same national security issues, he said. Apple can say, Were doing everything we can to fight for your security, even taking on the government, he said. The most valuable company in the world may come out unscathed from both sides if it ultimately complies with the U.S. court order, but does so while kicking and screaming for the sake of customers, said Susan Hennessey, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Yet Apple may also be miscalculating how aligned public sentiment is with the values of Silicon Valley, she said. Apple is attempting to bolster their reputation within a smaller community that is not necessarily reflective of the general population of the United States, Hennessey said. So far the impact in the U.S. is evenly split: 24 percent of 1,002 respondents in an online survey told Piper Jaffray they viewed Apple more favorably as a result of the FBI tussle, while 23 percent said their view was less positive than before. That could change as the political debate about national security becomes more heated in the run-up to Novembers presidential election. One of the biggest risks is that Cooks vocal and hardline stance could prompt Congress to take action, just months after the White House said it wouldnt push for legislation to force companies to install back doors in their software for government access. At stake is far more than just fines and public image at Apple. The fight could help determine just how independent a broad swath of the technology industry will be of government tentacles in the U.S., and ultimately abroad. If Apple gets drawn into that broader political fight, thats not going to be good for them, said Steve Callander, a professor of political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Its easier to make enemies than it is to make friends. Its going to be difficult for Apple not to be the focus of hatred or anger. With assistance from Heather Smith apple-fbi SHARE: PARIS-Before you get suckered into spending $15 on that Eiffel Tower trinket that was invariably made in China, ask yourself this: will you really make any use of it? Instead of forking over money for bits and baubles that will end up collecting dust in a souvenir graveyard or, worse, in a friends garbage bin, why not make more thoughtful purchases? For instance, souvenirs that will help you recreate parts of your trip or bring a taste of Paris to friends and family back home. A wisely chosen perfume from an exclusive French perfumery can evoke memories of your trip and elicit admiring comments on your unique scent. Edible souvenirs, such as gourmet jams, likewise make foolproof gifts. Heres a selection of goodies that are available exclusively in France or not easily available in Canada, and where to shop for them in Paris: Clothing: Le Petit Bateau Unlike the beret the sartorial symbol for Paris which is actually little worn in the city youll see the French really do love their marine-inspired white and navy blue stripes. If you cant afford to drop thousands on a Chanel shirt, opt for Le Petit Bateau, a French brand with a 123-year history and known for its kids clothes and signature sailor motif. Back in Canada, pair a striped Breton shirt with jeans for a casual, effortlessly chic day out, a la Parisienne. Where: All over Paris, including department stores such as Galeries Lafayette, and Le BHV Marais Price: Prices for womens long-sleeve striped shirt start at 39 (about $62 Canadian) Perfume: Fragonard When in Paris, bypass the Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent perfume counters and consider Fragonard instead, a perfumery that fetes its 90th anniversary in 2016. Produced in Grasse, the world capital of perfume on the French Riviera, the brand has a trio of museums in Paris that offer free guided tours that teach visitors how the perfume is made. To mark its 90th birthday, the brand has released a collection centred on the iris. Other signature scents in the permanent collection include Belle de Nuit, Ile damour and Belle Cherie, the last characterized by mandarin, star fruit, jasmine, lily of the valley, sandalwood and vanilla. Where to buy: Fragonard has seven boutiques in Paris and three museums. The museum boutiques are at 39 boulevard des Capucines, 9 rue Scribe, and 3-5 Square de lOpera Louis Jouvet Price: 39 for 50ml Eau de Parfum Belle Cherie Man lingerie: Le Slip Francais Oh la. While the French word lingerie may conjure up images of sexy lace and satin negliges for the ladies, a few years ago a young Frenchman named Guillaume Gibault decided his colleagues also needed more options when it came to their undergarment wardrobe. Enter Le Slip Francais (slip meaning underwear), a rapidly growing brand aimed primarily at men. Manufactured entirely in France, underwear styles shorts, briefs and boxer briefs come in cheeky names such as Le Terrible, The Valiant, and, for the francophile tourist, The French Flag, a trio of underwear that comes in red, white and blue, the colours of the French flag. Where: 137 rue Vieille du Temple and 46 rue des Abbesses Price: The French Flag, 65 (about $103) Tea: Mariage Freres France has a long history and love affair with gourmet teas, starting with Mariage Freres, a premium brand birthed in Paris in 1854. Green, black and white teas leaves are carefully blended with aromas such as rose petals, ginger, lavender and citrus fruits to produce elegant brews that may involuntarily induce you to sip, pinky up. For the full experience, book a visit to the Mariage Freres salon in the Marais, which serves brunch, lunch, and afternoon tea. The classic signature Mariage Freres tea comes in a black canister in flavours such as Paris-Marais, Paris Breakfast Tea, and Vanille des Iles. Where: 30 Rue du Bourg Tibourg Price: Black canisters are around 15 (about $24) Luxury jam: Confiture Parisienne Jam is serious business in France as the everyday condiment that garnishes crepes and breakfast baguettes. Admittedly, though the price tag for Confiture Parisienne is steep 14 (about $22) a jar recipes are developed by a jam master who has worked with pastry maestro Pierre Herme and Michelin-starred chef Guy Savoy. The jams, which take two days to stew, are made in Paris with unrefined cane sugar and feature unique ingredient combinations, such as chestnut, pear and tonka bean; and carrot, vanilla and passion fruit. Pots are also deliberately painted white to protect the jams from light. Where: Epicerie du Bon Marche, Publicis Drugstore, Colette Price: 14 Poster of Paris Youre overworked, your kids are driving you crazy, and memories of your Paris vacation are fading into a sad, blurry, black and white movie. Hop on the growing trend of adult colouring therapy and pick up a giant poster of Paris that will allow you to turn your distant holiday memories back into a technicolour film. As you fill in the steeple of the Notre Dame Cathedral, remember the charming cafe nearby where you stopped for a glass of Syrah and let your stresses melt away. Where: La Boutique, the citys official souvenir shop, 29 rue de Rivoli Price: 20 (about $32) Vivian Song is a Canadian food and travel journalist in Paris and chronicles her French life on her blog viviansong.tumblr.com. Read more about: SHARE: Lorenda Foxs eyes well with tears as she describes the broken radiators and green mould growing around the windows in her Parkdale-area apartment. We are still here because we have nowhere else to go, she says as her 4-year-old son Keenan looks up at her. This place sucks my soul out every day. Fox, 32, was one of several tenants and supporters speaking at a weekend rally outside 103-105 West Lodge. Ave., near Queen St. W. and Jameson Ave. The rally was an attempt to get their landlord, Wynn Properties, to address outstanding repairs, lack of heat, rent increases and other problems in the two 19-storey towers. The complexs 720 units are home to more than 2,000 people. Fox, a single mother who suffers from severe anxiety and depression, survives on monthly welfare benefits of about $1,200 and pays $926 a month for her one-bedroom apartment at 103 West Lodge. She says she has received three rent notices for three different amounts. They want more money? For what? she asks, her voice rising with anger. Tenants have lodged more than 150 property standards complaints against the buildings in the past two years, according to Torontos municipal licensing and standards website. Inspectors have issued compliance orders in about one-third of those cases. Violations include lack of heat, pests, broken windows, balcony doors that dont close properly, broken kitchen cabinets, faulty electrical outlets, mould and leaky pipes. Five compliance orders issued between mid-November and mid-January remain outstanding, according to the website. Josephine Grech, who manages the two buildings on behalf of Wynn Properties, says the tenants complaints are not true. All the work orders are done, she said in an interview Tuesday. Wynn Properties did not respond to an email request from the Star for an interview. Tenant Paul Hapanovich, 48, and his partner Susan Minchin, 53, moved into their one-bedroom apartment at 103 West Lodge three years ago. But the heat has been so spotty they had to use their stove to keep warm for the first two years, they say. Since the couple work in the painting and home renovation field, they have been able to fix most of the problems in their unit themselves, including redoing the bathroom and sealing the baseboards and other cracks against cockroaches and other pests, Hapanovich says. But they wonder about tenants who arent able to do the work themselves. Making matters worse, constant rent increases and eviction notices have everyone on edge, Hapanovich says. He and Minchin, who have fought increases at the provincial Landlord and Tenant Board, pay $870 a month for their one-bedroom apartment. But there are immigrants and single parents in this building and they are scared and intimidated, he says. About 200 tenants have signed a petition demanding better attention to problems in the buildings, says Ashleigh Ingle, an area tenant with Organize Parkdale. The group, which has members in eight area buildings so far, hopes strength in numbers and rallies like the one on West Lodge will force landlords to live up to their responsibilities. Landlords are making us live in slum conditions to get us out so they can renovate and jack up the rent, says Ingle. But we say: no repairs, no rent. Area Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14, Parkdale-High Park) says the buildings are notorious for maintenance and property standards violations, with good years and bad years. In early 2014, the city condemned the underground parking garage due to flooding and other structural deficits, he notes. Saturdays rally was one of several in the area indicating a rise in tenant activism, he adds. Theres a vigorous new leadership among tenants in Parkdale defending one of the last affordable areas in downtown Toronto, and I am delighted, Perks says. For those of us who care about mixed-income neighbourhoods in the city, this is something we should all be supporting. Property Standards complaints at 103-105 West Lodge, February 2014 to February 2016 158 Investigations 58 Compliance orders 93 Property standards complaints 40 No heat complaints 17 Noise complaints Source: City of Toronto SHARE: If you take the treasurer at his word, and believe his numbers, this is Charles Sousas final deficit budget. Barring an economic cataclysm, Ontarios governing Liberals vow to bring in a balanced budget next year. As promised in the last provincial campaign. Unlike the federal Liberal government, which plans a hefty deficit in its own budget next month. As promised in the last federal election. Both are Liberal governments they speak the same language and talk to each other all the time. Why, then, are their budgets destined to be so many billions apart? What motivates Premier Kathleen Wynne to eliminate the provincial deficit by next year its pegged at $4.3 billion for 2016-17 amid so much economic doom and gloom? After all, Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus sunny ways will transform Ottawas finances from a projected balanced budget he inherited to a deficit in the range of $30 billion. Why the Canadian deficit disconnect? As they say in U.S. politics: Its the economy, stupid. The difference here isnt ideological, its geographical. While most other provinces are facing economic malaise, Ontario is thriving by comparison. When the country is hurting there are good reasons for fiscal stimulus bankrolled by deficit financing. But there is little reason to do it here now, beyond what Queens Park is already doing. Ontarios economy grew by a robust 2.5 per cent in 2015 (more than double the national average) and will keep growing faster than most provinces. The provincial unemployment rate has declined from 7.6 per cent in 2013 to 6.6 per cent this year, trending down to 6.1 per cent by 2019 (below the Canadian level). Thats the good news, but the budget news is that Ontario is weighed down by years of borrowing and a burgeoning debt. All the more reason to eliminate the deficit sooner rather than later. Having promised on the campaign trail to do so, Wynne is keen to maintain her political credibility, and Sousa is mindful of Ontarios precarious credit rating. But there are other good reasons for fiscal prudence. Provinces lack the economic levers and fiscal capacity that the federal government possesses to get the biggest bang for those borrowed bucks. With the Conservatives displaced by the Trudeau Liberals, Ottawa is better placed to shore up any stimulus that may or may not be needed. Ontario?s Liberal government is giving free tuition to university and college students from low-income families ? and taking more from motorists and homeowners through costlier gasoline and natural gas. Moreover, Ontario is already overextended. Its debt has doubled over the past decade to nearly $300 billion, costing us more than $11 billion a year in interest alone. That burden adds up to nearly 40 per cent of Ontarios total economic activity the highest debt to GDP ratio in decades. Ontario has allocated $137 billion over the next decade for transit, roads, hospitals, and schools investments that promise an economic multiplier with a social dividend. Thats good as far as it goes. But you can have too much of a good thing. If anyone wonders why Ontario doesnt go deeper into debt, the answer is it already has, for a long time. That fiscal reality didnt stop some members of Wynnes government from fighting an internal battle for more deficit spending this month, notably on health care. But Wynne, backed by Environment Minister Glen Murray at the cabinet table, concluded they could achieve their social goals in health, education, welfare and shelter without going further into debt. One reason for Murrays reticence was the knowledge that his ministry had laid the groundwork for an additional $1.9 billion a year in annual revenue a sin tax levied by stealth on companies for their carbon emissions in the fight against global warming. Under a cap-and-trade system that makes polluters pay, higher corporate costs will be passed on to consumers at the gas pump and on their natural gas bills. A tax by any name, cap and trade will be controversial, but is unavoidable after years of inaction. The government is also counting on a $2-billion injection from higher tax revenues and the partial privatization of Hydro One to reach its deficit target. But a balanced budget is not an end in itself; it also requires a political balancing act that weighs competing interests, not just interest rates. While waste may be as rife at Queens Park as in other governments, wage hikes have been constrained more than most. Since mid-2012, public sector pay raises in Ontario averaged 0.6 per cent, compared to 1.8 per cent municipally, 1.9 per cent in the private sector, and 1.7 per cent federally. Public sector unions routinely call for increased salaries as a way to stimulate the economy. But the record shows that wage restraint did not stand in the way of Ontarios recovery. Instead, we are benefiting from a strengthening U.S. recovery and a weakening Canadian dollar (worth just under 74 cents), which have together stimulated manufacturing exports far more than any government policy. All the more reason for Ontario to focus on getting its finances in order, conserving cash in good times. So that it can be ready when bad times inevitably return. More on thestar.com: Ontario budget lowers post-secondary tuition while hiking gas costs Crunching the numbers in Ontario's 2016 budget Ontario cracks down on underground economy, goes after tax cheats What the 2016 Ontario budget means for you Martin Regg Cohns Ontario politics column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. mcohn@thestar.ca , Twitter: @reggcohn Read more about: SHARE: By now its clear that Bernie Sanders is never really going to attack Hillary Clinton at least not with the kind of aggressive language that many of his supporters would like to see him use. For whatever reason tactical, moral, or just ingrained good manners Sanders has chosen the high ground of policy and argument over the hardline style favoured by political consultants. The only time Ive noticed Sanders angry enough to hit back decisively at Clintons sniping when she compared him with Republican critics of President Barack Obama he was characteristically polite: Madame Secretary, he said, that is a low blow. Yet Clintons misleading claims about herself particularly her pretensions to being a progressive Democrat beg for a tougher response, no matter how much of a gentleman Sanders wishes to appear. Last weeks Town Hall in Las Vegas was typical. After expressing apparent wonderment that Sanders would criticize her husband or Obama, she declared, Maybe its that Sen. Sanders wasnt really a Democrat until he decided to run for office. The remark sounded clever, given Sanders claim to being a socialist independent. But maybe Hillary Clinton wasnt really a progressive, or even a liberal Democrat, until Bernie Sanders decided to run for president. Hillary and Bill Clinton are famously a political couple, an entry as its known in the vernacular. Their journey from supporters of the antiwar Senators Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern to friends of Wall Street grandees like Roger Altman and Steven Rattner is well documented. Nevertheless, Bill Clinton still does a pretty good impersonation of a progressive as in his eulogy at Eugene McCarthys memorial service. So does Hillary Clinton. But it all rings hollow, since the Clintons long ago accommodated themselves to the money powers rather than fighting them. Scholars of the Clinton years in Arkansas can argue over what the young Governor Clinton was trying to accomplish in a southern state not known for liberal values. But Hillarys willingness to serve for six years on the board of Walmart while her husband was governor is certainly evidence of a couple intent on advertising its openness to corporate and conservative values. Once in the White House, the Clintons had a choice of how to launch their new administration. To be fair, Hillary wanted to address health care first, but Bill insisted on NAFTA. Whatever one may think of free trade as a theory, the way the Clintons practiced it has led to a huge industrial dislocation: factory closures all over the country and hundreds of thousands of jobs Barack Obama claimed a million transferred to cheap labour Mexico. NAFTA was the beginning of the end for organized labour in the United States, but with the next Clinton trade initiative, Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China, passed in 2000, U.S. companies raced to communist China as if it were the California gold rush. This record does not exactly square with the story of a Clinton couple holding aloft the mantle of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. I have reported extensively on NAFTA and PNTR and am unaware of any public statement Hillary Clinton ever made against her husbands trade and labour policies. The Clintons retreat from the principles epitomized by the Roosevelts continued with the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a regulatory hallmark of the New Deal aimed at discouraging the kind of bank speculation that brought on the crash of 2008. The administrations 1996 welfare reform bill deprived millions of poor people, most of them minority women, of much-needed government subsidies and was praised by the unprogressive Newt Gingrich as a major, major achievement. I dont find Hillary protesting those achievements. And then theres universal health care, abandoned as a goal during the Clinton Administration, and which Hillary now says is unrealistic. It might very well be if youve taken $495,807 in campaign donations from the insurance business and $1,135,218 from pharmaceutical interests. But you say that Hillary, as a feminist, has a right to be judged on her own record, not her husbands. What Bernie Sanders cant say, because he is a gentleman, is that Hillary Clintons career as a politician unlike, say, Elizabeth Warrens does not exist without her husband, either as Senator, or as Secretary of State, or as a possible President. Its not easy getting on the ballot, whether you grew up left-wing in Brooklyn, like Bernie Sanders, or Republican in Illinois, like Hillary Clinton. John R. MacArthur is the publisher of Harpers Magazine. Read more about: SHARE: Many progressive political observers are feeling increasingly bummed out by Donald Trumps success in the Republican primaries. How, they ponder, does he seemingly grow stronger with every hate-filled tirade against Muslims or Mexicans? How can such naked bigotry flourish in a country that endlessly beats the drum of freedom and human rights? The answer, of course, is that Americas claims to equality and freedom are lies. On the contrary, the U.S. exists as it does today because of its adherence to the racist, colonial ideas Trump is expressing. Mainstream politicians are helpless in condemning racism because they rely on the same racist notions of patriotism and exceptionalism as the bigots. Republicans running against Trump in the primaries know he is an unapologetic racist, but cant say it. They have all invested heavily in the anger of their racist political base, particularly during the tenure of Barack Obama, the countrys first black president. The evasive language Republicans use to address Trumps racism is telling. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who recently suspended his presidential bid, called Trumps musings about banning Muslims from immigrating to the U.S., and monitoring current Muslim residents, as unhinged and not serious. Bush has also praised the mass surveillance of American Muslims as a necessary step to make sure that evildoers aren't in our midst. Ohio governor John Kasich, who argues that the United States has a right to build a wall between itself and Mexico, characterized Trumps rhetoric as divisive. Even former Republican vice president Dick Cheney, a staunch defender of torture, has found the nerve to say Trumps rhetoric goes against everything we stand for and believe in. Cheney and Co. argue, unconvincingly, that Trumps popular appeal is a blip in an otherwise progressive American story of freedom and acceptance. Democrats are just as reliant on racist American myths, and strain themselves to condemn Trump while insisting his values are anything but American. That crap is never going to work in the United States of America, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said of Trumps bigotry. But that crap has always worked in America, and is working again spectacularly to boost Trump. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has made equally bizarre references to patriotism in response to Trump. She referenced none other than George Washington, the nations founding president and a slave owner, who said in 1790 that the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. In the same fundraising letter, Clinton praised Americas Muslims who serve in the military, save lives as doctors and nurses, and serve our communities as police officers, firefighters, teachers, and civic leaders. The message from Democrats is clear: we defend the targets of Trumps hatred, not because they are human beings, but because we assume they accept the myths of American exceptionalism. Democrats are desperate to characterize Trumps positions as un-American because they value a mythical American-ness, where everyone is included, over the realities of racial, ethnic, and religious minority groups. Canadians know what this looks like we saw it last March as Justin Trudeau was setting the stage for his victory against then prime minister Stephen Harper. Trudeau called Harpers vilification of Canadas Muslims through policy and rhetoric an attempt to play on peoples fears and foster prejudice, directly toward the Muslim faith. Trudeau continued, This is not the spirit of Canadian liberty, my friends. Ironically, Trudeau linked Harpers rhetoric to well-known instances of systemic racism in Canadas history: the expulsion of Indian refugees on the Komagata Maru, the internment of Japanese people, the ongoing government mistreatment of Canadas indigenous peoples. Trudeau said such events showed that Conservatives had fallen a long way from the era of John A. MacDonald. This tribute ignores the fact that MacDonald viewed indigenous people as noble savages living off the soil, and proclaimed that Chinese people were unfit to vote because they possessed no British instincts or British feelings or aspirations. The problem is not simply that most politicians avoid the term racism to describe modern examples of targeted hatred, but that they insist that the consistent cultural manifestation of that hatred is an accident, a misrepresentation of true patriotic values. Toronto writer Rusaba Alam argues that characterizing inclusion and compassion as essentially and even uniquely Canadian qualities is of limited value in uncovering the roots of racism in Canada and reducing violence and bigotry in the future. All politicians who deny that racism is embedded in the fabric of their country are fighting on the same team, and cannot be expected to defend minority groups over national myths. Desmond Cole is a Toronto-based journalist. His column appears every Thursday. Read more about: SHARE: The next six days are critical for Marco Rubio if he has any chance at the Republican presidential nomination. At least for now, though, things seem to be looking up for the man known as #RobotRubio. The conservative Florida senator can take solace from edging rival Texas Senator Ted Cruz for second-place finishes in Nevada and South Carolina over the past 10 days. He's also been racking-up high-profile endorsements from nationally-known Republican senators like Orrin Hatch and GOP's 1996 nominee, former Kansas Senator Bob Dole. And he's apparently won the support of the Koch Brothers' network of political operatives and deep pockets of "dark money" which initially backed Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Politico reported this week that Marc Short, the Koch brothers' top political adviser in Washington, has joined the Rubio campaign. Rubio's fundraising has also picked-up support from Wall Street. Yet, before voters in 11 states including Texas vote on Tuesday, Rubio needs a solid debate performance Thursday night in Houston, when the five remaining Republican candidates face-off in a gathering hosted by CNN. Rubio still needs to put some distance from his embarrassing debate performance three weeks ago when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made him stammer as he infamously repeated the exact same prepared line four times in about 20 minutes. That was a hard one to play down. Nonetheless, Rubio has finally emerged as the preferred choice of the party's leaders in part because he's not Donald Trump or Cruz, who famously has few real friends in the U.S. senate. "Senator Rubio is on the right track with that message of 'I can put together a winning coalition'," said Eric Woolson, a Des Moines Republican who had been working on Walker campaign. "He's going to bring in more young voters, maybe more women, though Mr. Trump is doing okay with women. But Republicans want a winner, and Rubio is one who could unify the party." But What About Trump? Trump's success at securing the lead among Republicans reveals a leadership -- elected officials and intellectuals -- that have underestimated the frustration that conservative voters feel about their jobs and communities and Washington politicians. "Trump is telling people he knows how the system works, he doesn't need Super PAC money and he can be their savior," Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Texas, said in a phone interview. "It's a very populist message, a message you're more likely to hear in a Latin American election, in places like Argentina, Bolivia or Ecuador." But this is the U.S. in 2016. Ironically, Rubio's conservative record has largely failed to tap into the angst of a large segment of the Republican electorate. Rubio's problem, Jones emphasized, is that he's become the Establishment candidate despite a record that is more conservative than 77% of Republicans serving in Congress this term, according to analysis by FiveThirtyEight. Rubio is proposing tax cuts twice as large as those of George W. Bush, cuts that would equal 2.6% of U.S. GDP, according to the Tax Policy Center. (Bush's cuts equaled 1.4%). He proposes ending taxation of investment income, a favorite demand of hedge fund managers and wealthy individuals. He also wants to lower the corporate tax rate to 25% from 35% despite economic evidence that cutting taxes on the wealthy doesn't necessarily lead to growth. Rubio rejects most curbs on domestic spying by the National Security Administration, has a perfect score from the National Rifle Association, opposes gay marriage and a women's right to choose whether to have an abortion and has called for freezing government spending on everything but the military and veterans' care at 2008 levels. "It is ironic that we're referring to Marco Rubio as the Establishment candidate when his record is that of a movement or Tea Party conservative," Jones added. "But running against Trump and Cruz, Rubio is no longer the outsider. He has two people who are further to the outside than he is. Trump is the ultimate outsider candidate and there isn't anyone in the U.S. senate who is more of an outsider than Ted Cruz." Rubio and Immigration Nothing has hurt Rubio's campaign quite like his inability to explain to Republicans why he helped draft the 2013 "Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act" that passed the senate with support from Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham. The words "immigration reform" and "amnesty" have become verboten in the GOP race. To be sure, Rubio was arguably following through a call by Republican party leaders following Mitt Romney's 2012 defeat to appeal to Latino voters. But 2016 is far from 2012 and supporting immigration reform has proved to be an albatross he can't shake. The right-wing National Review was unequivocal: Support for the 2012 bill is a deal-breaker. Conversely, Trump won early and enthusiastic support by calling Mexicans "rapists" who traffic in crime and drugs. Trump's nativism is in contrast to unspoken truth that "a large number of Trump supporters will not rally to a Cuban," referring to the Cuban-Americans Rubio and Cruz, wrote the conservative media personality Erick Erickson earlier this week on his blog, The Resurgent. Clearly, Rubio needs some wins on Super Tuesday. At a minimum, he needs higher tallies than Cruz while hoping Trump wins in Texas. Were Cruz to lose Texas, he may be forced out of the race. "As this field narrows, the party is going to coalesce behind whoever the nominee may be," Woolson said. "For Rubio, that means widening his base and showing that he can win in November." Editors' Pick: Originally published Feb. 25. Vermont Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has a plan to end too-big-to-fail banks -- and it could be good news for community banks, which have suffered from heavy regulations designed for big banks. Sanders has spoken about breaking up some of the biggest commercial banks and establishing a 21st-century version of the Glass-Steagall Act, the early 20th century legislation that limited certain types of commercial banking activity. First, he has to win the election. If elected president, he said that he would disassemble some of the largest banks within one year and reduce the systemic risk they pose to the financial system. But a byproduct of his proposals could help the beleaguered community banking system. It's an interesting potential scenario but clearly a long shot. The self-described socialist has run a feisty campaign against the odds-on favorite Hillary Clinton but also trails in most national polls. According to the Harvard Business Review, since 1994, the share of the U.S. lending business controlled by community banks has "fallen by approximately half -- from 41% to 22% -- while the top five largest banks' share has more than doubled -- from 17% to 41%." When compared to big banks, community banks have been finding themselves "too small to succeed." Even JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon seemed to acknowledge that big banks have the upper hand. In a 2013 conversation with a Citi financial services analyst in 2013, Dimon said that "higher capital rules" and other regulations would "tend to make it tougher for smaller players to enter the market, effectively widening JPM's moat." The Independent Community Bankers of America, a non-partisan trade association that doesn't endorse presidential candidates and represents more than 6,000 banks nationwide has commented on the Sanders plan. ICBA President and CEO Camden Fine said in an article in May 2015, "ICBA agrees that the too-big-to-fail mega-banks are too big to exist. After triggering a historic financial crisis and receiving trillions of dollars in taxpayer assistance, the nation's largest and riskiest financial institutions continue to pose systemic threats to our economy while enjoying an artificial funding advantage subsidized by taxpayers." Community banks suffered from loan losses from construction and development lending during the 2008 financial crisis. Many of them have had difficulty weathering the costs of compliance tied to regulations created with big banks in mind. Over the last seven years, one of every four community banks has disappeared but the biggest banks have gotten larger. Sanders plans to make banking more affordable and less complicated. Sanders also supports Glass-Steagall-type regulation that would limit or prevent traditional banking activities from engaging in investment banking type activities with higher risk. Sanders detractors say that big banks are not the real problem. They say that big banks are crucial for the financial system. They also say that community banks lack the resources to support global projects and mergers that can boost the economy. Some also say that Dodd-Frank regulations are already sufficiently addressing the issue of too big to fail and reducing systemic risk. Yet Sanders' goals may be laudable, at least insofar as their ability to help community banks. According to a report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, local banks outperform their bigger competitors on several key measures of efficiency and profitability. These smaller banks provide 77% of agricultural loans and over 50% of small business loans. Then again, Sanders faces a big challenge in implementing his plans, none bigger than winning the election. He's lost three of the first four primary contests to Clinton, and few pundits think he will go on to win the Democratic nomination, let alone the election. This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned. On Thursday, Feb. 25, investors will be keeping a close eye on quarterly results from Kraft Heinz (KHC) and several retail stocks, including Best Buy (BBY) and Kohl's (KSS) . Kraft Heinz is a holding of Action Alerts PLUS, the charitable trust portfolio managed by TheStreet's Jim Cramer. "The key thing driving this entire story is the merger between Kraft and Heinz," said Scott Berman, a portfolio analyst with the charitable trust. "I don't think we're going to see actual results from that this quarter, because it just closed last quarter, but we'll be looking for an update on their margin expansion efforts." Kraft Heinz will post earnings after the markets close. Best Buy reports results on Thursday before the markets open. Analysts expect the electronics company to report earnings per share of $1.39 on sales of about $13.61 billion. Kohl's also posts earnings before the opening bell, with analysts looking for net income of $1.56 a share on sales of about $6.4 billion. The aforementioned retailers are important gauges of consumer health, especially as consumers have been reluctant to spend the stimulus from low gasoline prices over the past 18 months. Other earnings to watch for include Domino's Pizza (DPZ) , which reports in the morning, and Herbalife (HLF) , released after the markets close. Meanwhile, investors will monitoring remarks from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart, who will be speaking at a conference in Atlanta at 8:15 a.m. ET. The markets are on edge about the timing of the Fed's next rate hike, which may be delayed amid the recent volatility in the stock market. Durable goods orders for January and weekly jobless claims are both released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Monster Beverage (MNST) , the Corona, Calif.-based parent of a number of energy drink brands, has agreed to acquire American Fruits & Flavors for $690 million, Monster said on Tuesday. The Pacoima, Calif.-based company is a key supplier of flavors to Monster Beverage and will add $87 million of adjusted operating income for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, according to the buyer. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016, and locks in the rights to or intellectual property of the flavors of many of Monster Beverage's key drinks, such as its flagship Monster Energy line of drinks. Control of the supply chain allows Monster to "accelerate growth through R&D, improve margins, and reduce supply chain risk," analyst Bonnie Herzog of Wells Fargo Securities wrote in a Tuesday note. "We view today's announcement as the integration of two companies that have enjoyed a tremendously symbiotic relationship over many years," said Fred Farago, founder and president of American Fruits & Flavors, in a statement. Monster Beverage and American Fruits & Flavors have been partners since the mid-1990s, according to the statement, developing new products and flavors. "Not only have we secured the intellectual property of our flagship green energy drink and many of our other key flavors, but we are also partnering with an organization I have personally worked with and known for over 20 years," said Rodney Sacks, CEO of Monster, in a statement. "This transaction provides Monster a unique opportunity to leverage new flavor technologies and differentiate ourselves from our largest competitors who do not have these capabilities." The flavor supplier has seen its revenue grow by a compound annual growth rate of 8% over the last four years, with Monster Beverage as its largest customer accounting for 87% of its revenue. Monster expects the deal to add to earnings in 2016, it said. American Fruits was founded in 1962 by Fred Farago and today is an industrial supplier of flavors, juices, concentrates, natural sweeteners and fruit-based products. The company has the capability to develop custom flavors for companies. Monster Beverage, meanwhile, is the parent to and marketer of beverage brands such as Monster Energy, Java Monster and Muscle Monster, among many others. Atlanta-based beverage giant Coca-Cola (KO) took a nearly 16.7% stake in Monster Beverage in 2014, which it still owns, for $2.2 billion to increase its hold on the beverage market That deal, combined with the American Fruits & Flavors acquisition, leads to the potential for faster-than-expected international expansion, particularly "via the Coca-Cola systems' world-class distribution network." By Herzog's calculations, Monster has about a 10% share of the global energy market, which could double in the next 5-8 years, including a conservative estimate that Monster will capture 8% of the energy market in China by 2020. -- Laura Berman contributed to this report. NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- SunEdison (SUNE) stock is increasing by 34.92% to $1.70 in late-afternoon trading Thursday after Vivint Solar (VSLR) shareholders approved the board's plan to be acquired by SunEdison in a $1.9 billion deal. Shares spiked as much as 38% earlier today in SunEdison's biggest intraday gain since November 24, according to Bloomberg. The investors voted to approve the takeover with 100 million votes for and 101,000 against the deal, Bloomberg adds. Under the terms of the merger, SunEdison's TerraForm Power (TERP) yieldco is supposed to buy 470 megawatts of Vivint's assets for $799 million, although David Tepper's Appaloosa Management is suing to block the purchase. The hedge fund owns a 9.5% stake in TerraForm Power, and argues that the transaction benefits SunEdison more than the yieldco. Additionally, BTG Pactual and Brazilian private equity firm Patria are suing the renewable energy company for $150 million after SunEdison backed out of a power company sale in October, Reuters reports, citing the Valor Economico newspaper. The two companies are hoping to be compensated for investments they made to prepare Latin American Power to be sold to SunEdison in a $733 million deal, Reuters adds. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates the stock as a "sell" with a ratings score of D. SunEdison's strengths weaknesses include its generally high debt management risk, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in its earnings per share. You can view the full analysis from the report here: SUNE TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this article's author. SUNE data by YCharts We're in for the first Jeb!-less Republican presidential debate tonight, and it's going to be a good one. The GOP's White House contenders will meet in Houston Thursday evening for their latest showdown -- the last before Super Tuesday, when 595 Republican delegates are up for grabs. With five candidates on stage, the debate will be the party's smallest yet, and perhaps its most contentious. After racking up victories in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada in recent weeks, real estate magnate and former reality television star Donald Trump has emerged as the race's clear frontrunner, leaving many party leaders dismayed and his competitors scrambling to get an edge. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who has been Trump's top rival in early debates, has dropped out of the race. So this time around, it will be up to Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich and Ben Carson to take on the man whose nomination some believe would tear the Republican Party apart. Rubio, who is widely perceived as the party's last chance to foil a Trump nod, has largely avoided direct confrontation with the boisterous billionaire in previous showdowns. But on Thursday, he might finally be forced to come head-to-head with Trump. His comments on the campaign trail indicate he is already preparing his fire. The Florida senator attacked Trump by name at a Houston rally Wednesday, reports NBC News, specifically focusing on Obamacare and Israel. "The frontrunner in this race, Donald Trump, has said he's not going to take sides on Israel versus the Palestinians because he wants to be an honest broker," Rubio said. "Well, there is no such thing as an honest broker in that. Because the Palestinian Authority, which has strong links to terror, they teach little kids that it's a glorious thing to kill Jews." He also criticized Trump's refusal to provide detailed plans on things like foreign policy, warning, "You deserve to know exactly what the next commander-in-chief is going to do." Thursday's GOP debate will kick off on CNN at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. TheStreet will be covering the event live on social media via Facebook and Twitter at @TSTPolitics and @TheStreet. Here are five things to look out for. 1. Will Rubio and Cruz Focus Fire on Trump? Senators Cruz and Rubio have largely focused their attacks on one another in recent months, and as the two contenders best-poised to rival Trump for the Republican nomination, they're continuing to duke it out. On Thursday, the pair may be better served by training at least some of their ammo on the GOP frontrunner, but will they? During Wednesday's candidate forum on Fox News, in which Trump did not participate, both senators worked to cast themselves as the best candidate to take him on. Cruz referenced Iowa, contending that his was "the only campaign to beat Donald." Rubio pledged that his camp "would not allow the conservative movement to be defined by a nominee who isn't a conservative" and said "I've been an underdog my entire life." As mentioned, Rubio has largely avoided direct confrontation with Trump. Cruz, on the other hand, has sparred with the billionaire on numerous occasions, on issues ranging from Cruz's eligibility for the presidency to Trump's alleged "New York values." At the Houston debate, Rubio and Cruz will be out to prove they are the better choice to take on Trump, and they'll have to do so not only by attacking one another but also by taking on the man himself. 2. Will Candidates Change Their Messages on Issues Important to Latinos? During the last presidential debate, Rubio and Cruz, both of Cuban descent, shared an exchange over their Spanish-language prowess (Rubio speaks fluent Spanish, Cruz doesn't). Thursday, we may see a bit more -- because the event will mark the only RNC-sanctioned Republican debate aired in Spanish this election cycle. The showdown, dubbed with real-time translation, will air live on Telemundo and its YouTube channel, and it will feature network anchor Maria Celeste Arras, who is from Puerto Rico, as a moderator, joining Wolf Blitzer, Hugh Hewitt and Dana Bash. In an interview with Variety, Arras stressed the need for Republicans to talk to Latinos during the election. "This is a voting block that has incredible power," she said. She also addressed the issue of immigration, which has been front and center this election cycle but not always in a way that is likely to appeal to Latino voters. "This time by having Telemundo in the room they know they're speaking directly to Hispanics," she said. "It will be a matter of wait-and-see if they soften up [their messages] or stand their ground. The medium is going to be different; we will see if the message is going to be different." Trump, who kicked off his White House bid by making disparaging remarks about Mexicans and has repeatedly called for a border wall and mass deportation, will face an especially tough Hispanic crowd. According to a Washington Post-Univision News poll, the real estate magnate has the highest negative ratings of any major GOP hopeful among the group. Moreover, in a matchup with likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, he loses the Hispanic vote by 73% to 16%. 3. Will Trump Talk Tax Returns? The ghost of elections past that is Mitt Romney has come out of the woodwork this week in search of Trump's tax returns. "I think we have good reason to believe that there's a bombshell in Donald Trump's taxes," the 2012 Republican presidential nominee said in an interview with Fox News Wednesday. "Either he is not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is or he hasn't been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay or perhaps he hasn't been giving money to the vets or the disabled like he has been telling us he's been doing." Trump quickly hit back on Twitter. "Mitt Romney, who totally blew an election that should have been won and whose tax returns made him look like a fool, is now playing a tough guy," he wrote, in separate tweets calling the former Massachusetts governor "awkward," "goofy," a "dope" and "one of the dumbest and worst candidates in the history of Republican politics." Thus far, Trump doesn't appear to be interested in releasing his tax returns, and at Thursday's debate, the issue will likely come up. Will he give in? According to one of his recent tweets, maybe his tax returns would be too hard to figure out anyway. 4. Does Kasich Make His Case for Staying In? Ohio Governor Kasich has painted himself as a beacon of optimism on the campaign trail, casting his campaign as one of positivity and light in comparison to the negative bids run by his rivals. But the last governor standing in the race has yet to make a real dent in the polls -- according to a RealClearPolitics average, he has just 9.3% support nationally. And as the GOP establishment puts on the pressure for him to drop out of the race, he needs to make the case for staying in. Kasich has reiterated on numerous occasions in recent days that he has no intention of throwing in the towel just yet. "I intend to go all the way, be the nominee, and I intend to beat Hillary Clinton," he toldFox's Megyn Kelly Wednesday evening. "This is what I'm supposed to do, and I'm doing it all out." The governor is hoping to stay alive through Super Tuesday and banking on voting in Midwest states like Michigan and Ohio to propel his candidacy. Thursday, he'll have to convince GOP leaders and voters that he's right to keep waiting it out. 5. What's Up with Ben Carson? Carson is the Republican race's new Jim Gilmore in that most of the time it's easy to forget he's still in the race. The retired neurosurgeon is polling last among remaining candidates nationally and is widely considered a non-contender among pundits. So why is he still hanging around? In a campaign email to supporters Wednesday, the Carson camp acknowledged "we did not finished where we had hoped" in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada and noted Super Tuesday will likely be a make-or-break moment for his presidential bid. "Without a strong showing, it's going to be very tough for my campaign," the email reads. Thursday's debate will be final chance for Carson to speak to voters and attempt to keep his campaign afloat. He'll start out on the right foot if he can figure out getting onto the debate stage when his name is called. No matter what happens, one thing is for certain: We'll miss you, Jeb! Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 44F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 44F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Debate another chance for Rubio, Cruz to try to slow Trump Israeli Defense minister Moshe Yaalon, left, and his Cypriot counterpart Fotis Fotiou give statements to the media after their meeting at the Defense ministry in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. Israels defense minister is accusing Iran of building an international terror network that includes sleeper cells stockpiling arms, intelligence and operatives that are ready to strike on command in places including Europe and the U.S. Yaalon says Iran aims to destabilize the Middle East and other parts of the world and is training, funding and arming emissaries to spread revolution. He also says Tehran is the anchor of a dangerous axis that includes Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, Saana and other cities in the region. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias) FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015 file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hand with Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Wednesday Feb. 24, 2016 with key players in the Syria conflict, including President Bashar Assad, ahead of a U.S.-Russia-engineered cease-fire, as the opposition voiced concerns that the truce due to begin later this week will only benefit the Syrian government. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File) Recover your password. A password will be e-mailed to you. [COMMUNICATED CONTENT] By Dovid Grossman Rabbi Tzion Menachem, a world renowned Mekubal from Eretz Yisroel, will be arriving in New York to meet with people who are seeking guidance and assistance in numerous matters. He meets people facing all sorts of difficulties and gives them chizuk, strengthening them and thus enabling them to face challenges. Whether it is children who are off-the-derech, issues of marriage or parnassa, Rav Menachem seems to give consistent and solid direction and advice that many people understand as truly miraculous. Aside from being a Mekubal, Rav Menachem is a Rav in Elad where he has a shul and a Kollel Choshain Mishpat where his students study to be dayanim. Rav Menachem is an extraordinary Talmic Chachom as well as a great Mekubal and Tzaddik. Rav Menachem has also authored a commentary on shaar ruach hakodesh of Rav Chaim Vitals classic Kabbalistic work entitled Etz Chaim. Rav Menachem had studied under the great Kabbalistic luminaries of our generation, HaRav Yoseph Dayan ztl and HaRav Mordechai Sharabi ztl. It is said that virtually everyone who merits to see him and receives his advice, whether it has to do with medical issues, business issues, family matters or anything else is so impressed that they recommend Rav Menachem to ten friends. The following is a typical letter and experience. It was written by the son of a very famous Askan: Around two years ago my bas yechidah began experiencing discomfort with her legs. I wont go into detail but we constantly visited doctors to no avail. As time went on her condition worsened. At the end of last year her legs began buckling. This became a regular occurrence and she got used to it happening. This is when my story begins; In mid May 2015 on a Sunday when my daughter stumbled into our house crying. A heaviness had crept into her legs and by the time she got home she lost sensation in some parts and had little in the rest. I hurriedly took her to the doctor. After countless hours we knew she needed the hospital. She spent 15 hours undergoing tests with no results. There was nothing visibly wrong with her and the doctors said it was probably a one time thing. Fast forward. The next day my daughter buckled and she fell down a large ight of stairs. I knew she couldnt go on like this and hurried to another hospital. We spent a week there. In the beginning it was nerve racking knowing that my daughter might have a serious illness. But I knew that it wasnt in my hands. After the rst few days we all breathed a sigh of relief when all serious issues were ruled out, however we were still anxious about the fact that her legs were still numb and developed a numbness in her arm. At the end of a long week with no answers, we had only one more test which would be done as an outpatient. My daughter left the hospital in a wheelchair. Thats when my father-in-law called me to ask for my daughters full name. About a half hour after we came home my father-in-law called me again. He had spoken to Rav Tzion Menachem shlita, a Rav and Rosh Kollel from Elad, a city in Eretz Yisroel. He told us that we had closed a window in our home 2 years ago and that is what caused all the problems. With shock we recalled that most certainly we had left a hole in the wall but we had stuccoed on our home two years ago and sure enough the hole which once was, was no longer. With bated breath I quickly called someone down to drill a hole in my wall. Unbelievably very soon after the hole was drilled my daughter started gasping and crying as the sensation began returning to her legs. With tears streaming down our faces I together with my family watched her stand up and walk on her own. The gratitude and feelings of shevach vhodaah to Hakadosh Baruch Hu for sending us such a shaliach are indescribable. Rabbi Tzion Menachem Shlita will be available in New York between February 28th and March 9th. For an appointment please call: 347 585 1846. In a ceremony recently at the headquarters of the Binyamin Brigade, several soldiers of the Netzach Yehuda (Nachal Chareidi), who in the recent months neutralized several terror attacks in the area, were awarded certificates of merit. At the same time, the battalion was also chosen the Kfir Brigades outstanding battalion for the month of January, which was a very busy month in terms of security activity, in light of the ongoing terror outburst. Soldiers of the battalion, who in the past weeks neutralized several terror attacks in the area, were awarded certificates of merit during the ceremony, which was held in the presence of the commanders and the soldiers families. Among the terror attacks that were neutralized were the 3 vehicle attacks which took place at the checkpoint near Ofra and the terror attack in the Romeima neighborhood in Jerusalem, which was neutralized by a soldier of the battalion, in an action which later awarded him with a certificate of appreciation from the Jerusalem Police Chief. During the ceremony, Colonel Israel Shomer, commander of the Binyamin Brigade congratulated the troops for their courage and praised their families for raising children who are willing to give their lives for the security and protection of Am Israel. Further, the battalion received praises as part of an internal report conducted at the Kfir Brigade headquarters, initiated by the commander Colonel Guy Hazut. The report measured the brigades battalions according to various operational criteria throughout a period of several months. In this framework, the Nachal Chareidi received the highest scores and was chosen the brigades outstanding battalion for that month. For the last several months, the Netzach Yehuda has been stationed in the sector of northern Binyamin and the Gush Shilo area, where several terror attacks occurred during the current outburst of terror, including the attacks which took the lives of Dani Gonen HYD and Malachi Moshe Rosenfeld HYD at the start of the current wave of terror attacks. During this time, soldiers of the battalion thwarted and neutralized several vehicle, stabbing and shooting attacks in the area. During the last month of December, soldiers of the battalion thwarted five terror attacks in the area of northern Binyamin, three vehicle attacks and two stabbing attacks. In addition, the soldiers neutralized five more terrorists who were operating under the cover of civilian demonstrations taking place in the area. This Award of excellence joins the battalions impressive list of awards, received in the last several years. Along with the Binyamin Brigade and the Kfir Brigade awards, the battalion has also received the Chief of Staff Citation, the Head of Technology and Logistics Award, the Ground forces Command Award and the Headquarters Officer Paratroopers & Infantry Award. Last year, the battalions reserves unit received the Presidents Award as well. Rabbi Tzvi Klebanow, Co-Founder and President of the Nachal Chareidi Foundation (Amutat Netzach Yehuda), says that The battalions soldiers courage and hard work are demonstrated in each sector the battalion is stationed at. Bsiyata Dishmaya, soldiers of the battalion are working day and night to maintain the civilian daily life in the sector and Im glad to see that their hard work is also demonstrated by their success in achieving great accomplishments, receiving praises from the heads of the brigade. We will continue to stand firm in the face of the threats opposing us, while maintaining that path and values of the Torah, which the soldiers keep at all times. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) President Barack Obama urged the Republican-run Senate on Wednesday to fulfill its constitutional responsibility and consider his Supreme Court nominee, pushing back on GOP leaders who insist there will be no hearing or vote when he names a successor to the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Obama, in a post on the legal blog SCOTUSblog, offered his most expansive description of the qualities he is seeking in a nominee: a sterling record, a deep respect for the judiciarys role and an understanding of how the law affects real people. He emphasized his duty under the Constitution to select justices for the high court, a message aimed squarely at Senate Republicans. I hope theyll move quickly to debate and then confirm this nominee so that the Court can continue to serve the American people at full strength, Obama said. Obamas rebuttal, headlined A responsibility I take seriously, came a day after Senate Republicans delivered an extraordinary election-year rebuff by insisting that voters Novembers election and the next president hold the authority to replace Scalia. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that his 54-member GOP caucus was united against taking any step in the Senates advise and consent process. The Judiciary Committee will not hold confirmation hearings for the nominee. The committee and the full Senate will not vote. A few Republicans, including McConnell, said they would not even meet with the nominee when that person makes introductions on Capitol Hill. Why would I? Weve made the decision, said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a committee member. In his post Wednesday, Obama tried to quell conservative concerns that he would choose an unabashedly liberal who would upend the courts balance. He said he would pick someone who recognized the courts limits and knows that a judges job is to interpret law, not make it. I seek judges who approach decisions without any particular ideology or agenda, but rather a commitment to impartial justice, a respect for precedent, and a determination to faithfully apply the law to the facts at hand, Obama said. The president also said the law isnt clear in all cases that reach the high court. He said he was looking for someone whose life experience outside the court would allow that person to understand how decisions affect the daily reality of peoples lives in a big, complicated democracy. There will be cases in which a judges analysis necessarily will be shaped by his or her own perspective, ethics, and judgment, he wrote. Republicans are adamant they will not budge. McConnell won unanimous public backing from the 11 Republicans on the committee, and he told reporters, In short, there will not be action taken. Still, Obama said he would announce a nominee in the next few weeks. Filling the vacancy left by Scalias unexpected death on Feb. 13 is crucial because the Supreme Court now has a 4-4 ideological split between justices who are usually conservative and its liberal wing. The battle has invigorated both sides interest groups and voters who focus on abortion, immigration and other issues before the court. He hasnt seen the pressure thats going to build, Sen. Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said when asked if he thinks McConnell might relent. Its going to build in all facets of the political constituency and the country. After meeting privately with GOP senators for the first time since Scalias death, McConnell and other leaders said rank-and-file Republicans were overwhelmingly behind the decision to quickly halt the nomination process. Why even put that ball on the field? Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said of hearings. All youre going to do is fumble it. Let the people decide. Moderate Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who faces a tough re-election race this fall, are among the few whove voiced support for at least holding hearings on an Obama nominee. Democrats are hoping that other Republican senators facing re-election in states Obama won twice New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will relent over time or face retribution from voters. Since the Senate started routinely referring presidential nominations to committees for action in 1955, every Supreme Court nominee not later withdrawn has received a Judiciary Committee hearing, according to the Senate Historical Office. In remarks Tuesday at Georgetown University law school, Justice Samuel Alito sounded resigned to spending the rest of this year in a court whose members are locked in a 4-4 tie. We will deal with it, Alito answered when asked about Republicans resolve to oppose anyone Obama nominates. (AP) According to reports from IDF Prison 6, the commander of the facility, which is located in Atlit, is known for his disdain for Kodshei Yisrael, and this is the introduction to this most painful story, which BH does not reflect the overwhelming number of commanders serving in the IDF. According to the Kol Yehudi News report, this incident occurred on Tuesday, 14 Adar-I when the commander arrived in the shul area where Company Alef was davening. He interrupted davening and spoke to them, but the soldiers did not respond since they were in the middle of kaddish. The angry officer walked up the Aron Kodesh and signed a crucifix on his body as Christians do, in front of the Aron! Needless to say the mispallalim were horrified, expressing their disgust and disapproval over his actions. The commander insister they complete their sentence with Mifaked (Commander) to which some of the soldiers explained the only mifaked here is HKBH and you in particular are not worthy of the title. There are numerous reports citing this is by far not the first time this commander taunted and degraded frum soldiers. Another case cited is when he made reference to their tallis and tefilin, he said go put your black boxes and white cloths over there. The soldiers involved in Tuesdays incident explain the commander looks for any and every opportunity to taunt religious soldiers. To the IDFs credit, while not a great deal of time has passed since the latest incident, the commander was held accountable for his actions and removed from his post. The IDF Spokesmans Office explains This was an isolated incidentThe officer apologized to his subordinates and officers alike. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Both Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon and the ISA (Israel Security Agency Shin Bet) remain opposed to permitting the Hamas regime in Gaza operate a seaport. This they feel would only ease Hamas ongoing efforts to advance acts of terror and its war against Israel. Walla News on Wednesday, 15 Adar-I quotes a senior security source explaining anything that has to get into Gaza can be brought via the Port of Ashdod, releasing the statement ahead of a planned meeting of the Security Cabinet which will discuss a Gaza seaport. The source adds We have no intensions of closing our eyes to what takes place in Gaza. No one can entertain such a process, permitting Hamas to operate a seaport. In the past there have been a number of attempts to break the IDF Navy marine blockade on Gaza, including the infamous Mavi Marmara, which resulted in a breakdown in relations between Israel and Turkey as Turkish nationals on the vessel were killed. Officials are reporting that Turkish officials and Israel continue dialogue towards a resumption of diplomatic ties and at present, Israel is reviewing the list of demands submitted by Turkey. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Steven Hayes, a convicted killer in Connecticut, is serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of the Petit family. He seems to have drastically changed since committing the 2007 murder. Reportedly, Hayes, now 52, has become an Orthodox Jew, while on death row. In a recent mugshot, he is seen with a long flowing beard, sporting a white kippa. Though on death row, last year Connecticut abolished capital punishment leaving those on death row in a life sentence. In 2014, Hayes claimed he was being denied properly prepared kosher food, and sued the Department of Corrections. He claimed he had to choose between following Hashems commandments or starve. Hayes and an accomplice, Komisarjevsky, were convicted after the brutal murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley. The father was also badly hurt but survived. The women were brutally murdered in their Connecticut home, the mom being raped and strangled to death, while the girls were tied to the bed and set on fire, the youngest girl being raped by Komisarjevsky. On Tuesday, Komisarjevsky, requested a new trial, saying his lawyers werent give all the police recordings. However, Prosecutors say the recordings have no information that warrants a new trial. The family of the victims have been critical of the police response, saying that the officers waited too long to go into the home, to try and save the victims. (Source: OnlySimchas.com) By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times It is pretty gross, of course, but the right thing to do is to always look at what happens in the world from the viewpoint of halacha. In this situation, we will explore three areas of Jewish law, the laws of bitul bshishim, the laws of marinating, and the laws of koshering. But first, we must examine the facts. It happened in Farmington, Utah. Last Wednesday night, at a Mormon church, some women and youth were preparing a meal for older members of the Mormon congregation. One of the women, Troy Walker, was taking green beans out of a slow cooker (what we call a cholent pot), when she spotted a snake head inside the pot. It looked pretty much like a burnt bean, and then as I got closer to lift it off the spoon, I saw eyes, Walker said. Thats when I just dropped it and screamed. Christi Smith also was cooking that evening and told The Associated Press it was a very small snake that had clearly been cut up. After the kids all came to see it, they threw out several other large pots of string beans that were also cooking before looking inside. Walker took a picture of the snake head to send to Western Family, an Oregon-based food distribution company whose label was on the can. To the relief of many of our readers, it should be known that the can of green beans did not have a hechsher. The picture appears at the top of this article. What was the companys reaction? Sharon McFadden, vice president of quality control for Western Family, announced that the company takes the matter seriously and is working with the supplier that produced the green beans to find out what happened and how many cans came from the batch. In other words, Where did the rest of that snake go? But onto matters that concern us the halacha. May the rest of the green beans in the cholent pot be eaten, after the snake head has been removed? What about the pot? IS THERE BITUL? At first, one might think that the green beans are permitted because of the concept of Batel BShishim it is nullified in a mixture of sixty to one. The slow cooker probably had 60 times the volume of other food to the volume of the snake head after the snake head had been removed. In a nutshell, we assume that the entire taste of the snake head had entered into the slow cooker. But, if we remove the snake head we would still have well over sixty times the volume of permitted food to forbidden food. There is a debate (YD 98:1) between the Ramah and the author of the Shulchan Aruch, Rav Yoseph Karo, as to how we can tell if taste is nullified. Rav Karo holds that we may ask an expert chef to taste it. The Ramah holds that we can no longer rely on this and we must measure whether we have a ratio of sixty to one or not. Where did the figure of sixty to one come from? This is actually a debate between Rashi and Tosfos in the Talmud (Chullin 98a). Tosfos explains that the Rabbis had a tradition to this effect and that the Gemorahs derivation through the psukim is merely an allusion backing up the tradition that the Rabbis had received. Rashi learns that the Gemorahs derivation through psukim is no mere allusion, but a full and accurate derivation. The derivation is as follows: A Nazir must bring and eat of a special offering (see BaMidbar 6:19). The offering is a ram. The ram is cooked together with the forearm. This forearm is called the Zroah bshaila. But wait. We have a problem. The forearm is forbidden to the Nazir because it must be gifted to the Kohain. How then may the Nazir eat of it? The taste of the forearm is certainly imparted into the rest of the ram! The Gemorah explains that it is a ratio of sixty to one. This ratio would nullify any taste from the forearm to the rest of the ram. OTHER ISSUE But then there is the concept of Kavush or marinating. Clearly, the snake head was in the can of green beans for at least 24 hours prior to the can being placed in the slow cooker. The Shulchan Aruch (YD 105:1) clearly states that prohibited food that was immersed with permitted food for 24 hours is considered as if it was cooked together and forbidden. This is called, Kavush. It is based on a statement of Shmuel in the Talmud. It should be noted that the laws of Kavush apply after 24 hours to anything immersed in water. However, if the mixture is briny, such as a salty mixture, the laws of Kavush apply after only 18 minutes. Thus, we can assume that the entire can of green beans that was placed into the slow-cooker was prohibited, even though there were several other cans of beans in that slow-cooker. Even if we were to fish out the snakehead, the mixture would still be forbidden since we would not have sixty times the amount of permitted green beans to the forbidden can. What about the slow-cooker? Must it be koshered? Can it be koshered? If there is no sixty to one ratio, then the pot indeed may not be used until it is koshered, as we assume that it has absorbed the taste of the non-kosher. But not all pots can be koshered. If the pot was made out of porcelain then the only way to kasher the pot is to put it back in the kiln, which would most assuredly break the pot. If the pot was made out of metal, then it may be koshered. WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE CASE OF THERE WAS A 60:1 RATIO, BUT THE SNAKE HEAD CANNOT BE REMOVED? There are some things that are never batel or nullified even if there is a sixty to one ratio. Indeed, there are ten various items which do not get nullified: 1. One such thing is the idea of nikar if the piece that got lost in the pot is still identifiable. The snake head is identifiable, and thus is not batel. There are a number of other things that are not considered nullified in the language of our sages, Afilu belef lo batil even in a thousand it does not become batel. 2. Beryah a complete creature whether it is alive or dead (See YD 100:1). 3. Baal Chai a creature that is still alive even if it is not whole or complete. 4. Davar shyaish lo matirin something that will eventually become permitted in and of itself. An example of this is maaseh Shabbos if something was cooked or became created over Shabbos it does not become batel because it will eventually become permitted anyway. If an egg was laid on Shabbos or Yom Tov and it became mixed in one thousand other eggs none of the eggs may be eaten because eventually that one egg will become permitted anyhow. 5. Chaticha Haruyah lhiskabaid a piece that is worthy to serve an important guest. 6. Davar Chashuv an important item. Rav Karo lists seven specific items but the Ramah writes that it is anything that is sold by the unit as opposed to by weight. 7. Kavuah if the item is in a set place and one forgot where the forbidden one was and where the permitted one was. The items, however, are not actually mixed together. 8. Chazusa if it was done to create a color or appearance. (See Shach YD 102:5, for those who limit it or disagree see MB 513:9). 9. Avida lTimah If the item was put in to create a detectable flavor or as a flavoring agent (see Ramah 98:8 Taz 98:11). 10. Ikro Kach If the item is normally done in that manner then bitul does not apply according to the Rashba. The Noda BiYehuda, however permits it. The custom is to follow the Rashba (See Bais Yoseph YD 134 and Mogain Avrohom OC 446) when we have a kosher infrastructure in place, but when we are new to an area, we follow the lenient view of the Noda BiYehudah (MT #56) (Melamed Lhoil Vol. II #29). This last issue is quite fascinating. Many readers may recall that their grandparents or great grandparents told them that they used to eat candy bars without a hechsher just by looking at the ingredients. But how could this be? Granted that manufacturing technology back them was not as sophisticated as it is now, but still what about the concern of treif ingredients? The answer is that we used to rely on the Noda BiYehudah that even if it was normally added it is still kosher. Nowadays, however, we no longer rely on this view because we consider the United States as an area where we have an infrastructure. Few people rely on this view now in the United States. This may not be the case regarding whiskeys. Some, if not most people, continue to rely only on the ingredients when it comes to whiskeys and do not care to only purchase with a reliable supervision. This is because they feel that we still do not have an infrastructure when it comes to alcohol. Others disagree with this leniency and require only whiskeys that are completely free of halachic problems. The author may be reached at [email protected] The authors books are available on amazon.com. A woman who lost her husband on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 sued the airline and the government Thursday at the beginning of an expected rush of lawsuits before a filing deadline next month on the second anniversary of the planes disappearance. The Boeing 777 carrying 239 flew far off course for unknown reasons after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on March 8, 2014. A search of the southern Indian Ocean has found no trace of the plane, though a wing part from the aircraft washed ashore on Reunion Island last year. A global aviation agreement sets a two-year deadline for lawsuits by next-of-kin over air accidents. Malaysian K.Sri Devi, 32, her two young sons and parents-in-law are seeking 32 million ringgit ($7.6 million) in damages over the alleged wrongful death of S.Puspanathan, due to alleged negligence and breach of contract by the airline and government agencies, lawyer Shailender Bhar said. The lawsuit also named the immigration department, as well as the civil aviation department and the Malaysian air force, for losing track of the plane. They were waiting for some development in the search for the plane but nothing has been forthcoming so far. Everyone is hoping for some answers through the court, Bhar told The Associated Press. An Australian-based woman, Jennifer Chong, whose husband Chong Ling Tan was on the flight, filed similar claims in Australia last week, alleging the airline was negligent in failing to ensure passengers safety. Lawyer Arunan Selvaraj, who said he is representing next-of-kin of 15 passengers, expects to file lawsuits next week. He said some families were negotiating for settlements with the airline but the approaching deadline means most are under pressure to file a claim. Till today, the only thing they had found was the flaperon. There are no other clues. Many people are still in denial and there are so many theories as to what had happened. Families want justice and the truth, Arunan said. A Boeing 777 flaperon was found on an island in the western Indian Ocean in July and confirmed by the Malaysian and French governments to come from the ill-fated flight. Drift modelling has shown that currents could have carried the debris from the southern Indian Ocean to Reunion Island in the timeframe between the flight date and when the part was found. But no other parts of the plane have been found and the current search is expected to end by June or July. An international aviation agreement allows each next-of-kin of passengers on board a plane up to $175,000 in compensation, but a plaintiff filing a lawsuit can seek more. Arunan said next-of-kins, however, face hurdles in filing lawsuits. The airline holding company, Malaysia Airlines Systems (MAS), was dissolved in a massive restructuring last year and was replaced with a new entity, Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB). Next-of-kins must first seek consent from the administrator of MAS to sue the airline. The administrator, Mohammad Faiz Azmi, said in a statement Wednesday he had given consent to 96 next-of-kins and that he had not rejected any requests. He said 42 collected full compensation so far, without giving details. Arunan, however, said conditions were attached to the consent given to some of his clients, including not naming MAB or any third parties in their lawsuit. Why is the administrator protecting third parties? What happens if the civil aviation department or the air force was found to be at fault and we didnt name them in the suit? he said. Some next-of-kins are also concerned that by not naming MAB, they may not receive payment even if they win the suit as MAS may not be able to pay, he added. Voice 370, a next-of-kin support group, said in a statement this week that all monies, assets and airline business have been transferred to MAB and there may be nothing left in MAS to sue them. It called the move to shield the airline a despicable act of irresponsibility and cowardice. (AP) Storms systems brought tornadoes to the East Coast killing four in Virginia heavy snow that canceled hundreds of flights in the Midwest and power outages that left hundreds of thousands across several states in the dark. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency Wednesday night after tornadoes damaged homes and left thousands without power across the state. Elsewhere, officials in South Carolina said a man was killed Wednesday when a tree fell on him. In Virginia, the tiny town of Waverly took the brunt of the storm. The Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said a 2-year-old child and two men, ages 50 and 26, were killed there during the storm. Their bodies were found about 300 yards from their mobile home. At least five structures were damaged in the town of approximately 2,000 and roads leading into town had to be closed because of downed trees and debris tossed by winds gusting to 60 mph, Geller said. In Appomattox County, a funnel cloud left an 8- to 10-mile path of destruction, injuring seven people and killing one man, state police said. At least 15 structures were destroyed and 25 injuries were reported when the storm passed through Essex County and the town of Tappahannock, about 45 miles northeast of Richmond, state police said. The injuries ranged from minor to serious, but there were no confirmed fatalities. In Waverly, witnesses said the storm swept through with little warning. Timothy Williams said a friend had just come by to take his new car for a drive when the storm hit. It picked the car right off the ground, and put it right back on the ground, said Williams, 44. He said they remained in the car until the storm passed. The storm blew down electrical wires in a big ball of fire, thrashing all about each other, Williams said. He said they both escaped shaken but uninjured. In South Carolina, Darlington County Corner Todd Hardee said in a statement that Michael Gaines Sr., 58, had stopped on a road near his home Wednesday to remove debris from the road when a pine tree fell on him. Sheriff Wayne Byrd said the victim was being a good Samaritan when he was killed. The line of storms moved across Pennsylvania and the New York City area Wednesday night, bringing strong winds and heavy rains that knocked down trees and caused scattered power outages. In the Midwest, a powerful storm brought heavy snow and biting winds, leading to mass flight cancellations at Chicago airports and school closings in several states. The Chicago Department of Aviation reported more than 1,100 flights had been canceled at the citys two major airports by Wednesday evening. Bill Bunting with National Weather Services Storm Prediction Center estimated 20 to 24 tornados hit from Louisiana to Florida on Tuesday. On Tuesday, one of the hardest-hit areas along the Gulf Coast was a recreational vehicle park in the town of Convent, in southern Louisiana. RVs were tossed about and lay on top of wrecked cars and pickup trucks. Two people were killed there, and 31 injured people were taken to area hospitals, St. James Parish Sheriff Willy Martin said. In Mississippi, 73-year-old Dale Purvis died of blunt-force trauma in a mobile home west of Purvis, Lamar County Coroner Cody Creel said. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said an apparent tornado in the Pensacola area significantly damaged more than 70 homes and 24 apartments, leaving three people with minor injuries. He stopped at The Moorings apartment complex, where winds ripped the roof off of at least two buildings. Residents in LaPlace, Louisiana, were cleaning up Wednesday after a tornado ripped up trees, tore roofs from houses and terrified local residents. Nearly 200 homes were damaged. Rose Fuselier, 80, had a gaping hole where her homes front window once stood. The whole backyard is covered with trees, and then my shed is torn up, too. The roof is gone, and the siding is partially gone, she said. Still, she said others suffered damage even worse than hers: I lucked out. I lucked out. (AP) With Donald Trumps grasp on the Republican presidential nomination tightening, the billionaire businessmans rivals get one more chance to challenge the GOP front-runner on the debate stage before next weeks slate of Super Tuesday contests. The situation is likely more dire for the other GOP candidates than theyd like voters to believe. Yet Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have so far shown little willingness to take on the former reality television star when the national spotlight shines brightest. That could change Thursday night in Houston. The vast and overwhelming majority of Republicans do not want Donald Trump to be our nominee, Rubio told NBC, suggesting that Trump is winning only because the other candidates are splitting up the majority of the electorate. For his part, the New York billionaire predicted the relative civility between Rubio and himself is about to disappear. The ninth Republican debate of the presidential campaign will take place just a few days before 11 states hold GOP elections that will either cement Trumps dominance or let his rivals slow his march to his partys presidential nomination. Time still exists, but not much, said Liz Mair, a Republican operative leading one of the anti-Trump movements. The strategy of ignoring the front-runner is not working. Cruz and Rubio need to tag-team to cause Trump problems. How they do so is still to be determined. To date, Trump has proved largely immune to traditional political attacks, something he reveled in on Wednesday. I seem to have a very good track record when to do go after me, the New York real estate mogul told NBC. The task is made more complicated by the shift from single-state campaigns to a new phase of the race, where the candidates must compete across several states at the same time. Next Tuesday features voting in a mix of states that include Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, Massachusetts and Virginia, with more to come in the weeks after. Now these campaigns are in the position of having to use debates to try and shape or change voter perceptions across more than a dozen states in the space of 18 or 19 days, said Republican strategist Kevin Madden. Thats a daunting task. Trump won Nevadas presidential caucuses on Tuesday with more than 45 percent of the vote, scoring his third consecutive primary victory in dominant fashion. Rubio edged out Cruz for runner-up for the second consecutive race, with Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson far off the pace. As they seek to become the Trump alternative, Cruz and Rubio have significant liabilities of their own. Cruz comes into the debate at the weakest point of his presidential campaign after a staff shakeup and three consecutive third-place finishes. The Texas senator ousted a senior aide on Monday after the aide promoted an inaccurate news report that Rubio had condemned the Bible during a chance encounter with Cruzs father. The aides dismissal helps legitimize Trump and Rubio charges that Cruz has been running an unethical campaign. Even while vulnerable, Cruz signaled an aggressive stance heading into the debate. He lashed out at Trump and Rubio as Washington dealmakers while talking to reporters in Houston on Wednesday. Rubio, Cruz said, had worked with Democrats to craft an immigration overhaul, while Trump has given money to Democrats and backed their priorities at times in recent years. I dont think the people of Texas and I dont think the people of this country want another Washington dealmaker to go and surrender more to the Democrats, giving in to the failed liberal agenda, Cruz said. Rubio, meanwhile, is just one debate removed from a primetime meltdown. The Florida senator repeated himself several times in a New Hampshire debate less than three weeks ago, triggering what he now calls the New Hampshire disappointment. He avoided a similar mistake in the subsequent debate, but critics in both parties will be laser-focused on anything that suggests the 44-year-old legislator isnt sufficiently prepared to move into the White House. But Rubio, who has been reluctant to publicly talk about Trump by name, stepped up his aggressiveness Wednesday. In an appearance in Houston, he criticized Trump for what Rubio said was a failure to strongly oppose the federal health care law derided by critics as Obamacare. The Florida senator also said the front-runner in this race, Donald Trump, has said hes not going to take sides on Israel versus the Palestinians because he wants to be an honest broker. Rubio said there was no such thing because the Palestinian Authority, which has strong links to terror, they teach little kids, 5-year-olds, that its a glorious thing to kill Jews. He also named Trump in accusing him of thinking parts of Obamacare are pretty good drawing boos. Emboldened by the recent departure of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush from the race, Rubio has fresh momentum after two consecutive second-place finishes. His team is convinced they must dispatch with Cruz before turning their full attention to taking down Trump. Rubio also said that hed respond to Trump and Cruz if attacked in Thursdays debate, but that, I didnt run for office to tear up other Republicans. And after eight debates, its unclear what sort of attacks could work against Trump. As his resume would suggest, hes proven to be a master showman on primetime television. It seems that the Trump people like Trump no matter what he says, said Republican strategist John Feehery. This debate is all about who is the Trump alternative. (AP) Cincinnati City Manager to Employees: If You Say the N-Word, You're Fired "The recent use of the N-word by multiple city employees deeply concerns me," city manager Sheryl Long said. By Allison Babka Oct 21, 2022 Cincinnati government officials are finally enacting a new policy regarding city employees' use of racial slurs after several police officers recently used the N-word and other insults while on duty. During an Oct. 20 public meting, city manager Sheryl Long shared that through administrative regulation 25, the city's non-discrimination policy will ensure that city employees who use the slur "n*****" (a racist term for Black people, typically used disparagingly by white people) while on duty automatically will be investigated and possibly fired... The Moetzas Gedolei Hatorah of Agudas Yisrael convened on Wednesday, 15 Adar-I to discuss recent alarming advances made by the Reform Movement in Israel. The meeting began with words of hesped for the late Erlau Rebbe ZTL who was niftar this week. Taking part in the meeting was the Seret-Vishnitz Rebbe Shlita who has been added to the council. The admorim shlita heard a briefing from Kosel Rav Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz who explained the recent events vis-a-vis the egalitarian prayer area without a mechitzah being constructed near the Kosel. It was explained to them that until such time the Minister of Religious Services signs the order, the new area cannot be established. Some of the chareidi Members of Knesset also briefed the forum to explain the ramifications of the different options available. Following the 2.5 hour meeting they admorim indicated they will instruct their representatives in Knesset to wage a war against the Reform Movement, which of late enjoyed a number of advances. Kol Chai Radio reports that sources explain that the admorim have reached a decision, but in this case, they feel publicizing it would compromise future actions. Photo: The attached text was released by the torah council, appearing in chareidi newspapers. It simply speaks of the spiritual dangers we face and the commitment to do everything to eliminate the evil decree. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Thousands of mourners were on hand for the levaya of terror victim IDF Major Eliav Gellman HYD, killed by errant gunfire directed at a terrorist during an stabbing attack at Gush Etzion Junction. As is the custom, Gellman was promoted a rank posthumously, to the rank of major. The levaya was held in the military cemetery of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion. The 30-year-old resident of Karmei Tzur was a reserve duty officer, husband and the father of two. His wife is in the late stages of pregnancy with their third child. Among the speakers at the levaya was Mr. Shalom Sarel, the father of Major Benaya Sarel HYD, who fell in Operation Protective Edge. Mr. Sarel is the father of Chaya, who was Eliavs brother-in-law (married to his brother) expressing his familiarity with the deep pain and sense of loss the family is experiencing once again. Gellman had pulled his pistol to fire at the terrorist who came up from behind but he was hit by errant IDF fire directed at the terrorist. He arrived in the trauma unit of Shaare Zedek Hospital in critical condition and despite heroic life-saving efforts, it was not meant to be. Officials in Kibbutz Karmei Tzur released a message that the entire kibbutz family along with the family of Eliav embrace the IDF and the soldiers who in the front line to protect Am Yisrael and there is no anger whatsoever over the unfortunate events in this case. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Mrs. Sara Beigal, daughter of Rabbi Yaakov Litman HYD and sister of Netanel HYD spoke to the media regarding the decision of the government not to raze the home of the terrorist responsible for the murders of her father and brother. Their car came under a hail of gunfire in the Southern Hebron Hills on an erev Shabbos as they were heading to the Shabbos Chatan ahead of Saras chasenah. She expressed anger over the decision. Sara told Galei Yisrael Radio that despite the fact the father of the terrorist turned him in, he was also aware what he son was going to do before the attack and he did not act. She explained if the dad really cared as he claims, he would have contacted authorities before the act, not after. She explained that only after the attack the father realized the government has begun razing homes, and this compelled his actions but she feels this is insufficient for he did not act to prevent his sons murderous actions. She feels the family should not be permitted to continue living in the area. She is outraged over the fact that the family is not being punished at all despite having had the ability to alert security agencies and possibly prevented the attack. In a related matter, Iran announced on Wednesday, 15 Adar-I that it will pay to rebuild every home razed by Israel. This is in addition to payments and supplementary income given to families of slain terrorists by the PA (Palestinian Authority). (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) The family of Sara bas Dina Sperling, the kallah who was seriously injured in the Egged 402 bus accident is still in need of Am Yisraels tefilos. Saras right hand was avulsed in the accident, and surgeons reattached it in a ten-hour procedure. A leg was also crushed in the accident. She and her sister, who sustained light injuries, were on their way to Bnei Brak for a final shopping before her chasenah. Doctors at Assaf HaRofeh Hospital on Thursday, 16 Adar-I informed the family they detected bleeding in the injured hand and they are preparing for an emergency surgery that will take several hours in the hope of saving the reattached hand. Sarah is listed in light-to-moderate/stable condition in an intensive care unit. Saras sister Mrs. Rikki Hofstetter told Kikar Shabbos News that on Wednesday, 15 Adar-I, doctors detected an infection in her leg. She explained they were aggressive in treating her, placing her back under sedation and BH it appears the treatment helped. However, on Thursday doctors significant bleeding in the reattached hand and this could endanger her entire body as well as the hand. Family members call on the tzibur to continue being mispallel for Sara bas Dina bsoch shaar cholei yisroel. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Shares in RSA have risen 13 per cent after the insurance giant posted a rise in profits despite losses caused by storms Eva, Desmond and Frank in December. The More Than owner revealed that flooding and other weather-related losses from the storms - which raged through norther England and southern Scotland - were 'worse than planned' and had cost it 76million. However profits beat forecasts, with operating profits jumping 43 per cent to 523million in the 12 months to the end of December, while pretax profits were 323million, up from 275million. RSA will pay a final dividend of 7.0p, taking its total payout to 10.5p. Job done?: Boss Stephen Hester said he thought his turnaround of the UK insurer was 'largely complete', just two years after having been drafted in from RBS to revive the insurer's fortunes That helped investors overlook net written premiums, which dropped to 6.8billion for 2015, down from 7.5billion the year before, as the company pinned the slump on its disposals over the course of the year. As a result shares this session have soared 49.8p, at 444.3p. Boss Stephen Hester said he thought his turnaround of the UK insurer was 'largely complete', just two years after being drafted in from RBS to revive the insurer's fortunes. As part of the ongoing turnaround the company will aim for cost savings of 250million by 2016, a year ahead of schedule, and target more than 350million in gross annualised savings by 2018. Hester also wants return on equity, which was 9.7 per cent in 2015, to be at the upper end of the target range of 12-15 per cent by 2017. He said: '2015 was a year of major achievement for RSA. As a result, the turnaround phase of our Action Plan is largely complete and we have good prospects of substantial further performance improvement.' He continued: 'RSA is now a strong and focused international insurer with leadership positions in the UK, Scandinavia and Canada. 'We see 2016 as the last major restructuring year with disposals and balance sheet work completing and the heavy lifting of core business improvement and cost reduction action continuing.' Nevertheless the year was blotted for RSA by a failed bid approach from Swiss giant Zurich in what Hester described this morning as 'an unsolicited dance'. Although a price was agreed, the Swiss insurer pulled out in September when it discovered problems in its own general insurance business. Hester said the group had received no other approaches after the Zurich bid fell away, and would have to rely on self-help for growth. He added: 'We believe strongly that RSA can prosper independently, indefinitely into the future, and that we can exceed this valuation on a standalone basis.' Hester also used the results to campaign for Britain remaining in the European Union, stating that an exit could have a negative impact on the insurer's business and investment returns. He was one of 36 FTSE 100 chief executives who this week signed an open letter in the Times saying that leaving the EU would put the British economy at risk. He said: 'Half of our market value comes from our European businesses, and in all of our markets, some of our major competitors are European. Desperate times: Premier Oil has issued a plea help investment in the North Sea The boss of Premier Oil called for the Government to consider incentives to boost investment in the North Sea. The pleas from chief executive Tony Durrant came as Premier Oil saw losses widen to 596million for 2015, up from 260million. Durrant also said the tax breaks for the North Sea oil industry, longed for by many firms, were unlikely to help. The group, which operates around the world from the Falkland Islands to Indonesia, revealed net debt rose to 1.6billion from 1.5billion. It wrote down assets by more than 700million, largely relating to its Solan project in the North Sea. It has cut costs by 25 per cent in 2015 and will continue to do so. Up for grabs: London City Airport A group of Canadian investors and the Kuwait Investment Authority have swooped on City airport. The group, including Canadas Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, Borealis Infrastructure and AIMCo alongside a Kuwaiti infrastructure investor, are reported to have won the takeover battle for the east London airport. Private equity owner Global Infrastructure Partners put the airport up for sale last year. It is thought the bid values the airport at around 2billion, beating rival bids from the likes of Asias richest man Li Ka-Shing and Chinese conglomerate HNA. BT has been spared having to spin off its broadband operator Openreach - but the telecoms regulator has said it should open up more of its network to competitors and meet tougher targets on fixing faults. In its strategic review, Ofcom said Openreach will need to allow competitors to use its existing poles and tunnels to build their own fibre networks. It also said it will have to consult with the wider industry on budget, investment and strategy. The decision comes as a blow to competitors Sky and TalkTalk, which for months have lobbied for the companies to be split. They claim that BTs ownership of the Openreach network and its access to Government subsidies to improve the service give it an unfair advantage in the industry. Telecoms review: BT will not need to spin off its broadband network operator Openreach for now Openreach owns and is responsible for investing in the main system of cables that link homes to the internet which are used by most of the other broadband providers, although Virgin Media has built its own network in some areas. Ofcom agreed that Openreach still has an incentive to make decisions in the interests of BT, rather than BTs competitors, which can lead to competition problems. However, it decided against splitting the two companies although it said this could happen in the future if the proposed tighter regulation of Openreach fails to improve competition. Ofcom chief executive Sharon White said: 'People across the UK today need affordable, reliable phone and broadband services. Coverage and quality are improving, but not fast enough to meet the growing expectations of consumers and businesses. 'So today we've announced fundamental reform of the telecoms market - more competition, a new structure for Openreach, tougher performance targets, and a range of measures to boost service quality.' The regulator said it will prepare detailed proposals later this year to implement the changes announced today. Dan Howdle, telecoms expert at broadband and phone advice site Cable.co.uk, said Ofcoms proposed changes stopped short of addressing the prime concern. Critic: TalkTalk chief executive Dido Harding said Ofcom had identified many of the worst problems, mainly BT's conflict of interests, but said that its proposals had 'little concrete action behind it' With Openreach currently in the midst of its BDUK superfast broadband rollout, aimed at reaching 95 per cent of UK homes by next year a rollout couched in 1.7billion of public money and a potentially vote-swinging degree of incumbent reputation the decision should be seen as one of least disruption. It is, perhaps, a case of poor timing winning out over common sense. A recommendation to split would have absolutely been the right decision for the UK broadband industry, but, in the short term at least, perhaps not for the 2.5m UK homes that do not currently have access to superfast broadband. Some commentators have argued that Ofcoms proposed new changes are, in fact, not new. John Karidis of telecom services & media research firm Haitong said that Ofcoms suggestions were either a rehash of past proposals that came to very little access to BTs ducts and poles or no meaningful change from the status quo tight governance of Openreach, which is already tight. Karidis said that rivals have been allowed to use Openreach poles and tunnels already since 2011, but that there had been evidence suggesting little demand for this. Lastly, given the significant press coverage in recent weeks, we highlight that Ofcom has not in any way called for Openreach to invest more in rolling out fibre across Britain, Karidis added. Ofcom today also said it would introduce tougher rules on faults, repairs and installations, with automatic compensation for consumers when things go wrong. It also pledged to deliver new universal obligation to deliver fast broadband to every home and business in the UK. Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: People now see telecoms as essential services, so we welcome proposals to raise standards across the industry, with faster, more reliable broadband and automatic compensation for consumers when things go wrong. Ofcom must move quickly with these reforms and ensure that Openreach genuinely improves the service for customers who have been let down for too long. BT welcomed Ofcom's decision and said: "The focus now needs to be on a strengthened but proportionate form of the current model and we have put forward a positive proposal that we believe can form the basis for further discussions with both Ofcom and the wider industry. 'Our proposal includes a new governance structure for Openreach as well a clear commitment on investment. Openreach is already one of the most heavily regulated businesses in the world but we have volunteered to accept tighter regulation to bring matters to a clear and speedy conclusion.' Ofcom said it would introduce tougher rules on faults, repairs and installations, with automatic compensation for consumers when things go wrong BT said it was happy to let other companies use its ducts and poles 'if they are genuinely keen to invest very large sums as we have done', adding that they had been open to competitors since 2009 but had attracted little interest. It said: 'A great deal of what they are proposing is already in place and we are open to discussions about how the current rules can be amended and updated. A voluntary, binding settlement is in everyone's interests and we will work hard to ensure one is reached.' TalkTalk chief executive Dido Harding said Ofcom had identified many of the worst problems, mainly BT's conflict of interests, but said that Ofcom's proposals had 'little concrete action behind it'. 'The risk is that we end up with 10 more years of debate and delays, rather than facing into the problems and delivering improvements for frustrated customers now,' she said. A Sky spokesman said: 'BT must now be held to account for improving service and enabling delivery of fibre to Britain's homes and businesses. Ofcom's actions today are not the end of the debate but a staging post towards delivering the network and service that Britain needs.' Vodafone said it welcomed the move to open up BT's duct and poles as well as to tighten BT's regulation and governance of BT Openreach. But the company added: 'However, BT still remains a monopoly provider with a regulated business running at a 28% profit margin. Therefore, we urge Ofcom to ensure BT reinvests the 4billion in excess profits Openreach has generated over the last decade in bringing fibre to millions of premises across the country, and not just make half-promises to spend an unsubstantiated amount on more old copper cable: we agree with Ofcom that fibre is the future.' A development of 400 new build flats which are within a 50 minute commute from the centre of London goes on the market for sale next month. The flats, with prices starting at 205,000, are a five-minute walk from Dartford station where trains reach London's Cannon Street in 41 minutes. The 90million development comes complete with shops and office space, along with plenty of green spaces. Prices start from 204,995, which is significantly lower than the 446,081 paid on average for a flat in London. It means a home could be bought with a 5 per cent deposit of 10,250 and a household income of 43,000 based on a maximum 4.5 times income. Prices at Langley Square in Dartford start from 204,995 for a one bedroom flat. There are one, two and three bedroom flats available, as well as more expensive penthouses. The former factory that operation on the site relied on raw material transported up the River Darent. Dartford is attracting attention as a property hotspot after figures earlier this week suggested it is the fastest place in Britain to sell a home. Demand for homes in the area is increasing as buyers are priced out of more central postcodes in the capital. It takes just 16 days to sell a home in the Kent borough, according to the data compiled by property website Rightmove. This compares to almost three months on average for the country as a whole. The selling time is in sharp contrast to this time last year when homes in Dartford were on the market for 49 days before being sold. The new flats at Langley Square are on a site once owned in the 1850s by the Phoenix Paper Mill. This was replaced in 1889 by the Wellcome Pharmaceutical Factory, which is said to have supplied medicine chests to the Royal Family. In its Edwardian heyday, the factory employed more than 1,300 people and relied on raw material transported up the nearby River Darent by barge. The Wellcome Pharmaceutical Factory, which once occupied the site, reportedly supplied medicine chests to the Royal Family. By 2008, the factory was wound down and eventually closed by its then owners GlaxoSmithKline. The site is a five minute walk from Dartford station where trains reach London's Cannon Street in 41 minutes. Demand for homes in the area is increasing as buyers are priced out of London. Each flat at the development will include oak engineered flooring and designer Oakwood kitchens. After the Second World War, the company moved to a different site and by 2008 the factory was wound down and eventually closed by its then owners GlaxoSmithKline. Plans to regenerate the area have been in the pipeline since 2010. Bob Weston, chief executive of Weston Group - which is developing the site - said: 'Langley Square is ideal for those looking to own a new home in a country setting and benefits from excellent connections and outstanding lifestyle facilities on the doorstep.' Each flat at the development will include oak engineered flooring, designer Oakwood kitchens and luxury bathrooms. The long awaited Swazi Airwayss Boeing 737 airplane landed in the country yesterday at around 11am and was presented to the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority for inspection. MBABANE Swazi Airways Boeing 737 airplane has finally landed. The long awaited plane was presented to the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) yesterday by Swazi Airways, which is an independent company. SWACAA Communications and Marketing Director Sabelo Dlamini confirmed that the organisation received the plane as part of the regulatory compliance process. Dlamini, in an interview, said the regulation states that the aircraft has to be presented to SWACAA physically in order that it be inspected to ascertain its airworthiness and safety. Yes, we confirm that Swazi Airways presented an airplane to us. We began to do our job on it for safety purposes and to determine its airworthiness. We cannot say for now if it is airworthy as our inspectors are still inspecting it, said Dlamini. He further revealed that the plane landed in the country at about 11am. However, he declined to state where the plane was acquired from and for how much. He said that detail could be explained by Swazi Airways. Swazi Airways Board Chairperson Nokuthula Mthembu, when called, said she was in a meeting and referred questions to SWACAA. The plane is registered ZS-VDP and according to Google, a Boeing registered ZS-VDP, model 737 is a 21-year-old plane that was owned by Wells Fargo Bank Northwest NA Trustee and it was operated by LAM Mozambique Airlines. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams By Madina Toure Elected officials and leaders described state Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village), who died this week, as a fierce advocate for her community, passionate about education and unwavering in her positions. Clark, who had been serving the 33rd Assembly District since 1986, died at the age of 76 Monday night, a representative from her district office said. The cause of death was not immediately known. Her district includes Cambria Heights, St. Albans, Queens Village, Hollis and Bellerose. She played a key role in converting Andrew Jackson High School into four small magnet high schools and served as a primary sponsor of the 1996 New York City Governance Law, which mandated parental involvement in school policy decision-making. Clark also supported the plaintiff in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity vs. State of New York lawsuit, which resulted in a $5.5 billion increase in funding for city public schools and authored a bill to establish the age of 6 as the statutory age for full-time attendance in school. State Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-Hollis) said Clark had been supporting and mentoring him since his days working as chief of staff for former City Councilman Archie Spigner. She was the first elected official to endorse his Senate campaign run. She stayed behind at political and civic meetings to ensure everyone had a chance to talk to her and made sure the female point of view was treated respectfully, he said. Barbaras primary legacy is that she was a one-on-one type of person, Comrie said. She wanted to engage her constituents personally. A coal miners daughter, Clark was born and raised in Beckley, W.Va. She served as deputy majority whip and chairwoman for the Education Committee of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus. Clark was also known for bringing about improvements to the Queens Village and Hollis LIRR stations. State Sen. James Sanders (D-South Ozone Park) said Clark was a champion for education reform, also remarking that she embraced charter schools, in the sense that she was not afraid of the concept. Our old glorious sister has transitioned, Sanders said. Barbara was a fierce fighter for her district and for education, never afraid of being the only one to take a position. Queens Village resident Millicent Peterkin, a rank-and-file member of the 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East Union, said she was shocked by Clarks death. She recalls Clark and other members coming to her office before heading to Albany to lobby for senior citizens and workers. I cant believe Barbara Clark is gone, Peterkin said. Oh my god. Just a beautiful person. She advocates for everyone, children and the elderly. Leroy Gadsden, president of the NAACPs Jamaica branch, said Clark advocated for many different issues and causes in the best interest of his community. Her service represented a true care and love for her community, Gadsden said. But above all the many causes advocated for, she was a relentless advocate for a free, quality public education for everyone, and the rights and needs of our beloved senior citizens. Other elected officials throughout the borough also lauded her service. But her tenure was not without controversy. In 2000, Clark, then-Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn (D-Fresh Meadows) and then state Assemblyman Tony Seminerio (D-Richmond Hill), were removed from their leadership positions after they supported Michael Bragman (D-North Syracuse) in his unsuccessful effort to overthrow the powerful speaker, Sheldon Silver. And she was one of a few Democrats who voted against same-sex marriage in the state. Clark is survived by her husband, Thomas Clark, Jr.; four adult children: Jan, Crystal, Thomas III, and Brian; and two granddaughters, Taylor and Lauren. Visitation and funeral services will be held Monday at the Greater Allen AME Cathedral of New York at 110-31 Merrick Blvd. in Jamaica. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and the funeral service will start at 11 a.m. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams By Madina Toure The city Department of Buildings has launched an investigation after the Broadway Flushing Homeowners Association expressed concerns about a real estate company listing that advertised a single-family home in Flushing as a single-room occupancy available to rent. The listing for the home at 33-07 153rd St., posted by Success Team Realty LLC in Elmhurst, said the property is is a detached one-family home with 20 rooms, 15 of which are bedrooms, and three full bathrooms. One bedroom, which has a rental price of $700 per month, is occupied by the owner, and the other 14 bedrooms have a rental income of $7,295 per month, according to the listing. It also states that the front yard can be converted into two parking spots. The listing was taken down by Monday night. The real estate agents for the listing, Ming Gao and Yan Dan Shi, along with the company, could not be reached at the companys phone number, which is not working. Bob Hanophy, president of the Broadway Flushing Homeowners Association, plans to ask elected officials to come up with legislation that would punish a real estate agent who offers a residential home for sale or rent outside of zoning requirements or any other restrictions. A possible punishment could be to revoke or suspend the agents license, Hanophy said. The same issue is there: Whats stopping them from listing their next property on another website doing the same improper conduct? he said. A spokesman for the state Department of State said it has received complaints about the real estate company but they do not concern the property. The DOB marshal inspected the property Monday and found illegal single-room occupancies throughout the building, observing 13 single-room occupancies. Three rooms in the basement were vacated due to immediately hazardous conditions, and seven on the first and second floors were issued violations. The agency was not able to gain access to three other rooms but said it will attempt to gain access. Violations were issued for the unsafe use of electrical extension cords, work without a permit in the basement, and illegal alteration and occupancy of the property. The Buildings Marshals Office will continue to pursue the building owner aggressively to correct the violating conditions at this property, a DOB spokesman said. In addition, we are referring for state disciplinary action the real estate agents who posted listings for this property. State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) wrote letters to DOB Queens Borough Commissioner Derek Lee and state Acting Secretary of State Rossana Rosado. Theres some serious issues here, he said. The DOB profile for the property says it has a partial vacate order. Six of the 13 complaints are open, complaining that it is being used as an overnight spot for nearby students or workers. One of the complaints includes a link to the listing. State Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) is meeting with the Broadway Flushing Homeowners Association next week. He said there are also other factors at play, such as the DOB having a shortage of investigators. Theres flaws in a number of different areas, Kim said. I think we should find more funding to make sure that we have enough inspectors. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams By Bill Parry A dozen gay rights activists joined City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) and members of Make the Road New York Tuesday at the spot where a man was robbed and attacked last week by three suspects hurling gay slurs at him. The 31-year-old victim was leaving a restaurant at 81st Street and Roosevelt Avenue when he was set upon at 2 p.m., police said. He was kicked in the face, head and back and was left unconscious. The NYPD is still investigating the attack. This man was just out for a meal, Dromm said. Nobody should be afraid to come out and enjoy what the neighborhood has to offer. No one should have to look over their shoulder because they are gay. It was the latest high profile attack against the Jackson Heights LGBT community after two brutal incidents in November. A 35-year-old transgender woman was savagely beaten in front of her home and one day later a 23-year-old gay man was beaten and sexually assaulted by three strangers. There have been no arrests and both attacks are under investigation by the NYPDs Hate Crimes Task Force. It is really sad that I have to stand here to fight against yet another hate crime 26 years after Julio Rivera was murdered, Dromm said, referring to a young man who was beaten to death by a three-man hunting party in 1990. So much has changedsame-sex marriage is now legaland yet we still see hate crimes. Ours is a tolerant community but we are finding more and more attacks taking place. Bianey Garcia-D la O of Make the Road New York warned that many attacks go unreported to the NYPD because of the illegal immigrant status of victims. Yasmin Safdie of the New York City Anti Violence Project said her group provides confidential services and counseling to any victims of violence. She provided a hotline number for anyone in need at 212-714-1141. The City Commission on Human Rights sent a representative who handed out literature on the fight against discrimination, including sexual orientation. Reports of discrimination and violence against LGBT New Yorkers are deeply troubling, Commissioner Carmelyn Malalis said. If you or anyone you know is the victim of discrimination, call the NYC Commission on Human Rights and report it. Meanwhile, a trio of elected officials are inviting residents of Jackson Heights, Corona, Elmhurst and East Elmhurst to take part in a town hall meeting on student safety March 3. The neighborhoods are still shaken after the arrest of a 29-year-old Corona man who was charged with trying to lure a 10-year-old girl Jan. 29. Jaminta Carela was charged with acting in a manner injurious to a child after he was caught on camera trying to get the girl to cross 81st Street in Jackson Heights. When she refused, the suspect crossed the street, continued to follow her and reached out his hand to her, according to the NYPD. The girl ran screaming for help and a nearby school crossing guard confronted Carela at 37th Avenue, causing him to flee, police said. I am looking forward to coming together with parents, legislators, NYPD, and crossing guards to discuss how to keep students safe both to and from school and in their daily lives, State Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (D-East Elmhurst) said. As a parent, I understand how important it is for us to have this conversation and keep parents informed and up-to-date on safety measures. The best way for us to ensure the protection of our children is to work together, and forums such as this one allow us to do just that. Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights) and state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) are co-sponsors of the town hall. While the focus will be on student safety, the meeting will also touch on the spate of slashings that have swept the city in recent months. Earlier this month, a 19-year-old East Elmhurst woman was slashed while jogging near the intersection of 25th Avenue and 79th Street and in December, a man was slashed during an attack in front of the La Escuelita Nueva Bar Lounge on Roosevelt Avenue and 81st Street. Because of the spree of slashings we will also be focusing on how residents can better protect themselves, Peralta said. The Thursday, March 3, town hall meeting is at the Renaissance Charter School at 35-59 81st St. in Jackson Heights. The program gets underway at 6 p.m. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams By Bill Parry Flushing resident Susan Carroll saw signs beginning last year that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey would try and drop the perimeter rule at LaGuardia Airport. State Assemblyman Edward Braunstein (D-Bayside) was so alarmed by the notion that he fired off a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in August warning that any change would have a detrimental impact on communities that are already suffering from increased air traffic over the last few years. So when the Port Authority admitted last week that it was considering lifting the regulation that was formalized in 1984 to limit the size of planes using the airfield, they were not caught off guard. Nothing really surprises me at LaGuardia anymore, said Carroll, a representative on the New York Community Aviation Roundtable. We are worried that the mechanisms that are in place to make life more liveable around here are falling by the wayside. Carroll, who also sits on the Community Board 7 Aviation Committee, said the industry has become such an economic engine for the borough that Queens is on the verge of having two international airports within 10 miles of each other. Braunsteins letter to the governor, which was co-signed by state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (D-East Elmhurst), Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D-Flushing), Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing), Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas (D-Astoria) and others, explained what communities around the airport would face if the perimeter rule was shelved. Allowing for flights longer than 1,500 miles will result in heavier planes departing from LaGuardia Airport because of the extra fuel reserves needed for those flights, Braunstein wrote. Our research indicates that heavier planes take longer to reach higher altitudes, and therefore are closer to the ground for a longer time during departure. This may result in an increase in airplane noise for the neighborhoods under those flight paths. Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye made the startling admission following the Feb. 18 Board of Commissioners decision to delay a vote on the massive reconstruction of LaGuardia Airport until next month. The cost of the redesign has grown from $4 billion to $4.2 billion, according to the board resolutions. There are a myriad issues involved, and the board should be entitled to more time to review the resolutions, Port Authority Chairman John Degnan said. Bypassing the perimeter rule would help cover the ballooning costs of the reconstruction by increasing customer traffic on more expensive flights. Longer flights translate to larger and noisier planes. Its a possibility. A studys being done, Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye said. One thing weve assured the public is that we will do a public comment period which will be extensive. Members of the public (and) industry players will be able to comment. State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Flushing), who also co-signed the Braunstein letter, said, Id file that under the ridiculous ideas claim. Youre going to have a lot of people troubled, including me. Stavisky explained that the board for the Port Authority is controlled by the state Senate. She serves on both the Senates Transportation Committee and the Finance Committee. And we always ask a lot of questions, she said. U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights), the author of The Quiet Skies Act legislation that aims to improve the quality of life for communities heavily affected by aircraft noise pollution, is watching what develops. We cannot ignore the potential impact that ending the perimeter rule can have on the already burdened communities that surround LaGuardia, Crowley said. As the Port Authority continues to study the issue, I urge them to consider, first and foremost, the effects that lifting the rule could have on the health of residents that for too long have had to put up with excessive noise and air pollution. Here's what The Independent article says:"Saudi Arabia has been accused of bombing civilians with European-made equipment during its war in Yemen.The European Parliament has voted in favour of an EU-wide embargo on selling arms to Saudi Arabia. A resolution calling for a ban on all weapons sales to the country was passed by 359 votes to 212, with 31 MEPs abstaining.The non-binding motion calls on member states to stop selling weapons to the country, which is currently conducting a widely-criticised military operation in neighbouring Yemen marked by high civilian casualties.Saudi Arabia is intervening in Yemen to fight Houthi rebels, who control the countrys capital but are not internationally recognised as its government.Criticism of the countrys military operation have however included the bombing of multiple hospitals run by the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres and the deaths of thousands of civilians, including 130 at a single wedding.While international observers have recognised abuses on all sides, in late December UN human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein said that a disproportionate number of attacks of civilians in Yemen had come from the Saudi-led invasion force.I have observed with extreme concern the continuation of heavy shelling from the ground and the air in areas with high a concentration of civilians as well as the perpetuation of the destruction of civilian infrastructure in particular hospitals and schools by all parties to the conflict, although a disproportionate amount appeared to be the result of airstrikes carried out by Coalition forces, Mr Zeid said.The UN has also said Saudi Arabia is contributing to a humanitarian disaster in Yemen.Figures reported by the Independent in January showed British arms firms cashing in on the conflict, with sales of bombs and missiles to the autocratic regime surging from 9 million to 1 billion in just three months last year.The Government must approve all arms exports by UK companies abroad. Overall UK licences granted to military equipment to the country are 6.7 billion since David Cameron took office in 2010 and 2.8 billion since the bombing of Yemen began.Recent opinion polling by Opinium found that 62 per cent of UK adults oppose arms sales to Saudi Arabia, with only 16 per cent supporting them.Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade said the sale of European weapons to the region was fuelling the war in the region and that EU member states should listen to the European Parliament.The European Parliament has sent a clear, strong and much needed message to governments like the UK, that have been complicit in the destruction of Yemen, he said.The toxic combination of arms sales and political support has helped to fuel, facilitate and legitimise the humanitarian catastrophe that is taking place.Alyn Smith, a Scottish National Party MEP involved in the tabling the motion, said Europe had a duty to the civilians of Yemen being killed by Saudi Arabian weaponry.I have a close association with Saudi Arabia. I grew up there and I am sensitive to the realities of the Saudis and appreciate that the Saudis have concerns in their neighbourhood, Mr Smith said.But our duty is to the civilians in Yemen, and given widespread and very valid concerns over the conduct of the war by Saudi forces, our call for an EU-wide arms embargo is proportionate and necessary.Mr Smith, who is a lawyer by profession and who sits on the EPs foreign affairs committee, said he believed EU-made weapons being exported to Saudi Arabia were breaching international law.Earlier this year lawyers from the Leigh Day firm, representing Campaign Against the Arms Trade, took steps towards a legal challenge of the British Governments arms sales.Richard Howitt, a Labour MEP who is the Socialist group's foreign affairs spokesperson, said Europe had a legal duty to work towards the end of the crisis in Yemen."This is a clear humanitarian appeal to end the bloodshed in Yemen, and call on Saudi Arabia to pursue a political rather than a military solution to the conflict," he said."Europe and the world must not ignore the unacceptable death toll in Yemen, and the European Parliament voted today that the allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law by Saudi Arabia in Yemen are now so serious that continuing arms sales would constitute a breach of the EU's own legally-agreed Code of Conduct."Parliaments International Development Committee earlier this month said the UK should suspend all arms sales to Saudi." October Fun Calendar: Plenty to do this month in Beaver County Wichita County's homes rose in price How did Wichita County's housing market do in July? The median price for a house in 2022 was higher than 2021. SHARE Lovell Addison Powell Texas DPS agents arrested two Bowie women on drug charges after search warrants at both a business and a residence in the city. Trooper Dan Buesing said the search warrants were run at 203 E. Wise and 500 Whaley streets. Various amounts of drugs were seized, including methamphetamine, cocaine and about $1,500 worth of marijuana. Buesing said evidence of distribution also was found. Specific details on the amounts were unavailable as the material has been sent for testing. Arrested were: Rondalyn Addison, 49 and Kassie Lovell, 38. Lovell was charged with a complaint of possession of a controlled substance penalty group one. Bond was $2,000. Addison was charged on complaints of possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, and two complaints of possession of a controlled substance in a drug-free zone. Bonds totaled $21,500. Addison operates a resale business at the Wise Street address. Both women were released from the Montague County Jail on Feb. 18 on the state bond amounts. Man allegedly forces way into house A Wichita Falls man is in jail after he was accused of forcing his way into a house and grabbing a child. According to a probable cause affidavits: Around 7 p.m. on Feb. 17, Wichita Falls police were sent to the 2300 block of 10th Street to check on a suspicious person. Once on scene, the victim said Victor Andreas Powell, 25, knocked on her front door and then forced himself inside the house when she opened the door a few inches to see who was outside. The woman told officers she repeatedly told Powell he wasn't welcome and needed to leave. At one point, she blocked the entrance to a room because she was afraid he would hurt the children watching television in the room. Powell grabbed her upper arms and forcibly pushed her to the side, causing her to lose her balance. He picked up a girl, 7, in the room and held her as she began to cry. The woman said Powell looked at the victim and said, "I should put you in a cage." The victim told officers she was in imminent fear he would cause her or the children serious bodily harm based on his actions and statements he had made. Powell then put the child down and left after the woman told him again to leave, returning to his residence on 10th Street. Powell is charged with burglary of a habitation and remained in Wichita County Jail Wednesday afternoon in lieu of $25,000 bail. SHARE TORIN HALSEY/TIMES RECORD NEWS Employees of Work Services Corp. receive the red carpet treatment at the Wichita Theatre Performing Arts Center as they arrive in limousines to watch the premiere of a documentary featuring themselves. The WSC Advocacy Groups collaborated with Hirschi High School media students to make the documentary, called We Can! It is about living and working with disabilities. TORIN HALSEY/TIMES RECORD NEWS Employees of Work Services Corp. arrive at the Wichita Theatre in three limousines Wednesday afternoon and received the full red carpet treatment with screaming fans, friends, family and cameras. WSC collaborated with Hirschi High School on the documentary about living and working with disabilities. The documentary, a project of the WSC Advocacy Groups, was screened at the Wichita Theatre. By Lana Sweeten-Shults of the Times Record News They walked the red carpet. They want to be on the "Today" show. And why not? They already make paper clips for the president of the United States. To say the least, members of the Work Services Corp. Advocacy Groups WSC employees who advocate for people with disabilities have big dreams. As one of its projects, the group wrote a book called "Don't Say the 'R' Word," which they put together for elementary-school students. "So for the next project, they wanted to make a movie," Melodi Bernal, WSC training and staff development manager, said. The group collaborated with Hirschi High School media students under the guidance of now-retired film teacher Steve Tucker. WSC staff shot nine or 10 hours of video that Tucker and his students, who have since graduated, edited into a final documentary called "We Can!" "They wanted the audience (for the documentary) to be older adults. They chose the (movie) project, the pictures in the book. They chose everything. ... The goal of the movie is to convey that people with disabilities can do things. They can work. ... They shouldn't be discriminated against because of their disabilities, and they shouldn't be the target of bullying." To celebrate the completion of the documentary the WSC Advocacy Groups screened the roughly 13-minute "We Can!" at the Wichita Theatre Wednesday afternoon for family and friends. The "stars" of the documentary arrived via three limousines, descending to meet a wildly enthusiastic crow that cheered and took pictures. They then walked the red carpet and signed autographs for their fans after the screening. Ashley Perez, who works with D&S Community Services, attended the screening. Some of our clients work at Work Services, Perez said. They were VERY excited (about the documentary). We had a bunch of them ask us to come watch it. John Williams was in the crowd cheering and taking photos. One of his friends is in the documentary. "He hasn't quit talking about it for a month," Williams said with a laugh. "He's very excited." In the documentary, the employees speak about not being marginalized because of their disability, such as Jeremy Clement, who said: "I like robots. I like women. ... I am NOT my disability," which drew a laugh from the crowd. They also speak emphatically about stopping bullying. "If you say it, then that's being rude. That hurts our feelings," WSC employee Kenda Holly said in "We Can!" And they speak about the work they do and their contribution to the community. "The group on Armory Road, they work the paper clip part," Bernal said. "It's where all the paper clips that our federal government uses comes from. ... I don't know how long this company has had the paper clip contract, but I believe it's the-longest running AbilityOne contract that this company has." WSC also provides food service for four dining halls and the central preparation kitchen for Sheppard Air Force Base, as well as two dining halls for Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo. Sheppard has won the Hennessy Award twice in the last three years. It is the top food service award in the Air Force. Bernal said the group sent President Obama a copy of Dont Say the R Word. Actually, they sent two one for Michelle, because theyre on a first-name basis with her, she said with a laugh. But they sent them to the first lady and one for the president. And they likely will send a copy of the documentary, too, in addition to the Today show and Good Morning America. They make his paper clips, after all. Its about independence and helping people understand they can be independent, Bernal said. Kim Holly, WCS employee Kenda Holly's mom, cried on the red carpet, beaming for her daughter while surrounded by a community of support. Family drove in for the event and co-workers who heard about the red-carpet treatment said, without hesitation, I want to go. They brought flowers, smiles and, also, tears. The event brought "big, ol' crocodile tears to my eyes," she said: "They (the documentary's stars) were just soaking it in." When people complain about their work day, Kim Holly said she wants to show them that documentary and have them walk a mile in her daughters shoes or the shoes of anyone with a disability. Theyre always happy, she said. Follow Times Record News multimedia journalist Lana Sweeten-Shults on Twitter @LanaSweetenShul. SHARE Torin Halsey/Times Record News Detention officer Amanda Bessent opens a holding cell door for a Wichita County Jail detainee on his way to be booked into the system. Torin Halsey/Times Record News Amanda Bessent, a detention officer, at the control panel for doors and corridor gates at the Wichita County Jail. By Lynn Walker of the Times Record News Wichita County enters 2016 battling a perennial problem high turnover in the jail staff and the resultant high overtime pay necessary to keep the jail adequately staffed 24/7, 365 days of the year. An analysis of expenses for 2014 said, "overtime for the Sheriff and County Jail rose over $366,000" due to the rising jail population and increasing turnover rates at the two county facilities. Wichita County Judge Woody Gossom said county commissioners have become so accustomed to the need for overtime by the jail staff that they routinely built it into their annual budgets. Wichita County Sheriff David Duke, however, said not enough overtime is built in to the county's budget. The sheriff, who is responsible for the jail under Texas law, blames the constant turnover and overtime pay on low wages, poor working conditions and the fact that not everyone is cut out for jail work. A starting jailer in Wichita County makes $33,000 annually, which Chief Deputy Derek Meador said is on the low side compared to counties of similar size. Duke said neighboring Clay County, which is much smaller, pays its jailers $43,000 to start. Additionally, Duke and Wichita County Judge Woody Gossom agree rising health insurance costs eat into the take-home pay of jail employees. The sheriff said a jailer with a family can easily see half of his or her pay go to insurance. Jail Administrator Lisa Johnson, who started as a jailer and worked her way up, said it "takes a special kind of person" to be able to do jailer work. Some people have actually quit on the first day of their new jobs. "The conditions are loud. People are saying derogatory things. You deal with the worst of the worst. Some people don't have the personality to cope," she said. Gossom, who presides over the governing commissioners court, agrees one reason for the high rate of turnover in jail staff was the difficulty in finding people "suited to the work." A rigorous criminal background check also eliminates some applicants only about two in 25 applicants passed recently. Duke admits he has to terminate a significant number who become problem employees. He said he terminated 51 jail employees over the past year for a variety of reasons. Meador said the jail staff has been short-staffed by as many as 18 people at one time, meaning others had to work overtime to fully staff the shifts. The state requires one jailer on duty for every 48 inmates and the Wichita County Jail often has nearly 500 inmates. In addition to better pay, Duke thinks a long-discussed new jail facility would help immensely. "I personally think it would make 100 percent difference," he said. "It wouldn't hurt," Gossom said. Duke pointed to the modern jail in Collin County, which Wichita County officials toured. He said the facility, which has a jailer within each detention area, was clean and well-maintained. "It was quiet as a library," Duke said. "It was like a doctor's office." A report compiled in July 2015 showed Wichita County with a jailer turnover rate of 6.94 percent while Collin County's rate was 1.21 percent. Although talks have been underway for a new jail in Wichita County for several years, county commissioners have yet to move forward with a definite plan, which would likely entail putting a tax increase in front of voters. Talk has vacillated between refurbishing the Sprague Jail annex on the southeast edge of Wichita Falls to building a whole new facility there to building a new multi-story facility adjacent to the courthouse downtown. Sheriff's Office leaders agree the problem of turnover and the subsequent need to pay overtime will probably never go away entirely. They also point out the job can have its rewards. Jailers can try to move up in position and pay grade. Duke, Meador and Johnson all started as jailers and moved up to positions of higher responsibility and better pay. While some jailers like getting overtime pay in their checks, the eventually burn out from overwork, Duke said. Meador said improved pay and conditions could help on a psychological level. "We have people who don't feel they're valued," he said. The Bottom Line is a Times Record News-exclusive series where we examine local city, county and school district finances to explain how your money is being collected and spent. This series is published in print Sunday Thursdays and is available online at timesrecordnews.com/trninvestigates through February 25, 2016. SHARE Wyatt O&B Corliss Ann 'Gales' Wyatt was called home to be with her Lord and Savior on Tuesday, February 23, 2016 after a long battle with multiple health issues. She passed away peacefully with family and friends by her side at Hospice of Wichita Falls. Corliss was born on May 28, 1945 in Wichita Falls, Texas to Clifford and Blanche Gales. She was a graduate of the first senior class at Hirschi High School in 1963 where she was Senior Beauty and Cheerleader. On September 12, 1963, she married David G. Wyatt. Corliss and David were blessed with two children, David "RD" Wyatt and Kristen Wyatt. Corliss had worked many places over the years however she retired from the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice Parole Division due to health problems in 2010. She had worked for TDCJ for 17 years and 7 months. She was a long time member of First Christian Church. She loved her church and her Lord. Corliss was an avid dog lover, and her grandson was her pride and joy. She thought that he was just perfect. Anyone that walked in listening distance of Corliss heard Boodro stories whether you wanted to or not. Everywhere you looked in her house, she had a photo of him. Many people thought she had many grandchildren because of all of the photos she had hanging on the walls and sitting on the tables. She would just laugh and say "No I only have one. All of these pictures are of him". The feeling was mutual. "Boodro" said that Nana was the greatest Nana ever and she is going to be an awesome angel. She was preceded in death by her son, David "RD" Wyatt; her parents, Clifford and Blanche Gales; her father-in-law, George H. Wyatt; her brother, Wilbert Gales; sisters, Rose Marie Bookout and Brenda Joyce Reardon; a nephew, Bryan Gales and her uncle, Morton M. Moon. She is survived by her husband of 52 and half years, David Wyatt of Wichita Falls; her daughter, Kristen Rierson and husband Jessie of Corsicana; her grandson, David Winston Rierson (aka "Boodro") of Corsicana; her brother, Delbert Gales and wife Peggy of Wichita Falls; sister-in-law, Sue Gales of Arlington; mother-in-law, Mary Beth Wyatt; her aunt, Ruby Moon both of Wichita Falls; and numerous nieces, nephews, and much loved friends. The family would like to thank the Wichita Falls First Responders for always being just a phone call away, the nurses and physicians working on 8C of United Regional, and all of the staff at Hospice of Wichita Falls for their wonderful care that she received in her final days. Funeral services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, February 27, 2016 at First Christian Church with Dr. David Hartman and Rev. Renee Hoke, officiating. Interment will follow at Crestview Memorial Park under the direction of Owens & Brumley Funeral Home of Wichita Falls. The family will receive friends from 6 until 8 p.m. Friday, February 26, 2016 at Owens & Brumley Funeral Home of Wichita Falls. For those desiring, memorial donations may be made to First Christian Church, 3701 Taft Blvd., Wichita Falls, TX 76301; Hospice of Wichita Falls, 4909 Johnson Road, Wichita Falls, TX 76310; or to a charity of your choice. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.owensandbrumley.com In this Jan, 27, 2016, file photo, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, poses with Chinese President Xi Jinping prior to their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. North Korean nuclear and rocket tests are drawing quick responses from the U.S. that will upset a supposed partner against Pyongyang's weapons development _ China. New efforts to toughen missile defense in South Korea and sanctions legislation moving swiftly through Congress could both hurt Chinese interests. The Chinese are concerned the missile defense system could be used against them, and the U.S. sanctions could hit Chinese companies that trade with North Korea. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool, Fiile) SHARE By The Washington Post Chinese President Xi Jinping hit a trifecta of sorts on Friday with rare, high-profile visits to the newsrooms of China Central Television, the Xinhua news service and the People's Daily newspaper, three organizations at the commanding heights of China's Communist Party and state media. Xi's message: They must serve the party with absolute loyalty and must "have the party as their family name." Workers at the central television headquarters greeted Xi with a banner that said, "The central television's family name is the party." Censorship and party pressure on journalists have long been the norm in China, but Xi's appearances - and the fawning reaction of some news media workers - suggest a renewed attempt to tighten the reins and build a cult of personality around the Chinese leader. With a flourish, Xi posed at an anchor's desk at the state television network. He instructed the media not only to hew to the party line but also to love it. "All work of the party's news and public opinion media," Xi said, "must reflect the will of the party, mirror the views of the party, preserve the authority of the party, preserve the unity of the party, and achieve love of the party, protection of the party and acting for the party." And, he insisted, they must maintain "a high level of uniformity with the party in ideology, politics and action." The consequences of these attempts at thought control are already well entrenched in China: an authoritarian, paternalistic system that attempts to corral information and determine what the public can be told. It doesn't always work in the digital age, but Chinese authorities haven't quit trying. Xi's declarations serve an important purpose, highlighting how China's leadership views the news media as party handmaidens and loyal mouthpieces. In this view, there is no room for independent inquiry or questioning journalism. At the same time, the Chinese government published new regulations that will ban foreign companies from publishing online media, games and other content within China's borders. This is yet one more attempt to keep out any unwanted overseas influences. Xi seems determined to impose maximum control. There was a time when many in the West hoped that open doors to China would let in fresh breezes of freedom. It was believed that greater trade and flows of intellectual property would bring ancillary benefits, improving conditions in human rights and democracy. It was thought that allowing China's state news media an expanding foothold in the United States might also advance democratic values. It is past time to rethink such assumptions. The Washington Post SHARE Hal Newsom, Wichita Falls I'd like to thank the TRN for the "Bottom Line" series. From the city to the county to the school district, the series has been very informative to me. Many of the items and instances referenced in the series are those that not many citizens ever consider or know about. Whether or not a person likes them; whether or not officials who furnished the information likes the articles, whether or not the articles will help us pay closer attention to how our money is spent, or whether the articles will make those publicly elected and appointed officials spend our money more wisely is a tossup. I have my personal inclination and it centers on the fact that these officials think they are much wiser than the rest of us; that they know how to better spend the public's monies than anyone else; and they have little or no accountability to the electorate because the electorate has such short memories. Again, Thank You to the TRN for a series of articles that are informative and thought provoking. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Guilderland Will it have trees? Or plenty of natural wood? Or oversized display screens? When Apple reopens its remodeled Crossgates Mall store at 10 a.m. Saturday, customers will be looking to see whether it has any of the elements that chief designer Jony Ive has incorporated into another Apple store, in Brussels. Apple closed its Crossgates store at the end of last summer, moving to a smaller, temporary space a short distance away. Apple first opened its Crossgates store Oct. 13, 2001, its first in New York state and the 10th companywide. Its first-ever retail store opened in May 2001. AppleInsider said Apple was redesigning its stores in an effort to give them a more "premium feel." Ive has been working with Angela Ahrendts, the company's retail leader, on the redesign. Ahrendts was previously CEO of London-based luxury brand Burberry. The Brussels store reportedly was the first to open since Ive assumed his current role. Foster & Partners also worked on the design of the store, which opened last autumn. eanderson@timesunion.com 518-454-5323 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Albany The case involving custody of murder victim Kenneth White's siblings and their father will stretch into the summer after a Family Court hearing Thursday determined that the court will work toward adoption but not before another hearing is scheduled for August. Earlier this month, Kenneth's father, Jayson White, asked Family Court Judge Gerard Maney for time to decide whether he'll give up his parental rights over his two young daughters, Kenneth's twin sister and a younger sister, who are currently in foster care in Albany County. While White showed no indication at Thursday's hearing that he will give up his parental rights voluntarily, he told Maney that he has agreed for Albany County to seek the permanent adoption of Kenneth's sisters, now approximately ages 5 and 6. In Dec. 2014, 5-year-old Kenneth White was strangled and dumped in a snowbank by his cousin, Tiffany VanAlstyne, who is currently serving 18 years to life in state prison. Kenneth was staying with his sisters at the home of their aunt Brenda VanAlstyne in the Town of Knox at the time of the killing. A neglect hearing against Brenda revealed her daughter Tiffany was abusing Kenneth's twin while the children were staying with them. The White siblings, who number five in total, have had tumultuous young lives, according to numerous Family Court hearings about their cases. Jayson White is also facing an investigation in Massachusetts concerning alleged neglect of Kenneth's two oldest siblings. And the children's mother, Christine VanAlstyne White, was found guilty of neglect in Albany County Court recently; she lost custody of five other children by another father some years ago. Maney has said in Family Court previously that both parents have struggled with substance abuse. In Family Court on Thursday, Maney said Jayson White had not seen the two youngest siblings since Dec. 2, and has not completed a mandatory drug test. Albany County could hold a trial to legally end White's parental rights, but only if White goes six consecutive months without seeing the children. lstanforth@timesunion.com 518-454-5697. Includes reporting by staff writer Paul Nelson. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Albany After a long day of work, National Grid employees Jake Ennis and Brett Morey often head over to Albany High School to play with robots. Ennis and Morey, who work for the utility's natural gas department in Albany, studied mechanical engineering at the University at Buffalo. And so they were thrilled when they got the opportunity to volunteer with Albany High School's FIRST Robotics team, which National Grid sponsors as part of its support for science and technology education in New York state and New England. "We both have very mechanical minds and like working on stuff, and this just plays right into that," said Ennis, who is now in his second year volunteering with the Albany High team. "It's fun for us, and we like seeing young kids getting involved in this field. That's why we keep coming back." The robotics team meets two hours after school four days a week and on weekends. On Tuesday, the students were getting ready to pack up their robot for a trip to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy. They had to drop the robot off and seal it up by midnight in advance of the New York Tech Valley FIRST robotics competition at RPI March 17 to March 19. The competition is intense, with 34 teams coming from Canada, China, The Netherlands, New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Hawaii. Albany High placed fifth last year. FIRST Robotics is a nationwide program that began in the late 1980s. The name stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology." National Grid gives $25,000 to the FIRST Robotics program every year, and then it gives sponsorship grants to teams across its service territory ranging from $1,000 to $6,000 a year. The Albany High School team gets $6,000 a year. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. "We're trying to support STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and get kids interested in engineering," said National Grid spokesman Patrick Stella. "That's one of the things we need, especially in our business, to have more engineers." Richard Kissane, a retired Albany High teacher who is head adviser to the robotics team, said having Ennis and Morey volunteer with the team is a huge help, especially since the jobs that Ennis and Morey have with National Grid's gas department allow them to get to Albany High right when the school day ends because their work days begin so early in the morning. "It's worked out great," Kissane said. "Their schedules allow them to be here at 3 p.m. when we meet, because a lot of teams meet after school, a lot of teams meet at night time, like Shen and Shaker when the kids can come back to school. Well, here we have transportation issues that eliminate some of our kids from doing that." lrulison@timesunion.com 518-454-5504 @larryrulison This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate "There is my smile," Marlene Straus says, answering the door for her Meals on Wheels delivery. "I open the door and there he is. The smile is here." Marlene is an elderly woman who lives with Sophie, her cat. In a room filled with colorful quilts and blankets, Marlene moves about easily, despite using a wheelchair. Sophie curls on her own folded blanket, sleeping even with the commotion of a visitor. More Information Just what does Meals on Wheels serve? The meals vary from fish to beef Stroganoff and baked ziti. Emphasis is on making food appealing to seniors, while meeting federal guidelines for nutrition. Sample meal (Baked Fish Almondine): Roasted white fish covered in a buttery sauce and topped with toasted almonds, mashed sweet potatoes, steamed cauliflower How to donate to Meals on Wheels Sponsor a senior: $35 feeds a senior for a week, $140 feeds a senior for a month, $1,800 feeds a senior for a year. All monetary contributions go directly to purchase, prepare and deliver food. Donate stock Donate used cars People who can consistently give time each week can call and volunteer. Meals on Wheels is always in need of volunteers. Funds can be sent to Meals on Wheels, c/o Liz Hutson at 32 Essex St., Albany, NY 12206 For more information, contact Liz at 465-3322. See More Collapse The guy with the smile and the packages of food steps into her apartment. His name is Joe Marcello, Jr. and he delivers smiles, love, companionship and kindness with every meal. On a recent morning in Albany, he climbs into his Meals on Wheels delivery car, loaded up with food for seniors. Joe is a father, grandfather and husband who retired in 2011. After retiring, he fixed up his house. Traveled a bit. Then decided he needed something else to do. Answering an ad for a senior meal delivery person, Joe became a driver for Meals on Wheels. The job, he discovered, is way more than being a driver or food delivery person. Every week, volunteers like Joe set out, cars full of meals, delivering to seniors across Albany County. Joe is one of 20 staff members, along with 450 volunteers, who come together to assist Albany County seniors through Meals on Wheels, which has been in service since 1986. Last summer, the organization moved into a new, 3,000-square-foot commercial kitchen in downtown Albany. Setting off on a very cold morning in February, Joe was dressed in jeans and a sweat shirt. The bitter temperatures don't seem to touch him as he parks in driveways, pulls out a big cooler and sorts bags by name. The delivery sites vary old Victorian homes and small apartments. A few people wait at the door, and for him. At those places, he simply hands the bags over, most often to a caretaker. At one delivery, a soft-spoken gentlemen greets Joe at his apartment door. Homebound after a stroke, the man takes the meal bags and thanks Joe. The man, who can move independently but doesn't have use of his right arm, has a son in Massachusetts, who visits when he can. "Everything alright?" Joe asks the man. "You need anything?" It's the same routine for each client: the smile, then checking to be sure they are safe and all is OK. Finally, the food. "This one is tough," Joe says pulling into a driveway in Albany close to the end of his route. "Yup, it's a hard one." He lets himself in through the front door and opens the door to a bedroom on the ground floor, filled with mementos, knickknacks and pictures. In a hospital bed lies a small woman, curled in sleep. Joe calls out to her softly. "Honey, it's Joe. I'm here with your food." She lifts her head and opens her eyes, immediately reaching out her hand. "You're here," she says, holding his hand. In a voice as tiny as her frame, she explains how she broke her hip and can no longer get out of bed. Her husband died years ago. No children. For a few minutes, she lights up, as she pulls herself upright and looks at Joe with big eyes. She holds onto Joe's hand and talks about the creche from Italy that sits on a dresser and a picture taken 50 years ago. But other clients await. Joe has to leave. He shakes his head as he backs out of the driveway. "That one is hard for me." A lot has to happen before the meals are packed in bags and coolers for Joe and the other drivers to distribute. The food is prepared in the organization's commercial kitchen on Warren Street in Albany. Early every morning, chefs and kitchen staff arrive and the process of feeding people begins. Each delivery includes one tray with a hot meal and one bagged meal with a sandwich, fruit, vegetable and dessert. The bagged meals are packed, with client names attached, in huge coolers. Hot meals are packed in special containers made to keep food warm. Monika Boeckmann is executive director of the program, and she is equal parts cheerleader, disaster reliever and maestro. Her office hums. People walk in and out, interrupting her, asking questions. Unflustered, she describes the contrast between the Meals on Wheels program and having frozen meals delivered (a cheaper alternative insurance companies would rather pay for.) "The difference is putting eyes on people. You can't replace the human contact." Smiles like Joe's go along with each meal, approximately 130,000 senior meals each year. Albany County pays for about 80,000 of those; the rest of the funding comes from grants, fundraising and clients buying their own meals. "What this staff does for so little money and under difficult circumstances amazes me every day," Boeckmann says. Around 8:30 a.m., the drivers began to trickle in. Kitchen staffers assemble around a machine with a conveyor belt. They work seamlessly, placing steaming hot fish into one compartment of a plastic tray, a scoop of sweet potato in another, and steamed cauliflower in the last. Full trays move down the line, and a machine seals them with plastic film before they're packed into bags and coolers. Three hundred and fifty meals go out like that, with only one tiny glitch. Milk is sent with each meal, a federal guideline. Someone notices that the order is short there wasn't enough pints for the day's deliveries. Monika searches the cooler, then calls the dairy. "Our CFO is going over to pick up seven cases of milk. We all wear different hats," Monika says. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. Crisis averted, she goes back in the kitchen to oversees the drivers as they head out. The end of Joe's route brings him to Ohav Shalom towers and Marlene Straus. Marlene is the one who waits for Joe and his smile. Very social and independent, she is unable to cook nutritious meals for herself and relies on the hot meals delivered during the week. On Friday, she receives two frozen meals that she can reheat and will help sustain her until Monday. She has a daughter who lives in Chicago and friends she gathers with for game nights. Joe is a special friend, and she has been to his house for Thanksgiving and other family events. "My wife and I always have room for one more at our table," Joe says. Thanksgiving and summer picnics and other special occasions, Joe drives his own car and brings clients to his home. Joe and Marlene converse easily, like two old friends. Joe's wife occasionally sends him out with small gifts, baked goods and such to give his clients. "These people, they are my family," Joe says. Before he leaves, Joe and Marlene discuss the details of a summer road trip to Olana, Frederick Church's historic estate in Hudson. She's always wanted to go, and they agree that summer would be a good time to enjoy the scenery, view the house and the grounds. There might even be a stop for ice cream after the tour. With food delivered and safely stored in Marlene's refrigerator, and knowing she is safe and healthy, it's time for Joe to leave. She sees him to the door, still chattering about the trip. Leaning in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek, he says goodbye. "Honey, I'll see you next week," Joe calls as he closes the door. "I know you will," she calls back, "and I'll be here waiting." Caroline Barrett is a freelance writer. Email her at cvbarrett@verizon.n-et. Populist candidates are certainly making the current presidential race exciting. But for evidence that America has been down this road before, as well as for a suggestion of what might await us after November, head to the University at Albany, where the rock musical "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" opens on Wednesday evening and runs through Saturday afternoon. "Jackson was the father of the populist movement, and the show satirizes what happens when you have a President who only wants to do what the people want and doesn't have a plan," says director Chad Larabee. "It's a cautionary tale." When the theater department at UAlbany scheduled the show, everyone was fully aware it would go up just after the start of the presidential primaries. But according to Larabee, they had no idea how relevant the musical might actually be. "To our shock and horror, it parallels the current political scene and the effort to bring an outsider to Washington," says Larabee. More Information If you go "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" Music and lyrics by Michael Friedman and book by Alex Timbers Performances: 7 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday Where: Performing Arts Center, University at Albany Tickets: $15-$20. Call 442-3997. More information: http://www.albany.edu/pac See More Collapse It's not just that the longing for someone from outside the establishment. Jackson rallied voters around issues not all that different from what candidates are talking about these days. He advocated the forceful removal of Native Americans from their lands, which Larabee compares to the current talk of banning Muslims and deporting aliens. There are also parallels to an issue currently bandied about on the left, namely the outsized power of banks. After he was in office, Jackson attempted to close the national bank by executive order. Any of this sound familiar? "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" features a cast of 18 students and lasts about 80 minutes. Larabee describes it as "a loose script" that takes equal jabs at various minorities. Similar to episodes of "South Park" or "Saturday Night Live," he says that kernels of truth get blown out of proportion. As for the flavor of rock music, it's emo. That little word is a condensing of the grander term emotional. Back in the mid to late '80s, the emerging style was called emotional hard-core. Its most successful example is probably Green Day. Emo exemplifies the next generation of punk tight and loud, raucous and expressive. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. "It speaks of that angry young man, raging against a world he doesn't understand," says Larabee. "It's what we see today people who are angry and hostile and just want immediate change without really knowing what that means." So here's the picture: The seventh president of the United States was passionate but somewhat clueless and very good at plugging into the hysteria of angry crowds. "It's easy to forget what a disturbing history we have," says Larabee. Joseph Dalton is a freelance writer based in Troy. After nine years in Scotland, the Mid-Tipp Hillwalkers winter meet was in Spain this year. Based in Monachil close to the very historic city of Granada, walking for all levels was in the Sierra Nevada, the highest mountain range in mainland Spain. Twenty six members made the trip, and a most enjoyable experience it was. Walks included a circuit of Trevenque, a beautiful walk by the Rio Genil river, and the exciting Monachil river gorge. On the final day, a group of 16 reached the snow-covered summit of Veleta, which, at 3394m, is the third highest mountain in mainland Spain where, as usual, the Tipperary flag was proudly unfurled (see photo). Interesting day out Granada, with its famous Alhambra Palace provided a very interesting day out, and the evening sessions were most enjoyable and great fun. Overall, a great trip, and we now look forward to the summer trips to the Yorkshire Dales and to Seefeld in Austria. Meanwhile, this Sunday, its back to our own mountains, and the high level walk will leave from Cashel as usual at 11am. Thurles Chamber of Commerce is highlighting a number of areas of particular concern locally in the run up to the general election. Chamber president John Butler commented that while the Irish economy has seen improvement over the past couple of years, we now have a two tier economy. Dublin is steaming ahead, but provincial towns like Thurles have not seen any sustained upturn. We have a huge number of positives going for us including our location, our educational , recreational and sporting facilities but we seem to be off the radar when it comes to job announcements. Thurles Chamber is calling on the next government to give a far greater focus to provincial towns and has identified a number of areas where Thurles needs urgent action. Jobs & Employment. Thurles has the highest unemployment figure of any of the major towns in Tipperary and there has been a disappointing lack of focus on jobs in our region from government in the past 5 years and more. Thurles Chamber of Commerce is calling on the next government to establish a task force for jobs in the areas as it has done for other towns. Lack of suitable sites/premises for potential employers. Thurles Chamber of Commerce has identified the lack of suitable premises in Thurles as a hindrance to potential investment. While Thurles is very centrally located with road and rail accessibility better than most towns, there is a lack of suitable sites for potential large employers. Traffic Congestion. Thurles is one of the few towns of its size not to have a bypass for heavy commercial vehicles. Congestion is severely affecting trade in the town and the lack of a by-pass is hampering the towns potential for development and investment. Commercial Rates. Thurles Chamber of Commerce is calling on the next government to completely overhaul the current commercial rates system which is outdated and overly onerous on small business, while allowing internet based multinationals to trade into Ireland while paying no commercial rates or making no contribution to the markets into which they sell. The next Mark Zuckerberg could hail from Tipperary thanks to a computer coding pilot programme being rolled out in three Tipperary schools this September. Colaiste Mhuire in Thurles, Comeragh College Carric-on-Suir and Nenagh College, along with 16 other schools nationwide, are among the first schools in Ireland to benefit from the new Coding course after beating out stiff competition from 120 other applicants. Teachers from each of the selected schools are currently taking part in training programmes run by Intel Ireland, Lero The Irish Software Research Centre and Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT). Additionally all schools taking part in the pilot project will also receive a donation of Galileo Gen 2 Boards and teacher kits provided by Intel Ireland. As part of the course students will learn coding language and Java Script. Exploring coding is a new optional subject for the Junior Cycle student awards curriculum that will soon replace the junior certificate. These are very exciting times for Colaiste Mhuire Co-Ed. We have a very vibrant IT Department, five state of the art computer labs and have just invested 35,000 in IT Equipment. Recently our students have competed in the National Robotics Challenge, Formula One competition, Young Scientist and Scifest and many of our students are already coding in their computer class, said Colaiste Mhuire principal Dennis Quinn. The school is delighted to have been chosen by the Department of Education and Skills to pioneer this innovative development as it affirmed the hard work of the I.T. Department and the recent investment by the school, he added. Earlier this month the head of Irish Operations for Google Ronan Harris labeled Ireland the data capital of Europe while Fionnuala Meehan, who leads most of Google's education outreach programmes, said it was critical that computer science and coding be added to the Leaving Certificate curriculum. At present there is an estimated 700,000 job vacancies in ICT across Europe. I agree with the program I don't agree with the program I like the idea, but feel the current proposal is too broad Let me park where I want! Vote View Results [February 24, 2016] Ashford University Launches New Instructional Practice Specialization for Master of Arts in Education Degree Program SAN DIEGO, Feb. 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ashford University has introduced a new Instructional Practice specialization for its Master of Arts in Education degree program. While the degree and specialization will prepare students for many different careers in education, the new specialization was specifically designed to include seven of the eight lessons that TeacherReady requires to endorse students for licensure as teachers in the state of Florida. The Instructional Practice specialization is currently being made available to students residing in five states: Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, and Michigan. TeacherReady is a State of Florida approved, online alternative teacher certification program. Ashford formed a partnership with TeacherReady to provide master's level students with a path toward licensure as a teacher. Under the partnership, students will have the opportunity to complete their Master of Arts in Education at Ashford while concurrently completing lessons through TeacherReady. "This program specialization has embedded a unique partnership that not only enables students to earn their Master's degree online, but also allows them to concurrently complete the majority of the requirements for earning their teaching credentials in the state of Florida," said Dr. Newton MillerAshford University. "This is good news for the students we serve here at Ashford." Students who earn the Master of Arts in Education degree with the Instructional Practice specialization at Ashford may earn a teaching license or certification if they continue with the TeacherReady Program. If students complete all program requirements, TeacherReady will recommend those students to the Florida Department of Education for teacher licensure. After earning their professional license in the State of Florida, through reciprocity agreements with other states, students may be able to transfer the teaching license to their home state. TeacherReady has been in operation for more than ten years. It has a proven track record of establishing student teaching experiences at schools. TeacherReady also provides students with personalized advising throughout the program to support them to achieve their goal to become a teacher. For more information about the new Instructional Practice specialization and the Master of Arts in Education degree, please visit the degrees page at www.ashford.edu . About Ashford University Where heritage meets innovation that's Ashford University. At Ashford, students discover relevant degree programs, innovative technology, and cherished tradition. Ashford offers associates, bachelor's, and master's degree programs online, allowing students to balance life by providing the flexibility to do school work anywhere, anytime. For more information, please visit www.ashford.edu, www.facebook.com/ashforduniversity, www.twitter.com/AshfordU, or call Marianne Perez, Media Relations Manager, at 858.513.9240 x11636. Contact: Marianne Perez, Media Relations Manager 858.513.9240 x11636 [email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130228/LA68969LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ashford-university-launches-new-instructional-practice-specialization-for-master-of-arts-in-education-degree-program-300225939.html SOURCE Ashford University [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 25, 2016] Casio Gives Back With Keyboard Donations To Express The Importance Of Music Education DOVER, N.J., Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Casio America, Inc., a leading electronic musical instrument provider, is excited to announce that it is continuing its commitment to support music education with donations around the country of its widely popular Privia digital pianos. The company recently donated to the Jazz Education Network (JEN) for a silent auction fundraiser at the JEN 2016 Conference in Louisville. Casio also recently donated to Leverette Elementary School in Arkansas, which coincided with Casio partner and pianist, Simone Dinnerstein's classical music program, Bachpacking. Finally, Casio gave an assortment of Privia digital pianos to 10 Berklee City Music Network locations including the Boys & Girls Harbor in New York City. "Music education is a critical component to Casio's keyboard division goals. Without the support of manufacturers, educators, artists and NAMM, children today might miss out on the benefits that are derived from studying music. Keyboards have been often denoted as the gateway instrument for many musicians, if these donations help just one student benefit than we are all successful. We are thrilled to be able to share the gift of music with organizations and schools around the country," said Stephen Schmidt, Vice President of Casio's Electronic Musical Instrument Division. The Jazz Education Network: At the JEN conference, a silent auction was held to generate funds towards the organization's mission of building the jazz community by advancing education, promoting performance and developing new audiences. The silent auction fundraiser ensured that all proceeds generated would help support the various programs that JEN offers including outreach initiatives in area schools and communities, scholarships for deserving students, and the JENerations Jazz Festival. Casio's Privia PX-350 was selected for this donation in memory of Joe Sample, an American pianist, keyboard player and composer, and founding member of the Jazz Crusaders. Joe was a member of the Casio family o artists and the Privia line was his preferred line of pianos. Leverett Elementary School: Casio partner and pianist, Simone Dinnerstein, recently brought her Bachpacking program, which provides classical music in public school classrooms, presents interactive performances, and encourages musical discussion among students, to Leverett Elementary School in Fayetteville, Arkansas. As part of this program, Dinnerstein works to help students identify imitation, contrary and parallel motion and ways of listening through Bach. Casio worked with Dinnerstein to surprise music teacher, Anthony Lytle, and the entire Leverett Elementary community with a special donation, which included a Privia PX-160 and stand for use in the school's music initiatives. Berklee City Music Network: Casio recently donated more than 100 electronic musical instruments to 10 Berklee City Music Network locations across the country including Boys & Girls Harbor in New York City. The donated instruments, including PX-135 and PX-150 Privia pianos, among others, are being used in music programs to enable youth from underserved communities to develop musically, academically and socially. The donated Casio pianos are currently being played by students at the Boys & Girls Harbor K.I.D.S. Afterschool Piano Group Class among others. The Privia digital piano line comes equipped with Casio's proprietary AiR technology which redefines the digital piano experience with richer and more genuine sounds. The pianos feature a combination of a new keyboard action and a powerful new sound engine to provide an enhanced level of detail, nuance and expression for a superior grand piano experience. Casio's Privia pianos are currently available at select music dealers nationwide. To learn more about Casio's music education initiatives and full portfolio of electronic musical instruments, please visit www.CasioMusicGear.com. About Casio America, Inc. Casio America, Inc., Dover, N.J., is the U.S. subsidiary of Casio Computer Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer electronics and business equipment solutions. Established in 1957, Casio America, Inc. markets calculators, keyboards, digital cameras, mobile presentation devices, disc title and label printers, watches, cash registers and other consumer electronic products. Casio has strived to fulfill its corporate creed of "creativity and contribution" through the introduction of innovative and imaginative products. For more information, visit www.casiousa.com. About The Jazz Education Network The Jazz Education Network is dedicated to building the jazz arts community by advancing education, promoting performance, and developing new audiences. With a home base in the United States, and members in more than 23 countries, this thriving organization hosts a popular annual conference that serves teachers, students, artists, performing arts presenters, music industry partners, and enthusiasts. JEN runs ongoing programs of scholarships and awards for students and educators, student composition showcases, community outreach, music and instrument donations to schools in need, and mentoring with jazz pros and students. About Berklee City Music Berklee City Music is a non-profit organization that leverages the power of contemporary music to empower youth from underserved communities to develop musically, academically, socially, and emotionally. Founded over 20 years ago by Berklee College of Music, the organization reaches over 79,000 students annually through a variety of programs and initiatives including City Music Network, City Music Boston, Amp Up NYC, and the innovative PULSE online music method. By using culturally relevant music as a vehicle for holistic youth development, Berklee City Music helps young people flourish as students, musicians, andperhaps most importantlyconfident and well-rounded individuals ready to shape the world. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160223/336539LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/casio-gives-back-with-keyboard-donations-to-express-the-importance-of-music-education-300225375.html SOURCE Casio America, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 25, 2016] Cybersecurity Fuels Tech Industry Growth - BDO Survey Cybersecurity will be one of the biggest growth engines for the technology sector in 2016, right alongside personal technology. According to BDO USA, LLP's 2016 Technology Outlook Survey, which polls 100 technology company CFOs, one in four tech CFOs view cybersecurity concerns as the primary driver of industry growth this year, outflanked only by consumer demand for innovative personal technology, selected by one in three CFOs as the most important factor driving industry growth. Researchers estimate the cybersecurity market will grow 9.8 percent annually to $170 billion by 2020. Cybersecurity is not only fueling innovation within the industry, but also driving tech companies to shore up their own cyber defenses. More than half (57 percent) of respondents increased spending on cybersecurity during the past year in response to the growth of cloud services, mobile devices and the proliferation of sophisticated cyber attacks. "The tech industry is responding to rising concerns about cybersecurity across all industries, making tremendous progress in advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to anticipate and respond to cyber threats earlier," said Shahryar Shaghaghi, National Practice Leader for Technology Advisory at BDO. "It's reassuring to see that tech companies are practicing what they preach; the industry is prioritizing cybersecurity internally and embedding cyber principles and machine learning techniques into their product and service offerings." Several macroeconomic issues are expected to weigh heavily on tech companies this year. When asked to weigh in on the biggest challenge, tech CFOs were nearly equally divided between policy and tax changes (26 percent), healthcare reform (25 percent), domestic and global political issues (24 percent) and the lack of a qualified workforce (24 percent). Taking a closer look at specific tax reform issues, 49 percent of tech CFOs rank the U.S. corporate tax rate?currently sitting at 35 percent, and one of the highest rates in the industrialized world?as their biggest concern; half of all respondents believe the tax system hinders their global competitiveness. However, only 16 percent of tech CFOs are increasing their level of tax planning activities over the next year to reduce the organization's global effective tax rate; most (80 percent) are keeping activities on par with last year. Rounding out respondents' top three tax issues for 2016 are aggressive state tax laws (19 percent) and taxation of overseas actvities (17 percent). "The presidential election this year will likely put corporate tax issues on center stage, with much hanging in the balance until voters make their decision in November," said David Yasukochi, partner and leader of the Technology and Life Sciences Practice at BDO USA, LLP. "Tech CFOs will also be watching for changes in tax policy at the state and local level, as the states continue to take a patchwork approach to taxing the cloud." Additional findings from the 2016 BDO Technology Outlook Survey include: Good talent is exceedingly hard to find. When tech CFOs weighed in on their organization's greatest challenge in 2016, recruiting or retaining workforce talent (32 percent) was cited nearly as often as competition (39 percent). The talent issue has become an increasingly pressing priority, at its highest proportion in the past nine years, after rising fairly steadily from 11 percent in 2008. More than half (55 percent) of tech CFOs said that staffing would remain level with last year, while 44 percent expect their organization will hire more employees. Sales and marketing positions are the primary focus area for hiring, according to 52 percent of respondents, followed by research and development positions (21 percent). Tightening security measures. To address growing cybersecurity concerns, respondents report their organizations have taken a number of actions over the past year including using new software security tools (93 percent), performing a cybersecurity risk assessment (81 percent) and creating a response plan for security breaches (75 percent). Regulators are placing more scrutiny on security breaches stemming from vendor relationships, so tech companies are tightening policies in response, with 65 percent of tech CFOs reporting that their company has updated third-party risk management policies. Slow-moving adoption of revenue recognition standards. Tech CFOs have become more aware of the new revenue recognition standards that the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board issued in 2014. Sixty-three percent said they were familiar with the new standards, up from 43 percent last year. However, CFOs are still largely indecisive about how they will adopt the standards, with 31 percent still trying to understand the changes. Nearly half (45 percent) haven't decided whether they will choose the prospective or full retrospective option, although prospective is the more popular choice among those who have decided (21 percent). Implementation of the standard has been delayed until 2017, and some clarifying changes have yet to be resolved. For now, 77 percent believe the standards won't have any impact on their organization. Financial compliance issues weigh on CFOs. The majority (57 percent) of tech CFOs cited financial reporting as their most serious compliance concern in the year ahead, followed by general fraud and corruption (19 percent) and export controls (11 percent). These findings are from the ninth annual 2016 BDO Technology Outlook Survey, a national telephone survey conducted by Market Measurement, Inc., an independent market research consulting firm, whose executive interviewers spoke directly to 100 chief financial officers at leading technology companies throughout the United States. The survey was conducted from December 2015 to January 2016. Additional findings from the study will be released in the coming weeks. About the Technology & Life Sciences Practice at BDO USA, LLP BDO has been a valued business advisor to technology and life sciences companies for over 100 years. The firm works with a wide variety of technology clients, ranging from multinational Fortune 500 corporations to more entrepreneurial businesses, on myriad accounting, tax and other financial issues. About BDO BDO is the brand name for BDO USA, LLP, a U.S. professional services firm providing assurance, tax, financial advisory and consulting services to a wide range of publicly traded and privately held companies. For more than 100 years, BDO has provided quality service through the active involvement of experienced and committed professionals. The firm serves clients through 63 offices and more than 450 independent alliance firm locations nationwide. As an independent Member Firm of BDO International Limited, BDO serves multi-national clients through a global network of 1,408 offices in 154 countries. BDO USA, LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership, is the U.S. member of BDO International Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, and forms part of the international BDO network of independent member firms. BDO is the brand name for the BDO network and for each of the BDO Member Firms. For more information please visit: www.bdo.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225005092/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 25, 2016] Nautilus Hyosung Doubles Size of Global Software Center with New Facility in Dayton Region of Ohio DAYTON, Ohio and DALLAS, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Nautilus Hyosung America, the largest provider of ATMs in the United States, today announced that its Global Software Center in Montgomery County, Ohio, has moved to Miamisburg near Dayton to better accommodate the company's growth locally and in the North American market. Miamisburg is home to several leading tech companies and a highly skilled tech talent pool. Located at 2076 Byers Road, the new Global Software Center is 50 percent larger than the former site, allowing for ease of expansion as the company creates local jobs. Nautilus Hyosung recently hosted an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of the company's Global Software Center. Montgomery County and the City of Miamisburg leadership attended the event, including Commissioner Judy Dodge and Mayor Dick Church, Jr. Both civic leaders joined Nautilus Hyosung America EVP and COO Nancy G. Daniels in cutting the oversized blue ribbon and in sharing remarks, after which event attendees toured the facility and enjoyed refreshments. Joe Militello, Nautilus Hyosung America, VP, Global Software Center, sees the additional workspace provided by the new Global Software Center facility as essential to supporting the growing needs of the company as it seeks to continue to harness the wealth of tech talent in Montgomery County and to collaborate with local leadership of economic and educational institutions. "Nautilus Hyosung's position as the fastest growing ATM provider in the United States aligns with leveraging the vast tech talent of Montgomery County and the surrounding area," Militello said. "Our move allows us to effectively address long-term goals and keep ahead of customer demand by formulating breakthrough ideas through dedicated research and development initiatives. Our advanced facility will be even more conducive to melding creativity and technology as we continue to tap into the Dayton region's heritage of innovation." Banking on Innovation The company's new Global Software Center is double the size of the previous location. The Miamisburg location features a state-of-the-art customer product center and an ATM laboratory that is 50 percent larger than the original facility. The enhanced facility enables Nautilus Hyosung to attract even more highly skilled software engineers and network certification specialists and to effectively continue pioneering efforts as an industry leader. "Nautilus Hyosung is committed to fueling growth for continued success," Daniels said. "The opening of the company's new Global Software Center in a region of the country recognized for driving innovation is a reflection of our investment in long-term strategies, including research and development." Success Through Collaboration "Nautilus Hyosung America's decision to expand here in Montgomery County represents confidence in the region's highly skilled workforce and our ability to support technology companies," said Montgomery County Commission President Debbie Lieberman. BusinessFirst! and Montgomery County worked closely with the company to connect resources designed to assist the company's natural progression to grow here in the Dayton region. "On behalf of County Commissioners Judy Dodge and Dan Foley, we look forward to a long and successful partnership with Nautilus Hyosung America as the company grows its Global Software Center in Montgomery County," added Commissioner Lieberman. About Nautilus Hyosung America Nautilus Hyosung America is a subsidiary of South Korean-based Nautilus Hyosung, Inc., a global leader in providing ATMs to the retail off-premises and financial institution markets. Since entering the North American market in 1998, Nautilus Hyosung America is the fastest growing supplier in North America and the leading provider of branch transformation solutions. Nautilus Hyosung America is headquartered in Irving, Texas, and has research and development support in its Global Software Center in Dayton, Ohio. (www.nhausa.com) Contact: Sonet Le Roux Nautilus Hyosung (972) 350-7628; [email protected] Sheri D. Smith WiseHive Public Relations LLC (214) 454-3969; [email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/337329 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/337328LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nautilus-hyosung-doubles-size-of-global-software-center-with-new-facility-in-dayton-region-of-ohio-300225983.html SOURCE Nautilus Hyosung America [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 24, 2016] dough, Inc. Executive Kristi Ross Joins Textura's Board of Directors CHICAGO, Feb. 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Textura Corporation (NYSE: TXTR), a leading provider of collaboration solutions for the construction industry, announced that Kristi Ross, Co-Chief Executive Officer and President of dough, Inc., has joined the Textura Board of Directors. Chicago-based dough, Inc. is an online financial education and investing platform that was formed by the April 2014 combination of two companies, tastytrade, Inc. and dough. Prior to the combination, Ross had served as President of tastytrade and CEO and President of dough. Previous to that she was Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director of thinkorswim, an online trading platform that was bought by TD Ameritrade in 2009, and also held the roles of CFO and Senior Vice President of Sales/Marketing for Chicago Securities Group/Automated Trading Desk Specialists. Ross also has served on a number of private company boards, including dough, Inc., Sun Holdings, L.L.C., and Cheddar's Casual Cafe. A prominent member of Chicago's techology community, Ross has been named a Prominent Woman in Tech by the Illinois Technology Association and an EY Entrepreneur of the Year, among other honors, and her company has been recognized as an innovator. "Kristi is bringing to our organization a valuable perspective shaped by her experience in building and leading innovative, technology-forward companies," said Textura interim CEO Dave Habiger. "She's a fantastic addition, and we are thrilled to welcome her to our Board of Directors," he said. "I'm excited to join the Board at Textura, which is a genuine leader and innovator in its space and a terrific success story in the Chicago tech community and beyond," Ross said. "I look forward to helping guide Textura in building on that success and taking its business to the next level," she said. About Textura Textura is a leading provider of collaboration and productivity tools for the construction industry. Our solutions serve all construction industry professionals across the project lifecycle from takeoff, estimating, design, pre-qualification and bid management to submittals, field management, performance management, LEED management and payment. With award-winning technology, world-class customer support and consistent growth, Textura is leading the construction industry's technology transformation. www.texturacorp.com Media contact: Matt Scroggins [email protected] 224-254-6652 Investor contact: Annie Leschin, StreetSmart IR 415-775-1788 [email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110602/CG12932LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dough-inc-executive-kristi-ross-joins-texturas-board-of-directors-300225056.html SOURCE Textura Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 24, 2016] A.M. BestTV: Life Insurance Settlement Industry Explores New Markets This A.M.BestTV episode spotlights the recent Life Insurance Settlement Association's (LISA) Institutional Investor Conference, held in New York, NY, where executives said they have seen a growing interest from institutional investors in the life settlement market. Click on http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=lisa216 to view the entire program. The industry is finding new growth as institutional investors and insurers look to retiring life insurance policyholders and other markets. "The current market has changed a lot, as it is a much more highly regulated market today," said Darwin Bayston, chief executive officer, LISA. "There are regulations in 42 states, regulations that provide consumer disclosures in six states and LISA members have to file an ethics statement stating that they have abided by rules, regulations and laws every year so it is a much safer market today for consumers to sell their life insurance policies." Emmanuel Modu, A.M. Best managing director and global head of insurance-linked securities, addressed the challenges that the life settlement market still faces. "Currently, people are talking about the cost of insurance increases, which are in their portfolio holdings," said Modu. "Many insurance companies have increased their premiums and this is affecting this industry in a big way. Increases have ranged from 50% to 100%, so anyone that is holding a portfolio of life settlements will find that the value of that pool has decreased." Other people that appear in this episode: Cyndi Poveda, chief executive officer, Life Equity; Colin Devin, principal, C. Devine Associates; Dan Young, president, Magna Life Settlements; and Jeff Bollerman, director, Houlihan Lokey. Full-length interviews are available as well. Go to http://www.ambest.tv/ to access them. To view a free webinar on how A.M. Best rates securities backed by life contingent structured settlements visit http://www.ambest.com/webinars/lcss216. Recent episodes of A.M.BestTV include: Managing General Agents Work With Lloyd's on Wire Transfers, Audits, Multiyear Contracts : Highlights from an interview with Bernd Heinze, executive director, American Association of Managing General Agents, concerning his recent visit to Lloyd's of London : http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=aamga216. : Highlights from an interview with Bernd Heinze, executive director, American Association of Managing General Agents, concerning his recent visit to : http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=aamga216. Insurers Brace for Impact of Concussion Claims : Insurers discuss concussion-related lawsuits against helmet manufacturers and sports-related organizations, which threaten to become a bigger liability issue for insurers and reinsurers: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=concussion216. : Insurers discuss concussion-related lawsuits against helmet manufacturers and sports-related organizations, which threaten to become a bigger liability issue for insurers and reinsurers: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=concussion216. Cyber Standards Chasing Fast Evolving Risk : Highlights from the recent Risk Management Solutions Cyber Risk Seminar, where insurance executives said they are adapting quickly to new electronic risk exposures, but coverages, standards and policies are struggling to stay abreast: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=rmscyber216. : Highlights from the recent Risk Management Solutions Cyber Risk Seminar, where insurance executives said they are adapting quickly to new electronic risk exposures, but coverages, standards and policies are struggling to stay abreast: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=rmscyber216. Directors and Officers Liability Insurance Innovation Chases Expanding Risks: At the annual meeting of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society Directors and Officers (D&O) Symposium, attendees said coverage for D&O has been racing to keep up with widening liability and soaring costs as regulators, lawmakers and lawyers create new risk exposures: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=plus216. A.M.BestTV covers exclusive A.M. Best information and reports, targeted topics and key developments in the (re)insurance industry every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Sign up for alerts of episodes at http://www.ambest.com/multimedia/ambtvsignup.html. View A.M.BestTV episodes at http://www.ambest.tv. A.M. Best is the world's oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright 2016 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160224006441/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 24, 2016] Global Mobile Payment Methods: Second Half 2015 - Research and Markets Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/wslskx/global_mobile) has announced the addition of the "Global Mobile Payment Methods: Second Half 2015" report to their offering. Mobile payments are evolving in multiple forms across the world, including payments for purchases made over mobile devices, in-store mobile payments and peer-to-peer mobile transfers. The general trend across these categories is their continuing growth, reaching triple-digit figures on the global level. While data privacy and security remain the primary concerns of consumers when it comes to the adoption of innovative payment types, as this new report shows, factors such as convenience and special promotions are among the main drivers for wider mobile payments penetration. Asia-Pacific is projected to lead global mobile payments growth, driven by various new initiatives and rapid growth of mobile commerce across the region, according to the report findings. For example, in China, nearly 50% of all mobile Internet users already take advantage of the mobile payment offerings, and in South Korea an emerging trend is making mobilepayments through popular instant mobile messengers. Also in Africa, where access to banking services is limited, mobile payments are on the rise, led by Kenya. The advanced regions of Europe and North America are no exception to the growing mobile payments penetration. In countries such as the UK and France, contactless mobile payments are gaining ground, while in the USA peer-to-peer mobile payments are predicted to be used by almost half of all mobile device owners through 2018. Moreover, in Germany peer-to-peer payment was the most known type of mobile payment in 2015. Competition in global mobile payments remains intense. Last year, Google (News - Alert) re-formatted its Google Wallet into a peer-to-peer payment app, while also launching its Android Pay mobile payments solution. At the same time, Samsung (News - Alert) Pay went live in the USA following its initial launch in South Korea. Further, Apple Pay is attempting to challenge Alipay's dominance in mobile payments in Asia, having cooperated with China UnionPay for the local launch expected in early 2016. Key Topics Covered: 1. Management Summary 2. Global 3. Asia-Pacific 4. North America 5. Europe 6. Latin America Companies Mentioned - ASDA - Alipay - AmEx Express - Amazon - American Express - Apple (News - Alert) - BlackBerry - CaixaBank - China UnionPay - Deutsche Telekom - Diners - Discover - Google - Hitachi (News - Alert) Capital Consumer Finance - JPMorgan Chase - MFS Africa - MasterCard - Mercury - National Australia Bank - Network International - Otto Group - PagBrasil - PayFort - PayPal (News - Alert) - Samsung - Souq.com - Square - Tenpay - Visa For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/wslskx/global_mobile. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160224006502/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 24, 2016] Agora.io Cloud Powers Xiaomi Mi Video Call SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Agora.io, a communications as a service provider optimizing global quality of experience for real-time voice and video communications, today announced that Xiaomi selected Agora.io real-time cloud technology to power Mi Video Call. Xiaomi announced today Mi Video Call as part of the global launch of the Mi 5 smartphone in Beijing and at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Mi Video Call for Android and iOS provides free, high quality group video calling for up to four people with camera "beautify" effects and text and voice messaging. Mi Video Call will be pre-installed into the Xiaomi MIUI Android-based user interface for their customers to use directly. "In the mobile Internet space, real-time voice and video chat is a complex technology and it is difficult to ensure high quality around the world," said Wang Qi, Senior Deputy General Manager, Xiaomi E&M. He added, "We selected Agora.io as our global real-time video call technology partner because we believe the Agora.io global virtual network, and their unique mobile-based algorithms, can truly bring high quality video chat experiences to Xiaomi users everywhere." Tony Zhao, Founder and CEO of Agora.io, said, "We are honored that our cloud network has been selected by Xiaomi for Mi Video Call. Agora.io and Xiaomi both share a user-centric, mobile Internet vision where everone in the world can communicate with high quality voice and video, now easily accessible to hundreds of millions of Xiaomi fans all over the world." The Agora.io cloud network and SDKs allows Xiaomi to easily embed high quality video into their mobile applications without upfront investment, especially across challenging global network conditions. The Agora Global Network, spanning over 70 data centers worldwide, automatically manages real-time performance for all video and voice sessions and dynamically routes real-time traffic around Internet bottlenecks to ensure premium quality of experience. About Xiaomi Xiaomi was founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Lei Jun, who believes that high-quality technology doesn't need to cost a fortune. Xiaomi creates remarkable hardware, software, and Internet services for and with the help of its Mi fans. Xiaomi incorporates their feedback into its product range, which currently includes the Mi Note Pro, Mi Note, Mi 4, Redmi 3, Mi TV, Mi Band and other accessories. With more than 70 million handsets sold in 2015, and products launched in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Indonesia and Brazil, Xiaomi is expanding its footprint across the world to become a global brand. About Agora.io Privately held and founded in 2014, Agora.io is a communications as a service (CaaS) provider delivering premium quality-of-experience voice and video communications across devices and networks globally. Agora.io enables software applications to support as many as 2,000 users in a single conference. Agora.io customers provide HD real-time voice and video communication services to organizations in the following industries: financial services, education, telemedicine, human resources, customer service, social media applications, and mobile gaming. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Agora.io is backed by venture capital firms Morningside, SIG, GGV Capital, ShunWei, and IDG. For more information visit www.agora.io. PR Contacts Jenkin Xia Agora.io PR Telephone: +1 614 401 7323 Email: [email protected] Chris Greenfield Project PR for Agora.io Telephone: +1 650 906 2915 Email: [email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/337236 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150722/240347LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/agoraio-cloud-powers-xiaomi-mi-video-call-300225895.html SOURCE Agora.io [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 25, 2016] Natural Light Brings Life and Light to Zambia COPENHAGEN, Denmark, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Natural Light lamps, handheld solar lamps, are now bringing light and a better life to people in Zambia. The lamps are particularly crucial in Zambia as only 20 per cent of the population have access to electricity. When darkness falls, the remainder live without electric power, with their only light source being paraffin lamps, candles or bonfires. Even childbirth at night must often take place by the light of a mobile phone alone. To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7769151-velux-natural-light-and-life-zambia/ Globally, 1.2 billion people have no access to electricity. On the occasion of VELUX 75th anniversary the company decided to address this issue. Together with the social business Little Sun and the NGO Plan International they are collaborating to bring clean, reliable and affordable light to off-grid regions in Zambia, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. 14,500 Natural Light lamps from the VELUX Group have now arrived in Africa and the first recipients can already look forward to a better quality of life. Among them are young girls between 10 and 18 years of age who live in a safe house in the slum area Mntendere in the Zambian capital Lusaka. "The lamps mean the girls can do their homework when they get back from school and can feel safer at night, instead of huddling together in the dark after sunset. And it's particularly important for our children that they feel safe - many are carrying the mental baggage such as trauma of violence, rape or drugs," says safe house manager Verann Delarey. One of the girls, 17-year-old Sandy, has lived in the house for five months. "Now I can read at night and do my homework. We used just to go to bed as we weren't allowed candles in our house because of the fire risk - they were too dangerous with so many young children around," says Sandy. Lamps generate business Apart from generating light in the hours of darkness, the Natural Light lamp can also help generate business for many people in Zambia. The NGO Plan International has already engaged and trained a group of 70 young people in this income generating project. The young entrepreneurs sell the lamp, earning them a small commission for every lamp they sell so that they can buy more new lamps - thus kick-starting their own businesses. One of these new sales people is Adrian Mwaanga, who sees great potential for Natural Light in Zambia. "The Natural Light lamp has enormous potential out here in the country. I have sold eight lamps in three weeks, even though it's a major investment for many people. Once you've got people to understand that the lamp is cheaper in the long run than paraffin for oil lamps or batteries for a torch, it's eay to sell," says Adrian Mwaanga. "Suddenly, a family can see each other and do something useful in the dark hours - and it helps me support my family," continues Adrian Mwaanga with a smile. Childbirth by the light of a mobile phone Nurse Bertha Musonda works at a local health clinic, four hours' drive north of Lusaka, regards the solar powered lamps as an important step forward in the work towards eradicating paraffin lamps, which are both a health risk and a fire risk. "We see so many patients here at the clinic with serious burns from paraffin lamps or being poisoned by them. Sometimes the lamps have just fallen over or the children have come into contact with them. We also see many burns as a result of people falling asleep whilst their lamps are still lit," says nurse Musonda. Bertha Musonda's work as a nurse and midwife has also become much easier with the Natural Light lamp. "When it comes to births in the evening or night, Natural Light makes all the difference. I used to work by the light of my mobile phone. I held it between my teeth so I had both hands free to help the child into the world. And that was quite difficult if you had to talk to the mother at the same time," explains Bertha Musonda. Distribution of lamps facilitated by Plan International Plan International, which has played a crucial role in the distribution of the lamps, sees great advantages in the project. "The solar-powered lamps will benefit entire communities where electricity is a scarce resource. In countries that have an unemployment rate of more than 60 per cent, this programme makes a big difference in the lives of the people involved. They are given a chance to support themselves," says Gwen Wisti, Managing Director of Plan International Denmark. Press material is available on press.velux.com See and download our news videos, photos and press material in the VELUX Media Centre at http://press.velux.com. Here, you can subscribe to VELUX news. Follow us on twitter.com/velux and facebook.com/velux BACKGROUND INFORMATION About the VELUX Group For more than 70 years, the VELUX Group has created better living environments for people around the world; making the most of daylight and fresh air through the roof. Our product programme includes roof windows and modular skylights as well as a range of decoration and sun screenings, roller shutters, installation solutions and intelligent home controls. These products help to ensure a healthy and sustainable indoor climate, for work and learning, for play and pleasure. We work globally - with sales and manufacturing operations in more than 40 countries and around 10,000 employees worldwide. The VELUX Group is owned by VKR Holding A/S, a limited company wholly owned by foundations and family. For more information, visit http://www.velux.com. About the Natural Light donation The VELUX Group has always been strongly committed to providing the world with new opportunities for accessing daylight and fresh air, and giving back to society. The company is founded on its knowledge of light, and it uses its expertise where it believes it will have the greatest impact. As part of its 75th anniversary, the Group aims to create a sharper focus on bringing sustainable, reliable and affordable lighting to off-grid African regions. The Velux Group has donated 14,500 lamps to communities in Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and Zambia. About VKR Holding VKR Holding is the parent company of a group of companies that manufacture, market and sell a range of products including roof windows, vertical windows and accessories under the brands VELUX, VELFAC, RATIONEL and WindowMaster. The company has the objective of bringing daylight, fresh air and a better environment into people's everyday lives. On 1 April 2016, VKR Holding will celebrate its 75th anniversary. About Little Sun Little Sun is a social business and global project founded by world-renowned artist Olafur Eliasson and engineer Frederik Ottesen to get clean, reliable, affordable light to the 1.2 billion people in the world living in off-grid areas without electricity. The project's first product, the Little Sun solar LED lamp, is sold all over the world. Purchasing Little Suns in areas of the world with electricity makes the lamps available in off-grid areas at reduced, locally affordable prices, where they provide a clean alternative to toxic and expensive fuel-based lighting such as kerosene lanterns. Little Sun addresses the need for light in a sustainable way that benefits off-grid communities by working with local entrepreneurs, creating local jobs, and generating local profits. The Little Sun project was officially launched in July 2012 at London's Tate Modern. Since then, more than 200,000 Little Sun lamps have been distributed worldwide, with almost half going to off-grid areas. For more information, visit http://www.littlesun.com facebook .com/ilovelittlesun twitter.com/littlesun (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/336954 ) Video: http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7769151-velux-natural-light-and-life-zambia/ SOURCE VELUX Group [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 25, 2016] Pure Storage Announces Continued Channel Momentum With New Awards and Growth Milestones MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG), the market's leading independent solid-state array vendor, today announced continued channel momentum, highlighted by an uptick in channel partner growth and channel adoption rates of Pure Storage. Additionally, the company honored select top performing channel partners in the Pure Storage (P3) Partner Program at the same time CRN, the leading publication for the channel, recognized Michael Sotnick, Vice President of Global Channels and Alliances and Aimee Catalano, Vice President of Partner and Integrated Marketing, both of Pure Storage, as 2016 Channel Chiefs. "While it is an honor to have our channel leadership recognized by CRN, we view this as an opportunity to up our channel game even further, continuing to raise the bar for how we serve the channel community we so deeply value," said David Hatfield, President of Pure Storage. "It is a privilege to work with our partners day in and day out during such a transformational time in storage and we would not be where we are today without them. This recognition is a testament to the work of our entire channel team." The company has demonstrated continued channel momentum, exemplified by an increase in channel partner sales adoption of Pure Storage including a 124 percent year-over-year increase in the number of partner sales executives selling Pure Storage in calendar year 2015. In addition to doubling the number of partner sales executives, the average amount sold by a partner sales executive has grown 78 percent over the past two years, from 2013-2015. Pure Storage fosters a culture of active participation for channel partners and includes them in company sales and training events. Pure Storage annually recognizes and rewards channel partners who have exceeded sales goals including channel-led deals and new customer acquisitin targets. The company recently awarded 25 partners across the following categories; Pure Winners, Pure Top Performers and Pure Rolex Awards. Visit the Pure Storage blog for a list of 2015 channel partner award winners. P3 provides partners with the tools, training and support they need to be successful, which includes: a best-in-class incentive framework; a demo purchase program featuring significant discounts on products differentiated by partner tier; and a Pure Storage sponsored headcount incentive, which Platinum level partners can leverage to accelerate the development of their all-flash storage practice. In March 2016, Pure Storage will host the first annual Pure//Accelerate conference, which will include a Global Partner Forum for partners. Pure//Accelerate will bring current and future technology/business leaders together to share in a dialogue about what is possiblefor their businesses and for themselves. Dedicated technical and business breakouts at the Global Partner Forum will offer partners access to the tools and training they need to build out a successful all-flash storage practice, the ability to gain competitive selling knowledge as well as the opportunity to network with other successful Pure Storage partners. For more information about the P3 program, please visit http://www.purestorage.com/company/reseller-partner.html. About Pure Storage Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) accelerates possible, transforming businesses in ways previously unimagined. The company's disruptive, software-driven storage technology combined with a customer-friendly business model drives business and IT transformation for customers through dramatic increases in performance and efficiency at lower costs. Pure Storage FlashArray//m is simpler, faster and more elegant than any other technology in the datacenter. FlashArray //m is ideal for the move toward big data and for performance-intensive workloads such as cloud computing, database systems, desktop virtualization, real-time analytics and server virtualization. With Pure's industry leading NPS score of 79, Pure customers are some of the happiest in the world, and include large and mid-size organizations across a range of industries: cloud-based software and service providers, consumer web, education, energy, financial services, governments, healthcare, manufacturing, media, retail and telecommunications. With Pure Storage, companies push the boundaries of what's possible to become faster, smarter and more innovative. Connect with Pure Storage: Read the blog Converse on Twitter Follow on LinkedIn Analyst Recognition: Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays IDC MarketScape for All-Flash Arrays Pure Storage, Pure1 and the "P" Logo mark are trademarks of Pure Storage, Inc. All other trademarks or names referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150127/171513LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pure-storage-announces-continued-channel-momentum-with-new-awards-and-growth-milestones-300226086.html SOURCE Pure Storage [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 25, 2016] Lingo Media Selected to the 2016 TSX Venture 50 & Ranked #1 In the Diversified Industries Sector TORONTO, Feb. 25, 2016 /CNW/ - Lingo Media Corporation (TSX-V: LM; OTCQB: LMDCF) ("Lingo Media" or the "Company"), an EdTech company that is 'Changing the way the world learns English' through innovative online and print-based technologies and solutions, is pleased to announce that it has been selected to the 2016 TSX Venture 50 and has been ranked #1 in the Diversified Industries category. Lingo Media achieved the greatest appreciation in both share price, gaining 745%, and in market capitalization, gaining 992%, amongst all 2016 TSX Venture 50 companies. "We are honoured to be recognized as a 2016 TSX Venture 50 company and to be ranked #1 within the Diversified Industries sector. It is a testament to our corporate vision and determination that we are generating results and exceeding expectations," commented Michael Kraft, President & CEO of Lingo Media. "I would like to take this opportunity to thank our shareholders, customers and partners for their ongoing support and confidence in the Company. I would also like to commend our management team and staff for their focus, commitment and hard work. This TSX Venture 50 recognition adds to our expanding profile in the public markets and we are most appreciative of receiving this distinction," added Mr. Kraft. The TSX Venture 50 is an annual ranking of the top 10 companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) in each of five major industry sectors Clean Technology, Diversified Industries, Mining, Oil & Gas and Technology & Life Sciences. The ranking is comprised of 10 companies from each of the five categories, selected based on a ranking formula with equal weighting given to market capitalization growth, share price appreciation, trading volume and analyst coverage. Visit the TSX Venture 50 website for the full list and video profiles of the 2016 honorees. About Lingo Media (TSX-V: LM; OTCQB: LMDCF) Lingo Media is an EdTech company that is 'Changing the way the world learns English' through the combination of education with technology. The Company provides online and print-based solutions through its two distinct business units: ELL Technologies and Lingo Learning. ELL Technologies is a global English language learning online training and Assessment Company. Lingo Learning is a print-based publisher of English language learning programs in China. Lingo Media has formed successful relationships with key government and industry organizations, establishing a strong presence in China's education market of more than 300 million students. The Company is extending its global reach, with an initial market expansion into Latin America and continues to expand its product offerings and technology applications. Follow Lingo Media On: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LingoMedia Twitter: https://twitter.com/LingoMediaCorp YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/lingomedialm LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lingo-media-corporation RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LingoMedia Portions of this press release may include "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of securities laws. These statements are made in reliance upon Sections 21E and 27A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties or other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results, performance, or expectations implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary materially from management's expectations and projections and thus readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Lingo Media has tried to identify these forward-looking statements by using words such as "may," "should," "expect," "hope," "anticipate," "believe," "intend," "plan," "estimate" and similar expressions. Lingo Media's expectations, among other things, are dependent upon general economic conditions, the continued and growth in demand for its products, retention of its key management and operating personnel, its need for and availability of additional capital as well as other uncontrollable or unknown factors. No assurance can be given that the actual results will be consistent with the forward-looking statements. Except as otherwise required by US Federal securities laws, Lingo Media undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or any other reason. Certain factors that can affect the Company's ability to achieve projected results are described in the Company's filings with the Canadian and United States securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml. NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE SOURCE Lingo Media Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 25, 2016] Individual Provider One Medicaid claim billing system to replace Social Service Payment System for 40,000 in-home workers in Washington State BOSTON, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 1, 2016 PCG Public Partnerships, LLC., and Washington State will implement a new billing and payroll system for individual in-home personal care and respite Medicaid claims. The system, called Individual Provider One (IPOne), is an online, electronic system designed to make claims easier for providers. It will also comply with federal laws as well as the requirements of the SEIU collective bargaining requirement for bi-monthly payments. This system will replace the Social Service Payment System (SPSS) currently in use which serves about 40,000 in home providers. In preparation for the launch of IPOne, trainings have been underway for in home providers and will continue through the transition. The training sessions are offered in multiple languages to support the diversity of the provider community. In addition, a call center, located in Sea-Tac, has been operating multi-lingual lines since November 2015 to assist providers with questions and help in filling out registration and enrollment paperwork. Providers have been mailed Welcome Packets explaining the transition, important dates and registration materials. T use the new system, registration is required and can be done through the IPOne web portal, www.ipone.org, through mail by returning the Information page found in the Welcome packet or by contacting the IPOne Sea-Tac Call Center at 1-844-240-1526. These resources will remain in place to assist providers with the transition. PCG Public Partnerships is a subsidiary of Public Consulting Group Inc. (PCG). PCG is a management consulting firm, headquartered in Boston, MA, that serves primarily public sector education, health and human services agencies, and other state, county, and municipal government clients. The firm has over 28 years of experience consulting in all 50 states, Canada and Europe. PCG Public Partnerships manages over $1 billion annually in goods and services through working with 15 managed care organizations (MCOs) and managing over 50 self-directed programs in 26 states. https://youtu.be/ApBO-35CbFA For information specific to the Washington program visit www.ipone.org Christine Morelli | [email protected] Public Partnerships, LLC Marketing & Communications Director | www.publicpartnerships.com Visit us on Twitter @PCGPPL To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/individual-provider-one-medicaid-claim-billing-system-to-replace-social-service-payment-system-for-40000-in-home-workers-in-washington-state-300226383.html SOURCE PCG Public Partnerships, LLC [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 25, 2016] Equifax Completes Acquisition of Australia's Leading Credit Information Company, Veda Group Limited, for Total Consideration of USD$1.9 Billion ATLANTA, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) ('Equifax') has completed its acquisition of Veda Group Limited ('Veda'), the leading provider of credit information and analysis in Australia and New Zealand. "This acquisition opens an exciting period of opportunity for both businesses. It is a strong fit for Equifax and reinforces our strategic focus to be a leading global information solutions provider," said Richard F. Smith, Equifax Chairman and CEO. "Veda represents another step in our goal to expand our insights-driven capabilities and expertise, and to enter an important new region through the proven abilities of a great team. "Through Veda, we will have a strong platform from which to offer customers advanced new data and analytics services in Australia and other markets in this region," he continued. "We're delighted to count on the expertise of Veda's management and staff, and we welcome them to the Equifax team." Veda's CEO Nerida Caesar will continue to lead the Australian-based business providing market expertise and continuity for the existing business, customers and staff. "Equifax's insights-guided technology and advanced data and analytics will enable us to build the 'next generation' of credit information products for our customers in Australia, New Zealand and our other markets," Caesar said. "On behalf of the Veda team, we are pleased to become part of Equifax," she said. "Our objective is consistency and continuity for customers and the Veda team, while bringing all the benefits of the combined companies to market as quickly as possible. We will be as nimble and efficient as before, but more capable and more global in the future." Veda will now operate as 'Veda,An Equifax Company' until further notice. It will become a division of the company's International business unit and will report into Equifax International President John Hartman. About Equifax Equifax is a global leader in consumer, commercial and workforce information solutions that provide businesses of all sizes and consumers with insight and information they can trust. Equifax organizes and assimilates data on more than 800 million consumers and 81 million businesses worldwide. The company's significant investments in differentiated data, its expertise in advanced analytics to explore and develop new multi-source data solutions, and its leading-edge proprietary technology enable it to create and deliver unparalleled customized insights that enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers. Headquartered in Atlanta, Equifax operates or has investments in 21 countries and is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index. Its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. In 2015, Forbes named Equifax one of the World's 100 Most Innovative companies; Bloomberg BusinessWeek nominated it as one of its Top 50 companies; its CIO was named one of the top 100 by CIO magazine; the company ranked 13th in the Fintech 100 list; and it was recognized as a top 20 company to work for by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was named a 2015 InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner. For more information, please visit www.equifax.com. About Veda Veda is a data analytics company and the leading provider of credit information and analysis in Australia and New Zealand. From its core credit bureau business established in 1967, Veda has expanded to deliver a suite of credit and other analytical products targeted to consumers and specific industry segments. Veda's customers use data intelligence provided by Veda to make decisions on credit risk, verify identity and employee background, reduce identity theft and fraud, and undertake digital marketing strategies. In February 2016, Equifax Inc., a global leader in information solutions, closed its acquisition of Veda. Equifax powers the financial future of individuals and organisations around the world, using its strength of unique trusted data, technology and innovative analytics, Together Veda and Equifax offer their customers world leading insights and knowledge to help them make informed decisions. www.veda.com.au Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20060224/CLF037LOGO Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160225/337700LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/equifax-completes-acquisition-of-australias-leading-credit-information-company-veda-group-limited-for-total-consideration-of-usd19-billion-300226572.html SOURCE Equifax Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] What you need to know about Powerball and the $580 million jackpot Volunteer walks in honor of her husband Thousand Oaks resident Joan Hull will be among those participating in this years Conejo Valley Walk to End Alzheimers at 9 a.m. Sat., Oct. 22 at the Westlake Promenade. Hull... Overpass could get protective fencing A substantial safety upgrade for the areas most notorious overpass is finally getting some Caltrans considerationbut dont expect changes any time soon. At the Sept. 21 Moorpark City Council meeting,... Early detection is the best way to survive breast cancer Every October, we celebrate those men and women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. But what is breast cancer and how can it be diagnosed and managed? There are... COLUMBUS A 42-year-old Columbus mother pleaded no contest Wednesday to a reduced child abuse charge in connection with an incident in which she jolted one of her teenage daughters with a stun gun last summer. Platte County Court Judge Frank Skorupa scheduled Ruby Baeta for sentencing March 30 for her conviction of negligent child abuse stemming from the incident at the familys 21st Street home over the Fourth of July weekend. The abuse charge is a Class I misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and $1,000 fine. In exchange for Baetas plea, the county attorneys office reduced the charge from intentional child abuse, a Class 3A felony that carried a penalty of up to five years in prison. Baeta has been free on bond since a few days after the July incident. Court records detail a Columbus Police investigation that got underway when officers responded to a caller reporting that a city woman had shocked her teenage daughter. The victim, 13 at the time of the incident, and her 16-year-old sister both were adamant their mother shocked the younger girl in the right torso after approaching her from behind in a dark room, Officer Jorge Magdaleno said in his statement supporting Baetas arrest. The teen suffered two raised bumps approximately 1 inch apart "that I knew through training and experience could have been caused by a Taser or stun gun, the city officer said in his statement. Ruby was calm and cooperative and denied having shocked or tased her daughter, Magdaleno said. The mother denied owning a stun gun and gave the officer permission to search the 21st Street home the family had just moved into. Magdaleno said the mother ultimately led him to her bedroom closet, where the officer seized a hand-held, rechargeable stun gun from a suitcase. The victim reported that her mother attempted to zap her with the electroshock weapon multiple times, but she was able to run out of the room and get away, the officer said. COLUMBUS Thrivent Financial is contributing $40,000 to the next Habitat for Humanity project in Columbus. The donation from the faith-based financial services organization, which comes through the Thrivent Builds Homes program, will cover half of the $80,000 price tag to build the fifth Habitat for Humanity home here. Thrivent volunteers will also help with fundraising efforts for the nonprofit home-building group, which receives additional assistance from area businesses, individuals and churches. Construction on the home, which will be located in New Hope Addition along 45th Avenue just south of 15th Street, is expected to begin in April with an August completion date planned. Thrivent members and other community volunteers will work alongside the benefitting family to build the house. Habitat for Humanity of Columbus is currently looking for groups or individuals interested in assisting with the construction process. The Thrivent Builds Homes program is a multiyear partnership with Habitat for Humanity International to provide affordable housing for those in need and offer them a path to greater economic independence. The Thrivent Builds program provides us with more options to serve our area. The support we receive from the local community for projects like this is overwhelming and we look forward to working together in 2016, said Melanie Knoepfle, a financial consultant with Thrivent Financial. Habitat for Humanity applicants must meet certain guidelines to be approved for a no-interest mortgage. They make monthly payments to the Habitat chapter with that money used to fund future projects. Alison Castillo was selected as the beneficiary for this year's build. Castillo, who works for Columbus Exposition and Racing, has three children and one grandson, ages 17, 14, 9 and 1. "The family is very excited and still in shock that they are to partner with us," said Jamie Snyder, executive director of the local Habitat for Humanity chapter. Snyder said the partnership will Thrivent Builds will allow the local Habitat chapter to serve more people like Castillo. The Thrivent Builds partnership is helping HFH Columbus increase the number of families served in our community by helping increase our capacity, said Snyder. ... Together, we are changing a familys life and strengthening the community. For more information about Habitat, email info@hfhcolumbusne.org or call 402-564-4663. I have just changed the way I cook all my meat. Forever. While it takes a little longer, the Anova Precision Cooker can make any cut of beef, pork, chicken or fish exquisitely tender. Using a technique called sous vide, the Anova gently heats up whatever it is you're cooking in a water bath. Not only is this $179 device easy to operate, but, when connected to your smartphone via Bluetooth, you have access to hundreds of recipes, removing all the guesswork. How It Works The Anova Precision Cooker is what's known as a sous vide machine. The French term for "under vacuum," sous vide is somewhat similar to braising or smoking, in that you cook meat at a low temperature for an extended period of time. Where sous vide differs is that you first package the meat in a sealed plastic bag with all or most of the air driven out. The bag is then immersed in a pot of heated water, and cooked until ready. (Image credit: Mike Prospero / Tom's Guide) Anova Precision Cooker at Amazon for $99 (opens in new tab) What's so good about this method? When meat is cooked at low heat for an extended period of time, the connective tissue and fibers break down, resulting in fork-tender deliciousness. And, because the water in a sous vide is heated to a specific temperature say, 150 degrees the meat will never get overdone, such as when you leave a steak on the grill too long, and end up with a piece of shoe leather. Finally, because the meat for a sous-vide machine is sealed in a bag, it retains it moisture, resulting in a nice, juicy cut. The Anova is basically a large cylinder with a heating element and fan at the bottom end. You immerse this part into the water, and it keeps the water at the desired temperature for the duration of the cooking process. The top end of the Anova has a large LCD screen that shows the current temperature of the water. A smaller screen below shows the desired temperature as well as the cooking time. I found that you need to have a fairly deep pot, or else you won't be able to clamp the Anova to the side of the pot. Still, this method is better than other sous-vide machines, which come built into their own containers; it's a lot easier to store the smaller cylindrical Anova. Once you select what you want to cook, the app will automatically set the temperature and time on the Anova machine. The Anova I used was the $179 Bluetooth model; the company also sells a Wi-Fi version for $199, which lets you remotely monitor and adjust the temperature and time. MORE: Smart Home Guide: What to Know Before You Buy A Well-Seasoned App You can set the temperature of the water either by turning the bright blue dial on the Anova, or through its iOS or Android app. Using the app has a number of benefits, especially for those who are new to sous-vide cooking. One section of the app has time and temperature guides for chicken, hamburger and steak, as curated by Serious Eats, an excellent cooking website. Once you select what you want to cook, the app will automatically set the temperature and time on the Anova machine. The app also includes recipes from chef Ming Tsai and others, and all include mouth-watering photos. If you already know what time and temperature you want to use, the app lets you simply dial in both settings, and the Anova will then run for the allotted time at the correct heat. However, you have to leave the app running even if it's in the background for the duration of the cooking. Otherwise, it won't remember your settings if you close and then re-open the app. MORE: 100+ Tech Gift Ideas for Men, Women and Kids What's Cooking I put the Anova to the test by cooking 3 pounds of chicken breasts, a ribeye steak and a 6-pound brisket. I seasoned each chicken breast with some salt, pepper, oregano and paprika, and sealed two into a vacuum bag. (I have a vacuum sealer, but an Anova rep said a resealable plastic bag with most of the air driven out would work just as well). I then immersed the bag in water set to 142 degrees Fahrenheit for 90 minutes. After, I removed the chicken from the bag. At this point, the chicken, though cooked, looked kind of flaccid and unappetizing. So, I heated a few tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, and quickly seared both sides of each breast. I sliced them open, and was amazed at how tender and juicy they were. (Image credit: Mike Prospero/ Tom's Guide) Next, I cooked a ribeye steak at 129 F for 1 hour, the time and temperature listed in the Anova app. I like that in the app, you can specify how well done you want your meat, as well as its thickness, and the app will adjust the time and temperature accordingly. As a bonus, the app also lists the steps necessary to finish the steak on the grill, on the stovetop or even with a torch yet another kitchen gadget I can't wait to buy. Because the Anova Precision Cooker lets you use any pot you own, it takes up much less space than a sous-vide machine with its own built-in pot. The trick with steak is that, if you want to get a good sear on the outside, but want to make sure it's cooked enough on the inside, you often get a ring of gray, tasteless meat if you're not careful. Not so with the Anova. After taking it out of the water bath, I patted it dry, then quickly seared it on both sides. The result? A juicy steak through and through, with nice caramelization on the top and bottom. (Image credit: Mike Prospero / Tom's Guide) The final test for the Anova was cooking a 6-pound brisket for 48 hours, as suggested by Thomas Keller, the founder of the French Laundry restaurant. The size of the brisket required me to use an extra-large freezer bag and the largest pot I owned, which is another benefit of the Anova Precision Cooker's design: As it lets you use any pot you own, it takes up much less space, and gives you greater flexibility than a sous-vide machine with its own built-in pot. (Image credit: Mike Prospero / Tom's Guide) Two days after I plunged the brisket into the water, it was ready to come out. Again, like the chicken and steak, it needed to be finished off with some direct heat. I sliced off most of the top layer of fat, and put the brisket in the broiler until it developed a nice char on top. Bottom Line Never worry about an overcooked steak again. If you want to up your game in the kitchen, the Anova Precision Cooker is the tool to have. It's easy to use, its app spells things out simply for newbies, and it's easily adaptable to any pot you have in your kitchen. If you want to be able to keep tabs on things remotely, spring for the $199 Wi-Fi model, but the $179 Bluetooth version should suffice for most. Either way, your stomach will thank you. Tom's Guide is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Heres why you can trust us. (Image credit: Photo Credit: Adam Ismail/Tom's Guide) BARCELONA Most wireless headphones are built to block out the world around you, but Sony is taking a different approach with its Xperia Ear Duo. The Ear Duo, announced during Mobile World Congress on Monday (Feb. 26), is the evolution of Sonys Xperia Ear Open Style Concept Bluetooth earbuds, which were previously demoed but never slated for production until now. They look quite unusual compared to conventional headphones, as the buds themselves have been made hollow to allow outside noise in. MORE: Best Wireless Earbuds The whole focus is to blend environmental noise with the music you love, or the notifications you dont want to miss. The Ear Duo automatically adjusts the volume of whats coming through the headphones based on the world around you. So when you walk outside onto a busy street, the Ear Duo will boost your tunes to compensate. I had a chance to use the Ear Duo while speaking to a Sony representative, and I was able to carry on the entire conversation while listening. Its an odd sensation, and you shouldnt expect the same kind of clarity as youd get from even standard headphones that dont support active noise canceling. It was almost like I was in a room where music was playing, but I was the only one who could hear it. It serves a purpose, though it's definitely not something Id want on my flight back from Barcelona. (Image credit: Image Credit: Sony) Sony isnt pitching the Ear Duo as a fitness-minded wearable, but theres clearly a use case here for bicyclists and runners who prefer to workout to music, but cant afford to completely block out their surroundings in the interest of safety. Although its not entirely water resistant, the Ear Duo is rated IPX2 splash proof. Beyond music, the Ear Duos Daily Assist feature has been developed to serve you relevant information depending on the context. So when you arrive at the office, youll be reminded of your next meeting. Additionally, gesture support means youll be able to accept and reject calls by simply nodding your head. You can skip songs by shaking from side to side, and tap and swipe on the device to play, pause, adjust volume and so on. And of course, theres support for virtual assistants, like Google Assistant and Siri. Given its versatility, Sony expects customers to wear the Ear Duo all day long, so it helps that you can get several charges out of the Ear Duos case. The device itself lasts four hours on a single charge, but their batteries can fill up again three more times in the case. And thanks to fast charging, it only takes 12 minutes to get another two hours of listening. The Ear Duo will retail for $279 and begin shipping in the U.S. in late May. Pre-orders will go live on Amazon later today. Youth Art Month was created in 1961 by the Crayon, Watercolor and Craft Institute in cooperation with the National Art Education Association to emphasize the value of participating in art for all children. Originally called Childrens Art Month, it was renamed in 1969 to include secondary students. Thousands of American schools celebrate Youth Art Month (YAM) through the month of March each year. This years theme is "The Power of Art." In Nebraska, all K-12 students are eligible to submit art work to their teachers for selection in an exhibit at the State Capitol building rotunda from Saturday through March 12. There will be a reception at 2 p.m. May 12 for the students whose work was chosen, along with their teachers and families. On the local level, the Columbus Art Gallery hosts a Youth Art Month exhibit each March and has done so for over 20 years. This year it will be held from Monday through April 2 and is sponsored by Columbus Bank and Trust. All area art teachers receive information urging them to participate by bringing student work to the show. The art teachers are also asked to submit one of their own pieces. Usually about 13 schools are represented at the exhibit with up to 10 pieces of work from each school. There will be a reception from 6-8 p.m. March 3. So many times in our culture, sports events seem to be most popular in attendance, but the arts hold an extremely valuable place in our society. There is no cost to come to the art gallery on the lower level of the public library to view the exhibit or attend the reception to honor those students who have worked so hard on their creations and acknowledge the talents and efforts of the students and their teachers. The working world has acknowledged that the arts are vital in forming creative thinking and decision-making skills. We can support this belief by attending this local event and encourage students to continue creating. WHATS HAPPENING IN THE COLUMBUS ART GALLERY Saturday-April 2 -- Annual Youth Art Month Exhibit. Exhibit sponsored by Columbus Bank and Trust Company. March 3, 6-8 p.m. Free public opening reception for Youth Art Month. This is free and open to anyone of all ages. Magic Leap 2 release date, price and all the new features After the first Magic Leap glasses failed to take off, the company went back to the drawing board. Magic Leap 2 is the next attempt to make augmented reality happen. Heres what we know so far. Xiaomi is still a young company, having only been founded in 2010, but it's seen quick success: In 2015 it sold 70 million phones, making it the number one brand in the hotly contested Chinese market by shipments. Hugo Barra, Vice President of International at Xiaomi, seemed genuinely excited as he rolled up to the stage riding the Ninebot mini, a small Segway-like scooter, to announce the Mi 5, the company's latest flagship smartphone and the Mi 4's successor, to a global audience here at MWC 2016. In addition to having some fun teasing the journalists in the audience, repeatedly setting up a big reveal only to pivot to another subject, he emphasized the two key points for the Mi 5: design and speed. The Mi 5's design draws heavily from the Mi Note, Xiaomi's first phone to use curved glass on the back, and bears a passing resemblance to Samsung's Galaxy S7. The Mi 5, however, uses more gently curved edges than either phone and eliminates the Mi Note's partially flat sides. The front is edge-to-edge glass covering a 5.15-inch 1080p IPS display. Like other Xiaomi phones, the Mi 5 uses an extended color gamut panel listed at 95 percent NTSC. This means it's capable of displaying exceptionally vivid colors. While some may view this as a positive feature, others will find the inaccurate colors that result from deviating from the sRGB color space, which covers only about 72 percent of NTSC, disappointing. Xiaomi said the slightly larger than 5-inch screen size was necessary to increase the number of LEDs in the backlight from the 12 to 14 found in most edge-lit IPS displays to 16. This improves power efficiency by 17 percent, presumably from using more LEDs at lower individual output levels, and helps the Mi 5 reach a peak brightness of 600 nits, according to Xiaomi. The Mi 5 also includes Xiaomi's Sunlight Display feature that utilizes Snapdragon 820's Hexagon 680 DSP to dynamically adjust the contrast for every pixel to improve screen viewability in bright sunlight. Basically, it selectively brightens only the dark areas of the screen without washing out the brighter areas. Below the screen is a physical home button with integrated fingerprint sensor, a first for a Xiaomi phone. This may seem like a simple design decision, but it was interesting to hear Hugo Barra explain the challenges the company faced. The biggest issue revolved around maintaining an acceptably low screen-to-body ratio. Using a circular button/sensor, like the iPhone does, increases the size of the lower bezel, which forces the upper bezel to grow as well to maintain symmetry. For this reason, the Mi 5 uses an oval sensor like the Galaxy S7, albeit with an even narrower profile. Reducing the size of the upper bezel has a negative side effect, however: It becomes more difficult to fit the rear camera module above the display panel. If there's not enough room, then it needs to sit behind the display, forcing the camera to stick out from the back of the phone. Xiaomi was able to avoid this problem, allowing the Mi 5's rear camera to sit flush with the back. Besides the camera and dual-color flash in the upper-right corner and the "Mi" branding towards the bottom, the rest of the back is smooth and uncluttered. The Mi 5 comes in three different colors: white, gold, and black. The white version has a glossy white back covered in glass, while the gold color has a faint crosshatched pattern sitting below glass. The back of the black version is made from a very hard, wear-resistant ceramic that's 75 percent more expensive than glass, mostly due to the advanced manufacturing processes required to make it. The curved edges of the back blend smoothly into the aluminum frame. Symmetric speaker grilles flank a USB TypeC port on the bottom, and there's a headphone jack, IrLED, and noise-cancelling microphone on the top. All of the buttons lie on the right edge, with a unified volume rocker near the top and a power button just below. Technical Specifications Mi 5 Pro Mi 5 Display 5.15-inch IPS @ 1920x1080 (428 PPI) 5.15-inch IPS @ 1920x1080 (428 PPI) SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (MSM8996) Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (MSM8996) CPU Core Qualcomm Kryo (2x @ 2.15GHz + 2x @ 1.59GHz) Qualcomm Kryo (2x @ 2.15GHz/1.8GHz + 2x @ 1.59GHz) GPU Core Qualcomm Adreno 530 Qualcomm Adreno 530 Memory 4GB LPDDR4 3GB LPDDR4 Storage 128GB 32GB / 64GB Battery 3000mAh (non-removable) 3000mAh (non-removable) Front Camera 4 MP, 1/3" OmniVision OV4688, 2m, f/2.0 4 MP, 1/3" OmniVision OV4688, 2m, f/2.0 Rear Camera 16 MP, 1/2.8" Sony IMX298, 1.12m, f/2.0, PDAF, OIS, dualcolor LED flash 16 MP, 1/2.8" Sony IMX298, 1.12m, f/2.0, PDAF, OIS, dualcolor LED flash Special Features fingerprint scanner, 4-axis OIS, Dual SIM Dual Standby, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fingerprint scanner, 4-axis OIS, Dual SIM Dual Standby, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 OS Android 6.0 (MIUI 7) Android 6.0 (MIUI 7) Materials Aluminum, Ceramic Aluminum, Glass Size 144.6 x 69.2 x 7.3 mm, 139g? 144.6 x 69.2 x 7.3 mm, 129g The Mi 5 comes in three slightly different hardware configurations. The Mi 5 Pro includes 4GB of LPDDR4-1866 RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It only comes in black and uses the ceramic back. Dropping down a level reduces the amount of RAM and storage to 3GB and 64GB, respectively. The base Mi 5 also comes with 3GB of RAM but only 32GB of storage. It also uses the lower binned version of the Snapdragon 820 that drops the peak frequency on the performance cores from 2.15GHz to 1.8GHz. Both of the standard Mi 5 models come in both white or gold and use glass backs. In our first look at Snapdragon 820, we found it offered good system and peak gaming performance, although we still need to evaluate its heat generation and power efficiency. This is the first time we've seen the lower-binned 820 employed, but the average user is unlikely to notice the small reduction in CPU frequency. There's no microSD card support, but Xiaomi at least offers up to 128GB of internal storage, using the faster, bi-directional UFS 2.0 NAND. It comes with the usual compliment of wireless connection options, including 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFC, and Qualcomm's newest X12 LTE modem, integrated into Snapdragon 820, capable of Category 12 download speeds of up to 600Mbps and Category 13 upload speeds of up to 150Mbps. The Mi 5 even supports Dual SIM Dual Standby, a handy feature for anyone who travels outside their home country or needs to separate work and home numbers. Xiaomi managed to squeeze a 3,000mAh battery into the Mi 5's thin chassis, the same capacity as the Galaxy S7 but more than Google's Nexus 5X or HTC's One A9. There's no wireless charging, but it does include Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 rapid charging technology. Xiaomi spent quite a lot of time at the announcement espousing the virtues of the Mi 5s camera, and on paper its setup looks quite impressive. The rear camera uses the new Sony IMX298 Exmor RS sensor, the same one found in the Huawei Mate 8, which is a big step up from the Sony IMX214 found in the Mi 4. This sensor features DTI (deep trench isolation) to prevent light leakage between the sensors photodiodes. This improves color fidelity and is also featured in the iPhone 6s phones. The 16MP IMX298 sensor measures 1/2.8-inches and has 1.12m pixels. Although smaller than the Galaxy S7s pixels, the 6-element lens with f/2.0 aperture should still let in a decent amount of light. The Mi 5 also makes use of Snapdragon 820s dual Spectra image signal processors (ISPs) for low-light enhancement, night scene stabilization, and color enhancement. The Mi 5s camera has phase detect autofocus (PDAF) to improve focus speed. It also is one of the first smartphones to include 4-axis optical image stabilization (OIS), which dampens rotation about two axes as well as translation within the camera sensor plane. This is a step up from the 2- and 3-axis OIS found on other leading smartphones, producing noticeably better results than the 2-axis stabilization in the iPhone 6s shown in a video demonstration. Xiaomi has not lavished as much attention on the front-facing camera, though; it has the same 4MP sensor with 2m pixels as the Mi Note. On the software front, it's no surprise that the Mi 5 runs Xiaomi's own flavor of Android, MIUI. Like so many other Chinese remixes of Google's OS, MIUI has a decidedly iOS feel, with no application drawer and bright, colorful Apple-esque icons. The Mi 5's version of MIUI is the Marshmallow-based version 7, and Xiaomi made note that its software team is larger than its hardware team. Much of this development is for apps and services for the Chinese market because users do not have access to Google's applications and services on their devices. If the Mi 5 does find its way outside of its home market, we do hope that Xiaomi tasks some of its software team to suitably modify the Mi 5's OS to be more palatable to western users. Final Thoughts The Mi 5 is a nice looking, well-made phone. Its internal hardware is as good as we'll see from any flagship Android phone this year, so performance should not be an issue. The 3000mAh battery is a bit better than average for a 5-inch class device, and if Xiaomi's improved backlight efficiency claims are accurate, then the Mi 5 should be able to last a full day on a charge without too much trouble. The only obvious issues are the lack of a microSD slot and the extended gamut display, both of which are a matter of personal taste. For now, the Mi 5 will only be available in China on mi.com and at Mi Home stores, starting March 1, 2016. The 32GB model is RMB 1999 (~$254 USD), the 64GB model is RMB 2299 (~$262 USD), and the 128GB Mi 5 Pro is RMB 2699 (~$354 USD). The USD prices above (that were announced by Barra) are calculated from the Chinese prices less the sales tax that is included in the number. However, if you were to buy one in China next week youd be paying the tax, so your final cost in USD would be around $305, $350 or $415 depending on the model. Keep in mind that while these may sound like amazing prices (even with our exchange rate correction) for a phone of this build quality and with these specs, when the Mi 5 makes it to other markets it will certainly be more expensive. Xiaomi did say that it would be coming to other global markets soon, but did not specify where. Let's hope that for this phone, the U.S. and Canada are included! Update, 2/25/2016, 8:55 a.m. PST: USD pricing has been clarified. Matt Humrick is the Mobile Editor at Tom's Hardware. Contact him at mhumrick@tomshardware.com and follow him on Twitter @digitalOut_net. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+. We all know that Wu-Tang is for the children, but it appears its also for Sydney residents who are fed up with the citys devastating lockout laws. Luckily, the hip-hop icons are already working on it. As News Corp reports, during their performance at Sydneys Hordern Pavilion last night, the Wu-Tang Clan promised to get rid of the lockout laws, with the crews leader, RZA, weighing in on the debate thats engulfed the NSW capital. As Wu-Tang Clan finished their set, RZA reportedly told the 4,870-strong crowd that the crew would host their after-party at Jam Gallery in Bondi Junction, since the lockout laws meant they couldnt have it in the CBD or Kings Cross. We heard yall got some new laws, RZA told the audience. We going to to get these laws changed for yall. Kogarah Labor MP Chris Minns has already issued a response to RZAs comments, though he addressed the wrong Wu-Tang member. I dont normally get my policy advice from a man named Ghostface Killah but on this one he is right. These laws need to be changed, Mr Minns told the Daily Telegraph this morning. Nicholas Greco, the promoter behind the Wu-Tang Clans first Australian tour in five years and the Beyond The Valley festival, said they were forced to hold the after-party in Bondi Junction because the band wouldnt get in otherwise. As inner Sydney is held hostage by these ridiculous lockout laws we held the WU TANG clan afterparty in Bondi junction at Jam Gallery so the guys could actually get in when they rocked up, he said. Hailing from Auckland, NZ five piece Yukon Era are today premiering their debut, self titled EP. Overflowing with rhythmically and melodically diverse tunes that reference a garage rock sound but push genre boundaries its definitely a release thats set to capture a whole lot of new fans. Listening to their incredibly well crafted release its surprising to discover that four out of five members still in high school. If that wasnt impressive enough the guys have also supported big name acts including Mac Demarco, Viet Cong, METZ, and Mini Mansions in the past three months! In celebration of this killer five track release the boys will soon embark on a short tour of the North Island, including stops in Palmerston North, Wellington, and two hometown shows in Auckland. Cehck out the EP below and if you like what youre hearing pop by the bands Facebook page or pick up a copy of the EP via Bandcamp. NZ Tour Dates Feb 26th Palmerston North Oxford Street (All Ages) Feb 27th Wellington Eyegum House Party (All Ages) March 4th Auckland Flying Out (All Ages) March 9th Auckland Golden Dawn (R18) Two outdated technologies combine for a gala event soon to be revealed to the public and packed with a vast array of politicos, lawyers, consultants and all of the other people on this transit payroll . . .Checkit:Developing . . . KCTV5 features a controversial aspect of Kansas City gun culture that offers safety instruction and weapons skill but could provoke ire from so many locals, like Mayor Sly, who advocate greater restrictions on gun rights. You decide: Local gun ranges offer shooting classes specifically for kids Uncommon Courage sums up the bill perfectly: "A Missouri Legislator proposed HB 2610 - a bill that states that legislators serving the minimum 2 year term, that is less than 5 months each term, is qualified to become a lawyer or judge. Cool! No requirement of going to any stupid law school, learning, contracts, torts, real estate law, or anything except how to pass legislation. No tests. No studying. No bar exam. No college even necessary. Presumably, a high school diploma is not needed. No ethics exams. No three years of intensive study. No bar exam. No moral and ethical qualifications probed. All you need to do is file to become a representative in a small county with no resistance, and after two years, you too, can sit as a judge on Missouri's highest court, the Supreme Court . . ." TKC adds the hyperlink to thistake down of a dangerous bit of Missouri privilege for politicos . . .You decide but let's not forget that there's already. . . Tunisian authorities decided a one-month extension of the state of emergency throughout the country Tunisia announced Sunday the one-month extension of the state of emergency throughout the country reinstated in November after a suicide attack against the presidential guard in full Tunis. After consulting with the Head of Government and the President of the Assembly of Peoples Representatives on issues related to national security, especially the situation at the borders and in the region, the president has decided to extend the state of emergency a month from February 22, 2016, said the Presidency in a statement on its official page on Facebook. President Beji Caid Essebsi had proclaimed a state of emergency throughout the country and a curfew in Greater Tunis on November 24 in the wake of the attack claimed by the Islamic State group (EI) against a bus presidential security, which killed 12. If the curfew was quickly lifted the state of emergency has been extended to him in December of two months, until 21 February. Three major attacks Tunisia was hit in 2015 by three major attacks claimed by EI. Besides the attack against the agents of the presidential guard, 59 tourists and a policeman were killed in March in an attack at the Bardo Museum and in an attack in June on a beach and in a hotel near Sousse (East). The state of emergency notably allows authorities to ban strikes and meetings likely to cause or maintain disorder, to temporarily close theaters and pubs and to take all measures to ensure control of the press and publications of all kinds. In early October, Tunisia lifted the state of emergency a few days after the attack in Sousse which had 38 deaths, all foreign tourists, June 26 Tunisians have experienced more than three years under a state of emergency, January 14, 2011, hours before the flight of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in March 2014. Tunisia has faced since its revolution in 2011, a rise of jihadist movement and thousands of Tunisians are in Iraq, Syria and Libya in the ranks of extremist groups. According to the authorities, the perpetrators of the attacks Bardo and Sousse were trained in weapons in Libya. Flights cancellation extended Following these developments, Thomson and First Choice have extended the cancellation of outbound flights to Tunisia until March 22, 2016. The decision comes in response to the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices continued advice against all but essential travel to the country. Customers affected by this announcement can either change their holiday to any destination currently on sale by the operator without incurring any fees, or receive a full refund. EU chief's appeal Tunisia's extension of the state of national emergency by a month, only days after an EU chief urged foreign tourists to return to the north African country. Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, insisted last week that Tunisia had taken all the necessary steps to ensure holidays could be taken safely and appealed to international authorities to visit as soon as possible and inspect the security situation. We have seen that the tourism sector [in Tunisia] is on its knees. It needs to be revived, he added. Tunisias location next to Libya has made it vulnerable as a stomping ground for Isil militants, and although a wall is being built along the border, the real threat of terror attacks means holiday companies and foreign governments remain cautious about encouraging visitors to the country. Package holidays have been cancelled and flights to beach resorts suspended. RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Batelco Group, the Bahrain-based international telecommunications group with operations across 14 countries, has obtained freezing orders from the Madras High Court in India against certain assets of Chinnakannan Sivasankaran (Siva) and his related parties. The value of the assets frozen by such orders is estimated to be approximately Rs 500 crore ($74 million). The related parties include Sivasankaran's ex-wife Jayalakshmi Sivasankaran, his father R C K Vallal, his mother Chinnakannan Chandrammal, his long-term associates Baskaran, Nithyavathi Venkatesan and his related company, Siva Limited, said a statement. The orders made by the court are intended to pay down a substantial UK judgment that was awarded to BMIC Limited (a fully owned subsidiary of Batelco) by the English High Court of Justice totaling $212 million in June 2014, it said. The UK Judgement was awarded against Siva and Siva Limited, following BMIC's successful litigation against them. The UK Judgment found that the defendants failed to honour a settlement agreement signed with BMIC in November 2011, relating to a commercial venture into which such parties had entered in 2009. According to the UK Judgment, full payment should have been made to BMIC by the defendants by June 26. To date the defendants have failed to pay such sum to BMIC. Ihab Hannawi, Group CEO of Batelco said: "We fully expect all of the respondents to honour the Indian court orders and pay to BMIC the monies owing to it under the UK judgement. We will pursue all legal avenues available to us against such parties to secure this outstanding payment." Going into the history of the case, the statement said BMIC acquired a 42.7 per cent stake of Indian registered S Tel in 2009. S Tel had been awarded a 2G Licence in 2008. Following the cancellation of 2G licences by India's Supreme Court in February 2012, BMIC sought to implement an agreed put option which under certain circumstances, such as the cancellation of its 2G licence, or in the event of a failure of Siva to secure financing, would ensure Siva bought back the shares acquired by BMIC at the price paid originally. BMIC and the defendants entered into the binding settlement agreement to give effect to this commitment which contained a promise by Sivasankaran and Siva Limited to make payment to BMIC in agreed circumstances, the statement added. The Doha Film Institute has announced the 33 projects from 19 countries selected to take part in an initiative that seeks to provide mentorship, nurturing, and hands-on development for filmmakers. The second edition of Qumra will take place in Doha, Qatar from March 4-9. Directors and producers attached to 13 narrative feature films, 10 feature documentaries and 10 short films will participate in the six-day programme of bespoke industry sessions designed to progress their projects and prepare them for international markets. The emphasis is on supporting first-and-second-time filmmakers with projects in development and post-production. The projects represent 19 countries of production with a total of 15 projects from Qatar-based filmmakers, 12 from the Mena region and 6 from the rest of the world. 11 of the 33 projects are features films in development, 12 are in post-production and 10 are short films in development. Twenty of the feature projects are alumni of the Institutes grants programme and 3 are by independent filmmakers from Qatar. Of the 10 short projects, 7 are by Qatari filmmakers and 3 are by Qatar-based filmmakers identified through the Institutes ongoing engagement with local industry. Doha Film Institute CEO Fatma Al Remaihi said: We are very excited by the diverse slate of projects selected for Qumra 2016, representing emerging talent from Qatar, the Arab region and around the world. We have prepared an intensive programme for our project delegates which is designed to inspire them creatively and support them in navigating the evolving landscape of the film industry. I look forward to welcoming each of our project delegates to Qumra for what promises to be a productive exchange of ideas, culture and creativity. New to this years edition is the Qumra Shorts Programme, a dedicated strand designed to address the unique requirements of short films in development, during which 10 Qatar-based filmmakers will present their projects to a group of international industry professionals, including script consultants, producers, lab representatives, programmers and buyers, all of whom are experts in the short form. The ten short filmmakers have been supported by the Doha Film Institute in various ways throughout their careers and many are alumni of its educational initiatives, workshops and funding programmes. Directors and producers attached to each of the 33 projects will attend the sessions in Doha where they will be linked with more than 100 seasoned industry experts from all facets of the film industry including representatives from leading international film festivals, funding bodies, sales, production and distribution companies along with development specialists and script consultants. The programme is specifically tailored to each projects needs and is divided according to their stage of development. Projects in development will participate in group and individual sessions for script consulting, legal, sales, marketing and co-production advice along with one-on-one match-made meetings and tutorials. Projects in post-production are divided into two strands: the Work-in-Progress sessions will present a series of closed rough-cut screenings of 20-minute excerpts from the four narrative and four documentary Qumra projects in post-production followed by immediate, individual feedback from a panel of selected industry experts; and the Picture Lock Screenings will present exclusive 20 minute excerpts of four feature-length Qumra projects in the final stages of post-production for leading festival programmers, broadcasters, market representatives, sales agents and distributors. The Qumra Projects delegates will also attend daily master classes and screenings presented by five Qumra Masters who represent some of the leading figures in world cinema today. TradeArabia News Service The Egyptian government is in talks with three foreign energy companies in a bid to boost the countrys electrical grid by a capacity factor of 6,750 MW, a report said. The contracts, valued at $7.5 billion, are at various stages of completion, and will finance the construction of three combined cycle power plants, Fouad Mansour, the head of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) was quoted as saying in a Daily News Egypt report. In the first contract, the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy is negotiating the legal and contractual parameters with Saudi Arabias Acwa Power to set up the Dairut power plant. Meanwhile talks are set to start with UK-based Benchmark PLC to construct a 2,300 MW combined cycle power plan in the Tobs area of Kafr Sheikh Governorate, according to the report. In the third contract, the ministry is in talks with Acwa Power and the Abu Dhabi-based Masdar to implement a 2,200 MW combined cycle power plant in western Damietta, the report said. The contracts with Acwa Power are likely to be finalised in the coming weeks, Mansour said. Islamic finance is drawing more interest in Russia as the country struggles economically and requires fundamentally new approaches to attract investments from abroad. The sector is just beginning to grow in Russia and its perspectives were discussed during the recent Gaidars Forum in Moscow, one of the major annual international conferences on economy in Russia. Implementation of Islamic finance in Russia started through the so-called pilot projects in the predominantly Muslim republic of Tatarstan. It has both existing infrastructure and client base. It also has lots to offer to the potential partners from the Arabian Gulf countries. Russia has a native Muslim populations of roughly 20 million. As an example, the UK might be a role model for Russia in Islamic finance as it has issued Islamic bonds. Islamic banking could account for up to 5 per cent of the entire financial market in Russia and it could follow the path of neighbouring Kazakhstan that is expecting Islamic finance to constitute 10 per cent of its financial market by 2020. Russia initially planned to introduce Islamic banking during the crisis of 2008, as it started looking for additional resources. However, because of unfamiliarity with Islamic banking rules the Russian bank VTB did not succeed in issuing a planned sukuk in 2009. The current crisis dictates new realities for Russia that excludes possibilities of a swift recovery similar to the post-2008 period and the Russian approach is more structural this time. Tatarstan has nurtured close relations with the Gulf region for years. Delegations from many Gulf countries regularly participate in the international forum of Islamic business and finances Kazan Summit in the capital of Tatarstan, Kazan. Several countries have already bankrolled $760 million into Kazan Smart City, the Tatarstans ambitious business hub, as a part of Tatarstan Gulf Investment Company. In fact, the first Islamic bank in Russia is Ak Bars Bank from Tatarstan. It has already attracted a number of investments from the Gulf, including $60 million in 2011 and $100 million in 2013. The republic has took its first steps into the world of Islamic finance by issuing a sukuk in 2015 for financing a major business centre in the capital of Kazan. The pioneering status was highlighted by an agreement in April 2015 between a Malaysian-Russia consortium and the Tatarstan government during the Kazan Sukuk Conference. The agreement serves as a roadmap for opening of an Islamic bank or Islamic banking windows in the republic. The establishment of Kazan as a centre of Islamic finance in Russia will help expand the sector to other Muslim and non-Muslim regions of the country. If the Tatarstans plan succeeds more regions will follow. Dagestan is the second region in Russia that is undertaking serious efforts to implement Islamic banking and attract investors. It is lagging behind Tatarstan and does not have a clear roadmap yet. However, the local government is already working on implementing similar framework and will largely follow the Tatarstans path. The major problem facing Islamic finance in Russia currently is related to the legal structure. There is neither an existing law nor a draft law regulating the sector in the country. There are also no legal framework that allow state regulators to support banks that have zero-interest operations. Thus, any investment in the field will be of a long-term nature as it will take time to bring in new legislation. Russian public as well as authorities are also largely sceptical about Islamic finance. Based on the National Agency for Financial Studies (NAFS) survey only 12 percent of Russian Muslims are ready to use the Islamic banking services. Such results are largely due to the low level of knowledge about the Islamic banking. In many ways Islamic finance could be implemented in Russia with the bottom-up approach. Local banks could open so-called Islamic banking windrows within their branches and see how it works in comparison to standard banking procedures. This approach would gradually reflect advantages of Islamic finance and raise its appeal among the general public. It might become a feasible alternative to the traditional banking and appeal to both Muslim and non-Muslim Russians with its underlying principle to invest in tangible products. Furthermore, tolerance to customers who have missed payments under Sharia law will attract popularity in a country with infamous brutal practices of collection agencies. Kuwait and Qatar have followed the example of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in urging their citizens to avoid travel to Lebanon for safety reasons, their state news agencies reported. Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Manama issued statements on Tuesday calling on their citizens not to travel to Lebanon, long a favourite holiday destination for Gulf Arabs. The moves by the Gulf Arab allies came after Saudi Arabia last week suspended aid worth $3 billion to the Lebanese army over the Beirut government's failure to sign up to statements condemning attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran. Reuters Bateel International, a leading gourmet food business, has announced the opening of Cafe Bateel in the prestigious retail and residential Olaya district of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Drawing on its heritage and rich tradition of Arabian hospitality, the expansive new venue is the largest cafe in the global Bateel portfolio, covering almost 9,000 sq ft and seating up to 350 guests. The elegantly designed cafe also features an impressive rooftop terrace for al fresco dining with a spectacular view. Serving gourmet food and beverages, the new cafe will provide unrivalled offerings, whether for a healthy breakfast, light lunch, or wholesome dinner, all delivered through sophisticated and unobtrusive service in a warm and inviting setting. Spencer Ayers, general manager, Cafe Bateel said: We are proud to introduce Cafe Bateel Olaya, to the residents in Riyadh. Our team has travelled around the world for the finest ingredients and we are looking forward to introducing exceptional Mediterranean fare, curated by Bateel to food connoisseurs in the city. The cafe showcases a fabulous new and luxurious design, well-suited for hosting grand occasions, such as weddings and other high-profile gatherings. Centrally located in the heart of Riyadh, the new cafe is situated in the prominent Olaya neighbourhood, next to iconic landmarks including the Al Faisaliyah Center and the Kingdom Centre. The prime and admired location is perfectly suited for the premium Cafe Bateel brand and is accessible for residents in the distinguished community as well as those in the neighbouring office towers. This latest opening is the second Cafe Bateel to launch in Riyadh, with the first located nearby on the renowned Tahlia Street, and is a significant milestone in Bateels history. Dr. Ata Atmar, managing director, Bateel International said: This expansion in Riyadh marks the start of an important year of growth for Bateel, which in 2016 will be celebrating an impressive 25 years since the launch of its first boutique. TradeArabia News Service Hotels in the Middle East reported negative results in January with a 3.8 per cent decrease in occupancy to 70.3 per cent, said a report. According to January 2016 data from STR Global, a leading provider of global hotel data, Average daily rate for the month was down 6.9 per cent to $197.20. Revenue per available room dropped 10.4 per cent to $138.60. Muscat, Oman, reported an 8.7 per cent decline in occupancy to 63.8 per cent, a 9.4 per cent drop in ADR to OMR80.98 ($209.6) and a 17.3 per cent decrease in RevPAR to OMR51.68 ($133.7). Supply growth (over 2 per cent) outweighed demand performance (below 6.9 per cent) for the month, creating a slower-than-usual start to the year in Muscat. Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, reported double-digit decreases across the three key performance indicators: occupancy dropped 54.7 per cent to 24.8 per cent; ADR slipped 18.9 per cent to EGP406.16 ($51.7); and RevPAR climbed down 63.3 per cent to EGP100.92 ($12.8). Hoteliers cut prices in the market, but the decline in occupancy was too great to overcome. According to STR Global analysts, Sharm el-Sheikh has once again lost its attractiveness due to the October 2015 plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula. However, Casablanca (Morocco) posted increases in each of the three key performance metrics: occupancy climbed over 8 per cent to 58.2 per cent; ADR jumped 8.7 per cent to MAD1,062.66 ($107.7) and RevPAR rose 17.4 per cent to MAD618.35 ($62.7). Absolute levels in the market fell in line with usual January performance. TradeArabia News Service Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa is set to mark its 10th anniversary in Muscat, Oman, tomorrow (February 26). As a result of the resort opening in 2006, after three years of construction, the 640 rooms doubled the total room inventory available in Muscat and was, and remains, the largest resort in terms of both size and facilities available. Shangri-La Muscat has always been a key contributor to Omans tourism sector and a strong support to the countrys growing economy of employment in Muscat, providing work for over 5,500 people since opening in 2006, with 145 members of staff from the team in 2006 still working there today. At the time of opening, 1,200 palm trees were planted in the grounds of the resort for every member of staff employed, and these palms still line the backdrop of the resort today. The resort has also been an ambassador in supporting jobs for the local community, employing nearly 2,000 Omani colleagues since opening. They have a dedication and passion for training and developing skills for future careers with a particularly strong partnership with the National Hospitality Institute in Wadi Al Kabir by supporting Omanis with a passion for hospitality in their first steps in their careers. Over the years Corporate Social Responsibility has been a growing focus and the team and management have supported over 1,900 CSR projects, ranging from beach clean-up exercises, fundraising and water distribution to redeveloping entire homes and schools for the local community. As a pioneer staff member from 2006 I am personally very proud to be here 10 years after opening the resort. From the moment I arrived I fell in love with Oman and, while having a short time working in Dubai, it was like coming home to return to Muscat once again, said Mark Kirk, area manager and hotel general manager at Shangri-La. He added: There are many achievements that the resort has accomplished over the past 10 years and we are all very proud and excited to be celebrating this milestone anniversary. We have always maintained our Shangri-La Values of hospitality from the heart, and we can truly say our hearts lie in Muscat. Since 2006 Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa has welcomed over 2,781,365 guests to the resort, from all over the world, and is looking forward to another 10 years developing the tourism to Oman. To celebrate this momentous occasion, the resort will be offering some outstanding special promotions, such as rooms for only OMR10 ($25.8) as well as food and beverage and CHI, The Spa deals. The information on the offers will be announced on the resorts Facebook page on Friday 26thFebruary 2016. TradeArabia News Service OMAHA In a state where no Democrats hold statewide office and there's only one among the state's five-member congressional delegation, party members in Nebraska sometimes find voting little more than an exercise in civic engagement. But the state's March 5 Democratic caucus brings a chance to influence who'll go against the Republican presidential candidate: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The party's first presidential caucus was held in 2008; before that, Democrats picked a nominee in a May primary, as Republicans in the state still do. Participating in the caucus feels more relevant than voting for, say, governor, according to Amy Ainsley, a registered Democrat in Lincoln. "At least you have a voice in this process," she said. Nebraska Democratic Party Chairman Vince Powers said that's why he pushed for the caucus for the party to have a say in the national race and to draw people into the political process. "Nebraska Democrats much prefer being relevant ... to walking in on primary day in May after the nomination has already been decided," Powers said. Clinton and Sanders, locked in a tight race across the country, have set up offices in Nebraska and are wooing voters. Her campaign got a jump with early promises of support from three of the state's five superdelegates and her stop in Omaha in December. "Nebraska is hugely important for us," said Kane Miller, state director of Clinton's campaign. "Fifty-six percent of the delegates that are going to get awarded will get awarded by contest in the month of March." But Sanders' campaign is taking the state "very seriously," according to Bill Romjue, who's in charge in Nebraska. "We feel like we're getting a lot of support here from people who admire his message." Nebraska is a sparsely populated state that hasn't supported a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, which had discouraged Democratic candidates from visiting. Then came 2008's close Democratic primary race between Clinton and then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama. Obama campaigned hard in Nebraska ahead of the 2008 caucus, while Clinton focused on other states, leading caucus-goers to back Obama 2 to 1. He went on to become the first presidential candidate to split Nebraska's electoral votes. "There is no question that the Hillary Clinton campaign recognized that had they not ignored the caucus states in 2008, she'd be finishing up her second term," Powers said. "There's a reason Hillary Clinton has already campaigned in Nebraska." All 93 counties have caucus sites and the party is for the first time allowing registered Democratic voters to back a candidate via an absentee form if they can't attend a caucus. Powers believes the new absentee process will see more state Democrats participate than the 38,000 who turned out in 2008. At the caucus, attendees split to form presidential preference groups, and delegates are awarded to the preference groups based on their size. With only two candidates left in the contest, it's not likely either will dip below the 15 percent required to remain viable. But the absentee process is likely an advantage for Clinton because of her early groundwork, Romjue acknowledged. "But there's no doubt we've got the enthusiasm on the ground," he said of Sanders. "Our message is also reaching Latino voters in Nebraska." Neither candidate has committed to appearing in Nebraska before the caucus, but both campaigns say a stop in the coming days is possible. Powers said a visit could make a difference in securing Nebraska's 25 delegates and five superdelegates. "No Democrat has ever been elected president who did not win the Nebraska caucus in the 21st century," Powers said, tongue-in-cheek. The African Network for Environmental Sustainability (ANFES) aims to ensure that environmental sustainability research agenda and commercial exploitation of local communities natural resources benefit local communities by responding to their needs and aspirations and by improving their livelihoods opportunities. Win a car, motorcycle, boat, RV, or all kinds of other vehicles by entering these fun sweepstakes! Car sweepstakes have some of the most popular prizes to win. 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Entry Frequency: 1 x weekly per person/email End Date: January 15th, 2023 Eligibility: Open to residents of the United States (void in Florida, New York, and Rhode Island) More Information about this Sweepstakes Enter Sweepstakes Directly 6. Sea-Doo - Win a BRP Product Sweepstakes Enter for your chance to win your choice of either a SeaDoo watercraft, a snowmobile, a Can-Am off-road vehicle, or a Can-Am on-road vehicle. Entry Frequency: One time per person End Date: February 1st, 2023 Eligibility: Open to the U.S. and Canada More Information about this Sweepstakes Enter Sweepstakes Directly Found an Error on the Car Sweepstakes Page? If you've found an error on the car sweepstakes page, like a link that's not working, a typo, or an error, email me and let me know! Note that I can help you if there is an error on this page, or if one of the links doesn't bring you to the correct page. Tucan Travel have increased the number of departure dates on several of their itineraries as a result of the overwhelming demand for their new Africa group tours. Starting at 999 plus the local payment, a dozen extra departure dates have been added from August onwards to eight of their most popular tours through Eastern Africa. (TRAVPR.COM) UK - February 25th, 2016 - Tucan Travel have increased the number of departure dates on several of their itineraries as a result of the overwhelming demand for their new Africa group tours. Starting at 999 plus the local payment, a dozen extra departure dates have been added from August onwards to eight of their most popular tours through Eastern Africa. New for 2016, these tours use Tucan Travels custom-built overland trucks to travel around the region and passengers stay in comfortable hotels, lodges, permanent camps and guesthouses. Passengers visit some of Africas biggest highlights including the Masai Mara, Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and Zanzibar Island. On these tours many meals and excursions are included and the semi-participatory atmosphere all contributes towards a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Africa Destination Manager Emma Campbell is quoted We have had a lot of interest in our new Africa tours since their launch and there has been an increasing demand from passengers wanting to see the highlights of East Africa in an affordable yet comfortable way. We hope these extra departure dates will give clients more choice and flexibility when booking their holiday. These tours are also included in Tucan Travels See the World Sale, which offers passengers 15% off group tours until Wednesday 2nd March 2016. Kigali to Nairobi 11 days| Kigali to Nairobi| 999.00 + USD$ 450.00 local payment Beginning in Kigali, discover how Rwanda has flourished in the last few years before heading to Lake Bunyonyi where your search for mountain gorillas begins. Spend an hour with a family of these incredible animals in the heart of Ugandan forest. Jinja will provide more heart-racing opportunities before culminating in Nairobi where you could perhaps add on an adventure to the Masai Mara Whats included: Visits to Rwanda Genocide Memorials & Hotel des Milles Collines (Hotel Rwanda), Kampala National Museum, Guided Gorilla Trek (inc permit) East Africa Circuit 14 days | Nairobi to Nairobi| 1,469.00 + USD$ 700.00 local payment Three countries sitting close together but packed with so many differences it is easy to tell the moment you cross borders. In two weeks, hike through the Ugandan rainforest to spend an hour with the endangered mountain gorillas, safari through one of east Africas largest national parks and learn about the impact of the Rwandan genocide on the entire region. Whats included: Visits to Rwanda Genocide Memorials & Hotel des Milles Collines (Hotel Rwanda), Kampala National Museum, Guided Gorilla Trek (inc permit), Boat trip on Lake Bunyonyi & visit to a Pygmy Village, Game Drives in the Masai Mara Safari, Gorillas & Beach 22 days| Nairobi to Stone Town | 2,209.00 + USD$ 1,200 local payment An extensive journey through east Africa, head straight to Rwanda to learn about the countrys recent history and the lengths it has gone to to implement change. From Uganda, spend an hour with the endangered mountain gorillas and relax on the banks of the River Nile in Jinja. In Kenya, enjoy safari drives through the famous Masai Mara and in Tanzania, after more safaris and wildlife viewing opportunities, sink your feet into the sand on Zanzibar Island. Whats included: Visits to Rwanda Genocide Memorials & Hotel des Milles Collines (Hotel Rwanda), Kampala National Museum, Guided Gorilla Trek (inc permit), Boat trip on Lake Bunyonyi & visit to a Pygmy Village, Game Drives in the Masai Mara, Game Drives in the Serengeti National Park, Morning Game Drive in the Ngorongoro Crater, 4 day Zanzibar Island excursion, Guided tour of the spice plantations & local lunch For more information please contact jess@tucantravel.com or rosanna@tucantravel.com ### The Kingdom of Swaziland, well known for its many cultural festivals will stage Emaganwini or Marula Festival, celebrating the harvest of Marula Fruit, between now and mid-May. (TRAVPR.COM) SWAZILAND - February 25th, 2016 - Marulas are the most popular fruit in the country, due to its believed medicinal and fertility properties, as well as being the main ingredient of the delightful Marula beer! Becoming one of the countries most exciting traditional ceremonies, Marula Festival starts at the royal residence, Ebuhleni, when King Msuati III and the Queen Mother are presented with gifts and Marula beer from each household. Only after the royal family has first tasted the Marula Beer, are the rest of the nation permitted to join in and drink. After this King Msuati III and the Queen Mother start to travel across the country, joining the nation in song, dance and celebration. Although the Marula fruit can be found throughout Africa, it is in Swaziland where it is found in abundance. February celebrates the start of the harvest season where women and children collect the fallen Marula fruit and store it until turns to a creamy yellow colar. In a nutshell, the flesh from the fruits is then squeezed out, mixed with water, sugar is added and it is fermented and destilled into the delicious and well-known Marula Beer. Marula is also used in skin care products and medicines, popular in the country for its huge fertility properties. Marula festival is very important for Swazi tradition, not only for dancing and celebration, but where Swazis are give thanks for another fruitful harvest, and showing their appreciation in anticipation for the following year. ABOUT SWAZILAND Despite being the smallest country in the Southern hemisphere, Swaziland more than makes up for its lack of size with a hugely diverse range of attractions and activities. As one of the few remaining Executive Monarchies in Africa, culture and heritage are deeply engrained in all aspects of Swazi life, ensuring an unforgettable experience for all who visit. As well as the rich culture, the overwhelming friendliness of the people makes all visitors feel truly welcome and very safe. Add to that a stunning landscapes of mountains and valleys, forests and plains; plus wildlife reserves across the country that are home to The Big Five, and you have all thats best about Africa in one small but perfectly formed and welcoming country. ### We have never been fond of big SUVs and LTVs (light trucks and vans), the gas-guzzling space-stealing monoliths that seem out of place in the country but are so popular in the cities these days. In New York it seems that everyone is chauffeured around in thembig Escalades, Navigators, Suburbans, and Lexi. Pedestrians are like flies on a windshield when they get hit by these, their hoods and grills are like walls. Really, they are so dangerous, three times as likely to kill as a car, that they should not be allowed in cities. And apparently in New York City they are not even legal, if you ever plan on driving over the Brooklyn Bridge. It has a three-ton weight limit and, as Will Sabel Courtney of The Drive points out, the popular pickups and SUVs all exceed this. Big pickups aren't a thing in Manhattan but the Escalades are everywhere; however, Courtney notes that "the NYPD officers situated at each end of the bridge dont seem bothered." Neither is anyone else: "Like the Navigator, upgrading to the extended-wheelbase Escalade and youll top the Brooklyn Bridges weight cap. Yet the ESV tends to be the 'Slade of choice among New Yorks livery car drivers, which means many of those trips that bankers take from Wall Street to their Brooklyn Heights brownstones are illegal. (Then again, it may be the least illegal thing they do all day. Zing!)" Other vehicles are surprisingly close, fancy expensive cars like Bentleys and Land Rovers and Porsche Cayennes, where the weight of the passengers and the groceries put them over the top. Tesla Motors But the biggest surprise of allthe Tesla Model Xhas a curb weight that is under 6,000 pounds but in fact has a real GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) of 6,768 pounds. This is a feature, not a bug; vehicles over 6,000 pounds or three tons are considered work vehicles, not cars, and actually qualify for what used be be called the Hummer Loophole, a $ 25,000 tax credit. And indeed, a Tesla rep told Autoblog Green: "Yes, the curb weight of Model X is 5,441 lbs. So we expect the GVWR to exceed 6,000 lbs. This means a Section 179 deduction could be taken for to up to $25,000 of the purchase price." I am not certain Tesla thought about this when they decided to locate their big new showroom in Brooklyn. Over on Jalopnik, Rafael Orlove thinks that it is time to enforce the law. "So I would like to take this moment to remind the NYPD that they should feel free to fine, arrest, or PIT maneuver any Tesla Model X driver they see on the bridge." I don't think they should be picked on; why not enforce the law for all the bridge scofflaws, all the SUVs and black cabs that exceed three tons? It's the law. Bridge weight restrictions are no joke. They exist to ensure the safety of drivers, pedestrians, and everyone in the vicinity and to allow for the smooth, continuous flow of traffic. Ratings are determined by engineers and builders who have calculated the maximum weight a structure can bear; to ignore it could potentially endanger public safety. (Think about the tragic bridge collapse in 2018 in Genoa, Italy.) As Autoblog pointed out, "All this extra weight is taking its toll. The Brooklyn Bridge was among the spans flagged in a 2013 report by the Federal Highway Administration that found more than 65,000 of America's bridges were classified as 'structurally deficient.'" This isn't a new issue, either. Streetsblog covered it years ago, with a commenter publishing the applicable laws: Section 4-15 (b)(13): "Weight and height restrictions on bridges, viaducts and other structures. No person shall operate or move a vehicle or combination of vehicles over, on or through any bridge, viaduct or other structures on any highway if the weight of such vehicle or combination of vehicles and load is greater than the posted capacity of the structure or exceeds the height of the posted clearance as shown by an official sign or other marking or device." Section 4-15 (c):"Enforcement, measurement and weight of vehicles. Any law enforcement officer or any inspector of the Department of Consumer Affairs of the City of New York having reason to believe that any vehicle or load is in violation of the restrictions in subdivision(b), above, is authorized to stop the vehicle on any public highway or private street open to public motor vehicle traffic and measure and weigh it by means of portable or stationary measures and scales. Any law enforcement officer or such inspector may require that the vehicle be driven to the nearest scales, if they are within 3 miles." Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier The board earmarked $1.54 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for the dredge, designed to keep channels open and supply sand to nourish eroding beaches up and down the York County coast and beyond. Sunit Dhawan Tribune News Service Rohtak, February 25 The managements of a number of prestigious public schools and engineering, management and law colleges located on the outskirts of Rohtak that were ransacked, looted and burnt to ashes by youths during the Jat agitation for reservation are now struggling to rebuild the damaged infrastructure. Many schools and colleges were ransacked, burnt and looted a number of times between February 19 and 24, with the district police and the fire authorities expressing their inability and and failing to take any action. The owners of these schools also maintain most of the institutions owned by members of the non-Jat communities were targeted. Mobs comprising thousands of youths aged between 18 and 25 years devastated the infrastructure of three of our institutions: the Rohtak Institute of Engineering and Management, Shamsher Bahadur Saxena College of Law and Shri Ram Global School located on Gohana Road. They looted costly articles, ransacked infrastructure and set the buildings and buses on fire. They ransacked the buildings on the night of February 19 and came back again on February 20, 21 and 22, making sure that no portion of the institutes was left intact, said Dr Kishore Chawla, director of the institutes. He said the management had suffered losses to the tune of Rs25 crore in arson and looting. Varsha Pathania, Principal, Pathania Publlic School located on Gohana Road, said: We kept on calling the police, fire officials and other authorities concerned but to no avail. Finally, we arranged private water tankers on our own and tried to douse the raging flames. The agitating youths set fire to the building on the night of February 19 and it kept on cropping up in different portions for several days. The total losses suffered by the school have been pegged at Rs1.5 crore. VP Setia, treasurer of the Shiksha Bharti Education Society which runs Shiksha Bharti Senior Secondary School on Gohana Road, said the school building, buses and cabs were torched by protesting youths.The school management had suffered about Rs5-crore losses. Curiously, no harm was caused to building of IB School located just opposite Shiksha Bharti School. The buildings of Sanskriti School and Swami Nityanand Senior Secondary School, also located on Gohana Road, also remained safe. John Wesley Convent School located nearby was also gutted suffered losses of about Rs5 crore. The management of Silver Bells School, also located on Gohana Road, had also a similar tale to narrate. Indus Public School, owned by Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyus family, suffered massive losses. PMO expressed inability to do anything Rohtak: Several city residents have said while they were under threat of attack during the Jat agitation, they had contacted the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), but the officials concerned expressed their inability to do anything. I called up the PMO on Saturday. The official who received the call advised me to contact the Haryana CM's office instead. I told him that police personnel had vanished from the scene while arson and violence were still on. At this, he expressed his inability to do anything asked me to pray to God that good sense prevails among agitating youths, said Vipin, a cloth merchant at the local Shouri Market. TNS Police didnt come to rescue VK Juneja (in pic), owner, Silver Bells Public School, Rohtak, got a call from the school watchman around 7.30 pm on February 19. He said 25-30 youths had entered the school , started ransacking the building and threatened to burn it down. I called up the PCR. However, no action was taken. A little later, the watchman informed me a crowd of 250-300 youths had set the building on fire. I called up the local fire station, but the official concerned expressed inability to do anything. I kept calling the police, Fire Department and other authorities concerned but to no avail. The miscreants continued to loot articles and ransacked the infrastructure on February 20, 21 and 22 while my pleas to the authorities fell on deaf ears. I called up the SPs landline number but the official who picked up the phone said nothing could be done. He gave me the SPs cellphone number. The SP did not pick up the phone. Some police officials visited the school yesterday (February 24) after it was all over. Sunit Dhawan Jat samiti for social boycott of arsonists Hisar: The All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) has announced that they will socially boycott Jats, whose role is proved in arson and violence during the agitation. Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, AIJASS general secretary Satbir Punia said those who indulged in violence were not the members of the samiti which held peaceful dharnas at various places, including Mayyar, Sampla and other parts of the state. TNS Army airlifted 36 foreigners Rohtak: While Rohtak was rocked by protests during the Jat agitation, Army officials deployed here got 36 foreign nationals and NRIs airlifted to New Delhi, from where they flew to their respective countries (in pic, right). Those airlifted from Rohtak to Delhi by helicopters included 27 Japanese, four Indians settled in Sweden and three from Italy, and one each from Belgium and Malaysia, said Major Sanjeev Baliyan, said on Thursday. TNS 93 cases of loot, arson registered Sonepat: The police have registered 93 cases that include 28 cases of loot, 16 cases of arson and nine cases of attempt to murder, in the district. Several complainants have submitted an estimate of property loss incurred during the violence. Similarly, 1,300 persons have booked on charges of blocking roads and railway tracks. However, no one has been arrested so far. OC SIT to probe case against Hoodas aide Rohtak: A special investigation team (SIT) has been constituted to probe the case against former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's close associate, Prof Virender Singh, and khap leader Capt Man Singh Dalal, who have been booked for sedition following allegations of abetting violence during the Jat agitation. Rohtak SP Shashank Anand told The Tribune that an SIT led by DSP Pawan had been formed to probe the matter. TNS Majid Jahangir Tribune News Service Srinagar, February 25 A Jaish-e-Mohammad militant from Pakistan has been arrested from north Kashmirs Baramulla district. He was a member of the group that had carried out an attack on an Army installation at Tangdhar in Kupwara in November last year. The militant is part of the Afzal Guru squad, named after hanged Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Mohammad Sidiq, alias Shahid, a resident of Sialkot, was arrested on the outskirts of Baramulla during a joint operation by security forces. The police said the 18-year-old militant seemed to have been inducted by Jaish founder Masood Azhar. The militant had entered Baramulla almost 15 days back and was planning to carry out an attack. Based on specific information, multiple operations were launched in and around Baramulla. After sustained operations, one terrorist, Mohammad Sidiq, was overpowered and apprehended near Kansipora in Baramulla, said Gareeb Das, Deputy Inspector General of Police, north Kashmir. During questioning, the militant admitted that he was a part of a squad that carried out the attack on an Army base at Tangdhar in Kupwara in November last year. On November 25 last year, the Army foiled a suicide attack and killed three Jaish militants who tried to storm an Army base in Tangdhar. The arrested militant told interrogators that the four-member group had been launched from Athmuqam in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. He said they crossed the LoC late on November 24 and walked to the Army base. He set afire the oil depot inside the Army camp at Tangdhar, Das said. The police said he fled through the forest area and shifted to Kupwara. He was in touch with handlers, who advised him to contact an overground worker in Kupwara. The militant reached Kupwara along with a rifle. We had a tip-off that four militants were involved in the November 25 attack in Tangdhar. Earlier this month, we busted a Jaish module in Handwara. From there, we came to know that the militant had shifted to Baramulla. After working on various leads, we busted the five-member network in Baramulla, Das said. Islamabad, February 25 Pakistans anti-terrorism court holding the Mumbai attack trial has finally recorded the statements of all Pakistani witnesses in the high-profile case that has been going on in the country for over six years. The anti-terrorism court (ATC) Islamabad which held the hearing yesterday at the high security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi recorded the statements of the final witness, concluding the process. Five witnesses have not recorded their statements despite a number of court summons. The court has declared them proclaimed offenders. All Pakistani witnesses of the Mumbai case have recorded their statements. Now only Indian witnesses are left to record their statements, a prosecution lawyer told PTI. He said the trial would be concluded once the India witnesses record their statements. The prosecution lawyer said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the trial court yesterday that the Interior Ministry has written to the Foreign Ministry over summoning of the 24 Indian witnesses to Pakistan for recording of statements. The court adjourned the hearing till March 2. PTI New Delhi, February 25 Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag on Thursday slammed Pakistan for giving candid support to terror groups like the JeM and LeT as he called on the international community to join hands in combating the menace. Days after suspected LeT operatives struck in Pampore in Jammu and Kashmir, Suhag hit out at Pakistan, saying, Terrorist groups like the LeT and JeM get candid support from across our western borders. The attack at Pampore left three Army personnel dead, including two Captains of the Special Forces. Two CRPF personnel, too, were killed by three heavily armed foreign terrorists who were shot dead after a fierce 48-hour-long gun battle. At a seminar organised by Army think tank CLAWS, Suhag also said that the spreading influence of Islamic State, in particular through social and other forms of media, has thrown up challenges of global and regional security. What is worrying is that these groups can no longer be dismissed as regional manifestations of violence, he said. Noting that such jihadist outfits take advantage of the international connected systems of finance, commerce and transit to stay flexible and reach any part of the globe, Suhag said it was necessary for international community to fight this menace as one by sharing of intelligence and adoption of training techniques from each other. He added that the 9/11, 26/11 and recent Paris attacks have changed the perception among world leaders regarding the threat from terrorism. The Army Chief said, We need to address not only the methods but also the factors that contribute to the spread of terrorism. The main threat comes from fundamental ideology and twisted interpretations which are promoting radical thinking. BJP leader and spokesperson M.J. Akbar, who also spoke at the event, termed parts of Pakistan as a sanctuary for jihadis. PTI Chandigarh, February 25 Parkash Singh Badal will head a SAD-BJP government if the alliance is voted to power in the 2017 Assembly election, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has said. "If the people of Punjab gives SAD-BJP coalition the responsibility of forming the next government, Badal would be the chief minister again," he said. Under the leadership of Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab government has implemented historic decisions to improve the cultural-socio-economic face of the state, Sukhbir said while interacting with NRIs from the USA, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and Australia at his residence last night. Urging the NRIs to be wary of the alleged anti-Punjab and anti-Sikh propaganda being spread by Opposition parties, the Deputy Chief Minister said, "We will go to the people with our development agenda." He urged Punjabis worldwide to counter forces indulging in defaming and denigrating the image of state by dubbing the Punjab as "bankrupt" and Punjabis as "drug addicts". Sukhbir said the state's gross domestic product during the previous Congress rule was Rs 5,04,937 crore while during 2007-12, it rose to Rs 1,09,874 crore and from 2012 till today it stands at Rs 13,51,348 crore. Regarding revenue in VAT collection, he said from 2002-07, the state gained Rs 19,960 crore while during 2007-12, it rose to Rs 44,209 crore and from 2012 till now, the figure stands at Rs 62,706 crore. Speaking about revenue receipts, the Deputy Chief Minister said the previous Congress government in its 5 year rule yielded only Rs 36,000 crore whereas during 2007-12, this figure was Rs 68,757 crore which rose to Rs 99,741 crore since 2012 till now. He said Punjab has become power surplus state due to persistent efforts of present regime. In 2011, the power board stood at lowly 17th rank whereas in 2015 it was conferred 'best power utility' award. The state has spent Rs 30,000 crore to achieve the power surplus status by adding 6,100 MW in power generation, Sukhbir added. PTI London: The terror groups active in Syria are using social media sites such as Facebook to buy and sell heavy arms, guns and ammunition, according to UK media reports. Islamic State and Al-Qaida terrorists could potentially also use Facebook to buy an anti-aircraft rocket launcher capable of blowing a passenger jet out of the sky, Daily Mirror reported on Thursday. PTI Pakistan shuts down 254 seminaries Islamabad: The Pakistani authorities have shut 254 suspected and unregistered religious madrassas across the country as part of a crackdown on religious seminaries involved in extremism. As many as 167 suspected seminaries in Sindh, 13 in Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa, two in Punjab, and 72 unregistered seminaries in Sindh have been closed, said Balighur Rehman Minister of State for Interior & Narcotics Control with the National Assembly. PTI Plea to block sale of F16s to Pakistan Washington: Former Republican presidential candidate Senator Rand Paul has introduced a joint resolution in the US Congress to block the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. The resolution also calls for prohibiting sale of other military hardware to Pakistan, including eight advanced integrated defensive electronic warfare suites, 14 joint helmet mounted cueing systems. PTI Czech Republic reports first two Zika cases PRAGUE: The Czech Republic has identified its first cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in two Czechs returning from separate trips to the Caribbean, Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek said on Thursday. The World Health Organisation warned on Wednesday that the Zika outbreak would likely worsen before any relief comes to the 34 countries besieged by the virus. Reuters Syria truce not binding, says Turkish PM Istanbul: Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday that Turkey would not be bound by the Syrian ceasefire plan if its security was threatened, and would take necessary measures against the Syrian Kurdish YPG and the Islamic State, if needed. reuters Washington, February 25 The US will step up its operations in the South China Sea (SCS) with greater complexity, a top US admiral has warned, drawing a sharp rebuke from China which is building military facilities on islands in the hotly disputed area. Well be doing them more and well be doing them with greater complexity in the future, Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, told US lawmakers on the growing friction in the SCS. Well fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, Harris, who is set to visit India next week, said. He said China was building military capabilities in the SCS leading to escalating tension in the region. In my opinion, China is clearly militarising the SCS, Harris, in a hearing on Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Youd have to believe in a flat earth to believe otherwise, he said. Chinas intent to militarise the SCS is as certain as a traffic jam in DC, Harris said in reference to congestion on the streets of Washington. In Beijing, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian said, I have noted Admiral Harris made his remarks while seeking extra defence budget funds from Congress. The US cant carelessly smear China while asking for more money. PTI Sydney, February 25 Australia will increase defence spending by nearly A$30 billion ($21.6 billion) over the next 10 years, seeking to protect its strategic and trade interests in the Asia-Pacific as the United States and its allies grapple with Chinas rising power. Defence spending will rise to A$195 billion, or 2 percent of GDP, by 2021-2022, as Australia buys new equipment including frigates, armoured personnel carriers, strike fighter jets, drones and submarines, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told an armed forces audience in Canberra on Thursday. The defence strategic plan was designed in mind of the changing nature of regional security, particularly Chinas economic and military rise and an increased U.S. focus on the Asia-Pacific, Turnbull said. The United States will remain the pre-eminent global military power over the next two decades, Turnbull said. It will continue to be Australias most important strategic partner through our long-standing alliance, and the active presence of the United States will continue to underpin the stability of our region. Tensions between China and its neighbors Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan over sovereignty in the South China Sea have risen after China embarked on significant reclamations on disputed islands and reefs in the area. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Defence Minister Marise Payne said Australia welcomed Chinas economic rise and noted it would seek greater influence in the region. As a major power, it will be important for regional stability that China provides reassurance to its neighbours by being more transparent about its defence policies, Payne said. The Government will seek to deepen and broaden our important defence relationship with China while recognising that our strategic interests may differ in relation to some regional and global security issues. Australia has urged China and claimants to refrain from island-building and militarization in the South China Sea in an effort to lower tensions. Riding two horses Analysts said the report illustrated the difficult balancing act Australia is engaged in. It is going to require very deft and delicate diplomacy from Australia to ride two horses simultaneously - have an ally in Washington and a friend in Beijing, said Professor James Curran, University of Sydney. I think they have got the balance just about right but in the future it is going to be hard to keep the U.S. happy as they increasingly expect more from their allies in the region. In addition to detailing the number of new submarines, Payne said Australia would commit to a continuous shipbuilding program starting with nine frigates and 12 offshore patrol vessels. The supplier of the submarines will determined later this year. Reuters reported earlier this month the competition for the A$50 billion ($36 billion) contract to build Australias next submarine fleet is narrowing to a race between Japan and France. China last week urged Australia to consider Japans wartime history and the feelings of other Asian nations when making its submarine decision. The size of the Australian military will increase to 62,400, the plan said, the highest since 1993. Australia will also purchase unmanned drones for the first time, improving its ability to protect maritime sovereignty and borders and provide support to troops. Cyber security investment will be boosted, Australia said, while also committing A$1.6 billion to funding projects to develop new weapons and technology. Reuters The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) and Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company (OG&E) are warning Oklahomans to be on guard against a sophisticated consumer scam that is targeting utility customers in Oklahoma and most likely in other states as well. The scam begins with a very realistic sounding phone call to a utility customer warning of an overdue payment. There is a call back number, and when that number is called, the consumer hears a greeting that is identical to the real greeting used by the utility company. In fact, it is probably the actual greeting used by the utility and recorded by the scammers for their use. The consumer is then put in touch with a customer service person, who will request a credit card number. OCC Public Utility Division director Brandy Wreath says the scammers are well versed in details regarding the utility. We spoke to these fake customer service reps as part of our investigation, Wreath said. They even knew the location of OG&E headquarters. The tip-off is that they will ask for the last four digits of your account number and for a credit card number. Real utilities already have your account number, and any initial contact regarding past due accounts is done by mail. The scam was uncovered as part of a regular audit the OCC Public Utility Division does of social media looking for signs of deceptive practices and consumer scams. Wreath says in this case it appears the scammers have moved on, apparently concerned over the attention given them by PUD investigators. The greeting on the number now is not the OG&E greeting but rather that of an out-of-state utility, said Wreath. But theres no doubt they may try again in Oklahoma using another utility name. WAGONER All Jimmie Hawkins wanted to do was return a 1968 U.S. Marine Corps yearbook to its rightful owner. That Marine was Donald C. Carrigan, who graduated from Broken Arrow High School in 1968. Carrigan may have been small in stature, according to Hawkins, but was big on wanting to serve his country. He enlisted in August 1968 and spent four years in the military that included seeing action in the Viet Nam war. It was Hawkins two daughters, Kathie Sue Hash and Sharon Hash, who came into possession of Carrigans yearbook chronicling everything from basic training to life in the barracks. Carrigan was partial to Sharon and kept in touch while in San Diego to earn his Marine insignia and later while in southeast Asia. Carrigan landed in California Marine depot. Loose photos tossed inside the yearbook showed Carrigan receiving his Purple Heart medal along with various military identification cards. What each girl thought of Carrigan is unknown as both have since passed on. Still, they cared enough to keep these tangible mementoes of Carrigans military life. Hawkins is a former Broken Arrow resident, now living in Wagoner. It was her quest to return the yearbook keepsake and the Ledger jumped in to help. Two things helped track Carrigans life almost five decades later: The Internets vast reach and a 2002 copy of the Broken Arrow High School Alumni Directory. The BAHS Alumni book proved invaluable for narrowing the search. Even with details on where Carrigan should be, the Internet spit out that he is living in Maine, Michigan or Florida. The Google search was partially right. He lived in Cocoa, Florida and worked at the Kennedy Space Center as a Mechanical Tech. But, Ancestry.com revealed Carrigan had died in June 2009 after battling cancer. I just wanted to get the book back to Don, said Hawkins after learning of his passing. He was such a good kid. Attempts to locate Carrigans children, Dana and Faith Ann, were unsuccessful. Carrigans wife, Erin, had died in 1990s and could not be used in the search, either. The story does have closure, however. One last hunch was to call the name underneath Carrigans in the BAHS Alumni Directory turned out to be Dons older brother Fred, who graduated in 1963. When told the Hawkins story over the telephone, Fred said from his Palm Bay, Florida, home, His daughter (Faith Ann) would love to have the yearbook. Arrangements were made to re-unite the yearbook, photos and ID cards with Faith Ann. Hawkins mission and mystery have now been solved. OKLAHOMA CITY Environmentalist and consumer advocate Erin Brockovich on Wednesday said Oklahoma residents are very concerned about the growing number of earthquakes and are demanding answers. They want action from their politicians, she said. Her comments were made at the Capitol during a news conference. As I said, I get a lot of emails, she said. We talk to many people. They have a lot fears. They have a lot frustration. They are not getting answers. They do worry that politics or something in the system prevents them from being heard. Wastewater disposal wells used in the oil and gas industry have been linked to the increasing number of earthquakes in the state. The issue is about clean water for everyone, she said. Brockovich said she has ties to Oklahoma. Her mother was born and raised in Ponca City, where she spent many summers as a child. She said she found herself returning to Oklahoma after people began contacting her through her website. It is very strange for me to be here, Brockovich said. I grew up in Kansas. I am used to tornado alley. I have lived in California for 20 years, and now I stand before you and say, Wow. Oklahoma. The earthquake capital of the world. And I live in California. That is just insanity. She said she does work and consult with those on the legal side, adding that there are many people with structural damage from earthquakes. They want some answers, she said. So we have come to provide forums and platforms where they can go and get information. They can become more aware. We encourage them all to get very actively involved in the process. Brockovich said she has been working on environmental and groundwater issues her entire career, spanning 22 years. The story about one of the cases she worked on involving contaminated drinking water in California was made into a 2000 movie, Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts. Rep. Richard Morrissette, D-Oklahoma City, organized Wednesdays news conference and spoke during the gathering. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, he said. This is a consumer protection issue. It involves the safety of the state and the quality of its environment, Morrissette said. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission is charged with regulating the oil and gas industry. It has required injection-well operations in areas hit by quakes to reduce volumes and depths of wastewater injections and in some cases stop operations altogether. Morrissette has announced he is running for one of three seats on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. It is clear to us they have not done enough, he said. Oklahoma had three flu deaths in the past week, the first fatalities of the season, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health. One death was in Tulsa County, and the other two were in Rogers and Harper counties. Flu activity started later and has been lower than the last three seasons, said Kaitlin Snider, spokeswoman with the Tulsa Health Department. We have seen it pick up and expect it to continue for the next couple of weeks. Authorities have recorded 204 flu-related hospitalizations across the state since the flu season began in October, and 160 of those hospitalizations were reported last week. Of the deaths, one person was between the ages of 50 and 64 and the other two were 65 or older, health authorities said. Last year more than 2,000 people across the state were hospitalized because of the flu, Snider said, and more than 120 people died as a result of the virus. The good news is, evidence shows that the vaccine is about 60 percent effective this year, Snider said. Thats much improved over last years, which was 23 percent effective. Even with a slow start to flu season, in part because of a mild winter and the effectiveness of the vaccine, there have been more than 40 flu-related hospitalizations in Tulsa County. The flu season can last as late as May, and those who have not received a vaccination are encouraged to do so. The Tulsa Health Department has vaccines available at all its locations. Flu symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Health officials also encourage those who are showing flu symptoms to stay home and avoid contact with others. By protecting yourself, youre also protecting others, Snider said. Youre not doing anyone any favors by showing up to school or the office, because the flu is highly contagious. Young children, older adults, pregnant women and those with certain long-term medical conditions are at greater risk of serious complications from the flu. There are going to be surprises at the Academy Awards on Sunday night, and I dont just mean what host Chris Rock is going to have to say on the subject of diversity. There are a few sure things at this years Oscars, and a skewering by the host is one of them. But heres a surprise: Any one of at least three movies could take home the biggest prize of all, that of best picture. That kind of suspense, going down to the last award of the night, could wreck more than a few peoples Oscar ballots (including my own winning record from recent years; my picks were 9-of-12 correct last year, 63-of-80 since 2006). Let the parlor game begin, starting with a few quick predictions for Oscar night: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu wins best director for the second consecutive year (Birdman) for The Revenant; best original screenplay goes to Spotlight, while best adapted screenplay is won by The Big Short. In addition, the people who made Inside Out feel joy at winning the best animated film prize; and Lady Gaga wins an Oscar, along with fellow songwriter Diane Warren, for best song nominee Til It Happens to You from the documentary The Hunting Ground. Now on to the big five awards. BEST PICTURE The Big Short Bridge of Spies Brooklyn Mad Max: Fury Road The Martian The Revenant Room Spotlight Should win: In what was an exceptional year for film, with dozens of superb films ranging from small indies to big studio films, Mad Max: Fury Road was one of the largest and one of the best. A reboot of a Mel Gibson action series from 30 years ago wasnt supposed to be this good, but director George Miller made an action movie that was artistic, smart and thoughtful. The men were tough, but Charlize Theron and the other women were their better in brains and brawn. The outrageous stunts recalled a time long before the computer-generated sameness of todays blockbusters. At a time when we groan about series reboots and remakes, Max was a one-of-a-kind spectacle that will influence films for years to come. Will win: Mad Max probably finishes fourth behind one of the three movies that have the best chance of winning. The Big Short is a socially conscious story of the U.S. housing collapse, and it won the Producers Guild Award, an important Oscar precursor. But its a comedy, and thats why I think it will fall just short because the Academy always slights comedies. Spotlight has the prestige factor as well, telling how the Boston Globe reporters broke the story of the Catholic Church protecting pedophile priests. The movie also won the Screen Actors Guilds ensemble award, that groups best-picture equivalent. The guilds are important because they include Oscar voters in their ranks. Spotlight is exceptional but also so restrained that its not the showy kind of film Oscar often embraces. The Revenant is that film, an epic story of one mans survival, a fathers love and an unforgettable bear attack. The filming conditions were a struggle; the natural-light-only look is gorgeous; it has a performance from DiCaprio that elevates everything. Oscar voters love these kinds of stories and backstories, and they will appreciate the films big box office. The Revenant wins but just bear-ly. BEST ACTOR Bryan Cranston, Trumbo Matt Damon, The Martian Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl Should win: Leonardo DiCaprio says maybe a dozen lines of dialogue in English. Much of his performance is silence but with plenty of grunts and groans thrown in to depict the pain that his bear-mauled frontiersman goes through in search of justice in a brutal Old West winter of the 1820s. His expressive eyes take us with him on that journey, and he is spellbinding. Its a career-defining performance. Will win: DiCaprio in one of the nights slam-dunk victories. The main competition here is likely Damon, who made The Martian one of the most entertaining movies of the year, or Cranston, whos beloved by his fellow actors. Redmayne won this category last year and isnt repeating, and Fassbender has been underappreciated for an exceptional performance. But the bottom line is that most feel DiCaprio deserves it for the performance, for the brutal conditions he acted in and for the fact that hes possibly been overlooked in previous nominations. BEST ACTRESS Cate Blanchett, Carol Brie Larson, Room Jennifer Lawrence, Joy Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn Should win: As the young Irish immigrant who finds herself wide-eyed in America and her heart pulled in two different directions, Saoirse Ronan is absolutely luminous in Brooklyn. Her heartfelt performance carries that film in an unforgettable way, with a demanding range of emotions. Will win: Brie Larson is as deserving as Ronan, starring as the young woman whos been held captive for years and who shows us an incredible story of great parenting as she protects her son born in that captivity. Once free, her characters emotions are just as challenging. Larson has won all of the pre-Oscar awards in this category, and she will repeat on Sunday. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Christian Bale, The Big Short Tom Hardy, The Revenant Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies Sylvester Stallone, Creed Should win: Stallone was great as Rocky, Rylance was a delight if a bit cutesy as the Russian spy, Hardy was a believably greedy frontier cretin and Bale was phenomenal in one of those curious-character roles with which he excels as the socially awkward Wall Street nerd. But Mark Ruffalo was the heart of that Spotlight investigative team, the scruffy reporter determined to tell the stories of young people victimized by priests because those stories are his way of finding them some sense of justice. A restrained but powerful performance. Will win: In his seventh performance as Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone is likely to take home his first Oscar. This is one of the most unpredictable categories in Oscars history, and someone else could take home the title, but the sentiment seems to be shifting into Slys corner in that We love the guy, and he deserves it kind of way. Oscar voters are nothing if not sentimental. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight Rachel McAdams, Spotlight Rooney Mara, Carol Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs Should win: I think it should be Alicia Vikander but for her role as the mysterious robotic vision of artificial intelligence in the sci-fi film Ex Machina. Stunning. But this years It Girl was also exceptional in The Danish Girl, giving such soul to her character as the wife watching her husbands transgender decision become reality. Eddie Redmayne had the more showy role, but Vikanders was more challenging reacting to that decision, and she displayed strength and vulnerability in equal measure. Stunning again. Will win: Vikander has seemingly taken the lead here and should hear her name called. Mara is a possibility; she was exceptional in Carol, in which the story is told through her characters perspective, but she may not win because many believe she was nominated in the wrong category. OKLAHOMA CITY A Senate panel on Wednesday passed a measure cracking down on what is called revenge porn. Revenge pornography generally describes the act of sharing images that are sexual in nature, taken during a private encounter and later distributed without the permission of the subject with the intent to cause embarrassment or humiliation. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed Senate Bill 1257, by Sen. David Holt, R-Oklahoma City, by a vote of 37-1. It heads to the full Senate for consideration. Non-consensual pornography is a destructive act that especially targets women, and it should be a crime, Holt said. Our statutes often dont contemplate modern life, and this is one of those situations. I am grateful that so far my colleagues agree. The bill was requested by domestic violence organizations, Holt said. The measure makes the first offense a misdemeanor. A second offense is a felony with a term of not less than one year in prison, a fine of not more than $25,000 or both. The effective date would be Nov. 1. The measure has exceptions for criminal investigations, reporting unlawful conduct and for images that involve voluntary exposure in public or commercial settings. The measure applies to people who are at least 18 years old. Minors cant consent to participate in pornography, said Sen. A.J. Griffin, R-Guthrie. Any such transmission involving a minor is considered child pornography, she said. The juvenile code has provisions that cover transmission between minors, she said. Real ID Act compliance: The Senate Appropriations Committee passed Senate Bill 1362, also by Holt, which would bring the state into compliance with the federal Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law created minimum standards for state-issued drivers licenses in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in which the perpetrators used fake documents. In 2007, Oklahoma lawmakers passed a law saying the state would not comply with the measure, largely due to privacy concerns. Failure to comply would mean residents by Jan. 22, 2018, would have to use an alternative form of identification to board commercial jets, such as a passport. The Senate measure would allow people who have concerns about Real ID to seek a drivers license that is non-compliant. Relationship, community, rigor and joy. Those are the new core values the faculty at one of Tulsas toughest inner-city schools celebrated during a special event Wednesday. This is a team of teachers who have come together to say, We are going to make an incredible difference for your children, Superintendent Deborah Gist told parents during an assembly at McClure Elementary School. This was a moment that needed to happen. Located at 1770 E. 61st St., McClure has struggled with low student achievement and serious hiring challenges for years. Then in January 2013, a quadruple-homicide in the neighborhood rocked the entire area and sparked a public discussion about how to improve life for residents of the 61st Street and Peoria Avenue area, or P61. So in the summer of 2014, McClure Principal Katy Jimenez was asked to build a team of teachers from scratch. She kept 10 teachers and hired nearly 30 new ones, but that first year, teacher turnover continued at a devastating pace. I was pretty much in survival mode, Jimenez said. When you go to teacher school, they dont teach you how to be a teacher at McClure. What happened Wednesday was a public declaration of the firmer footing on which McClures faculty has found itself this year. Teachers donned T-shirts with those new core values emblazoned on the back and invited Gist to join them for the event. Three staff members teachers assistant Troy Arnold, sixth-grade teacher Branden Carr and P.E. teacher Mike McShane wrote a rap song called Dream Builders to communicate to students and their families the schools new vision for itself and its hard-knocks community. More than 60 parents turned out for an after-lunch assembly with a choir singing and a three-minute, whole-school dance party. All of that was to get everyone pumped up and ready to hear and chant along to Dream Builders. I got big dreams, doin big things. Graduation! Showin up for class, stayin on task. Education! Always on the grind, greatness on my mind. Dedication! Futures lookin bright, happy life. Thats my motivation! went the chorus. Yes, two teachers were taken from McClure and reassigned to other Tulsa schools shortly after the beginning of the academic year, and three others had resigned or retired by winter break. But Jimenez said McClure finally has a faculty that is functioning as a real team, committed to educating its mostly at-risk student population. And she says it is transforming the culture of McClure. When those teachers left, it wasnt devastating. I wasnt panicked. It could have gone poorly at any moment, but the attitude of the team isnt Its not my job. Last year, I would be on the phone for an hour trying to get a sub, but now, my team is just like, Ive got it, Jimenez said. Arnold, a teachers assistant in a kindergarten class, said the idea for the Dream Builders rap and assembly originated from the faculty and staffs desire to communicate their motives and commitment to McClure students and families. Were building and cultivating our core values together with hard work, vision, teamwork and lots of joy, Arnold said. Our goal is to build dreams and empower people to fulfill them. Were a community of Dream Builders. Parents said they like the message and they hope the progress continues. Waylon Johnson, whose second-grade stepdaughter, Brooklyn Hicks, has attended McClure for three years, said he and his wife have noticed a significant improvement since 2014-15. Its exciting, he said. There are more activities and encouraging things for the kids and more of a positive and happy environment. Telly Freeling said her fifth-grade son, Travon Freeling, has had an OK year so far. I think this is a positive thing for our students, but I want to make sure this is not it you know, you have this to pump us up and then go right back down the drain, with things going on in this community and this school, she said. Hopefully, this is a good start and they keep up the momentum and move forward in the way they should for our children. BY THOMAS PYLE The U.S. Supreme Court recently did all Oklahomans a favor: putting a temporary hold on the Environmental Protection Agencys sweeping new carbon regulation. With a final ruling not expected until at least 2017, any continued work by Oklahoma agencies on implementation plans risks wasting millions of taxpayer dollars and its why they should halt work on it immediately. First, some background. The EPAs carbon rule would fundamentally restructure the nations power gridand force every American to pay for it. It requires states to cut emissions from power plants by varying amounts. Oklahoma is required to cuts emissions by 32 percent by 2030. About the only way to accomplish such dramatic cuts would be to shutdown affordable energy sources that Oklahomans have already bought and paid for. Their replacements would largely come from wind and solar, which can be up to three times more expensive than traditional sources already in use. Those higher costs will be passed on to Oklahoma families in the form of higher energy bills. Economists At NERA Economic Consulting estimate it will increase annual electricity rates by up to 30 percent from 2022 to at least 2033. That will amount to hundreds of dollars per year for families who are already living paycheck to paycheck expenses they cannot afford. Those higher energy prices will hit employers, too, driving up the cost of doing business. Thats especially true for manufacturers, which require abundant energy usage. Combined with other new carbon regulations, the Heritage Foundation estimates this will cost up to 6,500 manufacturing jobs in Oklahoma alone. These crushing costs are part of the reason why 29 states -- including Oklahoma joined a federal lawsuit against the regulation. The other is that it is an unprecedented federal overreach into states rights. This bipartisan coalition is backed by liberal Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe President Barack Obamas own law school professor who argues that it amounts to : "burning the Constitution." This is where the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in. In temporarily halting the regulation until this lawsuit is resolved, the court ruled that moving forward with its implementation could irreparably harm the states, and that they have a likelihood of succeeding in federal court. This is an extremely rare move that speaks volumes to the regulations shaky legal ground. So, what does that mean for Oklahoma? Testifying before Congress after the stay was issued, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy made it clear: "Nothing is going to be implemented while the stay is in place. It is clearly on hold until it resolves itself through the courts." In other words, there will likely be no further action on this regulation until at least 2017, which is the earliest the Supreme Court could make its final ruling. And even with Justice Antonin Scalias recent passing which many EPA supporters say improves their chances before the Court the future of the regulation remains in jeopardy, as evidenced by the bipartisan legal opposition to it. Therefore, during that time, it simply makes no sense for Oklahoma state authorities including air and environmental quality boards, public utility commissions, and individual utilities to proceed with implementation plans. Doing so risks wasting millions of taxpayer dollars if the regulation is ultimately ruled illegal, which as the stay suggests, is likely. President Barack Obama has spent much of his eight years in office passing regulations that push constitutional boundaries. Now the Supreme Court has put a check on his authority, with a more decisive ruling to come next year. Oklahoma state officials should heed the Courts warning and move to minimize any loss to taxpayers between now and then. Thomas J. Pyle is the president of the American Energy Alliance. During the 2015 session, House Bill 1566 was passed with the strong support of the Oklahoma Legislature. This law directed the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to solicit a request for proposals for different care coordination models to serve Oklahomas aged, blind or disabled population. The current fee-for-service Medicaid model costs the state of Oklahoma $2.4 billion a year, and nearly everyone agrees that is unsustainable. In that cost, the aged, blind and disabled population accounts for 47 percent of spending, but they only represent 16 percent of Medicaid patients. In this time of budget instability and a historic deficit, we as legislators must take on the difficult task of looking at all ways possible to be fiscally responsible. The time is now for us to move Oklahoma forward by better managing the health of this fragile population, while also improving health outcomes. The most recent rankings showing Oklahoma now 50th in health care outcomes, we respectfully suggest the time has come to address this critical issue and change the direction and future sustainability of health care in Oklahoma Immediately after the legislative session last year the healthcare authority requested information on best practices and solutions to improve health outcomes and budget stability for the aged, blind and disabled population. More than 20 proposals were written and meticulously discussed with the public. We want to compliment the healthcare authority on creating an extensive and transparent process. The authority hosted numerous public meetings throughout the state over a six-month-period, inviting stakeholders, providers, advocacy groups and members. All meetings were webcasted live, were interactive, and then posted to the authoritys website. From these meetings, 19 parameters of care were determined by the participants that would be vital to the improvement of care for this fragile population. Those parameters were measured against the proposals received by the Legislature, and capitated managed care was selected as the best model, meeting 18 of 19 measurements. The success of managed care derives from improving the health of the Medicaid population; the healthier the population, the healthier the overall program. Savings are achieved, for example, when Oklahomans dont utilize the emergency room for conditions that can be efficiently and effectively treated by a primary care physician. Managed care organizations are held to rigid quality standards, improve health care access through stable provider networks, and help to remove social barriers to health by linking Oklahomans to critical services like shelter, clothing, food and transportation. Texas saved $3.8 billion from 2010 to 2015, with an additional projected savings of $3.3 billion through 2018 with a similar process. Contracts required that certified rural hospital reimbursements could not be lower than fee for service. Also, a pool was established to help sustain hospitals for uncompensated care. Since Texas moved to managed care they have reduced hospitalization admissions for diabetes by 33 percent, urinary tract infection rates decreased 31 percent, and bacterial pneumonia by 19 percent. In Florida, Medicaid reform included a reimbursement mechanism to ensure providers would not be paid less than in the old Medicaid system. Access to primary care has increased by 10 percent and hospital rates have remained stable. There also has been great utilization of high quality, lower cost services, such as ambulatory surgical centers. Florida has not seen any hospitals close because of Medicaid reform. Floridas pilot program was so successful that the state decided to roll out its program statewide. Given these facts, we must move forward with the healthcare authoritys request for proposal process. Our budget demands strong leadership. This move has the potential to save hundreds of millions of dollars over the next five years, while also improving health care outcomes for Oklahomans. Glen Mulready, a Republican, is a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from Tulsa. Kim David, a Republican, is a member of the Oklahoma Senate from Porter. One of the candidates for Chairman in the People's National Movement's internal election says there is a major detachment between those in office and people at the grass root level. Kenneth Butcher says things need to change from the inside. Much-anticipated UK drama The Night Manager begins on BBC First in March. The 6 part drama is described as a contemporary interpretation of John le Carres best-selling novel of the same name. The stellar cast features Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, Elizabeth Debicki, Russell Tovey, Alistair Petrie, Douglas Hodge, David Harewood, Katherine Kelly, Tobias Menzies and Neil Morissey. Tim Christlieb, Director of Channels BBC Worldwide ANZ, said: I am incredibly excited to be bringing this big-budget, super slick spy thriller to BBC First viewers. Its real edge-of-the-seat stuff with some gripping performances from an all-star cast. Starring BAFTA-winning Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers), multiple Emmy nominee Hugh Laurie (House), Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby) and Olivia Coleman (Broadchurch) the six-part drama is a contemporary interpretation of le Carres 1993 novel and the first television adaptation of a John le Carre novel in more than 20 years. The Night Manager brings together love, loss and revenge in a complex story of modern criminality. The series follows former British soldier Jonathan Pine (Hiddleston) who is recruited by an intelligence operative named Burr (Colman) to navigate the shadowy recesses of Whitehall and Washington where an unholy alliance operates between the intelligence community and the secret arms trade. To infiltrate the inner circle of lethal arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper (Laurie), which includes girlfriend Jed (Debicki), Pine must himself become a criminal. The Night Manager is one of le Carres most beloved and critically acclaimed books. A fusion of spy story and tale of organised crime, the novel was a bestseller in the United States and the UK, translated into over 20 languages and has sold over a million copies in North America alone. 8.30pm from Sunday March 20 on BBC First. On the day that Peter Costello is announced as Chairman at Nine the TCN studios have been hit by a big power blackout. It comes just days after the lights flickered during Peter Overtons 6pm News earlier this week (it was a sign). As a result Nine has been unable to broadcast is 3pm Nine News Now, substituting with a replay of The Farmer Wants a Wife. The 4pm News will be broadcast from QTQ Brisbane. Power is expected to be restored in time for the 6pm News, possibly with a former treasurer pedalling madly in the background. Home and Aways Johnny Ruffo has been disqualified from driving and fined more than $3000 for a string of offences, after driving while his licence was cancelled. Ruffo, 27, pleaded guilty in January to driving an Audi along George Street in Sydney in September. The uninsured vehicles registration had expired the previous year, while Ruffos licence was cancelled in January. He had previously accrued 13 speeding tickets before his licence was suspended for driving between 30 and 45 km/h over the limit. Last March he was placed on a six-month good behaviour bond for driving while his licence was cancelled. In Downing Centre Local Court today Ruffos lawyer Nic Angelov said Ruffo now understood the responsibilities of driving and would sell the car after it was registered. Source: Yahoo Compass returns for its 2016 season on Sunday with Pope Francis the Sinner. Despite the provocative title, it is the Pope who calls himself a sinner and this 2-part episode looks at the contradictions of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. And one bonus. you dont need to travel to Rome to see it. How did the man who was loved and loathed by his fellow Jesuits back in Argentina become Pope? And can he hold the Roman Catholic Church together and reform it at the same time? In this two-part series, we look at the life of Pope Francis the Sinner. In just two years Pope Francis has put Roman Catholicism back on the map as a faith that has something to offer a troubled world. Hes beginning to revolutionise a church that was in crisis and losing its way. Pope Francis simplicity, down to earth style and concern for those on the margins, has roused affection from believers and non believers alike. But he wasnt always as popular as he is today. This documentary looks at the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio and what shaped him into the Pope he is today. Hearing from Argentinean Jesuits who lived with him, the programme explores his reputation as a hard-line authoritarian Provincial who divided the Jesuits. Friends, contemporaries and students of Fr. Bergoglio give their first hand experience of the man they knew, and categorically deny his complicity in Argentinas Dirty War. Behind the simple exterior hides a man of deep complexity and a Jesuit through and through. But can Pope Francis do what Bergoglio, the Jesuit Provincial couldnt do hold the differences in the Church together and reform it at the same time? Signs are that hes making a good stab at it and hes doing so not despite his failings but because of them. 6:30pm Sunday on ABC. Get ready for the outrage that will follow when Seven Year Switch begins soon on Seven. As first revealed by TV Tonight, the show sees 4 troubled couples changing partners in a social experiment, living together for a month with no rules. There are two experts also participating with relationship advice. Sevens Director of Production Brad Lyons has described the format as extremely controversial and radical and Director of Programming Angus Ross has acknowledged, We think it will be pretty noisy. But as the Habibs reminds us, controversy is also good for a programme launch. So the promo happily plays up the outrage from US websites, after it aired on the FYI Network. Seven may not have long to wait, with a petition to stop the show from airing is already underway at change.org, so far with just 166 signatures. Those are the kinds of words that light up a journalists and publicists eyes. Due in Q2 (if not sooner) there is still time for media, networks and assorted objectors to play out the next tug of war .on a show where everyone is a willing participant and consenting adult. Just when you thought Seven was all done with Molly Meldrum wait theres more. On Sunday Night Melissa Doyle sits down with the guru to hear his thoughts on all of Sevens own productions, and an update on his health. Also yarns on Mad Max and a miracle birth during road trauma. The Miracle Baby A stolen car tears through the near-empty streets of a city asleep. Its just after midnight. Across town, a young mum clips her sleepy toddler into a safety seat as her partner slides in the passenger side and braces for his overnight shift at a city bakery. Daniel Stirling, the love of his life Sarah Paino and his adored son Jordan set off on the short trip to work. An earlier ride failed to show. Sarah and Jordan shouldve been asleep in bed. The stolen car, with four young teenagers on board, roars on through the night as Sarah pulls up at Banjos bakery near Hobarts city waterfront, kisses Daniel goodbye and heads off. Perhaps, if that kiss had lingered a second longer, Sarah might still be alive. Instead, minutes later as she heads home, the stolen car spears into her car with such velocity it throws it to the other side of a four-lane road. Incredibly, little Jordan is fine. Sarah, though, is horrifically injured. When paramedics arrive they see her broken body and then her belly. She is seven-months pregnant. This is a story of what ifs and maybes, minutes and seconds, the arbitrary hand of fate and the superhuman effort to save a little unborn child as life drained from his mother. More than 1000 Australians will likely die on our roads this year, each a dreadful tragedy for families and friends. But this crash struck a chord across the nation. This was somehow different. A family making simple, everyday decisions we all make cast into harms way. And amid the heartbreak, a miracle. Sunday Nights Melissa Doyle tells this extraordinary story. Mad World As one of our more passionate Mad Max fans declares, in full character, leather kit, mohawk and with the sort of fervour that would melt your most devout Trekkie or Star Wars devotee: You can run but you cant hide! Come Monday morning, Australian time, Mad Max: Fury Road will be the worldwide buzz as Aussie director George Miller and his creative team line up for a possible haul of 10 Academy Awards. Yelling their ear-splitting support from all corners of the world will be the fanatical diaspora of Mad Maxers, who once a year converge on a remote corner of the Californian desert to live and breathe their fantasies in a place called Wasteland. They strive for authenticity and theyre judged on their passion as they ride their millimetre-perfect recreations of the cars, trucks bikes and all-round weird wheels of Mad Maxs post-apocalyptic world. It is an awesome sight to behold. Sunday Nights Alex Cullen braves The Thunderdome and a hoard of some of the wildest movie buffs ever for an amazing journey into a fervent subculture. As Lord Humungus declares through his steel plate mask: This is going to be EPIC! Mel and Molly First there was the blockbuster mini-series Molly. Then the enthralling The Real Thing, a documentary tribute to his considerable talent and musical influence, featuring a cavalcade of famous friends and more than a few secrets. Now, its time for the man himself to speak. Ian Molly Meldrum sits down with Sunday Nights Melissa Doyle to reflect on some of the big revelations brought to light in Sevens series of bumper productions. What transpires is Mollys most candid interview ever as he discusses booze, his sexuality, gay marriage and his efforts to recover from two debilitating falls. At 73, the wild mans mellowed ever so slightly. And while he plans to be around for some time to come, he reveals he has selected the song he wants played at his funeral. Wonder what that could be? 8:30pm Sunday on Seven 1:57 p.m., Feb. 25, 2016--Kathy Langan Pusecker, director of the Office of Educational Assessment, has been named interim director of the Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning (CTAL) at the University of Delaware, Lynn Okagaki, deputy provost for academic affairs, announced today. As interim director of the Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning, Pusecker succeeds Deborah Allen, professor of biological sciences, who has become the director of the Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education (ITUE). Pusecker has successfully supported teaching and assessment of student learning at UD since 2005. Most notably, she contributed to UDs successful Middle States Commission on Higher Education reaccreditation efforts. Through CTAL, Pusecker has employed her research and expertise on student learning outcomes to support the UD Faculty Senates creation of new General Education purposes and objectives. I am honored to serve in this position, and I along with my CTAL colleagues look forward to serving UD to ensure that we achieve our strategic goal to create a learner-centered university," said Pusecker. About CTAL The Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning provides a wide range of programming to the UD community to foster high quality teaching, learning and assessment practices. CTAL endeavors to infuse evidence-based practices into instruction by offering free and confidential services to help all members of UDs teaching community enhance the teaching, learning and assessment processes. Services include instructional and travel grants to support curriculum development and assessment projects, as well as presentations, workshops and roundtable discussions. About Kathy Langan Pusecker Pusecker has served as the director of the Office of Educational Assessment at UD since 2010, and collaborates with faculty members to improve teaching. She also has been an evaluator on grants for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Science Foundation, and serves as a member of the Faculty Senate General Education Committee. Pusecker assists the University in addressing the Middle States Commission on Higher Education accreditation standards related to the assessment of general education and student learning, and helps to select and develop tools and oversee their implementation and the analysis and reporting of data. At the national level, Pusecker collaborates with the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) and was on the first team to create the valid assessment of undergraduate education VALUE rubrics to assess general education goals. She chairs the general education committee of the Philadelphia Higher Education Assessment Leaders and serves on the groups assessment advocacy group. Pusecker earned her bachelors degree in psychology and special education from St. Thomas Aquinas College and a masters degree in business management from St. Marys College. 1:11 p.m., Feb. 25, 2016--The Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN) invites science, engineering and social science doctoral students at the University of Delaware to apply for the DENIN Environmental Fellows Program. The 2016 fellowships begin in September and will provide two years of support for up to five students to conduct environmentally relevant research that shows a direct link with societal needs and benefits. The DENIN Fellows are an inspiring group of future leaders and agents of change, said Jeanette Miller, associate director of DENIN. We are excited to select a new group in 2016. DENIN Fellows work together in ways that complement their primary academic programs. Fellows are expected to participate in and lead a select number of events and activities each year, such as symposia or seminar series. DENIN will provide opportunities for professional development and networking with domestic and international scientists and leaders. Becoming a DENIN Fellow has broadened my horizons to the academic resources at UD and within DENIN, said Corie Charpentier, a student in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, who was one of four fellows selected in 2015. For instance, participating in last falls DENIN Dialogue with Fabio Feldmann was much different than any professional event that I have experienced in graduate school thus far. Feldmann, a United Nations Global 500 awardee and a leader in environmental policy from Brazil, visited campus last October for an onstage interview at Mitchell Hall as part of the DENIN Dialogue speaker series. In addition to the public talk, the DENIN Fellows were invited to a small group discussion with Feldmann and his interviewer, Dan Parke, a UD alumnus who now is the director general of Agencia Estado, Latin Americas largest real-time news agency. I was given the opportunity to participate in an in-depth, environmentally relevant discussion with international politicians, journalists and scientists, Charpentier said. What could be more enlightening to a budding environmental scientist? The fellowships include a $30,000 annual stipend. A cost-of-education allowance is also permitted; applicants may request up to $6,680 per year to be used for tuition, research supplies or research-related trips. Charpentier is looking forward to attending two international conferences this year herself. DENIN will allow me to share my work as well as network with scientists in my field, she said. Any chance to travel and meet new people can open doors to new research or career opportunities. Fellows will be selected by a committee of internal and external reviewers. Applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. on April 11. For complete application instructions, visit the DENIN Environmental Fellows webpage. Questions about the fellowships should be directed to Miller at jeanette@udel.edu. The 2016 DENIN Environmental Fellows Program is supported by Delawares National Science Foundation EPSCoR grant, the Unidel Foundation and private philanthropy. Article by Tom Aristone Photo courtesy of Corie Charpentier An all-woman team conducted final assessment surveys and participated in community outreach as part of the latest Engineers Without Borders trip to the Philippines. An all-woman team conducted final assessment surveys and participated in community outreach as part of the latest Engineers Without Borders trip to the Philippines. An all-woman team conducted final assessment surveys and participated in community outreach as part of the latest Engineers Without Borders trip to the Philippines. An all-woman team conducted final assessment surveys and participated in community outreach as part of the latest Engineers Without Borders trip to the Philippines. 9:22 a.m., Feb. 25, 2016--Sarah Hartman, a junior environmental engineering major and member of an all-woman University of Delaware Engineers Without Borders (EWB-UD) team that recently visited the small village of Ubujan in the Philippines, said the program gives her education a deeper meaning. I am not just learning for myself, but I am learning for the almost 1,200 people of Ubujan for whom my education will mean a better life, said Hartman, an Honors Program student. The team, which included students Hartman, Melissa Landman, Jessica Fedetz and Lia Dawson, faculty adviser Kim Bothi of the Institute for Global Studies and UD alumna and professional engineer Carrie DeSimone, traveled to the Philippines in late January to complete the chapters second assessment trip for a potable water and sanitation project in Ubujan. During their time abroad, the group conducted water tests and focused on elevation surveying, observing sanitation practices, and initiating educational programs throughout the community. This final assessment phase will allow a larger group of UD students, faculty members and professional engineers to design a sustainable solution to the communitys water needs. Landman, a junior mechanical engineering major, was most affected by the local Water Councils commitment to seeing the project through. The Water Council was established at the start of the project to ensure longevity and sustainability of whatever we implement with the community in the future, she said, adding that members helped with the surveying and water testing, and took copious notes so that they could continue testing once the UD group had returned home. Beyond finishing essential testing needed to move on to the implementation phase of the project, the women also helped to alter the local communitys perception of engineers. We learned rather quickly that the perception that engineering is a mans job is not solely American, said Landman. The group addressed the community in several public forums, including fifth and sixth grade classes at the local elementary school. There, each member introduced herself and described what she was studying in college. When I said I was a mechanical engineering student, and that my discipline encompasses designing cars, bikes and planes, the students looked at me in awe, said Landman. When we asked the students what they wanted to be when they grew up, a few of the girls shouted I want to be an engineer! This, she said, was a profound and unforgettable moment. Throughout the trip, the student team members looked to their mentors, Bothi and DeSimone. It is inspiring to be surrounded by Kim and Carrie because they have both fearlessly used their passions to help the world, said Hartman. This spring, a group of EWB-UD members will perform alternative analyses, research a number of plausible solutions, and present these to the community for a final discussion on how Ubujan will finally receive a steady source of potable water. Through this process, students will be mentored by UD faculty members and local professional engineers, while also coordinating with the Ubujan Water Council and experts from the region. The first implementation team will likely travel to the Philippines this summer to begin the first phase of a water supply system. In order to do this, EWB-UD must raise approximately $40,000. At the same time, the chapter is actively preparing to implement a potable water solution in Mphero, a village in Malawi, with plans to move into the first phase of construction there by this summer. To raise funds for both projects, the chapter will host its annual benefit dinner on April 22, from 6:30-9:30 p.m., in the atrium of the Harker Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory. There, guests will have the opportunity to enjoy dinner while meeting members of the Philippines and Malawi EWB-UD teams. Each will present an in-depth update on the progress of their respective projects. For more information on UDs Engineers Without Borders chapter or for complete details on the annual benefit dinner, visit the chapters website or follow it on Facebook and Twitter. Those with questions are welcome to contact co-advisers Kim Bothi and Abigail Clarke-Sather. About Engineers Without Borders Engineers Without Borders-USA is a non-profit, humanitarian organization of dedicated and enthusiastic students and professionals who believe everyone should have access to adequate sanitation, safe drinking water and resources to meet their basic needs. The University of Delaware chapter works closely with an international community and professional engineers to identify a local challenge, and then develop and implement a sustainable solution. Since the organization started in 2006, UD teams have completed a potable water supply project in Cameroon and a bridge construction project in Guatemala. The chapters current community partnerships are in Malawi and the Philippines. EWB-UD actively seeks students from all academic backgrounds for its projects. Students from any academic discipline who are interested in becoming a part of the chapter are encouraged to attend a weekly meeting, held Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. in 217 Gore Hall. Article by Nikki Laws Photos courtesy of Kim Bothi and Sarah Hartman Goalkeeper: Jeroen Zoet (PSV) PSV's standout performer frustrated Atletico several times and often took pressure off his defence with important catches from set pieces, also producing a fine one-on-one stop from Antoine Griezmann. Defender: Diego Godin (Atletico) Playing his part in restricting the PSV attack to rare forays, the Uruguayan international had the home side largely in check with a characteristically composed, assured display. Defender: Javier Mascherano (Barcelona) Kept the Arsenal forward line quiet, compensating for what he lacks in speed with razor-sharp anticipation to snuff out the threat. Defender: Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal) Nobody ever has an easy night up against Neymar, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi, but the France defender showed courage with and without the ball. Defender: Jeffrey Bruma (PSV) Made a stunning clearance off the line in the fourth minute to deny Luciano Vietto an opening goal and was a rock at the back for the home team throughout. Midfielder: David Silva (Manchester City) The City playmaker looked menacing all evening in Kyiv and had a hand in all three goals, converting one himself to cap off a fine team move. Midfielder: Andres Iniesta (Barcelona) Pulled the strings for his side and covered plenty of ground too, as Arsenal who so often dominate the ball were limited to 35% possession. Midfielder: Arjen Robben (Bayern) The Dutchman was at his lively best in Turin, giving Patrice Evra a testing night as he fired in four shots including a trademark dribble and curling shot for Bayern's second goal. Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona) Ended his six-game run of failing to score past Petr Cech with a cool finish, before calmly slotting from the penalty spot to leave his club in command of the tie. Forward: Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) The forward registered the all-important opening goal with a fine strike and his pace and movement caused the Dynamo Kyiv defence problems throughout. Forward: Paulo Dybala (Juventus) The Argentinian has had a productive first Juve season in Serie A but drew a blank in his first six UEFA Champions League outings; he put that right with a confident finish to revive the Bianconeri challenge. Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it. I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends. More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it. The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity. About me: I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS. Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line). Age: 42 Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed. I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it). Today is the ninetieth day since Ukraine hasnt imported any Russian natural gas. The public relations and the press department of Ukrtransgaz PJSC reports on its site. "Today the 90th day as Ukraine has not imported any Russian gas for its needs," a statement said. During this 90-day period, Ukrainian domestic consumers bought 2.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas for their needs from Europe. As of today, the daily import of natural gas from the EU countries reaches 43 million cubic meters. Since the beginning of this month the volume of natural gas imports has totaled 0.8 billion cubic meters. Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk has instructed the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine and the Culture Ministry of Ukraine to take international legal action as the historic house, which prominent Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko lived in, was demolished in Russia. The corresponding instruction was given at the Cabinets meeting on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "I ask the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine and the Culture Ministry of Ukraine to send a note to the Russian Foreign Ministry and to inform UNESCO and other international organizations about destruction of the cultural site. It is unacceptable. Our international partners already know how the face of Russia looks like, and here we have another proof," Yatsenyuk noted. Earlier, Culture Minister of Ukraine Vyacheslav Kyrylenko informed that the house, which Taras Shevchenko had lived in when he had been in exile, had been demolished in the Russian city of Orenburg. ol Anelosimus eximius is a species of spider that is also known as social spider because it socializes with its fellow spiders and builds colossal spider webs that have the potential of reaching up to 25 feet (7.6m) in height and 5ft (1.5m) in width. According to the Journal of Arachnology, this Brazilian spider species is a very cooperative and group-living spider. Social spiders in their spider webs Among the thousands of species of spiders (40,000 arachnids), there are only about 23 species that live in social groups. Anelosimus eximius is most commonly found in South American countries from Panama to Argentina. The massive spider webs that are created by these spiders can contain spiders in excess of 50,000 with females outnumbering men 10 to 1. Below picture illustrates what we mean when we say that these species create massive spider webs A. eximius was first discovered more than a century ago by a French arachnologist named Eugene Simon. An interesting advantage that these social spiders acquire by building giant webs is that they can capture prey which can be much larger in size than what a solitary spider would have been able to catch. These communal spiders work together to build, maintain and clean their webs. Sometimes, as many as 40 colonies can be found within a distance of 1 km. To put that into perspective, check out the below image In the below picture, a colonized spider web was discovered in a North Texas park in 2007. The people in the below picture-Mike McCord, left, and Freddie Gowin- the Lake Tawokoni State Park rangers, monitor a giant communal spider web at the park. Researchers predict that the two major factors that might have led to spiders setting up communities are: Heavy rain- The areas inhabited by social spiders are prone to heavy rains so creating and maintaining mammoth webs is inevitable that leads to spiders living together Social spiders tend to feed on heavy prey which cannot be done alone, therefore, the need of being social comes into picture Advertisements In 2013 in Santo Antonio da Platina, Brazil, these spider webs housing large quantities of spiders were eradicated by strong winds that detached the webs from their anchors, thereby, carrying the spiders and their ruined home to new sites. This event led to a spider rain in which people in Santo Antonio da Platina observed spiders raining from the sky. Within the built colonies, roles are segregated for all the spiders-males and females alike. Some work as warriors-those who act as predators and attack the prey-while some work to clean and maintain the webs. Social spiders are likely to have evolved from subsocial ancestors via the subsocial route. It has been suggested that the transition from subsocial to social living requires a change in three behavioural traits: from premating dispersal(wherein juveniles are dispersed from the colonies before breeding) to postmating dispersal (wherein juveniles are dispersed from the colonies after breeding), from outbreeding to inbreeding mating system, and from maternal care to cooperative breeding. (1, 2, 3) UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi talks with a family of refugees from Syria at the port of Mytilene earlier this week. UNHCR/A. Zavallis ATHENS, Greece, Feb 25, 2016 - Border closures in the Balkans may create an enormous and potentially critical refugee bottleneck in Greece, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has warned. Grandi spent most of Wednesday (February 24) in Athens. meeting the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras and several of his ministers. The potential bottleneck, Grandi said, was a major topic of discussion. The UN High Commissioner for Reguees once again criticized the border closures and the inability of European countries to face the refugee crisis with generosity and unity. But he also said UNHCR and the Greek authorities must start planning for a situation where more than a few thousand people are stuck in Greece. "I hope that there will not be a huge refugee population," Grandi said. "But that part can be managed, working together with the government in a timely way, in a rapid way. And we are ready for that. That was my message to the Prime Minister and to his ministers. "But really we need to work on alternatives to that, we need to work on the restrictions, we need to work on relocation, we need to work especially on massive resettlement from Middle Eastern countries." He said he would go to Brussels to address the EU's Justice and Home Affairs Council on Thursday (February 25) to bring the message that Greece, which is facing deep economic difficulties, will need considerable added aid, along with urgent implementation of the relocation scheme, to deal with the refugee bottleneck. Afghan refugees stranded in Greece after Balkan countries close their borders to Afghan nationals. UNHCR/A. Zavallis As he spoke, the evidence of the bottleneck was in the streets. On Victoria Square in downtown Athens hundreds of people, many of them Afghan refugees, wandered about or sat on UNHCR blankets. Several of these people had traveled to the northern border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and been sent back by police. Sayed was one of them. He, his wife and three young children had got to Greece last week and gone to the northern border. They and other Afghans were herded into a makeshift camp and held. Only Syrians and Iraqis with passports were allowed through. Sayed, who is 30, helped draw up a petition of protest. It was refused and the Afghans were bussed back to Athens and left on the square at midnight. He and other men stood guard through the night to protect their families. "We took our lives in our hands," he said. "We demand not to go back (to Afghanistan) because we are in danger there. Please open the borders for us, so we can move forward. We came here to save our lives." The scope of the potential crisis was also evident in Elliniko, an abandoned stadium built for the 2004 Olympics. Hundreds of Afghans who had just arrived by ferry from the Greek islands were lining up to be admitted. Many knew the northern border was closed to them but none knew what they could do. Upstairs, in a corner, Massoume cried. She is a widow from Afghanistan who managed to get to Greece with her two sons who are 13 and 20. The older son needs medical attention. She had planned to join her married daughter in Germany. Now she cannot. "I am so alone here, I feel I am in a desperate situation," she said. "I tremble day and night. If the border doesn't open I don't know what will happen to me and my children." Those are individual consequences of closed borders. Grandi warned of broader consequences, of Europe backtracking, losing its vision, values and lessening its influence in the world. "The response," he said, "must be cooperation, not closures." By Don Murray, Athens Mamadou Salogo proudly shows his Ivorian passport and the letter that proves that he acquired Ivorian nationality. UNHCR/H. Caux ABIDJAN, Cote d'Ivoire, Feb 25 (UNHCR) - When Mamadou Salogo began work as a security agent at a delivery firm in Cote d'Ivoire, the only issues that his employers cared about were whether he could show up on time and do his job. But very quickly, the fact that he had no way to prove that he was eligible to live and work in his native Cote d'Ivoire made him the focus of taunts and hazing from his workmates that made keeping down the simple job impossible. "'How did you get this job? We don't know who you are. You're not even from here!'" Salogo recalls them saying, convinced that being stateless was the reason he was eventually asked to leave his post. The job loss was the last straw for Salogo, 59, who had experienced a lifetime of discrimination because he could not prove he was Ivorian. It began when he was forced to drop out of a school at a young age because he was not eligible for scholarships, which were reserved for nationals only. Like some 10 million people worldwide who cannot prove their nationality - thousands of whom live Cote d'Ivoire - he was frequently insulted because of his status, and treated like an intruder everywhere he went. "I suffered so much from being stateless. It's like I was a stranger in my own home. Statelessness is, at its most basic, a question of human dignity," he says, chatting at his home in Yopougon, a popular neighborhood in Abidjan, where he lives with his four wives and fourteen children. Statelessness, or not being considered a citizen of any country, has disastrous consequences: bereft of citizenship, stateless people cannot go to school, work, own land or access healthcare; they are forced to live in the shadows, vulnerable to exploitation and invisible in the eyes of the law. The circumstances that left Salogo stateless are common. He explains that his parents were originally from Haute-Cote d'Ivoire, in present-day Burkina Faso, and had settled in Cote d'Ivoire to work in the cocoa and coffee plantations. "Since neither had been registered at birth or had papers proving who their parents were, it never occurred to them to do so for me. So, like my parents, I had no national identity papers!" Many of Salogo's friends are in a similar situation. "Living in this country without a nationality was a real source of frustration. I had ambitions to become a high-level official but I could not even go to university because I was not recognized as Ivorian," explains Moussa Ouedraogo. Mamadou poses with his four wives and some of his 14 children in front of their house located in Abidjan's Yopougon neighbourhood. UNHCR/H. Caux During the post-electoral violence in Cote d'Ivoire in late 2010 that forced around 300,000 people into exile, life for Salogo became even more difficult. Without a nationality, he was automatically seen as suspicious and was identified as either allied with one of the warring parties, or as a foreigner trying to wreak havoc in the country. "It was hell, my family and I felt unsafe wherever we were," he recalls. Today marks of the first anniversary of the Abidjan Declaration, which was adopted by all West African States as a pledge to reduce and ultimately eradicate statelessness in the region. Significant progress has been made in the past year in reducing cases of statelessness - among them that of Salogo. His situation was finally resolved in June 2015, when his application to the program to acquire Ivorian nationality through declaration was accepted. He is among 6,400 Ivorians who have gained nationality certificates since April 2014, and now has the same rights as all other Ivorian citizens. "My life has changed a lot since then. People look at me differently, I feel like I'm finally on equal footing with others. I can go to work without fearing that I will be mocked. My children can now acquire Ivorian nationality as well, and go to school." In Cote d'Ivoire, for instance, UNHCR is supporting a government-led program that allows people born or residing in the country since the time of independence to acquire Ivorian nationality through a simple, non-discretionary method. In addition to the nationality certificates that have already been distributed, thousands more applications are still under review. "The Ivorian Government's program is an important first step in reducing statelessness but a lot more needs to be done," says Mohamed Askia Toure, UNHCR Representative in Cote d'Ivoire. "It should be extended indefinitely, as there are still thousands of people who do not have a nationality in Cote d'Ivoire and who need urgent protection and assistance". By Nora Sturm in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire A new study finds that a number of survivors of Ebola have brain symptoms that last long after other signs of Ebola have cleared away, Medical Xpress reports. The study is to be presented Wednesday at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada. "While an end to the outbreak has been declared, these survivors are still struggling with long-term problems," study author Dr. Lauren Bowen, from the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, said in an American Academy of Neurology news release. For the study, the research team checked the health of 82 Ebola survivors in Liberia, with an average age of 35 years. The study revealed that six months after they were first infected with the virus, most of the Ebola had some type of neurological issue. The researchers said that the common problems experienced by the survivors included weakness, headache, memory loss, depressed mood, muscle pain, tremors and abnormal eye movement. The study showed that about two-thirds of the participants had abnormalities in the way their eyes followed moving objects, one-third of the people had tremors, abnormal reflexes and other sensory abnormalites and 17 percent had irregular reflexes, according to Live Science. However, the researchers said there is not enough known about these problems to say which of them might be due to Ebola. "More than 28,600 people were infected with Ebola in West Africa during the outbreak. Of that number, 11,300 died. We wanted to find out more about possible continued long-term brain health problems for the more than 17,000 survivors of the infection," Bowen explained. "It is important for us to know how this virus may continue to affect the brain long term," she said. Three white San Jose State University were not convicted on hate crime charges for locking a bike lock around a black classmate's neck and referring to him with a Confederate-era epithet. According to NBC Bay Area, Colin Warren, 20; Logan Beaschler, 20; and Joseph "Brett" Bomgardner, 21, were convicted of misdemeanor battery, but the Santa Clara County Superior Court jury wound up deadlocked over the hate crime charge. They stood accused of repeatedly bullying Donald Williams Jr., 17 at the time, in 2013 because he is black and they are white. The defendants reportedly displayed a Confederate flag in their shared suite at SJSU and referred to him as "three-fifths" and "fraction," per the 18th Century U.S. Consensus that counted black individuals as not being a whole person. Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen acknowledged the bullying was racially charged, but did not rise to the level of being a hate crime. "This violence did not happen in a historical vacuum," he said in a statement. "This violent act was done to a young black college student by five white men, an injustice inflicted upon him because of the color of his skin." In the wake of Warren, Beaschler, and Bomgardner's arrests (a fourth person was charged as a minor), SJSU issued a public apology and established a task force to conduct a thorough review. A former judge named LaDoris Cordell headed the task force. "I am saddened that 12 jurors could not agree that calling a black male 'Three-fifths' or 'Fraction,' or forcing a lock around his neck, or creating an environment promoting racism with Confederate memorabilia, or hearing how this young man was humiliated, amounted to a hate crime," he told The San Jose Mercury News. "This verdict demonstrates that we are a long way from living in a post-racist America." The judge declared a mistrial on the hate crime charges, allowing for a new trial on those charges alone. The Williams family is also pursuing a lawsuit against the defendants. "All four students who engaged in these acts are no longer enrolled at SJSU," interim president Sue Martin said in a statement. "The victim and his family are pursuing civil remedies independent of the criminal actions. "Much work lies ahead as we seek to create a truly inclusive, welcoming and safe environment for every member of our community." As a public school in Texas, the University of Houston will have to adopt a concealed firearm carry policy and is already prepping for how to act around people who may or may not have a gun on their person. At a recent meeting with various UH faculty, the school's Faculty Senate president, Jonathan Snow, gave a PowerPoint presentation with instructions on how to handle the new concealed carry law, Senate Bill 11. The Chronicle of Higher Education obtained the full version of the slide show, but one slide in particular was widely circulated on Twitter. UH stated it did not sanction the slideshow and is still awaiting its working group's recommendations for a concealed carry policy. Slide from recent campus carry dialogue at UH, in response to faculty concerns about dangers from armed students: pic.twitter.com/610RyhDZlf Jeff (@JeffintheBowtie) February 22, 2016 Much of Snow's presentation focused on not escalating potentially contentious situations, avoiding certain topics of classroom discussions, and guidelines for asking people whether or not they are carrying a concealed weapon. The Chronicle has a link to download the slideshow (Microsoft PowerPoint required), but here are a few excerpts. "NON-CHL students may have questions regarding campus carry. It is important to answer those questions truthfully and minimize anxiety." "Make clear that any reveal will be dealt with severely: Concealed is concealed ." ." Slide titled "FS Recommends NOT TO Make provocative statements Make up cute signs It's in your interest and the University's interest to be very guarded and careful about this issue. Slide titled "You may want to" Be careful discussing sensitive topics Drop certain topics from your curriculum Not "go there" if you sense anger Limit student access off hours Go to appointment-only office hours Only meet "that student" in controlled circumstances Slide title "Arguments" outlined "poor," "better," "OK," "good," "excellent," and "obscure" examples of statements to give students with questions or concerns about the CHL. Like the state of Texas' flagship university system, UH has no choice by to adopt a campus carry policy that goes into effect this August. The University of Texas - Austin made it clear it too opposed the bill, but abided by it nonetheless. Most higher education in Texas has been critical of the bill, but it is only the private schools that have been able to act on their opposition. In addition to being UH's Faculty Senate president, Snow is also a member of the working group appointed to craft the concealed carry policy, The Houston Chronicle reported. He said SB 11 is already inciting contention between faculty members, and UH does not even have a policy for it yet. "The faculty are increasingly unhappy with the law," he told the UH Board of Regents last week. "I've been screamed at. I've been accused of complicity. It's been kind of rough." The University of Missouri's Board of Curators voted 4-2 in favor of terminating Melissa Click, an associated professor of communications at the school's Columbia campus. In a statement released Thursday, the board said it voted on Click's long-term status with the school after reviewing an "investigative report detailing the relevant facts surrounding [Click's] recent conduct." The conduct the board was referring to was captured in a viral video showing Click shoving a student reporter and calling for "muscle" to help move him away from a demonstration on campus. The Columbia Missourian also obtained footage of Click berating police officers at the school's Homecoming Parade during a demonstration. MU Interim Chancellor Hank Foley condemned her actions in both videos and promised a review. "The board believes that Dr. Click's conduct was not compatible with university policies and did not meet expectations for a university faculty member," read the statement from board chair Pam Henrickson. "The circumstances surrounding Dr. Click's behavior, both at a protest in October when she tried to interfere with police officers who were carrying out their duties, and at a rally in November, when she interfered with members of the media and students who were exercising their rights in a public space and called for intimidation against one of our students, we believe demands serious action. "The board respects Dr. Click's right to express her views and does not base this decision on her support for students engaged in protest or their views. However, Dr. Click was not entitled to interfere with the rights of others, to confront members of law enforcement or to encourage potential physical intimidation against a student." MU suspended Click with pay on Jan. 27, The Columbia Daily Tribune reported, while the investigation took place. Click had already started the process of becoming tenured when the video of her went viral. Foley acknowledged the circumstances of Click's termination were "not typical." Click since apologized publicly and to the student, who is currently pursuing assault charges against her, though they could be dropped under certain circumstances. Click may appeal the board's decision, but it is not clear if she plans to do so. Editors note -- This week's excerpt from The Contrails is seen exactly as shown on page 30 and 31 in the 2015 edition of this cadet guidebook Following the organization of the United States Air Force as a separate service in 1947, work commenced toward the realization of yet another dreamits own academy. In 1948, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal appointed a Service Academy Board to review the capabilities and facilities of the Military and Naval Academies and make recommendations for the establishment of an Academy for the Air Force. On 1 April 1954, four years after the boards report was received, Congress authorized the construction of an Air Force Academy. The Air Force had been preparing for this action. Forty officers and civilian educators headed by Colonel Eiler at the Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, had developed the curriculum for the Academy several years in advance. Secretary of the Air Force Harold Talbott personally selected the location for the Academy on the basis of the Colorado sites notable advantages of a quiet, isolated location still accessible to large towns, favorable weather for training, and the fact that the State of Colorado offered one million dollars for the purchase of the land. Over 340 architectural firms competed for the commission of designing and constructing the Academy. Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, Architects and Engineers finally won. Their original plans were deemed too modernistic by Congress. The accordion-like chapel was the central object of controversy. Not only Congress, but also well-known American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright considered the design to be in poor taste. Before 126 million dollars were allocated for construction, the design had to be modified to more traditional lines of architecture, a change which increased the final building cost by four times. The approved layout of the newest Academy was finally unveiled on 14 May 1955. On 11 July 1955, the same year construction began, the first class of 306 men was sworn in at a temporary site at Lowry Air Force Base, Denver. Lt General Hubert R. Harmon, a key figure in the development of the Academy since 1949, was recalled from retirement to become the first Superintendent. Two years later Maj General James E. Briggs took over as the Academys second Superintendent. During his tour, on 29 August 1958, the Wing of 1,145 cadets moved to its present site from Denver. Less than a year later the Academy received accreditation. On 3 March 1964, the authorized strength of the Cadet Wing was increased to 4,417 cadets. In 1995 Congress capped the cadet strength at 4,400 cadets and 40 international students, effective 30 September 1998. This number was further reduced to 4,000 cadets by 1 October 2012. The 18,000 acres which comprise the Air Force Academy are located on the east slope of the Rampart Range; 7,258 feet above sea level. The base is divided into three major areas: the cadet area, the base community area, and the service and supply area. Via CIDRAP, Lisa Schnirring writes: WHO officials get firsthand Zika view in Brazil, Colombia. Excerpt: Leaders from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) office continued their mission today to assess Brazil's response to the Zika virus outbreak, as the country's health ministry reported 360 more suspected microcephaly cases. In US developments, two congressional committees took up Zika discussions, asking about what response steps are under way and what level of funding is needed. Chan weighs in from Brazil At a media briefing today at the Fiocruz Institute in Rio de Janiero, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, MD, MPH, thanked Brazilian authorities for providing global health officials with a firsthand look at the outbreak and response and pledged more international help in battling the disease. In a separate briefing yesterday, she said, "This will be a long journey but government commitment is commendable and we are here to support them so we can embark on this journey together. Based on what I have seen today and what I've heard, the mosquito is difficult but it cannot beat Brazil." As part of the mission, Chan and her WHO and PAHO colleagues met with Brazil's president and its ministry officials and talked to researchers. Brazil adds to microcephaly total Brazil's health ministry today said in its regular update that 360 more suspected microcephaly cases have been reported, while 113 earlier ones have been ruled out, according to a statement translated and posted by Avian Flu Diary, an infectious disease news message board. The condition involves infants who have smaller-than-normal heads and underdeveloped brains. According to the ministry's latest numbers, officials are still investigating 4,107 suspected microcephaly cases. Since its last update a week ago the health ministry has confirmed 75 more cases, raising that total to 583. Over the course of the outbreak a total of 5,640 suspected cases have been reported, with 950 ruled out. Studies have not definitively linked Zika virus to microcephaly, but the body of evidence is growing. A case-control study was recently launched in some of Brazil's hardest-hit areas to help clarify the suspected link. PAHO mission in Colombia Meanwhile, representatives from PAHO, along with other outside experts, are on the ground in Colombia this week on a technical mission to assess that country's response efforts. According to PAHO statement yesterday, Colombia has reported about 37,000 Zika virus infections, 6,300 of them in pregnant women. Via NPR's Goats and Soda blog: Colombia Is Carefully Screening Pregnant Women To See If There Are Any Signs Of Fetal Brain Damage. Excerpt: Keila Atuesta Jaimes, a petite 25-year-old, is lying on an exam table next to an ultrasound machine. The doctor moves the wand across her belly. It's pretty flat. She's only about three months pregnant. Then suddenly, there's the heartbeat! Atuesta smiles. Nervously. About three weeks ago she came down with the kind of rash and fever she figured could mean only one thing: Zika. She says she went straight to the hospital, concerned her baby might end up with the birth defects that have been linked to Zika: brain damage and an abnormally small head, a condition called microcephaly. The hospital, in a city called Cucuta, is waiting on a blood test to confirm Zika, but they went ahead and scheduled this special, high-resolution ultrasound. Now Dr. Samuel Bautista, a specialist in high-risk pregnancies, is carefully scanning the image on his screen. It's not enough to measure the head, he says. If this fetus has microcephaly, "I might see little bright spots inside the skull signs of calcification, signs of damage." Happily there are none. "Your baby looks completely normal. There's no problem, OK?" he tells Atuesta. All the same, he adds, this test was just done to establish a baseline measurement. The key moment won't come until the second or third trimester. That's when they would expect any signs of brain damage to show up. "You'll need to come back for another ultrasound every month until the baby is born," Bautista explains. It's a new protocol that Colombia's government has set up to track the progress of every pregnant woman suspected of contracting Zika here more than 6,300 so far. Effectively, all these woman have become unwilling participants in a giant science experiment. Since Zika began spreading through Latin America over the past year, hundreds of babies have been born with unusually small heads. But only in Brazil. All eyes are now on Colombia. It has about 37,000 reported Zika cases. And researchers say if there really is a link, Colombia is where the next surge in birth defects could be. Via BBC News: Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey 'stable' after night in London hospital. Excerpt: Scots nurse Pauline Cafferkey is in a "stable" condition in a London hospital after being admitted for a third time since contracting Ebola. The 40-year-old from South Lanarkshire was flown south after being admitted to Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. She was put on an RAF Hercules aircraft which took her to London where she was taken to the Royal Free Hospital. Ms Cafferkey was treated there twice in 2015 after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone the previous year. The Royal Free hasn't published an update on her condition in two days, but it's good to know she's at least in stable condition. I don't often link to imported-Zika stories, but this one deserves attention. Via local10.com: 3 pregnant women in Florida contract Zika virus. Excerpt: Three pregnant women in Florida have contracted the Zika virus, Florida Surgeon General Dr. John Armstrong said Wednesday in his daily report. All Florida cases were contracted while the patient was traveling to another country, Armstrong said. According to Armstrong, only three patients in the state are still showing symptoms associated with the Zika virus. Although the virus has not been contracted locally, Armstrong urges Floridians to drain standing water weekly, no matter how seemingly small. He said just a couple of drops of water in a bottle cap can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes. People are also urged to wear bug repellent when they are outdoors. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Zika virus typically causes a mild rash, fever and joint pain. Only one in five people infected with the virus are symptomatic. CDC researchers are also investigating a possible link between the virus and harm to unborn babies during pregnancy after the Ministry of Health of Brazil reported an increase in the number of newborns with microcephaly in areas experiencing Zika virus outbreaks. Pregnant women infected with the Zika virus are urged to get additional ultrasounds. I hope these three get far more prenatal care than a couple of extra ultrasounds. CCEA hikes MSP of raw jute from Rs 2,700 to 3,200 per quintal Published: February 25, 2016 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has hiked Minimum Support Price (MSP) of raw jute from 2,700 to 3,200 rupees per quintal. Decision in this regard was taken during CCEA meeting headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. The hike has been done for the year 2016-17 to boost production. The MSP was hiked by CCEA based on the proposal forwarded by Union Agriculture Ministry had in order increase the raw jute cultivation which has been declining in recent years. In 2015-16, the area under raw jute has reduced to 7.5 lakh hectare from little over 8 lakh hectare in year 2016-17. Jute farming is providing livelihood to more than 40 lakh farmers in West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and eastern Bihar. About Minimum Support Price (MSP) MSP is a form of agricultural market intervention undertaken by the Union Government in order to insure agricultural producers are protected against any sharp fall in farm prices. It is announced for certain crops by the Union Government prior to the sowing season. The prices are decided by CCEA on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). Month: Current Affairs - February, 2016 Topics: Agriculture CCEA Current Affairs 2016 Jute MSP Odisha Latest E-Books Africa's largest trading block is gaining momentum. In the latest 'Africa 2016' investment forum held in Egypt, it has received an encouraging response from investors. Foreign investors have suggested for more reforms and policy changes to attract investments. Established in 2015, the trading block of Africa, comprising 26 countries with a huge consumer base of 620 million, is offering a lot of potential to overseas investors. The combined gross domestic product (GDP) of trading block is nearing to a whopping $1.2 trillion. Over 1,500 business delegates from public and private companies across Egypt have expressed keen interest in doing business with Africa. Government officials and heads from global organizations have actively participated in discussions on trade and investments in the said country. Several heads of state and governments from Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, Sudan and Togo have also made presentations about investment opportunities, according to IPS (Inter Press Service). Despite several meetings, discussions and forums, no major action plan was implemented by Africa so far, observes an investor. The trade volume among African nations is still below 10 percent of the continent's foreign trade. This is mainly because of tariff barriers. Africa needs to implement reforms and develop infrastructure facilities to attract overseas investment. For instance, Ghana has placed trade ban on Nigeria owing to unfair trade practices between both the nations. Ghana has imposed ban on imports of crude oil, cement, pharmaceuticals from Nigeria and other nations as well, as reported by Ventures Africa. Nigeria is suffering from falling value of its currency Naira. Industry observers suggest that African countries need to create cohesive atmosphere within the continent to attract foreign capital. Africa needs to strengthen financial system to facilitate re-exporting capitals. Governments of several African countries should focus on restoring peace by ending armed conflicts in several places. Currently, Africa is still the most corrupt region in the world, according to the studies carried out by World Bank, UN Development Programme and Transparency International. Recently, a pan-African road show was organized in Dubai. A delegation from Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) 2016 had organized the event. Africa is fastest growing foreign direct investment (FDI) market in the world. The FDI inflow into African continent grew 19 times from $3 billion 1990s to $57 billion in 2013, according to WAM (Emirates News Agency). However, no official confirmation or details about possible investment deals approved at 'Africa 2016' not available. An Egyptian diplomat on a condition of anonymity said "They (the private business sector) are ready to invest. Africa is the continent of the future, this is clear. However, there are huge hurdles that have been scaring the big business pundits." Some delegates at 'Africa 2016' expressed their views that African nations need to put in more efforts to create business conducive atmosphere for investors. Legislative measures are needed to be implemented for encouraging business activity. There are problems such as corruption, bureaucracy and lack of reforms. Battery Ventures (BV), a Massachusetts based venture capital firm, has raised $950 million across two new funds. Battery Ventures XI, the main fund has been closed at $650 million while the side fund at $300 million. The firm has previously closed Battery Ventures X at $900 million- $650 million main fund and $250 million side fund in February 2013. The newly raised side fund is expected to support the company's larger investments. Battery has typically invested between $500,000 and $60 million in several companies across a wide range of industries, reports TechCrunch. Application software/ SaaS, IT infrastructure including cloud computing appears as the key investment sectors of BV. Big-data Technology including cybersecurity, consumer internet, mobile and industrial technology also falls under its area of investment. On Wednesday, Uber announced the launching of its UberMOTO service in Bangkok, Thailand as a lead project for cities in most developing countries. The new service is not a pioneer since motorcycle taxis are a long-lasting tradition in most Southeast Asian cities. It became famous after the economic expansion in 1980's that induce the rush of new vehicles clogging the busy city streets. UberMOTO will be first introduced in three significant business and residential areas of Central Bangkok. The company said it will have the same Uber features like the "live GPS tracking, 2-way feedback and the ability to share trip details with family and friends," as reported by abc News. "We aren't surprised when competitors recognize the need to offer services beyond private cars in this region," Adelene Foo, regional head of GrabBike/GrabExpress, said in an email. "Motorbikes are a way of life in Southeast Asia and a critical part of the transportation ecosystem." Uber claimed that it lost $1 billion every year in China. It now makes Bangkok a good place to try its motorcycle service although there are times the traffic gets stuffy. The ride-hailing company said that its motorcycle service will provide commuters with inexpensive rides and reduce the traffic congestion, as reported by Fortune. "Motorcycles are part of the commuting culture in Thailand," Douglas Ma, head of Asia Expansion for Uber, said in a statement. He said the service will resonate with Thai people and provide "another easy and affordable option for short trips around town while creating tens of thousands of flexible work opportunities for Thais." According to International Business Times, Bangkok users can take advantage of UberMOTO service through the company's mobile app. The process is the same when booking an Uber cab. The starting rate will be THB 10 adding THB 3.50 for every kilometer and THB 0.85 for every additional minute. Uber promotes a celebratory offer that enables first-time users to have their first two UberMOTO rides at no charge. The great offer will last until March 15. UberMOTO drivers will provide helmet to a rider. Drivers will be insured and will undergo broad screening process together with a police background check. UberMOTO is hoping to cope up with its loss in China and will rival GrabTaxi's motorbike taxi service for riders. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures was leading the Series A round of investment for Forty Seven Inc to develop antibodies for cancer. While Stanford University has also granted the right to its multiple immuno-oncology programs. Established as a spinoff from clinical researchers in Stanford University, Forty Seven Inc was founded by four researchers: Irv Weissman, Ravi Majeti, Mark Chao and Jens Volkmer. The four of them have been doing research in Stanford University to develop antibodies for cancer extensively, and in 2009 they have identified a cancer molecule CD47 and published the result in two research papers. CD47 is a molecule that is overexpressed on the surface of the majority of tumors and transmits a "don't eat me" signal. The molecule protected cancer from phagocytosis by macrophages. Simply said, this molecule is giving the protection for cancer cell from being engulfed by white blood cells component called macrophages, whose assignment was to attack and devour cancer cells. Researchers in Stanford University has identified this CD47 molecule as cancer target. They have also developed Hu5F9-G4 which facilitated phagocytosis and elimination of cancer cells from multiple human tumor types as a monotherapy. Further research showed that when Hu5F9-G4 was used in combination therapy, it engaged macrophages as effector cells which enhance the strength of cancer-specific antibodies. One of the Forty Seven Inc founders and researchers in Stanford University Irv Weissman told PE Hub Network, "Targeting CD47 integrates the adaptive and innate immune systems, creating synergy with existing cancer-specific antibodies like rituximab, cetuximab and trastuzumab through ADCP, and potentially with T-cell checkpoint inhibitors through cross-presentation. We are grateful to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) for funding the preclinical studies and the current solid tumor clinical trial at Stanford, and to Ludwig Cancer Research for funding much of the research." On Wednesday, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures completed the first half of $75 million Series A investment for the company. Clarus Ventures and GV (formerly Google Ventures) also participated in the investment. The company has also licensed rights for multiple immuno-oncology programs from Stanford University. PR Newswire quoted Chris Schaepe, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, "The company's scientific founders have done an outstanding job of advancing Hu5F9-G4 into two Phase 1 clinical trials in patients with relapsed or refractory solid tumors or acute myeloid leukemia (AML)." Forty Seven Inc CEO John McQutty in a press release as cited by Silicon Valley Business Journal said, "Forty Seven has hired a strong management team with deep industry experience. I feel confident that this combined team along with the support we have from our Series A investors and our scientific founders will enable us to fully explore the clinical utility of our lead molecule and the licensed technology." With this Series A investment of $75 million, Forty Seven Inc will complete its two ongoing clinical studies and fund additional clinical trials in 2016. Stanford University has granted licensed for the company to conduct multiple immuno-oncology programs. Andrew Chung, a former Hong Kong music popstar turned venture capitalist established his own firm 1955 capital. The firm has raised $200 million fund and expected to bring clean technology to China. Andrew Chung was a veteran venture capitalist with more than 10 years of experience. He started his career in Lightspeed Venture Partners before moving on to Khosla Ventures. Now he established his own firm 1955 capital, and has successfully raising $200 million fund. He has a lot of experience in connecting startups with China and landed deal with China's company during his tenure at Khosla. One of them is helping LanzaTech to get pilot projects with giant Chinese steel manufacturers. LanzaTech is a biofuel startup company that pioneering a process to change carbon pollution into useful chemicals. Forbes quoted the multilinguals who speaks English, Mandarin and Cantonese that said, "I was in China 13 times last year. In some cases, flying in for six hours to negotiate deals with companies, or driving down dirt roads to villages to negotiate partnerships. I've really doubled down on this type of strategy." Andrew Chung has big interest in clean technology. He invested in LanzaTech while he was in Khosla and still sitting on the company's board. Another companies which he has been working with are Solazyme, a renewable oils and bioproducts company, and EcoMotors, a new engine technology company. He expected to bring clean technology to China, as Eastern world is more willing to take chance on an unknown startup on that sector. LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren explained how Andrew Chung helped her company to score partnership with big Asian companies such as Mitsui, SK, Siemens, and ArcelorMittal. Silicon Beat quoted her in news release, "Andrew was instrumental in helping us avoid a more difficult path to commercialization by working with us to build trusted partnerships and business in China. that now allows us to apply our technology to solve similar issues and create jobs back in the U.S. and other parts of the world." Now Andrew Chung has established his own venture capital firm and raised a $200 million fund targeting China and Asia. He told PR Newswire, "We believe that China, India, and other developing countries face fundamental challenges that put the future of their societies at risk and place severe pressure on governments and business leaders for solutions." Furthermore he said, "We founded 1955 Capital because we believe disruptive technology is critical to solving these issues and can help bring nations closer together by matching the ingenuity of the West with the growing survival-driven demands of the East. For U.S. technology companies, direct access to these large and explosive end-markets will help accelerate technology commercialization, create jobs, and foster partnerships that will support their long-term growth and development." Andrew Chung and his new 1955 Capital has established its $200 million fund. He expects to bring clean technology to China and Asia with the new fund. The robust sales growth in Indian smartphone market is attracting foreign venture capitalists (VCs). The increased demand for home-grown apps is creating more demand for venture capital. Currently, smartphones contribute half of the mobile phone sales volume in India. Reflecting a similar prevailing trend in China, the world's largest mobile phone market, Indian home-grown apps are gaining momentum. Indian startups mobilized $4 billion funds in 2015. Most of the venture capital raised last year has gone into established e-tailers such as Flipkart, which alone raised $700 million funding. Reuters reports that several overseas venture capitalists are entering the Indian mobile market to extend funding support to app developers. For instance, San Francisco-based incubator and venture capital firm 500 Startups has launched a $25-million fund titled '500 Kulfi' to extend funding support to Indian mobile app-makers. A recently organized start-up industry conference in Bengaluru highlighted the increasing potential in app-makers. Dave McClure, founding partner at 500 Startups, said "How many places in the world do you know where there are half a billion people online, up from 100 million people just five years ago." Smartphones account for over 50 percent of the total sales in Indian mobile market. It has over one billion mobile phone accounts making it the second largest mobile market in the world. The mobile phone market is growing at an encouraging rate. New smart phone sales rose over 100 million for the first time in 2015. This is really creating a greater demand for apps developers and venture capitalists as well. Mobile internet is expected to lead a next wave of growth in internet penetration in India. The fastest growth rate of smartphone is adding to the mobile internet penetration. India has huge potential for localized apps and this is luring foreign venture capitalists. The country has recorded an app revolution in 2015 as described b Deloitte. The content in local languages will add further 39 percent growth in strengthening internet user base, according to Apps India2016. Alex Yao, who looks after strategy, innovation and investments at China-based app-maker Cheetah Mobile, said "India will become very likely the only growth engine for mobile internet in the entire world, when you think about it in reality China's smartphone sales significantly tapered off in 2015." New York-based mobile apps developer Cheetah has also entered Indian market. Cheetah has over 600 million monthly active users for its suite of mobile apps. The app-maker is open to invest or buy out Indian app-makers. Yao further added that "The market in India is three to four years behind China. Given the similarity in population density, (economic development), so very likely what happened in China will also happen here in the next few years." Several apps-makers are receiving venture capital of late. For instance, Bengaluru-based Hansel.io has mobilized undisclosed funding from TracnSyndicate; India's industrial major Tata Sons has invested in an e-Commerce firm Moglix; Delhi-based biopharmaceutical firm Invictus Oncology has received funding from Ratan Tata; a Gurgaon-based Green House Ventures has invested in apps-makers IStyleYou and AdUrCup, according to Gadgets360. Unlike other countries, computer penetration in India is not much encouraging, but smartphone sales volume is growing fast unlike China. India has also a good market for movies, shopping and other consumer activity. This is making India more attractive for venture capitalists. Venture capital (VC) investments in Canada soared to 10 year high in 2015 with the technology sector mostly contributing to the growth. The VC funding is at its best since 2008 financial crisis. Canadian venture capitalists are exploring several options of investment potential in Canada. According to the latest data from Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA), 536 deals in funding for entrepreneurs raised $2.25 billion in 2015. Canadian startups are witnessing a robust growth rate of venture capital funding since financial crisis in 2008. CVCA President Mike Woolatt forecasts the ongoing trend to continue throughout 2016. Information and Communication Technology (ICT), life sciences, clean tech and agribusinesses are attracting a major chunk of venture capital. About 325 deals with $1.37 billion were recorded in ICT segment. The life sciences segment witnessed 110 deals worth $647 million funding. However, the clean tech funding dropped in the past three years, as reported by The Globe And Mail. Woollatt said "The world needs to pay attention to Canada. If you're not paying attention, you're missing out." The latest major deals in ICT segment included Montreal point-of-sale software firm Lightspeed POS Inc raised $79 million round. Cryptocurrency startup got $73 million funding. In life sciences segment, the biggest deal was with Montreal-based Clementia Pharmaceuticals Inc, which recorded $74 million round. Lifesciences segment picked up during the past two years. It witnessed only 54 deals involving an investment of 272 million two years ago. Ontario was leading all provinces in Canada in attracting venture capital investment. It covered 38 percent and 42 percent of deal numbers and disbursement, respectively. Quebec investment activity was also picked up in 2015. Quebec's national share of VC activity rose to about 31 per cent and up 51 percent and 102 percent respectively in number of deals and dollars invested over 2014, according to PR Newswire. Contrary, Clean tech funding has been declining in three years. It fell from $394 million in 39 deals in 2013 to $135 million in 44 deals in 2015. The major was $21 million follow-on fund for General Fusion. The oversupply situation in global oil market is the major reason for drop in funding for clean tech segment. Cheaper oil prices reduced the need to diversification in Canadian energy segment. Early-stage companies received the most of venture capital in 2015. The share of early-stage firms is growing as $1.16 billion was invested in 2015 from $794 in 2014 and $636 million in 2013. Seed-stage investments rose to $154 million from $133 million in 2014 and $85 million 2013. However, later stage financing seems to be moving in the opposite direction, falling to $530 million in 2015 down from $785 million in 2014 and $931 in 2013, as stated by Tech Vibes. Though 2015 was an encouraging year for venture capitalists, it witnessed hype in valuations in the technology segment. The high valuations are fast eroding their value in 2016 and the writedown of valuations at technology unicorns are impacting in a more negative way. Alberta will face two consecutive years of economic downfall owing to the collapse in the crude market. The province, which depends mainly on oil, grieves from the ongoing price fall in the global oil market. The government expects 2016 - 2017 shortfall to exceed the previous forecast in October of C$5.4 billion by nearly $5 billion. In addition, the province expects scarcity in the fiscal year, which commences on 1 April, to be around C$10.4 billion and deficit in the present fiscal period to be C$6.32 billion. Alberta economy relies heavily on fuel revenues for government expenditures and the recent fall in crude prices have created a cavity in the capital of Alberta. The province currently anticipates the economy in 2016 to drop by 1.1%, down from a fall of 1.5% in 2015, as reported by Bloomberg. The global oil market slumped nearly $32 per barrel in the recent times due to the oversupply from the producers and weak demand from China, the largest consumer of fuel. Experts believe that unless the OPEC countries reduce their oil production, the future of crude price remains uncertain and that the oil market will not recover from the misery. The province trimmed its 2016 outlook for West Texas Intermediate to be $45 per barrel, lower than the October prediction of $50 per barrel. The predicted "borrowing requirements" remain unaltered from the prior outlook at C$9.56 billion. The government reduced its non-renewable sources revenue outlook in 2015-2016 to C$2.5 billion from its previous outlook by nearly C$300 million. Joe Ceci, finance minister of Alberta, said, "This is once-in-a-generation economic challenge. Difficult times lie ahead for 2016." Health care expenses are anticipated to rise to C$18.4 billion and the net government expenditure to be at C$49.4 billion, which is less than the prior outlook by almost C$460 million. In early February, Trudeau, prime minister of Canada, promised Alberta a sum of $700 million for infrastructure expenses. He also pledged to alter the EI system in order to boost the financial position of the workers who lost their jobs. Todd Hirsch, an economist at ATB, said that Alberta will use the funding amount of $250 million for infrastructure schemes that include boosting the Green Line in Calgary and LRT line, as reported in CTV News. Trevor Tombe, an economics professor at the University of Calgary, said that Alberta economy is still in good form than the other Canadian provinces. He interrogated Alberta's infrastructure expenditure while at the same time advocated for the compelling need for additional capital disbursements. He added that the province must undertake serious strategies to ensure proper spending structure and taxation in the long run, CALGARY HERALD said. The economy of Alberta, which depends heavily on revenues from oil sources, continues to shrink amid weak oil prices globally. The province is still hopeful that things will recover from the gloomy oil market over the long run. : , ; Uber Technologies, the ride sharing company, has announced on Tuesday planning to expand its Pittsburgh operations through opening an Advanced Technologies Center. The proposed new tech center will be used to test self driving cars. Worth mentioning that Uber's autonomous vehicle research operations are headquartered in Pittsburgh. The taxi service provider is planning to renovate an old locomotive roundhouse at the former LTV Coke Works Site in Hezlewood. The roundhouse will home to temporary test roadways for self-driving cars. The company will develop temporary roadways to test autonomous cars, housing and park spaces, as part of its expansion, reports The Verge citing company officials while addressing a community meeting. Uber officials plan to break ground in the next few months on another research facility at the 178-acre site of Almono. Uber has been the first tenant for the former mill site, acquired by Regional Industrial Development Corp. and four foundations 14 years ago. The organizations have made expenditure of around $60 million to prepare the site for development, reports St. Louis Post. Sands China Ltd. oversees the decline in gross gaming revenue in Macau as the casino prepares the opening of the new Parisian Macao resort in September. The company have confidence the drop in revenue could end this month. According to Bloomberg, Macau's gross gaming revenue has seen declines for 20 months. Since June 2014, high-stakes VIP gamblers have been avoiding the city due to the country's slowing economy and campaigns against corruption. Likewise, Sands China as one of Macau's biggest operators has seen prolonged revenue fall for six quarters. However, during the Lunar New Year period this month, Macau saw a satisfying performance, as more tourists from mainland China visited the world's biggest gambling hub. Sands China also expects the casino industry to start recovering. The company's results this year are expected to be relatively flat compared with last year. Analysts expect the company's net income to decline 8.5 percent as revenue drop 2.5 percent. Besides anticipating the casino industry's recovery, Sands China is also preparing for its newest casino, The Parisian Macao. CalvinAyre reported that the $2.7 billion project was required to be completed on April 2016. However, Sands China asked the authorities to extend the time. The Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau have agreed to extend the deadline to November 2016. Despite the declining revenues, Sands China CEO Sheldon Adelson expressed confidence that the new casino resort would be as successful as its previous project Venetian Macao. "I am confident that the Parisian Macao will both replicate the success of the Venetian Macao as another themed, iconic and must-see integrated resort destination for Macau's visitors while expanding the overall business and leisure tourism appeal of Macau," Adelson explained during the company's 2015 results announcement. In addition to the gaming space, the Parisian Macao will have about 3,000 rooms and suites, a retail mall, and a themed water park. The new resort will also feature a replica of the Eiffel Tower with half of the original size. Adelson stated the importance of the newest project in boosting not only the company's revenue but also the region's economy, as reported by GGRAsia. "With the opening of the Parisian Macao in 2016, Sands China will have invested in excess of $13.0 billion to deliver on our promise to contribute to Macau's diversification and success as Asia's leading business and leisure tourism destination." Sands China is optimistic about Macau's future prospect in the casino industry. Macau, the world's biggest gambling hub, has been suffering revenue declines for almost two years, but the company foresee a recovery as they finish the newest project, The Parisian Macao. The criticism over President Jacob Zuma's inability to transform South Africa into an attractive place for business is increasing by the day. Right from common people to businessmen is calling for government's commitment to restore business confidence on South Africa. All sections of the society are raising voice for making South Africa a favorable place for global investors and businessmen. The business is very slow in tier-II cities. An Uber taxi driver narrates the prevailing situation saying that to get a thing done in a village, one has to get approval from municipal boss, the tribal chief and his deputy, and a local politician from African National Congress (ANC). Financial Times reports that President Zuma is at the center of criticism over corruption, bureaucracy and lack of commitment of the government. Corruption is apparently visible in every stage right from village to the power center in the capital city Johannesburg. However, President Jacob Zuma has never been convicted of corruption. Charges against him were, in fact, ruled out in 2009. It's difficult to find a businessman or official in Johannesburg, who doesn't think the President has worsened the economy. Zuma has strengthened a patronage machine within the Party. Standard & Poor's has downgraded sovereign rating to negative outlook. Recently re-appointed Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan by President Zuma has a tough time to make a balancing act. Gordhan presented the 2016 budget for South Africa on 24 February 2016. He is doing his best to avoid a downgrade of South Africa's sovereign credit rating to junk status. Meanwhile, President Zuma has postponed his Iran tour. The president's office didn't give any reason for the cancellation of his trip to Iran. Zuma's office said in a statement that "the state visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran by President Jacob Zuma, as announced earlier this week, has been postponed to a later date." Pretoria province in South Africa is planning to set up an oil refinery to process Iranian crude for its petrol supply and reduce import bill, as reported by Reuters. Finance Ministry, South Africa's central bank and other institutions are in the process of bringing back South Africa on growth path. First of all, the restoration of business confidence among foreign investors that South Africa is a better place for business is need of the hour. Despite all these problems, South Africa is able to attract global businessmen and companies. Similarly, South African companies are also showing interest in expanding overseas. For instance, Steinhoff, a local furniture retailer, is expanding to Frankfurt. On the other hand, criticism over the government's inability from different quarters of the society has been growing, according to NewStatesman. Recently, a former Cabinet Minister expressed his concerns over the degrading image of South Africa. 22 years ago, the radiance of Nelson Mandela's rainbow nation has gone from hero to zero. Another incident that highlights of confusion and lack of strategy of Zuma-led government is frequent changes in Finance Ministry. In just short span of five days during December 2015, three Finance Ministers came and gone. Nhlanhla Nene was sacked by Zuma and this created tremors across the financial markets. South African currency Rand crashed. South Africa is still suffering from apartheid system and alarming unemployment rate of 35 percent. Lack of infrastructure facilities is another major challenge for the country. Despite all these persisting problems, South Africa has managed to transform into a mature economy. Led by recent commodity boom, South Africa's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) rose to $6,000 in 2015. Lousiana Public Service Commission (PSC), the state regulator rejected $4.85 billion dollar acquisition of utility company Cleco to Macquarie Group Ltd. PSC said it did not serve the best interest of the customers. Cleco Power is responsible for providing electricity to about 286,000 customers in Louisiana. The company's acquisition by private investment group Macquarie was mostly negotiated behind closed doors for the past 17 months. Although the deal is beneficial to Cleco shareholders, but it has the negative terms. According to The News Tribune, an administrative law judge analyzed the deal last week. The jugde found that sale of the utility company would not be in the interst of its customers. If the acquisition which valued at almost $5 billion is approved, Cleco shareholders would have been able to sell their stock at 15% premium. While Australia-based Macquarie Group as the new owner would have been able to pocket taxes collected as part of the monthly rates, instead of turning them to state and federal authorities. "I do not like the tax scheme. If there ever was an issue you don't want the public to hear, it is this issue," PSC Chairman Clyde Holloway, R-Forest Hill said, as reported by The Advocate. Other commission members are Scott Angelle of R-Breaux Bridge, Eric Skrmetta R-Metairie, Foster Campbell D-Bossier Paris and and Lambert Boissiere III. Moreover, Commissioner Holloway also expressed his objection of the local utility company will be owned by a group of Australian and Canadian investors. Another objection is the foreign investors planned to sell the utility within eight to ten years. Futhermore, the $4.85 billion acquisition will use leverage financing method, The leverage financing will allow Macquarie Group to use borrowed money to borrow more money. As a result, Cleco customers will be held responsible for paying the debt. Other commissioner Lambert Boissiere III also opposed the deal. He said that allowing the deal would give Macquarie an immediate advantage of tax breaks to borrow more money. "The minute we vote, the ratepayers are at risk," he insisted. "I don't know that I'm here to make sure Macquarie gets a good deal." On the other hand, Cleco and investor group led by Macquarie published a statement expressing their disapointment. Bloomberg quoted the group's statement, "We are disappointed with the Louisiana Public Service Commission decision, which we believe fails to acknowledge the benefits this transaction would have provided to all Cleco stakeholders." Furthermore, the spokeswoman for the group Robbyn Cooper added, "We will review our options and make a decision and communicate that decision at the appropriate time." In an seven-hour meeting on Wednesday, Louisiana Public Service Commission rejected the acquisition of local utility company Cleco to Macquarie investor group. As the deal will burden the public,which also the customers of Cleco as utility company that provide electricity. Contributed Photo The Assassin will screen Monday in Oxnard. SHARE 'THE ASSASSIN' Society brings Taiwanese action to Oxnard The Oxnard Film Society presents the latest in its Monday Night Foreign Film series, the 2015 Taiwan action drama "The Assassin." In ninth-century China, Nie Yinniang, a general's daughter, is abducted by a nun who trains her in martial arts, transforming the 10-year-old into an assassin. Her quest: eliminate a cruel and corrupt local governor. After more than a decade in exile, she must return to her hometown and confront her parents, her memories and her feelings. The film is presented in its original language, Mandarin, with English subtitles. "The Assassin" won best director honors at the Cannes Film Festival and was Taiwan's entry to the Academy Awards for best feature film. Tickets are $10 at the Plaza Cinemas 14 in Oxnard at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Monday. SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Juan Manuel Hernandez Soria By Megan Diskin of the Ventura County Star A Moorpark man who was to begin standing trial this week in the attempted murder of his wife has changed his plea to guilty, prosecutors said Wednesday. Juan Manuel Hernandez Soria, 32, pleaded guilty in Ventura County Superior Court to premeditated attempted murder, Senior Deputy District Attorney Patrice Koenig said. He also admitted to the special allegations that the crime occurred during a domestic violence incident and that he used a deadly weapon, gasoline and fire, Koenig said. Soria's wife, Martha Venegas, called 911 about 3:55 a.m. Jan. 5, 2015, to report that her husband had poured gasoline on her and set her on fire outside their ranch home in the 11800 block of Broadway Road, authorities said. Soria also pleaded guilty to three counts of felony child endangerment, Koenig said. Two of the couple's three children witnessed the crime, she said. During the incident, the third child was inside the home, which was damaged by fire, Koenig said. Venegas suffered third-degree burns to more than 70 percent of her body and was rushed to a hospital in critical condition, prosecutors said. She was later taken to the Grossman Burn Center in West Hills and was released after months of treatment, prosecutors said. Soria faces 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced at 8:30 a.m. March 18, Koenig said. STOCK PHOTO Gavel. SHARE By Tom Kisken of the Ventura County Star A former financial adviser from Newbury Park has been ordered to pay $4.09 million in a lawsuit accusing him of fraud and financial elder abuse involving a now 93-year-old woman with dementia. Ventura County Superior Court Judge Vincent O'Neill ruled this month against Rod Hormell, already convicted in a criminal case involving the same woman. The judge ordered payments that include $322,593 in economic damages, $500,000 for pain and suffering and $3 million in punitive compensation. Hormell, 59, was accused of persuading the woman to make investments in a business that didn't exist, transferring money without authority, dipping into an ATM account and other acts of fraud and financial abuse. Kim Scovis, Hormell's lawyer, said an appeal is possible and defended her client's actions. "I think he messed up," she said of Hormell. "I don't think it rises to the level of elder abuse." According to court documents, Hormell was hired in 2008 to help a Thousand Oaks woman manage finances, including about $462,000 from the sale of her home. Hormell owned ESP Financial Services in Newbury Park, the lawsuit said. The woman was diagnosed with dementia in September 2011 and lives in a residential care facility. Hormell pleaded guilty in 2013 to criminal charges of theft from an elderly adult in a case involving the same woman and was placed on probation. He was arrested in May in a separate case and pleaded not guilty to charges that include theft and illegally selling securities to an elderly woman, now deceased. He's currently being held at the Todd Road Jail between Ventura and Santa Paula. Scovis said the conviction included an order to pay about $162,000 in restitution. She said Hormell paid about $70,000 before he was incarcerated. Noting Hormell had already been punished in the criminal case, Scovis argued that no direct evidence of damages was proved in the lawsuit, which triggered a trial earlier this month. But O'Neill used strong language in explaining his decision to award $3 million in punitive damages. "The court finds clear and convincing evidence defendant Hormell personally and intentionally acted with oppression, fraud and malice," O'Neill wrote in his Feb. 17 ruling. Gregory Johnson, a Thousand Oaks lawyer representing the woman and her daughter, Debra Santoro, said the total award of plus-$4 million is among the largest in his 21 years as an elder abuse lawyer. "The truth is I have no idea if we will ever see a dime. Probably, we won't," he said, noting the ruling sends a message to others tempted to take advantage of seniors. Johnson said Hormell was originally hired by the woman at a fee of $500 a month to help her with budgeting. "She was having trouble with her spending," he said. Santoro asked that her mother's name not be used, noting she has already being targeted in scams including a claim that she had won $1 million and a Mercedes. The daughter filed for conservatorship, reported Hormell to law enforcement and, in the summer of 2013, filed the lawsuit. She said her suspicions started when the adviser refused to show any accounting involving her mother's finances. Santoro's lawyers accused Hormell of persuading his client to invest $65,000 in a business and then using the money himself. The woman also wrote the adviser a check for $20,000 that Hormell said he would pay back, Johnson alleged. Hormell allegedly made withdrawals of $300 to $500 from financial accounts and executed unauthorized transfers of money involving life insurance and IRAs. Scovis defended her client but said he should have kept better records. She said Hormell helped take care of the woman, taking her shopping and helping her in other ways. Santoro, a schoolteacher in Santa Barbara County, thinks the case carries a message for adult children of elderly parents. "Try and stay involved even though it's difficult," she said. " ... There are people out there who make a living swindling elderly people. Be vigilant." JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Tom Lugo (left) speaks with Don Tello, board member of the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce, at the State of the City address Wednesday at Casa del Mexicano. Lugo received the Sam Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award. SHARE JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Santa Paula Mayor Martin Hernandez speaks during his State of the City address at Casa del Mexicano. The event was organized by the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Santa Paula Mayor Martin Hernandez speaks during his State of the City address at Casa del Mexicano. The event was organized by the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Santa Paula Police Chief Steve McLean listens to Mayor Martin Hernandez during the State of the City address at Casa del Mexicano. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Santa Paula Mayor Martin Hernandez speaks during his State of the City address at Casa del Mexicano. The event was organized by the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce. By Claudia Boyd-Barrett, Special to The Star The city of Santa Paula is improving its finances, fixing streets and park infrastructure, and reducing crime, but it still needs more money for public safety, Mayor Martin Hernandez said Wednesday. Giving his annual State of the City address before local dignitaries, business people and community members at the Casa del Mexicano event center, Hernandez touted a long list of city achievements from the past year and praised the work of city departments. The mayor highlighted the passage of a balanced budget with no layoffs, the purchase of the city's wastewater treatment plant from a company a move expected to reduce sewer rates and upcoming infrastructure projects, including $9 million in street repairs. He said the city is also taking steps to ensure it recoups the full cost of services provided by staff through its fee structure and by upgrading the city's accounting system. Hernandez, who is running for Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long's seat in November, noted that city finances are tight. "There's what the expectations are of our citizens, and there's the reality of what we have in our checkbook," the mayor said. "I know that we don't always meet everyone's expectations, but I will tell you that, given the minds that we have on the council today and the staff that we have to manage those resources ... they do an incredibly good job stretching every dollar that we have to serve you, our constituents here in Santa Paula." Crime in Santa Paula is down, the mayor said, with overall crime in 2015 dropping 6.2 percent over the previous year. Compared to five years ago, violent crime and robberies are down by half, he said, and there were no gang-related homicides last year. "I hope that makes you feel a little safer when you go home tonight," Hernandez said. "And I say 'a little safer' because we have some more work to do." Hernandez is seeking the City Council's approval to put a sales tax measure before voters in November that would help fund the city's public safety services. The idea has yet to come before the council for discussion. Hernandez said the Santa Paula Police Department needs help and called on the audience for support. "We have to do better," he said. "Those police officers we have are getting tired." The mayor also pointed to growth in industrial and housing construction, much of it underway or in the permit process, including the large housing development known as East Area One. The development will have the official name Harvest at Limoneira, he said. Santa Paula's Chamber of Commerce has hosted the State of the City address since at least the 1970s, although this was the first year at Casa del Mexicano, said Chief Executive Officer Fred Robinson. Santa Paula Unified School District board member Michelle Kolbeck said she attends the event every year. She said she was especially happy to hear news from the mayor that the playground at Las Piedras Park will be opening soon. "My grandchildren can finally go and play on it, and so many kids go and use that park," she said. HONOREES The event includes an awards ceremony recognizing local nonprofits, businesses and philanthropists. Those presented with awards Wednesday included: Business of the Year: Calavo, which is headquartered in Santa Paula and employs more than 500 people. The Sam Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award: Tom Lugo, with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Citizen of the Year: Don and Debbie Johnson , co-owners of the Santa Paula Times and community supporters. Nonprofit of the Year: Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clara Valley, with a variety of programs for young people. Community Service Award: Santa Paula Hospital, a 49-bed hospital run by the Ventura County government. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/SIMI VALLEY POLICE DEPARTMENT SHARE By Staff Reports Simi Valley police arrested a man last week in connection with selling drugs, officials said. Julio Catalan, 25, was arrested Feb. 17 on suspicion of multiple felony drug-related charges, authorities said. The arrest came after a months-long investigation into the suspected "local drug dealer," police said in a news release. Investigators recovered more than 1000 pills each of ecstasy and hydrocodone, nearly 300 pills of Xanax and a loaded handgun, officials said. A pound of marijuana, one and a half pounds of hallucinogenic mushrooms, 41 grams of cocaine and 6.8 grams of LSD were also found, police said. KAREN QUINCY LOBERG/THE STAR Surfers take on sets of large waves increasing in height at Surfers Point on Wednesday in Ventura. By Cheri Carlson of the Ventura County Star El Nino's big show is happening on the beach. Week after week, high surf has slammed the coast, washing away sandy beaches, barreling into piers and keeping rescue crews busy. While Ventura County might have mostly missed the rain, El Nino conditions have taken a toll on the coast this winter. The more storms moving across the Pacific, the bigger the ocean swell that hits the coastline in California, said climatologist Nate Mantua of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. At the same time, the sea level has been running from 3 to 7 inches higher than expected another El Nino impact caused by warmer water and changing wind patterns. "We see this in other El Nino winters, that you have this high sea level that persists for the whole winter, and you have lots of big storms and swell," Mantua said. "Surfers love it. And, people who own coastal property or try to maintain roads along the coast do not love it," he said. "These winters are the ones that take a big bite out of the coastline." Not even past the two-month mark of 2016, the National Weather Service has issued high surf notices 13 times in Ventura County. That's already more than half the number of advisories and warnings in all of 2015. As the swell that brought big waves Wednesday and Thursday tapers off, another one could reach local shores late Friday. "We've lost a lot of sand due to erosion," said Rich Rozzelle, district superintendent for California State Parks in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Debris has washed up on north beach at Emma Wood State Park; and Refugio State Beach, farther north, has lost palm trees. In December, high surf flooded coastal roads and washed out some of the support beams under the Ventura pier, which has been closed since. Public Works Director Rick Raives said the pier should be ready to reopen in March. How soon will depend on the surf, because crews need calmer wave conditions to finish the work. It's not uncommon during the wintertime to get big northwest swells here, said Capt. Dan Horton, with the Ventura County Fire Department. "But we're getting them almost on a weekly basis now," he said. "It's definitely been something we've been keeping an eye on. We have had a lot of training with our ocean rescue team." Contributed photo/VCFD: A training of a simulated rescue off the Ventura pier. County fire officials staffed ocean rescue swimmers at coastal fire stations near Rincon, Port Hueneme and County Line beach. "Seasonal lifeguards are off during this time of the year, so we have the ability to get people in the water and perform rescues much quicker," Horton said. Warm, sunny weather also has brought more people to the beach. That's not a bad thing, Horton said, but sometimes means more rescues. Over Presidents Day weekend, the county fire department alone responded to 10 ocean rescues in three days. Typically, there would be 10 rescues in a month. Authorities said know your abilities and check conditions before going into the water. Stay off rock jetties, and if caught in a rip current, swim parallel to the shore. The big waves likely won't last too much longer. Mantua said the El Nino effect on storms starts to taper off once you get into April and May. For people worried about the beaches, officials say this is all a natural process that happens to some degree each year. Calmer conditions in the summer will bring the sand back. "We see large winter swells every winter," Rozzelle said. "This year, we're just seeing it more often." Karen Quincy Loberg/The Star SHARE By Jeremy Roebuck, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS) PHILADELPHIAFederal prosecutors alleged Wednesday that corrupt officials in the Chinese government financially supported and may have benefited from a scheme to steal trade secrets worth billions from a GlaxoSmithKline research facility in Montgomery County. But lawyers representing one of the five defendants accused of pilfering information from the British-based pharmaceutical giants Upper Merion Township location called such claims a fantastical assertion. The dispute which boiled over at a detention hearing in federal court in Philadelphia struck at the heart of debate over the Justice Departments recent checkered history in prosecuting cases of alleged theft of trade secrets involving Chinese American scientists. Accusing the government of grossly exaggerating the stakes, defense lawyer John N. Joseph pointed to that mixed record in arguing for his clients release. It wouldnt be the first time the government has sat in this courtroom citing overwhelming evidence in a trade-secrets case only to withdraw the charges before trial, he said. The Obama administration has accused Chinese spy agencies of encouraging their nations businesses to steal trade secrets from American corporations, and made stanching that flow a priority. But several recent high-profile blunders have caused critics to label the accusations as racial hysteria reminiscent of the red scares of the 1950s. The matter before U.S. Magistrate Judge David R. Strawbridge on Wednesday involved Tao Li, a 42-year-old biochemist and U.S. citizen, who prosecutors say plotted with his codefendants to sell and market promising cancer research stolen from GSK. Federal authorities have alleged that Tao worked with two GSK scientists Yu Xue, a world-renowned biochemistry expert, who lives in Wayne, and Lucy Xi, 38, of Westlake Village, Calif. to smuggle the stolen information out of the company between 2012 and 2015. The group intended to use the information to launch its own competitor companies, based in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Nanjing and operating under the name Reno pharma, prosecutors said. Although the indictment alleges that unnamed Chinese officials accepted bribes from Tao and his colleagues, and held under the table stock options in the burgeoning company, the defendants were not charged with economic espionage, which requires proof that government officials were directly involved in the crime. Instead, they face charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and theft of trade secrets. In court filings so far, prosecutors have only pointed to emails and records from Tao and Yu to substantiate their claim of government involvement. In one August 2012 message cited in the indictment, Yu identified two key Chinese officials whom she felt confident she could persuade to invest in Renopharma through a special government fund, and laid out plans to give them expensive gifts to cement their support. Renopharmas own financial records from March 2014 list the equivalent of about $300,000 the company had received from various government-backed funds in China that year. Prosecutors on Wednesday urged the judge to keep Tao in federal detention until his trial, arguing that the same government officials who have supported his company in the past have an interest in helping him escape trial in the United States. Certain government officials in China, who are apparently corrupt, have been active supporters of Reno pharma for many years, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Livermore said in filings in Taos case this week. These supporters would be motivated for numerous reasons to assist the defendant in fleeing motivated to protect themselves, protect the defendant, and protect and further their investment in the stolen technology. But Joseph, Taos lawyer, argued Wednesday that such claims were little more than hyperbole, and compared the Chinese government money that Renopharma had received to economic development grants routinely handed out by state and local governments to private businesses in the U.S. The governments fantastical notions that the Chinese government has some interest in whisking him back to China to protect their own interests has no basis in fact, he said. Strawbridge ultimately agreed, allowing for Taos release on a $75,000 bond. Joseph likened the allegations in Taos case to several recent high-profile prosecutions involving Chinese American scientists that fell apart, including a case against Xiaoxing, the former chair of Temple Universitys physics department. Federal authorities arrested Xiaoxing in May on accusations that he stole sensitive U.S. technology to help China emerge as a global leader in his field of superconductivity, only to withdraw the charges four months later after his lawyer pointed out that prosecutors had fundamentally misunderstood the technology Xiaoxing was accused of stealing and that it was not a protected trade secret. In the 10 months preceding that decision, Justice Department lawyers also withdrew cases against four other Chinese American scientists across the country accused of passing along protected information, including allegations against two former senior biologists at GSK competitor Eli Lilly & Co. Still, it is clear from government court filings that authorities feel confident that the case against Tao and his codefendants will not end in another public embarrassment. Through a series of email search warrants, the FBI caught Yu Xue, Tao Li and the other coconspirators red-handed, Livermore wrote in a recent filing. The evidence in this case is overwhelming. The indictment against them contains long passages quoting the groups email exchanges, including several in which Tao and Yu worried what would happen should they get caught. When news of the trade secrets case against the Lilly scientists broke in 2013, Yu sent a brief email to Tao. So scary, she wrote, according to the indictment. Please do not send any doc containing GSK data out to others. 2016 The Philadelphia Inquirer Visit The Philadelphia Inquirer at www.philly.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. SHARE Weather scientists will record Feb. 23, 2016, as Dark Tuesday the day and night more than two dozen tornadoes pounded the Gulf States, spreading devastation and tragedy from Louisiana to Florida. Meanwhile, political scientists will be analyzing a very different piece of Dark Tuesday debris a stunning pattern of self-inflicted political devastation that swept across the heartland, from the Potomac riverbank to Nevada. And someday those experts may conclude Dark Tuesday was the beginning of the end of the Republican Party your parents once respected as the proud party of Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, and members of his Republican leadership team announced that the Senate Judiciary Committee will take the unprecedented step of refusing to hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee President Barack Obama might select. "This nomination will be determined by whoever wins the presidency in the polls," said McConnell. "I agree with the Judiciary Committee's recommendation that we not have hearings. In short, there will not be action taken." No action taken means Senate Republican leaders have chosen to condemn the Supreme Court to an existence of having only eight justices and the potential prospect of many 4-4 tie votes for well over a year. The Constitution specifies the president "shall nominate" Supreme Court justices and the Senate shall provide its "advice and consent." The Senate's procedures call for the Judiciary Committee to conduct hearings at which the president's nominee answers questions. The committee then votes on whether to recommend the nomination to the full Senate. But having disrespected the Constitution's provisions, Senate Republican leaders extended their senatorial discourtesy to the president and any prospective nominee. As a matter of senatorial courtesy, a president's nominee usually meets individually with committee members before any hearings. But the Senate's top Republicans summarily deep-sixed that traditional courtesy as a waste of time. Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn of Texas, a Judiciary Committee member, explained: "I don't see the point of going through the motions if we know what the outcome is going to be." And McConnell gave their dissing his blessing, Hours later, Nevada's Republicans convened their presidential caucuses. And what happened in Vegas sure didn't stay in Vegas it led the nonstop news. Donald Trump had parlayed his campaign of snide insults, racial sneers, birther distortions and daily deceits into, as he would say, a YUGE victory. He nearly doubled the percentages of his nearest competitors. Now Trump is the undisputed presidential front-runner of the party he only recently joined. His very presence at the top of the ticket shames all who embody the very best in his once-Grand Old Party. But then again, Dark Tuesday also included a major news development that could mean that despite all the above missteps, Trump or any Republican may indeed end up as your next president. A federal judge ruled that Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton's top aides can be questioned under oath by a group of Clinton's political adversaries, the conservative group Judicial Watch. The group has filed a lawsuit challenging whether the email system Clinton used as secretary of state violated federal open-records laws. Clinton has admitted she was wrong to have used a private email system for her government business as secretary of state. Now, any damaging revelations from Clinton's aides could become big news at the worst time for her in the midst of her presidential campaign. The morning after Dark Tuesday, the next round of game-playing began. Word mysteriously leaked that Obama's White House was vetting as a possible Supreme Court pick Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a former federal judge and Republican. Senate Republicans called the bluff by saying they won't approve anyone Obama picks. Not even one of their own. So it is that the Grand Old Party seems to be willfully morphing before our disbelieving eyes into a Grand Obstructionist Party. Martin Schram, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, is a veteran Washington journalist, author and TV documentary executive. Readers may send him email at martin.schram@gmail.com. SHARE State Sen. Mark Leno has introduced legislation that would allow the public to see records related to police officer misconduct. That would move California in line with a dozen other states that allow at least some public access to records related to misconduct by officers after it is confirmed. We support the bill, SB 1286, as proposed by the San Francisco Democrat and urge the Legislature to adopt it. There is a growing distrust of police officers and police agencies. We have seen too many cases where the public perceives law enforcement as protecting one of its own when an officer is accused of misconduct or involved in the use of deadly force. That fracturing of public trust is exacerbated by the secrecy provisions that many states, including California, have allowed in regard to police files. The Leno bill would open to public inspection, as part of the California Public Records Act, files related to complaints against police officers that would include the initial complaint, the full investigation file including any evidence gathered, and the findings, discipline or corrective action taken. The bill requires the redaction from the file of any personal information about the officer, such as a home address, telephone number, family members or medical records, and information that would reveal confidential informants. Currently in California, files related to allegations against police officers, the investigation of the complaint and results of it, along with the outcome, are all sealed. The bill immediately came under attack from some law enforcement groups and their supporters. One line of opposition is that the personal information, even if redacted, could still be included in some documents released by law enforcement agencies, and then criminal groups like the Mexican Mafia would hack into those computers and steal the addresses and family information of officers. This far-reaching scenario could easily be avoided by simply never including such personal information in those investigative reports. A second argument is that the legislation would violate the privacy protections for law enforcement officers. This gets to the heart of the debate. California lawmakers and courts have long sided with law enforcement on locking down their records for public access. Basically in this state, as long as a law enforcement agency says a case is still under investigation regardless of whether it has been fully prosecuted and adjudicated then the documents related to that case are sealed. The same is true for documents related to internal investigations, which is what the Leno bill is attacking. In a climate of growing mistrust, we would hope all law enforcement officers would want the public to know they are willing and able to investigate their own and weed out any and all bad officers or wrong actions. To be unwilling to show the public that police are willing and able to police themselves can only grow the divide between the officers and the communities they serve. This year NASCAR fans wont only be fast-tracking to the Sprint Cup Finals from Friday, March 4, until Sunday, March 6, theyll be racing back to Crazy Horse III after the nail-biting, fall-off-the-edge-of-your seat races at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Patrons that present their NASCAR tickets during NASCAR weekend will be eligible for complimentary cover and limousine transportation, along with their first drink on the house. Guests interested in taking advantage of the limousine transportation may call 702-673-1700. In honor of one of Las Vegas most beloved traditions, Crazy Horse III will keep the excitement going as they invite NASCAR fans to celebrate with hot dancers and flowing drinks at the full service bar. PLAYGROUND is a revolutionary concept offering multiple rooms to satisfy the 24-hour cravings of tourists and locals alike, including Crazy Horse III gentlemens club, Posh Boutique Nightclub, fresh sushi at Sushi All Night and the Harem Hookah lounge. The 40,000+ square-foot venue is located minutes away from the Las Vegas Strip, just a few blocks west of I-15 on Russell Rd. For VIP, group reservations or further information about PLAYGROUND, Crazy Horse III, Posh Boutique Nightclub, Harem Hookah or Sushi All Night call 702-673-1700 or visit www.playgroundlv.com. The smuggler was later identified as Vu Van Duc, born 1989, who resides in Dong Ha, the capital city of Quang Tri. Quang Tri police searched Ducs car when he was on his way from Laos to Vietnam and found 7,000 pellets of crystal meth stashed inside the cars front doors. Crystal meth, or methamphetamine, is a strong central nervous system stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug, the use of which is illegal in most countries. Police also found a hand grenade, pepper spray, and some instruments for drug use during the raid. During a quick search at the suspects house later, police discovered a number of white arms, including 10 different types of bladed weapons and some bookkeeping documents on daily drug-dealing accounts. Duc admitted to the crime in his testimony, saying he had bought the drugs from other sellers to re-distribute to drug addicts in Dong Ha. In Vietnam, narcotics-related crimes are punishable by jail terms right up to the death penalty, depending on the amount of drugs involved and the severity of the crime. ANZ Vietnam CEO Dennis Hussey said: The prestigious award recognises ANZs market leading position and our teams expertise in Trade Finance services. More importantly, the recognition reflects our customers confidence in banking with us. With an extensive network of trade specialists, the ability to connect and build close relationships with customers across 34 markets, as well as a strong commitment to Asia and Vietnam in particular, we deliver our customers with the best trade finance solutions in market, said Aseem Goyal, ANZs head of Global Transaction Banking, Vietnam and Greater Mekong. This year, ANZ was also honoured by Global Finance as Best Trade Finance Bank in Australia, New Zealand and Cambodia. The editorial review board of Global Finance selected the best trade finance providers based on input from industry analysts, corporate executives and technology experts. In addition, a poll of Global Finances readership was conducted in order to increase the accuracy and reliability of the results. Criteria for choosing the winners included: transaction volume, scope of global coverage, customer service, competitive pricing and innovative technologies. These awards have become a trusted standard of excellence for the global financial community. ANZ was one of the first foreign banks in Vietnam when it opened in 1993. The ANZ Vietnam franchise supports customers from the Retail & Wealth, Consumer Finance, Institutional client group, Financial Institution & Public Sector. ANZ was named Best Trade Finance Bank and Best Risk Management Bank in The Assets Triple A Treasury, Trade and Risk Management Awards 2015 and has been awarded Best International Trade Bank in Vietnam consecutively in recent years by Trade Finance magazine. ANZ has been ranked Best Foreign FX Provider in Vietnam for four consecutive years since 2012 by Asiamoney magazine. Officials in Quynh Doi Commune, Quynh Luu District have finished the inauguration ceremony for a brand new entrance to the village, according to Ho Quang Tuan, chairman of the Quynh Doi Peoples Committee. The construction covers a total area of 3,000 square meters, with the highest point 14 meters tall and the widest point 22 meters across. The village entrance consists of one main gate, 6.9 meters high and seven meters wide, and two smaller side doors. From outside the village, the entrance reads Quynh Doi Village while people standing inside the rural area see large text reading Khai Co 1378, signifying the year the village was established. The village entrance is also the gate to Quynh Doi Commune as the locality only comprises one village, Chairman Tuan explained, adding that this is considered the largest village entry in Nghe An. The total budget for the building of this entrance was recorded at nearly VND3 billion [$134,040], which was bankrolled by villagers working away from their hometown. Construction started about a year ago, the chairman said. Quynh Doi Commune, located three kilometers east of National Highway 1, is home to about 1,400 households and 5,000 people. The per capita income of the locality in 2015 was VND30.5 million ($1,362.7) a year, higher than the average amount of Quynh Luu District. Serving as more than just an entrance and exit, village gates in Vietnam were once considered a part of the defense against intruders in ancient times and have become a symbol of art and history in modern times. Victoria Azarenka returns against Angelique Kerber during the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on Jan 27, 2016. (AFP/Saeed Khan) MEXICO CITY: Top-seeded Victoria Azarenka pulled out of the Mexico Open in Acapulco on Wednesday (Feb 24) with a left wrist injury, sending Dominika Cibulkova into the third round. Azarenka was playing her first event since falling in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open to eventual champion Angelique Kerber. The former world number one from Belarus, now ranked 14th in the world, had needed two hours to beat Slovenia's Polona Hercog in three sets in the first-round on Tuesday. Wednesday's withdrawal from the ATP and WTA hardcourt tournament was another setback for a player who displayed strong form early in 2016, having apparently moved on from the injuries and personal issues that hampered her career over the past two years. Slovakia's Cibulkova next faces either Sweden's Johanna Larsson, the sixth seed, or American Shelby Rogers. Vietnams manufacturing sector is the most likely gateway for Italian enterprises According to the Italian Trade Agency (ITA), Italy is the third-largest EU trading partner of Vietnam. However, in terms of investment, Italy is less present than it should or could be. To date, Italian businesses have pumped over $304 million into 67 valid projects in Vietnam. Among them, the manufacturing sector stands out in both the number of projects and the size of investment. Italian firms deem Vietnam to be a reliable investment destination for them in the region following a wide range of free trade agreements (FTAs) such as the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). These FTAs affirm the governments effort to make a big change in the perception that Vietnam presents to the outside world, said Bruna Santarelli, ITAs trade commissioner. She also noted that Vietnam was becoming highly integrated into the region with the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community. Italian enterprises recognise Vietnam as a gateway into the ASEAN bloc, which is a key industrial and consumer market. As such, Vietnam has become an increasingly competitive market for Italian investors, especially those who would like to move their manufacturing facilities out of China, Santarelli added. Italian businesses said that Chinas market was unstable, in addition to rising labour costs, and less favourable policies for foreign investors. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese government is striving to attract foreign investors with more investment incentives, quality industrial parks, and skilled workers. The trend of Italian firms flocking to Vietnam is a result of their China-based customers relocating their production bases here. In addition, there is a growing interest from Vietnamese companies for Italian machinery, technology, and products. Vietnam has taken efforts to climb up the value chain, which requires more state-of-the-art equipment. Therefore, Italian businesses are forecast to make more investment in Vietnamese markets to meet the rising demand in the time ahead. At the beginning of March, 21 Italian manufacturers will take part in the Propak Vietnam and Plastic & Rubber Vietnam events held in the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre in Ho Chi Minh City where they will showcase a wide range of high-end technologies and equipment catering to all factory production needs. Santarelli went on to state that, This trip is just a starting point for Italian investors to investigate Vietnams investment climate. We started to see more interest from Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We expect there will be an increase in trade and growth in investment from Italy to Vietnam, especially in the machinery sector. Although the size of their investment is not large yet, they will grow larger gradually to satisfy both local market demand and exports. Some Italian firms like Piaggio Vietnam and Datalogic Vietnam have expanded their business activities and now consider Vietnam to be their manufacturing hub, she added. Products made by Johnson & Johnson for sale on a store shelf in Westminster, Colorado in this file photo dated April 14, 2009. REUTERS/Rick Wilking REUTERS: Johnson & Johnson was ordered by a Missouri state jury to pay US$72 million of damages to the family of a woman whose death from ovarian cancer was linked to her use of the company's talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for several decades. In a verdict announced late Monday night, jurors in the circuit court of St. Louis awarded the family of Jacqueline Fox US$10 million of actual damages and US$62 million of punitive damages, according to the family's lawyers and court records. The verdict is the first by a U.S. jury to award damages over the claims, the lawyers said. Johnson & Johnson faces claims that it, in an effort to boost sales, failed for decades to warn consumers that its talc-based products could cause cancer. About 1,000 cases have been filed in Missouri state court, and another 200 in New Jersey. Fox, who lived in Birmingham, Alabama, claimed she used Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for feminine hygiene for more than 35 years before being diagnosed three years ago with ovarian cancer. She died in October at age 62. Jurors found Johnson & Johnson liable for fraud, negligence and conspiracy, the family's lawyers said. Deliberations lasted four hours, following a three-week trial. Jere Beasley, a lawyer for Fox's family, said Johnson & Johnson "knew as far back as the 1980s of the risk," and yet resorted to "lying to the public, lying to the regulatory agencies." He spoke on a conference call with journalists. Carol Goodrich, a Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman, said: "We have no higher responsibility than the health and safety of consumers, and we are disappointed with the outcome of the trial. We sympathize with the plaintiff's family but firmly believe the safety of cosmetic talc is supported by decades of scientific evidence." Trials in several other talc lawsuits have been set for later this year, according to Danielle Mason, who also represented Fox's family at trial. In October 2013, a federal jury in Sioux Falls, South Dakota found that plaintiff Deane Berg's use of Johnson & Johnson's body powder products was a factor in her developing ovarian cancer. Nevertheless, it awarded no damages, court records show. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc now owns the Shower to Shower brand but was not a defendant in the Fox case. The case is Hogans et al v. Johnson & Johnson et al, Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, No. 1422-CC09012. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York. Additional reporting by Jessica Dye in New York; editing by Steve Orlofsky and Alan Crosby) According to the provincial leaders, as the project developer has proven to be lacking the financial capacity to execute the project, firstly the province will check up the project before compiling the necessary liquidation procedures to take it back. Earlier in November 2014, the Khanh Hoa Peoples Committee granted the investment certificate for Dewan Projects to build Nha Trang Teacher Training College, with an orientation to be turned into Nha Trang University. Accordingly, with the chartered capital of $5.5 million, the developer will build the new campus of Nha Trang Teacher Training College on a 10.43ha area in Nha Trang citys Vinh Luong commune. The total investment capital of the project surpasses VND1.01 trillion ($46.6 million) and will be conducted under a build-transfer (BT) format. To help the investor facilitate the BT project, Khanh Hoa provided a more than 2.2ha land plot with three street fronts in a Nha Trang citys golden location, belonging to pre-existing Nha Trang Teacher Training College, to Dewan Projects. In this location, the developer plans to implement its $300 million Monarch Centre Development project, consisting of two five-star and six four-star hotels. The company, however, failed to realise its required chartered capital contribution commitment. In July 2015, Khanh Hoa Peoples Committee decided on revoking the projects developed by Dewan Corporations Vietnam-based units due to their financial inability. As for the Khanh Hoa University building project, the provincial management extended the capital contribution deadline by 30 days. However, proving unable to muster the necessary finances, Dewan Projects once again defaulted on its promises. In November 2015, after numerous warnings, the provincial Department of Planning and Investment fined the company VND15 million ($700) for breaking the commitment. Regarding the case, Tran Hoa Nam, director of Khanh Hoa Department of Planning and Investment, said that Dewan Projects had issued a document proposing to contribute $1 million of the projects chartered capital first, promising to put forward the remaining $4.4 million after the signing of the BT contract between the company and the province, reported newswire dddn.com.vn. However, until now, the firm has yet to make any capital contributions as per the commitment. Earlier, the Khanh Hoa management authority revoked the investment certificate of the billion-dollar Phoenix Beach project, developed by Dewan International Vietnam, another subsidiary of Dewan Corporation, on account of strongly voiced public concerns that the new development might affect the publics access to the beach. The guide was jointly produced by International Market Advisor and the UK Institute of Export, with support from the British Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, the British Business Group Vietnam, and e-Regulations Vietnam. Leading British firms in Vietnam, including investment fund Dragon Capital, also collaborated in the programme. The main objective of the Doing Business in Vietnam Guide is to provide foreign investors with a basic knowledge about Vietnam, including an overview of its economy, business culture, and potential opportunities. Moreover, the guide aims to identify the main issues associated with initial research, market entry, risk management, as well as cultural and language issues - making it a must read, particularly useful for new investors and first-time exporters in and to Vietnam. A compilation of essential service providers are also included in the guidebook, which includes Atlas Industries, British International School, Dragon Capital, and NashTech Global. In 2015, Dragon Capital has cooperated with many British organisations and firms to develop the Doing Business in Vietnam Guide. We are honoured to sponsor and contribute to this programme as we hope to present the most helpful and comprehensive guide to investors in Vietnam, said Dominic Scriven, executive chairman of Dragon Capital. Meanwhile, British Ambassador to Vietnam Lever Giles noted in the Guides foreword that the UK is committed to growing its trade and investment relationship with Vietnam, as well as providing the best support and service to British firms entering the market. Following the launch, the Guidebook can now be accessed via the Doing Business Guide UK website ( vietnam.doingbusinessguide.co.uk ). A printed version and mobile application are also available. Further assistance for investors can be sought from the UK Trade and Investment Team in Vietnam. The bank saw rapid transformation in 2015 and plans for further development in 2016 The bank (VIB) reported that many exciting new initiatives and innovative activities are continually being implemented to help highlight VIB and differentiate it from other banks. According to a VIB leader, by taking a consistent, balanced, and disciplined approach to the delivery of their corporate strategy, which focuses on the three pillars of Growth, Productivity, and Risk Management, VIB will continue to follow international-standard operational and management models to get closer to realising a vision of being the most innovative and customer-centric bank of Vietnam. Through this approach, VIB hopes to shape and promote a healthy banking industry in Vietnam. For VIB, sustainable development is vital for the benefit of its customers as much as for the bank itself. To this end, the bank launched many integrated promotional campaigns, such as Golden moment and Fulfill your dream with VIB in 2015. With a stable and transparent pricing policy, the bank has helped customers proactively make their own borrowing and repayment plans to enjoy various benefits and focus on the more important things in life. In addition, VIB has signed co-operation agreements with many different strategic partners to diversify its product and service portfolios and enable customers to make better plans today and for the future. Most recently, VIB signed a ground-breaking, long-term and visionary strategic partnership with Prudential to exclusively distribute Prudential life insurance products in the local market. This will help bring about long-term and sustainable benefits to the banks customers. VIB also launched a new and innovative digital banking strategy by developing the MyVIB mobile banking app, which has been widely praised for its convenience, security, and simplicity, and which has been hailed as the best digital banking app on the market. In 2015, VIB launched a brand new website designed with a modern technology platform, fast processing speeds, a friendly interface, simple, useful information, and a high rate of interactivity with customers. Specially, VIB also launched a new comprehensive product and pricing policy review, delivering some of the best and most customer-centric pricing in the market for both lending and deposit products for both existing and new customers. Subsequently, VIB has been lauded by local and international organisations for its efforts and achievements through awards such as, The bank with the highest credit strength ratings in Vietnam by Moodys, The most outstanding bank with innovative products and services for MyVIB app by the International Data Group (IDG), and most significantly the highly-coveted Bank of the Year 2015 award from the Banker magazine in the UK, one of the most prestigious banking publications in the world. Country Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Canada Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cuba, Republic of Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Dominican Republic Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Haiti, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Jamaica Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Mexico, United Mexican States Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu US Virgin Islands Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Last weeks meeting between US President Barack Obama and leaders of ASEAN in Southern California will be marked as a successful US endeavor, a governance expert says. Ok Serei Sopheak told Hello VOA this week that the meeting, at Sunnylands Estate, in Rancho Mirage, produced a joint declaration that will become a legacy of US policy. The Sunnylands summit will shape the way the US engages with ASEAN for years to come, he said, no matter who becomes the next president. The 17-point declaration creates guidelines for US-ASEAN positions on economics, trade and security. That will help ASEAN speak in one voice on issues of concern, such as the South China Sea, where four of the regional blocks members have overlapping claims with China. This is like putting pressure on China, in that we are seeking peaceful cooperation based on international maritime law, Ok Serei Sopheak said. That was clear in the declarations points 7, 8 and 9, where leaders emphasized a demilitarized, peaceful resolution to the South China Sea issue, he said. Therefore, whatever China does using force will run contrary to this spirit. The summit also saw protests against Prime Minister Hun Sen and his government. This demonstrates that many want to see Cambodia seek better respect for human rights and democracy, including in peaceful, free and fair elections, with the participation of opposition leader Sam Rainsy, Ok Serei Sopheak said. Referring to the beatings of two opposition lawmakers last year after a pro-government demonstration, Ok Serei Sopheak said the video images, shared via social media throughout the world were hard to accept. The world is watching us, he said. In defying the U.S. governments demands to help it break into a locked iPhone, Apple Inc. and its chief executive have added another chapter to the tech companys lore. The move has amplified its role, not only as an innovator of computing and communications, but also as a global guardian of privacy and security and created a complicated challenge. The standoff represents the hardest question Ive seen in government, FBI Director James Comey told a congressional committee on Thursday. This case is not about one phone. This case is about the future, Apple CEO Tim Cook told ABC News in an exclusive television interview that aired Wednesday. What is at stake here is: Can the government compel Apple to write software that we believe would make hundreds of millions of customers vulnerable around the world, including the U.S., and also trample civil liberties that are at the basic foundation of what this country was made on? The phone in question allegedly belonged to Syed Farook, who, with his Pakistan-born wife, went on a terrorist shooting spree last December that left 14 of his co-workers dead in San Bernardino, California. Last week, a federal judge ruled that Apple engineers must develop custom coding to break the companys proprietary auto-destruct security system. Apple has refused. While Cook expressed sympathy for the victims, he explained that compliance would endanger consumer trust a cornerstone of one of the worlds most profitable companies and, more important, could jeopardize civil liberties and even lives. "If a court can ask us to write this piece of software, think about what else they could ask us to write maybe its an operating system for surveillance, maybe the ability for the law enforcement to turn on the camera," Cook told ABC. "I don't know where this stops; but, I do know that this is not what should be happening in this country." Apple says the FBI has asked it to unlock more than a dozen iPhones in the last five months, reinforcing its argument that the FBI's current request will lead to further demands. Concern over future demands Cook, in a February 16 letter to Apple customers, wrote that "compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk. That is why encryption has become so important to all of us." Comey, testifying Thursday before the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, questioned whether the benefits of "universal strong encryption" outweigh the risks. "I love encryption, I love privacy," Comey said. But he added that law enforcement "really does save people's lives, rescue kids, rescue neighborhoods from terrorists and we do that a whole lot through court orders that are search warrants and we do it a whole lot through search warrants of mobile devices. So if we move to a world where that is not possible anymore, the world will not end but it will be a different world than where we are today." Apple is expected to file an objection to the order by Friday, the Associated Press reported. On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told a congressional committee that theres a precedent to back the government's request. "It's a long-standing principle in our justice system that if an independent judge finds reason to believe that a certain item contains evidence of a crime, then that judge can authorize the government to conduct a limited search for that evidence," she said. "And if the government needs the assistance of third parties to ensure that the search is actually conducted, judges all over the country and on the Supreme Court have said that those parties must assist if it is reasonably within their power to do so." Apple prepares for legal battle Cook told ABC on Wednesday that Apple was willing to take its fight to the nations highest court. The Washington Post notes the company already has lined up a former U.S. solicitor general, Ted Olson, whos experienced in Supreme Court litigation. Olson has written in support of journalists protecting their sources, and he successfully challenged Californias ban on same-sex marriage. Among the organizations pledging to aid Apples legal fight is the American Civil Liberties. "This is an unprecedented, unwise and unlawful move by the government," staff attorney Alex Abdo commented last week. While on the presidential campaign trail last week, billionaire Republican candidate Donald Trump called for a boycott of Apple products iPhones, iPods, iPads, Macbooks and more. Divided public opinion The American public is split on whether Apple should comply. A Pew Research Center poll released Monday indicated a slight majority of Americans 51 percent believe Apple should unlock the iPhone to assist the ongoing FBI investigation. Another 38 percent say it shouldnt, suggesting an obligation to protect its other users information. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday found that nearly half of Americans (46 percent) support Apples position and a third (35 percent) disagreed. Reuters noted that other questions in the poll indicated that a majority of Americans do not want the government to have access to their phone and Internet communications, even if it is done in the name of stopping terror attacks." Some Apple supporters have taken to the street, holding rallies organized by the group Fight for the Future in at least 30 American cities as well as outside FBI headquarters. Others have shown solidarity online and in other media. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting civil liberties, encouraged broad resistance "to this half-baked and ill-advised judicial command" by "raising your voice through every channel available." No matter the outcome, the fight definitely is raising Cooks and Apples profile, Geoff Colvin wrote in Fortune, as the Washington Post cited. "Cook has chosen to put himself and Apple at center stage on an issue of central importance to the technology industry, criminal justice, and society, with no assurance of where this choice will lead," Colvin wrote. "He apparently just believes its time this issue got confronted head-on. Thats leadership behavior, and whatever the outcome, it elevates Apples status." VOA's Doug Bernard and Jeff Custer contributed to this report. Australia will spend an extra $21 billion in defense spending over the next decade. The government says it reflects concern over rapid militarization in the Asia-Pacific region. The specifics of Australia's defense priorities for the next decade were revealed in a policy document released Thursday by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The biggest investment will be the construction of 12 submarines, with additional funds for other naval vessels, fighter jets and more than 62,000 personnel, its biggest permanent force since 1993. Under Turnbulls blueprint, defense spending will make up two percent of Australia's national income within five years. There is concern in Canberra over Chinas militarization of the South China Sea, and officials concede the new policy document reflects Australia's growing discomfort with Beijing's military activity. Speaking Thursday in the national capital, Canberra, the Prime Minister said Australia had to respond to military changes in its region. The relationship between the United States and China, how it develops and grows, will be critically important. We welcome China's rise and its greater capacity to share responsibility for supporting regional and global security. We will seek to build on our already strong military ties with Indonesia - that vibrant, stable democracy to our north, said Turnbull. Analysts believe the Australian defense plan highlights Canberras willingness to work with other countries to maintain regional stability, and should not be seen as sending a direct warning to China. They add that Australia must tread a delicate diplomatic path -- developing its longstanding military alliance with the United States and bolstering ties with India and Japan, while at the same time nurturing its relationship with China, its biggest trading partner. Cambodian defense officials have requested two warships from China, saying they are needed to help Cambodia defend its maritime territory. Cambodian Navy Admiral Tea Vinh asked for the two modern military vessels during a meeting with Chinese Rear Admiral Yu Manjian. Their talks in Phnom Penh followed joint maritime rescue drills conducted by the countries' naval forces, which ended Wednesday. During the exercise, three Chinese ships - two frigates armed with guided missiles and a supply ship - were docked on display at the port of Sihanoukville. "When I went to inspect them, the ships are very good," Tea Vinh said in a statement. Meas Tang, a spokesman for the Cambodian navy, said the request was more like a "wish list," and that it remains unclear whether China will accept such a request. Saying South China Sea tensions were discussed during his meeting with Yu, Tea Vinh said Cambodia maintains the same stance with ASEAN naval leaders, including those in dispute with China. "I say this should be resolved amongst themselves peacefully," he said. Tea Vinh also affirmed Cambodias one-China policy, which does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state. This week's maritime drills, consisting primarily of fire and rescue exercises, signal increased military cooperation between the countries. The arrival of the display ships, which were open to the public Thursday, come amid news that China has continued to build up infrastructure amid disputed islands in the South China Sea, and just after ASEAN leaders met with U.S. President Barack Obama in talks that included the contentious sea issue. This story was produced in collaboration with VOA's Khmer Service. A court in southern Egypt has convicted four Coptic Christian teenagers for contempt of Islam, an Egyptian lawyer said Thursday. Three of the teenagers received sentences of five years in prison. The sentence for the fourth defendant - who is under the age of 18 - was not announced but he has been referred to a juvenile facility for an indefinite period of detention. Maher Naguib, the lawyer for the teenagers, called the ruling "unbelievable" and said his clients should have been punished with a fine. The teenagers appeared in a video in which one student is seen enacting Muslim prayers while the others stand near him, laughing. Naguib said the teenagers did not intend to insult Islam when they filmed the video on a mobile phone in January 2015 but were instead mocking Islamic State beheadings. The four defendants have not yet been arrested and did not appear in court for the ruling. Naguib plans to appeal the judgement. Last week, a military court in Cairo sentenced a 3-year-old Egyptian Muslim toddler to life in prison for killing three people and sabotaging public and private property during a political demonstration in January 2014. Authorities now say it was a case of a mistaken identity. The Washington Post said the conviction of the child highlighted the government broad, ongoing crackdown on dissenters. U.N. diplomats are considering a Security Council resolution endorsing a U.S.- and Russian-backed cease-fire in Syria, which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says is "the one way that we can end this war." Syria's warring parties have until midday Friday to say if they are participating in the cessation of hostilities that is due to begin 12 hours later. "The alternative is that the war gets worse, that Syria might be totally destroyed, not able to be put back together," Kerry said Wednesday. U.S. and Russian officials are holding further discussions Thursday on implementing the cease-fire, and Russia's deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, reiterated that his country is not discussing any alternatives to the plan. The Syrian government has said it will take part and also will continue attacking Islamic State and al-Qaida-linked terrorists, which are excluded from the cease-fire. The truce would halt five years of fighting that has left 470,000 people dead. The main opposition High Committee for Negotiations (HNC) gave a reserved endorsement for the cease-fire on Wednesday, saying it will participate for two weeks to determine the other side's commitment. The HNC has also said its participation is contingent on the delivery of humanitarian aid and the end of sieges and airstrikes against civilians. The U.S. envoy for Syria Michael Ratney said in a statement that the HNC's recommendations are being carefully considered. He also expressed hope that the maximum number of armed factions will sign on to the cease-fire. Turkey issues warning Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned Thursday that his country will not be bound by the truce if it is threatened by Syrian Kurdish fighters or the Islamic State group. Turkey has carried out cross-border shelling into northern Syria targeting the Kurdish YPG militia, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says should not be part of the cease-fire deal. Turkey considers the YPG to be terrorists based on their links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has carried out a three-decade insurgency in the countrys southeast. The PKK is recognized as a terror group by the United States and the European Union. Obama cautious President Barack Obama struck a cautious tone after meeting Wednesday with Jordan's King Abdullah II. "We are very cautious about raising expectations on this; the situation on the ground is difficult," the president said. But the American leader added, "If over the next several weeks we can see some lessening of the violence thats been wracking that country, then that provides us a basis to build a longer term cease-fire." He said the warring parties fighting for control of Syria might eventually be able to "move forward on the political transition that ultimately is going to be necessary to bring an end to the civil war in Syria. In Moscow, the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Wednesday with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Saudi Arabia's King Salman about the impending truce. Its statement said Putin and Rouhani, who both support the Assad regime in Damascus, "stressed the importance of a further cooperation" between the two countries in fighting terrorist groups in Syria. Russia said that Salman, who is supporting rebel groups fighting Assad, "welcomed" the truce and voiced a "willingness to work with Russia" to implement it. The European Unions migration commissioner warned Thursday the blocks migration system risks a complete breakdown. Underscoring the deepening EU rifts over the issue, Greece has recalled its ambassador to Austria after not being invited to a migrant meeting. Speaking after migration talks in Brussels, European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos warned EU member states have just over a week to make progress on the migrant standoff before a summit with Turkey on March 7. In the next 10 days, we need tangible and clear results on the ground. Otherwise, there is a danger, a risk that the whole system will completely break down," said Avramopoulos. The meeting aimed to heal deepening divisions among EU member states over handling the migrant influx. Greece recalled its ambassador to Austria after Vienna hosted a meeting with Balkan states Wednesday that Greek officials were not invited to. Those attending including non-EU members agreed to a series of unilateral restrictions to reduce the asylum seekers crossing their borders. But that leaves Greece, often the first point of entry, with a mounting migrant problem. Athens has threatened to block future EU migrant decisions if member states dont accept mandatory quotas. Speaking on the sidelines of the Brussels meeting, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi says many asylum seekers arriving in Greece are refugees rather than economic migrants. We have discussed with the government of Greece how to handle a potential increase of refugees that have to stay in Greece because they cannot go any further. But that will require a lot of work and a lot of additional resources," said Grandi. There are also growing migrant tensions elsewhere, including between Belgium and France. Brussels started imposing border checks this week to curb migrants coming from the French port city of Calais, where a judge upheld an eviction order for a migrant camp. More than a million asylum seekers flocked to Europe last year, and more than 100,000 have arrived so far this year. Experts warn that as the weather warms up, those numbers will only grow. The European Union is poised to further tighten border controls to deal with the unprecedented influx of migrants that is straining the resources of even the wealthier nations in the bloc. Meeting in Brussels Thursday, the EU interior and justice ministers raised the prospect for such unilateral measures if the number of migrants arriving from Turkey has not dropped significantly by the time of an EU-Turkey summit set for next month. Speaking to reporters as he arrived for the meeting, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that by March 7, the EU would want to have a significant reduction in the number of refugees at the border between Turkey and Greece. The German parliament approved tighter asylum rules Thursday, to speed up asylum procedures and the return of rejected asylum seekers. The new requirements include a two-year ban on family reunions for asylum seekers who would receive only limited refugee protection, a measure that would also affect minor children. The German Parliamentary State Secretary of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), Ole Schroeder, supported the stricter rules debated in the parliament, saying that the measures are necessary to sustain the capacity of the country. "We must sustain the capacity of our country. The restriction of family reunification serves this aim," he said. "I tell the critics that the coalition didn't take it easy to come to this decision. But it is urgently needed. Our country isn't morally obliged to overburden itself and its people with humanitarian aid." The ministerial meeting in Brussels was tense due to the dispute over Austria's decision to call a western Balkans meeting Wednesday without inviting Greece. The Greek foreign ministry said in a statement that it was clear that the big problems of the European Union cannot be dealt with, with thoughts, mentalities and extra-institutional initiatives that have their roots in the 19th century. Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias recalled the ambassador to Austria Thursday for consultations in order to safeguard the friendly relations between the states and the people of Greece and Austria, the statement said. Greece, one of the EU's most financially troubled members, has been struggling to cope with the flow of people fleeing from violence in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had already warned Wednesday that his country would not agree to any more deals unless other EU nations agree to share equally the burden of accommodating the nonstop flow of refugees. Bombs retrieved from Boko Haram exploded accidentally Thursday at police headquarters in Nigeria's northeastern city of Yola, killing four people and wounding a score of officers and school children cut by shattered glass, officials said. Crying kids, screaming parents and panicked market vendors began running for their lives when an officer warned of the possibility of a secondary explosion in Yola's Jimeta neighborhood. The police station is in a commercial area surrounded by a market, the main prison, a post office, a TV station and two primary schools. Fire engines and ambulances with sirens blaring arrived at the scene. The office of the Nigerian Police Anti-Bomb Squad was razed along with nearby buildings in the police complex. The powerful blast shattered windows for blocks. "The bombs [that exploded] are among those retrieved from Boko Haram,'' deputy superintendent Othman Abubakar told The Associated Press, denying suggestions they were planted. Rescue officials recovered four bodies and ferried at least 20 wounded children and people to the hospital, according to PR Nigeria, an agency that disseminates government statements. Boko Haram extremists have attacked the city many times. Suicide bombings in Yola in October at the main mosque and in November at a bustling truckers' station killed 64 people and wounded about 180. Yola, capital of Adamawa state, is overrun by refugees among 2.5 million people driven from their homes by Boko Haram's 6-year-old Islamic uprising. It has killed some 20,000 people and spread across Nigeria's borders. Two suicide bombers killed 15 people at a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad Thursday, Iraqi security officials said. Four of the dead were members of the security forces and 48 more people were injured, authorities said. The first assailant detonated the bomb inside the mosque. The second assailant blew himself up when security forces arrived at the site of the initial blast. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing in the predominantly Shia neighborhood of Shula but the Islamic State group often targets Shi'ite Muslims. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged European Union countries to honor the bloc's decisions on sharing the burden of the migrant crisis, saying that if they did not, Athens would block future agreements. Austria, defying criticism from Greek and U.N. refugee officials, took further steps on Wednesday to coordinate border restrictions spanning the Balkans that are intensifying a logjam of migrants in Greece. "We will not accept turning the country into a permanent warehouse of souls with Europe continuing to function as if nothing is happening," Tsipras told parliament Wednesday. "Greece will not agree to deals [in the EU] if a mandatory allocation of burdens and responsibilities among member countries is not secured," he said. Athens has protested against restrictions imposed by countries further north along the main land corridor into Europe, including along Austria's frontier with Slovenia and Macedonia's border with Greece. Defying criticism from Greek and U.N. refugee officials, Austria on Wednesday took further steps to coordinate a slew of border restrictions spanning the Balkans that have caused a worsening logjam of migrants in Greece. "We will not tolerate that a number of countries will be building fences and walls at the borders without accepting even a single refugee," Tsipras said. "Greece will demand the mandatory participation of EU countries in the relocation of refugees." Unacceptable burden He said it was unacceptable for EU partners to dump the burden of the crisis on Greece, forcing it to shoulder a weight way disproportionate to its size. "We did and will continue to do everything we can to provide warmth, essential help and security to uprooted, hounded people," he said. "We will either be in a union of common rules for all or everyone will do they please: we will not accept the latter." Addressing worries that flow restrictions at the northern border could swell the number of migrants stranded in Greece, Tsipras said he would meet political party leaders to form a common stance before an early March summit of EU leaders on the migration crisis. Earlier on Wednesday, he told German Chancellor Angela Merkel he was deeply displeased about the failure of some EU leaders to stick to bloc decisions on tackling the refugee crisis. The two leaders agreed to intensify efforts to implement EU decisions and start NATO operations in the Aegean Sea immediately to counter smuggling networks to reduce migrant inflows. Republican and Democratic presidential candidates hold starkly different opinions on many political issues, but they are in broad agreement on the need for the U.S. to play a role in defeating the Islamic State terrorist group. That means the U.S. will most likely have a major role in Iraq in the coming years, regardless of who wins the general election in November. Kenneth Pollack, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, a Washington policy and research group, said the most important thing for the next president to understand when shaping U.S. strategy is that it was Iraq's civil war that enabled ISIS to make its gains in the country. He said that's why the U.S. should deal with the widespread sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shi'ites. "The U.S. must forge a power-sharing agreement among the various groups so that they all have an equitable stake in a new government." Pollack said. "The real key is a political reconciliation among Sunnis and Shi'ites, as well as some solution to the Kurdish question." The big challenge in defeating ISIS is finding a way to incentivize the Sunni population to reject the group, according to retired Lieutenant General Michael Barbero, a former Multi-National Force-Iraq deputy chief of staff. The Sunni population does not believe that the Iraqi government will act in their interest, Barbero said. So the first order is to convince the Sunni population that they need to work with the government in Baghdad, and you dont do that by sending in Shi'ite militias. Failure exploited Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq in the George W. Bush administration, agreed. ISIS had taken root in Iraq by exploiting the failure of governance and alienation of the Sunni population, largely as a consequence of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Malikis sectarian policies, he said. The three experts agreed that shepherding Iraq out of its civil war would require a U.S. role in shaping a new power-sharing agreement defining both the minimal needs and the potential areas of agreement among the various Shi'ite and Sunni factions. This, in turn, would make it much easier for the Abadi government and the United States to create Sunni-majority military units, who would better be able to liberate the Sunni-majority areas of the country from ISIS. Military role The American public does not favor sending U.S. ground troops to Iraq. However, the experts offered some alternatives that could help Iraq uproot ISIS fighters. Barbero said the U.S. should rely on Iraqi security forces that have taken the lead in liberating the western city of Ramadi, less than 100 miles from Baghdad, from ISIS. The only thing that will really defeat ISIS is a viable ground force, so the Iraqi security forces have to be highly trained and well-equipped, he said. Barbero stressed the need for more U.S. front-line advisers, better intelligence presence on the ground, logistical support and a greater effort to identify targets. Pollack argued that on the military side, the U.S. has a lot to offer. Train a limited number of English-speaking Iraqis to serve as forward air controllers; provide significantly more advisers out in the field accompanying Iraqi forces who can call in airstrikes; and more equipment could be provided, he said. Defining U.S. role The experts agreed that the U.S. cant disengage from Iraq and therefore needs a coherent strategy to define its role in the future of Iraq. It is very important for the new president to get more involved in Iraq politically to help the Iraqis overcome their suspicion and distrust and forge a new power-sharing agreement as a basis for a stable, peaceful Iraq, Pollack said. However, he said, there is a high likelihood that at some point, perhaps soon, Iraqi Kurds will push for independence. But for Sunni and Shi'ite Iraqis, it is entirely possible to imagine [the Kurds] remaining part of a unified Iraq if the U.S. could facilitate a deal whereby political power and economic benefits are distributed equitably across the population, Pollack added. For Barbero, a coherent strategy that the next administration could adopt would rely on greater U.S. involvement and investment in Iraq "increased military support, accelerated development of the Iraqi security forces, speedy economic investment to rebuild liberated areas from ISIS." Essential services Another important challenge cited by the experts is building the Iraqi governments capacity to provide essential services, including water, electricity and sanitation. They said this challenge has been compounded by the devastation ISIS and the military operations to dislodge it have wrought upon major Iraqi cities. Crocker offered yet another aspect that the next U.S. president should take into consideration. "Anyone who thought that the Iran nuclear deal was going to herald a new era of a gentler, kinder Iran in the region is nuts," he said. "What youre seeing now in Iraq is the old Iranian playbook that they began to write in the early 80s." Crocker indicated that there's a need to foil an expanded Iranian role in Iraq. "Qassem Suleimani, the Iranian Quds Force commander, is seeking to achieve what Iran could not in the 1980s: to gain a definitive victory over Iraq by fragmenting it, he said. Crocker warned against repeating an American policy mistake from the past: "As the United States withdrew from Iraq, it ceded the battlefield to Iran and its proxies in the center and south, and to ISIS in the west. Ivory Coast said Wednesday that it had granted citizenship to Burkina Faso's former president, Blaise Compaore, potentially dashing hopes he could be extradited to his neighboring native country for his role in a high-profile murder case. Burkina Faso issued an arrest warrant against Compaore in December for the murder of Thomas Sankara, a former president and military leader who was assassinated 30 years ago in a case that has famously gone unsolved. The body of Sankara, sometimes called "Africa's Che Guevera," was exhumed in 2015, and an autopsy found it to be riddled with bullets. The naturalization decree, published in the Ivory Coast's official journal for January, accorded Compaore and his son Paul Francois Ivoirian citizenship. "It is a sovereign naturalization decision that took place," said Affoussiata Bamba, the government spokeswoman. "It is not necessary to judge what will come next." Ivory Coast's constitution forbids extradition of its citizens, according to a high-level jurist. Former Ivoirian President Laurent Gbagbo is currently standing trial at The Hague for crimes against humanity under an agreement signed with the International Criminal Court, but Ivory Coast has no such arrangement with its neighbor. Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast share historical and colonial ties. When poplular protests ousted Compaore after 27 years in power in October 2014, he fled to Ivory Coast, of which his wife is also a citizen. Ivory Coast recently extradited three Burkinabe soldiers who had been sought in connection with a failed coup d'etat last September. Secretary of State John Kerry says he is aware of reports that Iran has detained the father of an American man who was arrested by Iranian authorities last year. The wife of Baquer Namazi says authorities in Tehran arrested her 80-year-old husband on Monday and may have taken him to the Evin prison. In a Facebook post, Effie Namazi said she has been trying to get information concerning the arrest of her husband, who she said has a heart condition and other ailments. In October, Iranian authorities arrested her son, Siamak Namazi, on unspecified charges. Both men have dual citizenship. "Now both my innocent son Siamak and my Baquer are in prison for no reason," said Effie Namazi on Facebook. Kerry was asked about Baquer Namazi's arrest during a Wednesday hearing in the Senate. "I am very familiar with this and I am engaged on it specifically," Kerry said. "I am not permitted, due to privacy reasons, to go into details here." In a statement, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the agency had "no higher priority than the protection of U.S. citizens overseas." In January, Iran released five detained Americans in a complex swap that was finalized right before the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal. After more than a year of political wrangling with allies in Afghanistan's national unity government, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani this week announced the composition of a new seven-member High Peace Council (HPC), and again called on the Taliban and other insurgent groups to stop fighting and choose peace. But as foreign diplomats and Ghani work to entice the Taliban to the negotiating table, the Afghan leader may have more work to do in convincing at least one of his political allies that the peace process is necessary. First Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who headed a 10,000-strong army to fight the Taliban in his native Jowzjan province in northern Afghanistan, sent a stern message to the Taliban on the same day that Ghani was promoting peace. "I'll revenge," the Uzbek militia leader vowed Tuesday in a televised speech. "I'll finish the enemy." Doctor of Killing the Taliban Dostum has long been one of the Taliban's fiercest opponents, dating from even before the U.S.-led invasion. He is accused of massacring some 2,000 Taliban prisoners in early 2002 when his Uzbek militias, backed by U.S. special forces, defeated the Taliban in northern Afghanistan. The longtime Afghan warlord calls himself "Talib-Kush Doctor," or Doctor of Killing the Taliban. Some analysts say Dostum's message to the Taliban should not be seen as his absolute opposition to every Taliban member as, like Ghani, he would be amenable to talking to those willing to lay down their arms. Afghan officials have long insisted that peace overtures are directed at reconcilable members of the Taliban, while the government would spare no efforts against those Taliban members who refuse to stop fighting. So far, the Taliban has given no indication it will join the peace talks. Taliban leaders have long said they will not enter into negotiations until all foreign troops have left Afghanistan. On February 9, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told U.S. senators that Afghanistan faced risks of political breakdown in 2016 and that prospects for peace with the Taliban looked bleak. IS excluded The Afghan government says it is calling on the Taliban, the Haqqani network and the Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) group to join the peace process. The Haqqani network is a U.S. State Department terror designee that is widely presumed to be operating from safe havens in Pakistan and under covert support from Pakistani intelligence elements. The network has been a follower of the Taliban's leader, but maintains operational autonomy. HIG is a smaller group operating under the auspices of former Afghan warlord and Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The main group excluded from the Afghan peace process is the Islamic State group (IS), which announced its subordinate group, the so-called Khorasan state, in Afghanistan in January 2015. Afghan and U.S. forces have engaged in fierce fighting with the IS group in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. Latvia's foreign minister says NATO needs to increase its presence in the Baltic region, given Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and continued support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Edgars Rinkevics told VOA's Russian service that the Western military alliance's decisions and measures in support of collective defense and European security have been "absolutely adequate." But he said he would like to see NATO take steps toward strengthening its deterrence policy at its summit in Warsaw in early July. Specifically, Rinkevics said, he wants to see "a long-term and substantial NATO presence in the Baltics"; much closer cooperation "with non-NATO partners Sweden and Finland on many fields"; and a switch "from the current policies, like air policing, to full-scale air defense policies by NATO. The Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were annexed by the Soviet Union during World War II and regained their independence after the Soviet collapse in 1991. Each of the three countries has ethnic Russian minorities. I dont want to speak in terms of threats," Rinkevics said. "I would say that we should look at the situation as it develops. It is very challenging, very complex and actually includes many elements." He noted that there had been some "very aggressive rhetoric" from Russia. "We have heard, especially since 2014, talk about the so-called Russian world and the need to protect Russian culture. ... Almost everyone who speaks Russian should be eligible for some kind of protection." Rinkevics said Russia's military modernization, deployment of advanced weaponry, the increase of snap exercises along the borders and other military activities are very serious challenges to the security of Latvia and the other Baltic states. The Obama administration announced this month that in response to Russia's "aggressive posture," it wanted to quadruple spending on U.S. troops and training in Europe and substantially increase the amount of weaponry and other military equipment deployed in NATO countries in Central and Eastern Europe. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, for his part, said the alliance would increase its forward presence in Eastern Europe to send a "clear signal" to any would-be aggressor. A hacking group associated with the Islamic State militant group has issued an apparent threat against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. The Sons of the Caliphate posted a 25-minute video called Flames of the Supporters which shows the two tech titans engulfed in flames with bullet holes. The video boasts that IS members still have accounts on Facebook and Twitter despite steps being taken to banish them. In the video they claim 10,000 Facebook accounts, 150 Facebook groups and over 5,000 Twitter accounts. "You announce daily that you suspend many of our accounts, and to you we say: Is that all you can do? You are not in our league," text on the video clip reads, according to Vocativ, which first reported on the video. "If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete your sites, Allah willing, and will know that we say is true." Facebook and Twitter have both taken measures to remove content posted by IS supporters. Twitter, which says it has over 320 million active users said it has suspended more than 125,000 accounts related to IS since mid-2015. Facebook removed the profile of San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik for violating terms of service. The company says it forbids content that praises or promotes acts of terror. The companies increased their vigilance regarding IS-related content after a summit with federal law enforcement officials in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. Social media has been an effective way for IS to spread its message and to recruit new members. Neither Twitter nor Facebook have commented on the video. The Indian city of Mumbai has created 16 no-selfie zones around the city in response to several deaths of people taking selfies. According to the Associated Press, India is home to 19 of the worlds 49 reported selfie deaths since 2014. These include two people who died earlier this month after one tried to take a selfie near a dam in the town of Nashik in central India. A classmate who jumped in to try to save the man also drowned. In January, an 18-year-old woman drowned after falling into the ocean at Mumbais Bandstand Fort, a site frequented by tourists. In another incident, an engineering student died in front of the Kolli Hills in Tamil Nadi after the rock he was standing on cracked, leading him to fall and suffer fatal head injuries. Most of Mumbais selfie-free zones are near the water where there are no barriers. Getting caught taking a selfie in these zones could lead to a fine of $18. "This is a new problem for us," police spokesman Dhananjay Kulkarni told CNN. "We have identified spots in Mumbai. We want to restrain people from going there so that mishaps don't happen." There has been some pushback against selfies, particularly selfie sticks, in popular tourist spots with the Louvre art museum in Paris and Disneyland imposing bans on selfie sticks. Nigerian refugees who fled the Boko Haram insurgency into northern Cameroon are turning down calls by Cameroon and Nigerian authorities for them to return, saying they do not expect to find peace back home. Umar Muhamed, a schoolteacher at the Minawao refugee camp, said he would not return until the Boko Haram terrorist group was completely crushed. "I left Nigeria because of Boko Haram," he said. "They were killing us. I escaped, and then I am still alive. Life here now is better than that we left in Nigeria, because in Nigeria now we are chased like animals, being killed as nothing." The overburdened refugee camp has about 50 births each month, and many refugees continue to arrive. Among the latest is Kanem Mohammad, 42. He said he escaped from the northern Nigerian town of Damaturu when his family was attacked five months ago, thinking he would find peace, but he instead saw thousands of bodies on his way to Minawao this month. "They killed about 15 people in my village that night," Mohammad said. "They came to our house; they attacked our house. I had to jump the fence. Really, it was hell. In Maiduguri, I saw more than 3,000 corpses before I could run [escape]. "When we came here, we had no hope of having anything, thinking that what was happening in Nigeria was to escalate to this place. As we came here, fortunately, the UNHCR took good care of us, and because of the insurgency that is continuing in Nigeria, people come in every day." Assistance falls short When U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres visited the camp a year ago, he said he asked for $71 million to assist displaced people in Nigeria and neighboring countries, but had received only $6.8 million in donations. Cameroon's minister of territorial administration, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, said Cameroon was asking the refugees from areas where there is already peace to return because their humanitarian needs are growing more than Cameroon can handle. He said that after working with humanitarian agencies, human rights groups and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Cameroon requested that Nigeria begin a progressive repatriation of the refugees. He said he's waiting for the movement to begin. Nigeria's interior minister, Abdulrahman Dambazau, said his country is ready to receive the refugees, but that most of them prefer to stay back because they have family members in Cameroon. "We are looking at it from the point of view of cultural affinity among border communities, to ensure that we do not give room for arms merchants to smuggle arms into our countries," Dambazau said. Since December, regional forces from Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger and Benin have been launching raids on Boko Haram strongholds along the border, provoking huge movements of people. The United Nations and Amnesty International say Boko Haram's six-year insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced 2.5 million. U.S. President Barack Obama says although the U.S.-led effort to combat Islamic State has made progress, the fight remains difficult and he has instructed his security team to ramp up efforts. He said the situation in Syria and Iraq is "one of the most complex the world has seen in recent times." He noted that Islamic State "is entrenched, including in urban areas, using civilians as human shields." He added the war in Syria is "a proxy war between regional powers, reflecting deep sectarian rivalries." Obama made his comments after meeting with top security officials at the State Department Thursday. He said there are indications the flow of foreign fighters into Syria seems to be slowing down, making it harder for the militants to replenish their ranks. Referring to the U.S.-Russian cease-fire set to take effect in Syria, Obama said the United States will do everything it can to help the agreement hold. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday hosted a meeting in Moscow of the Russian-Arab Cooperation forum, where he pledged that the gathering would focus on ending the conflict in Syria. And in Syria, despite the looming cease-fire, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that Russian airstrikes were continuing against rebel-held areas east of Damascus Friday. The agreement does not include Syrian strikes on Islamic State or the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front. More funds to fight IS Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told the Congressional House Appropriations Committee Thursday the United States is increasing its funding for the battle against Islamic State in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and parts of Africa. He said his department is requesting $7.5 billion, a 50 percent increase over last year, to fight the militant organization. Carter said the fight would encompass not just land, air and sea, but also space and cyberspace. Briefly, he confirmed reports that the military's Cyber Command unit has recently begun a new cyberwarfare campaign against Islamic State, but declined to give details in a public setting. In recent months the intensification effort against Islamic State has included the use of additional U.S. special expeditionary forces to carry out raids, free hostages, capture IS leaders and gather intelligence. The U.S. has said the fighting in Syria between troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebels fighting to oust him has allowed Islamic State to flourish amid the chaos and instability. But Obama seems cautious about whether the cease-fire deal will hold up. If implemented, and thats a significant if, this cessation could reduce the violence and get more food and aid to Syrians who are suffering and desperately needed. It could save lives. The White House has accused Putin of fueling the civil war by helping to prop up the Assad government with airstrikes targeting opposition rebels. The cessation agreement calls for an end to attacks and aerial bombardment and for the flow of humanitarian aid to areas under siege. "A lot of that is going to depend on whether the Syrian regime, Russia, and their allies live up to their commitments," Obama said. "The coming days will be critical, and the world will be watching." Kerry: Syrian 'slaughter' continues Southeast Asia's "Golden Triangle" is still exporting very high volumes of illicit drugs according to a new U.N. agency report. Researchers say the precursor chemicals needed to manufacture opiates and methamphetamines are streaming in to the region unabated and the problem is forecast to get worse as Southeast Asia's economic integration continues. "As you open the borders more, as you push trade volumes ever higher, you're increasing opportunity for illicit flows to move more quickly because illegal flows tend to mirror or use or abuse legal trade flows," according to Jeremy Douglas, the regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The significant organized crime threat involves not only narcotics but also human trafficking and wildlife smuggling, according to the report released Thursday by UNODC, which focuses on fighting illicit drugs and international crime. Revenue of at least $100 billion The UNODC report contains what it calls a conservative estimate of annual revenue from organized crime in the region at $100 billion. That is more than the combined gross domestic product of several Southeast Asian nations. Even as the ten-member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) spend trillion of dollars for new air and sea ports, railways and highways, researchers say other important areas are being neglected. We see announcement after announcement after announcement of these major mega-projects to support regional integration of the region and this region with its neighboring regions, with China, with India, Douglas told VOA. What we aren't seeing is a similar investment in either political or real capital by the governments of this region, yet, in their security agenda in an integrated way. In the meantime more criminals are moving out of China and into ASEAN as Chinese law enforcement increases crackdowns. That has made ASEAN an attractive relocation venue for Chinese gangs as regulations are weaker, authorities more lax and pliable. There is also the added benefit of lower production costs. Remote locations in Southeast Asia where the reach of central governments are tenuous and borders are porous have allowed organized crime to flourish for decades. Hill tribe refugees by the early 20th century turned the hilly Golden Triangle region, encompassing parts of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, into a major center for opium production. Scope is growing The new UNODC report notes the boundaries and scope of the traditional illegal drug manufacturing are growing. There is increasing trade these days between India and ASEAN in not only illicit drugs but also precursor chemicals and counterfeit medicines. The precursors for the production of heroin and synthetic drugs are also trafficked into Southeast Asia from China. Less than two percent of the 500 million containers annually that are shipped through the regions waters are inspected, facilitating the trade in illicit drugs and counterfeit products. ASEAN nations are not taking the threat seriously enough and more real-time sharing of information and intelligence on criminal activities is needed, according to analysts. Also required, they say, is more effective handling of mutual legal assistance requests. UNODC officials say discussion is needed among regional leaders for a security agenda to support the regions growing prosperity. If they don't have that candid discussion the sense is that in a few years from now we are going to have created some problems for the region through very well-intentioned trade and infrastructure investments, Douglas warned. Gang graffiti still defaces some of the walls in Panama City's once-impoverished neighborhood of San Felipe, but many of the beautiful old homes have been refurbished. The area now attracts tourists who want to learn firsthand about the violence in San Felipe's not-so-distant past. When city officials decided a decade ago to open up the old town for revitalization, some gangsters realized their past experience could be marketable. Now, they are tour guides. It's not just anybody that can stand on a corner and say he was a crook, said tour guide Jafet Glissant. Look, I did this; look, I was in jail for so many years. I stole. What's more, I robbed a lot of tourists.' They are going to say, 'Wow, they are going to rob me, too!' It's not easy. Am I clear? That's what really impresses them." The American Trade Hotel in Plaza Herrera was once a gang hangout. Panama's Ministry of Public Safety persuaded the new owners to employ some of the former gang members. Revitalization, however, came with a price. Many residents had to either adapt to the new life, or move out. But for some, tourism brought jobs and income. And tourists love it. "I thought it was very interesting, to see the process these people have gone through, said tourist Julio Santamaria. They used to be part of a gang, and they have now found a way to be productive for society, and to accept the change taking place in their community, and to choose to be part of it." A special electoral board in Peru on Wednesday opted not to bar "outsider" Julio Guzman's from April elections, setting the stage for a likely battle between him and longtime front-runner Keiko Fujimori. The country's National Jury of Elections had blocked Guzman's party from registering for this year's elections because it did not fulfill a series of technical requirements, which threatened to disqualify him. But the Special Jury of Elections, tasked with approving presidential candidates, said Guzman's party had amended the errors and was now enrolled. It also cited Guzman's constitutional right to take part in elections. Guzman, a 45-year-old economist who climbed rapidly to second place on pledges to take the country back from a corrupt political elite, celebrated the decision from the highland region of Cusco where he was campaigning. "It's beautiful news, wonderful," Guzman told reporters amid cheering supporters dressed in his party's signature purple. Guzman, who was unknown to most voters months ago, has tapped a well of support from Peruvians looking for someone new in a race dominated by well-known but unpopular politicians. He was the only candidate seen as virtually tying Fujimori in a likely June runoff, according to an Ipsos poll Sunday. Fujimori, the right-wing populist daughter of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori, enjoys a double-digit lead over Guzman but is not expected to garner the minimum 50 percent of votes needed to win outright on April 10. Guzman worked for the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington for a decade and was briefly an official in the government of President Ollanta Humala. Humala cannot run for a second consecutive term and the ruling party candidate is trailing far behind in polls. Earlier this month, HSBC, the world's fifth largest bank, announced it would not move its headquarters from London to Hong Kong, leaving some to view the banks decision as a reflection of Hong Kongs diminishing viability as a global financial center. HSBC was headquartered in Hong Kong for more than 125 years, setting up shop in the city in 1865 as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. The Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989 raised concern among many of the firms leaders, and in 1993 the bank moved its headquarters to London. The bank said its February decision to keep its base in Britain is permanent. The majority of HSBCs business is in Asia, and a move to Hong Kong could have saved the firm billions of dollars. But mainland Chinas growing influence over the city and recent political demonstrations may have discouraged the bank from shifting its headquarters. Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang Wednesday said it was recent political volatility" that was threatening to undermine the local economy. Demonstrations have rocked the city for the past two years. In 2014, millions of pro-democracy protesters blocked Hong Kongs streets for several weeks, demanding direct elections of the citys leader. This year protesters advocating for eventual independence from China have vowed to continue their demonstrations. Over the Chinese new year holiday, a violent riot broke out in the citys neighborhood of Mong Kok, when police attempted to clear illegal food stalls. Some protesters said the police actions were an attempt to erode local culture. The disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers, who published books critical of China, has also raised concerns, with the British government calling their detention in neighboring Guangdong Province by Chinese authorities a violation of Hong Kongs Basic Law. Despite the recent political unrest, leaders like Regina Ip, head of the pro-Beijing New Peoples Party, said the city will remain an important financial hub. Some short term worries are understandable, but I think our city, as an international financial center, we have a long history of being a premier business and financial center. We have very strong foundations, underpinned by a very long history of rule of law, she said. Power of China attracts While political turmoil may unnerve some financial firms, financial columnist Peter Guy said the growing economic power of mainland China is a bigger factor in Hong Kongs future as a financial hub. China itself is developing as a country, as a group of financial centers. And its such a big country, that Hong Kong cant possibly serve as a permanent gateway. Its just like banks in the U.S. Citibank would not only have their head office in New York, but offices in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, he said. Thomas Chan, the head of the China Business Center at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said Hong Kong will remain a vital gateway into the mainland for financial firms, and that Chinas massive infrastructure initiative, called One Road, One Belt, will continue to draw investors and companies to the city. Chan said, Even the Japanese who departed Hong Kong after 1997 come again also to Hong Kong because of the RMB financial center, and also for the one country, one road strategy. Earlier this year Hong Kongs chief executive CY Leung said Hong Kong would not only be a gateway for foreign firms to mainland China, but would become a super connector for Chinese firms investing abroad and expanding their global operations. Almost two months after Iraqi forces liberated Ramadi from the Islamic State (IS) terror group, much of the city is in ruins. But the structures that still stand pose a deadly threat from an estimated tens of thousands of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), rigged to blow with the opening of a door or a single footstep. U.S. military officials describe it as IS's scorched-earth tactics, but it also shows the ease with which the terror group has been able to procure the necessary components to make its signature explosives. "It just confirms how much they are integrated into local economies and how they can source things either within Iraq or Syria, or abroad," said James Bevan, director of Conflict Armament Research. Researchers with Conflict Armament Research (CAR) spent 20 months on IS's northern and eastern fronts, studying the flow of hundreds of critical components for the manufacture of IEDs. They found a supply chain encompassing more than 50 companies from 20 countries. Some components came from as far away as Brazil, Japan and even the United States. According to the CAR report released Thursday, in some cases, critical parts went from their manufacturers to IS in as little as one month. Legal links, local distributors But the report also said a large part of the supply chain is legal, with parts bound at least initially for distributors outside Syria and Iraq. For example, most of the Islamic State IED detonators, detonating cords and safety fuses all of which can be used commercially in mining and oil operations came from seven Indian companies. "All components documented by CAR were legally exported under government-issued licenses from India to entities in Lebanon and Turkey," the report found. A type of mobile phone popular with IS fighters in Iraq for making remote-controlled IEDs, Nokia's Model 105 Type RM-908, also arrived in the group's hands indirectly. The CAR report found that of 10 such phones captured from IS fighters, eight had first been supplied to intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates. The other two, the report said, were sent to distributors in Irbil, a city in Iraqi Kurdistan. "A lot of their IED components in particular, but also other commodities that they need, are sourced very locally, which makes it more difficult if you want to curtail their operations by imposing international sanctions on them," said CAR's Bevan. "It's these small distributors that appear to be the weakest chain," he added. Some of the distributors may not even been aware that they are selling to IS. "[Islamic State] may well have smaller agents working on their behalf which are acquiring things, for example, over the border with Turkey and then trucking them across with other commerce," Bevan said. Turkish border For months, U.S. officials have been calling on Turkey to clamp down on the border to stem the flow of both goods and foreign fighters to IS in Syria. And while officials in Washington say there has been some improvement, the CAR researchers say Turkey continues to be the pivotal "choke point" for components needed to make Islamic State IEDs. "The commerce has been a big problem," said Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "Broadly speaking, there hasn't been enough of a focus on the way goods and services move." Schanzer, a former U.S. Treasury terrorism finance analyst, said finding ways to crack down is further complicated by the fractured situation on the ground, where pockets of IS-controlled territory may be nestled among areas under the control of the government or other groups. But a bigger problem may be motivation. "It ultimately comes down to will, Schanzer said. And I believe you have a conflict right now that has offered a lot of people a way to cash in, so there's not a lot of will there." U.S. hopeful Still, U.S. officials continue to voice optimism. "The signs of strain are starting to show themselves," a U.S. official told VOA on the condition of anonymity. "We see indications that our efforts to disrupt ISIL's sources of revenue are bearing fruit, both because of targeted airstrikes against ISIL's financial and commercial activities and due to our efforts to decrease liquidity into ISIL-controlled territory," Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Daniel Glaser told an audience in London earlier this month. ISIL is an acronym for Islamic State. Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Faysal Ahmad Ali al-Zahrani, believed to be a key player in the IS's oil operations. Military officials say airstrikes have also degraded the group's ability to profit from the sale of oil and gas. Other airstrikes are thought to have destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars that had been in IS's possession. Still, there is a lingering concern that such efforts will not be enough to stop IS, which has shown an ability to improvise and innovate both on and off the battlefield. Its manipulation of the IED supply chain is just one example. "We've yet to come across a group like IS both in terms of the territory it controls and also the degree in which it's tapped into the market within its territory," CAR's Bevan said. "There isn't a comparable group in our experience." The Cuban government has granted seven dissidents who are out of prison on parole one-time permission to travel outside the country in an apparent gesture to the United States ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama. Four others in the same category were not granted the permission for reasons not immediately clear, dissidents reported. U.S. critics of Obama's opening to Cuba have complained the president has received little in return for restoring diplomatic relations with the former Cold War enemy. To cement improving ties, Obama will visit Cuba on March 21-22. Around the time of detente in December 2014, Cuba's Communist government released 53 people whom Washington considered political prisoners, but since then has resumed detentions. On average more than 700 people were detained short-term each month in 2015, according to the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation. Cuba considers the opponents a tiny minority that has lost legitimacy by accepting funding indirectly from the U.S. government. The seven were summoned to the Interior Ministry and told they would be granted one trip abroad, though upon their return they would resume serving sentences out of prison with a ban on foreign travel. "It appears to be some kind of gift they want to present to Obama, but in reality it is nothing concrete because when we come back we will return to legal limbo," said Martha Beatriz Roque, one of the 11. They were among 75 opponents rounded up in the 2003 Black Spring crackdown. With the intervention of the Roman Catholic Church and Spain, all 75 were released in 2010 and 2011 under the condition that they leave Cuba. However, the 11 holdouts refused and opted to remain in prison rather than abandon their homeland. Eventually they were allowed to continue serving their sentences, which range from 18 to 25 years, while out of prison. Among those denied travel permission was Jose Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, which claims 3,000 members, making it the largest dissident group in Cuba. "It's a little gift ahead of the Obama visit for those seven. The other four, we were not were not even offered this little present because, according to the regime, those seven behave well and the four of us behave poorly, something we reject," Ferrer said. U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment. Cuba declines to comment on criminal justice matters. In an attempt to deal with a rise in sexual violence and teenage pregnancies in Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis, the countrys government has moved to address the issue through an alternative education initiative. Under a program started in October, many pregnant girls previously barred from attending school now have classes available to them. The classes are also available to lactating mothers. Elizabeth Issa, 17, is just one of thousands of young girls across the country taking alternative classes being offered under the new program. She has a seven-month-old daughter, who is watched by her parents when she is in school. She prefers this kind of classroom setting because often shame is brought on girls who get pregnant while still in school, she explains in her native Krio dialect. Elizabeth says that when she was pregnant she felt a bit embarrassed and stayed inside her house, but she says she feels better being in school with girls sharing the same experience. The alternative schools have been successful, according to Olive Musa, the head of non-formal education at Sierra-Leones Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. She says an estimated 11,000 girls have registered for the schools. Originally, the classes were offered only to those who got pregnant during the Ebola crisis, but others were so eager participate that the program was expanded. Still shortcomings But not everyone is on board with the new concept. Human rights group Amnesty International says even though there are alternative classes, students are still not allowed to take exams to get into senior secondary school or college if they are visibly pregnant, and there are no alternative options for that. In an email to VOA, West African Amnesty researcher Sabrina Mahtani said "The government must act to protect girls' right to non-discrimination and education, and this means protecting their right to continue on in mainstream schools and sit exams equally with others, should they wish to do so," she said. Mahtani also said the schools' alternative curriculum must be monitored to determine the quality of education. Currently, classes are held just three times a week for a couple of hours. Piecemeal approach But Musa says the attitudes cannot change overnight. I do not think it is morally right, and considering the culture we have, we are yet to reach that point for accepting that if you are visibly pregnant, you can take exams with those who are not. Of course in college, universities, no one cares, but at that tender age, people will want to frown on it, Musa said. She added that the government is looking at methods to ensure student pregnancies are reduced. That is why we have to intensify the family planning, the sexual reproductive health programs, so that at least we teach them about prevention. For now, the only option is the alternative classes. Elizabeth Issa, who wants to be a banker, says she feels she is learning enough, but admits some of her peers wanted to attend the mainstream schools, even while pregnant. Somalia's president says between 180 and 200 Kenyan soldiers were killed when Islamist militants attacked an African Union base in southwestern Somalia last month. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud discussed the figures during an interview with a Somali TV channel late Wednesday, when asked why he attended a memorial ceremony for the soldiers in Kenya. "When about 180 to 200 boys sent to Somalia to restore peace are killed in one morning, it's not something easy," he said. Claim denied Kenya Defense Forces spokesman, David Obonyo, quickly denied Mohamud's claim. Speaking to a Kenyan newspaper, The Star, he said, "The Somali president must be in cahoots with al-Shabab. The number he is quoting is way beyond a company size." Kenya has never said how many soldiers died when al-Shabab militants attacked the base in the town of El Adde, but acknowledged having a "company size" force at the site. Al-Shabab said it killed more than 100 Kenyan troops. Kenyan soldiers have been in Somalia since 2011, helping the African Union mission, known as AMISOM, fight al-Shabab. Force has upper hand The head of AMISOM, Franciso Caetano Madeira, said the AU troops still had the upper hand over the militants despite some recent setbacks. In an exclusive interview Wednesday with VOA Somali Service, Madeira said, AMISOM is effectively gaining ground, and putting al-Shabab on the move, and al-Shabab is forced to renew, to reconfigure, to reconstruct itself to survive. The government of Somalia is in control of 80 percent of south-central Somalia, and this shows that al-Shabab has been moved from those places. Regional experts and some Somali officials have expressed concern about AMISOM's withdrawal from a number of towns after al-Shabab raids on three forward bases, including El Adde. Madeira strongly denied AMISOM is withdrawing from the towns, insisting that troop movements are just readjustments and repositioning to attain a tactical advantage." AMISOM forces are to pursue the enemy wherever they are. Our new strategy in line with the revised ConOps [Concept of Operations] is for operations to be enemy threat-focused and not terrain-focused." Asked when AMISOM may leave Somalia, Madeira said it will happen when the mission's objectives are accomplished. AMISOM will leave Somalia when Somalis ask it to leave," he said. "Second, AMSIOM will leave Somalia when its mandate is accomplished, and its mandate is to create situations... that can allow for the government of Somalia and the institutions of Somalia to function properly, and governance to take place all throughout the country." Mogadishu Attack Meanwhile, at least four people were killed Thursday when al-Shabab fired mortars at the presidential palace in Mogadishu but hit a private home. A reporter for VOA's Somali service said a woman and her two children were killed. The father, who was seriously wounded in the attack, was rushed to the hospital and later pronounced dead. At least five other people were wounded. A pro-al-Shabab website said the mortar hit inside the presidential palace, Villa Somalia. There has been no comment from the government. Al-Shabab has been fighting the Somali government since 2006 to establish a strict Islamist state. South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar has assured the U.N. secretary-general by phone that he is ready to return to Juba in March to take up his position as first vice president. In an interview with VOA, Machar said he was waiting for the first phase of the security arrangement, as agreed to in a peace accord, to be implemented before he returned. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wanted to ascertain when Machar would be in Juba to be sworn in, expediting formation of the transitional unity government that is aimed at restoring peace in the worlds newest nation. Machar said Ban promised support for the full implementation of the accord he signed with President Salva Kiir. His comments came after the U.N. chief met with Kiir on Thursday. Machar said the agreement lacked resources for its implementation, a concern he said he mentioned in recent meetings with African heads of state. Waiting for troop airlift I have told him that I am ready to go to Juba, particularly at this time when the JMEC [Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission] has confirmed and assured me that Juba is being demilitarized and that our forces of 1,370 shall be transported to Juba," Machar said. "So I am waiting for when the airlift will start. Once the airlift is finished, I will definitely be following them." Machar said Ban also told him that as soon as the government was formed, he would help call a donor conference and acquire funds for implementation of the security agreement. "There are many aspects of this agreement that need international support, such as the assembling and containment of troops, which would mean provision of shelter, food, water and a health service to the troops," he said. Machar said he had yet to speak to Kiir about the peace accord they signed. He said that when he returns to Juba, he is likely after consultations with colleagues, stakeholders and other South Sudanese to confer with Kiir on implementation of the agreement. He also said there is need for a joint deployment of police to Bor, Malakal, Juba and other parts of the country to end the violence in those areas. Once peace is restored, other aspects of the agreement can be implemented, Machar said. Number of states Once I get to Juba, once we form the government, then we should start discussing," he said. "I hope by then President Salva would have suspended the 28 states." The deal that South Sudans warring parties signed in August called for the new government and a division of powers between the government and the opposition. Implementation stalled when Kiir changed the political landscape by establishing 28 states. The peace agreement was based on an understanding of 10 states. The major activity," Machar said, "is assuring the people of South Sudan that peace has come, which would mean political stability, and security is maintained. And now we can address issues such as the IDPs [internally displaced persons], which are in [U.N.] protection centers." Machar was previously vice president of South Sudan from independence in 2011 until July 2013, when Kiir fired him and the rest of the Cabinet. The political rift erupted into violence that December and has never entirely stopped. The conflict has displaced more than 2 million in an already poor and underdeveloped country. Both sides are accused of having committed grave human rights violations during the conflict. Islamic State (IS) militants appear to have a growing influence in the central Syrian province of Homs and are likely facing a showdown with the Syrian regime, analysts say. With the Syrian government firmly in control of the major urban area in the province the war ravaged city of Homs a major battle between IS and the Syrian regime could be looming, according to analysts. IS has claimed responsibility for twin blasts in the city that killed at least 46 people and injured dozens. As the U.S.-Russian brokered cease-fire between government forces and opposition groups goes in effect this weekend, forces of President Bashar al-Assad can turn their focus to IS. The [Syrian] regime is the strongest party in Homs now, said Hediye Levent, a Syria-based Turkish journalist who was recently in Homs. The cease-fire would encourage government troops to go after Daesh [IS] in eastern Homs, said Levent. IS presence The city of Homs has been almost entirely controlled by the Syrian government since May 2014. However, the eastern part of the province is controlled by IS militants. From there, they launch attacks against government troops. IS areas of control include the ancient town of Palmyra that was taken from Assad forces in May of 2015. Daesh has a solid popular support in eastern Homs, said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. This is why it cant be easily uprooted from there. He said IS has presented itself as the only group that can protect regional Sunni Muslims in the face of the Syrian government. They [IS] targeted an Alawite-dominated neighborhood in Homs, for example, to show Sunnis that they can be relied upon, he told VOA via phone, referring to the weekend bombings. The Alawites, a subsect of Shiite Muslims, are considered the backbone of the Syrian regime in the countrys five-year-old civil war. They mainly live in the coastal region, but also have large presence in Homs. Struggling to remain relevant The presence of IS militants has noticeably increased in eastern Homs, according to reports. Local activists said this is partly because of the losses elsewhere in the country as a result of Western coalitions and Russian air campaigns against them. Their control of towns like Mahin and al-Qaryatayn [in eastern Homs] has recently become tighter, said Jassim al-Homsi, an activist from Homs who is based in Turkey. He told VOA in a Facebook message that IS is incapable of entering the city of Homs. Therefore it is striving to remain relevant there by carrying out suicide attacks, he said. The Kurdish forces are advancing rapidly in eastern Aleppo and elsewhere, Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory said of U.S.-backed Kurdish efforts against IS. This might be the reason why Daesh is retreating to eastern Homs. Strategically important Homs is strategically important for the Syrian regime as it connects Aleppo in the north to the capital, Damascus, in the south. With the help of Russian airstrikes and militants of the Lebanese Hezbollah, government troops have maintained a grip on the city of Homs, expanding their operations into the northern part of the province. Implementing the truce in Homs would be particularly challenging since local dynamics on frontlines change constantly, and this would affect the war on IS, analysts say. The major issue [in Homs] is that alliances shift so frequently, said journalist Levent. One rebel group could be with the Free Syrian Army, next day it could be with al-Nusra [Front] or Daesh. Top U.S. intelligence officials are raising concerns Russia may not be completely committed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Syria. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told lawmakers Thursday that Russia is preoccupied with its involvement in Syria and could soon take additional steps to bolster the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. They are confronting the possibility, I think, or considering whether they're going to put more ground forces in, he said during testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. I think the constraining factor for them is the memory of Afghanistan, getting into kind of a bottomless pit, Clapper added. That does affect Russian thinking and is one of the reasons why I think there's apparent interest in a cessation of hostilities. Intelligence officials say there has been a constant but incremental expansion of the Russian footprint in Syria but caution they have not seen indications of any major uptick in Russian operations ahead of the midnight Saturday deadline for the cessation of hostilities to go into effect. We havent really seen any uptick in activity, a U.S. official told VOA on condition of anonymity. Theyre continuing to maintain their posture. But the official also noted that Russia has demonstrated an ability to scale its military operations in Syria in accordance with the regime to keep momentum going. Syrian rebel groups say Russian warplanes have continued to carry out airstrikes in northwest Syria, backing the regimes ongoing push into Latakia province. "The regime wants to try to retake all of northern Latakia before February 26," a spokesman for the First Coastal Division rebel group who claimed to have witnessed some of the most recent fighting told Reuters. Russia insists cease-fire is on Russia Thursday insisted the cease-fire process was underway, though it accused U.S. officials of trying to undermine the agreement. "By and large, a number of (U.S.) officials in fact attempted to call into question the agreements reached, which were approved by the two presidents," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. "It actually looked like sabotage." United Nations diplomats have been considering a Security Council resolution endorsing the cease-fire in Syria, which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has called "the one way that we can end this war." The Syrian government has said it will take part, but will continue attacking Islamic State and al-Qaida-linked terrorists, which are excluded from the cease-fire. The main opposition High Committee for Negotiations (HNC) gave a reserved endorsement for the cease-fire on Wednesday, saying it will participate for two weeks to determine the commitment of the other side. The HNC has also said its participation is contingent on the delivery of humanitarian aid and the end of sieges and airstrikes against civilians. The U.S. envoy for Syria Michael Ratney said in a statement the HNC's recommendations are being carefully considered. He also expressed hope that the maximum number of armed factions will sign on to the cease-fire. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned Thursday that his country will not be bound by the truce if it is threatened by Syrian Kurdish fighters or the Islamic State group. Turkey has carried out cross-border shelling into northern Syria targeting the Kurdish YPG militia, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says should not be part of the cease-fire deal. Turkey considers the YPG to be terrorists based on their links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has carried out a three-decade insurgency in southeastern Turkey. The PKK is recognized as a terror group by the United States and the European Union. U.S. President Barack Obama struck a cautious tone on the cease-fire after meeting Wednesday with Jordan's King Abdullah II. "We are very cautious about raising expectations on this; the situation on the ground is difficult," the president said. WATCH: Explainer - Syria Who's Fighting Whom A male teenager near Tokyo was found to have been infected with Zika virus after a visit to Brazil, Japan's first case of the infection since May last year when the virus spread widely in Latin America, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Thursday. The man, who is in Kanagawa prefecture, southwest of the Japanese capital, was running a fever and a rash, after having returned to Japan, NHK quoted the health ministry as saying. Health ministry officials said they had no immediate comment to make on the report. In the past, three people in Japan had been found to have the Zika virus three years ago after returning from abroad, NHK said. Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly. Brazil is investigating the potential link between Zika infections and more than 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly, a condition marked by abnormally small head size that can result in developmental problems. The US Supreme Court could either affirm or set back abortion rights this year, depending on how the justices rule on a restrictive law enacted two years ago in Texas that has led to the closing of more than half of that states abortion clinics. Only eight justices will hear arguments on Wednesday, March 2, in the case of Whole Womens Health versus Texas after one chair was left empty by the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative who the laws supporters believe would have sided with them. The remaining justices are evenly divided between those who lean conservative and those who lean liberal, with at least two of them sometimes serving as swing votes. But the real question in this case is not the legality of abortion, which some conservative justices may oppose, but to what degree a state can impose restrictions on the practice. Putting up barriers to abortion? Marcela Howell is executive director of In Our Own Voice, a black womens advocate group that has filed an amicus brief supporting the challenge to the Texas law. She says it puts an undue burden on poor women who cannot afford to travel long distances to a clinic, especially since Texas is one of 32 states that has rejected the use of federal government-provided Medicaid funds for abortion. She told VOA, "If they are under Medicaid they are not able to use Medicaid health insurance to cover abortion care, which adds the additional burden of figuring out how they are going to pay for an abortion. Howell says the law is a thinly veiled attempt to undermine the right to abortion established by the court in the 1973 Roe versus Wade decision. Politicians should not have a right to put up those kind of barriers to women seeking what is a constitutionally protected health care service, she said. A study released last month by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project documented some of the negative impacts of the abortion law on women, especially those who are poor or live in areas far from the only abortion clinic still in operation. Protecting womens health? But such findings are irrelevant, according to John Seago, a legislative assistant who helped write the law. He argues that the hardships some women face are the result of abortion providers choosing to close clinics for financial reasons. This is a choice that the abortion industry is making, specifically, Whole Womens Health, the plaintive in this lawsuit, Seago said. This is a decision they are making not to invest the money in complying with the law, but rather to challenge it in court. But David Brown, staff attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, says the laws provisions impose medically unnecessary and burdensome requirements on the clinics. Particularly, there are two: there is one that requires clinics to convert themselves into mini hospitals and another that requires physicians who provide abortions to essentially join the staff of a nearby hospital. Seago contends that such requirements are similar to those imposed on clinics that perform plastic surgery or other elective procedures and the requirement for abortion doctors to be accepted at a local hospital helps prevent malpractice. David Brown, however, says such requirements are transparent attempts to impede access to abortions in Texas. These laws are opposed by the entirety of the mainstream medical establishment in this country, he said. Every major medical organization, from the American Medical Association to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and everybody in between recognizes that these laws are medically unnecessary and impose pointless burdens, whose only effect is to shutter clinics. In the hands of a divided court The death of Justice Scalia could favor the challenge to the Texas law. With him, there was a five-to-four advantage for conservatives that has now been reduced to a four-four split. We have lost this advocate on the court, Seago said, but we still are optimistic that we are going to win and that we will be able to enforce our law at the end of the day. Other supporters of the law agree, including Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who defeated Democratic State Senator Wendy Davis in the 2014 election after she gained national fame by trying to stop the abortion bill with a filibuster. But those who support a womans right to choose an abortion, here in Texas and in other parts of the country, are hoping the court will strike down the law. An even split on this case would leave the Texas law in effect, but would not constitute a ruling that applies to other states with similar legal restrictions on abortion. Health officials in the southern U.S. state of Florida say three pregnant women have tested positive for the Zika virus. Florida Health Secretary John Armstrong said the women tested positive after traveling to countries were Zika virus cases were reported. Florida has a total of 32 cases, with 11 of them reported in the Miami-Dade area. All of the cases have been travel-related. On Monday, a study to determine whether Zika is causing babies to be born with the birth defect microcephaly began in Brazil. The Zika virus has been tentatively linked to 4,000 suspected cases in Brazil of microcephaly, a condition that results in abnormally small heads and brains in newborns. There is no treatment for microcephaly. A 16-member team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started work in Joao Pessoa, in northeastern Brazil, that is the epicenter of that country's Zika outbreak. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, told VOA that "scientists are working very hard on a vaccine but, it will be at least a year or two before it might be available." The World Health Organization declared the Zika outbreak an international health emergency February 1. The CDC said it is investigating 14 new reports of Zika virus infection in the United States, all suspected to be sexually transmitted. The CDC said all 14 cases involve women whose only known risk factor is sexual contact with a male partner who had recently traveled to an area with local Zika transmissions. Republican front-runner Donald Trump is on a roll, and the Super Tuesday contests on March 1 could turn the GOP presidential nomination race into a rout. Polls show Trump ahead in most of the 12 Republican contests on Super Tuesday. The exception is Texas, where home-state Senator Ted Cruz holds a lead. A stumble by Cruz there on Tuesday could end his White House hopes. Some recent surveys have Trump leading by 9 percentage points in Georgia, 34 points in Massachusetts and 15 points in Vermont. In Florida, which holds its primary March 15, Trump leads home-state Senator Marco Rubio 44 percent to 28 percent in the latest Quinnipiac University poll. A Rubio loss in Florida could doom his presidential hopes, even though he has emerged as the favorite of the Republican establishment. Republican strategist Karl Rove argued in his weekly Wall Street Journal column that there is still time for the non-Trump majority to coalesce around a single candidate, but not much. Rove, who was former President George W. Bushs chief political adviser, cautioned that unless the party establishment united behind one alternative by the middle of March, the bid to stop Trump would fail. Trump rails at Rove Trump has long criticized Rove as a creature of the Republican establishment and lashed out at him this week, asserting on Twitter that Rove was belittling his Nevada victory. He called Rove "dopey" and said, "He should be fired!" Rubio has gotten several endorsements in recent days and still hopes to line up the support of his one-time political mentor, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who abandoned his presidential bid after a poor finish in South Carolina. Rubio claims to be the best hope for denying Trump the nomination. You have a very hard-core majority of Republicans that do not want Donald Trump as the nominee, and as long as they are being divided up by three or four people, its good for Donald. But thats not going to continue, Rubio told reporters in Nevada this week. Trump is focused on a making a big showing on Super Tuesday and told supporters after his win in Nevada that his appeal was spreading to various groups in the Republican Party. We won the evangelicals, we won with young, we won with old, we won with highly educated, we won with poorly educated, and I love the poorly educated! he said. There are four rivals dividing the anti-Trump vote: Rubio, Ohio Governor John Kasich, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Cruz, who urged his supporters to stay motivated after his third-place finish in Nevada. The only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump and the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump is this campaign, Cruz said. Winner-take-all events Once the Republican campaign reaches March 15, some states' nominating contests become winner-take-all affairs, which could rapidly boost a leading candidate by letting him secure a large number of delegates. Ohio and Florida are both winner-take-all states, holding primaries on March 15, with 66 and 99 delegates at stake, respectively. If this is a four- to five-person field, then Trump is going to be the nominee, political analyst Stuart Rothenberg said. If its a two- or maybe even a three-man race, then Rubio has a chance. Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders face off in the South Carolina primary Saturday, the first test for Democratic candidates in the South. Clinton has focused on courting African-American voters in South Carolina, the first Democratic race featuring a large percentage of minority voters. I also believe that if we work together to make major new investments in communities that have been left behind and guarantee justice and dignity to every American, that will benefit all of us, Clinton told supporters during a visit to a predominantly African-American church in Charleston. The former secretary of states appeal to black voters could also help in several Southern Super Tuesday primaries, including Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. Sanders' focus Sanders is also appealing to black voters in South Carolina, with celebrity help from actor Danny Glover and film director Spike Lee. But the Vermont senator has begun to focus more of his time on the Super Tuesday contests in Massachusetts, Minnesota and Virginia, where he believes his strong support among progressives and young people will make a difference. We have taken on the political establishment, weve taken on the media establishment, and our momentum is growing every day, Sanders told a large rally in Oklahoma. Unlike the Republican race that moves to winner-take-all primaries, the Democrats stick with a proportional approach, raising the possibility of a battle that could last until the California primary in June. This week, Ankara welcomed Cairo's participation in an international working group to resolve the crisis in Libya. The move followed reports that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has authorized renewing contacts with Egypt at the ministerial level. Diplomatic relations were cut after Egypt's military deposed President Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of Erdogan, in 2013. Political columnist Semih Idiz, of Turkey's Cumhuriyet newspaper and the Al-Monitor website, notes the move to repair ties with Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries follows a deterioration in Turkey's relations with all of its southern neighbors and Russia. "The isolation [Turkey] has found itself in in the Middle East is forcing it to try and re-establish some links that it had before," Idiz said. Common enemy Ankara's relations with Saudi Arabia have markedly improved under the new Saudi ruler, King Salman. The two countries are closely coordinating their support of the Syrian rebels. International relations expert Soli Ozel, of Istanbul's Kadir Has University, says Turkey's steps toward a rapprochement with Egypt are tied to its improved relations with Saudi Arabia. "Turkey cannot increase its intimacy with Saudi Arabia and keep a very inimical relation[ship] with Egypt, which is being financed by Saudi Arabia, Ozel said. Remember: The common enemy for those three countries is Iran." Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are all concerned that Iran's power in the region will grow now that international sanctions against it have been lifted. The three countries leaders will have a chance to meet face to face at the next Islamic Summit, set to take place in Istanbul in April. Complications Idiz says Erdogan is aware that the idea of warming up to Egypt is a sensitive subject inside the Turkish president's ruling AKP party, given the Egyptian government's treatment of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. "A full rapprochement at a time like this, I think, ... would not be received well by the ruling AKP grassroots supporters," Idiz said. But Cairo's hardline stance against Gaza is also seen as a complicating issue, given Ankara's strong backing of Gaza's Hamas government. In addition, Ozel says the fate of former Egyptian President Morsi, who is facing a death sentence, is key. "If they [Egypt] hang Morsi, I am sure it will be very difficult to sustain this revitalization of relations," Ozel said. Analysts suggest Erdogan is pushing for commuting the death sentences against Morsi and his followers and possibly full amnesty for them as the price Egypt must pay to restore diplomatic relations with Turkey. But with Ankara close to an agreement with Israel, another estranged former ally, it appears ready to compromise to end its isolation. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu this week unveiled a financial package aimed at boosting the country's flagging tourism industry, including a 255 million lira ($87 million) grant and a facility to allow tourism firms to restructure debt. Turkey's tourism the lifeline of the country's fragile economy is facing one of its most difficult years because of multiple security threats. Turkey is especially popular with German tourists, but has seen bookings fall after a suicide bomber killed 12 Germans in Istanbul in January. Meanwhile, Moscow has told Russians not to travel to Turkey after a Turkish fighter jet shot down a Russian warplane along the Turkish-Syrian border last October. And now, a Kurdish rebel group is warning tourists not to visit Turkey. One of Europe's largest travel companies reports that bookings to Turkey are down 40 percent. Turkey's largest resort, Antalya, is popular with Russian tourists and has already been badly hit, according to Atilla Yesilada, an Istanbul-based consultant with Global Source Partners. "A lot of companies are in serious difficulty, Yesilada said. Up to 1,300 hotels are up for sale. In Antalya, tourist arrivals by air are down by 21 percent. There is really a lot of hardship." Diversification Inan Demir, chief economist at Istanbul-based Finans Bank, says the tourist industry had already started to diversify away from dependence on Russian tourists. "Turkey has already been getting used to living with reduced tourist numbers from Russia, Demir said. Since Russia went into its own financial crisis, its demand for Turkish holidays has been declining as well. So, Turkish companies have had some time to get adapted to these changes." This diversification has involved a greater focus on oil-rich Middle Eastern countries; but, this is also problematic given plunging world oil prices, says consultant Yesilada. "We've been receiving increasing numbers of tourists from Arab and other oil-producing countries, but their incomes are substantially down," Yesilada said. More importantly, the subsidies by countries like Saudi Arabia to their citizens are down. That, I would say, would have a moderating impact on Turkish tourism, as well." Growth, employment Last week's suicide bombing of a military bus in Turkey's capital Ankara, which killed 28 people, is likely to add to Turkey's tourism woes. A group linked to the PKK, the Kurdish rebel group, claimed responsibility for the attack. That splinter group has carried out fatal bombings at tourist sites in Turkey in the past. Yesilada says the economic effect of the problems facing the tourism industry could be considerable. "Turkish tourism, which generates $35 billion, or 5 percent of GDP, could shave off one and half percent from growth," Yesilada said. Another problem is that it's extremely labor intensive: It absorbs at least 2 to 3 million young people who would be otherwise unemployed. So if tourism goes down, employment would go down, and that would lead to social unrest." The International Monetary Fund has already revised down Turkish economic growth for this year, and analysts warn that outlook could worsen with the growing threats and challenges the country faces. Ugandas main opposition party says it's working hard to gather evidence to legally challenge the outcome of the February 18 general election. Ugandas electoral law says challenges can be filed up to 10 days after results are announced. Mugisha Muntu, chairman of the Forum for Democratic Change, said the party was doing everything possible to meet the deadline, despite what he said had been continuous harassment and intimidation by state security operatives. Muntu noted that the intimidation followed the frequent arrests and subsequent release of Kizza Besigye, the FDC presidential candidate. We started gathering evidence on Saturday, right after we found out that there were huge discrepancies between what was being announced and what weve been gathering from our own polling stations," he said. Since then, he added, "our presidential candidate has been taken to the police cells several times. Muntu said security services had raided party offices and arrested data entry clerks, but "we are not deterred. We are continuing to gather evidence to be able to move in that direction [toward a challenge] once a decision is firmly made." Badru Kiggundu, the electoral commission chairman, declared incumbent Yoweri Museveni the winner of the presidential election with 60.07 percent of the votes cast, while Besigye was second with 35.37 percent. Kiggundu insisted the general election was credible, despite preliminary reports by local and international observers that the poll was neither free nor fair. I dont think he could have said anything else apart from that," Muntu said of Kiggundu. "Even as we moved towards the election day itself, you could see that the electoral commission chairman was partisan from the statements that he was making, from the actions that they carried out, and ultimately, from the evidence, which now is so visible. Discrepancies alleged Muntu said initial evidence showed some of the poll results had been manipulated. He said results on the declaration forms signed by all party representatives, which show the results at the polling stations, were different from those the electoral commission announced. Opposition groups also accused the electoral commission of bias after voting in areas where they were strong including the capital, Kampala started about seven hours later than in areas where the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) had a strong following. The FDC said the delays were a deliberate attempt to suppress opposition votes. The electoral commission denied the accusation. It said the delays were regrettable but insisted that the results were credible, despite the logistical challenges. Some FDC supporters said they weren't confident that the partys legal challenge would succeed, contending that the countrys judiciary is not independent. They also said the government could pressure judges to rule in its favor. In our decision to eventually go to court, [judiciary independence] is also one of the factors that is being considered, Muntu said. Supporters of the NRM said the opposition parties were sore losers. They said the opposition parties weren't complaining about parliamentary races in which they defeated government ministers but were challenging losses to Museveni in the same areas. A senior official said the U.S. is deeply concerned about an escalation in the conflict between government forces and pro-Russia separatist rebels in recent weeks in eastern Ukraine, despite a series of cease-fire attempts. Reports from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have indicated that a majority of cease-fire violations come from separatists-controlled areas. A senior State Department official told VOA on Tuesday that the fighting is an indication that insurgents are not keeping up with their commitments under the Minsk agreements. The so-called Minsk II agreement, mediated by Germany and France, represents a package of measures to alleviate the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine. It was agreed to by Ukraine, Russia, and separatists in February of 2015. It also authorizes OSCE access for monitoring and verification of the cease-fire and heavy weapons withdrawal. However, the ongoing fighting has thrown into doubt plans under the Minsk agreement for local elections in separatist-held areas. Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry told lawmakers on Wednesday that the U.S. is increasing funding to support Ukrainian stability while pushing hard for its political reforms. Various reports have blamed separatists for stepping up attacks on government forces to levels not seen for months. On Wednesday, while testifying before a congressional panel, Kerry said the U.S. is also increasing funding to counter what the West sees as Russian aggression. "Russia has a clear choice between continued sanctions and meeting its obligations to a sovereign and democratic Ukraine," Kerry pointed out in his written testimony to the House Appropriations Committee. The administration has requested $3.4 billion for the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI) to support efforts to ensure peace and security in Europe. That total is four times the amount requested last year. Beginning in February 2014, Russia orchestrated a military intervention and ultimately annexed Ukraines Crimea a few weeks later, a move that was largely condemned by the international community and brought sanctions from the United States and European Union. In eastern Ukraine, despite international efforts for a cease-fire and de-escalation of the crisis, fighting between government forces and separatists widely seen as backed and armed by Russia has continued. Senior U.S. officials have made it clear that for the U.S. to roll back sanctions, there must be a complete implementation of the Minsk agreements. That would include a full cease-fire, the withdrawal of all foreign troops and equipment from Ukraine, the full restoration of Ukrainian control of the international border, and the release of all hostages. A United Nations investigating team has found what is says are widespread atrocities committed with impunity by a variety of armed groups in Libya. A six-member U.N. team said it gathered a wealth of information and evidence of gross violations of human rights in Libya from hundreds of victims and witnesses. The investigators allege armed groups allied with Libyas two competing governments, multiple independent groups, and Islamic State militants are guilty of wide-ranging abuses, many of which could amount to war crimes. The report describes unlawful killings, including executions of people taken captive. It documents indiscriminate attacks on health facilities, ambulances and medical workers. It says the use of torture, arbitrary detention, abductions and disappearances are widespread. Other issues of concern include violence and discrimination against women, intimidation of human rights defenders and journalists, recruitment of children, and exploitation of vulnerable migrants. Gurdip Sangha, a desk officer with the U.N. agency, said the report goes into detail. You will see in very stark terms the actual accounts of victims and witnesses of... people who have had a bag put over their head when they are leaving their home, being abducted and being assaulted and tortured and dumped back. Of migrants who have been subjected to horrific abuse, said Sangha. Sangha said these abuses and crimes flourish in an environment of complete impunity. He added that the justice system in Libya is broken, with judges and prosecutors often abducted and killed, while courts are subject to bomb attacks. Some of these attacks have been linked to the detention or the release of individuals or to thwart the release or prosecution of members. And, ultimately that is working. There have been no prosecutions of armed brigade, armed group leaders and there have been very limited investigations of any armed group leaders or armed group members, said Sangha. The report recommends urgent action to stop the proliferation of armed groups in Libya. It says individuals who are responsible for human rights violations and abuses should not be recruited into any armed force. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon met with South Sudan's president Thursday in an effort to advance the peace accord aimed at ending the country's civil war. Ban's visit to Juba came as the South Sudanese government and opposition prepare to form a unity government, in which rebel chief Riek Machar will serve as first vice president. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, South Sudan's foreign minister said Kiir assured the secretary-general of his commitment to implement the accord. He said Ban assured the president "that he will urge Machar to come to Juba as soon as possible so the transitional government of national unity can be formed." On Tuesday, the sides agreed on an arrangement for 1,370 pro-Machar soldiers to move into the capital ahead of Machar's arrival. More security forces are expected to join them after the power-sharing transitional government is formed. After two years of civil war, rebel leader Machar and South Sudan President Salva Kiir signed a peace deal in August, agreeing to run a unity government for 30 months before holding elections. Kiir appointed Machar as his vice president last week, in the first step toward forming the unity government. Despite the moves toward solidarity, fighting continues in parts of South Sudan. Over the past two years, tens of thousands of people have died and more than two million have been displaced because of the violence. The United States will submit to the U.N. Security Council a draft resolution calling for new sanctions on North Korea for its recent nuclear test and long-range missile launch. The move Thursday comes a day after the U.S. and North Korea's most important ally, China, agreed on imposing further sanctions on Pyongyang. "We look forward to working with the Council on a strong and comprehensive response to the DPRKs latest series of tests aimed at advancing their nuclear weapons program, said Kurtis Cooper, acting spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the U.N. He used the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The announcement came during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Washington, where he met Tuesday with Secretary of State John Kerry and Wednesday with National Security Adviser Susan Rice. U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Rice and Wang agreed on a "strong and united" response to the North Korean tests, including new U.N. sanctions. South Koreas Foreign Ministry spokesman, Cho June-hyuck, on Thursday called the draft resolution "strong and comprehensive." "It contains many effective components which are stronger than anything in past," he said. The agreement will likely represent a compromise between Washingtons support for crippling economic sanctions to pressure Kim Jong Un to give up its nuclear weapons program and China's emphasis on maintaining stability and resolving the conflict through dialogue. However, by uniting with Washington to support new international sanctions, Beijing may be signaling that a conciliatory approach to Pyongyang has not been working and stronger measures are needed. "China is going to take North Koreas nuclear and missile threat far more seriously than it used to," said Bong Young-shik, a national security analyst with the Asan Institute for Policy Studies here. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 because of its multiple nuclear tests and rocket launches. In addition to a U.N. arms embargo, Pyongyang is banned from importing and exporting nuclear and missile technology and is not allowed to import luxury goods. Measures target ministries, agencies, banks South Koreas Yonhap news agency is reporting the draft resolution will target the North Korea's Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry and its National Aerospace Development Agency (NADA), the body responsible for February's rocket launch. The secretive General Reconnaissance Bureau will also reportedly be blacklisted. This secretive government organization has already been sanctioned by the United States for its suspected role in the 2014 cyberattack on Sony Pictures. Some analysts are skeptical that targeting North Korean officials and agencies will have any impact. They question whether the final agreement will impose real economic pain on Kim Jong Un and other leaders. "The details we have at the moment are insufficient. They do not reach the level of effective and strong sanctions," said Kim Kwang-jin, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Strategy, an organization affiliated with South Koreas National Intelligence Service. Banning the exports of North Korean coal and other minerals, the import of oil and restricting North Korean access to international ports were among the measures Washington had supported. Washington also wanted to tighten restrictions on North Korean banks' access to the international financial system. Chinese and South Korean media reported this week that China has ordered a halt to its coal trade with North Korea and that some Chinese banks have frozen accounts belonging to North Koreans. Chinas Foreign Ministry said it was not aware of these developments, but analysts say popular support is increasing in China to cut off potential funding for North Koreas nuclear program. "China has been intensively discussing how to internally block oil and cash from flowing into North Korea," said Woo Su-keun, a professor of international relations at Donghua University in Shanghai. THAAD There was speculation that Beijing was holding up the agreement on U.N. sanctions to pressure Washington and Seoul to drop plans for the possible deployment of the controversial Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system. China and Russia oppose THAAD deployment in Korea, saying it can potentially be used against their military forces in the region. This week, the Chinese Ambassador to South Korea, Qiu Guohong, indicated Beijing would cut ties with Seoul over THAAD deployment. South Koreas Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun and leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party criticized the Chinese ambassador for attempting to exert influence over South Korean national security issue. US measures On Wednesday, President Barack Obama signed legislation imposing new U.S. sanctions against North Korea in response to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests. The bill calls for imposing mandatory sanctions on anyone assisting Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs, cyberattacks and human rights abuses. The expanded sanctions are designed to deny North Korea the money it needs to develop miniaturized nuclear warheads and the long-range missiles required to deliver them. The measure also authorizes $50 million over five years to transmit radio broadcasts into North Korea and support humanitarian assistance programs. Billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump took center stage again at a crucial Republican debate in Texas on Thursday, with Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Texas Senator Ted Cruz looking to curb the electoral momentum of the front-runner. Rubio was on the attack against Trump as the nationally televised debate began. Again and again, the Florida lawmaker brought up the businessman's history of hiring immigrants who are in the country illegally to work on his properties. Joining in, Cruz criticized Trump for suggesting he alone had "discovered the issue of illegal immigration.'' Trump shot back, "I hired tens of thousands of people. You've hired nobody.'' The flamboyant Trump, who has never held elective office, has won three straight primary election contests in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. This debate preceded next Tuesday's party primaries and caucuses in 12 states, the single biggest day so far in the months-long, state-by-state races to pick the Republican and Democratic party presidential candidates. An online Bloomberg Politics poll released Thursday found Trump, a twice-divorced New Yorker, with 37 percent of the vote in seven Southern states, home to some of the nation's most conservative voters. Both Rubio and Cruz sharpened their attacks on Trump in recent days, with Rubio contending that Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan is empty rhetoric without many specific policy proposals. "The vast and overwhelming majority of Republicans do not want Donald Trump to be our nominee," Rubio said Wednesday, suggesting that Trump has won only because the Republican opposition to him has been splintered. Two other candidates, Ohio Governor John Kasich and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, remained the race and were on the debate stage, but it was the first candidate face-off without former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who dropped out after a disappointing fourth-place finish last weekend in South Carolina. 'Washington dealmakers' Cruz, a conservative agitator in Washington against Republican and Democratic leaders, on Wednesday attacked Rubio and Trump as "Washington dealmakers." He said Rubio had collaborated with Democrats on immigration policy changes that Congress ultimately abandoned, while Trump has made campaign donations to Democrats in past elections and at times supported their policies. Cruz is looking to win his home state of Texas on Tuesday and do well in other nearby states in the southern part of the country. But surveys show Republicans favoring Trump in those states and pulling close to Cruz in Texas. Rubio also faces a key contest in the southeastern state of Florida, his home state, on March 15, the same day Kasich is on the ballot with the other candidates in Ohio, the Midwestern state he governs. As he celebrated his victory this week in Nevada, Trump suggested to supporters he could take a commanding lead for the Republican nomination with more victories in March, when voters will pick hundreds of delegates to the party's national nominating convention in July. "It's going to be an amazing two months," Trump said. "We might not even need two months, folks, to be honest." Trump has predicted he will face off with former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic presidential contender, in November's national election to replace President Barack Obama, whose eight-year tenure in the White House ends in January. Clinton has won two of the three Democratic state contests over her remaining rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist. Clinton, the country's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013, is favored in Saturday's primary election in the Atlantic coastal state of South Carolina, and the two are battling in 11 states on Tuesday. Privacy Overview This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. The U.S. and U.N. have welcomed a declaration by Libyan lawmakers in support of a proposed unity government, but expressed concern about reported intimidation of members of parliament by those who oppose the accord. A majority of members (100 out of 196) of the internationally recognized parliament in Tobruk signed a statement Tuesday saying they agree with the latest in a string of plans to establish a unity government with rivals based in Tripoli. But a vote on the proposal was not held because of threats against them. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement Wednesday the United States strongly supports "these courageous Libyans as they move ahead with the Government of National Accord." In testimony to Congress, Kerry highlighted the urgency of Libya's political crisis, which has persisted since the overthrow of former leader Moammar Gadhafi. "If they cannot get themselves together, yes it will be a failed state," Kerry said. The U.N.'s envoy for Libya Martin Kobler said the statement by Libyan lawmakers shows "the strong determination of the people of Libya and the overwhelming support by the majority" of the parliament for the unity government plan. He urged parliamentary leaders to immediately work to formalize the endorsement, and said they have a duty to ensure the process is free from threats and intimidation. The U.N. has been mediating negotiations between the Libyan parties in search of an agreement to unite them and help re-establish a strong central government. The turmoil in Libya has included a drop in the country's important oil industry, as well as extremists groups such as Islamic State seizing territory. The United States and its allies are pushing members of the U.N. Security Council for a swift vote on a draft resolution placing further sanctions on North Korea - sanctions that would make all exported cargo subject to inspection and halt imports of all products that could be used for military purposes. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power presented the resolution Thursday after seven weeks of negotiations between the United States and China, North Korea's closest ally. China has supported dialogue about sanctions on North Korea in the past, but the new resolution has Chinese support on measures such as banning the North Korean import of aviation products and rocket fuel, and any items that could be used by the military, such as trucks and small arms. China's Ambassador Liu Jieyi made clear to reporters Thursday after the U.N. Security Council meeting that China is working closely with other Security Council members to achieve North Korean denuclearization, and added he hopes the resolution will result in "peace and stability." Despite China's policy shift on North Korea, the resolution still faces some obstacles, such as Russia's declaration that it will need to study the document over the next few days, stalling a vote on the resolution until next week. Russian Ambassador Petr Iliichev told reporters the resolution's myriad details warrant careful study before Russia takes a position. The new draft resolution is a response to North Korea's January nuclear test and February rocket launch. The two events violated four sets of existing international sanctions imposed on Pyongyangs nuclear and ballistic missile program. These sanctions, if adopted, would send an unambiguous and unyielding message to the DPRK regime: The world will not accept your proliferation. There will be consequences for your actions. And we will work relentlessly and collectively to stop your nuclear program, Power told reporters after discussing the draft with council members. Weapons, fuel trade One new measure is an embargo on all arms conventional and otherwise in and out of North Korea. In addition to being destabilizing, we know it is the conventional arms program that also generates revenue through exports for Pyongyangs illicit programs, a U.S. official familiar with the draft said. The resolution also seeks to impose a mandatory inspection of all cargo, even food, going into or out of the rogue nation, whether it moves by land, sea or air. The official said this move was unprecedented. The official said the resolution also targets North Koreas shadowy underground nuclear proliferation networks. Measures in the draft would require states to expel North Korean diplomats involved in illicit activities, as well as to close the offices and kick out the representatives of big DPRK companies that are involved in activities subject to U.N. sanctions. For the first time, there would also be sanctions banning the supply or transfer of aviation fuel a specialized, highly refined petroleum-based fuel used for both civilian planes and rockets. The U.S. official said there would be no exemption to that ban for civil aviation. North Korea operates a national airline, Air Koryo, and the fuel sanctions could affect its ability to fly. Power said the resolution would also impose restrictions limiting and in some instances banning outright exports from the DPRK of coal, iron, gold, titanium and rare earth minerals. Banks, luxury goods North Korea has been under tough financial sanctions for some time, but the new resolution would seek to tighten those measures, requiring states to close North Korean bank accounts in their financial institutions and prohibiting engagement with North Korean banks. DPRK leader Kim Jong Uns fondness for luxury goods is well-known. Previous council resolutions have cracked down on the import of expensive cars, liquor and other items to North Korea, but enforcement has been difficult. The new resolution seeks to clarify what a luxury item is, and fancy watches, lead crystal, personal watercraft and snowmobiles valued at more than $2,000 dollars reportedly would be prohibited. Power said that if adopted, these sanctions would break new ground and represent the strongest set of sanctions imposed by the Security Council in more than two decades. Resistance unlikely The resolution is unlikely to meet any significant resistance in the council since China, Pyongyangs closest ally, has agreed to the language. I am very pleased that we have come to this stage. I hope all the members of the Security Council will agree with the text, said Japans U.N. ambassador, Motohide Yoshikawa. French Ambassador Francois Delattre told reporters the new sanctions were needed to break the irresponsible behavior of Pyongyang and bring them back to the negotiation table. According to diplomats, the resolution does have language reaffirming the importance of resuming the six-party talks, which are aimed at ending Pyongyangs nuclear program through diplomatic negotiations. China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States are the participants in the talks. Former workers of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), who have been camping at the company's headquarters for more than two weeks demanding outstanding salaries, are vowing to stay put until they get their dues. The GMB head office in Eastlea in Zimbabwe's capital, has almost become a home for thousands of disgruntled former workers. The former workers, who were dismissed last year in unclear circumstances, are owed salaries backdating to 2014. They have braved the rains and scotching heat to drive their point home. The axed employees have formed an organization called Former GMB Workers Union. President of the union, Stephen Machaya, told Studio 7 they will only leave the GMB premises only when their grievances have been addressed. We are not dispersing because we have not changed our position. We told them that we want our full salary arrears because the $310 they deposited into our accounts does not make sense. If we do not come here these part payments are not made. "They paid them without us agreeing. We no longer want to come here. This should be the last time we are here so we should get our full payment." Machaya claimed that GMB was peddling falsehoods following a statement the company released Tuesday alleging that it has been paying the workers a monthly allowance of $300 since their dismissal. This is not true that they have been paying us. If it was the case we would not be here. It's seven months down the line since we lost our jobs and they should have paid us 7 times by now. Let them prove that they paid us. They are lying to the nation. Stella Rangwani, another former worker, said it has been tough staying in the open and small tents for the past two weeks. Our situation is very tough like right now you can see it is raining and we are just kept outside here. We are here for all our dues we worked for. We were not paid since 2014 and we have nowhere to go. Our property has been thrown out by landlords so we just need our monies. The management is too ignorant and they do not respond to our needs. She urged the government to intervene, noting that some families camping at the GMB headquarters have children, who are too young to understand what is going on. Phillip Samanja, another former worker told Studio 7 they have been locked outside the GMB premises and as a result they now do not have access to ablution and water facilities. They are locking their gates. We tried engaging them but they do not want to listen to us and our needs. Until they give us all our dues, we are here to stay. We are surprised that they actually spoke to the media about the $310 they deposited into our accounts as if we agreed on it. In a statement, GMB said they had no resources to pay the former workers and also acknowledged that the disgruntled former employees were expected to disperse after receiving $310 each that was paid on February 16th while the organisation was looking for more funds. The former workers are owed about $4.7 million in net salary arrears. GMB also claimed that they have been paying the former workers outstanding monthly salaries. The former workers have dismissed these claims as wishful thinking. A coalition of Human Rights Organisations, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, has also released a statement calling upon GMB to respect the Zimbabwe constitution, which clearly states that every person has the right to fair and safe labour practices and to be paid a fair and reasonable wage. The Forum further urged GMB management to constructively engage the former workers as a matter of urgency in order to find an amicable solution to the crisis. Preparations for President Robert Mugabes $800,000 birthday bash are in top gear despite reservations from some Zimbabweans who believe that the party set for Masvingo province on Saturday is a waste of money for a nation facing a devastating drought. Organisers of the event say all is set for the bash, known as the 21st February Movement, amid pomp fanfare among some members of the ruling party who staged a mini-carnival in the city centre on Thursday. Although some youth groups have threatened to stage massive streets protests tomorrow in an attempt to block the event, Ezra Chadzamira, who heads the birthday partys organizing committee, says everything is in place at the Great Zimbabwe monuments. Chadzamira says they wont tolerate any public protests meant to derail the celebrations. We dont tolerate any demonstration towards the presidents birthday. We encourage all people to unite and attend the celebrations. The president is the solution to every problem and for the preparations we are at 100% done. Everything is now in position and we are not concentrating in ferrying people to the event, he says. Zanu PF supporters say the lavish birthday party is supposed to go ahead though some people are against the event. Talent Majoni, a young ruling party supporter, noted that they are pleased that Masvingo is hosting the president this year. Cde Robert Mugabe is our revolutionary icon and the redeemer of the Munhumutapa Empire. We thank God for the many years and everybody in the province is in a jovial mood . We say happy birthday Gushungo. Another Zanu PF party youth, Bright Kwangwa, says people who are opposed to the birthday party should know that the president will have an opportunity to see for himself the drought situation in Masvingo province. The birthday celebrations of the President will not stop, being almost 100% nothing can stop it. His coming here will give him an opportunity to see for himself so that he has first-hand information and solve the problems like a father, says Kwangwa. However, some local residents still maintain that the birthday bash is misplaced as people are struggling to get a decent meal a day due to the current drought. Prosper Tiringindi of Rujeko suburb says it is strange that the president will be eating good food with his friends when he has not yet even set foot on areas facing food shortages. He said the Mr. Mugabes government has even failed to resettle about 20,000 people who were displaced by floods in Masvingo almost two years ago. For the mean time there is nothing to celebrate, we have social problems we are facing. We had the Chingwizi disaster, the president never came here to see the people but now he is coming to a lavish bash to wine and dine. I dont see the need for the celebrations here in Masvingo, says Tiringindi. His views are echoed by Ephraim Mutombeni of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, who says the event should be abandoned. As students we dont welcome the decision by the president. We have challenges in education we do not have a proper campus and we have accommodation problems with five students sharing a room. The president should have channeled the money towards improving our welfare. This to us shows that the president is heartless, we dont want bashes here. The 21st February Movement, targeting Zimbabwean youth, was formed nearly 30 years ago to set the stage for President Mugabes birthday commemorations. Mr. Mugabe turned 92 on Sunday and has already been chosen as Zanu PFs presidential election candidate for the 2018 polls. He will be 94 years old that year. Former Vice President Joice Mujurus Zimbabwe People First party is being dragged to court for allegedly stealing the name of another opposition party, Zimbabwe First. Zimbabwe First is arguing that Mrs. Mujurus party will confuse the electorate on ballot papers resulting in them voting for the other party. Zimbabwe First is an opposition party led by Maxwell Shumba, who is based in the United States. Zimbabwe First communications director, Tawanda Svoswe, said their lawyers have started the process to ask the court to stop the Mrs. Mujurus outfit from using the name People First. Shumba's party uses as one of its slogans Zimbabwe People First. Svoswe said when it was first announced Mujuru's party was going to be called Zanu People First but the name Zanu was later dropped. "Personally, I think that name would have suited her well because she is Zanu first. It has always been her first or her party first oir Zanu first, that would have made more sense. So ideologically she doesnt qualify to use that name," said Svoswe. He said if she had been the type of person that she now wants to portray herself in the past 34 years with all that is happening she would have stood up and said "you know what we cannot continue doing that." Studio 7 also reached spokesman, Rugare Gumbo of the Zimbabwe People First, who said Shumba and his outfit are wasting their time because the name they have registered is Zimbabwe First and not Zimbabwe People First. "We are surprised about because we have used that name since we moved away from Zanu PF. We registered the party and our lawyer went to ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) to establish wethere theres any other political party with that name and ZEC said no," said Gumbo. He said in Zimbabwe there's always confused minds that will do anything to tarnish the iamge of someone who will use any gimmick to achieve that. He said they were ready to go anywhere to guard that name. "As far as we are concerned our name is not People First it is Zimbabwe People First. There's no confusion there, our people are very clear and we challenge anybody to come on the ground and compete with us," he said. Zimbabweans are divided over President Robert Mugabes lavish birthday party to be held Saturday in Masvingo province with Zanu PF supporters saying this is a time to pay tribute to the Zimbabwean leader, who played a key role in liberating the country from the yoke of colonialism. Opponents on the other hand, say there is no reason for the celebrations as Zimbabwe is currently facing serious food shortages due to a devastating drought fueled by the El Nino weather phenomenon. According to the state-controlled media, already the ruling Zanu PF party has sourced 53 beasts of the targeted 60 cattle, about 300 kilograms of processed beef and hundreds of kilograms of game meat for the expected 50,000 guests at the Great Zimbabwe Monument in Masvingo province. Nearly a million dollars was spent on President Mugabes birthday bash held last year in the resort town of Victoria Falls. Is it proper for Zanu PF to throw an $800,000 birthday party for the president when the nation is also experiencing serious social and economic problems? For perspective, VOA Studio 7 reached Zanu PF legislator Joseph Tshuma, and George Mkhwanazi of the Peoples Democratic Party led by former Finance Minister Tendi Biti. Tshuma said there is nothing wrong with holding a lavish party for Mr. Mugabe. This is other peoples initiative for their sole agenda of a youth movement which they feel must be part of the equation and so I dont know why somebody must be worried about someone elses agenda. Mkhwanazi immediately shot back saying, It is a waste of time in Zimbabwe, it is a waste of money to use such kind of resources to pamper an old man of 92 in a country where the citizens are starving. You know, southern African is faced with a very serious drought and you have a president who purports to care for his people, you know, allowing himself to be pampered at the cost of a million dollars or so in a mere birthday. You know, that is a scandal and must not be allowed to happen. Reacting to these remarks, Tshuma said Mkhwanazi is ill-informed about how the country is handling the current dry spell as he is living in South Africa and as a result does not know that the president has declared the crippling drought a state of national disaster. He (President Mugabe) has declared a state of emergency towards this hunger issue, resources have been mobilized and as I speak grain is being purchased from countries with that (excess) grain. The money that is being used for the birthday bash is not coming from any of the public coffers. It is money coming from private individuals who accept the calls for the 21st February Movement because its not just about celebrating the presidents 92 years on his earth, its also about the youth themselves, the values that are being imparted on the youth by the president. Mkhwanazi was not pleased with Tshumas suggestions that the money being used for the birthday bash was sourced from private individuals. Actually thats a height of insanity to say that the money is sourced from individuals. You know that in Zimbabwe politics and economy are closely linked. The people who are purported to be providing these kinds of monies these are people who have been at the helm of destroying the country. He further said, To say that there is value in the 21st February Movement is to lose it totally. Here is a man who has nothing to offer A man who has nothing to teach anyone in terms of leadership A man who has presided over a countrys crumbling economy to an extent that the country is unable to face a drought situation. He also said Zimbabwe was facing an economic crisis that was caused by what he claimed was an incompetent ruling party government. And this is a man who has nothing in terms of emulation by the youths because at 92, he has been in power for more than 35 years, almost 40 years, which is the time that the children of Israel spent in the desert, he is still in power and has totally run out of ideas of how to run a country. Tshuma dismissed Mkhwananzi as a person who does not even understand political processes in Zimbabwe. I think Mr. Mkhwanazi is very clueless when he speaks about President Robert Gabriel Mugabe. He probably doesnt know him maybe because he stays out of the country. He must come back here and understand the fundamentals of Zimbabwe. He said Mr. Mugabe is very much respected in Africa nations and others for fighting for the liberation of the country and other social and economic ills. President Mugabe celebrates his birthday every year with supporters organizing festivities at a selected venue to praise the ageing Zimbabwean leader, who has been in power since the country attained independence from British rule in 1980. New United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Harry K Thomas Jr., officially started duties in Zimbabwe after presenting credentials to President Robert Mugabe to whom he pledged to continue the important work of building strong and respectful relations between the two countries. In a statement after meeting Mr. Mugabe, Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. said America is keen to find common ground that would enhance bilateral relations between the two nations. He said the USA would continue to promote democratic institutions, equitable economic growth, public health and food security in Zimbabwe. The United States, he said, shared the desires of the Zimbabwean people who want to see a peaceful, democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe that provides for its people and contributes to regional stability. Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. said, We strongly believe that is important to engage with government and non-governmental entities alike to promote our shared values and work together in areas of common concern. He added that the U.S Embassy in Zimbabwe would continue to promote business linkages and encourage American investors to look closely at Zimbabwes educated labour force and long-term growth potential. Reacting to some of these remarks, Harare resident, Dziya Mlambo, said he expects the American ambassador to mend relations between the two countries. There have been broken relations between us and America so we think that he will work hard to ensure that we relate well and benefit from relations with America. Political activist, Malvern Mukundu, added that it was pleasing that the American envoy was keen to normalize relations between the two nations. I hope that the new ambassador will be able to thaw the relations and be able to chart a new economic trajectory for the country. Media Centre Director, Enerst Mudzengi, noted that U.S should support civil society, adding that though some organizations had abused donor funds sourced from America, the sector needed further support to enhance the democratization process. He said support was also needed to mitigate the effects of the Elnino-induced drought. There is the issue of drought. I hope and trust that the Americans through the ambassador will help us on this hour of need. We dont have adequate food and we definitely need help. Ambassador Thomas Junior said the U.S will provide humanitarian assistance to ensure food security in Zimbabwe. Zanu PF legislator and chairman of parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee, Kindness Paradza said the new ambassador must prioritise the removal of targeted sanctions on the Zimbabwe. On Monday this week, Foreign Affairs Minister, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, slammed the U.S and other Western countries saying maintaining sanctions on Zimbabwe was derailings the countrys re-engagement efforts with developed nations. Mumbengegwi said, When it comes to re-engagement, we are always ready but sometimes you think as you talk and discuss, they are not really listening or taking anything seriously as illustrated by the recent renewal of sanctions on our first family. The US is building a new embassy campus that would cost $30 million and create 850 jobs. Ambassador Thomas junior takes over from Ambassador Bruce Wharton who has been promoted. The United States and the European Union imposed targeted sanctions on President Mugabe and his inner circle following claims of human rights violations and election rigging. ST. PAUL, MN On Saturday, February 27, 2016, Governor Mark Dayton will host the first-ever Governors Water Summit at the InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront, to focus public attention on the serious challenges facing Minnesotas water supplies in both rural and urban areas of the state and continues statewide dialogue around steps that must be taken to address those challenges. The summit will bring together water quality experts, farmers, legislators, regulators, the business community, members of the public, local leaders, and a wide variety of other stakeholders. Additional details on the summit are included below: Online Resources To ensure that all Minnesotans voices are able to engage with this important, statewide issue, the Governors Water Summit will make a number of resources available online to all interested stakeholders and other interested members of the public. Links to all of these resources will be available from the homepage of the Governors website by Friday, February 26, 2016. Livestream Thanks to the generous support of the InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront, the opening remarks from Governor Mark Dayton (9:00am 9:30am) and the Water, Business and Stewardship Panel (1:00pm 2:00pm) will be available via a web-based livestream. The link to that webstream will be available from the homepage of the Governors website by Friday, February 26, 2016. Public Forum As part of the Governors Water Summit, interested individuals those attending the summit as well as those who are not are encouraged to participate in an online forum, where Minnesotans will be able to submit ideas and vote on proposed solutions regarding the states water quality challenges. A link to that online, public forum will be available from the homepage of the Governors website by Friday, February 26, 2016. Governors Water Survey To ensure that all Minnesotans voices are heard on this important, statewide issue, stakeholders and other interested members of the public are also encouraged to take this online survey, launched in conjunction with the Governors Water Summit, regardless of whether they plan to attend the summit. The information and input gathered from this survey will help inform the Administration and Legislature on Minnesotas water quality challenges and possible solutions. WASHINGTON, D.C. [02/24/16]In a speech today, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)a member of the Judiciary Committeecalled on Senate Republicans to fulfill their constitutional duty to consider a nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia. He called the Republicans refusal to consideror even meet witha nominee shameful, and strongly urged them to put politics aside and honor the Constitution. You can download a link to Sen. Frankens speech today by clicking here. Let us all remember that each and every senator serving in this body swore an oath to support and defend [the] Constitution, said Sen. Franken in prepared remarks. It is our duty to move forward. We must fulfill our constitutional obligation to ensure that the highest court in the land has a full complement of justices. Sen. Franken then called out his Republican colleagues refusal to fulfill that obligation, saying, Less than an hour after news of Justice Scalias death became public, the Majority Leader announced that the Senate would not take up the business of considering a replacement until after the presidential election. Quote, [t]he American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice, he said. The only problem with the Majority Leaders reasoning is that the American people have spoken. Twice. President Barack Obama was elected and reelected by a solid majority of the American people. In recent days, Sen. Franken has made a strong case for why the Senate must consider President Obamas eventual pick for the vacancy on the Supreme Court. Yesterday, he joined other Democrats on the Judiciary Committee on a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republican Leaders pressing them to uphold their constitutional duty by holding hearings on a nominee. And earlier today, he joined Senate Democrats in a Capitol Hill event to announce that more than one million Americans have already signed a petition asking the Senate to move on filling the vacancy. Sen. Frankens Statement Urging Swift Action to Confirm a Supreme Court Nominee M. PRESIDENT, I rise today to address the recent vacancy on the United States Supreme Court, and to urge my colleagues to grant swift consideration of the Presidents eventual nominee. Make no mistake, M. PRESIDENT, the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia came as a great shock. Though Justice Scalia and I did not share a common view of the Constitution or the country, I recognize that he was a man of great conviction and, it should be said, a man of great humor. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, his friends, his clerks, and his colleagues. But M. PRESIDENT, we must now devote ourselves to the task of helping to select his successor. The Constitution so beloved by Justice Scalia provides that the President, quote shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Judges of the Supreme Court. Let us all remember that each and every senator serving in this body swore an oath to support and defend that same Constitution. It is our duty to move forward. We must fulfill our constitutional obligation to ensure that the highest court in the land has a full complement of justices. Unfortunately, it would seem that some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle do not agreeand they wasted no time in making known their objections. Less than an hour after news of Justice Scalias death became public, the Majority Leader announced that the Senate would not take up the business of considering a replacement until after the presidential election. Quote, [t]he American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice, he said. The only problem with the Majority Leaders reasoning, M. PRESIDENT, is that the American people have spoken. Twice. President Barack Obama was elected and reelected by a solid majority of the American people who correctly understood that elections have consequences, not the least of which is that when a vacancy occurs, the President of United States has the constitutional responsibility to appoint a justice to the Supreme Court. The Constitution does not set a time limit on the Presidents ability to fulfill this duty. Nor, by my reading, does the Constitution set a date after which the President is no longer able to fulfill his duties as Commander in Chief, or to exercise his authority to, say, grant pardons or make treaties. It merely states that the President shall hold office for a term of four years. And by my count, there are in the neighborhood of 11 months left. If we were to truly subscribe to the Majority Leaders logic and extend it to the legislative branch, it would yield an absurd result. Senators would become ineffective in the last year of their term. The 28 senators who are now in the midst of their reelection campaigns and the 6 senators who are stepping down should be precluded from casting votes in committee or on the Senate floor. Ten committee chairs and 19 subcommittee chairs should pass the gavel to a colleague who is not currently running for reelection or preparing for retirement. Bill introduction, and indeed the cosponsorship of bills, should be limited to those senators who are not yet serving in the sixth year of their terms. If the Majority Leader sincerely believes that the only way to ensure that the voice of the American people is heard is to lop off the last year of an elected officials term, I trust he will make these changes. But I suspect he does not. Rather, it seems to me that the Majority Leader believes that the term of just one elected official in particular should be cut short. Which begs the question, M. PRESIDENT, just how short should it be cut? As I said, by my count, approximately 11 months remain in Barack Obamas presidency. 11. Now, 11 months is a considerable amount of time. Sizable. It has heft, to be sure, but I wouldnt call it vast. Then again, theres a certain arbitrariness to settling on 11 months. After all, its just shy of a full year. Perhaps, in order to simplify matters, an entire year would be preferable. Or maybe just six monthshalf a year. Its a difficult decision, M. PRESIDENT. If only the American people had a voice in selecting precisely how much time we should shave off the Presidents term. Now that I mention it, there is a way to give the American people a voice in this decision. The Majority Leader could propose a constitutional amendment. It would of course have to pass both Houses of Congress with a two-thirds majority, but thats not an insurmountable obstacle. Provided it clears Congress, the amendment would then bypass the President, which in this case is very apt, and be sent to the states for their ratification. So if the Majority Leader truly wants the voters to decide how best to proceed, our founding document provides a way forward. But M. PRESIDENT, suggesting that the Senate should refuse to consider a nominee during an election year stands as a cynical affront to our constitutional systemand it misrepresents our history. The Senate has a long tradition of working to confirm Supreme Court justices in election years. One need look no further than sitting Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Supreme Court nominee appointed by a Republican President and confirmed by a Democratic Senate in 1988, President Reagans last year in office. So when I hear one of my colleagues say that, quote its been standard practice over the last 80 years to not confirm Supreme Court nominees during a presidential election year, I know thats not true. And Im not the only one. The fact-checking publication Politifact recently observed that, quote [s]hould Republican lawmakers refuse to begin the process of confirming anomination, it would be the first time in modern history. SCOTUSblog, an indisputable authority on all matters related to the Court, confirmed that the, quote historical record does not reveal any instances [in over a century] of the Senate failing to confirm a nominee in a presidential election year because of the impending election. The fact of the matter is that there is a bipartisan tradition of giving full and fair consideration to Supreme Court nominees. Since the Judiciary Committee began to hold hearings in 1916, every pending Supreme Court nominee save 9 has received a hearing. And you know what happened to those 9 nominees? They were confirmed within 11 days of being nominated. In 2001, during the first administration of President George W. Bush, then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Hatch sent a letter to their Senate colleagues making clear that the Committee would continue its longstanding, bipartisan practice of moving pending Supreme Court nominees to the full Senate, even when the nominees were opposed by a majority of the Committee. But regrettably, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are leaving that long tradition behind. Yesterday, every Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Majority Leader vowing to deny a hearing to the Presidents eventual nominee. This Committee, they wrote, will not hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee until after our next President is sworn in on January 20, 2017. M. PRESIDENT, this marks an historic dereliction of the Senates duty and a radical departure not just from our Committees past traditions, but from its current practices. I know that my good friend Chairman Grassley cares a great deal about maintaining the legacy of the Judiciary Committee and the propriety of its proceedings. Under his leadership, weve seen the Committee put country before party and move consensus, bipartisan proposals. And I had hoped that Chairman Grassley would approach the task of confirming our next Supreme Court justice with the same sense of fairness and integrity. I still hope that. But I was very disappointed to learn that yesterday, Chairman Grassley gathered only Republican Committee members in a private meeting where they unilaterally decided, behind closed doors, to refuse consideration of a nominee. The decision to foreclose even holding a hearing for a nominee to our nations highest court is shameful, M. PRESIDENT, and I suspect that the American people share that view. The Supreme Court is a central pillar of our democracy. The women and men who sit on that bench make decisions that touch the lives of every single Americanregardless of party or political persuasion. Now the Senate must do the same. We must honor our solemn duty to uphold the Constitution, and to ensure Americans seeking justice are able to have their day in courtbefore a full bench of nine justices. I urge my colleagues to reject the impulse to put politics before our sworn duty to uphold the Constitution. Thank you. However, Hello! President Obama was subjected to media harassment for caving in to President Putin in the Syrian peace process. "The US and its allies should not intimidate the rebels, forcing them to come to negotiate, but support their request - call for the Russian regime to stop the bombing of the Syrian people", - writes The Financial Times. Foreign Policy anticipates the failure of the Geneva talks blaming the Obama administration for ostensibly ceding to Russia in the issue of the fate of President Assad, which was subsequently approved and sealed by the relevant UN Security Council resolution. "Did the White House at least give a thought about how their decision would affect the process of Riyadh - Saudi Arabias attempts to unify the Syrian opposition around a common idea about the countrys future?" - the newspaper asks. The idea of Riyadh about the countrys future is not difficult to fathom. More or less. In the nutshell, the idea was that the murderous hunt of al-Assad would rally in unison a gang of not-so-tolerant to each other butchers, following the example of Libya. And now Obama has sold them down the river to "damned Muscovites". Three years ago we talked about the cleansing of his own administration Obama undertook after being re-elected to a second term. Then, after Mrs. Clinton was gone, few other main architects of US policy in the region followed her out. The ones who placed their bets on the Islamists and ready-bottled monarchies to "reformat" the Middle East - the higher ranks in the regional command of the United States, and most importantly - the former CIA director David Petraeus, who could justly be called "the Godfather " of ISIS. Then the "Geneva-1" - the first attempt of the peace process in Syria - was a "sitting duck" for the takers and it was failed. Among the main reasons for that was the fact that the key player - Jeffrey Feltman, UN Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs, had escaped the cull and today he is the official curator of the Syrian peace process. Jeffrey Feltman, without a doubt, an expert on the region, in 2005, as US ambassador in Beirut, was directly in charge of issues related to the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Let us not forget that it was this murder and the subsequent attempt to blame Assad for it that started the most powerful anti-Syrian campaign, the end result of which was the current bloody war. The investigation was then entrusted to the German investigators directed by German political scientist Volker Perthes. Perthes had served Feltman, Rice and Merkel as a key adviser on the Middle East and he has always been an outspoken lobbyist of "Muslim Brotherhood". On January 12th Jeffrey Feltman, who was responsible at the time for the Middle East within the US State Department, invited Perthes to lead the program "The next day," whose task was a total defeat of Syria and the preparation of the new regime. Hence, a coalition of dozens of Islamist groups was hastily cobbled -up. Following the appointment of Feltman as a key person responsible for UN policy, the plan "The next day" became a guiding document for the United Nations and Mr. Perthes became a key "peace negotiator". From the movie "Seventeen Moments of Spring": Listen Holtof, I entrust to you the task of extreme secrecy and importance. Understood... "This will dig as deep as he is told" - thought Mueller -"..look at him-head- butting like a horse. He likes this game of ours, he is bathing in it. If allowed, he would get only God knows what up to...And good on him...!" Monya, is a war going to taker place? No, my dear, there will be such a huge struggle for peace, that even one stone would not be left unturned. However, good-bye! However, Hello! The decision on the resumption of the Geneva talks on Syria means Putins victory , bemoans the American press. And Obama is to blame, for he messed it up. "Russias intervention in Syria has significantly weakened the options of the United States" - writes New York Times. "Putins Syrian victory" - leads the Wall Street Journal. "Russia is not bogged down in the" quagmire ", as was predicted by Mr. Obama six months ago, after the start of the Russian military air campaign. Mr. Putin has strengthened Russias strategic position in the eastern Mediterranean through the hard but limited military intervention with minimal losses." - says the publication . He forced the Arabs to start respecting him and that is why the Saudis and the Emirates retreated, the newspaper continues. We are talking about widely advertised Turks and Saudis ground operations in Syria, the rejection of which today can be regarded as a key point in the Syrian conflict. Turkish Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz refuted Syrian Foreign Ministry accusations that Turkey was in preparations to begin military intervention in Syria: "There is no intention to send troops into the SAR ( Syrian Arab Republic)". Recall that Syrians accused Turkey of sending of 12 cars with machine guns into Syria. The fact that Turkish special forces periodically works on Syria is not a secret any more. But the fact that Turkey is ready to abandon the planned full-scale military operation rings the truth. Suffice it to remember that, for example, the Turkish Air Force for some time does not make sorties in Syria. Artillery attacks on Kurds are ongoing, but Turkish side is afraid to use aviation. As they bear in mind what happened with the Russian Su-24. Dmitry Medvedev: "Today I saw on the TV John Kerry said that " ...if Russia and Iran would not contribute to reconciliation, we with our Arab friends (I think it was an interview with some Arabic TV channel) will carry out a land operation...". Is he trying to put frighteners on us, allies, as it were,or what?" In fact, Americans are putting frighteners ,first of all, on themselves and at the same time on their Turkish-Saudi allies. As for the negotiations, "good", but fractious, opposition did not want to sit at the negotiating table, because it was supposedly bombed by Russia. Kerry and Obama lucidly explained to that opposition that, when and if they would sit down at the negotiating table, Russian bombing would stop. "Now the main thing - to agree on the fact that negotiations have begun between all parties to the Syrian conflict, and decide on terrorist groups, because an endless debate has been ongoing on the subject: who is good and who is bad. In my opinion, everything is quite clear - everything else is, as they say, "the tricks of the Devil", - said Dmitry Medvedev. That is it, then. Russia has found the perfect method of separating "good" opposition from the "bad" one. Bar ISIS (DAESH, ISIL) and "Dzhabhat-en-Nusra", the "good" ones are those who will cease fire and sit down at the negotiating table. And those who will not and carry on fighting, so those will be ones to die fighting. hence, by definition, they are "not good ones". However, good-bye! A$AP Rocky. Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/2016 Getty Images A$AP Rocky endured a random run-in with haters after performing in New Zealand on Wednesday night, according to TMZ. At around 3 a.m. local time, the rapper was trying to ride his hotel elevator with a group of women, when a skirmish broke out. The site notes that three guys wanted to join A$AP and Co., but he said there wasnt any room. Witnesses told TMZ the trio reacted by yelling F*ck A$AP, and hitting him in the head and face, while he tried to protect his friends. The New Zealand Herald confirmed the incident, noting that Auckland police eventually broke up the scuffle and arrested one suspect. At least one officer was also taken to a hospital. As for A$AP, he seemed unfazed and ready for his next performance: LIL SCUFFLE , STILL PRETTY, STILL HANDSOME , STILL FUCCKIN YO BITCH TOO. DEFENSE SQUD DONT TRIP... LOVE 2 AUCKLAND ! pic.twitter.com/rE6YM3Ahop LORD FLACKO JODYE II (@asvpxrocky) February 25, 2016 Which will be later tonight at Sydneys Hordern Pavilion. Too far? He shared the latest Wavy Wednesday offering as a consolation, just in case: Update: A few days later, A$AP Rocky confirmed more of the incidents details with the AP, noting that nobody in his party was injured. We didnt press no charges on nobody. They didnt press any charges on us, he added. Everybody good. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer This week New York Magazine explores our love-hate relationship with the MTA. The movies love the New York subway. They love to show how crowded and awful and messy and grimy and evil it is, and occasionally its majesty. In some ways, the subway has become a metaphor for the city itself were packed in, at the mercy of others, either hurtling toward our destiny or stuck along the way. But the subway is also sometimes a place of great humanity the place where people connect in unlikely ways. Lets be clear: There are too many subway scenes in too many movies for any one list to do justice to them all. But here are 20 of the best subway scenes from the movies. (Ranked, because whats a subway ride without some irritation?) Related Stories How a Single Mechanical Failure Sparked 625 MTA Delays 20. The Naked City (1948) Jules Dassins film noir was notable for being one of the first studio movies to use extensive location-shooting in New York, and it makes a point of including numerous shots of crowded subway cars and stations. But perhaps the most notable rail-riding moment comes during the films thrilling final chase and shoot-out, filmed on the Williamsburg Bridge as trains zoom back and forth on either side of the besieged villain. 19. Dressed to Kill (1980) In Brian De Palmas sex-drenched suspense classic, the camera swoops through subway cars as Nancy Allens plucky prostitute is first pursued by a gang of toughs, and is then suddenly attacked by the films central mysterious, murderous blonde (really, its a cross-dressing Michael Caine) who is then thwarted by young Keith Gordon, wielding a can of mace. 18. Ghostbusters II (1989) You know how much negative energy it must have taken to create a river this size? Hey, New York! What a town! So the subway in Ghostbusters II isnt really the classic New York subway, but rather the Beach Pneumatic Transit, a prototype that was built and abandoned in the 1870s. The Ghostbusters explore it after they begin to suspect that the strange goings-on around them are being created by the citys negative energy seeping underground. And thats why this scene still seems so apropos: In movies, the subway so often represents whats so wrong with the city. The idea of a river of pure concentrated evil flowing beneath the city is both inspired and kind of a no-brainer. 17. King Kong (1976) John Guillermin and Dino De Laurentiiss 1976 remake of King Kong might be one of the worst Kongs out there, but it does have the best subway scene in any of them, as Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange attempt to flee the rampaging giant ape by jumping on a train only to have Kong grab the train like it was a plastic toy (which, lets face it, it probably was) and rip its top off like a can of sardines. 16. Death Wish (1974) In this extremely disturbing, infamous vengeance flick, Charles Bronson guns down two muggers who accost him in an empty subway car. This is after hes already shot several other people, so his descent from mild-mannered architect to ruthless vigilante is basically complete by this point, and theres an unnerving casualness to his actions; we sense that hes waiting for someone to come at him. Not a great scene, but notable for its troubling real-life overtones: It was echoed a decade later, when so-called subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz gunned down four teenagers on a downtown 2 train, setting off a hail of controversy and an infamous court case. 15. Ghost (1990) This romance, about Patrick Swayzes ghost trying to commune with his wife Demi Moore while also trying to catch the scheming business partner who wronged him, features a surprisingly powerful subway sequence. In it, our spectral hero jumps into and through subway cars, looking for another ghost (played by the great Vincent Schiavelli) who can knock things out of peoples hands. Swayze wants to learn how he too can connect with the material world how he can actually touch things. Schiavellis melancholy, bitter spirit teaches him to get in touch with his anger. And then he reveals that hes been haunting the subway ever since they pushed me. Its a scene thats funny, scary, and ultimately touching. (Kind of like the movie.) 14. After Hours (1985) One of the funniest scenes in Martin Scorseses cult comedy about Griffin Dunne having a very bad night downtown comes as our hero tries to get home in the middle of the night, only to discover that the subway fare has gone up at midnight and he doesnt have enough money. The subsequent exchange with the token clerk (Couldnt you just give me one token, please? I may lose my job. Who would know, exactly? I could go to a party, get drunk, talk to someone.) is hilarious, surreal, and nerve-racking. 13. Saturday Night Fever (1977) How often is a simple shot of a man sitting on a subway train this compelling? Well, when its John Travolta in full disco regalia, forlornly reflecting on his dead-end life after the tragic climax of Saturday Night Fever? Pretty damn compelling. The films stark contrast between disco glitz and working-class angst culminates in this moment, as our hero reassesses his life and his attitudes and resolves to change his ways. 12. Money Train (1995) Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes followed up the success of White Men Cant Jump with this underrated action comedy about two transit cops and foster brothers who decide to rob the nightly money-collecting train, both to pay off their gambling debts and get back at their sleazy captain, played by Robert Blake. The plot is intricate, and more than a little ridiculous and it gets even more ridiculous as it hurtles towards its big, loud finale. The best thing about it is watching Harrelson and Snipes, clearly having a great time playing brothers who genuinely care about each other beneath all their wisecracking. 11. Pickup on South Street (1953) In Samuel Fullers Cold War noir, Richard Widmark plays a pickpocket who inadvertently steals some hot microfilm when he takes Jean Peterss wallet on a crowded train and winds up involved with the Feds whove been secretly keeping an eye her. Among other things, Fuller could stretch a dollar, and his tense, tight construction of this quiet scene, focusing on faces and hands, remains a master class in building suspense. 10. Carlitos Way (1993) As he tries to make his way to his beloved Penelope Ann Miller at Grand Central Terminal and to freedom, Al Pacinos veteran mobster is pursued throughout the subway by a group of Mafiosi. Director Brian De Palma no stranger to impressive train and train-station sequences after Dressed to Kill and The Untouchables glides between cars and along platforms, building suspense. (All of that comes to a devastating climax when, right as hes about to make his getaway, Pacino is shot and killed by a young John Leguizamo.) 9. Bananas (1971) Woody Allen doesnt shoot much in the subway nowadays, but this scene from his early freewheeling romp remains iconic. Thats in part thanks to the presence of then-unknown Sylvester Stallone as one of the two toughs who terrorize a subway car and assault an old lady before Allens nebbishy Fielding Mellish tries to intervene. Its a purely silent mix of city nightmare and slapstick, with Allen at his Chaplinesque best as the shy clown whose attempt to save the day backfires. 8. The Clock (1945) In Vincente Minnellis lovely wartime romance, Robert Walker and Judy Garland have a meet-cute in Penn Station (the old one), then proceed to fall in love over the course of an evening. Then, however, they get separated in the crowd at the Grand Central subway stop: She takes the local to 33rd Street while he, trying to find her, takes the express to 14th. (Amateurs!) 7. The Warriors (1979) In Walter Hills cult classic, the title gang of teens have to make their way back home to Coney Island on the subway after a mass gathering in the Bronx ends in murder and chaos. Unfortunately, their way is blocked by fires, brutal cops, and other vengeful gangs. Filmed during the citys most broken-down years, this hellish, dystopian vision of the subway isnt exactly realistic: Hill films it more like an arena for combat than as a means for transport. 6. Spider-Man 2 (2004) Subway purists may complain about this scene, since it purports to be set on an elevated R train running straight through the center of Manhattan and there obviously is no such thing, at least not anymore. But it also happens to be the best scene in the entire Sam RaimiTobey Maguire Spider-Man series indeed, one might argue, of any superhero franchise over the past two decades. And although having Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus fight over, inside, and all around the El is pure action-movie glory, what makes the sequence is its finale: Spider-Man, his mask off, nearly dies trying to keep the train from plunging into the sea. Then, in a deeply emotional moment, hes lifted up and saved by the passengers, who realize that hes just a kid, and they tell him that his secrets safe. 5. Shame (2011) Early on in Steve McQueens drama about a Wall Street sex addict, the protagonist (played by Michael Fassbender) seduces a married woman on the R train with one sustained stare from across a subway car. Its an intensely sexy scene, but one that gains a creepy pathos when they exit the train, briefly touching hands. For her it was a harmless fling, and she goes merrily on her way while he desperately searches for her, under the delusion that it might lead to something. 4. SUBWAY Stories: Tales From the Underground (1997) This wonderful HBO anthology film consists of a whole host of shorts made by a variety of directors, based on subway stories solicited from the public. (It aired on HBO, but it also had a very brief theatrical run.) Theyre all worth seeing, but possibly the most intriguing one is Sax Cantor Riff, made by the great Julie Dash. It features Taral Hicks as a woman stuck on a subway platform, unable to reach her dying mother. She gets on a pay phone (remember those?) and speaks to her mom for possibly the last time and she starts to sing, accompanied by a busking saxophonist. Its a marvelous, magical, heartbreaking moment of connection in a setting that all too often is used to exemplify discord, danger, and violence. (See: almost literally every other movie on this list.) Also: Look for, very briefly, a young Sam Rockwell. 3. The French Connection (1971) Everybody thinks of the central, iconic action sequence in William Friedkins classic as a car chase, but its actually a subway chase. Because as he hurtles through traffic at breakneck speed, Gene Hackmans gruff cop Popeye Doyle is actually chasing the elevated train right above him or, more accurately, the hit man riding it. Indeed, thats one of the things that makes the scene work so well the way Friedkin constantly mirrors the train and the car, as they both go faster and faster and the excitement and chaos build. As Popeye does all he can to avoid hurting people, his quarry above seems to do all he can to hurt them, and to cause as much lunacy as he can. 2. The Incident (1967) In Larry Peerces very tense, somewhat overlooked 1967 film, two drunken thugs (played by newcomers Tony Musante and Martin Sheen) terrorize a late-night subway train filled with a cross-section of New Yorkers. As much a social drama as it is a thriller, the film plays with the characters different attitudes to one another as the danger mounts. Its also, however, a chilling look at a common nightmare: the possibility that youll wind up trapped in the train with a lunatic. 1. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) It might be the ultimate New York City subway movie. (Avoid Tony Scotts John TravoltaDenzel Washington remake, which, despite the talent level involved, isnt very good. ) A group of four hoods takes a train hostage, and the entire system churns into high gear trying to deal with it, led by a wisecracking, cynical Transit Police lieutenant played by Walter Matthau. Its a great thriller, to be sure, but its also a fascinating one as it shows us in surprisingly fine detail the behind-the-scenes world of dispatchers and other officials who keep the network churning along. Great theme music, too. Black-ishs Hope episode took place entirely in the family living room. Photo: Patrick Wymore/ABC Black-ish was already a hilarious and important show. But it became a great one with Hope, an episode that dealt with police brutality, systemic racism, the joy and optimism inspired by the election of President Barack Obama, and the depressing realization that the struggle has continued and still will continue. The episode also took the American sitcom full-circle, way back to the 1970s, when Norman Lear productions like All in the Family, Good Times, Maude, and The Jeffersons brought the days politics into prime time, laid conflicting points of view out in lively, often blunt dialogue, and transformed the sitcom from a lighthearted conversation piece into an extension of an ongoing national conversation that always had at least two sides, often many more than that, all in conflict, never entirely resolved. The heart of the episode and easily the most daring and powerful scene in Black-ishs two-season run came near the midpoint, when Dre (Anthony Anderson), the blustering patriarch of the Johnson family, talked about the day of President Obamas inauguration, the emotion conveyed in the episode title, Hope, mingling with dread that an unprecedented aspirational symbol would be taken away from us. As he spoke, Andersons eyes filled with tears, and the episode cut to footage of President Obama getting out the presidential limousine and walking with the First Lady, waving and smiling, the dread of an assassination attempt weighing heavily. The footage was silent with Dres words playing over it; the show often cuts away to film clips, news footage, or photographs for a joke, a technique perfected by The Simpsons, but the tone was very different here: raw, not funny and not trying to be; closer in tone to something youd have seen on one of Lears sitcoms, which feel emboldened to switch from very broad comedy to kitchen-sink drama and back again, within the space of minutes. The president was not taken away, in any physical sense, but because this powerful sequence was nestled within an episode that saw the family watching coverage of a police-brutality verdict (one that ended with no indictment), there was still a sense of hope having been extinguished: hope that the Obama presidency would, if not erase, then at least alleviate some of the forces the Johnsons spoke and argued about. The episodes conclusion saw Dre, his wife, Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross), Dres father, Pops (Laurence Fishburne), and their two eldest kids leaving the house to attend a rally. It was a note of hope at the end of a story about how hard it is to follow Rev. Jesse Jacksons exhortation to keep hope alive how the struggle goes on and on and requires constant attention and participation. Its also about how difficult, even impossible, it can be to strike a balance between rational cynicism, which can too easily shade over into inert defeatism, and the sort of willful optimism expressed by Bo. Shes no naive babe in the woods, but sees her husbands worst-case-scenario mentality as unhelpful. Shes not wrong, and neither is he, and neither are any of the other characters. They may be arguing and making assertions throughout Hope, but Hope itself is mostly just asking questions. The Obama inauguration sequence connected with other images in this episode depicting figures of hope who were slain by assassins: John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Mahatma Gandhi. And then, startlingly and daringly, came an image of Trayvon Martin. This was the most provocative edit of the TV year, because it drew a direct line from political figures who fought for the oppressed and a representative of who they fought for, and what they fought against. The invocation of Ta-Nahesi Coatess Between the World and Me was woven into the fabric of the entire episode, and Coates himself appeared in a news segment watched by the family. And yet here, as in every other part of the episode, Black-ish managed to be reverent and irreverent at the same time: Dre complained throughout that Coates wasnt saying anything he didnt already say privately. All that and a Peabo Bryson joke, too. Amazing. A regular installment of a 22-minute network sitcom can be political filmmaking. Lear and his collaborators always knew that a sitcom could be that, and its stirring to see Black-ish continuing in the tradition and evolving those techniques for a new century and a more fragmented, multicultural audience. Viewers of a certain age will never forget the episode of Maude where she decided to abort an unplanned pregnancy, the episode of Good Times where an abusive neighbor scalds her daughter with an iron and the system is ill equipped to do anything about it, or the episode of All in the Family where Edith is nearly raped. One of the signature Lear episodes, and a great example of the kind of dialectical, both/and writing that Black-ish mastered in Hope, is one from season four where Archie and his son-in-law, Mike Meathead Stivic, get locked in a cellar and drink to excess. Archie ends up recalling, with affection and numbed horror, how his beloved father filled his head with racist thoughts and beat him. Mike suggests Archie was wrong to pass on his racism to his son, and Archie recoils, summing up the emotional factors that prevent sons and daughters from rejecting their parents poisonous values. Your father? Archie asks. The breadwinner of the house, there? The man who goes out and busts his butt to put a roof over your head and clothes on your back? You call your father wrong? Other 70s sitcoms, even seemingly lighter ones, had their Lear-like moments; one of the best was WKRP in Cincinnati, which sometimes took a time-out from gentle, eccentric character humor to let a character have a melancholy, even harrowing moment, as when the shows African-American DJ, Tim Reids Venus Flytrap, talked about how he went AWOL from the U.S. Army in Vietnam after witnessing fellow soldiers throwing suspected Vietcong solders out of the open door of a helicopter. Like WKRP, Black-ish is not necessarily known for bleak or troubling subject matter, but for all its raucous humor, it has never not been a serious show. And it has never not been afraid to connect to the world, to the American and African-American experience as its actually lived. Past episodes have dealt with intra-racial class conflict as experienced on Halloween, the politics of black hair, gun control, homophobia, the constraining effect of machismo, and many other subjects that could fuel an editorial or even a book. But Hope was a step up in complexity and ambition an I didnt know they could do that moment that young viewers today will remember with as much awe as I recall those moments from the great Lear sitcoms of my youth. the real estate The Only Reason We Got It Was That I Lied The Only Reason We Got It Was That I Lied Photo: Amazon, Lydia White The quartet of protagonists in Tony Tulathimuttes first novel, Private Citizens, are a set that could only have been brought together by the diabolical forces that conjure undergraduate dormitory assignments. The college in question is Stanford, class of 2005, and the core ensemble is ripe for a type-by-type satire of down-at-the-heel elite 20-somethings in the last days of the Bush administration. There are Linda, a tattoo-sleeved hedonist in flight from writers block who weaves a semi-professional path through parties and sex dungeons, fueled and numbed by alcohol and various powders; Henrik, a burnt-out, laboratory-bound grad student with a secret history of manic-depressive breakdown; Will, an Asian-American freelance coder with a porn addiction almost as debilitating as his identity-based inferiority complex; and Cory, a dreadlocked, Jewish, queer-curious, and lonely liberal activist with an eating disorder and a habit of checking her privilege to the point of personal stasis. Tulathimutte is a slapstick curmudgeon who goes hard on his characters, setting in store for them sufferings that run to extremes of physical disfigurement. The novel is as funny as it is dark, and things get very dark, indeed. Eyeballs are amputated the technical term is enucleation and the hyperbolic elements occasionally make the readers eyes roll, but who ever said realism was worth it for the laughs? Its tempting to call Private Citizens an identity politics novel, and the idea of identity is the object of a lot of its satire. On a deeper level, its about four people passing through the jungle of what they cant help but think of as piddling 20-something dramas on the way to figuring out who the people are beneath their personal brands. An initial setpiece places the four principals in a car on the way to a northern California beach two years after graduation, at the end of the summer of 2007, the last time well see them together, with the exception of flashbacks, until the novels end. The first two-thirds proceed in pairs of chapters that grant each character their own novellas, told in close third-person narration. Its hard not to sense the spirit of Jonathan Franzen hovering over Private Citizens, both in its structure and in Tulathimuttes way of dealing his characters bespoke moral corrections. Like Franzen, he can at times turn his narrative into a snowblower of up-to-the-minute lifestyle detail. But in Franzens last two novels, the information overload had the whiff of secondhand trivia gleaned from old media. Tulathimutte gives the impression of having done his fieldwork, even if much of it transpired behind a screen (as it must in the millennial trenches). Social novelists who place limits on their internet access now do so at their own peril. The sections in Private Citizens devoted to Cory and Will veer into workplace and Web 2.0 satire. Linda and Henrik live at the economys precarious fringes, and are granted more generous backstories. The books heart is with them; Cory and Will more often carry it into sociological terrain. After Corys boss dies at his desk the first of many more or less forgivable plot contrivances she learns hes bequeathed her the company, a nonprofit called Socialize. Its feel-good-about-partying business model (We promote culture, send business to local merchants and venues, and route disposable income to social causes) has turned out to be nonviable, and the same goes for Corys love life, as well as her attempt to start a warehouse commune. With not a little shame, she goes pleading to her father, an eccentric, self-made millionaire provider of moving, cleaning, and landscaping services. He directs her to a cultlike Silicon Valley management-training course called Handshake Workshops, which activates her capitalist management skills without derailing the narrative for too long. Its worth noting that Cory has managed to graduate from Stanford in 2005 and hold down a job without learning to use email the most improbable aspect of her misbegotten quest for ethical purity. But its setting aside, Private Citizens doesnt quite qualify as a Silicon Valley novel; even Will the coder sits outside its culture hes a slacker. The techbros overheard in the novel and glimpsed at parties are roundly disdained. The riffs on Socialize are funny, but Tulathimutte finds sharper, more absurd satirical fodder in the entrepreneurial aspirations of Wills girlfriend, Vanya. She is a cunning creation, and indeed may be said to embody the characteristics Tulathimutte is most interested in mocking. Shes a former teenage beauty queen, and a vain one, who maintains and enhances her looks with various surgeries. Shes unstoppably aspirational, and a determined lifecaster bent on turning pro. Shes also paraplegic, paralyzed below the waist as a result of a beauty-pageant accident that might be offensive if it werent so silly: [A]t fourteen, she finished third for Miss Teen Dixie Doll, behind identical twins whod split the tiara. During the onstage group photo, the flashbulb caused one of the eliminees at the top of the bleachers to snap a kitten heel and crash forward onto the quarterfinalists, the semifinalists, then Vanya and the twin queens, all sixteen cascading down the steps in an anorexic avalanche. Under the scrum of Misses, Vanya broke her nose and fractured her pelvis and spine. A stray flake of bone had her in agony until after two days she awoke with no feeling below her navel. Vanyas start-up is Sable, a new kind site for the disabled: Disability forums tend to devolve into group therapy, she tells Will. Sufferers bursting to swap sympathy and pain management tips. Its not fun. Its a conversation able-bodied people cant participate in, and the biggest threat to mainstream penetration. Sable will fight negativity content filtering, crowd moderation, and aggressive brand management. The result is well-funded by VCs, and monstrous. Vanya and Will become the stars of a 16-hour-a-day self-surveillance webcast called WHEEL and DEAL. In Will, Vanya is paired with, scrutinized by, and becomes the tormentor of her dialectical antithesis. Her feel-good public projections are matched by his multivalent self-loathing. His is the shame of the child of immigrants and the porn addict, two vectors that converge as hes holed up at home while Vanyas away raising money and he moves from watching to editing there was one way to get Asian men into porn: in post production. The sequence is one of the novels comic peaks. Will volleys between fits of self- and hard-disk erasure, and Vanya-induced overexposure. The sacrifice of his privacy comes at a tremendous cost. Anyone who objects to satirizing the wheelchair-bound should refer to the assassins of Infinite Jest, but a more striking parallel between that book and Private Citizens, though theres no telling if Tulathimutte intended it, is Linda, who, in her addled nocturnal wanderings, struck me as a cousin of Wallaces disfigured beauty Madame Psychosis/Joelle Van Dyne. As a stunted writer, Linda is also the voice of Tulathimuttes drive-by lit crit: [S]he tried a fiction writing workshop, where, inspite of its idiotic mission of focus-grouping literature, she could at least set her own agenda. But she quickly wearied of her classmates manuscripts, about characters with pounding hearts and wry grins whod sig and shrug and fail to meet her gaze, who held dying grandmothers hands, helmed starships, attended dorm parties, came out. They were so serious about it! And they got foot rubs of praise, the bland reading the blandproduct of a contemporary literature rife with domestic angst, ethnic tourism, child prodigies, talking animals, period nostalgia, affected affectlessness, atrocity porn, genre-crossovers clad in figleaves of literary technique. No ideas, only intellectual property; no avant-garde only controversy; no ars poetica, only personal essays; no major writers, only writing majors. Well put! (Tulathimutte is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop.) The criticisms leveled at Lindas own writing that shes contemptuous of her characters, dictionary-happy, and deficient in the empathy department have the ring of anticipated knocks at Private Citizens. A more generous reading might see them as the hurdles of his own style the self-conscious Tulathimutte knows hell have to leap before the novels end. For his characters, there are pits to climb out of. Linda hits bottom after a party where she recklessly and unwittingly smokes heroin, the victim of a hit-and-run that puts her in traction and knocks out her front teeth. The accident reunites her with Will, never a close friend, and as such, one of the few her hedonist hustling hasnt alienated, and Henrik, who also comes to Will after a hiatus from medication, induces a breakdown. So begins the novels redemptive downslope. Henrik, the son of an itinerant Vietnam veteran who kept him out of school until he clandestinely self-educated through correspondence schools and improbably got himself into Yale, then transferred after a suicidal brush to Stanford, is the novels black box of depression. We hear him as he tries to talk his way into the middle-class liberal mind-set of his peers just the bourgeois mentality Linda relentlessly rejects. Without sacrificing any of its antic humor, its characters habits of constant self-criticism, or its recourse to brutal moral comeuppance even Vanya, at last rejected by Will and reduced to crawling away from him with her elbows, becomes an object of readerly sympathy Private Citizens resolves into a comedy of remarriage and a traditional arc of reckless youth adjusting to the humbling requirements of adulthood. The loose bonds of friendship trend toward the familial. Will, Cory, Linda, and Henrik will have to go about the tedious business of learning to care for each other. We know millennials as bogeychildren of alarmist trend pieces and the catchall hand-wringing of an aging commentariat. Tulathimutte is on the front line of writers showing that theyre also worthy heroes and heroines of the American novel. *This article appears in the March 7, 2016 issue of New York Magazine. Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images Last night on Black-ish, the Johnson household tackled their most politically charged topic yet: police brutality. The family gathered around the television to watch whether a police officer would be indicted for Tasing an unarmed civilian. Hope was a bottle episode, staged more like a play, with the various family members weaving in and out of the living room, debating and disagreeing on how they should talk about the issue with their kids. Vulture reached out to Black-ish creator Kenya Barris to talk about how he conceived the episode, why he chose not to reference #BlackLivesMatter, and the influence of Norman Lear. How long had you been thinking about doing an episode on police brutality? You know, its interesting. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but I would not say that the episode at its inception was about police brutality. It really was about the notion of having to have hard conversations with your kids. We chose to use police brutality because we felt like it was the best subject matter for the times. And I do think its something that needs to be talked about. Personally, thats how it came about in my life. I was watching the Ferguson indictments, and my 6-year-old son turned around and was like, Why are all of these people so mad? And I wanted to dive in with a comment. My wife warned that we needed to meter what we said because they still need to grow up in this world, and they need to form their own opinions and let their own experiences guide them. At the same time, we were conflicted because as parents, its our experiences that were supposed to impart to our children so they dont have to have all of the bumps and bruises we went through. So it was this battle, this duality between the devil on my shoulder and the angel. So we were like, Parents must be going through this constantly, with all of the internet and phones and this and that. You cant shut it off anymore. That was the basis of the episode we wanted to do, and then I felt that the indictment would give us a really good platform with which to talk about it. Why did you choose to do a fictional indictment while still referencing contemporary things that have happened? We thought that the fictionalizing of it would make it a little bit more palatable. And at the same time, we aggregated a lot of the different things that happened a lot in these cases, and put them into that fictionalized case. Did you face particular challenges writing or producing the episode? From a creative standpoint, I found it very schizophrenic. Sometimes I was loving it, and sometimes I was hating it. But basically it was my own anxiety, because Im a comedy writer, and its just not heavily funny. You can hide behind jokes a lot of the time, but once youre telling a story and you dont have those jokes to hide behind, you feel like someones pulled the towel out from under you after you got out of the shower, and youre a little bit more naked. So that was a little bit of the challenge, in terms of the writing. In terms of production, we had an amazing director, Beth McCarthy-Miller, who was really comfortable with the proscenium style. Shes done a lot of SNL; shes done a lot of live stuff. Shes an amazing director, so she got in and we just vibed all week. I feel like the actors really stepped up. It was like doing a little play. They felt the importance of what we were talking about. In that aspect, it went really smooth. It was probably the best table-read Ive been to in a really long time, and that gave us a little bit of faith that maybe it would turn out okay. Im a sucker for bottle episodes, and I was struck by how everything just unfolds around the television. It very much felt like how you would experience watching the verdict. Thats what we wanted to do. We wanted people to feel like they were the fly on the wall of a family conversation. Did it make it easier or harder to shoot with all of the actors in the same room at the same time? You know, you would think that it makes it easier, but it really actually makes it harder, because what youre trying to do is create motion, youre trying to create movement; levels of dialogue have to be created that feel like you could have asides. What became really important to us were the throw-to clips and the flashback clips, because those were moments of levity we felt were really going to be needed to let the audience continue on this ride with us. It was very fun, but a lot of work. Its more work than it probably looked like. Its very hard when you create that claustrophobic tableau to make people not feel claustrophobic but still make them feel like theyre involved in the conversation. I wanted to talk about how you wrote about Dre and Rainbow talking about their fear that President Obama would be shot during his inauguration. That was a really powerful moment. That was really written honestly just from being an American. When I watched that inauguration, it was so interesting because a lot of reporters in the background when it was happening, you heard them saying things like, President Obama is wearing one of the first Kevlar-woven suits. They were basically saying, We are just as afraid as everyone else at home, without saying it. Because we all were like, I know the place that I live. I know the things that happen where I live. And if something were to happen right now, this would tear the country apart. And not just black America. I think the hopes of a huge portion of the country were invested in him. Did you have conversations with the child actors, specifically Miles and Marsai, about the episode beforehand? We had a couple pull-asides to talk to them, but their parents had had their own conversations with them. And everyone came to play that week. Do you feel like the show was instructive for them? I hope. I think they will view it live with everyone else. They have not seen a pre-cut. I hope they know theyre a part of it and that theres something they can take from it. I do often feel like the kids on the show are extensions of my own kids. Ive gotten to see them at a really interesting time in their life. Weve been together probably a year longer than the audience, and Im seeing them grow up, and thats just an amazing thing to have the opportunity to do. I take a lot of personal responsibility in making sure theyre okay and that they feel comfortable with some of the things we ask them to do. There are times when theyre like, Im a little uncomfortable about this, and Ill either talk to them or Ill say, Then you dont have to do it. I feel like its important for them as human beings and as actors to feel like they can speak their mind and stretch their arms in a really comfortable way. What do you think the political role of television is? Its interesting because I specifically didnt reference #BlackLivesMatter or anything like that. This is a family show, and I dont want to ever politicize it. I know sometimes we talk about topics that are politically adjacent, but one of the things we try to do is make sure we handle them evenhandedly, and that we dont ever land on one particular thing. If there is a role for this show that wed love it to play, its just to start a conversation. Riots happen because you have a people who feel like theyre voiceless. You have a people who dont feel like a dialogue is open to them. If we can help open up a dialogue, whether it is about a thing like swimming or just perception in general, and make people laugh, thats the only political thing I would want to do. Whether its to be had just in your family, whether its friends, with your local law enforcement, or on a bigger level with the government, we have to figure out whats happening, and we have to also look at both sides. That should be the job of any piece of creative art. If you look at a painting you love, hopefully, that painting spurs a feeling which spawns a conversation. There is a lot of disagreement within the family itself. Thats important to me. I feel like people are much more open to listen to something when theres a pro and a con presented to an argument, when its not just a bashing. Theres two sides to any situation. And its important in network television in particular to try to present both of those sides. But to push back, dont you feel that at the end, the family does decide that attending the protests is an important thing for them to do together? Sure. A lot of people could read that as landing on a side, but I also think it makes sense for them to do that. Thats a good point you bring up, but I feel like if youre attending a protest if for nothing else, in support of the parents for a child that theyve lost or a child thats gone, you feel like you just want people to open up. Theres no doubt that police brutality exists. Thats not something there is a conversation to be had about. Thats like saying, Does murder exist? It absolutely exists. Thats not the side that Im landing on. The part I dont want to land on one side or another is, are the police bad? My personal opinion is no, theyre not. Some may feel differently. I do feel like they have done some bad things. Are they a significant and important part of society? Absolutely. For me, the bigger thing is to say, What is the conversation, and what conversation can we start to change the narrative? And thats what I think going to the protests is about, saying that we understand there is something that needs to happen. With your show and Jerrod Carmichaels The Carmichael Show, and other shows like The Fosters, theres a strong Norman Lear influence. What is his influence on your work, if at all? One hundred percent. Every writer is derivative of someone, if not several people, and there is huge amounts of Norman that Im derivative of, as well as Spike Lee, as well as Woody Allen. But I definitely feel like his contribution to television in particular is something I would like to see come back to television. Finally, I wanted to ask about Paul Lee leaving ABC. He really valued diverse programming, and Im curious to hear what you thought about his exit and Channing Dungeys promotion. The two are unrelated in some aspects, in terms of the question. His exit is obviously awful for me. I love Paul, I consider him a friend, he bought the show. He gave me and my family a platform and an opportunity to change my life, so Im always going to be very grateful for that. At the same time, I know Channing. Shes an amazing executive. She is beyond capable. She is beloved around town. She is a supporter of the show. Shes been at the company for a while. I knew her before she was president. Very shortly after I came on, Ben Sherwood came here, and hes been a great supporter of the show. The network in general has let us do a show I dont think any other network would have let us do in this sort of way. So I feel like its business. Its a part of the business that is not my role to guide. I think Channing is going to be an amazing president. I wish Paul all of the best, and I appreciate him for his faith in us, and I appreciate Channing. She immediately called and let us know that she is behind the show and she supports it, and I think shes going to help the show do really great things. Preach. Photo: ladygaga/Instagram Lady Gaga was one of the first people to stand with Kesha, and shes taking her support even more public. Last night, Gaga shared a photo of her and Kesha holding hands in solidarity. Today shes responding to negative comments on Instagram questioning Keshas credibility and motives with a personal message about the dangers of shaming those who go public about their abuse. The very reason women dont speak up for years is the fear that no one will believe them or their abuser has threatened their life or life of their loved ones/livelihood in order to keep their victim quiet and under control, she says, noting that she, too, is a survivor of abuse. No one needs to validate Kesha, she reminds the masses. Gaga also reposted California lieutenant governor Gavin Newsoms message of support for Kesha on her own Instagram. In 2014, Keshas lawyer, Mark Geragos, accused Dr. Luke of raping Gaga, after Gaga revealed in an interview that she was sexually assaulted at 19; her reps have maintained that those allegations are false. On Sundays Oscars, Gaga will perform her nominated song about campus rape, and will also be joined by Vice-President Joe Biden to raise awareness for sexual violence. Read Gagas full message below: Michael Jackson. Photo: Phil Dent/Getty Images It is with the saddest of eeeheee!s that the executors of Michael Jacksons estate report that the late musicians Gone With the Wind Best Picture Oscar cannot be found. Jackson purchased the award, given to producer David O. Selznick for the 1939 film, from Sothebys for $1.54 million in 1999. It is unknown if the Oscar was stolen or simply lost following Jacksons death in 2009, but the statuette has yet to be located at any of Jacksons estates or in storage. In the extremely unlikely event that you know someone who is literally exactly like Michael Jackson in both their fervent love of Gone With the Wind and their access to millions of dollars to purchase Hollywood artifacts, but also a big enough dirtbag to buy stolen goods off the black market, barricade them in their opulent walk-in humidor and call 911. Kesha. Photo: Brian Ach/Getty Images On Friday morning, the #FreeKesha movement plans to protest Sony outside of its New York City headquarters, following a judges decision not to free Kesha from her record contract. The only problem: Sony says it cant actually free Kesha, even if it wanted to. In a statement to the New York Times, Sonys lawyers maintain that Kesha is allowed to record outside Dr. Lukes involvement, but that the label isnt legally permitted to dissolve her contract: Sony has made it possible for Kesha to record without any connection, involvement or interaction with Luke whatsoever, but Sony is not in a position to terminate the contractual relationship between Luke and Kesha. Sony is doing everything it can to support the artist in these circumstances, but is legally unable to terminate the contract to which it is not a party. If that sounds confusing, its because Keshas case has placed a unique spotlight on a tangled mess of industry bureaucracy thats bound her career, and ostensibly her life, to Dr. Luke. Kesha is technically signed to Dr. Lukes Kemosabe Records, a subsidiary of Sony, through a furnishing agreement with Lukes production companies Kasz Money Publishing and Prescription Songs. She originally entered into the deal when she was 18, and says she has been trying to get out of it ever since, for reasons similar to what she has alleged in her current lawsuit against Luke. In other words, Keshas reported six-album contract does not actually belong to Sony; it belongs to Dr. Luke and his publishing companies and is therefore his to terminate. Its possible, then, that even if Sony were to ever cut all professional ties with Dr. Luke and Kemosabe Records, Keshas career would still be in Dr. Lukes control because he owns both those other companies. In her first statement since the decision, Kesha said she would be willing to work with Sony if they do the right thing and break all ties that bind me to my abuser. But doing the right thing appears to be out of Sonys hands. Not-so-simply put: Despite the international and industry-wide outrage, Dr. Luke has more leverage at Sony than perhaps Sony ever imagined. Even so, #FreeKesha says they are protesting Sony tomorrow to send a larger message: Whether or not Keshas music affected someone personally, this case represents the unfair treatment of sexual assault survivors around the globe. It is important for Sony to see the uproar they have caused, so protesters are bringing it right to their front door. Texas State Technical College Culinary Arts Connection Greta W. Watson Culinary Arts Center, Campus Drive and Eighth Street 254-867-4868 Hours: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays through April 24 Price: $ (see guide below) Takeout: Yes Credit cards: Yes Good to know: Will accept reservations for parties of six or more. Patrons who wish to dine in should arrive between 11 and 11:30 a.m. to get seating. Customers can order a meal to go at the counter. Dining schedule: Friday Cajun Wednesday and March 4 US Contemporary March 16 and 18 Pacific Rim March 23 and 25 Italian March 30 and April 1 Southern April 6 and 8 English April 13 and 15 Texas April 22 Live action buffet In-N-Out Burger 801 S. Fourth St. 800-786-1000 752-1185 Hours: 10:30 a.m.- 1 a.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 a.m. Fridays-Saturdays, Price: $ (see guide below) Takeout: Yes On the menu: Burger basics: hamburgers and cheeseburgers with a multiple patty option, french fries, milk shakes. Good to know: Customers can order off a secret menu and get such variations as double meat, 3 X 3 and 4 X 4 (two- , three- and four-patty burgers), animal style (In-N-Out sauce and grilled onions) and protein style (no bun). Restaurant origin: Started in 1948 in California by drive-through pioneers Harry and Esther Snyder, who were among the first restauranteurs to develop the drive-through. Barnetts Public House 420 Franklin Avenue 254-714-1356 On Facebook, and at barnettspublichouse.com Hours: Closed Mondays; 4-11 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays; 4 p.m.-midnight Thursdays; 4 p.m.-1 a.m. Fridays; 10 a.m.-1 a.m. Saturdays; and 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. Sundays. Price: $ (see guide below) Takeout: Yes Alcohol: Yes, full bar On the menu: The restaurant recently revamped its menu, with only a few items carried over from the previous menu. New menu items include The Cajun, The Italian Stallion, The Greek and Bahn Mi, all featuring gourmet sausages served with flat bread or a baguette. Other new items include Andouille sausage or shrimp with jalapeno grits, homemade boudin and beans, bratwurst and The Blue Collar Dog, a black Angus beef hot dog. Desserts include salted caramel cheese cake, bread pudding and a smore kit. Good to know: Offers free Wi-Fi and daily drink specials. Restaurant origin: Barnetts opened in the spring of 2010 before closing its doors Dec. 31, 2014. Under new ownership, the pub reopened in February 2015. Tandoori Trailer Waco Chowtown food truck court (University Parks Drive at Franklin Avenue.) 254-495-6466 On Facebook, Twitter and at tandooritrailer.com Hours: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays and 5-7 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Hours may vary due to weather; dinner hours longer in spring and summer. Closed Dec. 31-Jan. 3. Price: $ Takeout: Yes. Curbside service and phone app allowing ordering available after mid-January. Alcohol: No On the menu: Tandoori chicken (roasted in a tandoor, an Indian clay oven), chicken curry, paneer makhani (cubes of paneer cheese in a spiced tomato and cream sauce), chole (chickpeas), naan (baked flatbread), samosas (deep-fried pastry with savory fillings), basmati rice. Good to know: Garlic naan is a customer favorite. All dishes are made fresh daily. Restaurant origin: Co-owner Johnny Bhojwani came to work in Baylor Universitys admissions office in 2011 only to discover the nearest Indian restaurant was in Killeen. Houston resident Naresh Thadani was looking for a business in which to invest and Bhojwani suggested creating an Indian cuisine food truck. Freddys Frozen Custard and Steakburgers 817 S. Jack Kultgen Freeway 254-301-7330 On Facebook and at Hours: 10:30 a.m.- 10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays. 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. Drive-through open 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 10:30 a.m.-midnight Fridays-Saturday. Price: $-$$ Alcohol: No On the menu: Steakburgers, hot dogs, chicken breast sandwiches, veggie burgers, french fries, cheese fries, frozen custard sundaes and milkshakes. Good to know: Most popular order is the No. 1 combo, a double cheeseburger with fries and drink. Steakburgers made fresh daily and vegetable sides cut fresh daily. Freddys Fry Sauce also sold separately. Restaurant origin: World War II veteran Freddy Simon started the original Freddys in 1950s in Wichita, Kansas. Zoes Kitchen 1810 S. Valley Mills Drive 254-714-1361 On Facebook Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Price: $-$$ Takeout: Yes. Catering also available. Alcohol: Beer and wine On the menu: Mediterranean cuisine, hummus, salads, kabobs, pitas, sandwiches, rollups, soups and desserts. Good to know: Signature dishes include chicken kabobs, quinoa salad, steak rollups and hummus. Grilling is the predominant method of cooking no fryers or microwaves used and a variety of gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options are available. Restaurant origin: Zoe and Marcus Cassimus founded the restaurant in 1995 in Homewood, Alabama. The Waco restaurant, the chains 163rd location, opened Oct. 27. The Backyard 511 S. Eighth St. 254-235-1151 On Facebook Hours: 11 a.m. to midnight Sundays-Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. Price: $-$$ Takeout: Yes Alcohol: Yes, full bar Smoking: The Backyards patio area has smoking zones that comply with the citys new smoking ordinance. On the menu: Burgers, barbecue, sandwiches, tacos. Good to know: Hamburger baskets and chicken-fried steak are popular with the lunchtime crowd while many viewers of The Backyards 40-foot television screen and outdoor stage are fans of the specialty appetizer Texas cheese steak balls, breaded and deep fried balls of chopped, seasoned brisket, cheese and jalepeno bits. Restaurant origin: Calvin Gossett, owner of The Patio on Main in Temple, wanted to expand into the Waco market and got the opportunity with the kitchen and meat-smoking operation of The Backyard. Guide: $ main dishes less than $10; $$ $10 to $20; $$$ more than $20. Convicted double-murderer Edward E. Graf Jr. must wear a GPS ankle monitor while on parole for at least another year, after his request to have the device removed was denied. Grafs ex-wife, Clare Bradburn, the mother of the two boys Graf pleaded guilty to murdering, said she was notified Thursday that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Grafs request to remove the tracking device from his ankle. Bradburn said a board spokeswoman told her the board was overwhelmed by the volume of letters from her friends, family members and others who protested Grafs request. The decision will give us some peace for now, Bradburn said. Family and friends of Joby and Jason will be ready with protest letters for an ongoing battle we will have to fight every year. Graf, 63, who was sentenced to 60 years in prison in October 2014, is scheduled to be on parole until 2048. He was released from prison on mandatory parole seven days after he admitted in 2014 to killing his two adopted stepsons in Hewitt in 1986. Graf was sent to a halfway house in El Paso, where he spent about 3 1/2 months before parole officials approved his new residence, the River Oaks Apartments on Water Street in Kerrville. Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said parolees like Graf in the Super-Intensive Supervision Program are required to wear the ankle monitors, and those cases are required to be reviewed annually. Since his release, Graf has been in compliance with the conditions of his release and supervision, Clark said. The parole board has placed restrictions on counties Graf can enter and live in. McLennan, Denton, Harris, Wichita and Henderson counties are off-limits to Graf, Clark has said. Graf spent 25 years in prison after his 1988 conviction for the killings before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in March 2013 awarded him a new trial, ruling the arson evidence used against him at the first trial was faulty. At his retrial, Graf was sentenced to 60 years in prison after he struck a plea agreement with McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna moments before a 54th State District Court jury reached a guilty verdict after 11 hours of deliberations. Graf was eligible for immediate mandatory release on parole because the good-time credits he earned in prison and the 26 years he served in prison and in jail combined to make his release from prison mandatory under the law in effect at the time of the crime. Michelle Tuegel, one of Grafs retrial attorneys, said she thinks Graf should be allowed off the monitor. We are disappointed with that outcome, but Im sure in the future it will be reviewed again and we would hope, with his continued hard work and good behavior, that that condition will be removed, she said. Bellmead police are searching for two men who robbed a local business at gunpoint Tuesday and may be connected to a stolen vehicle report in Waco, Bellmead police Sgt. Kory Martin said. At about 5 p.m., police were called to Eddies Tire & Check Cashing, at 1422 New Dallas Highway, about a robbery that had occurred at the store. Police said two men entered the business wearing masks and displayed pistols before threatening two employees. Both employees were pepper-sprayed, Martin said. The suspects then forced the employees to hand over an undisclosed amount of money, he said. Police said the suspects arrived in a white 1999 GMC Yukon. The vehicle was later found by Bellmead police near the location of the robbery. Officers discovered the vehicle was reported stolen out of Waco earlier in the same day. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Bellmead Police Department at 799-0251. State Rep. Charles Doc Anderson, R-Waco, and state Rep. Kyle Kacal, R-Bryan, advised a group of arts advocates that the art of a handwritten letter goes a long way when trying to lobby for a legislators attention. The value of personal correspondence, the need to develop relationships with legislators and their staffers, and a tip to remain civil in communications were among the Lobbying 101 pointers the two shared at the end of a daylong Arts Funding and Leadership Development workshop at the Waco Hippodrome. The statewide arts advocacy group Texans for the Arts organized the Waco event, which drew more than 40 arts organization supporters and administrators from Waco, Temple, Georgetown, Austin and Arlington. Much of the day dealt with the practical details of fundraising, philanthropy, developing community support, working with city policy and planning, and lobbying elected officials. Cookie Ruiz, executive director of Ballet Austin and a workshop leader, introduced the two legislators and noted their personal connections with the arts. District 56 representative Anderson was a former Waco Civic Theatre board member, signed a letter of intent for a Waco Cultural District and commissioned the creation of a Doris Miller commemorative Christmas ornament to hang on the state Christmas tree. District 12 Rep. Kacal is married to an arts teacher, Marci Kacal, who teaches art to second- through seventh-graders at Allen Academy in Bryan. Anderson told the arts audience that he and other legislators are constitutionally bound to listen to citizens views. We have a responsibility to listen to your redress, he said, although he urged lobbying be done in a reasonable, common-sense way with courtesy and patience extended to a legislators office staff. Vibrant arts community Kacal praised Waco cultural sites such as the Waco Mammoth National Monument, the proposed Doris Miller Memorial, Baylor University and arts seen in town as evidence that Waco gets it. . . . You have a vibrant arts community here, he said. Both legislators said there is value in developing relationships over time with legislators and their offices rather than waiting until the final days of a legislative session when the fate of many bills hangs in the balance, including bills affecting state and local arts. Theres no CPR for a bill in the last week of the session, Kacal said. We would love to see you more often than not. With staffers and legislators typically awash in emails and digital communications from constituents, a handwritten letter can cut through the clutter and end up on a legislators desk, the two acknowledged. Personal anecdotes of how the arts have affected people or examples of how they have enriched childrens lives also carry much weight. The arts are super important in developing young minds, Anderson said. He asked that constituents also be aware of the dynamics of state politics and legislating. For example, a politicians vote to protect arts funding might draw criticism from others who hoped to steer that funding to their equally justifiable cause, he said. You learn there are a thousand ways to kill a bill, but its much harder to pass one, Anderson said. Kacal noted how the arts can connect people across districts, pointing to Gov. Greg Abbotts appointment of Brendon Anthony to head the Texas Music Office. Anthony grew up in College Station but played fiddle in the band of Pat Green, a Texas musician with strong Waco roots, Kacal said. Both men thought a suggestion of an arts caucus within the Legislature, mentioned in a question by TFA executive director Ann S. Graham, would be a helpful way to organize and direct arts support among like-minded legislators. Graham said the Waco workshop, hosted locally by Creative Waco, the Waco Hippodrome and the Waco Convention Center and Visitors Bureau, had one of the higher turnouts for a TFA workshop. While the TFA presented much of the information at the workshop, organizers also learned from participants feedback, she said. Knowing Wacos efforts to secure Cultural District status with the Texas Commission for the Arts made the city a meaningful place to hold an arts advocacy workshop, she said. Its so rewarding, seeing the importance of the arts to a community, Graham said. McLennan County Republican Club president and local attorney Wesley Lloyd works occasional miracles in pulling together programs for the clubs monthly luncheons at Knox Hall. But he outdid himself last month. He got six Republican candidates for Texas Railroad commissioner to show up. And as sometimes happens at these things, the candidates collectively telegraphed more than they probably meant to. Most of the six used their limited time to convey to local Republicans how they were more conservative than anyone else in the hall, trotting out stock lines about fighting the federal government while offering little insight into an agency that regulates oil and gas in Texas, not railroads. Typical was former state legislator and once-upon-a-time tea-party favorite Wayne Christian, who stressed faith, family and freedom and proclaimed he was the first Republican elected from East Texas since Reconstruction. He boasted that he had made Texas Monthlys Worst Legislators list because of my conservative voting record. Thats one way of looking at it. Christian has won notoriety for such excesses as helping pass in the Texas Legislature a self-serving amendment neatly exempting his beachfront property from state law banning the construction of residences on public beaches which brings new meaning to his claim of standing up for private property rights. And there was Weston Martinez, who stressed he was pro-life, pro-gun and pro-Israel, that he had stacked up a bunch of tea-party endorsements and that the Environmental Protection Agency should have to ask permission before it crosses the Red River. And Ron Hale, who also dismissed EPA intrusion, any science be damned: Dont wait for all the studies. Stop it dead in its tracks. The most offbeat was Gary Gates, a Fort Bend cattle rancher and Houston apartment developer who talked about his 13 children 11 of them adopted and how all were briefly taken away. Im not quite sure how his complaints about Child Protective Services fit into the oil and gas industry, though he did liken it to federal overreach. So it goes this election cycle: Voter, voter, in the mall, whos the most conservative among us all? And yet, the Texas Railroad Commission more than ever needs wise hands to carefully balance an oil and gas industry that drives our states economy and funds our schools and roads against legitimate concerns that some Texans have about everything from hydraulic fracturing, its seismic side effects and possible impact on groundwater, to something as esoteric as making sure that 24-hour drilling operations in West Texas lower their lights in deference to the famous McDonald Observatory. Blame the candidate rhetoric on a society that readily falls for the scorecards of lobbying groups with dubious motives; buys into fact-free claims and charges on the Internet; and subscribes to bumper-sticker answers to complicated problems such as immigration and debt reduction that require nuanced solutions with bipartisan buy-in to make sure such solutions endure. Blame it too on a nasty presidential campaign where decency and honesty are completely out the window. What a chaotic environment in which to campaign, let alone to vote. For the record, the only candidate who stood out of the Texas Railroad Commission wannabes assembled by Wes last month was Lance Christian, a low-key, 44-year-old geologist who works for the commission. He talked about things like horizontal drilling, injection wells and protecting groundwater. In short, he knew what he was talking about and didnt feel the need to proclaim himself pro-Israel or pro-gun. But two questions do loom: Does the name Christian hurt him given one of his gaggle of opponents or does it help? And do Texans even care anymore about truly qualified people in office? Some of our states elected leaders claim that religious liberty is under attack in Texas. Theyre right but the real threat is coming from them and the political activists who support their misguided actions. Especially over the past year, these politicians have acted in ways that undermine the protections for religious liberty that our nations founders wisely included in the Constitution. Recently, for example, Gov. Greg Abbott defended the placement of Christian crosses on taxpayer-funded police cars. Its hard to imagine that activists who praised the governor for doing so would feel the same if a Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or Wiccan police chief promoted symbols of his religion on taxpayer-funded vehicles. And they would be right to object. After all, our nations founders knew that one of the greatest dangers to religious liberty is giving government the power to favor or disfavor any particular religion over all others. Abbott and his political appointees have also threatened legal action against faith-based charities that help resettle refugees from the war in Syria. They turned to such bullying even though the work of those charities is both legal and based on sincerely held faith beliefs about helping vulnerable families fleeing for their lives. We have also seen politicians call for banning Muslims from entering the United States. One Texas lawmaker has even publicly called for banning Islam and all those who cower to it. The calls for such blanket bans represent a shocking disregard for the Constitutions guarantee of religious liberty. Particularly troubling are efforts by politicians to radically redefine religious liberty to mean the right to discriminate and to impose ones faith beliefs on people who dont share them. Last year, Texas lawmakers proposed nearly a dozen bills that would have allowed government officials as well as other individuals and businesses to deny services, to fire or to otherwise discriminate against virtually anyone for religious reasons. In addition, Attorney General Ken Paxton last summer suggested that government officials would likely find sympathetic attorneys willing to defend them for free if they chose, because of their religious beliefs, to disregard the U.S. Supreme Courts ruling in favor of the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples. That kind of recklessness cost taxpayers in one Texas county more than $40,000. The money went to cover the legal fees for a gay couple forced to sue after the county clerk repeatedly refused to issue them a marriage license. Then in October, the attorney general called for state lawmakers to pass legislation that would essentially allow the use of religion to discriminate. Opposition to same-sex marriage and to measures protecting gay and transgender people from unfair discrimination has fueled these calls for religious refusals the right to use religion to refuse to obey certain laws. But make no mistake: Once you open the door for using religion to discriminate against any one group of people, then everyone is vulnerable. Be ready, for example, for government officials who based on their personal religious beliefs claim the right to refuse to issue marriage licenses to interfaith couples or people who have been divorced. And be ready for calls to extend these religious refusals to other state as well as federal laws. Should our laws allow a business owner to discriminate against workers or customers simply because he has religious objections to their faith? Should we let employers whose religion teaches that women must not work outside the home or alongside men engage in gender discrimination in the workplace? Lets be clear about what is at stake here. In America we all have the right to equal treatment under the law, regardless of who we are or what we believe. But cynical politicians are undermining this basic constitutional principle by twisting the meaning of another religious liberty. Religious freedom is one of our most fundamental rights as Americans. But that freedom has never meant the right to use religion to discriminate, to pick and choose which laws one will obey, or to impose ones personal religious beliefs on other people. Kathy Miller is president of the Texas Freedom Network, an organization of religious and community leaders who support religious freedom and individual liberties. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was absolutely right Wednesday to dismiss the final abuse-of-power charge against former Gov. Rick Perry in connection with his 2013 effort to force out a Travis County district attorney who got famously rip-roaring drunk and disorderly that year. The flimsy charges against Perry all along struck us as politically motivated, given that Perry is a Republican and District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg is a Democrat. The irony is that this legal dust-up might not have happened had these two public servants demonstrated more commitment to the public and less concern for their political egos. In its 6-2 decision, the states highest criminal court Wednesday dismissed the charge that Perry abused his executive powers by vetoing $7.5 million allotted to fund the states Public Integrity Unit, which had long prosecuted state corruption out of the Travis County District Attorneys Office. The court said the charge against Perry clashed with the Texas Constitutions separation of powers and veto provisions. Legitimate points, though one dissent wisely notes that separation of powers is a fragile rationale here, given that the scenario involves state and county governments different sovereigns, in a sense. The court also gave its stamp of approval to a lower appeals courts dismissal of another charge that Perry sought to inappropriately coerce the disgraced Lehmberg into resigning through his threatened veto of Public Integrity Unit funds. As the high court suggests in its 52-page ruling, threats such as Perrys have long been common in the American political arena, particularly in a state such as Texas where hardball politics is the norm. And politicians, like anyone else, are allowed by the First Amendment to loudly broadcast their beliefs and intentions. Perry was well within his rights not only in calling out Lehmberg for her jailhouse behavior much of it preserved on video but making his funding threat. Perry has recently claimed that the grand jurys 2014 indictment of him on abuse-of-power charges ironically undermined his second presidential bid, which petered out in September 2015. That makes a nice story for the grandkids and the politically naive but neglects campaign realities in which New York impresario and developer Donald Trump not only made short work of Perry but has done the same to most of his fellow Republican candidates since then. The real tragedy is not Perrys failed second bid for the White House but that Lehmberg refused to do the honorable thing back in 2013 and resign, thereby saving the Public Integrity Unit in her office. As a result, Perry went through with his hardheaded and misguided veto threat, public be damned, and today, thanks to both Perry and Lehmberg and the complicity of the Texas Legislature, public corruption is far more likely to flourish in the Lone Star State. In a restaurant landscape dominated by drive-throughs, chains and a few landmark spots, one Waco eatery is happily bucking the trend away from downtown and Interstate 35 and is thriving in an area of Waco not known for dining. Owner Erick Gama wouldnt want it any other way. Rufis Cocina, 1801 N. 25th St., quietly opened its doors in January 2015 and has steadily amassed a loyal following seeking authentic flavors of Mexico, more specifically the flavors of the Michoacan region. Abutting the Pacific Ocean and known for its indigenous people, Michoacana is known for rustic and hearty cuisine that could never be mistaken for Tex-Mex. We arent going to be like every other Mexican place in Waco, says Gama, a University High School graduate who describes himself as having zero tolerance for Tex-Mex. And hes not just talking about Rufis menu being different. Local art adorning the walls is for sale. Once a month the cocina hosts the Waco Poets Societys open mic night. In exchange for the groups loyalty, Gama offers members discounts. Eventually, Gama envisions collaborating with the World Hunger Farm to make Rufis a place where fresh produce is available for nearby neighbors. This is an area where there are not grocery stores, Gama said. I want to try to make it a place where people can walk to and get fresh produce, he says. We are trying to make a difference in the community. Its the least he can do for neighbors who have embraced his cooking and made Rufis feel at home, he said. Transplanted many years ago from California to Texas, Gama and his mother, Rufina, for whom the business is named, worked for years as cooks in big restaurants. The family deliberately named Rufis a cocina, or kitchen, so as to make the distinction between large, impersonal eateries and places where diners feel at home and the food is reminiscent of moms cooking. On one particular day, Ericks sister, Yasmin, and a cousin were busy waiting tables and working the floor. A younger brother was in the kitchen, cleaning. The lunch crowd had slowed and in a few hours the cocina will be closed for the day. The hours are evolving as Erick and the family determine what best meets demand. To date, the biggest crowds have been at lunch, he says. But be warned: If you are looking for fast food, youve come to the wrong place. It does take a while here because its not pre-prepared Gama says. We are about quality. We prep very small amounts and cook it as we go. Tortillas are made as soon as you order. Take mole, for instance, the name given to any number of sauces used in Mexican cuisine. If thats what youre hungry for, its not made until you order it, and even then, you can tell the cook just how you like it. You can make it any way you want it, Gama says. Thats one of the upsides of cooking as you order. If Ericks in the kitchen, that mole sauce (and other specialties of the day, like salmon, or shrimp or red snapper or tilapia) may have more of a modern kick than when Rufina is in the kitchen. Rufinas style is simple and authentic, befitting her Michoacan roots. Erick prefers a little experimentation, but like his mom, stays true to his Michoacan roots. It was only at his brothers incessant urging that Gama reluctantly agreed to add a few Tex-Mex staples to the menu (Tex-Mex enchiladas, a Mexican cheeseburger and nachos). Little else resembles a typical Waco Mexican menu, though, and that distinction is winning some loyal followers. It is very good, says businesswoman Daryl Meyer. It is more authentic Mexican food, not Tex-Mex. Ive been there a bunch of times. On my first visit I was trying to find someplace new. He (Erick) brought out a sample of everything. I thought that was nice because he wanted us to experience the food. Its consistently good. Its a lot of nice people making you feel comfortable. Meyer is a fan of the flavored waters and the fruit-filled tamales, a sweet treat not commonly found in restaurants around here where savory tamales are the order of the day. The sweet tamales are something a few Mexican families make at home for special occasions. Another diner, Terri Harris, also a California transplant like Gama, keeps returning for the distinctly un-Tex-Mex taste of Mexico. Erick personally visits with you and loves to explain down to the smallest detail, without giving away any family secrets, what you are eating and how it is prepared, Harris says. I dont want to be a blabbermouth, but I have figured out what the secret ingredient is in every dish: Love! Another secret, and this is a big one, has to do with fresh ingredients from the gate to the plate, Gama says. Hes been known to slaughter his familys own goats for daily specials. The hot sauce is made daily in small batches. Our mild is hot and our hot is hotter, Gama says. Rufis hours are still evolving and wise diners will call before going. Breakfast is served all day, and daily specials can be found on Facebook and Instagram. When you go, it helps to not be in a hurry, and bring your own booze, if so inclined, because Rufis doesnt have a liquor license. Appetizers start at $2.50 and a la carte items begin at $2. Most dinner plates cost between $6 and $10, with the priciest entree (goat, when available) at $14. Most breakfast plates range from $5 to $8, while desserts (sweet tamales and cheesecake and milk cake) range from $2.50 to $4. Gama says he was advised by some to avoid the 25th Street location. We were told it was cursed, Gama says, he also went against his mom, who thought they needed to be downtown to make it. But Rufis Cocina is filling a niche in an area underserved by retail, groceries and restaurants. The family is pleased the neighborhood has embraced Rufis flavors, Gama says. They have no plans of going anywhere. Were not downtown material, Gama says, This is our little spot. ----- Rufis Cocina 1801 N. 25th St. 235-0892 Mon-Thu, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fri, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., 5 to 9 p.m. Sat, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sun, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Note: Hours may change) Rufis Cocina offers free Wi-Fi Imagine youve suddenly lost your sight, something youve depended on to do your homework, drive a car, shop, read a book. Or eat a meal. Thats the concept for Dinner in the Dark, an event hosted twice by the Waco Womens Lions Club to raise funds for the Leader Dogs for the Blind program. The event gives people a sense of the challenges for a visually impaired or blind person, said Stephanie Lenamon, who co-chaired the Jan. 23 event in the Waco Hippodrome with Sarah Martin. The event was a success, both co-chairs said, as the club will be able to present a check for $14,152.98 from the nights proceeds to the Leader Dogs for the Blind program based in Rochester, Michigan. It was an amazing night, Martin said. Its a testament to all the ladies that worked so hard on this. We shot for the moon, and we hit the stars and the moon. That sentiment was shared by John Paul Burnett, a member of the Colleyville Lions Club and a past Lions district governor. He was attending in his volunteer role as state chairman of Leader Dogs for the Blind, which has him traveling across the state as he oversees 16 Lions districts. That was exceptional, Burnett said of the clubs efforts with Dinner in the Dark. They educated a lot of people and not all of them were Lions. That group has so darn much energy. About 200 people took part in the event, Lenamon said, including Lions Club volunteers who helped guide the blindfolded guests to their tables for the meal. The previous year Dinner in the Dark was held at the Dr Pepper Museum. Patrons dined on salad, steak and shrimp and Dr Pepper Cake. Martin and Lenamon, along with sub-chairs Becky Murphy and Melissa Naylor, wanted to markedly change this years experience. The club secured the Waco Hippodrome and established a 1940s theme to complement the setting. It was all new, Martin said. We had a clean slate on what we wanted to do. Whats on the Table? The menu was decidedly different this year, Lenamon said. The first course was an Asian noodle salad. The blindfolded diners were encouraged to eat that with chopsticks, though a fork was allowed. Burnett said the salad was quite challenging for him. I thought I did very well and only lost one noodle, he said. The entree was Beef Wellington, but Lenamon said it was encased in a puff pastry, causing diners to think they were given a large roll. They had to tear the pastry apart to get to the meat. Sides included mashed potatoes and English peas, which created the additional hurdle of trying to keep the peas from rolling away. Youre tempted to take off the blindfold and you can get frustrated trying to keep the food on your plate, she said. But the participants took it in stride, Martin said. They were such great sports, she said. These were guests who wanted to have that experience. No one was told the evenings menu in advance, but noting would have prepared them for the special dessert, Lenamon said. It was a lemon cake and it was delicious, she said. But it was sprinkled with Pop Rocks that were covered in chocolate. Once the chocolate melted away, you had the (crackling) sensation of the Pop Rocks. That was quite a surprise for them. Everyone loved the food. Part of the adventure is depending on your other senses. Special Speaker Following the meal guests heard from Carroll Jackson, a Lions Club member from Jacksonville, Illinois, who is a field representative with Leader Dogs for the Blind. He notes that hes a graduate field representative, meaning that he went through the program to receive a leader dog of his own. He spoke to the group with Hunter, his golden Labrador retriever cross, by his side. Jackson has had a leader dog for 19 years. Hunter is his second dog and has been with him for eight years. Jackson, who is retired from a career in education, continues to teach people today about the work of Leader Dogs for the Blind. Funds are critical for the nonprofit entity, he noted. Texas has 46 active leader dog users, he said. It costs nearly $40,000 to train each dog, he added, and some of the canines are trained to aid people who are deaf as well as blind. The organization is nearing the end of a $14.5 million capital campaign for a canine development center that he said is a much-needed addition to the facility. The campus houses, on average, 330 dogs that it raises from pups and trains to serve as leader dogs. The big issue is that there are more blind adults today than ever, he said, noting that any of many who obtain leader dogs now are anywhere from their 30s to 60s and have lost their sight through conditions such as macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Jacksons visual impairment began in third grade in Iowa when he lost use of his left eye in an archery accident. In the sixth grade a horse-riding accident caused a detached retina in his right eye. He had laser surgery to repair it, but a year later when he had a cold, he sneezed and detached the retina again, he said. A second laser surgery reattached the retina, but scar tissue from the procedures made him legally blind. He attended the Iowa Braille School for the Blind from the eighth grade through high school graduation, then college and had a career in school administration. Now at age 68, with his eyes worsened from cataracts and macular degeneration, he is totally blind, he said. But the visually impaired today are much better off than when he grew up, he said, as technological improvements have made many things easier. Many recipients of the leader dogs are now being provided with GPS trackers that allow them to better navigate, especially if they are in unfamiliar areas. Jackson travels often with Hunter to share the story about Leader Dogs for the Blind to Lions Clubs and others across the country. I appreciate so much what the Waco Womens Lions Club is doing, he said. They off to a great start. Seeing the Success Lenamon said one of the individuals who attended Dinner in the Dark recently contacted the club and said he wanted to find someone in the area to sponsor for a leader dog. The club is in the process of contacting Leader Dogs of the Blind to find candidates. That part of the program really spoke to him, she said. Thats connecting the dots. Its such an amazing thing to be able to do, to bring people together for that cause. Another aspect of the event that Martin and Lenamon thought worked well was having a silent auction coordinated through Facebook, so even those unable to attend the event could bid on Dinner in the Dark auction items. The silent auction included embroidered items donated by Jackie Panos of California, who is blind and has a guide dog. She owns an embroidery business, The Blind Stitch, and provided canvas handbags, a sweatshirt and a jacket for a silent auction. The items were amazing, she said. She does a great job. Martin added that a Lions Club member from Bay City, Michigan, who is interested in the Dinner in the Dark concept came to see how the club coordinated the event. The Waco Womens Lions Club is already looking toward next year. Now we have to figure out how to make it bigger and better, Lenamon said. LINCOLN Body cameras, flying lanterns and civics tests were among the topics on the Legislatures agenda last week. Flying lanterns will be a much rarer sight in Nebraska. Lawmakers on Feb. 18 passed a bill that would make flame-fueled lanterns essentially small hot-air balloons illegal. The bill, introduced by Sen. Jerry Johnson of Wahoo, was passed unanimously. The bill was created in response to fires that have been blamed on the lanterns, which have become popular July Fourth fireworks. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in fire damage have been caused by the lanterns in Lincoln. The bill will go into effect immediately after Gov. Pete Ricketts signs it into law. Legislative Bill 1000, proposed by Omaha Sen. Heath Mello, was heard by the Judiciary Committee Feb. 18. It would require law enforcement agencies to create guidelines for officers wearing body camera. Mello said the cameras can alter the way police and civilians interact. He said they have the potential to make improvements in the way the public views law enforcement, as well as protecting officers wrongly accused of misconduct. The bill and an amendment would require all officers wearing cameras to be properly trained in their use. It requires agencies to keep all recorded footage on file for at least 90 days and provides penalties for tampering with footage or releasing it to the public without permission Legislative Resolution 26CA, which would lower the age of eligibility for public office to 18, stalled during select file debate on Feb. 18. Sen. Tyson Larson of ONeill proposed the resolution to lower the age of eligibility from age 21. Larson said it would make Nebraska more democratic, because people 18-and-up would be able to participate fully in state government. A motion of cloture to end debate failed, and no final vote was cast on the bill. It is unlikely to come back for debate in this session. LB 868, introduced by Omaha Sen. Bob Krist, would make passing a civics exam necessary for high school graduation. It was heard by the Education Committee Feb. 16. The 100-question exam would be based on the United States naturalization test. Krist said districts could determine how and when the test was administered. The goal, he said, is to make students understand the importance and impact of state government and their participation in it. Proponents said it would create more engaged youth and show that the younger generation is interested in government. But opponents said it would not be enough because students must be forced to think critically about government to engage with it. Arizona's death chamber ARIZONA - Arizona death row inmates are asking the state to not use a paralyzing drug in their executions -- so witnesses can see them suffer. The state said they're trying to create a "spectacle" and have no First Amendment right to "go viral." The death row inmates, along with First Amendment organizations, are challenging the state's execution methods and attempting to get rid of one of the steps in the death penalty process. The state of Arizona shot back at its death row inmates who challenged the state's use of paralytics in executions and are arguing that people have a constitutional right to see what's actually going on when someone is executed, Buzzfeed News reported Wednesday. The state's method includes a three-drug protocol that is supposed to sedate and paralyze the person before killing them. Death row inmates and a coalition of First Amendment organizations are arguing that the paralytic agent only prevents people from seeing the pain the inmates may experience and effectively undermines the purpose of witnesses. "The press, the prisoners and the people of Arizona have a right to know whether Arizona's execution process subjects prisoners to intense physical pain, and the use of a paralytic agent is just as effective in preventing the disclosure of that fact as if the execution occurred without any public witness at all." Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich's office said last week that the First Amendment does not protect the right of the inmate to "die in what they speculate will be pain and distress, as long as people can watch." "The First Amendment does not protect the right to create a spectacle and go viral," the statement said. The state said inmates were trying to create "a spectacle with the objective of swaying public opinion and ultimately abolishing the death penalty." Attorney David Weinzweig, who wrote the response for the state, said the department has been "forced" to change the drug protocols it uses in response to opponents of the death penalty. The response said people "wage guerilla warfare" to stop the state from "acquiring court-approved chemicals." Arizona was forced to stop using its two-drug protocol after the killing of an inmate in 2014 took nearly two hours. Including loans that have been classified as bad and those restructured, or rolled over, total stressed loans were 6.8 trillion rupees ($99 billion) as of the end of September Mumbai: Indian banks urgently need to reduce their troubled loans, a panel of lawmakers said on Wednesday, calling for measures that include bolstering bank credit-appraisal capabilities and making public the names of the main defaulters. Including loans that have been classified as bad and those restructured, or rolled over, total stressed loans were 6.8 trillion rupees ($99 billion) as of the end of September, the Standing Committee on Finance said in a report to parliament on Wednesday. Junior Finance Minister Jayant Sinha has put total stressed loans at Indian banks at 8 trillion rupees. "Considering the effect bad loans have in eroding not only the overall image but also the capital and liquidity of banks, and also their ability to raise capital in the future, there is an urgent need for banks to reduce their stressed assets and clean up their balance sheets, lest they become a drag on the economy," the panel of lawmakers said. Indian banks, already burdened with their highest ratio of stressed assets in 13 years, saw a surge in their bad loans provisions last quarter. Several state-run banks suffered losses after a clean-up exercise ordered by the banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Bad loans are set to go up further this quarter as the clean- up continues, bankers have said. The panel said it was "not happy" with the management of the problem by the banks or by the regulator RBI, adding the banks had "evidently failed" to notice the early signs of stress. It recommended setting up "specially empowered committees" to strengthen the governance of large loan accounts and mandatory forensic audits of specific classes of borrowers to prevent a diversion of funds by majority owners of troubled companies. It also suggested that banks make public the names of top 30 "wilful defaulters". There was also a need to develop a "vibrant" bond market to finance infrastructure projects, which currently have to rely on bank funding, the panel recommended. The recommendations are not binding. Mumbai: After a long wait of 42 months, Sanjay Dutt was finally released from Yerwada jail in Pune today, where he was serving the remainder of his five-year sentence for possession of illegal arms in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case. The actor's family, friends and industry colleagues are all excited to welcome him back home. Earlier reports suggested that Salman Khan is throwing lavish party at his Panvel farmhouse. However, when contacted, a close source to an actor denied the reports. The source also adds that Salman Khan is currently not in country. The piece of news, which took the fans by storm this morning, is just a mere rumour. ITS hard to believe the much-loved Waterford Greenway has been open just five years, as many locals feel they have been living with the... WATERFORD is marking time with a new museum in the Viking Triangle. The Irish Museum of Time is the first of its kind in the... ... but you will need to show proof of jab get into bars STUDENTS heading to college in September will not have to be vaccinated... The Financial Services Council, whose members are responsible for investing more than $2.5 trillion on behalf of 11 million Australians, has renewed calls for the government to codify the purpose of superannuation to avoid the shambolic policymaking that is harming public confidence in the system. FSC chief executive Sally Loane will use her "state of the industry" speech in Sydney on Friday to present the government with a "six-point plan" that would reduce the present value of age-pension liabilities by 60 per cent for middle Australia by 2050, according to modelling by Rice Warner Actuaries. Financial Services Council chief Sally Loane will address the industry at a lunch in Sydney on Friday. Credit:Jessica Hromas The plan includes defining the purpose of super in law and removing superannuation from the budget cycle; increasing the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent by 2022; introducing measures including tax concessions to encourage people to save voluntarily beyond the 12 per cent guarantee; and increasing the age at which super can be accessed in line with increases in the age pension and life expectancy. Taxation of super should be on the table, but Ms Loane will say tax policy must be considered in the context of a full retirement income review, which includes the superannuation guarantee, affordability of aged care, entitlement to the age pension, and tests for accessing the pension and super. The Sunshine Coast Daily, Fraser Coast Chronicle and Gympie Times are among some of the iconic titles up for sale as APN News & Media moves to offload its regional publishing business. Chief executive Ciaran Davis says there is already interest in the sale, which will allow APN to free up investment and focus on its growing outdoor advertising and radio businesses. Advertising markets in New Zealand and regional Queensland remain challenging, APN chief executive Ciaran Davis says. Credit:Christopher Pearce Mr Davis told Fairfax Media that it was early on in the sale process "but there are a couple of interested parties" although there was not a set timeframe on the sale. With the opportunities to grow revenue in radio and the out-of-home advertising market, APN cannot justify diverting money away from those areas in Australian Regional Media (ARM), Mr Davis said. Hundreds of thousands of new jobs are being created in the aged care and health service sectors that would offset the loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector and through automation, the chief employment bureaucrat has said. Renee Leon, the secretary for the federal Department of Employment, said the Minister, Michaelia Cash, will on Friday launch a report produced with the CSIRO identifying future social trends and their impact on employment. Structural change in the labour market will continue to see growth in the service sector. Credit:Thinkstock After addressing a discussion in Canberra this week about the jobs of the future, Ms Leon told Fairfax Media that structural change in the labour market would continue to see growth in the service sector, including a plethora of new caring jobs. This growth would more than offset a decline in jobs, including those in the manufacturing sector and through automation. APOLOGY: In a column published on February 21 headlined The story of Louise: the hidden scale of the rape epidemic in Sydney, Fairfax Media reported the details of an alleged sexual assault. A subsequent column published below acknowledged key elements of the original story were unable to be substantiated. The original story included aspersions against the Middle Eastern community and raised untested allegations of inaction against the NSW Police. Fairfax Media sincerely regrets the hurt and distress the reports caused to these groups, and our readers, and unreservedly apologises. UPDATE: The original story has been retracted. Illustration: Michael Mucci At 6pm on Monday I had a heart-sinking conversation with Louise, the woman who was the subject of my column that day. In my third conversation with her that afternoon, as I was saying that she needed to talk to the police about the gang rape she alleged took place in 2002, she told me I was "oppressing" her. A trio of pranksters who stage hoax terror attacks around Melbourne have been dressed down by The Project host Waleed Aly, conceding their latest stunt a drive-by shooting that apparently scared a five-year-old girl was "pretty irresponsible". The Jalal brothers, whose videos of fake bombings and shootings have been viewed millions of times online, say their stunts are designed to make fun of social attitudes towards Middle Eastern people. Waleed Aly talks about the real reason begging is illegal. Credit:Channel Ten In their most recent clip, the provocative comedy trio are dressed in white robes and fire a replica semi-automatic gun out of a car window at a phone box, causing a man and his young daughter to flee. Brothers Max, Rebeen, and Arman appeared on Channel Ten's The Project on Wednesday night and were asked about the controversial skit. In October last year, director Omung Kumar had gone to Wagah Border to do a recce for his biopic Sarbjit. Now his film is finally on the floors but there seems to be a stumbling block. It has been two weeks since Omung and his team have camped themselves in Amritsar but they are yet to get the required permissions to shoot at the Wagah Border. The team has to shoot one of the most important sequences in the film at the high-security spot. Its the scene where Dalbir Kaur, Sarabjits sister, played by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is interacting with the officials at the border asking them to allow her to meet Sarabjit in Lahore. As of now, the director has put that on hold and is shooting some additional portions with his lead actors Randeep Hooda and Aishwarya Rai in the nearby locations. They are all waiting for a nod of approval from the Ministry of Home Affairs to shoot at the border. Producer Sandeep Singh told this publication that he had applied for permissions in the month of January. We might get the permission today. I am hoping all goes well. It has been 15 days now. But I think the country has bigger issues to handle now, which is why the permission has not come through yet. And if it doesnt come at all? We will return to Delhi as per our schedule in few days. And then we may have to come back to Mumbai and create a set of the Wagah Border. It will be disappointing for the entire team. And knowing Omung and his penchant for authenticity, he would never want to cheat his audience, Sandeep says. The blueprint comes amid rising regional tension particularly in the South China Sea where Beijing is seeking to dominate strategically vital waters through which about 60 percent of Australia's trade passes. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull launches the Defence white paper. Credit:Andrew Meares In a statement that captures the concerns about China's recent behaviour, the paper says that "while it is natural for newly powerful countries to seek greater influence" some have "sought to challenge the rules that govern actions in the global commons of the high seas, cyberspace and space in unhelpful ways, leading to uncertainty and tension". The paper commits the government to increasing spending on defence to 2 per cent of Australia's GDP by 2020-21, which is three years earlier than originally promised by the Abbott government. Spending would nearly double over the next 10 years, from $32 billion this year to $59 billion in 2025-26. Speaking at a regular press briefing on Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the white paper's mention of the East and South China Seas was "negative" and that China was "dissatisfied with that". Illustration: Ron Tandberg She said China "definitely" did not want to see an arms race in the region and urged "relevant countries" to relieve tensions. But she welcomed the paper's mention that Australia was willing to enhance defence co-operation with China. "China welcomes that and it hopes it can translate these positive statements into concrete actions." At the launch, Mr Turnbull bolstered hopes that the fleet of 12 new submarines would be built in Australia by repeatedly linking Australia's defence capabilities to his innovation agenda. Senator Payne said the location of the build was still to be decided, but "by virtue of the size of the project there will always be considerable engagement for Australian works". The new submarines, which will soak up some of the funding over the next decade but will stretch well beyond that period, will cost more than $50 billion to build, the paper states. Using a defence rule of thumb, that could mean the lifetime maintenance costs a further $100 billion, pushing the total cost to $150 billion by the time the program ends around mid-century. However it is understood that the $50 billion figure Defence has used is future dollar values and in today's dollars the cost is closer to $30 billion, which would put the lifetime cost at about $100 billion in today's dollars. The paper also flags buying armed drones for the army, new long-range rockets and special forces helicopters that will enable the SAS to carry out combat search and rescue operations if, for example, a RAAF fighter plane were shot down. But navy is by far the big winner. On top of the submarines, navy will get nine surface warships to replace the workhorse Anzac Class frigates, 12 new patrol vessels, seven new P-8 surveillance aircraft (on top of eight already ordered) and seven MQ-4C Triton long-range surveillance drones. Andrew Davies, a senior analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute who advised on the paper but remains independent to speak freely about it, said it was providing "all of the things that the ADF has to do and a few more besides". He said the navy's expansion was vital because of the "maritime security trouble" brewing in the region. And he said a doubled submarine fleet was the right approach because "subs are a better platform for the 21st century environment than surface ships". Retired Navy Rear Admiral James Goldrick, who also advised on the paper, said that the "challenge will be in making it work". "That's going to take bipartisan political leadership." The sheer scale of the defence procurement meant that putting the paper into practice would take project management, training of people and making sure that local industry "can produce the goods and does". The Barnett government was aware about the poor water qualities at Elizabeth Quay before its official opening but failed to act, according to the state opposition. Labor is calling for Planning Minister John Day's head over the water bungle, claiming he put the opening of the $440 million water front development ahead of public safety. The water park was closed in early February for three days so health officials could clear a bacteria detected in the attraction's waste pipes. On Tuesday, the water facility was again shut down after routine health department water sampling detected bacteria in water spray and amoeba in waste discharge pipes. A WA mining contractor has been fined $130,000 over the death of a worker at Newcrest's Telfer gold mine in 2013. Father-of-three Stephen Hampton was fatally crushed by a 60 metre pipe while working with a co-worker at the Pilbara mine's tailings storage facility in December. Telfer Gold Mine in the Pilbara. Credit:Erin Jonasson On Wednesday, Exact Mining Services was fined $130,000 in Perth Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to failing to provide a safe working environment for Mr Hampton. The court heard Mr Hampton's brother was working at the same site at the time of his death. An American jury has awarded more than $100 million in damages to the family of a woman who died from ovarian cancer and blamed it on Johnson & Johnson talcum powder. The verdict comes despite some researchers saying there is insufficient evidence to prove the link between using talcum powder and ovarian cancer. The woman, Jacqueline Fox, died last year, but her voice recently came alive in a St. Louis courtroom. In an audio deposition, the Birmingham, Alabama native, who died at 62, recounted 35 years of using Johnson & Johnson products containing talcum powder, from the pharmaceutical giant's trademark baby powder to its shower-to-shower body powder. Fox had used them for "feminine hygiene" - applying them in her genital area. More than three years ago, she was diagnosed with an ovarian cancer that proved fatal. Fox then joined more than 1200 women from across the country suing Johnson & Johnson for failing to warn consumers of the dangers associated with talc, the mineral used in baby powder. Johannesburg: A university in South Africa is being evacuated and the campus shut indefinitely after protesting students torched buildings, a spokesman says. North-West University spokesman Koos Degenaar said on Thursday that an administration block that included a science centre was burned down on Wednesday night. An administration building was completely destroyed, along with all official records, the university's spokesman said. Credit:Twitter: @equal_education Student protesters also burned the residence of a dormitory supervisor. United Nations: The United States will submit to the UN Security Council on Thursday a draft resolution that would expand sanctions against North Korea over its latest nuclear test, a spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations said. "Ambassador [Samantha] Power intends to submit for consideration by the Security Council a draft sanctions resolution in response to [North Korea's] recent nuclear test and subsequent proscribed ballistic missile launch," spokesman Kurtis Cooper said. A mock Scud-B missile of North Korea and other South Korean missiles at the Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul. Credit:AP "We look forward to working with the council on a strong and comprehensive response to the DPRK's [North Korea's] latest series of tests aimed at advancing their nuclear weapons program." On Wednesday council diplomats said the United States and China had agreed on a draft resolution and hoped to put it to a vote in the 15-nation council in the coming days. My brothers are doctors now, I wasnt even fit to be a compounder. Its a different story that I later went on to be the health minister, says Shatrughan Sinha, politician I dont remain khamosh and I will not remain khamosh, exclaimed Shatrughan Sinha during the launch of his biography Anything But Khamosh on Wednesday. Organised by the actor-politicians close friend T. Subbarami Reddy, the event was attended by Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal, Mohan Babu and author of the book Bharathi S. Pradhan. In a jovial mood throughout the event, Shatrughan gave an insight into his life. My brothers are doctors now, but I wasnt even fit to be a compounder. Its a different story that I later went on to be the health minister, he said with a laugh. When my proposal was sent to Poonams (his wife) home they rejected it because I was dark and she had a milky complexion and my mother-in-law thought we would look like a black and white photo, he said. And about the book he said, I was scared about how to go ahead with the book. My family members didnt agree with a lot of what was written. But I wanted the book to be honest and transparent and so it included the grey areas too. The book talks about how a boy from Patna steps out of his town for the first time, studies in FTII and struggles to enter the film industry without any godfather. It could be an inspiration for the younger generation. Later, out of social obligations I had to enter politics. On hearing of my decision, director Subhash Ghai didnt talk to me for months. If I can do it with zeal, passion and commitment then anybody can do it. Even the girls who came into my life have given me so much. Shotgun, who was recently in the news for supporting JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar (against his partys diktat), added, I had commented on it initially before the matter went to court. I had only said that based on what Ive heard so far, the guy has not spoken against the nation. Now the court will decide if thats true. Asked why he had taken a stand against what his party stood for, Shatrughan said, Never have I gone against the party, the constitution or my nation. Im a very proud Indian and have the highest regard for Prime Minister Modi. I wish, hope and pray that soon there will be peace and people will walk on the path of progress. At the start of the event, T. Subbarami Reddy mentioned how Shatrughan was mann ka aadmi and dil ka aadmi, Shotgun, however, quickly rectified, Dil ki baat karta hun, mann ki nahi (referring to PM Modis Mann Ki Baat programmes). Aishwarya Dhanush is on cloud nine! The daughter of the Superstar is back after a brief hiatus to wield the megaphone for the third time. And, she has a reason to rejoice, as she is collaborating with none other than maestro AR Rahman for her upcoming flick, interestingly titled Cinema Veeran. Dealing with a theme that has not been touched by any other Tamil filmmaker, Cinema Veeran celebrates all the stunt choreographers and stuntmen of Tamil cinema. Apparently, Aishu has brought on board music ensemble Qutb E Kripa from ARRs KM Conservatory School to compose music for her film. Aishwarya took to her social media and wrote, Sir!!!!!!! Such an honor to have you on board .Truly a project very close to my heart .thank you again. (sic) Rahman also tweeted about the project and expressed his happiness. He said, Aishwaryas Cinema Veeran with my Qutb E Kripas music composers which is an ode to Tamil fighters and stuntmen, the unsung heroes. (sic) The Maggi noodles festival is scheduled to be held at Nehru Park on February 28. (Photo: Pixabay) New Delhi: A day-long festival showcasing different innovations prepared using the popular snack Maggi noodles as a key ingredient has been planned in the city. Organised by GoBuzzinga, a Delhi based hyper-local discovery startup in collaboration with Delhi Food Walks, the festival #MaggitujheSalaam will offer a variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes prepared using the noodles. The festival is scheduled to be held at Nehru Park on February 28. "During the temporary ban on Maggi, people missed it so much and didn't realize it had become an integral part of our daily life. We were overjoyed when it made a return and wanted to celebrate this in a grand fashion," Hunar Katoch, co-founder, GoBuzzinga said. "The event gives platform to restaurants, street vendors and home chefs to showcase their innovative varieties and providing Delhiites a taste of best Maggi dishes spread geographically across the city which they otherwise might not go and experience," Katoch said. The event has a platter of dishes made of the popular noodle brand 'Maggi' which include Maggi Shawarma, Maggi Lasagna, Maggi Donut, Seekh Kabab Maggi, Maggi Samosa, Maggi Momos, Butter Chicken Maggi Vodka Maggi, Maggi Pizza, Keema Maggi, Makhani Maggi, Chilli Cheese Maggi, Butter Fry Maggi and a lot more. The festival, which organisers claim as the first of its kind, aims to explore the hidden varieties of Maggi dishes across the city. "The unexplored varieties of Maggi dishes hidden amongst length and breadth of Delhi led us to curating the festival for our community. The unique appeal of the noodles has made this festival instantly viral. "It is a tribute to our favorite snack as all of us have memories associated with it whether making it in our hostels or having it as a mid night snack," Katoch said. by Richard Coulson First published in The Tribune Business and posted here with the kind permission of the author. Being Mortal, by Dr. Atul Gawande, was published in 2014 and surprisingly became a New York Times non-fiction best-seller. Already read by many members of the Bahamian medical community, it should be required reading for all our citizens who face the problems of caring for parents, friends, or relatives on the far edge of aging when they are no longer able to look after themselves. Now that a National Health Insurance scheme is close to becoming reality, we should look closely at what NHI will, or will not, provide for those who are beyond curative care and must make ready for predictable death. Dr. Gawande is a highly trained American physician of Indian parentage. An established surgeon at a prominent Boston hospital and a Professor at Harvard Medical School, as well as an author frequently appearing in The New Yorker magazine, he is no hysterical alarmist, but is deeply disturbed by the failings of modern health care to deal with the advanced elderly. As he writes, If your problem is fixable, we know just what to do. But if its not?...You dont have to spend much time with those with terminal illness to see how often medicine fails the people it is supposed to help. His argument runs that after all the superb technology found in a modern hospital ICU or cancer center MRI imaging, chemotherapy and radiology, heart bypass, tumor surgery, kidney dialysis, defibrillators and ventilators, IV tubes, oxygen pumpsreaches its inevitable point of failure, the typical physician team says we have done all we can do and leaves the patient with little succor or care to ease the final stage of life. And of course he cites instances where this very technology extends pain and suffering far beyond the patients (or the familys) rational wishes. Dr. Gawandes book makes clear the historical perspective for todays predicament. . Two hundred years ago, there were few aging persons. By age 40 most were dead, felled by war, accidents, infectious epidemics, or abrupt submission to illness for which current medicine had no cure. Since then, particularly since WWII, the impressive revolution in medical expertise together with modern sanitation have radically changed the picture. From 1902 to 2004, life expectancy in the US rose from 45 to 75.7. More significant has been the increased percentage of the over 60 population in the developed countries: from 12% in 1950 to 22% in 2010 and a projected 30% in 2050. But this stretching longevity is not an unmixed blessing. It has not been fully matched by better end-of-life care. Dr. Gawande notes that relatively few physicians specialize in geriatrics, since it traditionally pays less well than direct treatments like oncology or heart surgery. Nursing homes proliferate, but rarely provide a warm sense of well-being. The Bahamas are not exempt from these dilemmas, which surely include a growing percentage of those over 70 (and even younger) who have been diagnosed as incurable and cannot benefit from further hi-tech procedures. Dr. Gawande is not short of remedies. He is a firm believer in palliative treatments and hospice care, where physicians, nurses, and caregivers trained in geriatrics remove patients from hospital surroundings and care for them in hospice centers or, very often, at home with daily visits from professional hospice specialists. The objective is not to cure the individualthat option is pastbut to make the last days, weeks or months as pleasant as possible far from the coldly impersonal surroundings of a hospital. He writes at length about his father, a physician himself, who in his few remaining days was released from hospital to die under hospice care in the comfort of his home. In my view, it is a shocking failure of our medical system that any organized hospice system is unknown here. The well-intentioned Persis-Rodgers Home looks after a limited number of the aged, and I understand that buried in Princess Margaret Hospital there is a ward of elderly patients who will never leave the hospital alive, since professional hospice care service cannot be found elsewhere locally, although it has been available even in small communities throughout the US and UK beginning in the 1960s, financed by public and private sources including Medicare. Our new National Health Insurance must be framed with a similar scope. As demographic patterns and work demands change, we will have a smaller homebody population capable of looking after an ever-growing number of the barely competent aged. Dr. Gawandes book, impressive as it is, surprised me by saying virtually nothing about the administrative obstacles and the costs of the high-level health care available in the US, and that may be feared in The Bahamas. The many patients whose treatment he describes in detail appear to float in and out of intensive care hospitals with none of the bureaucratic hassle and complex payment arrangements that surely are required under either ObamaCare or private insurance schemes. Except for the very wealthy, or cosseted senior executives, he gives a rather rose-colored picture of the difficulties, delays, and uncertainties facing he typical patient. Also, I was struck by the ambivalent position he takes on that admittedly controversial subject, assisted suicide. He, and most doctors, accept that where pain is intense to the point of being unbearable, removal of a respirator is acceptable, as are doses of narcotics or sedatives even if they may knowingly speed death. But he appears dubious about the practice of prescribing a toxic drug such as Nembutal, to be taken at the patients option. He writes that suffering at the end of life is sometimes unavoidable and unbearable, and helping people end their misery may be necessary I would support laws to provide these kinds of prescriptions implying that no such laws exist. In fact, the 1997 Oregon Death with Dignity act does just that, under strict controls requiring two physicians, and sometimes a psychiatrist, to certify both intense suffering and sanity of the requesting party. The procedure is closely regulated by the Oregon medical authorities and has been copied by five other states, and in different forms by several European nations. Dr. Gawande is concerned that we may let providing this facility divert us from improving the lives of the ill. This fear seems unfounded. He himself cites cases where hospice care was provided to the last moment, and concedes that many patients accept the death prescription and then never use it. In 2015, official Oregon records show 218 prescriptions were given and only 132 actually ingested. Although its unlikely a that a Death with Dignity act will in the foreseeable future be adopted in The Bahamas with its strict views about the sanctity of human life, views do gradually change and a positive movement is slowly spreading through other American states and the UK. A detailed recital of all the pro and con argumentsmedical, social, religious, economiccan be found in the comprehensive book Death with Dignity: the Case for Legalizing Physician-Assisted Dying and Euthanasia, by Robert Orfali. Whatever the prospects for Death with Dignity, Dr. Gawande demands more compassionate care for the terminally ill. Rather than simply offering them an array of alternative cures, with more surgeries, more professional visits, and more tests, he urges that every attending physician take time for frank two-way discussions when the patient explains what is most important to him living as long as possible, or as well as possible? alone, or surrounded by family? with prayers and music or silence?and the doctor explains, even recommends, what is feasible. He continually emphasizes: its not a question of the doctor demonstrating all his skills, but of satisfying what the patient really wants. The physician must offer pastoral care, not simply technical treatment, no matter how expert. He is not a voice in the wilderness, but is supported by such popular works as the inspirational How We Die, by Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland, and the practical The Conversation: A Revolutionary Plan for End-of-Life Care, by Dr. Angelo Volandes. a virtual guide book to the discussion that should be held between patients, families and physicians in order to change the prevalent scene where 80% of Americans report they prefer to die at home but only 24% of those over 65 get that wish, with 63% expiring in hospitals or nursing homes. The Conversation includes invaluable appendices describing how to initiate these discussions and what they should include. All the foregoing studies indicate how our National Health Insurance should make room for hospice care, generally limited to those with a life expectancy not exceeding six months, whatever their age. As a first step, there is no need to spend heavily on bricks-and-mortar physical facilities, as the service can be provided in the patients own home, using a central office equipped with a supply of mobile hospital beds, wheel-chairs and other basic medical items for residential installation This office arranges scheduled visits by specialized supervising doctors, plus nurses to monitor prescribed medications and aid assistants to handle feeding, dressing, cleaning and toilet functions. All this can be supplied at reasonable cost, as I observed last year in the Mexican city of San Miguel de Allende, where a civic-minded group of local citizens and US home-owners banded together to organize and finance home care service for Mexicans not far above the poverty line. A similar privately backed system could be organized here, but to provide wider coverage and institutional permanence, it should better be sponsored as part of NHI. As soon as NHI is ready to roll out phases 4 and 5 of its operations, for catastrophic coverage and full benefits coverage, it should include specific coverage levels for hospice care. Of course that still begs the question of how any type of advanced treatment is to be paid for. Obviously, unlike the initial $25 million budgeted for phase 3 (primary care), more elaborate services cannot simply be charged against the central fund. Some type of tax, insurance premium, or users fee must certainly be imposedbut Government seems too worried about political repercussions to reveal this tough reality to the long-suffering public. In any event, even before financial details are clarified, a special committee of physicians, clerics and social workers should be created to set the plans for hospice care. The plight of our terminally ill population cannot, in all charity, continue to be ignored. _____________________________________________________ Mr. Coulson has had a long career in law, investment banking and private banking in New York, London, and Nassau, and now serves as director of several financial concerns and as a corporate financial consultant. He has recently released his autobiography, A Corkscrew Life: Adventures of a Travelling Financier. Belying the common stereotype of the 21st-century adolescent -- selfish, glued to a phone -- Hungarian teens are devoting their spare time bringing aid to poor villages, homeless shelters and orphanages. (Photo: AFP) Tomor, Hungary: With his dyed blonde hair, wristbands and ripped jeans, 17-year-old Domonkos Sera -- Domi for short -- looks more like a typical teenage punk rocker than a crusading do-gooder running his own charity. But belying the common stereotype of the 21st-century adolescent -- selfish, glued to a phone -- the Hungarian devotes his spare time bringing aid to poor villages, homeless shelters and orphanages. "Helping people is my hobby, that's what makes me feel good," he told AFP on what has become a typical weekend activity, packing supplies into a van in a wintry supermarket carpark miles from home. His burning ambition, he says, is to devote his life to charity work and -- no less -- by 30 to consign poverty to the history books in this central European country of 10 million people. "Our work is a drop in the ocean now, but you have to start somewhere," he says. "We've grown to over 20 kids now." Domi got his idea after getting involved last year helping some of the thousands of migrants who passed through Hungary bound for northern Europe before Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government sealed the borders. "After the refugees stopped coming I didn't want to drop everything, there was such a good spirit, so I decided to set up a charity and ask my pals to join," he says. Contacts made during the migrant surge pitched in with free legal and accounting advice on how to start his non-profit company "Most" ("Now" in Hungarian). Others offered office and storage space. Not our puppies Studies have shown that altruism not only makes us happier and healthier, and that in fact it is common among teenagers. A US government report in 2014 showed that 26.1 percent of 16 to 19-year-olds volunteer, higher than the national rate. In Hungary, however, Domi has sometimes found volunteering a hard sell outside his school. Last year, while helping the migrants, he was even sworn at in the street wearing a volunteer organisation's armband. "Altruism among Hungarian kids is not typical," says Mihaly Csako, a sociologist who has conducted studies into youth attitudes in Hungary since 2005. Social solidarity and helping others, particularly minorities, consistently rank low in the priorities of teens, who prefer to simply hang out together in malls or surf the Internet, he says. "It's partly a historical hangover from Hungary's communist period when the parents of today's teenagers were cautious about dealing with anyone outside the family," Csako said. "As the Hungarian saying goes: 'They're not puppies of our dog'. At most you might help the next-door granny," he said. Poverty close up Meanwhile in the remote Cserehat region near the Slovakian and Ukrainian borders, the group's van -- driven by one of their dads -- has pulled up outside a community centre in the village of Tomor after an hour's drive along potholed roads. The supplies -- flour, rice, oil, sugar as well as second-hand clothes sent by Domi's contacts in Germany -- are destined for 30 mostly ethnic Roma families in nearby Szakacsi, statistically Hungary's poorest village. "We go to where the need is greatest," Mark Takats, 17, an aspiring poet friend of Domi's sporting a man bun hairstyle, says after unloading the pallets. "I'd only seen such poverty on TV before, never so close up." Cserehat lies some 200 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of the Hungarian capital, but feels a million miles away from the teenagers' base, a high school in a leafy suburb of Buda, the richest part of the city. "We believe in positive peer pressure, that we can show it is cool to volunteer," said Takats as he put up posters he designed himself on the corridor asking for donations. "It's also fun, that's the magic of it," says another member, Dani Lakatos. "We're just ordinary teenagers who happen to like helping, as well as football, computer games and partying." If I dont support my child, then how can I expect society to treat her fairly? asked M. Anitha, as she stood proudly alongside her daughter Chandramukhi Muvvala at the Hyderabad Queer Swabhimana Yatra. The theme for this years walk was My Child, My Pride. Popularly known as the Pride Walk in the West, the Swabhimana Yatra was organised for the second time in Hyderabad on February 21. And the most touching part of the walk was when mothers turned out to support their children and walked alongside. While some mothers have supported their children ever since they opened up about their sexual orientation, for others, their participation was a message intended for society: We love our children and will always support them. The theme idea My Child, My Pride came about when we realised the amount of support the LGBT community of Hyderabad had received from their mothers, says Priyank, a student and one of the participants at the walk. He also co-founded a youth collective called Queer Collective India early last year that works towards bridging the gap between society and the queer. We had an event at the end of last year where it was an outing with mums and their queer children and friends. Thats when I realised that we get such grand support from our own mothers. No other Pride Walk in the country up till now has given mothers the opportunity to lead the parade, and we wanted to give the mothers in Hyderabad this honour, he adds. Beacon of hope I was 18 years old when I told my parents about my preference to be girl, says Chandramukhi Muvvala, a transgender and also a programming manager in a corporate company. Chandramukhis parents were distraught and endless fights and arguments followed. They didnt want me to beg by the roadside or get into prostitution. They were afraid of societys cruel treatment, recollects Chandramukhi. But things changed when Chandramukhi landed a job in 2011. Since that day my parents have never stopped supporting me, says Chandramukhi, adding, My mother and my sister were present at the Swabhimana Yatra. It was their first such event. Overwhelmed with seeing over 400 people at the event, my mother was happy to be there. Please accept them THE WAY they are Andy Silveira was extremely touched when his mother, Alda Silveira, turned up for the walk despite being unwell. Then she got on stage and exhorted other mothers to support their children. It was quite an emotional moment, says Andy, a working professional and also a PhD student specialising in film studies. Andy admits that it took a while for his mother to understand and accept him. It never happens overnight. First you accept your sexuality, then come out to your parents, give them time to digest and after sometime they start supporting you openly, says Andy, adding, Its more about the gestures of acceptance and my mother standing beside me during the walk was the biggest gesture of them all. For Alda, her decision to support Andy is born from the fact that she doesnt want to lose him. Andy is my only son and as a mother, I will support and love him, says Alda, who does admit that she was quite shocked when Andy opened up to her. I grew up with absolutely no knowledge about homosexuality, so when he told me about his choice, of never marrying a woman, I was surprised. But then, as I said before, I love him and will continue to support him. Changing society One of the biggest misconceptions that people hold towards the members of the LGBT community is that they are not educated and dont qualify for respectable jobs. We need to change our skewed notions, says Mala, mother of Shiv who is a Gerontologist study of the social, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging. I did go through a challenging phase when Shiv opened up to me, says Mala, a working professional. But after doing more research and visiting a counsellor, I came to the conclusion that his orientation is natural and I will always continue to love him. And its important for mothers to support their children. The society is going to harass them and they will face rejections that might force them to take their lives and thats why they need their mothers as a strong pillar of support. Her son Shiv adds, Our mothers are the beacons of hope for families that are still struggling to accept their children. We hope that our mothers acts of bravery will serve as a cornerstone for other families to love their children no matter who they are, he says. Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 24, 2016 | 04:52 PM | PADUCAH, KY A woman was arrested Wednesday morning for leaving the scene of a chain-reaction accident in Paducah. McCracken County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the scene on Blandville Road just west of the Commerce Park, but before they arrived they learned that the driver of a pickup involved in the crash had left the scene. Deputies determined the driver was 37-year-old Sally Fowler of Paducah, who had been picked up by a passing driver, and dropped off down the road. Fowler was found and arrested at the old Milan Station convenience store. The crash investigation revealed that Fowler's pickup reportedly rear-ended another truck driven by 74-year-old Lawrence Otey of Wickliffe, which then rear-ended another vehicle, driven by 54-year-old Rickie Byerly of Scott City, MO. Byerly told deputies that he was stopped in traffic because he was behind a dump truck, which had apparently stopped to pick up debris on the side of the road. Fowler was taken to McCracken County Jail, and faces charges of DUI, wanton endangerment, criminal mischief, possession of an open alcoholic beverage in a vehicle, possession of a controlled substance, prescription not in proper container, possession of a legend drug, and several traffic-related offenses. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 25, 2016 | MURRAY, KY By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 25, 2016 | 05:03 PM | MURRAY, KY The Kentucky State Police say they received a call from the Calloway County Sheriff's Department telling them that the body of 31-year-old Jennifer L. Hicks of Murray had been found in Calloway County. State Police are on the scene along with the Calloway County Coroner's office and Murray Police, and the investigation is ongoing. Hicks was reported missing on Feb. 9, and as multiple agencies continued searching for her, State Police issued a warrant for her arrest a week later. She was charged with theft by failure to make required disposition of property over $10,000, a class C felony. At that time, the Calloway County Sheriff told members of the media that he did not believe Hicks had been abducted. She had last been seen in her vehicle on Highway 94 about 12:45 pm on Feb. 9, after leaving her job at Lake Chem Community Federal Credit Union. It's not clear if the theft charge was related to her job, but a representative of the Credit Union notified members of some irregularities in end-of-year figures. By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 24, 2016 | 08:49 PM | MAYFIELD, KY More charges are expected to be filed against a Mayfield chiropractor who was arrested earlier this week. According to the Graves County Sheriff's office, six women have come forward with new claims that Dr. Stephen Douglas McAdoo inappropriately touched them while under his care. Sheriff Dewayne Redmon said three to four new charges of 1st degree sexual abuse will be filed against McAdoo on Thursday. Redmon said McAdoo could be arrested again as early as Thursday and no later than Friday. McAdoo is currently out of jail after bonding out Wednesday morning. His arraignment is set for March 23 in Graves County. McAdoo was arrested Tuesday on a charge of 1st degree sexual abuse. He's accused of making inappropriate contact with a female employee while giving her an adjustment. Deputies said the alleged incident happened Feb. 15 at his place of business, McAdoo Chiropractic Center on Paris Road in Mayfield. Redmon said anyone else who may have experienced any similar incidents with Dr. McAdoo is urged to contact sheriff's office at 270-247-4501. By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 25, 2016 | 04:38 AM | WASHINGTON, DC U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield met Wednesday with members of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association in his Washington, D.C. office. During the meeting Whitfield was presented an award by the KBA in recognition of his years of service. Throughout my tenure in Congress, I have enjoyed the opportunity to visit with members of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association and consider them friends, Whitfield said. I thank them for honoring me today and for their dedication to public policy through the years. Whitfield accepted the award from Henry Lackey, incoming president/CEO of the KBA. Lackey is no stranger to radio in Kentucky. His family was among Kentucky's earliest pioneers in broadcasting. His father and two uncles founded station WPAD in 1930. Now 99.5. The Fan, WPAD is owned by Bristol Broadcasting. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 25, 2016 | FRANKFORT, KY By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 25, 2016 | 03:42 PM | FRANKFORT, KY A federal judge has sentenced a California man to 40 years in federal prison, for his role in a fraudulent oil production enterprise in Kentucky that defrauded investors out of more than $3 million. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove sentenced 69-year-old John G. Westine, Jr. for mail fraud, conspiracy to launder funds, and securities fraud. Westine was also ordered to pay $3,042,621 in restitution. One of Westines co-defendants, Mark Cornell, 56, was sentenced to 114 months in prison, for deception in the purchase and sale of a security. Cornell was ordered to pay $2,181,414 in restitution. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Frankfort, Westines sentence was enhanced due to a prior conviction, for running a similar fraud scheme in Ohio. Westine served more than 20 years in prison for his 1992 conviction and was still on parole when he orchestrated the fraud scheme in Kentucky. According to testimony at trial, Westine, Cornell, and others solicited money from investors, by intentionally making false statements regarding the success of their oil production business. They reportedly misled investors to believe that oil was being produced, when in fact it was not, and also misled investors to believe that the oil companies Westine operated had been in the oil production business for decades. Additionally, Westine concealed from investors that he had served more than 20 years in prison for a fraud scheme and was still on parole. Westine and his co-defendants used aliases and fictitious company names to conceal their true identities from both investors and authorities and they defrauded more than 240 investors, nationwide. Two of Westines other co-defendants, Michael Hicks and Henry Irving Ramer, were previously convicted and sentenced, to three years imprisonment and thirteen years imprisonment respectively, for their roles in the scheme. The investigation was started based on investor complaints submitted to the Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Securities. Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Tommy D. Coke, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; Pittsburg Division; and Charles Vice, Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions, jointly made the announcement. The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, including Postal Inspector Roberta Bottoms, and the Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Securities. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ken Taylor and Neeraj Gupta prosecuted this case on behalf of the federal government. Mistaking an ambulance siren to be that of a police vehicle, two robbers sped on their motorcycle, only to hit a parked water tanker and die on the spot. (Representational image) BENGALURU: Mistaking an ambulance siren to be that of a police vehicle, two robbers, who had waylaid a father-son duo near Bigbazar in Rajajinagar, sped on their motorcycle, only to hit a parked water tanker and die on the spot. There was another robber duo on another bike, who fled the spot. The police have recovered stolen mobile phones, daggers and knives from the two deceased, identified as Santhosh, 20 and Abhilash, 18, residents of Manjunathanagar in Shivannalli respectively. According to the police, the accident happened near the ISKCON temple around 1 am on Wednesday. Iqlakh (22) and his father Yacoob, hailing from Gujarat, had come to the city from their hometown, and was heading towards Kurbarahalli where they were staying. The father-son duo was waylaid by the bike-borne duo (Santhosh and Abhilash) who robbed two phones and wallets. Suddenly they heard a siren of an ambulance, but thought a police van was approaching. The two sped away on a bike. They hit a hump and the rider lost control of the vehicle and rammed into a parked water tanker, near the ISKCON temple and died on the spot, police said. According to Iqlakh and Yacoob, the other bike with the two robbers did not stop at the accident spot and sped away. Iqlakh was also assaulted by the robbers with a dagger and he sustained thigh injury, the police said. Both Santhosh and Abhilash had cases registered against them at the Nandini Layout police station, the police added. A case of robbery was registered at the Subramanyanagar police station and the cops are now on the lookout for the other two absconding robbers. A case of accident was also registered at the Malleswaram traffic police station, who have seized the water tanker. Birmingham is set to host the annual 2016 international children's theatre festival, On the Edge. Running from 2 to 9 July, the festival invites theatre companies from across the globe to perform for children and aims to promote theatre and performance for young audiences. Whilst the festival will span the whole city, Birmingham Rep will act as the main hub of the festival. Audiences can expect to see shows by artists from 14 countries with highlights including Belgian company Hetpaleis' show The Hamilton Complex, which will also run at the Unicorn Theatre in London, and offers a glimpse into the chaotic minds of 13 13-year-old girls. Elsewhere in the festival there is an interactive piece from Australian company Terrapin Puppet Theatre which invites the public to become residents in a miniature model railway village, UK premieres from Irish puppetry company Monkeyshine and Austrian puppeteer and actress Myriam Rossbach and Mary-Frances Doherty's piece Katie's Birthday Party which looks at the trials and tribulations of what a young person goes through in the change from primary school to secondary school. Comedy , dance and an immersive adventure created for children and young people with learning difficulties also feature. The festival, which takes place in a different international city each year, is expected to welcome around 500 international visitors alongside families and school audiences. Steve Ball, executive producer for On the Edge said: "On the Edge will show that theatre for young audiences can be more than a fairytale, favourite book or bankable brand brought to life on stage. The brilliant imaginations of the companies and artists involved in the festival will show just how joyful and enthralling theatre for young people can be. We have bold productions about adolescence, playful shows for the very young and more sensory adventures for those with profound and multiple learning difficulties. "The title refers to the the sense that we are at the cutting edge: striving to push the boundaries of innovation and poised to achieve the international recognition it deserves. We hope audiences will be as excited about the programme on offer as we are." Following its inaugural season, Manchester's Home has announced a new season of work with highlights including a brand new production from critically acclaimed theatre company Anu. Following their award-winning production Angel Meadow in 2014, Anu return with On Corporation Street, the second of three shows marking the centenary of Ireland's Easter Rising. Viva! Spanish and Latin American Festival returns with a new programme joining together multiple art forms. Productions include the UK premiere of multi-award winning Chamaco (Kiddo) by Abel Gonzalez Melo, and the world premieres of Little Soldier's Derailed and Artresbandes' All In, based on Cervantes' novel Don Quixote. Other highlights include a revival of The Ricochet Project's Edinburgh hit Smoke and Mirrors, an acrobatic examination of happiness described by the Guardian as 'circus with brains'. Touring productions include Filter and the RSC's Twelfth Night; Beyond Caring, an examination of zero-hours contracts presented by Alexander Zeldin and Company; ZooNation's Into the Hoods: Remixed; The Emperor starring Kathryn Hunter in a co-production with the Young Vic and Theatre de Ville; and A Pacifist's Guide to the War on Cancer created and directed by Bryony Kimmings. The new season will also feature a double bill including Late Night Love, a new production by Eggs Collective, and Gutted, created by Liz Richardson and Tara Robinson. On the new season, artistic director Walter Meierjohann said: "Following our success in 2015, we look forward to presenting some of the most distinctive companies, directors and writers working in the international arts scene today... I think audiences have a lot to look forward to." If youve ever wondered what Robbie Fowlers Id-literally-rather-be-anywhere-else face looks like then wonder no longer! The former Liverpool striker was on hand to help shore up a fantastic new commercial partnership for his old club. After all these years being forced to go without, the Reds can finaly boast about having their very own official coconut water provider. According to The Sun, Liverpool have struck a deal with Thai coconut water-mongers Chaokah (or more specifically their parent company, Theppadungporn Coconut Co.) that, among assorted other corporate benefits, will see the clubs badge appear on special branded packaging later in the year. A company statement said: Theppadungporn aims to become the global brand after pioneering Thailands coconut milk industry for more than 40 years. We have been the leader in the coconut-based food and milk products industry in Thailand for more than four decades. It is the right and proper occasion to turn to the global brand. Who could argue with that? As well as being naturally low in calories and entirely cholesterol-free, Chaokah is supposedly an excellent hang-over cure great news for Mr Fowler, who looks like he could use a couple of stiff ones. Coconut milk can boost ones immune system. Its full of lauric acid which has great antiviral and anti-bacterial properties. :) #chaokoh Chaokoh (@Chaokohcoconut) July 24, 2011 So there. Suggested further reading Manchester Uniteds Mind-Boggling Array Of Sponsorship Deals Its easy to see growing old as a negative thing. Our body changes in so many different ways, and we arent able to do what we once could. However, as difficult as it may be, a positive attitude towards aging is extremely important. If you Police said that crime mapping and strict surveillance led to the prevention of crimes. (Representational Image) Hyderabad: Chain snatching cases dropped sharply in Hyderabad to just six last month from 41 cases a year ago. Other crimes like attention diversion, vehicle thefts, ordinary thefts and daytime house burglaries also dropped by 70 per cent. Police said that crime mapping and strict surveillance led to the prevention of crimes. The police focused on nine categories of offences like automobile thefts, dacoity, attention diversion, house burglary (day), house burglary (night), murder for gain, theft, pseudo police, robbery and chain snatching. Joint commissioner of police Dr T. Prabhakar Rao told DC that a most of the property offences were automobile thefts and ordinary thefts. An estimated 1,419 automobile thefts were registered in 2013 followed by 1,437 in 2014 and 1,105 in 2015. To prevent this we have increased surveillance by deploying plain cloth teams at places where automobile thefts were being registered regularly. We got good results. Chain snatching has also come down after crime-mapping surveillance,: he said. About public participation, the joint CP said the crime team held meetings with colony associations. The CCTV project is being run successfully. Apart from it, the colonies, where major crimes were registered earlier, have been provided gates. From 10 pm to 5 am only a single entry and exit will be allowed in these colonies, he said. Meanwhile, good results have been reported by the First Response Command Control (FRCC) programme launched last year by the Cyberabad police. Under FRCC, police can reach crime spots in 10 minutes. The police has been deploying patrol vehicles, 21 interceptor vehicles and 190 Blue Colt teams in crime prone areas. Each interceptor vehicle is headed by an SI or an ASI and the Blue Colts are run by local teams. These vehicles visit each and every locality including small streets round the clock. An official source from Cyberabad said that about 6,000 patrol points were identified after crime-mapping. Each interceptor visits a point every hour and Blue Colt bikes visit all points every half-an-hour. The FRCC staff works in three shifts and vehicles under this programme travel nearly 25,000 km a day, the source said. Cyberabad police commissioner C.V. Anand told DC that in order to prevent chain snatching, the FRCC teams were being deployed at temples day-wise Saturdays at Venkateswara Swamy temples, Fridays at Laxmi temples and Thursdays at Baba temples. District in-charge ministers Vinay Kumar Sorake and Ramanath Rai are having to bear the brunt of the local leaders anger at the Congress partys failure to capture the Udupi and Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayats. While the Congress managed to win four seats more than in the last election in Dakshina Kannada, it lost three more seats in Udupi. In both districts the party continues to be in the opposition in the Zilla Panchayats. "In Udupi, the election was led by Sorake. He did not field a Muslim, but chose a candidate from a fishermens community for a Muslim dominated area. The unhappiness among Muslims was clearly visible when the BJP won the Shiroor ZP seat, where they are in large number," said a senior Congress leader. "In Brahmavar and Kota the party lost two ZP seats because of the Jayaprakash Hegde factor. The party did not field Shankar Kunder, a strong Congress leader in Kota, as he was Hegde's supporter. This adversely affected it not only in Kota but also Brahmavar," he added. While acknowledging that four of the six ZP seats the Congress won in Udupi, were from Mr Sorakes constituency, a party leader said, "It is true that Rai and Sorake have succeeded in getting seats for the Congress in their home constituencies, but they are in-charge of the districts as a whole and have not delivered in this role . They failed to listen to party workers and strengthen the party. When things are not well organised how can a party win an election?" Chennai: PMKs chief ministerial candidate Dr Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday accused DMK and AIADMK of indulging in mudslinging against each other with former releasing an hard hitting advertisement for second consecutive day while the ruling partys supporters responded with stinging memes on social media. After releasing a music CD containing six election campaign songs here, Dr Anbumani said that DMK had released its second advertisement hitting out at AIADMK government alleging illegal sand mining, Aavin milk scam and unemployment. DMK is trying to pretend as if they had done nothing wrong. Both the Dravidian parties are responsible for present state of affairs in state. Whether it is illegal sand mining or Aavin milk scam, both the parties are hand in glove to it, he said. After Chief Minister Jayalalithaa nationalised river sand mining in 2003, the DMK that came to power subsequently followed the same policy, he said, noting that in both their tenures, the same contractor was allowed to operate the mines. A unit of sand procured at Rs 674 was sold to consumers at a price of Rs 7,000, he pointed out. As far as Aavin milk scam is concerned, he said that CBCID police arrested Vaidyanathan, whose vehicle was hired for transport of milk from Tiruvannamalai to Madhavaram, after scam came to light. Mr Vaidyanathan got a contract for transporting milk during the AIADMK regime in 2001-06 for 10 vehicles, it was later expanded to 104 vehicles in DMK rule, he said, added that in each vehicle, they will pilfer out 2,000 litres of milk and replaces it with water. Alleging that both the parties are responsible for the huge increase in unemployment, PMK leader said that number of unemployment persons had gone up from 41.87 lakh in 2006 to 73.95 lakh in 2011 during the previous DMK regime and it had further increased to 86 lakh in the present AIADMK government. People are well aware that both the parties that ruled alternatively for the past five decades were responsible for all the problems faced by them. They will reject them in this election, he said. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Anyone whos seen the hilarious, what-the-heck trailer for this Egyptian-themed extravaganza knows theres a good chance it will be bad. The real question is whether its boring bad or fun bad. It turns out to be mostly fun bad. Gods of Egypt takes innocent pleasure in its bizarre mythological universe and insanely oversized B-movie tropes, while avoiding any descent into winking camp. Silly but somehow touchingly sincere, this defiant throwback mixes up old 1940s Saturday-afternoon serials, Indiana Jones flicks, Disney cartoons and Ray Harryhausen adventures such as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Scripters Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama (The Last Witch Hunter) and director Alex Proyas (Dark City) also throw in about two centuries of the Wests most deranged Egyptological fantasies. In this primeval Egyptian paradise, the gods still live among their human subjects, though they are about three times taller than mortals and possess rather divine bone structure. Benevolent ruler Osiris (Bryan Brown) is about to pass the crown to his son Horus (Game of Thrones Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a party boy who plans to make good. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau: party on, dude Unfortunately, Osiriss brother Set (Gerard Butler), whos been brooding out in the desert, stops by with an unwelcome coronation present. Soon, the murderous Set has killed many of his fellow gods and enslaved most of Egypts mortals in mad building schemes. The blinded and weakened Horus languishes in exile. This dismal situation will be challenged by Bek (Brenton Thwaites), a likable young street thief whos basically a live-action version of Disneys Aladdin. His gal is stranded in the underworld, and Bek makes a deal to aid Horus if the god will help him get her back. The two may be mismatched size-wise, lifespan-wise but they head out to reclaim Horuss crown. There are nonsensical but mostly diverting detours involving talking water buffaloes and giant sand cobras and booby-trapped pyramids. Director Proyas was born in Alexandria, Egypt, before his family relocated to Australia, but this is an Egypt of the imagination. Practically every scene in Gods of Egypt was shot against a green screen. Fortunately, Proyass attitude to CGI is healthy. Hes not mustering all these computer-generated special effects to strain for realness. Hes enjoying the heck out of their flagrant fakery and he want us to enjoy it, too. Within this elaborately artificial world, the cast really commits, refusing to phone it in or ham it up. Troupers all, they might be dreaming about doing Shakespeare in Londons West End, but you wouldnt know it. Geoffrey Rush, for example, plays Ra, who lives on an Egyptian spaceship, telescopes up to be two storeys high and regularly bursts into sacred flames. His drama school training holds up, even in a bad movie. Maybe especially in a bad movie. GODS OF EGYPT As with the recent ancient Egyptian epic Exodus: Gods and Kings, there could be charges of racial whitewashing. Its tricky to raise the issue of historically realistic casting in a movie that features flying chariots pulled by scarab beetles and four-metre-tall gods who bleed gold. The problem here is just Hollywoods usual lack of diversity: the Egyptian populace may be multicultural, but the marquee players are mostly white English, Scottish, Australian and Danish guys who talk posh. With a running time of two hours, Gods of Egypts enthusiastic, over-the-top kookiness eventually overstays its welcome. By all means, call up the old days, but remember that back in 1946 this kind of goofy genre feature would have clocked in at 74 minutes. alison.gillmor@freepress.mb.ca If you value coverage of Manitobas arts scene, help us do more. Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project. Gods of Egypt Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Jamie Saulniers construction company has done lots of work in the north, and hes gone out of his way to hire indigenous workers long before that was considered the socially and morally responsible thing to do, never mind a contractual obligation. Hes encountered many peers whove wanted to do the same thing but did not know where to look or how to address the issues. Hes also seen the barriers to entering the workplace many indigenous workers face in trying to get a job both those who are otherwise qualified and those eager to work and gain skills and experience. As well as operating his own construction company with partners through his Running Deer group of companies, it has developed a reputation for doing aboriginal community engagement services for resource and construction companies. BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jamie Saulnier has launched Working Warriors, an online project to help employers find qualified aboriginal workers. This week the group launched an ambitious online project called Working Warriors (workingwarriors.ca), the goal of which is nothing short of building a national skills inventory including every First Nation in the country. We believe Canada is in need of a national strategy for engagement between industry and indigenous people, said Saulnier, who hardly gives himself time to breathe with so many things to say. Industry sees what they are missing. But they are not engagement companies. Theyre construction companies or engineering companies or whatever they are. Companies need to know where to look, and First Nation communities need to organize to be able to take advantage of opportunities for community members to get work and for the community to engage with a private-sector company that might happen to be operating in their region. The communities need to develop readiness strategies, he said. The site lets individuals, communities and companies register and would be the go-to location for companies looking for indigenous workers and for those looking for work. A pilot project has been launched in New Brunswick in partnership with the provincially funded Joint Economic Development Initiative to do community profiles of all the First Nations in that province. Saulnier, and his partners, including the marketing and branding company Modern Clan, want to get the same project online in Manitoba. To date, Saulnier has funded the development of proprietary software and the website on his own. Were from the rez, this was a no-brainer for us, said Derek McCorrister, a partner in Modern Clan. We really think this is going to take off. Dwayne Bird, another Modern Clan partner, said, Working Warrior is about eliminating excuses for industry and government not to be able to recruit an indigenous workforce. But to do the project right it also includes the creation of the National Association of Indigenous Workers it will mean having someone in every First Nation. Preliminary discussions have begun with some provincial officials, and Saulnier is hoping hell be able to take advantage of any calls for proposals from the newly minted Liberal government in Ottawa after its budget in March. To fully cover Manitoba, it will likely be a $2-million to $5-million project. Diane Carriere of Norway House founded the Canadian Aboriginal Human Resource Management Association. Her organization is also a partner in Working Warrior. She believes its the best model yet to be tried. She said, One pillar that is missing in almost any community is a human resource structure. For our communities to be prepared for all the opportunities that come their way, they have to build one and know how to utilize it, and companies need to know there is an HR function there. We believe Canada is in need of a national strategy for engagement between industry and indigenous people Jamie Saulnier Don Courchene, chief of staff of the Southern Chiefs Organization, which represents 31 Manitoba First Nations, said he often gets calls from contractors asking how to connect with First Nation communities something that did not happen much 10 or 15 years ago. Courchene said it is still very disheartening to see how few indigenous faces are in mainstream workplaces, and he worries there is still much lip service when it comes to employers expressing interest in engaging with First Nations and then only making the low-end positions available even after training indigenous people for higher-skilled positions. But we believe the Working Warriors project is a very good idea, Courchene said. We want our people to get jobs. Jamie has been very open in developing this project. More Canadian companies whether they are working in the resource sector close to traditional lands or mainstream businesses that employ people in urban centres are instituting diversity and inclusion strategies into their operations. Working Warrior would help connect employers with potential indigenous candidates for openings that need to be filled. Manitoba Telecom Systems is one. When it was building its $53-million data centre that opened last fall, Saulnier wrote to MTS inquiring about how to get job-ready indigenous workers onto the construction site and succeeded in getting more than a dozen workers on the job. We were really excited when Running Deer reached out to us, said Marvin Boakye, chief human resources officer with MTS. Companies such as CN Rail and Great-West Life are trying to do the same thing. Theyve contracted with Amik.ca, a job-placement agency that specializes in placing indigenous workers. EJ Fontaine, the CEO of Amik, said, I think there is lots of room in the market for a service like that (Working Warrior) that helps our people get employment. The more the better. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 24/02/2016 (2431 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. TORONTO The first time Jack Hunter realized that seeing wasnt really believing was about eight years ago, as he was sitting in his Toronto apartment reading and caught a flicker of movement across the room. There, before his eyes, he beheld a woman cleaning the floor. All I could see was the profile of a woman standing there and one hand was going in and out negotiating the broom she was either sweeping or mopping the floor and I thought What the heck is this? Jack Hunter, who has Charles Bonnet syndrome which is a condition that causes hallucinations due to low vision, poses for a photo in Toronto on Wednesday, February 24, 2016. A new study finds that one in five Canadians with vision loss who were surveyed experience such visual hallucinations which may include seeing images of shapes, animals as well as people. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michelle Siu And the more I tried to turn my head to see, I saw less of it. And if I really looked hard, it disappeared altogether. Hunter, an ex-cop from Scotland who emigrated to Canada 50 years ago and spent 35 years as a private detective investigating copyright infringement, isnt one given to flights of fancy. So he was more intrigued than alarmed. I wouldnt say I was afraid. I was a wee bit concerned, said the 77-year-old, who has lost sight in his left eye and has about 30 per cent vision in his right eye, the result of age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma. At a scheduled appointment the next day, Hunter described the apparition to his ophthalmologist, who assured him such hallucinations were common among people with severe vision loss and he shouldnt worry. Hunter later discovered his condition had a medical designation Charles Bonnet syndrome (pronounced bone-AY), named for the Swiss naturalist who first documented it in 1760 in his grandfather. The 89-year-old, who was nearly blind from cataracts, described seeing people, birds, carriages and buildings that didnt exist. About one in five people with low vision experience Charles Bonnet syndrome, said Keith Gordon, vice-president of research at the CNIB, whose study on the conditions prevalence among about 2,500 patients seen at the Toronto centre is published in the current issue of the Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology. But what was alarming to Gordon was how little awareness there seemed to be about the syndrome, both among medical professionals and the general public. That dearth of knowledge can harm affected patients because many believe the hallucinations are caused by dementia or mental illness, he discovered while interviewing 35 subjects in a subsequent study. A lot of them said they would not tell people about it because they were afraid to admit that they were going crazy, Gordon said. I think people need reassurance that theyre not going crazy and what theyre suffering from isnt a form of dementia. Dr. Dominic Ffytche of Kings College London, one of the worlds foremost experts on Charles Bonnet syndrome, said the hallucinations are caused by hyperexcitability of neurons in parts of the brain that process visual images. So brain cells are firing when they shouldnt be (and) that leads to the hallucinations, Ffytche, a clinical senior lecturer in old age psychiatry, said Wednesday from London. Our visual brains are working all the time to decode what were seeing in front of us, whether thats a face or an object. Its not a reliving of a visual experience that youve seen in the real world. People with Charles Bonnet commonly describe similar types of images: geometric patterns like brick walls, birds and animals, gargoyle-like faces, and people dressed in elaborate Edwardian- or Victorian-era costumes or military uniforms. Napoleonic soldiers are a common sight. We dont know why that is, but the assumption is theres a bit of the brain processing, maybe figure-perception, that when it fires off, it gives you a sense that there are figures in an old-fashioned costume, said Ffytche. Unlike hallucinations related to dementia or some mental illnesses, those caused by Charles Bonnet syndrome do not have an auditory component, he added. Its like a silent movie, but they can have internal motion. They could be dancing or moving around or walking, for example. Gordon said one woman saw little men holding umbrellas sitting on the end of her bed. Another described ranks of soldiers marching down the street. Some people like it, some are afraid and others hate it, said Gordon, noting that hallucinations can last from seconds to minutes and often occur a couple of times a day, sometimes for months, sometimes for years. Some are prepared to live with it and others just want to get rid of it. There are no drugs that will banish the delusions, but Gordon said adjusting ones lighting and rapidly blinking or repeatedly moving the direction of ones gaze can make them disappear, at least temporarily. The CNIB has a pamphlet explaining Charles Bonnet syndrome, which clients are asked to take to their primary-care doctor. They are also encouraged to have their physician confirm that the hallucinations are related to eye disease or conditions like stroke that affect visual pathways in the brain not Parkinsons or another neurological condition. As for Hunter, he can no longer read or drive a vehicle but at least his experience with Charles Bonnet has been visually rich. Towering castles where there was only an empty field and park; a young girl wearing a red dress with a big bow on the back, holding out her arms to someone; a man wearing khaki shorts and sandals, reading a broadsheet newspaper; and a fly that appeared inside his TV that flew out into his living room, became a bird, a bat, then a flock of flying birds before morphing into a brilliant red and blue cockatoo sitting on a tree branch. I find it very, very interesting, he said. And theyre so clear. One day in his apartment, he saw three ladies with grey hair, all of them wearing long dresses from the late 1800s or something, who appeared to be polishing furniture. One of them was up a ladder, reaching up to do some task. Hunter has no idea why its these kinds of objects and figures that appear to him, and he knows his friends are often incredulous when he describes these visual companions that come and go in the blink of an eye. And that can include some good-natured ribbing. My friend says to me, Do you ever see anyone in a mini skirt? Unfortunately, Ive not been that lucky. Follow @SherylUbelacker on Twitter. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 24/02/2016 (2431 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA Senators hoping for details of the Trudeau governments plans to transform their much-maligned parliamentary chamber have been told effectively that its a work in progress. Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef and government House leader Dominic LeBlanc were grilled by senators late Wednesday at a meeting of the Senates rules committee. Senators wanted to know how their partisan chamber is supposed to operate without a government leader in the Senate, how theyre supposed to hold the government to account, whether the government will appoint a whip and, if not, who will assume the duties normally assigned to that person. Monsef and LeBlanc acknowledged some matters have not yet been worked out. But in some instances, they said its up to senators themselves to figure out how to change their rules and procedures to accommodate the new reality: a Senate which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is determined to transform into a non-partisan, independent chamber of sober second thought. The government has created an arms-length advisory board which is supposed to recommend potential nominees for appointment to the Senate, based on merit not partisanship. And it has established a two-phase process for filling vacancies in the upper house 23 of them at the moment with another seat due to fall empty within days. In the first phase, the advisory board is to recommend nominees to fill five vacancies, one of which will be named government representative in the Senate. In the second phase, the board will refine its selection process, including accepting applications from ordinary Canadians, to fill the remaining vacancies by the end of the year. LeBlanc said the government representative will facilitate getting government legislation through the Senate. But whether the representative will be answerable for the government during the Senates daily question period as the government Senate leader has traditionally been remains to be seen. In the absence of a government leader in the chamber, LeBlanc noted that cabinet ministers have begun appearing, at a rate of one a week, for half-hour question periods in the Senate. Once a government representative has been named, he suggested some hybrid system for questioning the government could be developed. Conservative Sen. Denise Batters noted that there have so far been 12 sitting days in which senators have had no opportunity to question anyone connected to the government. I think its subverting democracy not to allow us to ask tough questions for Canadians to hold the Trudeau government to account through Senate question period, she said. On the question of whether the government will appoint a Senate whip, who would ordinarily ensure that members of a partisan caucus vote according to the party line, LeBlanc said thats not decided but it would seem to contradict the aim of reducing partisanship in the Senate. He suggested a deputy government representative could take on other duties normally carried out by the whip, like assigning offices and parking spots. Conservative Sen. David Tkachuk betrayed some frustration with the lack of precise answers. It seems to me that the two of you should know all this, he said. This is a very unique experiment, I must say. But in the end, were going to have a for-government (caucus) and were going to have an against (government caucus), no matter what were called, its going to be a partisan parliamentary system in this place. LeBlanc disputed that assertion but conceded some of the hoped-for transformation depends on senators themselves. He urged senators to propose amendments to the Parliament of Canada Act, which would be required to change rules and procedures that are all based on having partisan caucuses in the Senate. Monsef said the first transitional phase of the new appointment process was intended to allow the government to learn from the experience, iron out any kinks and improve the process. She urged senators to share their thoughts on potential improvements. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Any doubt that the provincial election campaign hasnt already begun was erased this morning as the provinces health minister called reporters to NDP party headquarters on Portage Avenue to lambaste Tory Leader Brian Pallister while the legislature was sitting. While her colleagues in the legislative chamber were debating public bills and an Opposition motion on agriculture, Sharon Blady accused Pallister of wanting to change political party financing rules that would allow the rich to buy democracy. Her remarks were sparked by answers to media questions posed to Pallister on Wednesday. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Brian Pallister's plan to change party financing rules has been attacked by the NDP. Pallister said, if his party forms government, he would review rules governing political party financing in Manitoba. He added, however, that it was not on our radar to open the door once again to corporate and union donations, as the NDP has accused him. Frankly, the most substantial plan hes got so far is not on anything like health care or anything that matters to working Manitobans, but its how he can basically sell democracy to his wealthy friends with deep pockets, Blady said. His plan is about putting democracy in the hands of the one per cent. The Tories have long promised to eliminate a subsidy the NDP government introduced several years ago that funds political parties based largely on how many votes they received in the two most recent elections. The Conservatives have never accepted the money which they have termed a vote tax while the NDP and Liberals have. The subsidy was introduced after the NDP government banned corporate and union donations and limited individual donations to $3,000 per year. Pallister said the Tories would look at possible changes to political party financing, including raising the individual donor limit and possibly reviewing rules governing advertising by lobby groups. He said any changes would follow consultation with other political parties. Blady said the fact that Pallister is willing to open the door to the possibility that the wealthy could have a greater say in democracy, based on their bank accounts, is a problem. She also took a swipe at the Opposition leaders personal wealth. Not all of us have seven-car garages and property in Costa Rica, she said of Pallister. Some of us actually work for a living. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Winnipeg medical-marijuana patients hailed a federal court ruling that struck down arbitrary and overbroad legislation from the former Conservative government banning Canadian medical pot users from growing their own weed. And the one company in Winnipeg with a federal licence to supply medical marijuana indicated the ruling wont affect it, at least not in the short term. The citys most vocal advocate for medical-marijuana rights said even without knowing whether Ottawa will appeal the ruling, he couldnt contain his delight. BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Advocate for medical marijuana Steven Stairs, who has glaucoma, smokes up in his garage Wednesday. Im super-excited, very elated. We won as far as Im concerned, Steven Stairs said. The courts have said we have a right to access, that eliminating our right to grow was unconstitutional. Judge Michael Phelan found the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, which required patients to buy from licensed producers, violated their charter rights. In a written federal court ruling issued Wednesday in Vancouver, Phelan suspended the decision to strike down the law for six months, allowing the federal Liberal government time to create a new medical-marijuana regime. I agree that the plaintiffs have demonstrated that cannabis can be produced safely and securely with limited risk to public safety and consistently with the promotion of public health, the judge ruled. Their lives have been adversely impacted by the imposition of the relatively new regime to control the use of marijuana for medical purposes, Phelan wrote. A lawyer who represents some of the private companies in the budding industry said the ruling is not unexpected. Theyre not going to see a mass exodus of customers, said Trina Fraser, a partner with the Ottawa Brazeau Seller law firm who specializes in helping companies apply for federal licences to cultivate medical marijuana. The importance that those licensed producers place on the future is the recreational market, she said. All the people really that were going to grow it at home were doing it anyway under the injunction that had been granted over a year ago in the Allard case, Fraser said. The constitutional challenge was launched by four British Columbia residents who argued the 2013 legislation blocked their access to affordable medicine. One of them was Neil Allard, whose name became the shorthand reference for the case. There are a thousand questions that spin out of this decision. But what it boils down to, as this decision stands, is there will be a right to cultivate, to some degree, for medical-use purposes, Fraser said. Delta 9 Bio Tech, the one private company in Winnipeg that cultivates and distributes marijuana under a federal licence, has seen its client list more than triple in the last year, despite the Allard court proceedings. Delta 9 produces 30 varieties of marijuana ranging from $5 to $10 a gram for licensed medical patients; the client list has jumped to 1,200 from about 300 in the last year, suggesting many patients dont want to grow their own pot. Some 70 per cent of the client list also vapes their pot through a vapourizer Delta 9 sells. The company touts its subsidies for low-income clients. They amounted to $150,000 in discounts in the last year. Immediately, I dont think this has any implications on our business, our patients, our physicians. Were business as usual, Delta 9 vice-president John Arbuthnot said. Health Canada told industry growers its reviewing the decision and expects to issue guidance in the very near future, Arbuthnot said. Ottawa had yet to say publicly Wednesday whether the government will appeal the ruling. Meanwhile, the Winnipeg company isnt ruling out an eventual expansion to the recreational-marijuana market. At Delta 9 Bio Tech, we are focused on the medical side. We obviously are positioning, and exploring the opportunities that may be presented by legalization. We will certainly look to move into that market when it presents itself, as appropriate, Arbuthnot said. Phelan also extended a court injunction allowing people who held licences to grow their own marijuana to continue until a further court order. That order includes Stairs and approximately 200 medical-marijuana users in the province with licences to grow their own pot. Across Canada, 30,000 of the 40,000 registered medical-marijuana patients hold grow licences that were hanging on the decision in Vancouver. The only real concern I have now is the Liberal government and its intentions regarding their legalization efforts and incorporating this court decision into that model, Stairs said. Theyve been given six months to respond and come up with a plan, so lets hope with the consultations they have going on right now in the Senate, maybe theyll take this as a stepping stone, a push in the right direction, Stairs said. The Liberals have committed to regulating and legalizing recreational marijuana but have said little about any plans for medical marijuana since being elected. with files from The Canadian Press alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 24/02/2016 (2431 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The Waverley underpass will be built. City council voted 15-1 Wednesday to approve the $155-million project and include it in this years budget. Only Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt voted against the project. BORIS MINKEVICH/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES An underpass at Waverley Street will cost an estimated $155 million. While several councillors expressed concerns with the project and whether others should be constructed before it, they put those concerns aside to support it. There were many concerns with the process and the lack of information coming forward, said Coun. Devi Sharma, who removed herself as council speaker for the debate on the issue so she could comment on it. The fiscal magnitude of the project is enormous and for that reason and given the budget situation we are in it is important we assess our expenditures carefully. However, Sharma (Old Kildonan) said she recognized the importance of the project to the residents of south Winnipeg and, with assurances that the process will be improved, she said she would support it. Other councillors, including Ross Eadie and Cindy Gilroy, expressed similar concerns but also said they would support the project. The outcome was a positive one for Mayor Brian Bowman. At the end of the day, there was very strong support for the Waverley underpass and Im very pleased with that, Bowman said following the meeting. I think the discussion and debate we had over the last number of weeks and months was healthy. Were always looking for ways to improve our processes and I think you saw that with this project. The project had been trumpeted at a news conference in July, where then Conservative MP Joyce Bateman said Ottawa would be fund it. Municipal minister Drew Caldwell said the province was also behind the project. But controversy swirled around the project only recently, spurred on by the creation of the Jean Charest rail line relocation task force and a local consultant, who questioned how the project had been selected as the citys top priority. The Waverley underpass had been ranked 20th on the citys Transportation Master Plan between 2011 and 2013, which envisioned it wouldnt be needed until 2021. However, the administration moved it in 2014 to the top six and then, in 2015, rated it as the citys most pressing transportation infrastructure project. Council endorsed the number-one rating a year ago and Wednesdays vote re-affirmed that endorsement. Wyatt (Transcona) said city hall could be wasting $155 million if the Charest task force recommends removing train traffic from the CN Rivers line, which would make the underpass unnecessary. Consultant Ken Klassen strongly criticized the administration for failing to conduct a traditional cost/benefit analysis and instead assessed the project based on a series of criteria that Klassen described as unusual and not done by any other level of government. CAO Doug McNeil had dismissed the criticism, saying the project shouldnt be measured only on a dollars-and-cents approach, adding the underpass has merits that cant be measured that way. McNeil appears to have little faith in the Charest task force. He said earlier that rail line relocation is unlikely to occur because the city will never be able to compensate the railroads and the city shouldnt delay projects for recommendations that are unlikely to be ever implemented. Wyatt said he remains troubled about the administrations assessment methodology. Its very subjective, very questionable and to do it without a cost/benefit analysis seems to be problematic, Wyatt said. Coun. Marty Morantz, who always supported the project, said the construction of the Kenaston underpass almost 10 years ago triggered a great deal of development along south Kenaston and he expects the Waverley underpass will have the same impact in that area. aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca Hyderabad: Maintaining that "BJP is his first and last party", disgruntled MP Shatrughan Sinha on Wednesdday berated party leaders from Bihar for suggesting that he quit his Lok Sabha membership in the wake of his critical comments about affairs of the saffron outfit. The septuagenarian actor-politician said he has the highest regard for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Who is saying this, those who are responsible for the humiliating defeat in Bihar. Those who themselves are on their way out, those who are not able to show their faces. They are only giving vent to their frustration," he said. Such leaders should look their own credentials first, he told reporters here. "Let them look at their own credentials. They have made such a humiliating defeat. Who is the leader there? I feel some people, may be some small people are saying this. Bharatiya Janata Party is my first and last party," he said. The MP from Patna Sahib was replying to a query on the remarks of some BJP leaders in Bihar that Mr Sinha should quit his Lok Sabha membership over his critical comments. "I have never ever gone against my party, against the Constitution. I never ever gone against my nation. I love my motherland. I am a very proud Indian. I have full faith in the Constitution. I have highest regard for our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But, certain things which have happened, I wish, hope and pray that good sense will prevail upon our people and peace would return. "This chaotic situation we are going through, without blaming anyone, we only hope, sooner the better, the country would again be put back on the peace...," he said. When told he appeared to have earlier supported JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested on sedition charge, Mr Sinha said he had spoken on the issue when it was not sub-judice and on the basis of material available to him then. "...we have the highest regard for judiciary. Let the judiciary decide (the case involving Kumar)," he said. Sinha was speaking on the sidelines of an event where his biography "Anything but Khamosh" was launched. Actor-turned-politician and former Union Minister Chiranjeevi, Malayalam superstar Mohanlal, Telugu actor Mohan Babu spoke on the occasion. The event was organised by Congress leader T Subbirami Reddy. No foul play is suspected in a man found dead near a car crash in Buffalo County last week. Jesus Crisobal Sanchez Quiahua, 20, a local farm laborer from Mexico, was located in a field about 100 yards off of County Highway K in the town of Nelson on Feb. 17, said Buffalo County Sheriff Mike Schmidtknecht. A brother and co-workers discovered his body after searching an area where Sanchez Quiahuas car was found abandoned. The car had gone off the roadway. Schmidtknecht said Sanchez Quiahua had been at a tavern in Urne, Wis., and was believed to have run off the road on Highway K late night on Feb. 16. No foul play was suspected, Schmidtknecht said. There were no obvious injuries to the body, which was found up to half a mile away from the accident scene around noon on the 17th. Schmidtknecht said it was cold the night of the accident. Temperature dipped to 10 degrees, and Schmidtknecht said Sanchez Quiahua was not dressed to be out in the cold for long. Alcohol was believed to be a contributing factor in both the crash and death. Schmidtknecht said the incident would remain an open investigation until investigators can see autopsy results. A county judge has blocked Wabasha County from continuing its driver diversion program, a system used in more than 30 cities and counties across Minnesota that has created windfalls for county law enforcement agencies. District Judge James A. Fabian ruled that the program is illegal something Wabasha County commissioner Deb Roschen and others have maintained for many months and ordered Wabasha County to stop the class. The program, which was believed to be the first in the state, gave drivers the option of enrolling in a safe-driving class instead of paying a ticket for a violation. The class generally cost less than a ticket, the violation didnt go on drivers records and it gave drivers a refresher on safe driving. It was also highly praised by participants surveyed as part of the class. Wabasha County Sheriff Rodney Bartsh said the county will stop the program, as the judge ordered. Were really disappointed. We certainly felt we were in the right doing what we were doing, Bartsh said. Plaintiffs attorney Erick Kaardal said in a statement: It took ordinary citizens to show extraordinary courage to fight law enforcement officials including the County Attorneys Office to stop them from breaking the law. Bartsh came up with the idea as he watched ticket prices and insurance prices increase over recent years. It was too much punishment for drivers who had made relatively minor mistakes, he said. So after approval from the Wabasha County attorney and a county judge, he launched the program in 2003. Since, Wabasha County has put 4,500 motorists through its program and has been able to purchase a number of items handguns, a snowplow and 16 squad cars with the $450,000 or so collected from the class. After the program started, the Minnesota State Auditors Office told the county it didnt have the legal right to continue it. The county attorney disagreed as did many other county sheriffs and attorneys who had launched similar programs. Since the Auditors Office didnt have the authority to stop the program, only lobby the state Legislature to change the statute, the county kept the class running. In 2013, commissioner Roschen and a former commissioner took the issue to court, where the Houston County judge ruled Monday. Bartsh said he was surprised by the judges decision and is sad to see the class go. Our citizens are the ones that lost and are the ones that will be upset, he said. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said the state auditor's office had proposed allowing counties to continue running the programs in exchange for providing a third of the money to the state. The auditor's office has not made any such proposal. Steve Pincus and his wife, Beth Kazmar, relish being organic farmers in Wisconsin, with its firmly-rooted reputation as second only to California in that growing field. Although the couple from Evansville, near Madison, contend that organic farming is reward enough for their dedication and work, they will experience another fruit of their labors when they are named Organic Farmers of the Year during the annual MOSES Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse tonight. The award recognizes organic farmers in the U.S. who practice outstanding land stewardship, innovation and outreach. The Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service Conference, which begins today with its daylong Organic University at the La Crosse Center, is expected to draw more than 3,400 organic farmers, advocates, vendors and other interests to 65 workshops, and more than 170 vendors through Saturday. Pincus and Kazmar run Tipi Produce, a 76-acre organic farm near Evansville, certified organic since 2001. They and their workers not only grow vegetables for food co-ops in Madison and Milwaukee but also have nearly 500 community supported agriculture members who receive produce boxes weekly through the farms CSA program from April to November. The Tipi label has a history, tracing back to when Pincus actually lived in a tipi, a variation of the word tepee, although some might argue that tipi is closer to its origins among Native Americans. Im kind of glad we went with Tipi, because it gets more notice, Pincus said. Asked how the tipi life was, he said, Well, it was cold in the winter, but I was in my 20s and adventurous. Now, we live in a house, with indoor plumbing, Kazmar said, laughing. Pincus, who has farmed organically for 40 years, first connected with farmers as co-founder and manager of Outpost Natural Foods in Milwaukee. His first farm was near Gays Mills in southwest Wisconsin. When he decided to earn a degree in horticulture, he rented a 20-acre farm near Madison and sold vegetables at the Dane County Farmers Market while he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That is where he met Kazmar, who was a plant pathology researcher, and the two married in 1999. Organic farming is a cooperative movement, and Wisconsin is really a hot spot, Pincus said. It is people who are looking to the future, to make life better. It created my life. Evidence of Wisconsins toehold in the movement is the fact that the number of certified organic farms in the Badger State has nearly doubled since 2005, reaching nearly 1,300 by 2013, according to the USDAs National Organic Program. That compares with about 3,000 such enterprises in California, NOP figures indicate. The couple carefully cultivated the farms soil to produce nutrient-rich organic produce before they planted a single vegetable. The started with cover crops such as clover and buckwheat to suppress weeds and build up soil fertility. It took five or six years before we really felt this land was working as an organic farm, Pincus said. It was worth the wait, Kazmar said, adding, We can see the organic matter digesting faster. That is telling us that there is more biological life in the soil. Tipi workers plant strips of cover crops to revitalize soil after growing vegetables. Pincus and Kazmar have added poultry manure, compost and maple leaves to build up one of their fields where the previous farmer had grown corn year after year, which saps soil fertility. They plant typical annual vegetables such as asparagus, spinach and radishes in the spring; harvest crops such as tomatoes, melons, corn and other warm-weather during the summer, and root crops in the fall. We put interesting smaller crops into our CSA packages, such as ginger, herbs and pumpkins, Kazmar said. Officials with MOSES, which is headquartered in Spring Valley, Wis., cited the couples commitment to organic soil-building as one of the reasons they selected the couple. Another reason was their dedication to nurturing the next generation of organic farmers, with a loyal crew of farmhands and whom they pay a living wage. One of the proud legacies of our farm is the many young people that weve encouraged, that have started their own farms, Kazmar said. They also have shared their farming experience with other organic farmers through field days and at conferences, and they have conducted many research projects on their farm in cooperation with University of Wisconsin researchers. Pincus and Kazmar have two children, 16-year-old Sophie and 13-year-old Ari. Asked whether they expect the children to take up the plow, Kazmar said, The kids say no because they see us working all of the time, although she expressed hope that they will become more interested as time passes. For the Democrats, Independents and disaffected Republicans who will attending the Democratic caucuses on March 1, I offer four reasons to support Hillary Clinton. First, as her Secretary of State experience indicates, she is easily the most qualified candidate to take on the foreign policy challenges confronting presidents. With all the complexity in the world, I dont think we want a newbie learning on the job. Instead, it is best to have a foreign-policy professional, like Clinton, ready to go from day one of her presidency. Second, as president, she would be the first woman. This is a big deal. Just as the election of Barack Obama as the first black president has presumably moved the country forward, so would the election of Clinton as the first woman president to help combat the sexism that plagues this country. Third, she is deeply progressive in her politics. For examples: She favors economic fairness for all Americans, she will fight tooth and nail to protect the reproductive rights of women, she demands equal protection and voting rights for people of color, immigrants, and gay and transgender people, she promotes effective climate change policies, and unlike her opponent, Bernie Sanders, she promotes tough gun-control laws. Fourth, she is the only authentic Democrat running. As a Democrat, Clinton has been promoting progressive Democratic policies for decadesremember when she crafted a far-reaching health care plan in the early 1990s? Sanders, by contrast, only recently joined the Democratic Party in order to run for the partys nomination. I cannot say if this recent conversion is crass opportunism. But it is curious that for all of his speechifying about revolution he has failed over the years to do the hard work of organizing people into an alternative movement that would support said revolution. In short, he is another Ralph Nader: spouting wonderful-sounding rhetoric but without getting in the trenches before and after elections to do the necessary organizing. Hillary Clinton? She has demonstrated an articulate, intelligent, and sustained commitment to doing to the tough work of implementing her partys progressive policies and ideals. A new class-action lawsuit may allow Wabasha County and other area residents recover the money they paid to participate in a safe-driver program that, while once popular across the state, has been challenged by Minnesotas state auditor and others. A Wabasha County District Court judge granted class certification Tuesday to a group that may be as large as 3,000 people who received tickets in the county in recent years and chose to participate in the countys Safe Driving Program. They collectively paid an estimated $439,000 to participate in the program, where they were trained in basic traffic law and driving skills in exchange for their violation being removed from their driving record. Erick Kaardal, an attorney for a group of citizens including two now-former Wabasha County commissioners on the original suit, said in a statement that the firm was delighted the Court has found that these government entities must return the funds to the people they unlawfully took them from. Kaardal, who has built a career out of suing government entities, faces challenges of his own: He was sanctioned last year over a lawsuit regarding an American Indian land issue, and asked by a judge to pay severe sanctions by reimbursing the attorneys fees and costs of the groups hes sued. Currently the sanctions are stayed pending the results of his appeal. The program, believed to be the first of its sort in the state, gave drivers the option of enrolling in a safe-driving class instead of paying a ticket for a violation. The class generally cost less than a ticket, the violation didnt go on drivers records, and it gave drivers a refresher on safe driving. It was approved by the Wabasha County attorney and a county judge before being launched in 2003 by Wabasha County Sheriff Rodney Bartsh. Money from the program was able to purchase a number of items handguns, a snowplow and 16 squad cars for the county until it was discontinued in 2014 on a recommendation by the state auditors office. Bartsh said Wednesday that the lawsuit will have to run its course, and that there hasnt been a discussion among Wabasha County administrators yet as to where the money would come from. There hasnt been much thought about it, Bartsh said. After the program started, the Minnesota State Auditors office told the county it wasnt legal. The county attorney disagreed as did many other county sheriffs and attorneys who had launched similar programs. Deb Roschen, a former Wabasha County commissioner, said Wednesday that when she became a commissioner in 2010 she noticed that the state auditor had recommended discontinuing the program in every state audit since it started. Roschen said the state does have laws that allow a similar program, but has restrictions on what types of violations qualify, the amount of fees and the way they are divided and used. Roschen, who is not involved in the class-action suit, said she originally proposed bringing the program into compliance, but when that didnt work, she and others concerned with the programs legality turned to the courts in 2013. In hindsight the best thing would have been if the county board could have worked together and brought the safe-driver program into compliance, Roschen said. Lawsuit reveals auditors limits of power The state auditors authority over Wabasha Countys program and other issues is an ongoing dispute at the state level. Despite maintaining, in a decade of yearly audits of Wabasha County, that the Safe Driving Program had been illegal, the auditors office didnt have the power to shut it down. Then in 2015, legislation was signed into law allowing all 87 counties to use private auditors, instead of the state auditors office. Theres a challenge to that law by state auditor Rebecca Otto against Wright County, Becker County, Ramsey County and the State of Minnesota, alleging that it was an unconstitutional decision because it interferes with the core functions of constitutional officers. A group of citizens including Roschen, also under the representation of Kaardal, is seeking to participate in the case in defense of the state auditors position. Roschen said she doesnt believe that private accountants would have the same legal understanding and knowledge of both state law and county finances as the State Auditors Office. If it wasnt for the state auditor we wouldnt have found out something was wrong, Roschen said. Its bigger than just Wabasha, there are statewide implications. If, as the civic boosters are wont to claim, all roads lead to Winona, Sam Van Gorder deserves no small credit for their being there. Van Gorder was pioneering intermodal transportation before anyone on the planet had come up with the word. Through out the latter half of the 19th century, he was instrumental in developing river, road and rail transport in and out of Winona, finding time to dabble in law enforcement, public works and the lum ber business along the way. Born in 1837 in Chemung County, New York, the fifth of 10 children born to Jonathan and Elizabeth Van Gorder, Samuel was out and making his way in the world by age 10. He got work on the Erie Canal, and by the time he was 14 was working as a steersman on a canal boat. The boy squirreled away his pay, and by the time he was 16, he was in a position to buy into a sash, door and blind factory in Croton, New York. After about two years, he sold out at a profit, built a canal boat and went back to work on the canal. This last stint as a boatman lasted a year, ending when Van Gorder sold the boat and headed west. He came ashore on the Winona levee in 1856, only four years after the first claim shacks went up on the sandy prairie. It didn't take long before the young New Yorker struck up a business relationship with Joel and R.P. Mallory for the purpose of building the first road into or out of Winona. The road went east and south from downtown Winona, across the marshy slough east of Lake Winona and on to Sugar Loaf. For $3,500, the men were to build a 24-foot-wide roadbed atop a 3-foot grade, including a 150-foot bridge across the slough. The work was satisfactory and in 1857, Van Gorder and Mallory contracted to extend a road west over Stockton Hill, in no small part to keep the trade from the Stockton valley and points west from finding its way to Minnesota City. Again, Van Gorder and his partners had to bridge a marsh and open water, on the west end of the lake this time, before the road was on solid ground heading out of town. The partners hacked and blasted a winding track four miles over the bluff and completed the project by 1861 at a total cost of about $18,500. While engaged in the road-building project, Van Gorder also managed to find the time to open, operate and sell a sash and blind factory, buy and sell a sawmill, and open a lumber yard. The lumber yard he operated until 1863, when he sold out to Laird & Norton. Free of the lumber business, Van Gorder and Mallory contracted to drive piles and lay the grade for the Winona and St. Peter Railway. The partners built bridges along the line as far west as Rochester and supplied ties and lumber for the construction of the road. With roads and railroads linking Winona to the farms and villages of the interior, linking the city with Wisconsin was the next major challenge. In the spring of 1865, Van Gorder secured a ferry charter from the Wisconsin Legislature and shortly thereafter a ferry license from Winona County. Wasting no time, he secured a double-hulled center-wheel steam ferry from Rymer, Dineau and Downer of Wabasha for $3,000 and brought her downriver. Van Gorder christened her the Turtle, a name local wags insisted was appropriate given the craft's speed and maneuverability. Seventy feet long and capable of hauling 30 tons, the Turtle made her maiden crossing on May 18. Loaded with invited dignitaries, the boat made the 4-mile run from the foot of Center Street to Castle Rock in a half hour. The boat was forced to reach the Wisconsin shore well upriver from Winona because the bottom lands directly across the channel were roadless, marshy and virtually impassable. Anticipating America Online's favored come-on by almost a century and a half, Van Gorder promoted his new conveyance by offering free passage to all comers for the first week of operation. At the end of the promotion, a wagoneer with a double team paid a dollar to cross the river, a man on foot paid a quarter, and a swine herd forked over a nickel a hog. Three years later, with the ferry well established, the Minnesota Legislature favored Van Gorder with a 10-year exclusive franchise to operate a ferry between the city of Winona and the Wisconsin shore. With the ferry in operation, there was incentive to build a road through the Wisconsin bottoms, shortening transit time considerably. But the road, which required a number of bridges and embankments, was prone to wash-outs and was a major headache and expense for Van Gorder as long as he operated the ferry franchise. When the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad proposed putting a bridge across the river in 1869, Van Gorder won the contract to provide stone for the bridge piers from a quarry he purchased in Wisconsin. A year before his franchise was to expire, Van Gorder put a new, larger ferry on the river. The Van Gorder could carry twice the tonnage and four times as many teams as the old Turtle. Van Gorder operated his namesake only a single year. The ferry franchise was given to the city of Winona in 1879. The previous year the ferry had taken in an average of $19 a day when the river was open. Van Gorder sold the city his boat and other equipment for $6,000 and the right to use the ferry at no charge in perpetuity -- no small perk for a man who still owned a quarry in Wisconsin. Getting out of the ferry business was no ticket to retirement for the irrepressible captain. The Van Gorder was barely docked for the last time when its erst while owner landed a $20,000 government contract for navigation improvements on the river. Over the next several years Van Gorder would undertake the rebuilding of the Wisconsin bottoms road, building a wagon bridge across Lake Winona, laying water mains for the city of Winona and making other improvements to the city waterworks. He served four terms as Winona's police chief, one term as street commissioner and headed up the local humane society. Van Gorder never married. He shared his home with an invalid sister. Late in the fall of 1901, a sudden stroke left him paralyzed, claiming his life in mid-November. Joan E. Williams, Tallahassee, Florida, passed away Feb. 15, 2016, following a lingering illness. Born in 1931 in Chicago, Joan graduated high school there before attending and graduating from Carroll College in Waukesha in 1954. She met her future husband, Alan Williams, on a blind date arranged by her best friend just prior to graduation. Thus began their marriage of more than 60 years. Joan interned in medical technology at Wesley Memorial Hospital in Chicago before her marriage in 1955, beginning a 40-year residence in Waukesha. She was a member of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and practiced her profession with great pride. Her family, however, always came first. She was an integral part of an early growing laboratory staff at an expanding Waukesha Memorial Hospital and later at the Moreland Medical Clinic in Waukesha. Leaving many lifelong friends, southwest Florida became home in 1994 before moving to Tallahassee in 2006 to be near son Cristopher, daughter-in-law Sarah and two granddaughters, Lily and Cecelia. Daughter Julie Keffeler is a practicing dentist in Omaha, Neb. Joan was preceded in death by her parents, Jacques and Ethel Filliung. She is survived by her brother, James Filliung and his wife Barbara of North Carolina. Joan is further survived by several cousins including her favorite cousin, Sharon of Fort Myers Beach, Florida. A memorial service is planned at Fellowship Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee and possibly Boca Grande, Florida. Special thanks to our loving and supportive family and friends and to Tallahassee Big Bend Hospice for their dedicated and expert care and compassion as well as that rendered by Joans caregivers. You will not be forgotten and Joan surely will be missed. BJP chief Amit Shah has already held deliberations with the partys Uttar Pradesh leaders as he seeks to firm up the electoral strategy for the politically crucial state. (Photo: PTI) Lucknow: BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday claimed that his party will form the next government in Uttar Pradesh after assembly election in the state due next year. "I am confident that the party will form a majority government after 2017 election," he told reporters after inaugurating the party's newly renovated state office. Shah said that he didn't want to talk about politics, but he wanted to refer to nationalism. "I want to ask Congress and specially its Vice President Rahul Gandhi that whether he consider slogans raised in JNU as anti-national or freedom of speech," he said. He must clarify about his party's ideological ground, he said. The BJP President said that he had been raising the question for the last six days, but Rahul was maintaining silence. He asked the party workers to raise the issue in every village and said that such slogans would not be supported in democracy. Shah said that strict action should be taken against those involved in such activities. Attacking Rahul, Shah had alleged yesterday in Bahraich, that he was supporting the forces dividing the country for "votebank politics". "I specially want to ask Congress and its workers whether those raising slogans like 'Afzal Guru tere hatrayre zinda hain' and 'Bharat ke tukde honge' were traitors or not," Shah had said at a public meeting after unveiling of a statue of 11th century king of Shravasti, Raja Suheldeo. Rahul has come out in support of JNU students, who are protesting the arrest of JNU Students' Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charge, and has accused RSS and BJP of imposing their ideology. Edmund met Lyncoln on Wednesday afternoon in what Ochsner Park Zoo staff hope will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, and more. Edmund, a 9-month-old lynx, came to Baraboo from the Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo in Green Bay. Although he and Lyncoln will be kept apart for a few weeks as each acclimates to a new roommate, in time zoo staff hope they will mate. In the meantime, Edmund will provide companionship to Lyncoln and a new attraction for zoo visitors. This increases the chance that, when people come, theyll see a lynx active, Parks Director Mike Hardy said. Edmund was kept inside an interior pen Wednesday, but is expected to be allowed outside today. He and 3-year-old Lyncoln will remain separated for a couple weeks, until its clear they wont show aggression to one another. The animals tell you when theyre ready, zoo specialist Tori Spinoso said. You dont push them together. The two tried to sniff at each other from neighboring interior enclosures Wednesday. As Edmund arrived in a carrier covered by a blanket, Lyncoln busily sniffed around the exhibit. Shes interested, Spinoso said. Shes curious. Sharing living quarters isnt expected to be a problem for Edmund, who lived with his parents at the Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo. Were going to miss Edmund. Weve watched him grow up, said Carmen Murach, that zoos curator of animals. Its like seeing the kids go off to college. The local zoo had to pass inspection before receiving Edmund. The pens size (it was designed for two lynxes), cleanliness and climbing features passed muster. Hardy said Edmunds arrival will have little financial impact, as the feed, staff time and veterinary care he requires should be minimal. The city pays for upkeep and staff at the Ochsner Park Zoo, one of only five free municipal zoos in Wisconsin. Exhibits are funded by Friends of the Baraboo Zoo, which since 1984 has contributed more than $525,000 for improvements. The Republican food fight last weekend was a horrible embarrassment for the Republican Party. With their childish attacks on each other, and with Donald Trumps nasty bullying, they made the Party of Lincoln and the Party of Reagan look like the Party of Brats. Only Ben Carson and John Kasich acted like adults. Kasich was absolutely right when he asked why the Republican Partys 2016 candidates for president were squabbling about arcane pieces of legislation that didnt pass the Senate. Trump showed his true liberal colors repeatedly Saturday night. He even recycled old Democrat talking points when he said George Bush was lying about Iraq and lying about weapons of mass destruction. Yet diehard Trump fans keep telling me he reminds them of my father. Thats not just a total insult. Its incredibly stupid. Do you remember Ronald Reagan insulting his way to the presidency, as Jeb Bush would say? Do you remember Ronald Reagan demeaning, disparaging or bullying the other candidates in a debate or in his campaign speeches? Do you remember him saying nasty things about immigrant groups in America? If thats what you think Ronald Reagan was all about, youre living on a different planet. Planet Trump, I guess. And no, Ronald Reagan would not vote for Trump in the California primary and hed hope and pray Trump didnt get the nomination in the Republican Party. Anyone who thinks differently is just wrong. Trump is not a conservative. He is not a Republican. Hes not going to blow himself up and the media cant hurt him. And nothing he says or does in the primaries can hurt him, no matter how crude or stupid. If the GOP doesnt want to go the way of the Whig Party, its time to stand up and stop Trump now. Its time for the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reinhold Richard Reince Priebus, to get off his laissez-faire butt and make a stand. Preibus and any other real Republican he can recruit to back him up has to come out and condemn Trump for the Republican impostor he is. Trump doesnt represent our party or its values. Our party doesnt stand for deporting 11.5 million people from the USA. Our party doesnt stand for stopping an entire religious group from coming to America. Our party doesnt trash its past president, George W. Bush, by implying he lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and saying 9/11 was his fault. Our Republican Party is smarter and better than Trump. Our party can solve the illegal immigration problem without resorting to deportation. Our party can prevent terrorists from sneaking into the USA without shutting our borders to all Muslims. Our party knows G.W. Bush is not a liar. We know he was a great president who kept us safe. The Republican Party used to allow talk radio to define what the party is. Now the RNC is allowing the party to be defined by Trump. The GOP has to find its spine and define itself. Party bigwigs have to rally around the partys basic conservative values and heroes, point to Trump and tell the rest of the country that his crude character, horrible values and dumb Democrat ideas dont represent Republicans. If it cant stop Trump, it may cost Republicans the Senate as well as the White House which means forgetting any chance of a conservative filling Antonin Scalias spot on the Supreme Court. If Trump represents where the GOP has gone, or if party leaders are willing to accept a fraud like him, then the GOP is no longer the Party of Ronald Reagan. To paraphrase what my father said once about why he left the Democratic Party, if Trump gets the nomination, we conservatives will be saying we didnt leave the Republican Party, the party left us. Anglers and hunters have been enjoying access to public lands in Wisconsin for a long, long time. And, for more than a century, theyve had to cross railroad tracks in western Wisconsin to reach public land and get to a fishing hole or boathouse. But in 2006, the state quietly passed legislation that prohibits people from walking across tracks except at designated crossings. It was so quiet, in fact, that few folks seemed to know about the law until BNSF began confronting people and issuing warnings last year. As you can imagine, that isnt going over well. So how can we find a balance between public access and public safety? There are a couple of ways. Rep. Lee Nerison, R-Westby, has introduced legislation that would restore an exemption for people who hunt and fish to walk across the tracks without going to a designated crossing. In our part of the state, crossings may be five or six miles apart, which is an impediment to folks who enjoy the outdoors. Current law hinders tourism a huge economic driver in western Wisconsin and the businesses that serve the people who fish and hunt. Nerisons measure was approved by the Assembly last week, and we urge the Senate to do the same. The notion of inaccessible public land seems contradictory. In fact, a memo from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources states: This might well be the largest loss of public access to public waters in the history of the state. The DNR has identified at least 124 spots along the Mississippi River where people have to cross the tracks in order to reach the shore. Plus, railroad tracks cross 121 DNR properties throughout the state. Not everyone is convinced theres a safety problem. Dan Trawicki, a lobbyist for Safari Club International chapters in Wisconsin and former Waukesha County sheriff who spent more than three decades in law enforcement, said: In all the years I was there, there was no record of any hunter or fisherman being injured. There are very, very few people who are accidentally injured on railroad tracks. As he told Tribune reporter Chris Hubbuch: From the 1800s to 2005 there didnt seem to be a problem. Is there in fact a problem? According to the Federal Railroad Administration and news reports, two anglers were killed on railroad tracks in Wisconsin during 2014 and the first nine months of 2015. So we understand theres concern about public safety. Regardless of how Rep. Nerisons legislation plays out in Madison, we recommend an investment in safety. Its long past time for BNSF, the DNR and the states Office of the Commissioner of Railroads which must approve any new rail crossings to sit down with the people and businesses that support the outdoors and develop a plan to build more crossings for safer access to public land. In fact, railroads and private landowners already can establish crossings without going through the state approval process. Sabrina Chandler, who manages the 240,000-acre Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, has been working with people to identify good spots for crossings and she hopes to present several locations to BNSF for consideration. We want to allow people to access the refuge, Chandler said. We also have some of the same safety concerns and liability concerns .... Thats why we want to push toward getting established crossings. For her part, BNSF spokeswoman Amy McBeth says the railroad would consider adding crossings because designated crossings are the safest place to cross. The challenge of people having to cross the tracks to reach public land certainly isnt new. But a united effort to add crossings could certainly make the journey safer. New Delhi: Sleuths questioning Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, the JNU students held in a sedition case, are having a tough time cracking the duo with the former denying his involvement in any sloganeering and the latter challenging claims that the slogans were "anti-national". Delhi Police on Thursday continued their interrogation of Khalid and Anirban but remained tight-lipped about developments in the case citing high court's order to maintain utmost secrecy. Read: JNU row: Court dismisses cops' plea to collect voice samples The duo along with three other students, who gave a hard time to police as they searched for them across cities for over 10 days, resurfaced on the varsity's campus late on Tuesday night. Khalid and Anirban thereafter surrendered to police. Police are also waiting for the production warrant of JNU Students' Union President Kanhaiya Kumar, who is in judicial custody, so that the three can be questioned together. A police source said Umar and Anirban are presently being interrogated by two separate teams led by ACP rank officials. The duo is being quizzed about the slogans raised during the February 9 event at JNU and the identities of others involved in the controversial event. Police are also asking them what they had done as the "main organisers" to stop the raising of the alleged anti-India slogans during the protest against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, the source said. "While Khalid has maintained that he did not engage in any sloganeering, Anirban asked the investigators how the nature of slogans were anti-national at all," the source said. While Khalid has told police he was in Ghaziabad after the event, Anirban's whereabouts during the period are still unclear, the source said, adding that police are also trying to track down the ones who sheltered Khalid and Anirban. When Kanhaiya was questioned, he had dissociated himself from the controversial event, which led police to conclude that Khalid and Anirban -- whose names were earlier spotted on the posters for the programme -- were the main organisers of the event. Khalid and Anirban have been shown the raw footage of the event and they have spotted some "foreign elements" that are yet to be identified. While some of the outsiders are suspected to be from other central universities in the national capital, there also were people from other states, especially Jammu and Kashmir, at the protest, the source said. USDA announces $1 billion debt relief for 36,000 farmers The USDA announced a program to provide $1.3B in debt relief for about 36,000 farmers who have fallen behind on loan payments or face foreclosure. Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, facing a barrage of allegations from the Opposition, turned emotional on the concluding day of the 13th state Assembly sitting on Wednesday and said he had a clean public record. There is not even 0.1 percent truth in the allegations being raised by the Opposition against me, he said in his address. Had there been at least 0.1 percent truth in the allegations, I would have no moral right to be in public life. It is my firm belief that I have not done anything wrong. I have got strong backing from the Congress and the UDF, he said. Now it is for the people to decide, he added. Earlier, while replying to an adjournment notice by the Opposition on the Vigilance Court remarks in the palmolein case, the Chief Minister reiterated his earlier stand that the state exchequer had not suffered any monetary loss in the deal but only had a profit of Rs 9 crore. Even the Supreme Court had rejected the pleas against me. I also welcome the Vigilance Court order to discharge the officials involved in the case. It vindicates my earlier decision to withdraw the case, said Mr. Chandy. In his concluding address, Mr. Chandy accused the Opposition of disrupting the House raising flimsy issues. Of the 237 days of sitting of the current Assembly, adjournment motion notices were not considered only on seven days. The Opposition remained intolerant by raising allegations against the government and disrupting the governments reply. Though the last session was scheduled to be held for 14 days, the House remained undisrupted on the days on which obituary reference of Congress leader A. C. Jose and poet O. N. V. Kurup were considered, Mr. Chandy said. Budding economist does it again Wits Economics student faced tough candidates in the honours category of the Nedbank and Old Mutual Budget Speech competition Wits Economics student, Tlhalefang Moeletsi, has again made Wits University proud when he was placed first runner-up in the national budget speech competition. Moelesti, who aspires to be a public sector economist, faced tough candidates in the honours category of the Nedbank and Old Mutual Budget Speech competition whose winners were announced last night at a banquet hosted by the two financial businesses. The Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan had the honour of presenting the prizes to the students. Moeletsi walked away with R100 000 for his essay titled The Asynchronous Monetary Stances of Advanced Economies and South Africas Policy Options. The annual competition is open to economics students in institutions of higher learning in South Africa and aims to stimulate and reward the countrys brightest economic young minds. Entrants are required to submit a sound academic essay responding to a set topic relating to economic issues. The future economist from Bapong village in the North West Province, is no stranger to the competition having won R60 000 in the 2014 undergraduate category. Wits had a total of five students shortlisted in the competition and travelled to Cape Town for a three day leadership and social programme. Tarryn Reddy represented Wits in undergraduate category while Robert Botha, Michael Levin, Ashleigh Waterson put a strong showing in the postgraduate category. Wits lecture, Janine Dingley, from the School of Economic and Business Sciences, says making it to the finals is a significant achievement and a wonderful experience for the students. During the three days they were able to engage and network with influential individuals from government and industry, and had the opportunity to ask Minister Gordhan some difficult questions. One of the highlights is attending the much awaited national budget speech in Parliament. The winners and runner-ups further participate in media interviews which help to build their professional profiles and defending their ideas in public platforms. The 2016 essay topics and competition details will be announced soon at http://www.budgetspeechcompetition.co.za/ With the Metro Rail still hobbling along, Bengalureans are awaiting Thursdays railway budget with much anticipation as it could announce the long awaited commuter rail for the city. (Representational image) A lot is riding for Bengaluru on the Railway Budget, 2016-17 which will be presented on Thursday. The city could see a commuter rail at last take shape should the budget allocate funds for it. But there may not be many more goodies for the state, going by railway sources. With the Metro Rail still hobbling along, Bengalureans are awaiting Thursdays railway budget with much anticipation as it could announce the long awaited commuter rail for the city to ease traffic on its roads and make the air over it easier to breathe with lesser vehicular emissions. The citys hopes are up as during his recent visit to the state for Invest Karnataka-2016, Union railway minister, Suresh Prabhu had dropped broad hints about the railway budget making an allocation for a commuter rail for Bengaluru. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too has revealed that Mr. Prabhu promised to actively consider the project after he wrote to him and all MPs from the state in January to give it some priority. Several residents welfare associations too have been campaigning for the commuter rail, which could be implemented as a joint venture between the state and the railways should it receive the green signal.. Officers of the South Western Railway (SWR) are reassuring. In their view even if Mr. Prabhu does not announce any other new project for the state, a commuter train is almost certain for the city. The state government has taken the issue very seriously with Bengaluru development minister, KJ George holding several rounds of talks on it. The first phase of the commuter train requires `.9,000 crores. Fingers are crossed, said an officer. Union chemical and fertiliser minister, Ananth Kumar who represents Bengaluru South in parliament, recalls that the demand for a commuter rail goes back to 1996. He is all for it himself. Both the state and Union governments should implement the projects at the earliest as it could help decongest the city, he said. Another important project Bengaluru has long hoped for is expansion of the city railway station. But whether this will receive any place in the rail budget is anybodys guess. The city needs a third railway terminal. Although many trains arrive at the city railway station on time, they take 20 to 25 minutes just to reach their stipulated platform from the entry point. This is a waste of time. If more terminals are added, this problem could be solved,' said Mr. Manikumar Aiyer, a daily commuter between Bengaluru and Mysuru. However, not willing to give any false hopes on this front, a SWR officers says although Karnataka has a long wish list, the railway minister may not announce any new projects other than the commuter rail for it. This budget is expected to give more importance to technology upgradation, improving passenger amenities, safety of passengers and improving revenue collection, he added. A new train between namma Ooru, Mangaluru is the need of the hour The last railway budget had proposed a speed train between Bengaluru and Mysuru but technical issues came in the way. The railway technical committee shot it down saying it was not feasible on this stretch. Disappointed commuters now want at least more non- stop trains between the two cities to cut down travel time. There are no express trains between Mysuru and Bengaluru in the early hours of the day. Delay in the shifting of Tipus armoury has been holding this up. But the railways must at least now think of introducing new trains after shifting the armoury, says Mr. Madhu Udupa, a bank employee, who travels between the two cities every day. With the South Western Railwy expected to complete the Hassan-Bengaluru stretch of the railway line this year, passengers are also hoping for more direct trains between Bengaluru and Mangaluru. When Mr DV Sadananda Gowda presented an interium railway budget in 2014 he proposed a train between Bengaluru and Mangaluru , but we dont have it even now. The issue is now before the state high court. The SWR must introduce this train on the new Bengaluru-Hassan- Mangalurue route, says Mr. Vishal Shetty , a frequent rail passenger from Mangaluru. Elsewhere in the state, with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) clearing the Hubli-Ankola railway line, held up for nearly 20 years owing to environmental concerns, locals want to see it become a reality soon as it will connect North Karnataka and Hyderabad Karnataka with the coastal regions of the state, helping industry and business greatly. Subsidy in Railways needs a serious rethink: G. Sridhar Pabbisetty, CEO of Namma Bengaluru Foundation Union Railways Minister, Suresh Prabhu made a departure of sorts in last years railway budget by not announcing any new trains. Moving from populism to pragmatism is what everyone is looking forward to in this years railway budget as well. The first railway budget for India was presented in 1924 based on Sir William Mitchell Acworths report on the Indian Railways. It was the year when railway finances were separated from the general finances. Today however very few countries have the tradition of a railway budget. C. Raja Mohan observed last year that while China had quadrupled its railway network from 27,000 kms to over 1,10,000 kms post 1947, we have managed to add a mere 11,000 kms since Independence to our once enviable 54,000 km network. The process of capacity addition and speed improvisation needs to continue to enable us to effectively leverage the utility of the railways. Subsidy in Indian Railways needs a serious rethink as well . Several categories of freight that enjoy subsidy should be rationalized and phased out in a time -bound manner. A significant amount goes to subsidise intra- city travel in Mumbai, Chennai and other cities. Deconstructing this subisidy and making the intra-city facility available to all metropolitan cities as a planned contribution by the nation should be the way forward. Premium classes in long distance trains need to be fully priced to ensure that subsidy goes to those who cannot afford the fare. Removal of urban subsidies will not just rationalise the spend by government in urban transport, but will also make other commuter rail systems viable for other upcoming cities and they will become attractive for investments. This will help improve cost benefit calculation for other forms of transport that will become available in the future. The social cost of various subsidies - carrying essential commodities below cost, subsidising passenger services and son on - is around Rs 24,886 crore each year. Pragmatic pricing will improve the confidence our markets have in our railways and will open up newer funding sources. Once a reliable financial model develops, the cost of capital will eventually turn southwards. Unless this change happens, the railways will find it tough to mobilise funds for much needed infrastructure investment. A group of retired senior Army personnel, who are alumni of JNU, met Prof. Kumar and they suggested that to instil nationalism among JNU students there should be regular interactions between great soldiers of the nation and the varsity students (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Accepting the suggestion of former soldiers about the need to instill nationalism among students, the Jawaharlal Nehru University on Wednesday decided to build a memorial to armed forces personnel, which could include an army tank among other artilleries. The memorial will highlight the sacrifices of JNU alumni and is likely to include a display of a tank and artillery. As per an existing provision, all officers passing out from the National Defence Academy (NDA) receive their degrees from the JNU. JNU registrar Bhupinder Zutshi said the decision was taken after former personnel of the armed forces met varsity vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar and raised concern over the ongoing controversy in the campus and suggested a few measures should be taken to instil nationalism among students. Acting on the suggestion, the university has decided to build a memorial for our students, in future. Sacrifice of the students of JNU will be displayed on the wall of fame with their pictures and a tank, artillery or other things, which inspire nationalism, on display. We are also planning regular interactions between the students and defence personnel, added Mr Zutshi. The JNU registrar, however, did not reveal when the construction of the memorial will start. He said that it will built in future. Place, design and things to be displayed will be decided in the future, said the registrar. On Tuesday, a group of retired senior Army personnel, who are alumni of JNU, met Prof. Kumar and they suggested that to instil nationalism among JNU students there should be regular interactions between great soldiers of the nation and the varsity students. After the meeting, Lieutenant General Niranjan Singh Malik (Retd.) had said that regular interactions between armed forces personnel and the JNU students will help everyone to instil nationalism among students. Apart from regular interactions, there should be a Wall of Fame where pictures of great heroes are placed or symbols of great acts of Armymen should be displayed. Such a small thing will help us in instilling nationalism among students, added Gen. Malik (Retd). The former Army officer had also said that by taking such an initiative, current JNU students will come to know about the sacrifices made by officers in uniform, who had passed out from this university, for the nation. Srinagar: Army and Jammu and Kashmir police on Thursday claimed they have arrested a fidayeen member of Jaish-e-Muhammad militant group involved in attack on an Army base in Tanghdar area close to the Line of Control three months ago. The accused identified as Muhammad Sadiq is a resident of Sialkot in Pakistans Punjab province. He was arrested during a raid in Kanispora village of north-western Baramulla district, officials said. At dawn on November 25, 2015, a group of Jaish militants in a fidayeen attack targeted the battalion headquarters of Armys 3/1 GR unit in the Kalsuri ridge of Tanghdar area in Kupwara district from the back with AK assault rifles and 40-mm Under Barrel Grenade Launcher after cutting a perimeter fence and penetrating the premises. They targeted Army barracks and vehicles with small arms and hand grenades, causing damage to them. Also, an oil depot within the camp caught fire in the attack. Three attackers were killed in retaliatory commando action after commandos from Armys Parachute Regiment were airdropped near the camp. A local resident Tanveer Ahmed Sheikh, 25, working as a generator operator at the camp was also killed in the militant attack whereas two officers, deputy commandant Colonel Sunil Kumar and a Junior Commissioner Officer (JCO) V.K. Reddy-of the Army were injured. Army and police officials said that Sadiq has told his interrogators that it was he who set the oil depot to fire and also destroyed several vehicles before he was asked by his accomplices to leave. He has identified the slain militants as Rizwan, Hussein and Malik, officials said. The officials also said that during his interrogation Sadiq also revealed that the militants had sneaked into Kupwara from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir the previous night using GPS devices and reached the site of the attack after about seven hours walk. Officials said that he belongs to a peasant family of Sialkot and has four other brothers and two sisters besides parents. He was lured into militancy by a school time friend and received training in a Jaish camp for three months before he was asked to cross the LoC as part of the group, he has reportedly told his interrogators. He told his interrogators that he spent past three months at various places in Kupwara and neighbouring Baramulla. It was some locals who helped him to relocate to Baramulla after he befriended them. The security forces, reports said, have detained half a dozen other local youth in a series of raids in the twin districts carried out during past week. China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page Jawaharlal Nehru University students Umar Khalid (C) and Anirban Bhattacharya (R) who are facing charges of sedition (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday refused to allow Delhi Police to collect voice samples of two JNU students -- Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, arrested in a sedition case. According to court sources, Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen dismissed the application of Delhi Police, which had arrested both the accused students after they surrendered on the night of February 23, seeking permission to collect their voice samples for investigation in the matter. Umar and Anirban were last night sent to three days police remand at the South Campus Police Station near JNU which was turned into a makeshift court room following an order of the Delhi High Court to "maintain confidentiality" during their remand proceedings. Police had demanded seven days' custody of the duo, who had allegedly organised a controversial event at JNU on February 9 where anti-India slogans were alleged to have been raised. Police yesterday also applied for production of JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar so that all the three students can be interrogated together. The Delhi High Court had yesterday ordered maintenance of "confidentiality" during the remand proceedings of Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban and directed police to ensure that no one "suffers even a scratch" in wake of the Patiala House court violence on February 15 and 17. The high court order had come during the hearing on Kumar's bail plea after it was informed that he and Umar and Anirban were apprehending threat to their safety and security during production in a Patiala House court for remand proceedings. According to police before being arrested, Umar and Anirban were questioned for at least five hours in which police inquired about their whereabouts during the phase when cops were on a look out for them. Police also inquired whether two of them were the main organisers of the February 9 event against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, and whether they were involved in alleged anti-India sloganeering. The duo had returned to the JNU campus last Sunday after going missing since February 12. Delhi Police had issued a look-out notice on February 20 against Umar, Anirban and three other students -- Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash. Deep-sea fish have long been known to emit a low humming sound during their nightly feeding time -- but what does it mean? For years, scientists have been perplexed by a low-frequency humming sound made by deep-sea marine life at certain times of day. New research out of the University of California reveals that it could be the creatures way of communicating during feeding time or they could be farting. According to Discovery, the question of why deep-sea creatures emit a low-frequency humming sound at certain times of night has long confounded scientists. New high-sensitivity audio recordings have revealed that the noise is being caused by deep-sea animals such as fish, jellies, shrimp, and squid which live in the oceans mesopelagic zone, a region between 660 and 3300 feet beneath the surface. The mesopelagic zone is a dark place. Its so low that the sun barely shines, so food isnt necessarily plentiful. As a result, the creatures in this zone need to venture to the surface in order to eat. However, they wait until the cover of night and the safety of night before they do it. When they do begin to head up to the surface, the low hum, which comes in at about 3 to 6 decibels louder than the oceans background noise, begins. Its not that loud, said San Diego biologist Simone Baumann-Pickering. It sounds like buzzing or humming, and it goes on for an or two hours, depending on the day. While its thought that this sound might be the animals way of communicating to one another during the feeding time, the answer as to why they make this sound is still up in the air. In fact, one theory is that the fish are passing gas at such a rate that adds up to make the noise. Its known that some fish are considered to be farting, Baumann-Pickering said in an interview with NPR. Sarah Bradley By: Feng Qian A drunk woman was arrested on a charge of assault after kicking two paramedics and urinating on the floor of an ambulance while being taken to a hospital for treatment, police in the United Kingdom said. Now, 29-year-old Sarah Bradley of Rochdale, has been sentenced to a 12-week curfew after pleading guilty to assault in connection with the attack on the paramedics. For the next 12 weeks, Bradley is not allowed to leave her home from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. According to the police investigation, two members of the North West Ambulance Service arrived at Bradleyas home and assisted her. When they began to treat her, she was calm, but her mood changed in the ambulance. She pushed one of the crew members with such force that he fell through the side door of the ambulance. As the crew tried to calm the patient down she kicked a member in the face. Bradley continued to be aggressive with them and urinated on the floor of the ambulance. Kochi: Kerala High Court has called Kerala Service Rules 'archaic' and asked the state government to have a relook so that employees do not misuse a provision and go on leave for up to 20 years. The court heavily criticised the rules permitting extended leave of five years at one instance; up to a maximum of 20 years. "An employee leaving the country for twenty years would leave a vacuum in the post, where the employer would have to have temporary appointments, putting to peril the efficiency in public employment and also the chances of another aspirant," the court observed. The court found that the provision introduced in the 1980s was motivated by the penchant to earn foreign exchange, which was a dire necessity then. "Three and a half decades from then, we have progressed, opened up our economy and made a mark in international commerce. It is time those in power have a relook at the rules especially in the context of the growing population we are unable to contain despite the best efforts." Justice K. Vinod Chandran even asked the petitioner, Bini John, an assistant professor at St Albert's College Kalamassery who sought long leave to join her husband in the USA for five years, to quit if she wanted to go. The court observed that it was difficult to align with the petitioner's concept of enforcing her right to extended leave, against the paramount interest of education and students. The court also observed that there was nothing wrong with the management's decision to reject her application. The new rule was to be implemented from April 1, 2015, but it was kept in abeyance by the parliamentary committee. (Representational image) Bengaluru: In a major boost to anti-tobacco campaign, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday gave its green signal to the earlier Central government notification which recommended that all tobacco products should carry warnings covering 85 per cent of the package area from April 1, up from 40 per cent at present. Justice Ravi Malimath passed the orders by vacating an earlier order of the high court staying the operation of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Amendment Rules, 2014. According to the notification issued on October 15, 2014: The specified health warning shall cover at least 85 percent of the principal display area of the package, of which 60 percent shall cover pictorial health warning and 25 percent textual health warning and shall be positioned on the top edge of the package. The new rule was to be implemented from April 1, 2015, but it was kept in abeyance by the parliamentary committee. Subsequently, the Rajasthan High Court directed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to take steps to implement the pictorial warning from April 1, 2016 without further delay. The petitioners before the High Court - Tobacco Institute of India and others contended that 85 percent of pictorial warnings cannot be incorporated on the tobacco products, as it would affect the industry and a large number of families depend on it. The petitioners had also stated that as the matter related to pictorial warnings was still pending before that Supreme Court, the NGOs must not be allowed to implead (to be made parties) in the petitions. However, the bench allowed an interlocutory application filed by an NGO - Health for Millions, which had also sought directions to vacate the stay order. The bench in the order observed that main objective of the NGO was to create awareness and spread knowledge amongst the people about the prevention of and relief from general health problems. It has also worked on several key priority issues pertaining to tobacco control in India, it said. Apple stated in a letter unsealed in court last Tuesday that it is facing requests from the US Justice Department to unlock twelve phones in addition to the phone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook. The revelation exposes the Obama administrations claim that it is not seeking a precedent for broader powers as a fabrication. On February 16, a federal judge in central California ruled that Apple must design new software and provide it to the FBI, enabling the government to bypass security features on the iPhone. Apple has appealed the order, saying it would effectively enable to the government to decrypt Apple phones at will in the future. FBI Director James Comey asserted over the weekend that the San Bernadino litigation isnt about trying to set a precedent or send any kind of message. The unsealed letter written by Apples attorney, Marc Zwillinger, shows that the government had filed at least 12 similar requests, under the obscure 1789 All Writs Act, since September 24, 2015. Zwillingers letter was filed as part of a case in a federal court in Brooklyn involving a drug distribution ring. The judge in the case has questioned the prosecutors argument that the All Writs Act gives courts the power to force Apple to assist the government in overriding security features in the phones. In addition to the requests currently filed in court, law enforcement agencies and prosecutors across the country are hoping to use the court ruling to gain access to encrypted phones. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr, has said that his district alone has about 175 phones that they cannot currently unlock. Vance advocated broad government access to encryption in order to fish beyond active criminal investigations. What we discover is that investigation into one crime often leads into criminal activity in another, sometimes much more serious than what we were originally looking at, he said. Vance has been joined by Rod Norgaard, assistant chief deputy in the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office, who said his county has well over 100 phones they would like to unlock. In an interview with Newsweek he said he saw Apple as no better than those who occupied federal land in Oregon. In a note published on its web site on Monday, the company said that prosecutors nationwide have hundreds of iPhones they want to unlock if the FBI wins this case in California. The White House has decided to fight Apple publicly in the San Bernardino case because of the high profile of the terror attacks late last year, which it hopes will create better conditions for establishing a precedent to expand government spying powers. The administration has also backed a private lawyer who has filed a brief on behalf of unspecified victims of the San Bernadino shooting. The current conflict between the Obama administration and Apple is a planned effort to legally mandate a backdoor to all encrypted communication. Legislation to that effect was prepared last year in Congress. In internal e-mails, the top lawyer for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence wrote that while the legislative environment was not good at the time, it could turn in the event of a terrorist attack or criminal event. Apple had explicitly objected to at least seven similar court orders before the administration decided to make the February 16 ruling on the San Bernardino case a public battle. The court orders for a government backdoor on phones rely on a tendentious reading of the All Writs Act of 1789, which allows judges to issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law. The administration has encouraged judges to interpret this so broadly that there is no effective limit on the writs they may issue. The government seeks this new authority in order to expand its enormous spying apparatus. Apple had been readily cooperating with government programs like the NSAs domestic spying. According to its own report, Apple received 11,000 requests from governments worldwide for information and complied in 7,100 of those cases in the first six months of 2015. The Obama administration is pushing this issue because the impact of successfully compelling the decryption would extend far beyond one company that has frequently supported government surveillance. Meanwhile, a poll released on Wednesday shows broad popular opposition to the governments efforts to break encryption. The Reuters/Ipsos port found that 46 percent of respondents said they supported Apples position, while only 35 percent said they backed the government. When they were asked whether they thought the government would use its powers to unlock phones to spy on iPhone users, 55 percent said they agreed, and only 28 percent disagreed. These figures are an expression of the popular hostility to the expansion of police-state spying powers and are a continuation of the broad support for Edward Snowden, who has been forced into exile by the Obama administration after exposing illegal and unconstitutional NSA spying programs. The recent announcement by Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne that the company will stop production of small and midsize vehicles throws into question the status of thousands of jobs at the automakers US operations. The change is part of continuing plans by Marchionne to seek a merger partner for the auto company. The Fiat Chrysler CEO said he plans to eliminate small car production in order to focus on larger, more profitable vehicles such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Ram truck. Meanwhile, some 3,000 autoworkers are continuing on a six-week layoff at FCAs Sterling Heights Assembly Plant outside Detroit. The facility, originally set for shutdown in 2009, was retooled to build the Chrysler 200, one of the vehicles the company now says it wants to phase out. Workers began the layoff February 1 and are scheduled to return on March 14. The plant is scheduled for another temporary shutdown in April. As the World Socialist Web Site and the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter warned at the time of the 2015 auto contract negotiations, Fiat Chrysler and the UAW were concealing the implications of a potential merger from rank-and-file autoworkers. In fact, the 2015 agreement contained no job guarantees. A second tier worker at the Sterling Heights Stamping plant, where 150 workers are on voluntary layoff due to the shutdown of the nearby Sterling Heights assembly plant, spoke to the WSWS. Under the two-tier wage system second tier workers receive significantly lower pay and inferior benefits to tier one workers. The shutdown is not being discussed in union meetings, she said. I dont think it is right. If Marchionne was planning on selling the company, he was planning during the contract time. I dont understand a lot of things that go on. They are a corporation, so they can do what they like. She said that she had been very critical of the sellout agreement rammed through by the UAW during the 2015 contract negotiations, explaining, I couldnt see voting for something without a pension, especially with me being older. There will still be tier one and tier two with the new contract. They got rid of the cap (on the percentage of tier two workers.) It is just amazing to me how they could let that happen. Workers at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant have faced delays in receiving their unemployment benefits from the state of Michigan. What the company calls issues in timing caused some hourly workers to receive only one weeks unemployment pay instead of two. Workers seeking to collect unemployment benefits must navigate the states automated response line or website. Mistakes in the filing process can result in workers not receiving their benefits. Job cuts to state employees often make it difficult for those applying for benefits to reach a live representative in case problems arise in the course of filing. In the past workers got up to 95 percent of their regular pay when they are laid off under terms of the national agreement. Part of that money comes from the companyin the form of Supplemental Unemployment Benefits (SUB)and part comes from state jobless benefits. But, any delays in getting money from the state cause a hold up in pay from the company as well. A veteran worker at the Sterling Heights Assembly told the WSWS, The state is only paying you when they are ready. It is not easy being on unemployment. I would rather be working. Under the terms of the new UAW labor deals the companies are not making any additional SUB payments. In a conference call with investors late last year, a Ford executive boasted that freezing SUB pay would allow us to adjust our workforce in a fairly cost effective way because our newer employees have lower seniority and they would be the first to be impacted in the event of a downturn. SUB pay for so-called in-progression workers maxes out at 26 weeks and is roughly 74 percent of their pay, he said. Fiat Chrysler is now planning to end production of the Dodge Dart, which is built in Belvidere, Illinois, in addition to the Chrysler 200. The plant currently employs 4,000 hourly employees and there is no estimate of the impact on jobs. The Dundee, Michigan engine plant south of Detroit could also be impacted by these moves, since the facility currently produces engines for the Dart and Chrysler 200. That facility employs 570 hourly workers. In preparation for the shutdown of production of the Chrysler 200 the company plans to cut production from 189,000 vehicles last year to 120,000 this year. This likely means that Sterling Heights Assembly workers will be dealing with continued layoffs as the company ramps down production. Earlier, the Detroit Free Press reported that Fiat Chrysler plans to shift production of the Ram 1500 pickup from the Warren Truck Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit to Sterling Heights. That would likely not happen before 2018, but the Chrysler 200 could be completely phased out in the meantime. Meanwhile, there have been reports that Warren Truck would build the Jeep Grand Wagoneer in place of the Ram. But the Wagoneer is a slow selling vehicle, so it is not clear how many workers would need to be retained at the facility, one of Fiat Chryslers oldest assembly plants and a worksite long rumored to be on the list for closure. The Sterling Heights Assembly worker explained, You know how many times Chrysler has been married and divorced. All we know is what we hear on the news. The union isnt saying anything. They lied all the way around. The (2015) contract was a joke. I spent the signing bonus money in one day. Now we are laid off and they are sending the second tier workers to Jefferson North Assembly and Warren Truck. You ask the union any questions about it and they mark you as a troublemaker. They do what they want to do. Fiat Chrysler is reportedly looking at a number of different companies as possible merger partners. While General Motors has repeatedly turned down overtures from Marchionne, a number of other companies are cited as merger candidates by the Free Press. These include PSA Peugot Citroen, the French automaker; Hyundai-Kia of Korea; Japanese-based Honda and Mahindra, the Indian conglomerate. The plans to shut down small car production and focus on larger, higher fuel consumption vehicles are based on the gamble that low fuel prices will continue into the indefinite future. Further, a deepening economic slump could quickly make a shambles of all these calculations. For its part the Free Press warned that a botched merger could devastate FCA and lead to job losses and plant closures. Fiat Chryslers latest moves underscore the degree to which the jobs and livelihoods of autoworkers are dependent on the whims of management and the vagaries of the capitalist market. It underscores the irrational and chaotic character of private ownership and production for profit. The United Auto Workers has been largely silent on the implications of continued talks of a merger. It responded to Marchionnes announcement of the phasing out of production of the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200 by asking for a meeting. The UAW defended Marchionnes plan to focus on high fuel consumption vehicles, discounting the possible impact of a rise in gas prices on sales. I see that trend going for a long, long time, UAW President Dennis Williams told Reuters of current sales patterns. In part because of improving fuel economy of larger vehicles. As an organization based on American nationalism and defense of the capitalist profit system, the UAW has no answer to the threat of layoffs and plant closings. Its only solution to the threat of job cuts is to join with management to extort more concessions from workers and aid company efforts to squeeze out greater productivity to make the company more competitive with its US and overseas rivals. The working class must advance its own solution to the chaos of capitalist production by fighting for a program based on the public ownership of the auto companies under the democratic control of the working class. Only in that way can the resources of society be allocated in a rational and planned matter to meet both the needs of the public to safe and high quality vehicles and for workers to have secure and decent paying jobs. The trade unions are moving to divert growing opposition to the French governments new labour law behind toothless protests, while signaling to the ruling class their broad agreement with the bill. The bill, prepared by the Socialist Party (PS) government of President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls, would allow the trade unions to negotiate with the employers at the level of individual workplaces contracts that violate the national Labour Code. This would entail the destruction of broad sections of workers democratic rights, undermine working conditions and living standards, and mark a sea change in class relations in France. The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) hosted an inter-trade union meeting on the bill Tuesday evening, involving ten other unions. Present were seven other trade union federations, the National Union of French Students (UNEF), National High-School Students Union (UNL) and Independent Democratic High School Student Union (FIDL). In the communique issued after the meeting, the unions state that they will work to make proposals on new provisions of the law and propose changes to existing provisions, notably on redundancies, organisation of work and the workday, health and safety, and apprenticeships. Their document focused its criticisms on two aspects of the planned law: limits imposed on fines for employers in the labour courts, and measures which increase the unilateral power of the employers. The unions agreed to meet again on March 3. The unions remained silent about the heart of the new law: their ability to negotiate with employers and then impose contracts at the enterprise level that violate the Labour Code. This shows that the unions do not reject the ransacking of workers rights and will continue to negotiate various provisions of the bill with the government and the employers so as to pass it. The current Labour Code has been built up over more than 100 years and contains many protections for workers. Also minimum conditions have been negotiated collectively on an industry-by-industry basis, so that any workplace or factory, according to which industry it is part of, must conform to these minimum conditions. All that concerns the unions is that they conserve their role, privileges and influence with the employers and the state, while cynically posing as opposed to the reform. However, this pose is an obvious fraud: the trade unions did not even bother to organise strike action against the bill. The daily Liberation called the unions statement a timid communique, adding that now, the government can relax. Social anger and expressions of opposition are growing rapidly, however. An Internet petition against the labour reform has gone way beyond its organisers hopes and collected 500,000 signatures in a matter of days. There are indications that youth in high schools and universities, who are currently on vacation, are preparing to mobilise when they come back in early March. The unusual participation of university and high school student unions in talks with trade unions points to broader opposition among students and youth to the PSs policies. These organisations are closely tied to the PS and broadly support it, and UNEF officials praised the trade unions cowardly communique as an important step in an interview with Metronews. Nevertheless, the student unions statements are a distorted reflection of the anger building among youth at the conditions they face as students and in their working lives. UNEF president William Martinet declared, For us, this bill is the straw that broke the camels back. For 10 years, young people have faced ever more precarious conditions, on the job market due to the economic crisis and also during their studies. The tolerance level for these conditions has limits. They have been reached. The CGT only reluctantly set a date of March 31 for a symbolic, one-day protest. Its officials told Liberation that workers had attacked the CGTs inactivity faced with the law, saying that There was some bellyaching. There have been calls on social media for a demonstration on March 9, with or without the union leadership. With France still under a state of emergency, against which the trade unions have organised no action, the trade unions are demonstrating that they support the diktat of the police and of the employers over the working class. This attack on labour rights was launched just as the French State of Emergency was renewed for a further three months. Valls has said it will remain in place until Daech [the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq] is defeated, signifying that the government intends to ban and make illegal strikes, demonstrations and meetings of any counter-offensive of the working class. The class content of the PSs permanent state of emergency is emerging before masses of people. With 10,000 French troops patrolling the streets, Valls is insisting that he will ram through the bill in the face of all opposition, pledging to to take the reform all the way. The fight against the labour reform can proceed only in a political struggle against the PS government and the policies of war, police state rule, and austerity pursued not only by the PS in France but by all the imperialist governments. It must be a consciously anti-capitalist struggle oriented to mobilising the working class in France and across Europe. For this, it must break with the trade and student unions, and their political allies including the PS and the New Anti-capitalist Party, who will seek to block a political struggle against the PS and the European Union. For years, they have suppressed rising opposition to the reactionary agenda of Hollande, who is now the most unpopular French president since World War II. It is only due to their complicity that the very weak Hollande administration has been able to continue imposing its reactionary agenda. The announcement earlier this month that the federally-funded Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) plans to sack up to 350 climate scientists has been condemned by scientists in Australia and internationally. The decision is a major blow to scientific research into ocean temperatures, greenhouse gas levels and other indices that provide a deeper understanding of climate change. Almost 200 positions will be cut from the Oceans and Atmosphere (O&A) division, with the remaining jobs eliminated from the Land and Water division. The O&A monitors atmospheric and ocean carbon dioxide levels from Cape Grim, a rocky outpost on the northwestern tip of Tasmania. An O&A scientist told the science journal Nature: More than 80 percent of our climate scientists will be cut. This is not about myself, its about my people and the capability we spent 40 years to build. It will be going overnight. CSIRO chief Larry Marshall informed staff about the cuts via email. There was no longer any need to prove that climate change was real, he wrote. [T]hat question has been answered and so it was now necessary to move from research on climate change to the sort of products that could supposedly cope with the environmental consequences. Marshalla former Silicon Valley venture capitalistwas appointed by the Liberal-National Coalition government in late 2014 as part of a deliberate strategy to transform the CSIRO into a profit-driven enterprise. This month Marshall told the Australian Financial Review that the CSIRO is too often science push than market pull. This short-sighted, profit-driven approach ignores the fact that the changes to climate are ongoing, complex and have far-reaching consequences for humanity as a whole. The planned sacking of the CSIRO scientists will have ramifications for climate research around the world. Australian climate research programs have provided a quarter of the worlds ocean observing capacity in the Southern Hemisphere. Data on the temperature and salinity of the upper 2,000 metres of the ocean is collected by 3,000 drifting floats. A protest letter signed by 3,000 scientists from nearly 60 nations declared: The decision to decimate a vibrant and world-leading research program shows a lack of insight, and a misunderstanding of the importance of the depth and significance of Australian contributions to global and regional climate research. The World Climate Research Program issued a statement warning that the proposed cuts risked severing vital linkages with Australian colleagues and to essential southern hemisphere data sources, linkages that connect Australia to Britain, the US, New Zealand, Japan, China and beyond. On Monday, the Climate Council of Australia issued a 22-page report entitled Flying Blind: Navigating Climate Change without the CSIRO. It pointed out that research and data collected by CSIRO was vital to predict changes in the climate and building preparedness for our worsening extreme weather events. Further cuts to model development will leave us dangerously exposed to the escalating risks of climate change. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull claimed to have been blindsided by the CSIROs announcement about the job destruction. A spokesman for Science Minister Christopher Pyne told the media that the cuts were not the responsibility of the Turnbull government but an operational decision of the CSIRO. These claims are a fraud. Last year the federal government slashed $115 million or 16 percent of CSIROs annual funding, which led to the elimination of over 1,000 jobs. Successive Coalition and Labor governments have systematically reduced CSIROs budget over the past two decades, resulting in the agency losing some 30 percent of its staff. Climate-change science and research has been particularly targeted by the Coalition government, previously headed by Tony Abbott, whose backers downplayed or outright denied climate change. Turnbull deposed Abbott last September, but the government as a whole has close connections to the coal and other fossil fuel industries. Turnbull has also made clear that climate-change funding must be tied to innovationthat is, it must have commercial value. The overall funding for the CSIROs climate-monitoring sites are miniscule compared to other areas of government spending. This years funding for Cape Grim would be $226,246, with the Bureau of Meteorology contributing another $458,500. The overall government budget for CSIRO for 2015 was $181 million, a small fraction of the $31.8 billion spent on the military. The importance of the work of climate scientists is underscored by the fact that eight of the ten warmest years recorded since 1860, when instrumental records began, have been in the past decade. The causes of such developments are due to a complex interaction of long-term changes to the atmosphere and oceans. Climate models are carefully developed from the years of information gathered by scientists such as those being cut at the CSIRO. Future modelling is vital, not only to predict major changes in weather patterns but to assist work in the field of natural disasters and how to possibly prevent them. The CSIRO cuts are another indication of the inability of the capitalist profit system to address, let alone avert, a looming ecological disaster. The technical means to halt climate change exist, but can be implemented only on a rational basis under a globally planned socialist economy. Health experts warned of the danger of Legionnaires disease in Flint, Michigan and the possible link to the change in the citys water source as early as October 2014, yet their efforts to investigate the situation was blocked by high-placed officials in state and federal agencies. To this day, according to a recent Detroit News report, the citys water has not been tested for the Legionella bacteria. On April 25, 2014, the city of Flint switched its water source to the highly polluted Flint River after more than 40 years using the treated water from Lake Huron supplied by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD). Within two months of the switch, the number of Legionnaires disease cases in Genesee County, where Flint is located, sharply jumped. During the summer months of 2014, 34 cases of the disease were reported, whereas the previous summer, only five were recorded. Legionnaires disease is more prevalent in the summer season, as the bacteria that produces it is more likely to grow in warm weather. Infectious disease epidemiologist Shannon Johnson with the Michigan Department of Community Health (DCH) wrote a concerned email on October 13, 2014 to Susan Bohm, an epidemiologist with the states Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) saying the switch of the water source was a likely cause of the spike. Johnson also proposed a coordinated effort to test the water. Johnsons email stated, The current hypothesis is that the source of the outbreak may be the Flint municipal water I let Shurooq [Genesee County epidemiologist Shurooq Hasan] know that we could assist with and facilitate environmental testing, whether it be through our lab or DEQ [the state Department of Environmental Quality]. The LHD [Local Health Department] is meeting with the water dept. this week so she said she would let me know what their plan is. McLaren [Hospital] conducted environmental testing on their system and found low levels of legionella bacteria and have since hyperchlorinated their water to disinfect the system. McLaren receives its water from the Flint municipal system. After Bohm discussed this on the phone with her superior, Liane Shekter-Smith, the DHHS Chief of the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, she related the conversation to DHHS colleagues in an email with a subject line Genesee County Legionnaires Disease Cluster. It said, What she did share with me was interestingthat there have been numerous complaints about the Flint water, that the governors office had been involved, and that any announcement by public health about the quality of the water would certainly inflame the situation. Johnsons email should have provoked immediate multi-agency action to investigate the source of the disease and issue a public warning of the health danger posed by the outbreak of a lethal disease. Instead, Michigan officials responsible for the safety of drinking water were more concerned with concealing the possible dangers from the public and prevented the eruption of social opposition. Authorities, all the way up to the office of Governor Rick Snyder, were aware of the anger and the demands of the population of Flint to return to the DWSD water source. Almost immediately after the switch, residents complained of smelly, discolored water coming from their taps. The city issued several boil-water alerts due to the appearance of coliform bacteria, then carcinogenic trihalomethanes as a result of over-chlorination in the attempt to treat for bacteria. Throughout this period, agency appointees at the highest levels, both state and federal, marched in lockstep to block revelations that Flint River water was unsafe. Shenkter-Smith was one of several lower-level officials who have been fired or were forced to resign as a result of the exposure of the Flint water catastrophe. They have essentially been fall guys, however, to protect top officials from both parties in the Snyder administration, Obamas Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the city of Flint. In January 2015, warnings were mailed to residents about high levels of trihalomethanes in the water, yet still claiming the water was safe to drink. Various state agencies were sending emails to the DEQ, concerned about Flints water quality. Early in February 2015, Genesee County Health Department Environmental Health Supervisor James Henry, who had been attempting to obtain the collaboration of the DEQ on the Legionnaires crisis, informed the department that because he had not received a response to his inquiries about Flint water distribution, he had taken the highly unusual step of sending Freedom of Information Act requests by email and letter to the department. In response to his continued efforts, DEQ Lansing Supervisor Stephen Busch, after months of obfuscation, chided Henry that conclusions that legionella is coming from the public water system without the presentation of any substantiating evidence from your epidemiologic investigation appears premature and prejudice (sic) toward that end. DEQ spokesman Brad Wurfel went one step further in an internal email, Essentially, Jim Henry with Genesee County Health is putting up the flare. Hes made the leap formally in his email that the uptick in cases is directly attributable to the river as a drinking water sourcethis is beyond irresponsible. Both Busch and Wurfel are no longer with the agency, along with DEQ Director Dan Wyant. In June 2015, Jim Collins, director of the DHHS communicable disease division, issued a report declaring that the Legionnaires outbreak is over. Summarizing 45 cases of the disease from June 6, 2014 through March 9, 2015, the report said, The last reported case occurred in March 2015. The lack of clinical Legionella isolates precludes our ability to link cases to an environmental source. Henry responded that there were two more cases earlier that week. By the time the switch was made back to DWSD water in October 2015, 87 cases and nine resulting deaths were recorded. The New York Times interviewed two surviving victims of the outbreak. Tim Monahan, 58 was one of the earliest to contract the disease. He is now stunned and furious about the response of authorities to the outbreak. He told the Times, What gets me is how fast the state has just deniedWe cant prove its the water. I think theyre so afraid of tying nine deaths to this. The whole thing is just such a ridiculous tragedy. The disease left Connie Taylor, 62, with kidney failure, requiring dialysis three times a week. She left the hospital in September without being told she had Legionnaires disease. She told the Times, It just took me right down. They called my family in from out of town. And then my kidneys failed. This was something I didnt have to go through and its changed my life tremendously. The root cause of the public health disaster in Flint was the criminally irresponsible actions of officials from both big business parties, which have overseen the destruction of basic infrastructure while handing over trillions to Wall Street and the Pentagon war machine. The decision to separate Flint from its source of safe drinking water was bound up with efforts by the Snyder administration, with the backing of the Obama administration, to force cash-starved municipalities to privatize services in order to pay off wealthy bondholders. The same officials who approved and allowed the switch to Flint River water, both Republican and Democrat, were responsible for monitoring water quality issues during the many resulting health dangers. The indifference and hostility of these officials towards the public is not a personal matter. On the contrary, it sums up the criminality of the entire corporate-controlled political establishment. New Delhi: The next edition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's radio address 'Mann ki Baat' will be broadcast on Sunday at 11.00 am. The broadcast will be originated by All India Radio, Delhi and will be relayed by all AIR stations, all AIR FM channels (FM Gold and FM Rainbow), local radio stations, Vividh Bharati Stations and five community radio stations, a statement released by Prasar Bharati said. The regional versions of the 'Mann Ki Baat' will be originated by the capital AIR stations in non-Hindi speaking zones at 8 PM on the same day. The regional versions shall be relayed by all AIR stations including local radio stations in the respective states, the statement added. The UK government is considering setting up a secure prison unit solely to house convicted Islamist terrorists. The UK has 130 such prisoners, who all face being moved into the proposed secure prison. If the proposal were implemented, it would overturn the standard practice in place since the 1960s of housing convicted terrorists in the general prison population. Currently, convicted terrorists are held in one of six maximum-security jails, Frankland near Durham, Full Sutton near York, Long Lartin in Worcestershire, Wakefield, Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire and Belmarsh in south London. Convicted terrorists held within these prisons are regularly transferred to different locations. A single unit for Islamist terrorists has been dubbed by the media a British Alcatraz, a reference to the US prison built on an island off San Francisco to contain dangerous prisoners. A more apt analogy would be the British Guantanamo, in reference to the United States military prison camp in Cuba, where prisoners deemed unlawful combatants are held by the US authorities in order to deny them official prisoner-of-war status and the most rudimentary human rights. The new secure unit could be contained within one of the six maximum-security prisonsa prison within a prisonor could be established as a new separate entity. The proposal for a separate unit comes from a review of how to deal with prisoners convicted of terrorist offences, set up by the Justice Secretary Michael Gove. The review, led by former prison governor and senior Home Office official Ian Acheson, is to be published in March. The last occasion in the UK when prisoners were held together based on sharing an ideological belief was the infamous H block cells in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland in the 1980s. In the H blocks, the inmates were deemed to be political prisoners and were classed as either loyalists or nationalists, and duly segregated. In a recent speech, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron all but signed up to setting up a separate unit for Muslims convicted of terrorist offences. He said, I am prepared to consider major changes: from the imams we allow to preach in prison to changing the locations and methods for dealing with prisoners convicted of terrorism offences, if that is what is required. The proposals to isolate Muslim prisoners in British prisons is part of the demonization of Muslims, who are constantly associated with terrorism and extremism in the press. Prior to Camerons speech, Home Secretary Theresa May called for an extremism officer to be sited in prisons to deal with radicalisation. What is defined as extremism by the government is now so broad, it could include virtually any form of opposition to the British ruling elite. In December 2013, the then Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition published a report entitled Prime Ministers Task Force on Tackling Radicalisation and Extremism. It defined extremism as vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We also include in our definition of extremism calls for the death of members of our armed forces, whether in this country or overseas. There is a range of extremist individuals and organisations, including Islamists, the far right and others. [emphasis added] There are now more than 85,600 people in UK prisons. While five percent of the general population is Muslim, in prisons the figure is one in seven (roughly 15 percent) and in high-security prisons the figure is nearer 20 percent. The number of Muslims in jail has roughly doubled over the decade from 2004 to 2014, with their numbers going up from around 6,500 to over 12,000. A Muslim Council of Britain report published last year, based on the latest census data, showed the unemployment rate among Muslims to be higher than the average. It found that around half of the British Muslim population lives in the bottom 10 percent of local authority districts rated by deprivation. Cameron and May are following the example of the escalating assault on the social and democratic rights of Muslims being enforced in France. The French government trialled a separate secure unit for convicted Islamist terrorists at Fresnes prison, near Paris. This has now been extended to five other prisons throughout France, with the prospect of eventually setting up such units in 26 prisons nationwide. Each of these units holds between 20 and 25 prisoners. Their access to social and recreational activities is severely restricted, as is their access to the Internet and phone communication. They are held under close surveillance. This level of isolation and surveillance is comparable to that imposed at Guantanamo Bay. A February 12 Guardian article on the secure units in France noted: Inmates are selected based on the supposed radicalization threat they represent using a detection grid assessing personality, background and observed religious behaviour. France has also recruited nearly 400 extra wardens, social workers, psychologists and surveillance specialists for its larger prisons, as well as more Muslim chaplains. The over representation of Muslims in French prisons is even more stark than in British prisons. The Guardian noted a 2004 survey by Farhad Khosrokhavar, an Iranian-born Professor of Sociology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. He estimated that around 50 percent of the French prison population are Muslims. This figure rose to 70 percent for those short-term prisoners held in jails on the outskirts of large cities. As in Britain, many French Muslims, mainly of Algerian origin, live in conditions of deprivation and wretched poverty in areas of high unemployment, such as in the banlieues (housing estates) around Paris. Many of the Muslims held in French prisons come from such run-down estates. The assault on the democratic rights of Muslims is far advanced in France. As far back as September 2010, the French Senate voted into law a bill banning the wearing in all public places of full-face veils, such as the burqa or niqab, worn by some Islamic women. Following the terrorist attacks in Paris in November last year, a state of emergency was declared. Recently, the lower house of the French parliament voted for the state of emergency to be incorporated into the French constitution, making it a permanent feature. A report issued at the beginning of February by Human Rights Watch noted how the state of emergency was being used to target Muslims and create an atmosphere of fear and panic. It noted, France has carried out abusive and discriminatory raids and house arrests against Muslims under its sweeping new state of emergency law. The measures have created economic hardship, stigmatized those targeted, and have traumatized children. The Cameron governments pursuit of anti-Muslim policies a la francaise is ominous. The ongoing scapegoating of Muslims is being consciously utilised in order to shift politics further to the right. The demonization of Muslims in France has only benefited far right and fascistic forces. Although it eventually came third, the far-right Front National emerged strengthened from the December regional elections, after winning the first round amid a poisonous atmosphere of police repression and anti-Muslim hysteria. Polands right-wing nationalist government has rapidly expanded its police state measures in recent weeks. Since assuming power last autumn, the Law and Justice Party (PiS), has stripped the constitutional court of its power, brought the intelligence services directly under its control, co-opted public radio and television in line with the state and launched a rearmament programme for use at home and abroad. Since the beginning of the year, the government has enacted a series of authoritarian laws. At the end of January, parliament rushed through a law in an emergency session that subordinates the state prosecutors office to the Ministry of Justice. The functions of the prosecution service and Ministry of Justice were only separated in 2009. The elimination of this separation, which PiS had promoted in its election campaign, represents a massive infringement on the balance of powers between the executive and judicial branches of government. The PiS government will thus be in a position to intervene directly into investigations by the state prosecutor and influence proceedings. Justice Minister Zbigniew Zbioro is among the most right-wing and hated figures in the government. He held the same post in the PiS government of 2005-2006. During that period, he controlled the state prosecutors office, which he used to carry out substantial purging of the state apparatus in the interests of his party. Zbioro was accused at the time of ordering journalists and politicians to be spied upon. Another law passed in January, which came into force at the beginning of February, drastically expands police surveillance powers. According to the non-governmental organisation Panoptykon, the police can legally access virtually all personal data of an Internet userfrom passwords and e-mails to medical data. To date, police could only request such data in writing from firms if they required it for an ongoing investigation. Companies then had to give out the data without any questions. Now, the process for the police has been made even easier: without a written request, the police merely need to contact the firm or even collect the data themselves. Unlike in the past, access to the data does not have to be approved by a court. According to newspaper Polityka, which is aligned with the opposition Citizens Platform (PO), the law also does away with the legally protected obligation of lawyers to not forward to the judiciary or police information given to them by a client in confidence. Dr. Wojciech Marchwicki, a Polish lawyer, told Polityka that with comprehensive access to data, it would be easy for the state to blackmail people or defame them by publishing details about their professional or private lives. In addition, the police can install surveillance programmes on private computers with court approval, without the affected person being informed about this prior to it taking place. In recent weeks, several demonstrations have been held against the law. As with earlier protests, these have been dominated by the so-called Committee for the Defence of Democracy (KOD). The committee is formally independent of all parties, but closely tied to PO and the liberal opposition Nowoczesna (Modern). The perspective of the protests is to appeal to the European Union (EU), and above all Germany, to adopt harsh measures against the PiS government. For the first time in its history, the EU set into motion the so-called rule of law mechanism. Brussels thus enters a process of dialogue, presenting representatives of the Polish government with proposals to change Polish laws. If Warsaw continues to refuse to adopt these measures, the EU can strip Poland of its voting and veto rights at EU summits and in negotiations. The reactionary character of appealing to the EU is clear from the case of the law on state surveillance. In recent years, the EU has ensured that state surveillance in all member states has been massively expanded. The German government introduced a data storage law and permits communications to be comprehensively intercepted by the foreign intelligence service (BND), which then shares data with the US National Security Agency (NSA). Similarly comprehensive surveillance programmes exist in other EU member states. It was no accident that no European country granted asylum to Edward Snowden or Julian Assange after they exposed the massive surveillance programmes of the Western powers. On the contrary, European governments actively supported and publicly defended the witch-hunt of Assange and Snowden by the US government. That the so-called democratic movement is appealing to such forces shows it has no genuine interest in defending democratic rights. The KOD movement in reality represents the interests of sections of the Polish bourgeoisie and middle class, which fear that the PiS government will restrict their social privileges and political interests, and orient foreign policy too closely towards the US. In tandem with the strengthening of the states domestic powers, the PiS government has increased military spending and rearmed paramilitary units, integrating them into the state apparatus. In total, these units are now made up of 80,000 men, corresponding to some two thirds of the regular Polish armed forces of 120,000. The strengthening of the military and state apparatus is aimed first of all at preparing for war with Russia and closer integration into the war strategy of US imperialism. At the same time, the PiS government is well aware that it sits atop a social powder keg, and, facing growing social tensions, is preparing for a confrontation with the working class. According to a report by the economic web site bankier.pl from the summer of 2015, 43 percent of the Polish population lived on less than the financial minimum for survival. Roughly 4.6 million people, more than 10 percent of the entire population of 40 million, had just 514 zloty (around 117) available to spend. A further 6 million people lived on just 1,000 zloty (around 230). In recent weeks, shipyard workers in Gdansk went on strike. Miners are also threatening new strikes and protests following a series of talks that brought no results. The United Steelworkers union (USW) and Pittsburgh-based specialty steelmaker Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) announced Monday that they had come to a tentative agreement to end the six-month lockout of 2,200 workers at the companys flat-rolled products division. Any agreement reached by the USW after it deliberately isolated the embattled ATI workers can only be a miserable betrayal, which should be decisively rejected. From the beginning, the USWs goal has been to supply ATI with millions of dollars in concessions to keep the company competitive amid a deep global slump in the steel industry. This is a tremendous victory for a very brave group of workers, USW International President Leo W. Gerard predictably said in a statement announcing the deal. They should be proud of this agreement, and of the resolve they demonstrated throughout this six-month ordeal. USW International Vice President Tom Conway added, We look forward to ratifying this agreement, returning to work, and getting back to doing what we do best: making the best steel in the world. For half a year, the USW has worked to keep ATI workers isolated from more than 30,000 steelworkers facing similar attacks at US Steel and ArcelorMittal (AM). The aim of this divide-and-conquer strategy has been to weaken steelworkers and condition them for a new round of steep concessions, mill closures and mass layoffs. Earlier this week, the USW acknowledged that despite its partnership with AM and offer of huge concessionsincluding lump-sum payments tied to hot-rolled steel prices instead of wage increasesthe worlds largest steelmaker was still pressing for sweeping concessions. These include lower health benefits and increased premiums for current and retired workers and reduced severance and supplemental unemployment benefits. Now that it is winding down the ATI struggle, the USW will now go to work trying to batter down the resistance of AM workers. Despite controlling a $150 million-dollar strike fund, paid for with workers dues money, the USW kept ATI workers on poverty rations since the lockout began in August 2015. By announcing an agreement this week, just as unemployment benefits for the ATI workers expire, the USW hopes to starve ATI workers into submission. Neither the USW nor ATI have commented on the contents of the new four-year contract, which they say will not be made public until it is ratified. Following the example at US Steel, the USW will do everything they can to prevent workers from seeing the details of the agreement and discussing it as union officials try to ram it through. The deal will do nothing to preserve the jobs of workers at ATIs mills in Leechburg and Midland, Pennsylvania, which the company has announced it is idling. Workers who spoke with the World Socialist Web Site the day before the deal was announced expressed anger at the situation. Money-wise, its real bad, explained Nicholas Relich, a slitter at the Bagdad mill with 27 years at ATI. I drained my savings account making my truck payments. Im probably going to lose my truck if we dont get an extension on unemployment. We dont get strike pay, we just get food cards. I dont know how long they [the USW] will give us that either. If they show us a contract now, a lot of the guys would probably take it, just to get back to work. ATI cut off workers health care benefits at the end of November, forcing many workers to forgo necessary health care. Weve got emergency health care right now, through the union. However, Im paying for all my prescriptions out of pocket. Its over $100 a month. I quit taking a few because of that. One was over $100 a month itself, so I stopped taking that. A lot of workers found other jobs. They have to; theyre on unemployment and they have house payments. Some went out of state. As part of unemployment, youve got to do job searches, two or three a week, explained Steve Dentici, a maintenance worker at ATI Bagdad with 28 years. Ive got all these pages [of signatures from jobs he applied to], but of all those jobs I applied to, even jobs that didnt pay much, I never even got a call. They look at your background and they dont even want to take a chance. They know that if they hire you, youre probably going back because youre going to be making more money. They dont want to put you through all that training. Were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Speaking of ATIs concession demands, a worker who asked not to be named said, I think one of the biggest things was the outsourcing of the maintenance jobs. A maintenance man told me, If they do that with us, whats to stop them from doing that with other people? ATI is demanding the ability to contract out all non-core positions, which they say constitute 40 percent of ATIs union workforce. In addition, ATI is calling for thousands of dollars of increases in out-of-pocket health care payments, and scheduling rules that transform workers into on-call employees. The same worker commented on the recent US Steel contract, which removes defined-benefit pensions for new hires, a demand ATI is also making. The new hires dont get a pension, they get a 401(k). Thats a double-edged sword. What happens when those guys are 51 percent of the workforce? Theyre to going sell the retirees out, thinking you didnt think of them. Since the beginning of the lockout, ATI has been running its mills at limited capacity with a scab workforce, largely supplied by strikebreaking firm Strom Engineering. Nicholas spoke of the horrific conditions currently inside the plants. I know one scab whos working in there, fixing all their stuff, and hes telling me whats going on in there. He says that a lot of the scabs want out. They thought it was just temporary work. Now theyve got their money, they want to go spend it. Theyre stuck working 12-hour days, seven days a week. There are also local people theyve hired. I know an electrician who got hired as a scab; he was a neighbor of my friends. He got hurt the first week breathing some sort of acid and had to go to the hospital. There is very little steel production going on. This is partially because they dont have many orders, and they stockpiled. The global steel industry is in a deep state of slump. The price of benchmark hot-rolled coil steel fell from over $600/ton in February 2013 to under $300/ton in December 2015. Global overcapacity is now more than 300 million tons per year, more than all US steel production. Steel companies in the UK, Australia, Italy, and New Zealand have all announced major layoffs. China, which produced half the worlds steel, has announced plans to shut down 150 million tons of annual capacity, destroying an estimated 400,000 steel jobs. Responding to this pressure as much as to the lockout, ATI has idled its plants in Bagdad and Midland, and will likely keep them closed even after any contract agreement. ATI has said its Midland plant could remain idled into 2018. Theyre going to close Bagdad down, so I dont know whether theyre going to transfer us somewhere else, said Nicholas, Were just not sure whats going to happen. Meanwhile, locked-out workers at alumina maker Sherwin Alumina face similar uncertainty as the company moves forward with the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process after a lockout lasting over a year. The USW fully accepts the bankruptcy process, and has signed on to the creditors committee in a self-serving attempt to profit from yet another devastating bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the USW states, Our union is prepared to work with any buyer that is committed to operating the plant and bargaining a fair contract. In other words, the USW will happily work with any buyer to restore the plants profitability on the backs of workers. Like other unions in the US and internationally, the USW is a nationalist organization that fully supports the profit system. The USWs answer to the crisis of the steel industry is to put the costs onto the backs of the workers they supposedly represent, while calling for trade war with China. The USWs denunciations of Chinese dumping aim to turn US workers against their brothers and sisters in China, and ultimately toward war with China. A fourth worker, who asked not to be named, saw through this deceit, Im sure they [the steel companies] are organized behind closed doors. I dont know what kind of conspiracy theyve got going on, but its got to be international. Theyre pitting us against each other, and just wringing their hands, laughing all the way to the bank. The third worker criticized the USW negotiators: These guys go down there with their suits and go to the companies saying, You need this, and we can do that. Theyre not militant at all, and they tell us one day longer, stand stronger. Were not even fighting. Were sitting here on the sidelines. Well be screwed if we eat what theyre trying to feed us. The New York Police Department (NYPD) has used a military grade cellphone surveillance deviceknown as a StingRayover 1,000 times since 2008, according to documents obtained by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) last November. StingRays are briefcase-size machines that mimic cellphone towers and trick nearby cellphones into establishing a connection with it. The device can then be used to monitor communications from the phone and track the users whereabouts. Even when targeting a specific cellphone, a StingRay will gather information on other phones in the area. Public discussion of the use of StingRays by local police departments has been limited due to a non-disclosure agreement between the FBI and the Harris Corporations, which manufactures the device. Under this agreement police departmentsincluding the NYPDare barred from referencing the use of StingRays, even when information gathered by the device is central to a prosecutors argument in a criminal case. The NYCLU obtained documents last November about the NYPDs use of StingRays as part of a Freedom of Information lawsuit, and received further information last week after appealing its initial lawsuit. This included a disclosure from the NYPD that it has used StringRays roughly 1,016 times between 2008 and May 2015. Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU, stated, If carrying a cell phone means being exposed to military grade surveillance equipment, then the privacy of nearly all New Yorkers is at risk. The NYPD has become infamous for its extensive surveillance system, which has included spying on Muslim communities, its policy of stop-and-frisk that has allowed the department to establish electronic and analog databases of millions of predominantly minority working class youth, and most recently its Community Policing program based on cultivating a network of informants in working class neighborhoods. New York police also have admitted to using ZBV vans equipped with x-ray technology, allowing officers to see through clothing and other light barriers without the individual being aware he or she is being scanned. NYPD Commissioner William Bratton, an appointee of progressive Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio, stated last year that he would not talk about ZBVs, because, It falls into the range of security and counterterrorism activity that we engage in. The de Blasio administrations decision to routinely deploy military grade surveillance equipmentsuch as ZBVs and StingRayswithout disclosing this information, exposes the mayors campaign promise to reform the NYPD as a pack of lies. The NYPD also disclosed in the lawsuit that they had no written policy on using StingRays, but usually obtained a pen register order before using the device. The requirements for obtaining a pen register order are less demanding than the probable cause required for obtaining a warrant. Mariko Hirose, the NYCLU lawyer that received the documents from the NYPD, explained to the New York Times, The text of New Yorks pen register law does not apply to StingRays, and for good reason. That law was intended only to authorize the use of the primitive devices of the past that capture outgoing and incoming phone numbers on a landline. Were now living in a different technological reality. Last year, the Department of Justice shifted policies demanding that all use of StingRays, except in emergency circumstances, be required to obtain warrants. The FBI also is required to obtain warrants for the use of StingRays, though with an extremely broad definition of exceptions. Both Federal and NYPD officials have made fraudulent claims that StingRays do not pickup bystander information, and are primarily used to track terrorists and violent criminals. Despite this, there have been multiple recorded cases of the NYPD using StingRays to track non-violent criminals, and at least one instance of the technology being used to locate a witness. FBI Director James Comey admitted in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee last October that StingRays were placed in planes and used to monitor mass protests against police brutality in both Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland. The US Marshalls revealed in response to a Freedom of Information Request filed by USA Today that it has deployed the technology to track 5,975 individuals over an unspecified period of time. According to USA Today a Baltimore Police detective testified last year that the police force had deployed its StingRay 4,300 times since 2007. Based on a report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), at least 60 law enforcement agencies in 23 states own StingRays. Many others may not be disclosing purchases of the device. The New York State Police alone have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on StingRays and related equipment. In a separate Freedom of Information lawsuit last year, the NYCLU also uncovered that the Erie County Sheriffs office, in New York State, has used StingRays 47 times over the past four years, and only obtained a pen register order from a court once. Ultimately, the wide-scale use of military grade surveillance equipment is part of police-state measures put in place to defend the wealthy elite from the working population. The ruling elites fear is particularly palpable in New York City, which is plagued by massive inequality and record-breaking homelessness. Over 400 workers at Tata Motors Nano plant in Sanand, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, in the western Indian state of Gujarat have been on strike since Monday, demanding the reinstatement of 28 workers suspended by the management. Striking workers are continuing to protest outside the factory. Significantly, there is no trade union at the site, so workers formed their own seven-member committee to conduct the strike. A government labour official who attempted to intervene to shut down the walkout said the workers refused to meet her. Now the department has started the process of prohibiting the strike and declaring it illegal, M.S. Patel, assistant commissioner of the Labour Department, told the media yesterday. The dispute began two months ago, when Tata Motors suspended two workers on alleged disciplinary grounds. One worker was accused of abusing his supervisor, while the others offence was walking into another department. Workers responded by going on an immediate strike to oppose this management witch-hunt. In order to end that industrial action, government labour department officials immediately intervened to negotiate a compromise. As a result, the company said it would conduct an inquiry into the accusations against the two workers within a month and submit a report. On that promise, workers called off the strike. However, the managements failure to keep its promise after two months led workers to strike on Monday night, demanding the immediate reversal of the suspension of the two workers. The company went onto the offensive by suspending 26 more workers, accusing of them scratching and damaging some 50 vehicles in the plant. Workers then demanded the reinstatement of all 28 workers. Determined to intimidate any opposition among workers, the company insists that no suspended worker will be taken back without an inquiry. In an attempt to criminalise workers, the management branded the strike illegal and barred all workers from speaking to the media. Police were deployed at the plant on Tuesday to terrorise workers. In a statement, Tata Motors claimed there had been continued agitations for further monetary increases as well as protests against disciplinary actions against those instigating the workmen, resulting in serious threat to company personnel as well as losses due to tampering. Tata Motors originally planned to build the Nano plant at Singur in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. However, farmers in Singur mounted continuous protests against then Stalinist Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM)-led state governments forced land acquisitions to clear a site for the plant. That forced Tata Motors in 2008 to shift the proposed complex to Gujarat, where then Chief Minister Narendra Modis Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) state government assured companies of the provision of land and other facilities, free from workers opposition. Given this background, the eruption of the flash strike at the Nano plant is particularly significant, because Modi, now the prime minister, has promoted Gujarat as a model for India as a whole. Under Modis rule, Gujarat was hailed as a prosperous and high growth state. The Indian ruling elite backed Modis elevation as prime minister, hoping that he would repeat his success in Gujarat at the national level. Modis record in Gujarat was based on wooing local and foreign investors, providing them cheap land, other infrastructure and trouble-free cheap labour, through autocratic and draconian methods. He facilitated the operations of big business at the expense of the vast majority of the states population, that is, the working people and rural toilers. Elected as prime minister nearly two years ago, Modi promised to bring jobs and development to India, but instead the economy has been battered by the global slump. Indias exports have fallen for 14 months in a row, industrial production is stagnantthe Nano plant itself is running at only 10 percent capacityand tens of millions of workers are unemployed or underemployed. The Nano workers strike is a sign of the growing social unrest fuelled by the deteriorating living and working conditions of workers in Gujarat and throughout India. This is a country where 70 percent of the population has been forced to live on less than $US2 a day. Over 200,000 state government workers in Tamil Nadu struck work for 10 days from February 10, demanding the abolition of a contributory pension system, higher wages and the filling of vacancies in the government sector. The current agitation by Jats, a sub-caste based in northern state of Haryana, demanding inclusion in the central governments reservation system, i.e. a guaranteed quota of public sector jobs and university places, is another indication of the intensifying discontent. However, their reservation demand is politically bankrupt and reactionary, serving to divide the working class along caste lines, and reflecting the betrayal by trade unions of a series of workers struggles. There have been major strikes in the auto industry, as well as other sectors, during recent years. Opposition to the widespread use of contract labour, as a brutal form of exploitation and a lever to push down conditions for all workers, has been a key issue in most of these struggles. Workers at Maruti Suzuki auto assembly plant at Manesar, Gurgaon, in the northern Indian state of Haryana, engaged in series of strikes and plant occupations in 2011 against slave labour conditions and the contract labour system. In March 2014, Toyotas two plants at Bidadi in Bangalore were shut down for 36 days by a strike over higher wages. However, Indias two Stalinist parties, the CPM and the Communist Party of India (CPI), and their affiliated trade unions have again and again isolated and sold out these struggles. Politically, these parties have joined or propped up a succession of national governments that have pursued pro-market agendas. In the states where they have formed governments themselves, as in West Bengal and Kerala, they have imposed pro-investor policies. The Nano workers strike has erupted under conditions where Modis government is scheduled to release its 2016-17 budget proposals next Monday. It is now under mounting pressure from the international and Indian corporate elite for further concessions for investors and harsher attacks on the living and working conditions of workers and rural toilers. This will fuel the disaffection among broad sections of the population. The Nano plant in Sanand has become a microcosm of the stalling of the Indian economy, which is triggering aggressive moves by major companies such as Tata Motors to boost their global competitiveness by further cutting workers wages and conditions. Because of fierce cost-cutting throughout the auto industry internationally, the plant reportedly only produced 42,560 cars between January 2014 and December 2015, a fraction of its capacity of 250,000 cars per year. These are the conditions driving the mass suspension of Nano workers. Tata Motors, backed by the state and central governments, is intent on intimidating and breaking the courageous resistance of the plants workers to its offensive. Hyderabad: The generation gap between parents and students leads parents to impose their own views and expectations on their children, causing depression and disappointment in them, leading them to suicide, experts said in the backdrop of the series of student deaths earlier this week. Students in their mid-teens are unable to resolve conflicts arising out of the desire and expectations of their parents. Against their actual need for proper attention, they face pressure, comparisons and at times confrontation. The role of the educational institutions cannot be ruled out. Colleges focus only on marks and not on the students all-round development, said child rights activists. Each student can have a specific interest or talent, but forcing all of them to study the same things is putting them in trouble. The transition from school to college gives a grandiose feeling of enjoying campus life, bunking, enjoying movies and new-found freedom. Adding to this feeling, the students desire to wear fashionable clothes, purchase modern bikes and smart phones also creeps in, which many parents cannot fulfill. Competition from peer groups also leads to disappointment and impulsivity. There can be conflicts from any side. Academic decline and increased parental pressure can lead them to lie to their parents, making them more vulnerable to stress. Due to this, they become impulsive or depressed and resort to suicide or use drugs. said consultant psychiatrist Dr Preethi Swaroop. Experts said that at these crisis moments, children need someone like parents, friends or elders whom they can confide in. Punishing their child for wrongdoings may satisfy the parents but it will have an adverse reaction on the child. Instead they should be talked to patiently or counselled, Dr Swaroop said. Excess pressure from institutions and high expectations from parents are also pushing them to commit suicide. The present generation is witnessing greater competition between parents than between their kids. By only investing money, they are depriving their children of parental love and affection and pushing them into such institutions. The education system is only focused on making them study and getting marks and money, due to which students are forced to study without proper food and sleep. This is a violation of their rights from the part of the institutions. said Achyutha Rao, Society for Protection of Child Rights member. Most student suicides are reported from corporate colleges, he said. Nearly 25 students studying Intermediate in the city colleges committed suicide in 2016. ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A construction worker was run over by a dump truck and killed while working on the Interstate 4 construction project in the Orlando area. The Florida Highway Patrol reports that the 34-year-old worker was killed Wednesday. His name hasn't been released pending notification of next of kin. FHP says in a report that the dump truck loaded with dirt had pulled into a work area off the eastbound shoulder of the highway. At some point, the construction worker walked behind the stopped truck. He was run over when the truck's driver began backing up. The highway patrol continues to investigate. VALDOSTA, Ga. (AP) The former president of a south Georgia bank has been sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay $3.9 million in restitution to government agencies saddled with losses from fraudulent loans. Gary Patton Hall Jr., former president of the Tifton Banking Company, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court. He pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in December. Prosecutors say Hall hid past-due loans from other bank executives and federal regulators, resulting in millions of dollars in losses after delinquent loans were renewed. They say Hall in 2009 obtained $3.8 million in taxpayer-funded bailout money from the government to help the bank recover from losses caused by his own acts of fraud. Tifton Banking Company was closed in November 2010 before it could repay the bailout money. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida law-enforcement agencies will have to turn over rape kits for testing within 30 days under a bill that has passed the Florida Senate. The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday for the bill that is a top priority of Attorney General Pam Bondi. The legislation was proposed after an audit released last fall showed that as many as 13,000 rape kits have gone untested in Florida. The legislation (SB 636) sponsored by Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto would require that tests turned over to the state's crime lab be tested within 120 days after they are submitted. A similar bill is moving in the Florida House. Legislators are also considering setting aside money to take care of the backlog of thousands of rape kits that have not been tested. Senthils wife Thirukammal with children and relatives at the mortuary of Government Rajaji Hospital on Wednesday. Madurai: A 32-year-old remand prisoner was murdered inside his prison cell by a fellow inmate at the Madurai Central Prison in the small hours on Wednesday. Sources in the prison claim both the murderer and the deceased suffered from depression. Prison authorities had rushed Senthil (32), who had sustained grievous head injuries, to the Government Rajaji Hospital, but he died on the way. Around 1 am, the prison official heard a loud screaming noises inside the premises. When we rushed towards those direction, we spotted Senthil with blood injuries side the cell ( D 12 ) desperately gasping for air, said the official sources from prison. The other remand inmate Senthil Kumar, who was lodged with the deceased, had trashed him on the iron bars of the cell. The blood was found smeared over the walls of the cell, said the sources. The officials first took Senthil to the hospital inside the prison, but as he continued to bleed profoundly, the doctors there referred him to GRH. The sources said that both of them were undergoing imprisonment for murder case. Sethil kumar from Kalikudi near Madurai murdered his father and Senthil from Keerathurai murdered a elderly man over petty quarrel.They were also suffering from depression, said the sources. However senior prison officer dismissed the claims that both of they were lodged in the same cell because they were suffering from depression. How will we allow the depressed prisoners to stay together, he questioned. The incident might have occurred due to sudden provocation, but we need to conduct through investigation on the case, said the officer.The prison sources also claims that Senthil Kumar reported to confessed to the police that he was under the possession of holy spirit. Meanwhile the Madurai Judicial Magistrate V Vishnu Madhu conducted to judicial inquiry on this incident. The relatives of deceased Senthil is refusing to receive the body demanding proper explanation from the prison authorities. My husband received a call from the prison authorities around 1 am informing about his death and asked us to visit to GRH. Since then we heard nothing from them, said Rathinam, a close relative of the deceased. Senthil wife Thirukammal was seen inconsolable along with the three children in the mortuary in the hospital.The police sources claims that Senthil was notorious for picking up quarrel and assaulting the neighbours, his wife left to her parents house few months ago. Though Senthil received bail order on the murder case, he was not released from jail because his parents didnt produced security bond for him, said the officer. However Thirukammal claims that they allowed his to stay in the prison hoping that would bring in positive change in his attitude. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) -- A Florida State physicist is helping NASA with a new space telescope. Eric Hsiao, an assistant professor of physics, is part of a team that's working on the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), which is scheduled to launch in the mid 2020s. It'll be used to observe supernovas and for better understanding dark energy. Officials say the telescope will have a field of view 100 times bigger than the Hubble telescope, and will help scientists answer some of the most fundamental questions about our universe. According to a release, the telescope will be so versatile that it is expected to house several dark energy experiments, as well as a survey of planets beyond our solar system. It also will be equipped with a variety of instruments, including one called a coronagraph, which is designed to block the glare of individual stars and thus allow scientists to directly image planets in other solar systems. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Florida's Republican Senate primary is getting more crowded. Manatee County homebuilder Carlos Beruff has entered the race, joining four other major GOP candidates seeking to replace Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. Beruff will make his announcement Monday morning in Miami, followed by an event in Sarasota that afternoon. But he's already set up a campaign account and produced a two-minute video explaining why he's running. The video shows him introducing himself to voters and explaining why he's running. That's something he'll have to do a lot more of, since he's never run for office before. Also seeking the seat Rubio is giving up to run for president are Orlando businessman Todd Wilcox, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera and U.S. Reps. David Jolly and Ron DeSantis TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The Florida Legislature is sending Gov. Rick Scott a bill to replace a Confederate general's statue as one of Florida's two contributions to the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection. The House approved the bill Wednesday requiring the Great Floridians Committee to recommend three individuals to be considered by the Legislature and governor to replace Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith. Smith is famous as the last Confederate officer to surrender a significant military force in the Civil War. The bill passed despite protests from members who say it doesn't respect Florida's history. House sponsor Jose Diaz of Miami denied that. Diaz also said he's received online hate mail and veiled threats over his handling of the bill. Speculation on replacements has included Walt Disney, environmentalist Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and others. WHIGHAM, Ga. (WTXL) -- Trucks clearing debris, chainsaws cutting trees, and a flag hanging on by a thread. All after a tornado swept through near Whigham early Wednesday morning. Local residents surprised by the damage, said that it came through quickly. "It was like a big boom noise", said one of the residents impacted by the storm. "So that's what I think woke us all up and we checked to make sure we were all okay and everything." Trees were uprooted all across providence road, originally blocking access to the small neighborhood along the street. "It was a mess, but thankfully nothing on the church was hurt", said Bob Knight, pastor of the El Bethel Baptist Church in the neighborhood. "Just the outer trees." But this didn't stop families from quickly getting together to clean up. "We were cleaning up", We have some folks from our church who have the equipment and our neighbor next door has some equipment and they're helping us get everything cleaned up." And through all of the noise, wind, and rain, there were some encouraging signs, like a glass bottle sculpture unscathed, or a family smiling through the aftermath, thankful to be alive and safe. The tornado was confirmed by the national weather service to be an EF-1 tornado. With winds of around 90 mph. All part of a night filled with several severe thunderstorms with at least fifteen separate storm reports. VALDOSTA, GA (WTXL) - South Georgia Medical Center's stroke program was given a statewide recognition. The team was named the Coverdell Champion Hospital of the Year by Georgia Coverdell Acute Stroke Registry. The award goes to one hospital in each size category and winners are selected based on those who score best in nationally accepted best practices. This is the team's third award from GCASR in a row. The group was also recognized for their fast response time as they were one of four in the entire state to average less than 45 minutes from a patient getting to the hospital to getting medication. The SGMC Stroke Program, now in its 5th year, began in 2011. Among other awards awarded to the group include being named as one of America's 50 Best Hospitals for Stroke Care. The Coverdell Champion Hospital of the Year award is in honor of the late Senator Paul Coverdell of Georgia. Coverdell died of a stroke in 2000. These awards add to GCASR's effort to improve hospital care to stroke patients. ATTAPULGUS, GA (WTXL) - Troopers are releasing the name of the person who died in a crash in Decatur County. According to the Decatur County Sheriff's Office, the crash happened Wednesday morning on Highway 27 near Watauga Road in Attapulgus. Georgia State Patrol said 28-year-old Maria Handsford was driving northbound on Highway 27 near mile marker 6 when she drifted onto the median. Troopers said she overcorrected, swerving across the northbound lanes. They said she then overcorrected again, swerving into the southbound lanes where she hit Gary Cooper's vehicle head-on. The cars came to a rest and caught on fire, trapping the victims, troopers said. They added that motorists who drove by helped notify law enforcement, who came and helped free the victims. Handsford was pronounced dead, while Cooper was rushed to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital in serious but stable condition. Cooper's passenger was taken to Bainbridge Memorial Hospital with minor injuries. Georgia State Patrol is urging drivers to slow down and always pay attention to the road. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. New Delhi: Asserting that the Rail Budget for 2016-17 reflects the aspirations of the common people, Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday said his budget is inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to make railways the backbone of India's progress and economic development. Prabhu, who is presenting his second budget in the Parliament, said this is a budget, which reflects the aspirations of each and every member of the Railway's family. "A budget that reflects the aspirations of the common citizens of India. This is a budget that has been fashioned by a creative partnership: with ideas from my colleagues in Parliament, industry associations, commuter associations and practically all sections of the society. I would like to thank each one of you," he added. Read: Rail Budget 2016: 'Core objective is to grow, create jobs, provide service' Prabhu said co-operation, collaboration and communication are the hallmarks of Indian Railways' journey forward. "We need to reorganize and rejuvenate," he added. The Railway Minister said three pillars of the strategy: Nav Arjan (New Revenues), Nav Manak (New Norms) and Nav Sanrachna (New Structures) have been laid out to reflect the new thought process. "Nav Arjan (New Revenues): Exploit new resources of revenues so that every asset, tangible or non-tangible gets optimally monetised. Nav Manak (New Norms): A 'zero-based budgeting' approach to the financials of the ensuing year; improvemkent in efficiency yardsticks and procurement practices to bring them in line with international best practices," said Prabhu. "Nav Sanrachna (New Structures): Need to reimagining the conventional ways o solving issues, Co-operation, collaboration, creativity and communication to be hallmark of decision-making actions," he added. You are the owner of this article. RAMESWARAM: A senior official of the Delhi Government on Wednesday inspected the belongings of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to finalise the modalities to take them back to New Delhi to be exhibited at the famous Dilli Haat. A.R. Sanjay Garg, joint secretary, archives department of the Delhi government met Mr Sheikh Salim, grandson of Dr Kalam at the Kalam House here and inspected the belongings, mostly books, of the former President. These books and veena, which Dr Kalam fondly recited during his leisure time, were transported to his home town of Rameswaram in October last year after the Union Government rejected demands for setting up of a knowledge centre after the former President at the 10, Rajaji Marg residence, where he spent his last days. Mr Garg inspected the books and belongings of Dr Kalam and got to know from Mr Salim about the significance. Mr Salim also took Mr Garg around House of Kalam where an exhibition on Dr Kalam is on. The belongings would now be taken to New Delhi from Rameswaram through trucks. They will be kept at the famous Dilli Haat till the Delhi government builds a knowledge center in his memory. The Delhi government will have a permanent exhibition on Dr Kalam at INA for sometime where these books will be displayed and used for research and other purposes. Mr Salim thanked the Delhi government for the decision to build a knowledge centre for Dr Kalam and said the senior official has prepared a list of belongings that would be taken to New Delhi. Rest will be displayed at House of Kalam in Rameswaram. We are really thankful to the Delhi government for its decision to honour Dr Kalam by announcing a Knowledge Centre in his name. We hope the future generations would benefit from his books and works, Mr Salim said. SALEM: In a shocking incident, a mentally disturbed man, who was depressed over being unmarried, murdered his mother and brother by slitting their throats with a knife and attempted to kill himself over family issues in Vazhapadi in Salem district on Wednesday. Police said Rajammal, 52, an office assistant at the Athur post office was living with her elder son Senthil, 35, at Nadupatti in Vazhapadi. While her husband Subramani passed away few years ago, her younger son Rajsekar, 32, and daughter Vijaya, got married and were living separately. Police said Senthil, who remained unmarried due to his disability often picked quarrel with his family members over the issue. Around 7.30 am on Wednesday, Senthil told a woman engaged in farm work near his house that he had killed his mother and brother. She immediately rushed into his house and found them lying dead in a pool of blood. As she raised an alarm, the public caught Senthil and handed him over to Vazhapadi police. A police team led by the SP, G. Subbulakshmi, DSP Somasundaram and inspector Umashanker visited the scene of crime and held enquiries. The bodies of the deceased persons were sent for post-mortem at the government hospital in Salem. The SP Subbulakshmi told journalists that Senthil was depressed, as he remained unmarried though his brother had got married three years ago. He murdered his brother Rajsekar, who was fast asleep by slitting his throat. When his mother got into the house just then and shouted on seeing the gory incident, Senthil murdered her also. He then attempted suicide by hanging, but decided to slit his throat with the knife, the SP said. As Senthil suffered a cut injury on his neck, the police admitted him to the government hospital in Salem. Investigations revealed that Senthil was under treatment at the Kilpauk mental hospital in Chennai till two years ago. The Population and Immigration Authority has revealed for the first time the most common names among Jews in Israel since the establishment of the state, as well as which names dominated the list every decade. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter In the 1950s, the first full decade of Israel's independence, the most popular name for boys was Moshe. This was followed by Yosef, Avraham, David , and Yitzhak. For girls, the most common name were Esther, Rachel, Sarah, Shoshana and Miriam. In the 1960s, Yosef surmounted Moshe as the most common name for boys. Other names on the list were also Biblical: Avraham, David, Yitzhak, Ya'akov, Shlomo, Shimon and Eliyahu. As for girls' names, Rachel dethroned Esther, followed by Ronit, Michal, Anat, Iris, Orly, Yael and Miriam, while Sarah plummeted sharply from third to tenth. Illustration (Photo: Shutterstock) In the 1970s, Moshe rose back to the top and David jumped from fourth to second place. Yosef, the most common name the previous decade, settled for the bronze medal this time. In the spirit of the times, three new modern names found their way into the top ten for the first time: Shai, in fourth place, Yaniv, in fifth place, and Oren, in ninth place. As for girls, Michal shot to first place, followed by Keren, Merav, Limor, Liat and Galit. Rachel, which only a decade earlier was in first place, was demoted to the tenth place. In the 1980s, Moshe retained its place at the summit, while David remained in second place, but the tradition of Biblical names for boys was shattered as Roei suddenly appeared in third place. Elad was another new name to hit the top ten. Among the girls, Michal kept the top spot, while Adi appeared in second place despite never before appearing in the top ten. In third place was Moran, another entirely new name on the list, followed by other names that had never before appeared on it: Hila, Shani, Sivan, Meital, and Shiran. Moshe finally lost its crown in the 1990s, when it was replaced by Daniel. David remained in second place, while Moshe came in at third place. Two new names became prominent: Or and Matan. A revolution also occurred for girls' names. Eden occupied the summit, followed by Sapir, with Adi settling for third place. Daniel stayed in first place in the 2000s. Itay made an impressive leap from 19th place in the 1990s to second place, while Uri captured third place. Yonatan, surprisingly, managed to make the top ten at this time, taking ninth place. Among girls, another revolution occurred: Noa took first place, followed by Shira, Yael, and Tamar. Ronny, in ninth place, and Hanna, at tenth place, gained a foothold in the top ten for the first time. The current decade is only halfway done, but some trends have already arisen, with the name Itay climbing from second to first place, followed by Uri and Noam, the latter having jumped three places. Daniel fell to fourth place. Yosef, David, Yonatan, Ariel, Moshe and Ido rounded out the top ten. For girls, Shira rose from second place to first place, switching places with Noa. Tamar came in at third place, and Talia was a new entry in fourth place. Rounding out the list in 2013 were Yael, Sarah, Maya, Michal, Noya and Ronny. The Population and Immigration Ministry said that trends can clearly be seen in the names given to children in Israel - when every decade has at least one name that has a meteoric rise to prominence. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (whose name is not included in the top ten), noted that Biblical names have a place of honor in every decade. "The list is proof that the public is emotionally tied to tradition and Biblical names," he said. "Names like Yaakov, Moshe, Rachel, Rivka and Sarah may not always top the list, but they are always present, just as the tradition has been with us for years and years." Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer Michael Chabon and his wife, Israeli-American author Ayelet Waldman, plan to edit a literary project bringing together writers from all over the world over the world to write a book of essays on 50 years of Israeli occupation The book is scheduled be published in June 2017. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The project, a joint initiative by "Breaking the Silence," Peruvian Pulitzer Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, Chabon, and Waldman, will host a delegation of authors on both sides of the Green Line this year to allow them to learn about the different aspects of Israel's military presence in the Palestinian territories. The authors will visit West Bank villages and East Jerusalem, and will meet Israeli and Palestinian human rights activists, academics, and legal experts. The first delegation landed in Israel on Sunday and includes British author Hari Kunzru, American playwright Taiye Selasi, Irish author Eimar McBride, and Palestinian-Israeli playwright-author and journalist Ala Halihal. Additional authors who intend to take part in the project include Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, American author and publisher David Vargas, Irish author Colm Toibin, American author Cheryl Strayed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks, Norwegian author Lars Sobi Kristensen, American author Rachel Kushner, British author Tash Aw, and local authors Assaf Gavron, Raja Shahada, and Nir Baram. So why are Chabon and Waldman participating in this project? "A short time after we met in 1992, we traveled to Israel," Chabon told Ynet. "Even though Ayelet, the daughter of Canadian immigrants, was born in Israel, I had never visited previously. "It was a time of cautious optimism about the Oslo Accords," he added. "We visited friends and family and we made it to all the essential places including the Western Wall and Masada. We thought the trip would be one of many. American author Michael Chabon, Photo Credit:Jennifer Chaney "In the more than 20 years that have passed since, the optimism of the Oslo Accords has disappeared, Yitzhak Rabin was murdered, and the occupation of the West Bank has expanded," continued the prize-winning author. "We are also all shaken by the violent rhetoric from both sides and we did what many others stuck in the middle decided to do: We chose to live outside the discourse and distance ourselves from Israel. "However, Ayelet returned to Israel and Palestine in May 2014 for the first time in two decades, and met with the courageous 'Breaking the Silence' group, which recently became the target of intense attacks by the Right," said Chabon. "Its publication of soldiers' narratives, describing their experiences in the West Bank and Gaza has made it difficult for the Netanyahu government to continue its deceitful campaign. "And now things stand at a critical juncture," he said. "The right-wing Netanyahu government is threatening to prosecute 'Breaking the Silence' for treason and forcing members of the organization towear special tags when they come to the Knesset to meet with legislators. Jews are forcing other Jews to wear special tags. Jews are threatening other Jews with imprisonment and even death for expressing their point of view. The people carrying out these deeds do not even understand the astounding irony. "We decided to mark 50 years of the occupation of the West Bank by collecting candid articles about life in the Palestinian Territories written by prominent authors from around the world," Chabon explained. "We collected an amazing array of well-known stories to give life to the current situation. The articles will allow readers to understand the situation in Israel-Palestine in new and human way instead of the dark way it is portrayed in the news." The Knesset Committee for Aliyah and Absorption has allocated NIS 1.18 million to encourage the immigration of Brazilian Jews to Israel. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Only 191 Brazilian Jews moved to Israel last year, while 750 of them are expected to arrive by the end of 2016. Brazilian olim form the seventh largest group of immigrants to Israel. The money will go towards a variety of programs and initiatives aimed at addressing common problems that Brazilians face after having immigrated to Israel. In addition, the funds will go towards increasing the number of Jewish Agency representatives in Brazil to encourage aliyah, providing preparatory aliyah seminars, and finding full-time employment for new immigrants prior to their move to Israel. New immigrants at Ben Gurion International Airport (Photo: Avi Mualem) Additional emphasis will also be placed on preparing prospective students for the psychometric exams required by Israeli universities, and on increasing the number of Hebrew courses in Brazil. Likud MK Avraham Naguisa, who chairs the committee, called to increase the number of Portuguese speakers available to guide Brazilian Jews who make aliyah and assist them once they move to Israel. Gladys Berezowsky, manager of the Beit Brasil (Brazil House) organization, highlighted the lack of availability of documents translated to Portuguese from the absorption centers. Berezowsky said that dozens of applications are received daily from people who are interested in making aliyah of whom the vast majority only speak Portuguese. Bruna Drazin, who moved to Israel in 2011 from northern Brazil, told Tazpit Press Service (TPS) that while she already spoke English, many Brazilians struggle upon their arrival in Israel due to the language barrier. Everything can be hard. Almost all the websites you have are in English and Hebrew and sometimes Spanish, but never Portuguese. Some people think that Spanish is the same, but it really is not. There are many people from Brazil who cannot even read Spanish, Drazin said. It can really be a problem when you come here because you do not have any support here in Portuguese, she added. Zionist Federation representative Oded Foyer said that around fifteen Hebrew language classes will be opened in Brazil while more teachers will be trained. Hebrew was a problem for me when I came to Israel. I never thought about creating more Hebrew language classes in Brazil, but it could be a good idea. You leave your profession when you move here and you dont have the language at all, Drazin told TPS. Foyer said that the efforts to encourage aliyah will not be restricted to the large cities - Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, but will be made in rural areas as well. Joint List MK Jamal Zahalka has been refused entry to the President's Residence because of his meeting with families of terrorists. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter President Reuven Rivlin held a meeting on Wednesday with Arab leaders, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel, and the Prime Minister's Office director-general, Eli Groner. MK Zahalka requested to join the meeting two hours before it was scheduled to start, but the president decided to reject his request and bar his attendance. The president's staff notified Zahalka's aides that he was not allowed to join the meeting, but the MK arrived anyway and was stopped at the entrance by security. Joint List MKs Ayman Odeh, Ahmed Tibi, Masud Ganaim cancelled their participation in the meeting in protest. Arab MK Jamal Zahalka (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky) "While unfortunately, there are those, individual Knesset Members who seek to cynically and maliciously sabotage our ability to establish trust between us (Jews and Arabs), nevertheless we are here today because we believe in our path," Rivlin said at the meeting. "I look forward to hearing from you, Arab leaders, a clear expression of the Arab public's contempt for such obstructive attempts. Our perseverance is being tested in difficult times. I pray that we are strong enough to persist in paving our road toward a different future - for us, for our children, for our grandchildren." PMO director-general Groner and Social Equality Minister Gamliel committed that the five-year plan to invest in the Arab sector will be approved without any conditions regarding illegal construction in Arab villages or national service for Arabs. Sixty-seven Arab leaders attended the meeting - all who were invited except for one who was unable to attend due to a familial engagement. The leaders took advantage of the meeting in order to talk with the government officials about the problems faced in their sector. The president also spoke about the death of Captain (res.) Eliav Gelman, saying "We have in the last moments received the terrible news of the death of Captain Eliav Gelman, who was killed during efforts to subdue a terrorist who struck today at the Gush Etzion junction. There can be no forgiving terror, there can be no tolerating terror, and all those sitting here today must condemn terror outright. The fire of terrorism, which has taken from us so many victims, is the same fire which will burn the bridges that we are trying to build here today. I send my deepest condolences to the bereaved family." UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations carried out its first airdrop of humanitarian aid to the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Wednesday, UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien said, delivering 21 tons of relief to civilians besieged by Islamic State militants. "Earlier this morning a WFP (World Food Programme) plane dropped the first cargo of 21 (metric) tons of items into Deir al-Zor," O'Brien told the UN Security Council. "We have received initial reports ... that pallets have landed in the target area." However, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric later told reporters the WFP was still trying to get information on where the aid ended up, suggesting it may not have all reached the target area. "As you know, airdrops can be very challenging," he said. "The pallets were dropped. They're trying to reach local partners to ensure that the aid was received. British Prime Minister David Cameron slammed Israeli construction in East Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, saying the situation in the capital was "genuinely shocking." Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Cameron was responding to a question about the Palestinian plight from Labour MP Imran Hussain in the House of Commons. "I am well known for being a strong friend of Israel, but I have to say the first time I visited Jerusalem and had a proper tour around that wonderful city and saw what had happened with the effective encirclement of East Jerusalem, occupied East Jerusalem, it is genuinely shocking," the British prime minister said. British Prime Minister David Cameron (Photo: AP) He criticized the Israeli government's policies, saying "we do not support illegal settlements, we do not support what is happening in East Jerusalem and it's very important that this capital city is maintained in the way that it was in the past." Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat rejected Camerons comments, saying Cameron was wrong in his assessment because he is unfamiliar with the reality and facts on the ground. Barkat sardonically wondered what construction Cameron finds so shocking: Is it the newest and most advanced schools that we are building there? Is it the new roads that we are paving there? The childcare or the recreational centers? Where exactly does the Palestinian Authority invest in this way? He went on to cite international polls which he claimed indicate that Arab residents of the city prefer a united Jerusalem and highlighted the contrast between the lives of Arabs in Jerusalem with those in surrounding Arab countries. Jerusalem Mayor Barkat with Prime Minister Netanyahu (Photo: EPA) The situation of the residents of the city is significantly better than those in the countries which surround us and, needless to say, than the situation during the British Mandate in Israel, Barkat charged. He argued that all citizens in Jerusalem as in London have the right to live where they choose, irrespective of religion, race, or gender. Nevertheless, Barkat invited Cameron, who he said was a true friend of Israel, to join him for a personal tour of the city. I invite him to come and see how we have minimized the social gaps in eastern Jerusalem and I invite him to promote connections, developments, and local cooperation together with us instead of building walls and conflicts in the heart of Jerusalem. Cameron's comments came almost at the same time as US Secretary of State John Kerry , who said Israeli settlement construction was not helping ease the tensions between the two warring sides. "I think that I know we need to see measures taken on both sides to indicate a readiness and willingness to try to proceed forward and reduce the violence," Kerry said, when asked about heightened violence. US President Barack Obama also addressed the situation in the region during a meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II. "The situation in Israel and the West Bank, the increasing tensions that exist between Israelis and Palestinians there His majesty has been a critical component of reducing some of the immediate sources of tension around the Temple Mount and visits there, but we continue to agree that its important for us to provide both sides a sense of possibility and hope and not simply despair," the American president said. A teacher at a Jewish school in the southern French city of Marseille will stand trial in April after investigators concluded that he falsely reported being stabbed by Islamic State supporters, the prosecutors said on Thursday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Tzion Saadon invited the press to his house in Marseille in southern France the day after the supposed attack in November , saying he had been beaten by three men claiming to represent the jihadist group. But a police source confirmed on Wednesday that the man had been arrested for allegedly fabricating the story. He is not the only French teacher to be accused of lying about an ISIS attack. In January, a nursery school teacher was sent for psychiatric tests after admitting he lied about an attack in his classroom Tzion Saadon displaying the injuries he claims to have sustained in ISIS attack (Photo: AFP) But he later admitted inventing the story and cutting himself on the neck and side. The cases came with France still on edge in the wake of the November attacks in Paris , claimed by ISIS, that killed 130 people. Tzion Saadon displaying the injuries he claims to have sustained in ISIS attack (Photo: AFP) There is no doubt over another attack in Marseille in January , when a teacher wearing a kippa, a Jewish skullcap, was set upon by a self-radicalized teenager -- the latest in a series of anti-Semitic incidents in the port city. The city's top Jewish leader, Zvi Ammar, called on Jewish men and boys to stop wearing the kippa "until better days", saying: "Unfortunately for us, we are targeted. As soon as we are identified as Jewish we can be assaulted and even risk death." TEHRAN - The Iranian lawyer of a US citizen, whose son has been in custody in Iran for the past four months, says his client was detained upon returning from abroad. Attorney Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabei told The Associated Press on Thursday that he has not been able to make contact with his client, Baquer Namazi, despite his efforts and was told by authorities that he would "be informed later" about the case. He says the ailing, 80-year-old Namazi is being held in Tehran's Evin prison. Tabatabei says he believes it is unlikely Namazi, who was detained on Monday, will face "political charges" but that he is probably "detained "for some investigation only." Both Baquer Namazi and his son Siamak Namazi, detained since October in Iran, are dual U.S.-Iranian citizens. Three months after the government approved a plan to bring the remaining members of the Falash Mura community from Ethiopia to Israel, Ynet has learned that it was put on hold until a budget can be found for it. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, Eli Groner, sent an email to the team in charge of the plan's implementation, telling them that due to the fact the government approved the plan without allocating a budget for it, the aliyah of over 9,000 people still waiting in Ethiopia will be suspended until the NIS 3 billion required to fund it are allocated. The plan is the result of an extensive public campaign that has been waged by Israeli Ethiopians, Knesset members and volunteer organizations since late 2010, when the government decided to stop the organized aliyah efforts from Ethiopia. Members of the Ethiopian community in Israel have bemoaned the fact that government decisions made in recent years created a situation in which families were split apart. Thousands of Ethiopian Jews that arrived in camps set up by the State of Israel and Jewish organizations in Addis Ababa and Gondar were not allowed to make aliyah because they did not meet the necessary criteria, and their Jewishness was put in question. Members of the Falash Mura community in Gondar (Photo: Nati Marcus) Naguisa went on to say that "every day that passes by and officials in the government ignore the situation of the remainder of Ethiopia's Jews and their families in Israel, they enable the death of those waiting in the Jewish communities in Addis Ababa and Gondar." The Likud MK said freezing the plan constitutes a red line for him, and that there are others in the party who will support him on the topic. Members of the Falash Mura community in Addis Ababa (Photo: AFP) The plan, which was both approved by the government and received the go-ahead from the Finance Ministry, determined that the organized immigration of the Jews waiting in Ethiopia will begin within four months. It also determined that the interior minister will examine the applications of 9,146 members of the Falash Mura community who meet different criteria, based on the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law. Some of them have been waiting since 1999 to be permitted into Israel. The plan noted that this would be the last state-organized aliyah of Ethiopians to Israel, and that following this aliyah, requests by Ethiopian nationals seeking to make aliyah to Israel claiming they belong to the Falash Mura community will no longer be approved. A special team was formed to implement the decision, including the director-generals of the PMO and the Immigration Absorption Ministry, and representatives from the Administration of Border Crossings, Population and Immigration, the Finance Ministry's Budget Department, and the Jewish Agency. The team was supposed to present its recommendations on the topic for government approval within 60 days. Members of the Falash Mura community arriving in Israel (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg) Argawi Taspa, who made aliyah with his family in 2004, has been waiting for his sister Kassa to be allowed into Israel for 12 years now. He said the decision to put the plan on hold has led him to feel "disappointed and frustrated. We've lost our trust in the government." "We feel like we've been cheated. This is plain racism; they're being treated like problematic people. I don't think this would have happened to olim from any other country," he added. Taspa, who serves in reserves in the Paratroopers' Special Forces Company, has been fighting to bring his sister to Israel for years. He claims the government is looking for excuses not to bring the remaining 9,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel. "After everything has already been approved by the ministers, we're told there's no money. That's a fabrication. There are thousands of people in a difficult situation in the camps, after having left their villages. They sold everything they had hoping to come to the land of Israel and have been waiting for over a decade. My sister packed her bags in 2004. They told it would take a week, and she's been waiting for 12 years now." GENEVA - The United Nations will name a date on Friday for Syria's warring parties to return to the negotiating table for a second round of talks, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday. De Mistura abruptly aborted a first round of talks on Feb. 3, saying more preparatory work was needed from the "International Syria Support Group" (ISSG), led by the United States and Russia. Since then Syrian government forces, backed by Russia and Iran, have continued a major offensive against rebels around the city of Aleppo, and President Bashar Assad's government and the opposition have both said they could support a US-Russian proposal for a "cessation of hostilities". De Mistura said he would brief the UN Security Council on Friday and then announce a date for a new round of talks, but he declined to comment further. Hyderabad: The state government requires over Rs 8,000 crore to pay compensation and take up rehabilitation work for the irrigation projects in TS. While the state government has decided to allot Rs 25,000 crore in the Budget this year for irrigation projects the highest-ever allocation to any sector so far nearly 40 per cent of the amount will go for compensation and rehabilitation alone. Despite the higher allotment, it would be a difficult task for the government to meet targets due to financial constraints. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has set himself an ambitious target of bringing over one crore acres under irrigation by spending Rs 1.25 lakh crore over the next four years. To achieve this, he announced allotment of Rs 25,000 crore for irrigation projects every year, starting 2016-17. For this, Mr Rao has lined up 16 projects which involve re-engineering of existing projects besides new projects. Land acquisition for Palamuru-Ranga Reddy project and Pranahitha-Chevella project has turned too costly for the TS government. The government needs to pay around Rs 500 crore towards power charges alone to take up five lift irrigation projects, besides another Rs 800 crore towards salaries and perks for officials and staff working on projects. Among the lift irrigation projects, the SLBC-Dindi requires Rs 200 crore power charges, Devadula Rs 225 crore, Kalwakurthy Rs 30 crore, Nettempadu Rs 24 crore and Bheema Rs 5 crore. Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao said, Though compensation and rehabilitation are posing a huge financial burden on the government, it is unavoidable for the smooth completion of irrigation projects. If not, the projects will end up in legal tangles and deadlines cannot be met. We are offering market price for land acquired for projects for speedy completion. Even in Undivided AP, the highest Budgetary allocation for irrigation was Rs 17,500 crore for the Jalayagnam projects, of which Rs 12,000 crore was spent. In TS, Rs 8,140 crore was allotted in 2015-16 Budget, but Rs 5,550 crore has been spent till now. However, with a significant chunk of the Budget funds going towards compensation and rehabilitation, contractors are apprehensive of government clearing construction bills on time due to limited financial resources. Under heavy security, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced Israeli mob boss Eitan Haya to 20 years in prison for a long list of crimes including illegal use of weapons, extortion, intimidation, money laundering, and tax evasion. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Judge Zvi Gurfinkel, who will retire after the completion of this case, wrote that Haya is a man "Who acquired a reputation of carrying out homocides and other crimes. He also surrounded himself with many people and committed extortion and money laundering, which entailed opening fire on someone and throwing a grenade." Eitan Haya in court For money laundering and tax evasion, Judge Gurfinkel sentenced Haya to three years in prison and fined him NIS 1 million. For assaulting a state witness, he received three months in prison. For breaking and entering, he was sentenced to three more months. For another count of extortion, he received two years. For a third count of extortion, he was sentenced to five years. For two incidents of throwing grenades, he earned an additional 10 years, giving him a total of 20 years in prison. Before issuing his sentence, Gurfinkel said a majority of witnesses feared testifying: "Woe to the society that cannot rely on justice to be served by its authorities. The job of the court is to send a strong and definitive message, which can deter future extortion. The job of the court is to make extortion not worthwhile by the way of harsh punishments." Judge Gurfinkel quoted Mario Puzo's The Godfather in his ruling. He said, "In Mario Puzo's well-known book, The Godfather, there is description of rape. The father of the raped girl relies on a court (for justice), but the court ultimately acquits the rapists. So the father, Bonasera, turns to Don Corleone, who then sends people to break the rapists' legs. Bonasera owes his life to the Godfather." At the beginning of December, Haya was convicted of money laundering, extortion and intimidation, who have high interest loans. The conviction included three counts of extortion through intimidation, using grenades and conspiring to commit a crime and three counts of money laundering and tax evasion. Haya left Israel in 1981 and returned in 2004, and has since been living in the luxury "W" building in Tel Aviv. An indictment was issued against him and his accomplices after an investigation by the Central District Police, which described the terror that he caused for his debtors and the violent tactics, including physical attacks, employed in collecting debts. He also allegedly has concealed much of his financial activity from law enforcement. He has not disclosed the source of his income or opened a bank account in his name. He carried out business transactions, hiding his identity and acquired funds through the bank accounts of others. Only in 2010 did he report that he had a net wealth of NIS 15 million. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday slammed Iran's announcement that it will pay thousands of dollars to families of Palestinian terrorists who were killed while committing attacks, or whose homes were demolished. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter "This shows that Iran, even after the nuclear agreement, is continuing to aid terrorism, including Palestinian terrorism, Hezbollah terrorism and its assistance to Hamas. This is something that the nations of the world must confront and condemn and assist Israel and other countries, of course in repelling," Netanyahu said at the start of his meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. Netanyahu also noted on Thursday that "terrorism by those wielding knives, the Palestinian children, also does not exist in a vacuum. It comes from the Palestinian education system, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Eli Mendelbaum) Wednesday's terror attack, during which IDF soldier Eliav Gelman was killed by a stray bullet meant for the attacker, was "not (committed) by the students of terrorism, but by those who teach terrorism, a Palestinian teacher," the prime minister said, calling on the international community to stand with Israel against Palestinian incitement. Iran's Ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Fateh Ali, said at a press conference on Wednesday that $7,000 will be paid to "every family of a martyr of the intifada in Jerusalem," while Tehran will also offer $30,000 to every family whose home was demolished after a relative committed a terror attack. Iran will not abandon the Palestinian people, who are faced with killing, theft, and expulsion, said the ambassador. The blood of the martyrs will bring the liberation of all Palestine from the sea to the river. On Tuesday, the Knesset marked the first LGBT rights day , but on Wednesday all promises of equality were forgotten as the coalition brought down a series of opposition legislation proposals benefitting the gay community. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Meanwhile, MK Amir Ohana, the Likud party's first openly-gay lawmaker , who was elected as a representative of the LGBT community, surprised and angered many when he decided to leave the plenum before the vote on these proposals. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that "Every person was created in Gods image," while Ohana promised that "the longed-for goal of full equality will be achieved." On Wednesday, however, the coalition managed to vote down six bills benefitting the gay community that were proposed by opposition MKs. Among them were Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni's civil union legislation; Zionist Union MK Revital Swid's proposal granting same-sex bereaved families the same rights as all other bereaved families; Yesh Atid MK Yael German's bill barring conversion therapy for minors; and Meretz MK Michal Rozin's proposal to train medical professionals on the issues of sexual orientation. MK Amir Ohana (Photo: Knesset) Two Likud MKs who are associated with the LGBT community, Ohana and Sharren Haskel, helped bring down the legislation. Haskel voted against the bills, while Ohana left the plenum. "MK Ohana showed a lot of courage when leading the issue of gay rights in the Likud party, and that is why it's so sad to see how now, when he received a spot in the Knesset and a chance to help the community to right the inequality, he caved in and ran away," Zionist Union MK Stav Shaffir charged. "The damage done is even more severe because this is a young MK who is supposed to represent a different kind of politics at the Knesset," she added. "We must act in the benefit of the public first and foremost, and not surrender to party and political interests, which give politicians a bad name and lead the public to stop believing that its public officials are fighting for it." Coalition officials said on Wednesday that Ohana was embarrassed by the situation, "but he didn't have a choice, because he had to vote with the coalition and oppose legislation by the opposition." Ohana said in response: "Coalition members have to vote with the coalition, but despite what I said early on, that I would vote with the coalition even if my opinion is not accepted, I felt I could not vote against the community, against myself. Even if I had voted for those bills, it would not have changed the outcome." Ohana went on to say that "social processes take time, and not everything is about legislation. An elected representative can express his truth in other ways as well. But I'm not worried. We'll face difficulties and obstacle, but equality will be achieved." In addition, during the discussion on MK Rozin's proposal, Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) slammed the members of the gay community, calling them "sinners" and comparing their actions to the worship the golden calf. These comments caused an outraged in the plenum, with MK Rozin responding, "I did not ask you to be the minister of gays and lesbians. I asked you to be the health minister for all Israeli citizens. Your comments were neither Jewish nor humane." Litzman refused to respond to Rozin. A senior leader of the Islamist group Hamas said the Palestinian movement was not seeking a new war with Israel and insisted a network of tunnels it is digging, some of which have reached into Israel in the past, was "defensive." Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Speaking to members of the Foreign Press Association in Gaza, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a medical doctor seen by many as a hardliner, suggested the prospects of reconciliation with the rival Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas were slim, despite years of international efforts to forge unity. Inside a Hamas tunnel, August 2014 (Photo: Reuters) "I think nobody here in the region is looking for a war," said Zahar, 71, who has survived two Israeli assassination attempts, one of which, in 2003, killed his son "We are not looking for any confrontation with Israel, but if they are going to launch an aggression we have to defend ourselves," he told reporters late on Wednesday. Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 after a brief civil war with Abbas's forces. It maintains strict security over the coastal territory, where more than 1.9 million people live. Zahar is one of Hamas's founders and one of its most senior figures in Gaza, regarded as close to the military wing. Asked why Hamas was building tunnels, Zahar said they were defensive and suggested they were nothing against the might of the US-supplied Israeli military. "You are speaking about tunnels? You are not speaking about F-35 (fighter planes)? You are not speaking about the nuclear bomb in Israel... The tunnels are a matter of self-defense," he said. Hamas's armed wing has lost 10 fighters this year in tunnel collapses . In strongly worded speeches, the group's leaders have pledged to pursue the tunnel building, prompting alarm in Israel, which has stepped up efforts to find the tunnels and stop them reaching its territory. Internal split With an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza making it difficult for goods and people to move in and out of the territory, Hamas and Fatah have made efforts to reconcile their differences and form a functioning unity government. Yet the latest round of discussions in the Qatar capital Doha has become bogged down, despite early signs of progress, and Zahar gave the impression that a deal was some way off. He said Abbas and Fatah were not sincere about achieving reconciliation, a charge Fatah threw back. He also vowed that his group would never recognise the state of Israel, which Abbas and Fatah have done and want Hamas to do. "They (Fatah) have no will to achieve an agreement. There is no intention," he said. The blockade on Gaza and the breakdown of relations with Fatah have created huge strains on the economy in Gaza. Since Fatah controls the budget from the West Bank, it has so far resisted making payments to security forces and other state employees in Gaza who were hired by Hamas since 2007. As a result, Hamas is heavily dependent on support from abroad, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iran. While Saudi and Iran are at odds, Zahar said Hamas was not taking sides. "We are looking to have good relations with everybody," he said. "We will not play any factor or element in the internal or external confrontation between these countries." Argentinean special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was investigating the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires when he died, was the victim of a homicide, that countrys attorney general for criminal appeals Ricardo Saenz declared on Thursday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Media outlets in Argentina reported that this was the first time an official source had confirmed that the Jewish attorney, who was found shot in the head in his apartment in January 2015, was indeed murdered. Saenz said there are no longer any doubts about this fact. Alberto Nisman (Photo: AFP) According to Saenzs courthouse statements, no gunpowder residue was found on Nismans hands, proving that he did not fire the weapon in his hand and thus ruling out the previous verdict of suicide. Furthermore, Saenz presented evidence that Nismans body was moved after his death. The evidence shows that major changes were made in the crime scene, he said. Nismans body was been found in his apartment on January 19, 2015, days after reiterating his long-standing claim that then-President Cristina Fernandez de Kircher had opened a secret back channel to a group of Iranians suspected of planting the bomb that killed 85 people at the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires. People hold candles during a vigil on the first anniversary of Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman's mysterious death in Buenos Aires (Photo: EPA) The day after his death, a preliminary autopsy said that Nisman was found with a bullet wound on the right side of his head, a .22 caliber handgun and a casing next to his lifeless body, in the bathroom of his locked apartment. The lead investigator in the case, Viviana Fein, said that traces of DNA found on the pistol, its ammunition and other items from the scene "undoubtedly" matched Nisman. However, the timing of his death hours before he was to give potentially incendiary testimony to Argentina's congress regarding the president did not go unnoticed. Thousands of Argentines marched in Buenos Aires to demand answers. Interestingly, soon after Nismans death, police investigators in Buenos Aires found a fingerprint and a footprint in an additional entrance, previously unknown to police, to the his apartment, according to an Argentinean newspaper. The month after his death, Fernandez suggested that the United States and Israel were meddling in the South American country's business. Last month, Jewish rights groups organized events in several Argentine cities on Monday to mark th efirst anniversary of Nisman's death. President Reuven Rivlin decided Thursday to cancel a state visit to Australia and fly instead to Russia to meet up with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Canberra responded angrily to the president's decision, saying that "this is not the way one behaves with a friendly country. We are very disappointed and angry." However, it should be noted that the security establishment determined there was an urgent need for a Rivlin-Putin meeting. The president's state visit in Australia was scheduled for the middle of March. The countries had already held preparatory meetings, but then Putin invited Rivlin for a work meeting on the same exact dates. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin (Photo: GPO) Rivlin hesitated over what to do, taking into account the fact that the Australians would be offended, and chose to pass the decision onto the Foreign Ministry. Foreign Ministry officials consulted with various parties, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his capacity as foreign minister, and they came to the decision that at this time and in light of regional developments, one doesn't say no to Putin. The Foreign Ministry recommends the president's state visits every year. This year they recommended, among others, Australia and Russia. Israel originally suggested to Australia that Rivlin's visit take place on March 17-22. The Australians checked the dates and two weeks ago gave the green light for the meeting. Australia's governor general canceled a trip out of the country so that he could meet Rivlin, and other senior ministers changed their schedules as well. The Australian Jewish community also prepared various events to be attended by Rivlin. The decision to cancel the trip to Australia was greeted with a heavy heart at the President's Residence, but considerations behind the scenes prevailed. Consultations between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister's Office took into account a defense establishment position that there is an urgent need for Putin and Rivlin to meet. In addition, the subject of Netanyahu's Wednesday phone conversation with Putin came up in the consultations. An official source said that there government has much respect for the Australians, but that there are many sensitive security issues regarding Russia that make a visit with Putin more critical. "The area is burning and Russia is a superpower that has decided to actively intervene, and coordination with Israel is a vital matter," said the source. Australia expressed dissatisfaction following the president's decision. A senior Australian official said: "We were really looking forward to this visit. It was supposed to be the third visit of an Israeli president since the founding of your country. Elections will take place in Australia this year and therefore it will be very difficult to set up another date for a visit. We did a lot to facilitate the visit and ensure it would happen. Israel suggested the dates. So there is disappointment and anger." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday lamented his inability to deport the families of terrorists, arguing that courts were misinterpreting the Geneva Conventions provisions regarding population transfers. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter There is one thing we have not managed to do, Netanyahu said at a Likud meeting in Ofakim. We have not managed to bring about deportation of terrorists families. We cannot do this because the courts define this as a war crime. That is how it is defined in the Geneva Conventions, etc. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Olivier Fitoussi) I think the intention there regarded relocation of entire populations, continued the prime minister. They interpret it as relocating one person or other. I am certain this was not the intent of those who legislated the conventions. But thats how they interpret it in the world and, unfortunately, thats how they interpret it here. This I cannot manage to do. The prime minister also discussed measures to deter terrorists. The most important thing is demolition of houses, he said. We are demolishing houses, and we are discovering that this has a decent effect. I saw that it wasnt moving and was taking time. There is too great a time gap, and therefore every Sunday after the government meeting, every Sunday without exceptions, for three weeks now, I summon all the relevant elements to me the Justice Ministry, the IDF, the Shin Bet, and ask for a report about what happened. Ruins of house where a terrorist who murdered two Israelis lived (Photo: Reuters) The second thing, said the prime minister, is that we are going into the villages and neighborhoods that we once would not enter. We are working actively. We are closing towns and placing restrictions n movement, as well as revoking work permits. Netanyahu also referred to occasional rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. Take note, even if a rocket is fired mistakenly, a response always comes, he said. Did you notice? We once said that trickles were all right. There are no trickles. There is an immediate response. Netanyahu also took the opportunity to criticize UK Prime Minister David Cameron for saying that the situation in East Jerusalem is genuinely shocking. My friend David Cameron, who is without a doubt a friend of Israel, apparently forgot a few basic facts about Jerusalem: Only Israeli sovereignty prevents ISIS and Hamas from burning the holy sites, said Netanyahu. Only Israeli sovereignty ensures that Arab residents in the city get roads, clinics, employment opportunities, and other means for normal life that their brothers throughout the Middle East do not enjoy, he added. Only Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem maintains the rule of law for everyone, something that does not exist in Iran, or Yemen, or Syria, or Libya, or wide swathes of the Arab world, particularly the Palestinian Authority and Gaza. Only Israeli sovereignty guarantees all this and its important that our friends in Europe remember this simple fact. Bobby C. Oehlerich, of York, passed away on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 at the age of 83 at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The third of five children, he was born to Chris and Margaret (Jensen) Oehlerich on April 23, 1932 in Luzerne, Iowa. Bobby attended Lutheran parochial school through the eighth grade and graduated from high school in Keystone, Iowa in 1950. Always an active member of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, he was confirmed into the faith at St. Johns Lutheran Church in Keystone. Upon finishing high school, Bobby enlisted in the United States Air Force and received training as a Meteorologist. He was stationed in Erding, Germany with Detachment 9 of the 18th Weather Squadron. While there, he met and married Ingabord Mullbach. This union was blessed with three children, Christopher and twins, Robert and Helga. After completing his service in the Air Force, he joined the National Weather Service and during 30+ years of service, was stationed in many locations including Buffalo, N.Y. and San Juan Puerto Rico. Upon retiring from the Weather Service, he returned to the Midwest to be close to his parents. Bobby enjoyed being busy and besides traveling, visiting with Air Force buddies and being an active member of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, he enjoyed spending time at the York Airport. He even worked for and earned his private pilots license. Time spent with family was also important and in addition to visiting his children in Texas whenever possible, he often made annual fishing trips with his siblings. Along with his brother, Don and sister-in-law, Kay he traveled to Europe on an extended vacation and visited the village in Germany where their father was born. Bobby was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Don and sisters, Betty (Anderson) and Ruth (Beck). Left to cherish his memory are children, Chris, Robert and Helga, all of Texas; sister, Darlene Hoover of Sheffield Lake, Ohio; brother-in-law, Albert Beck of Belle Plaine, Iowa; sister-in-law, Kay Oehlerich of Albert City, Iowa; six grandchildren; a number of great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Memorial services will be held Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in York. Inurnment will be at a later date in the Ft. McPherson National Cemetery near Maxwell. Memorials may be directed to the church. Bobby has been cremated so there will be no viewing. His family will, however, be present to greet friends from 6:30-8 pm Wednesday evening at the mortuary. Condolences may be left for the family at www.metzmortuary.com. Metz Mortuary, York, Neb. is handling arrangements. LINCOLN Quilts of Valor II reunites national quilting celebrities Alex Anderson, Mark Lipinski and host Marianne Fons from the original Quilts of Valor show for this 90-minute special airing at 12:30 p.m. CT, Sunday, March 6, on NET Television. As quilters sew a magnificent new quilt, they share quilt-making tips with viewers and speak from the heart about what being involved in making quilts for veterans means. The program introduces viewers to the people who make quilts and those who receive them with feature stories from Nebraska, California, North Carolina and Washington, D.C. Local 4-H members and veterans featured in this special include: 4-H member Leon Linhart of York explains how he used a very special donation to make a Quilt of Valor for a deserving veteran. Other 4-H members from York and Thayer counties share stories about selecting patterns to assembling quilts to wrapping their completed quilt around a surprised and touched veteran and why they want to continue. Also included are Eileen Krumbach of York County Extension and Julie Ochsner of Adams County Extension. A quilt presentation at the Nebraska State Fair to naval officer Jess Johnson of Lincoln shows how the quilt makers wrap their quilt around each veteran that is honored. This program will also be broadcast at 11 a.m. CT, Monday, March 7 and 2 p.m. CT, Saturday, March 12, on NET Create (NET3). BENGALURU: The BBMP will present its budget with an outlay of Rs 7,500-8,000 crore with emphasis on infrastructure and welfare schemes. BBMP Taxation and Finance Committee Chairman M. Shivaraju told Deccan Chronicle that improvement of traffic flow, better roads, drains and garbage management are the major areas which needs immediate attention and emphasis will be accorded for these sectors. Welfare schemes too will get greater allocation in the forthcoming budget. Maintenance of roads and drains will get a major chunk of the budgetary allocation. At least 50 roads will be taken up under the TenderSure specification, which will put an end to digging in these roads. Flyovers and metal bridges will be built at crucial junctions and major roads. Some of the roads have already been identified and a final consensus will be taken in this regard, he said. The BBMP is also contemplating many citizen friendly programmes. For instance, it may consider providing a one-time rebate for those installing Rain Water Harvesting and appreciating citizens who plant saplings in their neighbourhood, Shivaraju added. The officials have given a draft budget and sector wise allocation required estimating Rs 7,000 crore. We will table a realistic budget and not an inflated one. Thrust will be given for tech based tax and revenue mobilization. Optical Fibre Cable network is one of the potential areas where the BBMP can mop up a major chunk of revenue and it will be fine tuned in consultation with the state government to fix the fee, he said. Already meetings are being held with the heads of various departments and requests of allocations have been sought. A delegation will meet City Development Minister K.J. George and seek additional state government grants for the development of Bengaluru. This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company. As of 2020, Minuteman Review is now the proud owner and operator of Your Defence News, a website with a long history of breaking huge news stories and investigative journalism. We hope you are equally as excited as us. This means that now the teams of Minuteman can combine with the firepower of Your Defence News to stay at the absolute forefront for our readers. Keep an eye. Big things are coming soon. We couldn't be more excited. In the meanwhile, here are some of our most popular posts and categories to keep you busy. Happy shootin' my friends! Buying Guides: Firearms Firearm Accessories Ammunition Gun Safes Scopes & Optics Hunting Air Rifles Best AR-15 Best AR 15 Scope Best Hunting Rifle Best Gun Safe Best AK 47 Best AR 10 Best Glock Triggers Best Glock Best Home Defense Shotgun JNU students agitate for the release of students arrested on sedition charges on the university campus in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: The Delhi police, which had come under criticism over its handling of the Jawaharlal Nehru University situation, has now virtually cautioned senior politicians, particularly from the Opposition, not to enter the campus. The police indicated in an internal report that the visits of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, former Union ministers Anand Sharma and Ajay Maken, CPI MP D. Raja and ousted AAP leaders Yogendra Yadav and Anand Kuar to the JNU campus and their interaction with students could aggravate the situation. The police team interrogating Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya seems to have hit a wall as the JNU students held in a sedition case continued to deny involvement in sloganeering and challenged claims that the slogans were anti-national. A Delhi court refused to allow the police to collect voice samples of Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya in the sedition case. In its internal report, a copy of which was accessed by this newspaper, police states that from 5 pm February 13, about 50-60 activists of the ABVP shouted slogans like Rahul Gandhi go back. It said the ABVP activists shouted slogans against Mr Gandhi around his vehicle also tried to block his way while he was heading out of the campus. He left in another vehicle through a different route. The report said: When Congress leader Anand Sharma was there to see off Rahul Gandhi, there was a commotion in the crowd and some people jostled and argued among themselves. The ABVP protesters kept on shouting slogans while Sharma was leaving the venue. The report added a sharp vigil with adequate security steps was needed to avert any untoward incident in the campus. The report said students, teachers and activists shouted anti-government and pro-Kanhaiya Kumar slogans at a meeting in the campus that was addressed by Mr Gandhi, Mr Maken, Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D. Raja, Prof Anand Kumar, Yogendra Yadav and women rights activist Kavita Krishnan. The report clearly states all the speakers not only condemned the alleged anti-national slogans, but also attacked the Centre for curbing their freedom of expression and infringing their constitutional rights. The speakers were critical about the police being allowed to enter the JNU campus. The first politician whose name was mentioned in the report is Mr Raja, who addressed a gathering at the campus at 5.30 pm on February 12. During his address, Mr Raja criticised the Centre for falsely implicating the students and added that they didnt want to learn patriotism from these so-called nationalists. After that a debate was organised by a TV channel where Mr Raja and BJP MP Mahesh Giri had taken part. Meanwhile, the police feels visits by political leaders may set resentment brewing not only among Left-supported student groups , but also within the student community, including at other educational institutions. The police felt that these leaders attempts to link the JNU issue with the suicide of a Dalit student at Hyderabad University some time back was sending a dangerous signal and could worsen the situation across the country. New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha was adjourned late Thursday evening after an uproar over remarks quoted by Union human resources development minister Smriti Irani which were considered derogatory by the Opposition benches. For a second straight day Ms Irani made a strong defence of the governments actions with regard to the JNU issue and suicide of dalit student Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad University in the face of an intense attack by the Opposition. Ms Irani, who led the BJPs attack in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, was comparatively mellow in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday as she replied to questions about her performance as also that of the HRD ministry under her. The minister said she had been rightly advised by someone to be calm. However, her reply to a short-duration discussion was cut short as the House was abruptly adjourned after an uproar over certain comments she made while alleging that some elements in JNU had published derogatory pamphlets about Goddess Durga. As she narrated the descriptive details of the pamphlets, Anand Sharma of the Congress took objection, saying it could set a precedent and in future somebody else could repeat it with regard to gods of other religions. What is happening here? This is too much. Its a dangerous precedent. Every religious leader and deity has been derogatorily referred to by some persons. Will all this be discussed here? Can we allow it here? Then there will be a war in the House, Mr Sharma said. New Delhi: CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury today accused (rpt accused) the BJP of trying to suppress dissent and impose their idea of a "theocratic, fascistic Hindu Rashtra" on the country and asked the government to "stop interfering" in universities which have been set up under central laws. Amid a raging controversy over suicide by a Dalit student and arrests in JNU, he also demanded the setting up of a House Committee to examine the latest developments in various central universities, while initiating the debate in Rajya Sabha on the situation arising in the central institutions of higher learning, including JNU and Hyderabad University. Yechury said an effort was being made to metamorphosise India, a secular democratic republic, into a "theocratic, fascistic Hindu Rashtra". "Please do not castigate the entire student community and the institutions," and "stop this tirade for advancing your brand of nationalism", he said and termed the government's "interference" in some univerisities as "illegal". Seeking stern action against all anti-national activities, Yechury said the government was trying to suppress dissent and asked it not to castigate the entire student community and the institutions. Observing that the ruling dispensation was seeking to impose its idea of "narrow nationalism" as against the concept of nationalism defined by a range of people from Emperor Ashoka to Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, Yechury said "this is a serious matter" and wanted to know if opposition to the government could be called "anti-national". Maintaining that all central universities have been set up under central laws, he sought the setting up of a House Panel to examine the latest developments like "interference" by the Centre in them, while referring to letters written by HRD Minister Smriti Irani to the Hyderabad University. Referring to Rohith Vemula, the Dalit student of Hyderabad University, he said stopping of his scholarship led to a situation being created for him to commit suicide. He said such interference was not only limited to the JNU or Hyderabad University, but could be seen in other insitutions also in different parts of the country and "today you are castigating the entire university as anti-national." Yechury demanded that the House Committee should "go into what is happening in all central universities" and quoted Jawaharlal Nehru to say that universities were places where debate on all ideas should flourish. On JNU and the speech by its students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, he said "I too want aazadi (freedom). I want freedom from hunger, Manuwad (ancient religious laws) and poverty .... You arrest me if you want to for that, but stop conspiring against our children." New Delhi: CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury today accused (rpt accused) the BJP of trying to suppress dissent and impose their idea of a "theocratic, fascistic Hindu Rashtra" on the country and asked the government to "stop interfering" in universities which have been set up under central laws. Amid a raging controversy over suicide by a Dalit student and arrests in JNU, he also demanded the setting up of a House Committee to examine the latest developments in various central universities, while initiating the debate in Rajya Sabha on the situation arising in the central institutions of higher learning, including JNU and Hyderabad University. Yechury said an effort was being made to metamorphosise India, a secular democratic republic, into a "theocratic, fascistic Hindu Rashtra". "Please do not castigate the entire student community and the institutions," and "stop this tirade for advancing your brand of nationalism", he said and termed the government's "interference" in some univerisities as "illegal". Seeking stern action against all anti-national activities, Yechury said the government was trying to suppress dissent and asked it not to castigate the entire student community and the institutions. Observing that the ruling dispensation was seeking to impose its idea of "narrow nationalism" as against the concept of nationalism defined by a range of people from Emperor Ashoka to Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, Yechury said "this is a serious matter" and wanted to know if opposition to the government could be called "anti-national". Maintaining that all central universities have been set up under central laws, he sought the setting up of a House Panel to examine the latest developments like "interference" by the Centre in them, while referring to letters written by HRD Minister Smriti Irani to the Hyderabad University. Referring to Rohith Vemula, the Dalit student of Hyderabad University, he said stopping of his scholarship led to a situation being created for him to commit suicide. He said such interference was not only limited to the JNU or Hyderabad University, but could be seen in other insitutions also in different parts of the country and "today you are castigating the entire university as anti-national." Yechury demanded that the House Committee should "go into what is happening in all central universities" and quoted Jawaharlal Nehru to say that universities were places where debate on all ideas should flourish. On JNU and the speech by its students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, he said "I too want aazadi (freedom). I want freedom from hunger, Manuwad (ancient religious laws) and poverty .... You arrest me if you want to for that, but stop conspiring against our children." As a homeowner, you probably already know that you should be working to maintain your home. But, chances are, you Read More The recent Jawaharlal Nehru University campus happenings were followed by lawlessness and violence in Patiala House courts. Winston Churchill, a dyed-in-the-wool imperialist, was totally opposed to India becoming independent. On the eve of Indias Independence, he wrote, Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues and freebooters They (the Indians) will fight among themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles. Jawaharlal Nehru and the generation of freedom fighters proved Churchill wrong, but today there appears a ring of truth in what he said. We do still have political leaders who uphold high values, but they are very few. JNU has been our premier educational institution of intellectual excellence befitting its great name. It has pronounced Leftist leanings, and so to an extent did Nehru. He was a great intellectual and a patriot who made a huge personal sacrifice for the nation. He was the architect of our liberal democracy. The chameleon-like Communists changed colours during the Second World War, and after it they were painting Long Live Mao on walls in Kolkata when our soldiers were sacrificing their lives fighting the Chinese on the Himalayas forbidding heights. Progressive and liberal views are welcome in a democracy. Should this also apply to subversive thinking and blatantly anti-national acts? Maqbool Bhat, responsible for killing Kashmiri Pandits and their ethnic cleansing; Yakub Memon, responsible for 257 fatalities in Bombay in 1993; Afzal Guru, responsible for the attack on the Indian Parliament; or Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani terrorist who killed innocent citizens in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks have been hailed as heroes in JNU. The legitimacy of hanging can be questioned and different views expressed, but making these criminals seem like heroes is another matter. In the UK, John Amery, the son of Leopold S. Amery, secretary of state for India and Burma in Churchills War Cabinet, broadcast Nazi propaganda from Berlin. He was declared a traitor and hanged after the war. In the US, Julius Rosenberg, who spied for Soviet Russia, was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court. No protests were raised in either case. Perhaps our intellectuals will maintain that the UK and the US are imperfect democracies, while ours is a perfect democracy in which such criminal acts can be ignored and culprits glorified. Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of the JNU Students Union, may have been wrongly apprehended. Overnight he has become a national hero. I commend him for his forthright statement of loyalty to the Constitution. He is said to have made a similar statement in JNU when anti-India slogans like Har ghar se Afzal niklega, Bharat ki barbadi tak jung rahegi, Pakistan zindabad were being raised. I would have been happier if he had done something as president of JNUSU to counter such anti-national slogans or at least withdrawn from the scene as a mark of protest. I will not question these slogans being treasonable or seditious. Let legal luminaries split hair in regard to this. The JNUSU under Leftist control has a dubious reputation. In 2000, it organised a mushaira, inviting poets from Pakistan, at which India was ridiculed and anti-India statements made. Two soldier veterans of the Kargil war objected and were beaten up. They were hospitalised. Sacrifices made by Indian soldiers in war with Pakistan count for little among our intellectuals at JNU. No wonder they eulogise the likes of Maqbool Bhat and Afzal Guru, but have no time for Hanumanthappa Koppad, who had survived miraculously after remaining buried in snow for six days, fighting for life at the Army Research & Referral Hospital nearby, or for the nine soldiers who perished in the avalanche and the other soldiers who risked their lives in such difficult conditions to locate the dead bodies. Possibly like a Cabinet minister in Bihar who said that soldiers are meant to die, they share such thinking. They pay homage to Maqbool Bhat but have no time for Maqbool Sherwani, a National Conference worker. In November 1947, the latter misled the invaders from Pakistan, comprising the Pakistan Army and Pakistan tribesmen, at Baramulla, delaying the enemys approach to Srinagar. He also tried to save Kashmiri Hindus from massacre. He was crucified on a wooden cross near Baramulla Convent. I saw this gory sight on November 7, 1947, when we liberated Baramulla. I had a suitable memorial to him put up in 2005. JNU is named after Jawaharlal who was a Kashmiri Pandit. His kinsmen have been brought to miserable straits. Their hundred odd temples in the Valley were vandalised much before Babri Masjid was destroyed in 1992 and condemned by all of us. The Israeli problem is of much concern to the worthies at JNU and our great secular leaders who have totally ignored the Kashmiri Pandits. The crown prince parachuted to the top slot for no other qualification other than his Kashmiri Pandit lineage follows suit. In his new incarnation after his mysterious sabbatical as a shouting and destructive Opposition leader, he exploits any issue that will fetch votes. No wonder he has been to JNU and University of Hyderabad. The British treated a law court as a temple of sanctity. There was never any hooliganism in a court when Mahatma Gandhi appeared as a convict. At Ahmedabad, the British judge stood up to honour him as he was brought into his court. Despite the highly charged atmosphere outside, the dignity of the court trying the Indian National Army officers was scrupulously maintained. It is a pity that the Delhi Police failed to anticipate events and bedlam prevailed at JNU and at the Patiala House courts due to lack of suitable preventive action. I may be dubbed an old fogey out of tune with modern times for expressing my anguish at these tragic events. In my defence, I can only submit that for 40 years I served in the Army in war and peace, facing risk and hardship. Cry, my dear country, cry. The vaccine against HPV infections introduced a decade ago is now bearing fruit. The prevalence of HPV infections among American teenage girls is said to have dropped by over 60%. According to a new study, the vaccine's introduction in 2006 led to amazing results in the prevalence of HPV among teenage girls. After six years, the prevalence rate among girls 14 to 19-years old, already decreased by 64%. Among women 20 to 24-yearls old, the prevalence rate became 34% lower. The statistics provided enough evidence to say the vaccine worked and is effective, Dr. Lauri E. Markowitz, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Back in 2006, 11.5% of teenage girls ages 14 to 19 were infected by the HPV, Between 2009 to 2012, the rate dropped to 4.3%. Among ages 20 to 24, 18.5% were infected in 2006. But the rate dropped to 12.1% between 2009 to 2012. Advertisement With these positive rates, the federal government and various physicians associations Tuesday reiterated their support for vaccinating preteens. Experts in Southern California however highlighted that most parents still have discomfort with the idea of having their children receive vaccination for HPV. The federal government has set out 80% as the goal for all boys and girls to obtain at least three doses of the vaccine by 2020. However, current trends showed that vaccination rates remain far below that benchmark. Experts are frustrated because people are intentionally avoiding getting something that will help them. "People are not getting the benefit of something that is really a wonderful breakthrough in the control of a very serious cancer," Dr. Roshan Bastani, director of the healthy and at-risk program at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. He explained that this can be because primary care providers, especially pediatricians, have not received the training they need about the value of vaccination. If the care providers themselves are unaware, then their patients will not be encouraged to get vaccinated. Sign up to get the latest news delivered to your inbox every week! The Ford Motor Company, an American multinational automobile manufacturer, has been in business since the turn of the 20th century. Founded by namesake Henry Ford in 1903, the company has paved the way for other American auto brands including Dodge and General Motors. The automobile company was the first to introduce the moving assembly line that was instrumental in mass-producing automobiles including the famous Model T. At present the company has manufacturing operations worldwide including in the United States, China and South Africa. With over a century's worth of ingenuity, it seems like Ford is not yet done providing new technologies that would revolutionize the automobile industry. Earlier this week, the company's CEO, Mark Fields, announced their intention to invest on research that would provide the latest connectivity and driver-assisted capabilities. "We are really emphasizing our transition from an auto company to an auto and mobility company. This is a really good audience to reach some new folks" explained Mark Fields during the recent Mobile Work Congress held this year in Barcelona. Advertisement Field explained that the company is knee deep in research in making a traffic jam assist and a fully active auto-parking system. He also claimed that fully autonomous Ford cars would be available within the next four years. "Across the world when you see growth of these megacities, with 10 million or more folks, people want mobility solutions, they want options," detailed Field. The Ford Motor Company is not the first automobile brand to announce suck lofty claims surrounding autonomous vehicles. Elon Musk from Tesla Motors previously explained how his company would have a version of a self-driving car by 2018. Likewise, Audi, BMW, General Motors, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota, Daimler, Renault and a few more automobile companies have related their intentions to produce self-driving cars by 2020. A cancer breakthrough has been made. While there is still no real cure for cancer, this might come in a close second. Allegedly, Israeli scientists have found a way to turn cancer cells dormant so that those with these in their bodies can live full lives. According to UPI, these researchers in Israel has found a method to turn cancer cells off using a drug that can dampen their growth. Because there are cases where people with dormant cancer cells go and live healthily, this is nothing short of an amazing discovery. Based on lab experiments, the proof-of-concept drug was found to have the ability to stop bone cancer cells from interacting with healthy cells around them, the Tel Aviv University researchers reported. "We saw that the osteosarcoma cells treated with the selected microRNAs were unable to recruit blood vessels to feed their growth," head researcher Dr. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro said. "In order to keep these microRNAs stable in the blood, we needed to encapsulate them in a nanoparticle that circulates in healthy blood vessels, but that disembark and deliver the drug therapy at the leaky blood vessels that exist at tumor sites. We designed a nanomedicine that would have a special activation method at the tumor site in the target cell." Advertisement According to the researcher, even though their study centered on bone cancer cells, they believe the approach they used can be applied to other cancers as well. He also optimistically said that as long as cancer cells are dormant, cancer can be managed. People with thyroid lesions can live long lives without knowing they have cancer cells after all, he said. In a related and much more optimistic news, scientists from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research also found that a new class of anticancer drugs can be promising. These drugs, called nutlins, can stop cancer growth by stimulating the cancer-suppressing gene found in human bodies. The gene is called p53. The researchers confirmed that nutlins can cause cancer cells to destroy themselves, not just make them go to sleep or become dormant. Professor Andreas Strasser, the main researcher, said that now that there is a stronger understanding of how nutlins are destroying cancer cells, more research can be done on what drugs nutlins can be combined with. More research can now be done to determine what types of cancer patients will benefit the most from nutlins. Firefighters diagnosed with cancer and proved that this is because of their occupation can receive compensation if the Senate Bill 27 is passed. Firefigthers across Ohio met at the statehouse to rally in favor of the bill. Studies have established the high vulnerability of firefighters to be diagnosed with cancer. Because of the nature of their work, firefighters are exposed to carcinogens almost all the time, as they encounter smoke from burning material inside houses they are trying to save. Firefighters therefore want the assurance that they can get some financial resources when they are indeed, one day diagnosed with cancer. This can happen with a presumptive cancer bill. For instance, former firefighter Tracy Beavers was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. Her firefighter husband is also currently fighting to stay alive because of stage 3 prostate cancer, as reported by 10TV. Advertisement While Beavers was able to detect the cancer early, she is joining the many firefighters who is supporting Senate Bill 27. She testified that she never thought she would ever get cancer. She also added that her husband is not as lucky as her. "In less than 6 months we went from an early catch to fighting for John's life," she said. Beavers added that Chicago doctors told her being firefighters was the direct cause of their cancer. She said in Chicago, the doctors disclosed this information because they have "presumptive legislation." Even though they are from Ohio, she never heard the doctors told her there is a link between cancer and firefighting. She hopes the bill can change this. If the bill is passed, Ohio doctors can already presume there is a link between cancer and firefighting, and therefore, give firefighters the opportunity to apply for workers compensation. Cancer treatments are expensive, especially if the firefighter diagnosed with it does not have a job anymore. Large changes in the Antarctic ice sheets may be possible at lower levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide than previous studies have shown (Photo: Pixabay) Washington: Results from a new climate reconstruction of how Antarctica's ice sheets responded during the last period when atmospheric carbon dioxide reached levels like those expected to occur in about 30 years, suggest that the ice sheets are more vulnerable to rising atmospheric CO2 than previously thought. Researchers led by Edward Gasson and Robert DeConto report results of a climate and ice sheet modeling study which is analysis of a 3,735-foot sediment core from McMurdo Sound to reconstruct the Antarctic ice sheets' history. The authors state that taken together, the findings highlight that large changes in the Antarctic ice sheets may be possible at lower levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide than previous studies have shown. Gasson explains that climate researchers have long sought to create a model that simulates conditions similar to those experienced during the early to mid-Miocene, as established by sediment core data. This was likely the last time atmospheric CO2 levels were slightly higher, at 500 parts per million (ppm), than the 400 ppm level reached just last year, and global average temperatures were about 3 to 4 degrees Celsius higher than today. But this does not mean that melting Antarctic ice sheets will raise global sea levels immediately, the researchers say. This study has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. Stiri pe aceeasi tema - The Bucharest police announced, on Sunday evening, the first case of using the electronic surveillance bracelet, the device being mounted on a man who assaulted his concubine. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro Help - The local cultural heritage of the Otelec area, as a perfect stopover between bike rides on the banks of the Bega river, will be capitalized starting this weekend, with the temporary opening of a border crossing point with Serbia, with many tourists being expected to travel on the bicycle track between Capitol Hill seems very far from New England sometimes, but Congressional actions can have a big effect on peoples lives. Interest groups of all kinds know this, and they arrange visits to Capitol Hill to make their case about many types of issues. The best time to make a case for your particular issue isin the spring. In the spring, Congressional committees are setting up the planned appropriations in their area. (Spring flowers are also great in Washington.) Visiting Washington can be expensive, but it can also be worthwhile.What would be my area of interest if I were to visit Washington D.C.? I went to graduate school in chemistry, and I am very well aware that graduate studies in the sciences are pretty much funded by the federal government. Basic and much applied research is also funded by the federal government. Appropriations for R and D and education are important to scientists and engineers in many fields. These appropriations are a truly minuscule part of the federal budget, but they are very important to the future of our country as a leader in scientific and technical fields. Our leadership also translates directly into new industries and new jobs in this country.In other words, talking to Congressional committees is worthwhile, for the future of science education, research, nuclear energy and our country.This year, as in other years, a coalition of about two dozen professional scientific and engineering societies and other groups will visit Washington. This initiative is the SET CVD --or Science, Engineering and Technology Congressional Visits Day. The visits this year are scheduled for April 12 and 13.Most of the rest of this post has been written by a nuclear professional who knows more about Congressional Visits Day than I do, but who chooses to remain anonymous. (People who work for big companies can be like that, if they are not official spokespeople.)Lets say you want to be there, and you especially want to talk about nuclear power. Anyone who is interested and able to come to Washington can "be there. There are a number of ways for nuclear professionals to participate, beyond just appearing. You can be briefed, attend social events, and more. Heres how it works.If you are a member of one of the societies that participates in SET CVD , you can participate as a member of that society. Please see https://www.setcvd.org/ for a list of participating organizations, as well as for other information about the events, and to register to participate.Participating through SET CVD has many advantages. They have a program of exhibits and some reception/social events. They also provide budget background briefings, tips on meeting with Congressional representatives and staff, assistance setting up meetings, etc.While none of these other societies focus exclusively on nuclear issues, many of them share a strong interest in nuclear power, and participation by their members from the nuclear community will help assure that the nuclear message has a visible role. (Note: the American Nuclear Society is not one of these societies, because ANS schedules Congressional visits to be in sync with some of their Washington-based meetings.)In fact, I have just received a special offer from IEEE-USA , which has expressed a particular interest in enhancing their nuclear message! For people who are not members of any of the SET CVD societies, IEEE-USA would welcome having nuclear folks join their group. IEEE is asking for a modest contribution ($25 to partially cover the lunch and reception expenses). In addition to the lunch and so forth, those opting to join with IEEE can get technical assistance from IEEE-USA. If you join the IEEE-USA group, they will provide you with background materials, packets to use in their meetings, and preparation presentations about meeting with Congressional people and staffers.Can IEEE-USA do this for everyone? It is not clear. It depends on how many people sign up: the slots may fill, but the slots are open now. Sign up fast!This is a very generous offer, as the cost to IEEE-USA is much more than $25 per person. Anyone who wants to go this route should contact:He will want your name, voting address, and contact information.You can on visit Congress on the same days as the SET CVD initiative, or, on other dates in the late winter-spring timeframe. People usually target the offices of their own Senators and Congressmen, but if time allows, you may wish to see if you can schedule appointments with other key offices as well. The Center for Nuclear Science and Technology , the ANS Public Information page , the NEI website and the ANS blog at the ANS Nuclear Cafe are all excellent sources of information.Many members of the nuclear community have periodic needs to travel to Washington or to the Washington area, and some employers are even willing to help support such initiatives by their employees.People may be able to schedule a business trip to coincide with the SET CVD dates. Or they may be able to add a day to another business trip or conference in Washington during the late winter-spring time period. For example, the Platts Nuclear Energy conference is on Feb. 16-18. By the way, if you go to such conferences and you know who is usually there, you may be able to partner with other like-minded people when you visit the legislators.Also, this isnt voting: you can visit Congress as often as you choose. Visit early and often! Participating in Congressional visits this spring does not preclude any other participation that may interest you--such as participation in ANS-sponsored visits at other times of the year, or with other groups, or on your own at other times of the year. In fact, the more the nuclear community is able to interact with our elected officials, the better.If you do plan to come to DC for the April 12-13 SET CVD event, please let Meredith know so we can gauge the interest, and possibly facilitate a get-together. She will contact me.Mjangwin at gmail.comHope to see you in Washington this year! Bengaluru: Foreign venture funds are stepping up investments in Indian mobile application makers, betting a surge in smartphone sales in the country will drive demand for home-grown apps, mirroring the trend in world's biggest mobile phone market China. San Francisco-based incubator and venture capital firm 500 Startups on Tuesday launched a $25 million fund called '500 Kulfi' to invest in Indian mobile app-makers. The firm said it would make 20 to 30 early-stage investments in India every year. By comparison, it made 50 investments in India in the last four years. "How many places in the world do you know where there are half a billion people online, up from 100 million people just five years ago," said Dave McClure, founding partner at 500 Startups, attending a high-profile start-up industry conference in India's technology hub Bengaluru. Indian start-ups raised a record $4 billion last year. But much of that went into established e-tailers such as top online marketplace Flipkart, which received $700 million in funding. Smartphones account for about a quarter of the more than 1 billion mobile phone accounts in India, the world's second-biggest telecoms services market by number of users. And that segment is growing the fastest, with new smartphone sales crossing 100 million for the first time last year. That bodes well for app-makers and their investors in a country where computer penetration is low and people use their smartphones to do everything from watching movies to shopping for goods and services. With smartphone sales growth slowing in China, India is also becoming more important for those looking to cash in on the opportunity. "India will become very likely the only growth engine for mobile internet in the entire world, when you think about it in reality China's smartphone sales significantly tapered off in 2015," said Alex Yao, who looks after strategy, innovation and investments at China-based app-maker Cheetah Mobile. New York-listed Cheetah, which has more than 600 million monthly active users on its suite of mobile apps, this year launched its Indian operations and is looking to invest in, or buy out, Indian app-makers. "The market in India is three to four years behind China. Given the similarity in population density, (economic development), so very likely what happened in China will also happen here in the next few years," said Yao. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. New Delhi: The Central Board for Secondary Examination (CBSE) will hold the Class XII exams from March 1 to April 24 this year. For Class X students, the Board-based exams would be held from March 1 to March 28. Those who opt for the School-based exams, the date of commencement of examination is March 10. According to a CBSE statement released on Wednesday, of the total 14,99,122 registered students for Class X examination, 8,92,685 are boys and 6,06,437 are girls. The total number of registered candidates for Class XII exams is 10,67,900 of whom 6,21,259 are boys and 4,46,641 are girls. The Class X and XII results are likely to be declared in the month of May-June, CBSE said. Last year, 13,73,853 students had appeared for class X, which means that there is an increase of 9.12 percent in the number of students appearing for these exams this year. For class XII, the increase is 2.65 percent as 10,67,900 students are appearing this year as compared to 10,40,368 students in 2015. In Delhi region, 1,51,475 boys and 1,39,896 girls are appearing for the Class X examinations, totalling 2,91,371 candidates. For Class XII, 1,41,076 boys and 1,29,759 girls would be appearing, taking the total to 2,70,835. Special arrangements have been made for the examination candidates belonging to the differently-abled category since 2860 such students will be appearing for Class X examinations and 1921 for Class XII. For the forthcoming board exams, 17,000 schools have been brought under the ambit of Board's digital programme, e-CBSE, under which the schools can generate student roll numbers for main exam, make corrections in the particulars, upload photos using the existing ID and passwords except for subject change, an official statement said. Schools can also upload internal subject assessment grades of Class XII under this programme. The Board said it conducts Open Text-based Assessment for classes IX and XI to inculcate analytical and theoretical skills. Open Text based Assessment (OTBA) for Class IX (SA-II) is conducted in all the main subjects Hindi, English, Mathematics Science, Social Science. For Class XI it is held in Economics, Biology and Geography (annual exams). (With PTI inputs) California: Nike Inc founder and chairman Philip H Knight has pledged USD 400 million to Stanford University to recruit graduate students. It is one of the largest philanthropic gifts to a university. The donation has helped the Stanford University launch the largest fully endowed scholarship program in the world. The program is named for alumnus Philip H Knight, philanthropist, American businessman and co-founder of Nike Inc, and Stanford's outgoing 10th president John L Hennessy. The program builds on Stanford's pre-eminent position in higher education, with seven globally-ranked multidisciplinary graduate schools that foster service, collaboration, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Ambitious in scope and scale, Knight-Hennessy Scholars will annually admit 100 high-achieving students with demonstrated leadership and civic commitment, who are nominated by their undergraduate universities. The goal is to select students from a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities. Upon admittance to Stanford's graduate programs, scholars will receive funding for three years to pursue masters or doctorate level degrees, or professional programs along with education in leadership, innovation and other curricula designed to develop scholars' capacity to lead ambitious change in a complex world. With a USD 750 million endowment, the Knight-Hennessy Scholars will be the largest fully-endowed scholarship program in the world. More than 80 percent of the endowment will directly support the scholars, fully funding their graduate education and living expenses. The program represents the largest single increase in student financial aid in Stanford's history. The scale of funding for the Knight-Hennessy Scholars will ensure continuity for generations to come. The Stanford University, located between San Francisco and San Jose in the heart of California's Silicon Valley, is one of the world's leading teaching and research universities. Panipat: As violence rocked neighbouring Rohtak, many locals in this district went out of their way to offer help to thousands of those stranded on the Delhi-Ambala National Highway due to blockades put up by Jat protesters for four days. These samaritans came to the rescue of the people including women and children offering them food and shelter. "I can tell you that there were a large number of local residents and other volunteer groups and social organisations who helped those stranded on the highway. They offered them food, water and even shelter," Panipat's Superintendent of Police, Rahul Sharma said on Thursday. He said these samaritans also lent a helping hand to the police. "Police was largely engaged in maintaining law and order. These samartians and volunteers also formed peace committees including in rural areas, which helped in maintaining brotherhood and harmony. Panipat by and large remained peaceful during the stir," Sharma said. Some of the samaritans including Ravinder and Bhupinder came to the rescue of many stranded on the national highway. They provided free food and lodging facilities at their Dhaba on the GT road, helping those who had got stuck. There were also a large number of Sikh volunteers who ran a round-the-clock 'langar' (community kitchen). "We had appealed to the Sikhs and asked all Gurudwaras to provide assistance to the stranded people," SGPC President, Avtar Singh Makkar said. Many Sikh youth cooked rice, prepared tea and gave biscuits and other snacks to the stranded people. The Jat stir in Haryana claimed 28 lives and left more than 200 injured. Despite its bleeding balance sheet, Sharp remains a leader in liquid crystal display technology, a key asset for Hon Hai (Photo: AP) Tokyo: Embattled electronics giant Sharp has accepted a multi-billion-dollar bailout from the parent company of Taiwan's Foxconn, local media reported Thursday, in what would be a rare foreign takeover of a Japanese firm. The deal, which could be worth as much as $6.2 billion, was agreed at a Sharp board meeting Thursday, Japanese media including the leading Nikkei business daily reported. Sharp's volatile stock soared nearly six percent on the reports, which come after weeks of speculation over whether it would choose an offer from a domestic investment fund or Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision, a major Apple supplier. Sharp declined to comment on the reports, while Hon Hai could not be immediately reached.Media have suggested the Taiwanese firm's offer would keep Sharp intact, while it would be broken up under a rival bid from the public-private Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ). Despite its bleeding balance sheet, Sharp remains a leader in liquid crystal display technology, a key asset for Hon Hai. This month, Sharp's chief Kozo Takahashi refused to be drawn on which offer he favoured, but said his company was putting "more manpower" into evaluating the Taiwanese offer. Media said the government and Sharp's bank creditors were concerned about the company's key technologies falling into the hands of a foreign firm. Century-old Sharp, which supplies smartphone and tablet screens to Apple but started life making belt buckles and pencils, was once among Japan's leading firms and its brand was internationally recognised. But the company has teetered on the edge of bankruptcy for years, piling up eye-watering losses and struggling through a restructuring plan that has yet to pull it out of the red. This month, the firm posted a whopping nine-month net loss of more than $900 million, hit by restructuring costs and a slump in demand for its smartphone screens. Along with rivals Sony and Panasonic, Japan's electronics giants were hammered by steep losses in their television units owing to stiff competition from lower-cost rivals, particularly in South Korea and Taiwan. They were also outmanoeuvred in the mobile phone business, but Sony and Panasonic have seen improving results lately. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Rohtak: The Indian Army soldiers, who are round the clock securing the country from external and internal threats, and are always at the forefront in times of natural disasters, riots and agitations, are many times criticised for being tough, displayed a perfect example of 'Indianness' in Haryana. As Haryana was burning due to Jat agitation, a bride and her family members were left stuck in their home. The Army stepped in and ensured the marriage ceremony takes place. The incident happened on Monday at Gurcharanpura area in Rohtak district. When a family along with the bride were unable to visit the wedding venue because of violence, the 3/5 Gorkha Rifles battalion came to the rescue of the distressed family. Notably, Gurcharanpura was worst hit in the Jat agitation, which led to loss of 28 lives in Haryana. When the soldiers heard about their plight, the Gorkha batallion came forward and helped Neha Makkad marry Gaurav. The Army came in when Neha's family approached them and asked for help. Speaking to 'The Times of India', Commanding Officer of 3/5 Gorkha Rifles, Col Suraj Chambiyal, said that the Jat agitation had turned into inter-caste violence and the Jats were targetting non-Jats. Giving further details, the Army officer said that on Monday when the family approached them and asked for help, Major Aman Kumar along with other Armymen escorted the family to the gurdwara, the wedding venue. Neha's mother told the daily that when there was violence everywhere on the streets, the Army escorted them to the marriage venue and ensured that the ceremony happened peacefully. She said, We are indebted to the Army. The groom, Gaurav, whose shop was set on fire by the rioters, was also thankful to the Army. He said even though he lost his finances, but he was grateful to the Armymen who helped him get married. New Delhi: A total of 445 Indians, most of them fishermen, are currently lodged in jails in Pakistan, the Rajya Sabha was informed today. In addition, 74 missing defence personnel, including 54 prisoners of war, are believed to be in Pakistani jails since 1971, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said, in written reply to a question. He said 392 Indian fishermen and 53 other Indian civilian prisoners are currently lodged in Pakistan's custody, adding the government regularly takes up with Islamabad the issue of their early release and repatriation. On prisoners of war, Singh said Pakistan does not acknowledge their presence in its custody. The Minister said a total of 1262 Indian fishermen were arrested in foreign waters in 2015. To a separate question, Singh said a total of 2,102 Indians were injured or killed in the last three years during various tragedies in foreign countries out of which 1,575 were brought back. This is in addition to 35,000 people evacuated from Nepal following the devastating quake in that country in April last year, he said. Replying to another query, Singh said India was ready to play a meaningful role in Syria's peace process, if required. He, however, added that Syrian government has not extended any invitation to India for its participation in the peace talks. In response to a question on Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifting 2500 kilos of sandalwood to Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu during his visit there in August 2014, the Minister said only "dead trees and seized sandalwood" were given. "Since no live/green trees were felled, the question of planting saplings in their stead does not arise," the Minister said, adding the wood was taken from Tamil Nadu. He said the cost of the sandalwood gifted to the temple was Rs 1.88 crore and expenses incurred towards transportation, insurance and packaging was Rs 2.85 lakh. New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said that that former union minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram`s questioning the extent of Afzal Guru`s role in the 2001 Parliament attack would primarily encourage terrorists to get more active, and therefore, will have a very negative effect on Kashmir. "I am wondering what is the motivation? But the obvious implication of the statement is that it is a Congress Party statement. He would not make such a foolish statement unless he was asked to make the statement. And it is primarily to encourage all the terrorist to get active. This will have a very negative effect on Kashmir," Subramanian Swamy told ANI here. Swamy asks as to why did Chidambaram waited all these years to open his mouth and must give an explanation in this regard. "He was the minister in the previous government when Afzal Guru was hanged. He has waited all these years, two years to open his mouth on it. He did not open his mouth when the government decided that the body will not be handed over to the family," he added. The BJP leader also said that the Government of India must register the case under 124-A, sedition against him. "This is anti-national statement and therefore so he must be persecuted," he added. Swamy, however, alleged that the Congress party is under the pressure from radical Muslims that they will not give the party votes if the party will not support them. "The Congress party moral authority has completely collapsed in the country. They are now looked upon as a party which is complicit to some foreign powers," he added. Chidambaram earlier told a leading English daily in an interview that he felt it was possible to hold an `honest opinion` that the case was `perhaps not correctly decided` and that there were `grave doubts about the extent of his involvement` in the 2001 Parliament attack. "I think it is possible to hold an honest opinion that the Afzal Guru case was perhaps not correctly decided," said Chidambaram, who was the country`s Home Minister from 2008 to 2012, before being switched to the Finance Ministry. Washington: The United States' decision to sell eight nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan would affect "some aspects" of Indo-US relationship, a top American military commander has said, amid India's strong protest over the deal. "With regard to the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, while I don't have a professional opinion on that sale itself, certainly it will affect some aspects of our relationship with India," the US Pacific Command (PACOM) Commander, Admiral Harry Harris, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing on Wednesday. Harris, who will visit India next week, was responding to question from members of the House Armed Services Committee. "I know that I will be asked about it when I go to India, and I hope to be able to tell them that that sale is just one aspect of many military sales that we make across the world, and that we view our relationship with India very importantly," Harris said. "I hope that we can work through this sale, and their perception of it, to continue to improve our relationship with India," Admiral Harris said, responding to a question on F-16 from Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard, the first ever Hindu Congresswoman elected to the US House of Representatives, expressed serious concern over the Obama Administration's decision to sell the fighter jets to Pakistan. "There's a potential sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan that I and other members of Congress have expressed very serious concerns about, given the fact that Pakistan has long harboured and given safe haven to various terrorist groups that continue to launch destabilising attacks within India, as well as Afghanistan," she said. "The recent release of Hafiz Saeed, one of the masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, where six US citizens were killed, even at the protests of the United States -- there are a number of other concerns that we have," she said. "But in particular, I'm wondering if you can talk about how, as you and others have spoken of the importance of this opportunity to strengthen our relationship with India, as we head into a strong partnership into the future and the benefits that that brings us, what impact could this sale of F-16s have on our relationship with India and the work that you and others are doing to strengthen that?" Gabbard had asked. India had summoned US Ambassador Richard Verma to convey its "displeasure and disappointment" over Obama Administration's decision to sell eight F-16 fighter jets worth nearly USD 700 million to Pakistan. India disagreed with the US' rationale that such arms transfers help Pakistan in combating terrorism and believes the US military aid to Pakistan goes into anti-India activities. The Pentagon had said that the F-16 aircraft will facilitate operations in all-weather, non-daylight environments, provide a self-defence/area suppression capability, and enhance Pakistan's ability to conduct counter-insurgency and counter terrorism operations. Delhi: For the second straight day, HRD Minister Smriti Irani on Thursday made a strong defence of the government's actions with regard to JNU issue and suicide of Dalit student in Hyderabad University in the face of intense attack by the opposition which alleged that attempts were being made to suppress dissent. Irani, who was ballistic in the Lok Sabha yesterday, was comparatively mellowed down in the Rajya Sabha today as she replied to questions raised on her performance as also that of the HRD ministry under her. She said she had been "rightly" advised by someone to be calm. Opposition slams BJP The debate, which was started by Communist Party of India-Marxist's (CPI-M) Sitaram Yechury, saw Opposition parties condemning the police action in the JNU incident, and violence at Patiala House court, as well a the circumstances around the suicide of Vemula, following his suspension from the University of Hyderabad. Yechury accused the NDA government of attempting to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra and demanded that a house committee probe the issues arising out of the unrest in JNU, Hyderabad University and other institutions. The government's undue "interference which is not sanctioned by the law" in the working of the educational institutions is aimed at promoting their agenda of Hindu Rashtra, he said while initiating a debate on the issue. "It's an effort to replace secular India with a Hindu nation," he said. On his part, Ramdas Athavale of RPI (A) said Vemula's suicide is a serious issue and action needs to be taken against the perpetrators. "If anti-India slogans have been raised in JNU then this should be seriously investigated. Nationalism should be respected. Action should be taken against those who raise such slogans," he added. Athavale said "if a lesson needs to be taught to Pakistan, then India should attack it and free the parts of Jammu and Kashmir that it has captured." Jaitley targets Congress, Left on sedition issue Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, meanwhile, said the government agreed that there should be freedom in universities, but questioned how can "vandalism" be condemned while "sedition" is called free speech. "What happened in Patiala House (court) is condemnable. But vandalism is condemnable, and sedition is free speech? Nobody can subscribe to this ideology and least of all should Congress party subscribe to this ideology," Jaitley said, intervening in the debate. His reference to "vandalism" was to the incidents on February 15 of some students and media persons being roughed up at Patiala House courts complex where Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested for sedition, was being presented before a judge. "Of course vandalism should be condemned," Jaitley said. "We all know what (executed parliament attack convict) Afzal Guru represented... He was not protesting against 'Manuvaad',' capitalism', or 'Brahmanism' that they will raise slogans against Manuvaad and capitalism on his martyrdom day," the minister said, referring to the event organised on February 9 at the JNU where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, as per IANS. House adjourned after uproar over Irani's comments On the other hand, Irani's reply to a short duration discussion, however, was cut short as the House was abruptly adjourned after uproar over her certain comments which she made while alleging that some elements in JNU had published derogatory pamphlets about Goddess Durga. As she narrated the descriptive details of the pamphlets, Anand Sharma of Congress took objection, saying it could set a precedent and in future somebody else could repeat it with regard to Gods of other religions. "What is happening here? This is too much. It's a dangerous precedent. Every religious leader and deity has been derogatorily referred by some persons. Will all this be discussed here? Can we allow it here. Then there will be a war in the House," Sharma said, as per PTI. Irani insisted with her reference, saying it was imperative to counter the charge levelled against her. Responding to objections, Deputy Chairman PK Kurian said she has authenticated what she had said. "What can I do?" he said. With the Opposition remaining unrelenting, he adjourned the House till tomorrow. (With Agency inputs) New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday trained his guns at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, suggesting that his visit to the campus in the aftermath of the controversial protest amounted to providing 'respectability' to a movement whose charter was to break India. He also suggested in Rajya Sabha that Congress, jointly with Left parties, had jumped into the JNU issue 'without giving prior thought' in view of the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal. He contended that the developments of February 9 on JNU were 'much more serious' as he read out the pamphlets carrying anti-India material which were circulated in the campus. "The core question is, are we going to give respectability to those whose primary ideology is that they want to break this country," Jaitley said while intervening in the debate on 'Situation arising out of recent incidents in institutions of higher education with reference to JNU and University of Hyderabad', as per PTI. Referring to slogans which called for war for destruction of the country and lauded terrorists who had been convicted by the highest judiciary, Jaitley questioned, "Can hate speech be called free speech?" He noted that being a mainstream party, Congress does not have the history of supporting the "fringe". Jaitley agreed with Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad that two Congress prime ministers had fallen to the terrorists' bullets, a reference to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, and said "that precisely should have been the reason for you (Congress) to speak more vigorously against the offences in JNU. At least on this issue, we expected you to be with us." Suggesting that Congress had done so in view of West Bengal polls, he quipped, "The tragedy of Bengal is that there are three Congress parties - the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and Congress Marxist." Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien took objection to this, reminding that his party was separate since 1998. The official Twitter handle of Trinamool Congress also tweeted about it and so did O'Brien: Jaitley concedes there is only "one Trinamool Congress" in #Bengal pic.twitter.com/u0ym3j8A9C AITC (@AITCofficial) February 25, 2016 My short intervention in Parliament today on behalf of @AITCofficial https://t.co/j8jWaN1q0J Derek O'Brien (@quizderek) February 25, 2016 Meanwhile, Jaitley, a noted lawyer-turned-politician, defended the police entry into JNU, arguing that the campus was not a 'sovereign territory' like some foreign embassy. Seeking to turn tables on Congress, he cited a Parliament Question of 1983 in which the then Indira Gandhi government had justified entry of police in JNU and arrest of 350 students, including 50 girls, after the Vice Chancellor was gheraoed. Jaitley asked Opposition parties not to 'camouflage' the offence at JNU, saying 'its a very serious offence... One is jihadist, the other is Maoist. Its an alliance of the two. You have been in power for long, you should have thought before making a visit to the JNU campus." (With Agency inputs) New Delhi: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar Thursday said that induction of women into the fighter stream of the armed forces will be done in a phased manner. The timeline of induction of women into combat roles will be decided after taking into account issues related to their training and accommodation, he said. "We have made our view very clear. It is the timelines which we have to decide. Timeline has to be decided about many factors like facilities or position for it. You also need training facilities...You need accommodation facilities," he told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by the Defence Innovators and Industry Associations. President Pranab Mukherjee, while addressing a joint session of Parliament on Tuesday, had spoken about plans to induct women in all military combat roles in the future. "Government has approved the induction of women as Short Service Commission officers and as fighter pilots into IAF. In the future, government will induct women into all the fighter streams of our armed forces," Mukherjee had said in his address to Parliament. The Indian Air Force is the first armed force in the country to recruit women for the fighter stream. Navy is planning to induct women as pilots for its surveillance aircrafts. New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday roared in front of the media, saying the government was "scared" and will try to muzzle his voice in Parliament on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) sedition row. "I will speak but they (government) will not let me speak because they are scared. They are scared of what I am going to say in Parliament so they will not let me speak," Rahul told the media on Wednesday. But what actually happened in the Lok Sabha, was completely different - the 'Yuvraaj' just rested on his seat, while his party colleague Jyotiraditya Scindia initiated the debate on the JNU row and Rohith Vemula suicide issue. If this was not enough Rahul and Scinida were not even present in Parliament when Union Minister Smriti Irani gave a thunderous response on both the contentious issues. In a hard-hitting reply, laced with emotion and anger, the Bharatiya Janat Party (BJP) leader forcefully defended the action against students of JNU saying Kanhaiya Kumar and some other students had been found indulging in anti-national activities by the JNU authorities themselves. "Help me build the nation, not destroy it from within," she said stressing, "I respect your patriotism, don't demean mine... I have my idea of India...Don't demean it, she roared in Lok Sabha. Nobody, other than Rahul himself, is his enemy. The Congress MP from Amethi has on many occasions taken up issues like mining in Niyamgiri Hills, Marathi manoos, Kalavati and the recent JNU and Rohith suicide case, but has failed to take them to positive conclusion and impress people. Rahul is also a regular absentia from Parliament (who can forget he skipped the 2015 Budget Session), thus skipping the most important forum from where he could really usher in change. The Gandhi scion on Wednesday had a great chance to showcase that he really believes in bringing change rather than just doing theatrical politics. By not speaking in Parliament on the issues, which he himself decided to pick, gave a belligerent Smriti Irani a golden chance to target the Congress, especially Rahul Gandhi. It seems Rahul is happy in giving repeated one liners on 'Modi sarkar' in the media, and paying one day visit to various places in the country where some trouble shoots up. Well, if Rahul continues to act like this, the Modi-led BJP can be rest assured to have a gala time in the next 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, and who knows Amethi deserts the emotional politics and opts for Smriti Irani. New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday refused to allow Delhi Police to collect voice samples of two JNU students -- Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, arrested in a sedition case. According to court sources, Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen dismissed the application of Delhi Police, which had arrested both the accused students after they surrendered on the night of February 23, seeking permission to collect their voice samples for investigation in the matter. Umar and Anirban were last night sent to three days police remand at the South Campus Police Station near JNU which was turned into a makeshift court room following an order of the Delhi High Court to "maintain confidentiality" during their remand proceedings. Police had demanded seven days' custody of the duo, who had allegedly organised a controversial event at JNU on February 9 where anti-India slogans were alleged to have been raised. Police yesterday also applied for production of JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar so that all the three students can be interrogated together. The Delhi High Court had yesterday ordered maintenance of "confidentiality" during the remand proceedings of Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban and directed police to ensure that no one "suffers even a scratch" in wake of the Patiala House court violence on February 15 and 17. The high court order had come during the hearing on Kumar's bail plea after it was informed that he and Umar and Anirban were apprehending threat to their safety and security during production in a Patiala House court for remand proceedings. According to police before being arrested, Umar and Anirban were questioned for at least five hours in which police inquired about their whereabouts during the phase when cops were on a look out for them. Police also inquired whether two of them were the main organisers of the February 9 event against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, and whether they were involved in alleged anti-India sloganeering. The duo had returned to the JNU campus last Sunday after going missing since February 12. The Delhi Police had issued a look-out notice on February 20 against Umar, Anirban and three other students -- Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash. New Delhi: What could be a major blow to the Congress party over its handling of the sensational Ishrat Jahan encounter case, ex-home secretary G K Pillai in a startling revelation claimed that the decision to erase the word LeT from her affidavit was taken at a political level and it did not come from his office. It was a very successful intelligence operation. That we managed to entice the LeT to send their shooters into India, and that we were able to monitor their activities in India, to catch them..I think it was a very successful operation from the intelligence standpoint, Pillai told Times Now in an interview. Asked about the contradictory affidavits filled in court with regard to the case, he said: What really happened was in one of the affidavits there was a mention of LeT operatives, but in the other one, that aspect was deleted. Asked why was it deleted? He said: I really wouldn't know because that was not done at my level, it was done at a political level. You have to ask at the political level and not me. It has been alleged that Gujarat Police and the Intelligence Bureau colluded to stage the fake encounter. The CBI probe is a court directed investigation. It is perfectly within its jurisdiction to carry on this investigation. But where I found fault with the office of the CBI is that during that period there were plenty of off the record briefings. And I think when an investigation of this sort includes the IB, I think the officers in the CBI should have exercised extreme discretion. If you see the newspapers of that time there were leaks every day. I think they should have kept quite. If I would have been the home secretary I would have called the CBI director and have told him that look this is absolutely unacceptable, Pillai said. CBI should have done it out in a professional manner and ensure that confidentiality is maintained. And not as they say give daily off the record briefings on what is happening. Asked if Ishrat Jehan was a terrorist? I would say that she knew that something was wrong. Otherwise an unmarried Muslim girl would not go with another married person to different places, spend nights out and so on and so forth, which is not the normal pattern at all. So perhaps she knew something wrong. She could have been a cover. In fact it was one of the claims that she was actually used because a single person was more likely to be suspicious but if somebody travels as husband and wife then people don't look upon them with suspicion. Whether or not they were LeT operatives that is one aspect. The second aspect is whether it was a fake encounter. I have no doubt in one sense that this intelligence operation involved the LeT. So that part of it is separate, he added. The former bureaucrat said LeT did put her name on their website as a martyr, which was later withdrawn. "There was no direct evidence, except that LeT put her name on the website. So, I would say may be she was an unwitting player." Barcelona-based company Natural Machines is launching the Foodini with the target of professional chefs to meet the $1,500-2,000 price tag. Barcelona: While tens of thousands flock to the Mobile World Congress to check out the latest smartphones, the show also offers glimpses of some of the coolest off-beat and downright strange innovations. Many of these newfangled prototypes found a niche at the trade shows special corner for start-ups, which gathered here to find business deals for their inventions. Here is a look at the quirkiest of the gadgets and apps on display this week in Barcelona. Magic Drawings Remember pop-up books? Chromville takes the idea to another dimension with its augmented reality educational app. Here is how it works: Kids download and print pages with designs that they colour in as they wish. Next, they hold a tablet over the page and, via the Chromville app, the drawing turns into a 3-D image they can interact with through the screen. The one on the solar system, for example, lets kids explore the planets, zoom in and out, and learn facts. Other modules teach about the human body, the metamorphosis of a frog, simple geography, or how to build a machine. It is something like magic. We have to play and enjoy education, said Hector Perez, CEO of the company from Zaragoza, Spain. As of December, a one-time fee of $4.39 gives customers the app and access to drawings. Food Printer Natural Machines co-founder Lynette Kucsma insists her company hasnt replicated Star Treks food synthesiser that made munchies appear at Captain Kirks mere command. But they sure have come close with their 3-D food printer. The Foodini lays down layer after layer of food from nozzles, ultimately creating treats like ravioli, crackers, or chicken nuggets. The company says you can even make more complex items like hamburgers, though its not clear what they would look like coming through nozzles. You become the food manufacturer, Kucsma said, adding that the Foodini would allow cooks to use more natural ingredients to make healthier food instead of buying prepared foodstuffs with added preservatives. It can also link up with other connected devices. The Barcelona-based company is launching the Foodini with the target of professional chefs to meet the $1,500-2,000 price tag. They plan to later expand to regular customers. Eye Writing We can write with our touch. We can write with our voice. Irisbond is making it easier to write with our sight.Their eye-tracking app, which can work with standard smartphone cameras, allows you to type on a computer. Co-founder and CEO Eduardo Jauregui said the app is designed for disabled users.They can send emails or write books with their eyes. It changes their lives completely, Jauregui said. But it could also be helpful for professionals, like surgeons, who may have limited use of their hands during work. Irisbond allows users to control a mouse pointer on a virtual keyboard of a smartphone or tablet. Stare for one second over a letter to push the button and type. Jauregui said his company based in San Sebastian, Spain, is in talks with smartphone makers, including Samsung, to be acquired. Paper programming Take paper art, a little round robot, throw in some low-level coding, and, voila! You have the Kamibot, an interactive toy that helps children have fun while learning computer programming. Aimed at kids as young as eight, the Kamibot robot can be covered with paper-made skins to turn it into a variety of characters, including Dracula, Frankenstein, and several popular figures in Korea. An app controls the robots movement, and teaches users how to programme routes for the robot to follow. Still at the kick-starter phase, the Korean company 3.14 is hoping to ship its first Kamibots in June. Pre-orders go for $89. Pack robots One gadget that caused a big stir as it moseyed through the aisles of the trade show was Starships delivery robot. Dont let the companys name fool you. The tub-sized robot on rollers wont blast you away, but it just might make home delivery more convenient as it creeps its way down the sidewalk. Co-founder Janus Friis, one of the creators of Skype, had the idea to create a fleet of robots that would work with stores making deliveries from hubs that cover neighbourhoods. Keith Cornell, Starships senior advisor, said customers would gain from being able to decide exactly when they receive their packages, while stores will reduce costs. To ensure the robot doesnt cause mayhem on the street, its top speed is 4 mph and it includes sensors that force it to stop when facing an obstacle. If stuck, it can be taken over remotely by an operator. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Delhi: No foreign funding was involved in the February 9 incident on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, according to the police, as per a media report. Hindustan Times quoted sources as saying that the police came to this conclusion after JNU student leaders Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were questioned for reportedly 12 hours on Wednesday. Both the students have been arrested with sedition charges after they surrendered to Delhi Police on the night of February 23. The report also said that both of them were questioned in two phases and the interrogation was conducted in-camera. Khalid supposedly told the police that organising the event to commemorate Afzal Gurus hanging was his idea and Bhattacharya prepared the posters. Also, according to them anti-national slogans were raised by outsiders. Meanwhile, a court here today dismissed the plea of Delhi Police seeking voice samples of Khalid and Anirban, after the accused refused to do so. Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen rejected the pleas of police which wanted the voice samples for forensic test in relation to the ongoing investigation into the alleged anti-national slogan shouting at the JNU campus. Umar and Anirban were last night sent to three days police remand at the South Campus Police Station near JNU which was turned into a makeshift court room following an order of the Delhi High Court to "maintain confidentiality" during their remand proceedings, as per PTI. Police had demanded seven days' custody of the duo. Police yesterday also applied for production of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar so that all the three students can be interrogated together. The Delhi High Court had also directed that during the remand proceedings of Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban, police must ensure that no one 'suffers even a scratch' in wake of the Patiala House court violence on February 15 and 17. (With Agency inputs) Delhi: Investigators have stumbled upon empty food packets with Pakistan label at the international border, as per a media report. The packets were found near a BSF outpost in Simbal and was later handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), as per India Today. Made-in-Karachi food packets include dishes like shahi paneer, chicken nehari, dal fry and lahori chole, as per the report. Also forty milk packets with a manufacture date of November 16, 2015 and expiry date of February 8, 2016 were found under thick foliage. All of it have now been sent to Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL). Meanwhile, Pakistan today said a team of special investigators probing the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase will visit India soon to collect evidence. "The special investigation team will shortly visit India to collect evidence on the airbase attack," Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said in Islamabad, as per PTI. He, however did not give any date for the visit. The special investigation team, that included experts from civilian and military intelligence agencies, was set up by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last month to probe the January 2 attack. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had said last week that India had already agreed to the visit of Pakistani experts to collect evidence. Pakistan has already lodged an FIR into the Pathankot attack which has paved the way for the prosecution of anyone who is found guilty of involvement in the attack. The FIR by the Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab police, however, did not name Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, whom India has accused of having masterminded the deadly assault. (With Agency inputs) New Delhi: The Supreme Court has set aside a Delhi High Court verdict which held that selected persons cannot be accorded quota benefits on account of non-submission of OBC certificate before cut off date, saying weaker sections should not be deprived of reservation as they have been facing "centuries of oppression". A bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and V Gopala Gowda referred to an earlier High Court verdict that had said that the candidature of those candidates, who belonged to the SC and ST categories could not be rejected simply on account of the late submission of caste certificate. "The Division Bench of the High Court erred in reversing the judgment and order passed by the single Judge, without noticing the binding precedent on the question laid down by the Constitution Benches of this Court in the cases of Indra Sawhney ...Wherein this Court ...Held that the object of providing reservation to SC/ST and educationally and socially backward classes of the society is to remove inequality in public employment, as candidates belonging to these categories are unable to compete with the candidates belonging to the general category as a result of facing centuries of oppression and deprivation of opportunity. "The constitutional concept of reservation envisaged in the Preamble of the Constitution as well as Articles 14, 15, 16 and 39A of the Directive Principles of State Policy is to achieve the concept of giving equal opportunity to all sections of the society," it said. Some persons had applied for posts of 'Staff Nurse in Delhi Government's Health Department' in 2008 and did not give OBC certificate before last date of submission of forms. The candidates moved the High Court against denial of employment. The single judge bench asked DSSSB to reconsider "the application of appellant and the other aggrieved candidates against OBC category within a period of one month". The division bench of the High Court, however, reversed the order. The apex court then set aside the High Court verdict saying that the historic judgement in the Indra Sawhney case was binding and such benefits cannot be denied to deprived sections which are being oppressed for centuries. Srinagar: In a major success against terror, a teenage Fidayeen of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) was caught alive from Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday. Identified as Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, he was part of the terror team that had attacked an army camp in Tanghdar in Kupwara district on November 25. His three associates were gunned down but he had managed to escape. He was nabbed by a joint team of Army, Rashtriya Rifles and J&K police. A huge quantity of arms and explosives was also recovered from him. Gujjar is a resident of Sialkot in Pakistan. A member of the Afzal Guru squad of JeM, Gujjar had reportedly told his interrogators that the Tanghdar attack was launched from Athmuqam in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). The Afzal Guru squad of JeM has been very active in the recent months. They have carried out three suicide attacks in recent days, including the attack on Pathankot air base. A news report said that Gujjar was active in the Baramulla area for the past 15 days and was put under surveillance, leading to his arrest. New Delhi: Two days after rallies were held at the Jantar Mantar in support of the sedition-accused JNU president Kanhaiya Kumar and his supporters for organising an event in support of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru, Delhi University Students' Union president Satender Awana has warned if no action was taken against those who had raised anti-India slogans he will shoot them. Addressing a gathering of thousands of students on Wednesday, DUSU president Awana said, Those students at JNU thought they could get away with saying whatever they wanted, they thought that some video editing on electronic media would help them, but we all heard the slogans that were chanted. Our brothers from JNU who went to stand up for the country told us what was happening. If these people are not punished, then we as jagruk yuvaks (awakened youth) will enter their campus and shoot the traitors. As per a report in leading Hindi daily 'Jan Satta', the DUSU president also slammed those who led a march and raised slogans demanding justice for Hyderabad Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula who had committed suicide recently. Prior to Awana's speech, thousands of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members marched between Ramlila Maidan and Jantar Mantar, raising slogans decrying all anti-national activity. ABVP members also raised slogans criticising Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Brinda Karat, D Raja and other leaders during the march. The participants demanded action against JNU students who had allegedly raised anti-India slogans during a controversial even organised at the university campus in support of Afzal Guru and termed his execution as judicial killing. The ABVP members shouted slogans such as the Kashmir we have fought for is entirely ours'' and shoot all traitors in JNU''. Raj Vardhan Singh, an ABVP member from Ayodhya, said at the march, I can think of no bigger threat than young students calling for the destruction of the idea of India. Saurabh Sharma, joint secretary of JNU Students Union, was also quoted as saying, ''My university is being tarnished by the likes of these anti-nationals. A few of those cowards surrendered yesterday, but many of them still roam the campus freely Left parties and the JNU Teachers Association are trying to make excuses on the behalf of those who have clearly degraded our country. Srinagar: Police in Jammu and Kashmir have busted a module of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and arrested a militant who allegedly hails from Pakistan. The module was busted in North Kashmirs Baramulla town. The development comes days after the deadly Pampore encounter happened in which five security personnel, three militants and one civilian were killed. Citing the J&K police, the Indian Express said that the arrested Pakistani militant was part of a four member fidayeen squad that had attacked an Army camp at Tanghdar in November last year. The arrested militant managed to escape from the spot after three of his associates were killed in the attack, police said. The police has identified the arrested militant as Mohammad Sadiq from Sailkot, Pakistan. Sadiq has reportedly revealed the details regarding his handlers and the people who helped him in Kupwara and Baramulla districts in the past two months. The police said that they have detained five of his associates later. Based on specific information that a Pakistani Fidayeen militant has made entry in the town, multiple operations were launched in and around Baramulla by joint teams of Police, CRPF and Army. After sustained operations a Pakistani Fidayeen was overpowered near Kanispora and apprehended, the newspaper quoted a police spokesman as saying. Srinagar: Six militants, including a Pakistan national involved in the attack on an army camp in Tangdhar sector near the Line of Control last November, were arrested as security forces unearthed a militant module in north Kashmir's Baramulla district, police said today. Security forces launched a manhunt in Baramulla district following inputs about entry of a Pakistani militant into the district headquarter town yesterday, a police official said. He said the forces were successful in arresting a Jaish-e-Mohammad militant Mohammad Sidiq alias Shahd, a resident of Sialkot in Pakistan. Five other members of the module were also arrested. They have been identified as Suhail Arif, Rasshid Rasool Bhat, Javaid Ahmad Dhobi, Farhan Fayaz and Ehsan Fayaz, the official said. During interrogation, the Pakistani militant told police that he was part of the 'fidayeen' (suicide) squad of Jaish which had attacked the Army camp at Tangdhar on November 25 last year. Three militants and a civilian were killed as the army repusled the attack. Sidiq also revealed that after managing to escape to Baramulla, he was to meet other members of the Jaish to carry out further attacks in Kashmir or outside the Valley, the official said. "He was in process of creating a base and superstructure for furtherance of terrorist activities in Kashmir which was foiled by action of police and other security forces," he added. The security forces recovered one AK 47 rifle, five AK magazines, 150 AK rounds, six grenades and a wireless set from the arrested militants. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down on the Maharashtra government for putting certain conditions for granting licences to dance bars across the state like providing live CCTV feed of performances to police and segregating the dance area from the restaurant. "Why the stage should be covered from all sides? Why there should a non-transparent partition between dance area and restaurant area? The dance is an art," a bench comprising justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh said. The bench was critical of some pre-requisites fixed by the state police for granting licences to dance bar owners and said the condition that there should be segregation of dance area from that of restaurant presumes that performance would be "obscene". "Why are you imposing the condition? As long as nothing obscene is happening...Why," it asked Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for Maharashtra, and told her to clarify the stand on some contentious conditions on March 1, the next date of hearing. The dance bar association, represented by senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, has red flagged certain conditions. "This licence is valid for only one stage of 10ft x 12 ft. in size in restaurant area as per approved plan of the excise department for ... With non transparent partition between restaurant and permit room area," one of the conditions reads. The dance bar owners would be permitted to keep only four "dancers/artists to remain present on permitted stage", another contentious condition said. The owners will not be allowed to "add or alter" anything in the premises except "without the written permission of the Competent Authority ie DCP(HQ-1) for Mumbai or concerned DCP/SP for other areas," the condition said. Bhushan said that these are "regressive ones" and needed to be amended. Bhushan also objected to the condition that makes it compulsory to dance bar owners to "ensure that adequate number of CCTV cameras which will live feed continuously to police control room be installed to cover the entire premises which will record the entire daily performance and the same would be monitored by a specially appointed person on a monitor/ display". "The daily recording of last 30 days would preserved and will be made available to any competent authority as and when required for viewing." The apex court had in November last year pulled up the Maharashtra government for not complying with its October 15, 2015 order, asking it to consider granting licences of dance bars to hoteliers and had ordered it to process such pleas within two weeks. It had also raised questions over the state government laws banning dance bars and said as to "how individual morality, perceptive morality and selective morality can merge into collective and legal morality". It had allowed Vinod Patil, president of R R Patil Foundation, to intervene in the matter. Patil had in his plea claimed that reopening of dance bars would increase crime. On October 15, 2015, the apex court had stayed the operation of 2014 amendment in Maharashtra Police Act that had banned dance performances at bars and some other places, paving the way for reopening of dance bars across the state. The order had come on a petition filed by Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association challenging the amendment and sought contempt of court action against the Maharashtra government. The court had noted that the provision was brought back in Maharashtra Police Act in 2014 after being held ultra vires in 2013 by the top court. Itanagar: The newly-installed government in Arunachal Pradesh will face a test of its strength in the Assembly on Thursday with Chief Minister Kalikho Pul receiving a shot in the arm as eight Nabam Tuki loyalists extended their support to him. Governor Jyoti Prashad Rajkhowa yesterday summoned the seventh session of the assembly from beginning Thursday till February 27. Pul was sworn in as the eighth chief minister of the state on February 19 after over three months of political instability. With the joining of the eight MLAs, the strength of the Pul camp has now gone up to 41 including 28 Congress members, 11 BJP MLAs and two Independents in a house with an effective strength of 58, though the original strength was 60. The Supreme Court had upheld the judgement of Gauhati High Court in resignation of two Congress MLAs - Gabriel Denang Wangsu and Wanglin Sawin - which was accepted by former Speaker Nabam Rebia. The eight are former ministers Takam Pario, Gojen Gadi, Jomde Kena and Thirong Aboh and former Parliamentary Secretaries Punji Mara, Jambey Tashi, Gum Tayeng and Tapak Taku. Parliamentary secretary Likha Saaya also had joined the Pul camp On February 20. "More MLAs are going to support my government as they have realised that the causes for which I am fighting for the last several months," Pul said yesterday. Deputy Speaker Tenzing Norbu Thongdok said that a new Speaker would also be elected as the seat was lying vacant since December 16. He said the customary Governor's address was also scheduled for on Thursday. With February 26 being a holiday due to Nyokum festival of the Nyishi community, the motion of thanks to the governor's address would be taken up on the last day of the session. "The business of the house has been decided in the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting held under my chairmanship today in presence of its members including Chief Minister Pul, Leader of Opposition (BJP) Tamiyo Taga, Pema Khandu and Paknga Bage," Thongdok said. The Union Cabinet had on January 24 last recommended for imposition of President's rule and it was imposed on January 26. It was lifted less than a month later on February 19. With PTI inputs Bhubaneswar: Pleased over allocation of Rs 4,682 crore to Odisha against the demand of Rs 5,000 crore in the Railway budget, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday thanked Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu for accepting some of the state's major demands. Patnaik, however, requested the Railway Minister not to revise the allocation downward as it was done previous year. Last year, the actual allotment was 35 per cent less than the original allotment for Odisha, Patnaik pointed out in his rail budget reaction. There is an increase of 30 per cent in the allotment this year as compared to the last year, Patnaik said. He appreciated sanctioning of two important new line projects - Jeypore-Malkangiri and Jeypore-Nabarangpur and Junagarh-Ambaguda Via Nabarangpur, Bereahampur-Sambalpur and Baspani-Badbil lines. Most importantly, the state's demand for extending the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada through the coast of Odisha has been accepted, Patnaik said. He pointed out the exclusion of Bhubaneswar from the Rail-based Mass Rapid Transit System, saying, "considering the fact Bhubaneswar has now emerged as the Number One Smart City in the country, we hope Railways can still include MRTS for the greater Bhubaneswar area." The state government has pledged to re-develop Bhubaneswar station with world class facilities and has been asking railways for similar re-development of Bhubaneswar New, Puri, Naraj and Cuttack stations, he said. Though no specific station was named, the Railway Minister announced to re-develop 400 stations through PPP. "We hope and expect important stations in the state are taken up under this scheme," Patnaik pointed out. Cape Breton Island, off the tip of the Nova Scotia peninsula on Canadas Atlantic coast, has put out a welcome mat for anyone unable to tolerate Trump's probable triumph. (Photo: Screengrab) Ottawa: The rise of Donald Trump has given an unlikely boost to a Canadian island offering to take in Americans as political refugees if the Republican real estate mogul wins the White House. Cape Breton Island, off the tip of the Nova Scotia peninsula on Canadas Atlantic coast, has put out a welcome mat for anyone unable to stomach a Trump presidency. A local radio disc jockey hatched the idea, designing a website linked to the local tourist bureau to provide an escape for Canadas wary neighbours to the south. Dont wait until Donald Trump is elected president to find somewhere else to live! says the site. Start now, that way, on election day, you just hop on a bus to start your new life in Cape Breton, where women can get abortions, Muslim people can roam freely, and the only walls are holding up the roofs of our extremely affordable houses. The promotion showcases the natural beauty of the island located about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of the US state of Maine, boasting of its food, sailing and whale-watching tours, as well as its universal health care. Of course, we dont care about political affiliations, everyone is welcome, Cape Breton tourist chief Mary Tulle said, emphasising the islands strong trade and historical links to the United States. Donald Trump might even like to come up for a visit, she quipped, noting that the billionaires mother was a Gaelic speaker, and that the majority of the islanders have Gaelic or Acadian roots. Did America lose a bet? The island has recently fallen on hard times with the closure of a local steel factory and a coal mine. In the past week, however, the Cape Breton tourist website has received over 300,000 visits, more than its usual annual tally. Some 5,000 Americans have also sought out specific information about the island, immigration rules, real estate and employment opportunities, Tulle said. The site is one of a growing number of satirical online nods to the US presidential campaign popping up in Canada. Another quirky pitch, created by a US writer living in Canada and a Canadian actor, humorously suggests Americas more laid-back neighbour could take over its politics, announcing its CANADA-cy in the 2016 election race. The video, which has racked up 37 million views, suggests what Canada being in charge could bring America: Well legalise weed so you can stop worrying about terrorists and worry about your cat stealing your ideas. And well help you solve your race problem, as soon as we figure out why you still have a race problem. At one point the narrator gestures, incredulously, towards a picture of Trump stumping, asking: What is this? Did America lose a bet? Back in Cape Breton, Tulle said Tuesday is going to be a big day, indicating that residents will be glued to television screens watching for the results of Super Tuesday, when a dozen US states hold primary contests. Trump currently leads the race to be the Republican presidential candidate in the November 8 election, after chalking up his third straight triumph in the partys presidential nominating process. Jaipur: The Budget session of Rajasthan assembly beginning next week is likely to be a stormy affair with opposition Congress gearing up to corner the state government on the issues of alleged derogatory remarks by two BJP MLAs and disinvestment of some units of power plants. While Congress is demanding suspension of BJP MLAs, Kailash Chaudhary and Gyan Dev Ahuja, for their comments, BJP said the opposition members were unnecessarily creating issues in order to impede the assembly session. "The Budget session will begin on February 29 with the speech of Governor Kalyan Singh. The meeting of Business Advisory Committee (BAC) will take place on the same day to decide the business of the House," Government Chief Whip Kalu Lal Gujar said. Rajasthan budget of 2016-17 is likely to be presented on March 8 though BAC will finalise the date. "We expect the session will go smoothly but Congress members are taking up non-issues as their issues. Our two MLAs made comments on Rahul Gandhi who sided with anti-national elements and Congress should reply why he was in support of those who shouted anti-India slogans," Gujar said. He said Congress should not mislead the people of the state and the nation on the issue. The two MLAs had recently critised Gandhi for siding with those who raised "anti-national" slogans in JNU. Choudhary had termed Gandhi a "traitor" while Ahuja supported Choudhary for his statement and alleged that the varsity was a den of "sex and alcohol". "The two BJP MLAs have made derogatory public statements and they should be arrested. Congress will prominently raise this issue in the assembly session along with other issues," Leader of Opposition Rameshwar Dudi said, adding the party has submitted a memorandum to the Governor seeking their arrest. "We are demanding action against them and if no action is taken before the session begins, we will take up this matter in the Assembly," he said. Deputy Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chand Meena said the Cabinet's decision to disinvest eight units of Kalisindh and Chhabara thermal power plants will be strongly opposed during the session. "Due to financial mismanagement of the government, the debt on power companies of the state has risen to about Rs 1 lakh crore which was Rs 66,000 crore in November 2013. Instead of taking steps to contain the losses, the government is going for disinvestment just to benefit private companies which will be against the interest of the state," Meena said. Kathmandu: Authorities today recovered all 23 bodies of people, including two foreigners, killed in Nepal, a day after their small plane crashed into a mountain in a remote Himalayan region amid bad weather. Police and army personnel, who were mobilised since yesterday after the burnt-out wreckage of the Twin Otter aircraft was found in the western district of Myagdi, returned to the site today for search operation. So far, seven bodies have been taken to Pokhara and kept at Gandaki Hospital for postmortem, according to a staff at the private Tara Air that operated the plane. The staff added that the remaining bodies will also be soon taken there. The ill-fated plane was on a flight from the resort town of Pokhara, 125 km west of here, to Jomsom, the starting point for people trekking the Himalayas which is also popular among Hindu pilgrims visiting the Muktinath temple when it went missing. The N9-AHH aircraft lost contact with the control tower just eight minutes into the 20-minute flight on the difficult route which goes through the mountains, is notoriously windy and which only small planes can fly. The plane crashed in Dana village in the remote mountain region of Myagdi district yesterday morning, killing all 20 passengers and three crew members on board. The rescue works were hampered this morning as the site was covered with snow and there was fog. Due to mountain wind, no aircraft could fly to the site for carrying out rescue works in early morning today. However, the search works resumed as weather cleared after some time, according to officials. One Kuwaiti and another Chinese national were the two foreigners killed in the accident while two children were among the passengers. The bodies will be handed over to the families as soon as all the remains arrive in Pokhara. The bodies will be flown to Kathmandu in case the family members of the deceased belong to the capital city, the airlines staff said. Meanwhile, the government has formed a five-member inquiry committee to investigate into the crash. The committee headed by Rajesh Raj Dali, former general manager of Tribhuvan International Airport, is supposed to submit its report within 90 days. Islamabad: Pakistan has begun the "last phase" of a bloody operation targeting militants in the restive northwest region along the Afghan border, a senior security official confirmed to AFP Thursday. The military released a statement Wednesday saying that powerful Army Chief General Raheel Sharif had given the order to launch the final phase of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan, one of the tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan in which militants had previously operated with impunity. A tweet from a military spokesman later Wednesday said the operation "has begun", though the army offered no further details. However a senior security official told AFP that the push in the southern pockets of Shawal and Data Khel began "a couple of days ago", with warm weather melting the snow covering the mountainous terrain. "Both ground and air assets are being used to take on the terrorists hiding in the areas," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The objective is to cleanse the area of militants," he said, adding he could give no further details for security reasons. The army launched the operation under US pressure in mid-2014, in a bid to wipe out militant bases in the North Waziristan tribal area and bring an end to the near decade-long Islamist insurgency that has cost Pakistan thousands of lives. The operation was intensified after the Taliban massacred more than 150 people, the majority of them children, at a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar in December 2014. The US has praised the operation as a success and security has improved noticeably in Pakistan since it was launched, with militancy-related violence in 2015 dropping to its lowest level since 2007, the year the Pakistani Taliban was formed. The Pakistani military says it has killed more than 3,600 insurgents in the tribal zone, with 358 soldiers having lost their lives. Observers caution that many other militants have been swept over the border into Afghanistan. Media are barred from the region and there is no way to verify the toll. Pakistan security analyst Hasan Askari warned that even if the final phase is successful, there will be a long road ahead. "There is a lot of rehabilitation work that needs to be carried out and civilians don`t have the capacity to do it alone," he told AFP, predicting that another "rehabilitation" phase would start soon to strengthen security along the porous border area. Islamabad: Pakistani authorities have shut 254 suspected and unregistered religious madrassas across the country as part of a crackdown on religious seminaries involved in extremism. 167 suspected seminaries in Sindh, 13 in Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa, two in Punjab, and 72 unregistered seminaries in Sindh have been closed, said Balighur Rehman Minister of State for Interior & Narcotics Control with the National Assembly. The minister shared the government's measures to curb sectarian violence under the National Action Plan to combat terrorism, their implementation and the results achieved until February 16. Regarding registration and regulation of seminaries, the state minister said the government had completed 100 percent mapping on agreed parameters in Islamabad and Punjab. Eighty per cent of the mapping exercise has been completed in Sindh, followed by 75 percent in K-P and 60 per cent in Balochistan, he added. "There are 190 foreign-funded seminaries in the country, of which 147 are in Punjab, 30 in Balochistan, seven in K-P and six in Sindh." The government is countering hate speech and banning dissemination of extremist material and so far 2,471 cases have been registered, 2,345 people arrested and 73 shops involved in the business sealed, Rehman told the house. On misuse of loudspeakers, he said 9,945 cases had been registered, 10,177 people arrested and 2,664 devices confiscated. Pakistan launched a major campaign under the National Action Plan (NAP) that was put in place after militants stormed an army school in December, 2014 killing at least 150 people, mostly schoolchildren. Islamabad: Pakistan today said a team of special investigators probing the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase will visit India soon to collect evidence. "The special investigation team will shortly visit India to collect evidence on the airbase attack," Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said. He, however did not give any date for the visit. The special investigation team, that included experts from civilian and military intelligence agencies, was set up by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last month to probe the January 2 attack. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said last week that India had already agreed to the visit of Pakistani experts to collect evidence. Pakistan has already lodged an FIR into the Pathankot attack which has paved the way for the prosecution of anyone who is found guilty of involvement in the attack. The FIR by the Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab police, however, did not name Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, whom India has accused of having masterminded the deadly assault. On the meeting of the foreign secretaries of the two countries, Zakaria said there was no hurdle for it. He, however, refused to give any date for such a meeting, which was initially planned for mid-January but was postponed due to the Pathankot attack. Zakaria said the officials of the two countries were in touch to work out the date for the meeting. Responding to a question, Zakaria rejected that the "struggle in Kashmir" was anyway linked to terrorism. He also expressed concern over the "exceptional treatment" given to India by the Nuclear Supplier Group. New Delhi: A global survey conducted by the international consultancy firm Mercer has ranked Chennai as India's safest city compared to other places like Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. The survey covered nearly 230 cities across the world. Although Chennai has been ranked 113th among the safest places globally, in the Indian context, it tops the order. The Mercer survey, titled Quality of Living, has rated Chennai as the safest in the country based on its low crime rate and better law enforcement. The survey, carried out between September and November 2015, covered nearly 230 cities across the world, the Hindu reported. While Chennai ranks 113 among the worlds safest cities, it has been rated the safest Indian city compared to seven other places, including Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. However, Chennai has been ranked fourth among the Indian cities in providing quality living to its residents. Chennai has been emerging as one of the cities of choice because of its relatively lower crime rate, less pollution and better education standards, the report said. We rated Chennai the best city for personal safety based on four parameters internal stability, crime rate, law enforcement and relationship with other countries. Unlike other cities, violent processions or terrorism threat is less in Chennai. Police corruption is also seen less compared to other metros, and residents are more law abiding, the newspaper quoted Ruchika Pal, principal and India practice leader, Global Mobility, Mercer, as saying. The annual survey is conducted to assist the government and other stakeholders to help improve the quality of living, according to the report. Sydney: Australia unveiled a massive new investment in the nation's defence capabilities on Thursday to address what Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called "high stakes" and "momentous times" in Asia. Citing increased defence spending around the region and potential flashpoints in the South China Sea and the Korean peninsula, he said the government was committed to combating the most challenging strategic environment "we have faced in peacetime". "These are momentous times. The stakes are high. And as the opportunities expand, so does the cost of losing them," Turnbull said in launching a new Defence White Paper in Canberra. "A stronger Australia supports a safer Australia, a safer region and a safer world." The government said it would spend AUD 195 billion (USD 139 billion) over the next decade, including a doubling of its submarine fleet to 24, three additional destroyers, nine new frigates and 12 offshore patrol boats. New air defence weapons would boost the force's capabilities with 72 F-35s, known as Joint Strike Fighters, added from 2020, while the army's equipment and armoured vehicle fleet will be upgraded. Some 2,500 new military roles will be created to expand the total defence force to 62,400 personnel. The cash injection would take Australia's defence spending to two percent of GDP by 2020-21, three years earlier than previously outlined, Turnbull said. The announcement comes with Australia's close ally the United States pursuing a foreign policy "pivot" towards Asia, while Beijing flexes its muscle in the region through a military build-up in the contested South China Sea. At the same time, tensions are high on the Korean peninsula after North Korea's January nuclear test and a rocket launch this month. Turnbull said that in the next two decades, there would be increased military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region, including "half the world's submarines and half the world's combat aircraft". "We would be concerned if the competition for influence and the growth in military capability were to lead to instability and threaten Australia's interests, whether in the South China Sea, the Korean peninsula or further afield," he added. "We have a strong, vital, vested interest in the maintenance of peace, stability and respect for the rule of law. The decisions we take now will impact on our defence capability and outlook for decades to come." Three international bidders -- DCNS of France, Germany's TKMS and the Japanese government -- are competing for the submarine project to replace Australia's current diesel and electric-powered Collins Class submarines. A decision on the winner is due this year. Australia is part of the US-led campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq, contributing military jets and special forces. It also started carrying out air strikes against IS targets in Syria last year. Phnom Penh: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday said he had authorised the use of helicopter gunships to crack down on rampant illegal logging in an effort to curb deforestation. Hun Sen recently appointed armed forces deputy commander-in-chief General Sao Sokha and the head of the military police to curb illegal logging and timber smuggling. The trade, lubricated by violence and bribery of forestry officials and border guards, has eviscerated one quarter of the country`s forests in a generation. Hun Sen has been in power in throughout that time, but conservationists say he has made little headway in reducing illegal logging despite trumpeting several crackdowns. "We recognise that deforestation must be punished. I gave two helicopters to Sao Sokha," Hun Sen said Thursday. "I have authorised them to fire rockets." Hun Sen said his government had also confiscated nearly one million hectares (2.5 million acres) of land from private firms in an effort to stop illegal forest clearance. He said the trade was being conducted under the noses of officials, asking: "The logs are so big, where are the eyes of police, military police, forestry administration and the ministry of environment? Or are you guys just the same as them?" In the last few decades a surge in illegal logging has contributed to a sharp drop in Cambodia`s forest cover, which fell from 73 percent in 1990 to 57 percent in 2010, according to the United Nations. Probes into the lucrative trade are steeped with risk and several high-profile killings of activists trying to expose the rampant spread of logging have blighted the kingdom in recent years. A forest ranger and a policeman who were investigating illegal logging in Cambodia were killed in November and at least 10 people, including a soldier, were arrested over the murders. In its haste to develop the impoverished nation, the government has been criticised for allowing firms to clear hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest land -- including in protected zones -- for everything from rubber and sugar cane plantations to hydropower dams. Rights groups and environmental watchdogs have linked many of these concessions to rampant illegal logging, and say armed government forces often act as security guards for offending companies. Environmentalists met Hun Sen`s latest order with scepticism. Ouch Leng, a Cambodian forest activist, said Hun Sen had repeatedly launched similar crackdowns "but the illegal logging has continued". "Cambodia has lost nearly all of its forest," he said. Demand for rare woods from wealthy Chinese and Vietnamese is believed to have spurred much of the deforestation in the Mekong region. Washington: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday underscored his concerns about the long range of a powerful U.S. radar that could be deployed in South Korea along with an advanced missile defense system and said Washington should explain its plans. Wang told an event hosted by the Center for International and Strategic Studies think tank that China remained committed to working with the United States and other countries to de-nuclearize the Korean peninsula. He said he was optimistic that the United Nations would agree on a resolution criticizing North Korea for its Jan. 6 nuclear test. But Wang said China remained concerned that the X-band radar to be deployed with the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system built by Lockheed Martin Corp had a range that extended far beyond the Korean peninsula into the interior of China. That in turn, he said, could jeopardize "China`s legitimate national security interests." He said the decision was ultimately up to South Korea, and China understood the desire of the United States and South Korea to ensure the defense of their own countries. But he said China had raised concerns about the system`s capabilities that should be addressed by the United States. "We believe that China`s legitimate security concerns must be taken into account," Wang said. "An explanation must be provided to China." The United States and South Korea agreed earlier this month to start talks about deploying the THAAD system to South Korea to counter the growing threat of North Korea`s weapons capabilities after its Feb. 7 launch of a long-range satellite. One U.S. defense official said the talks were on track for next week. Beijing: China has begun construction of a logistics base in Djibouti, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday, what the Horn of African country`s government calls a military facility that will be China`s first overseas. Last year, China said it was in talks to build what it describes as naval "support facilities" in the Horn of Africa nation, which has fewer than a million people but is striving to become an international shipping hub. Djibouti, strategically located at the southern entrance to the Red Sea on the route to the Suez Canal, is already home to U.S. and French bases, while other navies often use its port. China and Djibouti have reached consensus on the facility, which will be used primarily for military rest and resupply in carrying out naval escort, peacekeeping and humanitarian duties, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said. "Currently, initial construction on the relevant facilities has already started and China has already dispatched some personnel to launch relevant work," Wu told reporters at a regular monthly press briefing. He did not elaborate. China had conducted anti-piracy operations in the region in recent years and is seeking to expand its capacity to respond to growing threats to its interests abroad. President Xi Jinping is reforming the military and investing in submarines and aircraft carriers, as China`s navy becomes more assertive in its territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas. China is also expanding its peacekeeping role, with Xi pledging in September to contribute 8,000 troops for a United Nations stand-by force that could provide logistical and operational experience the military would need to operate farther abroad. Apple is fighting the governments demands in at least seven of the other nine cases. Washington: The Justice Department is demanding Apples help in unlocking at least nine iPhones nationwide in addition to the phone used by one of the San Bernardino, Calif., attackers. The disclosure appears to buttress the companys concerns that the dispute could pose a threat to encryption safeguards that goes well beyond the single California case. Apple is fighting the governments demands in at least seven of the other nine cases, Marc J. Zwillinger, a lawyer for the company, said in a letter unsealed in federal court on Tuesday. Apple has not agreed to perform any services on the devices, Mr. Zwillinger wrote. Athens: Greece on Thursday said it would not be left by the rest of the EU to become the "Lebanon of Europe" by hosting millions of migrants and refugees. Speaking ahead of a crucial meeting in Brussels, Greek migration minister Yannis Mouzalas criticised other countries for "unilateral" actions that affect Greece. "A very large number (of participants) here will attempt to discuss how to address a humanitarian crisis in Greece that they themselves intend to create," he told reporters. "Greece will not accept unilateral actions. Greece can also carry out unilateral actions. Greece will not accept becoming Europe`s Lebanon, a warehouse of souls, even if this were to be done with major (EU) funding." Four million refugees have fled Syria for the relative safety of neighbouring countries, according to the United Nations, with more than one million in Lebanon. Greece is the main entry point for migrants to the EU, with most of them coming over the Aegean Sea to Turkey via the Greek islands. Athens faces growing pressure to stop "waving through" migrants to the rest of Europe, but it has criticised the response of the EU. Mouzalas in particular criticised Balkan countries that held talks in Austria on Wednesday at a meeting excluding Greece for agreeing border measures that would affect his country. Berlin: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hit out Thursday at Germany`s "rude and aggressive" tone over Europe`s refugee crisis and its proposals for national migrant quotas, which he has vehemently opposed. "Today, the tone from Germany is gruff, rude and aggressive," Orban, a strident critic of Chancellor Angela Merkel`s liberal refugee policy, told Bild daily. "Germany`s refugee policy is not without alternative," the Hungarian leader said in remarks published a day after he announced a referendum on whether to accept mandatory EU quotas for migrants. The hardline leader is deeply opposed to an EU plan to distribute 160,000 asylum-seekers among member states under a quota system. "The quotas will change the profile of Europe, from an ethnic, cultural and religious point of view," he argued in a lengthy interview. Orban also warned that an uncontrolled migrant influx exposed Europe to the risks of "terrorism, criminality, anti-Semitism and homophobia". Pointing to the New Year`s debacle in western Germany`s Cologne, where hundreds of women reported being groped in a crowd of migrants, Orban said: "I have four daughters and I don`t want my children to grow up in a world where Cologne could happen". For him, even a deal struck by the EU and Turkey, the main launch pad for migrant sea crossings to Europe, to reduce the number of arrivals was unrealistic. "None of the EU countries want to really apply" the deal, he said. "The EU is now going to the Turks like a beggar," he argued about the agreement with the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We are begging Mr Erdogan -- in return for money and promises -- to secure our borders because we can`t protect them ourselves," Orban said. "That`s not a good policy. Because it makes Europe`s future and security reliant on the goodwill of Turkey." Orban`s stance directly contradicts that of Merkel, who backs the plan under which Turkey would seal its borders and then fly refugees to Europe where they would be settled under the quota system. After a decade in power, Merkel has seen her long-stellar domestic approval ratings drop over her liberal migration policy since more than 1.1 million asylum seekers came to Germany last year. Niamey: Niger`s President Mahamadou Issoufou enjoyed a strong lead Thursday in his quest for a second term as leader of the uranium-rich west African nation, according to partial results from elections that the opposition has slammed as rigged. With 3.18 million votes from Sunday`s election counted -- representing a little over 40 percent of the 7.5-million strong electorate -- the 63-year-old incumbent had just over 46 percent, well ahead of his closest rival, detained former parliamentary speaker Hama Amadou. Amadou, who is behind bars on baby trafficking charges he says were concocted to thwart his presidential ambitions, had garnered only just over 16 percent, while former prime minister Seini Oumarou had about 11 percent, the electoral commission said. Issoufou`s aides told AFP they were confident the man nicknamed the "Lion" would make good on his promise to deliver a "knockout blow" to his opponents in the first round. They said that ballots still being counted in his western stronghold of Tahoua would likely tip him over the 50-percent score needed to avoid a run-off. The final score could be announced later Thursday, electoral officials said. Turnout in the areas that have announced results so far was over 67 percent. The opposition has on Tuesday already declared it would not recognise the result, saying the election was rigged in Issoufou`s favour. "Clearly, everything has been organised for a first-round win (by Issoufou). The official results have yet to be announced but it`s so obvious," Amadou Boubacar Cisse, one of his challengers, told AFP on Thursday. A total of 15 candidates ran for president of the vast impoverished country on the edge of the Sahara Desert, which has been rocked over the past year by attacks by Boko Haram jihadists operating out of neighbouring Nigeria. Voters also cast ballots for members of parliament. The African Union, which deployed 40 observers, said it was generally satisfied with the organisation of the vote despite delays in some areas caused by logistical glitches. Washington: Former Republican presidential candidate Senator Rand Paul has introduced a joint resolution in the US Congress to block the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. The resolution (SJ Res 30) calls for prohibiting sale of eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, which the State Department had recently notified to the Congress. Introduced by Paul on February 24, the resolution also calls for prohibiting sale of other military hardware to Pakistan including eight Advanced Integrated Defensive Electronic Warfare Suites (AIDWES), 14 Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems (JHMCS). Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has put a hold on the sale of F-16s to Pakistan. The Obama administration is hopeful that it would be able to overcome legislative challenges to proceed with the sale of the F-16s, which it promised to Pakistan several years ago. "The US-Pakistan relationship has been a troubled one. Though the government of Pakistan has been considered America's ally in the fight on terrorism, Pakistan's behaviour would suggest otherwise. While we give them billions of dollars in aid, we are simultaneously aware of their intelligence and military apparatus assisting the Afghan Taliban," Paul said. "In addition to Pakistan's duplicitous nature, it also has a deplorable human rights record. Pakistan often isolates and unjustly jails religious minorities and Christians to include Pakistani Christian Asa Bibi," he said. "Only after an international outcry did Pakistan commute Asia Bibi's death sentence. In addition to Pakistan's support of terrorism and deplorable human rights record, it continues to imprison Dr Shakil Afridi, who helped the US locate and kill Osama bin Laden," Paul said. Beirut: Russian warplanes bombed Syrian rebel-held areas in northwestern Syria and government forces pounded a suburb of the capital on Thursday, ahead of a planned halt to fighting which rebels predicted Damascus and Moscow would ignore. The "cessation of hostilities" agreed by the United States and Russia is due to take hold on Saturday morning from midnight. But opponents of President Bashar al-Assad say they expect the government to press on with its advance, by branding opposition fighters al Qaeda militants unprotected by the truce. Damascus has agreed to the deal, as has the main opposition alliance, though it is only ready to commit for two weeks given its deep reservations. But the government and its allies will be permitted to forge on with strikes against jihadist militants of Islamic State and an al Qaeda-linked group, the Nusra Front. The government also says the agreement could fail if foreign states supply rebels with weapons or insurgents use the truce to rearm. Fighting in the final days before the truce has focussed on Daraya, a besieged suburb of the capital held by fighters the government describes as Nusra militants but rebels say are from other groups, and on the northwest near the Turkish frontier. Four months of Russian air strikes turned momentum Assad`s way in a 5-year-old war that has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world`s worst refugee crisis and seen Islamic State fighters declare a "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq. The multi-sided civil war has drawn in most regional and global powers, with Western countries, Arab states and Turkey forming a coalition against Islamic State while also backing rebels fighting to overthrow Assad. Russia and Iran support him. Barrel Bombs The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group that monitors the conflict, said army helicopters dropped at least 30 "barrel bombs" on Daraya on Thursday. Assad`s opponents say the army drops oil drums filled with explosives and shrapnel to cause indiscriminate harm in rebel areas. The government blamed groups linked to Nusra for firing mortars into residential areas of Damascus, killing at least one person. A spokesman for rebels in southern Syria predicted Daraya would be the first place where the truce would collapse. "They want to exploit the ceasefire and focus their fire on Daraya to take it. This will be the first breach. We won`t accept it," said Abu Ghiath al-Shami, spokesman for the Alwiyat Seif al-Sham group, part of a rebel alliance in the south. A Syrian military source also signalled that Damascus would not cease fighting in Daraya. "There is evidence that the ones there are Nusra Front. They found documents, books, flags that point to the Nusra Front being in Daraya," the military source said. "In any place where there is Nusra Front, we will continue operations." Fighting has also escalated in the last two days in the northwestern province of Latakia, where Free Syrian Army groups backed by Assad`s foreign enemies operate close to Nusra fighters and other jihadists. "The regime wants to try to retake all of northern Latakia before Feb. 26," said Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for the First Coastal Division rebel group, speaking to Reuters from the area. Very Fierce Battles "The battles are very fierce. Yesterday, there were heavy battles in the part of rural Latakia that is still with us," he said, adding he did not expect the government or its Russian allies to abide by the truce: "Three minutes ago I saw a Russian plane in the sky hitting us here in rural Latakia." The Syrian military source also said operations were taking place in the northern Latakia area. Recapturing areas of Latakia province at the Turkish border has been a top priority for Damascus and its allies since Russia began its strikes. It is one of several areas where the government has made major gains this year. Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Observatory, confirmed heavy air strikes in northern Latakia on Wednesday and Thursday. He predicted the presence of the Nusra Front and like-minded groups would give the government grounds to press on with fighting there under the agreement. One of the main purposes of the cessation of hostilities is to allow aid to reach civilians, especially in besieged areas cut off from supplies. A U.N. air-drop of food to 200,000 people in the besieged city of Deir al-Zor failed on Wednesday, with all 21 palettes dropped by parachute either damaged, landing in no-man`s land or unaccounted for, a U.N. World Food Programme spokeswoman said. U.N. advisor Jan Egeland nevertheless said the cessation of hostilities could rescue the civilian population from "the abyss" and end the "black chapter" of sieges. Assad told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday his government was ready to help implement the halt to fighting. The two leaders nevertheless stressed the importance of an "uncompromising" fight against Islamic State, the Nusra Front and other jihadists not party to the truce. U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday said he was cautious about raising expectations, but if some progress were made that would lead to a political process to end the war. "There's no Plan B" Russian officials have seized on comments by Secretary of State John Kerry that Washington would consider a "Plan B" if the ceasefire failed. Russia`s RIA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying there was no such "Plan B". Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused "some U.S. officials" of trying to "sabotage" the ceasefire plan. However, after more than five years of failure to negotiate any end to fighting, and with Russia`s intervention having had a decisive impact on the ground, it was not clear what sort of fallback plan Washington might consider if the truce fails. Bob Corker, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Republican critic of the Obama administration, said of Putin: "I think he understands there`s no `plan B`." The Russians were "now dominating," Corker told MSNBC. "It`s totally in Russia`s hands now." United Nations Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said he would announce on Friday a date for a new round of talks between Syria`s warring parties. The last talks were called off this month before they got under way, with rebels saying they could not talk while government troops advanced and Russia bombed. The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia told Reuters on Wednesday it would abide by the plan to halt fighting but reserved the right to respond if attacked. The YPG is an important partner in the U.S-led coalition fighting Islamic State, but has also been fighting other insurgent groups in northwestern Syria near Aleppo, and is considered an enemy by NATO member Turkey. Riyadh: Saudi jets are due to arrive at a Turkish base this week take part in the air campaign against Islamic State jihadists in Syria, Turkey`s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday. "We are expecting the planes to arrive today or tomorrow (Friday)," Cavusoglu told the state-run Anatolia news agency, adding that Saudi equipment and personnel had already arrived on the ground. The planes are to be stationed at the Incirlik base, which is already hosting US, British and French war planes taking part in the strikes against IS fighters in Syria. Private NTV television said four Saudi F-15 jets would arrive at Incirlik on Friday. It said that 30 ground personnel and equipment had already arrived aboard C-130 Hercules military transport planes on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia and Turkey both see the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as essential for ending Syria`s five-year civil war and are bitterly critical of Iran and Russia`s support of the Syrian regime. The two overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim powers have in recent months moved to considerably tighten relations that had been damaged by Riyadh`s role in the 2013 ousting of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, a close ally of Ankara. Ankara has said it is in favour of a ground operation in Syria, but only if it is conducted in coordination with Saudi Arabia and other Western and Gulf members of the anti-IS coalition. "We have since the beginning argued for the necessity of ground operations and all kinds of strategic moves to be carried out in addition to the air campaign," Cavusoglu said. Istanbul: Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday that Turkey would not be bound by the Syrian ceasefire plan if its security was threatened, and would take "necessary measures" against the Syrian Kurdish YPG and Islamic State if needed. The ceasefire process, put in train by Russia and the United States, could be complicated by NATO member Turkey`s deep distrust of the Washington-backed Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which has made territorial gains in northern Syria near the Turkish border. Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group and fears it will further inflame unrest among its own Kurdish population. "The ceasefire is not binding for us when there is a situation that threatens Turkey`s security; we will take necessary measures against both the YPG and Daesh when we feel the need to," Davutoglu said in comments broadcast live on CNN Turk television. "Daesh" is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. "Ankara is the only place that decides actions regarding Turkey`s security," he said. However, he also said the ceasefire should not pave the way for new attacks. Syria`s opposition has indicated it is ready for a two-week truce, saying it is a chance to test the seriousness of the Syrian government`s commitment to a cessation of hostilities. The YPG told Reuters on Wednesday it would abide by the plan to halt the fighting, but reserved the right to respond if attacked. Turkey has shelled YPG positions in Syria in recent weeks, saying it was retaliating to cross-border fire. Separately, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the YPG, like Islamic State, sought to divide Syria. "The aim of the PYD and YPG is clear: just like Daesh, they want to divide Syria to form their own management," Cavusoglu told the Anatolian agency in an interview broadcast live on television. The PYD is the political wing of the Syrian Kurdish militia. "As the international support group, our aim is not to divide Syrian territory but to protect its territorial integrity," he said. He also told Anatolian that Saudi planes, due to take part in air strikes against Islamic State, were expected to arrive at Turkey`s Incirlik Air Base "today or tomorrow". The Dogan news agency cited army sources as saying Saudi F-15 warplanes would arrive at Incirlik on Friday, and that C-130 cargo planes had been shipping military materials to Incirlik for the last two days. The new lighting comes after the 18-year-old girl said she was gang raped by a group of five teenage boys in Osborn Playground in January. (Photo: AP) Brooklyn Park, Minnesota: The rape charges against five teenage boys who were accused of gangraping an 18-year-old girl in the Osborn Playground in Brooklyn have been dropped, after the girl confessed to having 'consensual' sex with them. She also admitted that she had sex with her own father, according to a report in the Daily Mail. The girl, who cannot be named, denied her sexual assault claim against Ethan Phillip, Shaquell Cooper, Denzel Murray, Travis Beckford and Onandi Brown, said Brooklyn District Attorney. Earlier, the girl and her father had provided multiple accounts to the NYPD authorities about the crime. However, the girl has recently refuted the forced sex as well as the presence of gun claims. The girl also refused to cooperate with the investigators against her father with whom she had engaged in sexual activity. Originally, the girl had claimed that she was drinking in the park with her father when the boys approached them. She said that the teenagers surrounded the duo and asked her father to leave the place. She had claimed that when her father refused leave, the accused pointed a gun at him. The girl's father had also claimed that he wandered in the park looking for help. He then claimed that he took help of two policemen and told them he feared that his daughter might get killed. Police authorities had found the girl lying in the park with cuts and bruises all over her body. By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil futures jumped 3 percent on Thursday, reversing earlier loses after confirmation of a meeting of major producers and news of project delays and job cuts in the industry. Venezuela reaffirmed a mid-March meeting of oil producers that would include Saudi Arabia, Russia and Qatar, to stabilize prices that have slumped 70 percent in a 20-month rout. The four countries are involved in an effort to get oil producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and elsewhere to freeze production at January's highs. Many traders believe an output cut and not freeze is what the market needs to clear the global crude glut. "It's the Venezuela headline that got the market excited enough to rebound, though it's baffling why as everyone knows of this meeting and that it's not going to achieve anything," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital, a New York energy hedge fund. U.S. crude futures settled up 92 cents, or 2.9 percent, at $33.07 a barrel. It had slid more than $1 at the session low. Brent crude futures finished up 88 cents, or 2.6 percent, at $35.29 a barrel, hitting a three-week high. It had also dropped more than $1 earlier. The rally in crude also boosted gasoline futures , which settled up nearly 5 percent after rallying from early in the day on strong demand for the motor fuel. Aside from the March meeting, traders said sentiment in oil was helped by project deferments in the U.S. shale industry and job cuts that will slow production. Continental Resources Inc , one of the biggest shale drillers in North Dakota, said it planned to continue deferring project completions in the Bakken fields due to low crude prices. Oil services provider Halliburton said it will start a new round of global layoffs that will cut 5,000 jobs. Oil prices had fallen as much 3 percent earlier on Thursday after data indicating new record highs in U.S. crude inventories. Story continues Stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for U.S. crude futures rose by more than 503,000 barrels to reach above 67.5 million barrels between Feb. 19 and Feb. 24, traders said, quoting data by market intelligence provider Genscape. Officially, the U.S. government reported on Wednesday that Cushing added 333,000 barrels last week to reach 65.1 million for a fourth straight week of record highs. Nationwide, inventories rose to all-time peaks above 507 million barrels. [EIA/S] (Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Bernadette Baum) By Lianne Back DOLEV, West Bank (Reuters) - Overlooking picturesque villages, the rental property listed on Airbnb is nestled in what seems like a peaceful setting of birdsong and sunshine. But political reality can cloud the view. Shimon Yitzhaki's wooden cabin is located in the Jewish settlement of Dolev, in the occupied West Bank that is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "This is our land, this is our country," said Yitzhaki, a retired business executive who owns two cabins in Dolev. He said he and his wife hoped foreign tourists would "enjoy the view" and take home a new perspective on settlement life. Across the way from Dolev, Ayed Mathloum, a resident of the Palestinian village of Al-Janiya, said promoting accommodation in settlements contributed to an Israeli effort "to stay on the Arabs' lands". Mustafa Bargouthi, a West Bank-based Palestinian politician, called any bid to direct tourism toward settlements a violation of international law. Most countries view settlements that Israel built on territory occupied in a 1967 war as illegal. Israel disputes this and says their final status should be determined in any future talks on Palestinian statehood. San Francisco-based Airbnb, which offers "unique places to stay from local hosts in 190+ countries" on its popular website, did not respond to Reuters' request for a comment. There are dozens of Israeli and Palestinian listings in the West Bank, and the territory's pre-1967 war boundary with Israel is marked on a map dotted by rental properties with a wide range of prices. Miri Maoz-Ovadia, spokeswoman for a regional settler council in the West Bank, said about 250,000 foreign tourists visit what she described as the "biblical heartland of Israel" every year. "Everybody can come here, even Christians, Muslims, everybody. The only thing that they have to know is that they are coming to a settlement here, religious, so you cannot be free," Yitzhaki said, in apparent reference to guest behavior that could clash with its Orthodox Jewish lifestyle. Business has not been great: in the two years since Yitzhaki built the cabins, only a Jewish family and a Christian family, both from the United States, have come to stay. Another settlement property, a house in Tekoa that sleeps eight near Bethlehem, offers "privacy and amazing view of the Judean desert", as well as a kosher kitchen for $200 a night. (Editing by Andrew Heavens) By Francois Murphy and Maja Zuvela VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria brushed aside criticism from EU peers including Greece as it hosted a meeting with Balkan states on the main migrant route into Europe, saying it needed to coordinate national border restrictions in the absence of European measures. Greece filed a rare diplomatic protest with Austria for excluding officials from Athens from Wednesday's meeting of foreign and interior ministers in Vienna, held a day before a European Union-wide interior ministers' meeting in Brussels. Austria, the last stop on the way to Germany for hundreds of thousands of migrants who have flocked to Europe in the last year, has set off what it calls a "domino effect" of national restrictions limiting the flow of people towards it. Those measures, from Austria's frontier with Slovenia to Macedonia's border with Greece, have left hundreds stranded in Greece. On Wednesday, migrants cradling young children blocked a motorway in central Greece demanding onward passage to Macedonia, part of a growing bottleneck. Greek Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas said on Wednesday that a decision by Balkan states to limit the flow of migrants through the region was creating a "mini humanitarian crisis" in Greece. But Austria was unrepentant, despite criticism from Germany which is pushing for a much-delayed European response to the crisis, including the processing of migrants as they reach Greece and an agreement with Turkey to slow the flow of people. "There is still no European solution in sight," Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz told reporters before the meeting in Vienna. "For that reason it is necessary for us to take national measures." Austria says it is overwhelmed by the number of arrivals. It has mainly served as a conduit into Germany for migrants but has taken in a similar number of asylum seekers relative to its population. Public fears about the influx have contributed to a rise in support for the far-right opposition, and the coalition government has taken an increasingly hard line on immigration despite initially throwing open the country's borders. Austria said last week that it would limit the number of asylum claims at its southern border, on the main migrant route, to 3,200 and introduce a daily cap on asylum claims there of 80, prompting criticism from the European Commission. Kurz said Athens had failed to stop migrants from traveling on towards Austria and Germany and a lack of political will within the European Union had prevented the introduction of common measures to address the migration crisis. "There is no readiness on the Greek side to reduce the flow," Kurz said, describing a recent meeting of EU foreign ministers. "The interest on the Greek side is only in transporting refugees as quickly as possible towards central Europe." The aim of Wednesday's meeting was therefore to coordinate national measures with Balkan countries on and near the main migrant trail, including Serbia, Macedonia, and Slovenia, Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said. "We all believe in a European solution. We are also all working towards a European solution," she told reporters. "There is just one question: when will this European solution come?" (editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) Rumble This video shows the incredible behaviour of a caring mother elephant on high alert, quickly stopping her adorable baby which was curiously straying away from her towards a vehicle full of safari tourists. Going on safari in the Kruger National Park is a life changing experience. Driving around multiple tarred roads, slowly scanning a massive area of wilderness is all part of the thrill. You never know what will be around the next corner or what animal will suddenly appear from the bush onto the road. Its an exciting experience and one of the must-see animals for most tourists are elephants. Not only are they the largest land mammals on our planet and fairly intimidating, elephants are also one of the most intelligent and emotionally intelligent animals that roam this planet. Seeing these giants in the wild is always a sight to remember. The video shows an incredible moment filmed in the Kruger National Park when a safari vehicle full of tourists found a large elephant cow and her adorable calf next to the road. The safari vehicle stopped and it looked like the mother elephant and her baby wanted to cross the road. The baby elephant was the cutest thing alive in the wild right at that moment. While the elephant cow remained focussed on crossing the road, her baby took notice of the safari vehicle and curiously started straying away from its mother towards the vehicle. The caring mother elephant immediately went into high alert and quickly took her trunk and stopped her baby from going any closer to the safari vehicle. The mother elephant gently used her trunk to guide her baby back and into the right direction. It was incredible to see how quickly the elephant cow became protective over her baby. The elephant calf listened to its mother and in a well-behaved manner, walking on the opposite side of its mother, continued to focus and follow its mother as it should. This is crucial for the survival of the calf in the wild. The gestation period of an elephant is twenty-two months, so it is very understandable that an elephant calf is seen as a huge investment and there will always be a mother around, ready to protect her calf from any potential danger. Even though the tourists were not a direct threat, the mother elephant knows all to well that there are humans that still pose a danger for them in the wild. The mother of such a small calf is definitely not something to mess with at all and its best never to get too close to a mother and her calf. By David Brunnstrom and Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China is "changing the operational landscape" in the South China Sea by deploying missiles and radar as part of an effort to militarily dominate East Asia, a senior U.S. military official said on Tuesday. China is "clearly militarizing the South China (Sea)," said Admiral Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, adding: "You'd have to believe in a flat Earth to think otherwise." Harris said he believed China's deployment of surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island in the South China Sea's Paracel chain, new radars on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys and its building of airstrips were "actions that are changing in my opinion the operational landscape in the South China Sea." Soon after he spoke, U.S. government sources confirmed that China recently deployed fighter jets to Woody Island. It was not the first time Beijing sent jets there but it raised new questions about its intentions. U.S. Navy Captain Darryn James, spokesman for U.S. Pacific Command, said China's repeated deployment of advanced fighter aircraft to Woody Island continued a disturbing trend. "These destabilizing actions are inconsistent with the commitment by China and all claimants to exercise restraint from actions that could escalate disputes," he said. "That's why we've called for all claimants to stop land reclamation, stop construction and stop militarization in the South China Sea. But U.S. and Chinese foreign ministers signaled that despite disagreements over the South China Sea, they were near agreement on a U.N. resolution against North Korea for its recent nuclear and missile tests and stressed their cooperation on economic and other issues. 'HEGEMONY IN EAST ASIA' Speaking before the meeting in Washington between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Harris said China was escalating the situation in the South China Sea with new deployments. Asked about its aims, he said: "I believe China seeks hegemony in East Asia." Responding to another question, Harris said Chinese DF-21 and DF-26 anti-ship missiles could pose a threat to U.S. aircraft carriers, but added the vessels were resilient and that the United States had "the capability to do what has to be done if it comes to that." Harris also said he supported regular U.S. air and naval patrols to assert freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, a vital waterway through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. At a news conference with Kerry, Wang said there had been no problems with freedom of navigation and China and countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - several of which have competing claims with China - "have the capability to maintain stability in the South China Sea." He said militarization was not the responsibility of one party alone and added in apparent reference to U.S. patrols: "We dont hope to see any more close-up military reconnaissance, or the dispatch of missile destroyers or strategic bombers to the South China Sea." 'ESCALATORY CYCLE' Kerry said steps by China, Vietnam and others had created an "escalatory cycle." "What we are trying to do it break that cycle," he said. "Regrettably there are missiles and fighter aircraft and guns and other things that have been placed into the South China Sea and this is of great concern to everyone who transits and relies on the South China Sea for peaceful trade," he added. A U.S. think tank reported on Monday that China may be installing a high-frequency radar system on the Cuarteron Reef in the Spratly Islands that could significantly boost its ability to control the strategic sea. Last Thursday, the United States accused China of raising tensions by its apparent deployment of surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island. China has also built military-length airstrips on artificial islands in the South China Sea. China's Foreign Ministry said ahead of Wang's visit that Beijing's military deployments in the South China Sea were no different from U.S. deployments on Hawaii. China's Ministry of Defense said on its microblog on Tuesday that China had established "necessary defensive facilities" that were "legal and appropriate." (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Andrea Shalal, Roberta Rampton and Mark Hosenball; Editing by Frances Kerry, Tom Brown and Peter Cooney) By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - China "really needs" its defenses in the South China Sea in the face of a militarization process being pushed by the United States, and can deploy whatever equipment it wants on its own soil, China's Defence Ministry said on Thursday. China and the United States have sparred repeatedly over the past week following reports China is deploying advanced missiles, fighters and radar equipment on islands in the South China Sea, especially on Woody Island in the Paracels. The United States has accused China of militarizing the disputed waters. Beijing, for its part, has been angered by "freedom of navigation" air and sea patrols the United States has conducted near islands China claims in the South China Sea. Those have included one by two B-52 strategic bombers in November and by a U.S. Navy destroyer that sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracels last month. "The United States is the real promoter of the militarization of the South China Sea," defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian told a regular monthly news briefing. "China's construction of military facilities on the islands and reefs of the South China Sea is really needed." The Paracel Islands are China's "inherent territory", he added. "It is China's legitimate right to deploy defense facilities within our own territory, no matter in the past or at present, no matter temporarily or permanently, no matter what equipment it is," Wu said. People are being "dazzled" by the endless hyping up by U.S. media of equipment China is deploying in the South China Sea, he added. "One minute it's air defense missiles, then radars, then various types of aircraft - who knows what tomorrow will bring in terms of new equipment being hyped up." Even the Americans have said some of this equipment had been placed there in the past, Wu said. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims. This week, coinciding with a visit to Washington by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Admiral Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Command, said the U.S. would step up freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea and that China was trying to militarily dominate East Asia. Wu said the U.S. was employing double standards, asking why U.S. patrols in the South China Sea should not also be considered militarization. There has been speculation that China might declare an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea, similar to one it declared over the East China Sea in late 2013, to anger from Japan and the United States. Asked if this was the case, Wu repeated the ministry's previous line that it had every right to do so, but the move would depend on the level of aerial threat China faced. "There are all sorts of factors that need consideration," Wu said, without elaborating. In Hanoi, a Vietnamese official said the militarization of the South China Sea was a very serious issue. "Irrespective of the opposition and concern voiced by Vietnam and the international community, China continues to take actions that not only violate Vietnam's sovereignty, accelerate militarization of the East Sea, but also threaten peace and stability," foreign media spokesman Le Hai Binh told a briefing, employing the name Vietnam uses for the South China Sea. Annual trade between the communist neighbors exceeds $60 billion, but anti-China sentiment is strong in Vietnam, where people are embittered over what many see as a history of Chinese bullying and territorial infringements in the South China Sea. (Additional reporting by Martin Petty in HANOI; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) DETROIT (Reuters) - The lawyer for family members of an Uber driver charged with murdering six people in Michigan said on Thursday the man had been depressed in the days before the shooting spree but they had no explanation for it. Attorney Paul Vlachos said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that Jason Dalton, 45, was "acting different" in days leading up to Saturday's spree. Dalton is charged with shooting eight people, killing six of them, in a five-hour period in between driving customers for the Uber car service in Kalamazoo, Michigan, about 150 miles (240 km) west of Detroit. Vlachos could not immediately be reached to comment further and Dalton's attorney, Eusebio Solis, could not be reached on Thursday. Dalton's wife thought he was acting differently in days leading up to the shootings and he responded to her concerns by telling her that he was tired, Vlachos said. "He seemed to be depressed and down, which was not his normal character," Vlachos told ABC, in describing the wife's comments about the father of two. Vlachos said Dalton's family does not know a motive for his actions. He described Dalton as usually "fairly gregarious" and a good father of two children. Vlachos said Dalton's wife was "still in disbelief." "There was nothing to indicate that something like this would occur," he told ABC. The family had previously said they were devastated by the news and saddened for the victims and their survivors. Dalton is being held in Kalamazoo County Jail after bail was denied on Monday in a court hearing in which a detective testified that Dalton admitted to the shooting rampage. (Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Bill Trott) By Lefteris Papadimas and George Georgiopoulos ATHENS (Reuters) - Struggling with a growing logjam of refugees, Greece recalled its ambassador to Vienna on Thursday in protest at moves by Austria and Balkan states to make it harder for migrants to head north across Europe. The unusual step reflected Greek fury at being excluded from a meeting of Balkan states in Vienna on Wednesday to coordinate border restrictions across the region to limit the flow. "Greece will not become a Lebanon or a warehouse of souls," said migration minister Yannis Mouzalas. Lebanon, a country of 4 million people, is hosting more than 1 million refugees from the civil war in neighbouring Syria. Greek officials estimated there were 20,000 refugees and migrants trapped in the country as a result of the new restrictions, which began when Austria announced on Feb. 18 it would let in no more than 3,200 people a day and cap daily asylum claims at 80. European countries are trading bitter recriminations as they wrestle with the continent's worst migration crisis since World War Two. More than a million people arrived in 2015, most fleeing conflict in countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and over 100,000 have reached Greece and Italy already this year. Greece is likely to face a cost of more than half a billion euros this year, equivalent to about 0.4 percent of economic output, even as it struggles to cope with its worst financial crisis in generations. "It's a conservative estimate. Costs could go up if there is increased inflow and refugees become logjammed in Greece due to border closures," said a central bank source. FACILITIES FULL With reception facilities full, Greek authorities were using stadiums as temporary accommodation. They planned to boost reception capacity by 20,000 by March 6, Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said. On Thursday, it emerged that the United Nations refugee agency had sought information from tourism authorities on leasing hotels with a minimum capacity of 100 beds for an initial period of nine months, and with immediate availability. Ignoring warnings from Greek authorities that the border was shut, hundreds of migrants set off on the country's main north-south motorway to Idomeni, a small community on the frontier with Macedonia. "We have been here for six days. We cannot take it any more," said Hasan, an Iraqi in a group of hundreds walking some 10 km (6 miles) from the Macedonian border. One couple were using a plastic box as a crib for their infant, pulling it along the road. Further south at Tempe in central Greece, another group of migrants walked through a valley shadowed by police. One man held an infant wrapped in a turquoise blanket in one hand, angrily waving an empty milk bottle with the other. SLOW RESPONSE Greece angered EU nations last year with its initial slow reaction to the crisis, and an apparent policy of simply waving migrants and refugees through the country. In recent months it has tightened controls, but the tone among EU partners has become increasingly critical as Athens accuses them of reneging on a deal to share out up to 160,000 refugees across the continent. On Tuesday, Athens accused Vienna of an 'unfriendly act'. The move to recall the envoy for consultations was designed to "safeguard friendly relations between the states and the people of Greece and Austria", a foreign ministry statement said. Unilateral initiatives and violations of international and European laws by EU member states threatened to "undermine the very foundations of European unification", the ministry said. The Austrian foreign ministry said it could be an opportunity for the recalled ambassador to inform Greeks of the situation, and the challenges for countries lying along the migrant route such as Austria. (Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou and Yannis Behrakis in Idomeni, Francois Murphy in Vienna; Editing by Mark Trevelyan) A Boeing 777 wing part called a flaperon was found on Reunion Island in July and confirmed by the Malaysian and French governments to come from the ill-fated flight. (Photo: AP, representational image) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: A Malaysian woman on Thursday sued Malaysia Airlines and the government for $7.6 million in damages over the loss of her husband on Flight 370, which disappeared mysteriously in 2014. Lawyers said more lawsuits are expected over the next few days ahead of a two-year filing deadline over air accidents set by a global aviation agreement. The Boeing 777 with 239 people on board vanished after flying far off course for unknown reasons during a flight from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Beijing on March 8, 2014. A search is ongoing in the southern Indian Ocean. Lawyer Shailender Bhar said the lawsuit filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court by K.Sri Devi, 32, her two young sons and parents-in-law alleged wrongful death of S.Puspanathan, due to alleged negligence and breach of contract by the airline and government agencies. The lawsuit also named the immigration department, as well as the civil aviation department and the Malaysian air force, for losing track of the plane. "They were waiting for some development in the search for the plane but nothing has been forthcoming so far. Everyone is hoping for some answers through the court," Bhar told The Associated Press. An Australian-based woman, Jennifer Chong, whose husband Chong Ling Tan was on the flight, filed similar claims in Australia last week, alleging the airline was negligent in failing to ensure passengers' safety. Lawyer Arunan Selvaraj, who said he is representing next-of-kin of 15 passengers, expects to file lawsuits next week. He said some families were negotiating for settlements with the airline but the approaching deadline means most are under pressure to file a claim. "Till today, the only thing they had found was the flaperon. There are no other clues. Many people are still in denial and there are so many theories as to what had happened. Families want justice and the truth," Arunan said. A Boeing 777 wing part called a flaperon was found on Reunion Island in July and confirmed by the Malaysian and French governments to come from the ill-fated flight. Drift modelling has shown that currents could have carried the debris from the southern Indian Ocean to Reunion Island in the timeframe between the flight date and when the part was found. But no other parts of the plane have been found and the current search is expected to end by June or July. Ice roads, access for First Nations debated in House of Commons The mild winter and climate change are creating long term problems for northern First Nations, Member of Parliament Georgina Joilibois says. The New Democratic Party MP for Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River spoke in the House of Commons Wednesday about the mild winter's impact on ice roads. "Wollaston Lake, a northern Saskatchewan community of 1,800 people, is running out of fuel and food. Mild weather has made the ice road across Wollaston Lake unsafe, so there is no way to get supplies," Joilibois said. "The chief and council of Hatchet Lake First Nation warn they may have to close their school and health centre thanks to the shortage." She asked what the government will do to "help school children, sick people, elders, and the rest of the community get the supplies they so badly need"? Churchill-Keewatinook Aski NDP MP Niki Ashton echoed those concerns. "Northern Manitobans and people in northern Saskatchewan need action now from the federal government," she said. "And thanks to an unusually mild winter, as a result of climate change, ice roads to all isolated communities in northern Manitoba opened late and some aren't even open at all. It is increasingly impossible for communities to get all the vital supplies they need like housing materials, food and fuel." Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett responded by saying the federal government recognizes the importance of winter roads to get supplies to remote communities. "Because of climate change and because of this short season we are, we are really in trouble in terms of this kind of access that's no longer there," Bennett said. She said that the government is monitoring the issue and will work with communities to find out how to get vital equipment in as soon as possible. Bennett added that a reliable network of ice roads is essential. "We know we need long term solutions." In the wake of the Paris Climate Summit and with this year's mild winter, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations renewed its calls for a northern grid road system in the province in January. FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron said northern communities were at a greater risk due to climate change. (Reuters) - Powerful anti-Western cleric Ahmad Jannati will almost certainly be re-elected to Iran's Assembly of Experts on Friday, putting him in position to play a key role in its selection of the next supreme leader if and when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dies. Elections for parliament are also scheduled for Friday, but it is the outcome of the assembly vote that is likely to have a much greater long-term impact, given that it has exclusive power to select, monitor and dismiss Iran's most powerful authority. Even by the standards of Iran's clerical establishment, Jannati is known for his virulently anti-Western opinions, once accusing the West of having created al Qaeda and describing U.S. forces in Iraq as "bloodthirsty wolves". In remarks echoed by Khamenei, Jannati this week accused the United States and Britain of trying to influence Friday's votes. "The United States and the United Kingdom were trying to take advantage of the Iranian elections and send their agents and infiltrators into the Assembly of Experts, but God helped us and we managed to identify and block them all," he was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency on Wednesday. Nearly eighty percent of candidates for the assembly were rejected by the Guardian Council, which has the power to vet laws and candidates. Jannati has chaired the 12-man council since 1988, and has played an active role in disqualifying reformist and liberal contenders in the past. Among those disqualified from running for the assembly on Friday was Hassan Khomeini, an ally of pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani and grandson of the late founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei. Rouhani and his ally, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, are both members of the assembly and will run again in Friday's vote. Made up of 88 Mujtahids or Islamic theologians, assembly members are elected by popular vote to eight-year terms. It has never exercised its right to dismiss a leader, but it has turned into a potential arena for competition between rival factions in Iran's complex power structure. The next assembly is expected to choose the successor to Khamenei, given his age -- he is 76 -- and rumored ill health. The supreme leader has the last say on all state matters, including foreign policy, with constitutional authority over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government as well as the military and media. "The assembly vote is very important," said a pro-reform former official running for parliament. "If we want a more moderate approach internationally and domestically, then the country needs a less hardline leader." ROUHANI CRITIC Jannati, 89, is a founding member of a religious school in Iran's holy city of Qom that emphasizes belief in Shi'ite Islam's 12th Imam, of Hidden Imam, who Shi'ites believe will reappear at a time of tyranny and sinfulness to spread the faith across the world. Besides chairing the Guardian Council, he is a member of the influential Expediency Council, whose members are selected by the supreme leader and which serves to resolve disputes between the Guardian Council and the parliament. As a leader of Friday prayers in Tehran, Jannati has criticized Rouhani's attempts to end Iran's global isolation. The cleric also backed the disputed re-election of hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. Months of mass protests were crushed by the state security apparatus, headed by the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its affiliated Basij militia volunteers. He responded to the uprising against alleged ballot fraud by recommending opposition leaders Mehdi Karoubi and Mirhossein Mousavi be put under house arrest. In a Friday prayer sermon at the time he said: "What I suggest to the judiciary is to cut their communications, shut their house doors, restrict their moves so they cannot send or receive messages. Their telephone and internet should be cut and they should be imprisoned in their house." Those measures were put into effect. (Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Additional reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by William Maclean and Sonya Hepinstall) By Susan Cornwell and David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led Senate on Tuesday ruled out taking action on any nominee put forth by President Barack Obama to the Supreme Court in a political power move intended to thwart his ability to change the court's ideological balance. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate will not hold hearings or vote on any nominee to replace long-serving conservative Justice Antonin Scalia until after the next president takes office next January. Scalia died on Feb. 13. McConnell, a Republican nemesis of Obama during the president's seven years in office, said he even would refuse the standard courtesy of meeting with whomever Obama chooses. Under the U.S. Constitution, the Senate has the power to confirm or reject a president's Supreme Court selection. With the U.S. presidential election looming on Nov. 8, Republicans were aiming to allow the next president to fill Scalia's vacancy, hoping a Republican will be elected. "This nomination will be determined by whoever wins the presidency in the fall," McConnell said, adding that the overwhelming view of Senate Republicans was that "this vacancy should not be filled by this lame-duck president." Obama's nominee could tip the court to the left for the first time in decades. Scalia's death left the court with four liberal and four conservatives. Not since the contentious nominations by Republican presidents of Robert Bork in 1987 and Clarence Thomas in 1991 has there been such an intense fight over a Supreme Court vacancy - and Obama has yet to announce his pick. The White House and Senate Democrats condemned McConnell's stance. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid called it "obstruction on steroids," adding: "Gone are the days of levelheadedness and compromise." McConnell and other congressional Republicans have sought to block numerous Obama initiatives, including his signature healthcare law, the Iran nuclear deal, immigration policy and efforts to battle climate change. McConnell invoked a past statement by Obama's vice president, Joe Biden, to help justify Supreme Court inaction. McConnell noted that Biden, as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman in 1992, argued for postponing action on Supreme Court nominees during an election year. Biden has since said he was speaking hypothetically because there was no Supreme Court vacancy at the time. McConnell made his announcement after Chairman Chuck Grassley and the other Republican members of the Judiciary Committee sent him a letter saying the panel would not hold confirmation hearings. Grassley had previously left open the possibility of convening hearings. 'FULL AND ROBUST DEBATE' Alluding to the Nov. 8 presidential election, Republican senators told McConnell in the letter they wanted "to ensure the American people are not deprived of the opportunity to engage in a full and robust debate over the type of jurist they wish to decide some of the most critical issues of our time." If the Senate does not consider a nominee until after a new president takes office, it would be unlikely that the Supreme Court would have its full complement of nine justices any sooner than early 2017. That would mean the court would be shorthanded for more than a year, hampering its ability to decide cases. In cases that end in 4-4 rulings, lower-court decisions stand and no national precedent is set. Reid said the Republican strategy was driven by the Republican partys right wing. "Its what Donald Trump and Ted Cruz want, Reid said, referring to two of the Republican presidential candidates. But Reid said Senate Democrats would not become "the obstruct caucus" and block legislation such as appropriations bills in retaliation for the Republican inaction. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said blocking a hearing for Obamas nominee would be unprecedented and would subject the Supreme Court to the kind of politics that they've been insulated from for more than two centuries. Since 1875, a president's nominee has never been denied a hearing unless that president later withdrew that nomination, Earnest said. In remarks on the Senate floor, McConnell said, "Presidents have a right to nominate, just as the Senate has its constitutional right to provide or withhold consent. In this case, the Senate will withhold it." Chuck Schumer, a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, predicted that the Republican position would crumble as voters put pressure on vulnerable Republican Senate incumbents seeking re-election to consider Obama's nominee. "Its not just a risky strategy, it's the wrong strategy and it's going to fail," Schumer said of the Senate Republicans. But Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican Judiciary Committee member, countered, "Im not concerned about that (public pressure). Were standing for a principle that the next president ought to resolve this problem." Democrats are badly outnumbered in the 100-member Senate, falling far short of the 60 votes needed to advance controversial legislation much less a Supreme Court nomination. Counting the two independents who caucus with them, Democrats control 46 seats, with the remaining 54 held by Republicans. (Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Lawrence Hurley, Roberta Rampton and Susan Heavey; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Howard Goller) By Mark Kauzlarich KALAMAZOO, Mich. (Reuters) - A man working as an Uber driver admitted to the fatal weekend shootings of six people in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a police detective testified on Monday in a case raising questions about how the car service vets its drivers. Jason Dalton, 45, was denied bail as he made his first court appearance on 16 charges including six of murder that can bring life in prison. Dalton told detectives "he took people's lives", Kalamazoo Public Safety Detective Cory Ghiringhelli testified in a county district court ahead of the suspect's arraignment. Dalton appeared via a video link and was seen on a monitor at the Kalamazoo County court wearing glasses and dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit. When asked if he had anything to say, Dalton, who appeared emotionless through the proceedings, said he preferred to "remain silent". The judge denied bail and set March 3 for the next hearing. After the hearing Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jeffrey Getting told reporters Dalton had been cooperative with authorities but possible motives for the shootings were still unclear. "No one understands why it happened, and that adds to the fear and the sorrow," Getting said. Prosecutors alleged Dalton randomly shot multiple times at people during a five-hour period on Saturday at an apartment complex, a car dealership and a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kalamazoo, about 150 miles (240 km) west of Detroit. Police were investigating reports Dalton drove customers of the Uber car-hailing service the night of the rampage. Two people were wounded in the shootings, including a teenage girl who was initially thought to have died but was showing signs of improvement on Monday, state police said. Initial checks with a key federal agency indicate Dalton was unknown to both law enforcement and counterterrorism agencies for having any known connection to extremist groups. President Barack Obama said on Monday he had spoken to the mayor and top law enforcement in Kalamazoo about the shootings and pledged whatever federal support they need. "Earlier this year, I took some steps that will make it harder for dangerous people like this individual to buy a gun. But clearly, we're going to need to do more if we're going to keep innocent Americans safe," Obama said in remarks before the National Governors Association at the White House. Uber said on Monday it would not be changing the way it screened its drivers following the weekend shooting spree. It also said Dalton had received "very favorable" feedback from riders. "There were no red flags, if you will, that we could anticipate something like this," said Uber's chief security officer, Joe Sullivan. Uber drivers use their personal vehicles to ferry customers at prices generally below those of established taxi companies. Critics contend vetting is inadequate and the company never meets potential drivers in person. "A background check is just that - a background check. It does not foresee the future," Ed Davis, of the Uber Safety Advisory Board, told a teleconference with reporters. The Dalton family said in a statement: "There are no words which can express our shock and disbelief, and we are devastated and saddened for the victims and the families of the victims," Michigan State Police said the shooting began at about 5:30 p.m. (2230 GMT) on Saturday with a woman wounded outside an apartment building. At about 10 p.m., Richard Smith and his son Tyler were killed at the car dealership. About 15 minutes later four women identified as Mary Lou Nye, 62, of Baroda, Michigan; and Dorothy Brown, 74; Barbara Hawthorne, 68; and Mary Jo Nye, 60, were fatally shot outside the restaurant. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Mark Hosenball and Ayesha Rascoe in Washington, D.C. Curtis Skinner in San Francisco, Barbara Goldberg in New York, Mary Wisniewski in Chicago and Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Trott and Tom Brown) By Samia Nakhoul TEHRAN (Reuters) - Fridays vote for Irans parliament and the Assembly of Experts, the body that will pick the next supreme leader, have assumed an importance well beyond the perennial battles between hardliners entrenched in power and reformists seeking to unseat them. These are the first elections since Tehran reached an accord with major powers to curb its nuclear program, leading to the removal of most of the punitive international sanctions that have strangled the economy over the past decade. The breakthrough took place under pragmatic President Hassan Rouhani, who sees it as a springboard for Iran to reintegrate into the international community and return to world markets. But hardline opponents are determined to prevent it leading to any liberalization of the Islamic system through the ballot box. These electoral contests are seen by some analysts as a make-or-break moment that could shape the future for the next generation, in a country where nearly 60 per cent of the 80 million population is under 30. The outcome could be skewed by the disqualification of many pro-reform candidates by an unelected clerical Guardian Council that reports directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The stakes are high for all factions, since the outcome may well determine whether Rouhani has a mandate to push ahead with long-promised political, social and economic reforms, as well as influencing his chances of re-election in 2017. In the final days of campaigning, the fight turned vicious. Reflecting an abiding mistrust in Rouhani's overtures to the West, Khamenei accused the West of plotting to influence the vote and said he was sure Iranians would vote in favor of keeping Iran's anti-Western stance. Rouhani, whose allies have come under growing pressure in the election campaign from hardliners who accuse them of links to Western powers, has denied such accusations, calling them an insult to the intelligence of Iranians. Moderate allies of Rouhani, buoyed by the nuclear deal, are hoping to win back positions they lost over the past decade. But the filtering out of candidates and the slow pace of economic improvement have added to popular disillusion over Rouhani's stalled reforms, leaving them facing an uphill battle. UNDER THE THUMB The preliminaries to both contests underlined that elected politicians are ultimately under the thumb of clerics, Islamic jurists and their opaque institutions, with the supreme leader at their apex. Even if his hardline allies were to lose the parliamentary race to their moderate rivals, Khamenei will continue to hold ultimate authority, while presidents and lawmakers come and go. "Lets presume we have a reformist government that has a majority, I dont think they will make a big difference. The supreme leader and the Revolutionary Guards set the tone and the limit and determine the overall direction of the country," said one Tehran analyst who requested anonymity. "We shouldnt have high expectations. The conservatives have the levers of power. The media, the military, the intelligence, the actual financial resources are in their hands. It is a dual system and the other side is still very powerful," he added. The last time reformers won the upper hand in parliament, under former President Mohammad Khatami, the Guardian Council vetoed several laws it passed as contrary to Islamic principles. Last year's nuclear accord led to last months lifting of crippling sanctions, even though important residual sanctions relating to Irans international conduct remain in place. Iran, which has the worlds second largest gas reserves, a diversified manufacturing base and educated workforce, is seen by global investors as a huge emerging market opportunity, in everything from cars to airplanes and railways to retail. HARDLINERS ALARMED For ordinary Iranians, the prospect of this kind of investment holds out the promise of a return to economic growth, better living standards and more jobs in the long run. An opening to the world of this magnitude - and Rouhani's popularity - have alarmed hardline allies of Khamenei, who fear losing control of the pace of change, as well as inroads into the lucrative economic interests they built up under sanctions. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for example, is not just Irans praetorian guard but a corporate empire, with vast holdings in from banking to construction and manufacturing. The Guards are still under sanctions for alleged support for terrorism. All this has exacerbated political infighting within Iran's complex power structures. The Guardian Council barred thousands of moderates from standing, including Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the Islamic Republics founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The younger Khomeini, a 43-year-old mid-ranking cleric, had sought to enter the Assembly of Experts as a standard-bearer for moderates with credibility among conservatives. He was told he lacked the necessary religious credentials. One of the most crucial contests is in Tehran, where more than 1,000 candidates are competing for just 30 seats. The reformists list there is led by Mohammad Reza Aref, a Stanford-educated former presidential candidate and minister, who served as vice president to the reformist Khatami in 2001-2005. The conservatives' front-runner is Gholamali Haddad Adel, who has been a member of parliament since 2000 and was its speaker in 2004-9. He is also an adviser to Khamenei and his daughter is married to the supreme leaders influential son Mojtaba. Out of the estimated 801 Islamic clerics who put themselves forward for the 88-member Assembly of Experts, only 166 were approved as candidates. Women were not allowed to stand for the assembly, which will eventually choose a successor to Khamenei. SIGNIFICANT CONTEST Until now, the contest for this seat of clerical power was an unremarkable event, but not this time. Because of Khameneis health and age of 76, the new assembly members who serve an 8-year term are likely to choose his successor. The next leader could well be among those elected this week. The reformists top candidate is former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, although he is now 81. He is among the founders of the Islamic Republic and was its president from 1989-1997. Nearly always at the center of Iran's intricate webs of power, he is famous for his pragmatism and political acumen. In backing such a centrist arch-fixer, the reformists hope that in alliance with moderate conservatives they will be able to block the three main ultra-conservative leaders - Ahmad Jannati, Mohammad Yazdi and Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi - from emerging as Khameneis successor. Rafsanjani is also head of the Expediency Council, a body which mediates between the elected parliament and the appointed Guardian Council. But his power has waned in recent years, highlighted by the jailing of two of his children. He fell out with Khamenei after backing the opposition Green Movement in the disputed 2009 presidential vote and is now allied with the reformists. President Rouhani is number two on the reformist candidate list for the Assembly of Experts, just after Rafsanjani. Khamenei, who backed the Guardian Council's strict vetting, has repeatedly warned that Iran's enemies have sought to use the elections to "infiltrate" its power structure. Yet for all his power, even he cannot curb debate about Irans future. In the past, any debate about Khamenei's possible successor was considered as undermining the supreme leader, but public discussion has gained momentum ahead of the elections. This is hardly surprising given that the supreme leader has substantial influence, or constitutional authority, over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government as well as the military and media. UNRESOLVED POWER STRUGGLE Rafsanjani angered hardliners in December when he said the assembly would be open to choosing "a council of leaders if needed" instead of a single supreme leader who rules for life. Under Iran's constitution, a transitional "Leadership Council" is permitted until a supreme leader is selected by the assembly. But analysts said Rafsanjani advocated a permanent council, fiercely rejected by Khamenei's hardline allies. "The reformists won't have a strong hand in the Assembly of Experts because Rafsanjani sent a bad signal that the assembly could challenge the leader," Amir Mohebian, a conservative political strategist, told Reuters. "They went on guard by disqualifying Khomeini. They sent a message: 'We're strong and dont allow anybody to make changes in the assembly, that it's not a place for politicians' play, that it's a key place for choosing a new leader'." Despite the sweeping disqualifications, reformists are competing fiercely, and trying to maximize their results by forming a coalition with pragmatists and offering a joint list of their favorite candidates in the capital and other cities. The conservatives are taking no chances either. They are organizing buses to transport voters from remote villages and cities to Tehran, providing them with accommodation and food to cast their ballot for their candidates. Ex-President Khatami, the reformist figurehead who is banned from appearing in official media, posted a video message this week urging followers to vote for the reformist camp, which has chosen "Hope" as its campaign slogan. "The higher the turnout of eligible voters, the closer the result will be to the demands of the people," Khatami said, referring to past polls when reformists won more seats on a high turnout. DIVIDED YOUTH The outcome of the parliamentary vote will have no big impact on foreign policy. But it will boost the victorious faction's influence in next year's presidential election. A parliament friendly to Rouhani could strengthen his hand to push through economic reforms to open the country to foreign trade and investment. It can also help the government carry out a political agenda aimed at expanding social and economic liberties, as promised during his 2013 election campaign. The polarization gripping the country had hit young people, many of whom are voting for the first time. While some said they would vote for reformists because they seek change and want to block the hardliners, others planned to vote for conservatives out of loyalty to Khamenei. Some said they would boycott because their vote won't make any difference. "I wont waste my time and vote as nothing will change because the conservatives have the power in their hands," said Area Behfuruz, 18, a first-year student of dentistry at Tehran University. Sahar, 26, an art student, said: "I dont think fundamental change will happen at all. Those running the country are the same. The few times we had some change, we had the hardliners blocking them. Even if the reformists gain power now they will be blocked by the hardliners." Bahar, 22, a student of medical genetics, said: "I will vote for the reformists because I want change. I want a country that is more in relation with the world, not so isolated. We have a very rich country with a young population, I want a government that invests in its people, in youth and improves their lot." With the future direction of the country so much in play after Iran's international breakthrough on the nuclear deal, factional infighting and skirmishing of this kind is likely to continue long after this Friday's twin elections. "This is fundamentally a status quo political system which is not interested in real change," said the Tehran analyst. "Change is very gradual, cosmetic. This election won't usher a new era for Iran." (Editing by William Maclean and Paul Taylor) (Reuters) - Elections on Friday for the body that selects Iran's supreme leader could be the last hurrah for Iran's best known political grandee, former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has loomed large in the history of the Islamic Republic. If Rafsanjani is unable to muster the votes to secure his seat on the Assembly of Experts, it could signal the beginning of his exit from political life in Iran. Few have wielded such influence in modern Iran as the 81-year-old, but since 2009 he and his family have faced criticism from hardliners over their support for the opposition movement which lost that year's disputed election to former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He has also rankled hardliners in the lead-up to this year's election to the assembly and parliament by openly criticizing the Guardian Council, the body that vets candidates, for their large-scale disqualification of moderates. For the Assembly election, Rafsanjani - known in Iran as 'the shark' for his smooth, unbearded face and his political guile - has allied himself with a moderate bloc of candidates which includes President Hassan Rouhani. This bloc could play a key role in facing off against the hardliners who are likely going to dominate the 88-member Assembly, which serves for eight years. For many ordinary Iranians, Rafsanjani, born into a wealthy pistachio farming family, has been a figure of suspicion and grudging respect for amassing a vast fortune. He lost a presidential election in 2005 to Ahmadinejad, the little known mayor of Tehran at the time, a defeat that indicated a resentment toward Rafsanjani as part of the elite and the perception he served few interests other than this own. "Rafsanjani doesn't have a good track record," said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the U.S.-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. "I don't think Iranian people have heard much of where he is. Hes the tossup." If he does win a seat, Rafsanjani could use his political clout within the assembly - he was leader of the body from 2007 to 2011 - to influence the choice of the next supreme leader as he did in 1989 when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was selected. "Rafsanjani is above all a pragmatist, a problem solver. He looks for ways to get things done," said Shaul Bakhash, a professor of Middle East history at George Mason University in Virginia. FIGURE OF SUSPICION Rafsanjani is remembered above all for persuading the ailing founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to accept a peace deal after eight brutal years of war with Iraq and save Iran from imminent collapse. Within a year, Khomeini was dead. The Assembly of Experts appointed then-president Khamenei in a move orchestrated by Rafsanjani, largely, experts believe, because he thought he could influence him. After Khamenei assumed the position of supreme leader, Rafsanjani was elected president for two terms. The rivalry that ensued goes back to before Iran's revolution and is marked by vastly contrasting outlooks. Rafsanjani believed reform was the key to an enduring Islamic state while Khamenei feared it could hasten its demise. Had it not been for Rafsanjani, Khamenei would have never become supreme leader. Those close to Rafsanjani say he rues the day he helped anoint Khamenei, said Karim Sadjadpour, Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. They are the epitome of frenemies, he said. As well as holding the position of head of the assembly until he was stripped of the post, Rafsanjani serves as the head of the Expediency Council, a body which is intended to resolve disputes between the parliament and Guardian Council. His term as head of the Expediency Council will finish next year. REVOLUTIONARY AND PRAGMATIST Rafsanjani has been described as "a pillar of the revolution" but his well-documented pragmatic policies economic liberalization, better relations with the West and empowering Iran's elected bodies - appeal to many Iranians. In 2009, he incurred the wrath of hardliners by declaring the country was in crisis and calling for the immediate release of political prisoners and freedom of the press. In December, he broke a taboo by mentioning that a group had been formed within the assembly to examine who could serve as Khamenei's replacement. In the same interview he also mentioned that he had supported the idea of a council of clerics ruling the country. The leadership has put pressure on Rafsanjani through the arrest of his daughter Faezeh in 2012. Found guilty of anti-government propaganda after openly backing the opposition in 2009, she was jailed for six months. Two days later, Rafsanjani's son Mehdi was imprisoned when he returned to Iran after an absence of three years. Mehdi was sentenced to 10 years on corruption and security charges and began serving his time in Evin prison last summer. Still, Rafsanjani is a skilled behind-the-scenes operator in the labyrinthine world of Iranian politics and may have a final chance at transforming the system he helped build. Saeed Leylaz, a Tehran-based political analyst who worked as an advisor to former president Mohammad Khatami, pointed out that while Rafsanjani lost his position as head of the assembly, in the last election he "won with an indisputable majority". (Writing by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by William Maclean and Sonya Hepinstall) The review of a previous ethics commissioner's investigation into how the contract to litigate Alberta's $10-billion tobacco lawsuit was awarded under former premier Alison Redford will be delayed a month. Alberta Justice has confirmed the report, based on the review by former Supreme Court of Canada justice Frank Iacobucci, will not be completed until the end of March. It was to be completed by Feb. 29. Premier Rachel Notley has promised it will be publicly released. "At Mr. Iacobucci's request, additional time has been approved for the completion of the review," said Veronica Jubinville, press secretary to Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley. "The additional time will be used to ensure a complete and thorough review that includes interviews with all relevant parties." Jubinville said the time extension will not add any cost to Iacobucci's $160,000 contract. Ganley announced the review by Iacobucci in November after CBC News obtained leaked internal Alberta Justice documents that showed the independent selection process for the potentially lucrative contract had been manipulated. That allowed then justice minister Alison Redford the opportunity to choose a legal consortium to which she had close personal and political ties. The CBC News investigation also revealed an ethics investigation into conflict-of-interest allegations against Redford may not have been provided all the relevant documents, including some leaked to CBC. Ganley announced Iacobucci would conduct a review, but stressed it would be focused on the ethics investigation into Redford and not how the tobacco-litigation contract was awarded. The Opposition Wildrose had repeatedly called on the government to request a criminal investigation by the RCMP. But Premier Rachel Notley said Iacobucci would inform the government if his review uncovered any evidence that required criminal investigation. Notley said all relevant documents and information would be provided to Iacobucci but she confirmed he will not have the authority to compel testimony from witnesses outside the government. The Wildrose subsequently made a formal request to the RCMP for a criminal investigation. The RCMP will not say if it is investigating. The Flint River is seen flowing thru downtown in Flint, Michigan, in this December 16, 2015 file photo. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/Files (Reuters) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senators unveiled legislation on Wednesday providing federal aid to help states fix water infrastructure in the wake of Flint, Michigan's crisis over lead-tainted drinking water. Senators James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, and Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, and others introduced the measure providing $100 million to a revolving fund states can tap if they have drinking water problems. The funding in the agreement is paid for by cuts from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loans for auto companies, aimed to speed development of electric cars and other technologies. Inhofe called it a "failed program" that hasn't been used in more than a year and has only issued five loans since 2008. It was unclear whether the measure would be attached to a wide-ranging energy bill that failed to advance early this month or whether the senators would try to pass it as a separate bill. Under the plan, states must first explain how the money would be spent, according to details of the agreement. If they do not use the aid in 18 months, it would return to the federal government. "This is not a blank check," according to a document explaining the deal. Thousands of children in Flint, a predominantly African-American city of 100,000, are believed to have consumed dangerous amounts of lead in drinking water after a state-appointed emergency manager directed the city to switch from Detroit's drinking water supply to the Flint River. Lead is a neurotoxin that can harm brain development in children. Under the deal, Flint and the states would also have access to $70 million in a credit subsidy under a federal program called the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Authority, or WIFIA. Congress conceived the WIFIA to help lower borrowing costs for municipal water projects. The federal program acts as a loan guarantee, rather than a grant, and is aimed at bringing borrowing costs in line with U.S. government bond rates. Story continues Some critics say local governments need direct federal aid, not borrowing support, to improve infrastructure. There would also be $50 million in aid available for national use for a childhood lead poisoning prevention program, a health registry and other items. Earlier this month, Michigan lawmakers had at first opposed getting funding from the advanced vehicles program, saying it would hurt auto workers. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Additional reporting by Patrick Rucker; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alan Crosby) Pakistani military gave us weapons and used to tell us that Afghan forces are infidels and you must kill them, says an IS fighter. (Photo: AFP) Kabul: Pakistan's military provides weapons and training to ISIS militants in Afghanistan and instructs them to kill the "infidel" Afghan forces, according to the terror group's fighters who laid down their arms. They also said that Pakistani military provides light and heavy weapons to ISIS fighters in Afghanistan. "Pakistani military gave us weapons and used to tell us that Afghan forces are infidels and you must kill them," Zaitoon, a former ISIS fighter who laid down his arms and joined the peace talks, was quoted as saying by the TOLO news yesterday. Arabistan, Zaitoon's co-fighter, said, "I was tasked to fight in Nazian district [in Nangarhar]. We used to present our daily report to Punjabis and Pakistanis and they encouraged us to fight the Afghan government." The 10-member group has joined the peace process due to efforts by the High Peace Council office in the province and also with the help of the Afghan security forces, said Chairman of Nangarhar Provincial Council Malik Nazir. "There were 24 men in two groups, the first group was 14 Taliban fighters and the second group included 10 Daesh fighters who for the first time joined the peace process," Nazir added. By Aidan Lewis WADI BEY, Libya (Reuters) - An hour's drive from the Libyan city of Sirte, a few dozen troops man outposts along a desert road. They are hoping the West will soon be giving them more help to fight a common enemy: Islamic State. Armed with little more than gun-mounted pick-up trucks, they are a last line of defense against the Sunni Islamist group which controls swathes of Syria and Iraq and which has now taken advantage of chaos in the north African state to seize territory there. Sirte is its stronghold. "They're getting stronger because no one is fighting them," said Misrata forces commander Mahmoud Gazwan at the Wadi Bey checkpoint, a dusty outpost serving as a mobile base for his brigade of fighters. There are signs of a growing Western urgency to stop Islamic State (ISIS), and Libyan commanders say Western weapons and air strikes will make a vital difference in the coming battle against their better-armed enemy. But Western officials say just as important is the need for a united Libya government to request more aid and for the Libyan forces ranged against IS to bridge their own deep divisions. Five years after Muammar Gaddafi's overthrow and death, Libya is caught in a slow-burn civil war between two rival governments, one in Tripoli and one in the east. Each is backed by competing alliances of former rebel brigades whose loyalties are often more to tribe, region or local commander. Forces from the port city of Misrata - one of the most powerful military factions - have been on the front line of the battle against Islamic State since it took over Sirte a year ago and drew more foreign fighters to its ranks there. Islamic State militants are also fighting in Benghazi to the east, shelling the oil ports of Ras Lanuf and Es Sider. On Tuesday they attacked further west in Sabratha city. U.S. special forces have been holding meetings with potential Libyan allies. U.S. and French drones and British RAF jets are flying reconnaissance missions in preparation for action to help the local forces fighting Islamic State. An air raid by U.S. special forces on Sabratha killed more than 40 Islamic State fighters last week, but there are no international plans to send combat ground troops into Libya. Western governments are wary of large-scale military intervention but fear inaction may allow Islamic State to take deeper root. A U.S. government source said the Obama Administration was pursuing a two-track policy. One is to try to knit competing factions into an effective government. The other track involves air strikes. "When you see an ISIL training camp and we see them doing push-ups and calisthenics every day, they're not there to lose weight," Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the international coalition fighting Islamic State, also known as ISIL or Daesh, told White House reporters. "They're there to train for something, and we're not going to let them do that." CONVERGENCE OF FORCES? U.S. and European officials say infighting between the rival administrations is blocking U.N. efforts to cajole them into a national government capable of rebuilding Libya's army. Tripoli is held by a faction of Islamist-leaning brigades and Misrata fighters who took over the city in 2014 and drove out rivals. Misrata now backs the U.N. deal while some of the Tripoli political leadership is against it. Libya's eastern government is backed by an alliance including the Libyan National Army led by former Gaddafi ally-turned rebel Gen. Khalifa Haftar, and a brigade controlling oil ports. Its ranks are split, including federalists looking for more autonomy for their eastern region. The United Nations-backed presidential council is waiting for approval of its new government from the elected House of Representatives in the east. Frustration is growing in Western capitals after repeated failures of the House to vote or reach a quorum to hold a ballot on the new government. "We have always made clear the intention of providing assistance in fighting Daesh. We need to take action where we can, that requires forces on the ground that we can help and train," said one Western diplomat. "Patience is very short with the House of Representatives." Italy said on Monday it would let U.S. armed drones take off from its soil to defend U.S.-led forces against Islamic State. French special forces and intelligence commandos are engaged in covert operations against IS in Libya in conjunction with the United States and Britain, the French newspaper Le Monde reported on Wednesday. The French defense ministry declined to comment. During the recent fighting in Sabratha, there were signs of cooperation among forces from Zintan and Sabratha brigades who back opposing sides in the wider national conflict. Mattia Toaldo, a Libya expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations, sees a convergence of forces who may agree on little but can work together against IS. Misratan forces backed the new U.N.-supported government and could potentially work with rivals from Haftar's Libyan National Army and the oil guards, who are both aligned with the eastern government, Toaldo said. "We are confident here we can win," says Mohamed al-Oreifi, one of the outpost commanders near the Sirte front line. "But we need support and new weapons." (Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Rome and Mark Hosenball and Roberta Rampton in Washington; writing by Patrick Markey; editing by Andrew Roche) By Anjali Athavaley NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumers expressed concern on social media about a talc-based baby powder made by Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday after a Missouri jury ordered the company to pay $72 million in damages to the family of a woman who said her death from cancer was linked to use of the product. "Johnson & Johnson" was a trending term on Twitter on Wednesday morning. Social sentiment regarding the company declined on Wednesday to its lowest levels in the past year, according to a Thomson Reuters social media sentiment analysis index. J&J shares were down 37 cents at $103.71 in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. In a verdict announced late on Monday night, jurors in the circuit court of St. Louis awarded the family of Jacqueline Fox $10 million of actual damages and $62 million of punitive damages, according to the family's lawyers and court records. On Twitter, several users interpreted the verdict to mean there was a causal link between the talc used in J&J's products and ovarian cancer, an argument made during the trial by the family's lawyers. Jenn (@JennLA82) tweeted on Wednesday, "So baby powder caused ovarian cancer & now Johnson & Johnson must pay 72 million. Congrats to those tireless lawyers. Also...scary." On Tuesday, a Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman, Carol Goodrich, said the company believes the safety of cosmetic talc is supported by decades of scientific evidence. Some Twitter users said they would stop using the product. DayZ (@D_Acevedo213) tweeted: "If talc is dangerous why is it one of your main ingredients?! @JNJNews I'm not using your baby powder in my son anymore." Not all were alarmed. Shivam M (@Observer68), tweeted: "After Johnson and Johnson's, I'm waiting for all the women who eat pounds of lipsticks every year, to sue the respective cosmetics brands." Fox, who lived in Birmingham, Alabama, claimed she used the company's Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for feminine hygiene for more than 35 years before being diagnosed three years ago with ovarian cancer. She died in October at age 62. A J&J spokesman did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Wednesday. (Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) By John Davison and Jeff Mason BEIRUT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Syria's opposition indicated on Wednesday it was ready for a two-week truce in Syria, saying it was a chance to test the seriousness of the other side's commitment to a U.S.-Russian plan for a cessation of hostilities. Combatants are required to say whether they will agree to the "cessation of hostilities" in the five-year war by noon on Friday (1000 GMT), and to halt fighting on Saturday. The United Nations hopes the planned halt will provide a breathing space for Syrian peace talks to resume. A statement seen by Reuters from the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee, which groups political and armed opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said it "views a temporary two-week truce as a chance to establish how serious the other side is in committing to the points of the agreement." But it objected to Russia being a guarantor of the truce alongside the United States, saying Russia was a direct party to the conflict, and that the plan ignored the role Assad allies Russia and Iran were playing. Russia intervened in the conflict on the side of Assad in September, and Iranian fighters have provided crucial support to the Syrian army in its fight against insurgents. In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama expressed caution about a plan to stop the fighting in Syria, which has killed 250,000 people and created a refugee crisis in Europe. The last round of peace talks in Geneva broke up earlier this month without progress after the Syrian government launched a Russian-backed offensive on the city of Aleppo, where more fighting was reported on Wednesday. Obama told reporters that if some progress was made in Syria, that would lead to a political process to end the war there. "We are very cautious about raising expectations on this," he said. Although U.S officials have raised the question of a political transition in Damascus, Assad, backed by Russia, shows no sign of stepping aside. The cessation of hostilities plan does not include Islamic State or the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda affiliate that is widely deployed in opposition-held areas. The opposition has expressed fears government forces backed by the Russian air force will continue to attack rebels under the pretext of targeting the Nusra Front. The Syrian government, its war effort buoyed since September by the Russian air force, has accepted the cessation of hostilities agreement announced on Monday. Assad told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday his government was ready to help implement the deal. Putin and Assad, who held a telephone conversation, stressed the importance of a continued "uncompromising" fight against Islamic State, the Nusra Front and other militant groups. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he had spoken to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and their teams would meet in the next day or so to discuss the planned ceasefire. "I am not here to vouch that it's absolutely going to work," Kerry said in Washington. While there had to be a diplomatic solution at some point, the question was whether the time is ripe, he added. TELEPHONE DIPLOMACY Putin has embarked on a round of telephone diplomacy, speaking to Assad, the Saudi king, the Iranian president and the Israeli prime minister. The Kremlin described the calls as an effort to explain the substance of the U.S.-Russia-brokered ceasefire. The Russian Defence Ministry said it had significantly reduced the intensity of its air strikes in Syria in the past two days in areas where armed groups had expressed their readiness to join the ceasefire. Russian state media have presented the fact that Moscow helped broker the potential ceasefire as a sign that Russia matters again on the world stage and has shrugged off what it has cast as U.S.-led efforts to isolate it over the Ukraine crisis. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he feared the ceasefire plan would do little more than benefit Assad. Turkey has grown increasingly frustrated by the international response to the Syrian war, in particular U.S. support for a Kurdish militia it sees as a hostile insurgent force. The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia told Reuters on Wednesday it would abide by the plan to halt the fighting but reserved the right to respond if attacked. The YPG is an important partner in the U.S-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria, but has also been fighting Syrian insurgent groups in northwestern Syria near Aleppo. Ankara is also incensed by a Russian intervention that has tipped the balance of power in favor of its arch-enemy Assad. "If this is a ceasefire that is up to the mercy of Russia, which has brutally attacked the moderate opposition and aligned with Assad under the pretext of fighting Islamic State, we fear that the fire pouring over innocent people will never stop," Erdogan said in a televised speech. The United Nations said it was ready for a huge aid effort if the fighting stops. The war has left 4.5 million hard-to reach people in need of humanitarian aid, the United Nations says. The world body carried out its first airdrop of humanitarian aid to the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Wednesday, delivering 21 tons of relief to civilians besieged by Islamic State. The Syrian army and Islamic State fought fierce battles on Wednesday near Aleppo, where an attack by the jihadist group has cut the main land route to the city. (Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Arshad Mohammed, Humeyra Pamuk, Tulay Karadeniz, John Davison, Ali Abdelatti, Michelle Nichols, Tom Miles and Dmitry Solovyov; Writing by Tom Perry, Giles Elgood and Peter Cooney; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Andrew Hay) A global recall of nearly 2.9 million Toyota SUVs was prompted by a Canadian investigation into a crash that killed two people when their seatbelts failed in a collision. In documents posted last week, U.S. safety regulators say the recent recall was prompted by information from Canadian investigators about a collision in Eastern Canada in 2011 between a Toyota RAV4 and a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. Front-seat passengers in both vehicles survived, but two rear-seat passengers in the RAV4 were killed. That prompted Canada's auto safety regulator, Transport Canada, to do crash tests on the vehicles in question to try to see what could have happened. Transport Canada announced last week it had found that the rear seatbelts on affected models can come in contact with a metal frame during a crash, which can cause the strap to snap and leave passengers unrestrained. Transport Canada took this information to U.S. safety regulators, who conducted their own tests and found similar results. "This is more than just a case of Transport Canada finding a safety problem and doing a thorough investigation," Transport Minister Marc Garneau said. "As a result of the department's investigation into this safety issue, lives will be saved in Canada and around the world." The recall covers RAV4 SUVs from the 2005 through 2014 model years, the RAV4 electric vehicle from 2012 through 2014, sold in North America, and the Vanguard, sold in Japan from 2005-16, the Japanese automaker said. Toyota dealerships can do a simple fix, adding plastic covers to the seatbelt's metal frame, at no cost to customers. Correction : An earlier version of this story said the U.S. safety regulator documents were posted Thursday. The correct date is Feb. 19 and Transport Canada posted documents Feb. 18.(Feb 25, 2016 5:34 PM) By Noah Browning DUBAI (Reuters) - Fighting, bombing and a blockade by militiamen of food and water that have killed hundreds of people in the southwestern Yemeni city of Taiz have not spared the animals of the local zoo. But thanks in part to the work of an animal-lover a world away in Sweden, the beasts now have a better chance of surviving. The feathered and furry denizens of the city zoo are slowly dying from starvation and untreated wounds before the eyes of helpless keepers, in another sign of suffering the impoverished country has endured in nearly a year of war. King of the jungle no longer, one male lion is so emaciated that every bump in his spine pokes up and sores cover much of his body. The critically endangered Arabian leopards which once stalked the verdant highlands are dropping dead from hunger. Zoo staff allow them to feast on their expired brethren - anything to keep them alive. "When I first arrived, the scene was terrifying. Animals would be fed one day and not eat again for another five. They were bleeding, angry and would fight each other over any scraps to eat," said one volunteer working at the zoo. "It was a picture of hell on earth," he added. The man, who declined to give his name for security reasons, said the number of staff was down to just 17 - none of them had been paid in months and were working for love of the animals. "They're doing the best they can given the shortages," he told Reuters. Taiz is contested between local militias and the armed Houthi group which many residents say blocks aid from entering and bombs civilian targets. It is one of the worst fronts of the war, in which forces loyal to a government ousted by the Houthis in March are seeking to fight back to the capital Sanaa. The Houthis say it is fighting extremist groups in Taiz and around the countries and denies blockading basic supplies. Residents say the Houthis have repeatedly shelled hospitals and civilian areas, while their network of checkpoints around the city mean locals must smuggle in cooking gas and bread through rutted mountain passes. A Saudi-led military coalition that backs the pro-government fighters bombs Houthi positions multiple times a day and residents live in constant fear of death. Medics in the city say at least 1,600 people have been killed in the city since the start of the war. At least 6,000 people have been killed in Yemen, according to the United Nations, around half of them civilians. ANIMAL-LOVERS The some 280 animals in the zoo - 20 lions including 2 cubs, 26 Arabian leopards as well as Arabian deer, monkeys, porcupines, lynx, and eagles - have not been spared the trauma. Eleven lions and six leopards have died. Those which survive pace in anguish in their cages and animals are at turns sullen and anxious. Earlier this month, zoo workers posted pictures to social media posing in front of the stricken animals with signs reading, "SOS Taiz zoo, animals are starving." The appeal paid off and the scenes stirred hearts a world away in Malmo, Sweden, where bank worker and animal lover Chantal Jonkergouw helped start an online fundraising campaign to provide food and medicine for the crestfallen critters. Almost $33,000 dollars was raised by the effort on generosity.com in less than two weeks and has already been put to use in paying staff, funding surgery on the lion's open wounds and feeding the big cats - several donkeys a day. "It touches me anytime I see animals caged, exploited or starving," Jonkergouw told Reuters by telephone. Acknowledging criticism that not just the animals but all of Taiz's 240,000 people are in dire straits, she said she and her team of online organizers would stick to their mission. "People caused this conflict. Of course there are innocent people in trouble as well, but humans can often flee or develop some kind of alternatives. It's never the animals having this choice. It's not fair, and we have an obligation to help them." (Editing by Sami Aboudi and Richard Balmforth) Student Services Notre Dame Revamps Legacy Portal With OneCampus rSmart's OneCampus The University of Notre Dame is rolling out a new platform for connecting students, faculty and staff with institutional services, applications and information from any device. The school turned to rSmart's OneCampus to host its insideND online community. OneCampus is a cloud-based Internet2 NET+ offeringfor organizing an institution's Web-based services, whether they are hosted on campus or in the cloud. Features include a Google-like search, ratings/reviews for services, dynamic categories such as "most popular" to promote service discovery, task-level announcements, alerts, featured tasks and more. The technology is the result of the collaboration between seven universities, Internet2 and rSmart; Indiana University, University of Utah, University of Maryland, University of Pittsburgh, Clemson University, University of Nebraska Omaha and Brigham Young University-Idaho helped guide development of the product. The implementation at Notre Dame is focused on meeting user needs, according to John Hartman, business systems analyst for the university. "Since selecting OneCampus, our team has been building out our site and actively soliciting feedback at 'Look and See' sessions with various user groups and departments," said Hartman in a press release. "We have also identified ways to include students in the implementation process such as helping to collect information and create tasks to ensure a smooth transition between portals." "As mobile use continues to rise on campus, many schools are searching for a cost-effective replacement or alternative to their legacy portal that will meet the dynamic and changing needs of their current and future students," said rSmart CEO Tony Potts. "We are thrilled to have Notre Dame join our growing community of forward-thinking institutions on this important path to progress." In the next two decades, said Turnbull, "half the world's submarines and half the world's combat aircraft" would be deployed in the Indo-Pacific region. (Photo: AP) Melbourne: Australia on Thursday announced an ambitious plan to boost the country's defence capabilities by Pledging to spend USD 139 billion over the next decade in what Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called "high stakes" and "momentous times" in Asia. The announcement came with the launch of 2016 Defence whitepaper that includes bolstering the country's naval strength by doubling the size of its submarine fleet to 24, as well as commissioning three additional air warfare destroyers, nine anti-submarine frigates and 12 patrol boats. The ambitious plan also includes adding some 2,500 new military jobs to expand the total defence force to 62,400 personnel. "These are momentous times. The stakes are high. And as the opportunities expand, so does the cost of losing them," Turnbull said, citing increased defence spending in countries across Asia and possible flashpoints for international conflict in South China Sea and Korean peninsula, as well as the increasing threat of global terrorism. The prime minister called the present times in Asia one of the biggest strategic challenge Australia has faced "in peacetime", even as its closest ally, the US directs its foreign policy pivot towards the Asia-Pacific region, where China's increased assertiveness has fueled tensions. In the next two decades, said Turnbull, "half the world's submarines and half the world's combat aircraft" would be deployed in the Indo-Pacific region. "We would be concerned if the competition for influence and the growth in military capability were to lead to instability and threaten Australia's interests, whether in the South China Sea, the Korean peninsula or further afield," he added. According to an official statement, the White Paper has Been the culmination of detailed analysis of Australia's strategic environment, its defence priorities and objectives, and the capabilities required to achieve these outcomes. The federal Government has also set a new benchmark for transparency and funding by releasing an Integrated Investment Program and Defence Industry Policy Statement. The fully costed, ten-year Integrated Investment Program Would bring together all capability-related investment including new weapons, platforms, infrastructure and science and technology. Apart from this, the government would also invest in comprehensive upgrades to defence infrastructure to support its larger future force, including key bases, training and testing ranges and fuel and explosive ordnance facilities and modernised information management, operational communications, and command and control systems. Australia is also participating in the US-led air campaign against the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and Syria. By Sarah White BARCELONA (Reuters) - A cartoon in the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia sums up the state of play in the prolonged struggle to form a Spanish government. A construction site worker brandishes a big metal panel in the shape of Catalonia and asks his boss where he should mount it, only to be told to leave that particular piece until last. "As you wish," he says. "But I'm warning you - it's very big and we won't know where to put it." The question of Catalonia and its surging separatist movement has become pivotal as Spain's political leaders try to thrash out a pact on a government after the most fragmented national election in decades. The issue is shaping up as a deal-breaker for any left-wing alliance and as a big stumbling block for a "grand coalition" involving the ruling People's Party (PP) and the Socialists, who agree that the region must not become independent but differ hugely on what should be the stance of the central government. The matter has become ever more pressing as Spain enters its third month in a political vacuum following the Dec. 20 election at a time when pro-secession Catalan authorities are trying to move forward with their so-called "roadmap" to independence. But parties in Madrid have so far carefully avoided getting deeper into the question. "They have it in mind but don't give it the attention they should given how important and significant it is," said Agustin Costa, a 47-year-old antique dealer by Barcelona's Gothic cathedral. Like Costa, many in Catalonia believe the separatist question is used by parties to make political gains but none of them is actually ready to agree on painful compromises and risk a backlash with voters, thus making any coalition deal unlikely. "Even Podemos, which is in favor of an independence referendum, seems to use this option depending on its political needs of the moment," Costa shrugged as he sheltered under his stall from a drizzle. The conservative PP, which won most seats in the election but lost its parliamentary majority, passed on its first chance to form a government and now the baton has passed to the Socialists. Their natural allies would have appeared to be the left-wing Podemos but for the Catalan question. Podemos has dangled the option of supporting a referendum on Catalan independence, a possibility backed by about 80 percent of people in Catalonia. The Socialists reject this however, with their leader Pedro Sanchez saying he is ready to reform the constitution to better accommodate Catalonia but would not form an alliance with a party that supported the break-up of Spain. Senior Podemos leaders have since blown hot and cold on the question of a plebiscite - a campaign pledge that helped them score a strong showing in Catalonia - even though the party said it would recommend voting against secession. "The Socialist Party is not going to accept a referendum on independence," said Miquel Iceta, head of the Socialists' Catalan faction, at its offices in Barcelona. If Podemos were to back down, it risks provoking internal divisions among its own Catalan contingent. UNPRECEDENTED DILEMMA While the separatist movement is still a long way from succeeding in its goals, never before has it played such a role over the formation of a national government. Not only has the Catalan question become the big hot potato of the talks, but 17 of the 47 Catalan parliamentarians who sit in the national 350-seat lower house are independence supporters - a significant contingent when it comes to coalition-forming. A Socialist-Podemos alliance, currently seen as Spain's best shot at avoiding a new national election, would for instance need backing or an abstention from Catalonia's two main pro-independence parties to achieve a majority. Meanwhile, the opposition of those two parties to any combination involving the PP and newcomer party Ciudadanos, both in favor of a tighter control of the central government over regional politics, makes other alternatives unlikely. A potential three-way pact between the Socialists, Podemos and Ciudadanos, which would have a strong absolute majority, has also been ruled out in great part because they have incompatible views on Catalonia. But some believe the new splintered political scene could instead provide new opportunities to break the deadlock with Catalonia and defuse the separatist sentiment because it makes it compulsory for several parties to compromise. The Socialists' Iceta is hoping the party's plan for constitutional reform - which would shake up how regions are financed, redefine their powers in more of a federal system, and recognize some of Catalonia's singularities - can form the basis for talks with parties as well as defuse the separatist push. There also remains a chance the separatist issue could sow the seeds for a "grand coalition" between the PP, Socialists and Ciudadanos. Even some of the parties at loggerheads on economic policy have common ground in their defense of Spanish unity. "Any concession over the Catalan question implies a huge political cost for any leader within his party," said Anton Costas, who runs the Circulo de Economia, a powerful business lobby based in Catalonia. "But the December election has created a new landscape in which it is now possible to give an answer to this question." (Reporting by Sarah White, Editing by Julien Toyer and Angus MacSwan) By George Georgiopoulos ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged European Union countries to honor the bloc's decisions on sharing the burden of the migrant crisis, saying that if they did not, Athens would block future agreements. Austria, defying criticism from Greek and U.N. refugee officials, took further steps on Wednesday to coordinate border restrictions spanning the Balkans that are intensifying a logjam of migrants in Greece. "We will not accept turning the country into a permanent warehouse of souls with Europe continuing to function as if nothing is happening," Tsipras told parliament on Wednesday. "Greece will not agree to deals (in the EU) if a mandatory allocation of burdens and responsibilities among member countries is not secured," he said. Athens has protested against restrictions imposed by countries further north along the main land corridor into Europe, including along Austria's frontier with Slovenia and Macedonia's border with Greece. Defying criticism from Greek and U.N. refugee officials, Austria on Wednesday took further steps to coordinate a slew of border restrictions spanning the Balkans that have caused a worsening logjam of migrants in Greece. "We will not tolerate that a number of countries will be building fences and walls at the borders without accepting even a single refugee," Tsipras said. "Greece will demand the mandatory participation of EU countries in the relocation of refugees." He said it was unacceptable for EU partners to dump the burden of the crisis on Greece, forcing it to shoulder a weight way disproportionate to its size. "We did and will continue to do everything we can to provide warmth, essential help and security to uprooted, hounded people," he said. "We will either be in a union of common rules for all or everyone will do they please: we will not accept the latter." Addressing worries that flow restrictions at the northern border could swell the number of migrants stranded in Greece, Tsipras said he would meet political party leaders to form a common stance before an early March summit of EU leaders on the migration crisis. Earlier on Wednesday, he told German Chancellor Angela Merkel he was deeply displeased about the failure of some EU leaders to stick to bloc decisions on tackling the refugee crisis. The two leaders agreed to intensify efforts to implement EU decisions and start NATO operations in the Aegean Sea immediately to counter smuggling networks to reduce migrant inflows. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) Severe tropical cyclone Winston lashed Fiji overnight Saturday, packing wind gusts of 325 kilometres per hour and leaving a trail of destruction. (Photo: AFP) Suva, Fiji: Cyclone-devastated Fiji said it was likely to need more foreign aid Thursday as the body count from the most powerful storm in its history climbed to 44. France became the latest country to join the relief effort following last weekend's deadly super-cyclone, flying in three tonnes of supplies and 40 engineers to help rebuild crippled infrastructure. But with Care Australia confirming the death toll had reached 44 -- up from 42 previously -- and that about 35,000 people were homeless, officials said Fiji "requires all the support that can be given". Severe tropical cyclone Winston lashed the Pacific nation overnight Saturday, packing wind gusts of 325 kilometres (202 miles) per hour and leaving a trail of destruction. Australia and New Zealand have so far led the international response, sending planes laden with supplies, helicopters and medevac teams. New Zealand is also dispatching two naval ships this weekend, while France sent two military transports from New Caledonia. In addition, there has been financial support from Canberra, Wellington, India, China, the United States, Japan, Nauru and the Asian Development Bank. "We've had a lot of international assistance already and we're grateful to our friends in the international community," government spokesman Ewan Perrin told Radio New Zealand. "But as we go through our more detailed assessments of the damage and area needs we'll be able to go back to the international community and see if we can source some more things." 'Be patient' Aerial photographs show some villages in outlying islands were flattened in the tempest and Perrin said getting aid through to them was a challenge. "It's a widespread disaster. The government's working as hard as it can around the clock to get the materials out to the people in need," he said. "Obviously with 300 islands and 900,000 people, we can't service everybody at once. So I'd ask for people to be patient, the government is on its way." He said there had been minimal contact with some isolated communities "so we're not sure how much further the death toll will rise". Save the Children estimated 120,000 youngsters were in communities that bore the brunt of the tempest. "Alongside lifesaving aid like food, water and healthcare, we need to ensure that children do not continue to be traumatised and distressed by what they have experienced," the agency's local chief Iris Low-McKenzie said. The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said crops were totally destroyed in some areas, a major blow for the country's sugar industry. Some cruise ships have already announced they are avoiding Fiji in the immediate future, in a concerning development for an economy heavily reliant on the tourism sector. However, experts pointed out that Fiji's tourism sector had proved remarkably resilient in the past, with visitor numbers barely dipping during a series of military coups. There were dire predictions in 2012, when Suva actually advised tourists to stop coming as flooding caused chaos and killed 11 people on the main island Viti Levu. Yet international visitor numbers bounced back and hit a record 750,000 last year, mostly from Australia and New Zealand. "We need to put these sort of events in context. Natural disasters come and go," ANZ chief economist Cameron Bagrie told AFP. "They're tough to deal with but they're seldom what you'd call a knockout punch for an economy." WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden will take the stage at the Academy Awards show on Sunday to introduce Lady Gaga for her performance of "Til It Happens to You," an Oscar-nominated song about sexual assault on college campuses from the film "The Hunting Ground." Biden is a long-time advocate against sexual assault who authored the Violence Against Women Act. He will urge the Oscar audience to take a pledge to speak out about the issue by visiting www.ItsOnUs.org, his spokeswoman said. Biden will attend the awards show with his wife, Jill. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Bill Trott) European Directories announces today its 4th quarter and 12 months results for the year 2015. The detailed Financial Statements Bulletin for the period January - December 2015 of European Directories Group, European Directories Midco S.a r.l. and European Directories BondCo S.C.A. can be found on the website www.europeandirectories.com/investors. The annual report will be made available on the website during the week of 28 March 2016. For further information, please contact: Group CFO Neil Robson Tel +31 20 487 36 88 E-mail: ir@europeandirectories.com European Directories Group is an online partner for SMEs offering local search and lead generation with a scalable business model. The European Directories Group operates through three main brands: Fonecta in Finland, Herold in Austria and DTG in the Netherlands. More information about the European Directories Group can be found at www.europeandirectories.com . The information in this announcement is required to be disclosed by European Directories BondCo S.C.A. under the Swedish Securities Markets Act (Sw. lagen om vardepappersmarknaden) and under the Luxembourg law of 11 January 2008 relating to transparency requirements for issuers of securities. This information was released for publication at 9:00 CET on 26 February 2016. Reno, Nevada, Feb. 25, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dakota Territory Resource Corp (OTCQB: DTRC) ("Dakota Territory" or the "Company"), a gold exploration company with a portfolio of properties near the legendary Homestake Mine in the Black Hills of South Dakota, today provides shareholders with a corporate update and guidance for gold exploration in 2016. Dakota Territory has assembled a strategic 3,057-acre property position in one of Americas most famous and prolific gold districts, the Homestake District (the District). The Homestake District has yielded more than 44 million ounces of gold production over the past 137 years, including approximately 40 million ounces from the Homestake Gold Mine. In the 1980s and 1990s, Homestake Mining Company undertook a $70 million exploration program conceived and managed by Richard Bachman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dakota Territory Resource Corp. The Homestake program discovered significant new gold mineralization beyond the confines of the producing mine, demonstrating repeatability and the potential for additional gold deposits in the District. Low gold prices persisted through the 1990s, forcing the suspension of Homestakes exploration activity in the Black Hills and the eventual closing of the Homestake Mine in 2001. Subsequent to the mine closure, Homestake Mining Company was acquired by Barrick Gold Corporation for $2.3 billion and many of the important mineral properties in the District were divested. Over the past four years, Dakota Territory has acquired 100% ownership of the Blind Gold, City Creek and Homestake Paleoplacer Properties, all of which are located in the heart of the District and were formerly owned and explored by Homestake Mining Company. It is the intent of Dakota Territory to leverage the Companys unique mining and exploration experience in the District through our ability to begin programs at the point the previous Homestake work was suspended. To that end, the Company has continued this past year to build on the data sets Dakota Territory has acquired for our properties, and the District. Over the past nine months, these data sets have been utilized for the first time in three dimensional modeling that was not possible in the 1980s and 1990s. This work is being conducted in conjunction with former Homestake researchers Dr. Michael Terry and Dr. James Fox through the Companys ongoing consulting agreements. We are extremely pleased with the results of this work and look forward to sharing some of the new information on our website in the near future. As spring approaches, the Company has begun preparation for additional sampling programs to follow-up on the successful results from last years efforts. Dakota Territory is also looking forward to getting our first drill program underway as quickly as possible. We believe that we are nearing, if not at the end of a difficult cycle. As gold prices stabilize, interest in exploration for high grade North American deposits located in proven gold districts with return early. This is the ideal time for us to start drilling to first validate and then build on the previous work. commented Richard Bachman. Through this past year, we have continued to prepare ourselves to run efficient programs with the potential to generate substantial bang for the buck. We are optimistic about improving gold markets and are more convinced than ever that Dakota Territory is in the right place at the right time with our projects. About Dakota Territory Resource Corp Dakota Territory Resource Corp. is a Nevada Corporation with offices located at Reno, Nevada. Dakota Territory is committed to creating shareholder value through the acquisition and responsible exploration and development of high caliber gold properties in the Black Hills of South Dakota. In terms of total historic US gold production, the Black Hills ranks second only to the Carlin District of northeast Nevada, with the gold production of the Black Hills concentrated in a 100 square mile area known as the Homestake District. Dakota Territory maintains 100% ownership of three mineral properties including the Blind Gold, City Creek and Homestake Paleoplacer Properties, all of which are located in the heart of the Homestake District and cover a total of approximately 3,057 acres. The Blind Gold Property is located approximately 4 miles northwest and on structural trend with the historic Homestake Gold Mine. Through its 125 year production history, the Homestake Gold Mine produced approximately 40 million ounces of gold and is the largest iron-formation-hosted gold deposit in the world In the 1980s and 1990s Homestake Mining Company undertook a $70 million exploration program managed by Richard Bachman, president and chief executive officer of Dakota Territory that was focused primarily on the search for a repeat of the Homestake Mine. This program successfully discovered significant new gold mineralization beyond the confines of the producing mine, demonstrating repeatability and the potential for additional gold deposits in the Homestake iron-formation host. This program also proved the continuous extension of the Homestake iron-formation to a distance of approximately 4 miles from the producing mine and under the Blind Gold Property. Dakota Territory Resource Corp is uniquely positioned to leverage Managements extensive exploration and mining experience in the Black Hills of South Dakota with Homestake Mining Company. For more information on Dakota Territory, please visit the Company's website at http://DakotaTRC.com/. Investor Relations Investor Relations Contact: For more information, please contact Dakota Territory Resource Corp (775) 747-0667 Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) limits disclosure for U.S. reporting purposes to mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. Our property currently does not contain any known proven or probable ore reserves under SEC reporting standards. Our reference above to the various formations and mineralization believed to exist in our property as compared to historical results and estimates from other property in the district is illustrative only for comparative purposes and is no indication that similar results will be obtained with respect to our property. U.S. investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our latest reports filed with the SEC. You can review and obtain copies of these filings at http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml. Safe Harbor Statement This release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of words like "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "intend," or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to: adverse economic conditions, competition, adverse federal, state and local government regulation, inadequate capital, inability to carry out research, development and commercialization plans, loss or retirement of key executives and other specific risks. To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, including statements as to revenue projections, business strategy, outlook, objectives, future milestones, plans, intentions, goals, future financial conditions, events conditioned on stockholder or other approval, or otherwise as to future events, such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. Readers are advised to review our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that can be accessed over the Internet at the SEC's website located at http://www.sec.gov. English Finnish Helsinki, Finland, 2016-02-25 14:55 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Finnlines Plc Stock Exchange Release 25 February 2016 at 15:55 FINNLINES PLCS NOTICE TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2016 Notice is given to the shareholders of Finnlines Plc to the Annual General Meeting to be held on Tuesday, 12 April 2016 at 13:00 in the auditorium of the National Museum of Finland, Mannerheimintie 34, 00100 Helsinki, Finland. The reception of persons who have registered for the meeting will begin at 12:00. A. MATTERS ON THE AGENDA OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING At the Annual General Meeting, the following matters will be considered: 1. Opening of the meeting 2. Calling the meeting to order 3. Election of the persons to scrutinise the minutes and to supervise the counting of the votes 4. Recording the legality of the meeting 5. Recording the attendance at the meeting and adoption of the list of votes 6. Presentation of the Annual Accounts, the Report of the Board of Directors and the Auditors Report for the year 2015 7. Adoption of the Annual Accounts 8. Resolution on the use of the profit shown on the balance sheet and the payment of dividend The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that no dividend shall be paid for the accounting period ended on 31 December 2015 and, therefore, no dividend payment date shall be determined. 9. Resolution on the discharge of the Members of the Board of Directors and the President/CEO from liability 10. Resolution on the remuneration of members of the Board of Directors Shareholders representing over 98 per cent of the shares and votes of the Company propose to the Annual General Meeting that the annual remuneration payable to the members of the Board to be elected at the Annual General Meeting for the term until the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2017 remain unchanged from 2015 as follows: EUR 50,000 for the Chairman, EUR 40,000 for the Vice Chairman, and EUR 30,000 for each of the other members of the Board. 11. Resolution on the number of members of the Board of Directors Shareholders representing over 98 percent of the shares and votes of the Company propose to the Annual General Meeting that the number of Board Members be seven. 12. Election of members of the Board of Directors Shareholders representing over 98 per cent of the shares and votes of the company propose to the Annual General Meeting that the current Board Members Christer Backman, Tiina Backman, Emanuele Grimaldi, Gianluca Grimaldi, Diego Pacella, Olav K. Rakkenes, Jon-Aksel Torgersen, be re-elected for the term until the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2017. All candidates have consented to being re-elected. The candidates are presented on the Companys website. 13. Resolution on the remuneration of the Auditor The Board of Directors proposes that the auditors to be elected at the Annual General Meeting be reimbursed in accordance with the Auditors invoice approved by the Company. 14. Election of the Auditor The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that audit firm KPMG Oy Ab be elected as the Auditor. 15. Authorisation of the Board of Directors to decide on the issuance of shares The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the Annual General Meeting authorise the Board of Directors to decide on the issuance of shares in one or several tranches. Based on the authorisation, the Board of Directors may decide on the issuance of new shares so that the total number of shares issued based on the authorisation is 10,000,000, at maximum. The proposed maximum number corresponds to approximately 19 per cent of all the current shares in the Company. Based on the authorisation, the Board of Directors may also decide to issue shares in deviation from the shareholders pre-emptive right (a directed share issue). The Board of Directors is authorised to decide to whom and in which order the shares will be issued. The authorisation includes the right of the Board of Directors to decide on the terms and conditions of the share issues and matters related to the measures in accordance with the Companies Act. The authorisation is proposed to be in force until the next Annual General Meeting. The authorisation revokes the Annual General Meetings authorisation to decide on a share issue of 14 April 2015. 16. Closing of the meeting B. DOCUMENTS OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The above proposals of the Board of Directors relating to the agenda of the Annual General Meeting as well as this notice are available on the Companys website at www.finnlines.com. The Financial Statements of the Company, including the Board of Directors' report, the consolidated financial statements, the parent company financial statements and the Auditors report for the financial period 2015, are available on the above-mentioned website. The proposals of the Board of Directors and the Financial Statements will also be available at the meeting. Copies of these documents and of this notice will be sent to shareholders upon request. The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting will be available on the above-mentioned website as from 26 April 2016 at the latest. C. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 1. Shareholder registered in the shareholders register Each shareholder, who is registered on 31 March 2016, the record date of the meeting, in the shareholders register of the Company held by Euroclear Finland Oy, has the right to participate in the Annual General Meeting. A shareholder whose shares are registered on his/her personal Finnish book-entry account is registered in the shareholders register of the Company. A shareholder, who wants to participate in the Annual General Meeting, shall register for the meeting by giving a prior notice of participation no later than Thursday, 7 April 2016 at 16:00 (Finnish time) by which time the registration must to arrive to the Company. Such notice can be given: a) through Finnlines Plc's website at www.finnlines.com/agm2016; b) by telephone to +358 20 770 6899 during working days between 9:00 and 16:00 (Finnish time); c) by telefax to the number +358 10 343 5200; or d) by mail to the address Finnlines Plc, Share Register, POB 197, FIN-00181 Helsinki, Finland. In connection with the registration, a shareholder shall notify his/her name, address or e-mail address, telephone number and the name of a possible assistant or proxy representative. The personal data disclosed by the shareholders to Finnlines Plc will only be used in connection with the Annual General Meeting and the processing of related necessary registrations. The shareholder, his/her authorised representative or proxy representative must, where necessary, be able to prove his/her identity and/or right of representation. 2. Holder of nominee registered shares A holder of nominee registered shares has the right to participate in the Annual General Meeting, if he/she has, based on his/ her shareholding, the right to be entered in the shareholders register on 31 March 2016, the record date of the Annual General Meeting. In addition, the right to participate requires that the holder of nominee registered shares has been temporarily registered into the Companys shareholders register held by Euroclear Finland Oy based on these shares by 7 April 2016, 10:00 (Finnish time). This is also considered registration for the Annual General Meeting as regards nominee registered shares. Such a shareholder is advised to request from his/her custodian bank, without delay, the necessary instructions regarding the registration in the temporary shareholder register of the Company, the issuing of proxy documents and registration for the Annual General Meeting. The account manager of the custodian bank shall register a holder of nominee registered shares who wishes to participate in the Annual General Meeting into the temporary shareholders register of the Company at the latest by the time stated above. 3. Proxy representative and powers of attorney A shareholder may participate in the Annual General Meeting and exercise his/her rights at the meeting by way of proxy representation. A proxy representative shall produce a dated proxy document or otherwise in a reliable manner demonstrate his/her right to represent the shareholder at the Annual General Meeting. When a shareholder participates in the Annual General Meeting by means of several proxy representatives representing the shareholder with shares in different securities accounts, the shares by which each proxy representative represents the shareholder shall be identified in connection with the registration for the Annual General Meeting. Possible proxy documents should be delivered in originals to the Share Register (at the address: Finnlines Plc, Share Register, POB 197, FIN-00181 Helsinki, Finland) before the last date for registration. 4. Other information Pursuant to Chapter 5, section 25 of the Companies Act, a shareholder who is present at the meeting has the right to request information with respect to the matters to be considered at the meeting. On the date of this notice to the Annual General Meeting, 25 February 2016, the total number of shares in Finnlines Plc is 51,503,141 shares and the total number of votes is 51,503,141 votes. Helsinki, 25 February 2016 Finnlines Plc The Board of Directors The Shareholders of Cavotec SA are invited to attend the Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) to be held on Friday, April 22, 2016 at 12.00 (CET) at the offices of Cavotec SA, via Balestra 27, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland. Doors open at 11.30 (CET) For shareholders not wishing to personally attend to the OGM, an information meeting will be held in the morning of April 22, 2015 at 10.30 CET at the IVA Conferenscenter, Grev Turegatan 16 in Stockholm, Sweden. This meeting is open to shareholders and interested parties and will feature an update on Cavotecs recent business activities. After the information meeting, a (passive) video-stream of the OGM will be projected. However, shareholders attending the information meeting will not be attending to the OGM and should therefore exercise their voting rights through a proxy. Participation Only shareholders entered in the share register with the right to vote on April 13, 2016 will be entitled to participate in the OGM. Please note the following information: Shareholders whose shares are held through a bank or broker acting as a nominee with Euroclear Sweden AB must request their bank or broker to have their shares temporarily owner-registered with Euroclear Sweden AB. Such registration must be made no later than April 13, 2016. Shareholders whose shares are held through a bank or broker not directly acting as a nominee with Euroclear Sweden AB must instruct their custodian bank to register them as shareholders in the Share Register of Cavotec SA by sending a registration form to Cavotec SA, c/o SIX SAG AG, Share Register, Baslerstrasse 90, CH-4601 Oltenand. Such registration must be made no later than April 13, 2016. Shareholders who are already registered in the Share Register do not have to perform any additional steps and will be provided automatically with the registration form. Full instructions on the above procedures can be found on the full Notice of Meeting attached to this release or on ir.cavotec.com. You do not need to attend the OGM in person. You may appoint a proxy to represent you. You can appoint the following persons to represent you: Mr Franco Brusa, Attorney-at-Law, Via G.B. Pioda 5, Lugano, Switzerland, has been appointed as independent shareholders representative pursuant to Art. 9a of the Articles of Association. You may use the proxy form attached to this invitation or the Electronic Proxy as set out on http://anmalan.vpc.se/Cavotec2016 to appoint and instruct the independent proxy; or any third person by contacting them directly. NB: please sign, date and return the Proxy Form in one of the enclosed envelopes by April 13, 2016, or complete the Electronic Proxy as set out on http://anmalan.vpc.se/Cavotec2016 by April 21, 2016 at the latest. Alternatively, you may hand over your Proxy Form appointing the Independent Proxy as a proxy at the Information Meeting on April 22, 2016, in Stockholm, Sweden, until 30 minutes before the beginning of the OGM. For the full Notice of the OGM, see the attached PDF file, or visit ir.cavotec.com. For questions regarding participation to the OGM, please contact: Cavotec SA c/o Euroclear Sweden AB Box 191, SE-10123 Stockholm, Sweden Telephone: +46 84029283 ENDS For more information please contact: Michael Scheepers Group Chief Communications Officer & IR michael.scheepers@cavotec.com or +41795024010 The information in this release is subject to the disclosure requirements of Cavotec SA under the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. This information was publicly communicated on 25 February 2016, 15:10 CET. Orban also warned that an uncontrolled migrant influx exposed Europe to the risks of "terrorism, criminality, anti-Semitism and homophobia". (Photo: AP) Berlin: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hit out on Thursday at Germany's "rude and aggressive" tone over Europe's refugee crisis and its proposals for national migrant quotas, which he has vehemently opposed. "Today, the tone from Germany is gruff, rude and aggressive," Orban, a strident critic of Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal refugee policy, told Bild daily. "Germany's refugee policy is not without alternative," the Hungarian leader said in remarks published a day after he announced a referendum on whether to accept mandatory EU quotas for migrants. The hardline leader is deeply opposed to an EU plan to distribute 160,000 asylum-seekers among member states under a quota system. "The quotas will change the profile of Europe, from an ethnic, cultural and religious point of view," he argued in a lengthy interview. Orban also warned that an uncontrolled migrant influx exposed Europe to the risks of "terrorism, criminality, anti-Semitism and homophobia". Pointing to the New Year's debacle in western Germany's Cologne, where hundreds of women reported being groped in a crowd of migrants, Orban said: "I have four daughters and I don't want my children to grow up in a world where Cologne could happen". For him, even a deal struck by the EU and Turkey, the main launch pad for migrant sea crossings to Europe, to reduce the number of arrivals was unrealistic. "None of the EU countries want to really apply" the deal, he said. "The EU is now going to the Turks like a beggar," he argued about the agreement with the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We are begging Mr Erdogan in return for money and promises to secure our borders because we can't protect them ourselves," Orban said. "That's not a good policy. Because it makes Europe's future and security reliant on the goodwill of Turkey." Orban's stance directly contradicts that of Merkel, who backs the plan under which Turkey would seal its borders and then fly refugees to Europe where they would be settled under the quota system. After a decade in power, Merkel has seen her long-stellar domestic approval ratings drop over her liberal migration policy since more than 1.1 million asylum seekers came to Germany last year. Orban, meanwhile, is enjoying strong popularity at home over his tough policies aimed at keeping refugees out, including sealing his country's southern borders with razor wire and fences. As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ London: The dreaded Islamic State militant group has made life threats to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a new video which shows their photos riddled with digitally added bullet holes, mocking the social media websites' attempts to block terrorist content from their platforms. In the 25-minute video, the IS claim they are fighting back against efforts by the social media giants to wipe their platforms of accounts promoting terrorism. The video includes a direct threat to the tech entrepreneurs, branding them allies of the American "Crusader government". Pictures of Zuckerberg and Dorsey can be seen being blasted with a hail of bullets in the amateur footage, which emerged. The video, titled "Flames of the Supporters" and released by a group calling themselves "the sons of the Caliphate army", ends with a direct threat to the two men, The Sun reported. A slide toward the end of the video reads, in English: "To Mark and Jack, founders of Twitter and Facebook and to their Crusader government. You announce daily that you suspended many of our accounts and to you we say: is that all you can do? you are not in our league. If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete you (sic) sites, #Sons_Caliphate_Army". In a separate slide, they also claim to have hacked more than 10,000 Facebook accounts, 150 Facebook groups, and more than 5,000 Twitter accounts. Two scholars who track ISIS activity online confirmed that the video was posted to multiple ISIS forums, including some on the social media platform. ISIS and related terrorist groups have targeted Dorsey at least twice in the past year. A group of self-identified ISIS supporters threatened the Twitter founder and CEO in March of 2015 for closing hundreds of their social media accounts. In its threat, the group claimed that Dorsey and his company started a "war" against the Islamic State, and that the "necks" of Twitter employees have "become an official target to ISIS soldiers and supporters." Twitter seems to have only stepped up its efforts to wipe ISIS off its platform since then. A few weeks ago, the company announced it had suspended more than 125,000 accounts for threatening or supporting terrorist acts over the past several months. Twitter also said it has grown its team that looks into reports of terror activity on its network. Zuckerberg reiterated his stance and Facebooks policy on helping to fight terrorism online. A Facebook spokeswoman did not immediately respond to request for comment on this weeks threat. A Twitter spokesman reiterated the company's policy and progress on suspending accounts that promote terrorism or any violent threat. Balkan countries along the well-trodden migrant path towards northern Europe met to explore ways to stem the flow of migrants. (Photo:AFP) Brussels: The well-trodden path that has led hundreds of thousands of refugees and other migrants into the European Union's heartland is increasingly eating at the core of the once-tight bloc. As destination countries unilaterally move to restrict new entries, others further back on the route have panicked that people will get stuck within their borders and have started taking their own actions, showing little concern for coordinating with their EU partners. "Right now the unity of the Union and lives - human lives - are at stake," said the EU's migration chief Dimitris Avramopoulos as he entered today's meeting of the 28 interior ministers to assess the rapidly deteriorating situation. The fear of crumbling unity has spread like wildfire throughout the EU over recent days: a common response to the migration crisis is seen as a Litmus test for the bloc. The impact of increasing go-it-alone actions on border restrictions and imposition of quotas was evident on the ground today when thousands of refugees and other migrants were stranded across Greece, with hundreds having waited in buses along the country's main north-south highway for roughly two days. The bottleneck came after Macedonia severely restricted the number of people it is allowing to cross and continue their northward journey toward more prosperous European countries, in response to similar actions by countries further along the route. Greek Deputy Interior Minister Ioannis Mouzalas was angry about a meeting Wednesday in Vienna where Austria and many of its southern neighbors agreed to tighter border controls and warned that they may have to shut their doors entirely. On Thursday, Greece recalled its ambassador to Athens in protest at the talks. The border closures would squeeze Greece in between the Balkan nations to the north and Turkey, where most of the refugees come from. With a full closure, Greece reception capacity could become overwhelmed in days. NATO is beginning a surveillance mission in the waters between Greece and Turkey and its decision to return any rescued migrants to Turkey could help relieve some pressure on Greek reception centers. But Mouzalas said his nation refuses to become "a warehouse of souls" and said that in the wake of border restrictions that were not part of common EU decisions, "Greece too, can take unilateral action," threatening to block decisions at a March 7 EU migration summit if sharing of the refugee burden is not made obligatory for member states. Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias recalled the ambassador "in order to safeguard the friendly relations between the states and the people of Greece and Austria," a statement said. It is the sort of unraveling of unity that EU President Donald Tusk has been warning about for weeks now but which the EU seems to be unable to stop. Another indication of just how far the issue has reached is the discord Belgium and France, two founding nations of the bloc who have almost always stood side-by-side in the 60-year history of the union. On Thursday, France's interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve criticized its northern neighbor for tightening border controls over concerns about a flood of migrants from a camp in France. Belgium has sent up to 290 extra police officers to their common border after French authorities moved to close a migrant camp in Calais. Cazeneuve described Belgium's move as "a strange decision" and rejected fears that hundreds of migrants would move into Belgium. Meanwhile in Germany - the destination for many of the migrants - lawmakers on Thursday approved a package of measures meant to speed up migrant processing and cut the number of newcomers. The package foresees special centers being set up to quickly process migrants who have little realistic chance of winning asylum and means that some asylum-seekers - likely including some Syrians - will have to wait longer to bring relatives to Germany. Germany registered nearly 1.1 million people as asylum seekers last year and officials are keen to ensure that the number is lower this year. Lawmakers also approved plans to amend laws to increase the deportation of foreigners convicted of crimes. The EU's executive Commission also said Thursday that it fails to understand how Hungary's call for a national referendum on the EU's plan for each member to get a mandatory quota of refugees from Greece and Italy could affect a decision that has already been legally made by all EU nations. The EU plans to share 160,000 migrants arriving in overburdened Greece and Italy over two years. But so far, barely 600 people have been relocated, and only some EU nations have offered places for them - fewer than 5,000 spots in all. A Nepalese army rescue team member stands in front of wreckage of the Twin Otter aircraft at a crash site near the village of Dana in Myagdi. (Photo: AFP) Kathmandu: Emergency workers have found the bodies of 19 people killed when their plane crashed into a mountainside in western Nepal with the loss of all 23 passengers and crew, police said on Thursday. Police and army returned to the crash site at first light after abandoning recovery efforts late Wednesday due to bad weather in the remote Himalayan district where the Twin Otter turboprop aircraft came down. The site in Myagdi district is around 16,000 feet (4,900 metres) high in the Himalayas and can only be reached on foot or by helicopter. "We are on a search mission here to find the bodies of all the victims," police superintendent Chhabi Lal Joshi told AFP by phone from the site of the crash, the latest in a series of fatal aviation accidents in the impoverished Himalayan nation. "We have found 19 bodies so far, and some body parts." Joshi said workers had built a makeshift helipad to transport the bodies to the nearest airport in the town of Pokhara, around 220 kilometres (160 miles) west of Kathmandu. But the airline, Tara Air, said strong winds had prevented helicopters from reaching the area today. "Two helicopters have been sent since morning, but failed to reach the site. We will try again," said spokesman Bhim Raj Rai. The Tara Air flight from Pokhara to Jomsom -- about a 20-minute flight -- was carrying three crew and 20 passengers, including a Chinese national and a Kuwaiti. All the others were from Nepal and two of them were children. The government said it had formed a committee to investigate the tragedy, the cause of which is not yet known. Tara Air is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, a privately owned domestic carrier founded in 1998 which services many remote destinations across Nepal. It suffered its last fatal accident in 2010 when a plane chartered by a group of Bhutanese tourists crashed into a mountainside in eastern Nepal. The country, which is still reeling from a devastating earthquake last April, has in recent years suffered a number of air disasters. Most have been attributed to inexperienced pilots, poor management and inadequate maintenance. The European Union blacklisted all Nepal's airlines in 2013. Zohra Yusuf, head of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), welcomed the bill and expressed the hope that efficient enforcement will help protect women and ensure that offenders do not escape justice. (Photo: AFP) Lahore: Activists Thursday hailed the passing of a historic bill protecting women's rights in Pakistan's most populous province, with the legislation establishing a helpline and shelters while calling for some defendants to wear GPS trackers. Women in conservative Pakistan have fought for their rights for decades, in a country where so-called honour killings and acid attacks remain commonplace. But the Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Bill redefines "violence" to include "any offence committed against a woman including abetment of an offence, domestic violence, emotional, psychological and verbal abuse, economic abuse, stalking or a cybercrime". Zohra Yusuf, head of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), welcomed the bill and expressed the hope that efficient enforcement will help protect women and ensure that offenders do not escape justice. "The bill appears to be a rather comprehensive attempt to institute a system for prevention of violence against women and for protection and rehabilitation of the women victims," Yusuf said in a statement issued Thursday. Yusuf said the bill includes a broad definition of violence and steps to make complaint submissions easier. "These are all much-needed measures that deserve praise but it is important to remember that cosmetic and purely procedural changes have not had an impact in the past," she said. Abdul Qahar Rashid, spokesman for Punjab's provincial assembly, told AFP that the bill, which was passed unanimously, must be signed by the provincial governor before it becomes law. Under the new legislation, the government will institute a universal toll free help line for the women, and will establish district protection centres and residential shelters under a phased programme. Family courts must fix hearings within seven days of a complaint, the bill says, with all complaints to be decided within 90 days. The court can also order a GPS tracker to be installed to monitor a defendant's movements, provided an act of grave violence has been committed or is deemed likely to be committed. Nixon Prolonged Vietnam War for Political GainAnd Johnson Knew About It, Newly Unclassified Tapes Suggest Richard Nixon during the 1968 presidential campaign. Photo: Ollie Atkins In 1968, the Paris Peace talks, intended to put an end to the 13-year-long Vietnam War, failed because an aide working for then-Presidential candidate Richard Nixon convinced the South Vietnamese to walk away from the dealings, says a new report by the BBCs David Taylor. By the late 1960s Americans had been involved in the Vietnam War for nearly a decade, and the ongoing conflict was an incredibly contentious issue, says PBS: In 1967, with American troop strength in Vietnam reaching 500,000, protest against U.S. participation in the Vietnam War had grown stronger as growing numbers of Americans questioned whether the U.S. war effort could succeed or was morally justifiable. They took their protests to the streets in peace marches, demonstrations, and acts of civil disobedience. Despite the countrys polarization, the balance of American public opinion was beginning to sway toward de-escalation of the war. Nixons Presidental campaign needed the war to continue, since Nixon was running on a platform that opposed the war. The BBC: Nixon feared a breakthrough at the Paris Peace talks designed to find a negotiated settlement to the Vietnam war, and he knew this would derail his campaign. In late October 1968 there were major concessions from Hanoi which promised to allow meaningful talks to get underway in Paris concessions that would justify Johnson calling for a complete bombing halt of North Vietnam. This was exactly what Nixon feared. President Johnson had at the time a habit of recording all of his phone conversations, and newly released tapes from 1968 detailed that the FBI had bugged the telephones of the South Vietnamese ambassador and of Anna Chennault, one of Nixons aides. Based on the tapes, says Taylor for the BBC, we learn that in the time leading up to the Paris Peace talks, Chennault was despatched to the South Vietnamese embassy with a clear message: the South Vietnamese government should withdraw from the talks, refuse to deal with Johnson, and if Nixon was elected, they would get a much better deal. The Atlantic Wire: In the recently released tapes, we can hear Johnson being told about Nixons interference by Defence Secretary Clark Clifford. The FBI had bugged the South Vietnamese ambassadors phone. They had Chennault lobbying the ambassador on tape. Johnson was justifiably furious he ordered Nixons campaign be placed under FBI surveillance. Johnson passed along a note to Nixon that he knew about the move. Nixon played like he had no idea why the South backed out, and offered to travel to Saigon to get them back to the negotiating table. Though the basic story of Nixons involvement in stalling the Vietnam peace talks has been around before, the new tapes, says the Atlantic Wire, describe how President Johnson knew all about the on-goings but chose not to bring them to the publics attention: he thought that his intended successor, Hubert Humphrey, was going to beat Nixon in the upcoming election anyway. And, by revealing that he knew about Nixons dealings, hed also have to admit to having spied on the South Vietnamese ambassador. Eventually, Nixon won by just 1 percent of the popular vote. Once in office he escalated the war into Laos and Cambodia, with the loss of an additional 22,000 American lives, before finally settling for a peace agreement in 1973 that was within grasp in 1968, says the BBC. More from Smithsonian.com: A Photo-journalists Remembrance of Vietnam A new Quinnipiac poll of Ohio shows Hillary Clinton trailing every potential Republican rival in November. She loses badly to home state Governor John Kasich, but now trails even Donald Trump in the critical must-win general election state. The four leading Republican candidates either tie or lead former Secretary Clinton in Ohio, considered the best microcosm of the national electorate and a must-win for the GOP. Republicans have never won the White House without carrying Ohio, Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll, said in a release. Hillary Clinton faces two particular challenges in bellweather Ohio. She is extraordinarily unpopular with white men and doesnt fare well enough with women voters to make up the difference. In fact, Clinton has a net unfavorable rating with all women. Among white women, she is even more unpopular. I don't remember anymore who first recommended I read "To Kill a Mockingbird." I know it wasn't an assignment. It's likely my English teacher father said something, or my book-and-Gregory-Peck-loving mother, or possibly I simply picked it up on my own, knowing it was one of the Great Classics of Literature. Whatever the reason, it stands today as the book I would name (if pressed) as my all-time favorite novel. The whole parenting gig throws a lot of challenges at you: physical, emotional, spiritual, gastrointestinal. I don't know if I (or the Princesses) would have survived some of them if not for the reward of being able to share with them the great joys of life I've discovered. (Just the other day, for instance, the three of us were riding home in the car late one night singing Rush's "The Temples of Syrinx" at the tops of our lungs. Those are the kinds of moments that make the 4 a.m. projectile vomiting all worthwhile.) So along with all the other mandatory cultural touchstones Husband and I have tried to pass along "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" and "The Princess Bride," the Beatles and Bob Marley, Dr. Demento and Harry Potter and J.R.R. Tolkien I made sure "To Kill a Mockingbird" was among them. The Princesses know the story well, although they were a little young for the book when I first started to read it to them. Slightly Older Princess was in fifth grade then, and Little Princess in third. But I had seen it was to be onstage in Ashland that season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and with SOP having fallen in love with acting, I wanted her to experience watching a professional production that featured a child like herself as a main character. I'm usually of the opinion it's better to read the book first, so I began reading it aloud to both girls, with side notes to explain the peculiarities of time, setting and customs. We had tickets for a summer night show and planned a weekend getaway. But then SOP was cast in the urchin ensemble for Albany Civic Theater's production of "Oliver!" and opening night was the same night we'd planned to be in Ashland. We tried to trade in the tickets, but the show was a hot seller and no groups of four were available on any other date we could make. Good family friends offered to keep SOP overnight so the rest of us could still make to Ashland, but I was terribly sad to think SOP, the one I most wanted to see the show, would miss out. I found a solution one day when I was glumly perusing the OSF website, once again checking the show dates. A handful of tickets just a pair or two were still available for a particular Thursday afternoon. "Husband," I said, "do you think it would be OK if I did something crazy? Like take SOP out of school for a day and drive to Ashland to see this show with her?" "Sure," Husband said. (One of the many reasons I love him so.) I asked SOP's teacher the same question. "Sure," Teacher replied. "I have a substitute that day anyway, and that would be a very educational experience." (One of the many reasons I loved my kids' elementary teachers.) So I bought two tickets, got SOP up early in the morning, and off we went to Ashland. One minor complication: We had been reading the book aloud but hadn't finished. I don't think I was more than halfway through. I really wanted her to have the full experience, so I checked out the book on CD and, starting where I'd left off, we played it all the way to Ashland. Even so, we didn't quite have time to finish we pulled into town just about at the point where Scout goes onstage at her school's Halloween pageant dressed as a ham. Nothing for it, I had to leave the story there. But that actually turned out to be a great decision, I found: I got to watch SOP's reaction as Bob Ewell attacked Jem and Scout on the way home from the pageant and see her wonder at the mysterious stranger who intervened and carried Jem home. And as Scout recognized her rescuer "Hey, Boo" I watched SOP's eyes grow wide with understanding. It was a beautiful moment, and I was glad I'd left it for the stage. I picked up the movie from the library last week after hearing of Harper Lee's death. We were finally able to sit down and watch it tonight, the Princesses and I. It still makes me cry: "Didn't you know your daddy's the best shot in this county?" "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'." "Hey, Boo." Husband bought "Go Set a Watchman" for me as a birthday gift this year, because I said I wanted to read it. I haven't yet, however. I know a little bit about the story and I'm not sure I want to see Atticus as a white supremacist. I heard an interview on NPR with an author who had corresponded with Harper Lee, who said "Watchman" was an acknowledgement that (my paraphrase) sometimes you can't just be better people and help the world to alter its evil ways. Sometimes the world is broken beyond repair and you have to throw out the things you have relied on so you can start over. I disagree. Whatever the message of "Watchman," and even though it was set in later years, it was written before "Mockingbird." Lee's vision of Atticus changed. The man who defended Tom Robinson because otherwise he couldn't hold his head up in town, who sat in front of the jail to protect him against the mob, who implored a jury to do its duty by him and who comforted his widow when the world, as it does, turned ugly, was the later Atticus. That's the Atticus Lee brought to the world. I think Lee believed in the power of an individual doing the right thing to send a message to the world. I don't think she believed the world is beyond saving. She showed us individuals have the power to make the changes we need to see. When Scout recognizes in the mob the man she knows only as the father of her classmate, the struggling farmer who once brought her family a sack of hickory nuts to pay off a bill, she reminds him of the central humanity we all carry in our core. "Hey, Mr. Cunningham ... I go to school with your boy. ... Tell him 'hey' for me, won't you?" Mr. Cunningham looks down. Shuffles his feet. Then he looks up and smiles at her and says he will. And he and the other men disappear into the night. Not everyone can be saved from his baser instincts. Lee showed us that in Bob Ewell. And Mayella, hemmed in by poverty and ignorance and fear, lashes out in a wounded rage rather than recant her false testimony. The world will always harbor unrepentant evil. Even in such a world, however, Atticus, Boo and Scout herself show us it's possible to step up and do the right thing even when it's at great personal cost. Through them, our perceptions change. We end up, as Atticus said, stepping into another person's skin and walking around in it for a while. I am still a little nervous about reading "Watchman." I will admit I like my heroes pure. But if Harper Lee herself determined that initially, the Atticus of "Mockingbird" was the character in most need of publishing, it doesn't really matter. She believed the world needed that version as its hero, and so do I. BROWNSVILLE Chamber of Commerce President John Morrison outlined several summer events planned in Brownsville and asked the City Council Tuesday evening to help provide in-kind support and funding for them. Morrison said the community calendar of fun events has grown to include both chamber and non-chamber backed activities from June through August. He said this years 30th anniversary celebration of the movie Stand By Me being filmed in the community has fans around the world interested in coming to Brownsville July 23. The Oregon Film Commission is going to sponsor showing of the film in the park, and Samaritan Health Services is interested in sponsoring a geocaching event, Morrison said. Radio stations from Eugene and Portland are interested in partnering and advertising it. Morrison asked the council to provide funding for portable light towers and to set up 10 portable toilets at the park. Weve talked with the portable toilet company and they believe it would be cheaper and easier to set the toilets up before our Fourth of July celebration and keep them up and serviced through the Antique Faire in August, Morrison said. Morrison estimated that will cost about $1,200. The city has been paying about $1,000 to rent the toilets for the Fourth of July celebration alone. Councilor Mandy Cole said the Chamber brings so much back to our community and generates lots of interest from outside our area. I would love to partner with the chamber. People interested in Stand By Me come into the museum all the time. They benefit the community in many ways. They visit, spend money here and then leave town. The council did not make a commitment, but will work more with the chamber to determine what kind of partnership can be developed. In other business, the council: Rejected a request from the Brownsville Art Association to develop a mural on their building, which is the former fire station at City Hall. While the council members appreciated the work done at the center, they were concerned that allowing murals might detract from the communitys commitment to retain a common theme of the late 1800s in the old town area. Approved a 1.2 percent increase for services provided by Sweet Home Sanitation. The increase will add about 30 cents per month to billing on the most popular service, a 35-gallon waste can. Heard from Linn County Sheriff Bruce Riley that the annual contract with the community is working well and invited the councilors to participate in the upcoming Citizens Academy. Discussed a resolution to support a proposed $32 million bond issue by the Central Linn Schools but determined it was a bit early. The council directed city administrator Scott McDowell to develop a resolution that will be discussed at the March meeting. Learned that a teardrop antique trailer group plans to visit the community during the Stand By Me celebration in July and possibly have a major gathering here in 2017. Local companies are planning to add more than 1,000 well-paying jobs over the next five years but are having trouble finding dependable and skilled employees, according to a panel of speakers at the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday. Its tough out there, said Rick Kenyon, president and CEO of Selmet, which makes titanium parts for the aerospace industry. Kenyon said his company, now at 450 workers, added 150 jobs in the last three years and will hire 40 to 50 more employees annually for the next three or four years. The Pipeline program a collaboration between the chamber, industry, Albany, Central Linn and Scio schools, Samaritan Health Services and Linn-Benton Community College thats been in development for three years aims to funnel high school and college students into those new jobs, many of which are in manufacturing and dont require four-year degrees. Their success depends on us working together, said Greg Hamann, LBCC president. Our future depends on it, he added, moments later. Janet Steele, chamber president, said 70 percent of high school graduates wont go on to get a four-year degree. They need skills, and our job is to help them find the path or the pipeline to get there, she added. But Steele said the Pipeline program needs to expand to encompass all of Linn and Benton counties. We know we cant just reach out to Albany students because there arent enough, she said. Lebanon schools have agreed to participate in the program, Steele said, and Corvallis School District representatives are considering the possibility of doing that or something similar and were in attendance at the luncheon. Before the Pipeline program started, local high school teachers and administrators, for the most part, werent aware of Albany manufacturing companies and the jobs that they were adding, Kenyon said. Now, middle and high school students, as well as groups of teachers, are going on tours of those companies and LBCC. Theres a variety of different ways were reaching out to middle and high school students to get them interested in these careers. What were doing doesnt end with the school year. Were looking at summer camps at LBCC and to bring students to companies during the summer, Steele said. Steele said that the Pipeline program is used as a competitive advantage to try and draw businesses to the Albany area. John Pascone, president of the Albany-Millersburg Economic Development Corp., spoke from the audience and added that his organization mentions the Pipeline program as a selling point in business proposals. There arent many communities doing anything like this, Kenyon said. For more information, go to www.pipelinetojobs.com. Joe Teibel is a software engineer at Hewlett-Packard. Hes also looking to start his own company. Ive developed a couple of tech startup ideas that I want to explore related to 3-D printing, said Teibel, an Albany resident halfway through his MBA program at Oregon State University. On Wednesday morning, Teibel was among a dozen entrepreneurs who attended the Oregon Regional Accelerator and Innovation Networks Startup Albany Meet-up, which was held at the Brick and Mortar Cafe downtown. The event aimed to connect innovators with government, higher education and industry business experts who could give them advice and help them succeed. Teibel, for example, chatted for a few minutes with John Pascone, president of the Albany-Millersburg Economic Development Corp. He said that he thought the meeting, RAINs first in Albany, was phenomenal. I had no idea there was these sorts of resources, Teibel said. And even though he attends OSU, he was surprised to know of the universitys Advantage Accelerator/RAIN Corvallis, which helps entrepreneurs create businesses. RAIN is a state and regionally funded consortium in Linn, Benton, Lane and Lincoln counties, and its goal is to advance entrepreneurship, which in turn will create jobs, wealth and opportunities in the region. Small businesses are the backbone of our community, said Linn County Commissioner Will Tucker, who attended the event. Cynthia Fischer of Albany has started her third company, the Curriculum Projects, a bilingual e-learning platform, and finished the OSU Advantage Accelerator program in the fall. But she attended the RAIN event to do more networking. I firmly believe in just showing up. You never know what opportunities are going to present themselves, she said. Fischer added that with her previous businesses, she was figuring things out as she went along. The OSU Advantage Accelerator helped greatly, including with putting together her financials for the Curriculum Projects. This way, its slower before you take the leap, but its less of a leap, as well, Fischer said. Adrienne Kume, owner of Merrime Bridal, and Heidi Gornik, owner of G2 Fun Zone, talked with a representative of Linn-Benton Community Colleges Small Business Development Center to see what classes it was offering. I dont think RAIN is for us, but just that somebody wanted to get business owners and entrepreneurs in Albany together is exciting, Kume said. RAIN has two more events planned for the near future in Albany. On April 5, people can learn how to launch a new venture in Albany and how to engage the citys startup activities during an event at Deluxe Brewing. On May 5, a startup seminar will be held as well. For more information about Rain go to www.oregonrain.org. HALSEY Samaritan Health Services plans to develop a Samaritan Ambulatory Mobile (SAM) Urgent Care medical facility on acreage adjacent to the Pioneer Villa Truck Plaza near the intersection of Interstate 5 and Highway 228. A proposal to amend the comprehensive plan and land development code will be heard by the Linn County Planning Commission at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, at the Old Armory Building, 104 S.W. Fourth Ave. Larry Mullins, president and CEO, said Samaritan Health Services has negotiated a long-term lease from the truck stop owners and future plans are to develop a 3,700-square-foot modular or stick-built medical building. But first, Samaritan plans to place a 800- to 1,200-square-foot mobile unit, much like its PET scanner mobile units that move from hospital to hospital site. Think of it as a mobile urgent care unit with large slide-outs that provide increased square footage once expanded. Its a unique situation, Mullins said. Its the first time weve done something like this and although there are some truck stops around the country that have medical facilities available, we dont know of any in Oregon that have utilized mobile and modular units. Mullins said the mobile unit can be positioned on site before summer and the modular unit would come later and be placed south of the truck stops restaurant. The mobile unit could then be moved wherever needed in the mid-valley, including the country music festivals in Sweet Home and Brownsville. He said the plan is to staff it with a full complement of medical service providers including physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, among others. It will probably be open 12 hours per day, but that will be adjusted based on need, Mullins said. It will operate much like our other Urgent Cares throughout the valley, but will also cater toward the truck-driving professional. We will offer annual physicals, drug testing and other tests required for their professional certification as well as general health care services. Mullins said Samaritan has been looking at the potential for this type of mobile unit for some time but has focused on it in the last year as they began to evaluate a site on the I-5 corridor. Theres a huge traffic flow on Interstate 5, and weve wanted to establish a presence there for a long time to meet the needs of that unique population and support our other communities, Mullins said. He said ambulance services will come from Lebanon, Brownsville and Albany based upon the patients needs. If demand is high enough, an ambulance could be sited at the facility. Were going to have great visibility from I-5, and we will have a digital presence on the big sign board there, Mullins said. If we need to, we can send someone to our hospitals in Lebanon, Albany or Corvallis. Mullins said services will be driven by the cases we see. He also said he hopes the facility can be operational by July, to service the crowds that come to the mid-valley to enjoy the Oregon Jamboree in Sweet Home and the Bi-Mart Willamette Country Music Festival in Brownsville. Mullins said the basic cost of the mobile unit is expected to be less than $500,000, which he said is a very efficient cost for that level of service. Our goal is to make this a one-stop shop for the health care needs of the professional driver and the general public, Mullins said. The modular unit will be designed to provide full X-ray imaging services and laboratory diagnostics. Were looking at this concept as a complement to our Urgent Care and clinic services to create more routine health care access and to be available for population surges or critical events should they occur. Mullins said. WASHINGTON On Thursday, Donald Trump called Pope Francis a pawn of the Mexican government and accused the leader of the worlds Catholics of disgraceful rhetoric. On Friday, he approvingly retold an apocryphal story about a U.S. general ordering Muslims shot with bullets dipped in pigs blood. On Saturday morning, he wondered on Twitter whether President Obama would have attended Justice Antonin Scalias funeral if it were held in a mosque. And yet, on Saturday night, Trump won the South Carolina primary, affirming him as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Are Republican voters really choosing as their standard-bearer a man who preaches such hatred and spews such vitriol? No, they arent at least not yet. But they may get Trump anyway. The good news is only 32.5 percent of South Carolina Republicans voted for Trump. The bad news: Trump may not need the support of a majority of Republican voters to secure the nomination. Five months ago, I wrote that I was so sure Trump wouldnt win the nomination that I would eat a column 18 inches of newsprint if he did. I argued that he wont prevail in the Republican primary because voters, in the end, tend to get it right. Trumps inability to rise above about 35 percent of the vote vindicates so far my faith in the voters. But even if that holds, I may be soliciting recipes for wood pulp anyway, because, given the three-way race emerging between Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, Trump could clinch the nomination with minority support. The Cook Political Report, handicappers par excellence, observed over the weekend that Trumps 35 percent ceiling of support could be enough to win a five-person race (including John Kasich and Ben Carson) and even enough to squeak out a victory in a three-way race. Cooks Dave Wasserman explained that 38 percent of the 2,472 Republican convention delegates are from winner-take-all contests, which means Trump can get them with a slim plurality of the vote. And in a number of the other states that award delegates proportionately, Cruz and Rubio are in danger of slipping below the 20 percent threshold required to get a share. This increases the odds that nobody will get the 1,237 needed, or that somebody will without winning a majority of votes. The long-awaited consolidation behind a consensus alternative to Trump has finally begun. Jeb Bush has joined Chris Christie on the sidelines, and Rubio, after his sound-bite disaster in New Hampshire, appears to have returned as the consensus anti-Trump. But Kasich remains, potentially denying Rubio a huge haul of delegates from Ohio on March 15. And while the primary map gives Cruz no plausible path (none of his strongest states is winner-take-all), Cruz can remain in the race and deny Rubio a clean shot at Trump. On Sunday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told ABCs George Stephanopoulos that it would be a no-brainer to support the nominee, even if its Trump. Winning is the antidote to a lot of things, he reasoned. An antidote to having a nominee who, echoing one of his supporters at a rally this month, called Cruz a vulgar name? To having a nominee who said in front of thousands that he would bomb the s- out of ISIS? Perhaps the most disturbing of Trumps latest outrages beyond lashing out at the pope or again implying that Obama is Muslim was his decision to validate a hateful Internet hoax. In South Carolina on Friday, Trump was defending torture (he said the United States should go much further than waterboarding) when he told a story of Gen. John Pershing, who allegedly dipped bullets in pigs blood before executing Muslim prisoners in the Philippines. He lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people, and the 50th person, he said, you go back to your people and you tell them what happened, Trump proclaimed. And for 25 years there wasnt a problem. Historians and others have found no substantiation for this allegation and plenty of evidence that Pershing wasnt that sort of man. When a Massachusetts state senator floated a version of the Pershing claim in 2003 in a flier, the Anti-Defamation League called it incendiary and bigoted and an offensive caricature of Muslim beliefs. And now, in 2016, the front-runner for the Republican nomination floats the same vile libel, and the chairman of the RNC says it would be a no-brainer to support him? The voters may yet get it right, but that doesnt mean the Republican Party will. If you will allow us to return one more time this month to the topic of the Oregon minimum wage, there is at least one point thats worth making again: The continuing machinations over whether (or, more precisely, how) Oregon should increase its minimum wage machinations which now include a new bit of legislative business offer yet another example of why complex measures such as this shouldnt be handled in a short session. You might have missed this weeks developments on the minimum wage. Let us summarize: A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Tuesday announced a plan that would have replaced the minimum wage increase that carried the Legislature last week and now awaits Gov. Kate Browns signature. As Republican Rep. Cliff Bentz of Ontario outlined the plan, it would have set a floor of $13.50 an hour for the Portland area, but would have given local officials the ability to set the wage higher, if they so chose. The plan would have raised wages in rural Oregon to $12.50 the same level as in the bill the Legislature passed last week. (As we understand it, the plan would have kept wages in so-called urban counties such as Linn and Benton at $13.50, the same level as in the bill passed last week.) But the alternative plan would have given sizable tax breaks to farmers, loggers and other industries, in the form of tax credits to nonprofits, businesses with fewer than 50 employers and certain manufacturers. In theory, explained Rep. Brian Clem, a Salem Democrat, higher tax revenues in the Portland area would help to pay for the tax credits. Its dramatically better than the bill the Legislature approved last week, Bentz said. It protects my area from economic devastation. (And, we would add, not just Bentzs area.) But by the end of Wednesday, lawmakers already had dropped their plans to fine-tune the Portland-area minimum wage, and were concentrating instead on the tax breaks for businesses. Brown said shed be willing to take a hard look at the tax breaks if they passed the Legislature and suggested that such breaks were part and parcel of the original negotiations she held to help craft her minimum wage proposal. We know what happened to that proposal after she submitted it to legislators: it got ripped into pieces and refashioned into the three-tiered system the Legislature passed last week. The tax breaks and the revised minimum wage for the Portland area are interesting ideas, worthy of greater exploration. And they would have received that exploration in a longer session, where ideas have the time and space to jostle and compete and bounce off each other and where all the parties to legislation, including the public, can examine them. Instead, weve seen this session pushing through at least two pieces of major legislation, under the reasoning that the Legislature needed to act now to forestall dangerous ballot measures. The argument boils down to this: We need to push through bad policy in a hurried, rushed manner in order to stop even worse policy from being enacted by the voters at the ballot. That is not an argument designed to encourage confidence in voters. We still think Oregon is too big and complex an operation for the Legislature to manage in every-other-year sessions. But surely there is a better alternative than a session that almost assuredly ensures bad decisions will be made under the tightest of time constraints, with limited opportunities for public review. (mm) Brussels (AFP) - Greece furiously recalled its ambassador from Austria and Brussels warned the bloc's migration system could collapse within 10 days as Europe's refugee crisis neared breaking point on Thursday. Further chaos loomed as a French court approved the partial evacuation of the "Jungle" migrant camp near the port of Calais on the coast, a move that Belgium fears will send Britain-bound migrants coming its way. Attempts by EU interior ministers meeting in Brussels to agree a unified response to the biggest migration crisis in the bloc's history frayed over the fact that many states are increasingly taking matters into their own hands. The talks descended into acrimony over Austria's decision to freeze Greece out of a meeting earlier this week with Balkan states, at which they agreed steps that would effectively trap many asylum seekers on Greek territory. Debt-stricken Greece -- the main landing point for most migrants arriving in Europe from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries -- faces huge pressure to stop "waving through" migrants to the rest of the EU. The Greek foreign ministry hit out at what it called "19th-century" attitudes and said it was recalling its envoy from Vienna to "safeguard friendly relations between the states and peoples of Greece and Austria". - 'Warehouse of souls' - Greek Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas meanwhile said his country "will not accept becoming Europe's Lebanon, a warehouse of souls" -- referring to the huge number of Syrian refugees Lebanon has taken since 2011. The migration crisis shows no signs of abating with 100,000 arriving in Europe so far this year on top of one million in 2015, with most of them coming via Turkey across the Aegean Sea to the Greek islands. EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said the bloc's migration system could crumble if the number of migrants does not fall by the time EU leaders hold a crucial summit with Turkey in Brussels on March 7. Story continues Europe's passport-free Schengen zone has been cracking under the pressure of several countries reintroducing border controls, while the EU system stipulating that refugees must claim asylum in their country of arrival is increasingly ignored. "In the next 10 days, we need tangible and clear results on the ground. Otherwise there is a risk that the whole system will completely break down," Avramopoulos said. "The possibility of a humanitarian crisis is very real and very near." Avramopoulos urged EU states to avoid "unilateral actions", such as recent caps on asylum seeker numbers brought in by Austria, which have left thousands of refugees stranded between member states. But Austria and the Balkan states insist they need to act because the EU's plans are not working and Greece is not doing enough. "If it is really the case that the Greek external border cannot be protected, can it be still a Schengen external border?" Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said. - Calais 'jungle' part-closed - In France, a court gave the green light to plans to evacuate hundreds of migrants from the notorious "Jungle" camp in Calais, a process the mayor said would take place over the next three weeks. Many migrants want to stay near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, the gateway to their ultimate goal of Britain, and Calais town authorities said that no-one will be evacuated from the "Jungle" by force. Belgium has decided to impose checks at the border with France to stop people coming from the Calais camp, a decision that French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Thursday branded "strange". Meanwhile in northern Greece, hundreds of migrants and refugees left an accommodation camp to walk to the distant border with Macedonia, days after Skopje slashed the number of people it allows through each day. "They are mainly youths... they do not want to wait for buses to pick them up... neither the army nor the police can stop them because there is the risk of (violence)," Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris said. The European Commission said separately it failed to "understand" Hungary's decision to hold a referendum on mandatory quotas for refugees that the bloc agreed last year. So far only 598 people have been relocated from frontline states Greece and Italy, out of a planned 160,000. In a positive development, NATO on Thursday managed to overcome sharp differences between long-time rivals Greece and Turkey to finalise an unprecedented naval mission to tackle migrant smugglers in the Aegean. LIMA (Reuters) - A special electoral board in Peru on Wednesday opted not to bar "outsider" Julio Guzman from April elections for president, setting the stage for a likely tight battle between him and longtime front-runner Keiko Fujimori. The country's National Jury of Elections had blocked Guzman's centrist party from this year's elections because it broke a series of technical rules, which threatened to disqualify him. But the Special Jury of Elections, tasked with approving candidates, said Guzman's party amended the errors and was now enrolled. It also cited Guzman's constitutional right to participate in elections. Guzman, a 45-year-old economist who climbed rapidly to second place on pledges to take the country back from a corrupt political elite, celebrated the decision from the highland region of Cusco where he campaigned for the coveted rural vote. "It's amazing I got the news in Anta, where my grandmother was born," Guzman said amid cheering supporters dressed in his party's signature purple. "It's beautiful, very exciting." Guzman, unknown to most voters months ago, has tapped a well of support from Peruvians looking for someone new in a race dominated by well-known but unpopular politicians. He was the only candidate seen as virtually tying Fujimori in a likely June runoff, an Ipsos poll showed Sunday. Fujimori's backing in a first-round vote slipped three points. Fujimori, the rightwing daughter of jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori, enjoys a double-digit lead over Guzman but is not expected to garner enough votes to win outright April 10. The legal dispute over Guzman's candidacy, which dragged on for nearly a month, likely boosted his bid. He used the ample media coverage to rail against the "status quo" that he said was pulling strings to keep him from office. However, his critics will likely cite the electoral board's qualms with his party to argue Guzman was given unfair advantage. The board had said his party changed its statutes in an assembly without enough advance notice and necessary party members. Guzman had said he would summon mass protests if needed to ensure a place in elections. Guzman worked for the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington for a decade and was briefly an official in President Ollanta Humala's government. Humala cannot run for a second straight term and his candidate is trailing in polls. Guzman has proposed ramping up infrastructure spending and changing the mandate of the central bank to make jobs a priority. (Reporting by Mitra Taj and Marco Aquino; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) Ankara (AFP) - Saudi jets are due to arrive at a Turkish base this week take part in the air campaign against Islamic State jihadists in Syria, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday. "We are expecting the planes to arrive today or tomorrow (Friday)," Cavusoglu told the state-run Anatolia news agency, adding that Saudi equipment and personnel had already arrived on the ground. The planes are to be stationed at the Incirlik base, which is already hosting US, British and French war planes taking part in the strikes against IS fighters in Syria. Private NTV television said four Saudi F-15 jets would arrive at Incirlik on Friday. It said that 30 ground personnel and equipment had already arrived aboard C-130 Hercules military transport planes on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia and Turkey both see the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as essential for ending Syria's five-year civil war and are bitterly critical of Iran and Russia's support of the Syrian regime. The two overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim powers have in recent months moved to considerably tighten relations that had been damaged by Riyadh's role in the 2013 ousting of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, a close ally of Ankara. Ankara has said it is in favour of a ground operation in Syria, but only if it is conducted in coordination with Saudi Arabia and other Western and Gulf members of the anti-IS coalition. "We have since the beginning argued for the necessity of ground operations and all kinds of strategic moves to be carried out in addition to the air campaign," Cavusoglu said. By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - A major wind and snow storm downed power lines, closed highways and schools and grounded hundreds of flights over a wide swath of the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday. Blizzard and winter storm warnings were in effect until Thursday morning for parts of Indiana, Michigan and Illinois as the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted as much as 13 inches (33 cm) of snow and winds of up to 50 miles per hour (80 km per hour). "That's creating a lot of blowing and drifting snow and creating very hazardous travel conditions," said Chuck Schaffer, a meteorologist with the NWS in Illinois. Some 860 flights were canceled on Wednesday at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The NWS predicted as much as 10 inches (26 cm) of heavy snow and strong gusts in the Chicago area during the afternoon commute and into the evening. "This will create a wind-whipped snow that will reduce visibilities to near zero, making travel dangerous if not nearly impossible at the height of the storm," it said in an advisory. The Illinois Department of Transportation reported downed power lines and several crashes on state highways and warned motorists blowing snow and slick roads will make for treacherous conditions. Hundreds of schools in the Chicago area, northwest Indiana and southern Michigan canceled after-school activities and classes on Thursday. The storm left about 38,000 households without power in the St. Louis area while a downed power line diverted traffic from a portion of interstate I-270 southwest of the city for seven hours on Wednesday. The highway has since reopened, according to local media. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said state offices in the lower part of the state would close Wednesday afternoon. I encourage all Michiganders to ... put safety first, especially while driving and heating their homes," he said in a statement. State officials in Michigan said emergency water operations will continue through the storm in Flint, a city that has gained national attention for high lead levels in its drinking water. Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, however, canceled a town hall meeting on Thursday to discuss the water crisis. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by James Dalgleish and Lisa Shumaker) Beirut (AFP) - The UN's Syria envoy said the war-battered country is facing a "crucial day" ahead of a deadline of midnight Friday for a partial truce brokered by Moscow and Washington. President Bashar al-Assad's regime and Syria's top opposition grouping have said they will abide by the ceasefire plan, but it has been plagued by doubts after the failure of previous peace efforts. The deal -- which excludes the Islamic State jihadist group and other extremists -- marks the biggest diplomatic push yet to help end Syria's violence. "Tomorrow is going to be a very important, I will say a crucial day," UN envoy Staffan de Mistura told reporters at the UN's European headquarters in Geneva. Members of the 17-nation group backing Syria's peace process are to meet in Geneva Friday to work out further details of the agreement, which is then expected to be endorsed by the UN Security Council. There are a hopes a successful ceasefire will lead to the resumption of peace talks that collapsed in Geneva earlier this month. De Mistura said he will meet journalists around the time the ceasefire is due to take affect "to assess where we are and indicate also the information regarding the resumption of Geneva talks." The agreement allows military action to continue against IS, which seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, as well as against Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front and other jihadist groups. The complexities of Syria's battlefields -- where moderate rebels often fight alongside jihadist groups like Al-Nusra -- have cast serious doubt on whether the ceasefire effort will succeed. Turkey's position towards Syrian Kurdish forces is another potential spoiler, and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday that Ankara would not be bound by the ceasefire if its national security is threatened. "It must be known that the ceasefire is valid in Syria," Davutoglu said in televised remarks. "When it is a question of Turkey's security, then the ceasefire is not binding for us." Story continues - Obama 'very cautious' - Turkey has shelled Kurdish forces in northern Syria, saying the army was responding to incoming fire. Ankara regards the main Kurdish militia in Syria, the People's Protection Units (YPG), as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. A YPG spokesman said Thursday that Kurdish forces would respect the ceasefire but would fight back if attacked. "We, the People's Protection Units (YPG), give great importance to the process of cessation of hostilities announced by the United States and Russia and we will respect it, while retaining the right to retaliate... if we are attacked," YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said on his Facebook page. Moscow and Washington announced the new date for a ceasefire this week after a previous deadline passed without any changes on the ground. Russia and the United States are on opposing sides of the conflict, with Moscow backing Assad and Washington supporting the opposition, but the two powers have been making a concerted push for the ceasefire to be respected. Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to do "whatever is necessary" to ensure the ceasefire is respected, although US President Barack Obama on Wednesday sounded a note of caution. "We are very cautious about raising expectations on this," Obama said. "If, over the next several weeks we can see some lessening of the violence... then that provides a basis for a longer-term ceasefire... and allows us to move forward to a political transition that ultimately is going to be necessary to bring an end to the civil war," Obama said. - 'High hopes' for aid - The United Nations has managed to boost aid ahead of the ceasefire deadline and expressed optimism on Thursday of more deliveries. Jan Egeland, a special advisor to De Mistura, said Thursday that more than 180 trucks filled with aid had reached six areas under siege from different sides in the past two weeks. They have brought assistance to just under a quarter of the 480,000 people estimated to be living in 17 besieged places across Syria. Egeland said permission had been requested to bring aid to besieged parts of Aleppo, Homs and Eastern Ghouta, all hotspots in the country's conflict. "We have high hopes that we will be able to get through to these places," he said. On Wednesday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) carried out its first humanitarian airdrop in Syria to try to help civilians stuck in the city of Deir Ezzor, but Egeland acknowledged the attempt had run into "problems". The WFP said that of 21 food pallets dropped, 10 remained unaccounted for, four were destroyed and the remaining seven landed in areas where they could not be accessed. Washington (AFP) - The United States and China have agreed on a UN resolution on North Korea's nuclear "provocations," the White House announced Wednesday, with diplomats saying it would include fresh sanctions and could go to a Security Council vote soon. Diplomats at UN headquarters in New York said Washington and Beijing, Pyongyang's main backer, had agreed on a draft resolution that contained "very tough measures." The United States circulated the draft text to the other three permanent council members -- Britain, France and Russia -- on Wednesday and was set to formally present it to the full 15-member council soon, said the diplomats, who asked not to be named. Negotiations on the draft resolution began six weeks ago after North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test on January 6, claiming it had successfully developed a thermonuclear device. During a meeting at the White House Wednesday, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed "on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through a UN Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions," said a statement from National Security Council spokesman Ned Price. "They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," added the statement. Underscoring the importance that the US placed on the negotiations, the statement said that President Barack Obama dropped in on the meeting. - 'Significantly substantive text' - The announcement came despite substantial and very public disagreement between the US and China on the best way to handle North Korea. China wants its reclusive neighbor to halt its nuclear weapons program and return to six-party international talks, but it has insisted that dialogue is the only way to curb Pyongyang's behavior. The biggest obstacle to talks, it argues, is Washington's stubborn insistence that it will not sit down with North Korea until the country takes steps towards denuclearization. Story continues Washington, on the other hand, insists that China, which is one of Pyongyang's biggest trading partners, should pressure the intransigent country into behaving better. Beijing, however, fears that too much pressure could trigger the collapse of the pariah regime, creating a political and humanitarian crisis on its border and removing a buffer against US troops currently stationed in South Korea. "There were a significant number of blockage points" between the United States and China, a Security Council diplomat said, adding that now "there is agreement." "There is good progress on the resolution and we are hopeful that there will be an adoption in the coming days," the diplomat said. One diplomat described the draft resolution as a "significantly substantive text", while another said it contained "a large number of very tough measures," as well as names to be added to the sanctions black list. However, it stopped short of the strongest measures proposed by the United States, which had met with strong resistance from China. - Xi to attend nuclear summit - The council has imposed four sets of sanctions on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006. After North Korea carried out a rocket launch on February 6, the Security Council renewed its pledge to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang. There are 20 North Korean entities and 12 individuals on the UN sanctions blacklist, which provides for an assets freeze and a global travel ban. But a UN panel of experts said this month that sanctions had failed to prevent Pyongyang from scaling up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. After a decade of sanctions, the panel said, it found "no indications that the country intends to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs." "There are serious questions about the efficacy of the current United Nations sanctions regime," the experts said in a confidential report. The White House statement added that Obama joined the meeting between Rice and Yi "to underscore his interest in building a durable, constructive, and productive US-China relationship." The US leader also said he looked forward to welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping to a March 31-April 1 nuclear security summit in Washington and "working together towards its success," the statement said. Senate Confirms New FDA Commissioner "I look forward to working with Dr. Califf to ensure the FDA can carry out every aspect of its critical mission, from ensuring the safety and effectiveness of the medical products we use to protecting the nation's food supply and implementing its oversight of tobacco products, to furthering our efforts to combat opioid abuse," HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said in a statement. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a new commissioner, Dr. Robert Califf, following U.S. Senate confirmation of the nominee on Feb. 24. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell praised the confirmation and congratulated Califf in a statement: "I commend the Senate for their bipartisan vote today and am pleased that President Obama's nominee, Dr. Robert Califf, will become the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Califf is the right person with the right experience to build on the FDA's unsurpassed record of protecting public health while encouraging innovation and the introduction of new life-saving therapies to the market," Burwell said in the statement. "I look forward to working with Dr. Califf to ensure the FDA can carry out every aspect of its critical mission, from ensuring the safety and effectiveness of the medical products we use to protecting the nations food supply and implementing its oversight of tobacco products, to furthering our efforts to combat opioid abuse. Dr. Califf's life in medicine and research has positively impacted the lives of many Americans, and as the new head of the FDA, he will be able to improve the lives of many more. "I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Steve Ostroff for serving as acting commissioner. He has provided important leadership and a steady hand as the FDA has continued its important work. I am grateful for his willingness to serve and look forward to continuing our work together through the remainder of the administration," she added. Ostroff, the acting administrator, also praised the new commissioner in a statement of his own: "Today the U.S. Senate voted in support of the confirmation of Dr. Robert Califf, M.D. to be Commissioner of U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Califf has demonstrated a long and deep commitment to advancing the public health throughout his distinguished career as a physician, researcher, and leader in the fields of science and medicine. He understands well the critical role that the FDA plays in responding to the changes in our society while protecting and promoting the health of the public, across the many areas we regulate and I am confident that our public health and scientific contributions will further grow under his exceptional leadership." A nurse takes a blood sample to test for dengue fever, in a medical tent in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil May 7, 2015. REUTERS/Roosevelt Cassio Tropical infectious diseases have had a grip on the globe long before Zika hit the spotlight. Take dengue, another mosquito-borne infection that sickens as many as 400 million people a year. It happens in many of the same places where Zika is now spreading. There's a commercial vaccine that's now available for dengue, but it still isn't available to everyone who needs it. In December, the company developing it, global pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, got approval to distribute its dengue vaccine in some of the areas that need it the most. Sanofi is also one of many companies hot on the trail of a possible Zika vaccine. Business Insider spoke with Sanofi's Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Gary Nabel, about why the road ahead is so challenging. Nabel said part of the problem is, ironically, that attention on Zika has turned us away from the need to address other tropical diseases like dengue. Read on to find out more about what's next for the company and the world. The problem with focusing on Zika With all the attention turning to Zika, similar diseases have taken a back seat. One of the reasons Zika has drawn so much concern is because it has been linked with birth defects in babies whose mothers have had Zika symptoms. It's also been suggested that there may be a link between Zika and a neurological condition called Guillain-Barre Syndrome. But that doesn't mean concern for dengue should go away. "By no means has dengue diminished," Nabel said. "It's just as prevalent as it's been the past few years." "By no means has dengue diminished. It's just as prevalent as it's been the past few years." That's especially true when thinking ahead to the 2016 summer Olympics, which are being held in Rio de Janeiro in August. "I think for example were I going to Brazil and I were an athlete in the Olympic games, I'd have as much cause to worry, maybe more cause to worry [about dengue] at least in the immediate term." Zika, which typically has low-level symptoms like fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes if they occur at all, likely aren't as debilitating as dengue, which can develop into more serious symptoms including severe bleeding and trouble breathing. Story continues "If you get dengue when you're trying to compete, I doubt you're going to do much of anything," he said. That, or even just some of the other microbes hanging out in Brazilian water, "Those are real challenges." Another concerning virus The dengue virus causes flu-like symptoms that can develop into a more serious and deadly infection. There are four types of the virus, or "serotypes," that cause dengue. Contracting one type of the virus gives you immunity over that specific type for life, but immunity to the three other types is only partial and temporary. It's endemic in much of Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, which is why Sanofi chose to launch its vaccine in those areas first. "When these outbreaks get into full swing, the hospitals essentially become completely flooded," Nabel said. "The capacity in many of these countries is limited, and it's quite possible that if you have a car accident or a bike accident, they go into a hospital and they won't get treated because there's no place to put them." Sanofi officially launched its dengue vaccine in the Philippines on Monday, with plans to produce 100 million of them per year. And researchers are already seeing promising results. So far in trials, the vaccine has reduced 80% of hospitalizations linked with dengue and 93% of severe dengue cases. Important lessons to fight Zika Nabel has a long history of developing vaccines. He headed up the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health, where he helped to make a West Nile virus vaccine. What makes Zika interesting to him is that it seems to not have a lot of variety. That's different from dengue, which has those four serotypes, and viral infections like HIV that have a large amount of diversity. What will be interesting to see as the virus unfolds is how it spreads with West Nile, the reason the vaccine development never went all the way was because the disease moved quickly from one area to the next. Group Leader, Dr Masafumi Inoue of Agency for Science Technology and Research's (A*STAR) Experimental Therapeutics Centre holds up a sample to be tested with the Zika virus diagnostic test kit at their laboratory in Singapore, February 10, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su "As a virologist, I'm not sure I've ever met a virus that I don't like," he said. "I think you're much better off if you can avoid infection, and as much as I marvel at the genetic simplicity and the way these viruses can succeed in nature, as one of their potential hosts, I think if you can avoid it altogether I would." Nabel said Sanofi, which is working on a Zika vaccine, is in a good spot because of the work they've done on the dengue vaccine. But for Zika, he said, it might be time for pharmaceutical companies to take a different approach to vaccines. "We have to work with our colleagues in the public health arena, and we have to work with our colleagues in the regulatory area. Because maybe we do have to start thinking a little bit differently." That's especially important to the US government's Zika vaccine timeline, which aims to get a vaccine together in under three years. "We can't do business as usual." NOW WATCH: Scientists say this may be the best exercise for your brain health More From Business Insider Greece furiously recalled its ambassador from Austria and Brussels warned the bloc's migration system could collapse within 10 days as Europe's refugee crisis neared breaking point on Thursday. Further chaos loomed as a French court approved the partial evacuation of the "Jungle" migrant camp near the port of Calais on the coast, a move that Belgium fears will send Britain-bound migrants coming its way. Attempts by EU interior ministers meeting in Brussels to agree a unified response to the biggest migration crisis in the bloc's history frayed over the fact that many states are increasingly taking matters into their own hands. The talks descended into acrimony over Austria's decision to freeze Greece out of a meeting earlier this week with Balkan states, at which they agreed steps that would effectively trap many asylum seekers on Greek territory. Debt-stricken Greece -- the main landing point for most migrants arriving in Europe from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries -- faces huge pressure to stop "waving through" migrants to the rest of the EU. The Greek foreign ministry hit out at what it called "19th-century" attitudes and said it was recalling its envoy from Vienna to "safeguard friendly relations between the states and peoples of Greece and Austria". - 'Warehouse of souls' - Greek Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas meanwhile said his country "will not accept becoming Europe's Lebanon, a warehouse of souls" -- referring to the huge number of Syrian refugees Lebanon has taken since 2011. The migration crisis shows no signs of abating with 100,000 arriving in Europe so far this year on top of one million in 2015, with most of them coming via Turkey across the Aegean Sea to the Greek islands. EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said the bloc's migration system could crumble if the number of migrants does not fall by the time EU leaders hold a crucial summit with Turkey in Brussels on March 7. Europe's passport-free Schengen zone has been cracking under the pressure of several countries reintroducing border controls, while the EU system stipulating that refugees must claim asylum in their country of arrival is increasingly ignored. "In the next 10 days, we need tangible and clear results on the ground. Otherwise there is a risk that the whole system will completely break down," Avramopoulos said. "The possibility of a humanitarian crisis is very real and very near." Avramopoulos urged EU states to avoid "unilateral actions", such as recent caps on asylum seeker numbers brought in by Austria, which have left thousands of refugees stranded between member states. But Austria and the Balkan states insist they need to act because the EU's plans are not working and Greece is not doing enough. "If it is really the case that the Greek external border cannot be protected, can it be still a Schengen external border?" Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said. - Calais 'jungle' part-closed - In France, a court gave the green light to plans to evacuate hundreds of migrants from the notorious "Jungle" camp in Calais, a process the mayor said would take place over the next three weeks. Many migrants want to stay near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, the gateway to their ultimate goal of Britain, and Calais town authorities said that no-one will be evacuated from the "Jungle" by force. Belgium has decided to impose checks at the border with France to stop people coming from the Calais camp, a decision that French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Thursday branded "strange". Meanwhile in northern Greece, hundreds of migrants and refugees left an accommodation camp to walk to the distant border with Macedonia, days after Skopje slashed the number of people it allows through each day. "They are mainly youths... they do not want to wait for buses to pick them up... neither the army nor the police can stop them because there is the risk of (violence)," Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris said. The European Commission said separately it failed to "understand" Hungary's decision to hold a referendum on mandatory quotas for refugees that the bloc agreed last year. So far only 598 people have been relocated from frontline states Greece and Italy, out of a planned 160,000. In a positive development, NATO on Thursday managed to overcome sharp differences between long-time rivals Greece and Turkey to finalise an unprecedented naval mission to tackle migrant smugglers in the Aegean. (The following statement was released by the rating agency) SYDNEY, February 25 (Fitch) Fitch Ratings has affirmed Malaysia-based Petroliam Nasional Berhad's (PETRONAS) Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at 'A', and its Short-Term Foreign-Currency IDR at 'F1'. The Outlook on the Long-Term IDRs remains Stable. At the same time, Fitch has affirmed PETRONAS' foreign currency senior unsecured rating at 'A', including debt issued by PETRONAS Capital Limited and guaranteed by PETRONAS. KEY RATING DRIVERS Ratings Constrained by Sovereign: PETRONAS' Foreign- and Local-Currency IDRs are constrained by Malaysia's Country Ceiling and Local-Currency IDR, respectively. PETRONAS is 100%-owned by Malaysia and the government can exert significant influence over its operating and financial policies. Foreign-Currency IDR at Country Ceiling: Fitch believes that PETRONAS' importance in generating foreign currency for Malaysia warrants a foreign-currency rating at Malaysia's Country Ceiling of 'A' which is higher than Malaysia's Foreign Currency IDR of 'A-'. PETRONAS' Foreign-Currency IDR will continue to be rated at Malaysia's Country Ceiling provided the company continues to maintain its strong standalone financial profile, without material deterioration, after satisfying its financial commitments to the state. Malaysia has helped PETRONAS by reducing its expected dividends in the current low oil price environment which meaningfully benefits the company's expected financial profile. Standalone Profile, Lower Headroom: Despite weakened oil and gas prices, PETRONAS continues to maintain a strong standalone credit profile assessed by Fitch at 'AA-'. The rating headroom for its standalone profile has, however, weakened due to pressure on operating cash generation from sustained low oil prices, and expected slow recovery of prices over the forecast period, despite the aforesaid reduction in dividends. Its rating also benefits from material capex and opex savings announced by the company totalling MYR50bn through 2020. Lower Dividend Supports Rating: Fitch expects lower dividend payment of MYR16bn in 2016, down from MYR26bn in 2015 and MYR29bn in 2014. With this reduction in dividends, Fitch expects PETRONAS' to have the ability to meet a majority of its capex from internal cash generation notwithstanding the weaker operating cash generation from low commodities prices. However, in Fitch's view, PETRONAS will continue to make sizeable contributions to the government's revenue. Any sustained reduction in its dividend payments remains predicated on the government's policy and its financial requirements given the government's reliance on PETRONAS for state revenues. Significant Medium-Term Capex: In January 2016, PETRONAS announced spending cuts of MYR50bn over the next four years. Fitch, however, expects PETRONAS' capex programme to remain significant, including material capex on the liquefaction/production facilities associated with its Canadian joint venture, Pacific NorthWest LNG project and the downstream Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Malaysia. A conditional final investment decision on the Pacific NorthWest LNG project was made on 11 June 2015, which is still pending the receipt of final environmental approval. Its funding needs associated with this venture depend on any further reduction in PETRONAS' stake in the project, which currently stands at 62%. It is unclear if PETRONAS will be able to involve additional equity partners for this project given the weaknesses in oil and gas prices. The sponsors may, however, reassess the feasibility and timing of this project given the significant weakening in oil and gas prices. The USD16bn RAPID project consists of a refinery, naphtha cracker plant and other petrochemical facilities; the commissioning of the refinery is expected in early 2019 and associated petrochemical plants to be done in a phased manner. Other facilities associated with the RAPID project, covering electrical and water supplies, LNG import terminal and a regasification terminal, will require an additional capex of USD11bn. Near-Term Negative Free Cash Flows: Fitch expects PETRONAS' free cash flows to remain weak, reflecting the expected slow recovery of oil prices, high committed capex and dividends payments. PETRONAS' financial flexibility, however, remains strong benefitting from lower dividend payment in 2015 and 2016 as well as low funding costs achieved in its USD5bn bond issuance in March 2015. The company also had material cash balances of MYR125bn at 30 September 2015, and was in a net cash position given its relatively low indebtedness of MYR63bn. Its leverage, as measured by funds from operations (FFO)-adjusted net leverage, was negative at 0.7x (a net cash position), and its FFO interest coverage was at 49x for 2014. KEY ASSUMPTIONS - Oil price based on Fitch's Brent price deck of USD33/barrel (bbl) in 2016, USD45/bbl in 2017 and USD55/bbl in 2018 - Dividend payment of MYR26bn in 2015 and MYR16bn in 2016 - Capex of MYR60bn in 2015 and then average MYR50bn in 2016 to 2018 RATING SENSITIVITIES Positive: Future developments that may, individually or collectively, lead to positive rating action include: - Upgrade of Malaysia's Foreign- and Local-Currency IDRs and its Country Ceiling. Negative: Future developments that may, individually or collectively, lead to negative rating action include: - Downgrade of Malaysia's Local-Currency IDR and its Country Ceiling. - Government's policies and financial requirements on the company, leading to a sustained deterioration of PETRONAS' currently very strong standalone credit profile will result in the company's Long-Term Foreign-Currency IDR being downgraded to the same level as the Foreign-Currency IDR of Malaysia. For the sovereign rating of Malaysia, the following sensitivities were outlined by Fitch in its Rating Action Commentary of 23 February 2016: The Stable Outlooks reflect Fitch's assessment that upside and downside risks to the ratings are current broadly balanced. The main factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to a negative rating action are: - A sustained deterioration in fiscal discipline and the public finances leading to a sharper rise in government debt ratios than Fitch currently expects - Further weakening of the balance of payments that strains domestic economic and/or financial stability - Deterioration in political stability or governance that lead to a weakening of credibility of policy-making institutions The main factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to a positive rating action are: - Sustained reductions in government debt ratios - Narrowing of structural weaknesses relative to peers, including development indicators and governance LIQUIDITY: PETRONAS' liquidity remains strong, as reflected in net cash balances against balance sheet debt as at 30 September 2015. Contact: Primary Analyst Sajal Kishore Director +612 8256 0321 Fitch Australia Pty Ltd., Level 15, 77 King Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Secondary Analyst Isabelle Katsumata Director +65 6796 7226 Committee Chairperson Buddhika Piyasena Senior Director +65 6796 7223 Media Relations: Leni Vu, Sydney, Tel: +61 2 8256 0304, Email: leni.vu@fitchratings.com. Additional information is available on www.fitchratings.com. 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IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEBSITE 'WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM'. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE 'CODE OF CONDUCT' SECTION OF THIS SITE. FITCH MAY HAVE PROVIDED ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE SERVICE TO THE RATED ENTITY OR ITS RELATED THIRD PARTIES. DETAILS OF THIS SERVICE FOR RATINGS FOR WHICH THE LEAD ANALYST IS BASED IN AN EU-REGISTERED ENTITY CAN BE FOUND ON THE ENTITY SUMMARY PAGE FOR THIS ISSUER ON THE FITCH WEBSITE. Nigeria's troops have a foiled a planned Boko Haram attack on a camp of displaced people in the northeastern town of Dikwa, previously targeted by the insurgents, the military said. "From all indications, the terrorists aimed at causing havoc at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp located at Dikwa," army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman said in a statement late Wednesday. He said security forces "decisively dealt with the terrorists", killing 26 of the Islamist fighters and seizing weapons and ammunition. One soldier and a local vigilante assisting the military in the fight against Boko Haram were killed, he said. Usman said three soldiers and four IDPs were injured in the encounter, adding that anti-aircraft guns, assault rifles and explosives were among the weaponry recovered. "The casualties have since been evacuated while the troops have been pursuing those terrorists that escaped with gunshot wounds," he said. Boko Haram, which has increasingly used suicide and bomb attacks as the military pushes them out of territories it once controlled, has previously hit Dikwa, some 90 kilometres (50 miles) from Maiduguri, the birthplace of the sect. On February 9, two female suicide bombers attacked the IDP camp in Dikwa, killing at least 58 people. Boko Haram, which is allied to the so-called Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, wants to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria. At least 17,000 people have been killed since 2009 and 2.6 million forced from them homes in violence that has increasingly hit Nigeria's neighbours Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Four people were killed when an improvised explosive device seized from Boko Haram Islamists detonated at a police station in northeast Nigeria, a rescue official said on Thursday. "They were all police officers," the Adamawa state coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Sa'ad Bello, told AFP by telephone. "Five or six" others sustained minor injuries and were treated in different hospitals but later discharged, he added. The blast in the Jimeta area of the state capital, Yola, happened at 11:30 am (1030 GMT) and sparked fears of another attack by Boko Haram. The Islamist insurgents have attacked the city before and have targeted police stations and government buildings across the northeast. But Adamawa police spokesman Othman Abubakar said: "There was an accidental explosion in an armoury manned by our bomb squad". He said the device "killed one officer and mildly injured others". He was not immediately available to comment on the higher death toll. "Contrary to speculation, the explosion had nothing to do with any sabotage or attack. We have recovered lots of explosives from these troubled areas," Abubakar added. "Usually we screen them and store them for safe-keeping. We don't know what happened. Possibly this wasn't screened properly." Aliyu Maikano, an official with the Nigerian Red Cross, said the blast "wrought massive destruction on the building" and sparked a fire. Security personnel kept rescue workers at a safe distance because of fears of further explosions, he added. On November 17 last year, at least 34 people were killed and 80 others injured when an IED went off at a lorry park in the Jambutu area of the city. At least 27 people were killed and 96 wounded in a blast at a Jambutu mosque on October 23. Another home-made bomb left at a camp for people displaced by the conflict in Malkohi, just outside Yola, killed seven on September 11. The insurgency has left at least 17,000 people dead since it began in 2009 but over the last year a sustained counter-insurgency has recaptured territory lost to the rebels. The group has since reverted to attacks on "soft" civilian targets such as markets, bus stations and mosques using suicide bombers and IEDs. By Agnieszka Barteczko BIALOWIEZA, Poland (Reuters) - Bialowieza Forest sprawls across the border between Poland and Belarus, occupying almost 580 square miles of woodland and providing a home to bison, boars, beavers - and beetles. The beetles are a problem. The bark beetle, or Ips typgraphus, eats spruce trees, which make up a fair amount of the forest. Quite a few beetles showed up in 2012, and they're still in the forest, gnawing on the spruces. Polish foresters who live and work in Bialowieza say they have a solution: let them cut down more spruce trees than they're currently allotted, to save the rest. They hope Poland's environmental minister will agree. Environmental campaigners are furious, the European Commission is displeased and UNESCO is unhappy, since it has listed Bialowieza - the last primeval forest in Europe - as a World Heritage site. But previous decisions by the environmental minister, Jan Szyszko, suggest he will side with the foresters. Around a sixth of the forest in Poland is a national park, where trees cannot be cut. The rest is operated by three forest units, supervised by the state-owned National Forest Holding, which takes an economic view of trees. "The minister sees the forest as a wood depot," said Robert Cyglicki, the head of Greenpeace Polska. The environmentalists say any interference with nature in Bialowieza will do irreparable damage. They also say cutting down the trees wouldn't do much to control the beetles. Those opposed to more cutting point out Ips typgraphus shows up regularly - there have been eight infestations since the end of the nineteen century. By killing spruces, they let in more sunlight, so other trees can grow. The dead trees also provide food and nesting sites for various insects and plants. "The forest is not dying because of the beetles, as some believe," Bogdan Jaroszewicz, a biologist at Warsaw University, and Jerzy Gutowski from the Forest Research Institute, said in a joint report. "The recent outbreak, just as the previous ones, corrects the unnaturally high share of spruce in the treestands." Some in the local communities agree with that. A growing number oppose expanding the logging, and they plan to send a letter, signed by 400 people, to the prime minister calling for the forest protection. NASTY INFESTATION On the other hand, many in the local communities say the environmentalists are attacking their way of life and the source of their livelihood. And it's true the latest infestation is the worst in decades. Almost half a million trees are affected over 4,000 hectares, out of the 52,000 looked after by foresters. "My heart hurts when I look at the forest as it is now," said Krystyna Cieslak, a Bialowieza resident. "I don't think I have seen anything like that before." Besides losing the forest, the foresters fear losing their jobs. About 140 of them work in the three forest units in the area, earning an average 5,100 zlotys ($1,285) a month. They have already harvested almost all the 63,000 cubic metres they were granted for 2012-21. They want that increased threefold, to 188,000 cubic metres. "We are obliged by law to protect the forest from the beetle," said Krzysztof Zamojski, a Bialowieza councillor and a forester. Szyszko, the environmental minister, is no stranger to environmental controversy. He has expressed doubts that global warming is man-made, and he backed building a motorway across the protected area of the Rospuda River in northeastern Poland when he was last minister. But Brussels has told Poland "substantial harvesting is likely to be problematic under EU nature protection legislation". UNESCO has said, "Only two sites have ever been removed from the World Heritage List and it is premature, from our point of view, to discuss such an extreme measure in the case of Bialowieza." Scientists also point out Bialowieza is 8,000 years old. It has survived two world wars, the German occupation and communist rule. It has always survived Ips typgraphus. Czeslaw Okolow is 80 years old and a retired head of the Bialowieza National Park. "In the area of the national park, no one has fought the beetle since 1921," he said, "and spruce is still there, young and old." ($1 = 3.9696 zlotys) (Additional reporting by Barbara Lewis in Brussels, editing by Larry King) By Daniel Ramos and Monica Machicao LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales acknowledged defeat in a referendum that would have cleared the way for him to run for a fourth term in 2019, saying in a speech on Wednesday that he would respect the decision of the people. Morales, a leftist who was first elected in 2006 and is now in his third term, had tried to persuade Bolivians that the constitution should be changed to allow him another run for the presidency. Most polls ahead of the referendum suggested a narrow win was likely, given Morales' solid support among those who credit him with slashing poverty in Bolivia, South America's poorest country when ranked by gross domestic product per capita. But in the end, with more than 99 percent of votes counted, the "no" side had 51.3 percent to the "yes" side's 48.7 percent, Bolivia's electoral commission said. "We respect the results ... we have lost a battle, but we're not defeated," Morales said in a televised speech from the presidential palace. The rejection is another blow to South America's once dominant populist leftist bloc, which has lost steam as voters have tired of cronyism and tumbling commodities prices have provided less income to fuel government spending. In Bolivia, one-time coca grower Morales has spent a natural gas windfall on welfare programs and infrastructure. The once marginalized indigenous Aymara, to which he belongs, have particularly benefited. The president blamed the referendum loss on discrimination and a smear campaign or "dirty war" by the right-wing opposition. In recent weeks, his popularity has been damaged by revelations that a company that employs an ex-girlfriend had won lucrative government contracts. The problem was compounded when photos emerged showing the couple together last year, although he had said the relationship ended in 2007. Accusations of corruption have been leveled in the past against his Movement to Socialism (MAS) party, but Morales himself has always risen above it. The referendum result prompted celebrations in Santa Cruz, where criticism of Morales has been fiercest, and the 'no' vote won by a wider margin. La Paz, the capital, remained quiet. Carlos Mesa, a former Bolivian president, tweeted: "What the vote of Bolivians has said is that there are no indispensable people, just indispensable causes." What lies ahead is uncertain, said political analyst Ivan Arias, with no clear anointed successor to Morales nor an opposition alternative. "I fear that the MAS will begin warring internally," he said, adding that the opposition, which had coalesced around the anti-Morales "no" movement, needed to find a new, positive focus. Morales himself did not detail what he expected to happen next, other than to say: "It's not the moment to talk about successors ... there's lots of time for that." Analysts and supporters pointed to his acceptance of defeat as setting him part from Venezuela's firebrand leftist Hugo Chavez, often seen as a key influence. Chavez, who died in 2013, lost a referendum in 2007 on his indefinite re-election, but then called and won a new one just over a year later. (Reporting by Daniel Ramos and Monica Machicao, Writing by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Michael Perry, Paul Simao and Steve Orlofsky) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday underscored his concerns about the long range of a powerful U.S. radar that could be deployed in South Korea along with an advanced missile defense system and said Washington should explain its plans. Wang told an event hosted by the Center for International and Strategic Studies think tank that China remained committed to working with the United States and other countries to de-nuclearize the Korean peninsula. He said he was optimistic that the United Nations would agree on a resolution criticizing North Korea for its Jan. 6 nuclear test. But Wang said China remained concerned that the X-band radar to be deployed with the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system built by Lockheed Martin Corp had a range that extended far beyond the Korean peninsula into the interior of China. That in turn, he said, could jeopardize "China's legitimate national security interests." He said the decision was ultimately up to South Korea, and China understood the desire of the United States and South Korea to ensure the defense of their own countries. But he said China had raised concerns about the system's capabilities that should be addressed by the United States. "We believe that China's legitimate security concerns must be taken into account," Wang said. "An explanation must be provided to China." The United States and South Korea agreed earlier this month to start talks about deploying the THAAD system to South Korea to counter the growing threat of North Korea's weapons capabilities after its Feb. 7 launch of a long-range satellite. One U.S. defense official said the talks were on track for next week. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Cynthia Osterman) Complete Movie Scene listings can be found online. NEW SON OF SAUL (Drama, R, 107 minutes, playing at the Darkside Cinema in Corvallis). In one of the most original and most devastatingly effective films ever made about the Holocaust, an Auschwitz prisoner races to find a rabbi to bury a body that may be his sons. Difficult to watch, impossible to forget. The favorite to win this years Oscar for foreign-language film. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate) TRIPLE 9 (Crime action, R, 115 minutes, playing at the Carmike 12 in Corvallis) If youre in the right frame of mind for a lurid, blood-soaked B-movie with an A-list cast including Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Woody Harrelson and Kate Winslet, Triple 9 is just the ticket. Go with the flow and maybe youll be entertained as I was, even as you acknowledge this thing is fabulous trash. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate) EDDIE THE EAGLE (Sports biography, PG-13, 105 minutes, playing at the Carmike 12 in Corvallis) Taron Egerton gives a winning performance as an irritatingly upbeat underdog determined to make the British Olympics as a ski jumper and training under a washed-up ski bum (Hugh Jackman). Like Rudy, its an unapologetically sentimental, undeniably inspirational story. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate) GODS OF EGYPT (Fantasy adventure, PG-13, 100 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany and the Regal 4 in Corvallis) This new adventure from Alex Proyas, the director of The Crow is set in ancient Egypt, where a mortal hero Bek teams with god Horus to battle Set, the god of darkness, who illegitimately occupies the throne. With Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Brenton Thwaites and Chadwick Boseman. RECOMMENDED THE BIG SHORT 4 stars (Historical drama, R, 130 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany) Christian Bale, Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling star as oddballs (based on real-life individuals) who foresee the housing bubbles burst and set out to profit from it. Directed with feverish ingenuity, this is one of the best times Ive had at the movies all year. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate) THE LADY IN THE VAN 3 stars (Comedy-drama, PG-13, 103 minutes, playing at the Darkisde in Corvallis) Sometimes chewing up the screen, sometimes saying volumes simply by sitting very, very still, Maggie Smith delights as a seemingly half-mad homeless woman who parks her dilapidated, overstuffed old van in front of a playwrights North London home and stays there some 15 years. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate) CAROL 3 stars (Drama, R, 118 minutes, playing at the Darkside in Corvallis) As women acting on a mutual attraction in 1950s Manhattan, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara make for one of the most intriguing and memorable movie couples of the year. Todd Haynes directs this elegant, quietly powerful film with subtle precision. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate) 45 YEARS (Drama, R, 95 minutes, playing at the Darkside in Corvallis) As their 45th wedding anniversary approaches, a woman (Charlotte Rampling) learns that her husband (Tom Courtenay) was once engaged to someone else. Rampling is up for an Oscar for her performance, dubbed by critics as one of the finest in her long career. THE REVENANT 4 stars (Adventure, R, 156 minutes, playing at the Pix in Albany) Enormously talented Birdman director Alejandro G. Inarritu strikes again with this 19th-century American fable, one of the most brutally beautiful movies Ive ever seen. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers one of his most impressive performances as a frontiersman left for dead in the 1823 wilderness. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate) HOW TO BE SINGLE 3 stars (Romantic comedy, R, 110 minutes, playing at Regal 7 in Albany and the Regal 4 in Corvallis) Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson are the standouts in one of the most endearing romantic comedies in recent memory, with some laugh-out-loud dialogue, gorgeous photography and charming performances from the entire cast. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate) HAIL CAESAR! 4 stars (Comedy, PG-13, 106 minutes, playing at the Carmike 12 in Corvallis) As they recount the adventures of a 1950s Hollywood fixer (Josh Brolin), the Coen brothers pay homage to genres from noir to Westerns. Hail, Caesar! is pure popcorn fun a visual treat, a comedic tour de force and a sublime and sly slice of satire. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate) KUNG FU PANDA 3 3 stars (Animated, PG, 95 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany and the Regal 4 in Corvallis) The third times the charm: This sequel isnt too heavy nor too light, has the right amount of spice, and leaves one with some appetite for the next time. for this animated (Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press) STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS 4 stars (Sci-fi adventure, PG-13, 136 minutes, playing at the Carmike 12 in Corvallis) What a beautiful, thrilling, joyous, surprising and heart-thumping adventure this is. The seventh Star Wars film pops with memorable battle sequences, gives us chills with encore appearances by stars from the original trilogy and introduces more than a half-dozen terrific Next Generation characters. Its a return to greatness. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate) BROOKLYN 4 stars (Romance drama, PG-13, 111 minutes, playing at the Darkside in Corvallis) Impeccably directed by John Crowley, feelingly adapted by Nick Hornby from Colm Toibins fine novel and blessed with heart-stopping work from star Saoirse Ronan and the rest of the cast, Brooklyn is about love and heartache, loneliness and intimacy, what home means and how we achieve it. (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times) BEIJING (Reuters) - China commissioned a domestically produced missile frigate this week, the official People's Liberation Army Daily reported on Thursday, as Beijing works to expand and modernize its navy. The announcement came only two days after a senior U.S. military official said China was "clearly militarising" the South China Sea. The United States is worried by China's military buildup to assert dominance in the region. The People's Liberation Daily said the frigate, with a displacement of more than 4,000 tonnes, has powerful long-range surveillance and anti-aircraft capabilities. Ships of that kind can be used alone or along with other naval forces to attack enemy surface ships, the report said. The frigate, called the Xiangtan, is one of 22 vessels of its class in service, according to state media reports. Beijing has invested billions developing its homegrown weapons industry to support its growing maritime ambitions in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims. Beijing has also cast an eye towards foreign markets for its comparatively low-cost technology. Its total military budget in 2015 was 886.9 billion yuan ($141.45 billion), up 10 percent from a year earlier. (Reporting By Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Paul Tait) WASHINGTON China has sent fighter jets to a disputed island in the South China Sea, where it deployed surface-to-air missiles earlier this month, US government sources said on Tuesday. One US official, however, said China regularly sends jets to Woody Island, part of the Paracel archipelago controlled by Beijing. The deployment was first reported by Fox News. China yesterday complained the media were ignoring radars and weapons deployed by other claimants in the South China Sea, and unfairly targeting China, following reports of its deployment of fighter jets and radars in the disputed waterway. Over the past week or so China has been reported to have deployed advanced missiles, fighters and radar equipment on islands in the South China Sea, especially on Woody Island in the Paracels. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying reiterated that as far as China was concerned, there was no dispute over ownership of the Paracels, and so China could deploy what it wanted on its territory without reproach. I suggest to the media that, in your reports, you not selectively pump up or ignore things, Hua told a daily news briefing yesterday. Because when you pay attention to what China is deploying, do you also pay attention to other countries which have over the years, on Chinese islands they have occupied, deployed many radars and advanced weaponry? I hope friends in the media can objectively, justly, rationally and calmly make their reports. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims. The comments, which come as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visits the United States, follow remarks on Tuesday by Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, that China was clearly militarizing the South China Sea. Harris said he believed Chinas deployment of surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island, new radars on Calderon (Cuarteron) Reef in the Spratlys and its building of airstrips were actions that are changing, in my opinion, the operational landscape in the South China Sea. Story continues Soon after he spoke, US government sources confirmed that China recently deployed fighter jets to Woody Island. It was not the first time China sent jets there but the move raised new questions about its intentions. Chinas official Xinhua news agency, in an English language commentary, said the hype about Chinas so-called militarization failed to mention that China had for many years deployed defensive measures on Woody Island. For the South China Sea waters to be calm, Washington should first stop its ugly practice of smearing China and avoid any move that stirs up tension in the region, it said. Reuters By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - China "really needs" its defences in the South China Sea in the face of a militarisation process being pushed by the United States, and can deploy whatever equipment it wants on its own soil, China's Defence Ministry said on Thursday. China and the United States have sparred repeatedly over the past week following reports China is deploying advanced missiles, fighters and radar equipment on islands in the South China Sea, especially on Woody Island in the Paracels. The United States has accused China of militarising the disputed waters. Beijing, for its part, has been angered by "freedom of navigation" air and sea patrols the United States has conducted near islands China claims in the South China Sea. Those have included one by two B-52 strategic bombers in November and by a U.S. Navy destroyer that sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracels last month. "The United States is the real promoter of the militarisation of the South China Sea," defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian told a regular monthly news briefing. "China's construction of military facilities on the islands and reefs of the South China Sea is really needed." The Paracel Islands are China's "inherent territory", he added. "It is China's legitimate right to deploy defence facilities within our own territory, no matter in the past or at present, no matter temporarily or permanently, no matter what equipment it is," Wu said. People are being "dazzled" by the endless hyping up by U.S. media of equipment China is deploying in the South China Sea, he added. "One minute it's air defence missiles, then radars, then various types of aircraft - who knows what tomorrow will bring in terms of new equipment being hyped up." Even the Americans have said some of this equipment had been placed there in the past, Wu said. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims. This week, coinciding with a visit to Washington by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Admiral Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Command, said the U.S. would step up freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea and that China was trying to militarily dominate East Asia. Wu said the U.S. was employing double standards, asking why U.S. patrols in the South China Sea should not also be considered militarisation. There has been speculation that China might declare an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea, similar to one it declared over the East China Sea in late 2013, to anger from Japan and the United States. Asked if this was the case, Wu repeated the ministry's previous line that it had every right to do so, but the move would depend on the level of aerial threat China faced. "There are all sorts of factors that need consideration," Wu said, without elaborating. In Hanoi, a Vietnamese official said the militarisation of the South China Sea was a very serious issue. "Irrespective of the opposition and concern voiced by Vietnam and the international community, China continues to take actions that not only violate Vietnam's sovereignty, accelerate militarization of the East Sea, but also threaten peace and stability," foreign media spokesman Le Hai Binh told a briefing, employing the name Vietnam uses for the South China Sea. Annual trade between the communist neighbours exceeds $60 billion, but anti-China sentiment is strong in Vietnam, where people are embittered over what many see as a history of Chinese bullying and territorial infringements in the South China Sea. (Additional reporting by Martin Petty in HANOI; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) BEIJING (Reuters) - China has begun construction of a logistics base in Djibouti, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday, what the Horn of African country's government calls a military facility that will be China's first overseas. Last year, China said it was in talks to build what it describes as naval "support facilities" in the Horn of Africa nation, which has fewer than a million people but is striving to become an international shipping hub. Djibouti, strategically located at the southern entrance to the Red Sea on the route to the Suez Canal, is already home to U.S. and French bases, while other navies often use its port. China and Djibouti have reached consensus on the facility, which will be used primarily for military rest and resupply in carrying out naval escort, peacekeeping and humanitarian duties, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said. "Currently, initial construction on the relevant facilities has already started and China has already dispatched some personnel to launch relevant work," Wu told reporters at a regular monthly press briefing. He did not elaborate. China had conducted anti-piracy operations in the region in recent years and is seeking to expand its capacity to respond to growing threats to its interests abroad. President Xi Jinping is reforming the military and investing in submarines and aircraft carriers, as China's navy becomes more assertive in its territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas. China is also expanding its peacekeeping role, with Xi pledging in September to contribute 8,000 troops for a United Nations stand-by force that could provide logistical and operational experience the military would need to operate farther abroad. While China has been getting more involved diplomatically in trouble spots such as the Middle East, it is adamant that it does not interfere in the affairs of other countries, and is the only permanent member of the U.N. Security Council which has not taken military action in Syria. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Writing by Michael Martina; Editing by Richard Borsuk) BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday confirmed it would send warships to join a major U.S.-hosted naval drill this summer, even as tension between the world's two largest economies mounts over the South China Sea. The Rim of the Pacific exercise, known as RIMPAC, is billed as the world's largest international maritime exercise, held every two years in Hawaii in June and July. Critics of the Obama administration, including U.S. Senator John McCain, have said the U.S. should bar China from the drills to show U.S. disapproval of its military actions. The U.S. and its allies have expressed growing concern over the Asian giant's military buildup, as well as its increasingly assertive posture in the South China Sea. "Joining these military exercises will be beneficial to improving the Chinese navy's ability to contend with non-traditional security threats," Wu Qian, a spokesman of China's Ministry of Defence, told a regular briefing. "At the same time, it will also be beneficial to deepending China and professional exchanges and pragmatic cooperations with the relevant countries' navies." China would send warships to participate, Wu said, but did not say how many or what kind. "Needless to say, military relations between China and the U.S. have some difficulties and obstacles," Wu added. He cited the examples of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and reconnaissance by U.S. warships near Chinese territory, as well as what China sees as discriminatory laws by the U.S. limiting military exchanges. Wu also criticised U.S. patrols in the South China Sea. U.S. Admiral Harry Harris, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, has said he wants to build ties between the two militaries of the countries, but has also strongly criticised China's actions in the South China Sea. Past participants in RIMPAC have included nations such as Russia that are not treaty allies with the United States. China took part in the RIMPAC exercises in 2014 with more than 20 countries, but defence officials have said its participation was limited to areas such as humanitarian relief and search and rescue operations. (Reporting by Megha Rajagopalan and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) AMMAN (Reuters) - At least two thousand Syrian rebel fighters have re-entered the country from Turkey over the last week to reinforce insurgents fending off an assault by Syrian Kurdish-led militias, rebel sources said on Thursday. The rebel fighters, with weapons and vehicles, have been covertly escorted across the border by Turkish forces over several nights, before heading into the embattled rebel stronghold of Azaz, the sources said. "We have been allowed to move everything from light weapons to heavy equipment mortars and missiles and our tanks," Abu Issa, a commander in the Levant Front, the rebel group that runs the border crossing of Bab al-Salam, told Reuters giving his alias and talking on condition of anonymity. "There is tight security on the four-hour drive from one border crossing to the other," he added, saying rebels being transported excluded the hardline Nusra Front fighters and other jihadist groups. On Sunday, the Syrian government had said Turkish forces were among 100 gunmen who had entered Syria accompanied by 12 pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, in an ongoing supply operation to insurgents. The route across Turkey has become the only path for rebels to their north Aleppo enclave after recent Syrian army advances closed the main route into rebel territory. The UK's Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence across the war torn-country, also confirmed that hundreds of rebel fighters had already crossed with weapons via a border crossing into Azaz. Another rebel source said the Turkish military have stepped up delivery of munitions and heavy military hardware in the last two days to bolster rebels facing the major offensive launched by the Syrian army and its allies. The assault has helped the Syrian army come within 25 miles of the Turkish border for the first time in over two years. The rapid advance of U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, taking advantage of Russian air strikes to seize territory near the Turkish border, has infuriated Ankara and threatened to drive a wedge between NATO allies. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Toby Chopra) By Kanupriya Kapoor and Randy Fabi JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the acquittal of two Canadian and Indonesian teachers who were charged with sexually abusing students at an international school in Jakarta, and extended their prison sentences to 11 years. The two were originally sentenced to 10 years in jail but were acquitted in August, 2015. "They have been sentenced again, to 11 years," Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi said by phone. Canadian teacher Neil Bantleman and Indonesian teaching assistant Ferdinand Tjiong were convicted on charges of abusing kindergarten students at the Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS), but critics say the case was fraught with irregularities. "This continues to raise questions about the veracity of the legal system in Indonesia. This will damage the reputation of Indonesia and how investors view the country," said Keith Loveard of Jakarta-based Concord Consulting. The U.S. embassy-linked school is popular among expatriates and wealthy Indonesians, who are closely tracking the case. "The outcome of the legal process will impact international views about the rule of law in Indonesia," the U.S. embassy said in a statement. The Canadian embassy in Jakarta called the decision "unjust" and said the case had not been handled transparently. "The outcome of this case has serious implications for Indonesias reputation as a safe place for Canadians to work, travel and invest as well as for Canada's long history of cooperation with Indonesia," it said in an online statement. (Additional reporting by Yuddy Cahya; Editing by Michael Perry) By Tom Perry and Laila Bassam BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Sunni politician Saad al-Hariri on Monday urged Saudi Arabia not to abandon Lebanon after it halted aid to the army, reflecting concerns that Riyadh is reducing support for a country that has been an arena for its struggle with Iran. Hariri's direct appeal to King Salman reflects worries among Saudi Arabia's allies in Lebanon that a major shift is under way in its policy towards the country. Riyadh's backing has been crucial to the decade-long struggle waged by Hariri and his allies against the Iranian-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah. The crisis came to a head last week when Saudi Arabia decided to suspend its aid to the army in response to the Lebanese government's failure to sign up to statements condemning attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran. Reflecting deep differences among rival Lebanese politicians, a government statement issued after a meeting of the national unity cabinet on Monday also fell short of condemning them. Instead, it was left to Prime Minister Tammam Salam to condemn them himself after reading the declaration. Hariri, who heads the Saudi-backed March 14 alliance, said Lebanon would "not be a protectorate for Iranian policies in the region". "We are here to confirm in the loudest voice that nobody will be able to cancel Lebanon's Arabness," he said, making only his third visit to the country since the Hezbollah-dominated March 8 alliance toppled his government in 2011. He urged King Salman and other Gulf Arab leaders "not to abandon Lebanon and to continue to support and embrace it". Hezbollah, a political party with a powerful militia, has grown in strength over the last decade. Its fighters are playing a crucial role fighting on President Bashar al-Assad's side in the war in neighbouring Syria, one of the major arenas of Saudi-Iranian rivalry in the region. Many Lebanese are worried about how Saudi policy will affect the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese employed in Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab states allied to it. The money they send home is crucial to the Lebanese economy. Saudi Arabia pledged the aid for the Lebanese army in 2013 in what then-Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called the largest grant ever to the country's armed forces. The army, carefully balanced to reflect Lebanon's sectarian make-up, is widely seen as the backbone of the weak Lebanese state. ARAB STATEMENT Saudi anger at the Lebanese government appeared to come to a head last month when the government, represented by Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, refused to vote on a joint Arab statement condemning the attacks on Saudi missions in Iran by crowds protesting at the kingdom's execution of a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric. Bassil, a political ally of Hezbollah, cited the statement's criticism of Hezbollah as the reason for not backing it. He stressed the need for national unity in Lebanon. The government statement issued on Monday said it was necessary to "fix relations between Lebanon and its brothers, and to remove any flaws that may have emerged in recent times". It said Prime Minister Salam should make contacts with Gulf states that would "pave the way for a Gulf tour ... with this aim". The statement said Lebanon would not forget Saudi Arabia's sponsorship of the peace agreement that ended Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, its role in rebuilding the country, and its support for Lebanon's "financial, economic, military and security institutions". "Likewise it will not forget that the kingdom, and the rest of the Gulf Arab states ... embraced and continue to (embrace) hundreds of thousands of Lebanese of all sects", the statement said. Hezbollah member Mohammed Fneish, a minister of state in the government, said when asked whether the group supported sending a ministerial delegation to apologise to Saudi Arabia: "When Saudi apologises for its insults to us, we will think". (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Mark Trevelyan) By Samia Nakhoul TEHRAN (Reuters) - Fridays vote for Irans parliament and the Assembly of Experts, the body that will pick the next supreme leader, have assumed an importance well beyond the perennial battles between hardliners entrenched in power and reformists seeking to unseat them. These are the first elections since Tehran reached an accord with major powers to curb its nuclear programme, leading to the removal of most of the punitive international sanctions that have strangled the economy over the past decade. The breakthrough took place under pragmatic President Hassan Rouhani, who sees it as a springboard for Iran to reintegrate into the international community and return to world markets. But hardline opponents are determined to prevent it leading to any liberalisation of the Islamic system through the ballot box. These electoral contests are seen by some analysts as a make-or-break moment that could shape the future for the next generation, in a country where nearly 60 per cent of the 80 million population is under 30. http://tmsnrt.rs/20VK0vG The outcome could be skewed by the disqualification of many pro-reform candidates by an unelected clerical Guardian Council that reports directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The stakes are high for all factions, since the outcome may well determine whether Rouhani has a mandate to push ahead with long-promised political, social and economic reforms, as well as influencing his chances of re-election in 2017. In the final days of campaigning, the fight turned vicious. Reflecting an abiding mistrust in Rouhani's overtures to the West, Khamenei accused the West of plotting to influence the vote and said he was sure Iranians would vote in favour of keeping Iran's anti-Western stance. Rouhani, whose allies have come under growing pressure in the election campaign from hardliners who accuse them of links to Western powers, has denied such accusations, calling them an insult to the intelligence of Iranians. Moderate allies of Rouhani, buoyed by the nuclear deal, are hoping to win back positions they lost over the past decade. But the filtering out of candidates and the slow pace of economic improvement have added to popular disillusion over Rouhani's stalled reforms, leaving them facing an uphill battle. UNDER THE THUMB The preliminaries to both contests underlined that elected politicians are ultimately under the thumb of clerics, Islamic jurists and their opaque institutions, with the supreme leader at their apex. Even if his hardline allies were to lose the parliamentary race to their moderate rivals, Khamenei will continue to hold ultimate authority, while presidents and lawmakers come and go. "Lets presume we have a reformist government that has a majority, I dont think they will make a big difference. The supreme leader and the Revolutionary Guards set the tone and the limit and determine the overall direction of the country," said one Tehran analyst who requested anonymity. "We shouldnt have high expectations. The conservatives have the levers of power. The media, the military, the intelligence, the actual financial resources are in their hands. It is a dual system and the other side is still very powerful," he added. The last time reformers won the upper hand in parliament, under former President Mohammad Khatami, the Guardian Council vetoed several laws it passed as contrary to Islamic principles. Last year's nuclear accord led to last months lifting of crippling sanctions, even though important residual sanctions relating to Irans international conduct remain in place. Iran, which has the worlds second largest gas reserves, a diversified manufacturing base and educated workforce, is seen by global investors as a huge emerging market opportunity, in everything from cars to airplanes and railways to retail. HARDLINERS ALARMED For ordinary Iranians, the prospect of this kind of investment holds out the promise of a return to economic growth, better living standards and more jobs in the long run. An opening to the world of this magnitude - and Rouhani's popularity - have alarmed hardline allies of Khamenei, who fear losing control of the pace of change, as well as inroads into the lucrative economic interests they built up under sanctions. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for example, is not just Irans praetorian guard but a corporate empire, with vast holdings in from banking to construction and manufacturing. The Guards are still under sanctions for alleged support for terrorism. All this has exacerbated political infighting within Iran's complex power structures. The Guardian Council barred thousands of moderates from standing, including Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the Islamic Republics founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The younger Khomeini, a 43-year-old mid-ranking cleric, had sought to enter the Assembly of Experts as a standard-bearer for moderates with credibility among conservatives. He was told he lacked the necessary religious credentials. One of the most crucial contests is in Tehran, where more than 1,000 candidates are competing for just 30 seats. The reformists list there is led by Mohammad Reza Aref, a Stanford-educated former presidential candidate and minister, who served as vice president to the reformist Khatami in 2001-2005. The conservatives' front-runner is Gholamali Haddad Adel, who has been a member of parliament since 2000 and was its speaker in 2004-9. He is also an adviser to Khamenei and his daughter is married to the supreme leaders influential son Mojtaba. Out of the estimated 801 Islamic clerics who put themselves forward for the 88-member Assembly of Experts, only 166 were approved as candidates. Women were not allowed to stand for the assembly, which will eventually choose a successor to Khamenei. SIGNIFICANT CONTEST Until now, the contest for this seat of clerical power was an unremarkable event, but not this time. Because of Khameneis health and age of 76, the new assembly members who serve an 8-year term are likely to choose his successor. The next leader could well be among those elected this week. The reformists top candidate is former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, although he is now 81. He is among the founders of the Islamic Republic and was its president from 1989-1997. Nearly always at the centre of Iran's intricate webs of power, he is famous for his pragmatism and political acumen. In backing such a centrist arch-fixer, the reformists hope that in alliance with moderate conservatives they will be able to block the three main ultra-conservative leaders - Ahmad Jannati, Mohammad Yazdi and Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi - from emerging as Khameneis successor. Rafsanjani is also head of the Expediency Council, a body which mediates between the elected parliament and the appointed Guardian Council. But his power has waned in recent years, highlighted by the jailing of two of his children. He fell out with Khamenei after backing the opposition Green Movement in the disputed 2009 presidential vote and is now allied with the reformists. President Rouhani is number two on the reformist candidate list for the Assembly of Experts, just after Rafsanjani. Khamenei, who backed the Guardian Council's strict vetting, has repeatedly warned that Iran's enemies have sought to use the elections to "infiltrate" its power structure. Yet for all his power, even he cannot curb debate about Irans future. In the past, any debate about Khamenei's possible successor was considered as undermining the supreme leader, but public discussion has gained momentum ahead of the elections. This is hardly surprising given that the supreme leader has substantial influence, or constitutional authority, over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government as well as the military and media. UNRESOLVED POWER STRUGGLE Rafsanjani angered hardliners in December when he said the assembly would be open to choosing "a council of leaders if needed" instead of a single supreme leader who rules for life. Under Iran's constitution, a transitional "Leadership Council" is permitted until a supreme leader is selected by the assembly. But analysts said Rafsanjani advocated a permanent council, fiercely rejected by Khamenei's hardline allies. "The reformists won't have a strong hand in the Assembly of Experts because Rafsanjani sent a bad signal that the assembly could challenge the leader," Amir Mohebian, a conservative political strategist, told Reuters. "They went on guard by disqualifying Khomeini. They sent a message: 'We're strong and dont allow anybody to make changes in the assembly, that it's not a place for politicians' play, that it's a key place for choosing a new leader'." Despite the sweeping disqualifications, reformists are competing fiercely, and trying to maximise their results by forming a coalition with pragmatists and offering a joint list of their favourite candidates in the capital and other cities. The conservatives are taking no chances either. They are organising buses to transport voters from remote villages and cities to Tehran, providing them with accommodation and food to cast their ballot for their candidates. Ex-President Khatami, the reformist figurehead who is banned from appearing in official media, posted a video message this week urging followers to vote for the reformist camp, which has chosen "Hope" as its campaign slogan. "The higher the turnout of eligible voters, the closer the result will be to the demands of the people," Khatami said, referring to past polls when reformists won more seats on a high turnout. DIVIDED YOUTH The outcome of the parliamentary vote will have no big impact on foreign policy. But it will boost the victorious faction's influence in next year's presidential election. A parliament friendly to Rouhani could strengthen his hand to push through economic reforms to open the country to foreign trade and investment. It can also help the government carry out a political agenda aimed at expanding social and economic liberties, as promised during his 2013 election campaign. The polarization gripping the country had hit young people, many of whom are voting for the first time. While some said they would vote for reformists because they seek change and want to block the hardliners, others planned to vote for conservatives out of loyalty to Khamenei. Some said they would boycott because their vote won't make any difference. "I wont waste my time and vote as nothing will change because the conservatives have the power in their hands," said Area Behfuruz, 18, a first-year student of dentistry at Tehran University. Sahar, 26, an art student, said: "I dont think fundamental change will happen at all. Those running the country are the same. The few times we had some change, we had the hardliners blocking them. Even if the reformists gain power now they will be blocked by the hardliners." Bahar, 22, a student of medical genetics, said: "I will vote for the reformists because I want change. I want a country that is more in relation with the world, not so isolated. We have a very rich country with a young population, I want a government that invests in its people, in youth and improves their lot." With the future direction of the country so much in play after Iran's international breakthrough on the nuclear deal, factional infighting and skirmishing of this kind is likely to continue long after this Friday's twin elections. "This is fundamentally a status quo political system which is not interested in real change," said the Tehran analyst. "Change is very gradual, cosmetic. This election won't usher a new era for Iran." (Editing by William Maclean and Paul Taylor) A small group of volunteers arranges flowers at the makeshift shrine on a bridge just metres from the Kremlin where Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down a year ago. "The city authorities come something like twice a month and destroy all this and clear everything away," physicist Mikhail Lashkevich, 50, a member of Nemtsov's former political movement, told AFP. "It is important for me that the memory remains and that the people and the authorities understand that we haven't forgotten and won't forget." While supporters of the charismatic former deputy prime minister struggle to maintain the memorial, those close to Nemtsov are also fighting another battle -- to try to find out why he was murdered and who was behind his shocking killing. The assassination of Kremlin critic Nemtsov -- hit in the back by four fatal shots as he walked home with his girlfriend through the icy Moscow wind late last February 27 -- was the most high-profile political killing in Russia since former KGB agent President Vladimir Putin rose to power some 16 years ago. After the Kremlin said the murder seemed like a deliberate "provocation", Putin took the investigation under his personal control and within a matter of weeks five men -- all Chechens from Russia's restive North Caucasus region -- were arrested and then charged with the murder. One more suspect apparently blew himself up with a grenade as security agents tried to detain him, while another man named in December as an organiser is still at large. The five detainees -- including Zaur Dadayev, a member of a Chechen interior ministry battalion accused of being the gunman -- are now awaiting trial for what investigators say was a contract killing carefully planned over months for which they were promised some 15 million rubles ($200,000, 180,000 euros at current exchange rate). But although the head of Russia's Investigative Committee said last month that the case has been "solved", Nemtsov's family and allies insist the authorities have failed to get to the masterminds and point the finger of blame at Chechnya's Putin-loyal strongman Ramzan Kadyrov -- and even the Kremlin. - Kadyrov's circle - On a recent afternoon the five suspects in the killing squeezed into a cramped cage in a stuffy Moscow courtroom and exchanged glances with tearful relatives over the heads of heavily armed police escorts as investigators succeeded in getting their detention extended. All of the men insist they are innocent fall guys and say that any confessions they made were beaten out of them by Russian security officers. "Torture anyone here and they would confess to whatever is dictated to them," Anzor Gubashev, one of the defendants pleaded with the judge. "This is the justice system we have, these are the authorities. We are rags that can be used once and thrown away." Vadim Prokhorov, once Nemtsov's lawyer and now representing his eldest daughter Zhanna, is currently trawling through the 65 volumes of evidence the investigators collected and said he is convinced that most of the men arrested were involved in the murder. But he is also sure that high-ranking officials in the tight circle around Kadyrov -- who had a long-running feud with Nemtsov -- ordered the killing to stop Nemtsov's political work and that the Kremlin does not want the investigation to go further. "It is an obvious lie to say that the murder has been solved," Prokhorov told AFP. "Those who ordered it and those who organised it have not been identified or caught". So far only one man, low-ranking Chechen security official Ruslan Mukhudinov, has been named as an organiser but he remains at large. Investigators have reportedly also tried to charge his boss -- Chechen interior ministry officer Ruslan Geremeyev, a close relative of Kadyrov's right-hand man -- but those attempts have been stifled. Meanwhile, lawyer Prokhorov has filed a petition for police to quiz Kadyrov -- who has dismissed the accusations and publicly praised the alleged gunman Dadayev -- but that failed to make any progress. "All the trails of the organisers and those who ordered the murder lead to Grozny," Prokhorov said. "Putin clearly hasn't given the order and won't give the order to question Kadyrov." - 'Situation getting worse' - Denied access to the pro-Kremlin state media, Nemtsov had become a marginal figure in Russia but he remained a thorn in the side of the authorities. At the time of his death he was probing Moscow's covert deployment of troops to Ukraine -- and ex-colleagues are convinced he was killed to halt his political work. "As far as I am concerned, the motives for the murder were to stop his activity as one of the leaders of the opposition," Olga Shorina, Nemtsov's former personal assistant, told AFP. In the wake of the murder, Zhanna Nemtsova accused Russia's state media of fuelling an atmosphere of hatred against all those who oppose Putin that allowed the killing to happen. Now a year on, with little headway made into finding those behind Nemtsov's killing, Russia's beleaguered opposition feels as exposed as ever. Recently Kadyrov posted pictures of Nemtsov's ally Mikhail Kasyanov in the sights of a sniper rifle and threatened to eradicate the "jackals" that challenge Putin. "I think that the situation is getting even worse," Shorina said. "All opponents of the regime are being called enemies and criminals." A painting by Camille Pissarro will return to a Jewish family in France whose art collection was looted by the Nazis in 1941, a lawyer who led the negotiations said. The University of Oklahoma will give back "La bergere rentrant des moutons" -- or "Shepherdess bringing in sheep" -- to Holocaust survivor Leone Meyer, her New York lawyer Pierre Ciric told AFP about the restitution agreement signed Monday. Meyer is the adoptive daughter of late businessman Raoul Meyer, who was co-owner of the French retail company that owns the upscale department store chain Galeries Lafayette. He deposited his art collection in a vault at the bank Credit Commercial de France in 1940 before the Nazis seized it during their occupation of France. Pissarro completed "Shepherdess bringing in sheep" in 1886. The oil-on-canvas painting -- valued in its last appraisal at $1.5 million -- was later acquired by a Swiss merchant and a New York gallery before it was bought by collectors Aaron and Clara Weitzenhoffer. They bequeathed it to the University of Oklahoma in 2000. Under the settlement's terms, the painting will be displayed for five years in France before it will move on a rotating basis between the University of Oklahoma's Fred Jones Museum and a French museum. The deal also requires Meyer to donate the painting to a French art institution during her lifetime or in her will. "The priority was for public display," Ciric said about the negotiations, which began after Meyer filed suit in May 2013. The university drew criticism during the process for objecting to returning the work based on procedural rules and the statute of limitations. Russia delivered 10,000 Kalashnikovs to the Afghan government Wednesday, with officials saying they were for the fight "against terrorism", a day after Kabul hosted talks on reviving the peace process with the Taliban. The assault rifles, delivered with pomp at a ceremony on the tarmac at Kabul's military airport, will be directly transferred to security forces, said President Ashraf Ghani's national security adviser Hanif Atmar. "We are trying to continue our efforts for peace, but in the meantime our nation should have the ability to defend itself," Atmar said. He said "international terrorism" in Afghanistan was a threat not only to the country and the region, but also to "our friends in Russia". Despite the $60 billion spent by Washington over more than 14 years to equip and train the Afghan security forces, they have struggled to contain the resurgent Taliban. Kabul is trying to resume a dialogue with the militants, and after talks with the US, China and Pakistan on Tuesday said it expects to relaunch the stalled peace process by early March. Russia is not part of the quartet. In a recent interview with state news agency Ria Novosti, Zamir Kabulov, the Kremlin's special representative to Afghanistan, described Washington's efforts to restore peace as "futile". At Wednesday's ceremony Russia's ambassador in Kabul Alexander Mantitski said cooperation between his country, NATO and the United States in Afghanistan ended in April 2014 "at the initiative of the West". The decision was taken in retaliation for Russia's annexation of Crimea. However the diplomat said Moscow would continue to cooperate directly with its Afghan partner. Russia remains concerned about the growing influence of Islamic State in the east of the country, where the group counts fighters from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan -- two former Soviet republics bordering Afghanistan -- in its ranks. By John Davison and Tom Miles BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - Syria's opposition indicated on Wednesday it was ready for a two-week truce to test the seriousness of the other side's commitment to a U.S.-Russian plan for a cessation of hostilities. A statement obtained by Reuters from the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee said it "views a temporary two-week truce as a chance to establish how serious the other side is in committing to the points of the agreement." The United States and Russia this week announced a plan to halt fighting, giving combatants until noon on Friday (1000 GMT) to say whether they would agree to the "cessation of hostilities", which would begin on Saturday. The HNC welcomed the plan, but outlined a detailed list of criticisms it said must be addressed before any truce could work. It objected to Russia being a guarantor of the truce alongside the United States, saying Russia was a direct party to the conflict, and that the plan ignored the role Damascus allies Russia and Iran were playing. Russia intervened in the conflict on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in September, and Iranian fighters have provided crucial support to the Syrian army in its fight against insurgents. The HNC also said the plan gave Moscow and Damascus the right to continue targeting "terrorist" groups in a way that allowed them to interpret U.N. classifications of terrorists according to their own agenda - which would result in their bombing other non-jihadist rebel groups represented in the wider opposition. Moscow and Washington said the cessation of hostilities would exclude groups classified as terrorists, such as Islamic State and the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front. The opposition has already expressed fears government forces backed by the Russian air force will continue to attack rebels under the pretext of targeting the Nusra Front. Russian warplanes have hit Islamic State but have mostly targeted other rebel groups including Western-backed insurgents. The HNC criticised the Russian-American plan for ignoring opposition factions' need to defend themselves against "terrorist" groups, without specifying which groups those were. It referred at the beginning of the statement to Islamic State, Nusra Front as well as Hezbollah, Iraqi and Afghan Shi'ite militias as "terrorist and extremist." Lebanese Hezbollah and Shi'ite militias are fighting on the Syrian government side. (Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut; Editing by Peter Cooney) The Syrian army retook a strategic town from the Islamic State group on Thursday, paving the way for the reopening of its sole supply route to main northern city Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops still needed to clear the jihadists from hills overlooking the key highway before it could be fully secured. The road through the town of Khanasser is the sole link between government-held areas in and around Aleppo and those in the rest of the country. State news agency SANA hailed its recapture just two days after its fall to the jihadists. The army's counteroffensive was backed by Russian air strikes which killed 20 IS fighters, said the Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group. It is not the first time that the government's supply route to Aleppo has been cut. Rebels severed it in 2013 and IS also did so last year before being pushed back. The new fighting for the road comes with the army on the offensive north and west of Aleppo, where rebel forces in the east of the city are almost completely surrounded. That offensive is supposed to come to an end when a Russian and US-brokered ceasefire goes into effect at 2200 GMT on Friday. But the war against IS will go on as the group is specifically excluded from the planned truce, as is Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Turkey has pushed for the exclusion too of the main Syrian Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Units (YPG), which has also seized territory from rebels northwest of Aleppo in recent weeks. Turkish artillery shelled YPG-held territory in Aleppo province throughout Wednesday night, the Observatory said, without immediately reporting any casualties. The renewed bombardment came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday again lashed out at Western policy towards the YPG, charging that the militia were a "terror group" just like IS and Al-Qaeda. To the anger of Ankara, which regards the YPG as a branch of outlawed Turkish rebel group the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Washington has worked closely with what it regards as the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria. The human gut is a complex and amazing system, and the more we learn about it, the more amazed we are. It turns out Distance Learning Students Explore the Earth and Beyond with Virtual Field Trips A virtual field trip is an opportunity for students to visit other places, talk to experts and participate in interactive learning activities without leaving the classroom. Dacia Jones, district science specialist at Durham Public Schools in Durham, NC, has been using virtual field trips in her classroom for 20 years. "My first year in the classroom, we took all of our kids to China by setting up our classroom as a plane, and when we got them out of the makeshift plane, they were in China, and we had passports," she said. Dacia Jones leads a class in a Skype session with NASCAR Driver James Buescher. These days, virtual field trips are more high tech, with students experiencing other places on the globe in three-dimensional virtual reality, exploring outer space or under the ocean and video chatting with experts in real time. A growing number of organizations are developing virtual field trips and supporting technology to make it easier for teachers to provide their students with these valuable learning experiences. Discovery Education Dacia Jones supports 30 K-5 schools, and she plans a virtual field trip for every grade, every month of the school year. Many of these trips she plans and organizes from scratch, but she also uses quite a few from Discovery Education and she recommends them to teachers who are new to virtual field trips and want to try them out for the first time. A few of Discovery Education's virtual field trips include Ford's Theatre 150: Remembering the Lincoln Assassination; Auschwitz: The Past is Present Virtual Experience; and 'Read To Discover a World of Infinite Possibilities' with President Barack Obama. Discovery Education archives all of its live events, so classes can revisit the video or watch it after the live event. Students participate in a virtual field trip from Discovery Education featuring President Obama. Jones said she likes Discovery Education's virtual field trips because they're ready-to-use and include supporting resources for teachers. Some of Discovery's programs include a companion collection of classroom activities designed "to enhance the learning experience and help prepare students for the virtual field trip," according to information from Discovery. Jones said she makes sure the teachers in her district receive those materials, so they can use them to provide their students with some background knowledge before the field trip. If students have the opportunity to submit questions beforehand or ask them live during the broadcast, teachers work with them to prepare questions, and after the field trip is over they do some follow-up activities. "So after you click pause or stop, the learning continues," said Jones. Google Expeditions Google Expeditions are immersive three-dimensional virtual field trips that use Google Cardboard, low-cost headsets made out of cardboard and powered by a smartphone. Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, CA was a pilot site for Google Expeditions, and teachers at the school had the opportunity to work with Google to develop some of the first virtual field trips for the platform. The Spanish class took a virtual trip to Spain, a science class did a marine biology trip and the United States history class visited historical battlefields. Hector Camacho, an economics teacher at Saint Francis High School, grappled with idea of virtual field trips for his class. "Economics is so concepts based, and a field trip isn't something that you immediately think of for economics," he said. "But when I thought about it, I realized, actually this could provide real-world context for the students." He developed a Google Expedition to the major financial centers of the United States with a focus on the 2008 financial crisis. The teachers collaborated with Google's engineers to develop those first expeditions. When the test kit arrived, it contained a classroom set of Android devices and Google Cardboard headsets, and the teachers controlled the scenes through a tablet. "When I turned it on, it took the students to the first place that I had marked for this trip, and I heard these collective oohs and aahs because it's like virtual reality," said Camacho. "You actually feel as though you're there, and when I told them to turn around, they were wondering why, but when you turn around you see that whole 360 degree view as if you were there. If you turn around, you see what's behind you; if you look up, you see the sky; if you look down, you see the floor, and it's like you're taking a physical trip to another place." Camacho used the Google Expedition to tell the story about the crumbling of the economy by going site-by-site from the New York Stock Exchange, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and A.I.G., so students could see how some of these massive institutions had been transformed. Camacho said he thinks the experience helped his students make that real-world connection between the concept of economics and the affect they have on the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. "That's what I found so surprising, that just being in the physical place or virtually being in the place could be so impactful on their understanding of what this all means," he said. NASA's Eyes Steven Eno, an engineering and science teacher at El Segundo High School in California, had a similar experience using NASA's Eyes computer simulations to supplement his high school physics class. NASA offers numerous virtual field trips, and Eno used Eyes on the Solar System. "It allows a student to navigate throughout our solar system in three dimensions using real-time satellite data," said Eno. Solar California District To Save $13.4 Million with Solar Power Escondido Union High School District (EUHSD) will deploy solar installations that, together, will produce enough energy to meet three-quarters of the district's needs, at four campuses. Together, the systems will produce two megawatts and are expected to save the district approximately $13.4 million over 20 years. "At the four district sites, SunPower will install solar carport systems, using high efficiency SunPower solar panels, the most efficient on the market today," according to a news release. "In addition to generating power, the carports will provide needed shade in the schools' parking areas. The systems are expected to be operational by the end of this year." "As a result of this agreement with SunPower, Escondido Union High School District will significantly reduce our energy costs, enabling us to apply the savings where they are needed, such as for enhanced academic programs or facility upgrades," said Michael Simonson, EUHSD assistant superintendent of business services, in a prepared statement. "SunPower's deep experience working with school districts is as important as the long-term performance of its technology. We are proud to support the development of additional solar power resources in our community." Student Information Systems Lake Havasu USD Adopts SIS, SPED Support Lake Havasu Unified School District in Arizona has selected a new student information system (SIS) and special education management system to replace its existing SIS. The district plans to implement the new SIS over the summer and expects to have it in place for the beginning of the 2016-17 school year. In 2014, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) awarded a Statewide Student Information System (SSIS) contract to Edupoint Educational Systems as part of the Arizona Education Learning and Accountability System (AELAS). Through this program, local education agencies throughout the state have the option to adopt Edupoint's Synergy SIS at a pre-negotiated price. Lake Havasu USD serves 5,400 students across eight campuses. The school district had been looking for "an integrated solution that would seamlessly share data across different systems to simplify their processes and improve student outcomes, and felt Synergy would best fit their needs," according to a statement from Bob Weathers, founder and CEO of Edupoint, in a news release. The new SIS will give the district student information management functionality, as well as scheduling, gradebook and family engagement capabilities. It will also help the district integrate with other ADE systems, according to a news release from Edupoint. The Synergy Special Education module, which is an optional add-on through the SSIS program, will "enable the district to manage their special education process from start to finish while providing oversight to ensure federal and state regulations are being met," stated the news release. Edupoint modules included in Arizona's SSIS program include School Office Administration, TeacherVUE Gradebook, ParentVUE Web Portal, StudentVUE Web Portal, Scheduling, Querying and Reporting and AZ State Reporting. Synergy Special Education is an optional module not included in the core package. Other modules that the district has the option to adopt through the program include Synergy Online Registration, LessonVUE curriculum and instructional management and Synergy Assessment. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday underscored his concerns about the long range of a powerful U.S. radar that could be deployed in South Korea along with an advanced missile defence system and said Washington should explain its plans. Wang told an event hosted by the Center for International and Strategic Studies think tank that China remained committed to working with the United States and other countries to de-nuclearise the Korean peninsula. He said he was optimistic that the United Nations would agree on a resolution criticizing North Korea for its Jan. 6 nuclear test. But Wang said China remained concerned that the X-band radar to be deployed with the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system built by Lockheed Martin Corp had a range that extended far beyond the Korean peninsula into the interior of China. That in turn, he said, could jeopardise "China's legitimate national security interests." He said the decision was ultimately up to South Korea, and China understood the desire of the United States and South Korea to ensure the defence of their own countries. But he said China had raised concerns about the system's capabilities that should be addressed by the United States. "We believe that China's legitimate security concerns must be taken into account," Wang said. "An explanation must be provided to China." The United States and South Korea agreed earlier this month to start talks about deploying the THAAD system to South Korea to counter the growing threat of North Korea's weapons capabilities after its Feb. 7 launch of a long-range satellite. One U.S. defence official said the talks were on track for next week. At the Pentagon, Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said that if China wanted to prevent consideration of the THAAD system's deployment, it should lean on Pyongyang. "China's interference in a decision that's to be made between alliance partners, the Republic of Korea and the United States, their interference in that process is preposterous, especially when you consider that THAAD is not a threat to China,"" Harris told reporters at the Pentagon. "If China wanted to exert a lot of influence on somebody to prevent THAAD from being considered going into Korea, then they should exert that influence on North Korea." (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Phil Stewart; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Cynthia Osterman) By Aidan Lewis WADI BEY, Libya (Reuters) - An hour's drive from the Libyan city of Sirte, a few dozen troops man outposts along a desert road. They are hoping the West will soon be giving them more help to fight a common enemy: Islamic State. Armed with little more than gun-mounted pick-up trucks, they are a last line of defence against the Sunni Islamist group which controls swathes of Syria and Iraq and which has now taken advantage of chaos in the north African state to seize territory there. Sirte is its stronghold. "They're getting stronger because no one is fighting them," said Misrata forces commander Mahmoud Gazwan at the Wadi Bey checkpoint, a dusty outpost serving as a mobile base for his brigade of fighters. There are signs of a growing Western urgency to stop Islamic State (IS), and Libyan commanders say Western weapons and air strikes will make a vital difference in the coming battle against their better-armed enemy. But Western officials say just as important is the need for a united Libya government to request more aid and for the Libyan forces ranged against IS to bridge their own deep divisions. Five years after Muammar Gaddafi's overthrow and death, Libya is caught in a slow-burn civil war between two rival governments, one in Tripoli and one in the east. Each is backed by competing alliances of former rebel brigades whose loyalties are often more to tribe, region or local commander. Forces from the port city of Misrata - one of the most powerful military factions - have been on the front line of the battle against Islamic State since it took over Sirte a year ago and drew more foreign fighters to its ranks there. Islamic State militants are also fighting in Benghazi to the east, shelling the oil ports of Ras Lanuf and Es Sider. On Tuesday they attacked further west in Sabratha city. U.S. special forces have been holding meetings with potential Libyan allies. U.S. and French drones and British RAF jets are flying reconnaissance missions in preparation for action to help the local forces fighting Islamic State. An air raid by U.S. special forces on Sabratha killed more than 40 Islamic State fighters last week, but there are no international plans to send combat ground troops into Libya. Western governments are wary of large-scale military intervention but fear inaction may allow Islamic State to take deeper root. A U.S. government source said the Obama Administration was pursuing a two-track policy. One is to try to knit competing factions into an effective government. The other track involves air strikes. "When you see an ISIL training camp and we see them doing push-ups and calisthenics every day, they're not there to lose weight," Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the international coalition fighting Islamic State, also known as ISIL or Daesh, told White House reporters. "They're there to train for something, and we're not going to let them do that." CONVERGENCE OF FORCES? U.S. and European officials say infighting between the rival administrations is blocking U.N. efforts to cajole them into a national government capable of rebuilding Libya's army. Tripoli is held by a faction of Islamist-leaning brigades and Misrata fighters who took over the city in 2014 and drove out rivals. Misrata now backs the U.N. deal while some of the Tripoli political leadership is against it. Libya's eastern government is backed by an alliance including the Libyan National Army led by former Gaddafi ally-turned rebel Gen. Khalifa Haftar, and a brigade controlling oil ports. Its ranks are split, including federalists looking for more autonomy for their eastern region. The United Nations-backed presidential council is waiting for approval of its new government from the elected House of Representatives in the east. Frustration is growing in Western capitals after repeated failures of the House to vote or reach a quorum to hold a ballot on the new government. "We have always made clear the intention of providing assistance in fighting Daesh. We need to take action where we can, that requires forces on the ground that we can help and train," said one Western diplomat. "Patience is very short with the House of Representatives." Italy said on Monday it would let U.S. armed drones take off from its soil to defend U.S.-led forces against Islamic State. French special forces and intelligence commandos are engaged in covert operations against IS in Libya in conjunction with the United States and Britain, the French newspaper Le Monde reported on Wednesday. The French defence ministry declined to comment. During the recent fighting in Sabratha, there were signs of cooperation among forces from Zintan and Sabratha brigades who back opposing sides in the wider national conflict. Mattia Toaldo, a Libya expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations, sees a convergence of forces who may agree on little but can work together against IS. Misratan forces backed the new U.N.-supported government and could potentially work with rivals from Haftar's Libyan National Army and the oil guards, who are both aligned with the eastern government, Toaldo said. "We are confident here we can win," says Mohamed al-Oreifi, one of the outpost commanders near the Sirte front line. "But we need support and new weapons." (Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Rome and Mark Hosenball and Roberta Rampton in Washington; writing by Patrick Markey; editing by Andrew Roche) By Humeyra Pamuk and Daren Butler ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey will not be bound by the Syrian ceasefire plan if its security is threatened, and will take "necessary measures" against the Syrian Kurdish YPG and Islamic State if required, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday. The ceasefire process, initiated by Russia and the United States, could be complicated by NATO member Turkey's deep distrust of the Washington-backed Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which controls territory in northern Syria near the Turkish border. Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group and fears it will further stoke unrest among its own Kurdish population. "The ceasefire is not binding for us when there is a situation that threatens Turkey's security; we will take necessary measures against both the YPG and Daesh when we feel the need to," Davutoglu said in comments broadcast live on CNN Turk television. "Daesh" is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. "Ankara is the only place that decides actions regarding Turkey's security," he said. Syria's opposition has indicated it is ready for a two-week truce, saying it is a chance to test the sincerity of the Syrian government in accepting the deal. The YPG told Reuters on Wednesday it would respect a ceasefire, but reserved the right to respond if attacked. Turkey has shelled YPG positions in Syria in recent weeks, saying it was retaliating to cross-border fire. 'DIVIDE SYRIA' Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the YPG and its political wing, the PYD, sought to carve up Syria. "Just like Daesh, they want to divide Syria to form their own management," Cavusoglu told the Anadolu Agency in an interview broadcast live on television. He also said that Saudi planes, due to take part in air strikes against Islamic State, were expected to arrive at Turkey's Incirlik Air Base "today or tomorrow". The Dogan news agency cited army sources as saying Saudi F-15s would arrive at Incirlik on Friday. Turkey regards the YPG as a sister organisation to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in which 40,000 people have been killed. The PKK, which wants autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, is seen as a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the United States and the European Union. SOUTHEAST CLASHES A ceasefire between the PKK and the state collapsed in July and since then Turkey's security forces have killed hundreds of PKK members, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians in the process. In the latest operations, conducted in the Idil district of Sirnak province near the borders with Syria and Iraq, security forces killed 20 PKK militants, the army said on Thursday. One Turkish soldier was killed in the Sur district of Diyarbakir, where a curfew has been in place for more than three months. Separately on Thursday, a British member of parliament was briefly detained in Diyarbakir, the southeast's largest city. Natalie McGarry posted on her Twitter account that she was safe after being questioned. "I was not arrested, but answered some questions. I am absolutely fine and have no further comment," McGarry said. The British Embassy in Ankara had earlier confirmed the incident. British media said McGarry was visiting Turkey as part of a campaign calling on the government to release Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan on the 17th anniversary of his imprisonment. Amnesty International this week said human rights had deteriorated sharply in Turkey's Kurdish areas, estimating that 200,000 civilians had been affected by curfews. "Civilians are unable to access basic rights of life, from food to education to emergency medical care," Ruhat Sena Aksener, Amnesty International's director of campaigns in Turkey, said in an interview. (Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay and Orhan Coskun in Ankara, Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Ruth Pitchford) SWNS

Americans are still waiting for their Goldilocks moment four in five say theyve never found their perfect fit for certain items.

According to a new poll of 1,000 people 250 lbs and over and 1,000 people under 250 lbs, 52% struggle to find clothing, mattresses (40%) and bathtubs or shower enclosures (38%) that fit their body types.

In fact, about two-thirds (67%) find themselves struggling frequently with finding items that fit their body size needs.

This was especially true for those 350 lbs and over, as 41% admit they always struggle, compared to only 23% of those under 250 lbs.

Despite frequency, almost three-quarters (74%) of all respondents find themselves feeling frustrated when they are searching for an item that accommodates their needs.

Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Big Fig Mattress, the survey asked respondents how they go about their everyday lives despite challenges they may face because of their body type.

Results found that seven in 10 respondents feel less confident when they struggle with finding items that fit their size needs.

When asked about other emotions respondents experience, those 250 lbs and over are more likely to feel set apart from others, citing embarrassed (59%) and isolated (53%).

While those who are under 250 lbs tend to lean towards disappointed (51%).

Even so, those 250 lbs and up were more optimistic than those under (35% vs 23%).

The average respondent has crossed off about five brands or retailers because they dont carry products that meet their physical needs.

However, for those who are 250 lbs and over, 72% have eliminated between three and eight stores.

Almost one in five (18%) of those under 250 lbs cited that all stores carry their size, compared to only 2% of those who are 250 lbs and up.

"This survey makes it clear that the 'all' part of 'one size fits all' couldn't be further from the truth," said Jeff Brown, president, Big Fig Mattress. "Almost two in five respondents haven't found something that they felt was made for them. Everybody and every body deserves a long-lasting and comfortable mattress to support a good night's sleep, regardless of your size."

Products made for all body types are an issue no matter what the product, with respondents needing to stand on furniture to reach something (46%) or finding that clothing is either way too long or too short (46%).

And ill-fitting items arent just an inconvenience, 61% of respondents say that clothing, vehicles (59%) and mattresses (50%) that arent made for their body type have a big impact on their quality of life.

More than half of those 250 lbs and over (53%) believe their life is more difficult than for someone who is considered normal sized.

But that doesnt mean respondents are only dwelling on the negative almost half (44%) frequently make light of their struggles.

When asked how they do so, respondents outlined things like, I speak to myself. I'm beautiful and special. I'm impeccable," and Remind myself that if this is the biggest problem I have, then I am doing just fine in life."

The survey also asked about relationship status and how respondents are navigating integrating their lifestyles with another uniquely sized person.

Seventy-four percent of all respondents are in a relationship and living with their significant other.

Almost half (45%) are mixed-size couples, meaning they have a noticeable difference in body size or type.

Because of this, couples face challenges like finding a place to live that accommodates both people (40%), struggling to share a mattress comfortably (40%) and having items that one person uses but the other never would such as step stools (34%).

In the end, more than two-thirds (68%) of all respondents agree that its difficult to navigate a one size fits all world when people have varying body types.

We believe and support being body positive, in body acceptance, and in making positive life choices, noted Brown. Bigger figured people deserve the same level of quality products and choices as everyone else. Its important to accept that all bodies are different and require more from product manufacturers, and I think the data makes that clear.

MOST DIFFICULT ITEMS TO FIND FOR A SPECIFIC BODY TYPE

  • Clothing - 52%
  • Mattress - 40%
  • Bathtub/shower enclosure - 38%
  • Chairs/couch - 35%
  • Bike/scooter - 34%
  • Vehicle - 31%

Survey methodology:

This random double-opt-in survey of 1,000 Americans under 250 lbs and 1,000 Americans 250 lbs and up was commissioned by Big Big Mattress between September 8 and September 21. It was conducted by market research company OnePoll, whose team members are members of the Market Research Society and have corporate membership to the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR).

KKR has agreed to buy into seeds provider Advanta Enterprises in a deal which values the business at about $2.25bn. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless. A right delayed is a right denied.Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. Martin Luther King Jr. No one is born hating another person People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Nelson Mandela We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist James Baldwin There is a fine line between free speech and hate speech. Free speech encourages debate whereas hate speech incites violence. Newton Lee The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything. Albert Einstein You've got to be taughtTo hateAnd fearYou've got to be taughtFrom yearTo yearIts got toBe drummed in your dear little earYou've got toBe carefullyTaughtYou've got to be taughtTo beAfraidOf peopleWho's eyes are oddly madeAnd people who's skin is a different shade South Pacific Songwriters: Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rogers The lending landscape changed irrevocably after the downturn, but how easy is it to get a mortgage in Spain and how much does it cost? How do you get one? This year the Spanish property market is bouncing back in a big way after a few tough years in in many popular areas of the Costas. We don't need to spell out the reasons why Spain has so many things to offer, but with the pound so still so strong and excellent property deals it's a great time to buy a home there. Whilst many of you may be thinking of paying in cash, others may be keen to learn that the opportunities to borrow money in Spain have increased in the past couple of years so do research this option too. Mortgage lenders in Spain Taking out a mortgage from an experienced Spanish lender comes with a lot of added benefits. Firstly it should be mentioned that Spanish lenders are authorized by the Bank of Spain (Banco de Espana) and subject to its supervision. From the offset you will be working with an institution that knows the country and how things work. Their staff - some of whom will be trained to deal with buyers from overseas - will guide you through the home-purchase process in your own language. Their property survey will give you some added reassurance about what you are buying. Their due diligence on the property will ensure it is legal and unencumbered. Their lawyers will accompany you to the notary to guarantee there are no gremlins in the paperwork and that everything is signed correctly - and that the ownership of your new property is registered correctly Having said that, of course taking on a mortgage is a big decision. For everything to work out seamlessly, both parties - the client and the entity - need to be responsible and conscious about all the implications of a mortgage. It's important to get all the information you need in order for you to make the right decision. Here are some basics: Finance up to 70 per cent of the house purchase value Fixed Rate Mortgage or Variable Rate Mortgage Long-term mortgage, of up to 25 years Maximum age at end of the loan of 75 years Total loan repayments should not exceed 35 per cent of your net monthly income Home insurance mandatory by Spanish law Mortgages for new-builds: Each builder has negotiated with his own bank mortgage conditions for the buyers. Nevertheless, the buyers may arrange a mortgage with another Spanish lender if they can get better conditions. The builder generally provides a mortgage offer but it is not mandatory. Mortgages for new-builds will share the characteristics above outlined above. How much does it cost to arrange a mortgage? House valuation fees: maximum 500 Up to 4 per cent mortgage registry fees, notary fees, bank solicitors, mortgage tax Opening fee, up to 2 per cent Redemption fee, up to 0.50 per cent So allow in total up to 4 per cent on top of your other closing/purchase costs The 6 steps to getting a mortgage: Do you know how much you can borrow? Your mortgage expert will advise you Provide the requested documentation to apply for a mortgage With the bank's approval you will agree a deposit to purchase your home Apply for your NIE number in the police station (a required Spanish identification number) Sign all the pre-contractual documentations requested by the Banco de Espana (Bank of Spain) confirming you understand and agree to all the conditions Sign the mortgage deeds at the notary along with the house purchase deed find out more about getting a Spanish mortgage DOWNLOAD OUR FREE GUIDE TO BUYING A PROPERTY IN SPAIN Modified On Feb 25, 2016 06:36 PM By Raunak Hyundai Motor India has inaugurated countrys first ever digital automotive outlet in the capital Unity Hyundai. The company said that the new showroom offers a unique car buying experience to modern shoppers by adopting the digital screens and artworks as per the changing taste of customers. It will provide a customer-centric experience allowing visitors to research, test-drive, part-exchange their old car and purchase a new Hyundai car either with cash or through various finance packages. Moreover, the outlet is staffed with trained and knowledgeable sales representatives. Commenting on the opening of the first digital experience outlet, Mr. Y K Koo, Managing Director, HMIL commented: Hyundai has the customers truly at its heart. This outlet expresses Hyundais modern premium brand identity. Unity Hyundai is Indias first Interactive, Creative and Understanding space which boosts the Hyundai brand value by creating an emotional connect with the existing and future customers. The key drivers for the success of Unity Hyundai - Digital Experience Outlet will be Evolution, Innovation and Experience. This exciting new digital outlet from Hyundai exemplifies these themes to create a unique experience. Speaking of the upcoming cars from the Korean automaker, the company will re-launch the Tucson in the country in the coming months. Hyundai India used to sell the first generation Tucson here but it was discontinued a long time back. The upcoming SUV was showcased at the recently held 2016 Auto Expo and was the third generation of the Tucson nameplate. Read Further About Tucson: Hyundai Tucson: What We Know So Far! Modified On Feb 25, 2016 01:40 PM By Sumit The unrelenting workers at Tatas Sanand facility have continued their strike for the second day. Their protest is over the suspension of 28 workers by the Indian carmaker over alleged indiscipline. Workers want the suspension to be revoked immediately, but the automaker has taken a firm stand over the issue, too. A Labour Department official, who was aware of the issue, said, Strike by a section of workers at Tata Motors plant here entered the second day as the company's management and protesting employees remained adamant on their stand. Mr. M S Patel, assistant labour commissioner further apprised, "Both the management and the workers, who are on strike, are adamant on their stand. The workers are demanding that suspension of all the 28 colleagues be immediately revoked while the company management is saying that they will take a decision on it only after an inquiry. Mr. Patel gave details about the protest and said the automaker had two months ago suspended two workers for indiscipline. As the carmaker had not taken any decision on revoking their suspension for two months, other workers on Monday went on a flash strike. They also scratched some new vehicles inside the plant. Thus, the automaker on Monday suspended another 26 workers after the flash strike. He added that they are trying to mediate between the workers and the company management over the issue from the time they have gone on strike. The company management is saying that they will take a decision regarding the suspended workers only after an inquiry. "Workers have gone on an illegal flash sit-in strike on February 22, demanding reinstatement of the workmen suspended (pending inquiry) for serious misconduct," it said in a statement. "There has been continued agitation for further monetary increase as well as protest against disciplinary action against those instigating the workmen, resulting in serious threat to company personnel as well as losses due to tampering," Tata Motors was quoted. Though they added that there has been no significant impact on production due to the strike. Also Read: Tata's Dharwad plant hit by 'unreasonable' Strike Cannabis is enjoying a major public-image improvement. After all, weve learned that the THC in marijuana has medicinal uses, while the plant fibers in hemp have countless uses in manufacturing. The legitimacy of marijuana is growing as states legalize it and corporations invest substantial resources in cannabinoid research and development. No matter your stance on cannabis, you should get to know the worlds most high-profile plant. So here are some facts and figures on marijuana that may surprise or impress you: In Colorado, (legal) sales of recreational and medical marijuana totaled nearly $1 billion in 2015 Marijuana is a bigger business than many people realize. Although some are worried about the long-term health effects of marijuana use, its clear that legalization comes with some benefits to society namely, more jobs and tax revenue. In 2014, Colorado collected $76 million in total marijuana-related taxes, and it had collected an additional $87 million from January through August of 2015 and much of that revenue went to schools. Indeed, the state collects more from marijuana taxes than from alcohol taxes. Personal-finance website NerdWallet estimated that full nationwide legalization could bring in more than $3 billion in annual tax revenue to our 50 states. Talking Points: - EUR/USD retest of August-October 2014 TL holds as support. - Gold breakout stunted; SPX500 aims for breakout above 1945/50. - Risk management is the cornerstone of long-term success in trading - learn more. After the newswires were overwhelmed for days with stories regarding the UK's June 23 referendum on its membership in the EU, investors may finally be taking a breather to step back and reassess global markets. FX markets have been particularly volatile, especially among the European currencies; but there is a pause there too. Now that the 'shock and awe' factor of a potential 'Brexit' has coursed its way through the system, investors have a chance to recalibrate their short-term concerns with longer-standing, overarching thematic influences like the state of US economic data - will it be strong enough to allow the Federal Reserve to hike rates in the first half of this year? - and how big the scale of the European Central Bank's easing program will be in March. Even if the current calm in the market, particularly around the major GBP-crosses, is fleeting, it nevertheless holds true that the current pause may be attributed to emotions subsiding and logic prevailing. FX markets especially have been treating the Brexit headline since Sunday as an indication that the UK would leave the EU entirely, not that it would be opening up a two-year negotiating window to ammend its status (perhaps realigning itself more like Norway or Switzerland). That's to say the worst case scenario is only being discussed; none of the more likely intermediate options are. Chart 1: US Citi Economic Surprise Index 10 year Seasonality Moving on to the US Dollar, the key theme for the buck is of course the ongoing search for stability in economic data. Market participants have been thoroughly disappointed by US economic data thus far in 2016 as the Citi Economic Surprise Index above shows (chart 1). Yet as discussed in the February 17 article, "US Dollar Desperately Needs Good Data to Offset Losses" and in the February 23 article "Several EUR-, GBP-crosses Testing Breakout Levels," the view that US data has been disappointing is all about context: the FRB of Atlanta's GDPNow growth forecast is still holding up at +2.6% for Q1'16. Markets remain ambivalent about the Fed raising rates (per Fed funds, zero hikes are priced in; there is a 34% chance of a rate hike in December 2016). With a saturated economic calendar over the next two days, simple stability in the data - not even improvement - could go a long way to help calm fears over an immediate downturn in US economic growth, and in turn, help prime rate expecations for at least one rate hike this year. See the above video for technical considerations in EUR/CAD, GBP/CAD, EUR/CHF, AUD/USD, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, and the USDOLLAR Index. Read more: Gold, USD, JPY, Oil, Stocks All Screaming Risk Off --- Written by Christopher Vecchio, Currency Strategist To contact Christopher Vecchio, e-mail cvecchio@dailyfx.com. Follow him on the DailyFX Real Time News feed, Twitter, and Stocktwits at @CVecchioFX. To be added to Christophers e-mail distribution list, please fill out this form. Voltaire To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize Talking Points: - China continues to tiptoe on a dangerous tightrope of debt, and it appears that theyre going to attempt to offset this weakness with more debt. Yesterday brought the announcement that China was opening their debt markets so that foreign investors could participate. - Gaining exposure to China can be a challenge for those outside of the Mainland. For those investors, Japan could be a far more attractive play. The 66.82% overnight right imposed a month ago against Yuan shorts highlights the danger of playing directly against China right now. - The predominant theme for DailyFX coming into 2016 has been long-Yen and short stocks. Click here to access our trading guides, forecasts and top trading ideas for this year. Yesterday we wrote how China was the outlier amongst equity markets as it was one of the few that hadnt traded lower in the 24 hours prior while most other stock markets were showing signs of resistance; and today we have a complete reversal of fortune: China was the sole equity market showing signs of fear last night while the rest of the worlds equities found some element of footing. The Shanghai Composite was down by -6.41% and the Shenzhen Composite was down by -7.34%. The timing of this move is what might be most worrying, as China has essentially been guiding matters since the end of the Lunar New Year two weeks ago. Last week saw the rollout of numerous new measures designed to shore up the Chinese economy, and this weekend brought a fresh sacking of their Securities Regulator, which, for some reason has traditionally led to gains in the immediate days following such a human resources issue. So Chinese stocks extended their gains and looked as though they might be on the cusp of recovery. Even the media in China had begun to look for a bottom being in-place despite having just set a new low not more than a month earlier. But last nights selling erased all of those gains and then some, and now these indices sit below their Lunar New Year re-opening levels, and this is somewhat of the nature of bear markets and down-trends: Hope builds as selling pressure recedes, and this can even last a while, and then BAM another reason for more selling and new lows come in to the market. This is a little more elastic than top-side moves because, in general, human beings feel fear (and losses) far more than they feel joy (and winning gains). This is called prospect theory and we discuss this in our Traits of Successful Traders research series. We discussed a bear flag in Chinese stocks yesterday with a specific focus on the Shanghai Composite. That bear flag is now broken. But as weve been discussing over the past six months, getting exposure to China to trade on any larger risk-aversion themes could be a challenge. For those of us outside of the mainland, we can likely look to Japan to trade that same pressure. This trade can be voiced in two different ways: a) Short Nikkei or b) long Yen. Proactive Planning Both of these are essentially a strategy to trade the continued failure of Abe-nomics, which brought in considerable Yen weakness that led to higher stock prices in Japan. But this was all artifice, at least thats how it appears now, as there was very little signs of actual recovery for the Japanese economy. Even with QE, theyre still on the cusp of deflation. And perhaps more to the point by launching Abenomics in 2012 on the back of massive Yen-dilution, this brought strength into the US Dollar. And this is a US Dollar that was being used to peg the Chinese Yuan by the PBOC. So the net impact of Abe-nomics was a stronger Yuan (against the Yen), and this likely played at least some role in Chinas current conundrum. This is likely something that hasnt gone unnoticed in China. And perhaps more importantly there are few scenarios in which China recesses and Japan doesnt feel it. So, again, for those of us not on the Mainland that generally have restricted asset to domestic Chinese markets, Japan could be a more operative focal point. On the chart below were looking at the Nikkei since the Bank of Japan started buying stocks with the surprise Halloween announcement in 2014. At the time, this was seen as hugely bullish, as one of the biggest players in the world would be supporting Japanese stock prices with Pension Fund money. Only 10 months after making that announcement saw massive volatility out of China, and this brought on a $64 Billion hit to the Japanese Government Pension and Investment Fund. This is a -5.5% drawdown on a pension fund, which is amazing because such accounts are supposed to be low-risk vehicles considering that theyre responsible for peoples retirements. Created with Marketscope/Trading Station II; prepared by James Stanley On the shorter-term setup on the Nikkei, it would appear that were at an interesting juncture as weve basically seen a range develop since global equities started trending higher in the post-Yellen rally. On the chart below, were looking at the 4-hour setup in the Nikkei. Such ranges will often develop near turns, as bulls and bears slug it out to see who is going to take control moving forward. Created with Marketscope/Trading Station II; prepared by James Stanley But this risk likely isnt relegated to just stocks, right? The bane of the problem here goes right back to the Yen. A weak Yen is what helped to propel stocks and now a strong Yen is whats taking them down. And further, Japan tried to bring on more Yen weakness a few weeks ago with another surprise, this time a movement to negative rates, and markets have pretty much hated that move ever since. On the chart below, were looking at USD/JPY. Created with Marketscope/Trading Station II; prepared by James Stanley In the chart above you can see this support zone from 111.500-112.38 holding the lows, for now. And the past three days have setup what could be a morning star pattern (not confirmed until todays close). This is a bullish reversal pattern, so USD/JPY is not yet looking accommodating for additional short positions. But should resistance show in the next few days, that case can change very quickly. However, traders dont have to buy the Yen against what could be another strong currency in the US Dollar. I discussed this in relevance to the Euro in the article, EUR/JPY: Where Weaker Just Means More Negative. The premise of that article is that while Japan might want to deflect capital flows, Europe is in a far more precarious position with a higher probability of deeper monetary action. Since then weve seen that Yen strength mentioned above along with a weak Euro as we approach the March ECB meeting where many investors are, once again, expecting Europe to act. Maybe they do, maybe they dont, but the simple act of this getting priced-in to some degree has allowed some movement lower on the Euro, and for those looking to buy the Yen something like this could be an attractive mannerism of doing so. We have the same current morning-star like formation showing in EUR/JPY that was showing in USD/JPY, but given the greater elasticity of the pair (when adding in prospect of additional Euro weakness), this may offer a more amenable area to look for Yen strength. Let price action move higher, and wait for resistance to show. The level of 126 is extremely interesting in EUR/JPY, as this was the 2015 low and provided considerable support in this most recent deluge lower. Look for resistance at this level in the coming days. Created with Marketscope/Trading Station II; prepared by James Stanley --- Written by James Stanley, Analyst for DailyFX.com To receive James Stanleys analysis directly via email, please SIGN UP HERE Contact and follow James on Twitter: @JStanleyFX Faster rural broadband connections are more likely if BT agrees to open up its cable network to competition to other providers, say farm leaders. The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) and the Farmers Union of Wales (FUW) said they welcomed a decision by telecoms watchdog Ofcom which said BT must open up its network. See also: Farmers still missing out on rural broadband Both organisations have long been campaigning for faster internet services warning that farmers and other rural businesses are suffering from slow or non-existent connections. Ofcom said there was a digital divide between homes and businesses with the latest high-speed fibre connections and those languishing on copper-based phone lines. The watchdog stopped short of ordering BT to be broken up. But it said the company must open up its network of telegraph poles and tunnels so rivals could build their own, advanced fibre networks, connected directly to homes and offices. Ofcom said it also intended to introduce new obligations to improve rural mobile coverage. CLA president Ross Murray called on the wider broadband industry to respect Ofcoms decision and focus on improving broadband services and connections. He said: We have said from the outset that separating BT Openreach [the division of BT that owns the fibre and copper wires that run from the local telephone exchange to homes and businesses] from BT would create a significant distraction from getting homes and businesses connected in rural areas. Ofcoms robust recommendations reflected an ongoing sense that not everything that could be done is being done to deliver universal broadband, said Mr Murray. He added: Now is the time to get on with connecting homes and businesses to the fast broadband they desperately need. FUW president Glyn Roberts said superfast broadband services were still not reaching farmers across Wales despite a lot of investment by the Welsh government. He said: More needs to be done to accelerate the process by which these essential services are readily and reliably available all over Wales not just in urban areas. Access to broadband in rural areas was still well below the national average, with farm businesses representing the highest proportion of those with no access at all. Mr Roberts said: It is essential that the limitations of online services and communications are recognised, and that rural access to broadband is increased. This was especially so because of the governments increasing requirement that farmers should fill out forms online rather than on paper. We cannot stress the fact enough that more needs to be done. Responding to the Ofcom report, BT chief executive Gavin Patterson said the company was willing to let other providers use its network. Mr Patterson said: We are happy to let other companies use our ducts and poles if they are genuinely keen to invest very large sums as we have done. Our ducts and poles have been open to competitors since 2009 but there has been little very interest to date. We will see if that now changes. Global carbon budget reassessed downwards, but do we really have a safe carbon budget? The latest study identifies we have less time and carbon budget to act on climate change than previously thought. To aspire to meet the 1.5C target, as agreed to in the UNFCCC Paris Agreement or even the well below 2 degree C target, we are going to need to make substantial emission reductions this decade and continue with that trend. Research on carbon budgets by Joeri Rogelj et al (2016) - Differences between carbon budget estimates unravelled (abstract) published in Nature Climate Change, warns that the global carbon budget has been over-estimated. "For a >66% chance of limiting warming below the internationally agreed temperature limit of 2 C relative to pre-industrial levels, the most appropriate carbon budget estimate is 5901,240 GtCO2 from 2015 onwards. Variations within this range depend on the probability of staying below 2 C and on end-of-century non-CO2 warming. Current CO2 emissions are about 40 GtCO2 yr1, and global CO2 emissions thus have to be reduced urgently to keep within a 2 C-compatible budget." the study abstract concludes. This carbon budget estimate is half of the previous range of from 590 billion to 2.4 trillion tonnes of CO2. Our carbon dioxide emissions are about 40 billion tonnes in 2015. The carbon budget would be spent in about 15 to 30 years for the 2 degrees C target. We have figured out that this budget is at the low end of what studies indicated before, said lead author Dr Joeri Rogelj, a climate scientist at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. "If we dont start reducing our emissions immediately, we will blow it in a few decades." For a 1.5C target, the carbon budget "would be exhausted in about one decade," Dr Rogelj told AFP, according to Phys.org. "It is beyond doubt that ambition thus needs to be increased radically from anything we have experienced to stabilise warming at either 1.5C or 2.0C, or even higher temperature levels," The study looked at reasons why past research may have over-estimated the carbon budget. While Carbon dioxide accounts for more than 80 percent of global warming, other gases such as methane and nitrous oxide are also key. The researchers concluded that many of those previous studies neglected some of the warming effects from those other greenhouse gases. "In our proposed carbon budget range, we take into account warming by all human emissions, and thus shave of the top-end of studies that looked at CO2 only." said Rogelj. The only good news is that CO2 Emissions Stabilized in 2014, according to the International Energy Agency. They reported in March 2015 that "Global emissions of carbon dioxide stood at 32.3 billion tonnes in 2014, unchanged from the preceding year." This is important as it is the first time emissions have stabilised during a period of global economic growth. But it is still far from sufficient if we are to decarbonize by mid-century. Australian Climate activist and author David Spratt reckons that with a 90 per cent chance of keeping below 2 degrees C of global warming we have already used up the carbon budget. See the graph above To read his explanation see: No carbon budget left to burn from July 2014. He argues that most carbon budgets don't factor in that agriculture and deforestation will continue to have emissions, even after we succeed in decarbonizing our electricity sector. Also climate feedbacks such as carbon released from permafrost or ocean clathrates have not been included. Reduction in cooling from human caused particulates and aerosols when we reduce carbon emissions also needs to be factored in. And we have aviation emissions which continue to grow and may blow any hope of achieving the 2 degree ParisAgreement target. Oakland Education Association members and supporters of public education marched and rallied in Oakland against charters and privatization of education. Kathleen Carroll, a lawyer and advocate of the repeal of California charter laws discussed the systemic corruption in the charter school industry and also how religious groups are using publicly funded charter schools to push religion. March and Rallies In Oakland Protesting Charters and Education Privatization & The CA Charter Repeal Initiative & Public Education With Lawyer And Public Education Advocate Kathy CarrollOakland Education Association teachers and supporter of public education rallied and marched in Oakland against "common enrollment" and the privatization through charters that are destroying public education. Participants discussed how public funds are being siphoned off from public schools and cults like the Gulen controlled Magnolia school chain are bringing their ideology into the schools.This action took place on February 23, 2016.Production of Labor Video ProjectThe CA Charter Repeal Initiative & Public Education With Lawyer And Public Education Advocate Kathy CarrollKathy Carroll, a lawyer and public education advocate who also was a whistleblower at the Commission on Teacher Credentialing CTC discusses the growing corruption crisis in the charter school system. She outlines the systemic conflicts of interests and how religious cults have used the lack of regulation in charters to propagate religious ideology in their schools using public funds. This interview was done in Oakland, California during a march and rally by the Oakland Education Association OEA against privatization and charter schools.For more information:Production of Labor Video Project Owensboro, KY An An asbestosis lawsuit brought by plaintiff Doris White and scheduled to go to trial this month underwent some changes in December of last year, although the case was preserved. The circumstances of the case, while not unique, are nonetheless a little different from the everyday fodder of the legal blotter. White, the plaintiff who suffers from an asbestos disease, was married at one time to Ronald Eades, an asbestos worker who spent much of his career as a union insulator at Triangle Insulation and Sheet Metal Co. Eades, according to court documents, would habitually wear his work clothes home. White would shake them out prior to laundering the clothing.White, who was married to Eades in the 1960s and 1970s before their divorce in 1985, inhaled asbestos dust her husband brought home on his work uniforms, or so it is alleged. Eades himself suffered from asbestosis disease, whereas White was diagnosed with asbestos mesothelioma, a similar form of asbestos cancer.Asbestosis and related asbestos diseases are almost always caused by exposure to asbestos, and are usually fatal. The aftereffects of such exposure can incubate and languish in the body for years and sometimes decades without the individual even being aware, before suddenly emerging without warning.It is not known if Eades is still living.According to theof Owensboro, Kentucky (12/24/15), White has previously reached settlement agreements with some of the plaintiffs in her asbestosis claim, including Big Rivers, Domtar, Goodrich and Hoosier Energy.Other plaintiffs in the asbestosis compensation lawsuit include General Electric, Goodyear, Indianapolis Light and Power, York International Corp. and Alcoa amongst other plaintiffs, together with Triangle Sheet Metal Co. Nine remaining defendants in total made a bid in December of last year to seek dismissal from the lawsuit based partially on an argument that there could not be a unified defense in the lawsuit.However, it has been reported that the trial judge dismissed most of their arguments.Its a complicated asbestosis lawsuit, in that White is litigating against Eadess employer - Triangle - as well as a host of companies that supplied materials allegedly containing asbestos to Triangle. Some of the defendants that acted as suppliers argued that Triangle had the duty to protect Eades as their employee, and thus to protect White by extension.Most of the defendants argue that White was never a direct employee, never having set foot in, or on, their premises.According to the(9/18/15) in a report published in September of last year, Daviess County Circuit Court Judge Joe Castlen had characterized arguments and positions taken by the defendants as subterfuge, based on the undue delay it might cause.Subterfuge can be defined in various ways, Castlen said, according to the report. One of which is the real purpose of these motions is not to develop evidence from these people, because that can already be done, but to delay the trial thats scheduled for February.Weve got a lady thats dying.Case information was not available. As you might expect, Royals GM Dayton Moore doesnt accept the conventional wisdom that his club is primed to contend only over the next two seasons. Sure, its important that we maximize our current situation, Moore tells MLB.coms Jeffrey Flanagan. People ask me about [the two-year window] and I say, Our window is right now. But we feel that way every year now. And that will mean trying to keep our internal players. Such key stars as Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Wade Davis will all hit free agency after the 2017 season, though Moore said its wrong to assume there will be a mass exodus. The Royals will make an effort to re-sign as many of those free agents as they can, Moore said, pointing out that the Royals stepped up to re-sign Alex Gordon this offseason. Even if some players do leave, K.C. hopes to replace them via a strong minor league pipeline to keep the team in perpetual contention. Heres more from around the AL Central The Royals are still interested in re-signing Greg Holland , Moore tells Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star. There hasnt been much buzz around Holland this offseason, which isnt surprising given how the former All-Star closer underwent Tommy John surgery in September. The Royals non-tendered Holland in the wake of that surgery but had interest in bringing him back on a multi-year deal so hed be ready to pitch for them when hes healthy in 2017. are still interested in re-signing , Moore tells Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star. There hasnt been much buzz around Holland this offseason, which isnt surprising given how the former All-Star closer underwent Tommy John surgery in September. The Royals non-tendered Holland in the wake of that surgery but had interest in bringing him back on a multi-year deal so hed be ready to pitch for them when hes healthy in 2017. Letting catcher Alex Avila go to the White Sox in free agency made sense from a baseball standpoint for Tigers general manager Al Avila, though it was obviously a tougher personal decision for the elder Avila to part ways with his son, Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today writes. I miss my son. I wish he was here because Id get to see him every day, the GM said. In fact, last spring training we roomed together. This year Im by myself. You would think my wife would be here with me today, but shes actually in Arizona with him and the grandkids. And now I have family members wearing Chicago White Sox gear. go to the in free agency made sense from a baseball standpoint for general manager Al Avila, though it was obviously a tougher personal decision for the elder Avila to part ways with his son, Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today writes. I miss my son. I wish he was here because Id get to see him every day, the GM said. In fact, last spring training we roomed together. This year Im by myself. You would think my wife would be here with me today, but shes actually in Arizona with him and the grandkids. And now I have family members wearing Chicago White Sox gear. The Twins have interest in several Cuban free agents, 1500ESPN.coms Darren Wolfson hears from a source (Twitter link), though high asking prices are an obstacle. have interest in several Cuban free agents, 1500ESPN.coms Darren Wolfson hears from a source (Twitter link), though high asking prices are an obstacle. Fernando Abads minor league deal with the Twins will pay him $1.25MM if he makes the Major League roster and he has another $100K available in incentives, as per Wolfson and Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter links). Legit.ng is #1 online trusted source of the latest news in Nigeria. We are covering Nigeria news, Niger delta, world updates, and Nigerian newspaper reviews. We guide our readers to the world of politics, business, energy, sports, entertainment, fashion, lifestyle and human interest stories. - Senator insists that negotiation is the best way to rescue kidnapped Chibok secondary school girls - Warns that there are certain individuals benefiting from insurgency in the country - Hails President Buhari's anti-terrorism battle If recent reports are anything to go by, the over 200 secondary school girls kidnapped from Chibok over a year ago are still alive. This much was disclosed by Shehu Sani, the senator representing Kaduna central senatorial district, who insisted that the missing Chibok girls will be found, on the grounds that the federal government negotiates with some persons to 'extract' the girls from danger. According to Premium Times, Sani, who spoke in Akure, during a symposium held as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of Ondo state on Wednesday, Febryary 24, noted happenings in the country right now reveal that the reign of bloodshed by Boko Haram in the last seven years was strengthened by a few greedy people who profited from the situation. READ ALSO: Just In: Army thwart Boko Haram attempt on Dikwa, 28 killed (photos) He said: "Something that has bothered some of us here in line with the insurgency is, when will the Chibok girls be freed. "Someone said the Chibok girls will never be free, but I can tell you that they will be free and they are alive. "There are two ways to get them: the first is to use force to free them and before you apply force, you have to know where they are. You also have to weigh the consequences of raiding the camp with such number of persons, because the insurgents have nothing to lose. "The second option is to explore ways of extracting them out through negotiation and negotiation is still possible." Speaking further, Sani informed that the federal government needs to reach out to some people who may help with the negotiation. According to him, "There are a few people, not a panel of eminent Nigerians or a panel, there are a few people who the government needs to reach out to." Sani stated however, that the issue of insurgency is beneficial to some Nigerians who have sabotaged initial efforts to negotiate with the terrorists with a view to resolving the impasse between them and the federal government. He lamented that, "they said they were going to free the girls on the condition we freed their people. And when we came to the negotiating table, and the government said it cannot free the terrorists because they have done a lot of harm. "For those who have been following events in the last six to seven years, we have seen how some of us from the north, particularly myself, I tried to find an alternative means of addressing the problem of the insurgency. "I took the risk of reaching out to the insurgents and initiating a process of dialogue, about three to four times and it was sabotaged by those who were benefitting from the bloodshed and I think the unfolding events in the country clearly shows to all Nigerians that there were people who see that seven years of bloodshed, of mass murder, of genocide as an opportunity for them to amass wealth. READ ALSO: Nigerian soldiers make serious demand before going to fight Boko Haram "It is not possible to say that an insurgent group or people not more than two to three thousand have proved so difficult for a nation of 175 million people to crush. "A nation like ours with a reputable armed forces and have performed creditably well in peace keeping missions in Liberia and sierra Leone and Congo and other countries of the world. "It was so clear that some see it as an opportunity, like the Chinese saying, some people see crisis as a struggle, others see it as an opportunity. "That is why it dragged on for so long, but I hope with the present administration, at least progress has been made in terms of degrading the capacity and ability of Boko Haram to take up territories." Only yesterday, Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen Tukur Buratai secretly met with elders in Borno state. He vowed to ensure that all the Chibok girls are rescued along with all other hostages held by the Boko Haram terrorists, with the freedom of the school girls to be treated as top priority. The COAS also declared that the war against Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT) in the northeast has now entered into the mop-up phase. Source: Legit.ng http://donpolson.blogspot.com/ Bringing you the very best information, analysis and opinion from around the web. NOTE: For videos that don't start--go to article link to view. One of comedian Matt Filipowicz's patented rants. One area that has, in my opinion, not gotten enough attention in the Democratic primary race is climate change. And right off the bat, I am going to say something that might upset some people. In the Democratic primary, a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for fracking. Just this week, on HillaryClinton.com, Hillary Clinton's own campaign website, she put forward, her fracking plan. Remember, this is from HillaryClinton.com. This isn't from some far left wing website. This isn't from GranolaCrunchingHippy.com. This is HillaryClinton.com. On her Briefing page, it reads: "Clinton will ensure SAFE and RESPONSIBLE natural gas production as we move towards a clean energy future." Sounds nice right? Safe. Responsible. Clean. Unfortunately, in 2016, as we sit on the brink of climate disaster due to man-made climate change, there is NO SUCH THING as safe and responsible natural gas production. I'm sorry. There's not. We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Period. Full stop. And I'm sure most of you know this, but fracking is obviously not safe nor responsible. Fracking destroys water supplies. Fracking causes earthquakes. Trains carrying fracked fuel derail and explode. We cover these exploding bomb trains on the show all the time. There's this myth out there, perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry and their backers, that fracking and natural gas is clean. And yes, there is less carbon emitted by natural gas. But carbon is not the ONLY greenhouse gas. Fracking and the production of natural gas produces methane. Lots and lots of methane, which is another greenhouse gas. Over the first 20 years, methane is actually 80 times worse than carbon. And right now, in 2016, while we're supposedly trying to keep the planet from warming to an unsustainable level... putting more methane in the atmosphere is suicide. Not to mention natural gas pipelines crack and leak methane all the time. Like what just happened in California. The truth is we cannot frack our way to a sustainable climate. But, according to her own website, that's what Hillary Clinton wants to do. Why? Why? This actually isn't rhetorical. I know this is going to shock you, but the Clintons actually have pretty deep ties to the fossil fuel industry. The Huffington Post reported in July that "Nearly all of the lobbyists bundling contributions for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clintons campaign have at one time or another worked for the fossil fuel industry." The day before the Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton attended a gala fundraiser in Pennsylvania at a major fracking and fossil fuel investment firm. As Secretary of State, Hillary worked closely with the fossil fuel industry to push fracking all over the world. There's an amazing Mother Jones article from 2014 on this. She helped secure contracts for companies like Chevron and Exxon Exxon who by the way is the United State's largest natural gas producer. The Clinton Foundation has received millions from the dirty energy industry. Hell, on HillaryClinton.com, on their page bragging about Hillary and fracking they actually use the term Renewable Natural Gas. That's a term I would expect a Republican to say Renewable Natural Gas. Fracking is not the same as solar. Fracking is not the same as wind. Look, when it comes to November, if Hillary is the nominee, of course there are reasons to vote for her. None of us wants a president Trump. But this isn't November. We actually do have a choice. There are big differences between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. This is one of them. You may have legitimate reasons you feel Clinton is the better choice than Sanders. I have plenty of friends who are Clinton supporters. But realize, when you cast that vote, that vote will result in MORE fracking. One of my favorite progressive comedian-polemicists is Matt Filipowicz. From time to time on his podcast (interestingly, it's named The Matthew Filipowicz Show ) he does what he calls a Rant. And yes, the capital R is called for.These mini-editorials are well done, almost always as well researched as a news or opinion article, and to my ear, well performed as well. He recently did one on one of my favorite topics, the climate. Or rather, carbon emissions and the climate. Or more particularly, Hillary Clinton, carbon emissions and the climate.With Matt's permission, I'd like to present that piece in full. I have vetted every statement, and I could have written each one myself. There's not a single untrue statement in this piece. Added links are mine.Below is a lightly edited transcript of the video at the top. Enjoy (italics mine; screaming, that's all Matt):Me again. "Renewable natural gas"? There it is:That's like "renewable coal," right? All you have to do is go find more.(Blue America has endorsed Bernie Sanders for president. If you'd like to help out, go here ; you can adjust the split any way you like at the link. If you'd like to "phone-bank for Bernie," go here . You can volunteer in other ways by going here . And thanks!)GP Labels: Bernie Sanders, comedy, fracking, Gaius Publius, Hillary Clinton - Cameroons political prisoner alleged that Biafra main join forces with Southern Cameroon - IPOB is ready to work with any group which wants to be freed from prosecution - The security analyst says that coalition is very possible, while UK government denied such development Ebenezer Akwanga Ebenezer Akwanga, the human rights activist and former political prisoner, in an interview granted to IBTimes UK has said that Biafra movement in Nigeria may join its forces with Southern Cameroon to achieve independence. Akwanga supposes that human right violations of secessionist mobvements in Southern Cameroons are the same. The man, who is now the president of the Southern Cameroons Youth League, was imprisoned and tortured in 1977 in Cameroon for six years due to his political activism. The activist believes his people might collaborate with pro-Biafrans in south-eastern Nigeria, who are also willing to become independent. "Political sequences took place which affected our culture, language, traditions, everything that makes us a people," he said. READ ALSO: Asari Dokubo speaks about Biafra name "Around 1984 the Cameroon Anglophone Movement started. It was first looking for a return to a federal system of governance and later on became the Southern Cameroon Restoration Movement. "The Southern Cameroons Youth League was born and our goal was simple: We wanted the total and unconditional independence of the Southern Cameroons." On the other hand, a coordinator of Indigenous People of Biafra in Anambra state, who asked not to be named, confirmed pro-Biafrans and people in Southern Cameroons might join their forces. "IPOB is ready to work or join forces with any group seeking for independence from slavery and persecution. And our people in Southern Cameroon are not any different," the coordinator stated. David Otto, CEO of UK-based global security provider TGS Intelligence Consultants, has said that a coalition between the two separatist movements is very expected and could further destabilize the region. He said: "Although the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNS) is purely a peaceful movement, they could be tempted to join forces with the Biafra movement, which has been vocal in their willingness to use arms against the Nigerian government. READ ALSO: Kanu's wife reveals why her husband supports Biafra "The Biafran movement will prefer to use their affiliation with members of the SCNC to secure a safe haven in Cameroon or perhaps use Cameroon as a point to launch attacks against the Nigerian government. "The entire region will be in chaos from both ends and it will be easier for Boko Haram terrorists to hijack the opportunity and extend southwards in Cameroon and Nigeria. "There is no need for government to wait until arms and violence becomes the only option. Self determination referendums have been successfully done in many countries including Ethiopia, UK, Canada, Spain, etc. In a democratic setting, let the people decide their destiny." The UK government, reacting to the development, said: "The position of the UK government during the Biafran War is a matter of historical record. The UK government's position, which reflected the Charter of the Organisation of African Unity, was to recognise the borders laid down at Independence. "The Biafran War caused great suffering and the UK supported the reconciliation work that followed the conflict. The UK supports the territorial integrity of Nigeria and President Buhari's commitment to work for a secure and prosperous Nigeria for all Nigerians." President Muhammadu Buharis administration has always insisted that the unity of the country is a priority and that while peaceful protests are welcome, asking for the separating the Biafran territories is against the constitution. The Nigerian police also denied accusations of violence during pro-Biafran protests, saying that security forces had to intervene as pro-Biafrans "were armed and disrupted peace in the state". The arrest of Radio Biafra director Nnamdi Kanu in October 2015 caused a new wave of protests. Source: Legit.ng Omaha World-Herald how he felt about his conservative recruit, Brad Ashford, a Nebraska Republican state senator, getting into Congress as a Democrat and voting far more with the GOP than with the Democrats, When then-DCCC head Steve Israel was asked by a reporter for thehow he felt about his conservative recruit, Brad Ashford, a Nebraska Republican state senator, getting into Congress as a Democrat and voting far more with the GOP than with the Democrats, Israel responded "It doesn't concern me, it doesn't faze me, it doesn't bother me." No, it wouldn't. Israel is now Pelosi's head of House Democratic messaging and he, along with other unscrupulous DC party bosses, have admitted they want to entice Bernie's grassroots supporters into contributing to candidates like Ashford and the other garbage candidates who the DCCC-- like "former" Republicans Monica Vernon in Iowa, Mike Parrish in Pennsylvania and Mike Derrick in New York-- and DSCC-- "former" Republican Patrick Murphy-- recruit on a regular basis. It's especially galling to watch these conservatives using the word "progressive" to describe themselves during primary season. It's linguistic fraud. It isn't popular in Democratic primaries for a candidate to run as a conservative even if that's what they are. You keep seeing Hillary Clinton, who-- after she was finished campaigning for Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller and was no longer a student at Wellesley College, where she was president of the Young Republicans-- switched to the Democratic Party but was always a conservative Democrat. She felt fine sitting on the Board of Walmart and later telling her Senate colleagues that marriage equality should be off the table because marriage MUST remain "between one man and one woman," and now accepting millions and millions of dollars from Wall Street banksters and K Street lobbyists. That's the behavior conservative Democrats share with Republicans. But not something they want to highlight during primary season. So they called themselves "progressives." Steve Israel, who hates progressives far more than he hates Republicans, encourages even the most conservative Democrats stuck in a primary battle to make the word meaningless by using it over and over and over until voters are confused or even turned off. It's what conservative Democrats did to the word "liberal." Yesterday and the day before I got letters from the frantic and desperate Patrick Murphy campaign-- horrified that Alan Grayson's polling lead in the Florida primary has continued to grow-- asserting that Murphy is a progressive. Patrick Murphy-- the one who has one of the most right-wing, anti-working family voting records of any Democrat in Congress? Who voted for the Keystone XL Pipeline half a dozen times? Who voted to create the Benghazi witch-hunt Committee to destroy Hillary Clinton? Who voted for oil drilling off Florida's pristine beaches? Who has worked in the House Financial Services Committee on behalf of his Wall Street financiers to undermine and sabotage Dodd-Frank? Yes, that Patrick Murphy. He actually tried making the case that he's a progressive and Alan Grayson isn't! Chuck Schumer told him it would be good politics. They even dragged poor, old, increasingly senile Harry Reid into it! Patrick Murphy, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer I noticed the other day when Chris Matthews' conservative lobbyist wife endorsed Wall Street-friendly establishment Democrat Chris Van Hollen for Senate against progressive icon Donna Edwards, she (Kathleen Matthews) kept referring to herself as a "progressive." But she isn't a progressive. She's an upper class conservative who's pro-Choice. Progressives are tribunes for working families. Democrats like Kathleen Matthews have contact with working families when they hire them as servants. Tim Canova, who's running for the seat Debbie Wasserman Schultz drew for herself when she was in the Florida state legislature, didn't need me to ask twice. He Referred to Huffington Post by Zach Carter who wrote that the Canova-Wasserman Schultz primary "could well reveal more about the Democratic Party than any other contest in this cycle, including the one for president... Its a test of whether progressive ideas or corporate money are more central to the Democratic Partys future." And earlier today he told me that his "is a truly progressive agenda-- to rebuild our country, provide jobs and educational opportunities for all, and force the wealthiest corporations to start paying their fair share in taxes. As head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Wasserman Schultz recently reversed President Obamas long-standing ban on corporate lobbyist donations to the DNC. This opens the door to the same corporate interests that have been funding her own campaigns-- the Wall Street banks, huge corporations, and big alcohol and private prison companies. Thats why she keeps voting to deregulate Wall Street, fast-track terrible trade deals that threaten our public health, jobs and the environment, and continue with a disastrous war on drugs, privatized prisons and mass incarceration. I am proud that our campaign is different. We dont take a penny of corporate money and we never will. And when elected, we will not owe any favors to corporate special interests." The misuse of the word "progressive" bothered me enough so that I asked some of the Blue America candidates if they're finding this phenomena in their own races., who's running for the seat Debbie Wasserman Schultz drew for herself when she was in the Florida state legislature, didn't need me to ask twice. He Referred to an article at theby Zach Carter who wrote that the Canova-Wasserman Schultz primary "could well reveal more about the Democratic Party than any other contest in this cycle, including the one for president... Its a test of whether progressive ideas or corporate money are more central to the Democratic Partys future." And earlier today he told me that his "is a truly progressive agenda-- to rebuild our country, provide jobs and educational opportunities for all, and force the wealthiest corporations to start paying their fair share in taxes. As head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Wasserman Schultz recently reversed President Obamas long-standing ban on corporate lobbyist donations to the DNC. This opens the door to the same corporate interests that have been funding her own campaigns-- the Wall Street banks, huge corporations, and big alcohol and private prison companies. Thats why she keeps voting to deregulate Wall Street, fast-track terrible trade deals that threaten our public health, jobs and the environment, and continue with a disastrous war on drugs, privatized prisons and mass incarceration. I am proud that our campaign is different. We dont take a penny of corporate money and we never will. And when elected, we will not owe any favors to corporate special interests." Alex Law in South Jersey has a similar race against an even more overtly conservative opponent. "Donald Norcross," he reminded us, "has voted with Republicans more than any Democrat in the entire New Jersey delegation. His first vote in Congress was for the Keystone XL Pipeline. He has voted against the President by going against the Iran Deal and the refugee bill. He has consistently sided with his campaign donors Monsanto and Lockheed Martin through his votes on GMO labeling and defense contracts. He has voted to extend the Patriot Act, voted to support unfair lending practices to minorities, and has refused to take a stand for campaign finance reform. Mr. Norcross is not a progressive. But, now that our campaign has been successful, he has tried to make voters think he shifted to the left by supposedly supporting a $15 an hour minimum wage. The problem is, not only does his plan take 10 years to do it, it also includes clauses that give huge, sellable tax credits to companies that act early. Which means, Mr. Norcross essentially wants poor and middle class tax payers to bribe corporations for their raise. Our campaign is truly progressive. We endorsed Bernie Sanders as soon as he announced he was running. We support sustainable energy, campaign finance reform, LGTBQ rights, health care for all, and many other progressive issues. We proudly support #blacklivesmatter. This campaign has awakened a progressive spirit here in South Jersey by knocking on tens of thousands of doors and making tens of thousands of phone calls. We have been supported by over a thousand individual donors chipping in when they can because they are saying collectively with us, 'Enough is enough!' Mr. Norcross is not a progressive; he has been more conservative than many Republicans. For him to say or imply otherwise is so thoroughly misleading, he should be ashamed." Mike Noland is a state senator with a somewhat different situation. A longtime progressive with an impeccable record, he's running for an open blue congressional seat in the 'burbs west of O'Hare, through Schaumburg out to Elgin and Carpentersville. He's considered one of the most pro-union legislators in Illinois and for obvious reasons-- he's had to work his entire life. He started by shining shoes at the age of 7, working all throughout high school and driving a limo at night while attending law school. All of this is in sharp contrast to his opponent, Raja Krishnamoorthi, who enjoyed the privilege of financial support all throughout his academic career and then went to work for a multi-national law firm, Kirkland and Ellis. K&Es clients include BP, Bain Capital, and United Airlines. Raja was an attorney of record for United Airlines during their bankruptcy. As part of the settlement, United cut over 58,000 jobs and the pensions of its employees. That's not what progressives do-- not ever. As a member of the general assembly Noland has voted multiple times to raise the minimum wage in Illinois. As someone who has worked minimum wage jobs himself, he supports a national minimum wage of $15 per hour. Meanwhile, Raja supports a $10.10 minimum wage that would leave thousands of low wage employees still living in poverty. Raja tries claiming he's a progressive too but he can't deny he was the co-author of a paper praising the virtue of privatizing important public services stating doing so is "just a matter of math." Mike, on the other hand, has consistently fought to protect essential government sector jobs for teachers, first responders and health care providers through Medicaid. An especially telling and deep contrast between Mike and his opponent is Mike's steadfast opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Mike has recognized since the beginning that the TPP would be bad news for American workers and said so publicly. Raja, on the other hand, trying to appeal to his corporate base, only recently, followed along, reluctantly stating his opposition to TPP while ignoring the fact that just a few years ago he said that he supported the President's fast track authority. Voters in the 8th district must wonder if the "R" in Raja stands for Republican. As for Mike, he told us that "when youve got as strong a progressive record as I have you really dont even have to call yourself one. Those who know you, know." Blue America endorsed Mike, as well as Alex and Tim and you can find them on this page We're also seeing this in a district north of Chicago where Brad Schneider, a conservative New Dem who was defeated in 2014, when Democratic voters in the district stayed away from the polls in droves to protest his Republican-lite record, is trying to pose as a progressive for his primary fight against Nancy Rotering, the progressive mayor of Highland Park. A couple hours ago Rotering said "While in office my opponent, Brad Schneider, voted against President Obama 37% of the time, more than almost any Democrat in Congress, yet he calls himself a progressive. He even voted with Republicans repeatedly to delay and undermine Obamacare. And he also claims to be a champion for gun control, yet shied away from dozens of opportunities to take a stand." Nanette Barragan has a similar situation. She's running for an open blue seat in L.A.'s South Bay and has a has a similar situation. She's running for an open blue seat in L.A.'s South Bay and has a corrupt conservative state senator running against her, Isadore Hall. "I stand by my progressive values," he said when we asked her, "not because its easy or popular, but because I believe that as a public servant, it is my job to move my community forward, no matter the political cost. While I was fighting to protect our community from special interests in an oil industry trying to take advantage of us, my opponent abandoned his heavily polluted district in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from the oil and tobacco industries." Alan Grayson hasn't been holding back against the self-proclaimed DC bosses on both sides of the aisle, the ones with their hands on the Wall Street money taps. "Barack Obama was not born in Kenya," he wrote today. "Hillary Clinton did not kill Vince Foster. Bernie Sanders does not hold an Israeli passport. And it is so, so pathetic that the corrupt, inept bureaucrats who call themselves our 'leaders' have to stoop so low as to make the same kind of baseless smirches against me. Just today, they tried to put it out there that Im not a real progressive. Excuse you?" Im fighting a political life-and-death struggle against a Democratic Party D.C. Establishment that has betrayed progressive principles over and over and over again, over my very loud objection. (No wonder they dont love me.) Look at what theyve done: The Democratic Establishment killed the public option. The Democratic Establishment refused to punish the banksters. The Democratic Establishment wasted billions of dollars on bailouts. The Democratic Establishment keeps pushing for Social Security benefit cuts. The Democratic Establishment opposes Medicare for All. The Democratic Establishment implemented huge tax cuts for multinational corporations. The Democratic Establishment has shipped millions of jobs overseas. The Democratic Establishment has taxed union benefits, and refused to put EFCA up to a Senate vote. The Democratic Establishment has collaborated in the destruction of affirmative action. And thats just off the top of my head. Look at their appalling sell-out record. Then look back at mine. Youll see a Congressman who not only cares about working people, but gets good things done for them. Who actually delivers for progressives, and for our progressive principles of justice, equality and peace. And them? Liars, losers, fakers and sellouts. Let's not let them and their media lackeys drive this guy out of Congress with their shameless piles of lies, smears and distortions. Please tap on the thermometer: - Ifeanyi Ubah laments current foreign exchange crisis facing the nation - Faults fiscal policy being employed by the CBN and the Ministry of Fiance The Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas, Ifeanyi Ubah has said the current economic crisis bedeviling the country should have prompted government officials saddled with fiscal responsibilities in the country to have resigned their appointments. Ifeanyi Ubah has accused the Ministry of Finance and the CBN of applying only academic fiscal policies rather than practical ones in the face of economic challenges bedeviling the country. The businessman, speaking on a programme on Raypower FM, on Thursday, February 25, blamed the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun and the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele for the current foreign exchange crisis facing the nation. READ ALSO: N200 to $1: Nigerians react to Ifeanyi Ubah's claim Ubah faulted fiscal policy being employed by the Ministry Finance and the apex bank in dealing with the fiscal challenges experienced in Nigeria. He accused both agencies of applying only academic fiscal policies rather than practical ones, noting that the government officials saddled with fiscal responsibilities should have resigned by now in the face of the current crisis. This is not the first time Ifeanyi Ubah would be speaking on the economic challenges facing the country, few days ago he restated his earlier stance to improve the value of the Naira, vowing to bring it to N200 to $1 if the federal government would give him the opportunity to become its chief consultant on financial stability. READ ALSO: Ifeanyi Ubah says he has the solution to Nigeria's problems The business tycoon on Tuesday, February 23, said as a businessman and an economist, he is worried by the continuous fall of Naira and promised to stabilize it within a month, adding that failure to delivery on this promise, his asset worth over N500 billion should be forfeit. Source: Legit.ng Its the end of the line for the embattled Dick Smith Electronics retail chain, with all stores set to close after a suitable buyer for the business could not be found. Earlier today receivers Ferrier Hodgson, who have been handling the company ever since it went into voluntary administration last month, announced the decision that will see 301 stores in Australia and 62 in New Zealand close their doors over the next eight weeks. The closures will see nearly 3,000 people lose their jobs. The business had been searching for an appropriate buyer ever since it shockingly went into administration a few weeks ago, capping off months of uncertainty and epic fire sales that saw prices in all stores slashed to near nothing. James Stewart, one of the principal receivers handling the struggling company, stated that whilst there were offers on the table from interested parties, none came close to being satisfactory. While we received a significant number of expressions of interest from local and overseas parties, unfortunately the sale process has not resulted in any acceptable offers for the group as a whole or for Australia or New Zealand as stand-alone businesses. The offers were either significantly below liquidation values or highly conditional or both. The receivers also provided no information on how the company will handle any outstanding Gift Cards being held by customers. Its likely theyll simply disappear into the ether, as a Gift Card holder is classified as an unsecured creditor of the company, meaning theres no guarantee of money back if the arse-end falls out of the business. Which it has in this case. All staff in Australia are expected to be paid out their full entitlements. Meanwhile staff in NZ will be paid up to the maximum statutory limit as stipulated by New Zealand workplace law. So there you have it. The end of an era, due to a complete and utter lack of buyers. They wouldnt even take a single solitary buck off a kid to let him have some fun with an office chair and a fire extinguisher like it was 35 Industry Way. Course the fate of the factory and the fate of Dick Smith Electronics is eerily similar. First it started falling over. Then it fell over. RIP, DSE. Source: Herald Sun. Photo: Dave Rowland/Getty. It is a brilliantly sunny but frosty morning and shortly I'm off to the seaside for lunch in what looks like a rather good 'gastro-pub' overlooking a long sandy beach - and no, I will not be taking a swim! Whilst I am away I will leave you all to decide whether or not we should rush to the aid of, er, 'gallant little Turkey' as she faces up to that nasty 'Vlad the Impaler'? Of course, we may not have a choice because Turkey is, ahem, an ally, a fellow member of the NATO organisation, even if it is also another basket-case Muslim country run by a budding dictator who would cheerfully expunge the entire Kurdish people from the face of the earth. Attempting to choose between Erdogan and Putin brings to mind the wise words of Dr. Johnson who told us all that "There is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea". Quite so, couldn't have put it better myself! BLG Capital has raised a total of 152 million of equity at the final close of its second opportunity fund following strong demand from U.S. and European institutional investors. The largest of the three initial investments by the new fund is its co-investment with Dogus Holding in Galataport ... [] CBRE Global Investors has sold the Megahertsi Shopping Centre in Herttoniemi, Helsinki to eQ Finnish Real Estate (AIF), a Special Investment Fund. Megahertsi is located in the established residential area in Herttoniemi, which is located six km east from the Helsinki centre, close to the Herttoniemi metro station. Megahertsi is [] Formart GmbH & Co. KG together with Olaf Scholz, First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and Professor Jorn Walter, Chief Planning Director of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, yesterday celebrated the breaking of ground on the new Mitte Altona neighbourhood. In the first phase, Photos: Dreidesign, Dreidesign, Dreidesign, Dreidesign [] Gramercy Property Europe has acquired, through a sale-leaseback, a newly-built warehouse facility in Carlisle for approximately 21.5 million (17 million). The deal was advised by Gramercy Europe Limited. The transaction is the fund's first in the UK and supports the company's strategy to build out a pan-European platform of single-tenant [] Maruti Suzuki India launched their premium hatchback Baleno in India back in 2015. One of the best selling cars in the country, Baleno sits above the Swift in the company line-up and rivals with the likes of Hyundai Elite i20, VW Polo, Fiat Punto, Honda Jazz and the likes. Until now, the Baleno was only offered with a petrol 1.2 liter and diesel 1.3 liter engine option. Now, it will also be offered with a more powerful and efficient 1.0 liter petrol three cylinder engine with the Baleno RS nameplate. With only variant on offer, price starts from INR 8.69 lakh, ex-showroom, Delhi. This means it is about over INR 1 lakh more expensive than the top end petrol manual variant and about INR 6,000 cheaper than the diesel manual top end variant. Engine & Transmission Maruti Baleno RS was showcased as a concept earlier last year at the 2016 Auto Expo. This is a sportier and premium variant of existing Baleno. Power to the Baleno RS comes from 1.0-liter BoosterJet engine which delivers 75 kW (101 hp) at 5500 rpm and 150 Nm at 1700-4500 rpm. This means that the new Baleno RS delivers 20% more powerful and 30% more torque as compared to the existing 1.2 liter petrol engine. Transmission option on offer is a 5 speed manual gearbox. No automatic or CVT is on offer. Claimed fuel efficiency stands at 21.1 kmpl. Below is a video explaining the functioning of the new petrol engine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdwhlhfew7I Exteriors & Interiors As far as exteriors are concerned, it carries forward the same design language as seen on the standard Baleno. Based on the Liquid Flow design philosophy, some of the exterior features are projector headlamps, LED DRLs, 16 inch alloy with wider 195/55 rubber, LED tail lamps, chrome slat at the rear, V shaped grille, wider air dams in the front, new exterior colour options, new alloys, side skirts, black mesh in front grille, etc. Interior design remains same. It will get all-black interiors with Smartplay touchscreen infotainment system, steering mounted controls, Auto AC, airbags, ABS, keyless entry, start/stop, power windows, etc. Surprisingly, weight has been increased by 60 kgs. Specs Length 3995 Width (mm) 1745 Height (mm) 1510 Wheelbase (mm) 2520 Ground clearance (mm) 170* Boot space (l) 339 liters Seating capacity 5 Engine Capacity (cc) 998 Max Power (kW@rpm) 75/5500 Max. Torque (Nm@rpm) 150/1700-4500 Fuel tank capacity (l) 37 Fuel Type Petrol Camshaft DOHC No. of Cylinders 3 Transmission 5MT Min. turning radius (m) 4.9 Power steering type Electric, Rack & Pinion type Kerb Weight (kg) 950 Gross Vehicle Weight (kg) 1360 Front Brakes Disc Rear Brakes Disc Front Suspension McPherson Strut Rear Suspension Torsion Beam Tyre Size* 195/55 R16 Exterior Features Chrome door handles Body coloured ORVMs Body coloured bumpers Chrome accent front grille Turn indicators on ORVMs Back door spoiler Alloy Wheels (Black) Daytime Running Lamps with LED Rear Combination Lamps with LED Projector headlamps A+B+C Pillar blackout UV Cut Glass (Front doors + Rear doors + Qtr glass) Interior Features Metal finish inside door handles Metal finish tipped parking brake Glove box illumination Luggage room illumination Front footwell illumination Multi Information Speedometer Display (with colour TFT) Leather wrapped steering wheel Safety & Security Anti-theft security system Front disc brakes Rear disc brakes Dual horn Headlamp levelling Front fog lamps Auto headlamps Pinch guard power window (Driver) Child seat tether anchorages Auto diming IRVM Driver side seat belt reminder Rev. parking sensors Rev. parking camera Rear wiper & washer Rear defogger Entertainment SmartPlay Infotainment System Bluetooth AUX & USB Steering mounted audio control Navigation system Voice command Smartphone Connect/Apple CarPlay Remote Control through Smartphone App. Comfort & Convenience Central locking Remote keyless entry Front power windows Rear power windows Auto-up power window (Driver) Electrically foldable ORVMs Telescopic steering Tilt steering Front seat adjustable headrest Rear seat adjustable headrest Auto AC Follow me home/lead to vehicle Front centre armrest with storage 60:40 Split seat (Rear) Height adjustable driver seat Front and rear accessory socket Push start/stop with smart key Colour Options Fire Red Premium Urban Blue Premium Silver Autumn Orange Ray Blue Pearl Arctic White Granite Gray NEXA New Maruti Baleno RS will be retailed exclusively via NEXA outlets. In fact, it will be the marquee product on sale at NEXA dealerships across India. With bookings already open, deliveries are set to start within a few days. Just like Baleno, the RS variant will also be produced at both, Manesar as well as Gujarat plant facility. News Release As renewable energy sources goes, solar rays have historically hogged the limelight. But two Virginia Tech researchers have stolen the spotlight from the sun by discovering a way to maximize the amount of electricity that can be generated from the wastewater we flush down the toilet. An article recently published in Scientific Reports detailing their findings speaks to a growing sustainability movement to capture energy from existing waste to potentially make treatment facilities more energy-efficient. A shareable animated graphic on YouTube explains the science behind the discovery and shows its potential impact. Xueyang Feng and Jason He traced bacteria, which led them to discover that the working relationship between two specific substrates produced more energy than either did separately. This work will help take the mystery out of how electrochemically-active bacteria create energy. It could help in the development of new treatment system called a microbial fuel cell. "Tracing the bacteria gave us a major piece of the puzzle to start generating electricity in a sustainable way," said Feng, an assistant professor of biological systems engineering. "This is a step toward the growing trend to make wastewater treatment centers self-sustaining in the energy they use." Feng is in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering; He, an associate professor of environmental engineering, is in the College of Engineering. advertisement The discovery is important because not all organics perform the same job in the same way. Some work because they are food for the electricity-generating bacteria while others are good at conducting energy. While one substrate known as lactate was mainly metabolized by its host bacteria to support cell growth, another substrate known as formate was oxidized to release electrons for higher electricity generation. The team found that when these two substrates are combined, the output of energy is far greater than when they are working separately. The organics work in tandem with receptors in fuel cells, and while research using microbial fuel cells is not new, the kind of organics that Feng and He used was novel in generating electricity because they were able to measure the symbiotic nature of two particular organics. The unique methodology that allowed them to trace the metabolic pathways of the different strains of bacteria, called carbon 13 pathway analysis, was the first time this type of isotope labeling process was used in measuring metabolism in microbes, the researchers said. The analysis works by creating a non-radioactive isotope on a carbon group that is visible through a mass spectrometry. Harnessing energy from wastewater is a sustainability measure that even urban plants such as the wastewater treatment facilities in Washington, D.C. have already adopted. Harnessing energy using bacteria in microbial fuel cells is not the only way researchers are looking at generating energy from waste. advertisement Treatment plants are now able to harness methane from the solids in sewage allowing towns such as Grand Junction, Colorado, to generate energy. The plant takes in 8 million gallons of wastewater and is the first city in the U.S. to fuel its vehicle fleet with produced from human waste. He's research also includes work with gaseous elements, specifically ammonia. In wastewater, ammonia is a pollutant. If too much is discharged into a watershed, it feeds harmful algal blooms that can devastate aquatic ecosystems. Mohan Qin, a second-year doctoral student in He's lab, has built a system that recovers ammonia and removes other contaminants while generating electricity at the same time. This is the first time that ammonia-driven forward osmosis has been combined with an ammonia-generating microbial electrochemical cell, Qin said. The idea earned Qin, who is from Shandong Province, China, the 2015 Innovation Award for Best Technological Advancement from the International Society for Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology. The results of this work encouraged the further development of microbial fuel cells, especially system scaling up. The He lab is currently operating a 200-L microbial fuel cell system in a local wastewater treatment plant for evaluating its long term performance with actual wastes. For now, however, Feng and He are not only giving wastewater it's moment in the sun, they are making sure that, whether it's ammonia or organic waste, that producing energy from wastewater is part of a movement. It's a bizarre scene: a man on a cargo bike tricked out with lots of strange-looking equipment labors up and down the streets of Cleveland and surrounding suburbs. University at Buffalo architect Nicholas Rajkovich received more than a few looks of disbelief while riding his bicycle weather station through northern Ohio a few summers ago. That's OK. He's hoping to turn heads with the data this unique contraption allowed him to gather. Rajkovich designed and built his bicycle-based weather station to compile microclimate data, such as solar radiation, sky view, surface temperature and air temperature. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time anyone has installed a research-grade weather station on a bicycle to gather this much data for analysis," said Rajkovich, an assistant professor of architecture in the UB School of Architecture and Planning. "Although airport weather stations and satellite data help to estimate temperatures in a city, finer-scale data is needed to support planning at the neighborhood level," he added. This granular level of information helps explain how things like tree cover contribute to variations in ground and air temperatures in different neighborhoods within an urban area. It will help urban planners and policy makers develop neighborhood-level programs that can mitigate the impact of climate change on cities and their residents. advertisement Rajkovich used a cargo bicycle for its heavier frame and enhanced stability while carrying a large load. The equipment weighs approximately 50 pounds. He affixed a thermocouple unit, a hygrometer unit and a GPS device to a 6 foot tall aluminum tower positioned on the back of the bicycle to avoid ground interference. The bike was also equipped with a camera, a four-component net radiometer and an infrared radiometer. Readings were taken every second; a data logger averaged the measurements for each minute, storing the information on an onboard hard drive. He took 12 rides during the summer of 2012 -- each during the hottest part of the day, typically late afternoon -- on bicycle paths maintained by Cleveland Metroparks and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. "In itself, the method was kind of an experiment. It was fun using a bicycle to do this research. It was a good workout, too," said Rajkovich. The bike piqued plenty of interest along Rajkovich's travels. At one point when he stopped to take a break, a family of four rode up on their bicycles and asked Rajkovich about what he was doing. advertisement "After a pleasant conversation, they wished me luck with the project and started again on their way. As they rode away, one of the children asked their parents why I just didn't watch the TV to understand how warm it was outside. I thought that was pretty funny," Rajkovich said. Rajkovich developed his bicycle weather station as a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan and tested it in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in the summer of 2012. His findings were published this January in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in an article co-authored with Larissa Larsen, associate professor of urban and regional planning and natural resources at the University of Michigan. An urban heat island is a built-up area that is hotter than the surrounding rural areas due to human activity. Urban heat islands pose greater public health risks because they contribute to increased electrical demand associated with air conditioning and increase ground-level smog. The data Rajkovich's mobile weather station can collect can help drive decisions on preventative programs, such as cooling centers or tree-planting initiatives. The City of Cleveland is using the data, in part, to help target their urban tree-planting program. Cuyahoga County served as a good test region because of its susceptibility to high temperatures due to a large number of impervious surfaces and a lack of tree cover. And while Lake Erie provides a cooling effect in the summer, heat waves across the Midwest have risen over the past six decades, Rajkovich points out, noting that humidity is projected to increase in Cuyahoga County in the coming years. Plans aren't finalized yet, but Rajkovich may use the bicycle again this summer to collect data in Buffalo or Cleveland. As part of their body of work on climate resilience, Rajkovich and his team of UB graduate students received funding from the Kresge Foundation to develop climate resilience strategies for Cleveland and other at-risk urban areas. The Kresge Foundation's $8 million Climate Resilience and Urban Opportunity Initiative aims to bolster the capacity of community-based, nonprofit groups to influence local and regional climate resilience planning, policy development and implementation in ways that better reflect the needs of underrepresented residents of U.S. cities. The Aliso Canyon natural gas well blowout, first reported on Oct. 23, 2015, released over 100,000 tons of the powerful greenhouse gas methane before the well was sealed on Feb. 11, according to the first study of the accident published today in the journal Science. The results confirm that Aliso Canyon is the largest methane leak in U.S. history. The research effort by the University of California, Davis; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and partners showed that during the peak of the Aliso Canyon event, enough methane poured into the air every day to fill a balloon the size of the Rose Bowl. "Our results show how failures of natural gas infrastructure can significantly impact greenhouse gas control efforts," said NOAA's Tom Ryerson, co-lead scientist on the study. The disaster will substantially impact California's ability to meet greenhouse gas emission targets for the year, the researchers said. 'This was just a huge event' Co-lead scientist and pilot Stephen Conley of Scientific Aviation and UC Davis said first readings in early November were so high he had to recheck his gear. advertisement "It became obvious that there wasn't anything wrong with the instruments," he said. "This was just a huge event." At the time, Conley and his specially equipped plane were working with UC Davis on a California Energy Commission project searching for pipeline methane leaks. The state agency asked him to overfly the area around the breached SoCalGas well. "Real-time information is invaluable for making good decisions," said the California Energy Commission's Guido Franco. Conley teamed with Ryerson, who pioneered techniques for assessing oil spills with airborne chemical sampling during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the 2012 Elgin rig blowout in the North Sea. They assembled a group of researchers from the University of California, Irvine; the California Energy Commission; and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, many of whom had previously collaborated on regional air quality projects. The team's measurements confirmed that high concentrations of methane and ethane were surging from the breached well into the densely populated San Fernando Valley. The analysis found that at its peak, the blowout doubled the rate of methane emissions from the entire Los Angeles basin and temporarily created the largest known human-caused point source of methane in the United States, twice as large as the next-largest source, an Alabama coal mine. advertisement Eventually, more than 5,726 families were evacuated and Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency. Total emissions during the 112-day event were equal to one-quarter of the annual methane pollution from all other sources in the Los Angeles basin combined. The disaster's impact on climate will be equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from over half a million passenger cars. Real-time data takes flight During the more than three-month event, Conley made 13 research flights in his single-engine Mooney TLS, carrying instruments that provided real-time measurements of methane and ethane, two components of natural gas, and captured air samples for more comprehensive analysis later in the laboratory. In addition to providing real-time air quality data above and around the leak site to state regulators, the measurements will allow researchers the opportunity to check the accuracy of greenhouse gas measurements made using remote sensing systems such as satellites. Near the well site, co-author Donald Blake of UC Irvine gathered samples of the leaking natural gas to determine its composition and compare to Conley's airborne measurements. The analysis found a slew of other compounds present in natural gas, including benzene, butanes, pentanes and more. "The methane concentrations were extraordinarily high, the highest we've seen in ambient samples," said Blake, who has measured air pollutants across the globe for more than 30 years. "We also detected other volatile organic compounds." The mega-leak has drawn attention to the broader problem of fugitive emissions from natural gas production, processing, pipeline and storage infrastructure across the country. The study highlights the value of rapid-response airborne sampling for independent, time-critical, accurate, and detailed information about major chemical releases, the authors said. Measuring leak rates, plume locations, and plume composition would also help officials assess public health risks, the effectiveness of leak control, and climate and air-quality impacts. "If we don't measure these things quickly, we won't have any idea what kind of response might be called for," Conley said. "We're happy that we could provide state officials with the scientific information they needed." Tauranga resident Payal Rajs parents Hari Sharma and Rup Wati hunkered down at their neighbours home in Sigatoka while the worst cyclone in history hit Fiji, claiming at least 42 lives. Now Payal is among many in Taurangas Fijian community who are desperately trying to contact family members back home, with the Pacific Island nation rationing water and electricity supplies making this difficult, thousands still sheltering in evacuation centres and more wet weather forecast. The family who dumped this dog tried to provide for some of his physical needs: a fresh stick of rawhide, a full bag of dog food. Agape Fosters But the old dog's spirit seemed in serious need of repair. He just kept crying and crying. Maybe that's why he was dumped in front of a church in Iowa. And on a Sunday, no less. Agape Fosters Dodo Shows Adopt Me! Scared Little Dog Is So Full Of Joy Now And Looking For A Family Then again, being abandoned has a way of crushing the soul. When local resident Jessica Ellers tried to get close to him, he would only bark and whine and tremble, remaining rooted to his post. His faith in his owners' return proved unshakable. Agape Fosters If there's a god of small things, however, she works in mysterious ways. Ellers called Dianna Helmers, founder of Agape Fosters, who happens to live in the area. Helmers didn't hesitate to open the doors of her rescue - although at the time, she was at a Des Moines veterinary hospital with her own ailing dog, Gomer. It seemed like it would take a miracle, however, to get the dog into the car. He would follow Ellers a short ways, "but then turn around and lay back down in the same spot," Ellers explained to The Dodo. Finally, Helmers, who lives just 10 minutes away, dispatched her husband, Roy, to the scene. "He walked up to him, talked to him, petted him a little, then scooped him up put him in the vehicle," she recalled. The dog, who was given the name Truman, as in "a faithful man," had to place his faith in the arms of strangers. And when that car door opened again, he was at the Helmers' home. Truman has been in Helmers' care for just a few days. "I don't believe he was a stray but left there with the items," she explained. Also, she noted, "The dog was clean and dry, not like he had been walking through the mud or wet grass that's everywhere in Iowa right now." Agape Fosters "I know pet owners get into jams and either don't think about calling for help or don't want to pay a fee to release their pet to a shelter," she said. Truman's spirit is already on the mend. "He is so sweet, a little older," Helmers said. "He has missing hair that looks like it may be from fleas, a cut up his leg and has worms. That's as far as we have gotten. He will see the vet tomorrow." Agape Fosters The European Commission and the International Energy Agency will address the impact of the energy crisis on SMEs in an online event on 21 October. A laborer works on the expansion of a terminal at the Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Indonesia on Wednesday. According to news reports, the expansion project would add capacity for an additional 12 million passengers per year. (Mast Irham/European Pressphoto Agency) REAL ESTATE New-home sales plunged in January Americans stepped back from buying new homes in January, as purchases plunged sharply in western states where prices are typically higher. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that new-home sales fell 9.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 494,000. Most of the decline stemmed from a 32.1 percent drop in sales in the West. Sales also slipped in the Midwest while edging up in the Northeast and South. The pace of buying new homes last month slipped below last years sales total of 501,000, a possible sign of mounting price pressures despite low mortgage rates and job gains. But new-home sales also tend to be a volatile government report with revisions and large swings on a monthly basis. With inventory still very tight, prices will continue to firm, though the short-term numbers are so volatile that the trend is hard to spot, said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. Housing starts slipped in January amid colder weather. Groundbreakings fell 3.8 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.1 million homes, the Commerce Department said. Associated Press FOOD INDUSTRY Walmart sued over Parmesan claims Walmart was accused in a lawsuit of defrauding customers by selling Parmesan cheese touted as pure that contained wood pulp as filler. The worlds largest retailer stocked its New York stores shelves with containers labeled 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese, but tests showed Walmarts Great Value brand contained as much as 10 percent cellulose, a wood-based anti-clumping agent, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. Customer Marc Moschetta said in the lawsuit he would not have bought the cheese if he had been aware that the 100% representation was false. We take this matter seriously, Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove said Wednesday in a statement. We will review the allegations once we have received the complaint and will respond appropriately with the court. The lawsuit follows a Bloomberg News investigation that asked an independent laboratory to test store-bought Parmesan cheese for wood-pulp content. The tests found that Essential Everyday 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese from Jewel-Osco contained 8.8 percent cellulose; Walmarts brand, 7.8 percent; Whole Foods 365 brand, 0.3 percent; and Kraft Heinzs Parmesan, 3.8 percent. A similar case against Kraft was filed last week in a federal court in San Francisco. Bloomberg News Also in Business From news services Coming Today The Washington Chorus is facing a complete change of leadership. Its longtime executive director, Dianne Peterson, is preparing to step down in June. Now, it will also be in the market for a new music director. The organization announced Wednesday that Julian Wachner, who has led the chorus since 2008, will leave at the end of the 2016-17 season. The news is hardly a surprise. In 2010, Wachner became music director of Trinity Wall Street in New York. Since then, he has transformed that post leading several ensembles, including the church choir, the Trinity Baroque Orchestra and the contemporary-music ensemble Novus NY into a significant presence on the New York scene, participating not only in regular Trinity programs, but also in collaborations with a range of other New York presenters (the Prototype Festival, the Metropolitan Museum). Wachner also is an active composer and has an increasingly busy schedule of guest-conducting appearances, with big-league management Opus 3 Artists working to get him ever more. Its no secret that fitting Washington into his schedule has been a challenge; more notable than his departure, perhaps, is the fact that he has stayed here so long. [A polymath in D.C.: The long ascendancy of JulianWachner] When Wachner took over, the chorus was still recovering from the difficult departure of its longtime music director Robert Shafer, whose dismissal by the choruss board prompted something of a schism among the choruss members. But choruses have a way of regenerating themselves as members cycle in and out. Today, the Washington Chorus is a young group that bears the stamp of Wachners colorful programming innovations such as the annual New Music for a New Age concert, focused on the work of a single living composer. (This years installment, devoted to Luna Pearl Woolf, is Sunday.) The Essential series offered new perspectives on composers not necessarily known for their choral writing, including Wagner, Puccini and Bernstein, and the Washington Choruss Christmas concerts now feature carol arrangements by Wachner that he gleefully calls trashy but that share some of his own slightly messy exuberance. Peterson, who has kept everything running smoothly during Wachners protracted absences, will be departing before the search for Wachners replacement gets fully underway. (An announcement of her replacement is said to be imminent.) And the programming for Wachners final season has yet to be made public. Whether Wachner will be back to guest-conduct the chorus is also unclear. But one way or another, chances are that music lovers will be able to hear more of him in the future. Hannah LaPalombara, 25, deputy program manager in international development, and Josh Bear, 26, operations manager at Uber, at Mi Cuba Cafe in Columbia Heights. (Photo courtesy of daters) Interviews by Nina Patel J osh is looking for someone sweet, kind and caring. Hannahs dream date is Jim from The Office. We sent them to Mi Cuba Cafe in Columbia Heights. Josh: When I got to the restaurant, there was a woman talking to the host in Spanish with this perfect elegant accent, so I figured she worked there. It turns out the woman was, in fact, Hannah. It made for an awkward start, but I guess awkward is my style. My plan was to go for a hug to start. Hannah: I didnt know what the appropriate protocol was, so we just went for the handshake. Josh: Hannahs, like, really, really pretty. Hannah: I thought he was cute. Tall. Josh: I started off asking her about her Spanish. She lived in Guatemala for the past two years. Her work sounded interesting. Hannah: He works in the corporate side of Uber. He was talking about this thing Uber has started where employees can do a three-month stint in locations where they are building new markets. He talked about applying for that. I thought that was interesting and would be a pretty cool experience. Josh: We talked a lot about traveling. Hannah: I recently moved to D.C. We were talking about building a community and how you meet new people and make new friends. When he moved to Virginia [13 years ago] there was this hurricane and his neighborhood lost power all week. They had nothing to do but be outside and meet the rest of the people in the neighborhood. It was the same hurricane that derailed my bat mitzvah. Josh: Were both Jewish. Were not super religious, but its still a nice connection to have. Hannah: Were both really interested in food. Since Ive moved here, most of the things on my to-do list are restaurants. Josh: I love D.C. food. I gave her tips on some of my favorite restaurants. [Mi Cuba] was pretty affordably priced. Hannah: The most expensive thing was like $15. We were very proud of ourselves because we reached the [Date Lab tab] limit. Josh: We talked about The Walking Dead. Over Snowzilla, I binged through eight episodes of the last season. Hannah: We did talk about the zombie apocalypse. You always have to have an escape route. To know how you would get out of a place or what you would do. I most often think about it when Im in the Metro because there is just no way anyone would survive. There is only one way to get out. His plan was to go out to sea. In many depictions of zombies they cant swim. Josh: She said they address that in the spinoff show, so Ill have to watch. Hannah: Hes a very easygoing guy easy to talk to and fun. Interested in new experiences. Josh: I thought we had a lot in common. We were both laughing the whole night. Hannah: I feel kind of bad because apparently the restaurant closes at 9 and we were there until 10:30. Josh:I was going to get her an Uber, but she lived right by the place. Hannah: He was like, Oh, I should get your number. Josh: I got it and called her so shed have mine. I think I said, Id definitely like to see you again, and she seemed interested as well. Rate the date Josh:4.5 [out of 5]. Shes beautiful. Shes smart. Shes funny. I texted her. I had mentioned maybe getting drinks next week. She said shed get back to me. Hannah: 3.5. We had a really good time, but Im not romantically interested. Update A second date! Brunch! Then they decided theyre better off being friends. Democrat Audraine Jackson at her home in Atlanta. She is trying to decide between voting for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in the March 1 Georgia primary, where the candidates are trying hard to persuade African American voters to support them. I absolutely do not know whom to vote for, she says. (Dustin Thomas Chambers) Audraine Jackson sees it as her civic duty to vote, and she will do so in this election, as soon as she can figure out whom to vote for. I dont know anyone who doesnt believe Hillary Clinton is capable, she says. The next day: But then I started checking out Bernie more . . . Two days after that: But I do feel that Hillary would carry on the principles of the Obama administration. And finally: I absolutely do not know. Jackson, 56, is the Southern black voter who the news media as of late cant stop talking about. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders vie for black voters on BET, one headline read. African-American vote is key, read another. Sanders had come to give a speech four miles from Jacksons house in Atlanta; Clinton had dispatched her former-president husband. Tuesdays multi-state primary elections and whether Sanders gives up his candidacy or forges on will depend upon voters like Jackson. Now her brain ached as she tried to decide which issues matter most to her. Income inequality? Gender inequality? Racial inequality? Her grandmother worked in the salad department at the Biltmore Hotel. Her mother was a homemaker and civil rights activist whose obituary began with the line: Victoria Jackson lived by 11 commandments. The 11th: Thou shall not stay away from the polls on Election Day. And Jackson, who grew up to start her own successful communications firm and live in her own chic, high-rise condo, took this commandment to heart. Shed voted in every election since she came of voting age including the gubernatorial race for which she checked the Republicans box because the Democrat seemed too pandering and she was always proud of making informed decisions. But now she has an aunt who talks about generations of sexism, and she has a niece who uses phrases such as Feel the Bern, and she has the growing feeling that she isnt going to make up her own mind until she steps into a voting booth and closes the curtain. Its hard not to make history On the Saturday morning 10 days before the Georgia primary, Jackson tall, curvy, hair shes recently vowed to stop chemically processing puts on her sneakers and goes for a walk with her niece. Bernie is saying things that I wish we could pull off, says the niece, Madinah Al-Uqdah, a college student who has been enamored of Sanders since a rally several months ago. His support for affordable tuition was a big deal to me. It is hard not to admire Bernie, Jackson agrees as they power-walk through a landscaped park. Yes. And he gets his money from the people. I think that says a lot. Al-Uqdah says she also appreciates Sanderss consistency of position. Ive seen 10-year-old videos with the same message. Hes been consistent. Ill give him that. And thats important! Jackson is proud of the way that her niece, an extroverted music major who was recently crowned Miss Morris Brown College, is following the election. The two of them each watched a town hall meeting that aired a few nights before. Jackson took notes on Sanderss performance on her smartphone, and she tries to remember them now. He said he was arrested at 22 for fighting segregation. He said race relations will be better under him than under Obama. She can believe that. Minority politicians are always under scrutiny, she thinks, afraid to be seen as focusing too much on their own peoples issues. Sanders wouldnt be under that same scrutiny. Would Hillary? Was it possible that Hillary, as the first female president, would somehow end up doing less for women? I dont feel like I owe my vote to her, Jackson explains to AlUqdah. But I feel that, if I have a qualified person who reflects my gender, its hard not to make history. What if, she says, she threw away that chance and didnt get another one in her lifetime? That could be problematic, Al-Uqdah admits. But if Clinton isnt the nominee this time around, she says, there will probably be another woman next time. Hmm, says Jackson. This young optimism is what gives her pause about Sanders. Her niece has spent most of her cognizant life in a world with a black president, and Jackson worries that this has skewed Madinahs concept of what is possible. Madinah, at 19, has never experienced someone telling her that she should hire a white male business partner to make some of her clients more comfortable. Jackson has. They start back for home, up a slope they have deemed Cardiac Hill and as Jackson picks up the pace Al-Uqdah complains that her legs are starting to cramp. Now youre feeling the burn, arent you, Miss Bernie? Feel the burn. Pulled in two directions For Jackson, it was always supposed to be Hillary. It was supposed to be Hillary even back in 2008, until Barack Obama entered the presidential scene. But even then, when she decided to switch her support to Obama, Jackson told herself that Clinton would be the presumptive nominee the next time around. She would have another chance to vote for her then. Now her other chance had arrived, and part of her didnt know why she couldnt take it. She thought Clinton had more pertinent experience. She thought Clinton had shown dignity and resilience under pressure. She thought she might scream if she read one more story about Clintons unlikability, or if she heard one more person imply that Bill Clintons infidelity was the result of his wifes inability to keep him faithful. Like she said, Bill, Im going to the grocery store, if you want to cheat while Im gone. The majority of black voters, she knew from statistics and polls, did support Clinton, a nod to her husbands popularity. But had those supporters really listened to the way Sanders vowed to take on Wall Street? As a small-business owner, that was important to her. What about when he said that a 40-hour workweek should not mean poverty? In her heart, she believed what he said he believed. She wanted to feel that buoyancy and optimism even while experience pulled her in the other direction. Over the weekend, she watched the Nevada primary numbers trickle in, texting herself notes from Clintons victory speech. She went to a museum, which had a display on voting, and the tourist couple next to her said theyd solved their voting problem by splitting it: He for Sanders, she for Clinton. She went to church, where the election had become such an unrelenting presence that the prayer leader there decided it required an intervention from God: Our country is going through such a chaotic time this political season, she said in front of an approving congregation. We ask you to send forth your archangels to bring us peace. The Clintons? After church, she went to brunch with her aunt, Violet Travis Ricks, a lawyer who would herself never dream of missing an election local, state or national. Travis Ricks reminds Jackson that their familys voting history went back generations, with her parents Jacksons grandparents marshaling political activity for the neighborhood. They invited over all their friends, composing handwritten lists of the candidates they had chosen. This list was distributed throughout their social network, and if anyone missed voting, they were ostracized, Travis Ricks said. Jacksons aunt once knew people who knew Hillary Clinton, from decades-old legal and political circles. And she knows what it feels like to be of Clintons generation Travis Ricks never forgot a sisters advice that to be successful, she must never, ever cry. She made sure to always dress impeccably so her appearance couldnt be held against her. I dont like that Sanders keeps referring to her as the Clintons, Jackson says at the crowded cafe. Why should Hillary have to be held accountable for the actions of her husbands administration? Next time, she should start referring to the Sanderses, says Travis Ricks, and they both laugh. It does seem like she doesnt ever get a break." Why should she? her aunt tosses back. Shes a woman. They dont get breaks. Jackson sighs. Madinah thought women will have another chance in the next election. Travis Ricks shook her head. Oh, no. No. They pay and leave the restaurant, and somehow, another weekend had slipped by with Jackson no closer to figuring out what she wanted. Its probably time to research more issues, she decides. Have more conversations, try to sort through all the clutter in time to cast the vote that she has been told, from all sides, is desperately important. She gets in the car and turns on the radio. Hillary Clinton, the male voice on a campaign ad is saying, is the only candidate with a proven track record on gun control. She sighs. Another issue to add to her long list. She pulls out of the parking space with the volume turned a little higher. Alexandria These were among incidents reported by the Alexandria Police Department. For information, call 703-838-4636 or visit alexandriava.gov. ASSAULTS Armistead St. N., 400 block, 7:09 a.m. Feb. 12. An assault was reported. Braddock Rd. W., 4800 block, 8:08 p.m. Feb. 12. An assault was reported. Commonwealth Ave., 1500 block, 12:50 p.m. Feb. 14. An assault was reported. Edsall Rd., 6100 block, 3:25 p.m. Feb. 12. An assault was reported. Gibbon and S. Patrick streets, 11:54 p.m. Feb. 15. An assault was reported. Henry St. N., 1000 block, 2 p.m. Feb. 13. An assault was reported. Jenkins St. S., 100 block, 11:10 p.m. Feb. 13. An assault was reported. King St., 3300 block, 9:47 a.m. Feb. 11. An assault was reported. An arrest was made. Mason St. E., 200 block, 4:17 a.m. Feb. 16. An assault was reported. Mayflower Ct., 5900 block, 8:57 p.m. Feb. 14. An assault was reported. Montgomery St., 1000 block, 11:03 a.m. Feb. 13. An assault was reported. Mount Vernon Ave., 3800 block, 1:09 a.m. Feb. 15. An assault was reported. An arrest was made. Oronoco St., 1100 block, 11 p.m. Feb. 12. An assault was reported. An arrest was made. Quaker Hill Dr., 1200 block, 2:46 p.m. Feb. 12. An assault was reported. Queen St., 1100 block, 3:38 p.m. Feb. 13. An assault was reported. Seminary Rd., 5000 block, 5:30 p.m. Feb. 12. An assault was reported. Sheffield Ct., 5400 block, 12:11 a.m. Feb. 16. An assault was reported. Taney Ave., 4400 block, 8:58 p.m. Feb. 11. An assault was reported. Taney Ave., 5300 block, 6:24 p.m. Feb. 16. An assault was reported. Van Dorn St. S., 300 block, 10:37 a.m. Feb. 10. Two people fought. Wheeler Ave., 3600 block, 9:34 a.m. Feb. 11. An assault was reported. Whiting St. S., 200 block, 7:13 a.m. Feb. 14. An assault was reported. An arrest was made. Whiting St. S., 200 block, 8:33 p.m. Feb. 15. An assault was reported. ROBBERIES Mount Vernon Ave., 3800 block, 1:09 a.m. Feb. 15. A robbery was reported. An arrest was made. THEFTS/BREAK-INS Cameron Mills Rd., 3800 block, 11:24 a.m. Feb. 15. A theft was reported. Chambliss St. N., 1400 block, 8:29 a.m. Feb. 13. A theft was reported. Chambliss St. N., 1400 block, 12:48 p.m. Feb. 13. Property was entered. Duke St., 3100 block, 7:36 p.m. Feb. 16. A theft was reported. Duke St., 4400 block, 12:43 p.m. Feb. 12. A theft was reported. Duke St., 5700 block, 3:55 p.m. Feb. 11. A theft was reported. Duke St., 5800 block, 11:47 p.m. Feb. 11. A theft was reported. An arrest was made. Edsall Rd., 6000 block, 6:48 a.m. Feb. 15. Property was entered. Eisenhower Ave., 2000 block, 8:07 p.m. Feb. 15. A theft was reported. Eisenhower Ave., 4900 block, 1:46 p.m. Feb. 15. A theft was reported. Eisenhower Ave., 5600 block, 9:20 a.m. Feb. 11. A theft was reported. Highview Lane N., 1400 block, 7:43 p.m. Feb. 10. Auto parts were stolen. Janneys Lane, 800 block, 9:49 p.m. Feb. 14. A theft was reported. Jefferson Davis Hwy., 3100 block, 7:23 p.m. Feb. 12. A theft was reported. Jefferson Davis Hwy., 3100 block, 7:48 p.m. Feb. 16. A theft was reported. An arrest was made. Jefferson Davis Hwy., 3400 block, 3:17 p.m. Feb. 11. A theft was reported. Jefferson Davis Hwy., 3600 block, 3:10 p.m. Feb. 14. A theft was reported. Jordan St. N., 600 block, 7:32 p.m. Feb. 16. A theft was reported. Kenmore Ave., 4600 block, 11:42 a.m. Feb. 11. A theft was reported. King St., 1600 block, 8:12 a.m. Feb. 13. A theft was reported. King St., 2600 block, 9 a.m. Feb. 13. A theft was reported. King St., 3300 block, 10:18 a.m. Feb. 12. A theft was reported. King St., 3500 block, 11:48 a.m. Feb. 11. A theft was reported. King St., 4300 block, 4:22 p.m. Feb. 13. A theft was reported. King St., 600 block, 1:47 p.m. Feb. 12. A theft was reported. Mainline Blvd., 1400 block, 12:56 a.m. Feb. 12. Property was stolen. A person was charged. Morgan St. N., 5500 block, 3:23 p.m. Feb. 16. A theft was reported and property was damaged. Morgan St. N., 6200 block, 8:13 a.m. Feb. 16. A theft was reported. Mount Vernon Ave., 1500 block, 4:18 p.m. Feb. 10. A shoplifting incident was reported. Mount Vernon Ave., 3400 block, 11:11 p.m. Feb. 14. A theft was reported. Mount Vernon Ave., 3700 block, 6:55 p.m. Feb. 13. A theft was reported. Payne St. S., 200 block, 10:11 a.m. Feb. 12. A theft was reported. Quantrell Ave., 5900 block, 9:11 p.m. Feb. 10. A residential theft was reported. Reynolds St. S., 200 block, 2:11 a.m. Feb. 11. Delivered packages were stolen from a residential building. Seminary Rd., 5000 block, 12:02 p.m. Feb. 14. A theft was reported. Skyhill Rd., 200 block, 10:17 a.m. Feb. 16. A theft was reported. St. Stephens Rd., 900 block, 4:24 p.m. Feb. 10. A theft was reported. Taney Ave., 5300 block, 3:19 p.m. Feb. 13. A theft was reported. Templeton Pl., 3700 block, 10:32 p.m. Feb. 14. Property was entered. West View Ter., 700 block, 8:41 p.m. Feb. 12. A theft was reported. Whiting St. S., 300 block, 8:35 p.m. Feb. 12. A theft was reported. MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Armistead St. N., 400 block, 8:50 a.m. Feb. 14. A vehicle was stolen. Kenmore Ave., 4700 block, 9:42 p.m. Feb. 16. A vehicle was stolen. Pickett St., 2200 block, 10:45 a.m. Feb. 13. A vehicle was stolen. Quantrell Ave., 5800 block, 10:46 a.m. Feb. 11. A vehicle was stolen. VANDALISM Armistead St. N., 500 block, 11:03 p.m. Feb. 13. Property was damaged. Beauregard St. N., 300 block, 12:16 a.m. Feb. 11. Property was damaged. An arrest was made. Edsall Rd., 6000 block, 6:48 a.m. Feb. 15. Property was damaged. Mayflower Ct., 5900 block, 8:57 p.m. Feb. 14. Property was damaged. Mount Vernon Ave., 1000 block, 12:20 p.m. Feb. 10. Property was damaged. Mount Vernon Ave., 3100 block, 12:29 p.m. Feb. 11. Property was damaged. Seminary Rd., 4600 block, 8:26 p.m. Feb. 16. Property was damaged. Stevenson Sq. and Stultz Rd., 11:29 a.m. Feb. 12. Property was damaged. Whiting St. S., 300 block, 8:35 p.m. Feb. 12. Property was damaged. Arlington These were among incidents reported from Feb. 4 to 11 by the Arlington County Police Department. For information, call 703-558-2222 or visit newsroom.arlingtonva.us. ASSAULTS Calvert St. N., 1900 block, 11:37 a.m. Feb. 16. After an argument, a 31-year-old woman was struck by a female acquaintance in the head with a metal grate. The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment. A warrant was obtained for a 32-year-old female with no fixed address. Clarendon Blvd. N., 2000 block. An assault was reported. Columbia Pike S,. 3600 block. Threats were reported. Columbia Pike S., 5500 block. An assault was reported. Dinwiddie St. S., 900 block. An assault was reported. Glebe Rd. N., 2200 block. An assault was reported. Glebe Rd. N., 2800 block. An assault was reported. Harrison St. N., 2400 block. An assault was reported. Potomac Ave. S., 2800 block. An assault was reported. Quincy St. N., 1000 block, 8:40 p.m. Feb. 11. Four males approached a man and one of them attempted to stab him. The man fought him off and ran away. Quincy St. N., 1000 block, 8:40 p.m. Feb. 11. Police responded to an attempted assault at this location and determined that the incident did not occur. An Arlington man, 19, was charged. Thomas St. N., 400 block. An assault was reported. Eighth Rd. S., 5200 block. An assault was reported. 13th St. N., 4600 block. A harassment incident was reported. 23rd St. S., 500 block. An assault was reported. 27th St. S., 3600 block. A police officer was assaulted. 28th St. S., 1300 block. An assault was reported. STRANGULATION 11th St. N., 2300 block. A strangulation incident was reported. MISSILE TO AN OCCUPIED DWELLING Cleveland St. N., 200 block, 2:48 a.m. Feb. 14. A man threw a brick through a basement window. Warrants were obtained for a 24-year-old Arlington man. ROBBERIES Carlin Springs Rd. S., unit block, 2:35 p.m. Feb. 16. A man robbed a convenience store of cash by force. Jefferson Davis Hwy., 2400 block, 4:02 p.m. Feb. 12. Two males robbed a store of merchandise by force. THEFTS/BREAK-INS Crystal Dr. S., 1700 block. Property was entered. Dickerson St. S., 800 block. Property was entered. Glebe Rd. N., 700 block. A theft was reported. Glebe Rd. N., 900 block. An employee theft was reported. Hayes St. S., 1100 block. A credit card was stolen. Hayes St. S., 1100 block. A shoplifting incident was reported. Hayes St. S., 1100 block. Eight thefts were reported. Hayes St. S., 1200 block. A theft was reported. Hayes St. S., 1400 block. Three thefts were reported. Jefferson Davis Hwy. N., 3600 block. Two thefts were reported. Jefferson Davis Hwy. S., 1500 block. Property was stolen from a vehicle. Joyce St. S., 1300 block. A credit card was stolen. Joyce St. S., 1600 block. A theft was reported. Lee Hwy. N., 1500 block. A theft was reported. Randolph St. N., 1500 block. A theft was reported. Shirlington Rd. S., 2600 block. A theft was reported. Stuart St. N., 900 block. A theft was reported. Stuart St. N., 1100 block. A theft was reported. Washington Blvd. N., 2700 block, 2:15 a.m. Feb. 13. A man entered a vacant house and broke windows and damaged a door. A Dumfries man, 22, was charged. Washington Blvd. N., 5800 block. A theft was reported. Williamsburg Blvd. N., 6400 block, 5:20 p.m. Feb. 13. to 9:15 a.m. Feb. 14. An attempt was made to steal money from an ATM. Wilson Blvd. N., 1200 block. A theft was reported. Wilson Blvd. N., 1900 block. A theft was reported. MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Campbell St. S., 4100 block, Feb. 10. A blue 2009 Honda Civic was stolen. Fairfax Dr. N., 4100 block, Feb. 14. A black 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee was stolen. Jefferson Davis Hwy. S., 1500 block, Feb. 13. A gray 2010 Subaru Legacy was stolen. Wilson Blvd. N., 1300 block, 9:54 p.m. Feb. 13. An allegedly intoxicated woman stole a vehicle from a hotel. She surrendered to police the next morning. An Arlington woman, 22, was charged. VANDALISM Patrick Henry Dr. N., 1100 block. Property was damaged. Seventh St. S., 3600 block. Property was damaged. American Cancer Societys Road to Recovery program seeks volunteer drivers to provide transportation to cancer patients. Schedules are flexible. 804-527-3719, leah.seldinsommer@cancer.org or cancer.org. Arlington County Invasive Plant program needs volunteers to remove invasive plants: 9-11 a.m. first Saturdays, Haley Park; 2-4:30 p.m. second Sundays, Gulf Branch Nature Center; 10 a.m.-noon third Saturdays, Tuckahoe Park; 2-5 p.m. third Sundays, Long Branch Nature Center; 10 a.m.-noon fourth Saturdays, Benjamin Banneker Park; 10 a.m.-noon fourth Sundays, Fort Bennett Park. Information: environment.arlingtonva.us. To register, call 703-228-1862. Arlington Neighborhood Village needs volunteers to help senior citizens with various tasks. Must pass a background check. arlnvil.org. Arlington Therapeutic Recreation seeks volunteers for adapted aquatics, social clubs and adapted ice skate night programs. 703-228-4740, trinfo@arlingtonva.us or parks.arlingtonva.us. Rebuilding Together Alexandria needs volunteers for A Home of Your Own project day, 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Saturday. Remove carpet, paint, install lights and blinds. 703-836-1021 or bd@rebuildingtogetheralex.org. Shepherds Center of McLean-Arlington-Falls Church seeks volunteers for the friendly visitor and caller programs for homebound seniors. 703-506-2199 or info@scmafc.org. Travelers Aid needs volunteers to help travelers at Reagan National Airport. Must be able to work evenings and weekends, and commit to six months. Parking provided. 703-417-3975, travelersaiddca@mwaa.com or travelersaiddca.com. Virginia Hospital Center Auxiliary in Arlington County offers opportunities to help on information desks, the surgical center and in gift shops. 703-558-6401. Wildlife Rescue League needs hotline volunteers, transporters and wildlife rehabilitators. 703-391-8625 or volcoord@wildliferescueleague.org. Volunteer Alexandria: Call the numbers below or contact Volunteer Alexandria at 703-836-2176, mail@volunteeralexandria.org or volunteeralexandria.org for information on the following opportunities: ACT for Alexandria needs members for Spring2ACTion Street Team. handsonconnect.volunteeralexandria.org. Ballyshaners needs St. Patricks Day parade marshals, 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. March 5. handsonconnect.volunteeralexandria.org. Capital Caring needs a receptionist, handsonconnect.volunteeralexandria.org. Child and Family Network Centers needs young professionals as council volunteers. handsonconnect.volunteeralexandria.org. D.C. Paws Rescue needs volunteers to handle animals at adoption events at the Dog Park in Alexandria, 1-3 p.m. every fourth Saturday. handsonconnect.volunteeralexandria.org. Living Legends of Alexandria needs volunteers for database clean-up. handsonconnect.volunteeralexandria.org. Old Town Farmers Market needs experienced bicyclist as volunteers for the Bike for Good Food Rescue program, every last Saturday of the month, from May to October. handsonconnect.volunteeralexandria.org. Trust for the George Washington Memorial Parkway Arts Afire at Jones Point Park, a National Park initiative to showcase the meaning of parks through music, visual arts and social media, seeks volunteers 3-7 p.m. April 22, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. April 23, and noon-5 p.m. April 24. handsonconnect.volunteeralexandria.org. Volunteer Alexandria needs St. Patricks Day Parade volunteers, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. March 5, handsonconnect.volunteeralexandria.org. Volunteer Arlington: Call the numbers listed below or contact Volunteer Arlington at 703-228-1760 or volunteer.truist.com for information about the following: American Heart Association needs volunteers for Hearts Delight Wine Tasting and Auction, 9:30-11:30 a.m. March 12 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in the District. 703-248-1784, joellen.brassfield@heart.org or volunteer.truist.com. Aspire Afterschool Learning seeks an assistant for Learning Rocks program. volunteer.truist.com. Bikes for the World seeks volunteers to prepare donated bikes for overseas, 2-6 p.m. March 16. 703-740-7856 or volunteer.truist.com. Compiled by Ria Manglapus TO SUBMIT AN ITEM Email: axliving@washpost.com Fax: 703-518-3001 Mail: Volunteer Opportunities, The Washington Post, Alexandria-Arlington Local Living, 526 King St., Suite 515, Alexandria, Va. 22314. Details: Announcements are accepted on a space-available basis from public and nonprofit organizations only and must be received at least 14 days before the Thursday publication date. Include event name, dates, times, exact address, prices and a publishable contact phone number. Spectators look over debris left in the downtown area left by a deadly storm that swept through Waverly, Va., Wed., Feb. 24, 2016. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) (Steve Helber/AP) Virginia residents on Thursday surveyed the damage from a severe storm system the previous day that brought flooding, touched off tornadoes and left four people dead and others injured. Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) declared a state of emergency and toured the hard-hit communities of Waverly, Appomattox and Tappahannock. Two men and a 2-year-old boy were killed Wednesday in Waverly, about 40 miles southeast of Richmond, when a mobile home was destroyed in the storm. Larry D. Turner, 50; Devine J. Stringfield, 26; and Ivan T. Lewis, 2, died. Lewiss mother remains hospitalized, state police said. Six others in the town suffered injuries that were not considered life-threatening. It was the most saddest thing Ive ever seen, said former Waverly mayor Barbara Gray. You couldnt help but shed tears. In Appomattox County, west of Richmond, a funnel cloud carved out a path of destruction at least 10 miles long Wednesday, injuring seven people and killing one man who was also thrown from his mobile home, state police said. Edward K. Harris, 78, died. His wife and six others were injured. You had to go see it to understand how devastating it was for those communities, McAuliffes spokesman, Brian Coy, said Thursday, after the governor visited three storm-struck towns. He said that McAuliffe promised residents state assistance for rebuilding. States from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast faced flooding, toppled trees and power outages. Three more people died along the Gulf Coast, where the storm system took shape late Tuesday before rumbling up the East Coast. In the center of the country, meanwhile, another system brought snow and blizzard conditions across the Midwest, leaving schools closed and flights canceled. Social media videos and photos show strong storms and high winds in the D.C. area. The entire D.C. area is under tornado watch through 11 p.m. Wednesday night, and flash flooding is possible. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post) [Roads closed due to downed power lines, toppled trees] Correction: Previous versions of this article gave incorrect information about the owners of the property where Nova Armory plans to open a gun store in March. The current owner of the property is Ekaterina Varley, according to Arlington County Property records, not Richard P. and Norma P. Taylor, who were listed as the property owners on the county-issued store occupancy permit. The article also incorrectly stated that the landlord for the property is the Arlington Development & Consulting Group, which leases other space at the same address but does not lease the storefront that will be occupied by Nova Armory. A new gun store plans to open in the Lyon Park neighborhood in Arlington County and some neighbors object. (Patricia Sullivan/TWP) Residents of Arlingtons Lyon Park neighborhood may live just across Route 50 from a long-standing military base, but they say they wont stand for a gun store that plans to open just a block away, across the street from a day-care center. Nova Armory, which says its store will be one of the largest sporting arms dealers inside the Capital Beltway, received a certificate of occupancy Thursday for 2300 N. Pershing Drive. After becoming aware of the planned store Wednesday evening, Arlingtons famously liberal residents immediately began objecting launching an online petition, posting to their neighborhood email list and contacting their county government. The outcry is similar to the one raised last May when a similarly named retailer, Nova Firearms, attempted to open a gun store in the Cherrydale/Maywood section of Arlington. [With little recourse in gun-friendly Va., Arlington resists store opening] A new gun store plans to open in the Lyon Park neighborhood in Arlington County. (Patricia Sullivan/TWP) Sasha Cohen, who described herself as a very strong gun-control advocate, said she walks past the Pershing Drive site three or four times a day, and I saw no notice that a gun store was coming. This is a very highly populated residential neighborhood, Cohen said. We have neighborhood meetings about all kinds of issues someone opening a sushi restaurant had one with us so why would we not hear about this in advance? The reason, Arlington County officials say, is that unless theres a change in the land use, no notice is required when a new store wants to open. The application for the occupancy permit, lists Dennis Pratte as the permit holder. Neither he nor Ekaterina Varley, the person listed on county propertys records as the owner of the storefront, could be reached by phone for comment Thursday or Friday. A voicemail message left on the phone number listed on the Nova Armory website was returned via a series of text messages from a person who declined to give his name. The messages said the store will focus on high-end skeet, trap and hunting arms and is a safe, family-friendly sporting arms business. We work with European manufacturers to provide customers in the US with custom engraved shotguns that are fine works of art. These shotguns become family heirlooms, one message said. Another message said the store is not interested in firearms that attract the wrong clientele. We are an asset to the community and look forward to proving that to the concerned citizens. County officials appeared to know that the store would be controversial. There is a note to the Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development on the application saying they should treat the application as any other retail shop. The Arlington County Board sent an email to concerned residents Thursday explaining that there are few legal options available to keep the store from opening. Although by law gun sales are not allowed near schools, the presence of the day-care center does not trigger that provision, the email said. We understand and share the community concerns that many have expressed about this new tenant in the neighborhood, the letter said. We encourage you to share your concerns with both the owner of the complex and the tenant. By Thursday evening, more than 800 people had signed a Change.org petition opposing the store. The petition was launched late Wednesday, a few hours after Arlnow.com, a local website, reported the store was coming. Numerous commenters on the petition said they dont feel safe with a gun store in the neighborhood, or so close to a preschool. Several said they would boycott other businesses along the street if the gun store opens. This is not the kind of business we want, Naomi Harris wrote. We acknowledge the gun stores legal right to be here, but they are not wanted. The store planned for the Cherrydale/Maywood neighborhood did not open because the landlord refused to rent the space to the merchant. But a few blocks away from that site, National Pawnbrokers has been selling firearms for years. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is greeted by students at Jesus Suarez Gayol high school in Havana. Bowser and Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson visited Cuba to see what they could learn from Cubas education system. Feb. 23, 2016 D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is greeted by students at Jesus Suarez Gayol high school in Havana. Bowser and Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson visited Cuba to see what they could learn from Cubas education system. Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson came to Cuba hoping to learn from the education system in an impoverished nation that claims 100 percent literacy and graduation rates. But when they visited a school on the outskirts of this city, they encountered something quite different from any D.C. public school. More than 100 students, in neat white-and-yellow uniforms, lined the front stairs. Girls and boys launched into a 30-minute song-and-dance tribute to the life of Jesus Suarez Gayol, the revolutionary fighter and namesake of the school. They lined the hallways, clapped in rhythmic unison and took turns quoting Fidel Castro. And for a finale, ninth-grade students with such titles as Leader of labor and responsibility directed their peers to lock hands and sing We Are the World. Returning to a state-owned tour bus, Henderson struggled for words. Thats not the way we work, she finally said. Then she struck a diplomatic tone, calling the visit a good reminder that schools need to teach the whole child by including music and that students can be given more responsibility and encouraged to take leadership roles. Bowser (D) also remained on-message. She said the communist nation, where teachers earn the equivalent of about $25 a month, has shown that Cuba gets more for its money when it comes to education. Students at the Solidarity with Panama school meet with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson in Havana. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post) Ahead of President Obamas historic visit next month, the scene at the Havana high school displayed in technicolor the delicate line U.S. officials are walking with blinders on, critics say as they try to foster a relationship with a trading partner that would be like no other. A glimpse of Cubas socialist curriculum reveals that generations of Cubans have been taught a worldview profoundly different from that of market economies. It also helps explain why efforts to open the islands economy could remain frustratingly slow to Americans. You just get to a point in talking to them where there is ambiguity about how to make a deal, said Dasarath Kiridena, president of a health-care technology company, who traveled with the delegation from the Washington region. They have been taught this socialist education, and its going to take a while for that to evolve and for there to be a meeting of the minds. Bowser cast the trip as an exchange of best practices between capital cities. If all went well, she said, the relationship could someday give Washington-area businesses an advantage in Cuba. But as she and Henderson spoke positively about their school visit, several members of the 42-person delegation buzzed with such words as brainwashed and indoctrination. Late into the night, under a rubber tree at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, many of the Washington-area visitors sat with rum and cigars in hand and debated the meaning of what they had seen at the school. The discussion centered on whether highly structured education comes at the expense of independent thinking and whether a curriculum without access to many books or the Internet has benefited students or the government. The United Nations has singled out Cuba as preeminent among developing Latin American nations for its near-universal literacy. Every child must attend school until ninth grade, when about half are directed to vocational schools and the others toward college, which is free for students with the best grades. After high school or college, there are government jobs waiting for everyone. Most residents in cities never make more than $40 a month in rural areas, less than $20 plus food rations and free health care. Every Cuban must complete three years of compulsory service to the government in their assigned jobs after their schooling; most keep those jobs for the rest of their lives. Students at the Solidarity with Panama school for children with special needs in Havana. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post) Although the countrys education system has largely remained opaque to Americans, Cuban leaders tout it as one of their biggest exports. Countries throughout Central America and Africa visit yearly for government-run lessons on how to replicate the system. Martin Carnoy, an education professor at Stanford University and author of Cubas Academic Advantage, said the Marxist-based system would not translate politically in the United States. Schools do not count on the parents to be responsible for their kids education. It is the state that is responsible, Carnoy said. . . . And it has a highly functioning bureaucracy to make sure kids learn what they are supposed to. In some schools, students with special needs are each assigned a personal teacher. Educators are trained to teach the same lessons every year to every student. School principals do not direct policy but maintain logs of personal information about all teachers and students, from where they live to whether a students parents are alcoholics, Carnoy said. Pasi Sahlberg, a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said that although clear national goals are common among the worlds best-performing school systems, its hard to compare Cuba with other countries and harder still to know what D.C. officials could replicate because of Cubas peculiar political and social system. Graciella Cruz-Taura, a Cuban-history scholar and sometime critic of the Cuban regime, said she was stunned by the D.C. mayors willingness to hold Cuban schools up as a model. Its a disservice to Americans, she said. I can certainly think of other education systems that are doing better in the free world. Bowser chose education as a theme for her trip and invited Henderson, a close friend, to come along. Under Henderson, test scores and graduation rates in D.C. schools have improved. But citywide, 35 percent of students still fail to graduate, and the numbers are far worse among poor students of color. Riding a tour bus back into the heart of Havana on Tuesday, Henderson was quiet until a reporter asked what lessons, if any, she had learned. Clearly, there are signs of what a nationalized education system looks like, she said with a chuckle. What kids learn, when, where, how and ensuring uniformity but thats not how we work. Henderson said she appreciated the equal resources such a system can provide to students and the sense of belonging the students displayed. Theres a sense of pride and a sense of history that they clearly prioritize, she said. It is important to give people a sense of belonging and self-confidence, and I think thats one of the things were missing in our education system. Neicy Perez, 27, the government-provided tour guide, had just finished her three years of government service as payback for a free graduate program in English at the University of Havana. She planned to remain a guide instead of working as a teacher she could make more in tips from foreigners, she said. Experts said that trend has decimated the ranks of Cubas best teachers in recent years. Perez never strayed off-message about the benefits of the countrys schools during her six hours of discussion while traveling with her American charges. You complete your study and then you are assigned to a job. But remember: It is not about the money, she said. Its important to have a professional labor force in the country. Remember: You have to meet the governments needs. Sarah Cochran, Virginia state director for Emerge USA, talks to Remaz Abdelgader, a George Mason University student and Bernie Sanders campaign volunteer, about how they can get more Muslims to vote in next week's Virginia primary. (Petula Dvorak/The Washington Post) Through the driving rain, past the flood watch, the stalled cars and the tornado warnings, they pushed onward Wednesday night to get to the mosque in Northern Virginia. They had a Super Tuesday mission, and time was running out. Abstaining from voting is also a vote, read one of the talking points in their action plan. If Muslims do not vote, openly Islamophobic leaders do not pay a price, said another one. Even the kids who had just finished Arabic class like the girl whose pink hijab matched her Hello Kitty backpack knew that something big was happening in Virginia next week, and the adults at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, better known as ADAMS, were talking about it. My dad said he dont know who hes voting for yet, but he said hes going to vote against Trump no matter what, one of the girls declared. Republican presidential contender Donald Trump said on Dec. 7 that he was in favor of a 'total and complete' shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. (C-SPAN) Guess what, Donald Trump? Your bigotry has inspired Muslim American voters like no presidential candidate has done before. Were organizing phone banks. We are getting people registered to vote. Were telling them how important their voices are, said Abdul Rashid Abdullah, who was helping run the civic-engagement meeting at the mosque in Sterling that rainy night. The mosque does not take an official position on candidates or political parties or make endorsements. Their civic-engagement committee and get-out-the-vote efforts are nonpartisan. But Abdullah, 43, who works in IT and lives in Herndon, said there is no doubt why Muslim voters are especially energized this election cycle and why election officials are seeing more interest from Muslims in participating in the Super Tuesday primary next week than theyve seen before. [Attacks on American Muslims are growing uglier by the day. It must stop.] Its called Islamophobia. And its real. Reports of hate attacks against U.S. mosques tripled last year compared with previous years, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations. After being kicked out a Trump rally in Rock Hill, S.C., a Muslim woman named Rose Hamid told CNN that while being escorted out of the rally, some Trump supporters accused her of having a bomb or shouted: "Get out!" (YouTube/ Julie Bird) And in Northern Virginia, where one of the nations largest concentrations of Muslims have lived with few incidents for decades, the shift in attitude is palpable. In Fredericksburg, a mosque that has been in the city for almost three decades met with threatening shouts and open hate at a meeting about its expansion. A different mosque received a fake bomb. Another got threatening calls. One Virginia school system shut down for an entire day when parents mounted a fierce and menacing backlash after learning that their kids had practiced a few lines of Arabic calligraphy as part of a world geography lesson. I talked to women who have walked in their communities for decades wearing hijabs who are being threatened and harassed in public. Its tempting to blame all this on the Islamic State and the frightening terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. But even after 9/11, it wasnt like this, Muslims say. In fact, hate attacks against American Muslims spike during election cycles. Wonder why? This round of Islamophobia has been fueled by Donald Trumps incendiary rhetoric calling for a total ban on Muslims entering the United States hate speech that has helped make him the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. But it has also been bolstered by leaders who have remained silent. [Donald Trump calls for total ban on Muslims entering the U.S.] This rise of Islamophobia? It has inspired our activism, said Remaz Abdelgader, 22, a George Mason University student and Bernie Sanders campaign volunteer. Abdelgader, who lives in Alexandria, said she got weird looks here and there for her hijab, but never experienced outright discrimination. But she was in a crosswalk recently, and a man took a sharp turn toward her in his car, nearly running her over, she said. He rolled down his window and told her to go back to where she came from, and that next time hell get her. And I was like, Oh. Its real. And its on, she said. And she threw herself into political activism, campaigning and doing voter-registration drives. The Muslim population is relatively small in the United States about 3.3 million, according to a report last month by the Pew Research Center. But U.S. Muslims have the potential to be a powerful influence at the ballot box because one of their major population centers happens to be in a battleground state Virginia. About 2 percent of the states population is Muslim, one of the countrys higher concentrations, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. I tell people, some of these wins in the primaries are won by a small margin, Abdullah said. And if all of us Muslims vote, we can be the ones to make that difference. In the past, Muslims havent been a dominant force in U.S. politics. Our community is in its political infancy, said Saif Inam, a policy analyst at the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Like many immigrant populations, the first wave of people were hard workers, more focused on survival, Inam said. In old-world thinking, some Muslims believed it was improper to vote for a non-Islamic government. And so the first generation was largely silent. Even their children werent noticeably politically active, especially after 9/11, when most Muslims wanted to blend in and avoid calling attention to themselves. And then Trump began his rampage, suggesting that all Muslims in the country be placed on a special registry and prohibiting newcomers from joining them. Suddenly, U.S. Muslims were paying attention and speaking out. There are parallels with the LGBT movement, said Sarah Cochran, which is funny for me to say, being a Republican. Cochran is the Virginia state director for Emerge USA, a group working to bring Muslims and Arabs into the political process. For too many years, a majority of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people countered discrimination and hate by living quiet, closeted lives. Now the attitude is, Were here, were queer, get used to it. This awakening gives a little hint of where the U.S. Muslim population is headed. Cochran said its been a tough road, getting politicians to come meet with mosques and the Islamic community. Sometimes, theyre still worried about backlash, she said. This may be the year that Muslims are done with that. Im American first, then I am Muslim, Cochran said. And more leaders need to see that. Sometimes, we see America treating us like were a cancer, said Ibrahim Moiz, a Fairfax lawyer who is outspoken in his Northern Virginia Muslim community about adapting Islam to modern U.S. living. Moiz was quoting a recent TED Talk by Dalia Mogahed, director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington. Today we hear people actually saying things like: Theres a problem in this country, and its called Muslims. When are we going to get rid of them? Mogahed said. So, some people want to ban Muslims and close down mosques. They talk about my community kind of like were a tumor in the body of America. And the only question is, are we malignant or benign? You know, a malignant tumor you extract altogether, and a benign tumor you just keep under surveillance. Wrong. American Muslims are part of the lifeblood of this country, and this election year they are going to insist that the nation gets used to it. Twitter: @petulad A makeshift memorial is seen at the scene of the crash that killed Alex Murk and Calvin Li. (Donna St. George /The Washington Post) Urged on by two grieving fathers, a Maryland Senate committee voted Wednesday to approve a bill that would impose stiffer penalties including jail time on adults who provide alcohol to underage drinkers. David Murk and Paul Li testified about the bright futures of their sons, Alex Murk and Calvin Li, college-bound teenagers who died last June after they got into a car driven by an intoxicated classmate after a party in Montgomery County at which minors were drinking alcohol. My heart was shattered in pieces, Li told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, describing his trip to the morgue to see his sons body. Murk said parents in his neighborhood continue to host parties where teenagers are allowed to drink.Were not seeing change in the community . . . as we try to make sense of his death, he said. The committee, which had planned to hear testimony but not to take a vote on the proposed legislation, was visibly moved. Before all of the witnesses had finished, Sen. Robert A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County), the committee chairman, took the unusual step of calling for a vote on the bill. It passed unanimously. The audience cheered, and members of the Murk and Li families cried. Under the legislation that has been dubbed Alex and Calvins Law, a person who provides alcohol to someone younger than 21 would receive a prison sentence of up to one year and/or a fine of up to $5,000 for first offense. They would receive two years of incarceration and/or a $7,500 fine for a second or subsequent offense. Maryland law imposes lesser fines and no jail time for providing alcohol to those who are underage. Twenty-six other states include the possibility of jail time for adults convicted of providing alcohol to people younger than 21. The current maximums are wholly inadequate, said Sen. Brian J. Feldman (D-Montgomery), sponsor of the new bill. Its about deterrence and having that message go out to the community. [We felt invincible: Report details deadly wreck, party that preceded it] Murk and Li began their quest for tougher penalties after Kenneth Saltzman, whose house was the site of the party Alex and Calvin had attended, was issued two criminal citations for allowing underage drinking at his home. Saltzman, who was aware of the drinking, was fined $2,500 for each citation, the maximum allowed under the law. It was a slap in our face, said Murk, wearing the black ribbon on his lapel that he wore to court to learn Saltzmans fate. It was appalling and shocking to see that Maryland law did not have any criminal penalties associated with this type of activity. Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery) said he had never seen a more powerful presentation, adding that lawmakers have to act like grown-ups and deal with this serious problem. Sen. Justin D. Ready (R-Carroll) agreed. We do need a cultural shift, he said. [Report: Teens said parent allowed parties on a regular basis] Montgomery County Capt. Tom Didone said police have cracked down on 30 underage drinking parties since the teenagers deaths. A third of them, he said, were hosted by adults. They dont worry about it, Didone said of the parents. If we can deal with the parents, we have a fighting chance of getting control of underage drinking. After the hearing in the Senate committee, Murk and Li headed to the House Judiciary Committee late Wednesday to tell their story to the delegates. The bill must also be approved by that panel to be considered by the full legislature. The House panel was considering more than a dozen bills related to illegal drinking, including Noahs Law, a bill named after a 24-year-old police officer killed last year by a suspected drunk driver. That bill would require motorists convicted of driving at or above the legal blood-alcohol limit of 0.08 percent to breathe into a tube before they can try to start their vehicles. Under current law, ignition interlocks are placed on the cars of people convicted of driving with a blood-alcohol content of 0.15 percent or higher to avoid having their licenses suspended. Rich Leotta, the father of Noah Leotta, testified before the House panel on Wednesday as well. Both hearings drew large numbers of law enforcement officials. Del. Benjamin F. Kramer (D-Montgomery), the sponsor of Noahs Law, blamed the liquor lobby for the legislations failure to move out of the House committee in past years. This is the only bill that we can say for a fact that is going to save lives when passed, he said. At a news conference before the hearings, Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said too many people have needlessly died on Maryland highways over the years because of our weak drunk-driving laws and weak drunk-driving penalties. Today, public safety is speaking with one voice. Lets hope that our elected officials are listening. Dan Morse contributed to this report. Family picture of Anthony Rice and his cousin Claire Rice. She was acquitted in his death last year but pleaded guilty to health-care fraud on Thursday. (Courtesy of D.C. Superior Court) The Silver Spring woman, who last year was acquitted on charges of orchestrating the fatal shooting of her cousin as part of a $100,000 life insurance payoff, pleaded guilty Thursday to taking part in a prescription and health-care fraud scheme. Claire Rice, 68, faces a maximum of 14 years in prison after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to presenting and filling 91 forged prescriptions for drugs, including Oxycodone in the name of a Northwest Washington cardiologist. Prosecutors say between 2008 and 2013, Rice, along with her co-defendant, Novella White, 53, of Accokeek, Md., conspired and wrote the prescriptions. White, prosecutors say, is a former employee of the cardiologist. White has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is scheduled to go to trial on April 18. Prosecutors say Rice then submitted the forged prescriptions to be billed via health-care plans such as Express Scripts and Blue Cross and Blue Shield. The health plans were defrauded of the costs of filling the prescriptions. As part of the plea, Rice also agreed to pay $16,175, her share of the proceeds obtained from the health-care plans. [Silver Spring woman found not guilty in slaying of cousin] Last August, a D.C. Superior Court jury found Rice not guilty in the 2012 fatal shooting of her cousin Anthony Rice, 58. Prosecutors charged Claire Rice with first-degree murder, saying she lured her cousin into a Northeast Washington park where he was fatally shot. Prosecutors argued Rice orchestrated the slaying in an effort to obtain $100,000 payout as part of a policy that she had taken out on her cousin. Rice denied being involved in her cousins death. There were no DNA, footprints or eyewitnesses. No one else has been arrested in the murder. Civil rights legend and Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.) shakes hands with a teen at the D.C. jail, as part of the Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop, which brings incarcerated teens together to work on reading and writing. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) In the chapel at the juvenile housing unit in the D.C. jail, Deangelo Johnson chewed on his bottom lip as he sat shoulder to shoulder with civil rights icon and Congressman John Lewis. Lewis told Johnson and other teens, all facing serious criminal cases, about growing up on a chicken farm in Alabama. He explained that a favorite teacher had encouraged him to read but that he was denied a library card because he was black. He described how when he was 17, about their age, he wrote a letter to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and said that he wanted to attend Troy State College, a small school near his childhood home. But the school at the time did not accept blacks. King, he said, sent him a bus ticket to meet him in Montgomery, Ala., and a friendship was born. He urged the teens not to respond to violence with violence, to find better ways to fight unfair treatment. Hate makes you bitter and you become hostile, he said. We have to do better as human beings. Civil rights legend John Lewis listens as some of teens read an original poem at the D.C. jail. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) Lewis (D-Ga.) was the guest speaker Tuesday at the nonprofit Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop, which brings the jailed teens together twice a week to work on their reading and writing. Sitting in a circle of chairs were 21 African American and Latino young men, ages 16 to 17, whom the District has deemed the most violent. Most teenagers facing criminal charges in the nations capital are housed in youth shelters overseen by the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. But these teens were charged as adults with serious crimes such as murder, sexual assault or, in the case of 17-year-old Johnson, armed robbery. For a little more than an hour, they listened to Lewis, 76, talk about his life of practicing nonviolence and as a leader in the 1960s civil rights movement. The teens were in the presence of history. And they knew it. As part of the reading program, their instructors had them watch the movies Selma, the 2014 film in which Lewis was portrayed, and Eyes on the Prize, the documentary in which he was featured. The teens also read Lewiss New York Times best-selling, 121-page graphic novel March. When Lewis entered the room, he greeted each teen with a handshake. How are you doing, young brother, Lewis said to one. Good to see you, young brother, he said to another. Then each of the young men stood, said his name and was asked to describe Lewis in one word. Integrity, one teen said softly. Fighter, another declared. One said peace. A young man called him a survivor, and another said brave. Lewis encouraged the teens to find their passion in life and focus on their education. After he spoke, he opened the circle up for questions. 53 yrs ago today I was released from Parchman Penitentiary after being arrested in Jackson for using 'white' restroom, Rep. John Lewis wrote on Twitter. (Courtesy of John Lewis) Mr. Lewis, one teen spoke up. What would you tell the youth today? Lewis stood up. Find something that is so dear, rich and necessary to follow your dream. And when you get knocked down, you get up. You must never give up. Never get lost in a sea of despair. Youve got to be happy, he said. Another teen raised his hand. What was it like when you heard Dr. King was killed? Lewis said he was working on Robert Kennedys presidential campaign in 1968 when news came of Kings assassination. I just cried and cried. We all cried, Lewis said. But retaliation, Lewis added, was not the appropriate response, a key message to teens who might seek retribution. I never wanted to strike back. Dr. King would never want us to strike back, Lewis said. During the early 1960s, Lewis served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and played a key role in the struggle to end segregation. He talked to the teens about his 1961 arrest in Jackson, Miss., for using a restroom that was designated for whites only. They laughed when he recalled how he bought a new suit for $5 so he could be dressed well for his mug shot before the demonstration and arrest. I wanted to look, whats the word today, fresh? he said. Lewis said that he was arrested 40 times for nonviolent protests in the 60s. He spoke of the beatings he received in clashes with police during demonstrations, including the confrontation with police on March 7, 1965, in Selma, Ala., on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. I thought I was going to die there. I thought I saw death, he recalled. Lewis also shared how time can change lives. He recounted the time, a few years ago, when a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, now feeble and in his late 80s, traveled to Washington along with his adult son. The former Klansman sat in Lewiss office and apologized for how he treated him in Mississippi in the 1960s. Time does heal, Lewis said. Lewis said he applauded the progress he has seen, such as the election of Barack Obama as the nations first black president. But Lewis added he was disappointed that the nation is not where we should be and that there is too much violence in our society. I believe a change is going to come, he told them. Deep in my heart, I do believe, this is going to get better. Seven of the teens then stood to recite a poem to Lewis, one they had written themselves. It began: Sacrificing myself and my family for rights and education Fighting through these ropes during segregation Killing them with kindness and no irritation To make an impact on this great nation. . . . Lewis hugged each of them. After the program, Johnson was one of the first to thank Lewis and get his autograph. On Friday, he is scheduled to be sentenced in D.C. Superior Court after pleading guilty to two counts of armed robbery and theft of a vehicle. Johnson described Lewiss visit as life-changing, and he said he learned a valuable lesson. Even if you hate someone, you can still show them love, Johnson said. There are more positive ways to do things. One of the 13 bald eagles found dead in a farm field on Marylands Eastern Shore Feb. 20. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services are investigating. (Maryland Natural Resources Police) The reward money has gone up by $15,000 for any information about how 13 eagles ended up dead in a field on Marylands Eastern Shore. The Center for Biological Diversity said it is offering the money, which ups the reward total to $25,000 with contributions from the Humane Society of the United States and other groups. The reward is part of a state and federal investigation after the bald eagles were found dead Saturday afternoon. A man, who said he was out looking for antlers that deer might have shed, came across what he initially thought was a dead turkey in a field on a farm in Caroline County. He discovered four dead bald eagles, and authorities were called. When officers arrived, they found nine more dead bald eagles in the field on Laurel Grove Road in Federalsburg. [Thirteen bald eagles were found dead on a Maryland farm] National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., where 13 dead bald eagles from Maryland's Eastern Shore have been sent for analysis. (Courtesy of National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory) It was not immediately clear what had caused the birds to die, but there were no obvious signs of trauma with these birds, according to Candy Thomson, a Maryland Natural Resources police spokeswoman. One theory is poison. Officials think someone may have sprayed a new chemical on a field that adversely affected the birds. Or someone may have used poison to kill rodents; if the rodents died outdoors and the eagles consumed their carcasses, the birds could get sick, too. The discovery of the 13 dead bald eagles was the largest single incident in decades for the state, officials said. At least three of the birds were mature, with the signature white heads and brown bodies. Two of the birds were close to being mature birds, officials said, and the rest were considered immature birds with no white feathers. Marylands natural resources police and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are investigating the incident. The carcasses have been sent to the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., for more analysis and a necropsy. A finding on the cause of death could take weeks. [How officials will try to figure out what killed 13 bald eagles on a Maryland farm] These 13 bald eagles deserved better than to be killed, said Catherine Kilduff, a lawyer at the Center for Biological Diversity in a statement. If they were poisoned or shot, the heartbreaking deaths of these 13 bald eagles is a crime, she said. Those responsible need to be caught and prosecuted. Thirteen bald eagles were found dead on Marylands Eastern Shore, and officials say the eagles may have been poisoned. (WUSA 9) Thirty years ago, officials said, eight bald eagles were found dead in Maryland. Officials said they believe those birds may have been poisoned. And two years ago, two bald eagles were shot and killed in a week in Montgomery County. [Bald eagles shot and killed in Montgomery County] Bald eagles are no longer on the endangered species list, but they are considered a protected species. They have been making a comeback, said wildlife experts. With the encroachment of development, they have gone from consuming as much fish as they want to being more scavengers and are often found eating roadkill from highways or at landfills, according to experts. It is illegal to shoot eagles without a permit from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Paredes family plays a game of arm-wrestling at home in Northern Virginia. Family members could qualify for deportation relief under the proposed Deferred Action for Parents of Americans. (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post) President Obamas embattled plan to provide temporary deportation relief and work permits to illegal immigrants with U.S.-born children a proposal the Supreme Court is due to review this year could benefit more than 10 million people in families with eligible members, increasing their household income by 10 percent, two research institutes said in a report released Thursday . Obama announced the executive action in late 2014, but it was challenged in court by 26 states, which argued that he had overstepped his authority and that the program would impose an unfair financial burden on them. The program was blocked by federal courts; only a favorable high court ruling this summer would allow Obama to implement it before he leaves office. [Border crossings down, but deportation raids to continue, ICE says] According to the report by the Migration Policy Institute and the Urban Institute, both based in the District, the impact of Obamas Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) would resonate far beyond the estimated 3.6 million illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexico and Central America, whose children are U.S. citizens or legal residents. The report found that the average household with at least one DAPA recipient could increase its income by about $3,000 if the recipient obtained a work permit and earned the same pay as a legal resident who had similar skills, educational ability and other traits. Currently, the report said, 36 percent of families eligible for DAPA live below the poverty line; the average income for such families is $31,000. About 1 million people are eligible for DAPA in California, followed by Texas and New York. Virginia ranks 12th, with 61,000, and Maryland ranks 13th, with 56,000. Obama announced a second action in 2014 offering similar benefits to an expanded group of young illegal immigrants, which also was blocked by the courts. Both initiatives were among a series of Obama administration efforts to help some of the countrys estimated 11 million illegal immigrants gain legal relief after Congress failed to enact comprehensive immigration reform. [Obama struggling with immigration rules, cruelty of deportations] Many critics, including a majority of Republicans in Congress and the top Republican candidates for president, have opposed Obamas executive actions as conferring amnesty on illegal immigrants and have said they would cancel such programs. Immigrant advocacy groups across the country have said that if the Supreme Court rules favorably on DAPA this summer, they will be ready to help millions of people apply as quickly as possible. Many have held workshops instructing older illegal immigrants to gather their income, rent, identity and other documents so they can apply right away. The program would offer those with clean police records, proof of long-term residency and other documentation a three-year initial reprieve from deportation and a work permit with a Social Security card. [The anchor pulls in many directions] The report found that although they are poorer than other families with underage children, DAPA-eligible families are well-settled with strong U.S. roots. It found that 69 percent of illegal immigrants eligible for DAPA, mostly born in Mexico, have lived in the United States for at least a decade, and that one-quarter have lived here at least 20 years. It also said that about 85 percent of underage children living with DAPA-eligible parents are U.S. citizens who were born here. The report found that 95 percent of men eligible for DAPA are in the U.S. labor force, so obtaining the new benefits would have little impact on labor-force participation. Only 52 percent of eligible women are working, but the report said that percentage was unlikely to grow significantly. Most illegal immigrants work in menial jobs such as agricultural fieldwork, restaurant kitchen work, hotel and office cleaning, landscaping, and semi-skilled construction. [A pre-dawn knock, and then they were gone] The report followed studies by the institutes that found in homes where children are U.S.-born but their parents remain in the country illegally, those children can be held back from succeeding because of family stress, fear of parents being deported, poverty and reluctance to seek services and benefits. Fear of deportation is ever-present in these families, the report said, noting that the deportation of a DAPA-eligible father would reduce family income by an average of $24,000 a year, changing its economic status from near-poor to deep poverty. If the Supreme Court permits DAPA to go ahead, the report said, the program has the potential to improve the incomes and living standards for many unauthorized immigrant families. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx underscored the need for D.C., Maryland and Virginia to accelerate their efforts to create a new safety agency to oversee Metro. (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post) The top U.S. transportation official on Wednesday said he will not allow efforts to create a new safety agency to oversee Metro lag, repeating his threat to withhold millions in funding from the District, Maryland and Virginia if they dont act soon. This is one that really cant wait, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said. You would think that if you have thousands of people traveling on this system every day, from all these jurisdictions, that safety would be something that nobody would let fall off the table. And yet it has. This month, federal officials learned that the jurisdictions dont expect to pursue legislation this year to establish a new safety oversight body for Metro. Foxx told them that was unacceptable and has given them a year to create the panel or risk losing millions in federal transportation funding. [Federal funding for D.C., Va., Md. at risk due to lack of progress on Metro oversight] At a meeting with reporters Wednesday, Foxx underscored the need for the three jurisdictions to accelerate their efforts. I dont agree with the premise that we cant make progress this year, Anthony Foxx said. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg) I dont agree with the premise that we cant make progress this year, he said. We fully expect the governors and the mayor and their legislatures to figure out a path forward. The topic had been on the agenda of a Thursday lunch meeting of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) in Annapolis. But the gathering was canceled late Wednesday so that McAuliffe could visit areas affected by the days torrential rain. Officials said the meeting would be rescheduled as soon as possible. We agree and understand where Secretary Foxx is coming from, Virginia Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne said Wednesday. Governor McAuliffe wants to do whatever is necessary to get this safety commission stood up. Foxxs comments came amid renewed concerns about whether he made the right decision to transfer safety oversight of Metros rail operations to the Federal Transit Administration. Foxx took the unprecedented step late last year with the understanding that it would be temporary until the three jurisdictions could develop a compact to create an oversight agency. The move was made after federal officials determined that the agency charged with the task, the Tri-State Oversight Committee, was woefully inadequate for the job. But in giving oversight to FTA, Foxx ignored an urgent recommendation from the nations top safety agency to make the Federal Railroad Administration, an agency with a long history of safety oversight, responsible for Metro safety. [Foxx rejects urgent recommendation from NTSB] In a letter to Foxx this month, Christopher A. Hart, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, reiterated the agencys belief that FRA would be more effective at monitoring and policing the nations second-busiest subway system. We are concerned that you have tasked the FTA with assuming the authority of the [state safety oversight agency] because we believe that the FTA has a very limited ability to effectively oversee the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Hart wrote. He added that the NTSB was not alone in its concerns, noting that the Department of Transportations inspector general has launched a review of FTA oversight of Metro. We believe there are many uncertainties associated with the proposed FTA approach to WMATA oversight, Hart said in the letter. Our recommendations for WMATA to be ruled a commuter authority and for the FRA to assume oversight responsibility for WMATA Metrorail eliminates these uncertainties because the FRA is an experienced and appropriately staffed regulatory safety oversight agency, he said. But Foxx on Wednesday said he was comfortable with his decision. I dont see a purpose of engaging in a back and forth [with the NTSB], he said. We take NTSB recommendations very seriously. We stress [tested] the idea that the NTSB provided to us. My decision then, as I explained back then, was that a faster, more efficient and frankly more effective way to do this was to vest that authority with the FTA. Foxx said that FTA officials already have conducted 39 inspections of Metros rail operations, compared with the Tri-State Oversight Committee, which Foxx said had done none. But when pressed, officials declined to say what they found during those visits, saying only that they identified instances that need remedial action. The important thing is that there is someone us looking over their shoulder to ensure that things they say are getting done are getting done, said Therese W. McMillan, acting FTA administrator. [Foxxs letter] Foxx has taken an unusually hands-on approach to Metro safety. In July, frustrated with the lack of progress in the creation of the new oversight agency, he summoned Bowser, Hogan and McAuliffe to a meeting at his office. At the time, the three leaders pledged to work together to form the new body. [Foxx meets privately with area leaders on Metro safety ] Foxx also said he would be sending a letter to the leaders of the state legislatures urging them to move quickly on the matter. There has been growing pressure from the public and members of Congress for a solution to the myriad safety problems that have plagued Metro, especially in the last year. Since the Jan. 12, 2015, Yellow Line smoke incident, which killed one rider and injured scores more, Metro has been dogged by safety lapses and chronic service disruptions that have left riders and elected officials questioning whether it can provide safe, reliable service. Adding to the transit agencys woes, ridership is on the decline, which has exacerbated its financial problems. Foxx and others say the formation of a new independent safety oversight body with the power to force Metro to address critical safety concerns, and hold transit agency officials responsible when they fail to do so, is crucial to that effort. He was emphatic that every conversation with District, Maryland and Virginia officials going forward will include questions about Metro safety, adding that for him, Metro safety also is personal: Members of his staff as well as his family use the system. Were not going to stop until this gets fixed,he said. Lets get moving and get it done in 2016. Metro said Wednesday that it will spend about $120 million to bring cellphone service and better radio communications to its subway tunnels, revamping a failed, years-old plan that originally called for four cellular carriers to bear the bulk of the cost. The new deal between Metro and the four companies under which the transit agency will install radio and cellular cables in its tunnels, paying for the project using capital-improvement funds appears to be radically different from an earlier version, reached about eight years ago and discussed as recently as September. The original plan called for a consortium of Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T to oversee and pay for installation of the cellular cable. At the time, the carriers seemed more than willing to make the large investment because they stood to profit from cellphone use by commuters in the second-busiest subway in the nation. Now, long after the companies were unable to complete the work and the project fell dormant, Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld has announced its rebirth but with the transit agency, not carriers, footing most of the bill. The reason for the dramatic change was not immediately clear. A spokeswoman for the carriers declined to comment on specifics of the deal, and Metro said it would not release details without a written request under its public records policy, which requires processing time. [Five months ago, Metro envisioned a much different cellular deal.] Jack Evans, chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authoritys board of directors, and board member Corbett A. Price, who have been especially vocal as financial watchdogs of the agency, said they had not been briefed on the project. They said they plan to question Wiedefeld about it at Thursdays meeting. The new agreement comes at a time of deep money problems in the transit agency. Stagnant fare revenue and the reluctance of Washington-area jurisdictions to boost their financial subsidies have put a squeeze on Metros operating budget. And the agencys past mismanagement of federal grants has prompted federal officials to restrict Metros access to such funds, which are used to pay for such capital improvements as the cellular project. Wiedefeld and new board members, including Evans and Price, have said that fixing those problems is a top priority. Price, a businessman, said he didnt really have enough information to explain why the financial burden has shifted. But I do think the carriers have undergone a significant change in their business model, because the business hasnt been as profitable as it used to be, he added. Theyre having financial issues. In the years since the original agreement, around 2008, the cellular industrys potential for growth has been intensely questioned during an era when the nation is saturated with smartphones. Like other carriers, the four in the consortium have been under increasing pressure to maintain high profitability, a situation complicated by the entry, or potential entry, of new competitors in the field. As recently as September, when the new arrangement was being negotiated, Metro said a deal was close to being finalized under which Metro would handle the installation of cables in its 100-plus miles of tunnels. The carriers, they said, would pay Metro tens of millions of dollars for the work. If that was where the talks stood at the time, then the discussions took a drastic turn. On Wednesday, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel would say only that the carriers are contributing to the project with funding and materials. That offsets the $120 million to some degree. But he declined to say how much. The consortiums spokeswoman, Kate Jay of Verizon, said in an email: We do not release capital or contract details. In announcing the revived project, Metro did not offer a completion timetable. Wiedefeld said it will result in vastly improved radio coverage for Metro and the regions first responders, as well as wireless-technology coverage within Metros tunnels, allowing riders to chat on their phones, send and receive emails and texts, and surf the Web in what long has been a cellular dark zone. Engineering and production tests are already underway in a 6,000-foot tunnel segment between Glenmont and Forest Glen in order to develop project design specifications, Metro said in a statement. An outside expert has been hired to review Metros design and implementation plan . . . to accelerate the project schedule. The statement also said: Metro must design and test the engineering of the project to set a schedule for an unprecedented installation of 200 miles of cable, which breaks down to 100 miles of tunnel multiplied by two coaxial cables. As the cables are being installed, cellular service will become available progressively in various parts of the subway rather than all at once, when the project is completed, Wiedefeld said. We are looking for every opportunity . . . to deliver incremental benefits as we complete each segment and turn it over to the telecom providers, he said. In September, when Metro officials talked about the carriers paying for the installation, they hoped that the work would be finished by 2020. But Wednesdays announcement mentioned no end date. The project was supposed to have been completed four years ago under the original agreement that called for the consortium of carriers to install the tunnel wiring. But obstacles got in the way, including unforeseen logistical hurdles that the carriers could not handle, Metro said. Also, the consortiums prime contractor went bankrupt. And a fatalcrash forced Metro to give safety-related infrastructure work higher priority. The carriers met their first deadline making cell service available in the 20 busiest underground stations by 2009. The remaining stations were wired later. But installing cell cables in the challenging environment of a tunnel proved to be more difficult and time-consuming than anticipated, Metro said. Then, on June 22, 2009, a Red Line train crash near the Fort Totten station killed nine people. The numerous safety-related problems in the subway that came to light after the disaster required Metro to undertake a years-long overhaul of infrastructure. [Cell service in Metro tunnels had been a long time coming.] Given the limited number of hours available for tunnel work while trains are diverted or the subway is closed, there was not enough time or room for cable installers to stay on schedule while Metro crews labored in the tight spaces underground, the transit agency said. By the next deadline, in 2012, when the cable installation was supposed to have been finished, only small portions of a few tunnels had been wired. In 2013, after the consortiums prime contractor, Powerwave Technologies, went bankrupt, months of legal and financial wrangling ensued between the four carriers and the failed company. By the fall of 2014, officials said, Metro knew that many more months were likely to pass before the carriers lined up a new prime contractor. So transit officials and the consortium began negotiating a revised deal, with Metro saying in September that it would take care of the installation work. Then came Wednesdays surprising announcement: At an estimated cost of $120 million, it said, the underground portion of the work will be funded through Metros capital-improvement program. Former president Bill Clinton greets supporters at the Durant Center in Alexandria after a rally in support of Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) The original President Clinton bounded into Virginia on Wednesday to stump for his wife, who is fighting a much closer than expected Democratic primary battle against Bernie Sanders six days before Super Tuesday. We need to win Virginia! We need every vote in Virginia! Bill Clinton said to a thrilled crowd at the Hippodrome Theater in Richmonds Jackson-Ward neighborhood, once knows as the Harlem of the South. The venue, and the mostly African American crowd, was a reminder of how important the black vote is expected to be for Hillary Clinton in Virginia and other Southern states that hold their primaries Tuesday. Bill Clinton touched on many issues important to African American communities, including police brutality, criminal justice reform and voting rights. He also reminded the faithful of his and his wifes long history with the commonwealth, a key swing state in the general election whose governor, Terry McAuliffe (D), is a close friend and political ally. The latest polls show Sanders has closed to within 12 points of Hillary Clinton in Virginia, which was supposed to be an easy win for her. McAuliffe and virtually every other member of the states Democratic political elite have been campaigning for her in recent weeks. Former president Bill Clinton speaks at Wednesdays rally in Alexandria. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) [Is Virginia still Clinton country?] Before the former president spoke, Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones (D), who is African American, told the crowd that he has been proud to call President Obama Brother President for the past several years. I cant wait until November to be able to say Sister President, he said. Earlier in the day, Bill Clinton appeared at a sweltering recreation center in Alexandria that was packed with more than 300 fervent Hillary Clinton supporters, several of whom acknowledged in interviews that their friends seem more entranced by Sanders. I think a lot more people my age are inclined to vote for Bernie, said Caroline Treschitta, 18, who volunteers for the Clinton campaign. Yeah, free college! said Tess Harkin, 18. But a lot of people who have already been involved in the political process are for Hillary. [Judge orders discovery on Clintons private email system] The former president touted Hillary Clintons accomplishments as first lady in the 1990s, a U.S. senator in the early 2000s and secretary of state in Obamas first term. Along the way, he reminded the crowd of his time in the White House. I came to T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria the day after the Columbine shooting because I knew there were kids all over America terrified and I wanted them to see their president talking to children about this, he said. [From the archives: President speaks with high school mediators] Reminding voters of the strong economy during his time in office, Clinton said his wife has a plan to revive better times for workers who havent had raises even though their productivity is rising and their companies are making more money. You cant deny how successful everybody was when he was in office, said Pamela Chance of Alexandria. Hes one of my favorite presidents. Others spoke pragmatically of this years Democratic race, which has become a tight battle between the Democratic establishment that supports her and younger, more disaffected party members who are backing the senator from Vermont. Bernie has the fire in the stomach, but hes not realistic, said Linda DeLeon, who volunteered for Bill Clintons 1992 campaign. [Sanders i s sharpening his message] Kathy Kogut said she remains undecided about whom to vote for Tuesday, although she said she is certain she will vote Democratic. (There is no party registration in Virginia, and voters can opt to participate in either the Democratic or the Republican primary.) My perfect candidate would be a mix of the two, Kogut said. My 24-year-old daughter is a big Bernie fan. I lean more toward her, because I dont think he can get it done. Bill Clintons 45-minute speech at the Durant Center touched on key Democratic themes, such as equal pay, family-leave assistance, immigration reform and help with college costs. He also reminded his audience of the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and noted that there could be other openings on the court during the next presidents term. Weve got to have a judge on the Supreme Court who wants to expand the right to vote, not contract the right to vote, he said. I think we need somebody who will stand her ground on the Supreme Court. Portnoy reported from Richmond. Laura Murphy, a mother of four from Fairfax County, lobbied for legislation that would require teachers to inform parents about sexually explicit materials in coursework, and allow them to opt-out their children. Virginia would be the first in the country with such a law. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) Lawmakers in Virginia moved forward Thursday with legislation that could make it the first state in the country to allow parents to block their children from reading books in school that contain sexually explicit material. The bill would require K-12 teachers to identify classroom materials with sexually explicit content and notify parents, who would have the right to opt out their children and request that the teacher give them something less objectionable to study. Opponents call it a slippery slope toward book banning; advocates say it is a parents right to control their childrens exposure, even if the books are considered classics. It all started with Laura Murphy, a Fairfax County woman who said she was horrified to discover that one of her sons, a high school senior, had been assigned to read the 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved. The seminal work of fiction, by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, is about a former slave after the Civil War, and it contains scenes of bestiality and gang rape and an infants gruesome murder. Murphy said that makes the book inappropriate for young readers, and she ticked off other critically acclaimed works in the same category: The Bluest Eye, also by Morrison, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Schools in Virginia follow a similar procedure that allows parents to withdraw children from sex-education class. It just stands to reason when walking across the hall to English class, to be consistent, the same policies should apply, Murphy said. About half of Virginia school districts already require teachers to give parents advanced warning of potentially sensitive or controversial materials in the classroom,according to a 2013 survey by the state Department of Education. After a spirited debate in a Senate committee Thursday, lawmakers approved the bill 9 to 6, along party lines, except for Lynwood W. Lewis Jr. (D-Accomack), who voted yes with the Republicans. Sen. Charles Bill Carrico (R-Grayson) said he had not read Beloved but based his opinion on excerpts, which he said could poison the minds of young people. Evil is just when you plant the seed, its a kitten, he said. You feed it, it becomes a lion and it eats you. Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax) said she reread the book over the weekend and praised Morrison for her place in the pantheon of American novelists. I think its a slippery slope thats icy, she said. Great literature is great because it deals with difficult human conditions, not because its easy. Earlier this month, the House unanimously passed the legislation in a block of uncontested bills without debate an indication that most lawmakers were unaware of the potential for controversy. The bill has a good chance of Senate approval if Republicans, who have a one-vote advantage, stick together and Lewis continues to back it. It is scheduled for a Senate vote on Monday. House lawmakers would get a last chance to voice objections before the bill reaches the desk of Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), whose spokesman declined to say whether the governor would veto it. There is a long history of parental concerns about material taught in the classroom, and some individual schools and districts around the country have taken steps to remove Beloved and other novels from reading lists. But this appears to be the first attempt by a state legislature to regulate curriculums in this way, said James LaRue, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association, which tracks such legislation. The Virginia bill could become a model for the nation, LaRue said. While his association believes parents have the right to decide what their children read, LaRue said he worried that educators would find the process so difficult that they would decide not to teach certain books anymore. The focus of this effort might be to discourage the use of this book altogether and thats the chilling effect, he said And he said the approach could also give the false impression that the most important thing about a particular work of literature is its sexual content. In that case, Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet becomes nothing but teen sex and suicide, he said. [Fairfax County parent wants Beloved banned from school system] Millie Davis, director of the Intellectual Freedom Center at the National Council of Teachers of English, said parents have gotten used to ratings on movies, based on instances of profanity and violence, but books should be considered for their educational value. Whatever happened on Page 32 of a book is not why the book was chosen, she said. Under the proposed legislation, it would be up to the state Board of Education to write guidelines including the tricky task of defining sexually explicit for local school districts. In a letter to lawmakers, the National Coalition Against Censorship and like-minded groups said public schools cant eliminate an idea simply because society finds it disagreeable. The groups also questioned how the government is supposed to determine whether material is sexually explicit, calling it an over-inclusive and vague standard. Under this standard, titles as varied, valuable, and time-honored as Anne Franks The Diary of a Young Girl, Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales, and most works by William Shakespeare could be flagged, the letter said. Del. R. Steven Landes (R-Augusta), chairman of the House Education Committee, sponsored the legislation at the request of House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford). My job is not to judge the literature, its just to provide the option to the parent, he said. Murphys initial effort to remove Beloved from Fairfax County classrooms in 2013 was unsuccessful. She took her cause to the state Board of Education, which began deliberating whether to amend state regulations. While she waited for her idea to clear procedural hurdles, Murphy said that she lobbied legislators for a new law. In the meantime, the Fairfax County school system amended its rules and now notifies parents about sexually explicit books. Asked about whether a state law would have a chilling effect on materials that teachers choose for their classrooms, Landes said: Thats up to them. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are front-runners in a new Monmouth University survey. (Jabin Botsford (left) and Melina Mara(right)/The Washington Post) Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both enjoy wide leads in a new survey of Virginia voters, contrary to other recent polling suggesting their challengers had gained ground. Donald Trump wins 41 percent of likely Republican voters in the Monmouth University survey, while Clinton wins an overwhelming 60 percent of likely Democratic voters. [GOP candidates chart different paths as race goes national on Super Tuesday] On the Republican side, Trumps closest rival is Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who takes 27 percent of the vote. Rubio does particularly well with female voters, who are about as likely to support him as they are Trump. Thirty-three percent of women back Trump; 30 percent back Rubio. Male voters, by contrast, favor the brash mogul: 49 percent of men likely to vote Republican are backing Trump. He leads with nearly every demographic group, though his support is strongest with voters who have only a high-school education. Yet a full quarter of Republican voters say they would be upset if Trump won the nomination. Only 10 percent say the same for Rubio. Sen. Ted Cruz falls a distant third in the survey at 14 percent, and nearly a quarter of voters would be unhappy to see him as their nominee. He is trailed in the poll by Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, both tied at 7 percent. Even if Kasich and Carson dropped out of the race, Rubio and Cruz would gain support, but Trump would still prevail, according to this poll. His share of the vote in that scenario goes to 42 percent. All these numbers could change when Virginians go to the polls on Super Tuesday. Only a third of Republican voters say their minds are made up completely. However, 53 percent of Trump voters are certain of their choice. [Virginia is supposed to be Clinton country. Just dont tell that to Sanders.] On the Democratic side, Clinton leads among white, black, male and female voters. She wins older voters and ties with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont among Democrats under 50. Sanders has the backing of 33 percent of Democratic voters. Close to half of likely Democratic voters say they have completely made up their minds. Another third have a strong preference but could still be persuaded in the next few days. The poll was taken from Feb. 22 to 24, with 421 likely Republican and 302 likely Democratic voters. The Republican survey has a margin of error of 4.8 percentage points; the Democratic surveys is 5.6 percentage points. [Clinton, Trump top Virginia poll but both their leads are narrowing] A survey earlier this month from Christopher Newport University likewise found Clinton and Trump in the lead in Virginia. But that poll found Sanders and Rubio closing in on the two front-runners. [Sanders knocks Clinton for supporting NAFTA while first lady] Both candidates, along with their rivals, have begun turning their attention to Virginias March 1 primary in the past few weeks. Clinton has deployed her many high-profile surrogates across the Commonwealth, including former president Bill Clinton. Sanders held a large rally in Norfolk on Tuesday. Kasich visited Virginia Monday, and on Wednesday Trump was the first of several Republicans to stop at the evangelical Regent University. Cruz and Carson will be there before the primary. Rubio will appear at Patrick Henry College in Loudoun, another evangelical institution, on Sunday. John Pastorcich stands outside his brothers storm-damaged apartment Wednesday after tornadoes hit Pensacola, Fla. Storms struck the Southeast on Tuesday, killing three people in several states. (Dan Anderson/European Pressphoto Agency) TEXAS Court dismisses case against Rick Perry The felony prosecution of former Texas governor Rick Perry ended Wednesday when the states highest criminal court dismissed an abuse-of-power indictment that the Republican says hampered his short-lived 2016 presidential bid. The 6-to-2 decision by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which is dominated by elected Republican judges, frees Perry from a long-running criminal case that blemished the exit of one of the most powerful Texas governors in history and hung over his second failed run for the White House. A grand jury in liberal Austin had indicted Perry in 2014 for vetoing funding for a public corruption unit that Republicans have long accused of wielding a partisan ax. The unit worked under Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, an elected Democrat. Perry wanted her to resign after she was convicted of drunken driving. Perry was accused of using his veto power to threaten a public official and overstepping his authority, but the judges ruled that courts cannot undermine the veto power of a governor. Associated Press LOUISIANA Appeals court backs antiabortion measure An appeals court in Louisiana on Wednesday issued an emergency order that abortion rights groups say will result in the closure of three of the states four existing abortion clinics. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans ruled that a 2014 state law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have special relationships with local hospitals may go into effect as a legal challenge against it works its way through the courts. In January, a lower court had temporarily blocked the law. The law is similar to a regulation being challenged in Texas as part of a case that will be argued before the Supreme Court next week. It requires doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic where they practice, permitting them to treat patients there. Abortion rights groups said two clinics will immediately close as a result of Wednesdays decision, one in Bossier City and another in Baton Rouge. Doctors there have not been able to obtain hospital privileges. Two other clinics, in Shreveport and New Orleans, share a doctor who does have the necessary privileges. But it is expected that one of the two will have to close down. Sandhya Somashekhar COLORADO Deputy fatally shot, two officers wounded A sheriffs deputy in Colorado serving an eviction notice outside Denver was killed Wednesday morning and two others injured in a shootout with a man who opened fire as the officers entered the home, authorities said. Cpl. Nate Carrigan, a 13-year veteran of the Park County Sheriffs Office, was fatally wounded and two other officers were shot. Police said they returned fire, shooting and killing the homeowner, identified as Martin Wirth. Kolby Martin, a master patrol deputy, was shot multiple times in his lower extremities and airlifted to a hospital in Denver with life-threatening injuries. The sheriffs office said its officers arrived at the rural home in Bailey, about 45 miles southwest of downtown Denver, shortly before 9:50 a.m. Wirth came out on his deck and returned inside. When officers tried to follow him, he fired at them. Wirth was a community activist who had railed against the foreclosure crisis and had been a vocal leader in the Occupy Denver movement, the Denver Post reported. Mark Berman Oregon refuge occupiers plead not guilty: Ammon Bundy and 15 other defendants pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal conspiracy charges related to the 41-day occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge. U.S. District Judge Anna Brown set an April 29 trial date, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight said he expects to file a superseding indictment with additional charges after investigators finish examining firearms, electronics, American Indian artifacts and other evidence. A total of 25 people are charged in connection with the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which began Jan. 2 and lasted until Feb. 11. Judge upholds New York salt-warning rule: Large chain restaurants and fast-food eateries in New York City can be fined up to $600 beginning next week for not posting salt warnings on menu items that contain more than the recommended daily dose of sodium, a judge ruled Wednesday. The ruling by Supreme Court Justice Eileen Rakower dismissed a challenge from the National Restaurant Association brought just days after the first-of-its-kind rule was enacted in December. It is the latest in a series of healthy-eating measures pioneered by city public health officials that have been challenged in the courts, including an overturned rule limiting the size of sugary drinks and an upheld requirement that restaurant chains post calorie counts on menus. From news services ISRAEL Premier decries Irans offer to Palestinians Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that an Iranian offer to compensate the families of Palestinians killed in a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence, among them attackers, proves that Iran continues to aid terrorism even after the landmark nuclear deal signed last year. Netanyahus comments came a day after Irans ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Fathali, said Iran would pay $7,000 to the families of killed Palestinians to enable the Palestinian people to stay in their land and confront the occupier, according to Lebanons state-run National News Agency. Near-daily Palestinian attacks since mid-September have killed 28 Israelis. At least 166 Palestinians have been killed, 119 of them said by Israel to have died while attacking Israelis. The rest have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops. This shows that Iran, even after the nuclear agreement, is continuing to aid terrorism. . . . This is something that the nations of the world must confront and condemn and assist Israel and other countries, of course in repelling, said Netanyahu, who was a vehement opponent of the nuclear deal. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who negotiated the deal, said he was extremely disturbed by the compensation offer. Associated Press IRAQ Islamic State claims 2 attacks in Baghdad Suicide bombers hit a Shiite religious building and a military checkpoint in a Shiite-majority neighborhood of Baghdad on Thursday, killing 15 people, an Iraqi security official said. The Islamic State asserted responsibility for the attacks in the citys Shula district via a statement posted online, Iraqs national news agency reported. One bomber detonated an explosives belt among people leaving a Husseiniya, or a Shiite place of worship, killing 10 and wounding 34, Brig. Gen. Saad Maan said. Another hit the checkpoint at the entrance to Shula, killing five and injuring 14. Associated Press JAPAN Fukushima operator acknowledges failure The operator of Japans damaged Fukushima nuclear plant acknowledged Thursday that it failed for two months to announce that meltdowns had occurred in the cores of three of the reactors. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said its officials were unaware of a company emergency manual that defined a meltdown as damage exceeding 5 percent of a reactors fuel. Instead, Tepco described the condition of the reactors as less serious core damage for two months after the plant was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, despite early damage estimates ranging from 25 percent to 55 percent. Tepco has been accused of softening its language to cover up the seriousness of the disaster. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Japans nuclear regulatory unit at the time of the accident, was also reluctant to use the word meltdown. Tepco said it discovered the emergency manual this month and promised an investigation. Associated Press Italian Senate passes civil union bill: Italys Senate voted 173 to 71 to grant legal recognition to civil unions, a move that Prime Minister Matteo Renzi described as historic. But gay and lesbian groups denounced the measure as a betrayal because Renzis Democratic Party sacrificed a provision to allow gay adoption in order to ensure passage. The legislation, which must still pass the lower Chamber of Deputies, grants same-sex couples the possibility of having the same last name, inheritance rights, hospital visitation rights and decision-making rights about medical care. Turkish court rules in journalists favor: Turkeys highest court ruled that authorities violated the rights of two prominent newspaper journalists who were jailed on terror and espionage charges, paving the way for their release. Constitutional Court justices ruled in favor of Cumhuriyet editor in chief Can Dundar and the papers Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul. They were arrested in November for their reports on alleged government arms-smuggling to Syria. From news services Senate Republicans say they will refuse to have a hearing for President Obamas nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. So Democrats on Wednesday took matters into their own hands: They held a hearing all by themselves. A dozen members of the Senate minority assembled on the dais in an ornate hearing room in the Russell Senate Office Building. They used their official nameplates Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Warren, Mr. Cardin and they had cardboard name cards for the witnesses, a quartet of law professors. They put out a media advisory and hung an official-looking sign at the door. They filled the public seats in the audience with staffers and other extras, distributed written testimony for the press and even had a C-SPAN crew on hand to film the proceedings. As grace notes, they exchanged formalities such as I see Im over my time and Thank you for that courtesy, Madam Chair. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, arriving late, made himself at home in one of the empty seats typically occupied by the majority party, prompting Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, the former comedian, to tattle to Madam Chair. I think Senator Blumenthal is sitting on the Republican side, he reported. Without actual Republicans, the hearing became an echo chamber, as lawmakers lobbed what Madam Chair Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota admitted were softball questions and witnesses gave emphatic concurrence. Are the Republicans violating the Constitution? asked Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. I would say they are violating the Constitution, replied University of Chicago law professor Geoff Stone. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts piously reminded the audience that for the rest of this year, President Obama is still president of the United States of America. Can I have an amen on that? An amen is about all she can have. Alas for the Democrats, they dont have the power to hold a real hearing. Klobuchar is in charge only of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, a party apparatus that doesnt have real committee powers. Klobuchar herself has been mentioned as one of the possible nominees for the Supreme Court vacancy. But given the way the eventual nominee is likely to be treated, the president might instead consider nominating Klobuchars Minnesota colleague Franken, who isnt a lawyer but can appreciate farce. Democrats have no authority to force the Republican majority to vote on Obamas eventual nominee, or even to hold a hearing. But they do have the power to shout themselves hoarse and this is precisely what they plan to do. They have no illusions about getting Obamas nominee confirmed. But they think they can make Republicans pay a political price for their reflexive decision not to hold a hearing for an Obama nominee. GOP leaders said Wednesday they would stick to that position even if Obama were to nominate Brian Sandoval, the Republican governor of Nevada. [Republican governor of Nevada being considered for Supreme Court] Polls indicate the GOP position which goes well beyond the more defensible position of voting down Obamas eventual nominee both stirs up the Democratic base and offends independent voters. The incoming Democratic Senate leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, said Wednesday that this is going to be the dominant issue for the remainder of the year, overshadowing anything that may happen on the Senate floor. To guarantee that, Democrats will launch all manner of stunts and theatrics. On Wednesday, Democratic staffers and liberal activists assembled an impressive arsenal of props in a Capitol basement and called in reporters. There were six boxes containing, they said, printouts of 1.3 million electronic signatures of a petition demanding action on the Supreme Court vacancy. There were also nine posters telling Senate Republicans to Do your job and Follow the Constitution, along with four U.S. flags, four senators and eight earnest activists posing for photos with the props. A moment of silence for the trees, requested liberal activist Adam Green as they posed with the massive printout. There will, evidently, be little silence as Democrats try to make Republicans own the obstructionist label in November. Senate Republicans are giving a middle finger to the American people and a middle finger to the president, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said at the news conference. That was the unanimous view at the Democrats faux hearing Wednesday afternoon, where witnesses and senators alike talked about the unconscionable and lawless and unprecedented acts of the Republicans. Its tyrannical, declared Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. (There were no Republicans on hand to point out that Vice President Biden in 1992 took a position very similar to the current Republican stance.) But what recourse do Democrats have other than shouting and hoping for revenge in November? Hirono put the question to one of the witnesses, Georgetowns Peter Edelman: What is the remedy? Guantanamo, he deadpanned. Its a thought. Twitter: @Milbank Read more from Dana Milbanks archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. The people mentioned in Jackson Diehls Feb. 22 op-ed, Tortured by a U.S. ally, are alleged to have cooperated with and financed terrorist organizations, some of which are officially designated as such by both the Emirati and U.S. governments. Just as in the United States, these are very serious charges in the United Arab Emirates . And, just as in the United States, the defendants received a hearing, were represented by legal counsel and were allowed to contact their families and U.S. diplomatic representatives. As noted in the State Departments 2014 human rights report, the UAEs law presumes defendants innocent until proven guilty. Along those lines, Kamal Eldarat and his son Momed are being provided all of the due process guarantees under the Constitution and laws of the United Arab Emirates. Yousef al Otaiba, Washington The writer is the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States. Im an American who was arbitrarily detained by the United Arab Emirates in 2013 for uploading a comedy video about youth culture to YouTube. Unfortunately, I know all too well that Jackson Diehls concerns about two Americans imprisoned in the UAE being denied legal counsel and coerced into false confessions are quite valid. During my initial interrogation, UAE police officers made me sign a document written in Arabic, a language I cant read. Later, I learned that document was a confession the police fabricated. The countrys supreme court used it as evidence to convict me of endangering UAE state security. Throughout nine months of detention, authorities never permitted me to meet with my attorney. Based on my experience, the claim that the two Americans are receiving due process . . . in accordance with international fair trial standards is improbable. Shezanne Cassim, Woodbury, Minn. Ludmilla Alexeeva is chair and a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rebirth of Russia. One of the most remarkable features of that rebirth was the rapid creation, after 70 years of Soviet repression and atomization, of Russias vast, vibrant and effective civil society. The history of the human rights movement in Russia is also the story of my life, because I was a dissident in the Soviet era and today proudly chair the Moscow Helsinki Group, the oldest human rights organization working in Russia. In the 1990s, our country was poor, and rights groups could find hardly any funding in Russia. We were fortunate to have Western donors who supported our work. Even as Russia got back on its feet, thanks largely to a dramatic rise in oil prices, it still wasnt easy to find financial assistance in Russia for human rights work. There were many reasons for this, not least of which was that potential donors did not want to risk the Kremlins wrath by supporting potentially sensitive causes. And lets face it, human rights work can be sensitive. During Vladimir Putins 15 years in power, the Kremlin has attempted to cast human rights values as alien to Russia especially in the wake of events in Ukraine two years ago. Criticism of the government has come to equal disloyalty or, worse, treason. Under a law adopted in 2012, more than 100 groups that receive even small amounts of foreign funding have been branded foreign agents which in Russia can only mean traitor. Its not only that the Kremlin and state-controlled media have poisoned the public mind against independent groups in this way. There are also real legal consequences for leaders of civic groups, including up to two years in prison if they refuse to comply with the law. Dozens of groups are tied up in lawsuits with the government. Many have had to close. The Justice Ministry recently accused Memorial, a leading human rights organization, of using foreign funding to harm Russia and asked the Prosecutor Generals Office to investigate. Another part of this anti-foreigner witch hunt was last years law banning undesirable foreign organizations that supposedly undermine Russias defense, security or constitutional order. But the real target is still Russians: Those of us with ties to these undesirables risk up to six years in prison. The aim is to isolate us and deepen the divide between Russia and the West. It wasnt long before Russian senators asked the Prosecutor Generals Office to ban 12 organizations as undesirable. The list included donors who helped Russian groups get off the ground 25 years ago and remain a crucial source of support to this day. First the National Endowment for Democracy was banned, followed a few months later by the Open Society Foundations. The MacArthur Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation were also on the list and decided to stop their Russia work, citing the increasingly hostile political climate. I could not have been sadder. These foundations had done so much to help my country. Now only a pitifully small number of donors remain willing to continue funding human rights work in Russia. Its easy to understand that. All donors want to see results from their investments, but what results can be expected here, when a new kind of iron curtain seems to be lowering? Who wants it on their conscience if the leader of a group they are supporting is imprisoned, or worse? Several years ago, my organization stopped accepting foreign funding because I felt I couldnt ask my team to take the risks that came with the label of foreign agent. But I fully support my colleagues in the human rights movement who have courageously withstood the legal and political onslaught. I dont have answers to the hard questions. But I refuse to abandon hope. So do the hundreds of activists who are putting everything on the line their freedom, their families to continue human rights work in Russia. Theyre fighting for the values that attracted Western aid in the first place. Donors need to find ways to support them. Surely they have faced bigger challenges elsewhere in the world. Surely the project of defending freedom in Russia is worth pursuing while there are Russians willing to stand up for it. At a meeting a few months ago, I asked Putin directly to repeal the ugly foreign agents law. I told him that the government should not accuse us of something for which we are not guilty. He has not yet acted on my request. Call me foolish, but I can still hope. If I were to meet today with all the Western donors who have invested in human rights in Russia, I would praise them for the confidence they had in us 25 years ago, at the hopeful beginning, and plead with them not to abandon their Russian partners now that the going has gotten tough. The writer is a political theorist at Harvard University and a contributing columnist for The Post. Since my column Sunday arguing that we, the people, ought to unite to block Donald Trump, a highly successful demagogic opportunist who is taking advantage of a divided country, I have, as you might imagine, received a great deal of correspondence. You can read a sample here. (Be forewarned that youll find obscenities, though they are not mine.) I have, however, also had the pleasure of an extended, quite civil email correspondence with one Trump supporter, and this has helped me further clarify my views. Our conversation reached an interesting point when I asked him, What could actually make you change your mind about Trump? That is, if your hypothesis is that Trump would be a good president, what would actually refute that hypothesis for you? If you didnt mind sharing your thoughts on that, I would be very grateful. He responded (I promised that I would only paraphrase, and not quote, him) by saying that he would conclude that Trump hadnt been the right choice if Trump ever made good on his promises to ban Muslims generally from entering the United States or to deport people whose only crime is being in the country illegally. He takes all those proposals to be pure performance. He believes he can count on Trump to undo President Obamas executive orders and to block the admission of refugees from dangerous places, and that thats as far as it will go. [Read more: Donald Trump relishes wrecking the GOP] Then he turned the question back on me, asking what would make me change my mind. Lets say that Trump becomes president, he asked, and the kinds of things I fear dont happen. Would I change my mind and agree that I had blown things out of proportion? I slept on his question for a night and then gave him this answer: The things I fear are already happening. This country has seen a rise in white supremacy groups since 2000, as the Southern Poverty Law Center has documented. This is the first election in which their organizational power has propelled a candidate to durable prominence, even if that candidate has now also attracted lots of other kinds of supporters. Even after Obama released his long-form birth certificate in 2011, about 23 percent of Republicans continued to hold the view that he was born overseas. In September, 61 percent of Trumps voters were birthers. Exit polling from the South Carolina primary last weekend showed that 70 percent of Trumps voters in that state wish that the Confederate battle flag still flew over their statehouse. Although Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) comes close, no other candidate draws at this level from this constituency. I study the impact of digital technologies on civic participation, and I have been watching groups of this sort form and grow in strength for some time, improving their capacity for coordination. These voters have given Trump his hard granite floor of at least 20 percent to 25 percent support. But their success at propelling their candidate to prominence was possible only because of the fragmentation of the rest of the Republican electorate. A share of 20 to 25 percent of Republicans wouldnt have been enough to do that if in August or September there had been only one or two others in the race. Trump counts votes with the best of them; he saw his opportunity and ran with it. [Editorial: GOP leaders, you must do everything in your power to stop Trump] Donald Trump won the Nevada GOP caucuses on Feb. 23. Here's how. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) His success is now providing affirmation and cover to his base of nativists and organized white supremacist groups. Such groups are connected to traditions of mob violence (consider the history of this country from the 1910s through the 1970s). This is why Trumps suggestions that maybe protesters should be roughed up or punched are so loaded. This is the context in which to hear his celebration of false historical narratives about the use of bullets dipped in pigs blood for the summary execution of Muslim adversaries. In the context of our very own history, Trumps habit of condoning lawlessness is dangerous. When political leaders condone violence, their words are already doing things. They provide cover, embolden and enable. My interlocutor suggested that lawlessness has been an issue in the Obama administration, too, as with excessive IRS scrutiny of the tea party. I agree with him that this was an example of unjustifiable overreach. My commitment is to the rule of law and its nonarbitrary application. The question of how words that condone lawlessness relate to lawless actions is always delicate. Over the years, I have gotten my share of hate mail, but never have I gotten anything as ugly as what I received in response to Sundays column. How should I understand the shift in the level of rhetoric? The period from 2004 to 2012 saw increases in religiously based hate crimes and hate crimes against Latinos, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics. Since the Paris attacks, hate crimes against Muslims have been rising. Clearly, the mere fact of a terrorist attack is enough to explain that, but Trumps words are certainly not helping to reverse the tide. My conclusion, then, was that I would have to concede that I had been wrong about Trump if under a Trump presidency: 1) the rising tide of white supremacy turned; 2) the country secured its capacity to protect the rights of Muslim Americans; 3) the immigration issue were handled with reasonable compromises and without mass deportations (I cant believe I even have to write that); and 4) constitutional rights, including freedom of expression and association, were concertedly and consistently protected for everyone. (Since many of my correspondents have questioned whether my commitment to equal rights includes white people, let me say affirmatively that I mean everyone in its standard usage, which, yes, does indeed include white people.) [Opinion: The decline and fall of the GOP ] It turns out that for me, the question of what Trump stands for is not a matter of trying to predict what will happen; its about observing what is already happening. It also turns out that for me to conclude that I was wrong about Trump, he would have to do the opposite of what he says he is going to do. My conversation with my correspondent did convince me, though, that there must be another side to Trump, so I tuned in Wednesday to his Regent University event with Pat Robertson. Was Trump just a corporate tough like Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison who had learned to rumble in a certain kind of environment, but beneath whose tough exterior there is affable charm and a good heart, as my conversational partner argued? Indeed, Trump put in a very different performance than I had seen before. As he promised after South Carolina, the obscenities were gone. He has suggested that for the general election, he would tone his performance down, and he did just that for this evangelical audience. He even provided a dramatization of the difference between his tough mode and his smooth mode and explained why he thought the second was better sometimes. He told lots of stories, made lots of jokes and stuck to his core message (How do you define a country if you dont have borders?). He is a brilliant performer. This is what makes Trump truly dangerous. Having established a rock-solid relationship with an aggressively ethno-nationalist base, he is ready to pile on the charm to bring everyone else on board, while also seeking to intimidate those who disagree with him. But note, the only people to whom he has made any kind of consistent commitment, through repeated signaling, are those birthers and nativists with whom he began his journey. The decision about voting for Trump is a choice about whether to give that base its most significant electoral victory in a very long time. A bomb is released from a Russian Su-34 strike fighter in Syria last year in this photo obtained from footage taken from the Russian Defense Ministry website. (Associated Press) Joseph I. Lieberman represented Connecticut in the Senate from 1989 to 2013, serving three terms as a Democrat and one term as an independent, and is chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran. For more than 50 years, national security leaders have gathered annually at the Munich Security Conference, a conclave established during the depths of the Cold War as a meeting place for the Western allies standing against the communist threat. I have been privileged to attend almost half of these meetings from the era of hope and excitement that followed the Soviet collapse in the early 1990s through the divisive and difficult wars of the post-9/11 decade but none has been as troubling as the one held this month. That is because the world has never seemed as dangerous and leaderless as it does now. Only the extremists and bullies act boldly, and therefore they have seized the initiative. It is a moment in history that evokes the haunting words of W.B. Yeats: The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. The simple fact is that there is more instability in the world today than at any time since the end of World War II. The threats come from emboldened expansionist powers such as Iran, Russia and China, and also terrorist aggressors such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. In short, the enemies of freedom are on the march. At the same time, the United States which assumed global leadership after World War II to protect our domestic security, prosperity and freedom has chosen this moment to become more passive in the world. The absence of American leadership has certainly not caused all the instability, but it has encouraged and exacerbated it. For example, while the threat of violent Islamist extremism has existed for several decades, the military and political disengagement of the United States from Iraq after the success of the surge and our failure to intervene to stop the slaughter in Syria have conspired to create a vacuum in the heart of the Middle East. This vacuum has been exploited by the regions most dangerous anti-American forces: totalitarian Sunni fanatics and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The result is the creation of a terrorist sanctuary of unprecedented scale and Iranian domination over multiple Arab capitals. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also moved to exploit the vacuum, first by seizing Crimea and moving into eastern Ukraine in 2014. The United States reacted to that breach of world order with words of outrage and some sanctions against Moscow, but also by refusing to give Ukrainians the defensive weapons that might impose a heavier military cost on Russia for its adventurism. Rather than deterring Russia from further aggression, our hesitation in Ukraine signaled to the Kremlin that the United States itself could be deterred when Russia acted boldly and decisively. Putin soon extended this lesson to Syria, where he dispatched his forces last year in order to turn the tide of war in favor of a weakening Bashar al-Assad. Despite predictions of quagmire, that is precisely what Russias intervention has achieved while reestablishing Moscow as a force to be reckoned with in yet another vital region. The U.S. response? To ask for Putins help in extinguishing fires that he himself has been feeding. This fits a broader pattern. In too many places in recent years, the United States has treated its adversaries as essential partners to be courted, while dismissing or denigrating its historic allies and partners as inconveniences or obstacles to peace. But as frustrated as they are with the United States, our friends also recognize that they are incapable by themselves of managing the crises that confront them without the United States. In Munich this month, the United States ratified its diminished role by reaching an agreement on Syria that elevates the standing of Russia, pressures the Syrian opposition and stands little chance of ending the campaign of indiscriminate violence being waged on behalf of the Assad regime against the long-suffering Syrian people. Almost no one in Munich thought it would work. At the end of the conference, I shared these fears about the state of the world with an Arab diplomat. I agree, he replied, and when we return to Munich next February, it will all be much worse. The best way to defy that prediction is for the United States to reassert its historic leadership role not by acting alone, but in concert with our worldwide network of allies and friends, which is yearning for this. In a conversation with the leader of a European ally, some of us asked what the United States could do to be most helpful to him and his country. His answer was direct: Elect a president who understands the importance of American leadership in the world. That would be in our national interest and is also wise counsel to American voters as we decide whom to support in this years topsy-turvy presidential election. Regarding Aki Peritzs Feb. 21 Outlook essay, What did the CIA tell LBJ? Not much: I was surprised that such analysis-free and tactical, not strategic, information was provided to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in the daily briefing. At a later time, I headed the Defense Intelligence Agencys presentation branch, responsible for the daily intelligence briefing to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his three-star staff. We would not have been permitted to provide general information to the chairman. His time was too precious; he demanded accurate, factual and verifiable intelligence, most of it coming from technical sources. What I found worrisome in the essay was the supposed quip from former CIA director Michael Hayden that If it is a fact, it aint intelligence. Intelligence professionals would be more likely to say that if it isnt a fact, it isnt intelligence. I frequently delivered what was known as the Hughes Briefing, named for its creator and the principal briefer, the late John T. Hughes, a legend in the intelligence community. Its official title was The Soviet Military Buildup: The Evidentiary Base. That title shows how dedicated Hughes was to fact-based intelligence. That briefing lasted two hours and had about 175 slides depicting the most sensitive intelligence on the Soviet Union. It was so well-crafted by Hughes that no one fell asleep. Im sure he would be turning in his grave to hear the phrase If it is a fact, it aint intelligence. Larry Tracy, Bethesda Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing columnist for The Post. When the plague descended on Thebes, Oedipus sent his brother-in-law to the Delphic oracle to discover the cause. Little did he realize that the crime for which Thebes was being punished was his own. Todays Republican Party is our Oedipus. A plague has descended on the party in the form of the most successful demagogue-charlatan in the history of U.S. politics. The party searches desperately for the cause and the remedy without realizing that, like Oedipus, it is the party itself that brought on this plague. The partys own political crimes are being punished in a bit of cosmic justice fit for a Greek tragedy. Lets be clear: Trump is no fluke. Nor is he hijacking the Republican Party or the conservative movement, if there is such a thing. He is, rather, the partys creation, its Frankensteins monster, brought to life by the party, fed by the party and now made strong enough to destroy its maker. Was it not the partys wild obstructionism the repeated threats to shut down the government over policy and legislative disagreements, the persistent calls for nullification of Supreme Court decisions, the insistence that compromise was betrayal, the internal coups against party leaders who refused to join the general demolition that taught Republican voters that government, institutions, political traditions, party leadership and even parties themselves were things to be overthrown, evaded, ignored, insulted, laughed at? Was it not Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), among others, who set this tone and thereby cleared the way for someone even more irreverent, so that now, in a most unenjoyable irony, Cruz, along with the rest of the party, must fall to the purer version of himself, a less ideologically encumbered anarcho-revolutionary? This would not be the first revolution that devoured itself. [Read more: Donald Trump relishes wrecking the GOP] Then there was the partys accommodation to and exploitation of the bigotry in its ranks. No, the majority of Republicans are not bigots. But they have certainly been enablers. Who began the attack on immigrants legal and illegal long before Trump arrived on the scene and made it his premier issue? Who frightened Mitt Romney into selling his soul in 2012, talking of self-deportation to get himself right with the partys anti-immigrant forces? Who opposed any plausible means of dealing with the genuine problem of illegal immigration, forcing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to cower, abandon his principles and his own immigration legislation lest he be driven from the presidential race before it had even begun? It was not Trump. It was not even party yahoos. It was Republican Party pundits and intellectuals, trying to harness populist passions and perhaps deal a blow to any legislation for which President Obama might possibly claim even partial credit. What did Trump do but pick up where they left off, tapping the well-primed gusher of popular anger, xenophobia and, yes, bigotry that the party had already unleashed? Republican presidential candidates fought over immigration reform, health care and peace in the Middle East during the CNN/Telemundo debate in Houston on Feb. 25. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) Then there was the Obama hatred, a racially tinged derangement syndrome that made any charge plausible and any opposition justified. Has the president done a poor job in many respects? Have his foreign policies, in particular, contributed to the fraying of the liberal world order that the United States created after World War II? Yes, and for these failures he has deserved criticism and principled opposition. But Republican and conservative criticism has taken an unusually dark and paranoid form. Instead of recommending plausible alternative strategies for the crisis in the Middle East, many Republicans have fallen back on mindless Islamophobia, with suspicious intimations about the presidents personal allegiances. Thus Obama is not only wrong but also anti-American, un-American, non-American, and his policies though barely distinguishable from those of previous liberal Democrats such as Michael Dukakis or Mario Cuomo are somehow representative of something subversive. How surprising was it that a man who began his recent political career by questioning Obamas eligibility for office could leap to the front of the pack, willing and able to communicate with his followers by means of the dog-whistle disdain for political correctness? [Editorial: GOP leaders, you must do everything in your power to stop Trump] We are supposed to believe that Trumps legion of angry people are angry about wage stagnation. No, they are angry about all the things Republicans have told them to be angry about these past 7 years, and it has been Trumps good fortune to be the guy to sweep them up and become their standard-bearer. He is the Napoleon who has harvested the fruit of the revolution. There has been much second-guessing lately. Why didnt party leaders stand up and try to stop Trump earlier, while there was still time? But how could they have? Trump was feeding off forces in the party they had helped nurture and that they hoped to ride into power. Some of those Republican leaders and pundits now calling for a counterrevolution against Trump were not so long ago welcoming his contribution to the debate. The politicians running against him and now facing oblivion were loath to attack him before because they feared alienating his supporters. Instead, they attacked one another, clawing at each others faces as they one by one slipped over the cliff. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie got his last deadly lick in just before he plummeted at Trump? No, at Rubio. (And now, as his final service to party and nation, he has endorsed Trump.) Jeb Bush spent millions upon millions in his hopeless race, but against whom? Not Trump. So what to do now? The Republicans creation will soon be let loose on the land, leaving to others the job the party failed to carry out. For this former Republican, and perhaps for others, the only choice will be to vote for Hillary Clinton. The party cannot be saved, but the country still can be. In early childhood, the Dutch psychiatric patient known as 2014-77 suffered neglect and abuse. When he was about 10, doctors diagnosed him with autism. For approximately two decades thereafter, he was in and out of treatment and made repeated suicide attempts. He suffered terribly, doctors later observed, from his inability to form relationships: He responded to matters in a spontaneous and intense, sometimes even extreme, way. This led to problems. A few years ago, 2014-77 asked a psychiatrist to end his life. In the Netherlands, doctors may perform euthanasia not only for terminal physical illness but also upon the voluntary and well-considered request of those suffering unbearably from incurable mental conditions. The doctor declined, citing his belief that the case was treatable, as well as his own moral qualms. But he did transmit the request to colleagues, as Dutch norms require. They treated 2014-77 for one more year, determined his case was, indeed, hopeless and, in due course, administered a fatal dose of drugs. Thus did a man in his 30s whose only diagnosis was autism become one of 110 people to be euthanized for mental disorders in the Netherlands between 2011 and 2014. Thats the rough equivalent of 2,000 people in the United States. Case 2014-77 appears on the Dutch-language website of Hollands Regional Euthanasia Review Committees, which review mercy killing in the Netherlands but almost never find fault. Of 5,306 euthanasias listed in the committees 2014 annual report, the vast majority based on physical illness, regulators found a lack of due care in four, or 0.08 percent. The consequences of these rulings, if any, are unclear. Now, however, doctors from elsewhere are starting to apply independent scrutiny to the increasingly common euthanasia of Hollands mentally ill, and their findings are not so reassuring. To the contrary. According to an analysis of 66 of the 110 cases from 2011 to 2014, by psychiatrist Scott Kim of the National Institutes of Health and two colleagues, Dutch psychiatric patients were often euthanized despite disagreement among consulting physicians as to whether they met legal criteria. In 37 cases, patients refused possibly beneficial treatment, and doctors proceeded anyway. In seven cases, doctors did not seek an independent psychiatric evaluation, contrary to recommendations by the Dutch Psychiatric Association. Regulators, though, found a lack of due care in only one case again, with unclear consequences. The Kim report, published Feb. 10 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, undercuts the very notion of a voluntary and well-considered request for death from a patient who is, by definition, cognitively and/or emotionally troubled. Dutch doctors have honored the request for lethal injection of a seemingly lucid, physically healthy woman in her 70s who said her life had become meaningless after her husband was euthanized a year earlier for a terminal physical illness. And they have done the same for people who were in the grip of delusions or hearing voices. The World Psychiatric Associations policy on euthanasia, set forth 20 years ago, warns: The psychiatrist, among whose patients are some who are severely incapacitated and incompetent to reach an informed decision, should be particularly careful of actions that could lead to the death of those who cannot protect themselves because of their disability. Among the obvious risks, Columbia University psychiatrist Paul S. Appelbaum writes in a companion article to Kims, is inducing hopelessness among other individuals with similar conditions and removing pressure for an improvement in psychiatric and social services. Will psychiatrists conclude from the legalization of assisted death that it is acceptable to give up on treating some patients? Appelbaum asks. Some doctors already have. In 2009, a 37-year-old Belgian woman became distraught after a romantic breakup and began seeking a doctor to euthanize her, per that countrys law, which is similar to Hollands. The woman, Tine Nys, had a history of mental illness, including a teenage suicide attempt, but had more recently been doing well. In February 2010, however, she received a new diagnosis of autism and, two months later, a lethal injection. Her two surviving sisters have recently come forward to denounce the administering physicians nonchalant attitude. Appelbaum chairs the World Psychiatric Associations ethics committee; he says it will address the situation in the Low Countries at a meeting in Munich in March. Its late. Once the Netherlands authorized euthanasia for physical illnesses in 2002, demands to extend this right to the suffering mentally ill were inevitable and, indeed, logically consistent. They are already being heard on this side of the Atlantic: Canadians are debating how to implement last years ruling by their Supreme Court establishing a right to physician-assisted dying in cases of a grievous and irremediable medical condition. A panel of experts advising Ontario and 10 other provinces and territories has urged that the ruling be construed to include mental illness. And why not? The Canadian Supreme Courts opinion specifically said that, in Belgium and the Netherlands, the predicted abuse and disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations has not materialized. Read more from Charles Lanes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. Donald Trump cruised to victory in Nevada, building a broad coalition that left his two rivals trailing far behind heading into Super Tuesday. The Washington Posts David Weigel talks about what this means for Trump s chances of securing the GOP nomination. (Alice Li/The Washington Post) Donald Trump cruised to victory in Nevada, building a broad coalition that left his two rivals trailing far behind heading into Super Tuesday. The Washington Posts David Weigel talks about what this means for Trump s chances of securing the GOP nomination. (Alice Li/The Washington Post) Donald Trump has taken firm control of the race for the Republican presidential nomination with his third straight victory, in Nevada. To deny him that role, strategists say, his leading rivals must quickly change the trajectory of the race and then dig in for what could be a long battle that could go all the way to the GOP convention in Cleveland. Strategists who have been through past nomination battles say that Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich collectively have until March 15 to turn the race away from the New York billionaire. Each has a must-win test looming in his home state between now and then. But those victories alone might not be sufficient to block Trumps path. As for Trump, the front-runner hopes to suffocate his three main rivals in next weeks Super Tuesday contests, particularly in primaries across the Deep South, and to knock them off with wins in each of their home states. In his Las Vegas victory speech after the Nevada caucuses Tuesday night, Trump predicted he would secure the nomination in less than two months and taunted his top three opponents by trumpeting his high poll numbers in Florida, Ohio and Texas. The first opportunity to alter the campaign could come Thursday night, when the Republican rivals meet here in Houston for their first debate since the departure of former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who quit the campaign Saturday after finishing fourth in South Carolina. Changing the dynamic, however, depends on whether any of them has a strategy to put Trump on the defensive. So far, Trumps rivals have focused more on one another than on him, in hopes of becoming Trumps last viable opponent. Many Republicans fear that strategy will only allow Trump to put a stranglehold on the nomination with continued victories in the coming weeks. The reality is that, until the field starts to narrow, its going to be very, very hard to take him out, said Katie Packer, deputy campaign manager for Mitt Romneys 2012 campaign and the leader of an anti-Trump super PAC. I think people need to step up and start taking on Trump. Front-runners dont just stumble. People trip them. [Nevada win shows why conventional wisdom on Trump may be wrong] After losing the Iowa caucuses to Cruz on Feb. 1, Trump has piled up victories in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. He heads into next weeks Super Tuesday contests in 11 states with the anti-Trump vote still splintered among his rivals. Given Trumps string of successes, his rivals must demonstrate that they can beat him, not just finish ahead of each other. You have to win, said Stuart Stevens, chief strategist for Romney in 2012. Winning transforms a candidate, and losing transforms a candidate. Youre not the same person after youve won a bunch of races, and youre not the same after youve lost a bunch of races. Winning states does more than change perceptions. Its the key to amassing delegates. From here forward, the campaign shifts from a battle for momentum to the trench warfare of gathering delegates. Trump has taken hold of the delegate race in large part by winning all 50 that were at stake in South Carolina last Saturday. The longer the field remains divided, the better Trumps opportunities to maintain or enlarge that lead. David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report updated his delegate charts Wednesday morning and concluded that Trump is on pace or slightly ahead of what he would need to win the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination. Rubio and Cruz are behind their pace to achieve that. 1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Trump captures the nations attention on the campaign trail View Photos The Republican presidential candidate focuses on Super Tuesday state primaries after a win in Nevada. Caption Businessman Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee at the partys convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Trump Doral golf course in Miami. Carlo Allegri/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue. Only about 5 percent of the total delegates have been awarded so far. But over the next three weeks, they will come in bunches, with 595 at stake Tuesday and 368 more through March 12. At that point, the rules shift in what could be a game-changing fashion. Between now and March 14, delegates will be awarded proportionally. Starting March 15, states will be allowed to award delegates on a winner-take-all basis. On that day alone, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Ohio, with a combined 292 delegates allocated in that way, are among the states or territories with contests. [Romney says he gets the appeal of Trump and Sanders: Were just mad as hell] Its important to take a deep breath here, Rubio said Wednesday on CBS This Morning. Its not based on how many states you win its based on how many delegates you picked up. Looking ahead to the March calendar, Rubio said there were plenty of states out there that in the winner-take-all category that if you win them, you more than catch up. Over time, Rubio intends to more aggressively draw a contrast with Trump and call him out for inaccuracies or shallow policies. We believe a majority of Republicans dont want Trump to be the nominee and will vote for an alternative, said Rubio communications director Alex Conant. As this becomes a two-person race, Marco will beat Trump head to head. Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), a Rubio supporter, said Rubio needs to limit Trumps victories and ensure that Cruz, who came in third in South Carolina, is halted. He has to run the hardest campaign he can and stop Trump from sweeping next week, King said. He has to make it as clear as possible that hes now the only option, that Cruz is finished and hit a high-water mark in South Carolina. . . . Cruz had his chance and missed it. Jeff Roe, Cruzs campaign manager, offered a counter view in a Wednesday phone interview. He argued that his candidate still has the best chance to defeat Trump, despite a loss in South Carolina. Hes won three in a row, Roe said of Trump. Thats not lost on me. Still, he said that based on the campaigns projections of states and demographics and possible support, the road map through March 15th will not be smooth sailing for Donald. For those that are hysterically declaring the race over should take a breath and look at the remaining 46 states. At this point, however, none of Trumps leading rivals sees any incentive to get out of the race. All can sketch a path to the nomination, however difficult, and until they are proven wrong, they will soldier on. Mike DuHaime, who was chief strategist for the presidential campaign of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, said he could imagine long-odds scenarios for Cruz, Rubio or Kasich and said the psychology of believing there is a path to victory, no matter what outsiders think, will keep the candidates going. I have been in those rooms, DuHaime said. As long as you believe there is a path and a chance, you keep going. A fifth Republican, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, also remains in the race but is not expected to be a major factor in the March contests. Meanwhile, Trumps insular campaign is quickly expanding into a national organization. Staffers are on the ground in states with Super Tuesday primaries and are building grass-roots networks there and in other states such as Florida. Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Trump has lined up a crazy travel schedule over the next couple of weeks and brushed off any suggestion that his boss was stoppable. We have a very strong candidate who is going to be competing in every state, Lewandowski said. I dont expect anything. Our goal is to play everywhere. [Trump is well on his way to the 1,237 delegates he needs to be the nominee] But Republican strategist Phil Cox said the home-state tests are crucial for all three of Trumps leading rivals. If you are a candidate other than Trump, from the standpoint of both the national narrative and the actual number of delegates you need to win the nomination, anything less than a win in your home state is a fatal, he said. John Weaver, Kasichs chief strategist, agreed: Theres no legitimate rationale. If you cant win your home state in a primary, you cant expect to move forward. The Texas primary comes first, on March 1 along with 10 other Super Tuesday primaries or caucuses. Polls show Cruz with a lead there, although Trump is uncomfortably close behind. Cruz and his wife, Heidi, are pulling out all the stops to win and on Wednesday picked up the endorsement of Gov. Greg Abbott (R). Cruzs advisers and allies are confident he will carry the state and are hopeful he gets more than 50 percent of the vote, which would mean he wins all 155 delegates. Rubio is racing to absorb Bushs finance and political network in Florida and is expected to pick up endorsements from most officeholders. He is opening at least three campaign offices in Florida and on March 11, the day after a Miami debate, Rubio plans to crisscross the state holding fundraising events with former Bush supporters. Some folks are trying to decompress from having backed Jeb and Jeb suspending his campaign, but people are coming on board and recognize that Marcos the candidate who can win this, who can unite the party and come out the last man standing, said Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos. One factor potentially working in Rubios favor: Florida is a closed primary, meaning only registered Republicans can vote. Trumps early victories have been fueled in part by independent voters crossing over to support him. Rubio supporters say victory in Florida could turn the race into a two-person battle. Marco can win if the non-Trump field narrows quickly and he then seizes the opportunity to fully contrast with The Donald, Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, wrote in an email. In Ohio, Kasich, as the sitting governor, enjoys the support of the state Republican Party as well as most GOP officeholders. He also has a relatively high job-approval rating, which his team believes gives him an edge over Trump or any other challenger. Well do what we have to do to make sure that we do win, Weaver said. Were very confident of it, but were not overconfident. Rucker reported from Las Vegas. Robert Costa in Washington and Jenna Johnson in Virginia Beach contributed to this report. Republican presidential candidates fought over immigration reform, health care and peace in the Middle East during the CNN/Telemundo debate in Houston on Feb. 25. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) Republican presidential candidates fought over immigration reform, health care and peace in the Middle East during the CNN/Telemundo debate in Houston on Feb. 25. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) In the 10th Republican debate, Donald Trump was finally treated like a front-runner: He was relentlessly attacked, sometimes on the same personal terms that Trump has hurled at others. Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) sought to turn Trumps biggest strength his business record into a weakness, casting him as a shady actor who peddled a fake university and used undocumented immigrants on a major project. [Live updates from the debate] If he hadnt inherited $200 million, you know where Donald Trump would be? Selling watches in Manhattan, Rubio said at one point. He began and ended the debate with veiled jabs at the way the reality TV star has changed this race: The silliness. This looniness! Rubio said in his closing statement. Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) criticized Trump for his changes of position on political issues, and at one point even seemed to intimate he needed medication to stay calm. Donald, you can get back on your meds now, Cruz said at one point. You can relax. Trump responded with equally personal attacks on the two senators, deriding Rubio as someone who was easily rattled and Cruz as a friendless outcast in the Senate, who used dirty tactics on the campaign trail. This guys a choke artist, he said, meaning Rubio. And this guys a liar, he said, meaning Cruz. This debate, held in Houston and broadcast on CNN, was the last chance for Rubio and Cruz to undermine Trump before the vital Super Tuesday primaries next week. And in battling Trump, the two were battling each other: Each wanted to show GOP donors that he was the strongest opponent for Trump and cause a consolidation that would force the other man out. [Republicans ask: Can Donald Trump be stopped?] At multiple points the debate turned into a shouting match, with Trump, Cruz and Rubio speaking over one another. The other candidates on the stage, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, seemed mostly happy to be bystanders while Rubio, Cruz and Trump fired upon each other. Kasich repeatedly condemned the arguments onstage and used his opening statement to make a nonpolitical remark, urging children to follow their dreams: America is great, and you can do it, Kasich said. 1 of 21 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Sparks fly in the CNN/Telemundo Republican presidential debate in Houston View Photos Brawling from the get-go, a fiery Marco Rubio went hard after Donald Trump in Thursday nights debate, the last one before the Super Tuesday primaries. Caption Brawling from the get-go, a fiery Marco Rubio went hard after Donald Trump in Thursday nights debate, the last one before the Super Tuesday primaries. Feb. 25, 2016 Republican presidential candidates Ben Carson, left, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich take the stage for the CNN Republican presidential debate at the University of Houston. Joe Raedle/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue. Carson, as usual, was a mild presence but showed a gift for vivid metaphor. Asked how he would evaluate a potential Supreme Court appointees record, Carson responded: The fruit salad of their life is what I would look at. Later, feeling left out of the debate, he said, Can somebody attack me, please? Trump sometimes violated Republican taboos. He criticized President George W. Bush, praised Planned Parenthood, and offered a kind of muddled praise for government-provided health insurance. He offered a backhanded appreciation of two Arab dictators who had been fierce enemies of past Republican administrations, saying that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddafi should have been left in power. If we had Saddam Hussein and we had Gaddafi in charge, both countries would be more stable and terrorists would not have seized control of parts of those countries, Trump said. They were bad, they were really bad, [but] we would have been better off if the politicians had taken the day off and not gone into war, he said. That was a remarkable statement from a GOP front-runner: Both regimes had been the subject of U.S. military action ordered by Republican presidents. George W. Bush ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq in which Saddam Hussein was executed, and Ronald Reagan ordered airstrikes on Libya in 1986 after Gaddafis regime was tied to the bombing of a Berlin disco. [Two former Mexican presidents take aim at Trump and his stupid wall ] [ Shouts of liar are taking their toll on Ted Cruzs campaign] Trumps tax returns audited Trump also attacked former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, calling him a fool for delaying the release of his tax returns in the 2012 election. Trump said he would delay releasing his own tax returns, blaming the timing on an IRS audit. Mitt Romney looked like a fool when he delayed and delayed and delayed. . . . As far as my return, I want to file it. Except, Trump said, I cant do it until the audit is finished. This week, Romney who received Trumps endorsement in 2012 predicted that there would be a bombshell in Trumps tax returns. When pressed by debate moderator Hugh Hewitt, Trump responded by referring to the ratings of Hewitts conservative radio show. First of all, very few people listen to your radio show, Trump said. I want to release my tax returns. But I cant release them while Im under audit. Cruz jabbed at Trump over lawsuits alleging that Trump University defrauded its students. I want you to think about . . . having the Republican nominee on the stand in court, being cross-examined about whether he committed fraud, Cruz said. Trump responded, as he has before, by pointing to poll numbers. He noted that Cruz was trailing him in many states and that even polls in Texas showed that Cruz might be in trouble. Youre not beating Hillary, Cruz said, meaning the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton. If I cant beat her, youre really going to get killed, Trump said to Cruz. Then, in mock encouragement, he said, Keep fighting, keep fighting, keep swinging for the fences. Rubio and Cruz often tag-teamed in attacking Trump, calling him a poor businessman, a shaky conservative, and turning around an attack used against Rubio prone to repeating himself. So thats the only part of the plan? Just the lines? Rubio said, hammering Trump for repeatedly saying his health-care plan was to get rid of the lines that block insurers from selling insurance across state lines. Now hes repeating himself. The audience laughed, because Rubio had been mocked for robotically saying the same talking point in a past debate under pressure from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, now out of the race. Cruz took up the attack, although with a different thesis: Where Rubio had blasted Trump for not having a health-care plan, Cruz attacked him for having a health-care plan that was too complicated and government-centric. He said that Trumps socialized medicine could lead to rationing that would deny elderly people hip and knee replacements. Does the government pay for health care? Yes or no? Answer the question! Cruz said. I do not want socialized medicine, Trump responded, but did not detail his health-care plans beyond a desire not to see people die on the sidewalk, a nod to some sort of medical safety net. Super Tuesday Thursday nights debate comes less than a week before the critical Super Tuesday elections, when Republicans in 11 states will go to the polls, deciding the allocation of 595 convention delegates. Trump, who in the Nevada caucuses claimed more votes than Cruz and Rubio combined, said that he was reshaping the Republican Party by drawing in a wider group of people. We are building a new Republican Party. A lot of new people are coming in, Trump said, responding to a question about how he would attract Hispanic voters after calling for a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. I will do really well with Hispanics. I will do better than anybody on this stage . . . Im telling you also, Im bringing people, Democrats over, independents over, and were building a much bigger, much stronger Republican Party. Rubio and Cruz challenged Trumps shifting on issues important to conservatives. Were always looking for converts into the conservative movement, Rubio said, meaning that Trump was a recent convert. He was responding to a question about the successor that a President Trump might appoint in place of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon: I have a doubt about whether Donald Trump, if he becomes president, will replace Justice Scalia with someone like Justice Scalia. Trump seemed willing to break with conservative orthodoxy, praising Planned Parenthood, an institution reviled by many on the right because of its involvement in abortion: Millions and millions of women, cervical cancer, breast cancer, are helped by Planned Parenthood, Trump said. I would defund it because Im pro-life, but millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood. Rubio gets aggressive From the opening moments, Rubio launched a volley of attacks at Trump. He focused one attack on one of the front-runners strengths: his business record. Rubio criticized the management of Trump University, his bankruptcies at his companies, and his use of undocumented immigrants to work on one of his properties in New York. Trump responded by saying that Rubio had exaggerated his inheritance from his father and had never run a business. He referred to a case in which Rubio sold a house to a lobbyist at a significant profit: He sells it to a lobbyist, whos probably here, Trump said. In the first hour of the debate, Rubio was strikingly more aggressive than he had been, and Trump who had benefitted as other candidates attacked one another was the subject of a number of attacks. Rubio and Cruz teamed up to attack Trump for switching his position on immigration and for hiring illegal immigrants taking the fight to the Republican front-runner at a moment when he is close to running away with the race. Youre the only person on this stage thats ever been fined for hiring people to work on your projects illegally, Rubio said, referring to a decades-old legal judgment against Trump for hiring undocumented Polish workers at one of his projects in New York. At the time, Trump said that he did not know the workers were undocumented. Im the only one on this stage thats hired people, Trump said in a rebuke to Rubio, who has spent nearly all of his life in politics. People can look it up, Rubio said, pressing on. Im sure people are Googling it right now. As the two talked over each other (Wrong. Wrong. That happened!), Trump used the same tactic he had used on former Florida governor Jeb Bush, now out of the race: Let me talk. Cruz hits back Cruz picked up the attack, saying that he had battled a 2013 effort to pass immigration restructuring and give undocumented immigrants a legal pathway to citizenship. Where was Donald? He was firing Dennis Rodman on Celebrity Apprentice, Cruz said, mocking Trumps long career in reality television. He said Trump had donated to many of the bills sponsors: When youre funding open-border politicians, you shouldnt be surprised when they fight for open borders. Trump had a comeback ready, based on Cruzs unpopularity in the Senate: You get along with nobody, Trump said. You dont have one Republican senator backing you. Not one. Cruz had a comeback for that, too, although it lacked some of the zing of Trumps: Donald, if you want to be liked in Washington, thats not a good attribute for a president. Rubio began the debate with a veiled attack on Trump, saying that he hoped the Republican Party would not lose the hopeful identity that came from Reagan and George H.W. Bush. They also appealed to our hopes and our dreams. Now we have to decide if were still going to be that kind of party, Rubio said. Or if were going to be a party that preys on peoples anger and fear. Rubio had signaled before the debate that he intended to be more harshly critical of Trump, who has benefitted as Rubio, Cruz and others battled in his shadow. That opening statement was a sign that he might although he didnt mention Trump by name. Trump has called for mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants and for barring Muslims from entering the United States. Rubio attacked Trump for changing his positions on immigration and for hiring foreigners to work at his properties in Florida. Donald, youve hired a significant number of people from other countries to take jobs that Americans might have filled, Rubio said, noting that his mother an immigrant from Cuba worked as a maid at a hotel, and that people such as she would have been excluded from Trumps properties. Volunteer Jada Williams, a 20-year-old junior at the University of South Carolina, goes door to door canvassing for votes for Hillary Clinton on Sunday. (Vanessa Williams/The Washington Post) As Jada Williams worked a middle-class, mostly black neighborhood here ahead of primary day clipboard and Hillary Clinton door-hangers in hand she was not surprised to see brochures for Bernie Sanders tucked into the same storm doors she was targeting. Out from one walked Sonya Penager, who pronounced herself a Clinton backer. She has 40-plus years of experience, and she has a husband who was president. And I liked her husband when he was president, Penager, 50, said. Did she consider voting for Sanders? No, Penager said with a shrug. Penager echoed many other African Americans here, who have largely proved to be immune to the passion and idealism that has motivated so many others to feel the Bern. Like Penager, most black voters in South Carolina do not appear to be giving Sanders much of a chance most say they dont know what hes done during his three decades in Congress or what he stands for, and those who do are highly skeptical any of it will ever come to be. But African Americans here know Clinton well and, while more fond of than in love with her, they appreciate her real-world message of what can and cant be accomplished in Washington. Many also retain good memories of Bill Clintons presidency and especially like that Hillary Clinton has promised to continue President Obamas policies. Across the South, candidates are battling for the young black vote with the hope of carrying this important Democratic constituency. Growing support for Bernie Sanders has left many older voters, who favor Hillary Clinton, questioning the political judgement of the younger generation. (Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post) Clintons strong support among African Americans is proving to be the decisive factor in the Democratic primary. In the first three states to vote Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada entrance and exit polls showed Sanders about even or ahead of the former secretary of state among white voters. An entrance poll of the Nevada caucuses showed Sanders winning Hispanic voters as well, though the Clinton campaign has disputed whether that is accurate. Nonetheless, Clintons five-percentage-point win was propelled in large part by her support among black voters, who comprised 13 percent of the electorate and gave Clinton 76 percent of their support. Polls here and across many of the Southern states that vote on Super Tuesday next week show a similar spread. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Feb. 19 showed Clinton getting 68 percent of support among black voters to 21 percent for Sanders. The split was 78 percent to 12 percent in Clintons favor among African Americans older than 45. Among white voters, Sanders had a slight lead of 51 percent to 46 percent, leaving Clinton ahead overall by nearly 30 points. Sanders, in an interview this week with The Washington Post, said his strong showing among Latino voters in Nevada suggests he can challenge her for black voters as well. I know the Clinton people were very nervous when there was an [entrance poll] in Nevada that we won the Latino vote, Sanders said. We have made good progress in the Latino community, we are making good progress in the African American community, but I will not deny to you that we still have a way to go, and what we have got to do is a better job in getting our record out and talking about the issues, which are creating decent-paying jobs and reforming a broken criminal-justice system, which has been very, very harsh on the African American community. That message is resonating to a degree here, particularly among younger voters who dislike the Clintons for pushing the 1994 crime bill that led to harsher penalties and an explosion in the incarceration rate for African Americans and Hispanics. Sanderss racial justice platform, which calls for reducing the high incarceration and unemployment rates for communities of color speaks to me as a young African American male, said Hamilton Grant, 27, co-chair of South Carolina Young Leaders for Bernie. Bernice Scott, a political activist and Hillary Clinton supporter, prays next to Kevin Washington Jr., 17, at her Baptist church just outside of Columbia, S.C. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post) Grant is having a tough go of convincing others even in his own family. I think my brother is leaning toward Bernie, he said. My sisters are on the fence, but I think they may pick Hillary. Jeff Weaver, Sanderss campaign manager, acknowledged that the campaign faces a tough test on Saturday but said Sanders has no plans to concede the first primary in the South to Clinton. We are certainly going to be down there to compete, but were going to have to appear in a host of other states as well, he said, alluding to the 11 states that have primaries or caucuses just a few days later on Tuesday. Some of those states, including Minnesota, Massachusetts and Sanderss home state of Vermont, are outside of the South and have smaller African American populations. Clinton has more aggressively challenged Sanderss proposals as unrealistic in recent weeks, and on Monday at a campaign even in Sumter, he pushed back, saying his ideas are not radical and warning against accepting an incremental approach to public policy. If we had that mentality of thinking small, do you think we would have had an African American as president of the United States today? On Wednesday, Sanders went after Clintons support, as first lady, for a welfare reform bill in the 1990s that other progressives have criticized as having exacerbated an already disproportionate poverty rate among black women. What welfare reform did, in my view, was to go after some of the weakest and most vulnerable people in this country, Sanders said at a news conference in Columbia, noting that he voted against the bill. Sanders has built a campaign operation in South Carolina, paying dozens of canvassers $15 an hour to campaign door-to-door, and he has scored a few high-profile endorsements, including the popular former NAACP leader Benjamin Jealous. On Tuesday, movie director Spike Lee endorsed my brother, Bernie Sanders, urging voters to wake up! Sanders is advertising on radio and television and, unlike an early ad that drew criticism because it showed almost no people of color, people of all races and ethnicities are featured in the spots running in South Carolina. Still, he has struggled to attract a large following among African Americans with his socialist pitch. Democratic socialism does not work, said Norman Jackson, 60, a Richland County commissioner, who was part of a group of people that gathered to talk about the campaign Saturday at St. John Baptist Church in Hopkins, a small town about 25 minutes south of Columbia. Theres no such thing as free [college] education for everyone; someone has to pay for it. Williams, the Clinton volunteer, said she considered Sanders but ultimately felt like he was promising more than he could deliver. His ideas sound good when hes saying them, said Williams, a 20-year-old junior at the University of South Carolina, but when you really think about it and ask yourself, will this actually be accomplished, its a lot more fantastical, as opposed to Secretary Clinton, whose ideas are much more realistic. John Wagner contributed to this report. Amya Miller helped organize an exchange visit by U.S. teenagers at Rikuzentakatas Takata High School. TheJapanese-speaking American has volunteered in the town on and off since the devastating tsunami of March 2011. (Ko Sasaki/For The Washington Post) When a group of American high school students visiting Japan this week were asked to name the highlight of their trip so far, they didnt mention sushi or the bullet train or the warm welcome they had received although all those things had been great. One word sprang from their mouths: Amya. Shes so impressive, said Carter Costello, one of the students from Del Norte High School in Crescent City, Calif. Added Samantha Fuller: Its been an honor to meet her. They were talking about Amya Miller, a Boston woman who gave up her crisis management company and left her family behind almost five years ago to volunteer in this town after it was virtually wiped out by a tsunami on March 11, 2011. [In Rikuzentakata, Japans military steps up to provide services during crisis] This is about hope. This is about recovery. This is about staying rooted to the community, Miller told the visitors this week as they stood in front of the miracle pine, representing the lone tree from a forest of 70,000 that remained standing after the tsunami. (The original tree later died from seawater inundation.) Miller helped organize the exchange between Del Norte and Rikuzentakatas Takata High School. Forty-something Miller was born in Japan her parents were academics teaching in Hokkaido and spent her first 18 years here, attending Japanese schools. Her Japanese language skills are native, and so is her understanding of Japanese culture and society. So when the disaster happened, she couldnt sit back doing nothing. She contacted the State Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Agency for International Development, among others, resolving to respond to the first agency that said it needed her. The first was a nongovernmental organization called All Hands Volunteers, and it needed her in Rikuzentakata. Miller had never heard of the place. But she was on the ground on March 27, 16 days after the disaster, and has been here on and off ever since. At first, she slept on the floor with municipal workers and worked for free. Over time, she started managing the towns relations with the media and foreign embassies, translating and coordinating. She learned early that she shouldnt cry. She was interpreting for the mayor, Futoshi Toba, who lost his wife in the disaster, when she broke down. He said to me: If I dont get to cry, you dont get to cry. We were in survival mode, she recalls. But Miller soon found that while locals tried to keep a stiff upper lip around one another, they found an outlet in her, the outsider who could speak their language. She became a de facto counselor. Now a special adviser to the town, she has a hand in policy development but still is reaching into her own pocket to do the work. But this isnt about, Oh my God, she did this without getting paid. Im here because I needed to be here. This has changed me, she said. Millers love for Rikuzentakata is apparent. She has co-written a childrens book about the high schools boat that washed up in Crescent City after the tsunami and has worked extensively with local schools. And its clear the town loves her back. When she walks into a shop, shes greeted like a celebrity. At schools, she responds with decidedly American hugs. Shes been tremendous help in letting the world know about Rikuzentakata and preventing our experience from being forgotten, said Koichiro Oikawa, an official at City Hall. Im grateful from the bottom of my heart. Kazuyoshi Kono, chairman of a local soy sauce manufacturer, agrees. She is someone we cant do without, he said. Her Japanese is better than Japanese peoples. Millers consistent presence means she has been able to be a solid, steady, aggressive advocate for the welfare of the residents there, said Ted Gilman, a Japan expert at Harvard who has spent a lot of time in the tsunami-affected area. Moreover, her commitment to the children of Rikuzentakata has been impressive, he said. She organizes and provides programming in local schools for holidays, for example. The kids enjoy the activities, the community appreciates her efforts, and Amyas infectious sense of fun. But now, as the fifth anniversary approaches, Miller has realized its time for her to move on. Id like to earn some money again, as opposed to doing something simply because its meaningful, she said. I would do it all over again. But now, I need to do something lighter. I would like to laugh more. Read more: In tsunami-hit Japan, a Chinese restaurant makes a stand for hope One year after the earthquake and tsunami: An uncertain recovery for Japan Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world Workers at a steel factory in Guangzhou, China, gather Monday during a strike to press for pension benefits. (Billy H.C. Kwok/For The Washington Post) In the Chinese region nicknamed the worlds factory, many workers are angry and disillusioned. Strikes and other labor protests have spiked across the country as manufacturing plants lay off workers and reduce wages in the face of mounting economic head winds. But the unrest is particularly intense in the southern province of Guangdong, the vast urban sprawl bordering Hong Kong that is the heart of Chinas export industry and its economic success story. The upsurge in industrial action represents a challenge for a Communist Party that bases much of its legitimacy on its ability to manage the economy. Experts say it is not about to threaten the partys vice-like grip on power, but it will ring alarm bells for local officials whose careers often depend on their ability to stamp out stirrings of social unrest. In December, Guangdong police arrested a handful of labor activists who have tried to defend workers rights and negotiate peaceful settlements to some of the disputes. In the latest confrontation, hundreds of workers faced off against police in riot gear this week at a stainless steel factory in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, protesting wage cuts, layoffs and efforts to force many to resign without proper compensation. To me, the company was like a big family, but now its treating its employees so badly we have no sense of belonging, said 32-year-old Chen, who has worked there for nearly seven years. It is so cold-blooded. Chen asked to be referred to only by his family name for fear of retaliation. Other strike organizers and workers who have spoken out have been fired, or harassed by police. Problems began when the factorys Taiwanese owners sold the business to a Chinese state-owned company last year, workers said. Shortly afterward, Chen said, he was told he was being demoted from a lower-level leadership job and would see his salary cut, along with many others. We didnt complain because we understood the company was in trouble, he said. But now . . . we found out our base salary had been halved, to 2,200 yuan ($335) a month. Colleagues had been placed on leave and given less than the minimum wage, he said. You just cant live in Guangzhou on the money they are paying, he said. If you were to get a bowl and beg under the overpass, you would earn more. China Labour Bulletin (CLB), a Hong Kong-based group that supports workers rights, says it recorded 2,774 strikes or protests in China last year, twice as many as in 2014. It says the rise may be partly accounted for by better tracking of strikes on social media but called the upsurge obvious and massive. The jump began after last Augusts currency devaluation and stock market crash and continued to build during the last quarter of last year, mainly in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and most markedly in Guangdong. [Stock market crash punches a hole in Xis dream] There is a growing sense of insecurity among workers, particularly in Guangdong, said Jonathan Isaacs, a labor specialist and partner at Baker and McKenzie, a law firm in Hong Kong. A lot of factories have shut down, relocated to cheaper areas or implemented mass layoffs. Many of the underlying problems predate the last quarter, according to Albert Park, director of the Institute for Emerging Market Studies at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. A survey by HKUST and Beijings Tsinghua University of nearly 600 factories in Guangdong conducted last August found that, although the profits picture was mixed, companies had trimmed their workforce by 3.7 percent in 2014. Labor-intensive sectors were the hardest hit, with employment in textiles falling more than 10 percent. The main problem firms cited was rising wages: Guangdong is, in a sense, a victim of its own success, and now many factory owners are eyeing cheaper locations in Southeast Asia. But the global economic slowdown was also having an impact, with low market demand cited as the second-biggest problem, Park said. Industrial unrest, though, has mainly been fueled by owners failure to offer workers proper compensation for layoffs, pay them wages they were due or keep social security payments up to date, experts said. CLB said two-thirds of the disputes recorded last year related to the nonpayment of wages. The economic slowdown only partially explains the increase in labor disputes, it wrote. The fundamental cause has been the systematic failure of employers to respect the basic rights of employees. China has labor laws that are supposed to protect workers rights, but local governments regularly fail to enforce them, experts say. [Complacency, protectionism: Why China wont shut under-used factories] Unions also do little to help. The All China Federation of Trade Unions is the largest in the world, with 280 million members and 918,000 full-time employees, but is firmly under Communist Party control, critics say. At the Ansteel Lianzhong factory in Guangzhou, workers said the union leader had been appointed by the company and backed the managements position. We wouldnt even know who the union chairman was if it wasnt for this strike, Chen said. Its laughable. Anyone with any common sense would know the union leader must be elected. Given the vacuum left by the unions, a small network of labor activists has sprung up in Guangdong, seeking to educate workers about their legal rights and settle labor disputes through collective bargaining. In December, dozens of activists were called in for questioning, and seven were detained. Three remain behind bars, the most prominent being Zeng Feiyang, who has been charged with gathering a crowd to disturb social order. Denied access to his attorney, Zeng has been denounced by state media in what critics say amounts to a smear campaign that gives him no chance of a fair trial. The top U.N. human rights official, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, and the International Trade Union Confederation are among those who have expressed concern or called for the activists release. Writing in The Washington Post in January, three leading American legal scholars also denounced what they called the cruel irony of a Communist Party stamping out labor activism. The authorities dont know how to deal with the situation, so their only response was to target the people who are actually helping, said Geoffrey Crothall, communications director for CLB, which helps fund Zengs small labor organization. Andrew Polk, resident economist at the Conference Board China Center for Economics and Business in Beijing, said there will probably be a rise in structural unemployment as Chinas economy transitions away from heavy industry and toward services. You cant have a coal miner suddenly becoming a bank teller, he said. But a rise in joblessness and any further labor unrest is unlikely to significantly undermine one-party rule, he said, suggesting that the authorities might have to bolster social welfare payments, as they did during another economic transition around the turn of the millennium. It is something government policy will have to address, he said, but I think the government is quite capable of dealing with the issue. At the Guangdong factory, Mondays face-off ended without violence, although workers said all their banners, with slogans calling for better pay and conditions, were confiscated. On Tuesday, the seventh day of the strike, police issued a notice saying workers had been incited and seduced by a small number of people and warning of arrests if the illegal gathering continued. We have called local media, but they didnt dare cover this, complained Luo Yebin, 31. We posted on social media, uploaded videos, but they were deleted. We feel powerless, oppressed and infuriated. Many employees returned to work Wednesday after the police warning and after the company promised to restore their wages to previous levels, although some said they would still pursue legal action. Others said they feared retaliation and would seek work elsewhere. Chen said he had been forced to leave his 3-year-old son with his parents back in his home town while he worked in Guangzhou, often reducing his wife to tears. Now, he wonders if all his heartbreak and hard work were worth it. I thought if I could keep working hard, I could get a decent job and have my kid with me, he said. My dream is just to be together with my family. But now even that dream is clouded with uncertainty. Xu Yangjingjing contributed to this report. Read more: In China, a ghost town points to shifting fortunes Chinas economic woes expose drawbacks of presidents power play Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world Refugees and migrants line up for a food distribution at a relocation camp in Schisto, near Athens. (Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters) Greece on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Austria for consultations, escalating a diplomatic war in Europe over how to handle a record influx of migrants from the war-torn Middle East and beyond. The move underscored how European unity over the refugee crisis is quickly breaking down, leaving an every-nation-for-itself approach that threatens to escalate the scale of the humanitarian emergency confronting the continent. In recent days, a group of nations led by Austria have upended attempts to forge a regional response by taking unilateral steps aimed at sharply limiting the number and type of migrants allowed to cross their borders. Those moves, however, have left a growing bottleneck of thousands of would-be refugees trapped at their European entry point: near-bankrupt Greece. And on Thursday, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias blasted what he suggested was a new nationalism spreading across the continent, a mentality reminiscent of the 19th-century divisions that led to decades of instability in Europe. [Migrants find doors slamming shut across Europe] It is clear that the big problems of the European Union cannot be dealt with though mentalities and extra-institutional initiatives that have their roots in the 19th century, Kotzias said in a statement. Responsibility for the handling of the immigration and refugee crisis cannot fall on one country alone. Common sense requires that the principles of solidarity and equal distribution of the weight is the effective way to resolve this complex problem. Tensions between Greece and Austria have been escalating since last Friday, when Vienna announced a strict limit of 80 migrants a day allowed to apply for asylum on its territory. That sparked a chain reaction of nations eager to avoid logjams. Key transit nations Macedonia and Serbia on Sunday moved to bar from entry virtually all Afghans, who make up about one-third of all migrants. They are allowing Syrians and Iraqis to cross. But even migrants from those war-torn nations are now being asked to produce more paperwork and identification, which many of them do not have. [Spring could bring a fresh surge of refugees. But Europe isnt ready for them.] The diplomatic crisis deepened Wednesday, after 10 nations held a meeting in Vienna to uphold their new policies limiting migrants. Greece lodged a formal protest after not receiving an invitation and then followed up Thursday by recalling its ambassador to Vienna. The Austrians, who say nations along the migrant route must take action themselves because Europe has not come up with a working regional agreement, were unbowed. The recalled Greek ambassador, according to an Austrian foreign ministry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, should now be able to inform his superiors about the real problems confronting nations such as Austria. We see a chance that the ambassador will inform the Greek authorities about the situation and challenges that destination countries on the refugee route, such as Austria, are facing, the official said. European nations have struggled for months to come up with a single regional solution, particularly with new arrivals this year already exceeding 100,000 migrants a number far outpacing the same period in 2015. But any working deal seems more distant now than ever, even as diplomatic infighting intensifies. The Greeks and the Germans are now bickering with the Austrians and the Balkan countries. The French are upset with the Belgians for new border controls aimed at blocking migrants trying to move from France into Belgium. Much of Europe, meanwhile, is pointing fingers at the anti-migrant government in Hungary for seeking to undermine a regional agreement struck last year to share the burden of migrants among all E.U. nations. On Tuesday, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann dismissed criticism of his countrys decision by the European Union, saying, We can do without this advice. Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin and Elinda Labropoulou in Athens contributed to this report. Read more: The astonishing new numbers behind Europes refugee crisis In Europe, the refugee crisis as art: 14,000 bright orange life jackets Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in October. (Pool photo by Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik via AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin was in a cheerful mood this week when he told his nation that he had just sealed a deal with President Obama on a limited truce in Syria going into effect midnight Friday. The Russian leader loves to be in just that position, those who know him say. He was shaping world events, bargaining as an equal with the United States, in precisely the role he envisions for his nation. But amid deep distrust on both sides, it remains uncertain whether the partial cease-fire will take hold. Nor is it clear whether Putin is willing to place limits on his Syrian allies in his bid for international statesmanship. Some in the Pentagon fear the truce is a feint to give Syrian President Bashar al-Assad the chance to regroup his forces and press forward in an attempt at a total reconquest of Syria. For now, the Kremlin is portraying the truce as a Russian triumph in part because it got the United States to the table. After nearly two years in which sharp voices on Russian state media have demonized the United States, the tone from Putin this week was an unusual reversal. Over the course of his statement to the nation, he repeatedly mentioned Russia and the U.S., Russian and American experts, the Russian Federation or our American partners nine such mentions in all over the course of five minutes. Evgeny Buzhinsky, a retired lieutenant general who is the chairman of the Moscow-based Russian Center for Policy Studies, said that President Putin is sincere in his desire to restart relations and to have some sort of normalization with the United States first and with the West in general. [Putin goes on diplomatic blitz seeking to bolster Syrian cease-fire deal] But with growing skepticism toward Russia from Washington, there were warnings Thursday from Russian leaders that Obama should make his underlings snap to attention and salute. Many in the Obama administration, especially the Pentagon, distrust Putins intentions after months in which U.S.-backed rebels have been pummeled by Russian airstrikes, even as Russia said it was fighting the Islamic State. The White House has requested contingency plans about what to do if the truce collapses. Some Russian policymakers said that the United States should have collaborated with the Syrian army from the start if it claimed to be against terrorism. The changes in the situation in Syria took place due to cooperation between the Syrian army and the Russian air force, said Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the international affairs committee in Russias upper house of parliament. This is why the United States now has started to reconsider their strategy toward Syria, he said. Because they cannot achieve anything on their own. [Russias campaign in Syria is proving successful for Moscow] On Russian state television, a reliable conduit for the message the Kremlin wants to transmit to its population, talk shows have moved quickly to trumpet Kremlin successes in Syria. The players of the process are getting nervous, Oleg Morozov, a member of the upper house of parliament, said on a leading talk show this month. So they are trying to find solutions like how to react to Assads successes, how to react to success of the Russian air force and how to react to the fact that Americans simply cannot efficiently manage this process. Amid the high-paced Russian bombardment of Syria, Kremlin allies have cheered the efforts as a major success for one primary goal of the intervention, to keep Assad from being toppled from power by force. In July, the feeling was that Assad was finished, that it would be only a couple of months, said Vladimir Yevseyev, a Middle East military expert at the Moscow-based Center for Social and Political Studies. That all changed after Russia began its airstrikes on Sept. 30, he said. Now the situation is very different. Its impossible to change Bashar al-Assad by force. But the Syrian governments forces remain weak, he said. So if part of Assads opposition agrees to a truce deal, the remainder can be defeated more effectively. For the Syrian army its better to divide the opposition, he said. Major questions remain about how the warring sides will interpret the deal. The truce leaves an exception for fighting the Islamic State and al-Qaedas Syrian affiliate. Since the Russian airstrikes started in September, the Kremlin has frequently said it was bombing terrorists as it hit Syrian rebels backed by the United States. Russian leaders have vowed to keep pressing their fight against those whom they deem terrorists, even as they say their overall airstrikes have diminished in recent days. These are the barbarians of the 21st century, for whom there is no law, no morals, and U.S. and Russian proposals of cease-fire have no effect for terrorists, the speaker of Russias lower house of parliament, Sergey Naryshkin, told reporters in Vienna on Thursday, the Interfax news agency reported. Meanwhile, a U.N. World Food Program airdrop of humanitarian aid to the eastern Syria town of Deir al-Zour, flown by Russian aircraft, failed to reach most of the up to 200,000 people there. A news release cited technical difficulties in the high-altitude operation. A spokesman said that of 21 pallets dropped by parachute, 10 were unaccounted for, four were damaged and seven landed in an unreachable no mans land. Unlike cities in the west where aid has been delivered by truck convoys, Deir al-Zour is in the heart of the Islamic State-occupied part of Syria. A statement by the opposition Syrian National Coalition cited reports that some of the aid had been seized by Syrian government forces, but there was no confirmation from the largely inaccessible region. Read more On cusp of planned Syria cease-fire, details on monitoring remain unclear Russia pushes back against reports its planes bombed hospital in Syria Vladimir Lenin is having a really bad week Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world A child rides his bicycle in a makeshift camp for migrants near Calais, France, on Thursday. (Jerome Delay/AP) A court in Lille has authorized the French governments plan to demolish portions of Calaiss infamous refugee camp, the Jungle. Nearly two weeks ago, French officials announced that as many as 1,000 refugees would be evicted from the Jungles southern area, its most densely populated sector, and relocated to nearby shelters or to other refugee centers across France. Last week, a group of 200 refugees along with eight British and French nongovernmental associations filed an injunction to delay destruction, alleging that local officials did not have sufficient alternative plans to house the refugees facing displacement. On Thursday, a judge gave the French government a green light to begin destruction, although it is not yet known when demolition will begin. Although the government has claimed that only about 800 to 1,000 refugees will be evicted, a census conducted last week by the organization Help Refugees estimates that as many as 3,400 people from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Syria and other places are living in the Jungles southern section. This figure includes 445 children, 305 of them living alone without their families. [Diplomatic war over migrants escalates in Europe] The vast majority of the refugees are desperately waiting for clearance to enter Britain, just over 20 miles from Calais. In their eyes, leaving Calais would mean abandoning their chances to cross the English Channel. Migrants gather at a restaurant in a makeshift migrants camp near Calais, France. A French court has given the green light for the state to evict some hundreds of migrants from their shelter. (Jerome Delay/AP) We are pleased, Philippe Mignonet, Calaiss deputy mayor, said of the courts decision. Weve been asking for that for ages. As for concrete plans to destroy the camp, Mignonet added that, for now, its wait and see. Before any demolition begins, however, the refugees and charitable and relief agencies including LAuberge des Migrants, Secours Catholique and Care4Calais said they will appeal. Obviously, we are very disappointed, because the case really showed that the authorities didnt have sufficient alternatives for the people, said Clare Moseley, the founder of Care4Calais. Im almost certain that well be appealing it to the European Court of Human Rights. Mignonet disputed the accusation that the authorities did not provide sufficient alternatives for the refugees to be displaced. The governments plan for displaced refugees is to send them to new container units built on the side of the Jungle or to other centers across France. There are a lot of spaces available, he said. All the migrants in that area can be driven somewhere in the country. But migrants have got to understand that its impossible to stay in Calais forever. Earlier on Thursday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was quick to dispel the image of government violence against helpless refugees. There was never any question of the French government sending bulldozers onto the site, he said. The judges order prohibits French authorities from using force against the refugees, and the demolition is slated to be a humanitarian operation that would spare public areas such as the Jungles mosques, churches and schools. Mignonet said the aim will instead be persuasion. But if refugees ignore the call to leave, he added, and authorities still do not use force, it will be a sign of the states loss of power. Read more: Migrants find doors slamming shut across Europe Spring could bring a fresh surge of refugees. But Europe isnt ready for them. In Europe, the refugee crisis as art: 14,000 bright orange life jackets Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world Iranians vote Friday in national elections that once had the potential to be pivotal until almost every would-be candidate advocating reform was barred from running. With only a limited number of moderates and reformers on the ballot, analysts say the election is unlikely to foreshadow a history-making moment of change in Iran. The parliament and many other government bodies will continue to be dominated by conservatives, constraining the ability of Hassan Rouhani, Irans pragmatist president, to push through reforms. But the election the first since a nuclear deal lifted most of the international sanctions that had hobbled economic growth is being closely watched nevertheless. Though opposition activists call the election a sham, the vote totals could open a small window onto the Iranian appetite for change and Rouhanis political future. Many Western officials hoped the nuclear deals implementation in January would pave the way for Rouhani to introduce measures granting civil liberties and less Internet censorship, as he promised when he was elected in 2013. Now the best-case scenario is that urbanized voters in Tehran give Rouhani a small but strong minority to support economic reform. Iranian President Hassan Rouhanis future is at stake in Fridays vote for parliament and the Assembly of Experts. (www.president.ir via Reuters) [Obama: Iran nuclear deal, prisoner release show the power of diplomacy] At the end of the day, its going to be seen as a referendum on Rouhanis policies, said Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), who is writing a book about the nuclear deal. Well see how many people back Rouhani, mindful of the fact he hasnt delivered on opening up society, on civil rights or human rights. At stake are 290 seats in the parliament, or Majlis, an institution with limited powers but capable of blocking initiatives from the presidents office. There are 6,200 candidates, but that is barely half the number who initially registered to run. A hard-line body known as the Guardian Council disqualified more hopefuls than ever before in the 37 years since the Islamic revolution. Nine moderate parties estimated that only 1 percent of the 3,000 reformist candidates who registered were permitted to run. Among those rejected were three dozen current members of parliament. On the ballot are more female candidates than ever in a country where only 49 women have served in parliament since 1979. This time, 584 women are running, though about 800 were disqualified. The election also will determine the Assembly of Experts, a uniquely Iranian council of 88 mostly elderly clerics who are nominally charged with selecting the next supreme leader if the ailing, 76-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dies in the next eight years of the assemblys term. That candidate list also has been culled. Hassan Khomeini, a grandson of the founder of the Islamic republic, was disqualified because he is close to reformist politicians. Parliamentary elections in Iran rarely alter the countrys fundamental policies. Voters have the option to choose different shades of status-quo conservatives along with some meek reformists, said Karim Sadjadpour, an analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The results of the supreme leaders latest medical checkup will likely prove more consequential to Irans political future than the results of the Majlis elections. Despite having the odds against them, the moderates and reformers are campaigning to make the election as competitive as possible. They have used social media to disseminate a list of 30 reformist candidates they endorse for parliament and 18 for the Assembly of Experts. They are calling the alliance of reformists and moderates the Second Step, to build on Rouhanis reforms. The point they are making, in order to increase voter participation, is that voting hard-liners out at this juncture will send a powerful message of popular sentiments in support of the countrys redirection since 2013, said Farideh Farhi, a Middle East scholar at the University of Hawaii. Conversely, a poor performance at the ballot box would be a huge setback for the already weak reform movement. If [conservatives] win, having been given a leg up by the unfair electoral system, it will also be a powerful message that they have the means and instruments to create obstacles for Rouhanis redirection of the country, Farhi said. Khamenei has sent out mixed signals to voters about the importance of voting. Last month, the supreme leader urged even citizens who do not approve of his leadership to take part at the countrys 60,000 polling places. More recently, however, he rallied conservatives by warning that the West is plotting to influence the contest and predicted Iranians would vote in favor of maintaining an anti-West posture. [International sanctions against Iran lifted] The system has an incentive to say large numbers of people voted, said Ray Takeyh, a Middle East scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations. Iran likes to control elections, but it also likes a large turnout to legitimize the system. If most of the moderates up for office win seats, that could make it easier for Rouhani to open up the economy to foreign investment. But conservatives refer to reformists as seditionists, and their small numbers ensure that Rouhani is unlikely to get enough backing for most of his goals. Could some of the centrists come to power? Its possible, said Alireza Nader, an analyst at the Rand Corp. But the conservative establishment will not allow Rouhani to use parliament as a basis for reforms. The reformist movement in Iran is very weak. Its not willing to do things that really challenge the system. Politics in Iran are complex and do not simply pit hard-line conservatives against liberal reformers. Some conservatives in the parliament have backed Rouhanis attempts to liberalize the economy. The supreme leader, who has the final say in all important government decisions, signed off on the nuclear deal but has ruled out a rapprochement with the United States. What most of us are looking for is whether or not the reform movement can stage any kind of meaningful comeback, said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran analyst at the Brookings Institution, whether there will be an alignment between reformists those still allowed to participate and more moderate conservatives. Timing works in Rouhanis favor. He faces high expectations that the nuclear deal negotiated by his administration and implemented Jan. 16 will bring broad prosperity. The fact Implementation Day was so close to the elections is to Rouhanis benefit, said Parsi, of the NIAC. If Implementation Day had happened four months ago, people would be saying: Its been four months. Why arent I rich already? Read more: The key moments in the long history of U.S.-Iran tensions Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world High-ranking members of the elite hunting society, St. Hubertus, were staying at Cibolo Creek Ranch at the same time as Justice Scalia in the days leading up to his death. Here's what you need to know about the group. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post) High-ranking members of the elite hunting society, St. Hubertus, were staying at Cibolo Creek Ranch at the same time as Justice Scalia in the days leading up to his death. Here's what you need to know about the group. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post) When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died 12 days ago at a West Texas ranch, he was among high-ranking members of an exclusive fraternity for hunters called the International Order of St. Hubertus, an Austrian society that dates back to the 1600s. After Scalias death Feb. 13, the names of the 35 other guests at the remote resort, along with details about Scalias connection to the hunters, have remained largely unknown. A review of public records shows that some of the men who were with Scalia at the ranch are connected through the International Order of St. Hubertus, whose members gathered at least once before at the same ranch for a celebratory weekend. Members of the worldwide, male-only society wear dark-green robes emblazoned with a large cross and the motto Deum Diligite Animalia Diligentes, which means Honoring God by honoring His creatures, according to the groups website. Some hold titles, such as Grand Master, Prior and Knight Grand Officer. The Orders name is in honor of Hubert, the patron saint of hunters and fishermen. [Texas sheriffs report reveals more details on Supreme Court Justice Scalias death] Cibolo Creek Ranch owner John Poindexter and C. Allen Foster, a prominent Washington lawyer who traveled to the ranch with Scalia by private plane, hold leadership positions within the Order. It is unclear what, if any, official association Scalia had with the group. 1 of 8 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Inside the ranch where Justice Scalia died View Photos The Texas resort ranch spanned 30,000 acres. Caption The Texas resort spans 30,000 acres. Feb. 14, 2016 One of the ponds outside the suite where Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead at Cibolo Creek Ranch, the West Texas resort that stretches over 30,000 acres. Matthew Busch/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue. There is nothing I can add to your observation that among my many guests at Cibolo Creek Ranch over the years some members of the International Order of St. Hubertus have been numbered, Poindexter said in an email. I am aware of no connection between that organization and Justice Scalia. An attorney for the Scalia family did not respond to requests for comment for this article. Two other private planes that landed at the ranch for the weekend are linked to two men who have held leadership positions with the Texas chapter of the Order, according to a review of state business filings and flight records from the airport. After Scalias death, Poindexter told reporters that he met Scalia at a sports group gathering in Washington. The U.S. chapter of the International Order of St. Hubertus lists a suite on M Street NW in the District as its headquarters, although the address is only a mailbox in a United Parcel Service store. [How St. Huberts encounter with a deer inspired the society] The International Order of St. Hubertus, according to its website, is a true knightly order in the historical tradition. In 1695, Count Franz Anton von Sporck founded the society in Bohemia, which is in modern-day Czech Republic. The groups Grand Master is His Imperial Highness Istvan von Habsburg-Lothringen, Archduke of Austria, according to the Orders website. The next gathering for Ordensbrothers and guests is an investiture March 10 in Charleston, S.C. 1 of 20 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad The life of conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia View Photos Antonin Scalia, the influential and most provocative member of the Supreme Court, has died. He was 79. Caption Antonin Scalia, the influential and most provocative member of the Supreme Court, has died. He was 79. Oct. 8, 2010 Justice Antonin Scalia at the Supreme Court. Larry Downing/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue. The societys U.S. chapter launched in 1966 at the famous Bohemian Club in San Francisco, which is associated with the all-male Bohemian Grove one of the most well-known secret societies in the country. In 2010, Poindexter hosted a group of 53 members of the Houston chapter of the International Order of St. Hubertus at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, according to a Houston society publication. A number of members from Mexico were also part of the ranch festivities that included three days of organized shoots and gala lunches and dinners. Poindexter told CultureMap Houston that some of the guests dressed in traditional European shooting attire for the boxed bird shoot competition and for the shooting of pheasants and chukar, a type of partridge. For the hunting weekend earlier this month, Poindexter told The Washington Post that Scalia traveled to Houston with his friend and U.S. marshals, who provide security for Supreme Court justices. The Post obtained a Presidio County Sheriffs Office report that named Foster as Scalias close friend on the trip. Sheriff Danny Dominguez confirmed that a photograph of Washington lawyer C. Allen Foster is the same man he interviewed at the ranch the day of Scalias death. [Did sleep apnea contribute to Scalias death? A breathing machine was near his bed.] From Houston, Scalia and Foster chartered a plane without the marshals to the Cibolo Creek Ranch airstrip. In a statement after Scalia died, the U.S. Marshals Service said that Scalia had declined a security detail while at the ranch. The friend, Louisiana-born Foster, is a lawyer with the Washington firm Whiteford, Taylor & Preston. He is also known for his passion for hunting and is a former spokesman for the hunting group Safari Club. In 2006, Foster was featured in The Post when he celebrated his 65th birthday with a six-day celebration in the Czech Republic. He flew his family and 40 Washington friends there to stay in Moravias Zidlochovice, a baroque castle and hunting park. The birthday bash included tours of the Czech countryside, wine tasting, wild boar and mouflon (wild sheep) hunts, classic dance instruction and a masked costume ball. A secretary at Fosters law firm said he is traveling in Argentina. The firms director of marketing, Mindee L. Mosher, said Foster was traveling and she would try to contact him. A woman answering a phone associated with Foster hung up when asked for comment. Planes owned by Wallace Happy Rogers III and the company of A.J. Lewis III left from San Antonio and arrived at the ranch just after noon Feb. 12. The planes departed the ranch about 30 minutes apart Feb. 14, according to flight records provided to The Post by FlightAware. Rogers owns the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum in San Antonio. He has donated $65,000 to Republican candidates since 2008. Lewis is the owner of a restaurant supplier company, also based in San Antonio. He has given $3,500 to GOP candidates since 2007. Rogers and Lewis have both served as prior officers in the Texas chapter of the International Order of St. Hubertus, according to Texas business records. Rogers spoke to a Post reporter briefly on the phone and confirmed that he was at the ranch the weekend of Scalias death. He declined to comment further. Lewis did not respond to several attempts for comment. The Presidio County Sheriffs Office released an incident report to The Post on Tuesday that revealed Fosters name as Scalias traveling companion and provided details about the discovery of his body. Poindexter and Foster told the sheriff that Scalia had traveled to Texas the day before to go hunting. Poindexter told the sheriff that they had supper and talked for a while that evening. Scalia said that he was tired and was going to his room for the night, the sheriff wrote in his report. When Scalia didnt show up for breakfast that morning, Poindexter knocked on his door and eventually went in and found the Justice dead in his bed, Poindexter said. Law enforcement officials told The Post that they had no knowledge of the International Order of St. Hubertus or its connection to Poindexter and ranch guests. The officials said the FBI had declined to investigate Scalias death when they were told by the marshals that he died from natural causes. Alice Crites in Washington and Eva Ruth Moravec in San Antonio contributed to this report. The United States, Russia and other powers came to an agreement on a cessation of hostilities in Syria, but the deal was met with caution and skepticism. (Jason Aldag,Ishaan Tharoor/The Washington Post) The United States, Russia and other powers came to an agreement on a cessation of hostilities in Syria, but the deal was met with caution and skepticism. (Jason Aldag,Ishaan Tharoor/The Washington Post) Three days before a planned cease-fire in Syria, there is widespread uncertainty over how it will be implemented and monitored, and what is likely to happen if it does not hold. Russia and the United States are preparing by Friday to exchange maps delineating their separate assessments of where the Islamic State and al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra are located in Syria. Both groups are excluded from the cease-fire and an end to Russian bombing. The two governments will also provide each other with lists of combatant organizations on each side that have agreed to observe what a U.S.-Russia agreement calls a cessation of hostilities, senior U.S. officials said. Many within the Obama administration, particularly in the Pentagon, deeply mistrust Moscows intentions. The White House, in a series of high-level meetings in the past two weeks, has requested military and other options in the event the deal collapses. [United States and Russia agree to partial cease-fire in Syria] In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hand with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in October 2015. Putin has seized on the Syrian cease-fire deal as a diplomatic victory for Russia. (Alexei Druzhinin/AP) A defense official said those discussions are still at the conceptual stage. Theres not a whole lot of meat on that bone, said the official, one of several across national security agencies who spoke on the condition of anonymity about planning. There is no plan ready for prime time, another U.S. official said. Officials cautioned that options under consideration for what Secretary of State John F. Kerry has called a Plan B would probably not be directly aimed at punishing Russia but more likely at increased U.S. support for vetted groups of fighters on the ground battling the Russian-backed forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. That increase, however, is unlikely to include the surface-to-air missiles that are at the top of the rebel wish list. The administration continues to fear that such weapons would end up in the hands of terrorists. There is also concern, administration officials said, that a shoot-down of any of the foreign aircraft flying over Syria including ones flown by Russia, the United States and Turkey could spark a far greater international conflagration. President Obama was noticeably guarded Wednesday about the cease-fire plans. We are very cautious about raising expectations on this, he told reporters at the end of an Oval Office meeting with Jordans King Abdullah II. When the king said he had his fingers crossed, Obama interjected, Well see. [The Middle Easts alphabet soup of Kurds, explained] Obama expressed limited expectations for the near future, speaking of some lessening of the violence over the next several weeks that provides us a basis to build a longer-term cease-fire and hopefully a political transition that will end Syrias civil war. Even Kerry, who negotiated the deal early this month with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, told lawmakers Wednesday that Im not vouching for the fact that this cease-fire will absolutely work and take place. After a Tuesday hearing in which Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that significant discussion was underway over a Plan B, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the panel, added his name to the list of skeptics. Show me, Corker said in an interview. I dont believe Russia believes theres a Plan B. I dont believe Assad and Iran believe theres a Plan B. . . . I hope, candidly, that Russia will agree and they will cease activities. But at this point, I dont believe they believe theres any price to pay if they dont. For the moment, all sides insist they are focusing on Plan A. Both the Assad government and an opposition umbrella group representing some, but not all, rebel groups on the ground have agreed to the cease-fire. Once it goes into effect, at midnight Friday, Damascus time, anyone claiming a violation will be invited to call, email, text or otherwise contact an adjudication center currently being set up by a U.S.-Russia-led task force of outside stakeholders in the Syrian war, along with a U.S.-Russia hotline. But it remains unclear how Washington or Moscow will determine the truth on a battlefield where neither has forces present, or how they will impose a ruling. Were not against it, Salman al-Meslet, spokesman for Syrian opposition leaders meeting Wednesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, said of the cease-fire plan in a telephone interview. We really want an end to this bloodshed. But is there any guarantee that Russia will not violate the agreement and continue bombing the opposition, as it has under the guise of striking terrorist groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra? Meslet asked. What action will the [United] States take? What will they do to stop them? We want assurances from the States, from the Europeans, from the Saudis and others, he said. Its not a condition from our side, but its a question we want answers to. The cease-fire and an agreement by all sides to allow unhindered humanitarian aid to besieged communities inside Syria are supposed to lead to negotiations between the Assad government and the opposition toward establishing a transitional government. U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura hopes to convene the talks in Geneva on Monday or Tuesday, U.S. officials said. Sieges were lifted to allow assistance to reach five Syrian towns last week and Russian planes dropped World Food Program pallets for another town Wednesday but the aid program has been slow to get off the ground. A wild card in the cease-fire equation is Turkey, a U.S. ally, NATO member and leading player in the Syria drama. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara on Wednesday that the Syrian Kurdish group that has received U.S. support for its fight against the Islamic State should be excluded from any truce, allowing the Turkish military to continue cross-border shelling against the group. [Turkeys increasingly desperate predicament poses real dangers] Turkey has been urging the United States to sever ties with the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) on grounds that it has ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is designated a terrorist organization by both Turkey and the United States. Our allies must understand that they are at a crossroads, Erdogan said of the United States, saying that its insistence that the YPG should not be deemed terrorist is an insult to our intelligence and the intelligence of the whole world. Erdogan also questioned U.S. assertions that the YPGs role in fighting the Islamic State makes it an indispensable ally, pointing out that Jabhat al-Nusra also battles the Islamic State. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin worked to place himself in the center of diplomatic efforts to secure the cease-fire, consulting by phone with the leaders of his allies Syria and Iran, and also King Salman in Saudi Arabia and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Kremlin. Putin has seized on the cease-fire deal as a diplomatic victory for Russia, placing Moscow on the same superpower level as the United States, long a Kremlin goal. His spokesman, Dmitry Peshkov, said that U.S.-Russian joint actions on Syria were leading to a higher level of confidence between the two, according to the Russian news service Interfax. Such talk is said to infuriate Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter. He doesnt want to play ball with the Russians at all, no question about that, one senior administration official said. Michael Birnbaum in Moscow, Hugh Naylor in Beirut and Missy Ryan and Karoun Demirjian in Washington contributed to this report. The United States and China have made progress toward agreeing on a United Nations sanctions resolution to punish North Korea for its recent nuclear tests, the powers' top diplomats said February 23. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) CUBA 7 dissidents allowed to travel abroad The Cuban government has granted seven dissidents who are out of prison on parole one-time permission to travel outside the country in an apparent gesture to the United States ahead of a visit by President Obama. Four others in the same category were not given permission for reasons not immediately clear, dissidents reported. U.S. critics of Obamas opening to Cuba have complained that the president has received little in return for restoring relations with the former Cold War enemy. To cement improving ties, Obama will visit Cuba on March 21-22. Around the time of the detente in December 2014, Cubas Communist government released 53 people Washington considered political prisoners, but since then it has resumed detentions. On average more than 700 people were detained short-term each month in 2015, according to the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a nongovernmental organization. Reuters Afghan alleged former Taliban fighters carry their weapons before handing them over as part of a government peace and reconciliation process at a ceremony in Jalalabad on February 24, 2016. (Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images) BRAZIL Probe of former aide to Rousseff approved Brazils Supreme Court on Wednesday authorized formal investigations into potential corruption involving President Dilma Rousseffs former chief of staff as well as the mayor of the countrys largest city and an opposition senator. Supreme Court Justice Celso de Mello said federal prosecutors could investigate Rousseffs former chief of staff, Aloizio Mercadante, who now serves as education minister; Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad; and Sen. Aloysio Nunes of the opposition Brazilian Social Democracy Party. Prosecutors said that all three were named in plea bargain deals with states witnesses in a corruption and political kickback scheme at state-run oil firm Petrobras, but that the possible crimes raised by the witnesses were not necessarily related to the Petrobras investigation. About 50 politicians, mostly from Rousseffs coalition, are under investigation for possibly taking bribes in Brazils largest-ever corruption investigation. Some politicians have been cleared of wrongdoing. Dozens of engineering executives are on trial for allegedly forming a cartel to fix prices on contracts with Petrobras and using the excess funds to bribe politicians and Petrobras executives. Reuters Government pact falls apart in Spain: A government deal between Spains Socialists and liberal Ciudadanos was dealt a fatal blow hours after it was announced Wednesday when both the Conservatives and anti-austerity Podemos refused to back it. After December elections, the Socialists and Ciudadanos have only 130 seats between them in the 350-seat lower house of parliament and cannot govern alone. Podemos won 69 seats and the center-right Peoples Party 123. Colombia peace talks back on track, sponsors say: The two countries sponsoring peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla movement said negotiations were back on track after being thrown into disarray last week when rebel negotiators appeared in public escorted by armed and uniformed fighters. An agreement has been reached to overcome recent difficulties and normalize the conversations between the parties at the table in Havana, said the statement read by representatives of Cuba and Norway, the guarantors of the Colombian talks. Turkish helicopters strike at Kurdish militants: Turkish military helicopters killed 12 Kurdish militants in strikes near the countrys southeastern border with Syria, security sources said. The attack helicopters launched the assault about 6 a.m. Wednesday as a group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters traveled through a mountainous area near the Idil district of Sirnak province, the sources said. Late Wednesday, Turkish warplanes carried out a bombardment on PKK camps in Qandil, the groups center in northern Iraq, sources said, hitting ammunition depots, shelters and logistical centers. Israeli airman accidentally shot dead by soldiers: Israeli soldiers who opened fire at a knife-wielding Palestinian in the West Bank accidentally shot dead an air force officer whom he was trying to stab, the military said. It said the Palestinian assailant was wounded in the incident near the Gush Etzion bloc of Jewish settlements, one of the focal points of a five-month-old surge in street violence. From news services The lead article in the latest issue of German news magazine Der Spiegel, entitled Putins aggressions, is a barely concealed call for war against Russia. The author, Mathieu von Rohr, claims that decisive action by the west against Russia is the key issue in global politics. His call ends with the following words: If the West does not want to let itself be outmanoeuvred again in future conflicts, it cannot allow itself to be intimidated. Rather than striving to placate, it must counter the attacks on the world order. Rohr takes the word counter to mean the use of military force. He rails against Putins aggressive actions and complains, In Syria, for example, the United States avoided establishing a no-fly zone in the North of the country two years ago and massively supporting those moderate rebels who were struggling against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In Ukraine, Europe and the United States also had no clear strategy. While Russia pursued a clear goalwith weapons and soldiers, the West lacked the decisiveness to support Ukraine. To push Russia back, Rohr does not shrink from calling for a direct military conflict. He angrily complains that the fear of a military confrontationamong some in the West [has strengthened] the wish to reach a compromise with Russia at any price. He claims the lesson from Syria and Ukraine must be all attempts to engage Russia to change by reaching out or flattering it have failed. Putin would only be impressed and pushed to cooperation by a threatening scenario from the West. In Ukraine, he did not expect the firm sanctions by the West; only this prevented him from carrying out further aggression. A similarly clear answer is missing in Syria. One wonders whether Rohr and Der Spiegels editors have considered for a moment what they are saying. It is not necessary to be a historian or a Marxist to know what a military confrontation with Moscow would mean. One can read about it in the same Spiegel edition that states on page 28 that there is a growing danger of war between Russia and Turkey. That article declares, the world has never been closer to nuclear war even during the Cold War. Provocations, red lines which are being crossed, breaches of air space, an aircraft shot down. A missile fired in error or a submarine commander whose nerves give way could trigger a world war. How is it to be explained, given this warning, that the most influential and widely circulated German weekly newspaper is nonetheless beating the drum for war against Russia? Following the announcement by the German government that it would play a role in global politics corresponding to the significance of our country, as German President Gauck put it on 3 October, 2013, Germany has adopted a course of confrontation toward Russia. In February 2014, Berlin backed the right-wing coup against pro-Russian President Victor Yanukovitch in Ukraine, and has since played a leading role in NATOs rearmament in Eastern Europe. Since November, the German army has, in addition, participated in the war in Syria, with the aim of overthrowing the pro-Russian Assad regime. Der Spiegel supported the German war drive from the outset. For more than two years, it has been decrying the German populations fear of war, and propagandises against Russia. In August 2014, a prominent headline read Stop Putin now! Rohr is now resorting to the sort of German imperialist propaganda used in the run-up to World War I and World War II to justify the Wests offensive against Russia. When Germanys government on the eve of August 1, 1914, declared war on Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm II proclaimed in Berlin, If our neighbour wants it no other way, if he does not allow us to enjoy peace, I hope to God that our good German sword emerges victorious from this hard battle. The Nazis, who had long planned their war of extermination in the East, which killed 27 million residents of the Soviet Union, likewise attempted to sell it as a defensive war. Around two hours after the German invasion of June 22, 1941, Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels read the following proclamation from the Fuhrer on the radio: This means the hour has now come in which it is necessary to counterthe plot of the Jewish-Bolshevik fomenters of war the task is thusthe securing of Europe and thereby the saving of all. Leaving aside the anti-Semitism of the National Socialists, von Rohrs militarist appeals stand directly in this tradition. Although The West has sought to encircle Russia militarily since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and overrun the Middle East with wars, Russia is made responsible for the Syrian war, the refugee crisis, and even the destabilisation of Europe and Turkey. Von Rohrs concludes that, Russia, as a destructive agent, must be combated by the West and Germany in particular. He complains that in Berlin, the fear of confrontation with Russia runs particularly deep and that western politicians allow themselves to be restrained by gestures of intimidation from confronting Russias assertions of power. Every German politician who seeks to find a compromise with Putin is a potential agent in his eyes. Horst Seehofer, the chairman of the Christian Social Union who recently visited Moscow, has, according to him, become a tool of Putins propaganda. Von Rohr, born in 1978, is a Swiss graduate of the Henri-Nannen journalism school in Hamburg and one of those repugnant careerists whose historical and political ignorance is surpassed only by their arrogance. He speaks for a section of the German ruling elite that is closely oriented to NATO and the United States, and would prefer to wage war against Russia today rather than tomorrow. This is not least of all to prevent the victory of another wing of the ruling class, which is striving for a closer alliance with Russia in order to better pursue Germanys global interests. In the latest edition of Die Zeit, for example, former Green foreign minister Joschka Fischer, considered an outspoken proponent of Germanys alliance with the US, warns of the German-Russian symbiosis. This daydream of the German right and leftand German business which would be together unbeatable [with] German technology and German capital, Russian raw materialsand Russian power, had never really worked. Since Adenauer, it had been clear that only Germanys connections with the West [can] prevent future catastrophes. The history of the 20th century proves that from the standpoint of the working class, that there is no genuine anti-war section of the ruling class. Even within Hitlers Nazi Party, there were some who had reservations about the attack on the Soviet Union, and would have preferred an alliance with Russia in order to strike first against British and American imperialism. The threat of a third world war raised so directly by Der Spiegel can only be prevented by the building of a new anti-war movement. The political basis for such a movement against war is presented in an important statement by the International Committee of the Fourth International titled Socialism and the fight against war. The struggle against war must be based on the working class, the great revolutionary force in society, uniting behind it all progressive elements in the population. The new anti-war movement must be anti-capitalist and socialist, since there can be no serious struggle against war except in the fight to end the dictatorship of finance capital and the economic system that is the fundamental cause of militarism and war. The new anti-war movement must therefore, of necessity, be completely and unequivocally independent of, and hostile to, all political parties and organizations of the capitalist class. The new anti-war movement must, above all, be international, mobilizing the vast power of the working class in a unified global struggle against imperialism. The permanent war of the bourgeoisie must be answered with the perspective of permanent revolution by the working class, the strategic goal of which is the abolition of the nation-state system and the establishment of a world socialist federation. This will make possible the rational, planned development of global resources and, on this basis, the eradication of poverty and the raising of human culture to new heights. Powerful storms devastated several southern states Tuesday night tearing apart homes and downing power lines. There were 27 reported tornadoes in five states in just 24 hours. According to the National Weather Service there were 11 tornadoes in Louisiana, five in Mississippi and Florida and one in Georgia. The worst hit by the storm were working class communities who had little time to prepare for such an emergency and whose homes could not withstand a powerful storm. The majority of the damage from Tuesday night occurred in the Louisiana towns of Convent and Paincourtville, Lamar County in Mississippi and Pensacola, Florida. Florida Governor Rick Scott said in a press conference Wednesday morning that in the states Escambia County more than 70 homes were destroyed and 2,700 homes were without power. Three people were hospitalized with minor injuries. One person was reported dead in Lamar County, Mississippi, which was confirmed by the county coroner as a result of the storm. At least two people died, 30 were taken to the hospital and 100 residential trailers were damaged after a tornado tore apart the Sugar Hill RV Park near Convent, Louisiana. The St. James Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness said that first responders were still going door to door in the park in search of survivors. Of those hospitalized, seven were listed as critical. Rescue teams with search dogs looked around the remains of the park for any of the approximately 300 people who live there. Ambulances carried more than two dozen people from the scene. St. James Sherriff Willy Martin said he was still trying to determine how many people had made it to the hospital by other means. An estimated 160 RVs and campers were at the park when the tornado hit. Governor John Bel Edwards toured the park Tuesday evening and declared an emergency in St. James and six other parishes. At least 15 tornadoes were reported in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama by the Storm Prediction Center. Due to the severe weather both Mississippi and Alabama were under states of emergency. In Louisiana, waterspouts were reported over Lake Pontchartrain as the first report of severe weather started to come in. Tornado warnings were issued near the New Orleans airport and in the nearby St. Charles Parish. A tornado ripped through Prairieville, southeast of Baton Rouge, tearing the roof off a Golds Gym, but there were no reports of injuries. Another tornado destroyed 24 units and damaged six others at The Moorings Apartments in Pensacola, Florida. Six people were reported injured and emergency crews were performing search and rescue. Madeline Santiago and Lee Sheffield were at the apartments when the tornado hit, telling USA Today, We were watching TV and the lights blinked three times. We heard a train noise and a bunch of hollering. We didnt know it was coming. While they made it out safe, the top floor of their apartment is in ruins and the downstairs is severely damaged. Santiago said weeping, I dont have nowhere to go. I dont have my apartment anymore. Officials say that the timing of the storm prevented a greater tragedy. Captain Craig Ammons with Escambia County Fire Training told local news, Most people were probably just finishing up with dinner, relaxing, watching TV. It being a two-story apartment the bedrooms were all upstairs and thats where the most significant amount of damage was. If it was an hour or two later we probably would have a lot different story. According to the National Weather Service more than 7 million people in the south were at risk of being impacted by severe weather. The weather service issued a tornado watch, where conditions are most favorable to develop tornadoes, for most of eastern Louisiana, southern Mississippi and southern Alabama. More than 88 million people were at risk of being caught in severe weather as the storms moved toward the East Coast. The larger metro areas at risk included Richmond, Virginia and Raleigh, North Carolina. Winds of 70 miles per hour or greater have been reported. Flash flood watches were issued in Alabama and Georgia after the storms dumped several inches of water there and elsewhere. In parts of Georgia, Florida and South Carolina schools were closed ahead of the storms. On Wednesday the storm moved on to the East Coast where a possible tornado hit Waverly, Virginia in the afternoon, killing at least two people according to the Associated Press. Tornado watches were posted from South Carolina to New Jersey. The horrible weather conditions have led to 1,500 cancelled flights by Wednesday afternoon with Chicagos OHare International Airport cancelling more than 750 flights alone. In Georgia, more than 20,000 customers were left without power after Tuesdays storms according to utility companies. The average number of tornadoes in February is 29, mostly in the Deep South, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. The historic poverty associated with the area and the limited amount of funds for emergency relief means that such natural disasters routinely result in man-made disasters. By Steven Shapiro Houston will surprise you. The city has been referred to as a modern day Ellis Island, where more than 145 languages are spoken. The sprawling metropolis known for traffic and Tex-Mex is also home to next years Super Bowl and has one of the most diverse populations in the nation. Its economy is thriving despite a decline in oil prices, which once crippled the city. In the early 80s, Houston was riding high on oil. In 1980, 82 percent of all the jobs in the city were tied to the oil business. When the bottom fell out, Houstons economy took a major hit. We paid a huge price, says Houstons newly elected mayor, Sylvester Turner. Today, despite another oil downturn, Houston is much better positioned to ride out the storm. We learned our lesson, says longtime Houston Chronicle columnist Ken Hoffman. We have diversified our culture, our industries, our economy. Were past the oil economy dependence. Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric headed to the Bayou City for the latest stop in her series Cities Rising: Rebuilding America and took a close look at the industries that are driving the city today. The Texas Medical Center alone accounts for 106,000 of the citys jobs. The largest medical facility on the planet is also home to the countrys top cancer hospital, MD Anderson, which is using cutting-edge treatment known as immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is really changing the way we treat cancer patients across the board, Dr. John Heymach, chairman of the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson, told Couric. Kami Steele, a 44-year-old melanoma patient, told Couric shes confident in the care shes receiving. This is truly a place of hope and healing, she said. Its an amazing place. Houstonians also take a great deal of pride in their diversity. You can find different languages, different types of people, different colors, different sizes, says Ammi Arevalo, a Houston resident and volunteer at the nonprofit Neighborhood Centers, an organization that assists the citys low-income, primarily immigrant population with education, job training and financial services. Arevalo picked up the required skills to open her own cafe. Story continues Youre getting a seat at the table because youre working hard and contributing something, says Angela Blanchard, the president and CEO of Neighborhood Centers. One of Houstons best-known chefs, Chris Shepherd, owner and executive chef of Underbelly, told Couric the citys diversity makes his job easy We can highlight all these different cultures through our food. Shepherd tells his customers to visit other area restaurants before returning to Underbelly because thats Houston, he says. Everybody works together really well here. I want everybody in this city to succeed. By Dylan Stableford Forget what the pundits say. Jane Sanders, the wife of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, says her husband not Hillary Clinton has the momentum in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Theres no doubt hes got momentum, and momentum counts, Jane Sanders told Yahoo News Katie Couric in an interview from Cleveland, where she is campaigning with the self-described democratic socialist. But the woman whose husband wants to start a political revolution and hopes to pull off one of the great political upsets in the history of the United States says they arent in it for the so-called horse race of American politics. Were interested in getting out and talking to people, Jane Sanders said. Still, she knows Bernie Sanders has an uphill battle, particularly among African-American voters, as the campaign moves toward Super Tuesday. I think they dont know him as well, Jane Sanders said. Hes from the state of Vermont and he isnt known around the country. He needs to get to know them and they need to get to know him. The enviable position to be in is his, she continued. The more they get to know him, the more they like him. Jane Sanders also weighed in on the recent controversy sparked by Clintons prominent feminist supporters, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who suggested young women should do their part to help elect the first female president in U.S. history. Ive never done gender politics I think our vote is too important to give away on any single issue, she said. And while Jane Sanders admitted that, as a woman, she likes the concept of a female president, its not the most important thing when choosing the next occupant of the Oval Office. What were looking for in a president, most importantly, is leadership, she said. A person that will actually stand up and fight for the middle class. At this point in time, I think thats Bernie. Its been exhilarating, she continued. The young people get this, they feel this. They have been very hopeful and theyre energized to turn this country into what we want it to be. Story continues Jane Sanders said both she and her husband would stand behind Clinton if the former secretary of state is the Democratic nominee. It is extremely important that the Republicans do not win this presidency, she said. She called GOP frontrunner Donald Trump a very smart man but a dangerous candidate who has been given a free ride by the political press. The media has given Donald the bully pulpit like nobody else, she said. If I were a Republican running for president, I would be furious. Hes giving voice to bigotry and intolerance, she continued. The more people are exposed to the same thing, the more it seems acceptable. Its not acceptable. The 65-year-old would-be first lady was once a president herself, serving as the head of Burlington College from 2004 to 2011. Jane Sanders (nee OMeara) met Bernie Sanders in Vermont in 1981 on the night he was elected mayor of Burlington. (We met at the victory party, and that was the beginning of forever, she once told Vermont Business Magazine.) They married seven years later. The pair have four children, each from previous marriages, and seven grandchildren. Jane Sanders was asked by Couric how she fell in love with Bernie. I listened to him. He embodied everything I believed in, everything I was taught, she said. I fell in love with his ideas before I fell in love with him. Thirty-five years later, hes never let me down, she added. I think Im more in love with him now than I ever was. John Kerry testifies on Capitol Hill on Feb. 24. (Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP) Secretary of State John Kerry signaled today that he plans to decide soon whether to formally accuse the Islamic State of genocide amid what sources describe as an intense debate within the Obama administration about how such a declaration should be worded and what it might mean for U.S. strategy against the terrorist group. None of us have ever seen anything like it in our lifetimes, Kerry said during a House subcommittee hearing Wednesday about beheadings and atrocities committed by the Islamic State. But in response to questioning by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Nebraska Republican who has been spearheading a resolution in Congress demanding the administration invoke an international treaty against genocide, Kerry was careful not to tip his hand on what has turned into a thorny internal legal debate with political and potentially military consequences. Saying the department was reviewing very carefully the legal standards and precedents for a declaration of genocide against the Islamic State, Kerry added that he had received initial recommendations on the issue but had then asked for further evaluations. In his first public comments on the issue, Kerry said he will make a decision on this as soon as he receives those evaluations. He didnt elaborate on when that might occur. The administrations plans to invoke the powerfully evocative genocide label an extremely rare move was first reported by Yahoo News last November. But at the time, the State Department was focused on restricting the designation to the Islamic States mass killings, beheadings and enslavement of the Yazidis a relatively small minority group of about 500,000 in northern Iraq that the terrorist group has vowed to wipe out on the grounds they are devil worshipers. The disclosure set off a strong backlash among members of Congress and Christian groups who argued that Islamic State atrocities against Iraqi and Syrian Christians and other smaller minority groups also deserved the genocide label. Some conservatives even chastised the administration for displaying a politically correct bias that views Christians never as victims but always as Inquisition-style oppressors. Story continues The issue has since made its way into the presidential campaign; Sen. Marco Rubio has signed a Senate version of a House resolution, co-sponsored by Fortenberry and Rep. Anna Eshoo, for a broader genocide designation that incorporates Christians, Turkmen, Kurds and other groups. Hillary Clinton has also endorsed such as move. In response to a question from a voter at a New Hampshire town hall last December about whether she believes Christians as well as Yazidis should be declared victims of genocide, she said, I will, because we now have enough evidence. A Iraqi Yazidi woman and her children took refuge at the Bajid Kandala camp in Dohuk, Iraq, after fleeing Islamic State jihadists. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP) But administration sources and others intimately familiar with the internal debate say the issue has proven more complicated. While ISIS has openly declared its intention of destroying the Yazidis, they argue, the terrorist groups leaders have not made equally explicit statements about Christians even while committing killings, kidnappings, forced removals and the confiscation and destruction of churches aimed at Christian groups. As a result, administration officials and State Department lawyers have weighed labeling those acts crimes against humanity a step that critics have said doesnt go far enough. Weve been trying to tell them, crimes against humanity are not a bronze medal, said one administration official, contending that it should not be viewed as a less serious designation. Kerry seemed to hint as much in his responses to Fortenberry at Wednesdays hearing, noting that Christians in Syria and other places have been forcibly removed from their homes. There have been increased, forced evacuations, he said. No, its not they are killing them in that case but its a removal and a cleansing, ethnically and religiously, that is equally disturbing. At the same time, two sources familiar with the debate said, Pentagon officials have expressed concerns that a genocide designation would morally obligate the U.S. military to take steps such as protecting endangered populations or using drones to identify enslaved women that could divert resources from the campaign to defeat the Islamic State. (An administration official told Yahoo News Wednesday that any such concerns have not been raised in interagency discussions over the genocide issue. There is no resource issue, the official said.) SLIDESHOW: ISIS likely committing genocide against Yazidi minority in Iraq >>> In fact, many legal scholars say, there is considerable debate about just what practical impact a genocide designation would have. It would be made under a loosely worded 1948 international treaty that compels signatory nations, including the United States, to prevent and to punish the odious scourge of genocide defined as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical (sic), racial or religious group. As documented by Samantha Power, now the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in her 2002 book, A Problem from Hell, President Clintons Secretary of State Warren Christopher, resisted labeling the mass murder of the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994 as genocide for fear, as one State Department memo put it at the time, it could commit [the U.S. government] to actually do something. But 10 years later, Secretary of State Colin Powell declared the killings of non-Arab people in Darfur to be genocide the first time the U.S. invoked such a declaration during an ongoing conflict. But he did so only after receiving a secret State Department memo concluding the designation has no immediate legal as opposed to moral, political or policy consequences for the United States. Administration officials have argued they are already taking extraordinary steps to protect threatened minorities in Iraq, pointing to, for example, the 2014 evacuation of Yazidis from Mount Sinjar and that a genocide designation wouldnt change that. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said as much when he was pressed on the issue during a recent White House briefing during which he said a genocide designation is an open question that continues to be considered by administration lawyers. The decision to apply this term to this situation is an important one, Earnest said during a Feb. 4 briefing. It has significant consequences, and it matters for a whole variety of reasons, both legal and moral. But it doesnt change our response. And the fact is that this administration has been aggressive, even though that term has not been applied, in trying to protect religious minorities who are victims or potential victims of violence. By Jeff Mason and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a Republican and former federal judge, is among candidates being considered by President Barack Obama for appointment to the Supreme Court, a source close to the process said on Wednesday, as Obama sought to overcome Senate Republican resistance to any nominee. Sandoval, a 52-year-old Mexican-American, is considered a moderate Republican, particularly on social issues. He supports abortion rights and abandoned the state's legal defense of a same-sex marriage ban before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such bans were unconstitutional. Sandoval has supported gun rights as governor, which could prompt concerns from gun-control advocates. He was appointed as a federal judge by Republican George W. Bush, Obama's predecessor, before being elected governor in 2010. An intense political fight has erupted since the Feb. 13 death of long-serving conservative Justice Antonin Scalia created an opening on the Supreme Court bench. Republicans are maneuvering to foil Obama's ability to choose a replacement who could tilt the court to the left for the first time in decades. The Republican-led Senate must confirm any high court nominee and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Tuesday that the chamber will not hold hearings or vote on any Supreme Court nominee until after the next president takes office in January. Sandoval met on Monday in the U.S. Capitol for about 30 minutes with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Reid asked the governor whether he would be interested in being considered for the high court job, according to the source, who asked not to be identified. "He said he was interested," the source said of Sandoval, adding that "a number of people are being checked out" for the job. Sandoval, who was in Washington for a National Governors Association meeting, also spoke to Reid by telephone last week, the source said. Sandoval opposed Obama's healthcare law known as Obamacare, but opted to expand his state's Medicaid health insurance program for the poor under the law, breaking from a number of Republican governors who refused to do so. He also expressed support for bipartisan immigration legislation that passed the Senate in 2013 before dying in the House thanks to Republican opposition. In 2013, Sandoval vetoed legislation to require background checks on all gun sales in Nevada. Last year, he signed a law backed by the National Rifle Association that, among other things, expanded the defenses for justifiable homicide and repealed a local ordinance in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, that required registration of handguns. 'WORTHY TO SIT' Obama vowed on Wednesday to move ahead with a nominee and said Republicans would risk public ire if they blocked a qualified candidate for political motives, as well as diminishing the credibility of the high court. Obama said he expected the Senate Judiciary Committee to extend his nominee the courtesy of a hearing and then vote on whether he or she is qualified. "In the meantime, the American people are going to have the ability to gauge whether the person I've nominated is well within the mainstream, is a good jurist, is somebody who's worthy to sit on the Supreme Court," Obama told reporters in the Oval Office. "I think it will be very difficult for Mr. McConnell to explain how, if the public concludes that this person's very well qualified, that the Senate should stand in the way simply for political reasons." The president said he understood the political predicament Republicans faced and said he had expressed sympathy in calls to their leaders. He said they were sheepish in their arguments that a nominee should not be confirmed until next year and predicted their posture would change. "I think the situation may evolve over time. I don't expect Mitch McConnell to say that is the case today," he said. In a post on the independent SCOTUSblog.com website, Obama listed his criteria for a nominee including "an independent mind, rigorous intellect, impeccable credentials and a record of excellence and integrity." Liberals vowed to pressure Senate Republicans into considering an Obama nomination this year, with several groups delivering to the Senate boxes of what they said contained 1.3 million signatures from citizens demanding that a confirmation process go forward after the president announces his pick. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said Republicans are giving a middle finger to the American people and they are giving a middle finger to this president." The U.S. presidential election is set for Nov. 8 and Republicans want the next president to fill Scalia's vacancy, hoping a Republican will be elected. Scalia's death left the court with four liberals and four conservatives, with Obama's nominee positioned to change the court's ideological balance. Obama already has appointed two Supreme Court justices during his seven years as president. The Senate confirmed his prior two nominees, Sonia Sotomayor in 2009 and Elena Kagan in 2010. The Senate was controlled by Obama's fellow Democrats at the time. (Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Lawrence Hurley and Joseph Ax; Writing by Will Dunham and Jeff Mason; Editing by Bill Trott) Twenty-four hours before Chris Christie dropped out of the presidential race, I sat with the New Jersey governor on his campaign bus and asked him whether he planned to take on Donald Trump the way he went after Marco Rubio. Three days earlier, Christie had defenestrated Rubio on live national television in the final debate before New Hampshire voters went to the polls. In that same debate, Jeb Bush tangled with Trump but Christie found the former Florida governors jabs wanting. He said on Morning Joe afterward that Bush had a chance to take on Donald Trump on Saturday night, and I dont think really effectively delivered that punch. Could you? I asked Christie. Of course I could, the New Jersey governor responded, mildly annoyed at even being asked about the limits of his sparring talents. So why hadnt he? I do so at a time and place of my choosing. Theres no need for me to do that now, Christie said. Chris Christie and Donald Trump talk during a break at a Republican presidential debate in October. (Photo: Mark J. Terrill/AP) The next day, Christie dropped out. And the Republican Party said goodbye to the only presidential candidate with the combination of quick wit, charisma and gravitas necessary to stand up to Trump one on one. Many in the GOP now lament the missed opportunity. Nobody knows if a Christie vs. Trump showdown in a debate or other setting would have made enough of a difference to change the race. But just look at how dramatically Christie altered the Republican primary in a matter of mere minutes when he successfully goaded Rubio into robot mode. Who knows how Trump would have responded to Christie? It could have been very effective, said one high-level adviser to a presidential candidate who is no longer in the race. Trump talks a big game but often dials back in debates. Henry Barbour, a Republican National Committee member from Mississippi, said, Christie needed to be Christie, particularly with Trump. Story continues Many of us are surprised Christie never went after Trump, said Scott Reed, senior political strategist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In fact, Christie was urged for weeks to use his prosecutorial skills honed for six years as a U.S. attorney in New Jersey to make the case against Trump. By the time we talked, he was notably defensive about it. Its ironic to me, he said. For a good part of my career, I got criticized for taking too many people on. Now those same people are saying I didnt take on Donald Trump enough. Listen, there were plenty of people shooting at Donald over the course of this time, and I wanted to focus on when the campaign came into real focus who I had to take on, Christie said. The guy I needed to take on in New Hampshire was Marco Rubio. In other words, Rubio was ascending to be the Trump alternative, a spot Christie wanted for himself. With his kneecapping of Rubio, Christie eliminated the Florida senator from the running in New Hampshire, although Rubios unimpressive finish there didnt improve Christies standing in the race. And as a result, the non-Trump lane has remained muddled between Rubio and Ted Cruz, while Trump has won three consecutive states with less than 50 percent. I spoke with three different close advisers to Christie this week about their internal deliberations inside the campaign. Unlike any other candidate, Christie had knockout punching power, so why didnt he go straight for the king of the hill rather than trying to outlast the other Trump alternatives? We kept hearing that all along, said one Christie adviser. It was coming from people who didnt have our best interest at heart. We did what we thought was in our best interest, to get to a one-on-one with Trump. I dont know if what happened to Marco would have happened to Trump, he added. Even if Christie could have made an impact, his counselors said, they werent sure it would have helped them. Is it a confrontation for confrontations sake? Was that going to accrue to our benefit or to someone elses benefit? the adviser asked. Another top Christie adviser said, A lot of times we were playing a short-term game. We were playing to get into the next debate. Nobody wants to be a suicide bomber, this adviser said. Then youve decided youre part of a cause and not a candidacy. Now some in New Jersey are already speculating that Christie could endorse Trump in order to curry favor with the GOP frontrunner in the hope of being named attorney general. Christie has known Trump for 13 years. Weve always gotten along. Been friends for 13 years. I went to his wedding, the third one, Christie told me over the summer. A close Christie confidant, asked via text message Wednesday about the possibility of the governor endorsing Trump, did not rule it out. You never know, he wrote back. Brad DeLong's Distorted View of Wealth By: David Henderson He [Thomas Piketty] saw five striking facts: First, ownership of private wealthwith its power to command resources, dictate where and how people would work, and shape politicswas always highly concentrated. This is the second sentence of Brad DeLongs The Melting Away of North Atlantic Social Democracy. You might argue that Brad is simply reporting Pikettys thoughts, and he is. But it seems from context that the idea that ownership of private wealth dictates where and how people would work is one that Brad shares. If so, then the title of this post is appropriate; if not, not. In any case, I want to address whether the claim about wealth dictating where and how people work is correct. It isnt. Take the richest man of his time, John D. Rockefeller, whose wealth in todays dollars would exceed the sum of the wealths of both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. (For why this is a kind of ludicrous comparisonin any reasonable sense, John D. Rockefeller was poorer not only than Gates or Buffett separately, but also than mesee Donald Boudreauxs excellent post on Rockefeller.) Could Rockefeller, whose wealth was a larger percent of U.S. wealth than Gates and Buffetts wealths combined, dictate where and how people would work. No. He could certainly affect where and how a small percent of the U.S. population would work. And he certainly, by bringing down the price of petroleum by 61%, made work easier for many people. But thats hardly dictation. Was there anyone back in, say, 1917 or 1918, when Rockefeller was still alive, who dictated where and how people would work? Well, yes there was. And his name was Woodrow Wilson. By implementing military conscription, he dictated where a few million American men worked and how they worked. He even, indirectly, caused over one hundred thousand of them to die while working. But its hard to find an example of a private wealth owner who had the power that Brad DeLong claims. This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 18 years and 38,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going. ELKO What would happen if Sleeping Beauty woke up from her long sleep and the year was 1950? Patrons of the theater arts and the public are invited to find out during this years Missoula Childrens Theatre performance. The fairytale classic will be performed by 60 local children and promises a few added twists to the well known story. Bringing youths more opportunities to participate in the performing arts has been on the agenda for educators and parents alike here in the Elko area. For the past four years Gina Kronenberg, Grammar No. 2 PTA member, and Gretchen Lutes, Grammar No. 2 teacher, have worked to bring the Missoula Childrens Theatre to Elko students. The PTAs of Grammar No. 2 and Flag View Intermediate schools have partnered to sponsor the event for their students, along with several local businesses. Growing up in Montana I was familiar with the Missoula Childrens Theatre and always wanted to bring it to Elko, said Lute. As both a teacher and a parent, I really felt they provide a theatrical experience that is top notch for our children, she added. Flagview PTA president and parent Melissa McJunkin also strongly supports bringing the theater group to Elko. Theater Arts are beneficial for children because of the way it connects to the importance of reading. A play has the ability to jump a story off the page of a book or script and bring it to life, said McJunkin. Study after study has shown that students who get involved with theater arts are more involved in community service, and less likely to drop out of school, she added. Throughout the week, local kids at both sponsoring schools have been practicing for the upcoming performance and enjoying the workshops provided at each school by the organization. Every child at both schools was able to attend workshops even if they were not a part of the Sleeping Beauty cast. I like the workshops. The kids really enjoy it, said Kronenberg. They learn how to put makeup on, use problem-solving skills, both in the theater and in the classroom as well. During the week, instructors from the Missoula Childrens Theatre put on assemblies at both Flag View and Grammar No. 2. Parents and children alike seem to enjoy both the play and the workshops. My older daughter enjoyed that she was able to be part of a big staging that took place behind the scenes, and then present the finished product to an excited audience. She also thoroughly enjoyed the theater arts workshops, said McJunkin. My youngest daughter, who is now in the fifth grade at Flag View, is currently participating in the production of Sleeping Beauty. When I picked her up from rehearsal on Tuesday night she could not stop talking about how much fun she had, she added. Scott McGee, tour actor/director for Missoula Childrens Theatre and one of the instructors for the play and workshops, feels its about more than just putting on a play. The basic mission of Missoula Childrens Theatre is to promote life skills through participation in theater, so more than just making actors out of the kids, were giving them things like confidence, self-esteem, cooperation and team building, said McGee. Several local businesses also sponsored the event this year, including I & E Electric, Read and Powell, Empower Fitness, Coldwell Banker Algerio/Q Team Reality, Ruby Dome Anesthesia, Silver State Anesthesia, The Star Restaurant, Red Lion Inn and Casino, Gold Country Inn, and New Fields Mining Design & Technical Services. Kids, parents, teachers and instructors are all looking forward to seeing the end result of a weeks worth of hard work and fun this weekend. Its fun to see that it all comes together in just a week, said Kronenberg. This years theatrical production will move to a larger venue at the Elko Convention Center Auditorium. Performances will be Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30. Admission is $5 per person or $20 per family at the door. RENO The Bureau of Land Management and the Nevada Department of Corrections Silver State Industries hosted the first of this years three saddle-trained horse adoption events Feb. 20 at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center south of Carson City. Seventeen wild horses from ranges on BLM-administered public lands in Nevada and Utah were saddle-trained for approximately four months by inmate trainers in the NNCC program, and offered during a spirited competitive-bid adoption. Successful bidders paid a total of $43,350 for the animals. All horses were adopted after starting bids of $150. The events top bid of $6,000 went for a 7-year-old sorrel gelding named Sancho. The average bidding price for each horse was $2,550. After properly caring for their horses for one year, the adopters are eligible to receive title from the federal government. The BLM uses its adoption program as the primary tool to place these iconic animals into private care. The horses or burros available for adoption come from overpopulated herd management areas where vegetation and water could become scarce if too many animals, including wildlife and livestock, use the area. The BLM has placed more than 230,000 wild horses and burros into private care since 1971. Many of those animals have become excellent pleasure, show, or work horses. The next saddle-trained horse adoption and competitive-bid auction events are scheduled June 11 at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center and June 19 at the Reno-Sparks Livestock Event Center in Reno, in association with the Reno Rodeo Extreme Mustang Makeover. For information visit http://on.doi.gov/1wC4EUT. The votes are in, Nevadas starring role in the presidential nomination process is over, and Elko County stands apart from the pack when it comes to sensibilities about who should be running the country. Local voters disagreed with the prevailing statewide trend on both the Democratic and Republican side. While Donald Trump slam-dunked the GOP caucus Tuesday night, winning more votes than challengers Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz combined, Cruz was the big winner here. Cruz took 44 percent of the Elko County vote compared with 25 percent for Trump and 21 percent for Rubio. Trump mentioned Elko in his victory speech Tuesday night, telling the crowd that Donald Jr. visited here and that both he and Eric Trump are big-time NRA supporters. The vast majority of Elko County residents agree with that position, but it wasnt the deciding factor in casting their votes. Cruz won locals with his convincing campaign based on strict constitutional principles and independence from the Republican establishment. He no doubt picked up some of Sen. Rand Pauls supporters much more than the establishment-oriented Rubio. Elko County voters are well known for their independent spirit and this years caucus results show just how deeply it is engrained here in Nevadas mile-high outback, where principles trump personalities. Cruzs stance against federal overreach on public lands and his track record of opposing federal land ownership helped push him to a clear victory here. On the other side of the spectrum, Elko County Democrats also bucked the statewide trend by supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders. This can also be attributed to the countys spirit of independence. Sanders is technically an independent, although he is running as a Democrat. Though far from being a Washington outsider, he is definitely not the establishment candidate in this race. Sanders also performed well statewide, but Nevadas powerful teachers union took credit for pushing Hillary over the top. Ironically, independent voters were unable to caucus for Sanders unless they were willing to register themselves as Democrats. What does it all mean for Elko County come November? Neither of the likely nominees holds favor with local voters, so they would both be wise to campaign here before the general election. Trump Jr. did an admirable job campaigning Monday at the Elko Convention Center in the crunch between two major rallies for Rubio and Cruz, but his fathers decision to focus on Reno and Las Vegas did not win him any votes here. For now, the wild ride is over. Elko was visited by Sen. Rand Paul, Dr. Ben Carson, former governor Jeb Bush, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz. Their visits say a lot about Elkos significance in electing a president, and the caucus results prove there is at least one small corner of the country where independent thinking still prevails. LAS VEGAS (AP) Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said Thursday he is not interested in being considered for the U.S. Supreme Court at this time and has told the White House so. The Republican governor issued a statement following news that the White House was considering him as a potential replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Senate Republicans have said they will not consider a nominee from President Barack Obama during an election year. Earlier today, I notified the White House that I do not wish to be considered at this time for possible nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States, Sandoval wrote. The notion of being considered for a seat on the highest court in the land is beyond humbling, and I am incredibly grateful to have been mentioned. He offered no reason for his decision but said he also expressed his position to senators Harry Reid, Dean Heller and Mitch McConnell. The Senates vetting process for any nominee is expected to be viciously political, if hearings take place at all. Sandovals mention was thought to be a way around Republican senators resistance to considering an Obama nominee. Republican Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada last week suggested the next justice could be a Nevadan. He said Thursday he hopes Sandovals name will come up again later. As a friend and former colleague of Governor Sandovals, I believe he is eminently qualified for this position, Heller said. But, I support his decision to withdraw his name from consideration for the Supreme Court vacancy. I hope the next president will consider him in the future. Sandoval, 52, is a former federal judge and popular second-term governor. A shaman boils leaves to prepare ayahuasca. Wade Davis Jaume V. was already in his late forties when he began using cocaine paste, a particularly addictive and destructive version of the drug. His business had gone under, his wife had left him, and the problems were mounting up. He fell in with the wrong crowd, and his life spiraled out of control. Giovanna Valls, now in her early fifties, went from sniffing a line of heroin at an upscale party in Paris to being slumped on the streets of a Barcelona slum while another addict injected her. During her rapid decline she survived by shoplifting, and along the way contracted the HIV virus, as well as tuberculosis and hepatitis. A single dose of ayahuasca produced an improvement in depression patients within a couple of hours, and that lasted for 21 days But in 2004, when both should have been near dead, the pair met in a small community in Brazils Amazon basin near the Mapia river. After years trying to kick their respective habits, they had signed up for an experimental treatment using ayahuasca, a concoction made from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and plants containing dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Over the next eight months they were administered the brew in a controlled environment with local people and other patients from Spain. Today, Jaume and Giovanna who is the sister of French Prime Minister Manuel Valls are free from addiction, although they periodically take ayahuasca, which induces hallucinations. Ayahuasca is believed to uncover information and memories hidden deep in the unconscious, and accesses areas of the brain that have been proven in some cases to help with treating addiction, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Recent research, some of it carried out in Spain, where its legal status is unclear, has led scientists to look further into its properties and possible uses. The vine used to make ayahuasca. Josep Maria Fabregas, a psychiatrist and expert in addition who is also the director of the Barcelona-based Center for Addiction Research and Treatment (CITA), first came across ayahuasca more than two decades ago during a visit to the Amazon. He later published ground-breaking studies in journals such as Drug and Alcohol Dependence about its therapeutic properties. Weve never used this substance at our clinic, he says. But my work in the Amazon has shown me that it has worked where other, conventional, treatments have failed. So we began exploring how it might be used in therapy. The results were encouraging and we ended up creating a structure to be able to harness its capabilities. This led to the creation of the Institute for Applied Amazonian Ethnopsychology (IDEAA), a clinic in the Amazon basin where around 150 patients have received therapy based on ayahuasca. It was the tool I was looking for after so many clinics and detox treatments, says Valls. It opened my brain and allowed me to see myself and to begin with forgiveness. The IDEAA clinic in the Amazon basin. The results from the trials were very encouraging, says Fabregas. Weve been using drugs in psychiatry for more than 60 years. Prozac has been on the market for 40 years, valium for 60 We continue treating the symptoms, rather than looking at the root of the problem. These visionary substances could be an option to help with that approach. Today more and more countries are looking at using these techniques for therapeutic purposes. But there are no figures on exactly how many people ayahuasca has helped. Jaume Vidal says that 14 of the 16 people who lived with him for three months a decade ago have returned to normal life (of the other two, one died and the other disappeared, he says). Jordi Riba, a pharmacologist and head of the neuropsychopharmacology unit at the Sant Pau hospital in Barcelona, has been investigating ayahuasca for 20 years and took part in a survey in Brazil that used it to treat depression. Conventional drugs take at least two or three weeks to begin working, while a single dose of ayahuasca produced an improvement in patients within a couple of hours, and that lasted for 21 days. Since then, it has been tested on patients suffering from severe stress. Writer Giovanna Valls at home in Barcelona. C. Bautista Ayahuasca seems to work through the interaction of its principal alkaloid with proteins found in some neurons. This activates areas of the brain between our emotional and cognitive regions, allowing patients to recover memories and see them more objectively. We have seen images of the activation of the brains frontal cortex, the amygdala and the hippocampus, says Riba. These areas process our emotions, memories, and the interrelation between emotional and cognitive information. We could see on our scanners that there was an increase in information transfer. Riba warns against taking the drug for recreational purposes and without expert supervision. There have been a number of reports in the media of deaths associated with people using the substance unsupervised. France is so far the only country to have banned ayahuasca. In Spain, as in many other places, it remains in legal limbo, though the police have arrested around 40 people since 2009. However, only one case resulted in a successful prosecution and the defendant was not sent to prison. Ayahuasca has become fashionable, particularly in Catalonia, where so-called ceremonies are held attended by people looking for spiritual enlightenment. A guide is usually present to oversee the ritual, helped by assistants. The effects of the drug typically last around six hours. Pharmacologist Jordi Riba (left) and psychiatrist Josep Maria Fabregas. C. Bautista Benjamin De Loenen is the executive director of ICEERS, a foundation that funds research into plants with psychotropic qualities and their therapeutic uses. Ayahuasca has been used in Spain for around 25 years. But it has become increasingly well-known. Growing numbers of people are interested in heightening their self-awareness by attending these ceremonies. But these are always private gatherings, by invitation only, and there is no money involved, he says. Meanwhile, the scientific community is becoming increasingly interested in ayahuasca, and how this ancient Amazonian brew could play a role in curing many of Europes malaises. Some of the underwater sculptures created by Jason deCaires Taylor. Jason deCaires Taylor A new museum is opening its doors this month on the Canarian island of Lanzarote. But visitors wanting to see the collection of sculptures created by British artist Jason deCaires Taylor will first have to don a wetsuit and then dive 14 meters down to the seabed of Coloradas Bay, just off the coast of the town of Yaiza, in the southwest of the island. My sculptures are a way to bring people into contact with the sea, as well as to make them more aware of the dangers our oceans face My sculptures are a way to bring people into contact with the sea, for them to learn about the flora and fauna living there, as well as to make them more aware of the dangers our oceans face, says Taylor. At the same time as the figures tell a story, they help to protect the seabed, he adds, pointing out that the materials he has used are not harmful to their environment: We want to help coral and other species to grow, which can help repopulate the marine biomass. This isnt Taylors first sub-aquatic venture. Around 500 of his pieces are already lying offshore in the warm waters off the coast of Cancun, on Mexicos Caribbean coast. About Verne In past times, explorers, adventurers and writers scoured the Earth seeking out the wonders of the world. Today, we have the internet. VERNE: a thousand marvels a minute. Click here for more Verne stories in English, and here for the Spanish page. When the local authorities in Lanzarote heard about Taylors work, they invited him to take part in the islands biennial arts festival. As we knew it wasnt impossible, we did it, says Jose Juan Lorenzo, head of Lanzarotes arts, culture and tourism department, which is responsible for running the museum. Taylor is a pioneer, an innovator, says Lorenzo, highlighting Lanzarotes long-standing support for the arts, best known via the work of local artist Cesar Manrique. Lanzarote, thanks to the work of Cesar Manrique, has a long tradition of land art. The seabed here is as beautiful as the land, and so an initiative that highlights its importance, its fragility, its beauty, seemed perfect to us. Along with his family, Taylor has spent the last two years on Lanzarote preparing the seabed for the installation. While waiting for the paperwork, he has created images in his workshop there such as The Lampedusa Raft, a homage to refugees who flee their countries by sea. 1. People who have visited our museum in the Caribbean say it was a unique experience, almost archeological, says Taylor. You are aware that youre observing something that will last for generations. Jason deCaires Taylor 2. The first phase of the project includes 60 sculptures. But when complete in 2017, there will be a total of 300 works spread out over 10 installations. Jason deCaires Taylor 3. Playa Blanca, the area where the museum is located, is close to one of Lanzarotes most important natural areas, El Papagayo. Its no accident, says Taylor. We want to help protected species, which has meant encouraging tourism in other areas to avoid massification. Weve also created a marine botanical garden in the area. Jason deCaires Taylor 4. The scuba instructors who accompany visitors have been given some artistic training so they can serve as guides, says Jose Juan Lorenzo. The tour needs to be supervised, safe and to respect the creative essence of Taylors work. The sculptures tell a story, and the guides need to know about it to communicate it correctly. Jason deCaires Taylor 5. Taylor created the worlds first underwater park, located on the west coast of the Caribbean island of Grenada, which the National Geographic describes as one of the 25 Wonders of the World. Jason deCaires Taylor 6. The Lanzarote collection can only be visited between November and February, depending on the weather. It is expected to be completed by January 2017. Jason deCaires Taylor Ramon Castro at the opening of the International Fair of Havana in 2006. Claudia Daut / Reuters (REUTERS) More information Ramon Castro, el hermano mayor de Fidel y Raul People would often confuse him because of his uncanny resemblance to his brother, the leader of the Revolution. But Ramon Castro known better as Mongo was older than Fidel and his other sibling, current Cuban President Raul Castro. Ramon, who died Tuesday at age 91, was the rural worker in the family. He operated his parents farm and was tied to the agricultural sector, holding ministry advisory posts and supervising various farming and livestock companies. Mongo Castro was chatty and friendly and would often wear a cowboy hat. In 1953, Mongo Castro was jailed briefly after his brothers led the attack on the Moncada army barracks Unlike Fidel and Raul, he did not play a major role in the Revolution and held no important posts in government following Fulgencio Batistas overthrow in 1959. He was jailed in 1953, and during the armed conflict in the Sierra Maestra helped transport weapons and food supplies to the revolutionaries hiding in the mountains. Born on October 14, 1924 in the small eastern village of Biran, Holguin province, Ramon Castro was the second of seven children born to Galician migrant Angel Castro and Cuban Lina Ruz. Angela, who died in 2012, was the eldest and then, after Mongo, came Fidel, Juanita, Emma, Raul and Agustina. In a book published some years back, Fidel recalled how he and his brother had been close since they were boys. Ramon was always with me and we were always getting into some type of adventure as if we were both twins. We were more or less the same age, although he was a little older than I was. We would pull pranks at school, always together in the good and the bad, he wrote. The family sent the three boys to study at Catholic schools in Santiago de Cuba. But while Fidel and Raul took off for Havana to continue their studies and become involved in anti-Batista activities, Mongo returned to Biran to help his father run the family farm. They eventually came to cultivate around 1,000 hectares of sugar cane, which they supplied to US companies. Ramon was always with me and we were always getting into some type of adventure. We would pull pranks at school, always together in the good and the bad Following the attack on the Moncada army barracks by Fidel in 1953, Mongo was arrested but was never implicated directly in the uprising. Ramon helped out somewhat in the Moncada attack but not in the fight for socialism. He didnt know what we were planning but I let him know that we were involved in anti-Batista activities. He was against Batista, wrote Fidel in his memoir Guerrillero del tiempo (Guerrilla of Time). Mongo stayed in Biran with his parents but never lost contact with his brothers when they were in prison. After they returned from exile in Mexico, Mongo organized deliveries of food and supplies to the Frank Pais Second Front, the guerrilla unit led by Raul Castro in the Sierra Cristal mountain range. Following Fidels rise to power, Mongo held no special posts in his government but did work with the agricultural sector and was a consultant at different ministries. At the beginning of this century, when important US businessmen and state governors began visiting Cuba, Mongo befriended rancher John Parke Wright of J.P. Wright & Co. of Florida, who became the first US rancher to sell livestock to Havana. When Fidel Castro fell ill in 2006 and rumors were spreading that his death was imminent, Mongo Castro joked with EL PAIS at a diplomatic reception. Our father died at 82 from hernia complications. The Galicians are very tough people, so the Castros will be around for a long time. English version by Martin Delfin. Pedro Sanchez and Albert Rivera with the signed pact documents on Wednesday. JUAN MEDINA (REUTERS) The program announced on Wednesday by the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the center-right grouping Ciudadanos is vague and insufficient. It repeats too many times that certain issues will be studied or that such and such a promise, such as tax reform, will be carried out at a later date, making it too imprecise to be regarded as a genuine program for government. That said, it has the makings of a project, and as modest as it might appear, it is more than most of the other parties with a chance of governing have so far come up with. Sadly, the document will most likely arouse confusion and reticence in Catalonia The pact has surprisingly little to say about Catalonia the most important problem Spain currently faces other than rejecting outright a referendum on independence for the northeastern region. A clearer proposal might have been advisable in a pact between a party that until now has espoused a third way, involving an overhaul of Spains regional model, and another that is implacably opposed to the nationalist aspirations of some regions. Sadly, the document will most likely arouse confusion and reticence in Catalonia. Similarly, it is unlikely that the pacts promised reform of the judicial system will amount to much if it is limited simply to cutting the number of members of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) legal watchdog. The much-vaunted pledge to do away with another layer of administration by dismantling the central governments provincial representatives has been reduced to vague references to councils of mayors; while Socialist leader Pedro Sanchezs idea of overturning the Popular Partys labor reform and security legislation sounds very different to Albert Riveras. Many points require explanation, correction and more detail. That said, the pact shows a commitment to ending the stalemate of the last two months. Podemos has laid out its position much more clearly. For the moment, the PP has not yet been so explicit, which gives it the chance to consider it a bit more slowly before dismissing the proposals out of hand, a move that would not only assure a continued impasse, but also guarantee that it will not garner cross-party support should it decide to try to form a government on its own. Spaniards voted for a change in direction of the country, and so far only the PSOE and Ciudadanos have made any effort to answer that call When Spaniards voted in December, it was clear that they wanted a change in the direction of the country, and to a greater or lesser degree, so far only the Socialists and Ciudadanos have made any real effort to answer that call. But by themselves, they lack the numbers in Congress to form a government. If the other parties continue to block efforts to find a way forward, it is very likely Spaniards will find themselves voting again, on June 26, the outcome of which may well be a repeat of Decembers. Sanchezs added problem is that he is hostage to promises he has already made. He told his partys central committee that he would put any deal he made to the grassroots, and now it is laying out a question so vague that it seems more like a plebiscite on his leadership than a real vote on the agreement. At the same time, Riveras attempts to invoke the cross-party pacts of the late 1970s that helped pave the way for Spains transition to democracy after the death of General Franco are, needless to say, somewhat exaggerated. Spains new generation of politicians needs to grow up; at the same time, the current impasse cannot go on forever, and political will is needed. At the very least, Pedro Sanchez and Albert Rivera have shown they possess it. A gathering in Madrids Puerta del Sol to celebrate the fourth anniversary of 15-M. Samuel Sanchez Five years after it erupted on to the Spanish political scene, the May 15 protest movement (15-M) is to be commemorated with a plaque in Madrids Puerta del Sol. The emblematic square in the heart of the capital became the epicenter of mass protests against the countrys political parties handling of the economic crisis during the spring of 2011. Both the Podemos party and the Ahora Madrid platform grew out of 15-M The proposal, which was originally approved in November, was put forward by the Ahora Madrid leftist grouping that currently runs Madrid City Hall, and was backed by the Socialists (PSOE) and the center-right Ciudadanos. Full details of the wording on the plaque have not yet been revealed, though proponents have requested it include the phrase We were asleep, we woke up the slogan that emerged during the month-long occupation of the square. In proposing the commemorative plaque, Ahora Madrid highlighted the influence that 15-M had on Spanish politics, eventually leading to the creation of the Podemos party which came in third in the recent Spanish general election and, through that, Ahora Madrid itself. Madrid Mayor Manuela Carmena, who was elected on the Ahora Madrid platform in 2015, described 15-M as having had an extraordinary impact on the process of democratic regeneration in Spain. Madrid regional premier Cristina Cifuentes described the decision as a tasteless joke But Cristina Cifuentes, the head of the Popular Party-run Madrid regional government, described the decision as a tasteless joke, assuming it would be placed next to plaques in the square commemorating the uprising against occupying French forces in 1808, as well as another dedicated to the victims of the 2004 terrorist attacks in the capital. City Hall says it has no plans to put the 15-M plaque alongside these memorials on the wall of the historic Real Casa de Postas, which now houses regional government offices. Albert Rivera after signing the agreement with the Socialists on Wednesday. Luis Sevllano Arribas The day after signing a far-reaching government agreement with the Socialists (PSOE), Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera said on Thursday that he would try to convince the Popular Party (PP) to abstain at next weeks investiture vote in Congress in order to help form a government. Securing an abstention from the PP, which won the December 20 general election with 123 seats short of a majority is crucial in keeping the PSOE-Ciudadanos policy agreement alive. Yesterday there was an agreement for change and another to block it by the PP and Podemos Ciudadanos and the Socialists have 130 deputies between them not enough for Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez to be voted in as prime minister in the 350-seat lower house. In a television interview, Rivera said that he would try to set up a meeting with acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the PP to explain the agreement before March 5 the day of the second investiture vote. Many of the things that Mr Rajoy had asked me are included in the document, he said, suggesting that Rajoy doesnt want anyone to be allowed to form a government. The acting prime minister has been pushing for a grand coalition between the PP, Ciudadanos and the Socialists, but Sanchez has said that he will not form part of any government with Rajoy at the helm. In a video message, Sanchez on Thursday asked Socialist Party members to approve the pact he signed with Ciudadanos. Socialists are expected to vote Friday and Saturday on the agreement. Last December 20, the Socialists made it clear we said no to Rajoy, no to any other PP candidate, but said yes to opening a period of negotiation so that we could build a progressive and reformist government, Sanchez said. In an interview with the SER radio network, the Socialist leader said he was not giving up on trying to convince the other parties to join the coalition. Soon after the agreement was signed between Ciudadanos and the Socialists, Podemos the third-largest political force broke off talks with Sanchez. Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Podemos, said the deal was filled with many proposals presented by the PP. Yesterday there was an agreement for change and another to block it by the PP and Podemos, Sanchez said. English version by Martin Delfin. SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol Armenia and Azerbaijan to do so without delay An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan". UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022 Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully Google Ad The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrives in Yerevan Armenian Revytech, global technology leader SAP and financial services software specialist SAP Fioneer sign a cooperation agreement With 120 million drams donated by Mikael Vardanyan, the defenders of the homeland will be treated in a new building OSCE Chairman-in-Office and OSCE Secretary General call for immediate cessation of hostilities along Armenia-Azerbaijan border Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh USA Embassy Message for U.S. Citizens ANCA Issues National Call to Action to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Aliyevs Aggression Criminal case on death of a newborn baby A criminal case was initiated in the Investigative Division of Erebuni and Nubarashen administrative districts of Yerevan Investigative Department of the RA Investigative Committee on death of a newborn baby. A written report was submitted by the resident of Ararat region Makar Antonyan informing that in June, 2015 his wife got pregnant and on January 30, 2016 was taken to the maternity ward of Artashat medical center where she gave birth on the same day. However, in the result of improper implementation of professional duties by the doctor, obstetrician-gynecologist the newborn baby sustained closed blunt trauma on the head, spine, as well as subarachnoid and subdural hematomas. The newborn baby was taken to Muratsan medical center where he died of the mentioned traumas on February 7, 2016. Considering that in the materials prepared on the base of the report there are crime features envisaged by the Part 2 of the Article 130 of RA Criminal Code a criminal case was initiated in the Investigative Division of Erebuni and Nubarashen administrative districts and was sent according to investigatory subordination. Preliminary investigation of the criminal case will be conducted in Ararat Regional Investigative Department of the RA Investigative Committee. Note; Everyone charged with alleged crime offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law. Information and Public Relations Department of the RA Investigative Committee Samvel Mkrtchyans posthumous Shakespeare (video) Antares publishing house has recently published William, Shakespeares A midsummer nights dream comedy. This work is Samvel Mkrtchyans first translation from Shakespeare and his first unpublished work posthumously. Naira Zohrabyan, Samvel Mkrtchyans widow, tells, As he used to say, he translated Shakespeares frivolous tale, A midsummer nights dream, when he was 23. The whole design of the book, page design, even the selection of paper belongs to Samvel Mkrtchyan. Translator of renowned Ulysses died more than a year ago and has two more unpublished works. Today marks the birthday of Samvel Mkrtchyan; Naira Zohrabyan is going to establish translation award after his name, Together with the Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan we are discussing whether it will be right to award that prize on Translators Day or during Grakan Tapan. This work by Shakespeare hasnt been translated into Armenian for the first time; it was formerly translated by Khachik Dashtents, but Naira Zohrabyan likes this translation thanks to other solutions, When you read Samvels translation, Samvels original style, Joyces translation flights, even when choosing the names of the personages The book is about a dream during the night on the day after summer solstice, with multiple layers of Shakespeare, with the mixture of two realities. Mrs. Zohrabyan notes, than Samvel Mkrtchyan didnt leave unfulfilled dreams in translation, Of course, after Ulysses Samvel said that he did his job. One of the former Ministers told Samvel, if he ever translated Ulysses, they must have put up a golden statue to him. But absolute, absolute indifference by the state, except for the exclamations what a great job was done. Renowned translator from Gyumri didnt demand from everybody to read Ulysses, it wasnt a mere trifle, When I had difficulty in reading something, he used to say to me not to worry as even Joyces wife didnt read Ulysses. President of the Kyushu Economic Federation Aso Yutaka and President Truong Tan Sang. (Source: VNA) The President thanked Kyushu authorities for promoting cooperation with Vietnam and their effective support to the Vietnamese Consulate General in Fukuoka prefecture. He wished that the island of Kyushu will continue welcoming Vietnamese technical apprentices to work there. Japan is actively assisting Vietnam in realising its industrialisation strategy within the Vietnam Japan cooperation framework, which focuses on six priority fields. The host asked the Kyushu Economic Federation Chairman to facilitate bilateral cooperation in those fields, including the support industry, especially automobile spare parts, and expressed his belief that the visit would boost Vietnam - Japan collaboration as well as ties between Kyushu and Vietnamese localities. Aso Yutaka informed the host about his activities in Vietnam, including visiting Aeon shopping mall in Ho Chi Minh city and several Japanese food production facilities, as well as holding talks with Japanese experts and firms in Vietnam. He hoped that both sides could strengthen their joint work in agriculture, health care and education while establishing sites for facilitating technology transfer in agriculture and fisheries. Kyushu, a region and also the third largest island in Japan, is currently home to over 8,500 Vietnamese nationals and nearly 50 regional companies in Kyushu are investing in Vietnam./. The inauguration ceremony. (Photo: SGGP) The center features the application of Fujitsus Akisai cloud technology into agricultural production.Akisai is one the most modern and smartest technologies for food and agriculture introduced by Fujitsu in 2012. Meanwhile, Vietnam is seeking modern solutions to solve existing issues related to food safety and reduce crop protection agents and chemical residues.Sensors will be used for the greenhouse and vegetable factory models to collect all necessary information about temperature, humidity and rainfall, among other factors, to help farmers make timely adjustments. Photo: SGGP Currently, the center is applying two production models, Greenhouse and Vegetable factory on growing agricultural products with high added value, tomatoes and lettuce. These models allow farmers to manage and monitor their farms via an IT system.Particularly, lettuce with less alkali is suitable for diabetics, while tomatoes will be planted on hydrogel crystal (IMEC technology), gaining thicker density of 4,000-6,000 plants on 1,000 square meters and harvesting all year round, replacing the more common rotational cultivation used in VietnamIn his speech at the inauguration ceremony, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cao Duc Phat said Vietnam wishes to develop a modern agriculture with high-competitive capacity and rapid integration ability in international markets. Thus, the country very much needs ICT companies like Fujitsu to support technology application to create high-quality and high-quantity products./. Special envoy Hoang Binh Quan and Cambodian PM Hun Sen. (Source: VNA) Quan, who is also head of the CPV Central Committees Commission for External Relations, informed President of the ruling CPP and Prime Minister Hun Sen and CPP Honorary President and President of the National Assembly Heng Samrin about the outcomes of the CPVs 12th National Congress. He affirmed that Vietnam continues to pursue the consistent foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development, multilateralisation and diversification of international relations, and active and proactive international integration. Vietnam values and does it best to foster the good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, and comprehensive and sustainable cooperation with Cambodia for the sake of peace, stability, and development in the region and the world, Quan stated. PM Hun Sen and NA President Heng Samrin congratulated the CPV on the success of the 12th National Congress and Party chief Trong on his re-election. They believed that under the sound leadership of the CPV led by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the Vietnamese people will successfully realise the resolution adopted by the 12th National Party Congress and attain new achievements in turning Vietnam into a modernity-oriented industrialised country. The Cambodian leaders expressed their deep gratitude to Vietnam for its timely and valuable support in the nations liberation and reconstruction, thereby saving Cambodian people from Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge genocide regime. They vowed that Cambodia will exert itself in nurturing the countries traditional friendship and lift comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam to a greater height. During his stay, Quan also briefed leaders of the CPP Central Committees Office and agencies about the outcomes of the CPVs 12th National Congress./. In partnership with EIB If the infrastructure is considered vital for economic and social development of Tunisia as a whole, it is even more so for the transport sector, which represented 7.3% of GDP in 2013 according to a French Ministry of the Economy memorandum . With almost 22,000 km of roads, of which 75% are tarmacked and 400 km motorways linking the capital, road transport accounts for 85% of the overland transport of goods and 95% of passenger transport.Many projects, often dating back to before 2011, remain on the table. They have been included in the development plan for the 2016-2020 presidency currently being finalized, a plan that intends allocating 3.5bn to road infrastructure projects, including 600M for the construction of motorways, 620M for existing roads, 360M for infrastructure in the Greater Tunis area, 330M for maintenance work and 200M for new rural unmetalled roads.Additionally, road links to neighbouring Algeria and Libya, inadequate to allow any increase in commercial exchanges across North Africa, should be upgraded as part of the larger project to construct the Trans-Maghreb Highway. Stretching some 2500 km, the road will link the main cities in five North African countries, from Nouakchott in Mauritania to Tripoli.The projected highway, which is due to link around fifty or so towns and cities (50 million inhabitants), is suffering from the political and economic tensions between the countries it will eventually cross. The cost of the Tunisian section of the Trans-Maghreb Highway is evaluated at 1bn. It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the Gazprom to invest up to $2.5 bln in Belarusian gas transport system by 2020 Gazprom plans to invest up to $2.5 billion in the gas transport system of Belarus by 2020 and spend another $1.1 billion on expanding underground gas storage facilities, according to materials released by the Kremlin press service ahead of President Vladimir Putin's visit to Minsk on Thursday. "The company plans to invest $2 billion-$2.5 billion in the development of the gas transport system of Belarus and $1.1 billion in expanding the capacity of underground gas storage facilities by 2020," the materials state. The materials note the close nature of cooperation in the oil and gas sector between Russia and Belarus and point out that Gazprom owns the 575.5-km Belarusian section of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. During Putin's visit to Belarus there are plans to discuss cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the materials state. "A major investment project - the construction of the Belarusian NPP with capacity of 2,400 MW in Grodno region at a cost of $10 billion - has been underway since 2012. The launch of the first generating unit is scheduled for 2018 and the second for 2020," the materials state. They also state that cooperation in the construction of the nuclear power plant includes training of skilled workers and construction of social infrastructure in the area of the plant. Electricity consumption in Ukraine in January 2016, including in-process losses on Ukrainian power grids, decreased by 5.9% compared to January 2015, to 14.65 billion kilowatt-hours. A source in the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry told Interfax-Ukraine that electricity consumption, excluding in-process losses, fell by 8.1%, 10.869 billion kWh. Industrial enterprises, excluding in-process losses, reduced electricity consumption by 11.4%, to 4.096 billion kWh. In particular steel industry consumed 2.184 billion kWh (15.4% down from January 2015), fuel 321.3 million kWh (40% down), machine building 350.8 million kWh (1% down), chemical and petrochemical 297.8 million kWh (3.1% down), food and processing 363.5 million kWh (12.5% up), construction materials 165.5 million kWh (24.3% up), and others 412.8 million kWh (6.4% up). In addition, agricultural companies consumed 285.1 million kWh (1.7% up), transport 671.2 million kWh (1.8% up), construction 79.6 million kWh (1.7% down). In January 2016, the public consumed 3.69 billion kWh (7.5% down), households 1.46 billion kWh (7.5% down), other non-industrial consumers 588.4 million kWh (5.5% down). The share of industry in total electricity consumption in January 2016 decreased from 39.1% to 37.7% compared to January 2015, while the share of the population rose from 33.7% to 33.9%. Ukraine has proposed that a meeting to discuss gas supply to Ukraine with the participation of Russia's Gazprom and representatives of the European Union is held, Head of national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy Andriy Kobolev told reporters before a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. "We plan the trilateral format, but it is unknown if Russia agrees," he said. Kobolev said that it is not planned to hold the meeting in February. "We plan for the later period," he said. He said that not only Russian gas transit across Ukraine could be discussed at the meeting, but also the conditions of purchase of Russian gas by Ukraine. "I think that the talks will concern the whole range of issues," he said. Kobolev said that if Russia expresses unwillingness to settle the issue of payment for Russian gas transit across Ukraine Kyiv could take some other measures in addition to the Stockholm arbitration process. He did not disclose these measures. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has increase standard gas consumption for households without gas meters by 47% and citizens who use only gas stoves will pay for 4.4 cubic meters instead of 3 cubic meters. The decision under the proposal of the Energy and Coal Industry Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Demchyshyn was made at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The cabinet decided that new methods for calculating gas consumption standards for various regions will be drawn up in two weeks. Additionally, the cabinet decided to revoke its basic resolution No. 619 of 1996 earlier the standards were revised via amending the resolution. As for the amendments made on April 29, 2015 on halving the gas consumption standards, the decision was challenged in courts of all instances, and Demchyshyn said that regional gas supply companies planned to accrue the receipts to pay for 6 cubic meters, not 3 cubic meters from February 2016. "We revoke resolution No. 619 and adopt new one We would remove the issue that they challenge Regional gas supply companies will be satisfied," Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said. As reported, the cabinet in April 2015 halved standard gas consumption for households without gas meters. The higher administrative court of Ukraine revoked cabinet resolution No. 237 of April 29, 2015 that halved standard gas consumption for households without gas meters. The court said that the standard was reduced unlawfully. Over the whole period when cabinet resolution No. 237 (May 2015 January 2016) was applied, the payments for gas by households are to be reviewed. Public joint-stock company Odesa Port-Side Plant has contracted gas supply in March from Slovakia at the price of $199 per 1,000 cubic meters (or UAH 5,412.80 at the exchange rate of UAH 27.2/$1), a source on the market has told Interfax-Ukraine. The information is confirmed on the website of the Ukrainian Interbank Currency Exchange (UICE) where the results of trading with gas forward contracts held on February 23 are posted. The conditions of shipment is DAP Budince (Slovakia), 20 million cubic meters and the price is $199 per 1,000 cubic meters. Odesa Port-Side Plant will have to pay an additional of $12 for entering the Ukrainian gas transport system. Thus, the price will be $211 per 1,000 cubic meters. Earlier Naftogaz Ukrainy published its price list on gas supply. The company proposed that gas will be supplied at UAH 5,600 (or $205.90 at the exchange rate of UAH 27.2/$1) in March. Citibank will receive Ukraine's eurobonds due on September 1, 2019 worth $31.617 million and government warrants with the conventional value of 410.389 million that are pegged to the GDP pace as part of restructuring of the government-secured credit of $41.5 million issued to Ukravtodor. Cabinet resolution No. 101 of February 24, 2016 was published in the Uriadovy Kurier newspaper on Thursday. Finance Minister of Ukraine Natalie Jaresko said at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday that it was planned to finalize the transaction on February 25. She said the conditions of restructuring the credit coincide with the conditions of the restructuring of two government-secured credits issued by Sberbank of Russia to Ukravtodor in 2011 and Pivdenne Design Bureau totally worth around $367 million: the issue of eurobonds for 75% of the debt sum and government warrants for the rest of the sum. Ukraine will increase its quota in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by SDR 639.8 million or 46.6%, to SDR 2.012 billion ($2.796 billion), the government sent relevant resolution No. 108 of February 4, 2106 to the Finance Ministry and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). "This step would allow cutting Ukraine's payments for the use of IMF's funds. In addition, the quota also defines the vote right of member state in the decision of the IMF and influences the limit of financing that the country can receive from the IMF," the explanatory note to the resolution posted on the government's website on Thursday said. The cabinet said that the increase of Ukraine's quota in the IMF is part of the 14th revision of the quotas of the IMF member states. According to the IMF, as of late January 2016, Ukraine's total liabilities to the IMF are SDR 8.372 billion (around $11.6 billion), including SDR 154.5 million in 2016 (around $214.1 million). Last year Ukraine received SDR 4.728 (around $6.55 billion) and paid SDR 1.075 billion (around $1.49 billion). The National Commission of Ukraine for Energy and Housing and Utilities Services Regulation (NCER) has approved the retail tariffs for energy supply companies for March 2016. The tariffs are stipulated in commission resolution No. 233 of February 25, 2016, a copy of which has been sent to Interfax-Ukraine. Retail tariffs for first class consumers in the next month will total 124.22 kopecks per kWh (excluding VAT), for second class consumers 158.94 kopecks per kWh (excluding VAT). As reported, in 2015 retail rates increased by 19.9% for first class consumers, to 123.8 kopecks per kWh, and by 20.9% for second class consumers, to 152.08 kopecks per kWh. The National Commission for Energy and Housing and Utilities Services Regulation regulates the activity of monopoly entities in energy, heating supply, central water supply and drainage, oil and gas industries, solid waste treatment, and implements state price and tariff policies in these sectors. On Thursday, February 25, at 12.00, the press centre of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency will host a press conference entitled "February 26 Case: How Russia Persecutes Defenders of Ukraine's Territorial Integrity" on the eve of the second anniversary of the events of February 26 in Crimea. The press conference is organized by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and the Information Centre for Human Rights. The participants will include Ukrainian MP Georgiy Lohvynsky; human rights activist and expert on international standards on freedom of peaceful assembly, Volodymyr Yavorivsky; representative of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people and the Committee on the Protection of Rights of the Crimean Tatar People Eskander Bariyev; lawyer of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Darya Svyrydova; and Russian lawyer Nikolai Polozov (via skype) (8/5-A Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation. More information by phone: (067) 445 9543 or e-mail: tp@humanrights.org.ua The Donbas militants conducted 56 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in the past 24 hours, the army operation press center in eastern Ukraine has said. Thirty-five attacks were observed in the Donetsk sector, and 21 in the Mariupol area; the gunfire intensity reduced a lot after midnight, the press center wrote on Facebook. The militants fired 20 mines on Ukrainian army strongholds in Pervomaisk and another 20 on the positions in Zaitseve at around 6 p.m. Fortifications near Nevelske came under random mortar fire. The militants' mortars shelled Ukrainian army strongholds near Maryinka, Hnutove and Chermalyk in the Mariupol area. Ukrainian army positions near Maryinka, Zaitseve, Mayorsk, Novoselivka, Avdiivka, Opytne, Pisky and Novhorodske were shelled by the militants' grenade launchers, large-caliber machineguns and small arms. An air defense launcher was used near Krasnohorivka. Besides, militants' snipers attacked Ukrainian units stationed near Maryinka, Opytne and the Butivka mine, the press center said. "In some cases, our soldiers fired grenade launchers and small arms," the report said. Ukrainian citizen Nadiya Savchenko cannot be retried by a jury in the context of the Russian Constitutional Court's ruling it issued on Thursday, Constitutional Court Chairman Valery Zorkin said. "If a case has already been listed for trial by a panel of judges, it will be heard precisely this way. If it hasn't yet been listed for trial, a claimant is entitled to request that their case be heard by a jury. If the hearing of a case has already been started, as is the case with Ms. Savchenko, it cannot be reviewed by a jury," he said. "We haven't analyzed Savchenko's case, the Constitutional Court hasn't received a complaint from her," Zorkin said. Russian investigators believe that Ukrainian Armed Forces officer Savchenko was at a base of the Aidar battalion near the village of Metalist in the Slovyanoserbsk district of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine on June 17, 2014. There she was allegedly conducting secret surveillance and correcting artillery fire targeting a checkpoint of militants from the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, as well as civilians sheltering there; among them were three journalists of Russia's VGTRK broadcaster. Two Russian reporters, namely Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, were killed in the attack. Savchenko denies all charges. Savchenko has been held in Russian custody since July 2014 over her suspected role in the murder of Kornelyuk and Voloshin in southeastern Ukraine. Savchenko went on hunger strike during a hearing in the Donetsk City Court on December 17, 2015. She said she was going on hunger strike until the end of the trial of her case. Russian journalist and producer of a TV program 'Podrobnosti Nedeli' (Week in Detail) broadcast on Inter Ukrainian TV Channel, Maria Stoliarova, who was dismissed on February 24 after a scandal with a video about Heavenly Hundred, has left territory of Ukraine accompanied by the Security Service of Ukraine's staff, SBU spokesperson Olena Hitlyanska said. "Russian journalist Maria Stoliarova received 'an one way ticket' and under control of the SBU left the territory of our stateThe SBU decided to shorten a term of stay of the aforementioned citizen of Russia on the territory of Ukraine due to commitment by her the deeds that harm interests of Ukraine. She also banned from entering Ukraine for a five-year term due to the similar reasons," Hitlyanska wrote on her Facebook account on Wednesday evening. According to her, prior to this, security officers carried investigative activities regarding Stoliarova. "They caught an interest in dirty statements of a Russian citizen during broadcasting of the video about the heroes of Heavenly Hundred. They also wondered regarding her stay on the temporarily occupied territories in 2014 and over her possible involvement into the terrorist organizations so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics," she wrote. Besides, she said now the other statements of Russian citizen are being carefully analyzed to reveal signs of the anti-Ukrainian propaganda. As reported, Internet spread a video shot by Inter TV channel about honoring of the heroes of Heavenly Hundred, during which there have been heard editor's coarse language. The producer herself explained the incident as a technical error. On February 24, the website of 'Podrobnosti' released a report saying that "a creative producer of the news TV program 'Podrobnosti Nedeli' Maria Stoliarova was dismissed due to the incident with a coarse language occurred during a live broadcast on February 21." The Karpatska Sich movement, which organized the blockade of Russian trucks in the Zakarpattia region, has demanded that the Ukrainian government revise its decision to resume Russian truck transit across Ukraine. "On February 24, the Ukrainian government formally declared its readiness to resume Russian truck transit across Ukraine on February 25. Without holding negotiations with the Ukrainian people, or taking their opinion into account, the authorities have been using us, blockade participants, as a trump card in their bargaining with the enemy," the movement wrote on Facebook. For the purpose of security for the Russian trucks, the government plans to provide them with police escorts throughout their travel across Ukraine. By doing so, it "sets the police and the people against each other," it said. "A Ukrainian central staff of transport blockade was elected at a general meeting of regional blockade coordinators. We will give the government some time to think about this, and to revise the decision to resume the transit; for our part, we are ready for a dialogue," the report said. The movement also called on Ukrainian truckers not to travel to Russia, because a possible resumption of the transport blockade may harm them. "You simply will not be permitted to leave because the so-called 'go home' regime ends on February 25. The demands that we made at the beginning of the transit blockade are invariable. We will act in a resolute, and swift manner, if the transit is restored. The authorities should listen to their own people, rather than the enemy killing these people in eastern Ukraine," Karpatska Sich said. On February 24, Ukraine accepted the proposal of the Russian Finance Ministry to resume truck transit at midnight on February 25. Anti-Russian activists blocked the traffic of Russian trucks in eleven regions of Ukraine in the first half of February. Russia reciprocated the move, on February 14, by suspending the traffic of Ukrainian trucks and, later on, their transit. Ukraine also put an official ban on the transit of Russian trucks. On February 16, the Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry agreed on the unhampered return of Ukrainian trucks stranded in Russia, or Asian countries bordering Russia, as a result of the suspended transit. Russian trucks blocked in the Zakarpattia region on February 19, have started to leave the region. Vice President of European Commission for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic will pay a visit to Kyiv on March 1 to address the Ukrainian Energy Forum of Adam Smith Conferences and to meet with Ukrainian government, European Commission reported on its website. Sefcovic's visit to Kyiv will follow after his visit to Baku on February 29, where he will participate in the second conference of Advisory Council of the Southern Gas Corridor. As reported, Ukraine offered to hold a meeting involving Russian Gazprom and EU representatives to discuss gas supplies to Ukraine. According to Naftogaz Ukrainy Chief Andriy Kobolev, at the meeting the participants in addition to Russian gas transit via territory of Ukraine could also cover the conditions for Russian gas purchases by Ukraine. Two servicemen have suffered injuries in the army operation zone in Donbas over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian Presidential Administration spokesman for military matters, Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, said. "Not a single Ukrainian serviceman has been killed in the hostilities in the past day, but two have been injured," he said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Thursday. One of the servicemen was hurt in demining operations in Shyrokyne, and the other suffered injuries in the explosion of an unknown explosive device in the town of Novhorodske. Former acting prosecutor general of Ukraine Oleh Makhnitsky has been called in for questioning as a witness into the criminal case on abuse of power or office by the officials of Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine who hampered to investigate into the criminal cases on the registered facts of opposing rallies, PGO said. "Makhnitsky Olehis called in for questioning to the chief investigator for special cases of the PGO Main Investigative Directorate as a witness into the criminal offence under Part 3 Article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine," reads a report from the PGO. The PGO reported that through December 2015 by February 2016 investigators were making efforts to call on the phone number that belonged to Makhnitsky to invite the latter to questioning as the witness, but all the attempts were in vain since it appeared a mobile operator doesn't serve such telephone number. The same misfortune happened with sent by prosecution agencies notices for questioning to the places of residence of Makhnitsky in Lviv and Kyiv. The notices were sent back since such a person doesn't live under the mentioned addresses. Makhnitsky was acting prosecutor general through February 25 to June 18, 2014. The Cabinet of Ministers has has decided to dismiss the head of the State Innovation Financial-Credit Institution, Arsen Isaakian, from the post, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyik has said at a cabinet meeting. "The decision has been made," the prime minister said. As reported, the officials of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NAB) detained the head of the State Innovation Financial-Credit Institution on suspicion of misappropriation of state property worth over UAH 14 million. The bureau also informed that on the same day a preventive measure was defined for the detainee in the form of detention for up to 60 days. At the same time, the investigating judge defined a bail in the amount of UAH 13.78 million. The State Innovation Financial-Credit Institution (formerly the Ukrainian State Innovation Company) was founded in 2002 as a non-banking financial institution on the basis of the State Innovation Fund. On Monday, February 29, at 12.30, the press centre of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency will host a press conference entitled "Minsk Agreements. Solution or Problem?" The participants will include members of Peace Institute NGO; Ukrainian former foreign minister, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine Leonid Kozhara; blogger, civil activist Yulia Malkina-Bohuslavska; economic expert Vsevolod Stepaniuk; doctor, volunteer Illia Bohomolov; lawyer, chairman of Peace Institute NGO Maksym Lenko; lawyer, chairman of Peace Institute management board Dmytro Moroz (8/5-A Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation. KYIV. Feb 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Alfa-Bank (Ukraine, Kyiv) intends to continue support to organize the Alfa Jazz Fest annual festival in Lviv, Bank President Oleksandr Lukanov has said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine. "We discussed this [the organization of the festival] both with our colleagues and the shareholders. This is a big financial and organizational burden. But for us, after all, it is our civic duty festival should be held. This event is important not only for the city, it is very important for the whole country. We hope it will become Ukraine's musical visiting card in Europe," Lukanov said. The bank president said that the recent events in Lviv, although worrisome, but, judging by the support of the city community, are not a cause for the termination of the event. "If to talk about Lviv, we do not think that now the situation is worse than it was, for example, two years ago, when all the tragic events happened, or a year ago. Of course, we have certain activities related to security. But we several times did surveys in the city, which showed that not a single political party has such level of support [as this event]," he said. Alfa Jazz Fest is an international jazz festival. It is annually held in Lviv from 2011. The founder of the festival is Lviv citizen, co-owner of Alfa-Group consortium Mykhailo Fridman. China is to increase to more than half the proportion of new energy vehicle purchases made by some government departments, the State Council said on Wednesday. The decision is aimed at increasing green development as the country attempts to rein in pollution. The government has been promoting electric vehicles as a way to reduce the smog that frequently blankets cities. New energy vehicles should account for more than 50 percent of annual new vehicle purchases of central government organs, public institutions and some cities, the State Council said in a statement after the meeting, which was chaired by Premier Li Keqiang. The ratio was set at 30 percent in July. The State Council also announced a new set of other policies designed to encourage the use of new energy vehicles. As part of efforts to achieve "revolutionary breakthroughs" in battery performance, cooperation will be encouraged between enterprises, universities and research institutions, according to the statement. More battery charging facilities will be built, with the sector receiving increased investment and subsidies, the State Council said. Other measures include increasing the share of new energy vehicles in the public transportation system and enhancing their quality. The policies come as the central government looks to industry to push industrial upgrades, ease pressure on the environment and foster new growth engines. Thanks to government incentives, new energy vehicles have continued to gain popularity in China. The number sold last year more than tripled year-on-year to 331,100, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Since 2014, China has rolled out a set of measures to promote new energy vehicles. Jia Xinguang, a senior analyst at the China Automobile Dealers Association, said, "Those who have core competencies, testing and monitoring facilities and technologies will benefit from the new incentives." The world's oldest mummy, the Italian Iceman known as Otzi. Researchers in Italy hope to recreate Otzis voice by constructing a model of his vocal tract with CT scans. And by recreating the timbre and color of the icemans voice, specialists in Bolzano and Padua will get the worlds oldest mummy to speak stone-age vowels. Rolando Fust?s, an ENT consultant at the San Maurizio Hospital, who is leading the new project, said there were particular difficulties working with a 5,300-year-old, specially conserved body by far the oldest mummified person ever found. (Photo/CRI) It's difficult not to sigh at the news that Lin Jiawen, a talented senior high school student, committed suicide on Feb. 24. Lin Jiawen attended Xi'an Middle School in Shaanxi province in northwestern China. The 18-year-old published two academic works on history with hundreds of thousands of words. Li Yumin, a famous historian, praised the boy's works highly and said that even some Ph.D. candidates cannot produce work of such a high level. "Lin Jiawen passed away, what a pity," commented an Internet user on Weibo in the early morning of Feb. 24. Lin jumped to his death due to depression. According to Xi'an Middle School, Lin had suffered from depression for some time, but the condition was controlled by medication. At 8 p.m. on Feb. 23, Lin did his homework after taking his medication. He sent an e-mail to one of his teachers with whom he kept in relatively frequent contact. The teacher learned that Lin had committed suicide when he tried to reply to Lin. Lin suffered from depression for more than six months, said Lin's father. The full-time school psychologist had done counseling with Lin. On Jan. 26, Lin shared this WeChat message: "I increasingly don't understand what I am fighting forperhaps it is for myself, but it is just fighting." Another WeChat message from Dec. 4 read: "The instructions say the drug's side effect is weight gain, but for me it is aching all over my body and constant sleepiness every day." Xinguanchachuanmei issued Lin's suicide note, which read: "The future for me lacks attraction... I beg all those who learn of my death, even if you cannot understand it, please give me basic respect..." Wang Jianlin (File Photo) Wang Jianlin, 61, of Wanda becomes the richest Chinese with $26 billion, just ahead of Li Ka-shing, 87, according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2016 released by the Hurun Report Wednesday. Beijing is the new "Billionaire Capital of the World", snatching the title from New York for the first time. 100 of the Hurun Billionaires live in Beijing, up 32 from last year, according to the list. Bill Gates, 60, holds onto top spot with $80 billion, despite having donated $17 billion to philanthropy, way ahead of Warren Buffest with $68 billion. Despite global slowdown, the Hurun Global Rich List 2016 ranked 2,188 billionaires from 68 countries, up 99 from last year, in another record-breaking year for the worlds billionaires. And the total wealth increased by 9 percent to $7.3 trillion. China and the U.S. have 568 and 535 billionaires respectively, accounting for almost half of the billionaires on the planet. 630 billionaires of Chinese origin take 29 percent of Hurun list, which is much higher than 20 percent of the world. The combined net worth of the Chinese billionaires is $1.4 trillion, similar to the GDP of Australia. Real Estate has generated most billionaires (117), followed by Manufacturing and Tech with 94 and 68 respectively. Former California state senator Leland Yee makes a speech at a conference in California. (File Photo) San Francisco, Feb. 24 ---- Leland Yee, former California state senator, was sentenced to five years in prison by a federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday for accepting bribes. The Chinese American senator acknowledged that he was involved in exchanging official acts for money, conspiring to traffic in weapons and money laundering. He admitted accepting $11,000 in exchange for setting up a meeting with another state senator, $10,000 for recommending someone for a grant. He also acknowledged that he talked about helping an undercover FBI agent buy automatic weapons from the Philippines. An undercover FBI agent recorded him making promises in exchange for campaign money from May 2011 through March 2014. He also admitted accepting $6,800 for providing a certificate on California State Senate letterhead honoring the Ghee Kung Tong, a Chinese fraternal organization in San Francisco Chinatown. The investigation led to charges against over 20 people in Chinatown and snared "Shrimp Boy" Chow, leader of the Ghee Kung Tong. He was arrested in 2014 when he was running for secretary of state. Yee, 67, is a long-time politician who also served in the state Assembly and on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for 25 years. Government prosecutors had asked an eight-year sentence, a three-year term of supervised release, a fine of $25,000 and a $100 special assessment. Yee's lawyers had called for no more than five years and three months in prison, citing his wife's poor health and his long years' service. Yee's arrest has been widely discussed in California, especially among Chinese American communities. Some didnt believe Yee was involved in corruption and questioned whether the scandal was the result of a political conspiracy. Others questioned about Yees integrity. No matter what, he has been an active advocate of the Chinese community throughout his career. During the past years, more and more Chinese Americans are actively engaging into local politics and public services. As one of the most noticeable high-rank officials in the U.S. government, Yee's arrest is like an earthquake in communities. Yee was born in China and immigrated to the United States as a child with his family. He was elected in 1988 to the San Francisco Unified School Board and to the Board of Supervisors in 1992 and 10 years later to the State Assembly. Wan Gang, Chinese minister of science and technology, speaks during a press conference concerning the reform of China's science development and technical innovation held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 24, 2016. (Xinhua/Pan Xu) BEIJING, Feb. 24 -- China is to improve basic research through new national sci-tech plans, said Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang on Wednesday. China will support scientists in new fields of research with a natural sciences plan. A key R&D plan will focus on basic research fields that address future needs, including quantum communication, life sciences, stem cells and environmental protection, Wan told a press conference on Wednesday. The R&D plan will involve basic research while targeting technology for fields and industries vital for economic and social development, Wan added. China has plans for research and exploration in materials science, neutrinos and gravitational waves. More basic researchers will be trained, and laboratories and research centers will be built, Wan said. To address low efficiency resulting from redundant programs, over 100 state-funded programs will be merged into five plans: human resources, natural sciences, major sci-tech, R&D and technical innovation. The R&D plan was launched earlier this month. BEIJING, Feb. 25 -- The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), an advanced U.S. missile defense system, in the Republic of Korea (ROK) would directly impair China's strategic security interests and undermine global strategic stability. A spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense made the remarks at a monthly news briefing when responding to recent reports that the United States and the ROK are expected "within a week" to hold the first meeting of a joint working group to discuss the proposed deployment of the THAAD missile defense system. "We are highly concerned about the possible deployment," spokesperson Wu Qian said, noting that the coverage of the THAAD missile defense system, especially the monitoring scope of its X-Band radar, goes far beyond the defense needs of the Korean Peninsula and reaches into the hinterlands of Asia, which will not only directly damage China's strategic security interests, but also harm global strategic stability. "We resolutely oppose any country using the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue as an excuse to encroach on China's rights and interests, and the Chinese army will firmly safeguard national security interests," Wu said. Charity wall set up in Beijing to gather spare articles for the needy A "charity wall" collecting spare clothes and books for people in need recently appeared on a Beijing street, the Beijing Morning Post reported recently. The wall, which is located in Beijings Chaoyang district, was initiated as a charity platform. People can put clothes, books, toys or other goods beside the wall, and those in need can take them for free. When the wall was first set up, few people noticed it. But now more and more people are donating. Some even travel all the way across the city to make a donation. "It is a great way to re-purpose certain items and provide convenience for others, no matter who takes the stuff away," a Beijing citizen surnamed Wang praised the charity. "I think it is good because it helps people like me to save money," added a beneficiary of the wall. According to the walls founder, she even received a thank-you note recently. Now she is more determined than ever to move forward with the wall as more people are taking part in this outreach. Op-ed: It is the US that is militarizing the South China Sea The U.S. has recently been hyping the idea that China is militarizing the South China Sea. It first criticized China for deploying missiles in Yongxing Island, then claimed in a report that China is building a radar system on islands or reefs in the Nansha Islands. However, plenty of evidence suggests that it is the U.S. rather than China who is actually militarizing the South China Sea. First, the U.S. is clearly a thief calling on others to catch a thief when accusing China of escalating militarization in the South China Sea. It is the U.S. that has been enhancing military deployment in neighboring regions of the South China Sea. The U.S. not only acquired access to eight military bases in the Philippines, the superpower has also continued increasing its military presence in Singapore and sent warships and aircraft to the South China Sea. Whats more, it has repeatedly pressured its allies and partners to conduct targeted military drills and patrols to play up regional tension. Besides selling weaponry to the Philippines, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries, the U.S. also repeatedly sent missile destroyers, strategic bombers and anti-submarine patrol aircraft to approach or even enter relevant reefs and islands, as well as the adjacent waters and air space of Chinas Nansha and Xisha Islands. Such acts betray ambition to provoke China. Secondly, the U.S. obviously has a guilty conscience when criticizing China for deploying national defense. As islands and reefs in the South China Sea have been an indisputable part of China's territory since ancient times, China is entitled to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests. By deploying necessary defense for its own territory, China is exercising the right of self-preservation granted by international law to sovereign states. This has nothing to do with militarization and is completely legitimate. Chinas defense is not fundamentally different from the defense installation by the U.S. in Hawaii. If other countries have zero intention to threaten Chinas sovereignty and security, they neednt worry about defensive measures. Thirdly, the U.S. revealed its double standard when criticizing Chinas construction on the Nansha Islands. Such construction falls completely within Chinas sovereignty. The light houses built by China on its stationed islands and reefs, as well as the facilities for meteorological observation, emergency shelter and rescue, are public services and goods offered by China to the international community as the largest coastal state in the South China Sea. They are by no means military facilities, but the U.S. has continued picking on China nonetheless. In contrast, the U.S. turns a blind eye to military actions taken by the Philippines and Vietnam on the Nansha Islands, which they illegally occupy. Lastly, so-called safeguarding navigation freedom is just a cover-up for the U.S. to destroy peace and stability in the South China Sea. The U.S. military has been carrying out navigation freedom activities for a long time. Such activities, in essence, are challenges to other countries sovereignty and jurisdiction in their own waters and exclusive economic zones. The U.S. carries out these activities just to maintain its own maritime supremacy. The freedom of navigation and flight over the South China Sea, to which all countries are entitled under international law, has never been threatened. Over 100,000 vessels from various countries pass through the region every year without a hitch. However, the navigation freedom actions conducted by the U.S. destroy peace and tranquility in the South China Sea and escalate regional tensions. Not only wont this selfish and overbearing act help to peacefully resolve the South China Sea issue, it will further disrupt regional peace and stability. The U.S. must realize that as a party not concerned in the South China Sea issue, it should respect the efforts of China and concerned nations to peacefully handle their own disputes and safeguard the stability of the region. If the U.S. intends to make sincere contributions, the best way is to stop stirring up tensions through risky military actions in the South China Sea. (The author is a research fellow of China's Naval Research Institute) Yongren Yi embroidery has a history of over one thousand years. Every year, 200,000 gorgeous embroidery works are made by women of Yi ethnic group from the Chuxiong Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan province. These Yi embroidery works are sold to the U.S., South Korea, Beijing and Shanghai, with annual sales of over 10 million yuan. Each member of the embroidery workshop has an annual income of nearly 30,000 yuan. In recent years, Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center, Yi embroidery school, Yi embroidery association as well as Yi embroidery cooperative workshops have been set up in Yongren county to help ethnic monitory women and to promote their social and economic development. A man from central China's Henan province recently submitted an application to a local court for 20.88 million yuan in state compensation after spending six years behind bars due to an unjust verdict, Chengdu Commercial Daily reported on Thursday. The compensation request was the highest there has been within the last five years. The man, Song Zhengguang, was accused of indecent assault and the murder of his cousin in 2007 when he was only 16 years old. Later, he was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment by the Zhoukou Intermediate People's Court, while Henan High People's Court rejected the verdict and ordered a retrial due to unclear facts. Six years later, the prosecutor withdrew the lawsuit and Song was released in December 2013. Six years of imprisonment has isolated the young man from society. In addition, his parents were sentenced to jail for affray and racketeering in connection with their petitions to the court. On Jan. 26, Song applied for a compensation of 20.88 million yuan, including 20.16 million yuan for mental damages. Currently, Song is hunting for a job in Dongguan in Guangdong province, but his parents are still behind bars. 71-year-old He Yinglan, who was abducted 35 years ago, has finally come back to her hometown in Xinmiao township, Fuling district of southwest China's Chongqing. He's family has never seen her after she left her home to buy vegetables in February in 1981. At that time, He was already married and had children. After making inquiries about the whereabouts of He, her family got to know that He was cheated by a woman from He's village who promised to help her find a job in the cities. He with brain disorders would believe what other people tell her. He's family did not report to the police and hoped that she could come back on her own. But over time, her family began to assume that He had passed away. As a matter of fact, He went to central China's He'nan province where she got married with Yan Guangyi and gave birth to a son and a daughter called Yan Jintian. Yan Guangyi bought He as his bride with 700 yuan. Yan Jintian knows that her mother always wants to go back to her hometown to see her children who were born before she was abducted. After a family discussion, the whole family decided to make a trip to Chongqing to help He meet with her children. "After arriving in Chongqing, we found it difficult to locate the hometown of my mother,"said Yan Jintian. He only remembers the name of the place where the village fair was held and the name of her son. Unfortunately, Yan Jintian did not find the name of the place on the map of Chongqing. At last, Yan asked her brother to seek help from a police station in Yubei district in Chongqing. With the assistance from a police officer, He returned to her home in Chongqing. My Favorite Quotes Recent Quotes Portfolio Summary Your most recently viewed tickers will automatically show up here if you type a ticker in the Get Quotes box on the top of the page. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: Azerbaijan and Iran have signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of energy and water resources use, continuation of the construction and operation of hydroelectric power plants and hydroelectric complexes "Khudaferin" and "Giz Galasi" on the Araz River, a source in the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan said Feb. 25. The document was signed by the co-chairs of the intergovernmental commission - Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev and Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi. The agreement includes principles of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and Iran, highlights the need to restore the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan in accordance with the UN resolutions, proclaims equal rights for water and energy resources along hydroelectric complexes "Khudaferin" and "Giz Galasi". The document states that Iran will ensure completion of construction of hydroelectric complexes and hydroelectric power plants, preservation and operation of water and energy resources at hydroelectric complexes and hydroelectric power plants until the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is restored. The agreement says that the sides will use these facilities on equal terms. Azerbaijani specialists will be involved in construction and operation of the facilities in accordance with the agreement. "The signing of this document, which is very important for Azerbaijan, is the result of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's successful foreign policy," the statement said. "This testifies to the country's high prestige on international arena." "The signing of this document also reflects the Azerbaijan-Iran relations," the statement said. "These relations have been rapidly developing recently. They are based on the principles of good-neighborliness and friendship, as well as directed to establish peace in the region." Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Anvar Mammadov - Trend: The government of Azerbaijan is in talks with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) on the use of Islamic banking instruments in the country, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Economy Sahil Babayev told reporters Feb. 25. He said that the IDB is ready to provide technical assistance to Azerbaijan in this issue. "We held a lot of discussions at the CIS Global Business Forum in Dubai, including the ones regarding Islamic banking," Babayev said. "I would like to say that we have already outlined the primary scope of our model's project. We will be able to introduce this system in Azerbaijan with the attraction of the IDB professionals and other experts." Babayev however said that it is hard to name the exact time of introduction of Islamic banking model in Azerbaijan. "It's a new system, and it requires preparation of special legislation, set of rules and so on," Babayev said. "But the government examines this issue at the level of Central Bank. I think that the established Financial Market Control Chamber of Azerbaijan will be also studying this issue hard. It is necessary to determine the scope of changes in legislation and only then take certain steps." Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Anakhanum Khidayatova - Trend: Ukrainian pilot Leonid Kravets, who witnessed the events in Azerbaijani town of Khojaly, has spoken about the tragedy that took place 24 years ago. "At that time, I was flying to the Nagorno-Karabakh region every day, taking civilians from the zone of armed clashes," Kravets said Feb. 25 at a press conference in Baku. On Feb. 25-26, 1992, the Armenian military, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops stationed in Khankendi, committed genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. Among those 613 killed in the massacre, there were 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. A total of 487 civilians became disabled as a result of the onslaught. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people still remains unknown. The event became the largest massacre in the course of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. "On Feb. 27, we were flying over Khojaly town from Ganja city and we didn't know the town was being stormed," Kravets said. "From above, we saw some colorful field. Having descended a bit, we realized that the field was strewn with the bodies of civilians. There still were people alive whom the Armenians were killing off." "Armed men began to shoot at our helicopter," he added. "We returned to Ganja. That time, nobody in Azerbaijan knew about this tragedy yet. We informed the local authorities. It was ordered to send journalists to the scene and take video footages." Kravets went on to say that if an international trial takes place on Khojaly, he is ready to be a witness. "I saw everything myself, there are photos and videos," he added. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend: Arms sale to Armenia is a proof of double standards and an attempt to disrupt stability in the region, Ali Ahmadov, deputy prime minister, deputy chairman and executive secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party said Feb. 25. He was commenting on the sale of weapons and military equipment by Russia to Armenia. While international structures also confirm that the aggressor state Armenia has occupied the Azerbaijani territories, the sale of weapons to this country is another step to disrupt stability and increase the tension in South Caucasus, according to Ahmadov. The deputy prime minister noted that sometimes, Russia sells weapons to Armenia at a very low price. "Armenia explains this with its membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization," he said. "We condemn this. If it continues this way, even more efforts will be needed to restore stability in South Caucasus," Ahmadov added. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend: Regretfully, no proper legal and political assessment has been given to Khojaly genocide in the world so far, Ali Ahmadov, deputy prime minister, deputy chairman and executive secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party said Feb. 25. It is outrageous that those who were directly involved in this crime, shed blood of women, children, the elderly, are currently in power in Armenia, according to the deputy prime minister. The most unacceptable fact is that sometimes, the heads of states speaking against terrorism and genocide, kindly receive the perpetrators of Khojaly genocide, which is a proof of double standards in the world, he said. "As long as there are such double standards, no fair legal and political assessment is given to all tragedies, including the Khojaly tragedy, it will be impossible to ensure justice, peace and well-being in the world and prevent new tragedies," Ahmadov added. The deputy prime minister noted that the Azerbaijan people have always highly honored the citizens killed in Khojaly. "Various structures, citizens, the youth of Azerbaijan carry out great work to convey the truth about the Khojaly genocide to the world, said Ahmadov. "I believe that their efforts bring results." He emphasized the work done as part of the "Justice for Khojaly" campaign organized by the Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva. "Serious steps were taken for informing the world about the Khojaly genocide thanks to this campaign," said Ahmadov. The deputy prime minister noted that the Khojaly genocide is one of the bloodiest tragedies not only in Azerbaijan but also in the world over the last decade of the 20th century. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. On February 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops stationed in Khankendi committed an act of genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. As a result of the massacre, some 613 people were killed, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. A total of 487 civilians became disabled as a result of the onslaught. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people remains unknown. The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.26 Trend: Armenian military forces committed genocide acts in the town of Khojaly on its population of 7,000 on Feb.26, 1992. Some 613 people were killed, 1,000 civilians of different age became invalid as a result of bullet wounds during the Khojaly genocide. About 106 women, 63 children, 70 old men were killed. Eight families were completely annihilated, 130 children lost one parent, while 25 both lost both parents. 1,275 civilians were taken hostages, while the fate of 150 of them is still unknown. All these acts were committed by Armenian military with special mercilessness and inconceivable barbarism. The Second battalion of 366th regiment under the command of Major Seyran Ohanian, third battalion under the command of Yevgeniy Nabokhin, staff chief of 1st battalion Chitchyan Valeriy and more than 50 officers and ensigns took part in the attack, according to information taken "From the investigation materials concerning Khojaly occupation"). A part of the town residents, who attempted to flee, were killed by Armenians in pre-organized ambushes. According to the Russian Remedial Center Memorial, 200 corpses were brought from Khojaly to Agdam within four days of the massacre. Facts of humiliation were discovered on dozens of bodies. Forensic examination in Aghdam was performed on 181 corpses, including 13 children. The outcome of the examination revealed that 151 people were killed as a result of bullet wounds, 20 people died from missile wounds, 10 more were killed with blunt instruments. Facts of scalping people alive were also discovered. The Khojaly genocide has become of the most terrible and tragic pages of Azerbaijan history. Azerbaijani people have endured ethnic cleansing and genocide by nationally-chauvanist Armenians for 200 years. The people of Azerbaijan were deported from their historical lands and became refugees and internally displaced persons and all these were accompanied by massacres committed by Armenians. Azerbaijanis were also forced from their historical lands during the Soviet period. Some 150,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from Armenia and placed in the Kur-Araz plain in 1948-1953. About 250,000 Azerbaijanis were forced from their historical territories in 1988 and Armenia became a mono-ethnical state. The Nagorno-Karabakh events, which began in 1988 along with continuous efforts to implement the Armenian desire of building "Armenia from sea to sea", led to the destruction of towns and villages, murder of thousands of innocent people, as well as the exile of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from their historical lands. Armenian government tries to annex Nagorno-Karabakh despite international legal norms, demonstrating its readiness to resort to any kind of crime and atrocity. Khojaly genocide - the tragedy of the 20th century - was a result of this aggressive and criminal policy. This tragedy, which took place in late 20th century, was one of the most serious crimes not only against the people of Azerbaijan, but humanity as a whole. Khojaly genocide is comparable to the tragedies in Khatin, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Songmi. Why did Armenians chose Khojaly as a target? On one hand, they were intending to destroy barriers of strategic importance in Karabakh's mountainous part, and on the other hand Armenians just wanted to completely destroy Khojaly - a settlement, reflecting the historical and cultural traditions of Azerbaijani people from ancient times to the modern period. This distinct culture is classified as Khojaly-Gadabay culture in the Azerbaijani history. Cromlechs, dolmens, cyclops, tumuluses of Khojaly, as well as different housing wares are the patterns of material culture that reflect the dynamics of development of human society. The destruction of all these material culture monuments and the Khojaly graveyard - one of the most ancient cemeteries in history - after the Armenian occupation are obvious examples of Armenian barbarism and aggression against the world culture. Khojaly genocide's episodes are horrifying. Antiga, a Khojaly resident, was burned alive because she refused to say the area "was part of Great Armenia." Sariyya Talibova, another Khojaly resident said "four Mehseti Turks and three Azerbaijanis were decapitated over the grave of an Armenian. Later they gouged out the eyes of two Azerbaijanis". Armenians scalped living people, beheaded them and cut other parts of their bodies, gouged children's eyes and disemboweled pregnant women. Forbidden bullets of 5.45 caliber and chemical weapons were used in Khojaly during the attack. All these prove the fact that Armenia committed genocide against civilians, violating Geneva Convention's protocols. Khojaly genocide, committed with a particular atrocity, terrified journalists and publicists of Russia, Georgia, Great Britain, France, Germany, the U.S. and other countries. International conventions and laws in all world countries criticize genocides like the Khojaly tragedy and call them inadmissible. The world must know that this crime was directed not only against the Azerbaijani nation, but also against the whole civilized world. People holding high state positions in Armenia today, and others must answer before international court. This crime should not remain without punishment. Armenia's military-political aggression must be condemned by the world community. International organizations and parliaments of world countries must give political and legal appraisal to the Khojaly genocide, committed by the Armenian Republic on Azerbaijan's territories. It should be noted that the parliaments of several world countries made decisions recognizing the Khojaly genocide. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend: While selling arms to Armenia and friendly Azerbaijan, Russia thoroughly takes into account the importance of maintaining stable situation in the region, said Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia's Foreign Ministry Feb. 25. She was answering to Trend's question about the note sent by Azerbaijan to Russia over the arms sale to Armenia, according to Russian Foreign Ministry's website. "In general, Russia remains committed to all of its international obligations in arms sale issues and acts within framework of the national export control system enshrined in Russian legislation," she said, adding that the latter envisages forming the end-use certificate. Further, answering to a question by Armenian media whether Russian Foreign Ministry regards Azerbaijan's note as an attempt to interfere in affairs of two sovereign states, Zakharova responded negatively, saying any neighboring country has a legal right to inquire about intentions of the states with which that country shares borders. She added that military and technical cooperation issues should also be transparent. "Therefore, we always provide the Azerbaijani side with all the necessary information through diplomatic channels," added the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson. Earlier, commenting on the information about the entry into force of a $200 million loan agreement on weapons and military equipment sale by Russia to Armenia, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hikmet Hajiyev said the ministry has already sent a note to Russian Foreign Ministry over the matter. Azerbaijan has repeatedly brought to international community's attention the undeniable facts that the weapons and military equipment acquired by Armenia are deployed on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh region, read the note. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 Trend: The OSCE Minsk Group US co-chairman James Warlick plans to attend an event commemorating the victims of the Khojaly genocide, he wrote on his Twitter account on February 25. "I plan to attend an event commemorating the victims of the Khojaly tragedy. We mourn all victims of the conflict and will work for peace", he said. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend: The visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Iran has great political and economic importance, Ali Ahmadov, deputy prime minister, deputy chairman and executive secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party said Feb. 25. He added that Iran and Azerbaijan have always been bound by friendly relations. These relations have a very serious foundation, according to the deputy prime minister. "Our historic and religious relations have deep roots," he said."Therefore, the relations between Iran and Azerbaijan have always been built on the principles of friendship and mutual understanding. These relations continue to develop this way." Ahmadov noted that the positive results of the steps for lifting the sanctions imposed on Iran have created new opportunities for this country's international integration. "Undoubtedly, it positively affects the Azerbaijani-Iranian relations as well," said the deputy prime minister. "We want the traditional friendly relations between Iran and Azerbaijani to even more strengthen the economic and trade relations." Ahmadov said that the Azerbaijani and Iranian societies praise the recent visit of Ilham Aliyev to Iran. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Anvar Mammadov - Trend: The visit of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Iran can be called historic, Iran's Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mohsen Pak Ayeen said Feb. 25. Agreements and memorandums signed within the framework of the visit, as well as held discussions are very important, he said during the Azerbaijani-Iranian business forum. "As you know, 11 documents were signed during the visit. In particular, I would like to note the document signed in the customs sphere," said Pak Ayeen adding that this document will contribute to the development of relations between the two countries' private sectors. The document on accelerating the construction of the Astara-Astara and Rasht-Astara railways, which will expand trade relations between the two countries, is also important, added the ambassador. In addition, the envoy noted that the sides discussed the simplification of visa regime for Iranian citizens arriving in Azerbaijan. He expressed hope that the parties will manage to reach an agreement in this regard in the middle of this year. Moreover, Pak Ayeen said that relations between the bank sectors of Azerbaijan and Iran will be extended in the near future. "Fruitful negotiations on reducing customs duties, transportation taxes and other expenses were also held," he said adding they hope to hear soon good news in this regard. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_Mammadov Scott Olson/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- In Iowa and New Hampshire, voters who wanted a glimpse of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders could head to their local diner or town hall. Now, youre a lot more likely to find them at church. In the days leading up to the South Carolina primary, campaigns have increasingly sought out voters on their home turf. And in the first 2016 race featuring a majority African-American electorate, the race is on in the states churches, barbershops and beauty salons. Folks here in South Carolina really pride themselves on being first in the South, said state Democratic Chairman Jaime Harrison. They like being the testing ground for messages, to see whether they resonate with southern voters in general, and in particular the African-American community. Campaign operatives describe a number of different fronts on which they need to succeed with black voters. The stakes are high -- after all, several states with similar demographics, including Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia, vote just three days later. On the Ground Last May, Hillary Clinton made her first trip to the Palmetto State since formally announcing her candidacy. Her first stop? Kikis Chicken & Waffles, a soul food restaurant in Columbia. Katie Catalon, president of the National Beauty Culturists League and a Clinton supporter, said it was a savvy move. Meet with people where they meet, she advised. Because if you meet with one person in a barbershop or salon, that person is going back to meet with others in the church or in their neighborhood. A quick look at a map also offers a glimpse into the candidates itinerary. Both have made stops along South Carolinas infamous Corridor of Shame, a stretch of poor, rural, largely African-American populations that have long complained about underfunded school systems. In the 2008 primary, Clinton lost by nearly 30 points to then-Sen. Barack Obama, who inspired unprecedented turnout among black voters. This time around, polls show Clinton leading Sanders among African-Americans by a 3-to-1 margin. According to Clintons South Carolina state director, Clay Middleton, its not simply a function of familiarity -- its the result of a concentrated effort. "Hillary Clinton has a record of fighting for African Americans and long ties back to South Carolina, but we're not taking that support for granted, Middleton told ABC News in a statement. We have been in South Carolina since April reaching out to voters at churches, barbershops, beauty salons, and HBCUs [historically black colleges and universities] to make the case that Hillary Clinton will be the best president for African Americans. For months, the Clinton campaign has been handing out sign-up sheets to local churches and businesses, encouraging them to preach about the importance of voting, or to display pro-Clinton posters. Sanders staffers, meanwhile, have simply been trying to introduce their candidate to voters. We dont hand out a piece of paper and say, would you do this, said state director Christopher Covert. We try to have a conversation with people. Which is why at the beginning we went a little bit slower. Weve been in every African-American newspaper in the state, every African-American-centric magazine over the last two months. Weve been working really hard, and now were looking forward to Saturday. Sanders, for his part, has tried to increase name recognition in local churches. During a January trip to Charleston, he attended services at Mother Emanuel AME, where nine were killed in a mass shooting last year. This week, he stopped by Brookland Baptist Church in Columbia, though several attendees paid him little mind as they continued helping themselves to a buffet as he spoke. Over the Airwaves Both sides have enlisted familiar voices in the African-American community to help spread campaign messages -- especially to the large media markets of Charleston, Columbia and Greenville. On Friday, Hillary for America released an ad narrated by actor Morgan Freeman, gravely recounting Clintons advocacy for minorities. A few days later, director Spike Lee told South Carolinians to wake up! in a radio spot that played statewide. Referring to Sanders as my brother, Lee claimed the campaigns lack of corporate underwriters meant the Vermont senator wasnt on the take. Among this audience, said Jaime Harris, endorsements arent about name recognition. Theyre about trust -- and Clinton has some of the most noteworthy names in the African-American community on her side, including veteran Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-South Carolina. If youre being introduced to somebody, people judge you by the folks that are with you, Harris told ABC News. I know Senator Sanders has some good surrogates out there from Hollywood, like Angela Basset and Vivica A. Fox. But when someone can bring in [congressional representatives] John Lewis and Maxine Waters, and then you get an endorsement from Jim Clyburn -- I mean, if the key demo is African-American women over 45, thats hard to beat. On Campus As Clinton solidifies her grasp on the state, and on African-American voting blocs in particular, one group has remained elusive: young people. According to a recent Bloomberg poll, the former secretary of state has only a modest lead over Sanders when it comes to black voters under 45. On Thursday night in Charleston, two Black Lives Matter activists paid $500 to infiltrate a private fundraising event for Clinton, unfurling a small banner and asking her to recant her support for policies that led to mass incarceration of African Americans. Clinton has placed her focus squarely on historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in recent days, meeting with several black student groups ahead of the primary. Hillary Clinton here at @MorrisColl1908 in Sumter, SC pic.twitter.com/yUaxc1yfhn Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) February 24, 2016 State representative Wendell Gilliard, who supports Sanders, isnt surprised that his older peers are standing with Clinton, while his younger constituents flock to the Vermont senator. He told ABC News that Democratic politics, particularly in the African-American community, have held a top-down approach for generations.Thats the machine, he said at a party fundraiser in Charleston. Its the good old Southern machine that people, too many times, let manipulate us as a whole. But whether youre African American, white, Jewish ... were not afraid of the machine anymore. Because thats the old way, you see?With just two days to go, the messages from each candidate to South Carolina Democrats seem clear.For weeks, nearly every Clinton speech and advertisement has included the name of President Obama. While both she and Sanders are seen favorably, Obama has a whopping 94 percent approval rating among likely Democratic voters in the state.When I think of the progress we have made under President Obama, I am determined and committed to protect that progress, she told sisters at Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically black sorority in West Columbia, on Wednesday. I dont think the president gets the credit he deserves and look what hes accomplished.Sanders, meanwhile, has tried to tap into the language of the civil rights movement.As many will remember during the last several months of Dr. Kings life, he was working on launching the poor peoples campaign, Sanders noted at a Wednesday news conference dedicated to poverty.Invoking the backroads of the rural South rather than the streets of Manhattan is no accident, said Democratic Chairman Jaime Harrison, who advised Sanders campaign to stick to pocketbook issues.One of the things Ive said in my conversations with Sanders folks is I know a big part of his stump speech is talking about Wall Street, he told ABC News. Folks here are so far from Wall Street. It might as well be just as distant as Moscow. You have to make it real, in what they see in the real world.Voters in South Carolina wont see as much of Sanders as his rival. While Clinton remained in state, Sanders took 48 hours to travel to other regions where he appears to have a better chance of victory.In the meantime, Christopher Covert says hes confident Hillary Clinton wont win African-American votes by the 3-to-1 margin polls are predicting.I dont think so, he said. I think the number of people you see in polls are still trying to make up their minds ... and weve got one hell of a field campaign.Copyright 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: Partnership and Liaison Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) was opened in Baku Feb. 24, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Agriculture said. Addressing the opening ceremony, Minister of Agriculture Heydar Asadov hailed Azerbaijan-FAO cooperation. He said that FAO implemented 23 projects in Azerbaijan since 1995, and currently, other five national and two regional projects are being implemented. Head of Partnership and Liaison Office Mustafa Imir expressed confidence that the office would contribute to the development of agriculture in Azerbaijan, which he described as FAO`s partner and a new donor country. He noted that it [opening of this office] will allow using Azerbaijan's experience within the framework of FAO's South-South Cooperation (SSC) program in the region's other countries and beyond. Further, Heydar Asadov and Mustafa Imir signed an agreement on FAO`s Seed Production Support Project in Azerbaijan. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Khojaly genocide is the tragedy of the entire humanity, Turkish Hedefhalk newspaper wrote Feb. 25 citing Metin Hulagu, former head of the Turkish Historical Society, as saying. Hulagu said that nobody must forget about the perpetrator of this crime committed against the civilian population. "Despite Azerbaijan is the aggrieved side, a number of countries are still supporting the aggressor - Armenia," he said. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. On February 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops stationed in Khankendi committed an act of genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. As a result of the massacre, some 613 people were killed, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. A total of 487 civilians became disabled as a result of the onslaught. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people remains unknown. The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. How to deal with the consequences of an earthquake, flood, landslide? In a disaster relief situation, how do national authorities negotiate with international actors to maximize the response impact? In the last two days a simulation exercise has taken place in Baku, built on a scenario where a serious disaster caused by natural hazard had occurred on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan and led the Government to request international assistance. In reply to the request for international assistance, the arrival of rescue teams from several Union Civil Protection Mechanism Participating States has been simulated: national authorities had to deal with requests to facilitate their reception and deployment, as well as the dispatching of foreign aid. The exercise was conducted as part of the EU-funded Programme on Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Natural and Man-made Disasters in the Eastern Partnership Countries (PPRD East 2 Programme). At the event - hosted on 24-25 February by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Azerbaijan at the ADA University in Baku - were present Ambassador Malena Mard, Head of the EU Delegation, as well as Faig Taghizade, Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations. The exercise was attended by experts from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, from the Ministries of Internal Affairs, Defence, Health, Foreign Affairs, and the State Border Service and State Customs Committee as well as from other governmental and non-governmental entities. The exercise tested Azerbaijan's arrangements for effective reception and deployment of international relief teams - the Host Nation Support (HNS) concept, and identified areas for improvement, so that - should the need ever arise - emergency assistance from the European Union could be received effectively and efficiently. Simulating negotiations and coordination meetings, the participants were faced with requests of different sorts, like assistance in border crossing, customs clearance, allocation of space for establishment of camps, provision of fuel, escort to disaster affected areas and security. Above all, the purpose of the exercise was to enhance inter-institutional and inter- Ministerial cooperation with regards to requesting civil protection assistance, and in accordance to the EU HNS Guidelines. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 Trend: Rector of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) Elmar Gasimov participated in Eurasian Higher Educational Summit held by Eurasian Universities Union on 16-20 February, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. Mr. Gasimov made a presentation on Internationalization of Higher Educational in Azerbaijan in frames of the panel on Internationalization of Higher Educational Institutions in Turkish World held during the Summit. During the visit Rector Gasimov held a number of meetings, including the discussions with Prof. Dr. Ismail Yuksek, Rector of Yildiz Technical University, where both rectors talked about the perspectives of joint programme in Electrical Engineering and Electronics and the initial agreement in this respect was reached. The Rectors also touched upon the possible visit of Yildiz Technical University delegation to Baku. Gasimov also met and held discussions with the representatives of European Students Service Center, DAAD, Study in Turkey, Study Portal and Mezun, the organizations dealing with the student exchange programmes in diverse countries. During the meeting held between Rector Gasimov and Dr. Mustafa Aydin, President of Eurasian Universities Union and Rector of Istanbul Aydin University, the cooperation perspectives in diverse directions of training, science and research among higher educational institutions under the EURAS umbrella were focused on. Eurasian Higher Educational Summit organized under the auspices of Eurasian Universities Union aimed at ensuring exchange of views and broad discussions between the higher educational institution representatives of Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa and the Pacific on establishing and strengthening the scientific, technological, economic and cultural collaboration. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: China joined the top 10 of largest trading partners of Azerbaijan for the first time in 2015, APK-Inform quoted the advisor to the embassy of China in Azerbaijan, Yu Chunchi as saying. He reminded that to date, the volume of Chinese investment projects in Azerbaijan, which started realizing since 2002, has already reached $300 million. Yu Chunchi said China supports all efforts of Azerbaijan in development of the non-oil sector. Also, he noted that it is reasonable to develop agriculture in Azerbaijan, and viewed the prospects of cooperation between two countries in the sphere of livestock goods production and cotton growing. He noted that the New Silk Road is the way of mutual cooperation and it creates additional opportunities for cooperation between the two countries. As for the prospects of the Trans-Caspian transport corridor, China welcomes such transportation of goods across Azerbaijan, Chunchi added. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: The Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund (ADIF) has paid the compensations worth over 22.5 million manats to clients of the bankrupt Bank of Azerbaijan, a statement posted on ADIF's website said Feb. 24. As of Feb. 24, the official exchange rate is 1.5593 AZN/USD. The applications have been received from Bank of Azerbaijan's insured depositors since January 29, 2016. The amount of the insured deposits in Bank of Azerbaijan is 24.2 million manats. The payments are made in the branches of Muganbank and Rabitabank, assigned as agent banks. At the same time, more than 675,000 manats have been paid to Ganja Bank's clients since Feb. 4. In general, the amount of insured deposits in Ganja Bank is 1.5 million manats. The payments to Ganja Bank's depositors are made in the branches of Rabitabank, Unibank and Kapital Bank. ADIF has also started paying compensations to Texnikabank's depositors since February 12. More than 40.1 million manats have been paid to the bank's clients recently. The payments to Texnikabank's depositors are made in the branches of Muganbank, Rabitabank, Unibank and Kapital Bank. The fund returns up to 30,000 manats for each insured deposit. Russia's energy giant Gazprom, Italy's Edison SpA and Greek gas company DEPA SA signed on Wednesday a memorandum of understanding on deliveries of Russian natural gas through third countries to Greece and from Greece to Italy via an undersea pipeline in the Black Sea, Gazprom said in a statement, Sputnik reported. According to the statement, the sides are planning to use to full extent the results of work that has already been completed by Edison and DEPA under the ITGI Poseidon project. "The development of intra-European gas transit capacity is key to strengthening reliability and security of natural gas supplies, including from Russia, to customers all around Europe," the statement quoted Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller as saying at the memorandum signing ceremony in Rome. This initiative will bring back the ITGI Poseidon project, completing the natural gas corridor from Turkey to Greece, and via an offshore pipeline across the Ionian Sea to Italy. DEPA SA chief executive Theodoros Kitsakos praised the plan to revive the ITGI Poseidon project as a step toward greater energy security in Europe and Greece's role in it as a major knot for various transport routes and gas producers. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend: The generating capacity of the Azerbaijani power system will hit almost 10,000 megawatts (MW) by 2020, the Azerbaijani energy ministry told Azernews. Currently, this index hits 7,129 MW. "Some 24.7 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity were generated in Azerbaijan in 2015," the ministry said. "The domestic consumption was 19.7 billion kWh." The ministry said that Azerbaijan exported 260.6 million kWh of electricity in 2015 compared to imported 107.4 million kWh of electricity. "The export potential of electricity reached six billion kWh," the ministry said. The main electricity producer in Azerbaijan is Azerenergy, having hundreds of substations and dozens of power plants on the balance sheet. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Elena Kosolapova - Trend: Kazakhstan's Central Election Commission (CEC) registered first observers of the parliamentary election from the US and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In total, six observers were registered from the US and OIC, said the CEC Feb. 25. Moreover, 97 observers from the CIS, as well as 33 - from the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS Member Nations, 7 - from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Belarus-Russia Union State were registered. As of Feb. 25, the CEC accredited 155 international observers, including observers from the missions of the two international organizations (OSCE ODIHR and the CIS), one international organization (OIC) and one foreign country (the US). As of today, Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry accredited 105 representatives of foreign media outlets of 25 states. Accreditation of observers from foreign states and international organizations will be held until March 14. The parliamentary election will be held March 20 in Kazakhstan. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 25 By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend: Turkmenistan is taking steps for state support of entrepreneurs to increase their share in the country's GDP volume, according to the article of the Strategic Planning and Economic Development Institute of Turkmenistan. Entrepreneurs are provided with trust credit funds, which are particularly directed at ensuring the population with consumer goods at reasonable prices. The Turkmen institute drew attention to the fact that private business is represented today in many sectors of the country's economy, and plays a key role in some of them. So, in total retail turnover, the private sector share accounted for 92 percent in 2015. In addition, currently, enterprises of this economy sector manufacture more than 92 percent of agricultural products. The private sector increasingly strengthens on construction and food markets of the country. The article said that in order to increase the range and volume of the products exported, the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan was authorized to sell all kinds of raw hides, leather obtained after primary treatment, as well as wool on foreign markets. Earlier it was reported that in 2015, GDP growth in Turkmenistan amounted to 6.5 percent. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 25 By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend: Modernization of the Turkmenbashi Oil Refineries Complex in Turkmenistan will make it possible to increase the volume of oil refining to 10-10.5 million tons per year, and the depth of processing hydrocarbon raw materials - to 95 percent, a source in the Ministry of Oil and Gas of Turkmenistan said Feb. 25. Construction of new production facilities, renovation of existing rigs is being carried out at the large enterprise. In particular, the rigs designed to produce A-92, A-95, A-98 high octane motor gasoline brands, which meet international quality standards, have been recently commissioned here. The ministry noted that the components necessary for that will be extracted during vacuum distillation of fuel oil and liquefied natural gas processing. High-octane motor gasoline, aviation and technical kerosene, hydrotreated diesel fuel, petroleum coke, polypropylene, a wide range of technical lubricants, liquefied gas, road and construction bitumen are produced at this enterprise. A large part of products is exported to Russia, Japan, Italy, Turkey, China, Iran, the UAE, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and other countries. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24 By Fatih Karimov- Trend: Iran is interested to buy Boeing 737 from the US air craft manufacturer, Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, Iran's deputy transport minister said. Basically the Boeing 737 is a proper plane for Iran, however the Iranian airlines will make decision, Fakhrieh Kashan said, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported Feb. 24. He further confirmed that the US aircraft manufacture has expressed readiness to start talks with Iran. "Two days ago, Boeing offered to negotiate with Iran and we will definitely negotiate with them on buying aircraft," the Iranian official said. The airplanes will be purchased in the form of hire-purchase, Fakhrieh Kashan added. In a statement on last week, Boeing announced it has received a license from the US government to begin commercial discussions with Iranian airlines, opening the door to what could be the first US jet deliveries to the Islamic Republic since the 1970s. Iranian carriers have among the oldest fleets in global aviation following decades of sanctions that have left them unable to leverage its geographical location and a domestic market of nearly 80 million people. It is estimated that Iranian airlines currently have a total of 150 aircraft, which are up to 20 years old. Back in April 2015, the head of Iran Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Ali Abedzadeh said the country needs to buy up to 500 passenger planes in the next 10 years to renovate its ageing fleet. Analysts say Iran's air fleet will grow, however in the near term the country will have to settle for the lease of planes. Boeing's license, marked a step toward catching up with European rival Airbus, which last month agreed to sell Iran 118 planes. While responding to a question about Iran-Airbus final deal, Fakhrieh Kashan said that it was scheduled that the two sides start negotiations for inking the final contract within 20 days after signing MoU. The talks have been started for finalizing the deal, he said, adding the total value of prepayment which Iran should pay Airbus reaches $50 million. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Farhad Daneshvar - Trend: Iran and Azerbaijan believe it is necessary to abolish visa regime in order to boost economy and tourism, says Mohsen Pak Ayeen, Iranian ambassador to Baku. "We assume that by late 2016, the visa issue will be settled after installation of technical equipment at the border crossing points," he told reporters Feb. 25. The ambassador added that the visa abolition is projected to cover all Iranians, regardless of the type of the visa issued. Pak Ayeen further said Azerbaijan and Iran signed a document Feb. 23 to connect Iran's Astara and Azerbaijan's Astara border checkpoints, as part of the North South railway corridor. He said a bridge is set to be constructed in Astara, jointly between Iran and Azerbaijan on a 50-50 share basis. The diplomat also said materials have been delivered for a 30-km section of the Qazvin-Rasht railway (a part of North South Corridor inside Iran) and a tender has been held for construction the Rasht-Anzali-Astara line. "Several companies from China, Azerbaijan and Russia are ready to take part in the Qazvin-Rasht railway project, but it is not finalized yet," he added. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.25 By Emil Ilgar - Trend: Swiss President Johann Schneider will visit Iran on Feb.26 to discuss expanding economical, political relations with Tehran, IRNA reported. According to the report, he will lead a 40-member economic and scientific delegation during the visit. Switzerland released $11.8 million of Iran's blocked assets in January, as soon as the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers was signed. According to the Iran Custom Administration's latest report, Iran imported goods worth $2.174 billion from Switzerland and exported goods worth $7.5 million to this country during 10 months of current fiscal year, started on March 21. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Khalid Kazimov - Trend: Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli has warned the conservative groups in Iran regarding use of various tricks to win the parliamentary election. Iranians will cast ballots on Feb. 26 to elect new parliamentarians and theologians for the country's top clerical body that appoints the country's most influential person, the Supreme Leader. The key elections are taking place six weeks after the removal of international sanctions against the Islamic Republic. It is against the law to organize trips to bring voters from villages to Tehran in order to cast ballots in favor political groups or fractions, Rahmani-Fazli said in an interview with state-run TV. According to the law, people can cast votes anywhere for parliament election but it is against the law if they cast ballots not in their own city, intentionally giving support for a specific group, he added. Apparently Rahmani-Fazli made the remarks following an Iranian reformist figure, Rasoul Montajabnia who earlier accused the conservatives of unfair play. Montajabnia previously called on the interior ministry to investigate allegations suggesting the conservatives have decided to bring over one million people from villages to Tehran in order to cast ballot in their favor. While the moderate President Hassan Rouhani wants the majority of the seats in the currently conservative-populated parliament and the Assembly of Experts to be occupied by his supporters, the rival conservatives are making all-out efforts to protect the seats. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Khalid Kazimov - Trend: An Iranian human rights activist has expressed concerns over the fate of the families of executed convicts. "The government in its previous economic development plan did not consider any aid to support those families," Iranian human rights lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, told Trend. In addition to the execution of the fathers of families, their property is also being confiscated in the case of drug-related crimes, she added. "Now, imagine someone is executed due to the crime he has committed. He has a family and their home is seized, as well. What will happen to his family," the human rights lawyer questioned. Saying that the level of drug trafficking in Iran is very high and the government has considered execution as the simplest solution to the issue, she added that Iran ranks second in the number of execution in the world after China. Meanwhile, Iranian vice-president for women and family affairs has expressed concerns over the issue saying the entire male population of a village in the country's Sistan-Baluchestan Province has been executed due to involvement in drug-related crimes. Despite the efforts made by Iranian law enforcement forces to stop it, drug trafficking still remains as a serious issue in the country. An Iranian anti-drugs official earlier said that drug abuse annually inflicts a damage of 450 trillion rials (about $14.9 billion on Feb. 20) to Iran's economy. According to media reports, Iranians annually abuse about 450 tons of opium, which is equal to 42 percent of total opium consumed in the world. Iranian officials say that the fight against drugs annually costs the country about $1 billion, while about two percent of Iranians abuse drugs. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24 By Emil Ilgar - Trend: Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said that the Islamic Republic's navy fleet reached Tanzania. "The warships would harbor in Dar es Salaam port in coming says," Fars news agency quoted him on Feb.25. Last year, in April, Sayyari also said that Iran's 34th fleet has started a journey to the Gulf of Aden and Bab el-Mandeb. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last November that "the advances in the Navy could not have been as outstanding as it is now; before the Revolution [1979], the sea had been downplayed in its prestige, grandeur, and strategic role in international politics; now however, the Navy have walked a long road, yet many miles should be covered to reach the optimal place". US President Barack Obama says he will remain "cautious" about a ceasefire in war-ravaged Syria, citing the "difficult" situation the country, Press TV reported. Obama made the comments after a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II at the White House on Wednesday. The ceasefire, which was set to start on Saturday, was announced after negotiations between Russia and the US, both of which have been engaged in airstrikes in the Muslim country. "We are very cautious about raising expectations on this," Obama said. "The situation on the ground is difficult." At the end of the road, efforts by Russia and the US are supposed to bring the focus of the complicated war to Daesh Takfiri terrorists, which the US president described as "something that right now they... are not focused on." Washington and some of its allies have been conducting airstrikes against what they call Daesh positions in Iraq and Syria. Obama sounded more optimistic later, saying, "We have seen modest progress over the course of the last week or so with respect to humanitarian access to populations that are threatened." Potential "lessening of the violence" following the truce, could bring about "the basis to build a longer term ceasefire," he added. The Jordanian king, for his part, voiced optimism about "the level of support from the United States," stressing that with Washington at helm "the future looks much better." Described by Obama as a country that "punches above its weight when it comes to the fight against ISIL," Jordan is where the terrorists were initially trained by the CIA in 2012 in an attempt to finally bring down the Syrian government. According to Bloomberg, the United States has so far provided $4.5 billion to the small country that also hosts many Syrian refugees escaping from violence towards the borders. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 15 people, Reuters reported with the reference to police and medical sources said. A further 50 people were wounded in the blast in the predominantly Shi'ite Shulaa neighborhood of the Iraqi capital. The first assailant detonated his vest inside the mosque and the second blew himself up when security forces gathered at the site of the initial blast. Four of the victims were members of the security forces, the sources said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast but Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq are often targeted by Sunni Islamic State militants. NATO has made attempts to reestablish military-to-military talks with Russia after they were cut off nearly two years ago, Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Philip Breedlove told reporters on Thursday, Sputnik reported. Describing NATO-Russia military communication as "important," Breedlove stated that "we are hoping to get some progress" in reestablishing those ties. "The chairman of the [NATO] Military Committee, the senior-most military person up at the political headquarters, has been trying to reestablish contact with his counterpart, [Russian Chief of the General Staff] Valery Gerasimov, and to no avail. I think they have reached out twice," Breedlove said. NATO chairman of the Military Committee, Czech General Petr Pavel, assumed his post in June 2015. So far, NATO "is trying" to renew military contact between Gen. Pavel and Gen. Gerasimov, but it "has not connected," he added. Breedlove noted that the last time he contacted his Russian counterpart, General Gerasimov, was after the Crimea referendum vote to rejoin Russia in March 2014. The lack of communication between the two military powers has raised concern among some former US officials about the danger of unintended escalations between NATO and Russia. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: The Turkish and German interior ministers signed a declaration of intent to jointly combat illegal migration and terrorism February 24, Anadolu agency reported Feb. 24. Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala said Feb. 2 that a new structure combating illegal migration will be established under the Turkish interior ministry. He said that the interior ministry will appeal to Turkey's Cabinet of Ministers for approval of the new structure. "Turkey also intends to toughen penalty for illegal migration," he said. At present, over 2 million Syrian refugees are in Turkey. The Syrian refugee camps in the country accommodate about 300,000 people. The rest of them are spread throughout the provinces and cities of Turkey. In Istanbul alone, there are currently 40,000 refugees from Syria. Turkey has spent over $10 billion to upkeep Syrian refugees. --- follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu A Turkish soldier was martyred in a counter-terrorism operation in southeast Turkey, the Turkish military said Wednesday. In a statement, the Turkish General Staff said the soldier was mortally wounded in an attack by the "separatist terrorist organization" in Sur, Diyarbakir province. The wording of the statement typically refers to PKK terrorists, Anadolu reported. Southeast Turkey has been the scene of significant military operations since December as the security forces attempt to clear urban centers of the PKK, which is also designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU. The group renewed its armed campaign against the Turkish state last July and since then more than 270 members of the security forces have been martyred and thousands of PKK terrorists killed. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with head of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) of the country Hakan Fidan Feb. 25, the Turkish newspaper Milliyet reported. Erdogan and Fidan will meet to discuss the situation in the country and the activity of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist organization, according to the newspaper. Erdogan will also meet with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Chief of the Turkish General Staff Hulusi Akar. PKK's attacks on military units and police stations in the south-eastern Turkey have become more frequent in recent months. During 2015, more than 200 soldiers were killed in Turkey in the clashes with the PKK. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which demands the creation of an independent Kurdish state, has continued for over 25 years and claimed more than 40,000 lives. PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the UN and the European Union. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: The Turkish police have warned of the possibility of new terrorist attacks in the country, the Turkish Milliyet newspaper wrote Feb. 25. Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is preparing to commit terrorist attacks by using car bombs in Ankara, the newspaper wrote citing police intelligence reports. A terror attack was carried out in Ankara Feb. 17 near the buildings of the Turkish parliament, the general staff and a military dorm in the city. The explosion killed 28 and injured 61. Reports suggest that a car bomb was detonated. Earlier, Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has warned the country of the possibility of new terrorist attacks, according to the Haber 7 newspaper's reports citing a source in the intelligence agency. ---- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Technologies for the fifth-generation telecom networks from Chinese technology giants are getting the attention of consumers at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo : REUTERS) Chinas top technology giants are again getting big attention at the Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest exhibition for the mobile industry, being held in Barcelona this week, a month after they grabbed the limelight at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. China Daily reported that the biggest attractions in the event are the technologies for the fifth-generation telecom networks. Advertisement The event, which will run from Monday, Feb. 22, to Thursday, Feb. 25, showcases the products of Chinese companies alongside global giants like Samsung Electronics Co. and Nokia Corp. A demonstration of ZTE Corp.'s high-frequency prototype and other key 5G technologies will be featured in the event, the report said. According to industry observers, the move is part of ZTE's efforts to take the lead in technology development, hoping to gain the edge when 5G starts commercial use five years from now. The report said that aside from ZTE, China Mobile Communications Co., the country's largest carrier by subscriber, is also aiming at the 5G market, although it had kicked off its 4G services only more than two years ago. The company has reportedly partnered with Nokia to show how the next-generation of communications technology can allow a computer to remotely control a robot that balances a ball on a moving board. According to Huang Yuhong, vice president of China Mobile's research institute, 5G technology's ultra-high capacity and ultra-low latency enable it to perform tasks that were impossible using 4G or earlier technologies. "Autonomous manufacturing with massive use of robots is one use. 5G technology will provide the network infrastructure to support China's manufacturing upgrading initiative," Huang said. Other Chinese companies are also bringing their flagship devices and new services to the exhibition. Lenovo Group Ltd., the world's biggest personal computer maker, is introducing a global wireless roaming service called Lenovo Connect which allows users to use the Internet in more than 110 countries, without having to buy a locally issued SIM card. Wang Shuai, Lenovo's vice president, said, "The telecom market is expected to grow exponentially with 5G and other machine-to-machine communications technologies around the corner." Xiaomi Corp. is also planning to announce a new brand at the MWC as the company will release its 2016 flagship Mi5 device on Wednesday, Feb. 24, which it claims is its fastest device, and will be used for its overseas expansion. The report said that a growing number of Chinese companies are increasingly becoming more visible at international tech events, showing their latest products such as drones, wearables, smartphones, and smart home applications. More provinces, particularly those inland, are seeking to be granted FTZ status to boost their economies. (Photo : Getty Images) With the Chinese government set to unveil the latest list of pilot free trade zones (FTZ), more inland provinces and autonomous regions are stepping efforts to boost their chances to be chosen as an FTZ. According to Hunan Province Commerce Department director Xu Xiangping, getting accredited as an FTZ is important for the province's economic growth, as it will provide "more convenience to investment and commerce." Advertisement Xu particularly cited the international freight train services between the provincial capital Changsha, Tashkent in Uzbekistan, and Duisburg in Germany, which he said would increase in capacity if the region is turned into an FTZ, allowing for more trade in auto parts, tea and chinaware. Hunan is seeking to establish an FTZ encompassing the cities of Changsha, Xiangtan and Zhuzhou to also increase the export of heavy industry products like railway transport equipment and technologies and construction machinery, China Daily reported. Meanwhile, the central province of Henan aims to improve the competitiveness of the Zhengzhou Airport Comprehensive Economic Experimental Zone to increase its chances of getting an FTZ application approval. It is also set to establish the Zhengzhou Cross Border E-Commerce Zone for the same purpose. Shaanxi Province is also embarking on a similar effort, aiming to establish trade with countries in Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The northwestern province also hopes to establish trade cooperation with several domestic ports, including Ningbo-Zhoushan, Shenzhen and Qingdao. China is expected to finalize the third batch of FTZ's by mid-March, People.cn reported. Experts said that, aside from Shaanxi and Henan, Chongqing, Hubei and Sichuan are likely to be granted the status. New York police commissioner William Bratton said they are investigating claims by Peter Liang and his partner, Shaun Landau, that they were not properly trained to do CPR. (Photo : REUTERS) The New York Police Department (NYPD) is seriously looking into claims made in court by former officer Peter Liang and his partner that the reason both of them were not able to perform CPR on Akai Gurley was because they were not trained adequately by the department, according to an article published on capitalnewyork.com. Advertisement In a press conference held at the NYPD police headquarters Tuesday, Feb. 23, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, said "literally, within a half hour of that testimony being made, Internal Affairs launched their investigation," as he repeatedly stressed the importance of training new officers. The commissioner said that the investigation has "become very extensive," adding that "we are reviewing, very intimately, everyone that was in their class." "Under no circumstances will we tolerate any instructor in the New York City Police Department short-circuiting the process" of teaching cadets, or "the testing to validate the officer has the skills necessary to safely patrol the city," Bratton added. In Nov. 2014, Gurley was shot as Liang and Shaun Landau were conducting their patrol in the Pink Houses in east New York. According to officials, the stairwell was dark because a light bulb was broken. Liang and his partner, who were within the mandatory 24-month probation period for new hires, were conducting vertical patrols in one of the city's higher crime areas. Liang admitted during the hearing that he had his weapon unholstered, and his finger on the trigger, when he was startled and accidentally fired his weapon. At that time, Gurley and his girlfriend had entered the stairwell one floor below. According to the report, the two men did not utter any words before the bullet discharged from the gun, ricocheted, and struck Gurley in the chest. A Brooklyn jury recently convicted Liang of manslaughter and official misconduct for not providing medical assistance to Gurley. Liang and Landau were both dismissed from service. The report said that the claims made by Liang and Landau cast doubt on the quality of training at the NYPD, which plans to increase its ranks from 35,000 to more than 36,000. Liang is scheduled to be sentenced next month, the report said. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Which Condom is the Thinnest of Them All? Aoni Condom (Photo : Aoni Condom) The word condom is always associated with the male genital where the rubber contraceptive device is worn to prevent pregnancy and spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Ordinarily, when men gather and compare sizes of their manhood, the basis of who is the greatest is the guy with the longest or thickest member. But when condom manufacturers compare size, its not the length or the girth but the thinness of the latex. Advertisement In this battle for world records, a fraction of a millimeter counts. Chinese condom maker Guangzhou Daming United Rubber Products won over Japanese firm Okamoto by just 0.002 millimeter. Okamoto used to be the champion when it set a record by making its condoms 0.038 millimeter in 2012. The record was recognized by the Guinness World Record. A year after, Guangzhou Daming challenged Okamoto and came up with a condom that is 0.036 millimeter thin. The Chinese firm then challenged in court Okamotos continued use of the phrases Guinness World Record and worlds thinnest in May 2014 when Guangzhou Daming broke the record in December 2013. Guangzhou Daming filed in September 2014 a lawsuit with the Guangzhou Yuexiu District Peoples Court, which on Monday declared that Okamoto is engaged in unfair practices. To prove that what matters is setting the record straight which is the thinnest, the Chinese firm asked for a damage of only 1 yuan ($0.15) to compensate for its alleged economic loss. But while Guangzhou Daming won the war against Okamoto, it lost the battle with Chinese consumers who said they only learned of the Aoni condom when the lawsuit was reported. The small amount of damage asked by the Chinese condom-maker made some netizens comment on Sina Weibo that Guangzhou Daming is a publicity hound. In fact, in 2015, a lot of the 2.8 million Chinese who visited Japan looked for and purchased Okamoto condoms, helping boost the shareprice spike of its maker. Likewise, Chinese Lunar New Year visitors to Japan no longer bought hi-tech toilet seats as souvenirs but instead purchased Japan-made condoms. Okamoto President Yoshiyuki Okamoto agreed that the lawsuit is self-promotional. Guangzhou Daming General Manager Victor Chan said the nominal amount of damage it asked was because the company did not want the lawsuit to be stuck on economic losses. Belt and Road Initiative in Its Early Stage Has Already Contributed to Economic Growth China has been able to establish 75 overseas economic and trade cooperation zones in 35 participating countries and regions. (Photo : Getty Images) The Belt and Road Initiative has only been around for over two years, but it has already paved the way for regional connectivity and cooperation in 35 countries and regions, a top Chinese commerce official said on Tuesday, Feb. 23, China Daily reported. Advertisement The Belt and Road Initiative is also known as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives. Proposed by China in 2013, the initiative's main purpose is to improve cooperation between African, European and Asian countries. In a short span of time, China has been able to establish 75 overseas economic and trade cooperation zones in 35 participating countries and regions, Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said in a news conference held in Beijing. Over $100 billion in taxes were paid by these zones to participating host countries in the past four years, enabling the creation of approximately 950,000 jobs by the end of 2015. In addition, more air routes, railways and highways were built to connect partner countries. Through such cooperation, partnering countries are able to improve their respective economies. "The initiative can further integrate China, allowing more parts of the country to gain the benefits of its opening-up policy," Gao said in the news conference. Through the initiative, China was able to strengthen ties with countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in a variety of industries, including shipping, trade, transportation, energy and infrastructure. One Chinese company in particular, China COSCO Shipping, is looking to expand its services in Belt and Road Routes in Southeast Asia, East Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Consumption was a main driver in China's GDP growth last year, contributing 66.4 percent. Through the initiative, Gao said that China's domestic consumption is expected to continue its upward trajectory this year. Although the Belt and Road Initiative is still in its early stage, it can still create more economic benefits among involved countries, said Li Jian, a senior researcher from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. Gay Love (Photo : Weibo) The heavy axe of Chinas censors apparently fell again with the popular gay-themed online drama Addiction as its victim. Followers of the show, aired before on v.qq.com, a video streaming website, missed the show which did not air on Monday. The popular show tackles homosexual love between two teenage boys. It was supposed to be a 15-episode series, but even the public relations department of Tencent, owner of v.qq.com, declined to comment why Addiction was abruptly taken off air, reported Global Times. Advertisement Since its debut on Jan. 29, the show rated high and became the second most-viewed series on iqiyi.com despite the topic of LGBT relations still being a taboo in conservative Chinese society, but not among the youth of the land. According to The Wall Street Journal, on its premiere, "Addiction" was viewed more than 10 million times. On Tuesday, Chaijidan, the series writer, gave a cryptic reply to ifeng.com. He said, Theres no reason. Its a result of the broader context. The last three episodes are still available on YouTube, but the popular video-sharing site is blocked in China. The writers response appeared not understood or accepted by followers of the show that the hashtag #removalofAddiction was used more than 110 million times on online discussion forums in Sina Weibo. The lack of official explanation from the regulator, Tencent and the writer only led to more online speculations why the show went missing. A common opinion was the gay theme and sexy dialogues caught the ire of the censors. Fan Popo, LGBT documentary producer, noted that despite the increase in number of gay-themed videos and films produced and shown in China, the movies were eventually yanked off the air like what happened to Addiction. A screencap of the Toyota Corolla-based Levin hybrid at the 2015 Shanghai Auto Show. (Photo : Twitter) GAC Toyota Motor Co., a joint venture between Japanese auto giant Toyota and Chinese carmaker Guangzhou Automobile (GAC) Group, has released Chinas first fleet of conventional hybrid taxicabs, Automotive News China reported on Tuesday. A total of 50 hybrid Toyota Levin compact cars were delivered to Guangzhou Lixin Automobile Service Co., a taxi service operating in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, the report said. Advertisement The Levin is one of two Chinese offshoots of the 11th generation Toyota Corolla, with the other being made by Jilin-based joint venture FAW Toyota. The GAC version's battery, electric motor, power control unit and 1.8-liter gasoline engine are manufactured and assembled at Toyota's powertrain plant in Changshu in eastern Jiangsu Province. The hybrid Levin consumes only 4.2 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers, which makes it significantly more fuel-efficient than vehicles with conventional engines. In comparison, a taxi with a 1.8-liter gasoline engine would consume 8.2 liters of fuel in order to cover the same distance. GAC pegged the price tag at 107,800 yuan ($16,507), which is 32,000 yuan more expensive than its gasoline-powered counterpart. China has been making significant effort to attract its citizens into switching to electric and plug-in hybrids in recent years, going so far as to offering substantial subsidies to would-be buyers. However, conventional hybrids such as the Levin do not enjoy such subsidies, Auto News China said. But despite this, Toyota remains steadfast in bringing its hybrid cars to Chinese shores. The company is currently assembling hybrid versions of its Camry midsize sedan and importing its higher-end hybrid Lexus models to the country. In 2015, Toyota sold 1.1 million cars under its brand and 88,000 under the Lexus marquee in China. The company declined to disclose sales of its hybrid vehicles in China for the current year. Aside from Thailand, short-distance destinations such as South Korea, Japan and other Southeast Asian islands are popular among post-festival travelers. (Photo : Getty Images) More Chinese travelers are discovering that the best time to take a trip is after a holiday, according to an article by China Daily. Taking a holiday after the holiday is, they find, cheaper and more enjoyable. Advertisement That is what Shanghai local Liang Jing discovered when she decided to forego the Spring Festival travel rush. Instead of joining most of her countrymen who were crowding in airports and train stations, she stayed in Shanghai and only left the country with her friend after the weeklong national vacation. As a result, her five-day holiday in Koh Samui, Thailand, cost her much less, and enjoyed a slew of other benefits. "Scenic spots are less crowded after the festival, and tourism services and experiences are better," Liang said in an interview with China Daily. Thailand is one of the top three destinations among outbound Chinese tourists. For her five-day trip, Liang only paid 14,000 yuan ($2,150)--half of the original holiday price. Office workers, students and retirees are also taking post-holiday trips, according to tourism experts. Utour International Travel Service, a travel agency based in Beijing, has already booked 80 percent of their products from late February to mid-March. "Most of our guests are white-collar workers who've decided to take their annual paid leave after the holiday to enjoy cheaper, cheerful trips," said Li Mengran, Utour's publicity manager. Aside from Thailand, short-distance destinations such as South Korea, Japan and other Southeast Asian islands are popular among post-festival travelers, Li said. In a report by Ctrip, cheaper airfares and accommodations have led to 20-60 percent savings, about 1,000 to 6,000 yuan, for outbound travelers. "Demand has become strong," said Dai Yu, Ctrip's marketing manager. "So timing is key to saving." Working during the holiday can also prove to be beneficial to a traveler's wallet, as overtime pay and reduced costs can lead to over 10,000 yuan in savings, according to Ctrip. By March, prices are expected to rise again. For travelers planning to take outbound trips during that period, experts suggest booking trips as early as now while promos are offered. The huge fireball crashed into South Atlantic ocean, just off the coast of Brazil, on Feb. 6 (Photo : You Tube/The Cosmos News) Anything that drops from the sky, especially if it is a UFO or a meteor, will surely be reported on print and broadcast. However, there is one case that never made it to headlines, at least not until now. On Feb. 6, a massive meteor crashed into earth and exploded but regardless of how odd it may be, no one noticed the incident. Advertisement The meteor or the huge fireball hit the earth and it fell into the Atlantic earlier this month. To be more precise, after exploding in the air, the debris landed southeast of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, right in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The explosion emitted strong energy that is said to be equivalent to 13,000 tons of trinitrotoluene (TNT). That amount of TNT is dangerous for it is the same quantity of energy that was used to make the first atomic bomb that totally destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. Moreover, the fireball was said to be the biggest meteor strike to happen since the February 2013 fireball explosion in Chelyabinsk, Russia which hurt over 1,600 Russian natives, Daily Mail UK reported. Nonetheless, the said fireball was definitely huge, estimated to measure about 16.4 to 30 feet wide, but how come this was not spotted or noticed? Some experts gave some possible reasons for this: First off, the chances of anyone taking a photo of the explosion was very slight and one reason was the location of the impact. It was in a remote place and in the middle of the ocean. Secondly, it was probably not detected because the blast reduced the meteor to small pieces of meteorite debris after most of its mass were burned during the atmospheric entry. Furthermore, on his blog post on Slate, astronomer Phil Plait described the thing that dropped from the sky on Feb. 6 as a hard bit of space debris which probably blown up. He added that the object is likely a rock similar to the meteor which hit Chelyabinsk in 2013. If there is anything good in this incident, it was the fact that the fireball did not fell on a populated area. Or else, something worst could have happened. Lastly, since the NASA was not able to warn people about the arrival of the huge meteor, the impact on the ocean was really a great blessing to lifeforms on earth. See the video for the illustration of the meteor's impact on earth which took place earlier this month (Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of Yibada.) A child infected by Zika virus. (Photo : YouTube/ Alltime 10s ) Climate change has wide-ranging effects, including rising temperatures, melting icecaps and extreme weather conditions. This apart, a new aspect of climate change is worrying the global health community these days. The latest discovery that climate change is also responsible for mosquito-borne diseases, for instance Zika, has given rise to widespread concerns. Advertisement Till recently, Zika outbreaks were only reported from Africa, the Pacific Islands and some countries in Southeast Asia. However, over time, the virus has affected people in Brazil and other Central American nations. Now, there are reports of suspected Zika infections in the United States too. It is feared that during this spring and summer, the infection may spread to newer regions, prompting health and environmental officials to prepare for the potentially next big disease outbreak, The Atlantic reported. Incidentally, a team of scientists made a noteworthy discovery last year. They found that Aedis aegypti mosquitoes, the species that carries the West Nile Virus, dengue, chickungunya and Zika, inhabited the area around the Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., throughout the year. According to the findings of the research, published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the mosquitoes had been living in the area since no less than 2011. The study confirmed that Aedis aegypti mosquitoes have been biting the local residents and reproducing during the summer months, while lying underground during the winter. Earlier, scientists were of opinion that these mosquitoes were unable to survive throughout the year in any place north of South Carolina. However, the researchers do not have any evidence that the Aedis aegypti population found in the vicinity of Washington D.C. carried the Zika virus. Nevertheless, their findings have surprised as well as shocked the health and environmental officials in the U.S. They believe that the spread of this mosquito species to the United States is partly owing to the effects of climate change. Earlier, only places lying in a narrow strip on both sides of the equator were known to have witnessed Zika outbreak. The first case of Zika in Brazil was confirmed by the Pan American Health Organization only in 2015 and recently it was found that an American student from Virginia contacted the Zika virus when he traveled to Central America. Now, the authorities are suspecting that there are at least a dozen Zika infection cases in the United States. Latest reports claim that three pregnant women in Florida have tested positive to Zika infections. What is, however, more concerning is that climate change is not only likely to benefit Zika, AlJazeera America reported. Way back in 1999, scientists guessed that an additional 320 million people worldwide were likely to face the risks of developing malaria by 2080 owing to climate change. This is primarily because the climatic conditions then would be favorable for the survival of mosquitoes bearing this disease. Moreover, scientists predicted in 1998 that climate change may also increase the risks of dengue fever, making it a global epidemic. Although dengue is yet to be a global epidemic, the disease is rapidly spreading to areas where it was unheard of earlier. For instance, a state of emergency was declared by the mayor of Hawaii County on Feb. 8 following a mosquito-borne dengue fever epidemic. Watch why you should be worried about Zika virus: To share with friends and brethren The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (the Everlasting Gospel), and to prepare a people to stand when He returns to redeem His remnant. Also, to share relevant information of current events, and to show how they relate to prophecy; By means of articles, editorials, opinions, scripture readings, and poetry. Disclaimer Endrtimes does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article/video posted on this site. The information provided here is done so for personal edification; It's up to the reader to separate truth from error, and to examine everything (like the Bereans) from a Biblical perspective. Let the Holy Scriptures be you guide! - - - FAIR USE NOTICE: These pages/videos may contain copyrighted () material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, economic, DEMOCRACY, scientific, MORAL, ETHICAL, and SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes. Gunmen attacked a checkpoint southwest of the Malian town of Timbuktu overnight killing three soldiers and wounding two others, a soldier in the town said on Wednesday. There were few further details of the attack, which the soldier, who declined to be identified, said took place at Lere, a town near the border with Mauritania. A Defence Ministry spokesman confirmed the toll but gave no further details about where or how the attack occurred. Mali is facing a growing threat from Islamist militant groups including al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb that have staged a series of high profile raids in recent months as numerous attacks on army and United Nations personnel. Search Keywords: Short link: Kuwait on Wednesday became the latest Gulf state to urge its citizens to leave Lebanon following tensions over the Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah which is fighting to support Syria's regime. In a statement cited by the official KUNA news agency, the Kuwaiti embassy in Beirut also asked Kuwaitis to postpone any planned travel to Lebanon. The mission said all citizens should leave "except in extreme circumstances," and advised those who stay to exercise caution and avoid unspecified places which are not safe. The statement gave no reason for the move. The Sunni-ruled kingdoms of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have already urged their nationals to leave Lebanon and ordered others to stop travelling there. Riyadh, which supports the Syrian opposition, has also halted a $3 billion military funding programme for Beirut in response to "hostile" positions linked to Hezbollah. Syria's war has exacerbated political rivalries within Lebanon, which has been without a president for almost two years because of fierce disagreements between Iran-backed Hezbollah and its rivals. Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Tehran last month after demonstrators stormed its embassy and a consulate following the Saudi execution of a prominent Shia cleric. Search Keywords: Short link: Ten other suspects were arrested during raids in Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid Egyptian troops killed nine militants and arrested several other suspects in Rafah on Wednesday, state news agency MENA reported. The nine militants were killed during a raid of a hideout in the North Sinai border town of Rafah, MENA added. Ten other suspects were arrested during raids on the towns of Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid, where most of the recent deadly attacks by militant extremists have taken place. Army spokesman Mohamed Samir published early Thursday a photo of what he said were ammunitions and explosives seized by Egyptian forces during a separate raid in Barth in central Sinai. Egypt's army has been fighting an insurgency in parts of North Sinai, which has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of militants and security forces. Search Keywords: Short link: 'We will head to the clinic on Saturday, and both the clinic and the centre will be open and we will continue to issue our reports' El-Nadeem Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence issued a statement on Thursday responding to the reasons cited by the health ministry to shut down the non-governmental organisation last week. On Wednesday, the health ministry issued a statement saying that the NGO had committed the two following violations: changing its name from a 'clinic' to a 'centre,' since the licenses are different for each, and changing the centre's activities from 'medical' to 'human rights-related.' On 17 February, Egyptian authorities attempted to shut down the El-Nadeem Centre in accordance with an order issued by a body affiliated with the health ministry. The NGO's lawyer managed to postpone the implementation of the order. El-Nadeem, which was founded in 1993 and provides support for victims of violence and torture, rejected the health ministry's justifications, stating that "the centre is an NGO which has nothing to do with the ministry. "Changing the identity of the NGO from a clinic to a centre did not happen. Both were working independently from one another. "The NGO has different activities, including opening a clinic. The clinic was established with a license from the doctors' syndicate before receiving another license from the health minster, which permits the establishment of a medical facility," El-Nadeem's statement read. "Since the organisation was founded, neither the clinic nor the centre have changed their names. "What has changed over the 23 years is the activity and address of the centre and with every change, the contract status has been amended and ratified by the court," the statement added. "We also didn't change the orientation of the centre from medical to human rights-related as the health ministry says," the statement added. "It was from the centre and not the clinic that we issued reports related to torture by police officers against members of terrorist groups." "We (El-Nadeem doctors) will head to the clinic on Saturday, and both the clinic and the centre will be open and we will continue to issue our reports," it added. Search Keywords: Short link: The sailors were detained at a port in western Yemen held by Iranian-backed Houthi fighters Egypt's authorities secured the release of 13 sailors detained at Al-Hudaydah port in western Yemen that is controlled by Houthi fighters, a statement by the foreign affairs ministry said. "The Egyptian ambassador to Yemen made extensive efforts by contacting the countries security authorities and port officials to ensure the safety of the sailors," the statement read. "Their health and psychological state-of-mind deteriorated due to the harsh conditions, especially because they were [locked up] close to the location of military operations," the statement said. The sailors were recently captured by Houthi rebels after their ship accidentally ventured into Al-Hudaydah port, the ministry said. The sailors will return back to Egypt on a ship run by the World Food Programme on Wednesday. They will first travel from Yemen and then Djibouti before heading home. Egypt has been participating in the Saudi-led military coalition against the Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015. Search Keywords: Short link: The controversial TV host and parliamentarian, who regularly renounces an 'American-Israeli conspiracy' against Egypt, was called out on actions by many critics Controversial TV host and MP Tawfik Okasha had dinner on Wednesday with the Israeli ambassador in Egypt and talked politics, news website Youm7 reported. The website reported that Okasha is the one who invited Israeli ambassador Haim Koren to his home in Dakahliya governorate in the central Delta. Okasha -- who is known for his grandstanding on TV and in public life -- reportedly discussed several local and regional issues with the Israeli diplomat including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the construction of the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Youm7 ran several photos of the gathering showing Okasha, Ambassador Koren, and another official chatting in a living room. The reported dinner sparked outrage on social media by many users who criticised Okasha for hypocrisy since he made his opposition to "an American-Zionist conspiracy to destablise Egypt" a hallmark of his one-man show on his Faraeen TV channel. Mostafa Bakry, an MP and TV presenter, who also subscribes to the American-Zionist conspiracy theories, slammed Okasha's actions as "unforgivable treason" and a "shame." Veteran radio host Hamdi El-Konayesi, the head of the under-construction Media Workers Syndicate slammed Okasha's behaviour as unacceptable. "I reject any kind of public normalization of relations with Israel, [a country] which does not respect the Camp David Treaty and currently practices the worst kind of occupation in Palestinian territories," El-Konayesi told Ahram Arabic news website. In statements to Al-Watan Daily, the controversial MP claimed that he had informed the Egyptian authorities apriori of his meeting with the Israeli ambassador. The Egyptian government has not commented on Okasha's allegations. Earlier this week, an announcement by Avichay Adraee, Israel's Army spokesman, that a group of Egyptian journalists had recently visited Israel also sparked public controversy. Many Egyptians, including workers' unions and professional syndicates, have rejected the normalisation of Egyptian-Israeli relations since Cairo and Tel-Aviv signed a peace treaty in 1979. The Journalists' Syndicate, which opposes normalisation of ties with Israel, denied prior knowledge of the reported visit by some of its members to Tel-Aviv. In January, Egypt sent a new ambassador to Israel following a three-year lapse after ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi recalled the ambassador to Tel-Aviv in November 2012. Search Keywords: Short link: Iranian voters will head to the ballot boxes on Friday 26 February to choose representatives of both the Majlis (the parliament) and Council of Experts or (Assembly of Experts), which bears the responsibility of selecting Iran's next Supreme Leader. Reformists announced that they will participate vigorously in these dual elections after they endured a six-year ban in the aftermath of the Green movement protests in 2009 against what was widely perceived as a "rigging of the presidential elections" that then provided Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a new presidential term. Reformists have stepped up their meetings in recent months in order to rearrange their ranks and have a leg in the parliament to help support moderate President Hassan Rouhani in his course towards reforms he promised during the presidential election campaign. Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami and his predecessor Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani have urged voters to back reformists and moderates in the upcoming elections, saying a big turnout is needed to stop hard-line conservatives. According to Iran's interior ministry, 54,915,024 votersout of the 79-million populationare eligible to cast ballots, with 8,475,077 of them in the capital Tehran. Iran's head of the interior ministry's election headquarters, Mohammad Hossein Moghimi, said on Thursday that 4,844 hopefuls would contest the 290 seats, meaning 1,385 candidates have withdrawn, apparently urging voters to back the main political lists instead. In such two-round legislative vote, successful candidates are elected in the first round if they obtain over 25 percent of votes cast. For each seat left empty, two runner-ups will compete in a second round, likely within two or three weeks. The reformists expectedly would have no ruling bloc in the next parliament due to the exclusion of 99% of their candidates by the Guardian Council, who disqualified about 2970 out of 3000 candidates, Mohammed Mohsen Abo El-Nour, an Egyptian political researcher in the Iranian affairs, told Ahram Online. "President Hassan Rouhani has nothing but the 'strategy of maneuvering by silence' until after the election. Then he will get together with the independent members and form the reformists' block. This block would also have no weight, but it might hinder passing major resolutions that require approval of two-thirds of the 290-seat parliament "Abo El-Nour expects. There is a massive campaign being rolled out by Iran's reformists, encouraging the Iranian people to participate in the election. Friday elections come six weeks after the lifting of most international sanctions on Tehran, under the July 2015 deal between Iran and major powers on the country's nuclear programme. Rouhani's allies, who hope the nuclear deal will step up Iran's opening up to the world after years of sanctions, have come under mounting pressure in the election campaign from hardline conservatives who accuse them of links to Western powers including the United States and the United Kingdom. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Wednesday was quoted by the Iranian media, stressing the Iranian peoples need for a strong parliament in the face of the United States. In remarks reflecting a mistrust of Rouhani's rapprochement with the West, Khamenei said he was confident Iranians would vote in favour of keeping Iran's anti-Western stance. Holly Dagres, an analyst and commentator on Middle East affairs and curator of "The Iranist" newsletter, said that despite the disqualification of many reformists, there is hope that those few who did qualify will be elected to help move post-sanction Iran forward. "If we look at the past 2.5 years of his presidency, Rouhani's centrist agenda hasn't had as much obstruction as one would assume. The Iran deal is a perfect example of that," she said when asked about the importance of the elections for the reformists. Observers to the Iranian scene say a lot of the Iranians began to feel that their expectations of the upcoming elections will turn into illusions, and hope in their president's pragmatic approach will fade. Reformists and their supporters faced a dilemma: should they vote or boycott? When they abstained from voting in 2005, it handed the presidential election to hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on a silver platter, Dagres hinted. "Reformists had to do it the hard way. Not participating in elections would hurt their cause. Thus, it would be better to have some control of their destiny, rather than no control at all." Dagres said. There are no real political parties in Iran, but the members of the parliament are divided into two main blocs: one in favor of a moderate agenda and the other takes a tougher stance. Since the signing of the nuclear deal the conflict intensified between the two blocs, where conservatives resist Rouhanis attempts to obtain a better image broad and achieve political reform at home. Therefore, the Parliament must approve the appointment of a new cabinet and new legislations, and President Rouhani needs to have good ties the Parliament in order to achieve what he wants. However, these dual elections are not going to make principal changes in Irans major domestic and foreign policies as Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, president of the International American Council and serves on the board of Harvard International Review estimates. Regarding the parliament, most of the reformists have been disqualified. "But, even if we assume that the reformist would take over the parliament (as it happened in Khatameis era), they will be silenced by Basij and Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) if they go out of alignment with the political, social and economic agenda of the Supreme Leaders and senior cadre of IRGCs." Rafizadeh told Ahram Online. Possible Scenarios There are two possible antithetic and mutually exclusive scenarios that are usually considered by experts and analysts of Iranian politics when it comes to predicting the outcome of the upcoming elections and their political implications. The first scenario--Conservatives will lock the electoral process and prevent any victory of the Reformist camp. Some elements reinforce this hypothesis as the filtering of reformist candidates by the Guardian Council, the surprising vetoing of Hassan Khomeini's application and the restrictions or house arrest imposed on prominent reformist leaders such as Mohammad Khatami, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi who were put under house arrest after they urged their supporters to organize demonstrations in 2009 and 2011. Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the founder of Irans 1979 Islamic Revolution was barred from running for this top clerical body. Applying the opposite view, other analysts envision a clear victory for reformers which, they believe, will in turn strengthen the reform process initiated by Rouhani's election and the nuclear agreement of July 2015. But what most analysts fail to consider, professor at the Canadian Forces College and Chair of the Centre for National Security Studies Dr Pierre Pahlavi says, is that both scenarios are possible simultaneously. A third possible scenario could be an in-between one. Hard-liners and Conservatives would let the Reformists win while "framing" their victory and retaining an overall control of the process. This would allow them to strengthen internal legitimacy of the regime while accelerating the return of the Islamic republic on the international scene. "Given the pragmatism of the Iranian leaders, the lessons they learned from their 2009 and 2011 crises and the importance they attributed to the resumption of international trade, in my opinion, would make this last scenario the most likely," Dr Pahlavi revealed. Assembly of Experts Iranians will go to the polls this Friday to choose members of the 88-seat Assembly of Experts. Elections to the Assembly are usually a lackluster event but this time it is not. The Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is rumored to be in poor health and the new members will be asked to appoint a new one if vacuum happened. The Guardian Council approved 161 candidates to contest the 88 seats of the chamber, out of 800 who applied. Members are elected by single majority vote. The Assembly of Expert is an idle organization of 88 clerics who are basically doing nothing; a rubber stamp organization, sitting there for over 27 years and only starts working when the Supreme Leader dies, Dr. Majid Rafizadeh derisively depicted the Assembly. "Members of this Assembly of Experts are already vetted by the Guardian Councils twelve members who are directly or indirectly appointed by Khamenei, Dr. Majid Rafizadeh said. Khamenei and IRGC will, or have already chosen, the inheritor behind the closed doors, the analyst argues. Khamenei's succession has largely remained a taboo subject, but an increasing number of senior Iranian politicians have commented on the subject in recent months, igniting the debate in private on who will succeed him. Dr Pahlavi perceives that the new Assembly is expected to play a significant role in choosing Khamenei's successor. He sees that nervousness is "palpable in the ranks of hardliners. "Some, including Rafsanjani, have even suggested that Iran could be ruled by a council of leaders after Khamenei, rather than a sole supreme one. The military has rebuked such suggestions, but the mere fact that the issue is being discussed shows that an internal power struggle has begun," Pahlavi said. Search Keywords: Short link: Saudi jets are due to arrive at a Turkish base this week take part in the air campaign against IS group militants in Syria, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday. "We are expecting the planes to arrive today or tomorrow (Friday)," Cavusoglu told the state-run Anatolia news agency, adding that Saudi equipment and personnel had already arrived on the ground. The planes are to be stationed at the Incirlik base, which is already hosting US, British and French war planes taking part in the strikes against IS group in Syria. Private NTV television said four Saudi F-15 jets would arrive at Incirlik on Friday. It said that 30 ground personnel and equipment had already arrived aboard C-130 Hercules military transport planes on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia and Turkey both see the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as essential for ending Syria's five-year civil war and are bitterly critical of Iran and Russia's support of the Syrian regime. The two overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim powers have in recent months moved to considerably tighten relations that had been damaged by Riyadh's role in the 2013 ousting of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, a close ally of Ankara. Ankara has said it is in favour of a ground operation in Syria, but only if it is conducted in coordination with Saudi Arabia and other Western and Gulf members of the anti-IS group coalition. "We have since the beginning argued for the necessity of ground operations and all kinds of strategic moves to be carried out in addition to the air campaign," Cavusoglu said. Search Keywords: Short link: NATO on Thursday overcame sharp differences between long-time rivals Greece and Turkey to finalise an unprecedented mission to tackle migrant smugglers in the Aegean Sea. US-led NATO launched the operation two weeks ago, aiming to help the EU cope with its worst migrant crisis since World War II, but longstanding disputes between Athens and Ankara over Aegean airspace and territorial waters held up agreement on the operational details. After lengthy talks late Wednesday, the 28-nation alliance said it had agreed the modalities as to where, when and how the naval force of around five ships, including from Greece and Turkey, will operate. "Our commanders will decide the area where they will be operating, in coordination with Greece and Turkey. NATO vessels can deploy in the territorial waters of Greece and Turkey," a NATO statement said. "Greek and Turkish forces will not operate in each other's territorial waters and airspace," it said. Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said last week Athens had asked for this provision "so that NATO and the operation are not embroiled in differences we were sure Turkey would seek to raise." "We never said we resolved Turkey's absurd demands in the Aegean (with this operation)," Kammenos said. The NATO force will conduct reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance to provide information to Greece, Turkey and the EU's border agency Frontex so that they -- not the alliance -- can deal with the traffickers. "NATO's task is not to turn back the boats. We will provide critical information to enable the Greek and Turkish coastguards, as well as Frontex, to do their job even more effectively," the statement said. Another sticking point had been what to do with any migrants in distress that NATO vessels would be obliged to rescue under the law of the sea. Normally, a migrant picked up in this way could claim asylum in the home country of the vessel concerned but in this case, if the person has travelled via Turkey, they will be taken back to Turkey, the statement said. More than a million migrants fleeing war in Syria and upheaval across the Middle East, Asia and Africa landed in the European Union last year, the bulk of them making the perilous journey across the Aegean from Turkey to Greece. The EU agreed an action plan in November with Turkey to halt the flow but the numbers have fallen only slightly and are expected to increase again in the summer, fuelling sharp divisions within the bloc over what to do next. Search Keywords: Short link: The United Nations will name a date on Friday for Syria's warring parties to return to the negotiating table for a second round of talks, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday. De Mistura abruptly aborted a first round of talks on Feb. 3 and urged countries in the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), led by the United States and Russia, to do more preparatory work. They met in Munich and pushed for a ceasefire deal, resulting in an agreement on a "cessation of hostilities" that President Bashar al-Assad's government and the opposition have both said they could support. De Mistura said he would brief the UN Security Council on Friday and then announce a date for a new round of talks. "I will announce tomorrow when the parties (will reconvene) and the new talks (will happen)," he told reporters. "We will see you, God willing, tomorrow, for a crucial day in what has been now a very momentous follow-up to the Munich meeting." De Mistura's special advisor on humanitarian issues, Jan Egeland, said humanitarian access had improved in the past few weeks and a cessation of hostilities would further bolster the delivery of humanitarian aid. "I would say we're very hopeful, we're very, very hopeful, that things will now be better," Egeland said. The ISSG task force on ceasefires will convene for the first time in Geneva on Friday, De Mistura said - an opportunity for diplomats from ISSG countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran to say whether they endorse the US-Russian proposal. Combatants are required to say whether they will agree to the "cessation of hostilities" in the five-year war by noon on Friday (1000 GMT), and to halt fighting on Saturday. Search Keywords: Short link: A local chief of the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group and two aides have been captured in a city near Libya's capital, according to the Tripoli-based government which is not internationally recognised. The Tripoli interior ministry's special forces unit, on its Facebook page, said the ISIS "emir" for Sabratha, Mohamed Saad al-Tajuri, also known as Abu Sleiman, was seized in the city, 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of the capital. It did not specify his nationality or those of his two aides. On Wednesday, ISIS militants killed 18 people in clashes as they briefly occupied the heart of Sabratha before they were ousted by militia fighters, according to officials in Tripoli. A US air strike near Sabratha last week targeted a suspected ISIS training camp, killing 50 people. Serbia said two of its diplomats being held hostage were among the dead. ISIS has taken advantage of growing chaos to expand its foothold in Libya, which has rival administrations vying for power. The internationally recognised government fled Tripoli in mid-2014 after the Fajr Libya militia alliance overran the capital and set up its own parliament. Last June, ISIS seized the coastal city of Sirte, east of Tripoli, raising fears that it is establishing a new stronghold on Europe's doorstep. The group has since attacked key coastal oil facilities and staged a string of suicide bombings.A local chief of the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group and two aides have been captured in a city near Libya's capital, according to the Tripoli-based government which is not internationally recognised. The Tripoli interior ministry's special forces unit, on its Facebook page, said the ISIS "emir" for Sabratha, Mohamed Saad al-Tajuri, also known as Abu Sleiman, was seized in the city, 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of the capital. It did not specify his nationality or those of his two aides. On Wednesday, ISIS militants killed 18 people in clashes as they briefly occupied the heart of Sabratha before they were ousted by militia fighters, according to officials in Tripoli. A US air strike near Sabratha last week targeted a suspected IS training camp, killing 50 people. Serbia said two of its diplomats being held hostage were among the dead. ISIS has taken advantage of growing chaos to expand its foothold in Libya, which has rival administrations vying for power. The internationally recognised government fled Tripoli in mid-2014 after the Fajr Libya militia alliance overran the capital and set up its own parliament. Last June, ISIS seized the coastal city of Sirte, east of Tripoli, raising fears that it is establishing a new stronghold on Europe's doorstep. The group has since attacked key coastal oil facilities and staged a string of suicide bombings. Search Keywords: Short link: Activists Thursday hailed the passing of a historic bill protecting women's rights in Pakistan's most populous province, with the legislation establishing a helpline and shelters while calling for some defendants to wear GPS trackers. Women in conservative Pakistan have fought for their rights for decades, in a country where so-called honour killings and acid attacks remain commonplace. But the Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Bill redefines "violence" to include "any offence committed against a woman including abetment of an offence, domestic violence, emotional, psychological and verbal abuse, economic abuse, stalking or a cybercrime". Zohra Yusuf, head of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), welcomed the bill and expressed the hope that efficient enforcement will help protect women and ensure that offenders do not escape justice. "The bill appears to be a rather comprehensive attempt to institute a system for prevention of violence against women and for protection and rehabilitation of the women victims," Yusuf said in a statement issued Thursday. Yusuf said the bill includes a broad definition of violence and steps to make complaint submissions easier. "These are all much-needed measures that deserve praise but it is important to remember that cosmetic and purely procedural changes have not had an impact in the past," she said. Abdul Qahar Rashid, spokesman for Punjab's provincial assembly, told AFP that the bill, which was passed unanimously, must be signed by the provincial governor before it becomes law. Under the new legislation, the government will institute a universal toll free help line for the women, and will establish district protection centres and residential shelters under a phased programme. Family courts must fix hearings within seven days of a complaint, the bill says, with all complaints to be decided within 90 days. The court can also order a GPS tracker to be installed to monitor a defendant's movements, provided an act of grave violence has been committed or is deemed likely to be committed. Search Keywords: Short link: Spanish police have arrested a Moroccan man for allegedly posting pro-IS armed group videos and other propaganda on the Internet. An Interior Ministry statement said the 20-year-old was arrested Thursday in Spain's North African enclave city of Ceuta. The ministry said the man had become more radical in recent weeks, posting videos of IS group executions of prisoners on Internet sites he managed, as well as pictures of alleged IS group members with weapons. He also posted a photograph of himself with a handgun. The detention comes after police in Ceuta on Tuesday arrested three suspected members of a jihadi cell that sought to recruit IS group militants. A fourth was arrested in Morocco. Spain has arrested dozens of suspected jihadi militants and sympathizers in recent years. Search Keywords: Short link: Greece recalled its ambassador from Austria on Thursday and warned it would not be treated as "Europe's Lebanon" as the migrant crisis strained relations between EU states to breaking point. Talks between European Union (EU) interior ministers in Brussels descended into chaos due to the row over Austria's decision to call a western Balkans meeting this week without inviting Greece. The EU's attempts to forge a unified response to the biggest migration crisis in its history are fraying as individual 28 member states increasingly take matters into their own hands to protect their borders. The Greek foreign ministry hit out at what it called "19th-century" attitudes and said the envoy's recall was designed to "safeguard friendly relations between the states and peoples of Greece and Austria". Athens was already seething over a series of border restrictions by Austria, Macedonia and Serbia along the migrant trail to northern Europe that has caused a bottleneck in Greece, the main entry point to Europe from Turkey. Greece, still struggling with the fallout from its eurozone debt crisis last year, faces huge pressure to stop "waving through" migrants to the rest of the EU. But Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas accused other states of trying to make Athens take the brunt of the crisis. "Greece will not accept becoming Europe's Lebanon, a warehouse of souls, even if this were to be done with major (EU) funding," Mouzalas told reporters in Brussels. Lebanon hosts around a quarter of the four million Syrians who have fled to neighbouring countries. In northern Greece, hundreds of migrants and refugees left an accommodation camp to walk to the distant border with Macedonia, days after Skopje slashed the number of people it allows through each day. "They are mainly youths... they do not want to wait for buses to pick them up... neither the army nor the police can stop them because there is the risk of (violence)," Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris said. The crisis caused by refugees and migrants from Syria, the Middle East and Africa shows no signs of abating with 100,000 arriving in Europe so far this year on top of one million in 2015. Earlier EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos urged ministers to find a solution, warning that the crisis threatened the survival of the more than 60-year-old union. "Lonely initiatives do not lead anywhere. Now, the unity of the union and human lives are at stake," said Avramopoulos, who is from Greece. But Austrian interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner raised the possibility of Greece's exclusion from Europe's Schengen passport-free travel zone, which is cracking as countries reintroduce border controls. "If it is really the case that the Greek external border cannot be protected, can it be still a Schengen external border?" she said. German interior minister Thomas De Maziere warned that Thursday's meeting was the last chance before Europe had to take more drastic steps, especially given the large numbers still coming via Greece. "If a solution by the 7th of March is not possible, there have to be other European and coordinated measures," he said. March 7 is the date of an EU-Turkey summit that will assess the progress of a three-billion-euro ($3.2 billion) deal signed with Ankara in November to cut the flow of migrants. A further row broke out between Paris and Brussels after Belgium decided to impose checks at its border with France to stop people coming from the "Jungle" migrant camp in Calais. "This decision is a strange one, just as is its motivation," French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. Meanwhile the European Commission questioned Hungary's decision to hold a referendum on mandatory quotas for refugees, which the bloc's leaders agreed on last year to deal with the migrant crisis. "We fail to understand how it would fit into the decision-making progress agreed to by all EU member states under the treaties," European Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud told a news briefing. So far only 598 people have been relocated from frontline states Greece and Italy, out of a planned 160,000. In a positive development, NATO on Thursday managed to overcome sharp differences between long-time rivals Greece and Turkey to finalise an unprecedented naval mission to tackle migrant smugglers in the Aegean. Search Keywords: Short link: European nations have adopted a raft of restrictive measures since the beginning of the year as they seek to stem an influx of asylum seekers. Since the beginning of the year more than 110,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Europe after crossing the Mediterranean, adding to the more than one million people that landed on the continent in 2015, according to the International Organization for Migration. MACEDONIA: Macedonia on February 21 entirely closed its border to Afghans, stranding hundreds in Greece, and introduced more stringent document checks for Syrians and Iraqis seeking to cross its territory en route to northern and western Europe. SLOVENIA: On February 15, Slovenia toughened its filtering system for migrants. Parliament on February 22 authorised the army to help police manage the flow of migrants crossing into Slovenia from non-Schengen member Croatia. CROATIA: Croatia began to filter refugees in November, letting through only those fleeing war (Afghans, Iraqis and Syrians). On January 20, Zagreb decided that it would only let through migrants demanding asylum in Germany or Austria. TURKEY: Turkey, the main departure point for migrants trying to reach the EU, tightened its visa rules for Iraqis in early February. In the last few months of 2015, six out of the 26 members of Europe's Schengen zone reestablished provisional border controls, without closing the frontiers altogether. While Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden did so in a bid to better control the influx of migrants, France also reestablished checks in reaction to the terrorist threat after last November's multiple attacks. BELGIUM: On February 23, Belgium temporarily reintroduced border controls with France in order to halt the arrival of migrants from the "Jungle" camp in the northern port town of Calais, who seek to get to Britain and could use Belgium as a transit route. The camp is due to be partly demolished. AUSTRIA: Austria, which last year took in 90,000 asylum-seekers and let almost 10 times as many travel through, on February 19 imposed a daily limit of 80 claims and said only 3,200 migrants could transit to neighbouring states. It has limited asylum requests for 2016 to 37,500. The Austrian government on February 15 announced it would place six nations - Algeria, Georgia, Ghana, Mongolia, Morocco and Tunisia - on its list of "safe countries of origin", meaning migrants can be returned there. GERMANY: Germany in 2015 registered around 1.1 million asylum requests. In late January, it announced it was limiting numbers by blocking some migrant family reunifications and declaring three North African nations - Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia - "safe countries of origin." Under the new measures Berlin will block family reunifications for two years for rejected asylum seekers, who can't be deported because they face the threat of torture or the death penalty in their own country. Since January 1, Berlin has also reintroduced individual examinations of asylum requests, including for Syrians, who had previously benefited from a quasi-automatic right to asylum. DENMARK: A controversial Danish law aimed at dissuading migrants from seeking asylum by delaying family reunifications by three years and allowing authorities to confiscate migrants' valuables entered into force on February 5. SWEDEN: In late January, Sweden said it expected that around 45 percent of those who sought asylum last year would ultimately be rejected, leading to the expulsion of up to 80,000 people. FINLAND: The Finnish government expects to deport around two thirds of the 32,000 asylum seekers that arrived in 2015. Search Keywords: Short link: PM Sherif Ismail launches East Port Said side channel which allows direct entry from the Mediterranean into the Suez canal 24/7 Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail inaugurated on Wednesday evening the East Port Said side channel, which allows ships direct entry to the port 24 hours a day. In a celebratory event held on the bank of the new side, Ismail launched the East Port Said side channel as three ships navigated through the channel. The CEO of Suez Canal Authority Mohab Mamish made opening remarks for the event, which was attended by a number of ministers and foreign ambassadors. The new channel, dredged at a total cost of $37 million, stretches over 9.5 km, is 12.5 metres deep, and 250 metres wide. The project was partially financed by the Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT), which is 55 percent owned by Maersk Group. The channel is part of an ambitious mega project aimed at establishing an international economic zone along the Suez Canal. In August, Egypt inaugurated the expansion of the Suez canal that was extended by over 35-km -- which aims to cut the waiting period for vessels by seven hours, and more than double annual revenues from $5.3 billion in 2014 to $13.23 billion in 2023. Search Keywords: Short link: The G20 meeting will take place in China on 26 and 27 February Egypt will take part for the first time in the G20 meeting for finance ministers and central bank governors in Shanghai that is scheduled to take place on 26 and 27 February, a statement by the finance ministry said on Thursday. Egypt was invited to participate in the economic forum by this year's host country China, the statement said. Since its launch in 1999, finance ministers and central bank governors from the world's top 20 economies have been meeting annually to discuss economic cooperation. The first G20 leaders' summit was first held in 2008 following the world financial crisis. Search Keywords: Short link: A super filling and tasty dinner, and maybe good conversation with a youthful clientele, awaits foodies at Alban Swissra in the heart of Egypt's Mediterranean capital Any non-Alexandrians who could be spotted walking up and down Port Said Avenue in Egypt's second capital and searching through the signs on small stores is probably looking to find Alban Swissra (Swiss Dairies) the one-time grocery store turned fashionable eatery. Are you looking for Alban Swissra? If you are, you need to keep on the same street for another 10 minutes and it's there on your left, said a shopkeeper on the busy street. He liked the nodding smile and warned, You might not find enough space now, because it is dinner time and it is always very busy. He was right. The old fashioned and slightly run down restaurant is overbooked, with Wadie, the owner, overseeing the operation and speeding up any delays. The few tables four or five are flanked with numerous seats that are taken by giggling and vibrant young women and men who are all eating with enormous appetites, discussing books, seminars, and of course politics. We dont put outdoors make-shift tables because of the cold weather and the rain. Do you wish to wait for a table, or wait for your turn for sandwiches? If it is a table you need, no less than half an hour, and if it is sandwiches then we are talking about 15 minutes, the assistant says firmly before moving on to take a blue plastic bag of fresh-baked loafs and hand it to one of the tables. Waiting for a table, however, is not at all a boring exercise at Alban Swissra, simply because wherever there are young people hanging out, there are interesting discussions. It is worth the wait, a young man volunteered to say, reassuring us as we were trying to decide whether to stick around as we were both very hungry and somewhat cold. Maher, as his name turned out to be, is a student of pharmacology, and his friend, Walid, is an art student. They have been coming to Alban Swissra for the past couple of years, not just because they love to indulge in the cheese swamped dishes, but also because they like the atmosphere. During the summer so many people come to visit Alexandria and they like to have the Alban Swissra experience. But as schools start, we regain our city and this place becomes our hub, Maher commented. As we were eventually seated in a shared table, Maher and Walid volunteered to help us order from a menu where everything is dipped in rich melted cheese. You have to try the fried potatoes with cheese and the sausage with cheese. You could also have eggs with cheese. But make sure not to overeat, because you cannot miss the dessert, where cream takes over from cheese, Walid said. They ordered on our behalf and the food came in small old fashioned frying pans. As we dived in, we chatted about Alexandria. We told them about our memories of the city in the 1960s and up to the early 1980s and they nodded with short laughs and said they had heard the same stories from their parents. An overdose of nostalgia is not the kind of thing the younger men both about to graduate this year subscribed to. They like Alexandria the way it is and they do not see the dilapidation. As the four of us decided to order extra fries with cheese, and extra eggs with cheese, we agreed that one of the most delightful things that people of all generations like about Alexandria is the tram. I told them about Six Stories from the Tram, in the book Alexandrias Public Bus which I had just read by Asser Mattar. Walid, who had read the book that was printed in 2010 by Dar Al-Ain, agreed. He particularly agreed that the tram is unlike public buses and "Al-Mashrou" (private run mini-buses). The tram in Alexandria is still put to good use by people of different walks of life. It is not the way it used to be when the book was issued, some five years ago, but still yes, he said. I told him I thought the entire book was a very sentimental, if not nostalgic, account of life in Alexandria: It shows you poverty and unfairness in a romantic way. I really liked the account of the cynical and frustrated young man Himah whose father, a veteran warrior, died on one of the ships bringing workers back from the Gulf in the early 1990s, I said. He felt that the citizen was worth nothing in the country and he was proven right, as he was killed by the police who decided to label him a terrorist, I added, to the nod of Walid. My companion looked around with a sense of unease and suggested we move on to dessert. Maher laughed and said, Dont worry, there are no informants here, and we are just discussing a book. We did order dessert: halwa with cream, honey with cream, jam with cream and chocolate spread with cream. Walid and Maher insisted to treat us to the dinner and they gracefully agreed to join us for a long walk, where we talked more about Mattars book and disagreed about the comparison the author made between the tram of Alexandria and that of Heliopolis, with the latter portrayed as dull by comparison. But then again, the Heliopolis tram has been removed with a blow to the architectural history of the city, I said, as we decided to get on the tram for a late evening ride. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt's President El-Sisi talked about cabinet performance, the fight against terrorism, and maintaining a balance between rights and state stability Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said Wednesday that Egypt's main challenge is preserving the integrity of the Egyptian state. "When I talk about protecting the state, I mean keeping the structure of the Egyptian state in order to continue the economic development of [the country]," El-Sisi said in an extensive speech in which he reviewed a number of challenges facing Egypt. The speech came during a conference where Egypts prime minister and cabinet ministers presented the country's 2030 economic and sustainable development vision. The vision aims to secure Egypt's place as one of the best 30 countries in the world in economic and social development terms, as well in anti-corruption measures and the quality of life index, the president said. The government aims to increase economic growth rates to 10 percent in light of current political, social and environmental conditions; respect human rights and the rule of law. The cabinet "I meet with ministers every day and I can tell you whether they are efficient or not," El-Sisi said. "Changing the cabinet at this time will harm state stabilisation," he added. The cabinet was expected to present its programme before parliament last week, but MPs decided to postpone the special session until it finalises its internal bylaws. Parliament "Look at what we achieved in terms of building our state," El-Sisi said. "Now we have a parliament that represents all Egyptians and no one intervened in the results or the electoral process. Some 50 percent of the MPs are undertaking their first parliamentary experience and one third of the seats are held by youth, with unprecedented representation for women," he added. "I am calling on you to consider all these facts before criticising," he said. El-Sisi went on saying that many international delegations paid visits to the parliament, which means that the world recognises its vitality. Terrorism and Russian plane crash The president discussed the fight against terrorism and the crash of the Russian airliner over Sinai in November 2015. "The fight against terrorism is not over yet," he said. Alhough the Egyptian investigating committee has not yet announced its final report on the causes of the crash that left all 224 passengers and crew members killed, El-Sisi acknowledged for the first time that a terrorist attack could have caused the crash. "The goal of those who downed the plane was not only to sabotage our tourism, they wanted to harm our relationships with Russia, if they could with Italy, and others," the president said. "We didn't want to build the state's strategy on confronting terrorism only. We were keen to counter terrorism and build the state at the same time," El-Sisi said. "So let me assure you that I know everything about the terrorists numbers and weaponry from the time I served as the head of military intelligence," El-Sisi added. "But the real face-off took place following 30 June (2013)," he said, referring to the rise of terror attacks against security personnel following the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi. "They (the terrorists) ... started the violence," El-Sisi said. Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam On Ethiopia and its controversial Grand Renaissance Dam, El-Sisi said that Egypt has been negotiating with Addis Ababa for a number of years on the issue of filling the dam, as well as reconsidering other water alternatives, such as water desalination. Egypt fears that the dam might negatively affect its current share of Nile water, as Ethiopia's "long-awaited national project," which is scheduled to be completed in 2017, will be Africa's largest hydroelectric power plant with a storage capacity of 74 billion cubic metres. El-Sisi pointed out that water treatment stations were being built to compensate for any lack of potable water during the first filling of the Renaissance Dam. 'Rights violations' El-Sisi said the state is facing a challenge between confronting human rights violations and maintaining state stability. "This is the hard formula we're trying to deal with. I know that there are violations, which I oppose," El-Sisi said. His remarks come following a series of incidents of rights abuses committed by security personnel against doctors and ordinary citizens. The last major incident of police abuse took place last week in Cairo's working class district of Darb El-Ahmar when a low ranking police officer killed a driver over a money dispute. Egypt's prosecution referred the officer to criminal court. El-Sisi called on all Egyptians to remain "one hand" and to work hard, adding that the state is currently undertaking major infrastructure projects that will take years to be completed. "We need to sustain social justice ... And I swear to God that I will sacrifice myself to maintain it," the president said. 'Improving infrastructure' "Currently a 5,000-kilometre national roadway is being constructed at a cost of EGP 50 billion, in addition to building 133 bridges within 20 months only," El-Sisi announced. He added that the government managed to overcome problems in providing gas to factories, as well as reducing power outages, within only one year. El-Sisi also announced that three ports were currently being constructed and were going to be ready for inauguration within two years. He also revealed that three airports with a capacity each of 1.7 million passengers are in the planning. Search Keywords: Short link: The late great writer Alaa El-Deeb, who passed away recently, spent almost his last three months in the intensive care unit in Al-Maadi Military Hospital, Cairo, engaged in a ferocious battle with an illness to which he did not succumb easily. During this period, he was mostly in a coma, and whenever he did awake he soon returned to it. It is certain that Arab literature has suffered a devastating loss with the passing of Alaa Al-Deeb, especially since he used to write until his last days the longest running literary column in Arab journalism, which started in the 1960s. This focused and brief column was titled "Book Juice" and was published up until his death. From another perspective, El-Deeb played a number of roles in Arab literary life. He was one of the sons of Sabah El-Kheir magazine, one of the most important Arab journalistic experiences and the little sister of Rosa El-Youssef magazine the first and foremost defender of freedom. Great writers and artists helped to found Sabah El-Kheir, such as Hassan Fouad, Salah Jaheen, then Fathi Ghanem, who along with others made it one of the most prominent journalistic endeavours, in its openness and celebration of youthful new experiences. Alaa El-Deeb, who was born in Cairo in 1939, joined the magazine after graduation from the Faculty of Law in 1960 and became one of its knights. His first published work was a short story collection titled Cairo in 1964 (it included the eponymous novella, which was published afterwards separately in several editions). Then he published five short story collections that were characterised with compactness, sobriety and avoidance of sentimentality. If the number of the collections seems small, it bore a highly artistic value. We can even say that El-Deeb strongly contributed in paving the way for the works of the 60s generation that generation that emerged after the 1967 defeat. El-Deeb was unique in his aesthetic achievement in the novella format, where he published six novellas since 1964, which are, respectively, Cairo, Lemon Flowers, Rosy Days, Children without Tears, A Moon over the Swamp, Violet Eyes and Formation. Without any exaggeration, they are considered one of the most influential series in Arab literature. About choosing this format of writing, El-Deeb wrote in an introduction for one of the editions: I chose the novella because I wished to persuade the reader to hear all what I want to say in one time, one sitting. I didnt hesitate in the face of what it takes concerning condensing language. I still dream that poetry meets me at the end of my life. He added: The mere question about feasibility remains. The feasibility of this attempt, which lasted all my lifetime, in the light of the human, social and economic circumstances Im living and all the Arabs are living through. The personal and the universal have been mixed in my mind in an inescapable way." He also added: In the three first novels, two catastrophes dominate the horizon, which all the worlds delights didnt let me abandon or let leave from me for one single moment: the major Arab defeat in 1967 and the vanquishment of socialism, locally and abroad, and what this has represented in destroying justice and human dignity. As for the following three novels, they are dominated by the black gold the oil, the money of which entered our Egyptian lives in a critical time, doing what it did." One of the most significant achievements of El-Deeb across six decades was his weekly column in which he introduced tens of writers, predicting promising careers for them and writing critiques of their literary mark. The column moved with him from Sabah El-Kheir to Al-Kahira magazine, to stay eventually in Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, for which he kept writing until shortly before his death. El-Deeb didnt republish any of that work, so much remains to be complied, ready in having been edited and needing no introduction. Among El-Deeb's other contributions are his translations of a large number of literary works of Hemingway, Beckett, Miller, and others. These were the broad lines of El-Deebs journey that lasted 77 years. Farewell, Alaa El-Deeb. Search Keywords: Short link: President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said that if 10 million Egyptians donated one pound a day to the fund it would increase by EGP 4 billion in a year Related Egypt launches final sustainable development strategy for 2030 At the launching of a conference for Egypts sustainable development strategy for 2030, El-Sisi called on Egyptians to donate more to the fund that he created in 2014 to financially support the countrys development. The total donations raised in the Long Live Egypt Fund (Tahya Misr) over the period of 18 months amounts to EGP 4.7 billion (approximately $560 million), of which the army contributed a billion, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Wednesday. If 10 million Egyptians out of a total 90 million have mobile phones, they should send a one-pound message everyday, and then (the fund) would raise EGP 10 million a day, EGP 300 million a month, and EGP 4 billion a year, El-Sisi said. Earlier this month, El-Sisi ordered that EGP 1 billion from the fund be assigned to help build 100,000 affordable housing units. Last year, Mahmoud Abdel-Latif, the executive head of the fund, said it would help the funding of social projects including mobile clinics, long-term hepatitis C medication schemes, and development the country's slums. Search Keywords: Short link: Regional security cannot be achieved when one party in the region possesses tools that the other parties are denied The streetwise say trade takes talent; academics say politics is the art of the possible; experts say the history of international relations is a history of balance of power; reality says you are only worth whats in your pocket; Menachem Begin said A good Arab is a dead Arab; Gamal Abdel-Nasser said what was taken by force can only be returned by force; Sadat said, the October War is the last war; a Palestinian woman screamed as an Israeli bulldozer destroyed her home in front of her eyes, Save us, Arabs! Each of the above quotes could take an entire article, or several, or a book, or several, to explain and discuss what is a Herculean task. It would be foolish to dive into this raging sea which will only likely calm down on the Day of Judgment. There are, however, some scattered islands where one can rest and contemplate, as long as you don't become too optimistic and believe there is a magic potion to treat all the ailments of humanity. There is, however, a guaranteed recipe to heal the people of the Middle East from all of their ailments. Namely, to continue in their mad actions that are evolving into sectarian wars of total destruction, or that the region is struck with enough nuclear bombs to annihilate every person and rock like the peoples of Aad and Thamud. It is ironic that the nuclear club is lobbying against the spread of nuclear weapons because they know that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is essentially an agreement of subjugation by the First Party, the nuclear countries, of the Second Party, the rest of world who are outside the club. Articles 2 and 3 of the NPT state that non-nuclear countries are obligated to abandon their sovereign right to manufacture nuclear weapons, and allow inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In return, nuclear club members are bound by three obligations: first, assist non-nuclear countries to develop the peaceful use of nuclear energy, including providing technical information (articles 4 and 5); second, continuing to negotiate in good faith to end the nuclear race (Article 6); third, not assist any country (outside the club) to manufacture or acquire nuclear weapons (Article 1). Israel did not sign the NPT, although there is no doubt that it is currently an associate member of the nuclear club. There is also no doubt that it received assistance to achieve this from nuclear countries, most notably France, in violation of Article 1 of the NPT and despite its fluid and incomprehensible motto that it "will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East. This may not confirm that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, but it also does not deny it possesses them. Perhaps the direct meaning of this motto is that Israel will not use this weapon unless it is threatened with a nuclear weapon. That could not be so if it did not possess it. And thus, the matter appears farcical, even though it touches the destiny of millions in the Middle East. It is an ironic marvel that the leaders of Israel travel to world capitals to talk about absent security and the need for steps to build trust in order for Israel to feel secure about its existence. Security is not a cake that exclusively belongs to one party and not others, because this would mean imposing security by force. This can never mean security or stability, whether for Israel or anyone else. Regional security is impossible without a balanced contractual relationship that will never be achieved through an agreement, where one side receives full guarantees and has the right to possess tools that threaten its neighbours security at any time. One of the most important steps of confidence building in the peace process is to breakdown the barrier of fear and doubt, and this will not happen without Israel signing the NPT and allowing inspections of nuclear facilities. It must also pledge to dispose of its stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, cut down its military spending and remove all its colonies in the West Bank. If politics is the art of the possible, it is also the will and determination to make changes. If the history of international relations is one of balance of power, then balance of power is not a fixed rigid formula and all relevant parties must understand that nothing stays the same. If force alone does not guarantee legitimacy, then those who have the right will not benefit from its legitimacy if this right is not protected by force. Finally, if a good Arab is a dead Arab, as Begin said, there are millions of Arabs who refuse to die while they are alive or live as if they were dead. As for Sadats motto that the October War is the last, Israel has proven that this is nothing more than empty words. The war in the region has not stopped since that date. And if the Palestinian woman who beseeched Arabs goes unanswered, then coming generations will seek to possess the necessary power, including a nuclear bomb, to force Israel to give back the right of the people, irrespective of the consequences. The worst-case scenario is in fact the one that will make everyone rest in eternal peace. The writer is former assistant to Egypt's foreign minister. Search Keywords: Short link: I dont think I can say anything about the late Mohammed Hassanein Heikals work in journalism, politics, or the public sphere that hasnt already been said by his friends, colleagues, and students who had the chance to work closely with him throughout his decades-long journey. But I would like to share two of my experiences with him, one personal and one political. Like others of my generation who first encountered Heikal through his Autumn of Fury, I followed his writings, but my personal connection with Heikal comes through my father, the late writer Ahmed Bahaa-Eldin. Brought together by the same profession, al-Ahram newspaper, and a tumultuous period in political life, they disagreed on many issues, but shared a mutual friendship and esteem and a profound human and familial relationship. In 1990, my father suffered a severe brain hemorrhage that kept him from writing, moving, and socializing for six straight years until he passed away in the summer of 1996. Throughout these years, Heikal and his wife Hedayat were constant visitors, asking about my fathers health and checking on his family. Even after the hemorrhage made speech impossible for him, they nurtured a friendship that went beyond the professional to include every member of the two families. When my father died in August 1996 in his summer home on the Abu Talat beach on the North Coast, Heikal was the first person I called and he was the first to come to the beach house. That morning, Heikal contacted al-Ahram to assist us in moving the body to Cairo and arrange the burial and funeral ceremony, knowing that he helped us avoid the pain and embarrassment of dealing with the leadership of an institution that at that time had little concern for its former writers. Two days later, Heikal stood to accept condolences with a few of my fathers close friends, Abd al-Mohsen Qattan from Palestine, Kamal al-Shaer from Jordan, and Lakhdar Brahimi from Algeria. In the following years, Heikal and his wife remained close to my family, demonstrating a sincerity, loyalty, and care that is no longer common in our era. When my fathers friendsfirst among them Heikalestablished the Friends of Ahmed Bahaa-Eldin Association, he made sure to attend every ceremony honoring the young people who won the annual award. His presence every year in the Greater Cairo Library helped enormously to spread awareness of the prize at a time when the state fought every cultural activity and looked askance at any cultural occasion or meeting. As time passed, I had the opportunity to get to know Heikal myself, but politically, I had little contact with him until after the June 30 revolution, when I met him during the formation of the new government. He was excited about my participation in the government, aware of the dangers and challenges, and appreciative of the sacrifice made by those engaging in public work at that difficult moment. In late August 2013, after I announced the Initiative to Protect Democracy, which sparked broad controversy and disagreement along the political spectrum, Heikal called me and I paid him a visit at his office in Giza. He was nervous, perceiving the seriousness of the widening gulf between the new regime and the young people that rebelled in January and June, hoping for a return to the democratic course. I know that more than once he sought to persuade various government parties of the need to close ranks, protect the June 30 coalition, and avoid further score settling and fanning the flames of hatred, but his efforts unfortunately came to naught. When I resigned in January 2014 due to disagreement with the protest law, Heikal again called me, first to ask about me and second to express his severe distress, not at my resignation per se, but because the countrys course no longer seemed to express the dream that led people to rise up twice. I think that over the next two years, he did all he could to persuade state officials of the importance of political engagement instead of security solutions alone, and the need to rely on people with expertise and competence in state management instead of just a trusted inner circle. He tirelessly said the same thing in his television interviews with Lamis al-Hadidi. I believe if these opinions were heeded wed be much better off today. In any case, I knew that he followed my political activity in this period not only because of his well-known passion for public affairs. It was also a demonstration of his interest in the family of his old friend and his concern to offer advice and counsel when needed. May God have mercy on the man who left an indelible imprint on journalism and politics in Egypt and the Arab world. My condolences to his family and friends, his vast public and everyone who will miss not only his political and media presence, but his personal company. The writer holds a PhD in financial law from the London School of Economics. He is former deputy prime minister, former chairman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority and former chairman of the General Authority for Investment. This article was published in Arabic in El-Shorouq newspaper on Monday, 22 February. Search Keywords: Short link: After winning Berlinales Caligari independent prize, the film will screen at the prestigious New Directors/New Films festival in March Directed by Tamer El-Said and starring Khalid Abdalla, the film 'In the Last Days of the City' will be screened at New Yorks New Directors/New Films festival. The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art collaborate to create the New Directors/New Films festival, which celebrates and introduces new cinematic talents to the public. The festival runs between 16 and 27 March, during which the film will be screened twice, on 26 March at the Walter Reade Theater and on 27 March at MoMA Titus 2. The Film Society is also behind the New York Film Festival. Across the past four decades, the Film Society takes credit for introducing many of the now-established big names to American audiences, including Martin Scorsese, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pedro Almodovar, Spike Lee and Wes Anderson. In the Last Days of the City recently had its world premiere at the 46th Berlinale, where it won the Caligari Film Prize. The film was chosen as the only entry by an Egyptian director to take part in Berlinales Forum section. The shooting of the film began in 2008, taking the filmmakers to Cairo, Alexandria, Beirut, Baghdad and Berlin, bringing together many talents from the Arab world, to tell the story of a Cairo-based film-maker struggling to make a film about the city, which is in a state of uproar. Co-produced by Zero Production, the film was written by El-Said and Rasha Salti. The film's art director is the late renowned artist Salah Marei. A graduate in film direction from the High Institute of Cinema in 2008, El-Said is an Egyptian filmmaker, writer and producer who lives and works in Cairo. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: The central bank has made some changes to its monthly summaries of where credit funds, in yuan or foreign currencies, came from and how they were used. It did not explain why the adjustment was made, prompting speculation it was trying to hide data on how much capital left China. The central bank would not have been so naive. Nor does it need to deal with capital outflows by hiding data. In the summaries for January that were published recently two categories were changed. The scope of one that monitors funds outstanding for foreign exchange the amount of yuan banks give out to acquire foreign exchange has been narrowed from covering all banking financial institutions to only the central bank. The other one, which required financial institutions to report separately their purchase and sales of forex, has been removed with its data feeding into the "Other Items" category. The change is meant to make things clearer because even many professionals have found the different methods used for calculating forex purchases confusing. If we compare all financial institutions' funds outstanding for foreign exchange with that of the central bank, the latter is apparently more important because it corresponds to changes in the regulator's balance sheet and is associated with the supply of base money. It is more closely linked to the country's forex reserve and reflects how strong the central bank has intervened in the forex market, thus serving as a good signal for the regulator's policy intention and affecting liquidity more than many other factors. In the past, changes in the central bank's funds outstanding for foreign exchange were usually very indicative of the overall situation. It has become much less so since the reform of the exchange rate system in August. This adjustment has attracted great investor attention and has been interpreted as a sign of commercial banks being ordered to help stabilize the yuan. This is, of course, entirely possible, but there is not enough data yet to prove or disprove it. In fact, financial institutions' funds outstanding for foreign exchange is losing significance as an indicator of cross-border capital flows as the country's capital restrictions ease and banks develop more forex services. It does not include cross-border movements of yuan capital, which have become more common, nor does it cover forex funds movements that do not involve currency conversion. As banks start offering more forex services, their forex positions will diversify and show more frequent changes. That mean it can no longer serve as an appropriate proxy for cross-border capital flows. Meanwhile, it remains important to track the central bank's fund outstanding for foreign exchange. Therefore, the change reflects the regulator's adaptation to market demand. It is misleading to argue the central bank wanted to hide data for the sake of better control over capital outflows. In addition, China has adopted the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), in a bid to improve the quality and transparency of economic and financial data that not only facilitates communication between countries but can also help the government make better decisions. We believe that the adjustment this time is part of efforts toward that goal. The central bank's recent moves indicated it had realized the importance of good communication in stabilizing yuan exchange rate. Perhaps it will explain why it made the adjustment when it sees fit. At any rate, it did not make the move to hide data in order to tackle capital pressures. That would be simply too naive. Liang Hong is chief economist at the China International Capital Corp. Analysts express more alarm about the construction of a high frequency radar facility on the island, 400 kilometers southeast of China's Hainan island. The fighter jet sightings follow the placement of HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles on the 210-hectare island, known in Chinese as Yongxing and called Phu Lam by Vietnam, which also claims it. On Wednesday, Nina Hachigian, the U.S. ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, told reporters, "We are very concerned that these actions are increasing tensions in the region and are counterproductive." Fewer than 10 jets -- a combination of Shenyan J-11 and Xian JH-7 aircraft -- have been spotted on Woody Island in the Paracel chain in the South China Sea, officials in Washington, who spoke on condition they not be named, told reporters late Tuesday. China has again sent fighter jets to a disputed island where earlier this month it redeployed surface-to-air missiles and appears to be building a sophisticated radar system, according to U.S. officials. Radar Advantages The radar would bolster Beijing's ability to monitor surface and air traffic in the tense waters and "along with the development of new runways and air defense capabilities, they speak to a long-term anti-access strategy by China -- one that would see it establish effective control over the sea and airspace throughout the South China Sea," according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. After Chinese state media last November published images of J-11 fighter jets on Woody Island, the U.S. Navy sailed a guided-missile destroyer past another contested island in the South China Sea and flew B-52 bombers and sailed another warship in the region for a "freedom of navigation" exercise. "Our freedom of navigation operations are routine, they are lawful," said Ambassador Hachigian, speaking from Jakarta on a conference call. "They're conducted in accordance with international law. We've conducted these operations around the globe since 1979, including in the South China Sea and the South China Sea cannot be an exception." Such activities have prompted Chinese officials to blame the United States for increasing tensions. Diplomats Meet China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, visiting the U.S. State Department on Tuesday, said he hoped that such flights and patrols by U.S. forces near the contested islands would cease. "Regrettably, there are missiles, fighter aircraft, guns, artillery and other things that have been placed in the South China Sea, and this is of great concern to everyone who transits and relies on the South China Sea for peaceful trade, commerce and use," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, standing alongside Yi, told reporters. Kerry said, however, not only China but Vietnam and others were also responsible for creating an "escalatory cycle" of reclamation and militarization in the disputed waters. Earlier Tuesday, the head of the U.S. militarys Pacific Command, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, was less diplomatic, bluntly blaming Beijing for "clearly militarizing" the South China Sea. "You'd have to believe in a flat Earth to believe otherwise," Admiral Harry Harris told senators. Asked by lawmakers about the strategic goal of China's military buildup in the region, Harris replied: "I believe China seeks hegemony in East Asia." The billionaire businessman beat opponents Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Florida Senator Marco Rubio in the Nevada Republican caucus Tuesday with almost 46 percent of the vote. Rubio won second place, but with a lead of less than 2,000 votes over Cruz. "Donald Trump still has to prove that in a one-on-one or three-man race, he can consistently get to 35, 40, 45 percent of the vote, or 50 percent. Right now that's still unclear," said analyst Stuart Rothenberg, founder of the Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report. The win follows his first-place finishes in New Hampshire and South Carolina, two states no candidate has won without going on to become the Republican nominee. Donald Trump won his third victory in four contests with a commanding lead in the Nevada caucus Tuesday, securing his status as the Republican front-runner heading into next week's crucial Super Tuesday votes in more than a dozen states. The win in Nevada garnered Trump his first congressional endorsements Wednesday, from New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins and Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican from California. Recent public opinion polls show Trump leading in the majority of Super Tuesday states. William Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said the chances of stopping Trump in a divided field are not high. "People who say they support Mr. Trump are typically very committed to him and they come out and vote for him, so there's a reasonably good case, based on experience so far, to take the surveys seriously," he said. Path Forward for Rubio Rubio solidified his position as the Republican alternative to Trump by securing several key party endorsements, while benefiting from the failure of one-time front-runner Jeb Bush, who faltered and dropped out of the race after the South Carolina primary. Rubio has not yet won a caucus or primary, and has trailed at least 10 percentage points behind Trump in each of those votes. Rothenberg said Rubio's path forward is "narrow but simple" and involves waiting until the middle of March for primaries in Ohio, Illinois and Florida that award significant numbers of delegates. "I wouldn't expect any dramatic movement on his part until the middle of March and that means staying alive, convincing his donors that he's still credible, convincing folks in the media that he's still credible," he said. Just as Trump benefits from a fractured field, Rubio benefits from fewer challengers. After a strong second-place finish in New Hampshire, Kasich came in fifth in South Carolina and Nevada. He remains in the race, but with little hope of securing the nomination. "If I were Marco Rubio, I would size up the situation," Galston said. "I would say to Mr. Kasich, 'John, you can't win the nomination, but you can sure keep me from winning the nomination and in the process hand over the Republican party to Mr. Trump. So why don't you and I get together and you agree to bow out?" The other remaining candidate, Cruz, said he was looking forward to returning to his home state of Texas, one of the states voting on Super Tuesday, after his third-place finish in Nevada. Cruz said he was looking forward to returning to his home state of Texas, one of many states voting on Super Tuesday, after his third place finish in Nevada. Cruz's poor showing among his core base of evangelical voters in South Carolina contributed to another third-place finish, but he pointed to his caucus win in Iowa, saying, "The only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump and the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump is this campaign." Cruz leads in polls in Texas and neighboring Arkansas, but his path forward is unclear. "Cruz has framed his appeal quite narrowly and specifically, Galston said. There's a ceiling on his support. He has been unable to commandeer the loyalties of more than one-fifth of the Republican base, and that's just not enough. After the March 1 Super Tuesday vote, more than 700 delegates will have been awarded, nearly one-third of the Republican total. Democrats' Final Stop Democratic presidential candidates face a final test Saturday in South Carolina, before heading into Super Tuesday voting. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders face off again after Clinton's win in Nevada's Democratic caucus. "The road ahead for her over the next two weeks looks really appealing and attractive, and I think she will build up some momentum," Rothenberg said. Clinton won the support of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday, following her Nevada caucus win. She is expected to do well in South Carolina due to significant support among African-American voters and the endorsement of the state's influential congressman, James Clyburn. A win Saturday will boost Clinton's argument that she will be a stronger candidate than Sanders in the November national general election. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is investigating 14 new reports of Zika virus infection in the United States, all suspected to be sexually transmitted. The Atlanta-based CDC made the announcement Tuesday and said all of the 14 cases are women whose only known risk factor is sexual contact with a male partner who had recently traveled to an area with local Zika transmissions. In its statement, the CDC said the new reports suggest that sexual transmission may be a more likely means of Zika transmission that previously thought. Several of the cases involve pregnant women. Zika virus has been linked to a birth defect known as microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and can suffer developmental delays. Scientists have not yet proven a definite cause-and-effect. CDC is recommending that men who have recently traveled to regions with local Zika transmissions use condoms or refrain from sexual contact with pregnant women or women who could become pregnant. While sexual transmission of the virus is possible, health authorities note that the primary means of infection by the Zika virus is still from mosquito bites, and they urge people to prevent mosquito bites using mosquito repellent, window screens, and long-sleeved shirts. On Monday, a study to determine whether the Zika virus is causing babies to be born with the birth defect microcephaly began in Brazil. A 16-member team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started work in Joao Pessoa, in northeastern Brazil, that is the epicenter of the country's Zika outbreak. The World Health Organization declared the Zika outbreak an international health emergency February 1. The WHO cited a "strongly suspected" relationship between Zika infection in pregnancy and microcephaly, although much remains unknown about Zika. South Korean businesses that operated at the joint-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex on Wednesday said Wednesday they estimate their losses at over W815 billion after the industrial park was shut down (US$1=W1,235). If it never reopens, losses from facility investments alone will total W568.8 billion, while another W246.4 billion are expected from raw materials and finished goods the companies left behind when they fled. North Korea kicked out all South Korean staff on Feb. 11., the day after the South announced it was shutting the industrial park, and confiscated any assets they could not spirit out with them. Kim Seo-jin, a representative for the companies at the complex, told reporters, "This is a tentative tally of losses reported by 120 businesses that were based in the complex, but the actual amount is much bigger, since the figures do not include compensation that needs to be paid to contractors plus various operating losses stemming from the shutdown." The companies urged the government to compensate them for the losses based on their estimates. The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned Chinese Ambassador Qiu Guohong to protest against his comments about the planned stationing of U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense batteries here. Qiu was quoted as warning opposition leaders here on Tuesday that the THAAD deployment would "destroy" bilateral relations. The Foreign Ministry said Qiu "sincerely explained" the purpose of his visit to the main opposition Minjoo Party and his remarks there. It is unclear whether he apologized. The ministry only said Qiu "understands" the sensitivity of the issue and explained that he made the comments from the standpoint of improving bilateral relations. The European Union is poised to further tighten border controls to deal with the unprecedented influx of migrants that is straining the resources of even the wealthier nations in the bloc. Meeting in Brussels Thursday, the EU interior and justice ministers raised the prospect for such unilateral measures if the number of migrants arriving from Turkey has not dropped significantly by the time of an EU-Turkey summit set for next month. Speaking to reporters as he arrived for the meeting, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that by March 7, the EU would want to have a significant reduction in the number of refugees at the border between Turkey and Greece. The German parliament approved tighter asylum rules Thursday, to speed up asylum procedures and the return of rejected asylum seekers. The new requirements include a two-year ban on family reunions for asylum seekers who would receive only limited refugee protection, a measure that would also affect minor children. The German Parliamentary State Secretary of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), Ole Schroeder, supported the stricter rules debated in the parliament, saying that the measures are necessary to sustain the capacity of the country. "We must sustain the capacity of our country. The restriction of family reunification serves this aim," he said. "I tell the critics that the coalition didn't take it easy to come to this decision. But it is urgently needed. Our country isn't morally obliged to overburden itself and its people with humanitarian aid." Former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak is a potential contender while Penny Mordaunt has become the first official candidate. reflections, updates and homilies from Deacon Mike Talbot inspired by the following words from my ordination: Receive the Gospel of Christ whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe and practice what you teach... #Navy plans Navy eyes creation of unmanned command in 2040s South Korea's Navy is seeking to create a new command running unmanned ships, submarines and aircraft in the 2040s, the armed service said Friday, in an effort to address a potenti... #SK data center fire SK C&C's data center raided over massive server outage Police on Friday raided regional offices of SK C&C, the host of the data center for Kakao Corp., in an investigation into a data center fire last week that caused massive servi... Last November, Alan Hughes made a lovely gesture by proposing to his partner of 22 years - Karl Broderick - during an edition of Ireland AM (not everyone appreciated the sentiment), and now news has come to light that they plan to have an autumn wedding - on the fourth anniversary of their civil partnership. According to VIP Magazine: "But while that event was a glitzy bash in Dublins Mansion House, covered exclusively by VIP magazine and featuring a host of high profile stars, their wedding looks like its going to be a much quieter event, if Karl has his say! Talking to the Herald, Alan revealed that while he was looking forward to a big bash, his partner wasnt so keen. 'I dont know whether Karl is too pushed on it,' he told The Diary. 'I dont know whether he is going Should myself and yourself just go into a little place and sign it over?. I would like to do a party, but he is sort of going its about us. Im more of the party animal,' joked Alan." Whatever you end up doing, enjoy your day! Let's hope he doesn't do this when he plays in Dublin during the summer; the Irish crowds may not be so forgiving... In fairness to him, Bruce Springsteen goes on tour a lot. He plays long sets and undoubtedly gives his all at each gig - but even he is not impervious to the old rock star cliche of forgetting what city you're in. The Boss suffered what you might call a 'senior moment' on stage in Cleveland when he was amping up the crowd, and yelled out the wrong city by saying 'Party noises, Pittsburgggggggh!'. He quickly realises his mistake and adds a nonchalant '.... and Cleveland, too!'. We don't think anyone noticed, Bruce. Hear the gaffe below: Via Uproxx Eddie, one of the dogs that participated in the study, poses in the fMRI scanner with two of the toys used in the experiments, "Monke... EUs Federica Mogherini said that she has not seen the climate of Cold War these days, responding to the recent comments by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that Russia and the West had fallen into a new Cold War. However, while referring to the Syrian conflict as a proxy war, Mrs. Mogherini also warned during a debate at the European Parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee Brussels earlier on Tuesday (23 February) that the current situation in Syria risks becoming something bigger. Other senior EU officials said that there was indeed no Cold War climate between both parties since they agreed to temporarily cease fighting. At a security conference in Munich last week, world powers agreed to a cessation of hostilities to facilitate humanitarian aid that was about to start this week. Mrs. Mogherini urged all the parties to the cessation agreement to stick to their commitments. However, Russia has not yet stopped its air strikes, which back up government troops during the siege of Syrias largest city before the way, Aleppo. Russia is Damascus main ally, though there are also other supporters of President Bashar al-Assad, such as Iran. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denied that his country was using the new wave of diplomatic efforts around Syria as a cover to pushing for more military advances on the ground. Mr Zarif commented that Iran was not trying to use diplomacy to gain anything, but at the same time people cannot use diplomacy in order to provide human shield for al-Nusra and Islamic State working as a leverage. He added that what was agreed in Munich is a cessation of hostilities, not a pause to allow the allies of certain regional players to regroup commenting on the criticism of Irans regional foe Saudi Arabia. Riyadh generally opposes President Assad as well the Islamic State and it even stated that it was ready to participate in ground operations in Syria if the US-led coalition decides to start one. First-tier cities could see boom in real estate Updated: 2016-02-25 03:42 (China Daily) China's first-tier cities are likely to experience a real estate boom, and analysts believe the property market is off to a well-grounded start this year as property group China Vanke Co plans to raise its property prices in Beijing. Vanke, China's largest residential developer by revenue, will increase the prices on two projects in southern Beijing, according to a project introduction advertisement by the company. However, it did not disclose the range of increase. In Shanghai, meanwhile, the average price for new homes has grown by more than 10 percent in the past two months, from 42,300 yuan ($6,470) to 47,000 yuan per square meter, as demand remains robust with supplies going fast, according to data from real estate information platform anjuke.com. Market professionals said existing inventories of available homes are being reduced at a rapid pace because buyers worry that if they don't buy now, prices will continue to rise and they will no longer be able to afford to buy. Cao Xiaoliang, 38, the father of two boys, said he has had to drop his plan to buy a more spacious home because of the price hikes. "It is so crazy that the price of a 100-square-meter apartment rises some 400,000 yuan in just 15 days after the Lunar New Year," said Cao. Guo Yi, marketing director of the Yahao Real Estate Selling and Consulting Solution Agency, said the governmental measures released recently to boost the property market have a lot to do with the real estate price increases in first-tier cities. Deed and business taxes for home purchases in most cities will be cut in an attempt to relieve the property glut. For example, the deed tax on homes of more than 90 square meters will be reduced to 1.5 percent from the current 2 percent for first-time buyers in all Chinese cities. "The series of policies indicate that the property market in 2016 will see a relaxed policy environment, which is expected to further stimulate more property developers to purchase more land," Guo said. Analysts also said this trend may not benefit the market in the long term, because demand for trading up may be exhausted soon and solid demands for first homes are not met due to a gap of affordability as prices quickly increase. Lu Chao, an analyst with Hanyuan Realty Co, said city authorities' decision to adjust land supplies may help the market become more rational. The secondhand housing market is just as active as that for newly built apartments. Contact the writers at zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn Devaluation of yuan 'not on agenda', minister says Updated: 2016-02-25 07:13 By ZHENG YANGPENG(China Daily) An employee counts yuan banknotes at a bank in Huaibei, Anhui province June 22, 2015.[Photo/Agencies] As China prepares to host a meeting of G20 central bankers and finance ministers in Shanghai, a proposal to devalue the yuan is only "media hype", said Finance Minister Lou Jiwei. "There isn't such an item on the agenda," Lou said. China has "no interest whatsoever" in the rumored proposal by international bankers, noted Beijing-based private-sector consulting firm Anbang. In the run-up to the meeting of top bankers and financial officials from the world's biggest economies scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Chinese policymakers said they would like to see the participants devote more time and energy on rebooting global economic growth rather than focus on short-term deals that may result in more uncertainties and not solve any problems. In Shanghai, the G20 central bankers and finance ministers will concentrate on topics including global growth, infrastructure investment, the reform of global financial governance, restructuring of sovereign debt, global tax cooperation and the financing of environmental programs, according to Chinese media reports. At the same time, Chinese officials agreed that the country will step up information sharing and collaboration with other G20 members, as Premier Li Keqiang pledged to visiting World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Wednesday. A rerun of the Plaza Accordan agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, France and Japan to intervene in the currency market by devaluing the US dollar in 1985-"is just fantasy", Lou told journalists last Friday. Many commentators say the Plaza Accord solved few problems and was partly responsible for the Japanese asset bubble that eventually resulted in its prolonged slowdown. But a new Plaza Accord would have little effect on the level of productivity in major economies or in their long-term growth, said Qi Yue, a commentator on wallstreetcn.com. Another Finance Ministry official said: "The G20 should not discuss a specific country's currency policy at its gathering," although he said China is ready to join other economies in staying away from the competitive devaluation of currency. Participants "would only touch on principles, not specific national policies", the official said. As for a one-off revaluation of the yuan, Lu Feng, an economics professor with Peking University, said it is "simply implausible". A radical devaluation or major rise in the yuan won't serve the interests of any major economy, Lu said. China will not experience a major collapse because of a recent increase in capital outflows, as long as good investment opportunities exist in the country. If the two largest economies, China and the US, can maintain growth, there is still a chance that the global economy will avoid another crash, Lu said. China to allocate 100 billion yuan for job losses from capacity cuts Updated: 2016-02-25 16:36 (Xinhua) BEIJING - China will establish a 100 billion yuan ($15.3 billion) fund to assist those who are made redundant as a result of industrial restructuring, an official said Thursday. The fund will cover training and job seeking, said Feng Fei, vice minister of industry and information technology, at a press conference. The processes of dealing with poor-performing "zombie companies," and undertaking mergers and acquisitions mean that job losses will be inevitable. Thus, re-employing workers will be a major task, Feng said. Cutting overcapacity was listed as one of the five major tasks in supply-side structural reform along with destocking, deleveraging, reducing costs and shoring up weak growth areas. The government has stepped up efforts to slash excess production capacity in saturated sectors, especially steel and coal. From 2011 to 2015, 91 million tons of outdated capacity in the iron industry and 94.8 million tons in the steel industry were eliminated. Chinese bank card leaders join forces Updated: 2016-02-25 20:11 By WU YIYAO in Shanghai(chinadaily.com.cn) China's largest bank card association China UnionPay (CUP) and Visa Inc. signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Shanghai on Thursday with the parties agreeing to collaborate on payment security, innovation and financial inclusion. The deal was signed between Shi Wenchao, president of CUP and Charlie Scharf, CEO of Visa Inc. It will enable CUP and Visa Inc, two world-leading payment networks, to work together on the basis of meeting regulatory requirements to strengthen and create new value for the bank card ecosystem benefiting consumers, merchants, financial institution, and technology partnerssaid Shi. Scharf said collaboration would address major challenges facing the payment industry and champion the idea of win-win cooperation embodied in open payment networks. The two parties will be working together on innovation as digital payments transform commerce, and expand access to financial services for the underserved.. Senior US envoy to visit S.Korea this week for DPRK talks Updated: 2016-02-25 16:04 (Xinhua) SEOUL - A senior US diplomat will make a two-day visit to South Korea this week for talks about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear and missile programs, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday. Assistant US Secretary of State for Northeast Asian affairs Daniel Russel will visit Seoul from Friday to Saturday to meet South Korean officials, including First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-Nam and Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Hong-Kyun, Seoul's foreign ministry spokesman Cho June-Hyuck told a regular press briefing. Russel will discuss with his South Korean counterparts about ways of cooperation between Seoul and Washington in dealing with the DPRK's rocket launch and nuclear test, including sanctions at the UN Security Council as well as bilateral and multilateral restrictions, the spokesman said. Cho said that fresh UN Security Council resolutions, which include stronger and more effective factors than ever, have been in the final stage of coordination among relevant parties following talks earlier this week between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State John Kerry. Pyongyang tested what it claimed was its first hydrogen bomb on Jan. 6 and went ahead with the launch of a long-range rocket, which outsiders see as a banned test of ballistic missile technology, on Feb. 7. Seoul has since pushed for all-round pressures on the DPRK by encouraging the international community to come up with tougher new sanctions. South Korea has claimed that stronger restrictions would create an environment forcing change in Pyongyang and make the DPRK pay a harsh price for "reckless provocations." Three days after the rocket launch, South Korea decided to stop operations at a jointly-run factory park in the DPRK's border city of Kaesong. The DPRK responded a day later by closing down the industrial zone, deporting all South Korean workers and freezing assets there. Dismissing calls for simultaneous push for denuclearization and peace treaty on the Korean peninsula, Cho said that it is high time to focus on creating an environment to force change in the DPRK rather than to talk about resuming dialogue with Pyongyang. South Korea has maintained its position that the DPRK's denuclearization should be a top priority in any talks with the DPRK, Cho noted. Testosterone Oxytocin Cortisol Leptin Thyroid Hormone Every person in the world has one thing in common is the need for fat loss. Unfortunately, this is a common scenario for many people. Thats why its important to know what hormones or steroids are available that can help you reach your goal sooner and more efficiently. If you are interested in buying weight loss steroids, then a Great place to buy weight loss steroids at LAWeekly . Five essential hormones can help increase your metabolism and burn calories at a faster rate. They are all easy to use, just like any other hormone supplement would be.Testosterone is a natural hormone that is mainly produced in males. It is the best testosterone booster you can get when burning fat even if you have a low testosterone level. You need some testosterone to make your muscles hard and your body feel healthier. The best thing about this hormone supplement is that its use does not require a prescription for any condition. More importantly, this drug has no side effects and should be used only by adults.This hormone regulates fertility. However, this is not the only reason why it is so popular. Oxytocin helps you increase your connection and trust with other people, which makes some people addicted. Sometimes, oxytocin is used instead of morphine because of its analgesic effect. 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Overwhelmed with the situation, the girl decided to go and live with her grandmother where she grew, not knowing she was already pregnant. "I left my husbands home and went with my grandmother. I asked my husband to move from that house, but he refused. My grandmother met my husband's family and asked them to move. They refused. This is how my family decided that I will not return to my husband again. So I stayed with my grandmother. I gave birth to my little daughter. She is 6 months old now, "she said in Foufoulde, a dialect of northern Cameroon. Her eyes are full of tenderness when she looks at her baby. "We are currently in court, because my husband filed a complaint for fraud and home abandonment," says Nabila. The teenager left school at class 6. "I do not want to go back to school. I want to learn sewing to raise my daughter, "she said, with a pouting mood of a little girl. Having escaped her marriage, Nabila is conscious of being an exception in his family. "Mom went into early marriage when she was 14 years old. Grandmother too, "she said. Today she wants a different fate for her daughter. "To fight against early marriage, I decided that my daughter will go to school," she says. Foto: Kwayep Armand / UNICEF/UNI202453/Armand O Globo Tamanho do texto Nabila, 15 anos Nabila casou-se aos 14 anos, assim como sua mae e sua avo. Deixou o marido, sem saber que estava gravida, e voltou a viver com a familia. Decidi que minha filha ira a escola, diz a jovem, de 15 anos. From: ALICIA DAVID < aliciadavid11@hotmail.com > Sent: Sat, Dec 19, 2015 2:25 pm Subject: Maybe i will visit you soon after knowing you better My Dearest, How are you doing ? i hope you are doing great ! Well to be sincere, i am shut of words because i do not know how to express my feelings and situation here, i am really going through some difficulties here in Senegal. To start with, My name is Alicia David from Ivory Coast, 5.3ft tall, fair in complexion, (never married before) , I am 25 years of age residing in the refugee camp here in Dakar as a result of the civil war that was fought in my country. I am seriously looking for an honest man who can show me true love and someone who can show me concerned and attention never to betray me. To me, age , religion or distance does not matter, i only need a true love or friendship. About my parents, My late father Dr Harold David was the managing director of Mavococoa and Associates (Ltd), and he was the Special adviser to the former Head of Statelate Dr. Robert Guei before the rebels attacked our house early one morning and killed my mother and my father in cold blood. I was the only survived because i was away from home during the incident, and I managed to make my way to a nearby country Senegal, where I am leaving now as a refugee in a refugee camp. I would like to know more about you. Your likes and dislikes, your hobbies and what you are doing presently. I will tell you more about myself in my next mail . attached below file are my photos before the civil war. I would also like to see more of your pictures if you have any. In the next mail, i will send you a telephone number to call me. I' m for a real love, so be honest with me and let' s plan on how to be with each other, let' s plan on how to meet. Maybe i will visit you soon after knowing you better. your true love Alicia. From: ALICIA DAVID < aliciadavid11@hotmail.com > Sent: Mon, Dec 21, 2015 1:22 pm Subject: I SAY THIS WITH LOVE AND TRUST PLEASE HELP ME Hello Dearest , I am glad to write to you, how are you ? I hope you are fine, I thank God for you. Your message was a total relief to me. May God protect you for me because he is the one who brought you in my life. I will like him to make away for you, my love, i love the way you sound to me, and i promise to be with you and i will like you to help me to come out of this camp so that i come to your country and have a free life. In this camp, We are many living as refugees and our freedom is restricted because we do not have any traveling paper. It is just like one staying in the prison and i hope by Gods grace I will come out of here very soon. At the moment, i do not have any relative whom i can go to, all my relatives ran away in the middle of the war. The only person i have now is Reverend MARK LEVI who is the Reverend Minister in charge of the church here in the camp ( Christ The Evangel Mission ). He has been very nice to me since I came here but I am not living with him rather I am living in the women' s hostel because the camp have two hostels one for men the other for women.The Pastor' s telephone number + 221.778655011 or 00221 . 778655011 Honey , please feel free to call me through his number because i have told him about you. If you call, tell him that you want to speak with me (Alicia David ), he will surely send for me from the hostel to come and answer your call. As a refugee I do not have any right or privilege to any thing be it money or whatever because it is against the law of this country. Meanwhile, i am communicating with you through the Reverend' s Computer because this is the only means we can communicate to each other . Again i do not work nor do anything for living as a result that eating is very difficult as we are given food ones a day. Please listen to this, I have my late father' s statement of account and death certificate here with me which I will send to you latter, because when he was alive he deposited some amount of money in a leading bank (Standard Chartered Bank) in Londonwhich he used my name as the next of kin, the amount in question is $5.3 Million U.S Dollars ( Five Million, three Hundred Thousand US Dollars ). Meanwhile, I will like you to help me process and transfer this money to your account as my ' foreign partner' which was the bank' s condition to get the money transferred. From it, you can send me money to prepare and get ready my traveling documents to come over there in order to meet you. I kept this secret to people in the camp here, the only person that knows about it is the Reverend MARK LEVI because he is like a father to me.Meanwhile, i am communicating with you through the Reverend' s Computer because this is the only means we can communicate to each other. My love, lets plan on how to meet you now, in your country because i had a conversation with the Reverend yesterday about how i can leave to meet you there in your country. According to the Reverend , i need to have an International passport in order to warrant and secure my departure from this camp. He said that with the passport, i will have freedom to visit you in your country. I will be waiting to hear from you. please help me contact the reverend to know how long it will take for me to get the passport. here is the Reverend name: Rev. MARK LEVI r everendmarklevi@gmail.com < reverendmarklevi@gmail.com > + 221.778655011 or 00221 . 778655011 So in the light of above i will like you to keep it to yourself and do not tell it to anyone for I am afraid of loosing my life and the money if people gets to know about it. Remember to contact the reverend, tell him that you want to get a passport for Miss Alicia David. I am giving you all these information due to trust and believing that no one will think to hurt me after hearing all that i have gone through. My favorite language is English but our language is French but i speak English very fluently because both my father and mother studied in EUROPE. My love, please I will like you to call me by 13 o' clock GMT London local time, like I said i have a lot to tell you.my darling if you need to transfer the money to your account first, please tell me so that i will give you the bank contact for you to contact the bank. Have a nice day and pray for me. I awaiting to hear from you soon . Call me if you wish. Yours sincerely, Alicia. From: MARK LEVI < reverendmarklevi@gmail.com > Sent: Fri, Jun 3, 2016 2:22 pm Subject: Greetings to you in the name of God ! My beloved son in the lord, i bless you in the name of our lord God. Please i apologize for my delay in response due to my missionary work. Please i have heard a lot about you through the young lady Miss Alicia David : aliciadavid11@hotmail.com I will tell her now to give you the bank's contact so that you will contact them and whatever youreceived from them you letme know. God bless you Thanks, Rev. Mark Levi +221-778-655-011 From: ALICIA DAVID < aliciadavid11@hotmail.com > Sent: Fri, Jun 3, 2016 2:27 pm Subject: MY LOVE, PLEASE CONTACT THIS BANK My love, copy the below letterand send it to the bank via email at : standardcharteredbnk@post.com = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Sir, I am the foreign partner of Miss Alicia David aliciadavid11@hotmail.com who is in the refugee camp located in Senegal. I will like to know the procedure for transferring the money deposited by her late father, Dr. Harold David, in which she is the next of kin. I request for the transfer of the total fund $5.3 Million US Dollars to my account here in my country. Below is the account informations : Account Number: SCBUK745608902546/QB/91/A Name of depositor: Dr Harold David. Nationality: Ivory Coast Next of kin : Miss Alicia David < aliciadavid11@hotmail.com > Amount deposited: $5.3 Million US Dollars. Please help me verify the account validity. Let me know the procedures and requirements for transferring the total fund to my bank account here in my country. I am waiting for your kind cooperation concerning this matter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If you received a similar letter, please ignore it. Do not answer it. If you do, you will end up on more of the mailing lists used by the criminals behind this fraud. Read more.... 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Access unlimited content and the digital versions of our print editions - This Week's Paper. Man-made climate change is starting to take its toll, and the world will soon officially have warmed up by 1 degree Celsius since 1900, causing massive changes to our planet. There's also the rise of Islamic State, and increasing tensions between Russia and Turkey after the latter shot down a Russian military plane in November. All in all, the world is in a bit of trouble. Humanity has already survived a financial crisis, and warnings of the Mayan Apocalypse in the past decade, but if 2016 is the year the world does finally start to collapse, we think you should know where to head to survive. We have selected places that we expect will remain fortresses of stability, safety, and prosperity no matter what the world throws at them. BI_Graphics_14 places to go if the world ends NOW WATCH: Sea levels are rising at the fastest rate in 2,800 years heres what Earth will look like if all the ice melts More From Business Insider Shell Oil Company President Marvin Odum walks to the 14th green during the first round of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club course in Pebble Beach, California, February 6, 2014. REUTERS/Michael Fiala By Kristen Hays HOUSTON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell's (RDSa.L) costly flameout in Alaska last year was "a huge disappointment," but did not push top North American executive Marvin Odum to exit the company, he said. Odum made the comments hours after the company announced he would leave next month after 34 years. "This should not be interpreted as, 'Alaska didn't work, so Marvin's leaving," Odum, 57, said in an interview. Instead, he said he decided it was time to move on after heading Shell Oil Co, the Anglo-Dutch company's U.S arm, since 2008. He later became head of exploration and production operations in the Americas as well. He declined to specify any future plans, but indicated he would consider other ventures after a pause. Shell walked away from its aspiration to drill for oil off Alaska's northern coast, after spending $7 billion (5 billion) over seven years, when a well showed too little oil and gas to justify continuing. Odum said the company had been shedding ventures considered too costly or too marginal to focus on deepwater and liquefied natural gas (LNG). The company is not finished. Shell intends to sell around $30 billion in assets between 2016 and 2018 to improve its balance sheet and focus on those core businesses after its $52 billion acquisition of British giant BG Group was completed this month. Shell already has sold some shale oil and gas acreage and operations, leaving an impression that the company was abandoning shale. Odum said Shell jettisoned marginal operations, but kept others in more attractive areas in Texas, Ohio the U.S. Northeast, Canada and Argentina. Shell can ramp up production in those fields when oil prices recover, he said. During his tenure overseeing the Americas for Shell, Odum oversaw the startup of two new oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, and the decision to move ahead with a third Gulf operation involving a floating production, storage and offloading tanker that will start up later this year. Story continues The BG deal will make Shell the largest foreign investor in Brazil's coveted deepwater oilfields, and has the proven expertise to exploit it, Odum said. A mechanical engineer by training, Odum said his first job interview upon graduating from the University of Texas was with Shell. He got a job offer, took it, and thought he'd stay for a couple of years until he decided what he'd rather do. "And here I am - 34 years later," he said. (Reporting By Kristen Hays; Editing by Andrew Hay) The logo of AstraZeneca is seen on a medication package in a pharmacy in London April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) bold move to buy 55 percent of privately held biotech firm Acerta Pharma for $4 billion in December has been vindicated, at least in part, by the award of special "orphan" status to the key experimental drug involved. The drugmaker said on Thursday that the European Medicines Agency had recommended acalabrutinib as an orphan product for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma and lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma. Orphan status is awarded to medicines promising significant benefit in the treatment of rare, life-threatening diseases and the designation provides companies with special development and market exclusivity incentives. AstraZeneca bought control of Acerta to get its hands on acalabrutinib, which it believes could generate sales of more than $5 billion a year. The drug is currently in the final stages of clinical development for various blood cancers. Acalabrutinib works in a similar way to AbbVie (ABBV.N) and Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) Imbruvica. But AstraZeneca reckons it has fewer side effects than Imbruvica and potentially better efficacy. Rival drugs are further behind in development. Acerta shareholders will have the option to sell the remaining 45 percent of shares in the biotech company to AstraZeneca for approximately $3 billion once acalabrutinib has been approved in both the United States and Europe. The new medicine is a so-called Burton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor that targets an array of blood cancers and potentially some solid tumours. It may also help in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Jason Neely) * Western retailers gradually returning to Bangladesh * Factory owners say thin margins being squeezed further * Automation one tool being used to cut costs By Rajesh Kumar Singh and Ruma Paul DHAKA, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Bangladesh's clothing exports are booming, defying fears that recent killings by Islamist militants might prompt Western brands to go elsewhere to source their garments. Along with relief among manufacturers, who are the mainstay of the South Asian nation's economy, comes the reality that already slim profit margins are being eroded further, as pressure for cost savings and improved safety intensifies. "It's fast becoming a business where only the fittest can survive," said Atiqul Islam, one of Bangladesh's biggest garment exporters, whose clients include H&M. It could have been worse. For months, executives from Western retailers who source cheap clothes from Bangladesh avoided visiting the country, worried by rising violence, including the murder of two foreigners. Meetings with suppliers were held in Dubai, New Delhi and Singapore. M. Shafiqul Azim, general manager at an apparel exporter, had to hire private guards to convince an Italian technician to travel to Dhaka last year for a plant inspection. The World Bank warned militancy could derail Bangladesh's path to becoming a middle-income country. For now, though, the concerns appear to be easing, and recent figures show the $26 billion garment export sector is growing faster than many had dared predict. "It was a temporary setback," Islam told Reuters. "After two to three months, the visits resumed." A Western diplomat in the capital Dhaka attributed the change to a swift response from the government and the support provided by local police. After the killings last year, Dhaka deployed paramilitary soldiers on night-time patrols in the diplomatic quarter and issued a nationwide ban on people riding pillion after two attacks were carried out by masked men riding motorbikes. Story continues SHRINKING MARGINS Between October and January, Bangladeshi factories exported garments worth $9.3 billion, up about 14 percent from a year ago, government data showed. Exports to the United States saw a 16 percent annual jump in December. Azim, who supplies to Wal-Mart, says his order book is up 15 percent. Buoyed by strong demand, his firm - r-pac - is investing $10 million to set up a new factory. Bangladesh's resilience boils down to a combination of the world's lowest wages after Myanmar and Sri Lanka, the right skills and the fact that China has become less competitive in recent years. The minimum monthly wage for garment workers in Bangladesh is $68, compared with about $280 in mainland China, which nevertheless remains the world's biggest garment exporter. In a global survey of leading apparel producers last year, consultant McKinsey predicted 7-9 percent annual growth for the sector over the next five years. Still, garment exporters worry about profit margins being squeezed due to increased compliance costs in the wake of the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in which more than 1,100 people died, and a push from buyers to further reduce costs. Islam estimated that most of Bangladesh's garment exporters were operating with a profit margin of just three percent. He added that firms like his are also spending an average of $700,000 on upgrading facilities to meet safety compliance standards, but buyers are not ready to bear the cost. Adding to the strain, garment exporters are under pressure to further reduce prices to retain customers. "Every year they ask for a 2-3 percent price cut," Islam said. To protect margins, some manufacturers have invested in automation. At Azim's factory, for example, machines are already doing the bulk of the work, while Islam has just spent $500,000 to import 70 new machines from Italy. H&M declined to comment for this article. Walmart's spokeswoman, Marilee McInnis, said the company was making investments through an inspection group led by the North American brands, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. H&M is a signatory to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a mainly European grouping. "Bangladesh is an important sourcing market for the industry," said McInnis, director of international corporate affairs at Walmart. "It is important that investments in Bangladesh continue." (Additional reporting by Serajul Quadir in DHAKA, Anna Rinsgstrom in STOCKHOLM and Siddharth Cavale; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Paritosh Bansal) (Adds further details) By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Boeing Co on Wednesday named long-time company executive Leanne Caret to replace Chris Chadwick as the head of its $30 billon defense division, effective March 1. Caret, 49, currently heads the defense division's services and support sector, which has about 13,000 employees. Before moving into that job, she ran the company's rotorcraft division and served as chief financial officer for the defense business. Caret will become president and chief executive officer of Boeing's Defense, Space & Security business, as well as effective March 1. She will also become a Boeing executive vice president and member of the company's executive council. She takes over at a time when Boeing's defense division is still smarting from its loss last year of an $80 billion bomber contract to Northrop Grumman Corp, a deal that could have helped the company offset the expected end of production in coming years of its F-15 and F/A-18 fighter jet programs. Caret will be the first woman to head Boeing's defense business. She will be the third woman to head a major U.S. weapons maker, joining Marillyn Hewson as the chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp and Phebe Novakovic as chief executive of General Dynamics Corp. Boeing is still weighing whether to file a federal lawsuit challenging its loss of the bomber contract, with a decision now expected no earlier than next week, according to sources familiar with the company. The company is also nearing a decision to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to keep its F/A-18E/F production line in St. Louis running as it waits for the U.S. government to approve a long-delayed delayed order by Kuwait for 28 jets. Caret had "a track record of delivering results, an intense customer focus, and the global acumen necessary to build on the existing strengths" of Boeing's business to build future growth, said Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg. Story continues Boeing spokesman John Dern said Chadwick, 55, had decided to retire after 34 years with the company. "The defense business is on a solid footing. He feels that retiring now will give Leanne an ample amount of time to build on the foundation that's there," Dern said. He said no one specific event drove Chadwick's decision, and the move had "nothing to do with ethics or personal misconduct." Boeing said Ed Dolanski, 48, who now heads its Aviall aviation parts business, would succeed Caret as president of Global Services & Support. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by David Gregorio, Alistair Bell and Andrew Hay) (Adds details) By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Boeing Co on Wednesday named long-time company executive Leanne Caret to replace Chris Chadwick as the head of its $30 billon defense division, effective March 1. Caret, 49, currently heads the defense division's services and support sector, which has about 13,000 employees. Before moving into that job, she ran the company's rotorcraft division and served as chief financial officer for the defense business. Caret will become president and chief executive officer of Boeing's Defense, Space & Security business, as well as effective March 1. She will also become a Boeing executive vice president and member of the company's executive council. She will be the third woman to head a major U.S. weapons maker, joining Marillyn Hewson as the chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp and Phebe Novakovic as chief executive of General Dynamics Corp. She takes over at a time when Boeing is weighing whether to file a federal lawsuit challenging its loss of an $80 billion contract for a new bomber to Northrop Grumman Corp. The company is also nearing a decision to invest "a significant amount" to keep its F/A-18E/F production line in St. Louis running as it waits for the U.S. government to approve a long-delayed delayed order by Kuwait for 28 jets. Caret had "a track record of delivering results, an intense customer focus, and the global acumen necessary to build on the existing strengths of our defense, space and security business and grow it for the future," said Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg. Boeing spokesman John Dern said Chadwick, 55, was eligible for retirement and had decided to retire after 34 years with the company. "The defense business is on a solid footing. He feels that retiring now will give Leanne an ample amount of time to build on the foundation that's there," Dern said. Asked if Chadwick's departure was due to the company's loss of the Air Force long-range bomber contract last year, he said, "No specific event drove the decision." Story continues Chadwick's departure just two years after taking the job had "nothing to do with ethics or personal misconduct," Dern said. Loren Thompson, a Washington-based defense consultant with close ties to Boeing, said Chadwick's departure was his own decision. "He's going out on a high note after delivering the most profitable year the unit had ever experienced," he said. Boeing said Ed Dolanski, 48, who now heads its Aviall aviation parts business, would succeed Caret as president of Global Services & Support. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by David Gregorio and Alistair Bell) BRASILIA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Brazil's central government posted a primary budget surplus of 14.835 billion reais ($3.77 billion) in January, moving into positive territory after a record deficit the previous month. In December, the central government, which covers federal ministries, the central bank and social security, recorded a deficit of 60.72 billion reais after the government repaid multi-billion dollars debts to state-run banks. The central government account, which covers federal ministries, the central bank and social security, was expected to post surplus of 9.6 billion reais, according to the media forecast in a Reuters poll of 10 economists. ($1 = 3.9368 Brazilian reais) (Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Writing by Alonso Soto) (Adds details of the bill, Senator comments and context) BRASILIA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Brazil's Senate on Wednesday approved a bill that ends a requirement that state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA operate all new developments in an offshore region known as the Subsalt Polygon and provide at least 30 percent of investment. The bill passed with 40 votes in favor versus 26 against. If passed by the lower house of congress and President Dilma Rousseff, the bill will overturn parts of a 2010 law seeking to increase government control of giant new offshore oil and gas resources. The 2010 law has been criticized for limiting foreign investment in the Poligon, a region off Brazil's coast near Rio de Janeiro where large resources lie far beneath the seabed by a layer of mineral salts. Petrobras, the world's most indebted oil company, has said it may not have the financial strength to finance exploration of such areas, putting at risk oil development and the billions in royalties the government wants. "The only way to get the industry working again quickly is to pass this law," said Aluizio dos Santos, Mayor of Macae, Brazil, the key offshore base for development of Brazil's offshore Campos Basin. His city has seen thousands of layoffs as Petrobras activity slows and oil prices fall. "The requirement that Petrobras is the only operator and minimum 30 percent financial operator has turned the promise of offshore subsalt oil into a curse," he said. Petrobras did not respond to an email request for comments. Although previously against the legislation, Rousseff eased her opposition in recent weeks as the financial situation of Petrobras continued to deteriorate due to a massive corruption investigation and dwindling oil prices. Senators of Roussef's Workers Party complained the government abandoned them in their vote against ending Petrobras priority in the subsalt region. "The government changed its position... we feel abandoned in this issue that we consider strategic," said Senator Lindbergh Farias, one of the fiercest critics of the bill. "We will start a big campaign for the president to veto this bill." (Reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello and Jeb Blount; Writing by Alonso Soto; Editing by Sandra Maler, Bernard Orr) A cyclist rides past a factory of the Chilean unit of British American Tobacco in Casablanca, on the outskirts of Valparaiso, Chile, July 9, 2015. REUTERS/Rodrigo Garrido By Esha Vaish (Reuters) - British American Tobacco Plc's (BATS.L) chief executive said he does not expect any "big consolidation" among the world's top four tobacco companies in the next few years, quashing rumours that the maker of Dunhill cigarettes might bid for a rival. The world's No. 2 cigarette company will instead look for smaller "bolt-on" acquisitions, particularly in Africa and Asia, CEO Nicandro Durante told Reuters in an interview on Thursday, after BAT reported a smaller-than-expected drop in 2015 revenue. With the world smoking less every year due to health concerns, tougher regulation and economic weakness, competition among the big four tobacco firms is stronger than ever. Multiple media reports in recent months have linked both BAT and Japan Tobacco Inc (2914.T) with a possible bid for Imperial Brands Plc (IMB.L), a deal that some analysts say would be the last big play in a shrinking, consolidating market. "Do I expect something like that in the short to medium term? The answer is 'no'," Durante said. "If you ask me the question: what's going to happen in the long term? Nobody knows." Any major consolidation within "Big Tobacco" would face complications, not least because each international company is present in markets where buying Imperial would take their share over regulators' monopoly thresholds. Over the past year, BAT has won market share and weathered a global decline in cigarette sales better than its main rivals. Against an estimated industry-wide decline of 2.3 percent, the company reported a decline of 0.8 percent in the number of cigarettes sold last year, excluding an acquisition in Croatia. Though full-year revenue fell 6.2 percent to 13.10 billion pounds ($18.25 billion), with currency movements making raw materials more costly, this trumped the average analyst estimate of 12.95 billion pounds, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Excluding the impact of currency, BAT said revenue rose 5.4 percent, helped by price increases. Story continues In a trading environment that will remain "challenging" in 2016, BAT expects its earnings per share to grow in high single digits in percentage terms, Durante said in a video published on the company's website. BAT's shares rose nearly 1 percent to 3,869 pence at 1500 GMT, having earlier fallen as much as 1.5 percent.($1 = 0.7179 pounds) (Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Martine Geller in London; Editing by Sunil Nair and Robin Paxton) BEIJING (Reuters) - China will encourage more mergers of central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and systematically roll out a broad range of management reforms at government companies, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday. Beijing is set today to unveil the latest reform package, which represents the next phase of the SOE reform programme first introduced last September, Xinhua said. Measures include further adoption of competitive hiring and compensation practices at state-owned companies, and use of employee stock ownership schemes, the news agency said. State companies, moreover, will be directed to further adopt standardized corporate governance practices, including the use of boards of directors and supervisors. Last September, the government unveiled its latest programme to overhaul the country's bloated and inefficient state-owned sector. Profits at SOEs declined 6.7 percent in 2015. The current measures will be introduced at a press conference by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Xinhua said. The government also will continue to merge its biggest state-owned conglomerates, Xinhua said. In the last year, the government has overseen the mergers of its biggest nuclear, shipping and railway cars enterprises. China's central and local governments also will be encouraged to introduce central and local industrial asset management companies, the news agency said. (Reporting by Matthew Miller) Reuters Exxon Mobil Corp shares passed their all-time high on Friday as oil prices resumed their climb and analysts raised their long-term views of top U.S. oil producer's cash flow and earnings outlook. Exxon is leading a parade of record profits among oil majors this year after doubling down on oil during the pandemic, when energy prices fell to a two-decade low and European oil majors slashed spending and moved further to renewable projects. The rally comes as vindication for Chief Executive Darren Woods, who as oil prices fell in 2020 decided to "lean in" to oil investments. An investor points to an electronic board showing stock information as he speaks to another investor, at a brokerage house in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, November 19, 2015. REUTERS/China Daily SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China stocks fell more than 3 percent on Thursday, led by small-caps, as investors took profits from a solid rebound over the past month and awaited policy messages from Chinese and other global leaders gathering in Shanghai for a G20 meeting. The blue-chip CSI300 index tumbled 3.4 percent to 3,005.23 points by lunch time, while the Shanghai Composite Index (.SSEC) lost 3.6 percent to 2,823.06. The bearish sentiment spilt over into Hong Kong, where the benchmark Hang Seng index (.HSI) dropped 1.2 percent and the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index (.HSCE) was off 1.7 percent. China stocks have rebounded roughly 10 percent from 14-month lows hit in late January, fuelled by a global market recovery, central bank efforts to stabilise the yuan and hopes that Beijing will unveil more stimulus for the slowing economy. It also follows a typically bullish pattern ahead of an annual meeting of China's top legislature, which starts on March 5 this year, but traders say the thematic rebound could end earlier this time. "Market confidence is still fragile and economic prospects remain gloomy, so investors could be taking profit earlier than in previous years," said Wu Kan, head of equities trading at Shanghai-based investment firm Shanshan Finance. "The market may go up again if the government announces policies that far exceed expectations." G20 finance chiefs and central bankers will meet on Friday and Saturday. Current market turmoil and a global economic slowdown are expected to be key topics of discussion. The chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (1398.HK), told a forum on Thursday there was no basis for continued depreciation of China's yuan, echoing previous remarks by central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan. But many traders believe the yuan will remain under downward pressure as long as economic growth continues to cool. Sentiment was not helped by a statement from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Thursday saying Chinese exports and the yuan face strong pressure from a complex global environment. Story continues Shares fell across the board in China and Hong Kong. Small-caps were among the biggest casualties on the mainland, with Shenzhen's start-up board ChiNext (.CHINEXC) slumping 5.7 percent. In Hong Kong, energy (.HSCIE) and resources (.HSCIM) shares were among the biggest decliners as they gave up some gains from the strong rally over the past sessions. Shares of Agile Property Holdings Ltd (3383.HK) declined 7 pct, after the developer warned of a 70 percent tumble in 2015 profit. (Reporting by Samuel Shen and Pete Sweeney; Editing by Kim Coghill) BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese exports and the yuan face strong pressure from the complexity of the international economic environment, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said. China's economy is facing increasing downward pressure, the ministry said in a statement accompanying a press conference. China's industrial output will grow at around 6 percent in 2016, the ministry also said, adding that industrial output will stabilise this year and there may be a deeper divide between the industrial outputs of different regions and industries. Full year industrial output rose 6.1 percent year on year in 2015. (Reporting by Shen Yan) Governor of the Central Bank of Greece Yannis Stournaras presents the new 20 Euro banknote at the institution's Museum in Athens, Greece, November 24, 2015. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis By George Georgiopoulos ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's central bank governor said on Thursday there were growing signs the country's deep recession was bottoming out although a mild recovery expected in the second half of the year could still be at risk. "The Greek economy has already come a long way, and it is only a short distance from here to an exit from the crisis," Bank of Greece chief Yannis Stournaras, an ECB Governing Council member, told the annual meeting of the central bank in Athens. Stournaras said the recovery depended on successful completion of the first batch reforms laid out as part of a 86 billion euro bail out package that Greece signed with lenders in August. One of the first conditions was that Greece must reform its inflated pensions system. But efforts to do so have sparked protests from farmers who have sporadically blocked main highways to protest higher contributions. "We must remain committed to honouring the terms of the (bail out) agreement, which must not be seen as imposed upon us by our creditors, but as fundamental and necessary reforms that should have been implemented years ago," he said. "The successful completion of the first review will prove to be decisive, in that it will open the way for discussions with our partners on further relief measures," Stournaras said. The refugee crisis, an 'overreaction' by markets to a possible slowdown of global economic growth and the possibility of a British exit from the EU were other risks to Greek growth, Stournaras said. (Writing by Michele Kambas; editing by Katharine Houreld) By Gus Trompiz PARIS (Reuters) - The EU's top agriculture official said on Thursday he was ready to work with France to take further steps to help struggling livestock farmers after weeks of protests by farmers over low prices in the European Union's biggest agricultural economy. French farmers say thousands of them could go out of business as a Russian embargo on Western food and a downturn in global dairy markets exacerbate competition from neighbours such as Germany and Spain which they see benefiting from lower taxes and lighter regulation. After meeting French Prime Minister Manuel Valls in Paris, European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan said he had would study French proposals to tackle the market downturn ahead of a March 14 meeting of EU farm ministers. "We acknowledged the serious difficulties being experienced by French and European producers across a number of sectors and agreed on the need to take appropriate steps to alleviate the current situation," Hogan told reporters. He reiterated the European Commission had already granted a 500 million euro (395 million) package in September but said market imbalances were persisting. "We have global oversupply and a Russian embargo, which is a perfect storm." Valls, who recently criticised the EU for not doing enough to help farmers, earlier put pressure on the Commission to come up with measures next month. "Europe has enough crises and challenges already - terrorist threats, a refugee crisis - and we shouldn't add a major farming crisis that would call into question the European project," he said. Hogan supported French calls to continue engaging with Russia to lift a ban on certain EU pork products, a ban imposed in 2014 on sanitary grounds before a broader political embargo on Western food. He declined to detail the French proposals, which were further to an initial paper presented at an EU ministers' meeting last week at which France failed to win immediate action. Story continues But he said the Commission was looking in particular at export credits and financial instruments such as low-interest loans as possible areas. The French government, which last week announced tax cuts for farmers worth 500 million euros, has been attempting to defuse protests in the run-up to the politically important Paris farm show that runs from Feb. 27 to March 6. French President Francois Hollande will make the traditional presidential visit at the opening of the show on Saturday, and Hogan said he would also visit the event next week. (Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Mark Potter) By Allison Lampert MONTREAL (Reuters) - A proposed bailout of aircraft maker Bombardier Inc could give the Canadian and Quebec governments control of a separate board for the new CSeries jet programme, eroding the influence of the company's founding family, two sources familiar with the matter said. Bombardier has struggled to launch the CSeries, with years of delays and cost overruns roiling the Montreal-based company. It wrote down the value of the 100-150 aircraft programme in October, sold a stake in its rail business to Quebec's pension fund and got a $1 billion lifeline from the Quebec government. The proposal from the Quebec government would give it two seats and the federal government two seats - provided the latter matched the provinces $1 billion invested in the company - on a seven-person board for the CSeries programme. Bombardier itself would only be able to nominate three of the seats, putting the company's representatives in a minority, one of the sources said. The federal government is under pressure from Quebec, which took a 49.5-percent stake in the CSeries in return for its investment, to financially support the planemaker, which employs about 18,000 in Quebec's aerospace sector. On Friday, senior government sources said the federal government will also likely offer up to $1 billion in aid. But some in the country's ruling Liberal party are pushing for the company to make tough concessions around control of Bombardier Inc, such as a change to its dual-class structure which has helped the Bombardier-Beaudoin family to control the company. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this month that Ottawa would announce a decision on financial support before the federal budget on March 22. "Think of it like a subsidiary," said one of the sources, referring to the CSeries board proposal. SHARE STRUCTURE The plan was submitted by the Quebec government and is supported by Bombardier, the same source said. The company submitted a request for financial help on December 11. It was not known whether the federal government would accept the Quebec proposal. "They (the controlling family) understand that if people are investing in the company, they will require representation," said the source. The sources, who are familiar with the thinking of both Bombardier and the Quebec government, declined to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. A Bombardier spokeswoman declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Industry Canada, the government ministry handling the Bombardier request for financial help, reiterated the government would only make a decision after conducting due diligence. A federal source familiar with the talks said its too early to say whether Quebec's proposal about a separate CSeries board would be part of a federal bailout of Bombardier. But Ottawa is concerned about the parent company's dual class share structure, which gives the Bombardier-Beaudoin family a roughly 54 percent voting stake. Bombardier has balked at changing the company's share structure, privately citing fears of an outside takeover. Concerns over Bombardier's ownership structure prompted Quebec pension fund Caisse de depot et placement, a Bombardier shareholder, to take only a token part of a 2015 equity offering. The Caisse later bought a $1.5-billion stake in Bombardier's profitable rail unit and got three spots on a new board for the division. Bombardier received a boost this month when the company secured its first order in 16 months. That was for up to 75 CSeries jets to be supplied to Air Canada. (Additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Martin Howell) By Nate Raymond NEW YORK, Feb 24 (Reuters) - A former broker at a New York investment firm was sentenced to nine years in prison on Wednesday after being convicted of helping to run a Ponzi scheme that bilked around 3,800 investors out of more than $150 million. Jason Keryc, formerly of Hauppauge-based Agape World Inc, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley in Central Islip, New York, and ordered to pay $179 million of restitution, U.S. Attorney Robert Capers said. Keryc's sentencing came after a federal jury in April found him and another ex-employee, Diane Kaylor, guilty on charges including securities fraud, conspiracy, mail fraud, and wire fraud. Prosecutors said the two played critical roles in defrauding unwitting investors in a classic Ponzi scheme at Agape, which was founded in 2000 by Nicholas Cosmo after he served 21 months in prison for defrauding investors. Lasting from October 2005 to January 2009, the scheme at Agape pulled in more than $370 million by promising unrealistic returns on investors' money, prosecutors said. In typical Ponzi fashion, some returns to investors were paid, not from any profits earned on investments, but from existing investors' deposits or money paid by new investors. Prosecutors said Keryc spent some of the $8.9 million he made off the scheme on a million-dollar vacation home in Montauk, a condominium in Long Beach, automobiles, jewelry and designer clothing. A lawyer for Keryc did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Cosmo was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2011 after pleading guilty over the scheme. Six other people besides Cosmo, Keryc and Kaylor have also been convicted. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by James Dalgleish) MELBOURNE, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Canada's Franco-Nevada Corp chief said on Thursday the company does not see the high rate of return it is set to reap from a recent $500 million gold and silver "streaming" deal with Glencore Plc as a benchmark for future deals. Franco-Nevada pays cash up front for future supplies of precious metals or for production royalties, which miners are increasingly relying on to help them fund exploration and new mines and, more recently, to raise cash to pay down debt. This month it agreed to pay Glencore $500 million for a stream of gold and silver from the Antapaccay mine in Peru, in a deal estimated to give it an internal rate of return (IRR) of nearly 10 percent, or about double the average return that streaming companies have been getting. "The market is so focused on IRR and I think it's a mistake," Franco-Nevada CEO David Harquail told reporters after speaking at the Melbourne Mining Club. The high rate of return was not the best measure of value, he said, because supply under the deal drops to a third of previous levels after a specifiied amount of gold and silver has been delivered, giving less potential gain to the company if precious metals prices rise. The Antapaccay deal was agreed on those terms because Franco-Nevada did not want to pay up front for supplies from the Coroccohuayco section of the mine that Glencore has yet to commited to building. Harquail said the company's $610 million deal last year to acquire a stream of silver from Teck Corp over the life of the Antamina mine in Peru was a better deal long-term for Franco-Nevada. "I actually like Antamina better because we keep a higher stream over that whole license forever, so I think I've got a lot more optionality," Harquail said. Franco-Nevada is looking for more royalty or streaming deals in Australia but Harquail said that was a long-term option. The company is also looking for more opportunities to help fund mine acquisitions and consolidation in the industry, just as it did with Lundin Mining's $1.8 billion acquisition of the Candelaria mine in 2014. "There should be more buying of assets, put them in better hands, and we can be an instrument to do that," Harquail said. (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Richard Pullin) By Renee Maltezou ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's left-led government will not cut pensions again even if its international lenders demand it, the country's labour minister told Reuters on Thursday, saying the income of the weak will be protected. Athens remains determined to implement existing bailout reforms it has signed up to, however, George Katrougalos said in an interview. Hanging onto a fragile parliamentary majority, the government wants to conclude its first progress assessment on fiscal targets and pension and tax reforms in order to start talks on debt relief - something it hopes will persuade angry Greeks that their austerity sacrifices are paying off. But International Monetary Fund projections for a wider than expected fiscal gap - seen at 5 percent to 7 percent of gross domestic product by 2018, according to sources close to the lenders - have fuelled speculation Athens may come under strong pressure to slash pensions again. Katrougalos dismissed such projections as "unreal" and said he hoped the issue would not be brought up during a bailout progress review with lenders, which he expected to resume "most likely next week" and be wrapped up "within March". "We hear things, sometime extreme, through leaks about the IMF which I hope won't be brought to the negotiating table," he said. "Cutting pensions is a red line for us," he said adding that more than half of Greece's households relied on a pension to make ends meet. Asked whether Athens would stick to this if the conclusion of the bailout review was at risk, he responded: "It wouldn't be a red line otherwise." Greece has cut pensions 11 times since it signed up to its first European Union/IMF bailout in 2010, attempting to plug fiscal holes and revamp a fragmented pension system which helped plunge the country into its worst debt crisis in decades. TARGET ACHIEVABLE Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who signed up to a third bailout in August despite pre-election pledges of ending austerity, has promised Greece's foreign creditors to cut the pension budget by 1 percent of GDP this year. Story continues But loath to hurt the country's 2.7 million pensioners again, he has opted for elevating social security contributions of employers, self-employed professionals and farmers, merging pension funds and capping high pensions. "The planned reform is enough (to meet the target) and guarantees the system's viability up to 2060," Katrougalos said. "The pension pool is much smaller compared with the past, but the income of the weak will be protected." The overall plan has triggered street protests by self-employed professionals including doctors and lawyers; farmers have been blockading roads and border crossings for weeks; ruling lawmakers have come under attack by protesters. But the minister said he was confident the plan would be approved by parliament. "Lawmakers are convinced about the necessity and the rightness of the reform. We won't have a problem in passing the bill," said the constitutional lawyer turned politician. To appease farmers, Tsipras has offered concessions including keeping their heavily state-subsidised pension fund intact until 2021, and giving professional farmers the option to choose a lower bracket of pension contributions, at 16 percent of their income instead of 20 percent. Both concessions, which are violating bailout terms, would be discussed during the review, Katrougalos said. "We are not just trying to implement the bailout which is our obligation since we were forced to make a concession which has our signature. We are trying to implement a programme which will pull Greece out of the crisis through structural reforms that will protect the weak," he said. "It's the first time there is a national initiative for such reforms, we have the ownership of the reforms, that is why Greece should have the support of its partners." (Editing by Jeremy Gaunt) Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Haitian lawmakers early Sunday elected Jocelerme Privert as the troubled country's interim president to fill a power vacuum following the departure of Michel Martelly, after a vote to choose his successor was postponed over fears of violence. Privert, 62, a senator and president of the National Assembly, was chosen on the second round of balloting after a lengthy session that stretched overnight Saturday to Sunday. The lawmakers chose Privert over two other candidates, Dejan Belizaire and Edgar Leblanc Fils, both former presidents of Haiti's senate. Belizaire was quickly eliminated after receiving just two votes. Martelly ended his five-year term without a successor on February 7. Under an agreement signed hours before his departure, the interim president chosen by parliament would serve for up to 120 days, a new election would be held on April 24, and the new president would be installed on May 14. After taking the oath, Privert announced that he would form a "consensus government capable of inspiring confidence, and able to create peace for the continuation of the electoral process." This is the first time since 1946 that a Haitian chief of state is chosen by indirect vote. - 'Not impartial' - The immediate roots of the crisis can be traced to October, when Martelly's favored candidate, Jovenel Moise, won the first round of presidential voting 33 percent to 25 percent over runner-up Jude Celestin. The opposition politician, however, denounced the results as a "ridiculous farce." A scheduled January 24 runoff between Moise and Celestin was canceled when Celestin refused to participate unless widespread electoral reforms were enacted, and following violence and protests alleging that Moise won the first round through dirty tricks and with government support. The plan to elect an interim president by indirect vote angered opponents. Some lawmakers even questioned the legitimacy of Privert's candidacy. Story continues "Stop the parliamentary coup d'etat," lawmaker Gary Bodeau said. "Parliament cannot be judge and jury ... the process is not impartial." Privert comes to the job with experience as a bureaucrat and as a politician. For some 30 years Privert worked in the country's tax office until he left in 2002 to be interior minister under then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. That stint did not last long, as Aristide was ousted amid widespread chaos and unrest in February 2004. Privert was arrested soon after for his alleged role in the deadly violence that broke out during Aristide's final days in office. He was linked to an incident that, according to Haitian rights groups, resulted in scores of people killed and some 60 homes set ablaze in an opposition stronghold. The former minister spent 26 months in prison and was released without a trial in June 2006 after carrying out a hunger strike. Privert returned to politics in 2010, when he was elected senator, rising eventually to the chamber's top position. - A new Electoral Council - The upcoming round of voting to elect the next president is likely to be a rocky process. The body in charge of organizing the vote, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), needs fresh blood as six of its nine members have resigned. Choosing new CEP members is always a difficult task, with charges of bias and favoritism often leveled by the opposition. Money is also an issue: the election process has already cost $1 billion, most of it financed by the international community. The political turmoil is the latest challenge for the Caribbean country that is the poorest in the Americas. Thirty years after the end of the Duvalier dictatorship, Haiti is still struggling to hold credible elections that would boost development and raise the standard of living for the 60 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Also, Haiti is still dealing with the aftermath of the powerful January 2010 earthquake that killed some 160,000 people and caused widespread destruction. By Ulf Laessing LAGOS, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) called on Wednesday for Nigeria to lift foreign exchange curbs and let the naira reflect "market forces" more closely, also urging more fiscal discipline and structural reform to bolster growth. President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected a naira devaluation and backed hefty restrictions imposed by the central bank to prevent a collapse of the naira as Africa's biggest economy is whacked by a slump in oil revenues, its lifeblood. Companies have laid off thousands, cut production and even closed operations as they struggle to get enough dollars to pay for imported spare parts and raw materials. The naira is trading as much as 40 percent below the official rate on the black market. Devaluation would encourage investment and make domestically produced goods more affordable. "The exchange rate should be allowed to reflect market forces more and restrictions on access to foreign exchange removed, while improving the functioning of the interbank foreign exchange market," the Washington-based fund said in a statement, after consultations with top officials in Nigeria. Currency curbs had "significantly" affected parts of the private sector and the economic outlook for Africa's top oil producer was "challenging", it said. Nigeria needs to import anything from milk to machines as authorities have failed to end its dependency on oil, a fact Buhari wants to change but which business leaders say will be impossible to achieve if plants cannot import raw materials. The IMF also said it expected the West African nation to grow by 3.2 percent this year, below the official forecast of 3.78 percent. It urged boosting non-oil revenues, raising infrastructure spending and collecting more taxes. "With oil prices expected to remain low for a long time, continuing risk aversion by international investors, and downside risks in the global economy, the outlook remains challenging," it said. Story continues The views of the IMF are relevant as Nigeria wants to borrow from the World Bank to help fund a budget deficit of 3 trillion naira. Sometimes the IMF gets involved in such programmes asking for policy changes. The government wants to borrow up to $5 billion abroad for the budget and has also held talks with China and the African Development Bank. It has also considered issuing Eurobonds although nothing concrete has emerged publicly on that. Buhari was elected last year on an anti-corruption ticket, promising to create jobs in the nation of 170 million, where only a super-rich elite has benefited from its energy wealth. He unveiled a record budget in December to improve power supply, build roads and invest in telecommunications but had to withdraw it due to flaws and optimistic oil price calculations. On Wednesday, the former military ruler vowed to punish those he blamed for adding "unauthorised alterations" to the draft. "The culprits will not go unpunished," he said, according to a statement of his office. The IMF has welcomed his plans to lift capital expenditure. (Editing by Louise Ireland) TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb 25, 2016) - INV Metals Inc. ("INV Metals" or the "Company") (INV.TO) is pleased to announce the Board of Directors has approved the preparation of an updated Preliminary Feasibility Study ("PFS"), on its 100% owned Loma Larga project in Ecuador ("Loma Larga" or "Project") based on the appropriate laws and regulations applicable to large-scale mining which govern underground operations with production levels greater than 1,000 tonnes per day. Ms. Candace MacGibbon, CEO, stated, "We are very pleased with the recent announcement of the favourable definitive terms of the Exploitation Agreement ('EA') between Lundin Gold Inc. ('Lundin Gold') and the government of Ecuador announced in January 2016. Significant effort has been made since the creation of the Ministry of Mines in early 2015 to advance the mining sector within Ecuador and as a result, positive changes and clarifications in the laws governing mining have occurred since we announced the results of our PFS based on the medium-scale mining category in February 2015." Further, "The Company has performed a preliminary economic analysis of the Project at a production rate of approximately 2,500 tpd, applying similar tax assumptions for Loma Larga to those announced by Lundin Gold. Using similar parameters, assuming a 5% gold and by-product royalty and no advanced royalty, management believes the evaluation of Loma Larga at an increased optimal production rate may produce significantly increased returns dependent on gold and metal price assumptions." The Company is engaged in discussions with its consultants to update the 2015 PFS, which would include new resource estimates; determine increased optimal production levels; and complete the associated engineering and economic studies to evaluate the feasibility and economics of the Project within the large-scale framework. The new PFS will provide updated estimations of revenue, capital and operating costs, and mine and reclamation plans. Further details will be provided once the consultants have been engaged. Story continues The Company's cash balance as at December 31, 2015 was approximately $11.6 million (unaudited). There are no guarantees that the Company will enter into an acceptable exploitation agreement to operate as a large-scale mining project even if the updated PFS demonstrates positive economics. About INV Metals INV Metals is an international mineral resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of base and precious metal projects in Ecuador and Namibia. Currently, INV Metals' primary assets are: (1) its 100% interest in the Loma Larga (formerly Quimsacocha) gold property in Ecuador, and (2) its 35% interest in the Kaoko property, located in Namibia. The Company's technical report ("Technical Report") summarizing the results of its PFS prepared under the medium-scale category entitled "Technical Report on the Loma Larga Project, Azuay Province, Ecuador" dated March 20, 2015, is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's web site at www.invmetals.com. Forward-Looking Statement This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the potential of the Company's properties; the Project being categorized as a "large-scale" project under Ecuador's new mining laws and tax regimes; the future price of base and precious metals; the anticipated application of laws and regulations, including tax laws; the preparation and timing of the PFS; success of exploration activities; cost and timing of future exploration and development; the projections set forth in the preliminary economic assessment regarding the Project; requirements for additional capital; and other statements relating to the financial and business prospects of the Company. Forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievement of INV Metals to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to the timing of preparation of the PFS, actual results of exploration activities, conclusions of economic evaluations and the industry-wide risks and Loma Larga project-specific risks identified in the Technical Report in respect of the Project, risks associated with mining and mineral exploration activities, uncertainty in the estimation of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, including, without limitation, the assumptions on which such estimates are based and the potential for establishing new Mineral Resources in the PFS, assumptions regarding the categorization of the Project in a "large scale" mining category, changes in Loma Larga parameters as plans continue to be refined, uncertainty surrounding metallurgical test results, future prices of metals, economic and political stability in Ecuador and Canada, the results of discussions with the Ecuador government, estimated production rates and other assumptions and projections set forth in the preliminary economic analysis in respect of the Project, the availability of an EA and other required permits in respect of the Project, the risk of future unfavourable tax laws or changes in applicable laws and regulations in Ecuador and/or Canada, environmental risks and hazards, increased infrastructure and/or operating costs, availability of future financing, labour and employment matters, and government regulation. There is no guarantee that any drill targets or economic mineral deposits will be found on INV Metals' properties. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors, refer to INV Metals' Annual Information Form filed with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. * Ecuador to struggle to close funding gap * Oi bonds sink on collapse of merger talks * Pemex launches debt exchange * Moody's downgrades BR Malls, BRF and Odebrecht By Mike Gambale NEW YORK, Feb 25 (IFR) - No deals priced in the LatAm primary market on Thursday. Here is a snapshot of LatAm sovereign credit spreads: SOVEREIGN 2/24 2/23 2/22 1D 10D YTD 2015/16 HIGH BARBADOS 656 656 653 0 -3 52 659 (2/11/16) BRAZIL 478 493 495 -15 -64 -8 542 (2/11/16) CHILE 110 114 112 -4 -33 24 143 (2/11/16) COLOMBIA 348 354 355 -6 -64 59 412 (2/11/16) COSTA RICA 568 570 569 -2 -19 51 587 (2/11/16) DOMINICAN REP 494 500 491 -6 -48 79 542 (2/11/16) ECUADOR 1498 1510 1520 -12 -267 183 1765 (2/11/16) EL SALVADOR 763 770 773 -7 -77 123 840 (2/11/16) GUATEMALA 358 366 364 -8 -27 56 385 (2/11/16) JAMAICA 489 487 483 2 -30 40 519 (2/11/15) MEXICO 233 237 237 -4 -45 39 278 (2/11/16) PANAMA 237 240 238 -3 -35 31 272 (2/11/16) PERU 263 268 265 -5 -37 32 291 (2/10/16) TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 167 153 151 14 -5 69 173 (1/15/15) URUGUAY 309 313 311 -4 -35 41 344 (2/11/16) VENEZUELA 3110 3090 3048 20 -505 318 3713 (2/12/16) Source: Bank of America Merrill Lynch Master Index SPREAD TRENDS: Ten-day trend shows Venezuela and Ecuador tighter by 505bp and 267bp LATAM PIPELINE: The province of Buenos Aires is expected to come with a deal after local papers reported Citibank, JP Morgan and HSBC have been mandated on an up to US$500m bond deal for which the borrower hopes to pay anywhere between 9%-9.5%. The province of Mendoza is looking to raise US$300m in both the local and international markets to refinance debt, according to local reports. And while Neuquen province is in less of a rush thanks to tax receipts from the federal government, it too is contemplating a bond issue. The United Mexican States has filed an up to US$10bn debt shelf with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Proceeds will be used for general purposes, including refinancing and the repurchase of debt. Story continues Argentine E&P company Medanito has wrapped up roadshows ahead of a possible transaction through Itau and UBS. Expected rating is CCC+ by Fitch. Concesion Pacifico Tres, a toll-road concession in Colombia, wrapped up a roadshow through Goldman Sachs. The company is looking to raise up to US$272m of bonds, according to Fitch, which has rated the senior secured bonds BBB-. Pacifico Tres is jointly owned by Construcciones El Condor SA, Mario Alberto Huertas Cotes, and Constructora MECO SA. Structure Banca de Inversion is acting as its financial advisor. Argentina utility Pampa Energia's shareholders have approved a US$500m debt program. Uruguay plans to raise up to US$1.5bn in bonds this year. Colombia hopes to issue US dollar or euro-denominated bonds soon, the country's finance minister has told market participants. (Reporting By Michael Gambale; editing by Shankar Ramakrishnan) EAGLE POINT, OR / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2016 / Dear Grow Condo (GRWC) Shareholders, The New Year is often a time of earnest reflection on the developments of last year and ambitious goal-setting for the year ahead. I am pleased to say that 2015 was a year of transformation and tremendous progress for the Company in our last quarter in terms of uniquely positioning the company and the brand long term. I would first like to thank all of the shareholders for their continued support with the Company. We greatly appreciate the trust you have placed in Grow Condo's operations, management, and mission. As we move forward, we will strive to capitalize on our momentum and create increased shareholder value for this new dynamic and potentially highly lucrative industry for our shareholders, partners and associates. We look forward to 2016 and 2017 to be key years in the developing of Grow Condos in an industry leader in the specialty of real estate, tools and education for the marijuana industry Industry Outlook The legal marijuana industry has never looked better with many experts already labeling it as the fastest growing industry in the Country and if the trend toward legalization spreads to all 50 states, marijuana could become larger than the organic food industry. Industry experts estimate U.S. market for legal cannabis grew 74 percent in 2014 to $2.7 billion, up from $1.5 billion in 2013. Additionally, over the next five years, the marijuana industry is expected to continue to grow, with an estimated 14 more states will legalize recreational marijuana and two more states will legalize medical marijuana. It is estimated by The ArcView Group publisher of the 3rd Edition of the State of Legal Marijuana Markets , that by 2019, all of the state-legal marijuana markets combined will make for a potential overall market worth almost $11 billion annually. California still has the largest legal medical cannabis market in the U.S., at $1.3 billion. Arizona was found to have the fastest-growing major marijuana market in 2014, expanding to $155 million, up more than $120 million from the previous year. Medical marijuana is already legal in Arizona and California and recreational legalization measures are likely to appear on the 2016 ballots in both states. Story continues More than 1.5 million shoppers purchased legal marijuana from a dispensary, either medical or recreational, in 2014. Five states now boast marijuana markets that are larger than $100 million, and in Colorado and Washington -- the first states to open retail marijuana shops in the U.S. -- consumers bought $370 million in marijuana products last year. Oregon and Alaska are expected to add a combined $275 million in retail marijuana sales in their first year of operation, the report projects. The huge growth potential of the industry appears to be limited only by the possibility of states rejecting the loosening of their drug laws. If the legalization trend continues to the point that all 50 states legalize recreational marijuana, the total market value of all states legalizing marijuana would top $36.8 billion -- more than $3 billion larger than the organic food industry. Significant Achievements 2015 1) Recapitalize the company's stock and positioning for the Investment community. By completing the reverse stock split of 20/1 while maintaining our fully reporting status it uniquely positions us to be attractive within the investment and acquisition community 2) Developed financial models for Industrial condo sales and marketing. 3) Identify strategic management and advisors 4) Target development properties for acquisition and build out Overview 2016 goals and milestones The current year is expected to be a busy year of development and expansion of our multi pronged real estate company catering to the marijuana industry. Our plan for the year is the build out of the following in the hopes of building a dynamic company that is uniquely positioned for this exploding industry. 1) Expansion of new industrial condo projects: We plan to close and begin development of additional properties to compliment our 15 unit property in Eugene. Plans call to then market these individual customized condo units to the marijuana growing community 2) Broadening management team and advisors: As the company matures we recognize the need to have our management team broadened and to have specific proven backgrounds that can help build out the company for the primetime marketplace. The company is currently interviewing an exciting team to begin announcing shortly 3) Launch and close private placement memorandum for $2.5 million ($15 million fully diluted): The Company will require sufficient capital to deploy for the build out and the management of these properties and plans call for the announcement of a proposed private placement shortly. 4) Develop strategic partners and joint ventures for the implementation of our educational line: The marijuana growing community is uniquely specialized as it relates to real estate. Each unit is customized to the specific needs of the owner. Grow Condos is developing unique educational and procedural tools to satisfy the demand for new and up and coming growers Yours truly, Wayne Wayne A. Zallen, CEO Safe Harbor: This release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements appear in a number of places in this release and include all statements that are not statements of historical fact regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of Grow Condos Inc, its directors or its officers with respect to, among other things: (i) financing plans; (ii) trends affecting its financial condition or results of operations; (iii) growth strategy and operating strategy. The words "may," "would," "will," "expect," "estimate," "can," "believe," "potential" and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Grow Condos Inc. ability to control, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. More information about the potential factors that could affect the business and financial results is and will be included in Grow Condos, Inc. filings with the OTC Markets, Securities and Exchange Commission and/or the company's website. 722 W. Dutton Road Eagle Point, OR 97524 (541)879-0504 SOURCE: Grow Condos, Inc. marc andreessen Some are questioning whether the "move fast and break things" motto of Silicon Valley may be going too far. In the past six months, startups have come under fire for moving fast and breaking government regulations. Zenefits, an Andreessen Horowitz investment, is now the poster child of the company that skipped over critical steps in its quest for growth, and it finds itself with a new CEO and a mandate to reform its company culture. On stage at the Startup Grind conference in Redwood City, California, on Wednesday, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen declined to talk about Zenefits specifically, but he continued to advocate the move-fast mentality. "This is not a business for the shy," Andreessen, a cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz, said. "This is not a business for passive. This is a business for the aggressive." Zenefits was its own situation, but the move-fast mantra has worked and will work for other companies, he insisted. Facebook, another investment, is the obvious example of a company that used the phrase as its motto and it turned into a $300 billion business that reaches a billion users every day. Being aggressive is something companies, not just startups, need to be doing so they don't get disrupted themselves, he said. "There is a real art form to it, and a real science," Andreessen said. NOW WATCH: Why new companies have it way easier now than a decade ago More From Business Insider (Recasts with export figures) MEXICO CITY, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Crude oil exports from Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex jumped 11 percent in January compared to the prior month, while output edged down slightly, the firm said on Wednesday. Pemex data showed average exports rose to 1.12 million barrels per day (bpd) from 1.008 million bpd in December. Exports hit their lowest in at least 25 years that month after the firm sent more oil to domestic refineries. Crude oil production eased 0.7 percent to 2.259 million bpd in January, the lowest level since August. Pemex said output averaged 2.267 million bpd for 2015, the eleventh consecutive annual drop since hitting a peak of 3.38 million bpd in 2004. Mexico's government ordered a change in the Pemex leadership earlier this month as the firm struggles with a sharp fall in the price of oil which, alongside declining production, has led to record losses and drastic cost-cutting measures. (Reporting by Anna Yukhananov, additional reporting by Adriana Barrera; Editing by Diane Craft) Admiral Yuan Yubai Since the establishment of modern China following World War II, both China and Taiwan have claimed nearly the entirety of the South China Sea as their own. The countries established such a claim with a Nine Dash Line throughout the region that, Beijing and Taipei assert, show how the entirety of the South China Sea belongs to them. Whether the Nine Dash Line has any basis in international law or not, it is far from the most ridiculous basis for a claim that China has over the sea. Instead, Chinese Vice Admiral Yuan Yubai was responsible for the most ridiculous claim for why all of the South China Sea belongs to Beijing. Speaking at a defense conference in London on September 14, 2015, Yuan said that the South China Sea, as the name indicates, is a sea area that belongs to China." "And the sea from the Han dynasty a long time ago where the Chinese people have been working and producing from the sea," Yuan continued. Yuan's remarks came following a comment at the conference by Japanese Vice Admiral Umio Otsuka, who said that deterrence was becoming increasingly important throughout East and South Asia. To back up his views, Otsuka pointed at China's expansionism throughout both regions. After Yuan responded to Otsuka that the region belonged to China due to the sea bearing China's name, Yuan took a slightly more conciliatory measure by saying that "the real situation in the South China Sea at present is safety and freedom of navigation." Currently, the various islands and atolls in the South China Sea are claimed and disputed by a mix of countries, principally by Taiwan, Vietnam, China, the Philippines. South China Sea Map_05 NOW WATCH: The US Navy's last line of defense is this ultimate gun More From Business Insider Nicaragua has released more than 8,000 convicts on parole and sent 94 foreigners to finish sentences in their home countries since 2014, easing overcrowding in prisons (AFP Photo/Rodrigo Arangua) (AFP/File) Managua (AFP) - Nicaragua has released more than 8,000 convicts on parole and sent 94 foreigners to finish sentences in their home countries since 2014, easing overcrowding in prisons, the government said Monday. All the 8,149 Nicaraguans given conditional release had been put behind bars with light sentences of five years or less, the government said in a statement. It gave no details on the foreign convicts deported beyond the figures: 58 sent home in 2014, 31 in 2015 and five so far this year. The releases were approved by the justice ministry, national prosecutors and the police, and were part of "a humanitarian and reconciliation policy." Authorities did not say what the remaining prison population was in the Central American nation. However, according to the non-governmental Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, there were more than 10,500 Nicaraguan and foreign prisoners last year -- double the capacity of the country's penitentiaries. Last week, the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua criticized rights violations in the prisons, citing abuse, long periods of incarceration without right to sentence review and overcrowding. The company logo of Noble Group is displayed at its office in Hong Kong, China January 22, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip By Rujun Shen and Anshuman Daga SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore-listed commodity trader Noble Group (NOBG.SI) expects to refinance its debt ahead of schedule, after reporting its first annual loss in nearly 20 years on Thursday, battered by a $1.2 billion writedown for weak coal prices. Noble, one of the biggest traders of commodities from coal to iron ore to oil, is battling to boost investor confidence after Standard & Poor's and Moody's cut its investment grade ratings to junk in December, following a bruising accounting dispute and weak markets. "We have self-evidently advanced our key strategic objectives over the last three years despite a very difficult external environment," CEO Yusuf Alireza, who has fought back by selling assets, cutting business units and trimming debt, said in a statement. (http://bit.ly/1VGhqwZ) Noble's junk rating has stoked concerns about its refinancing ability but Alireza, a former Goldman Sachs banker said it expects to close its refinancing ahead of a May due date. "We have $2.2 billion of a revolver. Clearly we have approved the term sheet to a number of our core banks and we will be moving towards the refinancing of the revolver," said Alireza, who was asked about the spreads and size of the refinancing by analysts in a call, but declined to give details. The company highlighted the imminent receipt of $750 million from the sale of its agri business. On Thursday, Noble reported an annual loss of $1.67 billion after the non-cash impairment charge, versus a profit of $132 million a year ago on a 22 percent fall in revenue. It proposed no dividend for last year. The company had warned of the full-year loss two days ago. After Noble's loss warning, Moody's cut its corporate rating and senior unsecured bond ratings to Ba3 from Ba1, while S&P said the loss could complicate its refinancing. "The downgrade shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but it is a major issue for the refinancing," Robert Southey, managing partner at London-based boutique firm Trench Capital Partners, said ahead of Noble's results. Story continues "The core banks are in a 'Catch 22', they can't all sell out at their desired price, whilst applying usual lending criteria is fraught with the risk that markets worsen and they are left holding the bag," Southey said. Already hit by the collapse in commodity markets, Noble's shares have plunged by two-thirds in the past 12 months, and its bonds have sold off after Iceberg Research alleged it was inflating its assets by billions of dollars. Noble rejected the claims and board-appointed consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers found it had complied with international accounting rules. Noble's mining and metals business swung to a loss on a pre-tax basis for the year, while the energy segment posted a 21 percent jump in profit before tax and interest. Last month, Noble's chairman Richard Elman told Reuters in an interview that the company's plans to bring in new investors were taking time. Elman is preparing Noble, a Hong Kong-based group he set up with $100,000 in 1986, for a new era as commodity prices are mired in their deepest slump in recent years. (Reporting by Anshuman Daga and Rujun Shen; Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and David Evans) * Canada's Brookfield and CPPIB, France's Engie may bid -paper * China's CNPC shows interest in pipeline company -paper (Adds company comment) RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Brazil's state-led oil company Petrobras is expected to fetch as much as $6 billion from the sale of a natural gas pipeline unit in Brazil's industrialized southeast, the Valor Economico daily newspaper reported on Thursday. Bids of between $5 billion and $6 billion for Nova Transportadora do Sudeste are expected by a Tuesday deadline from Canadian, French and Chinese companies, the paper said, without citing the source for its information. Potential bidders include Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc, China National Petroleum Corp , and a joint venture between the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board and France's Engie SA , Valor reported. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the oil company is formally known, has plans to sell about $14 billion of assets this year in an attempt to cut its debt and maintain cash amid a plunge in world oil prices and a corruption scandal at the company. Petrobras' estimated $130 billion of debt is the largest in the oil industry and one of the largest of any industrial company in the world. A Brookfield press spokesman in Toronto declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Engie's press office in Rio de Janeiro declined to comment. A Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board press official in Toronto declined to comment. CNPC officials did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Petrobras' press office declined to comment in an emailed response to questions. (Reporting by Jeb Blount; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Marguerita Choy) (Adds Lockheed, Raytheon comments) WARSAW, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Poland has relaunched talks with Lockheed Martin's MEADS on a medium-range air- and missile-defence system, the deputy defence minister was quoted as saying in comments published on Thursday. The tender, whose value defence officials estimate at around $5 billion, is central to Warsaw's large-scale army modernisation programme, speeded up in response to the Ukraine crisis and Russia's renewed assertiveness in the region. Poland had previously excluded the U.S. Lockheed-led consortium from the tender, short-listing two contenders: a consortium of European group MBDA and France's Thales SA , and U.S. firm Raytheon Co, as potential suppliers. Last year, Poland's former centre-right government announced it would purchase Raytheon's Patriot system, a decision which the Law and Justice (PiS) party, then in opposition but now in government, said it would review should it come to power. Speaking to Reuters shortly before the election, Bartosz Kownacki, who went on to become deputy defence minister in charge of army modernisation, said a PiS government would reconsider Lockheed's offer as a cheaper option. Following PiS' decisive election victory in October, the conservatives challenged the deal, questioning the "original cost and timeline assumptions of Raytheon's offer, as well as those regarding the scope of (U.S.) cooperation with Polish industry" - a reference to how many of the jobs involved might go to Poles, and to potential technology sharing. "We're relaunching talks with MEADS," daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna quoted Kownacki as saying in a report published on Thursday. "We're still discussing who will be the supplier of the missile defence ... solution. Various options and various suppliers are possible. It all depends on the conditions which will be offered to us," Kownacki said. "We have always maintained that our previous MEADS offer for the ... programme remains valid," said Marty Coyne, MEADS director of business development in a statement sent to Reuters. Story continues Raytheon said it was supporting the negotiations between Washington and Warsaw regarding the sale of the Patriot system, and was in discussion with the Polish defence industry on technology transfer and jobs. "Raytheon has a proven track record of successfully meeting offset obligations and placing work in country," it said in a statement sent to Reuters. Earlier this month, Kownacki said that Raytheon's Patriot remained Poland's first choice in the tender, but only if the price was lowered and Poland could access certain U.S. defence technologies. (Reporting by Wiktor Szary; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal in WASHINGTON; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) Amid the upheaval in the energy sector, natural gas is doing well, while coal is struggling. The nat gas market is flourishing, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz told CNBC on Wednesday. "We are now perhaps at the 10-year mark of what has been a real natural gas revolution in this country," he said on " Power Lunch ." "Gas [is] now the biggest supplier, biggest fuel for electricity overtaking coal; [the] revival of manufacturing and now getting into the export market." Coal production dropped 32.5 percent year over year in the week that ended Feb. 13, according to the Energy Information Administration. As recently as 2005, the Department of Energy reported that natural gas consumption in the U.S. outpaced available domestic supplies and imports were needed, but Moniz said Wednesday that position has "changed dramatically." The secretary thinks America may be on its way to "probably being among the very biggest exporters of natural gas in the world." Contributing to the race, Cheniere Energy prepared to ship its first liquefied natural gas cargo on Wednesday. The company's interim CEO, Neal Shear, told "Power Lunch" in an interview that "Cheniere is a very unique company in this space." "We'll be the first one to deliver LNG. People should understand we're 87 percent contracted on seven trains. We have investor-grade counterparts that have signed 20-year contracts to deliver LNG from these facilities that we're [seeing] here today," he said. In this same vein, Moniz regards the move as "a very big deal." Liquefied natural gas is used to transport natural gas to markets, the gas is regasified and then distributed as pipeline natural gas. The Department of Energy reports that "a significant portion of the world's natural gas resources are considered 'stranded' because they are located far from any market. Transportation of LNG by ship is one method to bring this stranded gas to the consumer." Story continues Moniz told CNBC that by transporting liquefied natural gas, the U.S. economy will benefit from new jobs. Meanwhile, the EIA said that the imports by the three largest global importers of natural gas: Japan, China and South Korea, declined by about 1 billion cubic feet per day or 5 percent in 2015, in comparison to 2014. The North Asian countries saw a combined annual decline in LNG for the first time since the global economic crisis of 2009. EIA pegs the drop to "reduced demand for natural gas by the power generation sector, driven by slower economic growth and lower-priced competing fuels, [which] resulted in reduced LNG consumption." More From CNBC Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev (L) looks at President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with the BRICS countries' senior officials in charge of security matters at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, May 26, 2015. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Thursday that there is no "plan B" on Syria's ceasefire agreement and will not be one, according to Reuters. His comments echoed those of Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who said at a conference in Moscow that Russian officials are "perplexed by our Western partners, the US included, mentioning the existence of some kind of 'plan B.' Nothing is known on that one. We are considering no alternative plans." The Russian officials' comments come two days after US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the US was considering alternative options should 'plan A' a cessation of hostilities fail to materialize. It may be too late to keep it as a whole Syria if we wait much longer, Kerry told the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. Some analysts saw Kerry's comments as a subtle endorsement of partitioning Syria among Assad, Sunni rebels, and Syrian Kurds (and the terror group ISIS, if the international coalition is unable to defeat them in the country's east.) Kerry did not explicitly advocate this solution, and Russian officials said Moscow would not accept anything other than a political settlement. But some experts said Russian President Vladimir Putin would be content with a partition and that Russia's pattern of airstrikes in Syria indicate that it is already preparing a "plan B" should the regime fail to restore a central Syrian state and be forced to retreat to a fragment of government-held territory along the Mediterranean. "A second option [for Russia] is to fall back to the defensible parts of useful Syria after guaranteeing the safety of the Alawi canton," Joseph Bahout, a visiting scholar in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in December in Carnegie's "Syria in Crisis" blog. Story continues "This is perhaps already a consideration, as the majority of Russian airstrikes concentrate on the contours of this area," he added. russianairstrikessyria Bahout's observation was true in December. And, though the slopes of some battlefields most notably in Syria's second-largest city of Aleppo have shifted over the past two months, it is true now. Since intervening on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in late September, Russia has used airstrikes to create a buffer zone between rebel-held territory in the southern Idlib province and the traditional homeland of the Assads' Alawite sect in the Latakia governorate. The airstrikes have also targeted rebel-controlled territory just north of Homs that borders this so-called Alawi canton. An "Assadland" or "Alawistan" has arguably always been the Assad regime's "final card to play." Tony Badran, a researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies focusing on the military and political affairs of the Levant, predicted as much back in 2012, one year after the war erupted in earnest. To be sure, Assad's Syrian Arab Army (SAA) backed by by Iran-backed Shi'ite militias, Hezbollah fighters, and Russian air cover is still battling to retain control over the two most symbolically and strategically important cities in Syria. Those are Damascus, the capital which has been long viewed by rebel forces as the key to winning the war and Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city and main urban center in the north. Civil defence members search for survivors after airstrikes by pro-Syrian government forces in the rebel held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria February 14, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail But even if the regime were to drive the rebels out of Aleppo and Damascus, holding the cities would require a significant commitment of funding and manpower. It remains unlikely, moreover, that Assad will ever be able to re-assert his authority on the predominantly Sunni country. That is at least one reason why experts and analysts say that the war cannot end as long as Assad is in power. That said, Russia has yet to signal that it would accept a Syria devoid of Assad's influence doing so would be akin to accepting defeat by US-backed rebels and western proxies, whose influence Moscow is eager to supplant in the region. Solidifying a Russian "protectorate" in western Syria that is already held by the regime and dominated by a sect of Shia Islam loyal to the Assads, then, would give "a tangible reality to Moscows concept of a new international order." That's according to Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and a former EU ambassador, who wrote in Turkey's English-language newspaper Hurriyet in September. "To its snap annexation of Crimea and dominance of eastern Ukraine, Russia is now adding 'Assadland,'" Pierini wrote. "In doing so, it is showing the rest of the world that it has the capacity to redefine the international order, or at least the guts to act as spoiler in chief." U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet at the United Nations General Assembly in New York September 28, 2015. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert and professor of global affairs at New York University, agreed that while an "Assadland" or "Alawistan" would not be the Kremlin's first choice, it is "an acceptable lesser of many evils" for Russia. "It is not that Moscow would be happy with an Alawite statelet, but it is obviously and inevitably thinking of fallback options should it not get its ideal, which is an outright victory for Damascus," Galeotti told Business Insider in December. "A defensible, economically viable and politically more homogeneous 'Alawistan' would both ensure they retain a client-ally in the region and yet also be a much more manageable unit to have to support and project." NOW WATCH: A global intelligence analyst explains why Clinton is sinking in the polls More From Business Insider A worker walks past a pump jack on an oil field owned by Bashneft company near the village of Nikolo-Berezovka, northwest from Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia, in this January 28, 2015 file photo. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/Files MINSK (Reuters) - A potential deal between leading oil producers to freeze output should last for at least a year, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday. Russia and OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela agreed last week to work on a global deal to freeze oil output at January levels if other producers follow suit in a bid to tackle the global crude glut and support prices. Novak told reporters in Minsk on Thursday it was unclear whether the proposed output freeze would be just a verbal agreement or a signed document. "We don't yet know what format the agreements will take - whether an agreement or just statements and monitoring of the situation over several months," Novak said. "We think that it is needed for at least a year. But in order to understand how it works, one needs to live under such agreements for several months at least," he said. Moscow hopes that the oil market will balance faster if Russia and other countries do not increase output, Novak said. He said oil ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC countries were planning to meet in mid-March and that Russia would attend the meeting if it took place. Novak said he would also probably meet with Iran's oil minister in March. Iran is seen as the biggest obstacle to a deal to limit crude production. It is planning to ramp up its oil output following the end of Western sanctions and has said the output freeze proposal is "laughable". (Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; writing by Polina Devitt and Alexander Winning; editing by David Clarke) Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, a "ruthless and corrupt leader with his own private army" according to opposition activists (AFP Photo/Menahem Kahana) Moscow (AFP) - A ruthless and corrupt leader with his own private army who has carved out de facto independence for his restive region: Russia's opposition on Tuesday lashed out at Chechen strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov in a new report. The report -- authored by prominent opposition figure Ilya Yashin and entitled "National security threat" -- alleges that Kadyrov has been allowed by President Vladimir Putin to turn Chechnya into a personal fiefdom beyond the control of the central authorities. "We are opposing a corrupt, dangerous regime that poses a threat to Russia and Chechnya," Yashin said at a press conference, which police tried to break up after a bomb warning. "Today's regime in Chechnya you can describe as a personal rule." Kadyrov has already been widely criticised for rights abuses during his iron fisted rule in Chechnya after he rose to power following the assassination of his father Akhmat Kadyrov in 2004. In an Internet posting Kadyrov -- a former rebel fighter who officially took office in 2007 -- dismissed the report as "nothing more than chatter". The release of the report comes just ahead of the one-year anniversary of the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemstov in central Moscow that allies of the slain Kremlin critic have blamed on the tight circle around Kadyrov. Five Chechen men -- including a deputy commander of an interior ministry battalion from the region -- have been charged with carrying out a contract hit on Nemtsov last February 27, but no organisers have been detained. Yashin -- a close ally of Nemtsov -- said he collated the report from open-source material in a bid to show that Kadyrov's rule in Chechnya now poses a threat to the whole of Russia. Moscow fought two brutal separatist wars in Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s, but the region has now returned to relative stability under Kadyrov's iron-fisted grip despite a lingering Islamist insurgency. Story continues But Yashin said that Putin's policy of giving Kadyrov a free hand in Chechnya in return for an end to all-out fighting now threatens to blow up in the Kremlin's face. "Putin has put a time bomb in place in Chechnya that could lead to a third Chechen war or some other crisis," Yashin said. The opposition estimates that Kadyrov now has some 30,000 fighters -- nominally under the control of Russia's interior ministry but actually loyal only to him -- under his personal command. Kadyrov has recently sparked outrage with a string of public threats against prominent Kremlin critics. Earlier this month Kadyrov posted a video of former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, the leader of opposition party Parnas, along with his deputy targeted in the sights of a sniper rifle. Last month, the Chechen leader penned a lengthy diatribe against Putin's critics in pro-Kremlin daily Izvestiya, calling them a "gang of jackals" who "dream of destroying our state." By Orhan Coskun ANKARA (Reuters) - Russian energy giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) has reduced natural gas supplies to private sector companies in Turkey by 10 percent due to a price dispute, officials at Turkey's energy ministry told Reuters on Thursday. The cut came after Turkish companies refused to pay a fresh bill sent by Gazprom with higher prices after an initial deal between Ankara and Moscow envisaging a 10.25 percent reduction in prices was cancelled. Russia's Interfax news agency said the cut came into effect on Feb. 10. Six private Turkish companies buy a total of 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia annually. Gazprom declined to comment. Turkey is dependent on Russia for more than half of its natural gas imports but the two countries have been at loggerheads since November when Ankara downed a Russian warplane along the Turkey-Syria border saying it violated its air space. Turkey has not asked for additional supplies from elsewhere, an industry source said, as demand at the moment remained low due to warm weather. "At the moment there are no problems in terms of meeting the gas demand," he said. Turkey said last year it had struck a deal giving it a 10.25 percent price discount on gas from Gazprom, but a final signing was delayed, prompting state pipeline operator Botas to appeal to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Russia is Turkey's largest gas supplier with sales of 28-30 billion cubic metres annually worth around $6.5 billion. Turkey imports 60 percent of its gas and 35 percent of its oil from Russia. (Additional reporting by Dennis Pinchuk in Moscow; Writing by Humeyra Pamuk and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Mark Potter) * Deal would be biggest foreign purchase of Japanese tech firm * At least 4 of 13 board members in favour of Foxconn -sources Foxconn offers to pay fee if deal doesn't go through -source (Adds Sharp spokesman saying offers to be discussed on Thursday) By Makiko Yamazaki TOKYO, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The board of Japan's Sharp Corp began a two-day meeting on Wednesday to decide if it should accept a $5.9 billion takeover bid from Taiwan's Foxconn over an offer from a state-backed fund. A Sharp spokesman confirmed the offers would be discussed on Thursday, although he declined to say what its board members had discussed so far. The company is due to make a decision on Foxconn's offer by the end of the month. A deal with Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, would pave the way for the largest acquisition by a foreign company in Japan's insular technology sector, where deals have mostly been struck between domestic rivals and struggling firms rescued by banks or state funds. Foxconn is widely seen as the frontrunner in the race to rescue the loss-making electronics maker, with sources saying its offer is more than double the 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion) investment proposed by the state-backed Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ). After Sharp said this month it would devote more resources to studying a deal with Foxconn, the Taiwanese firm's CEO Terry Gou flew into Osaka to talk with Sharp executives and later announced that the two firms had agreed on most points of a deal. At least four of Sharp's 13 board members favour the Foxconn offer, two of whom represent Sharp's two main lenders, according to sources familiar with recent discussions. The lenders are wary of the INCJ plan, which calls for them to cancel the preferred shares they own, they said. But it was unclear how the other board members including Chief Executive Kozo Takahashi would vote, they said. Sources have declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak on the matter. Story continues INCJ at one time had been considered the more favoured suitor as it was seen as a more reliable investor with the backing of government. The fund has said it wants to merge Sharp's display business with Japan Display Inc, in which it is the top shareholder. Government officials initially backed INCJ's plan, fearing a loss of Japan's technological expertise to a foreign company. Sources have said, however, that policymakers warmed to Hon Hai's offer as a step towards bolstering foreign direct investment in Japan. LINGERING DOUBTS Yet, some sources have cited lingering doubts within Sharp over Foxconn's commitment, after a breakdown in a 2012 agreement between the two companies to form capital ties. In a gesture to reassure Sharp executives, Foxconn has offered to pay 100 billion yen as a cancellation fee if it does not go through with the deal, one source said. Board members will also discuss INCJ's offer before moving to a vote on Thursday, the sources said. A takeover by Foxconn, which assembles various electronics products such as smartphones and televisions for the likes of Apple Inc and Sony Corp, would vastly expand sales channels for Sharp's liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. Teruo Asamoto, professor at Kyushu Sangyo University, said Foxconn's ample resources would also enable much-needed investment in next-generation display technology, including for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens which Apple is believed to be adopting in its iPhone around 2018. The two companies "would make a good match as Sharp can take advantage of Hon Hai's expertise in production efficiency to commercialize their gadgets," he said. ($1 = 111.86 yen) (Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Additional reporting by Taro Fuse and Yoshiyasu Shida; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Muralikumar Anantharaman) And theyre willing to spend big to counter the threat. Traditional banks and financial services companies in Singapore are losing sleep over the rapid rise of their fintech competitors, according to a report by recruitment firm Robert Half. The survey showed that financial services companies are most concerned over the popularity of online investment firms, which was cited as the biggest threat by 40% of respondents. The next biggest impact is expected to be from challenger banks at 18% followed by peer-to-peer lenders (12 per cent). The survey showed that banking and financial services leaders know their businesses are under threat with many prepared to increase spending to counter fintech challengers. Singapore banks and financial institutions are actively countering this threat by upgrading their own user interfaces and moving more of their interactions to mobile and digital, said Stella Tang, Managing Director of Robert Half Singapore. The challenge to banks and financial institutions is to ensure they do not lose their customers to new firms offering easier, cheaper or more intuitive ways to compare and acquire the financial services they need. While the disruptive challengers pose a threat to traditional banks and financial institutions, there is still a long way to go before they topple the established banking hierarchy in Singapore, said Tang. More From Singapore Business Review By Lawrence White and Sinead Cruise LONDON (Reuters) - Standard Chartered's landmark attempt to claw back bonuses paid to staff deemed responsible for its current woes could be fraught with practical and legal difficulties, lawyers and investors said. Chief Executive Bill Winters said on Tuesday the bank could recover the bonuses of up to 150 senior staff, if they are found culpable of breaching internal rules during a freewheeling lending era under his predecessor Peter Sands, who left last June. The attempted clawbacks could represent a test case as to the enforceability of tough new rules put in place by Britain last year, as a response to the financial crisis, allowing banks to seek recovery of bonuses from bankers deemed to have acted irresponsibly up to 10 years after they are paid out. Lawyers said it would be the first time a bank has sought such clawbacks en masse since the new regulations were put in place. Attempts to recover bonuses have so far been rare, and have focused on individuals accused of clear misconduct. Winters' announcement of "robust accountability reviews" came as StanChart reported its first annual loss in 26 years, with bad loans jumping from $7.5 billion at the end of 2014 to $12.8 billion by the end of 2015. Some investors, however, are not holding their breath for material windfalls from the plan, particularly from those executives who are no longer employed by the bank. "It is a very reasonable idea, but probably a nightmare to enforce," one senior manager at a fund that owns Standard Chartered shares told Reuters, while a second investor said it may be more practical to design stricter remuneration structures than to try and claw money back. A spokesman for StanChart in London declined to comment. LEGAL BATTLEGROUND Britain has among the world's toughest rules on banker pay, introduced following public and political anger over lenders being bailed out by taxpayers in the crisis and bankers pocketing big payouts at a time of austerity for many people. The rules allow for bonuses to be cut, stopped or clawed back where bankers are subsequently found to have acted irresponsibly or breached risk or compliance regulations. Lawyers familiar with laws governing banker pay said the key distinction was between so-called malus - the cancellation of an intended future payment - and clawbacks, where a bank tries to recover monies already paid out. The latter is much harder to enforce. "Even if you have a very well crafted clawback clause, it can be hard in practice to demonstrate that an individuals behaviour has led to a particular result," said Anna McCaffrey, senior associate in the employment practice at Taylor Wessing. Clawbacks face several other challenges, including the difficulty of claiming back funds where a banker has moved to another part of the world or another company. The Bank of England proposed new rules in January to close the loophole for such so-called "roving bad apples" but they are not yet in force so would not apply to the StanChart plan. Lawyers said that recovering money in such cases, or proving that specific individuals could be blamed for a given failure in risk management by the bank, could be extremely difficult. "We haven't seen a big legal fight about clawback yet, and no one really knows how these arguments will play out," said Jon Gilligan, partner at GQ Employment Law. 'SYMBOLIC ACTION' StanChart CEO Winters said on Tuesday that some former senior executives at the bank had already paid a price for the lender's problems, without naming them. Long-term share incentives awarded in 2013 expired worthless after some senior executives failed to meet performance targets, the bank's annual report said. Former finance director Richard Meddings and former consumer banking head Steve Bertamini were among those who failed to meet performance measures and saw those incentives lapse, according to the report. StanChart has also held back a total of $61 million worth of unvested shares pledged to senior managers and "risk takers" such as traders and loan officers in 2015 due to 'performance adjustments,' according to a Reuters calculation from the company's annual report. Unvested shares are those that will be awarded at a future date, subject to conditions. Among the most high-profile StanChart bankers at risk of clawback is Mike Rees, the 26-year veteran of the bank and former deputy CEO, who will leave the bank at the end of this year. StanChart said on Jan. 7 that Rees's unvested share bonuses "remain subject to ... potential clawback". Rees was key to the shaping and execution of the bank's strategy under former CEO Sands. Lawyers said that while enforcing clawbacks could be fraught with difficulties, the mere attempt could reassure bruised investors - who have seen StanChart shares plunge 31 percent this year - that the lender is trying to promote accountability for risk-takers. "Pressure may be coming from shareholders, who have lost a lot of money recently, and it's unlikely you will be able to claw back anything like what they have lost, but it is a symbolic action," said GQ Employment Law's Jon Gilligan. ari tuchman quantifind Quantifind president Ari Tuchman doesn't have the background you might expect from a startup founder. Rather than a computer science degree from Princeton or MIT, or an MBA from Harvard, Tuchman holds a PhD in atomic physics from Yale specifically with a focus on Bose Einstein condensation. His cofounder, John Stockton, is a quantum particle physicist. Before Quantifind, he was a research scientist with Stanford University. "That's kind of what I thought I'd be doing," Tuchman says. As you might expect, its been a long, weird trip for Quantifind's founders from academia into the heart of the Silicon Valley tech startup scene. But it's paid off. Today, Quantifind announces a new $30 million investment from Cathay Innovation as it continues its mission of helping big corporations like Pepsi and Heineken understand what their customers want, sell more product, and generally make better decisions. So far, so good. Tuchman says that Quantifind is serving Fortune 1000 customers in all industries. It's not as big a shift as you'd think. Tuchman recalls his Yale PhD thesis advisor telling him "Half of physics is marketing." A new grant The Quantifind founders didn't really intend to end up in the data processing business. But in 2007, the two scientists decided to team up and explore how their research could best be applied to the real world. That process involved a lot of sketching ideas and throwing them away when they realized they had been beaten to the punch, Tuchman says. In 2009, Tuchman and Stockton had their first really solid, marketable idea: Applying their quantum particle research towards making portable MRI kits for United States Army medics to use on the battlefield. The two spent months working from a Silicon Valley donut shop, filing the paperwork to patent the battlefield MRI technology. mri brain scan Story continues The good news for Tuchman and Stockton was that the patent got them noticed by the National Science Foundation, the US government's research investment agency. The weird part was that the NSF wasn't interested in the MRI aspect they were interested in the intensely complicated math their scanner used under the hood to filter out quantum signal from microscopic noise. "Just a bit of the signal you're interpreting is actually meaningful," Tuchman explains. At the teeny-tiny particle physics level, you need to know how to separate out, say, dust particles from the atom-size bits of tissue you're trying to analyze. Those same equations can be fine-tuned to sift through Excel spreadsheets and other troves of data to sift the answers you need from the proverbial haystack. With NSF grant money in hand, Quantifind was officially incorporated in 2009. The Disney challenge Quantifind's earliest customers included the CIA, which used Quantifind's technology to trace counterfeit money and suss out fake identities of known criminals, Tuchman says. It also got used by medical researchers to pull out answers from genetic data. All of these "fun, fairly random" customer deals were fine, Tuchman says. But a lack of a real direction for the company slowed things down when it came time to go out and seek investor cash. "Hey, great job catching terrorists and curing cancer, but can you help me sell more movie tickets?" a Disney exec told him after a pitch, as Tuchman recalls. Those kinds of comments snapped Quantifind's model into focus: Rather than just do a few isolated data analysis deals here and there, it would reposition itself as a way for big companies to look at Facebook, Twitter, and the like, and use it to figure out the future of the business. quantifind signum In other words, Quantifind helps its customers mostly Fortune 1000-level companies in Hollywood, restaurants, retail, and other industries use social media to figure out which way customers are going to jump when it comes to any given product or service, and adjust their business accordingly. It comes back to that quantum imaging thing. People watching about a movie trailer aren't necessarily going to go see the movie. But if they post a link to the trailer on their Facebook, alongside a comment about how they can't wait for date night (or whatever), it probably means they'll shell out for a ticket. Quantifind cuts through that noise and goes beyond what Tuchman describes as "buzz and sentiment" to give you a better guess of where customers will spend their money. If you detect that they like (or don't like) a product or video, you can tailor your business accordingly. "We kind of tackled the Disney challenge head on," Tuchman says. (Tuchman says Quantifind can't comment on whether Disney, or any other big company, is a current customer.) Against the grain Since 2009, Quantifind has raised $60 million in investment cash, including the funding round today. In the middle of 2015, Quantifind hired Adobe veteran David Karnstedt as CEO, freeing the founders up to focus on the product. The new round will go towards the overall growth of Quantifind, from hiring to product R&D. Tuchman says that there's a certain point at which you just need a cash infusion in order to grow. While rivals including startup Mixpanel and IBM Watson also have similar prediction-based businesses, Tuchman says that they measure completely different things than Quantifind. Tuchman says that the market for startup funding may be slow today, as investors reconsider their positions amid a larger market slowdown, sure. But it's about the same level as 2009, when Quantifind was first going after funding in the wake of the massive funding bubble, Tuchman says. And in both cases, the company was able to find some cash, after all. That's because in 2009, as now, it's just important to make sure that the core of the business is strong and that you're actually making money, not just hype. "The similarity between '09 and now is a real focus on making sure what's under the hood is real," Tuchman says. NOW WATCH: China's abandoned Wonderland park will send chills down your spine More From Business Insider meditate meditation calm If you're like many Americans, you probably work long hours and take few vacations. It's a recipe for burnout. But what if there were a way to be successful without pushing yourself to the brink? Psychologist Emma Seppala has studied ways to help people who are chronically stressed out, and her findings could help many of us live healthier and happier lives without sacrificing our productivity. She outlines some of these findings in her new book, "The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success." A state of constant stress American culture is driven by a Puritan work ethic, Seppala told Business Insider. As a result of this, "were seeing really high levels of burnout and disengagement," she said. One of the main problems with working nonstop and feeling stressed out is that this behavior can activate our sympathetic nervous system aka the "fight-or-flight" response. And while some stress may be good for you in the short term, in the long term it's been linked to all sorts of terrible things, like an increased risk of mental disorders and heart disease. Some studies suggest it may also increase your risk of some cancers, like melanoma. Luckily, Seppala has identified one strategy that's especially helpful for reducing stress: meditation. Meditation exercises can tap into our parasympathetic, or "rest-and-digest" system. And a growing body of evidence supports this idea. The benefits of meditation don draper meditation mad men In 2014, Seppala and her colleagues did a study where they tried a meditation intervention for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who were suffering from post-traumatic-stress disorder (PTSD). They randomly assigned 11 vets to take part in a week of Sudarshan Kriya yoga, a group-based form of meditation that involves several types of breathing exercises mixed with periods of discussion and stretching. (During the study week, one person dropped out of the group because he said he didn't like it.) Another 10 vets were not assigned to do the meditation, for comparison. Story continues The researchers measured the veterans' startle reflex and breathing rate before and after the one-week study period. The veterans also filled out online questionnaires one month and one year after the study. Ten people from each group filled out the questionnaire after one month; nine people from the meditation group and eight from the comparison group filled it out after a year. The participants who took part in the meditation reported fewer PTSD symptoms and anxiety and had a slower breathing rate compared with before the study, whereas the comparison group didn't experience these benefits. Although it was small, the study findings suggest that certain types of meditation may be helpful in helping to reduce stress and anxiety in a chronically stressed population, namely, veterans. How to manage your energy walking alone outside Other research suggests meditation could have similar effects in healthy people, too. It all comes down to managing your energy, Seppala said. She suggests taking time to close your eyes, do some breathing exercises, or taking a walk as a way to regain your cool. And the benefits go beyond avoiding burnout: "If you take care of yourself, are less future-focused and more present, take more time off, and nurture relationships, you end up being more productive, more charismatic, and more creative," she said. NOW WATCH: The simplest way to get and stay happy, according to psychologists More From Business Insider Investors are not showing much enthusiasm as stocks (^DJI, ^GSPC, ^IXIC) aren't moving much heading into the midday session. To discuss that and some of the other big stories of the day are Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforous and Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman, along with Rob Fross, co-founder at Fross & Fross Wealth Management. Oil companies on the ropes Cheap oil has it's price, and the price might be bankruptcy for two oil and gas companies that just missed debt payments for a combined $7.6 billion. U.S. shale oil companies are financed largely from high-yield, junk-rated debt, and according to Moody's, default risk is approaching levels not seen since the financial crisis. According to Bloomberg data, the amount of bonds that risky U.S. energy companies will need to pay back is going to increase from about $25 billion this yearto a staggering $260 billion in 2022. Target's online success challenges Amazon Look out Amazon (AMZN). Target (TGT) has a bulls eye on you! The once-struggling low-priced retailer is seeing a surge in online sales, elbowing into Amazon's territory. In fact, Target's Internet sales growth during the holiday season outpaced Amazon by a wide margin. Who gets flights to Cuba? U.S. airlines are scrambling to get into Cuba. The Department of Transportation has given carriers until the middle of next week to apply for the up to 110 flights a day which will now be allowed after Washington loosened the embargo against the island nation. At least a half a dozen carriersincluding industry leader Americanhave already said they want in. Its been a rough few weeks for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz since his first place showing in the Iowa Republican presidential caucus on February 1. That seemingly auspicious beginning was followed by third place finishes in the next three contests, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. As he moves toward Super Tuesday, Cruz doesnt look likely to turn in a dominant performance anywhere. That includes the Lone Star state, where primary rules make it difficult or impossible for him to translate favorite son status into a major delegate landslide. (One recent poll, in fact, even calls into question his ability to win the state at all.) Related: Trump Embraces Israel, Vows 100 Percent Support In a cruel twist, the rules that the Texas Republican Party put in place for this years primary election make it exceedingly difficult for any candidate even one elected to the US Senate in a statewide race to come away with an overwhelming majority of the states 155 delegates to the Republican convention in July. The Republican National Committee purposefully blocked the earliest-voting states from conducting winner-take-all primaries, in which the statewide winner takes all the delegates, except in cases where the winner earns more than 50 percent of the vote. The requirement for all states voting before March 15 was that delegates be awarded proportionally, so that no candidate could rack up an insurmountable lead before most states had even voted. Some states, though, created systems that allowed for a backdoor winner-take-all result. An example is South Carolina where the winner at the state level got all of the at-large delegates, and the winner in each Congressional district got that districts three delegates. Thats how Donald Trump, with only 32.5 percent of the overall vote there, secured all 50 of South Carolinas delegates. Texas, however, built its system to make a winner-take-all result virtually impossible in a hotly contested primary. The state awards 108 delegates at the Congressional district level, 44 at-large delegates, and three automatic delegates (the state Republican Party chair and two Republican National Committee members.) Story continues Related: Welcome to Your Nightmare, GOP: An Unstoppable Donald Trump At the Congressional District level, unless a candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the first place finisher will get two delegates and the second place finisher will get one. In the unlikely event that nobody breaks the 20 percent threshold, then the top three candidates each get a single delegate. At the state level, the 44 at-large delegates will be split proportionally among all the candidates who receive more than 20 percent of the statewide vote again, unless someone wins more than 50 percent, in which case he will get all 44. The status of the three automatic delegates is not clear, but it appears likely that they will go to the statewide winner. For Cruz, given the status of the GOP race, this is less than ideal. Related: A Struggling Cruz Doubles Down on Mass Deportation Even if Cruz is able to beat Trump in his home state, both statewide and in every single Congressional district, hes still not likely to come out of the race with a major advantage. And if Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who beat Cruz in South Carolina and Nevada, can break the 20 percent threshold at the state level, he will dramatically reduce what little advantage Cruz retains. Pair that with this: Cruz underperformed badly in South Carolina, a state with a heavy concentration of the Evangelical Christian voters he has been courting. The demographics of South Carolina are similar to a number of the Super Tuesday states where Cruz was expected to perform well, suggesting he will struggle there, too. If Cruz delivers more lackluster showings in most Super Tuesday states, and cant even show some dominance in his home state of Texas, the pressure on him to get out of the race and clear some space for a more traditionally Republican alternative to Donald Trump will be intense. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Feb 25, 2016) - Tintina Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:TAU)(TINTF) ("Tintina" or the "Company") is pleased to give an update on the Black Butte Project and announce our new website focusing on development of the Johnny Lee copper deposit, one of the world's highest grade copper deposits. The website, www.blackbuttecopper.com, includes details of the underground mining project such as plans for the underground workings, surface sites, closure, and complete reclamation. The site includes an overview of measures for environmental protection, explains our commitment to the community and hosts an information center including a transparency library. It also highlights several videos explaining the project including a 3D animation showing what the site will look like before and during mining operations and after reclamation. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is currently evaluating Tintina's application for a mine operating permit for 'Completeness and Compliance'. Once the DEQ finds the application 'complete and compliant', the DEQ will select an independent third party to conduct a full Environmental Impact Study. An opportunity for public review and comment will follow the study. Bruce Hooper, CEO stated, "We are diligently working with the DEQ to provide the information needed to make a determination of Completeness and Compliance. We encourage everyone to review the details and benefits of our proposal by visiting our new website and touring the project when traveling through White Sulphur Springs." Jerry Zieg, VP of Exploration closed by stating, "I'm pleased to be able to share our new website with the public. This is our community's project as well, and we want to share with our neighbors our design for a mining operation which will excel in environmental protection while providing significant living wage jobs." ABOUT BLACK BUTTE COPPER PROJECT With a Measured and Indicated resource of 11.57 million tonnes with an average grade of 3.57%, the Black Butte Copper Project's Johnny Lee Deposit is one of the highest grade copper developments currently underway in the world. The Johnny Lee Deposit contains measured resources of 2.66 million tonnes with an average grade of 2.99% Cu for 175 Million lbs (79,534 tonnes) of copper and indicated resources of 8.91 million tonnes with an average grade of 3.74% Cu for 735 Million lbs (333,390 tonnes) of copper. Story continues Readers are encouraged to review the Updated Technical Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Black Butte Copper Project, Montana dated July 12, 2013 (the "PEA"), which is available on SEDAR, for additional information. ABOUT TINTINA RESOURCES INC. Tintina Resources Inc. is a growth company focused on the exploration, development, and mining of its 100% owned flagship property, the Black Butte Copper Project in central Montana, USA. The Company is led by a highly experienced executive management team that has a successful track record of building shareholder value through exploration, corporate finance, and mine development. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain disclosures in this release constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, including statements regarding the Company's plans for advancing the Black Butte Copper Project, including plans for tailings and water management and the MOP application, resource estimates and expected outcomes. In making the forward-looking statements in this release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that the Company believes are reasonable, including that the Company's plans for tailings and water management will be implemented as expected and will have the intended benefits, that the results of exploration and development activities are consistent with management's expectations and that the assumptions underlying mineral resource estimates are valid. However, the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to Tintina's operation as a mineral exploration and development company and the Black Butte Copper Project that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements, including that results of exploration and development activities will not be consistent with management's expectations, the risk of unexpected variations in mineral resources, grade or recovery rates, delays in obtaining or inability to obtain required government or other regulatory approvals or financing, failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, the risk of accidents, labor disputes, inclement or hazardous weather conditions, unusual or unexpected geological conditions, ground control problems, earthquakes, flooding and all of the other risks generally associated with the development of mining facilities and the operation of a producing mine. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Tintina does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Cautionary Note Regarding the PEA: The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. Furthermore, there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Readers are encouraged to read the technical report, which discloses the basis for the preliminary economic assessment and the qualifications and assumptions made by the authors of the report. Jerry Zieg, Vice President of Exploration for the Company is a Qualified Person for the purposes of NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the information of a scientific or technical nature contained in this news release. tom hardy taboo fx Oscar nominee Tom Hardy, who was in "The Revenant" and "Mad Max: Fury Road" last year, rides the line between London gentleman and savage on the event series for FX "Taboo." The cable network released the first trailer for "Taboo," which shows Hardy rubbing some very powerful men the wrong way as he tries to fulfill the mysterious legacy his father left for him. Hardy, who stars in and executive-produces the series, plays James Keziah Delaney. It's 1814, and he's returning to London after 10 years in Africa and is believed dead by those who knew him. In defending his father's legacy against his enemies, James finds himself in a face-off against the most powerful trading firm at the time, the East India Company. "I am a very dangerous man to know," Hardy's James says in the trailer, which shows a lush and dark side of London in the early 19th century, a time when Britain and America were at war. Michael Kelly ("House of Cards"), Jonathan Pryce ("Pirates of the Caribbean"), and Oona Chaplin ("The Hour") also star on "Taboo." The series, which boasts "Blade Runner" director Ridley Scott as an executive producer, is set to debut in 2017. Watch the vicious-looking trailer below: NOW WATCH: An actor from 'The League' has been telling this bogus 9/11 story for the past 14 years More From Business Insider Solar panels are seen inside the premises of the Jaisalmer Airport in desert state of Rajasthan, India, August 13, 2015. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee/Files GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States won a ruling against India at the World Trade Organization on Wednesday after challenging the rules on the origin of solar cells and solar modules used in India's national solar power programme. In a statement, the U.S. Trade Representative's office called the ruling a significant victory that would hasten the spread of solar energy across the world and support clean-energy jobs in the United States. The United States complained to the WTO in 2013 about the Indian solar programme, which sought to ease chronic energy shortages in Asia's third-largest economy without creating pollution. But a requirement that certain cells and modules be made in India fell afoul of WTO rules on discriminating against imports. The United States said its solar exports to India had fallen by 90 percent from 2011, when India imposed the rules. The WTO ruling, which can be appealed within 60 days, was repeatedly delayed as the two sides tried to negotiate a settlement. An Indian official had said a compromise might let India subsidise state projects such as defence or railway projects. Indian officials were not immediately available to comment on the WTO ruling. (Reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva and David Lawder in Washington, additional reporting by Douglas Busvine and Manoj Kumar in New Delhi,; editing by Stephanie Nebehay, Larry King) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department in Washington, DC (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb) Washington (AFP) - The United States and China have agreed on a UN resolution on North Korea's nuclear "provocations," the White House announced Wednesday, with diplomats saying it would include fresh sanctions and could go to a Security Council vote soon. Diplomats at UN headquarters in New York said Washington and Beijing, Pyongyang's main backer, had agreed on a draft resolution that contained "very tough measures." The United States circulated the draft text to the other three permanent council members -- Britain, France and Russia -- on Wednesday and was set to formally present it to the full 15-member council soon, said the diplomats, who asked not to be named. Negotiations on the draft resolution began six weeks ago after North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test on January 6, claiming it had successfully developed a thermonuclear device. During a meeting at the White House Wednesday, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed "on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through a UN Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions," said a statement from National Security Council spokesman Ned Price. "They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," added the statement. Underscoring the importance that the US placed on the negotiations, the statement said that President Barack Obama dropped in on the meeting. - 'Significantly substantive text' - The announcement came despite substantial and very public disagreement between the US and China on the best way to handle North Korea. China wants its reclusive neighbor to halt its nuclear weapons program and return to six-party international talks, but it has insisted that dialogue is the only way to curb Pyongyang's behavior. The biggest obstacle to talks, it argues, is Washington's stubborn insistence that it will not sit down with North Korea until the country takes steps towards denuclearization. Story continues Washington, on the other hand, insists that China, which is one of Pyongyang's biggest trading partners, should pressure the intransigent country into behaving better. Beijing, however, fears that too much pressure could trigger the collapse of the pariah regime, creating a political and humanitarian crisis on its border and removing a buffer against US troops currently stationed in South Korea. "There were a significant number of blockage points" between the United States and China, a Security Council diplomat said, adding that now "there is agreement." "There is good progress on the resolution and we are hopeful that there will be an adoption in the coming days," the diplomat said. One diplomat described the draft resolution as a "significantly substantive text", while another said it contained "a large number of very tough measures," as well as names to be added to the sanctions black list. However, it stopped short of the strongest measures proposed by the United States, which had met with strong resistance from China. - Xi to attend nuclear summit - The council has imposed four sets of sanctions on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006. After North Korea carried out a rocket launch on February 6, the Security Council renewed its pledge to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang. There are 20 North Korean entities and 12 individuals on the UN sanctions blacklist, which provides for an assets freeze and a global travel ban. But a UN panel of experts said this month that sanctions had failed to prevent Pyongyang from scaling up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. After a decade of sanctions, the panel said, it found "no indications that the country intends to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs." "There are serious questions about the efficacy of the current United Nations sanctions regime," the experts said in a confidential report. The White House statement added that Obama joined the meeting between Rice and Yi "to underscore his interest in building a durable, constructive, and productive US-China relationship." The US leader also said he looked forward to welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping to a March 31-April 1 nuclear security summit in Washington and "working together towards its success," the statement said. (Adds fresh quotes, details on deal, deposit) By Alexandra Ulmer and Girish Gupta CARACAS, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Venezuela and Canadian mining company Gold Reserve signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday to settle a protracted arbitration dispute over a gold concession through creation of a joint venture in the South American country. The deal would see Venezuela and Gold Reserve, which were embroiled in a dispute over the termination of the company's Las Brisas gold concession in 2009, jointly exploit the Brisas and Las Cristinas mines, President Nicolas Maduro said. The deal's fine print was not immediately clear, although Venezuela said the deal would result in a $2 billion dollar loan for the crisis-hit country. Gold Reserve's president, Doug Belanger, told Reuters that Venezuela would likely use the mining property as collateral to obtain financing. The small Canadian miner will receive compensation as part of the deal, Belanger added, although declining to give estimates for compensation or investment. "We're in agreement to settle. We will be receiving a payment," Belanger said after the signing ceremony in Caracas on Wednesday night, adding a final settlement was expected soon. ARBITRATION DISPUTES Gold Reserve was awarded around $750 million by the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes for the 2009 termination of its Las Brisas concession. The company and Venezuela had been in a dispute over the payment, which accrues interest. Other international companies, including oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp and ConocoPhillips, are seeking compensation for nationalizations under the late president, Hugo Chavez. Venezuela's government celebrated the deal on Wednesday, saying it would boost investment in the country and proved its willingness to negotiate. "It's the resolution of a conflict," Maduro said during a speech in which he announced other mining deals to certify Venezuela's gold reserves, which he said could be the world's second biggest. "Now we are partners." Story continues Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino added Gold Reserve would have a 45 percent stake in the joint venture, with the remaining 55 percent going to the state. "(This agreement) demonstrates this country's responsibility toward international investors," said Del Pino, amid worries on Wall Street that Venezuela may default on its debt or seek to avoid hefty arbitration payments. Sources told Reuters earlier on Wednesday that the country had the funds to pay $1.5 billion due on Friday on its Global 2016 bond. (Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Peter Cooney) Why Projections for Marketing Year 20162017 Drove Grain Prices (Continued from Prior Part) Trend in soybean prices March soybean futures contracts were near the support level of $8.65 per bushel on February 24, 2016. Prices fell for the fifth consecutive trading day and hurt producers interest on February 24. Prices continued on the downward channel. They were below the support level of $8.60 per bushel on the day. The volume fell by 13.6% on the day. It fell by 36.6% during the two-day period. The open interest fell by 23.7% on the day. Its expected to fall because the contracts first notice period is around the corner. Prices continued to trend above the critical moving averages. The above chart suggests that prices could be $8.60$8.75 per bushel in the short term. Price drivers The stronger consensus of the rise in soybean planting acres for marketing year 20162017 had a negative impact on soybean futures prices on February 24, 2016. South American harvests hurt the prospects of US soybeans in export markets. The US dollar appreciated by 0.03% on February 24 and dragged down US soybean exports prospects. Unfavorable weather conditions in northern Brazil could delay the harvests and support US soybean exports. The long lineup at the Brazilian ports could shift soybean exports to the US and support prices. Stocks review Fertilizer businesses would lose their prospects if soybean prices fall and reduce the farm incomes. On February 24, due to the decrease in soybean prices, the shares of CVR Partners (UAN) fell by 1.2% after rising by 39.7% for five days. The share value of Martin Midstream Partners (MMLP) continued to fall by 2.2% for the second consecutive trading day on February 24. It fell by 8.2% during the period. In contrast, Monsanto (MON) and Chemical & Mining Co. of Chile (SQM) rose by 1.6% and 0.74% on February 24, 2016. They recovered from the previous days decline. The MSCI India Total Return Index ETN (INP) fell by 1.0% for the second consecutive trading day with the fall in soybean prices. It fell by 3.3% during the period. Story continues Continue to Next Part Browse this series on Market Realist: amy schumer seth rogan Bud light ad Anheuser-Busch InBev the biggest brewer in the world and maker of the ubiquitous Budweiser is in a really funky place. The company reported a quarterly-earnings miss on Thursday, showing weakness both in the United States and also in emerging markets where it is hoping to take market share, especially China and Brazil. In a call with reporters after the report, CFO Felipe Dutra acknowledged that this was "not where we want to be." The company, to be more specific, is in a kind of investor purgatory. Macroeconomic headwinds and softness in Budweiser sales mean growth is anemic. Full-year sales volume declined by 0.6% in 2015, and the company's cost of sales increased by 3.9%. You can thank currency volatility for that. What's more, this is a company sitting on $42.2 billion of debt. But providing hope (at least for the bulls) that things will get better is AB InBev's $110 billion merger with SABMiller. Together, they'll make one out of three beers in the market. InBev raised $46 billion in debt in January to get the deal done. AB InBev's play with the merger was to move more aggressively into emerging markets, and investors expect serious cost savings. That is in part because of the company's reputation. AB InBev, after all, is known for its commitment to "synergies" and cost cutting. Jorge Lemann, a board member at InBev who was one of the billionaire finance wizards behind the SABMiller deal, once said he would love to look at Coca-Cola. "We could run it with 200 people," he said. Indeed, right before AB InBev announced that it would acquire SABMiller on October 13, SABMiller shut down the only brewer in South Sudan. BUD stock chart During Thursday's earnings call, though, it seemed as if the company was acknowledging that it would have to spend money to make money. Big beer is a marketing business, and as the beer drinkers start picking up craft beers, getting Amy Schumer to appear in a television ad is one of the edges big beer companies still have. Story continues And Amy costs money. The AB InBev-SAB transformation is not expected to be complete until the end of 2016. That's when we'll start to know whether we're really going to get the $1.4 billion in cost savings that investors are expecting. Macroeconomic headwinds, though, aren't going anywhere. Neither are changing tastes toward smaller brewers. Debt is piling up, and investors are feeling negative about stocks. AB InBev's stock is up less than half a percent since the SABMiller deal was announced, and it's down 10% year-to-date. Wall Street will wait to see whether this deal delivers, but Wall Street is not known for waiting politely. NOW WATCH: 8 ways to open a beer without a bottle opener More From Business Insider 2000 - 2022 24 .- . focus-news.net, () . 24 . 24 . . 24 . Comment Policy Advance Indiana allows you to post comments via this blog subject to the guidelines set forth herein. You understand that any comments you post are your own and are not those of Advance Indiana. You further understand that Advance Indiana is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced in your comments. Unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive, or otherwise objectionable comments are not acceptable. If you think any content posted or otherwise included in Advance Indiana violates the guidelines set forth herein, then please alert Advance Indiana. Advance Indiana reserves the right to pre-screen, edit, and remove any post as it deems appropriate. You specifically acknowledge that Advance Indiana has no obligation to display any post submitted or otherwise provided via Advance Indiana. We value your privacy. Focus Taiwan (CNA) uses tracking technologies to provide better reading experiences, but it also respects readers' privacy. Click here to find out more about Focus Taiwan's privacy policy. When you close this window, it means you agree with this policy. Somehow, I really don't trust these fellows in government, right now. They've done nothing to impress upon me they in any way understand taxation. Or even representation. They don't understand governing, whatsoever, to be honest.A $1.9 billion surplus when they'd forecast a $2 billion deficit? Seems shady. Something stinks of a lie.The most likely reason is the government is excluding something from the budget.Some thing or things totaling $3 billion in spending, not being accounted for by this Conservative government. It'd be nice if we had a budget officer who'd have already looked into the numbers to announce whether the government was being honest or not.The Military, Veterans Affairs, the CBC, Air Canada, the NFB, healthcare, Canada Pension Plan, ect, and ect.Somebody, the press and opposition parties, needs to look into these numbers, and do it quick, because they stink of fudge.Thankfully and surprisingly the Ottawa Citizen has.......Lee Berthiaume reports (link is external) on the $8.7 billion budgeted but unspent by the federal government over the past year. And if the Cons want to try to claim credit for the government's fiscal position, then surely they have to answer a couple of key questions for the money that went unspent:What caused them to decide between 2014 and 2015 that the funding they themselves included in the budget shouldn't be used? And if they're on such an unsound fiscal footing that they feel the need to slash this much within a year of passing their preferred funding amounts in a majority Parliament, why would anybody take their platform numbers and promises seriously?more OTTAWA -- Congratulations, Prince Edward Island!Canada's tiniest province was a hands-down winner in the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation annual government waste awards.The province won after it printed up a 180,000 copies of a tourism guide with a front cover that featured a nice beach scene with a woman and man, who was sporting an erection.P.E.I. was the winner in the "provincial" category in in 18th annual ceremony put on by the taxpayers group."We never have any lack of nominees," CTF federal director Aaron Wudrick said. "It's an endless fight. And while it's a serious issue, we like to have a little fun with it."Each winner gets a golden hog perched on a pedestal. Few winners, though, bother to collect their prize.Here's this year's crop:Canada's 2015 COP Paris delegationAmount wasted: At least $400,000The Justin Trudeau government sent 283 delegates to the climate change conference in Paris, some who stayed for a week or more. The U.S. delegation was half that size. The total cost is not yet known but travel and accommodation for just 25 non-government personnel was $122,500 and those for Foreign Minister Stephane Dion and his staff alone was $282,000.Kudos to Andrew Weaver, the B.C. Green Party MLA who turned down an invite. He said he thought it was wasteful join what he called "a big circus."-- The Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg -- $1.89 million on its opening weekend celebrations.-- The Department of Foreign Affairs -- $200,0000 for a party at its renovated London embassy, including $9,716 to ship Canadian wine by sea and $4,000 to fix a spelling error on a commemorative plaque.-- "The Severance Seven" - seven provincial or municipal politicians who took "transition allowances" when they were elected federally. Six Liberals got between $30,000 and $132,000 each. One Conservative, Calgary's Len Webber, scored $324,000. (Kudos: Conservative MP Gerard Deltell was entitled to a transition allowance from Quebec legislature, but he declined.)P.E.I.'s engorged tourism ad (above)-- Alberta School Boards Association - $41,000 on perks for staff, including a $900 adult Easter egg hunt and a $5,000 Christmas dinner. Staff members got a $50 gift card on their birthdays and $150 gift card for Christmas- The Ontario Pan Am Games - swanky hair stylist paid $4,000 a day for athletes. Final bill: $140,000.- Ontario's Energy Ministry - $40 million a year on converting a Thunder Bay power plant from coal-fired to biomass. The government ignored the Ontario Power Authority's advice against it. Now it operates just five days a year and, though the plant is in the middle of Canada's boreal forest, it has to import wood chips from Norway for fuel.Calgary is recognized for its "poop palace." The city spent $246,000 to put coloured LED lights on a wastewater treatment centre. The lights change colour depending on how much water is going through the plant.- Victoria - $10,000 on a special six-floor stairwell in a municipal parkade. LED lights sparkle on and off when the handrail is touched, and different music plays at each level.- Saskatoon - $5.3 million to replace 2,800 parking meters with 325 solar-power pay stations. System doesn't work and, parking tickets have to be written out by hand.- Saskatoon - $462,000 in 2010 to decorate a bridge with LED lights, which had to be repaired five times in one year, each repair requiring the closure of the bridge. Earlier this year, the bridge was demolished -- with $462,000 worth of LED lights still attached to it.- Peterborough, Ont. - Dissolved a police force that served the city and its rural area and replaced it with a city-only force. That resulted in a $460,000 severance payout to the chief and deputy chief, even though they're both hired back in the same roles with the new force. I thought I was pretty clear. The President has every right to submit a name and if he wants to he should. The GOP is just following the Democrats lead and saying they won't have a hearing for it.So the President should keep being President and execute the laws of the land. I say that with a BIG LAUGH because we all know the President ignores laws he doesn't like.In addition... Obama cannot even fully enact Obamacare. Probably because he wants to be out of office when the exemptions end. Historian PhD, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Ukraine, 2009-2011), college teacher, retired director of NEH affiliates in DC and Florida, Fran offers a multi-layered perspective on current issues, culture and community. A different voice. A unique perspective. From the bottom up. About Me Free Cuba Foundation The Free Cuba Foundation is an action oriented youth movement committed to defending human rights, support the Cuban internal democratic opposition, and advocate for the principles of Gandhian non-violence. View my complete profile Christopher L. Hodapp is the author of Freemasons For Dummies, the worldwide, best-selling introduction to the Masonic fraternity; Solomon's Builders: Freemasons, Founding Fathers and the Secrets of Washington D.C. ; and Deciphering the Lost Symbol. His most recent book, Heritage Endures, was published in January 2018. Since 2009 he has been on the Board of the Masonic Library & Museum of Indiana, and serves as its Associate Director and Treasurer. In 2021, Chris was named as Public Relations and Marketing Director for the Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of the State of Indiana. Chris is also the co-author with Alice Von Kannon of The Templar Code For Dummies and Conspiracy Theories And Secret Societies For Dummies. As a Freemason, Chris is a Past Master of Broad Ripple Lodge No. 643 and of Lodge Vitruvian No. 767 under the Grand Lodge F&AM of Indiana; he is a member of Indiana's Schofield Lodge 1818 U.D.; and of Internet Lodge No. 9659 in the Province of East Lancashire of the United Grand Lodge of England. Most recently, he was named the Worshipful Master of the Dwight L. Smith Lodge of Research U.D. in Indiana for 2019-21. In 2018 he was awarded the Caleb B. Smith Medal of Honor by the Grand Lodge F&AM of Indiana for his "distinguished service to Freemasonry in Indiana and worldwide." Chris is a 33 Mason in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite (NMJ), Indianapolis Valley. He is a Past Sovereign Master of Imhotep Council No. 434 of the Allied Masonic Degrees. He is a founding member of Levant Preceptory, a medieval Knights Templar period recreation degree team in the York Rite, and he is an officer of the Indiana College of the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis. He belongs to numerous other Masonic appendant organizations. As a Masonic author, in 2012 he was named as Friar No. 101 in the Society of Blue Friars. Chris is a Founding Fellow of The Masonic Society, and was the founding Editor in Chief of The Journal of The Masonic Society. He remains a regular contributor today, and its Editor Emeritus. He was the editor and a contributor in 2004-5 to "Laudable Pursuit: A 21st Century Response to Dwight Smith" by the Knights of the North, a Masonic leadership think-tank focusing on modern lodge solutions. He has written for Indianapolis Monthly, Heredom, Masonic Magazine, Templar History, the Scottish Rite Journal, the Knight Templar Magazine, the Indiana Freemason , the Phylaxis, and numerous other publications. Chris was a commercial filmmaker for twenty-three years with Dean Crow Productions in Indianapolis. Hodapp and Alice Von Kannon developed scripts for the History Channel program, Brad Meltzer's Decoded in 2010, and contributed material on conspiracies and secret societies for TruTV and the American Heroes Channel. They have both appeared on National Public Radio, the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and the American Heroes Channel - most recently in 2017 on America: Facts vs Fiction. Chris and Alice live in Indianapolis with Sophie the Flying Poodle who has them both answering to basic commands. However, they can frequently be found alarming the wildlife and dazzling the rustics in their Airstream trailer as they crisscross the country. Appropriately, their newest book together is RVs and Campers For Dummies, released in June 2021. Sponsors of legislation to expand health care coverage to the working poor and other needy Nebraskans said Wednesday they will cover $53 million in anticipated state costs over a three-year federal waiver period without dipping into the state tax-supported general fund. Estimates of the costs associated with the proposal (LB1032) came into sharp focus earlier in the day with completion of a legislative fiscal analysis that will guide senators in considering the bill. The proposed legislation to access additional federal Medicaid dollars available to Nebraska under the Affordable Care Act would cost the state an estimated $58 million by fiscal 2020-21 while bringing nearly $1 billion in federal funding to the state. But it is the first three years of the project that will occupy immediate legislative attention because the new program would be authorized under a three-year federal waiver of Obamacares original Medicaid expansion plan. One source of funding for the $53 million in state costs already has been identified as the state health care cash fund, which includes tobacco settlement dollars allocated to the states for tobacco-related health care costs. Sens. Heath Mello of Omaha and Kathy Campbell of Lincoln said they are reviewing additional funding sources that would be general fund-neutral. A number of options are being considered, said Mello, chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Mello and Campbell are co-signers of the legislation introduced by Sen. John McCollister of Omaha. One of the realities dramatized by the fiscal analysis is that Nebraska has missed the opportunity for 100 percent federal funding of the health care coverage expansion contained in Obamacare. The health care reform legislation provided 100 percent federal funding for the first three years of the Affordable Care Act, but the Legislature has rejected annual efforts to enroll Nebraska in the plan. Now, the state will not be in position to implement the program until the federal funding match has dropped to 94 percent. Under ACA, it would gradually dip to a permanent floor of 90 percent. We now clearly see what losing 100 percent would mean, said Campbell, chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Committee. Its higher than initially thought, she said, but I think its workable. A factor that needs to be considered is the potential infusion of more than $2 billion in federal money into the states economy over a five-year period and its impact on jobs as well as improved health care, Campbell said. The fiscal analysis suggested that over a five-year period, the legislation would generate $2.8 billion in federal funding support compared to $111 million in projected state costs. The legislative fiscal analysis of LB1032 differed markedly from an earlier analysis provided to the states Department of Health and Human Services by Optumas, a health care strategy firm that acts as the agencys contracted actuary. Mello said the HHS study pegged state costs at roughly double the amount projected by the new study. Major differences resulted, in part, from differences in methodology, Mello said, but also because the legislative study uncovered new information. The focus remains to help improve health care for Nebraskans, Mello said. More than 100,000 Nebraskans would be assisted by the proposal with coverage in health care exchanges, insurance premium assistance and coverage of the medically frail through Medicaid managed care. The largest numbers of people fit the definition of the working poor, Nebraskans who fell through the cracks in Obamacare opened by a U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave states the right to opt out of the expanded Medicaid program contained in the Affordable Care Act. Those workers are too poor to afford private health care insurance and yet make too much money to qualify for Obamacare subsidies. Gov. Pete Ricketts opposes the bill, arguing that Nebraska cannot afford it and that it will distract from other priorities. Campbell said she will schedule a fiscal analysis briefing for members of her committee next week before it considers acting on the proposal. She spread her sneakers the width of her shoulders as she struggled to take a step just inches from the security of her walker. Her fingers wrapped around the kitchen sink to hold on tight. Two stabilizing rods protruding from her hips slowed her down, and she winced as she dipped into squats like an ungainly ballerina. Julie Swann-Paez, a mother to three children, doesnt dwell on the day that led her here. Her dreams dont take her to the room where it happened. That room was the conference room at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, where the 50-year-old Swann-Paez found herself curled on the floor, hugging her knees as bullets tore through the air and into bodies. Someone walked up behind her and fired a bullet through her pelvis, shattering it into pieces. Blood and urine soaked her pants. She felt around for wounds and tried hard not to sink out of consciousness. Three minutes later, Swann-Paez was shot in the pelvis once more. She thought of her children and her husband and sent them a text: Love you guys. Was shot. Two months after 14 people were killed and 22 wounded in the worst terrorist attack in the United States since Sept. 11, Swann-Paez has endured four hours of surgery and a month in a hospital and rehab. She spends her days practicing walking and building strength in her core. The furniture decorating her home now doubles as exercise equipment. She works her way back to the living room, where her physical therapist watches from the doorway, warning her not to overdo it. Her arms find the bar top in front of her and she braces against the counter, lowering into a push-up position while teetering on her toes. My son says, Well, you need to strengthen your core, Mom, Swann-Paez says. And I say, Well, you know, theres a little problem in the abdominal area here. She laughs and looks down at the rods tugging at her pajama pants. Everything changes After a light breakfast potluck of muffins and doughnuts, the San Bernardino County health department employees gathered at the Inland Regional Center on Dec. 2 took a break. It was around 11 a.m. Some headed toward the bathrooms. That would be a stroke of luck. Swann-Paez and a few of her co-workers decided to grab their cameras and take pictures in front of the Christmas tree. As they struck their first pose, Swann-Paez heard a loud noise near the back door. Thats when I saw him come in and I got down, she said. I thought, This couldnt be. I thought it was a drill. The shooter who walked into the conference room had the build of a man, Swann-Paez said. Authorities identified Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, as the perpetrators of the attack. Swann-Paez knew Farook in a casual way, but the gunman was covered in black from head to toe and wearing a mask, she said. Whoever was shooting didnt say a word. It wasnt until Swann-Paezs son, Nick Paez, visited her in the hospital later that day that she learned who was behind the attack. They think its your co-worker, Nick Paez told his mother. That doesnt make sense, she replied. They were congratulating him for having a baby. She spent those first days after the shooting connected to a morphine drip. One of the bullets had ruptured her bladder. For about a week she couldnt drink water. On a Sunday night, she was handed her first cup after being shot. She clutched it, cool to her face. She was so happy, Paez, 26, said. She looked like she was going to Disneyland, the smile she had on her face. Life now Im honestly just not used to being cooped up, Swan-Paez says, adjusting herself on the recliner on a recent afternoon. I am used to being on the go. ... Now Im stuck. Cant move, cant get out of bed, cant lay on your side. And you know ... its very isolating.Swann-Paez had been the family manager, handling household errands and making sure everyone else was doing fine. Before, she used to struggle with accepting help even from her husband, Jesus. But after she was shot, she had to rely on him as the easiest of tasks rolling over, walking down the hall became grueling challenges. She takes Tylenol to endure the pain; a muscle relaxant to sleep through the night. In her first weeks at home, Jesus Paez lifted her legs onto their bed when it was time to turn in for the night. In rehab, he helped her bathe and get to the bathroom. He still picks things up off the floor and ties her shoes because she has difficulty bending down. She hates inconveniencing her family. Thats my struggle, she says. What she wont do, Swann-Paez says, is let her mind linger too long on the day of the mass killing. With each session of physical therapy, she hopes to get closer to the dream she will allow to invade her mind time and again: a sand-filled summer playing on the beach and walking next to her 11-year-old daughter, Ellie. Swann-Paez said she struggles with finding the best way to express her gratitude for being alive with her husband and children. She wonders how she can thank all the people, including those she never met, who sent her get-well cards and quilted her blankets. The shooting didnt make her a fearful or more cautious person. It showed her the good, Swann-Paez says. She falls silent to keep from crying, then gives in. Its the only thing that brings her to tears: gratitude. That weighs heavily on me, she says. I cant figure out how to tell people how thankful I am. This is the hardest part of recovery, she says much harder than dealing with the shooting itself. This S ite May Contain Copyrighted () Material. The Use of Which Has Not Always Been Specifically Authorized by The Copyright Owner. Such Material is Made Available to Advance Understanding of Ecological, Political, Human Rights, Economic, Democracy, Scientific, Moral, Ethical, Social Justice Issues, Teaching, and Research. It is believed that this Constitutes a ''Fair Use'' of Any Such Copyrighted Material as Provided For in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In Accordance With Title - 17 U.S.C. Section 107, This Material is Distributed Without PROFIT to Those Who Have Expressed a Prior General Interest in Receiving Similar Information For Research and Educational Purposes. Visit the following link for more information: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode Worldhotels, a leading group of independent luxury and upscale hotels, is offering travel agents the chance to win an attractive prize of a six-night vacation in Vietnam for two persons inclusive of airfare and accommodation. Travel agents should enter Worldhotels new social media Hug an Agent campaign to win four-night accommodation at the Caravelle Hotel Saigon and two-night accommodation at the Cam Ranh Riviera Beach Resort & Spa Nha Trang. With this campaign, Worldhotels would like to show their appreciation to their travel agency partners and encourage travel agents to share a virtual hug. To participate, travel agents should follow the below instructions: 1. Follow @worldhotels_ag on Instagram. 2. Upload a photo onto Instagram, which reflects the Hug an Agent theme. 3. Include both hashtags #worldhotels_ag and #hugagent. 4. Accept the Instagram request that Worldhotels will be able to follow the participants profile in order to confirm the participation. The contest will run until 4 March, the winner will be randomly selected from all eligible contest entries received during the applicable contest period and will be informed latest by 18 March. Visit http://www.worldhotels.com/travel-agents/hug-an-agent-contest for more information and the possibility for travel agents to book deeply discounted travel agent rates during the contest period. Turkish Airlines today organized a B2B workshop at Renaissance Istanbul Polat Bosphorus with a participation of 70 agents from Turkey and 22 representatives from three Baltic countries; Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The B2B workshop started first with Turkish Airlines promotional videos followed by presentations of three Baltic countries; presented by Kulli Karing from Estonian Travel and Tourism Association, Egle Kudzmaniene from Lithuania Tourism Department, and Anna Blaua from Riga Tourism Department Bureau. Speaking to ftnNEWS, Turkish Airlines General Manager in Vilnius said, "Turkish Airlines flies daily to Vilnius, Tallinn, and Riga. Today's workshop was very productive, according to the impressions received today, Turkish outgoing travel agents will increase their tour packages. Many plan to create packages visiting all three countries in a single tour. We speak with Zydre Gaveliene who is the General Manager of Vilnius based estravel and also president of both National Tourism Business Association and Tourism Chamber of Lithuania. Mrs. Gaveliene sent her appreciation to Turkish Airlines connecting Baltic countries to the world via Istanbul and serving Turkish citizens to see the world. Turkey promotion in Baltic Region needs update Mrs. Gaveliene also told us about the wrong perception of Baltic people about Turkey; sending professional insight to Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry about their promotions in the region. Turkey should promote more of its culture and history instead of its 3S (Sea-Sun-Sand) tourist product. At her last words, Mrs. Gaveliene said that travel industry should stand against terrorism and show that we are not afraid of such acts. We also asked Mrs. Gavelieve, what Turkish travelers will find in Lithuania. She shortly answers. American Airlines announced executive appointment for Miami Hub Operations. Ralph Lopez has been promoted to Vice President Miami Hub (MIA) Operations. He is succeeding Marilyn DeVoe, who will retire from American this summer after nearly 40 years with the airline. Lopez has been with American for more than 20 years and most recently served as Managing Director London Heathrow Operations. Prior to that, he was Managing Director LaGuardia & Newark Operations. Additionally, he spent nearly ten years leading the airlines operations at several airports including San Juan, Puerto Rico; Lima, Peru; Santiago, Chile; and Kingston, Jamaica among others. DeVoe has led the MIA hub since 2010. In this role, she has played an integral part in establishing American as the preeminent carrier to Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America. Previously, she served as Vice President Dallas/Fort Worth Hub Operations as well as Vice President Customer Services Planning, where she was responsible for the business planning, automation, service policies and support for all airport operations. DeVoe joined the company in the finance department and has also served in numerous other management positions. Americans chairman and CEO Doug Parker said, Marilyn has been an important part of American Airlines for almost four decades. Her dedication to the airline, to our employees and to the communities in which she has worked has left an indelible mark. Everyone who has worked with Marilyn is better off as a result. We will miss Marilyn and we thank her for her amazing service and loyalty to American." At midday on Friday 5 February, 2016 Julian Assange, John Jones QC, Melinda Taylor, Jennifer Robinson and Baltasar Garzon will be speaking at a press conference at the Frontline Club on the decision made by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the Assange case. TULSA, Okla., Feb. 24, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SemGroup Corporation (NYSE:SEMG) and Rose Rock Midstream, L.P. (NYSE:RRMS) will attend the Barclays Master Limited Partnership Forum on Tuesday, March 1, 2016, as well as the Morgan Stanley Corporate Access Event on Wednesday, March 2, 2016. Both conferences will be held in New York City. SemGroup and Rose Rock Midstream Chief Financial Officer, Bob Fitzgerald, will conduct one-on-one meetings with members of the investment community. The presentation materials used during the conference will be accessible on the SemGroup website at www.semgroupcorp.com on Tuesday, March 1, 2016. About SemGroup Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, SemGroup Corporation is a publicly traded midstream service company providing the energy industry the means to move products from the wellhead to the wholesale marketplace. SemGroup provides diversified services for end users and consumers of crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids, refined products and asphalt. Services include purchasing, selling, processing, transporting, terminalling and storing energy. About Rose Rock Midstream Rose Rock Midstream, L.P. (NYSE:RRMS) is a growth-oriented Delaware limited partnership formed by SemGroup Corporation (NYSE:SEMG) to own, operate, develop and acquire a diversified portfolio of midstream energy assets. Headquartered in Tulsa, OK, Rose Rock Midstream provides crude oil gathering, transportation, storage and marketing services with the majority of its assets strategically located in or connected to the Cushing, Oklahoma crude oil marketing hub. SAN DIEGO, Calif., Feb. 25, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - The City of San Diego issued a proclamation, signed by Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer, officially assigning March 2nd as First Associates Loan Servicing, LLC Day. First Associates, the nation's fastest growing loan servicing company has been awarded this honor by the Mayor and the city of San Diego, to recognize its thirty years as a successful business in the community. The proclamation coincides with First Associates 30th Anniversary of enabling hundreds of clients to build stronger, long-term relationships with consumers and improve the performance of their loan portfolios. "We are very honored and excited to announce March 2nd as First Associates Loan Servicing Day," said David Johnson, First Associates CEO. "We are proud to have been a part of the San Diego business community for the past thirty years, and look forward to another thirty." The proclamation has been granted in recognition of the following accomplishments of First Associates Loan Servicing, LLC: Developed the fastest-growing third-party loan and lease servicing company in the United States Pioneered industry leading work with a wide range of asset classes, including marketplace lending, automotive, purchase finance, powersports, and small business Achieved massive growth through continuous innovation Employs people throughout North America, with staff in the United States, Canada, and Mexico Recently expanded their San Diego headquarters from 100 to 200 To commence the official naming of March 2nd as First Associates Loan Servicing, LLC Day, their 30th Anniversary, and the recent expansion of their San Diego headquarters, First Associates is hosting a 30th Anniversary Celebration and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. The exclusive, invitation only event will be attended by many of Wall Street's leading investment firms and leaders from the FinTech industry. "The entire First Associates team is looking forward to celebrating our achievements and record growth," said Johnson. "We have grown from a small specialty firm to an established industry leader across multiple asset classes including marketplace lending, automotive, purchase finance, powersports, and small business." About First Associates Loan Servicing, LLC First Associates Loan Servicing is the fastest-growing third-party loan and lease servicer in the United States. With thirty years of experience in the consumer finance industry, First Associates is the country's leading marketplace lending loan servicer. The company, based in San Diego, works with a wide range of asset classes, including marketplace lending, automotive, purchase finance, powersports, and small business. The company also offers a variety of support solutions, including backup servicing and custodial functions. For more information, visit http://1stassociates.com/. This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/02/prweb13235737.htm TommyWallach wrote: Hey All, I see you complaining about the guidelines. How dare you! : ) But seriously, this is NOT a definite idiom. You do NOT have to say "but also" when you say "not only". If you had it correct, it would have been preferable to this, but it's not a hard and fast rule. In fact, GMATPrep (the test that GMAT gives out) has featured a question that uses this variation on the idiom, which is how we KNOW it is not hard and fast: By pressing a tiny amount of nitrogen between two diamonds to a pressure of 25 milliion pounds per square inch, scientists not only were able to transform the gas into a solid, but they also created a semiconductor similar to silicon A. not only were able to transform the gas into a solid, but they also created B. not only were able to transform the gas into a solid but also creating C. were able not only to transform the gas into a solid but to create D. were able not only to transform the gas into a solid but also creating E. were able not only to transform the gas into a solid but they were also able to create The correct answer is C, which uses "not only...but". This is another legit way to phrase it as is: Not only X, but Y, too. Not only do I want X, but so does Y. Hope that helps! -t TommyIn the example you gave - E is wrong because of repetition? Correct?thanks The Gorilla Radio archive can be found at: www.Gorilla-Radio.com. G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in State and Corporate media. Gorilla Radio airs live Thursdays between 11-12 noon Pacific Time. Airing in Victoria at 101.9FM, and featured on the internet at: http://cfuv.ca and www.pacificfreepress.com. And check out Pacific Free Press on Twitter @Paciffreepress After a highly profile search for suspects and subsequent arrests, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said that his office is dropping allegations that a young woman was raped by multiple teenagers in a Brownsville playground, citing "multiple inconsistent accounts" and the woman's desire not go further with the criminal case. The incident allegedly occurred on January 7th, around 9 p.m., when the 18-year-old woman and her father, 39, were in Osborn Playground. The pair initially told police that while there, a group of five teenage boys approached them with a gun and ordered the father to leave; then the teens allegedly took turns raping the woman and fled before the father returned with the police. In the days after the incident was publicized, it was revealed that the father apparently took 20 minutes to get help and didn't tell bodega clerks that his daughter was being assaultedhe just said that he needed to use the phone. One clerk said that he appeared drunk. After the teens were arrested, two claimed that the father and daughter had been having sex in the playground when they got there. One of the suspects reportedly had a cellphone video that showed the teens talking to the victim, indicating that she may have consented to the encounter. The suspects were eventually released without bail. Yesterday, DA Thompson said: Working closely with the NYPD, my office has thoroughly investigated disturbing and very serious allegations of a gang rape at gunpoint last month inside the Osborn Playground in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. The complainant, as well as her father, provided multiple inconsistent accounts to NYPD Detectives and to experienced Special Victims prosecutors about important material facts in this case. The complainant has recanted her allegations of forcible sexual assault and the existence of a gun, and she does not wish to pursue criminal charges against any of the defendants. She also refuses to cooperate with any prosecution against her father, who was engaging in sexual conduct with her. That night, this young womans father and the five young men engaged in conduct that was reprehensible and wrong, but because of the lack of reliable evidence, criminal charges simply cannot be sustained. It is my fervent hope that this young woman gets all the support that she needs going forward. My office, including our victim advocates who have been working with this young woman, stand ready to provide her with any assistance she may need. The NY Times reports that the woman had a "deeply troubled childhood in foster care" after being taken from her mother, who was a drug user: "When she turned 18, the woman, whose mother had died, learned her biological fathers identity and contacted him through Facebook, the officials said. Last July, she came to New York to meet him." Further, according to the Times, "Aside from her lack of cooperation, considered vital to most sex-crimes inquiries, the prosecutors have no evidence that the woman resisted sexual contact... Prosecutors are unable to charge the womans father with incest because of her lack of cooperation, and even if they could, they were concerned about the impact such a prosecution might have on her well-being." Ken Montgomery, lawyer for one of the suspects, said, "We are thankful to the District Attorney's office for the thoughtful and prudent time they took to fully investigate this case. They did what the NYPD, City Hall and so-called community leaders didn't do, they didn't judge these young men, and investigated what actually happened. Now separate from the charges being dismissed there is a lesson to be learned. It is unhealthy to have sexual relations in parks even if it's consensual. We don't want our young men to grow up thinking this is okay, because it's not." However, another suspect's lawyer, Abdula Greene, took issue with the DA's statement, "There wasn't criminal wrongdoing ... That's why I have to take pause with the statement. It says that their conduct was wrong and reprehensible, and then you have a recantation that she was forced and you have a recantation that there was a weapon. It says to me there was no wrongdoing." We rely on your support to make local news available to all Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2022. Donate today The Upper East Side gynecologist accused of sexually abusing at least six of his patients admitted to two of the abuse instances in court on Tuesday and took a plea deal that will require him to give up his license and register as a sex offender, but won't include any prison time, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Robert Hadden, 57, worked at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital until 2012, when two of his former patients filed civil suits against him. Both of those lawsuits wound up being droppedone because the judge required the plaintiff to use her real name, rather than Jane Doe, and one because the victim's lawyer missed a deadline to serve papers to the other sidebut charges piled up over the next year, and in 2014, Hadden was charged with two counts of forcible touching, five counts of criminal sex act, and two counts of sexual abuse. Most of the women he allegedly assaulted were pregnant. On Tuesday, Hadden pleaded guilty to Criminal Sexual Act in the Third Degree, an E felony, and Forcible Touching, an A misdemeanor. He faced up to four years in prison for the former and up to one year for the latter. Per the terms of his plea agreement, he must surrender his medical license (and agree not to pursue a new one in any other jurisdiction) and register as a level one sex offender. Level one is the lowest risk rating on the sex offender registry and expires after 20 years. Hadden is still the subject of four civil suits alleging sexual assault, and according to Anthony DiPietro, who is representing women in three of those suits, the overlap between the women involved in the criminal case adjourned yesterday and the ongoing civil suits is minimal. DiPietro also said that Hadden assaulted numerous other women who could not file civil suits because the statute of limitations on their cases had run out. According to DiPietro, Hadden filed and was approved for disability benefits with New York Presbyterian in 2012, claiming that he had a mental disability that prevented him from being able to do his job. "Part of the plea agreement that he entered into was that he would surrender his medical license, but since he's basically continuing to collect a paycheck, the only thing that's really been accomplished so far is that he's been granted an early retirement," DiPietro said. "So how can anybody be satisfied with that?" When contacted, a hospital representative could not confirm or comment on this fact specifically, but said that "we have treated this matter with the utmost seriousness. While we do not comment on matters in the justice system, we can confirm that Dr. Hadden has had no ongoing affiliation with Columbia. He has not practiced medicine here for more than three years and his faculty appointment ended in 2012." The civil suits against Hadden and New York Presbyterian halted while his criminal case was ongoing, but will now start up again, DiPietro said. To him, the lack of a prison sentence for Hadden came as a surprise. "I think that the plea agreement was negotiated in a way that would be least detrimental to the hospital," he said, later asking, "Why is there such a double standard? How does he get away with just the suspension of his license, when anybody else would be in jail?" Hadden's lawyer and the Manhattan DA's office declined to comment on the case. My Journey to the Pyramids I like to think of myself as a Renaissance Man, who champions the values of the Enlightenment and aspires to the Cardinal Virtues of Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude. I am also a student of the Misery of the Human Condition. "" [more] News Woman claims losing Dhs542000 due to relationship in Abu Dhabi The woman said she knew the appellee for a long time and trusted in him, so she lent him Dhs542,000, which he asked to pay off his financial obligatio... For All U of U Health Patients & Visitors Spring bowhunter education course in Helena Registration is now open for spring bowhunter education in Helena. Online registration is required and students under 18 must have the consent of a parent or guardian. Prospective students must be at least 11 years old. The first free classroom course of the season will be held starting Monday, March 7, with the field day on Saturday, March 12. Students must attend all sessions, pass the class and successfully complete the field day activities to be certified. To register for this or any other hunter education course visit the FWP website at fwp.mt.gov, on the homepage under "Popular" choose Hunter Education Programs. Prior to the first night of class, students are required to read the bowhunter education workbook and complete all chapter quizzes. If not completed, students will not be admitted to the class. Students must also print off the "Required Files" and bring them to the first night of class. Workbooks may be picked up at the FWP Headquarters at 1420 E. 6th Ave., Helena Area Resource Office at 930 Custer Ave. W. or Montana WILD at 2668 Broadwater Ave. *** Forest plan revision workshops scheduled Members of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest (HLC) Plan Revision Team will soon be traveling to different communities seeking public input in the next round of community conversations. These workshops will focus on the publics input on forest resource areas, such as recommended wilderness and timber suitability. Unique to this workshop, we will have interactive maps to allow people to share with us and each other how they would like to see the land managed across the landscapes. The Revision Team recently released the results of two separate processes we are required to conduct as part of the revision that will also help inform the upcoming workshops: 1) Timber suitability-lands that may be suited for timber production and 2) the recommended wilderness inventory. For additional information about the HLC Forest Plan revision process and how interested members of the public can participate, go to the plan revision website at www.fs.usda.gov/goto/hlc/forestplanrevision or contact Erin Swiader at 406-495-3774. Townsend: Feb. 29, from 9 a.m.-noon at the Townsend library, 201 N. Spruce St. White Sulphur Springs: Feb. 29, from 58 p.m. WSS High School library, 15 First Ave. SE. Lincoln: March 4, from 1-4 p.m. Lincoln Community Center, 1569 Hwy 200. Helena: March 7, from 5-8 p.m. Jorgensons Inn and Suites, 1714 11th Ave. *** Trap-release, pet-safety workshop Trapping season is on, and the number of pets injured or killed at popular recreation areas indicates how important it is to be aware of traps. If your dog got caught in a trap, would you know how to rescue it? Learn how to act quickly, and potentially save your pets life. Learn how at the Pet Rescue Workshop on Thursday, March 10, at 6 p.m. at the Great Northern Hotel in Helena. Attendees are encouraged to bring a can of food for the Food Bank or animal shelter. Sponsored by Footloose Montana, a nonprofit group educating concerned citizens about traps on public lands. *** Flathead Classic dog sled race upcoming The Flathead Classic Sled Dog Race will take place on March 5-6 at the Stillwater Snowmobile Trailhead 18 miles west of Whitefish on Highway 93. Everything starts at 8:30 a.m. both days and will finish around 2 p.m. The morning will start with a skijoring competition for one and two dogs at 8:30 a.m. Skijoring is a sport where the musher wears cross country or skate skis and a belt and is attached to a dog in harness. Flathead Classic will have a 12-dog mid-distance, eight-dog mid-distance, six- and four-dog sprint class and a junior class followed by a one and two dog skijor event both Saturday and Sunday morning. Mushers from all around the Pacific Northwest and Canada will be descending on the Flathead to test their dogs. Food and beverage will be available at the race site. Proceeds will benefit the Olney Volunteer Fire Department, a sponsor of Flathead Classic. For up-to-the-minute updates, go to www.flatheadclassic.org. *** Updated permit application packets now available March 15 is the deadline to apply for Montana's 2016 deer and elk hunting permits. An updated and easy-to-use 10-page application packet is available online at fwp.mt.gov. Paper applications are also available from most license providers and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks offices. All deer and elk regulations became final at the February meeting of the Fish and Wildlife Commission. Many quotas in the first edition of the permit application packet were listed as pending commission approval. Those quotas have been adopted. Hard copies of the permit application packets are available at FWP offices. New to this application packet will be antlerless elk permits in select hunting districts in FWP regions 2 and 3. These permits will allow a general elk license holder the opportunity of harvesting an antlerless elk. While this is not a permit for a second animal, it expands a permit holders opportunity with a general season elk license. Holders of the antlerless permits are reminded they cannot, in most instances, use their general license for an antlered elk in the same district in which the permit is valid. Antlerless elk permit holders can also still apply for an elk B license by the deadline June 1. Applicants will need a deer or elk license in order to apply for a special permit. Like the bull elk and buck deer permits, the application deadline for antlerless elk permits is also March 15. Nonresidents who wish to apply for big game combination, elk combination or deer combination licenses and deer and elk permits for the 2016 fall Montana hunting season can also apply online or download an application from FWP's website. *** Public hearings set for Big Hole, Beaverhead rules Montanas Fish and Wildlife Commission is seeking comment on proposed amendments to the Big Hole and Beaverhead Rules. Two public hearings will be held in southwest Montana in March. Both meetings will begin at 6 p.m. on the dates and locations noted below. Dillon: Wednesday, March 16, at the University of MontanaWestern, Block Hall 311, 710 S. Atlantic St. Wednesday, March 16, at the University of MontanaWestern, Block Hall 311, 710 S. Atlantic St. Butte: Thursday, March 17, U.S. Forest Service, 1820 Meadowlark Lane. The proposed amendments to the Big Hole and Beaverhead River Rules are related to outfitting on the rivers, specifically involving the allocation of temporary client days on these rivers. The public notice can be found at http://fwp.mt.gov/news/publicNotices/. Comments may be sent to Cheryl Morris, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, 1400 S. 19th Ave., Bozeman, MT, 59718; or e-mail cherylmorris@mt.gov, and must be received no later than March 25. *** Woodpeckers topic of talk at Montana WILD Come join Allison Begley, FWP avian conservation biologist at Montana WILD to learn about the identification and habitats of 10 Montana woodpecker species. The program will, also, focus on woodpecker behavior and how we can discourage these fascinating birds from damaging our homes and other buildings. The free event is set for 6-7 p.m. on March 17, at the Montana WILD Education Center at 2668 Broadwater Ave. For more information call Montana WILD at 444-9944. Mike Dunnington recalled standing over the lifeless body of his best friend, Timothy Newman, face up in the dirt near his cabin in a rural area outside of Augusta. "I could tell as soon as I looked at him that there wasn't going to be anything that I could do," Dunnington said. The man who shot Newman, Joseph Glenn Campbell, stood on the opposite side of a fence with his arms crossed, he said. "He immediately said 'Well, he pulled a gun on me,'" Dunnington said. Dunnington testified Wednesday afternoon during Campbell's deliberate homicide trial, which is in its second week. Campbell, who contends he fired in fear for his life, sat on the other side of the fence awaiting the arrival of authorities after his wife called 911. Newman was the aggressor armed with a revolver and Campbell shot in self defense, the defense argues. Prosecutors say Campbell gunned down a neighbor in cold blood to end a long-running dispute about land access. A sheriff's deputy found Newman's corpse with bolt cutters at his feet in the woods nearly 20 miles southwest of Augusta on Oct. 18, 2013. Dunnington said Newman went to the fence to cut a lock recently put up by Campbell. As part of an ongoing dispute, Newman thought it was his right to access the adjoining land and to do so by reopening the fence. Dunnington said his friend was "irritated" by the new lock but "he wasn't angry or out of control or anything." Newman had started regularly carrying a gun because of the increasing tensions in the area regarding accessibility, Dunnington said. "He'd been threatened by Campbell and he was afraid of him," he added. "He was afraid there was going to come a time when he might have to defend himself." The state has called three people who testified Campbell threatened them and generally attempted to intimidate neighbors, sometimes while armed. Campbell also was very vocal about his desire to "put down" Newman, prosecutors contend. Annie Peterson, a deputy county attorney for Lewis and Clark County, testified about speaking with Campbell on the phone regarding the tension. Peterson said the conversation, in which Campbell yelled, was "chilling." During the talk, Campbell threatened to "take care of" Newman," Peterson said. That call took place nine days before Newman's death. Wednesday morning was a chance for the principal of Kessler School, Craig Crawford, to meet one of downtown Helenas most unusual employees -- Chuck the Cockatiel. Chucks boss -- Sandy Shull, a co-owner of Birds & Beasleys, got to do Zumba and learn how to saddle a mule at Kessler School later that day during Kids College. It was all part of a topsy-turvy Trading Places day at Helena Public Schools. Who knew who youd find at the principals desk at Hawthorne School? Would it be principal Deb Jacobsen or Eric Fulton from Treasure State Internet? And who was that behind the counter dishing ice cream at the Big Dipper -- owner Anna Doran or Bryant School principal J.J. Lamb? Twenty-one local business leaders got to go back to school Wednesday, while their school administrator buddies got a close-up look at what makes their counterparts' business tick. Now in its 10th year, Trading Places is sponsored by Helena Education Foundation. Its going very well, reported HEF executive director Lisa Cordingley over the lunch hour. She was out visiting schools and overseeing Trading Places. My primary hope is that the day provides community members a clearer view of what goes on in our schools each day, she said. And its a way to build new understanding and partnerships. Shull and Crawford quickly discovered they have a lot in common. Both have a customer base to please. Crawford, who used to own a pizza franchise in Texas, gets small businesses and often thinks like a business owner. While Shulls regulars buy bird seed or perhaps a painting, Crawford has students and family customers who can take their business elsewhere -- like a private school. Businesses and schools are about relationships, Crawford said. He loved hearing the story about how Birds & Beasleys customers formed a kind of bucket brigade in 2012 to move items from the stores previous location on Park Avenue a block away to the new store at the corner of Broadway and Last Chance Gulch. Thats what we should be about as a community, he said. Thats what makes this town as amazing as it is -- those stories. And how do we get our kids to hear those stories? Some of what she shared with me, I would love the kids in my building to hear. ... People see how the community comes together and how we help each other. And now that Crawfords spent time downtown and hanging out in Shulls shop, he was wondering, How can we be friends of the downtown? Kessler School students take field trips to visit Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, he said, but they havent taken a field trip to their own downtown to walk the walking mall and learn why the main street is called Last Chance Gulch and to see the actual spot where the four Georgians struck gold. Theres more opportunities of things we could do together, said Crawford, things that fit into the curriculum that would support the downtown. A few educational ideas he tossed out were the economics of buying local, learning more about Helena history and a geocache scavenger hunt through the downtown. Meanwhile, Shull was marveling about how to be a better partner with kids. Shed learned that children who have had 1,000 books read to them by the time they start kindergarten have a better chance of success. Its a million words is what we look at explained Crawford. If a kid has heard a million words (by the time they come to kindergarten) ... they have enough of a vocabulary and communications piece -- theyre ready to run. That had Shull daydreaming about hosting a Birds & Beasleys story hour -- and a chance for more kids to meet Chuck the Cockatiel. We love Central School and its downtown partnership because we know that group of people are neighborhood. ... Those are the kids who are down here after school ... because they live down here, said Shull. She misses the students now that they've been relocated to the Central-Linc campus across town, she said, but is also looking forward to reaching out to more kids. At the end of last year, the Center for Political Integrity gave Montana a D grade for poor government accountability and transparency. Most of this grade had to do with the legal framework that allows local and state government to sidestep Freedom of Information Act requests. One small part of it, however, concerned the office of the Commissioner of Political Practices, headed by Jonathan Motl. The Center said Montana was deficient because the Political Practices office didnt have enough resources to do his job. I disagree. Instead, the Political Practices office is deficient because its unaccountable and unacceptably exposed to the political wrangling its supposed to be regulating. The commissioner of political practices is a gubernatorial appointee who serves for one six-year term. Its dreadfully difficult to remove a commissioner once installed. The Legislature gets one and only one opportunity to fire him; it comes during a confirmation hearing at the legislative session following the commissioners appointment. The commissioner can be fired by the governor at any time, but only for incompetence, malfeasance, or neglect of duty, and even then, the sufficiency of the cause behind termination is subject to judicial review. Once he clears confirmation, the commissioner is basically Montanas political czar, accountable to no one, and the only thing that can forcibly remove him from office is blatant misconduct the governor simply cannot ignore. Theres a good reason why hes been called the most important person in Montana politics. Given his role and the power invested in his office, there are plenty of good reasons for the commissioner to remain completely nonpartisan, or at the very least, to avoid the appearance of partiality and opacity as he conducts his business. Its his job to shine light on muck and corruption, an unfortunate heritage of this state stretching all the way back to the days of the Copper Kings. Its extraordinarily ironic, therefore, that Motl would expose himself to accusations of partisanship in the process of designing rules for the Disclose Act, a campaign finance law designed to shine a light on the avalanche of anonymous money flowing into our elections. The Disclose Act was passed by a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans. Under the Disclose Act, politically active nonprofit groups, which would normally not have to do so, must now disclose their donors in full to the Commissioner of Political Practices. The commissioner, in turn, posts this information online for the world to see. Motl relied on the counsel of Gov. Steve Bullocks top policy adviser in the process of crafting rules to implement the Disclose Act. Ethically, this man should not have been directly involved. Even when giving Motl the most generous benefit of the doubt, its tough to argue that he didnt work around or alongside the public 10-person committee built specifically for the task of crafting the rules. Its telling that emails from within, emails that ultimately had no effect on the language of the rules, show that people on Motls own staff expressed concern over the legitimacy of the yet-to-be-approved rules. They called them a burden and ripe for challenges. Motls advocates, consisting mostly of Democrats, assert that he has gone after both Republicans and Democrats as often as legitimate complaints have surfaced. It is worth noting that both Republicans and Democrats have complained about the new rules, and that a majority of polled lawmakers ultimately said the rules Motl and his committee crafted fell within the spirit of the Disclose Act. But thats not the point. This is not an ends issue. This is a means issue. This is about the idea that its bad policy to have the states political czar appointed by a partisan, approved by partisans and regulated by no one. All it takes is single-party dominance to enable use of the commissioner as a tool of a tyrannical majority. The commissioner is supposed to be the referee in Montana politics. Hes supposed to be a nonpartisan, impartial judge. Hes not supposed to confer behind the scenes with members of the states most powerful partisan. At best, doing so makes him appear partisan, and at worst, it makes him appear corrupt. Maybe its time to think about changing the nature of ethics regulation in Montana politics. I have a hard time believing that a bipartisan or nonpartisan committee comprised of ordinary citizens, retired politicians, retired judges and zero lobbyists would be as prone to impropriety and political wrangling as the commissioners office as presently constituted. Its impossible to dismiss the findings of such a commission, even if it finds against you, if you feel your interests are represented. Food for thought. BILLINGS -- U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., has partnered with American Sniper author Scott McEwen on a book that will arrive in bookstores in September, 49 days before the general election. American Commander: Serving a Country Worth Fighting For and Training the Brave Soldiers Who Lead the Way, is a book Zinke said hes been planning with McEwen for some time. The two met through Chris Kyle, whose book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, was a bestselling collaboration with McEwen. The book later became a major motion picture that ended with Kyles tragic shooting death by a troubled veteran. The book is not about me personally, Zinke said Its about American exceptionalism, and its about how we get guys to do what they do. Zinke was a SEAL Team Six commander, who earned two bronze stars as the acting commander of Joint Special Forces in Iraq. He mentored Chris Kyle, as well as SEALs who rescued Capt. Richard Phillips of the MV Maersk Alabama, whose cargo ship was taken by Somali pirates in 2009. The Maersk rescue was the subject of the movie Captain Phillips. Zinke is also credited with mentoring SEAL Marcus Luttrell, the subject of the movie and book Lone Survivor. Zinke said the timing of the books release was more determined by getting the House Rules Committee to vet his contract with publisher Thomas Nelson. The U.S. Navy also received a copy of the final draft to make sure the contents didnt reveal sensitive information about operations. The book does cover subjects like advanced interrogation methods, which Zinke said will be part of the political discussion about President Barack Obamas proposed closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Specifically, the book discusses sleep deprivation of terrorist suspects. McEwen said Zinke was a good subject to tell the SEALs story through a different perspective, but one with a common thread to McEwens other collaborations with SEALs. The story is Zinkes, he said. The editing was McEwens. The common thread is that theyre all patriots. All of them believe in this country, believe in the United States and that its an exceptional nation, McEwen said. They have an attitude of never quit, and thats refreshing. You see a lot of quitting in society nowadays, and everybody gets a trophy and thats not what makes SEALs who they are. Zinke isnt the first Montana incumbent to have a book published during an election year. In 2008 Greg Lemon, a former Independent Record editor and current spokesman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, authored a book about Brian Schweitzer -- Blue Man in a Red State: Montanas Governor Brian Schweitzer and the New Western Populism. Schweitzers book was released shortly after the 2008 June primary election. The Lewis & Clark County Republican Central Committee will kick off the 2016 election season on Saturday, March 5, at the Gateway Center with the annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner fundraiser. The keynote speaker will be Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont. He will be joined by Scott McEwen, co-author of the New York Times best-selling book, American Sniper;Wyoming Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis and Sen. Steve Daines, R- Mont. The evening will also feature a reception introducing the Republican statewide, local and legislative candidates from Lewis and Clark County and surrounding areas. Attorney General Tim Fox will be the emcee for the evening, gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte, Elsie Arntzen who is running for superintendent of public instruction, Corey Stapleton and Matt Rosendale, candidates for secretary of state and state auditor respectively are all expected to attend the gala. Among the local candidates planning on attending are Terry Gauthier SD40 and House candidate Steve Gibson HD 84, Patrick Johnson and Becky Beard HD 80. We are delighted to host such a tremendous gathering of outstanding candidates. This election will be as important as any in modern history, said Joe Dooling, chairman of the Lewis & Clark County Central Committee. The Lewis & Clark County Republican Central Committee is proud to be able to provide this opportunity for area voters to meet these candidates. The evenings festivities will begin with the candidate reception and no-host cocktail hour at 5:30 p.m., with dinner and the evenings program at 6:30 p.m. There will also be a silent auction featuring collectibles, memorabilia and other desirables. Tickets are $75 per person. Reservations to the dinner can be made online at https://2016lccrlrd.eventbrite.com or by calling 422-2949. The deadline for reservations is March 2. ORIANI, Haiti (AP) Only shriveled carrots and potatoes grow in Carole Joseph's small vegetable plot. The family's chickens are long gone. She sold her only tools to buy food, then the wooden bed she shared with her children. The family now sleeps on the floor of their shack. All that's left to sell are the pots she uses to cook over a fire pit, when there's something to eat. The 28-year-old mother of four is among roughly 1.5 million Haitians who can't get nearly enough nutrition because of a years-long drought that has spoiled harvests in her small mountain village and across large sections of the countryside. "We get a little bit to eat and drink each day, but it's never enough to get our strength back. I don't know what to do anymore," she said, her voice hoarse as she cradled her toddler twins, their hair brittle and taking on a yellowish tinge, a sign of malnutrition. For the last three years, a punishing drought has driven Haitians who were already barely getting by on marginal farmland even deeper into misery. Last year's crop yields were the worst in 35 years in a country where more than two-thirds of people eke out a living from agriculture, many using archaic hand tools. Many Haitians routinely go to bed hungry, and are heartbreakingly accustomed to privation and natural disasters. But the cumulative impact of this drought is so severe that Haiti is facing "unprecedented food insecurity," according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Over the last year, it's worsened significantly with a strong El Nino weather phenomenon that's been disrupting weather patterns across the globe, leaving many places in Latin America and the Caribbean stricken by drought. Cuba suffered its worst drought in over a century in 2015 and water rationing was ordered in Puerto Rico and elsewhere. But few places are more vulnerable than Haiti, where 3.6 million of its 10.4 million people can't afford the minimum daily calories, according to the U.N. World Food Program. Of those, 1.5 million are in urgent need of assistance, meaning they're getting significantly less nutrition than what they need and are so underfed they become weak. That category of "severely food insecure" people has doubled in Haiti over the last six months, the agency said. "This drought is a very dangerous situation. The pressures on people keep increasing," said Haitian economist Kesner Pharel, noting that buying food makes up more than half of an average Haitian family's budget. Pharel said local agricultural production has contracted so severely over the last two years that 70 percent of the crops consumed in Haiti are now imported, up from roughly 50 percent in the past. With the local currency losing value, the cost of imports is rising, making everything pricier. Officials say more rural families are being forced to join the decades-long exodus to cities. And diminishing calories means more children are vulnerable to infections like measles and any number of other diseases. Wendy Bigham, country director of the U.N. World Food Program, said a growing number of farming families have been eating seed stock, seeking loans and selling items such as livestock and tools to get cash for food. But "coping mechanisms such as reducing food consumption, selling assets and borrowing money are more and more difficult to sustain as the drought continues year after year," she said. In the wind-swept mountain town of Oriani in southeast Haiti, Joseph knows this all too well. About a year ago, her husband left to seek work in the neighboring Dominican Republic and he hasn't returned since. She was forced to sell off her chickens and then her other meager possessions to buy food. On a recent afternoon, Associated Press reporters met her at a town health clinic crowded with other women cradling children and waiting their turn to be seen. Her 2-year-old twins, Angelo and Angela, have missed developmental milestones such as taking their first steps or uttering their first words. On this day, she left with only deworming tablets because the facility was again out of nutrient-dense peanut butter. At her family's stone-and-timber shack, Joseph's two older children, 10-year-old daughter Junel and 12-year-old son Stevenson, sprawled listlessly on a straw mat as her hungry twins tried to breastfeed. Joseph is so underfed and dehydrated that she can't produce milk. "I only nurse them to comfort them," she said. To get emergency aid to people like Joseph and her children, the World Food Program is seeking $84 million in donations to distribute cash and food to roughly 1 million drought-affected Haitians. The U.S. has boosted its emergency aid to Haiti, awarding $11.6 million to nonprofits to address nutritional deficiencies for over 135,000 people. The challenges of getting emergency food aid to struggling communities, even those accessible only by foot or donkey, is easier than finding elusive solutions to Haiti's chronic hunger problems. Abnel Desarmours, acting director of the government's National Coordination of Food Security Unit, said more sustained efforts must be made to escape the seemingly endless cycles of disaster and rescue. The recent rise in food insecurity underscores just how vulnerable many of Haiti's people remain despite decades of global aid. "It is very difficult, but we have to figure this out. Irrigation systems must be built or fixed and our food production has to be strengthened," he said. Haiti has long struggled with malnutrition as a result of widespread poverty, political dysfunction and corruption, and a fragile agricultural sector repeatedly set back by severe weather and environmental degradation. Punishing weather is only expected to intensify as a result of global climate change. Recently, sustained rains from a cold front came to northern Haiti. But they arrived in the form of a deluge that flooded streets and fields, doing little to help the current planting season. The crisis in the countryside has also reached the cities, causing the price of plantains and tomatoes to triple, according to vendors in the capital, Port-au-Prince. "The prices keep going up even as the crops get punier," vendor Junior Edraud said as he worked a bustling corner. "Something's got to give because the Haitian people can't keep going like this." Even if the rainfall during the spring rainy season is steady, farming families in Oriani and other towns will have to struggle to get by until the summer harvest. Last week, the U.N. weather agency said the ongoing El Nino has passed its peak, but its "humanitarian and economic impacts will continue for many months to come." For now, Joseph is doing what she can to feed her family two meager meals a day. "It's very hard because when they get up crying in the night I can't answer them," she said. 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Safaryan is charged with assaulting a police officer on December 31 of last year during a scuffle when members of the New Armenia movement attempted to set up a Christmas tree in Yerevans Liberty Square. Leaving the courtroom after the six-hour hearing, Safaryans lawyer Tigran Hayrapetyan told reporters that he had filed a petition to have the judge recused from the case. We found certain aspects of the examination strange. For instance, why is the case being examined at the Arabkir court, given that the alleged crime occurred in Yerevans Kentron (central) administrative district and that our petition to examine detention as a pre-trial measure was taken up by the Kentron Administrative Court, Hayrapetyan said. On February 15, the Kentron and Nork-Marash Court threw out Hayrapetyans petition regarding allowing Safaryan to being released from detention on bail. MP Edmon Maroukyan today filed an amicus curia (friend of the court) brief with Armenias Criminal Court of Appeals regarding civic activist Vardges Gaspari, who has been arrested for refusing to attend court proceedings in which he is charged with contempt of court and defamation. In the brief, Maroukyan argues that a February 19 decision by Yerevans Shengavit District Court to issue an arrest warrant for Gaspari was legally unsubstantiated and that there was no urgent need to detain Gaspari. Gaspari is now being held in the Nubarashen prison. His lawyer, Tigran Yegoryan, claims that prison officials have tortured Gaspari. Maroukyan, in the brief, says that Gasparis detainment runs counter to Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights; the Right to Liberty and Security. The MP also argues that the decision to detain Gaspari isnt aimed to guarantee his presence at court proceedings, but rather its a form of punishment. Maroukyan has called on the Criminal Court of Appeals to rescind the Shengavit courts decision and to immediately release Gaspari. Photo: MP Edmon Maroukyan, Vardges Gaspari (refusing to be returned to his cell) A Yerevan court today started to examine the evidence related to Ashot Poghosyan, a former ArmenTel security chief implicated in a scam that rerouted $500 million in revenues at the telecommunication company. That such revenues were being rerouted came to life in 2013, when Vimpelcom (ArmenTels parent company) auditors revealed that ArmenTel had been operating a rerouting cable between 2009 and 2013 for international calls and that revenues were never entered the companys accounts. Losses to ArmenTel and the government of Armenia amount to $6 million. Poghosyan is charged with agreeing to the plan, of obtaining a space for the rerouting operation, and monitoring it. Igor Klimko, then the director of ArmenTel, has claimed that it was Armenias National Security Service (NSS) that originally requested that the company install the new rerouting cable. In court today, prosecutor Armen Panosyan presented as evidence a National Security Service (NSS) document to the effect that the NSS never made such a demand of ArmenTel. Klimkos attorney, Tigran Atanesyan, says the NSS letter to ArmenTel authorizing the cable was subsequently lost. Also presented as evidence today were SMS messages sent by Ashot Poghosyan and other former ArmenTel employees to one another regarding the operation. Evidence also includes information seized from phone traffic from Russian operator Rostelecom and MTS networks to ArmenTel from 2010-2013. Armenias NSS had requested such data. This evidence has yet to be examined. Prosecutor Panosyan requested that the session be postponed since he had to attend another case. The court sustained the motion and issued a one-month postponement. Photo (from left): Ashot Poghosyan's lawyer, Ashot Poghosyan Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less. Best-selling author and columnist Molly Ivins talks about her career and cancer at her home in Austin, Texas, May 12, 2001. The sharp-witted liberal who skewered the political establishment died Jan. 31, 2007, of breast cancer. She was 62. (AP Photo/Fort Worth Star-Telegram\Carolyn Mary Bauman) Opponents of a proposed Wisconsin legislative bill which would allow the excavation of some Native American effigy mounds gather during a rally outside the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison Jan. 12, 2016. The Assembly speaker later said he had no plan to move the bill forward. Even Marines the few, the proud, the first to fight can cry. More than seven decades have passed since Racine resident Marvin Roslansky endured exhausting slave labor, intentional malnutrition, filthy living conditions and brutal beatings as a prisoner of war in a Japanese labor camp during World War II. While the physical pain has subsided, the emotional wounds still sting. Tears well in Roslanskys eyes when he even thinks about his three long years of captivity in Zentsuji prison camp. I still cant really talk about Japan, says Roslansky, now 93 years old, his eyes red and watery. We did what we could. We lived one day at a time. There was no place for us to go. We couldnt escape. We were in hell and you had to have a lot of faith. Faith and dreams of returning home to his native Lakeview, Minn., for the next holiday kept Roslansky alive for his 45 months of hell. You could be beaten at any moment for any reason at all, he remembered. We knew you would have to do what they said or you would never go home. Roslansky was one of 147 Marines based on the island of Guam in September 1941. Guam was an idyllic, sought-after destination: tropical climes, white sand beaches, cheap beer. The peace was shattered Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed the island as part of their coordinated attack across the Pacific, including Pearl Harbor. Two days later, 6,000 soldiers from the Imperial Japanese Army waded ashore. Roslansky helped the short-lived defense before the island was captured. Roslansky and the rest of the Marines were loaded aboard the MS Argentina Maru, a luxury liner turned into a warship. They were sent to Shikoku, Japan, a small island about 400 miles from Tokyo, and imprisoned in Zentsuji. For long hours each day, Roslansky and his fellow prisoners loaded and unloaded railroad cars in the Sakaide rail yards. Guards beat prisoners without provocation or reason, he said. By night, prisoners tried to survive on starvation rations, and sometimes no food at all. They got English language newspapers, but those had more paper than news. They were cut full of holes, he said. The most frightening time was the final months of the war. Prison officials knew the end was near. The Army issued orders to not feed prisoners, then directed guards to execute them. Our graves were already dug, Roslansky said. After almost a year of bloody fighting Marines raised the flag on Iwo Jima 71 years ago Tuesday Japan surrendered in August 1945. But it took Allied forces another month to liberate all the prison camps. The now-free Marines from Guam hung on for 30 more days without food and little water. Post-war reconciliation Miraculously, 103 of the 147 Guam Marines survived their ordeal. They spent months in Guam and San Diego recovering. Roslansky then spent six months at Great Lakes Naval Training Base near Waukegan, Ill., before moving to Racine in 1946. He used GI Bill money to learn automotive work. In 1949, he purchased Sturtevant Auto Sales and Salvage and operated the yard for 32 years. He retired in 1981. He spent a few years in Arizona, and in 2013 traveled to Japan with a contingent of former POWs. At first I refused to go, he said. But I actually had never seen Japan. They appreciated us being there. They were sorry it happened. They were bad, bad people during the war. During the war, the Japanese held 2,274 Marines in prison camps across Asia, according to the POW Research Network. By the end of 2014, only 200 of those Marines were still alive. Roslansky is one of them. His story has appeared in several books about World War II. At 93, his mind, eyes and hearing still sharp, he volunteers at various veterans groups and visits veterans hospitals. Each Thursday he gathers with local veterans at the Piggly Wiggly, 5201 Washington Ave., to drink coffee, listen to music and just talk. There are not many like him left, said Racine resident David Kramer, a Racine Marine who is active in the Fourth Fest parade. He has been a part of history. We owe these men like him so much. When the Oscar Mayer plant closes later this year, neighborhood residents say the sprawling East Side site could be transformed into: A transportation hub, including passenger trains. A model for sustainable urban farming. A culinary school and tourist center. Those were among the suggestions aired Wednesday night at a listening session hosted by Alds. Larry Palm, 12th District, and Rebecca Kemble, 18th District, that drew about 70 people to the Warner Park Recreation Center. Make a Grand Central Station in that place, said Dan Bernards, one of a dozen speakers who voiced their ideas. With a rail line already running behind the Oscar Mayer buildings, the site would be a perfect place for an intermodal transportation hub, agreed Ron Wolfe. Passenger trains could be established to several communities around southern Wisconsin, said Wolfe, who lives near Waunakee and is president of ProRail, a nonprofit organization supporting passenger rail. But Dolores Kester said a train station will only divide the 50-acre site and limit development. The last thing we want is a dead spot, Kester said. We need to think of something that will bring value to the North Side, to Madison, to our neighborhood. Matt Mikolajewski, city of Madison economic development director, said the property was listed with the CBRE commercial real estate firm about one month ago. To date, the city hasnt received any information about interest in the property, Mikolajewski told the gathering. He said the city has no formal plan for the site but officials would be pleased to see some manufacturing remain there, particularly food manufacturing, perhaps with retail shops, restaurants and office occupants as well. Former 18th District Ald. Anita Weier said the area could house a culinary college or could become a food-based tourist center, like San Franciscos Ghirardelli Square. Gene Cox urged the city to keep developers out and instead turn the land into an urban farm. It could be land restoration through sustainable farming, he said, using renewable energy and offering classes, like Plant Chicago, which operates out of a former meat-packing plant. Palm said its too early to speculate what might occupy the site, but it could hold numerous businesses. Theoretically, you could double (or) triple the number of people who work at that site, he said. A new restaurant, bar and market called Field Table is taking shape on the Capitol Square and will concentrate on both preparing food with fresh produce and selling fresh vegetables directly to consumers. "The focus is on really great sourcing whenever possible and an evolving menu that's engaging enough to allow our guests to join us more frequently," said Trish Davis, who is opening the business at 10 W. Mifflin St., where Sunprint Cafe was for a short time after moving from its more prominent home in the glass bank or U.S. Bank Plaza on the Square. She is looking toward an April opening. "I've always loved markets and entertaining and exploring food in general," Davis said, adding that she wants her customers to have access to the best, freshest ingredients, whether they are dining in, grabbing to-go items, or picking up staple ingredients for their home pantries. The restaurant and market will enjoy a "deep connection" to the Dane County Farmers' Market, which will be right outside its front door, she said. "And obviously with a name like Field Table, our commitment to using the freshest possible ingredients is extremely high." One of the most sustainable things people can do is shop close to home more often, Davis said, and having access to the freshest produce on Saturday mornings from the farmers' market is fantastic. "But a lot of us, if we've missed the market, than we've missed that opportunity." To remedy that situation, Field Table is going to have a big produce cooler near its front door, which, Davis said, will hold as much as possible for those who choose to cook at home. Similarly, lunch and dinner menus will be locally inspired, but Davis was not able to name her chef because the chef's current employer is not yet aware of her new position, Davis said. Grab-and-go breakfast sandwiches and bakery will be available in the morning, but there will be no formal breakfast service. Field Table will offer brunch on Saturdays and Sundays. Andre Darlington, a former restaurant and cocktail writer for Isthmus, is serving as a consultant for Field Table. "There's a certain practicality to this whole place in the sense that you have the ability to have some fun picking up your lunch when you grab your morning coffee," Davis said. Field Table plans to serve coffee from Ruby Coffee Roasters out of the rural Central Wisconsin town of Nelsonville. Ruby was chosen after Davis and her team seriously considered Intelligentsia Coffee out of Chicago and Counter Culture Coffee of Durham, North Carolina. "We wanted something that felt right for us," Davis said. "And the owner of Ruby is classically trained because he worked for Intelligentsia for a number of years." The Field Table team is taking a field trip to Nelsonville before the restaurant opens, Davis said, to make sure her staff understands the roastery's approach to "Third Wave" coffee, or the direct sourcing of the beans, and "roasting them in a way that honors the farms that they came from." Davis, who comes from the business world, and has done consumer product marketing and branding for a number of prominent local companies, hired Seattle's Heliotrope Architects to design the restaurant. The firm, she said, has done amazing projects near Pike Place Market in that city. "They're very good at revitalizing storefronts," Davis said, noting that they are in the process of reconstructing the facade of the Field Table building. She described the market as being "light, and white and bright," with the restaurant done in much darker, cool and calming colors with lots of gray. "There's a fair amount of contrast between the two spaces even though it's all in one big room, so to speak," she said. Cmon, Madison, a great BBQ joint like Double S, which has gone through a lot of trouble to serve its barbecue on Monroe Street, shouldnt be ignored. Double S offers fantastic barbecue brisket and ribs, but over the course of a leisurely weeknight dinner, we were the only ones in the place. At least a couple of customers stopped in to pick-up take-out orders, but that was it. Owners Shon and Sarah Jones (the two Ss in the Double S) have done an amazing job renovating the space, down to the commodious and well-decorated restrooms. The building was last home to the floral shop J. Kinney, so they had to start from scratch. The couple originally opened Double S in 2012 in Cambridge after Shon had success with his barbecue at various events. After a year in business, the Jones expanded Double S in Cambridge, going from seating for about 12 to seating for 50 or 60. Shon Jones said it was customers from Madison who made the Cambridge business sustainable. At Monroe Street, theyre down to five tables, plus a long communal table in back, or seating for almost 40, when you include the seven-seat bar. Its not a big space, but the couple has created a warm atmosphere with lots of Texas character horseshoes, saddles, cowboy boots and Western chaps hang from the wall. Shon Jones is originally from Orange, Texas, on the Louisiana border, while Sarah Jones grew up in the Monroe Street neighborhood. Double S move to Madison hasnt been smooth. The couples request to use an outdoor smoker was challenged by the neighborhood and then denied, so theyve had to smoke their meat and other items in a rented kitchen outside of Deerfield, where they live. The brisket has survived the trip. The menu calls it chopped brisket, but it actually has the texture of pulled pork, which in this case was a fine thing. My companion found it salty, but I thought it just needed a little barbecue sauce. Two types of homemade BBQ sauce are in squeeze bottles on the table. Both a hot one (with cayenne pepper and Thai red hot peppers) and a sweet one were outstanding. The sauces are bottled and sold, and the couple is in the process of making them available in stores. We ordered the brisket as part of a two-meat plate ($16.99 with one side) with the other selection a slab of five small, super-tender ribs. With these ribs, you dont have to pick them up and get messy, you can just pull them apart with a fork. The pork falls away from the bone on contact. As a side, the homemade tater salad ($2.25) was mustardy and had pieces of hard-boiled egg white, which made it more interesting than most. We also ordered the disappointing Alsums awesome sweet corn ($2.25), which though its local as billed, tastes straight out of a can. It wasnt seasoned or buttered. The outlaw slaw($2.25) was also underwhelming with cabbage that was limp, not crisp. I appreciated how it wasnt especially creamy, though. But, oh, those smoked bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers ($2 apiece). These are what Double S is known for. Instead of being breaded and deep-fried, these jalapenos are wrapped in bacon and smoked on the pit. The bacon provides a crisp exterior and the inside oozes cream cheese. I thought they were incredible, but my companion said the bacon overwhelmed them. Double S offers a few Cajun specialties, and both the chicken & sausage gumbo ($7.99/$4) and the crawfish etouffee ($10.99/$5.50) are wonderful. They started offering the gumbo in Cambridge as a Saturday special, but added it to the menu based on high demand. It was packed with small pieces of chicken and thick coins of sausage. Similarly, the etouffee new on Monroe Street was brimming with crawfish, which are pretty rare in these parts. Both were well-seasoned and packed some heat. If you have room, youll want to try a slice of Maw Maws (grandmas) buttermilk pie ($3.25), filled with a jiggly custard that approximates the taste of a sugar cookie. I would have guessed Double S would be a good fit for Monroe Street. After all, for 40 years, Sarah Jones father had a photography business, on the 1500 block, where New Orleans Take-Out is now. Her mother was a County Board supervisor for the area for 30 years. I have longstanding strong ties to the neighborhood, she said in an interview before the move. Its like going home for me. I asked her if business is typically as slow as it was on our visit, and she said traffic can be hit or miss in the winter. She doesnt regret for a minute moving to Monroe Street, where she said they do as much business in one lunch hour as they did in a week in Cambridge. And they havent given up on having an outdoor smoker behind the restaurant, but as it stands, they cant petition the city again until November. Thats a long time from now, said an observer. Thats how the city operates, Sarah Jones said. Recently, I went to France to test drive some porcelain cookware. I wanted to see how it handled my favorite cooking method grilling! For inspiration, I headed to the famed indoor food market, Les Halles de Lyon-Paul Bocuse. The meat was displayed like jewels and treated as such. After speaking with a butcher, I settled on a beautiful piece of pork. It was long and oval with a thin fat cap on top. Perfect for grill-braising. In the U.S., this cut is sold as a pork roast or a pork center loin roast. You also can use a traditional pork loin, or a crown roast of pork, which is simply a bone-in pork loin. Whatever you buy, try to get a piece of pork that still has a thin layer of fat on the top. This will help keep the lean meat moist during cooking, as well as add flavor. As I tested recipes and cookware, my goal was to keep things simple. I started by placing shallots on the bottom of the dish to elevate the meat, like an edible roasting rack. This offered the added bonus that the meat produced its own sauce during cooking. Beer was my choice of braising liquid, as I like the bold, yeasty flavor. But you could use wine and/or chicken broth, or even apple cider. Just remember that the braising liquid is a key flavor ingredient, so it will alter the taste of the dish. This very simple recipe is soul satisfying and the combination of herbs de Provence, shallots and beer tastes far more complex than the simple combination suggests. The best part of the dish is the bed of shallots that melt into a ragout-like sauce as the pork cooks. You slice the roast, then just stir the pan juices and soft shallots together to make a pan sauce. Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal Urban affairs, investigations, consumer help ("SOS") Follow Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Is anyone surprised that a 20,000-strong protest at the Capitol last week didnt kill a Republican bill to punish cities that provide undocumented workers some protection from deportation? This is a Republican-led Legislature, after all, that wasnt swayed by five times that many people raising the rotunda roof over the 2011 union-busting Act 10. Still, it would be only sporting of the GOP to stop portraying the sanctuary cities bill as a public safety measure that is, unless you consider misdemeanor disorderly conduct and trespassing dangerous enough to be deportation-worthy. Back in December, the bills author, Rep. John Spiros, told me one impetus for the measure was the 2015 killing of a 32-year-old woman, allegedly by a convicted felon and Mexican immigrant that San Francisco authorities had earlier released in defiance of a federal request to hold him. Spiros wasnt looking to deport simple traffic scofflaws, he told me, but to make deportation a possibility for those who commit serious crimes. True enough, an amendment to the bill passed Feb. 16 doesnt threaten immigrant speeders with deportation. But it does pressure cities to contact the feds if they pick up someone in the country illegally for drunken driving or tagging a building or lots of other infractions, many of which arent all that serious. The bill was amended to apply to people charged with a crime, and as Senate sponsor Steve Nass spokesman told me, the list of crimes included under the bill is, in essence, Wisconsins criminal code. So, yes, if you suspected all along that the sanctuary cities bill was less about public safety and more about pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment, bill backers provide reason to confirm your suspicions. The irony is that if Republicans must pass something, theres probably a better bill in there somewhere. The federal government doesnt have the money or desire to deport every person in this country illegally, and plenty of industries, including Wisconsins dairy industry, would either collapse or have to massively raise prices without undocumented workers. At the same time, most people undocumented or not would probably agree that its better not to have to share a neighborhood with, say, rapists and murderers. Even Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney knows this. He said his jail doesnt honor federal requests to hold people here illegally because that would conflict with existing case law. But if the hold pertained to, say, a violent drug cartel member? Im not ruling out the possibility that I could make that decision to hold them, he said. In a statement, the executive director of Voces De La Frontera, which organized last weeks protest, didnt directly answer when I asked whether the group would object to a sanctuary cities bill limited only to serious felonies. State Republicans, meanwhile, clearly want to make it easier to deport people accused of minor crimes. No wonder federal immigration reform is so hard. A 24-year-old woman was found dead in her North Side apartment Wednesday, and her boyfriend was in custody in what police said appears to be a domestic homicide. Authorities had not released the name of the woman killed or her boyfriend, who police say is the suspect in the homicide. Regrettably, Im here to report that Madison has now suffered its second homicide for 2016, Madison Police Chief Mike Koval said at an afternoon news conference. The woman was found dead in her apartment at 2501 Calypso Road shortly after a concerned family member asked police to check on her about 9 a.m. Koval said the death appears to be a domestic homicide and the womans 39-year-old boyfriend was being questioned Wednesday. This is not an instance, by any means, of a random homicide committed by a complete stranger, Koval said. He said police were still trying to piece together when the homicide occurred. James White, the groundskeeper at the apartment building where the womans body was discovered, said police asked him Wednesday morning if they could be let into the apartment. I called my father, whos the owner, and he got the keys and let them into the apartment, and I saw the body in there, he said. Koval said the woman worked in the food service or restaurant industry. White said he heard the woman, who had two children who have been living with her parents, recently got a promotionat her job. He said other tenants told him the couple, who moved into the apartment three weeks ago, would fight loudly. White also said people told him she had not been heard from in a couple of days. Koval said the couple had been dating for a couple of months. He said the man did not resist when taken into custody. We just followed some logical leads, and thats what ultimately led to us finding him, Koval said. The chief said police were checking to see if there had been previous reports of domestic issues between the couple. The state Department of Natural Resources is considering streamlining its regulatory efforts by giving less scrutiny to some kinds of pollution and by relying on businesses to draft their own pollution permits subject to agency review. At a meeting with employees last week, top administrators said any changes in state air and water protections would necessarily meet standards spelled out in federal laws. No final decisions have been made, but the DNR expects to meet a June deadline for completing a reorganization plan demanded by elected officials, agency deputy secretary Kurt Thiede told employees at a videotaped teleconference last week. We basically made commitments to ourselves and to a number of decision-makers who have been watching us very closely, saying, Give us a year, give a year to determine what we are going to do, what we are going to look like and how we are going to be aligned, Thiede said at the meeting. Thiede was responding to an employee who asked why the reorganization plan must be done June 30. This is the kind of thing where if we said we needed two or three years, I dont think we would be given the deference to kind of be controlling our own direction right now, Thiede said. Thiede didnt elaborate, but Republicans who control state government have been highly critical of the DNR, saying it has been too zealous in enforcing environmental protections. Several bills rolling back agency authority are on their way to Gov. Scott Walkers desk now. Republicans who took power in 2011 have already enacted several laws reducing regulations, including one that led to more elimination of wetlands. Walker and GOP lawmakers have extended a two-decades-long bipartisan reduction of DNR staff. Last year they cut nearly 100 positions, including educators, foresters, water quality experts and most of the senior scientists in the Bureau of Science Services, which had drawn fire from Republicans over research it compiled on mine hazards. Walker has said he wants the department to focus on an unspecified core mission. Walker, who appointed Thiede and department secretary Cathy Stepp, campaigned for his first term in 2010 on a platform that included criticism of the department as too slow to issue pollution permits and too tough in its enforcement efforts. Lawmakers and business lobbyists have renewed similar complaints recently. Anything we do in this process well still have to have a system of accountability, checks and balances, Walker told reporters Wednesday. I believe there needs to be a balance between a strong, safe and healthy economy and a strong, safe and healthy environment. The department reorganization effort began last summer. DNR officials said last week that items being studied were too preliminary for public release, but the Wisconsin State Journal obtained access to a summary of proposals and a video the department recorded at the Thursday meeting with employees. When workers asked Thiede how the department would address morale problems, he said a benefit of the reorganization may be to reduce the workload of a full-time workforce that shrank by more than 15 percent from 1995 to 2015. But a former DNR secretary, George Meyer, said agency staff has always been overworked, and that employees have told him morale has hit a new low now because they arent allowed to do their jobs. Its the political influence, and that they dont have the support of leadership when they have to make tough decisions, said Meyer, who is now the executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. Thiede and Stepp have gathered information from natural resources and environmental protection agencies in 11 states that are saving time and money through steps such as eliminating tasks and entire categories of work that werent providing results. A memorandum produced by the DNR said: Arizona legislators lauded the states environmental quality department after it reduced permit costs by 40 percent and turnaround time for issuance by 60 percent. Iowa sped up air pollution permits, typically issuing them in a week, down from 60-90 days; and cut tax expenditures to $12.8 million from $22 million in 2008. Tennessee mandated employee job-performance plans and a new pay system. Many ideas under consideration in Wisconsin were done in the other states, including increased use of electronic records, officials said. The overall goal of the alignment effort is to utilize our resources in the most efficient manner while fulfilling our mission to protect and enhance our natural resources and provide a healthy, sustainable environment, spokesman George Althoff said. Leaders of businesses, local governments and other groups have been providing advice to Stepp. The next steps are for DNR employees and other groups to make suggestions as administrators work on a final list. Among the ideas under consideration is a pilot effort requiring certain air polluters to shoulder more permit-drafting duties. It could be applied to other programs, Mark Aquino, director of business and science, told employees. Top administrators also want to create less-stringent general pollution permit programs for additional areas, Aquino said. The DNR has been challenged in court repeatedly over allegations that lax permits have led to tainted drinking water and dried up lakes and streams. The agency is seeking to address 75 deficiencies in enforcement of clean water laws listed in a 2011 letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In the reorganization, the DNR is also considering unspecified changes in drinking water regulation, a shift of resources to up-front outreach and assistance for developers who want to build on wetlands, and an effort to seek other state entities to take over DNR efforts to improve tree genetics and licensing of recreational vehicles. Also under consideration are ways to expand camping at popular parks, combine wildlife programs, evaluate Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine and other print products, and speed rulemaking and economic impact studies that have consumed growing staff time since laws were changed in recent years. State Journal reporter Matthew DeFour contributed to this report. The Government Accountability Board released hundreds of pages of previously sealed documents Thursday in a settled lawsuit related to the now-dead criminal investigation into Gov. Scott Walkers recall campaign. But they reveal little new about the high-profile case. The Wisconsin Club for Growth and director Eric OKeefe filed the lawsuit in Waukesha County in May 2014 against the GAB, the states nonpartisan elections and ethics agency, claiming the agency abused its power by overseeing the secret John Doe investigation. The parties settled in December, with the GAB agreeing to follow state law in the future, though GAB director Kevin Kennedy maintained the agency had done so during the John Doe investigation. Nothing in the settlement establishes the GAB did anything wrong. Most of the court documents have been under seal because of a secrecy order, though some have already been released and others, including the names of those under investigation and evidence in the investigation, remain under seal. However, many of those details were previously released by mistake in another case, showing that Walker, OKeefe and other Republican political operatives were under investigation. One document released Thursday refers to OKeefe as a person of interest in the investigation, which the Wisconsin Supreme Court halted in July saying the underlying legal theory was invalid. No charges have been filed in the case. On Thursday, the GAB provided to reporters more than 500 pages of documents it filed in the case after Waukesha County Circuit Judge Lee Dreyfus Jr. allowed them to be included in the public court record. The judge ruled Wednesday that a smaller subset of documents related to the John Doe investigation could be released, clearing the way for all of the records to be filed publicly. The court filings unsealed by the judge today show that the Government Accountability Board approached its role in the investigation in a lawful, serious and unbiased manner, GAB spokesman Reid Magney said. This was borne out in the Dec. 17 settlement agreement to end the litigation, which contained no findings of wrongdoing or liability by the board or its staff. The board fully complied with applicable laws governing our agency and the conduct of investigations. The GAB filings include responses to allegations made by the Wisconsin Club for Growth and arguments about records sought by the plaintiff. The GAB said it planned to make available to reporters additional case documents filed by the plaintiffs as they became available from the Waukesha County courthouse. Still to be released are thousands of pages of depositions, internal GAB emails discussing the case and other exhibits filed by the plaintiffs. Wisconsin Club for Growth lawyer Edward Greim provided a sample of those Wednesday that he said rebut the GABs claims that it was nonpartisan and dispassionate. One was an email from then-GAB lawyer Shane Falk reacting negatively to John Doe Judge Gregory Peterson quashing more than 30 subpoenas in January 2014, which effectively halted the investigation. This is a bad joke, right? Falk wrote in an email to John Doe special prosecutor Francis Schmitz. Are you serious? This is so pathetic, it is almost funny. In a statement, OKeefe said the documents show GAB staff were motivated by partisan bias. Today marks the successful conclusion of our struggle to expose the inner workings of the unconstitutional investigation that the GAB tried for so long to keep secret, OKeefe said in a statement. We are confident that once Wisconsin taxpayers and legislators review this record, they will never allow this to happen again. Some case documents were previously released, including in leaks to the Wall Street Journal editorial page, which chastised the GAB as the Legislature was debating a bill that replaced the agency with separate bipartisan ethics and elections commissions. Some emails showed Falk, previously a Democratic appointee to the old state Elections Board, referred to the Walker campaign coordination as a bastardization of politics and that the state was being run by corporations and billionaires. Other previously released documents showed Schmitz had doubts about the underlying legal theory behind the John Doe investigation after serving five search warrants and 29 subpoenas, but Falk encouraged him to press the case. In October, after the Wisconsin Supreme Court halted the investigation saying the legal theory was invalid, Schmitz said he no longer had misgivings about the legal theory. The Supreme Court removed him from the case in December, but three district attorneys who were part of the investigation are planning to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Parts of Kennedys deposition that were previously released showed Kennedy had been told by top IRS official Lois Lerner, who later resigned amid controversy, that the agencys criminal division might investigate the type of coordination between a campaign and a tax-exempt organization that was at the heart of the John Doe investigation. Supreme Court candidates Rebecca Bradley and JoAnne Kloppenburg each has the support of 30 percent of voters, while 31 percent remain undecided, according to the latest Marquette Law School Poll. The two candidates prevailed in a Feb. 16 primary and face off in the April 5 general election. Poll director Charles Franklin said the poll was conducted after the primary, between Feb. 18-21, by phone with 802 registered voters; the margin of error is 4.5 percentage points. The partisan makeup of the poll leans Democratic, Franklin said, with 40 percent of respondents considering themselves Republican and 49 percent considering themselves Democrats. Ten percent are independents. While officially nonpartisan, the Supreme Court race typically falls along party lines. Conservatives are backing Bradley, while liberals support Kloppenburg. Among voters who are certain they will vote in the April 5 election a smaller number than the 802 registered voters polled 37 percent said they would pick Bradley while 36 percent chose Kloppenburg. Twenty-three percent said they are undecided. The poll data show both candidates have an uphill battle in introducing themselves to voters, with more than 50 percent of those polled saying they were unable to say whether they have favorable or unfavorable views of either candidate. Supreme Court races are less visible and suffer from the fact that voters dont know much about the candidates, Franklin said. Bradleys campaign declined to comment about the campaigns plan to reach out to voters given the polls findings. Kloppenburg campaign spokeswoman Melissa Mulliken said Kloppenburg is the only candidate to have visited each of Wisconsins 72 counties. We are going to continue that extensive travel, speaking to groups large and small and talking to the press across the state, Mulliken said. Grassroots groups are hard at work across the state, reaching their neighbors, family and friends with information about the importance of this election through phone calls and lit drops. She said the campaign will also buy advertising and counteract any negative ads directed at Kloppenburg. The results of the Feb. 16 primary revealed a closer-than-expected race between Bradley, appointed to the high court by Gov. Scott Walker last fall, and Kloppenburg, who was defeated by Justice David Prosser in 2011. Voters return to the polls to choose between Bradley and Kloppenburg the same day as Wisconsins presidential primary, which could balloon turnout, and outside interest groups will likely spend hundreds of thousands on behalf of both campaigns. Republicans say the race comes down to name recognition, while Democrats say Bradley also is being hurt by her ties to Walker, who previously appointed her to the Milwaukee County bench and then to the Court of Appeals. Walkers approval rating among Wisconsin voters is at 39 percent, according to Thursdays poll results. However, Franklin said the poll data didnt support the argument that Kloppenburg has significantly more name recognition. The notion that Kloppenburg carries strong, extra name recognition since 2011 we simply dont see any evidence of that in our data, he said. The state Department of Corrections should consider lower-cost alternatives than state prisons for repeat drunken drivers, Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday. They dont necessarily need to be in high-stakes correctional facilities, Walker said. They need to be in a spot, particularly for multiple offenders, where theres obviously a sense of punishment for that but also where theyre just not able to get access to a vehicle where they could be intoxicated. Walker was responding to a question about a bill he plans to sign that would make fourth-offense drunken driving a felony. The Department of Corrections estimates the bill could cost between $97.9 million and $129 million a year, though lawmakers have disputed those figures as too high because they say the bill will deter repeat offenders. Walker said the cost doesnt conflict with his previous statement that legislation this session be limited to $20 million because the drunken driving bill cost wouldnt necessarily affect the current biennial budget. The Department of Corrections estimate says the bill could boost the states prison population by more than 1,000 inmates in the first year after its enactment. The inmate increase could be more than 3,600 over the long term. Walker also told reporters Wednesday that if the Senate decides not to take up a bill penalizing so-called sanctuary cities hes just fine with that. The bill drew to Madison last week thousands of Latino protesters who say the bill sends the wrong message to the states immigrant population. My focus is on pieces of legislation that I think will help improve the economy, Walker said, mentioning that he hopes the Senate will take up bills changing the administrative rules process and making college more affordable. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, has said the Assemblys $10 million price tag on the college affordability package might have to be whittled down to $2 million. Walker said hes willing to work with the Senate, if thats the direction they choose. Walker also wouldnt say whether hell sign a bill Fitzgerald has pushed that would prohibit county executives from serving in the Legislature. Critics of the bill say it politically targets Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris, a Democrat running for an open Senate seat. Walker, a former Milwaukee County executive who left the position after being elected governor in 2010, suggested that he supports the spirit of the proposal. For the 11 county executives in this state, that is a full-time position, Walker said. That is a position that would require all your time and interest. Whether there is a law that says it or not, I would think anybody whos thinking about it would do what I did. All of us, every single man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth were born with the same unalienable rights; to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And, if the governments of the world can't get that through their thick skulls, then, regime change will be necessary. , , , ... MESA, AZ Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said Wednesday he found it "surreal" to see GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump "threaten" his mother on Twitter over her political contributions, AP reports. The Rickett family's matriarch Marlene donated $3 Million to "Our Principles PAC," anti-Trump SuperPac being run by former Romney adviser Katie Packer. When Trump learned of the contribution, he posted a tweet that said: Speaking to reporters at the Cubs' spring training complex in suburban Phoenix on Wednesday, Ricketts said: "It's a little surreal when Donald Trump threatens your mom." Trump is also irritated with former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney for calling for Trump to release tax returns, saying they could contain "a bombshell." Trump replied Thursday morning: Because of an accident and the injuries he has sustained, Straw is unable to walk normally. Those injuries hampered his efforts to run for Congress in the 8th CD GOP primary this year. STREAMWOOD - Andrew U.D. Straw, an attorney recovering from broken legs and pelvis, is a Streamwood Republican that practices disability rights law. He is not happy that the Illinois State Board of Elections excluded his name from the March 15th GOP ballot after an objection was filed. Straw argues that Democrat Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth - who lost her legs in military service - was provided unfair advantage in gathering petition signatures for her last two Congressional bids. "I looked through the nomination papers of Tammy Duckworth in 2012 and 2014," Straw said. "Duckworth did not collect a single signature herself, but she got on the ballot and won her primary and the general election both years." Straw says he collected about half of the signatures he obtained and experienced pain while doing so. "I asked for an accommodation based on the pain in my legs I feel collecting signatures due to broken bones. Every accommodation I asked was denied. I should have been allowed on the ballot with 128 signatures even though the required number is 475. Collecting signatures hurt my broken legs," he said. "This isn't rocket science." The problem is that early voting commenced February 4th and Straw's name is not on the GOP ballot in the 8th CD. With no alternative, he is now running as a write-in candidate. "Please just let me back on the ballot," Straw said. "Was the pain I endured to get those signatures not enough for the Illinois State Board of Elections? My pain was more than Tammy Duckworth experienced getting on the ballot, since she did not collect one signature herself." Straw says the ISBE's petition signature rejection was "irrational and spiteful." "I am disabled and the Board saw how severely. My accommodation was reasonable and actually reduced the number of signatures the Board had to evaluate without increasing the number of candidates for this office," he said. As a result, Straw has filed suit in Chicago, seeking ballot access and future accommodations for disabilities like his. James Marter, center, with Jane Carroll of Rockton and Andrew Gasser of McHenry Co Board OSWEGO - James Marter, a conservative businessman challenging incumbent U.S. Senator Mark Kirk in the March 15th GOP primary, has added another endorsement from a national conservative group. Jenny Beth Martin, on behalf of the national Tea Party Patriots, gave Marter a thumbs up. James Marter is a strong advocate for economic freedom, personal freedom, and a debt-free future. He has promised to work to repeal ObamaCare, oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants, and stand firm on the Constitution when it comes to considering judicial appointments," Martin said in a statement this week. "He has won the support of our local affiliate Tea Party organizations and leaders, and has convinced us he can be counted to work to inject our shared conservative values into the Senate GOP cloakroom a place that sorely needs them." Martin said running against an incumbent is never easy. "And when youve chosen to take on an incumbent member of your own party in a primary contest, the challenge is even greater. It is not an endeavor for the faint of heart," she said. "The very fact that James would offer himself as an alternative to his rather more moderate dare I say, squishy?' opponent is a testament to the fact that hes got the intestinal fortitude necessary to stand strong on behalf of his constituents once he gets to Washington." Marter has also been endorsed by Illinois Federation for Right to Life PAC, Taxpayers for America, and Americans for Legal Immigration PAC. However, he failed to get the endorsement of Paul Caprio's conservative Family PAC Federal. Marter told Illinois Review he asked Caprio for the endorsement and was confident he'd receive it given the 100 percent rating he received from the group, and given the fact that Sen. Kirk, who is considered one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate, was not being considered. When Caprio released his list of endorsements last week, Sen. Kirk's name appeared with the term "no endorsement" and James Marter's name wasn't listed. Caprio told Illinois Review he didn't endorse Marter because he showed no campaign or finance plan, and had not hired a campaign manager or consultant. UPDATE x1: Thursday afternoon, Marter's campaign manager Raquel Melanie told Illinois Review, "We appreciate all the endorsements and support we're getting from these groups, but the most important endorsement of all is the one voters make on March 15th." Family PAC's endorsement list for the March 15th GOP primary is HERE. Pakistan anti-terrorism court holding the 26/11 Mumbai attack trial has finally recorded the statements of all Pakistani witnesses. By Press Trust of India: Pakistan's anti-terrorism court holding the Mumbai attack trial has finally recorded the statements of all Pakistani witnesses in the high-profile case that has been going on in the country for over six years. The anti-terrorism court (ATC) Islamabad which held the hearing yesterday at the high security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi recorded the statements of the final witness,concluding the process. advertisement Five witnesses have not recorded their statements despite a number of court summons. The court has declared them proclaimed offenders. "All the Pakistani witnesses of the Mumbai case have recorded their statements. Now only Indian witnesses are left to record their statements," a prosecution lawyer told PTI. He said the trial would be concluded once the India witnesses record their statements. The prosecution lawyer said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the trial court yesterday that the Interior Ministry has written to the Foreign Ministry over summoning of the 24 Indian witnesses to Pakistan for recording of statements. The court adjourned the hearing till March 2. In the last hearing, the court, which is holding the trial of the seven accused including Mumbai attack mastermind and LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, had ordered the FIA to present all 24 Indian witnesses in court to record their statements. Besides, it had also ordered to bring back to Pakistan the boats used by Ajmal Kasab and other militants on the grounds that it is a case property and should be duly examined. A court official had said earlier that the statements of four key Indian witnesses recorded by the Pakistani commission in 2012 were not admissible in the trial court as the Indian government had not allowed their cross-examination. The 8-member Pakistani judicial commission had visited India on behalf of the Pakistani anti-terrorism court (ATC). The statements of the Indian witnesses were supposed to be used as evidence in the trial. However, Lakhvi's lawyer had challenged the commission's proceedings because Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S S Shinde did not let its members cross-examine witnesses. The trial court here subsequently declared the proceedings of the commission illegal. Pakistani authorities have arrested seven LeT members involved with the planning of the attacks. Apart from Lakhvi, other arrested LeT men are Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Sadiq, Shahid Jamil, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum. A trial is underway against them at the ATC since 2009. Lakhvi, 55, secured bail in December 2014 and was subsequently released from Adiala Jail on April 10, 2015,After the Lahore High Court set aside the government's order to detain him under a public security act. advertisement Also Read: Headley: ISI gives financial support to JeM, LeT, Hizbul Mujaideen Also Read: After Headley's disclosures, India to confront Pakistan on 26/11 with new dossier --- ENDS --- Ahead of the Budget 2016 session of Parliament, former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram hit out at the Narendra Modi government, saying it is "overstating growth". Speaking exclusively to India Today, Chidambaram said that he would trust the deflator used by the RBI more than the deflator used by CSO. By India Today Web Desk: Ahead of the Budget 2016 session of Parliament, former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram hit out at the Narendra Modi government, saying it is "overstating growth". Speaking exclusively to India Today's Karan Thapar, Chidambaram said that he would trust the deflator used by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) more, compared to the deflator used by the Central Statistics Organisation (CSO). advertisement Answering a question on India's growth rate, Chidambaram said, "I think we are overstating growth. If we are growing at 7.6 per cent, some parts of the economy must reflect that kind of growth. Let's just look at the first four segments - exports, negative for 14 months, credit growth, slowest in 20 years, tax revenues, indirect taxes, net of the additional taxes imposed in the last 7 months, post budget is growing at a very normal rate. Then you look at sales of funds, sales of all funds are down by 6 per cent in the first 9 months, sales of manufacturing companies are down by 11.5 per cent, three tractor companies are reporting decline in tractor sales between 12-23 per cent." "I can't see a single figure which says... here I am... I am standing in support of 7.6 per cent," he said. When asked what the growth rate exactly is, if not 7.6 per cent, as claimed by the Narendra Modi government, Chidambaram said, "Two economists whom I have great respect for put it (growth rate) at between 6-6.5 per cent." HIGHLIGHTS Nobody is happy economically. Government should have taken bolder steps. Modi government soft on gold imports and lethargic on oil exploration and production. Government should not depart from fiscal consolidation path. Afzal Guru cannot be called martyr. GST is stuck because government is stubborn. The bill is flawed. Modi government came to office on promise of development but today narrative has changed. Government's management skills are poor. It was Modi's responsibility to rein in irresponsible elements. Free speech is not sedition. Supreme Court judgement can be criticised, it's not anti-national. Modi government is overstating growth. WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE --- ENDS --- Former finance minister P Chidambaram has said that it is possible that the "Afzal Guru case may not have been correctly decided". He also said that the levelling charges of sedition against the JNU students was "outrageous". By India Today Web Desk: Calling the sedition charge against the students who held a pro-Afzal Guru meeting at the Jawaharlal Nehru university campus outrageous, former home minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has raised serious doubts over the degree of involvement of the hanged terrorist in the 2001 Parliament attacks. In an interview to The Economic Times, Chidambaram said, "I think it is possible to hold an honest opinion that the Afzal Guru case was perhaps not correctly decided." advertisement Amid raising controversy over sedition charges against three arrested students, Chidambaram said the opinion that Afzal Guru's case was wrongly decided by the court is not anti-national so it is outrageous to slap sedition charges against the students. Afzal Guru was convicted by the Supreme Court of India in the 2001 Parliament attack that killed six Delhi Police personnel, two Parliament Security Service personnel and all 5 Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists. He was hanged on February 9, 2013 during the UPA-2 government after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy petition. Speaking on the issue, he said it was not possible for him to raise doubts over the court's judgement while being in the government. He was the finance minister at the time when Afzal Guru was hanged. Chidambaram's comments assume significance as it is in line with the JNU students who allegedly termed Afzal Guru's hanging as judicial killing. However, Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday said in Parliament that "the students had been found indulging in anti-national activities by none other than the JNU authorities. Also Read JNU sedition case: Umar Khalid says he raised pro-Afzal Guru slogans --- ENDS --- BJP chief Amit Shah has demanded clarification from Rahul Gandhi on whether "anti-national" slogans should be tolerated in the name of freedom of speech. By India Today Web Desk: BJP chief Amit Shah, on Wednesday attacked Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for supporting Jawaharlal Nehru University students and accused him of "votebank politics". Amit Shah, has demanded clarification from Rahul Gandhi on whether "anti-national" slogans should be tolerated in the name of freedom of speech. "Today debate is being held in the Parliament whether raising anti-national slogans should be tolerated in the name of freedom of speech or not," said Shah. advertisement "I specially want to ask Congress and its workers whether those raising slogans like 'Afzal Guru tere hatrayre zinda hain' and 'Bharat ke tukde honge' were traitors or not," Shah said at a public meeting at the unveiling of the statue of 11th century king of Shravasti, Raja Suheldeo. "I want that members of all parties sitting in the biggest panchayat of the country which is Parliament should clarify whether raising anti-national slogans was freedom of speech or sedition. This also has to be decided by the people of the country," he added. Rahul faced the staunch criticism from Shah for supporting JNU students, who are protesting the arrest of JNU Students' Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charge. Rahul has also accused the RSS and BJP of imposing their ideology. "Rahulji don't stoop so low for votebank politics. The country got freedom due to the sacrifice of thousands of martyrs. You are supporting the forces dividing the country in the name of freedom of speech," he said ALSO READ: Amit Shah seeks Rahul Gandhi's apology for his stand on JNU row --- ENDS --- Indian Army has arrested a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist from Baramulla along with his three associates in connection with the attack on the army camp three months ago, near the Line of Control (LoC) in Tanghdar area of North Kashmir's Kupwara district. By India Today Web Desk: Indian Army has arrested a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist from Baramulla along with his three associates in connection with the attack on the army camp three months ago, near the Line of Control (LoC) in Tanghdar area of North Kashmir's Kupwara district. Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, son of Walid Mohammad Gujjar is resident of Sialkot tehsil Dehska in Pakistan. His three associates Hussain, Malik and Rizwan were killed inside Army camp at Tanghdar on November 25. advertisement Gujjar was part of four Fidayeen who carried out attack on the Army camp in Tanghdar on November 25 last year. He confessed to have set afire the oil depot inside the Army camp at Tanghdar and destroyed several vehicles before he was asked by his colleagues to leave. Fidayeen also divulged that the group of four JeM militants were launched from Athmuqam in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and asked to attack on any camp near the LoC. "The group with the help of GPS devices started on foot on November 24 at around 10 pm. from near the LoC on PoK side and continued their journey till they reached the Tanghdar Army camp in around 6-7 hours", he revealed. Gujjar, the only teenager in the group was asked by his colleagues to leave. He fled to nearby forests and was there hiding for three days. He was asked by his handlers that he should go to Kupwara and they will help him. After three days, he changed his clothes and boarded a Sumo along with his weapon from Tanghdar. He reached Kupwara where he befriended some people who helped him to travel to Baramulla", Gujjar told his interrogators. Coming from a well off farmer family in Sialkot, Gujjar has five brothers and two sisters. He was lured by his school friend who is also a JeM militant into militancy. He received three month's training in JeM camp where he was motivated for Jihad besides arms training. ALSO READ: Two Jaish-e-Mohammad members sentenced to 10 years in jail --- ENDS --- South Indian actress Meghana Raj, who has acted in Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil movies, has been accused of cheating a businessman. However, the actress has termed the allegation as false. By India Today Web Desk: South Indian actress Meghana Raj, who has acted in Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil movies, has been accused of cheating a businessman. A Tamil Nadu-based businessman Janardhan has filed a complaint accusing Meghana of cheating him. In an e-mail complaint to Bengaluru City Police Commissioner N S Megharikh, Janardhan alleged that Meghana had promised to marry him. But later, she stole a few documents / evidence relating to the relationship. advertisement The case has been handed over to the JP Nagar police in the city for a probe. However, the actress has denied the allegations. Meghana is the daughter of popular actor couple Sundar Raj and Prameela Joshai. --- ENDS --- Karnataka government has announced housing scheme for transgenders, who are facing social boycott, in Bengaluru. By India Today Web Desk: Karnataka government has announced housing scheme for transgenders, who are facing social boycott, in Bengaluru. Bengaluru Development Minister , K J George, announced the housing scheme for over 600 transgenders living in the city and facing social exclusion. The scheme will come up on 50 acres land on the outskirts of the city where the government is building a township for the economically weaker sections of society. advertisement George said he would instruct the Bengaluru Urban district administration to come up with a blueprint of the housing for the transgenders. He also assured social security for the transgenders on behalf of the government. --- ENDS --- Marimuthu, a south Indian teenager, had no idea the debt bondage he was pushed into last year would lead to serious burns on his legs, forcing him to escape his abusive employer and seek hospital treatment. By Reuters: Marimuthu, a south Indian teenager, had no idea the debt bondage he was pushed into last year would lead to serious burns on his legs, forcing him to escape his abusive employer and seek hospital treatment. After working 15-hour days in a sweet shop with little time off, Marimuthu had a bad headache one day and asked for a break. The shop owner refused, shouted at him and threw a pan of hot oil over his legs, he said. Days later, he ran away. advertisement The 15-year-old is one of nearly 16 million people in India who have been forced into manual labour, trafficked into brothels, stuck in debt bondage or born into servitude, according to the 2014 Global Slavery Index. Most of them are unpaid or held in debt bondage, like Marimuthu, who was sent to the western Indian state of Maharashtra three months ago from his home in Madurai, in southern Tamil Nadu state. His mother needed to repay a 20,000 rupee ($290) debt and agreed to send her son to work at a sweet shop for one year. She was promised a total of 40,000 rupees ($580), half of which was given to her as an advance to pay off her debt. The rest was to be paid in November this year. She was told the sweet shop would be in a nearby city, but her son was sent halfway across the country from Madurai in the south to Pundarpur in the west. "I started at six in the morning and worked till nine at night. I worked in a cramped space making sweets through the day and was allowed short breaks for my meals," Marimuthu said. "I had a terrible headache that day and needed to sit down. The shop owner would not allow it. He verbally abused me before picking up the hot pan of oil and throwing it on me," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview. "After I was burned, I was escorted by a co-worker to my room and some of the gram flour paste we use for cooking was applied to cool the wound. The pain didn't subside." After trying to go on working, Marimuthu finally took the 200 rupees ($3) he had put aside and ran away, travelling ticketless on trains for two days to get home. He went to a hospital in Madurai on Feb. 22 for treatment of severe burns on both legs. "His case was brought to our notice through social workers at the hospital," said A. Kathir of the non-governmental organisation Evidence, who registered a formal complaint with the Madurai police. "We are not confident of the boy getting justice because the crime happened in another state and there are jurisdiction issues," he said. advertisement Marimuthu's case follows a pattern of exploitation in the region, activists said. "Many adolescent boys from this region are taken to various parts of India to work in sweet shops because sweetmakers from here are famous. The units are all run by owners from this region as well," said T. Kuralamuthan of non-profit organisation International Justice Mission. "The first crackdown happened when some boys escaped from northern Indian states in 2011 and came back. Since then many boys have escaped and 60 were also rescued by the Tamil Nadu police in subsequent years." Most boys, like Marimuthu, drop out of school after grade six and start work. Marimuthu said he wanted to finish his studies - but then said his mother had died a month earlier, his father was an alcoholic and he had two younger brothers going to school. "Maybe I will have to go back to work," after being discharged from hospital, he said. ALSO READ: Bengaluru: 8 Bihari minors rescued from bonded labor --- ENDS --- Agra was pushed to the brink of communal violence, when a Hindu outfit leader was shot dead in the Muslim dominated Mantola area of the city, when he was walking out of a temple on the way to open his shop located in the area. Later, some miscreants beat up Mohd. Akhlaq, the Imam of a mosque. District Magistrate Agra Pankaj Kumar said that the city is perfectly calm and the violence was not allowed to flare up and affect the city. (photo: Siraj Qureshi) By Siraj Qureshi: The city of Taj Mahal was pushed to the brink of communal violence, when a Hindu outfit leader was shot dead in the Muslim dominated Mantola area of the city, when he was walking out of a temple on the way to open his shop located in the area. Later, some miscreants beat up Mohd. Akhlaq, the Imam of a mosque in Sev Ka Bazar area, flaring the tension even higher. However, the situation is currently under control with police force deployed in huge numbers in all Muslim dominated areas of the city. advertisement Leaders of Hindu and Muslim organizations are at loggerheads over this murder, as the murder accused Shahrukh is believed to be a Samajwadi Party functionary. Only the active intervention from the local community leaders kept the city from repeating the history of 2002 riots when several people died and property worth crores was damaged with the entire city locked down under a strict curfew for one week. Talking to India Today, Dy. Inspector General of Police Agra Ajay Mohan Sharma said that the deceased Arun Kumar was reportedly the ward chairman of Hindu Mahasabha and a resident of Bodla area, with a shop at Mira Husseini crossing in Mantola area. He said that the murder accused has been identified and is currently absconding but he will be arrested soon. He appealed to both communities to maintain peace and harmony in the city and assured that nobody will be spared by the law. District Magistrate Agra Pankaj Kumar said that the city is perfectly calm and the violence was not allowed to flare up and affect the city. The markets have been ordered to remain close for today to prevent any unexpected incident but no curfew has been imposed. He said that politics will not be allowed on this issue as it is clearly an incident arising out of personal rivalry. Dr. Pritinder Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police Agra said that the situation was completely under control and people were being urged not to trust hoaxes. Sami Agai, President of Bhartiya Muslim Vikas Parishad said that there are some people who are planning to create unnecessary communal tension in Agra over this murder but they will not be allowed to succeed in their plans. He said that while the police believes the murder was committed in personal rivalry, it is clear that they did nothing to prevent this murder and the subsequent flareup of tension in the area, even though the police station Mantola is just a few hundred meters away from the scene of crime and there's a permanent police picket deployed close by. ALSO READ Agra footwear easing ahead of China in international market advertisement 97-year-old freedom fighter tries to torch liquor shop in Agra --- ENDS --- In an interesting twist related to the Pampore encounter, it has been found that the son of United Jihad Council's chief and supreme commander of Hizbul Mujahideen Syed Salahuddin was among the 160 civilians trapped inside the EDI building when the 3 militants infiltrated. Syed Mueed Yousuf was rescued by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and CRPF personnel. By Shuja-ul-Haq : In an interesting twist related to the Pampore encounter, it has been found that the son of United Jihad Council's (UJC) chief and supreme commander of Hizbul Mujahideen Syed Salahuddin was among the 160 civilians trapped inside the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) building when militants infiltrated. Syed Mueed Yousuf, along with other employees and trainees, was rescued by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel last Saturday. advertisement Yousuf is an IT graduate and works as Manager Information Technology at the EDI. As per sources, he was present in the 5-storey EDI complex when three heavily armed militants attacked a CRPF convoy, killing two personnel, and ran into the complex. Yousuf and other employees in his department were trapped in the ground floor, waiting for someone to come and rescue them. When the militants entered, the employees left the structure and ran towards the 8-storey hostel which is right behind the main building. The employees said that the militants allowed them to move into the other building and immediately after that the security forces stormed the complex and the encounter began. When the bulletproof vehicles of the police and the CRPF reached for evacuation, Syed Mueed Yousuf, along with other employees was rescued. "Yes, Syed was inside that time with other employees and we evacuated them," said a senior police official. All the three Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militants were killed in the 48 hour long gun battle. Three Army men including two Captains of the Special Forces, three CRPF personnel and one civilian lost their lives during the operation. ALSO READ Pampore encounter: Militants may have done recce of the area Separatists raise anti-India slogans at Pampore encounter site --- ENDS --- The first session of the India Today Education Conclave 2016, was preceded by a welcome address by Raj Chengappa, India Today Group Editorial Director. By India Today Web Desk: The first session of the India Today Education Conclave 2016, was preceded by a welcome address by Raj Chengappa, India Today Group Editorial Director. Chengappa talked about the crisis of higher education in India with only 1 out of 12 students making it to college as per studies and only 32% of universities in India getting an A+ rating. advertisement The session had a detailed discussion on various aspects of modern-day education policies and what should be the ideal path going forward. Apart from Chengappa the session saw eminent speakers like Arun Kapur, Kiran Bhatty, Anita Rampal, and Meagan Fallone. Kiran Bhatty, senior fellow at Centre for Policy Research, reflected on the areas that require l immediate attention by the education ministry as education is fast becoming the most neglected sector that's facing a major crisis. She pointed out how the government doesn't even know exactly how many students aren't even going to school and the figures range anywhere between 4 to 20 million. She also brought to light that the government has failed to take any measure such as an adequate grievance address mechanism for right to education being implemented as a fundamental right. Bhatty highlighted acute gap between the demand for education and the supply. She further noted that despite the private sector being majorly impactful, the onus still lies with the public sector when it comes to education in India. Anita Rampal, , former Dean at Faculty of Education in Delhi University, spoke about a more cohesive education platform talking about democratising the way we go about teaching kids irrespective of their social or financial background. Anita pointed out how our vision for quality education needs to go much beyond the employment perspective and should combine skill development with the traditional education. She also discussed the shortage of teacher training institutes in the country. Meagan Fallore, who manages global strategy, implementation & development at Barefoot College International explained noted that the Barefoot College International is the only college for the rural poor today. She reinforced India as a major player in the education paradigm of the world with everyone country keenly observing the massive waste of human resource in India thanks to lack of education. Arun Kapur, Director at Vasant Valley School, spoke about the education policies adopting a flexible approach keeping in mind the sheer diversity in our country as well as changing times. advertisement He voiced his concerns on how the education policies have so far focused only on infrastructure which though important can't be the only thing of value. Key Takeaways - Education Ministry needs to bring in experts at the stage of policy formation - An effective model around teacher training needs to be developed - There has to be local contextualisation in every aspect of the education policies - There's a lot of importance placed on building a scientific temperament in the students but not enough attention paid to the social sciences - Institutions of learning need to mirror as well as shape the society --- ENDS --- The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea on Friday seeking contempt action against three lawyers who were allegedly caught on camera 'bragging and boasting' that they had beaten up JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and others, in a court complex. The plea was filed in pursuance of an oral observation by a bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar. The three lawyers mentioned in the sting operation are Vikram Singh Chauhan, Yashpal Singh and Om Sharma. By Rahul Kanwal: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea on Friday seeking contempt action against three lawyers who were allegedly caught on camera 'bragging and boasting' that they had beaten up Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others, including journalists, in a court complex. "Let it be listed tomorrow before the bench concerned," a bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice UU Lalit said when lawyer Prashant Bhushan sought urgent hearing of the matter filed by another advocate Kamini Jaiswal on the issue. advertisement Bhushan said that a bench headed by Justice Chelameswar had fixed another pending matter on the JNU issue for hearing on March 10 and the instant plea needed to be heard urgently. The plea, which was on Wednesday filed in the apex court, also sought a direction to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incidents of violent attacks on some journalists, students, teachers, defence lawyers and Kanhaiya Kumar on February 15 and 17 by some advocates in the premises of the Patiala House courts in Delhi during the hearing of the sedition case involving the JNUSU leader. The plea was filed in pursuance of an oral observation by a bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar, which is hearing the matter arising out of violence in the trial court premises in the JNU case, that the allegations are fresh ones and hence, a fresh petition is required to be filed. It has sought "suo motu contempt proceeding" against lawyers Vikram Singh Chauhan, Yashpal Singh and Om Sharma on the ground that they have allegedly been caught on camera talking about the attacks. It alleged that the lawyers have interfered in the "administration of justice" and willfully violated the orders passed by the apex court on February 17. ALSO READ Advocate Vikram Chauhan, accused in attacking journalist and Kanhaiya in Patiala House courts, got bail from Tilak marg Police station. India Today Impact: Govt to discuss Patiala House attack sting operation in Parliament Kanhaiya wet his pants while we beat him up: Lawyers behind Patiala House assault --- ENDS --- The three officials who have been suspended are- DSPs from Rohtak- Amit Dahiya, Amit Bhatia and IG Rohtak range Shrikant Jadhav. By India Today Web Desk: Three top officials from Rohtak were suspended today in connection with the recent protests over Jat quota. The three officials who have been suspended are- DSPs from Rohtak- Amit Dahiya, Amit Bhatia and IG Rohtak range Shrikant Jadhav. BK Sinha, ADGP Vigilance has been appointed as Nodal Officer for ongoing investigations. He will collect all the available audio and video evidences from February 14 till February 23. advertisement Sinha will examine footage captured from mobile and CCTV of various shops, markets and government buildings. Investigation will also include call details of various Jat and Khap leaders. Government has also appealed to the people to come out with evidences of riots, attacks and hand over it to the administration. Police on Wednesday registered a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy against Virender Singh, a close aide of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, on charges of inciting violence during the Jat agitation. A Khap leader, Man Singh Dalal, who represents the Dalal Khap in Haryana, was also named in the FIR. An audio tape of a telephone conversation, allegedly between Virender Singh and Dalal, surfaced recently in which Virender Singh is purportedly telling Dalal to activate youths in Sirsa district to take part in the Jat reservation agitation. 69 people have been arrested so far in connection with the agitation. Nineteen people were killed and nearly 200 injured in the Jat agitation claiming job quotas and property worth crores of rupees was destroyed. The violence affected 10 of Haryana's 21 districts. Also read: Haryana goons dragged stranded women to fields, gangraped them near Murthal Jat quota stir: Haryana CM heckled in Rohtak, goods train torched Jat stir: Hooda's aide in hot water over audio tape inciting violence --- ENDS --- The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members on Wednesday drew support from students of various universities against the alleged anti-national activities at Jawaharlal Nehru University. By Mail Today: The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members on Wednesday drew support from students of various universities against the alleged anti-national activities at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Amid cries of 'Afzal ka jo yaar hai, desh ka gaddar hai' and 'Lal gulami chhodke bolo Vande Mataram', hundreds of students began a march from Ramlila Maidan. At Jantar Mantar, where a stage was set up, students demanded immediate arrest of all culprits of the February 9 incident. They also condemned the silence of professors at JNU for shielding and encouraging the accused. Students from JNU, Delhi University, Rajasthan University and a number of other educational institutions supported the march. advertisement A 150 m-long national flag was also carried by volunteers who joined in from areas like Baghpat and Sonepat. The protesters accused the Left of spoiling atmosphere at JNU. Addressing the rally at Jantar Mantar, ABVP's national general secretary Vinay Bidre condemned the controversial event held against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. "We cannot tolerate anyone raising slogans that threaten the unity of the country. ABVP shall not tolerate such anti- national forces," Vinay said. Senior ABVP leader Saket Bahuguna alleged, "Antinational activities led by the Left in JNU have vitiated the atmosphere of the university. This anti-national sloganeering should have been unanimously condemned in Parliament, but some parties are debating over it. We demand that it be condemned in Parliament. And, if not then we will take this protest to other parts of India and the streets will be filled with national flags," he said. Over issues of debate and dissent, being raised over this episode, Bahuguna said, "I myself have been a student of JNU, and we value debate and dissent. But, in the garb of debate and dissent, how can one allow anti-national activities?" ALSO READ: JNU row: Police likely to book teachers who harboured absconders 15 questions that the Delhi Police asked Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya --- ENDS --- Following reports of Maoist links to the JNU sedition case, the Left-affiliated All India Students' Association (AISA) has taken a different route and written to Delhi Police saying they are ready to cooperate with the probe. While former DSU members Umar Khalid and Anirban have surrendered, three AISA members say they won't. By Astha Saxena: Following reports of Maoist links to the JNU sedition case, the Left-affiliated All India Students' Association (AISA) has taken a different route and written to Delhi Police saying they are ready to cooperate with the probe. Differences began cropping up between the far-Left DSU and AISA post the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar and over the surrender of five JNU students. advertisement "We are still planning our next move. There are three students from our party - Ashutosh, Anant Prakash and Rama Naga. They have not received any lookout notice or summons from the police. They have written to the police and are ready to help them in the inquiry. The letter written by cops to the university did not have their names," Sandeep Saurav, general secretary, AISA said. Former members of DSU, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya surrendered before the police late on Tuesday after getting no relief from the HC. The group of five students, which was allegedly involved in shouting 'antinational' slogans, seems to be divided. Sources in the university told Mail Today that three AISA students are planning to opt for anticipatory bail while Khalid and Anirban - both former DSU members - surrendered. This is raising questions. Sources say AISA is now focusing more on the three students rather than making it a 'group' issue. "There is sudden change in the course of the actions by AISA. There always have been differences in ideologies of both the parties. The incident (row) brought them together but now again they are on different routes," one of the students told Mail Today. Meanwhile, peace prevailed in the campus on Wednesday morning. The students who have been agitating at the varsity's administration block demanding Kanhaiya's release took a break from sloganeering. While the JNUSU office-bearers met to decide on further strategy, a group of students went to India Gate to participate in a candle light vigil demanding justice for Rohith Vemula. Meanwhile, various students' organisations are planning to have a meet on Thursday to decide further course of action. ALSO READ: Delhi HC adjourns hearing on Kanhaiya Kumar's bail plea till February 29 --- ENDS --- Umar Khalid, the alleged main accused in JNU sedition case, reportedly admitted that he had raised slogans hailing Afzal Guru even as he maintained that the slogans raised by him were not 'anti-national'. By Ankur Sharma: Initial interrogation of Umar Khalid, the alleged main accused in JNU sedition case, has revealed that after Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest, he along with other co-accused went underground but was present on the campus. Mail Today had on February 17 reported that the five accused in the case were present in premises of JNU. A senior Delhi Police officer told Mail Today that for the first few days he was hiding inside the campus but later shifted out. "Khalid spent the initial few days inside the university campus but later took shelter with his friends in adjoining areas like Munirka, Ber Sarai and Katwaria Sarai. We are trying to identify the people who facilitated Khalid and others to go underground," officers said. advertisement Investigators also claimed that during interrogation, Khalid accepted that he was present during the event. Khalid reportedly admitted that he had raised slogans hailing Afzal Guru even as he maintained that the slogans raised by him were not 'anti-national'. Meanwhile, a new video, showing alleged outsiders raising anti-India slogans during a controversial February 9 event in JNU, has given a fresh twist to the case even as police informed the Delhi High Court about presence of some foreign elements at the gathering. The youths, whose faces appear covered, are seen raising slogans against India in the video and police said it is examining the authenticity of the video. A PhD scholar Umar Khalid, one of the organisers of the event who had surrendered on Tuesday night, is seen in the video but is not seen raising slogans. Police said it has shortlisted photographs of eight persons who are suspected to be outsiders and allegedly involved in anti-national sloganeering at the event. But they are yet to be identified. Sources confirmed that Umar and Anirban could not identify them. "Our main focus will be on these five suspects who have their faces covered. The arrested students could not identify these people. We will ask the university administration to provide a list, if any, of the visitors who were on present on the campus," an officer said. ALSO READ: JNU row: Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya sent to 3-day police custody JNU row: New video showing 'outsiders' surfaces --- ENDS --- The Congress High Command has reportedly summoned Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to New Delhi in the wake of the party's performance in the Assembly bypolls and elections to the Zilla Panchayats (ZPs) and Taluk Panchayats. By Mail Today: The Congress High Command has reportedly summoned Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to New Delhi in the wake of the party's performance in the Assembly bypolls and elections to the Zilla Panchayats (ZPs) and Taluk Panchayats. The summons came a day after Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President G. Parameshwara left for New Delhi to allegedly complain against Siddaramaiah. Refusing to be drawn into the conversation, Siddaramaiah told reporters in Bengaluru, "Yes, I will be leaving for New Delhi shortly. I don't know why he (Parameshwara) went there." advertisement The Congress emerged victorious in 10 ZPs and is now forced to forge an alliance with the Janata Dal (Secular) to capture power in 6 more ZPs. However, the JD(S) leaders are not in a mood to align with the Congress. --- ENDS --- The Delhi cabinet today in a meeting chaired by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, approved the Power Department's proposal to extend the electricity subsidy scheme to the domestic consumers residing in the NDMC area. An additional fund of Rs 15 crore will be provided by the government to the Power Department for this purpose. By India Today Web Desk: The Delhi cabinet today in a meeting chaired by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, approved the Power Department's proposal to extend the electricity subsidy scheme to the domestic consumers residing in the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area. It has been decided that the existing scheme of providing 50 per cent reduction in the electricity bills of domestic consumers using upto 400 units per month will also be applicable to the consumers residing in the NDMC areas. advertisement An additional fund of Rs 15 crore will be provided by the government to the Power Department for this purpose. This is for the first time that electricity subsidy scheme has been extended to the NDMC area. However, the scheme will not be applicable to consumers using more than 400 units of electricity per month. The Delhi government had on February 25, 2015 decided to provide a 50 per cent subsidy to the domestic electricity consumers of Delhi, who consume upto 400 units per month. This decision was made applicable to domestic consumers residing in NDMC areas also. However, the Power Department was informed by the Delhi Vidyut Board Employees Terminal Benefit Fund Pension Trust that a sum of Rs 27 crore was recoverable from the NDMC in the form of prorata contribution to the DVB Pension Trust against the provision made in the tariff order passed by the DERC for financial years 2012-13 and 2014-15. It is therefore imperative that the entire amount of subsidy to be released to the NDMC should be credited to the account of Pension Trust against the overdue amount of Rs 27 crore. Secretary of the NDMC stated that an amount of over Rs 15 crore will be required to implement the electricity subsidy scheme. ALSO READ Kejriwal meets Rohith's family, gives job to his brother We are leaders with good intentions, says Arvind Kejriwal --- ENDS --- Police had launched an operation on Thursday following intel inputs that the rebels were sheltered in the area and had planted IEDs on different routes leading towards villages. The villagers had informed police about suspicious objects. By Manogya Loiwal : Meghalaya Police recovered over 30 IEDs from a Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) hideout in East Garo Hills on Thursday after a brief exchange of gunfire, wherein its self-styled deputy commander in chief Rupanto Marak had a narrow escape. The IEDs were recovered this afternoon from Durama range, an area known to be a GNLA stronghold. Police had launched an operation on Thursday following intel inputs that the rebels were sheltered in the area and had planted IEDs on different routes leading towards villages. The villagers had informed police about suspicious objects. advertisement "For the first time huge quantity of IEDs were recovered from rebel hideout in Garo Hills", said GHP Raju, Inspector General of Police (Operations/Law & Order). Raju claimed that police have credible intelligence inputs that ULFA (I)'s Dristi Rajkhowa was assisting GNLA to assembly the handmade IEDs. Police claimed that GNLA's wanted commander Rupanto Marak and his cadres were sheltered at the hideout. "Recovery of the IEDs after an encounter with Rupanto party proves nexus of GNLA and ULFA (I)", he added. Raju informed that the some of the IEDs were planted in village routes around Durama range under Williamnagar Police Station limits. "Police were alerted about suspicious objects on village route by a good samaritan. We promptly sent our forces into these areas to recover and defuse the IEDs before major danger could have occurred", he added. He said that the handmade IEDs had adequate explosive material that might have caused major damage if it would have exploded. These IEDs were recovered from Doengkhugre and adjoining village route under Williamnagar Police Station. "Thursday's operation was launched by police as a sequel to prompt response from villagers who heeded to our appeal to inform the police upon noticing any suspicious objects, which might be IEDs. Timely information from villagers has resulted in recovery of the IEDs", he said. --- ENDS --- Bhujbal along with his son Pankaj, nephew Sameer and 14 others have been roped in the 20,000 paged chargesheet filed by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau. The chargesheet contains statements of 60 witnesses. By India Today Web Desk: The Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau filed its chargesheet against senior National Communist Party leader, Chhagan Bhujbal, and 16 others in connection with Maharashtra Sadan scam , in a court today. Bhujbal along with his son Pankaj, nephew Sameer and 14 others has been roped in the 20,000 paged chargesheet. The chargesheet contains statements of 60 witnesses. advertisement The case is entirely based on documentary evidence such as fund transfer and bank transactions. According to ACB , in the construction of Maharashtra Sadan contractors earned 80 per cent profit against 20 per cent permitted in the government circular. "However, books of accounts have been fudged to show that the profit earned is only one percent," they added. The ACB had in June last year registered two FIRs against Bhujbal. The first one was related to alleged irregularities in allotment of a prime plot at Kalina in Mumbai to a developer. The second case was for alleged rampant corruption and large-scale irregularities in the construction of the new Maharashtra Sadan, the state government's guest house in New Delhi. The Public Works Department under Bhujbal had then allegedly awarded sub-contracts to firms, in blatant violation of rules, in the Maharashtra Sadan case. The FIR named the Bhujbal trio and 14 others. The other accused who were named in the FIR were: Arun Deodhar, Devdutt Marathe, Bipin Sankhe, Krishna Chamankar, Pranita Chamankar, Tanvir Sheikh, Sanjay Joshi, Manik Shaha, Deepak Deshpande, Anil Kumar Gaikwad, Pravina Chamankar, Prasanna Chamankar, Iram Tanvir Sheikh and Geeta Joshi. The state ACB had initiated a probe against Bhujbal and his family following a complaint lodged by Aam Aadmi Party leader Anjali Damania, who had alleged that there had been rampant corruption and large-scale irregularities in the construction of the new Maharashtra Sadan. According to Damania, the Public Works Department, under Bhujbal, had awarded sub-contracts to firms in blatant violation of rules. All these firms were floated or controlled by the members of the Bhujbal family. The new Maharashtra Sadan was built at the cost of Rs 100 crore when Congress-NCP coalition was in power in Maharashtra. --- ENDS --- BJP member Meenakshi Lekhi termed left parties as the "witch"in the fairy tale of India's growth story and stated that while the Modi government was making efforts towards development, the Left parties are acting as roadblocks. By Press Trust of India: BJP member Meenakshi Lekhi attacked left parties in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday calling them as the "witch"in the fairy tale of India's growth story. Lekhi stated that while the Modi government was making efforts towards development, the Left parties are acting as roadblocks. "When we were children, we saw some witch or some demon in the fairy tales. Likewise, there are witches in every growth story," BJP member Meenakshi Lekhi said while initiating the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address. advertisement Amid sharp protests from CPI(M) members, Lekhi pointed out killings allegedly committed by Left cadres in the southern poll-bound state and accused them of committing "atrocities on campus" and "white-washing their brutalities through repressive policies". "They have committed Taliban fashion of executions," she alleged, amid vociferous protests by Left members. The attack on the Left also came against the backdrop of CPI(M) and its allies being in the forefront in targeting the BJP and the Centre over the JNU row. Lekhi said while the Narendra Modi government was making strides amid a volatile global economic scenario, the Left parties keep raising issues to "derail" development. The attack on the Left came soon after the Prime Minister entered the House and a BJP MP passed on some papers to Lekhi, apparently reminding her to raise certain issues. Lekhi in her speech highlighted that India is emerging despite the volatile international markets. "With 7% GDP growth, India is emerging as a leader in the global economic sphere despite adverse international conditions," Lekhi said. India's economy is $2 trillion and $8 trillion on PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) basis, she said, adding that through 'Make In India', the Prime Minister wants to make the country a global manufacturing hub. On foreign policy, she said the government has done immense work barring a few glitches in neighbourhood but did not elaborate. Referring to the recent terror attack in Pathankot, Lekhi said it was one of the worst and the government had handled it very differently. The country has to face state as well as non-state actors in dealing with terrorism, she noted. --- ENDS --- The Pakistani Marine Security Agency (PMSA) today again impounded two more Indian boats off Gujarat coast with 12 fishermen. By India Today Web Desk: Within a week of the capture of 16 Indian boats with 88 fishermen aboard on February 19, the Pakistani Marine Security Agency (PMSA) today again impounded two more Indian boats off Gujarat coast with 12 fishermen. The Pak Marines have captured around 53 Indian fishing boats with more than 315 fishermen since October last year. The two boats (one from Okha and the other from Porbander) with a dozen fishermen were captured by the Pak marines today near International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in the Arabian sea off the Jakhau coast, National Fish Workers Forum Secretary Manish Lodhari said. --- ENDS --- advertisement Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, convicted in 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case is now a free man. He walked out of Pune's Yerwada Jail after 42 months. Clad in blue shirt and jeans, a smiling Dutt was escorted out of the imposing jail gates today morning after completing formalities. By India Today Web Desk: Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, convicted in 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case is now a free man. He walked out of Pune's Yerwada Jail after 42 months. Here are the latest updates in the story Actor on way to Badakabrastan to visit his mother's grave. Dutt leaves from the Siddhivinayak temple premises. Overwhelming crowd as Sanjay Dutt reaches Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai. Fans gather as Sanjay Dutt reaches Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai. Dutt offers prayers at the Siddhivinayak temple. Actor seeks Ganpati bappa's blessing amid huge chaos outside the temple. Dutt overwhelmed with huge crowd outside his house. Fans gather just to catch a glimpse of the actor. Sanjay Dutt reaches home in Bandra. Sanjay Dutt addresses a press conference in Mumbai. I really miss my father today, says Sanjay Dutt. After 23 years, I have got freedom today. It will take some time for this freedom to sink in. I am proud to be an Indian, that is why I kissed the earth and saluted the Tricolour. She is not my better half, but my best half. Maanyata is my strength-Sanjay Dutt. I gave the money earned Rs. 440 in the jail to my wife, as a good husband. Actor Sanjay Dutt (Photo: ANI) advertisement Clad in blue shirt and jeans, a smiling Dutt was escorted out of the imposing jail gates today morning after completing formalities. He saluted the tri-colour fluttering on top of the jail building as he carried a bag containing his belongings and his inmate file with him. He also saluted the soil outside the prison before he got into the waiting car. Present to receive him outside the jail amidst tight security were his wife Maanayata and their children, sister and former MP Priya Dutt and her family, film director Rajkumar Hirani, thousands of fans, a huge media contingent from across India and abroad. Sanjay Dutt with his lawyer Shortly after he walked out, the actor drove to Pune airport to board a chartered plane to Mumbai. At Pune Airport, he spoke to the media and credited his fans for their unending support. "I am here because of their (fans') support. And there is no easy road to freedom, my friends." Once in Mumbai, he will proceed straight to the famed Siddhi Vinayak temple to offer prayers. Then he will visit the Bada Kabrastan in Marine Lines and pray at the grave of his mother the late actress Nargis Dutt. On the eve of his release after serving 42 months behind bars, a public interest litigation was filed in the Bombay High Court on Wednesday challenging his early release on remission, alleging that the 56-year-old actor was getting preferential treatment. Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Ram Shinde on Tuesday said the actor will be completing his jail term on February 25, after counting in the eight months and 16 days he earned as exemption or remission on account of good behaviour in prison. Sanjay spent 42 months, a remainder of the his five year sentence in the Yerawada prison. His stay was mired in various controversies relating to his frequent paroles and furlough which the detractors said was granted to him as special favours due to his celebrity status. The Bollywood star was arrested on April 19, 1993, for possession and destruction of an AK-56 rifle, which was a part of cache of arms and explosives which landed in India prior to the serial blasts of March 1993. advertisement During the investigation and the marathon trial, he spent 18 months in jail. On July 31, 2007, the TADA court in Mumbai sentenced him to six years' rigorous imprisonment under the Arms Act and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000. In 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling but reduced the sentence to five years following which he surrendered to serve the rest of his sentence. During his imprisonment, he was granted parole of 90 days in December 2013 and again for 30 days later. ALSO READ: Sanjay Dutt to walk free today, PIL filed challenging his early release See Pic: Sanjay Dutt hugs wife Manyata before leaving for Yerwada Jail --- ENDS --- Smriti Irani in her speech quoted Rohith Vemula's Facebook post where he had criticised the CPI (M). By India Today Web Desk: Dalit student Rohith Vemula's suicide case today again rocked the Rajya Sabha. Union HRD minister Smriti Irani had given a 'rousing' speech in the Lok Sabha yesterday which created a lot of ripples across the political corridors. Today, the Rajya Sabha too witnessed a similar situation. Defending the government actions, Irani said it was not the first time police entered the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus. She also said that she talked to Vemula's mother often, but people don't know about it. advertisement Highlights of her speech When was the last time CPI(M) talked about something and achieved it at national level? Smriti Irani reads from Rohith Vemula's FB post. Let me say there are many who called me an 'anpadh mantri'. I do not claim I am as erudite a speaker as Yechury ji: Smriti Irani in Rajya Sabha. I did not disclose but I also spoke to Rohith Vemula's mother. Visva Bharti V-C removed as per law. Since people blame me for having a flair for drama, let me quote from 'Macbeth' and say "fair is foul and foul is fair" that is how 'Macbeth' began indicating that nothing is as it seems. I don't use my officers for political gains. Delhi University refused to apply reservation policy of India when Congress government was in power. When they went to JNU they wanted insult of gods and goddesses be within freedom of speech. What was the need for (Congress vice president) Rahul Gandhi to accept such insult of gods. She even said that she has been cautioned over getting agitated. "I have been cautioned, Smriti don't get agitated," the minister said. Smriti Irani read from the pamphlets of students which had objectionable things about Durga which was objected by Anand Sharma and other Congress leaders. They also demanded an apology from the education minister. Anand Sharma said, "There has been a tradition of the House and Indian Parliament that we have not allowed blasphemous statements of any god/deities of any religion. How we have allowed a Union Minister to do so? This will go to reflect in the deliberations of the House in the coming days. This minister should not only retract but also apologise as she has no business to read what she has read." The House was adjourned for the day. --- ENDS --- Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone are busy putting Bollywood on global map. If the Quantico actor has bagged a role in Baywatch, her Bajirao Mastani co-actor is busy shooting for XXX The Return of Xander Cage in Canada. But their contemporary Sonam Kapoor took a dig at them by saying that she doesn't want to be the hot Indian girl in Hollywood. By India Today Web Desk: Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone are busy putting Bollywood on global map. If the Quantico actor has bagged a role opposite Dwayne Johnson in Baywatch, her Bajirao Mastani co-actor Deepika Padukone is also busy shooting for her Hollywood debut, XXX The Return of Xander Cage, in Canada. But one of their contemporaries is creating buzz back in India with her stupendous performance. Sonam Kapoor, who is riding high on the success of Neerja, is game to be a part of Hollywood but only if she is offered meaty roles. advertisement ALSO READ: Deepika Padukone's dinner date with XXX The Return Of Xander Cage team ALSO READ: Sonam Kapoor delivers her career-best performance in Neerja Sonam, who is known to speak her mind, took a dig at her contemporaries when she said that she has worked very hard not to be this exotic Indian girl. In an interview to DNA, when the Prem Ratan Dhan Payo actor was asked about her Hollywood plans, Sonam said, "I would like to take my projects to the West. I do not want to be the hot Indian girl there. I have worked very hard not to be this exotic Indian girl in India. I have worked very hard to the point where I could get to do a film like Neerja and be taken seriously." The 30-year-old actor, who made a blink-and-miss appearance in Coldplay's latest music video Hymn For The Weekend, is not ready to start things from the scratch in Hollywood. But at the same time, she is only ready if an exciting role is offered to her. "I do not want to start all over again. If I can get something with a lot of gravitas, I would definitely want to do it. I would approach them myself. If it's a great role, why not? But if it has something right and which attracts me," she added. Sonam, who is good friends with Priyanka, said that she is more interested in honing her skill than conquer the world. "For me, conquering the world is not important. For me conquering and honing my craft is more important. It doesn't matter what language I get to work in, as long as I get to explore something about myself and explore a character that I want to do. I will make a decision based on the fact that there's something that I can do in it." --- ENDS --- The Maharashtra government, which was in October 2015 ordered to lift the ban on dance bars while being asked to crack down on "obscene" performances, was slammed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday for bringing out a licensing policy with several "obnoxious, weird and irrational" conditions. The Supreme Court had in October last year lifted the ban on dance bars imposed by the Maharashtra government. By Harish V Nair: If the Maharashtra government had its way with its funny new rules, only cops can watch performances in Mumbai's dance bars and not the patrons, who come there shelling out big bucks. The state government, which was in October 2015 ordered to lift the ban on dance bars while being asked to crack down on "obscene" performances, was slammed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday for bringing out a licensing policy with several "obnoxious, weird and irrational" conditions. advertisement The Indian Hotel and Restaurants Association and Dance Bar Association who rushed to the court through senior lawyer Jayant Bhushan, were primarily up in arms over a condition which made it mandatory to construct a 3-feet permanent boundary wall around the 10 ft x 12 ft stage which has been permitted. Terming the rule illogical, an association source said "Indian women are around 5 feet or 5.5 feet. If they are going to cover up 3 feet, only the top halves of the women will be visible. Dance steps involve full body movements, how will patrons see them dancing?" Further aimed at blocking the view of the customers is a condition which prescribes a non-transparent partition between the eating and drinking area and the dance stage. Also, only four bar girls can dance at a time. The other most controversial among the conditions was that the bars are to ensure adequate CCTV cameras which will "live feed continuously" to the nearest police control room. "The cameras will be installed to cover the entire premises which will record the entire daily performance and the same will be monitored by a specially appointed person on a monitor/display. The daily recording of performance of last 30 days would be preserved and will be made available to any competent authority as and when required for viewing," said the condition. Terming the rule for installing CCTV cameras as "irrational" and ordering its removal, a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said majority of people would prefer privacy in such a place and would not like to be videographed. "CCTV cameras invade a patron's right to privacy. We do not mind you installing the cameras at certain spots where there could be security issues, but we object to the entire place being under the camera's gaze," said the judges. "Why should the stage be covered from all sides? Why should there be a non-transparent partition between dance area and restaurant area? Any art bereft of obscenity should be enjoyed," said the judges. The court asked Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, who appeared for Maharashtra Police to reexamine the contentious conditions pointed out to it and come back to the court on March 1, the next date of hearing. Bhushan told the court that despite the court's October 15 order to grant licences, the orders have not been complied. advertisement "Letters have been issued to eligible applicants. While 155 persons applied, 101 of them have been entertained. But they are to fulfil these impractical condition and that's why we have come to the court", he told the court. The Bench agreed that it was difficult to follow them and they were also "impermissible in the constitutional framework". It was on October 16, 2015 that the apex court lifted the ban which had driven a large number of women employed there into prostitution. However, it also gave the authorities full power to crack down on "indecent" and "obscene" performances. The court had put on hold a controversial amendment brought in the Maharashtra Police Act by inserting a section to close down such places, holding that the government had brought back in a different form a provision which was scrapped by the court in 2013. ALSO READ: Maharashtra dance bar owners object to government's condition regarding bar licenses SC questions Maharashtra govt on delay in reopening dance bars --- ENDS --- Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput have been inseparable ever since the lovebirds tied the knot in July 2015. As Shandaar actor turns a year older, his baby wife has left no stone unturned to make it a memorable birthday for her husband. It has been revealed that the couple has flown to an undisclosed location to ring in Shahid's 35th birthday. By India Today Web Desk: Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput have been inseparable ever since the lovebirds tied the knot in July 2015. As Shandaar actor turns a year older, his baby wife has left no stone unturned to make it a memorable birthday for her husband. Rumours had it that Mira was planning a surprise party for Shahid at their home, but it has been revealed that the couple has flown to an undisclosed location to ring in Shahid's 35th birthday. advertisement ALSO READ: Is Shahid Kapoor scared of his wife Mira Rajput? Find out in this video ALSO READ: Shahid Kapoor's dinner date with wife Mira Rajput According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, Shahid and Mira are on a birthday vacation. The 35-year-old actor has taken some time off from his shooting schedule and has headed to North India along with wife Mira. A close friend of the couple was quoted as telling the daily, "They are in India, somewhere up North, because Shahid is in the middle of a hectic shoot for Vishal's (Bhardwaj) ambitious love story set against the backdrop of the Second World War, Rangoon. In fact, he flies off to Arunachal Pradesh, where the unit is moving next after a gruelling schedule in Mumbai, directly from the birthday break." The much-in-love couple has been the talk of the town ever since the news of their marriage broke out in 2015. Their pictures together often go viral and the two are definitely giving their some major relationship goals, with each passing day. On the work front, Shahid will be seen opposite Kangana Ranaut and Saif Ali Khan in Rangoon. --- ENDS --- The US government admits its limited success in combating Islamic extremist messaging and now recruits tech companies like Facebook to help control online radicalisation. By Reuters: The US government, acknowledging its limited success in combating Islamic extremist messaging, is recruiting tech companies, community organizations and educational groups to take the lead in disrupting online radicalization. The change in strategy, which took a step forward on Wednesday when the Justice Department convened a meeting with social media firms including Facebook Inc, Twitter and Alphabet Inc's Google, comes despite what critics say is scant evidence on the effectiveness of such efforts. advertisement The meeting was "a recognition that the government is ill-positioned and ill-equipped to counter ISIS online," Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University's Program on Extremism, said after attending the event, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. The federal government is not best placed to counter extremist online recruitment efforts with messaging of its own, said George Selim, director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office that coordinates the government's "countering violent extremism" (CVE) activities. The goal now, he said, is to help "communities and young people to amplify their own messages." Those messages stem from so-called "counter-narrative" programs underway at schools and community groups that have varying degrees of government support, according to government officials and private sector experts. Past campaigns by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to thwart extremist propaganda globally were widely regarded as too reliant on fear-based rhetoric and graphic imagery to be effective. But whether the new joint effort with the private sector will fare better remains unclear, say experts in countering extremism. The Obama administration has had an uneasy relationship with Silicon Valley in recent years. Twitter and other tech firms have been reticent to appear too cozy with authorities on how they manage their content, though most have cautiously drifted toward being more compliant over the past year. Facebook last year partnered with British research group Demos to examine the impact of "counter-messaging" against hate speech in four European countries. The study, released in October, concluded it was "extremely difficult to calculate with any degree of precision" whether such efforts have a real impact on long-term attitudes or offline behavior. "You don't necessarily know if something is going to change the way someone thinks offline, but we can measure whether somebody shares that content or interacts with it," Monica Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management, told Reuters. FINDING CREDIBLE VOICES One of the new programs, funded partly by Facebook and multiple government agencies, underwrites "peer-to-peer" (P2P) college courses that teach students to create their own anti-militant messaging. Facebook declined to say how much it was investing in the program, though Selim described Facebook's overall investment in CVE initiatives as "very significant." advertisement Fatemah Yousef, a student at Kuwait Gulf University for Science and Technology student, flew to Washington this month to join a Facebook event showcasing counter-messaging projects created by students. Yousef, 23, exhibited a blog that encourages Kuwaiti students to denounce violent extremism on social media. Another P2P finalist, a group from the University of Arkansas, produced a video showing graphic Islamic State executions set to heavy metal band Black Sabbath's "War Pigs." Half way through, the video switched to Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" as captions urged viewers to "raise a flag" against extremism. After viewing the video, a judge in the contest told the students that "probably about 90 to 95 percent" of the images in the video had been used in violent extremist recruitment videos. "We've had this problem in other places where people try to instill fear in target audiences by showing all this mayhem, but it actually does the reverse with some," said the judge, Quintan Wiktorowicz, a former White House director for community partnerships. Another effort is underway at WORDE, a Muslim educational organization in Maryland, which last week launched a campaign that aims to refute Islamic State messages through catchy videos and live broadcasts of discussions about mainstream Islam. advertisement WORDE plans to use software or survey questions to gauge the impact of its new counter-messaging campaign, said Hedieh Mirahmadi, the group's president. "Everybody creates stuff but doesn't really care about whether it's connected to the science of evaluations," Mirahmadi told Reuters. Democratic New Jersey Senator Cory Booker told Reuters that he is working on two bills -- one of which has already passed committee in the Senate -- that would give DHS the authority to fund more college classes and research on how to best counter Islamic State's slick propaganda campaigns. "Government messages do not prove to have that type of virality," Booker said. The P2P program is the only private sector counter-messaging initiative that acknowledges receiving training from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but a senior FBI official said the agency provides information to other non-governmental groups whose CVE-related work may include counter-messaging. Some efforts avoid federal funding altogether. Mohamed Magid, a Virginia imam who has counseled several youth targeted by Islamic State recruiters, leads an Islamic foundation soliciting donations to create a 24/7 online operation that would answer each Islamic State video with peaceful messages. advertisement "If we say this is a government thing, it might not have legitimacy," Magid said. "We're challenging the Muslim community to say, on this, yourself, respond to the challenge." --- ENDS --- US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval apart from his counterpart Manohar Parrikar. By Mail Today: US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter is scheduled to visit New Delhi in April in the wake of India's concerns over the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. Sources claim that Carter's visit will provide an opportunity to review the bilateral ties which have been on upswing. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval apart from his counterpart Manohar Parrikar. advertisement India and US had signed in 2015 framework for defence cooperation for next 10 years. The issues that are part of this framework will be reviewed by the two sides. It covers areas like cooperation in new projects, joint exercises between armed forces and strengthening of military ties. The Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) will come up for extensive review during the talks. While the US is actively engaging India, its decision to supply advanced F16 fighter jets to Pakistan has impacted the military balance in the sub-continent. The sale to Pakistan was approved despite India's reservation. India has registered its protest but also made it clear that Indo-US ties were dynamic and covered cash area. The US also had emerged as one of the biggest arms supplier to India. It has cleared the long-pending sale of ultra light howitzers to India. When the gun deal is finalised it will be the first piece of artillery acquired by the army after the Bofor guns in the 80s. The two sides have identified new areas of cooperation as well. They are also working on joint development of jet engines and aircraft carrier design and construction. India is looking at the US design option for launching aircraft from the new carrier which is on design board. The new platform is crucial for having a three carrier navy. ALSO READ: Pakistan disappointed at India's reaction to F-16 deal with US India miffed at US decision to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan --- ENDS --- The company deciding to take a break from all things Nexus right now seems a good idea what with the company just launching its next-generation flagship phone, aka the G5. By India Today Web Desk: Quashing the possibility of a Nexus 5X successor any time soon, South Korean tech major LG has said it will not make any new Nexus phone this year. Instead, it would focus on its own brand, the company informed on the sidelines of the MWC 2016 event in Barcelona, Spain. According to a new CNET report , LG won't release a new Nexus phone in 2016 and that the Nexus 5X would be the last Nexus phone from the company this year. The company has been happy with its relationship with Google so far, it said. advertisement LG made the Nexus 5X in collaboration with Google. The phone has hardware and design supplied by LG, while the software part is looked after by Google. The Nexus 5X - much like other Nexus devices - runs a stock version of Android, and timely updates from Google itself. The Nexus 5 X, which is successor to the Nexus 5, was built to rekindle the memories of the latter (often called as the people's Nexus) and cash in on that especially after the Nexus 6 failed to make the cash counters ringing as much as Google would have liked. Interestingly, LG also made the Nexus 4. The company deciding to take a break from all things Nexus right now seems a good idea what with the company just launching its next-generation flagship phone, aka the G5 . A lot is stake with the G5, more so because this is a phone that takes a slightly different approach contrary to popular opinion with regards to a flagship. The G5 is the world's first modular smartphone and is not your usual cookie. LG has gone out of its way to vouch for product innovation with this one. As such, it has the added pressure to deliver as well. At the same time, the company also revealed that it would start selling the LG Watch Urbane LTE (Gen 2) in the second half of 2016 after pulling it off the shelves earlier. Moreover, a second smartwatch is also apparently in the works. --- ENDS --- Investigative reporting from the inner city to Wall Street to the United Nations This is the blogspot version InnerCityPress.com Insurance Back IF P&C Insurance, FY2015: highest ever profit, with strong results in the Baltic area The largest non-life insurer, IF P&C Insurance recorded a 17.6% y-o-y growth in its consolidated net profit figure for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, to a total of EUR 20 million, according to a press release of the IF Group. GWP in the Baltic countries amounted to EUR 133.2 million, up by 8.6% y-o-y, while the consolidated combined ratio in the Baltics last year was of 86.4% (previously 87.0%). "Last year has brought quite a lot of developments in the insurance markets of the Baltic States. Some of the competitors have changed their shareholders' structure and we have seen also a few mergers. These changes had an impact both on insurance companies' day-to-day operations and on their results. Lately claim payments in all major insurance products, especially MTPL insurance, have increased. For this reason, we are seeing a slight fall in the yield of the insurance market. However, we have maintained the discipline and attentiveness. We are proud to report another successful year, as we have completed a EUR 20 million in net profit. In addition, cost ratio has fallen from 34.0 to 29.9%. And finally, we are delighted to be able to report very strong growth in Estonia and Lithuania - over 10% in each of them, while in Latvia our sales stagnated to the same level as in the previous year, mainly because of the very intense price competition," Andris MOROZOV, CEO IF P&C Insurance AS commented. According to information provided by the SAMPO Group, to which IF P&C Insurance belongs, on 31 December 2015, the total investment assets of If P&C amounted to EUR 11.4 billion, of which fixed income investments constituted 74%, money market 12% and equity 13%. Net income from investments amounted to EUR 304 million. Investment return marked-to-market for the full year 2015 decreased to 1.5% (4.1% in 2014) as a result of widening credit spreads towards the end of the year. Moreover, IF P&C Group's Solvency II capital requirement under standard model amounted to EUR 2,073 million and own funds to EUR 3,202 million. Solvency ratio amounted to 154%. S&P A rating total target capital (TTC) for IF P&C Group amounted to EUR 3,058 million at the end of 2015 while the total adjusted capital (TAC) amounted to EUR 3,455. The P&C insurance SANPO Group's parent company IF P&C Insurance Holding Ltd owns subsidiaries in both Sweden and in Finland. The operations in the Baltic countries are run by a Baltic subsidiary, IF P&C Insurance AS. Danish insurance company Topdanmark is IF's associated company. Author: Daniela GHETU on 25.02.2016 Archive Comment this article 0 comments Atention! "Comment" and "E-mail" are mandatory Name: If you are logged on and you do not fill in your name, will be used the name that you used when you registered If you are not logged on, your name will appear preceded by '(Anonymous)'. For authentication, click here If you are logged on and you do not fill in your name, will be used the name that you used when you registered E-mail: Comment: < 10.000 car. Fill in the code from the image: The opponents of the Ukrainian army have withdrawn from the village of Shyrokyne, near Mariupol, and the area is being demined, Ukrainian Presidential Administration spokesman, Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, has said. "The Ukrainian Armed Forces have taken full control of the village. The territory is being cleaned up and demined," he said at a press briefing in Kyiv, on Thursday. Under the Minsk agreements, Shyrokyne must be controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Motuzyanyk said. FEEDToday feels like a miniature version of last Thursday. That is to say, an hour before the open, a lot of excitement about what a great day it was going... The Patents Court may be even busier when a rush of litigants enter into the Short Trial Scheme. But some judges like being busy bees... "After an enthusiastic introduction, Mr Justice Birss explained that the Shorter and Flexible Trial Schemes are being run as a pilot, and therefore are initially time limited. They can be used in business cases issued between 1 October 2015 and 30 September 2017. Business case would include almost any IP case. The judge invited feedback on the schemes via the Working Group that set them up and will be monitoring them. The two Schemes are set out in Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) Practice Direction (PD) 51N. They stem from different philosophies of case management. The Flexible Trials Scheme encourage increased party control; the Shorter Trials Scheme increases court control. Shorter Trials Scheme The shorter trials scheme (STS) owes a great deal to IPEC procedures but is available for parties and claims of all sizes. IPEC has proven very popular and anecdotally there has been a call for IPEC procedures to be more widely available in the court system. It is early days for the STS - so far only three or four cases have used the procedure. Under the STS, hearings will be limited to four days including reading time, and judgment will be given six weeks of trial and within a year of issuing proceedings. There is a streamlined pre-action protocol, and the case is docketed i.e. the same judge hears the CMC and trial and deals with any applications (unless unavailable in the case of urgency). Disclosure and oral evidence will be limited, and cross-examination strictly controlled and limited to principal parts of the case. Claimants are free to specify that they wish to enter the STS when they issue a claim. The rules are clear that Defendants may apply for transfer out of the STS. A recent judgment by Birss J establishes that applications can also be made to transfer into the Scheme (Family Mosaic v Peer Real Estate [2016] EWHC 257 (Ch)). Unlike applications for expedition, there is no requirement to justify opting in to the scheme. The working group (a group of judges monitoring the schemes) has decide that it would not be sensible or fair for costs budgeting to apply to the STS, which will instead follow IPECs method of summary assessment but without a costs cap. Responding to questions afterwards, the judge confirmed that using the STS does not affect the court fees applicable to a case or the judges who would hear it. As regards applications, he considered parties might make all the usual applications including for example expedition (i.e. you can expedite an already expedited procedure in the STS0, and that the date for trial set at the CMC would be a fixed date, rather than a window within which the trial date would float ["Finally, out-of-town clients can fix their travel plans earlier!"exclaims the AmeriKat] . Flexible Trials Scheme The Flexible Trials Scheme (FTS) is an alternative to the STS. So far, it appears not to have been used. It allows parties to agree directions which the court will adopt provided they are reasonable. The FTS is based on the consensual approach adopted in arbitration. This might include limited disclosure and oral evidence and early identification of issues using written evidence. Responding to questions afterwards, the judge commented that the FTS might be used, for instance, to introduce Markman-type hearings or to define preliminary issues, or to provide to docketing although not to a specific named choice of judge." to to the London offices of Hogan Lovells who were hosting the third of this year's AIPPI UK events. The event's star attraction was Mr Justice Birss who spoke enthusiastically (and entertainingly) about the new Shorter and Flexible Trials Schemes. In his sales pitch, Mr Justice Birss outlined the genesis and structure of the two schemes, emphasizing the attraction for litigants to benefit from IPEC-style procedures in big ticket litigation. With thanks to Danielle Lawson ( Freshfields LLP ) for filling in readers on the evening:In closing, Mr Justice Birss also flagged other recent developments including the online filing system (which was noted to still be underused), Lord Justice Briggs' review of civil justice published in December 201 5 (see in particular his comments on reducing the appellate court backlog by getting the High Court judges to do more appeal work), an online court for smaller cases and the proposal for specialist regional courts (a branch of the IPEC in Manchester or Leeds, for example).One point that the AmeriKat will be interested in is as how paragraph 2.60 of PD 51N will be interpreted. That provision states that "the Court of Appeal will seek to take into account the fact that a case was in the Shorter Trials Scheme..." Although Mr Justice Birss did not opine on how it would be interpreted, the AmeriKat wonders whether anyone would argue that this means that the appellate court's general deference to a trial judge's findings of fact on the evidence should be watered down. This is because, unlike in standard track procedure where the trial judge benefits from reams of evidence and cross-examination before him at trial, evidence and cross-examination is tightly controlled in the STS. Therefore, would or should the appellate court perhaps plunge into the evidence more than normal? Or, alternatively, will it mean not much of anything and is just a flag to the appellate judges that they should not read anything in the fact that the entire case was not put to a witness during the limited cross-examination when reading the transcripts?In any event, the AmeriKat is excited about these schemes as it provides another tool in an English IP litigator's toolkit to adapt the best of English civil procedure in a way that can benefit the parties in terms of time and cost. Last week, Eibhlin Vardy ( A&O reported on Celltrion v Biogen where the Patents Court is already implementing measures to ensure cases are done and dusted in a year (see Patents Court Practice Statement of 7 December 2015 ). The STS and FTS therefore represent a further evolution in the English courts to increase the commercial attractiveness and competitiveness of the English litigation system, rivaling perhaps the UPC. I WRITE NEWS ABOUT AND PUT NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM PERTAINING TO BIBLE PROPHESY HAPPENINGS.JOEL 3:20 But Judah (ISRAEL) shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.(THATS ISRAEL-JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED AGAIN)-WE CHRISTIANS ARE ALL WAITING PATIENTLY FOR THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE TO OCCUR.SO WE CAN GO TO JESUS AND GET OUR NEVER DYING BODIES.SO WE CAN RULE OVER CITIES OURSELVES.WHILE JESUS RULES FROM DAVIDS THRONE FOREVER IN JERUSALEM. [February 25, 2016] Talkwalker Celebrates One Year of Successful Expansion in The US NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Talkwalker, a leading social data intelligence platform, today celebrates its one-year anniversary as a global company after launching its first office outside of Europe. Since opening its doors in New York City, the company has had great success in expanding its North American presence as a leading provider of social listening, advanced social media analytics, and reporting. Talkwalker is proud to celebrate a year of learning and progress, and is committed to the future of its customers, the company, product, and the social media analytics industry. "We are delighted to celebrate our one-year anniversary in the US and would like to thank our clients and partners for the successes that Talkwalker has achieved in the past year," said Todd Grossman, CEO - Americas at Talkwalker. "The social media analytics market has seen substantial growth in recent years and has become as critical to businesses as any other media channel that exists today. We are thrilled to play a pivotal role in shaping a billion-dollar industry that is rapidly evolving and driving great success for our clients." Since Talkwalker first launched in the US, the company has worked on more than 500 projects for top brands and agncies, signed major clients in a variety of industries from public relations to healthcare and professional services, and expanded its team from one to nine with plans to grow to over 20 by the end of 2016. Furthermore, the company has received glowing reports from industry experts and clients. "Talkwalker is definitely the most valuable tool for monitoring social media. It provides detailed reports based on our searches in a visually-appealing way that we can share easily with clients. The interface has a lot to offer and the Talkwalker team is very responsive when we have questions. Talkwalker helps us to figure out how we can best deliver information to our clients." Louise Pollock, President, Pollock Communications. The company also recently grew core departments, including Marketing and Communications, with the appointment of its first US Public Relations & Communications Officer, Marissa Cazem. Marissa comes to Talkwalker with over five years of expertise in the social media and business technology sectors, and will be responsible for increasing Talkwalker's brand visibility in North America. About Talkwalker Talkwalker (www.talkwalker.com) is one of the world's leading social data intelligence companies. Its cutting edge technology provides actionable social media insights through real-time social listening and advanced social media analytics. Talkwalker helps marketers to prove the value of their social efforts and tremendously enhances the speed and accuracy of business decision-making. Talkwalker's state of the art social intelligence platform monitors and analyzes online conversations on social networks, news websites, blogs, forums and more, in over 187 languages. Its 1500 servers process 500 million posts from 150 million websites every day. Talkwalker's unique social intelligence software was selected to become a Twitter Official Partner in 2014. The Talkwalker social intelligence platform is used by over 500 clients around the world, including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Volkswagen, Benetton, and communications specialists such as Peppercomm, Publicis, Ogilvy, and Weber Shandwick. Talkwalker is headquartered in Luxembourg and has an office in New York. For more information, visit: http://www.talkwalker.com/en/social-media-intelligence/ Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/337067 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/337068 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151214/295552LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/talkwalker-celebrates-one-year-of-successful-expansion-in-the-us-300225683.html SOURCE Talkwalker [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 25, 2016] Ubiquity's Sprocket launches in iWebgate's container with 800,000 users IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ubiquity Inc. (OTCBB: UBIQ) ("UBIQUITY" or the "Company"), a vertically integrated, technology- focused media company, has announced that its licensee iWebgate Limited through Sprocket HK Ltd. has begun to distribute Ubiquity's Sprocket through its mobile containers. iWebgate (IWG) provides sophisticated network solutions to customers of all sizes with its unique security based platform. Its mobile containers are a secure way of housing and using apps on phones, tablets, and other devices while protecting your data and information. Telstra Corporation Limited (ASX: TLS) is Australia's largest telecommunications company with a Market Cap of $68B and has partnership arrangements with iWebgate. IWG has worked with Haitech, a US based information technology consulting and Integration Company, to integrate Ubiquity's patented Sprocket as the single sign-on access point for the container device. In addition, the Sprocket will be the navigational tool and operating system for all devices. The Sprocket, which is a patented customizable social and media application that allows users to group and organize their favorite online destinations in one simple, easy to use location. IWG, which already has over 800,000 users on its existing platform, will include Ubiquity's Sprocket- in IWG's secure mobile containers via its Device LinkUp solution. Sprocket will enable users to engage and interact within the Telco environments safely. The Sprocket- iWebgate partnership allows a single sign-on access and cleans the desktop up for customization. The Sprocket, designed with a patented Unified Global User Interface is comprised of a series of blades that represent the most popular services, a dashboard that provides an at a glance view of your digital life, and cross platform search that allows users to find the things you are interested in quickly and easily. Through iWebgate, Sprocket will be available to government agencies as well as major telecommunications platforms, such as the Telstra Marketplace, the App platform for the leading Australian telecom company. iWebgate recently received the highest possible security rating by SecureState, as leading U.S.-based information security management consulting firm. Ubiquity has entered into a revenue share agreement with iWebgate via Sprocket Hong Kong, Ltd. The revenue share is based on a per user basis on a monthly cycle. Depending on the amount of applications used, the price per user can range from $1.00 to $2.50 per user. The revenue generated for Sprocket Hong Kong Ltd. is net of the Telstra's service fee. Ubiquity CEO Chris Carmichael said: "Partnering with iWebgate immediately gives 800,000 users to provide our Sprocket services through iWebgate's secure channels. This deal creates tremendous synergies for customers looking for the best, most secure interface to online and mobile devices. We believe that "mobile as a service," is the wave of the future and believe the Sprocket platform with iWebgate will bring the mobile solutions to life and create revenue streams that have yet to be accessed." Tim Gooch, CEO of iWebgate said: "Adding Sprocket into our secure containers through iWebgate's Device LinkUp, gives the platform as a whole a greater value and adds the user interface consumers and businesses are eager for while still enjoying the most secure possible experience. In today's world of internet and connected devices, users know that security issues are of paramount importance, and we are helping our customers, as well as their end-users, that their online and mobile experiences will be safe." Ubiquity, nc. owns 51% of Sprocket Hong Kong Ltd., and receives 60% of the revenue generated from Sprocket HK Ltd. About Ubiquity, Inc. (OTCBB: UBIQ) Based in Irvine, CA, Ubiquity is a vertically integrated, technology-focused media company. Ubiquity is focused in five specific areas with a robust portfolio of patents and intellectual property. The Company has developed an intuitive user interface making access to all content from any device in a simple, consistent format. Ubiquity enables the search and identification of any object and image in all video and digital media and has developed a platform for mobile transaction including the integration of payments, money transfers, coupons and gifts. Ubiquity has also developed an industry-leading, intuitive, immersive consumer experience for all web-based activity. Finally, the company allows for the personalization of all content, whether public or private, in a unique accessible way. Through Ubiquity Labs the company is leveraging an extensive portfolio of intellectual property spanning Web 3.0, immersive advertising, video compression, content distribution, e-commerce, and mobile applications to support the commercialization of new technologies. In addition, Ubiquity intends to pursue strategic licensing opportunities. Ubiquity, Inc. owns 51% of Sprocket Hong Kong Ltd., and receives 60% of the revenue generated from Sprocket HK Ltd. For more information go to www.ubiquitycorp.com. About iWebGate (ASX: IWG) iWebGate Limited (IWG) is a technology company, focused on cyber and mobile security, which provides sophisticated network solutions to organizations of all sizes. IWG was founded in 2004 in Perth, Australia, has a global operations office in Maryland, USA and has recently established operations in Europe. The Company has won a number of prestigious awards, including the worldwide winner of the Global Security Challenge, and has earned the highest NIST Compliance rating awarded by CyerRx. IWG's software creates a new network communication environment that sits on top of, and in front of, the traditional firewall set-up. This acts as a virtual, secure and collaborative "reception area" for all connected networks. To compliment this innovation, IWG has also created an interlinking technology for connecting and commanding related devices, application and users to the network via this best practice design. This allows for the virtualized segmentation of connected networks. The software enables organizations to connect, implement and manage 3rd party security and Software as a Service (SaaS) applications and procedures via IWG's platform. IWG's software is currently available through the Telstra Marketplace with imminent plans to rapidly expand its offerings in the US and Europe. About Telstra (ASX: TLS) Telstra is Australia's leading telecommunications and information services company, offering a full range of communications services and competing in all telecommunications markets. In Australia we provide 16.7 million mobile services, 7.3 million fixed voice services and 3.1 million retail fixed broadband services. We believe the more connected people are, the more opportunities they have. That's why we help create a brilliant connected future for everyone, everyday. That's why we build technology and content solutions that are simple and easy to use, including Australia's largest and fastest national mobile network. That's why we strive to serve and know our customers better than anyone else offering a choice of not just digital connection, but digital content as well. And that's why we have an international presence spanning 15 countries, including China. In the 21st Century, opportunity belongs to connected businesses, governments, communities and individuals. As Australia's leading telecommunications and information services company, Telstra is proud to be helping our customers improve the ways in which they live and work through connection. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Company's current expectations. When used in this news release, the words "estimate," "project," "belief," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "plan," "predict," "may," or "should," and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology, are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company with respect to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the failure of the business strategy, the integrity of the Company's patents, proprietary intellectual property, and competition. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of risk factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. When relying on the Company's forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events, including the risk factors set out in the Company's 10K/A for the year ended December 31, 2014. See the sections entitled "Risk Factors" in Ubiquity's quarterly and annual reports as filed by Ubiquity from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company has assumed that the material factors referred to above will not cause such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE SECURITIES LEGISLATION. Contact: Rubenstein PR Loretta Mock 212-843-9207 [email protected] Jeanne Turkheimer 212-843-8073 [email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120328/LA78436LOGO-b To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ubiquitys-sprocket-launches-in-iwebgates-container-with-800000-users-300226040.html SOURCE Ubiquity Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 25, 2016] Centrify to Present at CSA Summit in San Francisco Centrify, the leader in securing enterprise identities against cyberthreats, today announced that Centrify CPO and SVP of Products Bill Mann will be speaking at the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Summit, a RSA-affiliated conference, which is taking place on Feb. 29 in San Francisco. Who: Bill Mann, Chief Product Officer, Centrify What: Mann's session titled, "The Need for Unified Identity in a Hybrid IT World," will focus on why enterprises need to rethink security, given the advent of cloud applications and infrastructure, mobile devices and ubiquitous connectivity. Mann will discuss why enterprises need to defne a new corporate perimeter based on identity to secure resources including users, devices, apps, data and infrastructure. Attendees will learn why it's critical to govern and secure access by end-users, privileged users and third parties to minimize attack surfaces, thwart in-progress attacks and achieve continuous compliance. When: Monday, Feb. 29, 2016 from 1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. PST. Where: Moscone Center West Room 2014, 747 Howard St., San Francisco, CA (News - Alert) 94103 About Centrify Centrify is the leader in securing enterprise identities against cyberthreats that target today's hybrid IT environment of cloud, mobile and on-premises. The Centrify Identity Platform protects against the leading point of attack used in data breaches ? compromised credentials - by securing an enterprise's internal and external users as well as its privileged accounts. Centrify delivers stronger security, continuous compliance and enhanced user productivity through single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, mobile and Mac management, privileged access security and session monitoring. Centrify is trusted by over 5000 customers, including more than half of the Fortune 50. Centrify is a registered trademark and Centrify Server Suite, Centrify Privilege Service and Centrify Identity Service are trademarks of Centrify Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225005189/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Xamarin Inc., the rapidly growing San Francisco based software developer, will soon be owned by one of the biggest names in tech: Microsoft (News - Alert). Reports of a deal broke yesterday, placing Xamarins value between 400 and 500 million dollars. These two companies had already had a working relationship in the past, but this is certainly taking it a step further. Xamarins main draw is that it develops software tools that help bridge the gap between Microsoft and other operating systems. With Xamarins tools, it becomes much easier for developers to create apps of Windows products (like Microsoft Office) for Apples (News - Alert) iOS or Googles Android operating platforms. This is incredibly appealing for Microsoft, who has thus far been largely unsuccessful in establish a presence in the mobile market. Their Windows Phone (News - Alert) OS is in use by only 1.1 percent of mobile customers. Thus, having a greater ability to spread their apps through other operating systems would provide a big benefit. Microsoft has already begun this endeavor to make their applications more accessible across various mobile operating systems. They already have successful Microsoft Office applications for Apples iPhone and iPad, and are hoping that this closer alliance with Xamarin will allow them to build on that success. Scott Guthrie (News - Alert), executive vice president of Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise Group, says that We want to make sure our Microsoft products work with all of [the various operating systems] in a rich way, and called the Xamarin deal a key development in the new openness that weve been driving toward. This deal represents a clear win for both sides. Xamarin gets to spread its tools to a much wider and more sophisticated pool of developers, while Microsoft gets closer to its goal of spreading its software throughout the mobile world. As Xamarin co-founcer Nat Friedman succinctly puts it, We get to hit a lot more people and a lot more apps, a clear plus for both organizations. Edited by Maurice Nagle There was also clampdown on opposition candidates particularly the main opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye who was severally arrested and have his movement restricted. There were also pockets of violence but this pale into insignificance when compared to the scale experienced in Nigeria during our 2015 General Elections. Voting could not start as scheduled in many Polling Stations due to late arrival of materials. Elections were supposed to be held from 7am 4pm but started some hours late in many centres. The electoral reform was said to have taken place too close to the election time with input from civil societies and opposition political parties discarded.Voter education was said to be insufficient. It was interesting however that Voters Turnout in the February 18 polls was 63.5 per cent. Because of the mandatory 48 hours deadline for computation of election results, 1,787 Polling Stations results were left out of the presidential result collation. While President Yoweri Museveni may have been in power for 30 years and have won the peoples mandate for another term in office, 19 of his ministers were not so lucky. They lost at the polls. It is also on record that an average of 60 per cent of the Members of Parliament failed in their re-election bid. Job Description For over 70 years, Plan International unites and inspires people around the globe to transform the world and make positive lasting changes in childrens lives through the active involvement of children, and working at the grassroots with no religious, political or governmental affiliation. Plan International is looking for Country Head of Finance to play a vital role in our mission to achieve lasting improvements in the quality of life of deprived children in developing countries. Working with the team, the post holder is responsible to provide timely and reliable financial information and analysis that leads to effective decision making in country. She/he participates in the country management team; leads business planning process; manages accounting and treasury functions; produces financial reporting and analysis; implements internal financial controls; and manages and develop people. Our vision is of a world in which all children realise their full potential in societies that respect peoples rights and dignity. Working with us, you will be entitled to a wide range of employee benefits, such as Monthly Transportation Allowance, Monthly Pension & PF Contribution of 15% of basic salary, Annual Medical Allowance, 24 hours GPA Insurance and others. Plan also provides a number of capacity development opportunities to its employees including Talent Management Programme. To be successful, you need to have BA/MBA in Accounting or ACCA and 10 years of work experience out of which at least 3 years managerial experience. Your rating: none Rating: 0 0 votes How to Apply The closing date for the application is March 10 , 2016. Qualified candidates should submit the application form found with this link http://docs.ethiojobs.net/Plan_Int_Application_Form.docx through www.Ethiojobs.net We only short list those applicants who send the complete application form. We do not accept CVs and other supporting documents at this stage Please note: in order to apply for this role you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in Ethiopia. Thank you in advance for your interest in this position. Please note that only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted by Plan for follow-up. More information about Plan can be found on http:// plan-international.org Please note that this position is open only to Ethiopian Nationals Child Protection Policy: References will be taken and background and anti-terrorism checks will be carried out for the successful candidate in conformity with Plans Child Protection Policy. 40 total views, 40 today Term of Employment: Project based-one year with possibility of extension Duty Station(s): Addis Ababa Required Number: One Salary & Benefits: Competitive Application Deadline: March 6, 2016 BACKGROUND: The Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) has been established by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to identify and address systemic bottlenecks to Ethiopias agricultural development. The Agency does this through problem-solving, implementation support, and capacity building of stakeholders involved in implementation of interventions that address the systemic bottlenecks. The Agency reports to a Transformation Council chaired by the Prime Minister and whose co-chair is the Minister of Agriculture. The programmatic focus of the Agency responds to a core set of needs identified by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Transformation Council. Within the Agency, issues are divided into four different groups: Production and Productivity which includes Inputs and Crop Protection, Livestock, Research and Extension, Mechanization and Rural Finance; Agribusiness and Markets including Market Services, Market Infrastructure, Commercial & Contract Farming, Domestic and Export Market Development, and Cooperatives Development; Environmentally Sustainable and Inclusive Agricultural Growth including Natural Resource Management, Sustainable Land Management, Gender Equality and Nutrition, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, and Planning and MLE; and Enhanced Implementation Capacity which includes ICT, Private Sector, and Human and Organizational Capacity. Across the programs, the ATA engages public, private and non-governmental stakeholders to support strategic planning, manage and strengthen implementation capacity and test innovative models. Our Culture We have an exceptional team of employees with highly competent and proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results. Our culture is one where talented, dedicated and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great team work to achieve excellent results. At ATA, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the countrys agricultural sector. We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training. We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals. POSITION SUMMARY: ATA is launching an Agricultural Investment Mapping Project (AIM) in Ethiopia. This initiative will consist of convening government and donor partners and gathering information on their investment portfolios in order to develop a comprehensive picture of who is doing what, with whom, and where in the agriculture sector. The Agricultural Investment Mapping Project aims to produce an online database and a mapping tool, which outline all major investment taking place in the agricultural sector in Ethiopia by Government, bilateral and multilateral development agencies and other actors. The data collected will be uploaded onto an Agricultural Investment Mapping Tool, which will be tailored to fit the scope of the agricultural sector in Ethiopia. The database and Tool will categorize investment activities according to their geographical location and specific areas of intervention, aligned with the priority areas listed under Ethiopias Agricultural Sector Policy Investment Framework (PIF). It will further outline major details about the investment projects (title, description, timeline, amount, etc.). Finally, the ultimate aim of this project is to make the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Agriculture the main owner of the resulting web-based tool and database. Currently, the ATA is in the process of developing and deploying an Agricultural Planning Tool (APT), an online web-portal that will provide a stable back-end for storing, retrieving, and updating data via a simplified user interface. The APT will provide both real-time and periodic agricultural data that will allow policy makers, implementers, and various agricultural stakeholders access to information about Ethiopian agricultural institutions. The system will provide users with the ability to identifying trends, gaps, and opportunities in order to make evidence based decisions at national, regional, zonal, and woreda levels. Functionality will include (but is not limited to) geo-spatial visualization of data, interactive directory of contact information, institutional and geographic profiles and more. Towards achieving the objective of developing and deploying the AIM and APT, ATA will be working with a local IT consulting firm, a local data collection partner and an international technology and data visualization firm to develop the system and host it initially at the ATA which will be eventually transferred to the MoA. The information and resources on the system will be accessible by users in the regions, zones, woredas, etc. ATA is seeking a qualified candidate to serve as a Data Analyst on the AIM and APT Projects. The Data Analyst will assist the AIM and APT project team in data management, database development and data visualization. The Data Analyst will work closely with the local IT consulting firm, the local data collection partner and the international technology and data visualization firm. This position will officially report to the ICT Project Lead. ESSENTIAL DUTIES: Support the development of high-quality, reliable and user-friendly databases, maps and geospatial resources Conduct data sourcing, management, analytics and visualization Support the development of an online portal (Tool and Database) which would assemble agricultural investment and agricultural portal data Support overall development and enhancement of data infrastructure, analytics and reporting capacity at ATA Support projects within the ICT team in addition to AIM and APT projects when deemed necessary Engage with internal teams and external partners to identify data and information management needs and technical requirements Support key data partnerships and other strategic data initiatives with MoA, MOFEC and partner organizations Analyze the institutional survey data and identify potential analysis and trends using statistical analysis softwares like Tableau, STATA and SPSS that are useful for the APT Provide support with the design of trainings for end users and owners of the AIM Tool and Database MoA experts, MoA IT department, RED&FS staff, etc. Conduct trainings for MoA and RED&FS officials on how to maintain and update the AIM Tool and Database on a regular basis Provide assistance conducting for Federal and Regional MoA counterparts If you are walking - slow down.....if you are running, run faster. Nebraska Home Sales is please to welcome Nicole Brice and Jaysa Ralston to their team. Nicole Brice is native to Lincoln and brings 12 years of experience as a full service real estate professional. Brice would love to help anyone with their real estate needs. Please contact her at (402) 429-8202 Nicole.Brice@NebHomeSales.com Jaysa Ralston has lived in Southeast Lincoln most of her life and brings many years of experience in real estate and lending. Ralston would love to help anyone with their real estate needs. Please contact her at (402) 405-6822 or Jaysa.Ralston@NebHomeSales.com. Nebraska Home Sales is a full service real estate company and is one of Lincoln's top producing real estate companies. Our flexible commissions, full service, and expert agents are what sets us apart. Go to www.NebHomeSales.com for more info or the main office phone number is 402-489-9071. Difficult to watch, but impossible to ignore, Hungary's Son of Saul is a Holocaust film like no other, a grim look inside the Nazi death machine seen through the eyes of a man who is forced to assist in the large-scale extermination in the crematoriums. The setting is Auschwitz-Birkenau in October 1944. The man is Saul Auslander, a Hungarian who is in the Sonderkommando, a group of Jewish prisoners kept isolated from the camp and forced to do awful business -- scrubbing down the crematoriums, hauling bodies to be burned and shoveling ashes into a river. While working in a crematorium, Auslander sees a boy who has survived the gas, only to be killed by a Nazi doctor. He takes the boy, and, perhaps knowing that he is marked for death soon, takes on a risky, seemingly impossible task -- finding a rabbi to recite the Kaddish and give the boy a proper burial. That quest takes him through the camp, allowing the up-close look at the horrors of its operation, at the Germans who brutally keep the death machine running, at the Sonderkommando and at those unloaded from the trains and herded into showers. The view comes almost entirely from Auslanders perspective, often over his shoulder or seen behind him when the close-up that pervades the movie focuses on his face. The images are framed in a square, a tight ratio, with faces frequently filling most of the space as we either see Auslander or what he sees. That makes for an intimate, almost claustrophobic feel, and, unavoidably, transcends the distance carefully kept in most Holocaust films that tend to be about heroes and outsiders to the camps and rarely look hard at what happened inside. Son of Saul is shot in long takes, another formalistic maneuver that is simultaneously unsettling and revealing, as guards, doctors, prisoners and collaborators crash into and fall out of Auslanders view in turbulent chaos. Those techniques are brought to the picture by first-time writer-director Laszlo Nemes, who, through a simple story, meticulous reproductions of camp activity and a confrontational visual style, has made the Holocaust film fresh, shocking and personal. That person is Auslander and, perhaps tellingly, hes played by non-actor, poet and author Geza Rohrig, who delivers a stunning performance, moving grimly ahead through his tasks, rarely connecting with the other prisoners, the guards or the camp commanders. Almost expressionless, Rohrig still conveys the decency and determination of a man who wants to do the right thing for the dead boy -- and for himself, a doomed man inside one of the great horrors of human history. The film takes place over about 36 hours, a time in which the Sonderkommando are plotting a revolt before they are killed and the trains roll in faster than the ovens can work. Fittingly, Son of Saul doesnt wrap up with a conventional ending. Instead, the film offers just a sliver of hope, and decency, amidst gunfire and death. Son of Saul is the frontrunner for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award to be presented Sunday. It should be up for another -- Best Picture. It would have been near the top of my 2015 list had I seen it last year. And it should be a film that will continue to be seen for decades. The stories of people in favor of allowing a person with terminal illness to choose the time they would die were pain-filled, tear-filled and personal. The opponents of the proposed law were, for the most part, doctors who said people no longer have to die in pain and agony from disease. If they are in agony, they are not getting appropriate care. "I want it clear for everybody to know who is in this room that I'm aware that this is a bill that can affect people in different ways," said Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, who introduced the bill (LB1056). "It can touch nerves. It can create discomfort. It can create very strong opposition. And that is to be expected on a subject of this kind." But the issue isn't going away, he said. The Patient Choice at End of Life Act does not in any way constitute suicide, assisted suicide, mercy killing, homicide or elder abuse, Chambers said. The choice must be voluntary and uncoerced. Death must be certain and imminent, the request spoken and in writing. The bill is thick with rules, regulations, protections and safeguards to prevent and severely punish any abuse or violation of its provisions that would harm a person, Chambers said. An attending physician, as well as a consulting physician, must concur, and document, that the patient is competent to make medical decisions and is acting voluntarily. Five states allow medical aid in dying: Oregon, Montana, Washington, Vermont and California. Oregon was the first to legalize it, in 1997, the result of a popular vote. "Oregon's law has been in effect for 18 years, and there is not a single documented case of abuse, coercion or misuse," said Charmaine Manansala, political director of Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit advocacy organization. Topher Hansen of Lincoln told the Judiciary Committee at the hearing that both of his parents made the decision when to end their lives. His dad was 81 and had Parkinson's disease. He stockpiled medication and administered it himself when he decided to die, Hansen said. His son testified in favor of the bill on the ninth anniversary of his dad's death. He would have celebrated the hearing, he said. "He was as focused and thinking as he could be," as he spoke to his children on what his life was about and what his death was about, Hansen said. "I choke up, not in sadness and missing him -- of course I miss him -- but in my pride in who he was," he said. Judiciary Chairman Les Seiler said in addition to the people testifying in favor of the bill, the committee had received 50 letters of support. Many of the doctors who spoke said they had attended the deaths of hundreds of people, some of them as hospice caregivers. On the opposing side, Dr. Steve Higgins said he did not want to see his profession drug into this issue. Doctors in Nebraska are not trained to assess what is an appropriate lethal dose of medicine to write in a prescription, he said. Family physician Dale Michels, who often serves as the Legislature's physician of the day, said he, the Nebraska Medical Association and the Nebraska Academy of Family Physicians opposed the bill. "In my opinion it's a bad bill, poorly written, full of numerous inconsistencies," he said. Michels said end of life care has come a long way in his 42 years of practice. Doctors now use medicines and doses that control pain, relieve suffering and help the patient to calm down. Doctors begin working with patients earlier to understand their options in getting comfort and family support. Helen Stanton Chapple, a nurse ethicist and former hospice nurse, said about 15,500 people die each year in Nebraska. Many of them don't have a stable relationship with trusted medical providers, and access to care in rural areas is challenging. "My concern is that so far the state has not stepped all the way up to its duty to protect and attend to the many needs of its most vulnerable citizens, those who are approaching the end of their lives," she said. "This bill does not address those needs." Gov. Pete Ricketts took to Twitter as soon as the hearing ended, saying physicians assisting someone in ending their life early perverts the role of physicians as healers and creates ethical conflicts. "Policymakers need to recognize the broad social implications of this kind of policy," he said. Chambers said he would continue to bring the bill. "Contrary to what people might hope, there is increasing acceptance of the idea," he said. Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers teamed up with Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine for a bill that both Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer and Lancaster County Attorney Joe Kelly spoke in favor of Wednesday. That doesn't happen often. The bill (LB1055) would bring more transparency to grand jury procedures called to investigate the death of any person while being apprehended or in custody. Now, those grand jury proceedings are secret, and if the jury produces no indictment, the public gets no information on the findings. In this country, Chambers said, there have been any number of police killings which were presented to grand juries to investigate whether the officers' conduct violated any laws. In many of those, he said, officers were not indicted for any crimes. "That very secrecy was what led to doubt and suspicion on the part of the public," he said. It has generated deep public distrust and fueled the suspicion that secrecy is designed to conceal the formulation of a scheme to exonerate police officers who kill civilians, regardless of how egregious the officers conduct may have been, he said. The bill would make the process more open. With the agreement between Kleine and Chambers, an amendment would replace the bill as originally written. It would allow that if a grand jury returns what is called "a no true bill," or no finding that would lead to an indictment, the grand jury must create a report with the assistance of the prosecuting attorney. The report would explain the grand jurys findings and any appropriate recommendations based upon the investigation and deliberations. It would be filed with the court and available for public review, along with the grand jury transcript. No grand juror's names would be made public. Also, instead of the agency that employs the officer responsible for the death being the sole investigator, the prosecuting attorney would select a team of three peace officers trained to investigate homicides, at least two of whom would be from outside. These provisions are substantive steps toward opening up the grand jury process and enhancing public accountability, Chambers said. Schmaderer said he was supportive of the evidence and transcript being released after the grand jury had completed its work. "There's been some talk of cost. Cost of this is not an issue. It goes toward administration of justice. The agencies can bear that cost," he said. Lincoln has about 20 death investigation grand juries in a year, Kelly said. Most are a result of the four Department of Correctional Services facilities being located here, and most of those deaths are from natural causes, he said. Once every 18 months or so there's an investigation into an officer involved shooting, he said. "I've conducted two of those within the last eight months," he said. He supported the proposed amended version of the bill. "I think it's needed and an intelligent improvement," he said. A federal judge has dismissed the final remaining party to a Florida man's lawsuit over a misdiagnosis that left him at the Lincoln Regional Center for 19 years. The decision in John Montin's case came on the heels of a ruling earlier this month that dismissed more than a dozen others who treated him there over the years and left Corrine McCoy -- a former program director and one-time member of his treatment team -- the sole defendant. Montin had accused McCoy of trying to impose behavioral restrictions on him in an attempt to limit his access to courts. But, in a memorandum opinion, Senior U.S. District Judge Lyle Strom said the record contained no evidence "that McCoy took any adverse action against Montin in an attempt to force him to abandon his legal efforts." And he said she was entitled to be dismissed from the lawsuit. McCoy hadn't been involved with Montin's treatment since 2005, when she started working with the sex offender residential unit, according to Strom's order. On Tuesday, the judge filed an order dismissing Montin's complaint in its entirety. In 1993, a Hayes County jury found Montin not guilty of attempted murder and a second weapons charge, and not responsible by reason of insanity of false imprisonment and use of a weapon. He was committed to the Lincoln Regional Center. A judge ordered his release on July 16, 2013, after Montin's attorney convinced one of his doctors to read a transcript of his trial and discovered they had been basing medical opinions on misinformation for years. In 2014, Montin sued, seeking more than $22 million in damages for incorrectly being labeled mentally ill and for unnecessarily being held and subjected to treatments he didn't need. He also was seeking $760,000 in lost wages and $10 million in punitive damages. In an order Feb. 10, Strom said Montin may have a right against unnecessary and improper confinement, but that it was not the doctors' decision that kept him there but rather a state judge's. Prosecutors upgraded charges against Matthew Pavey and Tiffany Welch Thursday, accusing them both of first-degree murder in the death of a man gunned down in broad daylight last month. Lancaster County Attorney Jeff Mathers originally charged Pavey, 25, with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. But at a hearing in a packed courtroom Thursday with Pavey appearing by video link from jail, Mathers added the murder charge, which carries a life sentence if he's convicted, and use of a firearm to commit a felony. County Judge Laurie Yardley also agreed to increase Pavey's bond to $2 million based on the seriousness of the offenses. Pavey has been in jail since Lincoln police arrested him Jan. 4, three hours after they found James Carr shot dead in an alley near 20th and Dudley streets. Carr, 27, had been shot in the chest, one of his pockets turned inside out as if someone had emptied it. Police came to believe Pavey had shot and killed him after Welch, 21, lured Carr to the house on North 20th Street. On Thursday, soon after Pavey's hearing, Mathers amended Welch's charge from conspiracy to commit robbery to first-degree murder as well. While she isn't accused of firing the fatal shots, she could be convicted under a "felony murder" theory if a jury finds Carr was killed during a robbery in which she knowingly took part. Yardley increased her bond to $1 million. In court records, police say witnesses told them Pavey went to the house on North 20th Street looking for Carr and that Carr went outside to talk to him. Soon after, they heard gunfire. At least seven shots were heard. Around 2:30 p.m. that same day, police arrested Pavey getting into a car in the driveway of a home near 11th and Van Dorn, and they found $1,354 cash hidden under leaves near the basement stairs of the house, according to court records. They arrested Welch a day later. The state also has charged a third person who allegedly provided the gun Pavey used. In court Thursday, Mathers increased the charges against Elizabeth Reddish, 22, who now is accused of being an accessory to robbery and aiding and abetting the possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. Later in the day, Lincoln Officer Katie Flood said police also now have confirmation that a gun they found Jan. 14 two blocks north of Holdrege Street underneath a raised shed was the one used to shoot Carr. She said they found it by retracing the path the shooter took based on witness accounts. A report on the ballistic testing done at the Nebraska State Patrol Crime Lab came back this week. In his lifetime, Lakota holy man Nicholas Black Elk witnessed the Battle of Little Bighorn, toured Europe with Buffalo Bill Cody, survived the Wounded Knee Massacre, converted to Catholicism and told his story to Nebraska poet John G. Neihardt. And now his likeness is going to be the star of the Lincoln Stamp Clubs 52nd annual show. The club will commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth with a $3 collectible show cover, postage stamp of Black Elk and a feather-shaped cancellation. Nebraska Press will also be at the show to sell copies of Neihardts Black Elk Speaks. The show, LINPEX 16, is expected to draw up to 2,000 people to Country Inn and Suites on Saturday and Sunday, said club member Joel Johnson. Among the highlights: * Eight dealers from several states will be there to buy and sell mint and used U.S. and worldwide stamps and pieces of postal history. The U.S. Postal Service will sell stamps on Saturday and use the special show cancel on outgoing mail. * If youve inherited a stamp collection and want to know if it's valuable, club members will give free evaluations on both days. In the past, theyve found stamps worth up to $1,500. Theres usually a line of people, Johnson said. If youre not a collector, you dont know what things are worth. * And, as always, the club will bring back its Beginners Table, where old and young curious collectors dig through thousands of donated domestic and foreign stamps. Adults pay a nickel per stamp and children pay a penny. The club made more than $300 on the table last year, he said. Kids come there and they really like it. When they get there, they dont want to leave. Lincoln likely will be buying its new 911 radio system from Motorola. Motorola's bid of $9.6 million was $3.3 million lower than a competing bid by RACOM, and the savings could add up to even more if the city partners with the state to use its computer to run the system. Motorola submitted two bids, one for a standalone radio system and an alternative $9 million proposal for the same system but with the city sharing the core -- the computer that handles management of the system -- with the state, said Tom Casady, public safety director. A 12-member subcommittee of users who interviewed both companies and looked at the bid details recommended Motorola, Casady said. An oversight committee, formed to watch over spending of the revenue from a quarter-cent increase in the city sales tax, agreed with that recommendation at a Wednesday afternoon meeting. The user committee thinks the Motorola bid represents the best value to the city, Casady told the oversight committee. "We felt both companies had excellent proposals, and both have similar systems. We simply don't see any way we could recommend going with a bid that is $3.3 to $3.8 million higher," Casady said. RACOM provided the 30-year-old radio system the city currently uses, and the city is comfortable with that company, Casady said. But Motorola offered the better deal. The city will negotiate with Motorola on a contract, and with the state for use of the State Patrol's core computer system, over the next month. Some of the issues to be discussed with the patrol will be cost, handling updates to the system, and what control the city will have, Casady said. "We have to be comfortable that they are willing to give us the level of control we think we need in order to operate well," and that we both can live with an upgrade schedule, he said. Casady said he hopes the city will be able to negotiate a contract with the state along the lines of a prenuptual agreement, with a pathway to a friendly divorce if things don't work out. Motorola's bid is substantially lower than the $20.5 million estimate for the system provided by consultants, even after the city spends an additional $2.5 million in outside costs not included in the bid. Mayor Chris Beutler had announced Wednesday morning that the lower-than-expected radio system bids could lead to the city ending the quarter-cent sales tax ahead of schedule. Voters approved the three-year, quarter-cent sales tax increase last April to fund the new radio system and construction of four new fire stations. Revenue from the quarter-cent sales tax is coming in as projected, netting about $1 million a month since the tax began in October. The city will not begin work on the new fire stations, designated for growing areas of the city, until the 911 radio system is purchased. Casady expects the radio system to be up and running by February 2017. It includes new radios for police, firefighters and others using the system. Information on sales tax collections and expenses is available at lincoln.ne.gov. (Click on Sales and Use Tax Increase Information.) Surveys show how deeply we feel the threat. In December 2015, Gallup reported that 51 percent of Americans worry that they or someone in their family will become a victim of terrorism; 67 percent believe that terror attacks are imminent in the United States; and we now rank terrorism as the nation's most important problem, surpassing the economy and government . These reactions should come as no surprise. Talk of terrorism is everywhere. It is a major topic on all news outlets. It is center stage in the presidential debates. It has commandeered the conversations about gun control, immigration, criminal justice, and foreign relations. And we see heavily armed law enforcement officers guard our public gatherings, major intersections, transportation hubs and government offices. There is good reason for this reaction. The threat is not imaginary. We are under attack. According to the University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, from 2000 through 2014, we suffered 3,064 terrorism deaths in America (the vast majority -- 2997 -- victims of the 9/11/2001 attacks). But this new reality poses a basic question for Americans: does the threat warrant the current reaction? The answer is "no." Despite the horrors visited upon us, an examination of the numbers shows that the risk of becoming a victim of terrorism is negligible. Let's put the 3,064 terrorism deaths over 14 years into perspective: according to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2013, here in America, we had 38,851 annual deaths from accidental poisoning, 37,938 from traffic accidents, 30,208 from falls, and 16,121 homicides; put another way, the odds of dying at the hands of terrorists at one in 20 million while the odds of dying from cancer or heart disease are one in seven; in that same period we had approximately 225,000 annual preventable deaths from heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, and strokes. Acts of terrorism are designed to create fear and they have succeeded. And while it is perfectly acceptable to be scared, the kind of fear we now experience is problematic. It causes us to overreact to issues such as immigration and foreign policy and skew our spending priorities so that we divert funds from more pressing problems. A case in point. In 2013, the 16 spy agencies in the federal government were allocated $16.6 billion for counter-terrorism. In that period of time there were 7 terrorism fatalities in the United States. In that same year, the federal government allocated $4.8 billion for cancer research. In that period of time there were 580,350 cancer deaths. The threat of terrorism is real. Its proponents are brutal and sadistic with no limits or boundaries to the horrors they perpetuate. And there is potential for a future attack -- traditional, cyber, chemical or nuclear -- that could lead to high casualties. Our response must be firm, comprehensive and, most importantly, effective. But it must also be proportionate to the risk. America needs an open and ongoing discussion about terrorist attacks, their impact, and our response, a conversation driven by fact not by fear. "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." -- Newton's Third Law of Motion WASHINGTON -- Notice the Newtonian physics of America's Madisonian system. Barack Obama's Woodrow Wilsonian hostility to the separation of powers, expressed in his executive authoritarianism, is provoking equal and opposite reactions from the judicial and legislative branches. The Supreme Court has inflicted on Obama a defeat accurately described as the court's most severe rebuke of a president since it rejected Harry Truman's claim that inherent presidential powers legitimated his seizure of the steel industry during the Korean War. The court has blocked Obama's Clean Power Plan, which rests on the rickety premise that the Clean Air Act somehow, in a way unsuspected for four decades, empowers the Environmental Protection Agency to annihilate the right of states to regulate power generation. The legislative branch, too, is retaliating against executive overreach. Consider the lethal letter Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., sent to the Education Department concerning its Office of Civil Rights. OCR has sent its own letters to, among other targets, colleges and universities, concerning, among other topics, sexual harassment and violence. These letters, Lankford notes in his, although purporting to offer mere "guidance," clearly are intended to intimidate schools with the implied threat of "inquiry, investigation, adverse finding, or rescission of federal funding." OCR is insisting on practices discordant with constitutional values. These practices include denying persons accused of sexual assault the right to confront accusers, and subjecting the accused to convictions based on a mere "preponderance of evidence" rather than "clear and convincing" evidence. In an October 2014 letter to The Boston Globe, 28 Harvard Law School faculty members voiced "strong objections" to OCR's diktats: "As teachers responsible for educating our students about due process of law, the substantive law governing discrimination and violence, appropriate administrative decision-making, and the rule of law generally, we find the new sexual harassment policy inconsistent with many of the most basic principles we teach." Accusing Harvard of "jettisoning balance and fairness in the rush to appease certain federal administration officials," the professors said: "Harvard has adopted procedures for deciding cases of alleged sexual misconduct which lack the most basic elements of fairness and due process, are overwhelmingly stacked against the accused, and are in no way required by Title IX law or regulation." They cited "the absence of any adequate opportunity to discover the facts charged and to confront witnesses and present a defense at an adversary hearing." And: "The failure to ensure adequate representation for the accused." And: "The lodging of the functions of investigation, prosecution, fact-finding, and appellate review in one office, and the fact that the office is itself a Title IX compliance office rather than an entity that could be considered structurally impartial." Sixteen University of Pennsylvania law professors have expressed similar concerns. As have two members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who note "a disturbing pattern of disregard for the rule of law at OCR," including: defining "perfectly legal conduct as unlawful" (e.g., "telling sexual or dirty jokes" and displaying "sexually explicit drawings") and squandering resources "to address violations it has made up out of thin air." Last Wednesday, OCR, oblivious or indifferent to such learned reproaches, replied to Lankford, saying: It's "guidance" letters do not have the force of law -- a distinction without a difference because the letters construe statutes and regulations that have such force. And: The "preponderance of evidence" evidentiary standard is proper because many schools already are using it. Furthermore, OCR says it must initiate proceedings against an institution "in front of a neutral independent department hearing officer." So, the department monitors itself neutrally and independently. Lankford will soon use congressional hearings to acquaint OCR with how unpersuaded he is. OCR and the EPA, representative tentacles of this lawless administration, are inadvertently serving constitutional values by arousing the resistance of rival branches. Madison's Newtonian system can still stymie Wilson. Kudos to Marlene Ricketts and her family for going after Donald Trump. Theyre doing the right thing. Trump is a corrosive force in the presidential race and society at large. The effort is not be minimized. In the donor class the Ricketts family stands almost alone. Marlene Ricketts was identified in the New York Times as the donor who gave $3 million to Our Principles PAC, funded almost entirely by the Ricketts family. So far in the primary the super PAC has spent about $4 million opposing Trump. No other mega donors have joined them. Not the Koch brothers. Not Sheldon Adelson. Why wont anyone take down Trump? wrote Benjamin Landy, digital news editor at VanityFair.com. Time is running out to stop Trump, who is very nearly the prohibitive front-runner to win the nomination. Yet, vexingly, the deep-pocketed donor class appears to have essentially given up on any campaign to halt his momentum, even as his disaffected, populist coalition threatens to split the party in two (or three, as the case may be). The mega donors have a list of reasons for not contributing to an anti-Trump campaign, according to a report in Politico. Theyre worried that attacks might play into Trumps claim that he is independent from donors and moneyed interests. Some are worried that the attacks might play into the Democrats hands if Trump is the Republican nominee. And some are worried that they could come under attack. They might have a point. On Monday Trump tweeted, I hear the Rickets (sic) family, who owns the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $s against me. They better be careful. They have a lot to hide. The braggadocio, fact-free bluster and sloppiness are all hallmarks of the Trump campaign, which has upended the conventional wisdom on what it takes to prevail in a presidential campaign. Is the Rickets family concerned about attacks from Trump? Not officially. When asked, Gov. Pete Ricketts said he did not feel threatened by the tweet. Sounds like momma Ricketts raised her boy right. Remember when most of the world dismissed Trumps candidacy as a joke? Things have changed. The Journal Star editorial board is proud to say that its first call for voters to Dump Trump appeared on July 23. History also records that the Journal Star did not endorse Ricketts for governor. But we stand with the family when it comes to opposing Trump. The longer Trump remains a presidential contender, the more damage he does to America. At the Health and Human Services Committee hearing for LB 1032 on Feb. 10, there were 40 diverse supporters ("Battle rages on health insurance bill"). Doctors and hospital administrators, small-business owners, faith leaders and health policy experts all made the case for this bill, along with people who told their own stories of living without health insurance. The opponents who spoke, in contrast, were all on the Governor's payroll, or that of industrial billionaire David Koch. Besides Nebraska Health and Human Services staff, opposing testimony was offered by the Governor's own Platte Institute and Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity. These organizations often demonize Nebraskans with lower incomes and undermine any attempt to help working, poor families improve their lives. These same organizations were found by a 2014 report detailed in a Journal Star story ("Report criticizes conservative Nebraska think tank," Jan. 1, 2014) to push "an extreme right-wing agenda that aims to privatize education, block health care reform, restrict workers' rights, roll back environmental protections and create a tax system that benefits most those at the very top level of income." Has the Governor or his family ever had to live without health insurance? Through his puppet organizations, he seems to be working very hard to prevent relief to thousands of Nebraska families who need to see a doctor. Sally J. Herrin, PhD, Lincoln Friday is the last day landowners can enter bids for the federal Conservation Reserve Program, and with lower grain prices and higher CRP payments, area farmers are showing greater interest. CRP is a federal program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture that compensates landowners for voluntarily devoting agricultural land to environmental conservation. Producers submit a proposal detailing the acreage and type of conservation activity and how much they would like to be compensated. County Farm Service Agencies (FSA) complete a cost-benefit analysis on each proposal to determine whether it's accepted. Colfax County FSA executive director Bruce Coffey and Butler County FSA executive director Pat Lechner said theyve seen a significant increase in interest from landowners. In Platte County, interest levels are about the same, according to FSA director Chris Hoffman. Coffey and Lechner said the increase in CRP payment rates over the past three to five years has made them competitive with cash rents. That, coupled with lower grain prices, makes CRP more appealing to farmers. When we had $8 corn, $10 beans, guys were more likely to put those crops in the ground, said Lechner. With tighter cash flows, taking a risk is on the lower end of the spectrum than taking in a set amount on those delicate pieces of ground that have less of a chance of getting a good crop. In Platte County, cash rents for land have gone up, so CRP isnt as appealing, according to Hoffman. Its somewhat competitive, but still lower than some cash rents, Hoffman said of CRP. Most guys are going to farm their better soils. CRP general signups occur every couple of years or so the last one was two years ago. Theres also a program called continuous CRP, which is available for producers with more environmentally sensitive land, including ground bordering wetlands or streams. CRP contracts are 10-15 years, depending on the program. In the counties where interest is growing, the percentage of acreage devoted to CRP is low, less than 5 percent, which is nowhere near the limit of 25 percent set by the USDA. Hoffman said the most common programs in Platte County were for growing native grasses, legumes and habitats for pollinators like bees. In Colfax County, Coffey said they have more programs that involve smaller plots of land, such as strips of grass along waterways and tree planting, though they do have some pollinator habitat, as well. And in Butler County, grass strips along waterways are common, though Lechner said the most popular programs are for wild bird habitat such as quail and pheasant. The quail and pheasant habitat program is the most popular mostly because its the most profitable, according to Lechner. Nebraskas hunting tradition is also an incentive. That definitely helps with that, to see those birds come back into the area, said Lechner. Virginia teen Nicole Madison Lovell suffered the same teenage bullying and insecurities as many 13-year-old girls living in todays tough world. She found refuge in the online world of anonymity and a world where you can make yourself into who you want to be, instead of who you are. Nicole found friends. She found people who cared about her, made her feel she belonged, and who listened to her dreams. And one of those people killed her. With increasing numbers of youth having access to social media, how can we work to keep our children safe? By giving them the knowledge needed to navigate the risks and rewards of the Internet and social networks. The Stop Child Abuse and Neglect program of Lutheran Social Services provides child safety lessons to students in local schools. Their iSCAN program teaches information about social media safety to sixth-grade students across Racine County. Social media provides wonderful tools that give people opportunities to stay connected, to learn, to influence social change, and to demonstrate creativity. However just like any tool, if a person does not know how to use it safely, it can be very dangerous. Three primary pitfalls young people can encounter while learning the ins and out of social media are falling victim to cyber bullying, posting information that damages their digital reputation, and over-sharing personal information that threatens digital privacy. Unfortunately, what happened to young Nicole Lovell is an extreme example of a consequence arising from a lack of digital privacy. Predator abduction and abuse is extreme because, thankfully, it doesnt happen often, but when it does the results are dire. Kids need to know the basics. They need to protect all personal identification information from people they have only met online. Giving that person even small pieces of information (name, gender, age, birthday, address, phone number, school and team names) is like giving them puzzle pieces they can use to get a great big picture of who the child is and where he lives. Youth need to be taught to use privacy settings and passwords. They are like locking the door on a house. It does not guarantee no one will break in, but it gives some protection. Also, kids should only include people on a friends list who they know and trust in real life. If they would not invite a perfect stranger to hang out in their bedrooms in real life, they should not do it online either. Most importantly, kids need to be told and reminded: never agree to meet up with someone in person who you have only met online. You have no idea who that person is or what they are capable of doing. As for parents, SCAN can pass along some good advice. Be the parent who doesnt let their kid have a smartphone. Or be the parent who goes through that phone or device and your childs browser history frequently. Be the parent who puts filters on your Internet, or a program that sends you an email detailing sites and apps your kid looks at. Dont be afraid to be that parent. Visit www.lsswis.org/LSS/Services/Parenting/Child-Abuse-Neglect-Education.htm to donate online or mail charitable contributions to the SCAN office at 1220 Mound Ave., No. 304, Racine, WI 53404. Questions about how to get more involved? Call Karen Fetherston at 262-619-1633. SCAN is funded by the United Way of Racine County and the United Way of Kenosha County, as well as through private donations from local churches, schools, individuals and businesses. Workshops & Programs FAMILY TO FAMILY CAREGIVER COURSE SET RACINE The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Racine County is offering a free 12-week Family to Family course for family caregivers of individuals with mental illness from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Mondays, March 7-May 23. The course teaches caregivers not only a wide range of information about serious mental illness, but also provides them with communication and problem-solving techniques, coping mechanisms and the self-care skills needed to deal with their loved ones mental illness, as well as its impact on family. To register, go to www.namiracine.org. JOBLESSNESS AND ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY CALEDONIA The program Automation, Globalization, and a Jobless Future will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 1, at The Siena Retreat Center, 5637 Erie St. Nationally-known journalist John Nichols suggests that the systems creating joblessness and economic uncertainty are what the election ought to be about. He will explain why both parties often avoid the real issues. Cost to attend is $10. For more information, go to www.SienaRetreatCenter.org or call 262-898-2590. LEARN HOW TO KNIT, CROCHET RACINE The City of Racine Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department offers beginning knitting and crocheting classes for people ages 50 and above from 1:15 to 2:45 p.m. every Tuesday at the Dr. John Bryant Center, 601 21st St. The cost is $1.50 per session. Participants will learn to how to knit and crochet, read patterns, pick the correct yarn for a project and how to buy the correct amount of yarn. Participants must bring their own needles or hooks. For more information, call Lisa Hill-Driver at 262-636-9236. PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP SCHEDULED RACINE Spectrum Gallery, located in the east building of the DeKoven Center, 610 21st St., will offer a free photo workshop entitled Prints: Looking, Seeing and Feedback from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 5. Photographers working in digital or traditional film and darkroom photography are invited to bring photographic prints of any size for feedback and discussion. After a short presentation on composition, prints will be displayed for open feedback and discussion. Donations will be accepted. For more information, call 262-634-4345 or go to www.spectrumschoolandgallery.org. WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT CENTER WORKSHOPS RACINE These free workshops will be held the week of Feb. 29-March 4 at the Racine County Workforce Development Center, 1717 Taylor Ave.: ProTech, 9 a.m.-noon Monday. WDC Orientation, 1-3:30 p.m. Monday. Ultimate Employee Three Day Series, Day One, 9-11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Introduction to Email, 9-11 a.m. Wednesday. Ultimate Employee Three Day Series, Day Two, 9-11:30 a.m. Wednesday. What If I Have a Record? 2-4 p.m. Wednesday. Walk-In Staff Assisted Resume Lab, 9-11 a.m. Thursday. Ultimate Employee Three Day Series, Day Three, 9-11 a.m. Thursday. Customer Service, 9:30-11:30 a.m. Friday. First Impressions, 2-3 p.m. Friday. For more information or to register for any of the above workshops, call Workshop Instruction at 262-638-6551 or go to www.wdc.racineco.com/JobSeekerServices/WorkshopSchedule.aspx. PROGRAMS OFFERED AT BONG BRIGHTON These programs will be held at Bong State Recreation Area, 26313 Burlington Road: Coyote Neighbors, 7-8 p.m. Saturday, March 5. Participants will discover how perfectly adapted coyotes are and learn tips about living near them, then go outside and try to call coyotes. Knee-high Naturalist, 10-11:30 a.m. Thursday, March 10. For ages 3-5, this active nature programs theme is Old-Fashioned Storytime. Registration is required. Willow Basket class, 1-4 p.m. Saturday, March 12. Participants will make a basket out of native willow they cut. Waterproof boots are encouraged. Fee: $15. Earliest Migrants Hike, 7:30-9 a.m. Saturday, March 19. Participants will go on an early morning hike and discover which migrants have returned and what resident birds are doing. Spring Explorer Hike, 10:30 a.m.-noon Saturday, March 19. Participants will hike to search for signs of springs arrival. Egg-stravaganza, 10-11 a.m. Saturday, March 26. Participants of all ages will discover which animals have eggs and attempt hands-on experiments. All programs are free and meet at the visitor center, unless otherwise listed. Bongs entrance is on Highway 142, one mile west of Highway 75. A Wisconsin State Park admission sticker is required for each vehicle. For Wisconsin vehicles, fees are $7 a day or $25 a year. The annual sticker is good in all Wisconsin state parks. The sticker may be purchased at time of arrival. For more information, call Bong at 262-878-5601. DINOSAUR ARTIST TO PRESENT PROGRAM KENOSHA The Kenosha Public Museum, 5500 First Ave., will host a free program featuring award-winning artist, illustrator and paleoart master William Scout entitled From Antartica to Zombies (With Dinosaurs in Between), from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 5. World-renowned artist Stout will present an illustrated look at his career designing for books, comics, collectibles, theme parks and more than 40 films. He will also discuss how his scientifically accurate dinosaurs inspired famous books and movies. MINI COURSES OFFERED AT UW-PARKSIDE SOMERS These mini courses will be held at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, 900 Wood Road: Russian for Beginners 1, 6-8 p.m. Thursdays, March 3-17 and March 31-April 14, $79. Pilates in a Chair, 9-10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 12, $19. Spanish Wines and Tapas, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Monday, March 14, $69 per couple. Ballroom Dancing, 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, March 15-April 19, $89 per couple. Rose Care 101, 9 a.m.-noon Saturday, March 19, $29. Zumba Gold, 10-10:45 a.m. Wednesdays, March 10-June 15, $79. Beginning Conversational French, 7-8 p.m. Wednesdays, March 30-May 4, $79. Starting Heritage Seeds, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday, April 2, $29. Advance registration is required for all workshops by calling 262-595-3340. For more information, go to www.uwp.edu/go/ccp. RACINE A Case High School student was charged with attempted armed robbery Wednesday stemming from an incident in late January. John Hunter, 16, of the 2300 block of High Street, was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly held up a fellow student at knifepoint on Jan. 29 near the Racine Transit Center. Hunter, who is being tried as an adult, admitted he held up the other student because he wanted the students phone to communicate with girls, according to police. Court records show Hunter made his initial appearance in court Wednesday and his bond was set at $500 cash. According to the criminal complaint, Hunter lured another student into an alley near the transit center by saying he had a gun to show him. Once in the alley, police said Hunter pulled out a knife and demanded the students phone and passcode. The student fled before Hunter could obtain his phone, according to the criminal complaint. Once Hunter was identified as the suspect in the attempted robbery, police said he was brought to the principals office, where he denied involvement in the incident. He did not have any weapons on him or in his locker, the complaint states, but he immediately made threats to the student he had tried to rob, even though he denied knowing him to the principal. Police said Hunter later confessed the robbery to a police officer at the high school. In an interview at the police department, Hunter reportedly admitted what he did was wrong and that he had placed the knife near the area of the attempted robbery prior to trying to rob the other student. Attempted armed robbery is a felony punishable by up to 25 years behind bars and another 15 years of extended supervision. Fines up to $50,000 are also possible. Hunters preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 3 at 8:30 a.m. RACINE The future of a so-called sanctuary city bill is uncertain, with Racines Van Wanggaard and other Republicans calling for a vote and opposition culminating in a large protest in Madison last week. The measure takes aim at sanctuary cities places where federal immigration laws are not enforced. Under the proposal, local governments could not enact policies prohibiting police from inquiring about immigration status or working with federal authorities. After voting for the bill in a Feb. 12 committee meeting, Wanggard, a state senator, said this week he believes the full Senate ought to take up the measure, echoing sentiments from other Republicans. It passed our committee; I think it should go to a floor vote, Wanggaard said. This is not something thats against any one person or any one group of people. This is about our federal laws that protect the safety of everybody whos here lawfully. But Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, has indicated passing the bill is not a priority before the Senate is scheduled to wrap up its session next month. He said Monday that it is the responsibility of bill authors to ensure that their proposals have sufficient support within the caucus for passage, according to media reports. (The sanctuary cities bill) falls into the category along with every other piece of legislation. Racine singled out The bill has drawn heavy criticism from the Hispanic community and others amid a presidential primary in which immigration has emerged as a contentious issue. The bill infringes on local control and comes at a time of rising racial tensions, said Yolanda Santos Adams, president of the Urban League of Racine and Kenosha and a member of the League of United Latin American Citizens. It does nothing to improve race relations or bring our communities together, said Santos Adams, who added the Urban League has not yet taken an official position on the bill. An estimated 20,000 people gathered at the Capitol last week to protest the sanctuary city bill and one other measure in a rally called A Day Without Latinos and Immigrants in Wisconsin. The bills author, state Rep. John Spiros of Marshfield, has identified Racine as one of three sanctuary cities in Wisconsin a claim disputed by Mayor John Dickert. The city works closely with the Department of Homeland Security, Dickert has said, though he has instructed police to not make finding illegal immigrants a priority. Officials in the other jurisdictions named as sanctuary cities Madison and Milwaukee County have also refuted the label, making it unclear what impact the bill would have. Spiros, who has not returned calls seeking comment, said the bill was inspired by the murder of a 32-year-old woman in San Francisco. The alleged shooter was reportedly an illegal immigrant released from prison against federal authorities wishes. Six weeks before Wisconsins presidential primary, Wisconsins Republican voters are leaning toward real estate mogul Donald Trump as the GOP nominee, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remain in a close race on the Democratic side, according to the latest Marquette Law School Poll. Trump has 30 percent of GOP voters support, while Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has 20 percent and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has 19 percent. Meanwhile, Sanders leads Clinton 44 to 43 percent, essentially tied. Wisconsins presidential primary is April 5, and could draw a lot of attention from both Democrats and Republicans if both races remain contested then. Wisconsins primary takes place in a stretch of the calendar with few other contests. It also comes after a majority of delegates are parceled out, so Wisconsins role will still depend on what happens in the upcoming Super Tuesday elections and other key primaries on March 15. According to the latest poll, 46 percent of Republicans said Trump is most likely to win the GOP nomination. Twenty-five percent said they expect Cruz to win the nomination, while 11 percent said Rubio would be the nominee. Among Democrats, 60 percent said Clinton would be the nominee while 33 percent picked Sanders. Overall, Sanders fared better against the top GOP candidates in a head-to-head race, according to the poll results. Poll director Charles Franklin said the poll was conducted between Feb. 18-21, by phone with 802 registered voters, with a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. The partisan makeup of the poll leans Democratic, Franklin said, with 40 percent of respondents considering themselves Republican and 49 percent considering themselves Democrats. Ten percent identify as independents. Trump has won the lions share of delegates in the Republican field at 82, while Cruz has 17 and Rubio has 16; 1,237 are needed to win the nomination. Clinton has 505 delegates with the lions share so far coming from committed superdelegates while Sanders has 71. To win the nomination, a Democratic candidate needs 2,383 delegates. In January, the poll found the race between Clinton and Sanders tightening in the state, while Trump was on top of the GOP field. What if Sandy Hook and Columbine staff had been armed like this? By Craig Lucie. February 22nd, 2016 GRIFFIN, Ga. -- A local business owner with several offices in Georgia is now requiring all of his employees to get a concealed carry license and be armed. After each employee at Lance Toland Associates gets their license, Toland presents them with a gun known as the Judge. He says it is one of the most effective self-defense weapons and all his aviation insurance agencies carry them openly in the office. Toland commented after hearing about recent home invasions and violent crime in the metro Atlanta area, and came up with the new office mandate. ...... No doubt this decison will get a mixed reception but, it does demonstrate a taking of responsibility such that an attack by an armed intruder could be controlled. One has to wonder whether yet again, how mayhem might have been greatly limited in past school and college shootings with armed personel present. It is not a panacea but for sure takes this business off the "gun-free-zone" list. "You don't have to be Jewish to fight by our side." 2016 JPFO All rights reserved. jpfo@jpfo.org 1-800-869-1884 Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership 12500 NE 10th Pl. Bellevue, WA 98005 USA "America's most aggressive defender of civil rights" We make the NRA look like moderates Join JPFO Back to Top Withering on the Vine The Demographic Time Bomb is Most Marked in Japan The demographic time bomb whereby the elderly population assumes a greater and ... Government Sexual Libertinism Coming to a Government School Near You Further to our piece yesterday on the promotion of sexual libertinism in government schools, we rep... Some Random Observations The Aftermath of Mass Pre-Mediated Murder A few observations on the murder of 14 people in San Bernadino and the wounding of many more see... Letter From the UK (About State Tyranny) Ta-ta UK freedoms! Miranda matter outs vindictiveness of wounded police state Annie Machon is a former intelligence of... The Big One The Panoptican State Is Actually Operational Yesterday the "big one" dropped. The Guardian reported that the US and UK spy age... Fraud Central German Professor: NASA Has Fiddled Climate Data On Unbelievable Scale by James Delingpole BreitbartLondon A German professor ha... Statist Groupthink More and More Fashionable The Rise of Liberal Intolerance in America Edward Luce Financial Times I t ought to be a triumphal moment for American liberalism .... Vacuous Greenism Anti-Fracking Luddiocy Think of any technology that involves carbon based energy and its utilisation, and the lunatic fringe can be found ... "It is Finished": the Sixth Word from the Cross It is Finished: our Lords Sixth Word from the Cross What is history? That simple question covers a multitude of complexity, profundity... JURIST Guest Columnist John W. Klinker of Loyola University Chicago School of Law discusses how the decision in Montanile potentially creates a precedent that could affect the funding of welfare benefit plans A common term in welfare benefit plans establishes an agreement whereby the plan will pay covered medical expenses of an employee when the employee is injured by a third party. Typically, as part of this arrangement, employees agree to reimburse the plan should they later recover from the injurious third party. Such an agreement is done by way of a subrogation clause. Consider what happens when an employee receives money from such a third party, but instead of reimbursing his plan he spends it on non-traceable items, such as services or consumable goods. These were the facts before the Supreme Court in Montanile v. Board of Trustees of the National Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan [PDF]. The National Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan, the Respondent [PDF], administered a welfare benefit plan. Under the plan, a beneficiary could receive advanced benefits when injured by a third party, thus providing them with adequate financial support while pursing said third party in a legal action. By accepting advanced benefits, a beneficiary agreed to use any amounts recovered through the legal action to promptly reimburse the plan, even before recovered funds were used for attorneys fees or costs, or the expenses or damages of the beneficiary. In December 2008 Robert Montanile, the Petitioner [PDF], was the victim of a car accident. A drunk driver ran through a stop sign and collided with Montaniles car causing him severe injuries. As a result of his injuries Montanile underwent spinal fusion surgery and several other forms of treatment. At the time of his injury, Montanile was a beneficiary of the Respondents welfare benefit plan. As such, the plan paid for Montaniles medical expenses, which totaled $121,044.02. Before receiving the advancement, Montanile signed an agreement affirming his obligation to reimburse the plan for any recovery he received by way of legal action or settlement or otherwise. Montanile filed suit against the driver and ultimately received a $500,000 settlement from which he paid his attorneys fees and costs, reducing his overall recovery to nearly $240,000. The Board of Trustees of the Respondent then pursued reimbursement from Montaniles remaining funds pursuant to the subrogation clause of the plan. They received resistance from Montaniles attorneys who claimed the plan was not entitled to reimbursement. The two sides attempted to reach a resolution regarding reimbursement, but the negotiations failed. Montaniles attorneys then informed the Board that the remaining funds would be disbursed to Montanile unless the Board objected within fourteen days. The Board failed to object and the funds were disbursed. Six months later the Board filed suit. The Board sought reimbursement of the plans advancement to Montanile by way of an equitable lien on the settlement funds or any other property in Montaniles possession. Montanile, having taken possession of the settlement funds several months earlier and spending nearly all of them, argued that the funds were no longer separate and distinct from his general assets and, therefore, an equitable lien could not be placed on them. This argument failed at the district court, which granted summary judgment for the Board, and the Eleventh Circuit, which affirmed the trial courts decision. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether an ERISA fiduciary can enforce an equitable lien against a defendants general assets under these circumstances. ERISA, specifically 502(a)(3) therein, allows fiduciaries to pursue equitable relief through a civil suit when necessary to enforce a welfare benefit plans terms. This provision became the crux of the discussion in Montanile where the court had to determine whether pursuing reimbursement from Montaniles general assets, on top of the settlement funds, constituted a permissible equitable remedy or overstepped into the realm of a remedy at law. In determining whether the resolution sought by the Board constituted equitable relief, the court undertook an extensive investigation of how to characterize the claim before them and the nature of the remedies requested. The court has previously ruledin Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Co. v. Knudson, Sereboff v. Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Inc., and US Airways, Inc. v. McCutchen [PDF]on plan fiduciaries seeking reimbursement of advancements to beneficiaries for medical expenses that the beneficiaries later recovered from third parties. Under the precedent set forth in those three cases the Boards claim would be considered equitable, but it was not conclusive as to whether the remedy sought by the Board is equitable. Equitable remedies typically provide a party with rights to or over a particular item whereas legal remedies give a party the right to recover money from the defendants assets. Therefore, for an equitable lien to exist it must be placed on a specifically identifiable fund, as that fund would constitute a particular item over which a right could be held. By spending the entirety of the specifically identifiable fund on non traceable items, a beneficiary eliminates the item upon which an equitable lien could be placed. The court stated that such conduct by a defendant is improper but despite that impropriety, a plaintiff could not pursue reimbursement from the beneficiarys general assets. Therefore, the court ultimately ruled in favor of Montanile and held that the lower court could not properly allow the plan to seek recovery from Montaniles general assets. Instead, the court remanded the case to the trial level for a determination of whether Montanile had kept his settlement funds and the rest of his assets segregated, as well as whether he owned any traceable assets directly stemming from the funds. The precedent set by this decision may be quite narrow, but it has the potential to greatly affect the funding of welfare benefits plans. In situations such as the one in Montanile, benefit plans are set up to provide assistance to their beneficiaries during their time of need following injuries. In return, those beneficiaries expressly agree, by way of a subrogation clause, to repay their plans if they are made whole by the third party who caused their injury. Welfare benefit plans expect beneficiaries to reimburse them as part of their constant efforts to remain adequately funded such that they can provide necessary support for all beneficiaries under the plan. However, as Justice Ginsburg raised in her dissent[PDF] to Montanile, beneficiaries now can escape that reimbursement obligation . . . by spending the settlement funds rapidly on nontraceable items. John Klinker is a student at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law where he serves as the Managing Editor of the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal. He earned a BA in Political Science and a BSW from Loyola University Chicago. Suggested citation:John KlinkerWhen Equitable Remedies Give Way to Remedies at Law (or How to Avoid a Benefits Plans Subrogation Clause, JURIST Student Commentary, Feb. 24, 2016, http://jurist.org/dateline/2016/02/john-klinker-equitable-remedies.php. [JURIST] Bolivian President Evo Morales [BBC profile] on Wednesday acknowledged the outcome of a failed constitutional referendum that would have permitted him to remain in power for a fourth consecutive term. Voting on the referendum took place last Sunday, and following a two-day count of the votes, the nations electoral commission ruled the proposal was rejected by a vote of 51-49 percent [Guardian report]. Morales has occupied the presidential office since 2006 and his current term will keep him in office until 2020. Morales labeled the loss a conspiracy in the press and claimed there was a dirty war [BBC report] against his regime in the weeks leading up to the election. Morales is the longest serving president of Bolivia and the first to come from the countrys indigenous majority. According to news reports, a number of voters expressed concern about extending Morales time in office despite the fact that Morales won by a substantial margin in each of the previous three presidential elections. The modification of presidential term limits by constitutional reform is a current issue in many nations around the world, especially in Africa. Earlier in February the Parliament of Algeria approved a package of constitutional reforms [JURIST report], including a two-term limit for the office of the president. Last month UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged [JURIST report] African leaders to avoid using loopholes and undemocratic constitutional changes to cling to power. In his address at the twenty-sixth African Union [official website] Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Ban stated, [l]eaders should never use undemocratic constitutional changes and legal loopholes to cling to power. We have all seen the tragic consequences when they do. Leaders must protect their people, not themselves. In October, the Republic of Congos electoral commission announced [JURIST report] that voters approved an amendment to the nations constitution that will allow President Denis Sassou Nguesso to extend his term in office, thereby overruling the former constitutional age limit of 70 years to hold the office of the president. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion,PDF] Wednesday that Louisiana may enforce an abortion law from 2014 which critics say will result in the closing of most of the states abortion clinics. The law, which was temporarily blocked [text, PDF] by a lower court in January, requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the place he or she would be performing abortions. Supporters of the law argue that it is necessary to protect womens health, while opponents argue [WP report] that it is meant to make it nearly impossible to get abortions. Opponents also argue that the law will in fact create such a bar to abortions, causing three out of the states four clinics to close. The court disputed the argument that it would deprive a majority of Louisiana women of access to an abortion, saying the state was likely to succeed in showing those calculations were neither sufficient nor sufficiently reliable to establish an undue burden on a large fraction of Louisiana women. Abortion procedures and reproductive rights issues have been heated topics throughout the US. In February the Oklahoma Supreme Court reversed [JURIST report] a lower court decision upholding a law that restricts use of medication abortion drugs. Earlier this week Ohios governor signed [JURIST report] a bill that would purportedly cut state-funds to Planned Parenthood by $1.3 million. In November of last year the US Supreme Court [official website] granted certiorari [JURIST report] to decide whether a Texas law, which requires that clinics have similar facilities to surgical center, posed an undue burden on the availability of abortion on the state. Oral arguments in the case will be heard next week. A New Mexico federal judge on Tuesday approved [opinion, PDF; order, PDF] an almost $1 billion settlement [text, PDF] between the Obama administration and Native American tribes, attorneys for the tribes learned Wednesday. The tribes claimed that the US government had for decades underfunded contract costs for tribes to manage federal services such as education and law enforcement, even as far back as the 1970s. The approval [AP report] came about five months after the US Interior Department [official website] and tribal leaders announced that they had agreed on a possible settlement of $940 million. The judge also authorized that $1.2 million be paid to reimburse costs incurred by the plaintiff. It is expected that nearly 700 tribes or tribal agencies will claim compensation. The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled in favor of the tribes [JURIST report] in 2012, long after the case was first filed in 1990, and sent the case back to the lower courts prior to the announcement of the settlement agreement. In 2012 UN Special Rapporteur on Rights of Indigenous People James Anaya visited [JURIST report] the US in order to launch the UNs first ever investigation into the rights situation of Native Americans. The US endorsed the Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2010, after being one of four member states originally opposed to the treaty when it was adopted by the UN [JURIST reports] in 2007. The other countries opposed to it, Canada, New Zealand and Australia [JURIST reports], have all also changed their views and have since endorsed the treaty. This non-binding treaty outlines the human rights issues faced by the more than 370 million indigenous people throughout the world and encourages nations not to discriminate against them. The declaration was debated for more than two decades before it was passed. [JURIST] The Hungary government on Wednesday announced it will hold a referendum [press release] to determine if the country will accept the EU migrant quota. Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced the referendum and stressed that the EU migrant quota should be addressed by the representatives of the Hungarian people. In the announcement, Orban stated, [w]e feel that to introduce a quota for resettlement is nothing without the peoples consent, such as abuse of power. The Hungarian government believes the referendum strengthens notion of the free association of nations in the EU. Also this week representatives from 10 countries are meeting [Telegraph report] in Vienna to attempt to stop the influx of migrants into European nations. The issue of migrant rights has emerged as one of the most significant humanitarian issues around the world, as millions seek asylum from conflict nations. Earlier this week the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that new measures put in place by many European countries are too restrictive and place undue hardships [JURIST report] on refugees and asylum-seekers. Also this week Amnesty International warned Austria that they are violating human rights through their daily cap on asylum applications [JURIST report]. The country had previously received a warning from an EU official not to go ahead with these plans, stating that any such move would be unlawful [JURIST report]. Earlier this month the German Cabinet approved new asylum laws [JURIST report] in response to the hundreds of thousands of refugees that have entered the country since the beginning of 2015. The bill will speed up asylum procedures and related legal appeals and will bar entry into the country for some asylum seekers families for a period of two years. In January Danish lawmakers approved a controversial bill that will allow Danish authorities to seize assets [JURIST report] from immigrants seeking asylum in order to cover their expenses. In December the EU opened an infringement case [JURIST report] against Hungarys new asylum law and the countrys response to the refugee situation. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals [official website] on Wednesday dismissed [opinion, PDF] the last charge in a criminal case against former governor Rick Perry [A&E profile]. The charge for abuse of official capacity under Texas Penal Code Sec. 39.02 [text] was initiated when Perry threatened to and eventually vetoed funding for the Public Integrity Unit for the Travis County District Attorneys Office. The charge was dismissed over concern for separation of powers under the Texas Constitution and the constitutionality of the statute under the First Amendment. The court held it could not rule to restrict the governors power of veto. In July a Texas appeals court [official website] dismissed one of two criminal charges [JURIST report] filed against Perry last year. The court stated that the coercion of a public servant [Texas Penal Code Chapter 36] charge Perry had faced infringed upon his constitutional right to freedom of speech. In January of last year a Texas state judge refused to dismiss [JURIST report] criminal charges against Perry. A Travis county grand jury indicted [JURIST report] Perry on two felony charges for abuse of power in August 2014. Perry pleaded [JURIST report] not guilty to the charges. Perry was also a controversial figure while in office. In July 2013 he signed into law [JURIST report] House Bill 2 [text], which enacted three new restrictions on the practice of abortion. Also in 2013 Perry vetoed[JURIST report] a bill [HB 950 text] intended to prevent payment discrimination and make it easier for women to obtain equal pay. UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women Dubravka Simonovic [official profile] on Wednesday applauded [press release] efforts by Georgia [BBC profile] to reform its laws on gender equality and violence against women but cautioned that significant social changes will need to occur to make the laws effective. Simonovic specifically noted that the mentality surrounding domestic violence and early marriages still creates a block for many violence survivors to find justice and protection from their assaults. She continued by stating, [d]omestic violence is considered a private matter and not a public concern, especially in rural areas. Women victims of domestic violence, who decide not to keep this scourge taboo, are forced by the communityin particular in rural areasand/or the police, to remain with their perpetrators and are not only revictimized, but at risk of new assaults. Violence against women has long been an issue worldwide. Last April the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women [official website] urged Tanzania [press release] to enforce its international obligations to prevent discrimination against women. The preceding month the UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice [official website] warned [press release] that the progress made in achieving womens rights remains under continuous threat. They stressed that, no country in the world has achieved full substantive equality of women. The Working Group, comprised of five rights experts, expressed concern that women still do not have the rights they deserve in much of the world, indicating that political participation of women remains low, that women still do not receive equal pay rates in much of the world and that women are vastly underrepresented in the leadership of decision-making bodies. That February the UN reported attacks [JURIST report] on young girls for seeking an education in at least 70 countries. In February 2013 the UNs top womens rights advocate denounced [JURIST report] violence against women in Egypt after 25 girls were sexually assaulted during a protest in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. In December 2012 police in New Delhi charged [JURIST report] six men with the murder of a woman who died from injuries sustained in a gang-rape. Also in December 2012 the UN released [JURIST report] a report detailing that women in Afghanistan were suffering from violence as well. Filipino-American Antonio Taguba, a retired Major General in the US Army, is among the honorees to the 2016 Asian Hall of Fame given by the Robert Chinn Foundation. Aside from Taguba, those who will be inducted on May 14 at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle are television journalist Connie Chung, martial artist Bruce Lee, and Olympic Gold Medalist in figure skating Kristi Yamaguchi. The Asian Hall of Fame is a national recognition event for Asian Pacific Americans, celebrating culture and achievement during Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month in May. Honoree Bruce Lee will be represented by the Bruce Lee Foundation, which will accept his posthumous award. Taguba, who served 34 years with the Army, retired in 2007. He led a 2004 team that investigated reports of human rights violations of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The now-famous Taguba Report confirmed the torture and abuse of prisoners and denounced the Bush administration for committing war crimes. Born in Manila, Philippines, he immigrated to the United States in July 1961. Commissioned as an Armor Officer from Idaho State University in 1972, he served in numerous command and staff positions with service assignments in the continental United States, South Korea, Germany, and deployments to Kuwait and Iraq. During Operations Iraqi Freedom, he served as Deputy Commanding General for Support, Coalition Forces Land Component Command(CFLCC)/Army Central Command/Third U.S. Army forward deployed to Kuwait and Iraq. He was responsible for overseeing logistical and support services to U.S. and Coalition forces totaling over 150,000 troops conducting combat operations. His duty also included the coordination of host nation support from the Government of Kuwait, and security cooperation and training requirements with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Qatar. Upon his return from deployment, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Pentagon. In his final assignment on active duty, he served as Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army Reserve Command. His military awards include the Army Distinguished Service Medal (2 awards), Legion of Merit (4 awards), Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (6 awards), Secretary of Defense Identification Badge, and Army Staff Identification Badge. Taguba served as Vice President for Army Account, SERCO Inc., a global services company from 2007 to 2008. He is the President of TDLS Consulting LLC, a business consulting services company for corporate and nonprofit organizations. He is also involved in a great deal of charitable work, from assisting Veterans with their benefits and health care needs, raising funds for college scholarships, and as a volunteer at the United Service Organizations (USO). He is the Chairman of Pan Pacific American Leaders and Mentors (PPALM), the Chairman of the Filipino Veterans Education and Recognition Project (FILVETREP), a Member of the Board of Directors for the armed Forces Insurance Company, and a Community Ambassador for AARP. Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain. Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred. For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here. Britains Prince Harry to visit Nepal in March 2016 Britains Prince Harry will be coming to Nepal on an official visit in March 2016, Kensington Palace said. Cooking gas shipment halted by worker unrest Tribeni Gas Industry in Jogimara, Dhading has not been able to ship out cooking gas for the past week due to a protest launched by its workers. Final training for Israel jobs starts today Nepali caregivers selected to work in Israel are beginning their final training on Thursday before leaving for their foreign jobs. Financing a bright future A successful replenishment of the ADF will help low-income countries to expand on their progress Healthy alternative Public pressure forces govt to transfer medical college owned by MPs to state Iran 'arrests elderly father of jailed US citizen' Iranian authorities have arrested the elderly father of an American who has been in jail in Iran for the past four months, the man's family said. MH17 Ukraine disaster: Report names suspected Russian soldiers A UK-based online investigative team says it has identified Russian soldiers who were likely involved in the shooting down of a Malaysian plane. Anil Giri is a reporter covering diplomacy, international relations and national politics for The Kathmandu Post. Giri has been working as a journalist for a decade-and-a-half, contributing to numerous national and international media outlets. Obama endorses Bill to grant duty-free access to Nepali products US President Barack Obama signed legislation authorising special trade preferences for Nepal, which grants duty-free tariff benefits for up to 66 types of items Bangladesh district court summons Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam A Pabna court on Thursday summoned The Daily Star Editor and Publisher Mahfuz Anam to appear before it on March 24 in a defamation case. Mike Dunleavy the governor of the US state of Alaska is intending to introduce legislation that will repeal the two state boards which regu... The Uganda Joint Christian Council has put the Electoral Commission to task to explain why it released presidential election results excluding votes from some polling stations. The concerns are contained in a statement read out to the media by Namirembe Diocesan Bishop, Wilberforce Kityo Luwalira, who doubles as chairman of the Councils National Election Steering Committee. Presenting a preliminary report of their findings from the February 18 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, Luwarira is demanding a comprehensive statement why votes from a very large number of polling stations in Rukungiri, Jinja, Kampala, Kyenjonjo and other districts were not in the results announced by the Commission. He cites Jinja district which had 399 polling stations but only had 11 computed by the Commission in the final tally. Kyenjonjo contributed 60 polling stations out of 337, while Kampala had 1,176 polling stations declared out of 1,338 polling stations recorded with the Commission. The Bishops further question why out of the 112 districts only Otuke district had no invalid votes. Jotham Talemwa, EC spokesperson, explains that some of the affected areas where their results were not included in the final tally were a result of irregularities. The EC announced the incumbent President Museveni winner of the just concluded elections with 60.8per cent victory, results which his closest challenger Forum for Democratic Change, Dr Kiiza Besigye, has disputed. Erias Lukwago has bounced back as Kampala Lord Mayor. Lukwago declared winner of the city mayoral race with over 80% of the votes by Kampala district returning officer Charles Ntege. He polled 176,637 votes to beat NRMs Daniel Kazibwe also known as Ragga Dee with a margin of 127,271 votes. Kazibwe polled 49,366 votes. Democratic Partys Issa Kikungwe polled 7,759 votes. A total of 2,591 votes were invalid while the spoilt votes were 461. Speaking to the media after being declared winner, Lukwago promised to carry out an audit into the finances spent by the authority for the past five years. Lukwago has also asked President Yoweri Museveni to respect the will of the people and cooperate with the new political leadership of KCCA. Meanwhile, the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has won majority numbers of councilors at Kampala Capital City Authority. The FDC that had only one councilor in the outgoing council increased its numbers to 16 out of a total of 23. Some of the positions won include Makerere University Woman Councilor taken by Doreen Nyanjura, Nakawa Direct and Female Councilors, Lubaga South, Kawempe North and South and Makindye West constituencies. The Democratic Party took only three council positions while the NRM took three seats in Kyambogo and Makerere University directly elected councilors as well as Kampala Central. The elections also saw many of the incumbent councilors trounced and some of these include, Bernard Luyiga, Hope Katushabe, Zahara Luyulika and Lukwaya Kawulukusi among others. 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You have come to the right place. Khmerization is a home to the Cambodian daily news, which is updated twice daily. Please take a tour and enjoy yourself. Thank you. To contact Khmerization please send an email to: South Korea held defense policy talks with New Zealand Thursday to discuss security issues, including North Korea's recent nuclear and long-range missile tests, the South Korean government said. Director-General for International Policy Yoon Soon-ku represented South Korea during the talks held at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul, with the New Zealand side headed by Charlotte Beaglehole, director of international relations. The discussion will encompass defense issues such as the security landscape of the Korean Peninsula in the wake of North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch earlier in the month, the ministry said ahead of the talks. The two sides will also discuss ways to enhance defense cooperation in the fields of commissioned officers' education, joint military exercise and peacekeeping operations, the ministry said. The director-level talks were first launched in 1999 with an eye to boosting bilateral security cooperation. Having fought for the South Korean side in the 1950-53 Korean War, New Zealand is one of South Korea's like-minded countries. It has joined Seoul in denouncing North Korea's recent provocative tests. (Yonhap) Trade between North Korea and its economic lifeline, China, fell 1.2 percent on-year in January, data showed Thursday, indicating that their trade was largely unaffected by the North's latest nuclear test. Bilateral trade volume declined to 388 million dollars last month, compared with 398 million dollars for the same period last year, the Beijing unit of South's Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency said, citing Chinese customs data. China's imports of North Korean goods slipped 3.96 percent in January to $177 million, the data showed. North Korea's exports of mineral resources, including coal, to China fell 3.94 percent last month to 76.9 million dollars, but the volume of mineral exports jumped 35 percent to 1.66 million tons for the month. The figures showed that North Korea also felt the pinch of lower commodity prices. North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and claimed that the test was based on a hydrogen device. More than six weeks after the North's nuclear test, the U.S. and China agreed this week on a U.N. resolution against Pyongyang. (Yonhap) WATERLOO Describing himself as an outsider with 42 years of experience, Republican Kip Tom Wednesday told a DeKalb County gathering why he is running for the 3rd District seat in Congress. I can no longer sit idly by and watch the promise of America, the futures of our children, grandchildren and future generations be diminished by a political system thats grown too big and too broken, Tom said of his decision to seek the Republican nomination for the seat that is being left vacant by Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Howe. Stutzman is running for the U.S. Senate. Wednesdays gathering took place at Walker Farms in rural Waterloo. It was hosted by Jacob Walker, Rory Walker and Larry Kummer and paid for by Friends of Kip Tom. A lifelong resident of Kosciusko County, Tom grew up on his familys farm in Leesburg, in the community his ancestors homesteaded in 1837. He is a managing member of Tom Farms and president of CereServ Inc. According to his website, Tom Farms has become a leader in agriculture and seed corn production, operating across seven counties in Indiana. Tom has five children and 10 grandchildren. Im a conservative based upon my family, my family values, my experiences over time, being on that family farm, and my faith, Tom said. Tom said values instilled in him as a child affected who he has become today. Materialistically, we didnt have a lot, but I can tell you my parents shared with us and gave us the values of what were really important in life an understanding of knowing we needed to work hard, have good discipline, stay on the job until the jobs done, being trustworthy, those were the things that really were most important to us. It wasnt the materialistic things. It was those values that were really important to us as children growing up and that shaped us into who we are today, Tom said. We learned to get by with less, and that was important to me. Recalling his decision to enter the race for Congress, Tom said he was approached by a number of political stakeholders last April who encouraged him to run for the seat. In September, former Gov. Mitch Daniels also encouraged him, but Tom still didnt go over the edge, he added. What cemented his decision to run for office was a conversation he had with his father. One Saturday morning my dad walked in the office this is after wed had numerous family meetings and dad shut the door, sat down, he looked at me, he said Kip, Ive told you this before. Sometimes you have to travel the most difficult path to make the most difference. Mom and I want you to run for Congress, Tom recalled. He gets up and walks out. So a little bit later that day, I threw my hat in the ring and decided to run for Congress. If he is elected, it will be the first political office Tom will have held, he told the gathering. Im an outsider. Im an outsider with 42 years of experience. I understand what its like to start a business, grow a business, make a payroll, deal with the regulations that come from Washington, and give back to the community, Tom said. If we are going to change Washington, we have to change who we send there, Tom added. Tom said he will work to achieve a strong and vibrant economy and contended that government has gotten too big and too broken. The regulatory environment also has become burdensome, Tom added. Tom said his focus would be not just on agriculture, but on all issues affecting northeast Indiana. Concluding his explanation of why he is running for Congress, Tom shared a quote. Im only one, but I am one. I cant do everything, but I can do something something I ought to do, and thats why Im running for U.S. Congress, Tom said. W dniu 25-tego stycznia 2016 roku wspolnie z moja zona udzielilismy wywiadu dla niemieckiego magazynu Cover Up! Newsmagazine. Wywiad przeprowadzi Dan Davis autor autobiografii pt. Abgrund, do ktorej skomponowalismy muzyke . Jest to tym samym nasz trzeci album, ktory wyprodukowalismy pod szyldem EKS-port. Cay wywiad w jezyku niemieckim mozna przeczytac tutaj . Ja publikuje dla was obszerna czesc wywiadu w jezyku angielskim. Zachecam do przeczytania. On the 25th of January 2016, Dan Davis conducted an interview with the band EKS-port for the Cover Up! News Magazine. The full interview is published in German under the link here. Here we are publishing a large part of the interview in English. Dan Davis: Hello! Can you say some words about EKS-port and the history of the Project? Kromproom: Hello! MC Else: Hello! Yes, we can. We met as two solo musicians in Cracow in Poland in 2008. After our meeting, we got the idea to do a music project and we called our duo EKS-port. From that moment we also started a relationship and now Piotr is my husband. I come from the Czech Republic and Kromproom comes from Poland. Our band name can be read as Else Kromproom Sound-port. It arose from the word Export and means an exchange of musical ideas between us like a kind of international cooperation. Kromproom: Yes, that is a short origin of the band's name. Our debut album eks-peryment was released by Carlos Perons label in 2011. From the album the track, Two Faces was chosen for the soundtrack Revolution, Baby! - Darkness, which was a collaboration between me and Jens Esch Centurio. Since 2012, our EKS-port productions such as the album 7788 km/h (2013), the single 1-2-3-4-5-R (2012) and ABS Remixes (2013) have been released digitally by our label Kromp Room Records. The track ABS was officially remixed among others by a well-known German band called The Psychic Force. Others remixers of the track ABS are DJ Dubtron from India, Vulturius and Jamick from Poland. Dan Davis: When did you start to make music? MC Else: In 2004 as a sixteen-year-old girl I was fascinated by the world of Polish hip-hop and due to this fascination I began rapping lyrics written by myself. Together with my brother (DJ YoGi) and our friend we founded a group called Touareg Crew. Our group played live a few concerts in the Czech Republic, including in Prague. From 2006 to the beginning of 2008 I performed solo and published my first demo album called 2004-2008, which I recorded with my brother and various other artists. I grew up among sounds because my dad owned a music store for 15 years. I have been a member of the music project EKS-port along with Kromproom since 2008. I have collaborated with Carlos Peron (ex Yello), Jens Esch Centurio and other artists from all over the world. In 2009, along with Kromproom, we founded the Kromp Room label. Kromproom: At the beginning of The 90s I composed music modules on Commodore Amiga computers under many pseudonyms (yazz, jazz, krompiu). In the second half of the 90s, I was a member of the group Virtual Madness along with Rafa Gebowski and Marcin Kmiecik. Together we created Brain Killer, one of the first FPS (First Person Shooter) games for the Amiga. I have been producing music as Kromproom since 2001. I have been a member of the music projects EKS-port with MC Else since 2008 and CbK (Centurio beatz Kromproom) along with Jens Esch Centurio since 2011. I collaborated with Carlos Peron in 2010-2011. In 2009, along with MC Else, we founded the Kromp Room label, which is still going today. In 2012, Kromp Room was registered under the name KROMP ROOM RECORDS (aka KrompRoomRecords) by GVL in Germany. Dan Davis: How would you describe the music of EKS-port? MC Else: Our music is a mixture of various styles of electronic music, especially: breakbeat, new beat, electro, hip-hop, techno, trance, tribal, ebm, etc. Also, we like mixing live sounds with electronic samples. Kromproom: We are fans of music and do not limit ourselves to one specific style or trend. I liked it when we start recording Elis voice because, in my opinion, it adds a special meaning to EKS-port productions. MC Else has an unprecedented tone of voice, so I had to learn to work with her rap and vocal in our studio. Dan Davis: We are talking today because you have a new album called Abgrund, a soundtrack to my book of the same name. How long did spend work on it? Kromproom: If I remember correctly it was in January 2014 that I received the information from you, that you wanted someone to compose music for your art-book Abgrund. Then we agreed that the music would be produced by EKS-port. MC Else: At the end of 2014 the work on the soundtrack gathered pace when we got the book from you, which made a big impression on us. It was a great thing to stimulate inspiration. We can say that we worked on the soundtrack for about 12 months. If I remember correctly it was in January 2014 that I received the information from you, that you wanted someone to compose music for your art-book Abgrund. Then we agreed that the music would be produced by EKS-port.At the end of 2014 the work on the soundtrack gathered pace when we got the book from you, which made a big impression on us. It was a great thing to stimulate inspiration. We can say that we worked on the soundtrack for about 12 months. Dan Davis: I think we should talk about each track on it. You did 10 tracks because there are 10 chapters in the book and each track have the name of artwork from me. So can you say a few words about the first track No Evil, your inspiration, musical setting, ideas, work and so on? MC Else: The picture called No Evil shows the horns done by hand. In various cultures of the world, it means something bad but also something good so we got the idea of creating the first track with heavy beats and bass. My lyrics, which I rap in Czech talk about the confrontation between different nationalities in the same place. F oreigners come to us and say, that they are doing no evil but the reality is quite different. The lyrics bring up the subject of the hatred of some people towards our European culture. Dan Davis: Now about the musical setting, inspiration, ideas, and work for the other tracks: We will go to track 2: Aura. Can you say a few words about it? Kromproom: The track is an experiment. Aura shows the spatial atmosphere of a room where you can see unique photos and images. The dark purple room with a sofa next to the wall looks like a scene from a film by David Lynch. The track is an experiment. Aura shows the spatial atmosphere of a room where you can see unique photos and images. The dark purple room with a sofa next to the wall looks like a scene from a film by David Lynch. Dan Davis: Track 3 Dog: MC Else: The picture inspired me to write lyrics about the friendship between a girl and the animal creature, which you can see in the picture. It is a combination of a dog and a dragon. Naturally, I needed to sing the refrain to emphasize the love and friendship between the two entities. The picture inspired me to write lyrics about the friendship between a girl and the animal creature, which you can see in the picture. It is a combination of a dog and a dragon. Naturally, I needed to sing the refrain to emphasize the love and friendship between the two entities. Dan Davis: Track 4 Soldier: Kromproom: We composed music to the picture because I was a professional soldier for several years. The composition is melancholic which expresses the emotions of a soldier who must leave his family to fight for freedom. We composed music to the picture because I was a professional soldier for several years. The composition is melancholic which expresses the emotions of a soldier who must leave his family to fight for freedom. Dan Davis: Isn't there is an option of a free download of this track as a statement against war and terror? MC Else: The song was composed especially for our soldiers who are fighting for our security and hindering breakout of a major war. We agree with the use of this composition in our fight for freedom and against terror. The track is available to freely download from our SoundCloud profile at The song was composed especially for our soldiers who are fighting for our security and hindering breakout of a major war. We agree with the use of this composition in our fight for freedom and against terror. The track is available to freely download from our SoundCloud profile at https://soundcloud.com/eksport/soldier Dan Davis: Track 5 Traumzone: Kromproom: The depictions of deformed buildings in Traumzone inspired us to create a trance composition, which starts with the sounds of city traffic. MC Else wrote the minimalist lyrics in English. We wanted to make a mix with trance rhythms, bass and Elses voice, that transports the listener to an industrial-dreamland. The depictions of deformed buildings in Traumzone inspired us to create a trance composition, which starts with the sounds of city traffic. MC Else wrote the minimalist lyrics in English. We wanted to make a mix with trance rhythms, bass and Elses voice, that transports the listener to an industrial-dreamland. Dan Davis: Track 6 Black Mirror: Kromproom: The mirror is a very interesting and mystical invention and stimulates the human imagination. When I was a child I wondered what was on the other side of a mirror. This short musical composition is a bridge between the world and its mirror image. The mirror is a very interesting and mystical invention and stimulates the human imagination. When I was a child I wondered what was on the other side of a mirror. This short musical composition is a bridge between the world and its mirror image. Dan Davis: Track 7 Face: MC Else: Based on this black and white image I wrote the lyrics in Czech, which tell us that our life is not just black or white. Every person can achieve their goal if they are strong and patient. Based on this black and white image I wrote the lyrics in Czech, which tell us that our life is not just black or white. Every person can achieve their goal if they are strong and patient. Dan Davis: Track 8 Moonchild: MC Else: Your picture inspired me to write the lyrics, just as for all the other tracks. It is simply tale of a wonderful person who comes from space. This cosmic person has supernatural powers. For a more cosmic sound, I decided to sing in the final part of the song. Dan Davis: Track 9 Weapon: MC Else: The Czech lyrics, that I wrote for this track describe the picture perfectly . Let me quote a brief excerpt: ...I'm a dangerous woman, I'm holding a gun, you can not escape from me, Im like a dragon, Im an aggressive woman, drop the weapon! You'll be severely punished for your behaviour.. . It's a bit feminist :) Kromproom: I really like these lyrics: ...my feminine shape and plunging neckline destroy you more than my gun... :) Dan Davis: Track 10 Salome: Kromproom: In this picture, you can see a woman in a sensual pose. For this reason, I recorded my voice as the sound of a man, who expresses a desire for Salome. Dan Davis: Miss MC Else on track such as Dog and Moonchild, you`ve changed from rapping to tuneful singing in some parts. Is this the first time and a new facet of you on this album, a coming out;-)? MC Else: When I was a child I started singing and sang in a small children's choir and composed my first songs. When I was a teenager I started rapping my lyrics but I have used singing to add spice. I've started working on my solo album with Kromproom, in which I am also going to do some singing. Dan Davis: What is your favourite track on ABGRUND: MC Else and Kromproom: We like Dog because it seems to us the most interesting and experimental. We also like Traumzone and Moonchild. On the whole, we are pleased with the entire album. We would like to thank all those people who contributed to this album, especially you Daniel for following us to compose the soundtrack to your art-book Abgrund. Thanks also to Marek Holewinski who created the audio teaser for the album. Dan Davis: Thank you EKS-port! Proofreading by Malcolm Collen. The full version of the interview in German is under the link here. This website is intended for U.S. visitors only. Cashton FFA is has over 80 members representing it at Cashton Middle and High School. Members are active in many SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) areas including dairy, poultry, wildlife, diversified livestock, and agri-science. Each school year the FFA chapter begins by welcoming new FFA members with a chicken cookout at the Cashton Park. The FFA then continues its mission of giving back by distributing milk donated by sponsors during the Fall Fest parade in Cashton. At the end of Fall Fest the chapter is active in raising funds through a farm toy show. Another fundraiser for the chapter is an annual fruit and nut sale. The Cashton chapter uses these funds for various leadership conferences and contests held by the FFA. This year the chapter has ten speaking contest participants in the areas of parliamentary procedure, FFA Creed Speaking, and Job Interview. In the spring students will be traveling to UW-Platteville to compete in Career Development Event contests in the areas of wildlife management, dairy cattle, milk quality and products, veterinary science, and poultry evaluation. Cashton is also well known for competing in the soils CDE during the summer months. Cashton hosts its own soils contest in June to prepare of the state soils contest. This last summer the Cashton Senior team won the honor of representing our state at the national contest in Oklahoma in May. The Cashton FFA Chapter is active in many areas and has fun at its many card playing nights. The Chapter holds an end of the year banquet to recognize the outstanding members and to show its appreciation for all the communitys support. This years chapter is led by officers, Angela Klinkner, Nicholas Gronemus, Rebecca Gronemus, Sierra Hanley, Taylor Hanley, and Alex Hurtz. For Jarlan Jay Hesselberg, an overseas trip doesnt mean a relaxing cruise. He is volunteering in Kenya through the International Volunteer HQ program. Im spending 12 weeks on the Kenya teaching program working alongside other volunteers from all over the world, explained Hesselberg, a Bangor native who now lives in Onalaska. The decision to volunteer abroad is not an easy one to make, and I have been working hard to ensure I can raise sufficient funds for program fees, airfares, travel insurance and vaccinations. Established in 2007, IVHQ is based in New Zealand and has grown to become the worlds leading volunteer travel company, placing thousands of international volunteers abroad every year. The volunteer organization places volunteers in more than 20 countries. Volunteers can become involved in teaching, childcare, construction, conservation or healthcare opportunities. Hesselberg applied for a volunteer opportunity with IVHQ Jan. 6, choosing to work in Kenya from a list of 30 destinations. Volunteer destinations are in Africa, Asia, Europe, Central America, South America and the Pacific. The volunteer placement organization has 150 projects it supports. Jarlan is making a big commitment by travelling abroad to volunteer, and his work is much appreciated, said Will McBride, program manager for IVHQ. Each application is assessed on its own merits. In the application, we ask volunteers, among other things, to provide us with information on their qualifications, experience they have that they feel may be relevant to the program they have chosen, their travel experience and what has motivated them to volunteer. Once volunteers have registered and confirmed their place on their chosen program, they are provided with a wealth of information from both IVHQ and local teams. Hesselberg is staying with a family in the town of Thika, about 45 minutes from Nairobi, Kenyas capital and largest city. He has about a 30-minute walk to St. Patrick Primary School, where he is working with students with autism. The volunteer organization saw all my years work with boys in Boy Scouts and that qualified me to work with all autism children, Hesselberg said of his assignment. Its an experience, not thinking Im qualified though. Hesselberg admires the schools staff for its patience and hard work with the students despite the limited resources provided to the school. The staff makes the best out of what they have for supplies, Hesselberg said. Its obvious money is scarce, but the children appear very happy and help one another out. The music and dance session seems to be a big hit with all the students, and the adults jump right in, encouraging all to participate in a real fun class. One of the biggest initial impressions Hesselberg has of the country and society after his first two weeks is how much activity is going on. The streets are very busy, people going everywhere, said Hesselberg. All types of transportation should you want to get to a destination: taxi, bicycle, motorcycle, bus, scooter, walk or van. There also seems to be a lot of building taking place of larger structures. In the rural areas, electricity is sporadic, but there is evidence new lines are going up. Water is collected from rooftop tanks filled with rainwater for daily use. Hesselberg says water trucks pump water into large holding tanks placed on roofs in the city area and gravity then feeds the water to rooms below. The only drinking water is bottled, and people drink coffee or tea. Hesselberg found the villages in Kenya are very dirty, as there doesnt appear to be any garbage collection program. There doesnt seem to be any effort to keep everything clean and tidy, Hesselberg said. Its disappointing. There isnt much variety in the meals and the food is a basic staple of beans and corn over rice and cooked cabbage. During time off, Hesselberg recently took in a safari, getting the chance to see water buffalo, wildebeasts, a cheetah, zebras, giraffes, hyenas and gazelles. Hesselberg is posting photos and updates of his trip on his Facebook page, and they can be viewed by anyone interested, not just friends. When not out on an adventure, Hesselberg serves on the board of directors for Park Bank in Holmen, and hes a longtime Boy Scout leader. Two seats are up for election, but the April 5 ballot will list only one Onalaska Board of Education candidate after a ruling released Feb. 18 by Wisconsins Government Accountability Board. The GAB upheld a challenge by Jake Speed to candidacy papers filed by incumbents Ann Garrity and Tim Smaby, overruling a decision by school board clerk Brian Haefs to allow them on the ballot. I was expecting it. I dont want to sound presumptuous but there was just too much evidence in this case, Speed said after the ruling was announced. Im just happy that the GAB was there to make sure that the proper decision was rendered. Smaby and Garrity both said they were disappointed by the ruling. But, Smaby said, we followed the process, and I respect the decision. It was an unfortunate mistake, theres no doubt about it, Smaby said. But now its time to move forward. Both Garrity and Smaby said they plan to launch write-in campaigns. We both have something to contribute to the school district, Smaby said. Speed filed a challenge Jan. 8 to nominating petitions for Garrity and Smaby based on missing information from the headers of some pages. The pages didnt include either the date of the election or the candidates home address, or both. When those pages were thrown out, the two incumbents fell short of the 100 signatures required to get on the ballot. After the invalid pages were thrown out, Garrity had 90 signatures and Smaby 93. The deficiencies of Garrity and Smabys papers were similar to those of Onalaska Mayor Joe Chilsens petition. After Jack Pogreba filed a protest over Chilsens petition, Onalaska City Clerk Cari Burmaster ruled that Chilsens name could not be included on the spring ballot, and the GAB supported Burmasters verdict when Chilsen appealed her ruling. Chilsen has since announced that he would run as a write-in candidate. One difference between Chilsens case and the school board candidates case involved the filing of affidavits of correction. Chilsen filed no affidavits, but Garrity and Smaby filed them before the hearing on Speeds challenge on Jan. 12. Thursdays GAB ruling indicated that those affidavits should have been filed before Jan. 8 and would have been invalid even if filed in time because the affidavits arent a legal remedy for missing header information. Speed, who owns a small business in Onalaska, didnt allege that Smaby and Garrity were trying to mislead anybody by not having complete information on their petition pages, but he argued their nomination papers betrayed a lack of attention to detail. They are responsible for $32-$34 million of taxpayer money every year. They need to show they can do everything required of the job, said Speed. This is part of the election process. Anybody that doesnt care enough to do that, I dont know what to say about that. Garrity, a former social worker who now works at West Salem Elementary as a special education paraprofessional, president of the Onalaska board. Smaby, completing his first term on the board, is a former tenured finance professor at Penn State University-Erie who now works at Kaplan. Speed has never held public office locally, but hes a veteran campaigner, running unsuccessfully for Onalaska Town Board, La Crosse County Board and the state Assembly. He was involved in the local tea party movement early on but had a falling out with the group. Speed said he hopes to take part in some candidate forums so voters can get to know him. Im not afraid to tell people what Im about and what I believe, he said. Nathaniel Strauss the valedictorian of Holmen High Schools 2012 graduating class has impeccable timing. Strauss knew that he wanted to study physics in a university setting thats why he enrolled at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Still, he could never have predicted that four years later hed be listed as co-author on the paper announcing one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. I feel really lucky, Strauss said. Fortunately for Strauss, his physics professor at Carleton, Nelson Christensen, was not only deeply involved in the field of gravitational wave research but enlisted Strauss to help him in that endeavor. At a larger institution, such important work would likely be assigned to a graduate student, but Strauss was only a sophomore when he began working with Christensen. It was just over 100 years ago that Einsteins general theory of relativity predicted the existence of gravity waves. Sometimes called ripples in the fabric of space/time, such waves had never been detected until last fall. Christensen, along with Strauss and a couple other Carleton undergrads, were part of a group of more than a thousand scientists from more than 90 universities around the United States and 14 other countries who had been working toward confirmation of their existence. The project was called the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. LIGO is short for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, and the major breakthrough announced on Feb. 11 this year came early in the morning (4:51 a.m. Central Daylight Time) on Sept. 14. That was the moment that detectors in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, picked up ripples from what subsequently was confirmed to be the collision of two massive black holes some 1.3 billion light years away. Strauss explained that the discovery was somewhat serendipitous. The detectors were working, he said, but they werent really in science mode. They just happened to be on at that time to test them. According to Strauss, the scientists working at the time noticed the signals immediately but doubted their significance. They looked like how gravitational waves should look, but no one believed it at first, Strauss said. Within a few days, however, all other explanations had been ruled out. We knew pretty soon, but then there was months of double-, triple- and quadruple-checking to make sure, Strauss said. Although exhilarated by the discovery, Strauss remains modest about his role. I was a pretty small cog in a big machine, he said. Up until Septembers breakthrough, gravitational waves, which are extremely weak, had never been detected. Strauss job involved understanding the signal output from the detectors and filtering out unwanted noise so that the waves if they even existed stood out. Most of what I do is write (computer) programs, Strauss said. After I hunt down noise in the LIGO data, I post my result to the online logbook for the whole collaboration to see. He and one or two other Carleton students also meet semiweekly with 10 other members of the collaboration via the Internet. Strauss agrees with the general consensus that the discovery of gravity waves has implications far beyond confirmation of Einsteins relativity theory. Thats because so much of the universe an estimated 95 percent is so-called dark matter or dark energy that is invisible to normal telescopes. This is a really a huge deal for human discovery, Strauss said. A lot of the stuff we dont know about has to do with dark energy and dark matter. These new detectors give us a whole new way of looking up at the sky. Its comparable to when Galileo first started looking through a telescope. Strauss will graduate from Carleton this year and hes looking forward to the next stage of his scientific career. Certainly after this discovery, I want to stay within the study of gravitational physics, but probably not with LIGO, he said. I think Id like to get more into the theoretical side. So far, Strauss has applied to nine universities all over the country to begin his graduate school studies. Its probably a safe bet that hell be seen as an attractive candidate by all of them. I sort of hit the jackpot as far as going for my PhD, Strauss said. A developer planning to renovate the former Roosevelt Elementary School into affordable housing has asked the city of La Crosse for an additional $300,000 loan to purchase the building from the La Crosse School District. Gorman & Co. Inc., which previously received $400,000 in community development block grant loans from the city, submitted an application that went before the economic development commission Thursday to borrow money from the tax increment district 13 fund. The loan is the last piece of the puzzle, according to Gormans Wisconsin market president Ted Matkom. If approved, it would cover the last gap in funding for the $7.5 million project, which will convert the 92-year-old building into 14 one-bedroom and 18 two-bedroom apartments, for a total of 32 units. The building is planned as affordable housing, which means tenants could earn no more than 60 percent of La Crosse Countys median income: $25,000 if single or up to $45,000 for a family of four. The Oregon, Wis.-based developer has been working on the project since the school closed in June 2014, despite opposition from North Side residents. Gorman signed a purchase agreement with the school district last month, committing to purchasing the building for $300,000 with a closing date before June 3. That was the last straw. We just had to solve that puzzle of financing, Matkom said. The company faced challenges funding the project after the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, or WHEDA, denied its request for 9 percent of the project costs in tax credits, instead granting it 4 percent. City staff members will review the application in March and bring it back before the economic development commission in April. A decision is expected in May. Were still in the process of doing an in-depth analysis of their request, city community development administrator Caroline Neilsen said. While city officials have yet to decide whether to invest further, completion of the project it would be good for the city. It would take a nontaxable school building and put it on the tax roll, Neilsen said. From the citys perspective, we want to see the project move forward, Nielsen said. The city will work with Ehlers and Associates to provide a financial analysis before making a recommendation. Approving the loan would require amending the existing TID because the building, located at 1307 Hayes St., lies outside of the district. Its eligible because its within a mile or a half mile of the area, but it wasnt originally included in the area, Nielsen said. The TID was created in 2006 to accommodate Kwik Trip expansion in the North Side industrial park. MADISON Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Wednesday that he thinks its eminently reasonable to have the next president and Senate decide who will serve on the Supreme Court, which puts him at odds with his Democratic opponent, Russ Feingold. Johnson referred to the importance of naming a replacement to Justice Antonin Scalia in comments to Wisconsin business leaders at a chamber of commerce meeting, saying the upcoming election is for all the marbles. Scalia died earlier this month, leaving the court with a 4-4 ideological divide. Johnson sides with all of his Republican Senate colleagues in wanting the appointment of Scalias replacement to fall to the next president, rather than President Barack Obama, who is in his last year in office. Democrats, including Feingold, say Obama has a constitutional responsibility to nominate a replacement and the Republican-led Senate should take it up this year. Johnson opposes even holding a hearing on an Obama nominee, saying the decision should not be made eight months before an election. Why not let the American people decide the direction of the Supreme Court? Johnson told reporters. We may win that one, we may lose that one, but let the American people decide. I think its an eminently reasonable position to take. Johnson said it was preferable to have the next president and Senate deal with the nomination, rather than a lame duck president and quite honestly, potentially a lame duck Republican Senate. Democrats note that in 1988, a Democratic-led Senate confirmed Anthony Kennedy to the court, though hed been nominated by President Ronald Reagan the preceding year. Republicans point out its been nearly eight decades since a nomination occurred and was filled in the same election year. Johnson said he feared that President Obama would nominate a super legislator who would tip the balance of the court and put at risk our Second Amendment gun rights, our First Amendment freedom of speech rights. Also, Johnson said he would only support a nominee who is a judge who shows fidelity to the Constitution and the text of the law. Feingold spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement that voters expect Johnson to uphold his constitutional responsibility and act on a nomination this year. Sen. Johnson needs to do his job, not promise to obstruct a nominee that hasnt even been named yet, Tyler said. What to do about Scalias seat has become a dominant issue in hot Senate races across the country as Democrats need to gain four seats to take majority control away from Republicans. Wisconsin is one of five states along with New Hampshire, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania where the GOP faces a tough challenge. Obama won all of those states twice. Johnson didnt talk about his race with Feingold at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerces annual business day meeting that drew about 900 people. But he did recall his rise out of the tea party movement six years ago to launch his first run for office against Feingold, who had been in office for 18 years. Johnson said he ran then because he was panicked about the countrys future, and hes more panicked now. He dodged a question about whether it would help or hurt his re-election effort if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee. Im not a political pundit, he said. Im a manufacturer from Oshkosh. Im a citizen legislator. Johnson, who has not endorsed anyone in the presidential race, said he would support whoever is the nominee. The third time may be the charm for a name for Weber Holdings $68 million housing, retail and office complex in downtown La Crosse. The 2.3-acre plot between Third and Fourth and State and Vine streets has evolved from the inglorious Lot C moniker under city ownership, to the more dignified Third Fourth Place as Weber construction began, to its brand-new, more cultured label of Belle Square. Its the new and final name, Weber Holdings Vice President Nick Weber said in an interview Wednesday. Expressing a tinge of regret about the Third Fourth Place tag, Weber said Belle Square is the result of consultation with a branding company and infusing a historical perspective. It pays homage to the courthouse bell on the old courthouse, Weber said of the county courthouse that occupied the block from 1904 until it was razed in 1965 to be replaced with a Montgomery Ward store. That store closed in 1990, and the building sat vacant until it was torn down and became Lot C, a parking lot for county workers. The county gifted the bell to us, and it will be ensconced near the residences in the development, Weber said. Adding the e to bell for the name is intended to honor the French heritage of some of the citys settlers, he said. The Belle will be a beautiful touch to the downtown, Weber said, quoting a project designer as saying, The La Crosse downtown is like a beautiful smile, and Lot C is a missing tooth. Filling that cavity will be a 255,000-square-foot complex that will include a 111,500-square-foot office building, 23,000 square feet of retail space, a cafe, an Associated Bank branch with drive-thru, as well as nearly 100 market-rate housing units. Asked about specific tenants that might locate in retail space, Weber said the development has not reached the point of divulging potential occupants. The whole block is centered around healthy living, he said, with that focus expected to be reflected in the tenants, the design with expansive use of natural light, a smoking ban and food and beverage outlets tailored to healthy living. There will be vegetable and plant beds on the roof that tenants can use and a wellness center including fitness, Weber said. Overall, the project is about a half-month ahead of schedule, with Associated Bank opening possibly in June, apartments ready in September and the office tower, ready for occupancy in June 2017, he said. Commercial retail space may be ready by early summer, although that also would take time for those occupants to prepare their spots, Weber said. Ted Cruz fired his communications director, Rick Tyler, for smearing rival Marco Rubio with the false allegation that Rubio had disparaged the Bible. And Tyler's transgression is indeed inexcusable: He forgot that his boss prefers to do the smearing himself. There is something amusing in watching Rubio and Donald Trump come to the shocking discovery that Cruz is a scoundrel. "Biggest liar in politics!" Trump tweeted Monday. Accusing Cruz of "fraud" and "dirty tricks," Trump offered a diagnosis: "This guy is sick." Rubio, too, detected "a very disturbing pattern of deceptive campaigns and flat-out just lying to voters." Where have these guys been? Just a few months ago, Trump was calling Cruz "a friend of mine and a good guy." But Cruz has been smearing and fabricating since he arrived in Washington three years ago. As early as April 2013, I observed a perplexing tendency at the Capitol: "Republicans are willing to look the other way when Cruz assaults the facts." One of his first acts as a senator was to spread the slander that Chuck Hagel, the incoming defense secretary, may have been on the payroll of the North Koreans. Now that Cruz is concentrating more of his neo-McCarthyism on Republicans, his fellow conservatives have suddenly awakened to the notion that "Trusted" Ted, as his campaign logo would have it, is actually Tricky Ted. And they are at long last calling him what he is. "They just scream, 'liar, liar, liar,'" Cruz complained Monday night to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, saying this is because Trump and Rubio "will not defend their record." Or maybe it's because Cruz is lying. There are signs that the charge is starting to stick. A few weeks ago, when Ben Carson demanded that Cruz fire somebody for spreading the false rumor that he was quitting the race, Cruz declared that he doesn't "make a habit" of doing such things. But this time he did. Don't cry for Cruz, though. Even before the latest flap, the primary map made it almost impossible for him to win the nomination. But he still has the ability to cause havoc in the two-man race between Trump and Rubio. He is, in other words, exactly where he likes to be. My Washington Post colleagues David A. Fahrenthold and Katie Zezima, writing last week about the 2013 government shutdown that Cruz orchestrated, reported that many Republicans suspect Cruz "always knew his plan would fail but went ahead with it anyway -- expecting that he would personally benefit from the exposure, even if his party lost a damaging fight." His current bid for the nomination is much the same: doomed but damaging. Republicans could have seen Tricky Ted coming, if they had observed the early signs. In early 2013, he helped torpedo a compromise on background checks for gun owners negotiated by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., not on the merits but with the false allegation that it would lead to a national gun registry. He would go on to allege, among many other things, that the IRS handed over "confidential taxpayer records" to an Obama political operative, and that Obama supported the release of the Lockerbie bomber. During his campaign for the Republican nomination, his stump speech has become a long string of untruths. In a single speech in New Hampshire this month, he misrepresented numerous things said by Trump, Rubio and Obama, but also half a dozen other public figures. When I found nothing to substantiate Cruz's claims, I asked Tyler, the now-fired staffer, for supporting material. "Is it incumbent upon our campaign to do your basic research?" he replied. Then, in South Carolina, Cruz's campaign was caught using a (badly) doctored image showing Rubio in a jubilant handshake with Obama and the words "The Rubio-Obama Trade Pact." Coming at a time when pro-Cruz groups were doing shady "robocalls" against Trump and Rubio, and following the Iowa campaign in which Cruz sent out bogus "voting violation" letters, Cruz was not in good shape to weather the Tyler episode. The staffer posted a link to a college newspaper's false account of Rubio saying the Bible doesn't have "many answers." Back in the 1950s, Joe McCarthy rose during the Truman years with his smears about communists in the government. But when he began to go after fellow Republicans in the Eisenhower administration in 1953, he quickly lost support and within two years was censured by the Senate. Now that Republicans are suffering from Tricky Ted's smears, perhaps they will come to a similar conclusion about the damage he does. Brandon Steen (Sunday Tribune) offers a view of prayer other than those offered by Christians in private. Ordinarily, Christians consult the words of Jesus in the New Testament (Matthew 6) about when and where to pray. But now, some moderns consult the Constitution of the United States instead. Brandon asserts that "a Christian, Muslim, Jew or someone of any other religion can conduct a public prayer." While Christians do not contest that right, that is not the issue. While all have the right to speak, are we protecting the right of people not to listen? Must a hospitalized Christian patient (who cannot leave the room) be forced to listen to a Muslim prayer? Is the patient asked if he is willing to do so? It is presumptive to assume that silence is consent, or that no harm will have been done. Most Christians I know respect Jesus enough to listen to and follow His advice about prayer. The secular mindset has determined that people may now create any church of their own liking without consulting Jesus. That may be their right ... but it would not be a "Christian" church? The 9/11 terrorist attacks, Boston Massacre, Paris attacks and the shooting of officer Jessie Hartnett were attacks committed by people who identify as Islamic. Do these actions that Islamic extremist groups commit make violence the true face of Islam? Islamic extremist groups follow the Quran and commit these attacks in the name of Allah. But we cannot say that violence is only the true face of Islam based off passages from the Quran or the actions those who follow this religion take. What about Christian extremist groups? A Norwegian fundamentalist who identifies as a modern-day crusader committed attacks against the government. Dylan Roof (the man responsible for the Charleston church massacre) committed his attack in the name of God. The KKK, Christians who terrorize individuals they are opposed to. Quran 17:16, And when we wish to destroy a town, we send our commandment to the people of it who lead easy lives, but they transgress therein; thus the word proves true against it, so we destroy it with utter destruction. Similarly the Bible Deuteronomy 20:10-12, When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. So, one cannot say that violence is the true face of Islam when it isn't the only religion that suggests violence. Tougher penalties for repeat drunken drivers, once a tough sell to Wisconsin lawmakers, have won widespread backing in the state Capitol in recent weeks. But with stronger penalties now a step from becoming law, legislators have not addressed how theyll pay for more prison time for repeat offenders a figure that could top $100 million annually. The Assembly passed a bill Tuesday to make all fourth-time drunken driving offenses felonies and boost maximum penalties for subsequent convictions. The bill passed the Senate last month and cleared the Legislature with just a single dissenting vote. A spokeswoman for Gov. Scott Walker, Laurel Patrick, said Wednesday that he plans to sign the bill. A fiscal estimate from the state Department of Corrections pegs the bills cost as indeterminate, noting the many variables tied to such a prediction. Some, such as judicial sentencing of convicted drunken drivers, are out of the hands of state agencies or lawmakers. But the estimate gives eye-popping figures for what the bill could cost the state. It says an influx of drunken-driving convicts into Wisconsins prison system could cost the department between $97.9 million and $129 million a year in additional operating costs. Those figures dont include the potential cost to local county jails that also could have to house more inmates. Supporters of the bill contest the reliability of those figures. They say harsher penalties could deter some from choosing to drink and drive, while noting the bill would allow judges to collect larger fines from convicted drunken drivers. The last time Wisconsin lawmakers tightened drunken driving penalties, in 2009, they increased fees to offset the changes. No such changes were included as part of this measure. Influx of inmates expected The Department of Corrections estimate says the bill could boost the states prison population by more than 1,000 inmates in the first year after its enactment. The inmate increase could be more than 3,600 over the long term. Additional costs also would come from building new facilities to house the extra inmates, according to the estimate. It says the department would need to build three new facilities to house all the new inmates in the first year alone. Twelve new facilities at an estimated cost of $157 million would be needed to accommodate all of the additional inmates after the law had been in place for several years, the estimate says. The bills Assembly sponsor, Rep. Jim Ott, R-Mequon, dismissed the estimate in a Tuesday news conference. He said it fails to account for his belief that tougher penalties would, over time, discourage people from drinking and driving. That fiscal estimate is an overestimate, Ott told reporters. My feeling is, theres going to be less convictions because there is going to be a deterrent effect. To say this is going to have a big fiscal impact I think drunk driving has a big fiscal impact on Wisconsin. Supporters of the bill also say its impact on state finances wont be immediate. The measure takes effect in 2017, meaning any impact on the current two-year budget, which runs through June 2017, would be minimal. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau has not assessed the bills impact on the state budget. Thats because it was never referred to the legislative Joint Finance Committee a requirement that, under state law, applies only to bills that appropriate money or deal with taxation. State easy on repeat offenders The last major change to drunken driving laws came in 2009. That change made drunken driving a felony on the fourth offense if its committed within five years of the third offense. Otherwise, its a felony on the fifth offense. Since then, bills to crack down further on repeat offenders have been proposed. In 2013, Ott and the bills Senate sponsor, Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, proposed making drunken driving a felony on the third offense. But that bill died after lawmakers balked at the cost. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, in a 2013 statement to the State Journal, questioned if spending hundreds of millions of dollars is the best way to prevent people from driving drunk. Wisconsin laws go easy on repeat drunken drivers, compared to how theyre treated in other states. Most states are quicker to treat repeat drunken driving offenses as felonies, according to the advocacy group Mothers Against Drunk Driving. As of June 2015, 34 states treated drunken driving offenses as a felony after four or less convictions, according to a MADD publication. Three other states, Alabama, Arkansas and Wyoming, had laws that mirror Wisconsin. A reorganization launched Tuesday by the depleted Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources divides protection for water quality between two divisions and leaves other environmental protection programs in a business support division. DNR officials didnt return phone calls or emails seeking clarification of the changes disclosed at a meeting with employees, but a four-page memorandum distributed at the session predicted unspecified cost savings and said a leadership team would make more changes over the next year. Managers will analyze agency work to help us allocate our limited staff and funding to accomplish the work that matters the most. George Meyer, a former DNR secretary, said a new organizational chart wont fix the agencys worsening weaknesses. Its cosmetic in terms of solving any problems, said Meyer, who now directs the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. The true problem is not enough staff to get the job done. Agency staffing has been reduced by 15 percent under both Democratic and Republican administrations since the 2000-2001 budget. Over the same period, the state has seen an explosion of factory farms and industrial sand mining that have drawn sustained criticism for their impact on air and water quality. The department allowed its general permit for regulating water pollution by sand mining operations to expire over a year ago, acknowledging that it was inadequate to protect streams from spills of sand, silt, clay and chemicals while continuing to allow new mines to open. Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a finding of failure over the departments slow pace in updating air pollution rules to reflect the latest science. Environmental groups have sued to force DNR officials to accept deadlines for other overdue air standards. In 2011, the EPA hit the DNR for 75 apparent omissions and deviations from federal laws governing regulation of waste water, and 35 remained unresolved as of this week. Glitter and rainbows The most recent state budget deleted more than 60 positions educators, foresters, water quality experts, communications specialists and most of the senior scientists in the DNR Bureau of Science Services, which had drawn fire from Republicans who dominate state government. Some conservative state legislators were upset because the science bureau researched ways to reduce the harm climate change can do to natural resources, while others blamed the bureau when constituents had unsatisfactory hunting trips. In a May 15 meeting with employees that presaged Tuesdays announcement, DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp said Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature were demanding a leaner DNR, and that staff reductions would mean some agency functions would be dropped. The Legislature and the governor expect us to focus on our core work that directly ties to our mission, Stepp told employees. Some of the things weve always done that we love to do that are the what I like to call the glitter and rainbows, the positive punches of DNR we have to start dialing back on, because weve still got the same amount of work, right? And we are going to have less people to do that work. Stepp and other administrators said information they provided to legislators helped avoid worse cuts that were being considered privately. Walker signed the two-year state budget on July 12. Water quality management Meyer said the reorganization makes sense inasmuch as it moves air, waste and most water pollution regulatory programs in a single environmental management division. Those offices deal with business operators and are subject to federal oversight. But the new management structure moves watershed management efforts to prevent runoff of manure and other pollutants into lakes and streams away from the offices that are charged with protecting drinking water and ground water and controlling waste water discharges from industry. Thats not going to make the environment any better, Meyer said. It makes it harder to manage water quality programs when you have the watershed management off by itself. It makes coordination more difficult. The memo says parks, fisheries and wildlife management were being put together in a single division, with functions related to the timber industry and forest protection in a separate division. Top agency officials are to meet with workers at DNR facilities across the state between Thursday and Aug. 14. State officials are looking into the death of an inmate at Waupun Correctional Institution, a Department of Corrections spokesman confirmed Wednesday. On Feb. 16, DOC medical staff treated an inmate experiencing "a medical issue." The inmate was transported to a local medical center where he was pronounced dead, DOC spokesman Jeff Grothman said in an email responding to a Feb. 18 request for information from the Wisconsin State Journal. The inmate's death is currently under review, he said. Grothman, by phone, declined to answer any questions seeking further detail regarding the circumstances surrounding the inmate's death. A Dodge County Sheriff's Department deputy referred questions to DOC. Supreme Court candidates Rebecca Bradley and JoAnne Kloppenburg each has the support of 30 percent of voters, while 31 percent remain undecided, according to the latest Marquette Law School Poll. The two candidates prevailed in a Feb. 16 primary and face off in the April 5 general election. Poll director Charles Franklin said the poll was conducted after the primary, between Feb. 18-21, by phone with 802 registered voters; the margin of error is 4.5 percentage points. The partisan makeup of the poll leans Democratic, Franklin said, with 40 percent of respondents considering themselves Republican and 49 percent considering themselves Democrats. Ten percent are independents. While officially nonpartisan, the Supreme Court race typically falls along party lines. Conservatives are backing Bradley, while liberals support Kloppenburg. Among voters who are certain they will vote in the April 5 election a smaller number than the 802 registered voters polled 37 percent said they would pick Bradley while 36 percent chose Kloppenburg. Twenty-three percent said they are undecided. The poll data show both candidates have an uphill battle in introducing themselves to voters, with more than 50 percent of those polled saying they were unable to say whether they have favorable or unfavorable views of either candidate. Supreme Court races are less visible and suffer from the fact that voters dont know much about the candidates, Franklin said. Bradleys campaign declined to comment about the campaigns plan to reach out to voters given the polls findings. Kloppenburg campaign spokeswoman Melissa Mulliken said Kloppenburg is the only candidate to have visited each of Wisconsins 72 counties. We are going to continue that extensive travel, speaking to groups large and small and talking to the press across the state, Mulliken said. Grassroots groups are hard at work across the state, reaching their neighbors, family and friends with information about the importance of this election through phone calls and lit drops. She said the campaign will also buy advertising and counteract any negative ads directed at Kloppenburg. The results of the Feb. 16 primary revealed a closer-than-expected race between Bradley, appointed to the high court by Gov. Scott Walker last fall, and Kloppenburg, who was defeated by Justice David Prosser in 2011. Voters return to the polls to choose between Bradley and Kloppenburg the same day as Wisconsins presidential primary, which could balloon turnout, and outside interest groups will likely spend hundreds of thousands on behalf of both campaigns. Republicans say the race comes down to name recognition, while Democrats say Bradley also is being hurt by her ties to Walker, who previously appointed her to the Milwaukee County bench and then to the Court of Appeals. Walkers approval rating among Wisconsin voters is at 39 percent, according to Thursdays poll results. However, Franklin said the poll data didnt support the argument that Kloppenburg has significantly more name recognition. The notion that Kloppenburg carries strong, extra name recognition since 2011 we simply dont see any evidence of that in our data, he said. Sixty percent of those polled said they didnt have enough information about Bradley to say whether they had a favorable or unfavorable view of her, while 57 percent said the same about Kloppenburg, Franklin said. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, is defending the Senate Republican stance that no hearings or votes will be held on President Barack Obamas nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the rejection of Obamas pick by the GOP Senate is a foregone conclusion. Johnsons remarks came at an event in Madison on Wednesday. They represent Johnsons most complete explanation to date of his opposition to letting Obama fill the vacancy left by the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The issue is coming to the fore in the first-term Republican senators campaign with Democrat Russ Feingold, who said the Senate should work with Obama to fill the Scalia vacancy. The U.S. Constitution says the president names justices to fill Supreme Court vacancies with the advice and consent of the Senate. This week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee vowed not to hold a vote or hearings on Obamas Supreme Court nominee. Obama has yet to nominate a justice but said he will do so soon. Democrats have sharply criticized Johnson and fellow Republicans for pledging inaction. Such a move would leave the court short a member for nearly a year or more, until after the next president takes office next January. It also could lead to deadlock by creating the potential for 4-4 Supreme Court votes. But Johnson citing Obamas past nominees to the high court, Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor said theres no reason to believe he and his Senate GOP colleagues could approve the next one. Hes got a track record. We know the type of justice he would appoint. We wouldnt confirm that individual, Johnson said. Not acting is also withholding our consent, and thats within our right. Johnson underscored the stakes of the 2016 election, which will determine both the next president and whether the Supreme Court has a liberal or conservative majority. The death of the conservative Scalia leaves the court evenly split between justices who typically vote with its liberal and conservative factions. Johnson cast the selection of the next Supreme Court justice as a choice between judges who interpret and uphold the law versus super-legislators who attempt to rewrite it. Its pretty obvious the type of judge or justice that President Obama would nominate would be a super-legislator, Johnson said. It would tip the balance of the court, and it would put at risk our Second Amendment gun rights, I think our First Amendment freedom of speech rights. What were saying is, let the American people decide. Feingolds campaign has criticized Johnson, accusing him of taking cues from McConnell and Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who has urged Senate Republicans to delay, delay, delay the Supreme Court appointment. A liberal group circulated a poll Wednesday suggesting Johnsons stance is unpopular in his home state. The poll, conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling and commissioned by the group Americans United for Change, found a broad majority of Wisconsinites want Scalias vacancy to be filled this year. An even larger majority, 76 percent, said senators should at least wait to see who Obama nominates before deciding whether to confirm him or her. Johnsons campaign has noted Feingold, during his most recent term as a U.S. senator in 2005 and 2006, left open the possibility of blocking former President George W. Bushs nomination of Justice Samuel Alito. Feingold said he wouldnt rule out a Senate filibuster of Alitos nomination, though Alito went on to be confirmed with bipartisan support. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, who is locked in a tough re-election contest, does not want President Barack Obama to nominate a replacement for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Whether Obama or the next president should nominate a replacement for Scalia, who was found dead Saturday, is suddenly an issue in Johnsons and other Senate races, as well as the campaign for president. Many Republicans are saying the decision should wait for the president elected in November, while Democrats say there is no reason for Obama not to fulfill his Constitutional duty to name a successor for the current Senate to confirm. I strongly agree that the American people should decide the future direction of the Supreme Court by their votes for president and the majority party in the U.S. Senate, Johnson said in a statement released Sunday. America needs Supreme Court justices who share Justice Scalias commitment to applying the Constitution as written and to the freedom it secures. Johnson is being challenged by Democrat Russ Feingold, who served 18 years in the Senate before losing to Johnson in 2010. It is one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country, as Democrats see it as a potential seat to pick up as they try to regain the majority. Feingold aligned himself with other Democrats, including presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who want Obama to move forward with a nominee to replace Scalia. The Supreme Court plays a unique role applying the Constitution to important questions of American life and business, and I expect the president to nominate a new justice, as the Constitution requires, Feingold said in a statement. The Senate must then do its job by working in a bipartisan way to vote on the nominee. Scalia was found dead Saturday morning at a resort ranch in West Texas. Obama said Saturday that he would nominate a successor in due time, angering Republicans who said the decision should not be his. The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president. Gov. Scott Walker has cemented key changes in time for the 2016 political campaign, signing into law bills giving campaign finance law its biggest makeover in decades and dismantling and replacing Wisconsins oversight board for elections and elected officials. Walkers signing of the two bills, announced in a press release, was conducted in private Wednesday. It was widely expected after the bills passed the Legislature last month on votes that largely mirrored party lines. The campaign finance measure dials back restrictions on money flowing into state political campaigns, some of which had been struck down by court rulings. The signing of the measure dismantling the Government Accountability Board kicks off a six-month transition to new elections and ethics commissions that will succeed it on June 30. The GAB, made up of six nonpartisan former judges, oversees elections, campaign finance, ethics and lobbying. The bill replaces it with two separate elections and ethics commissions overseen by appointees, most of them partisans, made by legislative leaders and the governor. The lead lawmakers in the majority and minority parties in the Assembly and Senate each will appoint a member to both commissions. The elections commission will include two former local elections clerks and the ethics commission, two former judges that are appointed by the governor. The measure also resumes the practice, halted when the GAB was created in 2007, of allowing lawmakers to control funding for investigations of alleged wrongdoing by public officials. The chief administrator of the GAB, Kevin Kennedy, said in a statement that his agency will work with the Walker administration to ensure a smooth transition to the new commissions. There are still many questions about how the transition will happen, which we hope to answer in coming weeks, Kennedy said. Those questions relate to the budgets of the new commissions, how and when their chief administrators will be hired and where theyll be housed, GAB spokesman Reid Magney said. In a memo to Walker released last month, Kennedy joined GAB members in objecting to putting the new commissions in place in mid-2016, calling it irresponsible, if not reckless. The new elections commission would begin functioning five months before a high-turnout presidential election in November 2016. Its expected to be the first presidential election in which the states new photo ID requirement for voters will be in effect. The GAB, the establishment of which was inspired by the partisan caucus scandals that rocked the Wisconsin Legislature in the early 2000s, was meant to be an impartial overseer of campaigns, elections, public officials and those who seek to influence them. Outside experts hailed the board as a national model, in part because it is led by former judges instead of the partisans who fill that role in most other states. But in recent years, the GAB and Kennedy fell out of favor with many Wisconsin Republicans for their role in the investigation into secret coordination between Walkers 2012 recall campaign and several so-called issue advocacy organizations. The boards growing list of critics described the GAB as a rogue agency and accused it of partisan bias after it assisted prosecutors in the John Doe investigation. The state Supreme Court halted the probe in July, saying it had no basis in law. Republican supporters of the bill to dismantle the GAB say it will restore confidence in the oversight of elections and elected officials. Bill critics, which include Democrats and open-government groups, say it could foster corruption by weakening such oversight. They objected to recent changes to the bill by the state Senate, where the measure stalled for a period before passing last month. A key Senate change empowers a legislative committee controlled by majority Republicans with appointing head administrators for the new commissions if commissioners dont pick them within 45 days. Since the commissions are designed to be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, critics said the change would create an incentive for commissioners aligned with the majority party to stall on voting for an administrator, thus empowering their party to make the selection. Democrats said that change undermines the stated intent of bill supporters who said the new commissions wont favor one party or another. Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group founded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, was one of two entities registered with the state to lobby in favor of the bill. The group hailed Walkers signature in a statement Wednesday, saying the GAB worked in secret to launch partisan assaults on protected free speech and its own political enemies. Its my hope that the new bipartisan agency will protect the rights of Wisconsinites instead of trampling them, said the groups Wisconsin director, Eric Bott. The campaign finance measure removes various limits on campaign contributions, some of which recently have not been in effect after being struck down in court. It lifts the ban on corporate contributions to political parties and legislative campaign committees and doubles individual contribution limits to candidates. It makes clear that candidates may coordinate with issue advocacy groups, the type of activity that was at the center of the investigation into Walkers campaign. Such groups seek to influence elections but dont expressly call for the election or defeat of a particular candidate. Common Cause in Wisconsin, the nonpartisan government watchdog group that opposed both bills, issued a statement saying the campaign finance bill will allow much more money to flow to political campaigns in secret. No other state allows for as many opportunities for political money to escape simple, basic disclosure as this legislation will allow in Wisconsin, the statement said. Experts, and even some regulators, say existing laws are failing to protect Wisconsin and the nation from harmful exposure to lead in drinking water that leaches from aging plumbing a danger illustrated by the public health crisis in Flint, Mich. At least 176,000 lead service lines connect older Wisconsin homes to the iron water mains that deliver municipal water, according to an estimate by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Milwaukee alone, where 60 percent of the states known lead-poisoned children live, has 70,000 lead service lines. Regulators concede that the Lead and Copper Rule, the 25-year-old federal law that seeks to minimize the danger from these lead pipes and indoor plumbing fixtures, is failing on several fronts: Methods for sampling often fail to detect the highest level of lead in a consumers home. Too few homes are sampled, and those that are may not be in the neighborhoods most at risk. The requirement that utilities replace some lead lines when they exceed federal thresholds may actually cause dangerous increases of lead in drinking water. Lead is primarily leached into Wisconsins drinking water by the corrosion of lead pipes and indoor plumbing components. Health effects of lead include irreversible brain damage in children under age 6 and an increased risk of miscarriage in pregnant women. Decades ago, when it became clear that lead was one of the worst toxins for the developing brain, U.S. regulatory agencies began to eliminate the heavy metal from gasoline, paint and new plumbing. But the efforts to address the nations existing water infrastructure were limited. Marc Edwards, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech University and one of the nations foremost experts on lead in drinking water, helped Flint address its massive problem with lead-contaminated drinking water that has poisoned a number of the citys children. Edwards said millions of U.S. homes have some lead components in their water delivery system, although no one knows the exact number. He agreed with some who have called the widespread risk posed by lead pipes and the astronomical cost to replace them one of the biggest environmental disasters in U.S. history. Hazards underestimated The American Water Works Association estimated in 1990 that the U.S. water infrastructure had about 3.3 million lead service lines and 6.4 million connections made of lead, many of them installed well over 100 years ago. Wisconsin is one of nine states, all in the Midwest and Northeast, where they are particularly common. In addition to Milwaukee, several other Wisconsin communities have a high percentage of lead service lines, including Wausau, Wauwatosa and Racine, according to the EPA. A 2008 study found that these service lines account for 50 to 75 percent of lead contamination in public tap water, with most of the remainder due to indoor lead pipes and plumbing components, such as faucets and connections. The risk of these aging pipes is so high that Madisons public water utility made the controversial decision to replace all of its lead service lines beginning in 2001 a move now seen as a model for other cities. The problem posed by lead service lines is likely underestimated in Wisconsin, where census figures show about 27 percent of homes were built before 1950 and 63 percent before 1980. Miguel Del Toral, a regulations manager at the EPAs Chicago office, said that after five years of effort, he could only track down written documentation of lead pipes in 113 Wisconsin communities in 47 counties. The number of lead pipes outside of these communities is anybodys guess. In addition, tap water from only a fraction of the 176,000 buildings in Wisconsin on known lead service lines is tested as part of the federal Lead and Copper Rule. The law requires utilities to collect water samples from households known or suspected to be served by these pipes, but a 1984 EPA survey showed one-third of utilities did not know how many lead pipes they had. Milwaukee Water Works is currently on a reduced monitoring schedule because of a history of compliance with the federal law; it only has to test for lead in 50 homes every three years. Even before this schedule became effective, the city only had to test 100 homes per year for lead. Finally, some testing under the federal rule may not accurately reflect consumers actual lead exposure, according to a study by Del Toral and another by Edwards. Del Torals 2013 study found wide swings in lead levels in Chicago households when tap samples were taken 12 or more times during a single day. He concluded that the existing regulatory sampling protocol under the U.S. Lead and Copper Rule systematically misses high lead levels and potential human exposure. Corrosion control A water utility is compliant with the federal law when at least 90 percent of household samples are below the action level of 15 parts per billion (ppb) of lead. Even when utilities greatly exceed the action level, unless it involves more than 10 percent of the samples, no system-wide remediation efforts are required. If more than 10 percent of samples exceed 15 ppb, a water utility may be required to install or improve corrosion control. This involves adding a chemical, such as orthophosphate, to the water to make it less likely to eat away at lead pipes. Systems required to use corrosion control include those serving 50,000 or more customers and those in which 10 percent or more of the water samples tested above the federal action level. In April 2014, when Flint began drawing its drinking water from the Flint River without adding anti-corrosives, blood lead levels spiked in children, inciting a public health crisis, protests and angry finger-pointing. The city has now switched back to Detroit water. (Corrosion control) is a complicated subject that has kept water quality experts searching and even arguing for decades, said Abigail Cantor, a Madison-based chemical engineer who has worked with several Wisconsin water utilities as a technical consultant. In addition, orthophosphate harms surface water quality. When water treated with orthophosphate is released into lakes by the wastewater treatment plant, it contributes to algal blooms, oxygen depletion and production of toxic chemicals. That is one reason why Madison, a city proud of its lakes, rejected corrosion control and instead replaced all of its lead service lines with copper pipes. Required pipe replacements can boost danger When a utility is not in compliance with the federal law and corrosion control is ineffective or rejected, it must replace 7 percent of the lead service lines that it owns. Additional replacements are required every year until the utility comes back into compliance. The utility-owned portion of the service line typically runs from the water main to the curb stop, while the section between the curb stop and the house is usually privately owned. However, replacing only the utility-owned portion of the pipe, a so-called partial replacement, can have severe unintended consequences: it may increase, rather than decrease, lead levels in consumers tap water. Several factors can cause these lead spikes. One of them is the physical shaking of the pipes during replacement work, which can knock off the lead inside. Del Toral recounted one case in Chicago in which sediment measuring 125,000 ppb of lead came off a pipe. That would pass straight through a kitchen aerator and would put an infant or child in the hospital immediately, if not worse, he said. Lead levels in tap water may also increase after partial replacements due to a chemical phenomenon called galvanic corrosion. When old lead pipe is connected to a new copper pipe, the contact of the two metals creates a battery effect that activates lead, so that it enters the water at an accelerated rate, said Yanna Lambrinidou, one of Edwards colleagues at Virginia Tech University. In 2012, a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found high blood lead levels among children whose homes had undergone partial pipe replacement. The researchers concluded that the practice of partially replacing lead service lines as a method to comply (with the Lead and Copper Rule) should be reconsidered. Water main repairs can also cause a physical disturbance of lead service lines, resulting in the same risk of lead scale particles being released into the water. Milwaukee has hundreds of water main breaks a year. The water main work is the primary disturbance of the lead lines. That is going on, unregulated, on a daily basis in all major water systems in the country, Del Toral said. Thats a very big concern. Paul Biedrzycki, director of environmental health for the city of Milwaukee, shared Del Torals concern. He said such work poses a very real public health threat. Milwaukee Water Works spokeswoman Sandra Rusch Walton countered that the city takes precautions against lead when it repairs broken water mains by flushing the line and asking homeowners to do the same. Cantor said that may not always have the desired effect since flushing sometimes riles up pipe wall debris and makes matters worse. New regulations years away A quick fix of the nations lead pipe problem is unlikely. Lambrinidou was part of an EPA-convened working group tasked with proposing changes to the Lead and Copper Rule. The group released its final report in August. Lambrinidou estimates it will take at least another five to seven years before any revisions go into effect. One of the groups major recommendations: requiring water utilities to pursue full replacement of all lead service lines in collaboration with customers. Edwards said until all lead pipes in the water infrastructure system are safely replaced, consumers are largely on their own when it comes to protecting their families from lead. If we dont make a decision right now to get these lead pipes out of the ground, when are they going to be removed? he asked. They just pose an unreasonable health risk to future generations. The Friends of Bekkum Library and the Fine Arts Foundation of Westby are cosponsoring the 6th Annual Arts-in-the-Library this Sunday, Feb.28 from 4-6 p.m. This years focus is photography. Our walls will be graced by photographs from Norway to Wisconsin, breathtaking landscapes to unique compilations. Our thanks to the many local photographers who agreed to display their work, much of it for sale. In fact, sales of Alisa Johnsons work will be donated to the Fine Arts Foundation. All donations at this event will go to support the proposed Community Performing Arts Center. Members of the Fine Arts Foundation will be on hand to answer any questions about the upcoming Referendum on April 5. Stephanie Pedretti will perform various selections for solo flute. Cheese has been graciously donated by Nordic Creamery, and wine will be from Branches Winery. Our thanks to Marinella Pro who has been doing a puppet theatre for our preschool story time once each month; last week we watched the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. The trip-trap sound of her carved goats on the wooden bridge entranced her young audience. Marinella helps with the preschool at Pleasant Ridge in Viroqua, and we are honored to have her in Westby. Youngsters may notice that the Gingerbread House has been taken down until next Christmas time. I know some of them will miss it, but we will have the coloring table up again, so they can practice their small motor skills. The library puppets will still be ready for playmates in the childrens area. Fourth Friday Book Group will discuss Ship of Brides by JoJo Moyes on Feb.26 at 10 a.m. in the Reading Area. Looking Ahead: Family Movie Night, Friday, March 4 at 7 p.m. New Materials Books: The Great Estate by Sherri Browning; Daniels True Desire by Grace Burrowes;Whenever You Come Around by Robin Lee Hatcher; The Orphan Masters Son and Fortune Smiles, both by Adam Johnson; The Turner House by Angela Flourney; Breaking Wild by Diane Les Becquetes; Midnight Sun by Jo Nesbo; Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates; Into Oblivion by Arnaldur Indridason; Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff; Piece of Mind by Michelle Adelman; The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin; The Wolves by Alex Berenson; The Illegal by Lawrence Block. Audio: The Forgotten Room by Karen White, et al; The Forgotten Soldier by Brad Taylor; The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin; Anything for You by Kristan Higgins. Dont have a library card? They are free and available at any library. For help or information you can call 634-4419 or e-mail bekkuml@wrlsweb.org. Library Hours Monday-Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday 1-4 p.m. The Beat is New Mexico!---Do we have to be stuck at the bottom of the barrel?--- Perspectives from Southern NM and the border region About Me Laura e Jorge Our objective is environmental conscientization regarding all the planet and its many forms of life. We are not alarmists but the situation is really bad, so we need to do something right now. View my complete profile Translate Blog Archive Thursday, February 25, 2016 Our Kentucky "brother," Tom Rutledge, sent me a link to a super blog post yesterday on Mortgage Grader Inc. v. Ward & Olivo, a limited liability partnership case currently before the New Jersey Supreme Court. Tom's focus in his post was the limited liability aspect of the case, which is fascinating--and more than a bit unsettling for those practicing in jurisdictions like New Jersey and Kentucky that require law firms organizing limited liability partnerships to maintain malpractice insurance. The question before the court: whether, in the absence of an express provision in the partnership statute, the failure of a law firm organized as a limited liability partnership to maintain required malpractice insurance results in the loss of the partnership's limited liability status. The trial court ruled that the lapse of malpractice insurance caused a loss of limited liability status; the appeals court reversed. But Tom also mentions another aspect of the case in his post that I want to call out here. Specifically, he notes references in the appellate court opinion to the conversion of a partnership to a limited liability partnership. Here's what he says on that point: One potentially disturbing aspect of the language used by the Court of Appeals and in the oral argument is the notion that the loss of LLP status and the treatment of the firm as a general partnership is some sort of conversion. But it isnt. An LLP is a general partnership that has elected into a special status it is still a general partnership but for the rule of partner limited liability. . . . This comment reminded me of co-blogger Josh Fershee's super-helpful obsession (maybe too strong a word?) with "limited liability corporation" as an incorrect judicial (and other) descriptor of the limited liability company business form. (See, e.g., his December 2015 post here.) And far be it from me to disagree with either of these guys in making their respective points about these labeling inaccuracies! As a separate point, I want to call out the fact that this area of partnership law can be important both for bar examinations (thinking of all those folks suffering through that test this week . . .) and IRL. In fact, I was asked a question recently about the Tennessee provision on limited liability elections by a BARBRI student. (Little-known fact: I teach the Tennessee BARBRI segments on agency, unincorporated entities, and personal property.) The student's question did not inappropriately refer to a conversion of a partnership into a limited liability partnership, but it did point out several differences in Tennessee law in this area that I want to mention. Here are the generalities of the BARBRI student question: A three-partner law firm organized as a general partnership is considering registering the firm as a limited liability partnership. Two of the partners discuss the matter and file to register the firm as a limited liability partnership in Tennessee while the third partner is out of the country for a month on hiatus--unreachable. The two partners on U.S. terra firma assume that the third partner would also desire this change. The registration filing is made. Of course, hilarity ensues, and somebody sues them all. Is the registration of limited liability status effective, or must all the partners agree and sign? There is no other partnership agreement, rule, or anything else mentioned in the question about partnership voting requirements. The answer? Unlike the rule under the Revised Uniform Partnership Act ("RUPA") generally, Tennessee's version of the RUPA allows for a majority vote for limited liability partnership registration by default: The registration of a general partnership or limited partnership as a registered limited liability partnership must be approved in the case of a general partnership by a majority of the partners or as otherwise provided in the partnership agreement . . . Tenn. Code Ann. 61-1-1001 (West). So, I note two quick things here about Tennessee law in this area. First, Tennessee law does not provide for the qualification of partnerships as limited liability partnerships--the term used in Section 1001 0f the RUPA. The appropriate term for that process under Tennessee law is registration. Second, Tennessee law provides for a majority vote in support of the limited liability election by default, not unanimity or "the vote necessary to amend the partnership agreement except, in the case of a partnership agreement that expressly considers obligations to contribute to the partnership, the vote necessary to amend those provisions" (as provided in Section 1001(b) of the RUPA). But any way you slice it, Tom is right that there is no conversion here. Why is all this significant? These kinds of issue underscore a number of important themes that intersect with the teaching of business associations law--among them: the utility of reading statutes closely, the peril of relying on a uniform act provision when there is "real law" involved, and the value in appreciating the differences in terminology when advising clients or addressing the judiciary, the legislature, and other audiences. Finding the right legal rule to apply is crucial. Also, words matter! And we, as business law instructors, can help drive those points home. https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/business_law/2016/02/on-describing-the-limited-liability-partnership-.html Thursday, February 25, 2016 A Louisiana appeals court has refused to overturn a trial court's ruling that Tom Benson is mentally competent to continue running the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans. This is a setback to his daughter Renee who has sought to have the octogenarian billionaire removed from team control following his attempt to transfer shares in the teams away from a trust to which Renee and her children are beneficiaries. The appeals court affirmed the trial judge's ruling following a long trial in which Benson personally met with the judge as well as testimony from several doctors and a nurse who had long served Benson. An attorney for Renee indicated an appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court might be in the making but made no final commitment. A case in Texas was recently settled between the estranged father and daughter which saw Renee replacing Tom as trustee of a trust that holds the bulk of the family assets including a number of car dealerships. See Mike Triplett, Tom Benson found competent; keeps control of Saints, Pelicans, ESPN News, February 24, 2016. https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/2016/02/louisiana-appeals-court-upholds-benson-capacity-ruling.html A new study finds that major media companies in the United States whitewash the films and movies they produce. The researchers say women and minorities are almost invisible on all levels of the industry. The Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism did the study. It offers one of the widest examinations of the film and television industries. It gives a failing rating on diversity to all major movie studios and most producers of television. 'Inclusion crisis' Hollywood is already under attack over the lack of diversity among Academy Award nominations. For the second straight year, all the acting nominees are white. The awards ceremony takes place Sunday night. The new study is called the Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity. It provides further evidence of a deep gender, racial and ethnic divide between Hollywood and the American population it entertains. USC professor Stacy L. Smith co-wrote the report. She said, We don't have a diversity problem. We have an inclusion crisis. The researchers examined the 109 films released by major studios in 2014. They also looked at 305 scripted, first-run TV and digital series from 31 networks and streaming services. All aired from September 2014 to August 2015. More than 11,000 speaking characters were studied for gender, racial ethnic and LGBT representation. Some 10,000 directors, writers and show creators were examined, as was the gender of more than 1,500 executives. 'Whitewashed' and lacking women The study found widespread underrepresentation in all media studied. The lack was spread from top positions in media companies to minor characters in production content. The study authors wrote, Overall, the landscape of media content is still largely whitewashed. In the 414 studied films and series, about a third of speaking characters were female. 28.3 percent were from minority groups. That is about 10 percent less than represented in the U.S. population. More than 74 percent of characters 40 years and older are male compared to 25.7 percent female. Just 2 percent of speaking characters across film and television were LGBT-identified. Among the 11,306 speaking characters studied, only seven were transgendered. Four of them were from the same series. The study finds that the lack of diversity is even greater behind the camera: 87 percent of directors are white. Among broadcast television directors, the percentage is even higher at 90.4 percent. Just 15.2 percent of directors, 28.9 percent of writers and 22.6 percent of series creators were female. In film, the gender gap is greatest: Only 3.4 percent of the films studied were directed by women, and only two directors out of the 109 were black women: Ava DuVernay who made Selma and Amma Asante who directed the film, Belle. Inclusivity index USC has been publishing different forms of the study for the last 10 years. The researchers have added a new measurement in the latest study. The so-called inclusivity index rates the performances of 21st Century Fox, CBS, NBC Universal, Sony, the Walt Disney Co., Time Warner, Viacom, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. Those companies involve all the broadcast networks, most major cable channels, all of the major movie studios and three of the leading streaming services. Each was rated by their percentage of female, minority and LGBT characters; and of female writers and directors. None of the six major studios rated better than 20 percent overall. The report concludes that the film industry operates as a straight, white, boys' club. Hope in television Some of the same companies, however, scored better when their TV and digital offerings were evaluated. Disney, the CW, Amazon and Hulu all scored 65 percent and above. Stacy Smith said there is hope in television. Everyone in film is failing, all of the companies investigated. They're impervious to change. But, she said, there are pockets of promise in television. There is a focus that change is possible. The very companies that are inclusive Disney, CW, Hulu, Amazon to some degree those companies, if they're producing and distributing motion pictures, can do this. We now have evidence that they can, and they can thrive, she said. USC researchers also, for the first time, added gender analysis of those 10 companies' leaders. They found that women represent about 20 percent of leadership positions. Katherine Pieper was a co-author of the study. She said as the number of women decrease as power or respect linked to job position increases Some of the study's most troubling finds are simply absences. Roughly 50 percent of the examined content did not feature a single Asian or Asian-American character. Twenty percent did not include one black character. Researchers said the industry should have target goals for change. And they say such targets should be made public. Stacy Smith said, People are still erased. It's 2016 and it's time for a change. We've laid out concrete actionable steps because we don't want to do this again in 10 years. Im Caty Weaver. Caty Weaver adapted this story from an Associated Press report. Kathleen Struck was the editor. Do you think Hollywood should include more women and people of color in movies and television? _____________________________________________________________-_ Words in This Story whitewash v. a white liquid mixture used for making surfaces (such as walls or fences) whiter; also, a planned effort to hide a dishonest, immoral, or illegal act or situation diversity n. the state of having people who are different races or who have different cultures in a group or organization invisible adj. impossible to see inclusion n. the act of including something or someone straight adj. heterosexual boys club expression an informal system in which wealthy, white men work together to keep control of money and power thrive v. to grow or develop successfully: to succeed erase v. to remove any thought or memory of A U.S.-based candy maker recalled some of its candy bars produced in Europe after plastic was found inside them. The Mars candy company started the recall voluntarily Tuesday of candy made in the Netherlands. A small piece of red-colored plastic was found inside a Snickers candy bar purchased in Germany, according to a Mars press release. The recall includes Snickers, Mars, Milky Way and Celebrations candies. The candy was made at the Netherlands facility from December 5, 2015 through January 18, 2016. In a press release, Mars called the manufacturing mistake an isolated incident. The company could not estimate how much candy were removed from store shelves. Mars said only candies made in Mars Netherlands are affected by the recall. Consumers should look at the label on the candy to be sure. The recall affects 55 countries, said a spokesman for the candy company to the Associated Press. Mars Netherlands exports to many countries in Europe. The AP confirmed that Germany is one of the countries where the candy was recalled. Mars is one of the largest candy makers in the world. It owns and produces the brands M&M and Dove chocolate. Mars also owns the worlds largest chewing gum maker, William Wrigley Jr. Company. The candy makers headquarters is in the Washington, D.C. area. Im Jim Dresbach. VOANews.com reported on this story. Jim Dresbach adapted the report for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story candy n. a sweet food made with sugar or chocolate recall n. a request by a company for people to return a product that has a defect or problem press release n. an official statement that gives information to newspapers, magazines, television news programs and radio stations brand n. a category of products that are all made by a particular company and all have a particular name chewing gum n. a type of soft candy that you chew on but do not swallow For the first time, men and women graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy will wear the same uniforms at graduation in May. The women of the Naval Academys Class of 2016 will wear trousers, not skirts, it was announced this week. Marine Colonel Stephen Liszewski, the commandant of midshipmen, announced the change Monday. At the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium at Annapolis, Maryland, 266 female seniors will graduate May 27. Women make up close to 25 percent of the 1,077 graduating class. The decision was made to improve gender equality at the academy. The USNA, also called Annapolis, is one of four that offers a university education followed by military service. Academy spokesman Commander John Schofield said the new policy on wardrobes is putting shipmate before self. Schofield also said: The graduation and commissioning ceremony at the U.S. Naval Academy is not about individuals. The rule change comes following Navy Secretary Ray Mabus' emphasis on the equal role women will have in the military. Mabus recently told a group of midshipmen, also called middies, In the Navy and in the Marine Corps, we are trending toward uniforms that dont divide us as male or female, but rather unite us as Sailors or Marines. The Navy equality campaign will also examine job titles that include the word man in the description. Even the term midshipman will be under review and could be changed. Im Jim Dresbach. VOANews.com reported this story. Jim Dresbach adapted the story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story graduating v. earning a degree or diploma from a school, college, or university uniforms n. a special kind of clothing that is worn by all the members of a group or organization trousers n. a piece of clothing that covers your body from the waist to the ankle and has a separate part for each leg commandant n. an officer who is in charge of a group of service members in the military wardrobe n. a collection of clothes that a person owns or wears midshipman n. someone who is being trained to become an officer in the U.S. Navy senior n. a student in the final year of college For nearly a year, American astronaut Scott Kelly has been living and working at the International Space Station (ISS), with no running water. He told reporters Thursday that it is like camping in the woods for a year. He said the fact that everything floats up there, makes daily life more difficult. It is somewhat of a harsh environment he said. You dont feel perfectly normal. He and his Russian partner, Mikhail Kornienko, are scheduled to return to Earth March 1. They will travel in a Russian spacecraft and land in Kazakhstan. Kelly said that he feels pretty good physically, and that he could go another 100 days, or longer, if I had to. But the first thing he said he will do after NASA tests him, is jump in his pool in Houston, Texas. He said the hardest part of the journey has been being isolated physically from people on the ground who are important to him. He says it has been a privilege to be on the ISS. The space station here is a magical place. its an incredible science facility we have. Its a privilege to fly here. And its something that I hope more people will have the opportunity to do in the future. You know I think we will just a matter, its just a matter of time. Kelly and Kornienkos station-record -- 340 days -- is twice as long as a regular mission. The science behind the one-year mission was critical for NASAs Journey to Mars program. The space agency hopes to send humans to Mars by the 2030s. They are hiring people now to be astronauts on a Mars mission. As a veteran of four space flights, Kelly thinks going to Mars is possible. I think theres nothing that we cant accomplish that we dont, you know, put our minds and resources behind. So, after being here for so long thats one thing I definitely realized you know, If we can dream it we can do it if we really want to. After they touch down on Earth, Kelly said they will be carried in special chairs to a nearby tent. There, they will undergo tests to see what condition their bodies are in after spending that time in space. Biological studies began a year before the two men left Earth. Biological samples were collected and assessments were performed, to be used as a baseline. For comparison, samples were taken during their time at the space station. They will continue for a year or more after their return to Earth. Kellys identical twin brother, former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, participated in parallel twin studies on Earth to give scientists more ways to study human space flight. Some questions will be how to deal with bone loss and radiation. Those will be issues for travelers to the planet Mars because the trip will take at least six months. They will need to grow plants for food along the way. While in space, Scott Kelly and his fellow astronauts grew, and then ate, lettuce. They also grew flowers. That is important because some vegetable plants, like tomatoes, begin as flowers. Also important are the psychological and performance challenges. How will people handle living together in a small space? This is critical for crew traveling to Mars. Kelly said it is important to offer private areas to astronauts for a trip to Mars. His space on the ISS was basically a box the size of a phone booth. The astronaut said he got through the long time by taking it in milestones. For example, he would look to the next crew change, with astronauts leaving and coming. Or the next science experiment. And the last milestone before heading home? It was doing major maintenance on the ISS water system. That happened yesterday. Over the last year, Kelly has taken beautiful pictures of the Earth and sent them out on social media. After looking down on the planet, he said, The more I look at it the more I feel like an environmentalist. He said there are definite areas where the Earth is covered in pollution all the time, and unexpected storms. He said this is a human effect not naturally occurring. We can fix that if we put our minds to it, Kelly said. Asked for advice for kids who want to be astronauts, Kelly said they need to be experts in a technical field. It is important do what you like, he said. People also need to be well-rounded, because being an astronaut is many jobs in one. Engineer, medical doctor, plumber and pilot are just some of the jobs an astronaut must perform. In the end, 20 years down the road, Scott Kelly said its not the view or floating in space or riding the rocket of which he will be most proud. The thing he likes about the job is doing something he feels very passionate about, the extremely hard work. Im Anne Ball. Anne Ball wrote this story. Kathleen Struck was the editor We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section and on our Facebook page. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story isolated -adj. separated from persons or things critical -adj. very important assessment -n. the act of making a judgement about something baseline -n. information used as a starting point for comparison milestone -n. an important event or action The United States and China have agreed to place tougher financial sanctions on North Korea. This cooperation between the U.S. and China against North Korea shows a shift in their relationship, said The New York Times. The sanctions are meant to punish North Korea for its recent nuclear and long-range missile tests. The United States and China reached an agreement on imposing new U.N. sanctions on North Korea Wednesday. Details have yet to be released on the proposal. The announcement came after China's foreign minister Wang Yis visit to Washington. He met with Secretary of State John Kerry and with National Security Adviser Susan Rice earlier this week. U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Rice and Wang were in agreement on a "strong and united" response to the North Korean tests. Sanctions a compromise between U.S., China South Koreas Foreign Ministry spokesman called the draft resolution, strong and comprehensive. He said, It contains many effective components which are stronger than anything in past. The United States has supported tough economic sanctions to pressure North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear weapons program. China has emphasized maintaining stability in the area and negotiations. However, China may be signaling that its approach to North Korea has not been working. It may be agreeing that stronger measures are needed. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006. It has claimed to have carried out four nuclear tests and a number of long-range rocket launches. In addition to a U.N. arms embargo, North Korea is banned from importing and exporting nuclear and missile technology. It also is banned from importing luxury goods. What sanctions might include South Koreas Yonhap news agency reports that the proposed resolution will target North Korea's atomic energy and aerospace agencies. Some experts doubt that targeting North Korean officials and agencies will have any impact. They question whether the final agreement will impose real economic pain that will be felt by leader Kim Jong Un and the leadership. The U.S. has supported banning North Korean coal and other mineral exports. It has also supported barring oil trade and restricting North Korean access to international ports. The U.S. also wanted to increase restrictions on North Korean banks' access to the international financial system. Chinese and South Korean media reported this week that China has ordered a halt to its coal trade with North Korea. They say some Chinese banks have frozen accounts belonging to North Koreans. Chinas Foreign Ministry said it does not know of these developments. However, experts say there is increased popular support in China to cut off possible funding for North Koreas nuclear program. China has been intensively discussing how to internally block oil and cash from flowing into North Korea, said Woo Su-keun, a professor of international relations at Donghua University in Shanghai. China, Russia oppose THAAD missiles There have been questions that China would be slow to reach agreement on U.N. sanctions. The U.S. and South Korea are considering the possible deployment of the controversial Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile defense system. China and Russia oppose THAAD deployment in Korea. They are concerned that it can possibly be used against their military forces in the area. This week, the Chinese Ambassador to South Korea, Qiu Guohong, suggested China would cut ties with South Korea over THAAD deployment. South Koreas Deputy Foreign Minister, Kim Hong-kyun, criticized the Chinese ambassador for attempting to exert influence over a South Korean national security issue. The U.S. puts its own sanctions in place, Obama signs bill President Obama recently signed legislation placing new U.S. sanctions on North Korea. The bill requires sanctions on anyone assisting North Korea in its nuclear and missile programs, cyber-attacks or human rights abuses. The expanded sanctions are designed to deny North Korea the money to develop miniaturized nuclear warheads and missiles to carry them. The measure also authorizes $50 million over five years for radio broadcasts into North Korea and to support humanitarian assistance programs. Im Mario Ritter. VOA's Brian Padden reported this story from Seoul. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story comprehensive - adj. including many or most things components n. one part of a system, device or mixture emphasize v. to place special attention on something Impact n. a powerful influence, a strong effect miniaturize v. to make something smaller Tornadoes crushed mobile homes and destroyed neighborhoods in the southeastern United States during severe weather Tuesday. At least three people were dead when tornadoes hit southern Louisiana and Mississippi. The National Weather Service said that seven tornadoes were confirmed, from west of New Orleans to southern Mississippi. In Mississippi, one person died when a tornado destroyed a mobile home. In Louisiana, two people were killed and more than a 100 mobile homes and recreational vehicles were demolished by a tornado 100 kilometers west of New Orleans. Police and volunteers were still searching the mobile-home park for survivors. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said people are still missing. These travel-trailers were picked up, thrown a considerable distance and just mangled, he said after visiting the scene. Ambulances from surrounding communities transported more than 30 residents of the neighborhood to hospitals. Edwards declared a state of emergency in the severely damaged areas of Louisiana. Tornadoes were spotted near New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport and Lake Pontchartrain. Severe storms around New Orleans destroyed roofs and downed trees. Many residents were without electrical power Wednesday in the region. Other states receiving bad weather from the storm included Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. A tornado was reported near Pensacola, Florida. That tornado caused property damage and injuries. Schools in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida cancelled school classes ahead of Wednesdays storm threat. Heavy rain and severe weather are forecasted from Washington, D.C., to Florida this week. Im Dorothy Gundy. VOANews.com reported on this story. Jim Dresbach adapted the report for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story tornado n. a violent and destructive storm in which powerful winds move around a central point mobile home n. a house that is built in a factory and then moved to the place where people will live in it recreational vehicle n. a large vehicle that often has a bathroom, kitchen, and beds for use during travel and camping trailer park n. a large piece of land where vehicles can be parked and connected to electricity and water supplies demolish v. to damage something so that it cannot be repaired mangle v. to injure or damage (something severely by cutting, tearing or crushing ambulance n. a vehicle used for taking injured or sick people to the hospital especially in emergencies From Washington, this is VOA News. Im Frances Alonzo reporting. Bolivian President Evo Morales conceded Wednesday that he had lost a bid to seek a fourth term, after over 51 percent of voters cast no ballots in a weekend referendum. "With respect to the results, it is part of democracy," the socialist leader told a press conference at the presidential palace. "We have lost a battle, but not the war." You can read more details on that story at VOANews.com. Afghanistan's Taliban says it is unaware of upcoming peace talks with the Kabul government, reiterating no such move can succeed until foreign forces completely withdraw and Sharia is enforced in the country. Tuesday, a four-nation group working for Afghan peace invited all Taliban and other groups to participate through their authorized representatives in the first round of direct peace talks with the Afghan government. However, a spokesman for the Taliban's so-called political office in Qatar, Mohammad Naeem, told VOA he has seen media reports about possible peace talks with the Afghan government, but said the insurgent group was unaware of any such plans. Meanwhile, Russia has delivered 10,000 Kalashnikov rifles, along with millions of rounds of ammunition, to the Afghan government as part of a security agreement between the two nations. The rifles were delivered at a ceremony Wednesday at Kabul's military airport. Russia's ambassador in Kabul says his country is committed to helping the Afghans and Afghan forces combat problems like terrorism and drugs. U.S. President Barack Obama is hosting Jordan's King Abdullah II at the White House today. They will have talks focused on the battle against the Islamic State and the humanitarian fallout from the war in Syria. Jordan has been taking part in the U.S.-led coalition, conducting airstrikes against Islamic State targets in both Iraq and Syria. This is VOA News. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Newscast conceded v. to say that you accept the existence of something cast v. to vote referendum n. a special election respect n. a relation to a thing or situation palace n. the official home of a head of state unaware adj. not having knowledge of something upcoming adj. possible reiterating v. restating or repeating Sharia n. the religious laws based on Islams holy book, the Koran enforced v. to make active or effective participate v. to take part or involve authorized n. officials round n. one in a series of similar events or things so-called adj. used for a name or description that you think is not really right insurgent adj. rebel or opposition delivered v. to take something to a person or place rifle n. a gun with a long barrel committed v. to decide to use for a purpose combat v. to battle or fight hosting v. to serve as an organizer of an event focused v. directing ones attention on something fallout n. bad or harmful effects conducting v. carry out We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. The ACLU of Nebraska said Thursday it sent letters to three counties, including Dawson, about federal law obligations to provide bilingual election materials. Colfax and Dakota Counties were the other two. The ACLU said the Voting Rights Act mandates that counties provide the bilingual materials if over five-percent of the total voting-age population of the county is part of a minority language group. For all three counties, over five-percent of the population speaks Spanish. Few rights are more sacred than the right to vote and for 50 years, the ACLU has been defending this right for all Nebraskans, said ACLU of Nebraska Legal Director Amy Miller. The obligation under federal law is clear and simple: counties in Nebraska must provide election materials, such as registration forms, ballots, information pamphlets and similar materials in any language spoken by over five-percent of the population. We are pleased that the counties we have previously contacted informed us they were in compliance. Our recent review, however, showed that Dakota is currently the only county that has forms on their website in all the required languages. We hope that the other counties will join them to make democracy as accessible as possible to all eligible Nebraskans. Dawson County Clerk Karla Zlatkovsky acknowledged the requirements to the Clipper-Herald and laid out the steps her office takes to meet them. Everything I do in the election has to be in Spanish, she said. The ballots are in English, and right below that, in Spanish. Zlatkovsky said the move to bilingual elections began following the 2010 Census and went into full effect in the 2012 election cycle. Any notices are translated. Really, its everything we do. If I have a sign that says, The restrooms are over here, I have that sign translated, she said. Zlatkovsky's office worked with the Department of Justice to be compliant, she added. The Clerks office employs Michael Perez as a translator for official documents and to help during elections, Zlatkovsky continued. There are enough Hispanic surnames that all five of my Lexington precincts have two bilingual election workers assigned to them, she said. The other precincts in the county do not require bilingual workers, but we always have Michael on-call. So if someone shows up in Gothenburg and cant speak English, hes available to go down there and help. The ACLU of Nebraska said it sent similar letters in 2012 to these three counties, and all of the counties indicated compliance. As of today, only Dakota has materials in both English and Spanish on their website, the ACLU said. From the ACLU of Nebraska: Colfax's website has no forms in any language online, and their site is only in English. While Dawson County has forms online they are only in English. According to the 2014 population estimates from the Census Bureau, 33.2-percent of Dawson Countys population is Hispanic or Latino, according to a statement from the ACLU. The fact that Dawson Countys Latino population has continued to grow since 2012 makes their lack of compliance particularly distributing. Given current population trends in Nebraska, it is likely that other counties will need to provide information in either Spanish or Lakota by the time the 2020 census data is complete, said Miller. We would encourage counties to begin complying now and provide bilingual materials for the 2016 primary and general elections. The ACLU shared their concerns with the Nebraska Secretary of States office, which oversees elections, as well as the Voting Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. Zlatkovsky said she removed the Spanish language forms from the county's website because she didn't have them translated correctly. She added that the Department of Justice advised her to not post anything unless the Spanish is translated correctly. Spanish-language voter registration forms are available in hard copy at the clerk's office at the Dawson County Courthouse, and are available online on the Nebraska Secretary of State's website, Zlatkovsky said. She'd like to work on proper translations in an off year, but right now there isn't a timeline to get that project done, she added. Samsung and LG both announced their flagship smartphones for 2016 this week, and both the LG G5 and Samsung Galaxy S7 feature microSD card readers which wasnt a given. Samsung has long included support for removable storage in its smartphones, but last years Galaxy S6 did not have a microSD card slot. But it looks like both LG and Samsung want you to use those microSD cards for media, documents, and other files but not for apps. Google introduced support for adoptable storage with Android 6.0. This lets you format a microSD card so it can be used as if it were internal storage. This makes it easy to expand the amount of usable storage on inexpensive Android devices that might not have a lot of built-in eMMC storage space. But microSD cards usually have slower read/write speeds than internal storage, so you may have to make a trade-off: more storage space, but slower speeds. That said, itd be nice to have the choice but both LG and Samsung have decided not to enable support for adoptable storage on their new phones. Samsung has issued a statement to multiple sites, including Ars Technica, saying that theres a different reason for leaving out adoptable storage: once a card is adopted, it cannot be ready by other devices. So if you wanted to eject your microSD card and insert it into your PC to copy photos, videos, or music, you wouldnt be able to do that. The first time you try to use a microSD card as adopted storage, your phone would also reformat the card, erasing any data you may have. Samsung says its protecting you from accidentally losing data by not giving you a choice. A simple are you sure you want to do this? message probably would have sufficed. Googles Chromecast provides one of the cheapest, easiest ways to stream internet content to your TV. Plug the $35 adapter into the HDMI port of your TV, find content you want to watch using your phone or tablet, and hit a button to make it start playing on the TV instead of on your mobile device. Soon you might not need to buy a Chromecast though. Variety reports that Vizio and at least one other TV maker is working with Google to build Google Cast features straight into upcoming television sets. That means youd be able to use a Vizio TV to watch cable or broadcast channels. But when you want to watch a video from YouTube or Netflix youd just find that video on your phone, tap the Cast button and it would begin streaming to the TV. You can turn off your phone and put it away, because the video would actually be streaming straight from the internet to the TV. But your mobile device would still work as a remote control, letting you pause/play/stop or find a different song or video. Vizio is also said to be considering including an Android tablet that you could use instead of a traditional remote control for its TVs. Right now theres no shortage of smart TV platforms including Googles other internet TV initiative: Android TV. Most of these platforms let you install a bunch of apps on your TV and navigate with a remote control (although some of those remotes support voice or motion input as well as button presses). Thats largely how Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and smart TVs from companies like Samsung and LG work. Google has been trying to get into that space for years, first with the launch of Google TV and later with an updated version called Android TV. But there arent all that many companies using Android TV software on their smart TVs and TV boxes. Meanwhile, Google had sold 20 million Chromecast units by September 2015 and that number doesnt include any sales of the new 2nd-generation models or Chromecast Audio devices. Googles simpler, stripped-down TV streamer seems to be succeeding in a way that Android TV never really has. Maybe the partnership with TV makers like Vizio is a sign that Google is switching gears to focus on Cast rather than Android TV? On the other hand, NVIDIAs Android TV-powered Shield TV still seems to be going strong. The company just released an update bringing Android 6.0 Lollipop to the device this week. Incidentally, Google Cast is built into Android TV if you do have a device like the NVIDIA Shield that uses Googles smart TV platform, then you dont need a separate Chromecast device. But if the Variety report is accurate, Vizio and other TV makers may be looking for a simpler solution that lets users stream internet video without any smart TV user interface at all. Youd theoretically be able to stop watching live TV and switch to internet video just by tapping a button on your phone or tablet, no special user interface required. A Regular Commentary on Strategic Affairs from a Leading Commentator and Analyst 2021 book: Future War and the Defence of Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press) Hello and thanks for stopping in!I write literary romance and mainstream fiction with romantic elements under LK Hunsaker, along with art journals for my Write the Light In project, and some children's fiction.Under Ella M. Kaye, I write contemporary literary fiction with a mental twist.I'm also an artist and I incorporate the arts in all of my work under both names.You can find more info at: Mumbai: Actor Sanjay Dutt will walk free from the Yerawada Central Jail in Pune on Thursday. He will reportedly have a relaxed day and spend time with his family rather than partying hard with fraternity members. The 56-year-old will be released after serving the remainder of his five-year sentence for possessing illegal arms in the March 12, 1993, Mumbai serial bomb blasts case. "He will take a charter from Yerawada Central Jail to Mumbai. He won't be partying immediately after his release. He will offer prayers at Siddhivinayak temple and then go to his mother's (Nargis) grave in Marine Lines," a source told IANS. "There is a portrait of his father (Sunil Dutt) in his building in Pali Hill. There will be a small puja there. It will be basically a relaxed day with his family," the source added. Of the five-year sentence, Sanjay has served more than 50 months in two installments, excluding the parole and furlough he was granted at various times on different grounds. He spent 18 months in jail as an undertrial before he was granted bail and later, following a Supreme Court order in May 2013, he was sent to the Yerawada Jail to serve the remaining 42 months of his five-year sentence. To celebrate Sanjay's release from prison, a Mumbai restaurateur will offer a special culinary delight -- named 'Chicken Sanju Baba' -- free of charge to all patrons and fans. Mughlai eatery Noor Mohammadi Hotel here will offer the signature recipe, created by Sanjay himself and gifted to restaurant owner Khalid Hakim. On the film front, his projects are yet to be revealed, but some filmmakers have shown interest in working with the Khalnayak star. National Award-winning director Umesh Shukla said he has a film for Sanjay. "Sanjay liked my subject. We will get to know the status of the film once he returns home. First of all, he needs to be with his family. That's his priority. As far as the film is concerned, he certainly liked my script, which I narrated to him last year," Shukla had earlier told IANS. "The script suits him the best. It's content-oriented subject," he added. Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who shares a close bond with Sanjay and also cast him in the highly successful Munnabhai franchise, said the actor "committed a mistake and paid for that. Now it's his new birth and we are with him". "We have been writing scripts for him for the last few years and right now we have many scripts for him," he added. He also shared that the pre-production of the third part of Munnabhai franchise is in full swing. Aligarh actors Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao are "delighted" that actor Sanjay will return from his incarceration. Filmmaker Subhash Ghai has a special message for him. "If I know Sanjay like he was during Vidhaata and Khalnayak, he will come out this time with much more maturity and a greater sense of responsibility as a human, a family man and also a star. He just wants to focus on his career as an actor and nothing else. That's what he told me two months back," Ghai said in a statement. IANS When you watch The Revenant at least one of many things are bound to happen to you. Either youll be reaching out for a warm jacket, or youll think of canceling that outdoor trip to Canada. Your romanticized notion of winter, where you get to wear fashionable winter wear and strut about will be liquefied. Youll also wonder how a bear can be CGId so accurately, and youll also probably wonder how the hell the film crew managed to finish shooting the film without killing each other. If youve seen any of his previous films youll know that Alejandro Inarritus vision is absolutely uncompromising. The Revenant, therefore, is not just a film but a demonstration of how far the filmmaker can go visually. Every frame in the film can be printed out, framed and hung on a wall. The atmosphere built into the film is brutal enough to permeate from the screen. The icy terrain is claustrophobic and at times frightening it reminds you that looking at such landscapes from a distance makes for a pretty picture but getting into it will kill you. As Leonardo DiCaprio bleeds and crawls, grunting in pain through the snow encrusted forests and freezing rivers youll be sure never to wish this ignominy even upon your worst enemy. The vision is at the forefront of The Revenant. Everything else, however, takes a back seat. The story, though loosely based on a real life incident is a simple revenge tale. Hugh Glass (DiCaprio), after being mauled by a bear in a jungle and left for dead by his companions crawls back to the city to return the favor. Theres no deeper subtext within the film, even though visually the film poses to present something deeper. Emmanuel Lubezkis camera often floats around, shuttling between a Terrence Malick scene where the sun peaks out in the distance, to a Tarkovsky shot that refuses to cut as chaos reigns everywhere. Whatever you see is breathtaking for sure, but the film doesnt really say anything about the human condition, even though the camerawork attempts to. The lone message the film actually renders is done quite unsubtly that the white man came to America, raped and pillaged the Native Americans and stripped away the lands peace and innocence. DiCaprios character is Bollywoodised to the highest degree, where he is the lone white man siding with the Natives to the point of having a family with them. This is a far cry from Inarritus previous films which said a lot without too many filmmaking tools in fact its the reverse here this time he has infinite tools and yet says so little. DiCaprio spends most of his time in agony, being angry, hungry and thirsty. The Oscar buzz is well deserved because he does it all without any dialogue. But its impossible to ignore that his character is written to a limited degree, so you dont get really much more than those four aforementioned aspects. Leo has delivered far more nuanced and boisterous performances in the past, so he makes this one look easy. What is more interesting is the character of John Fitzgerald played to grizzly perfection by Tom Hardy. The actor, in a frizzled shaggy beard, unevenly shaved head, dirty teeth and mumbly grunts just disappears into his role to the point of being unrecognizable. His character has a lot more depth that DiCaprios he isnt a cardboard villain being bad for the sake of being evil hes a mercenary who just wants to get back home, and carrying around a guy whos been mauled by a bear and is going to die anyway doesnt seem logical. He takes a decision that may not be morally glorious but its something of a necessity in a very harsh terrain. Speaking of the bear, its difficult to pin point where the practical effects begin and the CGI ends the whole sequence is as stunning as it is seamless, and its definitely not for the faint hearted. Its the only point in the movie where the filmmakers ambition matches the execution, and one wishes the finale were as powerful as this scene. New Delhi: With more than 20 women finance ministry officials in the team preparing the Union Budget 2016-17, Indian women seem to have broken another glass ceiling. This is by far the maximum number of women in any Budget team in the last six decades. The country's most-awaited financial document, prepared by this gender-balanced team, will be presented in Parliament on 29 February. Never before had women found such strong representation in this prestigious group of budget makers. Besides top officials from the Department of Financial Services, Department of Expenditure and Chief Cost Accountant, 17 financial advisors out of 34 are women. Here are the key women players: Anjuli Chib Duggal, Secretary, Department of Financial Services (Ministry of Finance): Provides input on reforms, schemes, etc related to banking and insurance sectors and on agricultural credit to boost the agriculture sector. Snehalata Shrivastava, Additional Secretary, Department of Financial Services (Ministry of Finance): Works in tandem with the secretary. Annie G Mathew, Joint Secretary (Personnel), Department of Expenditure (Ministry of Finance): Important role in expenditure. Aruna Sethi, Principal Advisor (Cost): First woman head of Indian Cost Account Service. Its one of the divisions functioning in the Department of Expenditure. In terms of contribution in the budget preparation, it manages the multifarious and complex issues related to financial and cost management matters, management of fiscal resources, budget and budgetary control, etc. Financial Advisors: Out of 34 financial advisors, 17 are women officers. While the financial advisors work in their respective ministries, they represent Ministry of Finance. Their role is to review the expenditure management and to drive home the point of efficient and effective use of budgets made available to the departments under their domain. They represent Finance Ministry in a particular ministry or department. Is it a mere coincidence? It may or may not be. It may seem coincidental. But the fact is the government wants women to head departments and government initiatives in more numbers. Incidentally, this time there are competent women officers in finance ministry and they have made valuable contribution in the budget making process. Its the first time ever that there are so many women officials, including financial advisors. Women have a natural instinct in managing domestic budget with prudence and thrift. There is predominance of women power in the budget making exercise and their skills will prove to be helpful. This is also a step towards women empowerment, a senior official in the Ministry of Finance told Firstpost on condition of anonymity. According to the Finance ministry source, the Finance Secretary had two rounds of meetings in January with 17 financial advisors while the budget preparation was in progress. By Deba R Mohanty In the previous part, assessments for resource allocations toward capital outlays for military equipment modernisation were made. Arguments on capital expenses essentially made three points: a) more weapons acquisitions are necessary, given the imbalance in the Indian arsenal due to problems of obsolescence and shortage; b) need for a well-planned systems acquisition across services for rationalised allocations; and most importantly, c) given the manpower intensive nature of Indian armed forces and contemporary and futuristic security needs, a balanced approach to resources allocations for national defence must be considered. It is the third point balancing revenue and capital allocations which tops ministerial consideration, a problem grappled with by Indian military planners for decades. The fact is that India can not devote more resources toward military purposes than it ought to for a variety of reasons. At the most, it can allocate close to 1.8 or 1.9 percent of its GDP for national defence. Realistically, one cannot expect more than this for the very simple reason that other national priorities would always precede national defence considerations. Analysts will cite data related to resources allotted in other countries, which is a futile exercise. The argument against such analytics would be that Indian national security, which includes resources allocations for national defence (MoD), internal security (MHA), military aspects of atomic energy (DAE) and space (Department of Space), cumulatively consume close to a quarter of central governments budgeted expenditure. This is objectively confusing and subjectively debatable. Given various considerations, revenue side of Indian defence budget does not seem to be coming down, despite noble efforts. Revenue expenditure for national defence refers to resources allocated for salaries, pension expenses for the 1.3 million strong armed forces, including infrastructure and welfare. At times, it also includes revenue expenses for military/revenue infrastructure, which consumes a significant proportion of the military budget. This particular category caters to infrastructure spends on various projects like multi-billion dollar projects on married accommodation or military infrastructure, etc. Indian Army is the most manpower intensive organ for obvious reasons, while Air Force and Navy, including Indian Coast Guard personnel number less than the Army. Trends for the past one and half decade suggest that revenue expenses for the Indian armed forces hover between 57 to 63 percent of the defence budget, depending on specific years when either capital budgets have eaten into the budget or unspent money from capital budget have helped the revenue side in percentage terms. In fact, revenue expenditure has as a trend indicator in percentage terms came down from a high of 78 to 81 percent during 1970s through to early 1990s to the current levels of 57-58 percent in the last three years. This may sound encouraging, but in actual value terms, it still accounts for a large chunk of the budget. If recent projects and announcements are taken into consideration, this years budget could be somewhere near Rs 1,70,000 crore, primarily because of implementation of seventh pay commission compensation, one rank one pay (OROP) advances (in installments) and ex-servicemen health scheme (ECHS), to name a few. Only OROP advances could be as high as Rs 12,000 crore alone, according to one recent report. Even if some unspent capital expenditure from last year is adjusted in some of revenue categories in revised estimates for 2015-16, the total defence budget is still likely to be heavily tilted towards revenue vis-a-vis capital expenditure. The projected figure would have been even greater, if creation of two mountain divisions were approved, which could have necessitated additional phased expenses to the tune of Rs 80,000 crore in the next three to five years. In sum, against an ideal modern fighting machine for India that is lean and mean with advanced system support to undertake any conventional or emerging assignments, which should have a balanced ratio of 50:50 in its resources for soldiers and weapons, it appears to be struggling for a well-crafted and balanced budget. Apart from the need for fine-tuning the revenue budget, which itself is a gigantic task and which has not yet been warranted by any quarter within the MoD simply because of lack of interest from either civil or military side, there are other constraints as well. Chief of the Army Staff General Dalbir Singh Suhag, in a recent interview to a major news paper, vehemently defended the manpower intensive nature of Indian Army and explained that due to the prevailing security scenario the number of soldiers should actually grow. His argument and a strong sentiment among serving and retired military personnel effectively put a blanket ban on any debate on right-sizing the armed forces. While there is no interest among members of the strategic community to deliberate on this subject, there is no evidence of it being discussed even within relevant government agencies. Rightsizing, one should understand, does not necessarily mean reduction of numbers, a small step can begin by demobilisation of identified sections into other security agencies for specific roles for which necessary training and demobilisation related necessities can be undertaken on a pilot basis. China has in the past exercised this option by demobilising an estimated 2,50,000 soldiers to Peoples Armed Police (PAP). Some European countries during the post-Cold War period in the 1990s have also attempted rightsizing through demobilisation with varying degree of success. In Indias case, modernised soldiers require costly weapons and support, which otherwise means highly trained soldiers for specialised responsibilities at the core of the structure and support from other categories for conventional responsibilities. Military planners, it is high time, should contemplate on this aspect. Indian defence budget cannot be stretched beyond an acceptable level and in a time of economic sluggishness world over with impacts on Indian economy, it would be interesting to examine larger nuances of defence budget this year. The author is a New Delhi-based defence analyst and head of a defence research firm Railway minister Suresh Prabhu is presenting his second budget at a time when aspirations are soaring. One reason for this is that Prabhu has been making all the right noises. Among the big moves taken last year the first and foremost is the highly ambitious bullet train project. That the Rs 1 lakh crore project to be operated between Mumbai and Ahmedabad has got a soft loan from Japan has only heightened the expectations from Railways. There have been several other steps too, the most innovative being setting up of joint ventures with state governments to expedite execution of stalled projects. Earlier this month, Chhattisgarh becamed the fifth state to set up such a venture. While all these initiatives are in the right direction and are comment worthy, there is one question that begs an answer - how is the railways' financial health faring? As we wait for the Budget, here are six things to watch out for from the budget: Operating ratio: Investopedia defines operating ratio as a ratio that shows the efficiency of a company's management by comparing operating expense to net sales. In simple terms, it is a measure of efficiency. According to investopedia, the smaller the ratio, the greater an organization's ability to generate profit if revenues decrease. However, this doesn't take debt repayment or expansion into account. The railways' revised estimate for last financial year's operating ratio is 91.8 percent, which means of the Rs 100 it earned, Rs 91.8 was spent. The best the railways have achieved is 75.9 percent in 2007-08 and the worst 98.3 percent in 2000-01. For the current financial year, Prabhu has set a target of 88.5 percent. Gross traffic receipts: The budget estimate for the current financial year is Rs 183,578 crore, recording a 15.3 percent increase from the revised estimate for 2014-15. The best perfromance in the last 10 years on this count was in 2012-13, when the organisation witnessed an 18.8 percent rise. Prabhu had also budgeted the freight earnings at Rs 121,423 crore, which will be a 13.6 percent rise from the revised estimat for 2014-15. Passenger earnings have been budgeted at Rs 50,175 crore, up 16.7 percent. However, it remains to be seen whether the railways will be able to achieve these ambitious targets. According to a PTI report, April-December freight traffic missed the target by a wide 7 percent margin and passenger bookings by a 5 percent. Working expenses: There is an urgent need to rein in this head. For the current financial tthe budgeted amount under this head is Rs 162,210 crore, which is a 11 percent increase from the revised estimate for the previous year. What has rendered the task difficult for Prabhu is the Rs 8000 crore reduction in gross budgetary support to Rs 32,000 crore. It is to be remembered that the Seventh Pay Commission implementation will put an additional Rs 32,000 crore burden on the railways next year. According to the earlier mentioned PTI report, the plan is to reduce the energy bill by 20 percent next year. At present, the bill stands at Rs 30,000 crore. While the electricity bill is about Rs 12,000 cr, diesel cost is around Rs 18,000 cr a year. However, this will only be a quick fix. The bigger reform in this direction will be a concrete plan to rationalise jobs and in turn the salray expenses. The railways staff strength stands above 13 lakh. Fund surplus: The budgeted amount for the current financial year was an ambitious Rs 14,266 crore, which was a 96 percent increase from the year earlier. With freight and passenger revenue missing the target, it is highly unlikely that the railways will meet this target. In fact, a report in The Indian Express says the surplus is likely to be just Rs 3,400 crore, which will less than half of the previous year's revised estimate of Rs 7,972 crore. Passenger fare: To raise or not to raise, that is the question Prabhu faces. If he raises, the opposition parties and also some of the BJP's allies are likely to kick up a storm of protests. But then then freight cannot subsidise passengers forever. Prabhu in fact told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the railways resources are "constantly dwindling" as freight and passenger fares are not being decided in an optimum manner. Industry lobby group has urged the minister to show some political will to raise the passenger fares. A poll done by Firstpost, in which 729 readers participated, around 62 percent agreed that the minister should increase the passenger fares. If he indeed bites the bullet and raise the fares, that indeed will be a bold decision. Amenities: For the large number of commuters, railway budget is all about amenities and new trains. And therein lies the minister's big task, to balance the finance and the aspirations. Now that there has been a move ahead in the bullet train project, it is llikely that the middle class will be waiting keenly for any announcement on this. Moreover, there are other other issues like passenger safety, especially that of women, which is always a major issue. Any move to increase private sector participation or bring in FDI will be welcomed whole-heartedly by commuters because they expect such moves to help modernise railway stations and other amenities. Data from Kishor Kadam Although the Railway Budget presented by Suresh Prabhu today came as a mixed bag, two sectors - realty and automobile - however, gave their thumbs up as the budget proposal offered them a good long-term prospects in a rather slowing economy. In his Railway Budget speech, Prabhu spoke about the dedicated freight corridors and redevelopment of 400 railway stations, which according to property consultants would foster the transit oriented development and boost the real estate market. According to Anuj Puri, Chairman & Country Head, JLL India, "The railway minister Suresh Prabhu's announcement today on redevelopment of 400 stations through the private-public partnership (PPP) model is a very progressive and welcome move. This project will foster a plethora of large transit-oriented developments across the country." Indian Railways could efficiently monetise their land parcels, particularly in cities with higher densities, by commercially exploiting existing railway stations through sale of space rights over them, he added. Adding on to it, Anshuman Magazine, CBRE South Asia CMD, said, "From a real estate and infrastructure perspective the budget had some key announcements focusing on infrastructure such as dedicated freight corridors including three new freight corridors and transit development." On the automobile front, the Railway minister proposed to set up India's first rail auto hub in Chennai. According to carmakers, the move will provide a big support to the automobile industry, facilitating transportation of vehicles from manufacturing plants to respective destinations. Hyundai Motor India Ltd Senior Vice-President (Sales & Marketing) Rakesh Srivastava, said, "Last mile connectivity, reduced logistic costs and time, (are) addressed in one big infrastructure move enabling mass transportation of vehicles with the Auto Hub at Chennai giving a big support to the auto industry." Expressing similar views, Renault India Operations Country CEO and Managing Director Sumit Sawhney said India's first rail auto hub in Chennai will facilitate transportation of cars from manufacturing plants to respective destinations as the city is "a growing automobile hub and is being regarded as 'Detroit of the East'". In his speech, Prabhu said inadequacy of warehousing and transportation facilities was also one of the causes that kept potential customers away from the railways. With Agency inputs Srinagar: Security forces on Thursday said they had arrested a Pakistani suicide bomber of the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) outfit in Baramulla district in Jammu and Kashmir. Military spokesman S.D. Goswami said that the army and police caught Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, who had carried out an attack three months back on an army camp in Kupwara district. He was accompanied by three associates who were killed in the November attack. Gujjar, son of Walid Mohammad Gujjar, was a resident of Sialkot Daska in Pakistan. "The terrorist was part of the four fidayeen who carried out the attack on the army camp at Tanghdar on November 25," the spokesman said. "He has told his interrogators that he set fire to an oil depot inside the army camp and destroyed several vehicles before he was ordered by his colleagues to leave. "The fidayeen told his interrogators that the JeM militants were launched from Athmuqam in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and was tasked to attack any army camp near the LoC (Line of Control)," the spokesman added. "The group, with the help of GPS, crossed the border on foot on November 24 night and continued to walk till they reached the Tanghdar army camp after six-seven hours," he told the interrogators. After the attack, Gujjar fled to nearby forests where he was in hiding for three days. He was asked by his handlers to go to Kupwara. He changed his clothes and boarded a van from Tanghdar, with his weapon concealed. He reached Kupwara and befriended some people who helped him to travel to Baramulla where he got arrested. Coming from a well-off farmer's family in Sialkot, Gujjar has five brothers and two sisters. He was lured by his school friend, who is also a JeM militant, to take to militancy. Gujjar said he got three months training in a JeM camp. IANS Mumbai: Nearly 100 schoolchildren were hospitalised with suspected food poisoning Thursday after eating a free midday meal at a government-run school near Mumbai, officials said, adding that 13 were in a critical condition. Most of the children at the rural primary school fell ill after the lunch of rice and pulses. "Ninety-seven have been admitted to hospital, a few of them are critical," Shrikrishna Kokate, deputy police chief of Palghar district in the western state of Maharashtra, told AFP. Hospital officials said 247 students were initially brought for treatment late afternoon after they complained of nausea and started vomiting. "Thirteen are critical but out of danger. More than 140 were discharged after medical screening. The rest are undergoing treatment," Ashok Khandagle, a doctor attending the sick children told AFP. He said the symptoms point towards food poisoning, adding samples have been sent for tests to a laboratory in Mumbai. The ill students are aged between six and 14. Police said they also have sent teams to the school to take samples of food a mixture of rice and pulses served to the children. More than 250 students are enrolled at the Zilla Parishad primary school in Kasa village in Palghar, district about 120 kilometres (74 miles) from the financial capital Mumbai. Most of the inhabitants of the village are rural tribespeople. The government's midday meal programme is the world's largest, feeding 120 million children daily in more than a million schools, for many of whom it is their only substantial daily meal. But the nearly US$ 2 billion scheme is hampered by corruption and inefficiency. Last week the federal government said they will form fresh guidelines to improve food safety and hygiene to end a string of cases of poisoning. Students often fall sick after eating contaminated and poorly prepared food, and in 2013 about two dozen children died in impoverished Bihar state after they ate a meal laced with pesticide. The government scheme, which started nationally in 2001, is aimed at enticing particularly poor and vulnerable children to attend class instead of languishing at home hungry or helping their parents labour and combat chronic malnutrition. The 2015 global hunger index (GHI) report ranked India at 20th spot, with a World Bank estimate saying it has the highest number of malnutrition among children, almost double that of sub saharan Africa. AFP Isnt that just peachy? P C Chidambaram now wakes up to the possibility that Afzal Guru may not have been that involved in the attack on Parliament. Just a bit, not that much, oops, 32% less, lets make a clean breast of it. Hello? It took 15 years and a bunch of students creating a ruckus for him to have this epiphany and wake up to a whole new ball of wool? Wasnt the whole trial on his partys watch? Wasnt the Congress in command for all the years all the way to the hanging tree? And when Guru was hanged in 2013 it was after rejections of pleas by the Supreme Court and the President. So why this deliberate attempt to obfuscate matters now? You want to be anti-Modi at least have the grace not to be so blatantly hypocritical. To be absolutely fair, it is the BJP who inherited this issue and had nothing to do with it except being in power when the assault took place and 14 people were killed including 5 terrorists intent on committing mayhem. The UPA government had over a decade to exercise whatever options it wanted to, including setting the self-confessed man free. It did not take any action. Who stopped them, what stopped them? In 2013, the Congress cabal was keen to show its credentials to its vote banks and counter the speeding Modi bandwagon. So the case moved without delay. It was the Congress that refused to give the body after the execution to the family so it could not become a rallying point. If Chidambaram has now got a public change of heart and is indicting his own party one has to ask how all Congress guys who are now projecting a bleeding heart are not anti-national in the current context of the word. Here is a man against whom evidence of involvement was way beyond reasonable doubt. He was charged under section 121 of waging war against the state. The Vice Presidents car was targeted. The death toll of innocents was 9 people: go ask their families how they feel. Another 13 received injuries... This was not a picnic in the park, lets stop romanticising it. Afzal Guru confessed to his role. He had no regret nor any expression of it. On the contrary he wrote this message in 2008 to Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin that he does not regret carrying out the attack. Guru said that the 13 December attack was linked to the Kashmir issue and also urged Salahuddin not to consider it as a "conspiracy." The Supreme Court rejected his final appeal against the death sentence. The President of India rejected his mercy petition. It was an attack on the symbol of the country. It led to a troop movement of 100,000 soldiers to the border in preparation of a possible war. Afzal took sleuths to his hiding places from where explosives were discovered. And you, PC, are technically indicting the Supreme Court for having goofed up. By going against the Supreme Court, are you not in contempt? If Chidambaram, Rahul, Shashi Tharoor and other such liberal folks who are now actually inciting the students of JNU even further with their cleverly sculpted support because it is actually so exploitative, it should be asked why were they silent all these years. If they had falsely put a man to death would it not hang heavy on their conscience? They would be having trouble sleeping at night, drenched with guilt. Three years since the hanging and they lived with it, they were good to go. And it is only now that that there is this profound revelation. If the Congress had won the last general election it is a safe bet these guys would have been as silent as Tuntakhamens tomb. They will even risk going against their state to win back lost ground such is the unbelievable avarice for power. Makes one wonder why we have politicians at all. The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday took cognizance of reports of alleged incidents of rape at Murthal in Haryana during the protests seeking OBC status for Jats in the state. Justice NK Sanghi of the Punjab & Haryana HC wrote to the acting Chief Justice for further proceedings. According to a report Hindustan Times, the judge criticised the police for advising the victims and their families to return home instead of reporting the matter. The judge also reportedly stated that court should not sit idle, and that an independent probe was required in this case. Meanwhile, The Tribune quoted a senior IPS officer as saying that reports of such incidents off are 'rumours'. The officer also reportedly advised the media "to refrain from writing anything that could create tension in the society." There were others who also denied the occurrence of the alleged incidents. "There were a few women who took shelter at a local dhaba in order to escape the violence, but there were no incidents of rapes around in here," a source said. According to the report in The Tribune, as many as 10 women were said to have been sexually assaulted by goons near the Amrik Sukhdev Dhaba in Murthal on the National Highway 1. As many as 30 people allegedly pelted stones at vehicles headed towards the National Capital Region (NCR), with the most of the occupants of the vehicles fleeing for shelter. Several women were said to have been left behind in the vehicles, who were then dragged to the nearby fields, mercilessly raped and left in a nude condition. The Jat community is demanding reservations in government jobs and educational institutions. Political developments in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shifted to Delhi where all its Haryana MPs were called to meet Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and some other ministers and legislators are also camping in Delhi. With inputs from IANS New Delhi: A court here on Thursday dismissed the plea of Delhi police seeking voice samples of JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, arrested on sedition charges, after the accused refused to do so. Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen rejected the pleas of Delhi police which wanted the voice samples for forensic test in relation to the ongoing investigation into the alleged anti-national slogan shouting at the JNU campus on 9 February. The police had arrested both the students after they surrendered on the night of 23 February. Umar and Anirban were last night sent to three days police remand at the South Campus Police Station near JNU which was turned into a makeshift court room following an order of the Delhi High Court to "maintain confidentiality" during their remand proceedings. Police had demanded seven days' custody of the duo, who had allegedly organised a controversial event at JNU on February 9 where anti-India slogans were alleged to have been raised. Police yesterday also applied for production of JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar so that all the three students can be interrogated together. The Delhi High Court had also directed that during the remand proceedings of Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban, police must ensure that no one "suffers even a scratch" in wake of the Patiala House court violence on 15 and 17 February. The high court order had come during the hearing on Kumar's bail plea after it was informed that he and Umar and Anirban were apprehending threat to their safety and security during production in Patiala House court for remand proceedings. According to police before being arrested, Umar and Anirban were questioned for at least five hours in which police inquired about their whereabouts during the phase when cops were on a look out for them. Police also inquired whether two of them were the main organisers of the 9 February event against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, and whether they were involved in alleged anti-India sloganeering. The duo had returned to the JNU campus last Sunday after they went into hiding on 12 February. Delhi Police had issued a look-out notice on 20 February against Umar, Anirban and three other students -- Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash. PTI Auto refresh feeds Kanhaiya's bail plea to be heard on 24 February by the Delhi HC. Delhi Police oppose bail; HC asks for a status report. Delhi Police submits report against Kanhaiya Kumar to High Court. The report claims that Kanhaiya was seen in the footage shouting anti-national slogans; a law and order situation was created on JNU campus. High Court has also agreed to hear Delhi Police's plea seeking permission to enter Jawaharlal Nehru University. A number of students from across Mumbai universities and colleges have started a petition seeking the immediate release of Kanhaiya Kumar. The march is being led primarily by students from Hyderabad Central University, but students from all over the country have joined in. The march has become more significant in the wake of Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest and the JNU row. Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal and a few other leaders from Aam Aadmi Party present. The Rohith Vemula issue has assumed bigger proportions, it would appear. Arvind Kejriwal said, "If someone try to go against the nation, he won't be spared. Similarly if innocents will be harassed like centre is doing it won't be tolerated. Modiji ab bhi samay hai sudhar jaiye, warna janta AAP ko ukhaad phekegi." (People will throw you out Modiji if you don't mend your ways of dealing). Knowing it full well that the attack would come against the government from all quarters, the BJP fielded HRD minister Smriti Irani who showed uncharacteristic aggression in defending herself. She, along with minister of labour Bandaru Dattatreya, has been accused of goading the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) administration to take action against Vemula. In the ensuing din, the House was adjourned second time. The crux of the issue was that parties are engaged in a fierce competitive politics to claim their pro-dalit credentials. And Rohith Vemulas suicide is learnt to have evoked strong emotion among Dalits of UP and turned them against the BJP. This is the precise reason why the BSP disrupted the functioning to pre-empt any attempt to appropriate sympathies of Dalits. Taken aback by the BSPs tactical brilliance, the Congress and other parties also joined in and vociferously supported Mayawatis demand to reveal the facts of the inquiry constituted to probe Rohiths suicide and circumstances. As the Raja Sabha met after 10 minute of adjournment, the scene was characterised by deja vu. Not without reason, BSP chief Mayawati raised the issue of Rohith Vemulas suicide vehemently in the question to take the wind out of the parties sails. In view of the UP election, Mayawati cannot afford to let the ruling party and principal opposition, the Congress, monopolise the debate on Dalits. She was quite conscious of nearly 25 percent of the Dalit votes that form her strong support base in the countrys largest state. Kumar is being deprived of his liberties primarily because of the incompetence of the Delhi Police conducting a thorough investigation. Kanhaiya Kumar's position as JNUSU president could mean that he could potentially influence witnesses who were present at that demonstration. The remaining accused are 'absconding' (technically not arrested). Kanhaiya Kumar's release means they could all go underground or off the radar. Police is opposing bail at this point. If witness statements had been recorded initially instead of relying on a video clip which is still pending verification, the police would have had their case in order. Initially, Bassi did not oppose bail because he had video clips and that meant he did not need witnesses. Now, the video clips are turning out to be doctored, which means Bassi needs witness testimonies to make his case, a Bombay High Court lawyer told Firstpost. India seems to be in the grip of an epidemic of feeling of victimisation. A few days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had talked about a conspiracy to tarnish his image. A few hours ago, Rahul Gandhi told media that there may be a conspiracy to not allow him to speak in Parliament. And now lawyer Chauhan claims people are out to get him. If only he had taken the precaution, not the one prescribed by Gyan Dev Ahuja, before opening his mouth in front of a hidden camera. "But are we going to give respectability to those whose primary ideology is that they're going to break this country?" he said. "Some amount of radical romancing can also take place in institutions," he said. "Youngsters do many things and when they grow up, they realise they shouldn't have done many of those things," said the Finance Minister. "If some student belonging to a weaker section of society suffers mental distress, that issue has to be discussed," said Jaitley. "The core issue does not relate to the amount of academic license that exists," he said. 'Are we going to give respectability to those whose primary ideology is that they're going to break this country?' "The question is: Does the Indian constitutional order allow this? To say that this kind of act must be ignored by the state is wrong. It is an issue over the geography and territory of India which is under attack today," he said. "Vandalism is condemnable. But here's what the leftist philosophy is in this case: 'Let us concentrate on vandalism, which is condemnable. But at the same time, sedition must become a part of free speech.' Can hate speech become free speech?" he said. "Of course, what happened in Patiala House is condemnable. But vandalism is condemnable. And sedition is free speech?" said Jaitley. "I publicly pay homage to him. What I never publicly disclose that I also spoke to his mother," said Irani. "There are many who can be accused of identifying him as a vote bank," she said. "I have been told not to get agitated," said Smriti Irani as she began her speech by quoting lines from Macbeth. Many can be accused of identifying Rohith as a vote bank: Smriti Irani "What is happening here? It is highly objectionable!" thundered Anand Sharma. "Tomorrow, if any of the ministers bring in any derogatory reference, what are we reducing this House to?" As soon as Irani finished reading this out, a huge uproar erupted in the Parliament. She also said that document described Durga as a "sex worker called Durga who enticed Mahishasur into marriage. Every year, thousand of Durga puja pandals are erected showing her in a bad light, in a sexual position." "The document said that Durga Puja is a controversial, racist festival where a fair-skinned goddess is depicted killing a dark demon," Irani said. "What is Mahishasura martyrdom day?" Irani said. She then again quoted the document. Irani then said that some minority students who were protesting against this festival were beaten up by Left-leaning JNU students. "And it (the JNU document) also speaks about a public meeting that they have the right to hold a festival called Mahishasura martyrdom day," she said. Irani then quoted a JNU document which, according to Irani's speech, said that "the execution of Afzal Guru was a nervous attempt by Congress." "There is an accusation that Mehmood ki topi Ahmed par hai. Pata nahi kiski topi kiske sar pe hai...main bina topi ke hoon," she said. "We cannot tolerate such activities in our universities. We cannot allow the students to be influenced by fringe elements," said Venkaiah Naidu in Lok Sabha. "We are only requesting you not to express solidarity with divisive forces," said Naidu. "The Prime Minister is very clear. The country has to go forward. We are undeterred by these attempts," Naidu said, as he targeted the Opposition over its criticism of the government. "Instead of running for photo opportunities, the political leadership should ponder over why incidents like the Rohith Vemula suicide happened. The entire country should think seriously. This is not the first case," Venkaiah Naidu said. "I publicly pay homage to him. What I never publicly disclose that I also spoke to his mother," said Irani. "There are many who can be accused of identifying him as a vote bank," she said. "I have been told not to get agitated," said Smriti Irani as she began her speech by quoting lines from Macbeth. Many can be accused of identifying Rohith as a vote bank: Smriti Irani Sitharam Yechury lashed out in the House and asked Smriti Irani to focus on the point at hand. "Do we say to them that if you are a Dalit child belonging to an ideology not favourable to us, you can die for all we care?" she said. "What are we as a united House telling this generation of ours?" Irani said. Opposition members began shouting as Smriti Irani tried responding to the allegations made against her. "I am grateful for the anomalies which Azad sahab corrected in his speech today," Irani said. "There are many who have said that history is being distorted and all Sanghis are being put in ICHR," said Smriti Irani. She then pointed out that there was a member of ICHR who was not, in fact, a Sanghi. "If there was an intention to saffronise education, why would I pick a scholar who is not aligned to my organisation?" she said. "What is happening here? It is highly objectionable!" thundered Anand Sharma. "Tomorrow, if any of the ministers bring in any derogatory reference, what are we reducing this House to?" As soon as Irani finished reading this out, a huge uproar erupted in the Parliament. She also said that document described Durga as a "sex worker called Durga who enticed Mahishasur into marriage. Every year, thousand of Durga puja pandals are erected showing her in a bad light, in a sexual position." "The document said that Durga Puja is a controversial, racist festival where a fair-skinned goddess is depicted killing a dark demon," Irani said. "What is Mahishasura martyrdom day?" Irani said. She then again quoted the document. Irani then said that some minority students who were protesting against this festival were beaten up by Left-leaning JNU students. "And it (the JNU document) also speaks about a public meeting that they have the right to hold a festival called Mahishasura martyrdom day," she said. Irani then quoted a JNU document which, according to Irani's speech, said that "the execution of Afzal Guru was a nervous attempt by Congress." "There is an accusation that Mehmood ki topi Ahmed par hai. Pata nahi kiski topi kiske sar pe hai...main bina topi ke hoon," she said. As the Mahishasura martyrdom day issue rocked the House, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day. JNU Student Union president, Kanhaiya Kumar's bail plea will be heard on Wednesday by the Delhi High Court after the Supreme Court dismissed the petition on 19 February after which he was remanded to Tihar Jail. One of the key focus of the plea is likely to be around the allegedly doctored video clip used by the Delhi police to arrest him on the charges of sedition. Zee News' Vishwa Deepak had resigned last week citing that the channel had intentionally misinterpreted the video clip to brand some students as anti-national. Kanhaiya's lawyer had directly moved the the Supreme Court for bail, but the apex court asked his advocate to move the high court for bail, noting that bypassing the high court would set a wrong precedent. The student leader had directly moved his bail plea before the Supreme Court invoking its jurisdiction under article 32, under which a citizen can move the apex court for enforcing his fundamental rights. Besides bail, Kanhaiya Kumar had sought direction for his safety and security from the apex court. Invoking Article 21 guaranteeing right to life and personal liberty and pointing to the atmosphere of violence that prevailed in Patiala House Court complex on 15 and 17 February, he, in his petition in apex court, had said that the manner in which his physical harassment was allowed to take place was a clear pointer to the violation of his right to access justice delivery system. Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested in a sedition case on February 12 after an event held on the university campus against hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Security will be beefed up in the high court to avoid any untoward incident, in view of the violence seen in the Patiala House courts when Kanhaiya Kumar was produced for hearing. Apart from Kanhaiya, two other JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, facing the charge of sedition, surrendered before the police late on Tuesday, hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant them protection from arrest. The duo, who returned to the JNU campus last Sunday after having gone missing since 12 February, drove from the administrative bloc to the main gate of the university, got into a Delhi Police vehicle and were taken to an undisclosed destination. Police sources said Khalid and Bhattacharya surrendered at around midnight. The two have been placed under police custody at South Campus police station. They will be produced before a magistrate on Wenesday morning, the sources said. Besides Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya, the other students are Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash. Delhi Police had issued a look-out notice on 20 February against Khalid, Bhattacharya, Naga, Ashutosh and Prakash. Earlier, Khalid and Bhattacharya left the JNU campus at around 11.50 pm on Tuesday night for the surrender. The university students formed a human chain to prevent the media from following Khalid and Bhattacharya when they were leaving the campus on Tuesday evening. The National Capital Region is also being shaken up by 10,000 students who will be protesting at Jantar Mantar and India Gate on 23-24 February in solidarity with the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University and dalit scholar Rohith Vemula who committed suicide in University of Hyderabad. The JNU row and Rohith Vemula's suicide have both sparked great debate in the country about the freedom of speech, the right to dissent, police brutality and overreach. According to The Indian Express, the slogan of the protests is "humein chahiye azaadi, hum chheen ke lenge" (We want freedom and we will snatch it). The protest is being organised by Joint Action Committe (JAC) for Social Justice and Hyderabad Central University (HCU). The report also points out that students from TISS, TIFR, Mumbai University will join the protests. According to Mid-Day, a number of students from across Mumbai universities and colleges have started a petition seeking the immediate release of Kanhaiya Kumar. Others accused of sedition and branded as "absconding" by the Delhi police, Umar Khalid and others will also be moving the High Court seeking security to surrender. With inputs from agencies New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear plea for initiation of contempt proceedings against three lawyers who were caught on camera admitting to have attacked JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and others when he was produced in the Patiala House Court complex last week. "Let it be listed tomorrow (on Friday) before the bench concerned," said a bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit as counsel Prashant Bhushan mentioned the matter seeking an urgent hearing of the PIL by counsel Kamini Jaiswal. Bhushan told the court that the bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre has fixed 10 March for the hearing of plea by former JNU student ND Jaiprakash on the incident but sought an urgent hearing of the PIL also seeking SIT probe into it. Several journalists, as also Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been arrested on sedition charges, were assaulted in the court premises on 15 and 17 February. Jaiswal, in the PIL filed on Wednesday has sought initiation of suo motu contempt against three lawyers Vikram Singh Chauhan, Yashpal Singh and Om Sharma for allegedly interfering in the administration of justice and wilfully violating the apex court's 17 February order. Alleging "complete inaction of Delhi Police" in the face of violence by a section of lawyers and others, the PIL has referred to the February 18 report by the six-member lawyers' panel sent by the apex court on 17 February to take stock of the situation, the 19 February report by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), a sting operation by a news channel and an eyewitness account of violence by a judicial officer. The PIL said the three advocates were found to be leading an attack in two incidents as reported by the media and allegedly admitted by them in a sting operation. They have not only been identified but they also admitted to their involvement in the incidents of violence but still police did not make any attempt to arrest them, the petitioner contended. The petition quoted a first-hand account by a journalist who talked about the blatant mockery of the judicial process and quoted the assailants as saying "Ab le aao SC ko apne saath, kahan gaya SC is waqt (Now bring the Supreme Court with you, where is the Supreme Court right now)." "The atmosphere, to say the least, not being at all congenial, was surcharged, threatening, and frightening and police had completely failed in its duty to contain the atmosphere and crowd," the petitioner said quoting the February 18 report by the lawyers panel submitted to the apex court. It says despite the Delhi High Court registrar general asking Deputy Commissioner of Police Jatin Narwal to apprehend an unauthorised person on the court premises, he was allowed to escape. The PIL also refers to the NHRC report of 19 February saying that the attack by some people dressed as advocates in the Patiala House court complex on 17 February on Kanhaiya Kumar "appears to be organised and pre-planned" and a "major security lapse". Referring to the sting operation by a TV channel, the PIL pointed out that the lawyers involved in the attacks admitted that these were "not spontaneous but in fact were pre-planned" and asserted they would repeat the same acts of violence when Kanhaiya is produced in the court again. It has also pointed out that lawyer Yashpal Singh brazenly said that he would get a petrol bomb next time and would not leave Kanhaiya even if he was charged with murder. 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She spent three months interviewing administrators, students, former students, and local Muslim leaders. Her inquiries ended in September, by which time she had gathered a large quantity of information and opinions on the relevance of madrassas, their role in Muslim radicalisation and the impact the governments madrassa modernisation programme has had on these institutions. Khan found Muslim opinion divided. Many thought madrassas were being unfairly targeted because of anti-Muslim prejudice and that the debate ignored the role they played in providing Islamic learning and providing free education to poor Muslim children. Others argued that these institutions were an anachronism and called for greater regulation around their sources of funding and their curriculum. There was near unanimity on one issue: it was all very well to modernise madrassas by introducing computers, but not at the expense of mainstream secular schooling. Parents in rural areas told Khan they were forced to send their children to madrassas owing to the lack of proper schools in villages. Firstpost invited Khan to write a series of four articles drawing from her travels. We commissioned pencil drawings by Maitri Dore, a Bengaluru-based architect, to serve as visual elements accompanying Khans pieces; she was not allowed to photograph her subjects. This is the concluding segment of the series. By Yasmin M Khan Madrassa are a conspiracy against illiterate and less educated Muslims. These institutions provide a narrow education which keeps their students away from the mainstream. It is in the interest of Muslims themselves to close them down. It is high time that the Muslim community realises the urgency for change in madrassas. Religious schools have no place in the modern worldif at all they need to be there the government should have full control over their curriculum. Through institutions like madrassas, Muslim leaders have blocked Muslims from joining the mainstream. We oppose any interference in madrassas. It is the right of every religious community to run its own religious institutions without interference. These comments picked up at random from various newspapers and social networking sites illustrate the polarisation in the debate on the role of madrassas and efforts to reform them. Talk to anyone, and they have a view on madrassas ranging from one extreme to another. On the one hand, the Hindu Right consistently tries to paint them as dens of terrorism; on the other, sections of Muslims passionately defend them as if nothing is wrong with them, wrote Arshad Alam, assistant professor at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, in The Indian Express. He called for a meaningful and dispassionate discussion on madrassa reform and the future of thousands of children who study in these institutions. But, the sharp and contrasting reactions to his article only appeared to confirm how divisive the issue has become. Unfortunately, much of the debate is coloured by madrassas' association with extremism and there's a view that government reforms are also prompted by national security concerns. The way Islam-madrassa-extremism angle has played out has made even many moderate Muslims, who have no love lost for madrassas, defensive. The late Islamic scholar, Asghar Ali Engineer, is one of them. He spent a lifetime taking on Muslim fundamentalists who in turn routinely targeted him. But he remained extremely critical of the ill-informed attacks on madrassas; and the way myths" were invented to portray madrassas as havens for jihadis and by implication Islam as a violent religion. Most of the views about madrassas were expressed by those who hardly had any first-hand knowledge of madrassa system or what is taught in these madrassas. They just presumed that since these are Islamic institutions they must be teaching jihad and war. Even responsible ministers from (Vajpayee's) NDA government made such statements. What is needed is well-informed and well-studied opinion, he wrote in 2009. More than nine years on, it is still almost impossible to have a well-informed discussion on madrassas. For that to happen it is important to demystify some of the myths that surround them, particularly the perception that they are a homogeneous entity with common aims, curricula and outlook. It becomes apparent on examination that they adhere to different, and often conflicting, schools of Islamic thought (Deobandi, Barelvi, Ahle Hadees to name a few) with almost every Muslim sect represented by its own madrassa. People make the same mistake with madrassas as they do with Muslims who they see as a monolithic community with identical views and outlook, said Fauzia, an activist of a Gurgaon-based group which campaigns for more girls madrassas she uses just one name. Another misconception is that madrassas are free to frame their own courses. In reality, state-funded madrassas are required by law to follow the government prescribed curriculum or lose government recognition and funding. This is one reason why bigger madrassas run by rich Wakf boards or private benefactors prefer not to seek state grants and recognition. Such misperceptions (some genuine, some deliberate) feed the Muslim Right. Which gives it another pretext to invoke the Islam in danger bogey and indulge in conspiracy theories. Such is the level of distrust that most of the big, independent self-financing madrassas, including Deoband, have refused to sign up to government plans, calling them an attack on Muslim communitys right to run its own religious institutions and preserve their identity. Where do madrassas go from here? Will they survive at all, or die a slow death because of their unwillingness to adapt? Tufail Ahmed, Director South Asia Studies Project of the Washington-based right-wing Middle East Media Research Institute who studied at a madrassa in Bihar, sees madrassas in their present form as a threat to liberty and believes that they must be forced to change or shut down. Madrassas are counter-liberty movements, and are incompatible with the 21st century's ideas of rights. Secular Hindu leaders and Islamic scholars defend madrassas in the name of religious freedom. But, under the Indian Constitution, the right to religion is superseded by all other fundamental rights, he said addressing the pro-BJP Indian Foundations India Ideas Conclave in Goa recently. The Right to Education, which guaranteed every child in India mainstream school education irrespective of their religion, takes precedence over the Right to Religion: If a specific madrassa does not deliver these educational metrics, it must be banned as unconstitutional, in violation of the Right to Education Act. But Huma Kidwai, a research scholar at Columbia University who has written a paper on madrassas, favours a more consensual approach, and believes that it is important for policy-makers to acknowledge the diversity and complexity in the political and social identity of Muslims and their institutions. According to her, the future of madrassas is tied up with the question of Muslim identity in a Hindu majority country; and their future depends on how well they are able to resolve the tension between their perceived need to protect their image as religious institutions on the one hand, and to establish their relevance to contemporary society on the other. When I asked people how someone writing a similar series ten years on would assess the madrassas, most suggested not very differently. they didnt expect madrassas to change very much. The reason they gave was a lack of ambition of pro-reform campaigners whose aim they see as rather modest limited to making madrassas only slightly more widely acceptable and increasing their appeal by adding a few modern subjects. We are not talking about root and branch changes so I don't foresee anything sensational happening, Abdul Rahman Siddiqui, who briefly taught at a madrassa in Meerut and now offers private tuitions, told me. It is a perspective that is widely shared that the reforms are too timid to bring about any fundamental change in the character or outlook of madrassas. In government circles, however, this is seen as something positive. One UP government official who didn't want to be quoted said, We don't want to rock the boat only steer it in the right direction. The good news, however, is that despite widespread scepticism there is a very Indian philosophical sense of optimism that in the end it will all turn out right and that the reforms, limited though they are, will make some difference to the way madrassas are run. Any change is better than the status quo, goes the argument. Well know in time. How it all began The first madrassa in north India was established in 1191 by Sultan Mohammed Ghori. It was built in Ajmer. Rulers who followed Ghori expanded centres of Islamic learning to Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Gujarat and Aurangabad. Some became among the most renowned in the Muslim world. Initially, both students and teachers were drawn mostly from the ruling class. But their social composition changed radically with the establishment of Dar-ul-Uloom in Deoband in 1865. It was the largest traditional madrassa in the world and marked a turning point in Muslim education in India. Madrassas began to enrol students from the lower strata of Muslim society a process which has continued. In 1892, Nadwat-ul-Ulema was set up in Lucknow in opposition to Dar-ul-Uloom to teach both Islamic theology and modern education. This, in a sense, forms the precursor to the modernisation progamme the government has launched. Part 1: Misogyny, and the beginning of reform in north Indias madrassas Part 2: How Deoband became shorthand for extremism and violent intolerance Part 3: Why blaming madrassas for poorly educated Muslims will get us nowhere Written in incorrect English, with grammatical errors and many such holes, the 13-page Delhi Police status report on the bail plea of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar speaks volumes in the silences it maintains. The report talks about posters and protests, one lone ranger video broadcast on a private TV channel and a charged atmosphere on the night of 9 February, but the critical bit of proof that suggests Kanhaiya was engaged in seditious activity is missing. Bulk of the details listed in the status report pre-date a Zee News producer's resignation over what he claimed was a video of questionable provenance, which the status report cites as evidence. The Indian Express reports on the latest focus of investigations: "five persons who were allegedly shouting anti-India slogans" during the event on JNU campus on 9 February. They could be seen raising slogans against India in the video accessed by the police, sources told The Indian Express. Firstpost's Tarique Anwar reviewed the report and photographed 11 pages containing details of the investigation. In it are allusions to posters, various dhabas in JNU, people with their faces covered, "foreign elements" and other such shadows that are being chased. "During the course of investigation, the investigating agency intends to unearth larger conspiracy," says the status report. Read: How Delhi Police assembled its case against Kanhaiya Kumar, why Bassi opposed his bail Silence may not be golden as Modi lays low during #JNURow These are the highlights of the pages Anwar photographed: Page 1: Many posters near Sabarmati Dhaba Page 5: Quarrel between two groups, according to police. Page 5: Which is this "other group"? Does it have a name? Page 6: Delhi Police gets unedited footage of 9 February event from Zee News Page 8: Explains how Kanhaiya Kumar was apprehended, basis the Zee News footage. But the Zee News producer has quit saying the astons were wrong. Page 9: Language of posters = mischief. Page 10: "During the course of investigation, the investigating agency intends to unearth larger conspiracy." Page 10: "Investigation is at a very primitive stage." Page 10: "Agency is looking for linkage between petitioner and foreign agency." Page 11: "Investigating agency is investigating source of finance for all activities that led to the offence." Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on 12 February. Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya surrendered to Delhi Police 23 February. All these JNU students are charged with sedition based on what they allegedly shouted out on the evening of 9 February. The Delhi Police mentions an airing of a Zee News report as the first point of evidence but a Zee News producer has quite saying that no such anti-national slogans were in the original video. That the original video which formed the basis of the entire #JNURow and sedition charge was doctored is now out and the status report appended here has no details on the specifics. Delhi Police went on record saying they have proof that goes beyond the "doctored" video of Zee News but that proof does not show up in the status report. Meanhwile, the Delhi High Court continues to postpone the bail plea hearing of JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, now for the second time in a week. Kumar is currently in judicial custody till March 2. Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the police can seek custody for up to 14 days after arrest. For two weeks, judicial custody and police custody can be exchanged. He was previously placed in police custody for three days and then another two days after his arrest on February 12. Kanhaiya Kumar Bail Application The Delhi High Court on Wednesday adjourned Kumar's bail plea till February 29 after Delhi Police said it will seek his fresh remand to "unearth any larger conspiracy". Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for Delhi Police, told Justice Pratibha Rani that they were moving a remand application to seek Kanhaiya's police custody for the third time, to confront him with fellow Jawaharlal Nehru University students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya who surrendered on Tuesday night. Mehta said the police remand of Kanhaiya, who is currently in judicial custody till March 2, is required to confront him with Khalid and Anirban and "unearth any larger conspiracy". The court deferred the hearing till February 29 after Kanhaiya's advocates Kapil Sibal and Rebecca John asked the court to postpone the hearing as they will oppose the police remand application. "Since two JNU students surrendered last (Tuesday) night, we need to confront them with Kanhaiya," ASG Mehta said. Allowing police to move the remand application before the concerned court, Justice Pratibha Rani said: "We have to ensure that they don't suffer any scratch, that's my only concern." Delhi Police opposed the bail plea of Kanhaiya and submitted a status report to the court. If Kanhaiya is released on bail, "he may create law and order problems by conducting meetings in his support, hampering arrest of other accused people", said police. Kanhaiya "did not cooperate at all during the course of the interrogation", they said. The report also said Delhi Police was looking into the "linkage between Kanhaiya and some foreign elements with their mouths covered" who were present during the February 9 event at the university. Kanhaiya was arrested in a sedition case on February 12 after the event held on the university campus against the execution of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. He allegedly shouted anti-India slogans at the event. Khalid and Anirban, along with three others, had gone missing from the JNU campus since February 12 when Kanhaiya was arrested. They surrendered on Tuesday night. The police report said Kanhaiya, if released on bail, "may influence the witnesses and also hamper the investigation". "It would send a wrong signal to the students community across the country that such anti-India activities can be conducted with immunity." "He (Kanhaiya) may become the rallying point to encourage such anti-India movements which would not only spread disaffection but would also be contemptuous since the conviction recorded by the Supreme Court is being termed judicial killing," the report stated. Delhi Police further said: "It is an open secret that the aforesaid conduct of holding an event on February 9 has not only ramifications within India, it has an international impact as well." During the hearing, Justice Pratibha Rani made it clear that police have the statutory right to seek remand of Kanhaiya till February 27. An accused may be held in police custody for a period of normally not more than 14 days. As Kanhaiya was arrested on February 12, Delhi Police has the statutory right to seek remand before the expiry of the 14-day period, police said. ASG Mehta told the court that Delhi Police will ensure safety of lawyers and the accused in the case. Security was beefed up inside and outside the court room during the hearing. The entry to the courtroom of Justice Pratibha Rani was restricted to lawyers involved in the case and a few media persons. The high court posted the matter for February 29. With IANS New Delhi: Amid the clamour of unrest sweeping university campuses and the state of Haryana near New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided on a strategy that risks emboldening political opponents: silence is golden. Advisers describe a leader who is on top of events, but who prefers not to get sucked into rowdy debate on India's public square. In recent weeks, thousands of students have protested across the country over the arrest of a student leader for alleged sedition, while anger among the powerful Jat community over caste-based job quotas spilled into deadly clashes in Haryana. "He (Modi) believes that his popularity comes from being seen as a serious politician who gets on with his work," said a leader of Modi's ruling party, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He does not believe in giving a running commentary." An adviser said that Modi, 65, would instead give a sober assessment of recent unrest to parliament, which convened this week for its budget session in a climate of confrontation that is likely to further stall his ambitious economic reform agenda. Modi's reticence, also evident during floods last year and a high profile attack by militants in early 2016, has undermined the image of a decisive leader who swept to power in May, 2014, defeating a Congress government led by the taciturn Manmohan Singh. "The silence raises questions about being on top of your brief," said Milan Vaishnav, an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "That conversation has begun: Modi is a person who we thought was a decider; a CEO-like leader. But if we are now getting signals that he is not necessarily the effective administrator we thought he was, that is becoming a problem." A new opinion poll showed Modi's popularity holding up, while Congress has bounced back from its dire election showing of 2014, validating a strategy of blocking reforms and latching on to protests as they flare up. If a general election were held now, Modi's nationalist alliance would win, but with a sharply reduced majority. Congress would double its seat share, according to the poll for India Today magazine published last week. Leadership Vacuum? Modi's silence on unforeseen events contrasts with his reputation as an effective communicator, through rousing speeches and social media, when broadcasting his vision of inclusive growth and development for India's 1.3 billion people. When he does retreat from public view, aides have been known to step in, not always with happy consequences. After the arrest for sedition of Kanhaiya Kumar, a student leader in New Delhi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh circulated a fake tweet that falsely suggested a campus protest had the support of a notorious Pakistani militant. Delhi's police chief showed no remorse when officers failed to prevent lawyers manhandling Kumar in court, while education minister Smriti Irani backed a decision to fly Indian flags, from 207-foot (63-metre) flagpoles, on campuses across the country as a reminder to "anti-national" elements. Meanwhile, the unrest has revived Congress' leader-in-waiting, Rahul Gandhi, who has joined students on the barricades and shows no signs of ending opposition to a key tax reform that has been blocked in parliament. In Haryana, its chief minister fell foul of the powerful Jat caste, which turned to violence when he failed to meet their demands for affirmative action on jobs and education. More than a week of protests killed 19 people, injured 170, destroyed businesses, paralysed transport and cut water supplies to metropolitan Delhi. A spokesman for Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who is from Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, said he was determined to address the legitimate demands of the Jat community, while those responsible for the violence would be punished. "He will carry on. He enjoys the full faith and confidence of party leaders," spokesman Amit Arya said. At the weekend, rather than intervening, Modi blamed unnamed outside conspirators for "hatching conspiracies every day to finish and defame me". Leaders have echoed his rhetoric, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday criticising "false propaganda, anti-government propaganda". "When Modi starts seeing a conspiracy in everything I think he is in serious trouble," said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of "The Man, The Times", a biography of Modi. "It is an admission that he is not able to manage the thrust of his government. So he has to apportion the blame to someone." Reuters Editors note Award winning novelist, poet and musician Jeet Thayil says this poem was rejected by a literary and cultural magazine for being too political. We told him wed be happy to run it. Wapsi By Jeet Thayil On television the new war blares, we sick bitches lick our wounds and try to recuperate, cow logic, cowed rhetoric, cowardly assassinations replicate the ways god dons armor in India, in twenty fifteen. The earth picks at its scabs, old wounds made fresh, children crawl backward like crabs to the cradle, no light, no progress, only a cleansing of the unclean as defined by the Prime Ministers fringe masters. His beard drips grammar this morning, and though his fist pumps properly for the camera, he has lost faith in his tryst, his destiny, his own words make him cringe and grieve for the gone world, the great transformation wrought on the past, the sly erasure of names Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar history recast for the age of holy terror, the tolerant taught to hate. Why measure time with words when word is met with violence? How tame, how lame this line met with silence, how useless its meter and rhyme, better far to speak to the birds whose voices grow in panic or pity as mans horizon narrows with his understanding and the sun shrinks to a tight band of porous saffron loud enough to stun even him, the silent all-seeing deity. New Delhi: Alleging that there was "heavy influence" of the RSS on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress today said if such people were around him, he would not be able to take his projects forward. "There is a heavy influence of RSS on you. This is fine for BJP and Pracharaks, but not good for the Prime Minister. There are different medicines for different diseases. RSS has never thought about poor," Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said while speaking on the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address. "Aapke aaju-baaju me aise log rehenge to apke projects, apki gari kitni door tak chalegi (If such people are around you, then how will you be able to take your projects forward)," he said. Modi was present in the House when Kharge was speaking. Kharge also accused the government of repackaging most schemes of the erstwhile UPA government and cutting down benefits to farmers and said there was a huge difference between the "policies and intentions" of the NDA government. Maintaining that Modi had once criticised the national rural employment scheme, Kharge said the entire world had appreciated the flagship schemes of the UPA, including the MGNREGA, the Food Security Act and the Right To Education. He said the schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Swasthya Bima Yojana, Jeevan Jyoti Yojana, Krishi Sinchai Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana were all replicas of the UPA government schemes. Drawing the attention of the House to the recent India-Africa summit held here, the Congress leader said while the global leaders appreciated the role of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, there was no word of appreciation from Modi. "The country cannot function if you create an atmosphere of such hatred. History will not change whether you take Nehru's name or not. History will be written in golden letters," Kharge said. He said the President's speech had failed to focus on issues afflicting women, farmers, the poor, workers, dalits and adivasis and added that there was a need to change the thought process to build a strong and far sighted India. "Aap duniya ko gumrah karte rahen, ye zyada din chalne wala nahi hai. ... Sarkar ke upar se janta ka bharosa uth jata hai (You cannot mislead the world for too long ... the people's faith in your government will go)," he said. (more) PTI Paris: A threat to add countries who are slow to combat terrorism financing to a public black list has proved effective in pushing them into action, a top executive at an international task force said ahead of G20 talks on the topic opening Friday. Since the Paris attacks in November, some 50 countries have responded to a new call by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for concrete steps to choke the funding of terrorist organisations, the body's executive secretary, David Lewis, told AFP. The threat of inclusion on the FATF's black list of governments failing to comply has been instrumental to get this response, he said in an interview, as states tried to avoid being named and shamed. "The prospect of the FATF taking such action has led to more than 50 countries amending legislation or being in the process of doing so," Lewis said. "So we see countries act very quickly to ensure that they do not get onto that list." The FATF's current black list includes North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria. Iran is also high on the list but Tehran, which last July signed a deal with western powers ending economic sanctions, has now signalled its willingness to cooperate, Lewis said. "Iran is coming back to the table. They have approached us. They have shown a willingness to start cooperating with us," he said. G20 countries asked the FATF to evaluate progress on measures against illicit money flows ahead of their meeting in Shanghai this week which will discuss the fight against terrorism financing. The FATF, created in 1989 to promote the fight against money laundering, terrorism financing and other threats to the international financial system, has found that governments' responses are still inadequate measured against the threats. The use of tools at governments' disposal "is much lower than it should be given the threat we face", Lewis said. "Only 36 countries have ever convicted someone for terrorism financing and only 40 have used targeted financial sanctions," he noted. Freezing assets is effective, but often takes up to a month to implement, Lewis said. "In a world where you can move funds in seconds online, that is not an adequate response to the threat we are facing," he said, adding his organisation had made a push for swifter action a priority. Targeting money flows exploits a major vulnerability of organisations like Islamic State who need massive funds to function, Lewis said. "They require substantial amounts of money to be able to operate, because they try to provide some of the services of a state. AFP Kathmandu: The authorities in Nepal's western Myagdi district on Thursday said the bodies of all 23 victims of the previous day's passenger plane crash have been recovered. Police and army returned to the crash site at first light after abandoning recovery efforts late Wednesday due to bad weather in the remote Himalayan district where the Twin Otter turboprop aircraft came down. The site in Myagdi district is around 16,000 feet (4,900 metres) high in the Himalayas and can only be reached on foot or by helicopter. The bodies were being brought to a helipad in Surkepatal, 150 metres from the crash site in Soli Ghopte Bhir, a Nepal Army officer said. "We are on a search mission here to find the bodies of all the victims," police superintendent Chhabi Lal Joshi had told AFP by phone from the site of the crash, the latest in a series of fatal aviation accidents in the impoverished Himalayan nation. Joshi said workers had built a makeshift helipad to transport the bodies to the nearest airport in the town of Pokhara, around 220 kilometres (160 miles) west of Kathmandu. But the airline, Tara Air, said strong winds had prevented helicopters from reaching the area on Thursday. "Two helicopters have been sent since morning, but failed to reach the site. We will try again," said spokesman Bhim Raj Rai, before all the bodies were recovered. The Tara Air flight from Pokhara to Jomsom -- about a 20-minute flight -- was carrying three crew and 20 passengers, including a Chinese national and a Kuwaiti. All the others were from Nepal and two of them were children. The government said it had formed a committee to investigate the tragedy, the cause of which is not yet known. Tara Air is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, a privately owned domestic carrier founded in 1998 which services many remote destinations across Nepal. It suffered its last fatal accident in 2010 when a plane chartered by a group of Bhutanese tourists crashed into a mountainside in eastern Nepal. The country, which is still reeling from a devastating earthquake last April, has in recent years suffered a number of air disasters. Most have been attributed to inexperienced pilots, poor management and inadequate maintenance. The European Union blacklisted all Nepal's airlines in 2013. With inputs from agencies Kabul: Pakistan's military provides weapons and training to ISIS militants in Afghanistan and instructs them to kill the "infidel" Afghan forces, according to the terror group's fighters who laid down their arms. They also said that Pakistani military provides light and heavy weapons to ISIS fighters in Afghanistan. "Pakistani military gave us weapons and used to tell us that Afghan forces are infidels and you must kill them," Zaitoon, a former ISIS fighter who laid down his arms and joined the peace talks, was quoted as saying by the TOLO news on Wednesday. Arabistan, Zaitoon's co-fighter, said: "I was tasked to fight in Nazian district [in Nangarhar]." They presented their daily report to Punjabis and Pakistanis and were encouraged by them to fight the Afghan government. The 10-member group has joined the peace process due to efforts by the High Peace Council office in the province and also with the help of the Afghan security forces, said Chairman of Nangarhar Provincial Council Malik Nazir. "There were 24 men in two groups the first group was 14 Taliban fighters and the second group included 10 Daesh fighters who for the first time joined the peace process," Nazir added. PTI ISTANBUL Turkey's top court ruled on Thursday that detaining two journalists from an opposition newspaper had violated their rights and an advocacy group called for the charges against them, which carry a life sentence, to be dropped. The arrest of Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul last November drew international condemnation and revived concern about media freedom in Turkey under President Tayyip Erdogan. They were detained after the publication of video footage purporting to show the state intelligence agency helping send weapons to Syria. "The constitutional court has ruled that there is a rights violation. An immediate appeal will be made ... We are expecting their release," Tahir Ozyurt, Cumhuriyet's acting editor-in-chief, told Reuters. An appeal to a local court is needed to secure the speedy release of the journalists. Cumhuriyet's managing director Akin Atalay told Reuters that under normal circumstances the two would have been freed later on Thursday after the constitutional court ruled rights had been violated, but their release might be delayed to Friday because the court that would order their release was already in session. The two were charged with intentionally aiding an armed terrorist organisation and publishing material in violation of state security. Cumhuriyet published photos, videos and a report last May that it said showed intelligence officials transporting arms to Syria in trucks in 2014. Erdogan, who has cast the newspaper's coverage as part of an attempt to undermine Turkey's global standing, said he would not forgive such reporting. He has acknowledged that the trucks, which were stopped by gendarmerie and police officers en route to the Syrian border, belonged to the MIT intelligence agency and said they were carrying aid to Turkmens in Syria. Turkmen fighters are battling both President Bashar al-Assad's forces and Islamic State. In the ruling, the court said the arrest of the journalists was "not lawful" and violated their individual freedom and safety, adding "the ruling should be sent to the relevant court to overturn this breach". Despite the ruling, the two reporters are still facing possible life sentences at a trial which is due to start on March 25. Advocacy group Reporters Without Borders welcomed the court's decision, but called for the charges of espionage and assisting a terrorist organisation to be dropped. In an interview on CNN Turk, Dundar's wife Dilek Dundar spoke of hope for Turkey's press freedom, as she waited for the release of her husband. "Hope these dark clouds over Turkey's press will be lifted. The ruling of the Constitutional Court is very promising." (Additional reporting by Melih Aslan; Writing by Nick Tattersall and Dasha Afanasieva; Editing by David Dolan and Dominic Evans) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Days after Sydney man Matthew Leveson disappeared, his partner Michael Atkins drove to Newcastle to have sex with another man, a coronial inquest has heard. Mr Leveson, 20, was last seen leaving Arq nightclub in Darlinghurst with Mr Atkins in the early hours of September 23, 2007. But three days later, Mr Atkins, then 44-years-old, left the couple's shared apartment in Cronulla and drove to Newcastle to have sex with another man he met on the internet. The man who used the pseudonym Bradley Johns, told the inquest on Thursday, Mr Atkins arrived at his Newcastle apartment on September 26, wearing work clothes which were "dirty" and had grease on them. Three Melbourne brothers who staged and filmed hoax attacks on members of the public have been charged and put on strict bail conditions preventing them from uploading similar videos online. The brothers, aged 20, 18 and 16, were taken into custody after counter-terrorism detectives executed a warrant at their home on Thursday morning. A screenshot of a prank drive-by shooting video performed by the brothers which scared a young girl and her father. The trio drew the attention of police after staging fake bombings and abductions in public and then posting the videos on YouTube. Police charged the three brothers later on Thursday with public nuisance, possessing a prohibited weapon and behaving in an offensive manner in a public place. Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has called for Malaysians to rise up against embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak, escalating political tensions in the south-east Asian country. "I think the time has come when parties do not matter anymore. This is a problem affecting the nation," Dr Mahathir told reporters in a pitch for political adversaries to put aside their differences to act against Mr Najib, including members of the long-ruling United Malays National Organisation. 'I want everybody to act as citizens who are concerned with what is happening in this country' ... former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. Credit:AP "I want everybody to act as citizens who are concerned with what is happening in this country," he said. "As a citizen, it does not matter whether you are for the opposition or the government now is the time to act as citizens, irrespective of party affiliations or loyalties." A team of investigative journalists claims to have evidence showing that the missile that shot down a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine in July 2014 belonged to a Russian battalion that had recently deployed to the region. Two hundred ninety-eight people died when the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was downed. A Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team is still probing the crash. Investigators from the website Bellingcat.com claim to have put together a mass of evidence pinpointing the origins of a specific Russian-made missile launcher - firing a so-called BUK missile - that it claims was used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Eliot Higgins, the founder of Bellingcat, told VOA via Skype his team was able to identify a number of individuals involved. Rather than talk about this missile launcher has come from the Russian army and its all rather nebulous, we can say these are the names and faces, these were the people who knew what was happening to this BUK missile launcher, who would have passed on the orders, he said. Distinctive markings Higgins team collated videos of a military convoy in eastern Ukraine - posted on the Internet in the hours and days following the shooting down of flight MH17 - and identified a BUK launcher they believe fired the missile. Some of the photographs of the BUK missile launcher from July 17 in Ukraine, theres marking visible on the side of the missile launcher that match perfectly with markings on the side of the missile launcher that was part of a convoy in Russia in June, Higgins said. Bellingcat then plotted the route of that June convoy in Russia, using videos posted online by soldiers and civilians filming from the roadside. It appears to have started at a military base close to Kursk, the home of the 2nd Battalion of Russias 53rd Air Defense Brigade, and ends close to the Ukrainian border. What weve been able to find is a vast number of social media accounts belonging to soldiers who were part of the 53rd Air Defense Brigade. And based on that we were able to piece together who they were, which members of the brigade were in that convoy, said Higgins. So they would have been people who would have seen this missile launcher, they would have seen it leave at some point; so these are key people for the investigation to be speaking to. Details passed to Dutch investigators Bellingcat partly identifies the commander of the 2nd battalion as a man named Dmitry T. - and names the overall commander of the 53rd Russian Air Defense Brigade as Colonel Sergey Borisovich Muchkaev. All details have been passed to Dutch investigators. The Bellingcat investigation concludes that even if the BUK launcher was given to separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian soldiers were likely still present to advise on its operation. Russia has consistently denied involvement - and at the time offered photographic and satellite evidence purporting to show that Ukrainian forces shot down the airliner. Ukraine dismissed the accusation, while Bellingcat says the Russian evidence was forged. Because this state's presidential primaries are the first in the southeastern United States, experts say they are among the most important early battlegrounds in the nominee selection process. For weeks, Republican and Democratic candidates have crisscrossed the state. From major rallies packing thousands of supporters into convention centers and town halls to smaller discussions in churches and university buildings, candidates on both sides of the aisle have fought hard for each vote in this pivotal state. Spread out over two weeks, the campaigning ends Saturday when Democratic Party voters go to the polls to choose between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. African-American support For the Democrats, one key demographic will go a long way in determining who is better suited to represent their party. "The South Carolina Democratic primary is going to be over half African-American," said Scott Huffmon, a political science professor at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. "This is the first test of black support. And of course, African-Americans vote over 90 percent for the Democratic Party, so knowing who is the favorite for this core constituency is really important for the Democrats." Based on opinion polls, that candidate is Clinton. To bolster her support among African-Americans, she hosted an emotional forum Tuesday at a Baptist church in Columbia with mothers who have lost children to gun violence including the mother of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch coordinator. Sybrina Fulton, Martin's mother, was clear about whom she supported: "We have an opportunity to have someone who is going to stand up for us as African-Americans, for us as women. I say my vote goes to Hillary Clinton." Other members of Clinton's forum included the mother of Eric Garner, who was choked to death while in police custody, and former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot while meeting with her constituents in Arizona. While Clinton has ramped up events like this across South Carolina, Sanders, who trails heavily in early polling, has chosen to campaign in other states. He is expected to return to South Carolina on Friday, the day before the primary. Some observers have said this is a sign Sanders has conceded defeat in the state; Sanders has denied this. Southern appeal As for the Republicans, Huffmon said Trump's win in South Carolina last Saturday showed he can appeal to different types of conservatives and also was important for strategic reasons. "If you are the type of candidate who can appeal to the electorate of South Carolina, you're the type of candidate who can appeal to the entire South, and that's really important for the Republicans," Huffmon said. For Republicans, South Carolina is vital. It's the first state where support among different types of conservatives can be truly measured. Since 1980, every Republican who has won South Carolina has gone on to win the nomination until Newt Gingrich won the state in 2012, beating out eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Some analysts believed this was the end of South Carolinas predictive ability, but Huffmon said he thought the state in 2012 was the "canary in the coal mine," foretelling the rise of anti-establishment, insurgent candidates like Trump and Ted Cruz. Many analysts like Huffmon agree it's not yet inevitable that Trump will win the Republican nomination, with Marco Rubio building establishment support and Cruz remaining a contender. But Huffmon said, "The more Trump wins in these earlier contests, the more likely it becomes." WATCH: Hillary Clinton Addresses a Town Hall in South Carolina Donald Trump decisively won Nevadas Republican caucuses for his third straight victory yesterday [Macau time] as his two main rivals, senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, battled for second place in an increasingly urgent effort to slam the brakes on the Trump juggernaut. The billionaire businessman now can claim victories in the West, the South and Northeast a testament to his broad appeal among the mad-as-hell voters making their voices heard in the 2016 presidential race. His rivals are running out of time to stop him. Were winning, winning, winning the country, Trump declared. Soon, the country is going to start winning, winning, winning. Ticking off a list of upcoming primary states where hes leading in preference polls, Trump predicted hell soon be able to claim the Republican presidential nomination. Its going to be an amazing two months, he told a raucous crowd at a Las Vegas casino. We might not even need the two months, folks, to be honest. Entrance polls captured the sentiment propelling Trumps insurgent campaign: Six in 10 caucus goers said they were angry with the way the government is working, and Trump got about half of them. After winning in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, Trump has built up momentum heading into March 1, or Super Tuesday, when Republicans hold nominating contests in a dozen states. In the Democratic race, front-runner Hillary Clinton was looking for a commanding victory over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Saturdays South Carolina primary to give her a boost heading into Super Tuesday. Polls show the former secretary of state with a huge advantage among African-Americans which bodes well for her prospects in South Carolina and then the Southern states which vote on Super Tuesday where blacks make up a large segment of the Democratic primary electorate. Nevada was a critical test for Rubio and Cruz, who are battling to emerge as the clear alternative to Trump. Rubio was out to prove he can build on recent momentum, while Cruz was looking for a spark to help him recover from a particularly rocky stretch in his campaign. Lagging far behind the two senators in the Nevada vote were Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Rubio, already campaigning in Michigan as caucus results rolled in, was projecting confidence that he can consolidate the non-Trump voters who have been splintering among an assortment of Republican candidates, saying, we have incredible room to grow. Rubio and Cruz have been attacking each other viciously in recent days, an indication they know Trump can be stopped only if one of them is eliminated. But after finishing third in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire and second in South Carolina, Rubio needs a win soon to support the idea he can beat Trump. Republican establishment heavyweights have been flooding to Rubio in recent days, including several senators and governors, but that might not help win over an angry Republican base looking for a political outsider like Trump. Cruz, a fiery conservative popular among voters on the Republican right, finished a disappointing third in South Carolina after spending much of the past two weeks denying charges of dishonest campaign tactics and defending his integrity. Another disappointing finish in Nevada would raise new questions about his viability heading into a crucial batch of Super Tuesday states on March 1. In a more muted address, Cruz gave Trump his due for winning in Nevada and then pressed the argument that hes the only candidate who can stop the real estate mogul. Harking back to own win in Iowas leadoff caucuses, Cruz told supporters the only campaign that has defeated Donald Trump is this campaign. Then, looking for opportunities that lie ahead in his home state of Texas and elsewhere, he added: One week from today will be the most important night of this campaign: Super Tuesday. The election calendar suggests that if Trumps rivals dont slow him by mid-March, they may not ever. Trump swept all of South Carolinas 50 delegates, giving him a total of 67 compared to Cruz and Rubio who have 11 and 10, respectively. There were 30 delegates at stake in Nevada, and a whopping 595 available one week later on Super Tuesday bonanza. Nevadas caucusing played out in schools, community centers and places of worship across the state a process thats been chaotic in the past. The Republican field that included a dozen candidates a month ago has been reduced to five, with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush the latest to drop out after a disappointing finish in South Carolina. Kasich and Carson could play spoilers as Trump, Cruz and Rubio, battle for delegates with an increasing sense of urgency. The entrance poll survey was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research as Republican voters arrived at 25 randomly selected caucus sites in Nevada. Steve Peoples & Nancy Benac, Las Vegas, AP The France Macau Business Association (FMBA) held its first breakfast meeting of the year yesterday at the Sofitel Macau, together with the Founder and Director of Alchemy Consulting, Nidhi Kush Shah. Kush Shah discussed the topic of Personal Branding for Corporate Professionals as a way to identify and build a unique place for each individual in the business world. A lot of us associate personal branding with values, our character, with what we stand for and thats correct because personal branding is a sum of all these components, she said. During yesterdays seminar, she gave advice about confidence and body language, tone of voice, physical presence, active listening, and building connections with people. Based on her experience of living in and traveling to different countries, as well as working with people from diverse cultures, Kush Shah believes that it is vital to identify an individuals unique strengths and accomplishments to stand out from the rest and connect with ones clients, colleagues and leaders. If I had to say one thing to Macau professionals, I would say it doesnt matter where we are, personal branding is really important and we can do it in a way which is authentic to our culture, said the speaker to reporters on the sidelines of the event. The key to realize is that we can brand ourselves in a way that is more authentic. When asked how the audience can apply the discussed factors, she declared: The key to starting is to commit to one thing, adding that its a continuous process. FMBA members and guests in attendance said they appreciated the talk, particularly the reminders about effective leadership. Its very straightforward and the message is simple. The message was about being yourself and being authentic, commented FMBA board member Kevin Thompson. FMBA Chairman Rutger Verschuren believes that inviting more keynote speakers could open up similar training opportunities for FMBA leaders. I think its a very interesting training exercise. There are things that I feel we could amplify in our character or appearance that will be good for us, he said. I think its all about personal development. Its a natural development that we like to do; having these sorts of guest speakers who train our members with new things in life. FMBA also shared updates on activities and events for the year at the meeting, such as a behind-the-scenes visit to the House of Dancing Water and a tour of the new Hengqin area. The association also presented a recap of last months FMBA Charity Gala Dinner held at the MGM Macau ballroom, with the theme: Shanghai: Le Paris de LOrient. The Times reported earlier that the gala dinner raised a total of MOP68,300, which was used to support two charities: Architecture Sans Frontiers Macau and Cradle of Hope. Staff reporter A mass media symposium was held yesterday at the University of Macau (UM), where various scholars and organization representatives discussed the development of local media. Organized by Professor Hao Zhidong, Director of the Social Science Research Centre on Contemporary China, the discussion featured presentations from Agnes Lam of UM; Tam Chi Keung of Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST); Che Hio Ieong, editor of InmediaHK; Jose Carlos Matias, a member of the board of directors of the Portuguese and English Press Association of Macau; and Yip Ching Man, a PhD candidate at MUST. Agnes Lam highlighted the current state of Macaus media and compared it to that of 10 years ago, using statistics collated from telephone interviews with around 1,000 respondents. More than 90 percent of people in Macau [respondents in the survey] read at least one Hong Kong newspaper, she said. Lam also revealed insights into the local readership of MSAR media through stratified groupings of Macaus population. According to her research, online readership has surpassed print circulation locally. All of the respondents under the age of 29 said that they read at least some online news. Lam added that Apple Daily is the most popular newspaper among readers under the age of 29. Those who are more educated, she said, are more likely to obtain their news from this source. Conversely, Macao Daily is more widely read among locals over the age of 50. MUSTs Tam discussed the image of Macau perpetuated in Hong Kong news media and film, referring to the theory of media imperialism. He said that Hong Kong decides, and often romanticizes, Macaus image by almost exclusively portraying local gaming culture. Jose Carlos Matias discussed the challenges that Portuguese and English language media face in Macau, including the reliance of some on government subsidies and advertising revenue from casino operators, as well as staffing challenges. The government provides subsidies to Chinese and Portuguese newspapers if they meet certain criteria, he explained. Asked whether non-Chinese media has any effect on the Chinese community, Matias replied that Portuguese and English media in Macau are probably more pervasive than first imagined. He explained that non-Chinese media is often translated for government officials and policymakers, and read by senior executives many of whom are English-speaking expatriates in the private sector. A presentation by Dr Che explored media bias through a case study of Macao Dailys coverage of animal rights activism. She shed light on some tactics allegedly employed by the newspaper, including the higher priority placed on government sources and the purposeful manner in which information is laid out. Ches presentation led to a brief but passionate discussion of censorship and self-censorship in local media. Professor Hao asked the panel whether they thought the local medias reference to Taiwans president as Taiwans leader implied the adoption of censorship, despite the relative press freedom in both Macau and Hong Kong. The panel exchanged various views but failed to reach a consensus. The presentations concluded with research by PhD candidate and Hong Kong reporter, Yip Ching Man, who shared her research on Macaus traditional media. She posited that Portuguese newspapers were in decline, though this was met with some disagreement from other panel members and symposium attendees. Staff Reporter Luxury lifestyle website Ladybird of Leisure will host a charity wine tasting event on Saturday to raise funds for local animal charity, the Macau Association for Stray Dogs and Animal Welfare (MASDAW). MASDAW, a non-profit animal welfare organization, rescues and provides homes for stray dogs and other animals in Macau. MASDAW spends over MOP500,000 annually on vet bills alone. Staffed by volunteers, the animal charity seeks to make Macau an animal-friendly city. According to a press release, #MASDAWMACAU will be used as the social media hashtag to raise awareness of both the event and the issue of animal welfare in Macau. As part of the event, local artists, jewelry-makers, ceramic artists and photographers have donated pieces that will be up for auction. The silent auction started earlier this month and will continue until the evening of the event. Bids can be placed online through the Ladybird of Leisure website. Volunteer performers from the Macau community will perform musical acts and other performances at the event alongside a raffle draw. A few of the MASDAW dogs that are up for adoption will also be joining the event. The charity winetasting event will be held at the Macau Design Centre on February 27 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The entrance fee is MOP200, which includes the wine tasting. There will also be raffle tickets on sale for MOP25 each, with Ladybird of Leisure promising a free drink for every MOP100 spent. Tickets can be purchased at The Blissful Carrot, The Roadhouse and Macau Design Centre. MASDAW and Ladybird of Leisure encourage the public to use #MASDAWMACAU on social media platforms to share their experiences with their own animals, interactions with MASDAW, and any animal welfare issue in Macau up to and beyond the date of the wine event. Staff reporter Indonesias Supreme Court has overruled the acquittals of two teachers, a Canadian and an Indonesian, on charges they sexually abused three children at a prestigious international school, and ordered longer prison terms for them, a court official said yesterday. Canada and the United States both expressed shock and dismay over the verdict. Neil Bantleman and Ferdinant Tjiong had been sentenced to 10 years in prison last April by the South Jakarta District Court. They appealed to the High Court, which acquitted them in August, ruling there was insufficient evidence to support their conviction. Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi said a three-member panel of judges handed down a verdict Wednesday based on the prosecutors appeal. The judge panel concluded that the defendants were proven to have violated the 2007 Child Protection Law, said Suhardi, who uses a single name. It did not only reinstate the District Courts verdict but also lengthened the sentence to 11 years. The two teachers at the Jakarta International School, now called the Jakarta Intercultural School, also were ordered to pay a fine of USD7,440 each or serve six more months in jail, Suhadi said. Chandra Saptaji, head of the general crime section at the South Jakarta Prosecutors Office, said Tjiong was taken from his house yesterday and is now serving his sentence at Cipinang Prison in eastern Jakarta. We are still looking for Bantleman, who is actually under a ban to leave the country, Saptaji said. The Canadian government said it was deeply dismayed and shocked by the courts ruling. This decision is unjust, given the many grave irregularities throughout the various proceedings in this case and the fact that all evidence presented by the defense has systematically been rejected, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said in a statement. Mr. Bantleman and Mr. Tjiong were not provided the opportunity to demonstrate their innocence. Despite Canadas repeated calls for due process, this case was not handled in a fair and transparent manner, Dion said. U.S. Ambassador Robert O. Blake also expressed shock and disappointment over the verdict, saying it would impact international views about the rule of law in Indonesia. Bantleman and Tjiong were arrested in July 2014 following allegations from the parents of a six-year-old student that he had been sodomized. Four male janitors at the school were already sentenced to eight years in prison in that case and a woman received a seven-year sentence as an accomplice. Police said a sixth suspect killed himself in custody by drinking bathroom cleaner. Under Indonesian law, both Bantleman and Tjiong still could challenge the sentence by filing for a judicial review by the Supreme Court if they have new evidence. AP The United States and China have reached agreement on a U.N. resolution that would impose tougher sanctions on North Korea as punishment for its latest nuclear test and rocket launch, U.N. diplomats say. The council likely will discuss the draft today [Macau time]. One Security Council diplomat called the draft resolution significantly substantive and expressed hope that it will be adopted in the coming days. Another said the draft had been circulated on Wednesday to the three other permanent council members Russia, Britain and France. The council is scheduled to hold closed consultations yesterday on compliance with the North Korean sanctions resolutions, and the U.S.-China draft could be discussed then with the 10 non-permanent council members. Both diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because all discussions on the proposed resolution have been private. Their comments follow a flurry of activity in Washington, including meetings between Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and with National Security Adviser Susan Rice this week. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Rice and Wang agreed on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Koreas provocations, including through a U.N. Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions. They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state, Price said. Earlier on Wednesday, Kerry told a Congressional hearing: Were on the brink of achieving a strong United Nations Security Council resolution. North Korea started off the new year with what it claims was its first hydrogen bomb test on Jan. 6 and followed that up with the launch of a satellite on a rocket on Feb. 7 that was condemned by much of the world as a test of banned missile technology. Over the past 10 years, North Korea has conducted four nuclear tests and launched six long-range missiles all in violation of Security Council resolutions. South Koreas U.N. Ambassador Oh Joon has urged the Security Council to adopt extraordinary measures to make clear to the North that it will no longer tolerate its nuclear weapons development. The U.S., its Western allies and Japan, also pressed for new sanctions that go beyond the Norths nuclear and missile programs. But China, Pyongyangs neighbor and supporter on the council, is reluctant to impose measures that could threaten the stability of North Korea and cause the countrys economy to collapse. Wang said earlier in the week that a new U.N. resolution alone cannot resolve the North Korean nuclear issue and that dialogue was needed. He said China was urging a parallel track in which there were both talks on denuclearization the top priority of the United States and replacing the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a formal peace treaty, a key demand of Pyongyang. While the U.S. and China were discussing a new U.N. resolution, the United States took tougher steps of its own against North Korea, tightening sanctions and announcing it will hold formal talks with South Korea on deploying a missile defense system that China fears could be used against it as well North Korea. South Korea and Japan have also announced new measures against Pyongyang. Edith M. Lederer, United Nations, AP Since the beginning of the year the Macau police has denied entry to 15 Taiwanese citizens holding passports with Republic of Taiwan stickers attached, the China Post reported. The stickers are considered to be a politically controversial and sensitive matter. A diplomatic source told Taiwanese media that a woman had been denied entry in Macau twice in a few days. She first arrived at the local airport this month to attend the wedding of a friend and consented to the removal of the offending stickers after being denied entry. However, authorities proceeded to deport her, despite her willingness to see the stickers removed. Two days after the incident, the woman, now carrying a passport without any stickers, was denied entry into Macau a second time. In response, police reportedly claimed that since the authenticity of the passport was still under a process of validation, the document holder cannot be allowed to enter Macau. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan) advised members of the public not to change their passports. In 2014, three Taiwanese residents were reportedly denied entry to Singapore for holding passports with the aforementioned stickers. According to the China Post, the ongoing campaign to alter passport covers with tailor- made Republic of Taiwan stickers (that replace the R.O.C. emblem on the documents cover) was launched by Taiwanese pro-independence groups. Chen Chih-hao, the initiator of the sticker campaign, previously said the idea was launched last year and more than 300,000 of the stickers have been produced so far, the Taiwanese newspaper reported. Archbishop William Goh has expressed grave concerns from Singapores Catholic Church over Madonnas upcoming concert in Singapore. He also reminded Catholics that it was their moral obligation not to support those who denigrate and insult religions, including anti-Christian and immoral values promoted by the secular world. However, authorities have assured the Archbishop, both in writing and orally, that restrictions have been placed to ensure that religiously-offensive content that breaches local guidelines will not be allowed on stage. Madonna performed in Macau over the weekend and her Rebel Heart tour is currently in Manila, Philippines. Tourism Services Accreditation Scheme expands The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) held a conference on the promotion of the Quality Tourism Services Accreditation Scheme. Beginning this year travel agencies will be included in the scope of the scheme in order to improve the quality of tourism services. According to a statement by the MGTO, the catering industry is currently in talks to participate in what is now the third annual plan. So far under the scheme, 167 licensed restaurants have been awarded with Star Merchant Awards, which can be used by merchants as a means of self-promotion. IACM: 257 attacks by animals The Civil and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) has released the 2015 statistics of animal attacks on humans, with data showing a total of 257 recorded cases. According to IACM, an additional 31 incidents involving animal attacks took place in January 2016. A vet currently working in the Municipal Kennel told local media that most of the injuries result from bites or scratches by the animals. Last year, the ICAM issued a total of 11,240 pet licenses, of which 2,014 were first-time issuances, representing 232 more than the previous year. The veterinary staff also commented that owners are required to vaccinate their pets against rabies when they apply for animal registration. The chairman of the executive committee of the Macau International Airport Company Ltd. (CAM), Dr Deng Jun, led a delegation to pay a visit to the Civil Aviation Authority of Macau (AACM), where they discussed with Simon Chan, president of AACM, how to enhance cooperation between the two organizations. According to a press statement from CAM, both parties exchanged ideas about the opportunities of MIA regarding the current air traffic situation in the Pearl River Delta region, the launch of the Macau Light Rapid Transit (LRT) project and the completion of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HKZMB). The parties agreed that the additional traffic permitted by the completion HKZMB would not outpace the growth trends seen in travellers and, with the completion of the LRT system connecting the Macau airport, it will remain more convenient for nearby tourists and locals to travel via MIA. They concluded that as the number of passengers using MIA is approaching the facilitys maximum capacity, the bridge would help alleviate an undersupply of infrastructure until CAMs northern expansion of the terminal is completed. A further southern expansion will be taking place at a later stage, the press statement added. The Chief Executive stated yesterday that the media plays a significant role in connecting the government and the public by providing information on policies and social issues. He added that the contributions of the media toward the development of Macau are widely recognized by the community. Mr Chui made the comments during yesterdays lunch which he hosted for representatives of local news outlets that report in Portuguese and English. The government strictly upholds the freedom of the press and freedom of publishing, he declared. Chan continues as govt spokesperson Victor Chans position as government spokesperson has been renewed. According to a notice published in the Official Gazette yesterday, Mr Chan will continue his role as the spokesperson until February 22, 2018. U Man Fong will also continue as the deputy spokesperson. Victor Chan also holds the position of Government Information Bureau (GCS) director. UM scholar receives APA award The American Psychological Association (APA) has awarded Dr Brian Hall, of the Department of Psychology of the University of Macau (UM), the Theodore Blau Early Career Award for Outstanding Contribution to Professional Clinical Psychology. APAs Society of Clinical Psychology gives out the award to honor clinical psychologists for their professional accomplishments within the first ten years of receiving their PhDs. According to a UM press release, Hall is currently involved in a collaborative multidisciplinary research project designed to improve the health of people in the Greater China region. Eric Sautede, a political commentator and Times columnist, assessed the governments performance over the past year. Sautede, who was involved in a controversy relating to freedom of speech when he was sacked from the University of Saint Joseph in 2014 over alleged political motivations, stresses that the new government has brought with it a new style and comments on the recent events in Hong Kong. Here is an excerpt of what he told the Times: Macau Daily Times Can you give a brief assessment of the governments performance in 2015? In your opinion, what were the biggest achievements and biggest failures from last year? Eric Sautede (ES) The biggest achievement for me is that the new government has managed to re-establish some kind of political bond between government and society, meaning that the government is now perceived as governing and not only managing the affairs of the state. The image of the previous government was more one of caretakers, and being on the job far too long had a lot to do with it. Now, goals have been set with priorities, and with the notable exception of the secretary for administration and justice, we now associate each and every secretary with some kind of reformative plan: quality healthcare for Alexis Tam, public transportation and land grants for Raimundo do Rosario, street security for Wong Sio Chak, and support to the SMEs for Lionel Leong. Overall, there has been a big change when it comes to communication with the public, with a lot more reactivity and sometimes proactivity, leading almost to a sense of competition between the secretaries as to who is going to be the most trigger-happy as far as reactivity is concerned when dealing with the public. MDT Do you think that lawmakers are paying close enough attention to the needs and demands of residents? ES Well, to me, unfortunately, most of the lawmakers are absolutely not up to the task of making this city a better place. The indirectly elected ones as well as the ones designated by the chief executive, with the exception of one or two, are caricatures of vested interests and do bear a lot of responsibly in dragging down the legal framework of this city. Too many legislators are in this assembly just as a reward for being successful businessmen and heading a vast network of supposedly grassroots associations. Most of them have been on the job far too long. [] The only ones who are a bit different are of course the ones directly elected, and out of those 14, a good 9 or 10 are doing a good job, although one can disagree with their choices, of course. MDT What should the government focus on this year? ES Starting to deliver on its promises made in early 2015 regarding healthcare, education, public transportation, housing, diversification, etc. Also, after the opening of communication, a new opening regarding solutions should be sought by bringing in new blood, and outsiders with new methods in terms of policy design. MDT What do you think about the Hong Kong riots that occurred last week? Are they more than what they seem or just a protest? ES They are much more than just a protest, and clearly it is a symptom of the stiffening of the relationship between Beijing and Hong Kong which has led to a growing sense of estrangement regarding the mainland. Up until 2014, nobody in Hong Kong was really talking seriously about real autonomy for Hong Kong or even some form of independence. It is a movement of resistance that has mainly grown from the inability of the present Hong Kong government to understand its own society. At the end of the day, this is more of a resistance (to salvage an identity) movement than a real search for independence. But the issue has changed, and now patriotism has taken a whole new meaning in Hong Kong. Attacks on the press and journalists, and then the kidnapping of booksellers have been triggering factors, translating into the Occupy and then Umbrella Movement, and then these so-called riots. MDT What is the state of residents political apathy in Macau? Why is it more muted than in Hong Kong? ES I would not call that apathy. That it is a word that was used for Hong Kong up until 2002/2003, and look at the results today. It is a far more traditional society, with a civil society that is very much channeled through very richly and conservative-thinking associations. On top of that, only 40pct of the population is born in Macau with less than 20pct having gone on to tertiary education: in Hong Kong, a majority of the population was born there as early as the 1960s, so today some form of mainlandization is perceived as a threat, and of course people are much more educated (formally), politically savvy and aware of their own individual power. Staff reporter Rising political turmoil in Hong Kong could hurt economic growth in the freewheeling southern Chinese business hub, the citys finance chief said as he unveiled measures yesterday to counter the impact of global weakness. Financial Secretary John Tsangs blunt comments in his annual budget speech highlight simmering tensions in Hong Kong, which has been increasingly polarized following the unsatisfactory resolution of pro-democracy street protests in late 2014. Acute social conflicts will add uncertainties to the already adverse economic environment in Hong Kong. Tsang said tensions would remain high as Hong Kong prepares for Legislative Council elections later this year and a by-election in four days, which will pit pro-democracy candidates against pro-Beijing supporters for seats in the former British colonys legislature. We anticipate that political disputes will only intensify over the coming months, he said. Politics and economics are closely intertwined. Political volatility will unavoidably impact on our economy. To bolster flagging growth, Tsang rolled out 38.8 billion Hong Kong dollars (USD5 billion) in relief measures for businesses and tax cuts. Tsang said he was shocked by a riot during the Lunar New Year holiday earlier this month, which left 130 people hurt, including 90 police officers. There were 72 arrests from the confrontation with activists angry over authorities attempts to crack down on holiday food vendors selling fishballs and other local delicacies. Protesters viewed the clampdown as an assault on local culture and evidence of Beijings tightening hold on the city. Many of us feel suffocated by and, indeed, helpless with the tiresome confrontations day in and day out, Tsang said. Confrontations have not eased, and worse still, our society has become even more polarized. Political disputes are spreading both inside and outside the Council Chambers, setting off a spiral of intensifying struggle between rival factions. He warned that if the problems are not resolved, there will be greater chaos, and our future generations will grow up in the midst of hatred and malice. Tsang said the citys economy expanded 2.4 percent last year, its fourth straight year of below-average growth, weighed down by a slowdown in mainland China, weak global conditions and rocky financial markets. He forecast that Hong Kongs economy, a major hub for trade with China, would grow 1-2 percent in 2016, which would be the lowest rate since 2012, when it expanded 1.7 percent. Kelvin Chan, Hong Kong, AP Pop star Madonna made surprise visits to two Manila shelters for orphans and street children, taking selfies with kids a day before the start of her two-night concert stint in the Philippine capital. Pictures on her Instagram account showed her carrying a baby in one arm while holding hands with a girl guiding her on a tour of the Hospicio de San Jose orphanage this week. At the Bahay Tuluyan shelter for street kids, she sat on a tarpaulin mat with children. Chillin with my Homies at the Bahay Tuluyan Foundation Inc. giving shelter to orphans street children trafficking/abuse victims in Manila!! Madonna captioned a selfie taken with three kids as they lay on the mat. Officials at the shelter were told earlier that Madonnas dancers were going to visit, but they did not find out that Madonna herself was also coming until an hour before her arrival, said Catherine Scerri, the executive director of Bahay Tuluyan. She said the children did a couple of dances before being joined by Madonnas dancers. Madonna asked the officials about the centers program and whether the children were going to school, but she spent most of her 45-minute visit with the kids, Scerri added. Madonna plays again tonight at Manilas Mall of Asia Arena, the latest stops on her Rebel Heart world tour. An outspoken Philippine Roman Catholic leader, Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa, a diocese south of Manila, has discouraged Filipinos from attending the concerts. Why is the Catholic Philippines the favorite venue for blasphemy against God and the Holy Mother? he said in a text message to reporters. He stopped short of calling for a boycott, like he did in 2012 when Lady Gaga held a concert in Manila, but said in the text that all God-loving people should avoid sin and occasions of sin. The Philippines has more Catholics than any other Asian nation. AP The Macau Orchestra will present a rendition of Horn Concerto by Radovan, at the Cultural Centers Grand Auditorium on March 5 at 8 p.m. The concert, which is part of the Shining Virtuosos Series, features the international horn player Radovan Vlatkovic who lends his name to the concerts title. It will be Radovans Vlatkovics debut performance in Macau. Horn Concerto by Radovan will be conducted by the Music Director of the Macau Orchestra, Lu Jia, and features Richard Strausss Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-flat Major played by Radovans Vlatkovic. It is regarded as an exceptionally challenging piece to play, according to the IC. The musician was Principal Horn of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and received the First Prize at the ARD International Competition in Munich. His recording of the Mozart concertos was awarded the German Recording Critics Prize and he received the Croatian Porin Award for his lifes work in 2012. The orchestra will also perform Ludwig Van Beethovens famous Symphony No.5 Fate. Tickets for the concert are priced at MOP200, MOP150 and MOP100, and various discount plans are available. Volunteers The CSI Office on Aging is looking for a volunteer with general office skills. The volunteer will sit at the front desk, greet customers, answer phone calls, file, input data on computer and perform other general office duties as requested by the director. The office is open from 8 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Info: Suzanne, 208-731-2122. Volunteers Idaho Home Health and Hospice needs volunteers who will bring compassion, support and dignity to those facing a serious, life-limiting illness and their families. Volunteers can choose between offering respite to family caregivers or provide support with administrative tasks. Information: Heidi Walker, 208-734-4064 or Heidi.Walker@LHCgroup.com. Volunteers St. Lukes Home Health and Hospice needs volunteers to share compassion and increase the quality of life for patients and their families. The program is designed to offer companionship and socialization to patients, plus respite and support for the caregivers. Information: Marie Sharp, 208-814-7603 or sharpm@slhs.org. Volunteers Interlink Volunteer Caregivers provides volunteers to help elderly, disabled and chronically ill people live safely and independently in their homes. Volunteers assist with transportation to health-related appointments and essential errands, light housekeeping chores, friendly visits, yard maintenance and simple home repairs. Carpenters and handymen are also needed. Volunteers are reimbursed for mileage and covered with excess auto liability insurance. Commitment is flexible with no minimum hours required. Information: Edie, 208-733-6333 or ivcofmv@gmail.com. Drivers The American Cancer Society is looking for volunteer drivers for its Road to Recovery program in Twin Falls. Volunteers will drive patients to and from medical treatments. Commitment is flexible. Information: Renae Delucia at renae.delucia@cancer.org or 702-891-9023. Drivers The Twin Falls Senior Center is looking for volunteers to deliver meals to homebound seniors in the Twin Falls area. The center delivers meals Monday through Friday, and routes take one hour or less to complete. Commitment is based on your availability. Volunteers can commit as little as one hour a week or up to five days a week. Several positions are available. Volunteers must be age 18 or older with their own car and have proof of liability insurance. Drivers are reimbursed for fuel. Information: Sandee Earl, 208-734-5084. Volunteers The Twin Falls Senior Center is looking for local civic organizations, church groups or businesses to help deliver food boxes to homebound seniors. The deliveries are from 1-4 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month. The volunteers will need to lift 40-pound boxes and have a vehicle that can hold 12-14 boxes. The center has three routes to cover on a monthly basis, and commitment can be monthly or for one month. Volunteers must be age 18 or older with their own car and have proof of liability insurance. Drivers are reimbursed for their time. Information: Sandee Earl, 208-734-5084. Volunteers St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center is in need volunteers for comfort care, front-desk greeters, auxiliary gift shop, workroom volunteer and some specialized positions throughout the hospital. Qualifications include friendly, compassionate individuals; ability to walk, stand and sit for a time; and the ability to take the initiative and be flexible in differing roles as needed to provide help or comfort to patients, visitors and staff. Information: Kim Patterson, 208-814-0861, or visit the Volunteer Services Office on the lower level at St. Lukes, 801 Pole Line Road, Twin Falls. About Me Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah I am Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah, who resides in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. I hold a post-graduate law degree from the United Kingdom. I blog to tell MALAYSIANS THE TRUTH. View my complete profile Blog Archive Everything that's happening in the great metro of Manila... I am using a format similar to the email messages I send to about 1000 colleagues on my private email list serve that I have been managing since 1997. Each entry will include the title of the news article, the first few paragraphs and a link to the entire article. My comments will be in blue arial font and key excerpts/quotes from the article will be in the article's original format. As a good Soldier always strives to improve his fighting position, I will endeavor to improve this site. Also follow on twitter at @davidmaxwell161 The purpose of this site is to share information on national security issues with anyone who has an interest in these topics. My focus is on National Security Issues of Policy and Strategy; Asia, with particular emphasis on Korea and China, as well as Special Warfare (Unconventional Warfare and Foreign Internal Defense) and Surgical Strike (Counterterrorism) and how they relate to US National Security. After months of claiming that investigations did not find any foul play concerning the Russian airplane that was downed over the Sinai desert shortly after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh airport on October 31, Egypt hinted without clearly stating it that terrorists could have been behind the act. In a televised speech on economic development challenges, President Abdelfattah Sisi alluded that the plane crash was a terror act, but without going as far as acknowledging clearly that it actually was. Whoever downed the Russian plane, what did he mean? He meant to hit tourism, and to hit relations with Russia, the president, known for his off the script statements, said. Although Egypt is reluctant to confirm that the airplane was downed by the Islamic State (IS) group, Western countries and Russia affirm that there was an explosion shortly before the crash. All 224 people on board were killed and most of them were Russian tourists. Some think that Sisis half-expressed confession is understandable because an official confirmation would affect the tourism sector; one of the key contributors to the economy and a major source of employment. Besides, a confirmation by Cairo would mean paying compensations to the victims relatives, something the state can barely afford at the moment. Shortly after the air crash and after Russia suspended all flights to Egypt President Sisi had blamed the West and its media of trying to hurt the countrys tourism sector, labeling IS claim of the attack as propaganda. A defiant and confident sounding Sisi told Egyptians that he knows the remedy to the countrys problems and urged them to please, dont listen to anyone but me while warning he would remove from the face of the Earth those planning to sabotage the state. Turkish air force on Wednesday shelled for almost two hours the Kandil Mountain believed to be the headquarters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK,) targeting logistical centers, ammunition depots and shelters. The assault took place on the same day that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) alleged in a statement posted on its website that the PKK was behind the damaging of the pipeline in the Turkish province of Sanlifura on February 17 that disrupted exportation through Turkey for a week. Sources didnt state if the airstrikes were linked to the allegations of the KDP that rules the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq. Spokesman Sefin Dizayi of the Kurdistan regional government said sabotaging the pipeline has happened several times before as he accused the armed group of seeking to undermine the exportations. The regional government generates around $380million per month from oil sales but has been struggling over the past few months to pay the salaries of civil servants. The warplanes that bombarded the mountains took off the airbase in Diyarbakir province in south eastern Turkey where protests held against military operations and curfews in the city ended with clashes with security forces. The population claims that the curfews are affecting their way of living as some parts have been under 24hour curfew since December. Ankara has always stressed that it is fighting terrorism and last week began to shell Kurdish armed groups close to its border with Syria. A fragile peace process fell apart between the government and the PKK over the summer and since then, Turkey has been intensifying its military operations against Kurdish groups especially along its borders with Iraq and Syria. Forces loyal to the Tobruk-based government are progressing in their fight against Islamic State militants in Benghazi with reports saying that they have taken over the key districts of Boatni, Laithi. Residents celebrated the advances of the military headed by General Haftar whose role in post-war Libya continues to be a burning issue. Clashes between the military and the extremist groups have been going on for three days and a hospital source said there are at least 20casualties. As the Islamic State is on its back heels in Benghazi, reports have emerged that it is entangled in another clash in Sabrantha. The mayor of the city, Hussein al-Thwadi said military brigades attacked several buildings housing suspected Islamic State militants and four brigade members had been killed and five injured. Details are still sketchy. Meanwhile, the hope to establish a national unity government under the U.N-led Libya Political Agreement is proving to be a daunting task as vote of confidence session at the House of Representatives (HoR) was postponed. An official statement from the parliament stated that the decision was due to a lack of quorum but Libya Herald citing sources reported that the Cyrenaican / Federalist anti Government of National Accord (GNA) minority disrupted the proceedings of the session. Several monitored reports had members of parliament claiming different reasons for the postponement of the session to Monday although some are doubtful if it will take place. Among the dividing issues is also the agenda of the parliament with some of the lawmakers demanding that the political agreement sealed in Morocco should be voted on first on the basis on the 2011 constitution before the vote of confidence of the proposed government can be held. Egyptian President Wednesday urged his cabinet to support youth entrepreneurial projects as he launched the countrys vision for 2030. At a conference attended by his cabinet and high profile Egyptian figures al-Sisi placed youth at the centre of this development policy. He urged the government to provide youth with all they need for establishing their projects via financing and coordination with foreign companies to import the required machines for the industrial projects. If there are not places for the youth in industry, there could be, as I fear, a state of chaos for the small industries plan, Sisi said. According to The Cairo Post, the President also announced the allocation of $25.5 billion for youth development. According to local media, he criticized his government for delaying the creation of the furniture industry city in Damietta, a project announced one year and half ago. The Damietta city is hub for Egyptian furniture industry and skills. Most of labor forces in the city are oriented towards the making of furniture while the rest of the population is working in the textile industry. Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt Tareq Amer also indicated that his bank has re-oriented its finance strategy towards the youth and small and medium enterprises. In the banks 15 year strategic plan, all state-owned banks have been instructed to focus on financing SMEs. SEOUL - Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui on Tuesday expressed opposition to Republic of Korea (ROK's) plan to deploy a sophisticated US missile defense system after a meeting here with his ROK's counterpart. Zhang met in Seoul with ROK's First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam to co-chair the seventh China-ROK high-level strategic dialogue between foreign ministries. The senior-level dialogue came after ROK and the United States agreed to begin talks about deploying the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in the ROK's territory in response to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear and missile threats. Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket, which some see as a test of banned ballistic missile technology, on Feb 7 following its fourth nuclear test on Jan 6. Zhang told reporters after the meeting in Seoul that he exchanged views with Lim about the THAAD issue, among other issues, and said China expressed oppositions to the THAAD deployment. Zhang said China attaches great importance to ties with ROK, and is ready to work along with the country to boost the sound development of bilateral relations, noting that China is firmly committed to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, which conforms to the common interests of China and ROK. China opposes the DPRK's nuclear test and rocket launch, and supports a new and effective resolution at the UN Security Council, but sanctions are not an end in themselves, and a fundamental solution to the issue should be sought through dialogue and negotiations, Zhang said. The senior Chinese diplomat urged relevant parties to act prudently, in an apparent reference to Seoul and Washington that have agreed to launch talks about the THAAD deployment. China hopes relevant parties would show respect for China's interests and act with prudence, as the deployment is not conducive to easing the current tension and maintaining peace and stability in the region, but would impair China's strategic security interest, Zhang said. The THAAD, designed to track and destroy ballistic missiles at an altitude of 40 km to 150 km, has been put under suspicion about its operational effectiveness in ROK as hundreds of shorter-range DPRK missiles can fly at a much lower altitude. There are also safety concerns as the THAAD X-band radar emits super-strong microwaves, allegedly harmful to human bodies within 3.6 km while paralyzing electronic devices and airplanes within 5.5 km. ROK's officials said the two sides had "candid, in-depth, and constructive" discussions on bilateral ties and the security conditions on the peninsula. ROK attaches great importance to ties with China and is ready to work for their further development, and would maintain consultations and communications with China regarding the THAAD deployment issue, said the ROK's officials. Georgia can supply electricity to Iran minister Georgia can supply electricity surplus to Iran in the spring and summer through Armenia and have it returned for winter when electricity consumption increases in the country, Georgian Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze said.Kaladze went on an official visit to Iran on Feb. 16. Issues of cooperation in the energy sector between the two countries are currently under consideration.When we have a surplus of electricity, excess in volume of water in spring and summer, Iran needs energy and the country imports it from Armenia, the Georgian Energy Ministrys press service quoted Kaladze as saying.The fact that Iran is in general a very important and interesting country is not something new, especially after the removal of the financial sanctions against Tehran, the Georgian minister said. The News in Brief Three men detained in Georgia for selling counterfeit salt The Finance Ministrys investigative service Tuesday detained three people for selling counterfeit salt. The three made a profit by systematically selling salt, according to a short statement put out by the service. The statement said they packed non-iodized salt and sold it at a retail market without labelling its true contents. Violation of consumer rights may be punished with one to three years in jail. (DF watch) Russia to provide occupied Abkhazia with electricity Restrictions on electricity supplies to the occupied region of Abkhazia were lifted on February 16, the Press-service of the Chernomorenergo Company has informed Sputnik Abkhazia. As reported, Abkhazias de-facto Republic will be provided with electricity until the water level increases in the Enguri reservoir. It will enable us to avoid a complete loss of electricity in March, reads the statement of the company. The electricity restrictions were imposed in Abkhazia after the water level in the Enguri reservoir significantly lowered. Specialists say that electricity consumption increased in Abkhazia and temporarily switching-off the system will not be effective this time. The Enguri Hydro Power Plant started functioning in 1978. The reservoir, however, is situated on territory controlled by Georgia. (IPN) Criminal proceedings against Mikheil Saakashvili stopped in Ukraine The Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau has closed the criminal proceedings against former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. He was accused of corruption. MP Dimitri Golubov blamed Saakashvili and his team last year of wasting money for the foundation of an establishment for rehabilitating soldiers participating in ATO underway in eastern Ukraine. But when the Prime Minister was summoned for questioning he refused to give evidence against Mikheil Saakashvili, therefore the investigation was dropped. (ipn) Georgia to join NATO despite territorial conflict Despite the fact that Georgia has been locked in a territorial conflict since 2008, the country will become a NATO member, James Appathurai, the special representative of the NATO Secretary General for the South Caucasus and Central Asia, has told Trend. Large-scale military action was launched between Georgia and Russia in South Ossetia on August 8, 2008. Later, Russian troops occupied Tskhinvali and expelled the Georgian military. Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in late August. In response, Tbilisi ended diplomatic relations with Moscow and stated that the two unrecognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia were occupied territories. Appathurai added that Georgia becoming a NATO member wont happen tomorrow, as because the country still has a lot of reforms to implement. We are also working on thickening our relationship, and we hope for a quick resolution of the conflict with respect to Georgias territorial integrity. For now we are working on deepening our relations and preparing Georgia for eventual membership in NATO, he added. (Trend.az) All the links to affiliates, ads etc on my blog generate income. I donate 100% of ALL income to various charities. So buy books using links on my blog - they cost you no more - but the affiliate fee I receive is donated to various charities (to see which charities visit http://messcharityrun.blogspot.com.au/ ) @MichaelAuslen The House Judiciary Committee wont meet again this session, and that means two high-profile pieces of legislation are all but dead in the Florida Legislature. Judiciary Chairman Charles McBurney, R-Jacksonville, ended his final committee meeting Thursday after choosing not to put changes to Floridas stand your ground law on the agenda and postponing a vote on an expansion of juvenile civil citations. The issues could theoretically come back up say, if Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, ordered another meeting of the committee but its not likely. The stand your ground issue (SB 344), which would have increased the burden of proof on prosecutors of certain cases that involved deadly force, like gun violence, was already presumed dead in the Legislature after McBurney didnt put it on the agenda for the final meeting. I had concerns from the members, concerns from various groups, concerns from victims, McBurney, a former prosecutor, said. I was concerned about the policy. But the decision not to hear the civil citation bill (HB 7085) was unexpected. Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, proposed the bill to expand existing diversion programs for juveniles who commit misdemeanors. Under the program, law enforcement would be required to send first-time offenders of most misdemeanors to diversion programs, assuming they are younger than 18. And it would give police the option to do the same for second- and third-time offenders. Its a favorite reform for a growing movement that believes criminal laws are too strict on children. A group of supporters traveled to the Capitol on Thursday to speak in favor, although the bill was pulled from the Judiciary Committees agenda before they could do so. The votes werent there, McBurney said. There had been rumors that the bill was on the agenda as part of a favor or deal struck with the Florida Legislative Black Caucus, although McBurney said that was not the case. Pulling the bill was simple professional courtesy, he said. If you know that its going to be voted down, why put it up for a vote?" @JeremySWallace If Republican Senate candidate David Jolly is worried about wealthy Manatee County developer Carlos Beruff entering the race, he sure isn't letting on. Beruff, a homebuilder in Manatee County who has never run for office before, jumped into the U.S. Senate race on Thursday morning by launching a website and confirming he will declare his candidacy in Miami on Monday. "He might think he is a big deal in the governor's circles, but nobody on I-4 has ever heard of him," Jolly said in a telephone interview with the Times/Herald on Thursday. Jolly's comments are in reference to Beruff building a campaign team that includes people who worked on Gov. Rick Scott's campaigns for governor and Scott having picked Beruff to be the chairman of a commission he organized to look at health care and hospital funding in Florida. Jolly, a Pinellas County Republican who has been in Congress since 2014, said he welcomes Beruff to the contest because it gives voters another choice. Although Beruff is from Manatee County, Jolly said he doesn't think he'll take much support from him in the Tampa Bay region. He said before Beruff started talking about getting into the race, he had never heard of him. "I doesn't change a thing for me," Jolly said of Beruff getting into the race. Beruff and Jolly are now part of a Republican Primary campaign that also includes U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, and businessman Todd Wilcox. The primary is Aug. 30. @ByKristenMClark The Florida Senate ended its daily session this evening with a moment of silence honoring King Carter, the 6-year-old who was shot and killed in Northwest Miami-Dade last weekend. Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Cutler Bay, requested the time to highlight the growing number of child victims who've been killed by gun violence in Miami-Dade County. "Unfortunately, he [King] now represents an ominous distinction as being the 60th Miami-Dade County Public Schools student lost to gun violence in the last 12 months," Bullard said. "I just wanted to recognize King Carter for what he could have been." Police said King was caught in the crossfire of a feud that started on social media. Earlier today, two teens were charged with attempted first-degree murder and second-degree murder in connection with King's death. (More here.) Photo credit: The Florida Channel Gov. Rick Scott calls Donald Trump "fun to watch," but he sidestepped questions Wednesday about whether he will soon endorse the New York billionaire for president. "He keeps winning every race," Scott told reporters. "I'm not involved in presidential politics. I'm involved in trying to have a good end of session. But it's fun to watch." Scott also lightly dismissed media speculation that he would make a logical running mate for Trump. "I'm focused on this job. I've got three more years in this job," Scott said. The governor recently wrote a commentary for USA Today in which he gushed about Trump: "I think he is capturing the frustration of many Americans after seven years of President Obamas very intentional government takeover of the U.S. economy," Scott wrote. Scott said "I haven't decided" whether to endorse a candidate before Florida's March 15 presidential primary With less than a year to go on his presidency, President Barack Obama released a last-ditch plan to close the the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, a proposal that would include moving some detainees to prison facilities within the United States. But in an election year, it appears highly unlikely that a Republican-led Congress will do anything to help bring Obama's 2008 campaign promise to to fruition. Several Republicans immediately vowed to block the plan, including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. One Republican senator, Pat Roberts of Kansas, tweeted a video of himself crumpling up the proposal and tossing it in a trash can. The plan , released Feb. 23, 2016, explains how to proceed with the remaining 91 detainees , a number that includes 35 who are eligible for transfer and 10 in some phase of the military commission process. Since the creation of the detainee facility, nearly 800 detainees have been held at Guantanamo. In addition to continuing the transfers, the plan includes accelerating the review of certain detainees who have not been charged or convicted. Keep reading from PolitiFact's Obameter. @PatriciaMazzei Trounces. Crushes. Pummels. Pick a dramatic action verb: This is what Donald Trump does to Marco Rubio in Florida, according to a new presidential poll that shows Trump is more popular than hes ever been in Rubios home state. The survey, by Quinnipiac University, shows Trump leading Rubio 44-28 percent less than three weeks before Floridas March 15 primary. And voters tens of thousands of them are already casting ballots by mail, which leaves Rubio very little time to make up the deficit against the Republican front-runner. If Sen. Rubio cant win in his own home state, it is difficult to see how he can win elsewhere, said a statement from Peter A. Brown, the polls assistant director. Floridas winner-take-all primary awards all 99 delegates to the first-place candidate, making it the biggest single prize early on in the race to secure the Republican nomination. Rubio adviser Todd Harris rebuffed the poll, saying Quinnipiac numbers are way wrong. Media needs to chill. The FL Q poll #'s are way wrong. We are going to win Florida. Period. Take it to the bank. Todd Harris (@dtoddharris) February 25, 2016 Rubio himself predicted Wednesday: Well win in Florida. More here. This post has been updated. The sponsor of a controversial bill to give state regulators the framework to authorize fracking for oil and gas reserves in Florida mounted an aggressive defense of his bill Thursday, urging a potentially hostile Senate Appropriations Committee to support SB 318 to regulate the practice. Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, said that he believes it is "unrealistic" to ban fracking in Florida, despite mounting public opposition to the practice, because he believes the House and Gov. Rick Scott instead believe Florida should effectively regulate it. The House passed a similar bill, HB 191, by a 73-45 vote with seven Republicans joining Democrats to oppose the measure. "There is no moratorium on fracking in the State of Florida now,'' Richter said, acknowledging the public's opposition. "I wish I was on a bill that was 40-0 and out the door -- scoop of vanilla ice cream only." Instead, the bill imposes a temporary moratorium on fracking permits until a number of conditions are met -- including a study of Florida's hydrology to determine what potential impact the operations will have on the states geology and fragile water supply. The study must have a peer review and be scientifically completed "in order to understand the impact of fracking in Florida," Richter said. The study will then be used to inform regulations by the Department of Environmental Protection by March 2018, and the proposed rules must come back for legislative approval. Richter said the fierce opposition by community groups, environmentalists, and some local officials "have become extremely emotional" and, while he thanked them "for staying engaged," he added that "when debate becomes emotional, it magnifies the controversy." That included the appearance of the fifth grade class of the Cornerstone Learning Academy, who each arrived with a speech to urge the committee to oppose fracking but had one student, Jenna Caskey, speak on their behalf. Richter told them that without his bill, fracking would still be allowed. The bill bans the high pressure well stimulation until the study determines what potential impact the operations will have on the states geology and fragile water supply and it also prohibits local governments from imposing their own bans or regulations. Got some ideas about economics, policy, science, art or whatever, and you can write? Let us know here , we're looking for contributors! Radius Gallery co-owner Lisa Simon first had the idea for a surrealist group exhibition two years ago. The longer time passed, the more artists she found for a show, titled "Last Best Dream: Surrealism Here and Now." The exhibition makes room for 16 local and Montana artists, working in media as diverse as sculptural ceramics, painting, collage, pen-and-ink and found objects whose work draws on the tradition dating back some 100 years now. The initial germ for the exhibition came from the work of Courtney Blazon, a longtime Missoula illustrator and artist. She's a pop surrealist, Simon said, "but a lot of people just think of her work as weird." A Pratt Institute graduate, Blazon uses tight, intensely detailed line work in dream-like scenes that typically convey a historical or literary tale. She often juxtaposes the comfort of an illustrative style with graphic and startling but nonviolent imagery, such as bisected animals whose organs are exposed. And so Blazon is a little bit misunderstood, Simon felt. She isn't making provocative work for shock value's sake. "She's telling stories," she said. For "Last Best Dream," she created a large-scale drawing about the Donner Party. In another series, she told the stories of "Eccentric Royalty," such as King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who built the grand castles that influenced Disney and was a patron of the composer Richard Wagner. "Surrealism has a message. It's saying something about how we think and how our minds work," she said. "It's usually saying something about the imagination and our inner lives." *** Simon, a former college instructor, taught the subject as part of literary modernism. "I would start with the painters, because you can't understand the literary project until you understand what the painters were doing in surrealism," she said, and she can point out the surrealist techniques the artists exploit. She and co-owner Jason Neal are sequencing the exhibition to begin with the first vein of surrealism, which values the unconscious as a truth-telling device. The show starts with narrative, dream-like diptychs from painter Stephanie Frostad and begins moving toward the second vein, which Simon said thrives on illogical juxtaposition. Jennfier Eli French of Billings takes up a small wall with paintings that place animals in dignified Renaissance clothing, or sculptures of human heads with animal horns, or a sculpture of animal skulls decorated with soft, feathery imagery. "You could read her work as a coming to consciousness of how we irrationally treat animals," Simon said. Bayla Arietta's drawings of sentient humans inside the stomachs of sea animals, too, could be read that way as well, she said. Other artists use surrealists' favored puns and word play to defy expectations, she noted. Stephen Glueckert's pastel portrait, "Woman with Three Ears," actually has two sets of eyes, one on top of the other, and two mouths, but no visible ears. The image toys with your natural instinct to make eye contact. After the initial glance, your eyes flit back and forth between the two sets of eyes, almost resulting in dizziness. Theo Ellsworth's intricate drawings on woodcut blocks, often featuring endless rooms within rooms, are more fodder for thought. "In the interpretation of dreams, the house is the unconscious," she said. "Freud would've loved that," she said. Ellsworth's preferred technique of automatic drawing also dates back to the surrealists. "If you believe that there are deeper truths in your unconscious than cultural truths that you've been taught, then you want to get that filter out of the way so you can get to that deeper stuff," she said. James Todd contributed a sequence of four prints, "The Fleas of War," each with with different title. ("Torture Flea," "Flea Angel," "Killer Flea," "Famine Flea.") Many of the renderings draw on bodily prosthetics, which Simon pointed out are a device that originated in the bloody and senseless World War I. "The development of those, and so much of the early surrealists' work and dadaists' work showed people in crazy prosthetics," she said. That war, which pushed Western rationality to the point of irrationality, spurred the surrealist movement to look toward other cultures and influences. "Maybe rationality needs to be balanced with imagination," she said. "Then you get this illogical combinations of things that have a rightness to them, because you're seeking the imagination for a feeling, for a balance," she said. As part of the show, she had some of the artists take part in a round of "Exquisite Corpse," a surrealist parlor game. A piece of paper is folded into thirds and given to a succession of three artists chosen at random. One draws the head, the next the torso, the third the legs. None can see what the other has drawn, creating an inevitably bizarre result. Five pieces by the participating artists will be on display. The other exhibiting artists are Deighton Abrams, Crista Ann Ames, Adrian Arleo, Molly Blazon, Susan R. Carlson, Monte Dolack, Lillian Nelson, Wesley Saint John and Cathy Weber. Former Missoulian editor Sherry Devlin is suing Lee Enterprises and Missoulian publisher Mark Heintzelman, alleging that she was harassed, discriminated against and demoted prior to resigning last year, among other things. On Feb. 19, Devlin filed a lawsuit against Lee Enterprises and Heintzelman in Missoula County District Court. Devlin is represented by attorney Cory Laird of Reep, Bell, Laird, Simpson & Jasper P.C. in Missoula. Devlin and Heintzelman both declined to comment. Laird could not be reached for comment. By the time Devlin resigned in November, she had been at the Missoulian for about 30 years, working her way up from reporter to city editor to editor. Heintzelman came on board as publisher in September 2014. According to court documents, after two or three days as publisher, he suggested that he and Devlin "begin working on an 'exit strategy' for (Devlin's) termination as Editor." About two weeks later, the lawsuit alleges that Heintzelman emailed Devlin, saying he was still "on the fence" about keeping her on as editor. "In that same email, Mr. Heintzelman also made the following statements to Plaintiff: 'I appreciate your willingness to work hard and do whatever I ask, but as I stated in our initial discussion this is not what I'm looking for. I need an editor who has to be pulled back versus pushed.' " Devlin alleges she asked Heintzelman to be more specific about his concerns with her job performance, but that he didn't do so. From there, she said in the lawsuit that Heintzelman didn't broach the subject again until April 2015 when he told her she would no longer be editor and would either be demoted or terminated altogether. Lee Enterprises posted a job opening for the editor position on or around April 16, according to the lawsuit. On or around Aug. 17, Devlin alleges she was demoted and that her salary was cut by about half. After that point, though, Devlin said her job duties remained largely unchanged. On Aug. 17, Matthew Bunk was announced as the new editor of the Missoulian. In the lawsuit, Devlin noted he was "much younger and much less qualified" than her. "Lee Enterprises did not have reasonable job-related grounds for dismissal," the lawsuit alleges, and "Lee Enterprises repeatedly violated both state and federal wage laws by failing to pay overtime compensation to (Devlin)." Devlin alleges that despite routinely working more than 40 hours a week before and after her demotion at times reaching about 70 hours a week she was never paid overtime. "The emotional distress suffered by (Devlin) was so serious and severe that no reasonable person could be expected to endure it," according to the lawsuit, and "unwelcome conduct of a harassing and/or discriminatory nature" created "an abusive working environment." Devlin began working at the Missoulian as a reporter in 1979, and left from 1982 to 1988 to report for the Associated Press, Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle. In 1988, Devlin returned to the Missoulian and worked there until her departure in November 2015. A Missoula man is being held on $100,000 bail after a "heinous" attack on a 16-month-old boy and his mother. Glenn Daniel Sipp-Angst, 23, is charged with aggravated assault and assault on a minor, both felonies. According to an affidavit, Sipp-Angst and his girlfriend were arguing shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday when the woman's 16-month-old son woke up and began to cry. Sipp-Angst allegedly became angry, picked up the child and began to yell at him, then began to stuff nearby items into his mouth in an apparent effort to make him stop. When his girlfriend tried to remove her son from Sipp-Angst, he allegedly punched her in the head then strangled her until she lost consciousness. When she came to and pushed him off her, he allegedly went back to the child, grabbing him near the throat and squeezing his face. The affidavit stated Sipp-Angst then took the child into a bathroom, locked the door, and threw the child around the room. When Sipp-Angst came back out, he hit the baby in the face repeatedly. Sipp-Angst allegedly repeatedly strangled his girlfriend until he fell asleep in a chair about three hours after the incident began. The woman then used a roommate's phone to call a family member, who picked up her and her son. Sipp-Angst was taken into custody Tuesday after a $100,000 warrant was issued for his arrest. In court Wednesday, Missoula County Criminal Attorney Selene Koepke said Sipp-Angst also threatened to kill his girlfriend during the incident, and represented a clear danger to his family and the community. Justice of the Peace Karen Orzech, who called the allegations "heinous," kept Sipp-Angst's bail at $100,000. At the request of a public defender representing Sipp-Angst, Orzech allowed him to be screened for pretrial supervision, but said she was doing so "against my better judgment." If he is released, Orzech said Sipp-Angst is not to possess weapons, or contact his girlfriend or her son. Sipp-Angst balked at the latter condition, saying his girlfriend was pregnant with his child. Orzech cut him off and reinforced how seriously she took that condition, adding that if he contacts her in any way, she will have him arrested and his bail would increase to $1 million. "I just think in the interests of the safety of the family he needs to be incarcerated at this time. It's absolutely imperative," Orzech said. If convicted, Sipp-Angst faces up to 25 years in prison and $100,000 in fines on the charges. A March Against Hate is coming to Higgins Avenue on March 1 to support refugee resettlement efforts in Missoula. Montana Women Vote, the Montana Human Rights Network and Soft Landing Missoula, an organization working to bring a refugee resettlement agency to Missoula, are organizing the community march to take a stand against hate, intimidation and violence. Its to show support for not just the refugees but for countering the hateful rhetoric and the threats happening in our community, said Mary Poole, the founder of Soft Landing. A few folks with us and some elected officials have been getting calls in the middle of the night. A few of us have been getting emails, and some of them have turned a little more hateful and threatening than that. The march will be at 5 p.m. and will go from the north end of Higgins Avenue to Caras Park, where a large group picture will be taken. The Missoula County Board of Commissioners sent a letter in January to the U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration to support Soft Landings request to help resettle approximately 100 refugees per year through the International Rescue Committees Reception and Placement program. That sparked a protest rally in February at the Missoula County Courthouse, where anti-refugee resettlement protesters voiced their concerns about efforts to bring Syrians and other refugees from war-torn countries to Montana. City Council meetings since late February have featured heated public comments on both sides of the issue. Last week, a discussion on refugees in front of the Ravalli County commissioners drew nearly 500 people, and about 100 rallied against resettlement efforts at the Capitol in Helena this week. City Club Missoula is hosting a forum titled Refugee Resettlement: What Missoula Should Know from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, March 14, at the DoubleTree Hotel, 100 Madison St. *** Susan Hay Patrick, the CEO of United Way of Missoula, helped organize the forum, which will feature a speech by Poole and a refugee named Wilmot Collins, who settled in Helena after fleeing Liberias civil war. I suggested it because I think theres a lot of heated discussion around a very divisive issue, and emotions run high on both sides, Hay Patrick said. And City Club the forum is really designed to foster civil discourse on difficult issues. Theres a speaker and a break, and people at the table discuss the issue and formulate a question, and I think that model is a good format for talking about issues on which people feel very passionately." Hay Patrick said the forum is an opportunity to dispel some of the myths surrounding Soft Landing. Its a good-faith effort to shed a light on myths and some facts and expose a wider audience to what the plans might be and certainly talk more about the vetting process, Hay Patrick said. And people arent aware of the vetting process for refugees. The likelihood of Syrian refugees ending up in Missoula is small. Poole said a robust vetting process is in place in America to ensure potential terrorists dont get in. I also think people dont truly know what a refugee is, she said. People are looking at the migration of people fleeing terror in Europe and not realizing that the people that are moving through there are not refugees. They are not registered with the United Nations, they are not among the group of people that the U.S. pulls from. Thats where a lot of where the fear starts of who actually is a refugee that would qualify to come to the United States. She said Missoula has a substantial Hmong population, an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of Vietnam, Laos and Thailand that was persecuted after the Vietnam War. In the U.S., last year the highest proportion of refugees came from Burma, Bhutan, Somalia, Iraq and Cuba, according to Poole. *** After listening to several anti-Syrian refugee protesters at a City Council meeting this week, council member Emily Bentley felt compelled to point out that Soft Landing is not focused on bringing only Syrian refugees. Currently, our goal is to bring a refugee resettlement agency to Missoula, Poole said. Wyoming and Montana are the only two states that dont have a refugee resettlement office. Missoula had one until 2008 and had a robust program. We are trying to get that program reinstated. To purchase a ticket to the City Club forum, visit cityclubmissoula.com. Jame Wallack wanted to be an advocate for other transgender people, and she wanted them to know they had something to live for. "She was full of life, and she was an amazing person," said Kim Wallack, Jame's wife and partner of almost seven years. Sam Edelman was a musician, snowboarder, taekwondo black belt, a hunting partner to his dad, and he was also "a staunch advocate for human rights and equality for all." Wallack and Edelman both were transgender people, and both faced depression and completed suicide in Missoula last week. Suicide rates are high in the transgender community, with at least 45 percent to 51 percent of people who are trans considering taking their own lives, according to the Gender Expansion Project in Missoula. Founder Bree Sutherland said society still needs more education to erase the stigma around being transgender. Montana historically has ranked among the worst five states for per capita suicides in the overall population, said Kristie Scheel, suicide prevention coordinator with the Missoula City-County Health Department. However, she said once people who feel suicidal get the help they need, they most likely will never be suicidal again. The recent deaths in Missoula have family members mourning the losses of loved ones, but also speaking out for tolerance, and they have advocates here throwing open doors to lend support and share resources with transgender people and their friends and family (see related story). "Sam was a beautiful, kind, compassionate, exceptionally smart individual," wrote his parents, Vickie and Adam Edelman, of Bozeman. "The untenable challenges associated with being a woman living in a male body led to deep depression for Sam. "He was supported by all who knew him at home in Bozeman and during his brief time as a student in Missoula, including the care and support he received from the professionals at the (University of Montana), fellow students, and health professionals in the community. "Despite being loved unconditionally by all of us, the struggles became too much for Sam. Our grief is immeasurable, but we will honor Sam's spirit by living lives of tolerance and compassion." *** Wallack loved to write, and she wanted to get a minor in paralegal studies and a major in psychology. Last summer, Wallack provided the Missoulian documents showing UM believed she had violated the conduct code; Wallack disputed the charges and alleged discrimination. She dropped out of Missoula College to avoid expulsion, and she ended up homeless, unable to live in campus housing with her wife. Kim Wallack said Jame turned to illicit drugs to ease her suffering, and she sought help, but she didn't get all the support she needed, and she lost her fight with depression. "I never understood everything she was going through, and it was really hard for me because Jame was relapsing and going down a huge road that eventually took her life," Kim Wallack said. Nonetheless, Jame Wallack believed in the dream of becoming an advocate or peer counselor for other transgender people, Kim said. Just a couple of days before she died, she learned she had been accepted to the psychology program at Montana State University in Bozeman, Kim Wallack said. "But that meant she would have to leave us, and she didn't know if she could do that," Wallack said. Child and Family Services tried to get help for Jame, but the demands of life without a home had overwhelmed her, her wife said: "Jame was just overloaded with trying to find a job and a place to live and a car and visitation." At her best, Jame Wallack was full of life and laughter, and she wanted to live to help others, Kim said. She loved her two children. "She just lost a battle, and she didn't know how to fight anymore," Wallack said. Sutherland, with the Gender Expansion Project, said Montana can be a difficult place to "come out," and she knows firsthand that "even Missoula can be very alienating." To address some of the needs, the Gender Expansion Project has been promoting resources and helping link people to services. To lend support this week to the transgender community, and family and friends, the organization is hosting an open house from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, at 127 N. Higgins Ave., Suite 202. "As some of you may know, Missoula's transgender and gender-diverse community have experienced the loss of two beautiful people in our community over the past week," read the online invitation. "... Jame and Sam, you will never be forgotten." Sutherland and the organization encouraged people to attend the open house, even for a hug. "The time in the wake of losses in our community can be a difficult time for all of us. Please reach out to those close to you in this time and surround yourself with supportive people." STEVENSVILLE LeRoy Eugene Niemann, 90, passed away Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, at Community Medical Center of dementia. LeRoy was born Aug. 31, 1925, to Lawrence S. and Dora (Seachris) Niemann in Waynoka, Oklahoma. His mother died when he was 12 years old. He was raised by his grandparents, Elmer and Bertha Seachris and Bertha Niemann, in Waynoka. LeRoy attended school at Hutchinson, Kansas, and Waynoka, graduating from Waynoka High School. After graduation, he worked on a ranch and in the Texas oil fields. He went into the U.S. Army on Jan. 29, 1945, in San Antonio, Texas. He was on a ship to Okinawa when the atomic bomb hit Japan. He was in Okinawa for two months in the 1341th Combat Engineer Battalion. From Okinawa the unit went to Korea. After two months in Korea, he enlisted in the regular Army for assignment to Germany. In Germany he was in the unit which became part of the U.S. Constabulary. During the 28 years he was in the Army, he served in Germany, two tours of duty in Vietnam, one tour in Korea and the United States. He completed the Russian language course at the U.S. Army Language School in Monterey, California. He learned to speak German fluently while stationed in Germany. LeRoy ended his military career as a Regimental Intelligence sergeant. He married Erna Toertzel in Germany. Karen, Katherine, Denise and Reiner were born to them. They were later divorced. He was discharged from the U.S. Army at Dugway Proving Ground in 1972 and moved to Idaho to fish and hunt. He lived in Rexburg, Idaho, and spent much time in the Teton Valley fishing and hunting. LeRoy loved to fish and especially ice fish. His hunting was always productive whether it was big game or pheasant. He enrolled in in a night class at Ricks College in Rexburg, where he net Ila Marie Long, an instructor. They were married in Idaho Falls in 1973. He graduated with an associate degree in industrial arts from Ricks College, attended the University of Montana in Missoula for one semester and went on to Provo, Utah, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in German and Russian from Brigham Young University. He took graduate courses at Idaho State University in Pocatello. He taught Russian for a semester at Pocatello and night classes in German in Rexburg. While enrolled in a class of genealogy at BYU, he became very interested in searching for the history of his family which became his lifes work. He became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1972 in Germany and during the years that followed, served in many callings including Boy Scouts leadership. He served three missions in the Family History Center in Salt Lake City, there continuing work on his genealogy, too. LeRoy and Ila served a mission to Germany in the Genealogy Microfilm Ordering Center in Frankfurt from 1988 until 1989. During that time he once again gathered much of his family history. He is survived by his wife, Ila Marie; daughters, Katherine and Denise; a sister, Jan Gladden of Florida; stepchildren, Teresa (Hyrum) Tatton, Sheryle Richardson and Paul (Lane) Long; and Seachris and Niemann cousins. He is also loved by 12 step-grandchildren and their children. He was preceded in death by his son, Reiner; his daughter, Karen; his parents; a brother-in-law, Bill Gladden; and many of the Seachris and Niemann family with whom he shared his childhood. Visitation will be held on Saturday, Feb. 27, from 10 to 11 a.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Stevensville. The funeral will begin at 11 a.m. at the church. Interment with military honors provided by the Stevensville American Legion Fort Owen Post No. 94 and the Montana Army National Guard will follow at Sunnyside Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that memorial donations may be made in LeRoys name to your local Alzheimers Association. Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at whitesittfuneralhome.com. The proposal to reopen a resettlement agency in Missoula is surrounded by a lot of misinformation, especially in regard to Syrian refugees, and I feel the need to address some fallacies that are continuing to drive the conversation. We cannot request, nor have we requested, to resettle a specific population of refugees, such as Syrian refugees. In fact, due to the low numbers of Syrian refugees that have made it through the vetting process and the fact that there are other cities that are already better equipped to resettle them, it is highly unlikely that Missoula will be chosen as a location to place Syrian refugees. With input from community stakeholders, the International Rescue Committee has set a sustainable goal of around 100 refugees per year. There are many numbers flying around that are nowhere near this, and may have been what sparked a Ravalli County commissioner to state that he is against "any kind of mass immigration from wherever." The fact is, opening a resettlement office in Missoula to resettle a handful of families per year from areas all over the world is far from a "mass immigration" to Missoula, let alone Ravalli County. We also have to define refugee. Some people are using the term "refugee" to speak about the migration that is currently happening in Europe. The people traveling to Europe are asylum seekers and do not go through the same processing that refugees go through. Only United Nations registered refugees are considered for placement in the U.S. Someone who has fled Syria and traveled to Europe is not a U.N. registered refugee and therefore does not qualify to come to the U.S. On top of this, less than 1 percent of refugees worldwide are recommended for third country resettlement. The majority are assisted in returning home or integrating into the local communities where they registered as a refugee. About 1/2 of this 1 percent will be resettled in the U.S., and these refugees have been prioritized based on need and vulnerability. The U.S. has the honor of being able to accept and assist some of the most persecuted people in the world through this priority-based system. This includes children with chronic medical conditions, the elderly, single mother households, LGBT refugees and victims of torture. People should really know that when they are fighting against refugees being allowed in their communities, they are fighting against these people. They are not fighting against migrants in Europe, radicals coming here on student visas or other types of immigrants, but are fighting against individuals and families who have not only lost all worldly possessions and many of their loved ones, but who are facing additional struggles beyond what we can even imagine. It has been said that these refugees are "un-vetted"; that we are not able to vet Syrians and that FBI Director James Comey has said as much himself. This is not true. He has said that there are challenges with the databases in Syria, but that "we have gotten much better as an intelligence community at joining our efforts and checking our databases in a way that gives us high confidence." On top of this, the database check is only one step in an 18- to 24-month multi-step process that involves four federal agencies and includes, among other things, multiple biometric screenings, medical evaluations, in-person interviews by trained staff, cultural orientation and the checking of databases. It is absolutely the most rigorous screening that anyone goes through to get into this country. (See: www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/11/20/infographic-screening-process-refugee-entry-united-states.) Director Comey stated, "The good news is we are much better doing it than eight years ago. The bad news is, there is no risk-free process." In fact, there never has been a risk-free process, yet America has resettled over 3 million refugees since 1975 and not one of them has committed an act of terrorism on U.S. soil. I would say that that kind of track record is a pretty good indication of the thoroughness and success of the stringent U.S. vetting process. Missoula has decades of history taking in refugees. Our city is enriched and strengthened by this diversity. Assisting refugees to find a new home in Missoula is something we can safely and successfully do again. In response to the article Project expansion aids local loggers in the Monday, Feb. 15, Missoulian. To Scott Kuehn: before you start jacking your jaw about something you obviously know nothing about, you should talk to some of the old-time loggers such as me. I admit the Ax Men are a bunch of brain-dead idiots, but dont put me in the same category. Too bad you were not around to see how hard we yahoos worked in all kinds of weather with no heated/air conditioned cabs on our equipment. And you, Joe Fraser, how dare you call me and the old timers I worked with riff-raff? The riff-raff you speak of fought in two world wars, Korea and Vietnam. They put this country in a position for you to make a good living. The mills had specs back then also and we met those specs with the highest of standards with the equipment we had to work with. Hopefully your young guys who are going to have to step up to the plate will respect you and Kuehn far more than you have respected my generation. In nearly 60 years spent working in the woods the only argument between yahoos or riff-raff I ever saw was two little fat boys wrestling around in the snow bank. Funniest thing I ever saw, and it still makes me laugh. Larry Dillree, Ovando HAMILTON A Corvallis man originally charged with kidnapping a 17-year-old mother, forcibly injecting her with methamphetamine and raping her numerous times accepted a plea agreement Wednesday. Byron Craig Hall, 32, pleaded guilty to criminal distribution of dangerous drugs and tampering with physical evidence. Hall was originally charged with nine felony counts that included aggravated kidnapping, sexual intercourse without consent, aggravated assault, child criminal endangerment and numerous drug charges. During an arraignment in district court last year, Hall was told he could face the death penalty or imprisonment for 555 years, and a fine of $450,000. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Ravalli County Attorney Bill Fulbright can argue for a maximum of 15 years in the Montana State Prison. The agreement said the least amount of time Halls attorney can argue for is a five-year sentence. A sentencing hearing has been set for April 27. On Wednesday, Fulbright said the victim was supportive of the agreement. Hall was arrested in February 2015 after a 17-year-old mother of an 8-month-old boy confided in her childs baby sitter that she had been forcibly injected with methamphetamine and repeatedly raped over the course of several days while being held prisoner in her own home, according to the original affidavit. The affidavit said the girl invited Hall to her home Feb. 6. During that visit, the woman told police that Hall snapped and became extremely angry after the girl mentioned his ex-girlfriend. Hall pushed the woman onto the bed and started to strangle her, according to the affidavit. When she attempted to push him away, she said he just smiled and continued to strangle her until she passed out. While she was passed out, Hall injected her with methamphetamine and raped her over the course of several days while holding her prisoner in her apartment, according to the affidavit. The womans child was present during the ordeal. An additional felony charge was added after investigators found three homemade videos created between Feb. 6 and Feb. 9 that included sexual content involving the teenage girl. Hall allegedly used the webcam installed on a laptop computer to record the incidents. A medical examination documented bruising on the womans throat, her arms and the tops of both thighs. She also had recent puncture wounds to her arms consistent with needle marks, also known as track marks, according to the affidavit. Hall was on probation on a 2002 felony conviction of operating an unlawful clandestine drug laboratory in Flathead County when he moved to Ravalli County. The original conviction carried a 15-year commitment to the Montana Department of Corrections, with 12 years suspended. Between 2002 and 2015, Hall was placed in 12 different treatment or prerelease programs in Montana, according to information from the Montana State Prison. In each case, Hall committed some infraction that landed him either back in jail or prison. He was picked up on a probation violation in Ravalli County less than three weeks before he was arrested on the kidnapping charges. Hall was set to go to trial on the current charges next week. That trial has been vacated. The 2015 Montana Book Award winner is "The Lentil Underground" by Liz Carlisle, published by Gotham Books. This annual award recognizes literary and/or artistic excellence in a book written or illustrated by someone who lives in Montana, is set in Montana, or deals with Montana themes or issues. Presentations and a reception with the winning authors will take place on Wednesday, April 6, during the Montana Library Association Conference in Missoula. "Lentil Underground: Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in America" tells the inspiring story of David Oien and other Montana organic farmers who work with heirloom seeds and biologically diverse farm systems. Carlisle is a a native of Missoula. Under the brand Timeless Natural Food, their unique business movement has grown into a million-dollar enterprise. Four honor books were also chosen by the 2015 Montana Book Award Committee: "Black River" by S.M. Hulse published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. A former prison guard and talented fiddler returns to his Montana hometown, based on Deer Lodge, to bury his wife and confront the inmate who, twenty years ago, held him hostage during a prison riot. Hulse, a Spokane native, earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Montana. "Crossing the Plains with Bruno" by Annick Smith of Missoula, published by Trinity University Press. Annick Smith weaves together a memoir of travel, western history, family history, human love and animal love centering around a two-week road trip across the Great Plains with her chocolate lab, Bruno. "Hawthorn: The Tree that has Nourished, Healed, and Inspired through the Ages" by Bill Vaughn of Missoula, published by Yale University Press. As entertaining as it is illuminating, Bill Vaughn examines the little-recognized political, cultural, and natural history of this ancient spiky plant. "Tunnel Vision" by Susan Adrian of Butte, published by St. Martins/Griffin. A young adult novel with romance and action crashing together when a teenage boy with incredible powers is brought to the attention of the government. In addition, Ivan Doig will be remembered and honored for his body of Montana writing during this years reception and presentations. The Montana Book Award was founded by the Friends of the Missoula Public Library in 2001, with winners selected by a committee of individuals representing areas throughout Montana. Members of the 2015 Montana Book Award committee included: Dale Alger, Roundup; Sean Anderson, Kalispell; Mareta Brusett, Jordan; Desiree Funston, Missoula; Stef Johnson, Butte: Tamara Miller, Bozeman; Jessie Pate, Helena: and Stacy Walenter, Troy. HAMILTON A Ravalli County aviation company is disputing federal allegations that it improperly operated a helicopter that crashed and killed its pilot in 2013. The U.S. Department of Transportations Federal Aviation Administration has proposed fining R&R Conner Aviation of Conner $197,500 for allegedly operating a Bell UH-1B helicopter when it was not in compliance with federal aviation requirements. The FAA alleges that R&R Conner operated the aircraft in the Detroit, Oregon, area in September 2013 when it did not comply with four airworthiness directives and with parts that were past their replacement dates. The airworthiness directives required regular inspections of certain components, tracking service time and a replacement date of the main motor mast. The FAA also alleges the company operated the aircraft with three components the tail rotor yoke, main rotor stabilizer center frame and rotating control bolts that were past their replacement dates. The FAA alleges the aircraft was not airworthy and was operated in a careless or reckless manner that endangered lives and property. I have no doubt that it will be resolved in our favor because safety is a paramount concern within R&R Conner Aviation, said company co-owner Ryan Conner said. We have a strict safety policy, which we adhere to both on the ground and in our flight maintenance operations. We respectfully disagree with the FAA and are working with them to address these allegations. The Sept. 16, 2013, crash killed Bart Colantuono, owner and pilot of the helicopter. At the time, he was working as a subcontractor to R&R Conner Aviation. Colantuono, 54, was a pilot who starred in the History Channel show Ax Men. According to news accounts, Colantuono was transporting timber from a cutting area to a log deck when the accident occurred. Witnesses heard a snapping sound followed by logs hitting the ground. It appeared that Colantuono knew of the problem and released the timber electronically. News accounts said witnesses saw a rotor separate from the helicopter, followed by the aircraft turning upside down and falling to the ground. Colantuono died at the accident scene. R&R Conner has 30 days from the receipt of the FAAs enforcement letter to respond to the agency. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the majority whip, said, We believe the American people need to decide who is going to make this appointment rather than a lame-duck president. These statements are so twisted that its hard to know where to begin. Lets take them one by one. First, Mr. Obama is not a lame-duck president. The lame-duck period is broadly understood to run from after the November election until a new president is inaugurated in January. November is more than eight months off. Based on the average number of days it has taken the Senate to act on previous Supreme Court nominees, the seat could be filled by this spring. Second, no matter how often Republicans repeat the phrase let the people decide, thats not how the system works. The Constitution vests the power to make nominations to the court in the president, not the people. In any case, the people have already decided who should make this appointment: They elected Mr. Obama twice, by large margins. Third, it is preposterous to accuse Mr. Obama of causing a bitter struggle by nominating someone who will not be confirmed. The only reason a nominee would not be confirmed is that the Senate has pre-emptively decided to block any nominee sight unseen. Mr. Obama is once again the only adult in the room, carrying out his constitutional obligation while Senate Republicans scramble to dig up examples of Democrats trying to block nominees. But those examples show only that Democratic senators have pushed hard for Republican presidents to pick ideologically moderate nominees. Until now, neither party has ever vowed to shut down the nomination process entirely, even before it has begun. Only two Republican senators, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Susan Collins of Maine, were brave enough to say that they would vote on President Obamas nominee. This is what passes for moderation in todays G.O.P.: simply stating a willingness to do the job you were elected to do. DUBLIN Sean Crowe, a member of the Irish Parliament, has been around long enough to remember just how tough it was to attract votes when his party, Sinn Fein, was known only as the political arm of the Irish Republican Army as it waged a guerrilla campaign against Britain in Northern Ireland, only an hours drive from his Dublin constituency. Yet after decades in which Sinn Fein was defined almost exclusively by its place in the often-violent conflict over reuniting Ireland, it appears to be on the cusp of rebranding itself as a more mainstream party in Ireland and even to emerge as one of the primary voices of the left-leaning opposition. Sinn Fein continues to be led by Gerry Adams, 67, who has been the partys president since 1983 and has always been closely linked to the I.R.A. even though he has long denied being a member. Mr. Adams, who won a seat in the Irish Parliament in 2011, has sought to recast the party as one opposed to the austerity policies that have dominated Irish life since the financial crisis of 2009, and as a populist alternative to the dominant parties of the center right and center left. Polls suggest Sinn Fein has a chance in Fridays election of gaining enough seats in Parliament to become one of the countrys three biggest parties, along with Fine Gael, the center-right party that leads the current coalition government, and Fianna Fail, another center-right party. Manlai Baatar Damdinsuren with two of his adjutants. Damdinsuren was Mongolian patriot and nationalist who took part in revival of Mongolian... Behind the scenes at the Montana Historical Society. Butte Police Reports HEARING VOICES Justin Moran, 31, turned himself in to police Tuesday because he said he had been hearing voices, using methamphetamine, and was concerned for his family. Police took Moran to St. James Healthcare for an evaluation, then checked on Moran's residence. Police found syringes and a small amount of methamphetamine in a bag. The drug was hidden, but low enough to the ground where the children in the house could have found it. Police booked Moran at about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday for possession of dangerous drugs and criminal child endangerment, both felonies. PAROLE VIOLATION During a visit to his parole officer Tuesday, Timothy Hopper, 27, was found to be in possession of a syringe, which violated his parole. Police found a small bag with a small amount of methamphetamine inside Hopper's wallet. Police booked Hopper Tuesday with parole violation and possession of dangerous drugs, both felonies, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor. DANGEROUS DRUGS Butte resident Nicole Church, 35, was caught leaving a residence in the 600 block of Broadway at about 4 p.m. Tuesday with her belongings after kicking in the back door to the house. Police found a pipe with methamphetamine residue in Church's possession. She was booked for possession of dangerous drugs, a felony, possession of drug paraphernalia and a warrant from a Belgrade city court, a misdemeanor. BACK IN JAIL Police found Stephanie Latray, 35, hiding in the basement of her residence in the 1900 block of Thornton Avenue at 4 p.m. Tuesday. She was wanted for fleeing the Transitional Living Program at the Butte Pre-release Center on Dec. 10, 2015, when her urine test showed positive for drugs. Latray was originally charged with criminal distribution for dangerous drugs and a felony forgery in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County in October 2010. She is being held in the Butte-Silver Bow jail until she can be transferred to the Women's Correction Center in Billings. WHITEFISH A reclusive millionaire known for having built a mansion on Flathead Lake's Cromwell Island was sentenced Wednesday for violently groping a female paramedic aboard his private jet. Robert M. Lee, 84, who lives full-time in Reno, Nev., assaulted a paramedic-respiratory specialist in September 2010 while traveling to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., on his private airplane. He was charged with one count of misdemeanor assault last June and pleaded guilty to the offense in July. On Wednesday morning in federal court in Minneapolis, Minn., U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Arthur J. Boylan sentenced Lee to 180 days of probation, including 30 days of home confinement. He also ordered Lee to perform 60 hours of community service at a Nevada humane society, pay a $5,000 fine, and provide the victim $431.25 in restitution along with a letter of apology. In imposing the sentence, Boylan called Lee's behavior "arrogant and offensive." The maximum penalty for a conviction on the assault charge is six months behind bars. The case was brought in federal court because the offense occurred while the aircraft was in flight. Lee gained local notoriety in the mid-1990s by building a $25 million mansion on Cromwell Island, which he also owns. A sportsman and outfitter, Lee made his initial fortune developing planned communities on properties owned by his family in Long Island, N.Y. He has historically eschewed public attention, conducting his affairs in private and granting exclusive access only to his island home. Lee has purchased several pieces of property in the Flathead Lake area, including Cromwell Island, which at 342 acres is the second-largest island on the lake. It is located on the west shore, near the town of Dayton. He also owns homes in New York, Reno, Nev., Ennis and Dayton. According to charging papers filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura M. Provinzino, the assault occurred while Lee was being ferried on his private Gulfstream jet from Show Low, Ariz., to the hospital in Rochester, Minn. Two women accompanied Lee on the flight and are identified in court records only as a paramedic and respiratory therapist with the initials "M.L." and a registered nurse with the initials "M.D." Lee was under the care of the women following an emergency room visit, for which the precise reasons are unknown. At one point during the flight, while M.L. assisted Lee in returning from the bathroom to his seat, he "forcibly and violently grabbed and twisted the nipple of M.L.'s right breast, causing M.L. substantial pain," records state. The woman immediately pushed Lee's hand away and told him, "You do not get to touch me like that. Do not do that again!" the records state, to which Lee responded, "I can do whatever I want. This is my airplane." Undeterred, Lee then reached across the aisle of the airplane and gestured to M.D. with his thumb and forefinger in a pinching motion, stating, "That's what I am going to do to you." M.D. told Lee that he was not allowed to touch medical crew in that manner, and he responded with a similar sense of entitlement, telling the woman "on my airplane, I can do whatever I want." Lee then told M.D. that she should be wearing a V-neck shirt so that he could slide his hand in her shirt more easily. An attorney representing Lee in the case submitted 13 letters written by friends in support of Lee, and which state that the business leader's behavior was uncharacteristic. The authors of the letters include former Nevada Sen. William Raggio, who wrote that Lee "has been a trusted friend for all these years and this conduct is entirely out of character for him," and the Rev. William Watson, who officiated Robert and Anne Lee's marriage in December 2009 and asked Boylan to impose a lenient sentence. "I can't fathom Mr. Lee engaging in any intentional conduct detrimental to another. ... I have never observed any aggressive behavior by this stately, gentle man," Watson wrote. But in a sentencing memorandum filed this week, prosecutor Provinzino wrote that Lee "grossly understated his culpability" during a risk assessment interview in which he accused the women of "being mean" and shoving him. Provinzino wrote that the consequences of the assault were not minor, and the victim identified as M.D. subsequently left her position as a flight nurse. Victim M.L. experienced pain in her breast for days after the assault, and took umbrage with Lee's accusation that she was unprofessional. "Not only did Mr. Lee have the audacity to believe he had the right to do whatever he wanted to me on his aircraft, but now he has the audacity to insult my integrity. I am frankly disgusted in his lies and his wrongful behavior," M.L. wrote to the court. In a separate statement to the court, M.L. wrote: "I have transported patients all over the world and have never in my career had any patient treat me with such disrespect and disregard of my profession. Not only did Mr. Lee attack me while I was taking care of his medical needs, he believed that he had the right to do whatever he wanted to me since I was on his aircraft." Magistrate Boylan imposed the sentence precisely as it was recommended by Provinzino in a strongly-worded memorandum. "(Lee's) conduct was arrogant and abusive. He treated the victims as his property, to be used and abused however he saw fit," Provinzino wrote. Even a 2009 Butte High graduate was impressed with the teens who showed up for the annual Butte High Career and Technical Education Fair Wednesday. Mike Waldman, Highlands College and Montana Tech recruiter stationed at one of about 50 tables in the gym, liked what he saw. Its a good turnout here, said Waldman, who played football at Montana Tech, where he earned a business management degree in 2014. Its exciting to see the young faces here and moving on with their lives. For the first time, all students were allowed to attend. The Butte High gym was crammed with students mingling among a wide variety of two-year colleges, trades organizations, private businesses and government agencies seeking to fill internships, apprenticeships and in some cases, jobs. Normally seniors are zoned in on the career path radar screen, but plenty of underclass students tested the waters on Wednesday morning, grabbing pamphlets and visiting face-to-face with those in the know. I try to educate them on different aspects of the trade wages and benefits, said Joel Worth, Northwest Carpenters Union representative. The fair is a good way to do that. Juniors Justin Cunningham and Riley Riordan chatted with Worth about the unions four-year apprenticeship program, which pays the apprentice as they learn and earn their wings. Weve got a huge demand for carpenters, added Worth. Wherever I go, contractors are looking for skilled labor. Nearby was Waldman, touting carpentry and all the strong hands-on trades programs at Highlands, which offers two-year associate degrees and some quick-track certificates. He said attending Highlands is a good return on investment. Youre going to school, getting a good education, working with great staff and for less cost, Waldman added. Students can take core classes like math and writing for less than the cost of a typical four-year college, too; plus, if they stay in Butte and live at home their first two years, they can save on room and board. However, options abound, as Worth noted: They can come out of high school and get into our program. Its all about on-the-job training, so they work when theyre learning. To qualify for a carpentry apprenticeship, a recent high school graduate must be 18, have a high school diploma or GED (now called HISET) and be willing to work, added Worth. Pay schedules are based on the number of job hours completed and the amount of classroom time logged. A popular stop was the KBOW/KOPR Radio station table, featuring sales executive Maggie Davis, whose father is owner Ron Davis. Students eyes lit up when they imagined working as a high-profile DJ. But radio seeks other kinds of workers, too: Broadcast engineers, the guys and gals who maintain the radio towers to make sure they speak to the stations, said Maggie Davis. She handed out fliers of a new Missoula College certificate of applied science in electronics technology, a program that trains broadcast engineers. The two-year program is followed by a one-year apprenticeship with an experienced mentor. Were trying to get the word out, added Davis. Dacia Blanche, a Butte High sophomore, said she was looking into music colleges, but I think radio would be good. Some students have already decided their next step after graduation, but they hit the job fair, curious and unguarded. Senior Ashley Trunnell has already been accepted to the University of Montana Western, where she will major in early childhood education. But she touched base with her college reps anyway. I talked to them about scholarships, she said. Senior Griffin Brasher is flirting with studying education, political science, journalism or photography more academic and less technical aspirations. I wish there were a few more options like more colleges at the fair, he said. Leaving campus for Hillcrest elementary, where they mentor second-graders and kindergartners, both Trunnell and Brasher have four-year college plans. But its that kind of openness that Assistant Principal Brenda Floreen encourages at the career fair. I think this is great for our students, she said. It allows them to explore all the different career paths out there. Floreen said staff talked with students about attending to soak up whatever potential job interests them. She estimated that a good portion of the 1,200 student body attended. Judy Bryant, fair organizer and head of the Career and Technical Education Department at Butte High, said she accepted four last-minute tables into the fair. Its a better turnout, but weve always had a good turnout, added Bryant. Grayling are one of the unique fish species found in Montana, and part of its natural heritage. Occupying less than 10 percent of its former historic habitat, the fish is in jeopardy of extinction. Political interference and agency intransigence are the major obstacles for reversing the fishs fortune. As such, the grayling is case study in how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uses stalling tactics to avoid listing controversial species under the Endangered Species Act. The Montana population of grayling was once found in nearly all rivers of the Upper Missouri system including the Sun, Smith, Gallatin, Jefferson, Big Hole, Red Rock, Ruby, and Madison. Grayling are now confined to a limited number of waters, including a 60-mile stretch of the Big Hole River, a small section of the Madison near Ennis, Montana, a few tributaries to Upper Red Rock Lake in Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, and Miner Lake and Mussigbrod Lake in the Big Hole drainage. The grayling has also been reintroduced into the Upper Ruby River. The grayling is threatened by competition with introduced fish, degradation of riparian areas along spawning streams, dams, low water flows as a result of irrigation withdrawals, which in turn has led to increasing summer temperatures. In the face of climate change, water withdrawals may exacerbate the effects of low water and high temperatures. DECLINING POPULATION By the 1980s biologists noticed that the Big Hole grayling population was declining. In 1991, I sought to have the grayling listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). More recently I have been joined by co-petitioners Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biodiversity and Pat Munday in our attempt to force the FWS to finally recognize the fishs precarious hold on existence. In 2010, the FWS determined that the grayling qualified for listing to preclude its extinction in the lower 48 states, citing low abundance, stream dewatering, habitat degradation and inadequate regulatory mechanisms as its rationale for listing. While awaiting official listing, in 2014 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service arbitrarily reversed itself and determined that the Montana population of Arctic grayling no longer qualified for protection under the ESA. Due to this apparently politically motivated decision on the part of the FWS, the plaintiffs, including myself, are requesting the courts reverse this capricious decision and list the grayling. STALLING TACTIC? The 2014 decision not to list was based primarily on the creation of a Big Hole River Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA), which requires voluntary actions such as fencing riparian areas, and more efficient irrigation methods to increase water flows in the river by private landowners. The creation of the CCAA is in my view a stalling tactic that the FWS and Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has used to delay listing. Such measures can be implemented while the grayling is listed, and if they work as well as advocates suggest, grayling numbers should increase to the point where the fish can be delisted. So far the evidence suggests that CCAA voluntary efforts are still inadequate to bring about the graylings recovery. Temperatures in the main stem of the Big Hole regularly exceed 70 degrees. This is considered unsuitable for grayling and sustained high temperatures can be lethal. Not surprisingly when drought occurs ranchers use even more water to irrigate their hay fields, and less water remains in the river. Ive seen sections of the Big Hole River reduced to a trickle with a series of pools which results in high water temperatures. For instance, in the low flow years of 2012 and 2013, monitoring stations consistently recorded temperatures above 70 degrees and some stations reported temperatures above 77 degrees which are considered lethal to grayling. The FWS also reversed its position on the threat of extinction posed by low population. In 2010, the FWS determined that four of the five native grayling populations were at risk of extinction simply due to their very small populations. Random stochastic events such a major drought or flood or disease can quickly cause a small population to spiral down to zero. While the grayling populations have fluctuated over the past decade, the overall trend appears to be downward. The good news is that ultimately the legal system usually works to override the agency recalcitrance and I still believe that the grayling will eventually gain ESA listing. My hope is that the grayling will once again swim in many of the headwater streams of the Missouri and be there a hundred years from now to thrill and delight all wildlife lovers. -- George Wuerthner is a wildlife biologist and former Montana hunting/fishing guide who has published 38 books. He divides his time between Livingston, Montana, and Bend, Oregon. He is also on the board of Western Watersheds Project. In the course of the 46 years I have been a chemical engineer, I have helped develop processes that treat environmental problems and meet environmental regulations. Doing such, I worked at a plant to remove selenium from water in Oklahoma; I have made oil from shale in Colorado, natural gas from coal in Ohio, and helped design and operate a clean-coal plant in Colstrip. And I once worked in the Kelley, and have been to the bottom of the Con. In 1988 I co-authored a Memorandum of Understanding between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy that helped result in several environmentally oriented programs in Butte. One result of these programs was the technology that is sitting on the bank of the Berkeley Pit and may be used to clean the water for discharge at sometime in the future. However, according to Evan Barrett in th 2/17/16 Montana Standard, I possess no qualifications that would allow me to run the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. You see, I have worked for industry, and I am tainted. Anybody who has worked for an industry that might have made a profit is singularly unqualified to know anything about running Montanas environmental department. We are much better off if the one who directs the DEQ has no experience in anything practical, and especially in anything that might better mankinds plight. Does a candidate for governor dare suggest that his DEQ director know his posterior from a post-hole? I guess we should appoint only political scientists from the college of the prancing bears (located west of here). The prancing bear college used to teach how to husband a forest; now, instead of cutting trees, they teach hugging trees. We should appoint people in state offices that have no concept of the working end of a No. 2 muckstick, just like the community organizer in the White House. And, like Barry and his minions, they need to support shutting down Montanas coal industry to prevent the heat-death of Gaia. Jobs are unnecessary; the government will take care of you. -- Stephan T. Kujawa, PhD, PE, Butte Commissioners and residents are giving mixed grades to a county plan that would turn West Park Street from Uptown to Montana Tech into a two-lane boulevard with a tree-lined median down the middle. Its being hailed by some as a way to enhance the connection between Buttes two crown jewels Tech and the Uptown business district while others predict headaches with snow removal and say work on other streets such as Excelsior Avenue should come first. Planning and public works officials detailed their hopes for West Park Street before commissioners Wednesday night and also outlined plans for improving a 2-mile stretch of Excelsior Avenue and making 16 sidewalk connections with Uptown alleys handicapped-accessible. They told The Montana Standard recently that they hoped work on the Uptown sidewalks would be done this year and improvements to Park Street would begin next year. The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT), which will fund and oversee the projects, said those timelines were possible. But MDT said work on Excelsior Avenue was penciled in for 2019 a date local officials hoped to push up. And county officials seemed less confident about start dates for the other projects Wednesday night. Public Works engineer Nick Sandford said they hope bids for the Uptown sidewalk project will go out at the end of this construction season, and although work might begin this year, it might spill into 2017. The Park Street work could begin in 2017 or 2018, he said. Planning Director Jon Sesso said Thursday that county officials would do everything they could to expedite the projects. They would be funded with federal dollars flowing through MDT, with an early estimated price tag of $7 million. Some residents and commissioners said they liked plans for reducing traffic on West Park Street from four lanes to two, with a tree-lined median on most of the mile stretch and left-turn bays at three intersections. Some sidewalks would be expanded into small patio areas outside some restaurants and bars. Sandford said previous data indicated that traffic could be reduced to two lanes. Planning Director Jon Sesso said MDT was still conducting its own studies, but early returns also showed that and indicated that traffic turning left would not back up enough to impede the main travel lane. Terry Spath, who lives on West Mercury Street, said the plans were ideal for todays younger generation and were popular in vibrant cities such as Eugene, Oregon. Dan ONeill, a landscaper in Butte, said many cities are benefiting from such street-scaping looks and the proposed changes would last for the next 50 to 100 years. The possibility of improving the image of this city makes me smile, he said. Pam Haxby-Cote, executive director of the Butte Local Development Corp., said the changes would make a wonderful entrance to Tech and would enhance our entire community. Commissioner Bill Andersen, whose district includes West Park Street, said the plan would give Tech students a better way to travel between campus and Uptown and it would slow traffic. I think it will be an inconvenience for some, especially those who want to speed up and down Park Street at 100 miles per hour, he said. Commissioner Dan Foley said Tech was a shining part of Butte and anything to enhance that is extremely positive. Several people expressed concerns, however. Commissioner Cindi Shaw, whose district includes Excelsior Avenue north of Park Street, said she and her constituents were told a few years ago that sidewalks and other improvements on Excelsior were in the works. There were drainage issues and, in places, no sidewalks for kids to walk on to school. I am very disappointed that Excelsior is not going to be completed before Park Street, she said. Commissioner John Sorich asked how snow removal would be done. A median down the middle would prevent crews from plowing snow into the middle of Park Street to be picked up and hauled off later. Sandford said snow would be a challenge and Public Works would have to work with residents and business owners along Park Street to address it. He said there would be room to work with on the sides, but also suggested that Park might have be shut down to collect snow. Butte resident Rich Penhaligen said that was not an answer. There is no answer yet, and they have had all this time to figure this whole project out, but they cant figure out the snow without shutting down a lane, he said. Commissioners Jim Fisher and Cindy Perdue-Dolan said they didnt know much about the plans until recently. The Standard published a lengthy story about them Feb. 7. I feel like we are sometimes almost left in the dark about a lot of things, Perdue-Dolan said. But Sheryl Ralph said she and other commissioners received emails about surveys, meetings and workshops regarding West Park Street. There has been a lot of communication with the council, she said. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is requesting public comment on the State of Iowa's state implementation plan (SIP) for the sulfur dioxide (SO2) nonattainment area in Muscatine County, Iowa. To protect human health the federal Clean Air Act (CAA) requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set limits on the amount of pollution allowed in the air. These limits are called national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) and they must be evaluated periodically and revised as necessary. In 2010, the EPA established a new 1-hour (hr) SO2 NAAQS to reduce people's exposure to high short-term concentrations of SO2. Following any NAAQS revision EPA reviews air quality data submitted by the state and must designate as nonattainment any areas that do not meet the new NAAQS. On August 5, 2013, EPA published in the Federal Register (78 FR 47191) a nonattainment designation for a portion of Muscatine County for the 2010 1-hr SO2 NAAQS. To address the nonattainment designation the CAA requires the state to develop a SIP revision that includes a control strategy providing for expeditious attainment of the 1-hr SO2 NAAQS. The DNR collaborated with facilities in Muscatine to develop air pollution control measures that will permanently reduce SO2 emissions and result in attainment of the 1-hr SO2 NAAQS. An electronic copy of the SIP document may be viewed at http://www.iowadnr.gov/airstakeholder. The SIP document will be under the Public Input section of the page in the area titled Muscatine 1-Hour SO2 Nonattainment SIP. A copy of the document may also be viewed at the Musser Public Library, located at 304 Iowa Ave, in Muscatine, Iowa. Any person may make written comments on the proposed SIP revisions on or before Thursday, March 31, 2016. Written comments should be directed to Matthew Johnson, Department of Natural Resources, Air Quality Bureau, 7900 Hickman Road, Suite 1, Windsor Heights, Iowa, 50324; by fax at 515-725-9501; or by electronic mail to Matthew.Johnson@dnr.iowa.gov. A public hearing will be held on Wednesday March 30, 2016, at 3:00 p.m. at the Muscatine County Conservation Board's Environmental Learning Center, 3300 Cedar Street, in Muscatine. All comments must be received no later than 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 31, 2016. Any person who intends to attend the public hearing and has special requirements such as those related to hearing or mobility impairment should contact Matthew Johnson at 515-725-9554 or at the e-mail address above to advise of any specific needs. A responsiveness summary will be prepared by the DNR following the close of the public comment period. The responsiveness summary will include any written or oral comments received during the public participation process and the DNR's response to the comments. The responsiveness summary will be forwarded to EPA and available to the public as part of the final nonattainment SIP submission. MUSCATINE, Iowa Hiawatha City Council member Aime Wichtendahl visited Muscatine High School's Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club on Wednesday to talk about her experiences in local politics and as a transgendered Iowan. Originally from Newhall, Wichtendahl spent eight years in Hiawatha before she decided to become involved in city government. She holds a Bachelor's degree in political science and journalism from Mount Mercy University, and was elected to the council in January. She is the first transgendered person to be elected in the Iowa government, according to her introduction from Jackie Haller, an adult adviser for the Muscatine High School's GSA. "I am transgendered, it was one of those things I knew my entire life," Wichtendahl said, "but of course it wasn't always easy being in rural Iowa or watching the negativity in the media." Wichtendahl said her 11-year-old son Steven has always been an inspiration for the open dialogue she tries to keep with her constituents and others in the LGBT community. "I have always been very open with my son, and that is what I do with others. If you have a question, I am more than willing to talk about it," she said. Jacey Goetzmen, the president of MHS GSA, asked if she is working to help transgendered people in her role on the city council. "I really focus on city government right now," Wichtendahl said, saying that sometimes fighting for transgender rights can feel like shouting into the wind, or banging one's head against a wall. "Our job won't be done until we can talk and be in public openly without any negativity coming back at us," Goetzmen responded, "it is exhausting, but we have to keep banging our heads against the wall until that changes, and it is important to keep an open dialogue." Wichtendahl agreed, and said that although legally, rights for transgendered people are good in Iowa, the culture isn't always that way. Haller asked how transgendered youth can support other people who do have to fight legislation. Wichtendahl answered that the Internet is "the best tool in our arsenal," and although trying to affect legislation in other parts of the country may not be possible or easy, blogs and other Internet communication can reach there and much farther. When asked about the future, Wichtendahl said that she would like to run for the the state legislature, but it will depend on the political climate in years to come. She said she still wants to focus on green energy, small businesses, and other issues that caused her to run for the council, and will look forward to running for the legislature if that is what the future holds. MUSCATINE, Iowa Muscatine High School students and members of the Chinese Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra took turns performing for each other Wednesday afternoon before the Chinese group's free concert at Central Middle School Wednesday night. Were thrilled to have you in our school, MHS Orchestra Director Jonathon Thoma told the members of the Chinese orchestra. A little more than two dozen members of the orchestra that is touring the United States stopped by the high schools orchestra class in the MHS auditorium. First, the MHS orchestra played Chinas national anthem to welcome its guests, then played an American piece Adventures on Bainbridge Island by Alan Lee Silva. Then, several members of the Chinese orchestra explained their instruments through a translator and performed short pieces. Chinese instruments have a lot in common with the West(ern) ones, a translator explained. The first was an erh which looks kind of like a hammer and plays like a violin but its based on two strings: A and D. Next was a pipa (pronounced pee-pa) and has four strings. The name of the instrument comes from the technique, the translator explained. The musician played a piece to describe a whole warfare on a single instrument. Then was the sheng, one of the oldest instruments in China having been invented more than 3,000 years ago. It often appears in Chinese mythology and legends. The construction of this instrument looks a lot like a pipe organ, the translator described. Its about the size and shape of a bagpipe, but metal, and is played by breathing in and out of it. Its sound is akin to an oboe, clarinet or even sounding like a harpsichord at times, as it can play single notes and chords. The students also saw a ruan, which looked like a banjo but played more like a guitar. There was also a zhong ruan, which was like the ruan but larger, like a cello, the translator explained. It was completely amazing, Brooke Steele, a junior, said. Other students also used the word amazing to describe it. I think it was they had such intense musicality and even on an instrument we dont know anything about it still came through, Kaleb Drawbraugh, a junior, said. They were also impressed that the musicians had the music memorized and didnt need a conductor to help them stay in time. I just enjoyed listening to a different cultures music, Ben Rice, a sophomore said. Very similar, yet very different from ours. Steele said she liked being so close as most of the orchestra students remained on stage in the auditorium while the Chinese orchestra members performed. It was cool to be right there like a foot in front of me, Steele said. Thoma was very grateful he and his students had this opportunity. Its really special to have world-class musicians perform and we dont even need to go to a different zip code, Thoma said. Different roots Thoma said theres a reason the music sounds different aside from cultural influences. In Western culture, we have equal temperament, the Chinese dont. The musicians understand what it is and can play it. But their instruments are tuned in such a way I dont know exactly what its called but they dont follow equal temperament, Thoma explained. They could play with us right now they understand do re mi fa so la ti do but Chinese music was not founded on equal temperament. Thoma said they have half tones and semi-tones. Western culture has 12 tones, the Chinese have more than a dozen, he said. The way its tuned doesnt make any sense in Western music, Thoma said, describing the pipa. But it works, and is able to play music that is in tune, as any Western instrument. Chinese perspective Hey Uan was impressed with the MHS performance for them. "They paid a lot of attention ... and I can feel their passion for the music," a translator said, interpreting for Hey Uan. He said he hopes the students heard the beauty of Chinese music, which has been developed over thousands of years. "It contains a lot more than we can express with words," Hey Uan said through the translator. Ge Yanan also said he was impressed with the MHS orchestra. Several members of the Chinese orchestra also said they've enjoyed their time in Muscatine thus far. "I can see the real America," Zhang Gaoxiang said through the translator. MUSCATINE, Iowa A public forum concerning the possible closure of Washington Elementary School will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday in the student commons area at Muscatine High School. Superintendent Jerry Riibe will present preliminary information about where Washington students will attend classes if the school board decides to close the Washington building. Details about the possible effects on the schools bordering Washington Jefferson McKinley and Franklin elementary schools will also be explained. Those three buildings would be the reassigned attendance centers for students currently attending Washington. Jefferson, McKinley and Franklin would not accept transfer students from within the district. Washington parents would have first priority to transfer to another building. Siblings of special education students will have priority in transferring to another buildings due to movement of the special education programs. The district would identify open and closed classrooms in the four remaining elementary schools. Jefferson, McKinley and Franklin would not accept open enrollment applications from outside the Muscatine district for students not already open-enrolled to Muscatine. The district would review enrollment at the four remaining elementary schools. Once a decision is made to close Washington, letters would be sent to parents regarding their child's new building. The letter will include details about a tour of the new building for the student and family, a family fun night for Jefferson, Franklin and McKinley transfers and options to transfer to another building not including Jefferson, McKinley or Franklin. Important stuff you won't get from the liberal media! We do the surfing so you can be informed AND have a life! Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi [] Lifestyle, stories, travel, itineraries in and around Rome, central Italy, cruises in Mediterranean. Study abroad, writers, food, antiques, culture, books. Civilians ride on a motorcycle past damaged buildings in the historic southern town of Bosra al-Sham, Deraa, Syria February 23, 2016.[Photo/Agencies] BEIRUT - Syria's Saudi-backed opposition body the High Negotiations Committee said on Wednesday it would commit to a two-week ceasefire in Syria, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya al Hadath television said in a newsflash, without elaborating. It came after the United States and Russia this week announced a plan to stop fighting in Syria, with combatants required to say whether they will agree to the "cessation of hostilities" by noon on Friday (1000 GMT), and to halt fighting at midnight on Saturday. When Netflix launched in 130 new countries, including South Africa, on 6 January 2016, it was due to market pressures and the need for an accelerated launch schedule. Thats the word from the MD of World Wide Worx Arthur Goldstuck, who told MyBroadband that there were three key reasons Netflix accelerated its launch plans. Firstly, the market has exploded with competitors and options, meaning that much of the low-hanging fruit would already be grabbed by the end of 2016. Secondly, the longer Netflix waited, the more time competitors had to flesh out their offerings and make them comparable or better than Netflixs. Already, that is an issue in markets where local players like Showmax have a broader and more locally-defined offering, said Goldstuck. Finally, its slowing growth in the USA was spooking investors, and a global roll-out ensured an acceleration in growth. Expect material global profits from 2017 Netflix punted plans for its global expansion in January 2015, when CEO Reed Hastings told investors they planned to roll-out worldwide by the end of 2016. We then intend to generate material global profits from 2017 onward, said Hastings. Netflix reiterated this statement in its recent letter to investors, saying that its global availability sets it up for continued growth for many years. You are witnessing the birth of a global TV network Netflix said its growth in new markets like South Africa will unfold over many years as it improves its service. It is starting by targeting outwardlooking, affluent consumers with credit cards (which can take US dollar charges) and smartphones. Today, right now, you are witnessing the birth of a global TV network. And I do mean the birth, Hastings told Netflix press conference attendees on 6 January. From today onward we listen, we learn, we improve, we add more languages, more content, more ways for people to engage with Netflix. Over the next several years our goal is to provide an ever-improving service. More on Netflix Netflixs VPN ban is not the cure for TV studios problems PayPal cuts support for Netflix unblocker UnoTelly: report Netflix War draws first blood: Vidi is dead Netflix vs DStv can South Africans cut the cord? Netflix versus ShowMax The City of Cape Town offers motorists the option to renew their motor vehicle licences online thanks to its e-services portal. The e-services portal also allows residents the opportunity to view their rates and services accounts, enter meter readings, pay accounts, and more, said the City. The City asks motorists to act proactively to ensure that the necessary arrangements are made and to renew online where possible. How to renew your car licence online Visit www.capetown.gov.za Click on the e-services button (bottom right of screen) Under the Motor Vehicle Licensing option, click on register Once youve registered, you will receive an e-mail with your temporary login and password Log in to the e-services site and select the service activation tab Next to the vehicle licensing field, click on activate service Complete the once-off registration fields. Then upload a copy of your identity document/passport and proof of address and submit your application Click on the motor vehicle licensing (top left of screen) Select renew motor vehicle licence Complete the vehicle owner and vehicle registration details applicable and submit You will receive an e-mail with a payment advice, reflecting the licence fee due, the Citys bank details and a nine-digit reference number within two working days You can make payment via Electronic Funds Transfer or bank deposit. Be sure to add the relevant vehicle licence renewal reference number Your licence will be posted to the address you submitted, within a minimum of 14 days When applying to renew the motor vehicle licence online, you will need: A valid e-mail address Electronic copies of your identity documents/passport and proof of address All vehicle registration details More motoring news E-toll price hikes coming in March BMWs iPerformance cars here in July After failing to convince African National Congress MPs to vote to remove President Jacob Zuma previously, the Democratic Alliance is hoping the general public will have better luck. The party is calling on all South Africans to write to ANC MPs and lobby them to support a motion of no confidence in Zuma, which will be debated in Parliament on Tuesday, March 1. DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen said this would be an opportunity for members of the ruling party to do what is right for South Africa. We can no longer allow one man to lead our country down the path to further joblessness and poverty, he said. The party has also called for Cabinet ministers and their deputies to recuse themselves from the vote, a notion which the ANC has labelled fanciful. The DA also called for a secret ballot vote. Steenhuisen said in a statement on Thursday the party had created an online toolkit to make it easier for South Africans to write to the MPs. The toolkit included all the email addresses of the ANC MPs, as well as a prewritten message calling for them to vote with their conscience. South Africa is no longer the beacon of hope to the world that it was at the dawn of our democracy; our economy is in crisis; and the constitution, the foundation of our democratic state, is increasingly coming under threat from a government that appears to have lost respect for the Rule of Law, the online letter reads. It can, however, be edited. The party has also created an online petition calling for South Africans to support the motion of no confidence. Earlier this week, the office of the ANC chief whip in Parliament said the DAs calls for ministers to recuse themselves and the secret ballot was a desperate attempt to divert attention from the problems within the party. Both his calls are based on neither the Constitution nor the rules of procedure that govern the proceedings of the National Assembly, and it would thus be difficult for anyone to dignify with serious consideration. We find the thinking behind such bizarre propositions illogical, spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said. In March 2015, the DA unsuccessfully brought a motion of no confidence against Zuma. At the time, they also called for ANC MPs to vote with their conscience. The motion was unsuccessful when a total of 221 MPs voted against it, 113 supported it, and eight abstained from voting. News24 More on Zuma President Jacob Zuma announces salary increase for public servants, Kings and Queens Des van Rooyen most qualified person in South Africa to be Finance Minister: Jacob Zuma Penang Anti War Memorial in Air Itam, Penang Anti War Memorial. The Anti War Memorial in Air Itam Penang may be recognizable but many do not know the great significance of it. A grim reminder to Penangites and Malaysians alike of what had happen during the Second World War. My Father's Experience Historical Facts detailing the events during 2nd World War. The Sook Ching Massacre Anti War Memorial The Nanking Massacre Apologies from Japanese civilians Chinese paper, Sin Chew 2007 The Death Railway A reminder of cruelty Britian's History Yearly Commemoration of the Memorial In Air Itam Penang, this Anti War memorial served to remind us of the 800 locals who were brutally tortured then murdered during the Second World War. In March 1951, excavations to recover the remains were carried out in the Coombe Hill in Gelugor, Thean Teik Estate in Air Itam and Vale of Tempe Road in Tanjung Bungah and Batu Ferringhi.The incomplete skeletons and bones were collected in boxes and cremated. The ashes were respectfully packed in 66 bags and buried beneath this War Memorial. It also buried some of the MPAJA (Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army) who fought against the Japanese during the Second World War.Dad will not let me forget how he went through Second World War. During this period of 3 years and 8 months, the Japanese went on a rampage torturing and brutally murdering Chinese.Any suspicion roused, man would be beheaded. Pregnant women were speared with sharp and shiny Japanese sword.Babies were thrown in the air and poked through the sword to the humor of the soldiers. young girls, my sister included had her hair cut short like a tom boy to escape being picked and rape by the soldiers.Thousands of Chinese lives were lost during the Sook Ching Massacre.(Sar Ni Peh Koay Jze), is a Hokkien term for 3 years and 8 months to remember the duration of the Japanese in Malaya, the suffering, the brutality and massacre on the people of Malaya).The Japanese Army carried out an identification and interrogation of Chinese youth, an Operation 'Sook Cheng' (to wipe out, eliminate or to purge).Chinese youths were dragged out of their homes and ordered to register at 'Sook Cheng' Centers with severe punishment for anyone who disobeyed. At these centers which were in open spaces with no water, masked men identified those whom they regarded were anti Japanese.All those identified as 'undesirable' by the Japanese at Sook Cheng centre were loaded on military truck and driven away to be massacred. Each Chinese walked past a row of hooded informers, mostly Japanese agents.Those including captured Chinese defenders or triad members who gave information to save their lives.Some were women or children avenging themselves for earlier mistreatment, or trying to gain merit with the conquerors. When the hooded man nodded, a man was dragged away.Others not under this classification were stamped on their clothing or body as 'cleared' and allowed to return home. Many were rearrested and executed.The Chinese had supported the war effort in China through fund-raising campaigns and the boycott of Japanese goods.Besides that, they also served as volunteers in the defense of Singapore and Malaya. So they were the natural targets.Chandra my husband, shared his late father's experience with the Japanese. During the Japanese occupation, Chandra's dad was sent to built the Death Railway linking Malaya to Thailand and Burma.He was one of the few survivors who had praises for the kind Japanese officers who gave him a pair of army boots as both his feet were badly bruised from days of walking barefooted to Thailand.According to Chandra's dad, many British soldiers became weak and died because they were not adapted to eating rice like us. Tapioca and rice porridge were then the staple food during the Japanese Occupation.Today the Penang Chinese Anti War Memorial stands to be forgotten as Air Itam becomes increasingly urbanized. Lest not allow these relics of the Second World War.This anti war memorial must not fade from our memory. This should be a constant reminder what and how war is cruel and terrible.The fall of Singapore to the Japanese Army on February 15th 1942 is considered one of the greatest defeats in the history of the British Army and probably Britain's worst defeat in World War Two.Once a year Kong Min, a Chinese school just opposite the road commemorated the Anti War Memorial at the Air Itam roundabout. The Anti War Memorial is held on the 11th November, time 11 am sharp without fail. Wreaths and food are offered on the ground of the memorial.On November 11th at 11am 2011, 60 years after, a wall with historical facts was built for people to read the true events. I was glad to be there to read and understand more the events and happened during the 2nd World War in Malaysia.Nearby places of interest include the Kek Lok Si temple and Penang Dam. These are places most people near and far knows.Parallel to this Air Itam road is the road that leads you to Penang Hill, Jade Emperor Temple and Penang Hill Tua Pek Kong Temple. In the triangle corner between Penang Hill Railway Road and Main Air Itam road stands this whitewashed obelisk. As owner of this blog, I bear no responsibility to what other contributors/bloggers may post. I encourage all to speak freely without indulging in libel or defamatory content. Anyone who feels offended by any posting can email me and I will remove the offending article if appropriate. Contact me at redbeansg@yahoo.com redbean As the adage goes, wonders will never cease, so is drama in Kenya. Just two weeks after the release of a music video by Art Attack that glorifies love among the gay, KFCB has made an appeal to YouTube to have the video scrapped off the site. This decision by the board that approves the kind of content that should go on air on local screens has elicited some differing reactions from members of the gay club. Transgender Audrey Mbugua who penned a post supporting the ban of the video faced the wrath of an angered Joji Baro (gay gospel artiste) after getting back to Mbuguas comment with a silencing response. Heres how the online beef between the two ensued. Advertise Here Be seen advertise here. Contact us. SACRAMENTO A judge is set to consider Wednesday whether to block Gov. Jerry Browns proposed ballot initiative to reduce Californias prison population. State prosecutors want Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang to prevent Attorney General Kamala Harris from issuing the title and summary for a proposal that they say bypassed the normal filing process. That would force Brown and his supporters to file a new initiative instead of amending an existing proposal. It would delay when supporters can begin collecting the signatures necessary to put the measure before voters in November. The California District Attorneys Association and Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert argue in a lawsuit that the Democratic governor broke state law when he amended an initiative that was originally intended to strip prosecutors of their power to decide if juveniles should be tried in adult court, leaving that decision to judges. Brown amended it last month to increase sentencing credits for adult inmates who complete rehabilitation programs and allow earlier parole for non-violent felons. Harris defended the governors approach in a court filing this week that asked Chang to dismiss the challenge. Friday is the deadline for Harris to issue the title and summary unless Chang intervenes. The governor met the deadline for submitting amendments that reasonably relate to the initiatives original juvenile justice focus, even though it was amended after the end of the public comment period, the attorney generals office argued in its response. Prosecutors are seeking to delay and impede the initiative process with a narrow reading of the law, the state argues. The argument is over a 2014 state law that requires 30 days of public comment in a bid to improve the initiative process. The same law also lets initiative sponsors amend their proposal and gives the state Legislature a chance to hold hearings before measures qualify for the ballot. Aside from the legal arguments, the prosecutors association says Browns proposal goes too far by overturning several voter-approved initiatives and allowing earlier parole for thousands of inmates. The Napa County Sheriffs Office is looking at a possible suspect in connection with the bomb threat that cleared the Napa County courthouse on Third Street for an hour on Thursday morning, the Sheriffs Office reported. The threat was called in at 9:25 a.m. and the Criminal Courthouse was emptied while sheriffs deputies checked the building for suspicious items. Courthouse personnel and people with court business milled about the area. They were given the all-clear shortly after 10:30 a.m. No bomb was found. I am writing in support of Chris Malan, who is running for Napa County Supervisor in District 4. Chris is an extraordinary human being with personal and professional qualities that would make her an ideal representative for the people and the environment on our Board of Supervisors. Most people seem to know Chris from her decades of being a tireless activist for our local environment. Her many accomplishments include managing a successful campaign against an initiative that would have resulted in a large housing development in a sensitive agricultural watershed; co-coordinating a successful citizen-led ballot initiative for flood management and restoration of the Napa River (Measure A); and, as an executive member of the Napa Sierra Club, leading successful litigation, requiring the County to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to protect the environment when approving new vineyards. People familiar with Chris advocacy for the environment know that she is extremely knowledgeable about the issues, the science behind them, the law, and the political process. In short, she knows how to get things done and isnt afraid to speak out against the money or the powers that be when the environment and the people who live here need a voice. However, I first came to know of Chris Malan through another role she has held in Napa County for more than 30 years. Throughout all of Chriss environmental advocacy, she has worked for Napa County Health and Human Services as a mental health professional. As a local psychotherapist myself, I once had a mutual client with Chris. This woman was a single mother who, by no fault of her own, ended up homeless. Week after week, she would come into my office in tears, feeling defeated not only by her circumstances, but often by the very system that was supposed to be in place to help her. However, I kept hearing one name over and over again, one person who not only supported her emotionally when she felt knocked down but who also advocated for her and helped her successfully navigate through the system. This person was Chris Malan. Thanks in no small part to Chris, this woman is no longer homeless and is now a working, contributing member of society. Long before meeting Chris, I knew she was a person with a passion for listening to and helping others. I strongly encourage my fellow residents of District 4 to vote for Chris. She has been a resident of this district for more than 30 years, knows and shares our concerns, and unlike her competitors, has a decades-long proven track record of successfully helping our county and its people. Chris Malan is dedicated, knowledgeable, and someone who truly cares about and serves others. Thats why she has even vowed to donate 25 percent of her Board of Supervisors salary back to the community for social and environmental causes. Carol Nagle Napa Americans are buying more wine than ever without going to a wine store. Direct-to-consumer sales increased 66 percent from 2010 to 2015, with 4.3 million cases valued at nearly $2 billion shipped directly from wineries to consumers last year. Thats according to an annual survey by ShipCompliant, a firm that helps wineries negotiate the legal labyrinth of direct shipping. The nations capital leads the country in these direct-from-the-winery purchases on a per capita basis, narrowly edging out California, Washington state, Colorado and Oregon. (That might be an exaggeration, Im guessing; the Districts number probably includes people who have wine shipped to their offices and then take it home to the suburbs.) The very existence of a firm such as ShipCompliant highlights the difficulties of direct shipping. Forty-three states allow it in some form or other, up from 17 in 1998, but state laws and regulations differ, creating paperwork and financial headaches for wineries seeking to use this sales channel. The growth of direct shipping has chipped away at the three-tier system of producer-distributor-retailer that has dominated alcohol beverage sales since the end of Prohibition, although the traditional sales channels remain dominant. And ShipCompliants figures almost certainly underestimate the extent to which wine is being delivered by UPS or FedEx. The company measures only winery-to-consumer sales and does not capture sales by retailers shipped directly to consumers. The nations convoluted distribution system and fragmented taxation and regulatory structure allow Washington-area wine lovers to find bargains at stores in New Jersey or Chicago that are unavailable here. And wine fiends elsewhere comb online listings or pick up the phone to find their favorite wines from D.C. stores. (A caveat: When Maryland legalized direct-to-consumer sales by wineries in 2011, it did not allow out-of-state retailers to ship to Maryland residents. District and Virginia residents may order from retailers in other jurisdictions.) Direct shipping has provided an opportunity for smaller wineries to circumvent the three-tier system. Those wineries have been squeezed by consolidation in the distribution network, which has favored large national brands and made it hard for smaller labels to earn shelf space. According to the ShipCompliant survey, there were 8,638 wineries in the United States last year; of those, more than 8,000 produce fewer than 50,000 cases of wine a year. Small wineries (5,000 to 50,000 cases) accounted for 44.3 percent of shipments by volume, while medium-size wineries clocked in with 32.1 percent. When looking at the total value in sales dollars, however, very small wineries (1,000 to 5,000 cases) equaled medium wineries, as the little guys tended to sell higher-priced wines. Napa Valley led all U.S. wine regions in sales, topping $1 billion. That suggests we are still in love with our cult cabernet sauvignons. But we adore pinot noir as well: The survey noted a continuing surge in direct sales of wines from Oregon. Shipments of pinot noir, the states signature grape, outpace the market in every aspect, the report said. The average price per bottle shipped last year was about $38, a level that has remained fairly steady over the few years ShipCompliant has published its survey. Smaller wineries average higher prices, and bottles costing $100 or more rose 19 percent in sales by volume. Although that price category accounts for only 5.8 percent of all wines shipped, it equaled 25.2 percent when measured by value. But the clearest sign that direct shipping may indeed be a threat to the three-tier system is probably at the low end of the price scale. Traditionally, lower-priced wines arent associated with the direct-to-consumer channel, according to the report. It says further: But the $15 and under category saw a 27.7 percent increase in volume of shipments in 2015, bringing its share of shipments to 22.5 percentthe highest volume share of any [price] category. Thats still a big slice of a small pie. But these are wines we typically buy in a supermarket or a local wine store. If consumers are finding inexpensive wines they are willing to buy direct even with the added cost of shipping, distributors may have an incentive to increase the variety of wines they offer or risk further erosion of their market share. You are most welcome to come along. For more information, see When & Where We Meet , or Contact Us The main choices in the 2016 Philippine presidential election are clear cut. They are either more-of-the-same, entrenched political establishment types or they are the new, fresh starters on the presidential aspirant block who indignantly arch their brows at traditional politics and politicians, but naively or craftily promise the moon to disillusioned voters from an ivory tower. Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte is one such contender for the top national office. As a provocateur and contrarian, he illustrates the collision between traditional politics and the populist, anti-establishment political narrative. However, Dutertes opposing vision has offered little beyond the most cursory and reductionist assumptions and prescriptions for the country. Throughout modern political history, individuals aiming for national office have spoken reverently of their collective themes and platforms. In his capacity as a candidate, Duterte has spoken reverently of his own views but in such a style and tone that it reflects his conviction that he is subject to no one outside of himself. Duterte has brought forth his understanding of the pressing issues that beset the Philippines with all the vanity and self-certitude he can muster. Dutertes braggadocio about what he would do as president has shown that he has taken little time to delve deeply into the major issues confronting the Philippines. For example, he has treated the democracy vs. discipline debate as an easily resolved dilemma. Having no better testimony than his uncompromising corpus of work as Davao mayor, Duterte has suggested that he would slow the democratic process down because of the chaos and disorder he believes it leads to. Indeed, he has stated that he is ready and willing to abolish the Philippine congress if his proposed reforms are not passed. Dutertes political mind is shared with authoritarians the world over: turmoil generally arises from giving people too much freedom so the authoritarian thinking goes. Over the centuries, every authoritarian worth his or her salt has intrinsically ascribed to this notion. As a subscriber to this view, Duterte has the perfect makings of a dictator in the wings. He will brook little dissent from any corner once in power. Filipino voters seek a leader who can apprehend their fears, feelings, needs, and expectations as they have grown weary of a political establishment that pays lip service to their right to live and prosper as decent human beings. The 2016 election is going to mean everything to Filipinos as they look for a candidate from an alternate socio-political universe rather than from the old school what with its solid array of craven, duplicitous, and ineffectual leaders. But Filipino voters should be careful of what they wish for they are as mentally and emotionally vulnerable as they have ever been in a presidential election season. Instead of deliberating with their minds, too many Filipinos are impulsively listening to their hearts as they search for the leader that has the tidiest prescriptions for the most complicated of the nations problems. Politicking on the tailwind of a populist wave, Rodrigo Duterte appeals to this susceptible mass audience as he leads it on a crusade to bring law and order to the nation. As his campaign gathers speed, Dutertes aptitude for making quixotic pledges becomes all too plain to see and hear. He tells Filipinos that he would utilize both the armed forces and the police to wipe out (i.e. kill) all criminals as if that could be accomplished without violating any human rights. Cleaning up crime and corruption is always commendable. But if there is any truth to the accusations of human rights violations during his stint as Davao mayor, it would portend a path towards authoritarian rule for Duterte if he were to become president. Duterte has gone on to blithely promise that he will end traffic in the overcrowded Metro Manila area, eliminate corruption in just a few months time, and make vague statements about improving the economy. Far from being realistic, Dutertes promises are more significant for their lack of concreteness than for their viability. Duterte comparisons have been made with another smug, narcissistic, and boastful nonconformist presidential candidate in the United States, Donald Trump. For both, the devil is truly in the details as they avoid revealing any in their promises. Opportunistic politicians like Rodrigo Duterte and Jejomar Binay are commanding voters attention by clarifying, rationalizing, and reprising their themes and positions with strong doses of sophistry and misdirection. It is what these conniving politicians do best----blow smoke up their constituents asses and pull excrement out of their own. Rodrigo Duterte, both as a public servant and as a presidential candidate, is more illusion than reality. No more is this obvious than in the misguided sentiment he has generated among his staunchest supporters. To them, Duterte is the hailed individual, the familiar male protagonist who has found the sweet spots in their socio-political consciousness and left a delusionary trail of gold for them to follow. In voting for a new president, Filipinos should pursue their passion for change but temper it with common sense and the dictates of reason. What should count as a wise decision for president is an individual possessing the steady disposition, perspicacity, inner strength, compassion, and patience required of any democratic leader. Taking a frantic leap of faith with a candidate like Duterte does away with all those virtues and instead invites further enmity, inequality, marginalization, and oppression. What happens when two of country musics most celebrated women merge for one performance? An absolutely magical moment for the lucky fans in the audience. Carrie Underwood recently paid homage to one of her idols, Dolly Parton, during her Storyteller Tour. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania crowd was the fortunate chosen one as the stunning vocalist undertook the tall task of recreating Dollys I Will Always Love You on the stage before it. The results of Carries cover were every bit as remarkable as one would expect, as it was met with screams throughout, supportive cheers, and anticipatory silence as the well-known mother notes drew near. With a combination of Carries flawless appearance, pristine voice, and passionate respect for Dollys masterpiece, the Storyteller Tour show goers were gifted with a moment in time many can only dream about experiencing. Watch Carrie Underwood perform Dolly Partons I Will Always Love You: How Cold Are Black Holes? : Today were going to have the most surreal conversation. Im going to struggle to explain it, and youre going ... Vijay Iyer / Wadada Leo Smith's A cosmic rhythm with each stroke: trumpet: piano, Fender Rhodes, electronicsA cosmic rhythm with each stroke features pianist Vijay Iyer and the musician he has described as his hero, friend and teacher, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. Vijay has previously played extensively with Wadada in Smiths Golden Quartet, but this album, produced by Manfred Eicher and recorded at New Yorks Avatar Studios last October, is the first documentation of their duo work. The centerpiece of the album is the spellbinding title suite, dedicated to Nasreen Mohamedi (1937-1990), the innovative Indian artist whose improvisatory imagery evokes abstracted rhythms. Trumpet and piano interact here with creative sensitivity to tone, texture and space. Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith will be premiering A cosmic rhythm with each stroke at New Yorks Metropolitan Museum of Art in March 2016 in the context of a major exhibition dedicated to Nasreen Mohamedis art and writings. The Suite for Nasreen is framed on the album by Iyers composition Passage and Smiths concluding piece Marian Anderson, inspired by the great US contralto.March 30-31 New York, NY (Metropolitan Museum of Art Breuer Building)April 1 Knoxville, TN (Big Ears Festival)April 7 Cambridge, MA (Fromm Concert Series at Harvard)April 15 Los Angeles, CA (Occidental College)April 16 Fullerton, CA (Cal State Fullerton)Further dates to be announced Ankara decides to stand up for Riyadh amid deteriorating relations between Saudi Arabia and U.S. French Foreign Minister considers it vital to keep lines of communication with Russia open Pentagon refuses to give details of conversation between Austin and Shoigu Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin: Head of Caucasus Muslims Department again made slanderous and false statements Erdogan denies using chemical weapons against Kurds and threatens those who dare to talk about it Saudi Arabia and China will strengthen their ties in energy sector Governor of Gegharkunik province receives representatives of OSCE fact-finding mission Penny Mordaunt runs for Prime Minister of Great Britain Sweden expects ratification of NATO membership application by Hungary and Turkey to be completed soon European Union will allocate 1.5 billion euros per month to Kiev in 2023 An Israeli-built flight school opened in Greece Russian Railways is negotiating with Azerbaijan and Iran to launch the Rasht-Astara route Overchuk: Construction of road through Meghri, whose sovereignty is not in question, depends on Armenia's position Armenian Defense Minister's working visit to India is over Hungary will not agree to limit prices for imported gas Iranian Foreign Minister: Iran considers Armenia one of most important transit countries Naribekyan participates in meeting of secretaries general of PACE parliaments Delegation from United Arab Emirates visits Armenia at invitation of head of MONKS: Two agreements signed Dollar, euro drop in Armenia Iran consul general in Armenias Kapan: We do not accept any change of borders Baza: Mobile military registration and enlistment offices will be removed on Russian-Georgian border Iranian Consul: Countries of region do not need presence of foreign armed forces Armenia FM: Iran consulate general in Kapan will be important for regional security Iranian Consul General advises Kapan residents not to worry anymore: Iran is here for Armenian people FM reaffirms Armenia plan to open consulate general in Irans Tabriz Turkey to open consulate in occupied Armenian Shushi city of Artsakh Turkish Ministry of Finance: Ankara can buy Russian oil without Western funding Armenia Security Council chief briefs European Parliament rapporteur on recent Azerbaijan military aggression British bookmakers name favorite for post of prime minister Erdogan: Armenia-Azerbaijan relations progress will contribute to Armenia-Turkey relations normalization Iranian Consulate General opens in Kapan Erdogan: Turkey is looking for alternative to American F-16 fighters Iran consul general: We are here for Armenian people Turkey FM slams OSCE decision to send needs assessment mission to Armenia Peskov reacts to Erdogan's words about Putin's softening on Ukraine negotiations European Parliament rapporteur on Armenia visits Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan European Parliament rapporteur on Armenia to legislature speaker: Attack was from Azerbaijan, naturally Armenia President to EEU PMs: We will manage to take another confident step by respecting mutual interests EUSR Toivo Klaars exclusive interview with NEWS.am on EU Monitoring mission,Nagorno Karabakh future and violence videos Explosions rock Ukraines Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia President meets with newly formed Artsakh Public Council members Armenia PM: We need understanding in price horizon, at least in medium term Lawyer: 20 of fallen solders parents detained from Yerevan military pantheon are recognized as injured party PM: Armenia trade with other EEU countries increased by 74% France region to provide 300,000 to Armenias Syunik Province affected by Azerbaijan military aggression Eurasian Intergovernmental Council extended meeting underway in Yerevan MOD: Armenia did not fire at Azerbaijan positions, vehicle MPs in Strasbourg, present threatening dangers: Armenia has powerful support in European Parliament Years first snow falls in Armenias Shirak Province World oil prices on the rise Newspaper: Russia dismisses Armenia PM's news on Karabakh Russia PM in Yerevan, to discuss with EEU colleagues single oil, natural gas markets formation Newspaper: Why is Iran in hurry to open consulate in Armenias Syunik Province? France, Spain, Portugal agree to build Barcelona-Marseille natural gas pipeline Admiral: U.S. should now prepare for Chinese 'invasion' of Taiwan Harutyunyan: I cannot imagine Artsakh's future without presence of Russia Harutyunyan: Without questioning path of our independence, we must meet with Baku Prime Minister of Finland does not think that Hungary and Turkey will block country's application for NATO membership Iranian FM: U.S. made hasty statements in connection with protests Former Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim involved in car accident in Karabakh Arayik Harutyunyan: Artsakh people's right to self-determination is non-negotiable Iranian MFA calls it important to form platform with Armenia and India on North-South corridor Details of EU monitoring mission in Armenia are known Foreign Ministry: It seems Ankara is more interested in opening corridor through Armenia than Azerbaijan Mirzoyan: Unexpected third countries support Azerbaijani interpretation of road to Nakhchivan Foreign Ministry: Armenia, Iran and Bulgaria initial agreement on creation of Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor Israeli Defense Minister to visit Ankara Armenian Foreign Minister names main obstacle to solving problems with Azerbaijan Erdogan once again raises issue of so-called 'Zangezur corridor' Armenian and Iranian FMs to open Iranian Consulate General in Syunik province tomorrow Abdollahian: Aliyev assured that he does not want border changes, Iran will prevent implementation of such idea Iranian Foreign Minister in Yerevan supports '3+3' platform Iranian Foreign Minister recalls Tehran's 'red lines' in regional issues Mirzoyan: We highly appreciate Iran's principled position regarding territorial integrity of Armenia UK imposes sanctions against Iran for alleged delivery of drones to Russia Yerevan hosts meeting of Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in narrow composition Armenian and Iranian Foreign Ministers meet in Yerevan in extended format Charles Michel: EU energy deal possible, but difficult Erdogan says Baku should demand 'compensation' from Yerevan Pashinyan: EEU mechanisms are of great help, trade turnover between Armenia and Belarus has doubled Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian on Wednesday attended and addressed at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 50th Anniversary Ministerial Meeting in New York. The UN Charter guides the member states to take effective collective measures for the prevention of threats to peace. Over the years the concept of prevention has been gradually and effectively occupying an important space in the international efforts of building peace and security. However, conflicts continue to emerge and many of them turn violent with increasingly higher human cost, consuming significant resources of the international community and thus attracting stronger focus to the improvement of the prevention capabilities. It goes without saying that the unambiguous implementation of the international commitments, in particular those enshrined in the UN Charter on developing friendly relations among nations based also on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, can enormously contribute to the prevention efforts. If there is anything that history teaches us, is that there is a direct linkage between the brutal hindrances of the rightful exercise of human rights and violent conflicts. Usually the countries, which are disrespecting the fundamental right of peoples to self-determination, are also grossly violating human rights. In its Agenda 2030 the international community has once again reaffirmed the inter-connection between sustainable development, peace, human rights and the rule of law. The UNDP, with its extensive presence in the field has been duly recognized within the UN system as an important contributor to the function of prevention and early warning. Identifying, reporting and reacting to deteriorating human rights situations is amongst the key functions of the field missions to detect early signs of fuelling instability. Ladies and gentlemen, The link between global security and development is beyond doubt. Conflicts may impede the sustainable development. This is a reality. But there is another reality as well. Some protracted or frozen conflicts may continue for decades on the territories inhabited by people whose aspirations to achieve sustainable development goals are as legitimate as for anyone else. Pending settlement to the final legal status of certain territories, particularly those which are subject of negotiations under agreed format of conflict resolution, should not be used as an excuse to violate the legitimate right of the people to development. After all, Leave no one behind commitment is not about invoking a justification for exclusion but finding ways for inclusion. The international community should find ways to ensure involvement of the people from conflict areas in the international cooperation aimed at achieving sustainable development goals. The operation of the international organizations and agencies, such as the UNDP and others also should not be anyhow restricted for the people of the conflict areas. It is important to transform the challenge imposed by conflicts to an opportunity of establishing positive agenda of partnership including through genuine confidence building among parties to the conflict. All people have universal aspiration for security and development. Common economic or environmental projects among parties to the conflict can entail first steps towards building trust and confidence and what is more important, a common vision of peace, the Armenian FM specifically stated. YEREVAN. Armenian driver Hrachya Harutyunyan, who is serving a prison sentence in Russia, has health issues, his daughter Lilit Told Armenian News-NEWS.am. My father has spinal hernia, and we have concerns that he will not get adequate medical assistance in Russia, she said. For that reason, we would very much want for the process of his extradition [to Armenia] be accelerated, so that he may be transferred to Armenia and get the treatment here. Separately, the news service of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia informed that the ministry has received no petition from Harutyunyans relatives so far, and with respect to his state of health. Nonetheless, the ministry has already taken appropriate measures within the scope of its powers, and sent queries to the competent authorities to clarify the matter. The ministry will inform further about the results. Armenian citizen Hrachya Harutyunyan had pleaded guilty to causing a major traffic accident in Russia. The truck he was driving had crashed into a passenger bus on July 13, 2013 outside capital city Moscow. The impact of the crash was so powerful that the bus, which was carrying 64 passengers, had split in two. The accident had claimed 18 lives and injured more than 40 others. On August 4, 2014, a Moscow district court had sentenced Harutyunyan to 6 years and 9 months in prison on charges of violating traffic and vehicle operation rules and causing death. And the Moscow Municipal Court had upheld this verdict. Armenian National Assembly (NA) Vice President Eduard Sharmazanov, who is on an official visit to Berlin, has today visited Humboldt University of Berlin to take part in the international conference entitled Genocide of the Christian Peoples in the Ottoman and Kemalist Turkey. Sharmazanov, who was accompanied by the Armenian Ambassador to Germany Ashot Smbatyan, made the following address at the conference: Distinguished Participants, Dear Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen The Genocide of Christian minorities in Ottoman Empire and Kemalist Turkey is considered to be one of the greatest disasters of the XX century, that has taken lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent Greeks. It is a great honour for me to be here and address you as the Vice President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and as a descendent of both nations who survived the Greek and Armenian Genocide. Before highlighting the milestones of the massacre I would like to find the roots of this terrible tragedy. I would argue that this crime was not a chaotic phenomenon caused by and limited to the World War I. It dates back to the Christian massacres in the days of Sultan Abdul Hamid at the end of the XIX century and steps into the XX century with the 1909 slaughter of 30,000 Armenians in the city of Adana. Moreover, during the 1911 Summit in Thessaloniki the Young Turks adopted a resolution according to which the Christian population of the Empire, as an untrustworthy element hindering the progress of the country, was condemned to extermination and assimilation. The abovementioned indicates that far before the start of the World War I the Turks had developed a genocidal policy aiming to turkify all Christian population living in their territories, including the Pontic Greeks. The oppression against the Greek population started before World War I with forced displacement and atrocities on the western coastline of Asia Minor. These were controlled and managed by Mehmed Talaat Pasha, the Minister of Interior, and Doctor Nazim Bey, one of the most influential members of the Young Turkish Government. In October 1915 Enver Pasha, the Ottoman Minister of War, declared in the presence of a German military attache "we shall solve the Greek question the same way as we have solved the Armenian question. It is worth mentioning that although the World War I ended, the atrocities against the Greek population continued. During the period of 1919 to 1922 the Pontic Greeks suffered greatly from the broader genocidal policy of Kemalist Turkey. The New York Times article published in 1921 clearly states that nearly 700,000 Greeks were killed, deported or died of famine since the beginning of the Greco-Turkish War. This new wave of violence against Greeks reached its climax in September 1922 when the troops of Mustafa Kemal invaded the city of Smyrna. The city was set on fire, the Greek and Armenian quarters were totally destroyed. This tragedy took not only the lives of hundreds of thousands of Armenians and Greeks but also destructed their cultural and historical monuments. Winston Churchill described the atrocities of Smyrna in the following way, Kemal turned the city into ashes and totally exterminated its Christian population. The short story On the Quai at Smyrna written by Ernest Hemingway, also alludes to this tragedy. Hence, this crime was acknowledged and recognised by many prominent figures of the time. Since then only a few states have raised their voices to condemn the actions against those innocent Christians. Amongst them is the Republic of Armenia. I am proud to inform you that on the 24th of March 2015, the National Assembly of my country officially adopted a declaration recognizing the Greek and Assyrian genocides in the Ottoman and Kemalist Turkey. I hope that other countries will follow our example and condemn this horrific crime against humanity. Unfortunately, Turkey continues its policy of denial. Distinguished Participants, Dear Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen Let us not forget, that impunity leads to new crimes. Nowadays, the Middle East faces the same threats as Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians a century ago. Right now, the followers of Talaat and Kemal are committing another genocide not very far from the territory of the former Ottoman Empire. We witness another genocide, while the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian genocides still remain unrecognized. From my perspective, the denial of a crime equals the act of committing the crime. And so does the silence. Therefore, I call on people of every ethnic and religious background to unite for the recognition and condemnation of the genocide and against the Turkish policy of denial. I believe that this is the only way to prevent this shameful period of the human history from repeating itself. As Anatole France said, to accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. And I have a dream today. I have a dream that the Genocide denial will soon end, because only then will genocides themselves come to an end. I believe that the elucidation of the events taken place in Ottoman and Kemalist Turkey, their recognition and condemnation will, eventually, light the fire to dispel the darkness. Thus, I believe in the victory of light. And so, I hope, do you. Thank you for your attention! Our only goal is to keep Turkey by our side until the end of the war, regardless of whether Armenians perish in the process or not. This sentence made by Germany in the years of WWI is timely after more than 100 years. This sentence became more important than Bundestags call to Turkey to acknowledge the crimes of the Ottoman Empire, Michael Heussen writes in his article in the German newpaper Tagesschau. According to the article, the German Parliament almost said yes to acknowledging the Armenian pogroms of 1915 as a genocide, but Germany is still afraid of enraging Turkey, especially considering that the latter has promised to stop the migrant flow in its country. Berlin still doesnt want to lose its ally in Bosporus. Turkey is a state partner; therefore Berlin also keeps silent about the crimes, which are currently taking place in eastern Turkey. This was also the case in 1915, and nothing has changed up to now. To the call to stop the crimes against Armenians in the years of WWI, Chancellor of Germany Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg responded: Our only goal is to keep Turkey by our side until the end of the war, regardless of whether Armenians perish in the process or not., the author writes. Michael Heussen notes that today Turkey continues to persecute the Kurds, while the West keeps silent. At the moment, Turkey is the most important country for the West in terms of stopping the refugees. Therefore, it wouldnt be constructive to enrage the Turks by a Bundestag resolution or official recognition of the Armenian pogroms as a genocide: this is what politicians think, the author writes, excoriating this standpoint. According to the author, this opinion is an absolute cowardice. Genocide is a genocide, regardless of who committed it. Genocide must be called by its name. Not only for the Armenians, who have been waiting so long for the acknowledgement of the crime committed against their ancestors, but also for preventing such crimes. Thus, its more important than ever for the Bundestag to officially call on Turkey to finally recognize the crime committed by the Ottomans, the author concludes. YEREVAN. - Armenian National Assembly (NA) Vice Pesident Hermine Naghdalyan urges not to be in a hurry to use the term political prisoner. In a briefing which followed the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Supreme Body session, Naghadalyan talked about political activist Vardges Gaspari who is reportedly tortured in prison. I would urge not to be in a hurry to use the term political prisoner since this term is important for the country, and I wouldnt like our country compared with other countries. I hope you understand what Im implying, she said, implying Azerbaijan. Seeing what happens in our neighboring country, I wouldnt like each single case to be presented as a political one, she added. Naghdalyan insisted that Gasparis case isnt political, but legal, and has been in process for a long time. According to the NA Vice President, the principles of working with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) in the framework of the coalition were discussed at the session. We first of all agreed to hear each others viewpoints, hold discussions even in case of controversies and reach consensus. The most important task is to solve the issues of public life with common readiness and responsibility,she noted. The activity of Ex-Minister of Education Armen Ashotyan was also discussed at the session. According to Naghdalyan, Ashotyan has serious work to do in the party during the coming one year. 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Looks like you have quite a community there. Here in SA we have some three million Zimbabweans living in exile and not much sign of going home ... but in Hungary??? Hope to meet you on one of my trips to Europe; was in Steirmark Austria near the Hungarian border earlier this month. Every good wish for 2011. Geoff in Jo'burg I'm impressed by ANH work but... Interesting interview... My comment to the interview with his excellency Mr. Adedotun Adenrele Adepoju CDA a.i-- B.Ayo Adams click to read editor's mail We must rise above tribalism & divide & rule of the colonialist who stole & looted our treasure & planted their puppets to lord it over us..they alone can decide on whosoever is performing & the one that is corrupt..but the most corrupt nations are the western countries that plunder the resources of other nations & make them poorer & aid the rulers to steal & keep such ill gotten wealth in their country..yemen,syria etc have killed more than gadhafi but its not A good investment for the west(this is laughable)because oil is not in these countries..when obasanjo annihilated the odi people in rivers state, they looked away because its in their favour & interest..one day!I think from what have been said, the Nigerian embassy here seem to be more concern about its nationals than we are for ourselves. Our complete disregard for the laws of Hungary isn't going to help Nigeria's image or going to promote what the Embassy is trying to showcase. So if the journalists could zoom-in more focus on Nigerians living, working and studying here in Hungary than scrutinizing the embassy and its every move, i think it would be of tremendous help to the embassy serving its nationals better and create more awareness about where we live . Taking the issues of illicit drugs and forged documents as typical examples.. there are so many cases of Nigerians been involved. But i am yet to read of it in e.news. So i think if only you and your journalists could write more about it and follow up on the stories i think it will make our nationals more aware of what to expect. I wouldn't say i am not impressed with your work but you need to be more of a two way street rather than a one way street . Keep up the good work... SylviaHe is an intelligent man. He spoke well on the issues! Thanks to Mr Hakeem Babalola for the interview it contains some expedient information.. 22:22 At a time, when the US is pushing hard to improve its defence relationship with India as part of its effort to maintain its dominance in the Asia Pacific region, such a move tends to "complicate" India-US ties, McCain, Chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters at the Defence Writers Group. "I think that the future of Asia, if we want to have the kind of influence that we always had and a deterrence to the Chinese behaviour is a very close relationship between the United States and India. Which by the way the F-16 issue complicates that," McCain said. Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has put a hold on the administration's notification to the US Congress early this month on the proposed sale of F-16s to Pakistan. Top Republican senator John McCain today acknowledged the "timing" of the announcement on the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan was "really bad" and that the Obama administration needs to explain the reason behind its decision which "complicates" India-US relations. MUMBAI: Taiwanese smartphone maker ASUS on Wednesday released a 14-minute short film on YouTube that documents real life experiences of three people in distress who were helped at odd hours by local citizens. The film exhibits how three people -- entangled in various tricky situations in night hours -- used the ASUS' new low-light mode feature available on its smartphones to tackle the problems, the company said in a statement. The film titled "Low Light Heroes," features the real experiences of Pooja Banerjee, Ramesh Narang and Aditya Shah who, when confronted with emergencies in the middle of the night, receive aid from responsible citizens. While Banerjee was helped by an honest cab driver, an auto driver helped Shah reach hospital while he was lying down on the side of the road after meeting with an accident. There was no one in the hospital when a nurse helped Narang's wife while she was having labour pains. "There are inspiring stories about unsung heroes all around us. Yet, most people are unaware about them," Peter Chang, regional head, south Asia, ASUS India, said in a statement. The concept of the film emerged from ASUS' very own "PixelMaster" low-light mode feature which allows the camera to capture sharp images even in low-light conditions. Like the camera mode, the gallant acts of the "Low Light Heroes" only come to light at night, when the rest of the city sleeps. Read Also: Facebook Launches Telecom Infra Project to Meet Global Data Challenge Beware, Facebook or Social Media Addiction Can Trigger Cocaine-Like High KOLKATA: Indian scientists have discovered a UV-sensitive substance on silk cocoon membranes which converts light into electricity, a finding they say has opened up possibility of designing a bio-solar battery for medicine and also has potential applications in development of third generation solar cells. Researchers at IIT-Kanpur, Delhi Technological University, Defense Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences, Solid State Physics Laboratory (Defense Research and Development Organisation) have shown how a pupa in a silk cocoon senses light. "A pupa which is growing inside cocoon has a brain circuit which is regulating its growth to an adult moth. This circuit and transformation is influenced by environmental factors like light, humidity and temperature. "We have discovered a simple flavonoid molecule on the surface of the cocoon that acts as a UV absorber," Mainak Das, Associate Professor, Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, told IANS. Flavonoids are found in most fruits and vegetables and the researchers demonstrated the role of the particular flavonoid (called quercetin) by connecting the cocoon (wild silkworm species of Antheraea mylitta, commonly called Tasar silk) with an electrode and shining light on it. "When you use regular light, there was a slight shift in current and voltage and when you shine UV light there is a many-fold increase in current and voltage," explained Das. Published on February 24 in Nature Scientific Reports, the findings has implications for development of third-generation dye-sensitive solar cells. The study is a continuation of an earlier work in which the team found that silk cocoon membrane has an inherent ability to sense the change in temperature and humidity of the surrounding environmentAand convert it into electricity. Read Also: Watch out for the Best Offline Music Apps in 2016 Pro-Apple Protest Against FBI In New York Students can learn from the Intern Queen CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Whether the goal is getting a foot in the door of their dream jobs or becoming their own bosses, students at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will soon have the opportunity to learn from one of the nations leading young professionals and entrepreneurs. Lauren Berger, best-selling author and the founder and CEO of Intern Queen, Inc., a website that helps students find and apply for internships, will host a workshop and give a keynote presentation on Tuesday, March 1, at the Student Center. Her visit is sponsored by the SIU Alumni Associations Student Alumni Council, with some funding from the Undergraduate Student Government. Berger will present her workshop, How I Hustle, at 5 p.m. in the Student Centers Mississippi Room. The keynote, Get Internships. Succeed After College, is at 7 p.m. in the Student Center Auditorium. Refreshments will be available after the presentation while supplies last. Pre-registration is necessary for the workshop. Register online at siualumni.com/internqueen. The workshop and keynote presentation are free. All SIU Carbondale students who attend the keynote presentation will be entered into a drawing for a professional development gift basket, which includes a $100 Macy's gift card, a voucher to attend a Career Services' Etiquette Dinner, SIU lapel pin, padfolio, and other items. Student members of the SIU Alumni Association will receive three tickets to enter into the drawing. Students must show their membership card at the registration table to receive the extra tickets. Students may also become members at the event and get three tickets for the drawing. For more information, contact Emily Spann at emilys@alumni.siu.edu or the Associations main office at 618/453-2408. For information about the Student Alumni Council visit www.siualumni/sac. Pioneering Stanford computer researcher and educator Edward McCluskey dies The professor emeritus who paved the way for everything from complex chips to crash-proof computers, and who trained 75 PhDs, also loved quirky hats and nature. Joel Simon A pioneer in computer engineering, Edward McCluskey was also a notable educator of many PhDs who went on to become industry leaders. Edward J. McCluskey, a professor emeritus at Stanford whose research helped pave the way for electronics and computing, died on Feb. 13. He was 86. Born on the eve of the Great Depression, McCluskey graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine in 1953, earning honors in mathematics and physics, then went on to study electrical engineering at MIT, where he earned his doctorate in 1956. But the experience that set him on the path toward professional greatness occurred during the period from 1955 through 1959, when he worked first as an MIT intern and later as a staff researcher at Bell Telephone Laboratories during its heyday. In a 2008 lecture, when he won an award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), McCluskey fondly recalled that storied period when Bell researchers were inventing many of the building blocks of electronics and computing. It was in this intellectual crucible that McCluskey helped devise a way to efficiently and unerringly design logic chips, an achievement that would form the basis of his dissertation. More important, the Quine-McCluskey algorithm, as it is called, paved the way for the automated design of complex chips and ultimately enabled the success of the semiconductor industry. "He was the father of modern digital design," said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president and director of IBM Research. Aart de Geus, chairman of Synopsys, a company whose design automation software traces its lineage to McCluskey's work, likened him "to a great oak tree that we suddenly see fall." Entry into academia McCluskey left Bell Labs in 1959 to become an associate professor of electrical engineering at Princeton and established the Princeton University Computer Center. In 1966, he joined the faculty at Stanford Engineering, where his later career achievements would overshadow even his promising start. Three years after joining Stanford as a professor of electrical engineering, he founded the Stanford Digital Systems Laboratory, which would become one of the fountainheads of the high-tech industry. In 1970 McCluskey helped establish the Stanford Computer Engineering Program and in that same year became the first president of the IEEE Computer Society. Recalling these times in his 2008 lecture, McCluskey observed that nowadays collaborations between electrical engineers and computer scientists are common, even obvious, but in those days it was the exception rather the rule. Among other notable research efforts, McCluskey founded the Center for Reliable Computing (CRC) at Stanford University, which made major contributions to the testing of computer chips and helped design fault-tolerant systems to avoid so-called computer "crashes" that cost money and lives spurring research that will only become more essential as self-driving cars and other autonomous technologies become a reality. In recognition of his lifetime achievements, McCluskey was awarded the IEEE John von Neumann Medal in 2012, one of the top honors bestowed in computing. "Professor McCluskey had a profound impact on the field of electronics," said Shekhar Y. Borkar, an Intel Fellow and director of Extreme-Scale Technologies at Intel Corporation. Over the years McCluskey helped recruit many notable researchers to Stanford, including John Hennessy, who went on to become a computer industry innovator and president of the university. "Ed McCluskey was a pioneer in the computer engineering community, and I am deeply saddened to learn of his death," Hennessy said. "Ed was the founding director of the Digital Systems Laboratory at Stanford [renamed the Computer Systems Laboratory]. He recruited me to Stanford to join the laboratory in 1977. In addition to shaping the development of digital systems, he was a great educator, producing an incredible group of PhD graduates, many of whom have gone on to become industry leaders. We were very fortunate to have him as our colleague. He will be deeply missed." Known for unusual hats and his green school bus Among the 75 PhDs that McCluskey mentored over the years, one of the earliest is Dan Siewiorek, who earned his doctorate from Stanford in 1971. Siewiorek, today a noted professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, began his studies with McCluskey in 1968, a turbulent year on many campuses. Siewiorek recalled one time when a building on the Stanford campus was occupied by protestors and McCluskey decided to find out what was on the students' minds. "He donned his poncho and gaucho hat and joined the discussion circle outside the building," Siewiorek recalled. "I often wondered whether the protestors realized they were conversing with a Stanford engineering professor." Unusual hats were a McCluskey trademark a collection of thumbnail images shows him wearing headgear from Mickey Mouse ears to a powdered wig as was the open-mindedness that characterized his personal and professional views. "He thought 'out of the box' in almost every way," said Michael Flynn, a professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Stanford, who recalls his former colleague's charming idiosyncrasies, like the green school bus in which he took his family camping. The school bus is part of the McCluskey family lore, which began back at Bell Labs, when Edward met and married Roberta Jean Marie Erickson, who became the mother to six children born during the years when he worked at Bell and taught at Princeton. As McCluskey recalled in his 2008 ACM lecture, it was in order to get his family of eight from Princeton to Stanford that he decided to buy and convert that green bus to move everyone to their new home in Palo Alto. "I remember riding that bus to California," said his son Joe McCluskey, who was 7 at the time. "We used to go camping on it all the time. He loved the outdoors. That's something everyone who knew him would remember." Edward and Roberta McCluskey were divorced and she passed away in 1996. In 1981, he married Lois Thornhill McCluskey, who was his companion to the end. In addition to Lois, he is survived by five of his six children, 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The family asks that anyone wishing to remember Edward McCluskey with a donation make a gift in his name to the Sempervirens Fund, Peninsula Open Space Trust or Save the Redwoods League. Media Contact Tom Abate, Stanford Engineering: (650) 736-2445, tabate@stanford.edu First year marketing student Hafijur Mollah died of typhoid and pneumonia contracted during his stay in Salimullah Hall's porch, where he was 'forced to sleep'. Progressive Students' Alliance and Anti-Imperialist Students Union, two major alliances of student bodies, marched to VC's office in the afternoon with demands for fair probe and trial into Hafiz's 'killing' and a stop to torture. They confined VC AAMS Arefin Siddique inside his office. A scuffle took place at scene between the protestors and the VC, reports The Daily Star. The VC and the university administration is responsible for Hafiz's death, added Umme Habiba Benojir, president of Dhaka University's Banlgadesh Chhatra Federation unit. The protesters threatened to continue agitation until their demands were met.(ANI) Criticising the Delhi Police for their handling of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) row, Congress leader P. L. Punia on Wednesday launched a veiled attack on Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi, saying that he was making arrangements for an employment after his retirement. "Delhi Police action in the JNU issue shows that they have dual standards. On one hand they arrested Kanhaiya without any evidence, based on fake video footages, and on the other O.P. Sharma and some lawyers who disrupted legal process are roaming free. So, there are dual standards. Now that Bassi ji is retiring, he is making arrangements for employment after retirement," Punia told ANI. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police has maintained that they have enough evidence to prove that JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was involved in 'seditious' activities. The Delhi High Court earlier today deferred the hearing on Kanhaiya's bail plea to February 29. During the hearing, the High Court observed that safety must be ensured during the proceedings to Kanhaiya and another JNU student Umar Khalid, who have been booked on charges of sedition. The Delhi Police told the court that they need Kanhaiya's remand in order to confront him with the other 'accused'. The High Court said it is the statutory right of the investigating agency at this stage to ask for a remand. The Delhi High Court will give its directions regarding the location at which Umar and another JNU student Anirban Bhhatacharya will be produced after consulting with the concerned department. Kanhaiya was arrested in a sedition case on February 12 after an event held at the JNU campus against the execution of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. (ANI) The NCA, principal decision-making body on nuclear issues, at its meeting presided over by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took note of the 'growing conventional and strategic weapons development in the region',reports Dawn. The need for a sustained dialogue with India for resolution of outstanding disputes was also underscored as it expressed alarm over India's growing conventional and nuclear arsenals. Pakistan has been concerned over India's developing nuclear submarine INS Arihant, which is reportedly close to commissioning. The NCA was of the view that development of conventional and nuclear weapons by India had 'adverse ramifications for peace and security' in the region. Pakistan regrets that the West has been ignoring India's activities because of its commercial interests but has kept pressure on Pakistan describing its nuclear programme as the fastest growing.(ANI) Security forces on Thursday said they had arrested a Pakistani suicide bomber of the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) outfit in Baramulla district in Jammu and Kashmir. Military spokesman S.D. Goswami told IANS from Udhampur that the army and police caught Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, who had carried out an attack three months back on an army camp in Kupwara district. He was accompanied by three associates who were killed in the November attack. Gujjar, son of Walid Mohammad Gujjar, was a resident of Sialkot Daska in Pakistan. "The terrorist was part of the four fidayeen who carried out the attack on the army camp at Tanghdar on November 25," the spokesman said. "He has told his interrogators that he set fire to an oil depot inside the army camp and destroyed several vehicles before he was ordered by his colleagues to leave. "The fidayeen told his interrogators that the JeM militants were launched from Athmuqam in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and was tasked to attack any army camp near the LoC (Line of Control)," the spokesman said. "The group, with the help of GPS, crossed the border on foot on November 24 night and continued to walk till they reached the Tanghdar army camp after six-seven hours," he told the interrogators. After the attack, Gujjar fled to nearby forests and was in hiding for three days. He was asked by his handlers to go to Kupwara. He changed his clothes and boarded a van from Tanghdar, with his weapon concealed. He reached Kupwara and befriended some people who helped him to travel to Baramulla where he was arrested. Coming from a well-off farmer's family in Sialkot, Gujjar has five brothers and two sisters. He was lured by his school friend, who is also a JeM militant, to take to militancy. Gujjar said he got three months training in a JeM camp. --Indo-Asian News Service sq/mr ( 321 Words) 2016-02-25-13:41:33 (IANS) Expressing concerns over a huge loss of lives and property in Haryana, ASSOCHAM today said Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar should ensure that those who have suffered at the hand of violent agitation should be compensated in a speedy manner to restore confidence in the state. "The Jat agitation seeking OBC reservation has resulted in one of the worst violence in the state, which had been so far been known as peaceful and progressive and had remained a preferred investor destination. While these incidents have shaken India Inc present inside and outside Haryana, immediate succor would partly restore confidence," ASSOCHAM President Sunil Kanoria said in an appeal. While the ASSOCHAM Research Team had done initial estimates of loss to the state's economy and public private property between Rs. 18,000-20,000 crore, the damage could even rise, given an unprecedented level of damage done to cities like Rohtak and Jhajjar, which have suffered maximum of the brunt. The chamber President also urged Home Minister Rajnath Singh to help the state government in providing relief to the people of Haryana. "The Centre should strengthen the state administration by way of finances and logistic support in rebuilding the damaged infrastructure. At the same time, individuals who have suffered losses to their properties should be immediately compensated" added Kanoria. He said a thorough post-mortem of the violent incidents should be done to ensure that never such things are repeated. Besides, complete probe should be initiated to punish those who indulged in loots, arson, rioting and killings of innocent. Hundreds of small shops, malls, factories were burnt besides huge damage to the public property. Thousands of people were left stranded on the highways and are still suffering. No economic development can take place unless lives of people are secure. Thus, immediate confidence building measures have to be implemented. (ANI) Members of the US side's Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation (JWGACTC), headed by Rear Admiral Thomas Moore, Program Executive Officer, Aircraft Carriers (United States Navy) visited India for the second meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) from February 15 to 18, 2016. The delegation, accompanied by the representatives of the India Side of the JWGACTC, visited Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF) at Goa, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in Bengaluru and Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), Kochi. The delegation also visited the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier being constructed at Kochi. During the visit of the Joint Working Group to SBTF, Goa, a presentation was made by the Indian side on the functionality and operation of the facility. Operational demonstration of the SBTF was also provided. India's indigenous capability of building and integrating various maritime weapons and sensors was showcased at BEL, Bengaluru. During the visit of the JWG to CSL, Kochi, the Indian Side presented the capabilities of the Yard along with work being undertaken on India's first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier. A walk around of the under-construction Carrier was also conducted for the JWG members. On 18 Feb 16, all the Indian and US Side members of the JWGACTC met in Delhi for the concluding meeting co-chaired by VAdm GS Pabby, CWP&A and RADM Thomas J Moore, PEO, Carriers. During this meeting, various aspects of cooperation in the field of aircraft carrier technology were discussed. Discussions were also held on the Information Exchange Annex (IEA) and both Sides agreed to examine and finalize the IEA at the earliest, which would pave the ways for further exchange of information on aircraft carrier technology and future cooperation. The meeting was attended by members of the Joint Working Group and relevant representatives from IHQ MoD (N), DRDO, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of External Affairs, India. The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere and is a significant landmark in the ongoing cooperation between the two countries in the field of aircraft carrier technology. Formal document elaborating issues discussed during the visit would be shared by the Indian Side by 26 Feb 16 for review and comments prior to releasing the final document at the earliest thereafter. It was agreed that the 3rd JWGACTC would be held in the US at a convenient date to both Sides in end Jul/ early Aug, 2016. (ANI) The decision was taken at the third Indo-Bangladesh Joint Task Force meeting at the NIA headquarters to prevent smuggling and circulation of FCNs. A 10-member Bangladesh delegation was led by Deputy Inspector General, CID, Md. Saiful Alam. The Indian delegation, led by NIA Inspector General Sanjeev Kumar Singh, comprised representatives from the police forces of states bordering Bangladesh as well as Central Law Enforcement Agencies. Both the countries agreed to share intelligence and information on a real time basis on the activities of the syndicates and operatives involved in smuggling of FCNs. The Joint Task Force also exchanged contact details of Superintendents of Police of the districts on international border on the either side, to enhance their connectivity and a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was mutually adopted to enhance cooperation between both the sides. The SOP has been signed in pursuance of the MoU signed in June, 2015 to combat the smuggling of Fake Currency Notes which was signed by the Home Secretaries of the two countries during the visit of Prime Minister to Dhaka last year. Both the sides further expressed their satisfaction with the progress made and it was decided to hold the next meeting of JTF in Bangladesh. (ANI) The loan agreement was signed by the Finance Minister, Ravi Karunanayake on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka and the President of ADB Takehiko Nakao on behalf of ADB at the Galle Face Hotel, Colombo. The project aims to increase the employment opportunities by strengthening SMEs' access to finance, reports Lanka Page Website. The proposed line of credit to small and medium size enterprises in Sri Lanka has an innovative feature of allocating loan proceeds to participating financial institutions via an auction system. The Government will relend the loan funds in local currency to participating banks through eight semi-annual auctions. At each auction around 12.5 million dollars will be available for relending to the participating banks. The project also includes an attached technical assistance (TA) amounting to two million dollars which will be financed by a grant provided by Japan for 'Poverty Reduction' for export-oriented cluster development to develop Sri Lanka's next generation of SMEs. A Steering Committee chaired by the Secretary to the Treasury or a Deputy Secretary to the Treasury will oversee the operations of the auctions.(ANI) The Mumbai Fire Brigade on Wednesday submitted an investigation report on a fire which occurred during the 'Make in India' programme last week to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in which it has accused the organizers of the event of 'gross negligence'. The report states that short-circuit was the root cause of the fire. The presence of inflammable adhesives and an LPG cylinder near the stage helped the fire to assume mammoth proportions. The fire department has slammed the organizers for keeping inflammable substances near the stage. Pratap Rahangdale, Chief Fire Officer of Mumbai Fire Brigade, said that report was prepared by analyzing accounts of several witnesses and circumstantial evidence. "We have opened the report for the public. We studied circumstantial evidence and witness accounts. I was also one of the witnesses, as I was the first one to use extinguisher there. By studying all that we arrived at the chain of events leading to fire and prepared a final report," he told ANI. In its 185-page report uploaded on the website of the BMC, the Fire Brigade, has also said that repeated instructions on fire safety were ignored in the run-up to the event. Fire department has also sent some samples from the site for testing in the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. On February 14, a major fire broke out at the stage of Cultural programme of 'Make in India' here at the Girgaum Chowpatty in Mumbai. The entire stage set up for the programme was destroyed due to the fire. All the celebrities and dignitaries were safely taken out from the venue. According to eye witnesses a dance performance was going on and suddenly the stage was engulfed by a massive fire. Shiv Sena chief Udhav Thackeray, Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan, Amir Khan, Hema Malini, Vivek Oberoi and others were present when the incident took place. (ANI) Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Prem Nath has been asked to coordinate the proceedings to avoid any unpleasant incident. The High Court said that all concerned are expected to 'maintain confidentiality' in respect of remand proceedings The High Court asked the registrar general to depute a Metropolitan Magistrate to conduct the remand proceedings. Meanwhile, the High Court deferred the hearing on the bail plea of JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar to February 29. During the hearing, the High Court observed that safety must be ensured during the proceedings to Kanhaiya and another JNU student Umar Khalid, who have been booked on charges of sedition. The Delhi Police told the court that they need Kanhaiya's remand in order to confront him with the other 'accused'. The High Court said it is the statutory right of the investigating agency at this stage to ask for a remand. The High Court had yesterday issued a notice to the Delhi Police and asked it file a status report on the bail plea of Kanhaiya. Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi yesterday said the circumstances surrounding the JNU sedition row had changed and they were now opposing Kanhaiya's bail plea as he is "bound to impact the investigation". Kanhaiya was arrested in a sedition case on February 12 after an event held at the JNU campus against the execution of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. (ANI) Key said that said there are enormous opportunities in Sri Lanka for New Zealand entrepreneurs and investors, reports Lanka Page Website. Prime Minister Key at the bilateral discussions with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat said that agricultural nations New Zealand and Sri Lanka could enhance cooperation in this field. Key added that his country would assist the dairy sector in Sri Lanka and said a Dairy Production Institution will be set up in Sri Lanka and that would help in transfer of technology and ideas to the farmers. Key further thanked President Sirisena for the gift of a second baby elephant to New Zealand and said the first baby elephant gifted by Sri Lanka is now a major attraction for children visiting the zoological park. (ANI) Confirming the move, Himachal Revenue and Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur told ANI that the land allotted to the Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust by the previous Prem Kumar Dhumal-led BJP government on lease has been cancelled and is vested in the state government's property. The BJP regime under chief minister Dhumal had allotted 28 acres on lease to the Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust in 2010. The Congress Party, however, alleged that the land worth over Rs. 35 crore was allotted by the BJP Government for 99 years to the trust on a lease of Re. 1 and thus was cancelled. The development came close on the heels of the Maharashtra Government allotting 600 acres to the Patanajli Yogpeeth for setting up of an orange processing plant and a unit for its ayurvedic products. Earlier today, addressing a press conference on increasing number of jaundice cases in the capital city, Thakur said five deaths to Hepatitis E had been confirmed in the town, while more than 1,500 cases reported from various hospitals. Divulging reasons behind the increasing number of diseases, Thakur said this has happened due to the contamination of potable water, adding that the patients were being treated for the disease. (ANI) The Congress and the ruling BJP locked horns on the second day of Budget Session in the Lok Sabha with both parties taking potshots at each other while discussing the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) controversy and the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula. Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia lashed out at the ruling dispensation over the arrest of JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar. Quoting various officials including ministers who passed out from the JNU, Scindia asked as to how the BJP leaders could demand that the prestigious institution be shut down. "Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said that Hafiz Saeed supported JNU protest, shouldn't the Home Minister have investigated before saying this?" he asked. "The government will have to answer whether it is a sin to follow in the path of Dr. (BR) Ambedkar," Scindia said. The Congress leader also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the JNU row. "Our Prime Minister is one who tweets all the time, but he took five days to break his silence. He didn't even say a word during his 'Mann ki Baat' programme," Scindia said. Taking potshots at the government, Scindia said it was unacceptable to blacklist a university of 8,000 students for the actions of only eight students. "I've been in politics for just 15 years, but I have never heard of the National Security Advisor deciding whether an individual is a Dalit or not," he taunted. BJP MP Anurag Thakur later replying to Scindia's criticism mocked him over his remark that the government should arrest 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. "Scindia ji is saying that he (Afzal Guru) should be arrested. How do we arrest him when he has already been hanged to death?" he said. The BJP MP from Hamirpur also fired salvos at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. "The students in JNU were raising pro-Afzal Guru slogans. Who is Afzal Guru? The slogans raised in the JNU were 'Kashmir Ki Azadi tak jung rahegi, Bharat ki Azadi tak jung rahegi'. They can wait to see India cut into pieces, but we can't," he said. "You can criticize Indian govt but criticizing India is not acceptable. It would never be accepted by any Indian. Rahul Gandhi goes to a university named after his great grandfather and supports anti-nationals," he added. (ANI) "Rahul Gandhi goes to a university named after his grandfather and supports anti-nationals," he told the Lok Sabha. Continuing his tirade, the BJP MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh said the Congress' slogan is 'family first, party second and nation last'. "Are you with Afzal Guru, the Parliament or democracy?" Thakur asked. Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, however, hit back at the BJP MP for his unwarranted criticism of Gandhi. "Anurag Thakur made derogatory allegations against the Congress vice-president. He must be expunged from the record," Scindia said in the Lok Sabha. Scindia earlier lashed out at the government over the suicide of Hyderabad University scholar Rohit Vemula and sedition charges imposed on the JNU students in a stormy budget session of the Lok Sabha. The Congress vice-president had earlier on Saturday evening accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government and the ABVP of bullying an institution like the JNU. "The most anti-national people are the ones who are suppressing the voice of this institution," he said while addressing the students during his visit to the JNU campus. (ANI) The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Wednesday accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of suppressing the voice of Dalits with the help of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Government at the Centre. Commenting on Rohith Vemula's suicide at the University of Hyderabad, BSP supremo Mayawati said the varsity's administration and students, along with the RSS and the BJP, were responsible for the Dalit student's suicide. "In Hyderabad University issue, our party holds the administration, students, two ministers at the Centre and their RSS organisation responsible for it. This is not the first case of Dalit student suicide in Hyderabad University, even during the Congress regime, several Dalits were oppressed and they committed suicide," she told reporters outside Parliament here. "Dalit students had formed a forum in the name of Baba Sahib Ambedkar. That forum had begun to grow, students were raising their voices against Dalit oppression there, but the current government did not like it. Then RSS with the help from Central government target them, they were oppressed, because of which Rohith Committed suicide," she added. She also requested the government to include a Dalit in the panel constituted to probe Rohith Vemula's matter. Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha witnessed repeated adjournments today following uproar over Rohith Vemula's suicide. Mayawati raised this issue as soon as the House met for the day and said the 'Dalit students are targeted'. Rohith, who committed suicide last month, was among the five research scholars suspended by the Hyderabad University in August last year over an alleged assault case. The matter took a political turn with allegations that the extreme step taken by Rohith was a result of discrimination against Dalit students at the behest of Union Minister of State for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya, following his letter to the Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani, seeking action against their 'anti-national acts'. (ANI) The Delhi Police has told the High Court in its status report, that giving bail to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who is booked on charges of sedition, will give a wrong message to those students thinking they can get away by conducting 'anti-India' activities. The reports states that if Kanhaiya is released on bail, then it would send a wrong signal to the student community across the nation that 'anti-India' activities can be conducted with immunity and that eventually one would walk scot free after being imprisoned for few days or weeks. Earlier today, the counsel for the Delhi Police in the case was granted permission by the High Court for extended custody of Kanhaiya, after his bail plea was deferred. "We told the court that we would like to exercise our right to interrogate him again in custody in view that more accused have been arrested and the court has permitted us. In the status report, we have narrated the incidents and how the offence was committed. We presented the relevant evidences in the case and the court will consider it. Our status report runs into 13 pages. We will file a fresh report in the next hearing," Special Public Prosecutor for Delhi Police, Shailendra Babbar, told ANI here. He added that they have enough prima facie evidence against Kanhaiya in the investigation that has been conducted so far. "We have enough evidence to prove that the act of sedition happened and accused Kanhaiya was also involved," Babbar added. According to the latest status report filed by the Delhi Police, Kanhaiya 'actively' participated in the 'unlawful' assembly in which 'anti-national' slogans were raised. The Delhi High Court earlier today deferred the hearing on Kanhaiya's bail plea to February 29. During the hearing, the High Court observed that safety must be ensured during the proceedings to Kanhaiya and another JNU student Umar Khalid, who have been booked on charges of sedition. (ANI) Kerry said that he is helping Afghanistan and Pakistan to counter violent extremism, deepening strategic dialogue with India, supporting democratic gains in Sri Lanka and Burma and encouraging the peaceful resolution of competing maritime claims in the South China Sea. In his testimony before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry said the State Department has requested 742 million dollars in aid to Pakistan to support its citizens as they seek security, build democracy and sustain economic growth and development, reports Dawn. However, US plans to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan was also questioned by the committee. Kerry responded that the issue is complicated and said Pakistan also has been an ally for a long period.(ANI) Expressing disappointment over Haryana being divided on the basis of caste, the Congress Party on Wednesday asked the Centre and the state government to compensate for the losses in the wake of the protests by members of the Jat community. "Whatever has happened in Haryana in the last week is extremely unfortunate. And this episode sends a very wrong message not only to Haryana but the entire nation.There is a Constitution in independent India and we must work as per the law," Congress leader P.L. Punia told ANI. "The manner in which Haryana is being seen divided on the basis of caste, approximately properties worth Rs. 30,000 crore has been damaged and many people have been killed. Neither the Centre nor the state government is taking adequate steps to compensate for the damage. Even this is an issue, which needs attention," he added. Earlier, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu called on all the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs from Haryana for a meeting in wake of the violence across the state by the members of the Jat community demanding reservation in government jobs. Union Ministers Mahesh Sharma, Rao Inderjit Singh and Sanjeev Baliyan were present in the meeting along with Ashwini Chopra, BJP general secretary in-charge of Haryana Anil Jain and Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who was yesterday heckled by protesters and shown black flags when he visited Rohtak, met with the members of the high-level committee headed by Naidu. The committee formed by the BJP is looking into the pros and cons of various options on the Jats' demand. The Haryana Government has asked insurance companies to settle within 15 days the claims of the persons, whose insured establishments have been damaged due to arson, loot and vandalism during the recent agitation. (ANI) The ADB Chief, who arrived in Sri Lanka last night on a two-day official visit called on President Sirisena on Tuesday at the Presidential Secretariat, reports Lanka page website. President Sirisena discussed some of the new projects including a Rural Electrification Project of 70 million dollars, an SME Credit Line of 100 million dollars and a Local Government Enhancement Sector Project costing 40 million dollars. The ADB last week expressed its interest to increase its funding portfolio by more than 1.2 billion dollars in the next three years. A new Country Partnership Strategy is also on the cards to cover the period 2017-2021. As of July 2015, ADB has approved a total of 194 loans, to Sri Lanka, both sovereign and non-sovereign, with a cumulative lending of billion dollars. Sirisena thanked the ADB for the assistance provided for development projects in Sri Lanka.(ANI) Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday called on all the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs from Haryana for a meeting in wake of the violence across the state by the members of the Jat community demanding reservation in government jobs. "The main priority is to ensure that if reservation is given, it is given within the constitutional framework. We discussed on how there should be no more untoward incidents as it is a sensitive issue," Naidu told the media after the meeting. Union Ministers Mahesh Sharma, Rao Inderjit Singh and Sanjeev Baliyan were present in the meeting along with Ashwini Chopra, BJP general secretary in-charge of Haryana Anil Jain and Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala. "It is a constant appeal from our side to maintain peace. It's been three days that the government has been trying to agree with all the demands of the agitators. There is development on the matter," Balyan said. "The meeting was focused on giving reservation to the protesting Jat community. Discussions were held with all the ministers here and it was decided that a report will be submitted to the Centre soon," Barala said. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who was yesterday heckled by protesters and shown black flags when he visited Rohtak, met with the members of the high-level committee headed by Naidu. The committee formed by the BJP is looking into the pros and cons of various options on the Jats' demand. (ANI) The cop was also paraded around besides getting assaulted. The incident reportedly took place on February 19. "They threatened and abused me. As many as 250-300 people came in the police station and started beating me up. They vandalized the police station and hit me hard. They forcefully gave me a flag and started shouting 'Jai Shivaji', 'Jai Maharashtra'. I told them I am an Indian and I don't hesitate saying this. I will say as you ask me," Sheikh told ANI. "They put the flag in a mosque at the Ambedkar Chowk. They again started beating me there. The main two-three accused are absconding. One of them is Dhananjay Chavan. I appeal to the government to arrest the accused and give me justice," he added. The incident apparently happened when two policemen tried to stop the locals from hoisting a 'saffron flag' during Shivaji Jayanti festivities in Latur district in Pangaon town. On February 19, over two dozen locals belonging to the Shivaji Jayanti Mandal assembled near the Ambedkar Chowk in Pangaon to hoist a 'saffron flag'. The police stopped them from doing so, as the area is said to be 'communally sensitive'. The group then went away but, came back the next morning and started shouting slogans against the police and also assaulted Yusuf Sheikh. Sheikh was allegedly paraded along with saffron flags. "15 culprits have been arrested. It's a serious matter and investigation is underway," Ram Shinde, MoS Home,Maharashtra told ANI. Later in the day, Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra legislative council Dhananjay Munde will visit Latur to meet Yusuf Sheikh. (ANI) The University of Toronto research suggests that parents' attempts to suppress negative and amplify positive emotions during child care can detract from their well-being and high-quality parent-child bonds. In two studies, one experimental and the other a 10-day daily experience study, the scientists examined how parental negative emotion suppression and positive emotion amplification may shape parents' personal and relationship well-being. In the studies parents reported experiencing lower authenticity, emotional well-being, relationship quality, and responsiveness to their children's needs when they suppressed negative emotions and amplified positive emotions when providing care to their children. Lead author Bonnie Le said that by examining the regulation of positive and negative emotions in tandem, the results can shed light on the unique effects of using each strategy. In the first experiment with 162 parents that focused on recalling past care giving experiences before answering a series of questions, the researchers found various emotional costs for the parents. Co-author Dr. Emily Impett for the average parent the findings suggest when they attempt to hide their negative emotion expression and over-express their positive emotions with their children, it actually comes at a cost: doing so may lead parents to feel worse themselves. The authors acknowledge that while parents may experience costs from engaging in these emotion regulation strategies, it will be important to examine whether children may actually benefit from their parents efforts to hide potentially hurtful emotions and overexpress positive emotions. The study appears in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. (ANI) Discussions on the current state of unrest at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the furore over Hyderabad University scholar Rohith Vemula will be held in the Rajya Sabha today. Both the issues will be raised in Lok Sabha tomorrow after the presentation of Rail Budget. Today, in the Lok Sabha, motion of thanks on the President's address will be moved and the Election Laws amendment bill is also scheduled to be introduced in the lower house. In Rajya Sabha, the National Waterways Bill, the Carriage by Air (Amendment) Bill, the Bureau of Indian Standards Bill is scheduled to come up for discussion and passage today. The government has agreed to discuss all the issues as it wants to avoid a repeat of the monsoon and winter sessions, where little work got done. The government has a heavy legislative agenda to push through in this session including the passage of GST Bill. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier said that he was hopeful of a 'fruitful' Budget Session and added that the government's 'limitations' must also be discussed in the Parliament as it was the only way to strengthen the democracy. Asserting that all meetings with the Opposition leaders so far have been fruitful, he said that dreams and aspirations of the citizens will also be discussed in the Parliament, adding the nation will feel the positive developments. President Pranab Mukherjee said yesterday that his government's philosophy is captured in the idea 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' and it is striving hard to eradicate poverty. "My government's philosophy is captured in the idea 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas'. Mahatma Gandhi said poverty is the worst form of violence. My government is striving hard to eradicate poverty. Well-being of our farmers is vital to nation's prosperity," said President Mukherjee. (ANI) Initially, ads that show up within apps were little more than an annoyance, but now, they have become a possible danger as they can leak your personal data. The personal information of millions of smartphone users is at risk due to in-app advertising that can leak potentially sensitive user information between ad networks and mobile app developers, according to a new study by the School of Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The study examined more than 200 participants who used a custom-built app for Android-based smartphones, which account for 52 percent of the U.S. smartphone market according to comScore's April 2015 report. Georgia Tech researchers reviewed the accuracy of personalized ads that were served to test subjects from the Google AdNetwork based upon their personal interests and demographic profiles; and secondly examined how much a mobile app creator could uncover about users because of the personalized ads served to them. Researchers found that 73 percent of ad impressions for 92 percent of users are correctly aligned with their demographic profiles. Researchers also found that, based on ads shown, a mobile app developer could learn a user's gender with 75 percent accuracy; parental status with 66 percent accuracy; age group with 54 percent accuracy and could also predict income, political affiliation, marital status, with higher accuracy than random guesses. Some personal information is deemed so sensitive that Google explicitly states those factors are not used for personalization, yet the study found that app developers still can discover this information due to leakage between ad networks and app developers. Lead researcher Wei Meng said that free smart phone apps are not really free. Apps, especially malicious apps, can be used to collect potentially sensitive information about someone simply by hosting ads in the app and observing what is received by a user. Mobile, personalized in-app ads absolutely present a new privacy threat. Unlike advertising on a website page, where personalized ad content is protected from publishers and other third parties by the Same Origin Policy, there is no isolation of personalized ad content from the mobile app developer. People use their smartphones now for online dating, banking, and social media every day, said Wenke Lee, adding that mobile devices are intimate to users, so safeguarding personal information from malicious parties is more important than ever. The study acknowledges that the online advertising industry is taking steps to protect users' information by improving the HTTPS protocol, but researchers believe the threat to user privacy is greater than HTTPS protection can provide under a mobile scenario. Results have been presented at the 2016 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS '16) in San Diego. (ANI) The Delhi Police had earlier raised opposition against Kanhaiya's bail plea hearing citing that there is enough evidence against him. "We have enough evidence, documents and material against the accused and the whole lot to proceed against them under the charges of sedition," Special Public Prosecutor Shailendra Babbar told the media here. Meanwhile, JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who have been booked on charges of sedition, surrendered before Delhi Police late last night. The students left the University campus and entered a JNU security van in which the cops were waiting for them. The two have been placed under police custody at South Campus police station and are likely to be produced before a magistrate today. (ANI) Dutt is set to walk free today after serving 42 months under the Arms Act in the 1993 Bombay blast case. The security outside the Yerawada jail has been tightened in view of Dutt's release. Meanwhile, a PIL has also been filed in Bombay High Court by social activist Pradeep Bhalekar, seeking a stay on early release of the 56-year-old actor. Bhalekar has questioned the decision by prison authorities and the state to grant relief to the actor based on his "good conduct" in prison. The PIL says several convicts secure good-conduct reports from prison authorities but are not granted remission or early release. About 400 convicts in jails across the state have got such certificates, the plea says. The petitioner will state his PIL before a high court bench on Thursday morning. Reportedly, the actor, son of former Congress leader and actor Sunil Dutt and film actress Nargis, who has been out on parole for 90 days in December 2013 and again in August last for 30 days for personal reasons, will be released 103 days ahead of his full prison term. (ANI) The actor's family, friends and industry colleagues are all excited to welcome him back home, but before he settles back into daily life, Dutt has a packed day ahead of him. After the release, the actor will fly back Mumbai and will directly visit Siddhivinayak Temple for blessings. After Siddhivinayak, the actor has planned to head to Marine Lines to seek blessings at his mother's grave. Then finally, Dutt will head to his apartment in Imperial Heights and after freshen up, he is expected to come back down and speak to the media about his return. (ANI) Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who was released from Yerawada Central Jail here today, thanked his fans for their support during the 42-month jail term following his conviction in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case. The 56-year-old Sanjay Dutt had been in jail as prisoner number 16656 to complete 42 months out of a total of five years of imprisonment that was awarded to him by TADA court, and subsequently confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2013. From 1993 to 2013, Dutt had already served 18 months in jail. On his release, Sanjay Dutt told mediapersons at Pune airport that it was not an easy walk to freedom and thanked his fans for their love and support. UNI SP AJ 1138 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0109-607362.Xml The Department of Biotechnology in the Ministry of Science and Technology and a consortium of top UK research institutions have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for establishment of a joint India-UK collaboration programme in crop science. The aim of the agreement is to enhance collaborative research, promote knowledge exchange, and support capacity building to develop resilience in food security. The agreement was signed by Professor K. VijayRaghavan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Cambridge University Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz and Nafees Meah on behalf of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) of UK. It was also signed by representatives from the National Institute for Agricultural Botany (NIAB), in Cambridge; the John Innes Centre, UK; the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, UK; and Rothamsted Research Institute UK. After the signing of the agreements, Professor Leszek Borysiewicz, VC of University of Cambridge, said- "This collaboration builds on the close links already established between leading researchers in the United Kingdom and India and is another great example of both countries' commitment to growing our partnerships in translational and applied research. Professor K. Vijay Raghavan said, "The United Kingdom has been a long-standing partner with the Government of India in Science and Technology and the collaboration has grown from strength to strength. Our partners are the best in the UK and together we can be the best anywhere, working together to address a key global problem.""This collaboration will create opportunities for leading experts in the UK and India to come together to tackle global challenges in the areas of food security, crop science and biotechnology." All parties agreed on the importance of crop science as an area of enormous potential for scientific collaboration, and of great importance for global food security in India and beyond. The agreement foresees joint projects focusing on the fundamental science underpinning yield enhancement, disease resistance and drought resistance; research into crop re-breeding; and the translation of fundamental research into sustainable agriculture practice. It also contemplates the establishment of a joint Indo-UK Plant Science Centre in India. (ANI) Chief of Army Staff General Dalbir Singh on Thursday said terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) are getting support from Pakistan. "The spreading influence of ISIS in particular through social and other forms of media has thrown up challenges of global and regional security. In the context of India, terrorist groups like LeT and JeM get candid support from across our western borders, which enables them to spread violence in the country," General Singh said while addressing CLAWS (Centre for Land Warfare Studies) international seminar in the national capital. "What is worrying is that these groups no longer can be dismissed as regional manifestations of violence. Technology and ideology bind them together and members of any group retain the flexibility of striking targets which have no limits of area of operations, as long as it gives publicity to their ideology, enables spread of this in areas of recruitment and demonstrates their growing influence," he added. General Singh alleged that the terrorist groups take advantage of international connected systems of finance, communication and transit to retain flexibility of reaching any part of the world. "It is necessary for the international community to fight this growing menace as one by sharing of intelligence, adopting of training techniques from each other," he said. Speaking about the Islamic State,General Singh said the terror group's growing influence through the social media has thrown up challenges of global and regional security. "We need to address not only methods but also factors that contribute to spread of terrorism. The methods and factors that contribute to spread of terrorism generating such comprehensive response has not been easy," he said. General Singh further stated that cooperation to combat sub-convention threats has been one of the top priorities for India, while engaging with other nations. "As a society, we need to address these problems jointly. I am sure the deliberations in next two-days during the seminar would leave us more knowledgeable and better equipped to address global security challenges," he added. (ANI) Fifteen villages, under Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) limit, today observed a bandh against proposed merger in KMC limit. All business activities remained closed.The district collector, Dr Amit Saini on Februray 16 had sent one proposal to the state government of merger of 20 villages in civic limit.As many as 15 villages are against this merger including Mudshingi, Sarnobatwadi, Gokul-Shirgaon, Pachgaon, Morewadi, Ujalaiwadi, Nave Balinge, Kalmba, Uchagaon, Wadipir, Vadnge, Shiye, Shinganapur, Nagdevwadi. In Ujalaiwadi, people took out a motorcycle rally in the village this morning.Chandradeep Narke, Shiv Sena MLA from Karvir Assembly constituency and a senior leader of Action Committee (AC) who are against the merger, said there were many serious issues before the KMC including water issue, then why the KMC authority insisted on merger issue of these villages in KMC limit. He alleged the intention behind merger of 20 villages was of increasing the revenue amount of KMC and city leaders were pursuing the merger proposals without any discussion with villagers.Mr Narke said AC has decided to intensify their agitation on February 29 and March 1, as villages would go on chain hunger strike before the district collector office and a highway bandh agitation would take place on March 14. Most villages in the proposal have been observing bandh since last week. On Monday, villagers of Shiroli village on Pune-Bangalore National Highway had blocked the highway for half an hour. The KMC corporators and the city political leaders from all political parties have also formed a forum to support the merger plan. UNI SSS NV AW AJ 1303 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-607390.Xml A few die-hard fans of Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, who became a free man on Thursday, are celebrating his freedom in style here. Mumbai restaurateur Khalid Hakim, owner of Mughalai eatery Noor Mohammadi Hotel, has started doling out free "Chicken Sanju Baba", a signature recipe created by Dutt in 2010, to all patrons and fans. The special limited offer opened at noon on Thursday and will continue till midnight, Hakim said adding that the place was already overcrowded with eager people waiting to gorge on "Chicken Sanju Baba". "It was in 2010 on one of his visits that he created a special gravy-based chicken dish for us and we named it after him as 'Chicken Sanju Baba' on the menu card. Dutt also gave me his written consent to prepare and sell it to our patrons," said Hakim, who is the third generation owner of the 93-year-old restaurant (opened in 1923). Bandra's famous eatery, "Bhaijaanz Restaurant" is offering a flat 50 percent discount to mark Dutt's release and has launched a new dish "Bhai-Baba Chal Mere Bhai" which will be served free to all customers. "It is a combination of minced mutton and chicken as Salman Khan loves mutton and Sanjay Dutt relishes chicken. This is our humble tribute to their great friendship," said the restaurant manager. Incidentally, "Bhaijaanz Restaurant" is the country's first themed eatery after Salman Khan, opened last year by five fans and friends -- Rahul Kanal, Zafar Yusuf, Tabrez Shaikh, Sohail Siddique and Khursheed Khan -- who also attended the same school where Salman studied. "Everything in our restaurant is inspired by our beloved Salman, his life, his physique, his roles and characters he enacted on screen, his likes and his famed bikes, memorabilia, etc," said the manager of the eatery which opened last year. The restaurant balcony was designed like the one at Salman Khan's home in Bandra Bandstand where thousands of fans flock daily, the items on the menu were named and designed after his movies or his personal tastes and the eatery has proved popular with its clientele. An auto-rickshaw driver and hardcore Dutt fan, Sandeep Bachche was celebrating his idol's release differently by offering free rides for the day to commuters in Bandra. "Many years ago, I was given medical help by the Dutt family and I am forever indebted to them. When he returned to complete his sentence in May 2013, I vowed that I would roam bare-feet till he comes out of prison. Now, I shall start wearing footwear again," Bachche told the media. As a tribute to his diehard fan worship of Dutt, Bachche's friends and colleagues have nicknamed him "Munnabhai SSC", a fact which he proudly tells everybody. --Indo-Asian News Service qn/ahm/bg ( 463 Words) 2016-02-25-14:51:33 (IANS) The surgery for both eyes of Mr Jugnauth was performed on February 20 and 23, Chief surgeon and Co-Chairman Dr Kasu Prasad Reddy told reporters. Dr Prasad Reddy said the Mauritius Prime Minister had both angle closure glaucoma and cataracts in both the eyes which made the operation difficult. ''As I was responsible for primary prototype research work with Victus Femtosecond Laser assisted cataract surgery, I had to combine 4 different technologies using Bhattacharjee pupil ring with successful outcome of both the eyes.'' He said India is an extremely attractive medical tourism destination in Asia, mainly due to the low cast of treatment (three times less than other countries), quality healthcare infrastructure and availability of highly-skilled doctors. Hyderabad with its world-class medical facilities, service-driven culture and high standard of healthcare was the most favoured medical tourism destination after New Delhi and Mumbai. Replying to a question, Dr Prasad Reddy said he had performed more then one lakh eye surgeries. Apart from India, patients from all over the world, including England, Europe, Middle East and African counties have undergone treatment at the Maxivision Hospital.UNI VV RP1436 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0421-607635.Xml Stating that union budget 2016-17 to bepresented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 29 inParliament can transform life insurance in the country, Arijit Basu,MD and CEO, SBI Life Insurance, has said that there was need toincrease 80 C exemption limit from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh as therewas need to encourage financial savings. In a statement today, Mr Basu said, Life insurance Companieshave played a major role in the development of the country. LifeInsurance sector has supported the Governments variousdevelopmental activities, be it in providing capital forinfrastructure projects or through the implementation of PradhanMantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY). There is a need forproviding more impetus to life insurance companies for enhancinglife insurance penetration in the country, especially when we do nothave a social security system in place. To boost the number ofpeople who will buy PMJJBY, the Government should look intoincreasing the death benefit beyond Rs two lakh. A benefit of Rsfive lakh will get more people interested in buying the product.Appropriate safeguards and pulling needs to be in place to make thisscheme sustainable. He said, TDS on policies bought by NRIs needs to be revisitedgiven that many NRI are staying in the Middle East and cannot obtaintax residency certificates. In addition, the service tax frame workneeds to be fine tuned especially the service tax charged on annuitypolicy should be removed. Thinking on a long term basis, countries like Japan, Germany,Italy and France have already reached a stage where the number ofsenior citizens outnumbers the earning population. As healthcarefacilities in the country improve, people in India are going to livelonger. This will put pressure on both the earning population of thecountry as well as the Government to make provisions to supportthem. Hence it will be advisable if the Government incentivisespeople to think about retirement and pension plans. A tax break ofRs two Lakh and an exemption of annuity should be provided for thoseopting to buy these plans, he said. Stating that under the governments Digital India initiative, itwas expected that the pace of Internet adoption would accelerate, hesaid India should have half-a-billion Internet-connected citizens bythe end of 2016.More UNI AKM NV aw1405 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-607659.Xml The crime happened adjacent to Jagatpur auto terminus when 4-5 youths on two motor bikes came and shot at the local TMC leader, popularly known as Buro, this morning. He was rushed to a nursing home on EM Byepass where he was declared brought dead. The victim had received four bullets injuries. The crime created panic at the local area. The Baguiati police station began a probe into the crime.UNI PC PS AJ RAI1432 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-607580.Xml A pall of gloom descended as a TV journalist, who was shot dead in Delhi over a tiff regarding playing loud music, was cremated in his native Balu village in Kaithal district, a report said today. His father, Prem Singh, told mediapersons that Hardeep was their only son. Shalinder, room mate of Hardeep, said they both worked in educational channel of UGC in Delhi. On Tuesday evening after performing their duty they reached their rented room and were in the balcony after dinner when some youths under the influence of liquor were dancing to the tunes of loud music at a gym, below their floor. Hardeep asked them to restrain themselves. With in minutes some persons came up stairs and an argument ensued. Following this Hardeep was allegedly shot at. Hardeep was rushed to a Delhi hospital but succumbed to his injuries. Villagers Leela Ram, Balbir Singh Sube singh, Gaje singh and others said the government should extend financial help to the family. UNI XC AJ SB1432 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-607532.Xml The authorities today put under house arrest moderate Hurriyat Conference (HC) Chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq and a number of other leaders for organising a seminar. A protest march would be taken out in Srinagar this afternoon against the house arrest of the leaders, HC spokesman Advocate Shahidul Islam said. He said the HC has organized the seminar on present political situation, "human rights violations in Kashmir and the harassment of Kashmiri students in New Delhi." He said senior leader Prof Abdul Gani Bhat and some other leaders have reached the HC headquarter at Raj Bagh where the seminar was to be held. However, Mirwiaz and a number of other senior leaders have been put under house arrest to prevent their participation in the seminar, Mr Islam said. A large number of security force and state police personnel have been deployed outside the Nigeen residence of Mirwaiz, who was not being allowed to move out. "I was also put under house arrest this morning," Mr Islam said, adding a number of other senior leaders have also been put under house arrest. UNI BAS ADG SB1456 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-607490.Xml Cutting across party lines Members of Lok Sabha today demanded that along with voting rights, basic amenities like food and shelter be provided to the people who opted to acquire Indian citizenship following the land swap deal between India and Bangladesh. The Lok Sabha took up a discussion on a Bill seeking amendment to the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Delimitation Act, 2002 to accommodate new areas being added in Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies of West Bengal following swap of enclaves between India and Bangladesh.Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda said the urgency to bring the Election Laws(Amendment) Bill, 2016 was the elections in West Bengal which will be held in May before which the delimination has to be done. In view of the impending elections in the state, amendments in the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Delimitation Act, 2002 are required to be made empowering the Election Commission to undertake limited delimitation in the areas amalgamated in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal.Initiating the discussion, Congress Member Adhir Ranjan Choudhury supported the Bill and said elaborate arrangements should be made for the people who will become new voters of the country. He said people who are living in enclaves in Indian territory are being denied basic amenities.The Congress Member said basic amenities like food and shelter should be given to the people living in enclaves. Welcoming the amendment Bill, BJP Member SS Ahluwalia said employment opportunities should be given to the people who are living Indian Enclaves and besides that they should also be provided right to shelter.He said these people should have medical access and their children should be given immediate admission in the Indian schools. Mr Ahluwalia said the names of the people should be get enrolled in the voter list before the issuing of notification for West Bengal elections. CPI(M) Member Badaruddoza Khan said besides voting rights, civil rights are very much required for the people living in the Indian Enclaves. He also said the names of the new voters should be included in the voters list for West Bengal polls. RSP Member NK Premachandran, TRS Member Vinod Kumar Bolanpalli, TDP Member Jayadev Galla, AITC Member Kalyan Banerjee and AIADMK Member B Senguttavan also took part in the discussion and all of them supported the Bill. The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given its approval to amend section 11 of the Delimitation Act, 2002 and section 9 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. It will enable Election Commission to carry out limited delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary Constituency(cies) in the Cooch Behar District of West Bengal consequent upon the exchange of 51 Bangladeshi enclaves and 111 Indian enclaves respectively between India and Bangladesh, with effect from July 31, 2015. This is in pursuance of the Constitution (One Hundredth Amendment) Act, 2015 and also allows for introduction of a Bill, namely, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in Parliament. In a historic pact between India and Bangladesh, 51 Bangladeshi enclaves (Chhitmahals) in Indian Territory and 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh territory were exchanged with effect from July 31, 2015. The move altered the geography and demography of the district of Cooch Behar in West Bengal. With a view to carry out consequential geographic and demographic alterations vis--vis the electoral mosaic of the affected areas, the Election Commission requested to amend section 11 of the Delimitation Act, 2002 and section 9 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 to enable it to carry out limited delimitation of constituencies in the affected areas.Since the newly acquired area consequent upon the exchange of territory between India and Bangladesh has become the part of the Indian territory, it is required to make delimitation exercise within the limited constituency area before the ensuing State Assembly elections in West Bengal.Accordingly, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2016 has been proposed for enactment.UNI NY SB/RSA AS1655 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0099-608024.Xml Opposition Members today decried the assault on JNU student leader, mediaand lawyers in the February 15 Patiala House Court premises in the presence of Delhi Police, describing it as unprecedented occurrence, not seen even during the draconian Emergency days. Raising the issue during the Calling attention motion to a matter of public attention in the Rajya Sabha,several Members condemned the happenings on the court premises with the Congress saying thatinstead their nationalism was being questioned while some wondered whether it was imposition of aHindu Taliban order. Initiating the discussion, Deputy Leader of Congress Anand Sharma , asserted that the image of the DelhiPolice had taken a beating due to the happenings. ''Law and order is the responsibility of police andgovernment cannot shy away from its responsibility,'' clarifying that his party condemned unequivocallyany anti-national and anti-constitutional activity.Stating that the NDA government had backed this violence and created a charged atmosphere byallowing rule of law to collapse by sponsoring attacks on citizens even in court premises, he saidno action had been taken by the government against the perpetrators until prodded by an Opposition delegation.''Names are being taken and our nationalism is being questioned. We come from an organisationwhere generations have fought for independence,'' Mr Sharma said, pointing out that till recently theTricolour was not acceptable to the RSS.Similarly D Raja, CPI, bemoaning the subversion of judicial process, asked how could the government justify the attack on media and the common people. Delhi Police, under patronage of its political masters, had remained mute spectators, he flayed.More UNI SD RSA/SB AS1654 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0311-607962.Xml The Himachal Pradesh high court today passed an order directing the state government to pay compensation of Rs 2 Lakh each to the next of jaundice deceased the High Court also urged the court registry to initiate contempt proceeding against incumbent irrigation and public health secretary and other three senior officers of IPH department and pollution control broad for dereliction of their duties beside asking the SP, cyber crime Sandeep Dhawal to continue head SIT probing the matter. Pronouncing the order on the suo-moto public interest litigation the division bench of Himahcal Pradesh high court comprising Chief justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan said "It is proper to award Rs two lakhs as interim compensation to the legal representatives of each of the deceased." The court also directed the state to deposit the amount of interim compensation before it within four weeks. "We are of the considered view that the Writ Court could exercise powers in terms of the mandate of the Constitution read with the inherent powers and can grant interim relief, even though it is not specifically provided for. passing the order" the bench. held Referring to the high court order passed into two public interest petitions the court said that its order has not been complied and false affidavit had been submitted before the court leading to outbreak of jaundice in the town. "For the respondent IPH Department, one by Engineer Suman Vikrant and Engineer Sunil Justa, filed the reports about the compliance court verdict pertaining to the above PILs which were misleading and have made the Court to believe that the respondents have complied with the Court directions, which is not factually correct in view of the latest reports, outbreak of jaundice and shutting down of LWSS Ashwani" the bench maintained. It further said that Member Secretary of Pollution Control Board, Mr Vineet Kumar who has filed status report on March 3 2015, has failed to file compliance report from September 18, 2014 till Mar 3 , 2015 and thereafter, has been asked to show cause here in above, but the report submitted by him on March 3, 2015, is, prima facie, incorrect, rather false, in view of the latest reports of the concerned authorities. More UNI ML ADG BD1632 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-607657.Xml The Madras High Court today said it would again stall the Tamil Nadu Government's bid to issuepattas to those who had encroached lands on water bodies andrapped the government for its silence on the issue. When the petitions filed in this regard came up for hearing,the First Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh, referred to the December 15, 2015undertaking given by the government before a full-bench that it would file an affidavit modifying its stand on issuing pattas for such lands, and rapped it for its silence on the matter. The Bench also warned that it would quash yet another bidof the government to issue pattas to encroachers. "As usual, no stand has been put forth by the government. The Government pleader has taken time to put forth the modified stand before the court and to file the affidavit within four weeks. Nothing has happened'', the Bench notedand gave time till February 26 to file the affidavit failingwhich it would quash the notification that encroachment made till March 31, 2015 would be regularised and pattas issued. The Court's observations comes nearly three months after a three-judge Bench of the High Court had ruled that the Tamil Nadu government could not be allowed to regularise encroachments on water bodies lying in 'disuse'. The petitioners opposed the state government's policy of issuing patta for people squatting on even water bodies if there was proof that they were in possession of the land for a specific period. It said the qualifying norms for Patta, which was five yearsas on March 31, 2001 was reduced to just three years through anotification issued on April 1, 2007. The government also issued a notification dated August 26, 2014 that encroachment made till March 31, 2015 would be regularised and pattas issued.UNI GV KVV ADB1700 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-608088.Xml : The Popular Front of India would organise march to the legislative assembly on February 29 to press the enhancement of reservation for Muslims. Talking to newspersons here, the organising secretary of the Front, Mohammed Sheik Ansari said in 2010, the government announced two percent reservation for Muslims. But it was for group 'C' posts only and not for group 'B' posts, he reasoned. Demanding that the Puducherry administration provide reservation for group B posts and that the present reservation of 2 per cent be enhanced to four percent, the march will be held, Mr Ansari added.UNI PAB KVV ADB 1735 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-608095.Xml Coast Guard (East) Chief Public Relations Officer today saidthe fishing boats and crew were engaged in poaching inIndian waters. He said the Boats was having 2,500 Kgs of Tuna Fish,long Line Hooks / Gillnet generally utilized for Tuna / Sharkfishing. Accordingly the Boats were detained for violation of Section 3/7of the Maritime Zones of India (Regulation of Fishing by ForeignVessels) Act 1981 by Coast Ship.MORE UNI CS KVV ADB1730 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-608203.Xml The Uttar Pradesh Assembly plunged into pandemonium today when Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohammad Azam Khan charged the industrialists in the state with indulging in power theft.Mr Khan made this comment when State Dairy Development Minister Rammurti Verma was replying to a question of BJP member Satish Mahana over the industrial scenario of the state."It is unfortunate that the industrialists were indulging in power theft when they receive subsidy in coal and other fuels," he said, which irked the opposition members.BJP member from Nodia Ms Vimla Botham contested the charges of the minister saying that not a single industrial unit in Gautam Buddha Nagar district was involved in such illegal practises.But the Minister refused to budge saying that he has definite information about his statement. Meanwhile, Mr Khan claimed that since the day the Samajwadi Party government came to power in the state 1,58,229 industrial units were set up with an investment of Rs 24,368 crore while giving direct and indirect employment to over 15 lakhs people.To another question, State Animal Husbandry minister Raj Kishore Singh said 222 new dairies have been set up in the state which has added an additional milk of 1.20 lakh litre. He said 7.20 lakh tonnes of milk has been added in this Samajwadi Party regime with 10,362 people getting self-employment. He said by 2017, the state's milk production would cross 25 million tonne.UNI MB AE BD1608 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0100-608129.Xml Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee today criticised Rail Budget 2016, which was presented by Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu in Parliament and said the budget had nothing to offer to Himachal. HPCC media department chairman Naresh Chauhan said the people of the state had high expectations from the 'Rail Budget' but the Himachalis are now feeling cheated with this budget as nothing new was announced for this hill state. "The Railway Budget is very disappointing in Himachals perspective as there is nothing in the budget for the state," he said, adding that the budget is full of hollow ideas and promises without any substance. Mr Chauhan said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state BJP MP's had shown big dreams to the people of Himachal to bring new rail network projects in the state and strengthen existing rail lines. "But the Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu did not made any announcement on these projects and it seems that Modi-led NDA government was back tracking on these issues as on other issues of bringing back black money etc," he said. Mr Chauhan said that Railway Minister did not sanctioned funds for railways projects neither approved new projects as was promised by Mr Modi during Lok Sabha elections. "Modi during election rallies in Himachal had promised to develop rail network as it would promote tourism, strategic and horticulture point of view as he had knowledge about the hard topography of the state," he said. Mr Chauhan said that the four BJP MPs who had got massive mandate during Lok Sabha elections seemed to have failed in putting forward the issue of development of rail network in the state which was the reason that no budgetary allocations were made for the same in the Railway Budget 2016. "Overall, there is nothing new to offer for the general public of the country as there was no concern for safety aspect in the Budget," he added.UNI ML DS AE BD1838 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-608146.Xml Deputy Commissioner of Jhajjar Anita Yadav has urged the people of district to provide evidence related to agitators during the Jat agitation to the district administration as it would prove immensely helpful in the investigation process. While giving this information today, an official spokesman said that any such video, photo or other material related to agitation in the district on February 19, 20 and 21 could be sent to district administration either on whatsapp number 8199820068 or email id infojhajjar20@gmail.com. He said that messages received on this number and email id would be included in the investigation at administrative level and the name and details of person giving the information would be kept secret. The spokesman said that people have been urged to be fearless and provide video, photo or other material related to agitators so that the same could be used in the investigation. UNI NC RJ BD1830 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-608245.Xml Defence experts on Thursday hailed the arrest of a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist, who was involved in the attack on an army camp three months ago, from Baramulla, saying that it would strengthen India's stand against terrorism and force Pakistan to act against terrorism emanating from its soil. "This is a very important arrest. There is a lot of vital information that can be dug out from him. The information will be beneficial for India. This will create more pressure on Pakistan to act against terror," Defence matters expert, P.K. Sehgal, told ANI. Terming the arrest as 'significant', Defence expert Ranjeet Rai asserted that the interrogation of the arrested terrorist should be strict. "This is a very significant arrest. The interrogation will be strict. If he is the one to carry out the attack in Tanghdar, then he will speak out. It is sure that these terrorists have sympathizers here," he said. Security expert Alok Bansal echoed similar sentiments and said, "Capturing a terrorist alive is an achievement in itself and especially when the terrorist is from Pakistan. It will strengthen India's proof." In a joint operation, the army and the police in Baramulla District of Jammu and Kashmir apprehended a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist today for carrying out an attack at an army camp near the Line of Control (LoC) in Tanghdar area of North Kashmir's Kupwara District three months ago along with his three associates. Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, the son of Walid Mohammad Gujjar, is a resident of Sialkot tehsil Dehska in Pakistan. His three associates Hussain, Malik and Rizwan were killed inside the Army camp at Tanghdar on November 25. Gujjar was part of four Fidayeen who carried out attack on the Army camp in Tanghdar on November 25 last year. Coming from a well-off farmer family in Sialkot, Gujjar has five brothers and two sisters. He was lured by his school friend into militancy, who is also a JeM militant. He received three months training in JeM camp where he was motivated for Jihad besides arms training. (ANI) Slamming Pakistan, without naming it, Army Chief General Dalbir Singh today said as long as certain states continue to differentiate between good, bad and tolerable terrorists, the way ahead remains elusive. Addressing a seminar on emerging regional threats, the Army Chief said there should be a resolve at international level to isolate states, who harbour and train terrorists as a matter of state policy from those, who fight terrorists with sincerity and genuine intent. He said that India has been dealing with various dynamic sub-conventional threats since independence and has been successful in containing this menace to a large extent. Indian Army has a rich experience in countering sub-conventional threats of varied forms like proxy war, terrorism, and insurgency, Gen Singh added. Asserting that terrorist attacks on '9/11', '26/11' and at Paris have changed the perception of world leaders about the unprecedented reach and methods used by the terrorists to strike at will at the global stage, he said that these sub-conventional threats have created a force asymmetry and the traditional and conventional mechanisms cannot contain this menace."Terrorist organisations like ISIS, Al Shabab and Boko Haram have found new space at the Global front through social Media and other forms of Media," the Army chief said, adding that in the context of India, groups like LeT were getting candid support from across Western Borders in manifesting violence.UNI MK RJ AE 1936 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0090-608580.Xml The 2 Corps deployed to control the deteriorating situation during the Jat agitation in Haryana had witnessed large scale blockade of roads mostly dug by the agitators to restrict movement of the vehicular traffic in badly-hit areas of Rohtak. In addition to National Highways, the protestors also managed to stop the traffic on a large number of arterial roads. These blockades made the movement and deployment of Army columns to various sensitive areas extremely difficult. A statement issued by 2 Corps Headquarters here today said Rohtak was one such place which became absolutely inaccessible. However, timely deployment of force was extremely critical to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control. Breaching these traffic jams would have involved use of force which would have amounted to further delay. The Army pressed into service a number of helicopters from the Army and Air Force to deploy internal security columns in sensitive areas like Rohtak. The helicopters ferried the troops from their permanent locations in Meerut, Delhi etc and landed them in ad hoc helipads like school grounds and District Police Lines. The helicopters returning to the base after dropping the troops were also utilised to evacuate some foreign nationals who were trapped in areas affected by the agitation. Later, Army continued to employ these helicopters for reconnaissance missions to assess the situation along various arteries. The inputs from air were then conveyed directly to troops on ground to carry out adjustments with the senior officers operating from the air and carrying out dynamic assessment of situations, the helicopters fulfilled the role of aerial command posts. The Army also used helicopters for logistics supply of the columns which could not be accessed by road.UNI XC DB AE 1945 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-608622.Xml The district administration has swung into action and have started assessment of damaged properties and collecting filled claim forms from those whose property was set on fire, damaged or looted in violence during Jat agitation. Deputy Commissioner Nikhil Gajraj today said that large number of affected persons in Kalayat submitted their forms to SDM Bir Singh. The SDM said that the teams constituted to asses loss have also started their work including videography of damaged property so that the payment of compensation as per government policy could by paid expeditiously. He also told those who suffered that if they desired 25 per cent amount of the estimated loss could be given immediately so that they can resume their business activity. Meanwhile, the affected people were making efforts to set their devastated business in order but the riot and arson affected shopkeepers were finding it difficult to immediately start their normal activity. The people were finding it difficult to forget the effects of agitation and losses suffered by them. Though efforts were on to fill the gap between members of various castes and communities but many have expressed their views that they were not against any community but against only those who attacked them and caused them huge losses and such people should be identified and punished at the earliest. On the other hand, a shopkeeper said that if those who launched this agitation, could not reign in their youth why they decided to agitate to this extent. Their agitation was against the government but they attacked and looted innocent shopkeepers who were not in a position to fulfill demands of protesters. UNI XC DB DJK AE 1952 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-608659.Xml In view of the spurt in cyber crime in recent years, Delhi Police has constituted ''Cyber Teams'' in all police stations of the national capital. The dedicated investigating teams will each comprise two Sub-Inspectors and as many lower subordinates, who shall work under the supervision of Inspector (Investigation) of the concerned Police Station, a statement issued by the police said. In addition, a specialised and dedicated ''District Cyber Cell'' has also been established in all the districts of Delhi to assist the Police Stations. The newly established Cell will be equipped with all the latest gadgets needed for forensic analysis of Hard Disks and Mobile phones. The Cyber teams will investigate all the complaints/cases related to social networking sites, hacking/unauthorised access into emails, complaints related to cheating scams and complaints related to unauthorised online transaction through debit/credit cards. For successful and effective functioning of cyber teams, intensive training has been provided to its members by the Cyber Crime Cell of Economic Office Wing. The training included exposure to technical concepts such as IP logs, Source-Ports etc and hands-on training on various steps involved in online crime investigation, the statement added. In addition, a thorough know-how of legal framework governing cyber crime investigations has also been provided to them. Besides, a hands-on exposure has been provided on various forensic tools available for hard disks and mobile devices. With the establishment of high-tech teams with dedicated and trained investigators, Delhi Police is aiming to effectively tackle the growing menace of online crime, the statement added. UNI RG RJ 2040 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0377-608793.Xml All India Trade Union Congress(AITUC) All India General secretary Gurudas Dasgupta today said the present union government is working for the welfare of corporate companies as it was under the impression the latters growth was tantamount to nations growth. Addressing in the 41th AITUC conference here he said only unity among the workers could fight the government policy and it is necessary to bring all the unions to one stage to fight the government. He said this conference should support the student leader Kanyakumar of Jawaharlal Nehru University. World Federation of Trade Union (WFTU) , General Secretary George Mavrikos in his address said the completion of the 95 years of AITUC is a glorious anniversary full of heroic struggles for the workers rights and for the countrys freedom. AITUC has been playing a leading role in forging united struggles in India against neo-liberal economic policies and continuous to do so today with pivotal contribution to the massive General Strikes and Demonstrations that have send a strong message nationally and worldwide. Mr Mavrikos said as WFTU is growing its ranks, as WFTU is enriching is action and presence in all countries of the world and while the monopolies, multinationals and their governments intensify their attack against workers rights regionally and internationally, we need more leaders of AITUC to be involved in the struggles of WFTU. Because, comrades, our national struggles can become stronger and more effective with internationalist solidarity and fraternal support by our brothers fighting across the world.Speaking about the International Capitalists, he said a crisis which grows the competition between the monopolies and forces the implementation of anti-labour and anti-peoples policies. This way they want to make the popular strata pay for the crisis of capitalism. A crisis they did not creat. The labour, social and trade union rights are under attack. Privatisations and extreme unemployment rate. The quality of life is degrading.Com. George Movricos said for the control of natural resources, markets, roads of transport of goods and the control of new territories, the competition between the imperialist forces and their satellites is being intensified day by day generating new wars, conflicts and interventions in various countries. The misery and poverty generated by the imperialist wars can be witnessed in Syria, in Libya, in Iraq, in Ukraine.He said the working class needs stronger, more dynamic, more mass, more class-oriented, trade union movement, Trade unions with deep and stable roots within the industries, within the multinationals and within all sectors, to defend its rights and demand the satisfaction of its contemporary needs against poverty and wars generated by Capitalism. To move Forward with militancy, internationalism and unity.In these conditions, the WFTU is moving forward in an upward course and it hold the wheel steady, making steps to meet the demands of our times, we defend the demands of the working class and the popular strata, he added.UNI KS KVV ADB 2105 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-608605.Xml Union Minister for MSME Kalraj Mishra will arrive in Nagaland tomorrow for a two-day visit.Official sources said Mr Mishra will land in Dimapur at 1235 hrs, tomorrow, from where he will directly go to Chumukedima, near Dimapur at the Chumukedima Police Complex.He will be attending the MSME Regional Conclave at the Rhododendron Hall of the Police Complex from 1300 hrs to 1600 hrs. Mr Mishra will stay for the night at the Chuimukedima Police Complex. He is likely to meet the Nagaland Cabinet of Ministers and some of the NGO. On Saturday, Mr Mishra will leave for New Delhi, sources said. UNI AS AD SHS AJ BD2121 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0108-608751.Xml The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Telangana praised the rail budget 2016-2017, presented by Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu in the Lok Sabha today and called it the most realistic. Sangita Reddy, Chairperson, FICCI Telangana & AP State Council and Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group said "it is an extremely realistic Rail Budget, based on three critical strategy-pillars, aimed at making railways the backbone of Indias overall development." In a statement, Ms Reddy said that it is a visionary budget and many steps have been laid out, which will improve infrastructure in a great way.Some of the key highlights of Rail Budget are that it covers all segments of travellers and all regions of India. It not just focuses on immediate services, but also long term policy for investment, infrastructure and technology, she added. The budget is very innovative, aiming to improve services for travellers -security, choices, facilities, travel time. The core objective of the budget is to make the railways an engine of employment generation and economic growth across India, she noted.Railways proposes to develop three dedicated freight corridors: Delhi-Chennai, Kharagpur-Mumbai and Kharagpur-Vijayawada freight corridors on a priority basis. The other proposals include electrification of 2000 km by next year, increasing electrification budget by 50 per cent, commissioning seven km of broad gauge lines in this year against an average of 4.3 km, providing Wifi connectivity in 100 stations this year and 400 stations next year.This budget has laid down the roadmap for developing next generation railway infrastructure, including high-end technology to improve safety, higher average speed of freight trains and high-speed passenger trains, Ms Reddy said.UNI VV SHS RJ 2323 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0329-608976.Xml The aircraft, operated by Tara Air was travelling from Pokhara to the trekking region of Jomsom,reports The Himalayan Times. No sooner after taking off it lost contact with the control tower shortly , an airport official said. Pokhara is a resort town some 200 kilometres west of the capital Kathmandu. Jomsom, further north, is the starting point for many people trekking in the Himalayas. There are no landing strips between the two locations. In 2013, the European Union banned all Nepalese airlines from flying there.(ANI) India's new High Commissioner to Pakistan, Gautam Bambawale, called on Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the Prime Minister's House today, where he was extended a warm welcome. During their meeting, Sharif said that it has been and will continue to be Pakistan policy to pursue good relations with all of its neighbours, including India, and added that mutual cooperation between the two nations will lead to numerous benefits as also to socio-economic uplift of both countries. The Indian High Commissioner thanked Prime Minister Sharif and expressed the hope that his role would be beneficial in normalisation and strengthening of bilateral relations between the two countries.(ANI) According to reports, the 'Tara Twin Otter' plane was carrying 21 people including three crew members and two children on board. The aircraft with a call sign 9N-AHH, had taken off the Pokhara Airport at 7:50 am today. The aircraft was in contact till 8:50 am, according to an official of the Pokhara Airport. According to officials, A Nepal army chopper has been dispatched to carry out search operation. More details to follow. (ANI) Republicans in the House of Representatives are preparing legal action in case President Barack Obama tries to transfer detainees at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay to the United States, House Speaker Paul Ryan said.Ryan yesterday told reporters it would be against the law for Obama to bring detainees from the prison in Cuba to the United States, because it would violate a ban on such transfers passed by Congress in 2015.He was speaking a day after the president, seeking to make good on a pledge he made in 2008 before he was first elected to the White House, launched a final push to persuade Congress to close the military prison for foreign terrorism suspects.The Pentagon-authored plan proposes 13 potential sites on US soil to hold some 30 to 60 detainees in maximum-security prisons. Obama is also considering taking executive action to close Guantanamo, situated at a U.S. naval station in southeast Cuba, if Congress does not drop its opposition."Our law is really clear," Ryan told reporters after a meeting of House Republicans. "These detainees cannot come to American soil.""We are making legal preparations if the president tries to break the law," Ryan said. "And what boggles my mind is that the president is contemplating directing the military to knowingly break the law."The speaker said that Obama is trying to extend the president's executive authority beyond its limits of the U.S. Constitution. Ryan added that not only Republicans but also many in Obama's own Democratic Party oppose detainee transfers to US soil.Democrats accused House Republicans of wasting taxpayer dollars on litigation. In recent years the House Republican majority has spent nearly 3 million dollars in this way, said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.House Republicans have spent 189,498 dollars since November 2014 on litigation challenging the administration's Obamacare healthcare program, and recently agreed to spend up to 150,000 dollars on legal advice on the possible Guantanamo litigation, Pelosi's office said.A spokesman for Ryan, Brendan Buck, defended the spending, saying "we wouldn't have to spend so much money if the president wasn't overreaching."Pelosi's office said that under former House Speaker John Boehner, House Republicans spent 2.5 million dollars defending a law that denied federal benefits to same-sex couples, before the language was struck down by the Supreme Court.REUTERS JW PM0531 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0098-607199.Xml Burmese hackers say they have attacked Thai government websites since early January and stolen data, part of a long-running, broader campaign against those critical of Myanmar's government.The Blink Hacker Group said in Facebook posts and in an email interview that its attacks were in retaliation for Thailand sentencing two Burmese to death for the murder of two British backpackers late last year.The group said it posted online data it took from websites of the Thai prison agency and justice ministry, saying databases from any government websites it hacked "should be made public."Thai police said they had yet to determine who was behind the attacks, but denied those responsible were from Myanmar.Dechnarong Suthicharnbancha, a spokesperson for the Royal Thai Police, said there had been little impact from the attacks on police websites. "It was only a nuisance. We got the websites running again with no trouble at all."The attacks do, though, mark an escalation in computer hacking since Myanmar opened up to foreign investment and ended decades of military rule in 2011, researchers say.Nationalist attacks on other countries' websites are not new, but those by Myanmar-based groups have increased and have also hit domestic media perceived to be critical of government policies or supportive of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority.The Blink Hacker Group said it targeted independent media websites Irrawaddy and Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) "because we believe that media should not (be) use(d) for propaganda."Spokesmen for both media sites confirmed they had been hacked.BUSINESS LINKSTord Lundstroem, a Swedish researcher who works for a company that hosts independent media websites including Irrawaddy, said domain hosting records linked the Blink Hacker Group and others to Yangon-based companies selling web design and security services, and the hacker groups' Facebook activity indicated informal links to people with military backgrounds.Lundstroem said hackers were better organised and more sophisticated, noting that servers and email accounts at Irrawaddy and DVB had been penetrated around the time of last November's landmark democratic election in Myanmar - though he said these attacks were not the work of the Blink Hacker Group.The Blink Hacker Group said it previously had been ready to work with Myanmar's military to help "build a better Internet" but had received no response. It said none of its 20 members were in the military.Min Ko Ko of Creatigon, a web development company, said he belonged to a group called Myanmar Hackers Unite4M and was founder of Myanmar Security Forum, but was not a hacker. The founder of IT firm Cyber Wings Asia, Yan Naing Myint, said his company had provided hosting for the Blink Hacker Group's website, but neither he nor his business were involved in the group's activities or in hacking.Myanmar government spokesman Ye Htut laughed off claims that the military had cyber war units, saying "I think people sometimes overestimate the capacity of the Myanmar military."REUTERS JW PM0546 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0098-607209.Xml The United States, which is worried by China's military buildup to assert dominance in the South China Sea, will increase freedom-of-navigation operations there, a senior Pentagon official said."We will be doing them more, and we'll be doing them with greater complexity in the future and ... we'll fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows," Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Navy's Pacific Command, told a hearing of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee."We must continue to operate in the South China Sea to demonstrate that water space and the air above it is international," Harris said.On Tuesday, Harris said in comments coinciding with a visit to Washington by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that China was "changing the operational landscape" in the South China Sea by deploying missiles and radar as part of an effort to militarily dominate East Asia.China says its military facilities in the South China Sea are "legal and appropriate," and on Tuesday, in an apparent reference to US patrols, Wang said Beijing hoped not to see more close-up reconnaissance, or the dispatch of missile destroyers or strategic bombers.Wang met with US national security adviser Susan Rice on Wednesday and they "candidly discussed" maritime issues, the White House said in a statement. Rice emphasized strong US support for freedom of navigation and urged China to address regional concerns, the statement said.China's official Xinhua news agency said of the meeting that both countries believed all sides should work hard to maintain the peace and stability of the South China Sea."The South China Sea issue should be resolved via dialogue and peaceful means," Xinhua added.Harris, asked what more could be done to deter militarization, said the United States could deploy more naval assets, although there were significant "fiscal, diplomatic and political hurdles" in the way of stationing a second aircraft carrier group in the region."We could consider putting another (attack) submarine out there, we could put additional destroyers forward ...there are a lot of things we could do, short of putting a full carrier strike group in the Western Pacific," he said.China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than 5 trillion dollars in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.Harris's comments came a day after he said China had deployed surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island in the South China Sea's Paracel chain and radars on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratly islands further to the south.On Tuesday, his command said China's repeated deployment of advanced fighter aircraft to Woody Island was part of a disturbing trend that was inconsistent with Beijing's commitment to avoid actions that could escalate disputes.Last month, a US Navy destroyer carried out a patrol within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracels, a move China called provocative.The United States has also conducted sea and air patrols near artificial islands China has built in the Spratlys, including by two B-52 strategic bombers in November. REUTERS PS RAI0952 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-607267.Xml Australia issued a warning yesterday about possible militant attacks being planned in Indonesia, only days after a similar warning for the Malaysian capital, another sign of rising concern over militancy in Southeast Asia."Recent indications suggest that terrorists may be in the advanced stages of preparing attacks in Indonesia," said the travel advisory on an Australian government website.The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not respond to a request for more details.Australia issued a similar statement on Sunday about possible attacks in and around Kuala Lumpur.The British, New Zealand, Canadian and other diplomatic missions in Malaysia soon followed with notices advising against travel to coastal islands in the eastern state of Sabah.Malaysia has been on high alert since a bomb and gun attack in Indonesia's capital in January in which eight people were killed, including four attackers. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State militant group.Australia has consistently placed Indonesia in the second-lowest of four warning categories, recommending that travellers "exercise a high degree of caution".Indonesia has been cracking down on suspected militants since the attack in Jakarta last month.However, a spokesman for the Indonesian national police, contacted after the Australian warning was issued, said there were no indications of an imminent attack."We're working continuously with relevant institutions and with the public to maintain security," said Agus Rianto. REUTERS PS RAI1122 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-607301.Xml Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban has said the European Union's promise of money and other concessions for Turkey in return for preventing more people leaving its shores for Europe is an "illusion"."We are begging Mr (Turkish President Tayyip) Erdogan submissively for security on our borders, in exchange for money and promises, because we can't protect them ourselves," Orban told today's mass-selling German daily Bild."This is making Europe's future and security dependent on the goodwill of Turkey."EU countries this month approved a 3 billion euro (3.3 billion dollars) fund for Turkey to improve living conditions for refugees there in return for a promise to ensure that fewer of them migrate on to Europe.The EU is counting on the deal to stem the influx after more than a million refugees poured in in 2015, the majority coming from the Middle East or Asia via Turkey. There is little sign of the flow ebbing this year.Orban has been one of the most outspoken critics of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming stance towards refugees. On Wednesday, he announced plans for a referendum on EU plans to create a system of mandatory quotas for migrants."Brussels is making promises to the Turks that we can't keep - or don't want to keep. The plan to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees from Turkey and distribute them across Europe is an illusion," he said.If Hungary agreed to this, he said, "they would tie me up on the flagpole here in Budapest". REUTERS PS SB1309 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-607537.Xml French military advisers have been helping coordinate Libyan forces fighting Islamic State insurgents in the eastern city of Benghazi, a senior Libyan military commander said today."The French military group in Benghazi are just military advisers who provide consultations to the Libyan National Army in its battle against terrorism, but they are not fighting with our Libyan forces," special forces commander Wanis Bukhamada told Reuters. There was no immediate French comment.The French newspaper Le Monde reported on Wednesday that French special forces and intelligence commandos were engaged in "a secret war" against Islamic State in anarchy-ridden Libya in conjunction with the United States and Britain. France's Defence Ministry declined comment on the report.Libyan military forces in Benghazi are under the command of General Khalifa Haftar and loyal to the North African country's government based in the eastern city of al-Bayda. A rival armed faction took over the capital Tripoli in the far west in 2014 and set up its own self-declared government.Haftar's forces have been advancing against Islamic State in Benghazi, taking back neighbourhoods that had been under militant control for months.Western leaders have been looking at ways to stop the spread of Islamic State in Libya, where militants have exploited a breakdown of state order since the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi to seize control of some towns.Last Friday a US air strike targeted Islamist militants in the western Libyan city of Sabratha, killing more than 40.REUTERS CJ VP1640 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-608026.Xml A male teenager near Tokyo was found to have been infected with Zika virus after a visit to Brazil, Japan's first case of the infection since May last year when the virus spread widely in Latin America, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Thursday.The man, who is in Kanagawa prefecture, southwest of the Japanese capital, was running a fever and a rash, after having returned to Japan, NHK quoted the health ministry as saying.Health ministry officials said they had no immediate comment to make on the report.In the past, three people in Japan had been found to have the Zika virus three years ago after returning from abroad, NHK said.Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly.Brazil is investigating the potential link between Zika infections and more than 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly, a condition marked by abnormally small head size that can result in developmental problems. REUTERS CJ VP1716 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-608074.Xml As many as 200 soldiers were killed in an attack on a Kenyan military camp in Somalia by al Shabaab Islamists last month, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told a television station, although Kenya rejected the figure.Kenyan authorities have refused to give a death toll following the Jan. 15 raid, which targeted troops working under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) near the southern Somali town of El Adde.Newspaper pictures of coffins draped with Kenyan flags bringing back dead soldiers after the attack increased the disquiet from ordinary Kenyans and the opposition alike over Kenya's continued presence in Somalia.Al Shabaab later distributed photos purporting to show the bodies of dozens of Kenyan soldiers, many apparently shot in the head."When about 200 soldiers who came to help your country are killed in one morning, it is not something trivial," Mohamud told Somali Cable TV, a privately owned station. The interview was posted on YouTube on Thursday."We have been winning for years and months but that El Adde battle, we were defeated. Yes, in war, sometimes something that you do not like happens to you," he said.Kenya sent soldiers into Somalia in 2011 after raids in the border region and kidnappings that threatened the tourism industry in the region's biggest economy and wider regional destabilisation. It later joined the AMISOM operation.Al Shabaab's attacks in Kenya have included a raid by gunmen on the upscale Westgate shopping mall in 2013 and a university in Garissa in 2015. Hundreds of people have been killed in al Shabaab attacks in the past two years.Kenya Defence Forces spokesman, Colonel David Obonyo, denied the number given by the Somali president and questioned the source of the information."It is not true. This information never came from us or anyone in the government of Kenya," he told Reuters.The al Qaeda-aligned militants have been driven out of major strongholds in Somalia by AMISOM and Somali army offensives, but the group still controls some rural areas and often launches guerrilla-style assaults and bomb attacks.Al Shabaab, which has links to al Qaeda and seeks to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed government, initially said it had killed more than 100 soldiers in the attack.The group, which is also seeking to drive the AU force out of Somalia, often says its attacks against Kenyan targets are retaliation for its participation in AMISOM, which also includes Uganda and BurundiREUTERS CJ BD1957 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-608669.Xml Italy is resisting pressure to allow aircraft and armed drones to stage attacks on Islamic State militants in Libya from its territory, saying today that direct Western military intervention on the ground there was "unthinkable".While Libya's rival factions have struggled to agree to a UN-backed national unity government, the Americans have launched air strikes on Islamic State outposts in the country and the French have conducted surveillance flights and sent military advisers.But the US and the EU have both said they agree with Italy that deeper military involvement will need the request of the Libyan government.Italy is concerned that Western military intervention without such a request will stoke IS popularity and turn Libyan militias against the West. It is trying to persuade its allies to limit action until a government is in place."Libya can be stabilised by local forces. A military intervention and occupation of the country (by Western forces) would be unthinkable," Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti said in an interview on Canale 5 television.When asked about reports of French special forces on the ground there, she said: "In the past, unilateral accelerations have not helped Libya."She was referring to the Western bombing that helped depose Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi five years ago but which has led to civil war and chaos, allowing IS to take root just across the Mediterranean from Europe.Italy's Sigonella air base, where US and NATO forces also are stationed, is just 500 km (310 miles) from Tripoli, making it the West's best staging area for air strikes on Libya.Italy has more at stake than its allies, as people smugglers based in Libya have sent some 300,000 migrants across the sea over the past two years, and state oil giant Eni has extensive gas and oil interests there.There needs to be "patience and encouragement" to cajole the Libyan factions toward a unity government, an Italian defence official said, because that remains "the only road to go down".Last week, a US air raid on Sabratha killed more than 40 Islamic State fighters. Instead of making the short flight from Sigonella in Sicily, the planes flew all the way from Britain.After months of negotiations, Rome has agreed to let the US fly armed drones from Sigonella, but they can only fire their missiles after receiving specific approval from Italy and only in missions to defend US or "coalition allies".Washington had sought permission to use the armed drones without any preconditions. Italian insistence on giving the green light to any operation will seriously limit their scope.The United Nations has been trying to bring Libya's rival factions together in a unity government. A presidential council has been formed, but hardliners are resisting a vote in Libya's elected parliament to approve the new government.On Tuesday, Libya's eastern parliament put off the vote yet again. A majority of lawmakers issued a statement of support for the government, saying hardliners had used force and threats to prevent a vote from taking place.UN envoy Martin Kobler urged the parliament's leadership to "take immediate steps to formalise this endorsement". REUTERS SHS NS2341 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0329-608989.Xml , . , 12 2000 . , - . , . , . , . Nairobi (AFP) - Five African leaders on Thursday launched a two-day visit to Burundi to push for talks on ending the fragile nation's deep political crisis. The visit comes just two days after a trip by UN chief Ban Ki-moon as part of growing international efforts to bring an end to 10 months of deadly turmoil, which has seen more than 400 people killed and forced over 240,000 to flee the central African country. The African Union agreed to send the delegation -- which is headed by South African President Jacob Zuma and includes the leaders of Ethiopia, Gabon, Mauritania and Senegal -- during its January summit when Burundi successfully faced down a plan to deploy 5,000 peacekeepers to the country. They were due to meet leaders from across Burundi's political spectrum later Thursday before holding talks with civil society and religious leaders. A Burundi analyst underlined however that most prominent opposition and religious figures opposed to President Pierre Nkurunziza's controversial re-election for a third term had fled to exile following a crackdown. The visiting team will then hold talks with Nkurunziza on Thursday evening before addressing a press conference on Friday. Ban, on his first visit since the crisis erupted, met Nkurunziza on Tuesday and said he had won a guarantee that "inclusive dialogue" would begin between the government and its opponents. But the main umbrella opposition group CNARED, whose leaders are in exile, dismissed it as a "false opening", saying Nkurunziza did not want real negotiations. The opposition was angered by the president's apparent attempt to choose who should participate when he said the dialogue would include all Burundians "except those engaged in acts of destabilisation". Previous talks have failed, with the Burundian government refusing to sit down with some of its opponents who it accuses of involvement in a failed coup last May and months of violence including grenade and rocket attacks. Story continues "The heads of state are coming to consult with the government and other stakeholders on the revival of an inclusive dialogue," said an African diplomat in Bujumbura who did not want to be named. "The issue of deploying a peacekeeping force in Burundi is not on the agenda," the diplomat added. - Slim hope of breakthrough - CNARED chairman Leonard Nyangoma welcomed the delegation's visit but held out little hope of a breakthrough. "Nkurunziza is a diehard and without strong pressure and real sanctions he will never agree to the meaningful negotiations that are the only way out of this crisis," he told AFP by telephone. Burundi's upheaval was triggered by Nkurunziza's decision last April to run for a third term which he won in an election in July. Following protests and a brutal government crackdown, violent attacks have become routine, raising fears of a return to the civil war fought between 1993-2006 in which around 300,000 people died. On Thursday advocacy group Human Rights Watch warned that "government forces are killing, abducting, torturing and arbitrarily arresting scores of people at an alarming rate." It called for the deployment of "a strong UN political mission with a substantial international police component". Even Ban's visit was greeted by an uptick in grenade attacks with at least four people killed just ahead of his arrival on Tuesday and at least a dozen injured. A Burundi government spokesman said the AU delegation's visit would "confirm that there is peace and security in Burundi" and that peacekeepers were not necessary. However, Zuma arrived Thursday with a personal guard of more than 50 soldiers and at least six machine gun-mounted army trucks for his 10-minute drive to the city centre. Zimbabwes Bubye Valley Conservancy is home to more than 500 lions, and apparently thats 200 too many. The death of Cecil the lion at the hands of an American hunter last yearand the outrage that followedhas led to a drop in trophy hunting. Bubye was created and sustained in part by trophy hunting. Now that the hunters arent coming, the lion population has grown larger than the ecosystem can support, according to park officials. They call it the Cecil effect. I wish we could give about 200 of our lions away to ease the overpopulation. Blondie Leathem, general manager of Bubye Valley Conservancy, told The Telegraph. Leathem said they had originally considered killing 200 lions but ultimately rejected the plan. Now they are looking for a new home for the lions. RELATED: The Worlds Largest Hunting Club Is Auctioning the Chance to Kill Hundreds of Animals If anyone knows of a suitable habitat for them where they will not land up in human conflict, or in wildlife areas where they will not be beaten up because of existing prides, please let us know and help us raise the money to move them, Leathem said. But animal rights groups and conservationists argue the park should have never relied on trophy hunters to keep lion numbers under control in the first place. The idea that lions need humans to control their numbers is arrogance, PETA Director Mimi Bekhechi told The Huffington Post. Nature always has maintained animal populations by gauging the amount of food available, not by considering the number of hunters. Finding a new home for lions free of human conflict or hunters is no picnic. According to a new study, 69 percent of male lions in Zimbabwes Hwange National ParkCecil was lured out of that park to his demisedie of causes unrelated to age. The park is off-limits to hunting, but there arent fences. Male lions often roam outside the 5,000-square-mile park in search of new territory, putting them at risk. Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark and Oxford University found the biggest risk to wandering lions are trophy hunters and local farmers protecting their herds. Story continues Julia Barthold, the studys lead author and a postdoc at the Max-Planck Odense Center on the Biodemography of Aging in Denmark, said the opposite occurred in a 2,000-square-mile area of Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, where lions have almost no contact with humans. In Serengeti, only six out of 100 male lions are likely to die from age-independent causes, meaning only very few die at the hands of humans, Barthold said in a statement. About 20,000 lions are left roaming Africa today, down from an estimated 200,000 at the beginning of the 20th century. Scientists say the population could be halved in 20 years thanks to habitat loss, poaching, and other threats. The rapid decline, along with public outcry following Cecils death, has pushed the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to strengthen conservation efforts and crack down on trophy hunting. How trophy hunting impacts the population as a whole is a key research question for lion conservation, Barthold said. Our mortality estimates can be used to improve lion population management. Related stories on TakePart: South African Artist Depicts Toll of Big-Game Trophy Hunting Scientists Find a Lost Tribe of Lions in Ethiopia Zimbabwes Most Famous Lion Is Now a Hunting Trophy Original article from TakePart Lisbon (AFP) - Angolan Vice President Manuel Vicente has been directly implicated in a corruption probe in Portugal which triggered the arrest of a magistrate this week, a source told AFP Thursday. Public prosecutor Orlando Figueira, 54, is suspected of receiving a bribe of at least 200,000 euros ($220,000) in return for shelving an investigation into the Angolan politician, according to media reports. A source close to the case confirmed a report by Portuguese news agency Lusa that Vicente is suspected of corruption over the affair. The Portuguese prosecutor's office declined to comment on the report. On Tuesday officials announced the arrest of Figueira, who has been on unpaid leave since September 2012, in an investigation into corruption and money laundering. The prosecutor's office, while not naming Figueira, said they had detained someone suspected of having "received compensation .. to act in favour of the suspect in a probe which he was leading." The probe, shelved in January 2012, centred on the origin of funds with which Vicente, then the head of Angola's public oil company Sonangol, had bought a luxury apartment in a Lisbon suburb. According to Portuguese media reports, Figueira received at least 200,000 euros from a subsidiary of Sonangol to bury the affair. The Angolan politician's Portuguese lawyer, Paulo Amaral Blanco, has been put under formal investigation for corruption, and his office was raided. "We have nothing to do with what prosecutor Orlando Figueira might have done, and we hope he will clarify everything," the lawyer told the daily Correio da Manha. In November 2013, Portuguese prosecutors shelved another probe for tax fraud and money laundering involving Vicente. A year earlier Portuguese press revelations about probes targeting senior Angolan regime officials sparked a chill in diplomatic ties between Portugal and Angola, one of its former African colonies. Texas is the scene of a disturbing trend. On Friday, Veronica Banks Cano, a transgender woman, was found dead in a San Antonio motel bathtub, making her the third known trans person of color to die or go missing in the state this year. Authorities said Cano's body was found in a partially full tub, fully clothed and with no apparent signs of trauma, local television station KABB reported. Read more: This Powerful Artwork Will Show You What It Means to Be Transgender and Resilient On Jan. 22, 43-year-old Latina woman Monica Loera became the at her home in Austin. Local media outlets used male pronouns to refer to Loera in their initial reporting. Days earlier, Dallas resident Nino Jackson, a 26-year-old trans black man disappeared; about t authorities found his body in a lake. A spokesperson for the Rowlett Police Department said police believe it was a suicide. A gathering during this past June's Trans Day of Action 2015 marked the deadliest year on record for the trans community, with 21 deaths, according to Advocate. Most of the deaths were trans women of color. "We need to be able to have people know who transgender individuals are," activist Lou Weaver told KEYE following Loera's death. "If they could get to know who Monica or myself are, that would demystify the transgender myth and decrease violence." Cano's friends and family have launched a GoFundMe campaign to cover the cost of her funeral. By Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday said he felt "almost obliged" to say sorry for verbal attacks on Mexico in the U.S. presidential campaign, in which Republican front-runner Donald Trump has labeled Mexican migrants rapists and drug runners. Speaking alongside Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto during a visit to Mexico City, Biden never mentioned Trump, who nonetheless loomed large over the proceedings. "There's been a lot of damaging and incredibly inaccurate rhetoric, and I would argue, I feel almost obliged to apologize for some of what my political colleagues have said ... about Mexico, about the Mexican people," said Biden, a Democrat. Property mogul Trump, who has built up a big early lead in the race to become Republican nominee, has vowed to make Mexico pay for a wall to seal off the United States from its southern neighbor, prompting widespread criticism in both countries. "I just want you to know, Mr. President, that the most heated rhetoric you've heard from some of the competitors for the nomination for president, is not who we are as the American people .... It's the exact opposite," Biden added. Without naming Trump, Pena Nieto also weighed in, saying "building walls is just isolating oneself." The 2016 U.S. presidential election is on Nov. 8. At an event earlier on Thursday, Biden had expressed concern about what the election race said about views held in the United States, calling some of the Republican campaign language "dangerous, damaging and incredibly ill-advised." "The message that is coming out of the United States as a consequence of the presidential campaign, about American attitudes toward Mexicans and Mexico generally, (and) the entire hemisphere and our place in the world, is disturbing," he said. Trump, 69, has vowed to deport the 11 million migrants living illegally in the United States, a position shared by his younger Republican rival, the Texas Senator Ted Cruz. For more on the 2016 presidential race, see the Reuters blog, "Tales from the Trail" (http://blogs.reuters.com/talesfromthetrail/). (Reporting by Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein; Editing by Richard Chang) Whichever side you happen to land on in the ongoing feud between Apple and the FBI, youre almost certainly aware of the precedent that would be set if Apple did build software to unlock the phone of the San Bernardino shooter. It could shape the future of digital privacy, but even that might undersell the importance of this case. DONT MISS: Watch Tim Cooks full 30-minute interview on Apples war with the FBI In a piece for The New York Times, Farhad Manjoo reminds us that the devices we depend on today only collect a fraction of the data that future technology will require, especially when the Internet of Things becomes commonplace. Consider all the technologies we think we want not just better and more useful phones, but cars that drive themselves, smart assistants you control through voice or household appliances that you can monitor and manage from afar, Manjoo writes. Many will have cameras, microphones and sensors gathering more data, and an ever more sophisticated mining effort to make sense of it all. Everyday devices will be recording and analyzing your every utterance and action. If the government can have access to this locked smartphone, why wouldnt it be able to make the same argument for a self-driving car, a Kinect, Amazons Echo or even your refrigerator? Everything will be up for grabs. The FBI has argued that the legal ramifications of unlocking a single phone are relatively narrow. The bureau says that it just wants the chance to try and guess the suspects password without risk of destroying any evidence. It sounds perfectly reasonable, but as Manjoo notes, there is a long history of legal cases involving old technology that are still used as precedent for modern occurrences. Civil liberties analysts simply dont have faith that the FBI would keep it word and refrain from using this case to affect future decisions if the FBI were to win. By and large you get very little constitutional protection for data housed by third parties, and thats mostly a result of a Supreme Court case from the 1960s before email, before search engines, before social networks, Chris Soghoian, the principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Times. Story continues If we want to retain any semblance of privacy in the connected future, Soghoian believes we need legal assurances that the FBI wont be able to conscript third-party companies to spy on us. We cant change the course of the future were already on a path we chose long ago. Thats why this case between Apple and the FBI is so important. Related stories The petty iPhone problem that's driving me insane Leaked schematics show us what Apple's next new iPhone will look like Apple is making an unhackable iPhone and we have the FBI to thank More from BGR: Your dream of a 256GB iPhone 7 might come true This article was originally published on BGR.com Washington (AFP) - Apple urged a federal court to toss out an order that the company help the FBI hack into an iPhone used by a shooter in the San Bernardino attack, arguing that it was a "dangerous power." The legal response was fired in what promised to be a landmark case pitting national security against personal privacy. "Last week's judicial order may have prompted among the most high-profile battles we have seen over device encryption," Internet rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation said on its website. "But this is not the first time, nor is it likely to be the last time, we are called to defend access to tools that can ensure privacy and security." Apple chief Tim Cook has called for the stand-off to be resolved by legislation in US Congress, not in the courts. Cook equated what the FBI was demanding as a software version of "cancer." Apple said in a court filing that the government overstepped its legal authority in trying to force the company to facilitate access to a locked iPhone used by one of the shooters the San Bernardino attack last year, which left 14 dead. "No court has ever authorized what the government now seeks, no law supports such unlimited and sweeping use of the judicial process, and the constitution forbids it," Apple's lawyers wrote in the motion filed in California federal court. The Apple response is the latest in the fight over how far the company must go in helping US law enforcement access a device with data locked by encryption that only the user can normally access. "The government demands that Apple create a back door to defeat the encryption on the iPhone, making its users' most confidential and personal information vulnerable to hackers, identity thieves, hostile foreign agents and unwarranted government surveillance," Apple's brief said. - 'Government OS' - Apple executives, who briefed reporters on condition they not be quoted directly, said the order would effectively require the creation of a "government operating system" which could be used repeatedly by FBI forensics experts and potentially leak out to others. Story continues The iPhone maker is arguing that the government effort violates Apple's constitutional rights to free speech, by forcing it to write software that undermines its values. Apple's brief also said the legal showdown came despite a pledge by government officials not to seek legislation for easier access to encrypted devices. "This case is about the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking through the courts a dangerous power that Congress and the American people have withheld: the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe," Apple said in the filing. Apple's tech rivals closed ranks, with Microsoft and Google announcing they would file briefs in court supporting the iPhone maker. Facebook meanwhile endorsed a collective letter supporting Apple. Microsoft Vice President Brad Smith, appearing in Congress on Thursday, said, "We do not believe that courts should seek to resolve issues of 21st-century technology with law that was written in the era of the adding machine." The Apple filing comes one week after the US Justice Department filed a motion to compel Apple to provide "reasonable technical assistance" sought by the FBI. The government filing, in sharp contrast to that of Apple, said the order would not require a "back door to every iPhone." The Justice Department said Apple's public statements suggest it is basing its defense on "marketing concerns" and that the company was not being asked to hand over any sensitive software that could be used by hackers. Earlier Thursday, FBI Director James Comey reiterated his position at a hearing on Capitol Hill. "The San Bernardino litigation is not about us trying to send a message or establish some kind of precedent," Comey told lawmakers at the House Intelligence Committee. "It's about trying to be competent in investigating something that is an active investigation." The phone at the center of the standoff belonged to Syed Farook, a US citizen, who carried out the attack on an office party in San Bernardino along with his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik. The attack left 14 dead. - Lawmakers eye 'solution' - Separately, US lawmakers moved to break the deadlock that has divided the public by calling a hearing with the FBI and Apple in an effort to craft "a solution." The hearing called by the House Judiciary Committee for next Tuesday will be the first in Congress since Apple said it would challenge the court order. A statement said scheduled witnesses include FBI chief Comey and Bruce Sewell, Apple's senior vice president and general counsel. Also scheduled to appear are Susan Landau, a cybersecurity expert at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Cyrus Vance Jr., the New York district attorney who has criticized Apple for locking its iPhones without allowing law enforcement access. By Dustin Volz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Apple chief Tim Cook on Wednesday said that complying with a court order to help the FBI break into an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters would be "bad for America," and set a legal precedent that would offend many Americans. "Some things are hard, and some things are right, and some things are both - this is one of those things," Cook told ABC News in his first interview since the court order came down last week. He added that the government was asking for "the software equivalent of cancer" and that he planned to talk to President Barack Obama directly about getting the dispute "on a better path." Later asked whether Apple would be prepared to fight this case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Cook said, We would be prepared to take this issue all the way. Apple's chief executive officer also said there should have been more dialogue with the Obama administration before the U.S. Justice Department's decision to seek relief from a federal magistrate judge in California. "We found out about the filing from the press, and I don't think that's the way the railroad should be run, and I don't think that something so important to this country should be handled in this way," Cook said in an interview being aired on "ABC World News Tonight." Apple has publicly said it intends to fight the court order and has until Friday to respond. The iPhone in question was used by San Bernardino shooter Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife went on a shooting rampage in December that killed 14 and wounded 22. The Justice Department wants Apple to help access encrypted information stored on Farook's county-owned iPhone 5C by writing software that would disable its passcode protections to allow an infinite number of guesses without erasing the data on the device. Apple has said the request amounts to asking a company to hack its own device and would undermine digital security more broadly. "This would be bad for America," Cook told ABC. "It would also set a precedent that I think many people in America would be offended by and when you think about those, which are knowns, compared to something that might be there, I believe we are making the right choice." Some major tech companies have solidly sided with Apple while others have issued more muted statements on the importance of digital security. Verizon Communications Inc Chief Executive Lowell McAdam told Reuters Wednesday his company supports "the availability of strong encryption with no backdoors." The government has repeatedly insisted its request in the iPhone case does not amount to "backdoor" access. (Additional reporting by Malathi Nayak and Mari Saito in San Francisco) By Hugh Bronstein BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - An Argentine prosecutor who died last year just days after accusing then-President Cristina Fernandez of covering up Iran's alleged role in the bombing of a Jewish center was apparently murdered, an official investigating the case said on Thursday. Alberto Nisman was found shot dead in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires apartment 13 months ago. The case had been classified as a suicide, an idea Nisman's family and friends dismissed as absurd. Polls show most Argentines believe his death was a homicide. "The evidence up to this point supports the hypothesis that Alberto Nisman was the victim of the crime of homicide," Ricardo Saenz, district attorney for the Buenos Aires Criminal Appeals Court, wrote in a recommendation that the case be handed over to federal authorities and pursued as a murder investigation. It was the first time that a judicial authority had classified the death as a homicide. The move came amid a raft of changes made since President Mauricio Macri was inaugurated in December. Macri pledged during the campaign to get to the bottom of the Nisman mystery and he promised justice when he met last month with Nisman's daughters, who are plaintiffs in the case. When Nisman's body was discovered he was less than a day from a scheduled appearance in Congress to outline his accusation that Fernandez tried to cover up Iran's alleged role in the 1994 truck bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center. Found on the floor, a pistol by his side and a bullet in his head, Nisman had been leading Argentina's probe into the bombing. Fernandez said Nisman had been tricked by a former Argentine spy chief and his cronies into fabricating baseless allegations to destabilize her government. She theorized that the ex-intelligence officer then needed to silence him. "They used him while he was alive and then they needed him dead," she said several days after Nisman died. The attack on the AMIA center in Buenos Aires killed 85 people. Iran has repeatedly denied any link to the bombing and an Argentine judge tossed out Nisman's accusations against Fernandez as baseless. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Paul Simao) US and European stocks rebounded strongly Thursday, shrugging off a plunge in Chinese markets as investors awaited a key meeting of finance ministers to discuss strains in the global economy. London's benchmark FTSE 100 index led the way, rising 2.5 percent to close at 6,012.81 points while in the eurozone Frankfurt's DAX 30 added 1.7 percent and the Paris CAC 40 advanced 2.2 percent. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 advanced 1.1 percent and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.3 percent. "I think we're going through a counter-trend rally right now, that the market got oversold recently," said Sam Stovall of S&P Global Market Intelligence. "Investors believe we're possibly in a bear-market rally before we go down and retest low levels again." The gains came as finance chiefs of the G20 major economies prepared to meet in Shanghai on sluggish global growth on Friday and Saturday. They gather amid warnings of the need for concerted action to boost demand and avoid a world recession. Officials of the top economies reject that dire forecast, but have agreed that fiscal measures to stimulate activity is needed. The International Monetary Fund warned Wednesday that the world economy is "highly vulnerable" and called for new mechanisms to protect the most vulnerable countries. Worries surfaced earlier Thursday over China's lack of clarity about its response to slumping growth. Shanghai shares sank 6.4 percent and in Shenzhen the losses were 7.3 percent. "The economy hasn't shown signs of stabilization and policies are still coming out one after another," Central China Securities analyst Zhang Gang told AFP. Meanwhile oil prices, a major driver of recent market volatility, surged in late trade Thursday on comments from Venezuela that major producers would meet in March to discuss production limits. In New York the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in April rose 92 cents to $33.07 a barrel, while in London, Brent North Sea crude for April closed at $35.29 a barrel, up 88 cents. Story continues - G20 awaits - The sharp decline came ahead of a meeting of finance ministers from the G20 group of leading industrialized nations in Shanghai, with China's slowing growth expected to loom over the discussions. US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has said G20 finance ministers will not deliver an "emergency response" to the market turmoil this week, as the world was not in crisis mode just yet. But the gloomy outlook for the global economy has added to pressure on both governments and central bankers to unleash fresh monetary firepower to help stimulate growth and reassure investors. Cooling growth in China, a key importer of raw materials, has sent commodity and energy prices spinning and saw global stocks notch one of their worst starts to a year in living memory. Falling commodity prices have hurt exporters like Australia, whose currency slumped Thursday on news that companies are planning to invest their least in nine years. - Key figures at 2200 GMT - New York - Dow: UP 1.3 percent at 16,697.29 points (close) New York - S&P 500: UP 1.1 percent at 1,951.70 (close) New York - Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.9 percent at 4,582.21 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 2.5 percent at 6,012.81 points (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 1.7 percent at 9,331.48 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 2.2 percent at 4,248.45 (close) EURO STOXX 50: UP 2.0 percent at 2,887.43 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.4 percent at 16,140.3 points (close) Shanghai - composite: DOWN 6.4 percent at 2,741.3 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 1.6 percent at 18,888.8 (close) Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1023 from $1.1008 on Wednesday Dollar/yen: UP at 112.95 yen from 112.15 yen on Wednesday Carlos, you might say. Carlos, me and my man are gonna break up. Carlos King listens attentively. He mmhms. Hes there for you. Then he says: So, you wanna do Thursday at 1 p.m.? You wanna do it at Trump Towers? You wanna talk to one of your girlfriends about it now? Then, he rushes into action to make it happen. King is a 36-year-old star reality-television producer whos made his name by owning the seductive and salacious market of Atlanta, Georgia. King was the executive producer of the wildly popular, positively cult-classic Real Housewives of Atlanta which has regularly grabbed more than 3 million viewers over its seven seasons so far. Now Housewives continues on without him; hes working on two new brainchildren: Selling It in the ATL, following the lives of female real estate agents trying to outcompete one another to hawk their wares, and The Next 15, which invites erstwhile reality television stars to try for another shot. Depending on your palate, The Next 15 is either as delicious as reality programming gets, or as distasteful. Either way, it represents a new trend that King refers to as breaking the fourth wall producers have decided the new frontier for reality is to put themselves on screen. King is on camera, as a transparent producer for some 20 or 30 percent of every show, he tells me. He was partially inspired by the Lifetime sleeper hit Unreal a scripted show that looks behind the scenes of a Bachelor-esque series. Youve gotta admire the artistry: Like a cinematographer, King has identified another camera angle, another way to engineer drama. I was going to be the Black Barbara Walters with a penis. Carlos King King has also tapped into a gold mine in the business: serialization. Real Housewives, says Dan Jackson, executive producer of Confessions: Animal Hoarding, stands out because it manifested in region after region Beverly Hills, New York, New Jersey each time addicting a new audience and carrying its old fans on as well. King took it a step further in Atlanta, branding individual characters and spinning off five separate shows. Story continues I meet King, fresh off a flight from L.A., in the lobby of his apartment building. He apologizes for arriving in workout attire, but he looks better than most do all dressed up fit and short, with a winning smile and a chill-BFF sort of charm. He is not forthcoming, though Id hoped I might be his personal confessional camera. Hes prone to one-line answers and a quick mmhm, as if that settles any matter. Then the personal stuff surfaces: Hes gay, with a partner whos very private; he grew up on the east side of Detroit, one of 10 kids and the son of a Ford employee and a housewife. While his siblings played sports, he watched TV: Teen Summit on BET, Roseanne, The Cosby Show. He was 13 when The Real World hit screens and hit his imagination, hard. Originally, King didnt much fancy making a home in Atlanta. A college dropout, he ditched his broadcast journalism studies in New York (I was going to be the Black Barbara Walters with a penis) in favor of internships at BET, MTV, The View and more. He worked two seasons on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, pulling double duty on the Atlanta seasons as well, before he moved to the ATL full-time. He figured it would be just a few months. Years later, hes grateful this is a city of Black affluence, he tells me, like a Black Hollywood. The first months on the job dont sound glamorous, though. King took notes during interviews, tracked story lines. In some cases, the plotline self-engineered like on the fourth day of filming, when the producers hit gold on a moment any RHOA fan will remember well. Sheree Whitfield, one of the housewives, was throwing herself a birthday party and fellow cast member NeNe Leakes wasnt on the list. Television magic ensued. I was like, WHAT is happening? This is draaaama, King says, throwing up his hands in faux distress. But thats when I knew this is gonna be hot. He really worked his way up, Whitfield tells me of King; theyre working together now on Selling It. Their odd twosome is a case study in just how hard it is to avoid draaaama in this business, even behind the camera. Tabloids reported that King and Whitfield had a falling-out over Selling It, claiming that Whitfield accused King of stealing her idea. Both say breezily that nothing of the sort went down. Oh, they love to hate me, King tells me of the ladies he manages, adding later that hes like the cool mom authoritative, beloved. Whitfield doesnt think its all on the women. Carlos King is drama, she laughs. Amid all the surface theatrics and hysterics, King also plugs into a funny debate that could occupy postmodern cultural critics for decades to come: Are shows like his feminist? Stay with us and stay with King, as he penned an open letter arguing just this on BET two years ago: Despite the shows title, it depicts a bevy of women who are hungry, ambitious and eager to make it, husbands aside. As for his drive: Hed like to emerge from the vortex of endless wall-breaking and spinoffs, toward scripted TV. A move thats almost unheard of, says Jackson. For now, King is booked solid, working, he says, 20-hour days, six days a week. He consults for people whod like to start their own reality shows and has self-funded the new consulting biz. King seems motivated by a need for hard-nosed success wins sharing some desires with the women he directs. They want to be known, he says. They want something else, more than just being in aisle five at Publix. They want notoriety. Related Articles JAKARTA (Reuters) - Australia issued a warning on Thursday about possible militant attacks being planned in Indonesia, only days after a similar warning for the Malaysian capital, another sign of rising concern over militancy in Southeast Asia. "Recent indications suggest that terrorists may be in the advanced stages of preparing attacks in Indonesia," said the travel advisory on an Australian government website. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not respond to a request for more details. Australia issued a similar statement on Sunday about possible attacks in and around Kuala Lumpur. The British, New Zealand, Canadian and other diplomatic missions in Malaysia soon followed with notices advising against travel to coastal islands in the eastern state of Sabah. Malaysia has been on high alert since a bomb and gun attack in Indonesia's capital in January in which eight people were killed, including four attackers. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State militant group. Australia has consistently placed Indonesia in the second-lowest of four warning categories, recommending that travelers "exercise a high degree of caution". Indonesia has been cracking down on suspected militants since the attack in Jakarta last month. However, a spokesman for the Indonesian national police, contacted after the Australian warning was issued, said there were no indications of an imminent attack. "We're working continuously with relevant institutions and with the public to maintain security," said Agus Rianto. (Reporting by Roni Bintang and Kanupriya Kapoor; Additional reporting by Jarni Blakkarly in SYDNEY; Editing by Paul Tait) SYDNEY (Reuters) - Cabcharge Australia Ltd, the country's monopoly taxi booking company, said on Friday that first half net profit slumped by more than a fifth as it lost business to ride sharing service Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL]. Net profit was A$24.4 million for the six months to Dec. 31, from A$31.2 million in the previous first half. Revenue fell 11.8 percent to A$88.6 million, which the company said was the result of new price controls limiting the commission it is allowed to charge. Overall taxi fares grew just 0.3 percent to A$567 million. For years a favorite with analysts because 97 percent of Australian taxis use its payment system, Cabcharge has been under pressure since Uber joined the market in 2012, quickly building up a reputed one million passengers in a country with a population of 24 million. Initial efforts by the Sydney-listed incumbent to protect revenue from the software-based Californian disruptor have failed. A campaign to make Uber illegal was unsuccessful and the antitrust regulator blocked Cabcharge's own attempt at introducing a ride-booking app, saying it would be unfair on regional cab companies. Adding to the rush of fresh competition on Cabcharge, a second locally-based ride sharing application, goCatch, says it has amassed 35,000 drivers. Some state governments have meanwhile forced Cabcharge to cut the fees it is allowed to charge drivers for its services. "Despite the regulatory changes, Cabcharge continues to be a robust and profitable business with both fleet size and payment turnover up during the half," the company said in a statement. Cabcharge shares have dived nearly 50 percent in the past year, while the broader market has fallen 18 percent, amid concerns about its ability to return to profit growth. (Reporting by Byron Kaye) DUBAI (Reuters) - A Bahraini court sentenced four people to five years in prison for plotting to receive explosives and weapons training to carry out attacks in the Gulf Arab kingdom, the public prosecutor said in a statement on Thursday. According to the statement carried by state news agency BNA, several wanted Bahrainis have fled to Iraq and are attempting to lure other nationals to militant training camps. Two of the suspects were convicted of facilitating the travel plans of the other two for the purpose of "carrying out terrorist crimes inside the kingdom of Bahrain", BNA said. Bahrain has reported a growing number of attacks using home-made explosives in the last two years and has accused Iran and its allies in the Shi'ite Lebanese militant group Hezbollah of sponsoring the plots. The country, which hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has experienced sporadic unrest since mass protests in 2011 led by majority Shi'ite Muslims demanding more rights and reforms and a bigger role in the Sunni-led government. That uprising was put down with military help from Shi'ite Iran's Sunni arch-foe Saudi Arabia, to which Bahrain is linked by a 25 km (15 mile) causeway. Bahrain says the opposition has a sectarian agenda, which Shi'ite groups deny. (Reporting by Noah Browning and Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by Catherine Evans) Washington (AFP) - Warring sides dug in Thursday in an epic election year battle between President Barack Obama and his Republican rivals over a tie-breaking vacancy on the US Supreme Court. Much is at stake in the struggle over who will replace Antonin Scalia, the conservative justice who died unexpectedly February 13 -- and whose successor could potentially tip the court towards a liberal majority. Republicans in the Senate, which must approve any nomination, say it should be left to the next president to choose the new justice, while Obama says it is his constitutional duty to act now. On Thursday, Democratic senators dramatized the conflict by gathering on the steps of the Supreme Court behind a sign telling Senate Republicans: "Do Your Job." Under the US Constitution, the president nominates judges for the lifetime position at the nation's highest court, subject to Senate approval. Obama says he intends to put forward a candidate with impeccable legal credentials and that the Senate should perform its constitutional role of advice and consent, and not let politics stand in the way. But Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell says Republicans on the Judiciary Committee will not even meet with any appointee announced by the president, much less hold confirmation hearings or send the nomination to the Senate floor for a vote. In a timid sign of progress, the White House said Thursday McConnell had agreed, along with the Democratic leader in the Senate and leaders of its judiciary committee, to join Obama in the Oval Office next Tuesday for consultations on the process. The Supreme Court's decisions shape American life to a large extent, and with Scalia gone the court is now evenly divided 4-4 between conservatives and progressives. Conservatives fear Obama might name another liberal to tip the balance of what had been a conservative court when Scalia sat on the bench. - Lame duck president - The main Republican candidates for the presidency -- Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio -- contend that tradition holds that an outgoing president abstains from naming Supreme Court nominees in an election year, like this one. Story continues There have been exceptions, however, and in any event election year vacancies on the high court have been rare events. Rubio has even called Obama a lame duck president, the derogatory term for an outgoing chief executive can do little but manage the day to day running of government. "The notion that President Obama is a lame duck president is simply incorrect," said Melissa Hart, a law professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "A lame duck president is a president whose successor has been elected. President Obama's successor will not be elected for nine more months," she said. What can Obama do to dodge the Senate blockade? First, he can hope for a crack in the "no to any candidate" front, which does not sit well with moderates in the Republican Party or with voters. Edward Fallone, a law professor at Marquette University in Wisconsin, argues that the Senate is overstepping its constitutional authority by refusing to consider Obama's nomination. "The Senate is in fact asserting a pre-nomination power when the Constitution only provides them a post-nomination power," Fallone said. In an editorial Thursday, the liberal New York Times accused McConnell of having "lost touch with reality and the Constitution." "The Republican spin machine is working overtime to rationalize this behavior. Don't be fooled. It is panic masquerading as strength," it said. - A Republican candidate? - Obama will probably pick as justice someone so widely respected that it will be difficult for the Senate to snub him or her. "I am going to present somebody who indisputably is qualified for the seat and any fair minded person, even somebody who disagreed with my politics would say would serve with honor and integrity on the court," Obama said Wednesday. Senate Minority leader Harry Reid had suggested Brian Sandoval, a moderate Republican who is now governor of Nevada -- but Sandoval himself said Thursday he was not interested in the position. The choice of a Republican would have made it near-impossible for the Senate to justify obstructing Obama's pick. But Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, urged Obama Thursday to pick a "true progressive." Names have been circulating for days, including that of attorney general Loretta Lynch, the first black woman to hold that job, and Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security. Other less well known figures also have been mentioned, such as Sri Srinivasan, a highly respected appellate judge of Indian origin. Jeffrey Toobin, who wrote a book about the Supreme Court called "The Nine," calls Srinavasan "the Supreme Court nominee-in-waiting." He has spent part of his career in private practice, and most of the rest in the office of the US Solicitor General, arguing cases before the Supreme Court for both Republican and Democratic administrations. The Senate voted 97-0 to confirm his nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit in 2013. Apple (AAPL) and the U.S. government have been sniping at each other in a series of carefully released court filings and public statements over how far the tech giant should go to help law enforcement catch bad guys. But there seems to be a far bigger battle going on than either side has acknowledged. In California, the FBI is trying to use legal motions and public pressure to force Apple to write new software that would allow the feds to crack into an iPhone used by one of the shooters in last Decembers mass murder in San Bernardino. In New York, a different set of prosecutors has been seeking a similar outcome from Apple in a case involving the iPhone used by a convicted drug dealer. Intriguing details of both cases have slipped out, but a broader examination of these legal maneuvers suggests that a climactic legal battle has been brewing behind the scenes, with consequences that could be momentous. Apple and the Justice Department also seem to deeply distrust each other, with more acrimony in closed courtrooms than has been evident in public statements. Newly unsealed court documents, for instance, show that Apple has been ordered to help unlock encrypted devices at least 12 times since last September, including the New York and San Bernardino cases. In each case, Apple objected to the order, though the government says Apple hasnt formally appealed those orders; instead, Apple has simply deferred complying with the orders, according to one government document, which suggests further legal action may be coming. The government also accuses Apple of privately agreeing to help unlock a device in one of those cases, then changing its mind once the agreement became public. The whole thorny question of Apple and other smartphone makers helping the government unlock encrypted devices has exploded into view following the San Bernardino shooting on Dec. 2, 2015, which killed 14 and injured many more. One of the two shooters in that case, Syed Rizwan Farook, used an iPhone 5C that the government cant crack without Apples help. Earlier this month, a federal magistrate ordered Apple to write code that would make it easier for the FBI to access the phone. That was one order Apple formally appealed, setting up a legal showdown that has split loyalties among the public and even led Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to call for a boycott of Apple products until it agrees to help the FBI. Before San Bernardino When it first became public, the San Bernardino case seemed like the first of its kind. But newly unsealed documents from the unrelated New York case now reveal that the San Bernardino case is just one of several winding through the courts, with many of them probably further along than the San Bernardino case. While smartphones arent new, encrypted operating systems that authorities cant crack into without the manufacturers help are. In Apples case, iOS 8, released in 2014, was the first system to raise encryption to that level, and court cases seeking to clarify Apples obligations are just now becoming public. Google (GOOGL) enacted a similar standard on its Android 6.0 mobile software, which debuted last year. It stands to reason Google faces similar legal challenges, or soon will. In a New York case that began last October, the Justice Department ordered Apple to unlock an iPhone 4S belonging to a man named who Jun Feng who was convicted of a narcotics charge involving crystal methamphetamine. Even though the suspect pled guilty, both Apple and the government agreed to continue the case. The feds still want information that might be stored on the phone because it could implicate others in league with Feng. Apple wants a ruling in the case because it is capable of repetition, as an Apple lawyer wrote in a court filingmeaning the issue is likely to surface again in other cases. The San Bernardino case may be one example of repetition, with the other cases working through courts in New York, Illinois, California, Massachusetts and Ohio. Most of the other cases remain sealed, so its not clear what the status or circumstances of each might be. What is clear is that the New York case from last October is closer to an outcome than the San Bernardino case, since the judge has already heard arguments from both sides and may soon issue a ruling. The issue has been fully briefed and argued, Marc Zwillinger, an attorney representing Apple, wrote in a letter to the judge dated Feb. 12. The court is already in a position to render a decision. Doing so would be more efficient than starting the debate anew in another court. Apple and the government have been dickering over the complex question of whether Apple can write special software to help unlock one phone at a time, then essentially throw away the program, or whether that would create a kind of skeleton key that might end up universally available to both good guys and bad guys. This discussion probably went on in private conversations between the two sides long before anybody filed a motion in court. In the San Bernardino case, for instance, the FBI obtained Farooks iPhone on Dec. 3, during a search of his black Lexus IS300, and presumably tried to get into it right away. But the government didnt file a motion seeking to compel Apples assistance until Feb. 16, 2016, roughly two and a half months later. Neither side has described discussions leading up to that filing, but court documents give a clue. The governments request repeatedly insists that Apple has the means to access the SUBJECT DEVICE only (caps used in the original), as if prosecutors were acutely aware of Apples concern that any software created to unlock a single phone could leak out or be applied to other phones. The government even suggested that decrypting software could be installed at an Apple facility, allowing Apple to retain physical control of any software it created. Not about one phone Cook says its not that simpleand technology experts back him up. There could be all kinds of spy games going on, says Avivah Litan, a vice president at the Gartner Group. The government could give them a phone with something in it that could copy the program. I think Apple has probably been burned before and they dont trust the government. Its also possible Apple could be legally ordered, at some point, to turn over code it thought it could keep private. For starters, its tricky for the government to turn over evidence to a third party if it wants to use that evidence in court some day, since it would have to validate the chain of custody and prove the phone hadnt been tampered with. In a criminal case, Apples new code might have to undergo third-party testing to help prove any information taken from the phone is legitimate. The FBI has treated this as if you just put the phone inside some magic box, and out it comes, says Alan Butler, an attorney with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which supports Apple in the dispute. Thats not necessarily how evidence gathering works. Once you open the box, I dont see how you keep the code secret. The other cases in which federal prosecutors are seeking Apples help to unlock encrypted devices demonstrate that the San Bernardino case is hardly a one-off. In the New York case, prosecutors even filed some of the documents from the San Bernardino case, indicating coordination among prosecutors working on different cases. Apple is surely aware of all the federal cases it must deal with, giving the company a broader perspective on the governments overall strategy than would be evident from any single case. The San Bernardino phone may not even be all that important. Farook had two other phones, and law enforcement sources say terrorists such as Farookwho had pledged loyalty to Islamic Stateoften have at least two phones, one for personal use and the others for business, as it were. Farook destroyed the two other phones, along with a lot of computer equipment in his home, suggesting thats where the real evidence probably was. He left the iPhone 5C in question sitting in his car. Judges understand the immediacy of an issue, says Butler. Interestingly, the FBI didnt request anything like that in its motion to compel compliance. No one in court has argued its a matter of life and death tomorrow. Pulling all the known cases together makes it clearer that Apple, in taking a hard line on any one case, is actually battling several at once. Then there is the further complication of how foreign governments are likely to respond if the U.S. Justice Department succeeds in getting Apple to decrypt a phone. China, to mention just one, would dearly love to have the ability to crack into encrypted devices at will. If Apple created that capability, the Chinese communist government could even require Apple to provide it as a condition of selling phones in China, which would undoubtedly hit the companys bottom line. The U.S. government has some valid arguments, too. In the San Bernardino case, it argued that Apple is fighting the governments order to help unlock the Farook phone based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy. Apple insists its main concern is user privacy, but in a hearing in the New York case last October, Judge James Orenstein repeatedly questioned that argument, even suggesting that Apple was strategically fighting government orders to gain favorable publicity. Its an advertisement for buying our new phones, right, he queried Apples lawyer, because we wont be able to do this. If you just get our newer phone, we cant do this for the government. So yes, sell more phones. If that is indeed Apples strategy, the matter is now getting enough attention to test whether it works. Rick Newmans latest book is Liberty for All: A Manifesto for Reclaiming Financial and Political Freedom. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman . Soundly beaten by his youthful opponent for the Conservative Party leadership, David Davis put on a brave face as David Camerons win was confirmed at Londons Royal Academy of Arts in December 2005. Knowing his chance was gone, the 56-year-old generously predicted that his rival would be the man to bring the party back to power. As he came to terms with his humbling loss Cameron won almost 68 percent of party members votes it was hard to imagine this was the same David Davis whod been favored to win just two months earlier. But like others before him, Davis had fallen victim to the curse of the front-runner. Theres every chance an unexpected and deadly rival is waiting quietly in the shadows. When it comes to winning British elections, history confirms its the Conservatives the party of Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill who have long been top dogs in the U.K., with Conservative prime ministers ruling for 57 years of the 20th century. Currently in power under Cameron, theyll be in office until at least 2020. But taking control of the party itself has long proved unpredictable. Back in 1975, veteran Willie Whitelaw was the favorite only to lose to the underestimated Thatcher. When the party chose its next leader 15 years later, Michael Heseltine emerged as the front-runner, but suffered defeat to the lesser-known John Major. A decade ago, Davis was hailed as the likely winner, before being swept aside by a 39-year-old Cameron. Winners of party leadership votes tend to be the those no one thought of 18 months earlier, Channel 4 News political correspondent Michael Crick tells OZY. You wouldnt have predicted John Major 18 months beforehand. The longtime journalist blames the limited attention span of the modern media. We get tired of people very quickly, Crick adds, noting how in three-quarters of leadership elections its the freshest candidate and notably the one with the least amount of legislative experience who wins. Story continues One of the most dramatic twists of fate to be inflicted on a Conservative leadership front-runner occurred in May 1997. With Prime Minister Major facing inevitable defeat at the hands of Tony Blairs revitalized Labour, dashing Defense Secretary Michael Portillo was already identified as the man to lead the Conservatives back. Thatcher herself told the young politician: Great things are expected of you. You will not disappoint us. But Portillos ambitions went up in flames when he suffered a shock defeat on election night, losing his north London parliamentary seat to Labour. Not only had the Conservatives suffered their worst election defeat in more than 90 years the man expected to be the future party leader was their most high-profile casualty. While Portillos misfortune can be blamed on a historically disastrous night for the Conservatives, other forces have come into play when destroying the hopes of fellow former front-runners for the top job. Heseltine, for instance, wasnt forgiven by many colleagues for bringing down Thatcher after challenging her for the leadership in 1990. He who wields the knife never wears the crown, he later reflected. In the case of Davis, who had long been considered the favorite before the 2005 contest, many believe his chances began to evaporate after a poorly received speech at the partys annual conference that October. While deemed unproven by many, Cameron elected to Parliament only four years earlier stole the show at the same event. Its also been suggested that Davis was hurt by past clashes with senior party colleagues, who now smelled revenge. The subsequent contest eventually became a straight fight between the two men for more than six weeks, with Davis support falling away by the day. So, will the front-runners curse strike again? With Cameron having vowed to stand down before the 2020 election, the leadership has regularly been billed as a battle between his right-hand man, Chancellor George Osborne, and the colorful politician Boris Johnson, currently Londons mayor. Johnsons recent decision to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union directly at odds with Cameron and Osborne has been viewed by many as a bid to bolster support among Eurosceptic party members, whose votes could determine the future leadership result. But sticking to his theory about a fresh-faced outsider, Crick believes neither Johnson or Osborne will end up getting the job. Mike Smithson, who, as editor of U.K. website politicalbetting.com, closely follows betting trends surrounding the British Parliament, also predicts doom for Osborne: My reading is hell end up getting to the final two in the next leadership election, but hell lose the vote with party members. While Crick and Smithson seem confident the front-runners jinx will strike again, they cant identify the eventual likely winner. Johnson and Osbornes supporters will be hoping history doesnt repeat itself, should either man still be the favorite when Cameron departs. But judging by the Conservative Partys recent past, both politicians would be forgiven for anxiously looking over their shoulders: Theres every chance an unexpected and deadly rival is waiting quietly in the shadows. Related Articles Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has nabbed a new celebrity endorsement Diplo, the DJ and producer who has worked with everyone from Justin Bieber to Madonna to Usher, tweeted out his support for Sanders last week. if @berniesanders loses the democratic nomination I'm staying in india until 2018 We're not sure why he's threatening to stay in India until 2018 because the next presidential election would be in 2020, but losing Diplo would definitely be tough on all of us. Diplo isn't the first celeb musician to voice support for Sanders Killer Mike, Steve Aoki and the band Vampire Weekend have all come out in Sanders' favor, Billboard reports. Mining giant BHP Billiton's South32 spin-off said Thursday it would axe more than 1,750 jobs as part of sweeping cuts to deal with plunging commodity prices after a big half-year net loss. The company, which has assets including aluminium, coal, nickel, manganese, silver, lead and zinc after being hived off from BHP into an independent firm last year, posted losses of US$1.75 billion in the six months to December 31. "A reduction of approximately 1,750 employees and contractors is expected before the end of FY16, equivalent to seven percent of the group's employee and contractor headcount at the end of 2015," it said. "These initiatives will further optimise and stretch the performance of our high-quality operations as we seek to increase our competitiveness in the industry." More than 1,100 of the jobs will go from its alumina, metallurgical coal and manganese operations in Australia and at the Cerro Matoso nickel mine and smelter in Colombia. The company had previously announced it would cut more than 600 positions at its manganese joint venture in South Africa. Miners across the world have seen their bottom lines sag as prices for key metals tumble, with even the bigger players slashing costs to maintain profit levels. Earlier this week, BHP reported a first-half net loss of US$5.67 billion and cut dividends, while warning of a prolonged period of volatility. "The continuing optimisation of our high-quality operations and balance sheet has enabled us to reduce net debt by almost US$300 million, despite continued weakness in commodity markets," said South32 chief executive Graham Kerr. "The decisive action we are taking across our portfolio will strengthen short-term cash flow." South32 had earlier this month flagged US$1.7 billion in asset writedowns in its manganese, coal and alumina operations, which impacted the interim result. Underlying earnings, excluding non-cash impairments and the impact of foreign exchange, slumped 94 percent to US$26 million. Mexico City (AFP) - US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Mexico City for talks focused on deepening economic ties that already represent $1.5 billion in daily trade between the neighbors. Biden, who landed late Wednesday, will lead his country's delegation in the third round of the US-Mexico high-level economic dialogue on Thursday, with Finance Minister Luis Videgaray heading the Mexican side. Biden, who traveled with the secretaries of the interior, energy and commerce, will then hold talks with President Enrique Pena Nieto at his official Los Pinos residence. US officials said the meetings will be centered on economic issues, though security cooperation in the drug war is also likely to come up. "It's difficult to isolate economic issues from some issues of public security," a senior US administration official said on condition of anonymity. The meeting with Pena Nieto will "address a full range of bilateral" issues, the official said, but "the main motive and thrust of the trip is on the commercial issues." The economic dialogue, which US President Barack Obama and Pena Nieto launched in 2013, has sought to modernize border crossings to facilitate trade and deepen energy cooperation, among other things. In October, for example, the two governments launched a pilot program to conduct some joint customs inspections to drastically reduce waiting times for cargo. Mexico City (AFP) - Donald Trump's rhetoric about Mexico got a tongue-lashing Thursday, with US Vice President Joe Biden calling it "dangerous" and a Mexican ex-president dropping the F-bomb against his border wall plan. Speaking during a visit to Mexico City, Biden told President Enrique Pena Nieto that there has been "a lot of damaging and incredibly inaccurate rhetoric" in the US election, but that most Americans do not share those views. "I feel almost obliged to apologize for some of what my political colleagues have said about Mexico, about the Mexican people," he said. While Biden did not identify any candidates by name, Trump has used the strongest words against Mexico's government and immigrants during the race for the Republican presidential nomination. "It's a heated campaign season and I just want you to know, Mr. President, that the most heated of the rhetoric you've heard from some of the competitors for the nomination for president is not who we are as the American people," Biden said with Pena Nieto by his side, highlighting close cooperation on the drug war and $1.5 billion in daily trade. At a separate meeting earlier in the day with members of Pena Nieto's cabinet, Biden said that "some of the rhetoric coming from some presidential candidates of the other team are I think dangerous, damaging and incredibly ill-advised." "This too shall pass ... We have gone through these episodes of xenophobia but they have always been overcome," he said. Trump has angered Mexico from the start of his candidacy by declaring that the country was sending rapists across the border and that he would force the neighboring government to pay for a giant wall to keep illegal migrants out. "There are those who have the vision to close themselves off ... build walls, but this only means isolating oneself and ending up alone," Pena Nieto said, without naming the Republican frontrunner. Story continues - Fox's F-bomb - Vicente Fox, Mexico's president from 2000 to 2006, had harsher words, telling the US television network Fusion: "I am not going to pay for that fucking wall. He should pay for it. He's got the money." The billionaire real estate mogul hit back on Twitter, writing: "Vicente Fox horribly used the F word when discussing the wall. He must apologize! If I did that there would be a uproar!" Another former Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, also lashed out earlier this month, telling CNBC that the Mexican people "are not going to pay any single cent for such a stupid wall." Last year, Pena Nieto's administration called Trump's comments about Mexicans "prejudiced and absurd." The real estate mogul has also clashed with Pope Francis over the immigration issue after the pontiff, following a trip to Mexico this month, said that anyone who "only wants to build walls and not bridges is not a Christian." Trump called Francis's comments "disgraceful" but he later softened his tone, saying he had a "lot of respect" for the first Latin American pope. - Tough election issue - Immigration is a hot-button issue in the US presidential race, which features two Republican candidates who are sons of Cuban immigrants: senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Considered Trump's closest competitors, they have both taken a hard stance on the issue. While Rubio backed immigration reform in 2013, he has since hardened his position and now competes with Cruz for support from conservatives demanding more deportations for the 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States. Biden, who was in Mexico for economic talks, told Mexican officials that he hoped that President Barack Obama's immigration reform, blocked by Republicans in Congress, can still win approval. Circumventing Congress, Obama announced measures in November 2014 to protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation. The Supreme Court has agreed to review his executive order, after a lower court blocked it. The candidates in the Democratic nomination race, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, have vowed to pass reforms to give undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship. The Latino vote has become crucial in US elections as Hispanics are now the biggest minority group in the country, surpassing African-Americans. By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - A body found northeast of Indianapolis has been identified as a teenager who authorities believe was killed along with his friend by a bail bondsman late last year, police said on Thursday. The body was identified through fingerprints on Wednesday as Timmee Jackson, two days after it was found near a lake, about 2 miles (3 km) northeast of the home of suspect Kevin Watkins. Watkins is accused of killing Jackson and his friend Satorie Dionne Williams, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said. "We are still actively looking for Williams' body," police spokesman Richard Riddle said. Prosecutors charged Watkins on Dec. 29 in Marion Superior Criminal Court with two counts of murder, but did not list Jackson and Williams as the victims because their bodies were yet to be recovered, police said. Watkins is being held with no bond. His attorney was not immediately available for comment. Jackson, 15, and Williams, 16, were reported missing on Christmas day. Williams' mother Amber Partlow told police that she last saw her son when he left their home with friends on Christmas Eve, a probable cause report said. Partlow searched the neighborhood the next morning and went to the home of Watkins, who filed a burglary report against her son a week earlier, where she found a large amount of blood on the front step and in the yard, according to the report. Partlow notified police, who found human remains and the clothes belonging to one of victims in Watkins' home, SUV and the office of Watkins Bail Bond, a business that he runs, according to the report. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Editing by Ben Klayman and Alan Crosby) Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was released from jail on Thursday having served his sentence for illegal possession of firearms during the 1993 Mumbai bombings. Arrested in 1993, the 56-year-old actor served 18 months in jail before being bailed in 1995. In 2007, Dutt was sentenced to six years in prison, but remained on bail until 2013 when India's Supreme Court upheld his conviction, though it reduced the sentence to five years. Read More: Bollywood Actor Sanjay Dutt Faces Jail Term Dutt's release was widely covered with news channels offering live feeds showing the actor being received by his family and numerous fans as he made his way to Pune airport to fly back home to Mumbai. Before leaving, he briefly addressed the media and was widely quoted stating, I am here because of [the fans'] support. And there is no easy road to freedom, my friends. The Mumbai blasts killed 257 people and injured over 700 as a series of bombs detonated across the city's various busy locations, including the Stock Exchange. Dutt was convicted by the specially set-up TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Preventation Act) court after he was arrested in April 1993 for illegal possession of a 9 mm pistol and an AK-56 rifle. Dutt claimed he had procured the arms to protect his family during the 1993 Mumbai riots between Hindus and Muslims. The son of the late legendary actor couple Sunil Dutt, a Hindu, and Nargis, a Muslim, Sanjay is one of Bollywood's popular stars with a career that launched in the early eighties. His hit films include 2003's Munnabhai M.B.B.S and its 2006 sequel, both directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. His last film appearance before his jail term was in 2014's blockbuster hit PK (also directed by Hirani and produced by Chopra). United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Britain on Wednesday registered at the United Nations the special status deal it negotiated with the European Union ahead of the June 23 referendum on membership in the EU bloc. British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said that the move "puts beyond doubt the fact that the deal the prime minister agreed is legally binding and irreversible in international law." British Prime Minister David Cameron and EU leaders agreed on February 19 on the measures aimed at avoiding Britain's exit from the EU bloc. The special status deal will go into effect on June 23 if British voters decide in the referendum to remain in the European Union. Most analysts expect Britain to vote to stay in the EU on June 23, but opinion polls show the public is divided and the declaration of London Mayor Boris Johnson for the "Leave" camp has boosted its chances. London (AFP) - Britain is to call on G20 finance ministers gathering in China from Friday to highlight the dangers posed if the country left the European Union, the Financial Times reported. British finance minister George Osborne hopes to include an endorsement for Britain's continued membership of the EU and a warning about the possible destabilising effects of a Brexit on the world economy on the communique issued by the ministers, who represent 85 percent of the world economy, according to the business publication. The British government has already enlisted the help of the country's biggest companies, with chiefs of a third of FTSE 100 firms signing a letter this week urging voters to stay in the bloc when they go to the polls for the in-out referendum on June 23. Meanwhile, Simon Walker, director general of business group Institute of Directors (IoD), warned Thursday that Britain could experience years of job losses, higher prices and slower economic growth if it voted to leave. However, those backing a so-called Brexit, including London mayor Boris Johnson, have accused the government and big business of "scaremongering" and "wildly exaggerated" the economic threat. G20 finance ministers gather in Shanghai from Friday with the global economy assailed on multiple fronts, from China's slowing growth to weak commodity prices, amid simmering disagreements over how best to face the challenges. Bangui (Central African Republic) (AFP) - After a surprise election win, the former maths teacher now Central African Republic's president-elect, Faustin-Archange Touadera, faces the daunting task of setting back on its feet a nation crippled by three years of sectarian violence. The three-year spiral of violence between Muslim and Christian militias that left thousands dead and displaced more than 400,000 people disrupted farming, transport and public services in one of the planet's poorest nations. "The hardest task comes now, the rebuilding of the country in unity, peace, for sustainable development," his onetime rival Enoch Derant Lakoue told AFP. Touadera in a recent speech told Central Africans he felt the weight of their expectations on his shoulders. "Your confidence encourages me urgently to take the actions needed to pick up our country, so that it becomes a prosperous, just and brotherly state," he said. "Please believe that I'm assessing the weight of the task that you have just confided to me." A teacher-turned-politician who won over 60 percent of the vote against ex-premier Anicet-Georges Dologuele, Touadera himself served as prime minister during the 10-year reign of Francois Bozize, whose ouster in 2013 triggered the latest strife. The 58-year-old takes over a country rich in natural resources but mired in biting poverty from a transitional regime supported by international peacekeepers, notably deployed by former colonial power France, and the United Nations. Despite its mineral potential, including gold, CAR "lost its state revenues which were siphoned off by armed groups who effectively turned themselves into customs agents and tax officials and whatever else," Lakoue said. - 'A balancing act' - Armed groups have long been entrenched in parts of the nation, remnants of many a conflict, and the new leader has little room for manoeuvre, observers say. Story continues "He's facing a balancing act on the security front and rebooting the economy will be a titanic task," said Achille Nzotene, an economist. The most pressing issues include restoring security, disarming fighters from various rebel forces and overhauling the national administration, Nzotene said. "If he's not good at Mikado (the pick-up stick game), pulling on the safe ones without making the others fall ... the return to where we started will be fatal," Nzotene warned. Like his predecessors, Touadera will be largely dependent on foreign assistance to provide security and to ensure that the state can pay wages each month. The UN has 10,000 troops in the country, while the French mission is about 900 strong. "An emergency plan is strongly recommended, involving a charm offensive towards international donors. The country is cruelly short of money," Lakoue said. One of the new leader's biggest challenges will be the return of its 7,000-strong army, the Central African Armed Forces (FACA), who are back on Bangui's streets after being kept inside barracks during the conflict, when they were no match for militias. But a decision by interim defence minister Joseph Bindoumi to bring them back has raised some concern. - 'I'll support the new president' - "It's too early, the conditions for a professional and ethnically balanced army have not been met," said the Gabonese head of the UN mission in CAR, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga. The UN Security Council meanwhile has extended an embargo on arms and military training to CAR until early 2017, arguing that priority goes to the rebuilding of the state. That itself will be a mega task with GDP nose-diving amid the conflict in a country where almost 70 percent of the 4.8 million inhabitants live in poverty. In 2014 the World Bank estimated per capital income at $320 (285 euros). Touadera's principal asset is the desire of the Central African people to see peace restored, a wish expressed by many voters as they cast their ballots. Dologuele denounced "massive fraud" in the second round of the vote, but conceded defeat and promised not to appeal to the Constitutional Court which validates results. Even people who voted for Dologuele say they are ready to support the new head of state provided he has a policy to bring back peace. "God provided for what has happened and we can only submit to his good will. I chose Dologuele but he wasn't elected and that's not a motive for discontent, nor insurrection," said trader Marthe Yakongele. "I'm going to support my new president, while of course making sure that he takes the right path," she added. Said student Eric Nguia Tamale: "the country is flat on the ground and nobody is going to pick it up if it isn't for we Central Africans." Ottawa (AFP) - Canada's parliament will present new rules for doctor-assisted dying by June 6, in compliance with a high court ruling issued a year ago, the attorney general said Thursday. The government will "take an empathetic approach" toward the legislation, balancing the rights of individuals and medical professionals while protecting the vulnerable, Jody Wilson-Raybould told reporters. The Supreme Court a year ago quashed a section of the Criminal Code, clearing the way for consenting adults with serious health problems to seek help from a medical practitioner to end their life. The court gave the government until June to bring the law into compliance with its ruling, allowing lawmakers time to come up with new rules for doctor-assisted dying. A parliamentary special committee tasked with putting forward recommendations for the law said in a new report that assisted dying should be an option available to people with debilitating and irreversible illness, including competent minors and people with mental illness. A person diagnosed with a serious health problem could also make arrangements in advance to die, in situations where dementia or other illness could prevent them from making the decision later. Conservatives on the committee challenged the recommendations, saying they go far beyond what the court had ordered. In December, Quebec became the first Canadian province to roll out its own set of rules for doctor-assisted dying, in response to strong public demand. Some form of physician-assisted dying is legal in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and in a handful of US states. By John Tilak and Euan Rocha TORONTO (Reuters) - Faced with a double whammy of the oil price collapse and a sluggish economy putting pressure on their corporate and consumer loan books, Canada's major banks started to show cracks this week as they posted another round of quarterly profits. After reporting quarter after quarter of market-topping results in recent years, the lenders were feeling the pull of gravity. Royal Bank of Canada , Canada's biggest lender, did not meet profit estimates on Wednesday for the first time since early 2013, and No. 2 player Toronto Dominion Bank reported a slim profit miss on Thursday. Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce both topped analyst expectations, but also revealed that bad energy loans were on the rise. The tone of bank executives on conference calls reflected the gloomier outlook as well. "We're starting to see the spillover impact from the energy patch onto the consumer loan books," Barclays analyst John Aiken said. "You're going to see increasing provisions against their energy portfolio through 2016, and that should likely coincide with rising consumer charge-offs by the middle of the year." AGGRESSIVE RESPONSE Indeed, some banks have become more aggressive in responding to the energy crisis. RBC set aside a significantly higher amount to cover for bad loans in the first quarter. RBC Chief Risk Officer Mark Hughes, in a conference call, said debt covenant reviews this spring will likely result in reduced credit for some energy clients. CIBC Chief Risk Officer Laura Dottori-Attanasio warned investors the lender's loan losses could double if Canada went into recession. The banks were also paying more attention to energy sector clients. "We are doing one-on-one analysis on almost all of our exploration and production clients," RBC Chief Financial Officer Janice Fukakusa said in an interview. Though the direct impact on the banks through their energy clients was immediate, investors were more concerned about the knock-on effects of an oil-induced economic slowdown, especially in Western Canada. The results confirmed that the energy sector fallout is finally being felt in the banks consumer portfolios, though some banks expected to make it up elsewhere. While we are experiencing deterioration in the consumer credit portfolio in the oil-impacted provinces, it is largely offset by strong performance across the rest of the country, TD CFO Riaz Ahmed said in an interview. NO APOCALYPSE Analysts have also been weighing various scenarios to assess the risks, but few see a doomsday scenario playing out. "Under a moderate stress scenario...it will be a profitability concern, not a capital concern," Moody's analyst David Beattie said. "If it is a severe stress case scenario, it may require capital conservation measures on the part of the banks." Some portfolio managers saw safety in the banks despite the economy, as their investment options beyond resources remained limited in Canada. "So far there's nothing apocalyptic that's happening," said Michael Formuziewich, portfolio manager with Leon Frazer, which owns positions in RBC, TD, Scotia and BMO. "The pain will grow, but in my opinion it is not going to lead to even a single year where the banks lose money. It's just not going to get to those levels." Some investors even see opportunities in the historically low multiples the stocks were trading at. "The valuations are the cheapest they've been since the financial crisis," said Barry Schwartz, portfolio manager at Baskin Financial Services. "If oil has bottomed here, this is a gift from the gods. This is the time you should be selling your house to buy Canadian banks." (Additional reporting by Matt Scuffham in Calgary; Editing by David Gregorio) Martin Freeman's mysterious Captain America: Civil War character has been revealed, and while the name might not be one that will mean anything to the majority of the Marvel Studios audience, comic book fans are overjoyed. So who is Everett Ross, and why should anyone care about him? Perhaps the most important thing to note about the character is that he's not, specifically, a Captain America character. Instead, he's more closely connected to another character making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in May's Civil War: T'Challa, the Black Panther. Although Ross started his fictional life in 1998's Ka-Zar Vol. 4 No. 17 as an essentially faceless government official tasked with dealing with a jungle hero best described as a Tarzan wannabe, he came to prominence as one of the two leads of the critically acclaimed third volume of the Black Panther solo series launched later that year. Ross' placement in the series as an audience surrogate and often the butt of writer Christopher Priest's snarky sense of humor was both cynical and inspired. "Comics are traditionally created by white males for white males," Priest once said, talking about the reason for Ross' presence. "I figured, and I believe rightly, that for Black Panther to succeed, it needed a white male at the center, and that white male had to give voice to the audiences misgivings or apprehensions or assumptions about this character and this book." The character offered more than simply a white lens on the African king. He was a necessary counterpoint to Priest's take on the Panther as a protagonist. As Priest returned the Black Panther to his roots as a political figure as much as a superhero, he became a hugely capable character able to out-think Iron Man, out-fight Captain America and out-threaten Wolverine. Meanwhile, Ross assumed a more ridiculous and comedic role, accidentally making a deal with the devil in exchange for pants and being every bit as clueless as the Panther was masterfully strategic. Story continues (Not for nothing did the character become known as "Emperor of Useless White Boys," a nickname he gave himself but one that flipped the racial politics of the two leads from what readers might have expected from a superhero comic book.) Outside of Priest's Black Panther series, Ross has made few appearances. He showed up in an issue of Uncanny X-Men and in later Black Panther comics, but each time in connection with T'Challa or the Black Panther mythology. While many of Marvel's other comic book bureaucrats have ended up frustrating multiple superheroes Henry Peter Gyrich debuted in an issue of Avengers but has terrorized everyone from Spider-Man to the X-Men since; Valerie Cooper similarly debuted in X-Men before showing up in issues of Captain America, Iron Man, Avengers and Thunderbolts, among others Ross remains resolutely a character connected almost exclusively with Black Panther as a property. With that in mind, while it's yet to be revealed exactly what Freeman's Ross will be up to in Captain America: Civil War, it seems more than likely that his true purpose in the movie will be to set up an appearance in the Black Panther movie. That feature is scheduled for a February 2018 release, with Creed's Ryan Coogler directing. Civil War, meanwhile, will be released on May 6. Read More: How 'Captain America: Civil War' May Improve on the Original Marvel Comic Book Bamako (AFP) - A soldier in the Chadian contingent of the UN's peacekeeping force in northern Mali killed his own commander and an army doctor on Thursday following weeks of tensions over living conditions, UN sources told AFP. The soldier had started an "insurrection" against the contingent's top brass the previous evening before shooting the two men dead, said a source within the UN force, known by the acronym MINUSMA. "Dozens of Chadian peacekeepers have been unhappy with their working conditions in northern Mali," the MINUSMA source said. "The peacekeeper decided he wasn't going to stand for how his superior spoke to him after being accused of some pretty serious things," the source added. The man was arrested, along with a dozen other Chadian soldiers accused of "disobedience", at the contingent's base north of the city of Kidal. The 2,000 Chadian soldiers of the African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA) -- MINUSMA's predecessor -- were at the forefront of a French-led military intervention launched in January 2013 to oust Islamist rebels who had taken over vast stretches of the north in the chaos following a coup. Dozens of Chadian troops deserted their posts in a dispute over pay and conditions in recent years, complaining that they hadn't received a salary for months. "Everyone knows that the Chadian soldiers are always complaining about their living conditions. But that's not a reason to shoot your boss," a local politician told AFP without wanting to be named. Twenty-nine members of MINUSMA were killed last year and more than 80 were injured, making it the most deadly active mission for the UN. (Reuters) - A New York City prosecutor said he was moving to dismiss charges against five teenagers accused of raping an 18-year-old woman on a Brooklyn playground after the alleged victim recanted the accusations she was assaulted at gunpoint. The allegations of rape on the Brooklyn playground made national headlines and stoked fear in the Brownsville community after the woman said she was drinking in the park with her father when the teens, brandishing a gun, surrounded them. Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said the woman had stopped cooperating with investigators and had given conflicting accounts of what occurred during the Jan. 7 incident. She had also been engaged in sexual conduct with her biological father when the teens approached her inside the park in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, a statement said. "That night, this young woman's father and the five young men engaged in conduct that was reprehensible and wrong," Thompson said. "But because of the lack of reliable evidence, criminal charges simply cannot be sustained." The woman was also refusing to cooperate with any incest prosecution against her father, he added. Four boys, who ranged in age from 14 to 17, were arrested in the days after the incident and charged with rape and other related counts. A fifth suspect, age 18, was also taken into custody. "You can only imagine the trauma that would go along with a charge like this hanging over a young child's head," Abdula Green, an attorney for one of the boys, told a news conference on Wednesday. (Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere in Los Angeles; Editing by Alison Williams) China's defences in the South China Sea are "absolutely necessary", Beijing said Thursday, as it accused the US of militarising the region. The defence ministry spoke out as tensions rose between the two powers over reports that Beijing has deployed surface-to-air missiles, fighter jets, and radar installations in the contested region. "The US is truly the one pushing militarisation in the South China Sea," said ministry spokesman Wu Qian at a regular monthly briefing. "Chinas building of defence facilities on the South China Sea islands and reefs is absolutely necessary." Beijing claims almost the whole of the South China Sea -- through which a third of the world's oil passes -- while several other littoral states have competing claims, as does Taiwan. "It is China's legitimate right to deploy defence facilities within its own territory -- no matter whether that deployment was in the past or at the present, no matter whether for a temporary or long-term basis, and no matter what kind of equipment has been deployed." A US official told AFP that Beijing has deployed surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island in the disputed Paracels chain -- apparently HQ-9s, which have a range of about 200 kilometres (125 miles). Citing two unnamed US officials, American broadcaster Fox News said Tuesday that US intelligence services had spotted Chinese Shenyang J-11 and Xian JH-7 warplanes on the same island. Reports also surfaced this week of probable radar installations on reefs in the nearby Spratly islands that would "exponentially improve" the country's monitoring capacities. The United States has in recent months sent warships to sail within 12 nautical miles -- the usual territorial limit around natural land -- of a disputed island and reef transformed into an artificial island in what it says is a defence of the right to free passage. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Thursday concluded a visit to the US for talks with US secretary of state John Kerry, who told reporters last week: "There is every evidence, every day, that there has been an increase of militarisation of one kind or another. It's of a serious concern." BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday confirmed it would send warships to join a major U.S.-hosted naval drill this summer, even as tension between the world's two largest economies mounts over the South China Sea. The Rim of the Pacific exercise, known as RIMPAC, is billed as the world's largest international maritime exercise, held every two years in Hawaii in June and July. Critics of the Obama administration, including U.S. Senator John McCain, have said the U.S. should bar China from the drills to show U.S. disapproval of its military actions. The U.S. and its allies have expressed growing concern over the Asian giant's military buildup, as well as its increasingly assertive posture in the South China Sea. "Joining these military exercises will be beneficial to improving the Chinese navy's ability to contend with non-traditional security threats," Wu Qian, a spokesman of China's Ministry of Defense, told a regular briefing. "At the same time, it will also be beneficial to depending China and professional exchanges and pragmatic cooperations with the relevant countries' navies." China would send warships to participate, Wu said, but did not say how many or what kind. "Needless to say, military relations between China and the U.S. have some difficulties and obstacles," Wu added. He cited the examples of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and reconnaissance by U.S. warships near Chinese territory, as well as what China sees as discriminatory laws by the U.S. limiting military exchanges. Wu also criticized U.S. patrols in the South China Sea. U.S. Admiral Harry Harris, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, has said he wants to build ties between the two militaries of the countries, but has also strongly criticized China's actions in the South China Sea. Past participants in RIMPAC have included nations such as Russia that are not treaty allies with the United States. China took part in the RIMPAC exercises in 2014 with more than 20 countries, but defense officials have said its participation was limited to areas such as humanitarian relief and search and rescue operations. (Reporting by Megha Rajagopalan and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) SINGAPORE (Reuters) - China has urged the country's most popular microblog Weibo to clean up pornographic material on its social networking site in the latest attempt by authorities to regulate online content. Weibo Corp, owned by Sina Corp and in which Alibaba holds a stake, has a huge number of accounts that contain pornographic material, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement on Thursday on its website. (www.cac.gov.cn) Some account holders have been sharing obscene videos and pictures, as well as soliciting prostitution and distributing other illegal information via the microblog, the CAC said. The administration wants Weibo to rectify these issues by removing or blocking content on its microblog. "If reform falls short of requirements, or if illegal activity continues in the reform period, this regulator will strictly implement heavy punishment according to law," CAC said. A spokesman for Weibo declined to comment. The Chinese authorities can block content themselves but the sheer volume in such a populous country means they need social networking sites to self-censor. Citing its potential to destabilise society, or in the case of pornography, damage mental health, censors have periodically tried to exert greater control over the Internet and social media apps. In April last year, CAC said it would punish Sina after users complained about the site for spreading rumours, terror, obscenity and pornography on it site. At the time, a Sina representative said Sina would target the problems, strengthen its internal oversight and carry out its services in strict accordance with the law. (Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee in Singapore, Michael Martina and Paul Carsten in Beijing; Editing by Keith Weir) Washington (AFP) - China is on its way to securing "de facto" control of the South China Sea, a top US admiral warned Thursday, amid growing unease over Beijing's continued military build up in the contested waterway. By building air bases and hardened bunkers on tiny islands, some of which are reclaimed from the sea, and by installing sophisticated radar and missile defense systems, China has shown it is determined to achieve military primacy in the region, Admiral Harry Harris said. Beijing's claims to almost all of the South China Sea are widely disputed and the body of water has long been viewed as a potential flashpoint. "If China continues to arm all of the bases they have reclaimed in the South China Sea, they will change the operational landscape in the region," Harris told Pentagon reporters. "Short of war with the United States, China will exercise de facto control of the South China Sea." Harris, who heads up the US Pacific Command, visited the Pentagon after several hearings in Washington at which he warned lawmakers about the pace of China's maritime militarization. "Harris is raising alarm about what could happen if there's not sufficient push back, that's what he's trying to provoke here, a more robust response from the region and outside the region," said Bonnie Glaser, a senior Asia advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The US cannot do this alone." China is using dredgers to turn reefs and low-lying features into larger land masses for runways and other military uses to bolster its claims of sovereignty in the region. Satellite imagery released this week shows Beijing is installing radar gear, and China has also deployed surface-to-air missiles and lengthened a runway to accommodate fighter jets on one islet, Woody Island, in the Paracels. Beijing appears to be preparing what is known as an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the entire South China Sea, through which it can militarily query any vessel or aircraft. Story continues "I am concerned about the possibility that China might declare an ADIZ," Harris said. "I'm concerned about it from the sense that I would find that to be destabilizing and provocative." Still, he noted, the United States would ignore any such designation. - Freedom of navigation - General Joe Dunford, who is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and America's top officer, earlier on Thursday told lawmakers that he worried China wants to hamper the United States as it operates in the region. "It's very clear to me that those capabilities that are being developed are intended to limit our ability to move into the Pacific or to operate freely within the Pacific, and we call that anti-access, aerial-denial capabilities," Dunford told the US House Appropriations Committee. The United States has repeatedly said it rejects China's claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea, and since October has carried out two high-profile "freedom of navigation" operations in which it sailed two warships within 12 nautical miles of islets claimed by China. "We need to, and we must, continue to exercise our rights of freedom of navigation in international waters and airspace," Harris said, adding that "like-minded" nations should do the same. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said China's military presence in the South China Sea was increasing the risk of "miscalculation or conflict" between regional countries. "Chinese behavior is having the effect of self-isolation, and it's also galvanizing others to take action against it," he told the House Appropriations Committee. Carter said other nations in the region are responding by stepping up their own maritime defense activities and aligning themselves with the United States. "Old allies, like Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines, and then new partners, like Vietnam and India, that are working with us increasingly," he said. The South China Sea is a vital waterway through which trillions of dollars of cargo flow each year, much of it destined for the United States. A Chinese human rights lawyer was accused by state media of being the "mastermind" behind a series of "illegal religious gatherings" Thursday, in the latest in a deepening crackdown on lawyers and activists. Zhang Kai, who represented churches fighting back against the Communist party's campaign to take down crosses, was seized by security officials last August. He disappeared from the city of Wenzhou, dubbed "China's Jerusalem" for its large Christian population, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, and his whereabouts remained unconfirmed for months. Citing information from the city's public security bureau, state-run website Wenzhou Online said that Zhang had been identified as the "mastermind" behind a series of "illegal religious gatherings". It further accused him of "accepting foreign trainings", "encouraging people to confront the government", and cheating people out of money, among other claims. Under President Xi Jinping, China's ruling Communist party under has reasserted controls over civil society, detaining more than 130 human rights lawyers and legal staff in the past year. Last week, UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called on China to release about 250 detained human rights lawyers, legal assistants, and activists "immediately and without conditions". The website, which referred to Zhang as a "criminal suspect," also quoted his alleged confession. "I violated national law, disrupted social order, endangered national security, and violated the professional code of conduct for lawyers," it cited Zhang as saying. "I also warn those so-called human rights lawyers to take me as a warning and not collude with foreigners, take money from foreign organisations, or be engaged in activities that break the law or harm national security and interests," he continued, according to the report. Story continues China invited international censure after it detained and expelled a Swedish human rights activist Peter Dahlin who had aided Chinese lawyers, after parading him on state television confessing to breaking the law. While forced public confessions are an old practice in Communist China, there has been a resurgence of such incidents since Xi took power in 2012. Last month, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for the European Union to impose sanctions on Chinese state media, denouncing broadcasts and reports of forced confessions by detainees as "peddling lies" and of "no informational value". BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's attorney general's office said on Thursday it has opened a preliminary investigation into Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas for supposed irregularities in the recent $2 billion privatization of power generator Isagen. The government sold its majority stake in Isagen in January to Canada's Brookfield Asset Management for 6.49 trillion pesos. Brookfield valued the sale at $2.2 billion. The investigation began after a citizen group dedicated to advocating for public resources accused Cardenas of illegally selling the company and shirking his duties as a public servant. The ministry said Cardenas had not yet been formally informed of the investigation. Cardenas could face criminal charges and jail time should the investigation reveal wrongdoing. Colombia plans to use the Isagen proceeds to fund highways, bridges and tunnels across the country, its so-called 4G infrastructure projects. (Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Steve Orlofsky) By Andrew M. Seaman (Reuters Health) - Black gay and bisexual men enrolled in a program that helps them overcome personal barriers to treatment are likely to keep taking a daily anti-HIV pill, according to new research. Of 178 men who started taking the preventive pill as part of the program, nearly 70 percent were still taking the so-called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) a year later, researchers reported Wednesday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston. "I think its an important study because one of the major stumbling blocks of PrEP is adherence," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland. Young black men who have sex with men are a segment of the population that has low rates of PrEP adherence, added Fauci, who wasn't involved with the new study. "That is really unfortunate, because thats the vulnerable group that can benefit most from PrEP," he said. One in two black gay and bisexual men will be diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus over their lifetimes if diagnosis rates remain unchanged, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced at the conference. That compares to one in four Latino gay and bisexual men and one in 11 white gay and bisexual men. Gilead's daily pill Truvada, a combination of emtricitabine and tenofovir, is currently the only drug approved for PrEP. When used consistently, the CDC says, it can reduce HIV transmission through sex by 90 percent. Expanding HIV treatment, testing and PrEP programs could lead to 185,000 fewer infections - a 70 percent reduction in expected cases - by 2020, the CDC also reported at the conference. For the new study, researchers from the HIV Prevention Trials Network recruited 226 black gay and bisexual men from Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. After confirming the men were HIV-negative, the researchers offered them a chance to participate in a program known as client-centered care coordination - or C4 - and receive PrEP for 12 months. The C4 program invited participants to take part in sessions where they could get personal problems addressed, said Darrell Wheeler, who was in charge of protocol for the new study. For example, a person may come to a C4 session needing help with housing, domestic violence, substance abuse and other medical issues. The counselor would help with those issues but would also make sure to bring the discussion back to PrEP use. Overall, 209 participants were followed for an entire year. PrEP was accepted by 178 of the participants. Of those, 70 percent had protective levels of the drug in their blood at six months. At the end of the year, 67 percent of the participants said they were still taking the pills. On average, the men who accepted PrEP attended more C4 sessions than participants who didn't take the drug. Ultimately, there were about three new HIV infections per 100 men per year among those taking PrEP, and about eight new infections per 100 men per year among those not taking PrEP. The researchers note that two of the men who became HIV-positive in the PrEP group had stopped taking their pills. "I would describe the results as compelling for a couple of reasons," said Wheeler, of the State University of New York at Albany. The new study shows that it's possible to recruit and retain African American and black men in research studies, he said. It shows black gay and bisexual men will accept and adhere to PrEP. Also, a program that addresses personal barriers is part of a comprehensive package to support black men's wellbeing and health. Wheeler said his team is currently examining the burden the C4 program put on community groups providing the services, but initial results suggest it isn't significant. He also said the study's design shows it can be implemented in urban and rural areas. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/21koBSi Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, online February 24, 2016. A Journey through Canadian Pacific's Business Prospects Ahead (Continued from Prior Part) Canadian Pacifics automotive freight Canadian Pacifics (CP) automotive freight division includes four finished vehicle traffic segments. It consists of import vehicles that pass through Metro Vancouvers port to eastern Canadian markets. CP hauls Canada-produced vehicles from Ontario production facilities to the United States. The company also transports US-produced vehicles that move within the United States as well as across the border into Canadian markets. In 2015, Canadian Pacific earned 5.3% of its total revenues from the automotive freight business. Future outlook According to Scotiabanks report in January 2016, Canadian auto sales climbed to a stronger-than-expected 3% last year to a record high of 1.9 million units. It expects almost flat volumes in 2016, due to diverging trends between Albertas industrial heartland and commodity-producing regions balancing each other out. It further projects a leveling off of Canadian vehicle sales in 2016. In the United States, sales of light vehicles are expected to set a new record in 2016, Pre-owned car prices are expected to drop in 2016, fueling hauling prospects for railroads. Cheap gasoline is also expected to drive spectacular automotive sales in 2016. For this year, sales are forecast at 17.6 million new cars including light trucks, up from the 17.2 million predicted for 2015. Peers future insights Overall automotive hauling prospects for CPs peers Canadian National Railway (CNI) and Genesee & Wyoming (GWR) look better in 2016. CPs US counterparts Union Pacific (UNP), Norfolk Southern (NSC), CSX (CSX), and Kansas City Southern (KSU) have better prospects for automotive hauling in 2016. In fact, KSU, due to its Mexican railroad subsidiary and the shift of US auto manufacturers to Mexico, is relatively better off compared with its peers. The ETFs investing in CP and CNI have not invested in US-originated railroads. The Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (VEU) invests 0.19% in Canadian railroads. Investors interested in US-specific railroad exposure could invest in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which holds 0.76% in Class I railroads. In the next part of this series, well look at CPs intermodal business prospects for 2016. Story continues Continue to Next Part Browse this series on Market Realist: By Gary Robertson WAVERLY, Va. (Reuters) - Residents and rescue crews on Thursday combed through wreckage left by storms that lashed the eastern United States, killing at least eight people and injuring scores across a number of states, officials said. The storm system on Wednesday pounded the Carolinas and Virginia with high winds, hail and heavy rain. Flood warnings were in place from Maryland to Maine. The worst-hit area of Virginia was Waverly, a town about 130 miles (210 km) south of Washington, where a tornado packing winds of up to 110 miles (176 km) per hour carved a path 300 yards (274 meters) wide and nine miles (14.5 km) long. Two Waverly men and a 2-year-old boy were killed when the twister demolished their mobile home. Their bodies were found about 300 yards (meters) away. "It's hard to imagine what people went through when the storm was going on last night," Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe told reporters in the town, where streets and yards were filled with debris and downed trees. Another man was killed near Appomattox. A State Police spokeswoman said that a fifth death was still unconfirmed. William Brown, 71, of Petersburg, Virginia, said he was knocked unconscious when a tree fell on his truck as he tried to escape the storm in Waverly. When he came to, he found that the mobile home he had been next to - and where the victims had been - was flattened. "Every once in a while God lets us know who is in charge of things," said Brown as he watched a crane try to lift the tree off his vehicle. National Guard troops were expected to be deployed across the state to clear downed trees and to open roads, officials said. A Virginia emergency management spokesman said at least 40 people had been injured and almost 160 homes or businesses had been destroyed or damaged. In South Carolina, a man died on Wednesday when he was struck by a falling tree. Tornadoes pummeled Louisiana and Mississippi on Tuesday, killing at least three people. Story continues In North Carolina, Governor Pat McCrory said about 21,000 homes and businesses were without power, but there had been no reports of serious injuries or deaths. The National Weather Service said the storm system would continue to push northward into Canada on Thursday. Snow and gusty winds were forecast across part of the Appalachian Mountains, the Great Lakes and New England. (Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Harriet McLeod in Charleston, S.Carolina, writing by Ian Simpson; editing by Bill Trott, G Crosse) By Daniel Trotta and Nelson Acosta HAVANA (Reuters) - The Cuban government has granted seven dissidents who are out of prison on parole a one-time permission to travel outside the country in an apparent gesture to the United States ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama. Four others in the same category were not granted the permission for reasons not immediately clear, dissidents reported. "We welcome the news ... and we continue to encourage the Cuban government to allow the remaining four former prisoners to travel as well," Peter Boogaard, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement. U.S. critics of Obama's opening to Cuba have complained that the president has received little in return for restoring diplomatic relations with the former Cold War enemy. To cement improving ties, Obama will visit Cuba on March 21-22. Around the time of detente in December 2014, Cuba's Communist government released 53 people whom Washington considered political prisoners. But some of those 53 were arrested again after being released and two remained in jail, according to the dissident group Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation. Secretary of State John Kerry told a congressional budget hearing that Washington expressed its disappointment to Havana over the re-arrests but that he expected Cuba to release them. "We believe they will be released ... and that signifies some listening, some movement" on the part of the Cuban government, Kerry said. Cuba considers the opponents a tiny minority that has lost legitimacy by accepting funding indirectly from the U.S. government. The seven granted travel freedom were summoned to the Interior Ministry and told they would be allowed one trip abroad, though upon their return they would resume serving sentences out of prison with a ban on foreign travel. "It appears to be some kind of gift they want to present to Obama, but in reality it is nothing concrete because when we come back we will return to legal limbo," said Martha Beatriz Roque, one of the seven. The 11 dissidents were among 75 opponents rounded up in the 2003 Black Spring crackdown. With the intervention of the Roman Catholic Church and Spain, all 75 were released in 2010 and 2011 under the condition that they leave Cuba. However, the 11 holdouts refused and opted to remain in prison rather than abandon their homeland. Eventually they were allowed to continue serving their sentences, which range from 18 to 25 years, while out of prison (Reporting by Daniel Trotta and Nelson Acosta in Havana; Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Editing by Alan Crosby and Leslie Adler) PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech Republic has identified its first cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in two Czechs returning from separate trips to the Caribbean, Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek said on Thursday. The World Health Organisation warned Wednesday that the Zika outbreak would likely worsen before any relief comes to the countries besieged by the virus. Zika has been linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil. At least 34 countries, mostly in the Americas, have active Zika outbreaks and the virus is expected to spread. Brazil has been hit the hardest, followed by Colombia. Nemecek told reporters that the virus had been detected in a man returning from Martinique and in a woman who traveled to the Dominican Republic. Their conditions do not require hospitalization, he said. "This is not a case of an infection having spread in the Czech Republic. It is a disease brought from the areas where we recommended that people not travel," Nemecek said. The Czech authorities have recommended avoiding the most heavily affected countries, especially pregnant women and children. WHO declared the Zika outbreak linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil an international health emergency on Feb. 1. Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly, a condition marked by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems. (Reporting by Robert Muller; Writing by Michael Kahn; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech justice minister has allowed the extradition of Ivory Coast citizen Faouzi Jaber to the United States, where he is accused of trying to sell arms and drugs with the aim of harming U.S. interests. Jaber was part of a trio of men arrested in Prague in 2014. The other two, Lebanese nationals Khaled Merebi and Ali Fayad, were released earlier this month in what was widely speculated in the media to be a swap for Czechs missing in Lebanon. A Justice Ministry spokeswoman confirmed on Thursday Jaber's extradition. "Minister (Robert Pelikan) decided that Mr Jaber can be extradited to the United States. The Municipal Court has already changed his detention to the extradition mode," spokeswoman Tereza Schejbalova said. "It only depends on the agreement with the U.S. side now when Mr Jaber will leave." The three have been charged in the United States with aiding terrorism, attempting to sell ground-to-air missiles, cocaine trafficking and other crimes. The men were caught in Prague as they tried to close a deal with people they thought were members of Colombian guerilla group FARC but who were in fact undercover officers of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Czech officials have denied swapping the Lebanese detainees for the Czechs missing in Lebanon. But Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky confirmed the connection in a newspaper interview conducted before the men's release. The United States had expressed shock at the decision to release the two, whom it had also been trying to extradite. (Reporting by Jason Hovet and Robert Muller; Editing by Hugh Lawson) Czech physicians have diagnosed the country's first two cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in tourists who returned from the Caribbean two weeks ago, the health minister said on Thursday. "The first case is a man who stayed in Martinique, the other is a 49-year-old woman who stayed in the Dominican Republic," Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek told reporters. Both showed the mild flu-like symptoms that most Zika patients exhibit, and both had rashes, Nemecek said, adding that they were left in home care. The growing belief that Zika can also trigger microcephaly -- a congenital condition that causes abnormally small heads and hampers brain development -- in babies born to mothers infected while pregnant has spread international alarm. Cases of the virus have been reported in several European countries including Britain, Denmark, Italy and Spain. The World Health Organization has said that up to 46 countries have reported some level of evidence of Zika infections while 130 countries are home to the Aedis aegypti mosquito that carries the virus. There is currently no cure or vaccine against Zika. COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on Wednesday he has invited coalitions partners to new talks in a move he hopes will solve a crisis that is threatening the minority government after only eight months in office. After a meeting with coalition partners he said he will spend a couple of days with leaders of the three supporting parties to discuss additional agreements to planned agricultural reforms that have triggered the political crisis. Rasmussen's centre-right Liberals hold only 34 seats in the 179-seat parliament, but they are supported by the Conservatives Party with six seats, the Danish People's Party with 37 and the Liberal Alliance with 13 -- giving them a majority of one. Rasmussen's environment and agriculture minister has been accused of misleading parliament over the environmental impact of the agricultural reforms. The accusations have been led by the Conservatives, who have already been at loggerheads with the government over future tax plans. "We have decided to spend the couple of days after parliament on Thursday has approved the agricultural legislation package to agree about a additional agreement," Rasmussen said after the meeting. Despite being in government, the Liberals are the third largest party in parliament after the former-ruling Social Democrats and the anti-immigrant eurosceptic Danish People's Party, known as DF. It was thought DF would cause the most problems for Rasmussen's tenure but despite its right-wing leaning, its economic policies promoting more spending and support for the elderly are at loggerheads with the Conservatives' fiscally-tight ideals and the dispute between these two coalition partners is now what is causing headaches for the government. After additional meetings Rasmussen could announce the conflict resolved, seek the resignation of the environment minister or call for a new election if he feels he will no longer retain the Conservatives' support. (Reporting by Annabella Nielsen and Nikolaj Skydsgaard, writing by Sabina Zawadzki, editing by Angus MacSwan and Dominic Evans) By David Shepardson (Reuters) - Five Democratic U.S. senators, including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, told the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission on Thursday that they had "significant concerns" about Charter Communications Inc's planned acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc and Bright House Networks. The senators, who also included Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Ron Wyden and Al Franken, said in a letter to the agencies that are reviewing the proposal that the deal would create "a nationwide broadband duopoly," with Charter and Comcast Corp in nearly two-thirds of U.S. high-speed broadband homes. The senators urged the government to thoroughly address all potential harm to consumers. They also raised concerns that Charter will take on significant debt that could harm its ability to honor commitments to build out its network, including in rural areas. The FCC has said U.S. broadband prices are among the world's most expensive, according to the senators, who urged more competition. The merger could lead to higher prices and fewer innovative services, they added. Charter said in May that it would buy Time Warner Cable in a $56 billion cash-and-stock deal that would make it the No. 2 U.S. Internet and cable company after Comcast. Shareholders of both companies and most U.S. states have approved the deal, which still awaits clearance from the federal government. On Wednesday, Charter said it had won approval from New Jersey and was only awaiting clearance from two states where it will operate as New Charter. The company agreed to return Time Warner Cable call centers to the United States and add jobs. "Having demonstrated that the pending transactions with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks are squarely in the public interest, Charter remains confident they will close in a timely fashion," the company said on Wednesday. New Charter would be the third-largest cable provider in the country, serving roughly 17.3 million customers, and the second-largest broadband provider, with 19.4 million subscribers. It would be in nearly 40 states. Charter and Time Warner Cable did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. FCC spokeswoman Kim Hart said the commission had received the letter and was reviewing it. The FCC hopes to complete its review by the end of March. In April, Comcast withdrew its $45 billion offer for Time Warner Cable after U.S. regulators raised concerns that the deal would give it an unfair advantage in the cable TV and Internet-based services market. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) By Joshua Franklin ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss voters will face decisions on whether to deport foreign lawbreakers to building a second tunnel through the Gotthard mountain range when they go to the polls on Sunday. Switzerland holds referendums several times a year under its system of direct democracy in which voters can deliver their verdict on proposed legislation and public initiatives which gain the necessary 100,000 signatures of support. The hot issue on Sunday is a proposal from the anti-immigration Swiss People's Party (SVP) on whether to subject any foreign resident to automatic deportation if convicted of a crime as serious as murder or an offence as minor as speeding. Under the SVP's draft law, foreigners would be automatically deported after completing their sentences for serious crimes like murder, rape and armed robbery, or for two lesser offences committed within a 10-year span such as speeding or burglary. A 'yes' vote for could further complicate relations with the European Union, Switzerland's biggest trading partner, as it tries to reconcile another SVP-sponsored measure for quotas on EU workers with Brussels. Polling from research group gfs.bern, though, sees voters in the famously wealthy and orderly Alpine republic narrowly rejecting the latest anti-immigration proposal. Some opponents have even put up posters depicting the cross on Swiss flags as a swastika. "The mobilization against the proposal is very strong," said Patrick Emmenegger, political scientist at the University of St. Gallen. "Turnout is likely to be very high (by Swiss standards)." TUNNEL VISION Polls also show voters rejecting a proposal to ban trading in agricultural derivatives, a measure the government opposes. Campaigners aim to fight world hunger by prohibiting banks, trading houses, insurers and other investors in Switzerland from dealing for themselves or for clients in financial instruments based on agricultural commodities or food. Banning such trade would harm the economy, impinge on economic liberties and raise questions about Swiss policies at a time Switzerland is struggling with the impact of a strong currency, the government has argued. In the two other referendums, gfs.bern polling shows 53 percent back campaigners seeking to abolish a tax disadvantage for married couples and civil partnerships. Some 56 percent support adding a second road tunnel through the Gotthard, a main north-south transit route. Opponents have complained about the added traffic and noise as well as the environmental impact. (Editing by Richard Balmforth) Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump's wife Melania, in a rare TV interview, on Wednesday defended her husband's fiery rhetoric on immigration, denying the Republican White House frontrunner had painted Mexican migrants as rapists. The Slovenian-born former fashion model defended her husband's incendiary call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, first made in the wake of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. "What he said is it will be temporary and it's not for all the Muslims," Melania Trump told MSNBC. "We need to screen who's coming to the country." And she denied Trump had insulted the Mexican people when he notoriously claimed in his announcement speech last year that the country was sending crime, drugs and rapists across the border. "No, I don't feel he insulted the Mexicans. He said illegal immigrants. He didn't talk about everybody," said the 45-year-old. Trump's third wife, who is now a US citizen, said she had scrupulously respected immigration laws since moving to the country 20 years ago. "I followed the law the way it's supposed to be," she said. "You should not just say, 'Okay, let me just stay here and whatever happens, happens.'" Two years after moving to the United States in 1996, Melania married the real estate mogul a quarter century her senior, drawn to him, she said, by "his mind." "Amazing mind and very smart. Very charming. Great energy," she said. While Trump's grown children have repeatedly joined him on the campaign trail, his wife only recently stepped up her appearances at his side -- including at victory parties in New Hampshire and South Carolina -- saying she prefers to stay focused on raising their nine year-old son Barron. "It's amazing what's going on," she said in Wednesday's interview. "We're having fun. I like to keep it -- life as normal as possible for my son and I'm a full-time mom. Story continues "I love it so I decided not to be in the campaign so much but I support my husband 100 percent." While she has kept a low public profile, Melania said she followed the news "from A to Z," and was on the phone with her husband several times a day. "Do I agree all the time?" she said. "No, I don't, and I tell him that. I tell him my opinions. I tell him what I think. Sometimes he listens, sometimes he don't." By Curtis Skinner SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A 97-year-old San Francisco Bay Area great-grandmother facing eviction after 66 years in her rented home has received thousands of dollars in donations from people who see her plight as an example of growing economic inequity in the region, a friend said on Wednesday. Hundreds of people have chipped in since Sunday raising more than $33,000 for Marie Hatch, who has lived in the same cottage in the suburb of Burlingame for 66 years, according to her friend Lisa Krieger who set up a GoFundMe webpage on her behalf. Hatch is being evicted so the owner of the home can sell the property. "I can't believe the outpouring of love and compassion for Marie. It really shows humanity at its best," Krieger said. Hatch's story struck a chord as a particularly moving example among thousands of evictions that have taken place amid the region's soaring housing prices and growing income inequality spurred by cash-rich technology companies and their highly paid employees. Krieger said the nonagenarian Hatch, who is battling cancer for a second time, was served a 60-day eviction notice on Feb. 11. Hatch pays $900 a month for the house she shares with 85-year-old roommate, Georgia Rothrock, some 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the county is $2,800 a month. Krieger said the original owner of the home made a verbal promise with Hatch that she could stay there for life. Krieger said when that landlord died, ownership of the home changed hands twice more before coming under the control of the current landlord, David Kantz. Kantz and his attorney Michael Liberty said the property must be sold this year under the terms of a trust established in the will of Kantz's late wife, from whom he received the property. They also said the lifetime residency agreement never existed. The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper said Kantz is also evicting Hatch's next-door neighbor, Cheryl Graczewski. Story continues San Francisco tenant lawyer Dave Crow of Crow & Rose said California law provides minimal protections to tenants, meaning that renters are out of luck if there are not strong local regulations. Burlingame does not have rent control laws, he said. "Is it immoral? Absolutely. Is it legal? Absolutely," Crow said. Krieger said Hatch could end up homeless if the eviction goes through. "I don't have the slightest idea where I'm going to go," Hatch told local broadcaster KGO on Monday in an interview. "I don't know." (Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) (Reuters) - U.S. electric power company Dynegy Inc said it had partnered with private equity firm Energy Capital Partners to buy French utility Engie SA's U.S. power plants worth $3.3 billion to expand in regulated power markets. Falling demand for electricity in the United States due to increased energy efficiency has led to a spate of mergers as utilities look to cut their exposure to unregulated markets, where prices are volatile. The deal will give Dynegy presence in the Texas market, which is currently controlled by grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Houston-based Dynegy said the acquisition would also boost its presence in New England, managed by grid operator ISO New England, and in the mid-Atlantic and parts of the Midwest, run by PJM Interconnection. Dynegy, which will own 65 percent of the joint venture, said the acquisition would add about 8,731 megawatts (MW) to its generation capacity, taking the total to 35,000 MW across PJM, ISO New England, ERCOT and other regulated power markets. Dynegy will invest about $770 million and Energy Capital will invest about $415 million in the joint venture, expected to generate about $90 million in annual synergies. The partnership has secured financing with $2.25 billion in committed debt facilities and $1.19 billion in equity commitments, Dynegy said on Thursday. Energy Capital will also buy $150 million of Dynegy stock at $10.94 per share, which will raise its holding in the company to about 15 percent. Dynegy's shares closed at $8.32 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Energy Capital, which focuses on North America's energy infrastructure, will receive one board seat in Dynegy as long as it holds more than 10 percent common stock of the company. Energy Capital will have the right to exit the joint venture four years after the deal closes, either through a sale of its interest to Dynegy or a sale of the entire joint venture. Up to Wednesday's close, Dynegy's shares had fallen nearly 72 percent in the past 12 months. (Reporting by Rishika Sadam and Anet Josline Pinto in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Kirti Pandey) Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced three Coptic Christian teenagers to five years in jail for contempt of Islam after they were seen in a video mocking Muslim prayers. A judge in the central Egyptian province of Minya also sent a fourth defendant, aged 15, to a juvenile detention centre for an indefinite period. Defence lawyer Maher Naguib said the four had not intended to insult Islam in the video, but merely to mock the beheadings carried out by jihadists of the Islamic State group. The video was filmed on a mobile phone in January 2015 when the three teenagers who were sentenced to five years were aged between 15 and 17. Their teacher who is also seen in the video has already been sentenced to three years in jail. The four teenagers were still free as of Thursday and Naguib said he planned to appeal the judgement. "They have been sentenced for contempt of Islam and inciting sectarian strife," Naguib told AFP. "The judge didn't show any mercy. He handed down the maximum punishment." In the video, one teenager can be seen kneeling on the ground and reciting Muslim prayers while others stand behind him, laughing. Later one of them is seen making a sign with his thumb to indicate the beheading of the one who is kneeling. The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, an independent rights group, said ahead of Thursday's judgement that it watched the video and found that the four teenagers were performing scenes "imitating slaughter carried out by terrorist groups". - Targeting 'religious minorities' - The Commission said in a statement that the four were detained for 45 days and subjected to "ill-treatment" before being released pending trial. The group warned that there was a return "of using contempt of religion as accusations against writers and religious minorities". Another rights group, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said that between 2011 and 2013, 42 defendants were tried in similar cases and of them 27 were convicted. Story continues Egypt's constitution outlaws insults against the three monotheist religions recognised by the state -- Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Copts, who comprise up to 10 percent of Egypt's 90-million population, are the Middle East's largest religious minority. They have long suffered sectarian violence including attacks on churches. In 2014, a Coptic Christian teacher was jailed for six months after parents of her students accused her of evangelising and of insulting Islam. In a separate case the same year, a Coptic man was sentenced to six years for insulting Islam, after posting a picture of prophet Mohammed on his Facebook page with an insulting comment. Thursday's judgement comes a month after female writer Fatima Naoot was jailed for three years for insulting Islam after she criticised the slaughter of animals during a major religious festival. And in December, an Egyptian court jailed controversial Muslim scholar Islam al-Behairy for one year for remarks he made on his television programme, in which he called for reforms in "traditional Islamic discourse". By Amina Ismail CAIRO (Reuters) - President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who once enjoyed widespread popular support, has come under withering criticism from Egyptians on social media after delivering a long televised speech on Wednesday. Signs are growing that the former army chief, who seized power in 2013, is losing popularity, though there are no clear indications his rule is under threat. Egyptian media, which once showered him with praise, have been critical lately. During his address on his vision for the future, Sisi seemed unsure of himself, at times delivering a barrage of random sentences. One Egyptian historian, Khaled Fahmy, compared Sisi to the late, eccentric Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi when he delivered a speech threatening to hunt down opponents in every corner of Libya as rebels challenged his rule. "Sisi's speech is a historic speech in all ways," he wrote on his Facebook page, suggesting the Egyptian president is on the defensive. Sisi toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. Security forces then shot dead hundreds of Mursi supporters and imprisoned thousands of others in a fierce crackdown. Less than a year later, Egyptians who opposed the Brotherhood and regarded Sisi as a decisive leader who could bring stability, elected him president. He has unveiled mega infrastructure projects he promised would turn around the economy but frustrations are growing on the street. Sisi often spoke in an aggressive tone in the speech, wagging his finger while providing few details on how he planned to improve life for Egyptians. "Don't listen to anyone except me," said Sisi. "I am speaking in all seriousness. I don't lie or go around in circles and I don't have any interest except my country." Sisi asked Egyptians to donate a pound every morning toward tackling Egypt's debt problem, and then said he would sell himself if he could to ease the burden. "I swear to God almighty, if I could be sold I would sell myself," he said. Shortly after the speech, Ahmed Ghanem, an Egyptian living in the United States, took the leader at his words and listed Sisi on online auction site eBay. "For sale: Field Marshal, Philosopher with a military background in good shape," said the advertisement. Within hours the bids reached $100,000 dollars, before it was taken down. Several Egyptians interviewed by Reuters said they could not care less about the speech. "Since he took power he has been talking and nothing has changed," said shop owner Mohamed Nabil, 32. "People are about to explode again and he (Sisi) feels that his throne is shaky." (Editing by Michael Georgy and Katharine Houreld) Ellie Goulding could be in hot water over an accident on a frozen lake that almost killed her. Police want to question the singer about who was driving the off-road vehicle that plunged through the ice in Norway. The accident happened last month in Norway during a break in her European tour. Whoever was driving may be fined for breaching environment laws. Officer Tove Kjobli said: We have been trying to contact her. The rules are to protect nature. Ellie, 29, has told how she was instead overcome by a strong urge to save photographer friend Conor McDonnell who was by her side during the accident. Speaking about the drama which happened a few days after she hit a rough patch with boyfriend Dougie Poynter, 28 Ellie said: I thought I was going to drown for about two or three seconds. The site in Norway where Ellie almost died But my first thought was about saving Conor. I dont know why. It made me see a different side of myself. I was more concerned about getting him out than myself and that really surprised me. Usually, Im the kind of person to panic and do something in the moment, like run away. But we didnt know if we could even run away, because we werent sure how stable the ice around us was. It was scary. I feel like I learnt something about myself in that kind of situation. Ellie with boyfriend Dougie Ellie, who is asthmatic and suffers panic attacks, added the most frightening aspect of the lake drama in the Norwegian mountains was the operation to rescue the five people inside the belt wagon. She recalled: Because of how fragile the ice was, we had to be taken back one by one. That was actually more scary. When I was sat in the car on my own, thats when I was most afraid. I turned the classical music up really loud and waited for everyone to get back. It was surreal. My friend got me off the ice within about six or seven minutes, speeding away on this skidoo. Addis Ababa (AFP) - Ethiopia accused arch-rival Eritrea on Thursday of being behind anti-government protests in the Oromia region last year which led to a violent clampdown by the government in Addis Ababa. The two countries fought a bloody conflict from 1998-2000, but tensions are never far from the surface and were fuelled by protests which erupted last November. We have concrete evidence that some of the people... involved and instigating violence in these particular localities... have their origins from Asmara," the capital of Eritrea, said government spokesman Getachew Reda. Home to some 27 million people, Oromia encircles Addis Ababa and stretches over large parts of the rest of the country. It has its own language, Oromo, distinct from Amharic, the language of Ethiopia's government. Demonstrations erupted last November in Oromia to protest against a government plan to expand the Ethiopian capital. The so-called Master Plan, which was eventually abandoned in January, fuelled land-grab fears among Oromo farmers, from the country's biggest ethnic group. Reda accused Eritrea of working in concert with two Ethiopian movements, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebel group and the Ginbot 7 opposition group exiled in the United States and categorised as terrorists by Addis Ababa. "The Eritrean government is not only working with OLFs leftovers in Asmara but also with Ginbot 7, and they want to infiltrate all troublemakers into Ethiopia," Reda said. He added: "The protests that were being expressed by the people were based on legitimate concerns. But at a certain point, there were political elements involved in hijacking the process. "What transpired... is an absolutely despicable case of criminal gangs roaming village after village and causing innumerable loss in lives." There was a brutal crackdown on the protests, which left over 140 people dead and thousands arrested, according to figures released in January by Human Rights Watch (HRW). In a report published Monday, HRW said the crackdown is still ongoing, asserting that killings and arbitrary arrests were still being reported almost daily. Eritrea separated from Ethiopia in 1991 after a 20-year independence war. The two countries have remained on a war footing since the open conflict around the turn of the Millennium, notably over their 1,000 km-long (620- mile) common border. Brussels (AFP) - European lawmakers on Thursday called for an EU arms embargo against Saudi Arabia over its military campaign in conflict-torn Yemen which has caused "thousands of deaths." Saudi Arabia told AFP last week it would continue its intervention, launched in March last year against Iran-backed Huthi rebels, until Yemen President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi was fully restored to power. The European Parliament in a resolution urged EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini "to launch an initiative aimed at imposing an EU arms embargo against Saudi Arabia." MEPs also expressed concern "at the airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition and the naval blockade it has imposed on Yemen, which have led to thousands of deaths (and) further destabilised Yemen," a Parliament statement said. The non-binding resolution, passed by 449 votes to 36, cited Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran as the major players in a conflict which the UN says has claimed some 6,000 lives, caused hundreds of thousands to flee and destroyed much of the country's infrastructure. "A ceasefire that halts attacks against civilians, medical and aid workers, ground fighting and shelling in Yemen is urgently needed to allow life-saving aid to reach the Yemeni people," the statement said. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia buys most of its arms from the United States but also has major contracts worth tens of billions with key EU powers, led by Britain and France where there is growing unease at their use in the Yemen fighting. Since Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab allies intervened last year, they have regained control of large swathes of Yemen territory from the rebels. By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) - A European Union mission urged Uganda on Thursday to release detailed results from last week's presidential election, which extended President Yoweri Museveni's 30-year rule but which the opposition has called fraudulent. Uganda's Electoral Commission declared Museveni, 71 and in power since 1986, the winner of the Feb. 18 vote with about 60 percent of the vote. The EU's Election Observation Mission statement was released soon after an aide to Kizza Besigye, the main challenger, said Besigye had been arrested for the sixth time in about a week. Besigye, who challenged Museveni in three previous elections, was also blocked from leaving his house on Wednesday, when local elections were held across Uganda. Human rights groups say they have been blocked from meeting with him. The EU mission "encourages the Electoral Commission to publish without delay the detailed results from each polling station" so that voters and the candidates can "comprehensively evaluate the election results," it said in a statement. "The electoral process is completed only when all candidates have rightfully exercised the relevant legal avenues without fear, intimidation or other undue restrictions," Eduard Kukan, the chief observer, said in a statement. Candidates have 10 days after a winner is declared to contest an election's outcome. A spokeswoman for Besigye said his party has yet to decide whether it will formally dispute the results, but said Besigye's detentions are creating an obstacle to its activities. "The arrest of our candidate ... has eaten some of the time we have to lodge a petition," said Ingrid Turinawe. A second party official said that police had arrested 21 party officials since Tuesday in various of the country. Police prevented Besigye from traveling to vote in local council elections because they suspected he wanted to "link up with his supporters to engage in illegal protests", police spokesman Patrick Onyango said. The other party officials were arrested because they were mobilizing people to travel to Kampala and "cause violence in the city", Onyango told Reuters. Critics say Museveni, who has been lauded for restoring economic and political stability to Uganda after years of turmoil, hopes to stay in power for life. (Editing by Edith Honan, Larry King) Brussels (AFP) - European nations have adopted a raft of restrictive measures since the beginning of the year as they seek to stem an influx of asylum seekers. Since the beginning of the year more than 110,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Europe after crossing the Mediterranean, adding to the more than one million people that landed on the continent in 2015, according to the International Organization for Migration. - Blocked in Balkans - MACEDONIA: Macedonia on February 21 entirely closed its border to Afghans, stranding hundreds in Greece, and introduced more stringent document checks for Syrians and Iraqis seeking to cross its territory en route to northern and western Europe. SLOVENIA: On February 15, Slovenia toughened its filtering system for migrants. Parliament on February 22 authorised the army to help police manage the flow of migrants crossing into Slovenia from non-Schengen member Croatia. CROATIA: Croatia began to filter refugees in November, letting through only those fleeing war (Afghans, Iraqis and Syrians). On January 20, Zagreb decided that it would only let through migrants demanding asylum in Germany or Austria. TURKEY: Turkey, the main departure point for migrants trying to reach the EU, tightened its visa rules for Iraqis in early February. - Barriers to entry in western Europe - In the last few months of 2015, six out of the 26 members of Europe's Schengen zone reestablished provisional border controls, without closing the frontiers altogether. While Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden did so in a bid to better control the influx of migrants, France also reestablished checks in reaction to the terrorist threat after last November's multiple attacks. BELGIUM: On February 23, Belgium temporarily reintroduced border controls with France in order to halt the arrival of migrants from the "Jungle" camp in the northern port town of Calais, who seek to get to Britain and could use Belgium as a transit route. The camp is due to be partly demolished. Story continues AUSTRIA: Austria, which last year took in 90,000 asylum-seekers and let almost 10 times as many travel through, on February 19 imposed a daily limit of 80 claims and said only 3,200 migrants could transit to neighbouring states. It has limited asylum requests for 2016 to 37,500. The Austrian government on February 15 announced it would place six nations - Algeria, Georgia, Ghana, Mongolia, Morocco and Tunisia - on its list of "safe countries of origin", meaning migrants can be returned there. GERMANY: Germany in 2015 registered around 1.1 million asylum requests. In late January, it announced it was limiting numbers by blocking some migrant family reunifications and declaring three North African nations - Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia - "safe countries of origin." Under the new measures Berlin will block family reunifications for two years for rejected asylum seekers, who can't be deported because they face the threat of torture or the death penalty in their own country. Since January 1, Berlin has also reintroduced individual examinations of asylum requests, including for Syrians, who had previously benefited from a quasi-automatic right to asylum. DENMARK: A controversial Danish law aimed at dissuading migrants from seeking asylum by delaying family reunifications by three years and allowing authorities to confiscate migrants' valuables entered into force on February 5. SWEDEN: In late January, Sweden said it expected that around 45 percent of those who sought asylum last year would ultimately be rejected, leading to the expulsion of up to 80,000 people. FINLAND: The Finnish government expects to deport around two thirds of the 32,000 asylum seekers that arrived in 2015. By Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Parliament called on the European Union to impose an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia on Thursday, saying Britain, France and other EU governments should no longer sell weapons to a country accused of targeting civilians in Yemen. EU lawmakers, who voted overwhelmingly in favor of an embargo, said Britain had licensed more than $3 billion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia since Saudi-led forces began military operations in Yemen in March last year. Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since the coalition entered the conflict, almost half of them civilians, according to the United Nations, and the European Parliament said it was acting on humanitarian grounds. "This is about Yemen. The human rights violations have reached a level that means Europe is obliged to act and to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia," said Richard Howitt, a British center-left lawmaker who led efforts to hold the vote. The parliament's vote is not legally binding but lawmakers hope it will pressure EU governments to agree to an embargo, following a petition of 750,000 European citizens calling for the suspension of weapon sales. Fellow British lawmaker Alyn Smith, a Scottish Nationalist who grew up in Saudi Arabia, has also written to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini calling for the embargo. However, any EU embargo would go against U.S. President Barack Obama's policy of bolstering U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia after Washington brokered a deal with regional rival Iran last year to curtail Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Britain and France are the main European suppliers of arms to Saudi Arabia, while Germany also licensed arms exports of almost $200 million to the Sunni kingdom in the first six months of 2015, the latest economy ministry data available. EU lawmakers warned the vote may prompt retaliation from Saudi Arabia, whose envoy to the European Union held several meetings with EU lawmakers and tried to dissuade the parliament. "The Saudis said to me they may cut off relations. I hope those are just words," Howitt said, adding that the quickest way to avoid an arms embargo was to end the conflict in Yemen. Saudi Arabia's ambassador, Abdulrahman Al Ahmed, defended the kingdom's actions in a letter to EU lawmakers on Sunday, saying that "the larger ramifications of our not taking action in Yemen would have had devastating geopolitical consequences for the kingdom, Europe and the broader West as well." Saudi Arabia leads a coalition of nine Arab countries that began a military campaign in March 2015 to prevent Houthi rebels, whom it sees as a proxy for Iran, from taking complete control of Yemen. The Houthis and their allies, forces loyal to former Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh, accuse the coalition of launching a war of aggression. Yemen has become one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The U.N. says famine looms as over half the population, or 14.4 million people, face hunger. Clinics and hospitals have been repeatedly hit. (Reporting by Robin Emmott; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Katharine Houreld) By Natalia Zinets KIEV (Reuters) - An ally of Ukraine's president has been accused by a former Ukrainian prosecutor of interfering in law enforcement. A representative of Ihor Kononenko, a business partner of President Petro Poroshenko and member of parliament of his political party, declined to comment on the allegation, made in a Reuters interview by ex-prosecutor Vitaliy Kasko. The representative, Taras Pastushenko, the spokesman for Poroshenko's party in parliament, cited an ongoing investigation into separate allegations by the economy minister as the reason why Kononenko would not comment. Corruption allegations are particularly sensitive in Ukraine, where a $40 billion Western aid program is propping up an economy devastated by Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for rebels in the former Soviet republic's east. Kasko resigned as prosecutor last week alleging corruption in the prosecution service. Asked to explain his decision, Kasko said in the interview one example was that the head of the service, General Prosecutor Viktor Shokin, had told him Kononenko had asked the service to influence a prosecution. As a politician, Kononenko has no official role in the service. Kasko said Shokin had given him instructions, which Shokin had said came from Kononenko, to intervene in the case. "I received a firm request from the General Prosecutor in reference to this," Kasko said, declining to give details of the case. "I refused to carry it out. I didn't do as I was told." Shokin's office declined to comment on whether Shokin had asked Kasko to handle a case in a particular way to suit Kononenko. Shokin aide Vladislav Kutsenko had earlier described Kasko's resignation and general corruption allegation as attention-seeking. "The General Prosecutor's Office has become the subject of an information war carried out by the representatives of some politicians, public organizations, who ... for the most part just attack us with the usual lies," Kutsenko said in relation to Kasko's resignation and allegations. On Friday, President Poroshenko's spokesman said Shokin had resigned, but he remains in office pending confirmation of his resignation by parliament. Attempts to reach Shokin were unsuccessful. His office said he was on holiday and did not pass on contact details. The prosecution service is one of the institutions the Ukrainian government needs to reform under the terms of the aid program and lenders have long said progress has been slow. Poroshenko, a multi-millionaire businessman, was elected in 2014 after Ukraine's Russian-backed president fled in the face of mass protests. He and Kononenko served together in the Soviet army in the 1980s and worked in Ukrprominvest, a onetime business group that Poroshenko controlled. Between them they now they own most of Ukraine's International Investment Bank. Kononenko resigned as deputy leader of the president's party in parliament after the minister's allegations, but remained a lawmaker. His office referred questions to his political party, which said he would not comment pending the investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). "Ihor Kononenko stated several times, and his position is, that until the investigation is completed in NABU he will not give any comments to the media," said Pastushenko, the spokesman for the party, Petro Poroshenko's Bloc, in the parliament. In response to questions about Kononenko's alleged influence, the president's office referred to two statements Poroshenko made after the allegations by Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius in a resignation letter on Feb. 3. His resignation has yet to be considered by parliament. The first presidential statement noted the minister's allegations were being investigated and Kononenko was cooperating. "The sooner society receives an answer to the question, the better," Poroshenko had said on Feb. 3. The other statement, on Feb. 9, also referred to the anti-corruption bureau's investigation but did not mention any individuals. "Nobody is safe from the Bureau's attention and any networking will not provide indulgence or protection," it said. (Writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Philippa Fletcher) (Reuters) - The nominating contests that will determine the Democratic and Republican nominees for the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election are about to enter a critical phase. On March 1, known as Super Tuesday, primaries or caucuses will be held in about a dozen states, and they could be turning points in both parties. But the key to winning the nomination for each party is ultimately not about the popular vote. It is about securing the number of delegates needed to win the nomination at each party's convention - July 18-21 in Cleveland for the Republicans and July 25-28 in Philadelphia for the Democrats. Like so many things in politics, there are twists and turns in how the popular vote is used to ultimately select each party's candidate. The following is a guide to the nominating process: Q: Is the delegate selection process the same for the Republican and Democratic parties? A: No. The parties set their own rules. One thing that is the same is that at each party convention, a candidate only needs to reach a simple majority of the delegate votes to win the nomination. Q: How many delegates are there? A: The Democratic convention will be attended by about 4,763 delegates, with 2,382 delegates needed to win the nomination. The Republican convention will be attended by 2,472 delegates, with 1,237 delegates needed to win. Q: I keep hearing about "superdelegates." Are they different from other delegates? Do both the Republicans and Democrats have superdelegates? A: Superdelegates, officially known as unpledged delegates, are a sort of wild card in the nominating process, but only the Democrats have them. The category was created for the 1984 Democratic convention, and according to political scientists, they are a legacy of the 1980 convention when there was a fight for the nomination between President Jimmy Carter, who was seeking a second term in the White House, and Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Members of Congress were frustrated by their lack of influence, because delegates elected to support one candidate could not switch to support another. So Democratic members of the House of Representatives led an effort to win a role for themselves. That resulted in the creation of superdelegates. Unlike other delegates, superdelegates may change what candidate they are supporting right up to the convention. There is no fixed number of superdelegates because the group is defined by various categories whose members change from one election cycle to another. Here is who gets to be a superdelegate: All Democratic members of the House of Representatives and the Senate; the Democratic governors; the Democratic president and vice president of the United States; former Democratic presidents and vice presidents; former Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate; former Democratic speakers of the House and former Democratic minority leaders. Throw in the members of the Democratic National Committee and the former chairs of the DNC and you finally have the whole pool of superdelegates. Q: What about the other delegates? Do they get to choose which candidate to support? A: Both the Democratic and Republican parties send delegates to their conventions based on the popular vote in the primary elections and caucuses held in each of the 50 states. But the parties have different rules on how delegates are allotted to a candidate. The Democratic Party applies uniform rules to all states. In each state, delegates are allocated in proportion to the percentage of the primary or caucus vote in each district. But a candidate must win at least 15 percent of the vote to be allocated any delegates. The Republican Party lets states determine their own rules, although it does dictate some things. Some states award delegates proportionate to the popular vote, although most such states have a minimum percentage that a candidate must reach to win any delegates. Some other states use the winner-take-all method, in which the candidate with the highest percentage of the popular vote is awarded all the delegates. Other states use a combination of the two methods. States that use the proportionate method may instead use the winner-take-all method if one candidate wins more than 50 percent of the popular vote. In addition, the Republican Party requires that all states with nominating contests held between March 1 and March 14 use the proportional method, meaning that all the states holding votes on Super Tuesday will have to award delegates proportionally. Q: What happens to delegates if a candidate drops out of the race? A: Another good question, because we have certainly seen that happen this year. For the Democratic Party, in every state, delegates are reallocated to the remaining candidates. For the Republican Party, it varies by state. In some states, delegates are required to stick with their original candidate at least through the first ballot at the Republican National Convention. In some other states, if a candidate drops out, his or her delegates may immediately pledge to another candidate. There is also a middle ground in which those delegates are reallocated to the remaining candidates. THE DELEGATE COUNT SO FAR IOWA NEW HAMPSHIRE SOUTH CAROLINA** NEVADA TOTAL REPUBLICANS Donald Trump 7 10 50 14 81 Ted Cruz 8 3 0 6 17 Marco Rubio 7 3 0 7 17 John Kasich 1 4 0 1 6 Ben Carson 3 0 0 1 4 DEMOCRATS Hillary Clinton 23 9 19 51 Bernie Sanders 21 15 15 51 **Winner-take-all SOURCES: Republican National Committee: https://gop.com/2016-gophq/event_schedule/?schedule_type=primary https://www.gop.com/the-official-guide-to-the-2016-republican-nominating-process/ Democratic National Committee: http://demrulz.org/wp-content/files/12.15.14_2016_Delegate_Selection_Documents_Mailing_-_Rules_Call_Regs_Model_Plan_Checklist_12.15.14.pdf Battlopedia: https://ballotpedia.org/Democratic_National_Convention,_2016 Vote for Bernie: http://voteforbernie.org/elections-faq/ http://www.realclearpolitics.com http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/news-archive/history-of-superdelegates http://2016.republican-convention.org/ http://www.demconvention.com/ (Compiled and written by Leslie Adler; Editing by Peter Cooney) Style guru Iris Apfel fronts Ageless campaign for fashion brand, Blue Illusion [Photo: Instagram/blue.illusion] Dressed in an on-trend belted denim mac accessorised with an oversized statement necklace, thick-rimmed hipster glasses and a slick of bright red lipstick, Iris Apfel looks straight into the camera and pulls a fierce pose. So far, so normal for a fashion photoshoot. But the latest model to front the campaign for Australian clothing line, Blue Illusion, is not your average model. Having designed her own accessory line, had an entire documentary dedicated to her personal style, and been taken to New Yorks heart as one of their biggest fashion icons, Iris is now the busiest campaign model of the spring season, yep busier even than girl-of-the-moment Gigi Hadid. Oh and did we mention shes 94-years-old? Youd think that nearly halfway through her ninth decade, Iris might be thinking of slowing things down and putting her feet up, but when Blue Illusion came a knocking to front their Ageless AW 16 campaign, Iris couldnt resist slipping in front of the camera once more. Hope we can still rock leather trousers when we hit 94! [Photo: Blue Illusion] The timeless tastemaker whos had successful careers as an interior designer and businesswomen, first became a style icon following an exhibition of her out-there costume jewellery at The Costume Institute in 2005. The self-titled documentary followed as did covers for Dazed & Confused, ad campaigns for make up brands like MAC and Kate Spade New York and a bucketload of fashion followers. Shot in her amazing New York apartment, the fashion icon is not only starring in the Ageless campaign, she also helped style the shoot and accessorised the series with her own jewellery. Iris credits her years of accessorising know-how to one person: My mother worshiped at the altar of the accessory and she taught me that they were extremely transformative, she told PeopleStyle. You could have one basic black dress and if you had a group of accessories and you had some creativity, you could make 20 outfits. Change them around. And I learned a lot from that. Story continues Proving theres no age limit to fashion [Photo: Blue Illusion] Co-founder of Blue Illusion Donna Guest told Mumbrella that Iris was the perfect ambassador for the companys Ageless campaign. Iris makes it a non-issue (as it should be) to embrace your age, she has this 'whats your number? attitude, where the higher the (number the) better, Donna said. 'Her confidence is equally empowering, as it is elegant. Speaking about her reasons for taking on the campaign, Iris said she agreed to work with Blue Illusion because she liked the brands classic design style. 'I like the clothes because theyre very basic, she told Womens Wear Daily. 'Theyre well priced. Theyre very well designed. Good fabrics, good fits. Parrot - models own. [Photo: Blue Illusion] The campaign will also see Iris star in a series of three videos, speaking on accessories, timeless style and her own belief that women are never too old for fashion. 'I dont think style has any age. Its in your DNA and inherent. Its a matter of attitude, she said. #careergoals What do you think of the campaign? Let us know @YahooStyleUK. Meet Daphne Selfe: The Worlds Oldest Working Supermodel The Truth About That Breastfeeding Catwalk Model Two-in-one tablet-turned-laptop devices are hot news in the tech market right now, with a host of manufacturers showing off new hybrid devices at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Huawei MateBook The Huawei MateBook is a slim 12-inch Windows tablet that's lined up as a serious rival for Microsoft's Surface Pro 4, transforming into a lightweight laptop PC thanks to its accompanying keyboard and stylus (sold separately). The tablet has an onboard fingerprint reader and the stylus offers up to 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity for optimal precision. The Huawei MateBook tablet will be priced from $699 to $1,599 or 799 to 1,799 depending on the specs. The keyboard will cost an additional $129 or 149 and the stylus comes in at $59 or 69. It's due for release in Europe, North America and Asia in the coming months. BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition Spanish tech brand BQ was at the Barcelona event presenting a new version of its Aquaris M10 tablet running Ubuntu. This first ever tablet to come loaded with the Ubuntu operating system can be used as a standalone 10.1-inch slate or hooked up to a keyboard for laptop-style computing. The Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition is due out in spring 2016. Prices are still to be announced. Lenovo ideapad MIIX 310 Lenovo hit hard with its new 10.1-inch Windows 10 tablet-turned-laptop. The Lenovo ideapad Miix 310 is scheduled for release in June 2016 with a budget price tag starting at just $229 in the US or 269 in Europe. At that price, it goes without saying that the tech specs offer nothing out of the ordinary, but Lenovo does promise up to 10 hours of battery life plus optional 4G LTE. Alcatel Plus 10 Alcatel unveiled its first hybrid Windows 10 tablet at this year's MWC. With its 10-inch display, this device can be used in three different ways: as a standalone tablet, as a laptop PC or in "dock mode" for watching movies or photo slideshows. The Plus 10 is slated for European release in June 2016, priced at 349. ZTE Spro Plus Chinese manufacturer ZTE presented the Spro Plus, a projector and tablet rolled into one device. It has an 8.4-inch screen and comes with 32 to 128GB of onboard memory, depending on the version, as well as a microSD card slot. The built-in laser projector offers brightness up to 500 lumens, and can project an 80-inch image from a distance of 2.4 meters. The Spro Plus will be available in WiFi and 4G/WiFi models, but there's no word yet on how much this two-in-one item might cost. (The Mobile World Congress runs February 22-25, 2016, in Barcelona, Spain. Website: mobileworldcongress.com) A version of this story first appeared in the March 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe. In late 1941, Hollywood was rocked by two big headlines that appeared less than two months apart on the front page of The Hollywood Reporter: Nov. 7s Davis First Femme to Prexy Academy, followed by Dec. 26s Davis Resigns as Academy Prexy. The Davis in question? Bette, a 33-year-old, hugely popular star who was already a two-time winner of the best actress Academy Award. (She claimed to have given the statue its nickname: When I saw the awards rear end, it reminded me of my husbands [Harmon Oscar Nelson].) How did she come to lead the then-500-member Academy, founded by the studio chiefs only 14 years earlier, and why was her time at the top so short? That seems a question worth answering 75 years later, as people focus on the relationship of todays Academy again led by a woman to diversity. The Academy usually chooses its president from its board of governors, but Davis had never served the organization in any official capacity when she was tapped for the job, which came with a one-year term. She had been touted to succeed two-term incumbent Walter Wanger by Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck, and her election was a popular one columnist Hedda Hopper cheered, If any woman here deserves that job, its Bette. Davis later wrote, I never imagined that I would hold its most exalted post. As the only woman so honored, I was frankly proud. But it was just this pride that shortened the tenure of my office. Davis hadnt made it in Hollywood on her looks. She was smart, talented and suffered no fools, earning her the reputation of being difficult and numerous contract suspensions at Warners, and it wasnt long before the Academys board discovered her no-nonsense side. At the first meeting I presided at as president, she later recalled, I arrived with full knowledge of my rights of office. I had studied the by-laws. It became clear to me that this was a surprise. I was not supposed to preside intelligently. Story continues She had two big initiatives she immediately pushed to enact. First, she wanted to reformat the annual Academy Awards banquet. Since her election, Pearl Harbor had been attacked, thrusting America into World War II and prompting calls for the cancellation of the Oscars, which had theretofore centered around dinner and dancing. She argued that it would be more appropriate to scrap the dinner and dancing and present the awards in a large theater, charging at least $25 a seat and donating the proceeds to war relief efforts. The members of the board were horrified, she later said. Such an evening would rob the Academy of all dignity. Her other idea was to revoke the right of Hollywoods thousands of extras to vote for the Oscars. She argued that many of them lacked taste, culture and didnt even speak English and besides, there were indications that their votes could be swung behind whichever studio hired them around the time of balloting. Davis later said the board regarded this as the wildest thing theyd ever heard and Wanger, now the first vice president, spoke up and wanted to know what I had against the Academy. Read More: Oscars Flashback: When the Academy Awards Had to Deal With Reagan's Assassination Attempt Davis quickly realized she was getting nowhere. It was obvious that I had been put in as president merely as a figurehead, she later wrote. I sent in my resignation a few days later. The Academy tried to keep the news from leaking while Zanuck, her sponsor, tried to run damage control. He informed me that if I resigned, I would never work in Hollywood again, Davis recalled. I took a chance and resigned anyway. Her resignation was regretfully accepted by the board at its Jan. 7 meeting. The real reasons for her exit were kept largely under wraps at the time. THR reported that it was predicated upon her feeling that the presidency of the Academy is a &lsquofull-time job which she did not feel she could fulfill in addition to her picture contract with Warners. Additionally, Miss Davis is not in robust health, and the performance of the titular Academy office would require an endurance which her doctors felt she did not possess. Wanger reassumed the presidency, and two months later the 14th Oscars took place, still as a dinner, but minus dancing and formal attire, and with attendees asked to support the war effort. Extras retained the right to vote, which almost certainly tipped the scale in the best picture race against Citizen Kane, to the Academys eternal embarrassment. Within just a few years, though, the Academy had implemented both of Davis big ideas: the 16th Oscars were held in a theater, as has been every installment since, and extras lost the right to vote ahead of the 19th Oscars. Davis, meanwhile, far from faded away. She was nominated for three more best actress Oscars before the end of the war, and spent most of her spare time supporting the war effort she sold millions of dollars in war bonds and started the Hollywood Canteen to entertain servicemen on leave. She and Zanuck didnt speak again until nine years had passed Because he had strongly recommended me, Id embarrassed him, she acknowledged but they reconciled after he cast her in the greatest film of her career, the best picture Oscar winner All About Eve. Late in life she confessed that she regretted abandoning the presidency of the Academy rather than staying and fighting for her ideas. I resigned the position in order to show them, but then nobody cared, she sighed. Its usually a mistake doing something just to show someone. But, she said she had reasoned at the time, If I couldnt function, if my suggestions were disregarded, why should I bother? She added, They wanted a mere figurehead, someone famous to publicize the Academy. I didnt know that. I wanted to rule. Bangkok (AFP) - World number four Lexi Thompson hit a flawless 64 on Thursday to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the Honda LPGA Thailand. The big-driving American snaffled two eagles and four birdies as she returned to the clubhouse with a score of eight-under-par at the Siam Country Club in Chonburi. That left her a shot ahead of South Korean starlet Q Baek, who struck a fine 65. Defending champion Amy Yang was a shot behind, with Jenny Shin and Azhara Munoz right in contention, sharing fourth spot on four-under. The event carries a $1.6 million purse. Thompson, 21, could leapfrog compatriot Stacy Lewis in the rankings with a win in Thailand this week. She said she was relaxed and in good form for the Thai event. "I think I was just very confident out there. I committed to all my shots, just aiming at pins and focused on doing my routine," she said according to a LPGA statement. Top-ranked Inbee Park, who is world number two, made par after two dropped shots cancelled out her birdies. TAIPEI/TOKYO (Reuters) - Taiwan's Foxconn has put its takeover of Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp on hold after becoming aware of previously undisclosed liabilities, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Loss-making Sharp said earlier in the day that it had agreed to be bought by Foxconn, a contract manufacturing firm, in what would be the biggest takeover by a foreign company in Japan's insular technology sector. But Foxconn said hours later, in a separate statement, that it would not sign until it had clarified terms in a "new key document" from Sharp. It did not elaborate. One of the sources, reading from details sent by Sharp to Foxconn, said the Japanese group had contingent liabilities that amount to "hundreds of billions of yen". That matter would have to be resolved before a deal can be finalised, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as the talks are confidential. The source did not elaborate on the nature of the liabilities or the exact amount. Reuters has not seen a copy of the letter. A spokesman for Foxconn, which is known formally as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, declined to comment on the issue. Sharp also declined to comment. (Reporting by J.R. Wu in Taipei and Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Clara Ferreira-Marques) Brussels (AFP) - French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Thursday sharply criticised Belgium's decision to impose checks at the border with France to stop people coming from the "Jungle" migrant camp in Calais. "This decision is a strange one, just as is its motivation," Cazeneuve said as he arrived for talks with his EU counterparts as the migrant crisis deepens. Belgium on Tuesday launched a huge operation to monitor three border crossings and surrounding sand dunes in the De Panne region bordering France. This was in anticipation of a decision by France to demolish half the "Jungle" refugee camp in Calais, a northern French port city near the Channel Tunnel rail link which leads to Britain. Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said most of the migrants currently in Calais eventually wanted to get to Britain and failing that, would use Belgium as a transit route via the port of Zeebrugge. "We were never warned," France's Cazeneuve said. "Any claim that this (operation) could cause an increase in the flow of migrants to the Belgian border does not correspond to reality," he said. By Ahmed Elumami TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan forces battled to clear Islamic State insurgents from the western city of Sabratha on Thursday, in fighting that killed at least three Libyans and one of the militants, officials said. Islamic State has gained ground rapidly in Libya in the last year, controlling the city of Sirte and attacking oil ports, as it takes advantage of the conflict between the country's two rival governments and their armed factions. U.S. warplanes hit Islamic State in Sabratha last week, a sign of growing Western engagement against the militant group in Libya as it expands beyond its original territory in Iraq and Syria. Fighting began in Sabratha on Tuesday, when militants stormed into the city, beheading 11 local security men before retreating after clashes with local Sabratha brigades. Islamic State is also fighting in Benghazi to the east. "A military operation has been started to wipe out the militants of Islamic State in Sabratha," Sabratha municipal council major Hussein al-Thwadi told Reuters. "At least three of our fighters have been killed and ten wounded." A militant commander was captured on Thursday, Thwadi said. A would-be Islamic State suicide bomber was also killed, before he could set off his explosives. Worried about the group's spread, Western officials say they are discussing air strikes and special forces operations against Islamic State in Libya, where militants exploited a breakdown of order since the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. In Benghazi, Libyan special forces commander Wanis Bukhamada told Reuters that French military advisers have been helping coordinate Libyan forces fighting Islamic State insurgents in the eastern city. He said the French advisers were not fighting. Later, the Libyan National Army leadership denied any French forces were with their forces in Benghazi. LNA media office manager Khalifa Al-Abeedi said the forces "firmly denied" any French military or advisers were aiding or fighting with them. The French newspaper Le Monde reported on Wednesday that French special forces and intelligence commandos were engaged in "a secret war" against Islamic State in Libya, in conjunction with the United States and Britain. France's Defence Ministry declined comment on the report. Libyan military forces in Benghazi are under the command of General Khalifa Haftar and are loyal to the government based in the eastern city of al-Bayda. A rival armed faction took over the capital, Tripoli, in the west in 2014 and declared itself the government. Haftar's forces have been advancing against Islamic State in Benghazi, the biggest eastern city, taking back neighborhoods that have been under militant control for months. Last Friday, a U.S. air strike targeted Islamist militants in Sabratha, killing more than 40. Two kidnapped Serbian diplomats may also have been killed in that raid, though an investigation into their deaths is continuing. Western officials say any deeper international military involvement, such as training missions or a proposed Italian-led security stabilization force, will require a request from a U.N.-backed Libyan national unity government. The United Nations has been trying to bring the country's rival factions together in such a government. A presidential council has been formed, but hardliners are resisting a vote in Libya's elected parliament to approve the new government. (Reporting by Ayman El Warfalli in Benghazi and Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Larry King) Marseille (AFP) - A Jewish teacher in France is to face trial in April for allegedly lying to police by claiming he was attacked by three Islamic State jihadists, a prosecutor said Thursday. The teacher, Tsion Sylvain Saadoun, is charged with "false accusation of an imaginary crime", said Brice Robin, prosecutor in the southern city of Marseille. In November, just days after a devastating IS attack in Paris that left 130 people dead, Saadoun invited press to his home in Marseille, claiming he had been attacked with a knife by three men who said they were tied to IS. "After a particularly thorough investigation, it emerged that the statements of the so-called victim of an attempted murder were neither backed up by emergency services who intervened, nor by forensic experts," Robin said. He said any injuries were believed to be due to "self-mutilation". However Saadoun maintains he is telling the truth. He has given a detailed account of the incident to police, and told AFP two men armed with knives had attacked him after asking whether he was Jewish or Muslim. He said they had shown him a picture of Mohamed Merah -- who killed Jewish children and soldiers in the city of Toulouse in 2012 -- as well as an IS T-shirt, and threatened to kill him. Saadoun said a third attacker then arrived on a scooter and filmed the incident. "He is really saddened that he is not believed," said his lawyer Karine Sabbah. Saadoun is not the only French teacher to be accused of lying about an IS attack. In January, a nursery school teacher was sent for psychiatric tests after admitting he lied about an attack in his classroom. The 45-year-old man in Aubervilliers, northeast of Paris, initially said a man had burst into his classroom and cut him with a box cutter and scissors. But he later admitted inventing the story and cutting himself on the neck and side. There is no doubt however over another attack in Marseille in January, when a teacher wearing a Jewish skullcap was set upon by a self-radicalised teenager. By Caroline Copley BERLIN (Reuters) - A German environmental group said on Thursday it has found traces of the widely used weed-killer ingredient glyphosate in Germany's 14 most popular beers, a potential blow to the country's reputation for "pure" brewing. Industry and government immediately sought to play down the report from the Munich Environmental Institute. The Brauer-Bund beer association said the findings, which were based on a small number of samples, were not credible. Germany's Federal Institute for Risk assessment said the levels did not pose a risk to consumers' health. "An adult would have to drink around 1,000 liters (264 U.S. gallons) of beer a day to ingest enough quantities to be harmful for health," it said in a statement. Under the "Reinheitsgebot", or German purity law - one of the world's oldest food safety laws and celebrating its 500th anniversary this year - brewers have to produce beer using only malt, hops, yeast and water. Glyphosate was brought into global use by Monsanto in the 1970s and is used in its top-selling product Roundup as well as many other herbicides around the world. The environmental group, an investigative body, said it had tested Germany's 14 top-selling beer brands and said all showed traces above the 0.1 microgram limit allowed in drinking water. It added that no general conclusions about the contamination of certain brands of beer could be made. Brauer-Bund said there were government controls in place in breweries to ensure that no harmful substances made their way into the production process. Its own monitoring system for malt has never detected levels of glyphosate that were above the permitted maximum limits, it added. Hasseroeder, a beer brewed in Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany and owned by Anheuser Busch Inbev, contained the highest trace of glyphosate at 29.74 micrograms per liter, the institute said. The smallest amount, 0.46 micrograms per liter, was found in Augustiner, made in Munich. Anheuser-Busch InBev said it questioned the scientific integrity of the tests due to the small number of samples. It d rejected the institute's allegation that brewers were not adequately monitoring raw ingredients as "absurd and completely unfounded." European Union regulators are currently reviewing whether to renew approval for glyphosate. The World Health Organization's cancer research committee has said glyphosate was probably carcinogenic to humans, but the European Food Safety Authority has said it is unlikely to cause cancer. Germany is Europe's biggest producer of beer and is home to more than 1,300 breweries which produce about 5,000 different beers. (Editing by Jeremy Gaunt) By Georgina Prodhan and Klaus Lauer BERLIN (Reuters) - Prominent Germans appeared starstruck by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg on a visit to Berlin on Thursday even while talking tough about the social network's record on data protection and hate speech. Zuckerberg is on a charm offensive in Germany, where the company he co-founded has faced criticism for months from politicians and regulators over its privacy practices and a slow response to anti-immigrant postings by neo-Nazi sympathizers. The 31-year-old entrepreneur met Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff, told journalists about his vision for the future of Facebook and received an award from publisher Axel Springer while avoiding controversial topics. Merkel adviser Peter Altmeier told journalists after the meeting that Zuckerberg had understood the importance of removing illegal content from the Internet. Afterwards, he posted on Twitter about "a really good conversation with a man who changed the world", publishing a picture of the two together. Max Schrems - the Austrian law student who has fought multiple lawsuits against Facebook including one that sank the Safe Harbour agreement on transatlantic data transfers - contrasted the approach of European governments with the way the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has demanded Apple unlock an iPhone at the center of a criminal investigation. "The only thing that's mind-blowing to me is how European governments 'negotiate' and 'ask' these companies to comply with the applicable law. In Germany it's hate speech and privacy, in the UK it's taxes - but they don't treat them like a subject to its law, but another nation state," he told Reuters. Zuckerberg disarmed his audience while collecting a Springer award for entrepreneurial spirit awarded for the first time this year, talking of his predilection for grey T-shirts and expertise in changing diapers. "I got it down to 20 seconds," he told an audience that included his wife Priscilla Chan, senior executives of Facebook partner Samsung Electronics, and publishing heiress Friede Springer. Springer CEO Mathias Doepfner took what he called a contrarian view on hate speech, saying he did not believe it was the role of social networks to police what was said in their communities, a job he believed belonged to publishers. Facebook's rules forbid bullying, harassment and threatening language, but critics say it does not enforce them properly. It has hired a Bertelsmann business services unit to monitor and delete racist posts on its platform in Germany. Doepfner, whose company has taken Google to court for refusing to pay newspaper publishers for displaying their content online, praised Facebook's Instant Articles feature, which displays publishers' news articles within the Facebook mobile app, with their permission and sharing the benefits. He said he did not want to discuss the issue of data privacy and data security. "That's too complicated; I don't want to get into that tonight," he said. It was left to Martin Schulz, president of the European parliament, to address the more thorny issues, offering Zuckerberg a debate that he said would benefit both sides. "We in Europe have something to learn from you, namely your engaging sense of optimism and your inspiring vision of the future. You can show us how to reach for the stars,' he said. "In return, we will share with you our long experience of cultural diversity and show you that a sensitive approach to the use of data and the protection of copyright are fundamental components of our society." Zuckerberg may have to address such questions on Friday, when he will answer questions from the public at a town hall meeting. He does not plan to take questions from the press and has not done so throughout his visit to Berlin so far. (Reporting by Klaus Lauer and Reuters TV; Writing by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Louise Ireland and Tom Brown) By Michael Nienaber and Thorsten Severin BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's parliament on Thursday agreed on tougher asylum rules aimed at curbing a record-influx of refugees as senior aides of Chancellor Angela Merkel played down reports that ministry officials were expecting some 3.6 million migrants by 2020. The Bundestag lower house of parliament passed a bundle of measures such as a two-year ban on family reunions for some asylum seekers that would also affect unaccompanied minors. It also agreed on a new law to facilitate the deportation of foreign nationals who commit crimes, in the wake of assaults on women on New Year's Eve which were widely blamed on migrants. Merkel's chief of staff said Berlin wanted to reduce the influx of migrants, but nobody could tell how many would come this year and beyond, adding that internal estimates by ministry officials could not be seen as a government forecast. "There are no reliable figures because we don't know how things will develop," Peter Altmaier said, pointing to uncertainties such as the civil war in Syria and negotiations with Turkey where many refugees leave from by boat. Government sources confirmed a newspaper report which said ministries were calculating on the basis that some 500,000 migrants would come to Germany every year between 2016-2020. In addition to the 1.1 million registered in 2015, this would mean Germany could see some 3.6 million migrants by 2020. But this was a "purely technical" estimate, officials explained. Altmaier noted it was a normal thing for ministries to make internal estimates on migration since the federal budget had to be planned. But he added: "That doesn't mean that we have a forecast on how the figures will develop in the next years." The head of Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, Frank-Juergen Weise, echoed Altmaier's remarks and said he was not working on the basis of the ministry estimates. "I'm not expecting these numbers," Weise told reporters when asked about the 3.6 million migrants expected by 2020. Since the beginning of 2016, more than 100,000 migrants have entered Germany. Federal police said on Wednesday they had only registered 103 migrants arriving on Tuesday, suggesting a sharp drop as a result of tighter controls along the Balkan route. At the start of the prior week, over 2,000 were arriving on a daily basis. Last summer the daily arrivals sometimes totalled over 10,000. (Additional reporting by Mattias Sobolewski and Rene Wagner,; Editing by Alison Williams) Great news for some lucky people in the Bay Area you may soon have access to Google Fiber. Unfortunately, however, this isnt a citywide buildout. Rather, Google is only using fiber that already exists and is acting as the service provider for end users. This is great if your house or apartment already has fiber connectivity, of course, but it doesnt sound like it will bring anything to places that arent so fortunate. MUST SEE: Gamers discover a secret menu in Mortal Kombat thats been hidden for 20 years By using existing fiber to connect some apartments and condos, as weve done before, we can bring service to residents more quickly, Google explains. This approach will allow us to serve a portion of San Francisco, complementing the Citys ongoing efforts to bring abundant, high-speed Internet to the City by the Bay. This is still in the very preliminary stages and Google isnt listing any buildings that are going to get access to Google Fiber just yet. Instead its only instructing residents in San Francisco to sign up to receive updates as they come. 2016 looks like the year when Google decides to expand not just to medium-sized cities but to truly giant markets. We learned late last year that Google Fiber is looking into expanding into Los Angeles and Chicago, two of Americas biggest cities. Los Angeles has a population of 3.8 million with a metropolitan area of an estimated 18.5 million people, making it the second largest city in the U.S. in terms of population. Chicago, meanwhile, is Americas third biggest city in terms of population with an estimated 2.7 million people. All that said, theres still a lot of work left for Google to do. Google Fiber is still only up and running in three markets Kansas City, Austin and Provo, Utah while markets such as Atlanta, Charlotte and San Antonio are set to get it sometime over the next year. Related stories Comcast's pitiful campaign to stop you from switching to Google Fiber Story continues Google gives cities yet another reason to beg for Google Fiber Google Fiber blamed for worsening flooding problems in one Austin neighborhood More from BGR: 25 hidden iPhone features that are really, truly hidden This article was originally published on BGR.com They said it couldn't be done. Donald Trump is proving them wrong with a vengeance. Eight months ago, Trump rode an escalator his own into the fight of the Republican nomination for president. A lot of people thought it was a joke. A vanity play. He'd never get anywhere. Right? On Tuesday, Trump clocked another impressive early state win, this time in the Nevada caucuses, where he ran away with about 46% support. It was his third decisive victory in a row, following first-place finishes in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Trump has skillfully made himself the leader of an angry swath of the primary electorate enraged at Washington and its own party. Sure, he doesn't represent every GOP voter, but it doesn't matter the rest of the field has been so fractured that Trump's cadre of impassioned, disillusioned supporters is enough to make him the standard bearer of the Republican Party. The establishment is now staring that reality in the face, one that was unthinkable just months ago. How if they reckon with Trump will be one of the defining political events of this generation. Coming to terms: Republican consultant Reed Galen, a Bush administration veteran who also served as deputy campaign manager for Sen. John McCain and Arnold Schwarzenegger, told Mic a big part of the GOP is still struggling to truly get its head around Trump. "The predicate needs to be that he may be the nominee. They're not even that far yet they're still in the fourth stage of grief or whatever," Galen said. Republicans will have to choose, he said, between a path of acceptance or denial, and the pull of the latter is still powerful despite Trump's obvious ability to strike a chord with the GOP electorate. For many of the "establishment" rank and file, Galen said, "there's the honest and true belief to their core that Trump would eventually implode that self-immolation would take place [and] the contest would reset itself along much more traditional lines." Story continues That hasn't happened. To date, Trump has won 81 delegates, with outright victories in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada and a second-place finish in Iowa, compared to just 17 delegates each for his top rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. There's certainly a good amount of money and panic that can be poured into an anti-Trump movement, but it's important to remember that sheer celebrity helped get Trump to where he is. He's a household name in a way his competitors simply can't match and those years spent in the public eye also served as a default vetting period during which his dirty laundry had plenty of time for airing. "If you're Marco Rubio or if you're Ted Cruz, there's literally almost no amount of money that can overcome that," Galen said. Put out any ad you want, he added, but "unless it shows Donald Trump personally drowning a puppy in a lake, what are you going to say about him that hasn't been already said?" As for the latest wave of Trump-related trauma among party loyalists, who are now once again talking up ways to band together to defeat the frontrunner, "Why didn't we do this six months ago? We didn't believe it," Galen openly admitted with an eye to the Republican insider group he says "tends to run campaigns, win campaigns and then set the narrative and the rules." "The problem is that Donald doesn't play by those rules," Galen said. "He doesn't play by any of those rules." It ain't over 'til it's over: Many Republicans still insist it's way too early in a volatile cycle to call the whole race for Trump. There's a debate coming up Thursday night in Houston. There may be a new sense of urgency about stopping the Trump juggernaut. Voters in larger, more moderate states may not buy into the fear-flavored messaging that's carried the billionaire this far in the fight for the nomination. In short, if Trump wants to "Make America great again," he's still got a lot to prove. "Trump has done well playing to small subsets of the broader electorate. What remains to be seen is if he can put a voter coalition together that includes the supporters of all the folks he's been insulting for the last eight months. He will need them," says Thomas Basile, a Republican commentator and former executive director of the New York state GOP. "Trump hasn't demonstrated that he is looking out that far or with that level of detail about winning the general on a state-by-state basis at this point. Rubio is broadening his appeal and as a result has momentum in terms of raw numbers," Basile told Mic. "His task is to convince GOP primary voters that Trump is not inevitable and that his nomination would hand the election to the Democrats," Basile said. "Of course, eight months into the Trump phenomenon, no one has really taken the gloves off and hit him hard." A practical approach: Other GOP stalwarts are embracing the most pragmatic approach possible to a potential Trump administration. After all, the path to victory is paved with the carcasses of campaigns run by Republicans who waved warning signs about Trump and got personally attacked with unvarnished glee in response. And even before he scored his first victory, Trump's numbers were up among GOP voters asked if they could accept him as party's candidate. Tim Albrecht, an Iowa public relations consultant who worked for the now-defunct Jeb Bush campaign, is one of them. "Trump's lack of concrete policy proposals should be viewed as an opportunity for Congress to regain some of its Constitutional powers that have been whittled in recent years," Albrecht told Mic when asked to take Republicans' temperature on the Trump phenomenon. "Republicans will focus on securing a Republican majority in the House and Senate, with the hope that if legislation reaches Trump's desk, he will sign it," he said. "Or conversely, if Trump were to be unsuccessful in the fall, the GOP will have a firewall against a President Sanders or Clinton." Reality bites: The Trump campaign may have started out as a sideshow. Now it's the main event. After learning that big crowds aren't everything, courtesy of that second-place finish in Iowa, Trump upped his ground game in New Hampshire. Those who wanted to call that big Feb. 9 win a fluke, or say Trump had an advantage there because of his campaign manager's Granite State roots, got served up a big helping of Trump victory Saturday in South Carolina. And while Trump still shoots from the lip in his inimitable way, it's tough not to see he's become more disciplined on the campaign trail the self-styled outsider evolving into more of a politician, if you will. If anything's going to happen to break Trump's stride, aside from a last-minute independent run by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg or someone of similar wealth stature, it has to happen soon and it would have to be, well, huge. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/IVSR0hmh5g https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cb__-K4UkAAgGWL.jpg:large "No, it's not yet time for everyone to roll over for the Trump machine. The other candidates can still pull it together, by unifying behind one [person]. However, their window is closing fast," said Charlie Banks, a GOP strategist at New York-based Red Pillar Consulting. "With the anti-Trump vote divided and that's what it is; by now, he's no one's second choice Trump doesn't just win primaries. He gets GOP superdelegates as well, who, unlike their Democrat counterparts, are pledged to support the candidate who wins their respective states. That way, he pulls further ahead even outside the winner-take-all states "Right now, the best the anti-Trump bloc can hope for outside of a cataclysmic reversal is a brokered convention by denying him a majority of delegates. That won't be an option for much longer if he keeps winning superdelegates and goes into the winner-take-all states with his opposition still divided." Republican leaders will see their followers at the Super Tuesday polls Tuesday. What they see in the mirror the morning after is anyone's guess. Brussels (AFP) - Greece on Thursday said it would not be left by the rest of the EU to become the "Lebanon of Europe" by hosting millions of migrants and refugees. Speaking ahead of a crucial meeting in Brussels, Greek migration minister Yannis Mouzalas criticised other countries for "unilateral" actions that affect Greece. "A very large number (of participants) here will attempt to discuss how to address a humanitarian crisis in Greece that they themselves intend to create," he told reporters. "Greece will not accept unilateral actions. Greece can also carry out unilateral actions. Greece will not accept becoming Europe's Lebanon, a warehouse of souls, even if this were to be done with major (EU) funding." Four million refugees have fled Syria for the relative safety of neighbouring countries, according to the United Nations, with more than one million in Lebanon. Greece is the main entry point for migrants to the EU, with most of them coming over the Aegean Sea to Turkey via the Greek islands. Athens faces growing pressure to stop "waving through" migrants to the rest of Europe, but it has criticised the response of the EU. Mouzalas in particular criticised Balkan countries that held talks in Austria on Wednesday at a meeting excluding Greece for agreeing border measures that would affect his country. In his last year in office, President Obama has submitted to Congress a plan to achieve what he had promised to do in his first: Close the facility housing terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In the interim, Obama and a series of other officials, including former CIA Director David Petraeus, have called the prison a propaganda tool for terrorists. Shuttering the detention center, Obama argues, would eliminate that tool. There are other reasons to close Guantanamo. In 2008, then-candidate Obama campaigned against what he portrayed as the excesses of the Bush administration in its zeal to fight terrorism, including the harsh interrogation techniques and indefinite detentions that Guantanamo came to symbolize. On Tuesday, Obama listed several more reasons: things like saving taxpayer money, upholding the values that define us as Americans, and removing an irritant in relationships with close allies. Theres also the matter of reputation: The prison, Obama said, undermines our standing in the world. It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law. Related Story Obama's Last Guantanamo Pitch to Congress But some of those who study jihadist propaganda say Guantanamo actually isnt all that important as a recruitment tool, and doesnt feature especially prominently in jihadist materials. Mentions of it, moreover, have declined in recent years as the prisoner population at the facility has declined and as ISIS, which tends to emphasize Islamic utopia and conquest in its propaganda, has risen. This is not to say the prison doesnt appear in jihadist texts. It does, repeatedly, whether the propagandists in question belong to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. But according to Charlie Winter, a senior research associate at Georgia State Universitys Transcultural Conflict and Violence Initiative, its seldom as part of a straightforward call to arms. Rather, Guantanamo fits into a broader motif of Muslims unjustly imprisoned and under assault by the West, whether thats in Cuba, Afghanistan, Iraq or, hypothetically, in some new prison in the United States where the Obama administration proposes to send the 40-odd Guantanamo detainees currently deemed too dangerous to try or release. As Bloomberg Views Eli Lake pointed out on Tuesday, Its true that Obama has winnowed the pool of Guantanamo detainees to 91 and he plans to transfer 35 of these prisoners to third countries. But for those remaining, Obama does not propose an end to their indefinite detentionwhich, lets face it, is what troubles their supporters in the Muslim world. Story continues Recommended: Smithsonian Magazine's 2015 Photo Contest Theyre still prisoners, Winter told me. I think jihadis dont really care about the legal implications of being in Cuba or in the U.S. And the jail is not a major theme relative to others in any case, said Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who has tracked jihadist propaganda for more than a decade. In the 13 issues so far of ISISs English-language magazine Dabiq, for example, there have been something like four references in more than 700 pages of propaganda from ISIS, he said. (ISIS execution videos do feature captives wearing orange jumpsuits, which Winter sees as an overt reference to those worn by Guantanamo detainees. For his part, Joscelyn is skeptical of the symbolism, given that ISIS videos feature numerous different colors of jumpsuits. Orange jumpsuits are used all over the world, Joscelyn says. And they dont mention Guantanamo in those videos.) I dont think jihadis really care about the legal implications of being in Cuba or the U.S. In a review of English-language and translated jihadist propaganda published on Lawfare last year, Cody Poplin and Sebastian Brady of the Brookings Institution found that Guantanamo has grown far less salient over the last few years, playing a much bigger role in the words of al-Qaeda and [its Yemen affiliate] AQAP a few years ago than it does now. Members of those groups cited Guantanamo for a variety of reasons that become clear in context. For example, Osama bin Laden himself cited the ugly crimes committed by the United States at Guantanamo and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in a 2010 essay for AQAPs English-language magazine Inspirecrimes that shook the conscience of humanity. Still, Joscelyn noted, the remark is a throwaway line in an essay blaming the West for, of all things, climate change. Joscelyn also mentioned a simple reason for Guantanamos presence in AQAP propaganda: The group had a lot of members imprisoned there. In AQAPs weekly Arabic newsletter, Joscelyn said, the group refers to Guantanamo, but not in the context of recruitment: Some of the articles are basically, We want our guys back. While the newsletters authors criticize the facility, Joscelyn added, they dont do so as an exhortation to others to come fight on their behalf. Does that have some recruiting effect? Maybe, I mean, I doubt it. I think that newsletter is basically designed for people who are already in the fold. Recommended: Who Exactly Are 'the Kurds'? The United States stopped sending new prisoners to Guantanamo in 2008, years before the rise of the Islamic State, which may help account for the prisons relative absence in ISIS propaganda. ISIS may also have found a better pitch in focusing, among other things, on the promise of its so-called caliphate, on its military challenge to the West, and on violence against Shia Muslims. This suggests that ISIS will be able to attract new fighters whether or not the facility is closed. And it also suggests that the imperative to close Guantanamo, and Obamas sense of urgency about doing it before he leaves office, might have less to do with its importance as a terrorist recruitment tool, and more to do with the fact that Obama said he would do just that. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. Mexico City (AFP) - Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman would be willing to plead guilty in a US court in exchange for a "relatively reasonable" prison sentence, his lawyer said Thursday. Two US courts have formally requested Guzman's extradition since he was recaptured on January 8, with charges of drug trafficking in California and murder in Texas. His lawyer, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, told Radio Formula that if he is extradited, Guzman could plead guilty and "negotiate a sentence that is not long, something relatively reasonable" in a "medium-security prison." The leader of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel is back in the prison that he escaped from in July, when he fled through a 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) tunnel, humiliating President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration. Pena Nieto had refused to extradite Guzman before his escape, but last month he vowed to ship the fallen drug lord to the United States "as soon as possible." The Mexican attorney general's office has said that the extradition process could take a year. NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's HF Group reported a 25-percent rise in annual pretax profit to 1.75 billion shillings ($17.22 million) on Thursday helped by increased lending and the sale of new housing units. The lender, which specialises in mortgages and has a property development business, said net interest income rose 19 percent to 3.61 billion shillings while non-interest income jumped 49 percent to 1.25 billion shillings. Provisions for bad debts fell 9 percent to 503 million shillings, HF Group said, adding it made money from the sale of houses at its residential development in a suburb of the capital Nairobi. "The growth in profitability is mainly due to our diversified banking, property development and insurance strategy," the group's chief executive said in a statement. ($1 = 101.6500 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by Duncan Miriri; editing by Jason Neely) It's time to move. Your kids are getting older, and the school district they're in now just isn't the right fit for them to meet their full potential. Before long, you find yourself zoomed in on interactive maps, carefully marking the separation line between neighborhoods that include this school versus that other one. Finding the best schools for your children, depending on their needs and where you're moving, can be a grueling process that includes comparing school districts, touring schools and dropping in on PTA meetings to learn even more. You not only want them to go somewhere they will enjoy, but you also want to be sure your child receives an education that sets them up for future success. Keep in mind that while providing your child with a good education is important, the neighborhood you live in -- and whether can afford it -- also matters. Follow these simple steps to ensure you're able to find the right school and home for your family. Do the research. With plenty of information available at your fingertips, get started with an online search to determine the school district, or even the specific school, you hope to send your child. Different sites offer test scores, rankings and demographic information, including student diversity by race and gender, the percentage of students on free lunch programs and the student-teacher ratio, to develop an opinion of the schools and school districts you're considering. SchoolDigger.com is one site that pulls much of its information from public record, and then compiles it to provide a more comprehensive look at the schools for parents. "We are able to provide historical and demographic data for a more complete picture of where a school or district ranks and is headed," says Pete Claar, founder of SchoolDigger.com. Depending on the site you can narrow down your search by location, test scores and ranking, based on a variety of criteria such as grade levels or a focus in math and science. Sites like SchoolDigger.com and GreatSchools.org allow you to compare schools and read reviews and ratings from other parents as well. Story continues Real estate agents often recommend researching education statistics to kick off the house-hunting process. Alex Trusler, executive vice president and broker associate for Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty, says he uses his experience as a parent in the Dallas area, which has many nationally ranked high schools, including several in the U.S. News Best High Schools rankings, to help clients understand the education data they find. "We've found [test scores are] a real good indicator of things like parental involvement in the schools," Trusler says. "Because usually if the test scores are going to be higher or real high-ranking, you're going to find it's a school with good parent involvement, good community involvement." Take other needs into account. Before you get caught up in a whirlwind of test scores, focus on your own child's needs. Just because a school has slightly lower test scores than the next one doesn't mean it won't be a great fit socially. Examining a school from a wider perspective can help you avoid ruling it out based on a single data point, especially if that data point eliminates neighborhoods you could afford. Claar says comparing test scores to the number of students enrolled in a free lunch program, for example, can help you find schools excelling in areas where more affordable housing is offered. In areas with larger immigrant populations, Claar says examining test scores as a progression from younger grades to older, rather than an overall average, can be more indicative of how much success your child could have learning there, especially if English isn't your or your child's first language. For students not yet fluent in English, it's reasonable to assume their standardized test scores will be lower when they start school, but as they become more comfortable with the language, their understanding of the material will be better reflected on the exams. "For schools with many English language learners, it is helpful to look at how well test scores improve from lower to higher grades," Claar says. Know what you can afford. It's not surprising that many of the neighborhoods with the best schools are also some of the priciest -- where demand is high, prices go up. Fay Besharat, real estate agent and team leader for Re/Max in Bellevue, Washington, located in suburban Seattle, frequently works with families relocating for highly competitive schools, even when neighborhood home prices can be limiting. "Some people want to be specifically in certain elementary schools, but they don't qualify income-wise for that," Besharat says. Sometimes the neighborhood's priciness could completely eliminate it as an option, but if you're set on a particular school, compromising on some home amenities can help you get there. But you want to avoid sacrificing too much for a quality school district, as enough bedrooms and space for your family to be comfortable is important to maintaining a sense of home. Besharat says the West Bellevue neighborhood has high home values and highly desired schools, which will limit the options for buyers who are confined by their budget. "If they have families and they want to be in West Bellevue, and they're picky about the house being old, then it's not going to work out," Besharat says. Buying the worst home on a block doesn't have to be a bad thing, especially if you're buying in a competitive neighborhood, since your home equity will increase over time in a healthy market. If you gradually update the house, by the time you're ready to put it on the market, you can hopefully sell it for a larger profit margin than the neighbors who bought the move-in ready house two doors down. Consider alternatives. If you prefer a neighborhood that doesn't filter schools where you want to send your kids, there are always alternatives to ensure your children get the education you think would be best for them. Within the Dallas city limits, Trusler says there are some neighborhoods where elementary schools are highly ranked, but the local middle school doesn't receive the same notoriety. Some parents will move to those neighborhoods with the plan to send their children to private school after they finish in public elementary. "It really depends on, neighborhood to neighborhood, how sticky they may be on wanting to be in one particular school district versus the other," Trusler says. Depending on where you live, open enrollment could be another option. Open enrollment allows students in low-performing schools to enroll in a school outside their designated district. State policy dictates whether districts can opt in or out of open enrollment, so while many places do offer the opportunity to place your child in a school other than the one designated for your neighborhood, be sure it's an option before you move. Other stipulations, like an application process or minimum standardized or entrance exam score, could be required to enter your child into open enrollment. Before you buy, visit the school. There's nothing worse than buyer's remorse, especially on what is often considered the biggest investment you'll ever make. Don't buy a home in a school district unless you are confident it's a good fit for your child. Claar recommends visiting the school before you make a decision, as a tour of the school and the opportunity for your child to sit in on a class can help ensure the curriculum is the right speed. PTA participation, after-school activities and opportunities for you to get involved as a parent could make one school a better environment over another. Taking the time to meet with school or district administrators, as well as your child's potential teachers, can help you decide if it's an institution you feel comfortable with your child attending. In many cases the sense of community, rather than test scores or other statistics, make a school the right fit, as Claar notes, "Some of the best schools have a warm and fuzzy feeling that can't be conveyed with data." Hong Kong (AFP) - Hong Kong has hit back at former colonial governor Chris Patten after he said academic freedoms in the city were under threat, as tensions with London rise over Beijing's growing influence. In an article published earlier this week, Britain's Patten said "the autonomy of universities and free speech itself" were at risk in Hong Kong due to interference from the Chinese authorities. "The rationale seems to be that, because students strongly supported the pro-democracy protests in 2014, the universities where they study should be brought to heel," said Patten in an article for global opinion site Project Syndicate, referring to huge street rallies that brought parts of the city to a standstill for more than two months. "The city's government blunders away, stirring up trouble, clearly on the orders of the government in Beijing," he added. Patten's comments come after a liberal scholar was rejected for a senior post at Hong Kong University, prompting protests from staff and students, and a pro-Beijing stalwart was appointed its council chairman. He also said that universities should "control their own academic governance" -- Hong Kong's unpopular leader Leung Chun-ying is chancellor of all the universities in the city, a long-standing tradition. Hong Kong's education bureau issued a statement late Wednesday chastising Patten for "acting in complete ignorance of the facts". It said he could have revised legislation over who should head universities during his five-year tenure as the city's last governor, before the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997. "The current practice of the chief executive being the chancellor of the government-funded universities precisely stems from the then Governor Patten's decision," the statement said. It defended Hong Kong's academic freedoms, calling them "an important social value" safeguarded by law. Story continues The bureau also rebuked Patten for saying local government was acting on Beijing's orders. "Such a claim is totally groundless and a sheer fabrication," it said. Tensions in the city have heightened since the disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers known for publishing titles critical of Beijing. Four are now under official criminal investigation in China and the fifth, Lee Bo, a British passport holder, says he is "assisting" authorities there. Lee's case sparked the most outrage as he is the only bookseller to have disappeared from Hong Kong. The others were last seen in Thailand and southern mainland China. Patten attacked Beijing for "abducting a British citizen on the city's streets". The booksellers case has sparked international concern, with Britain saying earlier this month that Lee Bo's disappearance was a "serious breach" of the agreement signed with Beijing before the handover, which protects Hong Kong's way of life for 50 years. Young protesters are increasingly frustrated that they are not being heard by authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing. Street battles with police earlier this month left more than 100 injured, sparked by an attempted crackdown on hawkers in the commercial district of Mong Kok. A Jerusalem hotel is offering the first two couples to conceive a child in one of their rooms on Feb. 29 a hotel package worth up to $99,300 to celebrate leap year. Playing on the double entendre of leap year -- which also means "pregnant year" in Hebrew -- Hotel Yehuda has launched a babymaking campaign, inviting couples trying to conceive to bring their efforts to their hotel. The rule is simple: The first two couples to conceive a child while staying at the hotel on Feb. 29 will get a bris, bar mitzvah and wedding worth $99,300 USD (90,000). Couples must provide a doctor's note, and will get their prize nine months later. Since launching the campaign, the hotel says that 50 percent of their rooms have been booked over Feb. 29. It's one of several marketing deals to capitalize on the holiday that comes once every four years. Online travel site Expedia is offering 29 percent off hotel deals for guests who book through their mobile app on Feb. 29. Travelocity is offering 30 percent off for hotel reservations made before Feb. 29, and on CheapOair, flyers can save up to $30 on airfares booked by Monday. By Marton Dunai BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary said on Thursday its planned referendum on EU-mandated migrant resettlement quotas will cover only future proposals, not a separate one-off quota decision, but it rejected criticism of the vote as coming from an "ivory tower" in Brussels. Hungary has been at odds with the European Commission and some fellow EU countries over how to handle a large migrant influx into the bloc, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban proposed a referendum on Wednesday to see whether Hungarians accepted the quotas, something his government firmly opposes. The referendum plan may clash with an agreed EU-wide strategy to handle the refugee crisis, the European Commission said on Thursday. A spokeswoman withheld further comment pending clarifications from Orban, who set no date for the vote. Along with Slovakia, Hungary challenged in court a majority decision by EU governments in September to redistribute 160,000 migrants among member states over a period of two years according to one-off quotas. Szijjarto said that move was "made with a disregard to EU rules". "We do not think that matter is resolved because the European Court has yet to rule on it," Szijjarto told a news conference alongside Slovak counterpart Miroslav Lajcak, another staunch foe of quotas and Hungary's partner in the European Court challenge. "We think that decision, or move interpreted as a decision, is invalid... Hungarians reserve the right to be heard on any potential future decision that would make such a set-up systemic," he said. Szijjarto also rejected as anti-democratic criticism from Brussels, where diplomats have said Hungary's combative attitude and its referendum were "not helpful" to efforts to find a coordinated, EU-wide solution to the migrant crisis. "Not helpful in what? Asking for people's opinions in an important matter does not help? I don't get this attitude," Szijjarto said. "In the ivory tower of Brussels they may not like people expressing their views on important European matters but we think this is important enough that we don't decide without hearing what our voters have to say first." He rejected the concern by some legal analysts who said referendums could not be held on obligations arising from an international treaty, like the one signed by EU members. "We never signed any treaty that would allow anyone to tell us who we must or must not let enter our country. This is a matter of sovereignty," Szijjarto said. Slovakia's Lajcak, whose government faces an election on March 5, also said quotas were a misguided approach that did nothing to solve the crisis. "If your roof leaks, sanity dictates to fix it, not try to ferry the water around the house in buckets," he said. "Fix the roof, then deal with the water in your house." (Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Mark Heinrich) By Rina Chandran MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Indian government action to increase spending on irrigation and crop insurance is not enough to end a cycle of indebtedness that has led to thousands of farmer suicides, and a complete overhaul of credit and subsidies to farmers is needed, activists said. Drought in many parts of the country has hit rice, cotton and other crops, and lower world commodity prices have added to the farmers' plight. More than half India's farming households are in debt, owing banks and moneylenders hundreds of millions of rupees, despite numerous loan write-offs by successive governments. Tens of thousands of farmers across the country have killed themselves over the past decade, several farmers' lobbying groups said. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who presents the federal budget for fiscal 2016-17 on Feb. 29, has to balance stimulating economic growth with aiding farmers and poorer sections of society. Farmers' groups have been demanding better monsoon forecasts, bigger fertilizer subsidies and a state-funded insurance scheme for all crops, to help farmers improve yields and help prevent crop failures. "The need of the hour is a focus on the dying farmer community," said activist Kishor Tiwari, who heads a task force set up to recommend action to tackle farmer suicides in western Maharashtra state, which accounted for more than half of all suicides among Indian farmers in 2014. "Debt is a core issue, and it needs a long-term plan to resolve it," he said. While inter-generational bonded labor in the farming community is no longer as common as before, the number of poor and landless workers who are in debt bondage is rising, particularly in agriculture, brick kilns and stone quarries, activists say. Indian farmers seldom own the land they cultivate, and often take loans to buy seeds and fertilisers. Only about one tenth of India's 263 million cultivators take out crop insurance because of the high premiums. Unpredictable weather and low crop yields have made farming unviable for many. Financial assistance provided by the government usually doesn't cover the losses, and some farmers have migrated to urban areas for low-paid jobs, even selling their blood to make ends meet. Tiwari, in a plan submitted to the Maharashtra government, has recommended direct cash subsidies for farmers instead of the current indirect agriculture credit. He also suggested the central and state governments help underwrite full crop insurance cover and promote the adoption of organic farming methods in drought-prone districts, to help restore soil quality and benefit from the higher price of organic produce, even though yields are lower. A total of 5,650 farmer suicides were recorded in India in 2014, more than half of them in Maharashtra, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. The states of Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chattisgarh and Karnataka also had large numbers of farmer suicides. The cabinet last month cleared a proposal for the country's first major crop-damage insurance scheme. The government has said it will reduce premiums to be paid by farmers, and ensure faster settlements. Delays in estimating crop damage and paying claims are a big challenge, said Sunita Narain, director of non-profit Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi. The government must encourage the use of new technologies, including remote sensing and mobile-based image capturing systems to improve yield data and claims processing, she said. "Insurance coverage has to be universal and payouts enough to cover losses," she wrote in a blog. Farm output contributes about 15 percent to India's $2 trillion economy, and farmers and rural communities are a large and powerful vote bank. Politicians have often promised to waive farmers' loan repayments, but have not addressed the underlying reasons for their chronic indebtedness, Tiwari said. "Loan waivers are not the solution; it is like a simple dressing for a cancer tumor. You need to excise the tumor and address the cause of the disease," he said. (Reporting by Rina ChandraRn, editing by Tim Pearce. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories.) Tehran (AFP) - The field for Iran's parliamentary election on Friday has narrowed sharply with more than a fifth of the candidates pulling out, apparently urging voters to back the main political lists instead. The head of the interior ministry's election headquarters, Mohammad Hossein Moghimi, said on Thursday that 4,844 hopefuls would contest the 290 seats, meaning 1,385 candidates have withdrawn. Polls will open at 0430 GMT and are scheduled to close at 1430 GMT but voting could be extended if required, Iranian media quoted him as saying. His comments followed a state television appearance late Wednesday by Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli who revealed the fall in numbers. "It now leaves around 17 people competing for each parliamentary seat," Fazli said. "Ten percent of the total candidates are women," he added, a figure that amounts to a cut of about 100 female candidates, leaving some 500 still running. Iranian politics is dominated by factions rather than political parties and Friday's poll will see conservatives up against moderates and reform-minded candidates on a series of lists. A pro-government List of Hope comprising moderates and reformists is supporting President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate who is looking for his allies to make gains against conservatives. The main conservative list is headed by Gholam-Ali Hadad Adel, a former parliament speaker, whose daughter is married to one of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's sons. Election results from outside Tehran are expected within 24 hours of the close of polls but the count in the capital, which has a population of 12 million and is electing 30 lawmakers, will take three days. For the first time, voting will also take place on the same day for the 88 members of the Assembly of Experts, a powerful committee of clerics that will choose Iran's next supreme leader. Fazli said the number of candidates in that ballot had also fallen, from 161 to 159. Tehran (AFP) - Iran, which holds crucial elections on Friday, is an Islamic republic still rebuilding its international ties after implementing a deal with world powers on its long-controversial nuclear programme. Here are some key facts: - From monarchy to Islamic republic - The descendant of the Persian Empire, Iran, with an area of 1,648,195 square kilometres (659,278 square miles), was long a monarchy ruled by a shah and dominated by the Pahlavi dynasty from 1925 to 1979. In January 1979, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was driven out by a popular revolt and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a revolutionary Shiite cleric who had lived in exile for a decade and a half, made a triumphant return on February 1, 1979. The shah's government fell 10 days later when public radio announced "the end of 2,500 years of despotism". An Islamic republic was proclaimed on April 1, 1979. - Conservatives vs. reformists - After the death of Khomeini in 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was chosen as the country's new supreme leader, a post he holds to this day. Over that time, Iran has seen a succession of presidents of various political stripes -- Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (moderate conservative, 1989-1997), Mohammad Khatami (reformist, 1997-2005), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (ultra-conservative, 2005-2013), and Hassan Rouhani (moderate, 2013 to date). Friday's elections to parliament and to the Assembly of Experts, both currently dominated by conservatives, are key tests for Rouhani. He hopes to secure a majority for moderates and reformists in parliament to enact political and social reforms. - Historic nuclear accord - After taking office, Rouhani relaunched formal negotiations with major powers including the United States on Iran's nuclear programme. Secret talks had already been held with Washington. A historic accord was signed on July 14, 2015 and implemented on January 16, 2016, bringing a 13-year-long dispute to a close. Terms of the accord stipulate that Tehran will not try to build a nuclear bomb, an ambition it has always denied. In exchange, crippling international sanctions will be gradually lifted. Story continues - Shiite champion - In parallel with its opening to the international community, Iran has asserted itself as the dominant Shiite power, facing off with Sunni heavyweight Saudi Arabia. In the Syrian civil war, Tehran has backed the regime against Sunni rebels supported by Riyadh. It has also backed the Shiite-led government in neighbouring Iraq as well as coreligionists in Lebanon and Yemen. - Economy recovering from sanctions - Iran is the Middle East's second biggest economy after Saudi Arabia, with a gross domestic product estimated by the World Bank at $406.3 billion in 2014. With a population of around 79 million, Iran is also the second most populous country in the region, after Egypt. As of 2015, Iran ranked first in the world in natural gas reserves and fourth in proven crude oil reserves, according to energy giant BP. Western sanctions on oil sales saw Iran's output sink to 2.8 million barrels per day, little more than a million of them for export. But after they were lifted last month, the oil ministry ordered an immediate 500,000 bpd hike. The sanctions, which had been progressively tightened since 2006, had had a crippling effect on the whole economy and their gradual easing, even before the final nuclear deal, has led to a return to growth. Business activity expanded by 3.0 percent in 2014, following contractions of 6.6 percent and 1.9 percent in 2012 and 2013, according to World Bank figure. The International Monetary Fund projects the economy will grow by 4.3 percent in 2016-2017 as more sanctions are lifted. Qom (Iran) (AFP) - While the rest of Iran focuses on an election defined by competing visions for the country, most people in the holy city of Qom declare only one allegiance: to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A traditionally conservative bastion at the centre of Iran's Shiite faith, the duty to vote in Qom is billed as another means to support the clerical regime's opposition to Western powers. The city of over one million people has been historically synonymous as the home of Iran's clerics where students are taught Islamic history, jurisprudence and doctrine by grand ayatollahs in ancient schools. It houses the mausoleum of Masoumeh, sister of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam to come after the Prophet Mohammad in Shiite Islam. Each year, hundreds of thousands of worshippers visit. Qom, together with the Iraqi city of Najaf, compete for the world's most venerable Shiite sites. Residents don't seem to rate the prospects of conservatives, political moderates or reformists, who are fighting for dominance in parliament in Tehran. "I only support the supreme leader," Reza Ahmadi, a 65-year-old man wearing a keffiyah scarf, said of Khamenei, the Islamic republic's ultimate authority, as he returned from midday prayers. On Friday, Iranians will pick 290 new MPs and 88 members of the country's Assembly of Experts, a powerful committee of clerics who monitor Khamenei's work. The assembly will also choose his successor if he dies during its looming eight-year term. Qom will have three representatives in parliament while the city and its eponymous province gets one member in the assembly. - 'Khamenei number one' - Zahra Yazdi, 23, a girl in chador -- a traditional full black veil-- said she would cast her vote "to stop foreigners from influencing my country." "There are some infiltrator elements in Iran who are ordered by foreign powers but our people are smart and ... will stop the infiltration." Story continues She will vote "principlist" (conservative) on Friday "because they follow the supreme leader." Other groups, including the reformists, "might seem followers of the leader but in their hearts they are not," she added. Reformists are accused by some conservatives of either being too easy on the West or, worse still, complicit in plots to undermine the Islamic republic, a constitutional theocracy since a revolution in 1979. Such claims remain strong, especially following the disputed 2009 elections where reformist opponents of the re-election of hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were labelled "seditionists". Asghar Amanabadi, 29, from Arak province in central Iran was on a pilgrimage to Qom with his wife and baby. Standing next to the mausoleum he had to shout over the call of prayers. "Ayatollah Khamenei is the number one figure in our country," Amanabadi said. "We all support him, but the principlists support him more." On the last day of campaigning this week the supreme leader himself said that Iranians want lawmakers who won't be intimidated by the United States. - 'Law is red line' - Khamenei has said there will be no direct talks with Washington on any subject despite nuclear negotiations between Iran and world powers that resulted in a deal last July and the lifting of sanctions last month. Since the nuclear agreement Khamenei has warned that Iran must guard against economic, social and cultural "infiltration" from the United States and other western countries. Amanabadi agreed, saying infiltration was "not unlikely". To him, Iranians should rely on their own rather than accepting "foreign technology" and "losing control" to the foreigners through it. But 34-year-old cleric Enayatollah Bahmani, from southern Khuzestan province who has been doing religious studies in Qom, said he refused to fall for partisan political bickering. "A true principlist is someone devoted to the revolutionary principles and ideals ... from any political party," he insisted. Still, not everyone showed enthusiasm for the conservatives. "I approve of the reformists more than others," said Zabihollah Sinapour, 26, a visiting student from Yasuj, in southwest Iran. "I prefer to have the law as my red line and reformists have shown compliance to the law better than others." By Dasha Afanasieva ANKARA (Reuters) - Companies from 20 countries are involved in the supply chain of components that end up in Islamic State explosives, a study found on Thursday, suggesting governments and firms need to do more to track the flow of cables, chemicals and other equipment. The European Union-mandated study showed that 51 companies from countries including Turkey, Brazil, and the United States produced, sold or received the more than 700 components used by Islamic State to build improvised explosive devices (IEDs). IEDs are now being produced on a "quasi-industrial scale" by the militant group, which uses both industrial components that are regulated and widely available equipment such as fertiliser chemicals and mobile phones, according to Conflict Armament Research (CAR), which undertook the 20-month study. Islamic State controls large swathes of Iraq and Syria. NATO member Turkey shares borders with both countries and has stepped up security to prevent the flow of weapons and insurgents to the hardline Sunni group. A total of 13 Turkish firms were found to be involved in the supply chain, the most in any one country. That was followed by India with seven. "These findings support growing international awareness that IS forces in Iraq and Syria are very much self-sustaining acquiring weapons and strategic goods, such as IED components, locally and with ease," said James Bevan, CAR's executive director. The sale of these cheap and readily available parts, some of which are not subject to government export licences, is far less scrutinised and regulated than the transfer of weapons. The study found that Islamic State is able to acquire some components in as a little as a month after their lawful supply to firms in the region, suggestion a lack of oversight in the supply chain. "Companies having effective accounting systems to establish where the goods went after them would act as a deterrent," Bevan said. 'REFUSED TO COOPERATE' Bevan said the Turkish government refused to cooperate with CAR's investigation so the group was not able to determine the efficacy of Ankara's regulations regarding the tracking of components. Turkish government officials did not reply to requests for comment. CAR gained access to the components through partners including the Washington-backed Kurdish YPG in Syria, the Iraqi Federal Police, the Kurdistan Region Security Council and forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government. The components were recovered during major battles around the Iraqi towns of al Rabia, Kirkuk, Mosul, and Tikrit and the Syrian town of Kobani. The report's authors said they attempted to contact the companies linked to the components, adding the firms did not respond or were not able to account for where the goods went after they left their custody. Seven Indian companies manufactured most of the detonators, detonating cord, and safety fuses documented by CAR. Those were all legally exported under government-issued licences from India to entities in Lebanon and Turkey, CAR found. Companies from Brazil, Romania, Russia, the Netherlands, China, Switzerland, Austria and Czech Republic were also involved, the report found. (Additional reporting by Orhan Coskun; Editing by David Dolan) Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel on Thursday denounced an Iranian decision to give thousands of dollars to relatives of Palestinians killed during Israeli-Palestinian violence that has soared in recent months. Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Fathali, said Wednesday that Tehran would offer $7,000 to the families of each Palestinian killed in what he called the "Jerusalem intifada". Iran will also give $30,000 to Palestinian families whose homes have been destroyed by Israel because a member is accused of carrying out an anti-Israeli attack, he told a news conference in Beirut. According to Iran's official news agency IRNA, representatives of the Palestinian militant movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, met with Fathali in Beirut. The money pledged is in addition to the monthly aid paid since 1987 by an Iranian institution to families of Palestinians killed in the violence, he said. "This shows that Iran, even after the nuclear agreement (with world powers), is continuing to aid terrorism, including Palestinian terrorism, Hezbollah terrorism and its assistance to Hamas," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday before meeting his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov in Jerusalem. "This is something that the nations of the world must confront and condemn and assist Israel -- and other countries, of course -- in repelling," he added. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, has written to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging condemnation of the Iranian initiative, Israel public radio reported. A wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming assaults that erupted in October has claimed the lives of 28 Israelis, as well as an American, a Sudanese and an Eritrean. The violence has also seen 176 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, most while carrying out attacks but others during clashes and demonstrations. Netanyahu, under political pressure to halt the violence, has moved to expedite demolitions of alleged attackers' homes as a punitive measure. Story continues Iran and Israel are ardent foes. Netanyahu was one of the most vociferous critics of the nuclear deal that was implemented in January, leading to the lifting of international sanctions on Tehran. The oil-flush Islamic republic is expected to reap an economic reward worth billions of dollars following the landmark accord. Israel fears the money will be used to finance Iranian misdeeds in the region and to support groups hostile to the Jewish state such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Sudanese migrant who stabbed and wounded a soldier in Israel two weeks ago was motivated by Islamic State ideology, the Shin Bet internal security service said on Thursday. It was the first such attack by an African migrant during five months when Palestinians have intensified anti-Israeli street attacks including stabbing, shootings and car ramming. The Sudanese assailant, Kamal Has, was shot dead after he wounded the soldier in the town of Ashkelon on Feb. 7. The bloodshed has been fueled by factors including a dispute over Jerusalem's a-la's mosque compound and the failure of several rounds of peace talks to secure the Palestinians an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory. In a statement, the Shin Bet said Has san was a devout Muslim and that investigators found photos of "Islamic State loyalists taken in locations around the world" on his cellphone. "It looks like the attack was inspired by ISIS," the statement said, stopping short of alleging that Has had received direct instructions from the group. Since October, Palestinian street attacks have killed 28 Israelis and a U.S. citizen. Israeli security forces have killed at least 168 Palestinians, 111 of whom Israel says were assailants, while most others were shot dead during violent anti-Israeli protests. What constitutes genuine Islamic State action outside its Middle East fiefdom is a question bedeviling security agencies worldwide. Israeli security services, like many around the world, are concerned by the prospect of "lone wolf" attacks by assailants influenced by Islamic State and its powerful social media outreach. Last year, the Shin Bet arrested several Israeli Arabs it said were trying to form an armed cell under orders from two fellow citizens fighting with Islamic State in Iraq. Israel faces more active threats from armed Palestinian factions like Hamas, as well as from Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon, though officials point to Islamic State affiliates in the Egyptian Sinai as having the potential to launch cross-border attacks too. (Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) Money-losing Sharp on Thursday accepted a multi-billion-dollar bailout from the parent of Taiwan's Foxconn, ending speculation over its uncertain future with the first foreign takeover of a major Japanese electronics firm. Sharp -- which has teetered on the edge of bankruptcy for years -- had been mulling rival offers from Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision, better known as Foxconn, and the public-private Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ). On Thursday, its board unanimously chose the rescue package from colourful billionaire Terry Gou, whose firm is the world's biggest electronics supplier, counting iPhone maker Apple among its top clients. But after the announcement, Foxconn said it would postpone signing the deal because it had to review a new "key document" it had received from Sharp. "We notified Sharp... that our side needs to clarify the content and postpone signing a deal," it said in a statement to AFP. "We look forward to clarifying it soon so the deal can come to a satisfying ending." Foxconn did not elaborate, and a Sharp spokeswoman could not offer further details. Gou, 65, has been courting Sharp for years, but Japan's government was reportedly concerned about Sharp's key technologies falling into the hands of a foreign firm. Despite its bleeding balance sheet, Sharp is still a leader in liquid crystal display (LCD) technology and the firm remains one of Japan's best-known corporate brands overseas. Foxconn's chief held meetings with Sharp this month at its headquarters in Osaka, declaring a deal was all but done. But Sharp's chief refused to show his hand, insisting both offers were being considered seriously. Under the deal Hon Hai will take a 65.9 percent stake in Sharp worth 489 billion yen ($4.34 billion). Media reported the value of the deal could reach 700 billion yen if it includes Sharp's debt. Sharp's volatile stock dived nearly 15 percent to 149 yen in Tokyo on fears the deal would dilute the value of current investors' shares, although analysts cheered the tie-up. Story continues "Hon Hai and Sharp complement each other," said Yukihiko Nakata, a technology professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University and a former Sharp engineer. "Sharp is strong in research and development, while Hon Hai knows how to market products to customers such as Apple and it also has expertise in production... Together they can go global." - Fall from grace - The pair have worked together for years on large-sized screen technology, including for televisions, and jointly operate an LCD panel plant in Japan. "This is a win-win for Hon Hai and Sharp with respect to the Apple business," Taiwan's Fubon Securities said in recent analysis. Media reports suggested the Taiwanese firm's offer would keep Sharp intact, while it would be broken up under the rival Japanese bid. "The only advantage (of the Japanese offer) was economies of scale, but that alone is not enough to compete in the global market," Nakata said. While the deal may keep Sharp in business, it is a blow to Japan's once mighty electronics sector. Along with rivals Sony and Panasonic, Japan's electronics giants were hammered by steep losses in their television units owing to stiff competition from lower-cost rivals, particularly in South Korea and Taiwan. They were also outmanoeuvred in the mobile phone business, and critics have seen Sharp as a prime example of a so-called zombie company that should be allowed to die. Japan Inc. is littered with money-losing firms kept alive through bailouts and other assistance, partly to avoid massive job losses. Century-old Sharp, which also supplies smartphone and tablet screens to Apple but started life making belt buckles and pencils, was among Japan's leading firms with an internationally recognised brand. The company's name once graced the jerseys of Manchester United players, but it has long since withdrawn from sponsoring the English Premier League football club. Sharp piled up eye-watering losses after the 2008 global financial crisis and has struggled through a restructuring plan that has yet to pull it out of the red. Saddled with huge debts, the firm this month posted a whopping nine-month net loss of more than $900 million, hit by restructuring costs and a slump in demand for its smartphone screens. Jason Katims is ready to take on romance. The Friday Night Lights and Parenthood alum has scored a pilot order at Showtime for comedy anthology Mating, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Written and created by Stu Zicherman (The Americans, Lights Out, Six Degrees), the project explores modern mating, with each season exploring a different protagonist's journey. The comedy will center on a recently divorced guy who tries to evolve and connect, one date at a time. A search is underway for the male lead for the yearlong anthology, with the lead set for a one-year deal as season two would tell a different story. The pilot order is contingent on finding a leading man. Zicherman will pen the script and executive produce Mating alongside Katims and his Universal Television-based True Jack Productions topper Michelle Lee. The project was first put in development in August 2014. With the pilot order, Showtime has boarded the comedy as a co-production with Universal Television. See More: 'Parenthood': Family Bonding With the Bravermans on the Set of the Jason Katims Drama Mating becomes True Jack's latest small-screen project. Katims also is writing the pilot for romantic drama Us at HBO as well as CBS drama pilot Bunker Hill, the latter of which was redeveloped from last season. Additionally, True Jack is exec producing Hulu's straight-to-series cult drama The Path, which stars Aaron Paul and is set to premiere March 30. Mating marks a key off-network sale for NBCUniversal-owned Universal Television, with cable and streaming a top priority for the Bela Bajaria-run studio. This pilot season, the studio has been keen to give up a portion of ownership in a bid to sell more to outside networks, which was the case with Mating. In addition to Katims' Hulu and HBO projects, the studio has off-network sales in A&E's Bates Motel, Fox's Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Hulu's The Mindy Project and Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, among others. Story continues For Showtime, meanwhile, Mating serves as a reunion for Katims and Showtime topper David Nevins, who exec produced Friday Night Lights. The comedy marks the premium cable network's second pilot in the mix and first comedy. The cabler also has an untitled drama starring Lena Waithe and Common in contention. The pilot also puts Showtime in the anthology business where, should Mating move to series, it would be part of a conversation that includes True Detective, American Horror Story, American Crime and American Crime Story, among others. Katims, an Emmy winner for Friday Night Lights, is repped by CAA and Schreck Rose. Zicherman is with WME and Mosaic. By Marcus E. Howard (Reuters) - More than 200 people treated at a New Jersey medical center may have been exposed to HIV or hepatitis B or C because of a former employee accused of tampering with drugs, the hospital said on Thursday. Shore Medical Center in Somers Point, located on the southern New Jersey coast outside of Atlantic City, sent letters last week to 213 patients who were treated with certain intravenous medications, including morphine, between June 1, 2013 and Sept. 17, 2014. "We have been working with public health authorities to determine if patients could have been exposed to blood-borne pathogens at Shore through contact with this employee's blood," said hospital spokesman Brian Cahill in a statement. Free testing and support are being offered to the patients, the hospital said. New Jersey Health Department spokeswoman Dawn Thomas described the risk of exposure as low. Frederick McLeish, 53, a former pharmacist at the hospital, is accused of removing the drugs from vials intended to be used in the preparation of intravenous medications for patients, and replacing them with a saline solution. His attorney, John Zarych, declined to comment on the case. The hospital detected a problem and fired McLeish, of Egg Harbor Township, after an internal investigation. On Jan. 21 he was indicted by an Atlantic County grand jury on charges of drug tampering, theft and drug possession. He was released on bail the same day, according to a court official. On Monday, McLeish was arraigned in Atlantic County Superior Court. A status hearing, at which he is expected to enter a plea, has been scheduled for March 7. McLeish had been authorized to prescribe, dispense or administer medication, according to the Atlantic County prosecutor's office. The hospital, state health department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are still investigating. (Reporting by Marcus E. Howard in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) By Duncan Miriri NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's KenolKobil expects to be debt free in the next three months after the oil marketer used asset sale proceeds to pay down debt, Chief Executive David Ohana said on Thursday. KenolKobil on Wednesday said it had completed the sale of its Tanzania business, which had 17 service stations, as well as a fuel depot in Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It did not disclose the value of the two transactions, which took two years to complete. Ohana said the company's debt had fallen to about $28 million from $170 million two years ago. The company's gearing ratio, or proportion of debt on its balance sheet, fell to 25 percent from 55 percent. "In two to three months, this company will be debt free," Ohana told Reuters on phone. "We are very happy. We don't want to work for banks. We want to keep the margins for ourselves," he said. High debt levels pushed the company to a record pre-tax loss of 8.9 billion shillings ($87.56 million) in 2012 and helped scupper a takeover bid of the firm by Switzerland-based Puma Energy. Ohana blamed business practices in both Tanzania and the DRC for the company's decision to exit both markets. "In every country we operate in, we comply with the rules. When people don't pay taxes, you can't compete with them," he said, adding the Tanzania business was not making money. KenolKobil, which has a 15-16 percent market share in Kenya, and says it is the most profitable oil firm in the country, had opted for organic growth, Ohana said. It opened 12 new petrol stations in Kenya last year. It has nearly doubled its outlets in Burundi in the past three years and also built more outlets in Rwanda, he said. "Our network is increasing," he said. KenolKobil also operates in other African nations including Ethiopia and Zambia. Ohana said the company would expand further if the need arises. "Where there will be opportunities, we will go for them," he said. ($1 = 101.6500 Kenyan shillings) (Editing by George Obulutsa and Jason Neely) Washington (AFP) - Iran has withdrawn a "significant number" of its Revolutionary Guards troops from the Syrian battlefield, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday. Iran is an ally of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and has sent members of the elite force to act as "advisers" to his forces and to organize militia units with volunteers from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. Tehran also arms and supports Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, which has itself dispatched forces to shore up the Syrian regime against local rebel forces. But Kerry, speaking two days before a tentative ceasefire is due due to take effect in the long-running civil war, told a congressional committee that Tehran's direct involvement had been reduced. "The IRGC has actually pulled its troops back from Syria. Ayatollah Khamenei pulled a significant number of troops out. Their presence is actually reduced in Syria," Kerry told US lawmakers, referring to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "That doesn't mean that they're still not engaged and active in the flow of weapons from Syria through Damascus to Lebanon. We're concerned about that and there's an ongoing concern." Kerry did not give the source of his information in the open hearing, but he invited the lawmakers "to get the intel briefing." Tehran has never released official figures for the number of its troops present in Syria, but since October last year more than 100 Iranians have been killed there, including some senior Guards commanders, according to an AFP tally. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator John McCain on Thursday urged the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to hold a hearing on the possible sale of Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters he was concerned about the timing of the Obama administration's decision to approve the sale of the fighter jets to Pakistan, and potential consequences for U.S. relations with India. "I would rather have seen it kicked over into the next administration," McCain said. He said a hearing would help senators decide what to do about the proposed sale, noting that he was himself very "conflicted." The U.S. government announced on Feb. 12 that it had approved the sale to Pakistan of up to eight F-16 fighter jets, as well as radars and other equipment in a deal valued at $699 million. The deal drew immediate criticism from India. U.S. lawmakers now have 30 days to block the sale, although such action is rare since deals are usually well-vetted before any formal notification. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker allowed the Obama administration to proceed with the deal, but said he would not approve using U.S. funds to pay for the planes through the foreign military financing (FMF) program. Corker told Secretary of State John Kerry in a letter earlier this month that he was concerned about Pakistan's ties to the Haqqani network, a militant group that U.S. officials have said is behind attacks in Afghanistan. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Andrea Ricci) South Korea's opposition party lawmakers were staging the country's first filibuster for nearly 50 years on Thursday to block an anti-terrorism bill that gives more surveillance powers to the country's spy agency. Since late Tuesday, eight lawmakers from the opposition Minjoo Party and Justice Party have taken turns to hold the main floor of parliament for nearly 50 hours. Lawmaker Eun Soo-Mi on Wednesday delivered a speech for more than 10 hours -- a local record -- to call for the disputed bill to be revised, in the country's first filibuster since 1969. The bill, pushed by the ruling conservative Saenuri Party, allows the spy agency to collect a wide range of personal data -- some without a court warrant -- including phone records of those suspected of posing a security threat. The bill also allows the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to have Internet posts deleted if it deems they pose a threat to public security. The Saenuri Party currently holds more than a half of the parliamentary seats and top party officials earlier vowed to pass the bill without the revisions demanded by opposition lawmakers. "If this bill becomes the law, the NIS will have tremendous, unbridled power to monitor the lives of our citizens and to collect their personal information," Yoo Seung-Hee of the Minjoo Party said. "This law will seriously rock the very foundation of our democracy," she said in a five-hour speech Thursday morning before another lawmaker took over the podium. A survey by the polling agency Realmeter showed Thursday that 46 percent of South Koreans opposed the bill and 42.6 percent supported it. President Park Geun-Hye said the bill was aimed at helping protect South Korean citizens from the growing threat of terrorism, including from North Korea. But opposition party lawmakers argue the bill may be used to monitor and crack down on political dissent. The NIS had a notorious reputation in the decades of authoritarian rule, before South Korea embraced democracy in the 1980s, and its modern incarnation has faced a series of scandals including election meddling. Senior officials, including a former NIS head, were convicted of organising an online smear campaign against the liberal opposition candidate during the 2012 presidential poll won by Park. Critics say freedom of assembly and expression have been significantly eroded in recent years, accusing Park, daughter of the late autocratic ruler Park Chung-Hee, of slipping towards authoritarian rule. Baghdad (AFP) - At least nine people were killed on Thursday in a double suicide bombing targeting a mosque for Shiite worshippers in the northwest of the Iraqi capital, police said. Sunni extremists of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group claimed the attack. "Two suicide bombers wearing explosive belts blew themselves up in front of the Rasul al-Azam (mosque) in the Shuala district" of Baghdad, a police official said, adding that more than 20 people were wounded in the blasts. "The first suicide bomber blew himself up among the worshippers as they left" the mosque, he said. "The second explosion targeted police forces who had arrived to treat the wounded," causing more fatalities, he said. Medical sources confirmed the death toll. IS said in a statement posted on jihadist forums the first attacker blew himself up inside the mosque and other detonated his explosives when security forces arrived at the scene. The blasts in the mainly Shiite neighbourhood came on the eve of a planned protest that radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called for in Baghdad and said he would personally attend. Sadr has called on his supporters to attend protests in the capital and other cities to demand an end to corruption and improved public services. Tens of thousands of his supporters are expected to take part. KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia blocked access to a widely read news portal on Thursday, the latest in a series of clampdowns on media organizations that have published reports critical of the government and Prime Minister Najib Razak. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said in a statement that the Malaysian Insider had breached laws under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. The Malaysian Insider has published several reports on the scandal around 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and investigations into $681 million deposited into Prime Minister Najib's personal accounts. The 1998 act prohibits using a website to publish "any comment, request, suggestion or other communication which is obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person". "The MCMC reminds news portals not to spread or publish articles where the facts have not been proven. This is because such actions could create confusion and spark unintended situations," the commission said, adding that the block arose from complaints and information from the public. No further details were given. Najib has denied any wrongdoing over the money transferred into his account, saying that the funds were a political donation and that nothing was taken for his personal gain. Malaysia's attorney-general closed all investigations into Najib last month, after reviewing investigation reports from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). The Malaysian Insider's editor and chief executive Jahabar Sadiq said the portal had yet to receive an official notice from the MCMC on the blockage. Jahabar, along with two other editors of the website, was arrested last year on suspicion of sedition. They were later released on bail and have not been charged. Last year, Malaysia blocked the U.K.-based portal Sarawak Report, saying it had violated a local internet law. It also suspended two financial newspapers, the Edge Weekly and the Edge Financial Daily last year for reporting on alleged graft at 1MDB. Both papers are owned by The Edge Media Group, which also own The Malaysian Insider. The suspension was lifted in September after an order by the Malaysian High Court. (Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Praveen Menon, John Chalmers and Richard Balmforth) (Reuters) - Everton manager Roberto Martinez has highlighted the importance of James McCarthy to the overall balance of the side, with the Spaniard admitting that the combative midfielder had been "missed" when he was out injured. The Merseyside club won just four of the 11 games McCarthy was out for with a hip injury he picked up in November but since the 25-year-old's return, Everton have won four of five in all competitions and progressed to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. "We have missed James McCarthy. We have been a team that could score a goal against anyone but in the same way there have been times when we could concede against anyone as well," Martinez told British media. "He gives you that balance and that understanding." Everton, who are 11th in the Premier League table, travel to bottom side Aston Villa on Tuesday. (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by John O'Brien) Mexico City (AFP) - Former Mexican president Vicente Fox called Donald Trump "crazy" and used the F-word to lash out against the US presidential candidate's demand for Mexico to pay for a border wall. "I am not going to pay for that fucking wall. He should pay for it. He's got the money," Fox told Fusion in an excerpt of the interview on the US television network's website. Trump quickly hit back on Twitter, writing: "Vicente Fox horribly used the F word when discussing the wall. He must apologize! If I did that there would be a uproar!" Asked whether he was afraid that the front-runner for the Republican nomination could be the next US president, Fox said: "Not at all. Democracy cannot take crazy people that doesn't know what's going on in the world today." But Fox, who was president from 2000 to 2006, admitted that he was worried about the fact that Trump won the backing of 46 percent of Hispanics who voted in the Republican caucus in the western state of Nevada. "I'd like to know who those hispanics are because they again, they're followers of a false prophet," he said. "Please, you Hispanics, Latinos in the US, open your eyes. It's not to defend our race. It's not to defend our creed. It's to defend this very same nation that is hosting you. This nation is going to fail if it goes into the hands of a crazy guy," Fox said. Another former Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, also lashed out at Trump's wall idea this month. "Mexican people, we are not going to pay any single cent for such a stupid wall. And it's going to be completely useless," Calderon, who was president from 2006-2012, told CNBC. "The first loser of such a policy would be the United States." Trump has angered Mexico by saying that the country was sending rapists across the border and has vowed to make the country pay for a wall if he is elected. President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration has called those comments "prejudiced and absurd." During a visit to Mexico City on Thursday, US Vice President Joe Biden told Mexican officials that the rhetoric by Republican candidates against Mexicans was "dangerous" and "disturbing" and did not reflect the views of the vast majority of Americans. Miami (AFP) - The authorities in Miami charged two teens on Wednesday in connection to the murder of a six-year-old boy who was shot while playing outside the apartment complex where he lived. Earlier on Wednesday, police arrested Irwen Pressley, 17, and Leonard Adams, 18, in the shooting of King Carter on Saturday, Miami-Dade police Major Calvin James told a news conference. Carter was caught in the middle of a shootout after Pressley and Adams opened fire on a rival in the apartment complex in which the boy lived, officials said. "Right now, it appears it was some sort of beef with rival factions," James said. "This was all about a beef." The teens are facing charges of attempted first degree murder and second degree murder. Carter -- whose family says he wanted to become a police officer -- was playing with other children when he was shot. His killing shocked Miami residents, who have staged demonstrations against violence and candlelight vigils. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez offered a $20,000 reward for information about the shooters. "We still need more information," he said during the news conference. "There may be additional subjects out there that we need to bring to justice." Police are looking for a vehicle with possible bullet holes in connection to the case. At least 67 people age 18 or younger have been fatally shot in Miami-Dade County since 2013, according to a count by local television station WPLG. In December, a seven-year-old boy was killed inside his home by a stray bullet from a drive-by-shooting, the station reported. By Kevin Murphy KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters) - A Missouri high school student has been charged with possessing two machine guns after he showed up at school dressed in military clothing and body armor while carrying a loaded pistol in his backpack, federal officials said on Thursday. Michael T. Knoth, 19, was arrested at Tarkio High School in northwestern Missouri on Feb. 11 after another student told a teacher that Knoth showed him a loaded magazine, according to a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson in Kansas City. The school was placed on lockdown. The teacher alerted Tarkio police, who searched Knoth's backpack and found a loaded 9mm semi-automatic pistol, six loaded 9mm pistol magazines, three loaded .223- or .556-caliber magazines, a spring-assisted knife, a seat belt cutter and a window punch, federal officials said. Police also found two loaded 9mm magazines and 15 loaded .223/.556-caliber magazines in his car parked outside the school. Later, police searched a bedroom in Knoth's home, where they discovered two different machine guns, one of which was loaded; ammunition and loaded magazines, federal officials said. The loaded gun had no visible serial numbers or manufacturer's stamp, officials said. Knoth was charged on Wednesday, transferred from state to federal custody, and was expected to make an appearance in federal court later on Thursday, said Don Ledford, a spokesman for Dickinson. No attorney is listed for Knoth in the case. Knoth has not yet entered a plea, Ledford said. (Reporting by Kevin Murphy, Editing by Ben Klayman) MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The Somali Islamist group al Shabaab killed four people and injured eight others on Thursday in a mortar attack near the presidential palace in the capital Mogadishu, police and a spokesman for the group said. The group had targeted the palace but the mortars went off some distance away, ending up about 300 metres from the nearby house of parliament. "We pounded mortar shells on the so-called presidential palace," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military spokesman, told Reuters. Major Mohamed Nur, a Somali police officer, confirmed the number of dead and injured. The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab frequently targets government buildings, hotels and security forces in Mogadishu in its bid to overthrow the Western-backed government. Somalia is struggling to emerge from two decades of chaos. (Reporting by reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar; Editing by Toby Chopra) New research has revealed that mums who co-sleep with their baby are more motivated to breastfeed [Photo: Rex Features] The issue about whether to sleep in the same bed as your baby is a controversial one with experts coming down on both sides of the to share or not to share debate. But a new study has revealed that mums who share a bed with their newborn are more motivated to breastfeed and more likely to keep it up for longer. The British study used data from 870 new mothers in the North-East of England. For 26 weeks following birth, mothers gave information about whether they had breastfed and whether they had slept in bed with their baby for at least one hour in the past week. 44% of mums said that they rarely or never bed-shared, 28% did so intermittently and 28% said they shared a bed with their tot often. More of the women who said they bed-shared often were still breastfeeding after six months. Those who sometimes shared a bed tended to breastfeed for around five and a half months, while those who bed-shared rarely breastfed for an average of just over three months. Sleeping with your baby can help you reach your breastfeeding goals [Photo: Rex Features] The research also found that mums who co-slept with their baby often had demonstrated more motivation to breastfeed during pregnancy. 70% who ended up bed-sharing often had said before birth that they viewed breastfeeding as important. Compared to about 56% among woman who went on to bed-share intermittently or never. Similarly, 95% of mums who frequently co-slept had expressed a strong intent to breastfeed during pregnancy, compared to only 87% and 82%, respectively, of mums who shared a bed with their baby intermittently or rarely. Women who are most motivated and have the strongest intent to breastfeed are most likely to adopt bed-sharing as a strategy for attaining their breastfeeding goals, lead author of the research Helen Ball, director of the Parent-Infant Sleep Lab at Durham University told Reuters Health. Story continues Thinking of co-sleeping? Check out safety guidelines first [Photo: Rex Features] But what of the co-sleeping dangers such as the risk of smothering the baby during sleep and SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)? Women should have information that allows them to make informed choices about bed-sharing, explained Ball. The Lullaby Trust suggests avoiding co-sleeping if youve drunk alcohol, taken drugs or are on medication than makes you drowsy. You should also be cautious about bedsharing if your baby is at increased risk of cot death, born prematurely, born with a low birthweight or nursing a fever. They also advise that babies should sleep on their backs under light blankets and away from duvets and pillows. What do you think about the latest research? Let us know @YahooStyleUK. The Truth About That Breastfeeding Catwalk Model Facebook Post About Cuckoo Awesome Benefits Of Breastfeeding Goes Viral (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images) Ajak Deng is out. The name may not ring a bell, but her face certainly should. The young Australian model, of Sudanese heritage, has appeared in campaigns for Gap, Kate Spade, Marc Jacobs and Barneys New York, to name a few. And just a few weeks ago, she was walking the runways of Zimmermann, Ann Demeulemeester, Philipp Plein and Marc Jacobs. But now shes done with all of that. I am happy to announce that I am officially done with the fashion industry, Deng posted on her Instagram account on Tuesday. Heading back to her hometown in Australia, she plans to return to the life that I fully deserved. Which is real life. I can no longer deal with the fakes and the lies. My life is too short for this dramatic life. ALSO SEE: South Sudanese model Nykhor Paul: Its 2015 Its OK to be black In a later post, Deng thanks fans for their support saying, I am a fighter and a go getta, I will figured out what to do next. I love you all and thank you. (Instagram/ajak_deng) This isnt the first time the young model has spoken out about the fashion industry. In 2014, Deng ranted her frustrations over racism in the industry on Twitter after being booked and then cut from a Balmain show at Paris fashion week. Dengs Twitter account was later deleted. Racism in the fashion industry certainly isnt new and Deng isnt the first one to vent her frustrations. Prior to the announcement of her departure, her manager Stephen Bucknall, of FRM Model Management, was quoted in the Herald Sun saying that he struggles to book jobs for Deng because the industry prefers to spend big budgets on caucasian models over those with dark skin. The budgets probably arent big enough for (Deng), because shes a big money earner, but they will spend the money on a Miranda Kerr or a Jess Hart. (Instagram/ajak_deng) While some dark-skinned models, like fellow Sudanese model Nykhor Paul, claim the industry is changing even if slowly, Dengs made it clear that shes not going to waste anymore time waiting around for change. What do you think of Ajak Dengs decision to leave modeling? Let us know your thoughts by tweeting to @YahooStyleCA. [UPDATED 3:40pm Thursday, 24 Feb 2016: Classification revealed] Fans of popular Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor should be able to see her new movie Neerja in Singapore very soon. According to the Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore, the distributor was informed Thursday (24 Feb) that the film has been rated PG13. Thus, it could be a just a matter of days before the movie, which is based on real-life events, hits local screens. Usually, it takes 10 working days for the MDA to give a classification rating to a film once submitted to them. In the case of Neerja, Yahoo Singapore learned, the film was submitted on 12 February, just a week before the worldwide release of the movie on 19 February. Fans in Singapore were dismayed by the films no-show after posters of the movie on Golden Village (GV) and Jade Cinema websites held that Neerja would be released last week. In the movie, Kapoor plays flight attendant Neerja Bhanot, who was shot dead by terrorists while trying to save passengers on board hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 in September 1986. Most people who have seen the film seem to have liked it. According to Yahoo India movie reviewer Rummana, Neerja is nuanced, compelling and sincere. Moscow (AFP) - A small group of volunteers arranges flowers at the makeshift shrine on a bridge just metres from the Kremlin where Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down a year ago. "The city authorities come something like twice a month and destroy all this and clear everything away," physicist Mikhail Lashkevich, 50, a member of Nemtsov's former political movement, told AFP. "It is important for me that the memory remains and that the people and the authorities understand that we haven't forgotten and won't forget." While supporters of the charismatic former deputy prime minister struggle to maintain the memorial, those close to Nemtsov are also fighting another battle -- to try to find out why he was murdered and who was behind his shocking killing. The assassination of Kremlin critic Nemtsov -- hit in the back by four fatal shots as he walked home with his girlfriend through the icy Moscow wind late last February 27 -- was the most high-profile political killing in Russia since former KGB agent President Vladimir Putin rose to power some 16 years ago. After the Kremlin said the murder seemed like a deliberate "provocation", Putin took the investigation under his personal control and within a matter of weeks five men -- all Chechens from Russia's restive North Caucasus region -- were arrested and then charged with the murder. One more suspect apparently blew himself up with a grenade as security agents tried to detain him, while another man named in December as an organiser is still at large. The five detainees -- including Zaur Dadayev, a member of a Chechen interior ministry battalion accused of being the gunman -- are now awaiting trial for what investigators say was a contract killing carefully planned over months for which they were promised some 15 million rubles ($200,000, 180,000 euros at current exchange rate). But although the head of Russia's Investigative Committee said last month that the case has been "solved", Nemtsov's family and allies insist the authorities have failed to get to the masterminds and point the finger of blame at Chechnya's Putin-loyal strongman Ramzan Kadyrov -- and even the Kremlin. Story continues - Kadyrov's circle - On a recent afternoon the five suspects in the killing squeezed into a cramped cage in a stuffy Moscow courtroom and exchanged glances with tearful relatives over the heads of heavily armed police escorts as investigators succeeded in getting their detention extended. All of the men insist they are innocent fall guys and say that any confessions they made were beaten out of them by Russian security officers. "Torture anyone here and they would confess to whatever is dictated to them," Anzor Gubashev, one of the defendants pleaded with the judge. "This is the justice system we have, these are the authorities. We are rags that can be used once and thrown away." Vadim Prokhorov, once Nemtsov's lawyer and now representing his eldest daughter Zhanna, is currently trawling through the 65 volumes of evidence the investigators collected and said he is convinced that most of the men arrested were involved in the murder. But he is also sure that high-ranking officials in the tight circle around Kadyrov -- who had a long-running feud with Nemtsov -- ordered the killing to stop Nemtsov's political work and that the Kremlin does not want the investigation to go further. "It is an obvious lie to say that the murder has been solved," Prokhorov told AFP. "Those who ordered it and those who organised it have not been identified or caught". So far only one man, low-ranking Chechen security official Ruslan Mukhudinov, has been named as an organiser but he remains at large. Investigators have reportedly also tried to charge his boss -- Chechen interior ministry officer Ruslan Geremeyev, a close relative of Kadyrov's right-hand man -- but those attempts have been stifled. Meanwhile, lawyer Prokhorov has filed a petition for police to quiz Kadyrov -- who has dismissed the accusations and publicly praised the alleged gunman Dadayev -- but that failed to make any progress. "All the trails of the organisers and those who ordered the murder lead to Grozny," Prokhorov said. "Putin clearly hasn't given the order and won't give the order to question Kadyrov." - 'Situation getting worse' - Denied access to the pro-Kremlin state media, Nemtsov had become a marginal figure in Russia but he remained a thorn in the side of the authorities. At the time of his death he was probing Moscow's covert deployment of troops to Ukraine -- and ex-colleagues are convinced he was killed to halt his political work. "As far as I am concerned, the motives for the murder were to stop his activity as one of the leaders of the opposition," Olga Shorina, Nemtsov's former personal assistant, told AFP. In the wake of the murder, Zhanna Nemtsova accused Russia's state media of fuelling an atmosphere of hatred against all those who oppose Putin that allowed the killing to happen. Now a year on, with little headway made into finding those behind Nemtsov's killing, Russia's beleaguered opposition feels as exposed as ever. Recently Kadyrov posted pictures of Nemtsov's ally Mikhail Kasyanov in the sights of a sniper rifle and threatened to eradicate the "jackals" that challenge Putin. "I think that the situation is getting even worse," Shorina said. "All opponents of the regime are being called enemies and criminals." Lagos (AFP) - Nigeria's troops have a foiled a planned Boko Haram attack on a camp of displaced people in the northeastern town of Dikwa, previously targeted by the insurgents, the military said. "From all indications, the terrorists aimed at causing havoc at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp located at Dikwa," army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman said in a statement late Wednesday. He said security forces "decisively dealt with the terrorists", killing 26 of the Islamist fighters and seizing weapons and ammunition. One soldier and a local vigilante assisting the military in the fight against Boko Haram were killed, he said. Usman said three soldiers and four IDPs were injured in the encounter, adding that anti-aircraft guns, assault rifles and explosives were among the weaponry recovered. "The casualties have since been evacuated while the troops have been pursuing those terrorists that escaped with gunshot wounds," he said. Boko Haram, which has increasingly used suicide and bomb attacks as the military pushes them out of territories it once controlled, has previously hit Dikwa, some 90 kilometres (50 miles) from Maiduguri, the birthplace of the sect. On February 9, two female suicide bombers attacked the IDP camp in Dikwa, killing at least 58 people. Boko Haram, which is allied to the so-called Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, wants to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria. At least 17,000 people have been killed since 2009 and 2.6 million forced from them homes in violence that has increasingly hit Nigeria's neighbours Cameroon, Chad and Niger. ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's telecommunications regulator NCC has not yet received any payment towards a possible fine from South African telecoms firm MTN Group, a spokesman for NCC said on Thursday. On Wednesday, MTN said it had withdrawn its legal action against Nigeria's regulator over a $3.9 billion fine and paid $250 million towards a possible settlement. Africa's leading telecoms firm was fined by the NCC in October for failing to disconnect unregistered SIM users, prompting weeks of lobbying to reduce the fine. "As per this afternoon, we have neither received any payments nor official communications from MTN," Tony Ojobo, a spokesman for the regulator, said. "The Nigerian Communications Commission had set up a committee to sit down with it counterparts from the MTN to work out modalities on resolutions of this matter," he said. "As per this afternoon, we are not aware that this committee has met to work out anything." Victor Oluwadamilare, media assistant at the communications ministry, declined to comment. The original amount was based on fining the company $1,000for every unregistered SIM card in use. MTN, which makes 37 percent of its sales in Nigeria, said itwould withdraw its court challenge in an effort to reach anamicable settlement. (Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Mark Potter) By Abdoulaye Massalaki NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou is far ahead of rivals in a contentious election in which he is seeking a second term, according to early results from Sunday's vote that have already been contested by opposition leaders. Provisional results on Thursday from 170 of the West African country's 308 communes gave Issoufou 52 percent of the vote, according to the national election authority. Under election rules, a candidate must have 50 percent of the vote to win in the first round; otherwise, the top two candidates must compete in a run-off poll. An opposition coalition had already vowed to block Issoufou's bid for another term by uniting behind his opponent in the second round. Opposition leader Hama Amadou, who was jailed before Sunday's poll, received 15 percent of the vote. Seyni Oumaru, who finished second in the last election in 2011, garnered 10 percent. The location and population size of the 170 communes were not immediately clear. Sunday's vote, which spilled into Monday due to logistical problems, was peaceful but tense. Security forces patrolled cities and villages in case of unrest or militant attacks. Opposition parties, who accuse Issoufou of seeking to suppress dissent and of ordering the arrest of opposition supporters in the run-up to the vote, said initial results that came out on Tuesday were fraudulent Issoufou has dismissed the criticism as politically motivated. He has also vowed to tackle deep poverty and crush Islamist militants, notably the Nigeria-based group Boko Haram, whose violence has spilled across the border. Niger, which produces uranium and oil, is ranked last in the U.N.'s Human Development Index. (Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Makini Brice and Dominic Evans) Feb 25 (Reuters) - Norwegian gas exports rose on Thursday morning on higher deliveries to Britain and Germany, partly offset by a decrease in flows to France, Norway's gas system operator Gassco said. Total (Other OTC: TTFNF - news) gas flows to Europe were running at 349 million cubic metres per day (mcm/day) by 0926 GMT, up 9 mcm/day from volumes delivered on Wednesday. Flows from Norway through the Langeled pipeline were strong at around 71 million cubic metres (mcm) a day due to higher Norwegian production. Deliveries to Britain and Germany rose by 6 mcm/day and 4 mcm/day respectively. Cold, dry weather is likely to continue through the weekend, Britain's Met Office said, which will increase demand for heating, but next week is forecast to be milder. Statoil (Xetra: 675213 - news) has made a small gas discovery in the North Sea, with reserves seen at between one million and two million standard cubic metres, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said on Thursday. The Norwegian company could also bring forward closure of its Veslefrikk offshore oil and gas field because of low profitability as a result of the protracted downturn in crude oil prices, it said on Wednesday. The following table shows Norwegian gas pipeline flows, measured in mcm/day and the change from the previous session's delivered volumes: Destination Real time Pvs business Change day (mcm) Britain 113 107 6 Germany & Netherlands 138 134 4 France 53 54 -1 Belgium 45 45 0 Total 349 340 9 NOTE (LSE: 0GSS.L - news) : Real-time gas export figures are based on gas fed into the system at a certain time and calculated as a daily average. Levels can vary throughout the day as producers adjust the amount of gas they export, according to changing nominations, or orders, from customers. Volumes for the previous business day show delivered gas. Following is a summary of spot price settlements at European gas trading hubs: Gas hub Feb 24 Feb 23 NBP (Shanghai: 601018.SS - news) (UK) 13.16/30.50 13.33/30.70 Story continues TTF (Netherlands) 12.48 12.70 NCG (Shenzhen: 300336.SZ - news) (Germany) 12.85 12.68 Gaspool (Germany) 13.00 13.00 Zeebrugge (Belgium) 12.36 12.46 Peg Nord (France) 12.81 13.07 Trading Region South 12.81 13.19 (France) Oil-indexed prices* 17.89/23.19 17.89/23.19 NOTE: Prices are in euros per megawatt-hour (MWh), except for NBP (euros/MWh & p/th). * - The oil-indexed prices are in order of Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) ' best estimate for Russian gas, including spot indexation and base price discounts, and an estimate for Russian outright oil-indexed gas. (Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru, editing by David Evans) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday said he was cautious about raising expectations regarding the agreement to pause hostilities in Syria. But, if some progress is made in Syria, then that will lead to a political process to end the five-year-old civil war in the country, Obama told reporters after a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah in the Oval Office. Obama said the United States is committed to helping Jordan deal with the refugees who have fled to its borders to escape the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Susan Heavey) * Market turns course as Venezuela reaffirms output freeze meeting * Project delays by Continental (Swiss: CONT.SW - news) , Halliburton (Hanover: HAL.HA - news) job cuts aid rebound * Prices down earlier on builds to record high U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . crude stocks (New (KOSDAQ: 160550.KQ - news) throughout, adding market settlements and rally in gasoline) By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Crude oil futures jumped 3 percent on Thursday, reversing earlier loses after confirmation of a meeting of major producers and news of project delays and job cuts in the industry. Venezuela reaffirmed a mid-March meeting of oil producers that would include Saudi Arabia, Russia and Qatar, to stabilize prices that have slumped 70 percent in a 20-month rout. The four countries are involved in an effort to get oil producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and elsewhere to freeze production at January's highs. Many traders believe an output cut and not freeze is what the market needs to clear the global crude glut. "It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) 's the Venezuela headline that got the market excited enough to rebound, though it's baffling why as everyone knows of this meeting and that it's not going to achieve anything," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital, a New York energy hedge fund. U.S. crude futures settled up 92 cents, or 2.9 percent, at $33.07 a barrel. It had slid more than $1 at the session low. Brent crude futures finished up 88 cents, or 2.6 percent, at $35.29 a barrel, hitting a three-week high. It had also dropped more than $1 earlier. The rally in crude also boosted gasoline futures, which settled up nearly 5 percent after rallying from early in the day on strong demand for the motor fuel. Aside from the March meeting, traders said sentiment in oil was helped by project deferments in the U.S. shale industry and job cuts that will slow production. Continental Resources Inc (NYSE: CLR - news) , one of the biggest shale drillers in North Dakota, said it planned to continue deferring project completions in the Bakken fields due to low crude prices. Story continues Oil services provider Halliburton said it will start a new round of global layoffs that will cut 5,000 jobs. Oil prices had fallen as much 3 percent earlier on Thursday after data indicating new record highs in U.S. crude inventories. Stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for U.S. crude futures rose by more than 503,000 barrels to reach above 67.5 million barrels between Feb. 19 and Feb. 24, traders said, quoting data by market intelligence provider Genscape. Officially, the U.S. government reported on Wednesday that Cushing added 333,000 barrels last week to reach 65.1 million for a fourth straight week of record highs. Nationwide, inventories rose to all-time peaks above 507 million barrels. (Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Bernadette Baum) SEATTLE (Reuters) - An oil truck operator was convicted on Thursday of orchestrating the killings of two business rivals competing for work in North Dakota's Bakken oil patch, prosecutors said. A jury in federal court in Richland, in southeastern Washington state, convicted James Henrikson of murder-for-hire and conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder-for-hire in plots against several people he viewed as an impediment to his enterprises, prosecutors said. Henrikson faces the possibility of life in prison when he is sentenced on May 24 in Spokane, they said. Attorneys for Henrikson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington confirmed the guilty verdict but declined to comment. The trial began on Jan. 25. The jury reached a unanimous guilty verdict on all eleven charges, including one count of conspiring to distribute heroin, after a little more than a day of deliberations beginning on Wednesday, prosecutors said. Three men who prosecutors say arranged and carried out the contract killings pleaded guilty to a host of federal charges in September and testified at Henrikson's trial. They have not been sentenced yet. Henrikson admitted in a September plea agreement to an interstate murder-for-hire plot to kill Kristopher "KC" Clarke in February 2012 in North Dakota and Douglas Carlile in December 2013 in Spokane, Washington. The trial was scheduled after a U.S. judge in eastern Washington granted Henrikson's request to withdraw his guilty plea in November because he was not made aware of the mandatory minimum penalty of life imprisonment prior to entering his guilty plea, court documents showed. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Alistair Bell and Andrew Hay) - The Australian Olympic Committee has upset Rio officials by imposing a ban on their athletes going to the city's favelas during this year's Olympic Games over security fears. Team chef de mission Kitty Chiller said the urban slums would be off-limits to its 450 athletes, a move that prompted Rio mayor Eduardo Paes to reportedly claim "the Australian committee has been a source of aggressions to Brazil". Chiller put out a statement late Wednesday defending the decision. "We love Brazil and we look forward to sharing in the excitement of the Rio Games in August," Chiller said. "Rio has made tremendous progress with their Games preparations and the Australian athletes are all looking forward to competing in Rio. We have no doubt Rio will deliver." AFP Judge John Coughenour is a rebel. Its not becauseor not only becausehe rides a Harley or spends his free time in prisons. Its that the Reagan-appointed U.S. District Court judge has rebelled against federal sentencing guidelines ever since they were established in the mid-1980s. But Coughenour had never earned national attention for his nonconformist ideas about sentencing and punishmentuntil, that is, al-Qaeda trainee Ahmed Ressam appeared in his courtroom in the spring of 2001. Over the course of the next 11 years, Coughenour would sit down to sentence Ressam to prison on three separate occasions, all for the same crimetwo times to huge uproar and one time to clarify the sentence once and for all. In 1999, 32-year-old Ahmed Ressam had planned to detonate a massive car bomb at Los Angeles International Airport on New Years Eve. Had he succeeded, it would likely have been the deadliest bombing in U.S. history. Fortunately, Ressam was caught a thousand miles from his goal. He was tried and convicted in federal court. The jury returned its guilty verdict in April 2001and thats when the fight over Ressams fate really began. Recommended: Donald Trump's Terrible Night As the judge presiding over Ressams trial, Coughenours job was to determine the would-be terrorists punishment. His sentencing should have been a straightforward computation, based on the U.S. Sentencing Commissions Guidelines Manual. A jury found Ressam guilty. By law, his sentence should have been 65 years to life. When the trial ended, however, Ressams sentencing was postponed. Ressam had struck a deal with federal agents to cooperate in terror investigations. In fact, when the 9/11 attacks occurred a few months later, Ressam was the best-connected al-Qaeda acolyte willing to work with the U.S. government. He helped identify terrorists from security-camera footage and even assisted with the aftermath of the shoe-bomber in December 2001. But by 2005, Ressam had stopped working with agents. (Coughenour says Ressam became embittered by years of solitary confinement.) He even recanted some of his prior testimony. Since Ressam was no longer cooperating, he was put back up for sentencing. In recognition of Ressams assistance to the United States, the government asked for 35 years30 less than the original minimum penalty. It was a good deal by any measure, especially so soon after 9/11, when terrorism prosecutions were not known for leniency. Story continues Coughenour, though, was swayed by Ressams years of cooperationwhich, the judge maintains, put Ressams life in danger. Its a dilemma Judge Stefan Underhill recently described in The New York Times: Which man was I sentencing? he asked, referring to a repentant gang member. The murderer or the remorseful cooperator? Coughenour was similarly moved by Ressams condition. Since his arrest, Ressam had been held in solitary confinement, and it had changed him. Coughenour says that, at his trial, Ressam had had a pleasant demeanor about him. But in the fours years since then, while cooperating with the government, Ressam had become thinner, and drawn, and haggard. And Coughenour knew that every year Ressam spent in prison was almost certainly another year in solitary confinementa fairly standard measure for terrorists as well as for those cooperating with law enforcement. The judge felt for the hapless Algerian and thought it would be in the interest of justice to lay off a bit on the penaltys harshness. After all, Coughenour reasoned, Ressam never did set off the bomb. Ressams lawyers had asked for 12 and a half years. Coughenour split the difference with the governments request for 35 and went with 22 years. That was the first time Coughenour sentenced Ressam. Coughenour says now, I thoughtwrongly it turned outthat the sentencing was pretty straightforward. Recommended: People Have No Idea What 'Single Payer' Means Immediately afterward, a furor erupted in the national media and among those who question Coughenours overall approach to punishment. Fox News Michelle Malkin dubbed Coughenour the terrorists little helper, arguing that he represented everything that was wrong with judge-centered sentencing. Critics slammed Coughenour, saying his sympathy for the defendant had trumped national safety. After 22 years, they reasoned, Ressam would be middle-aged when he got out, fully capable of staging another attack. But Coughenour sees part of his role as protecting the accused from a sometimes-bloodthirsty media, especially when it comes to sentencing. Coughenour was appointed during President Ronald Reagans first year in office, a few years before the federal sentencing guidelines were created. The new system was meant to counteract the wild inconsistencies in the sentences handed down in different courts. Instead of going simply by intuition, federal judges would now refer to a handbook that established a sentencing range. And any discretion on the part of judges was intended to be restricted to the limits of that range. But what some saw as a reasonable step toward greater justice, Coughenour saw as inhumane and robotic. Whats the point of a judge if he is discouraged from offering his judgment? Once on the fringe, Coughenours argument against sentencing guidelines is now gaining traction. At the heart of the debate is an undecided question: Which is scariera world where a persons actions are treated as part of a mathematical equation blind to context, or a world where political appointees decide peoples fates based on gut feelings? Recommended: What Computer Games Taught Me About Urban Planning Coughenours position is clear. He believes that the standardization of sentences has resulted in less justice, not more, and that the way the nation sentences criminals today has created greater inequality, not less. Underhill agrees. The tragedy of mass incarceration, he writes, has recently focused much attention on the need to reform the federal-sentencing guidelines, which often direct judges to impose excessive sentences. Underhill also thinks prisoners deserve a second-look reviewa mechanism for judges to re-evaluate the sentences theyve imposed. For his part, Coughenour would dismantle standardized criminal sentencing entirely. But, he adds meaningfully, youve got to trust the person making the decision. Ressams 22-year sentence in 2005 was overturned on procedural grounds. And when the case came up again in 2008, the government sought a life sentence. But Coughenour saw no reason for his decision to change; he again imposed a 22-year sentence. Coughenour cited Ressams favorable psychiatric report and noted with sympathy that Ressam spent many years in solitary confinement in a country far from his family and loved ones. The judge also pointed out that other terrorists, including John Walker Lindh, an American, had been sentenced to 20 years or less. In the time since Mr. Ressams first sentencing, Coughenour concluded, I have come to feel even more confident that the sentence I originally imposed was the correct one. That was the second time Coughenour sentenced Ressam. The Ninth Circuit disagreed. In a scathing 72-page opinion, a panel of judges concluded that Coughenour had abused his discretion by flouting the guidelines. And so, on October 24, 2012, almost 11 years since Ressam first appeared before Coughenour (and nearly 13 years since his arrest), the judge was ready to give Ressam his third and final sentence. He looked at all the lawyers and journalists packed into his Seattle courtroom. Would he go along with the governments request for a life sentence? Or would he again thumb his nose at the system? Coughenour (he pronounces it coon-our) looks uncannily like Statler, the taller and grumpier of the critics from The Muppet Showthey even cross their hands the same wayand he shares the Muppets penchant for avuncular wisecracks. He was 39 when Reagan tapped him for the bench, making him part of a wave of young, conservative judges that Reagan ushered into the federal judiciary. Since then, Coughenour has become one of the most senior and respected judges in the United States. His work ethic is legendaryeven when he took senior status, a sort of judicial semi-retirement, he insisted on maintaining a full caseload. Mark Bennett, a federal judge in Iowa, says that Coughenour even volunteers to help other districts cover their caseloads. Anybody who knows Jack knows a couple of things about him, says Bennett. Hes very smart. Hes incredibly hardworking. Hes incredibly dedicated and takes his job seriously. And he does what he thinks is right. One of Coughenours early projects was lobbying successfully for a federal prison in the Northwest. Before Federal Correction Institution, Sheridan, was built with Coughenours support, prisoners families in Washington and Oregon often had to travel a thousand miles or more to make visits. In May 1989, Coughenour rode his Harley-Davidson motorcycle down the Pacific coast to Sheridan to attend the prisons opening. While touring the facility with the warden, Coughenour heard someone say, Hey, judge! and turned to see a man dressed in prison garb. Im sorry, Coughenour said. I dont recognize you. Well, you ought to, he remembers the prisoner replying. Youre the one that sentenced me! They spoke for a few minutes and parted. Shortly after he returned to Seattle, Coughenour got a call from Sheridans warden, who told him the encounter had caused quite a stir. Prisoners were pleased that a judge had taken the time to come to a prison in the first place, but they were even more amazed that hed taken the time to have a conversation with someone he had sentenced. You know, Coughenour said to the warden, there have to be a lot of people down there that I have sentenced. How would you feel about me coming down and meeting with them? The meaning of time really hits you hard when you see these same guys there, year after year after year, and theyre still there. So, twice a year for almost 20 years, Coughenour rode his Harley from Seattle to Sheridan to meet one on one with each of the men he had sentenced. And then, he started visiting prisons all over the country with the same purpose. To ensure candor, he insisted that the prisoners be unshackled and that the meetings be private. A corrections officer stood outside just in case, but in two decades, Coughenour only had to call the officer in once. During these meetings, the judge always asked the same questions: How much time do you have left? What are you doing to prepare yourself for getting out? Are you dealing with anything you cant handle? Do you feel safe? Sometimes, hed compare notes about motorcyclesword traveled fast that the judge rode a Harleyand sometimes hed just commiserate about prison food. The next prisoner would be escorted in 15 minutes later, and the judge would start over again. Coughenour resists the implication that his visitsand the hundreds of hours he has spent asking hundreds of prisoners about their liveshave influenced his judicial philosophy. But at the same time, Coughenour insists that the prisoners stories all carry a clear moral lesson: Too many people are in prison for too long. One of Coughenours favorite anecdotes from these visits is about a man from Everett, Washington, whose wife had multiple sclerosis. In the mid-1980s, the man was laid off from his job and, in desperate need of money, robbed five banks. Coughenour, who was then a young judge, now says, I gave him a heavy hit. A few years after he sentenced the man, Coughenour saw the bank robber again, this time in the meeting room at Sheridan. He sat across from him again six months later. And again the next year. Every time I went back to Sheridan, he says, I saw this guy, and I started realizing how long it was that he was doing. And the meaning of time really hits you hard when you see these same guys there, year after year after year, and theyre still there. Its easy to sit in an office room somewhere and say, Well, you know, you rob a bank, you should get 10 years. But watching those decisions play out among real men in real time was something else entirely. This sort of thinking is divisive. Judge Richard Sullivan of New York, the former head of narcotics at the U.S. Attorneys Office in Manhattan, says, Judges are generally very good at recognizing the humanity of the person in front of them. He argues that its the humanity of victims that judges too often ignore. Candidly, he says, as a counterpoint to Coughenours prison visits, I'm not sure how many judges have walked around Hunts Point or some other neighborhood thats been overrun by drugs and drug violence to get a feel for the impact of these crimes on communities and families. Judges, Sullivan says, should also have some humility and recognize that we arent, and probably shouldnt be, the only players in this drama. For most of history, sentencing was not a judges burden. Crimes carried a predetermined punishment, usually a fine, corporal punishment, or, for a staggering number of offenses, death. In England and the United States, the jury effectively determined the punishment as soon as it decided the defendants guilt or innocence. All the judge did was referee the proceedings and formally announce the sentence. By the end of the 18th century, however, many colonial Americans protested what they saw as an overuse of torture and death as punishments. And so, in the first decades of the 19th century, Philadelphias Quaker-led government developed a novel, more humane way of dealing with convicts: incarceration. Previously, jails had been used to house people awaiting trial or execution, but imprisonment had not generally been used as a punishment in its own right. The only problem was that now someone had to determine the appropriate amount of time each convict should spend in prison. That responsibility fell to judges, which appealed to Americans predilection for checks and balances: The jury would determine guilt or innocence, the judge would determine punishment if necessary, and neither would interfere with the finding of the other. Also it was efficient: The judge was already in the courtroom. It wasnt long before it became legal dogma that the members of the jury are the finders of fact and the judge is the finder of law, including handing down sentences. For a century and a half, judges wielded this power with essentially unfettered discretion, but the system had drawbacks. Judges had no governing body, and they approached sentencing differently: Some saw incarceration as rehabilitative, while others saw it as retribution, or as a deterrent, or as a way to segregate dangerous people from society. And judges were not immune to the vicissitudes of public opinion. The potential for abuse of power was patent. Sentencing decisions were not even subject to a higher courts review. By the middle of the 20th century, skeptics began asking why judges should be trusted to make such complex decisions unilaterally. Were judges supposed to have an inherent sense of how long a miscreant should spend in prison? After all, sentencing was not taught in law schools, and judges received no training in how to sentence fairlymany were not even lawyers. Nancy Gertner, a Harvard Law professor and former federal judge, wrote in 2010 that judges were surgeons without Grays Anatomy. And that is the crux of the opposition to Coughenours argument: For too long Americans exclusively trusted the wisdom of judges who, of course, were just as a fallible as anyone else. Besides, it was judges themselves who became the first proponents of reform. In a January 1960 essay in The Atlantic, Judge Irving Kaufman bemoaned the fact that neither the judge nor the legislature has any real scientific guide to sentencing. If the hundreds of American judges who sit on criminal cases were polled as to what was the most trying facet of their jobs, Kaufman wrote, the vast majority would almost certainly answer Sentencing. With all the advances in behavioral science, he wondered, couldnt there be some sort of guide? Kaufman noted that, in 1959, the average prison sentence meted out in the federal courts ranged from nine months in Vermont to 58 months in southern Iowa. In fact, sentences handed down by different judges for the same crimes varied so widely that the disparities could not simply be explained by the contexts of the cases. Biases of all sorts prevailed: Race, class, education, and mental illness all influenced judges. In 1972, Judge Marvin Frankel of New York critiqued these tendencies in his influential Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order. The almost wholly unchecked and sweeping powers we give to judges in the fashioning of sentences are terrifying and intolerable for a society that professes devotion to the rule of law, he wrote. Frankels solution was to create what he called a Commission on Sentencing. At first, his ideas were mostly relegated to law-review debates. If his book hadnt caught the eye of an influential U.S. senator, Frankels influence might have stopped there. Instead, Ted Kennedy read Frankels book and was stirred by the judges lament of lenient sentences for white-collar criminals, many of whom had gone to the same colleges and prep schools as their judges. In 1975, Kennedy worked with Stephen Breyerthen the senators protege, now a Supreme Court justiceto create a bill to standardize and reform federal sentencing procedures. Pitching the legislation to Democrats as a way to make sure malfeasant bankers got their due, Kennedy tried and failed for a decade to get some version of it passed in Congress. What he needed was a conservative backer. A change in the political environment handed Kennedy two of them. Shortly after Coughenours appointment in 1981, Reagan announced that the he was taking down the surrender flag that has flown over so many drug efforts and beginning the modern War on Drugs. Soon thereafter, sentencing reform became bipartisan. Thats when Kennedy was approached by Strom Thurmond and Orrin Hatch, archconservatives whose politics rarely aligned with the liberal Bostonians. Of course, their reasons for wanting to overhaul federal sentencing policies were not the same. Where Kennedy was keen to ensure white-collar criminals were punished fairly, Thurmond and Hatch were eager to see drug offenders receive harsh and consistent sentences nationwide. The trio crafted a bill based in part on Frankels suggestions from a decade before. The Sentencing Reform Act was signed into law in October 1984. Among other things, it created the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which unveiled its new guidelines in 1987. The sentencing guidelines are essentially an algorithm. For each charge, the judge inputs the crimes base offense level and makes adjustments based on factors like the defendants role in the crime, his acceptance of responsibility, and whether he had a gun. The resulting value, from one to 43, is the defendants offense level. The judge then uses a table to cross-reference the offense level with another number based on the defendants prior convictions. At the intersection of the offense level and the criminal-history category, the judge finds the guideline range, an upper and lower sentencing limit. Some judges call this process grid and bear it. Coughenour watched the standardization of sentences with dismay. He was one of about 200 judges who wrote opinions finding the guidelines unconstitutional. The Supreme Court overruled all 200 objections in 1989. It was terribly frustrating, Coughenour says. I started screaming at the top of my lungs. I have been screaming ever since I was imposing sentences that made no sense at all. Coughenour recalls the story of a young man hed sentenced in the early 1980s: He came from a good family. He was going to college. He was doing well in everything, but he was selling pot. And he was devastated by the indictment and was overwhelmed with his remorse. And I said, You know, Im going to take a chance on you. Im going to give you straight probation. Im not going to send you to prison. Twenty years later, Coughenour received a letter from that man, who thanked the judge for the chance and said that his life had turned out very well. I couldnt do that after the guidelines, says Coughenour. It would have gone up on review, and it would have been reversed. John Coughenour (AP) Of course, this is just the sort of story that raises the hackles of sentencing reformers from both parties. Conservatives see injustice when a criminal gets off easy because a judge takes a shine to him. Liberals see injustice when a white college student gets out on parole while prisons are crammed with people who less closely resemble the mostly white, educated judiciary. But Coughenour brushes these concerns aside. He insists that handing down unique sentences is the point: The thing that really hit me hard with the Sentencing Reform Act was that this art formI considered sentencing to be an art and not a scienceCongress tried to convert it into a science. And its not a science. Its a human being dealing with other human beings. And it shouldnt be done by computers. After a brief judicial revolt in the late 1980s, most judges quietly fell into compliance with the guidelines. Coughenour, too, sentenced mostly within the prescribed range, though he railed against the guidelines in his opinions and tried to bend the rules when he thought he could get away with it. During this time, Coughenour and others maintain, the power to decide federal sentences actually shifted from judges to prosecutors. Mark Osler, a law professor who worked as a prosecutor in Detroit in the 1990s, says: I had all the power. It was about whether I filed a notice of enhancement or gave points for acceptance of responsibility. Its not reviewable. Its within the discretion of the prosecutor. And prosecutors have even more power, Coughenour and others say, when it comes to mandatory minimums. In 1986, a year before the guidelines were rolled out, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act created minimum penalties for certain crimes. These were not technically part of the 1987 guideline scheme, which prescribed a sentence range based on particular inputs from the case. Mandatory minimums, however, established firm sentences for specific crimes regardless of the facts of the case. At the time, crack was tearing through Americas cities, and demand for severe penalties was high. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act established the notorious 100-to-one ratio, treating one gram of crack as equivalent to 100 grams of cocaine. (That ratio has since been reduced to a still-problematic 18-to-one.) Though both guidelines and minimums are often spoken of in the same breath, especially by their detractors (including Coughenour), some mandatory minimums may be on the way out. A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, including GOP leadership in both chambers, has seemed poised to reduce minimums for nonviolent offenders. But a group of more conservative Republicans is fighting to scuttle this reform. Over time, mandatory minimum penalties have been expanded beyond drug crimes. A glance through an index of Americas mandatory minimum crimes is a good guide to societys evolving fears: firearm crimes, child pornography, terrorism, and, increasingly, some sex offenses. The controversy over these sentences has even spilled out of the legal community. The recent militia standoff in Oregon, for example, began over a protest of mandatory minimums for committing arson on federal land, which is covered under expansive terrorism laws. The judge in the case imposed a sentence that was less than the five-year mandatory minimumbut the U.S. attorney appealed the sentence. Now the convicted men will have to serve more time than they were originally led to believe. Thats because mandatory minimums always supersede the 1987 sentencing guidelines: A judge cannot issue a lighter sentence even if the guidelines suggest otherwise. So much of sentencing discretion is vested now in the U.S. Attorneys Office, Coughenour says. By their charging decisions, they can tie the hands of the sentencing judge, particularly on mandatory minimums. And [prosecutors] discretion, by the way, is exercised in darkness. In other words, prosecutors can charge defendants under any statute they choose, and there is no way to review that decision. If that statute carries a hefty minimum sentence, the judge cannot lighten the punishment. What we do, he says, referring to judges, we do out in the sunlight, and we have to be subject to appellate review. We have to explain ourselves. We have to endure press reaction to what we do. On the other hand, nobody reviews the U.S. attorneys decisions. In fact, says Coughenour, we are precluded from reviewing those charging decisions. And here you have people who are put on the bench by the president of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senatepresumably for their judgment. I mean, thats why they call it judging. Does it trouble you at all that sentencing decisions like this are made at a committee table back in Washington, D.C.? At a sentencing hearing this summer in Seattle, I saw Coughenours disdain for mandatory minimums in action. The defendant had been found guilty of a particularly loathsome crime: sexually assaulting his 6-year-old niece. Sputtering and twitchy, the man had a long history of mental illness and addiction. He had fled an abusive father and spent his life on the streets of the Lummi Indian Reservation. Now, he was facing the standard sentence for his crime: 30 years to life. But Coughenour pushed back in court. Is there a sentence below the mandatory minimum that would be adequate? he asked the prosecutor. Your Honor, replied the prosecutor, I am hamstrung here, in that my personal views are probably irrelevant. Not to me, they arent, countered Coughenour. He pressed the prosecutor in this vein for 10 minutes, before he got to the point. Does it trouble you at all, he asked, raising his voice, that sentencing decisions like this are made at a committee table back in Washington, D.C., without the benefit of a full trial and a pre-sentence report and individualized consideration of the facts in a given case? Does that bother you at all? In the end, Coughenour declared the 30-year minimum sentence unconstitutional in this case, saying it violated the Eighth Amendments protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The federal sentencing scheme changed again 11 years ago, though not enough for Coughenour. In 2005, the Supreme Court decided in United States v. Booker that, so long as guidelines were considered mandatory, they were unconstitutional. But, wrote Steven Breyer in the opinion that saved the system he helped create, the guidelines would stand if they were ruled as purely advisory, a baseline from which judges could depart at will. This means judges must still calculate the guidelines during sentencing, but they are allowed to sentence outside of themprovided they give a good reason for the departure. Theres this presumptive objectivity about something that says, 121 months. Its so specific, it has this veneer of science. In reality, its pretty much just made up. Booker did a lot in terms of making judges feel that they were authorized to depart more frequently from the guidelines, Coughenour allows. But he argues that the original policy irreversibly changed the way judges sentence: Back before I came on the bench, the incarceration rate in the U.S. was around 120 per 100,000, and it skyrocketed after the War on Drugs, to point where its in excess of 700 per 100,000, says Coughenour, shaking his head. Thats the highest incarceration rate anywhere in the world, including South Africa under apartheid or the Soviet Union back when it was the Soviet Union. Nobody has ever had an incarceration rate as high as ours is now. Though mandatory minimums are still controversial, overall most judges seem happy with the current system. Gertner, the Harvard professor who compared judges to surgeons, says that judges who started their careers after the late 1980s have become inured to the guidelines they have come to think that the guidelines defined fairness. Osler, the former Detroit prosecutor, agrees: The whole structure is still guidelines-focused That baseline seems so objective. Its a number, and theres this presumptive objectivity when youre looking at something that says, 121 months. Because its so specific, it has this veneer of science around it. Where, in reality, its pretty much just made up. Coughenour thinks some judges are over-reliant on guidelines and apply them without thinking about the consequences. [Guidelines] make sentencing easy, he says. Too easy. And yet, the data seem to show that judges are exercising discretion. As of last summer, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, fewer than half (47 percent) of all sentences fell within the guidelines range. About 51 percent of sentences fell below the guidelines. Just about 2 percent were above. And even these national averages conceal huge disparities among regions. The Second Circuit (New York, Connecticut, and Vermont) follows the guidelines only 28 percent of the time. In the Fifth Circuit (Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi), however, 64 percent of sentences fall within the guidelines. Whats more, these numbers conceal more disparities among districts. Within the Second Circuit, for instance, guideline compliance ranges from 54 percent in the Northern District of New York to less than 17 percent in the adjacent District of Vermont. Coughenours own Western District of Washington follows the guidelines 34 percent of the time, which is higher than the Ninth Circuits 28 percent average. And even those variations conceal discrepancies among judges. Coughenour, for instance, says his sentences are only about 20 percent compliant. Dont these inconsistencies represent just what Coughenour wants? All of these differences would seem to imply that judges have broken free from the robotic guidelines regime. On the contrary, Coughenour and every judge I spoke toincluding those who disagree with Coughenourlargely chalk those discrepancies up to prosecutors, not judges. Each U.S. Attorneys Office has an endemic culture. A district with low compliance could be one in which prosecutors routinely overcharge, asking for heftier-than-necessary punishments. Conversely, a district with high compliance could be one in which prosecutors generally ask for more lenient sentences or for sentences that already fall within the guidelines. But its hard to know, since prosecutors decision-making processes are off the record and unreviewable. And that is Coughenours point. For all the capriciousness of pre-reform sentencing, a judges decisions were made in open court, and the judge owned them. Whether the punishment was just or not, the words of each decision were forever available to the public. It was imperfect, but at least it was out in the open. The public wants an ideal arbiter: just, wise, and knowing. But while questing for that mythical, paternal figure who will make all the right decisions, its easy to become disillusioned with the inconsistency and fallibility of human beings. The sentencing guidelines were an idealistic gesture, an expression of the belief that there is some objective measure of justice. Coughenour had sentenced Ahmed Ressam to 22-year sentences twicein 2005 and in 2008. Both sentences had been overturned and had ignited a public and legal uproar. In fact, after the second sentencing, the Ninth Circuit not only overturned Coughenours decision again but it recommended that the case be sent to a different judge altogether, because the district judges previously expressed views appear too entrenched to allow for the appearance of fairness. That stipulation was removed from the case on further review, but Coughenour had his orders: Find a harsher sentence. He was pointedly reminded that the minimum guideline was 65 years. Still, Coughenour wanted to be sure that Ressams third sentence did not come from fear. When he speaks about it now, he tells of a chance encounter he had with Ressams lawyer in Washington, D.C. The lawyer told him that Ressam had expressed surprise that he had received a fair trial in America and that his subsequent cooperation with the government had stemmed from that feeling. Others, however, are quick to point out that Ressams assistance looks opportunisticonly after he was facing life in prison did he agree to help. But Coughenour holds the story close: It confirms all of his ideas about the U.S. justice system and the redemptive power of a trial held in open court. Nearly 11 years since Coughenour first met Ressam, the judge was ready to hand down his third and final sentence. On October 24, 2012, he addressed his Seattle courtroom: Many, including the federal government, believe that Mr. Ressam is a continuing threat and he should never see freedom again. But fear is not, nor has it ever been, the guide for a federal sentencing judge. It is a foul ingredient for the sentencing calculus. Coughenour then documented the extent of Ressams cooperation and the ever-increasing demands of the prosecutors. In the dense legalese of the decisions core, Coughenour pushed back against the governments arguments for life in prison, announcing that 37 years was sufficient to punish Ressam and to fulfill the needs of justice. It wasnt what the government was hoping for, but it was stiff. This time, the sentence would stand. Coughenour concluded the proceedings by addressing Ressam personally: There is a school of thought that believes our essence is defined by our actions alone If a man has a history of violence, he must be, to his core, a violent man. These judgments overlook one thing: We can choose daily to remake that essence. The Algerian looked beaten down; he had spent a third of his life in solitary confinement. With credit for time served, Ressam will be almost 70 when he is released. Ill be surprised if he survives, Coughenour says. And if he does survive prison, it may not last, as hell be branded a snitch. People who are engaged in that kind of terrorism dont forget that their friends were convicted because of someone who was cooperating. Whatever Ressams future holds, Coughenour will probably never see him again. Ressam is at the federal supermax facility in Colorado, and he is not permitted contact with outsiders. He will likely spend his entire time there in a 7-by-12-foot cell. But even if Ressam were allowed visitors, a meeting wouldnt happen. In 2008, after a Washington State Supreme Court justice ignited a scandal by accidentally visiting an inmate with a case pending before him, Coughenour stopped going to Sheridan. He hasnt visited a person he sentenced since. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. The effects of land management are clearly visible in this image taken by the European Space Agencys Sentinel-2 satellite on February 7th. The image uses near-infrared radiation, normally not visible to the human eye, shown here in red to highlight vegetation. The image spans roughly 34 km (21 mi) with South Africa to the west and Lesotho to the east. The dramatic national boundary is marked by an abrupt transition in landscape. Lesotho is a landlocked and mountainous nation; it is completely surrounded by South Africa on which it is economically dependent. The Lesotho lowlands, once essential for sustenance agriculture, have been farmed and grazed intensively over the last century. This has resulted in a degraded landscape characterized by dongas, dry erosion gullies, and severe soil erosion. By Eric M. Johnson (Reuters) - Protesters of a six-week armed occupation at a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges of conspiring to impede federal officers policing the compound, a sign the long-simmering fight over federal control of land in the West is far from over. Ammon Bundy and other anti-government protesters arrested in connection with the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon appeared in U.S. court in Portland. The tense stand-off with law enforcement drew international attention and prompted fears it would erupt in more violence. "Ammon is very excited to move forward with his case and access and utilize his Constitutional rights to continue his mission," his lawyer, Mike Arnold said Wednesday. "He can do that within the confines of the court process." Wednesday's arraignment came a day after FBI personnel finished combing the refuge for new evidence that could result in additional charges filed by prosecutors. Prosecutors will likely file a superseding indictment in early March that may add new "charges and defendants," court documents show. Sixteen protesters pleaded not guilty to one conspiracy charge each, Arnold said. A status hearing was set for March 9. Bundy and other defendants are accused of plotting to prevent by "force, intimidation, and threats" agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from performing their duties, the indictment said. In all, 25 people have been indicted over the occupation, Arnold said. Bundy, his brother Ryan, and others also face charges over a 2014 standoff near their father's ranch in Nevada. The occupation ended on Feb. 11 when the final four protesters surrendered to authorities following a dramatic exchange with mediators. The Bundy brothers and nine other protesters were arrested on Jan. 26 after a traffic stop. After a chase prompted by the traffic stop ended at a law enforcement roadblock, one of the protesters, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum was shot dead. A grand jury indictment says the defendants brandished firearms and refused to leave the refuge, threatening violence against anyone who attempted to remove them, and warned a county sheriff of "extreme civil unrest" if their demands were unmet. The Malheur takeover, the cost of which will likely run into the millions of dollars, was sparked by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires that spread to federal property near the refuge. The occupation also was a protest over federal control over millions of acres of public land in the West. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Sharon Bernstein, Diane Craft and Bernard Orr) Once upon a time, the Oscars produced the gowns seen and heard around the world by film fans, fashion critics, retailers and designers. The reverberation of one great dress or one bad one could ring up millions of dollars or lose them, as memorable Oscar gowns had a trickle-down effect on American and European brand sales, trends, prom gowns, color palettes even on designers' makeup lines. And that's before the Internet made the dresses and their fashion credits accessible prior to a star even stepping onto the red carpet, thanks to luxury-brand press releases trumpeting who-wore-what down to the shoe and diamond stud. So how did the Oscars get outclassed fashion-wise? For one thing, the competition raised their game: Cannes exploded as a couture runway, social media helped the Met Ball become fashion's biggest night, and designers jumped into the fray for the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and even the Emmys. But a key reason has been that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences never really cared about fashion coverage. "They never gave us decent spots on the red carpet," says a major fashion journalist. "We can't get quotes from stars or early designer credits from them, so we just don't cover the Oscar red carpet that much anymore." Upon hearing such complaints, the Academy PR department has been known to say, "I'm sorry, this is not a fashion show." It used to be one with Jodie Foster, Annette Bening and Michelle Pfeiffer looking regal in Armani, Angelina Jolie exuding sex appeal in Versace and Cher strutting in anything Bob Mackie or almost nothing. In the '80s and beyond, the Academy Awards' red carpet was a platform to reinforce a brand's fashion values, says historian Bronwyn Cosgrave: "Armani used the Oscars to launch his evening collection, and Prada transformed its identity from nylon backpacks to eveningwear with one dress on Uma Thurman." Then, around 2010, suddenly all the gowns looked the same: columns, often sequined or beaded, with no sleeves, no trains, no mistakes and no fun. Instead of fashion impact, designers began to focus instead on the Oscars as a business and PR opportunity, paying actresses up to $250,000 to wear a dress or up to $1 million for a piece of jewelry. (These days, stylists are even taking a cut: Last May, veteran dresser Jessica Paster admitted at a panel to receiving "anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000" for putting a gown on a client.) Observes Film Fashion founder Susan Ashbrook, who wrangled celebrities for Lanvin, Escada, Herve Leger, Harry Winston and other brands in the heyday of Oscar fashion (say, 1994 to 2010): "It's the same designers over and over again Dior, Armani, Versace, Valentino because after 25 years of working them, they now own the Oscars." Read More: Dissolving String Facelifts and Bone Injections: Oscar Stars Scramble to Be Camera-Ready in 48 Hours Unlike the Met Ball, says Peggy Siegal, who is both a New York fashion-event expert and an Oscar campaign vet, "the Oscars has cut back on true glamour because the Hollywood press and fashion police nitpick, and don't understand European high fashion. The Met Ball is impervious to mainstream schlock celebrity press, so it gets all the good gowns." Jeweler Kimberly McDonald, who has bedecked Michelle Obama and Halle Berry, says, "Half the actresses at the Oscars are afraid of being bashed. I hear it all the time, even about the jewelry." With Oscar fashion increasingly timid, the title of trend incubator goes to the Globes. After Amal Clooney flaunted white opera gloves at last year's awards, long gloves appeared on the fall/ winter runways of Dries Van Noten, Marc Jacobs and Prada. Emma Stone spearheaded the jumpsuit look with her Lanvin all-in-one. Julianne Moore and Dakota Johnson wore silver sequin gowns, and silver is now a spring 2016 trend. At the Oscars, podium-style dresses are preferred, says Cosgrave. "You can typically tell the actress winning that night. She'll be wearing sequins that don't wrinkle and the modern incarnation of the 'Hollywood tabletop dress,' what costumers like Adrian and Howard Greer made for starlets photographed from above the waist at a restaurant table" for promotional photographs. Not to mention that, with the rise of the Globes and other shows as a couture showcase, by the end of February, "it's all been done. After a month of seeing the most beautiful dresses in the world, people are kind of over it," says McDonald. Original Oscar stylist Phillip Bloch explains: "At the end of the '90s, awards-show season mattered because [actresses] only came out once in a while and looked amazing. They weren't at an awards show, charity event or gala every week. Awards season is a whole year now." One stylist, who has dressed many nominees, confides, "The designers are a bit spent by the Oscars. They've whipped out all their tricks, and they have other chances to show off, so this one doesn't matter as much anymore." Except for the winners: Their quotes go up for films and they often get to keep their jewelry and gowns. The Oscar gowns may not be worth as much in the fashion world but they do just fine at resale. This story first appeared in the March 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Visual effects supervisor Eric Barba who won an Academy Award and BAFTA for the groundbreaking digital human work that helped Brad Pitt appear to age in reverse in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has been named creative director at the Vancouver studio of Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Disney subsidiary Lucasfilm. In addition to supervising effects work, Barba will provide creative oversight across all the studio's projects. He'll work closely with ILM Vancouver's executive in charge, Randal Shore, and collaborate with ILM's global team, with bases in London, San Francisco and Singapore. ILM projects currently include Warcraft for Duncan Jones, Luc Besson's Valerian and Dave Green's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, as well as the Gareth Edwards-helmed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: Episode VIII with director Rian Johnson. Barba spend most of the past two decades at Digital Domain, where he's been a VFX supervisor since 1999 and chief creative officer for the past two years. During that time, he supervised visual effects on projects such as Fincher's Zodiac, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl; Joseph Kosinski's TRON: Legacy and Oblivion; plus award-winning commercials out of the company's advertising arm. He left Digital Domain in late 2015 to work on other projects, such as consulting on undisclosed feature projects for Kosinski and Ang Lee. "I've always wanted to work for ILM," Barba said of his new role, citing "great mentors," talent, technology and its upcoming slate of projects. He also looks forward to the emerging virtual reality field, via ILM unit ILMxLab. "I'm very excited to have Eric join the Vancouver team," said ILM's Shore. "His reputation as a consummate professional and strategic problem solver precedes him, and he's an ideal addition to the team as we continue to grow the studio and lead more projects out of Vancouver." Members of the ILM team are currently nominated for the VFX Oscar for their work on The Revenant and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which recently won the BAFTA). By Asad Hashim ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Pakistan's largest province on Wednesday gave unprecedented protection to female victims of violence, in a bid to stem a rising tide of gender-related abuse in a country ranked as the world's third most dangerous place for women. The new law criminalizes all forms of violence against women, whether domestic, psychological or sexual, and calls for the creation of a toll-free abuse reporting hot line and the establishment of shelters. Muslim-majority Pakistan, home to roughly 190 million people, sees thousands of cases of violence against women every year, from rape and acid attacks to sexual assault, kidnappings and so-called "honor killings". "The instances of violence against women have been on the increase, primarily because the existing legal system does not effectively address the menace and violence by some is perpetrated with impunity," said the text of the legislation passed by the Punjab assembly. In 2013, more than 5,800 cases of violence against women were reported in Punjab alone, the province where Wednesday's law was passed, according to the Aurat Foundation, a women's rights advocacy group. Those cases represented 74 percent of the national total that year, the latest for which data is available. The leader of one of Pakistan's largest orthodox Sunni Muslim seminaries denounced the new law as being in conflict with the Muslim holy book, the Koran. "Attempting to change religious and national values in the name of protecting women is a tragedy that is of great concern," Muhammad Naeem, head of the Jamia Binoria seminary in the southern city of Karachi, said in a statement. The new law establishes district-level panels to investigate reports of abuse, and mandates the use of GPS bracelets to keep track of offenders. It also sets punishments of up to a year in jail for violators of court orders related to domestic violence, with that period rising to two years for repeat offenders. Rights groups welcomed the law, but warned that its implementation remained a concern. "The change in law would only make a difference if there is effective enforcement and the legislature continues to engage with the issue and ensures oversight," said Zohra Yusuf, chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Domestic abuse, economic discrimination and acid attacks make Pakistan the world's third most dangerous country in the world for women, a 2011 Thomson Reuters Foundation expert poll showed. (Additional reporting by Mubasher Bukhari in LAHORE; Editing by Mehreen Zahra-Malik, Krista Mahr; and Clarence Fernandez) Pakistan has begun the "last phase" of a bloody operation targeting militants in the restive northwest region along the Afghan border, a senior security official confirmed to AFP Thursday. The military released a statement Wednesday saying that powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif had given the order to launch the final phase of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan, one of the tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan in which militants had previously operated with impunity. A tweet from a military spokesman later Wednesday said the operation "has begun", though the army offered no further details. However a senior security official told AFP that the push in the southern pockets of Shawal and Data Khel began "a couple of days ago", with warm weather melting the snow covering the mountainous terrain. "Both ground and air assets are being used to take on the terrorists hiding in the areas," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The objective is to cleanse the area of militants," he said, adding he could give no further details for security reasons. The army launched the operation under US pressure in mid-2014, in a bid to wipe out militant bases in the North Waziristan tribal area and bring an end to the near decade-long Islamist insurgency that has cost Pakistan thousands of lives. The operation was intensified after the Taliban massacred more than 150 people, the majority of them children, at a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar in December 2014. The US has praised the operation as a success and security has improved noticeably in Pakistan since it was launched, with militancy-related violence in 2015 dropping to its lowest level since 2007, the year the Pakistani Taliban was formed. A second senior security official told AFP that the military also plans to step up intelligence-based anti-militant operations in Pakistan's cities. Such operations are already underway in major cities like Karachi, but he said they will "now be intensified to clear our cities of militants forever". Story continues The Pakistani military says it has killed more than 3,600 insurgents in the tribal zone, with 358 soldiers having lost their lives. Observers caution that many other militants have crossed over the border into Afghanistan. Media are barred from the region and there is no way to verify the toll. Pakistan security analyst Hasan Askari warned that even if the final phase is successful, there will be a long road ahead. "There is a lot of rehabilitation work that needs to be carried out and civilians don't have the capacity to do it alone," he told AFP, predicting that another "rehabilitation" phase would start soon to strengthen security along the porous border area. By Mubasher Bukhari and Syed Raza Hassan LAHORE/KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistan's largest opposition party has asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government to extend the term of the powerful army chief when he retires in November, party officials said on Thursday. Last month, army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif, widely popular for launching operations against militants in several parts of the country, broke a precedent of generals seeking to extend their terms and said he would step down when his three-year one ends. Since then, posters have appeared in major cities asking the general not to retire and hundreds of people have held rallies in his support. "Move on Pakistan," a new political party formed by influential businessmen in the country's rich Punjab province, has campaigned for his service to be extended. "Gen. Raheel Sharif is successfully running the war on terror not only against terrorists but also against their financiers and supporters," Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Khurram Jahangir Wattoo, who submitted a resolution in the Punjab Assembly asking for an extension, told Reuters. "If he retires, the present rulers would not be able to continue the operation with the same spirit." Since Sharif took office in 2013, the army has launched aerial and ground assaults against insurgent strongholds near the Afghan border, earning broad support from a population tired of militant violence. The army has also received acclaim for a 20-point plan to tackle militancy launched after Taliban gunmen attacked a school and killed 134 children in 2014. A TIME OF TENSION But the resolution comes at a time of tension between the army and the PPP over a security crackdown in Karachi, the capital of the Sindh province the PPP rules. Last year, a prominent PPP politician was arrested on charges of corruption and for aiding and abetting militants. The PPP condemned the arrest as politically motivated. The arrest, as well as raids on government offices by paramilitary soldiers, raised accusations that the military, which has a history of launching coups, was seeking to weaken civilian politicians in the country's largest and wealthiest city. But this week, PPP leaders spoke up in the general's support in what observers see as an attempt to mend fences in the face of mounting pressure. Former president and PPP chairman Asif Ali Zardari, who just months ago publicly lashed out at the army for overstepping its domain, on Wednesday said the army chief decision to step down was "premature". (Writing by Mehreen Zahra-Malik; Editing by Richard Borsuk) Washington (AFP) - The Pentagon plans to spend an additional $900 million in the coming year to boost cyber defense measures, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday. US officials are still reeling from last year's revelation that personal data from some 20 million federal employees, contractors and others had been hacked in a massive breach at the Office of Personnel Management. The military worries about being targeted by an array of hackers, including national adversaries such as North Korea and non-sovereign players like the Islamic State group. "Given the increasing severity and sophistication of the threats and challenges we're seeing in cyberspace -- ranging from (IS's) pervasive online presence to the data breaches at the Office of Personnel Management - the budget puts a priority on funding our cyber strategy," Carter said in a written statement to the House Appropriations Committee. The Pentagon will spend a total of $6.7 billion in the 2017 budget -- up 15.5 percent from the previous year. In all, the Pentagon is projected to spend $34.6 billion over the coming five years. Carter said the spending reflected the Pentagon's commitment to deterring "even the most advanced adversaries" and noted that the budget also invests in cyber warfare capabilities, including building potential cyber "military response options." The risk of cyber attacks is noted as significant in the latest intelligence reports, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told lawmakers on Thursday. "Devices, designed and fielded with minimal security requirements and testing, and an ever-increasing complexity of networks, could lead to widespread vulnerabilities in civilian infrastructures and US government systems," Clapper told the US House Intelligence Committee. London (AFP) - Prince Harry will meet people affected by Nepal's earthquake last year and Gurkha soldiers who helped in rescue efforts during a four-day visit to the country next month, his office said on Thursday. The prince's first visit to Nepal starting on March 20 will also include a trek in the Himalayas and a meeting with President Bidhya Bhandari, a Communist Party leader and the country's first female president. "It is a country he has long wanted to visit," read a statement from Kensington Palace, the prince's residence, where his brother Prince William and wife Kate also stay when they are in London. "He has been moved by the stories of resilience of the Nepali people following the earthquakes last year and is now eager to learn more about their country and culture," it said. Harry, who served in the British army for 10 years before retiring in June last year, served alongside Gurkha soldiers on his two tours in Afghanistan and will meet members of the brigade during his visit. The 2,500-strong Gurkha brigade is made up of soldiers recruited in Nepal and has been part of the British army for 200 years. The royal will learn about "the assistance offered by Gurkha forces to surrounding communities in the aftermath of the earthquake," the palace said. Nepal is still feeling the effects of a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake last April which killed nearly 9,000 people. Bhandari, who was elected by parliament in October, entered politics in her teens seeking to overturn Nepal's absolute monarchy, which was eventually abolished in 2008. The 54-year-old politician is the deputy leader of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist). Your reader with mixed feelings about prostitution states: My concern is that legitimizing [sex work] might make it more common because being poor is becoming more common in this society. If we had a more robust social safety net, Id be less concerned. In many parts of the world, prostitution is legal, and in many of those placesColombia and the Dominican Republic, for examplethere are many poor women who work in the sex trade. In Cambodia, where sex work is not legal but largely tolerated, there are occasional crackdowns on sex workers by the police working with NGOs, often in response to U.S. State Department pressure. The NGO solution is to divert the women to the garment industry to make cheap clothes for Americans and other Westerners. However, many women return to sex work because the working conditions and pay are so poor in the garment industry: The Puerto Rico Senate voted to confirm Associate Justice Maite Oronoz Rodriguez as chief justice of the commonwealth's Supreme Court on Monday, making her the first out lesbian individual to hold this position in the United States, Dallas Voice reported Tuesday. The 39-year-old politician is no strangers to firsts: She also became the youngest member of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court when she was first appointed as the commonwealth's deputy solicitor general and chief legal counselor for the city of San Juan in 2014, according to the Associated Press. Maite Oronoz Rodriguez The LGBT community supports her trailblazing path. Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, an attorney for the LGBT civil rights organization Lambda Legal, called Oronoz Rodriguez's nomination a "significant step towards a judiciary that reflects the growing diversity of the United States," the Associated Press reported. Rodriguez joins a growing cohort of out LGBTQ politicians. There are seven LGBT members in the 114th Congress, according to Mashable. LGBTQ officials also span local levels of government, including Park Cannon, a recent addition to the Georgia House and its first out queer member, and the first out bisexual governor in the United States, Kate Brown of Oregon. In June, Americans celebrated the Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage as a definitive victory. But LGBTQ individuals frequently fail to achieve legal recourse for discrimination. For example, despite Puerto Rico's governor signing a 2013 bill prohibiting gender- or sexuality-based employment discrimination, the behavior still persists in the commonwealth and beyond: 21% of LGBT employees reported discrimination at work, as had 47% of transgender workers, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2013, and gay or transgender individuals can still legally be fired for their sexual or gender identity in 28 states, according to USA Today. But, perhaps with representative politicians, the tide will soon change. As Oronoz Rodriguez herself stated, she intends to use her position to "receive with open arms a citizenry that demands human justice." h/t Dallas Voice By Megan Davies and Nick Brown NEW YORK/SAN JUAN (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury counselor Antonio Weiss said on Thursday that without a proper restructuring regime, Puerto Rico will default and litigation will intensify, as he pushed Congress to act with legislation to help the island fix its crisis. Weiss, speaking to the House Natural Resources Committee in a hearing about the island's fiscal crisis, outlined the scale of the problems the U.S. territory faces. "As the cascading defaults and litigation unfold, there is real risk of another lost decade, this one more damaging than the last," Weiss said. A legislative solution for Puerto Rico, battling with $70 billion debt, may be edging closer. Legislation to find a fix for the island is expected to be drawn up following two Congressional hearings on Thursday - one in front of the House Natural Resources Committee at which Weiss was the sole witness. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he wants the Republican-led House to develop a response to Puerto Rico's fiscal crisis during the first quarter of 2016, and Republicans plan to bring a bill addressing the crisis to the House floor by the end of March. Puerto Rico wants access to a bankruptcy-like mechanism to reduce debt - a view backed by President Barack Obama's administration and some Congressional Democrats. But majority Republicans have not supported efforts to extend bankruptcy protection to the island, a strategy which could be detrimental to some creditors, and are keen to put Puerto Rico under strict fiscal oversight. Weiss, in questioning, said that Treasury's restructuring proposal was not envisioning the Chapter 9 bankruptcy law U.S. states can access for their public agencies, but legislation "customized to the unique conditions that face Puerto Rico." Weiss said his team will have to work to convince island leaders of the need for an oversight board for the island. "I think the legislature doesn't fully understand what this oversight authority would consist of," he said. Puerto Rico, with a 45 percent poverty rate, has been in recession for nearly a decade and is losing population to the mainland. It is suffering from a huge debt buildup and has already defaulted on some borrowings. "There is fear of the future," said Weiss. "Puerto Ricans are leaving and are joining us on the mainland where they find access to jobs, a future for their children, better healthcare." Weiss said that a failure to protect pension payments would "irreparably harm retirees" and add greater stress to Puerto Ricos economy. "We are deeply concerned about the pensions in Puerto Rico," he said. The Treasury late last year envisioned giving Puerto Ricos pensioners stronger legal protection than holders of its constitutionally backed bonds if it went bankrupt, according to a draft of a proposed plan seen by Reuters. A separate hearing before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services focused on the impact to investors in the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said without a broad restructuring framework to include more of the debt than a Chapter 9 framework would envision, the issue would not be solved and "we will be back here again." Legislation for Puerto Rico could potentially be written as a stand-alone law, which carries the risk of having little momentum to approve it, or attached to a bill related to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a congressional source previously said. An FAA authorization bill which authorizes funding for the agency could come up for a vote in the House of Representatives as early as next month. However, a legislative solution may be hard to achieve given the differing views and acrimonious relationship between Republicans, which control Congress, and Democrats. Tom McClintock, a Republican of California, said instead of increasing regulation, Puerto Rico needs less red tape, less tax burden and could be turned into a "Hong Kong of the Caribbean." However, Representative Raul Labrador of Idaho said he appreciated that Weiss was "trying to find a solution." "We don't agree on every one of your solutions but I can tell that the administration is acting in good faith in finding a solution to the problem," Labrador said. (Additional reporting by Daniel Bases in New York and David Morgan in Washington) Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump and his flummoxed rivals take the stage for a crucial presidential primary debate, with fellow White House hopefuls wondering what magic words can stop the brash billionaire's march toward the Republican nomination. The Grand Old Party and its non-Trump contenders for the White House are under intense pressure to derail the Trump train, so the knives may come out in Houston, Texas at the final Republican debate before "Super Tuesday," the delegate-rich, single-day run of about a dozen state primaries on March 1. The five-man debate, which begins at 7:30 pm (0130 GMT Friday) and will be carried live by CNN, promises to be stormy. By turns boastful, mocking or menacing, Trump has hit on a style that has seduced a growing and increasingly diverse share of Republican voters -- to the dismay of his rivals, who have struggled to find an effective angle of attack against the 69-year-old real estate mogul. Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, the only two candidates given any real chance of beating Trump, know that the stakes could not be higher. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson remains in the race but hardly anyone seems to be paying him any attention. And Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has a more moderate and less gloomy message about the state of America than his rivals, knows he will be under mounting pressure to withdraw from the race so that the "anti-Trump" forces can coalesce around Rubio. Trump seems unfazed by that possibility. "It's going to be an amazing two months," he boasted Tuesday in a victory speech in Nevada, confidently predicting sweeping wins that will help him clinch the nomination long before the Republican convention in Cleveland in July. "We might not even need the two months, to be honest." Cruz remains defiant, insisting he is the best candidate to topple Trump, and said he expects his home field advantage will help him claim the strategically vital Texas, which he called "the crown jewel" of Super Tuesday. Story continues - Rubio trails in Florida - Cruz won the first Republican nominating contest, in Iowa. But after three consecutive Trump victories -- in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada -- and with his frontrunner status confirmed by the polls, some wonder whether Trump will tone down his incendiary rhetoric, and adopt a more "presidential" pose on Thursday night. Will he attack Rubio with the same ferocity, now that longtime whipping post Jeb Bush has stepped out of the ring? "Marco Rubio's a nice young man. I can't hit him, he hasn't hit me," Trump said this week. But, "when he hits me, oh, is he going to be hit." While Rubio has been holding his punches, Vice President Joe Biden unleashed harsh criticism against Trump Thursday, assailing his "dangerous" rhetoric on immigration. Vicente Fox, Mexico's president from 2000 to 2006, took a harsher tone, using an expletive in telling the Fusion television network that Mexico was not going to pay for the border wall proposed by Trump. Fox "horribly used the F word when discussing the wall. He must apologize!" an angry Trump posted on Twitter. "If I did that there would be a uproar! Hours before the debate, a Quinnipiac University poll sounded what could be a death knell for the hopes of party elders intent on blocking Trump's advance: it showed Trump handily winning in Florida, Rubio's home state. It found that 44 percent of Republicans there would vote for Trump, compared to 28 percent for Rubio. Cruz would place third with 12 percent, according to the February 21-24 survey of likely Republican primary voters. "If Rubio can't win in his home state, it is difficult to see how he can win elsewhere," said Peter Brown, the poll's assistant director. The March 15 Florida primary is among the juiciest prizes of the Republican nomination race because it is the first big battleground where the winning candidate scoops up all of the state's delegates. Some within the party still expect a long fight and cling to a scenario in which Trump, Rubio and Cruz stay in the race until the convention, with none gaining an absolute majority of delegates. In this case, after a first round, delegates would be released from their initial commitment and could vote for the candidate of their choice in a second round, thereby reshuffling the electoral deck. By William James WOLVERHAMPTON (Reuters) - The British prime minister's battle to keep his country in the European Union - and save his political future - may depend on the campaigning power of his fiercest rivals: the opposition Labour Party. On June 23 Britain will vote on whether to withdraw from the EU in a referendum that has scrambled the traditional left-right battle lines of British politics. Cameron has staked his political legacy on being able to persuade Britons to stay inside the 28-member bloc. But his center-right Conservative Party is divided on the issue, forcing it to mothball its campaign machine and adopt a neutral stance. The leftwing Labour Party has overcome the euroskeptic tendency of party leader Jeremy Corbyn - who voted to leave the EU's predecessor in a 1975 referendum - and agreed to throw its weight behind a pro-EU campaign. With public opinion finely balanced and up to one in four voters yet to make up their minds, it could be down to Labour to deliver Cameron, who will step down before the next parliamentary election in 2020, a referendum victory. Labour has well-established influence across Britain's cities and an experienced campaign machine that specializes in targeting winnable votes and making sure supporters cast their ballots on polling day. "We've got the foot soldiers," said Labour lawmaker Emma Reynolds. "I see our job, and our responsibility as a Labour Party, in this referendum to talk to Labour voters ... to try to persuade them to vote 'In' and then get them out to vote." Anthony Wells, director of political polling at YouGov, said that could be crucial. "Leaflets and literature are the sort of things that change minds, and knocking on doors and talking to people is all about energizing people - getting the vote out and people to commit," he said. "It's not sexy, and it's the boring administrative stuff behind any election, but it matters." Labour lost a general election in May to Cameron's party, but still won more than 9 million votes - 30 percent of all those cast. Reynolds is one of three Labour lawmakers representing Wolverhampton, an industrial city in central England that is typical of many Labour strongholds outside the more prosperous and largely Conservative south. Labour has a majority of seats at local government level in England's five biggest cities and the party represents more than two thirds of inner-city parliamentary constituencies across London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. HIGHLY ORGANIZED The national Conservative Party decided last year to take an officially neutral stance, faced with the risk that a centrally-run campaign could drive a deep wedge between its pro-EU and euroskeptic factions. As a result the party's financial muscle, paid staff, regional offices and treasure trove of voter data - key elements of its unexpectedly successful May general election campaign - are all off limits when it comes to the EU vote. In Wolverhampton, the local Conservative organization said it had not discussed or agreed upon a unified position for the referendum. "We are not forming any general view as it is up to individuals to decide for themselves," said Conservative councilor Wendy Thompson in an emailed response to an interview request. Labour's campaign is expected to be a stark contrast. A team of around 70 activists knocked on over 10,000 doors for Reynolds' cause in a 2015 general election, using a sophisticated voter identification system to target the households most likely to vote Labour. On polling day volunteers hit the phones, calling constituents to remind them to vote. The same strategy will be used for the EU referendum, leveraging the party's political influence to deliver a message highlighting the EU's impact on job security and workers' rights. On Saturday, Reynolds and her team will be manning a street stall in Wolverhampton armed with Labour-branded literature produced by the party's headquarters - one event in what will be a national push to promote the centrally coordinated 'Labour In For Britain' campaign. "I like where Labour is going, so that would sway me," says Ruth Ashton, interviewed by Reuters outside the Wolverhampton university where she works. She is likely to vote to stay in the EU and says she expects her pro-Labour friends to do the same. (Editing by Elizabeth Piper and Andrew Roche) This story first appeared in the March 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Roger Corman's life is a tale in three acts. The first tells how the 89-year-old director and producer made more than 400 B-movies, reaping far more than $100 million in an extraordinary career that saw him help invent the independent film business; tutor such talents as Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron and Ron Howard; and win an honorary Oscar along the way. In the second act, he lost most of the money; it's a tragic twist that involves a bitter dispute with his children, an overseas bank account that held his life savings and a disgraced hedge fund manager who insists he's "not the black [Bernie] Madoff." Then there's the third act - still being written - in which Corman is fighting to recover all that he lost in litigation set for a trial later this year in Los Angeles. "If you're just a straight businessman, your pictures will not be good," Corman says of his career, seated in the living room of the Santa Monica house he shares with Julie, his wife and business partner of 46 years. "And if you're just a straight artist, you'll lose money. You have to be a businessman to understand art, and an artist to understand business." Their home is a modest hideaway by Hollywood standards and a bit of an aesthetic mess, with modern-looking paintings hanging above such antique pieces as an Egyptian throne. Corman, a professorial presence in person, admits he's angry at being stuck in court over money at an age when most of his contemporaries are enjoying retirement, but he does so in a calm and collected way, as if a bit of anger is what has propelled him through a career that began in the early 1950s when he scraped together the money for his first film, The Monster From the Ocean Floor. Having moved to Beverly Hills with his family when he was 14, Corman went to work at 20th Century Fox after college at Stanford, until he became frustrated and asked his father for a loan to make his own movie. His dad said no, so Corman sold $500 and $1,000 shares in the film to friends from school, put in $3,500 of his own money from a script he had sold, and got a huge break when the president of a film lab offered to defer payment until after the picture came out. In total, Monster From the Ocean Floor cost $30,000 and Corman earned twice that from Lippert Releasing Co., which in 1954 distributed the film. Corman repaid investors and immediately went into production on his next project, The Fast and the Furious, a drama about a wrongly convicted man who escapes from prison and joins a police-eluding racing circuit. (He would later license the title to Universal for its own car-racing franchise.) Story continues Corman (left) with wife of 46 years Julie, Bogdanovich, Paxton, Fonda and Dern, photographed Feb. 11 in front of his honorary Oscar. "We couldn't figure out where to put it," says Corman. "Julie suggested a marble column in the middle of the room with a spotlight and a hallelujah chorus, and I thought maybe that's a little too much." With competing offers on Fast and the Furious from three studios, including Columbia Pictures, Corman demanded that the winning bidder not only take that picture, but advance costs on two more films. "To the best of my knowledge, nobody had ever done that before," says Corman. "The idea of putting together a series of pictures with a guaranteed pickup against the profits for the distribution, I believe that was original." The multipicture output formula - which he repeated again and again - allowed Corman and, later, his and Julie's New World Pictures and New Horizons Pictures, to become a bona fide low-budget film factory at a time when the demand for product in theaters, drive-ins and then television was booming. Corman, often in association with Samuel Z. Arkoff's American International Pictures, birthed an astonishing number of movies with titles such as Attack of the Giant Leeches, A Bucket of Blood and, of course, The Little Shop of Horrors, which famously took just two days to shoot and starred a young Jack Nicholson. Corman (left, with Dern and Fonda) on the set of 'The Wild Angels' (1966). Made for $360,000, the film earned $5 million. Corman recognized the emergence of youth culture in the '60s and '70s long before the studios did, putting up-and-coming actors onscreen and touching on counterculture subjects like drugs and sex. In the process, '70s filmmaking icons such as Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme, along with such actors as Peter Fonda and Bruce Dern, came up under his wing. James Cameron, before he went off to write and direct Terminator, headed special effects at New World, and created spaceships and set designs that were reused on many films. Ron Howard's directorial debut, Grand Theft Auto, was financed by Corman, who acknowledges the irony that his acolytes went on to make some of Hollywood's most expensive films. Proteges often would cast him in small acting roles in their movies, including Apollo 13 and Silence of the Lambs, just to have him on set. Playing a senator in The Godfather: Part II, Corman remembers, "On the first day I was shooting, Francis came to my dressing room and he said, 'Roger, you will see there's a lot of wastage going on here. I could save Paramount a million dollars on this picture, but that's not my job.' " Dorothy Malone and John Ireland in Corman's 'The Fast and the Furious' (1955), the title of which Corman later licensed to Universal. Corman has been called the "King of B-movies," a moniker that prompted the Academy to award him a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2009. But he hates that term. Instead, he sees himself as a master of genre pictures and of cost-conscious filmmaking, slashing away at inefficiencies in budgets and arriving at a low-risk model for profitable films. That model hasn't always won him friends. Corman drove an on-set equipment truck himself until being warned by the Teamsters he wasn't allowed to do this. He once hired members of the Hells Angels to be background drivers on a film called The Wild Angels - until they were unruly on set and demanded the film's profits. "The Hells Angels weren't very fond of Roger," recalls Peter Bogdanovich. "And they hated me because I was always standing next to Roger, whispering in his ear. So they started to beat the hell out of me. That was the diciest moment of my life with Roger." By paying his staff very little (Coppola drew just $90 a week as his assistant in the late '60s) and holding back the millions it would cost to fund wide releases (he opened films regionally instead, moving the prints from town to town), Corman was comfortably in the black on most projects: Attack of the Crab Monsters, made for $70,000, earned $1 million in revenue in 1957 ($8.4 million today); House of Usher, made for $270,000, earned another $1 million in 1960; and so forth. "He's famous for knowing how to squeeze as much production out of a buck as you can imagine," says actor Bill Paxton, who worked in the art department on Corman's 1974 film Big Bad Mama. As he churned out product, Corman was building a library that he could further monetize. "For instance, HBO, their first year in business, we were their number one supplier because the major studios didn't want anything to do with them," says Corman. Perhaps most important, he took a big chunk of these profits and plowed them into non-Hollywood investments. For instance, when investor George Soros established his massively successful Quantum fund in the early 1970s, Corman was one of his first backers. Soros By 2008, the Cormans' fortune had become so great that their four children, all of whom had worked for the family film company, allegedly were told by Roger that trusts had been set up to pay them "the collective amount of $120 million to $160 million, with each beneficiary's share to be between $30 million and $40 million," according to a lawsuit. Then in September of that year, as the U.S. financial crisis was unfolding, Cirio Santiago, Corman's close friend, film partner and godfather to his four kids, died unexpectedly. Santiago's death was an important event in Corman's life because much of the Corman family's money was held through a tax-sheltering entity called Pasig Ltd. in an offshore account. At Corman's direction, Santiago had been held out as an owner of Pasig. When Santiago died, an investigation ensued into who was the real owner of the entity. Corman believed the answer was simple - the money was his - but the probe would set off a multiparty proceeding in an obscure court in the British Virgin Islands. Sylvester Stallone and Louisa Moritz on the set of the original 'Death Race 2000' (1975). A few months after Santiago died, having now heard about the offshore funds, Corman's oldest son (named Roger M. Corman) wrote a letter to his father to request an accounting of family assets. According to a lawsuit that soon would be filed by Roger M. and another son against New Horizons, they began to suspect trust money had been improperly removed to secret accounts overseas. The sons claimed they warned their parents about the tax ramifications of such a move, but that such talk particularly upset their mother, Julie, who allegedly became "increasingly violent," would "verbally castigate" their father for even discussing finances, "threatened to leave" him if he did so and declared the assets were hers. In August 2009, the sons would file petitions in probate court over the trust assets, later trying to remove their parents as trustees. They were then fired from New Horizons, which led to another lawsuit claiming the employment termination had been an illegal retaliatory salvo. The Cormans would later respond by telling the court that their sons merely were drawing a paycheck with no real job responsibilities at the family film company. The suit eventually was dismissed, while the trust dispute dragged on. What all the Cormans didn't know at the time was that this family drama was merely a sideshow to something a lot more disastrous and unforeseen: The fortune that everyone was fighting over already had mostly been lost. In 2008, about the same time the Cormans began feuding, the family money crossed paths with Buddy Fletcher, a Harvard-educated hedge fund manager who was named by Forbes as one of the country's 20 richest African-Americans alongside Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods and Bill Cosby. Fletcher, whose brother Geoffrey Fletcher is the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Precious, lived with his wife, Ellen Pao, at the Dakota, New York's iconic apartment building. (The two would bring a pair of discrimination lawsuits - his against the Dakota for racial discrimination, hers against the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins for sex discrimination - that would rocket them to larger recognition.) In the midst of the economic downturn, Fletcher ran into trouble repaying investors who had submitted redemption requests. His funds were thrown into bankruptcy, and, as a Chapter 11 trustee wrote in 2013 after investigating the matter, "in many ways, the fraud here has many of the characteristics of a Ponzi scheme." Fletcher had a deep relationship with the financial services giant Citco Group. His primary contact there was an executive named Ermanno Unternahrer, who had met Corman back in 1996, though there is a bit of a disagreement over the circumstances. According to an affidavit from Unternahrer filed in the British Virgin Islands case, a Citco trading manager had informed him that the Cormans were considering diversifying their offshore investments because Soros' funds were not performing as they previously did. By contrast, Corman says, in a declaration in another suit, it was Unternahrer who initiated the meeting and then pitched the filmmaker on the need to diversify, the chance to work with the largest offshore money manager in the world and to have personal involvement from the "Soros" of Citco, CEO Christopher Smeets. Regardless of how they met, Corman began to transfer millions upon millions of dollars for Citco to administer, according to court documents. Over the next few years, Corman and Unternahrer would meet regularly. Unternahrer even attended a Corman family Christmas party in 2001. The next year, Corman says Citco recommended that Pasig - the offshore entity - be set up to streamline all of the Cormans' investments under Citco control. By 2008, the Cormans had a whopping $73 million invested with Citco, their lawsuit claims. 'The Little Shop of Horrors' (1960) featured Jack Nicholson, one of several young stars that Corman featured before the major studios took notice. According to that suit, Citco handed management of Pasig's investments to Fletcher in June 2008. Citco allegedly did so despite knowing that Fletcher had not made a single profitable investment in the 10 months prior, that Fletcher was having difficulty repaying $20 million to Citco and that Fletcher had taken money from state pension funds he was overseeing to repay his debt. In transferring the Corman money to Fletcher, Citco allegedly paid itself $28 million. And Unternahrer is said to have arranged a side deal in connection with this transfer where he got $6.6 million in cash from Fletcher. "No one at Citco asked us or gave us an opportunity to decline to put our monies with Fletcher," Corman says in a declaration filed in the case. He claims he wouldn't learn about Fletcher until 2012, after the British Virgin Islands court made a ruling on the ownership of Pasig. When that court finally ruled, the Cormans say they were stunned to discover their $73 million had dwindled to $13 million, with Citco taking an additional $2 million in fees. Corman now claims in the suit against Citco that damages from mismanagement run as high as $170 million. That's the amount calculated for what the Cormans might have earned had they kept their money with Soros back in 1996. The movie poster for 1959 film 'Attack of the Giant Leeches.' The Cormans say they spent years in the dark about Fletcher's involvement - even after Fletcher's funds became insolvent and Corman asked for some of his Pasig money to pay taxes. Their lawsuit claims Citco "aligned" itself with the Cormans in the British Virgin Islands case, but also "advised the Cormans that it would not pay out any money until the [Virgin Islands] court made a ruling," even though "Citco knew the money all came from the Cormans." The Cormans further allege when Citco told them in 2010 it couldn't pay out because the Virgin Islands court was examining whether his children were the real owners of the overseas money, Citco kept it a secret that "Fletcher had control of their money." Fletcher, who did not respond to a request for comment, has been representing himself in the bankruptcy proceedings. He has argued that his troubles can be traced back to defendants in the Dakota lawsuit, whom he alleges retaliated against him by feeding reporters at The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets rumors of asset management troubles, leading to the self-fulfilling prophesy where investors began submitting redemption requests. "I have never supervised anything even remotely resembling a Ponzi," Fletcher testified. He has not been charged with a crime despite SEC and FBI investigations. "I am not the black Madoff," he added. Corman (left, with Vincent Price) making 'The Pit and the Pendulum' (1961). "Victims of Ponzi schemes almost never recover their money," says Matthew L. Schwartz, a partner at New York's Boies Schiller firm who once prosecuted Madoff, acknowledging that "private investors have gotten some recoveries from side players." For example, Citco reached a $125 million settlement with Madoff victims last August. Just days before inviting THR to their home in Santa Monica, the Cormans were granted standing to pursue legal claims against Citco. A trial was scheduled to begin Feb. 24, but it has been delayed to see if a deal can be worked out. "They've already made an offer to settle," says Corman. "It isn't fair enough, but at least we're moving in that direction." In the meantime, he and Julie live comfortably, if not extravagantly, and he's resolved the trust dispute with his sons. Corman recently had lunch with Jon Davison, a producer of such Cormanesque films as RoboCop and Starship Troopers. Like many in Hollywood, Davison started out in Corman's shop. Davison now lives on a ranch in Colorado away from show business. "Jon was a kid and now he's retired," says Corman. "I told that to Jon: 'Maybe it's time for me to retire too.' His reply was, 'You're too old to retire.' " So Corman continues to work. He's now remaking his 1975 cult film Death Race 2000, about a dystopian future in which race-car drivers mow down pedestrians for sport, for Universal's home video division. It's his first major studio film in decades and came about when Universal bought remake rights and released a watered-down version in 2008 with Jason Statham in which no pedestrians were killed. Corman says he called the studio on a whim and said, " 'You own the remake rights on my film, but you never really remade it.' They said, 'Why don't you come in and talk?' and then, 'Why don't you remake it and it's called Death Race 2050, and we're back to killing pedestrians?' " So a deal was struck. Or so Corman thought, until the paperwork became a hang-up, he got angry and then took over negotiations from his lawyer. If Corman can fight the studio system, his own children and even a financial services giant, he certainly can deal with this small challenge. In fact, when it is suggested he should make a monster film about Wall Street, he gets excited: "I should've done The Big Short!" BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania's justice minister said on Thursday she will propose reappointing Laura Codruta Kovesi to the helm of anti-corruption prosecuting agency DNA after it pursued a record number of cases last year. Romania is perceived as one of the European Union's most corrupt states and Brussels, which keeps its justice system under special monitoring, has praised magistrates for their efforts to curb graft. The country's fight against corruption is about a decade old; DNA sent its first cases to trial in 2005-2006. But the crackdown intensified under Kovesi, who was appointed in 2013 after previously serving as prosecutor general. Under her leadership, DNA investigations have revealed conflicts of interest, abuse of power, fraud and the award of state contracts in exchange for bribes. "I am noting DNA's sustained performance and will ... propose reappointing the chief anti-corruption prosecutor," Justice Minister Raluca Pruna told reporters. Under Romanian law, the president appoints chief prosecutors nominated by the justice minister. Kovesi's term expires this year. The agency sent 1,250 people to trial on corruption charges last year, its highest number yet, Kovesi told a conference on Thursday. They included five ministers, 21 parliamentarians and former prime minister Victor Ponta. Almost 500 people in management positions were indicted and many cases are still ongoing. DNA prosecutors won 970 final verdicts last year, raising DNA's conviction rate to roughly 92 percent. "This has been a year when we were constantly attacked because of your investigations," Kovesi told her colleagues. "There have been and there are attempts to change procedures and investigation possibilities. Our work has unsettled many who thought they were untouchable." But DNA is vastly overworked. In 2015, 97 prosecutors had 11,000 cases to investigate. Kovesi said one solution would be hiring more prosecutors and police, but that nothing would change without institutional reforms designed to prevent corruption. "In the absence of clear prevention and control measures, the types of acts we investigate and the mechanisms that allowed them will repeat themselves," she said. "We have not caught all of the corrupt." DNA will continue focusing on investigating corruption in local administration, the judiciary, public acquisitions and EU development funds, she said, but she also urged better coordination in recovering stolen assets following court convictions. In 2015, courts ordered the recovery of nearly 200 million euros. But the tax authority has been slow to recover the cash. (Reporting by Luiza Ilie; editing by Katharine Houreld) BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Russia persists with efforts to undermine Ukraine's political aspirations and has yet to live up to the full implementation of the Minsk agreements, a NATO official said on Thursday. Ted Whiteside, NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, also told a conference in Budapest that while during the Cold War, deterrence meant stationing hundreds of thousands of troops in Central Europe, NATO will not do that now. "We need mobile forces nimble enough to come to the assistance of others," Whiteside said in a speech. (Reporting by Krisztina Than; editing by John Stonestreet) By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a moderate Republican, took himself out of consideration for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday as Senate Republicans held firm to their vow not to act on any nominee by President Barack Obama for the job. Asked if the White House was disappointed by Sandoval's decision, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a briefing, "He's obviously entitled to make decisions about his own career." Sandoval's name surfaced as a possible nominee on Wednesday but Senate Republicans quickly said they still would not act on any Obama nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the Feb. 13 death of long-serving conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. An Obama appointee could pivot the court to the left for the first time in decades. Earlier on Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton expressed concern about the possibility of Sandoval being nominated, saying she wanted Obama to pick a "true progressive." In addition, some liberal activists expressed alarm over Obama picking a Republican. Sandoval released a statement that did not offer a reason for his withdrawal from consideration. "Earlier today, I notified the White House that I do not wish to be considered at this time for possible nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States," he said. "The notion of being considered for a seat on the highest court in the land is beyond humbling and I am incredibly grateful to have been mentioned." Obama will convene a meeting on Tuesday with the Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate and its Judiciary Committee to discuss a Supreme Court nominee, the White House said on Thursday. The White House has contacted every member of the judiciary panel, both Republicans and Democrats, to discuss efforts to replace Scalia, Earnest said at the briefing. Sandoval, 52, a Mexican-American, was appointed a judge by Republican George W. Bush, Obama's predecessor, before being elected governor in 2010. As governor, Sandoval has taken a traditional Republican stance in support of gun rights but offered more moderate views on social issues, such as supporting abortion rights. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday the Senate will not hold hearings or vote on any Supreme Court nominee until the next president takes office in January 2017, following the Nov. 8 presidential election. Republicans hope to win back the White House then. (Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann, Richard Cowan, Ginger Gibson and Susan Heavey; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Bill Trott) History buffs know that Adolf Hitler had an undescended testicle, but a new review of his medical records suggests that der Fuhrer also had other genital problems, including a condition called a micropenis. In fact, Hitler had a slew of below-the-belt problems, according to the new book, "Hitler's Last Day: Minute by Minute," (Short Books Ltd, 2015), by historians Jonathan Mayo and Emma Craigie. After reading Hitler's medical records, they said they found evidence that Hitler had a condition called penile hypospadias, in which the opening to the urethra is not at the tip of the penis, but either somewhere along the shaft or at its base, according to news reports. That condition may have left him with a micropenis, and likely made it difficult to go to the bathroom, the historians said. [How 13 of the World's Worst Dictators Died] Dr. Andrew Kramer, an associate professor of urology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, explained why the conditions of hypospadias and micropenis sometimes occur together. Normally, while a male fetus is developing in utero, the cells that form the urethra (the duct that carries urine and semen out of the male body) migrate from within the abdomen toward what will eventually become the penis, Kramer said. "Testosterone drives the migration," Kramer told Live Science. If there is not enough testosterone during development, the urethra's ending point might not migrate all of the way to the tip of the penis. Instead, it might develop partway up the shaft, or at the base of the penis. A man with this condition might have to urinate sitting down, Kramer said. But testosterone also supports general penile development and helps the testicles drop into the scrotal sack. If there is low testosterone during development, a fetus could develop a small penis and have one or two undescended testicles, he said. "It's a complex that goes together due to developmental lack of testosterone at the critical stages of development," Kramer said. Story continues These days, surgery and testosterone treatments can help newborns with these conditions, but it's unlikely that doctors had these techniques during Hitler's lifetime (1889-1945), Kramer said. However, it's impossible to confirm that Hitler had either hypospadias or micropenis, Kramer said. The undescended testicle may be more likely: A jingle that Allied soldiers sang during World War II alluded to Hitler's one undescended testicle, and medical reports auctioned in 2010 indicate that the dictator had "only one ball," according to The Telegraph. But Kramer said it wouldn't be surprising to hear that Hitler had low testosterone levels, especially since Hitler didn't have much facial hair (except for his mustache), had a small stature and wasn't known to have many romantic relationships. Moreover, Hitler received injections of bull-testicle extracts to bolster his libido, medical records report. "It's hard to pin him as someone who doesn't have high testosterone," Kramer said. "But I think there's a little bit there. " Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Shanghai (AFP) - Shanghai stocks closed down more than six percent on Thursday, slammed by worries over China's slowing economy and tight liquidity, dealers said. The falls came ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers in commercial hub Shanghai starting on Friday, with China's slowing growth expected to loom over the high-level discussions. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index plunged 6.41 percent, or 187.65 points, to 2,741.25 on turnover of 271.8 billion yuan ($41.6 billion). The Shenzhen Composite Index -- which tracks stocks on China's second exchange -- fared even worse, tumbling 7.34 percent, or 137.80 points, to 1,738.67 on turnover of 394.8 billion yuan. "The economy hasn't shown signs of stabilisation and policies are still coming out one after another," Central China Securities analyst Zhang Gang told AFP. China's economy grew 6.9 percent in 2015, its slowest pace in 25 years, and policymakers have been using both monetary and fiscal measures in an attempt to support growth. Dealers warned tight liquidity was also hurting trading, and the central bank injected 340 billion yuan ($52 billion) into the money market on Thursday to help ease flows. Adding to the negative feeling, the central bank stopped offering some banks lower reserve requirements in what appeared to be a tightening of monetary policy. The bank has denied that claim. "Sentiment is being affected as liquidity conditions seem to be tighter recently," Northeast Securities analyst Shen Zhengyang told Bloomberg News. Investors have been hoping for more announcements of reforms and government support for the economy at the meeting of China's National People's Congress, or legislature, from March 5, which could help stocks. Still, analysts said the market has risen too quickly to maintain recent strong gains, which has seen the Shanghai benchmark jump more than 10 percent from its low in January. "The (Shanghai) market failed to rebound above the key 3,000-point level after several attempts and went the other way," Zheshang Securities analyst Zhang Yanbing told AFP. "If the rising momentum is lost, investors tend to take profits and leave." By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar MOGADISHU (Reuters) - As many as 200 soldiers were killed in an attack on a Kenyan military camp in Somalia by al Shabaab Islamists last month, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told a television station, although Kenya rejected the figure. Kenyan authorities have refused to give a death toll following the Jan. 15 raid, which targeted troops working under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) near the southern Somali town of El Adde. Newspaper pictures of coffins draped with Kenyan flags bringing back dead soldiers after the attack increased the disquiet from ordinary Kenyans and the opposition alike over Kenya's continued presence in Somalia. Al Shabaab later distributed photos purporting to show the bodies of dozens of Kenyan soldiers, many apparently shot in the head. "When about 200 soldiers who came to help your country are killed in one morning, it is not something trivial," Mohamud told Somali Cable TV, a privately owned station. The interview was posted on YouTube on Thursday. "We have been winning for years and months but that El Adde battle, we were defeated. Yes, in war, sometimes something that you do not like happens to you," he said. Kenya sent soldiers into Somalia in 2011 after raids in the border region and kidnappings that threatened the tourism industry in the region's biggest economy and wider regional destabilization. It later joined the AMISOM operation. Al Shabaab's attacks in Kenya have included a raid by gunmen on the upscale Westgate shopping mall in 2013 and a university in Garissa in 2015. Hundreds of people have been killed in al Shabaab attacks in the past two years. Kenya Defence Forces spokesman, Colonel David Obonyo, denied the number given by the Somali president and questioned the source of the information. "It is not true. This information never came from us or anyone in the government of Kenya," he told Reuters. The al Qaeda-aligned militants have been driven out of major strongholds in Somalia by AMISOM and Somali army offensives, but the group still controls some rural areas and often launches guerrilla-style assaults and bomb attacks. Al Shabaab, which has links to al Qaeda and seeks to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed government, initially said it had killed more than 100 soldiers in the attack. The group, which is also seeking to drive the AU force out of Somalia, often says its attacks against Kenyan targets are retaliation for its participation in AMISOM, which also includes Uganda and Burundi. (Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Edith Honan) United Nations (United States) (AFP) - South Africa has told the United Nations it is withdrawing its troops from the joint UN-African Union mission in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur, a UN official said. "The government of South Africa decided to withdraw its troops from the mission," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The 850 troops will end operations on April 15. "Of course, we will have to look at the contingency in terms of how we fill those gaps," she said. Relations between Sudan and the United Nations have been tense over Khartoum's demands that the 17,000-strong UNAMID peacekeeping mission shut down. South Africa's decision to pull out comes after five weeks of intense fighting that have sent some 85,000 people fleeing in the Jebel Marra area while UN officials are seeking to verify reports of an additional 50,000 on the move. "It's a very large number for a very short period of time," said the official. The 85,000 civilians, mostly women and children, have fled to north Darfur, but UN officials are seeking access to central Darfur where unconfirmed reports suggest 50,000 people have been driven from their homes there. The Khartoum government has denied access to UNAMID, said the official. A large influx of 63,000 civilians taking refuge at the UNAMID camp set up at Sortoni, in north Darfur, is prompting concerns. "We are very concerned by the swelling of the makeshift camp at Sortoni. 63,000 people is a large number of civilians," said the official. "We are very concerned on how in the mid-term we can deal with this." Sudan's army has been trying to crush rebels of Abdulwahid Nur's faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA-AW) in Jebel Marra, saying it was responding to attacks by the rebels. The UN says that some 300,000 people have been killed in the fighting in Darfur since 2003 and 2.5 million displaced. JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's biggest health insurer Discovery Ltd reported no growth in first-half profit on Thursday, weighed down partly by the cost of setting up a bank. Discovery, which also runs a life insurance business, said normalised headline earnings per share totalled 332 cents in the six months to the end of December compared with 331.4 cents a year earlier. Headline earnings per share, a measure which strips out certain one-off items, is the profit figure most widely used in South Africa. Shares in the company dropped 2.5 percent to 116.50 rand, lagging a slightly higher JSE Top-40 index. Discovery is pushing into retail banking with an initial $150 million investment, a move that will pit it against five established banks in a fiercely competitive market. Established in 1992, the company's model is linked to a behaviour tracking programme that rewards its clients for healthy lifestyles, paying for gym memberships or offering cash back on money spent at what it deems to be healthy restaurants. (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by James Macharia) South Korea has completed a major naval base on the southern resort island of Jeju, the navy said Thursday, a project that sparked fierce protests by residents and activists. The $806 million base, completed after six years of construction, will provide the navy with a deep sea port in the south. South Korea is surrounded by sea on three sides -- the west, east and south -- and the base will grant its navy quick access to the eastern and southern parts of the East China Sea for the protection of the country's trade routes, naval authorities said. It will also serve as home for quick strike forces that can be dispatched against enemies who could bypass frontline navy forces deployed in the western and eastern sea to invade the country. With its pier and breakwater measuring 2.4 kilometres (1.5 miles) and 2.5 km in length, the base can simultaneously dock 20 combat vessels and two cruise ships of the largest class. It will double as a cruise ship port when a separate civilian pier is completed next year. The navy plans to host an opening ceremony on Friday, with a naval parade by the country's most sophisticated warships. The government first launched the Jeju base construction project in 1993 as part of efforts to consolidate South Korea's maritime sovereignty. Ground was broken six years ago, but the construction work was once put on hold in the face of intense protests by residents, environmentalist and pacifists. More than 600 protestors have been arrested. Many of them were indicted and fined. By Sarah White and Blanca Rodriguez MADRID (Reuters) - A government deal between Spain's Socialists and liberal Ciudadanos was dealt a fatal blow hours after it was announced on Wednesday when both the Conservatives and anti-austerity Podemos refused to back it. Such is the fragmentation of Spain's political landscape after an election last December that the Socialists and Ciudadanos, with only 130 seats in the 350-seat parliament between them, cannot govern alone. Podemos won 69 seats and the center-right People's Party (PP) 123. Continued bickering between all sides means Spain could be without a government for several more months at a time when the economic recovery is still fragile and unemployment stubbornly high at over 20 percent. To be elected prime minister, socialist leader Pedro Sanchez needs an absolute majority on March 2 or a simple majority of seats in a second vote that would take place in parliament on March 5. The pact with Ciudadanos could have gone through only if the PP or Podemos had backed it or at least abstained in the second vote, something they again ruled out. Podemos said it did not agree with the social and economic policies outlined in the deal, which includes tax reforms and measures to make government spending more efficient. The party also said it was suspending its own talks with the Socialists. "This is a deal that is incompatible with Podemos," Inigo Errejon, a senior party member, told a news conference. Hours earlier, the leader of the PP, acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, had also reiterated his party would vote against the pact which he called "misleading" because it fell way short of any majority. Rajoy said he would try and forge his own alliances afterwards, although he also said he believed the most likely outcome at this time was new elections, probably in June. Teneo Intelligence analyst Antonio Barroso, who described the Socialists-Ciudadanos deal as both "strategic and futile", said parties would probably continue negotiations beyond the two confidence votes scheduled next week. "The pact between the Socialists and Ciudadanos is aimed at tagging the PP and especially Podemos with the blame of potential new elections if they do not abstain to facilitate a Sanchez-led administration," Barroso said in a note. "The strategy is to force Podemos to assume the cost of voting alongside the PP, and to accuse incumbent Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of irresponsible behavior for not wanting to support a reasonable, encompassing reformist agreement," he also said. (Editing by Julien Toyer/Ruth Pitchford) COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka on Thursday appointed as a cabinet minister its first five-star field marshal and the former army general who led the military to victory in a 26-year war against Tamil Tiger separatists. Sarath Fonseka, the leader of the Democratic Party, lost the August parliamentary poll, but entered parliament following a nomination this month by the ruling United National Party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Fonseka was sworn in as minister of regional development at a time when supporters of former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa accuse the government of investigating the military over war crimes at the demand of the West and the United Nations. Rajapaksa refused to investigate any alleged war crimes in the final phase of the conflict that ended in May 2009. "The message is that, as the government is moving forward in implementing the U.N. resolution, it continues to respect the military and is not rejecting the military in any way," said Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council, an independent advocacy group. Fonsekas appointment signals that the government may protect senior military leaders "suspected of widespread abuses", rights group Human Rights Watch said this month. Fonseka, 65, has rejected domestic and international allegations that he was responsible for war crimes during the final phase of the war against the Tamil Tigers and has said he is willing to testify in any international court. He won a pardon from President Maithripala Sirisena last year after being convicted by Rajapaksa's government of offences ranging from corruption to engaging in politics in uniform. Fonseka challenged Rajapaksa in the presidential election of 2010 and lost the election by 18 percentage points. Rajapaksa's government accused him of planning a military coup and arrested him less than a month after his election defeat. Fonseka rejected the allegation. Sentenced to 30 months in jail, he was released in May 2012. He headed a new opposition party while in jail and won a parliamentary seat in April 2010 elections, but was stripped of the post after his sentencing. Fonseka's party backed Sirisena at the presidential polls in January last year. (Reporting by Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) Theres still a long wait before the next Star Wars movie hits theaters. The next installment in the saga doesnt even have an official name, and there are no trailers for it just yet. Set to debut in mid-December 2017, Episode VIII is currently filming so well have to wait for Disney to release marketing materials for the movie before we get any real clues as to whats going on. However, a new set of images shows a set from the next Star Wars film for the first time. DONT MISS: Apple is making an unhackable iPhone, and we have the FBI to thank As weve already seen in some clips showing the special effects behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams opted for complex props that help actors during shooting, rather than relying solely on green screens. And we wouldnt be surprised to learn that Rian Johnsons Episode VIII will follow along the same lines. Discovered by Games Radar, the images below were posted on Instagram as captured in Dubrovnik, Croatia, where some Star Wars scenes are shot. As The Dubrovnik Times explains, the scenes were apparently shot on Stradun street in the city center, where doors are being dressed up to create a new world in a galaxy far, far away. Its not clear at this time what scenes are being filmed in this particular location, or which actors are going to be in the scenes. Check out the images for yourself, and if youre in Dubrovnik you can even go pay a visit. star-wars-episode-viii-set-photos-dubrovnik-2 star-wars-episode-viii-set-photos-dubrovnik-1 Related stories You can finally watch the original Star Wars as it was meant to be seen Star Wars teases opening shot of 'Episode VIII' as production begins Star Wars gets mashed up with Mario Kart in the best video of the week More from BGR: Your dream of a 256GB iPhone 7 might come true This article was originally published on BGR.com By Gary Robertson RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) - Violent thunderstorms and tornadoes lashed the U.S. Southeast and mid-Atlantic region on Wednesday, killing at least three people in Virginia a day after twisters claimed three lives along the Gulf Coast, authorities said. The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of tornado activity along a line of storms stretching from Raleigh, North Carolina, north to parts of Virginia, Maryland and the Washington, D.C. area. "We're swamped with tornadoes on the ground here," said Weather Service forecaster Brandon Dunston in Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. Three people were confirmed dead in Waverly, Virginia, a town of some 2,300 residents about 45 miles southeast of Richmond, where at least three structures sustained heavy damage in a mid-afternoon storm, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. State police later said the three victims - two men, aged 50 and 26, and a 2-year-old boy, were killed when their mobile home was demolished in the storm. Their bodies were all found about 300 yards (meters) from the trailer site, police said. At least one eyewitness told a Richmond-based television station WTVR he saw what appeared to be a twister heading into Waverly, but state police said a tornado had yet to be confirmed. Two highways leading into the town, U.S. Route 460 and State Route 40, were left impassable by heavy debris from the storm, state police said. Authorities also were responding to widespread reports of local flooding. Tornado watches were posed through much of Virginia, and Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency to hasten delivery of disaster relief to stricken areas. A storm earlier on Wednesday destroyed a mobile home in Wayne County in central North Carolina and wind gusts of up to 53 miles per hour were reported at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina, the NWS said. Just north of Oxford, North Carolina, near the Virginia border, high winds damaged several houses, one of them blown "completely apart," Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins said, adding that power outages were widespread. He said a number of people suffered minor injuries. Schools in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida canceled classes or shifted hours ahead of severe weather forecasts. The severe weather in Virginia and the Carolinas came as rescue teams combed through debris left by several tornadoes that pummeled southern Louisiana and Mississippi on Tuesday, claiming at least three lives. Among the hardest hit was the Mississippi River hamlet of Convent, Louisiana, where state officials said two people died and dozens were injured at one trailer park. Most of the estimated 160 mobile homes were destroyed or heavily damaged at the park, located about 60 miles west of New Orleans. In neighboring Assumption Parish, more than 100 homes and businesses were damaged and several were destroyed, said sheriff's office spokesman Robert Martin. The NWS confirmed one storm-related death near the Mississippi town of Purvis, where a mobile home was destroyed. Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for two counties lashed by a tornado on Tuesday night. Several people were injured and about 70 homes damaged when a tornado ripped through Pensacola, Florida, local media reported. (Reporting by Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, N.C.; additional reporting by Harriet McLeod in Charleston, S.C. and Letitia Stein in Atlanta; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Tom Brown and Andrew Hay) With Super Tuesday approaching, and voters from 14 states and one territory gearing up to throw their support behind a presidential candidate, the nation will surely be paying close attention to the outcome on Tuesday. This primary-caucus cluster will be a crucial point in the election for each candidate because the large number of delegates could set the stage for a presidential nomination. Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming are the states participating in Super Tuesday. The full list of elections can be found here. Super Tuesday was conceived as "a device to keep out insurgents," presidential historian Michael Beschloss told NBC. "The idea was, you have all those primaries on one day, hard for somebody to win unless they've got a lot of money, name ID [and] organization." About 880 delegates are on the table this year, with candidates competing with one another to reach the 2,383 delegates to clinch the 2016 presidential nomination. On Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won Nevada's Republican caucuses, and according to current polling trends, he might clinch the nomination if he has a strong showing on Super Tuesday. Sen. Ted Cruz, who defeated Trump in the Iowa caucuses, is leading Trump in Texas, his home state. Cruz also leads his opponents in Arkansas. Trump leads in the following states: Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia, RealClearPolitics reported. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders aren't quite as close in the polls. Clinton is leading Sanders in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, according to RealClearPolitics. Sanders is leading in his home state of Vermont by a wide margin, and has a slim lead in Massachusetts. Residents of Copenhagen, Denmark, can cut their grocery bills by as much as half thanks to a new supermarket that opened in the city this week. WeFood, started by the nonprofit DanChurch Aid, gets all its productsfrom dairy to meat to dry goodsfrom supermarket chains that would otherwise throw the food away. The market, which was financed partially through a crowdfunding campaign, is working with two large Danish grocers as well as a number of smaller retailers to stock its shelves. As is the case in the United States and elsewhere, foods are often pulled before they spoil or present any kind of food-safety risk. But there are deep-seated preferences and prejudices held by both consumers and retailers that have made it difficult to sell less-beautiful produce, for example, or products that have passed an arbitrary sell-by date. Located in the Amager neighborhood of Copenhagen, which has largely gentrified its way out of a very working-class past, the market appears to be more symbolically neutral than similar efforts undertaken in the U.S. Former Trader Joes exec Doug Rauch, for example, opened the Daily Table, which sells rescued food at cut-rate prices, in Boston last June. Between its location in the largely poor, brown neighborhood of Dorchester and the baggage that cast-off foods come with, the effort was met with resistance from black and food-justice activists. People in the community said, Heres a millionaire from a different community coming into a community of color and telling them hes going to set up shop and sell them other peoples garbage, basically, Ernest Duke Bennett, a neighborhood activist, told TakePart last year. Denmark certainly has its own problems with identity politics, especially as refugees from Syria and Iraq continue to make their way to Northern Europe. Still, with Danish Princess Marie and Eva Kjer Hansen, the minister of food and environment, on hand at the Monday opening, the idea is being presented more in terms of environmental sustainability for all at WeFood instead of affordable (and possibly stigmatized) food for some. Story continues WeFood is the first supermarket of its kind in Denmark and perhaps the world as it is not just aimed at low-income shoppers but anyone who is concerned about the amount of food waste produced in this country, DanChurch Aids Per Bjerre told The Local, an English-language Danish news site. Many people see this as a positive and politically correct way to approach the issue. Its estimated that Danes throw out more than 650,000 tons of food annually, but according to a report published by the government last fall, waste has dropped by 25 percent in just five years. Elsewhere in the world, progress has neither been nor is expected to be so rapid. For example, in the U.S., where 133 billion pounds of food is scrapped every year, President Obama has set a goal to cut the number in half by 2030. Related stories on TakePart: People Are Losing More Money on Food Waste Than They Realize The Elites at Davos Take On the $1 Trillion Food Waste Problem Will Turning Your Fridge Into a Tablet Computer Reduce Food Waste? Original article from TakePart Was it the Vampire Breast Lift? Or maybe the Haze Dual Vaporizer? Or maybe the Nuelle Fiera vibrator? Whatever it was (it was probably the vibrator), 2016 has proved to be the year that a longstanding Oscar traditionthe absurdly expensive and also just absurd gift bags handed out to losing nomineesseems, officially, to have Gone Too Far: Last week, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sued Distinctive Assets, the marketing firm that has long provided the sassy swag, for trademark infringement. Related Story Ending the Internet Outrage Cycle The lawsuit contended, essentially, that the party favors to end all party favorsand, more specifically, their vampy/vapey/vibey contents, this year said to be worth $232,000 in allwere giving the awards show a bad name. The so-called Everybody Wins bags were dirty alloys, basically, to Oscars gold. So its both ironic and fitting that the Academys complaint has had the effect of bringing even more attention than usual to the existence and the excesses of the gift bags. And also to the role the bags have played in the strange sub-economies of the ultimate American awards show. The Oscar Gift Bags Are So Lavish That Even the Academy Is Embarrassed, New York magazine declared. Oscar sues over unauthorized (and unsavory) swag bags, USA Today had it. Those came on top of the many, many articles that had simply catalogued the contents of the bags. Yahoo made a video Dissecting the Outrageously Valuable, Not to Mention Ridiculous, Oscars Gift Bags. GOOD offered its own look, Inside the $200,000 Unofficial 2016 Oscars Gift Bagunder the ambiguous rubric of poptimism. Blasting News took things to their logically Marxist conclusion: THE RICH AND OSCAR-FAMOUS ARE SPOILED WHILE THOUSANDS GO WITHOUT. Did you know about Vampire Breast Lifts before this years cycle of Oscar Bag Articles mocked their existence? I really, really hope not. Story continues This would be the case with or without swag bags; still, of course, the reality is more complicated than the-rich-getting-richer-and-also-firmer-of-skin. Many celebrities, after all, end up giving their gift bags away to charity. Some others auction them off. (George Clooneys bag recently fetched $45,000.) OneSandra Ohhas outright refused to accept the bag. And many other bag recipients do use their contents, or at least select parts of them. (Gwyneth Paltrow reportedly used a gift certificate for a stay in a Mexican resort, part of her 2004 Oscar presenter bag, for her honeymoon with Chris Martin.) But while, from his perspective, celebrities pampering themselves with the products he assembles is a nice thing, Lash Fary, the owner of Distinctive Assets and the assembler of the bags in question, told me, its not really the thing. Instead, as he puts it: This is just straight-up marketing. Its also marketing that goes beyond the typical, IRL product placement. Unless the givers are permitted to promote and market the fact that their products or services are in the gift bag or they are allowed to photograph the recipient using the gift, I think that this is not a good use of the givers money, Michael Stone, the chair and co-founder of Beanstalk, told Forbes. So while marketers may well give products away in the vague hope that celebrities might use themand, more specifically, that celebrities might be photographed using themtheyre also banking on a more guaranteed return. Theyre calculating that news outlets, indignant about and inspired by the bags contents, will write about them. Theyre calculating, essentially, that the media will do their promotion for them. Recommended: Who Will Win at the 2016 Oscars? Its a calculation that, this year, led to headlines like HERES EVERYTHING INSIDE THE $232,000 OSCARS GIFT BAG (Harpers Bazaar) and Oscar Gift Bag Swag: $200K Worth of Luxury Toilet Paper, Sex Toys, and Armpit Mops (Breitbart) and Inside the Absurd $200K Oscar Gift Bag: Vapes, a Trip to Israel, and a Vampire Breast Lift (The Daily Beast). It led to stories like GQs write-up of this years bags, which not only listed, but taxonomized, the bags contentsfrom the Basic AF (a $12 lint remover) to the Trashy, but Well Take It (personalized M&Ms for $300) to the From The Price is Right School of Trashy (a $54,000 private walking tour of Japan) to the Lawsuit-Inspiring Trashy ($5,530 worth of plastic surgery) to the Actual Trash (a $134 Caolion Ultimate Pore Care gift set) to, finally, a single Respectable entry: a 10,000-meal donation made in the nominees name to an animal shelter or rescue of his or her choice. GQs thing on the bagsthough it could have been most anyones thing on the bagsis good Internet #content. It is amusing. It speaks to the zeitgeist. It inspires indignation on the part of the reader. And, in all that, it convenes human attention so that commercial messages might be sold on its platform. At the same time, thoughand just as readilythe detailed list GQ has provided functions as free publicity for the brands and products included in Farys 2016 gift bag. So do the lists GQs many fellow outlets provided. Did you know about Vampire Breast Lifts before this years cycle of Oscar Bag Articles mocked their existence? I really, really hope not. The bags are press releases in the form of party favors. Which is to say that the gift bags are not really bags. (Theyre not, strictly, bags to begin with: Theyre a collection of small items and gift certificates collected in roller duffel bags, Fary told me. Theyre sometimes given out on-site, but more often couriered, this being Hollywood, from assistant to assistant.) The bags are, basically, press releases in the form of party favors. They are fodder for discussion and storytelling. Fary calls himself the Sultan of Swag. Others call him a guerrilla marketer. What he is more accurately, though, is a pitchman whose medium is objects rather than words. And that might offer an answer for why 2016s bag proved to be the final straw for the Oscars: The bags became a little too good at doing their jobs. The Oscars have long given out gift bagsin this case, starting in 2001, as sort of a childrens party favor for the nominees and presenters. When the Academy ended its official swag-giving practice in 2006, the move was based not on inequality grounds, it seems, but on the fact that the IRS decided that the bags should be taxed. And, by extension, on the fact that people have a funny way of being less grateful for free stuff when the stuff comes wrapped in several thousand dollars worth of tax burdens. Recommended: 'Gods of Egypt': A Circus of Beetle Chariots, Ancient Robots, and Whitewashing Distinctive Assets stepped in with its unofficial bags. And while those every-year-more-excessive bags might not have offered Vampire Breast Lifts, they did offer tote-able absurdities like condoms, Lasik eye surgery, mink eyelashes, high-def televisions, and $120 maple syrup. Last years bags included a vibrator. So, yes, this years version of the bags may have been extra-objectionable because they were worth moreaccording to Distinctive Assetss math, anyway, which seems to take an extremely liberal approach to cost estimationthan ever before. But what was even more objectionable, at least as far as the Academy is concerned, was the way the media played its annual role. The Academys complaint suggests that headlines like HERES EVERYTHING INSIDE THE $232,000 OSCARS GIFT BAG and Oscar Gift Bag Swag: $200K Worth of Luxury Toilet Paper, Sex Toys, and Armpit Mops and Inside the Absurd $200K Oscar Gift Bag: Vapes, a Trip to Israel, and a Vampire Breast Lift all contributed to trademark infringement, false advertising, and trademark dilution. They emphasized the aggressive luxury and absurdity of the bags, but de-emphasized the fact that the bags are, technically, assembled for the Oscars rather than by them. You could call all that, as Fary does, lazy reporting. And Distinctive Assetss press release, to be sure, notes that the bags in question have been independently produced for over a decade by the founders of swag at Distinctive Assets. Media outlets, many of them, did ignore that nuance. They focused, instead, on the thing that will get clicks: the outrage. The indignation. The words Vampire breast lift. The Oscar bags: You will not believe what is in them this year! The Oscar bags: Watch them extend a diamond-swathed middle finger to Bernie Sanders! The Oscar Bag Outrage Story reads like what might have resulted had Marx been able to read SkyMall. But the outlets, of course, were also doing exactly what they were supposed to in all this: getting angry, and turning their anger into #content. Just as they do every year. They were creating their own entries into an annual mini-genre: the Oscar Bag Outrage Story, which delights in the gross excesses of Hollywood and those of the awards-show industrial complex. So opulent! So sexist! So weird! The genre reads, overall, a little like what might happen if Karl Marx had lived long enough to read through a SkyMall. And its a genre that exists at all, of course, for the same reason any genre will: Theres a market for it, year after year. (The bags are fit for Hollywood royalty and coveted by the hoi polloi, a 2005 Bloomberg article noted.) The bags are perfect fodder for a media system that increasingly treats outrage as a kind of currency: Here is a bag of stufflistable, illustratable, thinkpiece-ablethat raises all manner of hackle. Write about the bag, and the media get free clicks, and the brands get free media. Everybody Wins, as it were. The bags are perfect fodder for a media system that increasingly treats outrage as a kind of currency. If its a strategy, its not a new one. PR that does its work by causing indignationmadvertising, you could call ithas long been part of the marketers quiver. The Bloomingdales ad that made light of sex and consent. The Budweiser ad that did the same. The GoDaddy Super Bowl ads that treated women like inconveniently animate blow-up dolls. The #branded tweets reacting to current events in unsavorily self-promotional ways. The off-color jokes and the #toomuches and the #toosoons: They take advantage, ultimately, of the vast supply of free media that comes from think pieces and hot takes and, in general, outrage. Some of them do that, of course, in spite of themselves. Some of these spots are mistakes, pure and simple, the result of marketers failing to understand their customers or, perhaps, understanding them a little too well. Many of them, thoughmost of them, to be both generous and cynical about itare the result of a very contemporary take on the old adage that theres no such thing as bad publicity: They figure that, in this age of pessimism and irony and knee-jerk indignationin this age of media that so deeply incentivizes the hot takepissing people off is a really, really good way to get people to talk about you. The Oscar bags marketers have made a similar gamble. And it has so far, whatever the future of those bags may be, paid off. Outrage sells. Especially when its given away for free. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. Ankara (AFP) - Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday said a ceasefire agreed between Syria's warring parties was only valid inside Syria and was "not binding" for Turkey if its national security was threatened. "It must be known that the ceasefire is valid in Syria," Davutoglu said in televised remarks in the central Anatolian province of Konya. "When it is a question of Turkey's security, then the ceasefire is not binding for us," he added. Turkey on successive days last week targeted Kurdish fighters inside Syria with artillery barrages, saying that the army was responding to incoming fire, and had repeatedly reserved the right to open fire again. Russia and the United States have set a deadline of midnight Damascus time (2200 GMT) Friday for the "cessation of hostilities" between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and non-jihadist rebel forces. The deal, which marks the biggest diplomatic push yet to help end the five-year conflict in Syria, excludes the Islamic State group and other Sunni extremists. Davutoglu said Turkey would closely monitor how the ceasefire would be implemented, adding: "We support the ceasefire under any circumstances." Turkey has demanded that the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia should remain outside the scope of the truce. It sees both as offshoots of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies. "To us, YPG is a terrorist organisation the same as Daesh (IS) and (Al-Qaeda affiliate) Al-Nusra," the prime minister said. "There is no terror reference to YPG in the ceasefire. There should have been but there is not." A militant Kurdish group claimed a suicide car bomb that killed 29 people in the capital Ankara last week but Turkish officials said the bomber was a Syrian Kurd working on behalf of the PYD, which has denied being behind the attack. Story continues Davutoglu on Thursday said if Turkey's security was concerned, "we do not get permission from anyone, we do not ask anyone but we do what's required." He warned the YPG and the PKK "not to support terror in Turkey" just because of the ceasefire in Syria. "When it's a question of the security measures Turkey will take, the only place to have a say is Ankara," the premier said. Beirut (AFP) - The Syrian army retook a strategic town from the Islamic State group on Thursday, paving the way for the reopening of its sole supply route to main northern city Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops still needed to clear the jihadists from hills overlooking the key highway before it could be fully secured. The road through the town of Khanasser is the sole link between government-held areas in and around Aleppo and those in the rest of the country. State news agency SANA hailed its recapture just two days after its fall to the jihadists. The army's counteroffensive was backed by Russian air strikes which killed 20 IS fighters, said the Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group. It is not the first time that the government's supply route to Aleppo has been cut. Rebels severed it in 2013 and IS also did so last year before being pushed back. The new fighting for the road comes with the army on the offensive north and west of Aleppo, where rebel forces in the east of the city are almost completely surrounded. That offensive is supposed to come to an end when a Russian and US-brokered ceasefire goes into effect at 2200 GMT on Friday. But the war against IS will go on as the group is specifically excluded from the planned truce, as is Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Turkey has pushed for the exclusion too of the main Syrian Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Units (YPG), which has also seized territory from rebels northwest of Aleppo in recent weeks. Turkish artillery shelled YPG-held territory in Aleppo province throughout Wednesday night, the Observatory said, without immediately reporting any casualties. The renewed bombardment came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday again lashed out at Western policy towards the YPG, charging that the militia were a "terror group" just like IS and Al-Qaeda. To the anger of Ankara, which regards the YPG as a branch of outlawed Turkish rebel group the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Washington has worked closely with what it regards as the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria. Stockholm (AFP) - A Syrian asylum-seeker appeared in court in Sweden Thursday accused of war crimes, with photographs on the Internet forming part of the evidence against him, a prosecutor said. Mohamad Abdullah, 31, who arrived in Sweden in July 2015, admitted to being a member of the regime in his home country, but not a fighter. The case against Abdullah, who was arrested on Tuesday, was based on photographs and other information that appeared on social media, Reena Devgun, a prosecutor with the Swedish International Public Prosecution Office, told AFP after the closed-door hearing. She would not elaborate on the alleged crime but said it was believed to have been committed between March 2012 and July 2015. Abdullah, who has not yet been formally charged, was remanded in custody by the Stockholm District Court. Around 163,000 asylum-seekers arrived in Sweden last year, part of the huge wave of migrants flooding into Europe, many fleeing war in Syria. In December, Hassan al-Mandlawi and Al-Amin Sultan, both Swedish nationals, were sentenced to life in prison after graphic videos showed them taking part in the killing of two men in the northern city of Aleppo which has been ravaged by more than four-years of war in Syria. SYDNEY (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Fijians remain homeless and living in evacuation shelters in the aftermath of a devastating cyclone at the weekend, officials said on Thursday, as aid began trickling in to the outer reaches of the South Pacific archipelago. The death toll from Cyclone Winston, the worst storm ever recorded in the southern hemisphere, remained at 42 but officials at Fiji's National Disaster Management Office fear that figure will rise. Officials from the disaster agency estimate that 35,000 people are sheltering in evacuation centers, some of which are damaged and running short of food and other supplies. Some 900,000 people live in the archipelago of more than 300 islands International aid agencies said supplies were being delivered but the scale of the damage to infrastructure, particularly jetties and communications equipment, was making it hard to reach remote communities where help was most needed. CARE Australia spokesman Dylan Quinnell said there had still been no contact with some remote communities, including one at Yasawa on the northwest coast of Fiji's largest island, Viti Levu, since the cyclone made landfall on Saturday. Others had been reached using radios dropped by the New Zealand air force. Alice Clements, a UNICEF aid worker, told Reuters by phone from Nadi, Fiji's main tourism hub, that some communities had been totally destroyed but that rebuilding had already begun. "People are going out during the day to recover what they can, it's not like they're sitting in the shelters helpless, they are salvaging what they can and dusting themselves off," Clements said. Ahmad Sami, the acting head of the International Red Cross in the Pacific, said providing shelter and water remained immediate priorities. "Volunteers on the ground are saying the destruction is like nothing which they have ever seen before," Sami said. "Houses have collapsed, communications are still down, power transmission is down, wharves are still not accessible and roads and highways have been damaged," he said. Joseph Hing, another UNICEF worker, landed on the worst-hit island of Koro on Tuesday and said it "looked like someone took a torch and just burnt from one side to the other". "As we sailed closer, we started to smell the dead carcasses of livestock that were floating past the ships. When we smelt those, we knew that this disaster was really, really bad," he said in a statement. Aid workers have warned of potential outbreaks of the Zika and Dengue viruses, both carried by mosquitoes that could breed in the stagnant water left by the storm. (Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Paul Tait) By Kieran Guilbert DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than 20,000 people in West Africa have gained identity documents in the past year as part of a drive to eradicate statelessness, yet around one million in the region still have no nationality, the United Nations said on Thursday. Stateless people, sometimes referred to as legal ghosts, are not accepted as citizens by any country, which means they are denied basic rights - leaving many unable to work or access healthcare - and are vulnerable to exploitation and traffickers. Many West Africans are left stateless by laws which prevent women passing their nationality to their children and a lack of birth registrations, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said. Around 22,000 people in Ivory Coast, Benin and Mali have received identity documents or birth certificates since the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) signed a declaration in January last year that it would end statelessness. "Thousands of people who, until now, did not have a determined nationality, will come out of the shadows," said UNHCR regional representative for West Africa Liz Ahua. "Thanks to the reforms currently being implemented in several states in West Africa, these men, women and children will finally be able to obtain a legal identity," she added. Around one million people are thought to be stateless or at risk of statelessness in West Africa, according to the UNHCR. Yet Ivory Coast, where statelessness helped fuel a decade of civil wars, is the only nation in the region to give an estimate - some 700,000 people - of the number of individuals living in limbo, so the figure could be far higher, experts say. Several West African countries have adopted action plans to tackle the issue, the UNHCR said. Guinea, Burkina Faso, Liberia and Togo are reviewing their nationality laws, while Senegal is working on a law to protect children from being born stateless. "Thousands of children in West Africa, such as street children, are not declared at birth... they can be easily exploited by human traffickers or forced to work," said UNHCR senior regional protection officer Emmanuelle Mitte. There are an estimated 10 million stateless people worldwide with other big populations in Nepal, Myanmar and Thailand. The UNHCR launched a global #ibelong campaign to end statelessness within a decade in November 2014. (Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, editing by Tim Pearce. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org) By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - Colorado police killed a man on Wednesday after he shot three sheriffs deputies, one fatally, when they came to evict him from his mountain house. Officers were carrying out a court-ordered eviction of Martin T. Wirth near the town of Bailey, about 35 miles southwest of Denver, when he came out on his deck, paused and went back into the house, Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener said in a statement. "Officers quickly followed (him) inside the residence and as they entered, Wirth fired upon them. Officers returned fire, the statement said. Corporal Nate Carrigan, a 13-year veteran of the force, died in the exchange of gunfire, Wegener said. One of the wounded deputies, Kolby Martin, was airlifted to a Denver-area hospital, where he is listed in critical condition with multiple wounds to his lower extremities, said Susan Medina, spokeswoman for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Captain Mark Hancock was grazed in the ear and was treated and released from hospital, she said. Medina said the investigation is ongoing and would not provide details on what led up to the shooting. An organization called the Colorado Foreclosure Resistance Coalition said in an undated posting on its website that Wirth was about to lose his home to foreclosure after a lengthy court battle with his bank. The group said Wirth was a fellow activist who was involved with the Occupy Movement, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street protest organization that sprung up several years to protest economic and social inequality. The group called for members to congregate at Wirths property in a non-violent eviction protest. We need to buy him enough time to file for a temporary restraining order on the eviction and attempt to restart the legal battle, the group said. Wirth ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Colorado legislature in 2014 on the Green Party ticket. On a candidate questionnaire posted on the Denver Post newspapers web site, Wirth said Republicans and Democrats are corrupt and controlled by corporate money. He also railed against the death penalty. (Additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Andrew Hay, Victoria Cavaliere and Kim Coghill) A recent study from the Aegon Center on Longevity and Retirement highlights a remarkable trend: Half of all employees surveyed expect to work past the age of 65. Drawing on data from 15 countries including the U.S., Great Britain, India, Japan and Australia the report makes it clear that with longer and healthier lives, people are neither ready nor able to call it quits at the traditional retirement age of 65. Three or four decades of retirement? Thats a lot of shuffleboard -- and a lot of expense. As individuals shun 20th century retirement norms, policy makers would be wise to keep up. This development is to be celebrated. Longer, more productive working lives are the key to 21st century fiscal sustainability. The World Health Organization has been exploring the issue. In a seminal decision, the WHOs executive board recently adopted a new strategy to address health and aging. At the core of the new approach is the concept of functional ability, which seeks to sustain the health of our skin, bones, vision and hearing. The WHO has affirmed that the job of health policy is not just treating and curing disease, but enabling healthier and more active aging into our 70s, 80s and beyond. Related: How Planning to Work in Retirement Could Backfire At the World Economic Forums Davos meeting a few weeks ago, one session called on businesses and governments to embrace the full extent of the 21st century life span; only then, it was argued, can economic growth be sustained in the decades ahead. Lynda Gratton, a professor at the London Business School, called for businesses to ditch retirement. She reminded global leaders that longevity is not just about the last 20 years of life. Its actually about the fundamental redesign of life from the very beginning. Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, a Nobel laureate, addressed the unique value of older workers and suggested that corporations examine the skill sets that older people really have that younger [employees] dont have, and maximize their use. Story continues Both Gratton and Blackburn are exactly right: There is immense opportunity is the aging of the workforce, and yesterdays assumptions will get us nowhere. A new set of strategies will be required. That gets us back to the Aegon survey. In addition to the eye-opening results it offers, the authors provide concrete suggestions about how public and private policies can translate strategies into action. As one example, governments can launch public awareness campaigns to promote the opportunities for continuing to work past the traditional retirement age, while also identifying and removing disincentives in workplace retirement plans to working past a fixed retirement age. Related: Can Older Workers Get the Job Done? Were Proving It Every Day Even more important is the suggested corporate response, which includes conducting studies to assess the value of retaining older workers, promoting aging-friendly work environments, establishing intergenerational employee resource groups, and providing training for older workers. These policies would go a long way toward realizing age-friendly workplaces. Such workplaces can be built with help from the guidance set out in the age-friendly business principles articulated by the World Economic Forum. Businesses need to create: 1. Age-Neutral Workplace 2. Supportive Working Environment 3. Inclusive Culture 4. Life-Long Learning and Participation 5. Financial Planning for Longer Working Lives 6. Healthy Ageing 7. Supportive Care-Giving Taken together, these recent developments reveal an inescapable truth: In a world with more old than young, and in a world where we must prepare to celebrate our 100th birthdays, the status quo cannot hold. Happily, this is no longer a secret. Across the globe, were redefining how we live, work and retire in the 21st century. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: By Emily Flitter NEW YORK (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Donald Trump admires the late Douglas MacArthur and George Patton, both World War Two generals. They were winners, unpredictable, and not especially nice guys, he says in campaign speeches. But Trump's pledge to imitate their styles sets modern-day military experts on edge. Although unquestionably in the pantheon of U.S. military heroes, MacArthur and Patton were also controversial figures remembered by historians as flamboyant self-promoters. The commander in the Pacific, MacArthur was eventually fired by President Harry Truman for speaking out against Truman's policies in the Korean War, which followed World War Two. Before Patton died in December 1945, he questioned the need to remove Nazis from key posts in postwar German politics and society. As Trump edges closer to the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election, he likely will face more pointed questions about the policy ideas behind his sweeping statements. His main Republican rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have offered far more details about their foreign policy visions as has Hillary Clinton, front-runner for the Democratic nomination. Born in 1946, a year after World War Two ended, Trump often praises MacArthur and Patton for the blunt ways he says they commanded respect. "George Patton was one of the roughest guys, he would talk rough to his men," Trump told an audience last week in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. "His men would die for him," Trump added. "We don't have that anymore." He said Patton would wipe out Islamic State without hesitation were he still in command. But military historians and retired generals say Trump has an inflated view of the two military men and especially their relevance to an era of modern warfare when armies rely more on technology and when battle successes and failures and civilian casualties are communicated far more rapidly than when MacArthur and Patton commanded troops 70 years ago. The candidate's spokeswoman Hope Hicks said Trump made a habit of citing the two World War Two figures to "emphasize the need to strengthen the U.S. military, talk less and do more to protect America." She declined to comment on the criticisms. She said Trump had consulted military experts, but declined to say how many, who they were or whether they were retired or active. Trump was unavailable for an interview. 'BUMPER STICKER FOOLISHNESS' Interviewed by Reuters, recently retired military personnel voiced doubts about Trump's grasp of U.S. military operations. One retired four-star general called Trump's references to Patton and MacArthur "bumper sticker foolishness." Another said Trump was comparing "apples to oranges" by likening America's role in World War Two to the fight against Islamic State. "He has no understanding of how it works, at least in my view," said an aide to a third retired four-star general. "He makes these bold statements and one-liners, but that doesn't translate into understanding what it takes to be a military leader, what it takes to develop a plan." All three criticized as inflammatory Trump's recounting, at a Feb. 19 rally in Charleston, South Carolina, of a myth about World War One General John Pershing ordering the execution of alleged Muslim insurgents in the Philippines by shooting them with bullets dipped in pig's blood, an extra offense to Muslims because Islamic law prohibits the consumption of pork. Trump often says that in the spirit of MacArthur and Patton, he never wants to reveal his specific plans for military operations, since that would give the enemy a chance to prepare and counterattack. "I don't want my generals being interviewed," he said in Myrtle Beach. Trump's statement had an irony about it, given his oft-repeated comment that he knows what military experts have to say from their interviews on television. But historians said the comment also showed he has little understanding of just how often MacArthur and Patton spoke to the press. "They were the media whores of their time," said Daniel Drezner, a professor at International politics at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University who often writes on national security. He said anyone vaguely familiar with Patton by way of the 1970 George C. Scott film "Patton" would know he got into trouble for remarks that were politically controversial. (Reporting by Emily Flitter; Editing by Howard Goller) Athens (AFP) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday threatened not to cooperate with future EU agreements on the migrant crisis if the burden was not fairly shared among member states, as he vowed not to let his country become a human "warehouse". The warning comes as Athens is seething over a series of border restrictions along the migrant trail to northern and western Europe that has caused a bottleneck in Greece, notably leaving thousands of Afghans stranded on its soil after Macedonia denied them entry. "Greece will no longer agree to any deal if the burdens and responsibilities are not shared proportionally," Tsipras told parliament. Anger has been building in Greece, the main entry point for many of the roughly one million people that have arrived in Europe since last year, after Vienna last week introduced a daily cap on asylum applications and some Balkan countries tightened entry conditions. Tsipras said he would meet with Greek party leaders to agree a joint stance on tackling the crisis ahead of March 7 summit in Brussels. "We need a larger political consensus on this issue," he said. "We will not allow our country to turn into a warehouse of souls." He added that it was "shameful" that some countries were refusing to implement joint decisions made at the EU level and were instead acting unilaterally to stem the influx of migrants. Tsipras on Tuesday already expressed his "displeasure" to the EU after Greece was excluded from a meeting organised by Austria to discuss the crisis with ministers from Balkan states on Wednesday. Istanbul (AFP) - Two Turkish journalists held in jail for the last three months on hugely controversial charges of revealing state secrets were released early Friday after Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled their rights had been violated. The Cumhuriyet newspaper's editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul emerged from the Silivri jail on the outskirts of Istanbul before dawn to be greeted by jubilant supporters and family, television pictures showed. They had been detained since November over a report alleging that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government tried to ship arms to Islamists in Syria. But the pair, who were kept in jail for 93 days, are still set to stand trial on the charges on March 25, with prosecutors demanding multiple life terms. "I think that this is a very historic ruling," Cumhuriyet quoted Dundar as saying as he left the prison alongside Gul. He noted the irony of being released on February 26, Erdogan's 62nd birthday. "I think it is a nice gift for him. We will continue. We will have nice birthday gifts for him," said Dundar. Dundar said he harboured no anger but would continue to defend rights "with a louder voice", saying 30 colleagues still remained behind bars. "We will continue to fight for press freedom until the concentration camp (Silivri jail) that you see behind us becomes a museum," he added. - 'Campaign on their behalf' - Gul added: "This is not a story of 'I wish I had not done'. It's a story of 'I hope I can continue,'" he added. The Constitutional Court ruled that their "rights to personal liberty and security" and "freedom of expression and freedom of press" had been violated. The decision was approved by 12 members of the court, with three dissenting, Turkish media reports said. The case was then sent back to a lower criminal court, which rubber-stamped the top court's decision, allowing the journalists to walk free. Story continues Dundar and Gul were placed under arrest in late November over a report in May that claimed to prove that a consignment of weapons seized at the border in January 2014 was bound for Syria. They have been formally charged with obtaining and revealing state secrets "for espionage purposes" and seeking to "violently" overthrow the Turkish government as well as aiding an "armed terrorist organisation." Both Erdogan and the head of the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) Hakan Fidan -- the president's hugely powerful but low-profile ally -- are named as plaintiffs in the 473-page indictment. Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was "delighted" by the Constitutional Court's decision but warned they still faced trial. "We must all continue to campaign on their behalf. We will not rest until the absurd charges against them have been dropped," RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. The state-run Anatolia news agency said the pair remained under judicial supervision and were banned from leaving the country. However, the ruling by the Constitutional Court could have a major impact on the course of the trial. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin insisted Friday the court's finding was not tantamount to an "acquittal". "Such espionage cases are happening in other countries in the world," he told reporters in Ankara. He said: "The case will continue and we will closely monitor it." - 'Truth not a crime' - The newspaper report had sparked a furore in Turkey, fuelling speculation about the government's role in the Syrian conflict and its alleged dealings with Islamist rebels in Syria. "The decision by the Constitutional Court says 'it is not a crime to tell truths'," said the head of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The case has amplified concerns about press freedom under Erdogan, who had personally warned Dundar, Cumhuriyet's chief editor, he would "pay a price" over the front-page story. The prosecutions also added to tensions between Turkey and the European Union (EU), which had warned Ankara it needed to show "full respect" for human rights as part of its bid to join the bloc. US Vice President Joe Biden, on an official visit to Istanbul in January, complained Turkey was not setting a good example on media rights. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had himself even expressed disquiet over the journalists' incarceration, saying it would be far better if they were freed pending trial. By Humeyra Pamuk ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's top court ruled on Thursday that detaining two journalists from an opposition newspaper had violated their rights, and the newspaper's acting editor-in-chief said their release was expected soon. The arrest of Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul last November drew international condemnation and revived concern about media freedom in Turkey under President Tayyip Erdogan. They were detained after the publication of video footage purporting to show the state intelligence agency helping to send weapons to Syria. They could have faced life sentences without parole if convicted, their lawyers had said. "The constitutional court has ruled that there is a rights violation. An immediate appeal will be made ... We are expecting their release," Tahir Ozyurt, Cumhuriyet's acting editor-in-chief, told Reuters. In the ruling, the court said the arrest of the journalists was "not lawful" and violated their individual freedom and safety, adding "the ruling should be sent to the relevant court to overturn this breach". Cumhuriyet's managing director Akin Atalay told Reuters that under normal circumstances the two would be released later on Thursday after the constitutional court ruled rights had been violated but their release might be delayed to Friday because the court that would order their release was already in session. The two were charged with intentionally aiding an armed terrorist organization and publishing material in violation of state security. Cumhuriyet published photos, videos and a report last May that it said showed intelligence officials transporting arms to Syria in trucks in 2014. Erdogan, who has cast the newspaper's coverage as part of an attempt to undermine Turkey's global standing, said he would not forgive such reporting. He has acknowledged that the trucks, which were stopped by gendarmerie and police officers en route to the Syrian border, belonged to the MIT intelligence agency and said they were carrying aid to Turkmens in Syria. Turkmen fighters are battling both President Bashar al-Assad's forces and Islamic State. (Additional reporting by Melih Aslan; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by David Dolan and Hugh Lawson) The number 562 is relatively meaningless to most people. But not to those who marked the 562nd anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul by the Ottoman Turks last May. Hundreds of thousands reportedly gathered in a field outside the city where a parade of jets painted the sky with red and white smokethe colors of the Turkish flag. Bands played, flags flew, and Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared, Resurrection again, rising again. The celebration was great theater. But this was no act by the new Turkish president. His desire to return the country to its glory days resulted in a massive power grab in the name of Islam, followed by charges of corruption in his administration amounting to $100 billion. In 2014, when he was prime minister, Erdogan was accused of high treason for supplying weapons to al-Qaeda and ISIS that included 1,000 mortar shells, 1,000 rifled artillery shells, 50,000 machine gun rounds and 30,000 rifle bullets. Its no surprise, then, that Turkey is currently playing a dangerous game of poker with Russia, the United States, and its neighbors in the region. Two crucial battles against ISIS in the Middle East could change the balance of power in the region. Aleppo, Syrias largest city, and Mosul, Iraqs second largest city, are both at risk. Exploiting the situation is Americas ally, Turkey, which is jeopardizing the US-led coalition in its fight against ISIS and creating further trouble between the West and Russia. Related: Al-Qaeda Is Taking Control of a Pivotal Middle-East Country There is so much at stake for the US and the West in this evolving drama. Defeating ISIS is an expensive undertaking, both militarily and politically. But if Americas allies lose faith in the coalition, ISIS will gain more than territory it will gain stature, and therefore more recruits from around the world. Aleppo: Since the spring of 2013, Syrias largest city in the north has been divided between the Syrian Alawite government forces that control the western parts of the city and the Sunni rebels who control the eastern parts. Supported by direct Russian intervention in Syria, the Syrian government decided to launch a major assault on the city to weaken the rebels and claim their territory. In the last few days, Islamic State fighters have cut off the supply route to government-controlled areas. Story continues The Syrian Kurds, who fought against ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria, decided to take advantage of the government campaign to expand their area of control in order to connect a Kurdish pocket in northwest Syria with the rest of the Kurdish territories in northern Syria by the Turkish border. The Syrian Kurds tried to control a strategic town called Azaz last summer, located 25 miles to the north on the supply line to Aleppo. Related: Heres Who ISIS Would Vote for in the US Presidential Election Turkey considers the Kurds (whether Turkish Kurds or Syrian Kurds) the main threat to the Turkish national security. The Kurdish aspiration to autonomy and independence is viewed as endangering Turkeys sovereign unity. Turkey has anxiously observed the gains Syrian Kurds achieved over the last few years. For Turkey, ISIS is the lesser of two evils when compared with Kurds. As a result, Turkey bombed the Syrian Kurds to prevent them from capturing the city. Turkeys shelling of the Syrian Kurds was condemned by most of the world, including the United States and the United Nations Security Council. Even so, Turkey has not backed down. Instead, Turkey arranged for hundreds of Syrian Sunni Arab fighters to cross its border to Turkey then come back to Syria from another border center, to the town of Azaz, to join the fight against the Kurds. Battle for Aleppo - Map The Syrian Kurds are Americas most reliable ally on the ground in Syria in the fight against ISIS. The more the Turks bomb them, the more likely they will ask for support. But with the U.S. still withholding support, took advantage of Russian air strikes. If as a result the Kurds align themselves with the Russia and the Syrian government, the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in Syria could be jeopardized. As if Turkeys military involvement is not enough, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain announced their readiness to deploy ground forces in Syria to fight ISIS. Related: Get Ready for a Third US Front Against ISISThis Time in Libya They were alarmed by the Syrian governments recent successes and wanted a Sunni Arab army in Syria to stand against the Alawite regime. For them, ISIS is also the lesser of two evils compared with an Iranian backed Syrian regime. Turkey is supportive of the Saudi move. Egypt is not. The Syrian foreign Minister has said that those who dare to step into Syria will return home in coffins, and histrionic headlines shout, World War III Could Start This Month: 350,000 Soldiers in Saudi Arabia Stand Ready to Invade Syria. A US-Russia brokered temporary ceasefire is scheduled to take place this weekend. However, the deal doesn't include ISIS that controls close to half of the country, or al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's arm in Syria. Al-Nusra is one of the strongest rebel group in the country. It is hard to imagine how this agreement will be implemented without the support of these groups. Importantly, Turkey says the Syria ceasefire is not binding if it threatens their security. Mosul: ISIS captured Iraqs second largest city in June 2014 in the north and much of the Sunni territories in the war-torn country. However, Iraqi government forces, the Shiite militias and the Iraqi Kurds have achieved several victories lately. The cities of Ramadi to the west of Baghdad, Baiji, and Sinjar to the north were liberated. To liberate Mosul, several other cities and towns must be taken to the east and south of the city. They were trained and equipped recently with the help of the US-led coalition against ISIS. Kurdish forces have been fighting alongside the coalition and recently regained ground around Mosul with the help of US air strikes. The speaker of Iraqi parliament, Salim al-Jubouri, said in a message broadcast from an Iraqi army radio station that the liberation of the city will begin within days. The US forces in Iraq said that the operation has already started. Related: The Fight Against ISIS Now Includes Chemical Weapons All that sounds like great news. Yet, Turkey is proving to be as problematic in Iraq as it is in Syria. Last December, a Turkish army battalion deployed to the north of Mosul over the protests of the Iraqi government, the United States, and the United Nations. Iraq also threatened to fight the Turkish invaders. The Americans said that the Turkish deployment was not part of the US-led coalition against ISIS. None of that could persuade the Turks to back off. Turkey claimed that its forces in northern Iraq protected the Iraqi Sunni forces from attacks launched by ISIS. But Turkeys interests in Iraq are similar to its interests in Syria. They want to make sure that the Kurds will not expand their territories in the Arab Sunni regions or the Turkmen areas. Turkey also wants assurance that it will have a say in Mosuls political structure after the liberation. In addition, the Shiite militias are still pushing to participate in the coming operation. Iraqs Sunnis reject that demand because it would inflame sectarian tensions. The U.S. has made it clear to the Iraqis that this would mean the end of U.S. air support. Turkeys ambitions in Syria and Iraq -- as suggested by its military involvement in both Iraq and Syria -- could reawaken memories of four centuries of Ottoman occupation that were ended during World War I by British and French allied forces. It is no secret that the Turkish president Erdogan has Ottoman ambitions. It is more disturbing that he seems willing to enable ISIS if that will help contain the Kurds and further his dreams of empire. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: The United States and China have come to an agreement on a new U.N. resolution that will impose strict sanctions on North Korea in response to the pariah states recent rocket launch and nuclear test, U.N. diplomats said on Wednesday. A Security Council diplomat, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said that a draft of the resolution is significantly substantive and said there was hope that it would be implemented in the days ahead. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Congress on Wednesday that both countries were on the brink of sealing a strong U.N. Security Council resolution against Kim Jong-uns regime. Kerry and the diplomats comments come after the former met with Chinas Foreign Secretary Wang Yi. Wang also met with U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Wednesday. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said that Wang and Rice agreed on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Koreas provocations, including through a U.N. Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions. He added: They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state. Earlier this month, North Korea launched a satellite, attached to a rocket, into space for what it claimed was for scientific and peaceful purposes in a move that drew international condemnation. In January, Pyongyang conducted an underground hydrogen bomb test, prompting an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting. South Korea, which neighbors the North, has called on the U.N. to impose tough sanctions in response to what it considers to be provocative actions. Seoul was joined in calling for moves to halt North Koreas nuclear development by the U.S., Japan and other allies. All three subsequently adopted unilateral steps against North Korea but the new U.S.-China agreement is the first concrete action by Beijing against its diplomatic ally. Related Articles By Jon Herskovitz (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday allowed Louisiana to enforce a restrictive 2014 abortion law critics say is aimed at shutting clinics, ending a halt to the measure handed out by a lower court judge earlier this year. The Louisiana-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a request from the state to put into effect the law requiring physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles (48 km) of the place where the abortion is performed. "We reversed the district court and permitted the law to go into effect because the plaintiffs had not demonstrated that the law placed an undue burden on a large fraction of women," the decision from a three-judge panel said. The Center for Reproductive Rights, an abortion rights group, said the decision means all but one provider of legal abortions in the state of 4.7 million people will be forced to close. It said it would appeal to the decision the U.S. Supreme Court. In January, U.S. District Judge John deGravelles granted a preliminary injunction sought by abortion providers, finding that the law violated women's rights to obtain an abortion. Advocates of the regulation say it protects women's health by ensuring continuity of care. It was signed into law by then Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican. Abortion rights groups cite leading medical groups who say the regulation serves no public health purpose because abortion complications are rare, and when they do occur, can be treated by emergency room medical staff. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments next month about a similar restriction in neighboring Texas in its first major abortion case in years. Since the 2013 Texas law went into effect, about half of the state's abortion clinics have closed. Due to legal challenges, the restrictions had not gone into effect in Louisiana, one of 10 states that has adopted admitting privilege restrictions, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represented abortion providers in the case. "Today's ruling thrusts Louisiana into a reproductive health care crisis, where women will face limited safe and legal options when they've made the decision to end a pregnancy," said Nancy Northup, president of the New York-based center. Officials from the governor's and attorney general's offices were not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texasl Editing by Andrew Hay) By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations will name a date on Friday for Syria's warring parties to return to the negotiating table for a second round of talks, U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday. De Mistura abruptly aborted a first round of talks on Feb. 3, saying more preparatory work was needed from the "International Syria Support Group" (ISSG), led by the United States and Russia. Since then Syrian government forces, backed by Russia and Iran, have continued a major offensive against rebels around the city of Aleppo, and President Bashar al-Assad's government and the opposition have both said they could support a U.S.-Russian proposal for a "cessation of hostilities". De Mistura said he would brief the U.N. Security Council on Friday and then announce a date for a new round of talks, but he declined to comment further. "I will announce tomorrow when the parties (will reconvene) and the new talks (will happen)," he told reporters, as he arrived for a meeting of the ISSG task force on humanitarian access. Another ISSG task force, on ceasefires, will convene for the first time in Geneva on Friday, De Mistura said - an opportunity for diplomats from ISSG countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran to say whether they endorse the U.S.-Russian proposal. Combatants are required to say whether they will agree to the "cessation of hostilities" in the five-year war by noon on Friday (1000 GMT), and to halt fighting on Saturday. (Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Mark Heinrich) GENEVA (Reuters) - A planned cessation of hostilities in Syria from Saturday night should rescue the civilian population from "the abyss", Jan Egeland, chairman of a humanitarian task force, said on Thursday. Major and regional powers must use their influence on warring parties to win clearance for U.N. aid convoys to reach all 480,000 living in besieged towns, he said after the group held their third meeting in Geneva this month. "We need to cover the final areas in the besieged areas list, most of them are in the areas called eastern Ghouta. And we will be doing convoys in the coming days to this area," Egeland told reporters, referring to an area near Damascus. He also wanted to get access for convoys to reach the Aleppo area and the Homs area. "All hopes are that the cessation of hostilities will further make access possible in the week ahead," he added. After five years of war, the civilian population of Syria cannot sustain more, Egeland said. "They've sold everything, they've lost everything, they are now really facing the abyss so it's now high time that there was a cessation of hostilities." Syria's opposition indicated on Wednesday it was ready for a two-week truce in Syria, saying it was a chance to test the seriousness of the other side's commitment to a U.S.-Russian plan for a cessation of hostilities. However, an air-drop of food to 200,000 people on Wednesday in the eastern town of Deir al-Zor, which is besieged by Islamic State, a jihadi group that the United Nations has no contact with, ran into problems, Egeland said. Of the 21 palettes dropped by parachute, four were damaged, seven landed in areas that cannot be reached in a "no man's land", while 10 remain unaccounted for, Bettina Luescher of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said. "We have never done high-altitude drops in Syria. There were high winds, some parachutes did not open," she told Reuters. "We are working and will try again," Luescher said. (Reporting by Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams) By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. spy agencies expect continuing upheaval in Libya and Ukraine, top intelligence officials told Congress on Thursday. James Clapper, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, told a House of Representatives Intelligence Committee hearing that the United States had "great hope" that a new government of national accord will soon be formed in Libya. But at the same hearing, CIA chief John Brennan acknowledged that the United States in practice was pursuing a two-track policy in Libya, in which it was engaged both in a diplomatic effort to knit together two competing, regionally based self-proclaimed Libyan governments while also conducting "counter terrorism" operations against a growing contingent of Islamic State militants. U.S. officials now estimate that up to 4,000 foreign fighters have traveled to Libya to base themselves in Islamic State training camps that have sprouted up around the country, where they have joined up with hundreds if not thousands of local Libyans who have joined the movement. U.S. officials privately acknowledge that efforts to bring together rival government factions are moving slowly at best. Clapper told the hearing that the rival factions themselves are far from "monolithic," although even competing leaders agree that the Islamic State poses a major threat. While diplomatic efforts continue, officials privately say, the United States is likely to continue periodic air strikes against suspected Islamic State leaders like one that earlier this month targeted a militant named Noureddine Chouchane. At the hearing, Clapper and Brennan also discussed Russia's continuing involvement in Ukraine. Clapper said Russia still considers Ukraine to be "Little Russia." He said Russia "will continue I think to be a proxy for separatists to sustain their interests in Ukraine." However, Brennan added that there is "still uncertainty about how the Russians themselves are going to extricate themselves" from Ukraine conflict. (Editing by Eric Walsh) * Terms of newest funding round yet to be finalised * New funds to intensify competition with Uber * Didi Kuaidi seen using funds for new businesses (Adds sources confirming funding round, use of funds) Feb 25 (Reuters) - Ride-hailing service Didi Kuaidi, Uber Technologies Inc's chief rival in China, plans to raise at least $1 billion in its latest fundraising round, bulking up its war chest to fend off competition and invest into new businesses, people familiar with the plans said on Thursday. Terms of the deal are being finalised, as the company is still in discussions with investors, added the people, who couldn't be named because details aren't yet public. The Wall Street Journal previously reported Didi Kuaidi's fundraising plans, which it said valued the company at more than $20 billion. (http://on.wsj.com/1T6YJ80) The new fundraising round comes just months after Didi Kuaidi, which is backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd, said it had completed another $3 billion round in September. It raises the stakes for its battle with Uber's local arm, a smaller but well-funded rival, as both companies spend heavily to subsidise rides and jostle for market share. Didi Kuaidi has the largest market share of car-hailing apps in China. One of the people familiar with the plans said Didi Kuaidi's spending on subsidies has come down substantially over the past year and it's raising funds again to invest in new areas such as driverless technologies and "Big Data", which refers to the analysis of growing amounts of stored data. A Didi Kuaidi spokeswoman in Beijing declined to comment. (Reporting by Elzio Barreto in Hong Kong and Paul Carsten in Beijing; Additional reporting by Aurindom Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Muralikumar Anantharaman) United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN Security Council diplomats are discussing a draft resolution that would endorse the deal on cessation of hostilities in Syria, diplomats said Wednesday. Russia and the United States, which negotiated the ceasefire deal, are working on a text that could be adopted on Friday, a council diplomat said. "I think there will be a resolution that we will agree then to welcome the cessation of hostilities negotiated by the US and Russia," he said. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura will report to the council on Friday, a few hours before the ceasefire is due to go into effect. Russia and the United States have set a deadline of midnight Damascus time (2200 GMT) Friday for "the cessation of hostilities" between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and non-jihadist rebel forces. The deal excludes the Islamic State group and the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front, which control large swaths of territory in Syria. If the ceasefire takes holds, De Mistura hopes to convene a new round of peace talks next week, possibly around March 4, said a council diplomat. The truce will also help UN agencies scale up deliveries of humanitarian aid to hard-to-reach areas across Syria's many frontlines. Virginia legislators have rejected three bills crafted to limit school policing statewide, exposing a rift among GOP lawmakers, in particular, over a prominent criminal justice issue being debated across the nation. A pair of other related measures are still winding their way through the legislative process. Among the bills that failed this month was a Republican-sponsored proposal to bar police from criminally charging students 14 and younger with disorderly conduct at school or on school buses. Another proposal that faltered would have eliminated language in state code mandating that educators inform law enforcement of any incident that could be construed as a misdemeanor. A third bill would have prohibited expulsion or student referrals to law enforcement unless feasible alternative responses are first considered or if a student is found with a gun or other weapon. Last year, the Center for Public Integrity found that Virginia schools, collectively, led the country in the rate at which they referred students to law enforcement agencies. National data showed that special-needs students and black students were disproportionately affected. A sampling of local police data in Virginia revealed that thousands of students have been arrested mostly for misdemeanor charges that critics say should be matters of school discipline, rather than crimes especially disorderly conduct or simple assault allegations. In one jurisdiction, Chesterfield, more than half of 3,538 complaints police filed over three years were against students 14 or younger. Felony arrests for any age were comparatively few. This story is part of Criminalizing kids. Scrutinizing the use of law enforcement and courts to respond to kids conduct at school or other circumstances. . Click here to read more stories in this series. Don't miss another Juvenile Justice investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email. During a floor debate in the Virginia House of Delegates, Dave LaRock, a Republican representing parts of Clarke, Frederick and Loudoun counties, argued in favor of his bill, HB1134, which would have exempted students 14 or younger from criminal disorderly conduct charges at school or on a school bus. The debate between skeptics and supporters was posted on YouTube. This bill merely proposes that disruptive but otherwise non-criminal behavior of our children in the schools be handled by in-school discipline rather than courts and police, LaRock said. HB 1134is very targeted. Current law makes it a crime to act up in school. Delegate Robert D. Orrock, Republican of Caroline and Spotsylvania counties, objected to carving out a schools exception. I think it sends the wrong message to our students. In spite of their young age of 14 or younger, the law is the law, said Orrock, who is a Spotsylvania High School teacher. He said that we shouldnt be down here telling them that the law doesnt apply as long as students are on school grounds. The Centers analysis of national education data for the 2011-2012 academic year the most recent available found that in Virginia, the rate of student referral to law enforcement was about 16 per 1,000 students enrolled statewide. That was close to three times the U.S. average of about six referrals per 1,000. The Spotsylvania County school district Orrocks district had an even higher rate of referral at 35 students per 1,000. Spotsylvania High Schools rate was 62 per 1,000. Orrock did not respond to requests for an interview. The Centers story last year focused on Kayleb Moon-Robinson, a student in Lynchburg, Va., who is African-American and autisticand was charged with disorderly conduct twice, as well as a felony, within three months of starting sixth grade. Kaylebs school police officer first charged the 11-year-old with disorderly conduct after he saw Kayleb kick a trash in the fall of 2014. Days later, the same officer grabbed Kayleb, who had left class without permission. Kayleb struggled and swore, and the officer handcuffed him and put him under arrest for disorderly conduct again as well as for a charge of felony assault on a police officer. The child has been in and out of court for months, facing the possibility of detention if he acts up at school again. During the floor debate on LaRocks bill, co-sponsor Jennifer McClellan, a Democrat representing the city of Richmond and parts of Henrico County, said that shes been gathering examples of students being held to a higher standard than developmentally they should be. She said that a 13-year-old child in a school for students with special-needs was charged with disorderly conduct for failing to obey instructions, storming out of a room and banging on a keyboard. He had no history of violence, McClellan said. What this bill says is they should be handled through the discipline process for young kids, who are going to act out, McClellan said, but arent criminals. Other legislators who opposed the bill suggested finding ways to reduce referrals without blanket immunity, or allowing for future review of the proposal before the House Committee on Courts of Justice. LaRocks bill passed the House Committee on Education with a bipartisan 16-6 vote but subsequently failed 60-30 on the House floor. The Virginia School Boards Association came out against LaRocks bill, but did not respond to Center requests for an interview. In 2013, Texas legislators adopted a bill that prevents school police from issuing court summonses to students, at school, for disruption of classes or transportation, such as a school bus. However, officers can still file complaints with prosecutors. Another LaRock bill, HB1132, also passed the House Committee on Education with a 20-2 vote, but subsequently died after being referred to the Committee on Courts of Justice. By amending state code language, it would have eliminated a requirement for school principals to report a range of incidents to law enforcement if they could be considered misdemeanors. LaRock told the Center that he attended a dinner not long ago with members of the Prison Fellowship, a socially conservative religious organization seeking criminal justice-reforms. He was part of a discussion about Kaylebs story, LaRock said. How did this 11-year-old boy in Lynchburg get charged with felony assault for what seemed such a fairly minor incident? LaRock said. Im certainly glad I didnt come away from school with a record that could have lasted long into my life. The third failed bill directly related to school policing was HB1061, by Lamont Bagby, Democrat representing parts of Henrico and Charles City County and Richmond. The bill would have blocked students, except those found with weapons, from expulsion or referral to law enforcement unless alternative responses to conduct were attempted. It passed the House Committee on Education 17-7 but was referred to the Committee for Courts of Justice, where it died. A pair of other school discipline related measures are still alive. The House of Delegates approved 95-2 a proposal by McClellan that would relieve school police officers whose positions are funded with state grants from responsibility to enforce school rules in addition to criminal law. The bill, HB487, has been assigned to a Senate public education subcommittee. Most school resource officers, however, are not funded by the grant program referenced in the bill. Another bill that the House approved 99-0 would allow students facing disorderly conduct charges in court to submit special-needs behavioral assessments as part of a defense they did not act willfully. That proposal, HB1213, was sponsored by David Albo, Republican of Fairfax County. The bill is now before the Senate Committee for Courts of Justice. After the Centers story came out last yearalong with a radio piece done in collaboration with Reveal Radiosome jurisdictions in Virginia began reforming local school-police agreements to explicitly keep officers out of disciplinary matters. Gov. Terry McAuliffe appointed cabinet members to figure out how to reduce unnecessary student arrests statewide. State officials also began a program to train school police statewide. In July, the nonprofit Strategies for Youth group conducted training for about 80 school police officers in Virginia. The groups organizers, who have trained school police nationally, said a short time frame allowed only for relatively deep training on adolescent brain development and the traumatized child brain. But the training did not cover the implications of learning disabilities, organizers said. Time was also too short and the group too big, they said, to effectively tackle the problem of implicit bias meaning how children of certain ethnicities might be judged more harshly. Lisa Thurau, executive director of Cambridge, Mass.-based Strategies for Youth, said the training was a good start but would be more effective with smaller groups of 30 to 40 officers. To be effective, she said, these trainings must also address students with special education needs and the way students' race is perceived by school personnel and officers. This story is part of Criminalizing kids. Scrutinizing the use of law enforcement and courts to respond to kids conduct at school or other circumstances. . Click here to read more stories in this series. Related stories Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C. United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United States and China have agreed on a draft resolution imposing fresh sanctions on North Korea and the Security Council could vote on the measure in the coming days, diplomats said. The United States circulated the draft text to the other three permanent council members -- Britain, France and Russia -- on Wednesday and was set to formally present it to the full 15-member council soon, said the diplomats, who asked not to be named. "There is good progress on the resolution and we are hopeful that there will be an adoption in the coming days," a council diplomat said. Negotiations on the draft resolution began six weeks ago after North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test on January 6 and claimed it was a thermonuclear device. "There were a significant number of blockage points between these two countries," said the diplomat, referring to the United States and China. "But there is agreement between these two countries." After talks in Washington on Tuesday with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, US Secretary of State John Kerry said "there is no question that if the resolution is approved, it will go beyond anything that we have previously passed." A council diplomat described the draft resolution as a "significantly substantive text" while another diplomat said it contained "a large number of very tough measures," as well as names to be added to the sanctions blacklist. - A decade of sanctions - Among the toughest measures, the United States had been pushing for a ban on North Korean ships in all ports, but that met with strong resistance from China. Beijing has been reluctant about backbiting sanctions that would take aim at North Korea's already weak economy out of concern that the isolated state could collapse, unleashing chaos on China's border. After North Korea carried out a rocket launch on February 6, the Security Council renewed its pledge to impose new sanctions to punish Pyongyang. Story continues The council has imposed four sets of sanctions on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006. There are 20 North Korean entities and 12 individuals on the UN sanctions blacklist, which provides for an assets freeze and a global travel ban. A UN panel of experts said in the council this month that sanctions had failed to prevent Pyongyang from scaling up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. After a decade of sanctions, the panel said it found "no indications that the country intends to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs." "There are serious questions about the efficacy of the current United Nations sanctions regime," the experts said in a confidential report. Washington (AFP) - The US Navy plans to increase "freedom of navigation" operations in the South China Sea as Beijing continues its military buildup in the contested waterway, a US admiral said Wednesday. The sailings involve a US warship coming within 12 nautical miles of islets claimed by China as a way of rebutting Beijing's assertions of sovereignty. Since October, the Navy has carried out two such freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, saying the missions are an important way of upholding international law. "We'll be doing them more and we'll be doing them with greater complexity in the future," Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, told lawmakers in Washington. "We'll fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows." China's claims to almost all of the South China Sea are widely disputed and the body of water has long been viewed as a potential flashpoint. China is using dredgers to turn reefs and low-lying features into larger land masses for runways and other military uses to bolster its claims of sovereignty in the region. Satellite imagery released by a Washington think tank this week shows China is installing radar facilities on its artificial islands. China has also deployed surface-to-air missiles and lengthened a runway to accommodate fighter jets on one such islet, Woody Island. "China's intent to militarize the South China Sea is as certain as a traffic jam in DC," Harris told the House Armed Services Committee in reference to congestion on the streets of Washington. He did not offer specifics on the upcoming freedom of navigation sailings but suggested they be carried out by a type of destroyer that "is well able to defend itself should those operations go awry." Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela will get $5 billion in a settlement deal with Canada's Gold Reserve Inc., ending arbitration of a mining development row that dragged on for years, the oil minister said. The Canadian mining concern started work on the Brisas gold and copper project in southeastern Venezuela in 1992. After it invested more than $300 million, Venezuela revoked the permit for the project to move forward and the company in 2009 sought World Bank arbitration. Authorities in Caracas hailed the settlement deal, which includes a $2 billion loan to the country. "We have signed a deal for $5 billion in investment" which also includes settlement of the World Bank arbitration, said Oil and Mines Minister Eulogio del Pino at a mining industry event Wednesday. San Jose (AFP) - Lilian Tintori, the wife of jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was barred from entering Costa Rica to attend a forum on Thursday because she failed to produce proof of yellow fever vaccination. Organizers of the event, sponsored by Oscar Arias, a former Costa Rican president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, said Tintori was not allowed to board her flight in the Dominican Republic because of the lack of an immunization certificate. Under Costa Rican law, visitors from countries with risk of yellow fever transmission need to show proof they had a vaccine before being allowed in. The list of countries includes Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, French Guiana and 13 African nations. Tintori was to have spoken as part of the forum's look at democracy in Latin America. She has been active in highlighting the incarceration of her husband, who has called for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down. Lopez was last September sentenced to 14 years behind bars on charges of inciting violence at anti-government protests that shook the country in 2014 -- a ruling that drew international condemnation. Venezuela's new opposition-controlled parliament has approved a first reading of a bill giving amnesty to political prisoners, but Maduro has vowed to veto it to stop it becoming law. Demonstration against pastor who defends death-penalty-for-gays dogma hosted on campus of University of Nebraska, Omaha, week after week. MSNBC's Ed Schultz called Rev. Kayser's views "jaw-dropping" slyly flas hes a nipple to the CBS eye while trying to talk his best buddy Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman) into taking off all his clothes. Whoever said 1950s television was a vast wasteland obviously didn't know where to look. By Malathi Nayak NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc supports "the availability of strong encryption with no backdoors," Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said on Wednesday, weighing in the showdown between Apple Inc and U.S. authorities over mobile device encryption. "The case with Apple presents unique issues that should be addressed by Congress, not on an ad hoc basis," McAdam told Reuters in a statement. A federal judge last week ordered Apple to create new software and take other steps to retrieve data from the locked iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters who was killed in a gun battle with police. Apple, which opposes the order, has urged the creation of a government panel on encryption. Verizon and other telecom firms benefit from sales of Apple's iPhone and tablets. AT&T Inc said in a statement on Wednesday that there needs to be more "legal clarity" on privacy and security issues, adding that Congress should decide on safeguards. The Justice Department has pushed back on framing the dispute as an encryption issue, insisting that it is only trying to get past the locked screen on one phone. Many technology security experts have said technical efforts to provide government access to encrypted devices, a so-called "backdoor," inevitably degrades security for everyone. It is an argument that has been made since the 1990s, when the government tried and failed to force tech companies to incorporate a special chip into their products for surveillance purposes. Apple has argued that while it is technically possible to bypass the security features of the iPhone by building a new operating system, such a move would set a dangerous precedent. (Reporting by Malathi Nayak; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown) Since pioneering the in-flight Internet business that got approval from the Federal Communications Commission in 2006, Gogo Inc. (GOGO) has dominated the industry, commanding about 80% of the market. But Gogo has hit a patch of turbulence: Last week, investors learned that American Airlines (AAL) threatened to terminate its contract with the company. In a legal filing, American said Gogo had rejected its termination notice and is disputing the airlines contractual rights to switch to a Wi-Fi service that is materially better. American withdrew its suit this week, but the initial threat to end its contracts presents a vulnerability for Gogo: Its no longer the only game in town. And this has given a glimmer of hope to competitor ViaSat (VSAT). ViaSat launched in commercial aircraft in 2012 and has relationships with with JetBlue, United, and Virgin America. CEO Mark Dankberg says the company has a lot of opportunity to win over the airlines that have been with Gogo. We are engaged with almost every airline company, he said. All of the airlines want to figure why our service is different and better. Its an exciting time for us. Reports have highlighted consumer dissatisfaction with Gogos speed and service. Only 7% of passengers on an average flight use Gogo, according to the company. The company has traditionally used an air-to-ground system that functions like a cell service but with very low speed times because of remote towers. And the signal is shared among passengers, so the more people using it, the slower it is. While Gogo has highlighted its new satellite-based service, called 2Ku, some say its too little, too late. Despite reported dissatisfaction among consumers, two things have maintained Gogos dominance: A near-monopoly with airlines, which allowed it to continue raising prices, and long-term contracts with airlines that have kept the Gogo naysayers at bay. But based on the recent threat from American Airlines, its possible long-term contracts may not provide the safety blanket many thought they would. Story continues Gogos airline contracts contain a provision that allows airlines to terminate their contracts with Gogo if there is an alternative that materially improves on Gogos offering. ViaSat sees Wi-Fi as a service, charging airlines a direct upfront fee. From there, the airline either offers the service as a perk or can choose to charge a fee, which it would collect directly. Gogo, on the other hand, charges nothing for the installation of its services but charges a fee for its service directly to consumers for during their flight and retains 80% of Wi-Fi revenue collected. Airlines, which are becoming ever-more competitive in trying to lure customers with better offerings, are offering Wi-Fi as an important perk. Providing superior Wi-Fi options to passengers is critical, as American competes for travelers who increasingly demand a Wi-Fi experience in the air that is on par with their wired Internet connections at home or work, American said in its filing against Gogo. The airline cited a survey showing 1 in 5 passengers switched their preferred airline to another with better Wi-Fi. While Gogo still reigns supreme, ViaSat is a formidable adversary to watch in the year ahead. Washington (AFP) - US Vice President Joe Biden will be a special guest at this year's Oscar ceremony, introducing a performance by Lady Gaga, an administration official said Thursday. Biden will take a bit of the White House to Hollywood to push an initiative countering sexual assault on US university campuses. An official said the vice president will be introducing Lady Gaga's performance of nominated song "Til It Happens To You," which features in "The Hunting Ground", a documentary about campus sexual assault. "The VP will use the opportunity to call on everyone in the audience and watching at home to visit www.ItsOnUs.org to take the pledge to stand up, speak out and help change the culture around sexual assault," the official said. By David Shepardson (Reuters) - A lawyer for Volkswagen AG told a federal judge on Thursday the German automaker is making progress in senior level settlement talks with the U.S. Justice Department, Environmental Protection Agency and California to reach a resolution over excess emissions in nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles. Lawyer Robert Giuffra told U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer at a court hearing in San Francisco the automaker is making progress in trying to reach a settlement after it admitted to using software to emit up to 40 times legally allowable emissions in vehicles sold since 2009. "The discussions are progressing," Giuffra said. The Justice Department last month sued VW for up to $46 billion for violating U.S. environmental laws. Breyer said he wants a definite answer by March 24 from VW and the EPA on whether the sides have found an acceptable fix for the vehicles, noting that VW admitted the excess emissions nearly six months ago. "This is an ongoing problem," Breyer said, adding that he has a "sense of urgency" about seeing a resolution. VW said it wants to move soon. "We are committed to resolving these matters as quickly as possible," Giuffra said, noting that the issue impacts up to 11 million vehicles in 100 countries. Giuffra told the court VW may have something more definitive to say in about a month or so, but declined to offer specifics of the talks, or of any proposals on the table. He said the Justice Department has asked VW not to discuss any aspect of the negotiations. Giuffra said the talks have also included separate working groups on various topics including the remedy for vehicles owners, the approach for addressing the environmental harms caused by the vehicles and other issues like onboard diagnostic systems. He said VW has given written presentations to the Justice Department and environmental agencies. Breyer previously named former FBI director Robert Mueller as a settlement adviser. Mueller has been holding talks and met with VW officials, including the senior engineer responsible for the fix. But Breyer wants VW's senior management to meet with Mueller. Breyer said VW compensation adviser, Ken Feinberg, cannot move forward on a framework for addressing owner claims until VW and EPA reach some agreement. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Tom Brown) Matt Murdock tangles with ex-girlfriend Elektra and new masked vigilante Frank Castle in a second trailer for Netflix's Marvel adaptation, "Daredevil." Elektra, played by French-born actress Elodie Yung, informs Murdock that his crime-fighting endeavors may have had an unintended impact on New York's underworld. While the trailer presents us with evidence that Murdock, as Daredevil, proves a formidable fighting force when teamed up with Elektra, there's room for introspection when he questions his own methods. And his old enemy, the Yakuza, have not come unprepared to their battle with Marvel's blind, hyper-alert vigilante. Season 2 of "Daredevil" is to start March 18 on Netflix, with the subscription channel also behind "Jessica Jones," the upcoming "Luke Cage," the in-development "Iron Fist," and an eventual ensemble program called "The Defenders." ABC has been behind "Agents of SHIELD," "Agent Carter" and the upcoming "Damage Control." Trailer: Marvel's Daredevil Season 2 Part 2 - youtu.be/2Cn3DVV0LHY By Jeremy Wagstaff and Timothy Mclaughlin SINGAPORE/YANGON (Reuters) - Burmese hackers say they have attacked Thai government websites since early January and stolen data, part of a long-running, broader campaign against those critical of Myanmar's government. The Blink Hacker Group said in Facebook posts and in an email interview that its attacks were in retaliation for Thailand sentencing two Burmese to death for the murder of two British backpackers late last year. The group said it posted online data it took from websites of the Thai prison agency and justice ministry, saying databases from any government websites it hacked "should be made public." Thai police said they had yet to determine who was behind the attacks, but denied those responsible were from Myanmar. Dechnarong Suthicharnbancha, a spokesperson for the Royal Thai Police, said there had been little impact from the attacks on police websites. "It was only a nuisance. We got the websites running again with no trouble at all." The attacks do, though, mark an escalation in computer hacking since Myanmar opened up to foreign investment and ended decades of military rule in 2011, researchers say. Nationalist attacks on other countries' websites are not new, but those by Myanmar-based groups have increased and have also hit domestic media perceived to be critical of government policies or supportive of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority. The Blink Hacker Group said it targeted independent media websites Irrawaddy and Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) "because we believe that media should not (be) use(d) for propaganda." Spokesmen for both media sites confirmed they had been hacked. BUSINESS LINKS Tord Lundstroem, a Swedish researcher who works for a company that hosts independent media websites including Irrawaddy, said domain hosting records linked the Blink Hacker Group and others to Yangon-based companies selling web design and security services, and the hacker groups' Facebook activity indicated informal links to people with military backgrounds. Lundstroem said hackers were better organized and more sophisticated, noting that servers and email accounts at Irrawaddy and DVB had been penetrated around the time of last November's landmark democratic election in Myanmar - though he said these attacks were not the work of the Blink Hacker Group. The Blink Hacker Group said it previously had been ready to work with Myanmar's military to help "build a better Internet" but had received no response. It said none of its 20 members were in the military. Min Ko Ko of Creatigon, a web development company, said he belonged to a group called Myanmar Hackers Unite4M and was founder of Myanmar Security Forum, but was not a hacker. The founder of IT firm Cyber Wings Asia, Yan Naing Myint, said his company had provided hosting for the Blink Hacker Group's website, but neither he nor his business were involved in the group's activities or in hacking. Myanmar government spokesman Ye Htut laughed off claims that the military had cyber war units, saying "I think people sometimes overestimate the capacity of the Myanmar military." (Reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff and Timothy Mclaughlin, with additional reporting by Aukkarapon Niyomyat and Patpicha Tanakasempipatin in Bangkok; Editing by Ian Geoghegan) Valence (France) (AFP) - The key Tricastin market for black truffles in southeastern France is closing two weeks early because of "catastrophic" underproduction blamed on a hot summer and a mild winter, the industry said Thursday. "The weather has been catastrophic. The summer was very hot and dry, and there wasn't the desired moisture," said Michel Courvoisier of the French truffle growers federation FFT. "In the autumn we didn't have rain at the right time and the winter was mild," he added. Southeastern France accounts for nearly three-quarters of national production of the "black diamond", which can fetch some 500 euros ($550) a kilo (2.2 pounds). According to the FFT's estimates, this season's output from the region was around 29 tonnes, compared with last year's 40 tonnes. Overall production of the delicacy is projected at just 35 tonnes this year, compared with 56 tonnes in 2015. The finest black truffles have a subtle aroma and an earthy flavour reminiscent of rich chocolate. The Libyan branch of ISIS staged a gruesome attack Wednesday on government-security headquarters in the western city of Sabratha. According to the AP, the group beheaded 12 officers before taking control of the complex. A second security official said that the militants used the headless bodies of the officers they killed to block the roads leading to the security headquarterswhich they occupied for about three hours, the report added. The attack came less than a week after American airstrikes hit an ISIS training camp in the city, killing about 40 people, including two Serbian hostages. The renascent U.S. efforts in Libya speak to a growing concern shared by a number of countries about ISISs increasing ability to flourish in the North African country. American intelligence officials estimate that the groups ranks in Libya have grown to 6,500 fighters, more than doubling since the fall. ISIS first declared its intentions to establish a presence in Libya in 2014 and has been launching attacks ever since. The group is now thought to control 150 miles of Libyan coastline. Recommended: Smithsonian Magazine's 2015 Photo Contest Part of this surge is being attributed to the civil discord in Libya among the countrys competing political factions and militias, which have produce rival governments with their own security forces. The chaos has had major economic repercussions as well. Last month, the head of the countrys national oil company estimated that Libya has lost $68 billion in oil sales since 2013. With Islamic State fighters suffering under heavy fire in Iraq and Syria, the groups strategy of exploiting the security vacuum in Libya also appears to be a conscious one. Islamic State leaders in Syria are telling recruits traveling north from West African nations like Senegal and Chad, as well as others streaming up through Sudan in eastern Africa, not to press on to the Middle East, The New York Times reported. Instead, they are being told to stay put in Libya. Story continues Although its not the most commonly used country, Libya is a popular place from which migrants and refugees cross the Mediterranean to go to Europe. One harrowing possibility for Western countries is the growth of ISIS in Libya means Europe, given its proximity, could be more vulnerable to attacks. On Wednesday, the French daily Le Monde issued a report chronicling Frances enhanced military engagement in Libya, which the paper characterized as a secret war to stanch the groups growth in the wake of ISISs attacks on Paris in November. Italy and the United Kingdom are also thought to be contemplating military involvement. Recommended: Who Exactly Are 'the Kurds'? The presence of special forces from these three countries as well as the United States have been reported in recent weeks and last month. Italy discreetly agreed to allow U.S. drones operating in Libya and North Africa to launch from one of its bases after a year of negotiations. But a complicated and telling question, which The Guardian noted on Tuesday, is how a major coordinated military operation could legally come together at all if deemed necessary. With a UN mandate highly unlikely at this point because that would require Russias approval there would need to be an official request from Libyan authorities themselves. But there is no agreement in Libya on who the government is. Since the American-led intervention in 2011 that resulted in the ouster of Muammar al-Qaddafi, the longtime leader, the U.S. has intermittently deployed troops for operations in Libya. The most recent confirmed activity took place in December of last year, less than 18 months after American commandos seized Ahmed Abu Khattala, the man currently on trial for his alleged role in the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. President Obama says he will go after ISIS wherever it appears, and is reportedly considering whether to approve the broader use of military force to combat the group in Libya. And, as he said last week: We will continue to take actions where weve got a clear operation and a clear target in mind. As we see opportunities to prevent ISIS from digging in, in Libya, we take them. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. When is a product labeled 100% Parmesan cheese not, in fact, 100 percent Parmesan cheese? Apparently, all too often. The fallout over the ongoing Parmesan scandal in the U.S. continues into a second week with a lawsuit filed Tuesday against Walmart, alleging the giant retailer deceived customers by labeling its Great Value brand as 100% grated Parmesan cheese when independent analysis shows the product actually contained upwards of 10 percent celluloseaka wood pulp. Outraged customer Marc Moschetta filed the complaint in Manhattan federal court and is seeking class-action status. As Bloomberg reports, a similar case was filed against Kraft last week in San Francisco. The suits follow a recent investigation by Bloomberg, that found a number of different products being marketed as 100 percent grated Parmesan arent really as pure as their labels suggest. The bargain brand sold by Jewel-Osco contained 8.8 percent cellulose, while the Bloomberg-sponsored tests found Walmarts Parm tested at 7.8 percent. Kraft came in at 3.8 percent, and even Whole Foods store brand appeared to contain 0.3 percent cellulose. Each company responded to Bloomberg with some variation of defending their high standards and vowing to investigate further. Although cellulose is considered safe for human consumption and functions as an anti-clumping agent in grated cheese, the acceptable level is in the 2 to 4 percent range, one independent cheese technologist told Bloomberg. Higher levels would suggest manufacturers are using the cellulose as a cheap filler. RELATED: Seafood Fraud Is What's on Your Plate The current brouhaha stems from a 2012 investigation by the Food and Drug Administration into Pennsylvannia-based Castle Cheese, which provided its products to big names like Target and Associated Wholesale Grocers. The FDA found that Castles 100% grated Parmesan products actually contained more like zero percent Parm. Instead, Castle substituted less expensive cheeses along with cellulose and other starchy fillers, according to the FDA investigation. The company has since declared bankruptcy, and its former president, Michelle L. Myrter, is expected to plead guilty to federal criminal charges sometime this month. Story continues That the FDA only launched an investigation into Castle Cheese because of a tip from a former employeenot to mention that the two most recent lawsuits stemming from cheesegate appear to follow tests conducted by a news organization and not government monitorsjust goes to show that when it comes to trusting food labels, the best advice is probably buyer beware. As the chief watchdog for food safety, the FDA continues to struggle to fight for adequate funding to implement key aspects of the Food Safety Modernization Act, passed by Congress in 2011. These include developing more effective programs to address food-borne illness as well as combating the rise of antibiotic resistance linked to the overuse of antibiotics in the livestock industry. With such pressing public health issues to address, the agency isnt about to make it a priority to go after food makers who are sneakily spiking their products with what are undoubtedly unappetizing and underhanded but otherwise harmless additives and fillers. A 2014 report on food fraud and economically motivated adulteration of food and food ingredients, prepared for members of Congress by the Congressional Research Service, notes that such fraud is estimated to cost the global food industry between $10 billion and $15 billion each year, impacting 10 percent of all commercially sold food products. On the one hand, thats just a small percent of the trillions of dollars spent on food each year; on the other, the report notes, the number of documented incidents is most likely a fraction of the true number of incidents, since the goal of adulteration for economic gain is not to be detected. Despite the recent dustup regarding grated Parmesan, cheese does not appear on the reports list of the most adulterated foods. Those include olive oil, which can be doctored with cheaper oils, such as soybean or corn oil, as well as fish and seafood, the mislabeling of which had also made headlines over the past few years. Fruit juices, also often marketed with that 100% claim, may be watered down or contain cheaper juices (think pomegranate juice cut with apple juice), while honey and maple syrup may likewise be adulterated with cheaper sweeteners, such as high-fructose corn syrup. Avoiding some adulterated products would seem relatively simple. You can always buy your Parmesan whole and grate it yourself, for example. Its a similar story for coffee, also among the most adulterated foods, with ground coffee sometimes found to contain things like leaves, twigs, roasted corn, or barley. Buy whole beans and grind them at home, and youve dodged that scam. But heck, who among us is really going to press our own olive oil at home or tap our own maple trees in the backyard? Related stories on TakePart: That Wild Salmon You Splurged On May Really Be Cheap Farmed Fish GMO Labeling Law Dubbed DARK Act Is Being Considered by the Senate A Danger Lurks Behind the BPA-Free Label Original article from TakePart We hear a lot about millennials and how rough theyve got it. Mostly, though, the talk is of a daunting economy or the need to crash in Moms basement until the right job any job comes through. Turns out theres a whole other problem for millennials in the U.K. 17 percent of Brits ages 16 to 25 have slept on the streets over the past year. And 10 percent of them have done so sleeping rough, that is in unsafe places like cars, for more than one night. Overall, 26 percent of them report having been homeless at some point in their young lives. It was much, much higher than we expected, says Anna Clarke, senior research associate at the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research, which conducted a nationwide survey for Centrepoint, the U.K.s leading charity for homeless young people. But whats even more staggering is the fact that official figures dont begin to account for homelessness among this increasingly vulnerable group, according to Jennifer Barnes, head of policy and research at Centrepoint. The government figures unfortunately dont break down by age, she says. Theyre just a big snapshot count of one night. For those, teams conduct less-than-scientific street tallies, simply counting bodies spotted on benches, in car parks and along sidewalks. Last years count, for example, estimated that there were 2,744 rough sleepers (all ages) on one night in England. But they can count only the ones they find, and many homeless remain hidden in a bid to stay safe. Local authorities, meanwhile, register only those theyre obliged to help youths, the disabled, vulnerable young people and families which means that healthy over-18s without children can fall through the net. And the outreach data for London suggests that the number of young people sleeping rough has significantly increased over the last few years, Barnes says. As in Britain, global homeless rates for young adults are far from comprehensive, but its a growing problem. Emergency services in Northern France, for example, report that most of the calls they receive these days are from this new demographic. And in the U.S., the number of homeless in their twenties has been growing each of the past five years, now representing 25 percent of the overall adult homeless rate. Because local authorities are responsible for the care of their homeless, theres little centralized organization. In many ways, the government is policymaking in the dark, because they dont know the scale of the problem that theyre dealing with, which has resulted in massive cuts for homelessness funding in recent years, Barnes says. Story continues A few factors have converged to put this group at risk, including relationship breakdowns with families, often fueled by financial pressures, family benefit cuts, soaring rents average British rent prices were 12.5 percent higher last May, compared with 2014 and high youth unemployment (13.6-16.2 percent among 16- to 24-year-old Brits in the last couple of years). Most of the young homeless are ineligible for state support, and many dont reach out to the shelters that are in place because they dont always feel safe going into all-age shelters, Barnes says. Centrepoint, unsurprisingly, recommends a government push for more accurate accounting, policy reversals that have seen funds dry up and more affordable housing and age-specific services for those who find themselves on the streets. Shocked by the numbers, Clarke and Barnes hope their work can spread awareness of the fact that Britains young adults are far from as safe as houses. Related Articles Companies with 100 employees or more will soon have to begin reporting wage data to the federal government. When the new rule, announced by President Obama in January, takes effect next year, it will be the punctuation mark on an eight-year effort to close the pernicious wage gap affecting women and minorities. The goal is to help businesses that are trying to do the right thing...to get a clearer picture of how they can ensure their employees are being treated equally, Obama said in his announcement. A better picture of the data will also help us do a better job enforcing existing equal pay laws. Data is a fine start, but its one of many tiny steps yet to be taken on the path to true pay parity in the U.S., a goal that for decades has proven stubbornly insurmountable. Half a century since President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, women still earn 80 cents for every $1 a man earns, and Black and Hispanic women earn even less. Some predict it will take at least another 100 years to level the playing field. We caught up with two companies that practice open salary policies to see how transparency has impacted wage equality within their ranks. Change comes from the top Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff spent $3M closing the wage gap at his company. Copyright 2014 by Jakub Mosur. Some companies have decided to get ahead of the curve. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, spent $3 million closing the gender wage gap at his company last year. On a smaller scale, startups like Buffer and SumAll already make salary data open to employees. At Buffer, a San Francisco-based social media management tool founded in 2010, company leaders decided early on to not only make salaries public to all employees but to the outside world as well. Anyone with a link to the companys salary spreadsheet can see exactly who earns what. It was one of the scariest things to us to publish that data, Buffer COO Leo Widrich told Yahoo Finance. Conversations around pay transparency began in 2013 and at the time, most workers supported the move but some were skeptical. They werent sure about their friends finding out or their family tradition was more about keeping [pay] under wraps. We had a lot of back and forth to make sure people understood and we werent running people over, Widrich said. Story continues When the link ultimately went live, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Along with a fair amount of media coverage, within a month Buffer saw a surge in job applications. Buffer also made it possible for other young companies to see what factors weighed in their compensation decisions things like location, job experience, and tenure. Theres not a lot of information out there when youre starting your company on how much you should pay someone or even how to think about that, Widrich said. We believe almost as a law that being open with the world is a good thing. Just about every hiring manager makes job experience one of the key factors in determining compensation. At Buffer, workers are ranked, in ascending order, as intermediate, advanced, or master, depending on skills and experience. Its the one part of the job formula employees can use to really negotiate. As Atkinson noted, though, and as weve learned from research, this is a particular weak spot for women who are less likely than men to brag about their experience and accomplishments. We asked Widrich whether he had noticed that women at Buffer were more likely to be categorized at the lower end of the experience ladder. Before he looked at the data, he was confident that women at his company were paid as much as men doing the same job. But when Buffer analyzed their salary data for Yahoo Finance, a trend emerged: Men were far more present in high-paying roles like developer and men were also more likely to be ranked at a higher experience level than women. Male workers earn an average salary of $98,705, compared to $89,205 for women. Of the 24 women at Buffer, the majority (58.3%) are currently ranked at the lowest level (intermediate) compared to 35% of men. Women are less likely to be ranked at the next highest level, advanced, as well 37.5% compared to 61.4% of men. Only one of the three employees listed at the highest level master is a woman. Through a spokesperson, Buffer CEO Joel Gascoigne said: While we try and remove bias from every area of the salary formula, experience is absolutely one area where we could improve." An uphill battle Since its launch in 2011, New York analytics startup SumAll employees have been able to access company-wide salary data whenever they want. SumAll CEO Dane Atkinson learned the hard way what happens when employees are left in the dark during his tenure as CEO of website developer SquareSpace. Some workers gained access to private salary data, sending shockwaves through the company. I had to bear witness to conversations in public restaurants where adults were crying because they felt the inequity was so horrible, Atkinson said. They felt we had lied and treated them unfairly. He readily acknowledges his role in their dismay. My experience hiring women was that theyre much less confident or willing to brag about their prior work history, he said. Its just easier to dismantle their prior work and put them at peer levels that are lower than their actual contributions. Today, he calls his old negotiating style evil. With a clean slate at SumAll, hes made sure salaries were transparent from the get-go. Transparency, he quickly learned, was no panacea for pay gaps. But it did make it fairly easy for employees to point out that SumAll tended to pay minorities and women less than men. No matter how fair the compensation formula or how gender-blind hiring managers try to be, we all have our own internal biases. Women are more likely than men to be penalized when they appear angry at work. People with black-sounding names are less likely to get job interviews. When asked to identify the smartest students in their class in a recent study, male biology students were 19 times more likely to identity another male student, even when a female student was a better performer. Transparent salaries havent totally eliminated these biases at SumAll, Atkinson said, but it has made it harder to ignore them. Employees dont feel shy about speaking up when they feel a colleague isnt being paid fairly. Almost to a person, there has been a conversation around [how we pay] minorities and females and its not just a woman speaking for herself, he said. Its the whole team saying we are paying women less than we should. The accountability factor President Barack Obama's proposed equal pay rule will go into effect September 2017. The idea that transparency alone begets wage equality is far-fetched. Many people arent even prepared to acknowledge that a pay gap exists. In a recent survey by Glassdoor, a whopping 7 out of 10 employed adults said they believed men and women are paid equally for equal work. Obamas plan to get salary data from private employers will at least make it harder for gaps to be ignored. Its what the companies do with that data that will matter, says Lauren Stiller Rikleen, a workplace expert who runs professional seminars on equal pay and unconscious bias. Rikleen co-authored a report for the American Bar Association on the persistence of the wage gap at law firms. We know from the experience in the legal profession that simply having open compensation does not equalize the gap, she said. Many top-tier law firms have open compensation systems for partner-level attorneys and yet women earn 87% of what men earn. When you have compensation systems that are open, people are not focused on analyzing why and when they are challenged on it, theres always an excuse, Rikleen said. When the Obama administrations new salary data rule goes into effect in 2017, employers will have fewer opportunities for excuses. There have also been state-led efforts to address the pay gap. In California, companies are now required to justify pay differences between male and female workers with similar duties. Without measures like these, its next to impossible for women and minorities to know whether they are being discriminated against in pay unless they ask coworkers personally. When salary data is made available to the government (the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will oversee it), it could make it easier for workers to build a case. Unfortunately, theres still no tool to prove whether unconscious bias is holding women and workers of color back. It is notoriously difficult to prove gender or racial discrimination, as we saw in the unsuccessful lawsuit brought by former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao against her former employer. At Buffers semi-annual company retreat in January, its 80 employees participated in an unconscious bias seminar. They aim to increase women on staff from 27% to 35% by the end of the first quarter. Says Widrich: Theres definitely still work to be done. Have you ever earned less than a coworker in a similar role? E-mail us at yfmoneymailbag@yahoo.com. -- Mandi Woodruff is a reporter for Yahoo Finance and host of Brown Ambition, a weekly podcast about life, love and money. Read more: 9 little-known Amazon Prime perks Did US Marshals arrest a man for unpaid student loan debt? See the laundry detergent ad that has everyone talking about gender roles New York (AFP) - New York, famous for its musical history, will soon have its own "Hip-Hop Boulevard" to mark the genre's birthplace. Mayor Bill de Blasio signed legislation Thursday to rename as Hip-Hop Boulevard a stretch of Sedgwick Avenue in The Bronx. "If you have friends on the West Coast, remember to tell them it all started here, okay? Just remind them of that fact," de Blasio told reporters, referring to the heated rivalry between rappers from US coasts in the 1990s. "Sorry, West Coast," he said to applause. According to legend, hip-hop was born at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue when Jamaican-born Clive Campbell spun records at a birthday party for his sister on August 11, 1973. Campbell became known as Kool Herc, the original hip-hop DJ, who gave birth to the genre by stringing together beats from records to excite audiences rather than playing full tracks. The historic party also saw the first MC, or master of ceremonies -- Coke La Rock, who would rapidly recite verse in the style popularized as rap. DJ Kool Herc more recently used the fame of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue to press successfully to keep down rents for tenants amid rapid gentrification in New York. Vanessa Gibson, who represents the area on the City Council, hailed the renaming of the street as a sign of hip-hop's "invaluable contributions" to New York. Hip-hop fans have also been working to create a museum to the genre in the city. New York on Thursday renamed a total of 42 streets or other public places. A number were named after late officers and firefighters including Randolph Holder, a Guyanese-born policeman who was shot dead last year. A stretch of the historically Greek neighborhood of Astoria was renamed for longstanding Greek-language daily Ethnikos Kyrix and its English-language sister newspaper The National Herald. Gerry Brooks leads 9 companies During Senate Question time, the Minister noted the NGC group of companies comprises 23 companies, 17 subsidiaries, five companies in which it held minority shareholdings. Brooks, the Minister said, is chairman of eight subsidiaries, namely: the National Energy Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago; Phoenix Park Gas Processor Limited; La Brea Industrial Development Company Limited; NGC CNG Company Limited; NGC NGL Company Limited; Trinidad and Tobago NGL Limited; NGC Petrochemicals Limited; and NCG Pipeline Company Limited. In keeping with best practice the NGC board agreed to have the chairman of the parent companies serve as the chairman of the subsidiary companies, as this promotes efficient integration, optimizes strategic coordination of business planning and execution, and facilitates alignment across the group of companies, thereby creating synergies resulting in cost savings, efficiencies, increased profitability, and added value to the shareholder, said the Minister. Brooks, an attorney and graduate of Columbia University, New York, retired as Chief Operating Officer of ANSA McAL Limited in April of last year. Olivierre said NGC board member Sham Mahabir serves as chairman of: NGC Trinidad and Tobago Limited; and Trinidad and Tobago LNG Limited. Seven of the companies in the group currently have no chairman. Also during Senate Question Time, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said delays in payments to pharmacies in relation to the CDAP programme were due to the timing of last years general election. He said payments were due to be made yesterday, or by today. Of CDAP, the Minister said, That programme was supposed to, and continues to be a mainstay of the public health system. He said non-payment of funds stemmed from problems with a private sector firm that priced items, as well as the late reading of the Budget, which he linked to the election. Your side did not pay the bills of July, August and September! Deyalsingh told Opposition Senator Wayne Sturge. Minister also said a shortage of life-saving cancer drugs at the Sangre Grande Hospital and the St James Medical Facility, were also due to a similar timing issue. Arrest warrant issued for Chag North student The victim whose head is still in bandage a week after the attack, spoke to a concerned Education Minister Anthony Garcia who visited the troubled school on Tuesday. According to police report, the victim refused to pay a tax for the privilege of using the boys toilets on being confronted by the other student. For not paying the tax, the student was struck to the back of his head by the other tax-collecting student with a chair. The wanted student did not attend school yesterday and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Garcia led a high-powered team of officials including National Security Minister Edmund Dillon who visited the institution to see first hand issues which contribute to mass indiscipline and lawlessness at this school which made front page news last week after reports of a hit by students and their gangster friends was foiled when the planned hit was leaked to school officials. Classes last Friday was cancelled following news of the plot. A 16-year-old student has since appeared before a magistrate in connection with the incident and pleaded guilty to a charge of assault by threatening to commit bodily harm on a 39-year-old female teacher. He has been placed on $10,000 bail and told to return to court. Yesterday, a party of officers led by Sgt Thompson of the 500 Patrol Unit of the Chaguanas Police Station returned to the school to continue their investigations. Interviews were conducted and statements recorded from several students. The offending student in the chair attack was identified. A warrant has been issued, and an arrest is imminent, a police source said. Newsday was further told that some of the 24 students identified as trouble makers were sent home yesterday. By Friday (tomorrow) the rest will be out of the school system, a school source said. DPP orders release of arrested HDC official Yesterday, Fraud Squad officers, led by Snr Supt Totaram Dookie, sought directions from DPP Gaspard and presented a file to him. But after reviewing the evidence presented, the DPP gave instructions that the woman who was arrested on Tuesday, be released immediately. However, the womans 45-year-old boyfriend remains in custody as he had several warrants pending for fraud matters. Yesterday, during her detention, the HDC official suffered a panic attack and was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. The woman of Curepe, spent all of Tuesday in custody along with her boyfriend. However when she suffered the panic attack, plans to interview her were put on hold. It was alleged that the HDC official demanded money be deposited into her private bank account by persons in return for favourable considerations for public housing. Hunter found dead in forest Reports indicated that Mollineau and Balkie left McIntyre to set up a camp at another location in the forest when they were alerted by a single gunshot. The men later told police officers that they returned to the area where they had left McIntyre, but he could not be found. Mollineau and Balkie searched the forest for a few minutes before contacting police officers from the Moruga Police Station. After combing the area for several hours, police officers found McIntyres body in the forest shortly after 5 pm on Tuesday. A District Medical Officer (DMO) ordered its removal to the Forensic Science Centre where efforts were being made to have an autopsy done yesterday $.3M bail for businessman Gustave of Mc Bean, appeared before Magistrate Brahmanand Dubay in the Sixth Court and was not called up to enter a plea, as charges were laid indictably. The charges, as read out in the court, alleged that Gustave, acting as a director on behalf of Amin Best Price Limited, attempted to obtain from Toolsie Supermarket the sum of $22,920 by use of a dishonoured cheque on April 24. Toolsie Supermarket Limited is located at Couva. It is alleged that within the period March and July, he used a total of seven dishonoured cheques in an attempt to obtain money from the supermarket as well as from Ramadhars Food and Liquor Centre Co Ltd, located in Freeport. Sgt Richardson of the Fraud Squad laid the charges. Attorney Rosario Sookdeo, who represented Gustave, in an application for bail, said his client lives at Old Southern Main Road, Mc Bean, Couva and has been there all his life. Gustave, the attorney added, is a father of four children who are between the ages of five and 15. Attorney Sookdeo added that his client has two pending matters and no previous convictions. Court prosecutor Sgt Gordon Maharaj objected to bail being granted on the basis that while out on bail, Gustave allegedly committed criminal offences. Reading from a document, Magistrate Dubay noted that the accused has a case dated September 21, 2013 for allegedly obtaining money by false pretence. Magistrate Dubay granted Gustave $150,000 surety bail to be approved by a Clerk of the Peace to cover three of the seven offences which allegedly occurred at Couva. He also transferred the cases to the Couva Magistrates Court and ordered the accused to go to that court on March 23. Magistrate Dubay granted separate bail, also the sum of $150,000 with a surety to be approved by a Clerk of the Peace, to cover the remaining four charges for offences which allegedly occurred in Freeport. The magistrate transferred those four matters to the Chaguanas Magistrates Court - temporarily based in Tunapuna - and adjourned these cases to March 24. Man discharged, prison sentence backdated His sentence was backdated from yesterdays date to cover the time he spent in prison as well as the discount for his plea, and as a result of having spent the jail time imposed on him, Legair was discharged. According to the prosecutions case, presented by State prosecutor Joy Balkaran, Legair robbed couple Jayson Figarie and Tedicar Boucaud along Wilkinson Street, El Dorado. Legair was apprehended by police soon after the robbery at Back Street Extension, Tunapuna. He was identified by his victims who also identified the stolen items as theirs. Legair was charged with two counts of robbery with aggravation and one count of making use of an imitation firearm. He was committed to stand trial on January 11, 2008. Legair was represented in court yesterday by attorney Shervon Noreiga. Vandal fined for damaging car He was speaking to father of two Nigel Ramlackhan, who pleaded guilty to a charge of malicious damage to a car. Court prosecutor Cleydon Seedan said that at about 12.45 pm on January 17, Ramlackhan approached Heroman Bail at Surajbally Trace off Caratal Road, Gasparillo, where an argument ensued. Ramlackhan, armed with a cutlass, fired several chops at Bails car causing the rear windshield to shatter. Damage was estimated at $2,350. Ramlackhan was arrested and charged by PC Ramcharan of Gasparillo Police Station. Ramlackhan yesterday admitted committing the act. He told the magistrate that he is a father of two children, aged 14 and 15. Wellington, after scolding the accused, fined him $3,000 or six months hard labour in default. The magistrate also ordered that Ramlackhan pay the victim $2,350 in compensation within two months or serve six weeks in prison. Gender Affairs expert laments Mayors absence Valentine was expected to speak at the forum, but reportedly said at the last-minute that he could not attend. Former Port-of- Spain Mayor Louis Lee Sing was asked by the organisers to speak in Valentines place. Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who was listed on the programme as another guest speaker, also did not attend Valentine assumed the position of mayor on February 17, after his predecessor, Raymond Tim Kee, resigned over the latters controversial statements about the death of Japanese national Asami Nagakiya, whose body was discovered on Ash Wednesday. Hosein told a a mostly female audience at the Institute of International Relations she was disappointed that Valentine did not attend the forum, adding that she viewed such behaviour as typical of many politicians, and others holding public office. She argued that it was not enough to say that the Government was preparing a National Gender Policy. This is not a gender issue, but a local government issue. It is a city corporation issue. It is a political issue. It is a national issue, Hosein said, adding that Valentine should have taken a more, visible role, in the issue. CDA chairman gets earful However, he said the lack of water, which also means that washrooms are not available to the public, could be dealt with almost immediately while other issues, such as electrical problems, would have to be the subject of a proper survey by a qualified electrician, who could advise on how to fix them. He said a survey would also have to be carried out on the structural issues to ensure that whatever work is done is within the guidelines ,and is properly approved. Pierre said short term problems would be fixed in the next two to three months, while the longer term structural problems would be fixed within six months, to a year. He said it will take some time and money to fix the problems at the boardwalk, adding that the authority does not have much money but we will get around to fixing it. Its better to restore it than have it deteriorate. A lot of money has been spent on putting down the infrastructure as it is, so I think it is in our interest to have it operationalised as it is. The main complaint was about a lack of water which has badly affected those tenants, who prepare and sell food. Lydia Rullow, who operates The Jerk Shack, said that because of the water problem she has been unable to keep her outlet in continuous operation. She said the lack of water was a problem from the first day she opened, and she has never got satisfactory water pressure in the shop. However, she said that after giving up a corporate job to open the shop she has chosen to remain because she has bought into the vision and the site has potential. Sabinus Alexander and Estella Ray who operate The Soup Shoppe, said the CDA wanted them to open from 10 am to 10 pm daily, but it didnt make any sense to do so as no one is at the boardwalk. Alexander said they asked the CDA to put up signs advertising the the food vendors and that lunch is available daily. He said their requests were ignored. Other tenants complained about electrical problems. Auditor General has no power for forensic probe This was disclosed yesterday by Acting Deputy Auditor-General Lorelly Pujadas, during a public hearing between officials from the Office of the Auditor-General and members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at Tower D of the Port-of-Spain International Waterfront Centre. Responding to a question from PAC chairman, Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie, Pujadas stated, We at this point in time, do not have a remit for forensic audit. Nor do we have the competency to do a forensic audit. Explaining the definitions of a variety of audits, she said forensic audits are taken into account when there is the suggestion that a corrupt act may have occurred. Pujadas added that forensic accounting is concerned with the law, and deals with issues such as embezzlement and fraud. She explained that while compliance is a part of the Auditor-Generals fundamental activities, we do not provide an opinion in terms of compliance. Asked by Public Administration Minister, Randall Mitchell, about the Auditor-Generals policy regarding whistle blowers, Pujadas replied that whistle-blowing was something that the Auditor-General, takes very seriously. She said there have been occasions when information has come from concerned citizens to the Auditor-General about possible improprieties, and that information is forwarded to the relevant authorities. Legal officer Nicole Cockburn informed Mitchell that the Auditor-General is one of the reporting entities listed in the Whistle-blower Protection Bill 2015. She expressed confidence that once this legislation is passed and implemented, it would define a clear command structure in which these kinds of matters would be addressed. Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, who is the chairman of a joint select committee dealing with the Whistle-blower Protection Bill, has expressed optimism that the bill would be implemented before the Parliament takes its scheduled recess in July. Bringing whistle-blower legislation to Parliament was one of the ruling Peoples National Movements (PNM) main campaign promises in last Septembers general elections. Pujadas also said the Auditor- General does not have the power to sanction accounting officers and continues to grapple with the problem late submissions of financial statements from various entities which fall under its purview. Responding to a question from Independent Senator Dr Dhanayshar Mahabir, Pujadas disclosed, We do not audit all state sectors. At present, we audit ministries and departments and approximately 58 statutory authorities. High-ranking members of the elite hunting society, St. Hubertus, were staying at Cibolo Creek Ranch at the same time as Justice Scalia in the days leading up to his death. Here's what you need to know about the group. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post) When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died 11 days ago at a West Texas ranch, he was among high-ranking members of an exclusive fraternity for hunters called the International Order of St. Hubertus, an Austrian society that dates back to the 1600s. After Scalias death Feb. 13, the names of the 35 other guests at the remote resort, along with details about Scalias connection to the hunters, have remained largely unknown. A review of public records shows that some of the men who were with Scalia at the ranch are connected through the International Order of St. Hubertus, whose members gathered at least once before at the same ranch for a celebratory weekend. Members of the worldwide, male-only society wear dark-green robes emblazoned with a large cross and the motto Deum Diligite Animalia Diligentes, which means Honoring God by honoring His creatures, according to the groups website . Some hold titles, such as Grand Master, Prior and Knight Grand Officer. The Orders name is in honor of Hubert, the patron saint of hunters and fishermen. Cibolo Creek Ranch owner John Poindexter and C. Allen Foster, a prominent Washington lawyer who traveled to the ranch with Scalia by private plane, hold leadership positions within the Order. It is unclear what, if any, official association Scalia had with the group. Full Screen Autoplay Close Embed Copy Share Inside the ranch where Justice Scalia died View Photos The Texas resort ranch spanned 30,000 acres. Caption The Texas resort spans 30,000 acres. Feb. 14, 2016 One of the ponds outside the suite where Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead at Cibolo Creek Ranch, the West Texas resort that stretches over 30,000 acres. Matthew Busch/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. There is nothing I can add to your observation that among my many guests at Cibolo Creek Ranch over the years some members of the International Order of St. Hubertus have been numbered, Poindexter said in an email. I am aware of no connection between that organization and Justice Scalia. An attorney for the Scalia family did not respond to requests for comment for this article. Two other private planes that landed at the ranch for the weekend are linked to two men who have held leadership positions with the Texas chapter of the Order, according to a review of state business filings and flight records from the airport. After Scalias death, Poindexter told reporters that he met Scalia at a sports group gathering in Washington. The U.S. chapter of the International Order of St. Hubertus lists a suite on M Street NW in the District as its headquarters, although the address is only a mailbox in a United Parcel Service store. The International Order of St. Hubertus, according to its website , is a true knightly order in the historical tradition. In 1695, Count Franz Anton von Sporck founded the society in Bohemia, which is in modern-day Czech Republic. The groups Grand Master is His Imperial Highness Istvan von Habsburg-Lothringen, Archduke of Austria, according to the Orders website. The next gathering for Ordensbrothers and guests is an investiture March 10 in Charleston, S.C. The societys U.S. chapter launched in 1966 at the famous Bohemian Club in San Francisco, which is associated with the all-male Bohemian Grove one of the most well-known secret societies in the country. Full Screen Autoplay Close Embed Copy Share The life of conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia View Photos Antonin Scalia, the influential and most provocative member of the Supreme Court, has died. He was 79. Caption Antonin Scalia, the influential and most provocative member of the Supreme Court, has died. He was 79. Oct. 8, 2010 Justice Antonin Scalia at the Supreme Court. Larry Downing/Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. In 2010, Poindexter hosted a group of 53 members of the Houston chapter of the International Order of St. Hubertus at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, according to a Houston society publication. A number of members from Mexico were also part of the ranch festivities that included three days of organized shoots and gala lunches and dinners. Poindexter told CultureMap Houston that some of the guests dressed in traditional European shooting attire for the boxed bird shoot competition and for the shooting of pheasants and chukar, a type of partridge. For the hunting weekend earlier this month, Poindexter told The Washington Post that Scalia traveled to Houston with his friend and U.S. marshals, who provide security for Supreme Court justices. The Post obtained a Presidio County Sheriffs Office report that named Foster as Scalias close friend on the trip. Sheriff Danny Dominguez confirmed that a photograph of Washington lawyer C. Allen Foster is the same man he interviewed at the ranch the day of Scalias death. From Houston, Scalia and Foster chartered a plane without the marshals to the Cibolo Creek Ranch airstrip. In a statement after Scalia died, the U.S. Marshals Service said that Scalia had declined a security detail while at the ranch. The friend, Louisiana-born Foster, is a lawyer with the Washington firm Whiteford, Taylor & Preston. He is also known for his passion for hunting and is a former spokesman for the hunting group Safari Club. In 2006, Foster was featured in The Post when he celebrated his 65th birthday with a six-day celebration in the Czech Republic. He flew his family and 40 Washington friends there to stay in Moravias Zidlochovice, a baroque castle and hunting park. The birthday bash included tours of the Czech countryside, wine tasting, wild boar and mouflon (wild sheep) hunts, classic dance instruction and a masked costume ball. A secretary at Fosters law firm said he is traveling in Argentina. The firms director of marketing, Mindee L. Mosher, said Foster was traveling and she would try to contact him. A woman answering a phone associated with Foster hung up when asked for comment. Planes owned by Wallace Happy Rogers III and the company of A.J. Lewis III left from San Antonio and arrived at the ranch just after noon Feb. 12. The planes departed the ranch about 30 minutes apart Feb. 14, according to flight records provided to The Post by FlightAware. Rogers owns the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum in San Antonio. He has donated $65,000 to Republican candidates since 2008. Lewis is the owner of a restaurant supplier company, also based in San Antonio. He has given $3,500 to GOP candidates since 2007. Rogers and Lewis have both served as prior officers in the Texas chapter of the International Order of St. Hubertus, according to Texas business records. Rogers spoke to a Post reporter briefly on the phone and confirmed that he was at the ranch the weekend of Scalias death. He declined to comment further. Lewis did not respond to several attempts for comment. The Presidio County Sheriffs Office released an incident report to The Post on Tuesday that revealed Fosters name as Scalias traveling companion and provided details about the discovery of his body. Poindexter and Foster told the sheriff that Scalia had traveled to Texas the day before to go hunting. Poindexter told the sheriff that they had supper and talked for a while that evening. Scalia said that he was tired and was going to his room for the night, the sheriff wrote in his report. When Scalia didnt show up for breakfast that morning, Poindexter knocked on his door and eventually went in and found the Justice dead in his bed, Poindexter said. Law enforcement officials told The Post that they had no knowledge of the International Order of St. Hubertus or its connection to Poindexter and ranch guests. The officials said the FBI had declined to investigate Scalias death when they were told by the marshals that he died from natural causes. Alice Crites in Washington and Eva Ruth Moravec in San Antonio contributed to this report. Amy Brittain is a reporter for The Post's investigative team. Obama at Bagram Obama at Bagram Mr. Haqqani, the director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., was Pakistans ambassador to the U.S., 2008-11. Mr. Haqqani, the director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., was Pakistans ambassador to the U.S., 2008-11. Lt. Gen. John Nicholson, the recently nominated commander of American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, has confirmed what many of us have feared. He told the Senate Armed Services Committee during his Jan. 28 confirmation hearing that security in Afghanistan is worsening. The Taliban are emboldened by the prospect of a U.S. withdrawal. On Monday the United Nations reported that 2015 civilian casualties from terrorist attacks in Afghanistan reached an all-time high since 2001, a 4% increase over 2014. The Obama administration pins its hopes on China and Pakistan persuading the fundamentalist Islamist group to negotiate the end of its insurgency. Yet the Talibans main demandthe establishment of what they deem to be an Islamic orderis nonnegotiable. They talk not with the intention of giving up fighting but to regroup and attack again. Liberal Americans, encouraged by the Talibans main backer, Pakistan, assume that there is a deal to be made. This is the same mirage the U.S. has pursued since the Taliban emerged in 1993 out of the anti-Soviet mujahedeen movement and initially found favor among many Afghans disenchanted by the corruption and lawlessness of the first post-Soviet regime. The Clinton administration believed the Talibans aspirations were limited to asserting ethnic Pashtun supremacy and were nationalist, not Islamist, in nature. The Talibans subsequent ruthlessness and imposition of Islamic law once they took power didnt get the Clinton administrations full attention until 1998, when the groups decision to host Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda resulted in U.N. sanctions. That left Pakistan as the only country with full diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime. Then, as now, a Democratic administration tried to negotiate with the Taliban through Pakistan. This time, too, the Talibans precondition seems to be that the U.N. withdraw the post 9/11 resolution that froze the movements assetsestimated in 2001 to be $100 million in the U.S. alone, with additional assets in Gulf states and in Pakistanand limited international travel by its leaders. The Taliban have since increased their assets to at least $400 million through drug trafficking, kidnapping for ransom and by extorting U.S. and Afghan-government contractors. Although Pakistan felt compelled to join the international coalition against al Qaeda and the Taliban after 9/11, it never severed ties with the Taliban. Most Taliban leaders ended up on the Pakistani side of the 1,398-mile-long Pakistan-Afghan border. Some of them secured protection from tribes straddling the two countries; and Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) protected others, who lived openly in Quetta and Peshawar. The ISI wanted to keep using the Taliban as an Afghan proxy in Pakistans perennial competition for influence with India. The U.S. couldnt or wouldnt move against the fugitive Taliban leaders for fear of violating Pakistans sovereignty. (The search for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was a one-time exception.) The Obama administration initially spoke of coercing Pakistan into giving up support for the Taliban. In 2011 then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Pakistan couldnt keep snakes in its backyard. The very next year, President Obama announced a schedule for U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. That made the Taliban and their Pakistani backers intransigent; they knew that all they had to do was wait. With another U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan by the end of 2016, leaving a small force of some 5,500, it is no wonder that Taliban attacks in provinces bordering Pakistan have increased. The Obama administrations decision to negotiate with the Taliban through Pakistan was embraced by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani after his election in 2014. China, Pakistans major international supporter, was brought in as a facilitator, arranging meetings in Beijing between the Taliban and the Afghan government. China was expected to broker a deal involving Kabul, Islamabad and Pakistans Afghan proxies. Yet Pakistan may no longer be able even to bring a unified Taliban movement to the negotiating table. The Taliban have splintered, and factions affiliated with ISIS have emerged to compete with groups tied to al Qaeda. Although the Taliban continue to depend upon the ISI for money, training and arms, it is becoming clear that at least some Taliban leaders would rather follow an independent course. Former Taliban negotiator Tayeb Agha reportedly resigned last year after the election of new Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, saying Taliban leaders should relocate to Afghanistan from Pakistan to preserve their independence. This is not the only reason talks will likely fail. Afghan security forces and intelligence services dont trust Pakistan because of the haven it provides the Taliban. The Taliban look upon ISI with suspicion because of its connection with the U.S.further diminishing Pakistans capacity to broker peace in Afghanistan. Faced with international pressure as well as growing internal threats from the Pakistani Taliban, Pakistan has cleared out some known jihadist sanctuaries in the border region of North Waziristan, depriving Afghan groups such as the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network of their historical base of operations. The assumption in Washington is that Pakistan wouldnt like to see the Taliban return to power in Afghanistan. But a similar assumption in 1993 was shown to be naive as the Taliban marched into Kabul with full Pakistani backing. Neither is there any sign today that Pakistans military is willing to give up its decades-long pursuit of paramountcy over Afghanistan. So unless the U.S. is willing to keep sufficient troops in Afghanistan, the outcome of the fight and talk policy now being pursued by the Taliban and the U.S. will only feed chaos. Or a return of the Taliban as a fait accompli when the troops finally leave. What you need to know about the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday in Ames news Annual Conference of State Minorities Commissions 2016 begins New Delhi, Thu, 25 Feb 2016 NI Wire Evolve spirit of cooperation and not competetion between State and Centre: dr. Najma Heptulla Haj is being transferred to Ministry of Minority Affairs : Dr. Najma Heptulla The one day Annual Conference of the State Minorities Commissionsbegan here.Inaugurating the Conference Dr.Najma Heptulla, the Union Minister,Minority Affairs said that it is the culture that unites not the religion. The culture is the thread that puts flowers of all religions in to a garland, she added. Emphasising the focus of the Central Government being inclusive growth with motto SabkaSaath,SabkaVikas, the Minister said to discriminate means to deprive of development. In a federal system, the Centre can plan and devise schemes but the implementation lies with the states, she further added. The Minister asked the conference to discuss ways for monitoring the implementation of various schemes. Dr. Najma urged participants to be more responsible, vigilant and willing to evolve a system for State Centre cooperation and not competition. The spirit of cooperationandsupport in identifying areas in need of development and monitoring implementation of various schemes can immensely benefit all stakeholders. She said that Ministry is focusing on empowering minorities through education and skill development and asked for supporting this endeavour. Disclosing that Haj pilgrimage is being transferred to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Dr. Najma Heptulla said that in principle decision to this effect has been taken and modalities are to be worked out for its implementation. Earlier Sh. Naseem Ahmad, Chairman, NCM welcoming the participants said that though SMCs work independently in their respective states but NCM feels that all are sister organizations working towards similar objectives. It is a platform for all stake holders to share and update themselves on issues relating to minorities. The one day Conference focusing on Development of Minorities had two Technical sessions besides the inaugural, and the Valedictory. Shree Praveen Davar, Member, NCM addressed the Technical I session on Minority Welfare Schemes of Government of India-An Overview while Technical II session on Functioning of State Minorities Commissions-Problems and Challenges was addressed by Ms. Mabel Rebello, another MembeNCM. The Conference is held every year on a theme which the National Commission for Minorities considers as relevant and important to the Minorities and the State Minorities Commissions, the State Governments particularly the Minority Welfare Departments and NGOs dealing with minority issues. The last Annual Conference held in 2015 was on the theme Capacity building of Minority Educational Institutions in India and Corporate Social Responsibility and Development of Minorities in India. Source: PIB Share Tweet A recent posting focused on the growing popularity of containers such as those pioneered by Docker, and some of the issues that surround container security. As outlined in the posting, the good news is that despite the increase in attack surfaces created by container use, a container environment can be secured. This only adds to the attraction of containers for DevOps as becoming irresistible. Containers, after all, are an emerging next generation foundational technology for server virtualization and cloud application deployment. Given the emerging role of containers, a little deeper into their benefits as well as their enhanced value when used in conjunction with the Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform (VSP) is useful. At a high level, the reason is the combinations value proposition is hard to beat. It enables the rapid development and deployment of new enterprise applications in a secure and cost-effective manner. Containers are lightweight workload instances. They allow monolithic applications to be broken down into small, reusable, easily allocated components in a more modular way called micro-services. These can be deployed to address changing business requirements on demand at a specific location where resource utilization can be maximized. An example is local to persistent storage, but it applicable to other application services. Containers technology is gaining traction because containers, unlike more traditional hypervisor and virtual machine-based approaches, are designed so that each have their workload shared on a host OS, rather than each virtual machine (VM) which have their own host or guest OS image. A VM occupies more space in memory, and takes more time (minutes rather than fractions of seconds) to deploy and provision. Using containers is like giving DevOps a Formula One racing car instead of a pre-owned Honda (News - Alert) Civic to race with. What it enables, thanks to its lightweight nature and portability, is for DevOps use this application development methodology to better align themselves with IT departments. They provide IT the ability to offer enterprises secure, tested new capabilities really quickly. These enable enterprise to be fast-to-market, fast in the market with differentiated and sustainable services. They also enable significant operational cost savings on a variety of fronts However, to achieve the rapid, incremental deployments-on-demand using containers DevOps is not simple. It requires a great deal of infrastructure and deployment automation. Nuage Networks notes that this can only be achieved with a polilcy-based SDN automation platform like the Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform. The reason cited is that with SDN, infrastructure changes, application provisioning and cloud orchestration are all handled programmatically, rather than manually by IT. Nuage also points out that moving to containers is not a forklift or a total replacement of existing VM solutions. In fact, the utility of the VSP is its flexibility. As illustrated below the Nuage Networks VSP can support virtually (pardon the play on words), almost Everything. Source (News - Alert): Nuage Networks Solution Brief As Nuage says VMs still have some key advantages for mission-critical applications like security, high-availability features, and orchestration tools. They add that: VMs and containers are going to exist side-by-side in enterprise private clouds and service provider networks for many years to come. Since both VM and container formats require virtual networking infrastructures (virtual Ethernet ports, overlay networking and an SDN controller), it is critical to choose an SDN platform that is designed from the ground up for both environments. The Nuage Networks VSP is just such a virtual networking and SDN platform. In short, as Nuage notes, the VSP makes the network as dynamic and consumable as the compute infrastructure through the automated instantiation of network services. Being vendor-agnostic it also addresses the need for such capabilities to work in heterogeneous cloud environments, and the need for frictionless cloud orchestration.. As a result It provides customers the flexibility to deploy new application and cloud technologies and services in the future without the need for a complete overhaul of existing infrastructure. And, VSP supports OpenStack, which is working on seamless support of containers. Nuage Networks VSP can scale to meet the demands of thousands of tenants with unique application requirements, distinct security policies and committed service levels. It can unify complex topologies such as public and private clouds with multiple datacenters and bare metal servers into a single manageable cloud network. Edited by Stefania Viscusi Google Fiber will provide service to some apartments, condos, and affordable housing properties in San Francisco, using existing fiber. By using existing fiber to connect some apartments and condos, as weve done before, we can bring service to residents more quickly. This approach will allow us to serve a portion of San Francisco, complementing the Citys ongoing efforts to bring abundant, high-speed Internet to the City by the Bay. As part of Googles work in San Francisco, they want to help residents get online for the first time. One of their leading initiatives will be connecting some public and affordable housing properties to gigabit speed Internetfor free. In partnership with the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), were also bringing the Digital Inclusion Fellowship to San Francisco. NTEN is accepting applications from organizations to host fellows who will teach people to set up email accounts, apply for jobs, access content across the web, and more. Through these efforts, Google hopes to make the Internet more affordable and accessible for those most affected by the digital divide. All Zika testing is now done by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control because the state doesn't yet have the ability, but Minicuci said should within the next few weeks. While Florida's cases to date have originated through foreign travel, the state urges residents and visitors to protect themselves from mosquitoes. However, Health Minister Cameron Dick has conceded there may be "a small number of infected" insects, after a man who tested positive for the disease was found in an area where the mosquitoes are present. It is also known to be transmittable through sexual contact and blood transfusions. There are now 14 new cases of reported sexual transmission. The CDC said in two of the new suspected sexual transmission events, Zika virus infection was confirmed in women whose only known risk factor was sexual contact with an ill male partner. Donald Trump Says He Respects the Pope The ad's claims getting lots of talk in SC ...an area known as Bush country. Trump called Rove, who was a senior advisor to former President George W. When the disease detectives are done with this historic research, they hope to shed light on these two crucial questions: What are the chances that a woman who contracts Zika during her pregnancy will have a baby with microcephaly? "Now that all these birth defects and associated conditions have come out, Zika is turning into a game-changer", said Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, an assistant professor in Emory University's Department of Environmental Sciences. The CDC said Zika fever is generally mild with a rash, fever and joint pain. Doctors have suggested that people traveling to Zika-affected areas should use condoms or abstain from sex while their partner is pregnant. Because there now is no vaccine or treatment for Zika virus, the best way to avoid Zika virus infection is to prevent mosquito bites. Does David Bowie's Son Have a Problem with Lady Gaga's Tribute Performance? After the singer's performance, the filmmaker posted a definition of the word " gaga " from the Oxford English Dictionary . She sang Space Oddity , Changes, Ziggy Stardust , Suffragette City, Rebel Rebel, Fashion, Fame, Let's Dance and Heroes . Brazil said this week it has confirmed more than 580 cases of microcephaly, and considers majority to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The antibody tests allow individuals to see if they ever had the Zika virus. So far, more than 100 people throughout the United States have been diagnosed with the virus. State health officials are also waiting on test results from at least three other people who may have contracted the virus while traveling. Queensland health authorities will begin spraying mosquitoes in the yards of homes and businesses within a 200m radius of a Rockhampton hotel where the mosquito that carries the Zika virus has been found. Not Found The requested URL was not found on this server. Apache Server Port 80 We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. In February 2015, refugees in Australia's Manus Island concentration camp in Papua New Guinea went on hunger strike to protest against their treatment. Australia's response? Send its paid thugs to beat them, leaving some with lasting injuries: Asylum seekers have also alleged that they were beaten by private security guards during an operation to end a January 2015 Manus Island hunger strike, and have told Fairfax Media in a series of letters that they were jailed in the nearby Lorengau police cells for up to 21 days. Leaked files from Broadspectrum, the company contracted to run the Manus Island and Nauru centres, support some of the claims of injury and placement in the police cells. The company's files show detainees sought medical treatment after complaining of nerve pain in their arms, which they claimed was the a result of having their wrists tightly bound by plastic restraints during the hunger strike. One detainee wrote in a letter that he was kicked in the head by security guards while he was in the Lorengau police cells and was left shirtless during his 21 day stint in the cells. Another said the cells were filthy and that "the toilet sewage would come to where we slept". An Iraqi asylum seeker has claimed in a letter that he was beaten about the head with a stick by security staff, resulting in damage to his eyesight and the loss of teeth. Beating people because they peacefully protest against their treatment is not the action of a peaceful and democratic state. Instead, its the action of a tyranny. And that's what Australia's racist, anti-refugee policies are gradually turning it into: a country which uses torture and oppression and threatens to jail those speaking up about it While Libya is struggling to form a national unity government and the West is eager to intervene in the country to combat the Islamic State group, information emerged that France secretly deployed some of its troop to the country. Bloggers had claimed sighting French troops in eastern Libya since mid-February but Paris is still silent on the matter. Meanwhile, Huffington Post Arabic reported on Tuesday that French Special Forces are in Benghazi to support the Libyan National Army commanded by General Haftar. A spokesperson for the military intelligence agency (DGSE) declined to comment on ongoing operations, either real or assumed. France declared war on IS after the November 13 attack in Paris that killed 130 people and some media reported that President Hollande had authorized unofficial action in Libya. France has a military base in Niger close to the border with Libya but it is not the only country operating in the country because US and Britain special operatives and intelligence forces are believed to be also engaged in secret missions there. Pierre Martinet, a former agent in the Service Action division of the DGSE, said secret missions often serve as a preamble to a larger intervention but a senior French military official said the last thing to do would be to intervene in Libya. We must avoid any overt military engagement, but act discreetly. France had confirmed carrying out reconnaissance flights in Libya since last year and is believed to have provided intelligence leading to killing of Abou Nabil in Derna in November, an Iraqi considered as a senior leader of IS in the north African country. The United States will send to Morocco, one of its major allies in MENA, a team of instructors from the California Highway Patrol. California Highway Patrol (CHP) are planning to travel to Morocco under a partnership with the US State Department to support international law enforcement and anti-crime efforts, says US SCV TV channel. The CHPs Office of Community Outreach and Media Relations (COMR) will provide support to the Moroccan National Police (Direction Generale de la Surete Nationale or DGSN) as Morocco reviews its national police agencys communication strategy. According to the Californian TV station, the CHP was chosen because of its experience, reputation, capability, and outreach activities which provide a unique contribution to the needs and objectives of the DGSN. It is truly an honor for the CHP to be selected for this assignment, and it reflects well on the hard work and dedication of our employees who communicate with the public and the communities we serve, said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow. We understand now more than ever the importance of transparency and earning the publics trust. We look forward to meeting with the Moroccan police officials to learn about their priorities and programs and to providing them the assistance they desire, he added. The project marks the second overseas deployment by the CHP after the Department signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the US Department of State in 2014. The State Departments Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs will reimburse the CHP for all expenses incurred during the deployments. Participating in the first deployment of the DGSNs communication program will be the commander of the CHPs Office of COMR and a sergeant who oversees the CHPs marketing and social media programs. Next, DGSN officials will visit California to observe and study CHP public information officers as they interact and communicate with the media, the public and community groups. Representatives from the CHP are then scheduled to return to Morocco to mentor, guide and support the implementation of the Moroccan communication strategies. CHP motto is Safety, Service, and Security. It believes that safety is everyones responsibility. CHP adopts a pro-active stance against crime. It has community outreach and communication programs promoting safe driving and teaching youngsters about the dangers of drugs, alcohol and others. February 25, 2016 Senator Bill Wielechowski 716 W 4th Suite 409 Anchorage, AK 99501 907.269.0120 fax 269.0122 sen.bill.wielechowski@ akleg.gov State Capitol, Rm 419 Juneau, AK 99801 800.550.2435 907.465.2435 FAX: 907.465.6615 Contact the Governor Governor Walker's Anchorage office may be reached at 269-7450, or e-mail him at gov.alaska.gov Visit the state website alaska.gov ________________ P.S. if you would like to get more regular updates about what I am doing you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook using the links below. SUBSCRIBE UNSUBSCRIBE Dear Friends and Neighbors, Today is day 38 of the 90-day legislative session, just a few days from the halfway point. As many of you know, the focus this year has been on the budget. Alaskas fiscal crisis is the first and last topic at any meeting we have these days. But Juneau can be a bit isolated and hearing from constituents is the best way of guiding my public policy. Thats why were holding a town hall meeting this weekend, after the annual Anchorage Caucus. What: Town Hall Meeting When: Saturday, February 27, 2016 3:30pm to 5:00pm Where: East High School Commons Room Senator Wielechowski speaking at a panel on Medicaid Reform with Representative Paul Seaton Anchorage Caucus Anchorage residents have an opportunity to testify in-person on bills and issues before the Alaska Legislature this Saturday, February 27th at the Loussac Library. What: Anchorage Caucus Annual meeting with all Anchorage legislators with city-wide testimony. When: Saturday, February 27, 2016 11:00am to 2:00pm Where: Assembly Chamber Loussac Library I hope to see all of you there! The policy issues were discussing in Juneau will have a huge impact on the lives of every Alaskan. Please consider joining us at one or both of these meetings and sharing your opinion! Warmly, Bill Wielechowski Alaska State Senator District H - Anchorage Confira o preco do seguro para o Chevrolet Onix Saiba quando voce gastaria com o seguro do carro mais vendido do Brasil The familiar emergency alert system, the one where we in the U.S. occasionally hear a radio or television broadcast interruption that... This blog is run by Google. Google uses cookies to analyze traffic to this website. If you submit a comment that is posted, it will be publicly visible to all. If you contact me via my blog through email or the comment on this page, I will use your email only to respond to your inquiry. If you click on any links from this blog to outside website, please review their privacy policies and content. By using this website you agree to and accept these terms of use. This privacy policy may change from time to time at my sole discretion. You should check this page often for any changes. Your use of this website after any change in this privacy policy will constitute your acceptance of such change. Cruzs big sins in Washington are catching up with him via small sins on the campaign trail.T Photo: Cassi Alexandra/For The Washington Post via Getty Images If you look at the charges of dirty politics that are beginning to seriously damage Ted Cruzs presidential campaign, theyre pretty small-bore stuff. His minions seized on an announcement by Ben Carsons campaign that he was taking a break after the Iowa caucuses to suggest that Carson, already fading fast, was dropping out. Its actually what the entire political world had been expecting Carson to do for some time; there was even a school of thought that he was no longer running but just hustling books. So that doesnt exactly make Cruz into Richard Nixon. Then theres the idea that Cruz has been lying about his and Marco Rubios actual records on immigration policy, based on fine-grained parsing of their speeches during consideration of amendments to a bill that never became law. The alleged nastiness was topped off by a weird and garbled video in which Rubio said something odd to a Cruz staffer about the Bible he was reading, which Cruzs spokesperson promoted on social media for the nine seconds or so before he was unceremoniously fired over it. When you are running a presidential campaign with the slogan TrusTed, and boasting of your religious faith, and accusing your opponents and the entire Republican Party of habitually breaking promises to conservatives, you dont want to buttress suspicions you are in fact Elmer Gantry. Cruzs opponents understand that. But the funny thing is, these misdemeanors are merely miniature examples of the behavior that made him a pariah in Washington almost instantly after his arrival in the Senate just three years ago. Cruzs behavior during the 2013 government shutdown trauma trip was not only unprecedented for a freshman; it exposed his Republican colleagues to the fury and ridicule of constituents and conservative activists precisely when they were trying to be statesmanlike for a change. Cruz upstaged not only the Senate GOP leadership but the House GOP leadership as well. Worse yet was the way he seemed to exult in his new and unearned power, holding meetings with House conservatives (a huge no-no in Washington, where bicameralism is even more unusual than bipartisanship) and all but setting himself up as a renegade national party leader. Had the Obamacare-rollout mess not followed so immediately, a lot of Republicans believed, Cruz might have personally and for purposes of self-aggrandizement stopped the whole 2014 GOP landslide. But if Cruz was disliked for being a preening bully, he was truly condemned for propagating a Big Lie: that congressional Republicans could do things like de-fund Obamacare or Planned Parenthood if only they wanted to. As my colleague Jonathan Chait explained last month: Cruz has sneakily exploited the bases ignorance to his own political benefit, at the cost of the partys ability to safeguard its own interests. In particular, Cruz takes advantage of Republican voters inability to understand why Republican control of Congress does not give the party the power to enact its agenda. Cruz demagogically blames fellow Republicans for results that are the Constitutions fault. The fact that Cruz is smart enough to know this only makes him more irritating. To put it another way, Cruz is seeking to exploit decades of conservative conspiracy theories about the perfidy and gutlessness of the Republican Party. That in turn means that many Republicans have a tangible stake in turning the tables and showing up Cruz as the real charlatan. Are other Republicans blowing a dog whistle when they shout about this or that Cruz campaign peccadillo, hoping voters suddenly see the nasty guy (as Trump famously labels him) theyve come to know? Or is it just a coincidence that the instrument of his destruction is so richly appropriate? If Cruz survives his newest troubles just today, National Review is reporting an incipient rebellion in the ranks of conservative Evangelical elites supporting him and goes on to win the nomination, this dark and saturnine man is not likely to be in a forgiving mood. The alleged gang-rape suspects, who are not expected to face charges, are escorted into Brooklyn Criminal Court for arraignment on January 12, 2016. Photo: Bryan Smith/ZUMA Press/Corbis Good morning and welcome to Fresh Intelligence, our roundup of the stories, ideas, and memes youll be talking about today. In this edition, the Brooklyn gang-rape case falls apart, Mitt gets ironic, Facebook expresses itself, and some guys pants explode. Heres the rundown for Thursday, February 25. WEATHER The severe overnight storms in the tristate area there have even been tornado warnings in New Jersey and Pennsylvania should calm down considerably today, leaving scattered showers and balmy-ish temperatures. The worst should also be over for the South, where tornadoes have proven deadly over the last few days. [Weather.com] FRONT PAGE D.A. to Drop Brooklyn Gang-Rape Case Brooklyn district attorney Kenneth Thompson said on Wednesday that he will drop the charges against five teen boys accused of raping an 18-year-old woman on a playground in Brownsville, Brooklyn, last month. The woman and her father changed their story several times and eventually admitted that they were having sex in the park. The boys have maintained their innocence, saying any sexual conduct was consensual. That night, this young womans father and the five young men engaged in conduct that was reprehensible and wrong, Thompson said, but because of the lack of reliable evidence, criminal charges simply cannot be sustained. [CBS, NYT] EARLY AND OFTEN Democrats Fight for (a) Justice The battle over the next Supreme Court nomination is heating up. In the face of totally in-character intransigence on the part of Republican representatives, the Democrats are using every tool in their kit, including telephone calls, meetings, and a spirited bout of presidential blogging. They even leaked a potential nominees name to troll Republicans: Brian Sandoval, Nevadas Republican governor. [NYT] Congressmen Read Wall-Writing The angry white men who run this country are beginning to take cues from the angry white men who just live here. Thats right, Donald Trump has secured his first congressional endorsements: Duncan Hunter of California and Chris Collins of New York. Takes One to Know One Mitt Romney lobbed a familiar attack at Donald Trump yesterday, saying the self-described very rich person is hiding a bombshell in the tax returns he so far refuses to release. Romney, who Trump described as yesterdays news, resorted to the worst insult he knows, saying Trump is not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is. [CNN] Chain Letter Promises Bad Luck for Rubio Because the government works just like a middle-school classroom, Trent Franks, a Republican congressman from Arizona, has circulated a letter asking people to back him in pressuring Marco Rubio to bow out of the presidential race. Lets hope Rubio doesnt see the letter that would really hurt his feelings. [Politico] THE STREET, THE VALLEY Scientists Do Something Confusing, Very Far Away Scientists from Australias CSIRO and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japans Subaru telescope in Hawaii see, already confusing have discovered the source of mysterious radio waves is a universe six billion light-years away. While doing that they also discovered dark matter? You know what, just read the article. [CNet] Apple Plays Long Game In what must be a very satisfying plan to render the governments whole case against them moot, Apple is reportedly focusing on developing security measures for future iPhones that will be much more difficult to hack, even for the company. Were not sure how the Feds feel, but criminals weve spoken to are thrilled. [CNet] Bad News for U.S. Economy, Still the Best Economy New single-family home sales plunged yesterday after riding a ten-month high, the same day information was released showing the services sector shrunk for the first time since 2013. Still, dont freak out. The Dallas Federal Reserve president Robert Kaplan announced yesterday that the U.S. should be able to avoid a recession this year. Hooray. [Reuters] Facebooks Getting Too Cerebral Problem Solved Just when old people were getting the hang of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg had to go and make it all about smiley faces and stuff. The new emoji buttons rolled out yesterday, a welcome addition for many who were tired of having to like posts about their friends lost dog. [Facebook] MEDIA BUBBLE Finally, a Place to Analyze News Analysis Leah Finnegan, the former Gawker editor, has been hired by Genius as the companys first managing news editor. The move reflects Geniuss desire to move into the serious news market, but for us they will always be the site to learn what frat boys think rap songs mean. [Politico NY] Woody Allen Dries Up Amazon Amazon Studios just gave Woody Allen $15 million for his next film, more than three times what Sony usually pays. What is this? France? Amazon knows nothing about the new picture other than that it will star Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, and Blake Lively as Allens girlfriend? Just a guess. [Hollywood Reporter] Obama Speech Writer Gets an Honest Job David Litt, former senior presidential speechwriter and special assistant to President Obama, is stepping down in order to join the humor website Funny or Die. If you can think of anything more representative of modern American politics please let us know. [NYT] PHOTO OP This disturbing picture, which is just now making the rounds on Twitter, allegedly shows Donald Trump supporters at the Nevada caucus. Snopes says the photo appears to be real, but the mens identities and motivations are unclear. MORNING MEME This viral video of a brawl at a Chuck E. Cheeses shows humanity at its worst. Pretty brutal right? Now watch the clip below! All better. OTHER LOCAL NEWS Peace Out, Hippies Steve Hoke has been forced to remove the many gnome homes he built in Little Buffalo State Park in Pennsylvania. The tiny houses were built in hollowed logs and stumps you know, like gnomes build. Hoke originally had permission to build the homes, but the rules changed when officials decided they might affect the local wildlifes habitat. [AP] Another Reason to Smoke Cigarettes Rumors have been flying around about exploding e-cigarettes for a while, but now theres a video and it is way scarier than we expected. This was captured on a security camera at a gas station in Owensboro, Kentucky. [CNN] HAPPENING TODAY Texas Debate Snags Trump Houston is the host for tonights Republican debate, the last before Super Tuesday. Wolf Blitzer will moderate and Donald Trump will attend. The debate will be hosted in the set of a local production of Anna Karenina. We are not joking. [Politco] Next Stop on Sanderss Discontent Tour 16: Flint Bernie Sanders will be in Flint, Michigan, this afternoon, where he will be on the lookout for people dissatisfied with the current government and hoping for change. Good luck finding anyone like that there. [Fox] Postponed Launch Event Back On We know we promised there would be a big rocket launch yesterday. Well, it got canceled. Dont worry all you crash-landing junkies out there, SpaceX says they are ready to give it a go today. [Reuters] There is no one else shes the whole plan. Thats how a Democratic donor described the state of the partys bench to the Times in March 2015, by way of explaining the consolidated support Hillary Clinton was then receiving as her private email server first became a liability. Less than a year later, Clinton is struggling to compete against a candidate so unlikely a contender that his name hadnt even occurred to anyone interviewed for that Times article. Clinton is 69; Bernie Sanders is 74. (And Joe Biden is 73.) Beyond them, the Democratic bench looks awfully thin. But in presidential politics, things can change swiftly. Five years before he won the White House at 47, Barack Obama was a barely known state senator. Here are ten young Democrats who, like Obama, have unusual ambition, an inspiring life story, a gift for public oratory, or some combination of the three. They arent prominent nor are they seasoned enough to have much of a shot on a 2016 ticket but they just might be poised to break out eight years from now. They are the future of the party that styles itself the party of the future. The Bisexual Congresswoman Who Grew Up Homeless Photo: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images Kyrsten Sinema Age in November 2024: 48 First elected to the House in 2012 from Arizona, Sinema is one of the very few members of Congress who are outspokenly nonreligious and, just as rare, she is known for actually working with Republicans. She has been unafraid to push her own party, especially when it comes to reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs. Ive made it my mission to keep the pressure on until every vet gets the care that he or she has earned, she says. Every single one. House Democratic leaders were impressed with her enough that they put her on the whip team in her first term. The Georgia Assemblywoman Writing Under a Pen Name Photo: Paul Morigi/WireImage/Getty Images Stacey Abrams Age in November 2024: 50 She graduated from Yale Law School, was elected to the Georgia State Assembly at 32, and became the House minority leader at 36. If the latest of the several businesses and nonprofits shes founded this one is a large-scale minority-voter-registration drive succeeds in its goal of turning her state blue, shell be one of the most visible Democrats around. I am the daughter of two people who really came from tough beginnings but refused to allow history to determine who they were going to be, Abrams says. In her free time, she has written eight romantic thrillers under the name Selena Montgomery. The Muslim Ex-Cop on the Intelligence Committee Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo Andre Carson Age in November 2024: 50 A convert to Islam as a teenager, Carson decided to become a cop after a run-in with the police at a mosque when he was 17. He worked for Indianas Department of Homeland Security in counterterrorism before moving into politics, and after he won the U.S. congressional race in Indiana in 2008, he became only the second Muslim to serve in Congress. Law enforcement is a noble profession under a great deal of scrutiny, he says. Having had my own experiences with law enforcement as a teenager, being harassed without cause, has given me a deeper level of sensitivity as a legislator. The Mayor Who Broke Two Records Photo: Steve Jennings/Getty Images Evan Low Age in November 2024: 41 When he was chosen by Campbell, California, at age 26, Low became both the youngest gay mayor and youngest Asian-American mayor in the country. I recall the time I received a letter from the Red Cross it was a challenge asking mayors in the region to host blood drives, he says. As a gay man, he wasnt allowed to participate, but he is responsible for the petition that eventually led the FDA to lift its ban. After two terms, he jumped to the California State Assembly. The Marine Corps Vet in Congress Photo: John Blanding/The Boston Globe/Getty Images Seth Moulton Age in November 2024: 46 Moulton has a made-for-politics resume: three Harvard degrees and four tours of duty in Iraq and 14 months and counting as a Massachusetts congressman. He has quickly become a moral authority in the House on issues of foreign policy and veterans affairs. He made no mention during his campaign that hed twice been decorated for valor even his parents didnt know. I think theres a healthy disrespect among those of us who served on the front lines for people who go around telling war stories, he says. The Mayor Who Got Called to Afghanistan Photo: Wikicommons Peter Buttigieg Age in November 2024: 42 A former Rhodes scholar and McKinsey consultant, Buttigieg was elected mayor of South Bend, Indiana, in 2011. He became the youngest mayor of an American city with over 100,000 people and then spent much of 2014 in Afghanistan, called up by the Navy Reserve. He received a Mayor of the Year award from the government and technology site GovFresh in 2013. To the extent that Ive been able to send the message that were coming back and have a city we ought to be proud of, that is going to be the most important thing I can do for the community, he says. The Sanders Supporter With Harry Reid in Her Corner Photo: Gabe Ginsberg/WireImage/Getty Images Lucy Flores Age in November 2024: 45 By the time I was 15, I was on juvenile parole By the time I was 17, I was a high-school dropout, Flores told supporters of her candidacy for lieutenant governor in 2014. She joined a gang and ended up in a juvenile-detention center then pulled herself together, eventually graduating from law school. In 2013, after testifying about an abortion she had as a teenager, Flores became the subject of death threats and a hero to abortion-rights activists. She served in the Nevada State Assembly, then lost an election for lieutenant governor. But the Harry Reid protegee is running for Congress and actively campaigning for Bernie Sanders. Michigans Eldest of 14 Siblings Rashida Tlaib Age in November 2024: 48 Photo: Al Goldis/AP Photo As the first Muslim woman elected (in 2008) to her states legislature, and as one of only two serving in an elected capacity anywhere in the country, Tlaib has been a voice for a badly underrepresented political constituency. The daughter of Palestinian immigrants, she helped raise her 13 younger siblings (Ever since I was 7, Ive been changing diapers) and was the first in her family to graduate from high school. Term-limited out of office, she lost a State Senate race in 2014. But the person who beat her was later accused of assaulting his wife and will likely resign as part of a plea bargain. Tlaib hasnt decided whether to run again. The Only Remaining Black Member of Louisianas Congressional Delegation Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images Cedric Richmond Age in November 2024: 51 When Richmond was first elected to Congress in 2010, he was so baby-faced people sometimes mistook him for a staffer. The last Democrat in Louisianas delegation, he is willing to stick his neck out for Republicans when it came to light that his colleague Steve Scalise had given a speech to a white-supremacist group, he advised him on how to make amends with the black community. In Louisiana, Richmond says, our needs are so great that we dont have the luxury to be that partisan. (He also says he tries to tell Republican colleagues they are a little over-the-top with their criticism of the president.) The Army Vet Representative Who Charms and Needles Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images Tulsi Gabbard Age in November 2024: 43 I felt it was important to bring the experience and the voices of my brothers and sisters both those who never made it home as well as those who did to Congress, says Gabbard, who served in the Iraq War and is the first Hindu member of Congress. Shes quickly become a national figure shes known for taking reporters surfing when shes back home in Hawaii, and, in a glowing Vogue profile, Nancy Pelosi called her an emerging star. Shes also picked public fights with party leaders, including calling out Dem chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for not scheduling enough debates. *This article appears in the February 22, 2016 issue of New York Magazine. Nevada caucus entrance polls showing Sanders and Trump winning the Hispanic vote were misleading. Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images When entrance polls from the February 20 Democratic caucuses and the February 23 Republican caucuses in Nevada came out, there was a lot of buzz about the Hispanic vote. The Democratic version showed Bernie Sanders defeating Hillary Clinton 54 percent to 43 percent among Hispanics, even though Hispanics were supposed to be part of her nonwhite-voter firewall against Bernies young, white liberal hordes. More startling still, the Republican version had immigrant-basher-supreme Donald Trump carrying Hispanic voters against two Hispanic rivals. An awful lot of cyberink was subsequently spilled to show that the Democratic entrance polls probably overstated Sanderss Hispanic support significantly, and that the Donalds supposed spike was an illusion based mainly on a tiny sample of an already-small number of Hispanic GOP caucusgoers. But the most important thing to understand is that Nevadas just one state with an unusual and relatively low-turnout caucus system. Where are Hispanic voters nationally? Fortunately, the Washington Post and Univision have conducted a new national survey of 1,200 Hispanic registered voters that should lay to rest both of those entrance-poll-inspired myths. It shows Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders two-to-one (the exact split is 5728) among Hispanics intending to vote in Democratic primaries, which happens to be about how she did with this demographic in 2008 against Barack Obama. Among Republican primary voters, Trump is tied with Ted Cruz for second place with 22 percent (Marco Rubio is first at 34 percent); among all Hispanics, his favorable/unfavorable ratio is a toxic 1680, and Hispanic support for a presidential ticket with Trumps name at the top drops to 16 percent against either Clinton or Sanders. There are warning signs for both parties in the Washington Post/Univision data. Hispanics appear to be souring on Obamas overall record on deportations, despite their support for earlier steps to protect certain classes of undocumented immigrants. (Only 17 percent say such policies would make them more likely to vote for a candidate this year.) Theres a reason Hillary Clinton cut that ad in which she consoles a child worried about her parents receiving a deportation notice. For Republicans, it cannot be encouraging that only 14 percent of Hispanics say they expect to vote for the GOP presidential nominee; so long as Trump remains in the race, thats not likely to go up much. But its also worth noting that the favorite GOP candidate among Hispanics, Marco Rubio (who actually has a net positive approval ratio of 4537), is still trailing Hillary Clinton about two-to-one in a general-election-trial heat. Theres also a detail that helps explain why Bernie Sanders did so well among Nevada Hispanics, even if he didnt actually carry them. He leads Clinton nationally among Hispanic millennials, 4935 nothing like the huge vote hes getting from white millennials, but pretty good. Nationally its estimated that millennials represent 44 percent of the Hispanic eligible-voter population (its more like a third for whites). Nevadas Hispanic voting population is said to be younger than average; if so, that would explain why Sanderss vote would be elevated. Thats a hypothesis we will see tested in contests to come. But no matter how young a states Hispanic population happens to be, Sanders wont be carrying that state overall so long as Clinton is winning over 70 percent of Hispanics over 50 and carrying Hispanic seniors 766! as she did in this poll. And the Donald probably wont get any more Trump wins Hispanics headlines the rest of the way, unless its in a state where Mexican-Americans are scarce and hes romping to victory with big majorities of the overall vote. Time for people in both parties to stop pretending time stopped in 1996 with positions taken on welfare-reform bill. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images Last week, Annie Lowrey made a powerful case for reevaluating the 1996 welfare-reform law in light of a chronically sluggish economy and the rapid rise of Americans living in deep poverty. She was not, however, optimistic that this would become the campaign issue it deserved to be. Coincidentally or not, Bernie Sanders suddenly raised the issue on the campaign trail in South Carolina, where (and this is definitely not a coincidence) hes trying to obtain traction with African-American voters strongly inclined to support Hillary Clinton. Flanked by two black legislators, he contrasted his vote against the 1996 law with her active support (a position that upset some of her oldest friends at the time): What welfare reform did, in my view, was to go after some of the weakest and most vulnerable people in this country, Mr. Sanders said. And, during that period. I spoke out against so-called welfare reform because I thought it was scapegoating people who were helpless, people who were very, very vulnerable. Secretary Clinton at that time had a very different position on welfare reform strongly supported it and worked hard to round up votes for its passage. What Sanders did not say was exactly what hed do on the subject of cash assistance for poor (and in many cases nonworking) families today. A hint in that direction, however, came in the form of the Clinton campaigns response to Sanderss attack: Maya Harris, a senior policy adviser in Mrs. Clintons campaign, responded to Mr. Sanderss criticism by saying under Mr. Clintons administration, the black child-poverty rate fell 25 percent, the unemployment rate was nearly cut in half, and the median income of African-American families increased by more than 30 percent. In a statement, Ms. Harris added, The original intent of welfare reform was to advance this progress, and it was done with a package of reforms. She cited the Earned Income Tax Credit, a federal tax credit for low- and moderate-income working people, job training and child care, so people would have the tools they needed to find work and take care of their families. Ms. Harris went on to explain the welfare reform laws shortcomings, like the five-year lifetime limit, which she said Mrs. Clinton has pledged she would work to address going forward. In other words, Clinton is defending the overall anti-poverty record of her husbands administration while acknowledging that the law replacing Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) with a block grant and an inflexible time limit needed fixing. So while neither of these responses add up to a renewed debate on welfare policy yet, simply raising the issue is a start. The issue is not, of course, of interest only to Democrats. The last time welfare policy rose to the level of a presidential-campaign issue was in 2012, when the Romney-Ryan campaign launched ads attacking Obama for a largely imaginary change in the details of what the states were allowed to do with block-grant funds. There wasnt much mystery about the racial motives involved in this claim that Obama was gutting welfare reform. And it was a reminder of why many Democrats hoped the 1996 law had taken the issue off the table. But even if Democrats fear raising welfare policy again, Republican efforts to extend the philosophy of the 1996 law to other areas of social policy may make the topic unavoidable. Turning Medicaid into a state-run block-grant program is the default drive position of the GOP. And one still-viable Republican presidential candidate, Marco Rubio, has received considerable conservative applause for proposing a block grant to replace federal anti-poverty programs. Showing the negative impact of dumping poor people on the states with inadequate funding and no obstacles to using the money elsewhere is one thing a renewed focus on welfare policy could help people understand. But the first step toward that kind of debate is to stop pretending its still 1996 and the only options on the table are a bad status quo and a bad alternative that Democrats never intended to become permanent. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images Donald Trumps rise to Republican presidential front-runner has surprised nearly everybody. Watching last year as Trump exploded onto the scene, some liberals quickly concluded that his mastery of right-wing populist currents could easily win him the nomination. Others (like me) believed the forces of the party Establishment would likely crush him, whatever his authentic appeal to the rank and file. What neither camp missed was that Trumps nativist, authoritarian, anti-intellectual style was something the Republican electorate craved. The failure to grasp that natural affinity lies at the root of the partys far-too-belated recognition of the threat Trump poses. Conservatives have treated him as an alien force. Trump is a pro-abortion liberal masquerading as a conservative, who preys on nationalistic, tribal tendencies and has an army of white supremacists online as his loudest cheerleaders, as Erick Erickson puts it, or a pro-gun control, pro-single-payer health care, pro-eminent domain, pro-abortion, and pro-statism liberal, in Rick Wilsons terms. Commentarys Noah Rothman complains that Trump counts as allies the bigoted and the bloodthirsty. One might conclude from these reactions that Trump chose the Republican party purely by accident, and that Republican voters have chosen him out of confusion. In reality, the tendencies on display in Trumps campaign have constituted a large and growing element of Republican politics. Figures like Strom Thurmond and George Wallace led white Southerners out of the Democratic Party and brought white populist politics into the GOP. Simultaneously, the partys genteel northern liberal tradition has withered. These trends accelerated during the Obama years. Social scientist Michael Tesler has found that white racial resentment, which has grown steadily as a driving factor in the partisan realignment, has taken on a dramatically greater role in shaping partisan views. White racism is a far greater determinate of Republican loyalty than ever before. A rigorous study originally conducted in 2013 found that the most slave-intensive southern counties in 1860 have the most conservative and Republican white populations today. Recent work by Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler finds that authoritarian psychology has also driven much of recent polarization. I discussed both of these findings, among others, in a story on Obama and race two years ago, and even though the study criticized much of the lefts treatment of race during the Obama years, conservatives dismissed these findings. Their sensitivity is understandable. Conservatism, and the modern Republican party, is the lineal heir of a historically continuous defense of white racial hierarchy that has been written out of the American civic tradition. While conservatism has perfectly non-racist basis in theory and a great many people subscribe to it without harboring racial motives of either the open or the covert kind it is simply a fact that white racial fears supply a large proportion of real-world Republican votes. Conservatives, with very few exceptions, refuse to grapple with this reality. They prefer to treat racism as lying completely outside of, or even antithetical to, the American conservative tradition. Intellectuals on the right also habitually dismiss the entire theory of the authoritarian personality as biased claptrap designed to pathologize them. Yet now they find these studies seem to have a familiar ring. The Washington Examiners Philip Klein, a staunch conservative, admirably denounces Trump for embracing the conspiracy theory that President Obama wasnt eligible to be president because he wasnt born in the U.S. which is at the core a racist theory trying to delegitimize the first black president. And it is true that Republican leaders have previously steered clear of endorsing Birtherism. But they have also steered clear of denouncing it. Pressed to denounce Birtherism, Republicans have evaded it. (Eric Cantor: I dont think its an issue that we need to address at all. I dont think its nice to call anyone crazy. John Boehner: Its not my job to tell the American people what to think. Our job in Washington is to listen to the American people.) They danced delicately around the question because Birthers constitute an important segment of the Republican coalition they could not afford to alienate. The same logic drove Mitt Romney to publicly solicit and accept Trumps endorsement four years ago, an event that prompted little complaint from conservative intellectuals. Mitt Romney; Donald Trump. Photo: Ethan Miller/2012 Getty Images Conservatives have sound practical reasons to consider the 2016 version of Trump a liability after having seen the 2012 version as an asset. Trumps record of partisan loyalty really is shaky, and they have good reason to fear that he might betray cherished elements of party doctrine. Economic conservatives are happy to harness authoritarian and anti-intellectual passions to a policy agenda whose endpoint is business deregulation and low taxes. Watching Trump divert those sentiments away from the traditional right-wing formula has admirably awakened right-wing elites to their ugly underside. Still, the fact that these qualities continue to reside within traditional Republican politics has created an odd split-brained response. Conservatives depict Trump as a cancer in the Republican body politic, ignoring its obvious spread elsewhere. Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens pleads, its enough to fault Barack Obama for being a lousy president without also accusing him of being a sworn enemy of the United States. Of course, Marco Rubio, the candidate Stephens touts in his column as the preferable alternative, has also depicted Obama as not merely misguided but the mastermind of a secret and deliberate plot to weaken the United States. (Lets dispel with the fiction etc.) Max Boot denounces Trump for advocating the reinstitution of torture without acknowledging that Rubio advocates the same (or that Boot is advising Rubio on foreign policy). A Washington Examiner editorial frets that Trump usually avoids specifics, but the few things he has discussed in any detail fall apart upon inspection, but the same can be said of the mainstream Republican field, which has embraced a fantastic combination of enormous tax cuts, defense spending increases, a balanced-budget amendment, no cuts in retirement benefits for anybody 55 or over, and Obamacare repeal without a detailed alternative. When figures like George W. Bush and Sarah Palin brushed aside detailed policy critiques as the picayune obsessions of Washington insiders, Republicans cheered their vapid anti-intellectualism as the righteous populist folk wisdom. It has been a bracing experience for conservative elites to behold when the forces they have successfully harnessed for so long shake free and turn against them. Conservatives are right that Trump does not represent their ideas perfectly, or even very well. What he represents instead is the actual constituency for those ideas. Chinas taking away our jobs! Mexicos taking away our jobs! Heck, even Im taking away our jobs! Photo: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images No one will bring our jobs back from China and Mexico like Trump, Donald Trump recently wrote, in a Facebook post. The GOP front-runners commitment to restoring employment opportunities that Americans have lost to developing countries is one of the cornerstones of his candidacy. But where Trump has had the power to replace American workers with foreign ones, he has done so with gusto. Since 2010, nearly 300 United States residents have applied for jobs at Trumps Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, but only 17 were hired. Meanwhile, Trump pursued more than 500 visas for foreign workers at the resort, the New York Times reports. Trumps fondness for guest workers was brought to national attention by Reuters last summer, when the news service reported that the Donald had sought visas for over 1,000 foreign laborers since 2000. The Times investigation shows that those visas werent pursued for a lack of domestic applicants. The only reason they wouldnt get a callback is that they werent qualified, for some reason, Trump insisted, in an interview with the paper. There are very few qualified people during the high season in the area. But Tom Veenstra, senior director of a job-placement service in the area, disagrees, telling the Times, We have hundreds of qualified applicants for jobs like those. In truth, there are plenty of reasons for employers to prefer guest workers over Americans, even if the former boast no superior qualifications. While foreign employees must receive an areas prevailing wage, as determined by the Labor Department, they have no power to leave their jobs without forfeiting their right to reside in the country. This leaves guest workers with no leverage to request raises and discourages many from reporting mistreatment or abuses on the job. Trumps claim that he has only turned away American workers due to insufficient qualifications is undermined by his own rhetoric at a Republican debate in November. Wages are too high, Trump said, when asked if he would support raising the minimum wage. Were not going to be able to compete against the world. Trumps preference for guest workers is likely driven by the need to compete in the hospitality industrys free-market. According to the Times, many other clubs in the Palm Beach area also rely on foreign employees. If one resort is able to lower its prices through cheaper labor, all others must follow suit or operate at a disadvantage. This may be why the Mar-a-Lago has made no significant effort to up its hiring of American workers, even after Reuterss report made its present staffing a political liability for Trump. If the Donald wants to protect American workers employment prospects, hed be better off putting forth plans to reform the countrys guest-worker programs than pretending he can restore a bygone era of American manufacturing. Before President Trump brings our jobs back from China and Mexico, he should probably see if he can bring them back from Palm Beach. Click called for some muscle to oust student journalists. Melissa Click, the communications professor at the University of Missouri who was catapulted into the national spotlight after she shoved a student journalist during protests in November, has been fired. According to the Columbia Missourian, the University of Missouri Board of Curators voted 42 to terminate her employment during a meeting Wednesday night. The board believes that Dr. Clicks conduct was not compatible with university policies and did not meet expectations for a university faculty member, it said in a statement released Thursday. The boards decision comes about a month after Click was suspended pending an investigation, and after prosecutor Steve Richey filed (and eventually dropped) a misdemeanor assault charge against her. It also probably had something to do with Missouri lawmakers proposal to cut $8 million in funds from the UM system, including Clicks $57,798-a-year salary. Click who, awkwardly enough, counts social media among her fields of study unwittingly became the face of a larger debate about First Amendment rights and political correctness when Twitter got hold of a video in which she called for some muscle to remove MU senior Mark Schierbecker from the quad on November 9. She later apologized, calling her actions spontaneous, instinctive, and regrettable and saying she was overwhelmed and flustered. Unfortunately for Click, her apology coincided with the release of a second video: police body-cam footage showing her confronting officers at the MU homecoming parade in October. Her conduct and behavior are appalling, and I am not only disappointed, I am angry, that a member of our faculty acted this way, said interim chancellor Hank Foley in a statement the day after the second video surfaced. Her actions are just another example of a pattern of misconduct. So Click had become a liability, but ultimately the decision to fire her seems to have been framed as a financial one. Two weeks after Missouri lawmakers voted to exclude the University of Missouri from a statewide $55.6 million budget increase, they also announced a proposal to cut $8 million from the MU systems budget about $400,000 of which would be taken directly from the the university. Although lawmakers claimed the proposal wasnt just about Click, that $400,000 is about equal to her salary plus the salary of a chair in the Department of Communication (where Click works) plus that of the dean of the College of Arts and Science. (The fate of Clicks colleagues is unclear.) Recent events have proved to Missourians that existing performance measures are not the only indicators of a universitys performance, said Tom Flanigan, who chairs the budget committee. He also said the cuts are intended to send a strong message to the administration without harming our students, who deserve better. In its statement, the board makes sure to mention it went to significant lengths to ensure fairness and due process for Dr. Click, including interviewing her twice, hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses, and giving her the chance to respond to the allegations against her. She also has the right to appeal the curators decision. This election is, unquestionably, the meme election. And now that Jeb Bush and his made-for-Vine face have dropped out, one meme is ascendant: Ted Cruz Is the Zodiac Killer. To be clear, Ted Cruz is not the Zodiac Killer, who terrorized the Bay Area for years in the 1970s. But Ted Cruz Is the Zodiac Killer is a meme that feels almost preordained for this cartoon of an election cycle. Of course Ted Cruz Is the Zodiac Killer; why wouldnt he be? Launched on Twitter, the meme has transferred itself to a Facebook page called Ted Cruz Is the Zodiac Killer. The best people are the ones who angrily explain why Ted Cruz couldn't be the Zodiac Killer. If that's true, hotshot, why doesn't he deny it Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) February 20, 2016 seeing some really irresponsible tweets claiming that Sen. Ted Cruz is the Zodiac killer. All we know is that he has not denied it brendan james (@deep_beige) February 19, 2016 S P R E A D T H E T R U T H Posted by Ted Cruz Is The Zodiac Killer on Monday, February 1, 2016 Ted Cruz Is the Zodiac Killer has also been a T-shirt slogan as Tim Faust, the activist whos raised $30,000 for a Texas abortion clinic selling the shirts, told Broadly, I first saw Ted Cruz speak in the flesh back in 2013, when I was covering the GOP convention in Texas. He is extremely lifelike and its now also a major poll question. ok weird twitter you can have the very last question on the poll https://t.co/U9Q6me7Ole PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) February 24, 2016 We are finding many Floridians can not rule out the possibility, although few are convinced of guilt https://t.co/OPsWIl97Sy PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) February 25, 2016 Though mathematically impossible, it makes complete sense. SF Weekly came up with a few more recent unsolved murders they may be able to pin to Cruz/Zodiac, however, and as main perpetrators of the meme have pointed out, Cruz has yet to address the allegations. Salman Rashid Travel writer, Fellow of Royal Geographical Society When Alexanders General Krateros started off with the ten thousand-strong contingent of aging veterans back for Macedonia, he had parted from his commander at Patala (Hyderabad). Three hundred and fifty kilometres northwest of Patala and some two weeks after the contingent of aging veterans bid farewell to Alexander, to head for Macedonia in the year 325 BCE, blase veterans from years of hard travelling and even harder fighting, would have looked up in awe. There, spread out in front, was a large irregular splash of green, offsetting the bleak ochre of the mountains in the background. As they neared, birdsong bursting out of the thickets would have been more than welcoming. Nearer still, the tinkle of rushing waters would have soothed the tired marchers. But Krateros would not have tarried long here for he had the Moola Pass to negotiate to the Baloch uplands before he could reach Alexandria in Arachosia (Kandahar). Neither Krateros nor any of his veterans left behind a record of what they saw and how they felt upon reaching this lovely oasis. Nor, too, did they tell us what it was called. But one thing that cannot be denied is that this army would have passed through Chhattal Shah, for there was no other way of ascending the Moola if you came from the low country of Sindh. I followed up on Krateros over two thousand years later. Though my primary desire was to see what Krateros had seen all those years ago, we were also going to investigate the fish that no one could eat. Wali Mohammad, my friend from Shahdadkot, had told the tale: The fish were sacred of the saint Chhatal Shah Noorani and if you ate them, they came squirming out from the back end the next morning. Since everyone was afraid of this embarrassing development, they were not molested and the fish were completely tame and actually came into ones hands, he said. A vegetarian of sorts, I have never been able to resist fish and I thought this was a fish-eaters paradise. The little stream was teeming with fish. And no ordinary rubbish, but mahasher fish. I do not know which family this fish belongs to, but whether from the Haro in the Potohar or from the Hub River or here at Chhattal Shah, there are few better fish to eat. The stream led up to a large circular natural reservoir that was fed by a number of underground springs. The water was sparkling clear and abounding with more mahasher. Only their size was much larger than the ones we had seen in the stream. My mouth watered and as I went to the waters edge to get lunch, the fish slithered away. I ragged my friend about the lousy story. I carried on as we sat down in the dappled shade of banyan and pipal trees to await the cup of tea the keeper of the shrine offered us. I was still ranting when tea arrived. The elderly keeper listened to me raving on and on. How could fish emerge from the eaters sphincter I asked him. What this wise old man said knocked me over. Saeen, if there had been no story, these wild hill people would have eaten off these fish. This would have been a dead stream. Then he told me to go back to the water and see how the fish glistened as they swam about in the dappled light. Related: I went back to the rill and sat by its side. The cavorting fish did indeed flash different colours: Iridescent green, orange and blue. As I sat there contemplating this beauty, it suddenly dawned upon me that the fish story was no foolish quasi-religious rubbish. This was one of the earliest; perhaps even the earliest, conservation programmes that have been in force for centuries.Related: Alexander leaving Balochistan Labels: Alexander, Balochistan posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00, 2 Comments: << Home OP's boyfriend? The plot thickens... Reply Parent Thread Link lmao Reply Parent Thread Link Now it all makes sense Reply Parent Thread Link omg chantal, i adore you! Reply Parent Thread Link I'll literally never understand this attitude of only blaming the other person; I've watched men only get pissed at the other guy and women only get pissed at the other woman. In the event that the other person was aware your SO wasn't single (because obviously if the cheat-ee didn't know, they couldn't make an informed decision), they're both fucking trash. Reply Parent Thread Link That blows. Her and Brit need to do another track together about cheating mens. Reply Thread Link Lmao oh Madge...Her dancer boyfriend is hot who knew a straight guy could work it out in heels Edited at 2016-02-25 07:47 pm (UTC) Reply Thread Link this was fucking fierce, wow. Reply Parent Thread Link It's funny that so many things that are considered exclusive to one gender could change in the future as they have in the past. or lipstick!It's funny that so many things that are considered exclusive to one gender could change in the future as they have in the past. Reply Parent Thread Link this choreo is underrated Reply Parent Thread Link this is fireeeee omg Reply Parent Thread Link Dang, this makes me want to see how this looks in concert. Reply Parent Thread Link No. Petty and proud Reply Thread Link nope Reply Parent Thread Link i've never had an ex fuck someone i knew, but my last bf of 4yrs fucked some 20yr old escort that was having unprotected sex off craigslist (or so her bf told me.) not sure what to believe, but i got vaginosis, so it may be possible... thank god it wasn't something more serious. Reply Parent Thread Link me too sis. petty until i die. Reply Parent Thread Link Still waiting to laugh about it. Reply Parent Thread Link Exactly, petty fucking spaghetti. Reply Parent Thread Link Naw Reply Parent Thread Link yeah, because dating a guy who was a furry and a brony makes a good party story. Reply Parent Thread Link Eh, my ex was engaged to the woman he was cheating with long before we broke up. I still wonder what he told her about why she couldn't go to our house, lol. She friend requested me on Fb recently, we broke up in 2006 so she must've been creeping. Finding out that he wasn't just a cheater but also having another relationship (Wed been together five years by the time he started cheating) was the catalyst that finally got me out of an insanely miserable life, so I've got no hate towards it anymore. Plus it really cemented for me to never blame the other woman. She seems like a really nice person tbh. I hope she's happy, they're married now and have kids! Reply Parent Thread Link Also, if he hadn't done me so dirty, I never would have moved back to Canada, never have an extra year of being close (in distance) to my sis before she died, and I wouldn't have completely overhauled my relationship with my mom before she got seriously ill. I took care of her for like 7 years and if I hadn't come back when I did, she probably would have been in a nursing home in 2007. Instead she lived happily in assisted living until she died last summer. IDK I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THIS. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Yes. But only after I got my revenge. So like sinister laughter with a montage of my evilness in the background tbh. Reply Parent Thread Link kind of, my ex was trying to get other girls when he was trying to get back with me and when i found out it was probably one of the worst moments of my life but now i laugh bc he was dumb as fuck, he couldn't even do it in a way i wouldn't find out Reply Parent Thread Link yeah, years after it happened tho Reply Parent Thread Link Good thing she's trying to force her son to be on tour to hear this! Reply Thread Link Lol Reply Parent Thread Link omg Reply Parent Thread Link Seriously. What a fucking class act. Reply Parent Thread Link lmao Reply Parent Thread Link Are you fucking both of them? Reply Parent Thread Link Deets pls. Reply Parent Thread Link Fucking elves! Reply Parent Thread Link rofl Reply Parent Thread Link i need more details bb. Reply Parent Thread Link LMAO Reply Parent Thread Link lmao oh man pls spill the details. I'll keep your secret safe Reply Parent Thread Link damn, legolas Reply Parent Thread Link i'm just imagining legolas saying this so i'm here for it tbh Reply Parent Thread Link well damn sis. Reply Parent Thread Link you're killing me hahaha Reply Parent Thread Link RUIN THEM Reply Parent Thread Link vlog it Reply Parent Thread Link lmao shameless! Reply Parent Thread Link lol Reply Parent Thread Link Damn Legolas, I didn't know you had it in you Reply Parent Thread Link damn gurl Reply Parent Thread Link Damn, Legolas. We need the deets! Edited at 2016-02-25 09:34 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link Lmao please. They both will side against the other woman and you'll just be a joke to them. People always blame the woman and absolve the man of all responsibility. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Wow @ the responses to this Reply Parent Thread Link LMAO Reply Parent Thread Link you messy bitch. Reply Parent Thread Link I did it and it worked out for me. Good luck boo! Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah it's your TRAINER's fault not your boyfriend's. Ffs, he is the one who owned you sexual honesty, she was your employee asshole. God this elderly child is this worst. Reply Thread Link that iconic look at MET Gala Reply Thread Link Tragic Reply Parent Thread Link Boomers at their most embarrassing. Reply Parent Thread Link NGL I loved this. Reply Parent Thread Link Wasn't this the punk themed MET ball? I remember the outfit and that she was one of the few to actually dress to the theme. Reply Parent Thread Link yep but people will still call her "tragic" and "try hard" Reply Parent Thread Expand Link awful Reply Parent Thread Link This was the punk year where everybody else pretty much ignored the theme, right? Reply Parent Thread Link LOVED this look Reply Parent Thread Link Mte, that's a little odd Reply Parent Thread Link it stinks of "I have [insert race] friends" Reply Parent Thread Link This title made me think the boyfriend and trainer just ran up on stage and started fucking right in front of a mid-concert Madonna... Which would have added to the drama of the show, I imagine. Reply Thread Link the trainer and her ex would make a cute couple, as for Madonna, she needs to find herself an older billionaire like Mariah. Reply Thread Link do any other filipino/fil-am/asian ppl here notice how some non-filpino ppl are v. weird about filipinos? i've noticed these micro-annoyances in some media that they always explicitly say someone is filipino when it's not really pertinent to the plot/subject as a whole. like in one of the bridget jones book sequels, she mentions she walks in on a bf in bed with a filipino maid's son. or in 30 rock some guy mentions he married a "swell filipino gal". as if 'filipino' has this added context of oh of course they are migrant workers. of course some rich ceo married an asian girl~ idk i just have a lot of feelings about this, and madge's weird anecdote about a filipino person in her life shared specifically to filipino people is making me feel weird. Reply Thread Link this happens to people of every race other than white because our society is gross and racist. Reply Parent Thread Link truu Reply Parent Thread Link people are especially gross to filipino women with the whole "mail order bride" or the "maid" stereotype. i've never seen a positive portrayal of filipinos in american media Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I've noticed this about any non-white or non-hetero group and I'm white. It seems Asian women especially always get their nationality mentioned. However, in this instance, I think Madge wanted to make sure people could ID the trainer without her naming names. Yes, she chose a bad way to do it but she probably couldn't come up with any other way to separate this lady from Tracy Anderson or whoever. Why would she do this now and in this way? So weird... Reply Parent Thread Link i know exactly what you mean. yes i have noticed it. like it needs to be mentioned that the specific asian is filipino and not something else, i.e. japanese or korean. i had a boyfriend who was very alternative and kind of a famous underground artist and i don't know how many of his fans that i met who were like 'oh of course he's dating a trendy filipina girl!' as if all artsy white men date filipina girls. it's like we have the stereotype of being crazy trendy whores or something i have nO CLUE I CAN'T PUT IT IN WORDS, BASICALLY I FEEL U Reply Parent Thread Expand Link One of my friends said other Asians look down on Filipinos (he's Filipino) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I feel like other east asians shit on filipinos almost as much as white ppl (just in a different way) Reply Parent Thread Link i spent a big chunk of my childhood in hong kong where the vast majority of the pretty significant filipino population work as domestic helpers and the prejudice against SE asians in general is horrible. i was surprised to find that some of the racist filipino stereotypes in HK came across in western media too. :/ Reply Parent Thread Link this beautiful, beautiful girl Reply Thread Link I asked the same thing to myself Reply Parent Thread Link Oil production from the North Sea could plummet over the next decade, an outcome that will largely result from the inability of oil companies to invest in upstream exploration today. Oil & Gas UK, an industry trade group, said in a new report that the North Sea is entering a period of super maturity. The North Sea has been a source of sizable oil production for decades, but it is long past its prime. The UKs offshore sector is already a shadow of its former self. Consider this: three decades ago the UK produced twice as much oil from its offshore sector than it does today, and that oil came from one quarter of the number of fields. That was possible because the fields of yesteryear were large on average five times the size of new discoveries today. The industry is now merely picking over the remaining scraps of the North Sea, most of which comes at great expense. Related: This Is What Will Cause A Lasting Oil Price Rally Maturing and high-cost oil fields had significant challenges before the oil price downturn. But at current prices, half of the UKs North Sea oil fields are not recovering even their operating costs. The number of fields expected to be shut down between 2015 and 2020 increased by 20 percent since last year. The worrying thing from the industrys perspective is that as fields cease production, the cost of maintaining infrastructure often shared among producers stays the same, raising the costs for the remaining players. That could lead to a domino effect that spread to other companies. In 2015, 21 oil fields shut down because of low oil prices. If companies are not able to even cover their operating costs, investing in new fields makes no sense at all. Oil & Gas UK estimate in their report that the sector will see less than 1 billion in investment in 2016. The average annual investment in upstream exploration over the past five years was eight times that level. The sharp fall in spending on new exploration could lead to production from Britains offshore sector to fall by half over the next decade, down to just 800,000 barrels per day. Related: Saudi Oil Minister Says Oil Production Cut Not Going To Happen The predicament has become a growing worry for the British government. Last year, the government slashed taxes when it became clear that the industry was suffering. In January of this year, the UK and Scottish governments promised a 250 million aid package for northeastern Scotland, with a focus on the oil and gas industry. Prime Minister David Cameron also chipped in 20 million for seismic surveying. The government assistance was criticized by Scottish politicians for its paucity, likening it to peeing on the towering inferno. The industry wants more help. Oil & Gas UK wants a permanent tax cut for both old and new oil fields. The report does say that all is not lost for the industry. Production actually slightly increased in 2015 as several oil fields came online, projects that were greenlighted when oil prices were in triple-digit territory several years ago. That was the first annual increase in production since 2000, halting a decade and a half of decline. Also, average unit operating costs have declined significantly along with the price of oil, down from $30 per barrel of oil equivalent (boe) in 2014 to $17/boe in 2016. More cost reductions are possible, although not much more. Related: Electric Car War Sends Lithium Prices Sky High But Oil & Gas UK did not mince words in its new report. It said that oil and gas development in the UKs North Sea was an industry at the edge of a chasm. Drilling activity in 2015 was at its lowest level in 45 years. Only 13 exploration wells were drilled over the course of the year, which is basically an industry at a standstill. It wasnt just low oil prices. The inability to access funds at a time of global capital constraint was cited as the main reason preventing companies from drilling new prospects. Only about seven to ten new exploration wells are expected to be drilled in 2016, along with six to nine appraisal wells. The North Sea is clearly fading as an important region for oil and gas production. By 2020, the cost of decommissioning old oil fields will likely match the level of capital expenditures. The industry argues that an overhaul in taxes could make the region competitive. But only a sharp rise in oil prices will really create the conditions for much higher levels of investment in the aging North Sea. By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Islamic State (ISIS) is taking on recruits faster than anyone can keep up with, and its heading towards Libyas oil crescent, eyeing billions of barrels that a country at war with itself cannot protecteven with U.S. air strikes. In mid-December, the United Nations brokered a power-sharing agreement between Libyas rival factions, but there is no chance of implementing this. That means there is no chance that the Libyan government can fight back the advance of ISIS. Things are about to get messy, and U.S. air strikes will put only a small dent in a big problem. According to U.S. intelligence figures, there are an estimated 6,000 ISIS fighters now in Libya, headquartered in the town of Sirte, as Oilprice.com has reported in the past. From here, they control hundreds of miles of coastline. There is nothing in Sirte they want; this is simply a strategic base. Related: Gulf States Not Willing To Cut Production Despite Asset Depletion ISIS fighters have also been tracked down to Benghazi, but here they have not solidified control yet. Still, Benghazi is an important recruitment venue. More specifically, this is where it can combine forces with it radical brethren in the form of Ansar al-Sharia and other radical factions. Benghazi is where ISIS gets bigger. And its pace of recruitment is faster than anything weve ever seen before. It absorbs new radical factions wherever it goes. The more successful its attacks and territory grabs, the more successful its recruiting becomes. In Libya, the former prowess of Ansar al-Sharia has quickly waned. ISIS is more brutal, and more decisive. Its either join or be killed. ISIS ability to launch attacks is not limited to Sirte, which is just the staging ground, or even to Benghazi. It can attack pretty much anywhere using hit-and-runs and suicide bombings. So what is it after? There is a multipronged strategy here. The first is to get closer to Europe. The second is to get closer to Africa. The third is to get closer to more oil revenues to fill quickly depleting coffers in Syria and northern Iraq. The ISIS Oil Picture in Libya There is no oil in Sirte, but ISIS was able to take control of this area because no one was really paying attention. The tribes here are loyal to Gaddafi, but they took a backseat to Ansar al-Sharia, which in turn took a backseat to ISIS when it arrived. ISIS has largely been allowed to run amuck in and around Sirte because the raging civil war that pits two rival Libyan governments against each other has left the country incapable of fighting off the ISIS advance. But now ISIS is targeting Libyan oil installationsand this is what invites U.S. air strikes. Related: Wall Street Wont Give Up On Its Energy Bets Last month, ISIS attacked Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, which lie east of Sirte and beyond its area of control. Es Sider is an oil port, and Libyas largest export terminal, with a capacity to export nearly 450,000 barrels per day. Ras Lanuf is a refining area. Ras Lanuf has storage tanks, and the tank attacked by ISIS was holding about 400,000 barrels of oil. The attack on Ras Lanuf was captured on video. Both Es Sider and Ras Lanuf have been closed since December 2014victims of the civil war that is largely a battle for control over the countrys oil wealth. They are perilously located right between ISIS-controlled Sirte and Benghazi in the east. But ISIS has farther-reaching oil plans in Libya. Its going after the producing fields in the southern desert. (Click to enlarge) In a video, ISIS made it clear that it had no plans to stop at Es Sider and Ras Lanuf: "Today Es Sider port and Ras Lanuf and tomorrow the port of Brega and after the ports of Tobruk, Es Serir, Jallo, and al-Kufra." When it gets a foothold in the southern deserts oil crescent, this will be the point of no return. Related: This Is What Will Cause A Lasting Oil Price Rally ISIS has already secured the route to the oil crescent, which encompasses all the producing fields in the southern desert. Its done this by taking control of the desert town of Nufaliya, which is about 50 kilometers from Es Sider. At stake here is Libyas 48 billion barrels of estimated reservesthe largest in Africa. The civil war alone has shut down over three-quarters of Libyas production, which might be good for the current oil supply glut, but its very bad for Libya and regional stability. US air strikes wont likely be enough. ISIS has already cleared a path to the oil crescent, and without a functioning, unified government in Libya, there is no chance of heading them off effectively. Air strikes are but a bandage on a gaping wound. By Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: 899 - Photos bought, 528 - Researched and Blogged, 203 - Photos Sent Home (39% success rate) As you can see, I have researched only ab... 1. Roasted seaweed 2. Market O Real Brownie 3. 777 Nail clippers 4. Sulhwasoo 5. Sanitary pads 6. Electric rice cooker 7. Ramyun 8. Face masks 9. Soju + makgeolli 10. Oreo cereal [ Netizens crave for Oreo O cereal too .... ] -Where exactly can I buy Oreo O's? Homeplus doesn't sell them -Akyang makgeolli is really good. And when you go to road shops, the salespeople don't even care about Korean customers anymore when there are Chinese tourists inside -Has Korea discontinued Oreo O's too? -Market O Brownies are tasty -Roasted seaweed is the best side dish ever -Hm, I don't know about sanitary pads though. My foreigner friends say Korean pads are not good -Korea doesn't sell Oreo O's lately anymore because of the e. coli contamination scare Please bring it back -I really wanna try Oreo O's but I can find them anywhere Netizens on Pann gather to discuss a random selection of items that tourists stock up on everytime they visit Korea .... from cereal to sanity pads, things you can apparently only get in koreaIt used to be a popular item among Japanese tourists but nowadays,it's sold widely in Asian and Western supermarkets.Became popular in Japan after it was featured in a magazine. Japanese tourists like itscute packaging and inexpensive priceConsidered the best nail clippers in Korea. Another Korean product that foreigners buyIt's popularity spurred a flood of knockoffs. As it's expensive, it's apopular skincare brand among well-off Chinese peopleGirls who've been abroad have used foreign brands of sanitary pads but they say they're not as good as Korean ones. Tourists stock up on these tooKorean rice cookers are sought-after items among people from Asian countries where rice is a staple food. Due to it's popularity in China, some brands added Chinese language functionality to themRamyun's another popular item because of the influence of dramas.Neoguri is one of the favourites in the westForeigners stock on these because they're relatively cheap. If you go on road shops in Seoul,most of their face masks are sold as setsSoju has been popular for a while but makgeolli's also a huge hit.It's especially popular among female tourists.Oreo O's used to be America's nation's cereal back in the '90sbut it was discontinued. South Korea is the only country thatcurrently produces and sells it.Omona What's on your shopping list when you visit korea? Instiz via Kkuljaem Blog "'Trump may be the only one who can take down Trump:' I think his biggest weakness is himself'. (Will he survive the GOP convention?) Another super PAC, devoted solely to taking down Trump, released its game plan on Monday.- Christian Science Monitor Americans believe our election votes count, but the truth is, the "count" is paid for by extremely wealthy campaign contributors. Those accustomed to financially controlling the vote "count" are truly miffed by their inability to influence the wealthy and independently funded Donald Trump. FoxNews and the still reeling journalist Meghan Kelly, predicted the Trump implosion due to his erratic behavior, racist and anti-feminine statements. Personally, I was horrified when Trump called for demonstrators in Burlington, Vermont rally to be thrown out into the cold and to take their coats. Unfortunately, nothing has taken down Donald Trump and his bombastic political campaign. Let's face it, one of the advantages for working to support any political candidate is the potential for influence and employment after (and IF) a successful election. In the case of "Donald Trump the Chump", there are no favorite top aides, spokespersons or administrative assistants. In other words, there's nothing to be gained by supporting Donald Trump, because he doesn't need anybody. His family seems well suited to be his close aides. Therefore, the Republicans and the oligarchy of the Koch Brothers are determined to bring down Trump. In other words, Donald Trump's GOP are more challenging to his candidacy than any potential Democratic opponent. Unfortunately, Governor Mitt Romney probably waited a long time to give his political opinion. Probably, like others, he can't believe the longevity of the Trump campaign, especially since the series of primaries victories. In The Christian Science Monitor, the headlines are: Are Republicans Finally Coming Up With a Plan to Defeat Trump? USA POLITICS Leading political pundits, including the right wingand the still reeling journalist Meghan Kelly, predicted the Trump implosion due to his erratic behavior, racist and anti-feminine statements. Personally, I was horrified when Trump called for demonstrators in Burlington, Vermont rally to be thrown out into the cold and to take their coats. Unfortunately, nothing has taken down Donald Trump and his bombastic political campaign.Let's face it, one of the advantages for working to support any political candidate is the potential for influence and employment after (and IF) a successful election. In the case of "Donald Trump the Chump", there are no favorite top aides, spokespersons or administrative assistants. In other words, there's nothing to be gained by supporting Donald Trump, because he doesn't need anybody. His family seems well suited to be his close aides. Therefore, the Republicans and the oligarchy of the Koch Brothers are determined to bring down Trump. In other words, Donald Trump's GOP are more challenging to his candidacy than any potential Democratic opponent.Unfortunately, Governor Mitt Romney probably waited a long time to give his political opinion. Probably, like others, he can't believe the longevity of the Trump campaign, especially since the series of primaries victories.In The Christian Science Monitor, the headlines are:Are Republicans Finally Coming Up With a Plan to Defeat Trump? Are Republicans finally coming up with a plan to beat Donald Trump?Republicans seeking to dethrone Donald Trump have spent little time (or money) actually taking him on. After Donald Trump's big win in the Nevada caucuses, that might be about to change. US Election 2016: Donald Trump wins big in Nevada Press Association WASHINGTON Donald Trumps dominant performance in the Nevada caucuses takes the Republican Party one click closer to an outcome once thought unfathomable: that the flamboyant billionaire with no previous political experience and questionable conservative credentials really could become the GOPs standard-bearer in November. Mr. Trump won in Nevada with 46 percent of the vote , well ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (24 percent) and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (21 percent). (OMG- Rubio 24 % and Cruz 21 %???? Is this a joke?) Though only 5 % of convention delegates have been allocated, that math will change quickly come March 1, Super Tuesday, with more than 10 states voting and one-quarter of GOP delegates at stake. Voters like to back a winner, and the more Trump wins now three contests in a row the more likely he is to win in the future. If one of the two senators wants to be the (GOP) nominee, they have to put their squabbling aside and start focusing on taking down Trump, says Republican strategist Ford OConnell. I expect to see a glimpse of that in Houston at the debate on Thursday. The question, then, is how they might do that. Some Republicans suggest that to beat Trump, you have to think like Trump: Attack him on his weaknesses. And Trump has plenty, they say. Start with his thin skin, on display in the last Republican debate, when Jeb Bush went after him over eminent domain and for blaming his brother on the 9/11 attacks. The audience booed Trump, and he lashed out. Trump is kind of prickly and can be baited, says Chip Felkel, a Greenville, S.C.-based Republican strategist who is not affiliated with a 2016 campaign. The argument is that Trump is temperamentally unsuited to being president . New Jersey Gov. Christie tried that argument in the final debate before the New Hampshire primary. Perhaps the result speaks for itself: Trump won New Hampshire going away, and Governor Christie dropped out. Other candidates have gone after Trump and flamed out. Texas Gov. Rick Perry attacked Trump early, going after this conservative credentials and calling him a false prophet. He was out of the race by last September. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul called Trump a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag, in an appearance in January on Comedy Centrals Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore." A speck of dirt is way more qualified to be president, Senator Paul added for good measure. Within days, he was out of the race, too. Name-calling obviously accomplishes nothing, at least when its a Trump opponent on the attack. And it just validates Trumps own colorful use of language when going after his adversaries. With Trump, aggressive language shows hes a fighter a quality that voters are looking for at a time of economic and international insecurity. Perhaps the best way to take down Trump, some suggest, is to attack his perceived strengths his success as a businessman and the notion that hes a populist standing up for the little guy. His supporters dont seem to care much about his four bankruptcies, or the fact that he inflates his net worth (he says $8.7 billion, Forbes says $4 billion), or that he has yet to release his tax returns. But Trump could be vulnerable, observers say, over the thousands of employees who have lost their jobs over the years. Finding those people and telling their stories is roughly what the Democrats did to Mitt Romney, rendering him radioactive with many of the same working class voters currently backing Trump, writes Except with Trump the trick is subtly different, Mr. Douthat continues. Mitt was a numbers guy, so he was caricatured as a cruel Scrooge. But Trump is a salesman: Thats been a big part of his campaigns success. And how do you flip a salesmans brand? You persuade people that hes a con artist, and theyre his marks. The story of the Atlantic City widow has already come up, briefly, in the campaign, both in one of the GOP debates and in an ad by Senator Cruzs campaign, which he ran only briefly. In addition, the ad misstated the facts of the widows case Trump did not succeed in buying her house and that muddied the message. But the fact remains that Trumps business history is fertile territory for arguments against him. Important, too, is who does the attacking. And as the Republican nomination race winnows down to just a few candidates, its noteworthy that Senator Rubio seen as the GOP establishment favorite to go one-on-one against Trump has barely taken him on. Heres my thing with Marco I believe hes competitive enough to do it, but I dont know if he has the killer instinct, says Mr. OConnell. Thursdays debate, the last before Super Tuesday, could be the test. Another avenue for taking down Trump is via the super-political action committees, the outside groups that independently support candidates. Some have taken on Trump, but with limited success. One called Make America Awesome claims it made headway with Iowa voters in an ad on eminent domain abuse. "The Des Moines Register's final pre-caucus poll makes clear what Make America Awesome's data has shown for months: Trump-inclined voters will only be dissuaded from backing him if they see Trump as just another rich guy who's been screwing them over economically, rigging the system and then making bank while their lives get tougher," Liz Mair, who runs the super PAC, Another super PAC, devoted solely to taking down Trump, released its game plan on Monday. Many have asked me, What can be done to stop Trump?" writes Katie Packer Gage, executive director of Our Principles PAC. The answer is simple: TRY. Ms. Gage, who was deputy campaign manager for Mr. Romney in 2012, says that of the $215 million Republicans have spent in ads and voter contact so far this cycle, only $9 million 4 percent has been aimed at challenging Trump , while tens of millions have been spent attacking Rubio, Cruz, and the others. Then theres Vera Coking, the widow whose Atlantic City home Trump wanted to tear down so he could build a parking lot for limousines, and the small businesses he tried to squeeze out of Bridgeport, Conn., so he could develop the land.Finding those people and telling their stories is roughly what the Democrats did to Mitt Romney, rendering him radioactive with many of the same working class voters currently backing Trump, writes New York Times columnist Ross Douthat , referring to the Republicans 2012 nominee.Except with Trump the trick is subtly different, Mr. Douthat continues. Mitt was a numbers guy, so he was caricatured as a cruel Scrooge. But Trump is a salesman: Thats been a big part of his campaigns success. And how do you flip a salesmans brand? You persuade people that hes a con artist, and theyre his marks.The story of the Atlantic City widow has already come up, briefly, in the campaign, both in one of the GOP debates and in an ad by Senator Cruzs campaign, which he ran only briefly. In addition, the ad misstated the facts of the widows case Trump did not succeed in buying her house and that muddied the message. But the fact remains that Trumps business history is fertile territory for arguments against him.Important, too, is who does the attacking. And as the Republican nomination race winnows down to just a few candidates, its noteworthy that Senator Rubio seen as the GOP establishment favorite to go one-on-one against Trump has barely taken him on.Heres my thing with Marco I believe hes competitive enough to do it, but I dont know if he has the killer instinct, says Mr. OConnell.Thursdays debate, the last before Super Tuesday, could be the test.Another avenue for taking down Trump is via the super-political action committees, the outside groups that independently support candidates. Some have taken on Trump, but with limited success. One called Make America Awesome claims it made headway with Iowa voters in an ad on eminent domain abuse.final pre-caucus poll makes clear what Make America Awesome's data has shown for months: Trump-inclined voters will only be dissuaded from backing him if they see Trump as just another rich guy who's been screwing them over economically, rigging the system and then making bank while their lives get tougher," Liz Mair, who runs the super PAC, told the Washington Examiner Another super PAC, devoted solely to taking down Trump, released its game plan on Monday.Many have asked me, What can be done to stop Trump?" writes Katie Packer Gage, executive director of Our Principles PAC. The answer is simple: TRY.Ms. Gage, who wasin 2012, says that of the $215 million Republicans have spent in ads and voter contact so far this cycle, only $9 million , while tens of millions have been spent attacking Rubio, Cruz, and the others. Governor Mitt Romney and Donald Trump Gage's favored argument against Trump: that hes a conservative of convenience , who supports government-mandated health care, tax hikes, and Planned Parenthood. The conservative Club for Growth has also announced a $1 million ad buy in two Super Tuesday states against Trump, though its previous ads seem to have had little effect. To Trump, this is all just the Republican establishment trying to take him down and protect its turf. In the end, says Mr. Felkel, Trump may be the only one who can take down Trump: I think his biggest weakness is himself. By Linda Feldmann, Staff writer FEBRUARY 24, 2016 Labels: Governor Mitt Romney Republican hypocrisy is like a smoke and mirrors reality show. Donald Trump (Scottish) Marco Rubio (Cuban) Rafael "Ted" Cruz (Canadain) are playing a cruel smoke and mirrors show with their conservative base when they oppose immigration reforms. Top Republican candidates - Donald Trump, Marco Rubio (23 %) and Ted Cruz (21 %) pander to their conservative political base by preaching against immigration reforms. They are opposed to providing a path to citizenship for people living in the US under certain circumstances. In so doing, the entire right wing has created a national anti-immigrant stereotype. Yet, the fact is, all three of these candidates are children of immigrant parents. In fact, Senator Marco Rubio fits the description of an "anchor baby" because his parents were not US citizens when he was born, on Mary 28, 1971, in Miami, FL. Nevertheless, the Republicans lead their political base into a hypocritical myth about how immigrants are the cause of "unemployment", "crime", "welfare" and "disease". These evil labels are totally unsubstantiated. Yet, all three candidates are the antithesis of the stereotypes they are reported to be opposing, when they fight against immigration reforms. Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, an immigrant from Scotland . His grandfather, Frederich Trump, immigrated to North America from Germany. Senator Marco Rubio is a Cuban American from Miami. He is the second son and third child of Mario Rubio Reina and Oriales ( prior to the Donald Trump is the son of real estate developer Fred Trump andTrump, an. His grandfather, Frederich Trump, immigrated to North America from Germany.Senator Marco Rubio is a Cuban American from Miami. He is the second son and third child of Mario Rubio Reina and Oriales ( nee Garcia) Rubio. His parents were Cubans who immigrated to the United States in 1956,the rise of Fidel Castro in January 1959. His mother made at least four trips back after Castros victory, including for a month in 1961. Neither of his parents was a U.S. citizen at the time of Rubios birth, but his parents applied for U.S. citizenship and were naturalized in 1975. As an "anchor baby", Rubio fits the description, referring to a child born to a noncitizen mother in a country which has birthright citizenship, especially when viewed as providing an advantage to family members seeking to secure citizenship or legal residency. Therefore, it makes no sense for Senator Rubio to oppose any immigration reforms, because doing is hypocritical, in my opinion. Senator Rafael "Ted" Cruz is not a natural born American citizen. He was born in Calgary Canada. Honestly, I have no problem, whatsoever, with the citizenship status of Senator Cruz today. Indeed, he claims he's an American citizen and I believe him. Yet, the fact is, the US Constitution requires "natural born" citizenship to qualify to run for president, and he does not meet this requirement, in my opinion. (When my family lived on the Subic Naval Base in the Philippines, the babies born at the base hospital in Cubi were issued US passports. No one issued Mrs. Cruz a US passport on November 22, 1970, for her baby boy "Rafael", when he was born in Foothills Hospital- probably, by the way, paid for by the Canadian health care system). Therefore, it makes no sense for Senator Cruz, who courts the religious conservative vote, to preach against immigration reform, it's hypocritical, in my opinion. For unknown reasons, the American news media overlooks the immigration history for the three top Republican presidential candidates in 2016, even while reporting on their "anti-immigration reforms". Trump will build an anti-immigration wall. Cruz seems to support sending all undocumented immigrants back to their countries of origin, regardless of the expense and hardships involved. Rubio is as clear as mud about where his immigration reform message falls in the "anti-immigration" spectrum. Nevertheless, the three anti-immigration amigos all lived the American dream. As a result, they're united in the successful lives they have enjoyed. Their individual and collective successes have completely busted the anti-immigration stereotypes the Republican conservative base supports. Trump-Rubio-Cruz are playing a cruel immigration "smoke and mirrors game" with their supporters because they oppose immigration reforms, while each has benefited from the current pro-immigration policies. Labels: Calgary Canada, Donald Trump, Fred Trump, Mary Anne MacLeod, Miami, Rafael "Ted" Cruz, Subic Naval Base As we close out 2020, we wanted to share some of our favorite stories from the last decade. We hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as we enjoyed telling them. Click here to see the rest of our picks of must-reads and happy new year, Milwaukee! Two weeks ago, we introduced you to the great photographic work of the late Ray Szopieray, thanks to Adam Levin, who purchased many of the photographer's slides at an antiques store. Last week, Karl Bandow, who also nabbed some of Szopieray's Kodachrome treasure, shared some great photos of the city as it appeared in the 1960s. Now, Bandow dishes up 10 photos of Milwaukee as it appeared in the 1980s, including one shot perhaps two weeks before I arrived in Milwaukee and another that is so close it could have been the day I got here. As you might imagine, these pictures are especially familiar to me. At the same time, I'm alarmed at how ancient they look. Many of the images first appeared on Levin's Old Milwaukee group on Facebook. Enjoy, and watch OnMilwaukee for some 1990s pics, too... 1. 411 Building construction This one is described as showing construction of the "Wilmore Building," in September 1984. In 33 years in this town, I've never heard anyone call 411 E. Wisconsin Ave. in which I briefly worked the "Wilmore Building." But, maybe? 2. Bradley Center construction The construction of the Bradley Center, March 1988. I'm guessing we expected it would last longer. 3. Circus Train The Circus Train, June 10, 1985. Nuff said. 4. 6th and Wisconsin This eastward view from 6th and Wisconsin really caught my eye because it is the Milwaukee I arrived to find when I moved here roughly two weeks before the photo was taken the day after my high school graduation. The "new" Reuss Federal Plaza is in the image, as are a ton of places that have disappeared basically everything on both sides of the street between 4th and 6th Streets except the Hilton City Center, which was called the Marc Plaza in 1983. 5. Water and Wisconsin The Pabst Building was gone already when this photo was snapped on June 7, 1981, leaving a lot that would sit vacant for about eight years, right in the heart of the city. Interesting, too, is that Eschweiler-designed office building in the center still has its ornament (see photo below for an "after" look). 6. Broadway and Michigan I like this photo looking northeast from Michigan and Broadway, taken Aug. 26, 1980, because it shows a lovely strip of Downtown when there were businesses in pretty much every space, including Kahn's (clothing) on the corner, a pharmacy and the Stone Toad rock and roll club a couple doors north. 7. The Iron Block This September 1984 view east on Wisconsin Avenue from the river is especially notable for three things. It shows the sorry state of the Iron Block Building, the construction of the 411 Building and the fact that the Eschweiler building on the northeast corner of Water and Wisconsin has already undergone the transformation to its current state. 8. Lincoln Bridge demolition The demolition of the old Juneau Park bridge down to Lincoln Memorial Drive, June 7, 1981. Read more about it here. 9. Transportation Parade, Wisconsin Avenue A range of vehicles wound through the streets of Downtown for the Transportation Parade seen here on Plankinton and Wisconsin on June 25, 1983. 10. Broadway, after the fire This photo of the west side of Broadway, between Michigan and Clybourn, was taken Aug. 26, 1980, a year and two days after a fire raged through Display Corporation International, which occupied 517, 521 and 525 N. Broadway. Most interesting to me is that this is a rare photo that shows the building in which Tony Selig opened The Underground rock club, which was in the basement of that three story grey building with the pizza sign out front. Reprinted from Other Words Inmates across America die every day because of substandard medical care. But I do have this column . And I can tell you about some of the horrors that land in my mailbox. Most of the letters I receive are complaints about prison conditions and requests for help. In most cases, these folks just want somebody to vent to. I wish I could help them. In most cases I can't. Legally I can't respond directly, because I'm an ex-con myself: I was locked up after blowing the whistle on the CIA's illegal and immoral torture program. Direct contact with current and former prisoners would be "consorting with known felons" -- which is banned under the terms of my probation -- so I keep my distance. I get a lot of letters from people who've been incarcerated, or are now behind bars. I received a letter recently from a female inmate in a state prison in Arizona. She wrote about some of the same things I complained about when I was incarcerated. It's too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, she said. It's overcrowded. There aren't enough jobs, and even if you get one, you make a slave's wage -- often just 10 cents an hour. There's no money for training programs, prisoners are never actually "rehabilitated," and the food is inedible. None of these were surprising to me. The American prison system is broken. I know that from first-hand experience. But one issue the writer raised was especially concerning. I've written before, including in my blog posts from prison, about medical care there. I sometimes wondered if things were any better in women's prisons. Apparently they're not. "The health care here is horrible," the writer said. "Check to see how many women have died here in the last two years because of improper health care. Women who complain of chest pains are sent back to their cell and told there is nothing wrong, to drink water, and to take an aspirin." I believe her. My prison bunkmate complained of chest pains for months and was told to take an aspirin. He finally had a massive heart attack. After a month spent chained to a bed in a local hospital, he was transferred to a prison hospital 11 hours away from his family. He'll never make it to the end of his sentence. The woman who wrote me this letter had seen the same thing. There was a woman there, she wrote, who "was bleeding for months." The inmate "kept putting in requests to see a doctor and was told repeatedly that there was nothing wrong. Finally, eight months later, she was sent to an outside specialist and told that she had cervical cancer that was so far progressed that all they could do was to put her in chemo to slow it down." The prognosis? "The doctor said her time is limited. She's going to die." The real tragedy of this situation is that it's so common. Prisoners across America die every day from substandard medical care. If the people running prisons know there's a problem and do nothing about it, is that not manslaughter? Is that not depraved indifference? A person who should be alive is not -- all because of the incompetence or apathy of prison administrators. A current exhibit (January 25-April 14, 2016) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City features an in-depth examination of two paintings by famed Renaissance artist Jan van Eyck: Crucifixion and Last Judgment (ca 1440-1441). Particular attention is paid to Crucifixion, a magnificent painting that depicts more than two dozen figures--each with realistic and detailed varied emotional expressions--present at the crucifixion of Jesus. The exhibit conveniently provides a magnifying glass next to the painting so that viewers can examine the fine details and rich colors close up. The exhibit also includes infrared reflectography examination of the paintings, which uncovered several under-drawings that reveal van Eyck's changes as he worked and reworked the paintings. This examination is intended to provide insight into the artist's creative process in arriving at the final version. The investigators hoped that the under-drawings and the additional X-radiography and elemental mapping by X-Ray fluorescence study of the frames of the paintings might answer long-standing questions: "Whether the paintings were always intended as a diptych, or whether they were originally the wings of a triptych or the doors of a tabernacle." The curator's comments appear on panels next to the paintings and frames. At the end of the commentaries a note tells viewers that changes in the frames were "likely stipulated by the individual who commissioned the work." But that comment should also have been applied to the changes in the under-drawings and the finished painting itself. The fact is that artists of the period were almost totally subordinate to the wishes and instructions of benefactors who commissioned artworks. Yes, commissions were collaborative efforts, but the patron had the last word. That control included specifications for the content of the artwork, its size, and specific materials down to the last detail, sometimes including colors, pigment quality, and even the amount of gold coloring and gold leaf to be incorporated. These details were set down in contracts that were negotiated by the artist and patron and witnessed by a notary. Not surprisingly, artists were eager to please patrons lest they be criticized and penalized, giving them black marks that could hurt them in a fiercely competitive marketplace for commissions--and even terminate their careers. This picture of the creative process is a far cry from the bulk of commentaries on Renaissance artworks by art historians, curators, and critics, who place the artist at the center, with the patron out of the picture or mentioned in passing. The Metropolitan Museum curator's comment about the probable patron input on the changes in the van Eyck frames is an example. But the curator does not identify or provide any information about the patron. Marginalizing patrons or placing them out of sight feeds the illusion of art historians that Renaissance artists created their artworks in a romantic trance oblivious to the economic, political, social, theological, and personal factors that defined and constrained the creative process. We now know about the comprehensive context for Renaissance artworks thanks to the meticulous scholarship of several researchers. Art historian Professor Michelle O'Malley's important book, The Business of Art: Contracts and the Commissioning Process in Renaissance Italy, includes 184 contracts for altarpieces and frescoes and 84 other commissions from the late Middle Ages (1285) to the height of the explosive Renaissance art period (1540)--contracts with some of the most distinguished artists of the period, including Botticello, Fillipino Lippi, Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, Piero della Francesca, and Raphael, Art historian Jonathan K. Nelson and economist Richard J. Zeckhauser, in their book, The Patron's Payoff: Conspicuous Commissions in Italian Renaissance Art, emphasize the role of patrons. In applying a game theory model to commissions they bring together art history and economic theory to examine multiple factors from these two domains that shaped the business of art: "Commissioned art always conveys information about the patron. Crucial decisions inherent in the creation of a specific work tell a great deal about the person who ordered it... . Specifically, during the Italian Renaissance, the patron selected the artist and paid the bill; the artist acted as the agent charged to carry out the work with skill and aesthetic sensibilities." The authors added that patrons exercised scrutiny and supervision of preliminary drawings and the final product which "helped to ensure that the message conveyed by art reflected the patron's interests." In his book An Artist Empowered artist Eden Maxwell reminds us that Renaissance commissions were work for hire "which was counterpoint to the artist who creates art for art's sake." And the Renaissance Art Connection states it this way: "Artists were still a service business. Unlike today, artists did not create whatever they liked then put it up for sale. Artists were paid to produce exactly what the patron wanted." Among other notable achievements, the Renaissance facilitated the rise of a wealthy merchant class that rivaled the wealth of royalty and the Church. Competitive conspicuous consumption was rampant, as the affluent sought self-aggrandizement in lavish visible displays of their riches. In his book Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy, 1300-1600, economic historian Richard Goldthwaite concluded that for affluent patrons in Italy, commissions "expressed their sense of what constituted noble status." It is fortunate for us today that the wealthy chose art and architecture for their conspicuous consumption. Without the support of these benefactors, it's doubtful that the massive collection of Renaissance artworks that we treasure would ever have materialized. In view of the powerful personal motives and expenses entailed in commissioned artworks it's not surprising that commissions were governed by detailed legal contracts that specified fine points reflecting the patrons' conception of the artwork. O'Malley describes the central role of the patron in many of the contracts she uncovered. For example, the contract between renowned Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca and members of the Confraternity of the Misericordia states that "[It will be painted] with those images and figures and embellishments that will have been told to him by the above named Prior and Councellors or their successors in office and by the said other elected men named above." Pietro Perugino's1497 contract with the convent of Santa Maria at Vallombrosa shows how content-specific a contract could be. It designated "the size that the main panels and that the predella [platform] should be made, precisely indicating that the Virgin was to be depicted seated and surrounded by cherubim, seraphim, and eight music-making angels, and listing each saint to be painted, observing what each should wear, his attribute, his placement on the panel, and even the colour of the friar-saints' habits." Similar precise demands for embellishments surely constrained the creative process as in the altarpiece Resurrected Christ, commissioned by the Griffi bothers with painters Marco d'Oggiono and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio: "The risen Christ was to be shown wrapped in a sheet touched with gold and finished with golden fringes, and the figures of the Annunciation on the carved surround were to wear robes enlivened with traces of gold." Frequently, though, detailed information about the subject matter wasn't included in contracts, but not because it was left to the artist. According to O'Malley, content specifications might be sketchy with the understanding that they were "intermediate decisions" subject to change through "verbal exchange" as the artwork developed. Nevertheless, it was clear that the patron made determinations as the painting progressed. For example, the initial contract might call for a number of saints to be named later, as recorded in notes by artist Alesso Baldovinetti in 1470. He wrote that his contract to paint a tabernacle for Sant'Ambrogio specified "the fee, the materials he was required to supply, and noted the main figure and the number of additional saints he had agreed to paint." Similarly, Filippino Lippi's contract (1487) stipulated that he was to paint two large scenes in the Strozzi chapel, the specifics to be given later by the client. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). At the core of the Hillary Clinton candidacy, and arguably one of the reasons her nomination was once considered inevitable, has been the argument that she is the one with the right experience, something reflected throughout the mainstream media. The Iowa City Press- Citizen, for instance, in an article cited on the Hillary for America website, states that "There can be little doubt that in terms of raw experience, there is no more qualified person for the presidency than Hillary Clinton." But wherein exactly does that supposed experience edge lie? What has Clinton done that Sanders has not? Two things, mainly -- she has served four years as Secretary of State and also resided in the White House for eight years as the most politically engaged First Lady in recent memory, an experience that enabled her subsequent Senate career and made her a household name among the populace at large. The question remains, however, as to whether this experience constitutes an overall plus or minus. Health Care Although Clinton was involved with many issues while in the White House, the one that stands out both in public memory and in her own campaigning is her involvement in Bill Clinton's unsuccessful effort to reform the nation's health insurance system. As she herself reminds us, before the type of system we currently have was called "Obamacare," it was called "Hillarycare." Her efforts were received notoriously poorly by the health care industry which thoroughly distorted her program, most notably in the infamous "Harry and Louise" television ads. Her position on health care hasn't particularly changed since then. She was publicly opposed to a single payer plan back then -- although some say that in her heart of hearts she was actually for it. And she's against a single payer plan now. But the ground has shifted. Now, her argument is not so much that single payer plan is a bad idea. Instead she says that, by his pressing the case for the U.S. to join the ranks of the industrialized nations that have solved the universal coverage problem, Sanders threatens the gains embodied in the current Affordable Care Act. An argument for Medicare for All does the Republicans' work, goes the argument -- so let's change the subject. What has changed for Clinton is her relationship to the health care related industries, which contributed $11.2 million to her Senate campaigns, $2 million to the current presidential race, and paid her $2.8 million in speaking fees for 13 speeches from 2013 to 2015. During the debates, Clinton has challenged Sanders to name a vote he thinks was altered by her receipt of corporate funding. That might be impossible to say, but what the current situation surely does reflect is her overall acceptance of health care industry executives' point of view and priorities. So is all of this experience on the health insurance issue an overall positive for Clinton? If you believe that the United States is somehow incapable of accomplishing a universal, nonprofit health insurance system like other countries have, then it probably is -- better not to waste time on something that will "never, ever" happen, as Clinton recently said. But if you do believe that we actually should create that type of system -- as polls show most Americans do -- then Clinton's experience in this area would seem to be a negative. Foreign Policy Much as Clinton might wish to shake off her support of the invasion of Iraq as one bad vote from 13 years ago, the fact remains that there's probably been no more disastrous American foreign policy decision since the Vietnam War. The invasion of Iraq was exactly the sort of thing that al Qaeda hoped to goad us into and it, in turn, has midwifed the birth of ISIS. Perhaps the best that can be said for Clinton's vote is that she wasn't the only future presidential candidate in the Senate one seemed to think that you couldn't hope to be president unless you supported Bush's war -- subsequent White House contenders Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, John McCain and Fred Thompson all voted that way. (Bob Graham of Florida was the only anti-Iraq War Senator to pursue the presidency.: Sanders voted against it in the House.) Did Clinton then at least learn from that experience? Her tenure as Secretary of State suggests not so much. Obviously regime change still seemed like a good idea to her in the case of Gaddafi in Libya, where pretty much the best you can say for the current situation is that it's probably not as bad as Iraq. So far as Syria goes, she has seemed to be of much the same mind. And if she's given any indications in the debates that she's changed her thinking, well I missed it -- and I've seen them all. Is her foreign policy experience a plus, then? Well, she may still have the cellphone numbers of a few world leaders. And certainly if you think our current policy of seemingly endless war is the way to keep going, then she does have the relevant experience. But not if you're looking for something different. Everything Else There's something else, though. Clinton has recently argued that Sanders is a single issue candidate, that one issue being the economy. Pretty big "single issue," of course, but she does raise some quite sensible concerns, among them, "If we broke up the big banks tomorrow, would that end racism? Would that end sexism? Would that end discrimination against the L.G.B.T. community?" We might then reasonably want to ask whether the candidate who touts her experience has the edge in these areas to which she thinks Sanders devotes inadequate attention. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Corrupt politicians cannot be expected to draft a law that would shut down their common business model of systemic political corruption. The product of any such attempt would be riddled with opaque loopholes. Instead, they use their offices and allies to divert fed-up constituents to ineffective reforms that waste political energy for futile, piecemeal , and often counterproductive ends. After forty years , it could not be any more clear that even the best of politicians in this corrupt system need help from the public in formulating effective strategy, which would include among other initiatives , drafting of an effective conflict of interest law that recognizes campaign financing as the leading contemporary means for creating conflicts. Legal text, like the Constitution of the United States itself, when not written to deliberately confuse, can serve as a political document. The following draft law is published here for both public discussion and to demonstrate a fairly simple and intuitively sensible approach to contain political corruption which politicians in state and federal legislative bodies have avoided for the past forty years since Buckley v Valeo (1976) first opened the spigots for an ever-increasing supply of legalized bribes to elected officials. These officials probably fear the very mention of such a law. They hope to blame their own appalling ethics on the Constitution by advocating futile amendments. Although the Supreme Court's perversion of constitutional text for plutocratic ends bears a large share of culpability for the corrupt system, the systemic ethical breaches of politicians happen to be their own responsibility, not the Court's. The judicial supremacist Court may be able to force lackluster politicians to accept the system of legalized bribery that five judges have built out of the words "the freedom of speech." But the Supreme Court cannot force Congress to allow its members to provide the political services that those bribes were intended to buy. Once it becomes illegal to actually deliver the influence that politicians peddle, the market for influence peddling itself, and Court-legalized special interest money that drives it, will disappear from politics, not because it is illegal again, but because it would be useless for its intended purpose of buying influence. The Supreme Court by constitutionalizing corruption under its surreal principle that "money is speech," has prohibited any effective effort to block or neutralize the supply of money to elected influence peddlers. Five plutocratic justices on the Court have constructed a complex legal sieve through which vast amounts of special interest money can easily flow. Now that there are only four of them, the opportunity for a new swing justice who will commit to throwing the "money is speech" doctrine into the garbage where it belongs is of essential importance. But after forty years of entrenching corruption throughout all levels of government, reversal of the Supreme Court, although necessary, will no longer be sufficient as it might have been even a few years ago. A dramatic reversal in the US Supreme Court membership will still leave behind a thoroughly corrupt Congress which, along with Obama , has since McCutcheon (2014) largely taken over the Courts' previous job of making the corrupt system even more corrupt. The draft law presented below for public discussion seeks to focus on effectively ending the systemic plutocratic corruption of state and federal politics by strengthening the traditional rules regulating the demand side of the corruption equation. This proposal avoids for now -- rather than attempting to change -- the US Supreme Court's bizarre theories about the supply of money in politics being the equivalent of speech, rather than the cause of systemic corruption. Conflict of interest recusal rules, or laws, that have existed since the founding of the republic, by addressing the demand side of the corruption equation rather than the supply side, fall entirely outside the ambit of even the Supreme Court's wildest re-interpretations of the First Amendment to serve plutocratic ends. By operating only upon the unethical conduct of the other separate branches, this demand-side approach also lies far across that wall for the separation of powers which the Constitution erected to keep the judiciary out of legislative matters. Enforcement of conflict of interest rules does not depend upon subjective intentions or on the existence of witnesses to quid pro quo deals. The test for violating conflict of interest rules is whether a reasonable person would have perceived a conflict in performing honest services in the public interest after having received the money or other benefit from a special interest. Appearances count, not subjective excuses. This legal standard strips Hillary Clinton, for example, of her "anyone who knows me" exceptionalism, when the whole country knows that her speaking fees will corrupt her decision-making with respect to her Wall Street and corporate benefactors, just as it would any ordinary person in her situation. An overwhelming majority of Americans know that politicians are not given billions of dollars free from expectations of reciprocal favors worth far more. Polls consistently show low public regard for formerly democratic institutions , understanding about the lack of consent of the governed for those now hollowed out institutions, disdain for the current system of money in politics that has rotted their core, majority disaffiliation from both corrupt ruling parties, and overwhelming dissatisfaction with the economic inequality that they have produced within a relatively short time. The public is aware that the whole corrupt system runs on conflicted interests. What is needed is a law that effectively imposes ethics obligations on the politicians who operate this corrupt system. When adopted in the form of a rule, this proposal for more robust conflict of interest enforcement is also the easiest of all possible effective policy changes to introduce. This reform may be adopted by either house of Congress or of any state legislature. A rule change can be adopted separately by majority vote of either chamber of a bicameral legislature without further approval by the other chamber or by the executive branch. This modest beginning has potential for leveraging further effective reform. One reformed chamber of a legislature can demand similar reform of other elements of government. For example, one chamber can exercise veto power for purposes of blocking corrupt appropriations , or shutting down any other part of the assembly line for corrupt policy deliveries to plutocrats. Until the other chamber and the other branches clean up their act in a similar manner by adopting and enforcing similar recusal rules, one reformed chamber having the actual consent of the governed can shut down the corrupted parts of government that only have the consent of plutocrats. That design is a thoughtful gift from the framers of the Constitution. Bernie Sanders' Senate office has been asked to consider introducing this pragmatic and progressive reform. Please contact his office (Attn: Lori Kearns, Esq .) to encourage him to introduce it. The US Senate's adoption of this rule can uniquely circumvent a filibuster and thereby strip plutocrats of their usual partisan polarization excuse for inaction. A strengthened conflict of interest recusal rule, such as proposed below, could be adopted in the first hour of the 115th Congress after the Sanders landslide election creates a Democratic Senate majority. The cooperation of Joe Biden as lame-duck Senate President would be required to kick off this reform as the Senate's first order of business. Until he is sworn as president a couple weeks later, Sanders could likely still remain a Senator for the few minutes required for him to be recognized by Biden, just prior to Sanders' resignation from his Senate seat, in order to make a dramatic motion for Congress to obey the will of the people by enacting this reform which will be his administration's top legislative priority. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Today, Indian Express reported on Richard Verma's visit to Bihar and the US envoy's comment that "free speech is a key tenet" of India and United States on its front page. Wrong Mr Envoy. Free speech is not a key tenet of United States. And no, we don't have just Julian Assange and Edward Snowden in mind! The US State Department rules that "former employees are expected to refrain from engaging in activities of any kind, including writing manuscripts or giving speeches." Present US rules allow indefinite detention of Americans without due process, which a federal judge mentioned has a "chilling effect" on free speech. The secret service can arrest anyone protesting near the President. And we haven't come down to mass spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) yet, which isn't quite a recipe to encourage free speech. It would interest Indian Express to know that journalists who report on whistleblowers are being persecuted. Protestors are being tear-gassed and beaten. And if you are filming police officers in public, you've had it. Back to today's front-page story. Mr Envoy was duly asked on JNU incident and he said that "it should be left to the government and students to decide (on the free speech debate)." Wrong again Mr. Envoy. The matter is out of government and students' hands. It's now with judiciary. Look at it this way--government has charged a few students with sedition. And you want the two to mutually decide across the table? It's like Barack Obama calling Islamic State Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to the White House "to decide" on terrorism. Do you see the absurdity? By now the Indian Express decided to take the matter in its own hands. It added in next paragraph that this is the first time a diplomat in India has spoken about the JNU affair. Really? We all Indians must hang our heads in shame. After all, an employee of a different nation has censured our sovereign country. Before the paragraph is out, the dagger was plunged deeper. The newspaper added for good effect that Verma was concerned over the "chilling effect" of regulatory steps taken by the Modi (and not Indian) government against certain NGOs including the Ford Foundation. Let me refresh your memory. Last year, the Centre put Ford Foundation on a Watch List and restricted its funding based on Gujarat government's view of its "covert activities." Ford Foundation provides enormous funding to a few of India's elite educational institutions. So now let me tell you about the Ford Foundation. The most influential liberal foundations of the 20th century are Carnegie Foundation, the Rockfeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation, collectively known as the Big Three. All three were set up by America's leading capitalists in 1911, 1913 and 1936. In his book "Philanthropy and Cultural Imperialism," author Robert F. Amove states that the philosophy of these Big Three is designed to sustain the hegemony of the existing market forces. Worse, these liberal foundations are accused of working closely with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States. A US Congressional investigation in 1976 revealed that nearly 50% of the 700 grants in the field of international activities by the principal foundations was funded by the CIA (Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War: Frances Stonor Saunders, Grants Books, 1999, Pp: 134-135). By the late 1950s, the Ford Foundation possessed over $3 billion in assets. The leadership of the Foundation were in total agreement with Washington's post-WWII projection of world power. "At times, it seemed as if the Ford Foundation was simply an extension of government in the area of international cultural propaganda. The foundation had a record of close involvement in covert actions in Europe, working closely with Marshall Plan and CIA officials on specific projects (ibid, p.139)." (There is a lot that could be said about these collaborators of imperial, cultural agenda but it's not our focus for the moment. In these pages, you would know for instance about Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who are facing a writ petition in India's Supreme Court for "criminally negligent, trialling the vaccines on vulnerable, uneducated and under-informed" population of India or how Obama inflames intolerance in India, or what is the credibility of Moody's.) Reprinted from Other Words The president's responsibility to appoint judges isn't voided in an election year. Antonin Scalia is gone. The nastiest and noisiest of right wingers on the Supreme Court is dead. But in a blatantly partisan ploy to prevent President Barack Obama from nominating a successor to Scalia, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has cited a brand new historical precedent dictating that presidents in the last year of their term don't name new justices to the high court. "Therefore," McConnell babbled, "this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president." What a silly old squirrel McConnell is. Article II of the U.S. Constitution plainly states that the president, with the "advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, [and] judges of the Supreme Court." Note that the Constitution says the president "shall" do this -- as a duty to the nation. Nothing in the founding document suggests that this responsibility is voided in an election year. In fact, every single election-year vacancy in the last 116 years has been filled. McConnell's assertion is bogus -- and silly. History and the Constitution clearly back Obama. Ironically, Scalia himself would have nailed McConnell for such a slapstick political perversion of plain language in our founding document. He practiced what he called "originalism" in his official judgments, insisting that the Constitution must be interpreted only by the words in it -- and only by the original meaning those words had for the founders when they wrote them. McConnell's squirrelly stalling is as ridiculous as it is shameful. It's also totally hypocritical, since the Kentucky Republican himself voted in February 1988 to confirm a Supreme Court nominee put forth by Ronald Reagan -- in the last year of his presidency. Here's the Times headline from Monday morning: Here's how the headline should have more accurately read: The debate on whether the Senate has the legal and moral right to refuse to consider a Supreme Court Nominee had been simmering since the death of Justice Scalia last week. Immediately after a statement by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying that the Senate would not consider his nomination, there was been push back. It is the Judicial Committee that would actually be the gatekeeper, as their decision made by the Republican majority to refuse to take up a given nomination will simply kill the nomination. As this was simmering with many Republican Senators weighing in on the need to at the very least hold committee hearings over a Presidential nominee, this N.Y. Times story linked above broke. In the current linked article they do describe the last part of Biden's 1992 speech on the floor of the senate Since I did go on the video, and immediately noted that Biden has said that as leader of the Judiciary Committee he would in fact hold hearings on a nominee that was a moderate. It is this part that should have been the headline in yesterday's article; rather the one that claimed that Biden echoed the current Republicans who are refusing to consider any Obama nominee This printed headline, which is what was tweeted across the country, very well could have provided cover for the Republican Judiciary Committee to send this official letter that they would not hold hearings on any Obama nominee, no matter how moderate. Biden's actual words were in a conciliatory tone, from the video in the article that began with" " It is my view that if there is a vacancy (after July 1) now or later in the summer President (George W.) Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not name a nominee until after the presidential election" This part although the time frame of absence of a Justice in his hypothetical case is half of what the current vacancy would entail, does present the case for the Senate to refuse consideration But, unlike the current Republicans, Biden soften his opinion with "in my view" and the "President could consider" not that that he, his committee or party would refuse to hold hearing for a nominee. Towards the end, there is this part, that did not appear in the headline, and was only on a side bar of the online version. Biden closed with these words transcribed verbatim: "...as long as the public continues to split its confidence between the branches, compromise is the right course for both the White House and the Senate, therefor I stand by my position".. if the President consults and cooperates with the Senate, or moderates his selection absent consultation, then his Justices may enjoy my support as did Justices Kennedy and Souter. But if he does not, as is the President's right, then I will oppose his future nominees, as is my right. Far from agreeing that the Senate should, as the headline implied, follow his lead in their absolute refusal to consider any nomination, Biden had said that he would, in fact, do exactly what the current Democrat party is suggesting, put forward a moderate nominee. The Times headline set the tone for the balance of their article, and as such was a distortion of this most important statement by the Senator, now Vice President . What this Republican refusal will ultimately mean depends on the outcome of the Presidential election. However, it sets a precedent that could continue even if if a Democrat becomes President; as this boycott could continue if his/her party lacks a the super-majority (which is probable) to overcome this intransigence of the one branch that, at least ideally, transcends partisanship. Watch John Pilger's film Death of a Nation - The Timor Conspiracy Secret documents found in the Australian National Archives provide a glimpse of how one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century was executed and covered up. They also help us understand how and for whom the world is run. The documents refer to East Timor, now known as Timor-Leste, and were written by diplomats in the Australian embassy in Jakarta. The date was November 1976, less than a year after the Indonesian dictator General Suharto seized the then Portuguese colony on the island of Timor. The terror that followed has few parallels; not even Pol Pot succeeded in killing, proportionally, as many Cambodians as Suharto and his fellow generals killed in East Timor. Out of a population of almost a million, up to a third were extinguished. This was the second holocaust for which Suharto was responsible. A decade earlier, in 1965, Suharto wrested power in Indonesia in a bloodbath that took more than a million lives. The CIA reported: "In terms of numbers killed, the massacres rank as one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century." This was greeted in the Western press as "a gleam of light in Asia" (Time). The BBC's correspondent in South East Asia, Roland Challis, later described the cover-up of the massacres as a triumph of media complicity and silence; the "official line" was that Suharto had "saved" Indonesia from a communist takeover. "Of course my British sources knew what the American plan was," he told me. "There were bodies being washed up on the lawns of the British consulate in Surabaya, and British warships escorted a ship full of Indonesian troops, so that they could take part in this terrible holocaust. It was only much later that we learned that the American embassy was supplying [Suharto with] names and ticking them off as they were killed. There was a deal, you see. In establishing the Suharto regime, the involvement of the [US-dominated] International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were part of it. That was the deal." I have interviewed many of the survivors of 1965, including the acclaimed Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who bore witness to an epic of suffering "forgotten" in the West because Suharto was "our man." A second holocaust in resource-rich East Timor, an undefended colony, was almost inevitable. In 1994, I filmed clandestinely in occupied East Timor; I found a land of crosses and unforgettable grief. In my film, Death of a Nation, there is a sequence shot on board an Australian aircraft flying over the Timor Sea. A party is in progress. Two men in suits are toasting each other in champagne. "This is a uniquely historical moment," babbles one of them, "that is truly, uniquely historical." This is Australia's foreign minister, Gareth Evans. The other man is Ali Alatas, the principal mouthpiece of Suharto. It is 1989 and they are making a symbolic flight to celebrate a piratical deal they called a "treaty." This allowed Australia, the Suharto dictatorship and the international oil companies to divide the spoils of East Timor's oil and gas resources. Thanks to Evans, Australia's then prime minister, Paul Keating -- who regarded Suharto as a father figure -- and a gang that ran Australia's foreign policy establishment, Australia distinguished itself as the only western country formally to recognize Suharto's genocidal conquest. The prize, said Evans, was "zillions" of dollars. Members of this gang reappeared the other day in documents found in the National Archives by two researchers from Monash University in Melbourne, Sara Niner and Kim McGrath. In their own handwriting, senior officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs mock reports of the rape, torture and execution of East Timorese by Indonesian troops. In scribbled annotations on a memorandum that refers to atrocities in a concentration camp, one diplomat wrote: "sounds like fun." Another wrote: "sounds like the population are in raptures." Referring to a report by the Indonesian resistance, Fretilin, that describes Indonesia as an "impotent" invader, another diplomat sneered: "If 'the enemy was impotent', as stated, how come they are daily raping the captured population? Or is the former a result of the latter?" The documents, says Sarah Niner, are "vivid evidence of the lack of empathy and concern for human rights abuses in East Timor" in the Department of Foreign Affairs. "The archives reveal that this culture of cover-up is closely tied to the DFA's need to recognize Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor so as to commence negotiations over the petroleum in the East Timor Sea." This was a conspiracy to steal East Timor's oil and gas. In leaked diplomatic cables in August 1975, the Australian Ambassador to Jakarta, Richard Woolcott, wrote to Canberra: "It would seem to me that the Department [of Minerals and Energy] might well have an interest in closing the present gap in the agreed sea border and this could be much more readily negotiated with Indonesia ... than with Portugal or independent Portuguese Timor." Woolcott revealed that he had been briefed on Indonesia's secret plans for an invasion. He cabled Canberra that the government should "assist public understanding in Australia" to counter "criticism of Indonesia." Violent incidents and the physiological impact. (Image by h.koppdelaney) Details DMCA Nowadays, the innovation is widely seen in the heinous tactics, the bloody terrorists employ in quest of bringing shocking surprise. In this outlook, the innovation in the usage of tactics aimed at shocking surprise is directly aimed at psychological impact on the mind of the target. Therefore, the focused objective in today's article is to discuss the said impact with special reference to the Pakistani case. It is the sole Pakistan that stands aloof in scoring the worth-mentioning goals and targets in the globally waged war against militancy. Remarkably, this is what the international community overtly confesses. The US Administration has too lauded what Pakistan has achieved in the said campaign through its mega-military operation like Zarb-e-Azb. Very recently, The President Barak Obama has acknowledged the sacrifices made by Pakistan and the success, achieved by it. In fact, the massive mobility against terrorism through the said operation has broken the backbone of the terrorists, based in the porous and less-surpass-able terrains of FATA. This success is enclosed with two achievements; first the destruction of militants' bastion in FATA and the second, making the networks maneuverability difficult throughout the country. This developed positive and encouraging paces in the decision making. It has garnered positive images on the mindset of both Pakistani security arm and public with levels rising from 32% up to 80%. Afterward, the unique civil-military relation seemed to be harvested in pursuit of the menace eradication. The terrorist's ranks and files either captured or beheaded abundantly. The national socio-economic activity, seized earlier due to chaotic situation, tracked on the lane of revival in shape of the globally renowned 46 billions CPEC mega project, destined to cease Pakistan's economic strangulation. All the pinned factors are a driving force to moralize the nation to the new peaks. This high morale is the essential part of the positive psychological impact; the Pakistani nation needs to build up in wake of globally built war-torn image. On the parallel path, this is not likely to be engulfed in patience by the mindset of the terrorist world. Ultimately, they are supposed to keep themselves survive and even to show them as being hard nut to crack. Although the infrastructure is badly devastated, the intelligence-based operations have threatened the remnants of the nullified organizations mobility throughout the country, yet their masterminds are to set on avoiding the negative impacts in their own areas of influence and operation. That is why they are engaged in blowing the unexpected, un-defended and soft targets like educational institutes with the available explosives and the hand-to-hand tactics. In this manoeuvre, they seem to earn bi-fold gains. First, the positive developments into the Pakistani security arm and public are to be terminated. They are to show that the normal life in Pakistan is still far away from coming into existence particularly in the sphere of socio-economics. Second, they have to show the world that they are arduous to be tackled down as it is perceived by Pakistani Junta. These two respective gains are the part of the psychological man-oeuvres the banned organisations and their master minds are out to harbor. Thus, the seldom incidents of the violence would take place in Pakistan. However, the public should not be demoralized if one or more incidents erupt. This war is the war of wits where one has to demonstrate the true passions in order to avoid the negative psychological impacts. To make final opinion, the public should pursue the path of passion in order to keep its morale high to ensure the positive psychological impact. Opinions, analysis and random musings from an independent filmmaker Oregon Senate Republicans Salem, Ore. Senate Republicans expressed outrage over tactics by Senate Democrats to intentionally violate the Oregon Constitution on the Senate floor Tuesday. Passing SB 1511, which regulates marijuana taxation and contains an emergency clause, blatantly violates Article IX, Section 1a of the Oregon Constitution, which states: The Legislative Assembly shall not declare an emergency in any act regulating taxation or exemption. Senate Democrats have set a dangerous precedent today, revealing they consider themselves above the Oregon Constitution, said Senator Alan Olsen (R-Canby) on Tuesday. By claiming that the Senate can pass an unconstitutional bill simply because the courts can strike down the unconstitutional parts later proves woeful contempt for the Oregon Constitution and staying within the boundaries of the law. The Senate is not above the law and must stop acting like it is. Senate Republicans, concerned that the emergency clause on SB 1511 violated the Oregon Constitution, called for the bill to be returned to committee, where several pledged to support the bill following the removal of the unconstitutional emergency clause. Many expressed they supported the policy contained in SB 1511, but not the deplorable and illegal tactics used to pass the bill Tuesday. That our Constitution has become the latest victim in the Democrats rush to force through a partisan agenda during the short session is a tragedy, said Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli. Oregonians deserve to know their elected officials are recklessly passing legislation with no regard for legality or the effect these policies will have on Oregonians. Please click here in order to read our guidelines on commenting to the blog. Final phase Zarb-e-Azb in Shawal: Raheel Sharif RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif has given the go-ahead for the initiation of the final phase of operation Zarb-e-Azb in the Shawal valley region of North Waziristan. The go-ahead was given by the army chief during his visit to forward positions of the army in Shawal valley. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) stated that the army chief was briefed regarding operational gains and impending operations. The deep and forested ravines of Shawal valley and the area of Data Khel are frequently used infiltration routes used by the militants, the army chief was told. The last phase of the operation aims to clear the last remnants of the militants from their hideouts in the forested ravines, isolate them and destroy them in detail, while also severing their links to their abettors across the country. General Raheel Sharif expressed complete satisfaction over the gains and the effects of the operations and acknowledged the resolve of the army troops to fully eliminate the militants. The sacrifices of the soldiers will not go waste and we will achieve our ultimate objective of a terror free Pakistan, said Sharif while addressing the troops. ISPR added that the troops have regrouped, reinforced and have moved to jump-off positions for the final phase. The chief of army staff was received by Lieutenant General Hidayatur Rehman, Commander 11 Corps Peshawar on his arrival. Military operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched in North Waziristan on June 15 following a brazen militant attack on Karachis international airport and the failure of peace talks between the government and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) negotiators. The number of attacks in Pakistan has fallen around 70 percent, due to a combination of the military offensive against Taliban bases along the Afghan border and government initiatives to tackle militancy. Army had launched a ground offensive in Shawal Valley in August last year. Fighter jets had been targeting militant hideouts in the agency. The heavily forested ravines of the Shawal Valley are dotted with Taliban hideouts and the area is a key smuggling route into neighbouring Afghanistan. Military operation in Fata forced Haqqani network to relocate: John Kerry WASHINGTON: The ongoing military operation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) forced the Haqqani network to relocate, said US Secretary of State John Kerry while defending the Obama administrations decision to sell eight F-16 aircraft to Pakistan. The networks presence in Fata was used as the main argument against the proposed sale during a congressional hearing on Tuesday. They continue to support the Taliban, the Haqqani network and to give safe haven to Al Qaeda, said Senator Bob Corker while opposing the proposed sale. They drove the Haqqani network into new locations. And its an ongoing process, said Secretary Kerry while rejecting the senators argument. But he acknowledged that some entities were still there, complicat(ing) our efforts very significantly. Mr Kerry appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday to defend the administrations budget for 2017, which provides $50.1 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of State and the US Agency for International Aid. We are helping Afghanistan and Pakistan to counter violent extremism, Secretary Kerry told the lawmakers while explaining why the administration was seeking $742 million for Pakistan as well. The hearing turned into a mini-debate on Americas complicated relations with Pakistan. Senator Corker, who chairs the committee, accused Pakistan of practising outright blatant duplicity, as it maintained friendly ties with the US but continued to support the extremists as well. He claimed that a tremendous amount of US taxpayers money had gone into Waziristan, changing the context of those areas and yet they did not stop supporting militants. He then moved to Islamabads request for purchasing eight F-16 aircraft from the United States and pledged to continue opposing the deal if Pakistan did not stop the alleged duplicity. Mr Kerry assured the senator that the State Department had evaluated all aspects of the counterterrorism efforts with respect to Pakistans impact on Afghanistan. He said that a few weeks ago, he met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Switzerland and discussed US concerns about the need to rein in particular terrorist groups that are either home-grown in Pakistan or are using Pakistan as a sanctuary. Nawaz Sharif,Zardari rigged elections: Imran Khan MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan alleged on Wednesday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari rigged elections to reach the corridors of power to commit corruption. Asif Ali Zardari was twice arrested from the Prime Ministers House for his involvement in corruption and Nawaz Sharif carries the same record, he said at a public meeting organised by the PTI in Kotli. Mr Khan said that 12 cases were pending in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against Mr Sharif, which were a big source of worry for him. He said that only 30 years ago Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif did not possess much wealth and now they owned properties worth billions of rupees in foreign countries. Both leaders siphon off their ill-gotten money outside the country, Mr Khan said. He said that due to corruption in Pakistan, overseas Kashmiris were reluctant to return and make investments here. He said that privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Pakistan Steel Mills was not the best solution; instead, the government should focus on the management of the two institutions. He claimed that PTI would root out corruption and corrupt leaders from the country. Mr Khan said it was time for the AJK people to change their destiny by voting out PPP and PML-N leaders, who had been allegedly looting the people. He asked the AJK youths to thwart the possibility of rigging and compete at every polling station in coming elections to the Legislative Assembly. The people in Azad Kashmir should follow the example of Jahangir Khan Tareen who put every polling station of his constituency under the watchful eyes of his supporters to prevent rigging and defeated the PML-N by more than 40,000 votes, the PTI leader said. Drawing a comparison of previous governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the one being run by his party, he said that people should see for themselves how the system had been changed. He claimed that Naya Pakistan had been built in KP and next would be Naya Azad Kashmir. The PTI leader said that first time in the KPs history a sitting minister had been sent to jail on corruption charges. This is a revolution, he said. He said the PTI believed in empowerment of people through local bodies system because it delivers and solves problems of the people at their doorsteps. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa we transferred powers to local bodies, to villages and hospitals we made hospitals autonomous and have not privatised them, he said. Mr Khan said that the PTI wanted to strengthen the LB system in AJK to serve the people at the grassroots level. He also appealed to the United Nations to ensure that the right to self-determination of Kashmiri people was granted to them so that they could decide their future. From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As... Note: The Civil Unions Bill [20/2014] has successfully passed through the Maltese Parliament with 37 votes in favour, 30 absentions and 0 votes against on the 14th April 2014. It gives the same rights and obbligations to same-sex couples as those who are registered in a civil marriage (mutatis mutandis). The Bill was signed by the President of the Republic of Malta on the 17th April 2014 and became Law [Act IX/2014]. Featured post Greedy Nigerians Cashing In On The Rising Dollar Exchange Rate I was in Enugu and went to Ogbete market to buy red oil and discovered the price skyrocketed. Usually, I buy 10 liters of red oil #2,800... About Me Unknown View my complete profile Blog Archive Phuket, 25 February 2016 Representatives of Amari Phuket, Richard Marco, Hotel Manager (second from right), Chonnanan Prakarn, Director, Human Resources (right) and Suchada Thongkum, Team Member, Human Resources (left) recently visited Patong Hospital to donate the funds received from the World Cancer Day Project to Dr. Sirichai Silapa-archa, Patong Hospital Director (second from left). Amari Phukets entire team worked together to raise the project fund successfully. The fund will be used in hospital operations to help cancer patients. U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro received 9 out of a possible 100 points on the League of Conservation Voters 2015 National Environmental Scorecard, the second lowest score in New York's congressional district, the group announced Wednesday. Stefanik's voted in line with the environmental group's position on just two of 35 bills and amendments the group used to calculate its score. Stefanik voted in agreement with the group to reject an amendment that would have prohibited federal government agencies and interest groups from collaborating on policies on oceans and the Great Lakes. Stefanik voted in agreement with the group to reject an amendment that would have restricted administration authority over national monuments and public lands in seven western states. Click here to read details of Stefanik's score. Tom Flanagin, a spokesman for Stefanik, said The Nature Conservancy, a separate national conservation group, awarded Stefanik a "Supporter of Nature" award in October. "Congresswoman Stefanik is proud of her work on behalf of North Country constituents and continues to work in a bipartisan fashion in Congress," Flanagin said. "She is pleased to have helped the House pass legislation to extend critical tax credits for wind and solar power, legislation to ban synthetic microbeads that pollute our waters, legislation to extend the critical Land Water Conservation Fund, and is an original cosponsor of Congressman Chris Gibsons resolution on climate change, among other measures." The average score in the House, nationally, was 41. Democrats generally scored higher than Republicans. U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, with a 46, received the highest score of any Republican in the New York delegation. The New York League of Conservation Voters, in a press release announcing the scorecard, praised Gibson for introducing a resolution addressing climate change, a resolution Stefanik co-spsonored. The resolution was not factored into the scoring. Elsewhere in the region, Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, scored 100. U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., both scored 100. The League of Conservation Voters contributed $3,440 to the campaign of Democratic congressional candidate Aaron Woolf, who ran against Stefanik in 2014 for an open seat. CHESTER In all the years Lynn McDonald dreamed of traveling to Africa, she never thought it would give her life such purpose. McDonald, who lives in Chestertown, wanted to learn more about a culture different from her own, and see landscapes a half-world away. At the same time she was finally lining up a trip to Uganda, a note on the bulletin board at her church about The MoonCatcher Project caught her eye. McDonald attends the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Glens Falls, where, she said, People do more than just talk about something they collect money for shoes, or mattresses in Nepal or whatever they do something. McDonald grabbed a copy of the flier, brought it home and looked up MoonCatcher online. The organization, founded by Schenectady resident Ellie von Wellsheim, provides reusable sanitary napkins for girls in developing nations. The girls have to stay home because theres no money for disposable pads to use during menstruation, McDonald said. Forced to miss up to a week of school each month, students fall behind and often end up leaving. One of the countries mentioned on the site was Uganda, so McDonald contacted von Wellsheim, who gave her 80 kits to hand out during her three-week trip. McDonald started off by explaining the kits to staff at the country inn where she was staying. It was like giving out candy, she said. Girls were knocking on my door because they heard about the pads. McDonald also spoke to a youth group and at a local high school, where the few dozen kits she had to give out didnt meet even a fraction of the need. Its such a drop in the bucket, she said. I had no idea, McDonald said, tears forming in her eyes. Its like Oprah said, When you find out about it, you have to do something. Thats what happened to me, she said. I dont know how to make them. But you just show up. People like McDonald are what makes a difference, said von Wellsheim, who hosts MoonBees workshops at which volunteers make the reusable sanitary pads with materials provided by MoonCatcher throughout the area. We move from church to synagogue to community center to school, in all different towns, so we reach a wide range of people to get word out and to give people the opportunity to do really meaningful service work, von Wellsheim said. She is hosting a MoonBee from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Universal Unitarian Church in Queensbury. Von Wellsheim first heard about menstruation sidelining education efforts about five or six years ago. She was horrified to think girls were forced out of school because of their periods. I thought, This is impossible, this cant be happening, she recalled. When she saw the primitive reusable pads being created, she knew she could improve upon the design. The daughter of a sewing factory owner, von Wellsheim had spent much of her life around sewing machines and fabric. Using her then-college-aged daughter as a tester, she perfected the design: a pad made out of four layers of bamboo and cotton, which is highly absorbent, offering a lot of protection; a layer of Tyvek and flannel; plus a bag in which to store the clean pads and a waterproof bag for the soiled ones. Each kit costs less than $5 to make. The pads are washable and fast-drying, so girls can return to school the next day. Groups from throughout the United States contact von Wellsheim to get materials to hold bees, which often attract up to 40 volunteers. While she didnt keep count of the number produced the first few years, she estimates MoonCatcher has provided a few thousand pads. The kits are sent over on humanitarian aid trips or with travelers like McDonald. Von Wellsheim is making a trip to Uganda in March, when she will set up sewing guilds to teach people living there how to make the pads. The way we can make huge changes is to make sure were educated, and if something as simple as a pad can keep a girl in school, what a simple thing, von Wellsheim said. MOREAU The water damage at Town Hall was caused by installing the wrong type of spigots, insurance inspectors determined. The spigots were not frost-resistant and were only intended for interior use in this climate. They froze in the cold weather two weeks ago. Two pipes burst, damaging the court and all the court offices. Repairs are underway and the court will reopen for business on Thursday. Town Board members expect the issue to lead to more litigation the third such case involving the new Town Hall and highway garage. The other cases involve the poorly-constructed fire suppression sprinkler system at Town Hall, which led to a flood last year, and the badly leaking roof at the new highway garage. The problems are bigger than just construction mistakes, said Supervisor Gardner Congdon. Its more comprehensive. The way the inspections and program was put together it just shows a lack of good judgment all the way around, he said. Thats why you hire people to oversee something of this magnitude. He said it was clear that many people did not do their jobs well, given the history of the building less than three years old. Officials found more problems when they opened walls to reach the broken water pipes. At least 100 feet of a main heating duct was not wrapped with insulation, said Town Board member Todd Kusnierz. We have received complaints from the judges offices that it was always cold, he said. Well, now we know why it was cold. Hes frustrated by the ongoing problems at Town Hall. Theres no question a new structure should not be having these issues, he said. Crisafulli Brothers was awarded the bid for all plumbing work. Vice President Alan Ayers did not return a call seeking comment. The town is insured against all damages and officials expect the town to be fully reimbursed for repairs. But the insurance company is sending an engineer to review the claim and ensure there isnt a potential for additional damage in the area where the pipes froze. It would be nice to think that every penny of our national defense fund is spent wisely and thoughtfully to keep our country safe. It would be nice to think that politics or political favor are not part of the equation when deciding how much to spend and what to spend it on to keep our military strong. But an Associated Press article this week reminds us that is not the case. Remarkably, Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee, who are generally frugal when it comes to taxpayer money, believe the United States should budget $18 billion more than what President Barack Obama has proposed. What The Associated Press pointed out is that the 34 GOP lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee, including our own Rep. Elise Stefanik, have received $10 million in campaign contributions over the course of their congressional careers from defense contractors. Defense contractors can be especially generous when there is $600 billion at stake each year. While The Associated Press report singled out Republicans, we want to remind our readers this is a systemic problem, and both parties benefit greatly from campaign contributions from defense contractors. The Associated Press reported the committees chairman, Mac Thornberry of Texas, has received $941,700 in contributions from companies that do business with the Department of Defense and their employees. Rep. J. Randy Forbes, chairman of the subcommittee that oversees Navy and Marine Corps programs, has received $801,606. Rep. Rob Wittman, chairman of the military readiness subcommittee, has collected $701,286. Stefanik, a neophyte who just completed her first year in office, had collected $56,000 from defense contractors as of Dec. 31. As The Associated Press article also pointed out, Thornberry, Forbes, Wittman and the 31 other Republicans on the Armed Services Committee spelled out their argument for more defense spending in an 11-page letter sent to the chairman of the House Budget Committee. They said the U.S. needs to reclaim its role as a global leader to counter threats that are greater than at any time since World War II. While terrorism remains a significant concern, the threat of invasion does not appear as imminent as Republicans might have us believe. We know of no group, think tank or media outlet that has concluded the United States has been displaced as the leading military power in the world. If anything, it is quite the opposite. All the rankings we reviewed show the United States remains the nation with the most military might. We spend approximately $600 billion a year on defense, while China spends $216 billion and Russia $84.5 billion. It drops off significantly after that. The independent Government Accountability Office further identified several areas of the Defense Department budget as high risk for waste and fraud, including weapons purchases. That reminded us of Rep. Stefaniks support of a defense missile system to be located in the North Country, even though the military did not support such a system. We also noticed that the Raytheon Co., which has donated $8,000 to Stefaniks campaign, builds missile systems. And the General Dynamics Corp., which has donated $2,000 to Stefanik, builds wheeled combat vehicles, the kind we suspect are used by the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. Were not suggesting that any of these politicians had a quid pro quo arrangement with defense contractors, but these companies did donate $10 million to members of the committee. They must think they are getting something for their money. Local editorials represent the opinion of The Post-Star editorial board, which consists of Publisher Terry Coomes, Controller/Operations Director Brian Corcoran, Editor Ken Tingley, Projects Editor Will Doolittle and citizen representative George Nelson. tips, thoughts, tales about living and teaching in Japan M WAQAR..... "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --Albert Einstein !!! NEWS,ARTICLES,EDITORIALS,MUSIC... Ze chi pe mayeen yum da agha pukhtunistan de.....(Liberal,Progressive,Secular World.)''Secularism is not against religion; it is the message of humanity.'' Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! The supervision he added if it had been provided, would have avoided what is now a sad story that has led to many arrests. Mahama told a packed Parliament in Ghanas capital, Accra, that a lot of work is going on behind the scenes to ensure that the investors get their funds back. The President gave his last State of the Nation address ahead of elections in November. Thursdays address was partly retrospective and progressive as he gave account of his stewardship in the last few years of his term in office as well as revisit some of the major challenges hes confronted, and the gains made in the process. This he said was is in fulfillment of a pledge made by government to absolve the cost of secondary education in Ghana. The introduction of free secondary education, popularly referred to as "Free SHS" was a contentious issue in Ghana during the 2012 elections, with the population divided as to its implementation. While a section of the public believed that 'Free SHS' will enable many deprived Ghanaians to access secondary education, others expressed fears that it could cause the quality of education in secondary schools to drop. He noted that the over 200 community Day Schools being built will create 200,000 new places in the SHS system. This he said is the biggest ever expansion of education in the entire history of Ghana. According to him, government has introduced two new programs in Education: Teacher Professional Development where the aim is to train 95% of teachers in Basic level by 2020. He said government has supplied free uniforms, sandals and text books. In June 2015, he said government distributed 10,000 Made in Ghana sandals as part of his social interventions. Delivering the state of the nation address, the president said the move will create about 1, 400 new direct jobs in the Ghanaian businesses. The Ghana Education Service in 2015 had listed some of the schools that will benefit from the implementation of the progressive free SHS policy. They include: Central Region 27, 795 students in 54 schools Western Region 38, 751 in 56 Schools Ashanti Region 64, 430 from 102 schools Northern 17, 648 students out of 45 schools Brong Ahafo 38, 751 from56 schools. Upper East 1,395 students out of 28 schools Upper West 877 students from 23 schools Eastern 34,157 students out of 82 schools Greater Accra 52,664 consisting of 46 schools Presenting the State of the Nation address in parliament on Thursday 25 February, 2016, the President said: "It has taken team work and the cooperation of many people to achieve this success." "A year ago, I stood before this very august house and promised to fix the power sector deficit that at the time had become a significant constraint to the economic growth and a destruction to Ghanaians both home and at work. This was a time of considerable national anxiety. The deficit brought about a severe power rationing and I was very much concerned. Ghanaians had to sleep in darkness or spend money to fuel generators. Businesses faced challenges, and I expressed my full regret to the nation and I took full responsibility as President and leader of this nation and commander in Chief. It has not been easy. It has been a year of hard work; Hard work that has made us to achieve the fastest mobilization of emergency power in the history of Ghana." "About 800 megawatts of power has been added to our generation within the shortest period of time. Fast-tracking the finalisation and commissioning of KTPP added 220 megawatts, Fast-tracking the commissioning of TICOs combine cycle added 110 megawatts, mobilizing Karpower added another 220 megawatts, and Mr. Speaker, as I speak, Ameri is adding 250 megawatts extra power to our transmission grid. In addition, 180 of Asogli phase two is also available as soon as we can get extra gas for it." At the Ghana launch of the international report which looks at human rights issues through the world, Amnesty International reported that the Ghana police force used excessive force in 2015's demonstrations and mass evictions. PIPS DCOP David Ampah-Bennin said Amnesty International's report is unfair on the Ghana Police Service The report pointed to the September Let My Vote Count demonstration in Accra, where police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse demonstrators taking part in a peaceful demonstration, after failing to agree on a route for the march. It also said there was excessive force used by police regarding the June evictions of Old Fadama, known as Sodom and Gomorrah, where police used tear gas against people demonstrating against the demolition and several people were injured. However, in responding to the report at the Accra launch, Director General of the Ghana Police Intelligence and Professional Standards (PIPS) DCOP David Ampah-Bennin, said I believe that today we have been hit below the belt. He said Ghana police were one of the best police bodies on the continent, and the unit he directed worked to check the excesses of our own personnel. The unit received about 20 complaints a day from citizens accusing police of unfair treatment, extortion or abuse of office. Of the Amnesty International accusations, DCOP Ampah-Bennin said police were tasked with protecting life and property. With demonstrations, he said routes will be agreed on but most often the demonstrators they want to do their own thing and go outside the routes. Defending the use of teargas, DCOP Ampah-Bennin said sometimes it becomes necessary when we see stark destruction facing the police. He said police were concerned with youth aggressiveness. This is what is becoming a menace in the country. The youth are becoming more aggressive and destructive. Police also wanted to stop 'mob justice' where a suspected criminal is attacked and lynched by a mob. He said some of the people attacked and lynched by the mobs could be falsely accused of the crime. Responding to DCOP Ampah-Bennin's comments, Amnesty International Ghana director Lawrence Amesu disputed the below the belt accusation. We believe that the police are very professional and we congratulate them on the work they have done and are doing, but, there are some actions they are taking now, that if it is not nipped in the bud will be a problem." Amnesty was concerned about civilian deaths at the hands of police when trying to control a crowd, particularly when people are killed from behind. He said for police to use their guns they have to be under attack. If the police shoot from behind it means the people are running away....we want to draw the attention of the Ghana government and the Ghana police too so that they will be more professional when handling crowds, now that we are in an election year and they will have a lot of crowds and mobs to deal with. He also wanted to see more transparency in the PIPS reports. We do not hear of the reports from the investigation so we do not know if they investigate or not. That is the major problem the Ghana people has with PIPS. It's because of that we have been campaigning for an independent complaints unit. Although both of them are constables, one of them was seen in a police uniform which depicted him as an Inspector. Personnel of the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards (PIPS) Bureau arrested Constables Faati Jacob Tinob and Musah Azumah at Tabora Junction, near Lapaz in Accra, about 8 p.m. last Thursday. Read more:Police arrest man with 64 packs of Indian hemp The PIPS personnel had been deployed on a monitoring and inspection duty and were checking on police personnel at some selected snap checkpoints in Accra. Briefing the media, the Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent of Police Mr Cephas Arthur, said the PIPS team became suspicious when Tinob and Azumah started withdrawing from the checkpoint on seeing the police vehicle. He said Tinob was apprehended when he attempted to escape, while Azumah jumped on a motorbike which was parked close to the checkpoint and sped off. The PIPS team, he said, managed to lure Azumah back to the checkpoint and he too was arrested. A search on them revealed GH155 on Tinob, while Azumah had GH832 and two walkie talkies on him. Preliminary investigations, Mr Arthur said, had established that Azumah, a Constable with service number 78572, had been posted to Akyem Apirade in the Eastern Region last year. He was, however, said to have reported for duty and asked permission from the unit commander there to return to Accra to take a few of his belongings and also put his home in order. Azumah is said to have refused to return to his new post, in spite of attempts to get him to do so. His accomplice, Tinob, also a constable with the service number 48838, was attached to the Visibility Unit of the Patrol Department in Accra. See related: Two remanded for robbery When they were later paraded before the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr John Kudalor, the two men failed to explain their actions. The IGP then ordered for a search to be conducted in their homes. In Azumahs house, the search party found one riot control armoured vest, four bullet-proof vests, two drivers licences, one police camouflage with an Inspector lanyard, a pair of military trousers, two military caps, two camouflage bags, one military shorts, among other items. However, no incriminating item was found in Tinobs room when it was searched. The two have since been detained at the Nima Police Station. More here: Husband throws acid on wife over her dowry Mr Arthur said the Police Administration was doing everything possible to flush out people with dubious characters in the service in order to ensure effective service delivery and public protection. He, therefore, urged the public to assist in the exercise by reporting suspicious characters to the police. In his book The Ghana Coup Afrifa fails to mention the fact that the Coup was sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States of America. He also disagrees with his co-conspirator Commissioner of Police A.K Deku that the Coup was largely plotted at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra. Afrifa claims that the plot was hatched in Kumasi and that Colonel Emmanuel Akwasi Kotoka was the central figure in it. Read more: Four major players in the 1966 coup Excerpt of Afrifas book is published below; A few days after our eventful trip to the north, I visited Colonel Kotoka in his house and we conversed about Nkrumah's forthcoming visits to Hanoi. We agreed that during his absence, a coup should be staged. It seemed that the colonel had been thinking about a coup for some time. He was so happy that we stayed up until the early hours of the morning drinking beer and making plans. I felt so relieved and excited on my return from the colonel's house that I could not sleep that night. The following morning he called me to his office and put certain facts before me to enable us to assess the situation. Without wasting time, the colonel went to Accra to meet Mr Harley, then commissioner of police. The broad plan of the coup was drafted In Colonel Kotoka's office at Kwadaso in Kumasi. After this, the Colonel and I swore to each other that in the event of anything happening to either of us, the one left alive would see the coup through. The Colonel told me that if he was killed or captured in Accra in the course of our preparation, I should continue with our mission and carry it through to the end. So far as I know, the only other person who knew the details of the plan was Mr Harley, whom I had not met at that point. We all agreed that Major-Gen Ankrah should lead our Revolutionary government. I was Colonel Kotoka's Brigade Major, and his staff officer in charge of training and operations. Whatever contribution I made to this exercise was on my Commander's orders. But I would not say this if the Coup had failed. I was prepared to take my place at the gallows and leave my name in history. To us the exercise commenced at 04.00 hours on Wednesday 23rd February 1966 when 600 men representing all the units in our Garrison in Tamale started moving. They were moving to the south and to an unknown destination for a test exercise in connection with the Rhodesian operation. Colonel Kotoka and I met the troops between Ejura and Atebubu at 12 hours, and there I was left in Command while he proceeded to Accra to confirm to Mr Harley and Brigadier Ocran that the exercise was going ahead. Meanwhile, Major Coker- Appiah, my trusted friend from Sandhurst, had been assigned responsibility for the arrest of the director of Military Intelligence, Brigadier Hasan, and the Commander of P.O.G.R. Colonel Zanerigu, before the H-hour. The arrest of the late Major -General Barwah was a separate exercise. The director of MI surrendered on orders, and the P.O.G.R. Commander escaped through a window. As for Barwah, he resisted arrest, most unwisely and thereby compelled an officer to adopt other methods which he himself knew would be adopted if he was stubborn. By 06.00hrs on 24th February the Accra police had rounded up most of the Ministers.Not a single shot was fired at the Castle. At the Flagstaff House, our casualties would have been very heavy if the opposition had been trained properly, and by this time most of our men were wounded. We captured the Ghana Radio Station without much incident and at 05.25 hours we were in full control of the studios. I went on radio and asked the now awakened Ghanaians to stay by the radios for important announcements at 6 a.m., and I told them, there would not be the usual news. Just before six o'clock, Colonel Kotoka arrived at the radio station. He shook my hand and said "Well-done, Akwasi". He then went on air and in these words told the nation what had happened. "Fellow citizens of Ghana, I have come to inform you that the military in co-operation with the Ghana Police, have taken over the government of Ghana today. The Myth surrounding Nkrumah has been broken. Parliament is dissolved and Kwame Nkrumah is dismissed from Office. All ministers are also dismissed. The CPP is disbanded with effect from now. It is illegal for any person to belong to it. We appeal to you to be calm and cooperative; all persons in detention will be released in due course. Please stay by your radios and await further details Thus, for the first time we told Ghanaians and the whole world what we had done. This in brief, heralded our new era. At Kumasi, a funny incident happened. At the end of Colonel Kotoka's broadcast, the Ashantis flocked to the bars, drinking and singing the praise of the Armed Forces. Then someone said, "You don't know Kwame Nkrumah. This is one of his wicked plans to test the loyalty of the masses. He wants to find out who is with him, and deal with those who are not". And as if they had been ordered to disperse at gun point, the gathering crowd disintegrated as they run into their houses. This was at Ashanti New Town, one of the United Party's strongholds. Delivering the state of the nation address in Parliament on Thursday, February 25, 2016, he said "JB's loss is both seen and felt, we've lost a good colleague and Ghana has lost a good son." According to him, "It pains me to see the vacant seat of my good friend JB Danquah Adu." Background Joseph Boakye Danquah, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) legislator for Abuakwa North, was stabbed to death at his East Legon residence. The police say they suspect foul play and have launched forensic investigations into the case. See also: NPP politicians in shock over death of colleague Mr Danquah was stabbed multiple times by an unknown assailant (s) at his Shiashie residence in Accra, prompting the police to launch an investigation. This demands being mindful of their pronouncements during interaction with politicians called to pay homage on them in their palaces. He was addressing a meeting of NHC, the first to be held in the year, in Kumasi. He used to remind those responsible for the conduct of the polls to exhibit high level of neutrality to maintain public confidence in them. They should ensure that things were done fairly and transparently to make the elections credible. Naa Prof Nabila also asked the political parties and their supporters to be act more responsibly to reduce tension and prevent nasty clashes. He said it was important that to make sure that the nation remained intact after the November polls. He renewed the call to parliament to move quickly to pass the Chieftaincy Amendment Bill to strengthen the chieftaincy institution. Read also: Mahama promises free and fair polls Dr. Henry Seidu Danaah, Minister for Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs, underscored the important role chiefs played in keeping the nation united and stable. The president has therefore called on political parties, civil society and Ghanaians as a whole to give the EC the much needed support to perform its mandate. "Let the election be clean and devoid of insults," President Mahama added. He assured the EC of adequate support in terms of resources for its work. The EC has come under some criticisms from some pressure groups and other organisations, especially with regards to the call for a new voters' register. Recently, pressure group, Let My Vote Count Alliance accused the EC of putting on board its Election Steering Committee a group of NDC personalities, adding that the Committee must be resolved. President Mahama in delivering the State of Nation Address on Thursday, touted several achievements his administration has chalked in education, politics, as well as in the economy. But the Acting Chairman of the NPP believes those achievements are rather 'mediocre'. "...You've made roads here, build hospitals there, infrastructure here and so forth. Any government does that anyway; it is a sign of mediocrity. He need not come and tell everybody," Freddie Blay added. Apart from Joshua, the other defendants in the suit filed through their lawyer, Chief Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), are the Registered Trustees of SCOAN. Also joined as defendants in the suit are the engineers who built the collapsed building, Messrs Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun, and their companies, Jandy Trust Limited and Hardrock Construction and Engineering Company. The other defendants in the suit are the Attorney General of Lagos State and the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development. Read more: Wife finalises divorce from Christ Embassy founder The claimants are urging the court to declare that it was the negligence of the defendants that led to the death of their father, who had a company before his death. They are also seeking to be paid a separate N30m to cover the cost expended on filing the suit. The minors and their mother, Amina Busseh Bashi, a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo, are seeking a declaration of the court that the defendants failed in their responsibility of ensuring the safety of their father who came within their domain in 2014. They are urging the court to hold that the Lagos State Attorney General and the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development failed in their duty of regulating and ensuring that the six-storey building belonging to SCOAN was fit for habitation. The fresh suit has yet to be assigned to any judge. Opening the clinic,the chief executive officer of the bank ,Mr.Stephen Antwi Asimeng outlined the role of SMEs in the Ghanaian economy . "Research has proven that 70% of annual GDP is contributed by SMEs.Collectively they contribute the largest share to the economy.UT Banks core area is SME.we have come to understand that SME's usually need a lot more than financing and that is why we have assembled the best SME minds to teach us how to unravel some of the problems." He also revealed that the bank would in the coming months launch new products including an SME rating model that would among other things use multi factor variables to assess credit worthiness and allow the bank to provide added insight to clients on how to improve credit profiles. One of the key note speakers at the clinic ,Mr.Sampson Agkligoh from InvestCorp urged SMEs to consider when to spend and when to invest while taking tax planning seriously. Also speaking at the clinic was the Senior Investment Officer of Oasis Capital, Mr.Richard Siaw outlines alternative sources of funding for SMEs. The payment was made on the basis that this will be applied toward a settlement, where one is eventually, hopefully arrived at, MTN said in a statement Wednesday. The Johannesburg-based company also agreed to withdraw the matter from the High Court in Lagos as part of efforts to reach a settlement. This is a most encouraging development, MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer Ferdi Moolman told Bloomberg. It demonstrates a willingness and sincerity by both parties to work together toward a positive outcome. MTN's shares plunged by 19% last week Friday after a profit warning on Thursday. The company said its profit for 2015 fell by 20% due to poor performance in Nigeria. Nigeria accounts for about 38% of MTN's revenue. But MTN said the profit warning did not include the penalty. There remains some uncertainty as to the final amount of the Nigerian fine, should an out of court settlement be reached, the company said The President Mahama together with the Turkish president will cut a sword for the official commencement of work on this monumental aviation complex. President Mahama underscored that the new terminal will accommodate 5million travellers a year, 1250 passengers an hour, six boarding air bridges. Passengers will no longer get down and board a bus but walk through modern air bridges straight into the plane. He revealed that the Terminal three will have large retail area including three business lounges among others which will make Ghana, a preferred transit hub for passengers in West Africa. He emphasised that the project is proudly financed from credit raised by the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority on its own balance sheet with no sovereign guaranty or public charge to its debt stock. Read more: 10 best railway journeys around the world IBM stated that countries must begin to tap new insights from available data, connect to the global information infrastructure and join forces with established institutions with a proven track record of achievements and transformation results. Uyi Stewart, Chief Scientist of the Kenya-based IBM Research Africa laboratory stated that the government should lead the way in the development of their countries and citizens. In all areas of human development, technology now exists to allow our people all over the continent to quit living in the past, he said. It is important that government lead the way by becoming more efficient in the delivery of services to citizens and this can only happen when technology begins to be at the core of decision-making and public sector administration, he added. Arriving at Heathrow Airport 6am Wednesday morning, Sarkodie was met by awaiting Paparrazi, journalists and fans who waited patiently to capture the first images of the artist as he appeared through BA departures in an all black classic slick jacket and jeans with his trademark dark shades like a true super star. Sparing only 10 minutes to shake hands with the press and taking a few pictures, Sarkodie was quickly whisked off by his manager to his first round of interviews at VOX Africa in their plush Battersea studios to record Face2Face and Focus on Ghana. Apparently Peter Okoye who just wrapped up the first season of his dance show sponsored by GLO was said to have exchanged words with a top executive of the telco. When GLO signed Psquare in 2010 it was widely regarded as the most expensive endorsement deal in Nigeria. The deal was said to be worth over N100m. Last year Peter and Paul Okoye renewed their deal as they were given brand new cars. Peter Okoye was given a Mercedes Benz G-Wagon and Paul Okoye took home a brand new Range Rover. It seems this might be the end of the road for Psquare and GLOs six-year partnership. If this is so some people are of the opinion that they should not be worried about losing their endorsement deal. It might just be a treat. Psquare is still listed as an ambassador of GLO on the telcos official website. Below is a list of four artistes who were dumped by GLO; 1) Naeto C Rapper Naeto C signed an endorsement deal with Mike Adenugas telco when the company was on a signing spree. He was however dropped last year maybe because he had not been active for a while. Naeto C did not take to it kindly. Globacom is a top brand and I enjoyed the 2 years I spent with them. I didnt expect to be a lifelong ambassador so it wasn't a big deal. I just hope they appreciated my services and commitment to their platform because when the media was saying I was dumped and people were throwing me under the bus, nobody at Globacom said anything. I didnt really like that, I felt it couldve been handled better. But nevertheless Im grateful for the opportunity said Naeto C on Twitter when asked about GLO dropping him. After leaving GLO Naeto C went ahead to drop two albums and in 2015. 2. Lynxxx The Syndik8 rapper joined GLO also in 2013, but his inactivity within the following years cost him his position as an ambassador of the brand. Lynxxx did not say anything about him being bounced. The rapper has not released new album since his debut album in 2010. 3. Waje Unknown to many singer Waje who signed with GLO in 2013 was dropped last year. Lynxxx and Naeto Cs departure made the headlines but Wajes contract wasn't renewed. For some reason her exit did not make the news. Waje is currently working on her second album. 4. Chee Many wondered why and how the female singer Chee formerly known as Chidynma came about to be a GLO ambassador. There were stories that she is close friends with Mike Adenugas daughter, and they went to the same school. Last year Chees deal with GLO was not renewed and she had to make way for the new ambassadors. 5. D'banj The Koko Master was the first big contemporary artiste that was signed to be a GLO ambassador. Unfortunately in 2010 D'banj was dropped as an ambassador. It was alleged that he demanded for more money and Mike Adenuga wasn't accepting that. D'banj was replaced by Psquare. Last year GLO reshuffled ambassadorial list by adding new celebrities including mega pop star Wizkid. The Star Boy act who was formerly with MTN left the South Africa telco to GLO for a deal worth over N100m. Wizkids arrival led to GLO terminating contracts of some of their ambassadors. Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! It was gathered that the deceased and his mates had embarked on the money ritual route after one of them whose father is a native doctor, promised them that the substance would make them rich. The native doctor's son, according to the report, had told his colleagues that he has mastered that art from his father and could equally prepare a charm that would make them rich and therefore, gave them the substance which led to the death of Fatai whil the rest are battling for their lives in a hospital. After taking the fatal substance, all four students reportedly took ill with Fatai giving up the ghost two days later while the other victims who were also on the verge of death, were taken to hospital. The Chinese official said that the country's latest confirmed cases were a 38-year-old man and his 8 year old son from Yiwu City in the Zhejiang Province, who were bitten by mosquitoes while visiting Fiji and Samoa. The other three people diagnosed with Zika were from the Jiangxi, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces. Gazali said further that the bomb involved had been recovered from Boko Haram and was being kept as an exhibit. Policemen were mostly affected and we dont know the actual casualties for now as the place is not yet safe for us to go in, he said. The blast is also said to have affected the walls of a primary school near the station, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). According to the state Commissioner for Information, Malam Ahmad Sajoh, some pupils had sustained minor injuries and had been treated and discharged from hospital. ----------------------------------------- The conflict between the military and the armed group Boko Haram continued, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians and over two million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at the end of the year, he said. Torture and other ill-treatment by the police and security forces were widespread. Demolition of informal settlements let to the forced eviction of thousands of people, death sentence continued to be imposed, although no executions were reported. The military committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in its response to Boko Haram between 2011 and 2015, with extrajudicial executions by the military, arrest of people during screening operations, where suspects detained by the military had no access to their families or lawyers and were not brought before the court. Boko Haram continued to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity in northeast Nigeria, killing thousands of civilians especially the attack on Baga, satellite images revealed that more than 3,700 buildings had been damaged or destroyed in the attack. In July, the police announced they were reviewing the Forces Orders, including Force Order 237, which allows police officers to shoot suspects and detainees who attempt to avoid arrest or escape. Many police divisions, including the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and the Forced Criminal Investigation Division, kept rooms where suspects were tortured while being interrogated, he added. The troops have recently been making in-roads in the fight against the insurgents, penetrating their camps and destroying means of supply. The Army in the statement said Following dislodgement of Boko Haram terrorists camps @ border towns of Kumshe &Talala by joint operations of Nigerian & Cameroonian forces, the terrorists made a futile attempt on Dikwa early today. From all indications, the terrorists aimed at causing havoc at the IDP Camp located at Dikwa. The statement also said However and unknown to the fleeing Boko Haram terrorists, the Armed Forces Special Forces in blocking positions decisively dealt with D terrorists; killing many, recovered vehicle, arms and ammunitions. Unfortunately, we lost a soldier & a member of the CJTF. The tweet said "troops recovered 26 bodies of the Boko Haram terrorists, while others escaped with gun shot wounds, destroyed 3 VIED, 1 MBIED and 2 Gun trucks. "The gallant troops also recovered 1 Gun truck mounted with an Anti-Aircraft Gun, 1 Dushka Anti-Aircraft Gun, 1 Dushka Anti-Aircraft Gun, 1 Browning Anti-Aircraft Gun, 1 Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) Tube. Others include 1 GPMG." They also recovered 236 rounds of 12.7mm ammunitions, 396 rounds of 7.62mm ammunitions &101 rounds of 762mm (Special), ammunitions. Sani, who represents the Kaduna Central Senatorial District, made the comment on Wednesday, February 24, 2016, while speaking at a symposium in Akure, Ondo State, Premium Times reports. Something that has bothered some of us here in line with the insurgency is, when will the Chibok girls be freed? he asked. Someone said the Chibok girls will never be free, but I can tell you that they will be free and they are alive. There are two ways to get them: the first is to use force to free them and before you apply force, you have to know where they are. You also have to weigh the consequences of raiding the camp with such number of persons, because the insurgents have nothing to lose. The second option is to explore ways of extracting them out through negotiation and negotiation is still possible. There are a few people, not a panel of eminent Nigerians or a panel, there are a few people who the government needs to reach out to. They said they were going to free the girls on the condition we freed their people. And when we came to the negotiating table, and the government said it cannot free the terrorists because they have done a lot of harm, he said. The three things we promised you, two have been carried out. The first task is to defeat Boko Haram and I want to tell you that as at today Boko Haram has been defeated, he said. When I said defeat it doesn't mean that there won't be hiccups here and there but we are doing the mop up operations. So we are at the mop up phase of the operation. We are also making efforts to rescue those who are being held hostage at some marked locations. We hope to rescue the Chibok girls but our target is not just limited to the Chibok girls but all the hostages, he added. The Chibok girls were abducted in April 2014 and most of them remain in captivity. -------------------------------------- Secondus was arrested on Wednesday, February 24, 2016, for allegedly receiving luxury vehicles worth N300 million from Jide Omokore, an associate of former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, Vanguard reports. It was Omokores probe that exposed Secondus and we had to go after him. It was in the process of trying to trace where Omokores money went to that we found that exotic cars worth over N300 million were bought for distribution to PDP top shots, an EFCC source told Vanguard. Records show that he (Secondus) was the man who received the vehicles and we really want to know why he got the cars, what they were meant for and who the beneficiaries were, the source added. Another source told The Nation that Alison-Maduekes associate had confirmed that oil proceeds were diverted for the purchase of the vehicles. We have detained Secondus to assist the EFCC in its ongoing investigation of how oil receipts were diverted to the purchase of 23 vehicles, the source said. A business associate of ex-Minister of Petroleum Resources, who operates a private upstream oil and gas company, confirmed that the accruable revenue was used to buy the said vehicles. We have quizzed Secondus for about eight hours and he has made a statement. But we are yet to admit him to bail until the investigation gets to a convenient bend, the source added. The warning comes after Sheriff threatened that Fani-Kayode would not go scot free for linking him with Boko Haram. The groups comments were contained in a statement released by its Coordinator, Prince Adeoluwa Adesegun. It reads: We are using this opportunity to warn that nothing untoward should happen to one of our leaders, Chief Oluwafemi Fani-Kayode. The former minister is a committed party man and he has every right to defend the credibility of his party. There is nothing on earth that should warrant a direct personal threat to a public figure like Fani-Kayode. For us on this forum, we stand by Chief Fani-Kayode and we say it loud and clear that we uphold his fight for justice, credibility and due process in the reform of the PDP. He is a man known for speaking his mind and most of the time, he speaks the truth many are afraid of saying. If truly Senator Sheriff is a statesman, why should he issue a threat as strong as that against a party man? At a time he should be pursuing reconciliation, is it right for the chairman to engage in an open brawl? PDP should encourage rather than silence a voice of reason like that of Fani-Kayode. The senate today, February 25, directed the committee's chairman, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, to request warrant for Lamorde's arrest from the senate president, Bukola Saraki. In its report, the committee had earlier asked the senate to adopt its resolution for the arrest of Lamorde. While presenting the report to the senate, Anyanwu said:The committee, having waited in vain for the appearance of Mr Ibrahim Larmode since 24 November, 2015, was forced to conclude that he wants to evade investigation, Anyanwu said while presenting the report of the committee. The only way to get the former EFCC chairman to appear before the committee is to invoke the powers of the senate in section 89 (1C and D) of the 1999 constitution. The committee is convinced that unless this line of action is taken, the national assembly might be drawn into consequential disrepute in the future. Therefore, he recommended that a warrant of arrest be issued for former EFCC boss However, citing section 89 of the 1999 constitution, the deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said the committee has the power to request the arrest, adding that section 89(4) also gave the committee the power to ensure that the person being arrested is made to pay the cost of arresting him. The Oil mogul has put down his assets reportedly worth N500b as a wager, if his idea does not bring down the Naira to N200 per Dollar. Ubah recently boasted in an interview with Channels Television, that he knows what to do, to restore Naira in 30days. The founder of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) also said he will not disclose his idea, until the Buhari led administration gives him the go ahead. According to ThisDay, he said his activities as the coordinator of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) exposed a lot of things to him. Ubah also said he is not asking for any appointment or payment, adding that he wants to do it for the love of Nigeria. He alleged that there are some individuals who are masterminding what he called an artificial crash of the Naira. Zoro, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday in Abuja that there was a need to involve the military in reconstruction on the basis of build, secure and maintain. According to him, if the responsibility is given to foreign contractors, they will build transfer and abandon. "It is members of the armed forces that liberated these territories so they are not going to leave just yet. "They will be there to secure the rebuilt infrastructure and maintain it in case it is attacked again. "This will also be an opportunity to develop the capacity of our armed forces and allow them to recruit more, Zoro said. The lawmaker noted that artisans were the base level of the army because humanitarian work was the second mandate of the armed forces world over. "If you go to India or U.S. for instance that advertises on bill boards when they want to recruit, you will see pictures of soldiers assisting in humanitarian work. "Maybe there was a disaster like a tsunami, they render help to attract young people who want to go into the army. Zoro expressed concerns that those displaced on account of the crisis in the North-East comprised mainly of the most productive of the country's population. "Take a look at the IDPs, they are our productive population; age between 20 and 35. "Any country that plans to produce scientists, members of the armed forces or even for the purpose of procreation, it is that age between 20 and 35 that is the most productive. "But unfortunately these are the person that are now displaced and that is why we are saying enough is enough and Federal Government must start thinking about negotiation. "This is because all conflicts in the world end up on the negotiating table. The comment was made by IPOB Media and Publicity Officer, Emma Powerful after a prayer session held in Nnewi, Anambra State for the release of the groups leader, Nnamdi Kanu from prison. Nigeria is dwindling to irredeemable situation under the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of President Muhammadu Buhari. Biafra is the only answer to the problem Nigeria is facing now, Powerful said. The APC government is confused and the people who led Nigeria into this mess, the APC henchmen, their so called national leaders who wanted change at all cost, are now all dumb. They have no answer to the problems they have created. The only answer now is Biafra. We are not joking about this spiritual declaration. We have been praying and fasting. No bloodshed of Biafrans will go unpunished. The APC members who are deeply religious should go and ask questions about the consequences of the atrocities they have committed with the killing of innocent youths who were praying at Aba, innocent youths who were peacefully agitating in Onitsha whom the military killed. When we were taking those they shot dead to hospitals, their blood was revolting against the APC government and the party which will never know peace until they leave IPOB and other Biafra agitating groups alone. We want Chukwuokike Abiama(God Almighty) to reveal the truth in the next court and to the world, for Mr. Kanu our innocent leader, to disgrace and blind the enemies of Biafra and those who want to use Biafra and Mr. Kanu to gain cheap popularity in their misguided government that is heading for the rocks, he added. Shagari turned 91 today, February 25, 2016. GEJ also described Shagari as a blessing to the nation. He also asked God to grant Shagari more productive and fruitful years. GEJ said I am glad the Almighty Allah has blessed you with long life and good health, in line with your selfless dedication to noble causes and human progress. You have been of immense blessing to Nigeria while serving her in various capacities as a teacher, nationalist, politician and statesman. Adding that The nation will continue to be grateful to you because of your vision, wisdom, democratic ideals and outstanding achievements as President. Your altruism, patriotism and long-standing commitment to peace and development will continue to inspire many Nigerians to offer their best to their country. While Fitz is preoccupied with his own interests, Cyrus begins to orchestrate his next master plan, and Elizabeth North uses David to mastermind a plan of her own. Meanwhile, Olivia continues to question what exactly Jake is planning in his new role as head of the NSA. ALSO READ: undefined The Democratic presidential candidate,undefinedset on Monday night while fund-raising in Los Angeles. The ABC political drama "Scandal" features Goldwyn asFitzgerald Grant, the President of the United States of America, who was married to Mellie Grant and having an affair with the White House aide, Olivia Pope. ALSO READ: undefined The show returned for the second half of it's fifth season withMellie campaigning for president. The meeting, which took place at the conference room of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Aso Rock Villa, lasted for about four hours. A statement by the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Mr Laoulu Akande, said the meeting also dwelt on resolving some national issues. In the two paragraph statement, Akande said those in attendance were select leaders of the All Progressives Congress drawn from the partys National Headquarters and the legislative and executive arms of government. The statement described the event as ``a consultative meeting on issues affecting the party and the nation. It said the meeting was very useful and resourceful towards achieving the goals of the party and the government. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that some of those in attendance were Chief Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogora and his Deputy. Others were former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr David Lawal and a host of other representatives from APC controlled states. The partys claims are contained in a statement released by its National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwon. It reads in part: We are also aware that plans have been perfected by the Federal Government to arrest and detain the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and other leaders of the party on imaginary charges. Indeed, intelligence available to the party shows that the Federal Government, using its various agencies, is bent on destroying any opposition to the ruling party as all indications show that the government is more interested in humiliating the PDP than fighting corruption. Finally, we state that this war on the PDP and its leaders has, indeed, gone too far. It has now become a mockery of democratic practice. The PDPs comment comes after its former chairman, Uche Seconduswas arrested by theEconomic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday, February 24, 2016. ------------------------------------------------- The party in a petition to the police boss by the State Chairman of the party, Olajide Awe, said the accused must answer for their alleged criminal manipulation of the June 21, 2014 governorship election that returned Fayose to power. The petition reads in part, Criminal Complaint Conspiracy, Bribery, Threats and Use of Military to Perpetuate Electoral Fraud Against the People of Ekiti State; (2) investigation of the role of the Nigerian Police Force in the Ekiti State Gubernatorial Elections June 21, 2014, the party brought Arases attention to the content of the audio tape detailing criminal acts planned by those mentioned or whose voices were captured in the tape." APC recalls that on February 8, 2015, the audio recording capturing the voices of Fayose, Commander of 32 Artillery Brigade, Bri-Gen Aliyu Momoh; Senator Iyiola Omisore; Police Affairs Minister, Jelili Adesiyan; Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro and others, at a meeting where they conspired and strategized to rig the June 21 governorship election was released to the public. Secondus was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday, February 24, for allegedly receiving 25 exotic cars valued at over N300million from, Jide Omokore, the detainedpromoter of Atlantic Energy Concepts Limited, who is being held over alleged fraudulent oil deals worth billions of naira. But the causus, led by the Minority Leader of the House, Leo Ogor, said the reason given for Secondus' arrest is "flimsy" and did not connect the accused to a crime. Ogor, while speaking to the group National Assembly, said it incomprehensible how a car gift by a private businessman would be enough ground to arrest a political party official. I am calling on the EFCC to release him and apologise to him if they have nothing else against him, he stated. He said the Chieftain's arrest confirms the party's stance that Buhari's anti-corruption war is targeted at the PDP. "The recent arrest of our deputy national chairman has been of major concern to us. This points clearly to the unrelenting agenda to destroy the PDP and obliterate viable opposition by the ruling party. I think it is something that calls for concern and the time has come for every Nigerian to also start asking questions. What actually is going on? Is the EFCC actually playing somebodys script? Or, it is a form of intimidation, trying to gag the opposition parties? The allegation against our deputy national chairman is that he was given vehicles by a private business man, either as political patronage or some level of contribution," he added. Ogor also accused the APC of also receiving vehicle donations and funds for its campaigns during the 2015 general elections. The students, who were the former executive members of the Students Society of History and International Studies (SSOHIS) have nor been suspended indefinitely. An official bulletin obtained by News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday, February 24, said that the students organised the ill-fated Association Award Night party of Feb. 11, where the death of 200 level female student, Gbadeyan, occurred. According to the bulletin, the affected students are henceforth not allowed to participate in any student-related activity. It said they were also expected to face the students disciplinary committee immediately. The University had earlier said that the organisers of the party, which claimed the life of the student, did not inform it of the event. It noted that the organisers sought no approval for it, which was contrary to the rules and regulations of the institution. According to an earlier bulletin, the university authority management received the shocking news after the sad event had occurred. It said the management immediately swung into action by directing the health service department and the Security unit, Students Affairs Division to carry out detailed investigation on the reported incident. According to the bulletin, the incident was reported to the police while the body of the deceased was deposited at the morgue of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. Islamist militants have taken advantage of political chaos and a lack of central authority to establish a presence in Libya, with fighters loyal to Islamic State seizing control in Sirte and staging attacks in several other cities. The fighting in Sabratha started when local brigades - formerly among the many rebel groups that joined in an uprising that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 - attacked suspected Islamic State hideouts 15 km (9 miles) south of the city, Sabratha's municipal council said in a statement. Sabratha's mayor, Hussein al-Thwadi, told Reuters that six members of the local brigades had been killed in clashes on Tuesday evening and 11 more were beheaded when militants entered the security directorate building in the city centre overnight before the brigades forced them out. Late on Wednesday the Deterrence force, an armed brigade based in Tripoli that has a counter-terrorism role, said it had arrested three senior Libyan Islamic State members in a suburb of the capital, including Sabratha commander Mohamed Saad Altajouri. A security source from the western city of Zintan said on Wednesday that authorities had agreed to treat the five wounded brigade members from Sabratha, a sign that Zintan and Sabratha may be prepared to cooperate in the fight against Islamic State. The two cities have been on opposite sides of Libya's post-Gaddafi conflict, with Zintan allied to the internationally recognised government now based in the country's far east and Sabrathan forces among those that support a rival government whose armed supporters seized the capital Tripoli in 2014. Sabratha mayor Thwadi said local towns and cities including Zawiya and Surman had offered support against Islamic State, and that Sabratha had asked Zintan and two other towns to cut off militants' supply routes along desert roads. On Friday, the United States carried out an air strike on a suspected Islamic State training camp on the outskirts of Sabratha, killing nearly 50 people. Serbia's government said two Serbian diplomats kidnapped in Libya in November also died in the attack. More than 400 migrants have died in the Mediterranean this year, as people continue to try to cross into Europe despite bad winter weather in the second year of Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War Two. More than 110,000 people, many fleeing poverty and war in Africa and the Middle East, have arrived in Greece and Italy this year, a sharp increase on 2015, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The navy said one of its ships went to help three boats, recovering 403 survivors and the four bodies. Another ship rescued 219 people from two vessels and a third coordinated the rescue of 105 migrants from their sinking boat. The navy did not say what nationality the migrants were nor did it give any other information about their identities. Bad weather cut the number of people arriving last month in Greece, the main gateway to Europe for migrants, but the number was still nearly 40 times higher than in the previous January, European Union border agency Frontex says. Most of those were from Syria, Iraq and Aghanistan, while most of those who entered Europe via Italy were Nigerian, according to Frontex. Cathedral organ concert March 2 open to public Organist Stephen Steely will present a concert at noon on Wednesday, March 2 at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 121 W. 12th St., Davenport. He will perform organ music by Langlais, Heiller, J.S. Bach, Rheinberger, and Grieg. This concert is free, and the public is invited to attend. Our Lady of the Prairie fundraiser March 10 There are several events planned in March for Our Lady of the Prairie, 2664 145th Ave., Wheatland, Iowa. The retreats annual fundraiser will be Thursday, March 10, at 7 p.m. at Christ the King Chapel, St. Ambrose University. This is Rooted in Love: The Life and Martydom of Sister Dorothy Stang, by Sister Nancy Murray. It is a one-woman play on Stang, an American nun who was murdered in Brazil after her efforts to preserve the rain forest and its people from exploitation by logging firms and ranchers. Fee is $10. Contact information: Phone 563-336-8414, email is olpretreat@gmail.com, and online is chmiowa.org. Retreat programs include a handmade meal. Later in March: Monday, March 14, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Come to the Quiet: The Gift of Awe and Wonder", with Pat Shea. Celebration will focus on Easter. Tuesday, March 15, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., The Enneagram, A Tool for Deepening Understanding of Ourselves and Others", with Meg Bolish and Alice Martin. This is an experiential introduction to the nine personalities of the enneagram, and a chance to discover ones type. Fee: $30. March 18-19, Women of Mercy: A Retreat for Women, starts at 5 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday. With Kathy Coffey, author of Women of Mercy, and involves inspirational women and the art of Michael McGrath. Fee: $125. The Quad-Cities is again in the spotlight. As least, its own special brand of pizza dubbed Ted Cruz fired his communications director, Rick Tyler, for smearing rival Marco Rubio with the false allegation that Rubio had disparaged the Bible. And Tyler's transgression is indeed inexcusable: He forgot that his boss prefers to do the smearing himself. There is something amusing in watching Rubio and Donald Trump come to the shocking discovery that Cruz is a scoundrel. "Biggest liar in politics!" Trump tweeted Monday. Accusing Cruz of "fraud" and "dirty tricks," Trump offered a diagnosis: "This guy is sick." Rubio, too, detected "a very disturbing pattern of deceptive campaigns and flat-out just lying to voters." Where have these guys been? Just a few months ago, Trump was calling Cruz "a friend of mine and a good guy." But Cruz has been smearing and fabricating since he arrived in Washington three years ago. As early as April 2013, I observed a perplexing tendency at the Capitol: "Republicans are willing to look the other way when Cruz assaults the facts." One of his first acts as a senator was to spread the slander that Chuck Hagel, the incoming defense secretary, may have been on the payroll of the North Koreans. Now that Cruz is concentrating more of his neo-McCarthyism on Republicans, his fellow conservatives have suddenly awakened to the notion that "Trusted" Ted, as his campaign logo would have it, is actually Tricky Ted. And they are -- at long last -- calling him what he is. "They just scream, 'liar, liar, liar,'" Cruz complained Monday night to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, saying this is because Trump and Rubio "will not defend their record." Or maybe it's because Cruz is lying. There are signs that the charge is starting to stick. A few weeks ago, when Ben Carson demanded that Cruz fire somebody for spreading the false rumor that he was quitting the race, Cruz declared that he doesn't "make a habit" of doing such things. But this time he did. Don't cry for Cruz, though. Even before the latest flap, the primary map made it almost impossible for him to win the nomination. But he still has the ability to cause havoc in the two-man race between Trump and Rubio. He is, in other words, exactly where he likes to be. My Washington Post colleagues David A. Fahrenthold and Katie Zezima, writing last week about the 2013 government shutdown that Cruz orchestrated, reported that many Republicans suspect Cruz "always knew his plan would fail but went ahead with it anyway -- expecting that he would personally benefit from the exposure, even if his party lost a damaging fight." His current bid for the nomination is much the same: doomed but damaging. Republicans could have seen Tricky Ted coming, if they had observed the early signs. In early 2013, he helped torpedo a compromise on background checks for gun owners negotiated by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., -- not on the merits but with the false allegation that it would lead to a national gun registry. He would go on to allege, among many other things, that the IRS handed over "confidential taxpayer records" to an Obama political operative, and that Obama supported the release of the Lockerbie bomber. During his campaign for the Republican nomination, his stump speech has become a long string of untruths. In a single speech in New Hampshire this month, he misrepresented numerous things said by Trump, Rubio and Obama, but also half a dozen other public figures. When I found nothing to substantiate Cruz's claims, I asked Tyler, the now-fired staffer, for supporting material. "Is it incumbent upon our campaign to do your basic research?" he replied. Then, in South Carolina, Cruz's campaign was caught using a (badly) doctored image showing Rubio in a jubilant handshake with Obama and the words "The Rubio-Obama Trade Pact." Coming at a time when pro-Cruz groups were doing shady "robocalls" against Trump and Rubio, and following the Iowa campaign in which Cruz sent out bogus "voting violation" letters, Cruz was not in good shape to weather the Tyler episode. The staffer posted a link to a college newspaper's false account of Rubio saying the Bible doesn't have "many answers." Back in the 1950s, Joe McCarthy rose during the Truman years with his smears about communists in the government. But when he began to go after fellow Republicans in the Eisenhower administration in 1953, he quickly lost support and within two years was censured by the Senate. Now that Republicans are suffering from Tricky Ted's smears, perhaps they will come to a similar conclusion about the damage he does. 2005-2022 All contents of this blog are the property of Bonnie K. Hunter, and cannot be reproduced in any way without prior written consent. Life is a tragedy for those who feel, but a comedy for those who think. --Horace Walpole We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. --Oscar Wilde It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony. --Benjamin Britten The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. --Oliver Wendell Holmes There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. --Gandhi Language is a cracked kettle drum on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity. Flaubert The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. --Shakespeare Henry VI, Part 2 The summer sun was not meant for boys like me. Boys like me belonged to the rain. Benjamin Saenz Be patient and strong; someday this pain will be useful to you. --Ovid I am the Chosen One. --Donald Trump The more I detest men individually the more ardent becomes my love for humanity. --Dostoevsky As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. -- H.L. Mencken The purpose of the president of the galaxy is not to exercise power, it is to distract attention from the people who are really exercising power. --Doug Adams, Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy The century has given birth to a great epoch, but the great moment finds a petty generation. --Goethe What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation now go and study. --Hillel the Elder Joyous distrust is a sign of health. Everything absolute belongs to pathology. --F.W.Nietzsche He was alone. He was unheeded, happy, and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and wilful and wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight. --James Joyce Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. --Gandalf the Grey ( J.R.R. Tolkien) Little better than a license to bore, travel writing is the lowest form of literary self-indulgence. --Paul Theroux My Adolescent illusions, largely intact to that moment, fell away all at once, and I suddenly knew I was not and never would be in a world that was reasonable or just. --Paul Fussell A fanatic is one who cannot change his mind and will not change the subject. -- Winston Churchill The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. --Bertrand Russell All science is either physics or stamp collecting. --Ernest Rutherford Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God. --Aeschylus My attitude toward punctuation is that it ought to be as conventional as possible. The game of golf would lose a great deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green. Hemingway I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. ... By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that. --E. B. White Those who give up liberty for the sake of security deserve neither liberty nor security. --Ben Franklin Perhaps we were friends first and lovers second. But then perhaps this is what lovers are. --Andre Aciman I was, as I had begun to discover even then, the sort who could wear the same clothes and eat the same things and go for a hundred years without getting bored so long as I could entertain wild dreams in the privacy of my imagination. --Orhan Pamuk Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment in recognition of the pattern. --Alfred North Whitehead Music is the shorthand of emotion. --Tolstoy Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty -- a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture. --Bertrand Russell In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. --Doug Adams Dont trust nobody but your mama. And even then, look at her real good. --Bo Diddley The genius of Christianity is to have proclaimed that the path to the deepest mystery is the path of love. --Andre Malraux Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, ... before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the broken pulley falls into the well, and the dust returns to the earth as it once was, and the life breath returns to God who gave it. --Ecclesiastes I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun. --Katharine Hepburn The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!" --Jack Kerouac Before he was many days old he was not only looking like a mouse but acting like one, too -- wearing a gray hat and carrying a small cane. --E. B. White I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. --Frank Herbert, Dune "Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear" Farewell, and may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you. May the stars shine upon your faces! --J.R.R. Tolkien Followers Blog Archive About Me Rainier96 An exercise in careful writing, traditional grammar and tidy penmanship. This blog is intended to be a collection of essays -- not a journal, a diary, or propaganda for my various causes and enthusiasms. Your comments are very welcome. View my complete profile Page views last week Investigation into case against ex-head of Russian penitentiary service complete MOSCOW, February 25 (RAPSI) Investigation into the criminal case against ex-head of Russias Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), Alexander Reimer, who stands charged with embezzling 3 billion rubles (about $45.4 million), has been completed, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday. Criminal case documents now will be studied by Reimers defense and will be reviewed by a court later. In May, the court seized 15 million rubles ($183,300) in assets belonging to Reimer. The probe into the case was opened after two employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) were detained on suspicion of extorting $2.6 million from a businessman in connection with the purchase of ankle bracelets. Charges have been brought against Reimer, his former deputy Nikolai Krivolapov, director of FSINs Information and Technical Support Center Viktor Opredelyonov, and the director of a private company, Nikolai Martynov. After Reimer resigned from FSIN in 2012, a 10 billion ruble ($122 mln) fraud was uncovered at the service. Reimer has denied his guilt. Reimer also has been charged with abuse of office. Alexander Reimer, 57, was chief of the Interior Ministry Department in the Samara Region from April 2006 to 2009. In August 2009, he was appointed FSIN director and in 2010 promoted to the rank of Colonel-General of the Interior. He was dismissed from FSIN on June 26, 2012. How does a Minnesota man, raised on a Clearbrook, Minn. farm, ask the girl of his dreams a North Dakota farm girl to marry him in a very personal, yet unique way? Well, he could have hired a sky writer, or spelled it out in a corn field or rock formation or even plastered it on a billboard. But David Larson chose a different path.On this past Christmas day, David painted Will You Marry Me? on the side of a Gelbvieh cow. As he and his girl friend, Calli Lemm, walked through the yard, the cow was waiting. (Just to be clear, Larson said the marking paint is very bovine safe so no animals were harmed in the making of his marriage proposal.)Calli, whose family raises Hereford cattle near Hillsboro, N.D., did not object to the use of a Gelbvieh cow for the proposal and said yes.David is an NDSU Ag Economics grad and Calli has a nursing degree from Moorhead State.David and his family were featured in Farm & Ranch Guide last year with their family farm, Lost River Livestock. In the article at the time, Calli was mistakenly identified to have been his wife. Now it will be official. MONTEVIDEO, Minn. If you havent already done it, its time to open those cold machine shed doors and take a look at your sprayer.How do the nozzles look?If they are worn or plugged, and you want to get the most out of your sprayer and chemical investments, it could be time to replace your nozzle tips.For a lot of growers, the selection of new spray nozzles is an appropriate investment, because in the great scheme of things, its not that costly, and they wear out, said Dave Nicolai, University of Minnesota Extension educator, Hutchinson.In addition, post-applied herbicides, fungicides and insecticide applications will be most effective if the correct type of spray nozzle tip is used. Consulting the individual chemical label for instructions/recommendations on droplet size and spray volume per acre can be very beneficial for getting the most out of the product.In addition to reading the label, there could be some benefit consulting a spray nozzle manufacturers catalogue or website.Nicolai said that some new chemicals may require a coarser/larger droplet size.For instance, Enlist Duo, as a post-emergence herbicide on listed crops, includes a nozzle and maximum operating pressure (psi) chart on its label. It requires only using nozzle and pressure combinations that are specifically allowed in the chart. The chart calls for air induction/Venturi flat spray tips, turbo twinjet spray tips and other ultra-low drift spray tips.Some labels like Enlist Duo do not list flat fan nozzles as an option. They are going to require a spray nozzle capable of producing a coarse, to a very coarse or an ultra-coarse droplet size, he said.In addition, for use on Enlist corn and Enlist soybeans, the broadcast spray volume of water ranges from 10 to 15 gallons per acre for best results.Nicolai suggests that many growers have traditionally used extended-range flat-fan nozzle tips for contact products where thorough leaf coverage is needed.The coverage is generally good with this nozzle tip type, and when used at a low pressure can improve particle drift potential but not eliminate all of it.While the extended flat-fan nozzles may work fine for older style tractor sprayers, the nozzles cant always keep up with self-propelled sprayers or sprayers that change speeds.Extended flat fan nozzles if operated at pressures above 40 psi can produce a significant volume of fine droplets, which are more prone to physical drift, he said.The operator/grower can reduce the amount of fine droplets with flat fan tips if they can operate their nozzles at 30-40 psi, which should be adequate for control of most weeds and insects.Another option is using a drift control additive in the spray tank, particularly for flat fan tips.Flat fan nozzles can be used for a number of things, with care, but they cant be used with everything, Nicolai said.Now, the newer crop protection products may require nozzle options that provide a larger droplet size and a wider range of pressure options to meet the crop protection label requirements.More nozzlesNicolai encourages growers to learn more about the following types of nozzle tips: Pre-Orifice Nozzles These nozzles reduce the operating pressure internally to produce a larger droplet than conventional flat fan nozzles. The pre-orifice restricts the amount of liquid entering the nozzle and creates a pressure drop through the tip. Venturi Air Induction Nozzles These nozzles include features that draw air into the body nozzle, where it is mixed with water. This mixing creates an air-entrained spray pattern at a lower pressure. The large, air-filled, coarse droplets are less prone to drift. Asymmetric Twin Spray Nozzles These nozzles work well for fungicide applications on small grains. The nozzle features a spray pattern that is projected downward into the canopy penetration, and another pattern is projected horizontally for coverage at the top of the crop canopy/seed head.This time of year, as growers sit down and are thinking about what they might have to do whether its insects, disease or weeds they are consulting the label for recommendations on droplet size and spray volume per acre, he said.You have to really consult each individual label for its recommended droplet size/classification so you can avoid particle drift and maintain control of the pest. One size doesnt fit all.(Note: The information on Enlist Duo is used only as an example of a product with specific nozzle and water volume requirements. No endorsement is made. Dow AgroSciences checked over the information for accuracy.) Its been a busy year for the new Missoula County sheriff and undersheriff. And while T.J. McDermott and Jason Johnson say a series of high-profile disputes and lawsuits have been a distraction during their first year in office, they add that they have worked hard to better support deputies and bring together the community to find answers to serious issues. Our goal has always been and will be in 2016 to be the sheriffs office in Montana that other agencies look to and say, Weve got to be like that, Undersheriff Johnson said. Sheriff McDermott said one of the most important aspects of his job is supporting his personnel, making sure they have the numbers, equipment and training they need to do their job. The first step in that process has been putting more deputies out on patrol this year. For the first time in decades, the county commissioners approved a budget enhancement request for four additional deputies, McDermott said, adding that one of those positions will work full-time in Seeley Lake, where there were only two deputies operating previously. That is huge for our department, the staffing levels have been low for a long time. On Wednesday, McDermott and Johnson held a swearing-in ceremony for three new patrol deputies, reading them the oath of office and code of conduct for law enforcement officers. On the equipment side, the sheriffs office transitioned deputies into new, more versatile and practical uniforms last year. The move was made with the support of a local businessman, and didnt use taxpayers funds. Working within its existing budget, the sheriffs office also finished outfitting the last deputies with body cameras and stun guns, modernized all ballistic vests and upgraded its fleet of patrol vehicles, some of which had logged more than 160,000 miles. Now, the department has put in place a plan that will replace vehicles every five years or 100,000 miles. Now, I think the oldest car is a 2013 and we are on a schedule to replace them without a budget increase, McDermott said. A dedicated position also was created to track and make sure all deputies are completing mandatory training on equipment and protocol. To improve the response in sexual assault cases, all nine of the office's detectives have also received specialized training that includes a focus on working with victims who been traumatized, he said. During his campaign last year, McDermott talked about wanting to implement a civilian advisory board for the sheriffs office, something it never had in the past. That nine-member panel is set to start work early this year. McDermott said an additional, three-person civilian panel will act as a compliance review board to evaluate grievances against deputies. That panel will also keep track of statistics on complaints, and provide feedback to the sheriff on how to improve the offices practices. *** Likely the most talked about issues in the past year are the disputes and lawsuits involving McDermott and Johnson and supporters of one of their opponents in the 2014 election, former Undersheriff Josh Clark. McDermott and Johnson were voted in following a contentious election season during which they each were awarded $60,000 after filing human rights complaints against former Sheriff Carl Ibsen for retaliation to their candidacy. After the election, Clark resigned three shifts into a rotating assignment as night shift patrol deputy, later filing a complaint of his own claiming he was illegally "demoted" for opposing McDermott. In a report on the complaint, Montana Human Rights Bureau investigator Josh Manning found probable cause that the sheriff's department illegally retaliated against Clark. Clark's complaint is currently set to be taken up at a Human Rights Bureau hearing in June that will determine what, if any damages, he should be awarded. His attorney, Quentin Rhoades, said Clark is seeking about $1 million in damages, but would settle for $750,000. Rhoades said the damages being sought come from a Human Rights Bureau formula that takes into account Clarks pay and benefits, the five more years he expected to work, as well as his expected retirement pay, plus about $100,000 in non-monetary damages. Former Capt. Mike Dominick settled a discrimination complaint after he was moved from captain of detectives to managing the sheriff's office's secure evidence facility. He took a new position with the County Attorney's Office and retained his same level of pay. Paige Pavalone, the former public information officer who returned to standard deputy duty under McDermott, was later fired by the department after she was accused of being untruthful during the investigation into the arrest of a co-worker. Pavalone was also placed on a "Brady list" of officers whose credibility as a witness was put into question. The County Attorney's Office later said that while she was labeled as having problematic credibility, no specific list of "Brady cops" exists. Following her termination, Pavalone filed a lawsuit against the sheriff's office and other county officials, as well as a human rights complaint. Her attorney, Josh Van de Wetering, said she believes her firing was based on her support of Clark. They are waiting on the results of the human rights investigation to move forward with the lawsuit. McDermott said the complaints and lawsuits are intended to distract and obstruct the operations of the sheriffs office, and he is committed to not letting that happen. I anticipated some problems from my opponent and his team just simply because they werent willing to put the results of the election behind them and move forward, he said. Van de Wetering said he thinks thats the wrong mentality to have, given the serious nature of his clients complaint. If the sheriff wants to take it seriously or not, thats up to him, he said. I have great faith in the court system to handle this. Everything that happened to her was politically motivated. Either politically motivated or sexism discrimination. Rhoades said that even if the sheriff wants to say that the lawsuits are politically motivated, that doesnt explain the investigators finding that Clarks complaint had merit. Mr. Manning doesn't have an ax to grind, Rhoades said. If the new sheriff puts you on the lowest level of the team, the point is to humiliate you to the point you will leave so they dont have to deal with you anymore. Like Van de Wetering, Rhoades said Clarks complaint has real substance, and he wants to see the sheriffs office treat it as more than just sour grapes. If they think this is frivolous they are dead wrong, Rhoades said. McDermott and Johnson both said they believe that by early fall all the office's internal issues were resolved. While the sheriff acknowledges complaints against them are still open, he doesnt give it much attention at this point. I think we could have been Mother Teresa and we couldnt avoid it, Johnson said. We could have and we tried to do everything right, but no, I dont think we could have prevented the lawsuits. *** Heading into the new year, McDermott said his primary focus is adopting a new master plan for jail diversion. The operation of the jail, overcrowding at our jail, has been an issue before I took office and since I took office, McDermott said. In the past, solutions which include addressing mental health, addiction and homelessness, and the use of out-of-jail solutions like house arrest have been largely fragmented, McDermott said. He believes elected officials and community leaders are now united in the effort to find a better, more comprehensive fix for what to do with nonviolent and non-dangerous offenders. McDermott said measures like house arrest, GPS tracking and check-in sobriety programs have seen a more than 70 percent success rate, and part of the jail diversion plan will be to expand the use of them for people who are awaiting trial. If you take a guy who has a family, has a full-time job, has benefits and you put him in jail for an extended period, hes going to lose his job, hes going to lose his health care benefits and then you come out and how do you recover from that? Johnson said. At one point this year, the Missoula County jail, which can house more than 400 inmates, became so overcrowded that 16 people were sleeping on the floor in the booking area, and McDermott had to reach out to Ravalli County and ask if some of them could be transferred there. Addressing the large number of people with mental health conditions and those who can't afford to post bond will be another component of the plan. One possible solution that McDermott wants to see is building a 24-hour mental health crisis facility where people who are arrested can get proper treatment. We know that place is not our jail, he said. There are people who are in our jail because there is simply no other place for them. Johnson said deputies are receiving training to help them identify underlying mental health issues, but added that the variety of resources in Missoula for people with such conditions don't include crisis treatment. He cited places like West House in Hamilton, which works collaboratively with law enforcement to provide medical staff to help people in a mental health crisis. McDermott said the plan will also include looking at revising the bail schedule for people who are arrested. He hopes to work with the County Attorneys Office and courts to examine a persons ability to post bond so that low income isn't the reason anyone eligible for release remains in jail. The sheriffs office has already created an administrative position at the jail to evaluate the inmate population daily and communicate with the courts who is most best eligible to be released and placed in a different program. The jail diversion master plan, which is being drafted by state Sen. Cynthia Wolken, likely will be completed and ready to present to the county commissioners for approval early this year, McDermott said. FAIRMONT When Democrats in the Montana Legislature started talking about goals for the 2017 session on Saturday, the first word to go up on the flip board was predictably infrastructure. But it was not the only word. The minority legislators were not short on ambition as they enumerated dozens of potential legislative goals amounting to a full-throated endorsement of government as a force for progress. The hard work would come later, as the group consisting of about two dozen of the 41 House Democrats and half a dozen of the partys 21 senators began to whittle the laundry list into a more focused set of priorities. The six most urgent subjects for legislative action they came up with by Saturday evening: infrastructure, energy policy, business assistance, education, the justice system and workforce development/investment. As the Democrats gathered at Fairmont Hot Springs on Saturday morning, the vibe at first was more like a class reunion than a work session as members exchanged hugs and asked after each others families. Many had not seen each other since the Legislature adjourned last April. The session began with a greeting from Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney, who congratulated the legislators on what they accomplished in the last session and exhorted them to partner with us in the governors office to make the next session a success. Look at all we accomplished, Cooney said, then corrected himself: I shouldnt say we, because I didnt have a damn thing to do with it. Cooney was appointed a little more than a month ago as Lieutenant Governor after the resignation of Angela McLean. You have to run. You have to get elected. And nobody knows better than you the issues you have to focus on to do that, he said. But remember, in 1992 when he was working on Bill Clintons campaign, James Carville had a little sign in his war room that said, Its the economy, stupid. Currently, our economy is very strong, he said. More Montanans are at work than ever before. We have been raising wages, and weve seen very strong business and labor growth. The state is No. 1 for entrepreneurial activity per capita for the third year in a row Were no. 1 for fiscal prudence Were the best state in which to pursue the American Dream. Cooney said, Im sick and tired of the negative tone of politics. Its easy to be critical and hard to be thoughtful. We Democrats take governing seriously. There is a role for government. We want government to do good things for people. Ali Bovingdon, Gov. Steve Bullocks deputy chief of staff, and Dan Villa of Anaconda, the state budget director, also spoke briefly. To Cooneys list of accomplishments, Villa added the fact that the state has seen a 0.8 percent reduction in the growth of government. Were moving toward the session revenue-strong, he said. The legislators then drew up a lengthy list of accomplishments to build on from last session and another list of assumptions regarding external factors they would be dealing with between now and the 2017 session before getting around to listing goals. Among the accomplishments: Health care reform, dark-money bills, water compact, mental-health funding, holding our ground on charter schools, froze college tuition, balanced budget state in the black. Also, the Dems said, they worked across the aisle, but also dominated the messaging on infrastructure, even though we lost the bill. They also listed: Civil asset forfeiture reform, fended off assaults on reproductive rights, upgraded vaccination standards, guns on campus disallowed, suicide prevention bill, study on concussions, bill to preserve Native languages, Jonathan Motl confirmed, among others. The Rs cant make a list like this, facilitator Beki Brandborg said. Then came the list of goals: After infrastructure, the suggestions came thick and fast as Brandborg struggled to write them down in real time: Support labor, reform justice system, fund public education, early education, workforce development investment, economic security for all, preserving access to public lands, equal pay for equal work, investment in Montana business, an energy policy to benefit the state, quality affordable child care, mandated paid leave, access to justice, extended education eligibility for children with disabilities, rural broadband, tax relief for low-income families, a clean and healthful environment, on and on. While there was wide agreement on many goals, regional priorities occasionally came to the fore. When Brandborg asked, Have you listed all the goals that you are most passionate about? Sen. Jim Keane shouted out, Economic development for Butte! The Democrats caucus will wrap up with a three-hour session Sunday morning. HELENA It was a tantalizing offer for candidates for state legislative offices, many of whom had never mounted a campaign before. A national anti-union organization offered candidates in five states a "deadly effective" series of seven custom-written letters that would be signed with their digitally-scanned signatures and mailed to thousands of voters in the final weeks before Election Day. For that personal touch, female National Right to Work Committee field workers would rewrite by hand a "wife letter" which staffers said was a particularly potent appeal to voters. The organization offered the mail to candidates in Montana, Iowa, Kentucky, Indiana and Nevada during the 2010 elections, according to thousands of emails, letters, mailers and testimony obtained by the Associated Press through a public records request. While the organization has not been accused of wrongdoing, the documents are being used in civil cases against nine of the 14 Montana candidates who received "the works" package. They are accused of illegally coordinating with and taking unreported contributions from Right to Work and its affiliates. The group's spokesman, Patrick Semmens, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The documents, more than 14,000 in total, had been subpoenaed by Montana's elections regulator from the computers of Right to Work's field operatives, and provide a rare look into the inner workings of so-called "dark money" groups. Typically registering as social welfare organizations, these groups can raise money and aren't required to reveal the names of their donors. Those groups are not allowed to have political advocacy as their primary purpose, and Right to Work has said in tax filings that it does not participate in political campaign activities. Campaign finance advocates fear the wealthy are using the groups to influence candidates out of public view. Montana, Iowa and Kentucky had bans against direct contributions from corporations such as Right to Work to candidates in 2010, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Indiana had a $2,000 corporate contribution limit to legislative candidates and Nevada's limit was $5,000. Candidates are required to report all cash and in-kind contributions, but Right to Work either provided candidates its services for free or at cost, according to the documents. Candidates charged in Montana paid below market value for the mailings, the elections regulator alleged. Many candidates did not report their participation in the mail program or any additional candidate programs the group offered. *** In Montana, that included connecting voters to fundraising resources, website design and what Montana Right to Work staffer Christian LeFer called "the best voter lists in the state," according to the documents. LeFer offered the full range of services to 14 Montana Republican candidates in 2010. LeFer said in the documents that everything "for invitees" was done for free or at cost. Montana began to investigate Right to Work's involvement in past elections when boxes of state candidate files, surveys, mailers and bank statements turned up in 2012 in what authorities described as a Denver "meth house." LeFer said the documents had been stolen. The files were later featured in a "Frontline" documentary that suggested the Right to Work-affiliated group American Tradition Partnership illegally coordinated with candidates. Last month, Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl released thousands of additional documents that had been subpoenaed by his office. He declined to comment on their content, citing the pending litigation. LeFer, who hasn't been accused of wrongdoing and now runs a Denver company that helps nonprofits with regulatory and fundraising compliance, declined to comment. He asked that questions be submitted in an email to which he never replied. *** The Virginia-based Right to Work group was created in 1955 and is registered as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization and its mission says that nobody should be forced to join a union to get or keep a job. The reason Right to Work ran the mail program was to build relationships with the candidates by providing them with things they can't afford, the group's former field organizer in Iowa, Dennis Fusaro, said in a deposition in November. "The ability to offer to give someone who doesn't have two nickels to rub together to run for office the ability to do mailings, and if with a wink and a nod they can give them the mail packages, the printed material, the labor to put it together so they can mail the communications and win an election, is value," Fusaro said in the deposition. His testimony came in a case against Montana state Republican Rep. Art Wittich, who is accused of accepting unreported contributions from Right to Work. A trial is scheduled for March. Wittich has denied the charges. Among the voter letters was an introductory letter, the wife letter, various letters on issues important to conservative voters of the district and a final letter mailed just before the election, what Fusaro called the "Hail Mary" letter. "My campaign mail strategy is very late-stage, but deadly effective," LeFer said in a pitch to Montana legislative candidates in 2008 and 2010. Fusaro agreed to that characterization, according his deposition. Fusaro did not respond to an AP query requesting comment. The program was overseen by Doug Stafford, a former Right to Work vice president who most recently was chief strategist for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's presidential campaign. Stafford and former Ron Paul presidential campaign staffer, Dimitri Kesari, oversaw field organizers such as LeFer and Fusaro, according to statements by Fusaro that are supported by emails contained in the documents. The letters' chief copywriter was Jedd Coburn, a former Right to Work staffer who worked on the elder Paul's 2012 presidential bid. Stafford, Kesari and Coburn did not respond to requests for comment. A Corvallis man originally charged with kidnapping a 17-year-old mother, forcibly injecting her with methamphetamine and raping her numerous times accepted a plea bargain agreement Wednesday. Byron Craig Hall, 32, pleaded guilty to criminal distribution of dangerous drugs and tampering with physical evidence. Hall was originally charged with nine felony counts that included aggravated kidnapping, sexual intercourse without consent, aggravated assault, child criminal endangerment and numerous drug charges. During an arraignment in district court last year, Hall was told he could face the death penalty or imprisonment for 555 years and fine of $450,000. Under the terms of the plea bargain agreement, Ravalli County Attorney Bill Fulbright can argue for a maximum of 15 years in the Montana State Prison. The agreement said the least amount of time Halls attorney can argue for is a five-year sentence. A sentencing hearing has been set for April 27. On Wednesday, Fulbright said the victim was supportive of the agreement. Hall was arrested last February after a 17-year-old mother of an 8-month-old boy confided in her childs babysitter that she had been forcibly injected with methamphetamine and repeatedly raped over the course of several days while being held prisoner in her own home, according to the original charging affidavit. The affidavit said the girl invited Hall to her home on Feb. 6. During that visit, the woman told police that Hall snapped and became extremely angry after the girl mentioned his ex-girlfriend. Hall pushed the woman onto the bed and started to strangle her, according to the affidavit. When she attempted to push him away, she said he just smiled and continued to strangle her until she passed out. While she was passed out, Hall injected her with methamphetamine and raped her over the course of several days while holding her prisoner in her apartment, according to the original affidavit. The womans child was present during the ordeal. An additional felony charge was added after investigators found three homemade videos created between Feb. 6 and Feb. 9 that included sexual content involving the teenage girl. Hall allegedly used the webcam installed on the laptop computer to record the incidents. A medical examination documented bruising on the womans throat, her arms and the tops of both thighs. She also had recent puncture wounds to her arms consistent with needle marks, also known as track marks, court records said. Hall was on probation on a 2002 felony conviction of operating an unlawful clandestine drug laboratory in Flathead County when he moved to Ravalli County. The original conviction carried a 15-year commitment to the Montana Department of Corrections, with 12 years suspended. Between 2002 and 2015, Hall was placed in 12 different treatment or pre-release programs in Montana, according to information from the Montana State Prison. In each case, Hall committed some infraction that landed him either back in jail or prison. He was picked up on a probation violation in Ravalli County less than three weeks before he was arrested on the kidnapping charges. Hall was set to go to trial on the current charges next week. That trial has been vacated. The Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce honored local businesses and volunteers at its annual awards banquet Saturday. Every year the chamber gives awards up and down the valley to folks who have excelled, Chamber Director Al Mitchell said. Probably the most exciting award was the Lifetime Achievement Award that went to Dan Severson owner of Valley Drug in Stevensville. He has been very helpful with everyone and a great influence in the valley. The 2015 Business of the Year was Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital, the 2015 Business Person of the Year was Paul Beck of Beck Builders, the 2015 New Business of the Year was Foxwood Boutique owned by Andi Evans, and the 2015 Community Asset Award went to Cal Ruark. Cal has been active with the Bull-A-Rama and the Pink Bull Explosion in Darby and sits on our board as well, Mitchell said. Cal is a long time Bitterrooter who worked for the Forest Service for years and has been working to bring Darby back since the mills closed. The 2015 Volunteer of the Year was John Trangmoe, the Spark Plug Award was presented to Lucas Pernsteiner, and the 2015 Economic Development Award was presented to J.C. McDowell, owner of Bandit Brewing Co., as mayor of Darby. The McDowell family came here several years ago. He has been a life-long entrepreneur, and as a reluctant politician he can envision a pathway for success, Mitchell said. He is implementing several economic ideas for the south valley. He was elected in November and is just jumping to meet with folks. His ideas have energized Darby and all the folks in the south valley. The 2015 Community Service Award was presented to the Bitterroot Public Library, the 2015 Chamber Advocate Award was presented to the City of Hamiltons Mayor Jerry Steele, and the Unsung Hero was awarded to Russ Lawrence. Russ has been a mainstay of Main Street and community theatre, Mitchell said. He has been involved in so many local organizations: Bitterrooters for Planning, Emmas House, Walk Bike Bitterroot, Hamilton Players, a cross country ski instructor, and an adventure travel guide in Peru that I think he will do again in the fall. He and Jean probably had Chapter One Book Store for 20 years. It was time to recognize his great contributions to our community. The awards banquet had 244 people in attendance. We held it at the Bitterroot River Inn and that place was packed, Mitchell said. It was our best banquet in 30 years. It was great and the awards went to deserving people. Mitchell said he was hired as director four years ago and he went full time in September. Im a spring chicken at 61 and plan to work another nine years right here, Mitchell said. We have a great board, are on sound financial footing, and have excellent businesses up and down the valley. The Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce is a great board to work for and I have a fun job. Lisa Ludlow Votaw CORVALLIS Lisa Ludlow Votaw, of Corvallis, passed away on Monday, Feb. 15, 2016. She was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania to William and Dawn Ludlow. Lisa spent her early years in Bucks County, Pennsylvania attending Pennridge High School and later went on to Moore College of Art and Design, Tracy Warner School of Design, Bucks County Community College, Cite Internationale Universitaire de Paris, and Studio Seven Fashion Career College. She also created a dress design company called Luna Kitty. Lisa loved traveling and was happiest at the beach. In addition to her studies in Europe, she enjoyed time in Jamaica, Mexico, Peddlers Village, Atlantic City as well as many other places. In 2004, she met the love of her life, Dave. They had shared dreams of travel, and although she was a city girl and he a mountain man, their love for each other prevailed. They married in 2011 in Ocho Rios, Jamaica and honeymooned in Negril. Two years later, they traveled to Mexico. Both trips were highlights of their lives. In the following years as Dave battled cancer and infections that nearly took his life, Lisa never left his side. Her love and devotion carried him through what seemed at the time to be the most difficult challenge he would face. Lisa loved gourmet cooking and fine dining. She spent time relaxing by shoe shopping and soaking in nearby hot springs. Even through struggles, Lisa could bring a smile to others and always find humor in every situation. Lisa is survived by her husband Dave of Corvallis; mother Dawn Ludlow of Hilltown Pennsylvania; brother William J. Ludlow; and sister Cindy Cluff, as well as numerous other family members and friends. She will be greatly missed and forever in our hearts. Visitation will be held from 5-7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 25 at the Daly-Leach Chapel in Hamilton. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m., Friday at Crossroads Christian Fellowship with a reception to follow. Interment will take place at Corvallis Cemetery. Condolences may be left for the family at www.dalyleachchapel.com. A celebration of her life will be held at 12 p.m. on March 6, for friends and family at the Silverdale Firehouse on Rt. 113 Silverdale, Pennsylvania. 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(I put the @ in there originally, and of the first eight messages I received, four were the Nigerian scam and three told me I won a lottery I never entered. Maybe this change is already too late.) If you want to comment on any specific post, (adding information or correcting a mistake I made) please use the comment area that is available on each post. That way everyone will get to see what you think, not just me. I would love to hear from you if you have ideas of things I can write about. Even better, if you want to contribute something, I will consider it. I will not check this address every day, so be patient. (And I almost never check my messages on Facebook, so it you send something there, the odds are that I will not see it for weeks or months.) Also, I encourage and appreciate comments that are informative or entertaining. However, I delete comments that I think are offensive or inappropriate (which includes spam--I delete a lot of spam). Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next. Sagarmatha Network Pvt. Ltd. is the organization dedicated in the field of printing, publishing service since 2001. As part of media, we've been publishing Review Nepal, an English medium weekly registered at District Administration Office (DAO) Kathmandu with registration number 130-162-163 and reviewnepal.com as an online digital newspaper, with registration number 849-075-076 at Department of Informational and Broadcasting (DIB) from Kathmandu, Nepal since 2003. "I would like to say 'This book is written to the glory of God', but nowadays this would be the trick of a cheat, i.e., it would not be correctly understood."--Ludwig Wittgenstein "Talk to me about the truth of religion, and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolation of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand."--C.S. Lewis Contributions to the Turner Report/Inside Joplin can be sent to: Randy Turner, 2306 E. 8th, Apt. G, Joplin, MO 64801. Send information, news tips, documents, or comments you prefer not to share on the blog or on Facebook to rturner229@hotmail.com. Published 2/25/15 excerpted from Jamaica Observer JAMAICANS head to the polls today in the countrys 17th general election since universal adult suffrage when citizens won the right to vote for the first time in 1944 while the country was still under colonial rule. Portia and Andrew Political pundits, using recent opinion polls, believe the election will go down to the wire in the race for the 63 parliamentary seats. However, the two major political parties the Peoples National Party (PNP), which has campaigned under the slogan Step Up the Progress, and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which has promising voters to move them from Poverty to Prosperity were, up to last night, brimming with confidence that they will take home the election. While people will go out to vote for their respective candidates, several say their vote will be for the leader of the parties, the PNPs 70-year-old Portia Simpson Miller and Andrew Holness, the 43-year-old leader of the JLP. Campaigning time Yesterday, there was a frenzy of activity at PNP headquarters on Old Hope Road and the JLP headquarters on Belmont Road, both in Kingston, as the parties made final preparations for todays vote. The PNPs car park was full as workers and technocrats had last-minute discussions, including the placement of their victory stage, which will have a special entrance for the party president and prime minister, Simpson Miller. The media were also shown the areas from which they will operate, while a large screen will be placed near the stage area where supporters can follow the box-by-box count. That section of Old Hope Road will be blocked off to vehicular traffic. Yesterday, there was a frenzy of activity at PNP headquarters on Old Hope Road and the JLP headquarters on Belmont Road, both in Kingston, as the parties made final preparations for todays vote. While there were not as many vehicles inside the JLPs car park, last-minute organisational work was being carried out. The partys leadership and candidates, a spokesman said, were all out in the field making sure they had everything properly organised. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes, the spokesman said. The JLP, which believes it put in all the work to convince voters to hand it the reins of power, was also setting up a victory, stage just before a huge green bell in the parking lot. Voters on the march The massive swing indicated by the polls is pointing to a JLP victory and we are very confident of victory, said a JLP spokesman. He pointed out that the party is taking nothing for granted as it is a two-horse race. The JLP is also hoping to have Belmont Road blocked off to vehicular traffic to accommodate supporters. The massive swing indicated by the polls is pointing to a JLP victory and we are very confident of victory, said a JLP spokesman. He pointed out that the party is taking nothing for granted as it is a two-horse race. The JLP is also hoping to have Belmont Road blocked off to vehicular traffic to accommodate supporters. It's not only about the obvious journeys, the travels past 70 that make the most sense. It's also about the inner ones, the fine insights distilled by constant travels. We, the undersigned organizations, civil society activists, academics and students from Sri Lanka vehemently condemn the institutional murder on 17th January 2015 of Dalit research scholar and activist Rohith Vemula of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) of the University of Hyderabad (UoH), India and the violence meted out against those seeking justice for Rohithas death. Earlier this year, five (5) Dalit studentsa Rohith Vemula, Dontha Prashanth, Vijay Kumar, Seshaiah Chemudugunta and V. Sunkannaahad their entry into hostels, administration buildings and public areas restricted by the administration of the University of Hyderabad and later expelled after sustained pressure from local politicians and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, over what appear to be clearly trumped up charges relating to an incident that occurred in August 2015 [1] [2] [3] [4]. After a prolonged sleep- in strike protesting against unjust actions by the University and condemning casteist discrimination and harassment, Rohith Vemula died by suicide on January 17th. However, Rohith was not the first Dalit student to die by suicide as a result of systematic caste discrimination at the University of Hyderabad, or at a higher education institution in India [5]. Since 2008, as many as 12 Dalit students, including Dalit scholars Senthil Kumar and Madari Venkatesh [6], have reportedly [7] died by suicide at the University of Hyderabad alone. Further, the harassment of organizations such as the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) and Ambedkar- Periyar Study Circle (APSC) in recent years, and the ostracization of Dalit scholars [8]bring into sharp focus the systematic nature of caste oppression. We condemn discrimination of students and staff based on caste, ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual orientation in higher educational institutions in India, and abhor the majoritarian imposition of Hindutva hegemony on Dalits and other numerical minorities. For decades Sri Lanka has witnessed persecution, oppression and violence borne from a hierarchical State structure, built to consolidate a dominant ethno-religious communityas domination. As people who have shouldered the cost of majoritarian political ideologies we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters protesting the most visible rise of majoritarian politics in India in recent times. While acknowledging that Rohith was not the first to fall victim to Hindutva tyranny, we hope that the struggle that he was part of, would now gain national importance and not be subdued by the narrative of the State and criminalized by the establishment, or be appropriated by vested interests pursuing their own ends. Further, we stand in solidarity with protesting students and staff of the UoH, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi and other higher educational institutions around India. Freedom of speech and dissent must be at the vanguard of any democratic society and must be cherished and nurtured for a democratic society to flourish. We condemn the arrest, on sedition charges, of Kanhaiya Kumar (President, JNU Students Union) and the violent assault on him and media personnel recently. We are outraged by the hounding of other members of the JNUSU, including Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya (General-Secretary, JNUSU). We also note, with sadness, the role of certain media organizations in suffocating debate and inciting violence against protesting students. We recognize all too well the stifling of dissent through criminalization, under the guise of apatriotisma and atreasona, and condemn the politically motivated witch hunt to which student leaders, staff of the JNU and other institutions, and journalists have now been subjected to. We are also able to draw eerie parallels to the criminalization of groups, individuals and opinions related to, but not limited to, the Dalit struggle and Kashmiri self- determination to events in this island where Tamils, journalists, activists and academics have been branded and continue to be labelled as aterroristsa , atraitorsa and aextremistsa . Thus, we believe that it is no coincidence that Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, its scholars, and alumnia many of whom have constantly and peacefully advocated for Kashmiri self- determination and continue to condemn State violence thereahave come under renewed attack by the State, establishment and media organs. Finally, we wish to state that it would be futile and counterproductive to frame the current protest movement as one concerning only freedom of speech or dissent. We believe that deep seated democratic reform, honest debate and, vitally, the recognition of collective rights, socially and politically, of its various marginalized peoples would be essential first steps in dismantling Hindutva hegemony, caste oppression, and discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation. These, we should remind ourselves, are the collective lessons of oppressed and marginalised people all over the world and in particular in the South Asian communities. Signatories, Individuals: 1. Alesha Fonseka - The Grassrooted Trust 2. Anberiya Hanifa 3. Arun Rodrigo- York University 4. B. Gowthaman 5. Balasingham Skanthakumar - Social Scientists Association (Colombo, Sri Lanka) 6. Bhoomi Harendran - The Grassrooted Trust 7. Christine Perera 8. D. H. S. Maithripala, Ph. D - Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka 9. Dhammika De Silva - United Socialist Party 10. Dinesha Samararatne 11. Dr. Janaki Jayawardena - Department of History, University of Colombo 12. Dr. Muzzammil Cader - Executive Director, SAMADANA/M, Centre for Promotion of Nonviolence 13. Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri - Department of History, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka 14. Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu - Executive Director, Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo, Sri Lanka 15. Dr. Primal Fernando - Former President (2015), Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) 16. Dr. Rohini Hensman a Writer and Independent scholar 17. Dr. S. Arivalzahan- University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka 18. Dr. S. Kumaravel 19. Dr. Sunil Wijesiriwardena 20. Dr. T. Balamurukan - Jaffna 21. Dr. Zulfika Ismail - Toronto, Canada 22. Emil van der Poorten - Community Organizer in support of Human Rights 23. Faizun Zackariya a Citizensa Voice for Justice and Peace 24. Gajen Mahendra 25. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam - President, Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) & General Secretary, All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) 26. Gayathri Gamage 27. Gowri Koneswaran 28. Hans Billimoria - The Grassrooted Trust 29. Harean Hettiarachchi 30. Harini Amarasuriya - Department of Social Studies, Open University of Sri Lanka 31. Herman Kumara 32. Ian Ferdinands 33. K. S. Ratnavale - Attorney at Law 34. Kamani Jinadasa a Consultant - Gender, Child Protection and Rights of PLHIV 35. Kanarupan Kularatnarajah 36. Kumaran Nadesan 37. Kumaravadivel Guruparan - University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka 38. Kumari Kumaragamage 39. Kusal Perera - Journalist and political critic 40. Marisa De Silva 41. Melisha Yapa 42. Mohammed Mahuruf - Chairman, PEaCE 43. Navaranjini Nadarajah 44. Nicola Perera 45. Nidharshana. T 46. Nila Loganathan 47. Nimmi Gowrinathan 48. Nirmalani Perera - The Grassrooted Trust 49. Nishan de Mel - Director, VeriteI Research, Sri Lanka, and friend of JNU 50. P. N. Singham 51. P. Selvaratnam 52. Paba Deshapriya - The Grassrooted Trust 53. Prabu Deepan 54. Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda - University of Colombo, Sri Lanka 55. Prof. Jayantha Seneviratne 56. R.M.B Senanayake (Retired C.C.S) 57. Rakshitha Hitibandara - University of Sri Jayawardenepura, Sri Lanka & University of Glasgow 58. Rev. Fr. Elil Rajendram 59. Rev. Fr. Jeyabalan Croos 60. Rev. Fr. M. V. E. Ravichandran 61. Rev. Fr. S. D. P. Selvan 62. Rev. Thirunavukarau Dixon 63. Rev. Thurairatnam Jeyanesan 64. Rev. V. David Nirushikan 65. Riza Yehiya 66. Ruhanie Perera - Performer and Lecturer 67. Ruki Fernando 68. S. Sunthareswaran 69. Sampath Samarakoon 70. Sanjana Hattotuwa 71. Selvarajah Rajasegar - Activist 72. Shehan de Alwis 73. Sheila Richards 74. Sherine Xavier 75. Sithumini Rathnamalala 76. Srinath Perera 77. Sujeetha Selvakkumaran Ph. D. 78. T. Mathuri - Attorney at Law 79. Thiagi Piyadasa 80. Thiyagaraja Waradas - Lecturer in International Relations, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka 81. Uda Deshapriya - The Grassrooted Trust 82. Udaya Kalupathirana 83. Upul Kumara Wickramasinghe - Researcher and Social Activist 84. V. Puvitharan - Attorney at Law 85. V.V. Ganeshananthan Organizations: 86. Centre for Human Rights and Development (CHRD) 87. INFORM Human Rights Documentation Centre 88. Peoples Movement for Nonviolence 89. Sri Lankan National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO) 90. Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) 91. Vadamaradchy Christian Union SEE PDF version Saudis Force Malaysian Judiciary to Vindicate Prime Minister Razak for Corruption Charges Human rights activists accuse Razak's administration of persecuting ethnic and religious minorities and simultaneously propagating intolerance and radicalism. 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak. Photo courtesy: en.wikipedia.org (KUALA LAMPUR) - Malaysia's political scene has been in upheaval over human rights violations in this Southern Asian country. A sinister web has been unraveled showing numerous financial crimes among the senior officials of Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration Although Amnesty International's latest annual report clearly points to widespread human rights violations, and despite the attorney general's earlier accusations against government-owned companiesmostly under Mr. Razak's dominion allegedly embezzling public funds; the Malaysian judicial system acquitted the 62-year-old Premier of all the charges laid against him. In the meantime, the Malaysian media outlets leaked secret information regarding Saudi involvement in exonerating PM Razak from all criminal offences. In recent months, numerous allegations of corruption and financial misconduct have been made in connection to Prime Minister Razak. In the first half of year 2015, it was rumored that the Saudi regime offered Prime Minister Razak $681m on the eve of 2013 parliamentary election. This was later corroborated by Malaysias anti-graft agencies. In addition to financial corruption, human rights activists accuse Razak's administration of persecuting ethnic and religious minorities and simultaneously propagating intolerance and radicalism. Whereas dozen of institutions funded directly by the Saudi regime freely spread Wahhabism, religious intolerance and extremism, a major wave of repression has been orchestrated against Malaysia's Twelver Shia community--particularly after the 2009 elections when Najib Tun Abdul Razak took officeand there are also reports of tens of thousands of Malaysian citizens arrested and imprisoned for merely practicing the Shia faith. Human Rights organizations published graphic images showing torture, forced confessions, among women, and children detainees as a result of commemorating Shiite ceremonies. _________________________________________ These are the stories of my work as a midwife throughout the world. These are the stories of midwives, mothers, babies and the communities they live in. Click On Our Advertisers Ads Most of our ads have links to take you directly to their Websites. Just click on an ad and away you go. This is a blog detailing the creation/evolution/ID controversy and assorted palaeontological news. I will post news here with running commentary. Blog Archive The contents of this blog represent the opinions of its author. Any inaccuracies are unintentional. 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You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). Well note our experiences of living and flying in southern Africa. Well share questions and our replies. We invite your comments. Follow our travels and maybe one day you, too, will come fly in Africa! Former judges and Justice in Washington urge state's current Justices to strike down state's death penalty | Main | Acknowledging and reflecting on the costs, both economic and emotional, that flow from proper implementation of Miller retroactively The title of this post is the headline of this lengthy new piece by Adam Wisnieski at The Crime Report, which is largely a report on what various experts are saying about the impact of modern sentencing reforms on prison populations. I recommend the piece in full, and here are some excerpts (with a few of the original's links preserved): Most analysts agree that states have been much further ahead than the feds on these issues. For the past year, members of Congress have been debating a variety of bills that would make changes to federal sentencing guidelines similar to some of the revisions already underway at the state level. The proposed Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act has received widespread bipartisan support but is now stalled by the resurgence of concerns that relaxing punishment standards would lead to an increase in crime. Theres no shortage of voices about what type of impact that bill would have. But few seem to look to states for lessons, regardless of the well-worn phrase about them being laboratories of democracy. Have states been successful? Experts contacted by The Crime Report had different views. Adam Gelb, director of The Pew Charitable Trusts Public Safety Performance Project said that the national conversation on criminal justice is undergoing a transformation. We are really starting to see a culture shift in which policymakers are becoming eager to base decisions on data and evidence rather than emotion or ideology, Gelb said in an interview. Theres been a tremendous amount of progress but theres still a long way to go. Other researchers disagree, saying there is more smoke than fire in state efforts. Minor tweaks to sentencing policies, which they say is largely what states have done, have not worked to significantly impact the nations mass incarceration problem. Most states have not made any progress, says James Austin, who runs the Washington, D.C.- and California-based JFA Institute, a criminal-justice consulting firm. Those that are making some progress, its been pretty miniscule. Michael Tonry, director of the Institute on Crime and Public Policy of the University of Minnesota argues the same thing. In his new book, Sentencing Fragments: Penal Reform in America, 1975-2025, Tonry describes states approach to reducing prison population through minor changes to sentencing and release policies as nibbling around the edges of the problem. Whats being done is these little tiny tweaking around the edges, and then making big projections, he said in an interview with The Crime Report. Thats not how the world is going to change.... About 13 percent of our countrys prisoners are serving time in federal prisons. The other 87 percent, more than 1.3 million people according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, are in state prisons. That number of state prisoners hasnt changed dramatically in the last decade; its leveled off. The number of people in state prisons is about the same as it was ten years ago. From 2004 to 2014, the state prison population went up from roughly 1.32 million to 1.35 million, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. That most recent number (1.35 million state prisoners in 2014) is down from its high water mark, 1.41 million in 2008. Critics suspect the leveling off could be attributed to harsh sentences imposed in the 1980s and 1990s finally coming to an end. But defenders point to the nations decreased incarceration rate as real progress. The nations adult incarceration rate, which includes offenders in not only state prisons, but federal prisons and local jails, dropped 10 percent from 2007 to 2014, from 1 in 100 to 1 in 111. The incarceration rate has declined steadily each year since 2008, notes the most recent report on the correctional populations in the U.S. by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Last week, The Sentencing Project released an analysis on how well states have handled the problem of growing prison populations. Relatively modest, the report concluded. While 39 states have experienced a decline since reaching their peak prison populations within the past 15 years, in most states this reduction has been relatively modest, reads the report. The overall pace of change, though, is quite modest given the scale of incarceration. Tonry says one reason why reforms in certain states havent achieved projected gains is that stakeholders like prosecutors, judges and parole boards are not invested in changing the system. The problem with tweaking things is they have to be implemented by somebody, he said.... One state that has gotten a lot of press recently for figuring out how to successfully reform harsh sentencing laws is Georgia. In 2011, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed a bill that modified mandatory minimum sentences on drug charges, gave judges more discretion in drug sentencing, raised the felony threshold for certain theft crimes. Since the bill was signed, Georgias prison population has gone down every year, from 55,944 in 2011 to 52,949 in 2014, a slight decrease but a decrease nonetheless. If that bill, along with another bill on juvenile justice in 2012, had not been passed, the state says its prison population would have gone up by 8 percent and cost $264 million more to expand capacity. The policy change has saved the state millions, but according to a report last year by the states Council on Criminal Justice Reform, Georgias prison population is projected to go up every year over the next five years. So at least for Georgia, success seems to be measured on figuring out how to slow the increase, but not to reverse the trend. There is reason for optimism, though. Despite those projections, the prion population has actually continued its downward trend and policymakers havent given up. After initial reforms were passed in 2011, Georgia has passed reforms every year since 2011, something states like Kentucky havent done. Georgia is back year after year, said Gelb. That kind of reform-minded environment can have an impact well beyond specific changes to law and policy. This well-established Blog is worth visiting on a regular basis for a wealth of information of interest to Armenian nationals and to the Armenian Diaspora world-wide. Although it has a particular role in promoting international recognition of the Genocide, the Blog encompasses much more and includes many articles of general appeal to all those concerned with Armenian affairs. Much of the content is difficult or impossible to find elsewhere and the long list of links provided gives easy access to a plethora of material on social, political, religious, educational and cultural matters, and many news items from around the world. Like a contemporary cable car, the corporate tech shuttle a symbol of San Francisco but with slightly different connotations has again been preserved. The Chronicle reports that a political deal was finalized to avoid an environmental appeal that would possibly have interrupted the buses that ferry thousands of reverse commuters between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. A pilot program for the shuttles became permanent last November, but in December, Service Employees International Union Local 1021 had threatened to insist on just such an environmental appeal, along with a group called The Coalition for Fair, Legal and Environmental Transit. Their request was withdrawn on Monday after Supervisors David Campos, Norman Yee and London Breed struck the deal. The terms: The current number of shuttle stops in San Francisco, 125, can't be exceeded, and if it is, that will trigger an environmental review. Also, the Municipal Transportation Agency and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority must perform a study that weighs transforming the program to a hub model with just a few main stops. Looking ahead, Supervisors will introduce legislation to study the economic impacts of commuter shuttles on San Francisco neighborhoods and displacement. Housing activists frequently cite shuttle stopsas correlating with higher rents and more evictions. But for now, shuttles can continue their business as usual which looks like this on Haight street according to one tipster. Better be careful, or one of these buses could get skewered by a Muni antennae again. Previously: Recently Approved Tech-Shuttle Program Faces Legal Challenge The ever growing Future Bars empire is growing again as Eater brings word that they've surprised us with a brand new addition, Pagan Idol (375 Bush Street at Belden Place). It's a Tiki spot, complete with aquariums, "ornate blown-glass sconces shaped like krakens," and hand-carved wood posts supporting private "huts," carved by Tiki great Crazy Al Evans. In addition to bringing over a Hawaii native, Justin D'Olier, who was most recently on staff at their Berkeley spot Tupper & Reed, the team has hired away two people from the venerable Tonga Room though hopefully the drinks here won't be quite so sweet. Pagan Idol arrives in a space formerly occupied by a low-profile Italian restaurant, Popolo not to be confused with the new, and excellent, pizzeria Del Popolo, further up Bush Street. Critiki has a first look at the space, and the menu includes things like a flaming bowl dubbed the Fassionala Gold, which serves 4 to 5, and the Witch Doctor, with rhum Martinique, Jamaican rum, grapefruit, lime, passionfruit, spices, and egg white. Future Bars is of course the group that recently took over, and cocktail-i-fied downtown dive bar Dave's, rechristened The Lark, and they own and operate Bourbon & Branch, the Wilson (inside B&B), Tradition (where a part of the menu is devoted to Tiki drinks), Local Edition, and Rickhouse. Pagan Idol - 375 Bush Street at Belden Place - Open Monday to Saturday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Related: Sigh: Dave's Replacement Bar, The Lark, Opens On Third San Jose Police are on the lookout for a man they believe to be an Uber driver after a dispute last Thursday regarding speeding got heated. According to police, a worker at Mineta San Jose International Airport noticed a man driving a white sedan at high speeds, and decided to follow the car until it stopped at a rental car area. When the worker photographed the man and confronted him about the speeding, the sedan driver allegedly got out of the car and began roughing up the airport worker. The confrontation, reports the Chronicle, apparently ended when a passenger arrived, and the car which displayed an Uber logo drove off. And in case you were wondering, CBS 5 clarifies that yes, there was a passenger in the car with him as he fled the scene. This all went down just before 11 a.m., and is especially unsettling following last weekend's mass shooting allegedly committed by an Uber driver. The worker, who the paper notes has chosen to remain anonymous, seems to have gotten out of the incident unscathed. The employees fine, airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes told the paper. He did not sustain any bodily injury. He was able to return to work right away. Although the car was adorned with an Uber logo, police can't confirm if the driver works for the ride-hail company. If he does, one would think that Uber would be able to help them with identifying the suspect quickly. That, however, appears to have not happened as San Jose police are publicly asking for help in identifying the man. If you have information regarding the incident you should call 408-277-4161. Related: Last Night, My Uber Driver Said He Was Going To Rape And Kill Me A man walking down Market Street had a scary encounter this morning, when a gang of miscreants chased him down and stole his stuff. According to the San Francisco Police Department, a 32-year-old man was at Eighth and Market Streets at 3:17 this morning when he was approached by five men. The group was apparently threatening enough that the man tried to flee, but the gang of five chased him down and "shoved him," police say. They then took both his backpack, which contained miscellaneous toiletries, police say. Once they had his stuff, all five suspects fled the scene. The victim suffered a scrape to his elbow in the attack, but turned down an offer to go to the hospital. According to police, no arrests have been made. In a pair of competing pieces this morning, the Chronicle is saying both that the tent-dwellers on Division Street are all packing up and leaving, as demanded by the city with a deadline of Friday, and that some are not. But the question remains, for those who have refused prodding by the Department of Public Works and the SFPD to head to the makeshift temporary shelter at Pier 80, whether they'll be arrested for illegal camping come Friday, or not. Per the Chron, "virtually nobody in city government was embracing that option with any eagerness," which means that they'll just keep prodding and encouraging people to move through tomorrow, and then wait and see how many attempt to return. Homeless advocates, meanwhile, have been decrying what would appear to be the criminalization of homelessness, which has long been a hot-button issue in the city. The presence of encampments under that overpass is also far from a new phenomenon it dates back at least a decade and DPW spokesperson Rachel Gordon has previously said that her department had been conducting regular cleanups of the area, needles and all, since January 2014. Due to El Nino rains, however, there were a reported 250 people living under the overpass as of earlier this month. 95 have been successfully relocated to Pier 80, and 55 are allegedly on their way. Other shelters and the Homeless Navigation Center are ready to take about 50 more, leaving about 50 other people with no other immediate option than to relocate their encampment to some new location on the street. One of the homeless, a 50-year-old ex-con named Tennessee, told the paper that he'd just move "one block over or one block down" as he had in the past after similar encampments in SoMa and elsewhere were cleared. As for the temporary shelter, he says, "If they want Pier 80 to be an attractive option then why is there barbed wire surrounding the place?Makes you wonder if it's there to keep people out or keep people in." According to Hoodline, former mayoral candidate Amy Farah Weiss and other advocates are meeting with Supervisor David Campos Friday to discuss the possibility of allowing another encampment to exist along Cesar Chavez under the 101 overpass. Weiss is encouraging the rest of us to take a trip down to Division Street before the 10 a.m. deadline tomorrow to "show support" for the campers there and monitor the actions taken by the city. Meanwhile, across the world in France, a migrant tent city in Calais dubbed "the Jungle" is being cleared by French authorities for similar public health reasons, with people being relocated to heat-equipped shipping containers nearby where, similarly to SF's situation, there isn't expected to be enough room for everyone. Previously: Pier 80 Shelter Fills Up As Tent City Sweeps Continue Uproar Begins As Supervisor Wiener Tries To Enforce Tent Ban On Homeless This amazing Street Food cant be breat! Chandni Chowk, a hub of whole sale business in Old Delhi but also known for the food the street food, the kebabs, the chaats, the kheers, the sandwiches, chole 7 bhature, bedmi puris the list is endless! Here is a little clip from the time I tried Daulat Ki Chaat, a sweet Milk Souffle. It is sold only during the winter months as it cannot hold up to the Delhi heat. So next time you get an opportunity, give it a try and be prepared to be amazed. In some of the other regions in India, it goes by different names such as Makhan Malai, Nimish or Maleiyo. Enjoy! JACKSON, Wyo. | Wyoming's largest elk herd is estimated to have increased in numbers slightly, according to an annual winter survey. Wyoming Game and Fish Department wildlife biologist Aly Courtemanch, who heads up the survey, detected notably few changes in the herd, which roams the Jackson Hole area, including the National Elk Refuge. She wrapped up her surveys Feb. 10. The raw count, 10,678, was only 35 more animals than a year ago. To account for animals missed during an aerial survey the estimated herd size was bumped up to 11,200 just a shade above of 11,000-elk objective. "We're right where we want to be for overall numbers," Courtemanch told the Jackson Hole News & Guide. "The persistent challenge that we're concerned about, and other agencies are, is this skewed winter distribution where we have a lot of elk on the refuge and fewer elk than we'd like in other areas." There were 1,681 elk in the Gros Ventre River drainage, but the numbers of elk wintering elsewhere in Jackson Hole were minimal. Gender and age ratios within the Jackson Elk Herd stayed mostly stagnant, according to the survey. Measured against the number of cows, calf numbers dipped just slightly. This winter's ratio, 19 calves per 100 cows, is not cause to think the herd is shrinking or doomed, Courtemanch said. "We like to look at it on the whole," she said. "If we start seeing a number of years (with calves) in the single digits or in the teens, we would start to get concerned." The ratio of mature bulls came in at 24 per 100 cows, but Courtemanch conceded she probably missed a fair number that were obscured by trees and terrain on natural winter range. A year ago the bull ratio was at 31, but the higher number stems partly from a considerable late-season cow elk harvest. Spike bulls, the last component of the herd, this winter numbered seven for every 100 cows, a typical ratio. An unexpected, rare opportunity is knocking and our community must answer the door. In a front-page story today, The Journal reports the city of Davenport withdrew its project from Iowa Reinvestment District Program funding consideration for this year, leaving on the table $10 million it tentatively was awarded for the project by the Iowa Economic Development Authority Board last year. In light of the decision by the city of Davenport and because additional state funds would provide a boost - perhaps a significant boost - to what we believe is a promising local IRDP proposal, we support, with enthusiasm, our city's plan to go after more state money. In June, the board approved $41.5 million in state funding for five IRDP projects, including the Sioux City project, contingent on meeting additional benchmarks by March 1, 2016. In addition to Sioux City and Davenport, the cities of Mason City, Coralville and Grinnell were, tentatively, awarded funds. Sioux City requested $13.9 million in IRDP money and was awarded a little more than $8 million for a city development plan comprised of the following pieces: A hotel and parking ramp in proximity to the city's downtown Convention Center; an ag center and hotel on the unused former John Morrell site in the old stockyards area; and redevelopment to commercial use by Ho-Chunk, Inc. of three former industrial buildings in the 100 block of Virginia Street. "The Iowa Reinvestment District Program is designed to assist communities in developing transformative projects that will improve the quality of life, create and enhance unique opportunities and substantially benefit the community, region and state," according to the Iowa Economic Development Authority website. "The program provides for up to $100 million in new state hotel/motel and sales tax revenue to be 'reinvested' within approved districts. Districts cannot exceed 25 acres in size, and must be in an Enterprise Zone or Urban Renewal Area." The city's strategy, as described in today's Journal story, to again request $13.9 million for its IRDP project by the March 1 deadline is absolutely the right one. Finally, due to the potential economic benefits of this project within three key geographic areas of our community, we encourage the public (both city and county government) and private sectors to unite behind the goal of making this plan a reality. Over the years I spent in the corporate world, I was fortunate enough to attend several different negotiation seminars and courses. Each had its own nomenclature and structure. Some negotiating courses were better for negotiating huge multimillion dollar acquisitions and divestitures. Others were focused on supplier-customer negotiations. I put that knowledge to work, and in my career have negotiated many hundreds if not thousands of contracts and deals. Some deals were quite large involving many millions of dollars. But Ive been involved in the small business world for the past decade now. And Ive noticed that negotiations encountered by small business owners and managers are a bit different from the ones in large corporations. Small business negotiations: Often go fast. They may be seamless extensions of the typical sales scenario. They may morph quickly from sales pitch to negotiating the deal terms in a single discussion. They may be seamless extensions of the typical sales scenario. They may morph quickly from sales pitch to negotiating the deal terms in a single discussion. Are informal. Negotiations today may be conducted over phone and email. Big sit-down meetings involving thousands of miles of travel occur, too, but are less common than in larger corporations. Ive come up with what I consider a realistic checklist for negotiating a business deal. Here is a 9-point negotiating checklist Ive honed specifically for small business situations. 1. Weed Out Tire Kickers Weve all encountered them at one time or another the tire kickers. These are people comparing prices or seeing whats out there. They will pump you for information but have no intention of buying from you. Dont waste your time trying to negotiate with anyone not serious. To separate tire kickers from serious parties, ask how soon they plan to purchase, what specific needs they have, and other probing questions. Try to get them to do something that takes a bit of effort, such as setting up a face-to-face meeting, or filling out a short questionnaire, or confirming your notes from an initial phone discussion. Tire kickers usually melt away if called on to get specific or commit to anything. 2. Know Your Must Haves What are the one or two things that would cause you to walk away if you dont get them in a business deal? Youd be surprised (or perhaps not) at how many people dont think through what is essential to them in a deal. They go into a negotiation with only a vague idea of what they want. Be firm. But be realistic you cant have everything. Communicate your must-haves internally. If someone else on your team or an attorney is involved on your side in the negotiations, they need to be on the same page. Be prepared, willing and able to walk away if you dont get your must haves. If you cant afford to walk away, then it wasnt really a must have. Know that too. 3. Do Advance Research Gather as much background information as you can before entering an important negotiation. Be aware of prevailing market conditions. Know what current price levels are in your industry. Are there any natural resource shortages or high regulatory compliance costs that may have driven up prices? Whats the other partys reputation? Are there any particular issues raised in online reviews that you should negotiate to protect against? Dont forget the person youll be negotiating with, if you know who it is in advance. Check the persons profile on LinkedIn for his or her background and interests. Use that information to develop rapport. The Internet makes research far easier than it was in the past. Knowledge is power. Knowledge helps guard against being bluffed. Armed with knowledge, buyers will be better able to judge what is realistic for pricing or deal terms. And vendors will be better equipped to defend their own pricing or terms. 4. Establish a Positive Tone A common misconception about negotiating is that it requires beating down the other side. In most small business situations, that is plain wrong. Your reputation and ability to work with a customer, vendor or other party usually depends on having a decent working relationship after the negotiation concludes. The negotiating session is the start of a business relationship. It shouldnt be the premature demise of that relationship because you cant stand each other after acrimonious negotiations. See Also: How to Pick the Best Business Partner for You A successful negotiation depends on developing rapport. Youve heard the often-repeated sentence, People do business with people they know and like. Its more true than not. Naturally, you want to drive a good bargain. But do so by finding common ground and points of agreement. This is where social skills play a crucial role: Smile and make eye contact in face-to-face meetings. Engage in small talk. Talk about yourself, including your family and interests. Talk about your company, such as how it started and your values. Dont give out any sensitive information just enough to convey insights into what kind of company you represent. This may seem irrelevant, but its important to give a sense of confidence to the other side. Draw out the other side, and encourage them to talk about themselves and their business. Listen closely. The closer you listen, the more likely you will hear whats most important to the other side. 5. Identify Decision Makers vs. Recommenders Does the person youre talking with have sufficient authority to negotiate and make a decision? Will approval be required by someone higher up? Its important to know the role of the person youre dealing with. Be diplomatic. Gently probe about the negotiation and procurement / decision process of the other side. But at the same time, dont offend the person by implying, Youd better have authority to decide, or I wont talk with you. You may make an instant enemy of someone who could influence a decision for or against you even if he or she doesnt have the final say. Many companies, especially large corporations, involve multiple people in vendor selections or big deals such as acquiring a company. A Senior Vice President may need to sign off on the contract. But the Senior VP wont be doing the legwork. The person youre talking with probably wouldnt have met with you unless he or she was involved in the decision process in a meaningful capacity. Respect that. View him or her as a potential champion, not a waste of time. If it seems like a decision will require approval of someone higher up, find out who that is. Point out that youll do everything in your power to give the person on the other side of the table the materials needed to get that approval. This way, youre recognizing the person youre talking with has an important role to play. Yet, you know that he or she will have to justify the proposed deal and get approval or buy in from others. Under these circumstances, it would be counterproductive to press for a decision on the spot. 6. Pin Down Each Sides Needs The goal is to understand exactly what each side must have in order to get to an agreement. State your opening position. This is not an ultimatum. Instead, think of this as your opening salvo of what youd like as part of the deal. It also signals what you have to offer. Speak in general terms. We are proud of our huge range of products one of the largest in our industry and we provide personalized service 24/7. Wed love the opportunity to become your supplier. In fact, wed love it if we could become your long-term supplier and are prepared to offer attractive terms in exchange for a multi-year commitment. At this point you havent mentioned price or how long a commitment. You havent suggested you will only accept a long-term agreement, either. Youve merely given a general statement in positive terms about what youd like. Youve also made clear that this will be a negotiation a concession from you requires a concession from them. Get the other side to state their opening position what they want. Is it locked-in pricing? Is it high-touch service? Is it financing? Dont automatically assume you know what the other side considers essential to reach a deal. They may be hiding whats most important to them. You might think that the lowest price is essential. But if you listen carefully the other side may talk more about reliability, or high-touch service or a one-stop solution. Probe their opening statement to draw out details. Try to get them to prioritize their wish list if its a long one. Get the other side talking by asking open-ended questions like these: You mentioned you saw our website. Was there anything that grabbed your attention youd like me to expand on or explain? One of the things our existing customers routinely rate us high on is our wide selection as a supplier. Do you have a wide range of needs to fulfill? Were a small business with a limited budget. Do you have a deal size minimum for customers? Do you require contracts of a certain length? Whats most important to you, if we were to do business? Watch their body language. Listen. Anything that makes the other sides eyes light up or their voice get animated is potentially something you can bargain for. 7. Dont Mention Price First The often-heard rule is that the party that mentions price first, loses. This depends on the type of transaction. In many small business transactions, pricing is known and this rule is irrelevant. But if pricing is not transparent in your industry, then buyers should avoid being pinned down when asked what they want to pay or what their budget is. Be cagey and vague. Respond, Im not sure whats a typical range? Buyers, try to get the seller to open with a number. Then if its high, as buyer you can act suitably shocked saying that is more than I was prepared to pay. Or you could ask something such as I assume that price includes XYZ what else does it include? signalling your expectation to negotiate price for other terms. Sellers, try to get buyers to throw out a number first, because this theory can work in reverse. The buyer may throw out a number that is higher than you would have opened with. Wouldnt that be great? If its low, you could always say something like, to get to that low a price, wed have to bring you down to our entry-level product line, and not the line you asked about. Youre signalling that price is negotiated for other concessions. Practice a few responses whatever is relevant to your industry or to the type of transaction. That way, you wont be caught off guard when asked to name price or budget and blurt out a number you later regret. If you must state a number, give yourself wiggle room. Dont state a price or budget that is the exact number you must have. 8. Give a Concession, Get a Concession Concessions are like money. They are worth something in a negotiation. So make sure that when you give a concession (give something of value) that you get a concession (receive something of value) in return. Dont offer up everything immediately. While negotiation involves give and take, you dont want to give up too before the other side has a chance to respond. Youll have nothing left to negotiate with later on. Thats why you dont want to offer concessions immediately. If you grant a concession without receiving something in exchange, you are in effect negotiating against yourself. Pose concessions in terms of questions. For example, you might ask, If we were to give you X, would you be willing to commit to a three-year contract? This makes it clear that you expect something in return for the concession. 9. Put it in Writing Within 24 Hours Put the deal in writing as soon as you have a verbal consensus. Within 24 hours is best. Deals die due to lack of momentum. And the longer it takes to put a deal in writing, the more likely the other side may try to renegotiate a point you thought was closed and gave concessions for! Take a page from the union negotiators handbook. Union negotiators know the importance of documenting complex negotiations. As each point is agreed upon, that point is written up, signed off on, and placed in a notebook often right there at the negotiating table before the parties leave for the day. At the end of what could be months of negotiation, the negotiators have a notebook containing all of the contract points that have been agreed upon to date. You dont have to go to those lengths. The point to remember is to put your deal in writing right away. If it is going to take a while to get approvals or draw up a contract, at least send an email outlining the main points within 24 hours. Then drive it to a signed contract as soon as possible after that. And there you have it. These nine points are critical for small business negotiations. Consider each of them when negotiating a business deal. Download a convenient one-page negotiating checklist that you can save to your computer and print out: Download it Now! TOP Analysis, Prognoses and News about Greek - Albanian Relations and the Region. The Will is beyond or before Words, just as the urge to fuck up my computer is prior and posterior to the apprehension of the tools that ma... There are many fitness goals out there that we desire. Some of us want to be leaner and others wish to put on muscle mass. The thing is, for you to achieve your fitness goals, you need to News Story not available This story has been published on: 2022-10-21. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. This story is no longer available on our site. The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless. The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well. By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism. Newly elected 2016 board of trustee members for the Southern Maryland Regional Library Association, from left to right: Claudia Bellony-Atanga (Charles); Martha Grahame (Calvert); Karen Eggert (Calvert); Carolyn Guy (St. Mary's); Sam Worsley (Charles); Celeste Fort (Calvert); Janice Walthour (St. Mary's); James Hanley (St. Mary's); and Sharan Marshall, Director, Southern Maryland Regional Library. Not pictured is Andrew Pizor (Charles). CHARLOTTE HALL, Md. (Feb. 24, 2016)The Southern Maryland Regional Library Association welcomed two new members to its board of trustees during the annual corporation meeting on February 23. Janice Walthour and Martha Grahame joined eight other board members who are elected annually to serve a one-year term. The other eight who were elected are returning members, including the newly elected board officers: Karen Eggert, President; James Hanley, Vice President; and Celeste Fort, Treasurer.The Southern Maryland Regional Library Association is a regional resource center for the public libraries in Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's Counties; providing library services for the staff and customers of public libraries throughout Southern Maryland. The board of trustees is composed of three members from each of the three county library boards.The regional library was formed in 1959 to enhance the services provided by the county libraries. It is part of a state-wide resource network of three regional resource centers, working in collaboration with the State Library Resource Center, to provide efficient, economical and coordinated library services that the county library systems cannot adequately provide themselves.For more information about the Southern Maryland Regional Library Association, visit http://smrla.org or call 301-884-0436. ANNAPOLIS (Feb. 23, 2016)Environmental activists clashed with Maryland's agriculture secretary and the poultry industry over legislation designed to shift the burden of cleaning up excess chicken manure runoff from taxpayers and farmers to larger poultry companies. Sen. Richard Madaleno, D-Montgomery, the bill's sponsor, told the Education, Health and Committee Tuesday that current regulations are not sufficient. Those regulations are aimed at reducing the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous in the Chesapeake Baynutrients which can partially be attributed to chicken manure runoff from Eastern Shore farms. He said that as the state finishes implementing its new Phosphorous Management Tool, new regulations will say an estimated 228,000 tons of chicken litter will not be able to be disposed of on the Eastern Shore. "We have to find a way to deal with it," Madaleno said. "Just placing it on the backs of the contract growers is the not the fairest way to move forward because they are not the cause of the problem and they are the ones totally responsible for cleaning up the problem." The Poultry Litter Management Act, SB496, has 13 Democratic co-sponsors, including committee chair Joan Carter Conway and vice-chair Paul Pinsky. It shifts the burden of disposal and delivery of manure to a person or company that owns poultry raised by a contract grower, instead of the grower having to handle it. The owner would be required to follow previously agreed certified nutrient management plans to do so, and the bill would also allow contract growers to sue poultry manufacturers for potential violations. Senate President Mike Miller pleaded from the rostrum today for the senators to listen to both sides at Tuesday's hearing, because the bill has become a contentious issue. Maryland Ag secretary testified against bill Maryland Agriculture Secretary Joseph Bartenfelder asked the committee to reject the bill, stating it was unnecessary and that current Phosphorous Management Tool regulations implemented just last June have resulted in significant progress. That tool identifies farm fields with the highest potential risk of excess phosphorus and is intended to limit buildup in soils that already have high levels of the nutrient. "Let us do our job, let us work with all of you; there's no need for this bill at this time and [let's] keep the value of that poultry manure where it is, where it's been, and that's with the farmer," Bartenfelder said. Major Maryland industry player Perdue Foods also opposed the bill. Stephan Levitsky, vice president of sustainability at Perdue Farms Inc., said the company is environmentally conscious and that the proposed bill would not be effective. "We protect our environment, live up to our civic responsibilities, ensure the wellbeing of our associates, and generate earnings for the future of our company." "I am here today to speak to concerns that poultry farmers are burdened with excess poultry litter and that the recently enacted Phosphorous Management Tool, or PMT, will result in significantly more litter that cannot be applied to farm fields and thus in higher costs to taxpayers," Levitsky said. Environmental groups say bill solves implementation issues with regs Doug Myers, Maryland senior scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, testified in favor of the bill, saying it supplements existing regulations that need to be upgraded and solves implementation challenges of the Phosphorus Management Tool. He said that as the Phosophorus Management Tool is phased in to determine which fields are able to accept additional manure, the distances and volumes of manure will grow. Claire Fitch, a program officer with John Hopkins University's Food System Policy Program at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, spoke of health hazards associated with boiler houses where chickens are kept prior to slaughter. "A single boiler house can now hold up to 60,000 birds and oftentimes there are multiple boiler houses located on a single parcel of land," Fitch said. Fitch also said that boiler houses emit harmful chemicals such as nitrates, which if ingested could potentially cause diabetes, multiple types of cancers, and birth defects. Questions if research is up-to-date Sen. Stephen Waugh, R-Calvert & St. Mary's, questioned the veracity of the panel's research, suggesting it was outdated because it did not include documentation subsequent to last year's PMT regulations and expressed doubt about previously described health hazards. "Have any of these studies been done since the PMT regulations have changedthat we caused to be changed from legislation last year," Waugh asked. "Can you point to specific increases, for example, in thyroid conditions, birth defects, diabetes, cancers, etc?" The panel could not answer the question as their research concluded in FY 2015. Dr. Bruce Stewart-Brown, senior vice president of food safety, quality and live production at Perdue Foods, and is also a veterinarian, sought to counter claims about potential health concerns related to production. "Perdue is the industry leader in reducing the use of antibiotics in chicken production. We stopped using antibiotics for growth promotion back in 2007 and in 2014 finished taking antibiotics out of our hatcheries," Brown said. "Today, more than two-thirds of our chickens and more than half our turkeys are raised without any antibiotics at all, what we call No Antibiotics Ever, or NAE." Bryan Renbaum can be reached at: brenbaum1983@gmail.com When Dean Rusk was once the United States Secretary of Defense under President Lyndon Johnson, he shared some thoughtful words of wisdom, You know, the more power you have, the more restraint you have to exercise. President George Bush, a wartime president, only last week, remarked, In my experience I have learned that the strongest people in the room are not the loudest. This presidential cycle has featured a bombastic buffoon parade his toughness to America, his real message hidden by what appears to be a bad blonde wig. This week in Nevada Donald Trump reflected on how sad it was that the crowd could not beat the hell out of a heckler and have him leave the room in a stretcher. You see, when you are a billionaire bully used to getting your way, you can play tough, demanding and demeaning though you are. Unfortunately, though, Donald Trump is a coward and a weakling. He is draft dodger, who, when he was called upon to fight for the United States as a young man, chose to avoid war, opting for student deferments instead. In an era when young men and women were standing up to United States aggression in Vietnam, Donald Trump was silent, earning a degree at Wharton instead. When he had a chance to show moral courage, and at least speak out, no one heard a sound from the rich little kid. The big nationalist who promises to crush Isis today was nowhere yesterday. When he graduated, certified 1-A and fit for military duty, and was a prime candidate to be drafted, he suddenly discovered he had heel spurs and within weeks was re-classified 1-Y with a medical deferment. Today, with bravado, he talks of defending America passionately, but like every other Republican candidate on the stage in their debates, never fought for or wore the uniform of a United States military branch. Tough guys all, none ever volunteered for military service. The national press is responsible for not effectively exposing Trump. As with every other issue, no reporters hold him to task for his malfeasance back then. Hell, they dont hold him accountable for the misogynistic and mindless things he said a month ago. Journalists sit by silently as he interrupts fellow candidates in the debates and reporters in their interviews. Journalists allow Trump to publish groundless and unsubstantiated criticism of others while never researching his own sad record of business bankruptcies, failed marriages, and multiple lawsuits. Journalists have failed to expose that the nationalism Trump foments is identical in form and fashion to the white supremacist Aryan civilization that a leader named Hitler once tried to create. Trumps defense is a good offense, and no one is calling him out effectively. His derisive and demeaning chatter infects the Internet and despoils the political field. He is the toxin poisoning the river, the bully standing on the corner, pointing out the faults of others while never seeing the fool in himself. It does not matter what the issue or who the journalist is this year. They allow themselves to be badgered and beaten by the big bad boy with the blonde wig. Its a disgrace from Fox to CNN. Americans everywhere should be troubled by Trumps verbal terrorism. Journalists across this nation should be embarrassed that they have not produced stories showing whom he is and what he has done. A rabid dog is leading them instead. Politics can be brutal, but it does not have to be appalling. In 2016, one man has thrown it into the gutter. It is no surprise. This is what America has become, a reality show for Duck Dynasty freaks. This is a time to be reminded of the McCarthy witch-hunt hearings in Congress in the 1950s. It was another era to be sure, but we need a courageous voice to speak out again: Once again, sir, have you no conscience? Have you no sense of decency? Maybe journalists have begun to wake up and follow my lead, exposing Trumps frauds for what they are. Heel spurs, my ass. Like a million other Americans, he dodged the draft with a lame medical excuse. On Monday, CNN finally produced a segment on the lawsuits against Trump right here in Broward County, calling him out for raw business deals that screwed investors. Yesterday, the NY Times published an expose revealing that Trump is really a lightweight in Manhattan real estate, hardly the titan he pretends to be. Additionally, more and more stories are coming to light that he has sold his name simply for profit, not protecting the quality of the products he markets. Journalists caught up in the glitz and the glamor that was Trump now need to double down and become the street fighter he is, punching out facts and figures instead of fantasy and froth. They need to expose his warts and wounds, holding him to account. The pedestal is a slippery place when greased. Most of all, we need an America that aspires not to the bombastic and belligerent, but to our best and brightest. Donald is a tramp and he wont ever do that. Editor's Note: SFGN is not alone in drawing comparisons between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler. They have been populating the pages of blogs, news articles, and feature writing for months, in imagery, cartoons, and tabloids. In fact, on Sunday of this week, the Washington Post ran an editorial from Harvard University professor and political theorist Danielle Allen, who compared the surprising rise of Trump to Adolf Hitlers seizing power in Germany. A demagogic opportunist can exploit a divided country, she wrote. Also this week, The Collegian, the student newspaper of California State University at Fresno, equated the Republican frontrunner with Hitler in a front page editorial, and a bold headline reading SIEG HEIL! Last month, the 86 year old step-sister of Anne Frank, a Holocaust survivor told the New York Daily News that Trump is acting like another Hitler. A refugee herself, she was referring to Trumps declaration that the United States should ban all Muslims from entering the United States. In October, the blog site cracked.com ran a stunning story 5 Ways Donald Trump Perfectly Mirrors Hitlers Rise to Power. The author notes that Trump sells hate as hope." Last summer, Newsweek ran a story by Jeffrey Tucker entitled Is Donald Trump a Fascist?, citing his "brazen display of nativistic jingoism, along with a complete disregard for economic reality. In Bristol, the United Kingdom, a street artist known as Pegasus posted a wall mural of Trump as the Furor. "Every hate speech makes him sound more and more like a dictator instead of a presidential candidate," he said. "I wanted to send that message in the most obvious way. People forget, another CNN contributor Sally Kohn notes, Hitler was elected too, with 36 % of the vote. Host Ashley Banfield added that there are a lot of Brown shirt similarities." As the publisher of SFGN, and a student of history, I would simply say that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. - NK Trantalis Responds To Dixie Highway Tragedy By John McDonald Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Dean Trantalis said he understands residents concerns of unsafe traffic conditions along Dixie Highway, but cautioned against knee-jerk reactions. We are moving forward and planning to redesign that corridor, said Trantalis in a telephone call to SFGN. It will be a safer section, but we are at the mercy of the state in terms of funding. Residents are demanding action following the tragic death of Charles Blackledge, 46, a gay man, who was struck and killed while riding his bicycle on Dixie Highway near Northeast 16th Court. Laura Crosenco, a Fort Lauderdale resident, said the city is dragging its feet on improving pedestrian conditions. This is enough, said Crosenco at a roadside vigil for Blackledge. Charles Blackledge is one death too many. Trantalis, however, said Crosenco is out of line in her tactics. Shes taken it to another level, Trantalis said. Shes trying to say the city has blood on its hands and that is just simply ridiculous. A spokesman for Barbara Kelleher, regional authority of the Florida Department of Transportation, told SFGN bids will be accepted in September with a contract expected to be awarded in November. Project plans call for filling in sidewalk gaps, wider bicycle lanes in each direction, pedestrian lighting, raised table intersections and crosswalks. Meanwhile, Broward County Crime Stoppers have placed a $3,000 bounty on the head of the driver who hit Blackledge and sped away. Anyone with information regarding the incident are encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. City of Orlando Recognized for Being an Inclusive City (CityofOrlando) The City of Orlando was presented with the Governmental Champion of Change Award at the 4th Annual Champions of Change Luncheon and Inaugural Awards Event. The award recognizes individuals and corporations that foster diversity and inclusion in their business and community in Central Florida. At the City of Orlando we are committed to ensuring we are a City for everyone, said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. The City has been at the forefront in creating a community that is not only culturally diverse, but also one that embraces diversity and equality, and the Governmental Champion of Change of Award is a testament to that. Orlando was selected for this for its continuous efforts to foster and encourage diversity and equality, including things such as the Mayors Martin Luther King Commission, housing assistance, supplier diversity and policies and ordinances in place that help to protect the LGBT community. FOIR Fines Humana $5000 for Discrimination Against PLWHAs (EDGE) The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (FOIR) announced this week that it had concluded its market examination of Humana and fined the health insurer $500,000 for failing to cooperate with investigators. In a consent order dated February 16, 2016, Humana agreed to "maintain procedures to ensure that it does not by effect or design treat people living with HIV/AIDS less favorably than any other condition." Health advocates from The AIDS Institute and the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) welcomed the news. "The FOIR regulatory action sends a strong message that health insurers will be held accountable. Rigorous compliance monitoring and enforcement is essential to ensuring that the Affordable Care Act fulfills its promise of protecting patients against discrimination and providing affordable healthcare," stated Wayne Turner, NHeLP Staff Attorney. In 2014, The AIDS Institute and NHeLP filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) charging four Florida health plans, including Humana, with unlawful discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS by placing all HIV medications, including generics, on the highest cost sharing tier, thus requiring enrollees to pay as much as 50 percent co-insurance for every HIV drug. In the complaint, the groups contend that such practices discourage people with HIV/AIDS from enrolling in the plans and violate the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) non-discrimination provisions. The ACA bans plans from discriminating against individuals based upon disability and prohibits them from discouraging enrollment by people with significant health needs. For more information, visit www.TheAIDSInstitute.org Two licensed therapists are dedicating themselves to aiding the transgender community of northern Broward County by initiating a new psycho-educational support group meant to bring the community both resources and camaraderie. On every second Friday of the month, the group meets at the Heart Connection Center in Boca Raton. It is here that licensed psychotherapists, transgender care specialists and certified sex therapists Felicia Levine and Jamie S. Weiss will be hosting and providing information on trans issues, lifestyles and medicines while also promising to bring in speakers and field experts to help and inform anyone who attends. I believe there is an undeniable need for something like this, Weiss said. There's nothing else like this in the area. According to Weiss, the area between Wilton Manors and Lake Worth has no places or safe havens for trans people to go to find support or help. We have people coming down over a 100 miles away and it's really challenging for them, so [this group] splits the distance for them, Weiss said. Levine and Weiss both said that a group like this is important because trans people are coming out and presenting their true selves now more than ever before. People are feeling more brave and are able to show more of their authentic selves without feeling closeted. This community needs additional support so that they can feel safe, Weiss said. In addition, they also credit the work of trans celebrities like Jazz Jennings and Caitlyn Jenner for shining a spotlight on the trans experience. It's great to see the media supporting it, Levine said. It's letting other people feel comfortable in their own skin when you look out and see someone of prominence. It makes you feel not so alone. Despite trans issues and experiences gaining more exposure in the media, most transgender people do not have the same experiences that Jennings and Jenner have. The transition process is not as easy for most people who experience it. Unlike Caitlyn and Jazz, most people dont have the support and money that they have, Weiss said. Some people don't know where to go or where to start and they don't have resources, said Levine. We will be a solution for them. Group meetings will include guest speakers, presentations and information on a lot of trans-related issues such as how to go about the transition process. Will we not only be presenting different information and resources to our attendees, but we will also be showing them how they can utilize it as well, Weiss said. The group is not just limited to those who are transitioning or have transitioned. Spouses, family members and friends are also invited to join the group. Spouses are going through a transition as well. Our group will help them, Weiss said. It is a very intense moment in someones life to witness their partner transitioning, so we will be offering counseling sessions and more supportive therapeutic resources. Weiss and Levine first met while attending and completing a transgender therapy care program at the International Transgender Certification Association in Miami. We realized that as an alliance we could create this group and facilitate it as well, Levine said. We see a lot of people who lose the support of their family and friends. We want to be that support for anyone who may feel like they're alone. Both women also have private practices in the Boca Raton area. They will be extending their services to anyone who may need or want individual care. The group is a great place for someone to come and meet new friends, meet people are who going through what you're going through, find support, and share your story, Levine said. But, we will also [offer that] our members take advantage of where we can work one on one to help with individual needs, said Weiss. The two women are optimistic about the group and are excited to watch it grow and evolve. They even hope to eventually launch another group geared specifically at transitioning children and their families. Children start presenting as early as 2 years old, Levine said. It is a lot easier for someone to grow into who they are versus having to undo years of identity work when youre older, Weiss said. We want to be there to support wherever and whenever we can. There is a $5 entrance fee for the group and, according to Weiss, all you have to do is show up. The two women are passionate about the trans community and they are proud to be launching this group. Our heart is in it, Levine said. We want to support and be a voice for them. The group will meet every second Friday of the Month on the second floor of the Heart Connection Center located at 2499 Glades Rd, Suite #107 in Boca Raton. For more information on the group you can contact Jamie S. Weiss via phone at 561-213-6327, or Felicia Levine via phone at 954-657-3151. You can also send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subaru Telescope's image of the FRB galaxy Subaru Telescope An international team of scientists using a combination of radio and optical telescopes identified the distant location of a fast radio burst (FRB) for the first time. This discovery has allowed them to confirm the current cosmological model of the distribution of matter in the universe. Figure 1: This image shows the field of view of the Parkes radio telescope on the left. On the right are successive zoom-ins in on the area where the signal came from (cyan circular region). The image at the bottom right shows the Subaru Telescopes image of the FRB galaxy, with the superimposed elliptical regions showing the location of the fading 6-day afterglow seen with ATCA. Image Credit: D. Kaplan (UWM), E. F. Keane (SKAO). The fast radio burst was detected on April 18, 2015 by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)s 64-meter Parkes radio telescope in Australia. That observation triggered an international alert to other telescopes to follow up with their observations. Within a few hours, CSIROs Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), as well as other facilities around the world were looking for the signal. FRBs are mysterious bright radio flashes generally lasting only a few milliseconds. Their cause is still unknown and there is a long list of phenomena potentially associated with them. FRBs are very difficult to detect; before this discovery only 16 had been observed. In the past, FRBs have been found by sifting through data months or even years later. By that time it is too late to do follow up observations, said Dr. Evan Keane, Project Scientist at the Square Kilometre Array Organisation (SKAO) and the lead scientist behind the study. To remedy this, the team developed its own observing system at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia to detect FRBs within seconds, and to immediately alert other telescopes while there is still time to search for more evidence in the aftermath of the initial flash (Figure 1). Catching a Flash Thanks to the ATCAs six 22-meter dishes and their combined resolution, the team was able to pinpoint the location of the signal with much greater accuracy than has been possible in the past. The observations revealed a radio afterglow that lasted for around six days before fading away. This afterglow enabled astronomers to pinpoint the location of the FRB about a thousand times more precisely than for previous observed events (Figure 1). The team members from the University of Tokyo (UTokyo), the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), and Konan University next examined an optical image of the FRB taken a day after the first flash by the NAOJs 8.2-meter Subaru Telescope in Hawaii. The image revealed a possible source: an elliptical galaxy some 6 billion light-years away. Follow-up spectroscopic observations by the Subaru Telescope yielded a redshift measurement for the source, which allowed astronomers to calculate its distance. (Redshift is the speed at which the galaxy is moving away from us due to the expansion of the universe). For the first time, we have identified the host galaxy and measured the distance to a fast radio burst, said Dr. Tomonori Totani, professor at the UTokyo Department of Astronomy, who led the optical observation effort. Doing Cosmology with an FRB FRBs show a frequency-dependent dispersion (Figure 2), a delay in the radio signal caused by how much material it has gone through. Until now, the dispersion measure is all we had. By also having a distance we can now measure how dense the material is between the point of origin and Earth, and compare that with the current model of the distribution of matter in the universe explained Dr. Simon Johnston, of CSIROs Astronomy and Space Science division. Essentially, this lets us weigh the universe, or at least the normal matter it contains. In the current model, the universe is believed to be made of 70% dark energy, 25% dark matter and 5% ordinary matter, the matter that makes up everything we see. However, through observations of stars, galaxies and hydrogen, astronomers have only been able to account for about half of the ordinary matter, the rest cannot be seen directly and so has been referred to as missing. The good news is our observations and the model match. We have found the missing matter explained Dr. Keane. Its the first time a fast radio burst has been used to conduct a cosmological measurement. Finding the Cause of FRBs Still, the origin of FRBs is a mystery. The fact that the host galaxy is an elliptical galaxy, which is not actively forming young stars, implies that it takes a long time for a stellar system to evolve into an FRB. This favors scenarios like compact binary star mergers, but there is no direct evidence yet. Future observations of FRBs in a variety of wavebands may well reveal more details about this enigmatic astronomical phenomenon. Optical observations are essential as demonstrated by the present study. Instruments such as the Subaru Telescope and the upcoming Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) in future will play major roles as FRBs occur. Even more tantalizing is the idea that FRBs could also be sources of gravitational waves, leading to collaboration between FRB search projects and gravitational wave observations. These could make valuable contributions to the new era of gravitational wave astronomy begun by the recent discovery of a black hole binary merger by the LIGO Observatory. Figure 2: This image shows the increased delay in the arrival time of the Fast Radio Burst as a function of the frequency. The delay in the signal is caused by the material it goes through between its point of origin and Earth. Image Credit: E. F. Keane (SKAO). The study was published in Nature on February 24, 2016, titled The host galaxy of a fast radio burst by Keane et al. This research is supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for the Scientific Research (No. 15K05018) by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. ON FEBRUARY 23 low-cost Russian airline Pobeda started selling tickets for flights on the Bratislava-Moscow route for the upcoming summer season. Font size: A - | A + The summer season will last from March 27 until October 30, 2016. Pobeda aircraft will fly from Bratislava to the Russian capital three times a week from May 29 to September 18, Bratislava M.R. Stefanik Airport (BTS) spokesperson Veronika Sevcikova told the TASR newswire. Outside this period, flights will increase to seven times a week. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Pobeda, a daughter company of the Aeroflot Group, has been operating regular flights on the route Bratislava-Moscow-Vnukovo airport since December 19, 2015. The flight takes approximately 2.5 hours. AT ITS regular session on February 24, the Slovak government approved the strategic framework for the countrys Presidency of the EU Council, with the actual agenda of the presidency expected to be approved in June. Font size: A - | A + The framework is based on the priorities of the EUs strategic programme adopted at a summit in June 2014: jobs, growth and competitiveness, energy union, freedom, security and justice; and the EUs role as a strong global player. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement This document raises us to the next level and makes it clear that we are approaching the final phase; because we're finally talking about the presidencys content, said Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak, as quoted by the TASR newswire. Well use the remaining three months to address the most recent issues that should be on the presidency agenda. He added that it is already evident that the British referendum on staying in the EU, to be held on June 23, will be a factor during the presidency, as its results will have to be reflected in legal documents in the second half of 2016 regardless of the outcome. Another big issue will be migration, Lajcak noted. Well try to make sure that its finally about the implementation of credible European policies and no longer merely about crisis management" he said, adding that he expects the two EU summits in March a special session devoted to migrants expected in the first week, and a regular session on March 17-18 to move things forward. Economy and more In relation to economic issues, Slovakia will focus on measures that will enhance the potential of the common market to offer consumers better services at lower prices and to encourage businesses to develop and grow. Emphasis will also be placed on the development and removal of barriers to the digital economy, further digitisation of public services and reform of the telecommunications network. There will also be an emphasis on improving the climate for start-ups and small- and middle-sized enterprises. Another subject of focus will be the energy union, with an emphasis on enhancing energy security. As for EU enlargement, Slovakia will pay particular attention to current candidates and potential candidates for membership, and to bringing the Western Balkan countries closer to the European Union. In addressing the migration issue, Slovakia will promote a comprehensive approach within the EUs common foreign and security policy. This will include measures aimed at eliminating the causes of illegal migration, providing aid to the countries of origin of the migrants and to their transit countries also including the Western Balkans. Slovakia also supports closer cooperation with NATO in protecting the Schengen Area border. On July 1, Slovakia is set to take over the 116th rotating presidency. It will hold the post for the first time since it joined the EU 12 years ago. ZILINA customs officers found 1,026 fake condoms set to be delivered from China to a recipient in Cadca (in Zilina Region). Font size: A - | A + Following a close inspection of the goods, the customs officers ascertained that the condoms were a brand replica, the TASR newswire learnt on February 24. The owner of the trademark unequivocally confirmed that the products are fakes and represent a violation of intellectual property rights, Zilina Customs Office spokeswoman Bozena Chribikova said for TASR. The customs officials also informed the recipient about the deliverys status and he consented to having the condoms disposed of. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement As the goods cannot be used even for humanitarian purposes, they will be physically liquidated. The adoption of this approach also prevents any unwanted potential consequences that could arise from the use of the product, Chribikova added. SHORTLY before the end of its term Prime Minister Robert Fico's government plans to grant a subsidy to a foreign firmed owned by a former head of Interpol that has an otherwise unclear background. Font size: A - | A + On February 20, Fico and the representatives of RKN Global signed a memorandum in Banska Bystrica. Based on the document, the cabinet is to okay an investment subsidy for the amounting to roughly 20 millon at its March 2 session, three days before the parliamentary elections. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Information about the RKN Global is scarce, however. There remains some confusion about what its actual products are, the Sme daily reported. Additionally, it is linked to people who have been investigated for corruption. Facts about RKN The company that should receive the subsidy produces 27 products, a range of security and screening products, as it states on its website. That includes payment cards MasterCard and Visa, although none of these card companies include an RKN product among their authorised technologies, the Sme daily reported. The companys investment in Slovakia through RKN Global Europe, a limited liability company represented by managing director Mirjam Lindsbro, should amount to 89 million to launch a plant in an industrial park in Banska Bystrica. While 80 percent of the plants products, reportedly with high added value, are to be exported, the remaining 20 percent should be sold in Slovakia, Fico said as reported by Sme. The plant is expected to create 1,200 jobs in the plant and 80 percent of the staff are to be people with university education earning about 1,430 monthly, well above average in the region. In statements RKN Group Europe stressed that the availability of a university-educated workforce as the reason they selected Banska Bystrica for this investment. Fico said that people trained in the technical fields are needed for the plant. However, data from the Education Ministry shows that Banska Bystrica has among the fewest university students pursuing technical education. As of October 2015, there were 570 students in all technical fields in the region, out of which more than 280 were students of wood-processing programmes in Zvolen. In comparison, there were more than 5,100 technical students in the Zilina Region and 7,100 in the Kosice Region. Some Slovak media have questioned the expected number of jobs created and pointed to the example of other companies with similar products, like Austria Card and Giesecke & Devrient, that employ 300-400 people in their individual plants. It is our aim to produce for Slovakia and the world and I believe that with our product range we can employ 1,200 people, the companys owner Ronald K. Noble said in an interview with the public-service radio RTVS news service, and added that its not going to happen immediately and that the process will last several years. Noble also claims that the technological partners of his company employ more than 3,500 people in one country. Marjam Lindsbro and PM Robert Fico in Banska Bystrica on February 20. (Source: SITA) The government is to grant subsidy of about 14,500 per each job position, altogether about 17 million. Part of the investment aid should be in the form of cash subventions for the purchase of property and part of it in the form of tax holidays, Fico said as reported by Sme. The Economy Ministry hasnt published the details of the investment aid for RKN Global yet. RKN for Ronald K. Noble? Ronald K. Noble is the founder and the only known owner of the company. Between 2000 2014 Noble served as secretary general of Interpol and now refers to this experience as the main motivation for his decision to go into the security business. In its statement from February 23 the company labels him one of the worlds foremost experts at why and how countries should systematically screen passports of those wishing to enter or cross borders. The actual owner of RKN Global Europe, however, is a Dubai-based company and since Dubai does not publish the names of company owners registered in the country, it is not possible to verify Noble as the owner, Sme reported. Upon announcing the investment, Fico admitted he discussed the investment directly with Noble who, as he says, visited him twice in 2015 personally at the governments office in Bratislava, Sme wrote. Corruption allegations Both in the interview and the official statement Noble reacted to the bribery allegations that Slovak blogger Veronika Remisova wrote about February 22. Noble claims that such claims are very frequent in the security industry. He called the allegations unsupported and argues that they were dismissed by the relevant court. Try searching any name from this area and the word corruption and the results will return corruption accusations, Noble told RTVS. Remisova, who is known for having uncovered several corruption cases on her blog and who is now running as the number one candidate on the slate of the opposition Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) for the March 5 elections, claims that there are Ukrainian businessmen behind the investment and that they were recently investigated on major corruption charges in the United States and Switzerland. All the technological partners that RKN Global presents on its website (VTI, Holography, Polly-Service, YS Design) are based in Kyiv, Ukraine, while all but the last one is part of the Ukrainian consortium EDAPS, Remisova wrote on her blog. The director of the board and another company representative, Alexander Vassiliev and Yuri Sidorenko, have been accused of major corruption in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and both are allegedly based in Dubai. They were accused of conspiring to bribe an officer of the Montreal-based ICAO to gain contracts. An American court eventually dropped charges as the accused men were not US citizens and the deed did not take place on US territory. More Ukraine links When the company first started negotiating the investment in Slovakia, it was doing so as RKN Global Ukraine, through the Slovak embassy in Kyiv, according to Remisova. An investment of such dimension from Ukrainian businessmen would however be somewhat more suspicious and that is probably why they went for Dubai in the end, Remisova writes. She alleges that the business model of the Ukrainians is clear: they have hired former Interpol boss to use his contacts to get contracts for them. The Sme daily alleges additional links of the investment to Ukraine: another representative of RKN Global Europe is Alan Buris of Banska Bystrica who according to the daily runs business with influential Ukrainian entrepreneurs. Buris also represents the Sun Investment Capital company based in Liptovsky Trnovec, where Ukrainian national Vitaliy Hrytsak owns 10 percent of the shares. A man with the same name headed the border guards at the Ukrainian Interior Ministry under the government of former president Viktor Yanukovych, Sme writes. Another company that Buris represents is Lera Impex, where Valeriy Konovalyuk and his wife are partners. Konovalyuk is a Ukrainian politician, failed presidential candidate and a member of the Party of Regions (formerly led by Yanukovych), Sme reported. NEAR the Bratislava borough of Rusovce, police and a fire brigade held a training exercise on February 24, involving a mobile barrier to be used in response to large numbers of people trying to enter the country and to direct their flow. Font size: A - | A + Apart from the usage of the barrier, there was also an entry procedure component wherein officers from the border and alien police were trained in procedures. There are sufficient means to erect such a barrier over a length of several kilometres, according to the Interior Ministry. However, the exact number was not specified. The border with Austria is referred to as one of the areas where the barrier may be assigned. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement video //www.youtube.com/embed/ceW9R6qDoaY Its an exercise of construction of an artificial barrier that we are able to set up at a country border and in any location, exercise commander Ladislav Scemi told the TASR newswire. Its priority purpose is to direct and eventually bar a large number of migrants from coming to tour the country, in this case we are talking about illegal migrants. The exercise called Bariera was attended by Prime Minister Robert Fico and Interior Minister Robert Kalinak. Apart from the barrier, police have other means to protect Slovak borders, according to Kalinak. There will also be patrols deployed in means of transport, as richer migrants use trains and buses to travel, he added. It is obvious that the European Union is failing to protect Schengen area borders, as the number of migrants that enter Europe through Greece from Turkey is still on the rise and it will continue to rise with the better weather, Fico said. He also reiterated Slovakias official stance on the issue: We will not respect mandatory quotas, because they are nonsensical, the prime minister said. Both Slovakia and Hungary are taking the European Commission to court in Luxembourg over the quotas for re-distribution of refugees flowing to Europe. [Not a single refugee from this influx has ever entered Slovakia illegally or without official aid so far.] THE SLOVAK State Veterinary and Food Authority (SVPS) on February 24 called on consumers to refrain from consuming products of US confectionery producer Mars after a piece of plastic was found in Germany in a chocolate bar produced by the concern. Font size: A - | A + Consumers can return the bars to shops where they were bought. The day before, the company recalled all Mars bars and Snickers products, Milky Way Minis and Miniatures and certain kinds of Celebrations with best before dates between June 19, 2016, and January 8, 2017. The measure allegedly concerns 55 countries, with Mars providing no details on the volume of products affected and the possible financial impact. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement SVPS received an alert via the Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture concerning certain production sets of Mars, Snickers, Milky Way, Celebration and Mini Mix, reads its press release, as quoted by the TASR newswire. Some of the contaminated products could also be found on the Slovak market, so SVPS has ordered official inspections with the aim of immediate removal of the products from the market. THE CHURCH of St Martin of Tour in the village of Cerin celebrated its 700th anniversary last year; and its gothic frescoes, damaged during World War II, have to be saved. Font size: A - | A + The murals dating back to the break of the 14th and 15th century are vast; and the Christology Cycle, probably authored by a master from town of Kremnica, is considered to be the most precious. These frescoes, constituting one of the most valuable gems of the church, shall be restored and saved from total ruin. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Another impressive part of the church is a replica of a gothic altar, consecrated last year. The original altar ended up in the Hungarian national Gallery at the end of 19th century. There is also a precious Romanesque-gothic baptismal font which is probably even older than the church itself. In the presbytery, there is a rare stone tomb with the oldest gothic script in Slovakia. On Saturday, February 27, at 18:00; a concert will take place in the church in the village lying in the Banska Bystrica district. Performers from this city, Tibor Vajda (oboe, English horn) and Matus Kucbel (organ) will play the works of Bach, Handel, Josef Bohm, the SITA newswire wrote. Admission is voluntary and will go to finance the restoration. After the concert, both group and individual tours of the church with a guide (in Slovak) will be possible. Another way to support the frescoes is to vote for them within the internet competition of the VUB Foundation, striving to choose precious frescoes in selected churches in Slovakia to be funded. Other projects can be selected, too, which will then receive money from the foundation. The internet voting will take place until February 29 at www.vub.sk/fresky/. THE PARLIAMENTARY Defence and Security Committee should have dealt with the police investigation of a publicised case of VAT fraud. However, only five committee members (four opposition, and the chairman from the ruling Smer party) appeared on February 25. Font size: A - | A + Attendance of at least seven members is necessary for the committee to debate the case and have a quorum for the final vote. Interior Minister Robert Kalinak also failed to show. Chairman of the committee Jaroslav Baska summoned it for the date when the interior minister is away in Brussels, and so they agreed he does not have to come, MP Daniel Lipsic (OLaNO-NOVA) told the TASR newswire after the end of the session. The interior minister is one of the suspects in this case. And [Baska] summoned it so that also all other Smer MPs would not come. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Read also: Read also: Smer ministers allegedly tied to VAT fraud Read more Baska called it politicking and staging a drama, adding that when Lipsic was interior minister for two years [in the rightist government of Iveta Radicova 2010-2012], he should have solved the case then, as it is not a new one and the information dates back to 2009. Minister Kalinak sent a message that he has much more substantial duties for Slovakia to fulfil at the Interior and Justice Ministers Council in Brussels, focused on measures to stop the wave of migration. Two opposition MPs were missing, too. Thus, the committee will have to be summoned again. Read also: The Bratislava ring road project continues to raise doubts. Font size: A - | A + After participants of the tender to design, build, finance, operate and maintain a highway ring road project around Bratislava did not raise any objections and the cabinet approved signing of the concession agreement, the Transport Ministry is expected to sign it by the end of February, just a few days before the parliamentary elections. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement The Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development claims that there is no better solution than the construction of a Bratislava ring road to be completed with other measures to address the traffic situation in Slovakias capital city. Theres currently no other solution that can compare to this one, said Transport, Construction and Regional Development Minister Jan Pociatek, adding that the construction of the bypass should be accompanied by building tramlines and changes to parking policies, while a toll fee for cars entering Bratislava might be considered as well. The winner The consortium Obchvat Nula led by Spanish Cintra Infraestructuras International won the tender when it offered to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the 59-km Bratislava ring road project within a public-private partnership (PPP) project for an annual instalment of 56.72 million. The ring road consists of D4 highway Jarovce Ivanka, north Raca and R7 dual carriageway Prievoz Ketelec Dunajska Luzna Holice. The consortium, which features also Austrian Porr and Australian Macquarie Capital Group, offered the lowest instalment and plans to complete the ring road in four years and three months. This means that the ring road should be completed by 2020. The state will pay the company a total of 1.891 billion during a 30-year operation. An additional 350 million will go towards purchasing the land needed for the project. Read also: Read also: Government approves the ring road project Read more The next lowest bid arrived from the ViaDunaj consortium consisting of Vinci and Meridiam (with an annual payment of 69.01 million) followed by the Bratislava consortium of Hochtief, Iridium and Dif (with an annual payment of 76.78 million). The Astrela consortium consisting of Strabag, Reding and John Laing offered to build the bypass for an annual payment of 91.04 million. The ring road project is the biggest order of the second Fico cabinet while the only comparable project was the first PPP 52-km project involving construction of the R1 dual carriageway between Nitra and Tekovske Nemce and the bypass of Banska Bystrica. Financing One of the doubts from the side of critics of the D4/R7 project is whether it would not be financially more advantageous to finance the project directly from the state budget. It is not possible to finance the project from EU funds as the amount Slovakia has at disposal is already allocated for other road projects until 2020. The Transport Ministry also does not see realistic prospects for finding money for construction of the ring road in the state budget in the coming years, while postponement of the project would mean the loss of socio-economic benefits the project should bring. All analyses confirm the expedience of implementing this construction via PPP, said Pociatek. Another factor speaking for choosing a PPP project is that, in this case the expenditures would be not included into the general government debt, according to Pociatek. In this respect Peter Golias, director of the INEKO think tank, pointed out that highway PPP projects create a systemic danger in the form or creation of a hidden debt for the state; in this way politicians can bypass rules about fiscal responsibility, for example the debt brake. To make this clear, he proposes including highway PPP projects into the general budget balance. The Institute of Financial Policy (IFP), a governmental think tank at the Finance Ministry, has elaborated a comparison of financing of the project from the state budget and as a PPP. Thus if the construction of the ring road starts this year, the financing of the project from public finances would be 62 million more advantageous than financing via PPP. However, building the project financed from public finances would require a new tender, which would prolong the whole process by two years at least and IFP estimates that construction works would commence only in 2018. In such a scenario the PPP project comes out as 113 million more advantageous when the two-year social-economic benefits are estimated at 178 million. In case the construction starts in 2017, the PPP would be more advantageous by 26 million. Simultaneously both variants are more advantageous than the scenario in which nothing would happen, said Martin Filko, the director and senior analyst of IFP. Effects questioned Several experts question the ability of the planned ring road to solve the transport situation in and around Bratislava, asserting that additional measures will be needed. IFP, based on the available data and analyses, cannot say whether the ring road is the best solution for transport in Bratislava. Yet other alternatives, like building only the R7 and the Prievoz crossroad or railroad radials and an introduction of fees for cars entering Bratislava have not been evaluated. Lubomir Palcak of the Research Institute of Transport (VUD) agrees that the D4/R7 project would not solve all the problems and considers as inevitable to adopt measures to improve public transport in Bratislava. But such measures cannot replace the expected mission of the ring road. Palcak estimates that during the first year after the D4/R7 project is completed, i.e. after four years, passenger transport would reduce by roughly 15 percent and cargo transport by 50 percent. Transport intensity on the ring road will be between 40,000-45,000 motor vehicles daily during the first year, said Palcak as cited by the SITA newswire, while he believes that benefits would be lower in case only R7 is being built. Jan Kovalcik, tranport analyst from the INEKO think tank, criticises the cabinet in that it has not checked whether smaller solutions would not have brought bigger effects. He is afraid that the new highways will only bring more cars into Bratislava and traffic jams would only move deeper into the city. Opposition parties the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party agree that there have not been presented any analyses confirming necessity of the ring road. Our main objection heads towards the fact that governing authorities have not proved so far in a trustworthy way whether the capital needs the ring road in the proposed form, representatives of SaS wrote in a stance, pointing out that based on the opinion of independent experts, Bratislava is for most cars entering Bratislava its final destination and thus only a small portion of them will use the ring road. This is why traffic jams which the capital faces especially during traffic peak hours will remain or they will move into other localities of the city, added SaS chair Richard Sulik as cited by the TASR newswire. Critics of the project also point to a very short period of time given for evaluation of the project when the Finance Ministry made its financial stance public only in the evening on February 15 while the cabinet discussed it on February 17. Some opposition parties also oppose signing the contract before the parliamentary elections on March 5 and KDH and SaS call on the government to leave this move to the next cabinet. To complete the ring road To solve the transport situation in Bratislava thoroughly the Transport Ministry considers as needed also completion of the northern bypass of Bratislava including a tunnel via the Small Carpathians mountain range. It is necessary to deal with this construction and this is one of the candidates for continuation of PPP projects, said Viktor Stromcek, state secretary of the Transport Ministry. Ive been rolling over this introduction in my head for weeks nowmonths, actually. It keeps coming back to a central thesis, something Ive talked over with friends and colleagues in advance of writing this feature, and it goes something like this Its never been more difficult to tell, on appearances alone, whether a coffee bar is great, or really even any good. Specialized equipment, once an obvious avenue of sussing out a shops chops, is no longer the sure-fire arbiter it once was; interior design, also once considered a logical way to separate wheat from chaff (or at least the haves from have-nots) has been democratized and imitated so thoroughly that everyones Instagrams kind of look the same. But theres one sure-fire sign in 2016 that your coffee bar is up to something delicious: if youre serving Song Tea. Yes, a tea companythats my choice du jour for todays quality canary in the coffee coal mine. So dialed in is Song Teas approach to partnership, and so high are its standards, that if you are partnered with the San Francisco brand, I can nearly guarantee that your coffeeor your food, wine, and boutique goodsare of a very high quality. Their wholesale partner list reads like a list of places Id like to spend my dayit is a whos-who of Americas best and buzziest shops, including our recent Sprudgie Award winners for Best New Cafe (Paramount Coffee Project in Los Angeles) and Notable Roaster (Heart Coffee in Portland, Oregon). Nothing is guaranteed, and I dont want to deal in absolutes, but if your establishment serves Song Tea, as a consumer there is a high degree of certainty that bodes well for the entire experience. And behind that all is one man: Peter Luong, owner, founder, and world-traveling tea buyer for Song. Born in San Franciscos Richmond District, Luongs narrative is inextricably tied to the city he calls home, from growing up in his familys traditional Chinese apothecary, to the days of dot com boom and bust, to his work now at Song, a living and thoroughly modern expression of San Franciscos centuries-old connection with China. From a chance meeting in 2015 at an event with Madcap Coffee in Grand Rapids, Michigan, my interest in Song Tea as a brand has grown into a greater passion and appreciation for tea itself. Im buying new tea stuff all the time now, brewing at home, attempting to learn this soft and delicious art as a consumer and enthusiast. This culminated in an hour-long interview with Luong at his tastefully appointed headquarters in San Francisco, during which he effortlessly selected and steeped a dizzying assortment of delicious teas. I emerged from the interview, gloriously tea-stoned, with an even deeper appreciation for the tremendous ally new wave coffee has found in Song Tea. We talked about how to grow a small business with mindfulness and care; a life spent traveling between San Francisco, China, and Taiwan; Americas dark past and bright future for tea appreciation; and why coffee and tea go together not despite, but rather, because of their inherent differences in nature. To accompany this interview we asked Peter Luong to suggest some of his favorite teas from the current Song collection, so that our readers may steep along at home. Youll be glad you did. Let me start by asking about this first tea were drinkingwhere does its name come from? This is called Dragonwell aka Long Jing as a transliterationLong Jing means dragonwell in Chineseand its got the Chinese characters as well. Im very straightforward about how tea is named, and I prefer not to make up names. Its pretty much direct translation. Why do you take this approach? I find it confusing when you make up names for teas, because it moves the product further away from what it is. Tea itself is quite confusing, and this adds to that. Youre dealing with a product that has thousands of permutations in terms of variety, and just as many permutations in terms of quality. its very hard to tell what is good or what is not. It comes down to tasting, and beginning to build the context of what is good and what is not. Even in China, there is a lot of bad tea, but the difference is in China, it is very clear what is good and what is bad. Its a little muddled herewhat it comes down to is taste. Ive been told before that no good tea makes its way to North America, and that this continent is a dumping ground for the poorest teas from the cultures that grow and revere them. What is your take on that? It is true that in North America, you have a wide possibility for marketing and mismarketing tea to a customer base that is fairly unfamiliar with the product. You can put all those connections together, and come up with some not so good activities happening and dubious situations. But is it hard to get quality tea further away from the source? This is basically an economic issue. Most of the best teas are very expensive and often pre-bought or pre-sold. Theres another force at work though, which is the North American and Western tea market buying low-grade tea traditionally and historicallythat is very much a true thing. Were a culture thats been weaned on convenience, which in tea means things like tea bags, and teas that are stronger and harsher so we can add milk or sugar to them to make them taste better. You go to a grocery store, you find tea bags that cost just a few dollars for a pack of 40that is very much the vast majority of the current market for tea here. Because of that, theres a perception by vendors and sellers at origin that the American palate means Americans want lower-grade teas in the first place. Its a chicken or the egg thing and I dont know what came first. Theres also a propensity for American and Western tea buyers to go to places like China and say, I only want teas at this price pointthis also feeds back into the wider issue, and it means now, when I go to China and say Hey, Im an American tea buyer, they have sort of pre-selected what they think I will want to purchase. They say Hey, Ive got this for you, and its rarely what I want. Last, theres an historic inflexibility to dealing with circumstances beyond the tea growers control. Market forces are a real part of buying tea, and circumstances change all the time for tea growers. If you come from North America and demand tea at the same price as last year, or two or three years ago, you can watch those market forces play outquality can decrease, and quantity might decline. In coffee its common for some importers to set up multi-year contracts with coffee growers. Do you work with this kind of contract structure when youre buying tea? Each year, we work with a collection of teastypically around 20 or 25 teas, and at most 30. The reason for that is, around 30 or 40 percent of the collection is rotated each year. So I differentiate between refresh and rotate. Rotate means its goneit might come back in a few years, but its been removed or replaced with something else. Then theres certain teas we refreshwe have a 2015 Dragonwell tea now, and it will refresh in 2016. 30% of the collection rotates, and that gives us a lot of flexibility. If the spring of 2016 is outrageously overpriced for its quality in China, say, or the overall quality is low for whatever reason, that gives us room to rotate another tea. The idea is to get customers to get used to our collection as something that is always varied. The idea is to not have the same 30 teas from year to year, no matter what, even if the tea is really bad one year or really expensive one year. The concept of rotation says, Hey, this particular tea is not that great this year, lets do something else. The side effect is it makes the whole process really interesting and funtheres always new teas to try. When I travel to buy tea, I always find more teas than just the 25 or 30 we have in our collectionbut I resist the temptation to grow the list. It allows me to fluctuate. Theres no long-standing contracts; theres a handshake and an agreement that gets communicated. The grower knows Ill be back next year, and that my company is growing, so I may want to buy a bit more in the next season. Are all your teas from China? China and Taiwan. In mainland China, regions like Sichuan and Zhejiang produce totally different types and styles of teas. In Taiwan, its a very small island, but with many growing areas, and just as many tea makers that produce different teas. The thing thats slightly different between the coffee world and tea world is, in the coffee world, as I understand it, if youre buying green beans in Kenya and looking at different lots, you might be side by side, traveling with another coffee companythe differentiation is that youre going out there, but amongst the club of coffee roasters who are also traveling to origin to select green beans to be imported on their behalf, youre sort of pretty much the same in that situation as everyone else. The *real* differentiation is what a coffee company does to a coffee once it comes back to America, or wherever they may be located, which is when they roast it, market and brand it, and oftentimes present the coffee themselves in their own cafes. To compare tea, what I buy for the most part is finished product, and the differentiation is all about being able to find a very good finished product in the first place. That means a different approach to things. There are, of course, some exceptionsfor example, three or four of our teas right now are actually roasted, which means I send them to a contract roaster in Taiwan with a very specific profile developed, independent of the growers. That roasting is happening in Taiwan, but to my specifications, which is where Im able to influence at least some of our products in a style similar to how a roaster influences coffee. Talk to me a bit more about growing up around tea in San Francisco, and what led you to start Song. My family operated an apothecary, a traditional Chinese apothecary, and over the last 30 years they started adding more and more tea to it. So I did grow up with it in some respects, but just because your father is a wine dealer doesnt mean youre into itwhat brought me back was in around 2003, my dad asked me to come back and work on the family business. I would travel with him to China once or twice a year to source and find teas. And in the course of doing that I realized that I had been presented with a very interesting business problemhow to make this viable. I had been to college already, and before all this I was working as a business consultant and doing strategy consulting, making PowerPoints and Excel spreadsheets all day, and then I left consulting to be in the first round of dot coms in the late 1990s-early 2000s, and so when I joined the family business in 2003, I came to it with a business background. It has always intrigued meI like business, I like thinking and solving problems. I will say that the tea aspect of it, appreciating tea and discovering how interesting it was, really only developed along the way for me as I worked with my parents. Good tea, it turns out, can taste very, very good. So I helped my parents solve a problem. We rebranded, my parents retired, and I went and started my own thing. Song started selling tea in October of 2013, and I purchased the first tea for Song in the spring of 2013. The collection refreshes each spring, and we are now about to start on our fourth collection. How often do you travel to Taiwan and China? When we got started it took a lot of travel and investigation, like 2-3 months in China and Taiwan to get the project launched. Now Im there for about a month in the spring harvest and then again in the winter, to have conversations about whats coming up, as well as to set up purchasing the handmade teaware and ceramics we sell. All of our pieces are custom made to order. Im there about a month and a half each year, but as the business grows and runs well, I hope to eventually be there more like 2, 3, or even 4 months a year, discovering more teas and then coming back to San Francisco to help release and launch those teas. Talk to me about the relationship between Song Tea and coffee. Where does this connection come from? Well, theres a few perspectives. If you look purely from a business perspective, cafes in America are typically open from 7am to 6pm, or later. which means the hours of service are long. It makes business sense to work with cafes as a tea company. The question is, which cafesbecause there are thousands of these new cafes out thereand weve over time turned down more than weve signed on, and have been very particular about maintaining quality and ensuring that the people weve partnered with can serve tea properly. Its tough to gauge, but sometimes well buy coffee independently from those prospective new accounts, just so that we can try and taste their coffees before making an agreement. But it is not only flavor; the quality character of the partnerships we have is so important as well. I think ultimately we make the correct assumption that if a coffee bar really takes care of their beans, theyll take care of our tea, too. Theres more range in tea brewing than there is in coffee brewing, but it is perhaps the closest two things I can think of, both so affected by endless variables. Im drinking more coffee than ever these days, and as an example, I used to have this burr grinder from like 10 years ago, and it had never been cleaned or anything because I didnt know better, and I found that when I ground coarser for French press it would taste more bitter, but if I ground smaller for a French press it would taste a bit better, but give me way more sludge. It seemed odd, but it was because I didnt understand how particle size can effect coffee brewing, and that our crappy unclean grinder was affecting everything. Well, tea leaves are also every conceivable size and shape, and this influences how you brew for an individual teathat kind of connectivity, not many other beverages can share. So how did the work with these cafes start? It started years ago at Ritual Coffee Roasters here in San Francisco. I knew (Ritual founder) Eileen Hassi, so when I launched Song that was one of the very first accounts we started working with. And out of that relationship I met Kevin Bohlin from Saint Frank, and met Ben Kaminsky as well. Ben has been a really great advisor for us, introducing us to different folkshe helped make Heart happen for us, and then Good Coffee came from Heart, and it starts sort of feeding form itself and building on itself. The trick is not to overextend yourself or feel like you need to be on every corner. We are very particular about who we work with, and I am proud of that. Still, we could do better, and over the next couple of months well add a robust account management program and training program, so we stay on top of things. It takes a lot of effort to make sure its going well. What is the litmus test or set of standards you look for from potential coffee partners? These are things weve thought and talked about for so long, theyve become kind of second nature. Im of the thinking that a good introduction is really important. One of the nicest emails Ive received is from the guys at Good Coffee. It was likeMy name is this, Ive been in coffee for this long, were doing this nowit was this really nice way to say hey, I would love to talk to you, and see if it makes sense to work together. There isnt really a litmus testit comes down to rapport, and if we think its someone who can take care of our tea. But we also have termswe expect a level of training, and we expect a degree of care. The size of an account is not important to us. We work with, for example, Sump Coffee in St. Louisthey arent a giant company but they are doing wonderful things, and they are so open to working with our teas, and appreciative. When youre working with someone who is of a like mind, that is so important in a partnership. We also really dont want to be all over the placethat is especially tough for tea, because when you set out to win X number of accounts, you only get one or two chances at actually buying the tea in the first place each year in the year. It means your cash outlay for the year has to assume youre taking on 20 more accounts, paying for tea ahead of time. Do you work much with restaurants or bars? We have a few accounts that are not coffee. We work with Coi, a restaurant in San Franciscothey have a very high-end tasting menu, and with a wine pairing, but they also are offering a tea pairing for their menu. Its fun; instead of drinking wine, youre served different tea-based drinks throughout the night. Its not just straight tea, eithertheyve cold brewed some of them when appropriate. Its so interesting, to have tea in a context thats not just your typical Hey, heres the dessert menu setting. Little Gem here in San Francisco is also a restaurant and cafe we work with, as well as Paramount Coffee Project in Los Angeles. Whether its a restaurant, or food, or cafe, or whatever, they should be fun and interesting, because its not just about moving product. If it were just about moving product, I would have taken on 40 accounts in the last few years we chose to politely decline. That might have been great; I certainly would have made more money, and we would be a larger company. but then its not cool to our partners to scatter shot our teas all over the place. It devalues what is a really great product. And also, there isnt all that much of some of these great teas available. We have to negotiate for incremental increases from year to year. Good teas are spoken for, and in a year where theres low rain fall, or labor shortages, theres going to be less tea produced overall. There is not an infinite amount of tea that I can buy while maintaining quality; I am not in a position to just grow and grow without any consequences. I just want everything to be measured. Im enjoying drinking tea here with you in this lovely space. Who works here with you? Theres three employees here now, and myself. We have a website, we have retail, and our wholesale operationall of that is done by just 4 people. I want to grow the company in a way thats measuredmaybe because I came from a generation of dot coms where nothing was really measured, and there was money being thrown everywhere. How did you find this retail space in San Francisco? Craigslist! (laughs) Back in 2013, I had just left for China, to go do our first round of buying. Things were getting so expensive in San Francisco, with the tech companies really starting to just take over the real estate here. I couldnt find anything and it was really frustrating, I didnt want to waste money on a build out, and so I left to go buy tea, and that was the scary partI was buying product, we knew we would launch the company soon, but we had no space to put it in. Not even a warehouse. So we looked at different spaces, and I worked with a broker to send me a lot of links, and Amanda was working with me part-time at the timeand nothing looked good . We almost took a space in Jackson Square, in downtown, but it was larger than we wanted and would have taken more work. We almost signed the lease but we thoughtI dont know, maybe we should share a warehouse somewhereand then one day I was at the base of a mountain called Alishan, about to ascend the mountain the next day, staying in a bed and breakfest with internet access. And as I was browsing Craigslist, Amanda sent me the linkand we moved quickly after that. It was pretty much built out and we moved right in. Who designed the space? What is the intent behind it? Theres not a designer. Our space happened organically and functionally, to make use of our 1500 square feet. I knew we needed an office and a place to pack tea, and we also wanted a beautiful space to showcase teaware. This is a multi-function spacein the front its a tasting room / gallery, so customers can taste teas. Similar to a wine tasting context we charge $10 a person for a tasting, and if you buy something, we wave it. We didnt used to charge at all for tastings, but we found this structure made things much clearer for everyone involved. Its simple and casual, no pressure. The idea is to come in, browse teas, browse ceramics, and be able to understand us as a company and how we work. Customers do stroll back to our production area sometimes, and thats fine, not a problem at all. Locals come in toothe difference between here and Chinatown, or somewhere like Fillmore Street, is that this neighborhood has much less foot traffic. 95% of people who come in are here specifically here because they want to be here. Its greatyou get this mix of people who are really into what youre doing without the crowds who may not be into what youre doing. Sure, if you have crowds you will make more money, because thats a numbers thing, but here because were tucked away were able to create these experiences. Its a really personal tea selection, and a chance to talk and figure out where these teas come from. and thats what this space is about. Theres a clarity and simplicity to the space thats meant to highlight our productsboth teas and teawaresand its not kitschy at all. Its simple, elegant, and it should reflect in some ways on the character and quality of the teas were offering. What are some of the similarities you see between coffee and tea? We drink coffee here. We arent shy about saying, just because youre a tea company, the more you drink other beverages the more you develop a wider range and appreciation of flavors and texture and character. In terms of sourcing, you know, the thing with tea that might be different from coffee is, there arent large farmsjust a fewbut there are so many small producers, producing at various quality levels, and it has a lot to do with what their objective is. Are they in it to make money, or to produce something wonderful and unusual? For example, this tea came from a mountain called Lishan. Nearly anyone dealing with Taiwanese oolongs will have something from Lishansimply having a tea from there is accepted as an indicator of quality, but it is, of course, more nuanced than that. Just because a coffee is from Kenya doesnt mean its good, or well roasted, you know? There are hundreds of individual producers working at different quality levels in a given area, and the goal is to find one or two that areyou know, my goal is to find the teas that are good, but not the norm. I dont want to have the same list of teas everyone else is having. Look at someone like G&B Coffee in Los Angelesto their credit, theyre kind of similar in a way of not wanting to do the same thing, to offer the exact same coffee menu as everywhere else. I think its boring to have the same teas and it becomes a marketing thing that is disconnected from product quality. [Peter begins brewing our last tea together] This is called Four Seasons Red, and you have not tried this. It is a very common cultivarFour Seasons Spring is made into greener-style oolongs, which are usually not very expensivethis tea maker turned this into a red tea, and has given it a character that is phenomenal, with a deep sweetness and tang that is hard to describe. Smell. Wow, but how? How does tea become like that? This is done by taking care of the plant, knowing when to pick, and what to do with it once youve picked. Length of oxidation, temperature, and humidity are all factors, as well as knowing when to stop the oxidation with heat, and then how to dry it, and maybe bake it or roast it to begin to impart different flavor to it theres quite a few variables at play that effect the outcome of a tea, and you have a very short time to do this. If you pick a tea leaf too late, two weeks, or too early, it can completely change the character. And after you pick it you have one or two days or even less to make your tea. There isnt much wiggle room. This craft is not what I do. Im trying to be straightforward about itI am not a tea grower. I buy what I think tastes good, and is unique and different. Most of the teas we purchase are expensive, or at least I think its expensive, but I think it will sell and in terms of what it costs us, I think its worth it. Its a horrible way of doing things, to go buying with the idea that you can only spend this much money, and if its a very low bar, youre effectively compromising the entire time. I feel all of us here feel very strongly about that. If a tea is good it will reveal itself, and theres no amount of shenanigans with pricing and marketing that will cover the quality of a bad tea. Whats your favorite tea youve ever had? What is your desert island tea? This is an unanswerable question. On a deserted island I would go ahead and bring 6-8 teas, and then I would pick or choose, depending on what I felt like drinking at that moment. The chances of having tea in the first place on a desert island is very unlikely. Of course I have favoritesthis Four Seasons Red is one of my favorites. This is not only a serious, intellectual teawe have those, toobut it is a very drinkable tea. It tastes good. Im watching you brew tea throughout this conversation, and youre doing it without a scale or a timer, and it all tastes great. How? Bad tea is extremely difficult to brew well, but good teas are easy to brew! So you can have a range that you brew in and it will turn out good. Secondly, all the wholesale accounts we work with will read this and say, But Peter, why should I dose by gram and temperature and worry about steep times, if in this context you arent doing the samebut for me, I can kind of just do it. It takes practice. Everyone can brew tea like this, but it takes dedication, brewing over and over so youre so comfortable with it, and having a knowledge of each of the teas and what they want to be. I cook at home without a clock or a thermometerits kind of like that, although lately I must concede that my pastas improve when I watch a clock while cooking. Whats the big thing you wish more people knew about tea? I wish people would drink more tea. Not so much because I want to sell more teaalthough I do!but people need to drink a lot of tea, and bad tea, to understand contextually what is good and what is not. If you drink enough wine youll know, eat enough food youll knowbut people tend to fixate on things and think its quality or think its good but they havent fully experienced what good really means. Its not specific to teaits generic to food and quality. If you eat and drink the same things over and over you wont extend your palate. You could be eating the best stuff, or the worst stuff, but without any context it wont matter. I dont like the ideas of tea masters or tea sommeliersIm a little more casual about it. If you drink enough of something and have developed a context and a profile, you will know whats good and whats not. Being able to judge quality is as simple as that. I think titles and this and that, they confuse people and make people assume you have to be mystically good or wonderful to develop a palate. And thats not the case. Its just practice like anything else. Jordan Michelman is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge.com. Read more Jordan Michelman on Sprudge. TINI Cafe + Bars name is not a reference to its sizein fact, it was a surprise to the owners to hear native English speakers comment to that effect after opening their space this past September. It really is tiny, theyd say. But TINI (pronounced tee-nee) was never intended to be small. In Khmer, Cambodias native language, the word simply means here. Sothea Thang and Daniel Mattes sat down with me at one of the two-floor cafes upstairs tables recently. Theyre two of TINIs four owners, and responsible for the majority of the day-to-day operations of the space (in addition to being its de facto visionaries). Their business partners mostly contribute to the financial side, while Thang and Mattes have the first and final say on menu and design. Thangs been working as a freelance architect in Phnom Penh for years. After graduating from a local university, he started to renovate buildings, taking dilapidated apartments and houses and not so much remaking them as reacting to what they already were, then building them out to what he imagined they might be. His work on the structure of TINI, which had a long stint as an overpriced bamboo-themed bar before the pair found it, was informed by the pre-existing wood rafters and the light filtering through its opaque-with-grime floor-to-ceiling windows. When he saw it, something about the space just felt right. His paintings and sculptures, which he creates in the time hes not designing buildings or running a business, hang from the walls and peer out from pedestals. I follow the existing form of a building and then transform it from there, he says. Its important to work with the space, not on it. With TINI, I tried to lend it more openness, more light. It is something very simplerespecting what has already been here and working with that, new and old, is what I focused on. Mattes first came to Phnom Penh a few years ago as an intern with an NGO; about a year after that initial seven-month stint ended, he was back in the city working with the group full-time. His organization monitors court proceedings in post-conflict societies, making sure trials like those conducted by the UN of former Khmer Rouge officials are held to international standards. At 25, the Stanford and London School of Economics graduate had never worked in coffee, let alone owned a business, before TINI. When I ask about the specific challenges of running a shop in Phnom Penh, he admits the first few months were a learning process, and points primarily to a problem with their business plan. Its like, our goals are fundamentally incompatible with making money, he says. We want this to be a quiet space where people can meet with each other or read something. A thoughtful, detailed space. According to Mattes, the reigning cafes in Phnom Penh are large places, where more seats than you could imagine filling up are nonetheless always full. The coffee takeaway business in the city is booming, too, with orders being filled in thin plastic cups that are then bagged in still more plastic (before being bagged in still more plastic) before being whisked into the street, where delivery guys hang them from their moto handlebars before driving off for delivery. TINI is not like this. In fact, it isnt really even a coffee shop. TINI is here to be used as a space for whatever people are interested in, Mattes says. I know some people see it as a cafe and bar, but thats not really my intention. Its to be used however people want to use it. I dont know about coffee, drinks, Thang echoes. For me, TINI is a place for artwork. The actual building is set in the facade of an otherwise relatively residential side street roughly a block away from Phnom Penhs open-air Russian Market, a few square blocks of stalls selling mostly knockoff name brands of clothing and knickknacks, named for the community of Russian expats who lived in the area in the 1980s. Now as then, the neighborhood surrounding the Russian Market is known for being a kind of expat enclave, where rents are higher and many apartment buildings come replete with Western fixtures (like stoves and free-standing showers). Accordingly, a host of restaurants, bars, and cafes catering primarily to expats have sprung up in the area over the past few years. But Mattes insists TINI isnt meant to be only for Westernersand it isnt. During my first visit, the entire first floor was occupied by a group of Snapchatting Cambodian kids, with large piles of textbooks featuring as prominently in their pictures as their cups of coffee and bowls of ice creama few flavors of which TINI offers everyday alongside an extensive menu of house-made cakes and cookies. The next time I was in, the script had flipped, and a vaguely European-looking couple was meeting over espressos. As for the coffee, TINI gets its beans from nearby Feel Good Coffee, a roaster/cafe about a mile to the north. The espresso drinks are made with a 50-50 blend of Vietnamese and Lao coffees, roasted just past medium to suit Mattes taste for Italian-style drinks. Theyre also trying out a few other roasters from around the region, including Rumblefish Specialty Roasters in Kampot and Akha Ama Coffee beans from Maejantai, roasted in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Still, there are certain things on TINIs menu, like cocktails featuring Cambodian palm-sugar syrup (when the cafe transitions into a bar) or Coffee Jelly, that I cant imagine anywhere else. The latter is a gelatin made from coffee and sugar thats blended with ice and served with frothed milk and syrup, the result being sort of like an iced cappuccino getting mugged by a boba tea. Its not my drink of choice, and seems aimed more toward the younger crowd, but thats okay. TINI wasnt designed to be the home of the Coffee Jelly, or a place to have street food ordered into (though you can), or even necessarily a place to just grab a coffee. Its not any of those things specifically. Following on from Mattess intentions, and its name, its a welcoming place that is just here. And in a busy capital city, thats plenty. Michael Light (@MichaelPLight) has written previously for Good Magazine and Wags Revue, and is an intern at Lucky Peach. Read more Michael Light on Sprudge. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The truce between some of the armed groups fighting in Syria, including the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces and the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee, was brokered by the United States and Russia as co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) on Monday. The ceasefire will go into effect at midnight on February 27. The ceasefire pact does not apply to the two radical Islamist groups, Islamic State (ISIL) and the Nusra Front, which are banned in many countries including Russia. "I doubt very much whether this ceasefire can be effective since these two groups are very significant and they are actually the stronger element within the camp of the rebels," Tel Aviv University expert on Syria Eyal Zisser told Sputnik. In an exclusive interview with Sputnik Pashto an Afghan MP, Haji Saleh Mohammad Saleh, shared his views on this delivery. After the fall of the Afghan Taliban regime in 2001, the Afghan security forces began rearmament from scratch. Most of the weapons were hopelessly outdated. Russia continued helping us in this difficult situation which was a turning point for our country. The MP further said, The supply of arms to Afghan authorities in terms of both political and military point of view is an important and even a brave step for any country. Here is the general point that despite disagreements between the US and Russia, Moscow still helped Afghanistan with the Kalashnikovs. Talking about the reaction of the public to this gesture, Mohammed Saleh said, Our people are very excited about this help and hope that such assistance continues. I would also like to note that Russia not only in the military sphere but also in the economic sphere has a serious potential to support Afghanistan. The MP said that he hoped that Russia will further assist Afghanistan in reconstructing the infrastructure that was laid down years ago by the Soviet Union. He also expressed hope that the two countries can collaborate in the field of agriculture, as both the countries have great experience in the field. HOUSTON (Sputnik) Global oil prices dropped from $115 to less than $30 per barrel between June 2014 and January 2016, hitting their lowest levels since 2003. "If we never had an OPEC or an OPEC equivalent managing price we probably wouldnt be in all the troubles we have with these ups and downs," Matzke said commenting on the current low oil prices. The LUKoil board member continued that now it is probably impossible to return to a global oil market that follows exclusively economic rules. Google, in particular, has a structure that allows it to pay taxes in Ireland, even when sales occur elsewhere. Since Ireland has less corporate taxation, the company ends up paying fewer taxes than it would have had it had office in France. Sundar Pichai, the current Google CEO, is currently in Paris and expected to meet with French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday night. The two might touch on the issue. Although the corporate revenue-shifting scheme is legal, some French citizens think Google has to pay its fair share. "It's just not acceptable that Google, which makes about 1-billion (over $1.1) in revenue in France, doesn't pay taxes," said Stephane Richard, the head of Orange, the leading French telecom operator, as cited by Forbes. Le Monde reader Marius also thinks Google isn't doing fair business in France: "This universal communication tool [Google] uses monopoly and is able to cut whole sectors of the [French] economy This is not even a return to the 19th Century, but to the Middle Ages." Many citizens were disgustingly appalled by their leadership's decision to enhance Serbia's "integration" (but officially not yet a formal membership bid) into the exact same military bloc that had earlier wrecked the country and used depleted uranium on its people. To add insult to injury, the US killed the two Serbian diplomatic hostages when it bombed Daesh in Libya last Friday, despite being informed in advance by the Serbian government that they were being held at that location and that negotiations were frantically underway to secure their release. This double humiliation was too much for the Serbian people, who took to the streets in the thousands to protest against NATO, asking their government to repeal the IPAP sell-out deal or at the very least put it up for a national referendum. They promised to hold an even bigger follow-up rally if the government doesn't meet their request by 27 March, symbolically choosing that date to coincide with the start of protests that quickly toppled the authorities in 1941 after they signed a cooperation agreement with Nazi Germany. Of direct relevance, Vucic surprisingly announced just a few weeks ago that early elections would be held in order to cement his pro-Western policies, so the patriotic anti-NATO protest movement might evolve into a sizeable political force that gives him a run for his money or even reverses his plans. Mocking Macedonia: Just south of Serbia in the Republic of Macedonia, EU "diplomat" Vanhoutte was long suspected of being a provocateur that was agitating on behalf of the Color Revolution forces and their international patrons, and his latest Twitter antics leave no doubt as to what his intentions were and whose interests he was working for. He purposefully sought to mock the Macedonian government and its people because he was upset at not making any progress in destabilizing them. The ruling VMRO party promptly stood up to this wannbe bully from Brussels by cutting off all professional ties with him and officially declaring that they now regard the man as nothing more than a random "tourist" who's just passing through their country. Vanhoutte and his handler, US Ambassador Jess Bailey, had earlier told the government that it must reject the very same crisis resolution document that it had been pressured to sign last summer and forgo holding early elections in April like was originally planned. As a reminder, the US had engineered a political scandal in Macedonia by illegally wiretapping many of its citizens and notable personalities and then giving the recordings to their proxy Zoran Zaev. He, in turn, falsely alleged that "inside sources" provided the tapes to him as "evidence" of "government wrongdoing" and tried to use this stunt to provoke a Color Revolution. The plot would have succeeded had it not been for the patriotic citizenry rising up in opposition to it in mid-May, right after the security services disbanded an Albanian-affiliated terrorist cell that intended to coordinate its attacks with the "opposition". Bright Hopes, Big Risks Just days after the Cabinet of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in parliament Kiev is again abuzz with renewed calls for the governments dismissal. However, it looks like the countrys leaders, engaged in non-stop political bickering, just couldnt care less about what is going on, the Hamburg-based weekly noted. In fact, the biggest threat to the Ukrainian political elite is now posed by this very same elite, or rather its inability to agree on things. GMB Trident successor programme conference in Newcastle upon Tyne 25th Feb https://t.co/XGbDkPESTf #gmb #trident GMB Press Office (@GMBPressOffice) February 24, 2016 Gary Smith, Scotland Acting Secretary for the GMB union which is holding a conference on the issue in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the north of England Thursday told Sputnik: "It does put us at odds not just with Jeremy Corbyn, but with the whole Scottish political establishment. The truth is, these people who have come out against Trident have no proper understanding about how the shipbuilding and submarine industry works." He said the 40,000 defense workers in Scotland are as vital to national security as the armed forces and that without the skills of the workforce in the yards on the Clyde and Rosyth the Royal Navy could not defend the nation. "Simple Sloganeering" "This is rather complicated for politicians. They dont like complexities. Simple sloganeering and student politics is the order day for a number of politicians not just Corbyn, but the whole Scottish political establishment," Smith told Sputnik. He said the result of the defense review under Livingstone and Thornberry is unlikely to change party policy. "I doubt that will get through the Labour Party conference and weve kept reminding the Labour Party weve got a policy already. That policy is pro-renewal of Trident." MPs against spending an obscene amount of money on an amoral and egotistical weapon #Trident #SNP #CND pic.twitter.com/GNBKBvXprD Mhairi Black MP (@MhairiBlack) February 23, 2016 "Weve pointed out to politicians who were completely oblivious to the fact that the tubes for the missiles are actually going to be built in Scotland. Theres 15 years work in building those tubes and its absolutely crucial that the work is carried out in Scotland to secure the future of the workers and the future of the communities," Smith Told Sputnik. Smith was particularly damning of Corbyn, who is a lawmaker for the area of North Islington area of London. "The workers in the industry are together today and they are the voice of all the working people, [which] is finally going to be heard. This is no longer a debate in the coffee shops of Islington and Edinburgh," Smith told Sputnik. He added that Turkey was famous as a world leader when it comes to crimes committed against women, active support for Daesh terrorists and human rights violations. This paired as well with the fact that the country has jailed more journalists than anywhere else in the world and that officials have heavily cracked down on peoples access to social networks. And the government is now trying to change this lackluster image with the help of a large-scale and expensive campaign in support of the tourism sector, Bahattin Yucel noted. He pointed to recent spike in terrorists attacks in Turkey as another big problem problem, as the issue is now being raised as a reason not to visit the country by foreign media. As a NATO member Turkey must do something about it Tourists from Germany, Britain, France and the United States mean a great deal to us, but they are now being advised not to come here and for pretty good reason too. As long as this unstable and unsafe situation continues, foreign tourists will hardly choose Turkey as a place to come to, the ex-Minister emphasized. These days there are four times more people willing to spend their vacations in Spain, Greece and even Bulgaria, where the quality of service is not very good, then those coming to Turkey. Turkey is losing its status of one of the worlds top tourist destinations, and its a pity that governments action plan ignores the root causes of the ongoing crisis and, therefore, will be unable to make things any better, Bahattin Yucel said in conclusion. Russia imposed economic sanctions on Turkey after a Sukhoi Su-24 bomber was shot down by a Turkish F-16 over Syria. In November 2015, the Russian government banned all charter flights to Turkey. For each part, the legal status depends on several different factors: when the text would be adopted; who would have to approve it; whether the EU courts have power to overturn it, and whether they are likely to do so; and whether the text could be repealed or amended in future." Peers says that the deal is complicated in that it refers to all member states, in a series of 'declarations' a 'decision' and a 'statement' all of which have to be taken differently in law, in particular the 'emergency brake' allowing the UK to withhold in-work benefits for EU migrant workers. Writing in EU Law Analysis, Peers says: "Its a bit vague about the exact details of this process, to avoid irritating the European Parliament, but its clear that the Council would decide on the UK application. The voting rule isnt specified, but it would be legally dubious if the vote had to be unanimous on this (because it concerns an issue on which vetoes dont apply)." "A Commission declaration states that the Commission is willing to make this implementing proposal; but there is no commitment from the Member States to support it." Cameron has staked his reputation on having won a "legally binding and irreversible" deal for Britain to remain in a reformed union. But cracks are beginning to appear in the legality of what he has won. Greece accuses Turkey of its unwillingness to fulfill the conditions of the signed agreements and blocking the NATO operation. Turkey has not yet replied to the accusations, but the expert community of the country is opposed to the idea of foreign military forces monitoring Turkey's territorial waters. It remains unclear how a NATO naval group is going to carry out its operation in the Aegean Sea in such conditions. Moreover, many wonder why Turkey initially agreed to let NATO military ships in the waters of the Aegean Sea, and is now putting obstacles in their way. "Even before the NATO monitoring operation in the Aegean Sea, I said that it will be impossible to implement the Turkish-German ideas into practice," former captain of the Turkish Navy and prominent political expert Dr. Celalettin Yavuz told Sputnik. "Their entry into the demilitarized zone would mean a violation of the Treaty of Lausanne." MINSK (Sputnik) Belarus and Russia have agreed to speed up work on the unified industrial policy, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday after talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk. "During the talks, [we] discussed in detail the possibility of further expansion of industrial cooperation. It was agreed to speed up work on the unified industrial policy, including in the framework of a working group on import substitution set up in November last year," Putin told reporters. According to the Russian leader, specific steps to combat illicit trafficking of industrial products were identified during the meeting. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Greece does not want to become the only state to offer asylum to all the refugees arriving in Europe, Greek Migration Minister Ioannis Mouzalas said Thursday. "Greece will not accept becoming Europe's Lebanon Even if it is completely financed by the European Union," Mouzalas told journalists, referencing the fact that Lebanon has become a place of refuge for millions of migrants from all over the Middle East. The Greek minister condemned EU states that have expressed their willingness to take unilateral measures to cut the refugee influx into their territories. According to Mouzalas, such moves will have a negative influence on the situation in the country. Binney questions whether government surveillance will keep the American people safe against the often overblown specter of international terrorism. There is absolutely no reason to trade security for privacy, he told Loud & Clear. The bulk acquisition system that is destroying everybodys privacy is also destroying the functionality of the intelligence community. The FBI has demanded that Apple develop an entirely new iOS operating system, under the guise of unlocking a single phone used by one of the shooters. Apple argues that the FBI request for a backdoor operating system would expose the data of not just one, but all of the companys 700 million iPhone customers. Apples CEO Tim Cook has adamantly refused to comply with the FBI request. The FBI wants us to make a new version of the Apple iPhone operating system circumventing several of the important security features, and install it on an iPhone uncovered during the investigation, Cook said in a media release. The problem, continues Cook, is that in the wrong hands, this software which does not exist today would have the potential to unlock any iPhone worldwide. "He complains about the meals and that he is writing by hand But he has never regretted what he wrote, for what he got into jail. He would do it again," Dilek said. On Friday, February 25, Turkey's Constitutional Court is expected to rule on whether to release Can and Erdem from jail as the two await to go to trial set to begin on March 25. If the Court decides not to set the journalists free, Dilek said she may turn to seek justice at the European Court of Human Rights. "If they decide not to release them, then the European Human Rights Court is open, that's the case in Turkey," she told Sputnik. During her current visit to Washington, Can's wife met with US government officials, members of Congress, and journalists, raising awareness about her husband's case. International media and coverage by foreign press have helped her a lot, she said. Turkey's public prosecutors have requested aggravated life sentences without possibility of parole for Dundar and Gul. HOUSTON (Sputnik) Russias oil and gas companies are welcome to participate in offshore exploration in Israels economic waters when they are reopened, Israeli Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz told Sputnik. "As soon as we are going to reopen these economic waters for further exploration, Russian companies are invited to join," Steinitz said on the sidelines of the IHS CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas on Wednesday. Steinitz announced in November that Israel plans to reopen its economic zone in the Mediterranean for oil and gas exploration. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Daesh militants procure a significant portion of the components they use to produce improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from Turkey and Iraq, a London-based arms research group revealed. "Proximity is a major reason why the goods traded by Iraqi and Turkish companies appear throughout the supply chains of components that IS forces use to manufacture IEDs. Both Iraq and Turkey have large agricultural and mining sectors, in which many such chemicals and explosive components are employed extensively," Conflict Armament Research said in the report published on Wednesday. According to the report, 51 companies in 20 countries are involved in the components supply chain used by Daesh forces to construct IEDs. Chemical precursors, detonating cord, detonators, cables and wires dominate in the supply chain. Meanwhile, the Syrian army and its popular allies launched a new phase of a large-scale operation to drive back the terrorist groups from the main government forces main supply line from Hama to Aleppo, Fars News reported. "The Syrian army troops and the National Defense Forces, who captured a number of checkpoints along the Ithriya-Khanaser road, have launched a massive joint operation in both provinces of Hama and Aleppo to end ISIL [Daesh] and Jund al-Aqsa's control over chunks of the strategic road," the army said. "The Syrian Air Force and artillery units have provided very good coverage for the ground forces," the army added. Dozens of Daesh fighters were killed west of the Tishreen Dam in northern Aleppo province in a bungled attack on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) positions in the region. The Kurdish fighters, backed by US coalition airstrikes, repelled the terrorists attack and forced them back from the battlefield. The Tishreen Dam is located on the Euphrates River on the border of Raqqa and Aleppo provinces. In Homs province Syrian jets pounded the militants command centers in two key cities in the north killing dozens of militants and destroying their military hardware, including a number of vehicles equipped with heavy machineguns, the agency wrote citing military sources on the ground. The government troops pounded the terrorists' positions near the capital city of Damascus, inflicting more casualties on the enemy, military sources said on Tuesday. In the northern Hama province Syrian army units ambushed a large group of terrorists killing and wounding dozens, security sources said. "The terrorists were ambushed by the army troops in Hirbnafsa village in the Southern parts of Hama," the sources said, and added, "At least eleven militants were killed and two of their heavy machine-gun equipped pick-up trucks were destroyed in the operation." Also on Tuesday government forces and their popular allies attacked Daesh positions in the southeastern countryside of Deir ex-Zor, inflicting more casualties on the terrorists. The army also stormed a Daesh command center in the village of Hatlah, destroying the base and the killing or wounding a number of terrorists, Fars News wrote. MOSCOW (Sputnik) On Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced an agreement on cessation of hostilities between the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad and the armed opposition factions had been reached. The agreement will come into force on February 27. Military action, including airstrikes conducted by Syria, Russia and the US-led coalition will continue against Daesh, al-Nusra Front, as well as other UN-designated terrorist groups. Daesh and al-Nusra Front are recognized by the international community as terrorist organizations, therefore we cannot allow them to observe the ceasefire in Syria, Haddad told journalists when asked if the positions of these two terrorist organizations would be bombed if they joined the ceasefire. Palestinian National Initiative Party Backs French Plan for Int'l Middle East Conference Frances proposal to hold an international peace conference on the Israel-Palestine conflict is a good move, but needs Israels support to become realistic, Mustafa Barghouti told Sputnik. In late January, then French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius outlined plans to arrange an international conference in the coming months to help resume the stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks. He stressed that France would be prepared to recognize Palestinian statehood if the talks yielded no results. "We are supportive of that proposal, but at the same time we are not very hopeful, because it is clear that Israel will reject it, that the United States could support Israel in rejecting it," Barghouti said on the sidelines of Valdai International Discussion Club's Middle East forum in Moscow. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the French international peace conference initiative to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. US Not Ready to Pressure Israel Into Solving Conflict With Arab World "The world, including the United States, is not ready to start putting significant pressure on Israel," Mustafa Barghouti said. He added that, in the absence of external pressure, Israel had adopted a strategy of manipulating the conflict, instead of settling it. The decades-old conflict between Arabs and Israelis has already resulted in several wars and continuous clashes that have claimed the lives of dozens of thousands of people. Palestine seeks the recognition of its independent state on the territories in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip lands occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. The Israeli government has so far refused to recognize the State of Palestine as an independent diplomatic entity. Earlier, the energy ministers of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar met in Doha. The four agreed to freeze their average monthly oil output throughout 2016 at January levels if other countries followed suit. Iran supported the idea, but Saudi Arabia later backed off from the agreement reached in Doha. On Monday the Secretary General of OPEC, Abdullah al-Badri, called on the |US to join the oil output freeze talks. Sputnik discussed the impact this conflict of interest in the global oil sector could have on oil production in Iran with Manouchehr Takin, a London-based independent Iranian economist. There are a few important things I want to point out here. First, the agreement by Russia and the three OPEC countries to freeze their average monthly oil output throughout 2016 at January levels does not sit well with market demands. These four countries and the ones that joined in later keep their current production at the maximum level. With the current oil glut countries need to cut their output," Manouchehr Takin said. "This agreement will do nothing to decrease demand. Oil production is going up by 1 or 2 million barrels each day. Looking on the bright side, Saudi Arabia eventually agreed to scale down its daily production, he added said. He also mentioned the predictable reaction by the US, which has always been against any outside meddling with the market and attempts to dictate ones rules to everyone else. The market agrees how much oil they are going to produce. However with oil being a strategic resource, the Americans have in the past few decades been trying to regulate the oil market. Once they even established a special commission in Texas to set exact oil production quotas which shall not be exceeded. Despite the crisis now happening in several southern US states and the growing unemployment there, especially in North Dakota and Texas, the government still keeps oil production up, thus driving prices down, Manouchehr Takin noted. As to the agreement reached in Doha on keeping oil prices at January levels throughout 2016, he said that this did not suite Iran which, constrained by sanctions, was not allowed to produce more than 2 million barrels a day, half of what it produced before the sanctions were introduced. Therefore, as soon as the sanctions are lifted, Tehran will jack up its daily output to between 500,000 and a million barrels. The US will lead the world in oil production increases by 2021 with daily output going up to 500,000 barrels in 2016, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday. Experts believe that an agreement with Washington could help stabilize the oversupplied market. The US remains the largest contributor to supply growth during the forecast period (2017 to 2021), accounting for more than two-thirds of the net non-OPEC increase, while Middle Eastern producer Iran would lead OPEC oil output gains, the IEA predicted. Meanwhile, Turkey said that it would not honor a ceasefire if its national security is threatened. PM Ahmet Davutoglu said the deal is intended for Syria and its warring parties. Turkey will ask no ones permission and will do what needs to be done if its security is threatened, Davutoglu noted. Radio Sputnik discussed the cessation of hostilities in Syria with Taleb Ibrahim, Deputy Director of Damascus center for International and Strategic Studies. The deal is sealed and everything is okay. All parties are now under severe commitment about the most critical and important question which is for how long will the ceasefire continue. Should it be a preface to a new round of negotiations or will it be a preface to a new escalation of war in Syria? Talking about the comment by the Turkish prime minster, Ibrahim said, Turkey right now is on the wrong side of history. Turkey has its own agenda in Syria; it is trying to gain some part in Syria. They want to create a new Ottomansism. From my perspective the main threat to the national security of Turkey is not Syria, and not the Kurds. The main threat is the AKP party and Ahmet Davutoglu and the President Reccep Erdogan. He further spoke about what Turkey was like just five years ago. Now Turkey is surrounded by a ring of enemies. Why is that so? Because of the policies of Ahmet Davutoglu. The analyst then spoke about the US policies in the Middle East, including the Plan B and also discussed the leaked telephone call between President Obama and Turkish President Erdogan. Regarding the US Plan B, I am concerned that it may mean dividing Syria into East and West of Euphrates. I think that is the US agenda in Syria. There is a secret agenda of the US in Syria. We dont trust American policies in the Arab world. The ex-minister said that the US should be most interested in the preservation of the territorial integrity of the countries in the Middle East. Just like they support Israel, they should aim to maintain the independence and territorial integrity of other states in the region. An interval in the Syrian conflict would be able to reassure Syrians and allow the parties of the conflict to resume the Geneva talks. However, if we look at the situation from an objective position, the statement of the US authorities, as well as the situation in Syria looks unpromising. There is an impression that the truce would not be applied and the Geneva process will not be resumed. If the situation in Syria does not improve and the Geneva talks do not resume, it will have a very negative impact not only on the region, but also on all other countries that one way or another got involved in the Syrian conflict. Before it is too late, everyone should think again and ensure a truce in Syria, and with full responsibility and in all seriousness resume the Geneva process, the minister concluded. Stoltenberg specified that in case allied ships find people in distress at sea who are coming via Turkey, they will be taken back to Turkey. Currently, European states are struggling to find a solution to a massive migrant crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people leaving conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa for Europe. Earlier this month, Stoltenberg announced plans to deploy NATO ships in the Aegean Sea to combat migrant trafficking into Europe. NATO defense ministers agreed that the military alliance should join international efforts to deal with the refugee crisis and deployed several ships of the Standing Maritime Group 2 to the Aegean Sea. Stoltenberg said that the military bloc would step up monitoring and surveillance along the Turkish-Syrian border to assist Ankara in managing the refugee crisis. Turkey is a key transit country for thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East and heading for Europe. The European Council concluded in Brussels last week that the flow of migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey remains too high. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), over 78,000 migrants or refugees have crossed into Greece since the beginning of 2016. Breedlove explained that under ERI, NATO will preposition its second "heavy force" in Europe, which he said "will be used, not for practicing, but for warfighting." In early February, the US Department of Defense requested a Europe-related defense budget of $3.4 billion for fiscal year 2017. The United States and NATOs European Reassurance Initiative (ERI) is a return to a posture of deterrence against Russia, General Philip Breedlove told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee on Thursday. As a result of NATOs alleged partnership posture toward Russia, the alliance downsized its forces, headquarters and capabilities. The ERI takes a multi-pronged approach to rebuild a forward deployed, ready force structure in Europe, as well as better infrastructure and prepositioned military equipment. "For the past two decades we have been in a position where we have been trying to make a partner out of Russia in Europe," Breedlove stated. "ERI is one of the steps along the way to position us to get to where we need to be to deter [Russia]." Breedlove explained that the ERI is an attempt to "begin reshaping the European Command and the NATO force structure to be able now to confront someone that does not wish to share our norms and values in Europe." In its recently released 2017 budget request, the US Department of Defense asked for $3.4 billion to fund the ERI, a four-fold increase over the 2016 funding levels. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Nusra Front in Syria are both poised to make serious advances in power this year, National Intelligence Director James Clapper told the US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday. "Al Qaeda's affiliates have proven resilient and are positioned to make gains in 2016," Clapper, a retired US Air Force general, said. "Al-Qaeda in [the] Arabian Peninsula and al-Nusra are the two most capable al-Qaeda affiliates." However, the Islamic State, also known as Daesh, had established a greater capability than al-Qaeda so far to inspire terror attacks within the United States, Clapper cautioned. It is hardly surprising that Plan B has finally emerged. In fact, Syria's "splitting up" has been mulled by Washington geostrategists and their Mideast allies since 2008. To be more precise, at that time a covert plan had been developed by then US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey D. Feltman. "In 2008, Feltman authored a secret plan with former Saudi Ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, nicknamed 'Bandar Bush' by George W. Bush for his intimate ties to the Bush family. That Feltman-Bandar Plan was revealed in internal documents hacked in 2011 from the thousands of files of Stratfor, the murky US 'strategic intelligence' consultancy to the Department of Defense and military industry," American researcher, historian and strategic risk consultant F. William Engdahl narrates in his article for New Eastern Outlook. Engdahl points out that the Feltman-Bandar plan called for dividing Syria into different ethnic and sectarian groups, in particular Alawite, Sunni, Shiite, Kurd, Christian, as well as dividing the state into three zones big cities, small cities and villages. "Then the US and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and selected allies would begin covert training and recruiting of five levels or networks of actors, controlled by the CIA and Saudi intelligence, which Bandar later headed, to execute the destruction or national dismemberment of Syria," the risk strategic consultant continues. Citing sources with knowledge on the matter, Engdahl elaborates that that the aim of the 2008 Feltman-Bandar plan was to "bring Syria back to the 'stone age'." WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko Earlier on Wednesday, the Ukrainian parliament's press service said Canada and Ukraine are in talks on providing Kiev with lethal weapons. "Canada remains committed to supporting Ukraine in its efforts to maintain sovereignty, security and stability; however, Canada is not currently in direct talks with the government of Ukraine regarding the possible provision of lethal aid," Global Affairs Canada spokesperson said. Ottawa has already provided wide-ranging support to Ukraine, including humanitarian and financial aid as well as non-lethal military equipment, the spokesperson noted. The High Negotiations Committee (HNC) demands clear determination of a timeframe for the cessation of hostilities in Syria, which could be extended if successful, the HNC said in a statement released Thursday. "It is necessary to determine a precise and clear timeframe for the beginning and the end of the ceasefire. We believe that the truce could be extended after two weeks, if it proves to be successful." Areas controlled by the Syrian opposition must be clearly defined before the cessation of hostilities enters into force in order to avoid errant Russian and Syrian government airstrikes. "The text of the agreement does not contain a clear definition of areas that will not be subject to the truce due to being controlled by groups designated as terrorist by the UN Security Council." "It is necessary to define these areas before the truce enters into force in order to ensure that Russia, Iran and [Syrian] government forces adhere to it," the remarks read. The committee also stated that the implementation of the truce needs to be monitored by a committee based on the Friends of Syria Group. "The Syrian army with the backing of Russia and Iran is operating very effectively and retaking significant swats of territory from the terrorists and pushing them towards Turkey. I don't see why Syria would go for the ceasefire now when the situation is working out to their advantage," Johnson told Sputnik. However, The Saker, an anonymous US military analyst, does not share such a stance. He believes that the agreement is a huge victory for Russia. "The recent agreement between the USA and Russia really solves nothing, it does not even end the war, and both sides are expressing a great deal of caution about its future implementation. And yet, this is a huge victory for Russia. While it is too early to say that 'the Russians won in Syria,' I think that it is now fair to say that the Russian position on Syria has won," The Saker writes in his analysis for The Unz Review. VIENNA (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova The United Kingdom needs to take a more active stance on facilitating peace process in Syria, a member of the EU External Affairs Sub-Committee in the House of Lords told Sputnik on Thursday. "Any ceasefire in Syria must be a good idea after all. I hope it sticks. I would like to see the United Kingdom more and actively involved in helping to move it forward," Lord Alfred Dubs said. Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the army loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting several opposition factions and militant groups. MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova Western states should think on a working solution to the Libyan crisis instead of meddling in the local affairs by military means, a member of the EU External Affairs Sub-Committee in the House of Lords, Lord Alfred Dubs, told Sputnik on Thursday. "I think something has to be done to get a proper Libyan regime in place so it is not a base for terrorism. I think we cannot walk away from it but equally we got to stop having Western interference," Lord Dubs said, answering a question on the possibility of a Syria-like scenario in Libya, which may worsen the migration crisis in Europe. Last week, media reports emerged claiming that Europe was likely to face an increased influx of refugees in the next few weeks, with up to 200,000 people ready to leave Libya for Europe. Chinas UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi supported the draft, expressing hope that it would help achieve the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. China and the United States reportedly agreed to the draft resolution on Wednesday. Both US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and Japans Permanent Representative to the UN Motohide Yoshikawa stressed on Thursday that the resolution does not aim to punish the North Korean people but targets the country's leadership. According to Russias Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Petr Iliichev, the UN Security Council will vote on the draft resolution next week. Iliichev said on Thursday that Russia "needs more time" to review the draft. Russia, as well as China, the United States, the United Kingdom and France, can veto any resolution as permanent members of the UN Security Council. North Korea declared itself a nuclear power in 2005. The United States, Japan and South Korea, as well as Russia and China, took part in talks with North Korea on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula between 2003 and 2009, when Pyongyang withdrew from the talks. On January 6 Pyongyang claimed it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. The United Nations previously imposed sanctions on North Korea for three tests it carried out in 2006, 2009 and 2013. Following North Korea's alleged nuclear test in January, the UN Security Council announced plans for further measures against Pyongyang to be outlined in a new resolution. In mid-January, China announced its support for such efforts. It was meant to be used as an escape vehicle for the astronauts aboard the space station but the agency eventually had to cancel the program, citing a lack of money among other reasons. However, in 2004 it was decided to revive the project. NASA allocated a total of 363 million dollars for its development. SpaceDev Company passed on the documentation on HL-20 program. It is noteworthy that the HL-20 and the Dream Chaser externally resemble the Soviet BOR family space planes. In 2005, the owner of the Dream Chaser Company, Mark Sirangelo, made a trip to Russia and met with some of the engineers who worked on the BOR-4. He told them that their idea lived on in the US. The Russians were amazed as they had no idea that their invention had been revived. Sirangelo promised that when the Dream Chaser flew, it would carry a list of the names of the Russian engineers along with people at NASA who worked on the HL-20 program, the newspaper wrote. Looking at the history of the Soviet rocket plane it was in the early 1960s that the Soviet Union began work on the creation of an unmanned orbital rocket plane, BOR. The first unit of this complex was launched into space on July 15, 1969. The most famous among them was the BOR-4, also known as Cosmos-1374; it was this craft which was photographed by the Australian spy planes and published in the Western press. It is a known fact that BOR-5 which is a 1:8 sized test flight vehicle was used to study the main aerodynamic, thermal, acoustic and stability characteristics of the Buran space shuttle orbiter. The FRB was identified thanks to the 64-meter Parkes Radio Telescope located in Australia. The discovery itself was made at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) by a group of international scientists. "In a matter of hours, it has been issued an international alert and various telescopes around the world were involved in the search for the result' of that signal," said Evan Keane, one of the authors of the paper describing the discovery, as cited by the Astronomy Now science magazine. Although the astronomical discovery is only a fraction of what we know about the universe, the new FRB that comes from very far away opens a new era in observational cosmology, in which FRBs could play an important role, said Andrea Possenti, one of the scientists involved in the project. Currently, astronomers say that the universe is made of 70 percent dark energy, 25 percent dark matter and only 5 percent of so-called "ordinary" matter, which makes up everything that we can see. As of now, astronomers have only discovered about the half of the "ordinary" matter, while the rest is referred as "missing," Astronomy Now said. Well, if the half of "ordinary" matter is still "missing" then we can't be 100 percent sure that aliens don't exist somewhere in a far-away galaxy, right? The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services claimed that water tests were impossible as they did not have samples of the bacteria from infected patients, though Detroit News determined that to be untrue, and called officials out on having samples from twelve patients. There is a limit to how many times you can play dumb when it comes to events and actions that take place on your watch, Michigan Democratic Party chair Brandon Dillon wrote. This governor is either a victim of the culture of secrecy that he created or hes lying. If he didnt know, the incompetence is astounding. If hes lying, the betrayal of trust is unforgivable. Dillon, like many others, is calling for Snyder to resign. An additional report from the Michigan Department of Community Health, from May 2015, revealed that residents may not only have been poisoned by lead and Legionnaires bacteria, but also exposed to perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), which were found in elevated levels in the Flint River. River water testing found that Perfluorooctane Sulfonic acids (PFOS), a compound used as a fabric protector and stain repellant, exceeded levels for both non-drinking and drinking water. One of the PFOSs found was C8, which has been linked to health problems such as ulcerative colitis, immune suppression, and thyroid disease, as well as testicular and kidney cancers. PFOS is also linked to low birth weight. Newcomer Somebody AS, the race favourite, was never challenged en route to a 1:54.2 victory in the $20,000 Open/Handicap Trot on a longshot-filled Wednesday, Feb. 24 card at Dover Downs. Somebody AS left quickly from the middle of an eight-horse field to get the lead in rein to Corey Callahan and never was tested on the way to his second win in four starts this year. The seven-year-old Striking Sahbra-Noblesse AS gelding trained by Anette Lorentzon was all alone at the wire for owners Kjell Johansson and breeder ACI Stuteri AB. Five Towns (Jonathan Roberts), an 18-1 shot, came into the race with two wins in a row, but had to settle for second as he followed eight and a half lengths behind the winner. Six Gun Hall (George Dennis), in his first start of the year, finished third. War Cry Hall (Vic Kirby), a winner of the last two Opens, was troubled by starting on the outside, but closed to finish fourth. In the $15,500 4&5-Year-Old sub-feature trot, Inner Peace (Pat Berry) appeared on the way to victory when the gelding broke stride in mid-stretch. Eskimo Joe, a 9-1 shot, then came on to record his first win of 2016, closing fast to nip Royal Becca J (Jack Parker Jr.) at the wire in 1:56.2. Joe Skowyra conditions Eskimo Joe, an altered son of Credit Winner-New Hampshire Girl, for Barbara Boese Trust. Marzipan (Dennis) came storming on the outside to take third. In other trots, Lou Man (Kirby), owned by John McGill and Brian Carsey, was a winner in 1:55.2 in one $12,000 contest while Angela Coombss 12-1 Phantom Rusty (Roberts) won a second in 1:57. Robbins Nest Farms Keystone Orion (Roberts) won at 12-1 in a $9,500 event. Rosemary Smutzs Man Of Muscle (Berry) closed strongly at 18-1 to win a $9,000 trot. Jay Baxters Bellas Punkett (Wolfenden) was a 1:57 winner at 6-1. Eddie Daviss 30-1 shot Eurocan (Allan Davis) got up in 1:57 to win a $7,500 trot and Abrcadabra Hanover (Davis), off at 9-1, nipped favourite Winbak Red (Callahan) at the wire in 1:57.4 to win a Delaware $5,000-$7,500 Claiming Handicap trot. George Dennis had a driving triple that included two wins with horses trained by Kevin Lare for Frank Chick. Vic Kirby had a double. (With files from Dover Downs) Three university students have developed a process to help predict potential injuries in racehorses weeks before they happen. Julia Fabiani, Ben Martin and Stefanie Pagano have created Race Assured, a system that uses blood samples to forecast when devastating injuries might take place. According to the three University of Kentucky students, certain markers in a horse's blood begin to elevate when its skeletal system in under particular stress. The test then gives trainers and owners time to assess and prevent further and possibly catastrophic damage, as much as six to wight weeks in advance. The team has since entered Race Assured in The Rice Business Plan Competition, the worlds richest and largest graduate-level student startup competition. The equine industry has already taken note of this test, with owners as far away as Dubai sending samples to the Race Assured team. (L-R) Ben Martin, Julia Fabiani, and Stefanie Pagano (Taylor Pence Photo) (L-R) Ben Martin, Julia Fabiani, and Stefanie Pagano (Taylor Pence Photo) If they werent excited, theyre getting excited, Fabiani told the Kentucky Kernel in reference to horse racing industry participants. It's virtually unthinkable that a $4,700 purchase would become both the richest and fastest performer of his sire's offspring. Especially when the trainer is a part-time horseman who looked at the unraced two-year-old because of his hip number. However, that is the story of Whippet Good. After 365 starts, 50 lifetime wins and more than $922,000 in earnings, the hard-knocking pacer has concluded his racing career. A son of Island Fantasy - Whippet, Whippet Good was bred in Ontario by Glengate Farms, and was a $32,000 yearling purchase of Bill Boden, Martwest Racing Stable and Jim Ainsworth in the fall of 2003. A July 2004 qualifying effort showed a mile in 2:01.1f at Hiawatha Horse Park. The next month, the horse was listed in the 2004 Summer Sizzler Mixed Sale. He was catalogued as Hip 213. Jim DeChellis had been a part-time horseman for years, but the steel mill that employed the Welland resident closed in 2003. "I used to work in a plant and horses were just part-time to me. When the plant shut down, that's when I bought him. Me and my son [Nino] claimed this filly out of Windsor for $5,000. We raced her in Woodstock the day before the sale, and she didn't go too good," DeChellis told Trot Insider. "So I come in and he said 'we're not going to make any money with this one, we better go to that sale tomorrow. We've got $5,000, that's it.' If she would have raced good that day, who knows. Life's like that, anyway." Born on February 13, DeChellis started his research at the 2004 Summer Sizzler with Hip 213: Whippet Good. The father-son duo had a $5,000 budget, and Whippet Good came in just $300 shy of that ceiling. On the surface, the early stages of Whippet Good's career didn't show war-horse or open-class abilities. The horse made less than $1,000 as a freshman, winning one race but being set down for interference and eventually placed seventh. "When I first got him, for the first seven or eight starts I don't think he passed a horse. And then one day at Flamboro he won a race...he went around everybody and kind of caught on but they threw me out, they said I cut somebody off," noted DeChellis. "That made me eligible to the London series by $100 so it was kind of a good thing they did...he made like $30,000 there." That series in reference was the 2005 Middlesex County Pacing Series at Western Fair. He ended his three-year-old year just over the $64,000 mark. And that $23,950 purse cheque Whippet Good earned in the Middlesex Final would turn out to be the single biggest purse cheque the pacer would earn. Over the next nine years, Whippet Good would ply his trade predominantly on the WEG circuit. DeChellis estimates that nearly 300 of Whippet Good's 365 starts came on the nation's premier circuit, and he's right: 301, to be exact. He'd work his way up to the top level, racing in the Open at age five. That would be his best single season for earnings ($210,710) and the age at which he took his lifetime mark (1:50.1s). Whippet Good's only win in the Open came in September of that year. The field included sub-1:50 performer Northern Trail and four multi-millionaires: Boulder Creek, Escape The Wind, Ramegade Bruiser and Secrets Nephew. In his normal grinding style, Whippet Good was able to hit the wire first in a time of 1:51.1s. It was a special night for Team DeChellis as it was also the birthday of his long-time caretaker, Michelle Sinclair. "He had his moments. That one night when he won the Open I think those six horses had like $10 million made," DeChellis recalls about the field (from which double millionaire Silent Swing was scheduled to race but subsequently scratched). "He's beat about 20 millionaires, but they beat him too." Four years later, Whippet Good was one of the horses involved in a horrific accident at Woodbine on October 4, 2011. Miraculously, the horse was back on the track -- and winning -- later that year. "He really healed good. That accident he was in, that was bad. He had like 50 cuts, the hair was off half his face. Five weeks later, you couldn't see anything...everything grew back." Whippet Good would continue to make his regular WEG circuit appearances on Saturday nights, lodging more than 40 seasonal starts each year after that accident. DeChellis always knew he'd have plans for the weekend, and that suited him just fine. "We've been like Saturday night buddies for 10 years. My wife used to say I was going out on a date every week." Limited to just five starts in 2015, Whippet Good made his last start on June 11 and came up lame according to DeChellis. "That was the first time he'd come out of a race where he was hurt...so I just stopped with him," said the trainer. "I thought that was it. I gave him three or four months off in the field, he started running and kicking and bucking so I started jogging him again. "Around the first of November he trained in 2:10 and was about the soundest he ever was. But I figured if I quit now, he'll be sound for the rest of his life. He only had one year left anyhow....and he wouldn't have been ready until May or June." So with that in mind, DeChellis made the decision to retire the horse he easily considers the best he's ever trained at the age of 14. He fondly looks back on the horse's resume, one which boasts a win in the 1:51 range every year after his three-year-old season. His final win came on October 16, 2014 at Woodbine with driver Shane Weber at the lines. DeChellis was quick to credit Weber for teaching Whippet Good "how to be a racehorse" and help him achieve a career with 50 wins. Of those 50 wins, DeChellis pointed to a couple of races that stick out but admitted that so many of his wins blended together because they were won in the same fashion: Whippet Good would be in last or second last at some point of the mile, and he'd persevere his way to victory. "He had a lot of ailments, but that's why they put him in a sale in the first place, I guess," stated DeChellis. "What he had wasn't life-threatening but it was always little things. He had ulcers, he had EPM there for a while, he'd get sore feet, but when he raced he'd always bounce back. "He wasn't the fastest horse around but he had to be the toughest one I've even seen...A little bit has to be genetics but he was just a nice, tough horse." One of the key attributes to Whippet Good's longevity has to be his attitude, or perhaps lack thereof. "He's a really tough horse and he really takes care of himself. When you jog him, if you didn't make much noise he'd stop. He'd jog really slow. When he'd go to the races, he'd have a different demeanor altogether than at home. At home, he didn't even like going out to the paddock...the horse really liked to rest. "He was just different. One day I was jogging him, and I came back to the barn with just the jog bike. Everyone came running out figuring something had happened. But he was walking so slow I just got off, unhooked the jog cart. He just stayed out there and ate grass with his bridle on and everything. He was a really, really relaxed horse...Every time I go to another barn and look at a horse, they seem so ordinary." Whippet Good's consistency helped him develop a fanbase both in and outside of the harness racing community, something that also amazed his longtime trainer-owner. "When I go anywhere in this town, I live in Welland, it's not 'hi, Jim!" it's 'how's Whippet?'" DeChellis admitted. "The other day I went to a restaurant in Milton and his picture was on the wall. I don't even know the people!" With his on-track career concluded, Whippet Good is now enjoying a second career as a riding horse. He's at Double Duty Farm outside of Cayuga, Ont. and in the care of Julia Stewart. "It only took her a few days [to break him to ride], and she really likes him." Judging by the story behind Whippet Good, she's not alone. Standardbred owner Mike Timpano has informed Trot Insider that one of his horses had to be euthanized recently after having suffered an injury in a race. On Friday, February 19, in Race 12 at Buffalo Raceway, Art Of Darkness competed in what would be his final lifetime start. After clearing to the front near the five-eighths marker, Art Of Darkness lost his footing on a very sloppy track and made a nasty break and shattered his pastern, Timpano told Trot Insider. Timpano went on to state that Art Of Darkness was later diagnosed by the track vet who suggested Art Of Darkness be put down. Art Of Darkness was owned by Mike Timpano and Seaspray Stables, who was also the breeder of the four-year-old Armbro Deuce gelding. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Art Of Darkness. With several of the Clean Break papers authors now holding key positions in Washington, the plan for Israel to transcend its foes by reshaping the Middle East looks a good deal more achievable today than it did in 1996. Americans may even be persuaded to give up their lives to achieve it. A fifth member of the team was James Colbert, of the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (Jinsa) a bastion of neo-conservative hawkery whose advisory board was previously graced by Dick Cheney (now US vice-president), John Bolton and Douglas Feith. Two other opinion-makers in the team were(see US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy , August 19). Mrs Wurmser was co-founder of Memri, a Washington-based charity that distributes articles translated from Arabic newspapers portraying Arabs in a bad light. After working with Mr Perle at the American Enterprise Institute, David Wurmser is now at the State Department, as a special assistant to John Bolton, the under-secretary for arms control and international security. Also among the eight-person team was Douglas Feith, a neo-conservative lawyer, who now holds one of the top four posts at the Pentagon as under-secretary of policy . The leader of the prominent opinion makers who wrote it was Richard Perle now chairman of the Defence Policy Board at the Pentagon . With Saddam out of the way and Iraq thus brought under Jordanian Hashemite influence, Jordan and Turkey would form an axis along with Israel to weaken and roll back Syria. Jordan, it suggested, could also sort out Lebanon by weaning the Shia Muslim population away from Syria and Iran, and re-establishing their former ties with the Shia in the new Hashemite kingdom of Iraq. Israel will not only contain its foes; it will transcend them, the paper concluded. The paper set out a plan by which Israel would shape its strategic environment, beginning with the removal of Saddam Hussein and the installation of a Hashemite monarchy in Baghdad. Its roots can be traced, at least in part, to a paper published in 1996 by an Israeli thinktank, the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies. Entitled A clean break: a new strategy for securing the realm, it was intended as a political blueprint for the incoming government of Binyamin Netanyahu . As the title indicates, it advised the right-wing Mr Netanyahu to make a complete break with the past by adopting a strategy based on an entirely new intellectual foundation, one that restores strategic initiative and provides the nation the room to engage every possible energy on rebuilding Zionism The skittles theory of the Middle East that one ball aimed at Iraq can knock down several regimes has been around for some time on the wilder fringes of politics but has come to the fore in the United States on the back of the war against terrorism. For the hawks, disorder and chaos sweeping through the region would not be an unfortunate side-effect of war with Iraq, but a sign that everything is going according to plan . They are probably still splitting their sides with laughter in the Pentagon. But Mr Mubarak and the [Pentagon] hawks do agree on one thing: war with Iraq could spell disaster for several regimes in the Middle East. Mr Mubarak believes that would be bad. The hawks, though, believe it would be good . President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt predicted devastating consequences for the Middle East if Iraq is attacked. We fear a state of disorder and chaos may prevail in the region, he said. (Before assuming prominent roles in the Bush administration, many of the same people including Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, John Bolton and others advocated their imperial views during the Clinton administration via their American think tank, the Project for a New American Century.) Thomas Harrington professor of Iberian Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut writes [While there are some good articles on the chaos in Iraq, none of them] consider whetherthe chaos now enveloping the region might, in fact, be the desired aim of policy planners in Washington and Tel Aviv. *** One of the prime goals of every empire is to foment ongoing internecine conflict in the territories whose resources and/or strategic outposts they covet. *** The most efficient way of sparking such open-ended internecine conflict is to brutally smash the target countrys social matrix and physical infrastructure. *** Ongoing unrest has the additional perk of justifying the maintenance and expansion of the military machine that feeds the financial and political fortunes of the metropolitan elite. In short divide and rule is about as close as it gets to a universal recourse the imperial game and that it is, therefore, as important to bear it in mind today as it was in the times of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, the Spanish Conquistadors and the British Raj. To thoseand I suspect there are still many out therefor whom all this seems too neat or too conspiratorial, I would suggest a careful side-by side reading of: a) the Clean Break manifesto generated by the Jerusalem-based Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS) in 1996 and b) the Rebuilding Americas Defenses paper generated by The Project for a New American Century (PNAC) in 2000, a US group with deep personal and institutional links to the aforementioned Israeli think tank, and with the ascension of George Bush Junior to the White House, to the most exclusive sanctums of the US foreign policy apparatus. To read the cold-blooded imperial reasoning in both of these documentswhich speak, in the first case, quite openly of the need to destabilize the region so as to reshape Israels strategic environment and, in the second of the need to dramatically increase the number of US forward bases in the region . To do so now, after the USs systematic destruction of Iraq and Libyatwo notably oil-rich countries whose delicate ethnic and religious balances were well known to anyone in or out of government with more than passing interest in history, and after the its carefully calibrated efforts to generate and maintain murderous and civilization-destroying stalemates in Syria and Egypt (something that is easily substantiated despite our medias deafening silence on the subject), is downright blood-curdling. And yet, it seems that for even very well-informed analysts, it is beyond the pale to raise the possibility that foreign policy elites in the US and Israel, like all virtually all the ambitious hegemons before them on the world stage, might have quite coldly and consciously fomented open-ended chaos in order to achieve their overlapping strategic objectives in this part of the world. Now, you can make a tax deductible contribution via VDARE to "Paul Kersey" by clicking here If you enjoy SBPDL, we encourage you to make a donation to help sustain our growth. For a donation of $75 or more, we'll send you signed copies of three SBPDL books of your choice. For $100 or more, we'll send you signed copies of four books. For $300 or more, you get signed copies of every Paul Kersey book. Your generous donations help SBPDL grow. You can also send cash, check, or money order to: Paul Kersey P.O. Box 527 Oakton, VA 22124 We also accept Bitcoin donations! Inquire at sbpdl1 (at) gmail (dot) com for details. E-mail us at sbpdl1@gmail.com I remember the day as if it were yesterday: The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame announced those acts that would be inducted into the hall in April and, surprise, Cheap Trick was on that list. Many lauded the fact that Cheap Trick made it in on their first ballot appearance, but seemed to conveniently forget that they'd been eligible to appear on said ballot since 1999.Regardless, there was immense joy in Mudville, so to speak, among the many music nerds in my social media peer group because, for once, Cheap Trick was getting the respect that it truly deserved.What could possibly go wrong, I wondered?And then yesterday, it was announced that Kid Rock would be inducting the band into the Rock Hall.My immediate reaction was to wonder if I hadn't just slipped into some sort of Bizarro parallel universe where bloviating billionaire Donald Trump is elected president and musical opportunist Kid Rock is enlisted to induct a band whose tireless work ethic would make even James Brown take notice.I guess I should have seen this coming when Miley Cyrus was chosen to induct Joan Jett. You just knew that, at some point, money had changed hands for their even to be mention of Miley Cyrus and Joan Jett in the same sentence. It was obvious that Cyrus and her people wanted to buy a little rock cred. Next thing you know, Cyrus is grabbing all the media attention by singing Replacements tunes with Jett to hype her newly launched Happy Hippie Foundation.Ha, I love the smell of payola in the morning.At the very least, it was a Rock Hall that should be so much bigger than Cyrus being swayed by the potential of "free publicity" by somehow jamming their round peg into Miley's square hole. Wait, that didn't come out right. Either way, a disingenuous decision was made for less-than-honorable reasons and we the die-hard rock fans wind up seeing what should be rock music's Smithsonian turned into a faux-rock Papa John's.Who, by chance did they select to nominate Chicago; Tom Scholz from Boston? I'll give you a few seconds to fully appreciate how fucking genius that was what I did there...No? Okay.As ridiculous as that may sound, he'd at least be in the same musical universe as the band he was inducting.And what about the Cars? Upon whom will the RRHOF bestow the honor of inducting the band that created the very template upon which the '80s would be built? Why, Betty White, of course. She's in her eighties, right? Nineties, actually, but close enough for rock & roll, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.All kidding aside, Betty White would make a better choice to induct Cheap Trick than some dim-witted trailer-park Jesus who hoodwinked America as a rapper and then convinced the world that country was really where his heart was at. I'd have liked to have seen him say that to the rap community that was merely a conduit for his all-but-forgotten "rap phase".Frankly, I don't see how the rap community puts up with all the turncoats in their midst - what with all the gangsta rappers playing cops on TV these days.I mean, what are the odds that Kid Rock would go country at the exact same time that country goes mainstream and every song sounds like watered-down Bob Seger sung by people who are definitely not Bob Seger. And who should that be grabbing his own "Like A Rock" moment for the same car company, but with a song that, even after a million forced listens, still sounds like a Funny or Die parody.I just knew the Rock Hall would find someway to fuck this up. This desire to "appeal to the millennials" has got all these old guys who used to have balls making backdoor deals in hopes of keeping the lights on.How long before we're heading to MegaPlex to see Ben Stiller latest installment in the "Night At The Musuem" franchise where larry Dailey (Stiller) accidentally gets himself locked inside the RRHOF after-hours, only to be besieged by Lou Reed, Bon Scott, and David motherfucking Bowie to help them save the Rock Hall from the corrupt overlords who keep selling off bits of its soul.Of course, it'll be Percy Sledge who will keep us in stitches by breaking the tension with an exasperated "I don't even belong here!"None of that removes the fact that for the likes of Miley Cyrus and Kid Rock, inducting an artist with real rock credibility is akin to Leo DiCaprio buying carbon offsets from the lounge of his private jet on his way to an Elon Musk party.So get ready to see Justin Beiber induct Nine Inch Nails, Rihanna induct Pearl Jam, and Meghan Trainor induct Radiohead.You just know the guys in Cheap Trick are up-in-arms about this too, but they aren't about to rock the boat they don't want to be kicked out of before they're even in it. In other words, it's up to us to stop this atrocity from taking place. With this in mind, I beg each and every one of you to SIGN THIS PETITION requesting that Kid Rock be prevented from attending the induction ceremony, much less inducting a band such as Cheap Trick. wingssail images judy jensen Working on the Mercury Here we are, the middle of October. Summer is almost gone and what have we done in the last four and a ... The Sea Hawks use a strong serve and balanced attack for a commanding win in the opening round of the Division 2 playoffs. From star-crossed lovers to scheming Romans, Shakespeare Shattered pieces together a lot of The Bards best-known characters. The fast-moving play includes scenes from about a dozen Shakespeare plays, both comedies and tragedies. Cast members in the show say its a good introduction to Shakespeare even if youre not familiar with the full-length plays plus its a fun show to watch. Mainstage director Susan Donahue wrote an earlier version of Shakespeare Shattered for a group she took to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland in 2009. But she reworked and expanded the play for this version. She cast the community show first, then found scenes for the actors. I love Shakespeare so much, and this has been a blast, Donahue said in an email. Its an introduction to the language and the style of Shakespeare, said assistant director Jon-Erik Hegstad, who minored in Shakespeare studies at Southern Oregon University. Lines Donahue wrote into the script help the audience understand the transitions from play to play. This show is not to be confused with plays that present snippets of Shakespeare at breakneck speed. We dont poke fun at Shakespeare, said Mike McElliott, a retired teacher in the cast. The intent is to take Shakespeare and make it available to everyone. Excerpts from the dramas are serious, except for the gravediggers in Hamlet, McElliott said. Thats supposed to be funny, said McElliott, who plays a gravedigger, Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet and Lear in King Lear. Maddie Baker, an R.A. Long junior, had read several Shakespeare plays before getting cast in this one. I usually prefer the comedies, she said. Her favorite role in Shakespeare Shattered is Helena, one of the young lovers in Midsummer Nights Dream. In Susans words, I play a delicate flower, Baker said. Akitora Ishii, a Rainier resident who attends Lower Columbia College, said the show has been his introduction to Shakespeare. His favorite role is Demetrius in Midsummer Nights Dream. Why? Im not usually playing the guy who is hopelessly in love, he said. Weve added a lot of physicality to it, he added. For a change of pace, Ishii is also in a segment of Henry V. Its right before they go to a battle, he said. He gets to utter the well-known line, Once more unto the breach, dear friends... Authorities spent several hours Wednesday searching for a man who attempted to swim across the Cowlitz River and hasn't been seen since. The 46-year-old man, who is homeless, was drinking with his two friends when he decided to swim across the river from Kelso, said Sgt. Damon Blain. His friends told authorities they watched him from the Allen Street Bridge. The man began struggling about halfway and attempted to dog paddle toward the river bank near the Hall of Justice. At that point, his friends headed toward the bank to help pull him to shore. However, they lost sight of their friend, and it's not clear whether or not he made it to shore, Blain said. Blain said that shortly after, authorities received calls of a body floating in the river. "The problem with that is there are so many seals out at that time, it would be hard to makeout whether its a body or a seal," Blain said. The Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office assisted Kelso police in searching the river. The Cowlitz County Dive Rescue Team was on scene later in the day. The Coast Guard scanned the area from a helicopter. However, no one was spotted or recovered. The search was called off after several hours. "We did not see anybody or recover anybody at this point," Cowlitz County Undersheriff Marc Gilchrist said. Blain said the man's friends haven't seen him. Local shelters have been notified. "At this point, were not sure what happened," Blain said. A 16-year-old Toledo High School student is accused of trafficking marijuana at the high school Tuesday, when Lewis County Sheriffs deputies say they found him in possession of more than 50 grams of marijuana. According to the sheriffs office, the boy posted a picture of four large marijuana buds on Facebook in an attempt to sell them. When deputies confronted the boy at the school Tuesday morning, he gave them the marijuana in his backpack. The boy was booked into juvenile detention on allegations of possession of marijuana with intent to sell. CATHLAMET Sam Valdez took the witness stand Wednesday afternoon, acknowledging that he was frustrated with his ex-wife over their 2013 divorce but denying that he ever intended to hurt her. He said tape recorded threats of him threatening to injure her were a lot of bravado. Valdez also denied having a hit list of people he wanted killed and setting his neighbors house on fire in 2014. The 64-year-old Rosburg resident is accused of first-degree solicitation to commit murder for allegedly trying to arrange the killing of his ex-wife, Beth Robbins. Valdez also is accused of first-degree arson and marijuana possession and distribution charges. Valdez testified in Wahkiakum County Superior Court on the sixth day of his trial. He will testify again today, and the case may go to the jury later in the day. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allows criminal defendants to remain silent to prevent them from incriminating themselves, stating no one shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. By choosing to testify, Valdez had to answer all admissible questions, in effect waiving his Fifth Amendment right. Last week, the prosecution played recordings of Valdezs conversations with confidential informant Christoper Horton. In them, Valdez made gruesome threats to hurt his wife. Horton was Valdezs friend, neighbor and one-time business partner, whom Valdez described in court Wednesday as a young and energetic person whom he took under his wing. The tapes also capture Horton and Valdez discussing ways to kill Robbins and Wahkiakum County judges William Faubion and Michael Sullivan. The tapes do not, however, specifically capture the closing of any deal to carry out any killings. Under questioning by Wahkiakum County Prosecutor Sue Baur, Valdez described his anger toward his ex-wife as just a lot of (expletive) we were throwing around. Were you lying to Mr. Horton through all these tapes? Baur asked Valdez. It was a lot of bravado, Valdez replied. When asked Baur him about taped threats to cut his wife up like a fish by cutting off an ear and an arm, Valdez chuckled. Was that all just a joke? Baur asked. Yes, it was, Valdez responded. Defense lawyer Wayne Fricke hinted that Horton egged on Valdezs frustrations against his wife by suggesting he had an uncle that could kill Robbins. When Mr. Horton started bringing up the suggestions about making payments to have your wife killed, what was going through your mind? Fricke asked. It was kind of scary. I didnt know what to think of it, Valdez said. Were these types of conversations that came up (ones that) you considered to be a game? What do you mean by that? Fricke asked. You know, two guys get together to discuss scenarios that might never come true, Valdez responded. Later, Baur asked Valdez if he felt pressured by Horton to pay someone to kill his wife. Chris liked to engage in conversation that was more fictional. It was more like a skit of his life, and, to be honest, he wasnt really believable. Horton last week alleged that Valdez gave him hash oil to pay his fictitious uncle, a would-be hit man, to kill Robbins. Valdez denied that Wednesday. In apparent further attempts to discredit Horton, Fricke called Larry Adams, a man who claimed he helped raise the young Horton. Adams said Horton was the lonely son of a struggling single mom. He said Horton has no credibility and is very emotional, distraught (and) vindictive against people. Baur also questioned Valdez at length about his allegedly illegal marijuana processing operation, in which he allegedly used a $140,000 machine to produce hash oil. Did you have a permit to process or produce marijuana? Baur said. I guess I have to say I dont know, Valdez said. You dont know? Baur pressed. OK, I thought I had one, he responded. You didnt want to have to follow the rules did you? Baur later asked. Thats not true, Valdez said. You werent following the rules, she said. I didnt know that, Valdez said. Friends are rallying public support for a Winlock High School junior who suffered a brain aneurysm at school last week and who is recovering in a Portland hospital after two surgeries. Salvador Rodriguez, 17, came to the office complaining of dizziness and feeling that he was about to pass out, Principal Brian Maley said earlier this week. A paramedic happened to be on campus and arranged for Salvador to be transported to Providence Hospital in Centralia, Maley said. He was later airlifted to Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland, where he was diagnosed with the aneurysm. In a gofundme.com posting, Maria Rodriguez and Marta Aguilar of Centralia say they are raising money to support Salvador and his mother, Dana Rodriguez de Orellana, who has two other children, was recently married and has been working on her masters degree. He has gone under two major brain surgeries this last week to stop the bleeding in the brain, and his left side of the skull was left open to give room for the swelling to go down. In a couple of weeks if his swelling goes down and things get better, he will undergo another surgery to close his skull, the Facebook posting says The post also says Salvador has kidney problems, has developed infections and pneumonia and will take six months to a year to recovery at the hospital. The Daily News could not immediately reach Salvadors family. Editors note: Todays editorial originally appeared in The Yakima Herald-Republic. Editorial content from other publications is provided to give readers a sampling of regional and national opinion and does not necessarily reflect positions endorsed by the Editorial Board of The Daily News. A number of K-12 education studies have concluded that student achievement is directly proportional to the amount of instructional time. That makes sense. Students will get more out of class if they are actually in class. The problem is, too many students are missing class, according to information released earlier this month by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The report defined absenteeism as missing 18 or more school days in a 180-day school year. Yakima Valley residents hold their breath at these statewide comparisons, because frequently we dont come out so well. And to some extent, thats the case here: Mt. Adams, in a high-poverty area of the Lower Valley, had a level more than twice the statewide average and was the highest in the Valley. But heres a twist: Granger, also a high-poverty district, was the Valleys best with a rate less than one-quarter that of the state. A handful of economically challenged Valley districts also came in under the state average. In this instance, state average strikes us as not very good. The statewide figure for school districts with 500 or more enrolled students in 2014-15 was 16 percent meaning 1 in 6 students missed 1 in 10 school days. The subgroups with the highest absentee rates included low-income and migrant students, along with those in special education and students with disabilities. The highest rate among all races, ethnicities and subgroups was 31 percent among Native Americans, who make up a large proportion of the Mt. Adams enrollment. School district officials say the 36.9 percent absentee rate in part reflects the aftereffects of a stringent disciplinary policy that led to high numbers of suspensions and expulsions. That policy ended in 2014 in favor of partnerships with the Yakama Nation tribal courts juvenile justice system, among other steps, and school officials expect to see the absentee numbers drop. Granger, meanwhile, offers incentives such as gift cards, movie passes, iPad drawings and field trips, courtesy of the nonprofit group Friends of Granger. Other districts that are doing better than the state average are Union Gap, Zillah, Highland, West Valley, Toppenish, East Valley, Selah and Prosser. Sunnyside comes in just higher than state average. From there, the districts that are higher than state average are Goldendale, Grandview, Naches Valley, Mabton, Wapato and Yakima Yakimas rate of 23.7 percent is the second highest in the Valley. This is a nationwide issue that has caught the attention of the White House, which calls the problem an epidemic. The Seattle Times reports that a new federal effort targets 10 cities, including Seattle, with an initiative that will connect students in low-income areas with mentors. The mentors will work with three to five students each, three times per week, and keep track of potential reasons for absenteeism. What we see are some different approaches Mt. Adams collaboration, Seattles mentors or Grangers gifts to address a problem thats critical to resolve. The debate in this state over testing, staffing, cost and curriculum doesnt mean as much if students arent coming to school in the first place. "We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844 tech2 News Staff In an interview with ABC News, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that the US government asked the company to create a "software equivalent of cancer" to help investigators unlock a terrorists iPhone, used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters. In conversation with "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir, Cook also said that, "This is not about one phone. This case is about the future. Can the government compel Apple to write software that we believe would make hundreds of millions of customers vulnerable around the world?" Earlier, this week, the CEO had sent out an email to employees as well stating that the US government should withdraw its demand that Apple help the FBI hack a locked iPhone used by a shooter in the San Bernardino attack. The US Justice Department was also looking at court orders forcing Apple to help investigators extract data from iPhones in about a dozen undisclosed cases across the country. This move comes on the heels of the San Bernardino, California, shooting case. The county-owned iPhone was used by Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at a holiday party in San Bernardino in December. The other phones, which were seized in a variety of criminal investigations, are involved in cases where prosecutors are compelling the company to help them bypass the pass code security feature of phones that may hold evidence. The FBI had attempted to crack the pass code but failed as Apple systems are designed in a way that automatically erases the access key and renders the phone "permanently inaccessible" after 10 failed attempts, pointed out the report. The CEO stated during the interview that, "If a court can ask us to write this piece of software, think about what else they could ask us to write maybe it's an operating system for surveillance, maybe the ability for the law enforcement to turn on the camera. I don't know where this stops. But I do know that this is not what should be happening in this country." Cook will also be speaking with US President Barack Obama regarding the issue, and will be willing to fight with the government's order right till the Supreme Court. he says, "Our job is to protect our customers." hidden Google has announced it would provide EUR 27 million ($29.7 million or roughly Rs. 203 crores) to 128 news organisations in Europe as part of its "Digital News Initiative." Agence France-Presse is one of the organisations selected, for its platform of interactive graphics developed for users of AFP web and mobile media formats around the world. Google chief executive Sundar Pichai announced the latest funding in a speech in Paris. Google, which has been reorganised as a unit of the holding company Alphabet, had previously announced it was setting aside EUR 150 million to help European news outfits in new projects that help them adapt to the digital landscape. "We are committed to ongoing discussion between the tech and news sectors," Pichai said in his remarks at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po. "To promote innovation in digital journalism. And play our part in building a more sustainable news ecosystem." The funds offered by Google aim to "stimulate innovation in digital journalism" and will be spread out over the coming three years, he said. "The aim is to spark new thinking, which could come from anywhere, to give news organisations of all sizes the space to try new things and get projects off the drawing board and into production," Pichai said. "But let me be clear: participating in the Digital News Initiative is not about buying into Google's worldview. It is about discussion, debate, and getting things done together. It's open to everyone involved in news in Europe." Pichai said the funds would go to a range of organisations "from small startups to large, established news players" and include projects "ranging from automated content personalisation and robot journalism, to hoax busting apps and tools to verify social media in real-time reporting." The AFP project includes "high-quality, news-orientated graphics (which) deal with all the latest current events, economic issues, politics and sport," an AFP statement said. The graphics will be produced in all six of AFP's working languages, hosted by AFP, and integrated across digital platforms in a responsive manner. The project involves creating interactive graphic units, establishing an infrastructure for production and translation, and a beta platform to demonstrate and deliver the product to clients. AFP Naina Khedekar After receiving accolades for the OnePlus 2, the company is all set to launch the OnePlus 3, as it is confirmed that the device will be ready for release in Q2 2016. At the two-day Surge conference held in Bengaluru, OnePlus' CEO Pete Lau revealed that the OnePlus 3 is in the making and will launch by Q2 2016. While he didn't specify the exact time, a Cnet report reveals the device will release by the end of the second quarter in June. OnePlus 3 to launch in Q2 2016, says Pete Lau Tech2 (@tech2eets) February 24, 2016 We asked Lau if the company plans to launch two devices this year, just like the OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X seen last year. It 'should' be two devices, he tells us. So, OnePlus 3 and a successor to the OnePlus X is something we can expect from the company this year. Talking about the differences between the Indian and Chinese market, as well as the impact of the slowing China smartphone market on OnePlus and its targets for other regions, Lau said, "There is not much difference in the way we do business in China and India. We have transparency and integrity and follow our core principles and philosophy. When we first spoke to Amazon India head, our conversation was around company's philosophy and culture, and once these aspects falls in line. We maintain this throughout other regions too." About the China economy affecting the business, he said that most of their business is done outside China with key markets being US, Europe and India. So, it doesn't affect the business or its India plans. On asking about the company growth in India, Lau said he doesn't place much value on the sales numbers and the company doesn't believe in broadcasting sales numbers or talk about sales target publicly as they want to focus on quality and services. "We want to see if the product is up to mark and if our service are up to mark. We want people to like our product and service," he added. https://twitter.com/tech2eets/status/702443091278569472 With the increasing number of Chinese vendors and also some local players, the most recent focus has been on content. Lau says that OnePlus is in talks for partnerships for India-centric content, but there is nothing concrete to talk about yet. However, going forward it is an aspect he would be looking at. The company also maintains that it has no plans to go offline. The OnePlus 2 did get on the field for sometime and, but he claims it was purely to offer consumers a touch and feel of the device. "It was purely for exposing the device to consumers", he said. tech2 News Staff Xolo has announced yet another Era smartphone called the Era X. The Xolo Era X is a budget smartphone that is priced at Rs 5,777 with the highlight being its 4G bands. The smartphone is already on sale at Amazon.in. The Xolo Era X packs in a 5-inch HD IPS display (1280 x 720 pixels) sporting a pixel density of 294ppi with Corning's Gorilla Glass protection. Inside we get a quad-core 1.5GHz Spreadtrum SC9830A SoC with 2GB of RAM and a Mali 400 GPU. The device features just 8GB of internal storage, but the same can be expanded to 32GB with the help of a microSD card slot. Coming to the cameras the Era X comes with an 8MP camera with an LED flash on the back and a 5MP unit up front for selfies. On the connectivity front we get a 4G (VoLTE), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth and a micro USB port for charging and data transfers. All of the above is powered by a 2500mAh battery that is removable. The handset runs Android 5.1 Lollipop and the company states that it is upgradeable to Android 6.0 Marshmallow when the update is made available. The handset is available in black and is priced a bit higher than the Era 4G, which was announced for Rs 4,777 last week. The Xolo Era X is similar to its siblings and also includes multilingual support for regional languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu. Dedicated to the Restoration of Progressive Democracy Perendale Publishers Limited produces a range of services for the aquaculture industry as well as the global grain, feed and flour milling field. To find out more please visit: www.perendale.com BSA marks Intl Mother Languguae Day, its founding anniversary Sheikh Arif Bulbon : In observation of this years Shaheed Dibas and International Mother Language Day on February 21 and to celebrate the 42nd founding anniversary of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) on February 19, a weeklong event is being held on the premises of BSA in the citys Segun Bagicha area now. Besides, an event titled Smriti, Swatto, Bhobisshyat is being taken place from February 22 to 26 in memory of nine noted deceased playwrights of the country. On February 19, on the occasion of 42nd founding anniversary of BSA, a daylong event had been arranged to mark the day in a befitting manner. The founding day celebration was inaugurated at 10:00am. An art camp featuring a total of 60 participants consist of different noted selectors, judges and artists, who have uphold the honour of Bangladesh by winning prestigious awards in Biannual Asian Arts Exhibition and National Arts Exhibition, began at 10:30am. Besides, a childrens drawing competition was also held at 3:00pm and an acrobatic show at 5:00pm. Presided over by BSA Director General Liaquat Ali Lucky, Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor MP attended the discussion and cultural programme as chief guest at Nandan Mancha at 6:00pm. On the other hand, the event on February 20 featured a daylong art camp, songs of language and poetry recital. On February 21, a cultural programme featuring participants from different languages at 4:00pm and discussion and cultural programme at Nandan Mancha were also held. Organised by Theatre and Film Department of BSA, the event titled Smriti, Swatto, Bhobisshyat was kick off at the Studio Theatre Hall of BSA on February 22. Noted wordsmith Syed Shamsul Haque inaugurated the event, which will continue till February 26. n Tanjin Tisha`s two new ads Sheikh Arif Bulbon :Popular model of present time Tanjin Tisha last performed in a TV Commercial (TVC) of a juice. Later she did not work in any other TVC. Before telecasting the TVC of juice Tisha has already performed as a model in two other new TVCs. Of those TVCs, she is now staying in Kolkata to take part in shooting of a TVC of chutney. Shooting of the TVC was done at Upohar Project in New Goriya Station area on February 24. An advertisement-maker of Kolkata has made the TVC. Tisha mentioned that after taking part in shooting of the TVC Tanjin Tisha is scheduled to return to Bangladesh today. But if my elder sister Tumpa will go to Kolkata then I will return on February 28. After returning I will again go to Kolkata to work for another TVC in first week of March, Tisha said.While sharing her feelings about new works Tanjin Tisha told this correspondent, I am really glad to get the opportunity to work in two TVCs one after another. I always prefer to work in good products TVCs. In this sense, I am lucky. I want to see myself in good position in not only in modeling but also in TV plays.Tisha also informed that she has keen interest to work in big screen. She is now waiting to manage time and to get scope. When she matches bat and ball in this regard she will work and also inform all, Tanjin Tisha said. People deserve to know the truth behind Peelkhana tragedy THE nation observed the BDR Mutiny Day yesterday with due solemnity in tears and payers remembering the martyred officers who lost their lives in bloody carnage as their families saw the overnight rampage before their eyes. It is no doubt the biggest ever heinous act in the country's military history when the nation witnessed the cold-blooded murder of 74 people including 57 mid-ranking officers of Bangladesh Army who were deputed to BDR to run the paramilitary border force. The air becomes thick with grief every year on arrival of the day and we joined the families in seeking divine blessing of the fallen heroes while demanding speedy end of the confusion over how it all happened. Not much confidence can be placed on such trial of offenders in an extreme situation when life is considered easy to be dispensed with to show justice. We joined our voice to demand a neutral investigation into the incident to make clear to the nation as to why the barbarity was resorted to. People are still in the dark as to whether it was the work of some errant BDR soldiers and if so why they revolted and how the entire force was dragged into action. There are also questions whether any outside quarter who wanted to weaken the Border Force and Bangladesh Army had their hands behind the revolt. Many doubts such open revolt can't take place without material help and instigation from outside. But the government probe committee has so far failed to identify any such quarter having its involvement in the carnage. The BGB Chief as BDR has been renamed now, in his message yesterday on the 7th Anniversary of the massacre has also ruled out involvement of any foreign quarter leaving the nation in total dark what made the soldiers so confident to strike the officers and kill them. Many also believed timely dispatching of troops to Peelkhana BDR headquarters could have saved the officers but it did not occur in the face of opposition to such proposal. But it gave the killers enough time to kill the officers over 36 hours carnage and dump their bodies in sewerage lines and unmarked graves. The shelving of the second probe committee's report headed by a senior army general has also added to confusion. Tribute paid to Peelkhana martyrs Families of Peelkhana (BDR) carnage victims placing wreaths at the Banani graveyard and offering munajat for their departed souls on Thursday. The nation yesterday mourned with a heavy heart the deaths of 74 people, including 57 army officers, who lost their lives while serving the paramilitary frontier force on February 25-26 Peelkhana carnage in 2009.Representatives of the President, the Prime Minister and Home Minister, chiefs of three services, senior home secretary and BGB Director General paid rich tributes by placing floral wreaths at the Military Graveyard in Banani yesterday morning, a BGB press release said. Bangladesh Army arranged the programme.BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia also paid tributes to the martyrs by placing floral wreaths. An elaborate programme has been taken by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) during the carnage, marking the seventh anniversary of the BDR carnage.The day-long mourning program began with Khatme Quran at all the BGB mosques after Fazr prayer yesterday. Milad and doa mahfils were also held at Peelkhana and all units of the frontier force for eternal peace of the departed souls. On February 26, special doa and milad-mahfil will be held at Bir Uttam Fazlur Rahman Khandker auditorium in Peelkhana at 4-45pm. Senior Home Secretary, Director General of BGB, close relatives of the martyrs, officers working at the Peelkhana, GCO and other employees, among others, will participate in the mahfil. BNP demands judicial probe into BDR mutiny Staff Reporter : The BNP has demanded a judicial probe into the Peelkhana carnage to unearth the mystery behind the tragic incident that killed 74 people, including 57 army officers, in the BDR mutiny of 2009. The party also demanded observation of February 25 as 'National Mourning Day'. BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the demand while talking to the reporters after placing wreaths at the grave of BNP's founder late President Ziaur Rahman on Thursday. The party's standing committee member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman also made the same demand while talking to the reporters after paying tributes to the victims of the Peelkhana tragedy at Banani Graveyard. A BNP delegation, led by Mahbubur Rahman, placed wreaths at graves of the Peelkhana carnage victims on behalf of the BNP and its Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia. BNP Standing Committee Member ASM Hannan Shah, Vice Chairmen Altaf Hossain Chowdhury and Hafizuddin Ahmed were with the delegation. The BNP leaders offered a munajat seeking eternal peace of the departed souls. Mirza Fakhrul said, "The BDR massacre took place as part of a deep-rooted conspiracy to make the country's border unguarded. The trial of the heinous incident was not held properly. We demand a fair and neutral investigation into the BDR mutiny to identify the mastermind of the incident. At the same time, we also demand a fair trial of the incident." Describing the February 25 as a Mourning Day for the nation, he said that the country's independence was put at a stake on this day in 2009. SC rejects Fakhrul's affidavit explanation Staff Reporter : The Supreme Court has again rejected explanation of BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir about his comment on the judiciary. The court has asked the BNP leader to submit a fresh one along with newspaper cutting by Monday. A five-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha passed the order on Wednesday while dealing with three bail petitions filed by Mirza Fakhrul in three violence cases. Mirza Fakhrul's lawyer Sagir Hossain Leon said that the court was not satisfied with the affidavit explanation of his client and asked for a fresh one accompanied by newspaper reports by Monday. Mirza Fakhrul submitted the affidavit explanation to the Appellate Division on Tuesday in response to the SC order that had asked him to submit the explanation of his comment as an affidavit. Earlier on February 22, the BNP leader submitted an explanation through his lawyer. But the court rejected the explanation without affidavit. Sagir Hossain Leon said that Mirza Fakhrul in his affidavit did not mention the reason for making such comment. The court wants a fresh explanation specifying the reasons for making his reported comments about the judiciary. Mirza Fakhrul at a party meeting in Sylhet on February 7 accused the government of controlling the judiciary. He said, "All the democratic institutions have been destroyed in a planned way. There is no democracy in the country and the judiciary is not independent." On February 18, the SC asked the BNP leader to submit an explanation about his comments to this court by February 22. During hearing on the issue, the Chief Justice said, they become disheartened when the leaders speak about the judiciary. "Please, don't attach the judges with the politics. If you think that you can overcome after commenting about the judiciary, it will be a mistake. You (Mirza Fakhrul) could speak in Sylhet meeting due to granting of bail by the judiciary." Re-establishing `Baksal` rule in different style: BNP UNB, Dhaka :BNP on Thursday alleged that the government is going to stage a showdown of re-establishing one-party 'Baksal' rule in the name of holding the Union Parishad(UP) polls along party line."The UP election is nothing, but a showdown of re-establishing Baksal rule in a different style. That's why they (govt) are holding the polls along party line to unilaterally grab UP chairman posts," said BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi. He came up with the allegation while speaking at a press briefing at BNP's Nayapaltan central office.The BNP leader alleged that the ruling party men are snatching the nomination papers of their party candidates and attacking and harassing their leaders and activists at different parts of the country to hold a lopsided election.He also observed that placing a chargesheet against BNP chairperson in a false case as well as issuing a summon against her by a court and creating a debate by filing cases against The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam are the parts of the government's evil efforts to divert people's attention to a different direction from the ruling party's terrorist acts centring the UP polls. Three Avijit killers identified Staff Reporter :Police have identified three persons who directly took part in the murder of secularist writer-blogger Avijit Roy on the Dhaka University campus last February.Deputy Inspector General Monirul Islam, also Chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit, made the disclosure while talking to reporters at DMP Media Centre on Thursday afternoon.He said, "Three persons who participated in Avijit killing have been identified. They are on the run. We do not have any information about their whereabouts."Monirul said that police also got documentary evidence of about five to six persons, who were near the spot at the time of the killing. Slain Avijit Roy, also founder of Mukto-Mona blog, was hacked to death by assailants near the Teacher Student Center (TSC) on the DU campus when he and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya were returning from the book fair on February 26 last year. Bonna sustained severe injuries in the attack. Abduction on sharp rise 29 kids murdered in January Joynal Abedin Khan : The incident of abduction has marked a sharp rise in recent days creating panic among the people in capital Dhaka and elsewhere across the country. The prime reason of kidnapping is to realise ransom, followed by murder in most of the cases. Once the ransom is paid, the majority of the victims are killed so that their abductors cannot be identified, intelligence sources said. The latest victims of the horrific crimes involved four children of a village at Bahubal in Habiganj district The bodies of four schoolchildren were recovered from under a heap of soil in Bahubal upazila of Habiganj district on Wednesday morning, five days after their abduction from a local playground. At least 66 persons were abducted across the country in January while the number was 57 in December and 50 in November of last year, police sources said. According to Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum, a children rights group, an enormous number of 1,085 children were killed in the past four years, a significant number of whom became victims of kidnapping. Similar other human rights organizations say, in January 2016, at least 29 kids were murdered. Of them, four were murdered after abduction, bodies of six children were recovered after missing and three killed by their relatives. The rest 16 were killed either by criminals or their classmates.In Laxmipur, miscreants reportedly abducted a female SSC examinee from Afjal Road area in Chandraganj Bazar of Sadar upazila on Tuesday afternoon. Assistant Police Super (Circle) Md Nasim Mia said that a gang of miscreants forcibly picked up Fatema-tuz-Zohra, a student of Amani Laxmipur Begum Hamida Girls High School at gunpoint when she was retuning home on a CNG-run auto-rickshaw after appearing at Mathematics examination at Pratapganj High School centre. Meanwhile, Police on Monday recovered the body of a local leader of Jubo League from a water body at Laxmidar Para in Ramganj upazila, six days after he went missing. In Dhaka, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin Mofizul Islam, 50, was allegedly abducted from Mohakhali in Dhaka on February 19. The family of the victim has filed a case with Kafrul Police Station in this connection.. Police also recovered decomposed body of a man who went missing on February 12 from Keraniganj. The victim has been identified as Hiron Sheikh, 40. Police arrested two persons on charge of abduction of a baby from Gazipur and Gaibadha districts on February 15. They also rescued Sumon, 6, during the drive after 40 days of his missing. On the other hand, a man went missing in the city's Mugda area on February 1. The victim was dentified as Wahidur Rahman, 35, hailing from Laxmipur district. In Keraniganj, the victim M Abdullah, 11, a class five student, whose body was recovered from a plastic drum at a house in Mugarchar area four days after his abduction on February 1. A day ago of the Keraniganj incident, bodies of three kidnapped children were recovered from Tangail and Rangpur. The dead are Shakil Miah, 11, Imran Hossain, 12, and Rahimul Islam Rawnak, 4. In Gazipur, the body of a four-year-old boy was recovered from Kashimpur Surabari area two days after his abduction from Gazipur on February 16. Solaiman, son of Mokarram Hossain Akmat of Bhenuarchar area, went missing two days ago. In Bandarban, law enforcers' recovered the body of a man from Shidhui Jiri area in Alikadom upazila of the district on February 12, two days after his alleged abduction. The deceased is Borhan Uddin, 55, of Pan Bazar area in the upazila. In Tangail, two boys were found dead at Haora Kamarpara village in Mirzapur upazila on Friday 12, two days after their 'kidnapping'. Police recovered the bodies of Imran, 11, son of Abu Bakar, and Shakil, 10, son of Delwar Hossain. In Jessore, a madrasa girl was found dead from Singher Kajura village in Monirampur upazila of Jessore on January 6 after three days of her abduction. The deceased was identifies as Lima Khatun, 14, daughter of Shahidul Islam, and a Class IX student of Nengurahat Women's Madrasa in the area. In Noakhali, pirates have kidnapped 16 fishermen from the Gas Field area of the Bay of Bengal in Hatiya upazila on Janury 13. The victims hail from Jahajmara Katakhali of the upazila. In Narayanganj, a child, missing for 14 days, has been found dead in a pond in the district February 23. The Four-year-old Mairunnessa was identified through her clothing at an industrial estate by Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) at Pachabati on February 22. In Dinajpur, an abducted youth's body was found in Birampur upazila in the district on February 23 after 12 days of missing. "Creating public awareness about risks to children would prevent opportunities for kidnappings. It was easier for a relative or a friend than a stranger to have access to a child. In most cases, the children are lured away with chocolates or food," said Abdus Shahid Mahmood, Director of Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum. Nazrul Islam, Deputy Inspector General (Media) of Police said that the law enforcers are trying to reduce the abduction and other crimes incidents. A good number of abducted people have already been rescued by conducting separate drives after getting complaints from members of the victim families, the police official said. Big fishes planned the loot Staff Reporter : Some big fishes in association with the organised international forgery members have looted crores of taka from the country's banks and financial institutions by colonising ATM cards. "Based on investigation and information extracted from the arrested four persons, including a Polish citizen, we found some big fishes and powerful persons who are behind the ATM cards fraud," Monirul Islam, Chief of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said. He said this while talking to the journalists over the primary investigation into the ATM card scam at DMP media centre in city on Thursday. "We have also obtained some sensational and vital information of the arrested persons about how and in what way these organised gangs used to withdraw money from the bank and the financial institutions. We will go for massive hunt for the big fishes," he said. Monirul Islam said apart from foreign and local bank officials, big fishes like owners of travel agencies, residential hotels and currency exchange services are also involved with ATM card scam. He said these organised thugs not only using ATM cards but also using point-of-sale (PoS) machines and debit and credit cards looted crores of taka from different banks and financial institution. PoS, a computerised replacement for a cash register can include the ability to record and track customer orders, process credit and debit cards, connect to other systems in a network, and manage inventory. "We have already gone through the bank statements of the powerful businessmen who were found involved in ATM card scam. We are now examining the bank statements," the police official said. Replying to a query, Monirul Islam said it is not possible for an official of a bank to withdraw money with ATM card forgery if he did not get green signal from authority of the financial institution. Plainclothes police arrested four persons, including a Polish citizen, from city's Gulshan area in city on Sunday for their suspected involvement with the recent ATM card scam. The arrestees are: Polish citizen Piotr Szczepan Mazurek and three officials of City Bank Maksed Al alias Maksud, Rezaul Karim alias Shaheen, and Refaz Ahmed alias Roni. DB police arrested the four along with a passport, an identity card given by the German government confirming Piotr's German citizenship. They are now under remand. Piotr also confessed that an international gang was involved in the debit card forgery and the gang is active in Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Poland in East Europe. The gang looted huge amount of money from the ATM booths of UCBL (United Commercial Bank Limited), City Bank, and Eastern Bank on January 7 and 8. European Parliament calls for Saudi arms embargo Reuters, Brussels :The European Parliament called on the European Union to impose an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia on Thursday, saying Britain, France and other EU governments should no longer sell weapons to a country accused of targeting civilians in Yemen.EU lawmakers, who voted overwhelmingly in favor of an embargo, said Britain had licensed more than $3 billion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia since Saudi-led forces began military operations in Yemen in March last year.Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since the coalition entered the conflict, almost half of them civilians, according to the United Nations, and the European Parliament said it was acting on humanitarian grounds."This is about Yemen. The human rights violations have reached a level that means Europe is obliged to act and to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia," said Richard Howitt, a British center-left lawmaker who led efforts to hold the vote.The parliament's vote is not legally binding but lawmakers hope it will pressure EU governments to agree to an embargo, following a petition of 750,000 European citizens calling for the suspension of weapon sales.Fellow British lawmaker Alyn Smith, a Scottish Nationalist who grew up in Saudi Arabia, has also written to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini calling for the embargo.However, any EU embargo would go against U.S. President Barack Obama's policy of bolstering U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia after Washington brokered a deal with regional rival Iran last year to curtail Tehran's nuclear ambitions.Britain and France are the main European suppliers of arms to Saudi Arabia, while Germany also licensed arms exports of almost $200 million to the Sunni kingdom in the first six months of 2015, the latest economy ministry data available.EU lawmakers warned the vote may prompt retaliation from Saudi Arabia, whose envoy to the European Union held several meetings with EU lawmakers and tried to dissuade the parliament."The Saudis said to me they may cut off relations. I hope those are just words," Howitt said, adding that the quickest way to avoid an arms embargo was to end the conflict in Yemen.Saudi Arabia's ambassador, Abdulrahman Al Ahmed, defended the kingdom's actions in a letter to EU lawmakers on Sunday, saying that "the larger ramifications of our not taking action in Yemen would have had devastating geopolitical consequences for the kingdom, Europe and the broader West as well." If you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs. Lafayette General Health CEO David Callecod says the proposed $26 million in budget cuts could mean the end of the partnership that manages the University Hospital & Clinics. Lafayette General Health CEO David Callecod Photo by Wynce Nolley David Callecod, CEO of the six-hospital Lafayette General Health System, says the proposed $26 million in budget cuts, which represents more than a fifth of the hospitals overall budget, could spell the end of the public-private partnership that manages the University Hospital & Clinics. The irony of it is its $9.9 million of state general funds, but once you pull down the federal dollars it is an effective $26.2 million cut, says Callecod. Were not the second largest hospital, but we are receiving the second largest cut of all of the facilities. And percentage wise, it is the largest cut of all of the public-private partnerships. Callecod addressed the Senate Finance Committee on Feb. 17, and the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee on Feb. 24 about the importance of keeping state funding available to local hospitals, especially the public-private partnerships. Im hopeful that a compromise can be found, the administrator says. Im very much supportive of a shared sacrifice, but at this point I would describe this as instead of a haircut this is like a decapitation of the program in Lafayette. Callecod says the hospital board will meet Tuesday to discuss a resolution that would threaten a termination of the partnership with the state if legislators approve the budget cut. I hope they come up with a compromise of cuts and revenue so that we can then stay in this partnership, says Callecod. We do not want to leave this partnership, but if forced to do so I see no other alternative. According to Callecod, ending the partnership would require LGH to give a 60-day notice to the state, which would then be forced to find a new partner or turn the facility back over to LSU, which is also facing millions of dollars in reductions due to the states budget crisis. Callecod adds that the worst-case scenario would see several facilities close, which would also put residency programs in jeopardy. The care of the patients during that 60-day period would continue to be our responsibility as the public-private partner, but after 60 days those are questions that the state and LSU would have to answer, says Callecod. The state would have to pay out liquidated damages as well as capital that has been pumped into UHC. The unused lease payments for the property would have to be returned as well. Callecod says that if the partnership were to be terminated and the partners walk away it would create an even greater fiscal crisis for the state. I think without question this is going to cost a lot more than the $54 million that the shortfall is representing to the public-private partnerships, says Callecod. The savings of those state dollars are going to translate into hundreds of millions of additional expenses that our state does not have. So it compounds the budget problems that we have. And quite frankly I find it silly that were even having this discussion when you look at the way in which weve improved care and driven down the cost of care. Lafayette General took over operation of the charity hospital back in 2012 on the condition that it would be reimbursed for services by the state. Since then, LGH has grown the daily census, or number of patients in bed each day, from 16 patients to 45 patients per day. It has also grown outpatient visits from 12,857 to 19,358 per month. The number of average clinic visits at UHC has grown from 7,899 to 11,795 since LGH took it over. The scenario of us experiencing this cut is a dire scenario and it is one that we need to avoid at all costs, says Callecod. So I urge our legislators to find not only revenue opportunities to solve the budget crisis, but also cost savings and cost cutting throughout the state government and to assure that this really is a shared responsibility for everyone in the state. I cant stress enough that we need to solve this budget crisis. It not only threatens the public-private partners, but it threatens the very existence of many of our healthcare institutions across the great state of Louisiana. Pre-purchase property inspection is a relatively new thing in the United Kingdom. Its not something that most people have heard about, but it has become increasingly popular over the last few years with the rise in property prices and increased demand for high quality homes. What are the benefits of pre-purchase building inspection? What can you expect to find out when you pay someone else to inspect your home before you buy it? And what should you look for during an inspection? Many people want to know if theyre buying a house thats been well maintained or if its had any serious problems. If youve found a place on the market that seems attractive, but then discover some issues after moving in, you may not be as excited about buying it as you thought you were. Its important to do your due diligence when looking at properties. A lot goes into making a property appealing to potential buyers, from the landscaping to the flooring to the kitchen appliances. The same applies when inspecting a property there are many things that need checking over to make sure everything is running smoothly. Here are some of the benefits of performing a pre-purchase inspection: You get to see exactly what will happen to your money When you go shopping for a new car, youll probably be shown several different models. You might even be shown one that looks like a great value, but doesnt fit around all of the extra features that you want. When it comes time to actually buy the vehicle, however, you wont have seen how your money will be spent on it once you drive it off the showroom floor. Likewise, when you shop for a new home, you dont really know what youre getting yourself into until you move in. In order to get a feel for whether the home youre considering is what you want, you normally have to spend quite a bit of time inside it. This allows you to learn more about everything that youre going to be spending your hard-earned cash on. A pre-purchase building inspection gives you much the same kind of experience without having to spend thousands of dollars. Since youre paying for the service, you can expect to see exactly what youre paying for, instead of just seeing a vague idea of what you might end up with. You find out about potential major repairs Some buildings are very expensive to maintain, which means that owners often neglect them for the sake of saving money. While youre paying for a building inspection, youre also paying for a professional who knows how to spot signs of trouble and repair work that needs doing. If you notice that a particular area of your new home needs fixing right away, you can call in an expert to take care of it quickly. If you find that theres something wrong with your boiler, you wont have to wait weeks for a plumber to come over and fix it. Instead, youll have access to a solution immediately. You can save hundreds of pounds by finding out about potential problems early on One of the biggest expenses when you first buy a home is the cost of moving in. Many people dont realize this until its too late. Buying a home involves not only paying for the actual house, but also for moving costs, furniture, and other items that have to be moved along with the home. Having a good idea ahead of time of what youre likely to encounter can help you avoid these kinds of costs. If you know youll need to replace the plumbing system, for example, youll be able to put together a budget for the expense and plan accordingly. You can protect your investment by finding out if the homes been well cared for While there are plenty of people who think that houses always look better when theyre newly built, youd be surprised at how well maintained older residences can still look nice. Sometimes, though, those homes need some additional maintenance to keep them looking their best. This could involve repairs that arent so noticeable or small improvements that you wouldnt consider otherwise. Even worse, some houses have fallen into disrepair without anyone noticing. This is why having a professional perform a building inspection prior to purchasing a home is such a big benefit. Not only will it give you insight into the state of the property, but it will also give you peace of mind knowing youre not getting taken advantage of. As long as youre aware of the potential pitfalls, youll have less reason to worry about the state of your new home. You can use information gathered during a building inspection to negotiate a lower price If youre worried about buying a home because you suspect that it may need extensive renovation work, you may already have a rough idea of how much work youll need to do to bring it up to scratch. That knowledge can come in handy if you decide to buy the home. You can use all of the details that you gather during a building inspection to present a realistic picture of what the home is worth to prospective buyers. If a potential buyer thinks that the home is worth more than what you paid for it, you can try negotiating a lower price. You can sell your home faster and for more money If you decide to list your home on the market soon after buying it, youll need to price it accurately in order to attract buyers. But if youve already done a thorough building inspection, youll know exactly what work is needed and what the current market conditions are. In other words, youll be able to make a more accurate estimate of the amount of money youve invested in the home and how much its worth. If you find that youre selling your house for close to its full market value, you can use this information to convince the potential buyer that your home is worth the asking price. Even if youre planning to stay in the home for a while before you decide to sell, the fact that you did a thorough building inspection will give you more confidence when listing it. Prospective buyers will know exactly what theyre paying for. Your home will hold its value longer As mentioned earlier, the value of a home depends heavily upon the condition of the building itself. If your home is in bad shape, potential buyers wont be interested in buying it. On the other hand, if youve performed a thorough building inspection and know what sort of repairs are necessary, you can offer your prospective buyer a compelling reason to invest in your property. When you buy a home, youre essentially agreeing to have it inspected periodically to ensure that it stays in top shape. Not only does this allow you to avoid expensive repairs down the road, but it can also increase the value of your home. You can make smart decisions about property investments Buying real estate isnt as simple as just driving a couple of minutes to pick up a house. There are lots of considerations involved, ranging from location to cost. The same is true when youre investing in property. If you find a house that meets all of your requirements, youll want to make sure that you have a solid understanding of where it stands with regards to the rest of the market. If you havent spent enough time researching the area, you could inadvertently end up with a bad deal. There are lots of resources available online that can help you determine the overall level of competition in your area. They can also help you figure out if there are any properties that meet your requirements that you didnt know about. If you own rental property, you can use the information to identify tenants who might cause damage If you own rental property and youve noticed that certain tenants consistently cause damage, you can use the results of a building inspection to identify them. You can then contact them directly to let them know that youre watching them closely and that you dont appreciate the problem theyre causing. They might start taking better care of their homes, which would be good news for everyone. It could also be the case that youll find out that theyre responsible for previous damages that werent caught during a previous visit. You can make smarter decisions about hiring contractors If youve hired contractors to build or repair your home, you might want to ask them for references. However, unless you perform a thorough building inspection, you might not know exactly what to look for. For instance, maybe you only checked the roof for leaks or the walls for cracks. You might not have looked underneath the foundation for anything that could cause a future issue. By performing a building inspection, you can ensure that you hire reputable contractors who will be trustworthy with your money. You can avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition Of course, the main benefit of structural inspections perth is that it helps you avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition. Before you make the decision to buy a home, you should do whatever you can to find out about the state of the building. You can also ask your realtor about what sorts of inspections are typically recommended. Some agents say that its standard practice to check the heating system, the roof, the electrical wiring, and the floors. Others will tell you that they recommend that you check the entire structure. Either way, if you choose to hire an inspector, youll find out exactly what needs to be fixed and how much it will cost to do so. As a result, it can be concluded that a pre-purchase building inspection is highly important for the buyers because it provides transparency regarding the current conditions of the structure. Additionally, the building owner is made aware of any upgrades or repairs that are required, which could lead to a fair deal throughout the purchasing and selling process. Parece que todos los dias la tecnologia se hace cargo de otro trabajo, y estas ocupaciones obsoletas no son una excepcion. Y es que los tiempos cambian, y debido a Rent To Own Homes San Antonio Rent to own homes for sale. 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The solicitor says he hosts the oyster roast to show his appreciation for the First Judicial Circuit, which includes Orangeburg, Calhoun and Dorchester counties. Oysters, catfish stew, fried fish, chicken wings and barbeque ribs will be served. The event is free and open to the public. It will be held at 6 p.m. at the Orangeburg County Fairgrounds. Pascoe advises everyone to arrive at the event no later than 5:30 p.m. to get good seats. We usually get a crowd of 700 or 800 people. Were going to stay until the food runs out, Pascoe said. Clinton will hold a get-out-the-vote HBCU rally at 4:45 p.m. Friday at Dukes Gymnasium on the South Carolina State University campus. Doors open at 3:15 p.m. Sanderss campaign announced late Wednesday he will hold an HBCU Tour and Rally at Claflin Universitys Jonas T. Kennedy Center at 5:30 p.m. Friday. Admission is free and open to the public, although the campaign suggests registering by visiting https://go.berniesanders.com/page/event/detail/rally/4gyr5 . The Democratic primary will be held from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday. COLUMBIA The sponsor of a bill that would arm specially trained teachers and school administrators as a means of protecting public schools said he has tightened the legislation to resolve concerns about the presence of weapons around school children. State Rep. Phillip Lowe, R-Florence, sponsored a similar measure in 2012, shortly after the horrific shooting in Newtown, Conn., where a mentally ill man shot and killed 20 schoolchildren and six teachers. That measure never made it out of the House committee. The Newtown killings along with other mass shootings led lawmakers around the country to sponsor legislation to arm teachers. Eighteen states currently allow a secondary form of protection other than school resource officers in their schools. I got feedback last time of some areas that people had concerns over, so in this bill I addressed many of those concerns, Lowe said. Chief among their concerns, he said, is whether the classroom is an appropriate place for a firearm. Parents told him, We dont want guns around our children. But Lowe said he believes educators could handle being a first line of defense against school intruders. They love children, and already have devoted their lives to children. Why cant we trust people with four-year degrees to learn how to handle a weapon safely and help in a bad situation? he said. He believes gun-free areas, as schools are designated, are targets for criminals. Nevertheless, the measure is likely to face opposition from educators and law enforcement. Bernadette Hampton, president of the S.C. Education Association, said she is opposed to employees serving as protection officers. In my opinion, teachers as school protection officers would create more harm than safety, she said. If the bill passes, the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy on Broad River Road will be the site for the training classes required. They currently hold the training for school resource officers. The revamped bill, known as the School Protection Officer Act, would allow designated school employees to carry a firearm or pepper spray on school grounds. Training would be required and the weapon would have to be concealed or kept in a lock box. The governing boards of schools could designate employees as school protection officers. These officers would provide armed protection and other related public safety functions in addition to any school resource officers hired by school districts. The legislation would not require any school district to participate. The bill requires the bullets to be frangible. These are bullets that break into fragments upon impact and are usually used to limit the possible danger behind the intended target. Normally, a SRO receives an advanced two-week training course after completing the 12-week training course to become a basic law enforcement officer. The bill requires the same two-week training for school protection officers. Some school districts may not agree that the two-week course would be enough training, while others may be satisfied, said Florence McCants, public information officer for the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy. Lowe said that when analyzed, the time spent in the active shooter training portion for SROs was very similar. Susan Brill, vice chair of the Richland 2 school board, doesnt think her district would arm teachers since her district already has SROs. Richland 2 has an arrangement with the Richland County Sheriffs Department, which provides district schools with resource officers. I am not sure we need that at Richland 2, but they may be needed at another location where they dont have a workable relationship with a sheriffs department like we do, she said. The Richland County Sheriffs Department feels confident in the school resource officers they provide the schools with, said Lt. Curtis Wilson, spokesman for the department. Victoria Middleton, executive director of ACLU of South Carolina, believes that schools are already over-policed She doesnt want the introduction of more weapons in schools. Taking teachers away from their primary duties and asking them to do others doesnt seem like a positive move, she said. With close to 20 co-sponsors, Lowes goal for this year is to make it through the House and start discussions about it in the Senate. Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, said he is very supportive of the proposed legislation. However, Bright said he thinks this bill might suffer the same fate as another that would allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons without a permit. That bill was passed by the House but is stalled in the Senate. Bright said the bill would have a better chance of passing if the public understood more about the potential legislation. Bills can sit on the counter for sessions, he said. It just depends on what the people say. Lowe said no date has been set for a hearing with the House Committee on Education and Public Works. Hillary Clinton is taking no chances in South Carolina, and its apparent her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination knows he has no realistic chance for victory here in Saturdays primary. Clinton is banking on a strategy that produces support by African-Americans, the voting majority in Saturdays balloting. But even after overwhelming support by blacks in Nevada this past Saturday and polls in South Carolina that show her far ahead among African-Americans, she is taking no chances. Clinton is spending much of the week in and out of South Carolina, and she has surrogates, including husband and former President Bill Clinton, in the state as well. Couple that with the bonus of 6th District Congressman Jim Clyburns endorsement a week ago and Clinton is on her way to victory Saturday. In hopes of driving turnout for her among young people and African-Americans, Clinton will make one of her final campaign stops before the voting at a rally at Dukes Gymnasium on the South Carolina State University campus in Orangeburg at 4:45 p.m. Friday. For his part, Clinton opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders says he has not given up on South Carolina and will return for a swing through the state, also on Friday. But until then, he is spending time in other states, some with voting dates beyond Super Tuesday on March 1. With Sanders supporters in the Palmetto State saying that keeping the South Carolina margin of loss under double digits, though polls show Clinton with a wide lead, the outlook for the insurgent Democrat has turned far less optimistic ahead of the big day next week. Clinton is counting on Saturday in South Carolina as a bellwether to what is to come Tuesday, when she is hoping to move beyond a challenged frontrunner to presumptive nominee. It could happen. On Tuesday, more Southern states with large African-American voting blocs will hold primaries. Clintons lead in polls ranges from more than 40 percent in Georgia and nearly 25 percent in Tennessee to almost 30 percent in Alabama and her former home state of Arkansas. Other Southern states voting on Tuesday are Texas and Virginia, where Clintons projected lead is in double digits. Tuesday also features primaries in Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Sanders home state of Vermont. He leads in polls in Massachusetts and Vermont, the former by less than 5 percent and the latter by an overwhelming margin. Super Tuesday also features caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota, where Sanders could be competitive. When all is done, Sanders may only win his home state, but because Democratic delegates are proportioned, he will get a fair share. The question then becomes where can Sanders score enough wins to derail Clintons delegate lead and her overwhelming margin in super delegates, the percentage of convention voters made up of party officials. The delegate deficit Sanders is likely to face is not unlike what happened to Clinton during her race with then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008. She came to a point at which the math made Obamas nomination inevitable. Despite claims that Courtney Price was protecting herself, a crime scene expert testified Wednesday that she stabbed her boyfriend to death while he was sleeping. During the second day of Prices murder trial, Orangeburg County Sheriffs Office Chief of Staff Kenny Kinsey testified that blood patterns at the crime scene show that Samuel Simmons was asleep when Price stabbed him to death on Sept. 27, 2014. Prices attorney, Carl B. Grant, says Price and Simmons were engaged in a struggle when Price stabbed the father of her son. Kinsey, who reviewed crime scene photographs and evidence at the request of the First Circuit Solicitors Office, said the blood patterns at the scene told a different story than Grant did. The blood stain patterns showed that Price stabbed Simmons while he was lying asleep in the bed, Kinsey said. Simmons then sat up on the edge of the bed as blood pooled on the bedspread and dripped to the floor. Kinsey used evidence to speculate that Simmons then stood up, walked in a circle and stood between the bed and the dresser before collapsing to the floor. At one point, Kinsey demonstrated Simmons likely position in the bed by lying on the table where prosecutors sat. Kinsey then sat up on top of the table as his legs dangled from the edge of it, showing the way Simmons likely sat on the edge of the bed after Price stabbed him. He had a single stab wound to his chest. Pathologist Dr. Janice Ross testified that the knife caused an injury to his left lung and part of the arteries going to the lung which caused him to hemorrhage. Ross testified that although there was one entry point to the wound, there were four wounds in the lung. She explained that while the knife was in him, it had been moved around when it was inside his lung. She testified that the wound was consistent with the victim lying down. State Law Enforcement Division Special Agent Latisha Walker, who worked as an investigator for the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety at the time of Simmons death, took the stand the longest on Tuesday. Walker said Price gave investigators three different versions about what happened the morning she killed Simmons. Walker said that after she interviewed Price the first time on the Saturday morning Simmons was killed, Some of what she said didnt make sense to me. In Walkers first interview with Price, which was played in court, Price said that Simmons had his hands around her neck for about two seconds. We argued and I stabbed him, she said in that first interview. Its like he lost energy and he fell to the ground and I was like, Sam, Sam, Sam, Price said. Walker said that her first interview with Price left her with more questions than answers, so she returned to the crime scene. There didnt appear to be any signs of a struggle before Simmons death, Walker said. Walker said she didnt see any abrasions on Prices neck. She also said that Simmons didnt appear to have any defensive wounds, as if hed tried to fight off Price while she wielded a steak knife. Around 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, Walker conducted a second interview with Price. During that interview Price smirked and laughed a little, Walker testified. Price was recorded telling Walker, I got back on top of him and put it in him. I just got the knife and I stabbed him. And in a third interview with Walker on the following Monday, Price said that Simmons choked her while they were on the couch and that she asked him to leave. Walker read from a transcript of that interview. Price said that after Simmons choked her on the couch downstairs, that she went upstairs to use the restroom. When she exited the restroom, Simmons was sitting on the foot of the bed. He started kissing her neck and it felt good and they had sex, Walker said. Price and Simmons began arguing again about child support for their infant son, who was asleep in the apartment. Next, Price went downstairs to get away from Simmons and to prepare a bottle for their son. While downstairs, Price noticed a message on Simmons cellphone from another woman who had a child by Simmons. Price didnt know about the other woman or about Simmons other child. I got a knife out of the cabinet, Walker said, reading from the transcript of Prices interview. What did she say for the reason she stabbed him? Assistant Solicitor Ashley Cornwell asked Walker. Looking at the transcript, Walker said, Because she was tired of his s- -. Walker also testified that she pulled phone records and text messages that Price and Simmons exchanged. Were you able to find any messages that were threatening from the victim (Simmons)? Cornwell asked. Walker said she couldnt find any. It would appear that she was obsessed. She (Price) threatened him all the time, Walker testified. In the week prior to Simmons visit to Prices apartment, the two texted each other several times. Price asked Simmons repeatedly to return her apartment key to her and to move on with his life. Walker also noted that a search of Prices medical history did not contain mention of Price undergoing treatment for physical abuse, such as being choked or beaten by Simmons. The pair knew each other since 2008, when they were students at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School. The prosecution rested at 5:10 p.m. Wednesday and the defense will call witnesses to testify beginning at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. Circuit Judge R. Knox McMahon is presiding. In recent years there have been far too many cases in which elections in America have been rigged. As a result of court involvement, the guilty parties have in some cases spent time in prison, in some cases been released on parole, and in some cases paid fines for their involvement. You might assume that new safeguards have been put in place to restore public confidence in the fairness of elections in America. Unfortunately, however, many proposed safeguards have been politicized in ways that have prohibited their use. In a recent sampling of voting fraud in America, the Heritage Foundation reported on almost 300 documented cases from 43 states. In each and every one of these cases, either the individuals were convicted of fraud, or the results of the election were overturned. In 267 of these cases, the judicial decisions came down in the last 16 years, beginning in 2000. The types of fraud included ineligible voters, impersonation of registered voters, duplicate voting, buying votes, bribery, false registrations, and the fraudulent use of absentee ballots. The latter two charges were most frequent, with false registrations involved in 83 of these cases and the fraudulent use of absentee ballots in 69 of these cases. I began pondering the potential for absentee ballot fraud during the 2008 presidential election cycle. My mother was in her last few months of life, living in a nursing home, and I worked to make sure she had the opportunity to vote, if she chose to do so. During her final months, she had some clear lucid moments, but many times of foggy confusion. One day when I visited her, she told me about the newly invented food called potato chips. She had lost all memory of eating potato chips during her adult years, and had reverted to her childhood depression-era years, when she had no memory of potato chips. She was so excited about this recent invention. Opening a bag of potato chips was so delightful for her, yet so symbolic for us, as we recognized her serious dementia. Yet, at other times, mental clarity returned. During these times she would talk about her desire to vote for her long-serving senator. She had lived for two decades in Arizona and wanted to cast her presidential ballot for Sen. John McCain. My siblings and I were regulars at the nursing home. There was rarely a day when Mom was not visited. Getting her to complete her absentee ballot simply required waiting for a clear lucid moment, showing her the options, and getting her signature. It took several tries, but eventually Mom completed her absentee ballot, proud to vote for her senator. On one of my visits to the nursing home that fall, the social worker had encouraged me to allow him to handle Moms absentee ballot. I guess that procedure might help seniors who have been forgotten by their families, but I saw no reason to seek such assistance, given our regular visits to Mom. We as her kids were more confident that she would be able to cast her desired vote if we handled her ballot, rather than turning it over to the social worker. Is there some way to assure that senior citizens are in fact casting their ballots for their preferred candidates? In the United Kingdom, they have passed some legislation to reduce the ability of social workers to commandeer a pile of absentee ballots, a procedure they have called granny farming. The recent legislation prevents a single voter from acting as a proxy for more than two non-family members, therefore requiring more people to be involved in any fraud. It is not clear, however, that this has reduced the overall problem. When states have tried to pass voter fraud legislation, they have often been accused of trying to disenfranchise minority voters. The failure to develop reasonable laws to protect the sanctity of voting in America, will, however, eventually disenfranchise all voters, and the entire electoral process. It is time for American politicians to protect the votes of all Americans. Lets hope the 2016 primary and general election is free from voter fraud. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. An interdisciplinary resource for news, legal developments, commentary, and scholarship about Title IX, the federal statute prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded schools. /By Azernews/ By Nazrin Gadimova The government of Azerbaijan has defined key directions in the industry development in a bid to develop the non-oil sector of the economy. Deputy Economy Minister Niyazi Safarov announced that this development is based on a rational use of natural resources, creation of technological chains until the output of final goods, modernization and innovation, increasing volumes of competitive industrial production, as well as expanding volume of non-oil export. Safarov made the remarks at a conference titled State Support for Development of the Industry this week, adding that Azerbaijan is taking appropriate comprehensive measures. The deputy minister stressed that these measures will have a positive impact on the development of non-oil industry. Moreover, competitiveness of industrial goods produced in Azerbaijan will increase as a result. Vugar Bayramov, Chairman of the Center for Economic and Social Development (CESD) commenting on the issue said that the development of the non-oil sector is a priority objective for the Azerbaijani government. The fact that the oil price in the budget laid down at the level of $25, shows that in 2016 the priority objective of the state is to eliminate the dependence on oil and support the non-oil sector, he said. Azerbaijan, that saw two devaluations last year over the sharp decrease in oil prices on the world market, now takes concrete steps to strengthen its domestic market. To ensure the development of economys non-oil sector, the government has issued a number of documents aimed at protecting and promoting local manufacturers. Bayramov reminded that the amendments made to the Tax Code, approved by the head of state on February 16, provide tax benefits to legal and physical entities engaged in investment activities. Entrepreneurs, who have invested more than $3.2 million, can automatically apply for an appropriate document. This document will give businessmen an opportunity to cut taxes on revenues and incomes by about half, while imported equipment will be tax-exempted, the expert said. Bayramov further noted that the state has increased the amount of funds issued for the promotion of entrepreneurs engaged in the non-oil sector of the economy. As you know, the President has ordered to allocate $641.3 million to entrepreneurs. Of this amount, $160.3 million will be provided through the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support, and the remaining $481 million will be offered to entrepreneurs through the government agencies, he added. Bayramov believes that one of the key points here is to attract investment. Thus, the head of the state has signed a decree to encourage investment activities, improve business environment, increase industrial production, as well as create a mechanism and normative legal acts related to encouragement of investments. He said the government has set a goal to eliminate the monopoly, to liberalize import and export, as well as to facilitate access to the market. On 23 February, the multi-award-winning independent documentary Endless Corridor a US/Lithuanian co-production was screened in the Boothroyd Room of Portcullis House part of the UK Parliament. Organised by Bob Blackman MP, Chair, Azerbaijan All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), and attended by Baroness OCathain and Lord Howarth, APPG members, this commemorated the victims of the Khojaly Massacre on 26 February 1992. This was the worst single atrocity of the ArmenianAzerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh that claimed the lives of 613 civilian victims in 1992. The death toll included 106 women, 63 children and 70 elderly people. The screening was organised within the Justice for Khojaly campaign. Following its international premiere throughout 2015, Endless Corridorhas received plaudits from critics across the world. It has received the Best Documentary and Best Director for a Documentary Prizes at the Tenerife International Film Festival in Madrid; the Best Documentary Editing Prize at the Milano International Filmmakers Festival; and in the prestigious US-based Accolade Global Film Competition, it achieved two awards Best of Show in May 2015 and in January 2016 the Outstanding Achievement Award in the Accolade Humanitarian Awards 2015. It has also been screened on the pan-European Eurochannel, CNN Turk and TV 24 (Turkey) channels. Speaking before the audience of 110 parliamentarians, journalists, humanitarians, friends of Azerbaijan and cinephiles, Lionel Zetter, Director, TEAS, said: We are honoured to be organising this event under the auspices of Bob Blackman on behalf of the Justice for Khojalycampaign, which was founded in 2008 by Mrs Leyla Aliyeva. This has promoted this film and organised other Khojaly commemorative events in over 100 countries. Khojaly has come to symbolise the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh because it was an organised massacre of women and children. The events of Khojaly were in living memory and there were some survivors. During previous screenings of the film, I was honoured to meet Valeh Huseynov, whose painfully moving testimony of the way in which his wife was shot dead is heard in the film. He was brutally tortured, but he is still alive today. Currently, Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven surrounding regions are still occupied by Armenia, in direct defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions. This situation is not acceptable to Azerbaijan and any country around the world. If the rule of international law is flouted, it results in conflicts and civil war. Always the women and children suffer. I hope tonights screening will act as a memorial to those who died on that night and that you will understand the pain that the surviving Azerbaijanis suffered. Mr Blackman explained: Endless Corridor is harrowing viewing, that is undeniable, and there is no question that the massacre took place. During my visits to Azerbaijan, I have seen the work undertaken to accommodate the approximately one million IDPs and refugees who are the ongoing victims of the conflict. The biggest tragedy is that no-one has been brought to justice for the war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed against those who wanted to live peacefully in their homeland. I will be submitting an Early Day Motion (EDM) to Parliament this week to remember the victims. Every time I go to Azerbaijan, one question is raised four UN Security Council resolutions have been passed against the Armenian occupation but nothing happens. I wonder why this part of this world remains ignored and forgotten. In my view, as many people need to see this film as possible particularly politicians. I will do all I can to ensure parliamentarians hear about the tragedy and continue to demand answers and action. Aleksandras Brokas, Director, Endless Corridor, explained: Whenever I rewatch this film in different cities, I am aware that nearly 50 per cent of the people featured in the film have passed away. Young Gunays experience of trauma caused her to become speechless and led to her death two weeks after the end of shooting. The most important aspect is that those featured in the film now know they are not alone in their pain and grief. We aimed to show how the innocent people were affected. He went on to field a series of questions from the audience regarding the geopolitical background to the conflict. H.E. Tahir Taghizadeh, Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UK, said: Thank you to TEAS and the Justice for Khojaly campaign for organising this wonderful and frank evening. The audience tonight brought the most precious gift that of their time, hearts and minds. We are currently discussing the development of confidence-building measures, but there is no confidence or trust between Azerbaijan and Armenia. There will be no trust until those responsible for Khojaly are brought to justice. The evening was dedicated to the memory of the Khojaly victims and those Azerbaijanis who have only one wish to return home. /By Trend/ Humanity was killed in Khojaly 24 years ago, says Necdet Unuvar, chairman of the Turkey-Azerbaijan Interparliamentary Friendship Group at Turkeys Grand National Assembly. Khojaly is a pain and sorrow of Turkic people, he said, Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak reported Feb. 24. Unuvar also said he will make every effort to inform the world about the Khojaly realities. On Feb. 25-26, 1992, the Armenian military, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops stationed in Khankendi, committed genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. Among those 613 killed in the massacre, there were 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. A total of 487 civilians became disabled as a result of the onslaught. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people still remains unknown. The event became the largest massacre in the course of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. /By Trend/ /By Azernews/ By Aynur Karimova President Ilham Aliyevs one-day visit to Tehran marked several achievements, and turned to be a milestone for developing and prospering cooperation between Baku and Tehran. Baku's thought-out policy on not supporting the Islamic Republic's international isolation has become a key element in boosting bilateral ties between the two neighboring countries and strategic partners in the post-sanctions era. President Aliyevs visit also brought to the agenda Azerbaijan's potential to be a transit country for export of Iranian goods to world markets. Azerbaijan, located at the crossroads of East and West, is considered as the best route for Iran to get an access to the European market. Eldar Ibrahimov, a member of the Azerbaijani Parliament, believes that Azerbaijan can become a transit country for Iran's access to Europe and to the world market. Ibrahimov , a member of the working group on Azerbaijan-Iran interparliamentary relations , reminded that during the visit a number of important historical documents were signed between Azerbaijan and Iran. These documents, covering important fields of cooperation, established a strong base for further expanding relations, he believes. These documents include an agreement on cooperation in the field of elimination, control and mitigation of consequences of emergency situations, an agreement on mutual administrative assistance in customs issues, an agreement on cooperation in the field of veterinary and livestock health, a framework agreement on the sale of electricity, a framework agreement on coordination of railways of the two countries, an agreement on construction of the border railway bridge over the Astara river, a Memorandum of Understanding between Azerbaijan's State Committee of Family, Women and Children Affairs and Irans vice-presidency for women and family affairs, a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in health and medical sciences, an agreement on cooperation between Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare of Iran, a memorandum for cooperation between SOCAR and National Iranian Oil Company and a cooperation memorandum between SOCAR and Ghadir Investment Company in the fields of oil, gas and petrochemical products. MP Aydin Huseynov, in turn, believes that development of relations between Azerbaijan and Iran can play a significant role in ensuring peace and stability in the whole region. Following President Aliyev's visit to Iran, it became clear that Baku is turning into one of the main political players in the region thanks to its balanced policy. "Today, Iran is re-entering the world market. From this point of view, Azerbaijan can play a role of transit for Iran to Europe. It can bring benefits to both countries," Huseynov told Trend. The Azerbaijani leaders Tehran visit is among the first visits to Iran after removal of the international sanctions imposed against the country. It shows that the existing relations of Azerbaijan and Iran can be a bright example for majority of countries, MP Aydin Mirzazade believes. "Despite the fact that we have different political systems, different approaches to a number of issues, both countries strive to maintain good neighborly relations, and to find common ground. Periodically, leaders and officials of the two countries further deepen these relations by making mutual visits," he told Trend. Azerbaijan and Iran always supported each other in the international organizations, where they cooperate. Today, the two countries play a stabilizing role in the region and namely the fruitful cooperation between the two countries will make it possible to ensure security in the region. The unity of Tehran and Bakus positions on solution of the conflict in Syria, territorial integrity and many other issues of the international agenda are the guarantor of success and development of these relations, which are crucial for the region. Regretfully, no proper legal and political assessment has been given to Khojaly genocide in the world so far, Ali Ahmadov, deputy prime minister, deputy chairman and executive secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party said Feb. 25. It is outrageous that those who were directly involved in this crime, shed blood of women, children, the elderly, are currently in power in Armenia, according to the deputy prime minister. The most unacceptable fact is that sometimes, the heads of states speaking against terrorism and genocide, kindly receive the perpetrators of Khojaly genocide, which is a proof of double standards in the world, he said. As long as there are such double standards, no fair legal and political assessment is given to all tragedies, including the Khojaly tragedy, it will be impossible to ensure justice, peace and well-being in the world and prevent new tragedies, Ahmadov added. The deputy prime minister noted that the Azerbaijan people have always highly honored the citizens killed in Khojaly. Various structures, citizens, the youth of Azerbaijan carry out great work to convey the truth about the Khojaly genocide to the world, said Ahmadov. I believe that their efforts bring results. He emphasized the work done as part of the Justice for Khojaly campaign organized by the Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva. Serious steps were taken for informing the world about the Khojaly genocide thanks to this campaign, said Ahmadov. The deputy prime minister noted that the Khojaly genocide is one of the bloodiest tragedies not only in Azerbaijan but also in the world over the last decade of the 20th century. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. On February 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops stationed in Khankendi committed an act of genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. As a result of the massacre, some 613 people were killed, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. A total of 487 civilians became disabled as a result of the onslaught. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people remains unknown. The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. /By Trend/ The Turkish and German interior ministers signed a declaration of intent to jointly combat illegal migration and terrorism February 24, Anadolu agency reported Feb. 24. Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala said Feb. 2 that a new structure combating illegal migration will be established under the Turkish interior ministry. He said that the interior ministry will appeal to Turkeys Cabinet of Ministers for approval of the new structure. Turkey also intends to toughen penalty for illegal migration, he said. At present, over 2 million Syrian refugees are in Turkey. The Syrian refugee camps in the country accommodate about 300,000 people. The rest of them are spread throughout the provinces and cities of Turkey. In Istanbul alone, there are currently 40,000 refugees from Syria. Turkey has spent over $10 billion to upkeep Syrian refugees. /By Trend/ /By Azernews/ By Aynur Karimova Turkmenistan and Iran enjoy considerable potential to expand effective bilateral partnership based on the successful experience of cooperation in various fields. The two Caspian littoral states, known in the world for their huge hydrocarbon resources, are keen to further develop cooperation in the fields of trade and economy. During a meeting of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and Iran's Vice President for Executive Affairs Mohammad Shariatmadari in Ashgabat, the two countries expressed intention to further intensify productive business contacts, increase the volume of bilateral trade and stimulate investment activity. Iran, as Shariatmadari said, attaches significant importance to strengthening the traditionally friendly relations with Turkmenistan. "Turkmenistan pays special attention to the development of fruitful relations with the neighboring countries, including Iran," Berdymukhamedov, in turn, said. Turkmenistan and Iran cooperate in various fields, and the energy sector is priority among them. The Central Asian nation is the largest supplier of natural gas to the Islamic Republic. The most convenient transportation route for Turkmen resources to the energy markets of the region passes through Iran. Other most vivid example of successful cooperation of Ashgabat and Tehran is the transport sector. The two countries are currently linked by Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway, which was put into operation in December 2014. This railway is designed to facilitate the optimization of cargo traffic throughout the Eurasia continent. Preliminary estimates show that annually 3-5 million metric tons of cargo will be transported via this route, which is a part of the North-South international transport corridor. In the long term, the transportation will increase to 10-12 million metric tons. The new railway line opens the optimal transport route between countries of Europe and the Persian Gulf, contributes to the creation of related infrastructure, logistics centers, new points of growth, thousands of new jobs. In February 2016, the first test container train launched on the China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway route proceeded from Turkmenistan to Iran. It is expected that China's joining the railway will give impetus for developing trade relations and increasing the volume of trade turnover. Turkmenistan and Iran are also keen to boost trade turnover between them. During Iranian President Hassan Rouhanis visit to Turkmenistan in March 2015, they decided to bring their bilateral trade up to $60 billion within 10 years. Turkmenistan was the seventh leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iran Customs Administration. As of the first nine months of 2015, the trade turnover between the two countries exceeded $2.62 billion, which is 2.2 percent more than the same period of 2015. The UAE plans to introduce a 5 per cent value added tax (VAT) from January 1, 2018, Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, has been quoted as saying. In the first year, the country is expected to earn Dh12 billion ($3.26 billion) from the tax. About 100 food items, healthcare and education will be exempted from the VAT, a Gulf News report said. He was speaking after attending a joint press conference on Wednesday with Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in Dubai. GCC countries have recently agreed that they will introduce VAT at a rate of 5 per cent in 2018. The framework agreement on the implementation of VAT across the GCC is expected in June this year, the report said. The GCC countries will have time from January 1, 2018 to January 1, 2019 to implement VAT, said Al Tayer. Implementation of corporate income tax is not on our immediate agenda. We will study the impact of direct taxation on competitiveness before introducing such taxes, said Al Tayer. In a statement issued at the conclusion of her visit to the UAE, Lagarde said during her meetings with UAE authorities she highlighted the importance of pursuing gradual fiscal consolidation by raising non-oil revenues and fully phasing out energy subsidies, as well as the need to safeguard financial stability and to continue implementing growth-enhancing reforms. "I commended the UAE authorities for having built large fiscal and external buffers, advancing economic diversification and, more recently, taking steps to address the consequences of the sharp drop of oil prices, notably the reform of fuel subsidies," she said. Abu Dhabi state fund Aabar Investments is close to securing a loan worth almost 4 billion ($4.4 billion) to refinance existing debts, three sources aware of the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The loan is due to run for five years and will replace a number of existing borrowings, including a $2.5 billion facility which is due to mature in April, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information isn't public. Pricing on the deal is around 180 basis points over benchmark rates, according to one of the sources, with the other two sources stating that the borrowing rate was sub-200 bps. Aabar, with stakes in companies including UniCredit, Dubai-listed builder Arabtec and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, wasn't immediately available to comment. Such a large transaction denominated solely in euros is rare for a Gulf borrower, with regional firms preferring to borrow in local currency or in dollars, to which their home currencies are pegged. However, Aabar could take advantage of significant euro liquidity, aided by the money printing programme of the European central bank, because many of its assets are located on the continent. The $2.5-billion loan which the new financing will replace was also partly-denominated in euros, as well as dollars and UAE dirhams. Among the banks to have backed that loan were Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, HSBC, JP Morgan and National Bank of Abu Dhabi, according to Thomson Reuters data. The new loan is being supported by its parent company, International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), sources told Reuters last month without divulging the nature of support. Aabar manages a portfolio of investments spanning real estate to aerospace and financial services to energy. - Reuters With the relaxation of foreign investment laws in Turkey, the number of real estate transactions involving the GCC investors, mainly Emiratis, has hit a new high in the country, said industry experts ahead of the inaugural Cityscape Turkey in Istanbul. Running from March 24 to 26 at the Istanbul Congress Centre, the expo is the latest addition to the Cityscape portfolio of events and follows on from the success of the Turkey pavilion at Cityscape Global 2015 in Dubai which saw a surge of investor interest from the UAE. As the relaxation of foreign investment laws in Turkey have driven up the demand for prime real estate projects, the launch of the inaugural Cityscape Turkey is expected to attract a number of UAE investors keen to capitalise on this growing market, stated the experts. Turkish real estate transactions by UAE residents have increased by 160 per cent in the last two years, according to Turkeys Ministry of Land Registry, with the Emirati investors accounting for more than 300,000 sq m of space. In 2015, over 500,000 GCC residents visited Turkey with investments from the Gulf accounting for almost 30 per cent of total transactions. According to the Turkish Land Registry, 332 UAE citizens purchased property in 2015 and the country ranked among the top nations in terms of square meterage, at more than 433 sq m per person. Turkey appeals to the UAE investor on multiple levels, from the comfort factor of cultural similarities such as halal food and plentiful mosques, through to the cosmopolitan positioning of a city like Istanbul, said Wouter Molman, the director of Cityscape Group at Informa Exhibitions, the event organisers. The debut Cityscape Turkey will bring together over 50 high-profile exhibitors across 7,000 sq m of exhibition floor space, with more than 5,000 regional and international visitors expected to attend. The country offers a variety of upscale resort communities on the coasts, an abundance of quality retail locations and has a growing presence from renowned international hotel chains. Couple this with steady high returns and a wealth of prime developments that meet stringent international construction standards, and you have a formula for investment success, he stated. The sixth largest European economy with a current GDP (gross domestic product) -in excess of $800 billion, Turkey is also the 17th largest economy in the world and sixth most popular tourism destination, attracting 37 million international visitors in 2014. The countrys real estate sector continues to attract significant levels of foreign direct investment, with over $3.5 billion in the first to third quarter of 2015 according to Gyoder, the countrys association of real estate investment companies. The FDI (foreign direct investment) inflow to the real estate and construction sector soared to $4.8 billion in 2015 and is expected to top $10 billion in the medium term, said the experts. Infrastructure development is also being prioritised, with a third Istanbul airport in the pipeline, and with the introduction of the urban regeneration law, which will see $4.4 billion invested into housing projects over the next 20 years, the Turkish government is putting real estate development at the top of its economic agenda, they added. In a unique and innovative move, the organisers will be inviting a select number of prospective UAE investors to attend the debut show through its exclusive hosted buyer programme. "We want to connect serious investors with participating developers and reputable brokers directly. Under the hosted buyer programme, we will bear the cost of potential investors five-star hotel accommodation and airport transfers and arrange a series of pre-qualified one-on-one meetings to fast track the experience and showcase a tailored collection of quality projects and existing developments that meet clients exacting requirements," explained Molman. Current investment hotspots for UAE residents are Turkeys capital, Istanbul, as well as Trabzon on the Black Sea coastline, and Yalova and Bursa in the northwest of the country, he added. Key exhibitors at the inaugural showcase include Damac Properties, Agaoglu, DKY Insaat, EGE Yapi, Evrenol Architects, Green Valley Real Estate, Kuzu Group, Metropol Istanbul, Ofton, Piyalepasa, PNR, Sinpas GYO, and Suryapi.-TradeArabia News Service Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) is set to install about 160,000 LED (light emitting diode) bulbs and photovoltaic panels at 2,000 homes within the Mohammed Bin Rashid Housing Establishment (MBRHE) project. The move, aimed at reducing the demand for energy as well as the long- and medium-term costs for electricity, comes following the signing of a deal between Dewa and the MBRHE last year. "We are honoured to work alongside the establishment and contribute to the green economy for sustainable development initiative," remarked Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, the managing director and chief executive of Dewa. "This partnership is another step towards achieving the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030 to reduce energy demand by 30 per cent in the next 15 years and the Carbon Abatement Strategy to reduce carbon emissions by 16 per cent within five years," stated Al Tayer. Installing LED light bulbs in 2,000 homes will greatly reduce energy demand. Though these bulbs are initially more expensive than traditional light bulbs, they will save a large amount of money in the medium- and long-term," he noted. According to him, there are also plans to supply other homes within the MBRHE project with photovoltaic panels, as part of Dewas Shams Dubai initiative, to encourage building owners to install photovoltaic panels on rooftops to generate solar power. Al Tayer pointed out that supplying the lights will help increase the uptake of renewable energy as well as the share of electricity, thus limiting the use of natural resources and encouraging sustainability. MBRHE chief executive Sami Abdullah Gargash lauded Dewas efforts to support sustainable growth in Dubai, as well as efforts to enhance prosperity and wellbeing for citizens, residents, and visitors to the emirate. "Through this Dewa partnership, we can expect to reduce the amount of negative effects on the environment, and rationalise the use of energy, electricity, and water in all our projects," stated Gargash. "This is achieved by adopting smart systems, using electricity rationally, and raising awareness among people about adopting green practices as part of their daily lives," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Sandan Development has officially launched its industrial park project in Oman at an event held under the patronage of Ali Al Sunaidy, Minister of Commerce and Industry, a report said. The newly formed company recently announced plans to develop Oman's first integrated light industries park at an estimated cost of RO100 million ($259.7 million), added the Muscat Daily report. A host of businessmen, entrepreneurs and government officials attended the inauguration ceremony at the Grand Hayat Muscat. Al Sunaidy commended the efforts to develop a project for light industries, asserting that the development is a step forward in quality offerings and it will provide the market with many opportunities and huge investments, said the report. A scale model of the Sandan Industrial Park attracted attention to the planned layout of the project, which includes segments for auto showrooms, workshops, office spaces, residential apartments and the other facilities, it added. The project will cover more than 250,000 sq m, amd will be located 5 km away from Maabela exit on the Muscat Expressway. Following the official launch, Sandan Development put out its available units for sale, which attracted the attention of investors, businessmen, entrepreneurs, and traders. As many as 50 auto showrooms were sold even before the launch, according to the company. KRBL Limited, among the worlds largest rice millers and Basmati rice exporters, has planned to boost its operations across the Middle East region, particularly in the GCC. The company, owners of the flagship brand India Gate basmati rice, aims to achieve its goals by focusing on strengthening ties with local partners and expanding its distributor network, said the statement. KRBL Limited recorded a total export revenue of $203.48 million for the year 2014-15, said its long-term business strategy is to grow this business by 75 per cent over the next five years, it added. Rice consumption in the Middle East is continuously increasing, thus enabling expansion of the rice market, especially the Basmati rice segment, it said. Priyanka Mittal, director of KRBL Limited, said: The total consumption in the Middle East is about 3 million metric tonnes, and KRBL is targeting around 25 per cent of this volume owning to its large milling capacity of 1.2 million metric tonnes. The Gulfood exhibition is an important trade fair for KRBL with Middle East being our biggest market outside India. Today, 85 per cent of our total export revenue comes from the Middle East, she said. With a truly global population and changing demographics, this region offers a huge potential for growth, and we want to capitalise on this opportunity. At KRBL, we have the capacity and the infrastructure to support this growth. Our marketing strategy towards achieving this is to offer a product basket that caters to all consumer levels, she added. KRBL adopts a basket approach to brand introduction; new products are launched after due diligence, feedback from market distributors and an in-depth understanding of consumer needs. The company recently forayed into the value segment by introducing the Bab Al Hind brand in UAE, and launching the Nurjahan brand in Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. While Indian basmati rice continues to enjoy robust growth in Arab markets, we are committed to rolling out other brands depending on the size of the opportunity and our ability to cater to demand, Mittal added. With a distributor network well-positioned to deliver on current growth targets, the companys long-term business goals focus on new conversions and spurring brand growth through trail generation. KRBL future plans include tapping into potential markets such as Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Yemen, to name a few, it added. TradeArabia News Service Leading manufacturer of high quality Swiss lifestyle products Victorinox has joined hands with Acer, one of the worlds top five personal computer companies, to launch wearable technology into Victorinox Swiss Armys portfolio. The partnership is formed to create innovative and relevant solutions for consumers who want wearable technology functionality that integrates with existing lifestyle products, such as a Swiss-made watch, said a statement. The two companies will unveil their first product resulting from this partnership, a smart accessory for Victorinox Swiss Armys INOX watch collection, at the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016 in Barcelona, Spain, it added. Alexander Bennouna, CEO of Victorinox Swiss Army SA, said: Our first collaboration with Acer is a wearable device that makes your watch smart, giving it multi-functionality much like our iconic Swiss Army Knife. Our partnership with Acer enables us to introduce a unique solution that combines the best of both worlds, an innovative wearable accessory that adds technology and functionality to an existing INOX watch, without compromising its Swiss-made integrity and durability, he said. ST Liew, president of Smart Products Business Group, Acer Inc, said: Acer is excited to partner with Victorinox Swiss Army on this journey that creates a unique and complementing synergy. With Acers extensive knowledge and experience in computing and communication, we are confident that we can extend meaningful and relevant new experiences together to consumers who expect and demand the timeless tradition and craftsmanship of Victorinox Swiss Army, he added. TradeArabia News Service Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT), Jeddah Islamic Port's flagship terminal, has received the largest environmentally friendly container vessel called the "Al Nefud". The Al Nefud vessel ship is 400 m long, 60 m wide and 30 m deep and can carry a total cargo of 18,800 containers, said a statement. The 18,800 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent container units) capacity vessel was welcomed by Dr Nabeel Al Amoudi, president of Port Authority; Aamer Alireza, CEO of RSGT; and Walid Al Dawod, chairman of the board of Arabian Marine Co; who were also joined by a large number of top officials of Jeddah Islamic Port, businessmen and media representatives. During the reception ceremony, Al Amoudi, president of Port Authority, expressed his gratitude to all parties involved in ensuring the smooth call of the ship. He said: This substantial ship is further evidence of the scale of business now handled at Red Sea Gateway Terminal and reflects growing economic activity at Jeddah Islamic Port. He also attributed this service to the hard work, dedication and joint efforts of both Jeddah Islamic Port, Red Sea Gateway terminal and Arabian Marine Co. Alireza said: Receiving the Al Nefud represents another achievement for RSGT, as it is the largest vessel and marking a new era in shipping here in Saudi Arabia as the most eco-friendly ship, energy efficiency and environmentally improved. He added: Besides providing economies of scale due to its size, the vessel is also considered as the most energy-efficient ship in the world. Its innovative design and technological features will help reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by more than 50 per cent for every container it moves, compared to the industry average. RSGT is located strategically along the Asia Europe route, and is serving some of the biggest shipping lines and vessels in the world. RSGT is ideally connected to major ports around the world, serving vessels calling ports in Far East, Asia, the Gulf, Europe, Americas and the Red Sea. TradeArabia News Service Prysmian Group, a world leader in the energy and telecom cables and systems industry, will showcase its latest technologies at Middle East Electricity (MEE) 2016, the electrical industrys largest show in the Middle East, in Dubai, UAE. The event will take place from March 1 to 3, in Dubai World Trade Centre. The groups product portfolio at MEE 2016 will focus on the full range of state-of-the-art power cables including high voltage (HV) and extra high voltage (EHV) underground and submarine cable systems for applications such as interconnections between power grids, links between natural or artificial islands and the mainland, and connections to, or between, offshore oil production facilities. Prysmian will also present a wide range of cables and systems for the oil, gas and petrochemical industry, as well as innovative specialties such as the PRY-CAM Partial Discharge (PD) testing system and Tecsun cables for use in solar applications. Pry-Cam is an integrated portable instrument for automatic acquisition, processing and classification of pulse signals generated by partial discharge (PD) phenomena occurring in insulating materials of medium and high voltage electrical systems and components such as transformers. Tecsun cables are intended for use in photovoltaic power supply systems as free-movable, free-hanging and for a temperature range from -40 C up to +120 C perfectly suited to the extreme conditions experienced in the Middle East. Antonio Chiantore, general manager for the groups Middle East branch based in Dubai, said: The event is an excellent opportunity to showcase the groups expertise and applications for use in the GCC region. The Gulf region represents a key area for our expansion strategy, where the group continues to undertake major cable projects that contribute to the further development and improvement of power networks in the entire region, he added. These include the first-ever submarine power transmission link serving Doha and the GCCIA Saudi-Bahrain submarine interconnection and the 400 kV power transmission system for Transco connecting the Bahia and Saadiyat Grid Stations in Abu Dhabi, which represents the largest 400 kV underground cable system in the region (triple circuit route of 25 km for a total of 230 km of extruded insulation cable) and the largest EHV XLPE cable system in the world (in terms of contract value) ever awarded to a single supplier. Over the last year the group has been awarded more new contracts in Kuwait (MEW Jaber Al Ahmad City S3), in Oman (OETC Saada Grid Station) and more recently - in Bahrain (EWA 400 kV Transmission Development Project). On March 2, Prysmian Group experts will hold two technical seminars about Prysmian solutions for grid optimisation services and solar applications. A third seminar will focus on Prysmian proprietary methodology supporting the effective and proper choice of cable solutions that can make a difference (All cables are not the same). The seminars will take place in room Fujairah A and will be accessible only upon invitation, it added. TradeArabia News Service Irish firm daa International has won a major contract to manage and operate the new Terminal 5 facility at Saudi Arabias King Khaled International Airport (KKIA) in Riyadh. Daa International was chosen to operate the new 106,500-sq-m terminal, which has a capacity of up to 12 million domestic passengers per year, ahead of five other international airport operators. KKIA, which is located 35 km north of Riyadh, is Saudi Arabias main gateway airport, welcoming a record 22.3 million passengers last year. CEO of daa International Colm Moran signed the deal to manage and operate Riyadh's Terminal 5 with Sulaiman Al-Hamdan, president of regulator the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA). This is daa Internationals first airport management contract and our intention is to build on this win by adding further significant contracts in the months and years ahead, Moran added. The contract, which is for an initial period of five years, comprises all terminal management services within T5. daa International will also be responsible for managing all third party commercial tenants such as airport retail and car parking within the new terminal complex. Terminal 5, which is the flagship project of a significant investment by KKIA, is due to open later this year. T5 will replace Terminal 3 and will handle domestic flights. Domestic passenger numbers at KKIA grew by 7.4 per cent to 11.7 million last year, and there is strong demand for additional domestic air travel within Saudi Arabia. The contract follows GACA's policy to privatise airports and its operations to raise the level of services to meet competition as well as cope with declining oil revenues. Furthermore, the kingdom has announced plans to privatise all 27 of the airports currently run by GACA by 2020. Terminal 5 can accommodate 16 narrow-bodied aircraft or up to eight wide-bodied planes and has 60 check-in desks and 20 self-service check-in positions. It will have about 4,500 sq m of retail and food and beverage outlets and a new car park with spaces for about 3,000 vehicles. The agreement to operate the new terminal in Riyadh is the second major contract award for daas overseas businesses in the Middle East in the past two months. In December, daa Internationals sister company ARI was awarded a 10-year retail contract at Abu Dhabi International Airports new Midfield Terminal. ARI, which runs travel retail businesses in 10 countries, will operate the perfume, cosmetics, skincare, sunglasses and fashion jewellery categories at the new Abu Dhabi terminal from 2017. - TradeArbaia News Service Dubai-based Emirates will be depending on clever technology and good planning to shorten the travel time on its first non-stop service between Auckland and Dubai, which is a 14,000 km long journey. The airline starts its first non-stop service from Dubai to Auckland on March 1, bringing many of Emirates 39 European destinations, as well as 38 cities in Africa and the Gulf within just a one-stop connection in Dubai. Emirates will be using flexible routes, which can vary by day, taking advantage of tail winds and avoiding head winds to reduce the time in the air. This proven technology, combined with the elimination of an en-route stop in Australia, could shorten the time to Auckland by up to three hours. The new non-stop service will be operated by a Boeing 777-200LR and should typically take just under 16 hours from Dubai to New Zealand and 17 hours, 15 minutes in the other direction. Emirates continues to invest in innovative technologies, and we utilise best practices in optimising our flight planning systems, finding the best routes that take into consideration weather and current conditions to ensure we save time, fuel and emissions, while never compromising on the safety and comfort of our passengers and crew, said Geoff Hounsell, Emirates vice president flight operations support services and air traffic management. New flexible route options have been a focus for the airline and Airservices Australia and Airways New Zealand have been key partners. The majority of the Boeing 777-200LR flight will be in Australian-managed airspace, where Emirates has worked with Airservices Australia for the past decade to optimise routes, utilising the technology which will be applied on the direct Auckland route. The organised track system AUSOTS - is well-proven and extending that programme so that it is specific to the AucklandDubai route will have significant benefits, without impacting the operations of other aircraft going to Australia, said Geoff Hounsell. Airservices Australia safely controls 11 per cent of the worlds airspace. TradeArabia News Service Ramada Beach Hotel Ajman has opened the new The Experience Spa, in partnership with operator Al Shifa Spa International. Featuring five treatment rooms and a waiting area with a sea view, the spa offers a wide range of massage therapies, body treatments, facial treatments and Moroccan baths. The Experience Spa is a newly-launched brand and concept by Al Shifa, which aims to provide specialised services underlining relaxation, wellness and beauty. Some of its recommended massages include the Harmony, or four-hand massage, and the Thai Massage with Luk Pra Kob, commonly known as the herbal ball. A ribbon cutting ceremony led by Sumair Tariq, managing director of R Hotels, the propertys owning company was held to officially inaugurate the spa. Iftikhar Hamdani, general manager, Ramada Beach Hotel Ajman, addressed the guests during the event: The guests both tourists and residents visit our hotel to unwind. The Experience Spa will provide them with options to further relax and rejuvenate during their stay, apart from lounging at the beautiful Ajman Beach to bask in sunshine and take in some fresh air. We are pleased with another partnership with Al Shifa and together, we seek to provide a truly rewarding spa experience and holiday. Al Shifa Spa International, which has presence across the UAE, also operates the spa at Ramada Hotel & Suites Ajman and Ramada Private Beach Club. Suneer Kayam Poyil, its managing director and owner, said: We are grateful for the opportunity to introduce our latest brand at Ramada Beach Hotel Ajman, and to reinforce our business alliance with the hotel. We will continue to work hand-in-hand with them to guarantee top-quality service through our facilities, spa menu, and highly-trained masseurs and spa professionals. As an introductory promotion, The Experience Spa offers 25 per cent discount on facials, and 40 per cent off on selected massage treatments. The discounted price starts at Dh135 ($36.7), excluding the special spa bundles and packages. Located at the mezzanine floor, The Experience Spa is open from 10:00 am to 11:00 pm. For bookings and more information, call +971 6 742 9999 or email [email protected] TradeArabia News Service British Airways (BA) has unveiled its prestigious new lounge at the newly-built Concourse D in Dubai International Airport, UAE. The airlines new concept lounge features a special Concorde Bar for those flying in first class. The lounge has been designed to maximise space using architectural elements such as illuminated glass screens giving customers separate spaces to work, relax or dine, creating a calm and relaxing environment, BA said. The new premium lounge has a large framed wall mirror that reflects the stunning feature lighting making a more spacious setting. Customers can also choose from a selection of hot and cold food as well as enjoy premium beverages at the Deli Bar. Overlooking the airports retail atrium, the lounge has been finished to a very high quality, complete with black Nero marble surfaces and European oak flooring. The new Dubai lounge is home to the airlines second Concorde Bar, the first of which opened late last year in Singapore. The space provides an exclusive area for first class customers and their guests to relax and unwind in a private environment before boarding their flight. Paolo De Renzis, head of Middle East, Africa and Central Asia Sales for British Airways, said: Our premium customers flying from Dubai will be able to enjoy the airlines newest lounge. Our designers have created a contemporary and stylish space for Club World and First customers to relax, dine and refresh before boarding their flight to Heathrow. The new lounge has been carefully designed to showcase the best of British design and architecture, offering a stylish, quiet and relaxing space for premium customers. It will also feature artwork from established Iraqi-born artist Dia Al Azzawi as well as Gulf heritage images from the British Airways archive. - TradeArabia News Service Australia issued a warning on Thursday about possible militant attacks being planned in Indonesia, only days after a similar warning for the Malaysian capital, another sign of rising concern over militancy in Southeast Asia. "Recent indications suggest that terrorists may be in the advanced stages of preparing attacks in Indonesia," said the travel advisory on an Australian government website The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not respond to a request for more details. Australia issued a similar statement on Sunday about possible attacks in and around Kuala Lumpur. The British, New Zealand, Canadian and other diplomatic missions in Malaysia soon followed with notices advising against travel to coastal islands in the eastern state of Sabah. Malaysia has been on high alert since a bomb and gun attack in Indonesia's capital in January in which eight people were killed, including four attackers. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State militant group. Australia has consistently placed Indonesia in the second-lowest of four warning categories, recommending that travellers "exercise a high degree of caution". Indonesia has been cracking down on suspected militants since the attack in Jakarta last month. However, a spokesman for the Indonesian national police, contacted after the Australian warning was issued, said there were no indications of an imminent attack. "We're working continuously with relevant institutions and with the public to maintain security," said Agus Rianto. Reuters Jannah Hotels and Resorts, a UAE-based hotel operator, will be running its recently introduced Rolls Royce service during the Dubai International Boat Show next month, carrying guests in luxury on four wheels to luxury at sea. From March 1 to 5, the boat show will showcase hundreds of the worlds most extravagant leisure craft. Guests booking a two-bedroom suite at any of Jannahs hotels in Dubai will enjoy a complimentary Rolls Royce airport transfer when they arrive. For guests booking the Royal Suite at the Jannah Burj Al Sarab in Abu Dhabi, a Rolls Royce limousine will shuttle them directly to the boat show. Nehme Imad Darwiche, chief executive officer of Jannah Hotels and Resorts, said: The Dubai International Boat Show is famed for its impressive selection of deluxe superyachts and powerboats on display. We wanted to set the tone for this distinguished event by allowing our Dubai guests to experience luxury with us right from the moment they leave the airport. We are also delighted to extend our Rolls Royce service to our valued guests at Jannah Burj Al Sarab in Abu Dhabi to ensure they travel in a style befitting the spirit of the boat show. Jannahs line-up of five-star Dubai properties includes Jannah Marina Bay Suites and Jannah Place Dubai Marina, both within a short drive of the Dubai International Boat Show. TradeArabia News Service UAE conglomerate Al Habtoor Group has promoted Kamal Naamani to the position of managing director, hospitality and leisure projects UAE. Naamani, who joined the company in June 2015 as group director of operations, will now be responsible for overseeing the operations of the companys growing portfolio of new developments, including the much-anticipated Al Habtoor City. In his expanded new leadership role, Naamani will oversee all owned and managed Habtoor Hotels in the UAE, as well as Habtoor Catering and Habtoor Laundry Operations. Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, chairman of the group, said: I am delighted to announce the appointment of Kamal Naamani to managing director, hospitality & leisure projects. He has played a pivotal role in the growth of our hospitality unit in recent months both in Dubai and internationally. He is a strong asset to the group. Naamani said, It gives me great pleasure to be part of this dynamic and progressive group. I have always admired the vision and the non-relentless progress of the Al Habtoor Group under the direction of chairman Khalaf Al Habtoor and I am fortunate to be part of it. I look forward to further contributing to its amazing success story. Before joining the group, Naamani was managing director, Asia Pacific at Pragma Group, based in Shanghai, China and has over 21 years of luxury hotel experience in senior levels with Fairmont Raffles Hotels and Resorts in many key destinations around the world. TradeArabia News Service Marriott International is gearing up for the Dubai edition of Cultural Game Changers, an international thought leaders forum that will bring together pioneers in art, design, fashion, film and the media to discuss their work and share ideas. The event will also see pioneers discuss the future of their chosen fields as well as identify key trends and insights relating to next generation audiences. Taking place at the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai on March 19, the event follows the success of Cultural Game Changers London, which, in July 2015, inaugurated the series at The London EDITION hotel. Marriott International is actively expanding its portfolio of luxury and lifestyle brands internationally. In the Middle East and Africa region the expansion continues with the scheduled openings of 17 new properties in 2016, six of which are luxury and lifestyle brands, including Renaissance Hotels, Autograph Collection and The Ritz-Carlton. Tina Edmundson, global officer, luxury and lifestyle brands, Marriott International, said: Cultural Game Changers Dubai advances our cultural intelligence and helps us reinvent our existing and new hotel brands, such as Ritz-Carlton Reserve, Renaissance Hotels, Autograph Collection, Moxy and AC Hotels and also engages next generation travellers on their own terms, with meaningful new experiences. An intimate, international forum for creative leaders who are shaping our culture, Cultural Game Changers generates inspiring dialogue among influencers in the fields of art, design, fashion, film and the media. With the participation of Twitter at this event, we will open up the conversation to a broad, international audience in real time. The line-up of panelists for Cultural Game Changers Dubai includes: Dana Farouki, Patron, Art Dubai; Chair, The Abraaj Group Art Prize; Trustee, MoMA PS1 and Trustee, Creative Time Kinda Ibrahim, Director of Media Partnerships, Twitter MENA Danielle Perissi, Head of Documentary Film & Television and Marketing & Communications, Image Nation Abu Dhabi Khulood Thani, designer and founder, Bint Thani Suzanne Trocme, author, curator, designer and Editor-at-large, Wallpaper* magazine Bronwyn Cosgrave, best-selling author, curator and cultural commentator, will chair the lively hour-long, brunch-time Cultural Game Changers Dubai discussion, drawing on the panelists impactful work. She will also elicit their ideas about future trends, insights relating to their industries and next generation audiences. Cultural Game Changers is part think tank, part salon, explained Cosgrave, who will chair the talk around a brunch table. Panelists converse naturally with influencers and media guests in a relaxed manner to stimulate an intimate, provocative and thoughtful discussion. This first-time Cultural Game Changers partnership with Twitter will allow Tweeters to actively participate in the forum by watching it live stream on Periscope @JWDubaiMarquis (March 19, 11:45am1:15pm GST), and interact with the Cultural Game Changers Dubai panelists by posting their ideas and questions on Twitter. This initiative will engage a global audience in a real-time cultural conversation. It is prompted by Twitter having recently opened its Dubai headquarters. Twitter Dubai is the first office in the Mena region for California-based social media company. Alex Kyriakidis, president and managing director, Marriott International, Middle East and Africa, said: We are thrilled to extend our hospitality to esteemed local and international participants in this inspiring forum at the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, and to celebrate world class innovation and creativity at a time when the city is hosting cultural travellers from around the globe. TradeArabia News Service Eleven years after he opened his first AAA Four-Diamond gourmet restaurant, chef Albert Hall has decided to call it quits. His renowned Foothills restaurant Acacia Real Food & Cocktails will hold a reservation-only grand finale May 15. Hall notified staff members of the closure last week at the restaurants current location, an airy hillside spot on Skylines Gallery Row. To limp along is just not our style, Hall said. Its just not how we do it. We would rather go out on a good note. Hall said that while the gem shows helped give the restaurant some of the best weekends theyd had, business in general suffered from low profit margins that come with purchasing high-quality ingredients. While the restaurants 2011 rebranding and move to 3001 E. Skyline Drive from St. Philips Plaza was ultimately a good thing, it still wasnt enough to pay the bills. Someone is going to pick this place up and do a concept change, and its gonna be great, he said. I just dont have a hundred thousand dollars to do a redo of the restaurant. Once considered one of Southern Arizonas premier gourmet restaurants, Acacia became an instant hit in 2004 with its playful fusion of European technique and Southwestern dining. The original location at St. Philips Plaza earned a host of honors including the coveted AAA Four Diamond award. Shortly after opening the St. Philips restaurant with his wife, Lila Yamashiro, Hall was named chef of the year for Southern Arizona by the American Culinary Federation of Chefs Association. The lifetime cook had his hand in several projects over the years including the Tohono Chul Tea Room and a casual sandwich shop, the Marketplace at Acacia. Citing a struggling economy, in 2011 Hall moved his elegant white tablecloth restaurant up the road to the smaller space on Skyline, opening for business the very next day. The new Acacia sought to provide a more casual experience with an emphasis on nightlife, but without losing that sense of farm to table lifestyle. We were doing the local thing before it was fashionable ... the organic thing before it was fashionable, he said Wednesday. Ive been doing this way too long to do something less than what I really believe in. Hall said that he has plans for a new modern concept, but isnt ready to discuss it yet. I dont think Im gonna just disappear. (The Acacia family) has too much good stuff about us to do that. Federal regulators have opened an investigation into the rates Tucson Electric Power and other companies owned by Canadian-based parent Fortis Inc. charge for wholesale power. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) opened the investigation Monday into what documents call the justness and reasonableness of market-based wholesale rates in the TEP area. In a separate order, FERC is also looking into wholesale rates charged by Arizona Public Service, which is not owned by Fortis, in TEPs transmission territory. The investigation is not an allegation of wrongdoing. The order was issued in response to a filing we made, said TEP spokesman Joseph Barrios. That filing was made because federal regulators require companies such as TEP and its parent firms to apply every three years to be eligible to sell power on the wholesale market. The overall concern is that FERC wants to ensure that there is integrity in the wholesale power market, Barrios said. TEP and its parent company sell power to other providers in the region. Those providers then sell power to their own retail residential and business customers. FERC regulates wholesale power sales while the regulators in each state control the retail markets. The intent of federal regulators is to try to prevent wholesalers from manipulating the markets, which could have an effect on the retail markets. A FERC spokesman in Washington, D.C., would not comment other than to confirm an investigation has been initiated. Barrios said TEP has been given 60 days to file additional documentation with federal regulators to assist in its investigation. The additional information is intended to show FERC that the company is not attempting to unfairly raise prices in its market. We expect when we do it will resolve the matter, Barrios said. FERC has also asked about TEP affiliates UNS Electric Inc., which serves Santa Cruz and Mohave counties; Unisource Energy Development Co., a power-plant development arm; and Central Hudson Gas & Electric, another Fortis company that operates in New York. Technology developed by a Tucson company may soon be purifying water on the International Space Station and, eventually, as part of future deep-space exploration. Tucson-based Paragon Space Development Corp. has won a $400,000 Small Business Innovation Research Phase III contract from NASA to further develop its patented Ionomer-membrane Water Processor System. The system which the company says can recover 98 percent of potable water from wastewater is designed for future deep-space exploration missions and is initially planned for installation on the International Space Station, Paragon said in a news release. The technology also can be used to purify water for various industries in earthbound environments such as under water or underground, the company said. The company previously had been awarded NASA SBIR contracts for the water-purification system, including a Phase II contract for about $750,000 awarded in 2012, according to government records. Work under Phase III SBIR contracts is typically geared towards commercialization of a technology. Recycled, clean water is one of the key elements to human survival and with this program we will be able to provide the solution that provides that water reliably over long durations, Grant Anderson, Paragon president and CEO said. The same technology can be used for in-situ processing of water recovered on Mars or asteroids, said Laura Kelsey, manager of Paragons Ionomer-membrane Water Processor program. Mounting a Shakespeare play is always a challenge. So you can imagine the effort involved in staging two of his works at the same time. Its the task the Arizona Repertory Theatre has taken on, presenting The Comedy of Errors and The Tempest in repertory. Comedy opens in previews Sunday, Feb. 28, and Tempest March 6. Thereafter, the two will play on alternate days. The Shakespeare bonanza has been timed with the visit of the First Folio to the Old Pueblo, which is at the Arizona State Museum through March 15. The Star sat down with director Brent Gibbs to talk about the plays. Why do these two plays in repertory? There are several reasons. The university is hosting the First Folio. There were 18 plays that were published for the first time in the First Folio, and these are two of those plays. ... Then, there is also the reason that these are plays from the beginning of Shakespeares career. The Comedy of Errors, is one of the first that he wrote, and The Tempest was one of the last that he wrote. It is a lovely chance to be able to have the bookends of his career represented in these plays that would have been lost if the First Folio had not been published. Other than the playwright, are there any other similarities or common themes in these two plays? I think there are similarities in terms of journeys of discovery. In The Comedy of Errors, the twins find each other throughout the course of the play after many mishaps. Egeon, their father, is reunited with Emilia, their mother, so they discover each other. In The Tempest, at the end of the play, Gonzalo mentions that on this island where no one was their own (person), everyone found themselves. Ferdinand finds Miranda; Prospero receives his dukedom back. But for a large portion of the play people are at odds with themselves. And then everything is put back in order, which is why its a comedy. What challenges do staging two plays in repertory present? It is just very difficult to find enough time to give everything the attention that it deserves, and yet, that is our job. We started rehearsals for The Comedy of Errors in November, so weve been at it for a while. And then we picked up with The Tempest as soon as this semester started. We have spread it out as long as we thought we could. Are you using the same cast? It is ... primarily the same cast. For example, the actor playing Prospero in The Tempest doesnt appear in The Comedy of Errors, but thats really the only difference in terms of the cast. Using the same cast is a common repertory model. People may have a smaller role in The Comedy of Errors but a larger role in The Tempest and vice versa. For the untrained ear, what is the best way to take in a Shakespeare play? The thing about going to see a Shakespeare play is that there is a short period of adjustment at the beginning of the show where your ear becomes acclimated to the language. Shakespeare wrote as people talk. There is a perception that it is a foreign tongue, when in reality it is not. The rhythms that Shakespeare wrote in are the rhythms that we speak in normally. The language can be sometimes somewhat archaic, but we stress clarity in terms of the productions that we produce. That means the clarity of the word, the clarity of the pictures, the clarity in terms of the design, so that everything can help the audience. If you go What: True Concord Voices and Orchestra in concert. Featuring: Organist/harpsichordist Guy Whatley. When and where: 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26, at Lutheran Church of the Risen Savior, 555 S La Canada Drive in Green Valley; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, at St. Philips in the Hills Episcopal Church, 4440 N Campbell Ave.; 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28, at Catalina United Methodist Church, 2700 E. Speedway; and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28, at St. Albans Episcopal Church, 3738 N. Old Sabino Canyon Road. Tickets: $30 for Green Valley, $25 and $40 for all others at trueconcord.mybigcommerce.com Friends reunited Andre Watts' debut with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, Feb. 27, is going to feel like a reunion for the famous pianist. Two of his oldest friends Tucson husband-and-wife Sanda Schuldmann and Harry Clark will be sitting in the audience and longtime friend conductor Gerhardt Zimmermann will be on stage. Watts has known all three of the musicians Clark is a cellist and Schuldmann is a pianist since his early 20s; hes now 69. Were going to have to just pay attention to keep our minds on our jobs, he joked during a phone call from a concert stop in Buffalo, New York, last week. Watts, whose last Tucson appearance was with the couples Chamber Music Plus in spring 2011, remembered the first time he met Clark: He was 21 and playing Brahms Second Concerto with the Hartford Symphony. Clark was the orchestra's principal cellist. In the piece, the cellist has a spotlight in the third movement. I was the pianist for his first performance of that," Watts said. He recalled meeting Schuldmann for the first time in Austin, Texas, where he was performing and then holding a master class. "I was blown away with his recital. I had never seen anything like it in my life," Schuldmann said of that first concert. After the performance, Schuldmann went back stage to meet Watts, who invited her to his master class. During the class, he invited Schuldmann to play. "We are old partners in crime," he joked. "Sometimes you find mentors and people you worship but they are older than you are," she added. "But what a blessing to meet someone who is the same age as you. We get to grow old together." This summer the trio will be reunited when Watts performs in Clark's most recent musical portrait "An Unlikely Muse: Richard Muhlfeld, the last inspiration of Johannes Brahms." It's based on the life of Brahms' muse, Richard Muhlfeld, who inspired the composer to write his Clarinet Quintet, Clarinet Trio and several clarinet sonatas. Clark's piece will have its world premiere at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland this summer with the Miro Quartet and actor Jack Gilpin. The piece is scheduled to be performed in Phoenix next March. A man wanted in connection with a Monday night shooting near the University of Arizona campus was arrested Wednesday night in Coolidge. Marcus G. Webster, 30, was taken into custody by federal marshals and the Coolidge Police Department, said Sgt. Kimberly Bay, a Tucson Police Department spokeswoman. An arrest warrant was issued for Webster who is one of three suspects connected to the shooting at a house across the street from the UA Police Department headquarters, said authorities. He was last seen near Coolidge and was considered to be armed and dangerous. It's unclear if any other suspects have been identified. The maroon 2015 Nissan Altima associated with the shooting was located Tuesday by police, said Officer Daniel Lucas, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. Investigators did not release where or under what circumstances the vehicle was found. The other two men officers also were looking for are between 20 and 30 years old. Webster and the two men were seen leaving the scene in the Altima, Lucas said. Investigators ask that anyone with information about the shooting, or the other two men call 911 or 88-CRIME. Shortly before 10 p.m. Monday night, police were dispatched to the 1000 block of North Campbell Avenue to a reported shooting, said Sgt. Kimberly Bay, a TPD spokeswoman. Detectives learned that a woman and man associated with the residence had gotten into a confrontation in the front yard with three men, during which the woman was shot, Bay said. Officers with the University of Arizona Police Department heard the screams from the station, and responded to the scene. They rendered first aid until Tucson Fire Department paramedics arrived and transported the woman to a hospital, Bay said. The victim is in serious condition, but is expected to survive. No other injuries were reported. The Border Patrols Tucson Sector should consider closing one of its remote bases if it cant renovate it, the agencys internal watchdog said. The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General audited seven forward operating bases in the Rio Grande Valley, El Paso and Tucson sectors and found that only one had security issues, safety and health concerns and inadequate living conditions, according to a recently released report. The OIG redacted all the names and locations of the bases, but the response by Customs and Border Protection revealed that the base also serves as a joint command center and is located in the west desert, one of the busiest corridors in the Tucson Sector. The inspector general describes agents eating, working and exercising in one common area, an air conditioner not designed to handle high temperatures, security concerns, unsafe well water and a primary access road that is deteriorating. Large portions of the road have washed away completely, inspectors wrote, others are impassable because of large craters in the road. CBP said its limited in what it can do because the road is managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. CBP said it agreed with the OIGs report but added that closing the base is not an option. It said the location of the base is crucial and closing it would be detrimental to what the Border Patrol has accomplished in that area. Renovating the base is a priority for CBP, officials with the agency said, but it couldnt provide a timeline of when it would complete its renovation, citing the budget climate. In the meantime, CBP said it has added a new septic field and has plans for a new water well and an upgrade to the control and command room. Right now the agency spends $2,000 a week to have a truck deliver water to the base. While the other six bases had adequate living conditions, federal investigators found security lapses including nonworking security cameras and gates that were not up to standard and determined that CBP does not regularly inspect the bases. The report recommended that CBP replace or repair the security cameras, establish processes to do periodic inspections and improve record keeping. CBP said it agreed with the findings and that it had taken steps to correct the problems before the report was released last week. CBP is committed to ensuring the health and well-being of all employees, including those assigned to the remote Forward Operating Bases that represent a vital component of Border Patrol operations, it said in a written statement. The agency declined a request for an interview. From the beginning, the Border Patrol union has had concerns about housing conditions at the camp. Last year the union sent a letter to U.S. Sen. John McCain about problems with Legionnaires disease at the forward operating base in Yuma. In recent months there have been four outbreaks of Legionnaires at this FOB caused by contaminated water, the union wrote in October. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulations prohibit the FOB from drilling wells, meaning that all water needs to be trucked in. This trucked-in water poses a health risk because if the trucks are not cleaned sufficiently, it leads to the specter of Legionnaires, it said. McCain and Sen. Jeff Flake asked the Department of Homeland Security to look into poor living conditions at forward operating bases along the southwest border, specifically at Camp Grip in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. The inspector general report is very disturbing but not surprising, McCain said in an email. He said the DHS has made some progress to improve conditions but more work is needed. Agents assigned to these posts are away from their families, doing dangerous work in a very difficult environment, he said. It is imperative that we give them tools to succeed and to repair these FOBs that are a critical component of securing our border. CBP has vowed to comply with the recommendations in the IG report and we will make certain they follow through with these promises. Agents with the Border Patrol union said they are glad for the report and the attention it will hopefully bring to these issues. Weve been bringing up those issues for years and all (CBP) says, Well get to it, said Art del Cueto, president of the local Border Patrol union. But at the same time, he said, the union hopes the agency will reconsider the role the forward operating bases play today. Agents out there working the same hours and areas as regular agents are being forced to stay at these camps and not go home, del Cueto said. The money used for upkeep and per diem given agents, he said, could be saved and better used elsewhere. The union suggested using some of the bases to process people agents arrest in remote areas, he said. Having agents stay there overnight doesnt make sense. In an effort to increase the number of students attending integrated schools, TUSD is considering adding sixth grade to Cavett Elementary School and seventh and eighth grades to Catalina High. Cavett, 2120 E. Naco Vista Drive, is a primarily Hispanic school that, under the proposal, would feed into Catalina, 3645 E. Pima Street the melting pot of TUSD. There is room at Cavett and Catalina to serve more students but both schools have received low grades from the state D and C, respectively. The effort could also potentially pull nearly 100 students away from Utterback Magnet Middle School, a campus that has been working with experts to improve academic achievement. The pipeline concept of students moving from an elementary campus to a high school environment is similar to what TUSD is proposing for three schools in the Foothills. That proposal is still pending approval by the federal court overseeing the districts desegregation case, and the plaintiffs in the case have argued against it, saying it would primarily cater to Anglo children and that it would do nothing to diversify the district. The Cavett-Catalina concept, however, is one that the plaintiffs asked the district to look into as it would allow the primarily Hispanic population at Cavett the chance to attend Catalina, which is 46 percent Hispanic, 23 percent Anglo, 17 percent African-American, 7 percent Asian and 3 percent Native American. The challenge with adding the seventh- and eighth-grade options at Catalina is that it would add only about 60 students. That would require finding teachers with multiple certifications because it wouldnt be cost effective to hire a full staff for five dozen students. The option, however, could draw in more students if parents are attracted to the idea of having fewer transitions for their children. Because this pipeline wasnt developed at the grass-roots level like the Foothills proposal was, TUSD would still need to survey families to determine interest and conduct further study. Other integration proposals that will be shared with the plaintiffs in the desegregation case include express buses that would take students from racially concentrated schools to campuses where they would improve integration, and reviewing where specialized programming is offered. The proposal doesnt necessarily seek to remove specialized programs such as gifted and talented from where they are now but it would consider whether they could be created in other areas of the district. Governing Board member Cam Juarez raised concerns about diluting programs by trying to make them more widely available, a sentiment board member Mark Stegeman and board president Adelita Grijalva agreed with. Were talking in the abstract and its hard to say much without seeing what comes forward, but I would be concerned about something that looks like disrupting or diluting successful programs for integration purposes, he said. TUSD has tinkered with the express bus concept of sending kids from one area of the district to another for specialized programming but the interest hasnt been great and that may be due in part to the fact that trips are the opposite of speedy. Initially the trips from, for example, a school on the east side to a school on the southwest side that offers a specialized program were designed to be about 40 minutes one way. But the district added a number of stops that extended the time to an hour and 15 minutes, said Charlotte Patterson, director of the districts school community services. Its hard to incentivize enrollment when students know theyre challenged with two to three hours on a bus round trip, she said, adding that students who participate in after-school activities may find themselves arriving home at 9 p.m., making for a terribly long day. The difference this time around would be identifying fixed pickup locations to minimize the number of stops. The cost, however, would be $30,000 for each additional route, and if the district wants to cut back on travel time, multiple buses would be needed. The proposals will be forwarded to the plaintiffs in the desegregation case as well as to a national desegregation expert tasked with overseeing the districts efforts. If those groups are interested in developing the proposals any further, TUSD will do that and return to the governing board for approval in May. PHOENIX So heres a simple way to figure your taxes: List what you make, deduct $10,000 and pay 1 percent of that to the state. Thats the plan the state House adopted Wednesday, at least for those at the lower end of the income scale. It would allow single Arizonans who earn less than $25,000 a year to choose an optional flat tax instead of having to go through all the computations. But Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra Vista, said he sees his legislation as just a starting point. Stevens said SB 2018 is set up as a five-year pilot project to see how it works, who takes advantage of it, and how much the state might lose in revenues. He said theres no reason the same system would not work for everyone. Under current law, tax rates range from 2.59 percent for individuals with an adjusted gross income of up to $10,000 double that for married couples filing jointly to 4.54 percent for individual income of more than $150,000. But taxpayers are permitted to either itemize deductions or take a standard deduction based on their income. Those who opt for the 1 percent levy would get only a standard $10,000 deduction. Stevens said this is a good place to start. He said those at the bottom of the pay scale generally have no deductions anyway. This permits them to look at their individual circumstances. If you get more of your tax money back with that form, youll use that form, Stevens said. Being optional is the key, he said. If you dont want to use it, dont use it. Figuring out how much using the flat tax option would cost would be a snap. Arizona is a piggy-back state: Each taxpayers state income is computed off of line 37 of the federal Form 1040, the federal adjusted gross income. Under current law, that leads to all the additional computations and deductions. But using what Stevens envisions, anyone whose income is $10,000 a year or less would owe nothing, though that person would still need to file a return. Above that? Take earnings, subtract $10,000 and pay 1 percent. So the tax owed by someone at the top of what the law allows would be $150. Stevens acknowledged that, pretty much by definition, taxpayers will choose the method that costs them less. He said legislative budget staffers have put the potential loss to the state at $39 million. Thats based on an estimate that 660,000 people would be eligible to use the optional flat tax and that 312,000 would actually opt for that alternative. But Stevens said hes not concerned about the price tag. The beauty is, thats money back in their pockets, he said. Thats the goal, to have people keep more of what they earned and not to have the state take it. Stevens may have something going for him politically that could help his measure become law. On art, music, books, movies, politics, life - sometimes with astrology thrown in. Help India! By TCN News, New Delhi: Members and affiliates of the American University of Beirut (AUB) have issued statement in support of students and faculty at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Support TwoCircles On Tuesday over 130 faculties, students, staff, and affiliates of the American University of Beirut (AUB) have joined thousands of academics and concerned individuals around the world who have already signed solidarity statements condemning the recent alleged repressive actions of Indian authorities at JNU. The AUB solidarity statement asserted: We condemn the police action at JNU, the arrest of the JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar on the charge of sedition, the unwarranted harassment of students and activists, the targeting of Umar Khalid, and the profiling of Kashmiri and Muslim students on campus. We denounce the repressive charges against Kumar and others, the violence against faculty and students, as well as police complicity in the beating of Kumar at the Patiala Courthouse. The statement also mentions arrest of SAR Geelani and suicide of Rohith Vemula at Hyderabad University. It reads, The actions against students at JNU, in tandem with the sedition charges against former Delhi University professor SAR Geelani and the recent targeting of Dalit student activists at Hyderabad University, reveal a troubling pattern emerging at Indian universities that stifles critical thinking, dissent, scholarship, and debate. Extending the solidarity it further says, From Lebanon, we stand alongside international scholars who have drafted and signed numerous solidarity statements, shoulder-to-shoulder with the students, faculty and staff of JNU. Dr. Rania Masri, Associate Director for the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at AUB, weighed in on the issue: Universities are places where thought must be free to develop, where students can learn without fear of being arrested for sedition, where teachers can teach critical, challenging histories, and where parents can send their children without fear that they will be victimized for questioning historical injustices. Professor Tariq Mehmood, one the co-authors of the statement, echoed Masri: When we initially sent our statement to the AUB community, we did not imagine that just a few hours later, over 100 people would sign in solidarity. This shows that people in Lebanon we care about what is happening in India. Help India! By M Ghazali Khan for TwoCircles.net, Support TwoCircles London (UK): Expressing solidarity with Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students, many former students demonstrated outside Indian High Commission in London on Wednesday and condemned Indian authorities for arresting JNU students. Even though Wednesday was a working day, organizers managed to attract good attendance where protesters chanted anti-BJP slogans condemning police excesses, lawyers violence and Governments Hindutva policies. Demanding Azadi is not a crime said one placard. Scrap the colonial sedition law read another. Slogans included Down with fascism; Down with Brahmanwad; Down with sedition laws; Stop pushing Dalits to suicide; Stop which hunting of Muslims; Stop persecuting minorities; Kanhaiya Kumar tum sangharsh karo, ham tumhare saath haiN; Khalid tum sangharsh karo, ham tumhare saath haiN. They have launched a FaceBook page Stand with JNU: Protest Demonstration at the Indian High Com on which messages have been posted in support of protest at Indian High Commission in London for students in JNU. Were you aware that a massive explosion equal to 13,000 tons TNT recently happened nearly 620 miles off of the coast of Brazil?According to the, a massive fireball plunged into the Atlantic Ocean on February 6th.As we're told, it's very unlikely that anyone saw it though it was likely picked up by military sensors across the world.NASA and other space experts were, once again, blindsided by it ... or this is never happened.The story goes as follows:NASA reports huge explosion of seven meter space rock over the Atlantic.A huge fireball crashed into the Atlantic earlier this month - and went almost unseen.The event took place on February 6 at 14 00 UTC when a meteor exploded in the air 620 miles (1,000km) off the coast of Brazil.According to NASA's Near-Earth Object Fireball page, this fireball was the biggest to impact the planet since the Chelyabinsk fireball that had 500,000 tons of TNT energy a few years ago.In only days, one asteroid will do an Earth-flyby on March 8th. We're told 2013 TX68 poses no threat to the planet but could still get very close to Earth according to NASA. The 150 foot wide asteroid will fly to the Earth possibly as close as 11,000 miles (17,000km).While a NASA spokesperson tell us: There is no existing evidence that an asteroid or any other celestial object is on a trajectory that will impact Earth and in fact, not a single one of the known objects has any credible chance of hitting our planet over the next century.We'll mention he forgot to add this disclaimer: At least not one that we are aware of and can clearly see coming at this time.How many more are they missing?NASA is currently tracking 1,600+ 'potentially hazardous asteroids' and it has only been 'blind luck' that has so far saved humanity from serious impact. Former astronaut Ed Lu has described the situation that our planet in now facing as "cosmic roulette" - how long before humanity's luck runs out?The latest fireball report comes from Spain.The meteor recording stations that the University of Huelva operates at the astronomical observatories located at La Hita (Toledo), Sevilla and Huelva recorded a fireball observed over the South of Spain and Portugal on February 21, 2016 and a second fireball which was brighter than the full Moon and exhibited several explosions over Spain on February 23, 2016. By Sunny Ikhioya It is said that no matter how far you have journeyed on the wrong route, it is never too late to turn back, otherwise yo... Nevada, New Jersey Welcome Former Ultimate Bet Brass February 25 2016 Mo Nuwwarah Individuals with links to Ultimate Bet (UB), the poker operator that oversaw one of the most nefarious scandals in the history of the poker industry, will soon be in operation in both Nevada and New Jersey, according to recent reports. Borgata, which uses bwin.party as its online poker operator in New Jersey, is making the switch to Pala Interactive, Martyn Hannah of eGR North America reported note the linked article is behind a paywall. Pala's Chief Executive Officer is Jim Ryan, who also served as CEO of UB's parent company, Exscapa. The switch will reportedly be made "by the end of the second quarter." Borgata operates the leading online poker room in New Jersey, totaling more than $31 million in revenue since launch and leading second-place Caesar's in each calendar month of 2015. As such, bwin.party reps are apparently not conceding the lucrative Borgata contract. Hannah quoted one rep as saying there has been "no change" in the company's relationship with Borgata as parent company GVC Holdings awaits licensing in the state. The popular casino has used bwin.party as its online poker provider since launching. Ryan claims to have left his role as CEO in 2006, before the infamous superuser scandal at UB broke, at which point he said he was acting as merely a court-appointed inspector. Chris Grove of OnlinePokerReport noted in a thread on TwoPlusTwo that without court involvement in the UB scandal, regulators have a tricky situation to deal with as far licensing companies prominently featuring former UB employees. Nonetheless, Ryan's involvement in the New Jersey online poker scene will undoubtedly be of interest to a number of users, at the very least. Also of note according to the same TwoPlusTwo thread, Pala's Chief Technical Officer is Uri Kozai, who served as a programmer at UB and reportedly created the algorithm that determined how much to refund players who were victimized in the scandal. The report regarding Ryan marks the second time in the past week that former UB brass has made headlines in the regulatory realm. Iovation, a company headed by former UB CEO Greg Pierson, recently applied for a license to provide geolocation services in Nevada. In a hearing on Feb. 18, the Nevada Gaming Control Board recommended conditional approval (see page seven), although one member of the board did vote against. The conditions noted for the Oregon-based company include a limit to providing geolocation services only. Pierson's checkered past doesn't seem to be a sticking point in the least for Nevada regulators, as Iovation previously provided services for Ultimate Poker before player backlash caused the site to cut ties. Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+! Sharelines Former Ultimate Bet executives are getting involved in online poker once again, in both Nevada and New Jersey. The daughter of former half term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was on the losing end of a legal battle that cost over $100,000. After having full custody of her first child, Tripp, Bristol Palin will now take part in a joint custody agreement with her ex-fiance Levi Johnston, as reported by EOnline on Feb. 24. Bristol beginning Heading into the 2008 presidential election, Republicans knew that they needed a spark to defeat the popular Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. With Arizona Sen. John McCain named the party's nominee, senior advisors recommended Palin to join the ticket. Despite her limit experience, the Tea Party favorite was able to add life to the GOP, but was quickly exposed for her lack of political knowledge, ending in a quick defeat that November. Along the campaign trail, Bristol Palin joined her mother with then fianceLevi, announcing that she was pregnant at only 17-years-old. Shortly after the election defeat, the teen couple separated which led to a legal battle that has lasted over seven years. Court battle Since their break up in 2009, Johnston alleges that the Palin family have made it difficult for him to see his son. In 2010, Levi and Bristol worked out an agreement that would allow the child to his see father twice a week, each Wednesday and Saturday. Since the courts never finalized the agreement, Johnston filed a petition in 2013 asking for joint custody. Levi Johnston spent $100,000 dollars for joint custody of his kid, he won! @BristolsBlog https://t.co/zBwoMpYDPuhttps://t.co/5kLOecOZkI NY Daily News Video (@NYDNVideo) February 24, 2016 In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Johnston announced that he had won the court battle. "I'm so happy to have my son in my life," Johnston said, noting, "I'm happy now to be successfully co-parenting." Elaborating further on the details of the case, "It might have taken me 7 years and cost me around $100,000 in lawyer fees, spread out among 3 different lawyers, as well as a lot of patience, but it was all worth it." The Palin family hasn't released an official statement, but Bristol posted a meme on Instagram afterthe court's decision, which read, "Always be careful of what you hear about a woman. Rumours either come from a man that cant have her or a woman who cant compete with her." Last December, Bristol gave birth to her second child, her daughter named Sailor Grace Palin. The child's father is Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer, who has since taken legal action, also pushing for joint custody. Interest sprouts in Yunnan's hybrid rice south of the border Updated: 2016-02-25 08:22 By Yang Ziman(China Daily USA) Nearly two decades of research and development by Yunnan province's agricultural institutes and companies to produce high-quality hybrid rice is cultivating interest across South and Southeast Asia. "Its unique hearty flavor appeals to many people. The crop is also short in height, which is an advantage in windy terrain," said Lu Yixuan, a researcher at the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences. According to the provincial department of science and technology, there are nearly 67,000 hectares across Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh currently growing hybrid rice first developed in Yunnan. In recent years, more than 1,000 agricultural technicians from Yunnan have visited these countries to teach farmers how to correctly grow the rice. As of 2014, hybrid rice accounted for 30 percent of China's rice-growing land, with more than 9.07 million hectares nationwide. It is produced by crossbreeding different types of rice and is prized for its high output. Yunnan's hybrid rice, the region's experts said, can be harvested several times a year. "Yunnan rice has strong roots and resistance to pests. We have also developed a few types of perennial hybrids that can survive the winter, which most rice cannot," said Hu Fengyi, a researcher at the Yunnan Agricultural University. One major reason why Yunnan hybrid rice has spread south of the border is the connectivity brought about by the Belt and Road Initiative. "The initiative has pushed Yunnan to the frontline of China's national economy," said Long Jiang, director of the department of science and technology of Yunnan. "Through the plan, the rice developed in our province is now going global." Rice developers in Yunnan have established agricultural technology parks in Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Cambodia, and demonstration bases in Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos, Long added. "The average output of Yunnan-developed rice in these countries is 6,000 kilograms per hectare, in large part because of our technology," said Long. Wu Xuehua, a deputy director at Yunnan Jinrui Seed Industry CoLtd, said the company has stationed its technicians at its demonstration fields in Laos and Myanmar to teach rice-growing techniques. In Mandalay, Myanmar, Jinrui recently signed an agreement to share its farming techniques with local farmers. As part of the deal, the farmers are required to grow the company's hybrid rice, for which Jinrui will purchase it at 2.2 yuan (34 cents) per kilogram, far higher than the average price of 1.4 yuan to 1.6 yuan per kilogram in Yunnan. "Our rice grown overseas is in high demand in China," said Wu. Hu, the researcher at Yunnan Agricultural University, said there are currently more than 330 hectares of perennial hybrid rice fields in Yunnan and that the province plans to introduce this type of rice overseas in the near future. "Perennial rice has generated a lot of benefits," said Dai Luyuan, vice-president of the Yunnan Association for Science and Technology. "Not only has it brought down costs and but it is able to prevent the loss of soil." yangziman@chinadaily.com.cn (China Daily USA 02/25/2016 page14) As the old saw goes: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. Which is exactly what Chinese virtuoso pianist Fang Yuan was doing a few blocks from Carnegie Hall the day before her first solo appearance there on Thursday. How did she feel? "Excited," she said with a laugh. She was originally asked to perform there on Oct 1, China's "Fourth of July", (as a fill in) on a month's notice, but the gig got tangled in the red tape of an artist visa and postponed until tonight. Audiences are in for a treat. Last October, in lieu of coming to the US, Fang celebrated National Day by playing The Yellow River Concerto with the China National Orchestra and the CPA Orchestra. "I thought maybe I could bring the piece in solo piano version to let more people know about it," she said. "A lot of people haven't heard the piece." The Yellow River Concerto - which is scored for full orchestra, chorus and piano soloist - traces its origins back to the eight-movement Yellow River Cantata. Composed by Xian Xinghai in 1939, the cantata collected folk melodies and river images that served as a rallying anthem to bolster morale during the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Over the years, the musical material went through adaptations to suit each new generation of listeners. In the late 1960s, pianist Chengzong Yin and a group of five composers reconfigured the work into a four-movement piano concerto, with a final movement that is heavy on the historical content. Keeping with the tradition of updating the cultural treasure, Fang has created her own version of the work for solo piano and will perform its world premiere at Carnegie Hall. She has done her version all by ear, based on her intimate familiarity with the work, incorporating various orchestral elements where she feels they are needed. "Not everything, but I think it is important," she said. And she's kept it to the three first movements. "I don't want to put too much about history in my world premiere," she said. "I just want to bring the beauty of the music." She has named it Yellow River Rhapsody and it will be in good company on the Carnegie stage. Fang is starting her recital with a piece by the grandmaster of musical form and wit, Franz Joseph Haydn. His Sonata in C Major, composed in 1794, features a prankish third movement that begins as a perfectly graceful minute that is twice disrupted with a jolting "wrong chord", only to recover and carry on. It's been likened to two dancers tripping over each other's feet, or, as the great pianist Alfred Brendel described it, a dancer who "slips on a banana skin and suddenly finds himself on the ground". "You know I studied in Germany for seven years," said Fang, who lives in Beijing and wants to move back to Berlin, "and I really love the German-Austrian School. " "So Haydn, of course Mozart, Beethoven, but I can't play everything tomorrow. So I choose Haydn," she said, adding that there is something very "humorous and pure" about his work. After that comes Seven Fantasies by Brahms, Fang's "favorite composer". "I feel very close to him," she said. "Not because I went to Germany, it was before I went there. I can understand what he thought, the music has a special integrity and a kindness." Then, after the Yellow River Rhapsody comes Chopin. "You know, all Chinese pianists love Horowitz," she said, "and his recital in Carnegie Hall was all German, Austrian Romantic themed, and Chopin." Fang chose Chopin's Andante spianato et Grand Polonaise Brillante, which he wrote in his early 20s. Spoiler alert: If Fang is called back for an encore, she will play a Chinese piece based on the tonalities of two traditional instruments - the guzheng zither and xiao flute. China Daily was lucky enough to hear a sample. Called back again, she will play Chopin's "black keys" Etude in G-flat Major. If the audience has any brains, they'll keep her there to see what comes after that. Contact the writer at chrisdavis@chinadailyusa.com. Efforts to help Liang in works Updated: 2016-02-25 12:25 By Niu Yue in New York(China Daily USA) After widespread rallies across the US to protest the manslaughter conviction of Peter Liang, the Chinese-American community is looking for other ways to support the former New York City police officer. On Wednesday, the Lin Sing Association in Chinatown announced that it had received $300,000 and thousands of petition letters for Liang's appeal, coming from as far as Canada and the Chinese mainland. On Feb 22, protesters gathered in 40 cities across the United States to demonstrate what they see as an unfair conviction of Liang, now 28, who was a rookie cop on patrol in a Brooklyn housing project in 2014 when he fired his gun. The bullet he discharged ricocheted off a wall, fatally striking Akai Gurley, 28, on a lower floor. Liang, who was convicted on Feb 11, could face up to 15 years in prison on the manslaughter count when he is sentenced on April 14 by Supreme Court Judge Danny Chun in Brooklyn. John Chan, chairman of the Brooklyn Asian Communities Empowerment (BACE), told China Press on Monday that the first priority for Liang is to get prepared for his appeal, because March 8 is the last day to file one. On Monday, Chan tried to reach Henry Lee, a noted Chinese-American forensic scientist, to ask for his support. Chan said he will set up a trust account for Liang that will receive donations for an appeal. Lee is in Taiwan and will return to the United States at the end of the month. His assistant is helping BASE do further research. Chan said that the next step is to encourage Liang's supporters to send petitions and letters to Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson, who prosecuted the case against Liang. BACE plans another demonstration the second week in March and is now applying for a permit. On Monday, the Committee of 100, the non-profit organization representing prominent Chinese Americans, sent a letter to Judge Chun in relation to the Liang case, according to Asian American Press. The committee urged the judge "to render a fair and just decision commensurate with the applicable laws and circumstances of Liang's case". The committee said it "empathizes with the African-American community over the loss of lives without justification at the hands of law enforcement". At the same time, the committee also supports appropriate and fair prosecution. "A judicial system that indicts people selectively is troubling and contrary to our country's treasured principle of equal treatment under the law. The committee fully understands the anger and frustration of many in the Chinese-American community who believe that former officer Liang was singled out as a scapegoat. "We understand how the community feels, and are heartened to see people coming together with a strong voice," Herman Li, Committee of 100 acting chairman, wrote in the letter. "We strongly urge supporters to channel their frustrations into constructive actions to help former Officer Liang and his family move forward within the legal process. "How Peter Liang is treated in this case will signal to Asian Americans whether we are equal members of society," Li added. "As concerned Chinese Americans, we should and will continue to fight for equal treatment of Chinese and Asian Americans under the law." Beijing edges out New York City as home to the most billionaires Updated: 2016-02-25 12:25 By Ai Heping in New York(China Daily USA) Beijing is home to the world's most billionaires, pushing New York City out of the top slot it had held for years, according to a Shanghai-based research and media outlet that keeps track of the world's wealthiest. Despite a slowing economy, the Chinese capital added 32 billionaires, bringing its total to 100 and New York added four, giving it 95 billionaires, according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2016. Moscow came in third with 66, and Hong Kong and Shanghai came in fourth and fifth with 64 and 50, respectively, Hurun said in its ranking of US dollar billionaires as of Jan 15. Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda, one of China's top real estate developers, was the wealthiest Beijing resident with a net worth of $26 billion. New York's top billionaires were businessman David Koch and Michael Bloomberg, the city's former mayor and media company owner. His wealth increased $16 billion to $37 billion, according to Hurun. Another city resident whose wealth increased is Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. He added $5 billion to go to $6.5 billion. While China has passed the US with the most billionaires, the Hurun report noted that none of the richest billionaires are from China. Eight of the world's 11 wealthiest, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world's wealthiest with $80 billion, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg are from the US. And the combined net worth of US billionaires is still nearly double that of Chinese billionaires, for a total of $2.4 trillion, just a little less than the GDP of France, according to the report. Rupert Hoogewerf, the founder of Hurun, said initial public offerings are behind the rapid expansion of Chinese wealth. He said the wealth in China could be underestimated. In October, China overtook the US for the first time as the country with the most billionaires within its borders. About 568 billionaires now live in China and 535 in the US. Hoogewerf said the number of billionaires for the rest of the world was held back by a slowdown in the global economy, the strengthening of the US dollar and the drop in oil prices. aiheping@chinadailyusa.com China will protect lawful rights on sea Updated: 2016-02-25 12:25 By Chen Weihua in Washington(China Daily USA) Foreign Minister Wang Yi emphasized on Wednesday that ensuring peace and stability as well as the safety and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea is in China's interests. Wang made the remarks as he briefed the US lawmakers on China's stance on the South China Sea issue on Wednesday during a visit to Capitol Hill. Wang, who is visiting the US from Feb 22-25, said in a meeting attended by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, ranking member Senator Ben Cardin and others that the Chinese side is willing to resolve the disputes with related countries through negotiations and based on international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. But he also voiced China's determination to protect its lawful rights and interests. Foreign Minister Wang Yi (center) poses for a photo with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (left) and ranking member Senaor Ben Cardin during a visit to Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Yin Bogu / Xinhua Wang told the lawmakers that maintaining a healthy and stable development of China-US relations is in the common interest of the two peoples and the international community. He emphasized the importance of the two influential nations to strengthen mutual understanding and close cooperation when the global situation is undergoing complex and profound changes. In a meeting with House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce and ranking member Eliot Engel, Wang expressed China's opposition to the nuclear test by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and China's determination to defend the global non-proliferation regime. Wang conveyed President Xi Jinping's best regards to US President Barack Obama as he met Obama at the White House on Wednesday. Obama said he is looking forward to meeting Xi at the fourth Nuclear Security Summit in Washington from March 31-April 1. Wang expressed that under the guidance of the two leaders, China and the US have made headway in cooperation in various fields. Wang said the Chinese side is willing to maintain high-level strategic communication with the US, strengthen cooperation on global and regional hotspot issues and join hands with the US in tackling global challenges. He expressed China's support for the summit. The US president wanted Wang to convey his best regards to Xi. Obama spoke positively of the cooperation between the two countries about climate change and regional hotspot issues, according to a press release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Obama reiterated the importance of US-China relations and said the two sides should continue to maintain communication and coordination. Also on Wednesday, Wang met US National Security Advisor Susan Rice to exchange views on a host of bilateral, regional and global issues. Wang hopes the two sides will keep bilateral relations on the right track, strengthen strategic trust, deepen practical cooperation and constructively manage their differences in order to achieve greater progress in the bilateral relations in 2016. Rice agreed, saying that it has never become so important and pressing for the two sides to strengthen cooperation and manage differences. It has been a busy trip for the top Chinese diplomat. On Tuesday evening, he met Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former US national security advisor under President Jimmy Carter, to exchange views on China-US relations under evolving geopolitics. On Thursday morning, Wang is scheduled to speak at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where Brzezinski serves as a counselor, trustee and co-chair of the advisory board. On Wednesday morning, Wang also met Richard Haas, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, to exchange views on US foreign policy and China-US relations in the Asia Pacific. Hass was director of policy planning in the US State Department from 2001-2003 under president George W. Bush. He held talks with his counterpart, Secretary of State John Kerry, on Tuesday afternoon before their joint press conference. chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com Syrian opposition says will commit to 2-week halt to fighting - Al Arabiya Updated: 2016-02-25 09:12 (Agencies) Civilians ride on a motorcycle past damaged buildings in the historic southern town of Bosra al-Sham, Deraa, Syria February 23, 2016.[Photo/Agencies] BEIRUT - Syria's Saudi-backed opposition body the High Negotiations Committee said on Wednesday it would commit to a two-week ceasefire in Syria, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya al Hadath television said in a newsflash, without elaborating. It came after the United States and Russia this week announced a plan to stop fighting in Syria, with combatants required to say whether they will agree to the "cessation of hostilities" by noon on Friday (1000 GMT), and to halt fighting at midnight on Saturday. Paris police chief vows to beef up security for Chinese Updated: 2016-02-25 09:28 (Xinhua) PARIS - Paris police officials have vowed to beef up security for Chinese residents and holidaymakers in the French capital, who have become a main target of robberies. There was a rise in the number of theft and violent robberies targetting Chinese in 2015, according to Paris police chief Michel Cadot, who attended a meeting late Tuesday with representatives of Chinese community and Chinese embassy to address the security issue that worries Chinese. During the meeting, Codet hoped to closely cooperate with relevant parties and take concrete measures to improve security for the Chinese. Many robberies targeting Chinese tourists or residents had been committed by young offenders who often got minor punishment under French laws, according to a French police officer who also attended the meeting. Asians, notably Chinese, were a "top target" for pickpockets because they were believed to carry more cash than other holidaymakers, according to the French police. Wang Jiaqing, Executive Chairman of the Association of Chinese living in France, said the safety of Chinese residents and their properties were still under threat. Both Wang and his wife were victims of crimes in Paris. Li Ping, Minister Advisor for Consular Affairs at the Chinese Embassy in France, said the embassy has held 12 meetings with French police on the improvement of Chinese security. He also hoped to further strengthen dialogue and cooperation to ameliorate their protection. Egypt's Sisi says terrorists behind Russian plane crash Updated: 2016-02-25 09:57 (Xinhua) CAIRO - Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said Wednesday that terrorists have been behind the October's Russian plane crash in Sinai to ruin Egyptian ties with other states, he said in a speech aired on the Egyptian state TV. "What do those who brought downed the (Russian) plane want? They want to ruin tourism as well as our relations with Russia, Italy and with the whole world if he could, to isolate Egypt," Sisi told the attendees. This is the first time for Egypt to officially indicate that a terror attack is behind the Russian plane crash in the restive peninsula. Moscow said earlier in mid-November 2015 that a bomb attack brought down the Russian passenger jet in Sinai that killed all 224 people on board in October. Terrorist activities killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the army ousted former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule. The Egyptian president added in his speech that it was the extremists who started the attacks in Sinai, adding that "we could have all coexisted despite different ideologies, but it did not happen." The crash led some states, including Britain and Russia, to suspend their flights to Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and to evacuate their nationals over security concerns. PLA outpost in Djibouti starts infrastructure construction Updated: 2016-02-25 18:28 By Zhang Yunbi(chinadaily.com.cn) The Ministry of National Defense has confirmed the start of infrastructure construction of the People's Liberation Army's first overseas support facilities in Djibouti. "Currently, the construction of infrastructure of the support facilities has started, and the Chinese side has dispatched part of the personnel to Djibouti for relevant works," ministry spokesman Wu Qian told a regular news conference in Beijing on Thursday. Djibouti is a pivotal country in the Horn of Africa standing between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. It is a key transfer stop for international humanitarian missions, including those of the United Nations. Military bases and support facilities for countries, including the United States and France, have long been based in Djibouti. Last December, the Ministry of National Defense confirmed that, through consultation between China and Djibouti, a consensus was reached on China building support facilities in Djibouti. Wu told reporters that the facilities will mainly be used for logistic support and the reorganization of those conducting escort, peacekeeping and humanitarian relief missions in the Gulf of Aden and waters near Somalia. Djibouti's strategic importance and logistical convenience were highlighted last year when Chinese citizens evacuated from Yemen transited there. While meeting with the president of Djibouti Ismail Omar Guelleh in Johannesburg in last December, President Xi Jinping said China appreciated Djibouti's help in supporting Chinese peacekeeping fleets and in evacuating Chinese citizens from Yemen. Finding delivery addresses problematic for Kenyan couriers Updated: 2016-02-25 20:20 By Hou Liqiang in Nairobi, Kenya(chinadaily.com.cn) E-commerce runners and couriers in Kenya are calling for the establishment of a physical address system as the lack of one has been making delivery riders get lost for up to an hour. According to Jumia Kenya, a leading e-commerce runner, almost all courier and emergency response service companies rely on Google maps and phone calls to locate their destinations across Kenya, making deliveries unnecessarily expensive and sometimes even impossible. "Kenya has never had a proper physical address system since independence and this is a major challenge to e-commerce," said the company. Parinaz Firozi, managing director of the online shop, said: "You are forced to assign riders to deliver in their area of residence since they know the terrain, streets and buildings; delivery is a delicate balance between cost, time and efficiency. You have to get it right". The challenge can be even bigger for those online shops that concentrate on food delivery. Duncan Muchangi, managing director of Hellofood Kenya, said when speed is of the essence as in the case of food so many things could go wrong. "Food is sensitive, your customer wants it hot and on time, one hour is the delivery time we offer but if our rider gets lost for 30 minutes, chances are the customer could look for another alternative while you bear the cost. Its necessary to fix this problem," he said. The courier industry has probably been the biggest beneficiary of e-commerce in Kenya with a 30 percent upsurge in shipments in the last half of 2015, thanks to partnerships with e-commerce companies across board, according to Jumia Kenya. But still, they are challenged by the same problem. "The government should roll out a national and regional physical addressing system. Streets, roads and blocks need to be named and marked permanently. Property developers and gated estates should also erect signs," said Geoffrey Mwove, chairman of courier industry association and the director of courier at G4S Kenya. He said a combination of physical addressing and mobile apps that provide the geolocation of the house make a perfect recipe to solve the problem. Mortgage industry conferences offer a vast variety of atmospheres and this year, Ellie Maes conference was like a victory lap, HousingWire said. The setting of the conference, featuring a bright and exuberant at the Wynn in Las Vegas, provides an appropriate backdrop for the upbeat attitude of the conference. Of the 3,000 mortgage lenders in attendance at the conference, some are current customers and others are prospects looking for the confirmation they need to jump in the deep end of mortgage automation technology. Different panels at the conference cover topics ranging from regulatory updates and marketing strategies, to smaller topics like in-the-weeds sessions on Encompass-specific functionalities. This year, the software company reported $96.2 million in revenue for 2016, which is a 42 percent increase from revenue in 2015. Ellie Mae experienced a 21 percent growth in Encompass users and a 70 percent growth in net income for the year. However, Ellie Maes growth comes as a result of some serious challenges faced in the mortgage industry. One conference session, on the latest regulatory changes to the new TRID rule, required overflow seating. The panel, which consisted of compliance experts, walked lenders through the specifics of the proposed rule that still contains contradictory requirements. Ultimately, compliance has a very big effect on lenders bottom line. Attendees were mainly focused on how Encompass can ensure they meet regulatory standards without sacrificing their productivity. The focus of that desire to find efficiency in the origination process is quite the sweet spot for Ellie Mae. The software companys long-term mission since 1997 has been to automate the mortgage process. However, at that time, no one was worried about a regulatory quagmire. The company has also demonstrated its ability to successfully succession plan. Ellie Mae transitioned from the founding CEO, Sig Anderman, to new CEO Jonathan Corr in February 2015. The software company continues to improve their systems to make the origination process easier. Ellie Mae also announced enhanced integrations with Arch MI, MGIC and Radian to continue to streamline the mortgage insurance ordering process. Integrations also made to Ellie Maes Total Quality Loan program provide users with process improvements, automated ordering and access to data and alerts. The new enhancements, which will be available this year include: the ability for users to process multiple rate quotes simultaneously, automated ordering for rate quote or MI certificate and the ability to monitor key data changes and alert Encompass users when to re-order a rate quote or MI certificate. On December 29, 1890, U.S. army troops opened fire on a group of Lakota people who had been participants in the Ghost Dance. The dance, a religious ceremony that infused innovative visions into established ceremonial practices, promised to bring about a new way of life for Indigenous communities that were struggling to resist devastating federal Indian policies. Detractors of the dancers had suggested that they were a danger to local non-Native communities as well as broader American society. When the 7th Cavalry was deployed to western South Dakota, dancers led by Big Foot left their nearby reservation against the wishes of the Indian agents. The militarys response was bloody. After tracking down the dancers and surrounding their encampment, US military personnel attempted to disarm the Lakota. When shooting broke out during the process, soldiers began to fire at the Lakota group at a close range and from a distance using high-powered automatic weapons. The camp descended into chaos, and when many of the dancersmen, women, and childrentried to escape the bloodshed, soldiers chased them down and executed them. How many times has this story been told? Too many? Certainly too many to count. A 2015 exhibition presenting the Ghost Dance as a dance of hope in the the South Dakota State Historical Society Museum Twenty-five years ago, historian Joel Martin published an important article , Before and Beyond the Sioux Ghost Dance: Native American Prophetic Movements and the Study of Religion, that took scholars of American religious history to task for the limited ways in which they included Indigenous religions in historical narratives. He critiqued the prominence of the Ghost Dance in these narratives, arguing that scholars generally offered an overview of Native American traditions near the beginning of their account, only to return to the topic when discussing the massacre at Wounded Knee. In Martins view, there were a number of problems with this limited representation. Texts that discussed the Ghost Dance often did not include accounts of earlier Indigenous prophetic and revitalization movements, much less, later practices. The common assessment of the dancers as tragically delusional downplayed their agency as well as the ways that dancers built on previous dances, like the Sun Dance. Regardless of the authors intentions, focus on the massacre functioned to suggest that the beliefs and practices of Native American communities and individuals declined and that their practices were not relevant in discussions of contemporary American religious life. As I was beginning my graduate studies, I engaged in research on media representations of the Ghost Dance leading up to and after the massacre. I moved away from further research in this area, in part because of what Martin identified as its questionable prominence. Yet studying this traditionand the violence that we often associate with itserved as a starting point for what is now my first book project. In reading anthropologist James Mooneys 1896 account of the Ghost Dance, I became interested in the early anthropological rendering and management of Native American religions. Recently, research for a new project turned my attention back to the Ghost Dance, and its given me the chance to think more about its role in American religious history, as well as the ways that the pastand past projectscan continue to haunt us. South Dakota State Archives This past December, on the 125th anniversary of Wounded Knee, I was back in South Dakota. It was a blisteringly cold day, similar to what it would have been like over a century earlier for the dancers and military personnel. I wasnt braving the cold; instead, I was sitting in front of a microfilm reader at the State Historical Archives in Pierre. In searching for leads related to a new project on medical imperialism, I came across references to the Ghost Dance. I was struck, all over again, by how historical sources had characterized the danceas a craze and an outbreakand how this terminology is preserved in the archive. In Ann Laura Stolers edited volume Haunted by Empire: Geographies of Intimacy in North American History , contributors examine spaces and times in which facets of colonial governancesystems, structures, policiesproduce intimate connections, standards for closeness and proximity, and bittersweet unions of thought and practice. In Stolers words, to haunt is to bear a threatening presence, to invisibly occupy, to take on changing form (1). Empire haunts, but the moments, outcomes, and connections that imperialism createsand the fractures, misery and loss that it leaves in its wakecan haunt, as well. These earlier colonial visions of the Ghost Dance still linger in the archive, specters of racialized notions that summon our attention and reinterpretation. View from the South Dakota State Archives Indeed, the violent eventdescribed at the time as a battle and today as a massacre, represents a singular moment in American religious history. This event is significant for Native American religious history, American religious history, and for the broader study of religionas a single case study, it raises important questions about race and religion, the violence of purportedly progressive efforts at missionization and assimilation, the role of religion in social control, the status of non-majority religions in law and politics, anxieties over new religious movements, and the elusive ideal of religious freedom. Thus, while I think that Martins critique is still relevant, I would hope that it ultimately encourages scholars to keep teaching the Ghost Dancebut to teach beyond it, drawing on a variety of scholarship in and beyond the field of Native American religions. And teach it better, by including Indigenous perspectives (beyond those of Black Elk), and with a consideration of its legacy and the many responses it continues to inspire. As one example, check out the work of Lakota hip hop artist Frank Waln . His songs and videos blend contemporary and established musical forms, and as he explains in in an interview , his lyrics connect violent historical moments to ongoing issues. Most importantly, its important to emphasize the continuation of Lakota life and culture after the massacre Wounded Knee, rather than presenting it as the inevitable end of an era. So, while this event is controversial, I think its important that it continues to haunt us. We should continue to register the loss of life and the violence. And we should let it unsettle us into new lines of engaged inquiry (or back to old ones). From Frank Waln's 2012 video "My Stone" Like it or not, the broad influence of our best-known capitalists makes America unique (Donald Trump might say great ). With the very real p... Please turn JavaScript on and reload the page. Loading... Checking your browser before accessing the website. This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested content shortly. Please wait a few seconds. The Vatican Information Service is a news service, founded in the Holy See Press Office, that provides information about the Magisterium and the pastoral activities of the Holy Father and the Roman Curia...[ ] The West has only recently started to understand how deeply public opinion in the Russian Federation has become infected with rabidly anti-Western conspiratorial and Manichean worldviews. During the last fifteen years, Russias citizens have been exposed to relentless demonization of the Western world, purposeful instigation of hatred towards the United States, and heavily manipulated foreign affairs reporting in Kremlin-controlled mass media. Thousands of cynical politicians, corrupt journalists, irresponsible showmen, and bizarre pseudo-experts are telling the Russian people, day after day, how immoral, degraded and dangerous Western civilization and, above all, the United States are.As a result, the majority of Russians now believe that the West is after them. Russias territory, natural resources, civilization and very existence are, according to a widespread belief, under deadly threat from Washington as well as its underlings in Europe and elsewhere. Given Russias large (and modernizing) nuclear arsenal, this phenomenon is perhaps the most dangerous development in world affairs in the post-Soviet era.In the spring of 2014, one hundred countries condemned Russias de jure annexation of Crimea at the UN, with only 11 statesvarious small allies of the Kremlinvoting against the resolution. Yet, as a result of the daily brainwashing by Kremlin TV, the overwhelming majority of Russians believe that the annexation was historically, legally, and morally justified. A largely similar story goes for Russias de facto annexation of Moldovas Transnistria, of Georgias Akhazia and South Ossetia, as well as its occupation of the eastern part of Ukraines Donbas. Equally, Moscows increasingly heavy military involvement in Syria and tense political confrontation with Turkey are, in most Russians view, mere reactions to ever more aggressive Western policies towards Russia and her few remaining allies.No surprise then that the Wests responses to Russias foreign adventures, i.e. political and economic sanctions, have only further heightened the sense of encirclement and paranoia among Russians. Public opinion formation in Russia has entered a vicious circle within which foreign victories and international defeats of Moscow can both, when well spun, work to strengthen an already established fortress mentality. Indeed, Russia's spin-doctors have manipulated Russia's worsening economic situation to foster an image of the Kremlin as a chivalrous fighter against an imperial and russophobic Washington. As long as Russias citizens remain within this alien parallel world, the Kremlin will remain a deadly danger to world peace and humanitys futurewith or without Vladimir Putin. The US Navy plans to increase "freedom of navigation" operations in the as Beijing continues its military buildup in the contested waterway, a US admiral has said. The sailings involve a US warship coming within 12 nautical miles of islets claimed by China as a way of rebutting Beijing's assertions of sovereignty. Since October, the Navy has carried out two such freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, saying the missions are an important way of upholding law. "We'll be doing them more and we'll be doing them with greater complexity in the future," Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, yesterday told lawmakers in Washington. "We'll fly, sail and operate wherever law allows." China's claims to almost all of the are widely disputed and the body of water has long been viewed as a potential flashpoint. China is using dredgers to turn reefs and low-lying features into larger land masses for runways and other military uses to bolster its claims of sovereignty in the region. Satellite imagery released by a Washington think tank this week shows China is installing radar facilities on its artificial islands. China has also deployed surface-to-air missiles and lengthened a runway to accommodate fighter jets on one such islet, Woody Island. "China's intent to militarize the is as certain as a traffic jam in DC," Harris told the House Armed Services Committee in reference to congestion on the streets of Washington. He did not offer specifics on the upcoming freedom of navigation sailings but suggested they be carried out by a type of destroyer that "is well able to defend itself should those operations go awry". Coroners tragic conclusion on mystery disappearance of teen backpacker A coroner has handed down her findings on the Belgian backpacker who disappeared almost without trace in an idyllic New South Wales tourist town more than three years ago. Jim Chalmers warns disaster floods will weigh on GDP growth Treasurer Jim Chalmers has revealed the "initial estimate" the recent flooding would have on the economy but warns costs associated could be "even more significant" ahead of his first federal budget on Tuesday. Limited value: Liberal Senator against royal commission into COVID Liberal Senator Jane Hume acknowledged the long-term effects of lockdowns and school shutdowns but said Australia fared well compared to other countries. Heavy rain, hail and more flood warnings for four states this weekend Millions of residents along the east coast have been told to brace for more wet weather this weekend, with warnings of large hailstones for Friday and severe thunderstorms bringing heavy rain to already flooded river systems. Polygamists face fraud charges SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Investigators noticed something strange when they began tracking food stamp transactions at two small convenience stores in a polygamous community on the Arizona-Utah border. The volume of food stamp purchases rivaled big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Costco. They ultimately learned residents were scanning food stamp debit cards at the stores but getting no items in return, allowing leaders of the polygamous sect to funnel the money to front companies. The alleged scheme is at the heart of a major takedown of top leaders of the secretive sect. Eleven people were charged, including Lyle Jeffs and Seth Jeffs, top-ranking leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and brothers of imprisoned sect leader Warren Jeffs. Flu vaccine more effective this year NEW YORK (AP) The flu vaccine is doing a better job this year. Preliminary data suggest it is 59 percent effective. Thats a big improvement from last winters nasty flu season when the vaccine was less than 20 percent effective. Its been a milder flu season so far, though health officials said it has not yet peaked. Woman bites pearl at Italian restaurant ISSAQUAH, Wash. (AP) A woman bit down on a rare pearl while eating a meal of clams and other seafood at an Italian restaurant in Washington state. Lindsay Hasz and husband Chris were eating at Montalcino Ristorante Italiano in Issaquah recently when she bit into something hard in her entree. Hasz says she wasnt sure what it was but put it in her pocket and went home to do research. She took it to a gemologist, who determined it was a Quahog purple pearl worth about $600. Ted Irwin of Northwest Geological Laboratory says the find is rare, with only one in a couple million being of gem quality. Mississippi makes burning death arrest BATESVILLE, Miss. (AP) It took investigators more than a year of painstaking work, but they say they have finally cracked the case of a former high school cheerleader who was found near death in her rural Mississippi hometown after being doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire. Prosecutors announced Wednesday Quinton Verdell Tellis, 27, has been charged with capital murder in the death of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers. She was found along a road, badly burned, on Dec. 6, 2014. Her vehicle was on fire. She suffered burns over 98 percent of her body and died hours later. Tellis and Chambers knew each other and were friends, officials said. They would not comment on a possible motive. Pot tourists end up in Colorado ERs DENVER (AP) Colorados tourists arent just buying weed now that its legal theyre ending up in emergency rooms at rates far higher than residents, according to a new study. Doctors reviewed emergency-room admissions at a hospital near Denver International Airport during 2014, when the sale of recreational pot became legal. The results will be published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The physicians found the rate of emergency-room visits possibly related to marijuana doubled among out-of-state residents in the first year of recreational pot sales. Among Colorado residents, the rate of emergency-room visits possibly related to cannabis use did not change significantly between 2013 and 2014. DECORAH Defense attorneys and prosecutors in Alexander Fazzinos murder trial battled at times Wednesday, putting the adversarial nature of the process on display. Judge Michael Moon reminded both sides they are responsible for giving the professional courtesy that is expected in an Iowa courtroom. Fazzino, 41, is charged with killing his wife, Emily Fazzino, 32, on Jan. 29, 2012, in the couples home in Boone. Moon moved the case to Winneshiek County after extensive pretrial media coverage. The trial began Monday in Decorah with jury selection. Prosecutors Daniel Kolacia and Scott Brown began calling witnesses Tuesday and continued Wednesday with paramedics and police officers who got involved with the case on the night Emily Fazzino died. Kolacia objected when defense attorney William Kutmus questioned a police officer about what prosecutors may not have done during the investigation. This is a cross examination, Kutmus started. That doesnt matter, Kolacia shot back, interrupting. Judge Moon raised a hand and calmed the conversation. Lets leave the prosecution out of this, Moon said. Officer Korie Barber told jurors he arrived at the Fazzinos duplex with two colleagues for what they thought was a suicide. He spent much of his time with Alexander Fazzino. He said his wife was trying to drown herself, Barber testified. Initially, Alexander Fazzino and his three children were running around in circles crying. Fazzino later punched a hole in a kitchen cabinet door, according to Barber. Kolacia asked Barber what else he noticed about Fazzino. I found it odd that he was crying a lot but I didnt notice any tears, Barber said. Barber added Fazzino seemed to develop a pattern: When someone new arrived at the house or he took a phone call, Fazzino appeared to get upset and sob. Moments later he would be back to normal, Barber testified. Barber also fielded a question from one of the Fazzino children. Does this mean Im not going to have a mommy anymore? Barber said. According to the officer, Fazzino answered: Dont talk. Lets pray. Barber also spoke to Cindy Beckwith, Emily Fazzinos mother. She was adamant that Mr. Fazzino had murdered her daughter, Barber said. Boone Fire Capt. Kent Peterson testified about opening the airway in Emily Fazzinos throat. He described the scene as normal chaos for such an event. Over Kutmus objection, the judge allowed paramedic John DeLavergne to demonstrate, using a model, how to push a tube down the patients windpipe. Kutmus suggested the state was engaging in a little theater and was a stunt prejudicial to Fazzino. Brown countered such demonstrations are common in Iowa trials. During the demonstration, Moon allowed jurors to leave the jury box. Each filed by DeLavergne for a closer look at the medical equipment and dummy. Paramedics Justin Holihan, DeLavergne and Peterson all testified the emergency medical procedures were performed on Emily Fazzino without any difficulties. Each testified no one touched the womans neck where bruising was observed by officers John Wiebold and Josh Olsen. John Sloter, administrative commander with the Boone Police Department, also told jurors about recovering a red backpack Feb. 1, 2012, from the Fazzino home after Emilys death. Sloter said the pack contained the clothes Alexander Fazzino was wearing on the night his wife died. There was also a box containing Emily Fazzinos jewelry, including a least three watches, at least five rings and multiple bracelets and necklaces. Sloter also told jurors he found a life insurance policy and documents related to Emily Fazzinos shares of Fareway Stores stock. Emily Fazzinos father, Rick Beckwith, is chairman of the grocery store chains board of directors, and Alexander Fazzino worked for the company. Detective John Mayse with the Boone Police Department, on video for jurors, tested the Fazzino homes bathtub to see if the overflow valve was functioning properly. He recorded as the tub filled with water in the upstairs master bathroom and then walked throughout the furnished basement. Mayse said he could hear the water running, as Fazzino claimed on the night his wife died. The tub, however, did not overflow, even with both hot and cold faucets open completely. Fazzino also claimed he found his wife face down in the tub but first noticed water on the floor, according to court documents. Witness Cassie Frye of Ogden told jurors about first serving the Fazzinos three children at Child Care Junction, a day care center. Eventually, though, Frye said she also moved into a role more as a nanny and became close friends with Emily Fazzino. Frye said the couples relationship was rocky and she saw them fighting on Jan. 21, 2012, when Frye said Alexander Fazzino took away his wifes medications. He had told Emily he was going to take Emilys prescription and flush them down the toilet, Frye testified. On cross examination, Frye said Emily Fazzino pushed her husband away, and he grabbed his wifes arm. Jurors also heard about a conversation Frye had with her friend. I asked Emily two questions. One, if she was afraid of Alex. She said yes, Frye testified. Frye also asked if Emily Fazzino thought her husband was capable of hurting or killing her. She nodded her head yes, Frye said. WATERLOO A Colorado firearms expert said it appeared that Waterloo man who was shot and killed in a parking lot in 2014 was carrying a gun. Paul Paradis, a former Colorado firearms examiner who now runs a gun shop and teaches firearms in Colorado Springs, took that stand Wednesday as the last witness for James Robert Ernst IIs defense. Ernst, 26, is charged with first-degree murder in the Dec. 6, 2014, death of 23-year-old Orintheo Campbell Jr. Prosecutors said Ernst fired five times, striking Campbell twice, following a fight between two women in the Prime Mart Parking lot on Broadway Street. Ernst claims he acted in self defense. He said Campbell had briefly exchanged words with him, punched him and reached toward his waistband. He told jurors he shot Campbell because he thought he was going for a weapon. State witnesses said they didnt see Campbell, who went to the hospital by private vehicle, with any weapons. No weapons were found at the scene, and there was no evidence of a second gun being fired. A store surveillance camera captured the events that lead up to the fight and some of the altercation, but the shooting took place off camera. Paradis said he examined the video and pointed to a section of the tape that shows Campbell and others walking from one part of the parking lot to another part moments before the shooting. He said Campbells hand position in the grainy video was consistent with how a person holds a pistol. Paradis also used a plastic handgun replica to show juror how he trains students to grip a firearm, and he talked about the Glock 23, the model of firearm that Ernst said he used. He said tests have shown that an untrained person can fire four to five shots in one second with the weapon. Paradis said he owns five Glock handguns and currently knew where four of them were, apparently making reference to the fact his luggage was lost during his flight from Colorado to testify. Also in the luggage was another firearm replica he had planned to use as part of his testimony. The state offered no rebuttal following a ruling by Judge Andrea Dryer that she wouldnt allow jurors to hear testimony from a woman who said she heard Ernst say he doesnt fight, he just shoots. Ernsts alleged statement had been made over the summer, according to the witness. Dryer said the statement was vague and general and would have been unfairly prejudicial because there was no evidence that Ernst had planned to shoot Campbell months beforehand the two had never met before that night. Closing arguments in the case are scheduled for Thursday. URBANDALE Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds is close to marking a major accomplishment off her bucket list graduating from college. Reynolds, 56, attended classes at two community colleges and Northwest Missouri State University but did not attain a degree before getting sidetracked by raising three daughters and working as Clarke County treasurer, state senator and Iowas 47th lieutenant governor. Reynolds is enrolled in online courses at Iowa State University and plans this year to attain a liberal arts degree with an emphasis on political science and business management. Bullying and sports House File 2264, which would allow students who have been bullied at school to open enroll at another school and be immediately eligible to participate in sports, was approved 95-1 by the Iowa House on Wednesday. Current law allows a student who open enrolls from district to another to be eligible after 90 days. Gas prices up Retail gasoline and diesel prices made modest reversals in Iowa this week. According to AAA, the price of regular unleaded gasoline averaged $1.67 a gallon across Iowa on Wednesday, seven cents higher than one week ago but 56 cents per gallon lower than one year ago. Nationally, gas prices averaged $1.71 a gallon this week. Retail diesel fuel prices in Iowa were three cents higher, with a statewide average of $1.91 per gallon. One year ago diesel prices averaged $2.71 a gallon in Iowa. Propane prices were unchanged from last week with a statewide average of $1.01 per gallon. Home heating oil was also unchanged from last weeks figures, ending with a statewide average of $1.48 a gallon. Natural gas prices were nine cents lower at $1.83/MMbtu. Settlement Attorneys general from nearly two dozen states including Iowa announced multimillion dollar settlements Wednesday with two investment firms states allege rigged bids in connection with financial products sold to government and nonprofit entities across the country. New York-based Natixis Funding Corp. will pay nearly $30 million, and Paris, France-based Societe Generale will pay $27 million to resolve allegations of fraudulent and anti-competitive conduct in municipal bond derivative transactions. The settlement involves 21 states plus the District of Columbia, and a private class settlement. In 2008, state attorneys general began investigating the municipal bond derivatives market. DES MOINES Iowas trespassing law would be expanded to allow authorities to prosecute peeping Toms under a bill unanimously approved by the Iowa Senate on Wednesday. Backers said the bill closes loopholes in situations where someone has planted a camera or viewing device without the consent of the person being viewed. I do think this bill properly addresses the issue, said Ruth Lapointe, a House clerk who was the victim of a Peeping Tom incident in Iowa City. She and 11 other victims found it painfully hard to convict the man of a crime under the current law. She added, We cant have people continually getting off the hook, and I think this bill would at least lock up a few more guilty people. The bill passed the Senate 50-0 and goes to the House. The Iowa House passed a similar bill last year that died in the Senate. Rep. Chip Baltimore, R-Boone, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he he expected representatives would smile upon it again this year. Also Wednesday, senators voted 38-12 to approve a bill prohibiting a motor vehicle operator from steering the vehicle unreasonably close to or toward a person riding a bicycle on a highway in a lane designated for the travel of bicycles. The bill triggered a lengthy floor debate on various safety issues, with backers calling it a step in the right direction while opponents said the General Assembly should not be attempting to legislate common sense. The bill goes to the House. DES MOINES Majority Senate Democrats voted Wednesday to approve an additional $115.5 million in spending for the current fiscal year to fund shortfalls in Medicaid and other state programs over GOP objections. Included in the bill was $80 million to cover a projected shortage to fund Medicaid payments through June 30. The amount was more than the $67 million Gov. Terry Branstad requested but $7 million below the estimated need. The bill included $3 million to fund indigent defense provided by the state and $1.9 million related to the closing of mental health institutes in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda. The provisions that concerned Republicans were plans to move $30 million from the states ending balance to the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund and designate $25 million in waging receipts for a new program to free up more money to spend in fiscal 2017. Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and floor manager of the bill, said it is designed to provide flexibility in meeting state obligations. We are not being fiscally responsible. This is the wrong way to go, argued Sen. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa. This is just simply the first step to a prolonged shell game where funds are moved around to skirt state spending limitations. Four Republicans joined 26 Democrats in supporting a separate measure that proposed to use $20.4 million in ending balance proceeds to fund a statewide land mobile radio communications system to enable law enforcement agencies to better communicate during times of emergency. Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Waterloo, said the bill was the result of lessons learned during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack in New York City. Sen. Julian Garrett, R-Indianola, noted the two Senate bills would lower the states projected surplus to $109 million next June 30 and set up the potential danger of completely depleting our ending balance at the end of fiscal 2017. The bills now go to the GOP-run Iowa House. DES MOINES The Iowa Senate voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a bill that would make it easier for terminally ill patients to try experimental drugs. The Right to Try Act would permit manufacturers of investigational drugs, biological products or devices to make available and eligible patients with terminal illnesses to attempt treatment with an experimental drug, biological product or device as long as they provided written informed consent. Senate File 2198 is a bill about hope, said Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Waterloo, who managed the bill during floor debate that led to a 50-0 outcome. The bill now moves to the Iowa House for consideration. Sen. Rick Bertrand, R-Sioux City, said the bill provides more options for patients who have exhausted all existing treatments and are not eligible for clinical trials. Bertrand said the bill closes a loophole and permits terminal patients to try treatments still in the investigation stages and removes liability clauses. On behalf of the 97 percent of patients that never have the opportunity to get into a clinical study I say thank you, Bertrand told his colleagues. More than two dozen states have enacted similar laws in recent years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Danielson said the bill provides necessary oversight by denoting that any experimental treatment must be done under the consent and care of a doctor and has to be under the first phase of a federal Food and Drug Administration trial. Under the bill, an eligible patients physician must acknowledge that the patients illness is terminal and recommend the patient try an investigational drug, biological product or device. The patients written informed consent must acknowledge treatments currently approved by the FDA are unlikely to prolong the patients life. The acknowledgement also must identify the specific treatment sought and the potential best, worst and expected results from the treatment. Also, the acknowledgement indicates the patients insurance is not required to pay for the treatment and any hospice service may refuse to accept the patient after receiving the treatment. WATERLOO Main Street Waterloo has named of Waterloo native Tavis Hall as its new executive director. I am excited to roll up my sleeves and focus my energies on helping make downtown Waterloo an even better place to live, work and play, Hall said. Nick Hedrick, board president of Main Street Waterloo, said the group conducted a nationwide search. Its pretty cool that we found exactly what we were looking for right here in Waterloo, Hedrick said. Hall is a member of the citys Planning, Programming and Zoning Commission and board president of the Waterloo Convention and Visitors Bureau. He owns a small business in downtown Waterloo, TH Strategy. I recognize first-hand some of the challenges facing local shop owners, he said. Hall is leaving the campaign of U.S. 1st District congressional candidate Gary Kroeger. Hall is the first African-American to head the organization in its 20-year-history. It was created in 1996 as a merger of several downtown promotion groups. Comments and Guest blogs Covering environmental and social news often not covered in local media and encouraging transparency and accountability. COMMENTS Comments are approved unless abusive, obscene, completely off the subject (or off the wall), disguised advertising or libellous. As I want to encourage debate publication of a guest post or comment does not imply that I agree with it. GUEST BLOGS Contact me at martinrfrancis@virginmedia.com if you wish to submit a Guest Blog. By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 24, 2016 | 06:24 AM | PADUCAH, KY During Tuesday night's Paducah City Commission meeting, commissioners introduced a change order for the 432 Broadway demolition project. The change order would increase the project amount by $10,830 and increase the contract time by 30 calendar days, for a completion date of March 27. The additional time and costs result from the need to stop demolition work while steel reinforcement work was being finished. For safety reasons, Environmental Abatement, Inc. did not want to continue with the demolition work until crews with Darnell Steel and Construction were finished, which led to increased costs for the rental of equipment and the need to extend the contract deadline. The change order brings the total cost with EAI to $490,448. In July 2015, the City of Paducah purchased the condemned building at 432 Broadway for $1 from a limited liability company. The buildings owner indicated that he did not have the financial means to stabilize the building or bring it up to code. Preliminary estimates to stabilize the building were between $1.9 and $2.0 million. The city had been working with the buildings owner since 2010 on correction measures. The city will receive Community Development Block Grant funds in the amount of $500,000 for the project. A match of $125,000 is required from the city. The City had to own the building in order to submit the grant application. Sure, every actor likes to have a pop at the occasional stunt; it's all part of the fun of the job. A lot of them would even like to do the really crazy stuff, the leaping off of buildings or the precarious fights along balustrades. Usually the studio steps in and says no for insurance reasons, but every now and then you get the hard-nut actor who wants to crack on with it themselves, either for authenticity or pride's sake. Lord knows how frightened these studio execs must be every time they agree to their Hollywood starlet putting themselves on the line - provided they actually know about it, at least. There's been more than one occasion when it comes to the day of filming a stunt and the star of the show persuades the director to just let them have a cheeky go. Luckily, that usually ends well, as evidenced by some of the entries on this list. Take a look at this selection of absolutely insane stunts, impressively performed by actors who legitimately have excuses for not having to do said stunts in the first place. They've definitely gained the respect due for actually performing this crazy sh*t themselves. 9. Zoe Bell - Death Proof Okay, so this one might be cheating a little bit, considering that Zoe Bell is a stuntwoman by trade. But seeing as she does play an actual character in the film, and then go onto perform her own stunt, I'll allow it. Her panic-inducing stint on the hood of a Dodge Challenger is nothing to balk at - Bell must have serious nerves of steel to climb onto that thing. Not only was it doing lord-knows-how-many miles per hour, but there was also the matter of Stuntman Mike's (Kurt Russell) Charger continuously ramming into it. From the look of things, there's not even any safety equipment in place. 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bring it forward, for while some of the information has changed, the time frames have changed, the needs and desire have not and most likely things will change a million times before they are done. The data given in the post is accurate and important The St. Nicholas Monastery boundaries shown above in red subsection located within the village called Sunrise (Dawn) of Freedom in the Sarajevo district of the Ryazan Region (white outline,) was founded in the late 19th century. Before the revolution, it was a female monastery. In 1918, was closed, and gradually over the years of Soviet occupancy it was destroyed Reopened in 2007 as a monastery once again and is currently being restored I have done the best I could and translated most of what has been written. This was written by a Orthodox priest and it was very hard to decipher at times for me In Russia (Soviet Union), a lot of monuments of pre-revolutionary architecture, which for many decades of neglect had led to a very deteriorated condition. In fact they are in a dilapidated condition. It is the duty of present and future generations to return these buildings back to life. Restored churches and monasteries, and renewed in their worship, it can become important tourist attractions and centers of Orthodox Culture in Russia and the places where they are located. This is a special class of monuments, with a special destiny in history and the future The Nicholas-Bavykinsky convent in our village also suffered a tragic fate as others in the Soviet times. Several buildings long gone, the remaining buildings, including the tower, are in a dilapidated condition. One of the photos we can see through the eyes of the territory of the modern artist Nicholas Bavykinskogo nunnery in its original form Today some experts say that the remaining dilapidated buildings could be saved by conducting restoration work and even these works have been started: make the roof and windows of the altar. This is certainly a drop in the ocean, but still a beginning that can be appreciated. Ryazan Eparchy of Russian Orthodox Church took under his wing the monastery (which is now in the process of transferring ownership of its buildings), and hopes that someday there will be a fully operate the Monastery back in the same spot as the original Moreover, the prayer room temporarily resides in a rehabilitated house of village called Dawn of Freedom. Vicar of St. Nicholas Monastery Abbot Bavykinskogo Guri, now resident in this home and conducts daily worship. The brethren of the monastery: monk Clement (Acting Rector of the church in a. Panic), Fr Paul (Acting Rector of the church in a. Sysoev), Fr Peter (the rector of the church with. Fighter, part-time cleric Nicholas Bavykinskogo Monastery) help him not only to conduct religious services, but also on other issues. With the help of a novice monk, Galina, does household care cleaning, laundry, cooking, and it is directly involved in the acts of worship Father Gury said that Galina is a good novice, and she has kept almost everything in the church by a lot of female labor Restoration of the monastery its not one year but many years, and it will require a huge expenditure. Unfortunately, there is no money in the monastery treasure. For the money and all assets have been stolen over the years. People, for the preservation of the Orthodox radeyuschih antiquity we have many, and a lot of sacrifice, but sacrifice a lot of money to churches one. Benefactors may exist for Nicholas Bavykinskogo monastery, but not sure when it will be A road to the temple needs a bridge over the river now, so people can at any time get here by normal transport. Road signs have already been acquired for the monastery. Today, people have to make a long detour through the village Borets, a settlement for the fish ponds. For this reason, not many parishioners here it is. Although they come to the monastery, even from other districts, to venerate the icon of the main temple an icon of St. Nicholas, revered by people of St. George icon, an image which, according to the abbot, was miraculously appear. When the icon was transferred to the monastery, it was all black, and that it is generally an icon, knew her former guardian so reminded When was the bridge was over the river, then the people came to worship more, and donations did increase. Diocese allocates funds to a house of worship, helping the Foundation of St. Sergius of Radonezh, but these funds, no matter how hard you try, is not enough. Indeed, even such a small temple still needs great in everything. Yes, and to continue to work at least to restore the roof, the monastery should be clear from the old collapsed debris, so that you can install the new wood. But this, as you know, needs money, as they are needed for the manufacture and design estimates To tell the truth, there is no room for eating in the rebuilt home for monks. Father Gury mentioned that supposedly promised to donate the local trailer for this purpose, but they do not hurry to do it. (Trailer has been delivered this summer!) Abbot, according to Galina novices and local resident Nina Ivanovna Frolova, doing everything to ensure that services were held here, as it should, so that more people come here to pray to God. His soul is going through worries when it moves forward. Id love to see in life, as here everything will change for the better, as there will flow the monastic life, said the priest. People are different in the world they live: and bad and good. And all the way to the temple of his own. In some it is shorter than in others longer. But from the standpoint of the spiritual, moral. We hope that the world is still more good people who are capable of real good things. There are people here in Russia, there is. They were always, always do good works. Is it not a good thing the restoration of St. Nicholas Monastery in Bavykinskogo Sarajevo area and construction of a bridge across the river? The most that on is good and the good work. We hope that such people exist, and they will respond and help in the reconstruction of this brilliant monument of the Orthodox culture in saraevschine. New bells are needed also for the tower! Post by Kyle Keeton Windows to Russia Related articles This morning at 5:30 a.m. I got up and found that the world outside was dark, dreary, foggy and wet! Then I decided to get up and Boza and I went outside to check on the wild creatures that wonder through our yard at times and the woods nearby. The world is full of creatures that like to check on us and tell us that they have lived here, much longer than we have Something happened before bedtime last night and I will talk about that in a minute * * * * * * * * * * First I will talk about what I found after we came back in to decided what we will do; Sleep some more or get coffee? I fired up the internet and made a cup of coffee, this is the same internet that had given me trouble the night before and as I was wondering if everything would work? For I had switched it back to the WiFi modem and was not sure that all would work as it had been. It worked and all was good Then I started my e-mail and found a couple of donations. Thus as I was humbled in happiness First I will thank everyone who is donating and want people to realize that this is extremely important for my survival in the Tiny Russian Village. I have been in Russia many years (10) and have spent most of the time recovering from six heart attacks in the U.S. and a brain tumor, that almost killed me through chemo and that helped bring on the heart attacks on top of everything These last few years I have finally recovered enough to kick a bunch more pills and get back in shape. I found a Russian village home owned by Svetochkas mother and the family has allowed me to stay in the village and actually live there most of the year. I have to leave and such at times, but most of my life is now in the Russian village My money that I had when I came to Russia all went to Svetas family for a purchase of a flat and that was all good. I could stay in Moscow for the rest of my life, but Moscow was really hard on this country boy and I was suffering and could never heal completely. Then I decided, with permission, to try living in the Tiny Russian Village. I started to heal and grow stronger everyday. I found an even better human living around me and in Moscow they are very good people, but in the village, they are deep old soul people and have accepted me with open arms. Just as Svetochka and her family has done in the past The reason that I am thoughtful upon this subject this morning is that I am trying to survive and get back on my feet. Sveta will sacrifice all she has for me, for she loves me deeply and I her. But at times people have to prove things to themselves and surviving in a Tiny Russian Village is not easy, at the best of times I have finally succeeded in starting a small online store. http://cellphoneofday.com/ This store is in Svetas name, for my country is virtually the only country in the world that abuses people who try to better themselves and taxing us who lives outside of America is their way of making us feel loved This store brings in enough for very basic living and anything more is out of reach. That is all fine and it is my choice to live in Russia and such. (Though Russia and her wonderful cheap healthcare has gotten me back on my feet and was worth coming here for.) Therefore, I am trying to build a base for surviving in Russia, if things go bad in the worst way. The store is a godsend and helps me accomplish the same as a pensioner in Russia and that I can live on. But no extra, like website domains and hosting costs; though dreaming is always there, as I work on the store and imagine, sales and good money to survive comfortably and not burden Svetochka and her family Thus, when I get a donation and the donation is not specific for something, I can put that donation to use to help ease the budget. I realized that the donations are important and it gives me a feel for who is reading and what they see. Though I never dreamed that I would ask for money, but in this world I live in now, my past does not pay anymore and my future is what I make of it. My government has sliced off any help it should give and that is fine, for it was my choice and I do not want ties to the Uncle Nipple of life and Liberty * * * * * * * * * * Emotions are funny things I cried when I received the donations this morning! I think it was because, yesterday, I was down and out with the weather and my arthritis has given me a fever. I spent yesterday chilled and burning up, all day long. I have a real issue with when my arthritis fares up and I wake in the night in sweats. It is hard on me and I have yet to figure out what to do. It is the main thing that the village does not help living in. Everything else is much better People send me suggestions, but nothing helps But here is why I cried * * * * * * * * * * Last night Boza and I heard a noise at bedtime. We went out to investigate and found Hooty the Hoot Owl sitting on top our biggest tree again. He was screeching at the top of his lungs and Boza decided to tell him to shut up and go away The owl started to screech at Boza and Boza was barking to beat the band. It was Boza, growling and jumping at the tree trunk and in the top of the tree, was the owl, flapping his wings and telling Boza to shut up also. I could hear at least four more Hoot Owls in the woods nearby and everyone was yelling at everyone else It was a real Three Ring Circus and was more fun than a barrel of monkeys dancing all around Then I had enough and yelled at everyone involved in this caper and off flew the owl, the woods got quiet and Boza went, ruff ruff one more time and with his tail curled over his back, went inside and said, Thanks dad we took care of that and time for bed now! Then this morning as I received the donations, I realized that there is nowhere else on earth that I want to be. That I have to make it somehow and every Hoot Owl, Hedge Hog, Fox, Rabbit and a hundred other things and its, are why I am healing and getting better everyday It is a miracle, for when you have been on the operating table, been in emergency rooms dying. When they have to hit you with those paddles to start your heart and operate to save your life. Then your outlook changes, the way you see things change I know that if I want to live a long life, I have to figure out how to make it here in this Tiny Russian Village and do it for myself * * * * * * * * * * I had tears in my eyes as I received a donation for an article I wrote awhile back. I said once to someone who wanted to blog, You write about what you love, you talk about what makes you who you are and they will come to read! You just have to be honest about what you say and what you do! My heart has been stolen by Russia and a little lady named Svetochka has been the catalyst that began that. I owe my heart and soul to Sveta and her saving my life at a time that was the darkest in which I had endured Somewhere in that time frame, Russia became my home WtR If youre looking to try out an online casino, there are several things that will help you make a decision. Heres what you should look for when choosing an online casino Are they regulated? A lot of the larger ones have licenses issued by the authorities in their respective regions, so its worth checking this first. Do they offer games from different software providers? Some casinos just use one software provider and limit your selection. This is fine if you like playing those types of games but you may want to check other casinos as well. What does their payout percentage look like? The payout rate refers to how much money you can expect to win after every bet. A high payout rate means youll be able to play more often without having to worry about losing all your money. 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As arteries, which carry blood from the heart to the rest of the body, a vital part of our circulatory system, become clogged from various causes such as fatty foods, smoking, or genetic tendencies, our bodies can cease to function properly. For years doctors have struggled to cure or prevent heart disease, but now thanks to advanced technologies and collaborations between medical experts and engineers, we may be closer than ever to finding the solution. Associate Professor Peter Barlis examines a 3-D printed heart artery. The ability to 3-D model the intricacies of the human heart are giving cardiologists incredible new insight into heart disease. All images CREDIT: The University of Melbourne Recently, a team of doctors and engineers from the University of Melbourne have collaborated in an effort to better understand and gain insight into human arteries by using 3D imaging and 3D printing technologies to recreate models of patients heart arteries. The information gained from the technology and the detailed 3D printed models of the arteries are also allowing doctors to create custom fitted stents, which are mesh tubes that are fitted into clogged or collapsing arteries to facilitate blood flow. The interventional cardiology team at St. Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, perform an angiogram procedure on a patient with heart disease. A tiny camera is fed through the artery to capture data that is then analyzed by engineers at the University of Melbourne. The imaging data used to create the detailed 3D models of a patients artery is captured by a super high-resolution camera no bigger than a human hair which is dispatched in the arteries during a routine angiogram. The imaging technique is known as optical coherence tomography or OCT and helps doctors to better understand blood flows and locate blocked areas. While an angiogram can capture a 2D mapping and imaging of the arteries, the doctors can now essentially 3D scan the interior of the artery to gain detailed insight into how much plaque or cholesterol might be blocking it. Once the images have been captured from inside the patients body, the data is sent to a supercomputer which generates an accurate 3D model of the arteries that can be 3D printed. Associate professor Barlis explains, Using our ultra-sensitive heart scans combined with models derived using supercomputers, we are now able to print out segments of the patients arteries and we hope to tailor devices to fit them perfectlyWeve gone to our engineers and created 3D models looking at a million data points in the artery. Were getting very useful data on potentially predicating sites within the arteries in the heart that may be prone to future complications. And much like debris accumulates along a riverbank, plaque can cling to certain areas of a persons artery. So this technology really gives us a clearer picture of those areas. Images captured from inside a heart artery using Optical Coherence Tomography technology. The 3D printing of the artery model is being done in association with the University of Wollongongs ARC Centre of Excellence in Electromaterials Science, which can have the artery additively manufactured within a day. As mentioned, the technology will currently be used to determine and create the best possible stent for a particular patient, but the team behind the recent technology have big aspirations for the future. As Associate professor Barlis explains, We ideally want to use the models to predict the best type of stent for a patient. Once this process is streamlined, we can have a patient on the table and an artery 3D printed and modelled to guide the procedure. In other words, they are hoping to develop the technology to the point where an artery model can be printed on the spot, during the actual surgery. Mechanical engineer Professor Andrew Ooi's team is using computer modelling to understand how 3D printed heart stents will affect blood flow in the artery. Picture: Paul Burston. Ultimately, the team of researchers are hoping to eventually be able to 3D print custom stents out of a biocompatible polymer so that they can be custom fitted and slowly disintegrate and even deliver drugs to the artery in the patients body. When someone has a heart attack its usually due to a blood clot forming, explains Dr. Thondapu, a medical doctor pursuing his PhD with Professor Barlis. We use stents to prop open the vessel, but these stents stay there permanently. The artery usually heals itself and turns into scar tissue and in the vast majority of cases, the vessel only needs a temporary scaffold, so we are very interested in new generation stents that can be absorbed. The research to develop these 3D printed biocompatible stents is currently underway, as Professor Barlis and his team of researchers have two Australian Research Council grants to pursue the work. Dr Thondapu predicts the technology will be widespread within just a few years. Posted in 3D Printing Application Maybe you also like: Feb 25, 2016 | By Tess 3D printing has been taking the fashion world by storm with designers engaging with the technology to create jewelry, handbags, shoes, and even garments. In the aftermath of New York Fashion Week F/W 2016, where we were stunned by all the 3D printed pieces that hit the runway, we thought what better way to celebrate than to put together a list of our favorite 3D printed dresses over the past few years. 1. Dita von Teese's 3D printed dress To start things off we thought we should pay homage to one of the first 3D printed dresses to really turn heads as it was designed for and worn by burlesque bombshell Dita von Teese. The 3D printed gown was unveiled in March of 2013 at the Ace Hotel in New York and was designed by Michael Schmidt and Francis Bitonti who collaborated with 3D printing service Shapeways to have the dress additively manufactured. Made up of seventeen 3D printed nylon pieces, the dress was dyed black and encrusted with over 13,000 Swarovski crystals to really make the stunning design sparkle. 2. 3D printed Parametric Sculpture Dress worn by Lady Gaga Months later in 2013, superstar Lady Gaga reminded the world of the potentials of 3D printed fashion by rocking Studio XOs edgy 3D printed Parametric Sculpture Dress made in association with Belgian 3D printing company Materialise. The 3D printed couture made a statement at the launch of ArtRave, her fourth headlining concert tour, and has continued to impress us up until the present. Lady Gaga has since dedicated herself to combining music, performance, and technology, which you can see here in her recent Grammy performance. 3. Iris van Herpens 3D printed dresses For those of you who may not know, Dutch designer Iris van Herpen was responsible for creating the first ever 3D printed garment to be walked down the runway in 2010, a skirt and top combination called Crystallization. Since then, she has continued to create groundbreaking 3D printed designs that have been influenced by such varied natural phenomenons as magnetism, skeletons, and crystals. Iris van Herpens 3D printed dresses have not only pioneered 3D printing in fashion, but to this day remain at the very fore of showing the amazing potentials of 3D printed wearables. 4. threeASFOUR 3D printed dresses SS 2016 Speaking of pioneers in the 3D printed dress game, New York based fashion collective threeASFOUR has certainly made a name for itself as one of the most innovative contemporary fashion labels out there today. The label, which was founded in 2005, has been using 3D printing in their designs since 2013, and certainly got our attention earlier in 2015 as they unveiled their Spring/Summer 2016 collection which featured an intricate and delicately designed 3D printed dress. 5. threeASFOUR's F/W 2016 collection featuring two black 3D printed dresses threeASFOUR also made headlines recently at New York Fashion Week for their Fall/Winter 2016 collection Biomimicry, a decidedly darker series of garments than their previously unveiled S/S 2016 collection. Their star pieces, two black 3D printed dresses made with extreme detail to texture and shape, were made using Stratasys Objet500 Connex3 3D printer, capable of multi-color, multi-material 3D printing. The pieces were absolutely stunning and reminded us what 3D printing can offer fashion designers that fabrics cannot. 6. Aiman Akhtar's LED sci-fi 3D printed dress While we have seen a number of fashion designers break into the world of 3D printing, it is not completely uncommon for makers and 3D designers to break into the world of fashion. Aiman Akhtar is one such case, as the professional 3D modeler designed and additively manufactured this brilliant 3D printed garment. The dress, which itself looks like something out of a sci-fi film or fantasy story, combines 3D printing with other technological elements such as LED lighting and optic fiber cables for an otherworldly and dazzling effect. 7. Ohne Titel's 3D printed dress Womenswear label Ohne Titels designs wowed audiences at NYFW F/W 2016 as they featured 3D printed clothes, but perhaps not in the way youd expect. Rather than 3D print the whole garment, the designers teamed up with Shapeways to create a sort of chainmail-like textile made from 3D printing small plastic rings and closures and connecting them using a more traditional knitting technique. 8. Danit Pelegs ready-to-wear 3d printed collection One of last years most exciting 3D printed projects was Danit Pelegs 3D printed ready-to-wear clothing collection, which she made using her own desktop 3D printer and FilaFlex filament. Though the collection consists of more than just 3D printed dressesa jacket, and shoes were also additively manufacturedPelegs designs use 3D printing to create amazing textures and pieces that I would be excited to wear out. 9. Alexis Walshs 3D printed Spire Dress One of our absolute favorites is Alexis Walshs 3D printed Spire Dress, which though admittedly is rather frugal in its skin coverage, is an excellent example of the unique creations 3D printing can enable. The 3D printed dress is made up of 400 individual 3D printed nylon pieces that are connected with small metal rings and its design was inspired by the tips of cathedral spires. The 3D printed wearable, which has been featured in 3D print shows, magazines, and music videos has most recently impressed audiences at this past NYFW. You might remember fashion label Chromat from their collaboration with Metalepsis to create edgy 3D printed jewelry, or their collaboration with Intel to create a 3D printed smart-sportsbra. Well, the innovative fashion label teamed up with Intel again in order to create the Adrenaline Dress, a 3D printed dress powered by Intels Curie Module that expands and retracts as the wearers adrenaline levels rise and fade. This of course takes us from purely 3D printed dresses into the realm of smart couture, two areas which are growing in tandem. The impressive and responsive 3D printed dress made from 3D printed panels and neoprene was unveiled at NYFW in September 2015. 11. Intels 3D printed smart dress In 2014, American tech company Intel created a 3D printed dress that blew our minds. Not only was the dress 3D printed, but it possessed technology that was capable of interacting with the wearers brain waves that changed the color of the dress through lights embedded in it. A real wearable mood ring! 12. Xuberance 3D printed wedding dresses Fashion is all about breaking boundaries, so when Shanghai based design studio Xuberance unveiled their two 3D printed wedding dresses last spring, we were swept off our feet. The dresses, made using SLS 3D printing technologies, combine a classic wedding gown look with the forward thinking tech aesthetic that we so love. 13. Anouk Wipprechts 3D printed Spider Dress Fashiontech designer Anouk Wipprecht crawled her way onto our list with her devastatingly beautiful and impressive 3D printed robotic dress, the Spider Dress 2.0. The 3D printed garment, resembling a sort of spider exoskeleton was made using SLS technology and is also embedded with an Intel Edison chip which allows the dress to move, effectively signalling that the wearer wants space. That is, the arm-like structures at the back of the dress move in tandem with the wearers breath: as the breath gets more intense, the arms spread out and act more aggressively as if to say give me space. 14. Nervous System's Kinematics flowing 3D printed dress For anyone who thought that 3D printed garments could only be stiff and uncomfortable, if none of the other items on the list have convinced you of their wearability, perhaps this flowing 3D printed dress designed by Nervous System will convince you. The dress was created in collaboration with Shapeways and their Kinematics Cloth 4D printing system, which allowed for the dress to be additively manufactured in one un-foldable piece, and now belongs to the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), a real triumph for 3D printed fashion. 15. Victorias Secret 3D printed corset Though not strictly a dress, we still wanted to include this stunning 3D printed corset made for the Victoria Secret runway show in December 2013. The 3D printed, crystal encrusted corset was made in collaboration with Shapeways and was specially made for Victorias Secret Angel Lindsay Ellingson with the help of 3D scanning technologies. Unveiled just before the holidays, the corset was snow themed and was made up of intricately designed snowflake motifs. Be sure to check out some of our other top roundups below: Posted in 3D Printing Application Maybe you also like: Feb 25, 2016 | By Benedict Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, parent company of Leica Geosystems, today announced the release of the new Leica Absolute Scanner LAS-20-8, a portable 3D laser scanner designed for large volume inspection applications. The scanner will work in tandem with the Leica Absolute Tracker AT960. The internationally recognized Leica brand is most commonly associated with its range of ultra-desirable, high-end cameras. Once part of the same company, Leicas three main operational groups, Camera, Microsystems, and Geosystems, gradually parted ways throughout the 1990s. Now owned by Hexagon, Leica Geosystems is forming a reputation within the surveying and geographical measurement industry to match that of its photographic ex-brother, with its newly unveiled LAS-20-8 3D scanner showcasing some impressive features and specifications, as well as a bold new design. Designed to be used in tandem with the Leica Absolute Tracker AT960, the new LAS-20-8 3D scanner has been optimized for portable metrology applications requiring effective measurement volumes up to 196.85 ft. The 3D scanner has a convenient battery power option and holds an IP50 Ingress Protection rating, meaning it is resistant to limited dust ingress but not protected from liquids. The scanner is therefore suitable for use anywhere on the factory floor or in the field. An important addition to Leicas new 3D scanner is its introduction of haptic technology, giving users added feedback during operation to complement existing acoustic and visual guidance. Users can select pre-set measurement profiles with a pull of the scanners trigger. Settings range from an 8" wide scan line for maximum coverage of large surfaces to a small scan line with up to 13 micron point spacing for small complex surface geometry. Additionally, the new scanner features an auto-adjustable laser intensity for different surface types. The LAS-20-8 synchronizes automatically with existing Leica products such as the Absolute Tracker AT960 and T-Probe, and uses the same software interface as Hexagons ROMER Absolute Arm product line, making the 3D laser scanner highly compatible with existing systems. With the Leica Absolute Scanner LAS-20-8, we wanted to create an affordable handheld laser scanner that delivers results every time without complex setups or training needs, said Joel Martin, Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, Laser Tracker Product Manager. Alongside the Leica T-Scan 5, our high-speed laser scanner for feature-rich inspections or use with robotic and automated systems, LAS-20-8 enables us to offer an easily scalable laser scanning solution for any large-volume measurement application. The LAS-20-8 is ideally suited to automotive sheet metal, aerospace mold tools, large industrial castings and more, and can be used on intricate workpieces, even those with dark or shiny metallic materials. According to Hexagon, its new product minimizes training requirements, enabling novice operators to scan worry-free with confidence. Although its price is not listed, Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence states that it should be "an affordable handheld laser scanner." The Leica Absolute Scanner LAS-20-8 is now available to order worldwide, with shipment commencing immediately. Posted in 3D Scanning Maybe you also like: Mark Lilla in the NYRB: While the political class fumbled, the French economy remained dangerously stalled. At 10 percent, the unemployment rate is the highest in twenty years and one of the highest in Europe. (The German unemployment rate is 6 percent, the lowest in twenty years.) Half of those out of work have been so for at least a year. The Hollande government recognizes that structural reforms (such as changes in working hours) are needed but is stymied by the opposition of unions, Socialist members of Parliament, and the wider public, which is economically conservative, attached to its suffocating web of small privileges, and ready to resist forcibly if provoked. (It must be added that EU debt policies have exacerbated the problem by preventing the government from further stimulating growth and investing in public works.) In October Air France employees protesting a company plan to reduce its workforce broke into negotiations and attacked two company officials, who were saved by their union counterparts. Pictures of fleeing businessmen with their clothes in shreds were on every front page. In June taxi drivers with medallions shut down parts of Paris and the airport in protests against nonunionized drivers for Uber, beating several up and smashing a number of their cars. Under this pressure the Constitutional Court shortly thereafter ruled illegal one of Ubers most popular services. The forward-looking finance minister, Emmanuel Macron, fully measures the cost of Frances economic failure and has called for major reforms. All he has been able to obtain, though, is an absurdly modest package that could be passed only by using a complicated constitutional maneuver that obviated the need for a parliamentary vote. The law increases slightly the number of Sundays that stores can open and the evening hours workers can work, and simplifies the labyrinthine process for getting a drivers license so that young people can get to jobs. Long-distance bus companies can finally compete with the national train system on major routes, and some closed, archaic legal professions that date to the ancien regime will be opened up. After months of hysterical doomsaying, these were the only changes. The psychological barriers to further changesuch as extending the standard thirty-five hour workweek or simplifying the countrys labor code that makes hiring and firing a nightmareare high. A poll last year found that over two thirds of the French support allowing more stores to open on Sundays. Less than half, though, say they would be willing to work on those days. Perversely, this paralysis swells the ranks of potential National Front voters, even though the party has no economic policy to speak of. So does perceived paralysis in dealing with immigration and refugee issues. In fact, France has accepted relatively few asylum-seekers from Syria and Iraq, and rejects their applications at nearly three times the rate of other European nations. But this is not the public perception. One reason is the long-festering situation in the so-called jungle of Calais. For a decade and a half now France has had to deal with large waves of illegal migrants, from Albanians to Kuwaiti Bedouins, who are trying to make their way to Britain and find employment. (Given the dire economic situation, they have no interest in remaining in France.) Several large encampments have grown up near the Calais Chunnel entrance and every night anywhere from a dozen to a thousand of the mainly young men try to sneak through on foot or hide in the trucks in line. Some die trying. Its a police nightmare and a humanitarian disaster. More here. Tim Crane at the Times Literary Supplement: Among all twentieth-century thinkers, Ludwig Wittgenstein stands out as the one whose life fascinates almost as much as his work does. Even the life of Martin Heidegger, with his controversial Nazi connections and his later attempt to live the authentic life of a peasant, looks dull and suburban by comparison. Wittgenstein was born in 1889 into one of Austrias richest families. His father was a self-made industrialist who built his fortune in iron and steel; his mother came from a Prague Jewish family. Ludwig was the youngest of eight siblings he had three sisters and four brothers. Tragedy hit the family again and again. Three of Ludwigs brothers committed suicide. The fourth, Paul, was a concert pianist who lost his right arm in the First World War and later commissioned works for the left hand from Ravel, Prokofiev, Paul Hindemith and Erich Korngold. (Music figured significantly in the familys life: Brahms, Mahler and Richard Strauss were among the composers who heard their works performed at the Wittgenstein house in Vienna.) Ludwig originally studied engineering, first in Berlin and then in Manchester, where he became interested in the design of aeroplane propellors. At this time he developed a deep interest in mathematics and its foundations. Having studied the ground-breaking works of philosophy of mathematics by Bertrand Russell and Gottlob Frege, he visited Frege in Jena who advised him to study with Russell in Cambridge. Wittgenstein turned up, unannounced, at Russells rooms in Trinity College in October 1911, and discussed philosophy with Russell regularly over the next few months. Russell wrote to Ottoline Morrell that his Austrian engineer was rather good but very argumentative and tiresome. But Russell was sufficiently impressed to accept Wittgenstein as a student at Cambridge in 1912. Wittgenstein had a huge impact on the intellectual scene there, but throughout his life he claimed to dislike Cambridge and preferred to spend time writing and thinking in remote, isolated places (Norway and Ireland were favourites). more here. Jacob Mikanowski in The Point: One summer, my Polish aunt flew out to visit me in Chicago from Warsaw. Restless by nature and inspired by the breadth of the American plains, she decided to go on a road trip to the great industrial cities of the Middle West. She came back amazed. Detroit made the biggest impression on her. You wouldnt believe what a state its in. She proceeded to show me a roll of photographs she had shot there: empty factories, stained smokestacks, gutted mansions, whole streets on which every house was either boarded up or collapsing. I think the vacant lots impressed her the most, the sense they gave of a city draining itself of life, undergoing a kind of devolution, reverting step by step into squares of rubble and green fields. How could they just leave it like thatabandon a whole city? I didnt know what to tell her. I didnt want to tell my aunt that I had seen it all, and more, before, in magazine spreads, on Instagram, in Flickr portfolios, as a backdrop to movies and in glossy photo books like Andrew Moores Detroit Disassembled and The Ruins of Detroit by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. And I certainly didnt want to tell her that the photos she was taking were now seen as something morally and politically dubious, examples of what has come to be known as ruin porn. More here. Philip Carl Salzman in Inference: The men surrounding me, in turbans, beards, long jamag shirts, and baggy shalwar pants, asked, How big is your tribe? They thought it must be large and powerful, to provide security for me so far from home. One asked, Is America farther than Tehran? It was just about fifty years ago that I picked up a Land Rover at the factory in England, drove across Europe, Turkey, and Iran, to take up residence in Iranian Baluchistan, on the border with Pakistan. After much support from Nezar Mahmud, the brother of the chief of the Shah Nawazi (formerly Yarahmadzai) tribe, I set up my baby blue canvas tent at the end of the line of black goat-hair tents of the Dadolzai brother-lineage, or brasrend. Descent-based groups were described by the termrend, literally meaning line, encompassing lineages of all sizes, from small families up to the tribe itself. In this desertic, treeless land, we were surrounded by stony and sandy plains, and craggy, black volcanic hills, with the active volcano Kuh-e Taftan looming in the background. When I told the men that we did not have tribes or lineages, they were puzzled. But what do you do if someone attacks you? We go to the police. They burst out laughing. Who would defend you against the police? they wondered out loud. They knew that the police in Iran did not work for them; they worked for the stateand for themselves, of course. More here. How to watch and what to know about South Dakota State at North Dakota SDSU Half Year Results Announcement Sydney, Feb 25, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Blackmores Limited ( ASX:BKL ) has announced continued momentum across its business delivering $48 million net profit after tax (NPAT) for the first half of the financial year, up 160% on the prior corresponding period. The first half profit result exceeds the total profit last year, which was already a strong period. Highlights - Group sales of $341 million for the first half, up 65% on prior corresponding period - First half net profit after tax $48 million, up 160% and earnings per share of 280 cents, up 159% - Strong financial position with a positive net cash balance - Interim dividend of 200 cents per share (fully franked), a 194% increase on the prior corresponding period The results are driven by continued growth from all segments and all markets with first half sales of $341 million, up 65% on last year's first half. "China, in particular, continues to grow in importance with sales to Chinese consumers, both direct and through Australian retailers, estimated to represent 40% of Group revenues," said Blackmores Chief Executive Officer, Ms Christine Holgate. "Excluding these China sales, we are pleased that both the Group and our core Australian business are still in double digit growth." Blackmores Australia sales for the period were $238 million, a 73% increase compared to the prior corresponding period with earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of $64 million. Sales to retailers in Australia have been bolstered by Chinese tourists and entrepreneurs, as well as from continued innovation and marketing activity. This included the launch of a Superfood range, the opening of a flagship store, education programs and digital marketing. Blackmores Asia direct in-market sales were $61 million, a 73% increase compared to the prior corresponding period. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) from the region were $5.8 million, more than three times the prior corresponding period, highlighting the increasing profitability of the Asian business. "The strength of the brand and proven demand for our products was reflected in sales growth in all of our markets in Asia," said Christine Holgate. BioCeuticals sales were $33 million, up 24% compared to the prior corresponding period with EBIT of $5 million. The business has a continued focus on delivering new product innovation, professional advice and a commitment to servicing healthcare practitioners. Blackmores New Zealand and Pure Animal Wellbeing also continued to demonstrate improved sales and earnings performances. "Blackmores Institute has supported the expansion of Blackmores in Asia given the importance of education and knowledge underpinning the presence of our product range in new markets and the need to educate health care professionals," said Christine Holgate. "This was furthered in the period with a partnership agreement with Rangsit University in Bangkok to expand its pharmacy education program." Total Group expenses grew 53%, to $273 million, predominantly reflecting the increase of raw materials and freight needed to support the strong growth. "Meeting the needs of our consumers and the growing demand for our products has been our most important challenge, particularly given our commitment to uphold unrivalled quality standards," said Christine Holgate. "As well as working closely with our growers and ingredient suppliers, we have invested in additional plant and equipment to increase capacity. Combined with the addition of a third production and distribution shift, this has resulted in record productivity for the Group." "Our partnership with Bega Cheese Ltd ( ASX:BGA ) to develop and manufacture a range of nutritional foods made exciting progress in the half, resulting in the early launch of an infant nutrition range in January 2016," said Ms Holgate, noting that there are no sales for this new segment included in the first half reporting period. "We continue to invest in new platforms for growth and strategic partners including a long-term joint venture with Kalbe Farma to facilitate entry into the Indonesian market," said Ms Holgate. The joint venture is called Kalbe Blackmores Nutrition and will be consolidated into the Group's results, though there were no significant transactions during the period. The Blackmores balance sheet is in a healthy position, with positive operating cash flow at $60 million compared to $29 million in the prior corresponding period. Net debt was cash positive at $23 million with net interest cover at 50 times, compared to 21 times in the prior corresponding period. "Our continued success has further strengthened our balance sheet with Blackmores now net debt free," said Ms Holgate. "We are proud to be able to give our shareholders a 159% increase in earnings per share and a first half dividend of 200 cents, almost treble last year's first half dividend." DIVIDEND The Board has declared an interim dividend of 200 cents fully franked, which is an increase of 194% compared to the prior corresponding period. The record date is 10 March 2016 and the dividend is payable on 24 March 2016. OUTLOOK "We are pleased with our continued growth and progress on delivering our strategic objectives," said Ms Holgate. "Our core business in Australia, New Zealand and the ASEAN region continues to enjoy double digit growth, while our emerging business in China has further propelled our success. We have strong, experienced leadership in China and have structured our operations to ensure a sustainable future." "The Board maintains its confidence in our ability to achieve strong profit growth for the full year." About Blackmores Limited Blackmores Limited (ASX:BKL) (OTCMKTS:BLMMF) is Australia's leading natural health brand. Its quality range of vitamin, minerals, herbal and nutritional supplements, and continued support of the community and environment, are among the many reasons Blackmores is the most trusted name in natural health. Signs 2,000 Tonne Rock Phosphate Sales Agreement Perth, Feb 25, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Fertoz Ltd ("Fertoz" or the "Company") ( ASX:FTZ ) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a sales agreement to sell 2,000 tonnes of rock phosphate to a fertilizer manufacturer and distributor. It is expected that supply of the product will occur early in third quarter this year with the view that additional sales may occur after this point. Stephen Keith, Managing Director, stated "We are please d to be able to commence delivering on our commitment to sell 10,000 tonnes of rock phosphate this calendar year. It is encouraging that we have signed an agreement that achieves 20% of our targeted sales so early in the year. This sale provides support that we have the right business model in the right market at the right time. This sale, combined with our newly appointed Director and our recently announced sales and marketing partnership, indicate our focus on developing our projects with a view towards long term sustainability and cash flow." About Fertoz Ltd Fertoz (ASX:FTZ) is an Australian-based phosphate exploration and development company with a range of projects in British Columbia, Canada as well as Queensland and the Northern Territory. The Company is focused on becoming a fertiliser producer as quickly as possible, initially focusing on the Canadian/USA markets. Fertoz plans to develop its exploration assets in Canada in order to identify any potential Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) projects. It intends to seek joint venture partners to assist in funding the exploration projects in Australia. Phosphate is a commodity necessary for feeding the world, and Fertoz is ready to capitalise on this growing demand. ACAs library of educational tools help members improve their business practices. ACA also holds the most popular industry conferences and offers credentialing for collectors, attorneys, and more. ACAs Training Zone subscription gives agencies access to almost all of our education for one low cost. Industry body the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has urged the Parliament to pass the crucial GST Bill in the forthcoming budget session of Parliament. The industry body has said that the smooth passage of GST Bill is crucial for the success of mega economic and social projects, especially Digital India and Start-up India. The GST Bill, which subsumes all indirect taxes to create one rate and integrate the country into a single market, is the biggest tax reform that is being undertaken since Independence, but is pending approval of the Rajya Sabha. The Digital India plan is about connecting, empowering and enabling citizens and encouraging local electronic manufacturing. Similarly, Start-Up India is focused on promoting entrepreneurship, and through small entrepreneurs, generating employment. Local manufacturing, NoFN, e-Gov, as a part of Digital India, where private sector is involved, crucially rests on the successful passage of GST bill in Parliament, which seeks to create one market through one tax system. Similarly, start-ups, online market places, and other online service providers, all require a single market plan. According to IAMAI, the extant tax structure of India is heavily fragmented, with multiple indirect taxes levied by different authorities at different stages of a transaction. Fiscal federalism has led to different procedures and rates of VAT and other forms of LBTs across the states. This creates logistical challenges for the industry, besides giving rise to compliance related complications. Conflict of interests between tax authorities in case of inter-state transaction is a major pain point for the industry today. GST will help the digital industry business model flourish by providing uniformity in tax rates and regulations across the country. This will help doing business in India easier, allow free-play to market dynamics and allow deeper penetration of these services. Also, much of the developments in the digital industry are disruptive innovations. Business models like online platforms, aggregators, etc are essentially services provided by intermediaries. Such services are revolutionising the existing markets of both goods and services. Thus, online ticketing services or e-tailing are providing newer modes of access for consumers to existing goods and services. The digital industry unequivocally stands for the smooth passage of GST and hopes that the bill will be passed in the upcoming budget session, as any further delay will push back the transformative projects of the government. Havas Media Group India has won the integrated media mandate of Amplifon India, a leading hearing care service provider. The madate comes post a keenly fought multi-agency pitch in which the leading agencies participated. For Havas Media, this win comes on the back of a stellar new business performance in 2015 where it won more than Rs 300 crore of new business. With over 60 years of experience in treating hearing disorders, Amplifon provides client care in hearing loss diagnosis and treatment. The largest hearing care service provider in the world, Amplifon is spread across 22 countries and has more than 5,500 clinics across the globe. On awarding the duties to Havas Media, Samit Verma, CEO, Amplifon India, said, We were impressed with Havas Medias strategic thinking and passion. With their keen interest in our business and senior management involvement, the course has been set for a long term relationship. Shveta Paul, Marketing Director, Amplifon India, added here, We were looking for a partner who could give us strategic directions and international learnings. Havas gave us both. Besides that, we found their Meaningful Connections Planning process very relevant for our brand. We are happy to be partnering with them. Commenting on the win, Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media Group, India and South Asia, said, We are privileged to win the prestigious Amplifon business. Our Meaningful Brands philosophy resonates with a brand like theirs - which has already touched many lives. We look forward to a meaningful association with them. Mohit Joshi, Managing Director, Havas Media Group, India, added here, This is a great business win. With each passing day, our confidence on our Digital At the Core approach keeps getting stronger. Today Havas is seen as a SMART agency in the matket. We look forward to being Amplifons partners in their growth journey. The account will be handled from the agency's Gurgaon office. Former joint secretary (broadcasting) in the information and broadcasting ministry Supriya Sahu & Fayyaz Sheheryar who holds all the additional charge for two years have been given the tag of full time Director-General of Doordarshan and All India Radio respectively. Prasar Bharati interviewed 10 candidates and selected two posts and have submitted to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for final appointment. Although the official announcement is to be made said the source. As the composition of the board wasnt complete the interviews for the post of Full Time Director General couldnt be completed. After the appointment of two members the board is now complete. 24 year old Tamilian Sahu in October 2011, was appointed as the joint secretary of ministry of broadcasting was earlier a district collector of the nilgiris where she was the face behind the Say no to plastics campaign. Sheheryar joined AIR in 1981 post that he was labelled as the senior officer of the Indian broadcasting service. At radio Kashmir he served as the station director Today Google and TechHub announce their global partnership, bringing more opportunities to TechHubs 700+ tech startups around the world. TechHub, the global community for tech entrepreneurs, announced that their partnership with Google for Entrepreneurs will benefit startups from India for the first time. Google supports TechHubs work to help hundreds of tech companies scale up their businesses. Now TechHub members in Bangalore, other TechHub locations of Riga and Bucharest, plus Madrid, Warsaw and London will have access to programmes and assistance from Google, including Google mentors, the Google for Entrepreneurs international demo days, GFE Exchange and Google Cloud Platform credits for qualifying startups. Elizabeth Varley, TechHubs global Co-founder and CEO said, We are excited to bring this partnership to India to increase TechHubs support to Indian startups. In Bangalore we see a huge variety of startups creating innovative products, and we want to help them succeed both in India and all around the world. TechHub and Google for Entrepreneurs is a strong partnership that will empower Indian entrepreneurs to go global from the very beginning. David Grunwald, Google for Entrepreneurs Head of EMEA Partnerships said We are excited to expand our work with TechHub beyond Google for Entrepreneurs's Campus network, where we have collaborated successfully over a number of years. TechHub's 'community first' values and their focus on supporting founders and startups with education and programs align perfectly with the goals of Google for Entrepreneurs." TechHubs community is global: members hail from 60+ countries and every member can access Googlers in six international cities. TechHub membership gives each entrepreneur access to every TechHub in the world and all the programmes and opportunities available there including flagship events like Startup Funeral, and the monthly TechHubTuesday Demo Night. Around a third of members base their teams full time in one of TechHubs spaces, with the majority of members accessing the benefits of TechHub through its rich programme designed to help startups face the challenges of building and growing a global tech company. Elizabeth Varley, TechHubs global Co-founder and CEO said TechHub continuously works to improve the way we support entrepreneurs through every part of the startup lifecycle - idea to exit. Our programme helps founders deal with challenges at the different stages of developing their company and product, whether its their first time or fifth time starting a company. TechHub and Google for Entrepreneurs have the same approach - using both relationships and data to truly understand startups. Talking about the TechHub and Google #GoGlobal message, TechHub Madrid member Miguel Elizondo, Co-founder and CEO of Festrip said: From the very beginnings of Festrip, we have firmly believed that the only way to succeed is to go global. As soon as we learnt of TechHub Madrid, we wanted to be one of the first Spanish companies to join their community... and we made it! Our expectations have been surpassed. TechHub has provided us with a great, inspiring space full of potential partners and advisors, and have put the knowhow of their network to work for us. Thanks to this, we have closed deals in Madrid and London, with more in the coming months. TechHub and Google for Entrepreneurs hosted partnership launch celebrations at TechHub Bangalore on Wednesday, February 24, 2016. Kadena launches Pacific region's first MC-130J five-ship formation flight Instead of the usual howl of jet engines, members of Kadena Air Base heard the growl of 120 turboprop blades chopping the air as the 17th Special Operations Squadrons MC-130J Commando IIs dominated the airfield scene Feb. 17. Within an hour of standing by at stations, the aircraft took to the skies during the Pacific region's first five-ship formation flight involving the new specialized mobility aircraft. The formation was part of the 353rd Special Operations Group's training exercise that tested the 17th SOS and the 353rd Special Operations Maintenance Squadron to launch a short-notice, large-scale tasking. "We routinely fly two ships, but we mobilized five ships to test our ability to generate aircraft in full force, to make sure our maintenance can support that, and to make sure we can do the planning in case we are ever asked to fly a large formation," said Maj. Brad Talley, the 17th SOS assistant director of operations. As part of that assessment, team members evaluated their formation flying and short runway landings; combat systems operators tested their cargo air drop timing; and loadmasters tested their cargo delivery system rigging abilities. "We mobilized all available personnel in the squadron to execute this mission, while all five planes were able to accomplish all cargo drops, land in a small landing zone, maintain formation, and return safely," Talley said. Though the team successfully accomplished the exercise objectives, it wasn't a simple process. Despite complex procedures, the 17th SOS Jakal team members overcame the challenges to ensure mission completion. "The most difficult portion was the planning and safe execution of the mission, since most of our squadron isn't used to that level of de-confliction complexity," said Senior Airman Zach Harmon, a 17th SOS MC-130J Commando II loadmaster. To Talley, the best part of the mission was seeing the whole team fly together and build camaraderie. "My favorite part was flying in close formation with all my Jakal brethren, exploring various formation geometries, and seeing how well each crew flew," Talley said. The 17th SOS was activated as a permanent unit at Kadena AB on Aug. 1, 1989, and is instrumental in carrying out wartime and contingency operations in support of U.S. and allied special operations forces. The 17th SOS began the transition from the MC-130P Combat Shadows to the MC-130J Commando IIs in Dec. 2014, with the latest aircraft arriving on Kadena in Oct. 2015. Technological advances allow the Commando II to set new standards for safety and accuracy in executing clandestine missions. The new aircraft specializes in nighttime, low-level infiltration/exfiltration and resupply of special operations forces as well as air refueling missions for special operations vertical lift aircraft. The 353rd SOG, made up of more than 800 Airmen, is the only Air Force Special Operations Command unit in the Pacific and is integral to AFSOC. The group conducts wartime and contingency operations planning and execution as well as humanitarian and relief operations, all the while maintaining global mobility readiness for special forces around the world. Fifty-three company grade officers and one major have been selected for the Air Force's Undergraduate Flying Training program.The UFT annual selection board convened in January to consider active-duty candidates for the program. Those selected will attend pilot, remotely piloted aircraft, combat systems officer or air battle manager training."The board members evaluated each officer based on their officer performance record, the pilot candidate selection method test score, and the Air Force Officer Qualification Test score," said Maj. Chris Russell, an F-15 assignments chief.Pilot training candidates will attend specialized undergrad pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi; Vance AFB, Oklahoma; or Laughlin AFB, Texas.RPA selectees will attend training at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. ABM candidates will attend training at Tyndall AFB, Florida, and CSO candidates will attend training at Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida."The UFT selection board was extremely competitive this year." said Maj. Stephen Barbour, the air battle manager and air liaison officer assignments chief. "There was an abundance of quality applicants with increased interest in the RPA selection."For more information about the UFT program, visit the Air Force Special Flying Programs section in myPers.For more information about Air Force personnel program go to the myPers website . Individuals who do not have a myPers account can request one by following the instructions on the Air Force Retirees Services website Buddy Wing 16-2 takes flight over Osan skies The 51st Fighter Wing hosted Buddy Wing 16-2 at Osan Air Base Feb. 22-25, showcasing Airmen from the 25th Fighter Squadron and Aircraft Maintenance Unit. South Korean air force pilots and maintainers from the 237th FS at Wonju Air Base, traveled to Osan AB in a continued effort to support the alliance. The Buddy Wing exercise creates an opportunity to share knowledge and discuss and improve processes that can be tactically developed by both (South Korean air force) KA-1 and U.S. Air Force A-10 (Thunderbolt II) pilots, said Maj. Hwang, Jung-hwan, a 237th FS pilot. This Buddy Wing will grant an opportunity for us to prepare and be ready to cope with unexpected situations we have never experienced in person by performing practical training where our (South Korean air force) may lack. Members participating in Buddy Wing 16-2 trained to build relationships and broaden their knowledge of working in a joint environment with continued training operations aimed at deterring enemy aggression. U.S. Air Force A-10s from the 25th FS integrated with South Korean air force KA-1 Woongbi fighter aircraft from the 237th FS to perform close air support missions. Buddy Wing is conducted quarterly to integrate and conduct joint, combined missions, said 1st Lt. Samantha Latch, a 25th FS A-10 pilot. As we fly and train together, not only are we getting to know them, but were increasing our capability to work together. After 62 years, the South Korean and U.S. alliance continues to be one of the longest standing and successful alliances in modern history. Exercises such as Buddy Wing, along with other combined operations and training events, add to the continued success. The exercise promotes mutual understanding and motivation to maintain a strong alliance between (South Korea) and U.S., Hwang said. Buddy Wing 16-2 is the second in a series of joint training, combat exercises conducted in 2016 across the peninsula. Cody gives enlisted perspective at AFA Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James A. Cody spoke to a room of Airmen and civilians about todays generation of Airmen and their families during the Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium Feb. 25. Codys theme, Why we serve, gave substance, emotion and purpose to his talk that reflected on 25 years of continuous combat operations and highlighted stories of Airmen who continue to serve today. I always love how (Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III) always says, Without airpower, you lose, and I always like to finish that and without Airmen, there is no airpower, Cody said. Its really important to remember that. We can have all this stuff, but without our Airmen, it doesnt happen. The Air Force has seen continuous combat for the past 25 years. The men and women who serve in todays Air Force, most of whom joined after 9/11, are more engaged around the globe than back in 1991, but with fewer people, Cody mentioned. You go from 134 combat-coded fighter squadrons to 55, Cody said. You go from about 946,000 active, Guard, Reserve, civilian Airmen down to about 664,000, yet we are more engaged today. That puts a tremendous toll on our people; it puts a tremendous toll on their families, and its put a tremendous toll on our country. Cody went on to ask the question, Who are these Airmen and why do they serve? When you think about this dynamic, its unlike any other dynamic that has existed in our history of (people answering) the call to service, so you have to get to know them a bit, Cody said. It really reconnects you to why its important, what we do and talk about here, because at some given point we are going to bring it right back to these men and women. Cody went on to highlight some of the Airmen and family members from across the Air Force who he had the chance to meet, saying thats what really motivates and inspires him. Its great what we are able to do for our country; its great what we represent globally, but nothing is better than the men and women that do it for us and do it with us, Cody said. We are a family. Were in this together and we will need each other to get through some of (the hard) times. What a great testament to what it means to serve. Beyond just doing great things for our country, you are doing it for the people who put this uniform on with you. Cody answered questions from the crowd regarding military pay, retirement, healthcare, promotion testing and deployment dwell time. He ended his speech by awarding Airmen from the geospatial intelligence analyst career field the 2016 Etchberger Team of the Year Award, named after Chief Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger, the most recent enlisted Medal of Honor recipient who was killed in action on March 11, 1968, at Lima Site 85 in Laos. Our Airmen are proud; they are really, really proud of what they represent, Cody said. They understand that it actually is a privilege to put this uniform on. It is always an honor for me to represent them to the secretary and to the chief and certainly to our elected officials to let them know exactly what it is that each of them do and what their families do in service to their country. The distinct sound of helicopters hovering mixed with the roar of jet engines and automatic weapons fire from a nearby range filled the air on a cool, sunny day in southeast Georgia. Busy crews jointly worked to accomplish their tasks, while in a simulated deployed environment. Members from the 315th Airlift Wings Airlift Control Flight initiated Patriot Sands, a training exercise that kicked off here Feb. 17. The exercise incorporated the resources of several ALCF (pronounced: al-sif) units as well as affiliate agencies such as the FBIs Rapid Response Team and the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team. ALCF is a rapid response unit comprised of experienced airlift and operations team members. This includes Airmen from nine Air Force career fields, who manage, coordinate and control air mobility assets in austere locations under combat conditions. Unit members are ready to deploy to any part of the world in 36 hours. Exercises like Patriot Sands are essential to our mission, said Maj. John Ramsey, 315th ALCF Swampfox commander. The pilots get to experience heavier loads than they normally do. The aerial porters get to work away from their home station, which helps them develop their skills. The loadmasters get operational experience with rolling stock, which isnt normal to their everyday mission. And finally, we get the chance to practice and train on our mission set, which is setting up an airfield where we are able to handle the command and control of aircraft. For Team Charleston, the exercise started at Joint Base Charleston, where they loaded a C-17 Globemaster III, piloted by a crew from the 317th Airlift Squadron, and flew to Hunter AF, Savannah, Georgia. This type of training is an excellent example of how we stay mission ready and mission focused, said Col. Caroline Evernham, 315th AW operations group commander and pilot. The ALCF works hard with their affiliates to ensure they are trained and ready to prepare their equipment for transport at any time. The efficiencies gained from this week's training will help us when we really need it." It directly supports ALCFs war mission, said Lt. Col. Mark Laverne, the aircraft commander and 317th AS pilot. We are conducting currency training for the pilots and the loadmasters are getting some check-rides, all while providing mobility for their training. One of the main items that the Swampfoxes loaded onto the C-17 for the training was a large, tan-in-color container, which was a hardside expandable light air mobility shelter or HELAMS for short. The HELAMS, once set in its desired location, transforms from a plain box to a fully expanded and functional command and control center with doors, windows and electricity. This workspace is then used to house the communications equipment and gear needed for ALCFs operational readiness. Other than the hands-on training that ALCF receives from setting up their equipment during the exercise, team members also benefit from the affiliate agencies that they have partnered with to accomplish their training objectives. We make sure that the sister services and Department of Defense affiliates are current and ready for a real-world missions, said Master Sgt. Mark Schmidt, 315th ALCF Operations NCO in charge. ALCF teaches the FBI and other affiliate agencies to properly prepare their equipment for air mobility, Schmidt said. This includes the standardization of weighing, fuelling, packing, cleaning, inspecting and sorting of their equipment so that its ready to load when the aircraft gets on station. Patriot Sands is an annual Air Force Reserve Command exercise for ALCF to train in accordance with their designed operational capability mission statement to deploy as a contingency response element. The exercise is scheduled to last for five days. The exercise involved other ALCF units from the 512th Airlift Wing at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, and the 439th AW at Westover Air Reserve Base, Massachusetts. These units then operated from Hunter, Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida, and Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida. Other participants of the exercise included the following: 38th Aerial Port Squadron at JB Charleston, 46th APS at Dover AFB, 58th APS at Westover ARB, FBI Rapid Deployment Teams from Washington, D.C., New York, Miami, U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team from Norfolk, Virginia, Florida Advanced Surgical Transport Team from Miami, Urban Search and Rescue Team from Miami and 302nd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade at Westover ARB. AF rapid response unit enhances their skills during Patriot Sands The distinct sound of helicopters hovering, mixed with the roar of jet engines and automatic weapons fire from a nearby range, filled the air on a cool, sunny day in southeast Georgia. Members from the 315th Airlift Wings Airlift Control Flight (ALCF) took part in Patriot Sands, a training exercise that kicked off Feb. 17 at Hunter Army Airfield. The exercise incorporated the resources of several ALCF units, as well as affiliate agencies such as the FBIs Rapid Response Team and the Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team. ALCF is a rapid response unit comprised of experienced airlift and operations team members. This includes Airmen from nine Air Force career fields, who manage, coordinate and control air mobility assets in austere locations under combat conditions. Unit members are ready to deploy to any part of the world in 36 hours. Exercises like Patriot Sands are essential to our mission, said Maj. John Ramsey, the 315th ALCF commander. The pilots get to experience heavier loads than they normally do. The aerial porters get to work away from their home station, which helps them develop their skills. The loadmasters get operational experience with rolling stock, which isnt normal to their everyday mission. And finally, we get the chance to practice and train on our mission set, which is setting up an airfield where we are able to handle the command and control of aircraft. For 315th ALCF members, the exercise started at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, where they loaded a C-17 Globemaster III, piloted by a crew from the 317th Airlift Squadron, and flew to Hunter AF. This type of training is an excellent example of how we stay mission ready and mission focused, said Col. Caroline Evernham, the 315th Operations Group commander. The ALCF works hard with their affiliates to ensure they are trained and ready to prepare their equipment for transport at any time. The efficiencies gained from this week's training will help us when we really need it." One of the main items loaded onto the C-17 for the training was a large, tan-in-color container -- a hardside expandable light air mobility shelter (HELAMS). The HELAMS, once set in its desired location, transforms from a plain box to a fully expanded and functional command and control center with doors, windows and electricity. This workspace is then used to house the communications equipment and gear needed for ALCFs operational readiness. Other than the hands-on training that ALCF receives from setting up their equipment during the exercise, team members also benefit from the affiliate agencies that they have partnered with to accomplish their training objectives. We make sure that the sister services and Department of Defense affiliates are current and ready for a real-world missions, said Master Sgt. Mark Schmidt, 315th ALCF Operations NCO in charge. ALCF teaches the FBI and other affiliate agencies to properly prepare their equipment for air mobility, Schmidt said. This includes the standardization of weighing, fueling, packing, cleaning, inspecting and sorting of their equipment so that its ready to load when the aircraft gets on station. Patriot Sands is an annual Air Force Reserve Command exercise for ALCF to train in accordance with their designed operational capability mission statement to deploy as a contingency response element. The exercise is scheduled to last for five days. China really needs its defences in the South China Sea in the face of a militarisation process being pushed by the United States, and can deploy whatever equipment it wants on its own soil, Chinas Defence Ministry said today. China and the United States have sparred repeatedly over the past week following reports China is deploying advanced missiles, fighters and radar equipment on islands in the South China Sea, especially on Woody Island in the Paracels. The United States has accused China of militarising the disputed waters. Beijing, for its part, has been angered by freedom of navigation air and sea patrols the United States has conducted near islands China claims in the South China Sea. Those have included one by two B-52 strategic bombers in November and by a US Navy destroyer that sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracels last month. The United States is the real promoter of the militarisation of the South China Sea, defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian told a regular monthly news briefing. Chinas construction of military facilities on the islands and reefs of the South China Sea is really needed. The Paracel Islands are Chinas inherent territory, he added. It is Chinas legitimate right to deploy defence facilities within our own territory, no matter in the past or at present, no matter temporarily or permanently, no matter what equipment it is, Wu said. People are being dazzled by the endless hyping up by US media of equipment China is deploying in the South China Sea, he added. One minute its air defence missiles, then radars, then various types of aircraft who knows what tomorrow will bring in terms of new equipment being hyped up. Even the Americans have said some of this equipment had been placed there in the past, Wu said. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims. This week, coinciding with a visit to Washington by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Navys Pacific Command, said the US would step up freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea and that China was trying to militarily dominate East Asia. Wu said the US was employing double standards, asking why US patrols in the South China Sea should not also be considered militarisation. There has been speculation that China might declare an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea, similar to one it declared over the East China Sea in late 2013, to anger from Japan and the United States. A Christian organisation has sought ban on publication of a controversial book penned by brother of Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar, claiming Jesus Christ was a Tamil Hindu. The book Christ Parichay is being re-launched 70 years after it was first published. The United Christians Council, an NGO, on Wednesday asked Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to ensure the publication doesnt take place. The contents of the book are defamatory and will evoke strong emotions in the community, it said in a letter. There will be a law and order situation in case the publication takes place, it said. The book, penned by Ganesh Savarkar, elder brother of V D Savarkar, is scheduled to be re-launched here on February 26, the death anniversary of the Hindutva icon, President, Swatantryaveer Savarkar National Memorial, Ranjit Savarkar said. The book, first published in 1946, also claims that Christianity was initially a Hindu cult and that Jesus died and attained Samadhi in Kashmir. Asked about the claims in the book, senior priest and director of the Bombay Archdiocesan Heritage Museum, Father Warner DSouza, said such books will not shake the faith of Christians. With dhol, dance and garlands, Sanjay Dutt received a heros welcome when he arrived at his residence on Thursday after completing his prison-term for illegal possession of arms in the March 1993 Mumbai blasts. The son of late actors Sunil Dutt and Nargis, Sanjay was released from the Yerwada Central Jail (YCJ) in Pune. He was all smiles upon uniting with his family members, especially wife Manyata Dutt who was accompanied by their children. Whether it was the airport in Pune or in Mumbai, fans turned up everywhere to cheer for the actor, who is now a free man having served his sentence. His well-wishers also reached the Siddhivinayak temple, where devotees gave him a rousing welcome. A horde of the actors admirers also gathered outside the flower-decorated Imperial Heights building in Pali Hill here, adding to the celebratory spirit of the surroundings, which had myriad posters featuring Bollywoods beloved Munna Bhai. Fans danced to the beats of dhol outside the gate of the house of the actor, who was dressed in a blue shirt and a pair of denims. The 56-year-old made his way to his house through a sea of fans who raised their smartphones up in the air to capture the moment. Even as the Khalnayak star walked amid security, the fans showered their love by decorating him with garlands. Sanjay, who was very close to his parents, also sought their blessings. Before heading home, he visited his mothers (Nargis) grave in Marine Lines here, and later at his residential building, he stood with folded hands in front of a portrait of his father, Sunil Dutt. The actor has regaled fans with a mix of action, comedy and romantic films like Rocky, Hathyar, Dushman, Haseena Maan Jaayegi, Vaastav: The Reality, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., Parineeta and Agneepath in his over three-decade long career. He spent 18 months in jail as an undertrial before he was granted bail and later, following a Supreme Court order in May 2013, he was sent to Yerwada Central Jail to serve the remaining 42 months of his five-year sentence. In a joint operation, the army and the police in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir apprehended a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist, who carried out an attack three months ago along with his three associates at an army camp near the Line of Control (LoC) in Tanghdar area of North Kashmirs Kupwara District. Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, the son of Walid Mohammad Gujjar, is a resident of Sialkot tehsil Dehska in Pakistan. His three associates Hussain, Malik and Rizwan were killed inside the Army camp at Tanghdar on November 25. Gujjar was part of four Fidayeen who carried out attack on the Army camp in Tanghdar on November 25 last year. He had told his interrogators that he set fire the oil depot inside the Army camp at Tanghdar and destroyed several vehicles before he was asked by his colleagues to leave. The Fidayeen told his interrogators that the group of four JeM militants were launched from Athmuqam in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and was tasked to carry out Fidayeen attack on any camp near the LoC. The group with the help of GPS devices started on foot on November 24 at around 10 pm. from near the LoC on PoK side and continued their journey till they reached the Tanghdar Army camp in around 6-7 hours, he told the interrogators. Gujjar also revealed that after they carried out the attack, he was the only teenager in the group who was asked by his colleagues to leave. I fled to a nearby forest and was hiding for three days. I was asked by my handlers to go to Kupwara. After three days, I changed my clothes and boarded a Sumo along with my weapon from Tanghdar. I reached Kupwara where I befriended some people, who helped me to travel to Baramulla, he added. Coming from a well-off farmer family in Sialkot, Gujjar has five brothers and two sisters. He was lured by his school friend into militancy, who is also a JeM militant. He received three months training in JeM camp where he was motivated for Jihad besides arms training. They termed the report as a supari to assassinate the character of their founder. Sanatan Sanstha is unhappy with the news published by a leading tabloid for misleading reports for defaming its founder-chief Dr Jayant Athavale. The organi-sation has said that contract journalists have covered the story which will damage its credibility. It also added that journalists have referred a false report by the Central Bureau of Investigation and put the words in the mouth of Dr Athavale. Three killings have taken place, and the possibility of fourth killing cannot be ruled out. Sanatan Sanstha clarified that Dr Athavale has never made any such statement. The outfit said that whenever the officers of the CBI visited Ashram, it had given satisfactory replies to all their queries seeking information and questions asked by them. In such a situation, an attempt is being made by journalists to create sensation and cause confusion by putting an outright false statement in the mouth of Dr Athavale. Sanatan Sanstha will hold demonstrations outside the tabloids office for publishing mislead-ing reports. Abhay Vartak spokesperson of Sanatan Sanstha said, The Contract journalists have tried to malign the image of Sanatan Sanstha and its founder in the eyes of the public by reporting the news, which is one-sided, false and misleading. The news reported by journalists suggests that they are aware about the true killers of Dr. Dabholkar, and they have planted false story for accusing Sanatan Sanstha and its founder to shield those true culprits. We are sure that an anti-Hindu gang is behind this conspiracy. Sanatan Sanstha activists had already suffered mental agony due to such journalists in the past. We will initiate a legal action against the concerned and will follow up the matter till they are punished, he added. Sanatan Sanstha has demanded a thorough inquiry be conducted against those journalists. It also wanted them to undergo narco tests for ascertaining the truth about who offered them money for planting false stories. It is extending full cooperation to the investigating agencies. The organisa-tion said that Contract journalists are trying to build pressure on the investigating agencies and judiciary by publishing false news. After high drama and arrest of militant students now a situation has come for the JNU students to surrender for avoiding further consequences. High court gave the agitating students an ultimatum saying that they will get no interim protection from arrest and they must follow the rules and either surrender or get arrested. This move really paid off as the duo of trouble shooters, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya facing charges of sedition surrendered to ease out the situation and allowed the Government to move forward for peace talks. The two students, who were in hiding for the last ten days, had surfaced on the JNU campus and challenged the police to arrest them. The drama of student leaders did not last long and the duo were forced to surrender unconditionally. The Government is taking a stern step and filed contempt plea against three lawyers also as they boasted on camera that they had beaten Kanhaiya Kumar in police lock-up for three hours. Such an allegation never appeared before now came up with the allegation against the three lawless lawyers. With the surrender of JNU students and the charges against erring lawyers the scene is set for an early end to the problems at the University. Nickhil Mani (The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.) In this session, Member of Parliament seems are on avenges agenda, from Rahul Gandhi to Teesta Setalvad everyone was attacked by Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and her other party colleagues. Rahul Gandhi is prepared to combat with his reply in Parliament and the entire nation will know the truth. Smriti Irani has launched a stinging counter-attack against the Opposition during the debate in the Lok Sabha on Rohith Vemula, the Hyderabad University student who committed suicide and the JNU students arrest and charged with sedition. Smriti alleged that she had been targeted by the Congress because of her work in Amethi, Rahul Gandhis constituency. Rohith Vemula, a 26-year-old research scholar, was found hanging at the Hyderabad Central University, days after he was banned from the hostel and other areas on campus for allegedly attacking an activist of the BJP-linked student group ABVP. The Congress and other parties have alleged that Rohith was punished by the university because of pressure from Smriti Irani and another minister, Bandaru Dattatreya, who had asked for action against those who had attacked the ABVP activist. However, the statements by Smriti Irani in Lok Sabha, saying Kanhaiya Kumar and some other students had been found indulging in anti-national activities by the JNU authorities themselves. The Telegraph Calcutta exposed her lies step by step wide openly to public. I am not editing the article much but want my readers to read it carefully. Smriti in her filmy andaaz said, Mujhe sooli par chadhana chahte ho Amethi ladne ki saza doge mujhe? (You wish to hang me, punish me for contesting from Amethi?) Irani had contested against Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in Lok Sabha elections 2014. I am not certifying your patriotism but dont demean mine. I have my idea of India, dont demean it. A mother who gives birth cannot take lives. Some people say children have committed mistakes and we should forgive them. In JNU some children have been mobilised against the state. One pamphlet in JNU hails Mahishasur and says Durga, a sex worker, was hired to kill him. Is anybody willing to take this discourse to the streets of Calcutta? Who, I want to know, is ready to talk about it in the streets of Calcutta, the Marxists? If any VC appointed during UPA regime says I have attempted saffronisation of education, I will quit politics. Some of the points made by HRD Minister Smriti Irani in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday and how they fare in accuracy test. Lets check it out: JNU REPORT The HRD Minister quoted a February 11, 2016, report by the security staff of JNU that named Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumar, Anirban Bhattacharya and four other students as being part of a rally two days earlier that had raised a series of slogans demanding the freedom of Kashmir and the destruction of India. The security staff of JNU has no link to the government, Irani said. Fact check: JNU has private security guards but they are hired by the same university administration that itself faces charges of ceding the varsitys autonomy to police and the central government after the home minister and the HRD minister made clear they wanted strict action against the alleged sloganeers. JNU PANEL Irani said: The internal committee of JNU, which includes teachers, the rector of the University and we didnt appoint any of them concluded that these students were guilty prima facie, and suspended them for the period of the inquiry. Fact check: The Universitys internal committee, which was appointed by JNUs new vice-chancellor, is facing criticism because it suspended the students without giving them a hearing, and within a day. TWO LETTERS Irani cited her ministrys decision to forward Congress MP Hanumantha Raos letter on Hyderabad University to the institution. The minister did this to defend the serial letters her team wrote to the varsity, reminding it of a letter from BJP MP Bandaru Dattatreya. The Opposition has pointed to the MPs letter and the HRD ministrys active interest as catalysts that pushed research scholar Rohith Vemula to suicide in January. I have taken up letters from every MP, even when our ideologies are starkly different, she said. Fact check: Iranis ministry did forward both letters Raos and Dattatreyas to Hyderabad University. But equating the two letters is comparing apples with oranges. Raos letter aimed to alert the HRD minister about the growing number of Dalit students suicides on the university campus. Dattatreyas letter proclaimed students of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) that Vemula belonged to as anti-national. While the suicide underscored the universitys failure to act on Raos letter, Dattatreyas letter and the HRD ministry reminders were followed up by action from the varsitys executive council. ROHITH EXPULSION The executive council of Hyderabad University decided to expel Vemula and the other students, Irani said. Fact check: The executive council only suspended them and that too only from their hostels. Irani was also silent about the trigger of the crisis on the Hyderabad University campus an alleged physical fight between student activists of the RSS body, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), and the ASA. An ABVP leader had accused ASA students of assaulting him but hospital records suggest he visited a doctor for a prior medical condition not to treat assault wounds. MAHISHASUR Irani referred to celebrations of Mahishasur the demon slayed by Goddess Durga in JNU, and wondered whether that would be tolerated in Calcutta. Fact check: The demon is celebrated in many parts of southern India, and some scholars have suggested his popular, dark-skinned depiction in contrast to the fair-skinned Durga is a pointer to an Aryan-Dravidian divide. Mysore, Karnatakas second-largest city, is an anglicised version of Mahishuru which means the abode of Mahishasura in Kannada. TEXTBOOKS Quoting a Class IV teachers guide penned by Narendra Modis bete noire Teesta Setalvad, Irani said: The book says we should not perpetuate the theory that ancient India was Hindu and medieval India was Muslim. The minister quoted two other textbooks to buttress her argument that problematic school curricula fostered an anti- national mindset among college students. The book says when we teach Shivaji versus Aurangzeb, we need to decide which Shivaji do we take into the classroom. Another book says we need to teach children about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, about Hindu- Christian riots in Kanyakumari. Fact check: Iranis objections to the texts she quoted appear hard to understand since they seek to present a nuanced narrative of Indias complex history than a linear, black and white perspective. And the 1984 riots remain a political blot on the Congress, her principal opponent. Setalvad issued the following statement on Wednesday night: The Narrative of Shivaji, used in the Don Bosco School books and Teacher Training Manuals, was supported by the work of reputed historians like Jadunath Sarkar and Govind Sakharam Sardesai. It dealt with caste being a major hurdle in Shivajis coronation. By the way, it was the Shiv Sena that launched a campaign against me and the state human rights commission ruled in my favour at the time saying that no enmity was created and it was, in fact, a rational view of history that was being disseminated. Obviously like the Shiv Sena, for the RSS to even speak of caste being a factor of exclusion even of a great figure like Shivaji is anathema. Remember Smriti Iranis letters calling Rohith Vemula casteist and anti-national? She was referring to the reminders sent by the HRD Ministry to the Hyderabad Central University on a complaint from the party man Bandaru Dattatreya, cited by the Opposition, as one of the many reasons that had led to research scholar Rohith Vemulas suicide. (Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com) Thomas Insel, the feckless factotum who heads the committee that will decide the future of the autism epidemic, needs to follow Dr. Story Landis (HERE ) out the door TODAY and resign as chair of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. Tomorrow is too long. Put simply, Thomas Insel presides over the NIH research into the causes of autism. In his dual capacity as autism planner and brother (see HERE), responding to these concerns would require him to address a personally difficult question: Did his brother help develop a product that increased the risk of autism in children? Despite his family connection to the Hib vaccine, there is neither evidence nor suggestion of undisclosed financial conflict on Thomas Insels part; all the Praxis Biologics transactions and development activity associated with HibTITER occurred at least twenty years ago and involved his brother, Richard Insel. Nor has Richard Insel been involved in autism research in any way. But HibTITER contained the ethyl mercury-based preservative thimerosal, a vaccine component that has been at the center of an ongoing controversy in autism. Many organizations concerned over vaccine safety, including many autism groups, have been asking for increased NIH funding for vaccine safety research, including research into the effects of thimerosal. In that context, Age of Autisms investigation of Thomas Insels familial link to a thimerosal-containing vaccine developed by his brother raises important questions, and advocates for more research on a possible link reacted strongly to the connection. Thomas R. Insel, the psychiatrist in charge of autism research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has a family connection to one of the vaccines potentially implicated in the sharp rise in autism rates since 1990. His brother, Richard A. Insel, was part of both the research team that developed the vaccine for Haemophilus influenza B (Hib) and the company that profited from the introduction of the first commercial Hib vaccine formulation. Richard Insel was a co-founder and director of Praxis Biologics--a vaccine development company in Rochester, New York--that together with a research team at the University of Rochester developed and then sold HibTITER, a vaccine for Hib first licensed for children in December 1988 and for infants in October 1990. Largely based on the momentum of its successful Hib vaccine, Praxis Biologics was sold in 1989 to American Cyanamid in a deal valued at $190 million. As co-founder and director, Richard Insel held shares that gave him a 2% interest in the company, making his personal share of the transaction worth close to $4 million. And now Dr. Tom Insel is officially part of Dr. Paul Offit's organization. Isn't that nifty! Two brave men phighting phor phamilies and their phuture. Huzzah! Dr. Julie Gerberding left CDC to join Merck as President of their Vaccine Division, she was promoted to GOD or something later, Queen of Everything Medical Worldwide might have been the title. Merck makes Dr. Offit's RotaTeq vaccine. Circle those wagons, pard'ners! Head spinning yet? Just another day in the world of sick kids and a government, industry, public health, medical industry kick in the ass to autism families from coast to coast. Below are some articles you might find interesting as you learn about ASF's newest board member. When Vaccine Development is a Family Business: The Insel Brothers The wagons circle ever tighter. Former IACC head, Dr. Tom Insel, has joined Dr. Paul Offit's autism science foundation. We've been through gallons of ink writing about Dr. Insel over the years and the complete and utter failure of IACC to respond to the autism emergency. A few posts are below. Dr. Offit has been the public voice of autism/vaccine denial. And he has been accepted as an autism expert. Rather strange considering that he is a pediatric infectious disease specialist and he has never treated children with autism in a clinical practice. In fact, he does not see any patients at CHOP. If you go to the infectious disease department, he does not have a "see patients" link like the others in the department. JB Handley called his office many years ago to schedule an appointment with this self-proclaimed autism medical expert. No soap. Dr. Offit spends his time traveling about telling healthcare professionals how to browbeat parents into vaccinating their children. He has written books about what treatments don't work for autism. That's helpful to families yes? He held the patent on a vaccine that is now part of the pediatric vaccination schedule in America - Mark Blaxill wrote a series of articles: Landis inadvertently revealed the bankruptcy of Insel's leadership of the group when she both bashed parents and suggested investigating the most severe cases of vaccine injury -- which is all the parents want -- in notes dropped on the floor (see the notes here) at the IACC, recovered by friendly forces and reported on our blog by the relentless Katie Wright.At an IOM environmental working group meeting in 2007, I walked up to Insel and handed him a copy of the piece I'd written for the Baltimore City Paper, implicating mercury in the first cases of autism. (See "Mercury Rising" HERE .) Insel told me he thought that the mercury hypothesis had been disproven (not true, but certainly his right to say so). But then he went on to say, in these words or just about, that of course, it still could be the vaccines. If IACC Met It Would Have to Consider CDC Whistleblower Dangling by a Thread in Washington: Insel Prevaricates Over the CDC Whistleblower (25 September 2014) By John Stone "I wish I knew more about that particular instance." The excuses are wearing thin. Here is a transcript of the remarks of Thomas Insel, National Institute of Mental Health director, regarding the whistleblowing activities of Centers for Disease Control employee William Thompson at the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee meeting two days ago (view video here.): Again this is not for the IACC since that committee is not here in full. This is not a meeting to decide anything we are going to do in regard to policy and I wish I knew more about that particular instance. I dont. I can tell you that the 2004 PEDIATRICS paper was one of about fourteen papers in the IOM [Institute of Medicine] review and there have been another multiple papers since then that have weighed in on this all of which the IOM have said in 2011 are consistent with not finding a relationship between vaccination and autism. What the IOM doesnt say and what nobody has said in a way that I find intelligible (?) is that there could still be the rare cases in which that could occur and what we need to think about is how one would investigate that if that were the case. What, of course, Insel does is respond as a bureaucrat, not a scientist. He tells you the IOM have rubber stamped 14 epidemiological studies, therefore the matter is decided. Apart from anything else even if the studies were not corrupt (and they all have a very similar line of patronage to the DeStefano study) it would not be enough to say that vaccines only rarely cause autism. It is not only because correlation does not equal causation - as they keep on reminding us - but because you could have tens of thousands of cases and they might not register as statistically significant. However, if you look at the way in which these studies were botched together it is apparent that the effects were so gross that they could only disguise them by fraud. DeStefano 2004 is only exceptional in that it has been admitted by Thompson and not denied by DeStefano (the latter in two interviews with Sharyl Attkisson ), but actually it is just typical of what they were doing in all of them as Lyn Redwood told Insel at the meeting. Dr. Tom Insel's Snail's Pace Approach to Autism By Anne Dachel "We have no money. We have no ability to fund anybody to do anything. We are a bully pulpit and the best we can do is to try and inspire some of the funders around the room, the NIH, CDC, Autism Speaks, the Simons Foundation and others, Autism Science Foundation, to make appropriate investments in the issues that are in the Strategic Plan. But there is no real mandate to do that either. "We have no recourse if someone doesn't. ...I'm not sure that the public fully understands and I can tell from some of the written comments that there is a clear misunderstanding about what our actually authority is in terms of what we can accomplish. We can have these very honest exchange of views. I think it is useful to try to align the community which is now very polarized. ....This is a multi-faceted problem with people having very different experiences." IACC's Insel Lives! By Katie Wright A month ago Dr. Tom Insel, director of the NIHs Interagency Autism Co-coordinating Committee appeared in public at an Autism Speaks event. What a surprise! We, the community of ASD families, have not seen Insel at an autism event since 2014. The last IACC meeting was almost one year ago. Since that time Dr. Insel has yet to announce the date for the next IACC meeting or even the member roster for the new 2015 committee. 2015 is more than half over so you can see how high priority autism is for Dr. Insel. Dr. Tom Insel, "If There Is a True Increase in Autism." IF? By Anne Dachel For several years now I've been following Dr. Thomas Insel's work as head of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. I've also looked at his lectures on autism. In 2009, Insel spoke at MIT. He talked about the environment and autism. He admitted that there were endless possibilities but he was firm that vaccines had been looked into and they'd been exonerated. Then in 2010, he spoke for an hour and a half at the National Institutes of Health. Insel made the stunning statement, "Eighty percent of the people with a diagnosis of autism [in the U.S.] are under the age of eighteen." Web Toolbar by Wibiya Web Toolbar by Wibiya It seems the Modi government is facing an existential crisis though the ruling BJP would not admit openly. Indias BJP government is trying all tricks of political trade to ensure the support the opposition parties like former ruling party Congress and its allies, other parties, for smooth functioning of the parliament business despite differences. The BJP never tired of obstructing the parliament before is now as the ruling dispensation has found enthusiasm to see the Parliament function non-stop. President Pranab Mukherjee, a senior Congress man performing the rubber stamp duties in perfection, including hanging wrongly Kashmir Afzal Guru to defend Hindutva scheming for secular India, and seeking another historic full term in office from the Modis Hindutva government as well, would readily read out the messages of the government in a joint session of parliament today. The Modi government, having lost the comfort zone it enjoyed in the beginning after assuming power, goes into its second Budget session of Parliament today in a very uncomfortable situation in political and economic terms. Though the government projected a boosted and false 7.6 per cent growth in economy for 2015-16, it is not picking up any real momentum. Indian economists blame this anomaly on the continued sluggishness in the global economy. The sentiment in the private sector, busy promoting cricket matches by sponsorships to boost the image of India, is less than positive, and the economists are emphasizing the need for more public investment in order to draw out private investment and huge profits to be invested abroad. The BJP and its allies enjoy a majority in the Lok Sabha but not in the Rajya Sabha and the Modi governments strenuous efforts to get a majority for the BJP in the Upper House have failed. However, BJP is not a party with RSS backing to give up hopes once for all even if the objective situation is not in its favoUr. The situation has become so explosive that for the first time since he took over as PM, Narendra Modi has shown signs of being on the defensive. Speaking at a meeting on Odisha, he complained that the opposition parties and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are trying to destabilize his elected government. The anti-corruption movement and these NGOs were behind the BJPs rise to power last year. The corporate lords that control the parliament and many state governments in India have been pushing the mild government to somehow get certain profit making bills passed in the parliament with the backing of Congress and other parties that also get funds from the lords. PM Modi and his government have been unhappy with the fact that it has not been able to push through two important economic reforms an amended land acquisition bill and the Good and Services Tax (GST) bill to help its financial allies in the market. The GST is a constitution amendment bill, and it needs the approval of two-thirds of those present and voting in each House. As the RSS-BJP s tires to speed up its national reach including in Kashmir, the political atmosphere has suddenly turned gray for the Modi government. . The incidents at the Central University of Hyderabad in Telengana and at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in the national capital that have vitiated the atmosphere because of student protests and the failure of the university authorities to handle them with tact and sensitivity. The situation became worse when Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani intervened in a clumsy fashion. The bogus threat of sedition clause to weaken student movements and silence the protesters has only complicated the crisis. The RSS-BJP seeking to saffronize the university campus by force, rejects the Indian right to protests and uses forces and even lawyers to end protests. India cannot tolerate any request for ending crimes in Kashmir and giving back sovereignty to Kashmir as Indian forces have already murdered over 100,000 including Kashmiri Muslims and all state crimes are considered lawful. Indian core media lords who steal the resources of the nation and people shamelessly threaten with sedition law anyone who supports Kashmiri cause. A government which feels that it is under siege and insecure is not a good sign for the government itself; neither it is for the country. When in opposition, the BJP always felt secure and sure of popular support. If the Modi government and Modi himself can turn around and point an accusing finger at the opposition, that would be a short-sighted strategy. The Modi magic is failing. The government should adopt a conciliatory tone, and it should play down its note of triumphalism that it had adopted in the past year. As an opposition party for years playing only destructive politics, BJP knows the opposition Congress also has a right to enjoy the bad fate of the government today. After all, Congress and BJP have collaborating on all agendas of Hindutva RSS. As one of most shrewd political duo world over, these two essentially Hindu parties do everything in secrecy so that Hindus enjoy while Muslims are kept under full control by denying what is legitimately theirs. But India also wants Muslims to support everything Indian government is doing in making Hindus and industrialists shine and even against the genuine interests of Muslims. Those Muslims who stand betrayed by Indian government can testify this strange Hindutva phenomenon of secular India, its wounded ego system funnily echoing in all its actions. Web Toolbar by Wibiya Web Toolbar by Wibiya Have you ever encountered a cop who thinks that he or she is simply the law and that everything he or she does is final? Well, this is your opportunity to help weed out such cops from the police force once and for all by supporting the campaign against illegal cop activities by Detective Robert Griffin of the Ottawa Police Department who has been sued at the Ottawa Small Claims Court. Most, if not everyone, have had that unpleasant experience of being unfairly treated by a corrupt police officer. For those of you who have never had such an experience, it is a very hallowing experience mainly due to the fact that these cops are people who have been mandated to ensure that law and order exists and that the rights of every individual is ensured. Being entrusted to the care of someone who portrays a completely different behaviour to the one that he or she is expected to show can bring about all sorts of issues. Currently, the issue of some cops thinking that they are like demigods among humans has raised its ugly head and the latest one has to do with Detective Robert Griffin who decided to unlawfully pursue a case against a mother and her son just to favour the womans husband. As peace-loving people with respect for human life, each and every one of you is being entreated to help raise enough financial resources in order to ensure that all legal charges for the case against one of the bad nuts in the police service is won lawfully. The time to act as well-meaning people in the society is now and through this a clear message will be sent to each and every cop who might be harbouring the idea of pursuing such unlawful activities against people in the society for their selfish gains. Now, it is Dezrin Carby-Samuels and her son, Raymond but it could be you the next time so help this cause to flush out all corrupt cops from the police service. Web Toolbar by Wibiya Web Toolbar by Wibiya Date: February, 2016. Place: Morelia, Mexico. The last time a pontiff had been to Mexico was in 2012, when Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) visited the cities of Guanajuato, Silao and Leon. However, almost four years later, in February 2016, Pope Francis scheduled a new travel to the Latin American country. For five days (from the 12th to the 17th of February), the Argentinean pontiff visited several Mexican cities and towns, such as San Cristobal de las Casas, Juarez City, Morelia and, of course, the City of Mexico. But it was in the third one (Morelia) where an unusual event took place. Many internet users and newspapers reported having seen the ghost of John Paul II behind Pope Francis during one of his outdoor appearances in his Popemobile. However, UFO researcher and blogger Scott C. Waring, from UFO Sightings Daily has a different opinion. They [the Mexican media] recorded several aliens sitting with him, states Mr. Waring. Its known to most UFO researchers that aliens exist on the planet, some helping, some profiting, but most ignoring the human race, he affirms. Draw your own conclusions For further information: http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2016/02/aliens-guard-pope-as-he-enters-mexico.html Aliens Guard Pope As He Enters Mexico City On Feb 2016, Video, UFO Sighting News. Date of sighting: February 2016 Location of sighting: Mexico City, Mexico News source: http://www.zocalo.com.mx/seccion/articulo/se-aparece-fantasma-de-juan-pablo-ii-en-papamovil-de-francisco-1455908081 Mexican News is reporting that the Pope came to visit them and in the famous Pope Mobile they recorded several aliens sitting with him. Its known to most UFO researches that aliens exist on the planet, some helping, some profiting, but most ignoring the human race. This is a great example of the first two. This is very similar to the alien secret service agent that President Obama has working for him. Click here to view that earlier post. Scott C. Waring www.ufosightingsdaily.com Web Toolbar by Wibiya Web Toolbar by Wibiya Date: November, 1953. Place: Los Angeles, United States. In 1972, astronomer and UFO researcher Josef Allen Hynek exposed in his book The UFO Experience: a Scientific Inquiry that there were three kinds of what he called a close encounter this is, witnessing extraterrestrial objects or entities-: Close Encounter of the First Kind: sighting of an unidentified flying object within a range of 150 metres (500 feet). Close Encounter of the Second Kind: sighting of an unidentified flying object which may cause physical effects on the witness. Close Encounter of the Third Kind: an encounter with an animated extraterrestrial entity. This last category is the less common. However, there are some cases well registered that can be used as milestones for further investigations. One of them is mentioned by PhD Michael Salla in his article called Extraterrestrials Among Us, published in Exopolitics Journal in 2006. George Adamski, a Polish-American citizen, allegedly had a meeting with an extraterrestrial emerging from a scout ship on November 20, 1952, which later inspired him to be the first to write about extraterrestrials secretly living among the human population, Mr. Salla says in reference to Adamskis work titled Inside The Flying Saucers. I looked at my wrist watch and saw that it said ten-thirty. The lateness of the hour, with still nothing of extraordinary significance having taken place, sent a wave of disappointment through me. And just at this moment of depression, two men approached, one of whom addressed me by name. Both were complete strangers, but there was no hesitancy in their manner as they came forward, and nothing in their appearance to indicate that they were other than average young businessmen, wrote Mr. Adamski, quoted by Mr. Salla. Then, one of those men smiled and indicated the driver. He is from the planet you call Mars. I am from the one you call Saturn. His voice was soft and pleasant and his English perfect. I had noticed that the younger man also spoke softly, although his voice was pitched higher. I found myself wondering how and where they had learned to speak our language so well. He added: we have lived on your planet now for several years. At first we did have a slight accent. But that has been overcome and, as you can see, we are unrecognized as other than Earth men. What are extraterrestrials looking for in our planet? Mr. Salla concludes that they presumably wish to learn about Earth culture and behavior; and to, perhaps, assist in passing on information to selected individuals. For further information: http://exopoliticsjournal.com/vol-1/1-4-Salla.htm Vol 1:4 (October 2006): 284-300. ISSN 1938-1719 Extraterrestrials Among Us Michael E. Salla, PhD Introduction There is startling evidence from a number of independent sources that human looking extraterrestrial visitors have integrated with and lived in major population centers up until recently, and this is known by a select number of government agencies and military departments. A range of highly classified government documents and military programs give credence to this phenomenon, as revealed by a number of whistleblowers. Command Sergeant Major Robert Dean, for example, claims that a top secret NATO document he witnessed in 1964 described how senior political and military leaders had been visited by and interacted with human looking extraterrestrials who could easily blend into human society. What really concerned NATO leaders, according to Dean, was that extraterrestrials could be walking in the corridors of key political and military institutions. Aside from whistleblower testimonies, a number of private individuals claim to have encountered extraterrestrials posing as ordinary citizens in major cities around the planet. George Adamski was the first to write about extraterrestrials secretly living among the human population. In his second non-fiction book describing his extraterrestrial contact experiences, Inside theFlying Saucers, Adamski discussed how human looking extraterrestrials had established a presence among the human population. They apparently looked so much like us that they could get jobs, lived in neighborhoods, drove cars, and could blend in easily with the human population. Adamski wrote about how they contacted him to set up meetings that led to his famous flights aboard extraterrestrial vehicles. While controversy over Adamskis contact experiences and his credibility continues, Adamskis UFO sightings and contacts with extraterrestrials were supported by an impressive collection of witnesses, photographs and films that a number of independent investigators concluded were not hoaxes.[1] Adamskis testimony offers important insights into how extraterrestrials may be living incognito among the human population. After discussing the Adamski case and the strongest evidence supporting it, I will then discuss other contactees similarly claiming to have encountered extraterrestrials acting like ordinary citizens. Finally, I examine a number of whistleblowers who claim to have witnessed documents or events confirming official government knowledge that extraterrestrials live among ordinary citizens. Contact Testimonies of Extraterrestrials Among Us Adamskis famous Desert Center meeting with an extraterrestrial emerging from a scout ship on November 20, 1952 was seen by six witnesses who signed affidavits confirming Adamskis version of events in his subsequent book, The Flying Saucers have Landed (1953). In fact, four of the witnesses immediately reported what had happened to a nearby newspaper, the Phoenix Gazette, that published a story on November 24 featuring photos and sketches. The Desert Center encounter was among those of Adamskis claims regarding extraterrestrial contact that, according to UFO researcher Timothy Good, were accurately reported, and sensible and verifiable.[2] Given the clear supporting evidence supporting Adamskis first meeting with an extraterrestrial traveling in a scout craft, it is worth examining closely his alleged subsequent meetings with extraterrestrials living on Earth. In the first chapter of Inside the Flying Saucers, Adamski recounts his meeting with two extraterrestrials while he was sitting in the lobby of a Los Angeles Hotel on February 18, 1953. I looked at my wrist watch and saw that it said ten-thirty. The lateness of the hour, with still nothing of extraordinary significance having taken place, sent a wave of disappointment through me. And just at this moment of depression, two men approached, one of whom addressed me by name. Both were complete strangers, but there was no hesitancy in their manner as they came forward, and nothing in their appearance to indicate that they were other than average young businessmen. I noted that both men were well proportioned. One was slightly over six feet and looked to be in his early thirties. His complexion was ruddy, his eyes dark brown, with the kind of sparkle that suggests great enjoyment of life. His gaze was extraordinarily penetrating. His black hair waved and was cut according to our style. He wore a dark brown business suit but no hat. The shorter man looked younger and I judged his height to be about five feet, nine inches. He had a round boyish face, a fair complexion and eyes of grayish blue. His hair, also wavy and worn in our style, was sandy in color. He was dressed in a gray suit and was also hatless. He smiled as he addressed me by name. As I acknowledged the greeting, the speaker extended his hand and when it touched mine a great joy filled me. The signal was the same as had been given by the man I had met on the desert on that memorable November 20, 1952. (Described in the book Flying Saucers Have Landed.)[3] Significant in Adamskis description is how the two extraterrestrials could pass off as businessmen. Aside from a penetrating stare, nothing struck him as unusual in their appearance. Adamski goes on to explain how he went with them in their car to travel to a remote desert location: Together we left the lobby, I walking between them. About a block north of the hotel, they turned into a parking lot where they had a car waiting. They had not spoken during this short time, yet inwardly I knew that these men were true friends. I felt no urge to ask where they proposed to take me, nor did it seem odd that they had volunteered no information. An attendant brought the car around, and the younger man slid into the drivers seat, motioning me to get in beside him. Our other companion also sat with us on the front seat. The car was a four-door black Pontiac sedan. The man who had taken the wheel seemed to know exactly where he was going and drove skillfully. I am not familiar with all the new highways leading out of Los Angeles, so I had no idea in which direction we were headed. We rode in silence and I remained entirely content to wait for my companions to identify themselves and explain the reason for our meeting. [4] Whats significant here is that the two extraterrestrials possessed a car and knew how to navigate on the newly completed Los Angeles highway system. This is no mean feat and suggests that the extraterrestrials had taken the time to learn the road traffic rules and how to navigate through Los Angeles. The next passage is quite remarkable for the information Adamski reveals: Lights and dwellings thinned as we left the outskirts of the city. The taller man spoke for the first time as he said, You have been very patient. We know how much you are wondering who we are and where we are taking you. I acknowledged that of course I had been wondering, but added that I was entirely content to wait for this information until they chose to give it to me. The speaker smiled and indicated the driver. He is from the planet you call Mars. I am from the one you call Saturn. His voice was soft and pleasant and his English perfect. I had noticed that the younger man also spoke softly, although his voice was pitched higher. I found myself wondering how and where they had learned to speak our language so well. [5] Whats interesting here is Adamskis observation that the two extraterrestrials could speak the English language so well without any hint of an accent. What follows in the next passage is truly remarkable insofar as it reveals the true extent to which extraterrestrials have merged with the ordinary human population. As the thought passed through my mind, it was immediately recognized. The Martian now spoke for the first time since our meeting in the hotel. We are what you on Earth might call Contact men. We live and work here, because, as you know, it is necessary on Earth to earn money with which to buy clothing, food, and the many things that people must have. We have lived on your planet now for several years. At first we did have a slight accent. But that has been overcome and, as you can see, we are unrecognized as other than Earth men. At our work and in our leisure time we mingle with people here on Earth, never betraying the secret that we are inhabitants of other worlds. That would be dangerous, as you well know. We understand you people better than most of you know yourselves and can plainly see the reasons for many of the unhappy conditions that surround you. [6] This passage is most significant since it describes how the extraterrestrials have spent years living on Earth, learning the language, getting jobs and mixing with the human population. Furthermore, it appears as though extraterrestrials living among the human population may work in pairs, a kind of buddy system that would make sense in terms of ensuring safety and communications with the home world if an emergency ever occurred. If Adamski is accurate in his recollections and the extraterrestrials are telling the truth, then it would appear that there could be a significant number of extraterrestrials who are living incognito among the normal population in many if not most major cities on the planet. Upon examining other contactee cases and the testimonies of whistleblowers, it does appear as though this is indeed the case. Adamski was not the only one of the contactees claiming that extraterrestrials were blending in with the human population. Howard Menger also claimed to have been contacted by extraterrestrials posing as ordinary human citizens while he was training to be a spokesperson for the space brothers. In one case, the extraterrestrial was posing as a real estate salesperson and asked Menger to accompany him in one of the extraterrestrials car where he was taken to a new contact location to meet at appointed times with the space brothers ships. Menger describes the incident as follows: In the fall of 1947, a young man, neatly dressed in fall clothing, entered the shop. Though he said he was a real estate man, there was something odd about him. And he didnt act like other extroverted, back slapping real estate men I knew. He told me he was thinking of putting up some For Sale signs near a place called Pleasant Grove, about eight miles from the shop, and would like some advice. I agreed to go with him. He did not introduce me to a young lady waiting in the car Halfway there the conversation fell off and there was silence. Very abruptly the man changed the subject. Howard, we know you are keeping your contacts with our brothers a secret as you have been instructed. I didnt know if I should feign surprise or not since I had detected something unusual from the beginning... Oh, you ARE and I chuckled. He simply came out with a wide grin, and drove a few hundred yards without speaking further. You see, Howard, I have been taught much of real estate, but little of acting.[7] Mengers extraterrestrial friends went on to describe a secret location where he would later rendezvous with the extraterrestrial vehicles at appointed times. Mengers contact experiences and UFO sightings are supported by independent witnesses, photographs, film and even scientific analysis of a potato allegedly grown on the moon. Timothy Good conducted a thorough investigation of Menger and concluded that some of his extraterrestrial contact experiences and photographs/films were genuine.[8] It is the manner by which Menger was contacted in 1947 that alerts us to the presence of extraterrestrials blending in with the human population. The extraterrestrial had learned about the real estate trade, was driving an ordinary car, and was accompanied by a female. Both extraterrestrials had assumed the identities of real estate agents and could in that way evade detection while learning much about human society. Again, as in the case of Adamskis two extraterrestrials, they worked as a pair suggesting a buddy system. At one of Howard Mengers conventions at his home in April 1957, three visitors from Venus were allegedly photographed. Several of the photos were given to Dr Frank Stranges who showed the photos at his UFO lectures. At one of these lectures in December 1959, Dr Stranges claims that he was approached by a Pentagon official who offered him the chance to meet with one of the Venusians. Dr Stranges then describes elaborate security procedures he had to undergo, and his subsequent meeting with Valiant Thor at the Pentagon for thirty minutes. Thor was apparently a guest of the US government for three years, and regularly met with senior officials including President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon. Dr Stranges claims he was told never to reveal what had happened. Nevertheless, he eventually wrote a book about his encounter, Stranger at the Pentagon (1967). In his book and subsequent interviews, he describes the messages of world peace and spirituality delivered to him and senior US officials by Thor. Predictability, Stranges claims were greeted with widespread ridicule from UFO researchers given the lack of evidence that such a meeting had occurred. Yet Dr Stranges background in law enforcement, his educational credentials and his prominence as an evangelical theologian all point to an individual with impeccable integrity who would not fabricate such a hoax. If Dr Stranges credentials and integrity are accepted, then it appears that the Pentagon housed a visitor from Venus for three years who allegedly was able to meet with senior officials and was able to travel to UFO conventions such as the Mengers. It may be concluded that Valiant Thor (and his associates) was able to interact with a range of private citizens during his three year stay, these interactions were closely monitored by intelligence agencies, and individuals were sworn to secrecy. Another contactee who claimed to have met with extraterrestrials, posing as an ordinary civilian, involves the case of a tenured professor in the medical school at the University of Mexico, who was also a senior member of the Mexican Atomic Energy Commission. The Professor used the pseudonym of Prof Hernandez and worked with a Mexican journalist, Zitha Rodriguez to release his amazing story.[9] He discussed how a very attractive extraterrestrial female, Elyense (dubbed Lya by the Professor), from the constellation Andromeda posed as a student and visited him in his lecture classroom on several occasions from 1972-1974. After realizing that she wasnt one of his students, he eventually confronted her, and asked why she was coming to his lectures. After having several conversations where she displayed remarkable knowledge of physics as well as paranormal abilities, Hernandez was eventually told by Lya that she was from another world. After further meetings in 1975, she eventually persuaded him to join her as a co-pilot in her space vehicle. This how Hernandez described the incident on 22 April 1975 in his diary: I had gone to participate in a conference on the theme of effective neutralizers for anesthesia. That afternoon I felt particularly exhausted As I headed for the parking lot, I scarcely imagined that Lya was waiting for me in the car Hello, she said in greeting Are you in much of a hurry? No, it is only that I want to rest, I said. Would you like to go on a mission as a copilot? Today has been an especially tiring day. Couldnt this be another day? I asked, almost pleading. It is important, I cannot assure you that you will have another opportunity like this. Very well I said as I locked the door, if it is not too far, I accept.[10] At this point, Hernandez drove his car to a remote location directed by Lya. He then goes on to describe how they proceeded to enter Lyas space vehicle and left the Earths atmosphere. A round object of more or less three meters diameter was some meters in front ofus. Lya took out an apparatus of metal that was like a small box of cigarettes and pressed a button. At that moment the door of that ship opened itself from below, and we went through into the interior by means of a small ladder She touched a small lever with various buttons and pressed one.. The ship silently rose into the air. The Earth withdrew more and more, and thus I could contemplate the night, the stars and alter dozens of satellites of all types orbiting the Earth.[11] Hernandez story was investigated by Lt Col Wendelle Stevens who corresponded with Zitha Rodriquez. Stevens found many similarities with other contactee cases even though Hernandez could not have known of these. He decided to translate Rodriquez book of Hernandez experiences and eventually concluded that Hernandez was credible. As in the Adamski and Menger cases, Hernandez reveals that his extraterrestrial contact could easily blend into the Mexican population. In contrast to the Adamski and Menger cases, Lya was alone and did not appear to have a buddy. While she did not own a car, she knew how to navigate Mexico Citys road system to ensure that Hernandez could reach the destination of her flying vehicle. Her ability to meet with Hernandez in city locations and knowledge of how to travel to rural areas, again suggests familiarity with the location and customs of the native population. It is not only contactees that have discussed extraterrestrials living among us, there are also the testimonies of highly credible whistleblowers who make similar claims. WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2016 After failing in recent years to meet mandated timelines for the Renewable Fuel Standard, the Environmental Protection Agency is vowing to get the program back on schedule. We dont like missing deadlines at all, Janet McCabe, EPAs acting assistant administrator for air and radiation, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday. We are committed to having this program back on track and keep it there, she said. That would be good news for renewable fuel proponents and, quite frankly, opponents as well. Last fall, the EPA released three years worth of renewable volume obligations (RVOs) at once, setting blending levels for 2014, 2015, and 2016 and biomass-based diesel requirements for 2017. The delay in setting the RVOs angered all sides of the issue because of the uncertainty it caused, so much so that the American Petroleum Institute and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers had filed the lawsuit to force the release. According to the law governing the RFS the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 the RVOs for 2017 are to be proposed by March 31 of this year and finalized by the end of November. The hearing also touched on the typical talking points on both sides of the RFS debate: proponents of repeal pushed for repeal; supporters of the mandate supported the mandate. In his opening statement, committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said that the world has changed since the inception of the RFS, and in his view, most of the rationale originally justifying the RFS has disappeared. All we have left is an unstable program, he added. Dont miss out on renewable fuel stories such as this one in our ag and rural policy newsletter, in the Daily Harvest email and on our website. Sign up for a four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription. Californias Barbara Boxer, the committees ranking Democrat, disagreed with Inhofes oft-stated desire to eliminate the RFS, pointing her criticism instead at those in charge of the rule, saying this years RVOs were unnecessarily low. The implementation of the RFS has not been perfect, but the law is sound, Boxer said in her opening statement. As I have said before, legislative changes to the RFS are not needed. When asked about the future of the RFS after congressional mandates expire in 2022, McCabe said she couldnt speak for future EPA administrators, but she anticipated the program would remain in place and continue to issue new RVOs. Those new blending requirements would be based on agency calculations, not congressional figures. #30 For more news, go to www.Agri-Pulse.com WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2016 USDA officials fielded tough questions from a philosophically split House Ag Appropriations panel Wednesday on the presidents new summer feeding program, which is projected to cost billions of dollars, and drug testing for recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. President Barack Obamas proposed fiscal 2017 USDA budget totals $111.9 billion for nutrition programs about $2 billion more than 2016s enacted level. One reason why the proposed budget is bigger is due to the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children program, also known as Summer EBT, which would feed children in low-income families during the summer months when free or reduced priced school meals are not available. The program is currently being piloted in a few states. Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., said in his opening statement that to expand this program to the tune of $12 billion over 10 years is simply not feasible in this budget climate. Under the presidents Summer EBT proposal, households with eligible children would receive $45 a month per child during the summer months for use at grocery stores. In the summer of 2017, USDA estimates almost one million children will have summer EBT benefits. By 2026, once all 50 states are offering the program and the $12.2 billion spent, USDA says 20 million low-income children will be receiving benefits. Currently, about 22 million children receive free and reduced priced meals through the National School Lunch Program during the school year. The 2017 budget also includes a $10 million line item for providing summer meals to children that they can pick up and eat off site. USDA says the pilot will help determine whether this method of non-congregate feeding is effective at reaching hungry children that arent able travel to existing congregate sites, which are often schools and other community centers. One way to curb spending, Republicans say, would be to halt SNAP benefits to drug users. Obamas budget requested about $88 billion for SNAP enough to serve an average of 44.5 million people each month in fiscal 2017, which is about one million people fewer than estimated for fiscal 2016. Aderholt has maintained that if a welfare recipient can afford drugs then they have the money to buy food. The federal government should not be enabling people to fund their drug addiction at taxpayer expense. Aderholt recently introduced a bill H.R. 4540 that would allow states to drug test SNAP participants and revoke SNAP eligibility based on the results. States would have access to $600 million in federal funds, appropriated annually from 2017 to 2021, for drug rehabilitation programs for SNAP participants but would not be obligated to use those funds. The bill has a compassionate tone to it that says if these folks truly have some kind of drug addiction then they need to get some help, he said. If they go through a treatment program, they would still be eligible, (or) at least thats how I would like to see the states set it up. Aderholt acknowledged at the hearing that some SNAP participants may elect to discontinue food assistance in lieu of being drug tested, but suggested it would be because they were using drugs themselves. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., said to the USDA panel of witnesses hed rather they be eating through your program, than robbing for food. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said her piece, too, after asking the room why drug testing should be required for SNAP recipients and not for farmers who collect federal crop insurance subsidies. If were going to look at drug testing for SNAP, we should take the entire Department of Agriculture and all those programs that provide federal subsidy to folks, and they ought to be drug tested as well, she said. She also referenced a four-month experiment in Florida during 2011 where recipients of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program were drug tested. If they passed the test, they were allowed to continue receiving benefits and were refunded what they paid to be tested. The state ended up paying more than $118,000 for the drug tests, DeLauro said, more than what would have been paid out in food benefits to the people who failed the test. Of the 4,086 people tested, 108, 2.6 percent, were found to be using narcotics. Two federal courts invalidated the 2011 law on the grounds of unconstitutional search and seizure. Did you know Agri-Pulse subscribers get our Daily Harvest email and Daybreak audio Monday through Friday mornings, a 16-page newsletter on Wednesdays, and access to premium content on our ag and rural policy website? Sign up for your four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription. Kevin Concannon, USDA under secretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, was also staunch in his opinion that drug testing SNAP users is a bad idea. When drug testing has been used as an eligibility requirement for TANF in the past, it has shown that a very small percentage of recipients were using drugs, he said. Plus, testing is a very expensive process. Creating another condition of eligibility for SNAP would complicate and slow the distribution of SNAP benefits, too, he said, and ultimately ignores a dire, but separate need: an adequate treatment base for substance abusers. Concannon said that current USDA regulations allow TANF participants to be drug tested, as well as convicted drug felons in the SNAP program. He also noted that those same regulations prohibit making drug testing a condition for eligibility in the general SNAP population. #30 For more news, go to: www.Agri-Pulse.com WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2016 -- The markup scheduled for Thursday for Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts voluntary biotech labeling bill has been postponed until sometime next week. The official statement on the committees website attributes the postponement simply to changes on the Senate floor." A spokeswoman later said Roberts postponed the markup at the request of Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the committee's ranking member, because her bill providing assistance in Flint, Michigan's water crisis is headed to the Senate floor on Thursday. "The chairman remains ready to proceed to the markup with his draft," she said. The postponement gives Roberts more time to seek the Democratic support he has said he needs for the biotech bill to move forward. Stabenow, for example, remains opposed. today. "I dont support his chairmans mark, but Id like to very much find a bipartisan compromise, Stabenow told Agri-Pulse Roberts, meanwhile, said negotiations continue. This chairman's Mark serves as a framework to find a solution for a patchwork of laws, and I will continue to work with members of the Agriculture Committee on potential amendments, Roberts said in a statement. However, we are out of time. The time to act is now. Negotiations will continue in an effort to reach Committee agreement. Stabenow may still be opposed to the bill that would preempt state labeling laws, but a vast array of farm groups are anxious for the legislation to move as July 1 approaches. Thats when Vermonts mandatory labeling law for products containing genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, is set to go into effect. The issue of biotech labeling is one of the most significant issues that the agriculture and food industry has faced in recent years, a coalition of more than 650 agricultural groups and companies said in a recent letter to Roberts. This very systemwhich produces the most abundant, the highest quality, and the most affordable food supply in the worldwill be threatened with large economic costs without a national uniform solution to the biotech labeling issue. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, following an appearance before a House committee, told reporters that if Congress doesnt act on a national standard for labeling of GMO foods, he would. He also praised Roberts and Stabenow for their efforts to find common ground. Are you following food labeling issues? Agri-Pulse is the place for the latest news on the topic. Sign up for a four-week free trial subscription. I really appreciate chairman Roberts bringing this matter to a head quickly, Vilsack said. I think he recognizes and Sen. Stabenow recognizes that this is a matter that needs to be resolved before the Vermont law goes into effect. If there are two people who can reach consensus on a very sticky, tough issue, its those two members. If its crafted right, I think there will be strong bipartisan support. (This story was updated at 6:15 p.m. to include comment from a spokeswoman for Roberts and from Agriculture Secretary Vilsack. Steve Davies contributed to this report.) #30 February 24, 2016 Republicans say their only motivation for designating the Muslim Brotherhood a terror group is to keep Americans safe. Critics, however, also suspect a trio of outside influences: Egypt. The United Arab Emirates. Donald Trump. The House Judiciary Committee voted 17-10 along party lines Feb. 24 to require the State Department to take action against the Islamist group or justify its refusal to. The bill, while it has little to no chance of becoming law, is nevertheless sure to be welcomed by US allies such as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who have taken flak for their uncompromising stance against the Brotherhood. "We don't know exactly who is behind this," said Mongi Dhaouadi of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, a Washington think tank that supports working with nonviolent political Islamist groups. "But we definitely think that Sisi's lobbying [for] it, possibly the UAE is behind it." The tone of the presidential campaign also surely played a role, said Dhaouadi, who attended the markup and thanked Democrats afterward. Republican candidate Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has introduced identical legislation in the Senate. Donald Trump's electoral success in the Republican presidential primary following his December call to ban Muslims until the government "can figure out what's going on" has revealed many voters' concerns that authorities are in the dark about potential terrorists. A similar anti-Brotherhood bill from now-retired hard-right Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., went nowhere two years ago, but the committee vote suggests it is now a mainstream Republican position. "The Muslim Brotherhoods embrace of terrorism and the very real threat it poses to American lives and the national security of the United States make it long overdue for designation," Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a statement after the vote. "This will make it less likely that members of the Muslim Brotherhood will be able to enter the United States." The bill's sponsor, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., told Al-Monitor that he wasn't directly lobbied by either the UAE or Egypt on the issue. He said the group's record since its founding in Egypt in 1928 was well known and that the Obama administration has had an "overly rosy picture" of the group. "This is an issue to me that, just knowing their history, seems like a no-brainer," Diaz-Balart said. The Egyptian and UAE embassies in Washington did not respond to a call for comment. Both governments, however, have made no mystery of their distaste for the US government's relationship with the group in the wake of the Arab Spring revolts against the region's authoritarian rulers. UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba is said to have been dismayed by the administration's decision to abandon longtime ally Hosni Mubarak and the subsequent rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, which he sees as an existential threat to the Gulf monarchies, according to a lengthy profile in the Huffington Post. The UAE designated the organization as a terrorist group in late 2014. Sisi likewise has been going after the group in full force since he deposed Egypt's democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, in 2013 and declared it a terrorist organization later that year. Hundreds of members have been killed and sentenced to death since then. Dhaouadi said the committee's vote amounts to a "green light" for continued government repression in Egypt. While Diaz-Balart denied the bill was aimed directly at the situation in Egypt, his office has been in close contact with lobbyists for the Sisi government, emailing and meeting with them at least nine times in the months before he introduced his bill, according to a review of lobbying records by Al-Monitor. The plain text of his bill, whose last six findings all relate to recent Muslim Brotherhood actions in Egypt, also shows that his office was well aware of the Sisi government's concerns and accusations. The original bill also pointed to terrorist designations by Syria, Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain to support the United States following suit. The Judiciary Committee stripped out those findings in the version it adopted Feb. 24. "I'm glad the majority will no longer be citing these countries as a source of our foreign policy approach," said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the top Democrat on the committee. "But we still have a bill that ... plays into [the Islamic State's] hands, picks a fight we don't need and makes us less safe." February 24, 2016 Against the backdrop of the Individuals' Intifada, an emotionally charged discourse has been taking place in Israel in recent weeks on the sanctity of life in the eyes of Israelis versus the sanctity and glorification of death among the Palestinians. Had the debate been confined to the social networks, with all sorts of ideological, religious or psychological explanations proposed to the conflict, it is doubtful whether this discourse would have been taken seriously. However, the debate emerges from top decision-makers within the Israeli political and security establishments. The argument often raised is that the Palestinians are readily sending their children to their death and that human life is regarded cheaply in their eyes, while the Israelis bitterly mourn every victim of a terrorist attack and every fallen soldier on the battlefield, seen by Judaism as constituting an entire world (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 37a). Education Minister Naftali Bennett has taken it even further. At the Cabinet meeting Feb. 21, he said that Palestinian parents were not stopping their sons or daughters from going out on stabbing attacks, realizing that if their children get killed, the family was assured of a cash grant and an allowance from the Palestinian Authority (PA). Bennett went on to propose that the funds granted by the PA to the families of terrorists be offset from the tax money collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinians. He was unaware that Israel has already been doing just that. On Feb. 22, at a meeting with bereaved parents in Eilat, Chief of Police Roni Alsheikh compared the way Israelis experienced bereavement with the way our neighbors, as he put it, dealt with it. Their underlying message is that there is no significance to life, and that by pressing a button or pulling a knife, one can move on to a better world and be rid of the challenges of this world, the chief of police said. Alsheikh critically alluded to the statements made by Army Radio broadcaster Razi Barkai during an interview with Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan on Feb. 7. Minister Erdan has been halting the transfer of bodies of Palestinian attackers who were Jerusalem residents for burial by their families. With reference to the policy adopted by the Ministry, Barkai told Erdan: [comparing to Palestinian bereaved families] Imagine Israeli families and sadly we know cases like that waiting and waiting for the bodies of their loved ones to return. Thats the comparison youre making? Erdan said, clearly shocked. The interview has sparked an outcry throughout the country and prompted a call by Israeli bereaved families to suspend Barkai, who is one of the veteran radio broadcasters in Israel. Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon joined in the discourse. On Feb. 23, Ya'alon said, We are facing a society that sanctifies and glorifies death. There is no room for any comparison between our bereavement and the way the loss of life is experienced on their side. We have chosen life. The theological philological argument underlying the comparison made about bereavement should be clarified at this point. According to Islam, the term shahid denotes a Muslim who has sacrificed himself in the name of Allah. These days, a martyr sacrificing himself for a national cause is honored with the same title. During funerals of terrorists or Palestinians killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in clashes in Gaza or the West Bank, the dead are customarily hailed as Al-shahid habib Allah! (The martyr is the beloved of God). Yet one may wonder whether the use of religion to promote national causes can be attributed exclusively to Muslims, or just to the Palestinians. Consider, for instance, a question raised on Kipa one of the leading websites of the religious Zionist community in Israel concerning a death sanctifying God's name in military service in an elite unit. The question is posed by a combatant in an elite IDF unit, asking the rabbi's advice on the issue troubling him: As someone who takes part in military operations deep inside enemy territory, would it be deemed acceptable in terms of the Jewish faith to voluntarily sacrifice one's life in the name of God? And here's the rabbis answer: Blessed are you to have reached such a high level of sanctifying God. Your willingness to sacrifice yourself for the sake of Israel and the Jewish nation is noble indeed. And blessed are we to have young men like you among us. Your words are inspiring, giving us all who read them courage and inner strength. Bravo! May God be with you. The attempt to present the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a religious conflict is simplistic and evasive, dodging the really important issues. The ongoing intifada apparently broke out on the backdrop of incitement claims that Israel was taking over Temple Mount and damaging Al-Aqsa Mosque. But since then, the intifada has kept going, and it appears that many Palestinian youths are joining it motivated by completely other reasons. The security establishment is well-aware of these causes and so are the political decision-makers in Israel. It has been stated once and again in all possible forums that the growing despair among young Palestinians, their dire economic situation and the absence of a political horizon push young individuals to set out on terrorist attacks in Israel. Why then has the discussion in Israel been sidetracked to questions of bereavement and the sanctity of death or life? Well, in the heat of war, any war whatsoever, the demonization of the other side is often used as an indispensable psychological means of tackling the other side. The enemy is invariably presented as inhumane and as driven by irrational considerations. Such demonization, utilized by both sides, enables the decision-makers to avoid critical decisions and, needless to say, to shirk all responsibility for the situation. In the Palestinian incitement video clips, Israelis are depicted as bloodthirsty animals viciously hounding the Palestinian people. As for the Israelis, these days, when the intifada is raging, the Palestinians are seen in the eyes of many as death seekers for whom life means nothing. They are sent to die for no reason at all thus the myth goes; it is in their nature, and that's what their leaders believe in, encouraging them to sacrifice their lives in vain. In this discourse, the real causes for the situation are put aside. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu usually puts the blame on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and on the PA. As far as Netanyahu is concerned, they are engaged in rampant incitement against Israel, and this is the real trigger that sparked the recent wave of terrorist attacks against Israelis. Going by this premise, once the incitement is checked, once Palestinian media is shut down and Palestinian websites and social networks are put under control, the security problem Israel is currently coping with so far, unsuccessfully will disappear on its own. Alas, this is but an attempt at distracting public opinion. To put an end to the intifada, Israel will have to make some very tough decisions that is, to put an end to the occupation. February 24, 2016 It appears Egypt is hiding its security coordination with Israel. Well, perhaps the more accurate statement is, it appears Egypt was hiding it. On Feb. 6, The Times of Israel published statements by Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, who said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has flooded the tunnels on his country's border with the Gaza Strip at [Israels] request. Steinitz, a member of the Likud Party led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is widely reported to have said the procedure is a good solution, it came in response to pressure from Tel Aviv and the security coordination between Israel and Egypt is better than ever. His remarks regarding the extent of the security cooperation between Cairo and Tel Aviv caused a debate inside Israel and angered the military. Egyptian officials and media ignored his statements. In a phone conversation with Al-Monitor, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Egypt does coordinate security with Israel as required under their peace treaty, but he denied that the Israeli minister had made the statements attributed to him. In this context, Israel's Maariv daily newspaper published a report Feb. 6 by military affairs analyst Yossi Melman, who revealed that Israels security leadership has imposed strict control over all details of the security cooperation between Cairo and Tel Aviv, based on Egyptian recommendation. Observers have described the peace between Egypt and Israel as only formal. They say the normalization movement hasn't succeeded in the eyes of the Egyptian public because Israel is an occupying power. Former Egyptian head of military intelligence Maj. Gen. Nasr Salem, who remains close to military intelligence officials, denied Israel asked Egypt to flood the tunnels. However, he did not rule out that Egyptian intelligence might have requested a gag order on information about Egyptian-Israeli cooperation. Salem told Al-Monitor that officials consider several elements in deciding to hide such information, especially national security and domestic political issues, where such information can be used as a weapon in the hands of activists who do not understand a thing." About the possibility of announcing such information to the Egyptian people, as stipulated in the constitution of 2014, Salem said the public wouldn't accept any kind of coordination with Israel. Tarek Fahmy, a professor of political science at Cairo University and head of Palestinian and Israeli Studies at the National Center for Middle East Studies, told Al-Monitor by phone that such statements are nothing new and that security coordination is in the interest of both parties. When the interests of Israel and Egypt converge, this does not mean that the latter is providing concessions, but what concerns us first and foremost is to protect the Egyptian border, not to protect Israel," Fahmy said. About the security situation in the Sinai Peninsula, Fahmy said increasing the number of soldiers and the amount of military equipment there would be a breach of the peace treaty, but Israel has tacitly approved such moves because it helps its security and stability. He pointed out that the Camp David treaty will remain a cold peace. Fahmy said Steinitz's remarks will not affect relations between Tel Aviv and Cairo, or how the public views the Egyptian president. He added that Sisi's attitude toward Israel is positive and will improve in the future. In a related development, Gilan Jaber, a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, told Al-Monitor coordination with Israel will not affect Egypt's support for the Palestinian cause. Al-Monitor contacted a Palestinian journalist who lives in the Gaza Strip and asked about the situation. She said Egypt wants to demolish the tunnels to protect its security. Speaking on condition of anonymity, she added that the remaining tunnels probably belong to Hamas and serve partisan or personal interests, and are thus not for the benefit of the Palestinian people. She agreed with Jaber that the political interests shared by Cairo and Tel Aviv will not affect Egypts interest in the Palestinian cause. It should be noted that the Egyptian government does not want to be seen in the Arab world as acting against the Palestinians. Adham Abu Salima, spokesman for the National Commission to Break the Blockade and for Reconstruction, also lives in the Gaza Strip. He said the tunnels are a result of the blockade and are Gazas lifeline. He told Al-Monitor that Gazans have always looked to Egypt for support, since Egypt is their only Arab neighbor. Abu Salima demanded that Egypt open the Rafah crossing and work with the people of Gaza to both protect Egypts national security and contribute to lifting the blockade. He also said the tunnels should not be demolished by flooding, which can harm the environment, agriculture and groundwater. In late 2014, Egypt began establishing a buffer zone on its border with the Gaza Strip and demolished hundreds of tunnels. Egyptian authorities accused Palestinian militants in Gaza of using the tunnels to transfer weapons to armed groups active in Sinai. But Hamas accused Egypt of worsening the damage caused by the Israeli blockade by demolishing tunnels that have long been used to transport goods and passengers to and from the Gaza Strip, home to about 1.8 million people. February 24, 2016 During a Feb. 24 speech in the city of Najafabad, Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei commented on the behavior of the United States ahead of the Feb. 26 elections for Iran's parliament and Assembly of Experts. He also warned about divisions and a polarization between hard-liners and moderates. Khamenei said that in the last 37 years, since the 1979 revolution, Irans enemies, including US officials, have attempted to dissuade Iranians from voting by describing the election process in the country as being useless. Khamenei now believes, however, that the United States has learned from experience that taking a direct position against Irans elections has had the opposite of the desired effect, prompting Iranians to show up and vote. Based on this, Khamenei said, the Americans have been silent in these elections. His comments made an interesting contrast to his Feb. 17 speech, in which he said that British radio is giving the people of Tehran instructions to vote" for specific individuals. Khamenei did not let the United States off the hook entirely, saying that despite the silence of US officials on Irans elections, their agents are busy implementing new ploys in various ways. One such ploy, he said, would be to create a false polarization of hard-liners and moderates in Iranian society during the elections. Khamenei said that it is natural that in any elections, one side would lead over the other, but that this competition does not mean the polarization of the nation and creating a divided society and enmity and malice between people. He declared, Encouraging this polarization in Iran is false. Khamenei added, The source of this false polarization is outside of the country but, unfortunately, sometimes this is repeated inside the country. Another of these false polarizations, according to Khamenei, concerns a future parliament that will be divided between those who support President Hassan Rouhani's administration and those who oppose it. He said, The people of Iran neither want a pro-administration parliament nor an anti-administration parliament. Khamenei said the people of Iran want a parliament that is religious, committed and brave. Ideally, the parliament will be hard to deceive and will be resistant to the greed of "arrogant" powers. It will defend the nations dignity and independence, genuinely desire progress and believe in the scientific movement of the youth and in an indigenous economy. It should be aware of the peoples problems and be determined to solve them. Khamenei also called some observers' dismissal of US infiltration into Iran unwarranted and unjustified. He warned that sometimes an individual may be an agent of infiltration and repeat the statements of the enemy without realizing they are in the service of the enemy. One such instance of repeating the statements of enemy countries and adopting the enemys political discourse, according to Khamenei, is rhetoric that divides Iranian camps into hard-liners and moderates. He said the implication of doing so is that hard-liners are people who are bound to the Islamic Revolution and the principles of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and moderates are people who will surrender and compromise with foreigners. Khamenei objected to these terms and divisions because he said that in Islam, there is only the straight path. As an example of how erroneous this distinction can be, he said that the Islamic State is sometimes referred to as an extremist group, while in reality it represents a deviation from Islam, the Quran and the straight path. Khamenei also said that the results of the elections, whatever they are, will impact the people, so every effort should be made to ensure that the elections are conducted correctly. February 24, 2016 QOM, Iran On the walls surrounding the grave of Fatima the Infallible," the names of the most prominent ayatollahs in Iran can be read. Their graves are situated under the marble covering the grounds of the shrine, which belongs to the sister of Imam Reza the eighth Imam of Shiite Islam who lived and died in modern-day Iran some one thousand years ago. Around the shrine, the famous city of Qom, about 80 miles south of Tehran, grew to become the most significant center for Shiite theology, besides Iraqs Najaf, bringing together the most important Islamic scholars. While dead ayatollahs lie under the marble, future ones sit on top of it. They gather in circles to study and debate some holding books, others with laptops. Meanwhile, the voices of worshippers around them are heard praying and crying. All of this comes together to form the shrines unique sound. There, Al-Monitor met Hussain, a scholar who seemed taken with the heightened political debate as elections approach for the Islamic Consultative Assembly (also called the Iranian parliament) and Assembly of Experts, an 88-member body of mujtahids, or senior Islamic clerics, who elect the supreme leader, the country's highest ranking political and religious official. Hussain said he believes foreigners want to interfere in the elections, mainly by targeting three candidates for the assembly: incumbent Assembly Chairman Mohammad Yazdi, hard-line cleric Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah Yazdi and Guardian Council head Ahmad Jannati. These [three] are the defenders of the revolution, Hussain told Al-Monitor, adding that defending the trio is akin to defending the 1979 Islamic Revolution itself, in which the shah was overthrown. Large posters of Mesbah Yazdi cover the area around the shrine. He is slated to speak before supporters who, like Ali, an English-speaking seminary student, seem angry about the foreign media. The foreign media is trying to influence voters," said Ali, "The Persian-language channels are sending messages to people, calling on them not to vote for the revolutionary candidates. Ali told Al-Monitor, People know well that the British are targeting the revolution. They want their candidates to win so they can have control over the country like before. Hostility is running very high among Qom's conservative clerics or revolutionary clerics, as they prefer to be called toward the other lists in the parliamentary and assembly elections. Those who are praised by the West cant be trusted, Ali said. Qom is important for any mujtahid who seeks endorsement for his Assembly of Experts candidacy. The Society of Qom Seminary Teachers is one of the two most important clerical associations in Iran, along with the Society of Combatant Clergy. If these two bodies support a cleric's candidacy, he has a strong chance of winning. Incumbent parliament Speaker Ali Larijani hails from Qom. Being a renowned conservative, he surprised many by deciding to run as an independent. Ive not separated from the Principlists [Party], but there are differences in our way of thinking, Larijani said at a campaign gathering. I dont accept the accusation that Reformists arent revolutionaries, he added. In the streets of Qom, pictures of Larijani can be seen almost everywhere. The incumbent speaker won the endorsement of the Society of Qom Seminary Teachers. The Reformists have also placed Larijani on their joint ticket with moderates, who are said to be backed by President Hassan Rouhani. And while Larijani isnt the only candidate in Qom, he is the most prominent. He and others will have to contend for the 1 million potential votes in the city, which can send three lawmakers to Tehran. In a coffee shop near Bastani Square, Al-Monitor met with Bagher, another seminary student. The cafe showed no traces of being situated in Qom. Decorated with pictures of Salvador Dali, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, Al Pacino, Leonardo DiCaprio and others, it might have been anywhere in the world. However, two grand photos of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the two supreme leaders in the history of the Islamic Republic, brought one back to Iran. Like Ali, Bagher is critical of foreign media. He said he believes international media outlets are trying to present Iran inaccurately. There are three main models dominating the world today, Bagher told Al-Monitor. The Western model, the Daesh [Islamic State] model and the Islamic Republic of Irans model; you cant mix any of these three. (Bagher sees the Eastern model of governance and society as no longer relevant.) When some try to say Iran is a democracy similar to the West, they are wrong. [They] might be people who love Iran, but they dont understand that you cant draw a line between Iran and Daesh by saying that Iran is closer to the West, he said. Iran isnt a democracy. We have our own model, namely religious democracy, which means that we follow the authority of the people. The people of this country legitimize the power of the regime and the government on religious conditions." This is what Ayatollah Khomeini said in his 1970 book, "Islamic Government," and his successor, Ayatollah Khamenei, later institutionalized, Bagher said. The idea Bagher was referring to was first spoken about in Qom, where Ayatollah Khomeini in the early 1960s gave his lectures in the Fayziyeh School inside the shrine of Fatima the Infallible. Back then, a new line of thought among Shiites appeared, and for the first time in centuries, it included a call for seizing power and ruling in accordance with Islamic teachings. This was seen as the revolution not just against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, but also against the mainstream seminary. Decades later, as Iran is about to hold key elections, it appears the country is still in the grip of a struggle for the soul of the revolution and what it means. February 24, 2016 Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon Louis Sako boycotted the National Conference on the Protection of Peaceful Coexistence, the Ban of Hatred and the Fight against Terrorism and Extremism held in the Iraqi parliament Feb. 7. Sako thought it was useless to participate in conferences of slogans and mere talk that do not result in effective measures on the ground. Sako, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, seemed angry at the government's failure to take steps to protect Iraqs Christians, 120,000 of whom were displaced and whose properties in Islamic State-controlled Mosul were confiscated in June 2014. The Christians plight was also overlooked in Baghdad, where influential parties took over their residences. On Feb. 5, Sako pleaded in a public statement, I call on the conscience of officials in the Iraqi government and on religious authorities to take actions that preserve peoples lives, dignity and properties, regardless of their identity. They are humans and Iraqis. He went so far as to say, Practices against Christians are against religious messages and can be classified as genocide of a different type. Perhaps Sako could not come out and say directly that Christians were being displaced and their houses stolen in Baghdad, as his status as a religious leader obliges him to be diplomatic. But in a June 2015 television interview, Mohammed al-Rubaie, a member of Baghdads provincial council, shared statistics showing that influential parties had taken control of 70% of the houses of Christians who were displaced from Baghdad to destinations outside Iraq. Rubaie added that these influential parties managed to change the ownership of the houses in the governments real estate records to the names of influential people. Other Iraqis including Sunnis, Shiites, Yazidis and Sabians are generally sympathetic to the Christians, as they are considered part of a peaceful and civil sect in Iraq. They expressed solidarity with Christians and objected to the confiscation of their houses. However, Rubaies announcement shocked Iraqi society and sparked a debate between Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Christian politicians. One of them, Imad Youkhana, said in July 2015, Prime Minister Abadi promised to put an end to all violations [against Christians] and give the homes back to their original owners, but he has failed to do so. Youkhana accused "illegal religious parties and militias" of "seizing the homes of Christians in Baghdad, kidnapping them and threatening them. He noted that the situation in the capital is leading to ethnic cleansing and demographic change. The political parties and the government are well aware of these practices, but something seems to be preventing the government and security forces from protecting the property of Christians who have been present in Iraq for thousands of years. Yonadam Kanna, chairman of the Rafidain Christian parliamentary bloc, told Al-Monitor, Militias affiliated with political parties are trying to eliminate Christians from Baghdad and seizing their property by force. He stressed, The government is well aware of these violations but it is not doing anything about it. He went on, Those gangs continue to seize the property of Christians, and according to the information I have received, dozens of homes were seized, but I am sure the number is much higher as certain families left immediately after their homes were seized without filing a complaint or reporting anything, fearing for their lives. The seized homes are often empty homes whose owners have already left. But in some cases, the [gangs] threaten to kill the owners and they seize the homes while the families are still living there. Milad Majid (a pseudonym) told Al-Monitor over Skype about the threats that pushed him to escape to the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and then displaced him permanently to the United States. He said, I lived in Al-Ghadeer, Baghdad, and I was harassed by armed groups many times. They called me nasrani [Arabic for "Christian"] and 'mushrik ["polytheist"] and repeatedly asked me to sell them my house. Majid added, They wanted to buy the house for a cheap price. It cost around $180,000. They wanted to buy it for only $100,000. I refused to sell my house in 2013. Months later, they threatened to kill me or hurt my mother. These threats scared Majid, but he did not report them to the police. He said, I was afraid. When did the police ever protect the citizens? The militia might have discovered I called the police, and they would have killed me. Majid said the threats pushed him to evacuate his house and rent it out to a poor Iraqi family. But the militia soon threatened the tenants as well and forced them to leave the house so they could confiscate it. He added, I found out later from my relatives that they claimed ownership of the house in the governments real estate records and sold it. This is how I lost the house where I was born. I do not know if I will ever get it back. Majid did not want to reveal his real name or that of the militia that threatened him because he feared for his relatives who are still in Baghdad. He explained, I am not the only Christian who faced such incidents. Since the fall of Baghdad in 2003, Christians have been telling their stories about loss of property and threats. Kanna said, The ownership of many Christian properties is changed in the Iraqi real estate registry and transferred to armed groups via bribery. This act of fraud costs $10,000. The emigration of Christians from Iraq increased after the US invasion in April 2003 in response to the threat posed by Sunni and Shiite Islamic militias. As a result, their numbers dropped from 1.5 million to about 850,000 people in 2012. This number, too, is likely to have significantly dropped over the past few years, especially after the Islamic State took over a third of the country in June 2014 and marked the houses of Christians with the Arabic letter n for nasara, a pejorative Arabic term for Christians, for confiscation. There are no reliable statistics on the Christians still in the country today. Shakhwan Abdullah, the parliamentary security and defense committee's rapporteur, told Al-Monitor, The committee has addressed a letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi, asking him to open an investigation regarding the seized homes to find out which parties are behind it and prosecute the perpetrators. Abdullah did not mention when the letter was sent, but said, Abadi promised to open an investigation to determine the parties seizing the homes of Christians and falsifying official papers in the real estate department. He noted, The perpetrators are not individuals; they are influential parties in the government trying to exploit their position. However, Abadis government has yet to give a serious response to the calls by clerics and Christian officials for them to protect Christians and urge them to stay in Iraq. Meanwhile, Abadi, who met Pope Francis at the Vatican on Feb. 10, seems to be making promises but not actually implementing them. Our Christian brothers in Iraq are the center of our pride and love and we are keen to take care of them, protect them and make sure they are free to practice their religious rituals, Abadi told the pope. These words were a mere courtesy, and Christians are no longer looking for reassurance. They are now waiting for practical measures to punish those who seized their homes and sought to displace them. February 24, 2016 When the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994 pursuant to the 1993 Oslo Accord, the international community undertook to provide it with financial and economic support, amounting to $17 billion since its establishment until today. Most of this support was earmarked for bolstering the Palestinian governments budget that was primarily used to pay the wages of PA employees, whose numbers exceed 180,000 today, more than 20 years following the establishment of the PA. However, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah announced Feb. 16 that in 2015, the PA received half the usual aid pledged by donor countries. There has been a sharp decline in foreign assistance, which typically makes up 37% of the Palestinian general budget. Meanwhile, the remaining funds come in through local tax revenues and customs fees to the Israeli side, according to a financial report issued by the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute-MAS in January 2016. Palestinian Finance Minister Shukri Bishara said in a Feb. 2 statement that foreign support for the PA has been going downhill. Between 2007 and 2012, this aid amounted to approximately $1.2 billion, decreasing by $200 million between 2013 and 2014. Bishara explained that foreign aid to the PA witnessed another sharp drop to less than $800 million in 2015. He said Saudi Arabia was the most committed donor among Arab countries, providing aid totaling $241.6 million, followed by Algeria with $52.8 million, while the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the United States and the World Bank failed to contribute any funds to the Palestinian budget in 2015. Al-Monitor reviewed the reports of the Palestinian general budget for 2016, which showed that the PA received no more than $750 million in foreign aid in 2015. Former Palestinian Minister of Planning and Labor Samir Abdullah told Al-Monitor, The PA is not facing an international decision to completely halt assistance. The stoppage was gradual, as donor countries reduced their aid by a certain percentage every year. The United States, for example, cut aid from $400 million per year to almost zero, and the $500 million per year that Arab countries previously paid declined to only $150 million, while the European Union donated between 500 and 600 million euros [$550-$660 million], which declined to 300 million euros [$330 million]. It should be noted that these figures are approximate as they change every year according to the donor's abilities. Declining international support to the PA coincided with reduced international interest in the Palestinian cause, as international decision-makers grew more concerned about other issues such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and the influx of hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees to European countries. Samir Abdullah, the former minister of planning and of labor, said, International support for the PA has declined despite the fact that the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict may seem more important, from a strategic point of view, to the great powers of the world. On Jan. 18, the PA declared that the 2016 budget amounted to $4.25 billion, and estimated that its total revenues would exceed $2 billion, collected as taxes, revenue transfers from Israel and foreign aid. Nasr Abdul Kareem, a professor of economics at Birzeit University in the West Bank, told Al-Monitor, The financial crisis suffered by the PA due to a decline of international aid is not new, but has been ongoing since its inception. The PA is almost entirely reliant on foreign aid, and its budgets have experienced deficits for the past 15 years. But this time around, the decline is linked to the existing confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis, and the lack of any forthcoming solutions thereto, which might lead to a stifling financial liquidity crisis for the PA. It should be noted that the EU has been the PAs main financier for years, paying 45% of all regular financial assistance. The PA is fully aware that international aid is not free, but contingent on maintaining the viability of the peace process between the PA and Israel. European taxpayers must be convinced to continue providing aid to the Palestinians. As such, the aid may be further diminished if the peace process were to come to a complete halt. Yet this situation may be preceded by European efforts to exhaust all political options between Palestinians and Israelis before announcing a complete halt to the peace process and consequently an end to aid provided to the PA. On Feb. 19, France announced it will host a summit between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July, in an attempt to revive the peace process and resume negotiations that have been stalled since April 2014. A European diplomat visiting Gaza told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, The EU may cease its financial aid to the PA in light of the worsening political situation between the Palestinians and Israelis and the lack of a negotiated political process between them. For the EU will not disburse free money in the absence of a peace process that achieves political and security stability in the Palestinian territories, as said peace process is the basis upon which European aid has been predicated since the establishment of the PA. The World Bank announced Feb. 12 that the PAs financial situation was difficult and its economic recovery was slow due to a 60% decline of donor aid, the result of the lack of progress in peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis. On that same date, the International Monetary Fund also announced that foreign aid to the PA had shrunk from $2.7 billion in 2008 to less than $800 million in 2015. Omar Shaban, the director of Pal-Think for Strategic Studies in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, The EU was no longer desirous of continuing to pay the wages of the PAs 70,000 employees in Gaza, who, pursuant to instructions by the PA, no longer reported for work in Gaza after Hamas takeover of the Strip in mid-2007. These developments came in conjunction with a general reduction of financial aid provided to the PA, particularly by European countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands. [This reduction] was due to the financial pressures faced by the EU caused by the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria and Iraq in past months. On Sept. 29, the World Bank expressed concern that the continued decline of international assistance to the PA would cause instability and political conflict. If a Palestinian state fails to emerge, stuck in a political dead-end with Israel, then international decision-makers will find it difficult to convince their constituents of the need to continue financing the PA, leading to the latters gradual inability to carry out its duties, services and administrative responsibilities to the Palestinian populace and its ultimate collapse. February 24, 2016 Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot is an experienced officer with a long list of achievements under his belt. Nevertheless, on Feb. 17, he found himself caught in a political crossfire. It happened soon after he gave a talk to a group of high school students in the town of Bat Yam. When asked about the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) procedures for opening fire on assailants, given the wave of terrorism that has been overwhelming Israel for the past few months, Eizenkot said, Every IDF force out on a mission receives beforehand rules of engagement. The IDF cannot speak in slogans, such as 'if someone comes to kill you, arise to kill them first [Talmud, tractate Berakhot 58a]. There have been cases in which a 13-year-old girl with scissors or a knife got into a confrontation with soldiers. I don't want a soldier to empty a magazine on a girl with scissors. The chief of staff emphasized that according to existing orders, soldiers are entitled to use force to eliminate threats. The right wing of the political spectrum immediately attacked Eizenkot for this. The first to lash out was far-right Knesset member Betzalel Smotrich (HaBayit HaYehudi), followed by Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud). Next came a statement from Minister of Transportation and Intelligence Yisrael Katz (Likud). Then Minister of Internal Affairs Gilad Erdan (Likud) made some comments, which were interpreted as criticism of the chief of staff. In Israel, the chief of staff is almost always part of the consensus. In general, politicians tend to avoid public clashes with the most esteemed commander of the IDF. This time, however, there was a crack even in that paradigm. Over the past few years, the Israeli electorate has been veering steadily to the right. The political arena has been shifting rightward even faster, ahead of the electorate. Still holding the center is the IDF, its senior officers and the other heads of the security apparatus. Freed from voter intimidation and populist motives, Israels top defense officials continue to stick to the facts and maintain their composure. Having noticed this lacuna, politicians are becoming less wary of the esteem traditionally afforded to senior officers. As we have already seen this week, they have no qualms about lashing out at the most respected officers, including even the chief of staff, just to score points with an ever-growing right-wing electorate. As a result of this firestorm, Channel 10 News published the results of a survey on Feb. 21 that found that most Jewish respondents believed that the chief of staffs remarks were misguided. The issue rose to the forefront of the public agenda and stayed there for several days. Over the past few months, young Palestinians some of them boys and girls in their teens have attacked Israeli civilians, soldiers and policemen with knives. Some 30 Israelis as well as a foreign resident from Eritrea and a Palestinian from Hebron have already been killed in this wave of terrorism, as have over 200 Palestinian terrorists. The right wing of the Israeli political spectrum supports the approach that any Palestinian who attacks an Israeli with a knife or some other weapon effectively deserves to die, and that everything should be done to take him or her out. They claim that this is the only way to establish a deterrent and stop the current wave of terrorism. The center and left of the political spectrum think differently. Excessive force was used on more than one occasion to stop these young Palestinians. When two Palestinian girls used scissors to attack Israelis in Jerusalem in November 2015, they were brought down with heavy fire from close range. The impression at the scene was that they could have been stopped easily without the use of force. There was also the case of an Israeli Arab woman, who pulled out a knife in front of a group of police officers in the northern town of Afula in October 2015; she was also shot at close range. Then too, the incident could have probably ended differently. Nevertheless, it is hard to bring a case against Israeli citizens or security forces, who are expected to use discretion under difficult circumstances of stress and anxiety. With 32 victims already dead, no one is willing to take a risk and show restraint when dealing with knife-wielding assailants. On the other hand, the IDF and Shin Bet both realize that images of people firing at young Palestinians at close range only serve to incite terrorism, and that the funeral of every one of these casualties leads to three or four copycat assailants, intent on attacking Israelis to honor the memories of the original terrorists. Instead, the security forces would rather end these incidents with as little gunfire and as few casualties as possible. The problem is that Israeli public opinion is not entirely in line with the approach if someone comes to kill you, arise to kill them first. This rabbinic interpretation of the Bible has become a moral mandate. Israelis have come to see it as a kind of overriding principle, which even supersedes official IDF procedures for opening fire. The dispute about these procedures for opening fire reflects a deep debate over principles, which has been brewing over the past few months between Israels political class and its military leadership. Finance Minister Moshe Kahlons initiative, written about in Al-Monitor, is an attempt to bridge these two conflicting approaches. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government is a right-wing government, and it may be even the most right-wing government that the country has ever seen. The sole relatively moderate force in it is ultra-Orthodox party Shas, which has been considered until recently as a right-wing party in every way. Shas leader Aryeh Deri is the most lucid, most moderate and most pragmatic leader in the entire Cabinet. It is Deri who enables Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon to withstand the heavy pressure from right-wing ministers, despite constant pressure to take a much harder stance against terrorism. Likud ministers such as Erdan, Yisrael Katz, Zeev Elkin and Yariv Levin, not to mention HaBayit HaYehudi Ministers Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, want to break sharply to the right and take measures that the defense hierarchy and the IDF reject completely out of hand. With the backing of the defense minister, the army particularly the coordinator of government activities in the territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, and Eizenkot would prefer to show as much restraint as possible. The IDFs leadership has been signaling relentlessly to the political class that the escalation resulting from a continued stalemate will be hard to check. There are tens of thousands of armed individuals in the West Bank, in the Palestinian security forces and among the Tanzim militants [Fatah], a senior security official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. As long as they stay away from the violence, these incidents can be contained. What the IDF fears is that the lack of any diplomatic plan on the horizon will eventually draw these armed Palestinians into the circle of violence, and that the third intifada will start to look like the second. Political pressures on the uniformed class are growing steadily. So far, the highest ranking figures in the political class (the prime minister and his defense minister) have succeeded in avoiding a direct clash with the chief of staff and his officers. Nevertheless, Netanyahu waited four whole days before giving his support to the chief of staff after the raucous scissors debate (over Eizenkot's statement) erupted. If the current situation continues and no end to the current wave of terrorism appears on the horizon, the relatively idyllic relationship between the IDF and Israels decision-makers will also come to an end. February 24, 2016 DAMASCUS, Syria The Syrian regimes advancement in Daraa, Aleppo and rural Latakia, among other areas, confirms the Russian intervention in Syria has changed the balance of power in favor of the regime. As opposition forces have failed to deter the regimes attacks in Daraa province, hopes are hanging on a cease-fire truce announced following a US-Russian agreement approved Feb. 23 by the Syrian regime. The truce, which is to be implemented starting Feb. 27, could be a prelude to ending the military conflict and launching a political solution that would solve the Syrians crisis, observers say. But despite their losses, opposition forces said as late as Feb. 21 that they planned to continue fighting. On Jan 26, the regime's forces gained control over the town of Sheikh Miskin under heavy cover from Russian aircraft. On Feb. 5, they captured the critical town of Atman on the old Damascus-Daraa international highway. This advancement on two fronts also tightened the regimes noose on Dael and Abtaa on the international highway. It seemed possible after all for the regime to control the entire international road leading to the Jordanian borders. On Feb. 16, the opposition, joined by 12 factions, launched the battle of In odtum odna ("If you return, we shall return") in response to the regimes advances in Daraa. The opposition sought control of Tall Qarin in the region connecting Rif Dimashq to Quneitra and Daraa, known as the Death Triangle. It also hoped to disperse the regime's forces and reduce their attempts to target the remaining cities and towns of Daraa. The most important goal [of] this battle is to halt the Russian and Iranian plan to attack the rebel-controlled areas in Quneitra and the Death Triangle," battle coordinator Abu Suleiman al-Ezz said in a Feb. 21 interview with the opposition website All4Syria. "The battle [would ensure] military and security coordination between the southern front factions. The factions announced Feb. 21 the end of the first phase of the battle, though they did not succeed in controlling the military points they targeted, namely Tel Ghareeb and Tell Kroum. Ezz said, however, that the fight would continue until all goals are achieved. Atman is the last city on the old Damascus-Daraa international highway, which extends 40 square miles. Almost all of Atman's estimated 9,000 civilians have fled since clashes began in neighboring Tafas, Nawa and Abtaa in 2013. Those residents who stood their ground joined the militant factions and the city became a battle front, with regime forces stationed in the city of Daraa. The Syrian Arab News Agency on Feb. 5 quoted a military source as saying, Army units, in cooperation with the popular defense groups, restored security and stability to Atman town, 4 kilometers [2.5 miles] north of Daraa city in the southern Daraa province. All the remaining hideouts of the terrorist organizations in the town were eliminated, with many terrorists getting killed, while the rest fled. Opposition forces had used Atman as a platform to bomb Daraa neighborhoods controlled by regime forces in the city of Daraa, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A Syrian army source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Militants did not expect the army to attack them in the town of Atman before taking control of Abtaa and Dael to the north of Atman, after the fall of Sheikh Miskin. The army was able to control Atman quickly, despite the fortifications erected by the militants in the town for over 2 1/2 years. The source added, When combing the town, the army forces found a large network of tunnels used by militants to avoid air strikes, as well as vehicles and quantities of arms and ammunition. Journalist and military affairs expert Tariq al-Hadi talked to Al-Monitor about the strategic importance of Atman, and the regime forces advance in Daraa. The army has multiple objectives in Daraa now, most notably opening new supply lines to its large military troops deployed in the region, extending from Azraa city in the north all the way to Daraa city in the south," Hadi said. The troops are to advance toward the Jordanian border and take control of the Ramtha border crossing in southern Daraa city, separating the east and west of the province "and expanding the safety circle around Daraa city." Hadi added, Atman is the gateway to the city of Daraa." The battles for control of Atman and Sheikh Miskin have put the cities of Abtaa and Dael which are also located on the Damascus-Daraa road between a rock and a hard place. This prompted the cities' notables, who are affiliated with the Baath Party, to send a delegation Feb. 6 to regime-controlled Azraa city to negotiate a truce, according to a civil rights activist in Dael, Abu Rami (a pseudonym). Abu Rami told Al-Monitor, The truce stipulates the halt of military operations against the cities of Abtaa and Dael, the provision of services such as communications and electricity in the two cities and the release of some detainees of the cities by the regime in exchange for flying the Syrian flag on government buildings in Abtaa. The truce also required armed militants to turn themselves in with their weapons and settle their situation with the Syrian army. He added, Civilians raised the Syrian flag in the city center on Feb. 8, and military operations were eased between the two parties in Dael and Abtaa, while Russia continued to bombard the rest of the Daraa countryside. Yet the opposition militants in Abtaa brought down and set fire to the flag on the same day, expressing their refusal to surrender to the regime. Civilian opposition sources in Busra al-Harir told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the regime on Feb. 8 sent out calls for a conditional truce to more than one city in Daraa, mainly Tafas and Busra al-Harir. The opposition rejected the proposals, the sources said. Three months of heavy aerial bombardment with missiles and cluster bombs have caused a huge number of people to flee the areas. The local council of the opposition-controlled part of Daraa announced Feb. 14 that Daraa is a stricken city under a state of emergency. On Feb. 16, the All4Syria website indicated that Daraa province is witnessing a wave of displacement, including 16 towns and cities, as 200,000 displaced people head toward towns that have not been targeted so far. February 24, 2016 Are the resplendent days of the Gulf emirates coming to an end? According to international credit rating agencies and investment banks, the answer is yes. Standard & Poors has lowered Saudi Arabias credit rating twice in the last five months, and credit ratings for Bahrain and Oman are not any better. In November, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, estimated that Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states' export revenues for 2015 would be $275 billion less than for the preceding year due to low oil prices. The Gulf emirates, which spent lavishly to appease their populations after the start of the Arab Spring, have been badly shaken by the decline in oil prices from $110 a barrel to $30 a barrel in the last year and a half. Gulf leaders first dipped into their central bank reserves to cover budget deficits resulting from their extravagant social assistance expenditures. When that wasnt enough, they began selling off assets held by their national asset funds. According to the Kuwait Financial Center, the Gulf states ended 2015 with a deficit of $160 billion. This years deficit is forecast to be $159 billion. Conventional wisdom holds that if oil prices continue their downward trend, in five years Gulf countries wont be able to cover their budget deficits. In other words, they would all be on the edge of a financial cliff. These daunting developments have compelled the Gulf emirates to begin acting more prudently, that is, to restrict public spending and raise taxes. They also began deferring payments to contractors involved in ongoing mega projects. Turkish contractors working in the Gulf have been affected more than Western companies by the current crisis. The Gulf had come to be seen as a safe harbor for Turkish companies that lost billions of dollars because of tensions between Ankara and Moscow. This is why major economic troubles in the Gulf are causing Turkish businesspeople to lose as much sleep as people in the Gulf. According to the Statistical Agency of Turkey, last year Turkish exports totaled $144 billion. The six GCC states Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman spent $6 billion on Turkish goods, about 6.6% of all Turkish exports. A careful look at these figures reveals that in 2015, while Turkish exports shrank by 8.6% overall, exports to Gulf countries grew by 5.5%. In short, petrodollar-rich Arab countries contributed significantly to reducing Turkey's economic losses under Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule. Initial signs in 2016 suggest the continued loss of blood. According to figures released by the Turkish Exporters Assembly, an organization of Turkish businesses, in January 2016 overall exports declined 14.4% compared with the same period in 2015. While there were sharp falls in Turkeys exports to the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, exports to Saudi Arabia and Oman increased. According to Finans Yatirim, a leading investment bank in Turkey, Turkish exports will fall to $137 billion by the end of this year. Further reductions in Turkish exports to Gulf countries could bring about an even higher decline in overall exports. Turkish contractors, which are annually awarded some $25 billion in projects, not only contribute significantly to Turkeys foreign exchange earnings, but also to employment. Contractors won tenders totaling $27 billion in 2014, but saw that amount fall to $19.4 billion in 2015. One of the major winners was Limak Holding, which won the tender for a new terminal at Kuwait international Airport that will cost $4.3 billion. It is the biggest single project a Turkish company has won alone. If Limak had not obtained the contract, the sectors performance last year would have been its worst of the decade. Mithat Yenigun, president of the Turkish Contractors Union, told Al-Monitor, Developments in Russia, which leads the list of countries where we have projects, worry us. Yenigun further said that in terms of companies operating in Russia, Our Ministry of Economy and Russian employers are saying that the projects in progress will continue, but some projects awaiting approval will be suspended, and there is no likelihood of new projects in the near term. Yenigun expanded on his sectors worries, stating, The trend of low oil prices in oil-exporting countries like Algeria and Saudi Arabia also delay investments and cause difficulties in timely payments for projects. Yenigun noted that there have been some delays in payments by oil-exporting countries and that some projects have been suspended. Libya and Iraq are the main countries from which Turkish companies are experiencing problems receiving compensation, and there were fears that the situation would spill over to the Gulf countries. Sani Sener, CEO of TAV Holding, which last month won a $1.1 billion tender for an Omani airport, said their fears were justified. This is the first time we have faced delays in payments for work done. That naturally affects us adversely, he said. Most relevant quarters feel that the burden of President Recep Tayyip Erdogans foreign policy is increasingly weighing on Turkish business by the day. Tensions with Russia and Iraq have significantly affected exports and tourism. Gulf countries once seen as an alternative market no longer look promising. Turkish businesspeople who closely follow developments in the Gulf economies can do little more than gloomily ponder. Jersey Mike's Vestavia Hills Jersey Mike's Subs is under construction at 1031 Old Montgomery Highway in Vestavia Hills. Vestavia Hills is about to get a new sandwich option. Jersey Mike's Subs is currently under construction at 1031 Old Montgomery Highway in the same shopping center as Sprouts Farmers Market and the new Chipotle in Vestavia Hills. Jersey Mike's is currently hiring for the location, according to a sign in the window. Click here to apply. Jersey Mike's did not return a request for comment Thursday afternoon. Jersey Mike's was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Manasquan, New Jersey. It has about 1,500 locations throughout the country. In September, Jersey Mike's opened its first store in Mountain Brook at 3150 Overton Road. The chain also has locations in Hoover and Trussville. These locations are all open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. The first lady of rock 'n' soul and the actual First Lady met again Wednesday night. Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard returned to the White House to perform in a Smithsonian Ray Charles tribute. President Barack Obama and wife Michelle Obama were in attendance. Howard had previously performed at the White House with Alabama Shakes in 2013, collaborating with vintage-soul icons Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper on a cover of bluesman Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign." During Wednesday's event - titled "Smithsonian Salutes Ray Charles: In Performance at the White House" - Howard gave a brief intro in which she spoke of Charles affinity for gospel music. (About one hour and 39 minutes into the below YouTube video.) She then crooned Charles' swinging 1961 hit "Unchain My Heart." The Athens native returned to sing "Heaven Help Us All," a song Charles released featuring Gladys Knight in 1972. (About 2:16:45 in.) "Heaven Help Us All" also featured vocal turns from vocalist Andra Day, Yolanda Adams and Demi Lovato. Howard, clad in a midnight-blue dress and her hair done in a high-top fade style, delivered her trademark heartfelt vocals with in a more restrained manner than usual. Other performers in "Smithsonian Salutes Ray Charles" included Sam Moore, The Band Perry, Leon Bridges, Andra Day and Anthony Hamilton. Howard returned to the stage once more to close the show. She served in the fleet of backing vocalists on the jubilant 1959 signature cut "What'd I Say," which featured R&B/pop hitmaker Usher on lead vocals. (About 2:30:00 in.) Charles passed away in 2004 at the age of 73. Southern Baptists will be gathering in Alabama's capital on Monday to discuss how to teach about issues such as the legalization of same-sex marriage and how to discuss former Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner's transformation from man to woman. The Church and Sexuality Conference will be held at First Baptist Church in Montgomery on Monday, Feb. 29, 10 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. The keynote speakers include Beeson Divinity School Dean Timothy George, from Samford University in Birmingham, and the Rev. Russell D. Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. That's the agency that helps express where the nation's largest Protestant denomination stands on social issues. AL.com interviewed Moore today to discuss issues relating to the Church and Sexuality Conference, organized by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. Admission to the conference is $25, which includes lunch and a copy of Moore's book, "Onward: Engaging the Culture Without Losing the Gospel." We also asked Moore about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the current frontrunner in the upcoming presidential primary on March 1, and about how he advises Christians to vote. The interview has been edited and condensed. AL.com: Why is there a need for a conference on The Church and Sexuality? Russell Moore: We're in a moment where Christians can't expect people to understand what we mean when we talk about marriage and sexuality. We have to explain, explicitly, what we mean. We can't count on the culture to be pre-evangelized. Training churches to be able to speak truthfully and with grace and kindness is critically important. From the beginning, Christianity has been counter-cultural on marriage and sexuality issues. We cannot change our stance. We don't have the authority to do that. We really believe that Jesus has told us what sexuality is and why it matters. AL.com: How would you explain to Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner your objection to his/her gender transformation? Moore: It would take a long time to explain. There is a contemporary view of gender that wants to disconnect gender from bodily reality. That's a tendency we've seen at other times in church history, with the heresy of Gnosticism. I don't deny that some of us feel alienated from our gender. We all at times feel alienated from our physical realities. That's what it means to be human beings post-fall. We have to learn to submit to our created-ness and the limits of our created-ness. The church cannot address the transgender question with stereotypical views of masculinity and femininity. The church at times has done that. That confuses the issue. Many times we have responded with cultural stereotypes, not biblical teaching, embracing cultural stereotypes of masculinity and femininity in a way the Bible never does. A young woman who doesn't want to dress up in lipstick and high heels but wants to be in the deer stand with her dad, she has a femininity that we need to be able to embrace. She shouldn't have to live up to the ideals of Madison Avenue. The same is true for men. David is a warrior; he's also a harpist. AL.com: How do you see the church responding to the court rulings legalizing same-sex marriage? Moore: There are a lot of people outside the church who just assume that Christians will capitulate on those issues. We don't have the authority to revise our views on sexuality. The sexual revolution is making a lot of promises it can't keep. We are advising our churches to be ready for the refugees from the sexual revolution, for people hurt by the redefinition of sexuality and marriage. There are many people who have been hurt by it. Hold to the biblical view. AL.com: Could marriage be further redefined in the future, maybe to allow polygamy? Moore: Polygamy was tolerated in the Old Covenant. The union of a man and a woman is established in the New Covenant and strictly enforced. Biblically, we cannot go towards polygamy. Legally, there is no logical reason why a future court would not affirm multiple-person marriages. That's exactly what Justice Scalia predicted in his dissent. Once marriage is disconnected from an objective natural reality and the best interests of children, there is no reason to define marriage in a way that limits individual autonomy. AL.com: Do you worry that many evangelicals say they support Donald Trump? Moore: I've spoken very publicly about concerns about Trumpism. I think there's a myth that evangelicals are driving the Trump phenomenon. If you look at who is supporting Trump, and who regular churchgoers are supporting, the differences are stark. The number one predictor (for opposing Trump) has been church attendance. Evangelical has become a meaningless term, because people may identify themselves with a religious tradition of their family, while not attending church themselves. AL.com: Do you think Donald Trump understands Christian faith? Moore: He does not understand what Christian faith is or is about. Many of the primary religious liberty concerns we face come because people don't understand religious motivation. Many of the people in Washington who disagree with me are not trying to restrict Christianity, they just don't understand what it means to feel that you are going to stand before the Lord and be judged. AL.com: Kirk Cameron has said in an interview with us that adultery in the church should worry the church more than same-sex marriage. Do you agree with that? Moore: We have to speak consistently about sexuality morality and about God's grace, and about forgiving people. That means addressing issues within the household of God as well. That includes a divorce culture that is all too common in our own churches. Internet pornography has become ubiquitous in a way that's harming families. AL.com: Are you worried that parents are giving 12-year-olds smartphones with unlimited internet access? Moore: That's one of the great frustrations of my life. I have five sons, ages 14 to 4. They are the only ones in their peer group that don't have a phone. It amazes me that Christian parents devoted to bringing their kids to church on Sundays give their children a phone with no restrictions on the internet. I wonder how I would have handled that when I was growing up. It would have destroyed me as a pre-teen. As parents we're not thinking through what we're doing. AL.com: Are you worried that holding back that tide of culture is like sticking a finger in the dike as the dam breaks? Moore: It's not a new situation. The church emerged in a context of radical understandings of sexual morality. The Greco-Roman world of the first century was not Mayberry. I don't think it's something we should panic about. In the early church, Paul wrote about adultery, incest, temple prostitution. That was the ecosystem around the church. AL.com: How do you advise Christians to approach voting in the Super Tuesday Primary coming up? Moore: Vote with a conscience informed by Christian principles. There are many Christians tempted to put the gospel in a blind trust while they vote. The kingdom of God ought to inform us about what matters and who matters, taking into account character and integrity of candidates and where they stand on the issues that matter to us. Five (or so) new releases that are either good, not-so-good or just worth talking about. New this week WYNONNA EARP #1. IDW. Written by Beau Smith. Art by Lora Innes. Beau Smith's new "Wynonna Earp" miniseries, a reprisal of the work Smith began in 1996, is fairly accessible for those not familiar with the character. Wynonna Earp, a descendant of the legendary Wyatt Earp, is a member of the U.S. Marshals Black Badge Division, a secretive force charged with protecting the country from supernatural hobgoblins like zombies, werewolves and, as we see in #1, radioactive cannibals who sell human organs on the black market. Spiritually, the series has a lot in common with "Men in Black," but Wynonna does more than enough to distinguish herself with wisecracks and general badassery. The character is clever, and the nonchalant way in which she handles her self being covered in zombie goop in the first few pages is comedic gold. Everyone else is the book is dull in comparison, but the plot proceeds nicely with a few unexpected moments. Interesting read. Generalized Unique Emoticon Scientific Score: }: ), :-D, :-) THE GINGERDEAD MAN #1. Action Lab: Danger Zone. Written by Brockton McKinney. Art by Sergio Rios and Marcelo Costa. I can't really sugar (that's one) coat this one -- "The Gingerdead Man" is an incredibly stupid book. When convicted murderer Millard Findlemeyer is sent to the sweet (that's two) hereafter via execution, it would normally spell the end for most villains. But after a gang of drug dealers seeking to peddle a new, incredibly potent designer high called Confection break into an abandoned bakery and find Findlemeyer's ashes, the incredible happens and the murderer is reborn as...a gingerbread man, who then proceeds to slay anyone he can get within the grasp of his stubby, crumbly arms. (Imagine Chucky meets the Pillsbury Doughboy and you'll get an idea of the essence of this series.) Undoubtedly, this is a graphic, profane, violent and stupid book, but it is deliciously (three) dumb and so good at what it aspires to be. Sure, the premise is bizarre, and the setup of Findlemeyer's rebirth (a mixture of his ashes, Confection, beer and blood) is a little half-baked (four), but there is no denying the pleasures of a book that simply goes about its B-movie aspirations with glee as the titular cookie finds new ways to kill and maim. "The Gingerdead Man" might not be a classic, but it is a tasty (and we finish with five) treat. GUESS: :-####, :'-), :-J Last week's leftovers DEVOLUTION #2. Dynamite. Written by Rick Remender. Art by Jordan Boyd and Jonathan Wayshack. Raja, one of the few humans left in a world in which all species have been devolved by a virus of her father's design, harbors a lot of guilt for what's happened to most of the planet's inhabitants. So in the second issue of "Devolution," a five-issue miniseries, she tries to convince a band of humans that her father inoculated from the virus to help her travel to San Francisco to obtain a cure. Unfortunately for her sake (and for the rest of humanity, I suppose), her plea is ignored by the group's leader, a vicious Neo-Nazi named Gil who's perfectly content with Earth's new status quo. The writing here is solid, and Gil is an especially effective foil as someone despicable enough for Raja to question if the human race is even worth saving. (The last line of the issue really drives home that doubt well.) If there was any complaint to be found, it's that at times, facial expressions tend to become a little too exaggerated and cartoonish -- I'd dial it down a notch, but that could just be a personal preference. On the whole, this in an interesting series worth looking into. GUESS: :-), :-O, :-D AMERICAN MONSTER #2. Aftershock. Written by Brian Azzarello. Art by Juan Doe. As we get into the second issue of "American Monster," we're beginning to really meet some of the characters that will drive the story. The first is the titular "monster" Theodore Montclare, a scarred and disfigured Iraq War vet who happens to bear the same back-sized SS tattoo as a local gun runner. Then there's Deputy Gary Downs, a sweet, well-meaning member of the local sheriff's department who is tasked with doing the jobs his superior is unwilling to do. Montclare and Downs (who gets a sweet moment at the end of #2) have a strange chemistry between them, almost like a reprise of the relationship between Lecter and Starling in "Silence of the Lambs" (though here we don't have the sexual tension or the claustrophobia of the nut house). But in the scenes without those two, the book sort of floats along without a real purpose -- sure, the kids from #1 are still here, but we haven't been given a strong enough reason to care about them. And even if I had a reason, I'd still rather have the monster Montclare front and center. GUESS: :-/, :-), :-? TWILIGHT ZONE 1959 . Dynamite. Written by John Layman, Tom Peyer and Mark Rahner. Art by Randy Valiente and Colton Worley. "Twilight Zone 1959," a one-shot anthology book set in 1959 (the year in which the television show debuted), does a lot to honor its black-and-white forebearer: The tone is more or less consistent (save one abysmally dark suicide beat) and the Rod Sterling-style narration at the beginning of each of the three stories is spot-on. Of course, "1959" also decided to unintentionally honor the series by producing an uneven work. (Come on -- you know "The Twilight Zone" had some clunkers sprinkled in with its gems.) My favorite of the three was the concluding chapter, "The Comics Code," a cautionary tale about an overzealous anti-comic book crusader who gets what's coming to him. It wasn't great -- a bit too campy even for "The Twilight Zone" -- but it was at least clever and a nice reimagining of Dr. Fredric Werthham, . The remaining stories were OK, but they had their problems as well. "Laughing Matter" (the tale containing the aforementioned suicide) didn't work well in the comic medium simply because it had too much in common with the classic television episode Simply put, the artistic and narrative tricks required to pull off the reveal at the end stretched the story's credibility until it simply broke. "Initiation," the sweetest of the three stories, was at good look at how the world of teens and preteens can be downright savage, but its ambiguous ending was (again) a little too ambiguous even for "The Twilight Zone." By all means, "1959" was not a bad book, and it does a lot right by the classic anthology series. But it also has its own well-pronounced set of warts. GUESS: :-P. :'-(, -___- Cherokee County Coroner Jeremy Deaton said a Sand Rock woman was killed in a single vehicle accident Wednesday night. Barbara Phipps, 19, died in a wreck that happened off U.S. 411 south of Leesburg about 8:15 p.m. Phipps died as a result of multiple blunt force trauma. Deaton said a mini-van left the road, struck a power pole, and continued until it became submerged in Weiss Lake. A wrecker was used to remove the vehicle as first responders tended to the victim inside the vehicle. The wreck snarled traffic for more than an hour in the area, Deaton said. A second person has now been charged in the death of a man whose burned body was found in Leeds seven months ago. A Shelby County grand jury indicted Corey Zito, 26, on one murder charge. That indictment was made public today. Zito's cousin, Candie Zito, had previously been charged with murder. Her indictment was made public earlier this week. Both are charged in the death of 20-year-old Anthony Shane Gibson. He was last seen alive July 2, 2015, when he left his home about 8 p.m. that Thursday night, telling his family he was going to a nearby store. He left in his grandmother's white 1998 Ford Escort, and never returned. Gibson's body was found three days later, on a Sunday night. Leeds police got the call at 6 p.m. after someone made the gruesome discovery. Police responded to the wooded area, which is three-quarters of a mile off of Markeeta Road in Jefferson County. Gibson's body was burned beyond recognition, and an autopsy later showed he had been shot. The months-long probe, led by Leeds Detective Kevin Palmer, showed the murder took place at Candie Zito's parents' home in Chelsea. Gibson's body was then taken to Leeds and dumped. On July 8, Leeds police issued a lookout bulletin for Candie Zito. Police didn't say what led them to her. Three days later, she and Corey Zito were found in Indiana. Candie Zito, authorities said, showed up at her grandmother's home in Montgomery, Indiana. Her grandmother called police, and she fled, leading officers on a 20-minute, 15-mile pursuit. The Zitos were in the 1998 Ford Escort last driven by Anthony Gibson. Daviess County sheriff's Capt. Chuck Milton said at the time the chase began at 1:47 p.m. that Saturday when a deputy spotted the Escort pull out from a gas station and pull into a Dollar General parking lot. Once in the parking, there was a verbal exchange between the Zitos and the deputy. The deputy, Milton said, told them to shut off the car and put their hands out the window. Candie Zito The driver - later identified as Corey Zito - didn't comply, and instead put the car in reverse and jumped the curb of the store. The pursuit began, and continued at a high rate of speed, with the vehicle running other motorists off the road. The pursuit continued into Martin County through the cities of Loogootee and Shoals, Milton said. The driver then lost control, went down an embankment and hit several trees. Both of the suspects were airlifted to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville. Candie Zito underwent surgery and remained in the hospital until July 14, at which point she was released and booked into the Daviess County Security Center in Washington, Indiana. She now also faces felony charges in that state for resisting law enforcement and possession of stolen property, already was charged with a theft of property warrant in Alabama for the theft of Gibson's car. She eventually was brought back to the Shelby County Jail where she remains held on $1 million bond. Corey Zito was initially in critical condition. Authorities in Alabama issued a warrant for his arrest Sept. 6, on the theft of property charge involving Gibson's stolen car. It's not clear when he was released from the Indiana hospital, but he was booked into the Shelby County Jail that day, and ordered held on $1 million bond, jail records show. He's been jailed ever since. Corey Zito was previously only charged with theft. At the time of his capture, the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Office in Louisiana has been searching for 26-year-old Cory Zito since mid-June on charges of domestic abuse battery with strangulation and domestic abuse battery for two separate incidents. Candie Zito is set for arraignment March 14; Corey Zito on March 15. A third person is now in custody in connection with the robbery, kidnapping and attempted murder of a man in which a Birmingham lawyer already has been arrested and charged. Monique Antoine Roscoe, 40, was booked into the Jefferson County Jail early today, according to jail records. Roscoe, recently featured as a most-wanted by Crime Stoppers, is the final suspect sought in the Jan. 25 incident in the East Lake area. Birmingham attorney James Woolley, 50, and Kimberly Murphy, 31, have already been charged in the case. Investigators have not released much information about the incident. According to court records, the victim is a 28-year-old male and the suspected crimes happened in the 800 block of 79th Street South. Arrest affidavits indicate the charges stem from the theft of a wallet, money clip, a tactical knife, a track phone, a necklace and piercing kit. The victim lives near Murphy. Woolley and Roscoe are charged with attempted murder, robbery and kidnapping. Murphy is charged with robbery and kidnapping. According to the records, the suspects were armed with a pistol, as well as a machete and bolt cutters. Murphy has a previous conviction for unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance. Roscoe is currently awaiting trial on multiple drug charges in Jefferson and Morgan counties. Woolley was released from jail Feb. 11 after posting his $150,000 bond. Murphy was released Feb. 18. Her bond was set at $100,000. Roscoe is currently still in jail with bond set at $150,000. Preliminary hearings for Woolley and Murphy are set for March 3. Roscoe's preliminary hearing hasn't yet been set. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has appointed Assistant Attorney General Kelly H. Godwin as a special prosecutor in the case because of Woolley's ties to the Jefferson County court system. Kerry Dewayne Harbin Kerry Dewayne Harbin ( ) An accused wig-wearing robber who police say carried out a string of bank heists throughout Alabama and Mississippi late last year has now been federally indicted. A federal grand jury today issued a six-count indictment against 45-year-old Kerry Dewayne Harbin, of Russellville. Harbin is charged with four counts of bank robbery and two counts of attempted bank robbery in holdups carried out between Sept. 1, 2015 and Oct. 15, 2015, according to a joint announcement by U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Roger C. Stanton. The indictment charges Harbin with robbing the BBVA Compass Bank on State Farm Parkway in Homewood on Sept. 1, the Union State Bank on Lorna Road in Hoover on Sept. 10, the Wells Fargo Bank on West Valley Avenue in Homewood on Sept. 17, and the Cullman Savings Bank on Oct. 14. The attempted robberies happened at the BB&T Bank on Red Lane Road in Birmingham on Sept. 9 and the BBVA Compass Bank on Green Springs Highway in Homewood on Sept. 10. Hoover and Homewood police previously filed state charges against Harbin. In each of the cases, Harbin was wearing a wig and handed a note to a teller demanding cash. Harbin was captured in October when authorities say he entered the Renasant Bank in New Albany, Mississippi, also wearing a dark wig. He handed the teller a note demanding money and they complied. He took the money and left the bank. Witnesses gave lawmen a description of his getaway vehicle, and he was stopped a short time later by New Albany police, the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Union County Sheriff's Office. Hoover police detectives traveled to Mississippi that day to question Harbin. Court records show Harbin was convicted in 2001 in Alabama of misdemeanor theft of property. He was initially charged with robbery in that case, but pleaded to the lesser crime. In that 2001 case, he followed a woman from a methadone clinic to a gas station and asked her for directions. He then reach over her into her car and stole her purse. When she tried to stop him, he pulled a knife on her and fled. He received a one-year suspended sentence. He also has prior convictions for giving false information to police, drug possession and multiple traffic violations. The maximum penalty for bank robbery and attempted bank robber is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. As many citizens across the nation celebrate Black History Month and commemorate the contributions of African-American pioneers from the past, some trailblazers stationed aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany and friends of the installation highlighted noteworthy, history-making experiences in their own lifetime. Lt. Cmdr. Donald Mitchell, senior nurse executive, Naval Branch Health Clinic-Albany, MCLB Albany, has left his own mark on history. Among his many accomplishments, Mitchell, who recently became a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, the nations leading professional society for healthcare administrations, was also the first African-American male nurse to graduate from the University of Rhode Island, located in Kingston. I always craved something greater, Mitchell said. I wanted to leave a better legacy for my children, (and) just do things that no one could. I hate that there was color in it, but I wanted to be the first African-American to do whatever. (That was) because I always wanted the challenge. While sharing his personal experiences, Mitchell admits one of the most memorable highlights of his career was during his assignment at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Bethesda, Maryland. Let me just digress back to Bethesda, Mitchell recalled. One of the things that I had the privilege of doing -- and it was kind of the highlight of my career was having Thurgood Marshall as a patient of mine. (He) was a short-lived patient; but it was the fact that 10-15 minutes, dealing with him, even though he was kind of elderly, (was) set in his ways. He was mad at me because I was trying to teach him to use a walker, Mitchell explained, while chuckling. He threatened to call the (U.S.) Secret Service or call the Whitehouse on me. The Secret Service (agent) said, Just pay him no mind. So, that in itself was (a great experience) for me. Marshall was a Civil Rights attorney, the Supreme Courts 96th justice and its first African-American justice to serve. Marshall studied law at Howard University. As counsel to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, he utilized the judiciary to champion equality for African-Americans, according to the bio posted on the website: www.biography.com/people/thurgood-marshall-9400241. In 1954, Marshall won the Brown v. Board of Education case, in which the Supreme Court ended racial segregation in public schools. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967, and served for 24 years. He was said to be one of the most effective Civil Rights crusaders of the 20th Century, the website further indicated. Another pioneer, who has lived decades of history, is Albany resident Henry Jackson, one of the original Montford Point Marines, Congressional Gold Medal recipient and an icon at MCLB Albany. Jackson, a World War II veteran and retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant, frequently discusses a pivotal moment in Marine Corps history when he was one of the first African-American Marines to attend basic training at Montford Point, North Carolina, during the period between 1942 and 1949. Because there were no blacks in the Marine Corps before 1942, President (Franklin) Roosevelt opened the ranks up for (African-Americans), Jackson said. He issued a mandate to enlist 20,000 black Marines and, I was one of them. Sixty-four years after they served, President Barack Obama signed a bill into law, honoring the contributions of Jackson and other African-American Montford Point Marines. The recognition granted Congressional Gold Medals to the former service members in a ceremony held in Washington, D.C., June 27, 2012. Read more about the history of the first African-American Marines and their impact on the nation on the National Montford Point Marine Association, Inc. website: www.montfordpointmarines.com/History.html. As the Islamic Republic prepares to hold important nationwide elections, here is what you should know about them. Voters in Iran are heading to the polls on Friday in the countrys first parliamentary election after the implementation of a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. The vote is seen by many analysts as a potential battleground between hardliners in the country and those reformists who have seen their powers wane over the past decade. On the eve of the important nationwide elections, here is what you need to know. Who are the candidates? On Friday, votes will be cast for Irans two major political institutions: the Parliament and the Assembly of Experts. More than 6,200 candidates, including 586 women, are vying for Irans 290-seat parliament. In the capital Tehran alone, more than 1,000 candidates are competing for 30 seats. A large number of reform candidates have been blocked from running by the Guardian Council, the body of clerics and jurists who are allied with Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. READ MORE: Voices from Iran voters hope for economic growth In a sign of the apparatus employed by the state to control elections, more than 12,000 people initially registered as candidates but more than half were disqualified, in a process seen by many as opaque. In the other election for the Assembly of Experts, 800 people applied to stand but the Guardian Council cleared just 161 of them and disqualified all female applicants. Overall, 88 members will be chosen in the influential body its members monitor the work of the supreme leader and choose his successor. Is a high voter turnout expected? Parliamentary elections rarely inspire the same enthusiasm as presidential elections in Iran. Presidential elections held in 2013 saw a voter turnout of nearly 73 percent. WATCH: Iran gears up for parliamentary elections In comparison, the parliamentary elections of 2012, which were boycotted by many moderates and reformists in the wake of the contested 2009 presidential elections and a subsequent crackdown, around 64 percent of Iranians voted. What is the state of the reform movement? Last week, the grandson of the Islamic Republics founding father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who is widely viewed as a future leader of the countrys reformist movement, was among those who was prevented from competing. His disqualification is seen by analysts as an important indication of state control over the elections. That message is: We do not share any power with you, said Nader Karimi Joni, a journalist close to the reformist movement. The more reformists in the Assembly, the more chance they will get to pick a new leader closer to their line of thinking. Why is the Assembly vote significant? There is an added importance to this years Assembly elections since, in theory, it is the body that can replace the supreme leader. Khamenei is currently 76 and it remains highly likely that either during or after his next eight years, members will vote for a replacement. Reformists and moderates are looking to take advantage of the situation by throwing their weight behind former president, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. READ MORE: Telegram chat app may be game-changer in Iran elections Rafsanjani, 80, was the president of the Islamic Republic from 1989 to 1997 and is seen as one of its founding members. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, he was the first speaker of parliament, before becoming the commander-in-chief of the countrys armed forces during the protracted Iran-Iraq war. When Ayatollah Khomeini died in 1989, Rafsanjani was crucial in the appointment of Khamenei. He is now head of the expediency council, which acts as a bridge between Parliament and the Guardian Council. Reform vs status quo Reformists are hoping that Rafsanjani can block support for three ultra-conservative leaders, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, Ahmad Jannati and Mohammad Yazdi. The election will also be seen as vote of confidence in President Hassan Rouhani, who has two years remaining in his presidency and is tipped to run again in 2017. Rouhanis stewardship of the Iranian economy after the lifting of sanctions will be a key component of his campaign in 2017. While it is too early to see any improvement on the Iranian economy and with oil trading at historically low prices Rouhani has been instrumental in attracting foreign business delegations to Tehran over the past 20 months. He has also undertaken important visits to France and Italy to attract investment to the country. London, UK Palestinian film Ave Maria is a fable about doubting ones assumptions. But what cannot be doubted is the films success. After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in May, it has played, so far, at 75 festivals in about 30 countries over nine months, and picked up 16 awards. Now, its Palestinian British director, Basil Khalil, is in Los Angeles, hoping to win an Oscar, having been nominated for Best Live Action Short Film. It is the first time an Arab film has been nominated in the category. Ave Maria is a black comedy about five nuns whose vow of silence is disturbed when an Israeli settler family crashes its car outside a West Bank convent just as the Sabbath, the day of rest on which religious Jews refrain from certain activities, comes into effect. The nuns and the settlers must confront the strict rules of silence and the Sabbath respectively in order to be rid of each other. Khalil was born and raised in the Israeli city of Nazareth. His Palestinian father was an evangelical pastor. His upbringing was, he says, full of religious storytelling with nothing else but serious messages, and often morbid ones at that. It proved conducive for his future career, piquing the kind of rebellion that plays out in the script for Ave Maria, as well as inspiring sarcasm when confronted with taboos. While Khalil has found solace in satire, he also acknowledges that growing up in a Christian household, where an exacting knowledge of Christian and Jewish laws was conferred, in a city where it is commonplace to see nuns on the street, gave him a unique standpoint from which to make Ave Maria. His aim, he says, is to show that when you are born into a religious or political agenda that supposedly defines your views and definitely dictates how you are treated, you need to question those rules. Perhaps Ave Maria is the director delivering his own sermon. The films characters have to do things that might seem everyday to others entering a convent, taking off a headscarf or tichel to fix a statue of Mary, speaking but which, for them, pose near-insurmountable hurdles. Khalil, 34, is accustomed to looking at life from different perspectives. As a child, he says, he was always the foreigner in Nazareth he was British, and in the UK he was Middle Eastern. After growing up in Israel, he has lived most of his adult life in Britain. Middle Eastern countries, he says, are ruled by fear-mongering. And thats the way they [their leaders] stay in control. He says that leaving the region helped him to realise that the standard for a good life ought to be more than just I am not in prison. With Ave Maria, Khalil says, he wants people in the region to be conscious that we shouldnt accept every situation thats imposed on us. While the international reputations gained by filmmakers such as Elia Suleiman and Hany Abu-Assad have opened the industry for Palestinians, Khalil says there are still some limitations. What I find is the most patronising thing ever, especially from other people not from Palestinians is they always expect me to have an opinion or have a statement or give a sermon on my political opinion just because I happen to be born Palestinian, he says. And its annoying because this has been forced on me all my life and now theyre expecting it from me again in my films. It is an expectation Khalil believes is rarely placed upon directors from elsewhere, who are allowed to define themselves. I wish people would treat me and my films the same way, he adds. It is difficult for Arab filmmakers who do not want to be limited to just making movies with political themes or about occupation, he says. If you want to do an espionage thriller or a zombie film, theyre just going to tank because they all just want political stuff from us, Khalil explains. But he does see some signs of change, with films such as the Emirati thriller Zinzana, and hopes a broader range of movies made by Arabs is not too far off. If Khalil does win the Oscar on February 28, he will be the first Arab to take the award home. He puts this down to the fact that Arabs in the industry typically lack the promotional and marketing machines needed to secure an award that often requires substantial lobbying to win. Ave Maria had that, he says, thanks to a forward-thinking Egyptian distributor and marketing firm, that, for instance, had booths at the Cannes and Berlin festivals, a rarity for the Arab film industry. The companys drive to get Arab film on the international agenda has propelled Ave Maria forward, he says. Shot in Israel and the West Bank, Ave Maria is a backed by Palestinian, German and French funding. But there has been a mixed response to the film in the Middle East. It won Best Short Film at the Dubai International Film Festival, while in Luxor it riled some members of the audience, who thought that it was pro-Israeli. It is the first Arab short film to be given a cinematic release, being shown in countries in the Middle East as a double bill with this years other Arab Oscar-nominated film, Theeb, and is being released across the US. It will also be screened in several Palestinian cities on Oscars night. Khalils next project is a departure from the themes of Ave Maria. Based in Nazareth, the foodie capital of Palestine, he says, it is a comedy about a food critic forced to look after his ageing, traditional-minded father. As a Palestinian filmmaker, he doubts he would receive funding for such subject matter without the Oscar nomination. But he is keen to reap the rewards and take the opportunity to branch out. Khalil says that after Ave Maria, he is done with his preaching. Peace talks in Afghanistan resumed this week, but on several major issues neither side is likely to compromise. On Tuesday, representatives of the United States, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan met in Kabul to discuss ways of moving forward on peace negotiations with the Taliban. This marks the first time that the high-profile, quadrilateral peace talks have been held in Afghanistan. The timing of the talks is not auspicious. The Afghan government has recently suffered a series of military setbacks. A day before the talks began, the government withdrew security forces from the strategic Musa Qala district in Helmand province, effectively handing over control to the Taliban. Meanwhile, heavy fighting is raging in the Dahana-e-Ghori district northwest of the capital, Kabul. These attacks come after a string of military successes for the Taliban in 2015, which was Afghanistans bloodiest year since the US-led invasion in 2001. According to the United Nations, 11,002 civilians were killed or injured in Afghanistan in 2015. The Taliban appear to be fighting their way to the negotiating table, while the Afghan government has no overarching strategy for waging war or making peace. The continued presence of foreign forces may be weakening the Afghan governments ability to make decisions, as it relies heavily on the strategising of its foreign backers. To make matters worse, Afghanistans national unity government, agreed upon after the disputed 2014 presidential election, has still not formed a cabinet or finalised a list of governors. The defence ministry is being headed by a caretaker. In the meantime, thousands of young and educated people are fleeing the country as the economy stagnates. This is the situation faced by the quadrilateral group meeting in Kabul, which hopes to find a formula for peace with the Taliban. But the question remains: Is peace possible? There are four ways in which peace with the Taliban could be realised: firstly, the creation of a national unity government; secondly, direct national elections in which the Taliban would participate as an independent political party; thirdly the creation of a southeast frontier administered by the Taliban, similar to Pakistans northwest frontier where ethnic Pashtuns enjoy a degree of autonomy; or finally, a phased peace process entailing the devolving of power to Afghanistans provinces, with each electing its own governor and forming its own police force. Yet all of these formulas require agreement on fundamental issues that neither party can afford to make. Some of the major sticking points are as follows: The question of foreign fighters In 2013, Taliban spokesman Sohail Shaheen stated: The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan simultaneously follows both military and political options and aims which are limited to Afghanistan. This statement distanced the Taliban from al-Qaeda and its global jihad. This leaves the question of what will happen to the hundreds of foreign fighters in Afghanistan who supported the Taliban, whose status will be a hurdle in any peace negotiations. If a peace accord is reached, will the Taliban arrest these fighters and hand them over to the government? Could the government allow these fighters to remain in the country if they handed over their weapons? These are some of the questions that the negotiators would have to grapple with. Yet it is highly unlikely that foreign fighters would lay down their weapons and turn to a civilian life. Many Uzbek fighters in Afghanistan are members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and many other Uzbek, Chechen and Uighur fighters are loyal to al-Qaeda. It is inconceivable that the Taliban would join hands with the Kabul government, backed by the US, in fighting against its former al-Qaeda allies. Taliban fighters would see this as a major betrayal and it would cause the group to fracture. Withdrawal of all foreign forces In September 2014, Afghanistan signed a bilateral security agreement with the US that allows 10,000 US troops to remain in the country. The agreement is open-ended but vague, stating that the troops may remain until the end of 2024 and beyond, and that it can be terminated by either side with two years notice. A similar agreement has been signed with NATO to allow 4,000 to 5,000 additional troops to stay in Afghanistan in a noncombat role. But a main Taliban demand is the immediate and total withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan. Will the US government agree to scrap its security deal and leave, given the security threats posed by al-Qaeda and ISIL in Afghanistan? Even if an agreement is reached, a two-year notice would need to be given before US and NATO begin their withdrawal. Yet the Taliban would want to keep their weapons during those two years. Is such a scenario acceptable? Constitutional reform The Taliban is also pushing for constitutional reforms, such as mentioning the word sharia in the Afghan constitution. Currently, the constitution refers to Islamic law instead of sharia specifically. However, including the word sharia would present challenges for donor countries, whose constituencies may be averse to funding a government that is constitutionally required to implement sharia. On the other hand, if the word sharia is not incorporated into the constitution, the Taliban would see this as a major defeat. Would the Talibans ideologues agree to turn a blind eye to this omission and would it be acceptable to their constituency? Power-sharing Power-sharing requires concrete action it is not just a political exercise entailing signing agreements and shaking hands. If a peace deal were reached, Taliban fighters would have to be integrated into the Afghan military and security forces, and some positions in government would have to be allocated to Taliban officials. But Afghanistans current experiment in power-sharing between the two 2014 presidential candidates, President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, has so far been a failure. There are deep disputes at all levels, and a cabinet has yet to be appointed. Judging by the chaos of the current model, it is hard to imagine how power-sharing with the Taliban would be any easier. A potential power-sharing agreement could also be complicated by internal divisions within the Taliban. Would hardline Taliban ideologues agree to lay down their weapons and share power with a government that seeks to build a nation along the Western model? The Taliban would find it nearly impossible to sell democracy to the families of thousands of its fighters who died with the belief that the conflict is about pure Islam and the rejection of infidels and Western political theories. A recognised political party? Another outcome of the peace talks could be Taliban agreement to participate in elections as a political party. Yet this scenario may lead to undesirable outcomes for both the government and the Taliban. Once again, Taliban scholars have deemed democracy to be un-Islamic, and accepting democracy has the potential to fragment the group. On the other hand, if the Taliban were to agree to participate in the democratic process, there would probably be no clear winner in the elections especially given the deep divisions between Pashtuns and non-Pashtuns that appeared in the 2014 election. A marginal win would not bestow the victorious party the legitimacy needed to run the country. Rather, an unconvincing victory could further polarise the country, causing the country either to descend into ethnic and tribal warfare, or necessitating the formation of a national unity government. And, as previously discussed, forming a national unity government in Afghanistan is fraught with difficulty. A zone for the Taliban The option of allowing the Taliban to administer an entity in southeast Afghanistan similar to Pakistans Northwest Frontier, while also permitting the Taliban to influence the central government, would enrage other ethnic parties and could trigger the disintegration of Afghanistan. However, this may be an option that would stop the Taliban short of marching on the capital Kabul in a zero-sum game of do or die. Furthermore, the reality on the ground is that the Taliban are the de facto rulers of much of the south. Devolving power There may also be a midway option between central rule and federalism, which would allow Afghanistan to avoid total collapse or a protracted, debilitating war. In Afghanistan, the presidents appointment of governors is a highly politically charged exercise. Throughout Afghanistans modern history, central governments have had to deal with tribal and ethnic disputes at the provincial level. Holding provincial elections for the governors, and relinquishing provincial security to local police forces, could serve as a phased peace process and allow the central government to rid itself of provincial disputes. Devolving power to the provinces could organically enable each ethnic and tribal group to take responsibility of provinces where they are in the majority. Provinces with mixed ethnicities, where no one group has a clear majority, are few and in a worst-case scenario they could split. But developing power to the districts could also calm ethnic tensions within the provinces. Splitting a province is certainly less problematic than splitting the country. Under such a phased peace process, Taliban participation in the central government would not necessarily upset the balance of power. MORE Afghanistan coverage from Al Jazeera The Philippines has marked the 30th anniversary of the 1986 revolution that ended the 20-year rule of dictator Ferdinand Marcos. President Benigno Aquino III attended a ceremony on Thursday, along with other officials at the People Power Monument in Quezon City, north of the capital Manila. Officials and bystanders sang the national anthem as the Philippine flag was raised near the monument. Former dictator Marcos was toppled in 1986s EDSA Revolution, or the People Power Revolution, after alleged cheating in the presidential election. He fled the Philippines at the climax of the army-backed revolt and died in exile in Hawaii in 1989. His body was returned in 1993 to his northern hometown of Batac in Ilocos Norte province, where it has been displayed in a glass coffin and has become a tourist attraction. Aquino III, who won with a landslide margin on a promise to battle poverty and corruption in 2010, ends his sixyear presidential term in June. The Egyptian regimes surveillance equipment is integral to quelling dissent and European states sold it to them. And so it goes; another week, another report revealing Egyptian state repression. These reports, however, seem to have lost their power to surprise; Egyptian oppression seems desperately entrenched. However, Privacy Internationals report, The Presidents Men, should be of wider concern. The report reveals the export of surveillance equipment possessing the most insidious qualities and enabling state observation of the most intimate kind. Alarmingly, this equipment comes from Europe and is sold to an arm of an Egyptian regime that, according to the report, is so clandestine that it is not officially in existence. Leaks quoted in the report suggest that the European companies highlighted, Trovicor and Hacking Team, see exports of their products as business as usual. However, such business must be seen in the context of the realities of repression in Egypt. Egregious violations A variety of credible non-governmental organisations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have reported on the many shocking violations of domestic and international law in Egypt. Many commentators have equated those acts to crimes against humanity, amounting to a deliberate government policy to maintain the 2013 coup by crushing dissent in all opposition groups. READ MORE: Egypt has become an international laughing stock Most prominently, in August 2013, the military regime orchestrated a widespread, systematic and violent clampdown on those who had engaged in a non-violent protest against the removal of President Mohamed Morsi. As legislation, these regulations act as a powerful tool to check the trade. However, in practice, the regulations leave plenty of room for interpretation... by In the aftermath of those acts, Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said: In Rabaa Square, Egyptian security forces carried out one of the worlds largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history This wasnt merely a case of excessive force or poor training. It was a violent crackdown planned at the highest levels of the Egyptian government. Many of the same officials are still in power in Egypt and have a lot to answer for. The Egyptian governments attempts to repress democratic opposition have in fact accelerated since then. For example, death sentences have been imposed en masse and repressive laws have been reported as being implemented to imbed the regime. Such reforms come in the context of open oppression of journalistic freedoms, with the Egyptian regime targeting and detaining journalists for doing no more than reporting from within the country. Threat to regional stability Egypt is seen to be rapidly descending towards a humanitarian crisis; deepening and endemic poverty with increasing conflict and hostility have put Egypt on a precipice. The security situation presents a grave threat to regional stability. The increased use of violence and repression is causing a schism between the state and its citizens. It is a real concern that the increase in state oppression will result in unwieldly and increasingly hostile dissent; a situation that will only exacerbate the threats to peace and security in an increasingly uncertain region. In that context, the revelations by Privacy International that European countries are exporting goods that would ostensibly be used by that Egyptian regime to deepen their position are deeply worrying. Such trade is rightly fettered, in an attempt to ensure that goods are not exported to the most repressive regimes. In particular, in 1998 a common set of criteria for considering licence applications for nefarious goods was adopted. This Code of Conduct on Arms Exports became a legally binding Common Position in December 2008. READ ONLY: Why does what bleeds lead? Recognising the special responsibility of arms exporting states, the Common Position demonstrates the determination of European Union member states to prevent the export of military technology and equipment that might be used for undesirable purposes. In particular, it sets out eight criteria for the evaluation of export licence applications, including the respect for human rights in the country and an explicit commitment that states will not allow exports that would provoke or prolong armed conflicts or aggravate existing tensions or conflicts in the country. Regulations as powerful tool As legislation, these regulations act as a powerful tool to check the trade. However, in practice, the regulations leave plenty of room for interpretation, with the Campaign Against the Arms Trade finding that member state governments [are] making arms sales decisions depending on their perceived economic, political and strategic interests. The sale of arms and intelligence equipment accounts for a large proportion of the European economy. However, without effective scrutiny, the real cost of the trade may be the rights and freedom of others. Indeed, as the revelations in The Presidents Men show, the European regulations have not prevented exports to Egypt, including intrusive surveillance equipment. As the report details, the intelligence arm of the regime and the surveillance equipment they rely on is integral to the Egyptian regimes attempts to monitor and quell dissent. They are doing so with equipment that European states have sold them. Ravi Naik is head of Public Law at ITN Solicitors, a leading law firm based in London specialising in civil liberties and international law. ITN Solicitors act for victims of the Egyptian coup, in international tribunals and domestic courts across the globe. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. On January 3, two Palestinians were removed from an Aegean Airlines flight from Athens to Tel Aviv, after Jewish Israelis claimed that they constituted a security risk. The incident made headlines worldwide. A month later, a Tel Aviv-based cleaning company sparked outrage with a flyer that priced its staff based on ethnicity. The story was also covered around the world. For some, these kinds of episodes are proof of the racism that critics claim permeates Israeli society; for others, they are examples of isolated bigotry and idiocy. In fact, neither interpretation is quite right. While stories resonate and go viral, they can mask the fact that in Israel racism is the law. Institutionalised inequality First, inequality in Israel is institutionalised. Contrary to a widely held perception, there is no guarantee of full equality for Jewish and Palestinian citizens; as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel put it, the right to equality is not yet enshrined in law regarding most aspects of life. Equality cannot be recognised on the constitutional level, wrote legal academic Aeyal Gross, since that would challenge the inequality created by the complete identification of the state with only one group. The nearest that Israels foundational legislation comes to a specific commitment to equality is Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, adopted in 1992 Israel does not have a formal, written constitution but a number of Basic Laws passed over the years deal with key issues. Yet even here, equality is not recognised as an independent right that stands on its own. In fact, just in the past month, the Knesset voted against a draft bill that called for the inclusion of an equality clause in Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, under military rule within this de facto single state, are subjected to severe policies of discrimination and segregation, as well as military brutality and repression. by Furthermore, the Basic Law allows for rights to be violated by a law befitting the values of the State of Israel, a caveat that provides a basis for giving significant weight to the nature of Israel as a Jewish state and its goals, at the expense of the fundamental rights concerned. In the words of former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak: Israel is different from other countries. It is not only a democratic state, but also a Jewish state. In other words, Israel is not a state of all its citizens, something freely admitted by senior officials. Second, Palestinian citizens of Israel face systematic discrimination in law and policy as these examples in land and housing, family life, and immigration demonstrate. In 43 percent of Israeli towns, residential admission committees filter out applicants on the grounds of incompatibility with the social and cultural fabric. These committees, which operate by law, are used to exclude Arabs from living in rural Jewish communities, as Human Rights Watch has noted. In 2014, the Supreme Court rejected a petition against the committees, a ruling slammed for having legalised the principle of segregation in housing. These small communities also exercise control over a significant amount of land through the regional councils of which they are part. Palestinian citizens also face discrimination when it comes to family life. The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, first adopted in 2003 (PDF), imposes severe restrictions on the right of Israeli citizens to apply for permits for their Palestinian spouses and children from the Occupied Palestinian Territory to enter and reside in Israel for purposes of family unification. OPINION: Israel This isnt how you defend democracy This law, which has the effect of dividing Palestinian families and separating spouses, has been described by a senior European Union official as establishing a discriminatory regime to the detriment of Palestinians in the highly sensitive area of family rights. Israels Supreme Court upheld the law in 2012, stating (PDF): human rights are not a prescription for national suicide, putting its stamp of approval not for the first time on a racist law. For the former Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, the law was about demographics. There is no need to hide behind security arguments, he admitted. There is a need for the existence of a Jewish state. Perpetual status quo While Palestinian citizens of Israel suffer under restrictions on family unification, Jewish citizens benefit from Israels discriminatory immigration laws. Israels Law of Return, Absentee Property Law, and the Citizenship Law, passed in 1948-1950, created a reality whereby any Jew in the world can move to Israel and claim citizenship, while expelled Palestinian refugees were stripped of citizenship and are still unable to return. Israels law creates three tracks of naturalisation: the highest track for Jews, a second track for non-Jewish foreigners, who can apply for Israeli residency status through a process of individualised interviews and background checks, and the lowest track for Palestinian/Arab/Muslim spouses of Palestinian citizens of Israel who are prohibited from entry for the purpose of family unification. OPINION: Israeli Labor Party adopts the apartheid mantra Third, 4.5 million Palestinians live under an Israeli military regime in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, an occupation that has lasted for 49 of the states 68-year history. In other words, one in three of the population in territory under Israels control is not a citizen and is subject to military, not civil, law. It is important to remember that the territory occupied by Israel since 1967 is not, in practice, distinct from the rest of the state: land has been expropriated, 600,000 Jewish Israelis live in more than 200 colonies, natural resources are exploited, and basic infrastructure water, telecommunications, transport all bind the West Bank to pre-1967 territory. The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, under military rule within this de facto single state, are subjected to severe policies of discrimination and segregation, as well as military brutality and repression. This is no secret: as Human Rights Watch stated in 2010. Palestinians face systematic discrimination merely because of their race, ethnicity, and national origin, depriving them of electricity, water, schools, and access to roads, while nearby Jewish settlers enjoy all of these state-provided benefits. To enforce this two-tier system, the Israeli military conducts nightly raids, detains Palestinians without trial or charge, tortures detainees, and represses any kind of resistance including unarmed protests with lethal violence. Who is responsible for all of the above for the institutionalised discrimination, the racist laws, and military rule over 4.5 million Palestinians? Successive Israeli governments since 1948. The crude racism of private individuals whether on a Greek plane or at a Tel Aviv cleaning company might get the headlines, but it is the Israeli state and its institutions that created and perpetuates the colonial status quo, and which must be held to account. Ben White is a freelance journalist, writer and activist, specialising in Palestine/Israel. Can the Lebanese steer away from the regional turmoil? Lebanon is a diverse and industrious nation and thats a cause for celebration. But the Lebanese are a divided people, and that is a major cause for trepidation. Since its 14-year civil war ended with a peace accord signed in Saudi Arabia in November 1989, Lebanon has tried hard to maintain its plurality while at the same time managing its sectarian divisions. But many Lebanese insist that they could only do so much against the regional odds; that their nation is a victim of conflicts instigated or manufactured by foreign powers that projected their differences on to this open and all-too-fragile nation. They grumble about foreigners waging proxy wars on Lebanese soil. And there is some truth to that. Just as much truth as in the fact that they have been the local foot soldiers abetting, enacting and executing these wars and conflicts. So much so that at times its not clear whether foreign powers exploited the Lebanese to advance their regional interests, or whether the Lebanese factions used foreign assistance to fight each other and expand their own narrow interests. A decade of tensions Over the past decade, most of the regional tensions projected in or on Lebanon were between the allies of Syria and Iran, and those allied with Gulf and other Arab states. READ MORE: Lebanon has just done the unthinkable Lebanese tensions peaked after the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in February 2005, leading to the Cedar Revolution a series of mass demonstrations demanding the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon and the establishment of an international tribunal to investigate Hariris assassination, which they blamed on Syria and Hezbollah. Riyadh and its Gulf allies have grown exasperated with Hezbollah's growing influence over the Lebanese state. They accuse it of causing the country's political paralysis and its presidential crisis. by Syrian forces withdrew soon after in April and the United Nations established the tribunal. But Lebanon continued to simmer, leading to a series of assassinations and sporadic violence in addition to two wars against Israel. During the initial turbulent period, the Lebanese political factions consolidated into two opposing blocs: the March 8 coalition of pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian groups, and the March 14 coalition that leaned closer to Gulf and Arab positions. The labels came after two of their massive March 2005 demonstrations galvanised and polarised the entire country. The following decade had its ups and downs with the two blocs competing and conflicting, and at times reconciling in coalition governments. But this was a decade of more downs than ups. A case in point has been the regional crisis over Syria that has polarised the Lebanese. Except this time it wasnt over Syrias intervention in Lebanon, rather over Hezbollah fighting in Syria on the side of Bashar al-Assad and the Iranian regime. Paying the price Riyadh and its Gulf allies have grown exasperated with Hezbollahs growing influence over the Lebanese state. They accuse it of causing the countrys political paralysis and its presidential crisis. Lebanon hasnt had a president for two years. They are also angered by Hezbollahs anti-Saudi activities in Syria, Yemen and other Arab countries. Fed up, Saudi Arabia announced this week that it was halting $4bn of military and security aid to Lebanon. And along with the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, they are suspending all travel by their citizens to Lebanon. All of which has forced Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam to make conciliatory statements in support of Saudi Arabia and in support of Arab unity (vis-a-vis Iran). But Riyadh is not satisfied and more punitive actions will be forthcoming if the Lebanese government doesnt take certain measures to restrain Hezbollah. If the kingdom and its allies further escalate their punitive measures against Lebanon, as some Saudi officials warned indirectly, it could badly hurt the struggling Lebanese economy. READ MORE: Lebanons sleeping demons For example, limits on or a ban of Lebanese businesses and expats could have a major financial and psychological effect on Lebanon. Remittances from Lebanese citizens in the Gulf comprise a significant chunk of its $80bn economy. According to the World Bank, of the $6.7bn in remittances annually, 70 percent come from Lebanese expatriates living in the Gulf states. Likewise, if the Gulf states decide to pull their deposits from Lebanons central bank, and suspend all investment in its real estate, an important factor in economic growth, the Lebanese currency and economy could suffer badly. Lebanon is in a bind Hezbollah has lost its raison detre, but it is not about to sever its relations with Iran, or stop its destabilising activities. And the March 14 block can hardly neutralise Hezbollah without an escalation to civil war that no one can win, but which could destroy the country. Worse, a growing number of Lebanese and Arabs fear Hezbollah is maintaining the current political paralysis because it is bent on changing the entire governing system in Lebanon to suit its interests. This means scrapping the Taif political accord reached in Saudi Arabia in 1989, and replacing it with one that advances its influence and eventually strengthens Irans role in the eastern Mediterranean. To be clear, changing a quarter of a centurys transitional system based on a sectarian division of authority should be welcomed, but not if it leads to an imbalance of power where one group dictates policy to the rest. It was this unjust system that led to the Lebanese civil war in the first place. In sum, the national and regional dynamics have become so intertwined in Lebanon that it is hard to see how Lebanon could emerge from them politically stable and economically sound. Only if they pull back from the brink and act wisely by putting the interests of their country first will they be able to save themselves from the regional turmoil; starting with Hezbollah ending its reckless military adventures in Syria on the side of dictatorship; and eventually, reaching a consensus on the best way forward for the country. Marwan Bishara is the senior political analyst at Al Jazeera. Follow him on Facebook. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. Mainstreaming the teaching of French throughout society will help Moroccos popular classes reconnect with the elites. Remi Piet is a research associate on political economy and foreign policy at the Florida International University. Earlier this month, Morocco reversed a 30-year-old Arabisation policy by reinstating French as the main language of instruction in primary education. This decision marks an important new step in the process of reforms implemented by King Mohamed VI to reorient the countrys development and weigh on the societal evolution of the kingdom in advance of the upcoming October elections. Education has always been a central question in Moroccan politics and the grim results achieved over the past decades have been regularly pointed out as the main obstacle to the countrys economic growth. The average literacy rate of the Moroccan youth barely reaches 80 percent trailing by more than 10 points its Maghreb neighbours Algeria and Tunisia. Despite the string of attempts at educational reforms, an ever-growing number of Moroccans have turned their back on public schools, with their overcrowded classrooms and declining standards, choosing to place their children in private educational institutions. Moroccan society divided Private enrolment at the primary level has more than tripled in less than 15 years from 4 percent in 1999 to 14 percent in 2013. The consequence is that Moroccan society is now characterised by a rift between well-to-do families trained in French and a large share of the population formed in Arabic public schools to become menial workers and low-grade technicians. ALSO READ: My Arab Spring clinging to hope in Morocco The mastering of the French language has thus become a de facto marker for the capacity to successfully occupy a high-level job. Mainstreaming its teaching throughout society should allow popular classes to reconnect with the economic and political elites. The mastering of the French language has thus become a de facto marker for the capacity to successfully occupy a high-level job. Mainstreaming its teaching throughout society should allow popular classes to reconnect with the economic and political elites. by Yet, this decision to re-establish French as a primary language also has political ramifications. In the early 1980s, when King Hassan II initiated the Arabisation of the educational system, one of his main objective was to favour conservative and Islamic movements at the expense of the traditional left wing parties. Similarly today, the PJD Islamic party of Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane has expressed its discontent towards King Mohammed VIs decision as Arabisation and Islamisation go hand in hand. As taught by the philosophical hermeneutics of Martin Heidegger, language is the central vector to diffuse ideologies and cultural knowledge. For decades, Morocco had to hire teachers from Syria and Egypt to Arabise primary schools, which led to the diffusion of certain conservative ideologies in the Kingdom. Educational reform This educational reform must also be understood in the larger context of the Marrakesh Declaration, released by Muslim leaders last month, which called for tolerance and for the protection of religious minorities rights in Muslim countries. The Marrakesh declaration urges Muslim educational institutions and authorities to conduct a courageous review of educational curricula that addresses honestly and effectively any material that () results in the destruction of our shared societies. During the conference, King Mohammed VI stressed Moroccos leading role in promoting interfaith dialogue and fostering religious tolerance. By re-establishing French as the primary language for education, King Mohammed VI decided to go one step further. He reaffirmed both the commitment of his country to the teaching of critical thinking as well as its historical relations with the European continent. The debate over whether Morocco should move away from the language of the former coloniser is outdated. The capacity of the kingdom to invest and thrive on bilingualism has often been key to its influence and development. Its most renowned authors such as Tahar Ben Jelloun or Abdellatif Laabi have always defended this source of intellectual and cultural wealth. The beauty of the Moroccan identity lies in its capacity to conjugate its pluralism: Mediterranean, Berber, Arabic and Francophone. Moreover, France continues to be Moroccos largest trading partner and accounts for a quarter of its total exports. The kingdom needs therefore to be able to rely on a well-trained bilingual youth to capitalise on this economic partnership. Cultural shift Over the past few months, several initiatives have paved the way for this cultural and educational shift. In the diplomatic realm, Rabat initiated a large shuffle of two third of its embassies, nominating human rights emblematic personalities, left-wing politicians and women ambassadors. ALSO READ: Algerias Berbers cautiously optimistic about reforms In parallel, King Mohammed VI confirmed the opening of a Moroccan cultural centre in the heart of Paris to foster the intercultural bridge between the two countries. Finally, the king also reaffirmed his decision to strengthen the training of imams based on traditional Moroccan values of moderation and tolerance, ensuring compatibility with the reformed family code (mudawwana) and increasing the number of female preachers (morchidats). This recent diplomatic and political activity confirms King Mohammed VIs commitment to a steady pace of reforms, ensuring a regular liberalisation of the country to prevent the rise of fundamentalism. It also shows his determination to keep the upper hand in domestic affairs in the run-up to the November elections, pulling the rug out from his prime ministers feet and his PJD party at a time when courageous economic reforms have led to a sharp decrease of Abdelilah Benkiranes popularity. Remi Piet is assistant professor of public policy, diplomacy and international political economy at Qatar University. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the leaders of South Sudan on Thursday to respect the terms of a peace agreement that ended two years of civil war last year. The UN chief also said a global aid appeal for conflict-torn South Sudan is just 3 percent funded, and the world body is releasing $21m in emergency money to help. Ban spoke after talks with South Sudans president and rebel leader. He appealed to them to put peace above politics and establish a transitional government of national unity, saying the government must step up to its responsibilities to protect the population, which has suffered violence, mass displacements and hunger. Respecting the terms of the peace agreement is not an option, it is a must, Ban said. UN says violence at IDP camp in South Sudan could be war crime Fighting has continued despite an August peace deal with at least 19 killed in the latest incident in the northeastern town of Malakal last week, when government soldiers participated in an attack on a UN-protected camp for nearly 50,000 civilians seeking shelter from the war. The fences are all open. You have to close the fences, one displaced man, a resident of the camp, told Al Jazeera. Now look at this. The peoples health has deteriorated. People are just on the ground. Their health is fragile. Look at what they eat and what they drink. Look at where they now sleep. READ MORE: Deadly famine looms in South Sudan The August deal, signed under international pressure, leaves Kiir as president and returns Machar to his old job as deputy, but in a sign of the levels of mistrust between the two men, Machar remains in exile despite his reappointment earlier this month. The battle for control of the country has repeatedly pushed South Sudan to the brink of famine, with millions of people dependent on the UN and aid agencies. You have huge presence of UN, you can see them here in Juba all over the place, but again, we dont know what theyre doing exactly, Andrea Mac Mabior, an analyst at Kush Media, told Al Jazeera. You have seen what happened in Malakal. Civilians died, but the UN is there. Then why are they given these millions of US dollars? South Sudan won its independence from Sudan in July 2011 after decades of civil war, but less than 18 months later Kiir and Machars political battle for control of the ruling Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) became a real war, splitting the country along ethnic lines, pitting Kiirs Dinka people against Machars Nuer. READ MORE: South Sudan Portrait of a civil war refugee The conflict has been marked by rights violations and attacks on civilians with children murdered or recruited into militias, women and girls abducted into rape camps and used as sex slaves, multiple ethnic massacres, attacks on UN bases and aid workers. An African Union investigation published last year found evidence of forced cannibalism and concluded that war crimes had been committed. A succession of UN rights reports have also found evidence of war crimes. Neither Kiir nor Machar have faced any sanctions for the actions of armed forces under their command. During his visit, Ban is due to visit a UN camp in the capital housing people uprooted by the fighting, some of the more than 2.3 million South Sudanese forced from their homes since the war began. Parliament votes unanimously to enable government to deploy soldiers to the Turkish border to stem refugee arrivals. The Bulgarian parliament has unanimously voted in favour of authorising the army to police the nations borders and keep refugee flows under control. On Thursday, all 137 members attending the vote backed the measure, which allows the government to deploy soldiers to the Turkish border with police authority. Inside a Bulgarian detention centre Bulgaria lies to the east of the main corridor of refugees heading for Western Europe through Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. It registered 27,000 refugee arrivals in 2015, far fewer than its neighbours. On Wednesday, Bulgaria allocated 35 million leva ($20m) for the expansion of a 30km fence built in 2014 along the Turkish border. Of the 130km planned, 60km of fencing has so far been built at the 275km-long Turkey-Bulgaria border. The poorest country in the European Union since it joined in 2007, Bulgaria has a bad reputation among refugees and migrants, who frequently claim rights violations and abuse. READ MORE: Refugees in Bulgaria endure extortion, robbery, violence Since the beginning of 2016, more than 101,000 people have made the trek across the Mediterranean to Europe, according to the UNHCR, the UNs refugee agency. However, many take the land route through Bulgaria via Turkey. In November, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and Oxfam, an international charity, published a report detailing alleged abuses against refugees by Bulgarian police. The report concludes that there is a consistent picture of alleged violations in Bulgaria. Based on more than 100 interviews with refugees and migrants, the testimonies tell of extortion, robbery, physical violence, threats of deportation and police dog attacks. The European Commission should forcefully remind Bulgaria of EU laws and standards, and urge Bulgarian authorities to investigate these credible reports of abuses and bring them to a halt, Human Rights Watch said in a statement earlier this month. The blasts in Shuala come on the eve of a planned protest in Baghdad called for by Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. At least 12 people have been killed in a double suicide bombing targeting a mosque frequented by Shia worshippers in the northwest of the Iraqi capital, police said. Two suicide bombers wearing explosive belts blew themselves up in front of the Rasul al-Azam (mosque) in the Shuala district of Baghdad, a police official said, adding that more than 20 people were wounded in Thursdays blasts. The first suicide bomber blew himself up among the worshippers as they left the mosque, he said. The second explosion targeted police forces who had arrived to treat the wounded, causing more deaths, he said. Medical sources confirmed the death toll. Four of the victims were members of the security forces, sources said. The blasts in the predominantly Shia neighbourhood came on the eve of a planned protest that Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had called for in Baghdad and said he would personally attend. Sadr has called on his supporters to attend protests in the capital as well as other cities to demand an end to corruption and improved public services. Tens of thousands of his supporters are expected to take part. UpFront How can ISIL be defeated? READ MORE: Brutal truths about ISIL victories Iraq has been hit by several suicide bombings in recent months. Earlier this month, at least 27 Iraqi soldiers were killed in suicide car bomb attacks committed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters near Ramadi, according to military sources. On Thursday, at least 22 strikes were carried out against ISIL positions across Iraq and Syria, the US-led coalition said in a statement. More than 20 Iraqi civilians were killed in two air strikes on towns held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in the west of Anbar province, according to military sources. Iraqi forces and ISIL are engaged in battles across Anbar, especially around the urban centres of Ramadi now largely controlled by government forces and Fallujah, which is still held by the fighters. Following sentencing of author Ahmed Naji, artists and writers campaign for more creative freedom amid crackdown. Egyptian writers, artists and filmmakers have launched a public campaign for greater freedom of creativity and expression following the jailing of a novelist on charges of violating public modesty through his writing. Author Ahmed Naji, accused of publishing a book with references to sex and drugs, was sentenced to two years in prison on Saturday. The solidarity campaign was launched on Thursday with a series of video messages from intellectuals in support of creative freedom. In the first campaign video, well-known Egyptian scriptwriter Medhat El Adl expressed concern for the future of art in Egypt, saying the sentence against Naji came as an extreme shock to writers and artists. If this is how it is, my published novels contain things that would put me in prison too, said bestselling author Alaa al-Aswany, adding that he has signed petitions, along with others from the field, requesting Naji to be freed. OPINION: Yes, Ahmed Naji is a novelist Najis detention followed recent sentences handed to the TV presenter and researcher Islam Behery, who is serving a year-long prison sentence for defaming religious symbols and the writer Fatima Naoot, who has appealed against a three-year sentence for defaming Islam. Free speech crackdown The growing movement by Egyptian intellectuals protesting against the cases also includes Culture Minister Helmy el-Namnam, as well as two former culture ministers and the Egyptian Publishers Association. Former Google executive Wael Ghonim, who helped to ignite Egypts 2011 uprising, also criticised the verdict against Naji. Rights lawyers and activists say cases filed by the public prosecution against writers and thinkers for issues related to virtue or religion have increased under the rule of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. As an army chief, Sisi led the popular overthrow of former President Mohammed Morsi in 2013 amid mass protests against his rule. OPINION: Egypt has become an international laughing stock Egyptian artists and writers were among Morsis most outspoken critics. Those who were in your place before you have withered away because of similar actions, and the same way of thinking, prominent TV host Youssef el-Hosseiny said in his show earlier this month, an implicit warning that Sisi cannot afford to alienate Egypts artists and intellectuals. Culture Minister Helmy El-Namnam attended a conference on Thursday supporting Naji, the third conference held to discuss the novelists sentence in as many days. Naji was initially acquitted but after the case garnered widespread media coverage prosecutors appealed against the verdict, and in the latest ruling he received the maximum penalty of two years imprisonment. Prankster puts president up for sale on eBay after he makes a speech that some opponents found bizarre. A heated speech by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been widely mocked by Egyptians online, with one of them even putting him up for sale on the auction site eBay. By almighty God, if I could sell myself [to benefit the nation], I would have done it, he said in an address broadcast on state television, in which he revealed a plan for economic growth. Shortly afterwards, the eBay page was created. Within a few hours, the bidding was at more than $100,000. The advertisement read: For sale on eBay, Field Marshal, Doctor of Philosophy with a military background, decent condition, current bid $100,301. historic and unique For the first time a head of state presents himself for sale#SisiForSale I'm will be mad pic.twitter.com/TfZj59UoMf (@C20ute) February 24, 2016 The seller wrote that Sisi had been used by the previous owners (Gulf royal families), and that shipping would free. The page was later removed. In his speech the president angrily listed the countrys economic problems before asking Egyptians to donate an Egyptian pound, which is about 10 US cents, to a government fund. https://twitter.com/RElSherif1/status/702675477559971840 Bidding Sisi on eBay is the best thing that happened to me in quite a while Isadora (@AliaElbarbari) February 24, 2016 He went on to say that what he called unfair criticism of his government could help those trying to topple him. Please, do not listen to anyone but me. I am dead serious, he said in a loud voice. Be careful, no one should abuse my patience and good manners to bring down the state, he said, adding that he would remove from the face of the Earth anyone plotting to bring down the government. #Sisi asks #Egypt ians to listen to him only. In 2013, that would have been a show of strength. Now it's rather a show of weakness. Ricard Gonzalez (@RicardGonz) February 24, 2016 Some on Twitter felt the speech was disjointed. Al Sisi start speaking like Bush JR. No rational or logic, no coherent. "If you love Egypt, just only listen to me, pic.twitter.com/c4OHmZMVrK Ahmed Tharwat, (@ahmediaTV) February 24, 2016 Sisis government has faced tough criticism in recent weeks over alleged police brutality and other rights abuses, as well as its handling of the economy. But Sisi said Egypt was going to be a democracy in 20 to 25 years, a statement that many on Twitter soon began to pick apart. For everyone upset any time someone challenges claim that #Egypt's a democracy, #Sisi himself admitted we're not & won't be for 20-25 yrs. Timothy E Kaldas (@tekaldas) February 16, 2016 As military chief, Sisi led a coup in 2013 against former Mohamed Morsi, Egypts first freely elected president, whose divisive rule prompted protests. But critics say he has done little to distinguish his rule from that of Morsi, particularly with regard to freedom of expression. Rights groups have compared his rule with that of former President Hosni Mubarak, who in 2011 was himself toppled by a popular uprising driven largely by anger at police brutality. Report says G20 nations should develop measures that could be implemented quickly if global growth keeps wilting. The International Monetary Fund has said that the global economy is highly vulnerable and urged the United States and other large nations to prepare contingency plans that could be rolled out quickly. The report was prepared for senior officials of the G20, the worlds 20 largest economies, before a meeting in Shanghai later this week amid falling stock markets, volatile currencies and signs of economic weakness. The IMF report said a fragile global recovery has weakened further in the face of falling oil prices and diminished growth prospects in China and other emerging market countries. The G20 must plan now for coordinated demand support using available fiscal space to boost public investment, IMF staff said in the report. READ MORE: Saudi Arabia running on empty in five years It added that G20 nations should also develop additional measures that could be implemented quickly if growth keeps wilting. The IMF last month trimmed its economic forecast for global growth by 0.2 percentage points for both 2016 and 2017, reducing its projection to 3.4 percent this year and 3.6 percent next year. The new report said a further downgrade is likely in April when the IMFs next forecast is released. The organisation said that countries at the centre of the current Syrian refugee crisis and epidemics such as the Zika virus are shouldering a burden for others and could be backed up by a coordinated global initiative. Middle East tax reform On Tuesday, IMF chief Christine Lagarde renewed her call for greater taxation and fiscal reforms as a pathway to political stability in her second speech this week in the Middle East. I think the economic issues have to be at the table, Lagarde said in remarks at the Global Womens Forum in Dubai. We cannot stop the warriors, we cannot bring truce, but certainly we can help with good economic policies with a state that actually works for the benefit of people, that collects tax, that organises public spending in an efficient way for countries, that finances infrastructure projects where its needed. Lagarde also said oil-dependent states face a new reality as global prices hover around $34 a barrel, down from more than $110 in mid-2014. Ahead of parliamentary elections, Al Jazeera asked voters about the issues that mattered most to them. Iranian voters are due to cast their ballots on Friday in the countrys first parliamentary elections after the implementation of a nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers. Marzieh, 22 Im going to vote for parliament for the first time because I want to use my right to elect representatives I think are more qualified, and I want to play a role in forming the destiny of my country. I believe elections in Iran are totally free and everyone can vote for his or her favourite candidates. Since parliamentarians are representatives of people, I expect them to consider the living conditions, concerns and difficulties of people as the most important issues in their job. Ali Movahedian, 32, clerk At first, I had no intention to vote, but I later came to the conclusion that the participation of people in the 2013 presidential elections had a great impact, and because of the president people elected, the nuclear issue was solved. Now, to elect an efficient parliament which is not politicised and works along with government, I will take part in elections. It would be better if there was a law banning candidates from spending wastefully and disrespecting each other. The parliament is responsible for legislation and must set better laws in areas such as culture, politics, judiciary, economy, etc. Ramin, 42, self-employed I voted for President Hassan Rouhani but I dont want to vote this round, because I have no trust in the running candidates. Previous campaign promises have not been realised because of public deception. I am tired of political games. I have not read election laws, but I believe that some circles of power and wealth have some influence in the outcome of the elections. I expect the parliament to set grounds for economic growth, reduce unemployment, and prevent corruption. Reza Taghibeiglu, 40, publisher Im going to vote as I think it is the only way to have a say and influence in society. Since President Rouhanis government is holding the elections, I think it will be fair; however, we dont have many choices left. The issues the parliament must address are not separated from each other and are interrelated; political, economic and cultural development must happen together. But with the current situation, economic development and improvement of living conditions and flourishing businesses can be a priority. Sajjad, 29, filmmaker In the presidential election, I voted for Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and I will participate in these elections because the reinforcement of the Islamic Republic is very important to me. I dont think the election system in Iran is fair, and it has a long distance to go to achieve justice. Since influence of power in elections is not easily seen, its unfairness is greater. I expect the parliament to promote a meritocracy among officials, to put the country on the track of development. Khadijeh, 23, MA student of law I will vote on Friday because I see no reason for not voting; it might sound like a very stereotypical answer, but voting is the legal and religious duty of every person. However, when it comes to execution of the law not only in this particular round, but also in all elections the laws are not well observed. In this round, we are witnessing illegalities by candidates who are not ordinary people, and they used to have high-ranking positions. They are supposed to know the regulations better than all, but they dont follow the rules. I expect representatives to abide by the rules and set rules which are executable and helpful for the people. I want them to help resolve basic problems with unemployment, marriage and housing. Somali president says Al-Shabab attack on El-Ade camp killed up to 200 soldiers, but Kenyan officials reject the toll. Up to 200 Kenyan soldiers were killed in an attack on their camp in Somalia by al-Shabab last month, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said although Kenya rejected the figure. On January 15, dozens of heavily armed al-Shabab fighters assaulted a Kenyan-run military base for African Union peacekeepers in the southern Somali town of El-Ade, not far from the Kenyan border. When about 200 soldiers who came to help your country are killed in one morning, it is not something trivial, Mohamud told Somali Cable TV, a privately owned station. The interview was posted on YouTube on Thursday. We have been winning for years and months but that El-Ade battle, we were defeated. Yes, in war, sometimes something that you do not like happens to you, the Somali president added. READ MORE: Al-Shabab attacks African Union base in Somalia Kenyan authorities have refused to give a death toll following the attack, which targeted troops working under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). But Kenya Defence Forces spokesman Colonel David Obonyo denied the number given by the Somali president and questioned the source of the information. It is not true. This information never came from us or anyone in the government of Kenya, he told the Reuters news agency on Thursday. Series of attacks Newspaper pictures of coffins draped with Kenyan flags bringing back dead soldiers after last months attack increased the disquiet from ordinary Kenyans and the opposition alike over Kenyas continued presence in Somalia. Al-Shabab later distributed photos purporting to show the bodies of dozens of Kenyan soldiers, many apparently shot in the head. Kenya sent soldiers into Somalia in 2011 after raids in the border region and kidnappings that threatened the tourism industry in the regions biggest economy and wider regional destabilisation. It later joined the AMISOM operation. Al-Shababs attacks in Kenya have included a raid by gunmen on the up-market Westgate shopping mall in 2013 and a university in Garissa in 2015. Hundreds of people have been killed in al-Shabab attacks in the past two years. The group has been driven out of major strongholds in Somalia by AMISOM and Somali army offensives, but it still controls some rural areas and often launches guerrilla-style assaults and bomb attacks. Al-Shabab, which has links to al-Qaeda and seeks to overthrow Somalias Western-backed government, initially said it had killed more than 100 soldiers in the attack. The group, which is also seeking to drive the AU force out of Somalia, often says its attacks against Kenyan targets are retaliation for its participation in AMISOM, which also includes Uganda and Burundi. Mogadishu attack The release of President Mohamuds interview came as at least three people were killed and nine wounded on Thursday when al-Shabab fired mortars at the presidential palace in Somalias capital Mogadishu, health officials said. The wounded, including three children, were brought to the Dar-ul Shifa hospital from the Ago dhiig area of the Warta Nabada district, hospital director Mohamed Abas told Al Jazeera. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the midday attack and confirmed it was aimed at the palace. We fired nine mortars at the presidential palace and most of them hit their intended target, Abdulaziz Abu Muscab, the groups military spokesman, told Al Jazeera. The attack is part of our ongoing operations in Mogadishu. The group attempted similar mortar attacks on the palace earlier in February, and also in January. Rabat rejects being buffeted after EU appealed court invalidated farm trade deal over Western Sahara products. Morocco has suspended contact with European Union institutions over a court ruling invalidating the blocs farm trade accord with Rabat and saying it should exclude the disputed territory of Western Sahara. The EU lodged an appeal last week against a European Court decision announced on December 10 to void the trade deal with Morocco in response to a suit filed by the separatist Polisario Front movement, which wants independence for the Moroccan-controlled territory. The complaint, brought to the court in 2012, involves trade of agricultural products, processed agricultural products and fisheries. OPINION: Conflict in Moroccan Sahara Myths and realities Issued after the Moroccan governments weekly cabinet meeting, the statement on Thursday said Morocco rejects the court ruling as against international law and UN Security Council resolutions. Morocco cannot accept to be treated as a subject of a judicial process and to be buffeted between European institutions, it said. Continuing in that position would deeply threaten the mutual trust and even the continuation of the partnership between the two sides. There was no immediate comment from the EU. EU-Moroccan farm trade in 2015 amounted to 43 billion dirham ($4.6bn). The EU and Morocco have struck agreements allowing duty-free quotas for agricultural products such as tomatoes and granting access for European vessels to fish in Moroccan waters in return for financial assistance. Free trade agreement The two sides also began negotiations in 2013 to form a deeper and broader free trade agreement. Morocco has controlled most of Western Sahara since 1975 and claims sovereignty over the sparsely populated stretch of desert to its south, which has offshore fishing and phosphate reserves. Moroccos annexation of Western Sahara prompted an armed struggle by the Polisario Front backed by Moroccos neighbour, Algeria. The United Nations brokered a ceasefire in 1991, but talks have since failed to find a lasting settlement in Africas longest-running territorial dispute. Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accuse Morocco of repressing political freedom in Western Sahara. Rabat invests heavily there, hoping to calm social unrest. Earlier this month, Moroccos King Mohammed launched an 18 billion dirham ($1.85bn) investment plan in Laayoune, Western Saharas biggest city, driven by the state-run phosphate company OCP. President Mahamadou Issoufou enjoys strong lead in his quest for a second term, partial results show. Nigers President Mahamadou Issoufou enjoyed a strong lead in his bid for a second term as leader of the West African nation, according to partial results. With 3.18 million votes from Sundays election counted representing a little over 40 percent of the 7.5 million-strong electorate the 63-year-old incumbent had just over 46 percent. The partial result showed that he was well ahead of his closest rival, detained former parliamentary speaker Hama Amadou, whose supporters said the poll was rigged. Amadou is behind bars on baby trafficking charges he says were concocted to thwart his presidential ambitions. The partial count showed that he garnered just over 16 percent, while former Prime Minister Seini Oumarou, had about 11 percent, the electoral commission said. Issoufous aides told AFP news agency that they were confident the man nicknamed the Lion would make good on his promise to deliver a knockout blow to his opponents in the first round. They said that ballots still being counted in his western stronghold of Tahoua were likely to tip him over the 50 percent score needed to avoid a runoff. The final score could be announced later on Thursday, electoral officials said. Turnout in the areas that have announced results so far was more than 67 percent. The opposition has on Tuesday already said it will not recognise the result, declaring the election rigged in Issoufous favour. Clearly, everything has been organised for a first-round win [by Issoufou]. The official results have yet to be announced but its so obvious, Amadou Boubacar Cisse, one of his challengers, said on Thursday. A total of 15 candidates ran for president of the vast country on the edge of the Sahara Desert, which has been rocked over the past year by attacks by Boko Haram fighters operating out of neighbouring Nigeria. Voters also cast ballots for members of parliament. The African Union, which deployed 40 observers, said that it was generally satisfied with the organisation of the vote despite delays in some areas caused by logistical glitches. Two men rushed into hospital after suicide attempt in Victoria Square, a gathering point for refugees coming to Athens. Two men have attempted to commit suicide by hanging themselves from a tree in a central Athens square, in one of the latest scenes of desperation as thousands of refugees remain stranded inside Greece after being blocked from continuing their journey. The men, reportedly from Pakistan, forced themselves into makeshift nooses made of pieces of fabric in Victoria Square, a gathering point for refugees arriving in the Greek capital, local media said on Thursday. Soon afterwards, ambulances arrived at the scene and took them into hospitals for treatment. . #refugeesGr pic.twitter.com/tOkGiVtu7O dromografos News (@dromografosNews) February 25, 2016 An official from Greeces National Centre for Health Operations told Al Jazeera that the two men were released from the hospitals later on Thursday in good condition. A hospital source told Al Jazeera that the two men were believed to be brothers, but that could not be independently verified. A police spokesperson also confirmed to Al Jazeera that the two men were in good health. He said the men were probably from Pakistan, but added that that had not been verified as they did not have any documentation on them. It [the suicide attempt] happened at midday in Victoria Square, the police spokesperson told Al Jazeera. They probably wanted to show their objection to the fact that they cannot leave [Greece]. Yiannis Chatzidakis, a psychiatrist with Klimaka, a suicide prevention NGO that runs a helpline in Greece, said the refugee crisis in the country was deteriorating. I am not surprised by the fact that people who are under such psychological pressure can commit such desperate acts, Chatzidakis told Al Jazeera. The situation is increasingly becoming worse so I dont find it strange that hopeless people with no home are willing to attempt to cut razor-wire fences or even commit acts [like the one today] irregardless if they have mental health issues or not. Thousands of refugees have been trapped in Athens and on Greeces northern border, after the government in Skopje severely restricted the number of people it allows to cross their border. This followed a decision by countries further up to turn back groups of refugees who are not from Syria or Iraq. Greece has seen about a million arrivals of refugees since January 2015. This year, more than 100,000 people have so far crossed the Mediterranean to Greece and Italy, and 413 have lost their lives trying, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday. With 3,771 deaths, 2015 was the deadliest year on record for migrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe, according to the IOM. Follow Teo Kermeliotis on Twitter: @Teo_Kermeliotis Government gives fighters 45 days to take up offer, security minister says, after US strike targeted groups leader. Somalias government has offered an amnesty to fighters with al-Shabab, the armed group whose leader was reportedly targeted on Monday night in a US air strike. Following a cabinet-level security meeting, Somali authorities gave al-Shabab fighters 45 days to take up the offer, Security Minister Khalif Ahmed Ereg told reporters on Wednesday in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. He said the government will create a better livelihood to build their future for those who meet the deadline. The offer of amnesty comes after a US air strike that targeted al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, whose fate remains unclear as Washington and Somali officials assess the outcome of the attack. Somali forces, backed by African Union troops, last week launched an offensive on al-Shababs last strongholds in southern Somalia, where the fighters are accused of plotting attacks across Somalia that have left scores dead this year. Al-Shabab is believed to have thousands of fighters in its ranks, fighting to impose Sharia law on Somalia, but the group faces increasing military pressure from African Union forces that helped to oust the group from Mogadishu in 2011. Al-Shabab has since resorted to tactics that include suicide bombings and assassinations of government officials. Godane, the groups spiritual leader, claimed responsibility for a deadly attack a year ago on an upscale mall in neighbouring Kenya, whose government has sent its army troops to fight al-Shabab in Somalia. Somali authorities are trying to verify whether Godane, 37, was killed or wounded in the US strike, government spokesman Ridwaan Abdiwali said on Wednesday. Al-Shabab remains strong in some parts of southern Somalia, including the coastal city of Barawe, and Abdiwali noted that it may take some time before there is confirmation about Godanes fate. Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, was publicly named as leader of al-Shabab in December 2007 and has since exercised command responsibility for the groups operations across Somalia, according to the National Counterterrorism Center. Under his direction the Somali fighters forged an alliance with al-Qaeda, and in 2012 the US offered a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to his arrest. Since September 30, 2015, Russia has been carrying out air strikes in Syria in support of its ally President Bashar al-Assad. The campaign has been relentless and growing in intensity, with Russian jets flying 444 combat sorties against more than 1,500 targets between February 10 and 16 alone. Moscow insists these attacks have been aimed only at fighters from ISIL and other terrorist groups such as al-Nusra Front. But monitoring groups, including the Violations Documentation Center and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, say thousands of non-combatants have also been killed or wounded. Amnesty International and others have said the bombings may be war crimes. Indeed, Amnesty has also cited consistent reports of second bombardments from planes returning to kill and injure rescue workers, paramedics and civilians attempting to evacuate the wounded and the dead from earlier raids. So are civilians being deliberately targeted and could Russia be guilty as charged? In this exclusive report for People & Power, Danish-born filmmaker and journalist Nagieb Khaja went to investigate. His remarkable film, shot in Aleppo, Idlib and other rebel-held areas of Syria at the end of last year, is a harrowing, tense and at times breathtaking portrayal of life underneath the Kremlins bombs. Viewers may find some of the images disturbing. Editors note: Russia and the US announced a ceasefire in Syria from February 26. However, air strikes against ISIL and al-Nusra were excluded from the deal. On March 14, President Vladimir Putin announced to pull out Russias main forces from Syria. FILMMAKERS VIEW By Nagieb Khaja Where are the terrorists? the rescue worker, Abu Rahmo, asks while he shows me around a district in Aleppo that was levelled by Russian bombs. Abu Rahmo is wearing a blue vest and a cap with the logo of the English Premier League club, Liverpool FC. He jokes a lot, and at first its difficult to understand how a man who sees death and destruction every day can smile like he does. But maybe this is the only way to survive doing his job. Russia says they are fighting Daesh [Islamic State], but Daesh has not been in our city for two years. There was not even any Free Syrian Army here, he says. There were only civilians living here. I can see no sign that were any military forces here. There is no military equipment. And strewn among the rubble of the houses, there are childrens toys and kitchenware the ordinary stuff of everyday life. I spent three weeks in North West Syria, filming for Under Russias Fist, and everywhere I went I saw evidence of civilian casualties: schools and houses and marketplaces that had been destroyed by Russian bombs. In Aleppo, the largest city in Syria, people still go to work, send their children to school, and eat in the many restaurants lining the streets, but at any minute they could be killed by the seemingly arbitrary Russian and Syrian regime strikes. I filmed what appeared to be Russian warplanes flying over the city. I heard the explosions of the bombs hitting the ground close by, and I filmed the huge columns of smoke rising from the impacts. I embedded for a day with Syrian Civil Defence Force rescue workers as they rushed to the places where the bombs had hit, and found civilian neighbourhoods full of smoke and dust, and homes reduced to rubble. I filmed as these volunteers, better known as the White Helmets, rushed from one attack to the next. And this was on what they told me was a quiet day when only one person was killed in their section of the city. I did not see any rebel fighters in these places that were hit. Of course, there are rebels from many groups with differing agendas in Aleppo. However, the major concentrations of rebel troops are on the front lines outside the city, far away from the civilian areas that I saw being hit. Thousands or civilians have already fled. Those still remaining have decided that they either cannot or will not leave the city. Some have decided it is better to stay in their own homes rather than become refugees. Other are simply too weak or poor to flee. And then there are others who did flee, but after experiencing life as second-class citizens in neighbouring Turkey, decided it was better to return to their homes. Abu Rahmo stays out of defiance and determination to resist the regime by saving people from the bombs. Two of his kids were killed by regime attacks, and now he has made it his own mission to save other peoples children. As he shows me around we hear planes overhead. Harbi Russi Russian airplanes, comes the warning voice from his radio receiver. Everybody can see the difference between Syrian and regime airplanes, he tells me. We have been bombed so many times that even our children can see the differences between the airplanes that are attacking us. On a street in the Ferdaus neighbourhood of central Aleppo, a shopkeeper is drinking a cup of coffee on the street when hes interrupted by a huge blast. A thick cloud of grey and black smoke erupts in the distance, and then slowly dissipates in the evening air. Where should we go? he asks rhetorically. Should we flee? Leave our country? That will be over my body. There are only civilians here. Just show me one fighter, one militant in this street! Human rights groups later reported that 32 civilians were killed by Russian bombs in Aleppo alone on this day. Soon after I left Aleppo, the Russian bombing campaign escalated and regime troops began a major push to encircle and besiege the city. Supply lines of food, fuel and medical equipment for civilians in the city have been cut. The situation in Aleppo is now becoming even worse. Even after five years of constant horror and atrocities, a humanitarian crisis is now unfolding on a scale that has not yet been seen in this war. As sometimes happens in life, the best experiences are those that come as an unexpected surprise. The formation of the acoustic trio D-Stringz, featuring violinist, guitarist, and bassist, was almost by accident, as they were all on the same bill back in 2012, in Paris, playing with different ensembles. As luck would have it, the sparks and mutual interest was there and guided by producer Francois Lacharme, this project came to light.Considering the accumulated virtuosity and expertise with artists of this caliber, coming up with appropriate material was no problem. Each contributed two songs, and the rest of the repertoire is a discerning selection of jazz standards. "Stretch," by Lagrene, opens the set, with Ponty's violin punctuating the melody. There is a dominant jazz manouche (gypsy jazz) presence that permeates the entire production, and Legrene is on familiar turf here. "To And Fro," a Ponty number recycled from 2005, is carried along by Clarke as the guitar and violin swirl into spontaneous improvisations. The standard ballad "Too Young To Go Steady," is a perfect showcase for the melancholic yet lyrical interaction which is so visceral and essential in this music. Clarke displays his amazing bass skills on this tune, as his soloing is the song's highlight.Clarke composed "Bit of Burd," as an ingenious tribute toand, an innovative interpretation of bebop done with a lilting swing feel. One cannot get too far in this venture without coming across the looming shadow of, who's song "Nuages," is given a samba rhythm reformation. "Childhood Memories (Souvenirs D'Enfance) is Ponty's foray into classical structure, introduced by Clarke's superb bowing technique, with just a taste of the mysterious Latin tinge.Themonumental classic "Blue Train," is performed as an up-tempo blues, and the trio get an opportunity to show their cultivated jazz chops. Clarke offers "Paradogm Shift" as an intellectual excursion into a habanera textured soundscape, with percussionist Steve Shehan adding light embellishments in an accompanying role. What started out as a break jam on's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," soon became evident that the number would make the final cut, and it sounds like there was shared enjoyment playing this perennial standard. They bid farewell to this adventure with the upbeat "One Take," where the jovial handclapping sets the tone for an elevating finale.These three musicians have each established their reputations, paid their dues, and have reaped the rewards from a lifetime dedicated to their craft. An occasion such as this, to perform with prodigious peers, is a genial venue to explore novel ideas and raise the awareness of possibilities. Hopefully they relished this project to the point that it will be repeated, let's hope so. Flow is the third recording as leader from prominent Israeli pianist Ari Erev and follows the themes of "time" and "change" that titled his previous albums. On this endeavor, Erev designs a project that reflects his affinity for the percussive Latin sound by including a touch of Afro-Cuban rhythms as one of the elements in a generally post-bop environment of rich harmonic flavor. The Tel-Aviv-based pianist delivers a primarily original selection with the exception of a few cover tunes in an attention-grabbing superb twelve-track recording that's quite compelling.Recorded in Tel-Aviv, Erev naturally assembles a group of some of the finest Israeli jazz musicians for this effort and employs a core trio format with Eli Magen on double bass and Ron Almog on the drums throughout most of the album. Beginning with the vibrant opener "Jumping in the Water," the percussive Latin-styled "Playful Moments" and "Treasures in Havana" among others, the band is expanded to include percussionist Gilad Dobrecky and soprano saxophonistof The Three Cohens (brother, trumpeter Avishai and sister and saxophonist, Anat).The gently-flowing classically-bent waltz title track, is the second piece of the recording but was the very first original penned for the album while "July, Again," a truly beautiful piece of music, occupies the same light-textured classical space as the title piece though with a more somber note as it is a dedication to the late friend and bassist. Bassist Magen takes a pronounced role on the delicate "Inner Story" as the soft balladic "What the Heart Sees" is Erev's play on the statement from the liner notes "What is essential is invisible to the eye" from the fable The Little Prince suggesting that what's essential may be clearer to the ear." What is clear though, is just how all the musicians meld here on one beautiful tune.The Latin flavor returns on the lyrical "Domingo" from Brazilian pianist and composeroffering a slice of light Latin rhythms with Erev at the center of the music, followed by a more traditional Latin jazz sounding track in the very appropriately titled "Latin Currents." The sparkling session of music closes on thecover piece "Endless Stars," though other notable piece here includes the powerful "Continuance" and the Yohanan Zarai tune "Gan Ha-Shikmim."Like the strong currents of the sea or the rushing waters of a river that leave an unforgettable visual impression, pianist Ari Erev's creative and innovative Flow leaves a similar impression albeit a musical one. The album documents a powerful fluid musical statement containing excellent new material, a cast of first-call players from the international scene and a remarkable performance from a gifted artist whose expressive playing style and clever compositions, elevate him as one of the finest pianist on the international jazz scene today. UF researchers are trying to find a Florida crop that can be used for beer. UFs Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences received a $158,000 grant to expand research on hops, the plants used to make beer. The researchers will start testing crops next week at UFs Mid-Florida Research and Education Center in Apopka, Florida. Brian Pearson, an assistant professor of environmental horticulture at the MREC, will lead the project. He said before the grant, he attempted to fund research himself. Ive only evaluated a handful because the funding has been limited, Pearson said. Pearson said his research began as a hobby after he visited a London pub in 2012. He drank a pint of Doom Bar Bitter, a craft beer developed in Cornwall, England. It was one of those moments where I just sat in a bar and had a beer that blew me away, Pearson said. It was revolutionary. Pearson said he returned to Florida as a part-time UF doctoral student and developed craft beer in his free time. As I started getting involved in homebrewing, I realized hops were a very important part of beer, Pearson said. After discovering hops werent grown in Florida, he said he wanted to grow the plant himself. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now Richard Smith, a biological scientist at the MREC, said he began working with hops alongside Pearson in 2014. As an undergraduate, he said he decided to join after hearing Pearsons passion in a class lecture. I had always heard people say, You cant grow hops in Florida, Smith said. So I wanted to try it myself. Smith said his original research focused on four different types of hops and how they grew in Florida. With the new funding, he wants to look at a larger range of the crops. While the expansion of research is exciting, Pearson said his passion for craft brewing still remains. He wants to help create a beer people will love after just a sip. Im still thinking about the consumer who goes into a bar and says, You know what? I want a beer thats unique, different and local, Pearson said. When Don Behringer found out he was a Fulbright Scholar last March, he was elated. I was on cloud nine when I found out that I got it, said the UF associate professor, who now lives in England with his family. Behringer, 46, was one of eight UF faculty members selected as Fulbright Scholars, a prestigious program that allows faculty, students and scholars to do research abroad. The Chronicle of Higher Education ranked UF second among research institutions producing the most scholars. Arizona State University at Templeton ranked No. 1 with 10 scholars in the 2015-2016 school year. UF environmental horticulture professor Charles Guy, a 2012-2013 scholar, said being a scholar is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. To be a Fulbright Scholar and to win the Fulbright is a prestigious award, he said, adding the ranking recognizes the quality of UFs faculty. Guy, who went to Chile for his program, said the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the International Center and representatives from the graduate schools work together to encourage faculty, students and staff members to apply. We have good faculty, and we work on problems that are worldwide problems, Guy said. Behringer said he knew it was a long shot when he applied to the program. During his time in England, hes traveled to the East Coast to research marine pathogens. I think it shows that the University of Florida has a tremendous global presence, Behringer said. Guy said groups across campus are working together to help UF rise in the ranks. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now Were working to try to increase the number of awards so we can actually become No. 1, he said. The third and final candidate for vice president of Student Affairs emphasized the importance of diversity and tradition. On Wednesday morning, David Parrott came to UF to speak with faculty, staff and students about his qualifications. He currently serves as executive associate vice president of Student Affairs and chief of staff at Texas A&M University. In Bryan Hall, Parrott told about 70 UF faculty and staff members its important to increase diversity on campus to prepare students for careers. We need diversity if for no other reason than to prepare ourselves to be leaders in that larger world, he said. He said if he gets the position, he will teach students about UFs history without erasing the times UF wasnt welcoming. Lets make sure that we teach our history and talk about the lessons learned, he said. This occurred back then; it was wrong, and this is what were going to do today thats right. While at Texas A&M, Parrott said he worked with faculty and staff to defend students rights to protest and practice free speech. Our role is not to approve or disapprove of free speech, he said. Our role is to support the First Amendment. Nadene Reynolds, the Career Resource Centers associate director for professional development and experience, said she liked that UF staff had the opportunity to ask Parrott questions. Its good to be able to compare between the candidates, she said. She said the candidates for the position should be considered seriously because they represent students. Parrott also discussed equity with students in the Reitz Grand Ballroom. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now One of the most challenging issues we face on college campuses today is finding a way to balance inclusiveness, he said. If you are able to interact with people that are different than you, then you are better off. Narayan Kulkarni, a UF biology senior, has heard all three candidates speak. He said Parrott has enough experience to handle working at UF. I believe that hes someone whos very open to encouraging conversation for students as well as faculty and staff in a positive way, the 21-year-old said. I didnt get a very good feel for tangible things he would do and commit to, though. He said he has doubts about all the candidates. Im just concerned to what extent they will support minorities because all three of them are white, he said. I will say, though, that they all three seem very informed on why they want to lead. After a tornado watch in Alachua County on Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service honored UF as a StormReady school. The university worked for years to efficiently receive and transmit alerts for severe weather to the Gator community, said Angie Enyedi, a meteorologist with the NWS in Jacksonville, Florida. During the Spring Break Safety Fair, Enyedi awarded university officials with a StormReady plaque. The universitys official designation occurred at the end of last year, but the ceremony was held in conjunction with this years Florida Severe Weather Awareness Week. University Police Chief Linda Stump-Kurnick, who is also the assistant vice president of public and environmental safety, posed for a picture with the plaque. She said its a strong symbol of UFs partnership with the NWS on both an educational level and a reactive level. StormReady is a nationwide program that audits universities, businesses and sometimes counties to gauge their preparedness for severe weather, Enyedi said. Florida State University and the University of Central Florida have already received the designation, Enyedi said, but UFs certification is the first of its kind in Northeast Florida. Kenneth Allen, the director of emergency management at UF, said staff and faculty need to stay alert. I would encourage everybody at the University of Florida as this week demonstrates to kind of be weather aware, to understand the weather hazards we face, make sure they have a good way to receive warnings, he said. Contact Martin Vassolo at mvassolo@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @martindvassolo. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now Rockeys Dueling Piano Bar hosted Black Euphoria on Tuesday night, opening its stage to music and spoken word poetry on the black experience in America. UFs Black Student Union and Black Graduate Student Union joined forces with Mellow Soul Tuesdays, an open mic night that currently takes place every other Tuesday at Rockeys. The goal of events like these is to bridge the gap between the locals and academia, said Ashley Wallace, the founder of Mellow Soul Tuesdays. In the future, Wallace said, the event may be held once a month. Performers confronted pressing issues, both personal and political, through rap and poetry from about 9 p.m. to midnight. Subjects included domestic violence, racism in America, self-knowledge, science and consumerism. Spoken word artist and activist Nino Blacknez, a member of the New Black Panther Party, was scheduled to be the evenings Spotlight Artist. Blacknez, for an unknown reason, could not make it to the event. Huggy Bear Da Poet, a spoken word artist, filled the void with a charismatic performance of four poems, each about five minutes long. Huggy Bear, 44, whose given name is Alex Jerome Lofton, gripped the audiences attention with his poetry on the state of race relations in America. Lofton evoked a range of emotions. Two women in the front row alternated between solemn tears and light-hearted laughter. Inherently subversive, Lofton denounced the mainstream media for spreading excessive negativity, and rappers for condoning poor morals. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now Lofton said he started spoken word poetry 16 years ago. I like to keep the rhyme schemes simple, but the concepts deep, Lofton said. He said his greatest influence has been the Harlem Renaissance poet Sterling Brown. Sterling Brown may have been a Harvard man, but he wrote for the people, Lofton said. Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Lofton became an X-ray technician after serving in the Navy. He practiced poetry while working his full-time job and eventually realized it was the best way to make an impact on peoples lives. I look at this as more of a ministry, Lofton said. Spoken word is a way to touch peoples lives in a positive way. Huggy Bear Da Poet, a spoken word artist, performs at Rockeys Dueling Piano Bar during the Black Euphoria open mic night on Tuesday. Italian women love black eyelinerwell, at least the ones at Milan fashion week do. And not only do they love it, they're also really good at applying it in that perfectly smudged, incredibly cool way that so many of us try to master and sadly (and messily) fail. It's no surprise, then, that two very Italian housesAlberta Ferretti and Roberto Cavallichose a black-liner look for their fall shows. While slightly different in application, both looks were supersexy and not totally impossible to re-create. 2016 Selin Alemdar At Ferrretti (shown above), makeup artist Diane Kendal traced black pencil around the eyes, which is nothing out of the ordinary. But then she took a Q-tip dipped in moisturizer and used it like an eraser, "working in the moisturizer and giving the liner a residue-like effect, as if it's been wiped away." To finish, she ran the bristles of a large, flat synthetic brush over the tip of the pencil and tapped it along the lower lash line, enhancing the bottom lashes but also giving the liner a worn-in feeling, like the model had been wearing this liner all night long. 2005 .. African leaders, including ministers of health, finance, and other line ministries, have gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the Ministerial Conference on Immunization in Africa the first-ever ministerial-level convening with a singular focus on ensuring that people across the continent can get access to life-saving vaccines. The conference hosted by the World Health []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric... An MSF medical compound has been looted amid fighting that broke out on Tuesday February 23 in Pibor, which left at least 35 wounded and approximately 1,000 people seeking shelter at the UNMISS base. Fighting broke out in Pibor in the early afternoon on 23 February and has continued throughout the day today, Wednesday 24. []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric... AR's Editor Joe Shea Talks About Elections On Iranian TV Bear Stearns Saved By Fed As Lehman Bros. Falters; Major Bank Failure Looms Over Wall Street, Sends Markets Into 200-Pt. Dive Lie Upon Lie Five Years Into the Iraq War The Administration Still Churns Out Lies by Randolph Holhut A Small Tragedy Even at 90, As Friends Turn Cool She Knows the Show Must Go On by Joyce Marcel I'll Take Me Imagine John Wayne or Arnold In Heels, Silk and a Girdle by Elizabeth Andrews Sen. Nelson Calls For New Fla. Primary; Gov Crist Backs 'Do-Over' Who'll Win? Ask Spock Spock.com Engine Predicts Winners By Site Searches; It Can be Wrong by Jay Bhatti Chatting Up The Cat God Gave Me Dominion Over Him But I Think He's a Non-Believer by Constance Daley Death of a Thug The Life and Horrors of Suharto by Andreas Harsono ___________________________ This Just In Sierra Club: McCain Ducked All 15 Key Votes On Green Laws (AR) A Work By AR's T.S. Kerrigan Is Chosen As 'Best Poem' By Wordpress Site Murder At Mile 63 The Deadly Assault and Bush Administration Cover-Up by S. Eben Kirkesby and Andreas Harsono 5427 14th St. West, Bradenton, FL 34207 $6.99 Fish Fridays! Manatee Co.'s Only 24-Hr. FREE Wi-Fi Paid Advertisement On Native Ground AFTER 5 YEARS, WE'RE STILL LIED TO ABOUT IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Next week is the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And it is likely that sometime in the next couple of weeks, the 4,000th American soldier will die in Iraq. [MORE] Momentum OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - It's 1931, and a 14-year-old girl is standing alone on a stage. She's small and lively with dark curly hair, widespread hazel eyes, slender wrists and an open, eager face filled with the wonder of performing. Her name is Rose, and one day she will be my mother. But now she is performing an Eugene O'Neill monologue called "Before Breakfast" for a ladies' club in a wealthy suburb of Long Island. [MORE] One Woman's World COMFORTABLE WITH MYSELF by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I'm not sure but I think I may be socially incorrect. [MORE] On Native Ground ENOUGH FOR A WAR, NOT FOR A PEOPLE by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Last week, the National Governors Assn. met in Washington, D.C. One of the tasks the NGA had on its agenda was to ask President Bush to increase federal spending on roads, bridges and other public works projects as a way to stimulate the economy. He rejected their pleas out of hand, claiming that infrastructure projects wouldn't offer any short-term economic boost. [MORE] Brasch Words BEWARE THE SELF-REVERENTIAL PRESS by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Shortly before the primary votes this past week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter called Sen. Barack Obama's surge to the Democratic nomination "inevitable." It also called for Hillary Clinton to "start her campaign for Senate majority leader." [MORE] Constance A CONVERSATION WITH MY CAT Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- Normally, when the cat starts his evening rant of meowing continuously until he makes his point, I just take it as long as I can, pick him up, and put him in the garage for the night. He doesn't want to go, but the meowing stops and I don't care if he likes it or not. [MORE] Momentum OUT OF STRUGGLE, ART by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Here we are again at the crossroads of art and social change, having the opportunity to watch good and great films about the lives of women in support of the Women's Crisis Center. [MORE] Campaign 2008 HOW TO PREDICT SUPER TUESDAY II WINNERS? ONLINE SEARCH by Jay Bhatti NEW YORK, March 4, 2008, 7:00PM ET -- With the outcomes of the Texas, Vermont, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries to be decided tonight, how possible is it that online searching can predict who will win tonight's primaries? [MORE] One Woman's World DON'T VOTE; IT ENCOURAGES THEM by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Call me angry and disgusted but don't call me un-American because I won't be voting come November. [MORE] On Native Ground BUSH AND THE KEYBOARD COMMANDOS by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- As the days tick down toward the eventual departure of President George W. Bush from the White House, it's a hopeful sign that most Americans are no longer moved by his Administration's constant exploitation of terrorism for political gain. [MORE] Momentum WHICH AMERICA DO YOU LIVE IN? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It's a little confusing. [MORE] Make My Dat THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] On Native Ground FIDEL RETIRES: NOW THE COLD WAR IS REALLY OVER by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Maybe now, we can finally say the Cold War is over. [MORE] Make My Dat THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] One Woman's World POLITICS IS NO PARTY by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Are you having a hard time focusing your eyes? Do you have faint red spots all over your body? Is there a ringing in your ears and do you see wavy lines when you look at your television set? Do your hands shake when you try to hold a cup of coffee? And have you recently been forgetting what day of the week it is - or what year? [MORE] Make My Day FOR BETTER OR WORSE ... A LOT WORSE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- "Marriage: It's Only Going to Get Worse." [MORE] Constance YOU CALL THESE RIGHTS? by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- When you express an opinion you hope to persuade others to your point of view. It doesn't always happen but still, opinion writers try. [MORE] Momentum THE BRIDGE WOMAN by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - Out there in America - yes, still - is a generation of women who were born in the 1940s, raised in the 1950s, and who came to radical consciousness in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am one of them. Hillary Clinton is one of them. [MORE] On Native Ground OBAMA AND MY GENERATION by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- I originally planned on voting for Dennis Kucinich in the Vermont Primary on March 4. [MORE] The Willies: WARNING: THIS MEDICATION MAY MURDER YOUR FRIENDS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla. -- You've heard the warnings, haven't you? Stop Prozac and you may take a shotgun, an Uzi or an AK-47 and mow down your family and friends, or even a whole classroom full of your fellow students. You didn't? Well, that warning is not on the bottle, but like countless mass-murder incidents before it, Friday's shootings at Northern Illinois University, as well as the Virginia Tech shootings that killed 32 last year, was probably precipitated by the effect of stopping medications that suppress anger and other powerful emotions but do not relieve the underlying cause. Isn't it time we started warning people - or stopped prescribing these medicines? [MORE] One Woman's World DON'T KNOCK ON MY DOOR by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I wish I could feel delight in my poet's mansion being like Grand Central Station all the time, but I can't. And I wish my place was such a place that someone would one day write: "Her door was always open and she always made you feel all fuzzy and warm in her presence. She could make a cup of coffee seem like a banquet." [MORE] Reporting: Panama PANAMA'S VIOLENT LABOR UNREST INTENSIFIES Mark Scheinbaum PANAMA CITY, Panama, Feb, 15, 2008 -- After just one day of relative calm, wildcat construction strikes by some members of Panama's largest union flared up again Friday morning, four days after a police sniper shot one worker. More than 140 demonstrators have been injured and at least 500 arrested, authorities say. [MORE] Brasch Words TO STIMULATE ECONOMY, BUY A CHINESE-MADE U.S. FLAG by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Walking down Main Street, pushing a grocery cart loaded with clothes, toys, and appliances was Marshbaum. Fastened to the right front corner of the cart was an American flag tied onto a three-foot ruler. [MORE] Make My Day THE TOOTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- To commemorate the death of noted shark exploder Roy Scheider, and the "Jaws" movies that resulted in Erik never setting foot in the ocean again, we are reprinting this column from 2003. Shark Experts 0, Sharks 1 [MORE] Momentum THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - As I write this, it's raining ice. Maybe a half a foot of snow and ice has already landed up here in the woods of Dummerston. Our cars are encased in it, and the door to the house is blocked. The satellite dish that brings in our Internet service quit about 20 minutes ago - frozen solid. [MORE] The Willies AMERICA TO HILLARY: GET OUT! by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 13, 2008 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton has adopted the Rudy Giuliani strategy, and it's working - for Sen. Barack Obama. It turns out to be the strategy all Democrats are seeking - an exit strategy. But it's not for Iraq. It's for her exit from the race for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. [MORE] Constance CONFESSIONS OF A DISAPPOINTED VOTER by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- A week ago at just about this time, I completed an article and was about to submit it as scheduled to The American Reporter. I was feeling rather elated, ready to show up on Super Tuesday morning, firmly touch the X next to Rudy Giuliani's name and get on with my day. He was my choice; he would get my vote. [MORE] Reporting: Florida SIERRA CLUB SET TO SUSPEND FLA. CHAPTER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 10, 2008 -- The national Sierra Club is set to suspend its Florida chapter after years of divisive infighting, the president of the national club told Florida members in a letter delivered to some this weekend. It is the first time in its 116-year history that such a step has been considered by the club, according to news reports. [MORE] One Woman's World PLANT A NEW WORLD THIS SPRING by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- For a little while, the men will just have to toss and turn in their fear-free-women beds. For a small space of time Hillary Clinton will just have to trudge on toward the White House without my faint applause in the background. [MORE] On Native Ground VERMONT AND THE 5 STAGES OF CONSERVATIVE GRIEF by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- First, Vermont tried to convince the nation to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. [MORE] Make My Day REBEL WITHOUT A TONGUE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Kids' brains work in amazing ways. At times, they can grasp complex concepts and make impressive discoveries. Other times, you have to wonder how we ever survived as a species. [MORE] The Willies FOR DEMOCRATS, NOW IT'S ABOUT RACE, INCOME AND GENDER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Feb. 6, 2008 -- It's not a good time to be a Democrat. As the Super Tuesday results demonstrated, the presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has divided the partly along clear racial, income and gender lines - the very distinctions the party has sought to erase in principle but has emphasized in its pursuit of diversity. [MORE] Momentum SUPER TUESDAY BLUES by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Super Tuesday has come and gone and I still can't get excited about the upcoming presidential elections. [MORE] The Willies ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY, YOUR PUSH IS NEEDED by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 5. 2008 -- I'm expecting a sea change tonight. I believe that for the first time in this nation's history we will once and forever banish racism as the deciding factor in the destiny of African-Americans, and indeed adopt diversity as our path to the future. [MORE] Campaign 2008 AT 88, EVERY VOTE REALLY COUNTS by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 5, 2008 -- Pearl Turner will caucus for Mitt Romney tonight in Denver. [MORE] One Woman's World STAND BY YOUR WOMAN by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- The black vote. The gay vote. The fundamentalist vote. The Hispanic vote. [MORE] An AR Special SUSPECTS IN BENAZIR ASSASSINATION HAVE TIES TO MUSHARRAF by Ahmar Mustikhan WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Gordon Brown this past Monday feted coup-leader-turned-President Pervez Musharraf at 10 Downing Street, Britain's new prime minister probably didn't ask the Pakistani dictator a question that is now on many minds: Did you order the murder of Benazir Bhutto? [MORE] Momentum TO THE VERMONT DELEGATION: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. Back when President George W. Bush and Dick Vice President Dick Cheney were building up to their loathsome war in Iraq, very few people were brave enough to call the bullies' bluff. [MORE] On Native Ground IF BUSH HAS HIS WAY, WE'LL NEVER LEAVE IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. - In his final State of the Union address on Jan. 28, President Bush cautioned against accelerating U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, saying that it would endanger the process that has been made over the past year. [MORE] Campaign 2008 CLASH OF COMMENTS AND PROTESTORS AT CLINTON, OBAMA RALLIES IN DENVER by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 1, 2008 -- At least four presidential campaigns of both partiers rolled into in Denver this week ahead of the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday" primaries in 22 states, but it was the Democratic presidential contenders who drew the big crowds and duked it out Wednesday. If sheer numbers are any indication, Sen. Barack Obama - preceded by a buoyant and beautiful Caroline Kennedy - won the round handily. He is the overwhelming favorite to win the Colorado primary next Tuesday. [MORE] The Willies WHY THE FLORIDA PRIMARY STINKS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Jan. 30, 2008 -- I was with my wife and daughter driving the back way from Miami home to Bradenton when we stopped at a McDonald's in Clewiston, the only big town along the vast shore of Lake Okeechobee, the state's precious freshwater reservoir. The McDonald's had three televisions at a central seating area, each tuned to a different network, and our table was in front of CNN as the very first election results started to pour in around 7:30PM. With them, almost as counterpoint, suddenly came such an overwhelming odor of cow plop that my wife started to throw up as we all ran to the parking lot. [MORE] Passings: Suharto DEATH OF A KEMUSU THUG by Andreas Harsono JAKARTA - A few minutes after hearing that former president Suharto had died in his hospital bed, Marco, a militia leader in downtown Jakarta, raced to Suhartos house, wearing his jungle camouflage and began guarding the Suhartos residence on Cendana Street. [MORE] Constance I REMEMBER YOU by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga.. -- It seems to be more often lately that the sentiment is spoken but it's always been out there: "You never get over the death of your child." This is true. But the heartfelt expressions come from some who cannot fathom the notion of losing a child; their own child is who is in their mind, not another mother's child. [MORE] JEMEZ SPRINGS, NMThe Jemez Springs Public Library in Jemez Springs, New Mexico will give fans of the late author Tony Hillerman a rare opportunity to purchase everything from unedited manuscripts to signed books and first editions at a special book sale on Saturday, Feb. 27, which coincides with the village's Cabin Fever Festival. At least 30 published and unpublished works written between 1970 and 1990 will be sold at the saleall of which were donated from Hillerman's daughter, author Anne Hillerman. Hillerman had a deep affinity for Jemez Springs and its inspiring beauty, and would frequently participate in the library's annual Speakers Series for several years which featured notable authors, alongside fellow New Mexico authors Rudolfo Anaya and N. Scott Momaday. Incidentally, Anaya's fictitious book, Jemez Spring (correct spelling) was set in the village. "It is a great honor for the library and community of Jemez Springs to receive a collection like this," said Suzanne Swetnam, president of the Friends of the Jemez Springs Public Library. "We are very thankful to Anne Hillerman for remembering Jemez Springs Library in such a special way. We know that the village must have been near and dear to Mr. Hillerman's heart and we are grateful that we'll be able to share his memory with those who have been touched by his words." Some book titles in the collection include: Hunting Badger (first edition), Sacred Clowns (first edition), Skin Walkers (first edition), Talking God (first edition), Dark Wind (first edition), The Fallen Man (uncorrected proof), Ghostway (first edition), Ghostly (third edition), The Sinister Pig (uncorrected proof and first edition), among others. The books, many of which are signed, have been appraised. Prices will range from $75 to $150 each, which will go directly to the Friends for the librarys numerous reading programs including summer programs which include movie nights, educational programs, childrens programs and the Jemez Historical Project run by Judith Isaacs and more. Each book will contain an insert featuring a certificate of authenticity. The library will feature a permanent exhibition of some of Hillerman's work in the upcoming months. The book sale has been scheduled as part of the Cabin Fever Festival on Feb. 27 from 11 a.m to 5 p.m. in Jemez Springs. The Cabin Fever Festival will be held at Fitzgerald Park in the village, and features a Chile Cook Off, professional chainsaw carvers from the Sandia Bear Company who will auction their work, a crosscut log cutting contest, arts and crafts sale and much more. There is no entry fee. The Jemez Springs Public Library is located at 30 Jemez Springs Plaza at the Village Plaza near the gazebo. Tony Hillerman, who passed away at the age of 83 in 2008, was a former reporter whose evocative mystery novels were often set in the Southwest and usually infused the Native American culture into his stories. His 1973 book, Dance Hall of the Dead won him an Edgar Allan Poe Award, and an Agatha Award for memoirs published in 2001. Other popular Hillerman books include The Blessing Way, Listening Woman and many others. Banks, and credit unions, too, are loudly objecting to the Financial Accounting Standards Board's attempts to increase loan loss reserves. They have "slammed the FASB," in The Wall Street Journal's phrasing, for proposing this conservative idea. What a mistake the banks are making. They ought instead to welcome the opportunity to get their loan loss reserves up to truly prudent levels, in line with the classic wisdom of the banking business if not exactly in the fashion FASB suggests, then in some fashion. A fundamental problem of our banking system is that cycle by cycle, it has come to rely far too much on the government. As the FDIC sticker proclaims in the lobby of every bank, the bank is "backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government." It ought to be the goal of self-respecting banks not to need this government support, and to stand on their own. Preparing for inevitable future credit crises through bigger loan loss reserves would be a good step in the right direction. But when can you build the required loan loss reserves? You can afford to only in the good times, of course like now, when the banking industry has just earned $41 billion in the last quarter. That is exactly when you may think you don't need them. But the good times are also when credit mistakes are being made the mistakes that will be so painful in the future bad times. As the old and true banking maxim tells us, "Bad loans are made in good times." And the bad loans other people make in the good times will weaken your loans, too. When the bad times do come, in every cycle, they are usually worse than people had predicted they would be. They are always worse than your worst-case scenario was. Recall the real estate lending bust of the 1970s; the simultaneous sovereign debt, oil bubble and farmland bubble collapses of the 1980s, with four commercial banks a week failing, let alone the thrifts; the commercial real estate bust of the 1990s, and later in the decade, multiple international debt crises; and the vast losses from the simultaneous bubbles in housing and commercial real estate in the 2000s. And a potential bust is currently in process, with another cratering of a leveraged oil price boom combined with the elevated risk of a hard landing in emerging markets. Banking is an inherently risky business, needless to say. Since loss reserves were too small in all the bad times of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, it necessarily follows that actual profits in the preceding good times were not as big as they were purported to be. Optimistic credit booms produce illusory banking profits, along with illusory asset prices. Banking profits can only be understood over a credit cycle: The optimists who don't build reserves are more likely to end up in the clutches of the government when the bust comes. Classic banking prudence was forcefully stated by an old-fashioned real banker, George Champion, who was chairman of the then-top bank, Chase Manhattan, in the 1960s. Reflecting in 1978 on the essentials of banking, Champion gave us this memorable advice: "I have long said that what they ought to do is to increase the reserve for bad debts until they get to a point of having at least 5% of total loans. This would not be out of line in view of the enormous losses that had to be written off in the last few years." He was describing the credit losses of the 1970s, but the same can be said of the credit losses of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Describing an increasingly distant past era when banking was more prudent, Champion continued: "We tried to put out the most conservative statement possible. We did everything we could to set up reserves wherever possible in terms of questionable loans. We knew we would come into periods when we needed to call on reserves and the statutory limitation on reserves was so bad that there was no way to set up as much as we felt it was necessary to have, prudent to have." How right he was. Champion advised institutions to contribute one-quarter of 1% of loans each year to the reserves for bad debt until reserves reached 5%, and to avoid getting into a position where an institution had to rely on a government bailout. My advice is to take Champion's advice. Seize the opportunity offered by FASB to get loan-loss reserves up. If your profits go down in the good times, that's just recognizing the reality of the bad ones. Alex J. Pollock is a distinguished senior fellow at the R Street Institute in Washington. He was president and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago 1991 to 2004. By now, most people are probably aware of the latest stupidity trending on social media. If not, to briefly recap, on Friday, a spoiled brat named Talia Jane flipped her boss the bird via an open letter on Medium.com and, surprise of surprises, got the axe. Unfortunately, the idiocy in this nation has reached such a fever pitch that one must address it, and address it daily, before we all wake up one day to find a reality TV star in the White House. Talia Jane's letters are so full of irony that if this wasn't the year 2016 and millennials weren't sucking up half the air in this country and supporting, rather unironically, someone who was the '60s answer to Millennialism, I'd think her story was ripped from the pages of The Onion. Talia Jane is into "comedy writing better at thinking about things than actually doing them." Doesn't that last bit just encapsulate the millennial generation perfectly? No more honest a phrase has ever been written by anyone. And guess what, Talia Jane: I completely #feelya. See, I love to write, too, and writers, by nature, are thinkers, not doers. But one need not look any farther than Ernest Hemingway or Ian Fleming to realize that even writers need to "do," if for no other reason than to have something to write about. If not, then they end up like Lenin (or Lennon, for that matter), writing about struggles they only think they know, as is the case with our dear Talia Jane. Talia Jane's tragic story was doomed almost from the beginning. First, she was using hashtags way back in the '90s. Second, at that impressionable age of eight, she somehow got the notion that "having a car and a credit card and my own apartment" were "what it means to be an adult." Maybe on Friends or Seinfeld, but not in real life. Let me tell you about being an adult, Talia Jane: it's not all it's cracked up to be, except when it is, and those are the times they never told you about when you were eight years old, listening to "Spice Girls and owning a pager." (As an aside, I think the real tragedy in all this is that the poor young Talia Jane only dreamed of owning a pager, her mother clearly being too much of an ogre to give her a cell phone. Quelle horreur!) I don't blame Talia Jane so much as I blame her Gen-X parents. And I don't blame her Gen-X parents so much as I blame their Baby-Boomer parents. And I don't blame their Baby-Boomer parents so much as I blame the Baby-Boomers' Greatest Generation parents. It seems, sadly, that since the end of the Second World War, the members of every generation, in an effort to give their children everything they wanted, gave them everything except what they needed. And who wouldn't want the very best for his kids? Talia Jane doesn't know this yet, but none of us takes joy in telling his three-year-old that he can't have a treat because he didn't have his dinner, or that five minutes (which was probably five minutes more than we should have given in the first place) really means five minutes. But we do it nonetheless because we know that if we don't, the child will grow up without any respect for himself or anyone else and join the masses of folks "feeling the Bern," or worse, setting fire to their own cities as a way to air their grievances. You see, Talia Jane was brought up to dream big dreams but not to do the hard work that goes into achieving them. It's unfortunate that Talia Jane had to learn the hard way that "a car and a credit card and an apartment would all be symbols of stress, not success," but it's even more unfortunate that she hasn't learned that her stress is of her own making. What Talia Jane doesn't realize yet is that she can take her grandfather's beater car and that ten-pound bag of rice and make for somewhere her dollar goes farther (and the government takes less of it in taxes, ironically). Of course, she might have to talk to some Republicans (#QuelleHorreur!), but such is the price of freedom. Talia Jane also doesn't realize that the so-called "working poor" of today live better than the middle class of her grandparents' generation and oftentimes better than some of the middle class in nations most of us would consider first-world. Talia Jane, before she bit the hand that fed her, had a car, an apartment, a college degree, a job, and all the free coconut water, pistachio nuts, and bread she could eat while at work. Heck, at my job, all we get is coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. And Talia Jane's job involved sitting on her privileged rear end answering phone calls from other privileged rear ends who apparently had to wait more than 30 minutes for their lamb vindaloo. Clean the fryers at the Bombay Grill at midnight, then get back to me, Talia Jane. Now free from her corporate overlords, Talia Jane's decided she wants to do something constructive with her newfound fame. Her new raison d'etre? You might have guessed it by now: a "living wage" for all! She writes, "[C]all me entitled but I don't think you should be barred from growing and exploring and taking risks because your income isn't in proportion with the cost of living in your area." Oh, Talia Jane, I really hate to break this to you, but if life were all unicorns and lollipops, then it wouldn't be a risk. I'll leave you with this: you want to help the working poor? Get a new job, work your way up in the ranks to a point where you have a little disposable income, and then join Rotary like your grandfather and give of your own time and treasure. My guess is that Jeremy Stoppelman is already contributing more than his fair share. Mark Griswold is a blogger and radio show host (he has a "real job") who lives just outside the "home of the original Living Wage," Seattle, with his wife and two desperately unentitled children. He can be reached through his website, ThePoliticalBistro.com. First and foremost, the simple argument that Guantanamo (Gitmo) is the number-one recruitment tool for radical Islam is false. The intelligence community does not support the idea of Gitmo used as a recruitment tool. If it were true, why would this White House want to transfer the detainees to super-max prisons in the U.S.? If so, wouldn't those super-max prisons then become the target and topic of radical recruitment? And if not, why not? Is there a difference? The detainees would still be held under U.S. control in U.S. facilities the only difference is that they are being transferred and held at different location, now on the U.S. mainland. The primary recruitment for radical Islam and its ideology is fundamental Islam. The president's announcement was simply not factual, and it was and continues to be irresponsible. It stems from a campaign promise that he had no business making in the first place, as a candidate does not have access to the intricacies of such an issue. In response to Mr. Obama's Four Points on Closing Guantanamo: 1. Safeguarding U.S. national security by coordinating with foreign countries to take on prisoners, and that Guantanamo is just as much a recruitment tool for terrorists, and moreover makes those nations accomplices and targets for radical Islamic terrorism. A. Transferring prisoners to their home, or third party, countries without assurances is an equally a mistake and danger. B. My experience as deputy director for intelligence at U.S. CENTCOM is that home or third-party countries will not guarantee anything if terrorist detainees are returned. Most terrorists will likely be released there are no assurances that those countries will be compliant with U.S. wishes and will anticipate pressure from groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups and entities. C) No interrogation of jihadist prisoners on the battlefield by police agencies in Europe and by other intelligence sources has revealed that Gitmo is a recruitment tool. This is a fabricated argument put in play by the Obama administration and other nations and organizations sympathetic to Islamists. It is foremost a propaganda message, initiated by al-Qaeda and other radical Islamists to influence various political groups to pressure the U.S. government, primarily the Democratic party and the Obama administration, to release all detainees from Gitmo. Furthermore, it spurs Cuba, Russia, and other politically driven and international supporters to influence the White House and those members of Congress who support the president to close Gitmo and return the facility to the Castro government. 2. Identify prisoners that pose a threat. This is essentially an issue dealing with the "recidivism rate" of radical Islamists. This topic should really be discussed in a separate forum. However, it is worth mentioning that a jihadist who is captured and released has, per his culture, a responsibility to return to jihad. To do otherwise is to renounce Islam and incur total damnation, shame, and most likely death. A. All detainees do pose a threat and were identified on the battlefield as such. Gitmo has been known as the Who's Who of Terrorists. B. This is the only place where we can hold unlawful combatants, non-uniformed battlefield combatants, and enemies of the United States, as they do not represent a country. The Geneva Conventions apply only to uniformed combatants from sovereign nations. 3. Use legal tools to process those in the middle of legal proceedings. A. Legal tools are and always have been in use. B. Within the facility is a fully staffed United Nations office and a center for legal defenders to work. 4. Military commissions are costly, because the situation has been politicized by the White House. A. These prisoners are not protected by the Geneva Conventions, as the conventions apply to uniformed members. B. Bringing detainees into U.S. courts cannot apply, as the evidence used for those caught on the battlefield in Afghanistan and Iraq and other countries involved in the Global War on Terror cannot be used in civilian courts. Other considerations: Guantanamo Naval Base is more than a terrorist detention facility. It is an operational U.S. naval deepwater naval port facility. The standard process to close an overseas base and transfer it back to the country to which it exists and is located is a five- to ten-year process. And that's the process for returning military facilities to allied nations. It requires a base closure commission and authority from Congress. It involves and affects multiple agency budgets and appropriations, coordination, international legal proceedings, etc. The U.S. has been there since the late 1800s, and as an official U.S. naval facility since 1903. Jim Waurishuk is a retired USAF colonel and a 30-year career senior intelligence and political-military affairs officer. He served as a special mission intelligence officer for various special operations units and organizations; with the CIA's Asymmetric Warfare Task Force; as deputy director for intelligence for U.S. Central Command (U.S. CENTCOM); as a former White House National Security Council staffer; and as a former distinguished senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, Washington, D.C. He lives in Tampa Bay, Fla. Is it possible for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to be anything other than anti-Semitic? On January 7, 140 people in Rochester, New York attended a lecture on the topic by Miriam F. Elman, Associate Professor of Political Science at Syracuse Universitys Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The event was organized and hosted by a local non-profit called Roc4Israel, founded in 2012 expressly to counter the negative rhetoric towards Israel, expose the rising tide of global anti-Semitism, fight against BDS, and defend Israels right to exist. As Elman told her audience, in the Middle Ages Jews were hated for their religion, in the 19th and 20th centuries they were hated for their race and today they are hated for their nation-state. Excepting some fringe student groups enthusiastic about boycotting Israel, the BDS movement is mostly absent from the academic scene in Rochester. The president of the University of Rochester, Joel Seligman, is a vocal critic of the movement. And while there are academics in town who sympathize with the movement enough to sign statements, at the moment BDS has no visible academic advocates in Rochester. Syracuse, NY, located little more than an hours drive away, is a different story. Its academic scene has a far more active BDS movement. A group calling itself the Syracuse Peace Council is an active BDS agitator. In May 2015, Cazenovia College hosted BDS factotum Alison Weir (purveyor of the website If Americans Knew). Syracuse University itself has some very visible BDS advocates such as Vivian May, Zachary Braiterman, and others. However, the topic was well-known enough to draw a crowd, on a cold winters evening, to an academic lecture. Nearly filling a spacious, tiered-seating auditorium, the audience was far larger than most Political Science or Middle East Studies Colloquia would attract at any of the area colleges. Elman is no firebrand rhetorician, but rather a level-headed, meticulous scholar. She focused on the differences between legitimate criticism of Israeli policies and anti-Semitism, which is not in the eye of the beholder. Anti-Semitism crosses the line surpassing the merely uncivil to constitute an assault on Jewish identity. We see it when historical and cultural links between Jews and Israel are refuted and when Israel is singled out for scrutiny like no other nation on earth. Most of all, we see it when three age-old stereotypes of Jews are projected onto the entire nation of Israel: the lust for power and control, the lust for blood, and the portrayal of Jews as animals, inferior to non-Jews. This rhetoric is the lifeblood of the BDS movement. Elman noted the correlation between anti-Semitic activity on college campuses and campuses with active BDS movements. She shocked her audience with examples of high-profile academics like Judith Butler, Steven Salaita and others who couch their assaults on Israel in the language of human rights and use their skills to construct a narrative portraying Israel as the ideological successor to Nazi Germany. Scholars refer to this ugly slur as Holocaust Inversion which, in the words of Manfred Gerstenfeld, is the portrayal of Israelis and Jews as modern-day Nazis. Elman explained the role progressive Christian churches play in BDS, personalizing her presentation by highlighting The Third Presbyterian Church, located 4 miles from the site of the lecture, and a group called Witness Palestine Rochester. She warned ominously that the most prominent BDS organizer of all has a local chapter: You have SABEEL here, in Rochester, operating under the moniker -- Christians Witnessing for Palestine. Perhaps most unexpected was Elmans critique of Jewish groups involved in the BDS movement. Most people are familiar with the 2,000 year history of Christian anti-Semitism and the 1,400 year history of Islamic anti-Semitism, but it seems counterintuitive that Jews could oppose the existence of Israel. Nevertheless, this is indeed the case. Clemens Heni calls it Cosmopolitan anti-Zionism. He argues that Jewish anti-Zionists give hatred of Israel a kind of kosher stamp. They also give non-Jewish anti-Semites an apparent Jewish ally in their bigotry. The most prominent of these groups is the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which Elman calls a shield for Israel bashing. The JVP is a new presence in town, and according to its Facebook page, was cofounded by a professor at the University of Rochester. The timing of Elmans talk was fortuitous, coming just two days after the American Historical Association voted 144 to 55 against joining ranks with the BDS movement. The AHAs decision is praiseworthy, but it runs counter to the current tide. The BDS movement is growing, and it has been endorsed by the worlds most famous academic Steven Hawking. And even though BDS votes may actually be illegal, and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) opposes academic boycotts, many academic associations are moving ahead with efforts to impose full economic and academic boycotts of Israel, including barring their colleagues (who may not share their alacrity for anti-Zionism) from collaborating with Israeli scholars. Daniel Pipes has written that when it comes to support for Israel Political views matter more than religiosity. He cites Frank Newports analysis of Gallup polls from 2001 to 2014 indicating that "nonreligious Republicans are more likely to sympathize with Israelis than highly religious Democrats." There are no conservatives in BDS ranks. The BDS movement is an outcome of the New Lefts dominance in American academia, especially Middle East Studies. Naturally, BDS gained momentum as its proponents gained rank within their respective institutions. David C. Rapoport has observed that When the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the PLO replaced the Viet Cong as the heroic model for New Left thinkers. As the Palestinians became the Lefts new underdog, Israel became its new villain. It is no coincidence that 1975 was also the year that the UN passed the infamous Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with Racism. After they colonized the academic world, many of these anti-colonialists, post-colonialists, and credentialed social justice warriors applied their learning and their paradigms to writing the narrative that Jews have no history in Israel (which they call Palestine), that Israel is an Apartheid state, that democracy is only for Jewish Israelis, and other easily-disproved falsehoods. At a time when much of academe is jumping on the BDS bandwagon, there is little risk to academics who join the movement, whereas opposition to majority leftist positions often leads to a perilous path. Elmans expose of the anti-Semitism inherent to the BDS movement is especially impressive at a time when most conservative academics keep their opinions to themselves. But Elman is hardly a conservative. She identifies herself as a "lapsed liberal [who sides] with progressives on many social issues and with conservatives on most foreign policy issues." Teaching at a school where dissenters are treated respectfully and diversity of perspective is valued, I can only wonder what life is like for Miriam Elman at the Maxwell School (what SU grad has never heard it called the Marxwell School?), which boasts as an alumnus the most influential leader of the Wahabbi Lobby, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who is also a member of its advisory board. The fact that she is a former member of the IDF and Jewish leaves her open to the divided loyalties smear, which has reappeared of late. Professor Elman confirmed my suspicion that her critics call her a Neo-Con. Philip Carl Salzman may be right that the dirtiest word in the Marxist vocabulary is neoliberal, but when the person being smeared is Jewish, Neo-con still reigns supreme. Fortunately, for her students at Syracuse and for all of academia, it will take more than smears to deter Miriam Elman. A.J. Caschetta is a senior lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a Shillman-Ginsburg fellow at the Middle East Forum, whose project, Campus Watch, sponsored this article. He can be reached at ajcgsl@rit.edu. Bernie Sanders promises a revolution in November. What he really means, if elected, is more of the same, only bigger - more taxes, more spending, and more redistribution of other peoples money. The probability that any American political candidate will accomplish any revolutionary domestic reforms is slim to none. Even means testing for entitlements is anathema across the American political spectrum. American politicians of both parties posture, pander, and prosper on the supply side of entitlements. If there is to be real difference among 2016 candidates, variations are likely to be found mostly in foreign/military policy, not social programs. Foreign policy is, and always has been, the existential consideration. Indeed, we could argue that it, and apathy on the right, defeated Mitt Romney in 2012. Recall that during the last series of presidential debates, whenever candidate Obama mentioned terror, war, or foreign policy, candidate Romneys stock response was, me too. Of all prospects in 2016, only Donald Trump represents a clear departure from decades of foreign policy malpractice. Beyond the bluster and bombast, Trump is substantially different on several existential issues: Israel, Islam, jihad, Russia, and immigration to name the most obvious. No small coincidence that all these hot buttons are related in important ways. Trump prospects in 2016 are still iffy, but more than any other candidate, right or left, he has reset the foreign/military policy table. Israel Trumps loud support for Israel is not without hiccups. Most American Jews identify with the Democratic Party and the American left. Nonetheless, Trump has been outspoken in siding with Likud policies and Israeli politicians like Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump is also outspoken in his criticism of Israels Shia and Sunni enemies alike. The Iran nuclear agreement and any two state Palestinian deal are unlikely to make any Trump to do list. Trump likely sees Israel as the canary in the geo-strategic coal mine, the lone civilized democracy in a very bad Muslim neighborhood. Wither Israel, so goes the Mideast and probably Europe. Compared to team Obamas neglect, if not hostility, Trumps Israel policy is likely to be a sea change. And in the global propaganda war, Donald Trump is unlikely to allow State, CIA, DOD, or National Security Council apparatchiks to define what is or is not Islamic. Islam Donald Trump doesnt seem to have any illusions about the politics of Islam and the host of related problems associated with toxic politicized religion: problems like terror, small wars, war crimes, human rights atrocities, and the 5th Column potential of so-called migrants. Most significant is Trumps willingness to call a spade a spade. He actually uses words like Islam and Muslim to describe national security threats. Trumps candor implies that he believes that jihadist Islam knows why it fights, while America and Europe do not. The call to make America great again implies Trump believes that America has lost faith, preeminence, and a sense of purpose. Oblique as it may be, Mr. Trumps political logic has become the lodestone for Yankee angst in 2016. Jihad Withal, Trumps take on those Muslim small wars is a mixed bag. He seems to think the Afghanistan tar baby was a good investment, but Iraq was a disaster. If fact, both ongoing theaters of war are American quagmires where progress is elusive and Muslim native allies do not fight -- at least not fight well. Trump is closer to truth on the handling of 9/11 where the Bush regime failed and then repatriated a host of likely Saudi Sunni culprits before an investigation could even begin. The 9/11 disaster was the worst warning failure since WWII and yet the then NSA chief, Michael Hayden, was promoted by President Bush in the wake of failure. Rewarding tactical, operational, and strategic failure now seems to be an American national security meme. Trump made youre fired the buzzwords of a decade. If he brings that ethic to office, fear and loathing amongst national security elites in Brussels and Washington is understandable. Saudi Arabia and the Emirates still provide sanctuary, succor, and finance to the growing theofascist mutation that underwrites jihad, small wars, and Muslim terror worldwide. For the moment, America is allied with the worst of Islam: Iran, Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan. Given the American treasure and lives invested in liberating Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, and now Syria, Trumps suggestion to seize and hold ground wealth to pay for Muslim wars and counter terror operations is spot on. Oil and opium pay for mosques, madrassas, toxic ideology, and the swords of Islam. Fighting Islamic propaganda and petro-terror with Arab or Muslim oil money would be a brilliant, if not game changing, policy. The Russian Air Force and the Kurdish army are now in the process of cutting the fiscal throats of a corrupt Turkish regime and the genocidal Islamic State. The Russian/Syrian/ Kurd coalition has done more damage to imperial Sunni Islam in a few months than the American mythic 60 state coalition has done in 20 years. Russia American policy towards Israel, and now Russia, is a kind of contemporary political penis envy. The West now resents decisive and successful leaders like Netanyahu and Putin simply because they are strong men with a clear vision of their national interests. Europe and America, in contrast, have been captured by a generation of effete, dithering social democrats where emotional issues undermine security, achievement, and military success. Open borders is an example. Indeed, American and European weakness has made the modern, passive and aggressive, Muslim crusades possible. The West cant say no to imperial Islam. And the jihadist wolf in Islamabad, Tehran, and Riyadh cant say no to easy pickings either. Muslim apologetics, compassionate intervention, regime change, and open borders are all symptoms of a West hijacked by clueless bleeding hearts in Brussels and Washington. Humanitarian intervention is a 21st Century oxymoron. Donald Trump says he can do business with Vladimir Putin. We should hope so. The Obama Cold War over Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine, or Syria is a policy driven by personal demonization not ground truth. Good relations with Russia are essential to any prospect of success in Eastern Europe, the Muslim world, or outer space for that matter. Trump, unlike the Pentagon, does not consider Russia to be a major national security threat to NATO or America. Nonetheless, the chimera of an aggressive Kremlin today serves two purposes for both American political parties: military spending and a continuing excuse to change the subject, avoid confronting Shia and Sunni Islam as the global existential threats. Immigration Muslim migration is one of two things; a humanitarian crisis or the second wave of imperial Islam, a cultural blitzkrieg. Neither Europe nor America can decide which. Impaled on a moral dilemma of their own making, Brussels and Washington have accepted open borders by default. Concurrently, there are few open borders in the Ummah. Trump says that un-vetted Muslim immigration is an evolving disaster. If national sovereignty and national security are still virtues, he is correct. A hiatus on Muslim immigration pending rigorous vetting and improved border control facilities is simple common sense. Acknowledged or not, the Islamic world is the nexus of modern global instability. Chaos, terror, sedition, and religious fascism are now Islams primary cultural exports. The Ummah problem is both jihad and religious ideology. Islam is at war with the world, but only ayatollahs, imams, and gadflies like Netanyahu and Trump seem to acknowledge that reality. Donald Trump often obscures intimations of policy with bombast, bad manners, and broad strokes. Fortunately, Trump is running for commander-in-chief, not Secretary of State. He defends the absence of specifics so as not to telegraph his punches. Indeed, the telegraphed punch has become a battle standard of hapless Team Obama in the Levant and South Asia. If Trump does nothing else in 2016, his broad policy strokes may herald a pragmatic and much needed revolution in 21st Century American foreign/military affairs. Often, the ship of state must come about before it can fire for effect. Policy wonks can wait for the details. G. Murphy Donovan writes about the politics of national security. In December, Donald Trump famously called for a temporary ban on all non-citizen Muslims entering the United States until our politicians can figure out what the hell is going on. This proposal immediately accrued the condemnation of all the other Republican Presidential candidates and most of the GOP establishment while simultaneously provoking outrage from virtually everyone on the left. Both President Obama in the State of the Union Address and Governor Nikki Haley in the Republican response to it made unambiguous, if not explicit, criticisms of the proposal. Say what you will about Trumps bombast and boorishness, there is an intuitive genius behind anyone who can engender essentially universal scorn from opinion professionals across the political spectrum by offering a proposal which nevertheless, according to Rasmussen, wins the approval of 66% of likely Republican voters and (46%-40%) of all voters to boot. Opponents of Trumps proposed ban, including President Obama, argue that: (a) it would not be consistent with our values or our Constitution, (b) it would be playing right into ISIS hands by driving hapless, moderate Muslims into their radical waiting arms and (c) it would be impractical and easily evaded by actual Islamic terrorists anyway. I wish to argue here that the instincts of the ordinary voters who agree with Trump are fundamentally sound that it is Islam that is often disturbingly inconsistent with our values, that failing to stand up for those values is pusillanimous and will ultimately work to our detriment and that maybe a clever business guy might develop a plan whereby, with the right balance of incentives, the United States could drive a wedge between ISIS and the peaceful segment of the Islamic world. Americans suspicion of Islam goes far beyond the fear of a small, radical minority murdering our citizens. There is a longer term concern that both at home and abroad a populous Muslim culture exists that is stubbornly incompatible with liberal ideals. Polls consistently show that overwhelming majorities of Middle Eastern Muslims support the death penalty for apostasy, blasphemy and homosexuality and the view that Sharia law supersedes all other human law. They show that anti-Semitic beliefs are registered in large majorities of Islam and that while open support for ISIS is only in the high single digits in most Middle Eastern countries, still, for example, 62% in Pakistan, refuse to give an unfavorable opinion. There is no constitutional requirement that we must admit anyone to America, much less those who subscribe to pernicious ideologies. The so-called plenary power doctrine and a hundred years of Supreme Court precedent have upheld the view that due process for aliens is whatever Congress says it is. Nor does it make sense that the Constitution be viewed as an ethical Kantian imperative or Mosaic code that applies to all humans, not just Americans. Aliens coming to your country are like visitors coming to your house. No one expects to be castigated for their choice of guests. So suppose that President Trump did in fact institute a ban on all Muslims coming to America. How would it work? That depends on what: until our government can figure out what is going on means. This rather vague qualifier could simply mean, for example, until a review of the visa application process is carried out. But suppose it meant instead a more far-reaching quid pro quo. It is hardly unreasonable to expect adherents to a faith that sanctions the murder of cartoonists in foreign lands to demonstrate that they do not abide by such principles. One obvious way to do that would be to require a Muslim applicant for a visa to the United States to obtain a signed document in English and Arabic call it a liberal Islam affidavit from the Imam of the mosque where the visa applicant worships, attesting that that Imam does not preach (for example) death to all apostates, nor that Jews and homosexuals are inferior beings nor that Sharia law supersedes secular law in foreign lands specifically in America. Undeniably, actual terrorists might either forge such a document or else lie about being Muslim. And instituting programs administered from the embassies in the various Islamic countries that tabulate mosques and the teachings of their Imams and whether they have signed a liberal Islam document would admittedly be a difficult and costly bureaucratic undertaking. But one of the major problems with radical Islam is finding clerical authorities in the Middle East who will go on the record with regard to, for example, the sanctioning of the murder of heretical cartoonists. Such a program would force the religious establishment to choose and provide significant incentive for choosing right. Consider the following. Roughly 100,000 visitors arrive in the U.S. from the Middle East each month (a fifth of these are from Saudi Arabia) and the purpose of much of this travel is business-related. An edict requiring individual mosques to at least ostensibly recognize Western principles would immediately require serious accommodation from religious authorities if only for financial purposes. One of the brilliant points of Trumps plan is that it recognizes implicitly that America, and the privilege to visit her, is a highly valuable commodity. The vast majority of Muslims are, we are told, peaceful people. Perhaps we can use this American commodity to pressure the religious leaders of those peaceful people into recognizing the liberal values of tolerance and co-existence on which the success of our civilization is founded. The clock is ticking down for Ted Cruz. After March 1, Hillarys dream opponent may be unstoppable. Here are the two things Cruz can do to save his candidacy, the party, and the country. 1. Pledge to end Affirmative Action Its a matter of principle. Affirmative Action is simply wrong. Its especially egregious in the case of Hispanics. Why should the son of a doctor and lawyer who emigrated from Buenos Aires, and may be of Italian or German descent, get precedence over the son of an immigrant from Bratislava who is a single mom cleaning offices for $25,000 a year? Preferences on the basis of family income are fine with most Americans. African-Americans will be disproportionately eligible. But discrimination against anyone on grounds of race or ancestry is odious. Americans never voted for this; it was imposed by judicial and bureaucratic fiat. Disparate impact is no grounds for rejecting tests that have proven accurate predictors of success in academia, professional programs, and the workplace. Institutionalized racism is not only unfair to the European-Americans and Asian-Americans it (invisibly) discriminates against, but is unfair as well to minorities placed in positions or in programs for which they are unqualified, and unfair to high-achieving African-Americans and Hispanics who are stigmatized by it. Its also unfair to communities not able to hire the best candidates for their police and fire departments, to companies and government agencies that must turn away more promising applicants, and to their customers and owners, or the public they serve. Asked if college admissions should be based entirely on merit, even 44% of African-Americans and 59% of Hispanics agreed. A lot of Trump supporters feel victimized by Affirmative Action. Roughly three-quarters (74%) of Trump supporters -- compared to 57% of supporters of all other Republican candidates -- agree that, today, discrimination against whites has become as big a problem as discrimination against blacks and other minorities. More than four in ten (42%) Trump supporters -- compared to 30% of supporters of all other Republican candidates -- say that white men face a lot of discrimination in the U.S. today. The fact that only 57% of non-Trump Republicans agree is testimony to the near total blackout imposed by the media on the issue of preferential treatment for minorities in admissions and hiring. The practice impacts nearly everyone in the country, yet it cant even be discussed in public. Yet Trump, the supposed iconoclast, the breaker of shibboleths, the teller of truths, is a supporter of race-based discrimination. In December he joined with Democrats to attack the late Justice Antonin Scalia over remarks Scalia made about the way in which affirmative action harms its supposed beneficiaries. Im fine with affirmative action, Trump has said. Theres a core of Trump supporters who idolize the man himself. But those for whom politics is as important as persona, who see Donald not just as the Great Deal-Maker and Bazzillionaire, but as a spokesman for genuine grievances -- these voters may have second thoughts about their guy on this issue. Also, some in the GOP establishment are acknowledging what a few wonks were pointing out four years ago. Over 4 million European-American voters whod showed up at the polls in 2008 stayed home in 2012. Mitt Romney won about 59% of the white vote. If hed captured around 63%, hed have won the election. With minimal increases, Mitt could have taken Florida (.6%), Ohio (1.9%), and Virginia (3%). Hed have to have won about 75% of the Hispanic vote to turn the election around. Its not as if Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics dont vote in blocks, with 93%, 73%, and 71%, respectively, supporting Obama. 2. If she agrees, name Carly Fiorina as his VP choice. Dont laugh. After Cruz, she was the most intelligent, articulate, and passionate performer during the debates. And she hates Hillary. She could trail Lady Macbeth of Little Rock around the country this fall, skewering her lies. Whatever percentage of women feel compelled to vote for Hill because she, too, has two X chromosomes, may think twice if they have a chance to vote for a woman on the GOP ticket. Carly also can discuss Madame Secretarys enabling of her philandering hubbys excellent adventures in a way that no male can. These may be advantages the GOP leadership and donor class can appreciate. Theres a precedent for selecting a VP before the convention. In 1976 Ronald Reagan announced that Pennsylvania Sen. Richard Schweiker would be his running mate. This was meant to show that he was willing to balance the ticket with a moderate. It didnt work: Gerald Ford won the nomination -- barely. But that was then. Carly, like Donald, is an outsider, a successful businessperson, a seasoned negotiator. She wont attract Trumps core, but her selection would shake up the race, and could appeal to disaffected voters who havent made up their minds. She would be a great asset to Cruz in the upcoming primaries. Of course Cruz needs to hammer away at Trumps populist stupidities: well deport 12 million illegals, but then well let them back in. Say what? Well make Mexico pay for the wall. Will that be part of the reparations after we occupy Mexico City? Obamacare? Well replace it with something bigger and better: Ill take care of everybody. China is sucking billions from this country. By making the stuff people are buying in Walmart? The Iran Agreement? A terrible deal, but Ill re-negotiate it. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Ill be neutral. And while the crony capitalist believes in freedom of speech for himself, hes never defended the First Amendment rights of other Americans. Cruz also needs to keep going after the weasely Cub Scout from Florida -- without photoshopping and mistranslated videos. His staff has done more damage to his campaign recently than Rubio himself. But at this point, repeating what theyve said so far is not going to cut it for Ted or for Marco. If Cruz wins only Texas on March 1 and Rubio comes away empty-handed, the Donald may be unbeatable. The GOP will be nominating a guy with the highest unfavorable rating in history -- 60%, with a net -27%. Well be facing the prospect of a second Clinton presidency, with Ms. Hyde in the Oval Office instead of genial Dr. Jekyll. Two years from now we may be nostalgic for the Great Reconciler, who was at least incompetent. It's frustrating to want the entire story behind the FBI request for iPhone information and the Apple Tim Cook counter-argument for not granting the capability. We get bits and pieces. First it was one phone, then it was nine phones. We heard it was a phone owned by the terrorists, then we are told it was municipality-owned phones, owned by their employers. We heard it was an issue of privacy, but then we hear that the municipality gave permission. Like so many issues of the day, and the subsequent stream of information, good and bad, we find ourselves asking, What is true? Yet there are times we are afforded clear-cut crystalline food for thought. Tim Cooks response seems noble and just. There are higher considerations, he offers. But how tight to his ideals and protectionism would he be if there were just slightly different circumstances? What if an Apple Store had been shot up by terrorists? And what if there were strong indications it was to happen to another store? Would Mr. Cook have the phone decompiled the next day? Guessing yes. It certainly is a complicated situation. And the federal government in all likelihood is asking for a boundary-breaking consideration in this matter. One that would snap the twig of personal phone privacy a just concern. Mr. Cook must feel like the boy holding his finger in the dike, saving the community with his tedious efforts. Why can't smart people come to a compromise on this issue? Let us start with one phone, and see what the Apple people come up with. Cannot the incursion be incremental? Or is the federal government using this event as an entry point of sorts? If it had only been Hillary's phone. We could have asked the Chinese what was on it. Former Texas governor and presidential candidate Rick Perry's indictiment on coerction and abuse of power charges has been dismissed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, putting an end to a politically motivated prosecution by Democrats who tried to criminalize a political dispute. At issue was Perry's threatened veto of funding of the state's public integrity unit unless one of its members, Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg resigned. Lemberg had been arrested for DWI and a series of videos of the arrest and booking showed a drunk, arrogant, violent woman threatening officers and generally making a spectacle of herself. Lehmberg blew a blood alcohol level of .239 - 3 times the legal limit. Perry made good on his veto threat when Lehmberg refused to step down. Angry liberals concocted a prosecution against the governor, taking a political dispute and criminalizing it. Texas Tribune: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday ruled that courts could not limit veto power and that prosecuting Perry over his action violates the separation of powers provision of the Texas Constitution and infringed on his First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Two of the courts nine judges dissented, and one abstained. The ruling signals an end to more than 18 months of criminal proceedings that stretched into a presidential campaign that never gained traction. "The court upheld the rule of law and the fundamental right of any person to speak freely without fear of political interference or legal intimidation," Perry said Wednesday at a brief press conference in Austin. The actions that I took were not only lawful and legal, but they were right. The case against the longest-serving governor in Texas history centered on a threat to veto $7.5 million in state funds for the public integrity unit of the Travis County district attorney's office, and questions about whether he abused his authority allegations that he called a "baseless political attack." The unit was charged with investigating and prosecuting state corruption. After Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg was arrested and pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated, Perry threatened to veto state funding for the integrity unit unless she first resigned. Lehmberg remains in office but is not seeking re-election. At issue in the case the Court of Criminal Appeals considered: a 2015 ruling by a state appeals court that dismissed the coercion charge. Perry's lawyers challenged that decision, arguing that the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals should have also dismissed the abuse-of-power charge. The state also got involved, appealing the ruling because it struck down a part of the Texas penal code that defines coercion. Perry and his lawyers argued successfully, as it turns out that he was acting within the powers of a governor and did nothing criminal. No doubt Perry was playing hard ball politics by creating a quid pro quo to continue funding the unit as long as Lehmberg stepped down. But as the courts at every level ruled, Perry's actions did not rise to the level of criminality. Did the indictments doom Perry's campaign for president? He believes it did, although you have to wonder how many Republicans nationwide were aware of the charges. And Donald Trump didn't need the indictments to crush Perry and other candidates in the early days of the campaign. Nevertheless, this politically motivated witch hunt - like the one against former Rep. Tom Delay - damages the reputations of fine public servants who don't deserve to be smeared by the petty, partisan antics of Democrats. Mitt Romney jumped into the 2016 GOP presidential fray with both feet yesterday, demanding that the top three candidates release their past tax returns while suggesting that Donald Trump's returns contained a "bombshell." Romney made the remark on Neil Cavuto's show on Fox News. I think theres something there," Romney said of Trump's returns, "Either hes not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasnt been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay, Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, told Fox News Neil Cavuto on Your World. Trump responded later Wednesday on Twitter, slamming Romney for losing a winnable election, and calling him "awkward" and "goofy" when the governor asked for the real estate magnate's endorsement. The reason I think theres a bombshell in there is because every time hes asked about his taxes, he dodges and delays and says well, were working on it. Hey, were not talking about the taxes that are coming due this year Were talking about taxes that already filed, Romney, a multimillionaire businessman, said. This was an issue in my [2012] campaign. Thats why Im so sensitive to it, Romney said. Romney was pressured by President Obamas reelection campaign in 2012 to release five additional years of his personal tax returns after the Republicans campaign said he hadnt paid more than 13 percent in taxes in the previous decade. Were going to select our nominee. We really ought to see from all three of these fellows what their taxes look like to see if theres an issue there, he added, also pointing to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, I think in Donald Trumps case, its likely to be a bombshell. Perhaps he hasnt been giving money to the veterans or to the disabled like hes been telling us hes been doing. I think thats the reason theres a bombshell [in his returns], he said. Cavuto pressed Romney as to whether the governor was indeed questioning the amount of Trumps declared charitable donations. Well, if his taxes show that he hasnt made any contributions to the disabled veterans that would be a big issue, and Im not saying thats the case, Romney said, Im just saying there are things that could be issues. It's not surprising that Trump hasn't released past tax returns nor is it surprising that he hasn't released his college transcripts. Trump's claims about how smart he is, how rich he is, how generous he is are open to question. What is he hiding? There is no principle at work. This is the normal vetting process that every candidate goes through. Even Obama released his tax returns from 2000-2008 when he first ran for president. It is perfectly reasonable to speculate that a rich man like Donald Trump takes advantage of numerous tax loopholes - especially in the real estate business - to reduce his tax liability. This doesn't disqualify him from being president. But his lack of transparency on the subject should trouble everyone who made the same point about President Obama. On December 9, 2009, a curious spiral of blue and white light appeared in the night sky over northern Norway and Sweden, freaking out a section of the public and generating an intense debate among astronomers and scientists as well as conspiracy theorists. Hundreds of people called the Norwegian Meteorological Institute to ask what it was. Everything from anomalous Northern lights, to aliens and trans-dimensional wormhole was suggested. Some even linked the event to the high-energy experiments that was going on at that time at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. The light was seen from all across northern Norway as well as from northern Sweden, and was reported to have lasted for 10 minutes. Unlike many alleged UFO sightings that goes unexplained, the mystery of the Norwegian spiral was solved in just 26 hours after the aerial display. The spiraling blue light was caused by a failed test firing of a Russian Bulava missile. The Russian Ministry of Defence issued an official statement stating that there was a technical malfunction in the third stage of the Bulava missile, causing the exhaust to come out sideways and sending the missile into a spin. Such lights and clouds appear from time to time when a missile fails in the upper layers of the atmosphere and have been reported before ... At least this failed test made some nice fireworks for the Norwegians, said Russian defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer. The Bulava is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) designed to have a range of 10,000 km, but its repeated failures have been a source of embarrassment for Russia. At least six of 13 previous tests (as of 2009) also ended in failure. Its not unusual for rocket launches to leave spectacular light trails over the sky. There is actually a term that describes it. Its called twilight phenomenon. Quoting from Wikipedia: Twilight phenomenon is produced when unburned particles of missile or rocket propellant and water left in the vapor trail of a launch vehicle condenses, freezes and then expands in the less dense upper atmosphere. The exhaust plume, which is suspended against a dark sky is then illuminated by reflective high altitude sunlight through dispersion, which produces a spectacular, colorful effect when seen at ground level. The phenomenon typically occurs with launches that take place either 30 to 60 minutes before sunrise or after sunset when a booster rocket or missile rises out of the darkness and into a sunlit area, relative to an observer's perspective on the ground. Because rocket trails extend high into the stratosphere and mesosphere, they catch high altitude sunlight long after the sun has set on the ground. The small particles in the expanding exhaust plume or "cloud" diffract sunlight and produce the rose, blue, green and orange colorsmuch like a dispersive prism can be used to break light up into its constituent spectral colors (the colors of the rainbow) -- thereby making the twilight phenomenon all the more spectacular. The twilight phenomenon can be seen in the wake of a Minotaur I launch vehicle during its departure from Space Launch Complex 8 at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., Sept. 22, 2005. Photo credit: Sgt. LeeAnn Sunn-Wagner/Wikimedia Photo credit: Hayne Palmour Photo credit: unknown Photo credit: unknown Photo credit: defence.pk Photo credit: defence.pk Over the last four decades, China has experienced rapid urban growth and massive rural to urban migration. Between the late seventies to the early 21st century, more than 300 million people moved from rural areas to cities, increasing its urbanization rate from 17.9% (1978) to 39.1% (2002) over a period of 24 years. It took Britain 120 years, the United States 80 years, and Japan more than 30 years to accomplish this. In the past few decades, Chinas urban population growth has been higher than that of Asia as well as the world. In 1982, some 210 million people lived in the urban areas accounting for 21% of the total population. By the end of 2015, China had a total urban population of 771 million or 56.1% of the entire population. By 2025, it is estimated that about 70% of Chinas population will be living in the cities. Xian, an urban village engulfed by an expanding city in Guangzhou. Photo credit: Eric Jenkins-Sahlin Such rapid urbanization has transformed the spatial and social landscapes of Chinese cities. One of the most visible product of this explosive growth are Chinas urban villages or chengzhongcun, literally villages within the city. These villages were once located on the fringes of huge cities, but as the cities grew, they encroached upon rural areas. Farmlands that were formerly cultivated by the villages were compulsorily purchased and turned into urban land by the government, while the villages themselves were left untouched because of the high economic cost to relocate and compensate the villagers. As a result, small pockets of rural areas surrounded by towering skyscrapers, transportation infrastructures, and other modern urban constructions exists in many large cities that have experienced significant expansion and received large numbers of migrants. Hundreds of such urban villages exist in large cities such as Guangzhou, Beijing and Shenzhen. The largest urban village Shipai, in the middle of Tianhe District in Guangzhou, has over 50,000 residents within one square kilometer. Photo credit: unknown The urban villages are not regulated by any form of centralized urban planning and typically receive no public services from city governments because their household registration status remains rural so they cannot enjoy any of the welfare benefits offered to urban residents. Deprived of their land, the primary means of livelihood, the villagers take to building high-density houses and offer them to rent to migrant workers. Most of these villages are now heavily populated and intensely developed, crowded with multi-story buildings ranging from three to five (or more) floors, and narrow alleys, resulting in slum-like living environments. Inside the villages, it can be dark and damp year round and lighting may have to be kept on even during daylight hours. While urban villages provide cheap accommodation for the impoverished population who come from the rural areas, they have become the breeding grounds for social problems such as crime, drug addiction, alcoholism, and prostitution. Redevelopment of urban villages is one of the priority issues on the agenda of Chinese government, but the process is highly contested. The most commonly used approach in redeveloping urban villages is to demolish all existing structures and build high-rise apartment towers, says Yue Zhang, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Some of the apartment units are then distributed to the villagers to compensate them for their loss and the rest is sold on the market. Under such a redevelopment approach, most migrant tenants are displaced who are forced to move to a more remote location, and form a new enclave, until their new home is redeveloped again. The redevelopment of urban villages needs to take into account political factors as well as the bigger picture of Chinas urban transformation. It is important to identify more equitable and sustainable design and policy solutions to improve the lives of both migrant tenants and villagers. This would require a better understanding of the mechanisms of urban informality and a more inclusive approach to urban governance. Xian village. Some of the buildings are marked by red flags strung to bamboo poles, so excavators wont accidentally demolish them, villagers say. Photo credit: Eric Jenkins-Sahlin Shipai, the largest urban village, in Guangzhou. Photo credit: Andreas Schwarz/Panoramio Houses in an urban village in Shenzen. Photo credit: YB Wang/Flickr An urban village on the outskirts of Chongqing, lying next to the Caiyuanba Bridge. Photo credit: Mark Horn Xian Village from the 16th floor of the Chun Du Hotel, Huangpu Dadao. Photo credit: xianvillage.wordpress.com Xian village. Photo credit: Matjaz Tancic/Beijing Lens Xian village. Photo credit: Matjaz Tancic/Beijing Lens Xian village. Photo credit: Matjaz Tancic/Beijing Lens An urban village in Guangzhou. Photo credit: Sliv Chua/Flickr Sources: Wikipedia / LSECities / Urban Villages in China: A 2008 Survey of Migrant [PDF] Dateline: Spain A government worker didnt show up to his job for six years, and no one noticedat least until he received an award for his stellar job performance. Joaquin Garcia, now 69, stopped showing up at his job as a building supervisor for a water treatment plant in Cadiz, but he continued to collect the $41,200 a year salary. The towns deputy mayor, Jose Blas Fernandez, told the newspaper El Mundo it wasnt until 2010 when Garcia was chosen to receive an award for his 20 years of loyal service that anyone noticed his absence. Suddenly, nobody could locate the plants building supervisor. I wondered whether he was still working there. Had he retired? Had he died? But the payroll showed he was still receiving a salary, Blas told the Spanish daily. I called him up and asked him, What did you do yesterday? The month before? The month before that? He didnt know what to say. Garcias attorney, speaking on his behalf, blamed bullying at his workplace for the six-year absence. The lawyer said his client did not report the bullying because he feared being fired. Once the allegations came to light, Garcia retired, but he denies any wrongdoing. People close to Garcia told El Mundo he spent his workday time reading philosophy. Last month a court sided with the government and fined Garcia $30,000the maximum penalty allowed under government rules. Despite getting off easy, Garcia has appealed the ruling and has petitioned the deputy mayor to have the judges decision reversed. Dateline: Australia Australian authorities have seized nearly a billion dollars worth of meth disguised as gel inserts in padded, push-up bras. Some 720 liters of liquid methamphetamine, or ice, worth an estimated A$1.25 billion ($890.5 million) was taken from four Chinese nationals. The drugs were found hidden inside prepackaged bra inserts shipped into the country from Hong Kong. This is the largest seizure of liquid methamphetamine in Australias history and one of the largest drug seizures in our countrys history, Justice Minister Michael Keenan told a reporter in Sydney. The seizure was the result of a joint investigation between Australian authorities and the Chinese National Narcotics Control Commission. Dateline: Montana Someone in Great Falls called 911 after hearing screaming from a house about someone having a gunbut it turned out the neighbors were just watching the midseason premiere of The Walking Dead. The 911 call came in at 7:28pm on the evening of Feb. 14. Great Falls Police Department Sgt. Brian McGraw told the Great Falls Tribune officers surrounded the residence in question. We had a whole bunch of guys on that one, he said. According to notes from the call, officer heard loud talking from inside the home and observed flashing lights. The officers removed two adults and several children, ages unknown, from the residence. Eventually, it was determined that no one was in danger, and that the family was simply watching a show about firearms near two open windows. McGraw told the Tribune he later found out the show was AMCs zombie drama The Walking Dead. Based on the outcome no police report was filed. Dateline: Arizona A state legislator is trying to change the law in her state and make potlucks legal once again. Under current state law, people can be arrested for having any sort potluck dinner outside of the workplace. The problem came to light after health officials in Pinal County ordered a group of residents in Apache Junction trailer parks to stop holding neighborhood potlucks. Republican State Representative Kelly Townsend from Mesa called the law a big legislative oversight and says the spirit of the law was never intended to ban potlucks. This is kind of like a technical correction, Townsend told azfamily.com. State health laws place a number of restrictions on when and where food can be served. But a previous set of legislators tried to make an exception for a noncommercial social event that takes place at a workplace, such as a potluck. That means, of course, that workplace potlucks are currently legal, but any other type of food-based eventbe it a tailgate party or a church picnicis illegal. Out in our district we had some pretty serious issues with folks shutting down any kind of potluck that did not take happen at a workplace, Townsend recently told her colleagues on the House Government and Higher Education Committee. Townsends new proposal, House Bill 2341, cleared the House Government and Higher Education Committee with bipartisan 6-0 vote. It is awaiting the approval of the full House. After Android 6.0 Marshmallow started rolling out on Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ in South Korea yesterday, the latest reports from earlier today confirmed that the 2015 flagship started receiving the latest version of the Android OS outside of Samsungs home country as well. Namely, the update is now available for the curved-screen device in Iraq, or even more specifically, it can be downloaded on smartphones with the model number SM-G928C. As the 6.0.1 update is just over 1 GB in size, its recommended that you download it over a Wi-Fi network. Just like it was the case in South Korea, the latest edition of Android OS can be installed with the Samsung Smart Switch desktop app while there also shouldnt be any problems for those looking to download it directly to their Samsung device. After a successful installation, the new firmware version should end up being G928SKSU2BPAG. According to feedback from S6 Edge+owners who managed to install it, this particular build was compiled just last week, on February 17th. Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge have already started receiving Android 6.0.1 earlier this month while the Note 5 rollout began on Friday. As for owners of slightly older Galaxy devices, specifically the Note 4 and the first Note Edge, Samsung already confirmed theyre next in the Marshmallow line and that rollouts for both phones will begin in March and April, depending on location. First versions of Marshmallow started rolling out way back in October, so theres no doubt that Galaxy S6 Edge+ owners will be glad to finally use the latest version of their favorite mobile OS, especially since their LG and HTC flagship-wielding colleagues have already been using it on their last years devices for quite some time now. In addition to the Doze power-saving mode, Google Now on Tap, and a completely redesigned system of app permissions featured in the standard, vanilla edition of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, this particular update will also come packed with the latest version of Samsung Web browser with built-in ad-blocking functionality. Theres still no word on when will the update roll out on the biggest member of the Galaxy S6 line of smartphones worldwide, but considering these last few days, daily or close to daily updates are to be expected. This past week, Samsung debuted their latest flagships in the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. They were basically everything that we expected. Samsung brought back the microSD card slot this time around, they also returned to using Qualcomms processors (at least in some regions like the US). The two new devices from Samsung have also been rated IP68 water-resistant, which is always a great feature to have, even if you dont need it. Since the announcement on Sunday, weve been hearing from case makers all week about their plans for releasing Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge cases. Caseology just let us know that you can expect 6 of their iconic series of cases to be available for both devices, and they will ship on March 4th. A week earlier than the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, ensuring that your phone has protection when you receive it. Advertisement First up is their Parallax line, which combines gold with navy and black options. It also has dual layering with enhanced grip and soft coating to ensure that you wont drop your smartphone. They are also making the Messenger series available. This line includes genuine leather with a polished custom feel along with built-in protective technology. Wavelength is also available, which as Caseology notes will make your phone into a chic accessory. Envoy is here, and it brings vibrant and cool colors together along with genuine leather. It also has dual layering for added protection and grip. Skyfall brings unique color combinations to their clear and translucent cases. It has a TPU 3D patterned grip as well. Finally we have Vault here, which is a sleek style that Caseology offers in gold and black combinations. It features an elevated style for protection and soft feel coating bumper frame. These cases from Caseology are great looking ones and work really well with the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. If youre looking for more case options for the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 Edge, weve got you covered there too with our Top 10 cases for both models. As you probably already know, Xiaomi has held their press conference yesterday as part of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. This China-based company grew immensely over the last couple of years, and has managed to achieve a lot in 6 years since it was founded. Xiaomi is the number one Chinese smartphone manufacturer as far as shipping within the country goes in 2015, theyve actually managed to sell around 70 million smartphones last year. That being said, the company has introduced their Mi 5 flagship in Barcelona yesterday, which weve talked about at length yesterday. Well, we do have some new info to share with you now, read on. Former Google employee, Hugo Barra, has been working for Xiaomi for quite some time now, and he is actually taking care of the companys international affairs. He was also the man who introduced Mi 5 yesterday, while he has also been interviewed by The Verge after the announcement. Hugo Barra answered a series of questions during the interview, and even though he said it is far too early do discuss additional markets for Xiaomi (presumably the US and Europe), he did say that theyre keeping their eyes open for new opportunities. It seems like well wait a bit more before we see Xiaomi arrive in Europe or the US, but who knows. Either way, they will remain primarily focused on China, Southeast Asia, India plus some other countries, at least for now Advertisement In addition to that, the Mr. Barra has also talked about the Xiaomi Mi 5, of course. He seemed very proud of the Mi 5s design, and said that the company developed this design based on the Mi Note and Mi Note Pro, two identically looking devices which were announced in January last year. The company has pioneered the 3D glass back design with those two devices, and you can find that same design in the Mi 5, though it is improved this time around, of course. It seems like Xiaomi is trying to step away from being called an Apple copycat, and develop brand recognition to the best of their ability. Mr. Barra basically said that during the interview, he seems to want consumers to look at one of Xiaomis devices and instantly know who made it. You can check out the full interview down below if youre interested. Google has released version 9.21 of Google Maps for Android, and we are looking at a few new features coming to the app. Although its a pretty small update, all things considered. The headlining feature of this update is the ability to get notifications when an edit of yours has gone live, which you can toggle in the settings now. As some of you may know, users are able to edit business names, as well as add photos and such to Google Maps. However, unlike Wikipedia, these edits are verified by Google (mostly to be sure that no funny business is going on) and the edits can take as long as 24 hours to actually appear on Google Maps. This is part of Googles Local Guides program that they have. The delay is pretty reasonable and understandable. However, users would still like to know whether their submission has been approved or rejected. Now that is possible. In the latest update there is an option to be notified for new user edits. So youll know if Google did approve your submission or not. Its not a huge change, but for those that are submitting changes to Google Maps, its a pretty substantial feature. Advertisement Another feature included here is bring the Explore Around You feature. This feature allows you to explore places around you like restaurants, museums, and other historical landmarks. Previously it was available in the US and the UK. With this update, the feature becomes available in France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain. In the changelog, Google says that Paris and Tokyo are getting some preferential treatment with this feature, by adding custom categories that would be more appropriate to those in those two cities. A good idea, considering those two are major tourist areas as well. Google Maps v9.21 is available now through the Google Play Store and is rolling out slowly, as is quite normal from Google. It may be up to a week before it actually hits your device. Theres not a whole lot that has changed here with this update. However you can sideload it from the download link below. Download: Google Maps v9.21 Android Wear didnt make any big announcements during this weeks Mobile World Congress, despite people expecting as much. That doesnt mean that smartwatches and wearables werent represented on the show floor or in numerous announcements from the past week, though. In fact, Chinese manufacturer Haier had a fancy new smartwatch to announce and show off during this years Mobile World Congress. Somewhat surprisingly, the device isnt running Android Wear, but even more surprising than that is the fact that it isnt running Tencent OS, either. Tencent OS is featured in other interesting watches such as ZTEs Axon Watch, and is often considered the Chinese parallel to Android Wear. Instead, it appeared to be running some sort of version of full Android 5.1 Lollipop. The device was announced earlier this week with a fully-circular 1.4-inch display with a 400 x 400 resolution, IP56 water and dust-resistance and an impress 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. Most of these specs put the Haier watch above the majority of Android Wear smartwatches out there, but it doesnt mean the Haier Watch is all that good. On the show floor, we found the software to be a little unfinished, and theres little in the way of eye-catching features or design here. Theres certainly a little Huawei Watch about the overall look and feel, but its heavy and a little bulky, too. Advertisement Running Android 5.1 does make this something of an oddity, and Haier have even said that this will be able to run the Google Play Store and download apps from the same place as your phone would, but right now the software is a little rough around the edges. Theres no word on whether or not this will be available outside of China, but we hope that Haier will at least consider launching the device in North America and across Europe. For now though, the Haier Watch remains just one more oddity thats been found roaming the halls of yet another trade show. The likelihood of the Chinese brand becoming a powerhouse in the wearable market seems unlikely, but more surprising things have happened in the past. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has issued threats against the co-founders of the two biggest social networks on the planet Facebook and Twitter. In their latest video published this Wednesday, the militant group displays an image of Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg and Twitters Jack Dorsey covered in digitally inserted bullet holes. The 25-minute piece of propaganda video states that ISIS hackers are fighting against the endeavors of the likes of Facebook and Twitter to put a stop to accounts of supporters of terrorist groups such as ISIS. The said video titled Flames Of The Supporters was discovered on Telegram, to which ISIS and other radical groups supporters recently migrated to after the biggest social networks and tech companies in the world started discussing joint efforts to put a stop to social media terrorism, as well as individually acting against such activity. The propaganda piece ends with a direct threat to Zuckerberg and Dorsey, stating that ten new accounts will be opened for every deleted one and that [Zuckerbergs and Dorseys] names will be erased after their sites suffer a similar fate. The video was released by a small group of ISIS-supporting hackers who call themselves the sons of the Caliphate army and shows the alleged hacking of numerous Facebook and Twitter accounts which end up having a changed profile picture and posting ISIS propaganda. The radical group claims it has hacked over 10,000 Facebook and 5000 Twitter accounts since starting its Internet activities, many of which were given to ISIS supporters. Granted, that is likely an exaggeration as propaganda tends to be, but theres obviously no way to confirm that. Three weeks ago, Twitter opened up regarding its anti-terrorism endeavors, revealing that it has suspended 125,000 accounts for openly supporting ISIS and similar extremist organizations, which is just the tip of the anti-social-media-terrorism iceberg as Facebook, Google, Apple, and similar companies have also been actively removing content related to such activities for years. This also isnt the first time ISIS has threatened large social media platforms and its employees. The oldest similar situation dates back to September of 2014 when the militant group called upon its supporters to kill the Twitter co-founder. Naturally, the sole fact that radicals are acknowledging the efforts of social networks to stop their online activity means that the said endeavors are most likely working as intended. Rotherham: when police and criminals collude to rape poor white girls How does the media report on the imprisonment of three Hussain brothers Arshid, Basharat and Bannaras? The men groomed and raped children for nearly 20 years in and around Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Some of their victims were aged 11 when their torture began. This was a family business. The brothers uncle Qurban Ali was convicted of conspiracy to rape. Their victims were forced to perform sex acts, often on several men at a time, and store guns and drugs. Jessica was abused by Arshid Hussain when she was 14. She tells the BBC: At first he was really nice, he paid me compliments and took me to nice places. But then he started being very controlling, he isolated me and I wasnt allowed to do anything without his permission. It became that the only person in my world was him. I remember my family was really trying to get me out of it but I just thought they were against me. [Hussain] said it was because they were jealous and they didnt want us to be together. I believed him. There were times when I actually thought he was going to kill me that became on a daily basis. There were lots of people scared of the Hussains, not just children like myself. The police didnt help they just saw me as a child with an attitude problem. I was being mentally, physically and sexually abused. And they just left me with him. The Daily Star, which one supported the EDL, focuses on two other criminals: Sex Gangs: 2 Women Pimp Girls Asian brothers raped kids Karen MacGregor, and Shelley Davies forced girls into the gangs clutches. MacGregor white; 58 was convicted of conspiracy to rape. Davies white; 40 is guilty of false imprisonment and procuring a victim to become a prostitute. The Mirror (Page 9): Abuse victim free; as five found guilty. Jessica says the gang might have had up to 2,000 victims. Mentions of anyones ethnicity in the papers report: none. To the Mirror, race played no part in crimes that went on for decades. The Express (Page 2): Facing prison, Asian brothers who raped girls Asian is a wide-ranging term. Would you call the victims European? And speaking outside court Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, warned British Pakistanis against burying our heads in the sand over the problems of child abuse within the community. Not Asian. Pakistani. He said: The sad reality is that in the case of on-street gang grooming, there is an over-representation of Pakistani men. Until British Pakistanis accept that this is a problem for our community we will not be able to eradicate this evil. Burying our head in the sand as the usual response is not good enough. Mr Shafiq, who said he was distantly related to some of the defendants, paid tribute to the victims who came forward and said he will never stop campaigning against these evil people.He said: This is not a white conspiracy dreamt up by the far right, or victimisation of the Pakistani community, as some claim. This is a concerted effort by a minority of Pakistani men who have groomed, abused and raped young white girls. This is a form of racism and we shouldnt hesitate to condemn it. Blaming or deflecting attention away from the evil men who carry out such actions is despicable. Just remember these were someones daughters or sisters. If you choose to ignore it then you are subjecting others to the threat of these groomers. Mr Shafiq also called South Yorkshire Police a failed force and called for officers who failed the victims to face justice. Daily Mail (Pages 20-21): Sex monsters who ruled a town How? Didnt the police know? At least 54 police officers operating in and around Rotherham are accused of turning a blind eye to more than a decade of horrific child abuse by gangs of Asian men. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating 194 allegations against officers who are said to have ignored the desperate pleas of terrified schoolgirls while they were being repeatedly raped The police ignored the poor and the young. They judged them to be willing victims, hard-nosed slags and slappers who knew what they were getting in to. Thats the allegation. The girls were worthless. Did police and thieves share a common view of the victims? Victims say at least one constable molested girls. Others are said to have tipped off the grooming gangs gun-toting ringmasters as to when their South Yorkshire colleagues were closing in MacGregor took in girls all of whom were white from childrens homes in the area, offering them a safe and comfortable living environment in her Hansel and Gretal house The court was told that one officer had sex with under-age girls, handed drugs to the grooming gang and tipped them off when colleagues were hunting for children in their possession. The constable denies the allegation. Another is said to have helped to broker a deal in which Arshid Hussain returned an abused girl to police on the promise he would not be arrested. Any names? Another police officer who was mentioned in the trial Pc Hassan Ali died last year following a road traffic accident in Sheffield. A tangled web. A dead copper. Pc Ali was told he was under investigation by the IPCC on the day he was killed. The probe followed complaints about his dealings with alleged child sexual exploitation victims. Ali wasnt on duty when he was stuck by a blue Vauxhall Corsa on January 28. He was dressed in plain clothes. his death, were told, is not suspicious. Look away. Nothing to see here. Move on. No policeman has been arrested over the abuse of hundreds of children in Rotherham. Not one. IPCC deputy chair Rachel Cerfontyne tells media: Our investigative work examining allegations about how South Yorkshire Police responded to reported child sexual exploitation in Rotherham continues to expand. This is complex work dealing with non-recent allegations and involving vulnerable and traumatised victims. We are committed to ensuring the allegations are investigated sensitively and thoroughly. The police dont listen. They dont hear. They tell. Its not complex. Its black and white. Sit the coppers down and question them. Did you know? If not, why not? Press record on the tape. Take a statement. Treat them as you might a non-copper, a poor black man accused of a crime against a wealthy white woman with connections to top brass, say. Justice is blind, right? The Times (front page): Police conspired to protect Rotherham child sex abusers Andrew Norfolk writes: Corrupt police and an influential politician fuelled a culture of impunity that allowed three brothers to own the town of Rotherham and abuse children until their crimes were exposed by The Times. One officer had sex with under-age girls, passed drugs to the sex-grooming gang and tipped them off when colleagues were searching for missing children, a court was told. Another helped to broker a deal in which one brother returned an abused girl to police after receiving an assurance that he wouldnt get done. The jury was told that Jahangir Akhtar, the former deputy leader of Rotherham council, also took part in the handover at a petrol station. Mr Akhtar, the former deputy chairman of South Yorkshire police and crime panel, was a relative of Arshid, Basharat and Bannaras Hussain, who behaved for years like a pack of animals to pursue dozens of young girls before demanding sex, often with threats of violence. The power of a free press: No criminal inquiry into the brothers offending was launched until The Times revealed in 2013 that police and social services held, but had failed to act on, detailed intelligence that Arshid Hussain was among a small group of men suspected of sexually exploiting more than 40 under-age girls. Less than two weeks later, Rotherham council commissioned an independent inquiry by Alexis Jay, a social services expert, which found that 1,400 girls in the South Yorkshire town were groomed and abused over 16 years. The offenders were almost all men of Pakistani heritage. The racial go-between: Seven defendants stood trial, including a white British woman who was likened in court to a fairytale witch. She was found guilty of pimping children. Karen MacGregor, 59, visited childrens homes, befriended girls and invited them to live with her. To repay her kindness they were expected to have sex with the Pakistani men she knew from her job in a taxi office To young girls abandoned like Hansel and Gretel MacGregor was a mother figure who seemed to offer a place of safety, Ms Colborne said. Once inside that gingerbread house, children were told that they had to start earning their keep, ie, sleep with Asians. Now its time to focus on the police. Who knew? And why was it allowed to continue? Anorak Posted: 25th, February 2016 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink (ANSA) - Florence, February 25 - Italy's anti-corruption authority (ANAC) has the money it needs to operate but is unable to spend it due to laws "in the Italian style", president Raffaele Cantone said Thursday. "It is absolutely not a polemical statement," Cantone added. His comments came after Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that ANAC is unable to spend 50 million euros of available funding. "There are budget constraints imposed by an old law...which today risks preventing us from meeting the new challenges, starting with those associated with the new public procurement code," Cantone said. (ANSA) - Paris, February 25 - French daily Liberation on Thursday published an article on the Italian premier and the reforms he has made in office, entitled "Matteo Renzi or the art of movement". The article, which looks back over Renzi's first two years in power, said the Florence-born prime minister had largely kept his promises to deliver reform, unlike French President Francois Hollande. "The Florentine has done what Hollande can only dream of achieving," the article said, suggesting that the French leadership should reflect on the changes achieved in Italy. (ANSA) - Rome, February 25 - Italy's highest appeals court has accepted an appeal filed against the Italian Interior Ministry by a Christian Nigerian immigrant who fled religious persecution in his country in 2003 but was refused asylum in Italy. The man only presented a request for political asylum in 2011, when he started having problems with his documents. His request was rejected by a commission for international protection, a decision backed by several lower courts. The magistrates from the lower courts said he did not fit the requirements because the persecution he faced did not come from a state or parties that control the state but from a religious group that the government is fighting. But Italy's highest appeals court, the Court of Cassation, did not share these objections and said the man's appeal was valid. It said the current situation of the country had not been adequately evaluated, including episodes of indiscriminate violence in several regions. A lower appeals court in Ancona will now take another look at the case. (ANSA) - Vatican City, February 25 - Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin on Thursday denied any conflict between Vatican and Italian authorities amid Italian government efforts to pass a bill that would legalise civil partnerships. Parolin said relations at a meeting with Italian officials on Wednesday had been 'cordial', rejecting media reports that claimed otherwise. The civil unions bill, now before the Senate, will extend to committed gay couples some of the same rights and protections currently enjoyed by heterosexual married couples, such as the right to receive a deceased partner's pension. On Wednesday, Premier Matteo Renzi's ruling Democratic Party (PD) agreed to scrap a provision that would have enabled gays and lesbians to adopt their partners' biological children, as well as a measure on obligation to be faithful for a civil union to be considered such. Parolin said on Thursday that the removal of the so-called "step-child adoption" provision seemed appropriate. "The fundamental point is that civil unions are not equated in any way with marriage, that is that they are two completely distinct disciplines," he said. (see related) (ANSA) - Rome, February 25 - Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias that "unilateral" initiatives by individual European Union member States to tackle the migrant-refugee crisis were "dangerous" in a telephone conversation on Thursday. "Italy considers unilateral initiatives in the immigration issue to be dangerous and does not agree with positions that aim to assign an individual country, such as Greece, with the responsibility of facing the migratory crisis," Gentiloni said, according to a foreign ministry statement. "Everyone's commitment is needed but effective solutions can only be adopted within the context of a European commitment for solidarity that is widely shared". Raising walls in response to the European migrant crisis "only generates illusions", Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said ahead of a meeting of the justice and home affairs council in Brussels on Thursday. "Let's hope the issue with Vienna is overcome because walls generate only illusions," said Alfano in reference to Wednesday's 'countersummit' held by Austria and Balkan states in favour of restricting the arrival of migrants, with controls that Greece fears will isolate it. "The country that raises a wall resolves the problem momentarily, but in the end the system will collapse and the problem will affect everybody once more," Alfano continued. "It is better to think about it first and organise the redistribution system," he said. (ANSA) - Moscow, February 25 - The Russian Orthodox Church has not ruled out a second and possibly third reunion of its leader Patriarch Kirill with Pope Francis following their historic meeting in Cuba earlier this month. Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Russian Church's external relations department, told the Tass news agency that the first meeting could be followed by a second and maybe a third, but there were currently no specific plans agreed. The February 12 meeting in Cuba was aimed at helping to thaw relations between the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches, which split in the 11th century. (ANSA) - Rome, February 25 - Egypt is trying to cover up the murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni, found tortured to death in a ditch outside Cairo early this month, the head of the parliamentary intelligence oversight committee COPASIR said Thursday. "From Egypt fanciful reconstructions are arriving that make you angry, clumsy and unacceptable attempts to provide convenient truths," said Giacomo Stucchi after the panel was briefed by Intelligence Undersecretary Marco Minniti. The Egyptian interior ministry on Wednesday suggested "revenge for personal reasons" as the latest possible motive for the murder, a theory quickly dismissed by Italy. Egyptian police first said Regeni was a road-accident victim, and since then there have been several suggestions he may have been spying. Stucchi stressed that "our policemen and Carabinieri on the ground (in Cairo) must have all the audio and video evidence, as well as news on Regeni's last contacts and movements". As for the suggestion that Regen's work on Egyptian labour movements may have been used by other countries' intelligence services, Stucchi said "it is an offence to his memory". "If the Egyptian authorities think they saw something like that in his work they're very wrong," he said. "What he (Regeni) produced was visible, open documentation," Stucchi said. The body of Regeni, a Cambridge doctoral student, was found with signs of torture all over it on February 3, nine days after he disappeared on January 25, the heavily policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak. (see previous). (ANSA) - Brussels, February 25 - European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos on Thursday warned of a looming large-scale humanitarian crisis along the migration route through the Balkans. "The situation on the Western Balkans route is very critical. The possibility of a large-scale humanitarian crisis is very real and very near," he said. He urged countries not to pursue unilateral, bilateral or even trilateral action, adding that negative effects were already becoming visible. Countries including Austria, Serbia and Macedonia have imposed border restrictions which have led to bottlenecks of migrants in Greece. Avramopoulos said the migration crisis was a "crash test for Europe, its institutions, its national governments, and its citizens". A joint EU-Turkey summit on migration is scheduled for March 7. (ANSA) - Rome, February 25 - Italian Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti on Thursday ruled out the possibility of a military intervention in Libya. "Libya can be only stabilized through the intervention of local forces," Pinotti told Mediaset television. "A military operation occupying the country would be unthinkable". She said that the first objective to achieve in Libya is stabilization, "which is hard to imagine without speaking to the Libyans themselves". She continued: "the failure of the vote for a national unity government is a negative sign and we are concerned about the constant postponements. "When the Libyan government takes office it will be necessary to give a helping hand for security with trainers and protection forces, and 19 countries are working on this under Italy's coordination''. (ANSA) - Rome, February 25 - Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti on Thursday ruled out the possibility of a military intervention to occupy Libya. "Libya can only be stabilized through the intervention of local forces," Pinotti told Mediaset television. "A military operation occupying the country would be unthinkable". Libya has been in turmoil since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and it now has two rival militia-backed parliaments, one based in the capital Tripoli and another, recognised by the international community, in Tobruk. The chaos has allowed extremist Islamist group ISIS to gain ground in Libya. Furthermore, given the difficulty the various militias are having in moving to form a United Nations-brokered government of national unity, there has been speculation the West could intervene directly to counteract the threat posed by ISIS. The issue is particularly important for Italy, with Libya so near to its southern tip and the turbulence being exploited by human traffickers, making it a big factor in the asylum-seeker crisis. But Rome has taken a prudent line so far, aware that a lack of long-term planning before a NATO intervention helped topple Gaddafi contributed to the current situation. For example, Premier Matteo Renzi's government said this week that it would allow armed American drones to take off from a NATO-Italian air base at Sigonella in Sicily for operations against ISIS in Libya. But the executive has stressed that authorizations will be given on a case-by-case basis and only for defensive operations. Pinotti said Thursday that the first objective to achieve in Libya is stabilization, "which is hard to imagine without speaking to the Libyans themselves. "The failure of the vote for a national unity government is a negative sign and we are concerned about the constant postponements," she added, referring by a delay in a vote in Tobruk on the national unity government. "When the Libyan government takes office it will be necessary to give a helping hand for security with trainers and protection forces, and 19 countries are working on this under Italy's coordination. "Over the past few months, ISIS's presence has advanced, but this issue also is difficult to confront without Libya's cooperation". The minister tried not to be drawn into commenting on press reports that French special forces are in action in Libya. "I don't comment issues that concern another country, but in the past unilateral expeditions have not helped Libya," she said. "During official meetings, France has always recognized Italy's coordination role as far as the situation in Libya is concerned". Migrants: Greece, we will not become souls' warehouse 'Unilateral acts unacceptable. Not Europe's Lebanon' (ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 25 - ''Greece will not accept unilateral actions. We can carry them out too. We will not accept to become the Lebanon of Europe and to become a warehouse of souls, even if this implies an increase in funding'', said the Greek deputy minister for immigration, Ioannis Mouzalas, upon his arrival at the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council. Meanwhile, Greek police said, some 400 migrants, mostly Syrian and Iraqi nationals, have abandoned a new camp of transit near Thessaloniki and are approaching the border with Macedonia. Greek authorities are dealing with delays at the border after the imposition of transit restrictions by Balkan countries last weekend. The 400 migrants are walking toward the border city of Idomeni, some 80 kilometers of Thessaloniki. (ANSAmed) Libya: militia, ISIS 'emir' arrested in Sabratha He had to gain control of the city (ANSAmed) - CAIRO, FEBRUARY 25 - An ISIS chief sent from Sirte to Sabratha to gain control of the western city on the Libyan coast has been reportedly arrested by a pro-Islamist militia. The claim has been made by the Special Deterrence Force (SDF) in a Facebook post. The SDF said that the ''emir'' of ISIS ''for the city of Sabratha'', Mohamed Saad al Tajouri, also known as Abu Soleiman, ''has been arrested''. He had been reportedly charged ''by leaders of the Islamic State in the city of Sirte to carry out his mission in Sabratha together with his assistant Salem el Amari'' (Abu Zeid) and the ''coordinator of the mission'', Ahmed Dahim, also known as Abu Hamza el Tajouri. The post added that the three ''were all arrested in a house in the area of Tajoura''. A video on the ''assault'' on the home will be released at a ''later date'' along with the ''confessions'' of those arrested, SDF said. The militia, known for its loyalty to the Tripoli government, talks about a ''harsh blow'' for ISIS, without specifying whether the attack on the home caused victims. Al Baghdadi's militants yesterday responded to a US raid last week - at least 30 were killed, including the alleged mastermind of attacks on the Bardo Museum in Tunis and the beach resort in Sousse - with an overnight raid in downtown Sabratha: 19 members of SDF were allegedly killed when the security headquarters were attacked. At least 12 of the victims were allegedly beheaded. (ANSAmed) (ANSAmed) - ROME, FEBRUARY 25 - Political chaos in Libya is favoring the increase of abuse cases and human rights violations that often constitute war crimes, according to a report by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) accusing all factions on the ground. The 95-page report documents from 2014 until now hundreds of cases of abuse, torture, targeted assassinations, abductions and the recruitment of children by militias. The situation of migrants is particularly serious: over 3,000 are detained in western Libya alone, where they are being abused, raped and have no legal protection. The organization has asked the Security Council to monitor the situation in the country more closely, and the international community to let the International Criminal Court carry out investigations and pursue the culprits. (ANSAmed) Syria: Moscow concerned by potential 'Plan B' of division Deputy FM, we are not discussing any alternative plan (ANSA) - MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 25 - Russia is ''concerned by the statements of certain western partners, including the United States, over the existence of a 'Plan B' to divide Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said Thursday. ''We don't know anything about this and we are not discussing any alternative plan'', concluded Bogdanov. Meanwhile, the government of Damascus has stressed it ''agrees with everything'' that concerns the accord reached by the US and Russia on Syria, ''including the truce that will come into effect on February 27'', Syria's ambassador to Russia, Riyad Haddad, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. Yesterday nevertheless Damascus stressed that it means to continue fighting not just ISIS and al Nusra but also all other armed group it considers ''terrorists''. (ANSAmed) Syria: Turkey, we will continue to bomb Kurds if attacked Premier Davutoglu, non-binding truce with security threat (ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, FEBRUARY 25 - ''The ceasefire is not binding for us when there is a situation that threatens Turkey's security'', Turkish Premier Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday. ''When we will consider it necessary, we will take the necessary measures against YPG (Syrian Kurds) and against ISIS''. ''Ankara is the only place that decides Turkey's actions on security'', stressed Davutoglu. Yesterday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked for the PYD and its YPG militias to be excluded from the truce, like ISIS and al Nusra. Deputy Premier Numan Kurtulmus also spoke about the issue, stressing that Turkey will continue to respond to attacks carried out from Syria against its territory by Syrian Kurds from the PYD but will not start any military action. Ankara, he added, welcomes the ceasefire scheduled to start on Saturday although it includes ''a danger'' - the possibility that Moscow and Damascus continue to carry out their raids. (ANSAmed) Ancient Egypt exhibit to open in Turin, Pompeii and Naples Joint research project to showcase influences on Italy (ANSAmed) - ROME, FEBRUARY 25 - Three exhibitions on ancient Egypt and its influences in Italy will be opening in Italy this year as part of a larger project to showcase relations between the two countries through the centuries. The first will be in Turin, in the 600 square meters of the Museo Egizio's first floor that has just be reopened to the public. Some 330 finds, from refined frescoes of Pompeii to three entirely reconstructed tombs, will from March 5 be showcasing the loves, fashions and in some cases the obsessions of the Classical world, fascinated as it was with the culture of nearby Egypt. From April 16, the newly reopened areas of Pompeii's Palestra Grande will once again be filled with Egyptian statues, and new routes will lead visitors to the discovery of the Temple of Isis and the many domus (residences), such as that of Loreius Tiburtinus, where luxury was expressed through 'Egyptian-style' decoration. The National Archaeological Museum of Naples will also be reopening its Egyptian collection to the public on October 8. Spread out between Turin, Pompeii and Naples and the first step of a new, joint research project between the three institutions, the project - 'Egitto Pompei' - will showcase influxes and spiritual, social, political and artistic influences from cults and fashions born in or that transited through Egypt. ''This is only the first step of a much longer plan to show what the relationship between Italy and Egypt'' has been throughout the centuries, Museo Egizio director Christian Greco said, as well as ''the beginning of collaboration between different cultural bodies that we would like to see continue'', Fondazione Egizio president Evelina Christillin added. ''This is proof,'' Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said, ''that three institutions can build a project of international appeal that is important for scholars as well as acting as a tourist attraction.'' (ANSAmed). (ANSAmed) - NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 25 - The White House has involved Silicon Valley and Hollywood in the fight against ISIS. The objective is to forge a strategy, an anti-propaganda plan to counter the rise of the terror group on social networks and the media, starting an 'alternative' campaign with positive and optimistic messages. The power of Silicon Valley and Hollywood's creativity are key to create a 'counter-narrative' able to fight ISIS online, where its recruiting campaign is successful. The US advertising industry, identified as Madison Avenue, has also been involved by the administration. Thus the so-called Madison Valleywood Project is moving its first steps amid a controversy over authorities asking Apple to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino attacker. The controversy is far from dying down: dozens of people have demonstrated in front of FBI headquarters against the request and in support of Apple's refusal, with the slogan 'hands off the iPhone'. One of Apple's lawyers also fueled the debate after he said authorities have asked the company to unlock nine other iPhones. Apple managers have said they would like the government to work on a counter-message rather than fighting companies over emails and data. In the project against ISIS, attention is focusing on a road map for the messages and an online campaign to be implemented over the next 100 days. The White House's initiative is similar to a project in the 1970s during the hostage crisis in Iran and the operation Canada Caper, which inspired the Ben Affleck's movie Argo. (ANSAmed) ROME - One month after the young researcher's death, a protest was staged Thursday in front of the Egyptian embassy in the Italian capital calling for justice in the case. ''Giulio Regeni's corpse bears a signature, that of state torture, and we must discover the names of those behind this. We will not accept anything less than the truth,'' said organizers of the protest put on by the Italian branch of Amnesty International, the Antigone association and the Coalizione Italiana Liberta e Diritti civili. ''The Italian government must get to the bottom of this,'' they said. Taking part were many associations (Arci, Articolo 21, Cittadinanza Attiva, Link Roma, Asgi, Usigrai, Fnsi, Cgil, Cisl and Uil), some intellectuals and artists including Erri De Luca and Lorenzo Terranera and politicians such as the MPs Nicola Fratoianni and Michele Piras and former Welfare Ministr Paolo Ferrero. Accompanied by the Regeni family lawyer, Alessandra Bellarini, they were able to meet with Egyptian ambassador Amr Helmy. The meeting ''was held on our request'', MP Fratoianni said, ''to reiterate to Egyptian authorities that this case cannot be written off simply as an accident and that the many - too many - versions given by the Egyptian government did not convince us.'' It is unacceptable, he added, ''the very idea that the Regeni incident can be considered simply a personal vendetta or possibly unusual behavior by the boy himself, as the Cairo authorities have said.'' ''Diplomatic and economic relations between Italy and Egypt are very important,'' the MP added, ''but for us they will never be as important as finding out the truth, and not only the 'official' one.'' Former minister Ferrero criticized the Renzi government, saying that ''from the words of the Egyptian ambassador himself'', he said, it seems that ''the requests made were not at the level of a government that actually wants the truth''. A few Egyptians were among the slightly over a hundred protestors and journalists, but they did not speak much and seemed afraid to do so. ''We are here,'' one said, ''to show our support for the respect of human rights in our country''. There was a man named Mohamed holding a portrait of Giulio that he said he had painted, adding that ''Giulio could have been one of us. Some are certain who was behind his death: the Egyptian government''. The Italian branch of Amnesty International did not accuse anyone, spokesman Riccardo Noury said. However, the signs of torture evince a method ''used by Egyptian security forces and police''. He added that ''by saying this we are not implying anything. It is not Amnesty International's place to establish who is guilty, only to maintain the attention high'' . Pia Locatelli, head of the Human Rights Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, said that this ''is what the Italian government wants. The truth''. ANSAmed - Today's events in the Mediterranean (ANSAmed) - ROME, FEBRUARY 25 - The following are the main events scheduled to take place in the Euro-Mediterranean area today. GENEVA - fresh round of UN-brokered talks on Syria. ROME - meeting of the Supreme Defense Council called by Italian President Sergio Mattarella to examine the situation in Libya and anti-ISIS efforts. PARIS - European Commission Vice President Frans Timmersman will be taking part in a public event at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and a working dinner with member of the French industrialists union (also 26/2). VIENNA - OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (also 26/2). DELPHI (GREECE) - first Delphi Economic Forum under the aegis of Greek president Prokopis Pavlopoulos (until 28/2). DUBAI - the Dubai Food Festival begins, with chefs from around the world (until 12/3). MILAN - Marcelline Institute presents Italy's first certification of Arab language. (ANSAmed). (ANSA) - ROME, FEBRUARY 25 - Libya ''can be stabilized only through the intervention of local forces. A military operation occupying the country would be unthinkable'', Italian Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti said Thursday. The first plan to pursue in Libya, the minister told private broadcaster Canale 5's program ''La telefonata'' (the phone call) by Maurizio Belpietro, is ''stabilization, which is hard to imagine without speaking to the Libyans themselves. As far as this aspect, the failed vote for a national unity government is a negative sign and we are concerned by the constant postponements''. ''When the Libyan government will take office - continued Pinotti - it will be necessary to give a helping hand for security with trainers and protection forces, and 19 countries are working on this under Italy's coordination''. Another issue, she stressed, ''is the fight against terrorism. Over the past few months, the advance of ISIS's presence has been registered, but this issue as well is difficult to confront without Libya's cooperation''. As far as press reports alleging that French special forces are already present in the country, Pinotti said she does not ''comment issues that concern another country, but in the past unilateral accelerations have not helped Libya''. ''During official meetings, the French minister has always recognized Italy's coordination role as far as the situation in Libya is concerned''. (ANSAmed) BRUSSELS - EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulous stressed Thursday the urgency of achieving ''tangible and clear results on the ground'' on the issue of migration. Unless the flow of migration weakened in the next 10 days, ''there is risk the whole system will completely break down'', he told a press conference after interior ministers dealing with the crisis met in Brussels. He said that the entire EU had a shared responsibility to implement the decisions that have been made at the EU level, and that time was running out. ''The situation is very critical. The possibility of a humanitarian crisis is very real and very near,'' Avramopoulos said. He stressed that negative effects of ''unilateral, bilateral and trilateral'' actions were already visible, adding that ten days were left for results to be achieved, calling it a ''crash test'' for Europe, its institutions, national governments and citizens. An EU-Turkey summit will be held in 10 days, which is expected to strongly reduce migration flows. He noted that the European Commission is working on an emergency plan that will be ready in the coming days for both inside of the EU and outside of it, and that UNHCR and IOM are involved. The commissioner stressed that the plan was not, however, a substitute for the EU's commitments concerning a shared asylum system and the Schengen zone, saying that there was a need to return to ''normality'' as soon as possible and to sharply speed up mass relocation of refugees. (ANSAmed) - ATHENS, FEBRUARY 25 - Greece has recalled its ambassador from Austria after Vienna hosted a meeting with Balkan states on the migrant issue to which Greece was not invited. A Greek foreign ministry statement noted that the ambassador, Chrysoula Aleiferi, was being recalled ''in order to safeguard the friendly relations between the states and the people of Greece and Austria''. ''It is clear that the major problems of the European Union cannot be confronted via thoughts, attitudes and extra-institutional initiatives that have their roots in the 19th century, and nor can the decisions of the heads of state be supplanted by directives from police directors. The latter is a major problem for democracy. It points to the need for the European Union to be protected from various parties who are ignorant of history,'' it said. ''Unilateral initiatives to solve the refugee (crisis),'' the statement stressed, ''would undermine the very foundations of European unification''. ''Responsibility for dealing with the migration and refugee crisis cannot weigh on one country alone. Common sense dictates that effective handling of this complex problem should be governed by the principles of solidarity and fair burden sharing,'' it concluded. (ANSAmed). Serbia-Greece: discuss migrant crisis, army training (ANSAmed) - BELGRADE, 25 FEBRUARY - Chief of Serbian Armed Forces (VS) General Staff, General Ljubisa Dikovic, met in Belgrade Thursday with Chief of Hellenic National Defence General Staff, Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis, to discuss the migrant crisis and education and training of military personnel of the two countries in the future. Dikovic told a press conference after the meeting that Serbia would contribute a number of its officers to EU battle groups during the current year. "Relations between Serbia and Greece are based on respect and friendship," Dikovic said. Apostolakis said that the armed forces of Serbia and Greece would continue working together in all areas. (ANSAmed). Syria: Lavrov confirms, no 'Plan B' for Syria Hypothesis cited by Kerry if truce fails (ANSAmed) - MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 25 - ''There isn't and never will be'' a 'Plan B' for Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday, commenting a possibility suggested by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Addressing the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Tuesday, Kerry suggested the hypothesis of dividing Syria if a truce scheduled to start Saturday fails, or if there is no effective passage of power to a transitional government in the country in the coming months. (ANSAmed) Syria: Moscow, April vote doesn't go against peace process Fresh elections with new constitution (ANSAmed) - MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 25 - The decision taken by Damascus to hold parliamentary elections in Syria on April 13 ''doesn't absolutely change the working plan'' for the peace process, ''and as a consequence, when the appropriate Syrian institutions will be established and a new constitution will be inaugurated, new elections will be held in the respect of these accords'', said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. Over the past few days, soon after an agreement between the US and Russia was announced over a ceasefire plan as of February 27, Syrian President Assad announced a surprise vote in April. (ANSAmed) The inauguration of the first segment of the Barcelona metros Line 9 joining Zona Universitaria and the airport via Fira, where the Mobile World Congress is currently being held sparked off some controversy when Spains Minister for Infrastructure was not invited to the event. The Catalan government gave a simple explanation: Madrid has not spent a penny on Line 9. You could argue that Barcelona city, LHospitalet and El Prat havent either, but the new line obviously goes through those cities and their mayors had forever demanded that this segment be completed; and now it has been, so they were issued an invitation. This might be a good time, then, to review the relationship between the undergrounds Line 9 and the government of Spain. The Third Additional Provision of the Catalan Statute (TAP) was supposed to guarantee a bare minimum commitment by Madrid to public spending in Catalonia. The TAP, which is in full force and effect and was never amended by Spains Constitutional Court (CC), states that the Spanish governments total public spending on Catalan infrastructures over a seven year period (2007 to 2013) must amount to the equivalent percentage of Catalonias contribution to Spains GDP. Any outstanding amount after Madrids investment must be transferred to Catalonias coffers for the Catalan government to invest. This transfer would be made three budget years later: the first year was needed to certify the actual amount spent, the second to budget for the difference with the target set by the TAP, and finally the amount would be sent to Catalonia during the third year, provided that the Catalan authorities could show evidence of completed public works. Catalan president Montilla chose to have the bulk of the TAP spent on building the L9 and banked on it to speed up the new lines construction. In 2010 Catalonia received the outstanding amount from 2007, but in 2011 Spanish vice president Elena Salgado froze the payment of the 2008 sum. At the time, Spains socialist government justified this move purely on financial grounds: they simply lacked the funds. However, when the PP took over they opposed the TAP on principle. Right from the very first PP budget in 2012, Catalonias TAP was wiped off the slate. Since 2011, the Spanish State has accumulated a huge historic debt with the Catalan government and Catalonia as a whole. The Catalan government has estimated that Spains failure to comply with the TAP amounts to nearly 4 bn. Yet Madrid has refused to fulfill its institutional duty. Rather, it has attempted to debase it and to ensure by means of a CC ruling that it is under no obligation to pay the TAP. As it has done many times before, the PP has ignored agreements and commitments, imposing its will with legal subterfuges. The PPs hostility against the TAP has spread to anything that the Catalan government intended to pay for with those funds. They turned down every request by the Catalan authorities to help them complete Line 9, even when they offered to allow Madrid to take credit for the works that had ground to a halt following Catalonias budget and financial crisis. Madrid also refused to help finance the outstanding amount and lower the financial costs of the project. Madrids hostility has been permanent. Not one euro, not a helping hand, not one gesture. The cost of completing the segment that runs from Zona Universitaria to the airport was under 300 m. Building the second segment also known as Line 10 that runs underneath Passeig de la Zona Franca will cost roughly the same. The third, central segment from Zona Universitaria to La Sagrera will be nearly 1 bn. Earmarking the cash from the TAP to complete Line 9 was no fools errand. The Spanish government should have recognised that this was a common good infrastructure. But their statesmanship manifested itself with the usual mix of hostility and jealousy towards Catalonia and its government. I fail to see how the Spanish minister could possibly be surprised not to receive a formal invitation, at first, to inaugurate a project against which she and her government had fought tooth and nail, a project which has been completed against Madrids will. It would have been so easy to collaborate! The whole project would have been finished years ago. Above: H.E Dr Khalifa Al Romaithi (left) and David Parker.sign the MoU. The MoU was signed in London during a visit this week by a high-level delegation, including H.E Dr Khalifa Al Romaithi, Chairman of the UAE Space Agency and by H.E Dr. Mohammed Nasser Al Ahbabi, Director General of the UAE Space Agency, who met with senior officials from the UK Space Agency. The MoU covers collaboration in various aspects of space exploration, including space science, technology, applications, policy, law, regulation and human capital development in the space field and related areas. In addition to this, the MoU encourages the establishment of joint working groups to examine and define proposals for joint programs in the areas decided upon by the two agencies, which supports the space programmes in both countries. Above: H.E Dr Khalifa Al Romaithi (left) and David Parker. The MoU also covers the promotion of educational activities in space science and technology as well as the promotion of the use of products and services developed under the two agencies programmes. H.E Dr Khalifa Al Romaithi, Chairman of the UAE Space Agency said: "The UAE enjoys a strong relationship with the United Kingdom in various fields, including education, business, science and culture. We are looking forward to further augmenting this relationship via the new MoU, which is in line with our strategic plans to expand collaboration with the UK." Al Romaithi added: "We discussed with our English counterparts opportunities to develop aspects of collaboration in areas of common interest and future prospects. We look forward to exchanging expertise, participating in joint studies as well as holding joint conferences and symposia. All of these undertakings will benefit the space agencies of both nations and strengthen the ties between our people. British Ambassador to the UAE, Philip Parham said: With the signing of this MoU, the broad and deep UK and UAE strategic partnership has now reached space. This will open the way for extensive cooperation and partnership in space research, scientific missions and popular outreach. The UK is one of the world leaders in space exploration and technology: UK technology was key to the worlds first collaborative satellite and the most distant probe landing ever achieved Ariel 1 and Huygens respectively. Im excited to imagine the potential, the uncharted frontiers and the many benefits which the UAE and UK can realise together in this field. H.E Dr. Mohammed Al Ahbabi, Director General of the UAE Space Agency spoke about the UAE space sector and the state's strategy, objectives, initiatives, and programs in this field, in addition to the agencys strategic priorities. Al Ahbabi said: The UAE Space Agency recognizes the importance of space exploration in the greater context of advancing humanities legacy. We are firm believers in working together with all competent entities in the field of space towards the common goal of fostering the well-being of humankind. David Parker, CEO of the UK Space Agency emphasized the importance of the MoU when he said, We are extremely proud of this memorandum. This collaboration in the space field is a sign of the strong desire of our two countries to work together, and confirms the commitment of the UK to become a partner of the UAE Space Agency. Best Law Products and Services Would you like to submit an article in the Law category or any of the sub-category below? Click here to submit your article. Would you like to have your product or service listed on this page? Contact us. Best Automotive Products and Services Would you like to submit an article in the Automotive category or any of the sub-category below? Click here to submit your article. Would you like to have your product or service listed on this page? Contact us. Best Travel Products and Services Would you like to submit an article in the Travel category or any of the sub-category below? Click here to submit your article. Would you like to have your product or service listed on this page? Contact us. By: Dezan Shira & Associates Editor: Maxfield Brown Singapore, long known for its exemplary investment climate and lucrative trading arrangements, continues to improve upon its competitiveness with the implementation of an updated Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) with Thailand. Minimizing investors exposure to taxation in multiple jurisdictions, this DTA, along with Singapores many others, is a critical components in attracting foreign investment and maximizing profitability for those incorporated within the citys limits. At a time where regional integration and rapidly expanding FTAs are defining the flow investments within The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), taxation agreements with fellow ASEAN members such as Thailand are likely to compound potential gains. Unlike many ASEAN nations that attract investment based on low labor costs, large consumer bases, or deposits of natural resources; the key to unlocking Singapores potential lies in a thorough understanding of its tax code and expansive trading arrangements. With this in mind, the following article outlines some of the most important changes found within the Singapores DTA with Thailand. Providing a significant update to the arrangement originally implemented in 1975 original, the 2016 version revises guidelines on dividends, interest payments, and royalties. For further reference, the full text of Singapores agreement with Thailand and other ASEAN member states can be accessed below: Should any questions arise from the following information or the agreements at large, those considering investments or currently operating within Singapore are strongly encouraged to contact relevant government officials or professional services. Withholdings Taxation In addition to corporate taxes levied by the Thai government, current Thai regulations, in conjunction with the Singapore-Thai DTA, allow for limited taxation of corporate remittances. The taxation of these remittances is broken down into three categories: dividends the remittance of profits to shareholders, interest payments relating to debts, and royalties payments to third parties for the use of patents or intellectual property. Note: The following information pertains to the rates agreed upon under the DTA regarding companies invested in Thailand and seeking to remit profits to Singapore. Dividends Dividends are defined by Article 10(3) of the Singapore-Thailand DTA as income from: shares jouissance shares / rights mining shares founders shares or other rights not being debt-claims participation in profits income from other corporate rights subjected to the same taxation treatment as income from shares by the laws of the State of which the company making the distribution is a resident. Rates Dividend withholdings will largely remain unchanged with the passage of the Singapore Thailand DTA. While the previous agreement, originally signed in 1976, set dividend withholdings at 20%, Thailand has since reduced its tax on withholding to 10% the same as the rate within the DTA and thus affording those incorporated in Singapore little advantage with regard dividend remittances. Royalties Royalties within the DTA have been substantially reduced under Article 12 of Singapores DTA with Thailand. There are some instances where royalties can qualify for up to a 10 percent discount under the DTA when compared to states with out of date or non existent taxation agreements. Royalties under the Singapore-Thai DTA are subject to a three tired system of withholdings taxation ranging from 5 to 10 percent depending on the nature of the royalty payment in question. To qualify for lower rates the following should be noted: 5 percent rate Art.12(2)(a) limits the application of a 5 percent withholding to royalties paid for the right to use copyrights of: literary Artistic or Scientific works 8 percent rate Art. 12(2)(b) limits the withholding rate of 8 percent to royalty payments regarding: patents trade marks designs models plans secret formulas or processes or for the use of, or the rights to use, industrial, commercial, or scientific equipment 10 percent rate Art. 12(2)(c) indicates that in cases that royalties do not meet the qualifications for 5 or 8 percent withholding they are then to be subject to a 10 percent rate of withholding. Interest Similar to dividends, Singapores arrangement with Thailand concerning interest, while marking a substantial improvement over its 1976 predecessor, does little to reduce applied withholding rates. At present, companies will be subject to a 10 to 15 percent withholding regardless of their coverage under given DTAs. Nonetheless, the following requirements should be noted for those seeking to qualify for lower withholding rates: 10 percent rate Art. 11(2)(a) and (b) outline two situations where interest withholdings may be reduced: If the owner of the interest is a financial or insurance institutions If the owner of the interest is a Singapore resident see article 4 for more information and the payment is made with respect to indebtedness arising from the sale on credit of equipment or services. 15 percent rate Art. 11(2)(c) indicates that a 15 percent rate of withholding shall be applied in all situations that do not meet the requirements outlined in Art. 11(2)(a) or (b). Exemptions While a 10 to 15 percent rate is applied for the vast majority of interest related remittances, the Singapore-Thai DTA does provide exemptions for payments to certain governmental institutions. Art. 11(4)(a) indicates interest remittances to the following bodies in Singapore are exempt from interest withholdings levied by the Thai government: the Monetary Authority of Singapore the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Pte Ltd a statutory body any institution wholly or mainly owned by the Government of Singapore as may be agreed from time to time between the competent authorities of the Contracting States. About Us Asia Briefing Ltd. is a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates. Dezan Shira is a specialist foreign direct investment practice, providing corporate establishment, business advisory, tax advisory and compliance, accounting, payroll, due diligence and financial review services to multinationals investing in China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Singapore and the rest of ASEAN. For further information, please email asean@dezshira.com or visit www.dezshira.com. Stay up to date with the latest business and investment trends in Asia by subscribing to our complimentary update service featuring news, commentary and regulatory insight. Annual Audit and Compliance in ASEAN For the first issue of our ASEAN Briefing Magazine, we look at the different audit and compliance regulations of five of the main economies in ASEAN. We firstly focus on the accounting standards, filing processes, and requirements for Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. We then provide similar information on Singapore, and offer a closer examination of the city-states generous audit exemptions for small-and-medium sized enterprises. The Trans-Pacific Partnership and its Impact on Asian Markets The United States backed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) includes six Asian economies Australia, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, while Indonesia has expressed a keen willingness to join. However, the agreements potential impact will affect many others, not least of all China. In this issue of Asia Briefing magazine, we examine where the TPP agreement stands right now, look at the potential impact of the participating nations, as well as examine how it will affect Asian economies that have not been included. An Introduction to Tax Treaties Throughout Asia In this issue of Asia Briefing Magazine, we take a look at the various types of trade and tax treaties that exist between Asian nations. These include bilateral investment treaties, double tax treaties and free trade agreements all of which directly affect businesses operating in Asia. Ninety of the 99 new super-rich on the Hurun Global Rich List come from Greater China. However, economic disparity has also grown with 300 million Chinese living below the poverty line. Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) Greater China, i.e. mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, has more billionaires than any other place in the world, this according to the new Hurun Global Rich List. Point of pride is the fact that the number of billionaires (in US dollars) in the world grew by 99 to 2,188 last year, with 90 new entries coming from Greater China. Chinese billionaires now number 568 against 535 in the United States. The worlds wealthiest person remains Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with a net worth of US$ 80 billion, followed by American investor Warren Buffett, whose a net worth is US$ 68 billion. However, for the South China Morning Post, notwithstanding the size of billionaires assets, their number is crucial for the future. Focusing on the notion of self-made man, Chinas media has noted that the People's Republic came in first in terms of nouveaux riches who made their money without family money. At the same time, China can now boast of having the largest middle class in the world. However, a recent report by Credit Suisse found that whilst Chinas middle class is indeed large, most of the countrys 1.4 billion people earns less than the world average. In terms of Gross Domestic Product per capita, China is still ranked 90th. In 2014, some 71 million mainland Chinese lived below the poverty line, earning less than US$ 350 a year (according to data from Chinas National Bureau of Statistics). This figure rises to 300 million if the United Nations definition of absolute poverty is used, namely living on less than two US dollars a day. No wonder then that Yu Hua, one of Chinas foremost contemporary writers, picked "disparity" as one of ten words that best describe the country today. Msgr. Santos, President of the Commission for the care of migrants: "The time has come ease the suffering of these people. The government cannot abandon them. " At least 3,800 Filipino workers are imprisoned abroad, 90 of them on death row, 41 in Malaysia and 27 in Saudi Arabia. Two days ago Joseph Urbiztondo, detained for 25 years in Kuwait, was able to pay the "blood money" and save his life. Manila (AsiaNews / CBCP) - Now is "the time to act to free the Filipino detainees overseas and get them home safely." This is the appeal of Mons. Ruperto Santos, Bishop of Balanga and president of the Episcopal Commission for the care of migrants, who has asked Manila to make every effort so that " their agony and their sorrow is not prolonged." The words of Msgr. Santos arrive a few hours after Joseph Urbiztondo, Filipino worker detained for 25 years in Kuwait, returned home. He had managed to pay the "blood money" and to save his life. The man had been convicted of murdering a fellow Bangladeshi. Urbiztondo, who has always declared that it had nothing to do with the murder, had to pay 26 thousand dollars to the victim's family to be exonerated. "We should learn from this situation - said Msgr. Santos - We are happy for what happened to Urbiztondo. He has suffered a lot. We are grateful to God for the fact that he was released and alive and now is with those who love him. " According to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, there are about 10 million migrant workers abroad, of whom 2.2 million in Saudi Arabia. At least 3,800 of them are in prison, 90 of them on death row. Of these, 41 are in Malaysia and 27 in the Saudi kingdom. Not everyone can be saved like Urbiztondo: December 30 last, Joselito Lidasan Zapanta, a 35 year old tiler, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia for failing to pay the "blood money". According to Msgr. Santos, this situation cannot continue to be managed without the ongoing commitment of authourities, and the Philippine government must devise a strategy to shorten the suffering of its workers abroad: "The government should assist them and help them, now and forever." In 2014, the government tightened controls over religious education, school principals, and teachers. Now the latter must show they have the necessary qualifications to be certified. This includes support for traditional Islam and a secular education. Out of 101 madrassahs, 72 registered for the certification process. Of these, 92 per cent of principals and more than 200 teachers out 483 failed to be certified. Scores of mosques, cultural centres and associations are financed from abroad. Bishkek (AsiaNews/Agencies) More than 90 per cent of principals and approximately half of the teachers in Kirghiz madrassahs (Islamic schools) have not been certified because they lack the secular and religious higher education needed to teach in the countrys religious schools. Because of this, most of the country's madrassah principals will lose their teaching licenses, said Abdulla Asrankulov, head of Kyrgyzstan's Religious Certification Commission. This is the result of regulations adopted in 2014 to curb Islamic extremism among young people, who are often taught by unqualified religious teachers. Yesterday, clergymen, principals and teachers underwent the process designed to vet their qualifications. Over the years, Kyrgyz authorities had become concerned about the growth of radical ideas in the country and the recruitment of young people by extremists. In mid-January, the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry said that more than 30 Kyrgyz nationals were killed fighting alongside Islamist militants in Syria and Iraq in 2015. Increasingly, young Central Asians are being recruited via the Internet. Recently Russian authorities said that some 3,000 Central Asians, including 500 Kyrgyz, have been recruited. For this reason, the Kyrgyz government tightened controls on Islamic schools, often hotbeds of extremist propaganda. In 2012, Kyrgyz security officials also accused the country's highest religious authority the Muftiyat of illegally sending Kyrgyz children to religious schools in Bangladesh, where teachers allegedly propagate the views of the extremist Tablighi Jamaat movement. The measures passed in 2014 require all Islamic school principals and teachers to undergo certification in order to determine their level of knowledge of Islam. This includes showing their support for traditional Islam, and having an adequate religious and secular education. Out of Kyrgyzstans 101 madrassahs, 72 have registered their staff for the certification process that began yesterday. Ninety-two per cent of principals and more than 200 teachers out 483 failed to be certified. Kyrgyzstan has a population of almost 6 million people. It has 2,400 religious organisations, more than 2,000 of them Islamic. There are also 2,300 mosques, as well as cultural centres and associations, often financed from abroad. by Darius Karimian Iranians tomorrow pick a new parliament (Majlis) and a new Assembly of Experts. The latter will likely choose a new supreme leader. Moderates and conservatives are in a competitive race only in Tehran. The former want to continue a policy of openness to the world and find diplomatic solutions to Mideast wars; however, the latter control the media, Friday prayers, the army and the Pasdaran. Teheran (AsiaNews) Amid doubts about the futility of the election and hopes for the future, some 55 million Iranians will go to the polls tomorrow to elect for four years their 290-member parliament (Majlis) and for eight years the 88-member Assembly of Experts. For experts, the latter is the most important body since the Assembly chooses the countrys Supreme Guide. The current office holder, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is 79 and very ill. The new assembly is thus expected to pick his successor. The Supreme Leader plays a crucial role in Iranian politics as the chief of the Armed Forces, the judiciary, communications, and the Guardian Council. The latter vets whether laws adopted by parliament conform to Islamic principles. Mohammed Khatami, president from 1997 to 2005, saw his reform plans blocked and remains banned from making public appearances or public statements. The Guardian Council, which acts as the long arm of the supreme leader, disqualified about half of the 12,000 candidates who had applied to run in this election. Most of those rejected were reformists, including Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the leader of the Revolution Ayatollah Khomeini. Officially, his candidacy was turned down because his religious qualifications could not be verified. Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjanis son Mohsen and daughter Fatemeh were also excluded. The main groups vying for voters support in this election include moderate reformists led by Rafsanjani and current President Hassan Rouhani, and ultraconservatives led by Supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Ahmad Janati (head of the Guardian Council), Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi (head of the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom), and Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi (described as one the most hard-line conservatives). Moderates have a running chance only in Tehran where they might get up to 40 per cent of the vote. Elsewhere conservatives hold an overwhelming lead. After his success on the nuclear issue with the removal of most sanctions, Rouhani and his party stand a good chance. The president himself rests his hopes on reformist candidates winning to continue rebuilding the countrys economy, opening it up to the rest of the world and seeking diplomatic solutions to the various conflicts in which Iran is involved (Syria, Iraq, Yemen). However, under Khameneis patronage, the conservatives still control the media, Friday prayers, the army, and the Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran). Unlike Rouhani, they want to maintain tensions high with the rest of the world and remain involved in Mideast wars. Above all, they want to keep their power and economic monopolies, fearful of ordinary Iranians who are increasingly restive vis-a-vis the ruling ayatollahs seen more and more as "clerical parasites". If the Rouhani line prevails in the Majlis and the Assembly of Experts, reforms could take off, giving the outgoing president a better chance at re-election when his mandate ends next year. The Center for Peace Building and Reconciliation is a no profit organization that promotes the building of peace and non-violent conflict resolution. It gives support to personal and social development within and between ethnic, religious, linguistic and regional communities in the country. Tokyo (AsiaNews) Sri Lankas Center for Peace Building and Reconciliation (CPBR) is the winner of the Niwano Peace Prize this year. The Niwano Peace Foundation reported the decision to award the prize to the Centre, founded in 2002 by Dishani Jayaweera and Jayantha Seneviratne (pictured), who have also belonged to the Sinhala Buddhists since its foundation. The CPBR is a no profit organization that promotes the building of peace and non-violent conflict resolution. It gives support to personal and social development within and between ethnic, religious, linguistic and regional groups in Sri Lanka, engaging on all levels, local and national. To achieve the goal of national reconciliation, the CPBR focused on those considered to have greater influence and greater promise of transformation: religious leaders, women and young people. The Prize is named after the founder and first president of the lay Buddhist organization Rissho Kosei-kai, Nikkyo Niwano. For Niwano, peace is not only the absence of conflicts between nations, but dynamic harmony in the interior life of the people, as well as in communities, nations and the world. Seeing peace as the goal of Buddhism, Niwano devoted much of the second half of his life to promoting peace in the world, especially through inter-religious dialogue and cooperation. To avoid undue emphasis on any particular religion or region, every year the Foundation calls for nominations from people of recognized intellectual and religious stature internationally. In the nomination process they are then invited to propose candidates for about 600 people and organizations from 125 countries and many religions. Nominations are rigorously screened by the International Selection Committee of the Niwano Prize, currently composed of ten religious leaders from various parts of the world who are involved in movements for peace and interreligious cooperation. The prize award ceremony will take place in Tokyo on May 12. The winner will receive a certificate, a medal and 20 million yen (about 164 thousand euro). Iceland Bachelor Party The Ultimate Bachelor Party Destination? Iceland - Yep, Iceland Page 1 of 2 The Hangover was cool and all, but lets face it: Las Vegas is a bit of a played out destination in terms of bachelor parties. Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt. Guys with an eye on whats next are heading to a more exotic location for their epic pre-wedding escapade: Iceland. Its a place where you and your boys will be on a male-bonding adventure with a refreshingly different type of high. Whats cool is that its closer than you think: its only about five-and-a-half hours from New York, Boston and Toronto. There are all sorts of great flight deals via Icelandair, which flies direct to Reykjavik from a number of major North American cities (check out the details at www.icelandair.com). If youre planning something out for your wolf pack, heres a taste of the adventures in the land of fire and ice thats making it the coolest new hotspot for bachelor parties: Snowboarding At Hliarfjall Of course, a place like Iceland has some fantastic slopes with both Mount Tindastoll and Hliarfjall as a couple of the highlights. Theres plenty of powder to play in during the winter. Hliarfjall has reasonable prices with good lifts, and usually isnt too crowded. Its about a 20-minute drive outside of the second-biggest city in Iceland Akureyri so its ideal for day or half-day trips. The best part might be the view of the city when youre looking at it back down from the top of the mountain. Soaking In The Myvatn Nature Baths After the slopes, warm up by hitting the hot springs. The geothermal pools and all pools in general are a source of pride in Iceland, so its something you must experience. Youll surely hear about the Blue Lagoon on your visit but if youre looking for a quieter, less touristy option off the beaten path, check out the Lake Myvatn Nature Baths in the North. You and the boys can bring drinks right into the nature bath and soak in the warm waters while its freezing cold outside. And if you want to do as the locals do, shock the body by going hot to cold and back by jumping in the snow. Super Jeep Tour The Highlands Almost four-fifths of Iceland is uninhabitable, which is why most of the population lives on the coast. Its just more suitable for comfortable living. However, if youre up for a fun ride into the mostly-untouched Highlands, take a Super Jeep Tour. These monster-truck like vehicles are equipped with specialty tires that allow them to drive into the Highlands despite the icy terrain. As a matter of fact, its illegal for normal cars to go up there in the winter. Four-wheeling (and possibly racing) in pure powder on top of a mountain is something you need in your life. A paved road, driving conditions and visibility are things you worry about in a normal car. Nothing phased this monster on our Super Jeep Tour. We took it to 700 meters elevation deep in the mountains of The Highlands. #icelandacademy #icelandsecret #inspiredbyiceland A photo posted by Dave Golokhov (@davegolokhov) on Feb 4, 2016 at 7:35am PST Night Lights At The Laugerfell Highland Hostel The Highlands are of the most peaceful places on the planet, so if you and the boys are looking to get away from it all, check out the Laugerfell Highland Hostel. On the top of the Highlands, its a small accommodation, ideal for just a group of friends. There wont be noise complaints from the neighbors because its pretty much the only building within miles. Youll have to bring your own food and/or booze, but theres a geothermal hot spring right outside and its an ideal spot to catch the northern lights at night too. Image courtesy of @wisslaren Top 15 Most Right-Swiped Professions On Tinder Trending News: These Are The Sexiest Jobs, According To Tinder Why Is This Important? Because it might be time to get your pilot license. Long Story Short Tinder recently allowed users to list their professions, and in the first few months of use the most right-swiped profession for guys was pilot, while female personal trainers got the most likes. Long Story Got your pilot license? If you do, then you're probably doing pretty well with those Tinder matches. The dating/hookup app released a list of the most right-swiped jobs in America and pilot made it out on top followed by your founder/entrepreneur, firefighter and doctor types. Typical. Meanwhile, the top right-swiped ladies are physical therapists, interior designers and founders/entrepreneurs, proving once again that power is indeed sexy. Tinder gave users the ability to accompany their profile photos and short bios with their professions in November and these are the first results, so far. Here's the list, as per Fortune: Women 1. Physical Therapist 2. Interior Designer 3. Founder/Entrepreneur 4. PR/Communications 5. Teacher 6. College Student 7. Speech Language Pathologist 8. Pharmacist 9. Social Media Manager 10. Model 11. Dental Hygienist 12. Nurse 13. Flight Attendant 14. Personal Trainer 15. Real Estate Agent Men 1. Pilot 2. Founder/Entrepreneur 3. Firefighter 4. Doctor 5. TV/Radio Personality 6. Teacher 7. Engineer 8. Model 9. Paramedic 10. College Student 11. Lawyer 12. Personal Trainer 13. Financial Advisor 14. Police Officer 15. Military If you're job didn't make the cut, don't worry about it there are plenty of other things that can be attractive on Tinder. But, it's Tinder after all, so it's predominantly going to be how you look in your photos, according to the app's CEO Sean Rad. "I think the thing that has shocked me [in developing Tinder] is that when it comes to establishing an initial impression, there's a very finite set of things we look at to decide whether we want to have a conversation with someone," said to Business Insider. "How you look and what that says about your personality common connections, career, education. Ninety percent of it comes down to that." Own The Conversation Ask The Big Question Who actually looks at the profession? It's all about the photos. Disrupt Your Feed Really hard to argue with this list of sexy female professions. Drop This Fact There have been 10 billion matches since Tinder launched in September 2012. Facebook Adds 5 New Emoji Reactions To Accompany The 'Like' Button Trending News: Facebook Is Finally Letting You Dislike Posts -- Sort Of Why Is This Important? Because haha, wow, I love this, but it makes me sad, and angry. Where's the confused button? Long Story Short Facebook is rolling out five new reactions to accompany the "like" button "love," "haha," "wow," "sad," and "angry." Long Story There has perhaps been no bigger turning point in Facebook's history than when it added the "like" button, but that's ancient history and it's time for something new. Back in September, Mark Zuckerberg announced some big news about the button we crave to see go up and up and up to validate our lives. He said that there'd be a 'dislike' button. And we got one, sort of, but not really. An outright 'dislike' button would be too negative and could be bad for brands, but through its market research Facebook has decided that we need more ways to respond than with a 'like' giving the familiar thumbs up to a post about someone's dog dying is just plain awkward. "Not every moment is a good moment, right? And if you are sharing something thats sad, like whether it's something in current events like the refugee crisis that touches you, or a family member passed away, then it may not be comfortable to 'like' that post," Zuckerberg said in a public Q&A, as quoted by Vox. Having personally used the new reactions for the past year (I was living in Spain, one of the countries that got to try it out first), I certainly find it handy and useful, however 'like' is still the best for the brunt of posts. To insert a new reaction just hold down on the like button and choose the emoji (Facebook will give you a little run-through to orient you with the change). Here''s what they'll look like for everyone in the world now: Facebook Own The Conversation Ask The Big Question Should Facebook have given us the 'dislike' button so many of us wanted? Or maybe even ones like 'confused," "meh," and "yay"? Disrupt Your Feed My guess is people are so used to 'like' they'll probably just continue using that and the others will only be for rare occasions. Drop This Fact Facebook says it will monitor the site for constant inappropriate use of emojis, according to The Verge, but didn't specify if it'd stop people from angry-bombing everything Walmart or McDonalds posts, for instance. Aussie law firm Slater & Gordon has temporarily suspended trade in its shares on the ASX while it finalises some items in its accounts. The Guardian reports that the firm needs to complete the testing and assessment of goodwill in its UK business following its acquisition of some of professional services arm of Quindell last year. The voluntary halt of trading comes as shares hit $0.83, down from $8 last year. It expects trading to resume by next Monday.Following its announcement this week that it intends to open its sixth Asia-Pac office in Seoul as part of an Asian-push, international firm Latham & Watkins has hired three prominent lawyers for its Hong Kong office with an additional two joining from London and Chicago.The firms hires are: M&A/corporate partner Simon Cooke, who joins from Clifford Chance ; finance partner Gary Hamp, from Hogan Lovells ; and private equity partner Amy Beckingham, from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. The relocating partners are: high-yield finance partner James Burnett, who joins from London and has been with the firm for a decade; and restructuring partner Josef Athanas, from Chicago.South Koreas largest law firm has lost some of its dominance of the market according to a report by PulseNews.co.kr. Kim & Chang still leads the big six but it is the only one to have lost market share over each of the past three years. The firms share fell to below 50 per cent for the first time while the others - Bae, Kim & Lee, Lee & Ko, Yulchon, Shin & Kim and Yoon & Yang have all seen gains and losses. The biggest gains in 2015 were for Bae, Kim & Lee which has the second largest market share, but at 13.6 per cent is a long way off Kim & Changs 49.9 per cent.Those interested in a career in the legal profession should not be taken advantage of and should be compensated for work experience lasting more than a month. Thats part of a new guidance document issued by the Law Society of England & Wales which calls for a fair approach to engaging future lawyers. Its report notes that in the past decade there has been a 45 per cent surge in law graduates in the UK but while there were 16,000 graduates in 2014, there were only 5,000 training contracts available. That creates great demand for work experience but this should only be unpaid for a maximum of 4 weeks. The guidelines were drawn up following a survey by the Junior Lawyers Division of the Law Society which found that while 80 per cent of young lawyers had undertaken work experience almost half did not feel it had enhanced their career prospects. Built on a former RAF airfield, the facility stretches across 760 acres of land. The 1-mile long circuit for wet handling and cornering is the place where automakers test the suspension, braking, and stability control of pre-production models such as the 2018 Bentley Continental GT. Before we go any further, it should be highlighted that this isnt the production version of the EXP 10 Speed 6 concept as some automotive outlets have reported.Provided that it is approved for production, the EXP 10 Speed 6 will slot below the 2018 Bentley Continental GT and it will be a more sporty affair than its bigger brother. Furthermore, it will be a strict two-seater compared to the 2+2 grand tourer layout of the Continental GT. If anything, the two siblings will share the Bentley emblem and a few exterior design details inspired by the EXP 10 Speed 6 concept.The Continental GT first appeared in 2003, making it one of the oldest models still in production. Thirteen years later, the Conti GT is more attractive than ever thanks to numerous visual updates, as well as chassis and powertrain upgrades. The next-generation Continental GT adopts sleeker exterior aesthetics and seems to be more hunkered down.Its sporting promise is further hinted by the way it looks from the profile and the more dynamic styling of the front fascia. Beneath the camouflaged body shell, this test mule rides on the Volkswagen Group MSB platform. The architecture is designed to be lighter than the D1 platform, more rigid, and it will come in rear- and all-wheel-drive form.The 2018 Bentley Continental GT will be an all-wheel-drive affair, though. In terms of high-octane motivation, a 4.0 twin-turbo V8 will be the entry-level choice. A 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12 is expected to be offered as the range-topping option. In addition to these, a plug-in hybrid take on the 2018 Bentley Continental GT is making a buzz in the rumor mill.At the end of the day, Im sure that the Crewe-based luxury manufacturer will deliver a superior Continental GT than the current one as far as performance is concerned. On the other hand, I admit that the exterior design of this British interloper ticks all the right boxes thanks to the lower front and shorter rear overhangs. EV You can see what the-CUB concept is all about in the photos below, which show what it looked like when it was introduced in 2009 at the Tokyo Motor Show. The Honda officials made no mentions as to how much different the mass-production unit will be from the concept.Even though it was not mentioned during the press conference, some rumors see the Honda Super Cub being given a new guise and launched alongside its electric sibling.The Super Cub holds a record that will be tough to break, that of being the most produced motorized vehicle in the world. By 2014, around 87 million Super Cubs had been manufactured and sold, in all its versions.Introduced back in 1958, the Super Cub was sold in mind-boggling quantities, being made in no less than 15 countries around the world. It is also one of the best-selling motorcycles in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries and a classic, ageless two-wheeler that left its mark on the industry.Honda is expected to revamp the model and launch a new Super Cub generation worldwide. And by the looks of things, the company has big plans for some of their legendary models, with the Super Cub and the Gold Wing being only two of the bikes that will receive massive updates in the not-so-distant future.If Honda manages to equip the electric version of the Super Cub with a decent battery pack and motor that offer a good range and performance, we might see the EV-CUB sales take flight and follow into the steps of the original model. Honda obviously has the resources to engineer and deliver awesome electric bikes, but it remains to be seen how eager they are to do this. SUV What they dont take into account is just how attached to their cars some drivers are, and so if they keep hearing this over and over again, they might begin to feel a little conflicted. On the one hand, they dont want to abandon their cars, but on the other, all those people might be on to something: using the subway could actually be a good idea.Add some alcohol into the mix and this is what you get: a driver who figured he would mix the two worlds and drive his Range Rover Sport on the metro tracks. Needless to say, it didnt turn out too well for any of the parties involved, and when he eventually woke up from his slumber, he was a much, much poorer man. And were not just talking about the repair bill for his luxuryThe man rolled his car into a pre-metro tunnel in Bruxelles (Brussels), Belgium, on Monday evening, blocking circulation for no less than three train lines. As the footage and the images show, he must have driven on the tracks for quite a while, because his tires were all shredded. Nobody knows why he got there or how exactly he did it, but its fair to assume he would have probably kept on going if it were possible.To add insult to injury, the man also refused to get out of his vehicle for quite a while, prolonging the awkward situation even further. Finally, he was arrested and taken into custody while his car was towed away, but not without difficulties.STIB (Societe des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles), the company operating the affected trains, said that nobody was injured during the event and that traffic has since been restored. However, a spokesman for STIB also added that all this affair will cost the Range Rover Sport driver dearly.Compensation in these cases is calculated based on the amount of time during which the circulation was disrupted, so refusing to leave the vehicle while it was sitting on the tracks was definitely not a very bright idea. Belgian publication Le Soir quotes the same STIB spokesman as saying that its impossible to name an exact number at this point, but it will cost him a lot.[LIVELEAK=http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b3b_1456224512] SUV Less than a month after the last Land Rover Defender was built at the historic Solihull plant in the United Kingdom, the luxury marque of the British manufacturer popped the cork and showered the Evoque in champagne. Its been eight years since the LRX Concept was unveiled in Detroit, six years since the Evoque made its public outing at the Kensington Palace, and about five years since production started.Land Rover celebrated the 6 millionth vehicle sold since the brand was born in 1948. Some 2 million of those are Land Rover Series and Defender vehicles produced over a span of 68 years. The Evoque, on the other hand, managed to sell a fourth of that in less than five years. And do keep in mind that its priced way higher than the Landie.The fastest-selling model ever produced by Land Rover accounts for one in every three Land Rover vehicles sold around the world. An Evoque comes off the line every 80 seconds and that shouldnt surprise you because the Range Rover Evoque is better than ever. For the 2016 model year, the mid-cycle refresh brought a plethora of updates, including full-LED adaptive headlamps and a revised infotainment system. The Ingenium turbo diesel engines are the other highlights, offering best-in-class emissions and fuel economy.Then theres the Range Rover Evoque Convertible , which starts at a mind-boggling $50,475 in the United States and 47,500 in the U.K. It is the ultimate expression of the compact luxury, and yes, its as off-road ready as the fixed-head Evoque. On the downside, trunk capacity is down from 420 liters (14.8 cuFT) to 251 liters (8.8 cuFT). Fun fact: thats the same trunk volume you get in a three-door Volkswagen up! city car. According to Ars Technica , the new bill would prohibit car manufacturers from holding a dealer license after December 31, 2017. Since Teslas entire business model leaves dealers out, the company would not have a future in Indiana if the bill passed.Tesla accuses General Motors of having a link to the particular law, but they have not provided any evidence to support their claim against one of Detroits Big Three.The letter Tesla wrote to their customers asks them to contact Indiana representatives and senators on the Commerce and Technology Committee to express their resentment for the new bill.Tesla holds a license to sell its vehicles directly in Indiana since 2014. The brand from California has encountered several similar issues in other states, where dealer networks wanted to prevent the company from directly selling their cars.Meanwhile, General Motors did not confirm its involvement in the HB 1254 (the bill Tesla wishes to stop) but stated that they support the initiative. They believe that all industry participants should operate under the same rules and requirements.GM officials claim their nationwide dealer network is superior to Teslas business model, as it provides support for customers in every US state. Furthermore, GM believes Tesla should stop asking for unique rules and individual exceptions to suit their interests.As some of you know, Tesla Motors believes it is best to sell their cars directly to customers, without dealer franchises. This goes against the traditional automotive industry players, and several brands have questioned Teslas business model in the past years. However, the company from California lives on and isnt giving up without a fight.Tesla is ahead of traditional automakers in the electric vehicle department, and it is evident why some manufacturers might want to impede sales of these cars. When it first came out, Elon Musk stopped just short of calling the Autopilot feature perfectly capable of turning the Tesla Model S into an autonomous vehicle on the highways. Or maybe he didnt even stop at all, its hard to recall given how many bolstering claims Teslas CEO makes every week, so we lose track of them.The thing is that people quickly took to testing this new ability of their car and worrying videos of some of them leaving the drivers seat while doing pretty high speeds started to show up on the internet. Tesla had to react and so it introduced some limitations to the Autopilot (like having to keep your hands on the wheel), but it still remained a pretty advanced cruise control feature.A few months later, people arent testing the Autopilot, theyre using it as it was intended: they allow the car to drive itself whenever theyre too bored to be bothered with the tedious highway traffic. Like this gentleman right here, identified as Emil Melgaard on Reddit, who tells a story about his trip to a ski resort in the Austrian Alps.According to his story, he was traveling on the A7 Autobahn heading for Bad Gastein when he encountered one of the many roadworks sections that are scattered across the impressive German highway network. Some people would deactivate the Autopilot and cruise the Model S manually through these narrower sections, but there was no traffic and the car seemed to do a very good job, so Emil didnt feel it was necessary. Besides, the Autopilot doesnt come with a disclaimer saying it should be deactivated whenever roadworks are encountered.It all went well until the markings on the asphalt became a little erratic. Emil says that the road was fenced by a concrete barrier on the left, with tiny plastic reflectors sticking out (the image might be flipped because it shows the barrier on the right-hand side). The yellow line (temporary marking) running along it wasnt as straight as the barrier itself, so when the lane suddenly got narrower after a wider section, the car swerved to the left to prevent it from crossing the line on the right. In doing so, it clipped the reflectors on the barrier, resulting in some nasty dents and scratches in the cars left-side panels.Emil insists there was no other car in the right lane, so the Model S could have afforded to cross the marking without the risk of a collision. On the other hand, it is very possible that the Teslas ultrasonic sensors couldnt pick-up the small reflectors, particularly at speed, which might point out to a flaw in the compatibility between the current infrastructure and our autonomous-wannabe cars. Either way, Emil says he has contacted Tesla about the situation but hasnt received an answer yet. In fact, Ubers Chinese competitor holds a massive part of the ride-on request services and has a name youve probably never heard: Didi Kuaidi.The name comes from the merger of two rival services in China that battled it out in a price war and decided it was best to dominate the market together.While Uber China is valued at $8-10 billion, Didi Kuaidi has an estimated value of $20 billion according to an insider quoted by Bloomberg . So, why is this so important to us? Because Didi Kuaidi does not settle for Chinese domination of the ride-hailing market, but wants to give Uber a run for its money.The Chinese company reportedly just received commitments for another billion dollars in a recent fundraising round. Company officials have refused to comment the issue, but it appears that the Chinese market leader on smartphone-hailed taxis wants to enter other markets.According to Bloomberg, Didi Kuaidi wants to take on Uber with the help of rival services like Lyft (USA) and Ola (India). It is unclear whether the service will use the same name in all markets it wants to enter, a strong move concerning branding, or if it will resort to different names for some regions. We must note that Didi Kuaidi is not as catchy as Uber, and surely not as easy to spell or pronounce.This is not Ubers first competitor, but it might be the best-funded rival Uber has ever encountered. The significant difference between Uber and Didi Kuaidi lies in the fact that the second sticks to hailing registered taxi operators, along with premium cars and designated drivers. Ubers business model is under fire in many countries, as its strategy focuses on private vehicles and threatens traditional taxi operators and eludes taxes in some states. Photo: UPS UPS has announced 1,613 drivers have joined the ranks of its elite Circle of Honor, raising to 8,703 the number of drivers who have not had an avoidable accident for 25 years or more. Collectively, the 8,703 drivers have logged more than 5.3 billion miles and more than 245,000 years of safe driving throughout their careers. The number of active Circle of Honor drivers is the most in company history and includes 53 new members from Canada, Germany, and Puerto Rico. Marlene Nazario, a package car driver from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, is the first Latin American female driver to be inducted, according to the company. Maintaining safe highways and roads is our highest priority, so I commend any person who achieves this milestone of 25 years or more crash-free, creating safer driving conditions for us all, said U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The achievements of this group of drivers are truly worth recognizing. Of all the Circle of Honor members, 514 have been accident-free for 35 or more years, with 68 of those having driven more than 40 years without an accident, according to the company. UPS announced its top safe driver in 2016 is Livonia, Michigan, package car driver Tom Camp, who has now driven for more than half a century 53 years and delivered more than 5 million packages without an accident. This year, 50 new inductees are women and 21 additional women have joined the ranks of those with more than 30 years of safe driving. A total of 193 women are in the Circle of Honor. UPS began recognizing its safe drivers in 1923. Founder Jim Casey honored the companys first 5-year safe driver, Ray McCue, in 1928. Tesla continues to face problems with its practice of directly selling its electric cars, as the automaker is now accusing General Motors of convincing lawmakers in Indiana to develop a bill that would end the sales model in the state. The Palo Alto-based company has sent a letter to "Tesla Owners and Enthusiasts" in the Indiana area, asking them to defeat the bill, entitled Indiana House Bill 1254, which would prevent Tesla from directly selling vehicles from its current storefront in Indianapolis to its customers, according to Ars Technica. Under the new law, manufacturers wouldn't be able to hold a dealer license after Dec. 31, 2017. Tesla currently has this kind of license and needs it to sell its own cars, but it doesn't work with a third-party dealer. As a result, Tesla would have to sell its products under the dealership model in accordance with state franchise laws, preventing the company front separating itself from other dealerships in Indiana, RT reported. The letter notes that the current law "allows ANY manufacturer to apply for a dealer license without the use of independent franchised dealers." Todd Maron, general counsel for Tesla, believes that GM is trying to push the electric carmaker out of Indiana in order to avoid competition. "Despite having a lawfully granted license to sell Tesla vehicles directly since 2014 at the Fashion Mall at Keystone; despite contributing over $42M to the state through the purchase of parts and components from Indiana suppliers; and despite plans underway to construct a 26,000 square foot Tesla Service facility that will employ approximately a dozen Indiana residents and serve our customers, GM is pushing the Senate Committee to shut out Tesla," the letter reads. Tesla has yet to provide proof that GM actually authored the bill, Jalopnik noted. GM hasn't provided proof against the claim, but it did release a statement showing its support for the bill. "GM supports HM 1254. GM believes that all industry participants should operate under the same rules and requirements on fundamental issues that govern how we sell, service and market our products," the Detroit-based automaker said in the statement. "Tesla could open a franchised dealership with an independent operator in Indiana today, but instead they insist that the State must first provide them with unique rules and special exceptions to suit their own business interests," GM added. Tesla's direct sales practice has been met with several bans from states like Michigan, Arizona, West Virginia and Texas, according to RT. However, the automaker's sales model faces less problems in other states, such as New Jersey, which reversed its direct sales ban last year. Honda has made going green a top priority, as CEO Takahiro Hachigo revealed Wednesday that the company plans on partially or fully electric cars making up two-thirds of its sales by 2030. While vehicles with electrified powertrains currently account for about five percent of the Japanese automaker's sales, Hachigo said that hybrids and plug-ins will likely make up about half of the company's sales 14 years from now, according to The Wall Street Journal. He added that electric vehicles will account for 15 percent by this time. The address follows a year after Hachigo was appointed Honda's chief executive, which was time when the company had to toss out its goal of selling 6 million vehicles annually by March 2017 after experiencing a series of recalls due to safety issues. However, the automaker achieved record sales in the U.S. and China, its two biggest markets, and saw a six percent increase in world-wide sales in 2015. Hachigo added in his address that he aims to build a plug-in hybrid version of Honda's most popular models after 2018, Investor's Business Daily noted. "For the further reduction of CO2, in addition to the advancement of downsized turbo engines, we will position plug-in hybrids at the core of the electrification in the future and introduce an all-new plug-in hybrid model in North America by 2018," he said. "After that, we will make a plug-in hybrid type available for our major models and increase the number of models sequentially." The company's push for environmentally friendly cars should also get a boost from its second-generation Clarity fuel-cell sedan, which will be available for lease in California and will go on sale in Japan in March, and the 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid sedan, which will be exported from Japan to North America later this year, Hybrid Cars News reported. Honda isn't the only automaker will plans to go green, with others include Toyota, which aims to make almost all of its lineup electrified by 2050, and General Motors, which plans on bringing 500,000 electrified models to the market by 2017. From the very start, The Business of Women raises the bar for adult features across the board, especially for an all-girl title. Directors Bree Mills and Stills by Alan have realized an intense and beautiful form of erotica in this brilliant release. Novice to the oldest profession Samantha Rone is a doll-faced blonde who is clearly desperate for money in a seedy world. She meets her first client in Las Vegas and is quickly swept into a world of betrayal and business ladies. Her initial client, India Summer, is more than meets the eye and turns out to actually be the leader of a woman-seducing escort ring that is trying to retrieve the clients and workers lost to her rival, busty brunette Vanessa Veracruz. The performances in this movie are without a doubt top-notch. Both acting and fucking chops are on point from everyone involved, thank goodness, or the subject matter could collapse just as Rone does in Summers lap after a serious munching session. Charlotte Stokely plays Summers entitled assistant, and her attitude toward Rone is obviously fueled by jealousy and, well, sexual tension. Rones innocence shines against Stokelys cattiness, and this classic dynamic is sexy on its own, but when bosslady Summer hears Stokely badmouthing her business tactics, things heat up. The two blondes are conducted like a Sapphic symphony and like fine musicians, they play each others bodies, and Summers, like musical instruments. When Stokely gets permission to cum on Rones face, she does just that. As the plot thickens, the sex intensifies. Veracruz plays a convincing rival and she dominates Abigail Mac in their first scene. Spoiler alert: its hot. No one lets up on their roles, and when Summers daughter, Shyla Jennings, is dragged into the drama, things really do take a turn. This movie is dubbed as lesbian porn noir, and it hits all the notes that would justify that description: dangerous, sexy, mysterious, twisted, and of course all girl-on-girl action. With a compelling focus on story and an even more compelling collection of women who love women, The Business of Women lives up to its hype. The Weekender found some early spring-cleaning opportunities on SocialFlight, whether its clearing out the hangar or knocking the rust off from the winter. On Saturday, Plant City Airport in Florida will host Planes, Trains & Automobiles, with numerous displays including airplanes, helicopters, RC planes, model trains, vintage cars, police and fire department demonstrations, flight simulators and Young Eagles flights. Also Saturday, Fremont Airport in Ohio will host a ground school and chili lunch, with $5 contributions going to the restoration of the Lulu Belle DC-3, a D-Day veteran. Pilots who are due for a flight review can get their ground instruction at the event at no charge. Join Canadian Owners and Pilots Association Flight 169 for Mos Annual Fly-in on the Quebec side, one mile west of the Ottawa VOR. Runway 16/34 is 3500 feet long and will be plowed; ski landing is recommended for those flying in. For those no longer looking for snow, Eagle Roost Airpark in Arizona will host an aviation fly-market/fly-in Saturday, inviting all to buy or sell aviation items from avionics to aircraft. Sellers can bring their own tables and chairs for setup. For more on this weekends events, visit SocialFlight. An anti-graft arm of the Council of Europe urged the Armenian authorities on Thursday to carry out more comprehensive reforms that would combat and prevent corruption among Armenian lawmakers, judges and prosecutors. Describing corruption as an important problem for Armenian society, the Strasbourg-based Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) specifically called for stricter rules for income declaration by those officials and their families. In that regard, it also stressed the importance of greater judicial independence. The judiciary is perceived as being particularly prone to corruption, GRECO said in an extensive report. Moreover, according to various national and international reports, the independence of the judiciary appears unsatisfactory. Overarching concerns about the current system of state powers and public governance can only be addressed through a more comprehensive reform process, reads the 66-page report. It is essential that the necessary reforms are carried through without delay, with the support of various political and societal forces, and that they yield concrete and sustainable results. The report, based on an April 2015 fact-finding trip to Armenia by a GRECO delegation, recommends more powers for an Armenian state body that scrutinizes income declarations submitted by senior state officials and their family members. The Commission on Ethics of High-Rankings Officials was formed by President Serzh Sarkisian four years ago with the stated aim of detecting possible illegal self-enrichment by some 600 officials. None of those officials is known to have been sanctioned by the commission to date despite regular media reports linking some of them with lucrative businesses. Many senior officials have attributed their and their close relatives wealth to lavish financial gifts received from unnamed individuals. The anti-graft body has not investigated the origin of those donations. Those gifts seem to be a major source of GRECO concerns. The groups report says that Armenian laws and regulations should set clearer definitions to ensure that they cover any benefits -- including benefits in kind and benefits provided to associated persons. The Armenian authorities, the report says, should also give more powers to the ethics commission so that it can verify in depth the [asset] declarations submitted, to investigate irregularities and to initiate proceedings and impose effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions if the rules are violated. The authorities may also wish to ensure that criminal sanctions are in place -- and are effectively applied -- in case of serious breaches of the rules on asset declaration, it adds. The Armenian government already announced in December plans to push through the parliament a bill that would empower the commission to fine officials refusing to file such declarations or underreporting their assets. The government also claims that Armenian courts will become more independent as a result of recently enacted constitutional changes. GRECO indicated, however, that more needs to be done to address the lack of judicial independence in the country. With regard to judges, further amendments to the architecture of judicial self-government bodies, to the procedures for recruitment, promotion and dismissal of judges and to disciplinary procedures are clearly required, it said. Similarly, the procedures for the recruitment and promotion of prosecutors need to be reformed, as do the procedures for the selection, appointment and dismissal of the Prosecutor General, it added. Policy recommendations contained in the GRECO report also include tougher sanctions against conflict of interest among Armenian parliament deputies, many of them wealthy businesspeople. GRECO believes that the authorities should prevent circumvention of the restrictions on business activities by those lawmakers. By the end of April 2017 the authorities of Armenia are to report back on measures taken to implement the 18 recommendations included in this report, concludes the report. GRECO will assess the effectiveness of these measures in a compliance report in the second half of 2017. The recommendations were endorsed on Thursday, Thorbjrn Jagland, the Council of Europes secretary general. Reform should be pursued with determination and without delay, Jagland said. Fighting corruption is a priority. The Armenian government adopted last year a three-year plan of actions aimed at combatting corruption. Earlier this month, the U.S. Agency for International Development allocated $750,000 to support its implementation. 25 February 2016 12:07 (UTC+04:00) By Nazrin Gadimova The level of economic activity in Armenia decreased by 49.2 percent in January 2016 compared to December 2015, the countrys National Statistical Service reported. Unstable political situation in Armenia, as well as corruption and bureaucracy have negatively affected the economic performance of the country, local experts said, while commenting on the released data. The country also recorded a fall in a number of other indicators during the specified period, including volume of industrial production (decreased by 28.7 percent) and countrys trade turnover (decreased by 58.6 percent). Moreover, the volume of generated electricity decreased by 6.9 percent since December 2015, while average monthly nominal wages decreased by 19.5 percent in January compared to the previous month. Geographical isolation of the country, a narrow export base, and extensive monopolies in important business sectors made Armenias economy particularly vulnerable to the global economic recession and the economic downturn Russia given its heavily dependence on Russian commercial and political support. Head of the parliamentary fraction Armenian National Congress, Levon Zurabyan believes that this situation is due to the viciousness prevailing in Armenia's political and economic system. "The state policy is now aimed primarily at supporting monopolists, oligarchs, who are engaged in the import of consumer goods. Thus the actual manufacturers, exporters are at a great disadvantage, Zurabyan told Vestnik Kavkaza. He stressed that such a system was able to exist for a long time due to the high level of transfers from other countries, primarily from Russia, since Armenian entrepreneurial class was forced to leave the country and move to France, the United States, and mostly to Russia. Noting that the transferred funds form the purchasing power of the population, Zurabyan added that recently real amount of transfers sharply fell due to the weakening of the ruble. Such a model, which provides the political and economic elite of the country with enormous profits from the monopoly of imports of goods, could not exist anymore and causes collapse of the economy, the Armenian official said Meanwhile, countrys First Deputy Minister of Economy Garegin Melkonyan claims that small and medium businesses in the country showed the highest growth among the Eastern Partnership countries. Commenting on this statement, Zurabyan said that in fact it is impossible to speak about any progress in the field of small and medium-sized businesses. "Business activity decreases, small and medium businesses suffers most of all, both shops and factories are being closed, workplaces are being reduced. Basically it is precisely due to the small and medium business, while the monopolies manage to survive, Zurabyan concluded. -- Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 18:12 (UTC+04:00) By Nazrin Gadimova Azerbaijan has voiced its concerns over Russia's approval of a $200 million loan to Armenia for the purchase of Russian-made military equipment. The country's Foreign Ministry said that Armenia can use these weapons in the occupied territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and on the Azerbaijani borders with Armenia. The ministry sent a note of protest to Russia on February 24, demanding from Russia to give guarantees on the non-use of the military equipment on the occupied Azerbaijani territories, as well as along the Azerbaijan-Armenia border. Azerbaijan has repeatedly brought to the attention of the international community irrefutable facts that the weapons and military equipment purchased by Armenia are dislocated in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the note of protest reads. By placing these weapons in the occupied territories without the consent of the exporting country [Russia], Armenia thus grossly violates its international legal obligations, as well as the regime and transparent of the arms control, Hikmet Hajiyev, ministrys spokesperson believes. It means that Armenia is strengthening its military presence in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Hajiyev said. Following the agreement, Russia will provide Armenia with $200 million loan for the purchase of Russian-made military equipment. Yerevan is going to buy BM-30 Smerch (heavy multiple rocket launcher), SA-18 Grouse (man-portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile), TOS-1 (multiple rocket launcher), electronic intelligence systems, GAZ Tigr (multipurpose, all-terrain infantry mobility vehicle), as well as guided missiles, grenade launchers and sniper rifles. Sale of military equipment to Armenia is a proof of double standards and an attempt to disrupt stability in the region. Commenting on the situation, Russian Foreign Ministry representative Maria Zakharova, said Russia makes deliveries of military equipment both in Armenia and in friendly Azerbaijan taking into account the importance of preserving stability in the region. Before, Azerbaijans Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmadov condemned the move, regarding it as a manifestation of double standards. Ahmadov believes that the sale of weapons to Armenia is another step to disrupt stability and increase the tension in South Caucasus. In some cases, Russia sells military equipment at a very low price, under the pretext that Armenia is a CSTO member, he added. "We have always condemned such steps and today we also condemn it, the deputy prime minister said. "If this continues, then there will be a need to increase efforts to ensure peace and stability in the South Caucasus. Baku has repeatedly stated that Armenia carries out illegal activities, including drug trafficking in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh. Moreover, Armenia shelters representatives of various terrorist organizations, including the PKK on these territories, and this causes damage to the national security, but also has a negative impact on regional security. Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war. The peace talks have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries over 20 years. -- Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 15:04 (UTC+04:00) By Carl Bildt In 1963, French President Charles de Gaulle stunned the United Kingdom by rejecting its application to join the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union. The logic behind de Gaulles famous non was simple: Britain was not sufficiently European. England in effect is insular, she is maritime, she is linked through her exchanges, her markets, her supply lines to the most diverse and often the most distant countries, explained de Gaulle. It is possible that one day England might manage to transform herself sufficiently to become part of the European community. In this caseFrance would raise no obstacle. De Gaulles veto held for as long as he lived; it was not until 1973, under his successor Georges Pompidou, that France lifted its objections to British membership. In the more than 40 years since, the UK has played a major role in shaping the course of European integration, while transforming itself from a sick man of Europe into one of the worlds most competitive economies. Few today remember that it was UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, despite her vocal euroskepticism, who restarted Europes integration process after a decade in which it had stagnated. Thatchers ally, Arthur Cockfield, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, led the push for a truly integrated market for goods, services, people, and capital an effort that ultimately led to the creation of the EU Single Market in 1992. Thatcher even broke the old Gaullist dictum that each EU member must hold a national veto on all decisions, paving the way for majority voting. Likewise, few European politicians have argued more eloquently for a truly common European foreign and security policy than former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. For him, preserving peace was certainly important, but making Europe a global player was the priority. So it is ironic that a significant swath of the British electorate seems to share de Gaulles verdict on their countrys affinity to Europe. On June 23, in a decision of momentous importance for all of Europe, UK voters will decide in a referendum whether to exit the EU. If they choose to leave, they risk not only unraveling their own economic successes, but also destroying the very underpinnings of a unified Europe. A British exit or Brexit would cause severe damage to the entire continent. In the 1970s and 1980s, the magnetic promise of integration helped stabilize democracy in Greece, Spain, and Portugal. In the 1990s, when ten countries and 100 million citizens broke from the Soviet empire and joined the West, the promise of EU accession eased, encouraged, and to some extent guided the transition. The soft power of an integrated Europe inspired democratic reform for decades in Turkey; and only two years ago, the promise of Europe inspired democratic change in Ukraine. Although both cases reveal the limits to the EUs soft power, it remains the key to overcoming the legacies of strife in the Balkans. If the UK leaves, that power will quickly wane. Other, grimmer models will become more powerful. The demons of history have yet to be definitively banished in Europe. And a Europe that begins to fracture would not only be weaker; its vulnerability to the destabilizing forces already gathering within its borders would make it more dangerous as well. Only by acting together can European countries secure the continents stability and, to some extent, that of its adjacent neighborhood. Without the UK as a central part of its structure of peace, Europe may simply lack the necessary mass and begin to spin apart. At a minimum, Brexit would throw the EU into years of uncertainty. Negotiating a complicated divorce and a new relationship with Britain could consume the EUs political oxygen (especially if, as is quite possible, the UK itself breaks up, with Scotland rejoining Europe). This would distract Europe from other serious challenges such as Russian aggression, instability in the Middle East, and its own moribund economy. For the United States, Brexit would be a betrayal of a key element of foreign policy championed by every American president since Dwight D. Eisenhower. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin would certainly rejoice. And nationalist forces across Europe would suddenly feel that the future is theirs. Advocates of Brexit are remarkably reluctant to explain with any precision their plans for their countrys future. Their vision seems almost entirely defined by what it opposes. A key question is whether a post-European UK could remain part of Thatchers creation, the single market, especially as it is extended to the digital domain and augmented with free-trade treaties around the world. Leaving the single market would cause grave uncertainty for the British economy, especially its financial sector. Even the US has said that it would be unwilling to negotiate a separate free-trade deal with the UK. Remaining in the single market, however, comes at a cost one that British voters may not support. The UK would have to adopt the sort of satellite status that Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein now have, accepting and implementing decisions that it takes no part in shaping. If that democratic deficit is unacceptable to the UK, it will be left alone, out in the economic cold. To be sure, de Gaulle was not mistaken when he pointed out that Britains political culture was different from Frances. But the same is true of Swedens, Polands, or Austrias. The European project is not about denying diversity or trying to force everyone into the same mold. Indeed, Europes diversity is in many ways its greatest strength. Much rides on British voters decision in June. A UK that cuts itself adrift would be at risk of tragedy. A fractured EU would unleash untold dangers. And a world without a strong, unified Europe would be poorer and less safe. Copyright: Project Syndicate: Saying Yes to Europe 25 February 2016 18:17 (UTC+04:00) By Aynur Karimova Greece, which is in preliminary talks with Iran to meet its local demand in natural gas and provide a gateway for the Islamic Republic to supply fuel to other European consumers, seeks to foster close energy partnership with the Persian Gulf country. Ali Fathollah-Nejad, an expert of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), believes that this urgency occurs from the current tensions between Europe and Russia. "Greece, along other crisis-ridden southern European countries, was one of the most affected by the EU's embargo of Iranian hydrocarbons," he told Azernews. "Now that these sanctions have been lifted, not only Greece but the EU as a whole seeks to foster a close energy partnership with energy-rich Iran, the urgency of which is boosted by the current tensions between energy-importing Europe and Russia." Greece produces little oil and almost no gas, while Iran is a member of OPEC and holds huge natural gas reserves. In this regard, the European country is hoping that the removal of sanctions against Iran will help it diversify its sources of energy and enhance the European countrys role as a regional energy-distribution hub. Iran, in turn, wants to start selling its natural gas in liquefied form by using ships. In this regard, it is interested in energy cooperation with Greece. Fathollah-Nejad believes that Iran eyes energy cooperation with Greece as it seeks to use the latter's refineries and eventually facilities for liquefying its gas, which would provide the basis for a sustainable energy partnership. In this regard, Iranian companies' interest in participating with Depa, Greeces state-run gas supplier, in a company that will build and run the planned floating LNG storage and re-gasification facility at Alexandroupolis, is understandable. After the removal of Western sanctions on Iran, energy-consuming countries have showed interest in entering or re-entering the Iranian market. The Hellenic Petroleum, the biggest oil refiner of Greece, has become the first European refiner to restart trade relations with Iran after the post-sanctions era. The company, which was a major buyer of Iranian crude, agreed to purchase crude oil from the National Iranian Oil Company on January 22. Bloomberg reports that Tehran and Athens agreed for Iran to supply crude to Hellenic Petroleum and purchase oil products from the refiner. Greek Energy Minister Panos Skourletis believes that the deal, possibly Irans first such agreement with a European company since lifting of international sanctions, paves the way for cooperation in the gas market. The Revythousa re-gasification terminal near Athens and a planned facility at Alexandroupolis in the north of the country are considered as potential entry points for Iranian gas. Thus, Greece enjoys favorable conditions to pave the way for Iran to return to the European market and to become a conduit for re-entering this oil market. -- Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 26 February 2016 00:14 (UTC+04:00) By Amina Nazarli ... they pressed my hands to the stove and held until a liquid flowed from them," a survivor of the Khojaly massacre, Valeh Huseynov rememberes. In the winter night I was trying to find a cool corner to cool my burning hands and put them on a cold piece of metal radiator. The pain was unbearable, but then, when it eased I fell asleep. When I woke up in the morning I could not take my hands off the radiator, as they stuck to it. The enemies saw it and they pulled my legs to unstick from the radiator. My meat peeled off the palm of my hands. His wounds hurt every day, reminding him of the painful days in captivity, which he will remember for the rest of his life. Huseynov, whose hair turned gray overnight, is not the only victim of this massacre. Maybe he was lucky to stay still alive, (if one can call this a luck), but thousands of innocent people could not escape from dirty hands of Armenian soldiers that night. The night when 613 civilians mostly women and children were killed, a total of 1,000 people stayed disabled and 1,275 were held hostage. Eight families were exterminated, 25 children lost both parents, 130 children lost one parent and the fate of 150 abductees remains unknown to this day. They have only one sin - they were Turks... February 26 marks the 24th anniversary of the Khojaly Genocide, one of the most horrible tragedies, which Azerbaijani people faced in the 20th century, during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Within one night, Khojaly, one of the oldest settlements in Karabakh with a population of about 7,000 people, was razed to the ground. It began when Russian 366th Regiment and Armenian fighters surrounded the town of Khojali from four directions, opening heavy and ceaseless fire from artillery and salvo launchers. Within a short time, the city was enveloped in flames of fire. The defending army and local population had to leave town. Hoping to escape the aggressive and insidious Armenian soldiers, the population of the town run to the mountains and forests in frosty February night. Armenian armed forced pursued them there and jeering at them cruelly. Many young girls were taken hostages, many civilians were shot at close range, scalped or burned alive and many of those froze to death. Many foreign publications were shocked of what they saw that day. The Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote on January 29, 1994: "We have seen prisoners from Khojaly. Almost all of them were unfit for normal life. In cold weather they were kicked half-naked out into the street, doused with icy water, glass was smashed over their heads... An Armenian cut a babys body into two and began to beat his mother with one half. The mother, soaked in blood, suddenly started laughing ... She went mad... Over 200 years Azerbaijan has endured ethnic cleansing and genocide by Armenian chauvinists. Azerbaijanis were expelled from their historical lands, became refugees and IDPs, and all this was accompanied by massacres committed by Armenians. The events that unfolded over Nagorno-Karabakh in 1988, the desire of Armenian ideologists to implement crazy idea called "Armenia from sea to sea" led to the destruction of villages, cities and the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people, the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from their historical lands. Historian Lala Aliyeva said Armenians wanted to clear Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijanis and the genocide was arranged to scare Azerbaijanis to make them leave their villages. Khankendi city in Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region is controlled by Armenians since 1989. Whereupon, Shusha and Khojaly remained two large settlements consisted of Azerbaijanis in the Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenians were unable to arrange the massacre in Shusha, since Shusha was located on a steep hill and has a large population. But Khojaly was more "affordable, she explained. Despite the country formed volunteer troops to fight against Armenians in Nagorno- Karabakh, Azerbaijan was not recovered yet at the time after securing independence in 1991. Thats why the population of border villages were in a panic after the horrors committed by Armenian forces. After the Khojaly tragedy residents of Azerbaijani villages left their homes before the Armenian attacks, Aliyeva said. Thus, Khojali was chosen by Armenian extremists deliberately. The fact that the city was populated only by ethnic Azerbaijanis is enough to argue that it was a genocide, as the Armenian soldiers killed civilians on ethnic grounds. Today, thousands of Baku residents arrive at the Khojaly memorial every February 26 to pay tribute to the victims of the genocide. Numerous events are organized in different cities and regions across Azerbaijan to commemorate the tragedy. In an interview with British journalist Thomas de Waal on December 15, 2000, Serzh Sargsyan, then the commander of breakaway Nagorno Karabakh's military forces and current president of Armenia, confessed his involvement in the Khojaly massacre. Before Khojaly, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us; they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that [stereotype]. And thats what happened, Sargsyan said. The parliaments of Pakistan, Mexico, Colombia, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Jordan, as well as the legislative bodies of 20 states of the Unites States, including New-Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Western Virginia, New-Jersey, Tennessee, Arizona and Hawaii have adopted relevant documents. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) adopted a final Cairo Communique in February 2013, at its summit held in Cairo, labeling the Khojaly tragedy genocide against humanity. The Communique calls on the international community to recognize the genocide. -- Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 10:32 (UTC+04:00) The members of the Legislature of the U.S. State of Oregon issued a proclamation commending the long-standing traditions of interfaith tolerance, inclusion and harmony in Azerbaijan, and applauding the efforts by Azerbaijans Government to foster these traditions on February 24. Signed by the Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek, as well as by majority leaders of both chambers and many other legislators, the proclamation was presented to the Consul General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles, Nasimi Aghayev, who was introduced on the Senate and House floor while visiting Oregon. The proclamation commends Azerbaijans exemplary model of interreligious tolerance and harmony. Stressing the important role of Azerbaijans Government, the proclamation notes: since independence in 1991, Azerbaijan has created an environment that nurtures and promotes the ancient traditions of religious tolerance, and rejects radicalism, extremism and hatred, as Azerbaijan sees diversity as one of the countrys great strengths and virtues, and has worked to ensure that this diversity continues to blossom The three major religions have prospered because of the age-old respect and tolerance of the Azerbaijani people, but also because of an important role the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan has played in constantly fostering the environment of interfaith tolerance, mutual acceptance and respect in the country. The proclamation further notes: Azerbaijan has repeatedly, over the course of the last decade, brought together religious leaders from the region and around the world to promote interfaith dialogue an example which is sorely needed, and in April 2016, Azerbaijan will host the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Forum The year 2016 has been proclaimed a Year of Multiculturalism in Azerbaijan. The document ends by stressing that it is important for the United States of America to support its tolerant and secular allies and consider the Azerbaijani model of interfaith acceptance and community engagement as a functioning example, and encourage this policy around the globe. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 11:05 (UTC+04:00) A video footage dedicated to the Khojaly genocide will be shown on the flights of the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) on the day of the 24th anniversary of this genocide. The campaign will be based on a joint project of Trend news agency and the 'Support for youth development Dushunce' public association. The video footage will be shown in English language on all aircraft equipped with overhead monitors (located above the passenger seats). "The aim of the campaign is to provide foreign citizens using AZAL flights with information about the Khojaly genocide," Emil Huseynli, the deputy director general of the 'Support for youth development Dushunce' public association, said. He expressed gratitude to the AZAL management for support in the project implementation. Khojaly, the second largest town in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, came under intense fire from the towns of Khankendi and Askeran already occupied by the Armenian armed forces in 1992. 613 civilians mostly women and children were killed in the massacre, and a total of 1,000 people were disabled. Eight families were exterminated, 25 children lost both parents, and 130 children lost one parent. Moreover, 1,275 innocent people were taken hostage, and the fate of 150 of them remains unknown. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 11:38 (UTC+04:00) By Aynur Karimova President Ilham Aliyevs one-day visit to Tehran marked several achievements, and turned to be a milestone for developing and prospering cooperation between Baku and Tehran. Baku's thought-out policy on not supporting the Islamic Republic's international isolation has become a key element in boosting bilateral ties between the two neighboring countries and strategic partners in the post-sanctions era. President Aliyevs visit also brought to the agenda Azerbaijan's potential to be a transit country for export of Iranian goods to world markets. Azerbaijan, located at the crossroads of East and West, is considered as the best route for Iran to get an access to the European market. Eldar Ibrahimov, a member of the Azerbaijani Parliament, believes that Azerbaijan can become a transit country for Iran's access to Europe and to the world market. Ibrahimov, a member of the working group on Azerbaijan-Iran interparliamentary relations , reminded that during the visit a number of important historical documents were signed between Azerbaijan and Iran. These documents, covering important fields of cooperation, established a strong base for further expanding relations, he believes. These documents include an agreement on cooperation in the field of elimination, control and mitigation of consequences of emergency situations, an agreement on mutual administrative assistance in customs issues, an agreement on cooperation in the field of veterinary and livestock health, a framework agreement on the sale of electricity, a framework agreement on coordination of railways of the two countries, an agreement on construction of the border railway bridge over the Astara river, a Memorandum of Understanding between Azerbaijan's State Committee of Family, Women and Children Affairs and Irans vice-presidency for women and family affairs, a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in health and medical sciences, an agreement on cooperation between Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare of Iran, a memorandum for cooperation between SOCAR and National Iranian Oil Company and a cooperation memorandum between SOCAR and Ghadir Investment Company in the fields of oil, gas and petrochemical products. Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmadov believes that the positive results of the steps for lifting the sanctions imposed on Iran have created new opportunities for this countrys international integration. Undoubtedly, it positively affects the Azerbaijani-Iranian relations as well, he said. We want the traditional friendly relations between Iran and Azerbaijani to even more strengthen the economic and trade relations. Ahmadov said that the Azerbaijani and Iranian societies praise the recent visit of Ilham Aliyev to Iran. MP Aydin Huseynov, in turn, believes that development of relations between Azerbaijan and Iran can play a significant role in ensuring peace and stability in the whole region. Following President Aliyev's visit to Iran, it became clear that Baku is turning into one of the main political players in the region thanks to its balanced policy. "Today, Iran is re-entering the world market. From this point of view, Azerbaijan can play a role of transit for Iran to Europe. It can bring benefits to both countries," Huseynov told Trend. The Azerbaijani leaders Tehran visit is among the first visits to Iran after removal of the international sanctions imposed against the country. It shows that the existing relations of Azerbaijan and Iran can be a bright example for majority of countries, MP Aydin Mirzazade believes. "Despite the fact that we have different political systems, different approaches to a number of issues, both countries strive to maintain good neighborly relations, and to find common ground. Periodically, leaders and officials of the two countries further deepen these relations by making mutual visits," he told Trend. Azerbaijan and Iran always supported each other in the international organizations, where they cooperate. Today, the two countries play a stabilizing role in the region and namely the fruitful cooperation between the two countries will make it possible to ensure security in the region. The unity of Tehran and Bakus positions on solution of the conflict in Syria, territorial integrity and many other issues of the international agenda are the guarantor of success and development of these relations, which are crucial for the region. -- Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 14:21 (UTC+04:00) Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made a telephone call to President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on February 25, Azertac state news agency reported. During the conversation, the presidents expressed their satisfaction with the successful development of bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Russia in all areas, and expressed their confidence that the strategic ties would continue strengthening. Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin discussed the bilateral trade and economic cooperation and the issues on the international agenda. The heads of state also exchanged views over the settlement of the Syrian problem, and stressed the importance of the implementation of the Russia-U.S. join statement on the cessation of military operations in Syria. The presidents agreed to maintain their contact. 25 February 2016 17:35 (UTC+04:00) By Aynur Karimova The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights seems to open up new page in the relations with Azerbaijan, which saw definite disagreements lately. Director of the OSCE ODIHR Michael Georg Link's recent statement stands for revitalizing the organization's ties Azerbaijan, which were considerably soured due to the suspension of the activities of the OSCE Project Coordinator in Baku in June 2015 and the refusal of the organization to send an observation mission to Azerbaijan to monitor the November 2015 parliamentary elections in the country. He said during the discussion at the German Society for Foreign Policy that Azerbaijan is an especially important partner for the OSCE ODIHR, Vestnik Kavkaza reported. Relations between the OSCE ODIHR and Azerbaijan may considerably progress as the organization eyes to continue dialogue and constructive cooperation with the country. Commenting on the organization's decision not to monitor November 1 parliamentary election in Azerbaijan, Link expressed regret that he could not observe this election. Of course we are sorry that we couldnt observe the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan last year," he said. "If the number of observers turns out to be smaller than our methodology requires, we cannot guarantee the correctness of our assessment of the monitoring results. However, we are open for a discussion on the issue." OSCE ODIHR also plans to suggest new joint projects to Azerbaijan. Our cooperation will continue, notwithstanding the fact that we didnt observe the elections last year, the diplomat said. Azerbaijan joined the OSCE in 1992, soon after signing the Helsinki Final Act, the Charter of Paris and the Charter for European Security - the main instruments of the organization. Azerbaijan and the OSCE are cooperating in combating terrorism, promoting religious tolerance in Azerbaijan, and improving cooperation between governmental institutions and civil society organizations in the fields of combating human trafficking and domestic violence, while supporting good governance projects. Azerbaijan is also cooperating with the OSCE in the field of democratization and in this regard, the organization regularly observes elections in Azerbaijan. The organization is interested in elevation of cooperation with Azerbaijan to a new level in the spirit of constructiveness and understanding. -- Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 17:13 (UTC+04:00) Regretfully, no proper legal and political assessment has been given to Khojaly genocide in the world so far. Ali Ahmadov, deputy prime minister, deputy chairman and executive secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party made the remark on February 25. It is outrageous that those who were directly involved in this crime, shed blood of women, children, the elderly, are currently in power in Armenia, he said. The most unacceptable fact is that sometimes, the heads of states speaking against terrorism and genocide, kindly receive the perpetrators of Khojaly genocide, which is a proof of double standards in the world, he said. As long as there are such double standards, no fair legal and political assessment is given to all tragedies, including the Khojaly tragedy, it will be impossible to ensure justice, peace and well-being in the world and prevent new tragedies, Ahmadov added. The deputy prime minister noted that the Azerbaijan people have always highly honored the citizens killed in Khojaly. Various structures, citizens, the youth of Azerbaijan carry out great work to convey the truth about the Khojaly genocide to the world, said Ahmadov. I believe that their efforts bring results. He emphasized the work done as part of the Justice for Khojaly campaign organized by the Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Leyla Aliyeva. Serious steps were taken for informing the world about the Khojaly genocide thanks to this campaign, said Ahmadov. The deputy prime minister noted that the Khojaly genocide is one of the bloodiest tragedies not only in Azerbaijan but also in the world over the last decade of the 20th century. On February 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops stationed in Khankendi committed an act of genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. As a result of the massacre, some 613 people were killed, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. A total of 487 civilians became disabled as a result of the onslaught. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people remains unknown. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 17:11 (UTC+04:00) The Kuwaiti embassy in Baku has arranged an official reception to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the National Day. Kuwaiti Ambassador Saud Abdulaziz Mohammad al-Shamlan al-Roumi, addressing the event, noted that today they also celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Liberation Day. Providing an insight into the development path of Kuwait, the ambassador highlighted his country`s achievements in economic and cultural fields. Expressing his satisfaction with the expansion of relations between Kuwait and Azerbaijan, the diplomat said that reciprocal visits and high-level meetings paved the way for the rapid development of bilateral relations. Minister of Education Mikayil Jabbarov, on behalf of the Azerbaijani government, congratulated the people of Kuwait on the occasion of the holiday. He said that relations between the two countries were successfully developing in a variety of fields. Hailing the political relations between the two countries, Jabbarov said Kuwait is cooperating with Azerbaijan both in bilateral and international formats. The official reception was attended by state and government officials, MPs, ambassadors of foreign countries in Baku, representatives of international organizations in the country and representatives of the general public,Azertac reported. Azerbaijan and Kuwait established diplomatic relations in 1994. Both countries being subject of military occupation and aggression by neighboring countries in the early 90s were primarily engaged in overcoming foreign occupation and managing its dreadful consequences. The Azerbaijani embassy in Kuwait opened in late 2004 and the Kuwaiti Embassy in Baku began to function in 2006. The establishment of the embassies fostered development of bilateral cooperation between the two countries. Mutually beneficial cooperation between the countries further broadened and deepened encompassing the areas like finance, economy, trade commerce, tourism and investment. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 10:52 (UTC+04:00) By Amina Nazarli The Partnership and Liaison Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations opened in Baku on February 25 Addressing the opening ceremony, Agriculture Minister Heydar Asadov hailed the cooperation between the country and FAO, a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts in defeating hunger. Asadov said FAO had implemented a number of projects in Azerbaijan, contributing to the modernization and development of agriculture. Azerbaijan, which joined FAO in 1995, is currently benefiting from FAOs technical assistance in many areas, such as organic agriculture, agriculture marketing, locust management, food security, seed sector development, improved livelihoods for rural populations, animal health, and cattle breeding. Head of Partnership and Liaison Office Mustafa Imir, for his part, expressed confidence that the office would contribute to the development of agriculture in Azerbaijan, which he described as FAO`s partner and a new donor country. The ceremony also saw the signing of an agreement on FAO`s Seed Production Support Project in Azerbaijan. FAOs partnership with Azerbaijan is shaped by the 2015-2019 Country Programming Framework (CPF), reflecting relevant national development plans and strategies at the same time as supporting FAOs strategic objectives and regional priorities. Last year, the sides have enlarged the legal base of their fruitful cooperation by signing two agreements. The first agreement stipulated the establishment of the coordination and cooperation office and providing technical assistance, while the second one is a FAO-Azerbaijan partnership program. The first agreement maintains the status of the already existing office, as well as envisages providing mutual technical assistance. Each year some $100,000 will be allocated to the office maintenance. The technical project is designed for 5 years and costs $10 million, which will be provided on an equal basis, with a condition that this amount will be directed mainly to projects implemented in Azerbaijan within five years, taking into account possible exceptions in acute need. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 15:22 (UTC+04:00) By Aynur Karimova Azerbaijan and Iran with their huge energy prospects have recently intensified all-out cooperation in the energy sector. The two countries, eyeing a milestone in this sector, achieved a breakthrough after co-chairs of the Azerbaijan-Iran intergovernmental commission Azerbaijan's Economy and Industry Minister Shahin Mustafayev and Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi signed a framework agreement on the sale of electric power during President Ilham Aliyev's one-day official visit to Tehran on February 23. The agreement envisages cooperation in the field of use of energy and water resources, construction and operation of Khoda Afarin and Qiz Qalasi hydroelectric power plants and hydroelectric complexes on the Araz River, the Economy and Industry Ministry reported on February 25. The agreement also proclaims equal rights for water and energy resources along the Khoda Afarin and Qiz Qalasi hydroelectric power plants and hydroelectric complexes. The document states that Iran will ensure construction of hydroelectric complexes and hydroelectric power plants, preservation and operation of water and energy resources at these facilities until the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is restored. The Khoda Afarin and Qiz Qalasi hydroelectric power plants and hydroelectric complexes, the construction and operation of which is to involve Azerbaijani specialists, will be used by Baku and Tehran on equal terms. Free of sanctions, the Islamic Republic has set a goal to boost ties with neighboring countries, including Azerbaijan. Tehran has repeatedly expressed willingness to expand cooperation with Baku in the water and electricity sectors. Recently, the two countries have held talks over construction of geothermal and wind power plants in Irans Meshkin Shahr and Khaf cities respectively. The projects are expected to kick off soon. Linking the electricity networks with Azerbaijan and Russia is also among Iran's priorities in the energy sector. Recently, Iran's Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian said the electricity consumption in Azerbaijan and Russia reaches its peak in winter, meanwhile Iran experiences peak consumption in summer. Therefore, the sides can swap electricity for avoiding costs for construction of new power plants. Experts believe that all three countries will benefit from linking the electricity networks. Also, Azerbaijan as a transit country can carry out electricity export-import operations by linking electricity system with Russia and Iran, and get dividends for transmission of electricity. Earlier, Azerbaijan's Energy Ministry told Azernews that Azerbaijan's energy system is technically ready to be linked with the Iranian and Russian energy systems. Azerbaijan enjoys the relevant infrastructure for electricity transmission. To this end, all the necessary powerful production facilities are available both for the Darband-Yashma and Imishli-Parsabad power transmission lines. Azerbaijan's electricity production capacities also allow the country to be an electricity exporter, thus opening excellent opportunities for Iran and Azerbaijan to encourage energy cooperation. -- Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 18:20 (UTC+04:00) By Gulgiz Dadashova The government of Azerbaijan announced that it is in talks with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) on application of Islamic banking instruments in the country. Deputy Economy Minister Sahil Babayev stated about this on February 25, adding that the Bank is ready to provide technical assistance to Azerbaijan, which has a predominantly Muslim population. We held a lot of discussions at the CIS Global Business Forum in Dubai, including the ones regarding Islamic banking, Babayev said. We have already outlined the primary scope of our models project. We will be able to introduce this system in Azerbaijan with the attraction of the IDB professionals and other experts. Azerbaijan, alongside Kazakhstan, is among several central Asian countries creating a more welcoming framework for sharia-compliant banking to attract investments and financing from the Islamic capital market. Islamic financial tools can become the channel through which assets of those, who do not want to use traditional financial services, can be involved in the economy. Babayev faced difficulty to name the exact date of introduction of Islamic banking model in Azerbaijan, explaining it with the number of issues to be solved. It's a new system, and it requires preparation of special legislation, set of rules and so on. But the government examines this issue at the level of Central Bank. I think that the established Financial Market Control Chamber of Azerbaijan will be also studying this issue hard. It is necessary to determine the scope of changes in legislation and only then take certain steps. Earlier, Behnam Gurbanzada, an independent Islamic finance consultant, announced that Azerbaijan is developing a new model of Islamic banking, adding that even as one commercial bank is all set to becoming fully Islamic. He said while the workflow was not too fast in the past, in the current economic environment, there is a greater focus to bring real banking solutions with a focus on customers. Currently, a working group of the Cabinet of Ministers and the IDB is working on legislation, which would allow the proposed Islamic bank to launch in the country. In 2015, the IDB allocated to Azerbaijan a grant of $200,000 to improve the legislative framework, which will form the basis for Islamic banking. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 16:56 (UTC+04:00) By Amina Nazarli Azerbaijans traditional dances can be awarded protection by the UN cultural organization, as the country will soon appeal for including the dances Kocheri and Yalli into the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Ph.D Atesh Ahmadli, a senior research fellow at the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), said the country will send the relevant documents for approval of these dances as cultural heritage of the Azerbaijani people. Ahmadli told Trend that each country has the right to make a nomination only once in two years for approval into UNESCO's list of "intangible heritage" centuries-old practices which are being eroded by globalization and urbanization The UN agency is better known for awarding world heritage status to monuments and natural wonders, but starting 2006 it has also recognized elements of living heritage, such as songs, festivals, languages and religious rites. Last year unique copper craftsmanship of Ismayilli regions small village of Lahij was included in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Thats why Azerbaijan will be able to submit an application for the national dances in 2017, Ahmadli said. So far, UNESCOs Heritage list includes eight samples of Azerbaijani heritage including the Novruz holiday, Azerbaijani mugham, Azerbaijani ashig art, the Azerbaijani carpet, traditional Kalagayi headwear, national musical instrument tar, Lahijs copper craftsmanship and Chovgan game. Kocheri is a kind of ancient Azerbaijani dance Yalli, which is depicted on the rock carvings in Gobustan dating to 10,000-8,000 years BC. The famous Divani luget dictionary of the 11th century by eminent Turkish philologist Mahmud Kashgari, includes the word kocheri, meaning koch-goch (male ram), and the word kochmek, meaning "to move from one place to another". The initial form of Yalli, performed around a ceremony bonfire, have the meaning of hot, light and meal. The word yal in Azerbaijani means row, line of chain. Today, Yalli is performed as cheerful circular dance, often accompanied by choral singing at the weddings. Dancers hold hands or shoulders with each other and perform synchronous rhythmic motion, raising and lowering their arms. Yalli is performed under different rhythms, and have a number of kinds including kochari, uchayag, tello, tenzere and galadangalaya. Reminding that these dances are related to Turkish traditions, Ahmadli said that hostile neighbor Armenia wants to assign Kocheri as Armenian national value. Armenia, which occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory in late 1990s, is also targeting the ancient culture and traditions of the Azerbaijani people. Last year Armenia attempted to present Kocheri as an Armenian folklore dance at the 10th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Namibia. The committee returned the nominated file to the Armenian side, which received a negative assessment from the organization based on five criteria. The Azerbaijan Copyright Agency prevented an attempt in 2011 when an Armenian representative tried to introduce the dance as "Armenian" during Eurovision Song Contest. The Agency launched an investigation and submitted to the World Intellectual Property Organization a detailed reference based on historical data and etymology of the kochari word. Many times, Armenia tried to grab Azerbaijani songs Sari Gelin Susen Sunbul, dances Yalli, Uzundere, Vagzali, as well as ancient musical instruments like tar, balaban, zurna and even works by prominent Azerbaijani composers such as Uzeyir Hajibeyli, Kara Karayev and Fikret Amirov. -- Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 13:00 (UTC+04:00) By Aynur Karimova Azerbaijan and Iran, the two Caspian littoral countries rich in hydrocarbon resources, have recently intensified economic relations, in particular in the energy sector. Following President Ilham Aliyev's February 23 visit to Tehran and signing of 11 bilateral documents, the energy companies of the two countries have expressed their willingness in expanding cooperation. One of such companies - Iranian North Drilling Company, specialized in the implementation of projects in the Caspian Sea, is interested in cooperation with Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR. Fatemeh Yazdani, the head of NDC's Marketing Department, told Trend that it would be a great honor to work with SOCAR, particularly, to establish a joint venture to develop Iranian projects in the Caspian Sea. The North Drilling Company's activity profile allows to say that this company's cooperation with SOCAR would be very fruitful both for the two companies, as well as Azerbaijan and Iran. The Islamic Republic's company enjoys significant experience in offshore drilling in the Caspian Sea. It has drilled two wells in Sardar-e Jangal oil and gas field, located in deep waters of the sea by the Amir Kabir semi-submersible drilling rig. Recently, the North Drilling Company extended contract with the Dragon Oil Company for 11 years. The company drilled some 60 wells for Dragon Oil Company in Turkmenistan's shallow waters in the Caspian Sea. Over 11 months of the current fiscal year, the company has drilled seven wells for Turkmenistan. Yazdani went on to add that the NDC is also interested in exploration and production projects, "if SOCAR wants to enter Iran and intends to receive fields from the Oil Ministry." "We are ready to work with them," she said. The NDC, who earlier won a tender on Kurmula gas field development in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2015, is ready to cooperate with SOCAR in this project, as well as other foreign projects. Azerbaijan and Iran, two neighboring countries and strategic partners, have been strengthening ties since the removal of international sanctions against Tehran in January. This is more obvious especially in the energy sector. The two countries are expected to intensify energy cooperation significantly strengthened after SOCAR's signing two memorandums of understanding with National Iranian Oil Company and Ghadir Investment Company as part of President Ilham Aliyev's Tehran visit on February 23. Today, Baku and Tehran are engaged in the implementation of several oil and gas projects. In particular, the Islamic Republic participated in the development of Azerbaijans giant Shah Deniz gas field in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea. The two countries also carry out gas swap operations: Azerbaijan supplies its fuel to Irans northern provinces while Iran ensures the gas demand of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Currently, the possibility of transporting Iranian gas through Azerbaijan to Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor is high on the agenda of talks between the two governments. -- Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 16:34 (UTC+04:00) By Gulgiz Dadashova Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR and Russian oil pipeline operator Transneft signed a new deal on resuming oil shipments via Russia after exports were halted for technical reasons. SOCAR will resume oil transportation via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline on March 1, Russian media quoted Igor Demin, Transneft presidents advisor, as saying on February 25. Initially, it was planned to transport around 1.3 million tons of oil [via the pipeline]. However, as the agreement will be effective only from March, transportation volumes will be less, Demin explained. Azerbaijani oil is being shipped from the Novorossiysk port under the name of the Russian export blend, Urals. Urals -- a mix of heavy and high-grade oil of the Urals with light oil of western Siberia supplied through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline and the Druzhba pipeline system -- is traded on world exchanges at a price of $4 or $5 per barrel lower than the Azerbaijani crude. Noting that the volumes will be defined for every month, Demin said the agreement is similar to the ones signed in previous years. SOCAR transported 1.27 million tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2015, compared to 932,160 tons in 2014. The Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline is 1,147 kilometers long. The length of its Azerbaijani section is 231 kilometers and Russian section - 916 kilometers. The pipeline was filled with oil in October 1996. Its highest capacity stands at 105,000 barrels a day. Azerbaijan exports its oil through the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline via Russia, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline via Georgia and Turkey, and the Baku-Supsa pipeline via Georgia and by rail via Georgia. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 13:22 (UTC+04:00) Turkmenistan is taking steps for state support of entrepreneurs to increase their share in the country's GDP volume, according to the article of the Strategic Planning and Economic Development Institute of Turkmenistan. Entrepreneurs are provided with trust credit funds, which are particularly directed at ensuring the population with consumer goods at reasonable prices. The Turkmen institute drew attention to the fact that private business is represented today in many sectors of the countrys economy, and plays a key role in some of them. So, in total retail turnover, the private sector share accounted for 92 percent in 2015. In addition, currently, enterprises of this economy sector manufacture more than 92 percent of agricultural products. The private sector increasingly strengthens on construction and food markets of the country. The article said that in order to increase the range and volume of the products exported, the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan was authorized to sell all kinds of raw hides, leather obtained after primary treatment, as well as wool on foreign markets. Earlier it was reported that in 2015, GDP growth in Turkmenistan amounted to 6.5 percent. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 11:14 (UTC+04:00) The Turkish police have warned of the possibility of new terrorist attacks in the country, the Turkish Milliyet newspaper wrote on February 25. Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is preparing to commit terrorist attacks by using car bombs in Ankara, the newspaper wrote citing police intelligence reports. A terror attack was carried out in Ankara Feb. 17 near the buildings of the Turkish parliament, the general staff and a military dorm in the city. The explosion killed 28 and injured 61. Reports suggest that a car bomb was detonated. Earlier, Turkeys National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has warned the country of the possibility of new terrorist attacks, according to the Haber 7 newspaper's reports citing a source in the intelligence agency. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 25 February 2016 12:15 (UTC+04:00) Swiss President Johann Schneider will visit Iran on February 26 to discuss expanding economical, political relations with Tehran, IRNA reported. He is expected to lead a 40-member economic and scientific delegation during the visit. Switzerland released $11.8 million of Iran's blocked assets in January, as soon as the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers was signed. According to the Iran Custom Administration's latest report, Iran imported goods worth $2.174 billion from Switzerland and exported goods worth $7.5 million to this country during 10 months of current fiscal year, started on March 21. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 3.0 ( - - ): editor [at] bahrainmirror.com Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Lions Club Brings the Gift of Sight to Puerto Vallarta Jamestown, North Dakota - Dwaine and Joyce Heinrich of Jamestown are participating on a vision mission trip to provide the gift of sight to more than 1,000 Mexican citizens in need. In partnership with the Puerto Vallarta Lions Club, Lions from seven different clubs in North Dakota - Fargo, Jamestown, Mandan, Bismarck, Minot and New England - will be seeing approximately 250 patients each day this week, from Sunday through Wednesday, and are expected to distribute close to 800 pairs of glasses. The Lions Club in Puerto Vallarta is making appointments for patients. Many of these patients are in poverty and do not have financial resources to purchase glasses. Several of them are grade-school children. The mission trip is possible from fund raising efforts throughout the state. The Puerto Vallarta Lions Club is located at Madero #280 on the South Side of Vallarta. The Numbers Behind U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Relations Mexico City - While Donald Trump decides just how high he thinks a border wall should be, Mexican and U.S. officials are busy focusing on how to deepen ties. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is in Mexico City February 24 and 25 for the latest round of the High Level Economic Dialogue (HLED), a cabinet-level platform kicked off in 2013 with the goal of boosting bilateral economic cooperation. The HLED builds on strong bonds. Two-way trade hit $531 billion in 2015, marking a more than fivefold increase since the 1994 implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico ranks as the United States' third-biggest trade partner, behind Canada and China. But it's arguable that U.S.-Mexican supply chains are more tightly integrated: a 2010 report by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that U.S. components make up 40 percent of Mexican exports to the United States. For comparison's sake, that figure runs at 25 percent for Canadian imports and 4 percent for Chinese ones. But the connections go beyond trade in goods. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans account for more than 10 percent of the U.S. population, and Americans travel more to Mexico than any other foreign destination. Vallarta OTFM-TC Featured Vendor: TY-Bikinis y Mas Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Get ready for the "make it, bake it, grow it" adventure that is the Old Town Farmers Market-Tianguis Cultural! We have 90+ stalls, featuring everything from fresh produce, international foods, woven baskets and Huichol art to live music and chiropractic treatments. And if you're planning to hit the beach in style, be sure to check out the beach-ready fashions of this week's featured vendor: Teresa Moreno of TY-Bikinis y Mas (and More!) Meet Teresa Moreno Designer and seamstress, Teresa Moreno, creates some of the most elegant (and comfortable) swimsuits and beachwear you will find in the Banderas Bay area, thanks to her teacher and mother, Teresa Chavez. "My story began in 1990 with my mom," says Moreno. "She began making dresses and school uniforms for me and my four sisters. She wanted to provide a better life for her children, and began making dresses for members of the community. Adding more skills, she also learned how to make undergarments, pajamas and fancy pieces." Chavez was so successful that she opened her own shop. A bank loan helped her to buy sewing machines, and the new entrepreneur hired local seamstresses. An 11-year-old Moreno studied the women at work, eager to create her own clothing. "My mom taught me how to make a skirt," Moreno says. "Soon I was making my own miniskirts!" At age 15, Moreno designed and crafted her first swimsuit. It was a big achievement, and the teen was smitten. Any free time was devoted to mastering the machines and helping her mom at the shop. As the business grew, however, it was becoming more difficult for Chavez to leave her family and travel the two hours to Puerto Vallarta to sell her designs. The family moved to Puerto Vallarta, and the business continued to thrive. At age 18, Moreno joined the business full time. "We had a lot of dreams and endless projects," she says. "My mom taught us how to take care of the family business, and how to work as a team." Success was sweet, but when the swine flu scare dried up business, they were forced to close their doors. New Beginnings Moreno forged ahead, however, not willing to give up her dreams of continuing on with the family business. Relying on faith and the support of loved ones, she began creating her own line of swimsuits and beachwear. Her goal? To help customers feel incredible in her beach-ready apparel. Moreno became an OTFM-TC vendor, and her new business took off. Her family jumped in to help, and together they have been exceeding customers' expectations season after season. Today, TY-Bikinis y Mas continues to be a family business, making clothing that offers comfort and originality to its worldwide clientele. Treat yourself to a TY-Bikinis y Mas original. To learn more, contact ty-bikinis-y-mas(at)hotmail.com, +52 (322) 225-2340, +52 (322) 137-0477 (mobile) or on Facebook. Love Yoga? While at the market, join us for yoga classes (9:30-10:30 am) taught by instructors from Yoga Collective. We meet in the kiosk every Saturday morning through April 30th. Participation is by donation. Meet the Market The OTFM-TC is a North American style market that celebrates the tradition and culture of Mexico's outdoor Tianguis markets. It is also a registered non-profit/association civil organization that focuses on nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of Puerto Vallartans. All OTFM-TC products are either locally grown or handmade within 75 kilometers of the city. You're Invited! The OTFM-TC will be open 9:30-2 every Saturday, from November 7, 2015, to April 30, 2016. You'll find us in Lazaro Cardenas Park, located in Vallarta's Emiliano Zapata neighborhood. For only 12 pesos an hour, you can park in the garage directly beneath park. Public buses and taxis also come this way with a Pino Suarez Street drop off. Get Involved Interested in becoming a new OTFM-TC vendor or volunteer? Stop by the information booth to pick up an application. Krka, d. d., Novo mesto (hereinafter referred to as Krka) informs the interested public that its subsidiary Krka Sverige AB, Sweden (hereinafter referred to as Krka Sverige) received the decision of the Maritime and Commercial Court in Copenhagen, Denmark in the litigation started against Krka Sverige by AstraZeneca, Sweden and AstraZeneca, Denmark (hereinafter referred to as AstraZeneca) because of alleged infringement of the patent EP 1 020 461 in Denmark. Patent EP 1 020 461 protects the active pharmaceutical ingredient esomperazol with high optical purity. Products containing esomperazole with high optical purity have allegedly advantageous pharmacological effects. The active pharmaceutical ingredient esomeprazol per se is not patent protected. Products sold by Krka Sverige in Denmark do not contain esomeprazole with high optical purity. Nevertheless, the Maritime and Commercial Court in Copenhagen despite that fact decided that Krka Sverige by selling these products in Denmark has infringed AstraZenecas patent, as during certain moment in the production of the active pharmaceutical ingredient esomeprazole, produced by Krka, optically pure crystals allegedly appeared in the reaction mixture. The Maritime and Commercial Court in Copenhagen believes that Krka Sverige caused to AstraZeneca in Denmark damages in the amount of DKK 50 million (EUR 6.7 million) due to the above infringement. The decision of the first instance court has not been final yet, therefore Krka Sverige shall not pay damages until the decision is final. Krka Sverige will file an appeal against the decision. Krka Sverige strongly believes that the Maritime and Commercial Court in Copenhagen decided in contradiction with the wording of the scope of the patent as it was granted by the European Patent Office, as well as in contradiction with well-established jurisprudence in relation to such type of patents in the European Union (known as Swiss type claims"). Krka published notices regarding esomeprazole litigation in Denmark on 15 December 2010 and 11 April 2013. Chuck Stead is a tall man with an easy smile and a booming voice that rises from underneath his wide-brimmed leather hat. On a cold February morning, Stead stood outside the Ramapo Saltbox, a cabin perched on the slope of New Yorks Torne Valley, where he runs an environmental research center with the help of Cornell University. Ever since he was diagnosed with intestinal cancer and given just a few months to live last year, Stead has increased the pace of his work documenting what he calls the toxic legacy left in these woods by the Ford Motor Co. Its not unusual to have cancer here. I dont treat it as Why me? Its more like, Well, yeah. Its what happens, Stead, now in remission, said. I trapped all through this creek here. I skinned all of these animals, so I was exposed to whatever they were exposed to, and we ate some of the animals. Years later, I got my intestinal cancer and my liver cancer. If you look up the cancers and then you look up the compounds that are in the automobile paint, you have a correlation right there. Ford produced more than 6 million cars at its plant in nearby Mahwah, N.J., from 1955 to 1980. Automobile paint containing lead, arsenic, benzene, chromium and other chemicals was sprayed on the cars rolling off Fords assembly line. But with large-scale production came large-scale pollution. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ford dumped millions of gallons of paint sludge in the woods surrounding Mahwah. More than 40 years later, some of the paint sludge is still there. Among the largest dump sites were two abandoned iron mines and a landfill in Ringwood, N.J. The paint sludge is still visible in hardened lavalike pools on the forest floor, stuck between rocks and cascading down hills. Break off a chunk of the dried paint sludge and the smell of acetone is almost as potent as ever, Stead said. The paint was dumped into 55-gallon drums and then carted to places like Ringwood and Hillburn, N.Y. Some of the rusted-out drums are still visible in the woods. You would get $100 to make six drums disappear off of the back of the dock. Sometimes they would dump the paint directly into a trench and fill it in. Thats what I saw when I was a kid trapping up here, Stead said. Contamination from the paint sludge has made him and many other people here sick, he said, and no one has been harder hit than the Ramapough Indians, who have called this land home for centuries. Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday expressed concern about the fairness of judges who rely on big data to sentence criminal defendants, saying the use of such risk assessments in several states could exacerbate racial disparities among the prison population. Holder, who made the comments during a Philadelphia speech to criminal defense lawyers, said the use of such data results in unfair treatment of minorities. Basing a sentence on something other than the conduct of the person involved and the persons record, youre looking, for instance, at factors like the persons education level, what neighborhood the person comes from, Holder said in an interview with PBS on Thursday. Theyre using this as a predictor of how likely this person as an individual is going to be a recidivist. Im not at all certain that Im comfortable with that I think the result is fundamental unfairness. Research has shown that racial minorities who dont have regular jobs or steady families are likely to be charged with more severe crimes, leading to longer prison sentences, according to Nazgol Ghandnooh, a research analyst for the Sentencing Project, an organization dedicated to sentencing reform in U.S. prisons. A lot of the criteria to measure risk has to do with disparities in race and class to the extent that were looking at data factors like employment or level of education or marital status and family resources things someone is not able to change, Ghandnooh said. We are creating a two-tiered system of sentencing. Though Holder maintained that a persons record could be useful in sentencing, Ghandnooh disagreed. Some proponents describe past records as a measure of risk, but what we know is that a persons past record is the product of two things: One is engagement in crime and the other is the level of surveillance they experience, Ghandnooh said, adding that police forces typically have a heavier presence in low-income and minority areas making individuals in those communities more likely to be arrested in the first place. I think Holders statement is helpful because it brings attention to the fact that just focusing on addressing the really high levels of incarceration we have in this country is not sufficient to address its racial disparities, she said. The attorney generals Thursday speech marked one year since his Smart on Crime initiative, in which Holder instructed federal prosecutors to end mandatory minimum sentences for many nonviolent drug defendants. In April, the Justice Department launched a new clemency push to commute mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. The changes are expected to rein in runaway federal prison costs and create a fairer criminal justice system. In the wake of that decision, more than 3,300 federal inmates have applied to have their sentences cut short, nearly five times the number who applied for commutations in the same period the year before, according to data obtained by The Associated Press. Nonviolent drug offenders, the target population of Holders reforms, represent nearly half the estimated 216,000 inmates in federal prisons. The clemency reforms are part of an effort to reduce prison costs and alleviate what Holder has called inequities in the criminal justice system. These older, stringent punishments that are out of line with sentences imposed under todays laws erode peoples confidence in our criminal justice system, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said in announcing the new criteria in April. With wire services Here's what you need to know about Tampa Bay area weather for Thursday: Cooler air moving into region Gusty winds make it feel colder The cold front has moved through and cooler air is moving into the region. Skies will be partly cloudy overnight into early Thursday morning. The winds will be gusty all the way through Thursday, making it feel cooler than it actually will be. The morning lows will be in the low to mid 50s from the bay south, and upper 40s in northern counties. Thursday will be a much cooler day compared to what we have seen recently. Skies will be variably cloudy in the morning with more sunshine in the afternoon. Temperatures will only climb into the mid 60s. Thursday night will be mostly clear and chilly with lows in the 40s. Friday will be chilly with partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies and highs only reaching the low 60s. Friday night will be the coldest night of this cool down, with lows in the 30s to low 40s. There will likely be some areas of frost in northern counties. The weekend looks nice with lots of sunshine, highs in the 60s, and lows in the 40s. Next week will feature a warming trend with high temperatures getting back into the 70s. The boating forecast for Thursday will not be a good one. Winds will continue to be gusty from the northwest at about 20 knots. The Small Craft Advisory will remain in effect. Seas will run 5 to 10 feet. Bay and inland waters will continue choppy. A lawsuit has been filed against cruise giant Royal Caribbean over a disastrous cruise earlier this month. Despite warnings of a winter storm, Anthem of the Seas set sail Feb. 6 from New Jersey. The cruise ship, which is the third-largest in the world, sailed into a storm with 125-mph winds and huge waves that violently rocked the ship and created chaos and terror for the 6,000 passengers and 1,500 crew members. According to CNN, passenger Bruce Simpson says during the storm, the ship began to rock and tilt violently and he was flung nearly 18 feet against his cabin door and knocked unconscious. A total of four passengers reported being injured when they were violently thrown around the boat during the storm. The cruise line cut the trip short after four days of the planned seven-day cruise and returned to port. The lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Miami, alleges that despite knowledge of a well-forecast storm, Royal Caribbean acted in negligence when it let the Anthem of the Seas sail. "They took a calculated risk when they sent their passengers into the storm, and we don't think the passengers should be the ones that pay for Royal Caribbean's lack of judgment," attorney Jason Itkin said in a written statement. The cruise line has not responded to the lawsuit. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson has also called for an NTSB investigation into the incident. Meanwhile, Royal Caribbean is promising to strengthen its storm policy. Refunds and vouchers also are being given to customers on the rocky cruise. Five-and-a-half years have passed since an earthen dam holding toxic coal ash from a coal plant failed in Harriman, Tenn., spilling more than a billion gallons of the ash into rivers and forests, and destroying several homes. The TVA Kingston Fossil Plant disaster was widely considered one of the worst in U.S. history, or at least one of the biggest by volume. And its still causing headaches, hundreds of miles away. Last week, Environmental Protection Agency investigators traveled to Uniontown, Ala., to interview residents and activists who say a local landfill that accepted much of the Tennessee coal ash is polluting air and water sources nearby, causing people who live in the area to become sick. The residents of the poor, predominantly black area say they are being unfairly burdened with the literal remnants of a disaster they had nothing to do with. "The landfill is a hill, a mountain, and its scary," said Esther Calhoun, a 51-year-old resident that has lived in Uniontown for most of her life. "Who wants to live in a place that might be bad for your health? But most of us are on a fixed income. Were stuck here." The Arrowhead Landfill has been controversial from the start, even before the coal ash from Tennessee began arriving by the trainload in 2009. But after the facility expanded in 2012, community activism heated up, and residents asked the EPA to intervene. They charged that the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits agencies that receive federal funding from discrimination. Its unclear when the EPA will decide on the case, but residents and activists say the fact that EPA officials came to Uniontown last week is a sign they are taking the claims seriously. They say they hope the EPA will act to force Arrowhead to relocate, or at least implement more stringent air and water quality monitors to make sure the coal ash isnt disturbing nearby residents. "We know the state has failed here, so its time for the EPA to step in," said John Wathen, an activist with local nonprofit Hurricane Creekkeeper. "Were kind of grasping at straws here and this is the last straw." Arrowhead has piqued activism in the community since it opened in 2007. But it wasnt until 2009 that residents began complaining of possible health effects stemming from the facility. Several houses are located across the street, and residents say the smell of toxic waste permeates the rural community. Residents have reported headaches, dizziness, rashes, nausea and vomiting, symptoms they believe are related to the coal ash at the site, according to lawyers for Earthjustice, the nonprofit organization representing six Uniontown-area residents in their request for action from the EPA. "Theres a real question of why the landfill was put there in the first place, in this community thats predominantly poor and African-American," said Matthew Baca, a lawyer for EarthJustice. "But if its going to be there, at a bare minimum there have to be meaningful mitigation measures in place. Theres not even like a fence." Coal ash, the waste product of coal power plants, can contain toxic substances like mercury and arsenic. Environmental groups have called coal ash a crisis across the U.S, as billions of tons of the substance accumulate in landfills and unlined pits, often spilling or leaching into nearby water. According to ADEM, the Arrowhead landfill is meant to handle such a substance without contaminating the surrounding environment. "If the facility is complying with its permits then there shouldnt be any issues with groundwater or air quality," said Scott Hughes, a public relations representative from ADEM. "And from a compliance standpoint there havent been any significant issues." Hughes says the department operates 13 groundwater-monitoring wells around the landfill to ensure its environmental integrity. But despite those protections, residents and activists say the landfill continues to pollute its surroundings. John Wathen says arsenic-tainted waste water has been found at levels 10 times above whats allowed by federal standards in the roadside ditches surrounding Arrowhead. ADEMs Hughes say he has yet to see any test results proving Wathens claims. The arsenic testing may be in dispute, but the smell and sight of the plant is undeniable to anyone who passes it. And for those who live near it, it has become a constant reminder of their perceived powerlessness. Through years of petitioning local, state, and federal officials, residents say they have been ignored at every turn. And they are worried that if the EPA doesnt act, theyll be left with no recourse at all for the future. "Were a small group, were poor, and were black, so no one is going to help us," said Ben Eaton, a 55-year-old retired schoolteacher who lives a few miles away from the facility. "People here just learn to accept whatever happens." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Jeanine and Jon Ott scooped holy water from the fountain at St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica as they encountered an unexpected surprise at the church - relics of the 13th century saint on display Wednesday. Their friend, Mary Garza, president of Cathedral Ladies and a teacher at St. Anthony's for children's religious instruction, invited them to come to the church. Garza knew the relics were coming but didn't remember Wednesday was the day. Jeanine Ott considered it more than coincidence. "We were meant to come here today," she said. "There are no words to describe it." The relics of St. Anthony refer to fragments of the saint's remains. As the guardian of the relics who accompanies them on tours, Friar Mario Conte said they are only a portion of the saint's remains uncovered on Jan. 6, 1981, an event he attended. It was only the second time St. Anthony's remains were uncovered since 1263, when they were moved from a small church in Padua, Italy, to a basilica built nearby. The uncovered coffin contained two compartments, he said. One held the skull, jaw and intact tongue and the other had bone fragments. The major remains stay within the basilica at Padua, which is visited by up to 5 million people a year. But for those who cannot travel to Padua, the relics come to them. Conte is in charge of relics that are brought to English-speaking countries. This tour is specifically for the Galveston-Houston archdiocese of which the Diocese of Beaumont is a part. The visit is the first for St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica. Dressed in his friar's cassock, Friar Mario explained the significance of the relics, which include a skin fragment from St. Anthony's face and a piece of a rib. He compared them with relics that people might have in their homes, such as a photo of a loved one who has died or a wedding ring from a parent. He has his mother's ring at home in Padua, he said. "That ring, a common object, is a link, a connection," Friar Mario said. "When you meet a friend, you offer your hand. That is a connection." He said the relics allow people to figuratively take St. Anthony by the hand. "In the Catholic Church, we are the communion of saints. St. Anthony is close to God. As a simple friar, I can say, 'God is great,' and I can pray to St. Anthony who says to God, 'Help this man, this woman, this child.' Saints do not perform miracles. God does. The church does not forget that, in the end, they are just human remains, bones. But they are bones touched by the living power of God, the love of God." A boy approached Conte and asked if he could touch the bust of St. Anthony that held one of the relics. "Sure," Conte said. "This is, in a sense, the house of St. Anthony in Beaumont." An honor guard of the Knights of Columbus stood next to a bust of St. Anthony containing the skin fragment. Sitting atop a pedestal next to the bust was the container with the piece of rib. A line formed for people to approach the relics, pray, touch, peer and venerate. St. Anthony is the patron saint of the lost. The relics continue on tour Feb. 25 to churches in Houston, ending on Feb. 28 at St. Anthony of Padua in The Woodlands. DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/dwallach Nearly 50 faculty members at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center were honored for their exceptional efforts in the fight against cancer at the institution's third annual President's Recognition for Faculty Excellence Awards ceremony on Monday. Among the honorees, four received awards established by the hospital's Board of Visitors, among whom is Regina Rogers of Beaumont. With over 3,000 migrant fatalities this year and climbing, Europe is the most dangerous destination for irregular migration in the world, according to a new report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The report, Fatal Journeys: Tracking Lives Lost During Migration, puts numbers to the rising global phenomenon of undocumented migrant deaths, an issue that has come to the fore in recent months as hundreds of people fleeing primarily the Middle East and North Africa have drowned on rickety smugglers ships in the Mediterranean and other seas around the world. Limited opportunities for safe and regular migration drive would-be migrants into the hands of smugglers, feeding an unscrupulous trade that threatens the lives of desperate people, said IOM Director-General William Lacy Swing. Undocumented migrants are not criminals. They are human beings in need of protection and assistance and deserving respect, he said. Researchers collated previously scattered data on migrant deaths since 2000 and settled on a conservative tally of 40,000 victims worldwide or about eight each day over the past 14 years. As steep as that estimate is, the IOM said it likely undershoots the actual number of irregular migrants who perish making arduous journeys across land and sea because so many governments make no attempt to keep track of their deaths. In fact, counting the number of victims is, in itself, a step forward. In part because governments can deflect responsibility for irregular migrants who die along their borders, there has never been comprehensive data on the scale and scope of such fatalities. According to the IOM, no organization at the global level is currently responsible for systematically monitoring the number of deaths that occur." The results of IOMs research found a concentration of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean Sea, about 75 percent, or 3,072 of the estimated deaths this year, compared with 700 in all of 2013. The Italian government has already reported nearly three times the number of undocumented migrants attempting to reach its soil than in 2013, or 112,000 people. Those figures, the IOM noted, reflect a dramatic increase in the number of migrants trying to reach Europe. Part of the explanation for the rising toll could be better recordkeeping of migrant deaths in Europe. But more salient is Europes proximity to the violent conflicts roiling the Middle East and North Africa, which account for many of the worlds 51 million refugees the most since World War II. More than 3 million people have fled Syrias civil war since it erupted in 2011, and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) continues to drive out thousands more from Syria as well as Iraq. Additional turmoil in Libya, Egypt, Gaza and Sudan spur a steady stream of irregular migrants to risk it all by climbing aboard less-than-seaworthy boats. But the spike in migrant deaths also appears to be a factor of Europes security-minded border policy, which has grown increasingly restrictive as right-wing, anti-immigration parties have surged in elections across the continent. Hospitals are improving their readmission rates, and it's likely not because hospitals are abusing the label of patient observation to avoid financial penalties under the Affordable Care Act, according to a new report from HHS. Late last year, an analysis of Medicare claims by The Wall Street Journal suggested hospitals were manipulating readmissions data by classifying patients as under observation to disguise patient readmission rates. HHS' study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, found no significant correlation between changes in observation status use and changes in readmission rates following implementation of the ACA. Rather, HHS found total returns to the hospital within 30 days including both readmissions and observation stays have experienced a downward trend since the passage of the ACA. Nationally, readmission rates declined from 21.5 percent in 2007 to 17.8 percent in 2015. HHS researchers found rates fell more sharply for conditions specifically targeted by the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program under the ACA, such as heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia. While HHS researchers saw a slight increase in observation stays from 2007 to 2015, they deemed the trend too minor to account for the drop in readmission rates after the ACA. Moreover, observation stays began trending upward in 2008, before the ACA was implemented in May 2010. Researchers suggest an increase in observation stays may have less to do with the HRRP, and instead may reflect general provider confusion over whether inpatient stays would be found inappropriate by Medicare auditors. Apple engineers are creating new security measures that would make it impossible, even for Apple, to break into locked iPhones, reports The New York Times. If Apple updates its security in such a manner, law enforcement agencies will have an even harder time accessing phone data, which the FBI is currently trying to do in the case of an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. According to NYT, "If the FBI wanted to get into a phone in the future, it would need a new way to do so. That would most likely prompt a new cycle of court fights and, yet again, more technical fixes by Apple." Apple executives told NYT that engineers had been working on enhanced security features to iPhones before the San Bernardino attack, and in all likelihood security of iPhones will continue to improve. Experts suggest the only way to break this circle is for Congress to pass legislation requiring tech companies to make their data accessible to law enforcement agencies. Traditional phone carriers are required to make their data accessible under federal wiretapping laws, but such laws do not apply to tech companies. More articles on the Apple vs. FBI case: Bill Gates sides with FBI in Apple encryption debate Apple vs. FBI: 4 key updates Google, Edward Snowden stand with Apple on phone encryption debate Here are 15 recent news updates on key health IT companies. 1. Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner, Epic and McKesson are among vendors participating in pilots to allow individuals to share their health data as part of the government's Precision Medicine Initiative. 2. McKesson signed definitive agreements to acquire two oncology companies, with the two transactions totaling $1.2 billion. 3. The University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City selected Cerner's HealtheIntent population health management platform. 4. In less than three years, Allscripts' open application programming interfaces have exchanged data more than one billion times. 5. Cerner and McKesson are among the first of CommonWell Health Alliance's members to deploy the alliance' cross-vendor interoperability services. 6. Genelex's YouScript Precision Prescribing software will be integrated into the Epic EHR. 7. IBM Watson's three new application program interfaces available to developers boost the supercomputer's emotional and visual capabilities. 8. With the upcoming launch of a new product, eClinicalWorks is making moves into the acute care market. 9. Columbia, S.C.-based Palmetto Health leveraged Cerner's health information exchange solution to connect to the Georgia Regional Academic Community Health Information Exchange. 10. The White House selected former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano to help lead a new panel tasked with creating policy recommendations for governmental cybersecurity initiatives. 11. As hospitals and healthcare systems consider purchasing options, Epic and Cerner continue to lead the pack in EHR mindshare in 2016, according to a new report from research firm peer60. 12. Sarah Bush Lincoln Health System, based in Mattoon, Ill., plans to go live on the Cerner EHR this fall. 13. Over the next five years, South Georgia Medical Center plans to invest $50 million in a new Epic EHR. 14. In fiscal year 2015, Allscripts shrunk its revenue loss and experienced flat revenue, but bookings grew 20 percent compared to the previous year. 15. North by Northeast Community Health Center in Portland, Ore., announced the successful roll out of its new Epic EHR. More articles on health IT: IBM to acquire Truven Health Analytics for $2.6B What hospitals can learn from Hollywood Presbyterian's ransomware run-in Epic, Cerner lead EHR mindshare: This and 9 more health IT purchasing trends The American Medical Association honored eight elected officials and government employees Tuesday with the 2016 Dr. Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Government Service. This prestigious award, named after the AMA's "founding father," recognizes those in government whose contributions promote medicine and public health. Among this year's recipients are House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and former House Speaker John Boehner for their work to repeal and replace the sustainable growth rate formula to pay physicians. "For more than a quarter century of the Nathan Davis Awards, the AMA has sought to salute government officials who go above and beyond the call of duty to improve public health," AMA Board Chair Stephen Permut, MD, said in a statement. "Award winners have come from every branch of government service and confirm the important role public officials can have creating and implementing health policies that benefit Americans." Other recipients of the award honored at Tuesday's ceremony include the following officials. Pennsylvania State Representative Gene DiGiroiamo West Virginia State Sen. Ron Stollings, MD Karen Midthun, MD , former director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research , former director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Retired Lt. Gen. Thomas Travis, MD , former Surgeon General of the U.S. Air Force , former Surgeon General of the U.S. Air Force Mary Currier, MD , state health officer, Mississippi State Department of Health , state health officer, Mississippi State Department of Health Dileep Bal, MD, Kauai District health officer, Hawaii Department of Health More articles on leadership and management: 4 ways exercise is more beneficial than you think How hospitals need to help fight gun violence: 3 experts weigh in on Chicago's pressing public health problem Obama: Healthcare debate is overly politicized Frederico Pop Pop points to map of the village. Each leaf represents a home, and the ones in red designate homes with pregnant women in them. Rodrigo Arias for Al Jazeera America Despite having one of the highest GDPs in the Americas, Guatemala spends only about 2.6 per cent of that on healthcare. The country's largest public hospital is 100 million dollars in debt, and since 2012, Guatemala has had four different presidents, each with new health ministers and management teams. This system in disarray has been impotent in the face of the problems. Almost half of children under five are stunted due to chronic malnutrition. Diarrhea is among the top five killers. Guatemala has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the Americas, behind only Haiti, with 159 deaths per every 100,000 live births. For most of the past century, officials have left these national healthcare problems to NGOS. When Pop Pop became a community health worker back in 1997, the Guatemalan government had just adopted a new regulatory framework the Programa de Extension, or PEC that allowed the Health Ministry to contract out health services to private not-for-profit organizations. This included NGOs, church-backed charities and international development agencies. Their primary goal was to lower the child and infant mortality rate by increasing the number of hospital deliveries, rates of immunization, and access to medication for common and easily treatable illnesses such as diarrhea. At the time, Pop Pop was 26 years old, was newly married and had just had his first child. He says he simply wanted to help. There were no nurses, no help at all in our community, he says. Over the years, he took training courses from three NGOs so he could attend births and give injections. His certificates are framed on the wall of his home, which serves as a makeshift clinic. I always try to get as much information as I can, to learn. In 2012 he was one of 460 community health workers in Alta Verapaz, his department, or state, recruited to take part in an innovative new tele-health program. Managed by a local nonprofit, TulaSalud, and funded by a Canadian charity, the Tula Foundation, the program gave health workers smartphones with unlimited data and calling plans. Downloaded on the phone was an open-source app, Kawok, that allowed the community health workers to create patient profiles and access educational videos and best-practice protocols. They had direct lines to a doctor who worked for TulaSalud, whom they could call any time of day or night in an emergency, and the numbers of auxiliary nurses at nearby health centers. The idea was to create a network of professionals, resources and emergency services that community health workers could reach at the touch of a button. Anytime I could call and ask for help, and they gave it to me, says Pop Pop. It was a really useful tool. To understand why, its important to understand something about the cellphone economy and the geography of rural Guatemala. In the area that Pop Pop covers, for instance, there are six villages (with a total population of about 1,600) that are separated by dirt roads and foot trails that hug steep volcanic mountains. Only a handful of people have private vehicles, and although cellphones are ubiquitous, calls are prohibitively expensive. The average low-income Guatemalan might be able to put the equivalent of $2 of credit on his or her phone at a time. That could buy a few dozen instant messages but just a few minutes of a phone call. The Dalai Lama will address Mayo Clinic staff Monday at the chapel of Saint Marys Hospital in downtown Rochester, Minn., according to the Post-Bulletin. Mayo Clinic confirmed the private address. John Noseworthy, MD, president and CEO of Mayo Clinic, will introduce the Tibetan Buddhist leader to a select number of employees, who will lead a discussion on compassion in healthcare, according to the report. The event will be moderated by TV and radio host Cathy Wurzer. The discussion is not open to the public, but people can watch it online at www.dalailama.com. The 80-year-old Dalai Lama's health has raised concerns among many after he had to cancel his U.S. speaking tour last fall due to ongoing prostate problems. He sought care from the Mayo Clinic in January. However, over the weekend, the Tibetan Buddhist leader spoke to a crowd of 3,000 people in Minneapolis. He appeared energized during his presentation, speaking to the crowd for three hours twice as long as planned, according to the report. The Dalai Lama's media team said the spiritual leader is in good health. "It's an extremely joyous occasion," said Tsewang Chokden, media coordinator for the Tibetan-American Foundation of Minnesota. "After having been through this treatment, everyone was interested in his health and well-being. After seeing him here looking vibrant and healthy, we are all very excited today." The Dalai Lama has another speaking engagement planned for March 9 in Madison, Wis. Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, Calif., is laying off 96 employees, and plans to reduce hours for other workers, according to The Modesto Bee. Here are five things to know about the layoffs. 1. In announcing the layoffs, the hospital, which is affiliated with Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health, cited changes in the healthcare environment. "Every hospital seeks to have a structure in place that provides the best care for patients while remaining financially responsible," Memorial CEO Daryn Kumar said, according to The Modesto Bee. 2. Many of the affected employees are in food service, housekeeping, security and other support services, according to The Modesto Bee, which cites a Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act letter from Memorial. The cuts also include nursing managerial and educator positions. 3. In addition to the cuts, other employees are slated to see their hours reduced. In total, 134 positions, across both clinical and nonclinical departments, will be affected by either a reduction in hours or a position eliminated from the payroll, Craig Baize, a spokesman for Sutter Central Valley Hospitals, told The Modesto Bee. 4. The staff reductions are expected to take effect at the end of April. 5. Memorial anticipates offering new positions to some employees whose jobs are being cut. The National Institutes of Health has named Verily formerly Google Life Sciences advisor to Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University as it prepares to launch a pilot program to support the precision medicine initiative President Barack Obama outlined in 2015, according to Reuters. Vanderbilt's pilot program aims to enroll 79,000 volunteers by the end of this year. These volunteers will submit personal data that will eventually be used to create treatments to diseases, according to NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD. The "cohort program" will expand to more than one million or more U.S. volunteers over time, covering a wide spectrum of participants from diverse age, economic and racial groups, Dr. Collins said. The initiative will track individual characteristics, as opposed to a "medicine based on a one size fits all" approach, said Dr. Collins, according to the report. It will look at the role of environmental exposures and their impact on genetic predispositions in addition to genetic factors. The NIH said more than 40 companies have made commitments to the project so far, including nonprofits, universities, EHR vendors, technology companies, patient advocates and others. The agency is working with the Health Resources and Services Administration to partner with community health centers to find under-served individuals, families and communities to participate in the program. The Vanderbilt/Verily coordinating center will manage the project, including the collection of data from a network of healthcare provider organizations, a "biobank" to store and manage biological specimens provided by participants and a participant technologies center, according to the report. Consolidation has touched all facets of healthcare, including hospitals of all sizes, medical groups and insurers, and this trend will significantly affect the industry as a whole. Mergers, acquisitions and other types of partnerships are critical as hospitals focus on providing coordinated, cost-effective care. There has been an increase in hospital M&A in recent years, with transactions rising 18 percent in 2015 compared to the year prior, according to an analysis by Kaufman, Hall & Associates. Through consolidation, hospitals become more efficient and, many times, improve care quality. However, consolidation also increases leverage and causes revenue to rise. This has led to the creation of "super regional systems," says Gregory F. Hagood, senior managing director and president of SOLIC Capital. This trend is noted in almost every major market, but it is most visible in metro areas like Chicago. The first wave of consolidation in Chicago began a few years ago and came to a head when Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial HealthCare closed its merger with Winfield, Ill.-based Cadence Health in September 2014. Under the agreement, Northwestern Memorial, a fully integrated health system, expanded to include four hospitals. After striking another deal with Dekalb, Ill.-based KishHealth last year, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare has six hospitals and a medical staff of more than 4,000. A second wave of consolidation is on the horizon in the Windy City. In 2014, two Chicago-area health systems, Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care and Evanston, Ill.-based NorthShore University HealthSystem, announced plans to join forces and create a 16-hospital system, the largest in Illinois. However, that plan was put on hold in late 2015, when the Federal Trade Commission filed suit to block the deal. The commission claims the merged entity would command more than 50 percent of inpatient hospital services in the area. If the NorthShore-Advocate merger goes through, the field of dominant players in the Chicago-area healthcare market will significantly condense. The market will be divided between the "haves," or large integrated regional systems with leading market shares, and "have-nots," or smaller systems with limited offerings compared to the "super regional" organizations, says Mr. Hagood. Chicago isn't the only metro area where major systems are joining forces, and other markets, like Philadelphia, are "still ripe for this," says Mr. Hagood. The trend of regional consolidation has also expanded beyond the hospital sector to medical groups in many major markets. A number of factors, including uncertainty about the long-term economic effects of health reform and declining reimbursements for some specialties, have caused many physicians to choose hospital employment rather than the traditional private practice. The number of hospital-employed physicians has grown in recent years: 32.8 percent of physicians worked directly for a hospital, or in practices that had at least some hospital ownership in 2014, up from 29 percent in 2012, according to a study by the American Medical Association. Instead of caving into market pressures and selling, some physician groups have grown into market leaders on the same level as their large hospital-owned competitors. One of these leaders is Downers Grove, Ill.-based DuPage Medical Group. With more than 60 locations, DMG is the largest independent multispecialty physician group in the Chicago area. The medical group has struck interesting partnerships to help keep pace with hospital-owned entities. For example, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois launched an initiative last August to share cost and quality data with DMG physicians for the care patients received outside the group. Last December, the medical group received a $250 million investment through a strategic partnership with Summit Partners, a Boston-based global growth equity firm. The partnership provided DMG with capital and support to grow its service lines and footprint. In New Jersey, Summit Medical Group is the largest physician-owned multispecialty practice. The Berkley Heights-based group was founded in 1929, but most of its growth occurred over the past eight years, with the number of locations increasing from 10 in 2008 to more than 60 in 2015. "These groups are the alternative to the physicians becoming employed by hospitals," says Mr. Hagood, and "this is happening in a number of major markets." Although hospitals view dominant independent medical groups as competitors, insurers have embraced these "super regional" physician groups as a way to slow hospital leverage. More articles on healthcare industry transactions: 5 recent hospital transactions and partnerships Why one hospital merger could be off limits to the FTC Another hospital deal, another fight between Prime and SEIU A multimillion-dollar advertising contract has been swept into the center of an investigation into Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Broward Health. Broward hired Zimmerman Advertising last May to devise a marketing strategy for the health system. The contract became a point of contention in December, when an expansion of the agreement was proposed, according to the Sun Sentinel. The contract expansion, potentially worth $10 million per year, received partial approval last December with a push from David Di Pietro, chairman of the Broward Health board. One of Mr. Di Pietro's close friends, Chip LaMarca, was among the Zimmerman employees involved with the contract. Mr. Di Pietro told the Sun Sentinel he supported the contract because he thought Zimmerman could help the system bring in more paying patients. The health system's former CFO Robert Martin spoke out against the agreement and said Zimmerman used skewed numbers to make an allegedly lousy deal seem more attractive. For instance, Mr. Martin claimed the advertising firm's proposal used a figure for profit per patient per night that was twice the actual profit at the health system. After multiple errors in the proposal were corrected, the return on investment from the contract plummeted from 290 percent to 7 percent. Three weeks after speaking out against the contract expansion, Mr. Martin was fired. Jordan Zimmerman, the founder and CEO of the advertising firm, blamed Mr. Martin for the inaccuracies in the proposal. He told the Sun Sentinel that despite the company's best efforts, they were unable to get information from Mr. Martin, forcing them to use national averages. Mr. Martin told the newspaper, "That accusation is a flat-out lie." The Zimmerman agreement is one of seven contracts the Office of Chief Inspector General of Florida will examine this week. The dispute over the advertising contract is the latest in a string of troubles for Broward. The system was thrown into the spotlight in January when Dr. El Sanadi was found dead in his condominium from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Subsequently, a private investigator came forward, claiming Dr. El Sanadi had hired him last spring for an investigation into Broward that led to FBI involvement. Earlier this month, Broward's former compliance director said he was fired for bringing attention to illegal activities at the health system. More articles on Broward Health: Broward Health CEO dies of self-inflicted gunshot wound 3 execs with Broward Health ties going after health district CEO position: 5 things to know Broward Health board votes to keep meeting on FBI investigation private CMS is increasing site visits to Medicare-enrolled providers as a way to cut back on healthcare fraud. CMS has authority to perform onsite review of a provider or supplier to ensure they are in compliance with Medicare enrollment requirements, and the agency is increasing these site visits, wrote Shantanu Agrawal, CMS deputy administrator and director of the agency's Center for Program Integrity, in a Feb. 22 CMS blog posting. Initially, the visits will target those providers and suppliers receiving high reimbursements by Medicare that are in geographic areas at a high risk for healthcare fraud, according to Mr. Argrawal. When enrolling in Medicare, providers and suppliers are required to provide the address of the location from which they offer services. CMS also plans to monitor and identify potentially invalid address on a monthly basis and use enhanced address verification software to better detect invalid or vacant addresses. More articles on healthcare fraud: Fraud, theft and a teen's fixation with playing physician Owner of billing company pleads guilty in $2M Medicare fraud scheme Healthcare CEO faces life in prison for fraud that led to 2 patient deaths Claiming health insurers were shortchanged by the Affordable Care Act's risk corridor program, Health Republic Insurance Co. has filed a $2.5 billion class-action lawsuit against the U.S., although the CEO of the company says recoveries could be up to $5 billion. The risk corridor program is designed to temporarily level the financial playing field for payers by limiting both unexpectedly high gains and losses associated with participating in a new insurance market. Insurers that saw greater profits paid into a pool to compensate insurers with higher losses. The three-year program, which runs through 2016, fell short by more than $2.5 billion in its first year because so many insurers experienced losses in the individual market. In its lawsuit, Lake Oswego, Ore.-based Health Republic alleges the shortfall in 2014 caused financial distress for some insurers and put others out of business. In October, Health Republic announced it would not offer health plans in 2016. Health Republic claims insurers participating in the risk corridor program will incur even greater losses for 2015 because, like the year prior, HHS is prevented from making any risk corridor payments with government funds. "If not remedied, this paradigm will require insurers to sharply raise their rates and decrease benefits to protect against potential losses from this new risk pool that needs more time to stabilize, resulting in much higher costs to American taxpayers in the long run than the temporary risk corridor program itself, seemingly for perceived political gain," wrote Health Republic in its complaint. Health Republic is seeking full payment of the risk corridor payments for itself and all other similarly situated insurers, which Health Republic CEO Dawn Bonder said could be as much as $5 billion, according to the Portland Business Journal. Ms. Bonder said repayment of its risk corridor money would allow Health Republic to repay the $60 million in loans it owes the federal government, rather than defaulting. The lawsuit is pending in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. More articles on healthcare industry lawsuits: Fraud, theft and a teen's fixation with playing physician Owner of billing company pleads guilty in $2M Medicare fraud scheme Healthcare CEO faces life in prison for fraud that led to 2 patient deaths Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, the largest health insurer in the state, will no longer offer agents and brokers commissions on individuals health plans, according to the Chicago Tribune. The alteration affects commissions for health plans that were sold outside the open enrollment period and take effect April 1. It doesn't affect individual policy renewals or renewals in the Medicare market. Blue Cross saw early success on the individual insurance market in 2014 and early 2015. But its members used a significant amount of services, and Blue Cross has suffered financial losses. The insurer was forced to raise premium prices for 2016 individual plans. "[A]s the individual market evolves, we in turn need to make changes to the way we operate in order to continue offering sustainable health plan options to our members," Blue Cross said in a statement, according to the report. The insurer will "re-evaluate producer commissions" for plans that take effect Jan. 1, 2017. Blue Cross informed agents and brokers of the switch Feb. 23. Other insurers, including UnitedHealth Group, Aetna and Oscar Health have adopted similar commission-free measures. Before his death in 2002, John M. Eisenberg, MD, was an international patient safety expert who inspired change in the healthcare industry through his work as director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. His legacy also inspired his son Mike Eisenberg to direct a documentary on patient safety and medical errors, called "To Err is Human." Mr. Eisenberg works as a full-time creative director at Tall Tale Productions, working on filmmaking and commercial work with his two business partners. Mr. Eisenberg's educational background and professional experience may not include medicine or healthcare management, but he considers this advantageous for a filmmaker: His lack of experience in healthcare allows him to research patient safety through an outsider's perspective, he says. As part of his research, Mr. Eisenberg has spoken with dozens of healthcare leaders, including: Jeff Brady, MD, director of AHRQ's Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Helen Burstin, MD, chief scientific officer of The National Quality Forum Carolyn Clancy, MD, assistant deputy under secretary for health, safety and quality of the Veterans Health Administration Nancy Foster, vice president of quality and patient safety policy of the American Hospital Association Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter Richard Kronick, PhD, director of AHRQ Lisa Simpson,, MB, BCh. president and CEO of AcademyHealth The "To Err is Human" production team is planning additional interviews with healthcare leaders, hospital executives and people whose lives have been impacted by the consequences of medical errors. Between shooting interviews and editing film, Mr. Eisenberg answered a few questions for Becker's Hospital Review about his documentary, his father's work and the state of patient safety in the healthcare industry today. Note: Responses have been lightly edited lightly for length and clarity. Question: Was your father's work always a big part of your life growing up or are matters of the healthcare industry more of a recent interest? Mike Eisenberg: My father passed away when I was in high school and I admittedly did not have a personal interest in his work. At the time, I knew he was an important figure in healthcare policy, but I did not look too closely at his work. In the almost 15 years since his passing, I have learned about his work and his ability to bridge the political gaps through the anecdotes of his colleagues. I like to think of this film's production as a way of retracing his steps and presenting patient safety in a new way, while also working to understand what led him to be so passionate about his work. Q: What made you decide to make a documentary about patient safety and medical errors? ME: The initial inspiration came from news that AHRQ was potentially going to be defunded. I didn't understand how any political element could get rid of what I understand as an essential part of healthcare, so I looked a little closer and thought about making a documentary about AHRQ and its efforts. While that is still a significant part of our documentary, we transitioned the film's main focus into the broader story of patient safety: Where are we at today? What's changed and what hasn't? Why don't we talk about this at the national level? What does preventable harm even look like? What does it do to individuals and families physically, emotionally and financially? What can we actually do about it? We've recently turned our focus to also include my personal journey of understanding my dad's work and why he was so passionate about it. So it will definitely take on a personal angle of my own journey to learn about patient safety. Q: Who is the documentary's target audience? Is it for healthcare experts, lawmakers and advocates, or laypeople? ME: The initial goal of the film is to influence the layperson to take an active role in their healthcare experience. We seek to inform the average American about what patient safety is and why it should matter to them. But in doing so, we believe that we will speak clearly to the experts and policymakers as to how they can do a better job at improving patient safety. It is not an attack on doctors and nurses, nor is it an attack on any individual. Instead it focuses on the human issues at the heart of medical errors. Q: What is your goal in making this film? Is it to raise awareness, call for regulatory changes in the industry or provide improvement solutions? ME: All of the above. We will present tangible solutions for patients when they arrive at the hospital and when they take their healthcare experience home with them. We will provide insight to the tech companies that are simplifying the medical process that has become too complex for even the providers to keep up with. But most importantly, we will raise awareness about patient safety and preventable harm. The fact of the matter is, most people have no idea what patient safety means, let alone what it looks like. For the most part, we can't see harm. It happens at a microscopic level. But there are a lot of things happening in front of our eyes at hospitals that can be improved on the parts of both the patient and the provider. Q: What has been the most rewarding part of making this film so far? What has been the biggest challenge? ME: I have to admit the most rewarding part of making this film has been tracing over my father's footsteps. I'm reading old copies of his books that he had highlighted and dog-eared. It's been quite incredible to have a professional goal that is so aligned with his career work. But on a professional level, it has been incredibly rewarding to become an active part of the patient safety movement. Like most of the general public, I've always regarded issues like patient safety to be "somebody else's issue." The reality is that someday it might impact somebody I love, if not myself directly, and through my efforts I already feel like a more empowered patient for the next time I need the healthcare system. That's the feeling I want people who watch the film to walk away with. The biggest challenge has been raising funds for the actual production. Making a documentary is far from cheap. We've had amazing support from individuals and organizations dedicated to improving patient safety, but when it comes to the brass tax of collecting funds for the film, that's a different beast entirely. We've put an initial number at roughly $125,000 for the all-in costs of this film, but there's no way to know for sure how much more we will need once the film is completed. So far we have raised $31,000 on Kickstarter, our main fundraising effort, and $6,000 in private donations. Q: Why did you chose to name the documentary after the landmark Institute of Medicine report "To Err is Human: Building A Safer Health System" from 1999? ME: We did not choose the title directly because of the IOM report, but we do believe all patient safety discussions are inevitably connected to it. While there are certainly solutions presenting in the book that we feel compelled to expand upon, the fact is, in the 15 years since that report, we've lost sight of what the saying "to err is human" is really about. There are a few renditions of it. Most famously, we hear, "to err is human; to forgive, divine." We're not interested in the forgiveness version. We're interested in the original Latin proverb version, which says, "To err is human, but to persist in error is diabolical." Our film understands that human beings will make mistakes. But why are we still making the same ones? Why is the patient-centered care such a foreign idea? Why are there not more cases like Michelle Malizzo Ballog, who died after a fatal error during surgery, and the hospital made significant policy changes as a direct result of those mistakes? Ultimately, I think it's important to understand that our effort is not intended to solve every problem. No one documentary can. But we want to bring patient safety back into the national discussion. We want to see people understanding what it means and what it looks like. We don't want people to think that words like "healthcare" and "patient safety" and "hospital-associated infections" don't affect them. This is an epidemic. In 2000, my dad called for a "war on medical errors" and we don't have anything to show for that 15 years later. To learn more about the documentary, watch the video below. More articles on patient safety: 100% of investigated hospitals have cybersecurity vulnerabilities that could result in patient harm Why Brigham and Women's Hospital put medical errors in blog form Physician links transparency with patient safety, but overlooks adverse events at own hospital In the 16 months since they became aware of the deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Flint, Mich., none of the government agencies in Genesee County have performed tests on the city's water supply to determine whether Legionella bacteria is present, according to The Detroit News. Experts told The News this lack of testing has made it impossible to know the source of the more than 85 infections and nine deaths due to Legionella that have occurred in the intervening months. Timely testing could have determined whether the presence of the bacteria coincided with Flint's shift in water supply, which changed from Detroit's system to the Flint River and back after thousands of children developed lead poisoning from tainted river water. Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services both considered testing water samples from Flint in early 2015, but neither agency did, according to The News. Additionally, the Environmental Protection Agency published testing recommendations for the city's water, which were ignored by state and county agencies. "MDEQ should have done such testing, especially after they were alerted to Legionella problems by the Genesee County Health Department," Marc Edwards, PhD, an investigator who sounded the alarm on lead poisoning in Flint early on, told The News. "Better yet, they should have allowed CDC to come in and do that testing for them." In a summary of a meeting to explore the Legionella outbreak in Flint, Darren Lytle, acting chief of the Treatment Technology Evaluation Branch at the Cincinnati EPA, offered to test water samples from Flint, as the organization's lab had recently tested for the bacteria at two Ohio hospitals and was still equipped to do so, according to The News. However, an EPA spokeswoman told the paper that the EPA never received an official request from GeneseeCounty, the city of Flint or the state of Michigan to do so. State officials cited CDC guidelines that do not recommend routine testing of municipal water for the presence of Legionella; however, state laboratories were in possession of a minimum of eight positive bacterial samples from patients that could have been analyzed and tested for DNA matches in environmental samples from Flint, according to The News. GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo A ban on plastic bags may have earned Rwanda high praise from the international community, but the country's failure to account for the people mostly women who depend on the bags for their livelihood has spawned a thriving black market. Umutoni Magambo, a 28-year-old from the Rwandan town of Gisenyi, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, has smuggled thousands of plastic bags into Rwanda. She began taking her clients the bags, or sachets, along with their traditional requests for powdered milk, boxed tomatoes and vegetable oil all substantially cheaper in the DRC shortly after the bags were banned in 2008. In the Congolese town of Goma, Magambo who asked that her real name not be used, out of fear of a law enforcement crackdown would undress in a bathroom and tape hundreds of bags to her arms, legs and torso before putting her dress back on and setting out along one of the many illegal paths across the border. If she continued her journey all the way to the Rwandan capital, Kigali, some 100 miles away, she could make $10 on $30 worth of bags, or almost a weeks average wages in Rwanda. But in 2011, Magambo gave up smuggling the bags after a friend was caught and sentenced to six months in the infamous Nyakiriba prison. With two young children, I couldnt take the risk, she said. Rwanda has ramped up its efforts in recent years to stop the bags, which remain popular among street vendors and market stall owners, from filtering into the country from neighboring DRC, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi. Police search vehicles and pedestrians at border crossings and along Rwandas porous borders for the lucrative contraband, which is easily hidden under clothing. If caught, smugglers say they are forced to destroy the bags, sometimes with their teeth. Worse, they are detained indefinitely and fined hundreds of dollars, which they have no means of paying. On the Congolese side, they say, beatings are common, and in exchange for sex, officers might allow smugglers to cross the border without paying a bribe. Magambo, who continues to smuggle canned goods across the border, says she would like to run a market stall but worries she wont make enough money. The Rwandan taxes are too high, she says. Its too expensive to work legally. Bags confiscated by Rwandan authorities in Gisenyi, on the border with the DRC. Sophie Pilgrim Customers who buy the bags from smugglers say the same thing about why they peddle plastic. No buyer wants to take home sombe [pulverized cassava leaves] or tomatoes in a paper bag. The vegetables sweat, and the bag dissolves, said Beatrice Rukundo, 33, who has been working at the Gisenyi market for 11 years. If we dont provide plastic bags, our buyers will go elsewhere, she said. Rukundo, who also would not reveal her real name, was wary of speaking about the bags, which she buys from smugglers by the hundred and keeps in the wrap of her skirt. They arrest everyone, she said. Smugglers, buyers, traders. We cant afford to pay the fine, so we just have to wait until they let us out, sometimes days later. A few stalls down, a woman selling flour initially said she didnt have any plastic bags but eventually offered one. In Kigali, where the bags fetch the highest price, the contraband is even more taboo. Market stall owners claim not to have any, but they know who uses them. Poor street vendors, who have been described by the authorities as undesirables and vagabonds, depend on the bags entirely, since they cannot showcase products in paper bags. The authorities are intent on cracking down on the informal workers, who pay no taxes and risk tarnishing Kigalis reputation as the cleanest city in Africa a designation awarded by U.N. Habitat in 2008. In October 2015, Human Rights Watch released a report that details the arbitrary detention of street vendors at a transit center in a residential suburb of Kigali, where they are reportedly beaten and kept in deplorable conditions. Having poor people on the street spoils the positive image that Kigali is a modern, clean, city, attractive to foreign visitors, said Carina Tertsakian, a senior researcher at the Africa division of Human Rights Watch. Thats what motivates rounding up these people and chucking them into detention. Appearances are crucial in Rwanda, which has fought hard to reinvent itself after the 1994 genocide as Africas most prosperous and hopeful state. As a small country with few natural resources, it depends enormously on international aid. Residents and smugglers on a street in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Sophie Pilgrim Although it may not be a daily occurrence, many physicians have had patients who refuse care due to the color of the physician's skin. Kimani Paul-Emile, JD, PhD, and three other authors wrote guidelines for physicians when encountering racist patients, according to Medscape. New England Journal of Medicine published the perspective paper. Here are four ways to deal with racist patients. 1. Assess a patient's medical condition. Physicians should treat and stabilize patients regardless of his/her opinions. If a patient is deemed stable, the physician should assess the patient's decision-making capacity. A patient refusing treatment due to "bigotry" may be suffering from dementia, delirium or psychosis, which may cause the change in the patient's preferences. 2. Consider accommodating a patient's request. After assessing a patient's decision-making ability and determining he/she is sound, the provider should try to transfer the patient to another facility or physician. Although institutions are under obligation to reject bigotry, the issue is much more complicated for physicians. The authors support physicians who do or do not accommodate the patient, and encourage physicians to tell patients their "hateful or racist speech is not allowed." 3. Seek help from family members. If a patient is refusing care for racist reasons, the medical professional should enlist the help of the patient's family members who can better accommodate the patient and negotiate. 4. Respect a patient's beliefs. There is a fine line between rejecting a physician on account of bigotry versus cultural beliefs. For example, a Muslim woman may decline care from a male physician for modesty or cultural beliefs. "We know for communities that have faced discrimination in the past, a request for a same-race or same-ethnicity physician might increase the quality of care they receive," Dr. Paul-Emile said. "We need to have a more nuanced and measured analysis for thinking about types of requests or rejections based on race." More articles on practice management: Dr. Richard Stefanacci's 6 observations of the physician generation gap Healthcare-related artificial intelligence to grow tenfold in the next 5 years 4 takeaways Most physicians own guns, MD Magazine poll finds: 5 takeaways The Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians has issued a letter appealing the Pennsylvania Insurance Department to intervene in Highmark's plan to cut reimbursement to physicians providing care for patients with PPACA plans. Here are four notes: 1. According to Highmark, it lost $500 million last year from plans purchased on the PPACA marketplace. Thus, starting on April 1, doctors' payments will be cut by 4.5 percent. 2. PAFP is fighting against the decision. PAFP President Nicole Davis, MD, calls Highmark's move "profoundly disappointing," especially as the group maintains Highmark has several billion dollars in reserves. 3. Highmark is involved in patient-centered medical homes, improving patient outcomes and avoiding hospitalization, which makes the announcement even more concerning for physicians in the state. 4. Dr. Davis also urges the Pennsylvania Insurance Department to ensure the viability of PPACA marketplace plans without negatively impacting participating physicians. Zimmer Biomet issued a warning on 21 orthopedic devices distributed worldwide, according to a Journal Gazette report. Here are five things to know: 1. The company warned hospitals to inspect 21 models of the devices for pieces of plastic packaging that could stick to the implants or devices. 2. Zimmer Biomet officials estimate one in 12,800 devices are affected, meaning around 60 of the 730,000 knee, hip and shoulder implants distributed. 3. The FDA labeled the recall as Class II because it won't trigger severe or deadly reactions if the implant is placed in a patient. 4. The recall was officially announced last month. 5. The company reported a 9.1 percent increase in the quarterly dividend for the first quarter of 2016 and the board of directors authorized a new share repurchase program. More articles on spine surgery: 5 thoughts on outcomes measurements for spinal trauma patients 10 spine, neurosurgeons on the move in January Do independent practice physicians need an MBA to survive? The private practice world is increasingly complex and medical schools aren't training future physicians in business principles. Instead, some physicians are considering MBAs while others are looking at shorter programs to fill the gaps. "Business school is good for everyone," says Richard Wohns, MD, JD, MBA, founder of NeoSpine in the Puget Sound Region of Washington. "MBA programs provide incredibly interesting and valuable information, no matter what you do." Dr. Wohns completed his MBA in the 1990s with the goal of opening new horizons not only in his busy private practice, but in other realms as well. The low-hanging fruit was the benefit an MBA program in helping navigate the world of private practice for the next 20 to 30 years as the healthcare field was changing. The old adage, "availability, affability and ability," was still true, but business acumen was necessary to thrive. He expected to learn about running his practice which he did and also learned much more in the process. The MBA class included executives from across the business landscape including Boeing and other airlines companies, finance and banking, pharma, Microsoft, healthcare and others. Each individual brought a different personality and perspective to the table. The instructor challenged his students to reach beyond their scope of expertise with this illustrative example: Apple had ousted Steve Jobs from his CEO post and Dr. Wohns was tasked with giving a presentation forecasting the next steps for Apple's new CEO. Before long, Dr. Wohns changed his mindset from a neurosurgeon mentality to an entrepreneur mentality. "It was an eye-opening experience in how little I knew about the way the world worked," he says. "It was humbling and good for my brain to be trained in a different way." In residency training, neurosurgeons are often trained as the "leader and captain of the ship." However, in business school, teamwork is taught as the cornerstone of any successful business, with the captain as part of the team. "You learn to be dependent on other people and other people are dependent on you. Everyone is equal on the team," says Dr. Wohns. "There are all these people out there with incredible skills and if we can tap into those skills, we can build a great environment to grow a business." In one of Dr. Wohns' first microeconomics classes, the professor went around the room and asked each member of the class: "What is your business?" While the instructor passed through most of the class without question, Dr. Wohns was different. It wasn't enough for Dr. Wohns to say he was a neurosurgeon in private practice who operated on patients at different hospitals. "That's not your business," the instructor said. "What is your business?" Dr. Wohns talked about the brain and spine aspects of his practice and the revolutionary opportunities for outpatient care going forward. While brain surgery was a passion, it was becoming less invasive and more interventional. Dr. Wohns recognized that his practice would be predominantly spine surgery in the future. The two went back and forth until Dr. Wohns described his practice as among the only facilities in the United States performing outpatient spine surgeries at that time. "That sounds like a business to me," said the instructor. From that point on, Dr. Wohns focused on building an outpatient spine surgery company Neospine. He wrote a business plan and courted investors as a result of his training and connections in the MBA course. "I had the help of the other physicians in MBA program plus the microeconomics professor to write the business plan. I had the help of my study group to devise an outcomes study as our final project for our statistics class," says Dr. Wohns. "After I graduated from my MBA program, I worked with a classmate from Yale Medical School who was one of the first MD, MBAs in the country, and whom had been a professor of entrepreneurship and venture capital at Harvard Business School. I then worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers and upgraded the business plan to a high level. I was able to recruit business staff and raise $20 million in venture capital money to start Neospine." Symbion eventually purchased Neospine and Dr. Wohns continued to successfully run his outpatient spine practice as well as a consulting business. "After earning my MBA, I realized I'm not just a neurosurgeon; I'm a strategist, thinker and business person," says Dr. Wohns. Some surgeons worry about leaving their practice for a business degree, but Dr. Wohns was able to run his practice while earning his MBA. The program included one long class on the weekends and one night per week devoted to a study group working on assignments, projects and presentations. There was considerable preparation outside of class as well, which cut into personal time. It was a major sacrifice, but critical to building a successful practice and business as an independent physician in the evolving healthcare space. "Changes in medicine can really throw a monkey wrench into a lot of physicians' practices," says Dr. Wohns. "You have to go with the flow and understand the economics of what is happening; you have to know whose interests are at play and the different niches you can work in to decide what is best for your practice. You need to understand the concept of return-on-investment and realize success in the private world so you know where to direct your efforts and money." There are new challenges for Dr. Wohns every day and his business degree helps him navigate those issues. He sits on the board of directors for several companies, including publicly-traded companies, and his business background is paramount in those settings. Dr. Wohns subsequently attended law school and earned a JD. His consulting clients benefit from his outpatient spine surgery experience, plus his business and medical-legal expertise he acquired during his MBA and JD programs. But is it necessary for busy physicians to take a whole two years to attend an MBA program? Will shorter, weekend courses suffice? Or maybe programs geared toward healthcare providers to learn business principles? "There are a lot of ways to gain knowledge once you are in your career," says Dr. Wohns. "The formal MBA program is the full package. Without that, you may not maximally benefit from networking with colleagues from across the spectrum. Part of learning is being under stress and having to do presentations on subjects that aren't your area of expertise. I had to write a full business plan and analysis for a laser vision correction practice definitely an experience I would otherwise not have had as a neurosurgeon. This is something valuable and incredible that you don't get in short form training. If you are going to do it, do it. It's worth it. It was really a fun experience." More articles on spine surgery: 5 thoughts on outcomes measurements for spinal trauma patients 10 spine, neurosurgeons on the move in January Albert L. Rhoton Jr., MD, of University of Florida College of Medicine died in his Gainesville home on Feb. 21, according to UFHealth. Dr. Rhoton served as a University of Florida professor and chairman emeritus of the Lillian S. Wells department of neurosurgery. During his career, Dr. Rhoton developed hundreds of neurosurgical devices and trained thousands of residents and fellows in microneurosurgical techniques. Before joining University of Florida, Dr. Rhoton was a neurosurgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Dr. Rhoton served as the president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Society of Neurological Surgeons, North American Skull Base Society, Interdisciplinary Congress on Craniofacial and Skull Base Surgery, Florida Neurosurgical Society and International Society for Neurosurgical Technology and Instrumentation Invention. Dr. Rhoton earned his medical degree from Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis, where he also completed his neurosurgery residency. More articles on spine: Donor site pain after spinal fusion iliac crest bone harvest 6 takeaways The entrepreneur mindset: How an MBA opened doors for one spine surgeon's practice 5 key notes on how narcotic use affects spine surgery complications, length of stay To continue following the latest news and information for Bedfordshire and surrounding areas, simply enter your full postcode below The description of Lisburns Noel Heaney by his regulator was damning: he lacks integrity and is not competent to run an authorised firm. As a result, his mortgage broking business Heaney Finance has been banned by the Financial Services Authority. Previously Heaney sold secured and personal loans and consolidated debt services, as well as mortgages. But the FSA has banned him acting as a mortgage broker, investment advisor or from undertaking various other regulated activities after identifying wide-ranging management and control problems across his business and for failing to treat his customers fairly. The FSA found that Heaney had allowed an inexperienced employee to run his firm on his behalf while failing to ensure he kept informed of the business conducted in his name. Moreover, his advisers did not receive adequate training and support. The banning of Heaney should act as a warning to all consumers of financial products. Heaney is not the first financial intermediary in Northern Ireland to be banned, but the complaints against him are the most serious so far. MORTGAGE FRAUD Anyone keeping a close eye on the banning orders issued by the FSA will not be surprised at this latest case. In recent months many other mortgage brokers have been found to have acted recklessly, stupidly and, in some cases (but not Heaneys), dishonestly. Some brokers have been party to mortgage fraud to such an extent that some created falsified pay records for clients. Heaney himself was found to have maintained weak records and security systems that could have enabled mortgage fraud to have been committed by others. Sadly Heaney is not alone the Governments Serious Organised Crime Agency has warned that IFAs are particularly vulnerable to threats of organised crime. The previous occasion when a Northern Ireland mortgage advisor was banned was when a Londonderry firm was found to have failed to prevent mortgage fraud. Two years ago, Jack Keay, trading as Jack Keay Mortgage Services, was banned because, despite his being a small business, he did not operate basic controls over the firms trading practices. INDIVIDUAL FAILINGS At the time, Jonathan Phelan, head of retail enforcement at the FSA, said: Jack Keays business was used to commit mortgage fraud. We identified many individual failings in what is a very small mortgage broker business. When concerns about mortgage fraud were drawn to his attention by a lender he delegated the task of following this up to his appointed representative and never thought to check on the outcome or make changes to his systems. After the FSA showed him examples of types of falsified documents submitted to lenders through his business, he still failed to demonstrate that he understood the risks. We do not and will not allow people who lack a basic level of competence and capability to perform controlled functions at authorised firms, especially where they are effectively facilitating financial crime. Other advisors have done worse: they did not simply fail to prevent crime, they committed it. Three financial advisors were last month imprisoned after they were found to have carried out a VAT fraud that stole nearly 2 million from taxpayers in an operation that involved setting up 15 bogus companies that were supposed to be trading in various parts of England and Scotland. The message here is that consumers need to be very careful who they trust when seeking any sort of financial advice. It is an occupation where anyone can claim to be a financial advisor, just as unfortunately anyone can call themselves an accountant without necessarily having any qualifications or skills. It makes sense to use a chartered or certified accountant and it makes equal sense to opt for a chartered or certified financial planner. Being chartered or certified signifies that a person has passed exams that demonstrate expertise in the subject. Financial advice should be the preserve of professionals often it is not. Stephen Lansdown, co-owner and co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, one of the most highly regarded IFA and brokerage firms, once said: Huge numbers of financial advisers are incompetent. Lansdown has a vested interest, but it is a fair verdict as were the FSAs comments about Heaney, by the look of it. It is a timely warning about whom to take financial advice and guidance from. Belfast can attract 1bn of investment and create an additional 30,000 new jobs in the next 10 years, a new city council led campaign has claimed. It's taking a joint public and private sector trade mission to MIPIM - one of the world's biggest property expos, in Cannes - and is hoping to attract major investors here. It's the first time Belfast has made the trip since the property crash. The council said Belfasts major development sites are now largely free from the "burden of Nama debt". It's campaigning and selling Belfast based on a range of areas, including low corporation tax. Belfast City Council chief executive Suzanne Wylie said: With the burden of Nama debt largely lifted and regional developers and investors back in the market, we believe that a target of 1bn worth of investment and the creation of tens of thousands of jobs is within our reach. We can transform the city and move it on to a new level to be competitive on a global stage. The council is committed to working in partnership with the private sector to make this work, we want to encourage, facilitate and deliver. We want to play our part in transforming this city to put it where it deserves to be." Jackie Henry, senior partner at Deloitte, who heads up the MIPIM steering group, said: I wish to commend Belfast City Council for taking the lead on this initiative, but I am thrilled that the excitement I felt for this project has been echoed right across the private sector with many companies coming on board with great enthusiasm and commitment. We have assembled group of over 25 private and public organisations who are largely funding this project." Lord Mayor Arder Carson said:The council unveiled its investment and regeneration strategy last year with the aims of growing employment and the population, improving the retail offering and maximising tourism opportunity, There are already tangible examples of how this is starting to work. Europes largest and most exciting waterfront development at Titanic Quarter continues to be transformed before our eyes. There are various other plans to for Grade A office space, student housing, hotels, residential developments." Cuts in the public sector are leading to a slowdown in Northern Ireland's white collar job market, a major recruitment agency has said. Hays - which has three offices here employing 70 people - said public sector recruitment fell by 14% in the six months to December 2015. And overall, the number of posts shrunk by 1% across both public and private roles. That's a significant change of fortune from a huge boost of 22% in the 12 months to June last year. But jobs in IT and construction did bolster employment here during the period, according to Hays' global finance director Paul Venables. "We were up by 12% in the IT space. We deal with IBM, Intel, Fujitsu, and there is positive growth in those markets," he said. The construction industry also increased by around 5%. Throughout the UK, Hays saw its fees increase by 3% in the six months to December. It posted pre-tax profits of 86.3m, up 6%. Turnover also increased to just shy of 400m. "If the public sector is very cautious, spending with private businesses is being frozen, subduing the market," Mr Venables said. "My temperature on Belfast and Northern Ireland is there are good opportunities in the private sector, some investment... but it's been a bit more cautious." And he said companies are likely to "sit on their hands" while the uncertainty of a potential Brexit hangs over them. "In every election, everywhere in the world, you always see growth start to slow down," he said. "95% of everything we do is within the country. "The bulk of jobs are in Northern Ireland, and that will continue to grow. "If we stay in, the uncertainty will be a short one, if we leave, the period will be a bit longer." And while six months ago Northern Ireland was the strongest market in the UK, it's now one of the lowest three regions. "We have continued strong growth in the private sector, so that's the positive. "There has been a real slowdown in public sector recruitment." He said this reduction was likely down to roles not being replaced. "We have seen a freeze in place. When people have left, and moved on, those jobs have not been replaced. In the UK, we have had a more gradual slowdown. "Cost control is the buzzword and only the key jobs are being replaced. The most interesting thing is where we will be in Northern Ireland in six months." Hays has also frozen its own headcount, after previously increasing its workforce by around 30%. PIKETON, Ohio A patch of land in the hills of rural Pike County, Ohio, hardly looks as if it played a key role in the Cold War. But as politicians dueled on the world stage, workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant south of Piketon toiled away producing weapons-grade uranium for the United States military. The plant went online in 1954, lasted through the Cold War and is now in the process of winding down. Presciently, a group of Amish settlers who once plowed the land pulled up stakes when construction on the plant began in 1952. They were worried about the environmental impact, and the traditional pacifists were uncomfortable with the militaristic aspects of the complex. Fast-forward to today, with the plant being decommissioned and an environmental cleanup underway, and former workers say the Amish were right to be afraid. Ex-employees at the plant say that they were sickened by radiation exposure and that the government is turning a deaf ear to them, even though there is a process set up specifically to handle such matters. What has happened is the bureaucracy has become so entwined and is so busy taking care of itself that the claimants are pushed down, said former worker Lisa Parker. For her, the health issues of former Piketon workers are a family affair. Her husband, Calvin Parker, has an aggressive form of prostate cancer, and she has beryllium disease. Her mother, who also once worked at the plant, died of cancer. Lisa Parker filed a health claim in 2003, and it was denied, and it was again denied when she applied in 2009. In 2015 it was finally approved retroactively to 2003, but she has yet to recoup costs that she had to pay under her insurance plans 80/20 plan. Twenty percent is still a lot, she said. [The Department of Energy] wont approve it or look at it to study it. Eight of 14 employees in Calvins department had an aggressive form of prostate cancer before they were 60. If you are 78 years old and you get prostate cancer, youll die with it but not from it, but if you are 60 and you get it, it will kill you, and they wont even study it, Lisa Parker said. And prostate cancer can vary. This is not the type of cancer that someone working at your local Dairy Queen would get, said David Manuta, the chief scientist at the plant from 1990 to 2000, one year before it ceased operations, describing it as a more malignant form than is common. The Department of Energy, which is handling claims, set up a program known as dose reconstruction, but the program overlooks some key data, he said. Uranium-238 is the kind that comes out of the ground, he said. To make it weapons grade, it has to be refined to uranium-235, which is what the Department of Energy tests look for. But the tests overlook uranium-234 another isotope. That is what most of the workers were exposed to uranium-234. Manuta, who serves as an expert witness for individuals suing the government, is preparing to sue the government himself over the use of the flawed dose reconstruction simulation. For Paul Brogdon, the battle for his health goes far beyond simulations; its an everyday reality. He was a police officer in Portsmouth, Ohio. But he left that job to work at Piketon in the same role as Calvin Parker: transporting uranium. Brogdon worked at Piketon for 22 years before taking an early retirement in 1998 to care for his ailing wife. Five years later, when he was 59, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The same aggressive kind that Parker developed. You always hear that older men get prostate cancer, but we are usually talking late 70s or 80s and even then it usually grows slowly, and often theyll just keep an eye on it. But In my case it grew rapidly. I had the cancer removed but not before cancer cells went into my bloodstream, and Im fighting it to this day, Brogdon said. Today he says the treatment saps his strength, but my choice is take this medicine and feel bad or not take the medicine and the cancer will grow rapidly and I would be gone within a year. I dont like that choice, so I take the medicine, he said. His insurance company pays the medical bills, but he still has to pay the mounting co-pays and deductibles, which he says the Department of Energy should be taking care of. Brodgons claim for prostate cancer has been denied. He has had five dose reconstructions (the ones Manuta says are flawed) and they have failed to qualify him for workers compensation. The dose reconstructions are administered by the National Institute of Safety and Health via the Department of Energy. A spokesman for the Department of Energy did not respond to requests for comment. Overall, the response from the government has been mixed through the years. The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program was created in 2001 through an act of Congress. The government originally projected that the program would compensate over 3,000 people at an annual cost of $120 million. Instead, about $12 billion has been paid to more than 50,000 workers. The government created the program, deliberately underestimating how many people would need help, Manuta said, adding that the problems in Piketon can be found in clusters of former armament works throughout the country. A decadelong study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health failed to find a causal link between exposure in Piketon and health problems a conclusion that many former workers scoff at. The report reads, In summary, this was an exhaustive effort to understand the exposures and their potential effects on this population of nuclear workers. At this point in time, there do not seem to be deviations in mortality of sufficient magnitude to detect epidemiologically. It remains to be determined whether this is because there has been no adverse mortality resulting from these exposures or if it is a matter of the relatively young age of this cohort. Brodgon said he will continue the fight, believing that there should be congressional hearings into the Department of Energys conduct, including during the claims period. Despite it all, he doesnt necessarily have any regrets. The jobs are few and far between in these river towns. When I went out there, I didnt know beans from apple butter, as far as nuclear business. I made good money and supported my family. I didnt realize what I was up against at the time, he said. The percentage of online retail sales made in the UK through smartphones and tablets has exceeded 50% for the first time The percentage of online retail sales made in the UK through smartphones and tablets has exceeded 50% for the first time, figures show. Mobile devices accounted for 51% of online sales between November and January, a substantial increase on the 45% recorded in the previous quarter and up from 40% on the same period the year before, according to the latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini Quarterly Benchmarking report. Tablets accounted for 33% of sales, smartphones for 18% and desktop or laptop computers for 49%. Visits to retail websites via mobile devices accounted for two-thirds (66%) of traffic over the last quarter, up from 63% in the previous quarter and 53% on the same time last year. The report said the leap appeared to be driven by increased confidence in using smartphones for online shopping, likely helped by the trend for larger screens but also by significant improvements made by many mobile retail sites. IMRG chief information officer Tina Spooner said: "Smartphones have played an important role in the overall online shopping process for a long time - often used for research and comparison on the go. "But over the past year they have really started to become a major component of the checkout process too and that is what is driving this leap in mobile penetration. "There is also the fact that we increasingly use our smartphones for managing so much of our lives. "It's only logical that completing purchases on retail sites would gravitate over to these devices as well." Plans are under way for yet another student accommodation development beside Lavery's bar Plans are under way for yet another student accommodation development - this time in the heart of one of Belfast's busiest nightspots. The new 280-bedroom building would see vacant and occupied buildings developed, including Bishops chip shop, beside Lavery's bar on the so-called Golden Mile at Bradbury Place. It is just metres away from a proposed student development on the Dublin Road that received dozens of complaints from locals. Scottish developers Rojem Properties are behind the new scheme, with Durnien Surveyors in Newtownabbey also working on the project. It is understood they hope to submit a full planning application before the end of April. Businesses in the area have already been informed about an initial pre-application event next month. That is being held at Benedict's Hotel across the road, on March 16. The meeting will give bars, restaurants, retailers and any residents a chance to voice their concerns. Architects are still working on various ideas for the development, which could be six or even seven storeys high. It is thought that developers will be aiming to attract students from both Ulster University and Queen's University, but primarily the latter because of its close proximity. Just last week, another 500 student bedrooms were given the green light for Belfast, while two other developments were deferred. It means more than 1,600 new student rooms have now been granted permission. Approval was given for a development that will involve the demolition of the former Belfast Metropolitan College building facing Blackstaff Square. Around 7,500 rooms are at different stages of development, with several projects under way. Just last month 1,200 student rooms got the green light after two major developments were passed by the council. They are a 682-bedroom project at York Street by UK firm UniCiti, and a 475-room building by Patton Developments at Great Patrick Street. More small firms in Northern Ireland are in favour of the UK leaving the EU than big businesses, it's been claimed. More small firms in Northern Ireland are in favour of the UK leaving the EU than big businesses, it's been claimed. A study by the Federation for Small Businesses (FSB) here showed that while 54% of their members want to stay in the EU, almost a third want to leave, with the rest undecided. That's significantly higher than the 19% of bigger businesses found to be in favour of Brexit in a survey by the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce. The FSB was addressing the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee yesterday afternoon. Northern Ireland chairman Wilfred Mitchell said: "Some people have tried to insist businesses are overwhelmingly pro-Europe. "It's overly simplistic to describe business as a single cohesive block." He said there are around 100,000 small firms here, which employ more than large businesses and the public sector. Meanwhile, one academic has warned that any benefit Northern Ireland would get from a low corporation tax rate "could be reversed by a Brexit". Dr Edgar Morgenroth of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin said: "With regards to trade, EU membership increases trade by about 20% compared to a bilateral trade agreement with the EU. "Evidence also suggests that EU membership has been a key factor in attracting FDI to the UK from outside as well as inside the EU. And CBI director Nigel Smyth said Northern Ireland benefits exponentially from being in the EU, costing us 83 a head each year, while gaining more than 1,200 back through the various "benefits and value of EU membership". Chef Valentine Warner, pictured in the Lofoten Islands, Norway, as part of his cookery show Valentine Warner Eats Scandinavia Top TV chef Valentine Warner has branded adults who cannot cook "incomplete" as he prepares to speak at an event in Belfast today. Mr Warner, who has made nine television series, including BBC2's What to Eat and The Good Table, said he felt that too many adults did not have the key skill of cooking. He said: "If you can go to the loo, wash your face or drive a car, then you should cook - go and learn. It's a life skill." Mr Warner is speaking at the Belfast City Council Focus on Food event at St George's Market. It aims to show food producers, hoteliers and restaurateurs how they can improve their tourist offering. The chef, food writer and broadcaster declared: "If you can't cook, you're not a grown-up." Mr Warner has family connections to Co Meath and said he is a frequent visitor to the Emerald Isle. And he praised Northern Ireland for its food culture. He said: "I visit quite often and I love the food. Peter Hannan sells very delicious meat, you have great butters like Abernethy and you promote yourselves really well. There are brilliant people to talk to - you can't go to Ireland and not end up talking to strangers." Mr Valentine will be speaking at 11.50am today. Other speakers including Jilly Dougan of Slow Food NI, an organisation which she says is the "antithesis of fast food". It aims to encourage people to think about the link between environment and food. She believes Northern Ireland needs to shout out more about its culinary delicacies. She said: "When you go to Italy you're not scrambling around looking for Irish stew, and it's the same with Northern Ireland. "When people come to Northern Ireland they want an authentic food experience, they don't necessarily want to eat Thai curries. "We've got to protect and promote our food, things like Lough Neagh eels and our creams and butters, as we've a great dairy industry here, and good fruit and veg. "You'll hear Americans banging on about grass-fed beef and lamb, but in Northern Ireland almost all the beef and lamb is grass-fed here." The industry experts will discuss how businesses can make produce more attractive to tourists and retailers. Other speakers at the event will include Michelin Star chef, restaurateur and author JP McMahon. Mr McMahon is culinary director of the Eat Galway Restaurant Group, and will address the importance of partnership and collaboration in the food industry. Ewen Venters, chief executive of high-end grocer Fortnum and Mason, who has been described as one of the most influential people in British food, will discuss shifting consumer trends. His grocery has recently concluded deals with Shortcross Gin in Crossgar and Glenarm Organic Salmon. Panellists will also include Caroline Wilson of Belfast Food Tours, restaurant critic Joris Minne, Michelin Star restaurateur Michael Deane and Michele Shirlow of Food NI. Councillor Deirdre Hargey, chairperson of the council's city growth and regeneration committee, said: "The aim of the conference is to see what more can be done to maximize the economic benefit of food tourism, not only for Belfast, but the region as a whole. It will look at the long term development of food tourism in the city, and is designed to promote Belfast's food tourism message. "It also aims to inspire the industry to collaborate and create new visitor experiences, engage producers, farmers, fishermen, chefs and outlets to better promote the food message to visitors and encourage the use of local produce and enable those in the industry to share experiences, challenges and opportunities," she added. Last year, the Belfast Focus on Food was attended by more than 300 industry and tourism professionals. The Northern Irish boss of one of the UK's biggest pub chains supports leaving the EU, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal. Tim Martin - the outspoken chairman of JD Wetherspoon - said leaving the union would restore "democracy" to decision-making in the UK. The Campbell College past pupil also told the Belfast Telegraph he had not ruled out campaigning for a Brexit. "I have to put all my ducks in a row before I join any campaign, but 15 years ago I campaigned against Britain joining the euro, and that turned out to be a good decision," Mr Martin said. "My key feeling on a Brexit is that democracy is the key issue. When people sit back and think about it, they will see what the EU has become compared to the first ideas for the common market. "The EU is non-democratic in so many ways. I am more in favour of decision-making by a national parliament, so that has to make me in favour of Brexit." Mr Martin also insisted that Northern Ireland would not lose out in the event of a Brexit by sharing a border with the Republic, an EU country. "The two countries already have totally different laws," the pubs boss said, adding he did not think that the organisation was beneficial to business. "You don't need to the EU to run a successful business or to have a successful economy," Mr Martin insisted. "Both Norway and Switzerland are two of the richest countries. They aren't in the EU. Neil Woodford, the highly respected fund manager, has said that, in his view, it (leaving the union) won't make a difference to the level of prosperity, but I think Britain will be a more prosperous place if it can take back control of its own laws." Mr Martin also told how he believed that cordial business relationships would continue with the EU even if the public backs leaving in the referendum. "My instinct is we should be friends with the EU," he said. "We will still be one of their biggest customers and they will still be among our biggest customers." Mr Martin's pro-Brexit stance puts him at odds with around 200 business leaders - including the bosses of Airbus, Gatwick Airport and Asda - who pledged themselves in favour of staying in a reformed EU in an open letter to The Times yesterday. Wetherspoon's operates nine pubs in Northern Ireland and has another two Belfast pubs - on University Road and on Royal Avenue - in the planning. Altogether, the chain has around 900 bars across the UK and Republic of Ireland. JOHN LYNCH filming The Fall at the merchant on February 25, 2016 Tandragee, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) JOHN LYNCH filming The Fall at the merchant on February 25, 2016 Tandragee, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) JOHN LYNCH filming The Fall at the merchant on February 25, 2016 Tandragee, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) JOHN LYNCH filming The Fall at the merchant on February 25, 2016 Tandragee, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) GILLIAN ANDERSON pictured filming The Fall at the merchant on February 25, 2016 Tandragee, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) GILLIAN ANDERSON filming The Fall at the merchant on February 25, 2016 Tandragee, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) JOHN LYNCH and GILLIAN ANDERSON pictured filming of the Fall at the merchant on February 25, 2016 Tandragee, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) GILLIAN ANDERSON filming of the Fall at the merchant on February 25, 2016 Tandragee, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) GILLIAN ANDERSON filming of the Fall at the merchant on February 25, 2016 Tandragee, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) GILLIAN ANDERSON filming of the Fall at the merchant on February 25, 2016 Tandragee, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) GILLIAN ANDERSON filming The Fall at the merchant on February 25, 2016 Tandragee, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) There's no sign of Jamie Dornan - but the filming of The Fall series 3 is still underway in Belfast. The deadly game of cat and mouse is set to continue when the eagerly anticipated next installment of the BBC 2 drama hits our screens again. Dornan and Anderson both returned to Belfast to reprise their roles as the battle between Detective Superintendent Gibson and Paul Spector reaches its terrifying conclusion in Allan Cubitts intense psychological thriller. Audiences were left reeling at the end of series two as Spector, critically injured in an ambush, lay bleeding in the arms of Gibson. Moments before, the investigator thought she had him and now it appears as though she is losing him. Fans of the programme were sent into overdrive when they spotted Dornan around Belfast during filming. Today Gillian Anderson was filming outside The Merchant Hotel in Belfast along with series regular John Lynch. There are some newcomers to the programme time around as Krister Henriksson (Wallander), Aidan McArdle (Mr Selfridge), Ruth Bradley (Humans), Aisling Bea (Trollied) and Richard Coyle (Crossbones) are all cast. Speaking previously writer Allan Cubitt said he is "thrilled" to begin Series 3 and while he didn't want to give anything away about the ending - he suggested this may not be the last series we see of The Fall - leaving the door open for more. He said: "Obviously I don't want to give anything away about how the third series will end but I can say that I am looking forward to working with both Gillian and Jamie again in the near future." Jimmy Savile's abuse of youngsters could have been spotted and action taken as far back as 1969 if the alarm had been raised, Dame Janet Smith said. Her report highlights five clear "missed opportunities" among a wider number of complaints and concerns about the Top Of The Pops presenter and fellow sex criminal Stuart Hall's behaviour during the 1970s and 1980s, when they were at the peak of their popularity. They included: 1969: Savile groped a female BBC worker. When she told her bosses their reaction was "no surprise and to suggest it would have been more surprising if Savile had not tried to touch her". 1969: A 16-year-old girl was molested by Savile while standing next to him on a podium during the filming of Top Of The Pops (TOTP). She complained to a man with a clipboard but was "ejected from the building and left on the street". 1973: Douglas Muggeridge, controller of Radio 1, launched an inquiry into rumours of Savile's behaviour and also asked a press officer to investigate whether the rumours were known to Fleet Street. Savile denied the allegations and the inquiry was closed. Mid-1970s: Ian Hampton, the bass player in electro-pop band Sparks, told the BBC about rumours he had heard that "Savile had sex with under-age girls". He also saw Savile leave TOTP with young girls on two occasions but was told "not to be silly" when he reported it. Mid-1970s: A young male BBC trainee was molested when he went into Savile's dressing room to fit a microphone on him. 1976: Savile molested another young girl on camera while filming TOTP. The girl complained to a BBC employee who dismissed it as "just Jimmy Savile mucking about" and ordered her out of the way of the camera. 1978/79: Savile's Radio 1 producer Ted Beston invited a 19-year-old waitress to a drinks party involving Savile. The star sexually assaulted her in a curtained off area. She ran out and told Beston, who "treated her as if she was being silly" and suggested she go back in. Mid 1980s: Savile made a lewd comment to a female studio manager but no action was taken after she reported it to her line manager and the personnel department. 1988/89: Savile sexually assaulted a junior female staff member at Television Centre. She was told: "Keep your mouth shut, he's a VIP." Dame Janet said that of these incidents, the assaults on two girls on TOTP and Mr Muggeridge's investigation could be classed as three "missed opportunities", saying: "I can't say that proper investigation of those complaints would have resulted in prosecution. But the BBC would at least have become aware of Savile's nature." She was also critical of the BBC's response to a scandal after the News Of The World published a 1971 story about under-age girls being picked up for sex and pornographic images being made, as well as suggestions of corruption over the choice of records played. There were also two chances to stop Hall's offending at BBC Manchester in the 1970s, Dame Janet said. Raymond Colley, the regional television manager at BBC Manchester from 1970 to 1986, challenged Hall about rumours he was having sex in his dressing room soon after taking up the post. Dame Janet criticised Mr Colley for warning Hall about his future conduct but failing to follow this up by checking on the star's behaviour. Dame Janet said: "He overestimated his own authority and he underestimated Stuart Hall's duplicity. Had Mr Colley kept a watch on Hall it is likely he would have been stopped." She was also critical of Tom German, the news editor in the 1970s who has since died. Dame Janet said he was "probably aware" Hall was having sex on BBC premises, but had not known children were involved. She added: "If he was it seems to me he should have shared his concerns with Mr Colley. He did not do so and this may well have been the fifth missed opportunity." Girl Online by vlogger Zoe Sugg was the most popular book among children in secondary school, research found The debut novel of internet star Zoe Sugg is more popular among secondary school children than books by well-known names such as Jeff Kinney and Cassandra Clare, it has been suggested. Girl Online by vlogger Sugg - who is also known as Zoella - was the top pick for those in secondary school, as well as a favourite among primary school children, according to research by online education company Renaissance Learning. The study is based on an analysis of software that assesses the books children read and their understanding of those stories. Youngsters take comprehension quizzes on the fiction and non-fiction books that they read, with more than 12.5 million taken between August 2014 and July last year. It looked at two categories: "most read" - the number of times a title was read in school - and "most popular" - the books that children say they enjoy reading the most, and found differences between the two. Sugg's novel was the most popular book among secondary school children, followed by The Maze Runner by James Dashner. Three of Rick Riordan's House of Olympus series made the top 10, along with three novels by Clare. Also making it into the top 10 were The Dying Of The Light by Derek Landy and Christopher Paolini's Inheritance. In comparison, Kinney's Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul was the most read book in secondary schools. It was also the most popular novel among primary school pupils. Overall, seven books in the Wimpy Kid series were among the 10 most read books for secondary-age children, along with Gangsta Granny by David Walliams, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Roald Dahl classic Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Girl Online was the seventh most popular book among primary school children - a list that also included five of JK Rowling's Harry Potter books, two of Collins's Hunger Games series and Opal Plumstead by Jacqueline Wilson. The most read book for this age group was The Twits by Dahl, who was one of just three authors to feature in this top 10, alongside Kinney and Walliams. The study found boys continue to prefer non-fiction works, and that at primary level they tend to focus more on one author, whereas girls prefer more variety. It also noted that during primary school, pupils tend to read favourite books that are above the difficultly level for their age group, but this stops once their go to secondary school. "At this point favoured books are no longer a year above chronological age, but a year below it, and in ensuing years the difficulty of books plateaus or declines," the report says. Report author Professor Keith Topping said: "This year's findings reveal that, strikingly, children read their favourite books at a much higher level of difficulty and with a greater level of comprehension than those recommended to them. "Clearly, this suggests a way of responding to the problem of insufficient challenge which is particularly prevalent in the secondary years. Instead of recommending books to children, teachers, librarians and parents should be finding ways to enable children to recommend books to each other." Brian Jordan (48), fitness instructor, lives in Dromore, Co Down, with his wife Beverley (46), who sufferers from MS, and their two children Louise (21) and David (15). He says: The weight piled on me over the years simply because I was bone idle and did nothing. I had no interest in sports when I was growing up so I was never into keeping fit and healthy. Then things just became a vicious cycle for me. The more I ate and the more weight I put on the worse I felt - then I would eat more to comfort myself. I am a carer for my wife Beverley who has Multiple Sclerosis, so I would be at home a lot with her and then I would just eat. At my heaviest point I tipped the scales at 22 stones and nine pounds, and I ended up in hospital with a heart attack. The doctors warned me if I didn't change my lifestyle I would end up with a more serious attack, or worse. It didn't really hit home at first and I continued over-eating, but then one day I just looked in the mirror and was disgusted at what I saw. I was supposed to be looking after my wife and my family, but how could I do that when I could hardly take care of myself? I went to my GP for help as I feared I was going to die. She quickly referred me to a 'Fit and Well' programme at my local leisure centre in Banbridge. I went along to exercise classes every week and began a healthy eating programme. At first I hated it, but after a few weeks I noticed I had started to feel better and the weight was coming off. I loved the craic and the banter of the classes and started to join other fitness activities such as spin and circuits. It was a slow process, but I started to get my life back. I had loads of energy and could do things with the family. I began walking and would cover anything from three to 15 miles a day. My classmates actually paid for me to do an instructor's class as I was so enthusiastic. That was the best thing that could have happened to me as I went on to do other courses and training - now I am training others. This year, I started my own business - Jordan Fitness and I run classes and bootcamps. In total I have lost eight stones and six pounds and I feel fantastic. I still care for Beverley and work it around my schedule, but at least now I am fit to look after her and I will be there to see my children grow up. I don't recognise who that person in those old photographs of me is anymore." For more information on: Slimming World, visit www.slimmingworld.co.uk/joining-a-group/nearest-group.aspx Weightwatchers, visit www.weightwatchers.ie/getting-started/membership-costs-northern-ireland/ or tel: 028 9042 6812 Fit and Well, visit www.banbridge.gov.uk/Residents/Sports-Leisure/Leisure-Community-Facilities/Banbridge-Leisure-Centre.aspx It is a rare sight at New York Fashion Week: a crowd rising to its feet, loudly cheering a model making his or her way down the runway. But it happens repeatedly at the FTL Moda shows, an Italian fashion platform that brings designers together to show their collections in a kind of cooperative setting. Almost everything about FTLs shows is, suffice it to say, less than traditional, from the setting, The Angel Orensanz Foundation, a former synagogue turned event space on the Lower East Side, to the clothes. But especially the models. Shaholly Ayers is a congenital amputee, born without her right arm. Ayers has been modeling for 10 years and this is her third season walking in an FTL Moda Show. Not surprisingly, realizing her dream has been a bit of a battle, until, she says, she found the right agency. Its been really difficult for me to break into the industry, she said. I ended up networking, working with makeup artists, and building my own portfolio. I met Global Disability Inclusion, and they really helped escalate my career. GDI works with major corporations to make workplaces more disabled-friendly. It now partners with FTL Moda on fashion shows and photo shoots around the world to bring what they call diversely abled models into the mainstream. Models like Madeline Stuart. Shes only been modeling since last April, but has been in near-constant demand. Madeline is 19, from Brisbane, Australia, and has Down Syndrome. Her mom, Roseanne, is her spokesperson, constant companion, head cheerleader and best friend. She says Madelines road to the runway wasnt that hard to navigate. Last year, she told me she wanted to do modeling, Roseanne said. I took her in to get professional photos done, I put them on the internet and they just went completely viral, and then people just started contacting us and asking her to do photo shoots, asking her to advertise products. They were contacted by three companies in September, asking if Maddy, as her mom calls her, would work with them. She went with FTL Moda because they seem most determined to make a difference, to promote diversity on the catwalk. Everything we do is for charity, she said. If we align ourselves with commercial products, it has to be a positive thing for women and for people in general. Ilaria Niccolini started FTL Moda in 2006 simply to showcase fashion. But as the company grew, she felt it needed to do more. Since 2013, she says, we have been working to include diversity at the highest level. They stage their shows in New York, Paris, Milan, Rome and Miami, and starting next season, theyll be showing in Tokyo. It used to be more difficult, Niccolini said. but now, its becoming easier. Theyre finally beginning to see that there are a lot of paradigms there that can actually be broken. What was once scary or uncomfortable to see or experience, especially when you just sit down to enjoy a runway show, now they realize that not only is it not scary, but it is also, I would say emotional, its pretty, its exciting. We just want to make a connection with whoever is sitting there, if its an editor or a blogger, it doesnt matter, we just want to create a strong connection so that everyone can embrace whats going on. That connection is what draws some designers to FTL Moda, as well. Boston-based Josefa DaSilva featured Madeline Stuart on her runway, along with other non-traditional models, saying they fit in perfectly with her design inspiration, healing crystals. They have been cultivating and teach us to be very loving toward everyone, not just a group of people, but everyone, she said. I thought, why not incorporate that in my designs? Its supposed to be very loving and have compassion for our purpose for everyone in the world. Thats why you saw a lot of models over there who were not traditional models, they were plus size models, they were not that high fashion model that we would see in the industry. For models like Madeline, its the chance to do something her mother says she was born to do. Modeling is about walking and looking pretty and posing and Madelines been brought up to really love herself, Roseanne said. Because Ive always told her how wonderful she is. Theres no inhibition, theres no nervousness, nothing. Shes just getting her hair and makeup done and showing the world how to be natural, and she does it so perfectly. But, while Madeline will travel the world over the next months, walking runways and posing for pictures, even acting as the face for clothing and makeup companies, her mother insists it isnt about modeling at all. Madeline does modeling because thats her platform and we can raise awareness, so people dont feel isolated, she said. But this is about charity, this is about inclusion, this is about diversity. This is about every parent out there who has a child with a disability that feels like theyre alone. They can see Madelines face outside and shes got just as many opportunities as anyone else. Its for everyone whos ever been bullied at school because they feel different. They look at Madeline now and it gives them hope. Its a vehicle, basically, to get our word out, to try to make the world a better place. That sentiment is echoed by most of the models at FTL Moda, including Shaholly Ayers. As far as I know, this is the only show that has such a diverse group of models, she said. The first show that I walked in, they had wheelchair models. Its phenomenal because beauty is in so many looks. Theyre able to show that at FTL Moda, and its so special to be a part of that. Its also, she said, about being a role model as well as a runway model. I have a lot of followers on my fan pages that are children looking at me and saying, I have someone like me. When I was growing up, I didnt have that at all. I think people need that. According to Niccolini, FTL Moda will continue with its runway schedule, but theyre also moving more into editorials, with upcoming spreads for what she calls top magazines around the world. They will, of course, include diverse models, some using bionics, some wearing prosthetics because, she said, thats what the real industry today wants in terms of fashion, art and culture. And her pride continues to come from the men and women who are getting a chance to do something they never would have done without FTL Moda model. Thats why I strive to make this really beautiful, she said. What actually inspired me I think is that we are in a world nowadays where there is beauty everywhere, and I think, especially now, with social media, we see more and more often stereotyped images. And instead, theres so much to see and discover. I think thats what inspires me, to be able to give voice and give a stage to whoever deserves it. The number of people drawing Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in Northern Ireland has hit an all-time high, official figures have revealed. Almost 210,000 - one in every nine - now receives the benefit designed for those who cannot walk or get around. In some areas as many as one in six is on DLA, helping to drive a near 1 billion annual bill. The claimant count has risen by 6,500 in the space of 12 months - and a staggering 40,000 on a decade ago. Proportionally, twice as many people here claim DLA compared to the rest of the UK. And while the impact of the Troubles is often cited as a reason for our heavy reliance on benefits, the claimant count has surged by 70% since the Good Friday Agreement. It has led to accusations that our benefits system has become unjustifiable and unsustainable. DUP MP Gregory Campbell said: "When you look at the cold, hard statistics, it is an exceptionally difficult thing to sustain if, in some areas, nearly 20% of the population are claiming a benefit like that. It is very difficult to justify and defend." Mr Campbell said DLA was correctly paid to many claimants, but warned others were wrongly drawing the benefit and needed to be "weeded out". He added: "In any way you cut this, it just doesn't stack up. The numbers aren't justifiable in terms of the cash that has to be expended. "Yes, it has to be spent properly and justifiably on those who deserve it, but for those who don't deserve it and shouldn't be getting it, there has to be a more rigorous system in place." However, others defended the rise in claims, arguing it was partly linked to growing levels of mental illness. SDLP MLA Dolores Kelly said: "There is a certain inevitability about more people receiving the help of DLA." Statistics published yesterday by the Department for Social Development show 208,760 people were on DLA in November 2015.That is a rise of 6,550 (3.2%) compared to 12 months earlier. When judged against figures from 10 years ago, the difference is even more stark. In November 2005, the DLA count was 168,846, meaning it has risen by more than 23% in the 10 years since. Around the time of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement the total stood at 123,720. It means that the bill has climbed by 69% in nearly two decades of peace, shattering the myth that the Troubles was a primary driver of our benefits culture. Analysis shows that in some parts of Northern Ireland up to one in six people is on DLA. Yesterday's report includes a breakdown of recipients in the former local council areas. In the old Strabane district, 6,320 (15.8%) of the 40,022 population are drawing the benefit. It was among 15 of the former 26 local government districts where DLA claimants accounted for more than 10% of the population. According to figures released via an Assembly question, a total of 971,487,000 went on disability benefits during 2014/15. The number of claims is also proportionally far higher than the rest of the UK. Statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions show 3.57 million claimants of DLA, or Personal Independent Payments, which are being phased in, elsewhere in the UK. The population of England, Scotland and Wales is 62.7m, meaning around 5.7% are drawing benefits - half of the 11.2% figure recorded in Northern Ireland. Of the 208,760 recipients here, 153,680 (73.6%) have been claiming DLA for more than five years. But the SDLP's Mrs Kelly, an MLA for Upper Bann, defended the upsurge in claimants. "The test to obtain DLA requires medical evidence and support, and is higher than it ever was," she said. "This rise also coincides with increasing concerns that other statistics show in terms of an increase in people suffering mental ill health." A nuclear bunker buried underground in Ballymena could be transformed into a tourist spot. Mid and East Antrim Council has expressed an interest in viewing the 46,000 sq ft structure with a view to transforming it into a must-see attraction. The underground shelter, which was built to house Northern Ireland's VIPs in the event of a nuclear attack, went on the market for 575,000 earlier this month. It was commissioned in 1980 and was shrouded in secrecy for many years. But with the Cold War a thing of the past, the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) hope to sell the facility, which was designed to hold 235 people, including politicians and police, and a BBC studio. In a written answer to a question tabled by TUV councillor Timothy Gaston, the council said: "Council has expressed an interest in viewing the property through (estate agent) Lambert Smith Hampton. "It is anticipated that a viewing day will be held within the next two (to) three weeks, and we hope to clarify this shortly. "Council have also been in contact with OFMDFM to declare an interest in the property. "We have specifically asked our tourism consultants to consider the appropriateness and potential of the nuclear bunker to the Mid and East Antrim Tourism proposition." Mr Gaston added: "The council have to take every opportunity possible and look at every opportunity that is available to them. "We need to do feasibility studies and find out some more facts and figures. We need to see if it is a viable tourist attraction. "We also need to see if there is any funding out there if we were to get it (the bunker). "Tourism is something that is uncapped in Mid and East Antrim, and we need to be looking at trying to get as much return from our tourism potential. "We have Carrickfergus Castle and we have Slemish, and we need to see if this would fit in with that." Mr Gaston also told how the looming sale of the unique building had got people talking about the bunker online. "I've posted about it on Facebook and it's sparked quite a bit of interest," he said. "There is interest in the community, but we need to see if that would transfer into a solid business. That's what the feasibility study is for." The bunker is similar to 35 other military and civil defence fortifications built around the UK between 1955 and 1965, when the world was gripped by fears over the possible nuclear fallout from war between America and Russia. Mr Gaston said he believed schoolchildren would love to visit. "There is a lot of history to it and I believe with the Cold War background, it will be a really good education centre," he added. "There are a lot of local schools in the area, and I believe you could get a great catchment of educational trips coming from all around the country to it." In other parts of the UK, nuclear bunkers have been turned into very successful tourist attractions. Scotland's main bunker, located below a rural farmhouse in Fife, draws more than 30,000 visitors every year. Similarly, the Kelvedon Hatch bunker, in Essex, has attracted thousands of tourists since it was converted in 1992. Elsewhere, another shelter in Chislehurst, Kent was converted into a palatial home and went on the market last year for 3m. One of Belfast's most prolific burglars has been sent back to jail following his 100th conviction for house-breaking One of Belfast's most prolific burglars has been sent back to jail following his 100th conviction for house-breaking. Lee Nathaniel Sloss, from Egeria Street in Belfast, was handed a 30-month sentence after pleading guilty to burgling a house in south Belfast last September. The 39-year old father of two - who has 157 previous convictions, 99 for burglaries - was caught red-handed in an alleyway with items he had just taken from a house on Malone Avenue. Passing sentence at Belfast Crown Court, Judge Gordon Kerr pointed out last September's break-in was committed while Sloss was on licence for similar offences. Telling Sloss "you just couldn't restrain yourself", Judge Kerr said that due to his extensive criminal record it was getting to the stage where prison sentences would be "for longer periods of time" to "protect the public". Crown prosecutor Gareth Purvis told the court the house on Malone Avenue was broken into while the occupier was at work. Sloss was seen at the rear of the property by two women who gave a description of a man seen fleeing into a nearby alleyway. Mr Purvis said that when detained, Sloss was in possession of a number of items stolen from the house, including two wallets and a quantity of Indian rupees. Sloss was arrested and during a police interview he was "volatile and aggressive" towards officers. Mr Purvis also told the court that Sloss began offending aged 11 and had a "very lengthy criminal record" which consisted of 157 convictions, 99 of which were for burglaries. Defence barrister Luke Curran accepted that Sloss had a "prolific number of offences" for burglaries, and revealed that during his time in custody Sloss had engaged with various support groups. Saying Sloss had gambling issues as well as problems with alcohol and drugs, Mr Curran said that when he was not in prison his client found it hard to "re-establish" himself and also found it difficult gaining employment, due largely to his criminal record. Judge Kerr handed Sloss a 30-month sentence, half of which will be spent in prison with the remaining 15 months spent on licence upon his release. He also warned Sloss that if he continued offending, the prison sentences imposed on him would become longer. An artists impression of the planned new DARD headquarters The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) has been given the green light to build its new headquarters in Ballykelly. Planning permission for the 8.7-acre site was granted yesterday by Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Planning Committee. Work is expected to start this summer, with a view to moving staff into the three-storey building by the end of 2017. But the Ulster Farmers' Union says it still has reservations over the HQ move, saying it could result in an exodus of highly experienced staff even though there is an existing network of DARD Direct offices across Northern Ireland that could be used. Agriculture Minister Michelle O'Neill said: "I am delighted we've got approval to start building our new modern headquarters on the former Shackleton army barracks in Ballykelly. "We will now appoint a building contractor and hope to see construction work begin at the site in the summer with the three-storey building ready for new staff at the end of 2017. "Today's news is a vital step towards achieving our goal of a 20m investment in relocating public sector jobs to the north west as well as an economic boost to traders, businesses and the wider community. "I hope the building will become part of village life so I have ensured it is designed with facilities that can be used by the local community." The move from Dundonald House in east Belfast to Ballykelly will begin next year. Ms O'Neill said: "Work has already begun on plans to relocate staff as well as identifying staff who want to move to Ballykelly. My department has already permanently relocated a number of people in the north west as part of an advance relocation group. "The level of interest in this location is extremely encouraging and I have no doubt will make a big difference to people living in the north west." The building is designed to be framed by bronze cladding sitting on a base of stone walls. Emergency services attend the scene on High Street in Belfast after a homeless man was found dead last night Belfast council has been urged to act after a fourth homeless man died on the streets yesterday. As temperatures plummeted towards zero, the body of a man in his 40s was found on High Street in the city centre. It is thought he had been sleeping rough in a doorway of a shop in the area, which was cordoned off after the discovery. A post-mortem will be carried out, but the death is not being treated as suspicious. Tributes to the man, named online as Roy, poured in on social media after the tragedy. A homeless volunteer worker, Tom, knew him personally and said he prayed over his body before saying goodbye. He told the Nolan Show it was heartbreaking: "Some of these people are victims of circumstance. They haven't decided to become homeless. It's such a complex issue and we live in a society where the system fails people on a regular basis." He said the stigma surrounding the homeless stops people from helping those they see on the streets, adding: "People step over the top of them." The death comes just weeks after the discovery of a 44-year-old man's body at a flat in Donegall Street on February 17. Ten days earlier, a homeless man known as Jimmy, who was in his early 30s and from Belfast, was found dead in Donegall Place. And in December, the body of a homeless Russian man was found at Titanic train halt. Dannielle Lavery, of homeless charity Amethyst Outreach, said volunteers would take the latest news "really bad". "We just can't believe there has been another death - we are in total shock," she said. "We were out just the other night. You normally have a laugh and a joke with service users, but that night was different. "Given the cold, there were so many service users and tensions were high and we struggled to keep them warm. They really were all struggling in the cold and they could change from being calm to flipping out." Donna Connor, of Hope Outreach for the Homeless, said she was devastated by the death. Very sad to hear that a man died on the street in Belfast last night.Important we discuss this at today's Executive in Fermanagh. #concerned Martin McGuinness (@M_McGuinness_SF) February 25, 2016 "We're shocked to learn of this man's passing and send our sympathy to his family," she said. "He was a pleasant, well-mannered and educated man." Charities for the homeless urged the authorities to take action before more deaths. Danny McQuillan of Extern said: "I think we need to stop looking at this as a problem of a homeless person and see them as people." Amethyst is behind a petition signed by 18,000 people calling for Belfast's empty buildings to be opened up for those on the streets. Councillor Jim Rodgers last night conceded that although those demands were understandable, health and safety fears meant there were huge barriers to having them realised. Ulster Unionist councillor Sonia Copeland added: "What happens if we open a building and it goes up in a puff of smoke and there are six deaths? There would be an outcry. "If it was easy, it would have been done. The problem is, this won't happen quickly, not as quickly as I would like to see it." SDLP councillor Patrick Convery urged the Housing Executive to act on the problem. He said people deserved the "dignity of shelter" and disputed the Executive's estimates that there were only six long-term homeless people on the streets nightly. Stormont Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness expressed concern on social media and said he would be raising the issue with other government ministers. He said on Twitter: "Very sad to hear that a man died on the street in Belfast last night. Important that we discuss this at the Executive in Fermanagh. #concerned." Convicted child killer Robert Howard was seen near a forest carrying a spade after schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson disappeared. During a dramatic day of evidence at the teenager's inquest in Belfast, it was claimed police had been tipped off by an unnamed informant. A partially blanked-out intelligence document read to the court claimed Howard and his then partner Patricia Quinn told a taxi driver they were going fishing. Fifteen-year-old Arlene, from Castlederg, Co Tyrone, vanished after a night out at a disco across the border in Co Donegal in August 1994. She was last seen with convicted killer Howard, who died in prison last year aged 71. He was acquitted of Arlene's murder in 2005 by a jury that was not told of his conviction for killing a south London teenager several years earlier. The intelligence document is among a number of redacted files at the centre of an ongoing disclosure dispute. Coroner Brian Sherrard, who is presiding over the case, has yet to rule on whether to approve a PSNI application not to hand over some sensitive information to the inquest. Other intelligence material suggests Howard and Patricia Quinn were overheard talking about going to Pettigo in Co Donegal at night-time. And yet another redacted police report alleges that Patricia Quinn and her daughter Donna Quinn knew Arlene was buried in bogland near Pettigo. The allegation was strenuously denied by Donna Quinn. "Who said that?" she asked. "I don't know, I swear on my child's life I do not know." Ms Quinn, a lifelong friend of Arlene, was among the last people to see her alive. She wept uncontrollably as she denied sending her as "a sacrificial lamb" with a known violent sexual predator. When asked if she did not care, Ms Quinn replied: "Of course I did. I didn't know the half of his (Howard's) life story until recently. Trying to make out that I knew? Jesus Christ." Earlier she had told the court that when Arlene failed to turn up after a week, she "knew in her heart" she was dead. Knowing Howard was on bail for an alleged sex attack on another girl, she thought he had sexually abused and then murdered her friend, the court heard. "I believed that Saturday that Arlene was dead and that Bob Howard had murdered her," said Ms Quinn. And, when an agitated Howard asked her to lie, the penny dropped that something dreadful had happened. Ms Quinn added: "I thought in my heart and soul that she was dead." The case has been adjourned. An inquest into the death of schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson is being held The man suspected of killing schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson was a police informant, an inquest has been told. The dramatic claim was made by a friend of convicted child killer and rapist Robert Howard - the last person to see the teenager alive in August 1994. Patricia Quinn also told Belfast coroner's court that when she challenged police about Howard's alleged status years later, an officer had replied: "I put my hands up". She said: " He was an informer and everybody knows that", adding that she and her daughter were "scapegoats for the police". "That's why they put him in my house - to keep an eye on him and then me and Donna (Quinn) are scapegoats for the police - for the CID." The long delayed inquest is in its eighth day of evidence at the Laganside court complex. It emerged that Ms Quinn, a mother of three, had provided a bail address for Howard when he was accused of a serious sex attack on a teenage girl in 1993. He had lived in their house and slept in Ms Quinn's bed but she strongly refuted any suggestion they were a couple. In an angry outburst she told the court: "The CID let him into my house knowing what he was. "I didn't know what he was like at that time, but they knew." Ms Quinn conceded she had not been pressurised by police but believed Howard had another girlfriend in Antrim or Armagh who may have been able to accommodate him. "It was the CID who asked me," she added. "They asked me would I let him out on bail and now I know why. "When they asked me, I thought that he was all right." Judge Brian Sherrard, who is presiding over the high profile case, has yet to rule on a controversial police request not to disclose some confidential information to the inquest. Grounds for Public Interest Immunity application include matters of national security or the protection of police methodologies such as the use of informers. And w hile the Government has obtained such immunity on sensitive papers relating to legacy terrorist cases in Northern Ireland, doubt surrounds why such issues would be at play during an inquest into the death of a missing schoolgirl. Judge Sherrard said the contentious issue was expected to be dealt with when the case resumes next week. Fifteen-year-old Arlene, from Castlederg, vanished after a night out at a disco across the Irish border in Co Donegal on August 13, 1994. Robert Howard was acquitted of her murder in 2005 by a jury which was not told of his conviction for killing a south London teenager several years earlier. However, the 71-year-old remained the prime suspect in the Arkinson case until his death in prison last year. Meanwhile, it also emerged that Howard did not return home until 9am on the morning after he was last seen with Arlene. He told Pat Quinn not to say he had been out, it was claimed. Ms Quinn, who was later arrested and interviewed by detectives investigating the teenager's disappearance, said lying was the "stupidest" thing she had ever done. "It was the biggest mistake of my life," she said. "I have regretted it since." When pressed by a lawyer about her reasons for not telling the truth, she added: "He was out on bail in my house and if he broke his bail that was it. He was not supposed to be out past 9 or 10pm. "It would be me get into trouble, too. "But I know now it was stupid. I shouldn't have done it but it's no good pretending anything else." The court was told that several days after Arlene's disappearance, two of her brothers and sister went to the Quinn family home to enquire about her whereabouts but were told nothing. A short time later, police were on the case. Ms Quinn added: "I did not know what to believe when the police came but I knew something was badly wrong." Barrister, Frank O'Donoghue QC, counsel for the Coroners Service, asked if she had thought Howard killed the schoolgirl. "You had a man in your house who you knew was a paedophile; who you knew was attracted to young girls and who told you not to say that he was out on the Saturday night and had been in Arlene's company when she was last seen." "Did you think at that time, when the Arkinsons came through your door, did you think 'he's killed her? he said. Ms Quinn replied: "I did not know what to think. "I was that shocked that she was not back; that she was missing." On a number of occasions, Ms Quinn insisted she was being as helpful as possible to the inquest and said she hoped Arlene's body would be found. In 1994, she claimed to have been fond of Howard in 1994 because he had been good to her . It was claimed they "kissed and cuddled" occasionally and that Howard had slept in her bed but there was no sexual contact. She had never seen him with his clothes off, the court was told. Ms Quinn said: "I never had no relationship with him and I want that clear today." Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the inquest was told that police had been tipped off that Ms Quinn and Robert Howard were seen in a forest with spades after Arlene went missing. Ms Quinn insisted the pair had never gone out digging. "No, definitely not and that's the honest to God's truth. I never went out with him that way," she said. The case has been adjourned. A DUP minister has been accused of a "barefaced electoral stunt" after bypassing the Assembly to give the green light to a long-awaited stretch of dual carriageway in the north west. Regional Development Minister Michelle McIlveen yesterday gave the go-ahead for the 400m A6 Derry to Dungiven dualling scheme - if funding becomes available. But MLAs were unable to quiz her over the money as she visited the outskirts of Dungiven to make the announcement. Ms McIlveen said: "There is no doubt that this scheme represents a significant investment in our economy and will create hundreds of jobs. Businesses, too, will benefit from improved transport links while the public will enjoy a safer and better journey." She said "part" of the scheme would be funded by "indicative allocations" up to April 2021. She added that her department was considering how much of the scheme can actually be delivered. East Londonderry SDLP MLA John Dallat was critical about how the announcement was made. "I was attending a committee meeting in Stormont, ironically on regional development, when I learned that the minister was in Dungiven for a photoshoot with DUP candidates for the forthcoming Assembly elections," he said. "This statement should have been made in Stormont where there is an opportunity to ask serious questions about availability of money and timescale. "The minister needs to understand that this is a power-sharing Assembly which is supposed to be inclusive, and organising what is a barefaced electoral stunt is not in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement, or indeed in keeping with a partnership government." The DUP said: "Having been an MLA since 1998, John Dallat should be aware of written ministerial statements, but the desire for a cheap party political attack clearly has impacted upon his memory. "Only someone with the unique logic skills of John Dallat could interpret an announcement of a dual-carriageway from Londonderry to Dungiven, including the long-needed bypass, as a 'disregard for the needs of the west'." East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell insisted that despite a gap in the funding for the A6, the project was guaranteed. He said: "The money exists to get the road started and over the course of the next three or four years we would expect and hope the budgetary purse-strings in London to loosen and we would expect to put aside monies for the new department that is coming into place in May that will allow the road structure to be built. "The money will be found to build this road." State legislatures must now amend their sentencing laws to comply with Miller, and state courts are scrambling to determine how to apply it to their populations of juvenile lifers. Does Miller apply retroactively to sentences handed down before the Supreme Courts ruling? If so, should each person be entitled to his own individual resentencing? Should states make a blanket change, commuting all juvenile lifers mandatory sentences to life with the possibility of parole? These questions will get answered, piecemeal, in the coming years, as prosecutors, defense attorneys, legislatures and individual inmates battle them out state by state. Going forward, some states are experimenting with alternate sentencing options such as a blended sentence, which allows a judge to sentence a child to the juvenile system and suspend the adult portion of his sentence until hes 21. At that point the judge can see what progress the child has made and decide what portion, if any, of the remainder of his sentence he must serve in adult prison. Judge Mester didnt have that option more than 20 years ago when he sentenced Jennifer Pruitt. From his two available options, he chose the adult sentence, mandatory life without parole, over the juvenile one, three years. But he now looks at who Jennifer has become and wishes he had made a different choice. I think the Jennifer Pruitt case, more than any of the other felony murders Id had previously, brought home to me that this is not the way our justice system should operate, he says. Mesters voice caught with emotion when I told him that Carl Heichel had forgiven Jennifer and asked for her to have a second chance. Will you thank him for me? Mester asked. We humans do a lot of stupid and bad things. And the one thing that helps us move on is the sense that there is an atoning for the crime. And forgiveness from the victim that creates a better civilization. Now retired, Mester says he no longer feels comfortable with treating felony murder and first-degree murder the same for sentencing purposes, and he feels that everyone even those who committed the most heinous of crimes deserves a chance at parole. Jennifer Pruitt was 27 before it really hit her what a life sentence meant. At first, she says, I was actually kind of relieved to come to prison. Thats how bad it was at my house. When her lawyer pressed her, I kept saying, I get it, I get it, she says, but I dont think I completely wrapped my whole mind around it. When she finally did, she vacillated between anger, guilt and shame for what happened. Jennifers life in prison can be broken down into several components, her lawyer wrote in a recent motion requesting she be considered for parole. The first is the ugly component. The second, she continued, is a model of strength, courage, and recovery. Upon coming to prison, Jennifer suffered years of sexual assault by correctional officers. Distraught and afraid, she says, she would lie awake nights and sleep all day. Still, she gained the strength and courage to testify in 2008 as part of a class-action suit about the abuse. This in turn strengthened her confidence and helped her find her voice (more than 500 women were ultimately awarded $100 million for the systematic abuse, though none of the officers ever faced criminal charges). She has completed more than a dozen mental health programs, obtained her GED and several vocational certifications, and worked full time in the laundry and the kitchen. She serves as a peer mediator in a conflict resolution program that manages disputes among inmates. She mentors juvenile offenders, tries to make them feel understood even as she points out their errors in judgment. I wanted so bad to be validated, she says. Thats what created all this chaos. People think kids want to be right they just want to be validated. Theres a difference. Over the years, Jennifer says, she has come to forgive her father as much for herself as for him. "I realized that I was taking away from who I am as a person by holding onto the resentments that I had," she says. Jennifer moved into a special substance-abuse unit as a patient in 2010, but continues to live there now as a mentor and peer counselor. At her graduation from that program, she said, Today I am freer than I have ever been because I am free on the inside. Still, having shared a 10x12 cell with two other people for 20 years, Jennifer dreams of space: When she lets herself imagine a life outside prison, its in a town with a lot of fields, a lot of land, she says perhaps with a house of her own, a horse, a goat, a car. Shed like to work with kids; apropos of her recent work, maybe training people to listen. But whatever she does, Jennifer says, she wants to fade off. Be in the background. She looks forward to a day when she can go where Im not recognized. Im known as a juvenile lifer. Im known as that girl from the lawsuit. I want to be looked at and judged for who I am now. Editors note: A reference to the strains on the relationship between Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins and Jeanne Bishop has been deleted per additional information from Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins. Detectives have questioned a prisoner after he claimed child killer Robert Black confessed many of his crimes to him. Scottish-born Black, who was convicted of four child murders but suspected of many more, died in Maghaberry prison in January. Barry McCarney, also a convicted child killer, apparently befriended Black inside the high-security jail near Lisburn. In the wake of the 68-year-old serial paedophile's death, McCarney apparently told prison authorities that Black had confided in him that he had killed many children. In court, Black never admitted to any of the murders he was convicted of. It is understood that detectives from England flew to Northern Ireland last week to question McCarney at length on his claims. McCarney (36), from Trillick, Co Tyrone, is serving a minimum 25-year sentence for murdering Enniskillen toddler Millie Martin in 2009. Black, from Falkirk, was a delivery driver who stalked the roads of the UK searching for victims. His reign of terror was ended in 1990 when he was caught red-handed by police with a barely alive six-year-old girl hooded, bound, gagged and stuffed in a sleeping bag in the back of his van in the Scottish village of Stow. He had sexually assaulted her moments earlier. Once in custody, the predator was linked to a series of unsolved crimes in the previous decade. In 1994, Black was found guilty of three child murders in the 1980s - those of 11-year-old Susan Maxwell, from the Scottish Borders, five-year-old Caroline Hogg, from Edinburgh, and Sarah Harper (10), from Morley, near Leeds - as well as a failed abduction bid in Nottingham in 1988. In 2011, he was found guilty of the 1981 murder of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy, from Ballinderry, Co Antrim. Black was also suspected of involvement in other killings and unexplained disappearances and had long been the prime suspect in the case of missing 13-year-old Genette Tate, who was last seen in a rural lane in Aylesbeare, Devon, in 1978. No trace of the newspaper delivery girl has ever been found. All that remained at the scene were her bike and scattered papers. Black died in jail on January 12 and his body cremated. His ashes were scattered at sea without ceremony. Those on lower salaries would receive higher increases to take account of the new national living wage of 7.20 an hour from April. Local government workers have rejected a "final" two-year pay offer. Members of Unison voted against the proposed deal which would give most council staff a 1% increase from April and a further 1% in April 2017. Those on lower salaries would receive higher increases to take account of the new national living wage of 7.20 an hour from April. The employers negotiate pay on behalf of 350 local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, affecting over one million employees. A Unison spokesman said: "Unison has rejected the local government pay offer, but we await the results of both the GMB and Unite consultative ballots before deciding our next steps." Councillor Sian Timoney, who chairs the employers' side, said: "The national employers are disappointed that Unison has announced that its members have rejected the final pay offer. "However, we shall await the results of GMB's and Unite's pay consultations, which are due in the next few weeks, before commenting further." The unions would have to hold fresh ballots on any plans for industrial action. A former IRA commander is to be extradited from Spain to face charges in the Republic relating to the sexual abuse of a child. Spanish police arrested the former Provo chief last night on foot of an extradition warrant. It is understood he faces four charges relating to the sexual assault of the girl in Dublin more than two decades ago. Spain confirmed the man was detained by officers in Alicante. The one-time IRA commander and former senior Sinn Fein activist, who moved abroad a number of years ago, has been under investigation by Garda. The investigation was launched when the woman made a formal complaint alleging that she had been abused as a minor by a powerful figure in the IRA. Detectives took detailed statements from both the woman and members of her family. Last year two senior officers flew to the former IRA commander's home on the Continent after he agreed to be interviewed. He was questioned over several hours and is believed to have denied the claims. He was one of the top IRA men in Dublin at the time the abuse is alleged to have occurred. As a commander during the 1990s he was responsible for sanctioning all IRA operations carried out on the Republic's side of the border. Garda believe the man was a member of the IRA's so-called southern command in the mid 1990s when Detective Garda Jerry McCabe was murdered during a raid on a postal van in 1996. It was alleged at the time that the murder had been carried out by a rogue unit which did not have sanction for the shooting. Four members of the unit were subsequently convicted of killing McCabe. Shortly after the shooting, the suspect left the Republic and moved abroad. His arrest and extradition will come as a serious embarrassment to Sinn Fein on the eve of polling day in the Republic. Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has faced a storm of criticism over accusations that the party covered up child abusers and paedophiles in its ranks. Senator Mairia Cahill, from west Belfast, has claimed she was subjected to an IRA kangaroo court and forced to confront her alleged attacker after she was raped as a teenager. Paudie McGahon from Co Louth claimed that he was also raped by an IRA man, and subjected to a IRA kangaroo court after he complained to Sinn Fein. Gardai are now investigating more than 30 alleged IRA abusers. It is understood that the man now facing extradition was already under investigation by Garda when Ms Cahill first highlighted the alleged cover-up of IRA child abusers on BBC's Spotlight programme. Ben Megarry faces 23 counts of issuing bomb threats against buildings and landmarks in the US including JFK airport A student accused of making hoax bomb threats to major US airports and a high school which was the scene of a gun massacre has severe autism, a court has been told. Ben Megarry, 19, faces 23 counts of issuing bomb threats against buildings and landmarks right across the United States. Included on his list of alleged targets was Columbine High School in Colorado where, in 1999, two students murdered a teacher and 12 fellow pupils. He is also accused of making threats against JFK airport in New York and LAX airport in Los Angeles. Megarry, from Newtownabbey on the outskirts of Belfast, is also alleged to have communicated a threat to popular tourist spot Mann's Chinese Theatre in LA. The other alleged recipients of bomb threats were Chico High School, Mar Vista High School, Terra Linda High School and Malibu High School, all in California; Polk County Sheriff's Office in Florida; Shepton High School in Plano, Texas; the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit; the Walmart Store in Frederickson Town, Missouri; Royal Stadium, Kansas; and Kansas International Airport. Megarry is accused of making threats to a number of the properties and landmarks on more than one occasion. He is alleged to have threatened Columbine High School on three occasions. Megarry, from Harmin Park, Newtownabbey, was 15 at the time of the alleged offences, which are said to have been committed over a six month period in 2012. He faces 23 counts of communicating false information to cause a belief of an explosion. His case reached the floor of a courtroom for the first time on Thursday. Defence lawyer Michael Madden told a district judge at Belfast Magistrates' Court the case was not yet in a position to proceed. Applying for an adjournment, Mr Madden said: "The defendant is severely autistic and the family have been supported by a number of charities including Autism NI and they have suggested using an intermediary service." District Judge Liam McNally described the case as "interesting" and said he believed the intermediary services were not generally applicable to magistrates' courts. But he conceded there may be some exceptions. The judge also said the court would not have a problem with someone sitting in the dock alongside the defendant. Judge McNally said: "I will adjourn this for no more than two weeks so that the matter can be investigated." The case is expected to proceed on March 10. A Belfast father who was killed in a road accident in the US has been described as a "happy-go-lucky man" who was loved in his community. Tributes have poured in for Patrick McDonnell (52), who died after being hit by a truck in North Carolina on Monday. Mr McDonnell, an artist renowned for his skill in crafting stained-glass windows, was struck as he walked along a junction of Avent Ferry Road and Trotter Bluffs Drive, in the Holly Springs area. The news comes only two weeks after his mother-in-law Theresa McConville (77) passed away from cancer. Crash investigators in America said they would not be prosecuting the driver of the vehicle that struck Mr McDonnell from behind at around 11.15pm. The father-of-three and grandfather-of-two moved to America four years ago and remarried, returning to Belfast several times a year to visit including a trip just before Christmas. Those who remember him described him a "gentleman" and a "lovely man" who would be sadly missed. Mr McDonnell's nephew Sean McCorry said: "My uncle was a happy-go-lucky man who was much-loved. "He was very well-known around west Belfast. He was known for his stained-glass work here. I'd say nearly all of the stained-glass in west Belfast was made by him. "He was just a happy-go-lucky man and we're all just terribly shocked by the news. "He's left behind a family who are just absolutely devastated." Mr McDonnell's wife Ursula will be flying back for the funeral. He also leaves children Patrick (27), Shannon (26) and Melissa (23), who are being comforted by relatives and friends. Heartfelt tributes have come from around the world from those wishing to pay their respects to the lifelong Celtic fan who "lit up the room". Nephew Conall McCorry (30) said the death of two loved ones in two weeks had devastated the whole family. "We are still grieving for our grandmother who we've just buried and then to get the news about Uncle Paddy is just awful for the whole family," he added. "Everybody is in shock and we are all devastated. Two deaths in a couple of weeks has hit us hard." Mr McCorry told how when his uncle was home before Christmas, he called to see Mrs McConville, giving her a reassuring hug that he would be home again to see her very soon. Neither knew that they would be buried only weeks apart. "It sounds a cliche, but he literally was the life and soul of any party," Mr McCorry said. "When he walked in the room, you knew. He would talk to everyone there - he'd never pass you. "He was good craic and although when he moved away he missed home and he missed the craic, he settled really well there. "He had nothing but good stories to tell and he was happy. "He loved having a good time, singing Celtic songs and St Patrick's Day. "He even created a window with St Patrick on it." Since news of the tragedy broke, an outpouring of condolences has flooded social media, including personal condolences from Holly Springs Town Hall in North Carolina. "That's so typical of Patrick," said Mr McCorry. "He was known everywhere he went. Even though he wasn't in America long, it's a comfort to know the people there knew and liked him enough to send their condolences." Mr McDonnell's body is expected to be repatriated within the next 10 days, assisted by the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust. Two men have been charged after an attempted burglary and arson attack on a GAA club in Lurgan. Shortly before 5.40am on Thursday morning police received a report of a fire at the club in the North Street area of this town. Police and the Fire Service attended and they established that the fire had been started deliberately. The blaze caused damage to the roof and wall of the property. Police arrested two suspects, aged 21 and 22, in the Victoria Place area on suspicion of attempted burglary and arson. They were later charged with with arson and attempted burglary and will appear in Craigavon Magistrates' Court on March 23. As is usual procedure all charges will be reviewed by the Public Prosecution Service. A Muslim convert from Northern Ireland accused of planning to take her three young children to join their father in Syria has been found guilty of a terror offence. Trainee maths teacher Lorna Moore (33) was one of a number of Muslims from Walsall, West Midlands, accused of being intent on travelling to the war zone. Two pregnant women were among their group, while a third is believed to have had a baby since she went to the so-called Caliphate. Following a trial at the Old Bailey, Co Tyrone woman Moore was convicted of failing to tell authorities her supply teacher husband Sajid Aslam (34) was poised to join Islamic State. The jury deliberated for 17 hours and 25 minutes. Her co-defendant Ayman Shaukat (27), who was referred to in court as the Karma Chameleon, was found guilty of helping Aslam and Muslim convert Alex Nash (22) on their way to fight. At the time of Aslam's departure in August 2014 Moore had taken the rest of the family on a Butlins holiday to Skegness. The day after dropping him off at the airport, Shaukat sent a photograph of himself on his mobile phone posing with the IS flag, the court heard. As Aslam crossed into Syria, he sent a triumphant coded message back to Shaukat in the form of a video link to a song called Made It by Cash Money Heroes. Within months Moore had booked flights to Palma, Majorca, but the prosecution said her final destination was given away in a text from Nash's wife in Turkey saying "see you there". But giving evidence, Moore said she would "never" put her children's lives in danger, adding: "They mean the world to me." She insisted she had been planning to take them back to her family's farm in Co Tyrone after finishing her teacher training - a claim backed up by her mother Katherine. During the trial Mrs Moore described her daughter as "very dutiful", "patient" and a "very good mother". She would bring her three children to Northern Ireland for Christmas, but without Aslam, who found life on their farm "boring". Mrs Moore said her son-in-law could be "impatient" and "unkind" towards her daughter, and added he missed the birth of his second child because he had shrugged it off as "another false alarm". Lorna Moore's relationship with Aslam ended after he became abusive and they only lived together for the sake of the children, the court heard. She told jurors that when she turned to a Muslim cleric for a divorce he told her that a "white Muslim is not a special Muslim" and she must take her husband back. She said Aslam should "grow a pair" and come back to Britain and explain himself "if he is innocent and got nothing to hide". Aslam's sister Sarwat told jurors her brother had been in touch with her during the course of the trial to say he wanted to "start a dialogue with police about coming home". Shaukat, of Pargeter Street, Walsall, denied helping his friends join IS by dropping Aslam and Nash off at airports. The convicted burglar and law degree graduate was nicknamed Karma Chameleon during the trial because he presented different versions of himself, and his home in the Caldmore area in Walsall is known locally as Karma. He described IS as "evil" and said that he had told MI5 he would "assist in any way I could" after agents contacted him as treasurer of the community group Islam Walsall. The former Legal and General personal case manager had several meetings and phone calls with security services before their association "fizzled out", he said. Jurors were told about other members of the West Midlands group who allegedly set off for Syria between July and December 2014. The first to join IS was Muslim convert Jake Petty (25), also known as Abu Yaqoob Britany. His Christian minister mother Sue Boyce wept as she told jurors how she begged him not to go, and later had to identify his body from video footage on social media after he was killed in December 2014. Petty was swiftly followed by former schoolmate Isaiah Siadatan (24), whose pregnant wife Kerry Thomason (24) was supposed to fly out with their two children but was stopped by police. The court heard that he had sent her an email in December 2014 insisting that she should bring their children to him in IS. Siadatan is believed to have been killed in the summer of 2015, although his death is unconfirmed. Thomason has previously pleaded guilty to assisting her husband in preparation of his terrorist acts. Nash (22) and his pregnant wife Yousma Jan (20) were arrested by Turkish authorities and sent back to the UK. He took sole responsibility for the plan and admitted preparing acts of terrorism, while a charge against his wife was discontinued. The jury was not told about two other men and a woman from Walsall who are also believed to have gone to Syria. One of the men has since died in fighting, according to unconfirmed reports. The wife of the other man is understood to have given birth to a child after becoming pregnant in Syria. The Prince of Wales with Professor Patrick Johnston of Queen's University Belfast at the presentation of The Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education Technology that can identify a person from their lip movements was one of the stand-out innovations recognised by a national award honouring universities and colleges. The major development in cyber security helped earn Queen's University Belfast a prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. The institution was among 21 universities and colleges which received the honour during a Buckingham Palace presentation ceremony hosted by the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. Northern Ireland is fast gaining an international reputation as a major centre for cyber security research and a hub for new companies tacking the issue. This is thanks, in part, to Queen's University Belfast's Centre for Secure Information and Technologies (CSIT). David Crozier, the university's technology and marketing manager, explained how a person's lips movements are as individual as their fingerprints. He said: "We've been carrying research into lip movement as a unique biometric, so the way you form your words and numerals is unique to you." Speaking about the technology, he added: "It uses the forward facing camera on your smartphone, it prompts with a random sequence of digits and you repeat it into your phone and it determines from your lip movement who you are." Mr Crozier and some colleagues have created a spin-off company called Liopa to commercialise the technology so it can be used as a new form of verification and identification. He said they were talking to banks and the motor car and insurance industries about applications for their technology - with one idea of creating a car which could identify who was behind the wheel. Prize winners included Bristol University's volcanology research group, which has developed models to predict ash plumes to make air travel safer, and Cardiff Metropolitan University's pioneering work using 3D scanning to create prosthetics for reconstructive surgery. The Queen's Anniversary Prizes are awarded every two years to universities and colleges which submit work judged to show excellence, innovation, impact and benefit for the institution itself and for people and society generally. The Princess Royal also attended the event in her role as Chancellor of the University of London. Scenes from the dramatic swoop by heavily-armed police on a house in Aspen Walk in Belfast in the early hours of yesterday morning Scenes from the dramatic swoop by heavily-armed police on a house in Aspen Walk in Belfast in the early hours of yesterday morning Scenes from the dramatic swoop by heavily-armed police on a house in Aspen Walk in Belfast in the early hours of yesterday morning Scenes from the dramatic swoop by heavily-armed police on a house in Aspen Walk in Belfast in the early hours of yesterday morning Police are still hunting a man in relation to a shooting in west Belfast on Tuesday night. Two men were arrested and at least one gun recovered when armed police surrounded a house following the attempted murder of a 41-year-old man in a nearby street. The victim was left in a serious condition after he was shot in the leg as he walked in the Glasvey Drive area of west Belfast shortly before midnight on Tuesday. A major policing operation, involving the PSNI helicopter and more than 20 armed officers, was launched following reports of the shooting. Armed officers surrounded a house in Aspen Walk and ordered the occupants out at gunpoint. A woman exited the house first with her hands in the air. She was not arrested. Moments later a man came out and was immediately handcuffed and removed from the scene by police. A second man walked out of the house, but initially refused to obey a police order to raise his hands. He stood drinking from a can while an officer pointed a gun in his direction and ordered him to put his hands up. He was eventually handcuffed. After the two suspects were taken into police custody a number of specialist officers stormed the property. On Thursday morning the two men aged 25 and 35 were released on police bail. Police have appealed for anyone with information to contact them. A firearm and ammunition were later believed to have been recovered from a car parked at the property. It is understood that a third man was last night still being hunted by police in connection with the shooting. Belfast Telegraph photographer Kevin Scott, who captured the dramatic scenes on camera, described how events unfolded. "The street was really quiet and then all of a sudden two police vehicles came speeding around the corner and the police helicopter hovered above the house. "There were armed police surrounding the house and more lining the road. "There was a lot of shouting with policemen ordering people to get out of the house with their hands where they could see them," he said. Searches of the property continued throughout yesterday. Sinn Fein MLA Jennifer McCann said tensions were running high in the area. "I am calling on people to remain calm. Local people are shocked and angered that a man has been shot and seriously injured in their area," she said. The gang war between the Christy Kinahan cartel and the Hutch mob will not end until Daniel Kinahan is shot dead. The grim warning was made this week by a major criminal who is believed to be one of the three hitmen who were disguised as gardai in the Regency Hotel murder of rival mobster David Byrne. Daniel Kinahan, the son of cartel boss Christy Kinahan, was the chief target of the Regency attack but he escaped from the hotel unharmed. The chilling threat stands in contrast to the statement the Hutch family issued after the funeral of Eddie Hutch Snr, calling on everybody for this cycle of violence to stop and to stop now. The Herald reports that Daniel and his brother Christopher, as well as David Byrnes thug older brother Liam, have all left Dublin and are currently based in London where they are believed to be plotting their next move. They flew out to London City Airport a number of days ago, and things are calmer now theyre not in Dublin, a source said. Detectives are concerned by the hardened attitude displayed by members of the mob connected to slain Gary Hutch, despite this weeks massive raids on the gang at 11 locations in the capital. We will not rest until Daniel Kinahan is dead. He caused all of this it wont end until he is in his grave, the gunman said. This notorious north inner city criminal is a feared hitman who is suspected of carrying out the murders of Paul Kavanagh last year, as well as Eamon The Don Dunne in 2010, on behalf of the Kinahan cartel. However, he cut ties with the gang after the murder of his close pal, Gary Hutch, and is now their sworn enemy. Expand Close Daniel Kinahan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Daniel Kinahan In the aftermath of Garys murder, sources revealed that the hitman refused to attend a number of meetings which the cartel attempted to organise with him because he was disgusted and heartbroken about what happened to his pal. Of major concern is that up to 40 of the killers associates are of the same frame of mind. Some of these lads have fled, others have not. The people who are around do not seem to mind at all they are not worried about the gardai. They are only interested in the cartel, a source said. It is understood that the Dublin criminal, who is aged in his early 30s, is now based in the Coolock area. While his arch rival Daniel Kinahan and former pal Liam Byrne are based in London, it is understood that their close pal Fat Freddie Thompson remains in the capital. Byrne, from Raleigh Square in Crumlin, is one of the capitals most feared criminals and has convictions for firearms and a savage assault. Expand Close Christy Kinahan junior / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christy Kinahan junior Daniel Kinahan, who does not have previous convictions, was one of the main targets and was arrested in 2010 as part of Operation Shovel the international police probe against his fathers criminal empire. He spent a number of weeks in custody before being released without charge. Yesterday, the Herald revealed that the six-man hit team that were involved in the Regency attack were collected in six separate cars close to where they burnt out their getaway van after escaping the scene. The silver Ford Transit van was torched by the gang at the Charlemont estate in Marino, and it has emerged that the cars included a number of taxis. Tensions remain high in the capital, with armed gardai still patrolling the streets. Ken Foy, Herald After more than three decades of state and federal legislation designed to be tough on crime, the United States is facing an unprecedented surge in its prison population. Among world nations, the U.S. houses a quarter of the worlds prisoners. We have more people in prison than any other country, dwarfing even China. One in 100 Americans is currently behind bars. In large, diverse states such as California, prisons are under exceptional stress. The 33 in-state prisons managed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) have been suffering from overcrowding and inadequate medical care, largely because of an exploding inmate population due to draconian laws against drug and violent crimes passed in the 1980s and 90s. Despite the images put forth by the media, violence has been falling steadily by most metrics, Americans are less violent than they were 20 years ago, and California is experiencing its lowest crime rate since the 1960s. But the prison population continues to grow at least in part because the judicial system simply doesnt take into account the costs of sending someone to prison. Instead, judges and juries operate under the popular myth that locking people up is the best way to prevent violence. In particular, Californias prison system is large and unwieldy, and as a result, courts have recognized that greater oversight is necessary. In 2011, when Gov. Jerry Brown announced his plans to reduce the prison population to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, there were over 160,000 inmates in the states prisons. That number shrank to 133,000, thanks in part to some overdue reforms to sentencing laws, but estimates show that the number is growing again, contrary to the governors promise. Annual correctional costs have risen $2 billion since 2011, and local counties costs have been rising too. The overcrowding that plagues the state prisons has cascaded to the local jails. Counties such as Kings County in the Central Valley have been forced to triple-bunk their inmates. The costs of mass incarceration are astounding. California spends an average of $49,000 per year to house one inmate in state prison. By comparison, a minimum wage salary amounts to less than $20,000 a year before taxes, and California spends just over $9,000 per public school student per academic year, which is below the national average. The prison figure does not include the price of inmates housed in specialized mental health units or security housing units more restrictive facilities where inmates are closely supervised which can cost over $100,000 per inmate per year. Plus the prison population is growing older. Human Rights Watch estimates that the number of inmates over 55 increased 500 percent from 1990 to 2009. In California, inmates 55 or older account for 38 percent of the medical bed resources but make up only 7 percent of the prison population. Keeping all these people in prison in California alone costs taxpayers more than $7 billion dollars a year. Its clear that the cost of prisons simply isnt going away, and in fact, we can anticipate that it will only get worse. Ill communication A knee-jerk reaction might be to blame the correctional authorities, such as the CDCR. But the department is simply responding to demands for more prison space and better medical facilities, many of which come from recent court decisions, forcing the it to spend more money. The CDCR does not hand out prison sentences; that happens in the judicial system. The problem: No one is solely responsible for offenders as they move through the judicial system into the prison system (and then, one day, back out into the community). In fact, theres very little communication between the judicial system and the prison system when it comes to the fates of individuals. The two systems operate in separate spheres, under separate budgets and separate mandates. One group makes decisions on how to punish based on guilt, and the other decides how the punishment gets meted out in reality. And once judges and juries make determinations of guilt, they are often hamstrung by mandatory sentencing requirements, which may mean that longer prison terms are meted out than is useful. The people who decide the sentences, moreover, dont always know or consider any of the costs involved. Maybe they should. The people who decide the sentences, moreover, dont always know or consider any of the costs involved. But maybe they should. There are some states that have tried implementing cost-benefit analyses in their sentencing calculations. Missouri was the first state to suggest that judges should have access to the costs of incarceration as a resource to use in determining sentences. Three years ago, Missouri made information about the costs of incarceration available to its judges, but no one was required to consider cost in sentencing. Interestingly, this provision was passed at the request of Missouris judges, many of whom wanted to be able to consider the data when making decisions. Just a few months ago, Vermont failed to pass a bill that would have similarly required judges to consider costs when sentencing. This bill was initiated by lawmakers after the costs of incarceration in Vermont jumped 80 percent in 10 years. Unlike in Missouri, judges in Vermont would have been required to consider cost as a factor in their decisions along with other things, such as defendants character. The Vermont Corrections Commissioner was quoted as being in favor of the bill because it shares the burden a little bit between the judiciary and the correctional department. People who object to cost-consideration provisions they tend to be judges or district attorneys believe that considering costs in some way taints the sentencing decision. These critics argue that sentencing isnt a mathematical formula. Such an argument implies that theres something fundamentally moral at risk that shouldnt be combined with cost-benefit analysis. But in fact, judges take all sorts of factors into account when making sentencing or parole decisions. They consider the risk of reoffending, defendants character and their records, and many states accept victim impact statements. Cost as a factor is really no different and simply acknowledges that all decisions to incarcerate, parole or fine come with price tags attached. Cost-benefit analysis Enda Kenny has declared himself "man enough" to admit his mistakes and move on after coming under pressure over his latest gaffe in the final days of the general election campaign. Opponents seized on the Taoiseach's apparent admission in a live television debate that he personally appointed a Fine Gael supporter to a State board a year and a half ago. Donegal businessman John McNulty's elevation to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, effectively allowing him to run for a Seanad seat, sparked a major cronyism row. Fianna Fail said Mr Kenny's admission on the live leaders' debate - which he later appeared to retract - was the second time this week he was forced to change his story after his "handlers had got to him". Barry Cowen, Fianna Fail's environment spokesman, said: "I think during the course of the debate, we seen for the first time that he told the truth on the matter by virtue of the fact that it was he that appointed (Mr McNulty) to the board. "Then again by the time he had got to the back door the handlers had got to him and his story had changed." Mr Cowen said the Taoiseach "had form" in having to backtrack during the campaign, referring to Mr Kenny's remarks about "whingers" in his own constituency of Mayo earlier in the week. On the second last day of campaigning, Mr Kenny brushed off suggestions he is gaffe-prone, by claiming it was a defining characteristic of his leadership that he could admit his mistakes. "I make mistakes, but I'm man enough to acknowledge and accept responsibility for all these things," he said, during his party's final press conference before the poll. "I think the hallmark of leadership is how you move on from issues that arise." But Renua leader Lucinda Creighton accused Mr Kenny of having contradicted everything he said about the McNulty affair when questioned about it at the time in the Dail. "The extraordinary thing is, we would have a head of government who would go into the Dail chamber and claim that black is white," she added. Gerry Adams, who pointed out the admission during the leaders' debate, claimed it was a stark reminder of a "golden circle" politics waged by both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. The Sinn Fein leader said both parties have been appointing "their cronies and friends to positions of influence in the State for decades". He said: "Despite promising a democratic revolution, (Enda Kenny) has kept Fianna Fail's legacy of cronyism and that culture of corruption and political patronage alive and well." "There are two Irelands out there - one for the privileged and one for the rest of us." The BBC missed a string of opportunities over five decades to uncover and stop "monstrous" child sex abuse by shamed broadcasters Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall, a long-awaited inquiry has found. In a withering attack, Dame Janet Smith said the corporation bred a culture of deference in which celebrities were "untouchable" and "King" Savile and Hall were able to hide in plain sight. Her 1,220-page report found that Savile "would gratify himself sexually on BBC premises whenever the opportunity arose" and staff missed numerous opportunities to stop him. Today BBC director general Lord Hall said the findings represented a "dark chapter" in the broadcaster's history and apologised to victims, saying: "The BBC failed you when it should have protected you. I'm deeply sorry for the hurt caused." But lawyers representing some of Savile's victims branded the 6.5 million report an "expensive whitewash" after Dame Janet found that senior figures at the BBC did not know about the abuse. Dame Janet's review found there was a culture of "reverence and fear" towards celebrities at the corporation and that "an atmosphere of fear still exists today in the BBC" which prevents some from blowing the whistle on inappropriate behaviour. When in the 1980s a junior female employee at Television Centre complained to her supervisor that she had been sexually assaulted by Savile, she was told "keep your mouth shut, he is a VIP", the report found. Dame Janet said: "(Jimmy) Savile and Stuart Hall were serial sexual predators. Savile was a danger to young people, both girls and boys, opportunistic and shameless. "I have identified 72 BBC victims of Savile, of whom 34 were under the age of 16. His youngest victim was aged eight. His abuse included eight cases of rape, the youngest victim being only 10 years old. "Stuart Hall targeted and groomed young girls, often plying them with alcohol." She said Dame Linda Dobbs, who conducted a parallel inquiry into Hall, identified 21 victims of abuse - eight of whom were girls under the age of 16, the youngest being 10. Dame Janet said: "Both of these men used their fame and positions as BBC celebrities to abuse the vulnerable. They must be condemned for their monstrous behaviour. "But the culture at the BBC certainly enabled both Savile and Stuart Hall to go undetected for decades. I have identified five occasions where the BBC missed an opportunity to uncover their misconduct." BBC staff missed chances dating back to the late 1960s to stop Savile, who died in October 2011 aged 84 never having been brought to justice for his crimes and is now believed to be one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders. Girls who dared to complain about being sexually assaulted were regarded as "a nuisance" and their claims not properly dealt with. Savile sexually assaulted two teenage girls in front of the cameras in the Top Of The Pops studio on separate occasions in the 1960s and 1970s. But when the girls complained, they were brushed off and one was escorted out of the premises. He first struck in 1959 when he raped a 13-year-old girl in a room at Lime Grove in Shepherd's Bush, where the BBC had studios. And he was still using his fame to prey on his victims five decades later, sexually assaulting a woman outside the Top Of The Pops studio in 2006. Dame Janet found that a number of BBC staff were aware of Savile's offending, or had heard rumours, but she cleared the broadcaster as a corporate body of knowing about it. Her report stated: "In summary, my conclusion is that certain junior and middle-ranking individuals were aware of Savile's inappropriate sexual conduct in connection with his work for the BBC. "However, I have found no evidence that the BBC, as a corporate body, was aware of Savile's inappropriate sexual conduct in connection with his work for the BBC." Savile struck in nearly every corner of the BBC, including the BBC Theatre at Shepherd's Bush where Jim'll Fix It and Clunk Click were filmed, Television Centre where Top Of The Pops was filmed, and Broadcasting House. But women who complained were ordered to "keep your mouth shut, he is a VIP" or told it was "just Jimmy Savile mucking about". Eight complaints about Savile's behaviour were made to BBC staff as early as the late 1960s, but each time they were brushed off or not escalated up the chain of command. In the mid-1970s Ian Hampton, bass player with the pop group Sparks, tried to raise the alarm after spotting Savile leaving the Top Of The Pops studio with a young girl amid rumours of his sexual misconduct. The guitarist alerted a BBC presenter but was simply told not to be silly, while on another occasion he spoke to producer Robin Nash, but was told not to be ridiculous. Hall was found to have sexually assaulted girls as young as 10. He often took them back to his BBC dressing room in Manchester where he plied them with alcohol and assaulted them. Dame Janet said there was a culture of not reporting complaints at the BBC and a fear of saying anything that might "rock the boat". She warned there was a particular fear of whistleblowing at the corporation and "I was told that an atmosphere of fear still exists today in the BBC". She added: "As I have said, there was a culture of not complaining about anything. The culture of not complaining about a member of the Talent was even stronger. "Members of the Talent, such as Savile, were to a real degree protected from complaint." She added: "There was a feeling of reverence for them and a fear that, if a star were crossed, he or she might leave the BBC." Dame Janet said she could not rule out the possibility that "a predatory child abuser could be lurking in the BBC even today". She added: "The power of celebrity and the trust we accord it, which show no real sign of diminishing in our society, make detection of a celebrity abuser even more difficult." Dame Janet's report found that 117 people at the BBC heard rumours about Savile, but ruled the corporation as a corporate body was not told. This sparked an angry backlash from some victims. Liz Dux, a specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon Lawyers, who represents 168 victims, said: "All the Savile and Hall victims have ever wanted from this report is truth and accountability. "Despite millions having been spent on the inquiry, my clients will feel let down that the truth has still not been unearthed and many will feel it is nothing more than an expensive whitewash." Dame Janet denied this accusation, saying: "It certainly isn't a whitewash. It is right that 117 witnesses told the review they had heard rumours about Jimmy Savile, as a matter of fact 180 witnesses told me that they had not. "I did find that a number of people at the BBC, junior people, did know about Savile. They knew from what they saw or realised and drew inferences in their own minds and realised what he was doing. "They didn't report these matters upwards." Lord Hall said the BBC bore responsibility for making Savile and Hall famous and the BBC "could have known" about their abuse. He said: "Just as powerful as the accusation you knew is the legitimate question 'How could you not have known?'" He added: "Today let us be in no doubt we are hearing the worst, and it is a very sobering day. "What happened was profoundly wrong, it should never have started, it should certainly have been stopped." The BBC has paid out hundreds of thousands of pounds to the victims of Savile. The corporation has settled 36 claims, paying out 526,000 in damages and 381,000 in legal fees, a spokesman said. A further eight claims were rejected. Dame Janet highlighted several men who failed to report or take proper action against Savile or Hall. She said one of the men, Canon Colin Semper , who worked on the regional Speakeasy programme, should have reported his suspicions about Savile to his superiors at the BBC. The former head of religious programmes at the BBC a pologised following the report's publication and admitted he should have taken "greater care". He told Sky News said: "I didn't tell anybody of, what you might call, authority. "I'm very, very sorry that I was so obsessed with my programme and with getting it - as best I could - on to the air waves. I'm very sorry that I got so obsessed and I should have had greater care. "I am sorry if I had any responsibility for what has happened over the subsequent time." BT must open up its Openreach network to competitors after Ofcom concluded the UK must "do better" at rolling out superfast broadband and 4G mobile. The regulator said BT must open up Openreach, which provides the final mile of network connection into consumers' homes, to allow rivals to build their own advanced fibre networks connected directly to homes and offices. Ofcom stressed it had "absolutely not" ruled out full structural separation but was looking at alternatives to achieve the same goals more quickly and with potentially less disruption to consumers. The regulator's Strategic Review of Digital Communications - its first significant review of the telecoms sector for a decade - said evidence showed Openreach "still has an incentive to make decisions in the interests of BT, rather than BT's competitors, which can lead to competition problems". It has outlined a new strategy to promote large-scale roll-out of new ultrafast broadband networks, based on cable and fibre lines, as an alternative to the partly copper-based technologies being planned by BT. It said supporting investment by rival providers would reduce the UK's reliance on Openreach and increase competitive pressure on its network. The plans mean Openreach will have to open up its telegraph poles and ducts - the underground tunnels that carry telecoms lines - to allow rivals to build their own fibre networks. Ofcom said: "Openreach must make it much easier for competitors to access this network, and provide comprehensive data on the nature and location of its ducts and poles. "This new 'digital map' of the UK will allow competing operators to invest, plan and lay advanced networks, giving people more choice over how they receive their phone and broadband services." The regulator also outlined plans to introduce tougher rules on faults, repairs and installations, transparent information on service quality and automatic compensation for consumers when things go wrong. It said it would work with the Government to deliver a new universal right to fast, affordable broadband for every household and business in the UK and also intends to introduce new obligations in future spectrum licences to improve rural mobile coverage. Ofcom chief executive Sharon White said: "People across the UK today need affordable, reliable phone and broadband services. Coverage and quality are improving, but not fast enough to meet the growing expectations of consumers and businesses. "So today we've announced fundamental reform of the telecoms market - more competition, a new structure for Openreach, tougher performance targets, and a range of measures to boost service quality. "Together, this means a better deal for telecoms users, which will improve the services and networks that underpin how we live and work." Dan Howdle, telecoms spokesman at broadband and phone advice site Cable.co.uk, said Ofcom's recommendations for Openreach would be a blow to competitors such as Sky, TalkTalk and others who had long campaigned for a split. He said: "Ofcom's decision to open up Openreach's poles and tunnelling to competitors and to give them more say in future strategic and budgetary decision-making goes halfway to alleviating competitor complaints, but stops short of addressing the prime concern. "A recommendation to split would have absolutely been the right decision for the UK broadband industry but, in the short term at least, perhaps not for the 2.5 million UK homes that do not currently have access to superfast broadband." BT said: " Ofcom have today explained why breaking up BT would not lead to better service or more investment and that structural separation would be a last resort. We welcome those comments. "The focus now needs to be on a strengthened but proportionate form of the current model and we have put forward a positive proposal that we believe can form the basis for further discussions with both Ofcom and the wider industry. "Our proposal includes a new governance structure for Openreach as well a clear commitment on investment. Openreach is already one of the most heavily regulated businesses in the world but we have volunteered to accept tighter regulation to bring matters to a clear and speedy conclusion." BT said it was happy to let other companies use its ducts and poles " if they are genuinely keen to invest very large sums as we have done", adding that they had been open to competitors since 2009 but had attracted little interest. It said: "We are keen to understand and address Ofcom's concerns so we will review their paper in detail. "A great deal of what they are proposing is already in place and we are open to discussions about how the current rules can be amended and updated. A voluntary, binding settlement is in everyone's interests and we will work hard to ensure one is reached." Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: " People now see telecoms as essential services, so we welcome proposals to raise standards across the industry, with faster, more reliable broadband and automatic compensation for consumers when things go wrong. "Ofcom must move quickly with these reforms and ensure that Openreach genuinely improves the service for customers who have been let down for too long." TalkTalk chief executive Dido Harding said: " Ofcom has done well in identifying many of the worst problems, including recognising, finally, that BT's control of Openreach creates a fundamental conflict of interest which hurts customers. "But, having accepted all this, Ofcom has produced 100 pages of consultation with little concrete action behind it. The risk is that we end up with 10 more years of debate and delays, rather than facing into the problems and delivering improvements for frustrated customers now." A Sky spokesman said: "We welcome Ofcom's recognition that the current Openreach model is not working and that fundamental change is required. "BT must now be held to account for improving service and enabling delivery of fibre to Britain's homes and businesses. Ofcom's actions today are not the end of the debate but a staging post towards delivering the network and service that Britain needs." Vodafone said: "We welcome Ofcom's move to tighten its regulation and governance of BT Openreach and leave structural separation on the table. We also welcome the move to open up BT's ducts and poles, which we have successfully used in other countries such as Portugal to provide customers with fibre to premises. "However, BT still remains a monopoly provider with a regulated business running at a 28% profit margin. Therefore, we urge Ofcom to ensure BT reinvests the 4 billion in excess profits Openreach has generated over the last decade in bringing fibre to millions of premises across the country, and not just make half-promises to spend an unsubstantiated amount on more old copper cable: we agree with Ofcom that fibre is the future." A Downing Street spokesman said: "We have always been clear that competition is key to delivering high-quality services. "The Department of Culture, Media and Sport will be encouraging Ofcom to bring forward proposals at the earliest opportunity." Jeremy Corbyn is putting frontline community policing at the heart of Labour's police and crime commissioner (PCC) election campaign, saying "reckless" Tory cuts are threatening people's safety. The party leader said: "We want to return to the principle we introduced as a Labour government on community policing - policing by consent, and that's exactly what our candidates for police and crime commissioners are determined to do." He added the party wanted to "bring the police to the people to ensure they live safe, secure lives". Speaking to an audience of party faithful in Birmingham on Thursday and praising existing Labour West Midlands PCC David Jamieson, he said the force had been "leading by example" on reducing stop and search. Mr Corbyn, in a speech to launch the party's national PCC election campaign, said: "Stop and search should be used very sparingly only if it can be seen to be effective (in the community)." He acknowledged the party had opposed the creation of PCCs, but said it was now "vital in a changing world where we face so many new threats". There was criticism of the Conservatives' policing budget cuts, which the party leader said had led to the loss of 18,000 police officers, 12,000 of whom were from the frontline. Mr Corbyn added: "It is disgraceful that when the police are more vital than ever to keeping people safe, their numbers are being reduced. "The safety and security of people in this country are being recklessly threatened by the slashing of budgets." Mr Corbyn, opening the campaign at the Perry Common Community Hall in Erdington, went on to say tackling hate crime or discrimination was at "the very centre of our belief in the Labour Party". Answering a separate question on mental health, he also called for people "to change the mood music a bit in our society" on the issue. He added: "Let's not stigmatise it." Shadow home secretary Andy Burnham told party members and candidates that the Conservatives' cuts to policing, fire services and local government were "putting people's safety at risk". Mr Burnham said: "Tory austerity is tearing a hole in the safety net that should be there to ensure the safety of communities. "I believe these cuts are putting people's safety at risk. "They've gone too far and cannot carry on." He also praised the work of police community support officers. The pair have been visiting towns and cities across the West Midlands region, during the campaign's roll-out. Later on during a visit to Willenhall, Mr Corbyn said the Government counter-terrorism strategy Prevent needed scrutiny. His comments came after three men and a woman from nearby Walsall were convicted of Syria-related terror offences following a trial at the Old Bailey. Mr Corbyn said: "Terrorism is terrible and obviously people planning to do bad things must be appropriately dealt with but we must realise we have to stop people getting into that place and getting attracted by it." He added: "Looking at how Prevent is operating and whether or not it doesn't over-effect young Muslims, we should be looking at all the young people - giving them opportunities and looking at the policing measures that go with that." The party leader also backed a call by victims of the 1974 Birmingham Pub Bombings for West Midlands Police to release all relevant records it holds over the double bombing, which killed 21 people. He said: " I must say as one involved in the Justice for the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four campaigns I was astonished to find there were still records that haven't been released." HMP Ranby is a large category C prison holding just over 1,000 men Inmates seized drugs from staff at a prison which is at risk of being "overwhelmed" by a flood of so-called legal highs, an inspection report has revealed. Prisoners muscled their way into a wing office at HMP Ranby in Nottinghamshire to "forcibly" take back a package containing new psychoactive substances (NPS) that had just been intercepted by officers after being thrown over the walls. Watchdogs also disclosed that s ome prisoners under the influence of NPS were left with fellow inmates to check their condition did not worsen as health services struggled to treat the most seriously affected. Following the inspection in September, bosses took the decision to reduce the facility's population by 120 and beef up staff numbers. It follows warnings that NPS - also known as designer drugs - are now the most serious threat to safety and security in Britain's prisons. Last year it emerged that the rampant use of the drugs behind bars was placing local ambulance services under strain as paramedics were increasingly called out to tend to prisoners, while there have also been reports of prison officers falling ill after inhaling fumes from substances used by inmates. HMP Ranby - a large category C prison holding just over 1,000 men - "faces the challenge of a destabilising supply of NPS which threatens to overwhelm it", d eputy chief inspector of prisons Martin Lomas said. He added: " The harm caused by NPS in prisons requires a national policy." The HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) report said the prison had seen a surge in the availability of the substances, with more than half (58%) of inmates saying it was "easy" to get drugs. It said: "I n one incident, a group of prisoners muscled into a wing office to take back a 'throw-over' package of drugs that had just been intercepted by staff." The report added: " Health services were at risk of being overwhelmed by the need to treat the most seriously affected and as we walked round the prison, we saw a number of prisoners who were clearly under the influence of NPS; some had been left with other prisoners to check they did not deteriorate because there were no available health care services or other staff to do so." HMIP also raised concerns about violence at the prison. There had been 71 assaults on prisoners and 29 on staff in the previous six months and s ome had been "very serious", the report said. It added: "Staff told us they did not feel safe." In the 17 months since the last inspection, there had been six self-inflicted deaths. The prison was trying to respond to the challenges and there were signs of improvement, HMIP said, citing findings including: f ewer prisoners than at the last inspection said they felt unsafe; effective systems were in place for collecting intelligence; and healthcare provision was clinically sound. Michael Spurr, chief executive of the National Offender Management Service, said: " Following September's inspection we have taken decisive action to support the prison in making the required improvements including, reducing the population by 120 prisoners and increasing prison staff. "In addition, we have changed Ranby's role to give it a longer-sentenced, more stable prisoner population. "There remains some way to go, but I'm confident that Ranby is now on the right track." NPS "remains a real concern in prisons", he said, adding that a new testing regime would be rolled out across the country from April. Legislation is in place to ban so-called legal highs. A Prison Service spokeswoman said: "Governors use sniffer dogs, cell searches and mandatory drugs tests to find drugs in prison and punish those responsible. "We have also passed laws so that people who smuggle packages over prison walls, including drugs, face up to two years in prison. "However, it's clear we need to do more. "The Justice Secretary has asked the Ministry of Justice to look at how we can ensure prisons have the right tools in place to tackle this problem." Shadow prisons minister Jo Stevens said: "This report is yet another damning indictment of the Tory Government's failure on prison reform." Police are investigating claims of abuse at the former boarding school Seven men and one woman have been arrested in an investigation into historical abuse at a former boarding school. Cumbria Police said the arrests were made in connection with "non-recent" physical abuse, sexual abuse and child neglect offences reported to have taken place at Underley Hall School in Kirkby Lonsdale. The school for boys with behavioural problems closed in 2012. Five men and one woman were arrested on Wednesday in Cumbria, Lancashire and West Yorkshire. One person is still being questioned by detectives while the others were released on bail. On Thursday, two further men were arrested in Cumbria as part of the same investigation. All of the arrests were made as part of Operation Tweed - an investigation that was launched by Cumbria Constabulary in July 2014. Superintendent Rob O'Connor said: "This continues to be a complex investigation with a team of dedicated detectives following a number of lines of enquiry. Detectives have diligently and painstakingly gathered and analysed a large amount of evidence and have traced and interviewed a significant number of people, many of whom are now living in areas across the country and abroad. "This investigative work continues on a daily basis, as would be expected by victims for a case so serious and far-reaching. "Cumbria Constabulary are committed to dealing with all reports of abuse that have been made. "It is never too late to report abuse, and all reports will be dealt with professionally and sensitively." David Cameron has been dealt a fresh blow as a former Tory leader said the EU renegotiation had "met with failure". Michael Howard, once a political mentor to the Prime Minister, says he believes Britain should vote to leave to "shake Europe's leaders out of their complacency". Lord Howard said Britain "would be sorely missed" if it quit the EU and and suggested "there would be a significant chance that they would ask us to think again" if voters backed Brexit. In an article for The Daily Telegraph, he wrote: "I had hoped that when the Prime Minister announced his intention to commence negotiations for a new relationship between the UK and the EU he might be able to achieve fundamental reform along these lines. "When he spoke, at the outset of the negotiations, of the need for fundamental reform, I believe he may have had something of this kind in mind. "It is not his fault that those efforts met with failure. It is the fault of those EU leaders so mesmerised by their outdated ambition to create a country called Europe that they cannot contemplate any loosening of the ties which bind member states. "There is only one thing that just might shake Europe's leaders out of their complacency: the shock of a vote by the British people to leave." It comes amid claims that the world's most powerful economies are poised to warn against Britain quitting the European Union, following talks with George Osborne. Finance ministers are meeting in Shanghai on Friday and the Chancellor is expected to press for the G20 to signal its concerns about a possible Brexit. Britain's future in the EU is not on the formal agenda for the G20 meeting but Mr Osborne is expected to have talks with counterparts on the sidelines. Officials at the talks told the Financial Times they expected there would be a reference to Brexit in the official communique. "I predict it will (be included) because the UK will want it to," one said. The steam engine is making its first official journey up the East Coast Main Line The train painted in its traditional colours arrived in the capital yesterday Members of the public watch as Flying Scotsman passes a more modern train as it leaves Kings Cross station in London The old and the new as Flying Scotsman leaves Kings Cross on its inaugural run to York Dozens of steam enthusiasts disrupted the inaugural run of Flying Scotsman after its decade-long, 4.2 million refit by standing on the track to take photographs. Passengers said the famous locomotive came to a "shuddering stop" near St Neots, Cambridgeshire, and Virgin Trains East Coast warned that other services were being delayed by up to 15 minutes due to photographers on the track. Footage filmed from the stationary train showed people walking down the line holding cameras. British Transport Police received reports of around 60 trespassers on the track near St Neots shortly after 9am. No arrests were made. Network Rail (NR) was forced to issue an urgent plea to spectators to stay safe and confirmed that Flying Scotsman was held up for 10 minutes before continuing the journey at a reduced speed. The Rail magazine's editor Nigel Harris, who was on the train, said Flying Scotsman was forced to carry out a "big brake" before coming to a "shuddering stop". He described the incident as "rampant trespass by mindless hordes". Some 297 VIPs, fundraisers, competition winners and members of the public who paid up to 450 were on board for the trip. The train departed London King's Cross at 7.40am and arrived in York at 1.20pm. Thousands of steam enthusiasts lined tracks and bridges to see it go past. NR said regular services were given priority on the East Coast Main Line and Flying Scotsman was moved on to slow lines to allow them through. Built in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, in 1923, Flying Scotsman soon became the star locomotive of the British railway system, pulling the first train to break the 100mph barrier in 1934. It has been painted in the traditional early 1960s British Rail green for its first official outing bearing its nameplates after the restoration project. Michael Portillo told the Press Association he was "very excited" to be travelling on the train as part of filming for BBC documentary series Great British Railway Journeys. "This is certainly the most famous journey and most famous locomotive in Britain," he said. Mr Portillo described Flying Scotsman as "an engineering triumph" and praised its designer, Sir Nigel Gresley, for having "an eye for engineering, for design, for style and for marketing". The National Railway Museum (NRM) in York bought the locomotive for 2.3 million in 2004 before work got under way on its restoration in 2006. The museum's director, Paul Kirkman, said Flying Scotsman was a reminder that "railways have been making this country run properly for nearly 200 years". He said the restoration project was a "long old journey" but added that it was "incredibly satisfying" to see the locomotive returned to service. Also among the passengers was Ron Kennedy, who drove Flying Scotsman from 1956 until it was retired in 1963. The 83-year-old, from Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, beamed with delight as the locomotive pulled into King's Cross, where he first worked as a cleaner almost 70 years ago. "It's unbelievable. I never dreamt about being on it again. To be out with it is just fantastic," he said. "It was a good engine." Flying Scotsman will be kept at the NRM until March 6 before embarking on a tour around the country. Native Americans are more likely to be killed by police than any other ethnic group in the U.S., but the national dialogue about racial bias and criminal justice reform continues to exclude them. The absence of American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians from conversations about police brutality and social inequality exemplifies the United States complicity to the continued marginalization and neglect of Native communities. Not only do Native Americans need to be included in the debate over police violence against minority populations, but their inclusion must also expand beyond such discussions to other social issues. Native men and women, for instance, are overrepresented in the prison system and as victims of sexual violence. Yet black and Latino males have become the faces of mass incarceration. Native students are suspended and referred to law enforcement and even expelled from schools at disproportionate rates. And Indian reservations have disproportionately high rates of poverty and unemployment. Most Americans are unaware that a Native Lives Matter campaign even exists. Established in 2014, it speaks to the historical and contemporary oppression of indigenous people in the United States. With the national spotlight on police and criminal justice reform, the Native Lives Matter movement has an opportunity to highlight numerous issues affecting Native Americans. Even in states with large Native populations, Native Americans suffer the same fate. In Hawaii, for example, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders make up 10 percent of states population but are 39 percent of its prison population. Natives make up 38 percent of Alaskas prison population despite being only 15 percent of the states population. Given this dynamic, the current focus on black and Latino males in the debate on criminal justice reform has rendered incarcerated Native men and women insignificant. The oppression of Native people is not limited to the criminal justice system. Native American women are twice as likely to be victims of sexual assault as women in any other race. On reservations, women are ten times more likely to be murdered than other Americans. Last month, activists raised concerns about the rise in the number of Native women murdered and kidnapped in northern Minnesota. Activists fear that some of these women have been forced into a sex trafficking and allege that the police were being apathetic. These issues did not rise to the level of national crises because many Americans are oblivious to the plight of Native people. To be clear, the Native Lives Matter movement isnt simply calling for the inclusion of Natives into the conversation along with blacks and Latinos. The history and legacy of colonialism is critical to understanding issues that still plague Native communities. More than 120 years after U.S. troops overthrew the Kingdom of Hawaii, Hawaiian Natives account for roughly one-third of the states homeless population. They still have high poverty rates and are profiled as criminals. A pipe bomb has been removed for forensic examination after a security alert in north Belfast - the second in the New Lodge this week A man has been arrested after a woman was taken hostage with a knife at a restaurant in London's Leicester Square. Scotland Yard said the woman had been held against her will by the man in a branch of Bella Italia and two other people were inside. Officers with riot shields arrived at the scene and surrounded the building after the incident was reported at 8.50pm. Parts of the busy tourist area were cordoned off and nearby diners were ordered to stay indoors. The Metropolitan Police said the man was "intimating" he had a knife and had been "holding a woman against her will". T he force said the incident was " not terror-related". The man was detained shortly before 10.45pm and t here were no reported injuries. He was seen being led from the restaurant by officers into a waiting police van, which was driven away. Officers at the scene said the man had been found with a knife in his pocket and he had been arrested. Alton Towers saw a "significant" fall in visitor numbers after the accident on its Smiler ride on June 2 Alton Towers owner Merlin Entertainments has seen its annual profits edge up after last summer's rollercoaster accident which left five people seriously injured. The group - which also owns attractions such as Legoland, Madame Tussauds and the London Eye - said it overcame a fall in revenues at its theme parks to post a pre-tax profit rise of 0.3% to 250 million in the year to December 26 compared with a year ago. It said Alton Towers had a "significant" fall in visitor numbers after the accident on its Smiler ride on June 2, which resulted in the 500-acre theme park in Staffordshire being shut down for four days. Chief executive Nick Varney said: "Despite a challenging year, the business delivered a robust performance in 2015. "However, 2015 was a difficult year for Merlin following the accident at Alton Towers early in the summer season. The safety of our guests and employees must always come first and we have sought to learn every possible lesson to help ensure there is no repeat of what happened on 2 June." Merlin, which runs 110 attractions in 23 countries, said sales at its theme park business tumbled 12.4% to 285 million as the division was "dominated by the impact of the incident at Alton Towers", which came during the peak summer season. But it added strong performances from its Legoland parks, and venues such as Madame Tussauds and the London Dungeon - which it calls its midway attractions - boosted growth in the firm. Merlin said in November that the crash of its Smiler ride at Alton Towers in June was cause by human error as staff misunderstood a shutdown message and wrongly restarted the rollercoaster. The group said it is putting in place a range of measures to guard against an accident like this happening again, such as installing new compliance managers at all its theme parks and forming a new group engineering unit. The business also set out new plans for growth as it looks to "quicken the pace of expansion" principally across the US, China, Japan and South Korea. It said that by 2020 it plans to add 44 new attractions, including four Legoland parks, and add another 2,000 rooms to its hotels. The business currently runs 12 hotels and four holiday villages. Merlin also announced it was taking around a 15% stake in city centre tour guide operation Big Bus Tours for 34.4 million US dollars (24.7 million). Big Bus Tours runs almost 400 open-top sightseeing buses in 17 major cities such as London, Hong Kong and Chicago. Merlin said the deal will provide opportunities for cross-selling, promotions and joint sales and marketing activity. Mr Varney said: "This investment will facilitate a closer working relationship on the ground while enabling us to learn about a highly complementary business." Shares in Merlin lifted more than 2% in early trading. Analysts at Shore Capital said: "We are firm believers in the potential for this business to deliver considerable upside over the longer term." Natalie McGarry wrote on Twitter she was 'safe and absolutely fine' after reports emerged she had been detained in Turkey Scottish MP Natalie McGarry was questioned by Turkish security forces after using her phone to "record the sound of bombs" falling in a Kurdish area of the country. The Glasgow East politician, who was on a visit to Turkey with the GMB union, was briefly detained near a security checkpoint in the south-east of the country. Her lawyer later confirmed she had been using her mobile phone to record bombs falling on the Kurdish area of Sur in the city of Diyarbakir, a flashpoint in the conflict between the Turkish government and the country's Kurdish population. A statement from solicitor Aamer Anwar said: " I can confirm that Natalie McGarry MP was questioned earlier on today when she was recording the sound of bombs from the Turkish forces falling on the Kurdish area of Sur in Diyarbakir. "It appears that a member of the Turkish security forces became alarmed as Natalie had her mobile phone out near a security checkpoint. "She was taken away for questioning and when it was explained that she was part of the GMB delegation and simply recording the sound of bombs falling, she was released." He said no further statement would be made and the MP would be returning home soon. Ms McGarry, who has previously expressed her support for the Kurds, tweeted: "Thank you for any concerns but I am safe and absolutely fine." She added: "To follow up on statement from elsewhere, I was not arrested, but answered some questions. I am absolutely fine and have no further comment." A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "A British national was briefly detained and released in Diyarbakir, Turkey. "Our embassy staff were in close contact with local authorities." Ms McGarry sits as an independent MP after resigning the SNP whip in the wake of an ongoing police investigation i nto missing donations from Women for Independence, the pro-Scottish independence group she founded. She denies any wrongdoing. There were 853,000 people aged from 16 to 24 in the UK who were classified as Neet in the final quarter of last year. The number of young people not in employment, training or education has increased by 5,000, new figures have shown. There were 853,000 people aged from 16 to 24 in the UK who were classified as Neet in the final quarter of last year. The figure was 5,000 higher than the previous three months, but 110, 000 down from a year earlier, said the Office for National Statistics. A total of 11.8% of all young people were Neet, an increase of 0.1% over the quarter but down by 1.4% from a year earlier. In the latest quarter there were 48,000 people aged 16 or 17 who were not in e ducation, employment or training, down 2,000 from July to September and by 11,000 from a year earlier. There were 805,000 people aged from 18 to 24 who were Neet, up 7,000 from the previous quarter and down 99,000 from a year earlier. Kirstie Donnelly, managing director of City & Guilds, said: ''It's worrying to see the number of young people not in education or training creep up after months of more positive news. "The figures show that now more than one in every 10 teenagers is currently locked out of a path to the future." The Education Department said the figure reached a record low for the time of year, pointing to the 100,000 fall over the past year. Skills Minister Nick Boles said: " The continued fall in young people not in education, employment or training - leading to today's record low level - shows that we are delivering on this commitment. "There is no room for complacency, though, and through our plans to deliver three million new apprenticeships by 2020 and our qualification reforms, we are determined to build on these excellent results." The discovery that pancreatic cancer is four separate diseases could revolutionise treatment Scientists have discovered pancreatic cancer is four separate diseases, paving the way for more accurate diagnosis and treatment. Researchers said the findings were the "launch pad" to investigate new treatments because doctors currently have little insight into which will be most effective for patients. Around 8,800 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK each year and j ust 20% of adults survive more than a year after being diagnosed. Less than 5% of sufferers survive after five years and only 1% are still alive after 10 years. The study, carried out by a team of researchers at the University of Glasgow, looked at 456 pancreatic cancer tumours and found the disease could be classified as one of four different sub-types; squamous, pancreatic progenitor, immunogenic and ADEX. Professor Sean Grimmond, who led the study, said there were already cancer drugs available or in development that could target parts of the "damaged machinery" which led to pancreatic cancers. For example, some strains of the disease were associated with mutations normally linked to colon cancer or leukaemia for which experimental drugs are being used to treat, he said. Prof Grimmond said: "This study demonstrates that pancreatic cancer is better considered as four separate diseases, with different survival rates, treatments and underlying genetics. "Knowing which sub-type a patient has would allow a doctor to provide a more accurate prognosis and treatment recommendations. Dr Peter Bailey, an author of the study, added: "The standard of care for pancreatic cancer really hasn't changed in the last 20 years. There are a number of different chemotherapeutic options but in general it's not very selective - it's like hitting the disease with a mallet with your eyes closed." The charity Pancreatic Cancer UK described the results, published in the journal Nature, as "incredibly exciting". Its head of research Leanne Reynolds said the findings meant that in the future "the right patients can be given the right treatment at the right time". She said: "This is crucial for people with pancreatic cancer, because the disease is difficult to diagnose, is often diagnosed terribly late, and just four per cent of people live for five years or more after diagnosis. "If we can predict more accurately which treatment would be most effective for each patient, we can ensure patients have the best chance of living for as long as possible, as well as possible. Dr Emma Smith, from Cancer Research UK, said: "Identifying different types of pancreatic cancer and revealing the disease's complexity is an important step towards finding more effective treatments. "This will help to ensure patients are given the therapies that are most likely to help. Improving survival for people with pancreatic cancer is one of our top priorities, and we urgently need more research like this if we're going to beat this disease in the future." Pauline Cafferkey has been admitted to hospital for the third time since contracting Ebola A majority of Ebola survivors suffer some form of long-term brain health problems, according to a new study. Patients who were successfully treated for the disease were found to have neurological issues six months later. The most common problems included muscle pain, headaches, memory loss and depressed moods, but in rare cases patients were suicidal, the US researchers said. It comes as British nurse Pauline Cafferkey remains in the Royal Free Hospital in London for treatment for a "late complication" from Ebola. It is the third time the 40 year old, from South Lanarkshire, Scotland, has been treated in hospital since contracting the virus in Sierra Leone in December 2014 at a Save the Children treatment centre. The study, by the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, examined 82 survivors in Liberia and found that most had some form of "neurologic abnormality" at least six months after they became infected. Around two thirds of the group, which had an average age of 35, had body weakness, while half suffered headaches and memory loss. Two people were suicidal and one suffered hallucinations. Doctors also found survivors commonly had abnormal eye movements and tremors. The research, which will be presented at the annual meeting of American Academy of Neurology, forms part of a wider study into the long-term health effects of the virus. More than 17,000 people survived the outbreak in west Africa, although the virus left 11,300 dead. Dr Lauren Brown, the study's author, said: " While an end to the outbreak has been declared, these survivors are still struggling with long-term problems." "It is important for us to know how this virus may continue to affect the brain long term." Speaking to the BBC, Dr Brown added: "It was pretty striking, this is a young population of patients, and we wouldn't expect to have seen these sorts of problems. "When people had memory loss, it tended to affect their daily living, with some feeling they couldn't return to school or normal jobs, some had terrible sleeping problems. "Ebola hasn't gone away for these people." The World Health Organisation declared the Ebola outbreak over last year, but two new cases emerged in Sierra Leone in January. The organisation called for a ''critical period of heightened vigilance''. The Prince of Wales is patron of Friends of the National Libraries The Prince of Wales was joined by leading lights from the arts world as he launched an ambitious 1 million appeal to help save rare books and manuscripts for the nation. Singer Bryan Ferry and Nobel Prize-winning author VS Naipaul were among those who joined Charles at Lambeth Palace for the event. Charles, who became patron of the Friends of the National Libraries (FNL) last year, spoke about the importance of literature as he launched the organisation's Prince of Wales Fund. The Prince, who was joined by wife Camilla at the reception, said: "We simply must, ladies and gentlemen, must protect these treasure houses of our history and of everything that has made our culture and our country great." Founded in 1931, the FNL supports national and regional libraries and other institutions by giving them grants to buy rare books, manuscripts and archives that might otherwise leave the country. The charity has begun appealing for contributions to the new fund and has already received donations and pledges of more than 500,000. Charles told the audience how he developed a love of books at an early age: "I am one of those people who have been very lucky in the sense I was able to spend my childhood at Windsor Castle. "In due course as I got a little bit older I started exploring the library which, as you can imagine, was absolutely fascinating. I ended up getting covered in dust. "But also as a child going down to see the book binding and conservation department, where I spent hours with gold leaf and marvellous stamps from the days of King Charles I and before then, which are still there." He added: "Perhaps you can understand I grew up surrounded by books and all the fascination that goes with the books - the smell, the dust, the occasional strange beetles that eat the paper." Camilla is also a keen supporter of literature, having presented the Man Booker prize to writers for a number of years, and she is the patron of a number of literacy organisations. In Lambeth Palace's 17th century library the Prince and Duchess mingled with guests who included Lord Saatchi. On display were ancient books and manuscripts that had been bought with the help of the Friends of the National Libraries, including a contemporary 1587 copy of Mary, Queen of Scots' execution warrant. Charles and Camilla were also shown a display by conservators of their book-binding skills. Editor's note: Al Jazeera America has removed the satirical piece originally posted on this link, which included commentary on our company that we believe was not appropriate given its imminent closure. Our goal in the closing stages of AJAM online and on TV is to honor the exceptional journalism and journalists that distinguished our brand, to maintain the respect that we have always shown to those we have covered since our launch, and to uphold our promise to deliver the highest quality journalism to our readers until the very last. We believe the satirical piece originally at this link failed to live up to these goals. We offer our apologies to our readers and to our staff. Emergency workers wade through floodwater in Carlisle after heavy rain from Storm Desmond The UK will bid for European Union cash to help victims of the winter floods, the Government has announced. Communities Minister James Wharton said the UK has confirmed its intention to apply for aid from the EU solidarity fund in relation to Storm Desmond and Storm Eva. Labour said the announcement is "extremely welcome". Mr Wharton, replying to an urgent question from Labour in the Commons, said the application would be the UK's first since flooding in 2007. The Conservative minister said : "I am today announcing that the UK Government will make an application to the European Union solidarity fund (EUSF). "The EUSF was set up to respond to major natural disasters. The fund was created as a reaction to the severe floods in central Europe in the summer of 2002. "Since then it has been used for 70 disasters covering a range of different catastrophic events, including floods, forest fires, earthquakes, storms and drought. "The only time the UK has applied to the fund was following the flooding of 2007, which saw widespread and significant damage across large swathes of England." MPs have previously heard the deadline for the UK to declare its intent to bid for funding was the end of February. Mr Wharton said the EU aid is not designed to offer "rapid response" support and can take several months to complete. He told MPs: "Member states have 12 weeks from the start of an incident to register their intent to claim. "We have confirmed our intent. Once you have confirmed it, there is time to consider with the commission the element to assessment. "Following this process the commission assesses the application and, if the application is accepted, proposes an amount of aid to the European Parliament. "Once the appropriations become available in the EU budget, the commission adopts a decision awarding the aid to the affected state. "It is then paid out in a single instalment. When aid is paid out, the affected state is responsible for the implementation - including the selection of operations and their audit and control." Mr Wharton earlier said the UK Government has already provided more than 200 million to help those affected by the winter floods, including recovery and repair costs. Replying for Labour, shadow environment minister Alex Cunningham told Speaker John Bercow: "I thank the minister and my fellow Stockton MP (Mr Wharton) for his response, which is extremely welcome today. "And it has taken an urgent question to get the information from the Government - so I'm delighted you granted it, Mr Speaker." Mr Cunningham criticised the amount of time it had taken the Government to announce the application. He said the scale of the damage caused by the floods and the associated cost of recovery meant it was "imperative" for the Government to apply to "maximise" available resources. "Members and their constituents have been left totally in the dark as it appeared the Government would fail to make an application for help from the EU solidarity fund, a fund established to respond to precisely such natural disasters as those experienced in Cumbria, Lancashire, North Yorkshire and Scotland," he said. Mr Cunningham said countries across the EU had made applications in "similar circumstances". "We on this side have been extremely anxious that this opportunity could in fact be lost," he said. "To be clear, the first floods for which an application can be made in Cumbria were some 11 and a half weeks ago, yet it's taken the Government to within a single working day of the deadline to confirm an application is being made. "We all know there are those who quite wrongly believe we get little from the EU. "I am clear that the UK should be embracing the offer of additional support, particularly having paid 300 million into the fund since it was set up." Mr Wharton said the Opposition benches failed to understand the purpose of the fund and how applications work. He said: "There does seem to be a fundamental misunderstanding that you have. "The department, the Government has been working on this application for some time. "You have to draw together a range of information across Government departments, talking with local areas, assessing the cost and impact of events that have taken place. "That is what we have been doing and that is what we will continue to do." Mr Wharton repeatedly stressed that the fund is not for "rapid response". "The European Union solidarity fund is not designed to be a rapid response to events of this kind," he said. "It is a longer term fund to provide compensation to communities and even though an application is now being made it will take months for that money to be paid." Ian Liddell-Grainger, Tory MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, told the House that EU cash is not needed to "do what you have to do" to help people. He said: "In 2011 we suffered disastrous floods in Somerset. We looked at this fund very closely indeed, the Prime Minister and my local area. "We made the decision it was not going to be applied for at that time because it was too complicated, too difficult and the benefit to the communities wasn't going to be there. "It doesn't matter - they can chunter as much as they want on the opposition benches - we have now made the area that was flooded in Somerset safe through UK funding. "The proof of the pudding is this year we haven't even had to switch on the main pumps. "It has worked. You don't need this funding to be able to do what you have to do to secure your communities." The SNP's Calum Kerr (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) welcomed the announcement but also questioned the timing of the application as he asked Mr Wharton: "Where was the rapid decision-making process?" "It was not a difficult question," he said. "If you have an insurance policy, yes, of course you are going to cash it in, why would we not cash it in?" But Mr Wharton hit back. He said: "I can confirm that one of the factors that has delayed the process, which has made it more difficult to assess this very complicated application that underpins an application to the EU solidarity fund, has been the slowness of getting the information we needed out of the Scottish Government." Nigel Evans, Tory MP for Ribble Valley, praised the Government for committing to making the application. "Hallelujah," he said. "Hallelujah. Three weeks ago I asked the Prime Minister why weren't we applying for these funds. I am delighted that we are now doing so." Leading Eurosceptic Christopher Chope, Conservative MP for Christchurch, was one of a number of Tories who used the urgent question and the application announcement to criticise the EU. He urged Mr Wharton to put the value of the fund in the context of Britain's overall contributions to Brussels. "Every day we pay as British taxpayers 50 million to the European Union," he said. "How much do you think we are going to get back? Three or four days' contributions?" Mr Wharton, who has declared he will back a Brexit at the forthcoming referendum, prompted laughter from his colleagues on the Government benches as he neatly dodged commenting on Mr Chope's question. "You make your point better than I would endeavour to do from the despatch box today," he said. Chris Heaton-Harris, the Tory MP for Daventry, told the House there is "no guarantee of us actually ever receiving this money". He said: "The process domestically is complicated enough but when you get to the European process where we apply for some of our own money to come back to this country it becomes even more complicated and the timeline is extremely long." Meanwhile, Labour MP Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) accused ministers of waiting until the "11th hour" to apply for funding. Scientists have issued a new Zika virus warning (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/PA) Zika infection may have life-threatening effects on unborn babies that are not just confined to the brain, a study has found. In January a young Brazilian woman had a stillborn baby girl with the characteristic small head associated with the virus as well as signs of severe neurological damage. But doctors also identified symptoms of a potentially fatal foetal disorder called hydrops fetalis that causes tissues to fill with fluid. Tests confirmed the presence of Zika in the foetus, delivered by induced labour in the 32nd week of pregnancy. Only one such case has been reported so far, but the details are worrying enough to prompt a new Zika warning from scientists. Dr Albnert Ko, from the Yale School of Public Health in the US, who led the investigation team, said: "These findings raise concerns that the virus may cause severe damage to foetuses leading to stillbirths and may be associated with effects other than those seen in the central nervous system. "Additional work is needed to understand if this is an isolated finding and to confirm whether Zika virus can actually cause hydrops fetalis." Zika infection has already been linked to microcephaly, a condition marked by babies being born with abnormally small heads and brain damage. Despite a lack of causal evidence, the strength of the association has led the World Health Organisation to declare Zika an international public health emergency. The new case is reported in the journal Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases. It involved a 20-year-old woman from the city of Salvador whose first three months of pregnancy had seemed normal. That changed abruptly in the 18th week when an ultrasound scan revealed that the unborn baby's weight was well below what it should have been. The woman had not reported any of the symptoms commonly associated with Zika, such as a rash, fever or body aches. Nor had she exhibited symptoms of other tropical mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue or chikungunya. By the 30th week of pregnancy it became clear that the foetus had developed a range of birth defects, including severe microcephaly. Two weeks later a decision to carry out an induced birth was taken after the baby's death in the womb was confirmed. Doctors found evidence of hydranencephaly, an almost complete loss of brain tissue, which has previously been linked to Zika infection. But the discovery of hydrops fetalis was unexpected. The Zika scare began in Brazil last November when an outbreak of infections by the virus coincided with a large increase in numbers of babies born with microcephaly. Between November 2015 and February 13 a total of 5,280 cases of babies born with microcephaly and/or central nervous system malformation were reported in Brazil, including 108 deaths. Zika has spread rapidly across more than 20 countries in the Americas, and US officials are investigating 14 possible cases of sexual transmission of the virus. It is normally transmitted through bites by the Aedes mosquito. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud claimed between 180 and 200 Kenyan soldiers were killed in the January 15 attack Somalia's president says at least 180 Kenyan soldiers were killed in Somalia in an extremist attack on their base in January by al Qaida affiliate al-Shabab. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, speaking in an interview on a Somali cable TV channel, said on Wednesday that between 180 and 200 Kenyan soldiers were killed in the January 15 attack. Kenya's military spokesman denied the figures given by the Somali president but declined to give an official death toll. The attack happened in the town of El-Ade, not far from the Kenyan border. Kenya has provided a major contingent to the African Union force that is fighting al-Shabab, a Somali Islamic extremist group that is trying to overthrow Somalia's government. Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt waves to his fans as he arrives at his residence in Mumbai, India (AP) Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt said freedom was "the most amazing thing" after he left prison upon completing his five-year sentence for illegal weapons possession in a case linked to the 1993 terror attack in Mumbai. Dutt's wife Maanyata and noted filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani greeted the actor as he came out of the prison gate in the western city of Pune. He saluted the Indian national flag at the prison building and thanked fans, including some who came in person to see him, for their support. "There is no easy walk to freedom, my friend," he told reporters before leaving in a chartered plane. At his home in Mumbai, he told reporters that he fought legal battles for 23 years to be a free man. "I wanted to taste freedom. It's not sinking in yet. To be free is the most amazing thing." He said he learned small jobs such as making paper bags and entertained other prisoners by spending time as a radio jockey while in prison. He said he plans to spend his time looking after his family and working in films. Dutt, 56, asked journalists not to describe him as a terrorist as he was sentenced for firearms offences. His sentence was reduced by 144 days for good behaviour. Prosecutors said Dutt's guns came from underworld gangs involved in the 1993 terror attack, when 13 powerful bombs packed into cars and scooters exploded across the city of Mumbai, India's financial capital and home to the Hindi-language film industry. The bombs killed 257 people and injured 720. Dutt has said he knew nothing about the bombing plot and wanted the guns to protect his family after receiving threats during the religious riots that preceded the bombings. His mother was Muslim and his father Hindu. His mother Nargis Dutt and father Sunil Dutt also were top Bollywood actors. Dutt became wildly popular for his Hindi film roles as a reformed thug who follows the teachings of pacifist freedom fighter Mohandas Gandhi. A French court has given the green light to raze tents sheltering hundreds of migrants in the Jungle camp in Calais. A court official said the Lille Administrative Court ruled on Thursday that French authorities can evict migrants from their tents in the densely populated southern portion of the camp but cannot entirely demolish it. Associations protesting the move took the issue to court seeking a postponement of a deadline reached last Tuesday for migrants to move out. The court in Lille ruled that the makeshift shelters used by the migrants can be destroyed - but that common spaces like places of worship, schools and a library must stand. Demolition crews have been poised to start what officials say will be a better solution for migrants trapped in Calais with borders all but sealed by increasing security. Officials estimate the number of migrants who will be affected at 800-1,000. Humanitarian organisations say more than 3,000 migrants live there. Moving the migrants out of the camp will be the most dramatic step by the French state to end Calais's years-long migrant problem. Critics contend that closing the camp may not solve the problem. The same court in Lille ordered the state in November to clean up the camp by adding running water, toilets and garbage bins, and counting the number of minors without families - now 326 - and help those in distress. Saving the migrants' temporary homes from bulldozers became a mass effort by volunteers, humanitarian groups and a dose of star power. Actor Jude Law paid a visit last weekend and 260 French figures signed a petition against destroying the camp. In announcing plans to close the camp, authorities cited security and sanitation concerns and the increasingly tarnished image of Calais, a city of nearly 80,000 takes pride in drawing tourists to its Opal Coast. Its prime location - with a major ferry port, Eurotunnel rail system and truck traffic crossing the English Channel - has put it in the crosshairs of the migrant crisis. Tensions rose when the camp's population spiked to 6,000 last autumn before dropping to 4,000 more recently. The area targeted for destruction is dotted with rickety shops, cafes, places of worship and schools, built by aid groups and the migrants, most of whom travelled from conflict zones such as Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, or came to escape human rights abuses or poverty in African nations. A sense of anxiety mounted in the camp ahead of the court ruling. "Obviously, they are scared and concerned about what is going to happen," said Ed Sexton, of Help Refugees, one of the associations working in the camp. "The people have been here months, living in terrible conditions, but they don't want their shelters destroyed." Humanitarian workers predicted that those who refuse to leave would shelter in small groups elsewhere around Calais and the coast. "You're basically going to scatter a lot of people," said Maya Konforti, of the association Auberge des Migrants. Three of the Egyptian teenagers were sentenced to five years in prison (AP) An Egyptian court has convicted four Coptic Christian teenagers for contempt of Islam after they appeared in a video mocking Muslim prayers. Three of the teenagers were sentenced to five years in prison, while a fourth, who is under 18, was referred to a juvenile detention facility. The ruling underscores a culture of intolerance within the country's judicial system at a time when the Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is seeking to position himself as an advocate for religious reform. The 30-second video showed the students pretending to pray, with one kneeling on the floor while reciting Qur'anic verses and two others standing behind him and laughing. One waved his hand under a second's neck in a sign of beheading. The video was filmed by the students' teacher, who is also a Christian, and who was sentenced to three years in prison for insulting Islam in a separate trial. Their teenagers' lawyer, Maher Naguib, said his clients, who are high school students in the southern province of Minya, have not been detained and did not appear in court for the trial. Some 10 security trucks surrounded the court building in the southern city of Bani Mazar. The families of the students cried, and some women wailed in disbelief and collapsed on hearing the verdict. Mr Naguib described the ruling as "unbelievable" and said the judge should have just punished the teenagers with a fine. Iman Girgis, a mother of one of the convicted students, Moller Atef, said: "My son was sentenced to five years for laughing. Is that possible?" "What kind of justice is this?" she added. Mr Naguib said the video came to light in April 2015, shortly after Islamic State militants in Libya beheaded dozens of Egyptian Christians. The video prompted calls by angry Muslims to evict the students and the teacher from their village. Mobs attacked the students' houses and security forces arrested the students while the teacher and his family were ordered to leave the village after a meeting of the village elders. Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), have called on Egyptian authorities to end prosecutions based on contempt of religion laws. A recent HRW report documented 27 such court cases between 2011 and 2014. People gather at the site of a house destroyed by a Saudi-led airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen (AP) The European Union parliament has called for an EU arms embargo against Saudi Arabia over air strikes and a naval blockade in Yemen, despite lobbying by the kingdom. In a resolution, MEPs called for the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini "to launch an initiative aimed at imposing an EU arms embargo against Saudi Arabia." They expressed concern "at the air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition and the naval blockade it has imposed on Yemen," saying that they have led to thousands of deaths. The resolution was passed by 449 votes to 36, with 78 abstentions. At least 6,000 people have been killed since the Saud-led coalition of Arab countries launched their offensive in Yemen nearly a year ago. The fighting pits the widely recognised Yemeni government, backed by Saudi Arabia, against Shiite Yemeni rebels known as Houthis who overran the capital and other Yemeni cities in 2014. The EU resolution is not binding on Mogherini or the EU member states, but the vote caught the attention of the Saudi government. In a letter to some politicians dated last Sunday, Saudi Arabia's ambassador in Brussels wrote that "our not taking action in Yemen would have had devastating geopolitical consequences". "Riyadh considers its achievements in this campaign to be of critical regional significance to the international community," the ambassador said. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have defended their intervention in Yemen, accusing Iran of trying to use the Houthis to establish a Shiite militia just south of the Saudi border. Iran has acknowledged political support for the Houthis, but denies arming the rebels. The EU politicians underlined that both Saudi Arabia and Iran are key to ending the crisis in Yemen. The regional foes also back opposite sides of the war in Syria and support rival political groups in Lebanon, Bahrain and Iraq. Amnesty International issued a report in October, around six months after the start of the Saudi-led intervention, saying that there was "damning evidence of war crimes" by the coalition. It called for a suspension of transfers of certain arms to Saudi Arabia and other coalition countries, citing 13 air strikes by the coalition between May and July in north-eastern Yemen that reportedly killed some 100 civilians, including 59 children. The report also documented the use of internationally banned cluster bombs. Yemen is one of the Arab world's poorest countries. Around 2.8 million Yemenis are internally displaced and three million children are out of school, with more than 80% of the population in need of humanitarian aid. The letter sent by US president John F Kennedy to five-year-old Rita Knight in 1962 (Raab Collection/ AP) A 53-year-old letter sent by John F Kennedy to a little girl who was a big fan of the charismatic US president is going up for sale in Philadelphia. A dealer of rare documents is selling the short typed letter to five-year-old Rita Knight for 15,000 dollars (10,800). But the company has so far been unable to find any current information on Rita, who would now be in her late 50s. Rita's father wrote to Mr Kennedy to share an anecdote about his daughter hoping to use two cents to buy a bus ticket to Washington from her home in Louisville, Kentucky. Mr Kennedy wrote to Rita in response and in the letter, dated March 29 1962, he says he is sending it "to surprise you and say 'hello'." President Kennedy was assassinated a year later in Dallas, Texas. Raab Collection president Nathan Raab said the correspondence was remarkable because so few letters from Mr Kennedy to children had survived. At least four people have been killed in the US as storm systems ravaged the East Coast and the Mid West. Tornadoes left a path of destruction in Virginia, the hardest-hit state, and police said a two-year-old child and two men, aged 50 and 26, were killed in the town of Waverly. Also in Virginia, a funnel cloud left a 10-mile path of destruction in Appomattox County, where one man was killed. A powerful storm also brought heavy snow and biting winds to the Mid West, leading to mass flight cancellations at Chicago airports and school closures in several states. The storms came the day after a t least three people were killed by tornadoes in the Gulf Coast states. Two were killed at a motorhome park in the town of Convent in southern Louisiana, and a 73-year-old man died in a mobile home west of Purvis, Mississippi. Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency as thousands were left without power across the state. The tiny town of Waverly took the brunt of the storm. The bodies of the three victims there were found about 300 yards from their mobile home. At least five structures were damaged in the town of approximately 2,000 and roads leading into town had to be closed because of downed trees and debris tossed around by winds gusting to 60mph. At least 15 structures were destroyed and 25 injuries were reported when the storm passed through Essex County and the town of Tappahannock, about 45 miles north east of Richmond, state police said. The injuries ranged from minor to serious, but there were no confirmed fatalities. The line of storms moved across Pennsylvania and the New York City area, bringing strong winds and heavy rains that knocked down trees and caused scattered power outages. The Chicago Department of Aviation reported more than 1,100 flights had been cancelled at the city's two major airports by Wednesday evening. Northern Indiana was expected to see the heaviest snow, as powerful winds blowing off Lake Michigan could bury the area in up to 18in. Parts of Michigan could also see more than a foot of snow, and some schools closed ahead of the storm. Most of the state was under a winter storm warning that extends until at least Thursday afternoon. Bill Bunting with National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Centre estimated 20 to 24 tornadoes hit from Louisiana to Florida on Tuesday. Later, South Carolina officials said a man died when he was hit by a tree as he was picking up debris from the storms that moved across the Carolinas on Wednesday afternoon. Darlington County Corner Todd Hardee said in a statement that 58-year-old Michael Gaines Sr, of Darlington, had stopped on a road near his home to remove debris from the road when a pine tree fell on him. Mr Hardee said the death is being investigated by his office and the sheriff's office. Sheriff Wayne Byrd said the victim was being a good Samaritan when he was killed. No other deaths have been reported in the Carolinas from the strong storms. Theres a new divide in the Democratic Party. Its a divide as much about age as ideology. While older voters clearly support the presidential ambitions of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the younger generation is firmly in favor of her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders. Anyone who wants to fully grasp the changes roiling the party today must pay close attention. Younger Democrats came of age during a time of blossoming liberalism in America. According to a recent Gallup poll, more Americans self-identify as liberal today than at any time since 1992. Among young Americans, socialism, the ideological label Sanders uses to describe himself, polls about as well as capitalism. While it has been long accepted that people grow more conservative with age, recent research calls this truism into question. According to political scientists Yair Ghitza and Andrew Gellman, our political views form primarily from the ages of 14 to 24 and become more stable with time. This explains why the rise of the modern conservative movement in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan still shapes our politics today. In 1988, The New York Times noted that only 20 percent of voters ages 18 to 29 identified as Republican eight years earlier. By 1988, however, 33 percent of those voters (by then age 26 to 37) were members of the Republican Party. As the conservative writer David Frum noted in 2008, The 20-somethings of the 1980s remain the most Republican cohort in the electorate to this day. Baby boomer Democrats came of age within this context and, understandably, internalized its lessons. Voters who were children or teenagers during the liberal optimism of the 1960s Great Society reached adulthood at the same time as a historic rightward political shift. The Democratic Party ignored and downplayed this sea change, and apart from the interregnum when President Gerald Ford, a weak successor to Richard Nixon, lost re-election to Jimmy Carter the party was punished with sound defeat in election after election. Only when it finally came to terms with this shift and moderated its platform accordingly was it able to secure electoral victories, starting with Bill Clintons first presidential win in 1992. The ideological battle waging among Democratic voters is a conflict that reaches back over 30 years, and yet the two sides competing visions have rarely been this distinct. Whether it was Barack Obama versus Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean versus John Kerry or Jesse Jackson versus Michael Dukakis, the ideological separation has remained remarkably stable through recent decades. How one views this divide is likely as much a function of life experience as of ideological preference. How else to account for the huge generational gap separating Clintons supporters from Sanders? In early Democratic primaries, Clinton has fared best among voters older than 65, a voting bloc that still remembers the embarrassing losses the Democrats faced after their midcentury electoral dominance. A humbling string of defeats profoundly transformed the Democrats conception of the American electorate. The failures are well documented: George McGovern, hero of the liberal wing of the party, was soundly defeated by Richard Nixon in 1972. Carter won the 1976 election, but in doing so forged an ignominious legacy that probably did the party more harm than good. Greece has become one of the main points of entry for hundreds of thousands of migrants Groups of frustrated migrants, including families with small children, trudged along Greek roads on Thursday hoping to reach Macedonia after authorities stopped their buses to ease a bottleneck on the blocked border. Almost 2,000 migrants per day cross illegally into Greece on their way to a better life in the continent's wealthier north, though restrictions imposed by Austria and Balkan nations have left thousands trapped in the financially broken country - which has seen nearly a million arrivals since January 2015. The Greek government underlined its annoyance by recalling its ambassador to Austria for consultations - "in order to safeguard friendly relations" between the two states, said Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias. Greece does not detain people entering the country illegally if they are from Syria, Iraq and several other countries whose citizens are considered eligible for asylum. Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said about 20,000 migrants are stuck in the country, and pledged to set up new camps near the Macedonian border within the next 10 days that could host them all in "decent" conditions. "We want to at least ensure that these people are not on the highways, or out in the fields, that there are no children on the roads," he said. Many of the migrants walking along roads on Thursday gave up after a few miles and were moved on by police to the next stopping point on the route north - usually a petrol station car park. Others managed to find taxis to the Idomeni border crossing, where about 2,800 people were waiting, some for up to four days. But Macedonian authorities only allowed about 100 people to enter on Thursday. Nadica V'ckova, a spokeswoman for Macedonia's crisis management department, said the country was restricting the entry of migrants to match the number leaving the country. Greece as well as international aid agencies have strongly criticised Austria and the Balkan counties for the new transit rules. "All it will do is exacerbate an already grave humanitarian crisis and put the most vulnerable at increased risk," said Kirk Day of the New York-based International Rescue Committee. A group of pro-Isis hackers has reportedly released a video threatening the founders of Facebook and Twitter because their social media accounts keep getting shut down. In a 25-minute video which began circulating on social media on Tuesday afternoon, pictures of Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg and Twitters Jack Dorsey were shown superimposed with bullet holes. Described by terror analyst Rita Katz as looking like something an elementary student threw together one night before the project was due, it claims to show hackers taking over social media accounts, changing profile pictures and using them to disseminate jihadist propaganda. Twitter has dismissed the personal threat to Mr Dorsey as part of everyday life at the global network, while Facebook is yet to respond to the video. It was uploaded and shared by a group calling itself Sons Caliphate Army which the Site Intel Group has described as the latest rebrand of Isiss supporters online. And while the direct threat to the two CEOs is unlikely to elicit any new reaction from their respective companies, the video does highlight the continued failure to prevent jihadists from using sites like Twitter and Facebook as a platform. Text appearing on the video reads: You announce daily that you suspend many of our accounts, and to you we say: Is that all you can do? You are not in our league. If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete you [sic] sites, Allah willing, and will know that [sic] we say is true. Earlier this month, Twitter said it had suspended over 125,000 accounts since the middle of 2015 for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to Isis. We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service, the company said. Facebook has previously said there is no place for terrorists on Facebook. Spokesman Andrew Souvall told Wired: We work aggressively to ensure that we do not have terrorists or terror groups using the site, and we also remove any content that praises or supports terrorism. Independent News Service The scene after an air strike on a house and training camp belonging to Islamic State near Sabratha (AP) A Libyan militia loyal to the Islamist-backed government in Tripoli says it has arrested the leader of the Islamic State branch for a western city bombed by US forces last week. The Special Deterrent Force said in a Facebook post that it had detained the city of Sabratha's IS leader Mohammed Saad al-Tajouri - also known as Abu Sulieman - and killed dozens of IS members in a gun battle. The SDF said he was sent by IS leaders in Sirte - a central city controlled by IS - to take charge of Sabratha. The militia said it will release videos of the arrest and al-Tajouri's purported confessions. IS tried to take over Sabratha on Wednesday by storming the security headquarters and beheading at least 12 SDF fighters inside. Mumbai has declared 16 areas no-selfie zones, following an increase in deaths linked to the photo craze. Major Indian cities are awash with people, arms outstretched, mobile phones in hand, smiling widely and clicking away. Even prime minister Narendra Modi has embraced the medium, posting pictures he has snapped with various world leaders online. But the pursuit of the most epic selfie can have lethal consequences. India is home to the highest number of people who have died while taking photos of themselves, with 19 of the world's 49 recorded selfie-linked deaths since 2014, according to San Francisco-based data service provider Priceonomics. The statistic may in part be due to India's sheer size, with 1.25 billion citizens and one of the world's fastest-growing smartphone markets. Now Mumbai, alarmed by the trend, has banned selfies across the city, formerly known as Bombay, as authorities warned people against taking unnecessary risks. Earlier this month an 18-year-old college student on a class picnic lost his balance while taking a selfie atop a rock near a dam near the central Indian city of Nashik. He fell into the water and drowned, along with a classmate who jumped in to try and save him. Last month, an 18-year-old woman fell and drowned in the sea while taking a photo of herself at Mumbai's Bandstand Fort, a popular tourist spot. An engineering student sustained fatal head injuries when a rock he was standing cracked and sent him tumbling. He had been trying to take a selfie with friends in front of the Kolli Hills in Tamil Nadu. And in January 2014, three students aged 20 to 22 died when they stopped to take a photo with a speeding train approaching and were hit. They been on their way to visit the Taj Mahal. In Mumbai, police have declared selfies off-limits in areas perceived as risky - particularly along the coastline in spots with no railings or barriers. Anyone venturing into off-limits areas, even if they take no photos, risks being slapped with a fine of 1,200 rupees, about 13. After the woman's death last month, the city's police conducted a survey to identify such dangerous places, police official Dhananjay Kulkarni said. The city also plans to run an awareness campaign. Despite clearly marked signs demarking the selfie-free zones, people can still be seen clicking away and often going to the edges or standing on ledges to get the most thrilling shots. "When you are traveling alone, and do not have anyone to take your pictures, then it's only selfie," said Murtuza Rangwala, a student in Mumbai. Mumbai psychologist Keerti Sachdeva said she does not expect the constant pursuit of selfies to end any time soon, saying one probable reason is the need for acceptance and love. "You know people have this sort of feeling in adolescent age, especially that they need to get this acceptance from everyone, that I am a smart person, I am a good-looking person," she said. "So for acceptance and recognition they are indulging in taking of selfies." An administration block was burned down at the South African university, a spokesman said Protesting students in South Africa burned down several buildings at a university, forcing administrators to close the campus and telling students to leave, a spokesman has said. An administration block that included a science centre was burned down at the North-West University's campus in the city of Mahikeng on Wednesday night, said university spokesman Koos Degenaar. Student protesters also burned down the residence of a dormitory supervisor. The violence comes as student protests have erupted on college campuses across South Africa, often aimed at pressing for lower tuition and more student housing. On Thursday the university was quiet as students still in dorms were being evacuated, Mr Degenaar said. The university in South Africa's North West province is shut indefinitely. The violence there started after a Students Representatives Council meeting was disrupted by protesters, Mr Degenaar said. A suspended student leader was addressing his supporters when private security tried to disperse the crowd using rubber bullets and tear gas, the university said in a statement. Students then pelted security guards with stones and burned a vehicle that belonged to the private security company, the statement said. In chaotic scenes posted on social media, large police vehicles rolled on to the campus to restore order. Students retaliated by setting fire to campus property. The university had previously obtained a court interdict barring disruptions on campus, in the wake of ongoing student protests throughout the country, Mr Degenaar said. Syrian government troops backed by Russian air strikes recaptured a town in Aleppo province from Islamic State militants on Thursday in a key advance just two days ahead of a US and Russia-engineered ceasefire that is set to take effect in Syria. In the rebel-held suburb of Daraya, opposition activists said the army escalated its attacks, dropping dozens of barrel bombs from helicopters on the devastated town near the Syrian capital, sending plumes of smoke rising into the sky. Russia and the United States have set a deadline of midnight on Friday for the temporary ceasefire to take effect between the Syrian government and opposition forces. But fighting is expected to continue in many places, because the deal excludes groups deemed terrorist by the UN Security Council including Islamic State and the al Qaida branch in Syria, the Nusra Front. The town of Khanaser captured by the army onThursday was seized earlier this week by the Islamic State group, cutting state forces' access to the provincial capital, also called Aleppo, said the Syrian government and the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group. SANA said the army took Khanaser, around 30 miles southeast of Aleppo city, after three days of heavy battles and that intense fighting was still under way to reopen the road. On Tuesday, IS seized Khanaser and surrounding hills, severing the government's main land route to the city. In the push on Khanaser, the Syrian army and pro-government Shiite militias were backed by Russian airstrikes, the observatory said. The ceasefire meant to start on midnight Friday is aimed at achieving a temporary "cessation of hostilities" that would bring back the Syrian government and its opponents to the negotiating table in Geneva. The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said he will convene the first meeting of a task force meant to monitor the ceasefire. Speaking to reporters Thursday in Geneva, he predicted a "crucial" day ahead of the start of the truce brokered by the United States and Russia. The Syrian opposition has agreed to abide by the truce but expressed major concerns and reservations about what it said were ambiguities and the lack of any clear mechanism to implement the agreement. Turkey's prime minister echoed those concerns on Thursday, saying he is worried that Russia will continue to hit Syrian civilians or the moderate opposition during the truce. Ahmet Davutoglu has accused Russia of striking the moderate opposition in Syria over the past five months under the guise of hitting militants. Mr Davutoglu said the ceasefire would have "no meaning if Russia continues with its irresponsible bombings". Meanwhile, Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told state-run Anadolu Agency that Saudi aircraft would arrive "today or tomorrow" at the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey to join the fight against Islamic State in Syria. Cavusoglu did not say how many planes Saudi Arabia would be sending to the base. A key element of the ceasefire deal is humanitarian access to besieged and hard-to-reach areas across Syria. The United Nations announced the first high-altitude airdrop of 21 metric tons of aid Wednesday over the city of Deir el-Zour, which is under siege from Islamic State extremists. But the World Food Programme said later it faced "technical difficulties" and indicated the drop may have been off target. In a further reflection of the complicated terrain across Syria's zigzagging front lines, Davutoglu also warned Syria's main Kurdish militia, a US-backed group that has been fighting the Islamic State, against taking advantage of the truce for actions that threaten Turkey's security. Turkey would respond to such actions and will not be bound by the ceasefire agreement, the Turkish premier said. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish group, known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG, a terror organisation because of its links to Turkey's own Kurdish rebels and has been shelling its positions inside Syria along the border with Turkey, particularly in the northwestern region of Afrin. Kurdish officials have called for the group to be added to those excluded from the truce agreement. America and China have reached agreement on a United Nations resolution that would impose tougher sanctions on North Korea as punishment for its latest nuclear test and rocket launch, UN diplomats have said. One Security Council source called the draft resolution "significantly substantive" and expressed hope that it will be adopted in the coming days. Another said the draft had been circulated on Wednesday to the three other permanent council members - Russia, Britain and France. The security council will hold closed consultations on Thursday on compliance with the North Korean sanctions resolutions and the US-China draft could be discussed then with the 10 non-permanent council members. A flurry of activity has taken place in Washington, including meetings between China's foreign minister Wang Yi and US secretary of state John Kerry on Tuesday, and with national security adviser Susan Rice on Wednesday. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Ms Rice and Mr Wang agreed "on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through a UN Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions". "They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," he added. Earlier, Mr Kerry told a congressional hearing: "We're on the brink of achieving a strong United Nations Security Council resolution." North Korea started 2016 with what it claims was its first hydrogen bomb test on January 6 and followed it up with the launch of a satellite on a rocket on February 7 that was condemned by much of the world as a test of banned missile technology. Over the past 10 years the reclusive communist state has conducted four nuclear tests and launched six long-range missiles - all in breach of security council resolutions. South Korea's UN ambassador Oh Joon has urged the security council to adopt "extraordinary" measures to make clear to the North "that it will no longer tolerate its nuclear weapons development". The US, its Western allies and Japan, also pressed for new sanctions that go beyond the North's nuclear and missile programmes. But China, Pyongyang's neighbour and supporter on the council, is reluctant to impose measures that could threaten the stability of North Korea and cause the country's economy to collapse. Mr Wang said on Tuesday that a new UN resolution alone could not resolve the North Korean nuclear issue and dialogue was needed. He said China was urging a "parallel track" in which there were both talks on denuclearisation - the top priority of the United States - and replacing the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a formal peace treaty, a key demand of Pyongyang. While the US and China were discussing a new UN resolution, the United States took tougher steps of its own against North Korea, tightening sanctions and announcing it would hold formal talks with South Korea on deploying a missile defence system that China fears could be used against it as well North Korea. South Korea and Japan have also announced new measures against Pyongyang. Northern Ireland- 27th February 2014 Mandatory Credit - Photo-Jonathan Porter/Presseye. Talks continue at Stormont in east Belfast regarding the recent issue of letters being sent to republicans who were considered to be 'on the run' stating they would not be prosecuted if they returned to the UK. General view of Parliament Buildings at Stormont. The announcement of almost 1,000 job losses at Bombardier was the latest in a series of blows for manufacturing here. The Executive - led by the DUP and Sinn Fein - continues to fail the economy. This failure was given recognition when the Northern Ireland Composite Economic Index said economic activity had fallen almost 1% over the second and third quarters of 2015. One of the chief problems manufacturers cite is the high cost of energy in Northern Ireland. Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell announced the creation of an advisory group to examine this issue, but it has been postponed until after the Assembly election. That's not good enough. Two years ago, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment commissioned a review into red tape, as firms here are mired in regulation. Unfortunately, while the review was published in November 2014, there has as yet been no action on its contents. The picture is similar when it comes to Air Passenger Duty (APD). A Commons committee found that this tax was hampering Northern Ireland's economy. While powers to cut APD will be devolved to Scotland by 2021, our Executive has decided not to press for similar controls. The result is 350,000 passengers per year lost to Dublin, at a cost of 350 jobs. The picture as regards employment regulations is equally bleak. Northern Ireland sits a dismal 117th in the OECD's league table of employment flexibility, and yet moves to reform employment law have stalled. Neither has Stormont made much progress toward building the type of stable society that businesses need to thrive. Issues around flags and parades were put to one side during the Fresh Start talks before Christmas. The Executive could have used that agreement as a genuine fresh start, moving on to tackle issues with competitiveness that stunt our economy. Instead, it missed that opportunity. Now, it must raise its game and work to encourage an enterprise culture in Northern Ireland - otherwise dole queues will only lengthen. Johnny Andrews is economy spokesman for the NI Conservatives Governments come and governments go but young people engaged in social action is what builds a society. Electric Ireland are supporting the SVP National Youth Development Programme to do just that. Www.whatdoyousee.ie celebrates this partnership in showcasing some of the inspiring work by young people both in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland in making a real difference to their communities and empowering them to feel responsible for and vested in the future of their society. These days were hearing a lot about society, whats wrong with it and what we want for our shared future. However away from the rhetoric of political debates and doorstep literature, there are some hard working projects by young people for young people making a real difference in local communities. For three years, Electric Ireland has supported Young SVP National Youth Development Programme that encourages young people into social action and promotes their social and personal development. The programme is school based and aims to inspire young people to understand and take action on social justice in their local area. Its about providing students with the opportunity to help other people in their community in practical ways, ways that make a difference to the lives of the many people who experience isolation, loneliness or poverty in Ireland today. Groups develop projects that focus on a wide range of issues including; working with the elderly, with people with disabilities and children at women's refuges. In recent years students have worked on issues including bullying, addiction, a youth forum, fundraising, and many more. Through the Young SVP programme, Electric Ireland aims to change negative perceptions of young people and drive pride in the positive impact young people have on Irish society. To celebrate this partnership Electric Ireland has created an interactive video that utilises cutting edge technology enabling a mobile in-browser, dual-messaging video experience. The interactive video showcases two perspectives, challenging the viewer to re-assess their perception of youth participation in the community and to see things in a different way. See how it works here: To see the innovative full interactive video visit www.whatdoyousee.ie All of the examples shown in the full interactive video are real life projects that groups have developed. #WhatDoYousee Movie article Life can be so painful, we may curse it, or in order to survive, try and laugh at it. Sometimes, life cant be laughed atthere is no doubt about that. But if people can handle their pain by laughing at it, that is a coping mechanism, even as the heart aches. The proverb says, Even in laughter, the heart aches. So, if we can, lets have a laugh at life even if it hurts. Actually, we have been laughing. Hollywood has been making films with this modus-operandi for years as people go and watch them in truckloads. Are we any better for it? Lets see from five examples of comedy: Mouse Hunt (1997, USA). On the lighter side is this domesticated family comedy featuring a mouse that cant be caught by a trap despite the unfortunate key characters using more traps than normal and utilizing every trick in the book. Mice can be clever once they know they are in the firing line. We all know about this kind of domesticated stress. At the movies, the evasive mouse may be hilarious, but not if you happened to watch this when there was a mouse problem at your home. An innocuous comedy all the same that might have made us laugh at one domestic issue that we may or may not want to have a laugh at. Annie Hall (1977, USA). In a Woody Allen comedy, how relationships work, and dont work, are bread and butter. To be honest, I didnt find this sophisticated movie funny, but at least amusing. Alvin (Woody Allen) tries to understand the meaning of his relationship with his girlfriend (Diane Keaton) while the audience is thinking, what is the point of their relationship anyway? This subtle burn comedy is actually very close to the bone. The heart is aching. Dr. Strangelove (1964, UK). We cant laugh at war and the atomic bomb that wrecks destruction on life, and according to this film, war is absurd, but always happens, somewhere, somehow. Resigned to wars inevitability and war which causes so much despair, they poke a joke at it. The heart is aching, again. As Good as it Gets (1997, USA). This is my favorite romantic comedy of the last twenty years as it is charmingly true. In relationships, couples have a certain amount of expectation, but what happens if both of you are bent out of shape? Somethings got to give so you both can get along cordially and enjoy life with one another, if possible. This goes for any relationship, really. In this comedy my heart ached, but with a nice glow, though. Me, Myself and Irene (2000, USA). Controversial Jim Carey comedy because it deals in unflattering strokes with schizophrenia, or split personality disorder, or whatever Anthony Andersons character said, but perhaps the easy going Rhode Island state trooper suffers from the universal condition of being unable to be himself. For people suffering with a mental illness, it could be painful watching this. Careys character goes off his medication and goes wild and unpredictable, which for people who have experienced this sort of thing, may be embarrassing to relive. This film may be in the category of things some people, and people in empathy, cant laugh at. Me, Myself and Irene is one of those borderline comedies, where we dont know if we should laugh or become outraged. Talk about a crack-up. Comedy hurts, doesnt it? In this case, yes, but was it even funny? Throughout the years, we have been better off with many comedies. But with others we are not so well off. If a comedy ends with insight into characters, we may better understand people generally and their predicaments and the things that cause them to behave and then we may empathize with them. Maybe the funny thing is that understanding people may be stoked by a comedy. Perhaps we shouldnt be surprised. Most Israelis are discharged from regular army duty and then go to see the world. They go to India. They trek through Nepal. They escape to Thailand. In fact, there are so many Israelis in parts of those countries, street signs, store and hotel markers are in Hebrew. One shopkeeper in India was shocked to find out there were only about six and a half million Israelis. He thought that since his town was constantly overrun with men and women from the Jewish state, there must be hundreds of millions of them. Other young Israelis go to South America for months at a time, hiking through the Andes. Many go to both Asia and South America. When they return to Israel, they may register in one of Israels nine universities, many of which are world renowned, including Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Technion in Haifa, and, of course, Jerusalems Hebrew University. Others might go to one of several dozen colleges in Israel. But because Talpiot cadets serve at least nine years in the military, they immediately begin studying for their academic degrees at the age of eighteen, when they enlist. When they finish their coursework at Hebrew University, they have their bachelors degree in mathematics, physics and/or computer science. This advantage gives them peace of mind, knowing that they wont have to start their studies after theyre out of the military. When the army is paying for you to study, however, you dont have the luxury of falling behind. In Talpiot, if you do drop back, youll get kicked out. Speed has always been an important part of the program. Because Talpiot students get fewer weeks to study than their university counterparts, the academic program moves faster. One reason for that is simply because the cadets are in the army and they have other things to do. Another reason is that the army is intentionally training the cadets in how to think faster. There is no magic to making a student learn faster. The way it is done is to emphasize group learning. The thinking is that if youre with other cadets in a military-like setting twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, you bond. When part of the group moves faster, the rest of the group will keep the pace. The speed of the coursework is much quicker than at a regular university. The cadets train and learn as a class. Academic competition is not part of the program and there is no cheating in Talpiot. Many of the professors allow students to share work, as they encourage cadets to help one another. The thinking is that each cadet brings different kinds of strengths from different backgrounds, integration is greatly encouraged. That emphasis on teamwork helps create high levels and higher speeds for development and for learning the course materials. But sometimes that speed can be a problem and the 25 percent dropout rate attests to the challenge. Even some of the top Talpiot recruits who went on to become some of the most successful Israelis of all time have complained Talpiots coursework moves too fast. Marius Nacht is a co-founder of Israel-based Check Point Software Technologies. Their Internet protection software defends almost all of the companies in the Fortune 500 from web-based attacks. Nacht is a graduate of the second class of Talpiot. He was born in Romania while his parents waited anxiously for the Romanian government to grant their family exit visas. In the 1960s, Romania held its Jewish citizens hostage. If they wanted to leave, the Jewish Federation of North America had to cough up a $5,000 ransom for every exit visa. His parents had started the immigration process a decade before the paperwork finally came through. Nacht was three years old at the time, and does not recall his first days in Israel. But he does remember growing up in a rough, industrialized part of the coastal town of Ashkelon. He says his familys situation gradually improved to the point where they were eking out a middle-class existence. Back then, standardized testing wasnt exactly part of the norm, so Nachts family didnt realize Marius had a special academic gift and neither did Marius. His father insisted that he attend a vocational high school, a place where he could learn a trade. Marius attended ORT, one of many programs funded by the global Jewish community. He says, I wasnt interested in it. I was doing what he told me to do. We studied many things, including electronics. In 1980 an army recruiter came around looking for the brightest students. It was rare for the army to look beyond the established high schools in the major population centers of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. And it was even rarer, in those early days, for the Talpiot program to recruit someone from outside of those areas. But from Mariuss class, two students were selected for Talpiot testing. Marius was intrigued by the exams. Acceptance in Talpiot meant more to him than just the opportunity to be part of this new and exciting part of the Israeli army. It meant he had been absorbed by the country he moved to as a boy; that his intellect had been recognized, though he came from the depressed town of Ashkelon, a town often ignored by Israels established elites in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. But once he was in the program, he wanted out. The other guys were very, very smart in terms of math and physics, and I was not at the top of the class as I had been in high school. And it was more competitive than I expected. The five top guys would elbow the others. Come on, why are you asking that stupid question? The professor just said it five minutes ago, why are you asking again? We knew that the first class, the year before ours, started with thirty students, but a year later only twenty were left. So I was sure I was going to be kicked out. I finished the first term with a lousy academic average of 65. To me it was evidence that I should drop out and I wanted to. Why continue? I was just prolonging my military service instead of doing the things I really wanted to do. So I went to Hanoch Tzadik, the guy that you have to talk to if you want to leave the program. He was a psychologist. I explained to him that Im not that good. I was getting a lot of homework and not even getting half of it done by one in the morning. Tzadik (who later became one of Israels best known professors of psychology and a motivational coach to executives) convinced him not to quit. He told Nacht he had put a lot of tension and pressure on himself and thats why he couldnt concentrate. He made him promise that every other day he will run around the campus, five or six miles, a minimum of three times a week. Nacht recalls, Because I was much cooler about it and not pressing myself, my average grades jumped from 65 to 85. I figured if thats the trend, I might even finish with a reasonable average and I stayed on. Hanoch Tzadik was a very important person in my life and obviously made a huge impact. Tzadik is an appropriate name for a psychologist who helped so many people that would later become crucial to Israels security. The word tzadik in Hebrew means righteous. It is often a title sometimes given to biblical figures. In short, a tzadik is someone who lives by his faith. Hanoch Tzadik notes that for most of the Talpiot students, it was the first time in their lives they needed help and to some it was a real crisis. Their main problem was dealing with difficulty, not the coursework. It was my main job to help them, he affirms, but there was no blanket-solution for each cadet with a problem. I didnt really tell them anything at first, I just listened to them. I had to make them believe they will overcome the problems, and its a very personal thing. I really believed that most of them could overcome it. The ones that left generally did very well later, but it wasnt the right time for them. These were not failures. They just werent ready for this kind of thing. Getting through Talpiot was never easy, even for those who thrived on the challenge. One such person is Doctor Aviv Tuttnauer, one of a few Talpiot graduates to go to medical school after finishing his army service. Hes an anesthesiologist specializing in pediatric surgery, and he agreed to be interviewed on a busy day of surgery. We meet in the hospital lobby at Hadassah Medical Center and we talk in the locker room as he puts on his operating room scrubs. So that hed never forget it, Tuttnauer sets his locker combination to the number representing a certain isotope of uranium that can sustain a fission chain reaction. (For him, thats a memorable figure!) He explains what would happen during surgery, the goal of the operation and his role. The surgery will be on a two-year-old boy who has an artificial heart valve needing repair. It will be Dr. Tuttnaeurs job to sedate the child. Around us, doctors are listening to our interview. The cardiothoracic surgeon stops his pre-operation procedures for a moment and looks at Doctor Tuttnauer. He asks in Hebrew, Who is the person doing the interview and whats it for? Tuttnauer replies, It has to do with my Talpiot experience. The surgeon asks in alarm, Isnt that all top secret? Tuttnauer chuckles and the interview continues. He tells me that in addition to going through the program, he also served as a commander of the fifteenth class of Talpiot. He didnt quite realize it when he was a cadet but it hit him as a commander that educating recruits straight out of high school has advantages. At that age, youre not responsible for a family; no kids, no jobs. You can study until one or two in the morning if need be, and it often is need be. The army gets a class of students who are free and able to learn. The other side of the coin is that, as youngsters, they have constant complaints. As a cadet, Tuttnauer complained about the same things hed later have to address as a commander. We complained that the lecturers go too fast, and its unfair because we are tested on more than our counterparts in the university. We cover 30 percent more. And the response was always that the lecturer will go as fast as his class allows him; if you understand everything, he will go on. We would complain pretty freely about things. We were very cynical. Before the sixth Talpiot class, the commanders of the program had not graduated from the program and they werent completely in tune with this new breed of intellectual super soldier. But even once the commanders starting coming from the Talpiot ranks, as Tuttnauer did, there was still tension between adolescent and adult, student and teacher. As a commander, I had difficult moments with my cadets, but it was much easier for me than for previous commanders. You simply understand the dynamics because you witnessed them. They would complain daily, weekly, about the classes, the learning materials, the extra-curricular plan, the quality of food, quality of rooms, the cleanliness of rooms, the burden of guarding the building, flaws in building security whatever, you name it. As a commander, you know there are recurring themes. Thats the way it is; thats the way its always been. The cadets would ask whiny questions like any other teenager. Why are we guarding the building? Tuttnauer would answer dully, Because we are soldiers and thats what soldiers do. Youre given two hours a week of guard duty. That doesnt hamper your studying. The issue is closed. As we finish speaking, Tuttnauer washes, disinfects, then strides into the operating room. A small patient whose life lies in his hands is waiting. The doctors description of the Talpiot training reflects the goals set for each of the three years of the program. Would you be able to handle the rigors of Talpiot? Here are the expectations Talpiot has for its cadets: First Year. Goal: Build foundations for resolving problems by learning advanced mathematics, physics and computer science. Basic training period of eleven to twelve weeks, followed by two semesters of studies lasting up to thirty-four weeks. Five to six additional weeks of military orientation, visiting the different units and branches of the IDF. Completion of an officer training course. Second Year. Goal: Reach a high level of aptitude in math, physics and computer science. (Almost a third of Talpiot graduates earn a degree in computer science.) Thirty-six weeks of studies. Up to three months visiting various branches of the IDF to learn more about their problems and their need for solutions. Rigorous paratrooper training. Third Year. Goal: Bring all education and training together; sharpen leadership and academic skills. This includes a broad range of courses in the sciences including electronics, aerodynamics and system authentication, as well as military technology. Acquire a solid background in military engineering, radar, antennas and military communication. Take broader range humanities and social science classes at Hebrew University, including history, art history, philosophy, Jewish thought and Arabic studies. Decide on a discipline and an expertise. Interview and audition for posts within the Israel Defense Forces. The project spans all three years of Talpiot training. A few times a year, theyre asked to develop and then present a project that solves a problem in the national defense spectrum. In essence, its a warm-up exercise, designed to teach them all of the rigors and stages they will later encounter when trying to solve real-life defense dilemmas. For the project they come up with an idea that solves a defense problem, create a budget for it and then produce it. They present their problem and the way theyve solved it to a group of army officers who are brought in to judge and discuss the projects. On several occasions, officers have been impressed enough with a certain project that they decided to actually develop it. In addition, sometimes producing a project leads to a post-army appointment for a Talpiot graduate. Over the years, its become commonplace for second-year students to introduce themselves to the IDFs top brass by working on these problems and the solutions. Past projects, which will be discussed later, include an early mock-up of the Iron Dome short-range missile defense shield that has been remarkably effective in knocking missiles out of the air before they reach their targets inside Israel. Another innovation, the Trophy a tank-mounted device that automatically fires at an incoming projectile in order to protect the crew inside had its origins in the Talpiot program. All Talpiot classes are assigned advisors to help them through the program from beginning to end. It is his duty to serve as a contact person and liaison between the students, the army and the university professors. At the beginning of the program, founder Felix Dothan served as an advisor, a role later carried on by various professors at Hebrew University. The heads of Hebrew Universitys mathematics, physics and computer science programs also take on outsized roles in advising the cadets and serve as a go-between with the army. Hebrew University deans and rectors have also been integral in the program from its onset. When those three years come to an end, the cadet gets a promotion as well as that coveted degree in physics, math, computer science or all three. After graduating, most Talpiots will then continue their formal education. Many continue to study at Hebrew University while doing their army service over the next six years. The Weizmann Institute of Science is another popular destination. Talpiots who are accepted there often study for masters or doctorate degrees in biology and complex physics. On one floor of Weizmann, Talpiot students have taken over a line of offices where they are studying and experimenting with biotechnology, genetics and bio-pharm. A third choice for many Talpiot students is Tel Aviv University, where they study advanced engineering and business administration. Jason Gewirtz is the author of Israel's Edge and an executive producer for the business network CNBC. Jason has covered Israel and Israeli business extensively for CNBC. Israel's Edge is excerpted with permission from Gefen Publishing. The prophecy is more than seeing into the future. For the prophecy sees without the element of time. For the prophecy sees things as they were, as they are, and as they always shall be. A year has elapsed since the killing of Bangladeshi-American blogger Avijit Roy, but police have yet to arrest his attackers and those who killed three more secular writers and a publisher in 2015. Online activists and secularists allege that the government and police have been more active in arresting bloggers, writers and publishers for allegedly offending religious feelings than catching the killers of the five intellectuals. The fanatics have been attacking the free thinkers with machetes while the state, with its various mechanisms, has been putting pressure on the bloggers, writers, publishers and other liberal groups, said Imran H. Sarker, spokesman for Gonojagoron Moncho (Mass Awakening Platform), a secular grassroots movement. How many of the killers of the bloggers and publishers were arrested or punished? But you see the police are very prompt to arrest the publishers or bloggers on the pretext of hurting religious sentiment, Sarker told BenarNews. On Feb. 15, police arrested the publisher, printer and marketer of a book called Islam Bitorko (Islam Debate), and shut down the stall at the Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka where copies of the work were being sold. Green signals Machete-wielding assailants killed Roy and injured his wife Rafida Bonya Ahmed on the Dhaka University campus on Feb. 26, 2015, as they were leaving last years annual book fair. Roy, an engineer and writer who was visiting Bangladesh from his home in the United States, ran the Mukto-Mona (Free Thinker) blog, which provided an online platform for the expression of secular thought in Bangladesh. Since 2013, police have arrested four bloggers Asif Mohiuddin, Moshiur Rahman Biplob, Rasel Parvez and Subroto Shuvo for allegedly hurting religious sentiment. Sarker said the blogger-killings and attacks on intellectuals had a negative impact on young people who were active in online campaigning against religious fanaticism and for social change in Bangladesh. The fanatics machete attacks and the police actions on the free-thinkers have passed on a message to the society that you will either be killed or face police action if you become a free-thinker. So, the number of bloggers and online activists has come down significantly. Most of the bloggers and atheists are leaving the country, said Sarker. Mahbub Leelen, a publisher and writer who has fled Bangladesh, said that government inaction on the killings had sent a message of encouragement to fundamentalists. They are getting green signals from the government, either directly or indirectly that, if they kill someone, nothing will happen, Leelen told BenarNews. Awaiting DNA Roys murder opened a floodgate for killings of bloggers, writers and free thinkers in 2015. Bloggers Washiqur Rahman, Ananta Bijoy Das, Niladri Chottopaddhya (Niloy Neel) and Faisal Arefin Dipan, a publisher of Roys books, were all hacked to death in 2015. Eight suspected militants have been arrested in connection with the murders, but police are not sure whether these individuals are the actual killers, Maruf Hasan Sarder, a spokesman for Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told BenarNews. The U.S. government agency, FBI, came to Dhaka and collected samples of DNA from the spot where Avijit and his wife were attacked. We have yet to get the DNA profile report from the FBI. If available, the profile report would help us find out the real killers, Sarder said. He refuted the allegation that police were harassing free thinkers and bloggers. On Thursday, Monirul Islam, the deputy inspector general in charge of the police departments counter-terrorism unit, told a press conference that police had detected three alleged Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) militants who had participated in Roys murder. But police would not disclose their names, Islam said. Police and investigators say the ABT a banned militant outfit that has attracted students from different colleges in Bangladesh is responsible for all the attacks on the bloggers, secularists and publishers. On Dec. 31, 2015, a court handed down death sentences for two ABT militants in the killing of Ahmed Rajib Haider, the first blogger to be slain in Bangladesh, in February 2013. Haider was hacked to death in broad daylight on a Dhaka street amid mass demonstrations that demanded a secular society and capital punishment for criminals from Bangladeshs war of independence from Pakistan in 1971. Haider had been instrumental in mobilizing the so-called Mass Awakening protests in Dhakas Shahbag Square. He did not pay heed A year later, Roys relatives are enduring a painful wait for justice in his murder. There is no question of being satisfied with the pace of investigation, Roys father, retired Dhaka University physics professor Ajoy Roy, told BenarNews. I will not be happy until the real killers get punishment. Unless the culprits are tried, the freedom of expression cannot be ensured. The bloggers, writers, publishers must be given a congenial atmosphere to write against social evils. The elder Roy said he had asked his son and daughter-in-law not to come to Bangladesh a year ago. But he did not pay heed to my words. And it happened, what I feared, he said. Contacted by BenarNews, Roys widow declined to comment on the anniversary of his death. It is too emotional for me, Rafida Bonya Ahmed said. Imran Vittachi in Washington contributed to this report. Photojournalist Jibon Ahmed returns to the spot where militants killed Avijit Roy and attacked his wife, Rafida Bonya Ahmed, one year earlier, Feb. 25, 2016. For an act of humanity taking fatally injured blogger Avijit Roy and his wounded wife Rafida Bonya Ahmed to a hospital photojournalist Jibon Ahmed lost his job, faced censure from colleagues, and endured repeated questioning by police. A year after the Feb. 26, 2015, machete attack outside the Ekushey Book Fair that killed Roy and caused Bonya to lose her thumb, Ahmed still recalls the feel of Roys blood. I did not know that the human blood is so warm. I still feel the heat, Ahmed said, recalling the night when hundreds of people including on-duty police watched Roy struggle to survive while Bonya screamed for help. The couple came to Dhaka to attend Bangladeshs annual book fair that attracts intellectuals from all over the world. While returning home from the Dhaka University campus, suspected Islamic militants stopped their rickshaw, hacked them with machetes and fled the scene, leaving them in pool of blood. The U.S-based engineer and writer ran the Mukto-Mona (Free Thinker) blog that raised questions about religions, especially Islam. On that day, the photo agency Ahmed worked for sent him to cover the book fair. He was talking with fellow photojournalists about 10 meters from the spot where Avijit and Bonya were hacked. Screams It was around 7:30 p.m. We suddenly heard a woman screaming. I immediately rushed to the spot, he said. There I saw a woman was lying near a parked motorcycle with her head directed toward the ground. He twice patted her, but got no response. After his third touch, Bonya responded. She gave me a witchs look like you see in a horror movie: blood was oozing out of her shoulder and her eyes. She thought I was one of the attackers, Ahmed said. He told her that she must go with him to a hospital for treatment. Traumatized, Bonya asked, What happened here? A few yards away, Ahmed saw people encircling another injured person, who was shaking on the ground. Bonya rushed to the spot, calling, Avi, avi (still alive). She hugged Roy and stood up, asking someone to take him to a hospital. Then I opened my camera and snapped shots showing a blood-soaked Bonya calling for help, he said. Frantic trip Ahmed said he stopped a three-seated three-wheeler and took the extreme right seat, holding Roys injured head while Bonya sat next to him holding her husbands body. Suddenly I felt that his brain was on my finger where the machete had cut the skull. I removed the finger and gently pushed the skull to stop the brain from coming out of his head, Ahmed said. As the three-wheeler headed toward the hospital south of the crime scene, Bonya panicked, thinking Ahmed was abducting them. She started asking me to let them go in exchange for as much money as I wanted. I brought out my camera and was repeatedly assuring her that I was a photojournalist, not an attacker. But she did not believe me, he said. The vehicle got stuck in a traffic jam created by a police check post. Watching the police, Bonya started screaming for help. She was telling the police that I was abducting them. Now, I was in fear lest I face lynching or police action, Ahmed said. Suddenly, I saw a policeman who was following our scooter from behind. He witnessed everything. As he gestured, the police barricade was removed and I took them to the hospital, he said. Ethical quandry Fellow photographers at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital scolded him, saying he had violated journalistic ethics. I should not have taken them to the hospital, they said. Now, you will face the police music, some of my colleagues taunted, he said. While at the hospital, Ahmed removed his blood stained T-shirt and put on a clean one, then left for his office in Motijheel, another part of Dhaka. I immediately came to my office in Motijheel and released the photos. I did not know them. Suddenly I saw breaking news on TV that the persons I took to the hospital were Avijit Roy and Rafida Bonya Ahmed, he said. His boss told him to go into hiding and to stay away from the office. By that time I was totally upset. I could not figure out what I should do. But later on I decided that I must not hide, he said. His photo of the event spread quickly on Facebook, where hundreds of people posted negative comments about him for taking pictures instead of helping the victims. Meanwhile, police began questioning him to determine if he was linked to the killers. They quizzed me at least five times, Ahmed said. Nobody cared Ahmed said he lost his job due to his unwitting role in the tragic evening. I have no relatives in Dhaka. I come from Khulna. Losing my job, I had to sell camera to survive, he said. But I finally got relief as Bonya confirmed that I was not one of the killers, I was the rescuer. Ahmed is now a freelance photographer. I still remember the events even one year after the incident. My headache problem has worsened since then. I cannot talk for long. Now, I try to remain isolated, he told BenarNews. He said he would not talk to the media about Roys murder anymore. Nobody cared about me and the issue. What is the meaning of doing a story after one year? he asked. The Malaysian government on Thursday blocked a popular news website after it published a report saying there was credible evidence to frame charges against Prime Minister Najib Razak over a scandal linked to debt-laden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). The ban, which coincided with the eighth anniversary of the founding of The Malaysian Insider, made it inaccessible to readers in Malaysia. "This is an unpleasant surprise, and we are awaiting clarification from the MCMC, but we have not received any notice from the commission regarding violation of Malaysian law," Jahabar Sadiq, chief executive officer of the news group, said in a message to BenarNews, confirming the ban. In a statement, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said it had blocked the site for violating section 233 of the nations 1998 communications law, which bars obscene or offensive use of network facilities. The MCMC warns news portals not to spread or broadcast articles of uncertain validity, which can cause confusion and undesired situations, the statement went on to say. Malaysias Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) blasted the move. This is clearly an assault on media freedom, freedom of information and Malaysias promise for a free Internet, it said in a statement. Rebuttal Meanwhile, two members of an independent panel that advises the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) rebutted the Malaysian Insider report, which cited an unnamed member of the panel. We wish to state that no anonymous source is authorized to speak for and on behalf of the panel under any circumstances, Operations Review Panel (ORP) chairman Hamid Bugo and member Mohamed Jawhar Hassan said in a press statement. We further wish to add that panel did not at any time say that it had enough proof to charge Najib over SRC, as claimed by the title of the article, or that there is credible evidence to frame charges against Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the statement went on to say. SRC International is a subsidiary of indebted state investment fund 1MDB that has been probed for alleged misappropriation of funds. Najib is chairman of 1MDBs advisory board. The Malaysian prime minister has also faced investigations over a $681 million (2.6 billion ringgit) deposit into his personal bank account in 2013 amid reports linking the money to 1MDB. Najib has insisted he did not take any money for personal gain. Last month, Malaysias Attorney Gen. Mohamed Apandi Ali cleared Najib of potential corruption charges after receiving the MACCs report into the matter, which was not made public. But the MACC later referred the case to the eight-member ORP, an independent body set up to monitor MACC operations and review cases that are not taken to court for prosecution. On Wednesday, MACC said the panel had asked it to reopen its investigation into the controversial donation, and resubmit investigative findings on SRC International to the attorney general for review. We found there is strong evidence to pursue further investigations and action," one of the panel members told BenarNews, speaking on condition of anonymity. Crackdown The Malaysian Insider is the second news site to be blocked this year after the Hong Kong-based Asia Sentinel suffered a similar fate on Jan. 29. Malaysians should be very concerned with the increased cases of Internet censorship by the government in recent months, signaling worse days ahead, the CIJ statement said. The Sarawak Report, a Malaysia news website based in the United Kingdom, has been blocked within Malaysia since July 20, 2015. CIJ also claimed that blog hosting site Medium has been blocked since January, apparently because it published an article from the Sarawak Report. The government alleges the article to be false, unsubstantiated and misleading and has since denied access to Medium and its diverse body of content in entirety, it said. For the average Internet user in Malaysia this also means having one less space for expression and exchange. It is akin to blocking the whole of YouTube because of one video that offends the government, or all of Facebook because of a single post the government deems problematic. The events unfolded a day after global rights watchdog Amnesty International said in its 2015/16 annual report that in Malaysia, the crackdown on freedom of expression and other civil and political rights intensified in the past year. At least 15 people, including cartoonist Zunar, were charged for violating the amended Sedition Act, Amnesty noted. Malaysia amended the law in 2015 to cover electronic media and to include harsher, mandatory prison sentences. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak takes part in a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the United States, Feb. 15, 2016. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said Wednesday that an independent panel had asked it reopen its investigations into a controversial donation received by Prime Minister Najib Razak despite an order by the country's top government lawyer to close the case. Nearly a month after Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali cleared Najib of corruption following revelations that more that $600 million was deposited into the prime minister's personal bank account, the MACC said in a statement that the Operations Review Panel (ORP) had asked it to forge ahead with investigations. The ORP is an independent body set up by the government to monitor the operations of the MACC and give its views concerning cases that are not taken to court for prosecution by the public prosecutor. We found there is strong evidence to pursue further investigations and action," one of the panel members told BenarNews, speaking on condition of anonymity. Still incomplete Last year, Najib faced allegations of graft and mismanagement at the debt-laden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and a revelation that about $681 million (2.6 billion ringgit) was deposited into his personal bank account. The attorney-general ruled last month that the transfer to Najib's account was a gift from Saudi Arabia's royal family, saying no further action was necessary. Najib insisted he did not take any money for personal gain. But the MACC had referred the case to the eight-member ORP, comprising former civil servants, corporate figures, academics and lawyers, among others. "Since MACC's investigation into the alleged 2.6 billion ringgit donation case is still incomplete, the panel recommended to MACC that it continues its investigation on the case," the MACC statement said. It did not elaborate on whether it would indeed pursue the investigations as recommended. Apandi had no immediate comment, a spokesman for the attorney-general's office told Reuters news agency in a text message. A spokesman for the prime minister's office declined to comment when contacted by telephone. The panel also recommended that the MACC seek the help of Apandi in obtaining mutual legal assistance "in order for MACC to obtain evidence and documents from financial institutions based overseas as part of its investigations into RM 2.6 billion." The MACC said the ORP also recommended that investigation papers on SRC International, a 1MDB subsidiary probed for alleged misappropriation of funds, be resubmitted to Apandi for review. An unnecessary distraction Last month, the MACC said it had sent two reports to Apandi's office following its investigations into the transfer of money into Najib's bank accounts and the affairs of 1MDB, but it did not reveal its findings or say whether any wrongdoing was involved. The MACC had said that any decision to take further action based on its probe would be up to the attorney-general. Two former leaders of Najib's United Malays National Organization have since filed court cases against Apandi over his decision to clear Najib of potential corruption-related charges in probes linked to 1MDB. Apandi had said that most of the money was eventually returned to the donor but he did not say what the donation was intended for or what happened to the remaining money. This issue has been an unnecessary distraction for the country. Now that the matter has been comprehensively put to rest, it is time for us to unite and move on, Najib said after the AGs announcement. Najib chairs the indebted state funds advisory board. Also last month, Switzerlands attorney general had announced his office was requesting Malaysias help in determining whether $4 billion (16.57 billion ringgit) in funds from 1MDB and affiliated companies had been misappropriated. Authorities in neighboring Singapore also announced that they had seized many bank accounts in the city-state as part of investigations into possible money-laundering related to probes of 1MDB, media widely reported. Najib had sacked his deputy prime minister, replaced the former attorney-general with Apandi and cracked down on opposition leaders and academics after he was implicated in the scandal. S. Adie Zul contributed to this report. Posted by Roy Glasberg Global Lead, Launchpad Program & Accelerator Last month, 24 promising startups from India, Indonesia, and Brazil came to Silicon Valley to participate in Googles Launchpad Accelerator, a new program that provides late-stage startups (mobile apps) with mentoring and resources to successfully scale in their local economies. During the intensive two-week Accelerator kickoff in our Mountain View headquarters, Google engineers from 11 product areas, as well as experts from other companies, were on hand to provide startups with mentorship on how to scale and monetize their apps, and ultimately, build successful businesses. Now back in their home countries, the teams will continue developing their products with the support of up to $50,000 in equity-free funding, six more months of ongoing mentorship, and a breadth of developer tools from the Launchpad Accelerator program. So far, many startup participants have already seen an immediate impact. Two weeks after attending the kickoff event, Brazilian mobile game developer UpBeat Games was featured on Google Play and saw a 1,000% increase in app installations in Asia, as well as a 200% overall increase in active users, by leveraging analytics to better understand their users. According to UpBeat Games founder Vinicius Heimbeck, By working one-on-one with the mentors, we learned that we needed to be a data-driven company. We now have the right analytics tools to measure the results of our efforts and to learn from them to optimize the user experience. This all directly impacted our huge success once we were featured on Google Play. eFishery, an Indonesian startup that produces smart automated fish feeders, turned its focus on scaling since attending Launchpad Accelerator. The mentors gave us great insight about how to build a scalable product and how to engage billions of users, said co-founder and CEO Gibran Chuzaefah Amsi El Farizy. We received both technical and practical advice on our business, from building back-end technology to embracing failure with the right mindset. Apply now for Launchpad Accelerator We are also excited to announce the second class for Launchpad Accelerator which will begin in June 2016. If you are a startup from India, Indonesia, Brazil, or Mexico (a new addition!) and are interested in participating in the next wave, we encourage you to apply here by March 31. We expect to continue adding more countries to the program in the future, so be on the lookout! ein Google-Unternehmen Google-Dienste anzubieten und zu betreiben Ausfalle zu prufen und Manahmen gegen Spam, Betrug und Missbrauch zu ergreifen Daten zu Zielgruppeninteraktionen und Websitestatistiken zu erheben. Mit den gewonnenen Informationen mochten wir verstehen, wie unsere Dienste verwendet werden, und die Qualitat dieser Dienste verbessern. neue Dienste zu entwickeln und zu verbessern Werbung auszuliefern und ihre Wirkung zu messen personalisierte Inhalte anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen personalisierte Werbung anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen Wenn Sie Alle ablehnen auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies nicht fur diese zusatzlichen Zwecke. 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For Immediate Release, February 25, 2016 Contact: Patrick Sullivan, (415) 517-9364, psullivan@biologicaldiversity.org EPA Urged to Reject California Plan to Dump Oil Waste Into Underground Water State Seeks to Exempt San Luis Obispo Aquifer From Safe Drinking Water Act SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. The Center for Biological Diversity today urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to deny California oil officials proposal to turn underground water in the Price Canyon area of San Luis Obispo County into a permanent disposal site for oil wastewater. The states Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources submitted the exemption application to federal officials earlier this month. If EPA approves the plan to exempt the aquifer from Safe Drinking Water Act protections, Freeport-McMoRan could move forward with plans to drill hundreds of new oil wells in the area. Todays letter calls on the EPA to reject Californias regulators cavalier forfeiture of our state's precious groundwater resources. The proposal threatens drinking water because state officials failed to adequately map nearby water wells, the Centers letter notes and different maps provided by the state actually show different aquifer boundaries. California officials cant even map this aquifer consistently, let alone justify turning this underground water into a garbage dump for oil waste, said Maya Golden-Krasner, a Center attorney. The EPA must protect the water supplies of people living near this oil field. The errors and inconsistencies in this disturbingly shoddy proposal highlight how little effort California regulators put into verifying the oil industrys self-serving claims about this aquifer. The Centers letter urges the EPA to consider contamination threats to nearby drinking water wells. The letter points to evidence that state officials have failed to acknowledge water wells within or very near the proposed aquifer boundary. Price Canyon-area residents are deeply concerned. State regulators have really let us down, so my neighbors and I are counting on the federal government to protect our water from pollution risks, said Natalie Risner, who lives about a mile from the Arroyo Grande oil field. Our water wells are so important to us, but this is an issue that should matter to every person in California. We just cant afford to let the oil industry endanger our dwindling water supplies. Hydrogeologist Matt Hagemann says state officials have failed to demonstrate that the proposed exempted area is hydraulically isolated from drinking water supplies. The claim that boundary conditions create an impermeable hydraulic barrier that would preclude the intercommunication of drinking water aquifers with oil field activities is unsubstantiated by any physical tests or computer simulations, Hagemann writes in an analysis of the exemption proposal. The application also does not account for Freeport's plans to increase oil production ten-fold by drilling or reworking up to 450 wells, which could dramatically change underground water pressure and movement. This is the oil industrys first attempt to seek an aquifer exemption following revelations earlier this year that California regulators have let oil companies drill thousands of injection wells and dump waste into scores of protected underground water supplies across the state (interactive map). About 90 of those unlawful wells are in the Price Canyon area. Californias water shortages arent going away, and we need to protect every drop from oil industry pollution, Golden-Krasner said. The EPA needs to halt the Brown administrations profoundly irresponsible effort to give away our precious water supplies. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 990,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. BRUSSELS - An EU court on Wednesday threw out an attempt by US drinks giant Coca-Cola to get trademark status for a new design of its iconic fluted bottle throughout the 28-nation bloc. Invented in the United States as a tonic drink in the late 19th century, Coca-Cola is a triumph of modern-day marketing, with its contoured bottle one of the most widely recognised global brands. In 2011, the company introduced a flat surfaced bottle but European Union authorities rejected its trademark request because they said the new design lacked any "distinctive character." The General Court of the EU, the bloc's second highest court, ruling on a company appeal, said there was no reason to change that view, with the new design simply a variant of its predecessor. "The General Court finds that the sign at issue is devoid of the distinctive character required for registration under the Community trade mark regulation," it said. "In those circumstances, the General Court dismisses in its entirety the action brought by Coca-Cola." The judgment features drawings of the new Coke bottle from the side, the top, and at a forward-leaning angle. Coca-Cola can in theory appeal to the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court. There was no immediate reaction from the company. PRETORIA: Efforts are being stepped up to alleviate electricity supply constraints, with government preparing to expand the Independent Power Producer (IPP) initiative, said National Treasury. Government is stepping up initiatives that will alleviate the electricity supply constraint over the medium-term, government said in the Budget Review, as Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan tabled the 2016 budget. Co-investment with the private sector has already added 2,045MW of renewable energy to the electricity grid. Contracts have been awarded for projects that will add another 6,377MW over the medium-term. Government is preparing a major expansion of the IPP initiative to contribute base-load energy capacity, said the Budget Review. Later this year, the Minister of Energy will announce preferred bidders for 1,000MW of coal projects. Private investment of about R45bn is anticipated and a second round of coal projects is expected to add 1,500MW to the grid. Meanwhile, a gas-to-power IPP programme is also under preparation, with a view to contributing 3,126MW of electricity generation through investment in liquefied natural gas facilities and power plants in the ports of Richards Bay, Coega and Saldanha Bay. This initiative will draw on investment by state-owned companies and the private sector. It will also create opportunities for upstream investment. Over the longer term, government has identified the need to expand production of nuclear power within South Africas overall energy mix. Nuclear power involves substantial upfront costs, and government will only expand such capacity at a scale and pace that is affordable after a thorough and transparent tender process, it said. Over the past year, electricity availability was bolstered with the completion of the first unit of the Medupi power station and the Sere wind farm. Further projected capital investment by Eskom totals R155.3bn over the medium term. This includes continuing work on the Medupi and Kusile power stations, and strengthening of transmission and distribution grids. Additional units from the Ingula power station will be connected in 2017. PRETORIA: The Department of Water and Sanitation has commended the improvement of over 198 waste water plants in municipalities during the 2014 Green Drop assessment period. The 2014 Green Drop Progress report is based on a self-assessment by municipalities and is confirmed by the department to ensure credibility. The departments team that served as moderators is made up of a trained group that not only assesses performance but also ensures that regulatory advice is given to municipal wastewater management for further improvement on their systems. The department said the main objective of the exercise is to develop measures that will gradually improve the level of wastewater management in South Africa. The department assessed and verified 824 waste water treatment plants and 152 municipalities throughout the country. The report presents the current risk profile and a six-year trend analysis of wastewater treatment plants. Water Services Manager in the department, Noxolo Ncapayi, said there are various factors that contribute to the mismanagement of waste water treatment plants. Industries that dump their effluent on river catchments and farmers and abattoirs disposing of their pesticides and carcasses within the catchments contribute enormously to the pollution problem. Hartbeestpoort Dam in Brits, North West, is a classic example of a downstream water resource that is subjected to heavy pollution by industries. The dam receives water from Crocodile River, whose main tributary is Jukskei River. Jukskei, which runs through Johannesburg and Alexandra township, is one of the worst polluted rivers in the country, said Ncapayi. However, the assessment shows that although some plans are still not satisfactory, the overall improvement is encouraging. The fifth SABC Education Career Indaba 2016 will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre from 7-8 March 2016. It is a free-to-attend student event with a aim to educate and inspire South Africa's youth and will host a dedicated Parent Networking Evening between 5-7pm on 7 March 2016. Leading organisations such as Woolworths, Rand Water and The Foschini Group, are just some of the exciting highlights at this years SABC Education Career Indaba. Career Indaba is an important event as it connects learners and their parents with people and organisations that are passionate about providing advice and support. This event offers a new level of insight into the range of education and career opportunities available in South Africa and this year promises to be the most successful one yet, says event director, Tanya Jackman. Danie Swart, Head of SABC Education further explains, SABC Education understands the importance of equipping learners with the right knowledge to ensure that they are able to make informed decisions about their study and career paths. We are proud to be associated with this event that helps the youth of today to ensure the best possible career choice. Highlighting careers in retail Woolworths, in partnership with the Wholesale & Retail Sector Education and Training Authority (W&RSETA), are excited to be a platinum sponsor at this years SABC Education Career Indaba. The company is deeply committed to skills development. Chantal Butler, head of HR at Woolworths, says, Through the public-private partnership with W&RSETA, we aim to educate a new generation of retail employees and make a positive contribution to our community by supporting the National Skills Development Strategy III. The company also hopes to attract school leavers and graduates into the retail sector by positioning the wide variety of roles that are required, across the entire value chain, to deliver exceptional products and services to the internal and external customer. Woolworths has invested a significant amount of money, growing its financial contribution to learning and skills development year-on-year. This is an indication of the companys commitment to skills development programmes and ensuring the sustainability of the retail sector. The SABC Education Career Indaba provides Woolworths with a platform to create a learning value chain that builds a talent pipeline from secondary education to employment and beyond. Other retail brands exhibiting at Career Indaba include The Clicks Group, Dischem and The Spar Group. US institutions 25 American universities and community colleges, the University of South Africa (UNISA), Technical Vocational Education and Training Colleges (TVETs) and many more education institutions, will be looking for bright young students to recruit. The US Pavilion organiser, US Commercial Service, supported by USA Education says, We are delighted to showcase some of our world-class institutions to provide study abroad opportunities for South African learners. We will be offering undergraduate, graduate and community college programs Interactive workshops SABC Career Indaba also offers a two-day workshop programme designed to help students develop the skills needed to support making life decisions post school and university decision making. Career Indabas Tanya Jackman, adds, No other student event can boast such rich content. We believe in providing real advice from real people and our workshop programme will deliver answers to those all-important questions. Students will walk away from Career Indaba more informed and confident to make the right choices for their future. Some of the workshops presented by WR&SETA, South African Council for Educators and Ace Interviews will cover topics such as CV writing and preparing for an interview. Parents encouraged to attend With the host of top employers, TVETs, local and international universities that will be at this years event, parents are encouraged to attend Career Indaba and the Parent Networking Evening with their children, where guest speaker, Nikki Bush will assist in making the difficult decisions easier in her workshop. Other sponsors of Career Indaba include platinum sponsor Rand Water, bronze sponsors South African Jockey Academy and South African National Blood Service. For more information, go to www.careerindaba.co.za. The proposed amendments to the Higher Education Act are necessary, but Dr Felicity Coughlan, director of The Independent Institute of Education, says that they could seriously affect distance education students and their chances of success. Dr Felicity Coughlan Following her recent presentation to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, she adds, South Africa has an extensive history of students registering with an institution for supplementary tuition support while they are completing their distance qualifications with a different provider, such as Unisa. In many instances, this supplementary support results in measurably improved success rates for the students. While it has been argued that the main institution should be able to provide all the support a distance student needs, this does not recognise some of the practical constraints faced by both students and higher education institutions. Moreover, it is not always practical or possible for students to register at a contact institution if they need more support than a distance education provider is able to provide. So until now, these support centres have extended the range of options available to students and have led to improved success rates. The Department of Higher Education and Trainings Distance Education Policy also strongly supports the development of student support centres for distance students, because of the widely acknowledged reality that many students do not complete distance qualifications because of insufficient support. The policy goes so far as to indicate that higher education institutions should collaborate in the provision of these services. However, the proposed amendments to the Act could in future preclude most of these valuable partnerships. Under current legislation, the main institution needs to take overall responsibility for the qualification, and everything related to it, but can use the services of other institutions to provide additional teaching for example. Our understanding of the new provisions is that the main institution may now not use these support services, as the institution providing any one of the functions must take responsibility for them all and can only do so for their own qualifications. Effective interventions needed In her recent presentation to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, Dr Coughlan agreed that several of the Departments concerns over some past and existing collaborations were legitimate, but added that the proposed amendments were not the required remedy. It is true that some of these collaborations were, and are, not sufficiently quality assured and may be used to bypass regulations, by one provider simply piggy backing off the qualifications of another or the owner of the qualification avoiding responsibility for the support of its students. However, as argued before the same committee in 2010, the effective intervention would be for these relationships to be regulated and by requiring them to comply with quality assurance standards. While some sharing of physical infrastructure could still be possible, should the amendments pass into law, true collaboration on matters such as supplementary tuition or assessment will become virtually impossible. Call for regulatory and quality assurance framework Where collaboration and partnership enable students to access support for qualifications they could not access otherwise, in a manner that is clearly supplementary and complementary to the services rendered by the institution conferring the qualification, this should be possible within stipulated parameters to protect the students concerned. We therefore repeat our call for a regulatory and quality assurance framework as suggested by the Distance Education Policy for partnerships between distance education providers and others that could support the learning of students. While we support the Departments intention not to leave the provision of these services unregulated, there are several other, more effective approaches, than making the offering of these distance learning support services impossible and potentially leading to increased drop-out rates, concludes Coughlan. For more information, go to www.iie.ac.za. Time for industry insiders, consumers and stakeholders around the globe to cast their ballots for votes at the World Travel Awards (WTA) Africa & Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony 2016 is running out. The ceremony will take place at Diamonds La Gemma dell'Est in Zanzibar, Tanzania, on 9 April, with voting scheduled to close on 29 February. Top class travel, tourism and hospitality companies will compete in over 200 categories for the awards at the event. Ahead of the Africa & Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony, WTA President Graham Cooke said: Preparations for the first stop on the Grand Tour 2016 are now well underway and we are looking forward to our time in Tanzania with Diamonds La Gemma dell'Est in April. With just days to go until voting for the Gala Ceremony closes, now is the time to make your voice heard. Register to vote A full list of nominees can be seen here, while interested parties are urged to head over to the official WTA website and register to vote here. WTA Gala Ceremonies are widely regarded as the best networking opportunities in the travel industry, attended by government and industry leaders, luminaries, and international print and broadcast media. Visit World Travel Awards for more information. Selling your car to an individual or a dealer is going to be harder as a new process that will enable the buyer to know if the vehicle has outstanding e-tolls is being developed. Yesterday, Electronic Toll Collection - the company established to collect money on behalf of the SA National Roads Agency - outlined its strategies to recover the billions of rands in e-toll fees that have not been paid. ETC said that debt accumulated between 3 December 2013 and 31 August 2015 could still be settled at a 60% discount before the 1 May deadline. This is in line with a dispensation announced by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa last year. If a debt is large, a payment arrangement that will allow a 60% discount can be made. The e-toll debt currently stands at about R5.2billion. ETC's chief operating officer, Mark Ridgway, said: "This requirement was borne out of requests from the motor industry which said that the administrative burden of tolling was onerous. The vehicle is listed on a database and is similar to a finance house saying you owe R50,000 on your car. This may affect the trade-in value on a vehicle." Settling e-toll debt Furthermore, he said, Sanral had gazetted plans, awaiting public comment, whereby traffic fines could be issued for unpaid e-tolls in line with the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act. Ridgway said about 17% of the province's road users owed 83% of the debt. There are about 2.5 million cars that use Gauteng's tolled highways every month. He said some companies owed as much over R20-million in e-toll bills. If the e-toll debt was not settled within the discount period, he said, a court summons would be served. Bills involving payment of less than R400,000 will be brought before a magistrate's court while bills in excess of R400,000 will be brought before the high court. The good news is that since 1 September 2015, the toll tariff for unregistered road users is now approximately 50% lower than it was. ETC said it could not disclose the cost of recovering every unpaid Rand, but said this would be much lower in a compliant environment than one in which motorists defied them. Source: The Times Guy Phillipson, CEO of the IAB UK and speaker at this year's IAB Digital Summit & Bookmark Awards, explains why he's issued a call for marketers to step out of the last century, especially those that still see digital as an afterthought based on uncertainty over the measurability and impact of digital. Guy Phillipson, CEO of the IAB UK Theres so much to look forward to from this years IAB Digital Summit & Bookmark Awards such an in-depth speaker session from Phillipson, who took over as IAB UK CEO in 2005. Hell share the story of how the IAB UK managed to overcome market challenges and make digital the largest media spend platform in the UK today in his first year, online advertising revenues overtook radio, consumer magazines and outdoor to become whats seen as truly mainstream. Its not just a UK phenomenon though back in October of that same year, Phillipson hosted the IAB annual conference, IAB Engage, where Bill Gates famously pronounced, the future of advertising is the internet. Streamlining SAs digital ad track But if you think were not quite at that future point yet in the land of sunny skies and braaivleis some 11 years later, think again. Phillipson himself predicts that in just two years the internet will be the number one medium by ad spend in at least 12 key global markets. Hell elaborate on this at the IAB Digital Summit & Bookmark Awards 2016, as well as the biggest related challenges well need to wrap our heads around, such as digital ad verification and ad blocking. In this exclusive pre-event interview, Phillipson lists the specific marketing practices of today youll need to wipe from the slate in order to get ahead in the digital future 1. Whats at the top of the list of marketing practices employed today that belong to the last century? Phillipson: Just doing what you did last year! No-one gets fired for repeating the 'tried and tested' TV and print plan. 2. Sad but true. What should we be doing instead? Phillipson: Constantly gaining insight into what your customers think and feel, and how they spend their media day. This is bound to add a number of digital components to the media and creative briefs and lead to a more progressive and effective campaign. 3. Which are the key digital trends for 2016 still to come that youre most looking forward to? Phillipson: In the UK where digital already accounts for over 40% of total media were looking forward to more video and better premium formats on mobile; more brand campaigns across programmatic; and even more intelligent use of public data like weather, traffic and location to enhance mobile targeting. Finally, I always love seeing brands venturing into the IoT space. 4. Just how measurable is digital? And how quickly is measurement becoming more precise? Phillipson: For direct response online advertising, its the most efficient and measurable medium ever invented. The harder part especially for packaged goods brands sold in-store is how to attribute ROI from online ads to offline sales. Thankfully, we now have much more advanced techniques to do this, often through large shopping panels and loyalty card data. Its a big challenge, but one that everyone wants to solve. 5. Indeed. How can digital be used to tie in with the traditional marketing methodology most clients still hold dear? Phillipson: Over the years, the best traditional campaigns have been borne out of a crack team of media planning, copy writing and creative direction. The key ingredient now is the technologist. He or she is the one who can take a brand idea and bring it to life across digital channels. But you have to involve the technologist from the start of the plan, otherwise you end up just turning a poster into a banner! 6. Great advice, Guy. What are you looking forward to from this years Summit? Phillipson: In South Africa, its clear that digital media spend lags way behind, especially when we consider device penetration. So Id like to see a genuine desire to get digital on everyones strategic agenda. And lets double its share of media spend by the end of the decade! And while Philipson is most looking forward to having stimulating conversations at the Summit and helping to drive the market forward in South Africa, were looking forward to being on the other end. If youre eager to delve in deeper into digital, click through to this podcast interview with Josephine Buys, CEO of IAB South Africa, to find out more about the highly anticipated IAB Digital Summit and Bookmark Awards 2016, taking place at Turbine Hall in Johannesburg on 3 March 2016. You can also click here for the full list of speakers and watch for our in-depth coverage next week. As'ad's Bio As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants. Telecoms giant MTN said on Wednesday it had paid $250 million to the Nigerian government in a dispute over a $3.9-billion fine imposed last year for failing to disconnect unregistered users. The company also said it had agreed to withdraw its legal challenge over the huge fine in a case that was adjourned in Lagos High Court to enable the two parties to try to negotiate a settlement. "Pursuant to the ongoing engagement with the Nigerian Authorities, MTN Nigeria has today made a... good faith payment of 50 billion naira ($250 million)," Johannesburg-based MTN said in a statement. The money was paid "on the basis that this will be applied towards a settlement, where one is eventually, hopefully arrived at," the statement added. "In an effort to achieve an amicable settlement, MTN has agreed to withdraw the matter from the Federal High Court in Lagos." Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is the MTN group's largest market, where it had more than 62.8 million subscribers by the second quarter of 2015. MTN was slapped with the penalty in October 2015 after it missed a deadline to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the country's telecoms regulator, at the time cited security concerns over the inability to trace users in a country plagued by frequent kidnappings and an extremist Islamist insurgency, Boko Haram. It imposed a $5.2-billion fine that was later reduced to $3.9 billion (3.6 billion euros) following an appeal by MTN. The company issued a profit warning last week and said the Nigerian dispute was a factor in falling earnings. The fine also led to the resignation of chief executive Sifiso Dabengwa and some Nigerian executives. Nigeria's four major phone companies have routinely been fined in the past for regulatory infractions but none has received as big a punishment as MTN. The initial fine of $5.2 billion was more than MTN's total sales in Nigeria in 2014 and the equivalent of about 37 percent of the group's total revenue, according to Bloomberg News. Analysts fear Nigeria's decision to fine MTN will deter investors at a time when the country is reeling from plunging oil prices. MTN will announce its full-year financial results on 3 March. Nigeria's communications ministry spokesman Victor Oluwadamilare suggested that MTN was "tired of staying in court and now they want to face the reality of the fine". But he told AFP that as yet "no one can confirm that payment" of 50 billion naira. "I'm sure before the week runs out, if we are able to confirm that the MTN has paid a particular sum of money, the next step will be to look at what was paid vis-a-vis what is expected of them to pay as per the fine," he added. "And of course if what MTN paid falls short of what is expected of MTN, the government will come up with a detailed reaction in the best interest of Nigeria." Source: AFP The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), a programme established by Barack Obama in 2010, is seeking young southern Africans, aged 18-35, to join its Regional Leadership Centre Southern Africa (RLCSA) programme. Entries close on Monday 29 February 2016. The programme, hosted by Unisa at the Graduate School of Business Leadership in Johannesburg, aims to develop the skills of young African leaders by providing core training in contemporary African issues, as well as specialised training in three key areas: Business and Entrepreneurship; Civic Leadership; and Public Management and Governance. Only applicants from South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Zambia or Zimbabwe can apply. We encourage all young leaders to apply for the programme. We especially call out to young people who come from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, or who represent minority groups, says Professor Cyril Mbatha, acting programme director. As Nelson Mandela once said, Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world. Through this leadership programme, we want young people to leave here encouraged about the future. Our aim is to transform their learning and enhance their leadership skills. This is achieved by teaching these young people to become critical thinkers who can solve complex, multidisciplinary problems; foster entrepreneurial and innovative thinking; and encourage cross-border communication and multicultural collaboration. One of the partners of the programme is Procter & Gamble (P&G). Khulusiwe Mabaso, CSI associate director for sub-Saharan Africa at P&G, notes, Africa needs to become a self-sufficient continent that relies on its own resources to grow. The best resources we have are our young people, who are innovative, creative, have a hunger for change and a determination to succeed. P&G is proud to be associated with YALI. We are learning a lot from the organisation and want to contribute to the upliftment of young people in Africa. This is a great initiative to give back. Criteria In addition to the age and citizenship requirements, the following criteria must also be met: English language proficiency Ability to commit to a four-week residential training programme from 11 April 6 May 2016 in Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Demonstrated commitment to positively impact their communities, countries and the African continent Proven experience and track record in public management, business and entrepreneurship, or civic leadership For more information, go to www.yalisouthernafrica.org or the application link at www.yalisouthernafrica.melimu.com. Got a question or tip? Contact us at bizmojoidaho@gmail.com. (BMCR) publishes timely reviews of current scholarly work in the field of classical studies (including archaeology). The authoritative archive can be found atThis site was established to allow responses to reviews through the comments feature; all reviews from August 2008 have been posted and comments were allowed from 2008 until 2018. According to PJS leaders the PJS group was travelling to Kampaiti in Kachin State. They told Kachin News Group (KNG) that the group had just passed the Shingchyai BGF camp and was in Wut Maw Village when they encountered mines and gunfire at about 9am. The Kachin State Police Officers who were guarding the PJS group ran away during the attack. In the past BGF forces have destroyed and robbed the rations of PJS groups, said PJS leaders. But, this is the first time that BGF forces have attacked PJS groups since hundreds of PJS members arrived to destroy poppy farms under the control of the New Democracy Army Kachin (NDA-K) Border Guard Forces led by U Zahkung Ting Ying. Previously PJS members had tried to go to the Kampaiti area but the Burma Army prevented them from going into NDA-K/BGF controlled territory for a week by blocking them at several places along the way to Kampaiti, including near to the Warshaung Gate on the Chipwi to Sadon Road. Then, on 23 February thousands of PJS supporters gathered at Warshaung Gate to show their support for the PJS eradication teams when they again set of for Kampaiti. Leaders of religious organisations have also helped to lead the PJS opium eradication project. KNG will update this story soon. Translated by Thida Linn Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI It looks like you have reached this page in error ... The content you are looking for has either moved, or if you typed in the address there might have been a mistake. If you believe there has been a technical error please let us know. Most Popular Destinations (Cartoonist - Pat Bagley) In other news, the state of Mississippi has decided to keep their Confederate state flag. Every bill that could have removed it died yesterday. Meanwhile, John Kasich is starting to look more more like Jeb! every day. And finally, Trump says Hillary Clinton's praise of President Obama isn't genuine. Oh the president is wonderful, hes greatyou know why shes doing that right?I know why. Boy oh boy shes become like a marshmallow.man, I tell you her life could not be so easy. But what shes done is so wrong, so unfair. But it looks like shell be the nominee and nothing will happen. You know who else said that? You know, Hillary Clinton now is trying to embrace the President as closely as she possibly can. Everything the President does is wonderful. She loves the President, he loves her and all that stuff," Sanders said in an interview with BET. "And we know what that's about," he added, "That's trying to win support from the African-American community where the President is enormously popular." Even if it were true that she's only praising him to pander, at least she's trying. Sanders, on the other hand, has chosen to surrounded himself with people who are highly critical of President Obama. There's very little reason to think Clinton's praise of the president isn't genuine. She was his Secretary of State for four years and by all outward appearances they seem to have had a great working relationship. What she has said about the president also has the benefit of being accurate and true. FLOURISHING: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World. By Miroslav Volf. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016. Xviii + 280 pages. Miroslav Volf is one of the preeminent theological voices of our time. He has a kept a keen eye on the broad religious and cultural issues that play out in the world, with his book Allah: A Christian Response Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World, continues the kind of work exemplified in Allah and Exclusion and Embrace. More importantly, this book speaks to the moment at hand. At a time when religion is seen by many as a danger to the worlds existence, Volf offers a trenchant defense of the role religion can play (at its best) in shaping the ongoing globalization of our world. being a masterpiece of theological reflection that seeks to build bridges between Christianity and Islam. Volfs latest book, titledcontinues the kind of work exemplified inandMore importantly, this book speaks to the moment at hand. At a time when religion is seen by many as a danger to the worlds existence, Volf offers a trenchant defense of the role religion can play (at its best) in shaping the ongoing globalization of our world. Volf believes that the major world religions, including Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity, have the resources needed to promote flourishing in an increasingly globalized world. In fact, the world religions are "part of the dynamics of globalization -- they are in a sense, the original globalizers and still remain among the drivers of globalization processes . . . " (p. 1). While Volf engages in the conversation from a Christian perspective, he makes every effort to be fair and respectful of other faith traditions. He affirms their differences and respects them. There are commonalities, of course, but we neednt gloss over the differences that make a religion what it is. Although these differences are central to the identity of a religion, they can all envision and contribute to the flourishing of the world. The author approaches the relationship of world religions to the globalized world as a Christian theologian, living in the United States, who is a native of Croatia, which was once part of Yugoslavia. He experienced firsthand many of the struggles that ultimately broke up Yugoslavia. He experienced the efforts on the part of the Communist government to suppress religion as an expression of its own vision of globalization, a vision that was totalizing and destructive. It is this experience of religious suppression and conflict that gives rise to Volfs desire to understand the ways in which religion can play a positive role in an increasingly globalized world. He presupposes the idea that the divine-human relationship is foundational to the ability of the human community to flourish. This leads to a discussion of the relationship of faith and politics, which he understands to be two distinct cultural systems. While they are different systems, authentic faith is always engaged, at work to relieve personal suffering as well as to push against social injustice, political violence, and environmental degradation" (p. 9). That is, religion has a place in the public sphere, but persons of faith need to understand that religion can and does play a destructive role in society when it becomes entangled with the state. The question is, how does faith engage public life without becoming a pawn of the state? To walk this line one must recognize that one cannot live by bread alone. The material is not enough. There must be the transcendent if we are to flourish. Volf divides his book into two parts, comprising five chapters, which seek to engage more broadly the relationship of the world religions to the globalization process. In addition, Volf writes an introduction he lays out his Christian vantage point. He wants the reader to know where he stands faith-wise. In the epilogue, he once again engages his own faith tradition in relationship to the challenge of nihilism to human flourishing. In Part One Volf lays out the relationship of globalization and religion. The first chapter focuses on the challenge to globalization posed by the world religions. In chapter two, Volf reverses the conversation, addressing the challenge of globalization to the world religions. In the first chapter, he suggests that globalization is a rather ambiguous project, and that religion plays a role in forming it. Religion helps mold the process so that a flourishing life occurs when a "life being led well has primacy over life going well and life feeling good" (p. 55). As for the reverse, globalization brings the various religions into contact with each other, and that can lead to conflict. But conflict, while common, isnt inevitable. There are ways in which the religions can engage each other positively without giving up their distinctives. In other words, there is need for a "world theology" in which the emphasis is placed on a common core in order that conflict can be eliminated. He notes that while there are overlaps the religions dont envision the flourishing life in the same way. He believes that the religions can live in peace, even as they robustly articulate their own vision of flourishing, as long as they dont impose these differing visions on people (especially in partnership with the state). Part Two of the book seeks to flesh out Volf's vision of the way in which the religions can peacefully engage with each other that is first articulated in Part One. Part Two offers three chapters, which deal with respect, pluralism, and reconciliation. The first of these chapters (chapter 3), focuses on "mindsets of respect, regimes of respect." He offers up John Lockes idea of religious toleration, but wants us to move beyond it to the creation of mindsets of respect. Here we recognize the importance of refraining from religious compulsion, so that there might be true freedom of religion. This requires that we take stock of both the challenge of apostasy and conversion. There are highly controversial ideas within the world religions. Key to this is embracing the principle of respect, which states that we must respect adherents of a religion irrespective of whether we respect that religion itself; for the religion to be respected, it must first earn our respect by its excellence, at least in some regard (p. 120). In chapter four, Volf focuses on "Religious Exclusivism and Political Pluralism." This chapter is worth the price of the book. It is assumed by many that religious exclusivism is incompatible with political pluralism. Volf begs to differ. To prove his point, he points us to Roger Williams, the Puritan Baptist founder of Rhode Island, who was theologically a religious exclusivist, but he created in the colony of Rhode Island one of the most politically pluralistic communities that had ever existed to that point. Religious exclusivists believe they are on the right path to truth. This becomes a problem only when one insists that others take the same path. That was the vision of John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In Winthrops vision of a city on a hill, he believed that the community needed to be bound together by a common faith, a faith that should be enforced on the populace. Williams disagreed, believing that a true faith could not be coerced. Rhode Island became a haven for persons from all faith traditions, where they lived in harmony without fear of state interference. In the end, Volf believes that religious exclusivists are the key to true political pluralismthat is if they live up to their potential and not seek to entangle themselves with the state. The final chapter is entitled "Conflict, Violence, and Reconciliation." Although conflict and violence do occur (he knows this well having been born in the Balkans) among the religions, this isnt an essential element. Religions can be violent or not. His thesis in this chapter is that even though religion can be the source of violence, the different world religions have within their tenets the resources for reconciliation. In fact, he is convinced that the foundations for reconciliation are actually found within the various religions. Consider, he suggests, that South Africas Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created and led by a person of faithDesmond Tutu. Having tried to keep his attention on the world religions more broadly in the five chapters, in his epilogue Volf returns to his Christian vantage point, or at least more specifically speaks from it. He addresses the growing challenge in our day of nihilism. Engaging with Nietzsche he defines two types of nihilism: passive and active. The passive form of nihilism expresses itself through world-denial and world-destruction. This is often the kind of nihilism present in religious expressions, such as ISIS. The active form is the nihilism present among free spirits, who assert the primacy of arbitrary values. He notes that two forms often find themselves in conflict with each otherfundamentalists versus a-religious libertines. With nihilism meaning and pleasure are separated, but from a Christian perspective he wishes to unite them. He then argues that the process of globalization needs the visions of flourishing that the religions offer lest it fall prey to nihilism. He ends by declaring that his future work will flesh out how "the light of transcendent glory . . . turns into a theater of joy" (p. 206). As I read through this book, I became increasingly convinced that we all need to read it. Religion isnt going away. Institutional forms might be experiencing decline in Europe and North America, but it is on the rise elsewhere. Living as we do in an increasingly globalized world, religions are bound to cross paths. Conflict is likely to be present. Were already seeing the emptying out of Christians in much of the Middle East as a result of the spread of extreme forms of Islam (ISIS). Then in Europe and North America, Muslims find themselves the target of attacks by Christians. The latter may be less violent but the possibility of violence is there. At the same time there is an increasing level of nationalism that can coopt religion for nefarious purposes. With Volf I believe that the hope of creating flourishing human communities does not lie in the suppression of religion. Rather, religions need to offer a vision of flourishing that depends not on state imposition (consider the embrace of Christian nationalism in the United States). This is a powerful book. It offers a strong critique of attempts to merge religion and politics, even as it affirms the need for public engagement in pursuit of flourishing of the entire creation. Take and read. Its that important! In this book a path toward peace is revealed. The Most Extensive and Reliable Source of Information Related to the Mexican Drugs Cartels. You will not find this level of coverage anywhere else, join us! WARNING: Posts may contain strong violent material, discretion is advised. COMMENTS: We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. Stanbic Bank Botswana a leading lender has encouraged its clients to use alternative banking services, which are even more convenient compared to a traditional branch. The banks Head of Customer Channels, Calistas Chijoro said this when responding to media inquiries on why they have decided to close Molepolole branch, which has been operation for less than ten years. According to Chijoro, the bank has invested in alternative channels including ATMs, mobile and internet banking, the banking application and the mobile branch. These channels remain exclusively available to our clients in Molepolole (and others) and enable one to carry on with most of the banking without having to enter a branch, pointed out Chijoro. Clients in Molepolole are also free to use the nearest branch-Mogoditshane and others countrywide. Meanwhile, the bank, which is under the leadership of Leina Gabaraane said the Molepolole ATM will remain operational. This closure is by no means an indication of a dwindling commitment on the part of the Bank towards Molepolole clients, added Chijoro. Barclays Bank, Standard Bank, Bank Gaborone and First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) have presence in Molepolole, the capital of Bakwena. Stanbic is a unit of Africas leading bank by asset-Standard Bank. Dulux Botswanas quest to remain innovative and improve its products will help the company to uphold its standard as the recipient of the Best Buy Award 2015/2016 for Interior Wall Paint. This was said by General Manager Wellington Murambiwa who emphasised that as a dynamic company, they are striving to have customers at the fore in terms of quality. He also said buying Dulux paints especially the new editions is a worthwhile investment for their clients. We are all about customer satisfaction, we thrive on having them appreciate our products and having supported us for this long, all these new and improved products will aid the Dulux brand grow and remain the best in the market said Murambiwa. This week, the company debuted new paints, which is expected to be a hit with customers both at household and industrial level. The Marketing Manager of Dulux Botswana Moses Muyaluka said the new products are multi beneficial. Some of the products revamped with new packaging are Dulux Woodgard which now has a Dulux endorsed logo. Dulux Spruce PVA was also introduced as a product that enhances stain resistance for long lasting durability and suitable for both interior and exterior walls. There was also the Dulux waterproofing, an acrylic waterproofing paint which has been developed to be used with mesh membrane. Muyaluka concluded that their Best Buy award is a clear indication that their products and services meet strict quality standards while being reasonably priced. Dulux Botswana won the Best Buy Award by ICERTIAS a Swiss certification company that undertook a market research in Botswana last year. A sample of 1200 respondents were identified and questioned on what the best interior paint is in Botswana. Dulux joins the ranks of other leading companies like Nestle, Vodafone, Spar and Mercedes Benz by acquiring the award. A stock exchange is a considerable reflection of a countrys economic diversity. As a pivotal institution in the national economy, the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) is a habitat to most of the economys powerhouses. This can be noted from the several sectors of the economy that are represented by the companies listed on the BSE, their sizes and a vast range of businesses they are engaged in. At present, the BSE is a host to 22 domestic companies representing subsidiaries of multinational corporations as well as truly home grown companies. In this count, the appeal is in the manner in which the homegrown companies have managed to pursue outward growth opportunities. Amongst the home grown companies, 12 companies have presence outside Botswana. Further, most of these companies have largely leveraged on the advantages presented by a listing on the BSE - of raising growth capital - to pioneer their regional expansion. Whilst some companies have raised capital through an IPO, others have utilized avenues such as rights issues and issues for cash to fund growth initiatives. One of the BSE veterans, by virtue of being one of the first 5 companies to have listed on the BSE in the formative year of 1989, Sefalana, has operations across 2 more Southern African countries (Zambia and Namibia) in addition to diversifying the Groups business operations locally over the years. Indeed, the Group has made use of an assortment of funding options available on the BSE, such as rights issues and issues for cash, to enhance its coffers in funding regional expansion. Along that trajectory has followed several other companies that recognized the opportunity to expand their consumer markets beyond Botswanas 2 million people. A distinctively aggressive Sub-Saharan expansion drive by any BSE listed company has been by Letshego which has expanded from Botswana into East Africa (Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya), Southern Africa (Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Swaziland) and has recently completed its entry into West Africa (Nigeria). All of these regional subsidiaries commenced after the company listed on the BSE in 2002, with the first one commencing in 2005 in Uganda. Furnmart, which listed in 1998, has transitioned not only in the spread of consumer segments it caters for but also in its footprint across SADC (South Africa, Namibia and Zambia). It is also worth noting that Furnmart has in some cases made use of rights issues to fund new stores during its expansion. RDC Properties, listed in 1996 and currently operating in Madagascar, recently undertook a rights issue on the BSE to expand into South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia. Similarly, other property companies have steadily expanded their operations beyond Botswana and particularly post listing, into regional markets; Turnstar (listed in 2002) is present in Tanzania; New African Properties has since expanded into Namibia since listing in 2011 and PrimeTime ( listed in 2007) now has properties in Zambia. Subsequent to its listing on the BSE in 2012, Choppies has since penetrated South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya. Cresta (listed in 2010) leveraged on its profile to attain funding for growth opportunities beyond Botswana and entered Zambia in 2012 through credit. Wilderness (listed in 2010) operates in 7 other countries and Chobe (listed in 1999) owns a subsidiary in South Africa. Perhaps a distinctive transaction in respect of regional expansion and as such worthy of note is the intended acquisition of a stake in a company listed on the Malawian Stock Exchange by Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited (listed in 1991). This is the first time that a BSE listed company has intended to pursue growth by investing in a publicly quoted company across the border. Why is it necessary to narrate all these growth stories? The fundamental message from the preceding is that the BSE provides a platform for companies to catalyze their growth and create value for shareholders. An array of funding options available to BSE listed companies is perhaps the single biggest catalyst of growth. Whilst these companies are well established and profitable with sizeable earnings, they tend to augment their coffers through corporate actions which are not readily accessible, at a relatively cheaper cost, to unlisted private companies. It has to be hammered home that a company listed on the BSE has a much appealing profile than a similar unlisted company. This deduction follows as a result of the perception associated with the companys conduct in relation to corporate governance. This feature feeds directly into the possibility of accessing funding at a reasonable cost. Moreover, once a company is listed it benefits immensely from its broad shareholder base in meeting its capital requirements through rights issues, issues for cash and even re-investing capital that could have otherwise been paid as dividends. The message to unlisted companies, their founders, directors and management is that companies in Botswana need to see value in diversifying their revenue sources across different geographies. In the wake of private sector being positioned as a driver of economic growth and economic diversification in Botswana, dependence on Government spending has to be diluted by other revenue streams. Botswana is known for its small population, and consequently its small capacity to absorb domestic products and services. However, it has been demonstrated by majority of BSE listed companies which utilized the home base for raising capital that Botswana companies can successfully explore the abundant business opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The demographic edge, economic growth, improving political stability and ongoing investments in infrastructure are opening up previously inaccessible markets across Africa. * Kopano Bolokwe is BSE Acting Product Development Manager The BSE will host its Inaugural Listings Conference on 10th March 2016 at the GICC under the theme Opening the BSE to the Business Community Creating Value through Listing. The Conference features a presentation by Ms Celeste Fauconnier, Africa Analyst at Rand Merchant Bank South Africa, on the subject of From Botswana to Africa: what are the opportunities for local companies expanding into Africa. Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi has called on Matsiloje villagers to be vigilant and to arrest illegal Zimbabwean immigrants crossing into Botswana using the village, which is adjacent to the border. Addressing a kgotla meeting in the village recently, the VP told residents that they should not allow foreigners to terrorise them in their own country. You are better placed since you are in your own comfort zone and the law permits members of the public to make an arrest whenever an offence has occurred. Therefore, arrest these illegal immigrants and hand them over to the kgotla for corporal punishment. Let them be thrashed thoroughly, he directed. Masisis remarks followed a complaint by the Village Development Committee (VDC) chairman Joel Mpetsane, who did not mince his words as he complained that residents are not safe as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Zimbabwe frequently cross into their village and then rob innocent villagers of their goods. Since we water our cattle in the river next to the border fence, it has become unsafe for one to venture into the river unaccompanied and this has made life very difficult for many cattle herders. Our police team in the village is very limited, even soldiers who normally help during patrols are insufficient. We implore you to bring more soldiers and police into the village for our own safety. They are so limited that these criminals rob people and vanish into thin air without any trace, he said. Mpetsane added that villagers are also not safe as wild animals including elephants and lions are destroying both their crops and domestic animals. In response to the wildlife issue, the VP promised to have a word with the Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism Tshekedi Khama. Masisi went further to inform the villagers that in the event that he doesnt have a meeting with the concerned minister, he will do everything in his power to have their grievances addressed especially compensation of those affected by wild animals. Mpetsane also complained to Masisi on behalf of villagers that a tender has been awarded to a contractor who was scheduled to commence the refurbishment of Francistown Matsiloje road which is infested with pot holes. A board announcing the commencement of the tender which was November 2015 to October 2016 has long been placed in front of the kgotla entrance but nothing is taking place along the road. Since the road has a lot of potholes, I wonder how you travelled all the way here. The condition of the road is not safe as it causes a lot of road accidents, he said. Masisi then promised the residents that he will take all their complaints to President Ian Khama who he said had sent him to get feedback on what is affecting their daily lives. Well, I am starting a Wall of Shame for people who show that they have no clue about plants in general. I will be totally fair and I'm not going to expect ... 12 years ago Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. MONTREAL The parent company of Republic Airways, one of the largest customers for Bombardiers CSeries aircraft, filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday in the United States. Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings Inc. said it and certain subsidiaries filed for relief under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The airline, which provides regional service for larger U.S. carriers, said its operations will continue as normal while it restructures its finances and contractual relationships. Bombardier's CS100 assembly line is seen at the company's plant Friday, December 18, 2015 in Mirabel, Que. Ottawa and Quebec would control Bombardier's CSeries if the federal government joins the province in contributing US$1 billion to the troubled jet program, Quebec's transport minister said. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz Republic chairman and CEO Bryan Bedford said the company has attempted over the last several months to restructure its operations to address a loss of revenue from the grounding of aircraft due to a shortage of pilots. The airline declined to comment on the status of its CSeries order. The filing could represent a further blow to Bombardier, which has struggled to sell the new commercial passenger jets. Republic is the only airline in the U.S. to have made a CSeries order. In 2010, it placed a firm order for 40 CS300 planes and options for 40 more of the aircraft. Bombardier spokeswoman Isabelle Gauthier said the Montreal-based manufacturer only just learned about the filing, but added that there is no immediate impact. Industry observers have long questioned the viability of the order with Republic since it changed its business model. The planes were originally intended for former subsidiary Frontier Airlines. But that was sold in 2013, leaving the 120- to 160-seat planes too large for its remaining operations. Earlier Thursday, Quebecs transport minister said Ottawa and the province would control the CSeries program if the federal government joins it in contributing US$1 billion to the troubled jet program. Quebec has secured a 49.5 per cent stake in the CSeries and two of five seats on a separate board after agreeing in October to the financial contribution. Bombardier (TSX:BBD.B) would hold the three remaining seats and have the right to appoint a chairman, which it said would be former Quebec premier Daniel Johnson. Ottawa would gain two additional seats on an expanded seven-member board if the federal government ponies up additional money, Jacques Daoust said in an interview with Radio-Canada. If we had a new player joining us, we could imagine having seven board seats, Daoust said. The new partner and us would control the company. This is certainly a scenario that is being explored now, because we couldnt imagine investing two-thirds of the funds and having a minority on the decision-making front. The federal government is evaluating the funding request. The narrow-body CSeries planes, which are two years late and about US$5.4 billion over budget, are set to enter into service in the coming months. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. TORONTO Actor Anthony Mackie is well familiar with the issue of police corruption, which frames his new star-packed heist film, Triple 9. Im from New Orleans. The question of police corruption never went away, Mackie, whose other credits include 8 Mile, The Hurt Locker and several Marvel films, said in a recent interview. New Orleans is infamous for its police corruption. This image released by Open Road Films shows Anthony Mackie, left, and Casey Affleck in a scene from "Triple 9." THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Bob Mahoney/Open Road Films via AP Yet Mackie, who still lives in New Orleans and was recently featured in its Mardi Gras parade, didnt see such corruption growing up. The 37-year-old said when he was young, cops there policed the neighbourhoods in which they lived. When you know the mother of the kid that youre arresting or you know the wife of the guy that youre questioning or arresting, it makes it different, Mackie said. So growing up when I did, I knew all the cops in my neighbourhood, he continued. They were on my brothers bowling team or their parents worked with my parents or stuff like that. So it was a different time, cops were cool. When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up and be a cop or a fireman because they were the cool guys. But its different now. It was that kind of neighbourhood-respecting cop that Mackie aimed to portray in Triple 9, in theatres Friday. Mackie plays Marcus, a gang-unit officer with an upstanding reputation who gets caught up in corruption on the force. The Russian Mafia blackmails the group of corrupt cops, demanding that they pull off an elaborate heist that involves instigating a 999, code for an officer-down scenario. The ace cast also includes Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Aaron Paul, Woody Harrelson and Kate Winslet. John Hillcoat directed the script by Matt Cook. Mackie already had the weapons training for the role down, having learned it from a sniper while playing a sergeant on The Hurt Locker. He also frequents the gun range as a hobby. I find it very soothing and calming and so Im very comfortable with handguns, he said. Its more about the focus. You basically close everything else out. You focus on yourself and the target and you really go within yourself, almost like being underwater, like scuba diving. Its a very cerebral experience. Mackies next role is his biggest yet: Martin Luther King, Jr., in the film All the Way. A life highlight, he said. It was definitely life-affirming. Also a highlight is his role as the comic book character Falcon, which hes played in Captain America and Avengers films as well as Ant-Man. Getting that role was like winning the lottery. It really changed my perspective on my career and everything around, he said. Mackie loves the costume (Its dope, he said with a laugh), Marvel fans passion and the guarantee that the movies going to be well-received and its going to be a hit. All you gotta do is show up, he said. Just make it from the bed, to the car, to the set, to your wardrobe, to set. Thats all you gotta do and its going to be a good movie. The Marvel world was actually foreign to Mackie before he signed on as Falcon. He said he didnt read comic books growing up, preferring The Hardy Boys and cartoon mysteries instead. My brother had boxes of comic books. I mean, hundreds of them, and I used to just rip them up and made airplanes. He hated me, Mackie said with a laugh. Scooby Doo was my jam. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. TORONTO No matter how menacing the character hes playing, Benicio del Toro likes to bring a little humour to it. In his latest film, A Perfect Day, del Toro injects a wry wit into his role as a jaded aid worker in an armed conflict zone in the Balkans in 1995. He says its a subtle touch he tries to add with all of his parts, which have also included a former convict in 21 Grams and a police officer in Traffic. Both roles earned him an Oscar nomination, with the latter landing him the golden statuette. In this Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016, file photo, actor Benicio Del Toro poses for photographers upon arrival at the BAFTA 2016 film awards at the Royal Opera House in London. No matter how menacing the character he's playing, del Toro likes to bring a little humour to it. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP, File Even Traffic, there were moments with a little bit of humour, or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,' del Toro, who played a Bond henchman in Licence to Kill, said in a phone interview from Los Angeles. When I watch other actors, I like performances that have a bit of a sense of humour behind it or underneath it. Even when you look at performances of actors that play really, really bad guys, but theres a sense of humour. Look at Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs theres something there that bubbles out that made me uncomfortable but at the same time made me kind of giggle. Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.' Does del Toro consider himself to be a funny person? Im funny sometimes. Depends on how many shots of tequila, the 49-year-old said with a laugh. In theatres Friday, A Perfect Day also stars Tim Robbins, Olga Kurylenko, Fedja Stukan and Melanie Thierry as fellow humanitarian NGO workers trying to retrieve a dead body from a well in a mine-filled village. Their efforts are hampered by jurisdiction issues. Fernando Leon de Aranoa directed the film, his first English-language feature, which debuted at last years Cannes Film Festival. l like characters or stories that deal with the futility of effort, said del Toro, who was born in Puerto Rico. He also likes stories that feature a moral dilemma, such as the one in Quebec director Denis Villeneuves crime thriller Sicario, in which del Toro plays a mysterious hired gun. I think its part of the human condition, said del Toro. I dont want to turn into a philosopher here, but its choices and what makes people make choices, and why they go this way and end up going that other way. Its always intriguing to me. Del Toro said he feels lucky to be able to take on both smaller films like A Perfect Day and blockbuster titles like the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII, which hes signed on to. As long as I can keep doing that, apart from busy, Im going to be fine. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. CALGARY Canadas initial efforts to assert its Arctic sovereignty at the end of the Second World War is documented in two new exhibits at The Military Museums in Calgary. One of them, The Cold Before the War, features photos and items from the collection of the University of Calgarys Arctic Institute of North America Through the Second World War we realized we werent really that great in fighting in northern countries. There was a huge, growing fear that the Soviets were going to come over the North, and if they were going to invade or attack the United States, it would be through Canada, said Lindsey Sharman, curator of the universitys Founders Gallery at the museum. The mounted head of a musk ox looks over the shoulder of Shannon Vossepoel, a manager at the Arctic Institute of North America, is interviewed about two Arctic exhibits at the Military Museums in Calgary, Alta., Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh This was the largest expedition out into Canadas North that the military had ever done and really laid the groundwork for contemporary operations that we still have in the North. Operation Muskox included 11 giant-cabbed snowmobiles carrying 48 men over 5,000 kilometres on an 81-day journey. It started in Churchill, Man., headed north through Baker Lake in what is now Nunavut and up to Cambridge Bay on Victoria Island. It then headed back south, snaking through various territorial communities, and ending in Edmonton. The rigours of the operation helped calm fears of a Soviet invasion as the military realized the difficulties of any operation in the North. Because it was so difficult, they concluded that no one had the technology and no one in their right mind would try and be able to come over the North, Sharman said. The second exhibition, Mapping a Cold War, was inspired by Ottawa artist Leslie Reids father who flew mapping missions in the Arctic with the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Cold War. Reids paintings, video and photo mosaics go beyond the mission because they helped her revisit the personal connection she had with her father, Squadron Leader John (Jack) Reid, who died when she was just 19. Reid was a fighter pilot in the Second World War, but like many pilots stayed in the Air Force and was sent north to take aerial photos for maps used for military installations and industrial development. His daughters work documenting his journey helped her understand a relationship with him that she described as checkered. I did find my father in many, many different ways, she said. Canadian Rangers in Whitehorse, Yukon, spoke of honouring her father and it was a good thing to hear, Reid said. The amazing thing is I became his equal. I was the one who was the artist and photographer going over similar routes and in a way doing similar things. I grew up napping on a polar bear skin my father brought back. It had a bullet hole in the head which I will never forget. The exhibits open on Friday. Follow @BillGraveland on Twitter Already have an account? Log in here TORONTO - The head of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is stepping down. We need your support! Local journalism needs your support! As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed. Now, more than ever, we need your support. Starting at $4.99/month you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website. or call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527. Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community! Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA Canadians enduring intolerable suffering from grievous and irremediable medical conditions should be able to seek medical help to die with few obstacles, a special parliamentary committee has recommended. The long-awaited report, tabled Thursday in the House of Commons by a joint all-party committee of MPs and senators, concluded: The right to seek a doctor-assisted death should apply to Canadian adults suffering both terminal and non-terminal physical and psychological conditions; Heritage Minister Melanie Joly (left0 looks on as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould speaks with the media about the Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying report tabled in Ottawa, Thursday February 25, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld It should not exclude the mentally ill and should allow those diagnosed with competence-impairing conditions like dementia to make advance requests for medical help to die. It should be expanded within three years to include so-called mature minors. Advocates of doctor-assisted death immediately lauded the relatively permissive approach urged by a majority of the committees 16 members. But it was denounced by three Conservative MPs on the committee for failing to protect vulnerable persons. They filed a dissenting report, although Conservative senators backed the majority position. The 21 recommendations will guide the federal government in crafting a new law after the Supreme Court ruled last year that Canadas ban on assisted suicide violates the right to life, liberty and security of the person. The top court has given the government until June 6 to come up with a new law that recognizes the right of clearly consenting adults who are enduring intolerable physical or mental suffering to seek medical help in ending their lives. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said she hopes to have draft legislation ready for cabinet within a couple of weeks. She promised to engage further with Canadians on this very sensitive and important issue. Were looking to ensure that we continue to take an empathetic approach, that we look to create balance in our approach that recognizes the autonomy of individuals, that recognizes the need to protect the vulnerable, that respects the conscience rights of medical practitioners, Wilson-Raybould said. Shanaaz Gokool of Dying With Dignity Canada had particular praise for the committees recommendation to allow advance directives. Without that, she said dementia sufferers face a dire choice: access assisted-dying prematurely, while they are still competent or risk losing competence before their wishes can be carried out, only to be condemned to the exact fate they sought to avoid. The committee recommended that health-care practitioners should be able to refuse to provide assistance but said, at a minimum, conscientious objectors must provide an effective referral for a patient who asks for aid in dying. It also said the federal government must work with the provinces to ensure, where possible, that requests for medical assistance in dying are made in writing, witnessed by two people who have no conflict of interest and that it be carried out only if two physicians, independent of one another, determine that the eligibility criteria have been met. But Conservative MPs on the committee said those safeguards fall far short of what is necessary to protect vulnerable people from being pressured or coerced into seeking medical help to die or to protect mentally ill people who might not be competent to make such a decision. That criticism was echoed by groups representing disabled Canadians, which expressed dismay and alarm over the majority committee report. In particular, the Conservatives objected to extending the right to die with a doctors assistance to anyone under the age of 18. Alberta MP Michael Cooper said the Supreme Court was clear that the right to medical aid in dying applied only to competent adults. We find it very troubling that the committee would disregard the clear pronouncement of the Supreme Court by opening the door to minors, Cooper said. Wilson-Raybould declined to offer her personal opinion on that issue. NDP committee member Murray Rankin said the courts have already recognized the right of mature minors to make end-of-life decisions. Nevertheless, he said the committee opted for a fair compromise that would allow expansion of the regime only after its been tested with adults. The Conservatives also objected to the notion of advance directives and expressed shock that the majority report does not recommend requiring a psychiatric assessment for anyone seeking medical help to die. There is no group that is more vulnerable than people with underlying mental health challenges, on the question of capacity and on the question of consent, Cooper said, noting the high court recommended stringent safeguards for such people. As well, the dissenters said the report fails to adequately safeguard the rights of health-care practitioners who conscientiously object to helping patients die a criticism echoed by the Canadian Medical Association. Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, co-chair of the committee, said the Conservative MPs are profoundly opposed to medical assistance in dying and apparently think the Supreme Court was wrong. He suggested their approach to find ways to restrict it as much as possible would not have passed muster with the top court. While I respect their deeply held convictions, I also recognize that the charter protects all Canadians and we had to ensure that our recommendations would respect both the letter and the spirit of the court ruling, Oliphant said. The New Democrats supported the majority report but also urged the government to provide improved palliative care for those under federal jurisdiction, such as Aboriginal Peoples, veterans and members of the armed forces. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. TORONTO A special parliamentary committee has recommended that legislation governing doctor-assisted death for competent adults be expanded within three years to include mature minors under the age of 18. The notion of a young person seeking help to terminate their life raises a number of thorny questions, not the least of which is how does one define a mature minor? Erin Nelson, a professor at the University of Alberta who teaches medical law and ethics, said the definition of a mature minor is not based an a bright line demarcated by a certain age, but on whether a person can understand the nature and consequences of a particular decision. Its not obvious all the time and you might not always have 100 per cent agreement, Nelson said Thursday from Edmonton. If you asked three different people to assess a minors competency, you might not get agreement by all of those people. So I suppose the pitfall is that mistakes could be made in deciding that a 14-year-old or a 15-year-old is sufficiently mature to make the decision, she said However the pitfall of having a bright line is that you may miss people who are sufficiently mature to make their own decision. The Canadian Paediatric Society opposes mature minors being included in legislation, which the federal government must draft and pass before June 6, when assisted suicide becomes legal in Canada. However, Dr. Dawn Davies, chairwoman of CPSs bioethics committee, said the organization will not have a full position statement on the issue until it completes a survey of its members. What we suspect is that most pediatricians and pediatric health practitioners would not think that mature minors should be included, at least in the first iteration of the legislation, just because of the weight of the decision being made, Davies said Thursday from Edmonton. As to how to define when a minor is considered mature enough to make a decision about ending his or her life, Davies said there is no specific age and thats where it becomes very related to the individual child. Really, were just looking at can they comprehend the information thats being presented to them? Do they understand all the options and the outcomes of those options? And is there a durability about their wish. Dr. Derryck Smith, who made a submission to the committee during its hearings, said qualifying for assisted death should not be dependent on age, but on whether a person is competent to agree to a medical treatment, including aid in dying. Children and teenagers do die and they suffer just as much as adults who are dying, Smith, the former head of child psychiatry at B.C. Childrens Hospital, said from Vancouver. The basic principle is why do we want people of any age to suffer unnecessarily if ultimately they are going to die? There are standard measurements for determining competency, which are blind to the age of the individual. So its up to the practitioners assessing a patient to decide, based on those standards, if a young person is capable of understanding and consenting to the terminal nature of their request, he said. Is a seven-year-old likely to be competent? Probably not. But thats not because they happen to be seven, its because they wouldnt understand the issues needed to determine if they have capacity, he said. Even so, Smith agrees with the committees recommendation that Parliament should wait three years before extending the right to die to mature minors. I think we need to proceed cautiously with this because its controversial. To date, Belgium and the Netherlands are the only two jurisdictions that allow minors access to physician-assisted death. Nelson said the issue of mature minors could be legally sticky on both sides of the age divide. If the federal government drafts legislation that allows only those 18 and older to request medical aid in dying, she said its quite likely there will be a Charter challenge brought by a younger person claiming discrimination on the basis of age. However, if mature minors under 18 are included and a young person were to be found eligible for doctor-assisted death, its possible his or her parents could seek a court injunction to prevent the lethal procedure from being carried out, she said, Or if the young persons life had already been terminated, Nelson said the parents could conceivably bring a lawsuit against the physicians involved in the death. It seems to me that that fear of litigation might be enough to make a lot of doctors hesitant about helping a mature minor in this way. Follow @SherylUbelacker on Twitter Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Larry Maguire will be heading to Stockholm in March to attend a conference about the well-being of the Arctic. The Brandon-Souris Conservative MP was chosen to represent Canada at a standing committee of parliamentarians who will meet March 2-3. Delegates from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, the U.S. and the European parliament are also expected to attend. I look forward to working with the other members of the standing committee to promote co-operation and interaction among the stakeholders in the Arctic, Maguire said in a statement. Canadas Arctic is one of our nations most important treasures, and we must work with our international partners to protect and develop our North. As a region with a high cost of living, increasing tourism and natural resource development, the Arctic must be a key strategic priority for our country moving forward. We must defend the sovereignty of our Arctic and ensure that our engagement on the world stage promotes the well-being of Canadians. A recent conference in Whitehorse recommended co-operation between coast guards in Arctic countries, the creation of infrastructure to support food security and promotion of mobility for students and scientists in Arctic countries. The Brandon Sun Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A man who admits to breaking into a Brandon gun store and stealing 13 semi-automatic handguns says he had to commit the crime to keep his family safe. William Charles Trask said he was groomed, abused and threatened into committing the break-in by the man who planned it. It was a lot of psychological terror that he really instilled in me, Trask testified during his trial in Brandon Court of Queens Bench on Wednesday. The trial began Tuesday, and Justice John Menzies is expected to deliver a verdict this afternoon. Trask is charged with 10 counts, including break and enter to steal a firearm, and possession of a semi-automatic handgun for the purpose of trafficking. Those charges relate to the one gun police recovered thanks to Trask. Jo-Brook Firearms was broken into in the early hours of July 3, 2012. One of the gun cases had been pried open and in total 13 to 14 semi-automatic handguns were stolen. Trasks lawyer, Jonathan Richert, said his client admitted his involvement almost from the start, but was forced to commit the crime by a psychological predator and should be acquitted as he acted under duress. On the stand, Trask offered the following story about how he was trapped by a series of lies. He began by describing how he met a man while in prison in British Columbia. Trask, who is five-foot-four and 110 pounds, described how he was bullied growing up, and was also bullied by other inmates due to his size while in prison in the summer of 2011. But another, large inmate took him under his wing. He taught Trask to deter his bullies by ignoring them and trained him in martial arts to build his confidence and self-esteem. The pair would talk about what theyd do when released. Trasks new friend told him he was a drug lord who could cook crystal meth. He offered to bring Trask into the fold, to perhaps train him as a pilot to transport his cargo. Trask said his friend played the part of a criminal with connections. His buddy was in a unit that housed organized crime members, and hed shown Trask his corrections paperwork that outlined his connections. Trasks prison mate was released first and he sent a letter to Trask who remained in prison. The letter had the friends phone number on it, and Trask called him once he was released and they maintained phone contact. But the phone conversations took an unpleasant turn, Trask said. His friend told him he owed him money because hed obtained paperwork that would allow Trask to start a new life. Trask said his buddy started to demand that he commit crimes to pay him back. While Trask was living in Wetaskiwin, Alta., the man told him to steal money from the grocery store where he worked. Trask testified that when he refused, his friend threatened to send his crew to beat him up. Trask was also told to rob a bank truck, a task he failed at. Via texts, the man threatened to send his guys to the home where Trask was staying with another friend and kill everyone there except Trask to teach him a lesson. At another point, the former friend told Trask that he had people watching him. In the fall of 2012, Trask fled to Penticton, B.C., to his tormentors territory to find out if his claims of ties to organized crime were true. But the threats continued. Trask said his bully monitored his movement on Facebook and he was afraid to delete the man because of his professed connections. The man threatened to send people to harm yet another of Trasks friends and his child, and to get Trasks parents in Nova Scotia where he was originally from. Trask decided to move to Brandon where his abuser lived with his parents. He told court that he wanted to settle whether the man really had ties to organized crime. Trask also said he wanted to put himself in harms way, and deflect threats away from his loved ones. Once in Brandon and on the way to his parents home, Trasks acquaintance pointed to homes which he claimed to belong to cops, and pointed out an SUV parked down the street that supposedly contained undercover police who had him under surveillance. The man also named an officer and CSIS and probation workers who he said were on his payroll. To Trask, the fact he was once arrested for a break-in and released without charge, and his probation officer was switched seemed to confirm the mans story. It was only later, he said, that he found out it was all a lie. This all sounds like out of a movie script really but are you believing him at this time? Richert asked. I know it sounds stupid now, but I mean at the time hed had me so brainwashed and paranoid that I didnt know how to do deal with it, Trask responded. I truly did believe it. Trask said he doubted his abusers story, but it was still plausible and he couldnt disprove it, so he erred on the side of caution. After suffering a couple of assaults at his hosts hands and watching him beat his girlfriend, Trask said he was in fear of his life. When his abuser came up with a plan to break into Jo-Brook, Trask did it. Following his arrest, he told police he scouted the business a number of times and failed to pry open the main doors. He then fluked and found a door at the back of the shop which he pried open with a crowbar. He loaded the guns from the case into his backpack and took them to his boss. Trask told police that all the guns were sold, and he received $100 for each one sold. However, for some unknown reason, one of the guns was returned and Trask hid it under the stairs of his hosts home. It was Trask who actually helped police solve the case. He testified that in 2013, a mutual friend finally revealed that his former prison friend didnt have ties to organized crime. The gun, he said, was the evidence he needed to break free and he went to police. However, when police searched the home in July 2013 and found the handgun, Trask was arrested and charged along with the man who he says planned the heist. At the time of his arrest, the remaining 12 to 13 guns were still missing. Crown attorney Grant Hughes argued that Trask cant claim the defence of duress. Hughes said he didnt have to steal the guns to escape the man he says threatened him, his friends and family. Trask himself had doubted the mans story, the abuser hadnt followed through on past threats, and Trask had the chance to warn his loved ones or report the threats to police but didnt. The accused was protecting his own friends and family by putting the public in danger. We now have a dozen firearms out in the criminal ether, Hughes said. Andrew Wigman remains charged in connection to the break-in and is scheduled for trial next month. ihitchen@brandonsun.com Twitter: @IanHitchen Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. WINNIPEG A man accused of targeting his former wife and two lawyers with potentially lethal letter bombs has lost a bid to have a judge from another province brought in for the case. Guido Amsel faces three counts of attempted murder as well as various weapons-related charges. Two of the letter bombs last summer were safely detonated, but one exploded. Lawyer Maria Mitousis, who had represented Amsels ex-wife in the couples divorce, lost a hand in the blast and suffered severe injuries to her upper body. Guido Amsel, 49, is shown in this undated handout photo. A man charged with attempted murder after a letter bomb injured a Winnipeg lawyer has lost his bid to have an out-of-province judge hear his case. Guido Amsel is accused of sending letter bombs to his former wife and two law offices last July. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Winnipeg Police Service Amsel has already been denied bail, but his lawyer, Martin Glazer, wanted a judge from another province brought in to hear an appeal of that decision. Glazer, in a submission that Court of Queens Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal said could have affected the trial as well, argued that Winnipegs legal community is tight-knit and a judge from another province was needed to avoid the appearance of bias. Joyal ruled Thursday that a local judge can oversee the bail appeal. There is no cogent evidence establishing a reasonable apprehension of bias, Joyal said. Judges and lawyers knowing each other does not displace the presumption that judges will fulfil their oaths, he added. Joyal also ruled that there would be a constitutional impediment to bringing in a judge from another province, because judges are appointed to serve within their own jurisdictions. The bail review is scheduled for March 21. Amsel was arrested two days after the letter bomb went off in Mitousis law office. A fundraising website set up by her colleagues for the lawyers recovery has raised $94,000. Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said the bail review was March 20. Trump: Trying Desperately to Lose It is plain that Donald Trump does not really want to be President of the United States. He has become alarmed that he might actually get the Republican nomination because the racist yahoos who comprise the largest part of his following are rabid in their enthusiasm, so has been striking out in all directions likely to alienate voters, if not within his core of support, then among serious people in the Republican Party overall, who want a real chance to win the White House.Consider his most outrageous moves in recent weeks. He has: Attacked George W. Bush, Barbara Bush, George Bush's entire Administration, and the Iraq War all very popular among Republicans. He claimed that he opposed the Iraq War before it even started, whereas there is no record of any such stance. He proclaimed both that Iraq had no Weapons of Mass Destruction, and that George Bush and his entire Administration knew that, so dragged us into the Iraq War again, a hugely popular war among the yahoos he ostensibly wants to appeal to by means of a malicious lie. Trump has advocated reinstating waterboarding and even employing other forms of TORTURE forbidden by international treaties to which the United States is signatory. He claimed that the Iraq War practically singlehandedly "destabilized the Middle East", a preposterous assertion, in that the Middle East has never, in nearly 100 years, since the end of World War I, been anything like stable, and esp. not since the establishment of Israel, which is the single most destabilizing incident in the region. We will know that The Donald is insistent on losing the nomination if he dares to denounce Israel. He picked a fite with Pope Francis, a hugely popular religious and political leader. Trump's yahoo base is virulently anti-Catholic, so Trump's disparagement of the Pope won't hurt him among that crowd, but definitely will hurt his chances with the Republican Establishment. Trump has been very intent on alienating most Hispanics, a large community that the Republican Establishment does not want to write off completely, by attacking Mexicans and Central Americans. If he moves on to condemn Cubans too, and not just the two Cuban U.S. Senators running against him, we will have yet more clear evidence that Trump wants to raise anxieties among English-speaking people about hordes of Hispanics flooding into the Nation and trying to change the U.S. into the northernmost Nation of Latin America. Trump attacked the last Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, as tho he did not understand that Romney was the choice of the majority of Republicans in 2012, and well respected as a moderate and responsible person. Trump has threatened to run as an independent if he does not win the Republican nomination, which would almost certainly throw the election to the Democrats. So the party faithful cannot have any confidence that Trump has the best interests of the Republican Party at heart. Trump has, on innumerable occasions, spoken harshly of "special interests" and lobbyists, whereas the Republican Party has enthusiastically embraced massive infusions of cash into the political process by, you guessed it, special interests and lobbyists. In bragging about his Nevada win, Trump proclaimed that he was not only the choice of the well-educated but also of the poorly educated, and said "I love the poorly educated". Isn't that tantamount to saying his supporters are stupid? HOW poorly educated are his core supporters that they don't realize he looks down his nose at them and is calling them stupid without using the"stupid"? One must wonder if the morons who support Trump would turn against him even if he did call them stupid with that very word. If they would not, what more can Trump do to escape the mess he has created for himself? We may soon find out.Donald Trump knows he is not qualified, by experience or temperament, to be President. His ego would not permit him to take on a job he could not possibly handle. He assuredly does not want to go down in history as the very worst President of all time. Nor do I think he even wants the job. He would be stuck in a terrible, crushing job, for four years, unless he just decided to throw up his hands partway thru his term and resign. So that may be why he is making noises about wanting to select as his running mate a government insider who could handle the job when Trump wearies of it.So why is Trump spending so much of his own money on a run for a job if he doesn't really want that job? I can see at least two reasons: first, egotism; second, adding to his "brand" for future marketing of all things Trump. Egotism is plainly involved in everything Donald Trump does. He does, after all, plaster his name all over everything he builds or buys. This campaign might have started as a giant goof on the public, a very expensive self-indulgence that he had reason to believe would make his investments more prestigious and profitable. But then it swirled out of control, in a whirlwind of crazy, irresponsible remarks that were taken as serious. When he said he could shoot someone on the streets of Manhattan and not lose his rabid supporters, that too was taken as something a serious person could say. But the President of the United States cannot run U.S. foreign policy thru insults to allies, or foot-in-mouth, ill-considered braggadocio regarding rivals and potential antagonists. Would Trump understand that world leaders have egos as big as his, so he cannot wage a war of words, because it could turn into diplomatic, economic, or even military war? Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. VANCOUVER An internal memo from a Roman Catholic health-care provider in Vancouver reminds its leadership team that physician-assisted dying violates the Catholic faith and until the law changes the service will not be provided. The memo from management at Providence Health Care says that while the organization currently forbids the practice, it will monitor and conform to the law as it takes shape. Providence operates 10 facilities, including St. Pauls, the only hospital in Vancouvers West End. Last year, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the ban on physician-assisted dying, and the government has until June 6 to come up with replacement legislation. (Physician-assisted dying) contradicts the basic tenets of Catholic health care, wherein life is held to be sacred from conception to natural death, and not permitted in Catholic health care institutions such as Providence, read the memo, dated Feb. 16. Requests for assisted suicide from patients who have secured the required exemption from B.C. Supreme Court will be treated on a case-by-case basis to find a final solution, said the document. This will be done presumably within the interim structures established in other health-care facilities in the region. The memo came to light as parliamentarians tasked with exploring how Canada should craft its assisted-suicide laws recommended that all publicly funded hospitals be required to offer the right to die to clearly consenting adults suffering intolerably from irremediable medical conditions. Their report encourages legislators to take into account a doctors right to conscientiously object, but also calls for regulations that require those physicians to provide a patient with a referral. The Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience criticized the committee report on Thursday for not going far enough to protect the rights of health-care workers and facilities. Forcing these institutions to offer a service that infringes on their religious beliefs tramples on their constitutional right to freedom of conscience and religion, said Larry Worthen, executive director of the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada, in a statement. Assisted-suicide advocates celebrated the news, describing the committees conclusions as thoughtful and balanced. Shanaaz Gokool, CEO of Dying With Dignity Canada, singled out the recommendation that the service be available at all publicly funded medical facilities. This is one of the pieces where the rubber is going to hit the road for access, Gokool said. These are institutions that receive public funds and they should honour patients charter rights to an assisted death. A faith-based organizations moral positions may not reflect the beliefs of all of its staff, she added. B.C. Humanist Association executive director Ian Bushfield said he was pleased with the work that came out of parliamentary committee. The association provides a voice for atheists, agnostics and non-religious in B.C. Bushfield expressed frustration over Providence Health Cares stance on assisted suicide. There are religious viewpoints that oppose blood transfusions, he said, making an analogy to religious opposition to physician-assisted dying. Yet I cant imagine we would be OK as a society funding a hospital that refused to provide blood transfusions and having it be the main hospital in downtown Vancouver. Follow @gwomand on Twitter Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. HALIFAX Halifaxs new harbour ferry will be named in honour of Viola Desmond, the businesswoman sometimes called Canadas Rosa Parks after she was jailed for sitting in the whites-only section of a movie theatre. Desmond received about a third of the votes in a city ferry-naming contest that drew 19,238 votes.The four other nominees were fallen soldiers Pte. John Curwin, Maj. Gavin Rainnie, former Halifax mayor Ronald Wallace and Halifax Explosion hero Vincent Coleman. The ferry will go into service this summer. The naming expands the growing legacy of Desmond, who died in 1967. In 2010, she was given a posthumous pardon and an apology from the Nova Scotia government. The owner of a beauty salon on Gottingen Street in Halifax, she inadvertently sat in a whites-only section of a segregated movie theatre while on a business trip to New Glasgow in 1946. She was forcibly removed and fined, spending a night in jail. After losing various court proceedings challenging the fine, she closed her business and left Nova Scotia for Montreal and later New York City, where she died. The case pre-dated Parks 1955 challenge of bus segregation in Montgomery, Ala. The Viola Desmond is the third of three new ferries to be added to the Halifax Transit fleet. The other two have been named after Christopher Stannix and Craig Blake, local military members who were killed while serving with the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan. Already have an account? Log in here WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government has put forward a bill that it says would lay a path toward reconciliation with Indigenous people. We need your support! Local journalism needs your support! As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed. Now, more than ever, we need your support. Starting at $4.99/month you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website. or call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527. Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community! Already have an account? Log in here WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government is accusing the Opposition Progressive Conservatives of trying to Americanize the province's political system. We need your support! Local journalism needs your support! As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed. Now, more than ever, we need your support. Starting at $4.99/month you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website. or call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527. Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community! Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA Canada needs to overhaul its inefficient air-security screening system and create new protections for passengers hit with delays and cancellations, says a federal transportation review. The long-awaited report on the Canada Transportation Act recommends replacing the current one size fits all passenger-screening approach with an intelligence-driven, risk-based process similar to those used in the United States and elsewhere. It also calls for legislation or regulations for air carriers serving Canada that spell out passenger rights and remedies that are as harmonized as possible with those of the U.S. and the European Union. The two key recommendations, if adopted, could make flying a better experience for Canadians by easing congestion in security lineups and ensuring compensation when people are bumped or stuck at the airport. Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Thursday he will carefully consider the reports many findings. The review, initiated by the previous Conservative government, found the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority while fulfilling its screening mandate has been unable to meet the challenge of increasing demands with limited resources. The reviewers heard near-universal condemnation of the existing state of security screening services at Canadian airports, the report says. Canadian travellers already pay one of the highest aviation security fees in the world, but there is insufficient capacity to meet predictable peaks in demand, performance is declining and queues are getting longer, it adds. Others are pursuing more outcome-focused regulations and risk-based security programs, the report says, citing Londons Heathrow Airport and the Hong Kong International Airport, where the standard is to screen 95 per cent of passengers in less than five minutes. The review notes Transport Canada is responsible for setting overall policy, while the air transport security agency carries out screening and it recommends a single, integrated agency perform both functions. On passenger rights, the report points out Canadian air carriers already comply with the consumer protection laws imposed by several jurisdictions, including the U.S. and European Union, when they fly to and from those destinations. But travellers do not enjoy the same sort of treatment when flying within Canada. The current system, based on one-off rulings by the Canadian Transportation Agency in response to complaints, is producing piecemeal outcomes. We have heard from all sides of the issue carriers, public interest advocates, and the Agency that the status quo is untenable. The report says airlines need to maintain the flexibility to overbook flights for commercial reasons, but passengers should have access to information on their rights. The current situation often results in a one-off negotiation between a gate agent and a stressed, time-sensitive passenger who does not know how much the airline can or will offer in compensation. The same is true for flight delays or cancellations, the report says, noting the result can be unequal access to compensation. In addition to new statutory protections, the report recommends giving the Canadian Transportation Agency power to undertake investigations on its own so it can report on and resolve systemic issues. Follow @JimBronskill on Twitter Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 24/02/2016 (2431 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. QUEBEC A Quebec court has authorized a class-action suit related to an outbreak of legionnaires disease that is believed to have contributed to 14 deaths. The lead plaintiff is Solange Allen, whose husband, Claude Desjardins, died in August 2012 at the age of 64. The class-action filed in Quebec Superior Court states that 167 people suffered financially from the outbreak in Quebec City. The defendants include the Quebec Health Department and regional health officials in the provincial capital. The plaintiffs are seeking $50,000 plus expenses for anyone who contracted the disease, $10,000 plus expenses for anyone who looked after someone with the disease, $125,000 for a surviving spouse, and $30,000 for the beneficiaries of people who died. They also want funeral costs covered. A coroners report in 2013 said public health authorities did not have the proper tools to combat the outbreak, which came 16 years after similar cases in 1996 prompted calls for change. Legionnaires disease is contracted by breathing in small droplets of water contaminated with bacteria. Symptoms include coughs, fever, chills and respiratory problems. The deadly bacteria grows in the stagnant water of cooling systems and spreads in little droplets through air conditioning. Heavy smokers and people with weak immune systems are most at risk of catching the disease, which is not contagious and cannot be transmitted from one person to another. It presents little or no risk to most people, although elderly people are more vulnerable. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA The head of the United Nations World Food Program says she appreciates Russias assistance in helping it reach hungry, besieged parts of Syria in recent days. Russias deal with the United States to cease hostilities in Syria has resulted in more food reaching hungry people in the cities of Modamiyeh and Deir el-Zour, said Ertharin Cousin, the WFPs executive director. The U.S. and Russia have agreed to cease hostilities in Syria at midnight Friday in what many see as the best prospect for ending its five-year-old civil war that has left 250,000 people dead and forced 11 million to flee their homes. Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program, is pictured on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick The good news is that Russias recent agreement with the U.S. has resulted in access that previously, we as humanitarians, were not able to achieve, Cousin said in an interview with The Canadian Press. The United States has accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of implementing a surrender or starve policy that it sees as a violation of the rules of war. The U.S. has also accused Russia of levelling airstrikes not at terrorists but at moderate opposition groups fighting Assad. Cousin, who is in Ottawa for talks with the new Trudeau government, said she hopes the current Russia-U.S. deal leads to a long-term ceasefire that will end the misery for Syrias innocent civilians. We are hopeful that the ceasefire thats been negotiated will result in an opportunity for a longer term ceasefire that can begin the political discussions that are necessary to end what is a humanitarian crisis that is the direct result of failed political action. Cousin visited Syria in 2014 to see the devastation first-hand and gauge the ability of her agencys ability to reach starving people. Images of starving Syrians have shocked the world, and while she wouldnt comment on Russias past actions in support of Syria militarily over its skies and politically at the Security Council she said she appreciates what they are doing now. She said Russia helped the WFP in Wednesdays air drop of 21 metric tons of aid over Deir el-Zour, which has been controlled by extremists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The WFP has also reached the besieged city of Modamiyeh twice in last 10 days, its first access since 2013, she said. Cousin said Syrias deterioration leaves her sad, but I dont have the luxury of becoming disillusioned. The situation, she said, is making her more strident and vocal about the effects of a failed political solution by all parties. These are children, these are mothers, these are grandmothers who lived in a country that not only fed itself before this crisis, (but) was also the breadbasket for the neighbours (and) has now lost 35 years of development, where the children were some of the best educated in the Middle East. Many of those children have now been out of school for three to five years, she added. Cousin said she generally asks for more money everywhere she goes, but shes not pegging the success of her trip on getting an additional financial commitment. She did add, however, that shed like to see more long-term development dollars from Canada. She said she wants to preserve the continuation of what she called the steadfast support of past Canadian governments. WFP has demonstrated to the Canadian people that were a good spender of taxpayers dollars, she said. That position has given us the ability to work well with the different governments here in Canada. Cousin met Thursday with International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau. She also said that the Liberal governments commitment to the environment will ultimately help her agency feed more people in climate-affected areas. Having Canada back involved in climate issues in a very vocal way will make a difference for those we serve. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Six stories in the news today, Feb. 25, from The Canadian Press: NEIL BANTLEMAN ACQUITTAL OVERTURNED IN INDONESIA Canadian teacher Neil Bantleman is shown sitting inside a holding cell prior to the start of his trial hearing to listen to the prosecutor's demand at South Jakarta District Court in Jakarta, Indonesia on March 12, 2015. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said the Canadian government "is deeply dismayed and shocked" by an Indonesian Supreme Court decision to overturn the acquittal of Canadian schoolteacher Neil Bantleman. In its decision, the high court also ordered both Bantleman and an Indonesian teaching assistant to serve 11 years in prison instead of the 10 years they initially received for sexually abusing three young children at a prestigious international school in Jakarta. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Dita Alangkara Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion says the Canadian government is deeply dismayed and shocked by an Indonesian supreme court decision to overturn the acquittal of Canadian schoolteacher Neil Bantleman. In its decision, the high court also ordered both Bantleman and an Indonesian teacher to serve 11 years in prison instead of 10 for sexually abusing three young children at a prestigious international school in Jakarta. LIBERALS TO REVEAL CHANGES TO CITIZENSHIP ACT The federal Liberals are to reveal today how theyll undo the previous Conservative governments controversial changes to the Citizenship Act. The most hotly debated element of the Conservative amendments was a provision to strip people of citizenship if they were convicted of crimes such as treason or terrorism and also held citizenship in another country. ONTARIO DEBT EXPECTED TO HIT $300B IN BUDGET Ontarios Liberal government will outline a plan to eliminate its deficit and stem the growth of its massive debt in todays provincial budget, the ninth in a row to be awash in red ink. Low oil prices and a weaker loonie have helped Ontario lead the country in economic growth, but the province has the largest debt of any sub-national government in the world. SENATORS GRILL MINISTERS ON SENATE PLANS Senators hoping for details of the Trudeau governments plans to transform their much-maligned parliamentary chamber have been told effectively that its a work in progress. Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef and government House leader Dominic LeBlanc were grilled by senators late Wednesday at a meeting of the Senates rules committee. Both acknowledged some matters have not yet been worked out. LANDSCAPE SHIFTS FOR MEDICAL CANNABIS IN CANADA The federal government will have to mull a new system to distribute medical marijuana after a judge ruled patients can grow their pot at home. Federal Court Judge Michael Phelan struck down a law that required patients to buy cannabis through the mail from licensed producers, writing it was an arbitrary and overbroad violation of charter rights. He suspended his decision for six months to allow the Liberal government time to craft new legislation. The federal government has 30 days to appeal. STORMY WEATHER CUTS POWER TO THOUSANDS IN QUEBEC AND ONTARIO Freezing rain and strong winds caused numerous power outages in southern Quebec and eastern Ontario late Wednesday. Hydro-Quebec was reporting almost 240,000 customers were without electricity while Hydro-One in Ontario was showing about 26,000 outages. Many customers were not expected to have their electricity restored until late today or tonight. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA Storms, hurricanes and floods driven in part by climate change will cost the federal disaster fund $902 million a year over the next five years, well above past averages, the parliamentary budget officer predicted Thursday. The latest report from the office of Jean-Denis Frechette said the federal Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements can expect to spend $229 million a year to deal with damage from storms, with floods adding another $673 million a year. The report says climate change is likely a factor in the intensity of Prairie flooding. Residents walk through flood waters in Calgary on June 24, 2013. Storms, hurricanes and floods driven in part by climate change will cost the federal disaster fund $902 million a year over the next five years, well above past averages, the parliamentary budget officer predicted Thursday.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette The warming in the Arctic has been associated with persistent weather systems in the mid-latitudes as well as extreme weather events, the report said. Consistent with this, multiple-day rain events have significantly increased in the Prairie provinces and in the Rockies. The recent record setting multiple-day rainfalls in southeastern Saskatchewan in 2010 and 2014 are likely examples. The disaster fund reimburses the provinces and individuals for expenses and damages resulting from disasters, be they natural or man-made. The high costs of flooding are partly due to the lack of flood insurance at reasonable cost for individuals in Canada, as well as problems with floodplain regulations on the Prairies, which account for most of the disaster costs over the last 10 years. The Prairie provinces face regulatory challenges of reduced enforcement and compliance when floodplain management is the responsibility of municipalities, the report said. Furthermore, Saskatchewan has unlicensed drainage of wetlands that increases peak flows during floods and Alberta appears to have inaccurate flood maps. Furthermore, in creating flood maps, Alberta does not take into account rising groundwater and debris floods on steep mountain creeks. Over the last 20 years, the annual cost of weather disasters has risen sharply. The average cost to the federal disaster fund has risen from $54 million a year (in adjusted 2014 dollars) for the 1970-94 period to $291 million between 1995 and 2004 and $410 million between 2005 and 2014. The report attributes the increase in costs to an increasing number of large weather events with greater intensity. For example, in addition to a number of small events, the country has seen some major disasters over the last four years: Heavy rains in June 2014 in Saskatchewan are expected to cost the disaster fund $160 million. The Toronto ice storm of December 2013 is expected to cost $120 million. Floods in southern Alberta and southeastern British Columbia flood of June 2013 with forecast costs of $1.437 billion. The Assiniboine River flood in Manitoba of 2011 which was contributed to by the flood that spring in Saskatchewan, with disaster fund costs of $524 million for Manitoba and $245 million for Saskatchewan. Already have an account? Log in here TORONTO - Ontario's Ministry of Transportation says two lanes of a failed bridge on a northern section of the Trans-Canada Highway are expected to open Thursday morning. We need your support! Local journalism needs your support! As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed. Now, more than ever, we need your support. Starting at $4.99/month you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website. or call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527. Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community! Already have an account? Log in here ST. CATHARINES, Ont. - A man caught smuggling nearly 40 turtles in his pants has been fined $3,500 and placed on probation for two years. We need your support! Local journalism needs your support! As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed. Now, more than ever, we need your support. Starting at $4.99/month you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website. or call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527. Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community! Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/02/2016 (2430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Breaks my heart-now that this guy is under treatment he should have to go to jail and serve a penalty for cold-blooded murder. Should have been shot on the bus at the time let alone now. This guy has shown poor judgment in being responsible for his medication in the past. Leave him where he can be supervised and watched. If he is capable now of living on his own he needs to stand trial for murder. Why should he get a second chance? Everyone who witnessed the events that night dont get a second chance. If he has known mental issues and has murdered a human being he should stay in the system. Our laws are so messed up when it comes to crimes and mental health. Disgrace. A selection of comments from The Brandon Suns Facebook page Anyone who is familiar with the beheading of Tim McLean on the evening of July 20, 2008, on a Greyhound Canada bus just west of Portage la Prairie will forever associate that horrific situation with the name of Vince Li. The facts of that night are well-documented. Indeed, reporters and photographers from both the Winnipeg Free Press and Brandon Sun were on scene that fateful night, and the grisly details have been laid bare in several successive news stories and in court. Li, who became a Canadian citizen in 2006 after emigrating from China five years earlier, was eventually found not criminally responsible for McLeans murder due to mental illness schizophrenia. Though he was originally kept in a secure wing at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, over the years he has been given increasing freedoms due to his model behaviour. He was initially granted supervised walks on the hospital grounds, and eventually escorted trips to nearby communities. Just last year he won the right to live in a group home. Yet with each newfound freedom, anger and disbelief from members of the public have grown. Even now, several years after the incidents, updates to the ongoing Vince Li saga continue to draw vitriolic comments. The most recent story from The Canadian Press in yesterdays paper reported that Li has changed his name to Will Baker, and that his medical team has asked the Criminal Code Review Board to allow him to live on his own albeit with several conditions that would include daily monitoring to ensure he continues to take his anti-psychotic medication. That one story alone generated more than 80 comments and was one of our top-clicked stories yesterday. Without doubt, the ignominy of that constant identifier the man who beheaded a fellow bus passenger has been the catalyst for Li to change his name. Based on the extreme tone of several of the comments made by readers many of which we had to edit or delete were certain there is an element of vigilantism thundering through the eye-for-an-eye portion of the public. Emotions run high on this story, and understandably so. Tim McLean will never get the chance to grow old, and his family will forever have to live with the details of what happened, and more so the fact that his killer was deemed not criminally responsible. There are no winners in any part of this story. Certainly not the McLean family, as the man now called Will Baker gains increasing freedoms through the auspices of the board. That board is expected to deliver a decision on Bakers request by the end of the week. And one of the first police officers on the scene of that beheading has since taken his own life. This is a tragedy that keeps unfolding. But as we have argued on this page before, Baker is hardly getting off scot-free. He lives every day with a terrible mental illness, and with the full knowledge of his actions, and what they have done to a Manitoba family. The lack of understanding among the general public regarding mental illness and its status in our criminal law courts is appalling. There are people calling for our courts to try him for murder now that he understands his actions and is considered sane. That would be an abuse of the system, and of his rights as a person. Although visual signs are much more difficult to discern, mental illness is just as debilitating as any physical injury, and just as real. The ongoing commentary on these kinds of stories shows just how far we have to go in destigmatizing mental illness. Renuas Lucinda Creighton showed up the rest of the political crew this morning on Ireland AM when she took on the Steady Hand Challenge and managed to complete it all without a single bump. Creighton had a steady hand that Rachel from Friends would be jealous of as well, of course, as the rest of her political colleagues. QUESTION: Health was identified by our readers as the priority #GE16 issue. Can you outline your partys position on the desired shape of health provision in the years ahead and set out what the two primary targets and goals in that area would be if given sufficient mandate. Fianna Fail: Billy Kelleher - (Candidate in Cork North Central ) Fianna Fail is committed to a publicly funded health care system. We will focus on putting patients and services first rather than structures. Unlike the governments broken promises of UHI and free GP care we will focus on practical measures to improve our health service. Specifically we will reactivate the National Treatment Purchase Fund with a 100m spend to reduce waiting lists to the international standard of six months. In addition we will hire 4,000 nurses, 500 consultants and 250 GPs as well as 400 extra acute hospital beds in order to reduce ED waiting times to 6 hours. These measures form part of a broader policy that commits an additional 1.3bn in spending to address the crisis in our health system. Fine Gael: Simon Coveney - (Candidate in Cork South Central) Fine Gael inherited a badly organised and underfunded health service. While Fianna Fail cut health spending during its final years in government, Fine Gael has used the economic recovery to start rebuilding our health services. Fine Gael is committed to delivering a strong and efficient publicly funded health service. Our key targets are to deliver 4,400 more frontline staff by 2021; introducing free GP care for under 18s; upgrading IT system and addressing Emergency Department overcrowding and waiting lists. Secondly Fine Gael will implement a health reform programme to dismantle the HSE and address prices of medication. Green Party: Eamon Ryan - (Candidate in Dublin Bay South) The Green Party favour abolition of the HSE and the creation of a Community Health Organisation (CHO), which would prioritise medical care and health promotion in communities, rather than in centralised hospital settings. We would prioritise patient-centred care, where doctors, nurses, hospitals and clinics work with patients to help prevent problems before they become acute and need expensive treatment. Community pharmacies, general practices, community health centres and hospitals would all play a role in this new approach to the health system, which would focus on health promotion and community care, rather than the current narrow focus on treatment. The Green Party believes that our health service should have the patient at the centre of all care and should be delivered as close as possible to the patients home. Given the spatial nature of Irelands population, the UKs NHS model isnt suitable. We envisage that mobile or electronic service delivery will play an increasing role. We envisage paramedical services arranged in regions based on practical response times, rather than political boundaries as being the first responders. These first responders should refer suitable medical problems to community pharmacies, community health drop-in centres, general practices, hospitals or other services as appropriate. We also support the introduction of a 24 hour triage and health concerns telephone and website service which helps to direct patients into appropriate streams of care. This will create a world class health care system that is cheaper and more efficient, and where decisions are made at the lowest possible level. Labour: Tanaiste Joan Burton - (Candidate in Dublin West) 1. Extending free GP care to all and 2. Creating a new National Community Health Service, which will be overseen by a new Cabinet position with direct political responsibility to oversee this critical national project. RENUA Ireland: Paul Bradford (Candidate in Cork East) The stop-start nature of health care reform is now a source of national demoralization. We have a system in permanent crisis mode which is permanently on the brink. Bad healthcare is not like the weather. We can change it. It is time now to do rather than talk. The time for reports, where each new government spends its first three years in office developing a report or policy such as UHI and then spends the last two years failing to implement it is over. If one looks at UHI it would have bankrupted the working and the middle classes. Such is the extent of the problem RENUA Ireland believes a National Health Forum must be created where all stake-holders can broker a solution and deliver a twenty year plan for health-care. We have seen enough reports. These must now be activated within a formal setting that will act in a similar manner to the original social partnership process in 1987. Outside of creating a climate of impetus and reform our second priority is to radically increase the role of GPs and of primary care centres in our health-care system. We intend to reform from the grass roots up in medical provision. Sinn Fein: Gerry Adams - (Candidate in Louth) Health is a core priority for us and unlike the other parties we believe the system can work. We have a plan for a world-class free one-tier health care service paid for through the general taxation system. The health crisis is the result of two key failings on the part of successive governments: firstly, fundamental inequality in how patients are treated, dependent on ability to pay and location; and secondly, the sheer incapacity of the system to deal with even demographic pressures, evidenced particularly in our Emergency Departments and maternity care. Our immediate primary targets to reach our goal would be 1. Begin eliminating charges to the public while increasing exchequer funding to healthcare e.g. rolling out free GP care and abolishing A&E, prescription and overnight hospital charges. And 2. Increase capacity to enable access e.g. bring over 6,600 health staff into the service, increase bed numbers (and nursing home beds), invest in maternity services. Weve produced a comprehensive plan on healthcare available on our website Social Democrats: Ken Curtin - (Candidate in Cork East) Our health service is at breaking point following decade of mismanagement however we have incredibly talented frontline healthcare staff, a large health budget and widespread public support for major reform. The Social Democrats propose to establish an Irish NHS to harness these strengths. Between 2016 and 2016 we will: Switch activity and care away from acute hospitals and into the community (Phase 1) Provide universal access to primary and community healthcare services (Phase 2); Improve access and outcomes in the public hospital service (Phase 3). Staffing: Devise a recruitment plan focused on building a skill mix across the health service; Invest in primary care centres around the country; Launch a major recruitment programme for G.P.s, nurses and frontline community health staff to deliver better care, at lower cost, closer to home Targeted service provision: Launch thoroughly researched evidence-based health campaigns to tackle obesity, tobacco, alcohol and drugs and optimise preventative care measures; Carry out a full health-need and socioeconomic analysis of each health area; Establish an objective resource allocation model to determine all staff/ facilities allocations; Publish up-to-date Waiting List Data on-line so patients can be referred to hospitals and consultants with the shortest waiting times; Provide full medical cards for children who qualify for Domiciliary Care Allowance; Roll-out free GP-Care for all children; Improve medical card access for older people by using net income; Reduce spend on administration, improve commissioning of private sector care, and move to the average OECD per capita spend on pharmaceutical drugs. AAA/PBP: Paul Murphy (Candidate in Dublin South West) We want to build a properly resourced National Health Service, free at the point of use and paid for through progressive central taxation, that will do away with the pattern whereby people pay three times via private insurance, taxes and hospital charges for access to a dysfunctional health service. All of the cuts that have been implemented over the past eight years must be reversed. All of the privatisation and outsourcing initiatives that have been taken should be reversed. Source: Answers supplied to irishexaminer.com on Wednesday, February 24 as part of a #GE16 Q&A News Blog for social, fiscal & national security conservatives who believe in God, family & the USA. Upholding the rights granted by God & guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, traditional family values, "republican" principles / ideals, transparent & limited "smaller" government, free markets, lower taxes, due process of law, liberty & individual freedom. Content approval rests with the ARRA News Service Editor. Opinions are those of the authors. While varied positions are reported, beliefs & principles remain fixed. No revenue is generated for or by this "Blog" - no paid ads - no payments for articles. Fair Use Doctrine is posted & used. Blogger/Editor/Founder: Bill Smith, Ph.D. [aka: OzarkGuru & 2010 AFP National Blogger of the Year] Contact: editor@arranewsservice.com (Pub. Since July, 2006) Home Page Follow @arra Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is to undergo a scan to determine the severity of the injury he suffered against Barcelona on Tuesday night. The 22-year-old Arsenal midfielder suffered suspected knee and ankle damage in the 2-0 Champions League defeat by the Spanish giants. There are fears that the England international faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines, meaning he would miss the friendly matches against Germany and Holland next month. But Gunners manager Arsene Wenger has so far only ruled him out of Sunday's trip to Manchester United. Speaking to the club website, Wenger said: "He has a scan today (Thursday), he will not be available for Sunday." Defender Gabriel is set to return to training on Friday following a hamstring injury and could be involved at Old Trafford. "He is coming back into the squad tomorrow, so we will see how he responds to that, but the signs are positive," added Wenger. "He might be available for Sunday." Midfielders Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla and Tomas Rosicky remain sidelined for the United clash. A French court has given the green light to raze tents sheltering hundreds of migrants in the Jungle camp in Calais. A court official said the Lille Administrative Court ruled on Thursday that French authorities can evict migrants from their tents in the densely populated southern portion of the camp but cannot entirely demolish it. Associations protesting the move took the issue to court seeking a postponement of a deadline reached last Tuesday for migrants to move out. The court in Lille ruled that the makeshift shelters used by the migrants can be destroyed - but that common spaces like places of worship, schools and a library must stand. Demolition crews have been poised to start what officials say will be a better solution for migrants trapped in Calais with borders all but sealed by increasing security. Officials estimate the number of migrants who will be affected at 800-1,000. Humanitarian organisations say more than 3,000 migrants live there. Moving the migrants out of the camp will be the most dramatic step by the French state to end Calais's years-long migrant problem. Critics contend that closing the camp may not solve the problem. The same court in Lille ordered the state in November to clean up the camp by adding running water, toilets and garbage bins, and counting the number of minors without families - now 326 - and help those in distress. Saving the migrants' temporary homes from bulldozers became a mass effort by volunteers, humanitarian groups and a dose of star power. Actor Jude Law paid a visit last weekend and 260 French figures signed a petition against destroying the camp. In announcing plans to close the camp, authorities cited security and sanitation concerns and the increasingly tarnished image of Calais, a city of nearly 80,000 takes pride in drawing tourists to its Opal Coast. Its prime location - with a major ferry port, Eurotunnel rail system and truck traffic crossing the English Channel - has put it in the crosshairs of the migrant crisis. Tensions rose when the camp's population spiked to 6,000 last autumn before dropping to 4,000 more recently. The area targeted for destruction is dotted with rickety shops, cafes, places of worship and schools, built by aid groups and the migrants, most of whom travelled from conflict zones such as Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, or came to escape human rights abuses or poverty in African nations. A sense of anxiety mounted in the camp ahead of the court ruling. "Obviously, they are scared and concerned about what is going to happen," said Ed Sexton, of Help Refugees, one of the associations working in the camp. "The people have been here months, living in terrible conditions, but they don't want their shelters destroyed." Humanitarian workers predicted that those who refuse to leave would shelter in small groups elsewhere around Calais and the coast. "You're basically going to scatter a lot of people," said Maya Konforti, of the association Auberge des Migrants. Donald Trump's rivals will get one more chance to challenge the Republican front-runner's grasp on his party's US presidential nomination in a head-to-head debate before next week's key Super Tuesday contests. Billionaire businessman Mr Trump's momentum is surging and the situation looks to be more dire for the other Republican candidates than they would like voters to believe. A candidate must have 1,237 state delegates to win the Republican nomination at the National Convention this summer. So far, Mr Trump has 82, Senator Ted Cruz 17 and Senator Marco Rubio 16. Mr Rubio and Mr Cruz have so far shown little willingness to take on the former 'The Apprentice' TV star when the national spotlight shines brightest. But that could change in Houston, Texas, on Thursday night local time. "The vast and overwhelming majority of Republicans do not want Donald Trump to be our nominee," Mr Rubio told NBC, suggesting that Mr Trump was winning only because the other candidates were splitting up the majority of the electorate. For his part, the New York tycoon predicted the relative civility between Mr Rubio and himself was about to disappear. The ninth Republican debate of the presidential campaign will take place just a few days before 11 states hold the Super Tuesday primary elections that will either cement Mr Trump's dominance or let his rivals slow his march to his party's presidential nomination. Mr Trump has proved largely immune to traditional political attacks and the task is made more complicated by the shift from single-state campaigns to a new phase of the race, where the candidates must compete across several states at the same time. Next Tuesday features voting in a mix of states that include Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, Massachusetts and Virginia, with more to come in the weeks after. "Now these campaigns are in the position of having to use debates to try and shape or change voter perceptions across more than a dozen states in the space of 18 or 19 days," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden. "That's a daunting task." Mr Trump won Nevada's presidential caucuses with more than 45% of the vote, scoring his third consecutive primary victory in dominant fashion. Mr Rubio edged out Mr Cruz for runner-up for the second consecutive race, with Ohio governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson far off the pace. As they seek to become the Trump alternative, Mr Cruz and Mr Rubio have significant liabilities of their own. Mr Cruz comes into the debate at the weakest point of his presidential campaign after a staff shake-up and three consecutive third-place finishes. On Monday, The Texas senator ousted a senior aide who promoted an inaccurate news report that Mr Rubio had condemned the Bible during a chance encounter with Mr Cruz's father. The aide's dismissal helps legitimise Mr Trump's and Mr Rubio's claims that Mr Cruz has been running an unethical campaign. Even while vulnerable, Mr Cruz signalled an aggressive stance heading into the debate, lashing out at Mr Trump and Mr Rubio as "Washington deal-makers" in Houston on Wednesday. Mr Rubio, Mr Cruz said, had worked with Democrats to craft an immigration overhaul, while Mr Trump had given money to Democrats and backed their priorities at times in recent years. "I don't think the people of Texas and I don't think the people of this country want another Washington deal-maker to go and surrender more to the Democrats, given in to the failed liberal agenda," Mr Cruz said. Mr Rubio, meanwhile, is just one debate removed from a prime-time meltdown. The Florida senator repeated himself several times in a New Hampshire debate less than three weeks ago, triggering what he now calls "the New Hampshire disappointment". He avoided a similar mistake in the subsequent debate, but critics in both parties will be laser-focused on anything that suggests the 44-year-old legislator is not sufficiently prepared to move into the White House. Emboldened by the recent departure of former Florida governor Jeb Bush from the race, Mr Rubio has fresh momentum after two consecutive second-place finishes. His team is convinced they must dispatch Mr Cruz before turning their full attention to taking down Mr Trump. Mr Rubio said on yesterday he would respond to Mr Trump and Mr Cruz if attacked, but added: "I didn't run for office to tear up other Republicans." On the Democratic side, former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is looking for a commanding victory over rival Bernie Sanders in Saturday's South Carolina primary to give her a boost heading into Super Tuesday. Polls show her with a huge advantage among African-Americans and that bodes well for her prospects in the southern states that vote next week. Meanwhile Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has endorsed Mrs Clinton for the presidential nomination. A Libyan militia loyal to the Islamist-backed government in Tripoli says it has arrested the leader of the so-called 'Islamic State' branch for a western city bombed by US forces last week. The Special Deterrent Force said in a Facebook post that it had detained the city of Sabratha's 'IS' leader Mohammed Saad al-Tajouri - also known as Abu Sulieman - and killed dozens of 'IS' members in a gun battle. America and China have reached agreement on a United Nations resolution that would impose tougher sanctions on North Korea as punishment for its latest nuclear test and rocket launch, UN diplomats have said. One Security Council source called the draft resolution "significantly substantive" and expressed hope that it will be adopted in the coming days. Another said the draft had been circulated yesterday to the three other permanent council members - Russia, Britain and France. The security council will hold closed consultations today on compliance with the North Korean sanctions resolutions and the US-China draft could be discussed then with the 10 non-permanent council members. A flurry of activity has taken place in Washington, including meetings between China's foreign minister Wang Yi and US secretary of state John Kerry on Tuesday, and with national security adviser Susan Rice yesterday. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Ms Rice and Mr Wang agreed "on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through a UN Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions". "They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," he added. Earlier, Mr Kerry told a congressional hearing: "We're on the brink of achieving a strong United Nations Security Council resolution." North Korea started 2016 with what it claims was its first hydrogen bomb test on January 6 and followed it up with the launch of a satellite on a rocket on February 7 that was condemned by much of the world as a test of banned missile technology. Over the past 10 years the reclusive communist state has conducted four nuclear tests and launched six long-range missiles - all in breach of security council resolutions. South Korea's UN ambassador Oh Joon has urged the security council to adopt "extraordinary" measures to make clear to the North "that it will no longer tolerate its nuclear weapons development". The US, its Western allies and Japan, also pressed for new sanctions that go beyond the North's nuclear and missile programmes. But China, Pyongyang's neighbour and supporter on the council, is reluctant to impose measures that could threaten the stability of North Korea and cause the country's economy to collapse. Mr Wang said on Tuesday that a new UN resolution alone could not resolve the North Korean nuclear issue and dialogue was needed. He said China was urging a "parallel track" in which there were both talks on denuclearisation - the top priority of the United States - and replacing the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a formal peace treaty, a key demand of Pyongyang. While the US and China were discussing a new UN resolution, the United States took tougher steps of its own against North Korea, tightening sanctions and announcing it would hold formal talks with South Korea on deploying a missile defence system that China fears could be used against it as well North Korea. South Korea and Japan have also announced new measures against Pyongyang. DOHA: The bill being paid by Qatar for the most expensive World Cup ever held is set to rise to fantasy levels in... Voter ID Laws Since then, the New Hampshire legislature passed a bill mandating that voters show some form of identification. Many types of IDs are acceptable. But even if a person does not have the proper ID, he or she can signed an affidavit so that their vote will be counted. The law does not place too heavy a burden on anyone who wished to vote but still provides some level of security so that no citizens vote is stolen. James OKeefe had a great idea. Why not go back to New Hampshire and see how well the states voter ID law is working? The videos are a reminder that as important as voter ID laws are, you still need poll watchers to make sure the law is followed. The video shows people working at the polls actually encouraging citizens to skirt the rules. A campaign staff worker for Bernie Sanders tells someone to claim a false address in order to vote in the primary election. Another one of the Project Veritas people said she was not living in New Hampshire, but just wanted to vote in New Hampshire. The helpful poll worker suggested she just say she was staying with a friend. James OKeefe points out that without proper identification, anyone could vote with a counterfeit name and address. Four years ago, his video showed Project Veritas people obtaining ballots for people who had died but were still on the rolls. Later that year, one of them in Washington, D.C. was able to obtain the ballot for then-attorney general Eric Holder. Voter ID laws are a positive first step, but these videos illustrate we need poll watchers to make sure they are properly implemented. ----------- Kerby Anderson is a radio talk show host heard on numerous stations via the Point of View Network endorsed by Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service Tags: Kerby Anderson, Viewpoints, Point of View, voter, ID laws To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks! by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author : More and more states are passing voter ID laws, in part because of undercover videos that show how easy it is to compromise the voting process. That was the case four years ago when James OKeefe and his Project Veritas team showed how easy it was to commit voter fraud in various state elections.Since then, the New Hampshire legislature passed a bill mandating that voters show some form of identification. Many types of IDs are acceptable. But even if a person does not have the proper ID, he or she can signed an affidavit so that their vote will be counted. The law does not place too heavy a burden on anyone who wished to vote but still provides some level of security so that no citizens vote is stolen.James OKeefe had a great idea. Why not go back to New Hampshire and see how well the states voter ID law is working? The videos are a reminder that as important as voter ID laws are, you still need poll watchers to make sure the law is followed.The video shows people working at the polls actually encouraging citizens to skirt the rules. A campaign staff worker for Bernie Sanders tells someone to claim a false address in order to vote in the primary election. Another one of the Project Veritas people said she was not living in New Hampshire, but just wanted to vote in New Hampshire. The helpful poll worker suggested she just say she was staying with a friend.James OKeefe points out that without proper identification, anyone could vote with a counterfeit name and address. Four years ago, his video showed Project Veritas people obtaining ballots for people who had died but were still on the rolls. Later that year, one of them in Washington, D.C. was able to obtain the ballot for then-attorney general Eric Holder.Voter ID laws are a positive first step, but these videos illustrate we need poll watchers to make sure they are properly implemented.----------- Posted by Bill Smith at 2:43 PM - Post Link LONDON: Copper prices extended losses on Wednesday as soaring inflation and the prospect of more interest rate hikes... SINGAPORE: US oil may test a support at $83.78 per barrel, a break below which could open the way towards... YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. A rally will be organized in the Hague city of the Netherlands on February 26 ahead of the remembrance day of the Sumgait massacres perpetrated by the Azerbaijani government. President of the Federation of Armenian Organizations in the Netherlands and the Abovyan Cultural Association Mato Hakhverdyan told Armenpress about this. In his words, a note of protest will be submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. Our demand is the following: The international community must give an adequate assessment to the Armenian massacres in Sumgait. Besides, pay much attention to Karabakh conflict. We see what the Syrian conflict has developed into, the situation is tense both in Syria and Turkey. The conflict has taken such a complex form that it can pose danger to the region. Shooting takes place on the borders of Armenia and Artsakh, soldiers are killed. It can escalate instantly. Such issues must be taken seriously. Our demand from the Netherlands is that they should take the issue seriously, Mato Hakhverdyan said. He noted that the Azerbaijanis had organized an exhibition on Khojaly incidents in the Netherlands recently, presenting distorted facts. The rally in Hague is organized by the mutual efforts of the Federation of Armenian Organizations in the Netherlands and Hay Dat" commission. From 1988 to 1990, the Armenian population in Soviet Azerbaijan was the target of racially motivated pogroms against Armenians in the cities of Sumgait (February 27-29, 1988), Kirovabad (November 21-27, 1988) and Baku (January 13-19, 1990). Hundreds of Armenians became the victim of the silence of the USSRs silence. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Syrian-Armenian Gevorg Doshoghlanyan is offended when his silver made jewelry is called a craft, he says it's an art, a unique branch of art. "Where have you seen that the ornaments, unique designs, the strive for perfection and endless imagination are called a craft. This is aesthetics , a unique approach. This is an art, "says Gevorg adding that its not an easy task to vivify metal."First you have to love, love hard, live your work and get pleasure from it," Gevorg said in a conversation with "Armenpress". He recalled seeing many difficulties while moving from Aleppo to Yerevan such as evil, technical problems, disappointment, but he always believed that the most powerful weapon is the power of will and the most important thing is to not give it up. "Hard-working people will always find a way out, be it in Yerevan, in Aleppo or any other corner of the world, even in the desert," George said, adding that during three years of work he has not had any free time, had hundreds of orders and sought to express his inner world through each creation. The main goal of Gevorg and desire is to achieve great success in the this sphere in Yerevan. In Aleppo he is known as the famous Silversmith George, and he hopes to achieve the same level of respect here too. That is why he deprives himself of sleep in order to create unique pieces of jewelry. "I like to be original, I prefer to be tormented rather than copy other creations. Let them copy me, but I will always create new pieces of art and be unique. Gevorg said. He says that he has had many famous clients during these years. He even has frequent customers who prefer to purchase jewelry only from him. Gevorg is also frequently invited to participate in exhibitions and various events. HASMIK HARUTYUNYAN YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Every year in February Azerbaijan tries to display the Azerbaijanis killed on February 26, 1992 nearby Akn (Aghdam) city under unclear circumstances as victims of The Khojaly massacres or genocide, distorting the reality. According to the documentations of various international organizations and the authorities of Azerbaijan, including the then President Ayaz Mutalibov, the incident had been organized by the Azerbaijani opposition Popular Front in order to get rid of the leadership of the country. Armenpress has often referred to the tragic incidents of Aghdam, which are stubbornly called Khojaly events by Azerbaijan. The events of Khojaly (in reality-Aghdam), or more precisely, the provocation of Khojaly, have been best illustrated by former President of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov, former Chairman of the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan Tamerlan Karaev, prominent Arif Yunusov and Eynulla Fatullayev, who have unanimously insisted and proved that Armenians in reality left a humanitarian corridor there for the citizens to be able to abandon the area, and the real organizers of the tragedy of Khojaly are some Azerbaijani forces, such as the avant-garde hero of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, who put end to all doubts by saying We need bloodshed to come to power prior to the incidents nearby Aghdam. According to data of Human Rights Watch, during the Karabakh war, on February 26, 1992, 200-300 people (600 by Azerbaijani data), who were deliberately kept in the spot of military operations, were killed nearby Aghdam city under unclear circumstances. The population of Khojaly was forcefully kept in the settlement by the authorities for months in order later to use them as a human shield. The residents of Khojaly, who had abandoned the area via the humanitarian corridor provided by the NKR self-defense units, passed 10 kms without any obstacles and reached Aghdam city which was at that time controlled by Azerbaijani forces. Later, the murdered residents of the settlement were discovered near the positions of Azerbaijani troops. The precise number of the killed remains unknown as the official Baku publishes contradictory figures. The Azerbaijani parliamentary commission set to investigate the tragic death of those citizens near Aghdam was disbanded by Heydar Aliyevs decree and the investigative materials were encrypted. The reality of the events, called the Khojaly massacres by Azerbaijan, is that some Azerbaijani armed groups cold-bloodedly shot dead the residents of Ivanyan (Khojaly) settlement in an area controlled by them. The Karabakh side had informed the authorities of Khojaly about the planned operation and the safe humanitarian corridor in line with humanitarian norms. The existence of the corridor is confirmed by both sides, including the then President of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov and head of the Executive Power of Khojali District Elman Mammadov. With all those facts, the Baku-based propagandists spare no efforts to ignore the well-known facts and testimonies. Immediately after the tragic events that took place in the territories controlled by Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani journalist Chingiz Mustafayev photographed and video recorded the corpses of the dead, which were not deformed. While in the photos taken by the same Chingiz Mustafayev two days later, their corpses were awfully deformed with the skin of their heads taken away in order to demonstrate the brutality and inhumanity of Armenians. The existing facts provide incontestable evidence that the Karabakh side could not physically enter the areas where people had been killed and deformed. Interestingly, the witness of the crimes Chingiz Mustafayev died during a journalistic investigation in the same place, in the vicinity of Aghdam a few months later under unclear circumstances. After the usurpation of power in Baku (1992) following the provocation in Aghdam, the new leadership of Azerbaijan headed by Abulfaz Elchibey launched for distortion of the incidents organized by himself, presenting his provocation as a massacre of civilians by Karabakh forces. This policy continues by official Baku up till now. By the distorted propaganda of the Khojaly events, the Azerbaijani authorities attempt to harm the international reputation of the two Armenian republics. Heldar Aliyev, pan-Azerbaijani leader, once had confessed that the Azerbaijani former leadership was also to blame for the Khojaly events. The perpetrators of the mass killing of Khojaly solved two problems simultaneously: They got rid of Mutalibov unwanted after the collapse of the USSR and gained an opportunity to accuse Armenians in applying inhumane methods of waging war. This idea was confirmed recently by Azerbaijans Military Prosecutor Khanlar Veliyev, who announced that the Azerbaijani authorities were not only aware of the planned attack on Khojaly but did not even try to evacuate their citizens from there. Generalizing the mentioned, it can be documented that the residents of Khojaly became the victims of political adventures for power in Azerbaijan, and the people who came to power later started to speculate on the issue. Kamo Baghdasaryan Pakistans goods exports may have only risen 2.6 percent year-on-year in 1QFY23, but there is enough in it to... YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Edward Nalbandian delivered a speech at the discussion of funding the the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Addis Ababa Action Agenda. As Armenpress was informed from the Department of Press, Information and Public Relations of MFA Armenia, the Minister mentioned in his speech, Excellencies, It always seems impossible until its done: These are the words of Nelson Mandela - a man who made the impossible come true. No matter how ambitious and challenging is the task, the joint determination and synergy of efforts that 50 years ago lay at the foundation of the United Nations Development Program to build a better life for all, without exclusion, should guide our endeavours. We need to act collectively and resolutely to alleviate the plight of the most vulnerable groups and communities, who need it most. Ladies and Gentlemen, In its Agenda 2030 the international community has reaffirmed the inter-linkages between sustainable development and peace, good governance, human rights and rule of law. Humanitarian response to crisis situations and emergencies consumes significant resources of the international community and takes growing prominence in the global agenda, including within the UN system. Thus, it remains a priority for the UN system to advance its conceptual, normative and operational capacity aimed at strengthening and adapting its prevention function. With a growing relationship of over 20 years, there have been a number of joint projects implemented in Armenia by the UNDP in key areas such as democratic governance, poverty reduction, integrated border management, the environment protection, and disaster risk reduction. Last year the Government of Armenia and the United Nations signed the third Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), which is a strategic document that will guide our cooperation for the period of 2016-2020 reflecting Armenias vision and commitment for improving the living standards of its population. Ladies and Gentlemen, The adoption of the Vienna Programme of Action for the Landlocked Developing Countries and its integration into the Agenda 2030 has been an important step to promote a sustainable and inclusive development agenda. To ensure the effective implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action and mainstream it into our policies, a few weeks ago, our Government adopted a national strategy for its implementation. It will be important to give proper consideration to the implementation of the international commitments to address the specific needs of the landlocked countries within a comprehensive global reporting framework for the Agenda 2030. Such a follow-up and reporting framework should involve multiple stakeholders, including the transit countries. The focus of our session today has a direct link to the synergies and links between the ongoing developmental processes, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as a number of other important agreements reached earlier - the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and the COP 21 landmark agreement. The conventional approach to financing the Sustainable development goals requires updating from a range of perspectives. Enhancement of infrastructure and sustainable investment, including through blended finance, will be critical to delivering on an ambitious development agenda. Addressing the issue of projects bankability and ensuring public-private solutions to financing projects is an important aspect of Armenias work with international financial institutions, in particular, for the infrastructure projects we are currently implementing. Coherent steps should be taken on a global level to address insufficient investment in infrastructure. The crucial need to bridge the global infrastructure gap has been recognized as an important priority in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. We welcome the international commitment to bridge these gaps, including the annual gap of 1 to 1.5 trillion dollar in the developing countries. It is important that together with limitations in finance we look at the barriers to sustainable development as well closed borders, blockades, unduly discriminating trade regimes. The fact that a highly important inter-state railway (Gyumri-Kars) between Armenia and Turkey is not being used in the vital interests of sustainable development and regional connectivity due to an ongoing illegal blockade is a vivid example. Infrastructure development is a high priority for Armenia, duly reflected in the recently adopted Strategy for Prospective Development for the upcoming decade. To address the inequalities both within and among nations, we need to continue to promote rules-based, open, transparent, predictable, inclusive, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading systems, in line with the commitments under the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. We share the view that it can effectively contribute to achieving the Sustainable development goals. Ladies and Gentlemen, 2016 is the first year to follow up on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In holding the Presidency of the Executive Board of the UNDP, Armenia looks forward to continue its cooperation within this organisation on the Sustainable Development Goals and related matters. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Tigran Sargsyan met with President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in Astana. Armenpress reports, citing the press service of the President of Kazakhstan, issues of the development of the EAEU, common strategy of establishing economic relations with the third countries, deepening of economic relations, as well as the common strategy of the member states in global markets under the existing conditions were discussed at the meeting. Nazarbayev mentioned that the benefits deriving from the establishment and activities of the Eurasian Economic Union cause no doubts. He mentioned that Tigran Sargsyans chairmanship over the EEC Board has coincided with great global economic hardships and it is not easy to find new ways for growth under those conditions. But all those hardships are not linked with the works of the Eurasian Economic Union. I have no doubts over the usefulness of our integration, Nazabayev announced. He mentioned that today there are many countries aspiring to become EAEU member or set a free trade zone with it. The crisis is a temporary phenomenon but the overall capacity of our economies and the size of the market remains unchanged, Nazarbayev said. Tigran Sargsyan mentioned that Nazarbayevs position on the common strategy of the development of the Union is of fundamental importance as personally his initiatives and ideas serve as basis of the established united Eurasian area. LONDON: Liz Truss came to 10 Downing Street vowing to be a disruptor. She U-turned on almost everything else, but... TEHRAN: Iran has once again rejected allegations that it has supplied Russia with weapons "to be used in the war in... YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to have three different meetings on February 25. "Armenpress" reports, citing the Turkish "Milliyet" newspaper. Erdogan will first meet the head of the National Intelligence Organization Hakan Fidan, then Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Hulusi Akar, and finally the Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. The meetings will focus on the February 17 Ankara terrorist attack, the developments in Syria, as well as the fight against the PKK. The mail continues to come in on the hardworking, mystery lady beggar of Manuka. One correspondent reports that she must have returned from her bus excursion to Yass on Monday fairly promptly as he was "touched" on Tuesday afternoon. Begging is on the rise in Manuka. Credit:Michael Rayner "She has hit me up twice with the Yass and domestic violence story," he said. "On the second occasion, after I reminded her of this, she abused me as a 'dole bludger' that her taxes were paying for. I am a self-funded retiree so I think she got that a bit about-face! Beggars have become an increasing problem around Manuka, harassing shoppers and small business owners. One bearded individual follows women around haranguing them if they don't contribute." Others agree that begging and panhandling in Manuka appears to be on the rise. A former CFMEU official and ACT Labor sub-branch secretary has signalled he will plead guilty to blackmail charges stemming from the trade union royal commission. Halafihi Kimonu Kivalu, 39, allegedly blackmailed a subcontractor while working with the CFMEU, telling him to give him money to "get some people off your back". Halafihi "Fihi" Kivalu, left, leaves the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday with his lawyer Toni Tu'ulakitau, right Credit:Christopher Knaus Kivalu - a union organiser between 2010 and November 2014 - was arrested after damning covert recordings were played to the royal commission, purporting to show him demanding money from formwork subcontractor Elias Taleb. He allegedly blackmailed Mr Taleb in relation to a residential development at Yarralumla between March 2012 and May 2013, and an apartment complex development in Braddon between October and November 2013. VisitCanberra's new tourism campaign is all about celebrating those "moments of joy" that make a holiday so memorable whether it's gobbling up a freakshake, tearing through the bush on a mountain bike or laughing with your children as they discover something new. The long-term tourism plan is also about encouraging tourists to spend $2.5 billion a year in the ACT by 2020, an increase of $880 million on current figures. Its tagline One Good Thing After Another leverages off Canberra's ability to offer visitors a diverse range of experiences, all within close proximity of each other. The four-year plan appeals to global and domestic markets with front and centre the time-poor tourist who wants to pack plenty into a short break. The Alexander Maconochie Centre is a sprawling complex, a fenced city surrounded by the Monaro Highway and empty paddocks. It takes 10 minutes to walk from the gatehouse, past head-high blossoming, aromatic flowers, through fenced-in walkways and multiple security gates, past a kitchen and laundry to the newest inmate accommodation unit. Cells at the new accommodation unit. Credit:Jay Cronan The unit is made up of four segregated wings shaped in an "x". Where the lines of the letter intersect is a polygonal guard room, glass on all sides. Corrections officers say that with four wings, they can separate prisoners who pose a danger to each other, without resorting to isolation cells. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The newly appointed Minister of Economy Artsvik Minasyan asked to give him time in order the results of his activities become visible. Being asked by reporters before the Cabinet meeting what revolutionary changes will be made in the economy of Armenia, Minasyan said: "Give me time in order to get acquainted with the projects and works that were carried out and our proposals will be announced, based on the agreement and the basic approach of the president's speech. I ask you to support us in our activities. " In regard to a reporters opinion that no significant measures are being taken to improve the countrys economy, Artsvik Minasyan stated that he disagrees with the political assessment that nothing is being done.We can discuss the effectiveness of new projects, their size and level. Thats why I am asking you to wait a bit. I will get familiarized with the system and all projects and actions will be in accordance to it, the newly appointed minister said. Speaking about possible changes in the ministrys staff, the minister noted that it has been only an hour after his appointment, therefore asked the reporters to wait regarding this issue. Almost 60 Canberrans will lose their jobs when Dick Smith closes its six ACT stores within the next eight weeks. The closure of Dick Smith's 301 stores in Australia and 62 in New Zealand was announced on Thursday after receivers Ferrier Hodgson failed to find a buyer for the electronic chain which went into receivership in January with reported debts of $400 million. Dick Smith customer Philippa Simpson outside the Majura Park store shortly after the chain's closures were announced on Thursday. Credit:Melissa Adams. The collapse of the brand will put 2890 people out of jobs in Australia and New Zealand. Staff at several Dick Smith stores in Canberra said they had been instructed not to speak to media, but revealed they'd only been told of the closures shortly before it was revealed to the public. Australia's biggest horticulture company, Costa Group has doubled its net profit, defying hail storms and a glut of field tomatoes. Statutory net profit for the company, which listed on the ASX mid last year, soared 110 per cent to $600,000 in the six months to December 27. The cpmpany has been able to shrug off falling prices for tomatoes amid a bumper crop. Revenue, meanwhile leapt 12.7 per cent to $403.8 million. Chief executive Harry Debney attributed the result to the company's product portfolio mix and structure, which gives the company the "capacity to absorb individual volatility in production and markets". Emerging-market assets are so cheap that they may be "the trade of a decade", according to Research Affiliates, a sub-adviser to Pacific Investment Management Co (Pimco), one of the world's biggest money managers. Research Affiliates is joining a growing number of investors, including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, who are turning bullish on emerging markets after three years of underperformance. "The exodus from emerging markets is a wonderful opportunity - and quite possibly the trade of a decade - for the long-term investor," says Christopher Brightman, chief investment officer at Research Affiliates. Credit:Getty-Images With borrowing costs at the highest levels since the depths of the global financial crisis, traders are being compensated for challenges ranging from falling commodity prices to China's economic slowdown, BlackRock said on Tuesday. "The exodus from emerging markets is a wonderful opportunity - and quite possibly the trade of a decade - for the long-term investor," Christopher Brightman, chief investment officer at Research Affiliates, said in a post on Pimco's website on Wednesday. This long and elegant form, clad in cypress and stained black, sits quietly in an idyllic vineyard in Drouin East, Gippsland. Designed by Carr Design Group, the "Gippsland Spa", as it's known, appears as a burnt log in the landscape. Carr Design Group's spa in Drouin East, Gippsland. "We were commissioned to create a further offering to the [existing] restaurant [called the Brandy Creek Estate]," architect Chris McCue, director of the practice, says. "The plan for the future is to include boutique accommodation, creating a destination point," he says. John Dixon, the 30-year British retail veteran lured to Australia to revitalise David Jones, has a message for Woolworths and Coles: supermarket shopping has become old-fashioned and people want more inspiration and less choice. The former chief of the 5 billion ($9.7 billion) food business of the famous Marks & Spencer's chain said people no longer shop once a week with a trolley looking up and down aisles for groceries. They shop more frequently, buying less each time. John Dixon, the new CEO of David Jones, says grocery shoppers want less choice but more inspiration. Credit:Peter Braig Mr Dixon is expected to play a major role in developing David Jones' new gourmet food strategy, which includes revitalised food halls, new coffee shops and wine bars and eventually a chain of stand-alone food stores. "The really great food retailers are not only innovating on product, they're thinking about the in-store experience and how can they make it a more pleasurable experience and create theatre, using colour and freshness and smell and taste to excite and inspire customers while you've got them," he told the Retail Futures forum in Sydney on Thursday. Entrepreneur Dick Smith lashed out at the former owner of the Dick Smith electronics chain, Anchorage Capital Partners, on Thursday accusing it of acting with "greed" and "dishonesty" in the $520 million public float of the business as the retailers' receivers pulled down the shutters on the operation. Mr Smith said he had no interest in the troubled business, which is believed to be losing as much a $3 million a week but he's still angry that private equity group Anchorage sold it into a public float for more than $500 million just over a year after buying it from Woolworths for about $94 million. "For a company that was obviously valued at about $90 million for them to refloat it 15 months later for $500 million ... anyone would know you are going to send it into bankruptcy which is what they have done because of their utter greed," Mr Smith said. "I cannot believe this thing is within the law, it doesn't seem smart to me it seems unethical." Anchorage Capital Partners managing director Phil Cave said the administrator should be left to determine why Dick Smith's banker's withdrew their support for the business, triggering the appointment of receivers. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The issue of the animals of Gyumri private zoo has found a final solution. It is already clear where the bears and lions will travel. Deputy Minister of Nature Protection of Armenia Khachik Hakobyan mentioned in a press conference at Armenpress media hall that the bears will travel to Romania and Lions to Great Britain. Two bears and three lions had appeared in sever conditions as a result of economic worsening of the zoo owner. Today the issue has been fully solved thank to the Foundation for the preservation of wildlife and cultural assets, and cooperation of international and local partners, Khachik Hakobyan said, adding that the bears are currently at Yerevan Zoo and the lions in Khosrov Reserve for rehabilitation. According to the director of the British Peak Wildlife Park Zoo Colin MacDougall, the lions will be taken to that zoo, but in the words of the founder of the Foundation for the preservation of wildlife and cultural assets Ruben Khachatryan, it is not known yet when the lions will be able to travel as one of the has respiratory problems and is now recovering but the bears will be transported within the coming month. Armenpress news agency had touched upon the problems of Gyumri zoo back in October, 2015. The British Daily mail also referred to the issue in an article published on January 19. Fear Is the Rider, by Kenneth Cook. Kenneth Cook didn't go in for highly elaborate plots, and the story of Fear Is the Rider could hardly be simpler. John Shaw, driving from Sydney to Adelaide, meets freelance photographer Katie Alton. Both are 20-something city dwellers from moneyed families. She is going down the rough and inaccessible Obiri Track and he decides to follow her, even though he knows his small Honda is no match for her Land Cruiser. He is in the middle of the desert track surrounded by nothingness when Katie, utterly terrified, bursts out of the scrub and waves him down. She has just escaped from a huge feral creature, a man with an axe who is trying to kill her. Shaw rescues her and before long the monster is after him too in Katie's Land Cruiser. That's basically it. The novel is a classic chase between hunter and hunted. The sheer pace of the narrative takes over and you read on simply to find out what will happen next, whether the couple can possibly escape from the horror pursuing them. Sure there are a couple of spots where features of the landscape seem to turn up mostly to add a couple of twists to the plot the hapless couple stumble upon an abandoned opal mine and are caught in a sandstorm but the suspense of the whole story is handled so expertly that you accept them. You can read Fear Is the Rider in one sitting; this is a story that takes you by the throat and doesn't let go till the end. We never find out why this horrifying feral creature is intent on murder, nor do we learn much about the hunted couple, but those things do not matter greatly. This is a novel of pure action. It started life as an unproduced TV play that Cook converted into a novel a few years before he died in 1987, and its origins are obvious: minimal dialogue, quick cutting between scenes, stripped-down descriptive language, pinpoint accuracy of observation. Like the kangaroo shoot section of Wake in Fright, parts of this novel read like a shot list. Cook was a highly visual writer who knew exactly what details to emphasise for best dramatic effect, and he wrote sentences with the kind of clarity that shows exactly what he wanted readers to see. Much of the power of Fear Is the Rider comes from Cook's treatment of his outback setting. As in most of his novels, the landscape and climate are unremittingly hostile to humans, especially to city dwellers. The stone-covered desert and the power of the sun can be lethal: when John Shaw gets out of the car the 50-degree heat he feels "as though someone had thrown a bucket of dry hot water" onto his body; the desert stones are deadly missiles. The largely amoral gods are the stars of the show, clad in elaborate glistening armour and towering over mere mortals (Proyas uses forced perspective, among other methods, to work the trick). When it's time for battle, they morph into non-human forms resembling giant bronzed mechanical toys. His first feature in seven years, Gods of Egypt, is an uneven but impressive fantasy epic, set in a mythical Ancient Egypt where gods and mortals live side by side (Proyas, himself, comes from a Greek-Egyptian background). Starting out as a cod historical pageant in the tradition of Cecil B. DeMille, the film develops into something closer to a sword and sorcery adventure, as the agile young thief, Bek (Brenton Thwaites), sets out to rescue his true love, Zaya (Courtney Eaton), from the underworld, with blinded god Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) as his reluctant guide. Their quest carries them across deserts crawling with monsters, through booby-trapped vaults, and even into outer space, home of the supreme deity, Ra (Geoffrey Rush, a somewhat inadequate substitute for Max von Sydow or Morgan Freeman). Gradually, it becomes clear that Proyas and his writers, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, have devised a whole cosmology; a universe that runs according to metaphysical laws of its own, where gods and humans occupy fixed places in the same hierarchy, and one of the main concerns is accumulating enough treasure to buy a ticket to the afterlife. Gods of Egypt is flawed in obvious ways. The dialogue blends with a generic modern American idiom ("Such a big day for the family, you must be proud"). Performances are weak, with the exceptions of Gerard Butler, an effective villain in the burly man-of-action mould, and Chadwick Boseman, whose campy turn as an imperious God of Wisdom supplies welcome comic relief. Still, this is the best opportunity Proyas has had in a long time to show off his visual intelligence, which amounts to more than a love of opulence for its own sake. He has learnt Tim Burton's trick of throwing symmetrical compositions slightly off-balance, and makes cunning use of the pop-up book effect of 3D where "depth" consists of a series of flat receding planes to evoke the stylised mode of ancient Egyptian art. When Celine Dion farewelled her husband of 22 years at his public funeral in Montreal a month ago their 14-year-old son stood at the pulpit and declared his dad a tough act to follow. In her first Las Vegas show since Rene Angelil's death from throat cancer, Dion solemnised her son's words in an emotional performance dedicated to the man who was also her manager. Celine Dion: Rene will always be on stage with me. Credit:ISAAC BREKKEN In a public display of her grief, the 47-year-old found herself overcome with emotion performing her hit rendition of the ballad All By Myself. Unable to continue, she looked skyward and held her hand to eyes brimmed with tears. Where Gaga crammed snippets of 10 songs into her six-and-a-bit-minute routine , 19-year-old Kiwi Lorde performed just one, Bowie's 1971 single Life on Mars. For the second time in little more than a week, a major music awards show has staged a tribute to David Bowie. But Lorde's performance at the BRIT Awards in London on Wednesday could hardly have been more different than Lady Gaga's at the Grammys last Sunday. The Brits tribute did cover more ground than that. It began with a vocal sample from his breakthrough 1969 single Space Oddity, which segued to a medley of riffs played by the six-piece band that played with Bowie on his last live concert tour, in 2003 (bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, pianist Mike Garson, drummer Sterling Campbell, keyboardist Catherine Russell and guitarists Earl Slick and Gerry Leonard). This tightest of outfits played short snippets of some of his best-known songs Space Oddity, Rebel Rebel, Let's Dance, Ashes to Ashes, Ziggy Stardust, Fame, Under Pressure and Heroes before Lorde made her entrance. Lorde performs a tribute to David Bowie at the BRIT Awards in London on Wednesday. Credit:Getty Images She was dressed simply, in matching dark trousers and waistcoat over a white shirt, an echo of the look Bowie adopted in 1976 for the Station to Station tour (and one he reprised for the Heathen tour of 2002). As she started to sing, her voice was unsteady, uncertain, a little croaky. It wasn't until she conquered the first high notes of the plaintive query "is there life on Mars?" that she seemed to find her way fully into the song. She began to move around the stage, her hands clawing theatrically at the air, part mime act, part gothic black cat asserting its territorial rights. She made the song her own. The lyrical content and mood around this storyteller's alt-country yarns may have taken a slightly more melancholy turn since his superb 2010 solo album Que Paso and its follow-up Nothing But Nice Things, but overall Altmann's songwriting has only become richer; his tales of love, loss and redemption more intriguing with each expertly woven line. The multi-instrumentalist and one-time Melburnian, who resides in Nashville, unveiled laid-back opening track Good Morning Mr Coffee on a trip back home over a year ago, it's message familiar to anyone who's needed some extra help with their morning brew, while Darkness and Light and The Honeymoon Stage show how beautifully he can switch gears without losing momentum. MARTIN BOULTON Lanu THE DOUBLE SUNRISE (Pacific Theatre) On the third album from his Lanu project, Bamboos supremo Lance Ferguson uses South Seas exotica as a jumping-off point sonically and spiritually for a record that deftly crosses various datelines. Giddy, effervescent soundscapes such as Tiny Dots sit back to back with breakbeat grooves like Nightmarchers as the New Zealand-born and Melbourne-based Ferguson loosens his usually sharp focus on genre. The latter is one of half a dozen tracks featuring Megan Washington, and her return to long-time collaborators Ferguson and producer John Castle has a galvanising effect as she places a melancholic undertow on The Others and helps define a deep (sea) dive into golden sounds. CRAIG MATHIESON Panic! at the Disco DEATH OF A BACHELOR (Warner) It's as if Panic!, aka Brendon Urie, has ingested Lady Gaga's catalogue and Taylor Swift's 1989 with a good dose of Muse as the dessert, creating a pop album of such force and energy that halfway through you're already looking for respite. Drums kick you in the cods, a pushed-to-the-limits voice smacks you in the face, the synth sounds flick your earlobes like an annoying friend and styles leap from jump jive to nearly hard rock, from high end pop (LA Devotee could have been on 1989) to a frantic soul pop. Even the nominally mid-tempo title track, where Urie unleashes his inner Vegas cabaret crooner, is busy, busy, busy. There are good ideas here but they're undermined by trying so hard at every turn. BERNARD ZUEL Mothers Eldest daughter D.J. (Cameron Bure) is, like so many sitcom characters before her, grieving the death of her husband (grieving is too strong a word here; she is a little bit sad) and focusing on her career as a veterinarian and raising her three sons: Jackson (Michael Campion), Max (Elias Harger) and baby Tommy (played by twins Dashiell and Fox Messitt, who are so cute you could eat one up and still have another to eat up later). Danny magnanimously hands the keys to his vintage Laurel Heights home over to D.J., and nothing has changed in two decades - not a stick of furniture, nor the terrible jokes. D.J.'s kid sister Stephanie (Sweetin) decides to give up her fledgling music career in London and move home to help care for the kids. They are joined by D.J.'s lifelong friend and perpetual irritant, Kimmy Gibbler (Barber), who is recently divorced and moves in with her tweenage daughter Ramona (Soni Nicole Bringas). Once Saget, Stamos and the other older alums head off to cash their checks, Fuller House gets down to the real business of utter vacuity, in which the women and their adorable children (that baby! Seriously! Nom-nom-nom-nyaaaarrrghmppf) experience moments of carefully plotted hubris, light humiliation, personal reckoning and group hugs. Only Barber seems to truly intuit Fuller House as both pleasure and pain - just as she did in her adolescence. It's something about her Kimmy Gibbler grin and the knowing, the utter and complete knowing, that the tone of Fuller House is so insipidly wrong that it becomes, for certain viewers, perversely right. Barber is on some other psychic plane with it, washed in the divine meta-awareness that this is all a dream. A sick and recurring dream. Cameron Bure and Sweetin, on the other hand, still grapple with the unfortunate air of earnest intentions. The children, too, give off that counterfeit Disney Channel sass of showbiz - especially when one of the boys tries to land a punch line about Donald Trump. Just dreadful. I could stop here and go home, having dutifully shot the fish in Fuller House's barrel. But we haven't done the part where you accuse me of telling the kids to get off my lawn. I feel we must. This show has uncorked in me some deeper fear and loathing about the fate of our culture, just as it did in the late '80s, when my crowd used to watch and make fun of Full House as stoned and drunk college students. The Fuller House retread reminds me of similar attempts with The Brady Bunch, which was Generation X's Full House: Years after its cancellation in 1974, there was a Brady variety show and then there were Brady brides and then A Very Brady Christmas reunion, the relative success of which necessitated a wan attempt at a one-hour family drama in 1990 called The Bradys. It all failed because the producers didn't understand the emerging dynamics of modern irony. There was no true Brady Bunch revival until comedy troupes started re-enacting the original episodes with a naughty wink, followed by a Saturday Night Live cast member who delivered commentary as Jan Brady on "Weekend Update". In short order those satirical big-budget movie versions came out, meticulously cast with Brady lookalikes, all for the purpose of making the fullest possible Greg/Marcia step-sibling incest jokes. There you have a textbook lesson in how to make something new out of something old. It was laborious, creative, demanding work - but it didn't succeed until it was sacrilegious. And that's why Fuller House is such a letdown - there's no twisted undertow. Saget, who reinvigorated his stand-up career a decade ago with the filthiest material he could come up with (which in turn delighted the Full House generation), is needlessly restrained here in his brief, compulsory appearances. Fuller House clings to its stale insouciance, brought to us by the same producers (Bob Boyett and Jeff Franklin), who apparently believe their show is some golden treasure of family-friendly programming. It's not. Fuller House also demonstrates that multi-cam/studio-audience sitcoms are too old-fashioned for commercial-free, vanguard Netflix. Too dopey, too boring, not worth the price. This show begs for a single-camera, Tina Fey-style treatment (like in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt). It should come to us bluntly, and filled with tawdry, grown-up situations and children who need their mouths washed out with soap. Set in San Francisco, it could satirise so much about the 21st century as seen from the perspective of '80s ladies of a certain age. And if the Olsen twins both pass up the opportunity, then you must - must - recast the part with a new actress who plays Michelle as a malevolent skank. Go big or go home, in other words, but mostly, stop going back. Fuller House confirms once again what we've known for some time, that we are trapped in an endless loop of pop-culture self-regard. It's a cycle we have to break, and now is as good a time as any to break it. I am therefore forbidding you - yes, I forbid you - to watch Fuller House. I forbid you all, with this exception: Are you watching it from a place of sadness? Are you looking at Fuller House across a chasm of broken hopes? Are you so worried about the future that you're not even sure you want to live in it? Is the world irreparably screwed? Is your brain that fried? Are you that afraid of growing old? Are you that hard up for a hug? Fremantle's psych-rock quintet Tame Impala continued its monumental rise on the global music scene as they scooped another internationally renowned gong at the Brit Awards. Frontman Kevin Parker has become accustomed to taking to the stage to collect awards - having picked up four at the ARIA's in November - and there was another one in store as they pocketed the coveted Brit for Best International Group. Kevin Parker accepts the International Group award on behalf of Tame Impala at the BRIT Awards. Credit:David M. Benett Having missed out on a Grammy earlier this month the group were given the nod over big guns U2, as well as Alabama Shakes, Major Lazer and Eagles of Death Metal. They were typically humble in their acceptance of the award telling a packed out London O2 Arena "It's already amazing to be invited, let alone be given an award to accept." YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The German government expects a total influx of 3.6 million refugees by 2020, with an average of half a million people arriving each year, in a country that took in a record 1.1 million migrants last year.Armenpress reports ,citing Reuters. The calculations are based on internal estimates by the Economy Ministry in coordination with other ministries. In order to project economic development, the Economy Ministry created "an internal, purely technical estimate on migration in coordination with other government departments". There is no official government estimate on how many refugees Europe's biggest economy expects over the next years, as numbers are highly volatile. But the unprecedented arrival of 1.1 million asylum seekers last year, included in the 3.6 million forecast, stretched public resources thin and put strains on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. Canberra sweltered through record breaking heat on Thursday afternoon with a total fire ban in place across the territory. According to Bureau of Meteorology records, the mercury reached 38 degrees around 4pm making it the warmest day recorded in late summer. Big Splash Head Lifeguard Jacob Cumming, still on duty above and below the water after another hot day in Canberra. Credit:Jay Cronan Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Dixon said some relief would arrive on Friday and Saturday would be the coolest day of the week. "Temperatures will drop to 31 degrees on Friday, which is comparatively cool compared to Thursday, although still quite warn," he said. US rapper A$AP Rocky was attacked in a lift at the Pullman Hotel during the early hours of Thursday, police say. At around 3am on Thursday, A$AP Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was getting into the lift with a group of women at the central Auckland hotel where he was staying following his one-off Vector Arena show on Wednesday night. A$AP Rocky has been the victim of a crime in New Zealand. Credit:Clemson Three men tried to enter the lift with the rapper, but A$AP reportedly told them there was no room left. At this point the men physically attacked the L$D rapper. "A 35-year-old man appeared in the Auckland District Court today charged with common assault, assault with intent to injure and resisting Police, he was remanded to appear again on 17 March," a police statement read. "For years, years, years, my dirty little secret was that I was addicted to pornography," he said in a Dirty Little Secret video posted to Facebook. "...Pornography, it really, really messed up my life in a lot of ways." But this month, Crews has proven his talents are not limited to Wayans' brothers comedies, underarm deodorant commercials and "nip syncing" duets with Jimmy Fallon. In more than 20 minutes of confessional video posted online, he has detailed his lifelong addiction to pornography and how he overcame it. The totally ripped former NFL player turned actor is known for his turns in movies like White Chicks, TV series like Brooklyn Nine Nine and as the father of a fictionalised version of Chris Rock on Everybody Hates Chris. And, of course, he used to be the Old Spice guy. Actor Terry Crews is most famously known as "Old Spice guy." Credit:YouTube Crews's unburdening, which so far extends over three videos with more to come, offered a primer on why people become addicted to pornography and how they can defeat it. Crews said he "literally had to go to rehab" for his problem, which he's been over for "six, seven years now." He said it compromised his relationship with his wife, with whom he has five children and who he once felt "owed" him sex, and forced him to lead a double life. "I believed that I was more valuable than my wife as a human being because I was a man," he said. "And when you believe that you are more valuable than another person, you kind of feel like they owe you. . . . And I was wrong." His criticism for the medium, which he started exploring at 12, was unbounded. "It changes the way you think about people," he said. "People become objects. People become body parts. They become things to be used rather than people to be loved." YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. NATO agreed the modalities of support in responding to the refugee and migrant crisis, Armenpress reports, Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg said. NATO Defence Ministers took a swift decision two weeks ago to respond to the proposals by Germany, Greece and Turkey. Since then, intense work has been underway. We will participate in international efforts to cut the lines of illegal trafficking and illegal migration in the Aegean Sea. Because this crisis affects us all, we all have to find solutions. NATOs Standing Maritime Group 2 arrived in the Aegean Sea within 48 hours of the Ministers decision. It is conducting reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance activities. Our ships will be providing information to the coastguards and other national authorities of Greece and Turkey. This will help them carry out their duties even more effectively to deal with the illegal trafficking networks. We are also establishing direct links with Frontex, the European Unions border agency. We will conduct our activities in the Aegean Sea. Our commanders will decide the area where they will be operating, in coordination with Greece and Turkey. NATO vessels can deploy in the territorial waters of Greece and Turkey. Greek and Turkish forces will not operate in each others territorial waters and airspace. NATOs task is not to turn back the boats. We will provide critical information to enable the Greek and Turkish coastguards, as well as Frontex, to do their job even more effectively. Our added value is that we can facilitate closer cooperation and assist in greater exchange of information between Greece and Turkey, as both are NATO Allies, but only Greece is in the EU. Todays agreement also means that we are working closer with the EU than ever before. So NATO has a unique role to play as a platform for cooperation. Let me also address the issue of Search and Rescue. The obligation to help people in distress at sea is a general, universal responsibility. It applies to all vessels, regardless of whether they are part of a NATO or national mission. If Allied vessels encounter people in distress at sea, they have to live up to their national responsibility to assist. In case of rescue of persons coming via Turkey, they will be taken back to Turkey. In carrying out their tasks, our nations will abide the national and international law. The refugee and migrant crisis is a humanitarian tragedy. This is a complex challenge. And it requires all of us to work together to find solutions. A water-bombing helicopter has helped bring a bushfire burning about seven kilometres from Cooma under control. Rural firefighters have also requested a bulldozer to fight the fire, which started in difficult terrain near Glen Road shortly before 12.30pm on Thursday. The bushfire is burning near Cooma, south of Canberra. Credit:Fires Near Me A spokesman from the Cooma-Monaro Rural Fire Service brigade said the fire had grown to four hectares. He said there were at least 20 NSW RFS and Fire and Rescue firefighters in attendance. Health authorities are scouring the treatment records of cancer patients at three separate clinics as a slew of inquiries probe the practices of the doctor accused of administering incorrect chemotherapy doses. As NSW Health launches its inquiry into Associate Professor John Grygiel for giving 70 cancer patients incorrect doses of the drug carboplatin at St Vincent's Hospital, a separate investigation will probe the records of cancer patients treated by the oncologist at outreach clinics in Bathurst and Orange St Vincent's Hospital is at the centre of the inquiries in Dr John Gyrgiel's chemotherapy dosing regime for cancer patients. Credit:Joosep Martinson The inquiry aims to discover whether any head and neck cancer patients at the clinics were administered carboplatin by Dr Grygiel, Western NSW Local Health District says. "The health district will make contact with any patients or their families who are identified as receiving incorrect dosing," the director of governance Di Wykes said. Animal welfare supporters have accused the Baird government of turning a "deaf ear" to the "public outcry" surrounding pet cruelty in its response to the parliamentary inquiry into puppy factories. The government's response to the probe into puppy farms and companion animal breeding practices falls significantly short of reforms adopted across other states. Fairfax Media can reveal pet breeders will be bound by an improved online registration and identification system designed to weed out rogue operators. Stricter breeder identification details will be required when dogs and cats are advertised for sale in newspapers and online. However, the government will only commit to further "reviews" into the "adequacy" of penalties, prosecutions and funding of enforcement agencies the RSPCA and Animal Welfare League. A brightly sequinned hat, tie-dye t-shirts and rainbow flags in the packed viewing gallery did nothing to distract from the gravity of the historical moment in NSW Parliament on Thursday morning when, after nearly 38 years, the 78ers received a formal apology from the state over the discrimination they suffered at Sydney's first Mardi Gras in 1978. "For the mistreatment you suffered that evening, I apologise and I say sorry," said Bruce Notley Smith, the member for Coogee, as he moved the motion of apology in the NSW Legislative Assembly. "As a member of the parliament which dragged its feet in the decriminalisation of homosexual acts, I apologise and say sorry. And as a proud gay man and member of this parliament offering this apology, I say thank you. "The actions you took on June 24, 1978, have been vindicated." A 72-year-old former Sydney Catholic priest given six months to a year to live has been sentenced to two years and three weeks in jail for sexual assault against teenage boys. Father Robert Flaherty, who committed the offences in the 1970s and 1980s was allowed to remain seated in the dock at the Downing Centre court with his walking stick in front of him as the sentence was announced. Paedophile priest Robert Flaherty leaves Downing Centre Court. Credit:Tim Barlass He had previously pleaded guilty to three charges against two boys but was found guilty in a jury trial last September for two offences committed against an altar boy at the priest's Mollymook holiday home. Sentencing Judge Richard Cogswell, SC, said that Flaherty's age and health together with the impact of a prison sentence must be reflected in the non-parole period. What, if any, involvement the premier's office had in an Ethics Committee investigation into an unauthorised disclosure of parliamentary committee procedures will never be known, after the Opposition failed in a second attempt to force the matter onto the public record. Last week, the Ethics Committee handed down its report into the disclosure of confidential Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee dealings, which ended with LNP MP Ann Leahy being admonished by the Speaker for misleading parliament and contempt. Nobody in Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's office was named in the Ethics Committee report. Credit:Glenn Hunt The report also made mention of Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg's chief of staff Jake Smith's involvement in assisting Ms Leahy at her request, but did not make any findings against Mr Smith and recommended similar involvement of the kind provided be allowed in the future. But the report opened the floodgates for the government to attack Mr Springborg and his staffer, culminating this week, when Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk again referred to the report during question time. Queensland's historical referendum on four-year parliamentary terms has been overshadowed by a brochure brouhaha, which has seen the 'no' case, led by two cross benchers, presented less prominently than the 'yes' case supported by every other member of parliament. The David and Goliath political battle to extend Queensland's parliamentary terms by one year with a fixed election date will be decided by the people, with a referendum needed before any changes to the state's constitution can be made. The "Yes" campaign brochure features a bolder font. But with no advertising, other than a distribution of the arguments to voters by the Electoral Commission of Queensland, debate on the matter, which will be decided at the same time as the local government elections, has been muted. That's largely because both Labor and the LNP are in favour of the change. The Palaszczuk Government has taken the first step towards redefining corrupt conduct, with Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath inviting public feedback on an issues paper addressing how corruption is defined in Queensland. Ms D'Ath announced late last year the government was moving to amend the Crime and Corruption Act, flagging the issues paper's release. Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath says the refusal of Prince Frederik from a bar has not caused a diplomatic incident. Credit:Chris Hyde How corrupt conduct is defined sets the boundaries for what the corruption watchdog can investigate. Upon taking over the permanent CCC chair position in October last year, Alan MacSporran, who had been nominated by the Labor government, said he wanted some of the Newman Government CCC reforms wound back. Blake's mother, Kelli Pfeiffer said not being able to find a rehabilitation centre for her son was a "helpless" feeling. Ms Pfeiffer said every time she made arrangements for Blake to enter a rehabilitation or detox centre in Queensland, she was told he was either too young or too old, with waiting lists often months, or years, long. "We would make arrangements only to find he was either too young or too old to fit the rehabilitation criteria," Ms Pfeiffer said. Blake overdosed at 17, after which his GP spent hours trying to get him into rehabilitation centres across Queensland without success and suggested Ms Pfeiffer detox her son at home, with his help. A week into the detox, a friend of Ms Pfeiffer's put her in contact with a rehabilitation clinic in New South Wales, Triple Care Farm, which agreed to have an interview with Blake in few weeks' time. "We headed down that track for two weeks, but unfortunately the world that Blake had left started to catch up with him, I got a threatening phone call, they threatened me and my family members," Ms Pfeiffer recalled. The police suggested Ms Pfeiffer and her son leave Rockhampton as soon as possible and set up surveillance on her home. "We took off and for four weeks I drove from Rockhampton to Melbourne and almost back again to keep Blake in the car and detox him until I could get an interview with the rehabilitation centre," Ms Pfeiffer said. One of the lucky ones The interview was a success and 12 weeks later Blake left the centre, rehabilitated. "He doesn't really talk about it much, it is something he will have to deal with himself," Ms Pfeiffer said. "He is enjoying being back in this world but he will always have scars from that five-year period." Ms Pfeiffer said her family was one of the lucky ones. "There have been many parents who have lost their children, they have literally died waiting to go into rehabilitation. That shouldn't happen in this country," she said. "Unfortunately in Australia there are so few detox and rehabilitation centres to match the severity of addictions we have in this country." Evidence suggests there are well over 200,000 Australians using ice. Mission Australia CEO Catherine Yeoman is calling for more youth focused treatment centres across Queensland to handle the rising issue of ice addiction. "The situation in Queensland is similar right across the country. Whenever I go to the frontline services and ask staff what are the issues they are facing, typically the response will be the presence of ice," Ms Yeoman said. "The wider community needs to be aware of the ages at which the usage of ice is occurring. "We think youth specific services are necessary, 16-25, unfortunately what we know though is that there are younger teenagers under 15 that need that support. "Imagine if we can help someone who has been using for only one year, it is a totally different process for someone who has been using for 5-10 years." The National Ice Taskforce final report, released in 2015, stated over 200,000 Australians reported using ice in 2013, compared with less than 100,000 in 2007. The report suggested today's figures were well over the 200,000 mark. Not enough beds for Queensland teenagers Research from Mission Australia has has found there could be as few as five beds available in south east Queensland for under 16-year-olds, Ms Yeoman said. "We are not saying this is definitive, but if it's five or 10 or 20, what we want to draw attention to is that it is clearly not enough," she said. "It is so important to have that available when someone wants to move away from drug use. If you miss that window it can be a long time before that window comes up again. "We see that there is a severe shortage of detox facilities across the board, we don't want to exclude adult facilities but we mustn't lose the fact there aren't enough detox facilities for young people." Culturally specific approaches needed in Aboriginal communities Ms Yeoman said ice permeated all levels of society and across all areas, with culturally specific approaches needed in Aboriginal communities. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. In order to implement the Constitutional reforms, as well as the main aspects of the President's speech of February 12, the ruling majority considers cooperation unavoidable. Speaking to journalists at the National Assembly in reference to the RPA-ARF agreement, head of the RPA faction Vahram Baghdasaryan said that the parliamentary system of governance also requires cooperation with other political forces. "And I think that all the bumblers who criticize this cooperation, with time should also start cooperating. And I ask you to remind those who start cooperating of what they have said and done before, "Armenpress" reports Baghdasaryan saying. He urged the journalists to understand the word cooperation not only in the sense of positions and portfolios. According to him, open cooperation will be implemented instead of the previous backstage cooperation. The MP clarified what he meant by saying backstage cooperation."At the time when we were alone we needed let's say, 100 votes, and we were able to get those votes. Doesnt this mean that we partnered with other forces? In other words, we have received those votes as a result of cooperation, but that cooperation was not obvious, but now we are going towards open cooperation. We are well aware that during a parliamentary form of government we have to cooperate with the opposing political forces also. This cooperation does not mean portfolios, rather we have to cooperate with all political forces in different formats, and in this case with not only parliamentary but also extra-parliamentary political forces, " Baghdasaryan said. Asked whether the party is cooperating with Nikol Pashinyan, Vahram Baghdasaryan said: "There are times when we cooperate with Nikol Pashinyan too. Why shouldnt we negotiate with such a well-informed politican like Nikol Pashinyan? Whats wrong? We are people of the same country and the same Parliament. Same applies to Zaruhi Postanjyan. Who said that I have not engaged in any discussions with them. I have, and I will continue to. "Baghdasaryan said. Asked why the party has decided to cooperate with the ARF and provide positions to them, leaving out the PAP, the RPA faction leader said. "Because as a result of discussions we reached an ideological approach that we have a common way to go. This is just the beginning, do not hurry, wait.We will implement the constitutional reforms and will cooperate with everybody in this framework., the faction leader said. A young man charged over the alleged one-punch attack death of Brisbane teenager Cole Miller says he's not naturally a violent person. 21-year-old Daniel Jermaine Lee Maxwell is one of two men facing a charge of unlawful striking causing the death of Mr Miller, an elite water polo player, last month. The young man is charged over the alleged one-punch attack death of Brisbane teenager Cole Miller. Credit:Louie Douvis His bail application in the Brisbane Magistrates Court was denied in January, but in documents filed before a fresh bail bid, expected to be heard in the Supreme Court next Thursday, the young man insists he rarely drinks alcohol and is not usually violent. Mr Miller died in hospital from massive head trauma on January 4, a day after the alleged assault. Queensland Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg is set to front an inquiry into the closure of a Brisbane-based mental health facility for severely ill adolescents. The Barrett Adolescent Centre was shut down by the Liberal National Party government in January 2014, with plans for a replacement at Redlands subsequently discarded. Lawrence Springborg was health minister at the time the centre was closed. Credit:Dan Peled In the eight months following the site's closure, three former patients died. A commission of inquiry into the circumstances and issues surrounding the facility's closure began in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on February 15. A manhunt is underway on the Gold Coast, after a 23-year-old man was shot twice in the stomach when he opened the door of his Southport home to a gunman on Thursday night. The gunman fled, leaving the 23-year-old with serious injuries. Emergency services were called to his Worendo Street home about 8.30pm, where paramedics treated wounds to his stomach and legs before taking him to Gold Coast University Hospital. His injuries have not been deemed life-threatening. Monster-shaped crayons could hold the key to a continuous income for a counselling service working with Australia's abused and neglected children. Brisbane based pair Christian McKechnie and Ben Lees came up with the idea to create, package and sell monster-shaped crayons as part of a self-sustainable business model for Act for Kids, a counselling service that provides art therapy for children to help them work through their emotions. Monster-shaped crayons to help pave way for Act for Kids. "A couple of years ago Ben went out to one of the Act for Kids centres and was talking to one of the therapists out there and they kind of gave us this insight that abused children draw monsters to express themselves," Mr McKechnie said. "When they kind of start dealing with their emotions and trauma they stop drawing monsters and start drawing happier stuff. Authorities have no evidence Zika virus has spread to mosquitoes in central Queensland. However Health Minister Cameron Dick has conceded there may be "a small number of infected" insects, after a man who tested positive for the disease was found in an area where the mosquitoes are present. Spraying to kill the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the disease, around the Globe Hotel in Rockhampton began on Wednesday, after a fly-in-fly-out worker who recently returned from South America tested positive for the virus. Zika causes flu-like symptoms, but has recently been linked to birth defects. It is spread through the same type of mosquito that spreads Dengue fever. The owner of a dog stolen in Perth has hired a private investigator and tracked their beloved pet over 4000 kilometres across the country. Jasmin, a 20-week-old border collie was originally reported missing from Nedlands, in south-west Perth on January 27, 2016. Plain Clothes Constable Nick Hemp with Jasmin - a puppy stolen from Perth and found in Cloncurry But the owner wasn't going to give up on their missing pet without a fight and hired a private investigator to look into the disappearance of the border collie. After making enquiries, the private investigator tracked Jasmin to Cloncurry in rural Queensland, 120 kilometres east of Mount Isa. Video footage has emerged of a violent arrest on the Gold Coast nearly two weeks ago, in which a police officer is shown delivering multiple punches to a 22-year-old man, causing him to spit blood. A Queensland Police Service spokeswoman said an immediate investigation has been launched after the footage was aired by 7 News Queensland on Thursday. The footage, reportedly shot by the 22-year-old Woodridge man's sister, shows him arguing with police as they arrest a man, reported to be his cousin, nearby, in Surfers Paradise's Orchid Avenue in the early hours of Sunday, February 14. The man is seen talking to one officer, and, after an exchange of inaudible words, the officer throws two punches at him, which he evades. Police have seized nearly half a million dollars in cash and 90,000 ecstasy pills, all alleged to belong to one Gold Coast drug dealer, in twin weekend raids. A 29-year-old Miami man is due to front court on a string of drug charges, including trafficking, supply and possession, along with weapons, explosives and proceeds of crime charges on Thursday following the raids last Friday. Police seized $426,000 in cash in a raid on an alleged Gold Coast drug dealer. Credit:Queensland Police Service Members of the Gold Coast Rapid Action Patrol raided storage sheds in Burleigh Heads and Varsity Lakes, where they seized 27 kilograms of ecstasy pills, with an estimated street value of $1.8 million. Police will further allege they found $426,000 in cash, 39 grams of ice, eight grams of cannabis, two guns, ammunition and large quantities of prescription medication. Queensland Catholic school teachers say their employers are behaving like "naughty students" in a long-running wage dispute they insist isn't just about money. More than 8500 Independent Education Union of Australia staff at 242 schools have been authorised to stop work on Thursday the eighth and largest action in the 10-month dispute. Central to the ongoing argument is the $6700 disparity between what experienced Queensland teachers earn each year compared to their New South Wales counterparts. The union is pushing for a 3.25 per cent pay rise, but the Queensland Catholic Education Commission is offering a 2.5 per cent rise. A 64-year-old man has been rushed to hospital after going into cardiac arrest in the pool at Palazzo Versace. The man was pulled from the water by two waiters who work at the pool bar who then began CPR. Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast. The waiters' swift action resulted in the man being revived before paramedics arrived. "He was pulled out of the pool by staff at the hotel who provided CPR which was really helpful in getting him back," a spokesman for the Queensland Ambulance service said. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijans delivery of protest note to Russia conditioned by the arms sales to Armenia is from comedy genre. Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, member of the Republican faction Artak Zakaryan mentioned about this in a press conference at Armenpress media hall. The entire world speaks about Azerbaijans policy of transforming its oil dollars into weapons. It is funny that Azerbaijan tries to blame Russia. And this is in the case that it acquired a lot of weapons from the same Russia, by the way-not only from Russia, Artak Zakaryan said. Referring to the publication of the list of arms provided by Russia to Armenia, Artak Zakaryan mentioned that it was done by Russia considering the regional situation. One thing is clear. Armenian-Russian military-technical cooperation is one of the guarantees of relative power balance in the region. Our military-technical cooperation develops in that context. We must keep firm our security environment. Russia is our best partner in that regard. And what the message to Azerbaijan and Turkey by unveiling the list of the arms was should be commented by our partners, Artak Zakaryan added. The governments of Armenia and Russia have signed a state export loan agreement worth $200 million with 10 year maturity date. Loan repayment will start in the beginning of 2018. Armenia acquires a number of multiple rocket launchers "Smerch" and ammunition intended for them Igla-S anti-aircraft missile, Avtobaza-M Electronic Intelligence systems, TOC-1A Heavy Flamethrower System, 9113 navigable missiles, RPG-26 grenade launchers, Dragunov sniper rifles, Tiger armored vehicles, engineering and communication devices. Two American mothers from the Melbourne bayside suburb of Sandringham have started an international company they hope will change the way people shop and protect the environment. Jack+Jules has launched its first collection of recyclable shopping bags. It plans to develop its household and fashion range as it builds its online distribution in Australia and the United States. Julie McMahon, left, and Jackie Hegarty plan to grow their bag business in Australia and the US. Credit:Craig Sillitoe "The nylon design looks great, can easily carry nine litres and when not being used, can be easily kept in a handbag or car glovebox," said Julie McMahon, a former US lawyer, who met her Australian husband while backpacking in far north Queensland. The launch coincides with an Australian Senate inquiry on the threat of marine plastic pollution to the world's oceans and wildlife. When Uber revealed this week it paid just over $403,000 in tax in Australia over a three-year period many small businesses were left scratching their heads. The Silicon Valley technology giant with a market valuation of over US$60 billion responded to questions taken on notice at the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance to disclose the amount of corporate tax it paid in Australia has only slightly increased from $19,387 in 2013, to $134,387 in 2014, and then $249,280 in 2015. Uber recently tapped the debt market for $US2 billion. Credit:AP Individuals are not rewarded Alyce Tran started fashion business The Daily Edited three years ago and says her business pays more tax than Uber with corporate tax of "over $100,000 a year" plus GST and import taxes on turnover of around $5 million. The new video shows Atlas walking confidently past other members of its robotic family including WildCat and BigDog and heading straight out the door before wading like a terrifying idiot through a stretch of snow. Standing 175 centimetres tall and weighing 82 kilograms, the new Atlas has long arms, short legs, a tiny cylindrical head and is designed to operate outdoors as well as inside buildings. Boston Dynamics the Google-owned engineering company dedicated to creating robots that move like animals has shown off a updated version of its human-like Atlas design with a new video. Boston Dynamics is renowned online for its quirky videos of new robots that don't seem quite ready to handle the tasks they're attempting stumbling like babies over rough terrain or being shoved and kicked by researchers until they fall flat on their metal face. The uneven nature of the robots definitely makes the videos palatable - without something to laugh and point at most of Boston's creations would be more than a little scary - but it's also the most impressive aspect of the machines. Staying upright while navigating uneven terrain and adjusting for unexpected complications is an extraordinarily involved process, requiring constant adjustment that's difficult to come by without a brain and central nervous system. Mastering this will be required for most tasks mobile robots will be used for, be it search and rescue, military applications or travelling back through time to track and assassinate humans. What makes Boston's robots so interesting to watch is that, when faced with an obstacle or a swift kick, they tend to react in an eerily similar way to a dizzy human or quadrupedal animal. Washington: Apple engineers have begun developing security measures that would make it impossible for the United States government to break into a locked iPhone, using methods similar to those at the centre of a court fight in California, according to people close to the company and security experts. If Apple succeeds in upgrading its security - and experts say it almost surely will - the company will create a significant technical challenge for law enforcement agencies, even if the Obama administration wins its fight over access to data stored on an iPhone used by one of the killers in last year's San Bernardino, California, rampage. If the FBI wanted to get into a phone in the future, it would need a new way to do so. That would most likely prompt a new cycle of court fights and, yet again, more technical fixes by Apple. The only way out of this scenario, experts say, is for the US Congress to get involved. Federal wire-tapping laws require traditional phone carriers to make their data accessible to law enforcement agencies. But tech companies like Apple and Google are not covered, and they have strongly resisted legislation that would place similar requirements on them. The alleged negligent treatment of the 2015 Melbourne Cup favourite Amralah, which forced the owners to scratch him from the race, was not a case involving "the local vet on the corner", a court has heard. Barrister Mark Robins, QC, representing four-time Melbourne Cup winner Lloyd Williams' Hudson Conway Racing (HCR), told the Supreme Court on Thursday the horse had been treated by a registered equine specialist who should have known better. The owners were forced to scratch Amralah from the Melbourne Cup. Credit:Vince Caligiuri HCR is suing the Ballarat Veterinary Practice Equine Clinic and its director Brian Anderson after Amralah was denied a start in the $6 million Melbourne Cup because the horse was found to have a prohibited substance in its system. A judge-alone civil trial is expected to be held later this year if mediation fails. The families of three babies who died at Bacchus Marsh Hospital have accepted compensation from the Victorian government's insurer. But Maurice Blackburn, the law firm representing the families affected by the baby deaths scandal, has called for women and babies who suffered injuries to also be offered compensation. Bacchus Marsh and Melton Regional Hospital. In October, it was revealed that the entire board had been sacked after it emerged there had been seven avoidable baby deaths in two years at the Djerriwarrh Health Services. Maurice Blackburn says it is investigating up to 20 cases of babies dying or being injured, or their mothers being injured during the birth process. Housing design standards implemented in the aftermath of Black Saturday are deeply flawed, experts say with several bushfire-proofed homes already lost in bushfires this year. In Christmas Day's Wye River and Separation Creek fire, at least five bushfire-rated homes were destroyed, Fairfax Media has learnt, despite local fire conditions not being nearly as intense as they were on Black Saturday in 2009. The burnt out hills above Wye River. Credit:Jason South That raises serious questions about Victoria's bushfire risk management policy, experts say. Emergency Management Victoria, however, contests these claims and say the standards performed very well in an extremely intense fire. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. In order to be involved in the integration processes of the Eurasian Economic Union, Azerbaijan will have to reach an agreement with its northern neighbor, Armenia. "Armenpress" reports the director of the Institute of Newly Established States Alexey Martinov said on February 25, during a round table discussion on Eurasian path of Transcaucasia: Integration for Development ". He noted that in the present economic conditions Azerbaijan cannot think about taking a dominant position, primarily because of economic, as well as political components. "The fact that Azerbaijan still exists is not because it has economic geniuses, but because it is living off the resources which were accumulated in the last ten years. If there is someone thinking of saving the country, first of all they express the idea of joining the integration processes of the Eurasian Economic Union. In that case, they must reach an agreement with their northern neighbor Armenia, "the expert said. He also noted that many dangers face the country in the background of the worsening of Russian-Turkish relations, as well as the growth of Islamism in Azerbaijan, "when the economy is weakening, the state is weakening." Martinov also noted that in the wake of the cancellation of the sanctions against Iran, there are presuppositions to increase Armenia's role in the region. In his opinion, the world economic crisis could have hit Armenia harder if it did not join the Eurasian Economic Union. A former top education department official said he "pushed the bloody boundaries" but denied any wrongdoing when questioned about his purchase of $160,000 of shares in the company awarded the Ultranet contract Former regional director Ron Lake made the admission in covert recordings of phone conversations that were played at an animated anti-corruption hearing into the botched Ultranet IT project for schools on Thursday. In one recording, Mr Lake told his friend and former education department deputy secretary Darrell Fraser that he did not care if the phone was bugged. Police are searching for an armed man in a balaclava who held up a poker machine cashier booth at a Geelong hotel. The masked offender walked into the Peninsula Hotel on the Bellarine Highway in Newcomb at 2.30am on Thursday carrying a sawn-off shotgun and making demands for cash. A CCTV image of the alleged armed robbery at the Peninsula Hotel in Newcomb. Credit:Victoria Police Staff at the cashier booth handed over a "large amount of cash" to the man, who then made his getaway through the front door. The offender is described as being of medium height and build. He was wearing a white balaclava, black gloves, grey hoodie, dark jeans and black and white runners which had pink laces on the left shoe. Police have executed a series of raids in Melbourne and charged several people with a slew of offences including trafficking cannabis, heroin and methamphetamine and possessing illegal guns. Detectives made the arrests on Wednesday while carrying out raids on properties in Sunbury as a part of a major drug investigation. Among those arrested are a 27-year-old Cairnlea man, charged with drug trafficking, committing an indictable offence while on bail, dealing in the proceeds of crime and possessing a controlled weapon. A Sunbury man, 26, and a Sunshine man, 31, were also charged with drug trafficking and other offences. Two Sunbury women, aged 21 and 26, were arrested and charged with possessing drugs including cannabis, GHB and methamphetamine. There's been a shooting early this morning near Geelong. Tom Cowie reports a man in his 40s was found with a gunshot wound in his leg at a house on Ibis Court in Norlane at 3.50am. He was taken to hospital. Police are investigating the circumstances of the shooting. Parliament is on the brink of a deal to sell the Port of Melbourne after an eleventh hour backdown by the Andrews government. In a significant development, Labor has agreed to dramatically water down a controversial clause exposing the state to a compensation payment to the future owner if a rival port is built that undercuts its business. Treasurer Tim Pallas has until now insisted the compensation regime should apply for 15 years from the point at which a new rival port is built. That means the new Port of Melbourne owner would be insulated from competition until at least about 2046. But in a late concession on Thursday the government appeared to capitulate to a key Coalition demand that the compensation regime only apply for 15 years from the day the port is sold, ensuring it will expire in about 2031. Two people, including a teenage boy, have been killed after a night of horror on Victorian roads. In one incident, a woman died and two teenage girls were injured after their car ran off a busy road and ploughed into a tree in Melbourne's south-east. Police have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fatal crash, which happened on Cheltenham Road on Thursday night. "Investigators believe that a car was headed east along Cheltenham Road around 9pm," a police spokesman said. "The driver lost control of the car which left the road and crashed into a tree." YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Director General of the National Energy Security Fund Konstantin Simonov predicts that the price of supplied gas will be reduced as a result of negotiations. As "Armenpress" reports, he said at a round-table discussion on 25 February. According to him, while Russia is already supplying Armenia with gas at a low price, the decrease of oil prices in the market could mean further lowering of gas prices."The decrease of prices throughout the world could mean that the price of Russian gas supplied to Armenia will be lowered despite the fact that its already very low compared to our other consumers. Anyway, I predict that the negotiations will lead to lowering the gas prices. ", Simonov said. The expert also noted that after a five year break, once again he came to Yerevan and was pleasantly surprised to see a prosperous city. He noted that for a country with such a small population, Armenia's opportunity for economic development is in entering greater markets, which was realized through the membership of the Eurasian Economic Union. In January 2016, the Energy and Natural Resources Minister Yervand Zakharyan stated that the Armenian government has applied to the government of the Russian Federation regarding the reduction of prices of supplied gas. When born-and-bred West Australian Grant Wright moved to Melbourne as a 23 year old, he presumed he would miss Perth's beautiful beaches, stunning sunsets and the long hot summers. Never did he expect, some 17 years later, that he would also miss a cold can of Emu Export beer. Grant Wright (inset) and his precious cargo upon arrival in Melbourne. 'Bush Chook' beer, as named by hardcore fans of Emu Export, however, is virtually impossible to purchase in Melbourne. Similar to how many West Aussies would bring their coveted Krispy Kreme doughnuts back from Victoria before our own chain opened, Mr Wright flew a block of 30 cans back from Perth in February. Cold case detectives have charged a man with abducting and repeatedly raping a 13-year-old girl in Geraldton in 1994. The State Crime Operations Squad, which reviews serious unsolved crimes with the latest advancements in technology and investigation, alleges the man was disguised and held a gun as he broke into the home on November 3 of that year. The girl was dragged by her hair and sexually assaulted 'multiple times': WA Police. Two girls, aged 15 and 13, were alone in the house. He threatened them, dragged the younger girl by her hair from the house to nearby bushland and sexually assaulted her "multiple times", WA Police spokeswoman Susan Usher said. Beijing: Move over New York City, Beijing is the new "Billionaire Capital of the World". The Chinese capital has overtaken the Big Apple as home to the most billionaires, 100 to New York's 95, figures from Shanghai-based company Hurun, which releases yearly rankings and research about the 1 per cent, show. Lens Technology founder Zhou Qunfei is China's richest woman. Credit:Olivia Martin-McGuire The Hurun Global Rich List 2016 highlights how China's elite are continuing to accrue vast wealth despite a wobbling sharemarket and tepid economy. It has found China has overtaken the US with 568 billionaires to America's 535. That's an 80 per cent increase in the number of Chinese billionaires since 2013. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS Armenian government approved the proposal to sign an agreement on military-technical cooperation with the Czech Republic. As Armenpress reports, Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan noted that the agreement is planned to provide supply of military products, repair, modernization, operation and technical service, organization of production of military products; research and development of products. The agreement plans signing separate agreements on cooperation between Armenian and Czech companies and among organizations and institutions of the military-technical sector. Rio de Janeiro: Often drowned out by the dire warnings and fear surrounding Zika, some medical professionals are saying that Brazil and international health officials have prematurely declared a link between the virus and what appears to be a surge in birth defects. A few even argue that the Brazilian government is being irresponsible, given that a connection hasn't been scientifically proven between the mosquito-borne virus and the birth defect known as microcephaly, which causes infants to be born with abnormally small heads. "It's a global scandal. Brazil has created a worldwide panic," said Alexandre Dias Porto Chiavegatto Filho, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Sao Paulo, one of the most-respected universities in Latin America. "I'm not saying that Zika is not causing microcephaly, but I am saying that the ministry has yet to present any scientifically credible evidence to support that conclusion." YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Every year Azerbaijan loudly trumpets the world on allegedly organization of so-called Khojaly genocide by the Armenians on February 25-26, during the Artsakh war in 1992. Armenpress reports that according to Information security expert Samvel Martirosyan, Azerbaijani propaganda for many years had the opportunity to alone spread its false thesis on Khojaly, without a response from the Armenian side. Azerbaijanis, with certain calmness, shared enormous falsifications in media and internet without waiting for an exposing answer. But the situation has changed in recent years, and the Armenian party comes with various information initiatives, which allow dispelling Azerbaijani myths on anti-Armenian propaganda. This was evidenced by the creation of Xocali.net and Azerichild.info projects in 2011 by the Armenian Presidents office as well as by the Department of Mass Media and Public Relations, which presentation was held on February 25, in Yerevan. Evidences on Khojaly events (actually, Agdam events), rather evidences on Khojaly provocations, recorded still in 1992, are collected in Xocali.net website. Interviews, various documents and press releases of the mentioned period are also included. It is noted how the testimonies on Kohojaly provocations were changed in Azerbaijan and how they are being presented now. The historical chronology was also touched upon. Samvel Martirosyan brought numerous examples on Azerbaijani falsification, distortion and exaggeration of facts mentioning that all the facts which reveal the mentioned falsifications are presented in the website. The website is especially important in the sense that it is not based on Armenian sources but the testimonies of Azerbaijani and third parties journalists and witnesses are presented, therefore they cannot be labeled as Armenian propaganda materials, the expert emphasized. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams This is the height of neighborliness in Brooklyn Heights! Powerful civic group the Brooklyn Heights Association on Wednesday honored a local co-op building for rejecting a developers lucrative offer to erect a 40-story tower in its backyard. The esteemed group bestowed its prestigious Good Neighbor award on residents of 75 Henry St. during its annual meeting, hailing them for recently turning down hundreds of thousands of dollars each after other locals complained the resulting high-rise would be a view-blocking, population-booming, property-value-reducing, shadow-casting behemoth. They listened to the true concerns of their neighbors, said presenter Tom Stewart, a Heights resident and Channel 13 announcer. This award is given in recognition of their true community spirit. The crowd rose to its feet in gratitude as two reps from the building accepted the plaque, with locals cheering the shareholders willpower in the face of a big payday although 112 of the buildings 303 units actually voted to pursue the sale. Im amazed that they were willing to pass up on the financial rewards, said resident Lenore Brennan. The historic neighborhoods cherished views continued their moment in the spotlight when the 900-member association gave its top Martha Atwater Award to local activist Steve Guterman of Save the View Now, who has been fighting an endless series of uphill court battles to shrink a condo building in Brooklyn Bridge Park that stands between the Promenade and its spectacular vistas of the bridge. And it wouldnt have been Brooklyn Heights night of nights without mention of the neighborhoods other divisive development issue of 2015 the controversial sale of the ailing local library branch to a politically connected developer. For a second year, library activists used the question and answer session to rail against the associations endorsement of the deal, erupting into a shouting match when members jeered back, telling the rabble-rousers theyd had enough of the debate. In less heated events, the association also named long-time Henry Street tavern Henrys End known for its obscure meats and homey charm as its Business of the Year, and Toba Potosky of park advocacy group the Cadman Park Conservancy for Outstanding Community Service. District Attorney Ken Thompson gave this years keynote address, speaking to the packed house about gun violence in the borough and his efforts to eradicate firearms trafficking. by Rob Sperry-Fromm The grimy UK death metal outfit Grave Miasma have announced a new mini-album and shared a new song. The album, a follow-up to their great 2013 LP Odori Sepulcrorum, is called Endless Pilgrimage, and it hits on May 6 via Profound Lore. The song is called "Purgative Circumvolution" and it's a stunner. Packed with brutal riffs and complex turns, it's one of the most immediately impressive songs in the band's catalogue, which already has plenty of rippers. The band turns on a dime constantly, swinging from tremolo-picked guitars to drop-out guitar solo sections to thunderous half-speed riffs at the drop of a hat, always one step ahead of the listener. Always clever songwriters, "Purgative Circumvolution" has a level of immediacy that hasn't always been present for these nasty old-school death practitioners who have always had a knack for when to throw a good curveball. Grave Miasma will be in the U.S. for Maryland Deathfest in May, after which they'll be touring South America with Bolzer. Stream their new song below. --- Having dabbled in goth, AC/DC-style riff rock, tribal mysticism, and other styles, UK band The Cult remain centered around Billy Duffy's muscular guitarwork and Ian Astbury's powerful pipes. The band's new album, Hidden City, just came out and they celebrated with shows in Los Angeles and then visiting NYC to play Gramercy Theatre (2/17) and Music Hall of Williamsburg (2/19). Despite the new album, their set mixed up old and new, including their biggest hits "Fire Woman," "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Love Removal Machine." Setlist and more pictures from MHOW are below. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan sows Anti-Armenian propaganda among its residents since early childhood, thereby increasing a generation of those who hate Armenians. Armenian experts are closely following the progress of this phenomenon in recent years and make available the information on the aforementioned not only to Armenian but also to Azerbaijani and international audience. Azerichild.info project is successful information platform on revealing Azerbaijanis Anti-Armenian propaganda, the presentation of which was held on February 25, in Yerevan. Armenpress reports that Azerichild.info collects rich database of children's educational and methodical literature on Azerbaijan's anti-Armenian propaganda. The website shows by numerous examples how Azerbaijan sows hatred against Armenians among its citizens since kindergarten age. Azerbaijani mothers talk with their 5-years old children about wick and murder Armenian washing their childrens brains since the mentioned age, Armine Adibekyan said. According to the authors, Azerbaijan raised a generation with whom Armenian generation of their peers can deal with in the future and feel the consequences of the hatred against Armenians. According to psychologist Izabella Ghazaryan, Anti-Armenian propaganda in Azerbaijan takes place in two levels: Dehumanization and demonization. Polica are a week away from releasing their new album United Crushers (on Mom + Pop) but first they decided to play some intimate pre-release shows. There's a sold out gig in Chicago tonight (2/22) and they hit Brooklyn's Rough Trade this past Friday (2/19, also sold out). The set was mostly stuff off the new album, which all sounded great. Channy also told the crowd that she had a baby not long ago (that elicited cheers) and playing shows is like the only time she gets out of the house. (Then she said she's told that story a bunch of times and this was going to be the last time she told it.) Psychic TV's two-night celebration at Trans-Pecos back in January got squashed by Winter Storm Jonas, but they've regrouped and have rescheduled it for March. Calling it "A Pre Sping Solstice Weekend with PSYCHIC TV" it goes down March 12 & 13 at Trans-Pecos. Tickets (both single day tickets and two-day passes) are on sale now. In addition to PTV's set, the 3/12 date also features Wetware, Voodoo Medicine Man, Excepter DJs and projections by Trouble, with a late-night afterparty edition of "Etheric," featuring a live performance by FBI Warning, plus DJ sets by Andi, R Gamble and Scott Murakami. The 3/13 show will feature Psychic TV playing a live film score to Derek Jarman's Shadow of the Sun, plus performances by Kill Alters, Hiro Kone, the Diamond Terrifier/M.Beharie/Don Devore/Miho Hatori Quartet, DJ Styles Upon Styles, and projections by Trouble. The afterparty for that show is a special edition of "CAESAR CAESAR" with Vitamin Z, Deli Girls, Via App, Bookworms, and Solpara. As mentioned previously, the band's entire PTV-3 catalog was reissued digitally in January. Psychic TV will be on tour in Europe in May and June, and have other dates as well. All are listed below... --- Looking for the big games to watch in Week 9? We have them right here. latest news October 3, 2022 Dee Gambit Hundreds if not thousands of new and returning TV shows and movies are released every month your options of what to watch are endless. Variety, they say is ... YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. There is no alternative plan to the joint Russian-US statement on settlement in Syria, and nothing like that is planned, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on February 25, Armenpress reports citing TASS. "We've already said everything on the plan B - there never was one and there never will be," Lavrov said. US State Secretary John Kerry said on Tuesday that Washington and its foreign allies and partners are actively discussing alternative options if ceasefire in Syria is not implemented and political process in the country is not launched. "There is a significant discussion taking place now about a Plan B in the event that we do not succeed at the (negotiating) table," Kerry said. "It may be too late to keep it as a whole Syria if we wait much longer," he added. On February 22 night Russia and the United States released a joint statement saying that the ceasefire will take effect in Syria at 00:00 Damascus Time on February 27. The statement points out that the cessation of hostilities is to be applied to all parties to the Syrian conflict but for Daesh (the Arabic acronym for Islamic State) and Jebhat an-Nusra (both are banned in Russia) "or other terrorist organizations designated by the UN Security Council." A mathematical advance in describing waves New development builds on centuries of research devoted to using math to describe the physical world Ever since Isaac Newton used math to describe gravity, applied mathematicians have been inventing new mathematics or using existing forms to describe natural phenomena. BUFFALO, N.Y. One of the great joys in mathematics is the ability to use it to describe phenomena seen in the physical world, says University at Buffalo mathematician Gino Biondini. With UB postdoctoral researcher Dionyssios Mantzavinos, Biondini has published a new paper that advances the art or shall we say, the math of describing a wave. The findings, published Jan. 27 in Physical Review Letters, are thought to apply to wave forms ranging from light waves in optical fibers to water waves in the sea. The study explores what happens when a regular wave pattern has small irregularities, a question that scientists have been trying to answer for the last 50 years. Researchers have long known that in many cases such minor imperfections grow and eventually completely distort the original wave as it travels over long distances, a phenomenon known as modulational instability. But the UB team has added to this story by showing, mathematically, that many different kinds of disturbances evolve to produce wave forms belonging to a single class, denoted by their identical asymptotic state. Ever since Isaac Newton used math to describe gravity, applied mathematicians have been inventing new mathematics or using existing forms to describe natural phenomena, says Biondini, a professor of mathematics in the UB College of Arts and Sciences and an adjunct faculty member in the UB physics department. Our research is, in a way, an extension of all the work thats come before. He says the first great success in using math to represent waves came in the 1700s. The so-called wave equation, used to describe the propagation of waves such as light, sound and water waves, was discovered by Jean le Rond d'Alembert in the middle of that century. But the model has limitations. The wave equation is a great first approximation, but it breaks down when the waves are very large or, in technical parlance 'nonlinear,' Biondini said. So, for example, in optical fibers, the wave equation is great for moderate distances, but if you send a laser pulse (which is an electromagnetic wave) through an optical fiber across the ocean or the continental U.S., the wave equation is not a good approximation anymore. Similarly, when a water wave whitecaps and overturns, the wave equation is not a good description of the physics anymore. Over the next 250 years, scientists and mathematicians continued to develop new and better ways to describe waves. One of the models that researchers derived in the middle of the 20th century is the nonlinear Schrodinger equation, which helps to characterize wave trains in a variety of physical contexts, including in nonlinear optics and in deep water. But many questions remained unanswered, including what happens when a wave has small imperfections at its origin. This is the topic of Biondini and Mantzavinos new paper. Modulational instability has been known since the 1960s. When you have small perturbations at the input, youll have big changes at the output. But is there a way to describe precisely what happens? Biondini said. After laying out the foundations in two earlier papers, it took us a year of work to obtain a mathematical description of the solutions. We then used computers to test whether our math was correct, and the simulation results were pretty good it appears that we have captured the essence of the phenomenon. The next step, Biondini said, is to partner with experimental researchers to see if the theoretical findings hold when applied to tangible, physical waves. He has started to collaborate with research groups in optics as well as water waves, and he hopes that it will soon be possible to test the theoretical predictions with real experiments. UB to host presentation on Flint water crisis Michelle Sahli of the University of Michigan-Flint will discuss the Flint water crisis in a presentation at UB on Feb. 29. Having Dr. Sahli back is not only a great honor, but also serves as a very timely review of this critical public health issue. BUFFALO, N.Y. A public health practitioner and University at Buffalo alumna based at the University of Michigan-Flint will provide a front-line perspective on the many facets of the Flint water crisis during a talk Feb. 29 at UB. The talk by Michelle Sahli, PhD 12, assistant professor in the Department of Public Health & Health Sciences at the University of Michigan-Flint, is titled Up to Our Necks in Flint River Water: A Public Health Crisis. It will take place at noon in 144 Farber Hall, South Campus, and offers a unique opportunity to learn about a critical public health issue as it is occurring. Sahli earned both an MS and PhD in epidemiology from the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions. Sahlis presentation is part of the School of Public Health and Health Professions public health seminar course, a non-credit bearing seminar series addressing the practice of public health for students in the Master of Public Health (MPH) program. Students in other programs, public health practitioners and UB community members also are invited to attend this free event. Topics of the seminar series range from chronic and infectious disease to environmental health and emergency preparedness, health education, health care administration and informatics. One of our goals with the public health seminar is to provide our students with a better understanding of current public health issues from a practice perspective, says Kim Krytus, MPH coordinator for the School of Public Health and Health Professions. Having Dr. Sahli back is not only a great honor, but also serves as a very timely review of this critical public health issue. For more information about this seminar or future public health seminars, visit the School of Public Health and Health Professions website. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has reminded the roofing industry and housebuilding industry of the requirement to conform to building regulations. James Wharton MP said: Building regulations require that building work is carried out with adequate and proper materials which are appropriate for the circumstances in which they are used. Building control bodies are responsible for checking compliance as with any other building regulation requirements. In addition, if a building material is covered by a harmonised European standard, the requirements of the European Construction Products Regulation will apply. This regulation is enforced by local authorities (Trading Standards in England, Scotland and Wales and district councils in Northern Ireland). Mr Wharton said it in response to a concern raised by the Member of Parliament for Bassetlaw, John Mann MP, about the lacklustre adoption of BS5534:2014 in a question that asked: What steps are his department taking to prevent the use of fraudulent roofing materials in the building of new houses? Mr Mann raised the issue with the Secretary of State following a visit to one of his constituents, John Brash & Co, which has invested nearly 1m in new technology to increase its production capabilities as the only British manufacturer of roofing battens in the UK to stay ahead of the new standard. At the meeting, the directors of the Gainsborough-based company told Mr Mann of their fears about fraudulent foreign imports flooding the UK and the implications if they are used on the roofs of houses that are currently being built as part of the governments commitment to building 300,000 more homes in the UK. John Brash chairman Christian Brash welcomed the Secretary of States comments and thanked his local MP for taking up the issue. James Wharton MP has sent out a clear message to the housebuilding industry and its supply chain about the importance of building regulations and the role of building control bodies in enforcing the new rules, he said. BS5534:2014 brings together some of the most significant changes in the roofing industry during the past 50 years and has set new, higher standards which can only be good for UK housebuilding. However, we are very concerned that there are parts of our industry that are resistant to the new rules, and this is leaving the door open to substandard and in some cases fraudulent timber roofing batten. Mr Wharton continued: We have been very proactive as a business with our Take It as Red campaign to promote the benefits of BS5534:2014 and have so far distributed more than 30,000 copies of a bite-sized guide to the new standard. So, having government backing is a big boost for our business and all other companies in the housebuilding supply chain that are fully committed to producing materials that meet all current standards. Bond It has made two new appointments to its UK sales force. Ian Heppinstall and Joe Howship both join the company as area sales managers. Prior to joining Bond It, Mr Heppinstall, whose territory covers the West Midlands, worked in electrical wholesale. He spent eight years with City Electrical Factors, initially in delivery before progressing to trade counter-based, field sales and ultimately branch management roles. More recently, he worked as a business development manager and as a branch manager for Rexel UK. Mr Howship joins Bond It having also worked in sales roles. He was previously a shift manager and prior to that a sales manager within a contact centre providing outsourced services to major household name businesses. His territory for the company covers Northampton, Peterborough, Nottingham, Leicester and the East Midlands. Speaking of his appointment, Mr Heppinstall, said: I was impressed by the breadth of the Bond It product range, by the strength of the business and by the speed of its growth. For me, it was a case of a chance to join an exciting company with exciting products - and at an exciting time. Mr Howship, said of his appointment: Bond It is a large and growing company with a reputation for recognising and rewarding talent. I was attracted to the business by the opportunities it can offer and by the prospect of being able to contribute to its success. Paul Walters, sales and marketing director at Bond It, added: Everyone at Bond It is delighted to welcome Ian and Joe to the team. They both have unique skills and experiences but a shared passion for Bond It, our customers and for our continued growth. In wider developments, Bond It has promoted Karl Radwan from regional sales manager to national sales and export manager. Area sales manager, Darren Teather will also take up an additional mentoring role. Picture caption: Joe Howship has joined Bond It as an area sales manager, covering Northampton, Peterborough, Nottingham, Leicester and the East Midlands. 1st Congressional District race sees Norcross, Gustafson rematch U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, D-1, is looking to repeat his win two years ago over Republican Claire Gustafson when voters turn out this November. A beach clean in Burnham-On-Sea and Berrow, and a litter pick at Highbridges Apex Paerk are set to be held over the coming weeks as part of a nationwide effort to spruce up the country in time for the Queens 90th birthday. Community groups in Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge are being encouraged to join the nationwide campaign, called Clean for The Queen, as litter blitzes take place across the UK. Sedgemoor District Council has contacted all local town and parish councils and many community groups to offer the loan of equipment, such as gloves and litter-picking kit, for the work. The council is encouraging and supporting groups and individuals who want to do their bit and enjoy a few hours together litter-picking, said a spokesman. Once the bags are filled, Sedgemoor will take them away. A beach spring clean of Burnham-On-Sea Beach, between Berrow beach car park and Burnhams Maddocks Slade, will be carried out on Thursday 17th March from 10am. Volunteers can take part by meeting and parking at either Berrow Beach car park or Maddocks Slade at 10am. Beach Wardens will meet helpers at both locations. Volunteers are being urged to wrap up warmly and wear suitable boots and clothing. Further information is available from Graham Newing, Sedgemoor District Councils Resorts Officer, on 07710 841791. The Friends of Apex Park will also be carrying out a litter-pick around the Highbridge park on Friday March 4th from 10am-12 noon. Volunteers shoudld meet at the Apex Park Car Park Office. Burnham-On-Seas Lower lighthouse has also been entered into a national comtest where the organisers of Clean for the Queen perform a free clean-up of a local building, monument or iconic location. Hundreds of entries were nominated but, unfortunately, the lighthouse has not been chosen. Any group or individual who wants to take part in the Clean for the Queen can find information via Sedgemoors Clean Surroundings team on clean.surroundings@sedgemoor.gov.uk or 01278 435498. Pictyured: Amber Rudd, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, launching the nationwide initiate Tributes have been paid to a Burnham-On-Sea youngster who has died after an asthma attack. Veronica Chojnacka tragically passed away after being rushed to hospital last Friday following a suspected cardiac arrest. She was a pupil at King Alfred School in Highbridge, where head teacher Denise Hurr has led tributes to her. We have received the sad news that one of our students in Class 7G, Veronica Chojnacka, died on Sunday 21st February after suffering an asthma attack, she said. This is incredibly sad news for all of us and we would like to express our sympathy to her family at this difficult time. The air ambulance landed in the town last Friday evening to help her and its crew joined ambulance crews in treating the girl, who was taken to hospital in Bristol. Scores of tribute messages have been posted on social media for the youngster. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The German Bundestag held a debate on the Armenian Genocideon February 25 but did not vote on the bill proposed by the Alliance 90/The Greens. The ruling coalition said its not the proper time to adopt the bill and proposed to continue the discussions in the coming weeks to prepare a new finalized document until April 24, 2016, Armenpress reports citing the website of Public Radio of Armenia. Chairman of the Alliance 90/The Greens Cem Ozdemir agreed to withdraw his bill on condition that the new document to be agreed before April 24 clearly mentions the events of 1915 as genocide, accepts Germanys role in the massacre and contributes to the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations. The issue was brought to the agenda by the Alliance 90/The Greens, which has always urged to describe the events of 1915 as "genocide". Klaus Brahmig of CDU/CSU said, in turn, that the current Turkish authorities are not responsible for their ancestors, but can take steps to improve relations with Armenia. The bill debated on February 25 noted that the German Bundestag bows to the victims of forced displacement and massacre of the Armenians and Aramaeans, Assyrians and other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire, which began 100 years ago. It deplored the actions of the then Turkish government, almost full annihilation of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. MARCEL CIOLACU: "Nu cred ca ar fi crescut pensiile anul acesta daca PSD nu ar fi intrat la guvernare" Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick had raised $37-million in Series-B funding while talking to investors at a pub in Dublin after meeting them during the day at Web Summit in 2011. Five years later, when the Irish organisers brought the event - Surge 2016 - to Bengaluru this week, there was hardly any pub-hopping by start-ups and investors. "Bengaluru is no Dublin," a participant told Business Standard. However, hours after the two-day event, entrepreneurs were hoping for that much-awaited call from investors. There's little interest in seed funding now as investors are finding it a risky proposition, said A Tayeb Tarmal, founder & CEO of Nasik-based Grouplee, a one-week old retail social network. The NRI from Kuwait said three years ago, "They would have invested anywhere, but not anymore." A lot of investors simply told budding entrepreneurs "Drop me a mail", a far cry from Travis raising money after a few drinks at a pub in Dublin. Sharad Singh, who showcased his financial technology start-up Invezta.com, said he didn't expect investment assurance in the first meeting. "There has been genuine interest from 8-10 investors We are moving towards the next steps," he said. Anant Sanjeev Doogar, founder of a start-up in B2B aluminium ecosystem, said "We are in talks with some interested investors." Deckport's Ankit Abhishek and Abhinav Prakash, who have come out with a prototype to make flying cheaper, especially in the case of international flights, said getting investment was meant to be difficult. "There's no pub-hopping for sure, but we are confident of the first round of funding soon," said Ankit. How much? "Around five per cent of $500,000." Phynart, a home automation solution based on artificial intelligence, is also awaiting investor interest. Ashish Sharma of Phynart said, "Our solution can be fitted into both old and new homes at a cost of around Rs 50,000 a unit." Currently, in beta phase with funding from friends and family, the start-up is aiming for a June launch. There were several others - including Indoriv Clinical (a start-up for clinical trial digitisation), ClapGlobal (connecting international travellers to local classrooms), Hombot (home automation), Lawmatters (dispute resolution platform), Wedlock (a variant of matrimonial sites) - looking for investor interest. Data from the organisers of the event, however, looks promising. There were 288 pre-arranged meetings and 190 conversations on the event app between more than 5,000 participants from 72 countries. Among 72 high-level attendees were Blippar's Ambarish Mitra, Zoomcar's Greg Moran and Ather Energy's Tarun Mehta. More than 200 investors, including some marquee names, came as 433 start-ups put up their stalls. And while there was no pub-hopping, networking between investors and start-ups happened over 12,000 cups of coffee. The $25-billion Fung Group, promoted by Hong Kong-based billionaire Victor K Fung, and the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group have shelved a plan for a 50:50 joint venture (JV) for imports and wholesaling. The JV was planned outside Future's listed entities and was to be part of Fungs family investment vehicle. The plan was for the venture to operate large wholesale markets, on the lines of the YIWU market in China and Dragon Mart in Dubai. And, to import products from China and other Asian countries and sell to Indian retail chains and smaller retailers. The plans were shelved because we concluded there was insufficient interest by Chinese wholesalers/exporters to participate in such a trading model, said Geoff Bilbrough, senior vice-president at Fleishman Hillard, a public relations agency of Fung Group, in an e-mailed response. Kishore Biyani could not be reached. Future and Fung Group also have a partnership with Bengaluru-based Salarpuria Sattva Properties to develop a wholesale market in that city. A second one was expected to come up in Mumbai. However, at the moment, we dont have any plans to activate this initiative, said Bilbrough. The first phase of the construction (of the building) is complete. We are exploring alternative uses for the building and the adjacent vacant land. The 1.5 million sq ft wholesale market in Bengaluru was to have a wholesale store run by the Future-Fung combine, with the rest of the space leased to multiple wholesalers. Depending on the success, the partners were looking to roll it out in other parts of the country. A senior Salarpuria Sattva group executive said: We cancelled a couple of bookings for stores and dropped the project. Bilbrough said as for any large and growing market, Fung Group was looking at India and would invest at the appropriate time. Li & Fung Ltd, a publicly listed entity of Fung Group in Hong Kong, has 26 per cent stake in Future Supply Chain Solutions, owned by Future Group. Li & Fung is into trading, distribution and logistics. It does business in 40 countries. Fung Holdings (1937) Ltd, privately owned entity of the families of Victor Fung and William Fung, is a major shareholder. Fung Group employs 46,000 people across 40 countries, with a revenue in 2014 of $24.65 billion. The recent move by Hyundai Motor India to transport cars through sea for the domestic market might have cheered many but not the company which shipped these cars.Ro-Ro (roll on, roll off) in is still not viable, it says. Ports may be harping about this service but we have incurred a loss of 60 percent from this (Chennai-Pipavav) voyage, Kiran Kamat, managing director of Link Shipping & Management Systems, told this newspaper. We are not at all encouraged to remain active in the ro-ro division of . Currently, Link Shipping is the only company in the country with ro-ro vessels; it has two. Last week, it carried 800 Hyundai-made cars from Chennai to Pipavav port in Gujarat. Ro-ro ships are designed to carry wheeled cargo such as cars, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, trailers and railroad cars. These are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels.The MV IDM Symex vessel has a capacity of 4,000 vehicles but carried only 800 cars. We had taken up this assignment since the shipping ministry had promised an incentive of Rs 3,000 per vehicle. But, no incentives have (yet) been given to us. Due to this, I could cover only 40 per cent of my cost. Why should I continue doing this business for the domestic market? said Kamat. Having burnt its fingures, Link Shipping has decided to withdraw its second ro-ro vessel, Maria India, from the domestic market for coastal shipping and deploy it on an export route. We will be sending Maria India on the Mumbai-Rangoon route and are in talks with a domestic automobile maker for this, said Kamat. Officials in the coastal shipping say they're observing. This is just one load in the ro-ro division. We are not sure if business in this segment is viable. If we do not consider help via incentives, then there at least should be a reverse leg project, which means a return cargo to cover the cost, said a senior official with Shreyas Shipping & Logistics. We need to wait-and-watch the developments in this segment. Coastal shipping officials hope the coming Union Budget will have incentives scheme for this segment. They also say the tardy procedures at major ports need to be resolved if business has to kick off in this segment. Procedures at major ports are not only cumbersome but there is also no uniformity across the major ports, said Kamat. For example, at the New Mangalore port, Link Shipping would have to provide a Bill of Coastal Goods (BCG) for every vehicle that went into the ro-ro vessel. However, the Hazira port authorities would accept a list of all vehicles and just a single BCG. Adding: The incentives scheme is not supposed to be a subsidy. Upon the cargo shift from road to sea, the government will surely save on its fuel bill and part of these savings has to be diverted towards the coastal shipping incentive scheme of Rs 3,000 a vehicle. India has a coast line of 7,500 km but carries only about seven per cent of its total domestic cargo via sea. China and Japan carry 20 per cent and 42 per cent of theirs', respectively, via sea and with smaller coast lines. CRMNext, a digital customer relationship management (CRM) company, is looking at acquiring for technology and market expansion as part of its plans to grow CRM business. The company, which caters cloud-based CRM platform to banking, financial services and insurance firms across several countries, is looking at entry into the US market as part of its growth strategy. "We are looking at acquisitions, both in the technology, research and development space to complement our strengths and also for expanding out presence," said Nishant Singh, founder and CEO of the company. It is looking for IP driven acquisitions of 3 kinds, small but good IP with a ticket size of $1-2 million, reasonable size IP that are struggling to scale or have challenges for $4-7 million, and companies that have strong IP and customer-base and will give it entry into important geographies like US, for $10-15 million. The company is planning to enter the US market in near future and has been looking for an acquisition for the market entry, but has not identified any with strong fundamentals, he added. It is expecting the US business, once it is started, would break even in the end of second year and the loss in the first year could be managed from the global profitability. "We're roughly at 7% of global CRM spend, which we hope to reach 20-25% in the next three years, primarily driven by our US market entry," he said. In 2014, the company raised around RS 42 crore from Norvest Venture Partners, according to reports. Singh says that it was more from a validation perspective and the fund is still available with it. In next three years, the company is planning to invest close to $10 million in the new upcoming market. In India, the plans are to become the largest player. "We are currently the third largest player in this space driven purely by IP from our pureplay, cloud digital-CRM platform- Our ambition is to be number 1 in 3 years," said the company official. Infosys and Polaris are the first and second players in the market at present. The company is expecting to continue its growth at 50% year on year. Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), the second-biggest player in the domestic two-wheeler market, is taking a daily production hit of at least 800 vehicles as hundreds of workers keep away from work. A large number of workers in the Japanese automakers Rajasthan (Tapukara) plant went on a strike on February 16, which the company termed illegal. The plant has a capacity to produce 1.2 million two-wheelers a year. A person familiar with the development said the plant normally produced 3,000 two-wheelers a day, but the damage caused by some workers, absence of workers, and the recent Jat agitation had brought output down to 2,200 two-wheelers. LABOURS LOVE LOST HMSIs Tapukara plant losing output of 800 units per day Cumulative loss estimated at 8,000 units Management terms strike illegal Striking workers claim management against union formation Management denies role in union formation Leading automobile unions support striking workers The company claimed workers damaged various units of the plant and disturbed operations seeking reinstatement of four workers whose services were terminated over indiscipline. A striking worker, however, said the incident was plotted to derail the formation of a workers union at the plant. A worker who has resumed work said he saw some fellow workers disrupt production on February 16 and later found damage in the paint shop where the settings of a few robots were disturbed. The striking worker claimed their formal submission to the state labour department in August on forming a union did not go down well with the company. There was an effort to stall the process by influencing workers, he added. The company has no role to play with the process of union formation. Workers are pressing the management for the reinstatement of four workers. We understand a group of workers moved court against alleged manipulation in the process of formation of the proposed union, a company spokesperson said. The court has issued a stay on the matter. The issue of the proposed union is being politicised. We cannot comment any further as the matter is sub-judice, the company said. HSMIs first plant at Manesar (Haryana) has a union. The Tapukara plant is estimated to have 3,000 employees, of which 2,600-2,700 are workers, while the rest are managerial staff. Of the total workers, less than one-fifth (460-470) are permanent. The worker who resumed office said the only difference between a permanent and a casual/contractual worker was the salary. All other benefits like insurance, medical facilities and leave are identical. A permanent workers cost to the company is approximately Rs 26,000 a month, while a casual workers cost-to-company is Rs 14,500 a month. About 1,500 workers have reported for duty while the company is also trying to hire more contractual workers to ramp up production. The striking worker, who is permanent, said at the time of joining all casual workers were told they would qualify for permanent position at the end of three years. However, on completion of three years another six months of probation was added, he added. He said most of the striking workers had not reported to work and had joined the cause of union formation. Hundreds of workers last week carried out demonstrations in front of Hondas corporate office in Gurgaon and were supported by representatives from other leading automobile company unions in the region. Infosys has been terming its 2020 Vision of touching $20 billion in revenues with an operating margin of 30 per cent by fiscal 2020-21 as an aspiration. Now, by extending the tenure of its chief executive & managing director Vishal Sikka that also came with a hefty jump in his annual compensation package, for the first time the board has put a stamp on the vision. Appreciating the changes Sikka has brought in, including improvement in financial performance, it also gave enough indications that his performance would be judged based on the progress he makes towards achieving the targets. On Wednesday, the board extended Sikkas term as CEO and MD till March 31, 2021, as compared with June 13, 2019, primarily to ensure that he continues to stay with the company until it realises its dream. At the same time, the companys nomination and remuneration committees proposed to raise Sikkas compensation package by close to 60 per cent from $7.08 million at present to $11 million (around Rs 76 crore), effective April 1, 2016, when the new contract would be in force. The compensation package includes $1 million in base salary, annual performance-based pay of $3 million, $2 million in restricted stock units and $5 million in performance-based equity and stock options to be granted upon the company achieving certain performance targets. Fiscal year performance targets will be set by the board annually to align with the companys stated goals for financial year 2020-2021 for revenue, margins and revenue per person, the company said in a regulatory filing. Fiscal year 2017 performance targets will be primarily measured against annual board-approved goals set to progress towards the companys stated goals for financial year 2020-2021. This makes Sikka not only one of the best paid CEOs in the Indian IT services industry, but also brings him closer to that of nearest rival Cognizant as well as players like Capgemini and Accenture. In calendar 2014, the total package of Cognizant CEO Francisco Dsouza stood at $11.33 million almost at the same level as it was in the previous year. Even though the 2015 figures are not yet out, Dsouzas total package for the year is expected to have gone up given the companys better-than-expected performance. The remuneration paid to Accenture chairman and CEO Pierre Nanterme stood a little higher. In calendar 2015, he earned $15.77 million in total compensation, including $1.01 million towards salary, $2.99 million as bonus and $11.69 million was awarded as stock, according to different reports. These changes are made in recognition of Dr Sikkas outstanding leadership and role in significantly advancing the company towards realising industry-leading growth in a changing competitive landscape, and to align his remuneration and terms as chief executive officer and managing director to market practice as well as to the companys announced objectives for annual revenue, profit and per person productivity by the financial year 2020-2021, Infosys said in a filing to the US market regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Infosys is steadily trying to get back its lost ground under Sikka by trying to position itself as a next generation services company. To achieve this, the company has set a two-pronged strategy which includes 'renewing its existing services line and offerings and focus on 'new areas. The strategy seems to have started showing results, especially in the performance of the company in the past three quarters. In FY17, the company, as stated earlier, is expected to grow ahead of the industry, which Nasscom has pegged at 12-14 per cent. Discussions about Vishals new pay package threaten to mask the reasons why his term was extended. There is a sea change in the perceptions of stakeholders and the morale of employees. A spiral of negativity and notions of an executive merry-go-round appear to be in the distant past, said Reuner. Vishal has been able to provide Infosys a clear vision and strategy towards achieving industry leading financial performance...., Chairman of the BoardI am so happy that the man who represents big money and a great intellectual competency is coming to us. Therefore, it is truly extraordinary....., Founder, on his appointment The state government's labour department is holding talks with employee representatives and the management to end the lockout at Tata Marcopolo's vehicle factory at Dharwad, biggest industrial unit in north Karnataka. The unit, a joint venture of India's largest automobile maker, Tata Motors, and Marcopolo of Brazil, which produces buses and small trucks, has been shut since February 6. The management had said it feared damage to property due to striking workers. Conciliation is the only way to go. It will be resolved with mutual agreement," said the government's additional chief secretary (labour), P B Ramamurthy. Krantikari Kamgar Union, officially termed an "external union", with the older one which is recognised by the management opposing the strike, has sought reinstatement of workers dismissed earlier on disciplinary issues. The union held a massive rally in Hubbali-Dharwad last month, seeking local support. Tata Marcopolo Employees Union is the official union and not for the strike. The state, Ramamurthy said, had resolved disputes with workers union in Toyota and Bosch factories in the past 18 months through talks. The self-proclaimed office bearers of the Krantikari Kamgar Union, an outfit not recognised by the company on technical and legal grounds, insisted on participating and eventually prevented any meaningful dialogue taking place, Tata Motors said. We have reiterated our commitment to our operations in Dharwad, as well as to the well-being and safety of our employees," Tata Motors stated. "We also remain committed to finding a long-term and fair solution to the current situation, without any compromise on discipline, safety, productivity and quality." The company said the government and administration officials were supportive of its concerns and were helping to resolve the issue. "We remain hopeful that a solution may be found soon, that will allow us to go back to production," it said. Vijay Mallya, who built United Spirits as Indias largest liquor company, has exited the company after he sewed a deal with its majority owner Diageo that absolves him from claims over fund diversion from the liquor firm to other UB group firms, including Kingfisher Airlines. Diageo will pay $75 million or nearly Rs 500 crore over five years to Mallya to bind him with a non-interference, non-compete contract, globally except in the United Kingdom, sealing his fate as a liquor baron in the near future. In addition, the firms vodka brand Smirnoff has committed $75 million as a sponsor to Force India Formula 1 team, co-owned by Mallya for five seasons. MALLYAS EXIT PLAN Mallya gets $ 75 million over five years, $40 million first year Non-compete pact (except in the UK), non-interference for five years Mallya cannot buy shares in USL or Diageo for five years Smirnoff to sponsor Force 1 Formula team for five seasons for $75 million Diageo/USL insulated from all dealings/liabilities with Mallya USL to sell 13 residential properties, first option for Mallya to buy at market price Diageo will not press for $141 million loan guarantee given to Watson, a Mallya firm With his resignation, Dr Mallya no longer has any authority or responsibility in USL, said USLs head of corporate relations, Abanti Sankaranarayanan over a conference call. The deal ends a bitter boardroom battle that began in April 2015, when the board of United Spirits sought to evict Mallya over the irregularities that cost the firm Rs 7,200 crore in losses. At the same time, Mallya has insulated Diageo and USL from any legal challenges, arising out his disputes with banks over his defaults. The United Spirits stock has gained 17.5 per cent over the past week, while the Sensex declined 2.85 per cent. The USL stock closed at Rs 2,664.75, up Rs 71.30 or 2.75 per cent on Thursday ahead of the deal announcement with Mallya. Mallya holds 3.99 per cent stake in USL with nearly half pledged with banks and is prohibited to buy additional shares in the company for five years. The time has now come for me to move on and end all the publicised allegations and uncertainties about my relationship with Diageo and United Spirits Limited. Accordingly, I am resigning my position with immediate effect, Mallya said in a statement. I am pleased to have been able to agree terms with Diageo and United Spirits Limited. The agreement we have reached secures my family legacy. Mallya, a Rajya Sabha MP who had hinted at quitting USL and retire in December last when he turned 60, plans to spend more time closer to his children in England. He earns the title of founder emeritus, USL and chief mentor of T20 cricket team Royal Challengers, while his son Sidhartha would be on the board of the cricket team for two years. India is an exciting growth opportunity, and USL has the management team, strategy and capability to deliver on that opportunity. The agreement announced today is in the best interests of both Diageo and USL and allows USL to build on its strong platform in one of the biggest spirits markets in the world, Ivan Menezes, chief executive of Diageo, said in a filing in the London Stock Exchange. It also brings to an end the uncertainty relating to the companys governance. This will allow the company to prosper and build on the great platform that we have already created in this exciting market, said USL Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Anand Kripalu in a statement. While Diageo gets a deal from Mallya, a consortium of banks that Mallya owes Rs 8,700 crore are struggling to get their money back. State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and United Bank of India have declared Mallya as wilful defaulter, which the liquor baron is contesting. The loans were taken to run Kingfisher Airlines, which Mallya started on the 18th birthday of his son Sidhartha Mallya and the failure of the airline literally caused Mallya his empire. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The heated discussion of the Armenian Genocide at Bundestag did not terminate with voting. Armenpress reports, citing Public Radio of Armenia, it was decided to withdraw the resolution for amendments as a result of opposing positions and assessments between the ruling coalition and the Alliance 90/The Greens, author of the resolution. At the end of the discussion, which lasted longer than the in advance planned 45 minutes, the voting on the resolution came into question as the ruling coalition of Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union found that it is not the proper time to adopt the bill and proposed to continue the discussions in the coming weeks to prepare a new finalized document until April 24, 2016. Left-wing forces that conduct pro-Armenian policy in terms of Genocide abstained too, announcing that they are not satisfied with this form of the resolution and they will prepare and submit their own resolution prior to April 24. As a result of all that happened Chairman of the Alliance 90/The Greens Cem Ozdemir brought forward preconditions for withdrawing the resolution: the new document must be submitted before April 24 and must include 3 clear provisions: 1. It must assess the events of 1915 as genocide, accept Germanys role in the massacre and contribute to the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations. Before that the representatives of the ruling coalition mentioned in their speeches that they are not interested in jeopardizing negotiations with Turkey over refugee inflow. Cem Ozdemir strictly condemned the position of not driving Erdogan angry. Worth mentioning that at the end of the discussions Chancellor Angela Merkel was passing by the MPs representing the coalition and talking to them over the issue. In 2005, Germany's parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. However, in the Bundestags decision, the term Armenian Genocide was avoided, and instead "massacres of Armenians" was used. In March of 2015, the President of the German Parliament Norbert Lammert said: "what happened in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War in front of the whole world, was genocide. And it was not the last genocide of the 20th century. " On April 24, before the Bundestag hearings, Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced that he supports those MPs, who are in favor of calling the mass killings of Armenians Genocide. On April 23, during the ceremony in the Berlin Cathedral dedicated to the memory of the Armenian Genocide, German President Joachim Gauck used the term Genocide in his speech. An earlier iron ore mine allotment to Tata Steel by the Chhattisgarh government in Dantewada district has been cancelled, for not completing the prospecting work within the stipulated period. The state government had allotted 2,500 hectares of iron ore-bearing land in 2008, to feed the company's proposed steel making unit in Bastar district, with an annual capacity of five million tonnes (mt). Tata had signed an agreement with the government for the project. A prospecting licence was issued for the mine, having an estimated reserve of 108 mt of high-grade ore. The prospecting work was to be completed in five years. They failed to complete the prospecting work within the set time, following which the agreement for allocation of the mine stands cancelled, state industries secretary Subodh Kumar Singh told this newspaper. Under the new policy, the mine cannot be re-allocated; it must be put for auction. If Tata wants it back, said Singh, they'd have to participate in the auction. This development hits the plan for the Bastar plant. The five mt unit would have meant investment of at least Rs 20,000 crore. The mine was about 100 km away. Land for the plant had been acquired by the government and transferred to the indstries department, which was to then lease it to Tata Steel. Abhay Narayan Singh, local head of Tata Steel, did not take a telephone or respond to a message for the companys version on the issue. A team of Delhi Police took Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) President Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in connection with a case of sedition, to an undisclosed location after he was sent to police custody for a day, from Tihar jail. The student leader was moved out of Tihar jail at around 8.30 pm for questioning, a senior police officer said without disclosing the location where Kanhaiya was taken by the cops. The police had applied for the production of a warrant for Kumar on Wednesday, on the ground that it was necessary to confront him, along with the other two Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, in view of the discripencies in their statements regarding the controversial JNU event. Kanhaiyas counsel while opposing the custody said there was no connection between Kumar and the other two students arrested in the case as they belong to different student wings. Kumar was arrested on February 12, a day after a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy was registered at Vasant Kunj (North) Police Station in connection with an event in the varsity's campus in which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. In a gesture reminiscent of the blank editorial spaces with which some newspapers responded to censorship during the Emergency, NDTV India anchor Ravish Kumar turned off the lights in his studio last Friday. He showed viewers a dark screen and asked them to reflect on a sound track filled with snarling, hectoring voices from TV debates on some of the country's leading national channels, one unnamed but instantly recognisable voice being that of Times Now's Arnab Goswami. What made the show work - it has since gone viral on social media -- was not just Kumars shock tactics but his palpable sincerity. Kumar came across, not as an anchor trying to score points against rivals, but as a journalist reflecting, with sorrow and a sense of urgency, on the poison that has been seeping into his professional world -- the world of Indian television. Describing, without visuals, the hyper-nationalist rage whipped up by some TV anchors against the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, he managed to evoke both horror and revulsion. That is clearly what he wanted his viewers to feel. Ask yourself, he said in Hindi, Why are you watching what we are showing. If TRPs are our goal, why are you our fellow-travellers on this journey? However, speaking of his own fraternity, Kumar said, I know that I will carry on doing what I am doing. Nothing will change, and nor can I change. You only need to flick channels for an hour or two every evening to realize how determined some of his tribe are to prove that grim prognosis right. Two weeks into the JNU trouble, channels like Times Now, News X and Zee TV, to name a few, are still whipping up resentment, despite the vigilantism, violence and prejudice to which JNU students have been subjected, all the way from being beaten up in court to being refused rides by auto-drivers. Across these channels, the talking points are so similar, that you are almost tempted to believe an inter-channel cabal convenes daily in a war-room to plan new incitements against "anti national" students. Thus, having wrung dry the tragedy of Lance Naik Hanumanthappa, who perished after an ordeal at Siachen, Zee and others were busy this week putting soldiers killed in the Pampore encounter to similar use, juxtaposing images of slogan shouting students with those of army widows weeping helplessly with heads laid on their husbands' coffins, and claiming disrespect by JNU students of the martyrs. Is there no regret? demanded Goswami, invoking both Pampore and worshippers of Afzal Guru. There should be a sense of regret, remorse, sadness. Several channels were also hard at work drumming up anger this week over the police not entering the JNU campus to arrest students, waiting for them to surrender, instead. News X anchor Rahul Shivshankar, who clearly models himself on Goswami, thundered: There is a complete lockdown, a complete free hand given to anti-nationals to hold hostage the law of this country. (Note: not even the fig leaf of an alleged here.) Goswami declared, JNU is not the Vatican, JNU is not a sovereign country, and sneered, He (Umar Khalid), wants a helicopter to come into JNU and airlift him to the high court? The TV media trial of Khalid continues apace. Even though the case against him is yet to be established, for TVs patriots, its enough that he considers Afzal Gurus hanging a judicial murder. The Economic and Political Weekly drew attention in a recent editorial to the regression in public norms of free speech, recalling that during the trial of Afzal Guru, and after his execution in 2011, it was still possible to discuss whether or not he got a fair trial, but one can no longer do so without being accused of expressing anti-national views. There is a daily dramatisation of this sad reality on television, in the demonising of Khalid, in mocking phrases used by anchors like Afzal-lovers and Afzal-leaguers, in the equating of pro-Afzal with anti-India. Scared, perhaps, of being ritually humiliated on live TV, even panelists taking liberal views on the JNU matter are falling over themselves to preface their remarks by saying, I hold no brief for Afzal. It is not just debate, but poetry, too, that is being murdered in some TV studios. Even before the urban development minister, speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, took umbrage at the term Country Without a Post Office, News X had already grossly caricatured the poem by this name, the work of the internationally acclaimed Agha Shahid Ali, as a homage to the 1990 first Kashmiri intifada. And, of course, asked whether JNU students, by borrowing the title of the poem for their February 9 event, were justifying the Kashmiri uprising of 1991 against the Indian state. While the few daring to say that students should be allowed to be contrarian are shouted down, retired military officials with craggy faces and booming voices are not just being pumped up as poster boys for patriotism, but are being allowed by some anchors to get away with prepostereous statements like a new front has been opened up by Pakistan inside our universities. On Zee TV, one retired general even got away with staunchly defending home minister Rajnath Singhs much-ridiculed claim that JNU protestors had the support of Pakistani jehadis. Its worth noting that no media body has, to date, taken a stand against these channels' incendiary coverage on JNU. However, individuals commentators have done so - in the mainstream, online and social media - to which the errant channels are responding with either denial or invective. Take, for example, the troubling matter of a clearly doctored video that falsely portrays JNU Student Union (JNUSU) President Kanhaiya Kumar, in jail facing charges of sedition, as shouting slogans demanding Kashmirs independence, which several TV channels have aired. Last week, shortly after the news portal, The Wire named Zee TV, NewsX, India News and Times Now as being some of the channels that aired this video, Times Nows Goswami responded with flat denial. According to a report by The Wires editor, Siddharth Varadarajan, Goswami called him to tell him he had actually stopped Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Sambit Patra from showing the video (on his tablet) on his programme. The channel even ran a note on TV accusing The Wire of getting things wrong. But it turned out, in the end, that it was Goswami who had been economical with the truth. In the official recording of the programme, he can be clearly heard asking Patra to show the video, and even asking his camera to zoom in on it. Where Goswami chose denial, Shivshankar ranted on his programme against journalists of dubious antecedents holding kangaroo courts dissecting footage without following the basic principles of evaluation. Zee TVs Sudhir Chaudhary pitched it even louder on his prime time show, DNA, on Tuesday, repeatedly calling Zee's critics the media ka Afzal premi gang (the Afzal-Guru loving gang in the media). Now that is indeed abuse tailor-made for the age of ultra-nationalism. Chronic and slow construction halted the speed of Bihar's economic development. The state has clocked 9.4 per cent growth in 2014-15, which almost equal to previous year's growth rate. However, the state performed fairly well in terms of growth of enterprises and telecommunication. Moreover, the power availability has also improved in last couple of financial years, with the state government continued push on transmission and distribution sector. On the other hand, despite its best effort to increase the per capita income, the average income in Bihar is 40 percent of the national average. According to the state's economic survey, which was tabled on Thursday in state assembly, Bihar continues to rank at the lowest rung of the table of the per capita income. "Our growth performance has been steady in last decade," said Finance Minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui, "During 2005-06 to 2014-15, our state has grown annually at 10.5 per cent, which is one of the highest among all Indian states. In last five years, agriculture, industry, trade and services sector have grown at a commendable rate. Our fiscal deficit has grown from Rs. 3,970 crore to Rs. 11,178 crore, which means we have invested more on asset creation. Still, we are comfortably under the limit of 3 per cent, as per the FRBM Act provisions. We want central government's help in further development of Bihar." Read more from our special coverage on "DROUGHT" Odishas food grain output may plunge 40% However, a closer look at the survey figures shows that the picture is not all rosy. The growth in Primary sector, which includes agriculture and allied activities, has been 4.3 percent in last fiscal. This is one of the lowest in recent years, next to only FY 2013-14 when the sector clocked a negative growth rate. In Enterprises sector, the manufacturing sector grew at a little over 5 percent, a reflection of the slower growth in the national economic. The biggest dragger was the slowing down of construction sector, where the growth has been of only 10 percent whereas in the previous year the sector clocked 15 percent growth. Even as fresh notice to Vodafone has brought back fears of retrospective taxation among investors, the government may find it tough to remove the clauses from the statute. Experts say while amending the laws in this regard wouldn't be legally very complex, it would require strong political will. Also, now that there are several cases in various courts, it would make sense for the law to be changed after the disputes are resolved. "There are a few cases on this issue pending at various stages and if they change the law again, it will have to be with retro effect and cases pending at various stages will suffer," said Neeru Ahuja, Deloitte Haskins & Sells. She, however, added that a formal amendment doesn't matter since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has promised a non-adversarial tax regime. "Besides, as a government or sovereign country, we cannot give up our right to tax anyone. There cannot be a blanket withdrawal," she said. John Hobster, global head, transfer pricing, EY, told Business Standard in an interview a few months ago that international investors were concerned that retro tax still remained in the books. "There are huge concerns of taxpayers - our clients - any time that retrospective legislation is put in anywhere. This is not just an Indian matter. But of course the highest profile and most recent developments related to retrospective taxing measures took place in India," he had said. BLAST FROM THE PAST Even as fresh notice to Vodafone brought back retro tax fears among investors, the government may find it tough to remove it from law Experts argue that while it may not have any legal complexity, the move will require a strong political will Besides the fact that there are cases based on retro tax going on, it would make sense for the change to be made after those are settled Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in Washington last year that he cannot override parliamentary sovereignty. "I can't bring a law that says Indian Parliament loses its right to ever enact a law retrospectively. Even if I did that, it would be illegal." Vishal Malhotra, partner - tax, EY said, while it may not be legally difficult to roll back retro tax, it will require strong political will. Moreover, a clarification will have to be issued over the earlier amendment that gave the government power to tax retrospectively, which may not be easy to explain. "The retro provision was introduced by way of a clarification by the then government that they always intended to tax it. So it will probably have to clarify that the last clarification was incorrect, which could be a little complex. Also, it could be politically sensitive," he said. On February 4, the I-T department issued Vodafone a reminder over its Rs 14,200-crore tax demand and threatened to seize the company's assets in case of non-payment. The government defended the reminder notice as "a routine exercise of sending collection notice to all those whose dues are not stayed by any court." The British telecom major has challenged the tax demand over its acquisition of 67 per cent stake in Hutchison, now called Vodafone India, arguing that no tax was due as the transaction took place offshore. The Narendra Modi government has promised a predictable, stable and non-adversarial tax regime to investors but hasn't withdrawn the controversial retrospective amendment of the income tax law introduced in 2012 by the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is now the President of India. Amit Maheshwari, managing partner, Ashok Maheshwary & Associates, said the Finance Minister should take out the provisions from the statute. "The recent tax demand has made the matters worse and it would be best to close this issue as it has not yielded any revenue till date. I think the reason for still keeping this provision in the statute could be that the government was hoping of some recoveries," he added. Service charge, user charge and convenience fee paid by gateways and vendors on online or card payments will be waived once steps approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday come into effect. Also, above a threshold, one has to make payment online or through cards. The move would discourage cash payment and help tax authorities get leads on evasion. The Cabinet approved various steps in this regard to be taken in a year to two years to boost these payments. Service charge is currently levied by payment gateways and paid to the government. The vendor using a payment gateway also pays a convenience charge. On credit cards, it is 1-2.5 per cent. The move will help the government in carrying out its financial inclusion programmes digitally. It will help reduce transaction cost and encourage electronic mode of payment, facilitating the financial inclusion agenda of the government, said Kalpesh Mehta, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells. The official statement explained the promotion of payments through cards and digital means will be instrumental in reducing tax avoidance, migration of government payments and collections to a cashless mode. To give a perspective, 569 million transactions were made till December of the current financial year, with payments worth Rs 67.75 lakh crore. The infrastructure of card and digital payments is growing but remains modest in comparison to cash payments. For card and digital payments to increase, these should be easy to use, readily available and accepted, should not impose any undue financial burden on the merchant and user, and should offer an appropriate level of security. The evidence indicates penetration and success of card and digital payment products and services is concentrated to a large extent in tier-l and tier-ll locations, mostly to citizens with access to the formal banking channels. Introduction of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007,s resulted in deeper acceptance and penetration of modern card and digital payment systems. An Aadhaar Enabled Payment Systems has been brought to leverage upon biometric verification and a domestic card network, RuPay. The Reserve Bank of India recently approved licences for setting up of payments banks, with the objective of greater financial inclusion to migrant labour, low income households, small businesses and other unorganised sector entities. This would help card and online payment to spread among the poorer strata. As a debate intensifies whether the government would be able to stick to already-deferred fiscal consolidation plans for 2016-17 or not, India Ratings said windfall gain from might help the government sail through. However, it said there would be a fiscal slippage as the deficit would be 4.1 per cent of GDP against the targeted 3.9 per cent due to lower growth of nominal GDP. In a note, India Ratings wanted the government to give priority to reviving investment, while focusing on revenue-augmenting measures to prune fiscal deficit. It believed that the government might raise service tax rate to 16 per cent from the current 14 per cent. There is a possibility of the government making a windfall gain in non-tax revenue if telecom takes place in FY17. This might help the government adhere to the 3.5 per cent of GDP fiscal deficit target for the year, despite implementing the pay commission award. HELPING THE FISCAL MATH As a debate intensifies whether the government would be able to stick to fiscal consolidation plans, India Ratings said windfall gain from might help the government sail through However, it said there would be a fiscal slippage as the deficit would be 4.1 per cent of GDP against the targeted 3.9 per cent due to lower growth of nominal GDP In a note, India Ratings wanted the government to give priority to reviving investment, while focusing on revenue-augmenting measures to prune fiscal deficit It believed the government might raise service tax rate to 16 per cent from the current 14 per cent "Having attained macro economic stability, though largely due to the collapse of global commodity prices, especially oil, the top priority should be revival of the investment cycle," said the rating agency, part of the Fitch group. It said capital expenditure in FY16 rose 25.5 per cent over the revised estimate in FY15 but as a percentage of GDP, was stuck at 1.7 per cent. It needed to be at two per cent. "With two monsoon failures, rural distress has increased. Although a number of schemes such as 'soil health card scheme', agri-tech infrastructure fund, a technology driven protein revolution, a price stabilisation fund, and the Prime Minister's irrigation scheme, with a focus on micro irrigation and watershed development, are at various stages of implementation, the government cannot relax on this front," it added. For augmenting revenue, enhancing tax compliance and reducing disputes, the best way is to implement the proposed Direct Taxes Code (DTC) and the national goods and services tax (GST) at the earliest, it said. "As the fate of DTC is not known, implementing the GST appears to be the only way out for accelerating tax revenue." Although IndRa would like a firm commitment about introduction of GST in the FY17 budget, its destiny is likely to be determined by politics than economics, it conceded. India Inc will watch for the fiscal stance, on whether the government chooses to loosen its purse or continue to consolidate, it felt. If the government decides to increase spending, will it be rightly channelised into capital investments remains a challenge. "The budget will need to focus on the commodity-driven sectors by providing protection measures, since these are stressed due to the collapse in global demand and oversupply," it said. Public sector banks (PSBs), backbone of the economy, require a well-defined path of recapitalisation till 2019. IndRa's calculation shows PSBs would need Rs 3.7 lakh crore of infusion in FY17-19 for capital adequacy under the Basel-III norms. IndRa, therefore, believed higher budgetary support would be critical for the health of PSBs. Particularly when their internal accruals are low, equity valuations have eroded and the risk of further slippage on exposure to highly levered companies is high. It says it will watch for additional allocations to the Mudra Bank or expansion of the latter's scope. \"We also eagerly await details on the implementation of bank board bureaus, announced last year,\" it said. On sector-specific expectations, it said the infrastructure sector would be a priority for the government. The focus would be on deepening the infrastructure debt market, providing a larger role to infrastructure debt funds and India Infrastructure Finance Company, a push to activate infrastructure investment trusts and reworking the private-public partnership structure to make it more viable. Dedicated Freight Corridor project to be Given high priority . . The Minister of Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has said that the Dedicated Freight Corridor project, the largest infrastructure project in the country, is gaining momentum. Presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17 in Parliament today, he said it is proposed to take up the following freight corridors: North-South connecting Delhi to Chennai, East-West connecting Kharagpur to Mumbai & East Coast connecting Kharagpur to Vijayawada. He said, it is proposed to put these three projects on high priority to ensure structuring, award and implementation in a time-bound manner through innovative financing mechanisms including PPP. He said that before this financial year closes, almost all the contracts for civil engineering works would have been awarded. He said, since he assumed office, contracts worth Rs. 24,000 crore have been awarded against Rs 13,000 crore worth of contracts in the last 6 years. . . The Minister said, given the emphasis on rapid expansion of freight business, it is essential to build more dedicated freight corridors for increased traffic with consequent benefits for the economy and environment. . . President of India to visit Kerala from February 26 to 27 . . The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee will visit Kerala from February 26 to 27, 2016. . . On February 26, 2016, the President will inaugurate the 200th Anniversary of CMS College at Kottayam. On the same day, he will also inaugurate the valedictory function of celebrations of 155th Anniversary of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 at Kochi organized by the Directorate of Prosecution, Government of Kerala. . . On February 27, 2016, the President will inaugurate the Muziris Heritage Project at Kodungalloor implemented by the State Government with the support of the Central Government (Muziris was a large port of the ancient times on West Coast of Kerala). Before returning to New Delhi, he will also launch various schemes of Government of Kerala at a function at Kozhikode. These include dedication of Kerala as Digital State, launch of a Digital Empowerment Campaign, opening of the UL Cyber Park, the first Cyber Park established by a labour cooperative; inauguration of a Gender Park and launch of the Kanivu (Compassion) Scheme. . . Railways to provide 17000 Bio-Toilets in Trains under Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat Mission . . The Minister of Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that in pursuance of our mission Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat, that Indian Railways will provide 17,000 bio-toilets in trains and additional toilets at 475 stations before the close of this financial year. Presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17 in Parliament today he said, worlds first Bio-Vacuum toilet developed by the Indian Railways is being used in Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express. He said, 74 more trains have been added under On-board Housekeeping Service and another 400 are to be covered soon, leading to a total number of almost 1000 trains under the scheme. . . Referring to punctuality performance of passenger trains, he said it has been a matter of concern for several decades. The Minister said, Indian Railways has a porous network which leads to rampant infiltration by humans and animals. Problems are compounded by congestion in tracks, terminal capacity constraints and asset failures. He said, the worst affected is the busy Ghaziabad to Mughalsarai section through Allahabad and Kanpur which spreads across three Zonal Railways thereby impacting the overall punctuality of the entire network. Shri Prabhu said, the Railways has initiated the audit of operations on this section to improve its performance. Some improvement is already visible and capacity augmentation in the medium term will further reduce the delays. He said, besides internal reasons, there are also external reasons such as agitations on railway tracks, which lead to punctuality losses. He appealed to fellow citizens to desist from this as it causes loss, not only to the nation but also to them as passengers. . . On ticketing, the Minister said that last year he had announced Operation Five Minutes to enable passengers to purchase tickets without spending long hours in queues. In this context the Railways has introduced 1,780 Automatic Ticket Vending Machines and 225 cash-coin & smart card operated ticket vending machines. It has enhanced capacity of e-ticketing system from 2000 tickets per minute to 7,200 tickets per minute and to support 1,20,000 concurrent users as against only 40,000 earlier and introduced mobile based apps for purchasing unreserved and platform tickets and GoIndia smart card scheme for cashless purchase of UTS and PRS tickets. . . Mans capacity for justice makes Democracy Possible, but Mans Inclination to INJUSTICE makes Democracy NECESSARYReinhold Nie-Uhir The Federal Troops murdered Innocent men, women and children in their thousands at Asaba. Asaba lost in few months university graduates, PhD holders among them were Permanent secretaries, medical doctors, lawyers, teachers, professionals, clergy men and missionaries. It remains the only war and genocide of such magnitude without a monument of remembranceUnited Nations Observer, Canadian M.P, Stephen Lewis, London Guardian, October 11, 1968. The Federal Troops assumed that the people of Asaba were Igbos and gave support to OPERATION TOUCH. The people of Asaba suffered more than any other southern tribe in terms of human and material losses. Chief Tayo Akpati, former secretary, petroleum trust fund, The Guardian, July 17, 1997. Benin was the capital of the mid-western states with a high concentration of Asaba-born technocrats, bureaucrats, and professionals who met their untimely end at the hands of federal troops and other accomplicesthere appeared a fleeting period of lunacy in which mid-westerners gladly identified Ahaba people to be shot down by federal troops on the so called liberation day in Benin. It was the first Black On Black genocide in post independence Africa . Midwest Solicitor General, Giwa Amu, The Nigerian Obsrever, March 16, 1983. The civil war was one of the worst and under reported event in Nigerian History, thanks to the PATRIOTISM of the Nigerian Journalists..the result of the massacres for most part were not to happen since there was a political consensus between the press and the politicians led by Chief Anthony Enahoro.a man who was part of both, He was the Nigerian war time minister of information. Lewis Obi, African Concord , Cover Story, The Asaba Massacre, August 4, 1997 The Ahaba Man became the most vulnerable Nigerian. It required ten positive acts of loyalty to one of the rest of the nation to prove themselves human being. Ever since the Mid-western invasion, they (Ahaba People) had been hounded, killed and considered the greatest security risks than the rest Igbos. Noble Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, The Man Died. Two New Corridors Planned for Mumbai Suburban Train . . Ring Railway System in Delhi to be Reviewed . . Suburban Systems to be developed in Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram . . The Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu while presenting Railway Budget 2016-17 in Parliament today said that two new corridors for Mumbai suburban train viz. Churchgate- Virar and CSTM Panvel has been planned. The two corridors will be elevated and will greatly help in reducing the congestion of the Suburban trains. The CSTM Panvel corridor will be integrated with metro lines for connecting Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport. all low level platforms in Mumbai suburban stations in the ensuing financial year to address safety concerns. . . Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu also said that ongoing Metro works in Kolkata of around 100 kms which when completed would quadruple the installed capacity. He was happy to announce that Phase I of East West corridor of Kolkata Metro would be completed by June 2018. . . Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu proposed to review the Ring Railway system in Delhi, comprising 21 stations in partnership with the State Government. He suggested a new investment framework in which Indian Railways would share equity contribution with the State Governments to ensure cost neutrality on operations. . . Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu proposed to develop suburban systems of Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Chennai by deploying innovative financing mechanisms. He said that Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram warrants a comprehensive suburban system. He appealed to the State Governments to work towards staggering of office timings to reduce peak load on suburban traffic. . . GG/AK DERIVATIVE STRATEGIES TATA MOTORS: SELL TARGET: Rs 298 STOP LOSS: Rs 310.90 SELL TATA MOTORS FUTURES at Rs 307 [STOCHASTICS SELL+BELOW MOVING AVERAGES + BELOW PREVIOUS CLOSE] IDEA CELLULAR: SELL TARGET: Rs 99.90 STOPLOSS: Rs 108.70 SELL IDEA CELLULAR FUTURES at Rs 105 [VOLUME JUMP +BELOW MOVING AVERAGES + STOCHASTICS SELL] Disclaimer: This report has been prepared by Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Limited (GBNPP), here in after referred to as GBNPP. GBNPP, a publicly listed company, is engaged in services of retail broking, credit, portfolio management and marketing investment products including mutual funds, life and general insurance and properties. Each recipient of this report should make such investigation as it deems necessary to arrive at an independent evaluation of an investment in the securities of companies referred to in this report (including the merits and risks involved). This document is not for public distribution and has been furnished to you solely for your information and must not be reproduced or redistributed to any other person. Persons into whose possession this document may come are required to observe these restrictions. Opinion expressed herein is our current opinion as of the date appearing on this report only. While we endeavor to update on a reasonable basis the information discussed in this material, there may be regulatory, compliance, or other reasons that prevent us from doing so. Prospective investors and others are cautioned that any forward-looking statements are not predictions and may be subject to change without notice. The price of cotton in the international market is now the lowest since August 2009. This is mainly due to the threat that China (till now a big importer) might offload its reserve cotton in the global markets, said Prerana Desai, vice-president at Edelweiss Integrated Commodity Management. Cotton futures on the Intercontinental Exchange are down 16 per cent from last July. This would make further export by India unviable. So far this cotton year, India has exported 4.4 million bales (170 kg each). The Cotton Advisory Board was expecting seven mn bales of export this year. At present, export is taking place to Pakistan and Bangladesh. With falling global prices and farmers holding huge stock, and expecting higher demand due to a lower crop, offloading has begun, say trade sources. Prices in the local market have fallen to Rs 33,400 a candy (356 kg) or Rs 9,364 a quintal. Edelweiss, the financial consultancy, expects the downside to Indian prices would be limited. For, at lower prices, demand from exporters and millers will increase. Public sector lender IDBI Bank has priced its equity shares to be issued to Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) at Rs 53.44 a share. The size of the equity on offer is Rs 1,500 crore. The Mumbai-based lender plans to issue 280.6 million shares of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 43.44 a share to LIC on a preferential basis. The price has been fixed according to the Securities and Exchange Board of Indias formula. It would seek shareholders nod for the offering at a meeting scheduled in March, according to a communication to the BSE. IDBI Banks shares closed flat at Rs 56.20 on the BSE. The bank is raising money through fresh issue of equity shares to meet capital requirements for business growth. It would also help to maintain capital adequacy ratio, especially after making provision for non-performing assets and stressed loans. Its capital adequacy ratio was 13 per cent with Tier-I capital of 8.71 per cent, at end of December 2015. After the offering, LIC would hold 19.18 per cent stake in IDBI Bank, up from 7.24 per cent. The Indian governments shareholding would decline to 69.84 per cent from 80.16 per cent. IDBI Bank said it had done road shows for its qualified institutional placement (QIP) offering for equity shares worth Rs 3,771 crore. While there was good investor interest for the QIP, it decided to differ the offering due to adverse market conditions. The government, the lenders majority shareholder, had already infused Rs 2,229 crore in the bank in 2015. The lender had reported a loss of Rs 2,183 crore in the third quarter ended December 2015 on huge provisions for bad loans. It had posted net profit of Rs 327 crore in October-December 2014. Nifty on Thursday ended at its lowest level since May 12, 2014 (21-month low), after the railway budget failed to cheer up investors. Falling for a third day, the 50-share index dropped 48 points, or 0.7 per cent, to close at 6,971. The Sensex closed at 22,976, down 113 points, or 0.5 per cent, only 24 points shy of a new 21-month low. The decline came despite a re-bound in most global markets after three days of fall. But China's market fell six per cent and oil prices continued to remain sluggish, keeping traders nervous. Domestically, the increase in expenditure announced in the railway budget, expiry of February series derivatives contracts, and scepticism over the Union Budget on Monday, weighed on investor sentiment. Foreign investors pulled out nearly Rs 1,500 crore from stocks on Thursday, provisional data showed. Domestic investors provided some buying support - net buying shares worth Rs 800 crore. Yogesh Radke, ?head of quantitative research, Edelweiss Capital, attributed Thursday's weakness to the futures-and-options expiry. "Rollovers this time were on the upper side. But, the momentum continues to remain bearish. A positive surprise in the Union Budget will be good for the market," said Radke. "On the lower side, a level of 6,650 on the Nifty will be a key support." Investors carried more than 68 per cent of their February contracts to the next month, versus a three-month average of 71 per cent on expiry. Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday proposed increasing the expenditure for the world's fourth-largest network by 21 per cent to Rs 1.2 lakh crore. He said he would focus on completing the ongoing projects rather than announcing new ones. The railway budget comes before Monday's Union Budget. Market players said investors have turned cautious ahead of the Union Budget and will keenly watch how the government balances growth and fiscal deficit. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect finance minister Arun Jaitley to meet the government's fiscal deficit target for the financial year ending March, while slightly pushing back next year's goal to 3.6 per cent of gross domestic product. The Sensex is down 7.6 per cent in February, and is set for the worst monthly fall since November 2011. Foreign investors have pulled out around $680 million from stocks this month, extending their year-to-date selling to $2.5 billion. Among blue-chip stocks, Tata Motors fell 2.6 per cent to its lowest level since February 11. Larsen & Toubro, engineering company, slid for a fourth day. Maruti Suzuki India, carmaker, declined 2.2 per cent and GAIL India plunged 2.8 per cent. hit a lifetime high of Rs 215, up 3% on the BSE in an otherwise rangebound market today. In past three months, the stock rallied 41% from Rs 152 on November 20, after the company announced alliance with Ricoh India, to provide Managed Print Service (MPS) on a Pay per Unit (PpP) model to the un-served and under-served geographies in India through various Kendras. The S&P BSE Sensex down 10% during the same period. The company earlier this month announced that its Corporate Agency has tied up with Tata AIG General Insurance Company, a joint venture between Tata Group and American International Group (AIG). The tie up will help to distribute quality general insurance products through distribution network, the company said in a media release. Vakrangee said the company intends to become long term debt free by March 2016. From FY2016-17 onwards, the board has approved to maintain a dividend pay-out in the range of 15%-20% of profits after tax on consolidated financials. Going forward, the companys plans to focus on Vakrange Kendra outlet business which currently contributes around 50% of the total revenues. Vakrangee Kendra business has low capex requirement and low working capital requirement. At 10:31 AM, the stock was up 2% at Rs 212 on the BSE. A combined 721,000 shares changed hands on the counter on the BSE and NSE so far. has moved higher by 7% to Rs 75 on the BSE after the Rail Budget proposed to setup CCTV for surveillance. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in Railway Budget said that the government will ensure CCTV coverage at all Tatkal counters to prevent abuse of system where passengers are denied tickets. engaged in the business of electronic security systems. The company offers customised solutions to meet security needs of the customers in the application areas such as Instrusion & Burglar Alarm, Access Control, Fire Detection, CCTV Surveillance, Electronic Article Surveillance, Remote Video Surveillance, Integrated Building Management, Car Park Management and Smart Card Solutions. The above systems are designed to meet the security needs of residential, retail, commercial and industrial customers. At 12:54 PM, the stock was up 5% at Rs 73.35 on the BSE as compared to 0.25% decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 94,539 shares changed hands on the counter on the BSE and NSE. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said India has apprehended 13 Sri Lankan boats and nine boats, while they were fishing in the Indian waters. "Currently there are 27 Indian fishermen and 79 boats in custody of Sri Lanka. As far as we are concerned, earlier we had eleven Sri Lankan boats in our custody. However yesterday, two Sri Lankan boats along with nine crew were apprehended by the coast guard. They were found fishing in Indian waters and had 1500 kilos of Tuna on one boat and 1000 kilos on the other. We have 13 Sri Lankan boats and nine Sri Lankan fishermen in our custody," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. As many as 9 Sri Lankan fishermen in two mechanised boats were detained by the Indian Coast Guard personnel for violating the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and also for involving in poaching off the coast of Nagapattinam. As much as 2,500 kilogram of illegal catch found in the two Sri Lankan fishing vessels were also confiscated by the coast guards on board the patrol vessel ICGS Sagar. Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal is set to start his five-day visit to Punjab on Thursday to take stock of poll preparations of the party in the state. According to reports, Kejriwal will emphasise on people-to-people meeting during his five-day visit, rather than holding mega rally in Punjab which goes to polls early next year. Kejriwal had earlier visited Punjab in October last year, which was hit by protests due to desecration of Guru Granth Sahib. AAP had opened its account in Lok Sabha by winning four seats in Punjab in 2014 general elections. However, two of its MPs - Dharamvira Gandhi and Harinder Singh Khalsa - have been suspended on the charge of anti-party activities. CARE India launched a detailed study on post-disaster shelters in India, as a part of the ' Conference on Shelter in Emergencies - Challenges and Possibilities' in the Capital today. The conference, organised in partnership with Christian Aid and Sphere India deliberated critical approaches and future solutions to the growing threat of natural disasters in the country. The study, titled 'Post-disaster shelter in India' reviewed 13 post disaster shelter projects built over last 15 years, to evaluate their effectiveness in the long run. Releasing the study, Rajeev Sadanandan, Joint Secretary, Rural Housing, Ministry of Rural Development said, "The threat of natural disasters is real, especially with the recent climate change. It is important for us to consider all the SAARC countries as we plan ahead. The Government of India is in the process of identifying housing typologies for appropriate different housing regions of the country. This design will incorporate features that make the housing resilient to natural disasters common to the region such as cyclone and earthquakes. These are being developed in consultation with local communities." Rajan Bahadur, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, CARE India said, "This event on shelter in emergencies is being organized to share findings and recommendations of the post- disaster Shelter Evaluation undertaken by CARE India. Deliberations at the forum addressed issues around improvement of current approaches to shelter construction, and innovations in shelter in emergencies. Moving forward, it is important to establish an effective governance mechanism through strong co-ordination amidst NGOs, government and communities, promote participatory approach by involving entire communities, develop new approaches and establish linkages with global sector and focus on knowledge-sharing in order to improve the relevance and effectiveness of shelter response in the country." The sessions at the conference deliberated on various topics, including improvisation of approaches to shelter construction, shelter in sustainable settlements, innovations in shelter in emergencies and how settlements and communities should be supported to recover and flourish, beyond household shelters. The conference focused on reviewing approaches to emergency shelter in past emergencies, understanding the good practices in shelter in emergencies, approaches to improve coordination in future responses and recommended strategies for future shelter programs in India, to most effectively address the complex and interconnected needs of disaster affected women, girls, men and boys. The conference witnessed participation from key industry leaders Prof. V.K. Sharma from IIPA, Mr N M Prusty, Mentor cum Director, CDDMASS, Sarabjit Singh Sahota, Disaster Risk Reduction Specialist, UNICEF, Vikrant Mahajan, CEO SPHERE India and Dr Mr Ajit Chaudhuri, General Manager, Tata Sons, among others. The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said that that former union minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram's questioning the extent of Afzal Guru's role in the 2001 parliament attack would primarily encourage terrorist to get more active, and therefore, will have a very negative effect on Kashmir. Array "I am wondering what is the motivation? But the obvious implication of the statement is that it is a Congress Party statement. He would not make such a foolish statement unless he was asked to make the statement. And it is primarily to encourage all the terrorist to get active. This will have a very negative effect on Kashmir," Subramanian Swamy told ANI here. Array Swamy asks as to why did Chidambaram waited all these years to open his mouth and must give an explanation in this regard. "He was the minister in the previous government when Afzal Guru was hanged. He has waited all these years, 2 years to open his mouth on it. He did not open his mouth when the government decided that the body will not be handed over to the family," he added. Array The BJP leader also said that the Government of India must register the case under 124-A, sedition against him. Array "This is anti statement and therefore so he must be persecuted," he added. Array Swamy however alleged that the Congress party is under the pressure from radical Muslims that they will not give the party votes if the party will not support them. Array "The congress party moral authority has completely collapsed in the country. They are now looked upon as a party which is complicit to some foreign powers," he added. Array Chidambaram earlier told a leading English daily in an interview that he felt it was possible to hold an 'honest opinion' that the case was 'perhaps not correctly decided' and that there were 'grave doubts about the extent of his involvement' in the 2001 Parliament attack. Array "I think it is possible to hold an honest opinion that the Afzal Guru case was perhaps not correctly decided," said Chidambaram, who was the country's Home Minister from 2008 to 2012, before being switched to the Finance Ministry. Defence experts on Thursday hailed the arrest of a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist, who was involved in the attack on an army camp three months ago, from Baramulla, saying that it would strengthen India's stand against terrorism and force Pakistan to act against terrorism emanating from its soil. "This is a very important arrest. There is a lot of vital information that can be dug out from him. The information will be beneficial for India. This will create more pressure on Pakistan to act against terror," Defence matters expert, P.K. Sehgal, told ANI. Terming the arrest as 'significant', Defence expert Ranjeet Rai asserted that the interrogation of the arrested terrorist should be strict. "This is a very significant arrest. The interrogation will be strict. If he is the one to carry out the attack in Tanghdar, then he will speak out. It is sure that these terrorists have sympathizers here," he said. Security expert Alok Bansal echoed similar sentiments and said, "Capturing a terrorist alive is an achievement in itself and especially when the terrorist is from Pakistan. It will strengthen India's proof." In a joint operation, the army and the police in Baramulla District of Jammu and Kashmir apprehended a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist today for carrying out an attack at an army camp near the Line of Control (LoC) in Tanghdar area of North Kashmir's Kupwara District three months ago along with his three associates. Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, the son of Walid Mohammad Gujjar, is a resident of Sialkot tehsil Dehska in Pakistan. His three associates Hussain, Malik and Rizwan were killed inside the Army camp at Tanghdar on November 25. Gujjar was part of four Fidayeen who carried out attack on the Army camp in Tanghdar on November 25 last year. Coming from a well-off farmer family in Sialkot, Gujjar has five brothers and two sisters. He was lured by his school friend into militancy, who is also a JeM militant. He received three months training in JeM camp where he was motivated for Jihad besides arms training. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that Delhi police is being treated 'unfairly' and it will be incorrect to say that the police is not doing their job. "I feel Delhi Police being treated unfairly. It will be wrong to say that police is not doing their job. There has not been a single incident of communal violence or communal tension in Delhi in the past year. Delhi police makes all possible efforts to maintain law and order of the capital," Singh said in the Rajya Sabha. Condemning the unfortunate Patiala house court incident, Singh said, "Lawyers who led attacks in Patiala House court have been booked under relevant sections of IPC. The MLA was arrested in assault case in Patiala House Court attack and FIR was lodged against him." "I had a word with Delhi police commissioner as soon as I got information of Patiala House court incident and asked them to take stern action," said the Home Minister. Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has heaped praise over his side's much improved form during their 3-1 win over Dynamo Kyiv in the first leg of the Champions League last-16 tie at NSC Olimpiyskiy. City produced a high class performance throughout the match, with forward Sergio Aguero and midfielder David Silva both scoring the goals in the first half. Midfielder Yaya Tour came up with the third goal for his side in the 89th minute to give City with a perfect finish. Jubilant with the performance, the 62-year-old said that it was quite nice to finish the away game with a two-goal difference. "I think we pressed very well, we recovered the ball most of the time and we had at least three more chances in the first half when we pressed high," the Chilean was quoted as saying by goal.com. Pellegrini, however, admitted that his side missed a number of chances, adding that he was in doubt of winning the match until his side scored a third goal. "You never think it's finished but of course to have a third goal gives you a bit more confidence," he added. The manager, who believes that it was necessary to improve with each passing year in the Champions League, said that he hopes to see his side in the quarterfinals. City, which are on the verge of their first ever Champions League quarter-final, will aim to seal the berth when they take on Dynamo in the second leg of the last-16 tie on March 16. At least eight Taliban insurgents have reportedly been killed and three others injured in a blast in a mosque in Afghanistan's central Ghazni province. Array The incident took place in Andar district of the province on Wednesday night when explosives detonated while the insurgents were busy building a bomb. Array However, the Taliban have not yet commented about the incident. Sanjay Dutt's five-year prison term finally came to an end today, when he walked home a free man. While interacting with the media at his apartment at Imperial Heights in Mumbai, the very emotional Sanjay Dutt requested the media not to tag him as a terrorist involved in the '93 Mumbai bomb blasts case. "I just want to request the press that I am not a terrorist. I was acquitted from the court in the bomb blast conspiracy case. I was convicted of the Arms Act case.Hence, I request, if you say anything in the press about me, don't say '93 bomb blast case convict," he said. He even mentioned that Supreme court acquitted him of the '93 Mumbai bomb blast conspiracy case and specified that he was convicted of illegal arms act. Sanjay Dutt mentioned that his father Sunil Dutt, who all his life wanted to see his son free, would have been extremely happy on the day when the judge declared him not to be a terrorist. "When the honourable judge told that day that I am not a terrorist, it was a big news for me. If my father would have been living then, he would have been happy to hear that. Sanjay Dutt, who is set free today after serving the remainder of his five-year sentence for possession of illegal arms, said that he loves his motherland and hence, kissed it and saluted the tricolour after coming out of the jail. "I love my country. I have taken birth here and want to die here. That tricolor flag is the most important part of my life. I am proud to be an Indian. Hence I served my jail-term and today when I came out as a freeman, I kissed that mother land," he told media here. The 56-year-old actor was serving his last 42 months of jail-term at Yerwada jail in Pune. Speaking about his last few days in jail, Dutt said that excitement of freedom and being with family did not allow him to eat nor sleep. "I could not sleep last night. Rather I could not eat anything for four days. I was just thinking that I will get out of this jail and spend my life with my family and won't come back here again. Every prisoner feels so," he added. Before interacting with the media, Munnabhai visited Siddhivinayak Temple and his mother Nargis Dutt's grave in the morning after he reached Mumbai with wife Manyata, Raju Hirani and some friends and family. The actor, with his family, will now head to Salman Khan's Panvel farm house, where the 'Dabangg' actor has made arrangements for a lavish party to welcome him. India will yet again move the United Nations to include the name of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar on the sanctions list to ban him. "We will be moving to 1267 Sanctions Committee to also include the name of Masood Azhar on the sanctions list. It is a great anomaly that the organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed is listed but not its leader," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. He also noted that India has already submitted to the UN's Sanction Committee a fresh list of 11 terrorists from Pakistan -based terror groups affiliated to Al Qaeda, Taliban and other outfits responsible for terrorism in the country. "We are awaiting details from Pakistan about the composition of the Special Investigation Team and the itinerary of the visit. The two foreign secretaries are in touch," he added. On February 18, a fresh submission of 11 individuals and one organisation linked to terrorism in India was submitted. The in the Ministry of and a consortium of top UK research institutions have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for establishment of a joint India-UK collaboration programme in crop science. The aim of the agreement is to enhance collaborative research, promote knowledge exchange, and support capacity building to develop resilience in food security. The agreement was signed by Professor K. VijayRaghavan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Cambridge University Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz and Nafees Meah on behalf of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) of UK. It was also signed by representatives from the National Institute for Agricultural Botany (NIAB), in Cambridge; the John Innes Centre, UK; the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, UK; and Rothamsted Research Institute UK. After the signing of the agreements, Professor Leszek Borysiewicz, VC of University of Cambridge, said- "This collaboration builds on the close links already established between leading researchers in the United Kingdom and India and is another great example of both countries' commitment to growing our partnerships in translational and applied research. Professor K. Vijay Raghavan said, "The United Kingdom has been a long-standing partner with the Government of India in and the collaboration has grown from strength to strength. Our partners are the best in the UK and together we can be the best anywhere, working together to address a key global problem.""This collaboration will create opportunities for leading experts in the UK and India to come together to tackle global challenges in the areas of food security, crop science and biotechnology." All parties agreed on the importance of crop science as an area of enormous potential for scientific collaboration, and of great importance for global food security in India and beyond. The agreement foresees joint projects focusing on the fundamental science underpinning yield enhancement, disease resistance and drought resistance; research into crop re-breeding; and the translation of fundamental research into sustainable agriculture practice. It also contemplates the establishment of a joint Indo-UK Plant Science Centre in India. Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani on Thursday kicked up a controversy by citing 'Mahishasur Martyrdom Day and Goddess Durga' to support government action against alleged 'anti-national' activities in the JNU campus. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Irani defended the action against students of JNU, saying Kanhaiya Kumar and some other students had been found indulging in 'anti-national' activities by the JNU authorities themselves. The HRD minister, while linking JNU incident with violation of freedom of speech, brought up the topic of 'Mahishasur Martyrdom Day'. "What is Mahishasur Martyrdom Day, madam speaker? Our government has been accused. I miss today Sugata Bose and Saugata Roy in the House - champions of free speech, because I want to know if they will discuss this particular topic which I am about to enunciate in the House, on the streets of Kolkata. I dare them this," she said. "Posted on October 4, 2014. A statement by the SC, ST and minority students of JNU. And what do they condemn? May my God forgive me for reading this," she further said. "Durga Puja is the most controversial racial festival, where a fair-skinned beautiful goddess Durga is depicted brutally killing a dark-skinned native called Mahishasur. Mahishasur, a brave self-respecting leader, tricked into marriage by Aryans. They hired a sex worker called Durga, who enticed Mahishasur into marriage and killed him after nine nights of honeymooning during sleep," she added. Irani's remarks in the Upper House drew criticism from leaders across political parties. Janata Dal (United) accused Irani of violating established norms of the Parliament. "Parliament has some established norms, objectionable remakrs about gods, goddesses, prophets shouldn't be made. Smt. Irani has violated norms today," JD (U) leader K.C. Tyagi said. Echoing similar sentiments, Congress said that they will not tolerate insult of gods and goddesses. "The HRD Minister is using derogatory words for gods, goddesses. We are ashamed of listening to it, it was very insulting. We will not tolerate insult to gods, goddesses," Congress leader P.L. Punia said. Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (Marxist) dubbed HRD minister's remarks as 'blasphemous', alleging that the ruling party was trying to distract the attention from pressing matters. "It was a deliberate attempt to filibuster the whole discussion. The government had absolutely no answers to questions that were raised. They try to distract it by saying such blasphemous things. What is that authentication, whom they are quoting, what is being said?... And a cabinet minister makes a statement that can create havoc in our society," CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said. Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday targeted the Congress, saying that the grand old party, which has been tolerated by the BJP for so many decades, should also tolerate the saffron party for at least ten years. "We have tolerated you for so many decades, you should also tolerate us for at least ten years first," Naidu said. Speaking during the debate on nationalism and JNU row in the Lok Sabha, Naidu insisted that no anti- can be allowed in any of the educational campuses and they cannot allow the youth of this country to be misled. "We cannot tolerate such anti- activities in our campuses, we cannot allow our youth to be misled," he said. He said that even the United States, which has faced the brunt from Osama Bin Laden, would not tolerate slogans raised in his praise. "Can you imagine USA tolerating slogans praising Osama Bin Laden in America? Once I went to USA with my OSD, he was quarantined. He had a beard, so for one hour he was held for questioning," he said. He also targeted the Congress Party for launching a tirade against the ruling dispensation over the JNU campus row, and said that the Gandhi family was a nation for the grand old party. "Lakhs of student leaders were put behind bars in your (Congress) regime under MISA, and you are telling us about dissent?" he asked. The Union Minister also said that the Congress was unnecessarily targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said unlike past governments where the prime minister (Manmohan Singh) presides and madam (Sonia Gandhi) decides, the BJP-led Government was working collectively in which Prime Minister Modi presides and the team decides. "What is wrong if the Prime Minister is on friendly terms with US President? Is it not diplomacy? Why make fun?" he asked. The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's disproportionate assets case to March 10. The Karnataka Government had filed an appeal in the apex court, challenging the High Court's order acquitting Jayalalithaa in the case. The apex court allowed Jayalalithaa's counsels to file compilation of original documents and evidences by tomorrow. Meanwhile, ten Opposition MLAs, including eight from the DMDK, who resigned from the Tamil Nadu Assembly, have joined the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in the presence of Jayalalithaa. The AIADMK chief had to resign as the chief minister following her conviction and sentence of four-year jail term with Rs. 100 crore fine under various the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and others by a Bengaluru court on September 27, 2014. The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the review petitions of former Haryana Chief Minister O.P. Chautala and his son Ajay Singh in the Junior Basic Teachers (JBT) recruitment scam case. The apex court refused to review order of August 3, 2015 of quashing appeals against the High Court order. The two INLD leaders, who are serving a 10-year sentence in Tihar Jail here for their involvement in the scam, had sought a review of the Supreme Court verdict upholding their conviction and 10-year sentence. In a joint operation, the army and the police in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir apprehended a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist, who carried out an attack three months ago along with his three associates at an army camp near the Line of Control (LoC) in Tanghdar area of North Kashmir's Kupwara District. Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, the son of Walid Mohammad Gujjar, is a resident of Sialkot tehsil Dehska in Pakistan. His three associates Hussain, Malik and Rizwan were killed inside the Army camp at Tanghdar on November 25. Gujjar was part of four Fidayeen who carried out attack on the Army camp in Tanghdar on November 25 last year. He had told his interrogators that he set fire the oil depot inside the Army camp at Tanghdar and destroyed several vehicles before he was asked by his colleagues to leave. The Fidayeen told his interrogators that the group of four JeM militants were launched from Athmuqam in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and was tasked to carry out Fidayeen attack on any camp near the LoC. "The group with the help of GPS devices started on foot on November 24 at around 10 pm. from near the LoC on PoK side and continued their journey till they reached the Tanghdar Army camp in around 6-7 hours", he told the interrogators. Gujjar also revealed that after they carried out the attack, he was the only teenager in the group who was asked by his colleagues to leave. "I fled to a nearby forest and was hiding for three days. I was asked by my handlers to go to Kupwara. After three days, I changed my clothes and boarded a Sumo along with my weapon from Tanghdar. I reached Kupwara where I befriended some people, who helped me to travel to Baramulla," he added. Coming from a well-off farmer family in Sialkot, Gujjar has five brothers and two sisters. He was lured by his school friend into militancy, who is also a JeM militant. He received three months training in JeM camp where he was motivated for Jihad besides arms training. Chief of Army Staff General Dalbir Singh on Thursday said terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) are getting support from Pakistan. "The spreading influence of ISIS in particular through social and other forms of media has thrown up challenges of global and regional security. In the context of India, terrorist groups like LeT and JeM get candid support from across our western borders, which enables them to spread violence in the country," General Singh said while addressing CLAWS (Centre for Land Warfare Studies) international seminar in the capital. "What is worrying is that these groups no longer can be dismissed as regional manifestations of violence. Technology and ideology bind them together and members of any group retain the flexibility of striking targets which have no limits of area of operations, as long as it gives publicity to their ideology, enables spread of this in areas of recruitment and demonstrates their growing influence," he added. General Singh alleged that the terrorist groups take advantage of international connected systems of finance, communication and transit to retain flexibility of reaching any part of the world. "It is necessary for the international community to fight this growing menace as one by sharing of intelligence, adopting of training techniques from each other," he said. Speaking about the Islamic State,General Singh said the terror group's growing influence through the social media has thrown up challenges of global and regional security. "We need to address not only methods but also factors that contribute to spread of terrorism. The methods and factors that contribute to spread of terrorism generating such comprehensive response has not been easy," he said. General Singh further stated that cooperation to combat sub-convention threats has been one of the top priorities for India, while engaging with other nations. "As a society, we need to address these problems jointly. I am sure the deliberations in next two-days during the seminar would leave us more knowledgeable and better equipped to address global security challenges," he added. Former Home Secretary G.K. Pillai on Thursday said it was a matter of investigation whether Ishrat Jahan was a terrorist or not, but added that her name was mentioned in the martyr's list of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Speaking exclusively to ANI, Pillai said it was a matter of investigation whether Ishrat was involved or an unwitting player. "There was no direct evidence, except that LeT did put her name on the website and later on withdrew it, so I said maybe she was unwitting player." "She was definitely part of the group which went round India and finally ended up in Gujarat with plot to take violent action against leaders. So the real issue is whether it was a real encounter or whether it was a fake encounter," he added. The former home secretary, however, said that no conclusion should be drawn from David Headley's statement. Testifying via video-link from the US, main conspirator of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, Headley picked up Ishrat's name when quizzed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam about a 'botched up operation' mentioned to him (Headley) by LeT commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi and said that the 19-year-old girl was an LeT operative. However, Ishrat Jahan's lawyer Vrinda Grover said that Headley's version was not evidence as per Indian law as he was given a 'multiple choice question' by a 'Padma Shri' lawyer, which was downplayed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam. Ishrat, who was from Mumbra in Mumbai, was shot dead along with three men in Gujarat in 2004 by police officers, who claimed that they were terrorists involved in a plot to kill Narendra Modi, then the chief minister. President Pranab Mukherjee to preside over a two-day visit to Kerala from February 26 to 27. Array On February 26, the President will inaugurate the 200th Anniversary of CMS College at Kottayam. On the same day, he will also inaugurate the valedictory function of celebrations of 155th Anniversary of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 at Kochi organized by the Directorate of Prosecution, Government of Kerala. Array On February 27, 2016, the President will inaugurate the Muziris Heritage Project at Kodungalloor implemented by the State Government with the support of the Central Government (Muziris was a large port of the ancient times on West Coast of Kerala). Array Before returning to New Delhi, he will also launch various schemes of Government of Kerala at a function at Kozhikode. These include dedication of Kerala as Digital State, launch of a Digital Empowerment Campaign, opening of the UL Cyber Park, the first Cyber Park established by a labour cooperative; inauguration of a Gender Park and launch of the 'Kanivu' (Compassion) Scheme. Members of the US side's Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation (JWGACTC), headed by Rear Admiral Thomas Moore, Program Executive Officer, Aircraft Carriers (United States Navy) visited India for the second meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) from February 15 to 18, 2016. The delegation, accompanied by the representatives of the India Side of the JWGACTC, visited Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF) at Goa, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in Bengaluru and Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), Kochi. The delegation also visited the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier being constructed at Kochi. During the visit of the Joint Working Group to SBTF, Goa, a presentation was made by the Indian side on the functionality and operation of the facility. Operational demonstration of the SBTF was also provided. India's indigenous capability of building and integrating various maritime weapons and sensors was showcased at BEL, Bengaluru. During the visit of the JWG to CSL, Kochi, the Indian Side presented the capabilities of the Yard along with work being undertaken on India's first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier. A walk around of the under-construction Carrier was also conducted for the JWG members. On 18 Feb 16, all the Indian and US Side members of the JWGACTC met in Delhi for the concluding meeting co-chaired by VAdm GS Pabby, CWP&A and RADM Thomas J Moore, PEO, Carriers. During this meeting, various aspects of cooperation in the field of aircraft carrier technology were discussed. Discussions were also held on the Information Exchange Annex (IEA) and both Sides agreed to examine and finalize the IEA at the earliest, which would pave the ways for further exchange of information on aircraft carrier technology and future cooperation. The meeting was attended by members of the Joint Working Group and relevant representatives from IHQ MoD (N), DRDO, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of External Affairs, India. The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere and is a significant landmark in the ongoing cooperation between the two countries in the field of aircraft carrier technology. Formal document elaborating issues discussed during the visit would be shared by the Indian Side by 26 Feb 16 for review and comments prior to releasing the final document at the earliest thereafter. It was agreed that the 3rd JWGACTC would be held in the US at a convenient date to both Sides in end Jul/ early Aug, 2016. The Shiv Sena on Thursday described former union minister P. Chidambaram's remark that the 'Afzal Guru case was perhaps not correctly decided', as a contempt of court and demanded that a case be filed against him. Array "Who is Chidambram? Is he challenging the courts? The hanging happened according to the Supreme Court and laws. What Chidambram said is a contempt of court and case should be filed against him," Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut told ANI here. Array Raut further added that the Congress had always sheltered terrorists. Array Senior Congress leader Ashwani Kumar, however, distanced himself from Chidambaram's remark, saying he was not aware in what context Chidambaram has quoted it. "However, I think, the Supreme Court is the apex court of the country and its decision is correct and as per the constitution," he added. Array Chidambaram earlier told a leading English daily in an interview that he felt it was possible to hold an 'honest opinion' that the case was 'perhaps not correctly decided' and that there were 'grave doubts about the extent of his involvement' in the 2001 Parliament attack. Array "I think it is possible to hold an honest opinion that the Afzal Guru case was perhaps not correctly decided," said Chidambaram, who was the country's Home Minister from 2008 to 2012, before being switched to the Finance Ministry. Array "But being in government you cannot say the court has decided the case wrongly because it was the government that prosecuted him. But an independent person can hold an opinion that the case was not decided correctly," he added. Array Afzal Guru was executed in 2013 when Sushilkumar Shinde was the Home Minister. Let it be light between us,brothers and sisters from the Earth.Let it be love between all living beings on this Galaxy.Let it be peace between all various races and species.We love you infinitely. I am SaLuSa from Sirius Channel:Laura/Multidimensional Ocean , . . - . . . :Laura/Multidimensional Ocean In a joint operation by the army and police, three NDFB (S) terrorists/ linkmen have been apprehended in Barimakha village near Musalpur on Thursday. Based on specific information about presence of the three terrorists involved in extortion and illegal arms dealing related activities in the area of village Barimakha, near Mochalpur (Baksa District), a joint operation was launched by the security forces which apprehended three cadres of NDFB (S) with two AK-47Rifles, one 9mm Pistol along with ammunition. The apprehended cadres have been identified as Bhubneswar Boro (36), Sarjib Basumatary (27) and Lepho Boro (30). Apprehended individuals claims to be earlier part of BLT and have been reported to be involved in extortion, arms smuggling and other nefarious and anti activities. All three individuals have been handed over to Police Station Barbari for further investigation. Rolls Royce, a name reminiscent with luxury and eliteness. The owners of this brand not only own a car, but they own a status. It sets them apart from others in the world, and puts them in company of select few. Sadly though, owning the best of the best might soon become a dream, as Rolls-Royce has decided to end the production of its 13 years old, seventh generation Phantom. Also, Phantom Coupe and Drophead Coupe will not be revived in the future. This news was broken by Torsten Muller-Otvos, chief executive officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. The good part about this news is than we might soon get an all new eighth generation Phantom. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has begun testing its all-new aluminium architecture, which will underpin every future Rolls-Royce arriving in the market from early 2018. Also, the Coupe and Drophead Coupe will go out gloriously with a special collection of only 50 cars. They will be called Phantom Zenith. The last of this collection will be built by November, this year. Rolls-Royce will also build the last Phantom VII limousines this year. Torsten Muller-Otvos said, I am proud and excited to announce that a new Phantom is on the way a contemporary and beautiful Phantom enhanced with cutting-edge technologies and design innovations. Any new Phantom is an historic and important moment in automotive history and we are working hard on perfecting the Phantom VIII. To give the car a worthy sendoff, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Bespoke department will create the most highly Bespoke examples of every Phantom model till date, which includes Coupe, Drophead Coupe and Limousine. Giles Taylor, director of design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars commented As the name promises, Zenith will be the pinnacle; the best of its kind; the highest standard achievable by which everything else is judged. He added Zenith will be the sum of all the best features of Phantom Coupe and Drophead Coupe, with a few surprises added. We expect huge demand for these 50 fine motor cars as we shall not look upon their like again. The surprise features which will come as a package with the Zenith models include a tailgate hosting area, laser etched armrests depicting the original launch locations of 100EX in Villa DEste and 101EX in Geneva, Bespoke instrument dials and a special treatment of the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine. Customer will also receive a money cannot buy portable memento of his or her purchase, whilst the motor cars will be offered to clients in a palate of memorable colour combinations from Rolls-Royces history. Also Read: Phantom 2.0 Revises Aesthetics Source : CarDekho Ten Indians are among the 16 crew members rescued in Nigeria from a ship hijacked off the Ivory Coast earlier this month, a senior official said on Thursday. While one pirate was killed and six pirates apprehended during the rescue operation, one Indian and a Pakistan national were still in the custody of the other pirates. "Merchant vessel Maximus owned by Dubai-based Warm Seas company with a crew of 18 was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on February 11," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here. The crew had 11 Indian seamen, including the ship's captain. "The vessel was under charter to a South Korean company and was in its bunkering position when the incident occurred," he said. According to the spokesman, the Indian mission in Ivory Coast alerted the country's authorities on February 12 besides alerting the Indian missions in Ghana and Nigeria as the vessel was suspected to be sailing in that direction. "On our request, the Ghana naval ships operating in the region were tasked to track the ship," he said. The pirates changed the name of the vessel to MT Elwins and it was followed by the mother ship of the pirates. The vessel, instead of entering the waters of Benin, steered southwards and entered international waters towards Nigeria on February 14. "The issue was taken up with the Nigerian authorities, after which the Nigerian navy immediately launched operations to locate the vessel," Swarup said. He said five Nigerian ships were deployed for the operation and the hijacked vessel was finally intercepted by the Nigerian navy around 7.30 p.m. on February 19. "During the operation, one pirate was killed and six pirates were apprehended," the spokesman said. "No crew member sustained injury during the operation. Sixteen crew members were rescued by the Nigerian navy, including 10 Indians." However, two crew members - an Indian identified as Rohan Ruparelia and a Pakistani - were taken hostage by the pirates when they disengaged. "Our mission in Abuja (Nigeria) has recommended that the rescued crew members proceed back to India to their families. An Indian doctor has also been sent on board the Maximus to offer trauma assistance to the crew members," Swarup said. "The Nigerian authorities are presently interrogating the apprehended pirates and are also analysing the data seized from the pirates in order to identify the location of the hostages," he said. The Indian mission in Nigeria is also in touch with the shipping company as well as the family members of the Indian national taken hostage and efforts were on to secure his safe release. About 400 railway stations across the country would be re-developed through the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu announced on Thursday while presenting his budget for 2016-17. "In a landmark decision, the cabinet has approved re-development of 400 stations through PPP. This is expected to be the largest transit oriented development in the world and, hence, involves complex decision making," he said. Apart from this measure, the ministry is exploring availing multilateral financial investments to develop other stations and partnering with state governments, he said. "On the basis of a bankable structure for private participation, it is proposed to undertake a bidding process for a few large and medium stations during the course of the next financial year," Prabhu said in his 75 minute budget speech in English. The PPP cell will also be strengthened to improve ease of doing business with the railways. In view of urgency to provide connectivity to ports across the 7,517km coastline, the minister said rail connectivity to ports at Nargol and Hazira in Gujarat would be taken up in the ensuing fiscal under PPP. To expand freight business, the railways plans to build three more dedicated freight corridors - north-south connecting Delhi to Chennai, east-west from Kharagpur in West Bengal to Mumbai and east coast from Kharagpur to Vijayawada. "The three freight corridors will be put on high priority to ensure structuring, award and implementation in a time-bound manner through innovative financing mechanism, including PPP," Prabhu said. The railways will develop new frameworks for PPP mode to spur rail infrastructure growth, he said. "We will be at the forefront of infrastructure growth by forming joint ventures with states, developing new frameworks for PPP, scouting international markets for rupee bonds or engaging with multilateral and bilateral agencies," the minister said. Admitting that the magnitude of investment calls for abandoning the business as usual approach and innovating to find new ways of sourcing funds and executing projects, he said the capital plan for 2016-17 had been pegged at Rs.1.21 lakh crore. "We have for the first time incorporated a statement in the 'Pink Book' of sanctioned works a list of partnership projects being undertaken with state government and other agencies," Prabhu added. Filmmaker Aanand L. Rai's production house Colour Yellow Pictures has clocked five years of giving Bollywood movies like "Tanu Weds Manu", "Raanjhanaa" and "Tanu Weds Manu Returns". An elated Rai took to Twitter to thank fans and well-wishers for the journey. "Today, the colour yellow family completes it 5 years in filmmaking. Thank you all for being there. Five beautiful years Of CYPPL," he tweeted on Thursday. The company's new projects are "Nil Battey Sannata","Happy Bhaag Jayegi" and "Nimmo". -*- Sanjay Suri praises 'Aligarh' stars Actor-producer Sanjay Suri has praised "Aligarh" stars actors Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao. Sanjay, who shared screen space with Manoj in the 2003 film "Pinjar", wrote: "There are actors and then there are inspiring actors. Watch inspiring Manoj Bajpayee as Professor Siras and wonderful Rajkummar Rao in 'Aligarh'." Directed by Hansal Mehta, "Aligarh" will release on Friday. The film features Manoj essay the role of a gay professor and Rajkumar will be seen playing a journalist. German researchers have found that gorillas, well known for their booming and chest-beating roars, also 'sing' and 'hum' frequently while eating food. This behaviour is more prevalent among adult males than their female or younger counterparts, the findings showed. 'Singing' and humming' was observed more frequently in association with food, especially while eating aquatic vegetation, flowers, and seeds. The researchers believe that the calling linked with food could to be a means of expressing well-being. It could also aid in group coordination and social cohesion. For the study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, the researchers tracked two wild western lowland gorilla populations in the Republic of Congo, assessing only 20 gorillas in both the groups. They recorded and analysed the 'singing' and 'humming' calls that gorillas of different ages and sexes produced in response to various foods. Females and juveniles were quieter, perhaps to reduce these vulnerable individuals' risk of predation, the researchers pointed out adding that the findings provide new insight into the vocal abilities of gorillas. "Similar to the function of food-calls in chimpanzees, gorillas may call to let their group mates know when it is time to finish eating," said one of the researchers Eva Maria Luef from Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany. "Silverback males may have to call more frequently since they are often the ones initiating changes in group activity," she added. Many mammals and birds vocalise when finding or consuming certain foods. The phenomenon had been earlier studied in chimps and bonobos. The arson and fury of Jat protests may be over but the orgy of violence has left behind deep scars that residents of Rohtak town say are unlikely to go away for a long, long time. After days of turmoil, Rohtak - like many other places in the state - is a town now visibly divided between Jats, who took to the streets seeking job quotas, and non-Jats who bore the brunt of their anger. Both young and elderly Rohtak residents are furious that a town widely seen as Haryana's political capital has been left looking like a war zone after nine days of unrest that virtually crippled Haryana. Non-Jats, who until the other day counted Jats as friends and vice-versa, now complain that inter-community relations are badly strained - and might never be the same again. "Burning our city was an act of insanity," college student Anmol told IANS. "I can't forgive the people who did this. Burning schools and shops and looting them show their mental status. "They have lost all respect in my eyes," said the 22-year-old, reflecting what seems to be a widely held view among non-Jats. Although Jats are in majority in Rohtak district, the town is also home to tens of thousands of Punjabis, Banias, Sainis, Brahmins and Yadavs. Until now, caste differences never led to such acute conflict. But as Jats went reportedly on a destruction spree with the Jat-dominated police merely watching, virtually everything came under attack, leaving behind burnt or destroyed schools, hotels, eateries, businesses, showrooms, shops as well as numerous vehicles, almost all belonging to non-Jats. Lawyer Brijesh Vashisht told IANS: "There is now hatred among different communities which until now peacefully coexisted. People are not comfortable talking to people from other communities." Sumit Kathuria, who belongs to Rohtak but works in Gurgaon, is also bitter. "It was never about reservation. All that the goons wanted was destruction and loot," Kathuria said. "They were no less than terrorists." He feels the Jats were uncomfortable with Manohar Lal Khattar, a Punjabi and Haryana's second non-Jat chief minister. He is upset over Khattar's failure to contain the mayhem and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence. "Earlier we were all united no matter what caste we belonged to," Kathuria said. "Everything has changed after the Jat agitation." The Jat protests across Haryana, which crippled road and rail traffic in much of northern India and also caused a water crisis in Delhi, left 28 people dead and over 200 injured. Officials are not giving a caste break-up of the fatalities but most people say that while Jats died in firing by security forces, the non-Jat fatalities were to be blamed on Jats. Residents say Rohtak's image as a business and educational hub has been rudely shattered. Located 70 km northwest of Delhi, it is Haryana's sixth most populous town with 84 percent literacy rate. Virender Phogat, a senior journalist and a Jat, admitted to IANS that "socially and politically the divisions in Haryana will last and political parties will take advantage of it. The society will suffer". He said people would blame the Jats for what had happened. "There is now low trust and discomfort. There are also going to be psychological problems." Another Jat who did not want to be named said Jats who live in areas populated mainly by non-Jats were apprehensive of a possible backlash. The government's decision to give compensation to those who died in the agitation has also angered non-Jats, who are pressing for compensation for the widespread losses they had incurred. Rohtak resident Priyanka Kaushik said no businessman would want to and live in Rohtak any more. "All of us now see a gap between Jats and others. Unintentionally, I have started hating the entire community even though I know not every Jat took part in the agitation," she said. The Allahabad High Court has warned of 'coercive proceedings' against two senior officials while hearing a public interest litigation to save the forest land around the famous Soor Sarovar bird sanctuary on the Delhi-Agra national highway. The Taj Trapezium Zone Authority chairman as well as the principal chief conservator of forests have been told to be personally present in the chief justice's court or face coercive proceedings. The two officials had neither filed replies nor appeared before the court despite directions on January 4 and 27. According to lawyer Sundeep Agarwal, the high court vide its February 23 order placed on notice the two respondents that if they "do not file their reply by the next date of hearing (March 18), the court will be constrained to invoke its jurisdiction under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, by directing them to show cause why steps be not taken for punishing them for contempt". Petitioner-environmentalist Devashish Bhattacharya told IANS that the forest land around the Keetham Lake was under encroachment. The officials had arbitrarily reduced the eco-sensitive boundary of the lake forest from 10 km to just 250 metres to help the construction of a leather park, he said. A notification is yet to be issued in respect of this eco-sensitive buffer zone between the Mathura Oil Refinery and the world heritage monument the Taj Mahal, for whose conservation and protection from pollution a series of initiatives have been taken. Ace designer Madhu Jain, who completes 29 years in the world of fashion, hosted an evening to introduced her spring-summer collection that revolves around the world of Ikat from different parts of the country as well as inspired from around the globe at "Ogaan". Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi inaugurated the collection. Known as the craft revivalist and textile conservationist, Jain played the perfect host while showcasing her indigenous forms of textile weaving and designs in the form of her brand-new Uzbek-inspired Ikats, alongside a retrospective of her signature Andhra Pradesh and Odisha Ikat styles into which she has infused the Buddhist Mandala design inputs from the textile traditions of Thailand. There were many well-know faces from the capital who came to be the part of the event including Maneka Gandhi who was spotted going through every outfit very closely In her nearly three decade long career, Jain has experimented extensively with textiles and continues to innovate to craft unique blends that are characteristically true to her natural fibres label. This spring, she takes the craft to a new level, by introducing the motifs and weaves of Ikat from Uzbekistan into her design repertoire. "My fresh collection showcases a confluence of two cultures - Indian and Uzbek - that share so much in common. Seeing the unifying threads in the traditional weaves of two different regions is something that enthuses and challenges me," Jain had earlier told IANS. Atisha Pratap Singh is the face of Jain's Spring-Summer line. The widow of a Melbourne-based Chinese businessman who was a passenger on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has sued the company, claiming the crew may have orchestrated its mysterious disappearance. Jennifer Chong has launched civil action against the airline, seeking $115,000 for the unexplained death of her husband, Chong Ling Tan, Xinhua news aganecy reported on Thursday. Chong filed a statement of claim late Wednesday. In the legal documents, Chong has alleged that Malaysia Airlines should be accountable for the actions of their crew. "By reason of the breach of duty of care, the defendant's aircraft disappeared and is presumed to have crashed, causing the death of the deceased and consequent loss and damage to the first plaintiff, the children of the deceased and other dependants," Chong said in the documents submitted to the court. Chong, who immigrated to Australia from Malaysia with her husband in 2011, claims that the crew failed in their duty to ensure the flight landed safely. She is reportedly seeking the payout for pain and suffering she and her two sons have endured. Within the documents, Chong also asserts that a crew member, or potentially crew members, may have "deliberately altered the course of the aircraft resulting in its loss at sea". The Boeing 777, travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was carrying 239 people -- 227 passengers, 12 crew -- when it went missing on March 8, 2014. The Malaysian government officially confirmed that there were no survivors in January 2015. The Australian search for the missing flight in the southern Indian Ocean is nearing its end, with the team having found no trace of the plane despite scouring around 85,000 sq.km of the 120,000-sq.km search area. Bangladesh is set to become a founding member of the Chinese-government initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as the country's parliament has passed a bill in this connection, the media reported on Thursday. "We're now all set to join the bank as a founding member as our parliament on Wednesday night passed the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Bill 2016," said a senior finance ministry official. The official said the country will also soon submit part of its subscription fees, Xinhua news agency reported. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's cabinet in December 2015 approved the bill which was passed by voice vote. Bangladeshi State Minister for Finance and Planning M.A.Mannan placed the bill with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair. In his speech while placing the bill, the minister expressed the hope that Bangladesh which is in a dire need for more capital for its development activities, will get AIIB's support. The AIIB aims to support the building of infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region. The bank has 30 member states and started operations from December 25, 2015. A British disc jockey was on Thursday sentenced by a special court in Goa to ten years' rigorous imprisonment for possession of synthetic drugs LSD and MDMA. The special court handling narcotics, drugs and psychotropic substances (NDPS) cases found Allan Bainbridge, 49, guilty of possessing drugs which were seized from him during a raid by the Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Goa Police in 2014. Bainbridge, a popular DJ at local clubs, was arrested from his home in Anjuna after he was found in possession of drugs valued at Rs.21 lakh. The AAP government on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that it had not sanctioned Rs.100 crore for an advertisement campaign on completion of one year in power, as alleged by Congress leader Ajay Maken. "It is denied that the Delhi government has sanctioned Rs.100 crore for the anniversary and promotional campaign and the petitioner (Maken) has no source to substantiate this contention," read an affidavit filed by the Delhi government before a division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath. "The Delhi government has not indulged in any political promotional campaign whatsoever," it added. Maken, who heads the Congress Delhi unit, contended that Arvind Kejriwal's government had been running an advertisement campaign that cost approximately Rs.100 crore. However, no work was done on the ground, he said. The Congress leader sought the high court intervention to "immediately stop these advertisements and recover the cost of all such advertisements from Arvind Kejriwal". He also requested the court to direct the Delhi government that the money so recovered from Kejriwal be used for municipal reforms in the capital. Maken's lawyer Aman Pawar said a large number of advertisements were published or broadcast in various towns and cities across India by the Aam Aadmi Party government by using the taxpayers' money. "These outstation ads are of no use to the Delhi taxpayers or for the residents of towns and cities like Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru etc.," the petitioner said. Maken filed the application in the ongoing public interest litigation wherein he said that huge amounts were spent on advertisements glorifying Kejriwal and the AAP. The court will now hear the case on March 31. Disappointment over the railway budget, coupled with negative Chinese indices and a weak rupee, subdued Indian equity markets on Thursday. This led to the barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to close the day's trade down 113 points, or 0.49 percent. Similarly, the wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended the day's trade in the red -- lower by 48.10 points, or 0.69 percent, at 6,970.60 points. The Sensex, which opened at 23,105.16 points, closed at 22,976 points -- down 112.93 points, or 0.49 percent from the previous day's close at 23,088.93 points. During the intra-day trade, the Sensex touched a high of 23,142.96 points and a low of 22,948.10 points. The BSE market breadth was heavily tilted towards the bears -- with 1,596 declines and 869 advances. Initially, the key indices of the Indian equity markets opened on a negative note in sync with their Asian peers. Investors' sentiments were subdued after the railway minister failed to announce big ticket capital expenditure projects in his budget speech, so as to meet the government's fiscal deficit targets. Further, investors took notice of the fact that railway revenue targets might not be met due to a slowdown in economic activity and that the government looked at monetising the internal resources for fund mobilization. In addition, weak Chinese markets and softening of crude oil prices which declined by 1 percent to $31, deterred investors from chasing stock prices higher. Besides, a weak rupee dented sentiments. It closed weaker by 15 paise to touch its 30-month closing low. The rupee closed at 68.71 against the US dollar, at level which was last seen during late August, 2013. During the intra-day trade rupee value dwindelled to 68.79 to a US dollar from its previous close of 68.56 to a greenback. "Indian rupee opened marginally higher against the US dollar, thanks to risk-on sentiments across Asian markets. However, demand from importers brought it back above 68.50 levels on spot, closing at 68.71," Anindya Banerjee, associate vice president for currency derivatives with Kotak Securities, told IANS. "Central bank would remain active till the union budget, as they trying to prevent a blowback of a weak currency on bond investment from FIIs (foreign institutional investors)." However, liquidation and short-covering triggered by the futures and options (F&O) expiry arrested the equity markets falls. "Negative Chinese markets, softening of crude oil prices and a weak rupee dented sentiments and dragged the markets lower. The railway budget did not provide any surprises," Anand James, co-head, technical research desk with Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, told IANS. "However, the equity markets' falls were somewhat halted by liquidation and short-covering provided by the F&O expiry." Nitasha Shankar, vice president for research with YES Securities, pointed out that persistent weakness dragged Indian markets lower for the third day in a row, closing below the psychological level of 7,000. "Further, we have had back to back exceptionally weak F&O series, wherein Nifty has declined in excess of 12 percent. Moreover, headline indices now are approaching their respective 52-week lows; a break of which can trigger fresh round of selling," Shankar noted. "Volumes continue to remain high in the corrections threatening choppy and weak sessions ahead." According to Shankar, broader markets witnessed heavy unwinding of long positions and underperfored the headline indices. "PSU Bank, media, reality, auto and energy indices ended deep in the red. Metal and pharma indices ended marginally higher," Shankar added. Furthermore, the FIIs were net sellers during the day's trade, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought stocks. The data with stock exchanges showed that FIIs divested Rs.1,465.68 crore, while the DIIs bought stocks worth Rs.806.97 crore. Sector-wise, majority of the 19 indices of the BSE ended the day's trade in the red. The S&P BSE banking index plunged by 261.24 points, automobile index lost 226.20 points, capital goods index receded by 224.40 points, information technology (IT) index declined by 85.96 points and oil and gas index edged lower by 60.95 points. In contrast, the S&P BSE metal index was up by 17.74 points, while healthcare index ended higher by 15.91 points. Major Sensex gainers during Thursday's trade were ONGC, up 2.88 percent at Rs.215.90; Sun Pharma, up 2.38 percent at Rs.874.85, HDFC, down 1.85 percent at Rs.1,041.90; Coal India, down 1.32 percent at Rs.299.50 and Cipla, down 0.87 percent at Rs.518.25. Major Sensex losers during the day's trade were State Bank of India (SBI), down 3.06 percent at Rs.151.90; Gail, down 2.96 percent at Rs.304.95; Tata Motors, down 2.90 percent at Rs.298; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 2.37 percent at Rs.1,086.90; and ICICI Bank, down 1.98 percent at Rs.183.35. Demanding an "unrelenting focus on poverty eradication," India has said that the selective priorities of donor countries should not override the national development plans and needs of countries fighting poverty. "Externally imposed prescriptions should be avoided and national policy space respected," Amit Narang, a counsellor at India's UN mission, told the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Wednesday. "We clearly cannot talk of balanced implementation of an integrated agenda and yet have funding structures and functional implementation that responds to selective donor priorities." "The UN system must also be responsive to and closely aligned to national development plans," he added. Addressing the issue of decision-making and prioritisation, he said, "A related important issue is that of the governance structures of the funds and programmes where imbalance in the representation of developing and developed countries needs to be addressed." Taking stock of the development scenario as the UN transitions to the ambitious programme of Agenda 2030, Narang said, "Even as the UN System prepares to rethink its role, it is of utmost importance that it does not slacken its focus on the needs of the poorest and the most deprived." Laying out the magnitude of the tasks ahead, he quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech to the recent ECSOC 70th anniversary special session, "While we have seen remarkable progress over the past 70 years, eradication of poverty remains the greatest unfinished business of the 20th century. It is also the most important unfulfilled objective of the United Nations." Narang added, "An unrelenting focus on poverty eradication as the central and primary objective should, therefore, remain at the heart of UN's operational activities for development." While humanitarian crises should receive more support, it should not come at the cost of developmental activities which actually reduce the chances of humanitarian crises occuring, Narang said. Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar visited the UK on February 23-24 for talks with his British and Commonwealth counterparts. Jaishankar was here to attend the extraordinary meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group of which India is a member. He also held bilateral meetings with Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Letwin, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hugo Swire and National Security Adviser Mark Lyall Grant to discuss the follow-up action on decisions reached during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit in November 2015 and on other issues of mutual interest, according to a Indian High Commission press release. He also interacted with a select group of scholars and editors on a range of topics, including India's foreign policy and regional and global issues. A special CBI judge on Thursday sentenced, to four years jail, a former Delhi Police inspector convicted for corruption, a CBI statement said. A Rs.5 lakh fine was slapped on Virender Singh Chauhan, who was found to possess disproportionate assets up to Rs.31.55 lakh, while his wife Manju Chauhan was sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment and a Rs.1.5 lakh fine. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a case against Chauhan on January 10, 2005 following allegations that he had amassed assets which were disproportionate to his known sources of income. A few diehard fans of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who became a free man on Thursday, celebrated his freedom in style here. Mumbai restaurateur Khalid Hakim, owner of Mughlai eatery Noor Mohammadi Hotel, started doling out free "Chicken Sanju Baba", a signature recipe created by Dutt in 2010, to all patrons and fans. The special limited offer opened at noon on Thursday and would continue till midnight, Hakim said adding that the place was already overcrowded with eager people waiting to gorge on "Chicken Sanju Baba". "It was in 2010 on one of his visits that he created a special gravy-based chicken dish for us and we named it after him as 'Chicken Sanju Baba' on the menu card. Dutt also gave me his written consent to prepare and sell it to our patrons," said Hakim, who is the third-generation owner of the 93-year-old restaurant (opened in 1923). Bandra's famous eatery "Bhaijaanz Restaurant" was offering a flat 50 percent discount to mark Dutt's release and launched a new dish "Bhai-Baba Chal Mere Bhai" to be served free to all customers. "It is a combination of minced mutton and chicken as Salman Khan loves mutton and Sanjay Dutt relishes chicken. This is our humble tribute to their great friendship," said the restaurant manager. Incidentally, "Bhaijaanz Restaurant" is the country's first themed eatery after Salman Khan, opened last year by five fans and friends -- Rahul Kanal, Zafar Yusuf, Tabrez Shaikh, Sohail Siddique and Khursheed Khan -- who also attended the same school where Salman studied. "Everything in our restaurant is inspired by our beloved Salman, his life, his physique, his roles and characters he enacted on screen, his likes and his famed bikes, memorabilia, etc," said the manager of the eatery which opened last year. The restaurant balcony was designed like the one at Salman Khan's home in Bandra Bandstand where thousands of fans flock daily, the items on the menu were named and designed after his movies or his personal tastes and the eatery has proved popular with its clientele. Colaba's popular Gokul Bar and Restaurant owner Dinesh Pujary -- a Dutt fan -- offered 300 chilled beers on-the-house between 3-6 p.m. to celebrate the actor's release. "We were overwhelmed to see queues of people outside waiting for their one free bottle of any beer of their choice... We completed the freebie offer within the first two hours," said the hotel's marketing advisor Albert Amanna. An auto-rickshaw driver and hardcore Dutt fan, Sandeep Bachche was celebrating his idol's release differently by offering free rides for the day to commuters in Bandra. "Many years ago, I was given medical help by the Dutt family and I am forever indebted to them. When he returned to complete his sentence in May 2013, I vowed that I would roam bare-feet till he comes out of prison. Now, I shall start wearing footwear again," Bachche told media persons. As a tribute to his diehard fan worship of Dutt, Bachche's friends and colleagues have nicknamed him "Munnabhai SSC", a fact which he proudly tells everybody. With dhol, dance and garlands, Sanjay Dutt received a hero's welcome when he arrived at his residence here on Thursday after completing his prison-term for illegal possession of arms in the March 1993 Mumbai blasts. The son of late actors Sunil Dutt and Nargis, Sanjay was released from the Yerwada Central Jail (YCJ) in Pune. He was all smiles upon uniting with his family members, especially wife Manyata Dutt who was accompanied by their children. Whether it was the aiport in Pune or in Mumbai, fans turned up everywhere to cheer for the actor, who is now a free man ahaving served his sentence. His well-wishers also reached the Siddhivinayak temple, where devotees gave him a rousing welcome. A horde of the actor's admirers also gathered outside the flower-decorated Imperial Heights building in Pali Hill here, adding to the celebratory spirit of the surroundings, which had myriad posters featuring Bollywood's beloved 'Munna Bhai'. Fans danced to the beats of dhol outside the gate of the house of the actor, who was dressed in a blue shirt and a pair of denims. The 56-year-old made his way to his house through a sea of fans who raised their smartphones up in the air to capture the moment. Even as the "Khalnayak" star walked amid security, the fans showered their love by decorating him with garlands. Sanjay, who was very close to his parents, also sought their blessings. Before heading home, he visited his mother's (Nargis) grave in Marine Lines here, and later at his residential building, he stood with folded hands in front of a portrait of his father, Sunil Dutt. The actor has regaled fans with a mix of action, comedy and romantic films like "Rocky", "Hathyar", "Dushman", "Haseena Maan Jaayegi", "Vaastav: The Reality", "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.", "Parineeta" and "Agneepath" in his over three-decade long career. He spent 18 months in jail as an undertrial before he was granted bail and later, following a Supreme Court order in May 2013, he was sent to Yerwada Central Jail to serve the remaining 42 months of his five-year sentence. Three members of a Haryana family, including a six-year-old girl, were killed when a van they were travelling in collided with a tractor trolley here on Thursday, police said. Vijay, his wife Poonam and father Mahasingh and seven others from the family were returning to their home in Haryana's Sonepat district when the accident took place close to Bhondsi on Sohna road. Police officer Vikram Singh said Mahasingh, 64, Poonam, 30, and Yashika died in the accident. Four others were critically injured. The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday took cognizance of media reports that some women, who were commuting on the Delhi-Ambala highway (NH-1), had been allegedly stripped and raped by rioters during the violent Jat agitation. The Haryana government and the state police vehemently denied any such incidents. Taking suo moto notice of the media report, Justice Naresh Kumar Sanghi, said the high court could not sit as a "mute spectator" to the reported incidents and that these needed to be probed by a "premier investigation agency". The matter has been referred to the court of the acting Chief Justice for further orders. As per the report, rioters had stopped cars on the NH-1 in Sonipat district early on Monday to set them on fire. As the people travelling in these vehicles ran for safety, some women commuters, who could not flee, were pulled out of the vehicles, allegedly stripped and raped in the nearby fields. The victims were left to fend for themselves and were offered clothes and help by villagers later. Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) Y P Singhal on Wednesday denied any incident of indecent behaviour and rape of women in Sonipat during the recent agitation. "Investigations conducted by the Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Devender Singh, and the Inspector General of Police, Paramjit Ahlawat, had found the allegations made in the report false and baseless," the DGP said on Wednesday. The DGP said the death toll in the Jat agitation violence had gone up to 28, with 200 people being injured. "127 persons have so far been arrested for indulging in violence and 535 cases have been registered. I appeal to people not to believe in rumours being spread by anti-social elements," Singhal said. The Haryana government also denied media reports that some persons behaved indecently with some women who were travelling in cars near village Kurad in Sonipat district. "Principal Secretary Devender Singh and Inspector General of Police Paramjit Ahlawat, who visited the spot and interacted with the people including those whose names were mentioned in the media reports, said that no such incident had occurred," an official spokesman said. He said that the former Sarpanch of Kurad, Bijender Singh, has also refuted that any such incident had occurred. "When some youth broke window panes of a few cars, some women who were seated inside the vehicles were injured. Such families were given shelter by the villagers in their own homes and gave them first aid and food. The media reports to this effect are totally false, misleading and not based on facts," the spokesman said. Initiating action against police officers following the recent violent Jat agitation, the Haryana government on Thursday ordered the suspenion an inspector general of police (IGP) and two deputy superintendents of police (DSPs). Those suspended include IGP Shrikant Jadhav, who was the Rohtak range IG till last week when the agitation took a violent turn. Jadhav was, on Sunday, shunted out at Rohtak Range IG and posted as IG, State Crime Record Bureau, Madhuban, an inconsequential posting. The two DSPs suspended are Amit Dahiya and Amit Bhatia, both posted in Rohtak town. The Haryana Police is being accused of not reacting to the situation and ensuring safety of people and property as the violent protestors had a field day in arson and looting. Rohtak, Sonipat, Panipat and Jhajjar, the districts worst-hit by violence in the ongoing Jat agitation, fall under the Rohtak range. Other affected districts included Bhiwani, Hisar and Kaithal. Rohtak town, 75 km from Delhi, suffered the brunt of the mindless violence by the Jat protestors with scores of buildings, shops, malls, private hospitals, educational institutions and vehicles being set on fire and extensively damaged. As many as 28 people were killed and over 200 injured in the nine-day long agitation which saw highways, roads and railway tracks being blocked. Authorities had to requisition the army and paramilitary forces to control the situation. The Haryana Police had on Wednesday registered a case sedition and criminal conspiracy against Virender Singh, a close aide of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, for trying to fan violence during the Jat agitation. A Khap leader, Man Singh Dalal, was also named in the first information report registered at the Civil Lines police station in Rohtak. Both were booked for sedition, trying to incite violence and criminal conspiracy. Leaders of five groups of survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster on Thursday condemned what they said was the neglect of the central and state governments towards the curative petition for additional compensation from Union Carbide. The organisations also launched a postcard campaign, requesting the Supreme Court for an early hearing on the curative petition against Union Carbide and its owner Dow Chemical Company. "It is now more than five years since the government filed the curative petition and there has been no hearing yet," Rashida Bee of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh told the media. Bee, honoured by the President with the "Women Achievers Award" last month, said: "It is indeed shameful that the government has not moved a single petition for urgent hearing on additional compensation. "Meanwhile, victims of the disaster continue to die battling economic hardship caused due to exposure related ill health and paltry compensation." Balkrishna Namdeo of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogi Sangharsh Morcha said the government's neglect towards the legal rights of the Bhopal victims to adequate compensation was evident in its carelessness regarding figures of injury and death. "Despite the central minister's promise made over an year ago, the figures of injury and death in the curative petition remain downplayed to a fraction of the actual damage." he said. According to Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, the government's submissions arguing for $1.2 additional compensation before the Supreme Court run to 474 pages. In contrast, Union Carbide and Dow Chemical's arguments for holding the $470 million settlement of 1989 to be full and final run to 3,657 pages. More than 3,500 people were killed instantly when poisonous gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal on the night of December 2-3, 1984. Thousands more have died over the years. Many more thousands have been maimed or suffer from serious health issues due to their exposure to the gas. Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday condemned the violence in the Patiala House Court and promised action if Delhi Police was found doing "injustice" in the case. Many journalists, including an IANS reporter, were beaten up by a group of lawyers in the court. BJP legislator O.P. Sharma, who assaulted a CPI activist outside the court, was arrested and released on bail. "The Patiala House Court incident is unfortunate. I strongly condemn it. The MLA was arrested (for) assault and an FIR was lodged against him. The investigations are going on. Let it happen," said Singh. The minister said he spoke to Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi immediately after the violence on February 15 when the case concerning JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, charged with sedition, was taken up. A second round of violent attacks took place in the court two days later. "I said strict action must be taken. If Delhi Police is found to be doing any kind of injustice in the case, the court will take appropriate steps against them. Delhi Police makes all possible efforts to maintain law and order in the capital," added Singh. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday informed Parliament that India's first rail-auto transportation and logistics hub will be inaugurated in Chennai soon. "To capture the automobile traffic, we will soon inaugurate India's first rail-auto hub in Chennai," Prabhu informed parliament while presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17. According to the minister, inadequacy of warehousing and transportation facilities is one of main reasons that keeps potential customers away from the railways. "In order to complete the chain of transportation, it is proposed to develop rail-side logistics parks and warehousing," the minister said. "These logistic parks and warehouses would be created in PPP (public-private partnership) mode to bring the required efficiency and investment but also help attract greater traffic to the railways." The minister predicted a paradigm shift in the Indian Railways' role as a "national logistics provider" once the Transport Logistics Company of India (Transloc) is formed. "The focus will be on providing last-mile connectivity for freight business and significant reduction in logistic costs. At least 10 goods sheds will be developed by Transloc in 2016-17," the minister disclosed. "This push on rail side warehousing would also encourage development of cold storage facilities on vacant land near freight terminals." The minister added that local farmers and fisherman would be given preferential treatment to use these facilities. "A policy in this regard would be issued in the next three months," the minister added. Here are some details about the Indian Railways: * Fourth largest railroad network in the world with some 64,460 route km, after the US (224,792), Russia (128,000) and China (112,00). * Plies nearly 21,000 trains daily to ferry 23 million passengers and three million tonnes of freight. * Network spans 29 states and three union territories via some 8,500 stations, as well as limited services to Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. * Network criss-crosses from Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir in the north to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu in the south, and from Ledo in Assam in the east to Naliya in Gujarat in the west. * World's seventh largest commercial employer by number of employees, with around 1.4 million employees. * Uses four track gauge types - broad, standard, metre and two narrow gauges. * The country's first railway, built by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, opened in 1853, between Bombay and Thane. * The Bombay-Calcutta direct line, opened in 1870, provided part inspiration for French writer Jules Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days". * Among the metre or narrow gauge mountain railways of India, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the Kalka-Shimla Railway are collectively designated as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Actor Parvin Dabas, who will be seen in "Jab Tum Kaho", says Indians are "not that nice to each other" in their own country, whereas they stick together while abroad. "We are not that nice to each other in our own country but the great thing is when we go abroad, we stick to each other. We do so much 'India-Pakistan' here and in Pakistan, but abroad Indians and Pakistanis are friends," Dabas told media persons here when quizzed on his role in Karan Johar's "My Name is Khan". Known for doing script-backed and character driven movies, the "Khosla Ka Ghosla" and "Ragini MMS2" actor believes in variety. "I have done a lot of different kind of films. You should not just confine yourself to one particular genre, saying this is art. You have to perform in all kinds of films," he said. Debutant filmmaker Vikram Shankar's "Jab Tum Kaho" explores blind dating. Lead actress Ambalika Sarkar makes her debut, while another actress Shirin Guha was seen in "Lootera". Rights activist Irom Sharmila, who has been on a 15-year-long hunger strike to press for the abrogation of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, has said she would continue her fast unto death. At the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Imphal west, where she was presented on Wednesday, Sharmila told reporters that she would continue her fast at Kangla, the old capital of Manipur, through March 1 when she is expected to be released. On fast since November 4, 2000, she has been charged -- more than once -- with attempt to commit suicide under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code. As the law court had released her as not guilty last year, her lawyer hopes that this time too she will be set free. Since the District and Sessions Court did not find her guilty, it ordered the court of the chief judicial magistrate to release her. The court released her on January 22, 2015. However, the police re-arrested her two days later as she continued her fast at the women's market in Imphal. Since the Act under which she is arrested provides detention for one year only at one go, Sharmila is ritually released at the end of each year. She was once released on October 5, 2006. She slipped away to Delhi to carry on her fast at Jantar Mantar. Delhi Police arrested her and a trial is going on at the Patiala House court on the charge of trying to commit suicide. Sharmila is lodged in a security ward of Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences here. She is guarded round-the-clock by jail, police and hospital staff. The government is spending about Rs.70,000 a month on her medication and feeding her through the nose. Several times she could not be produced in the Patiala House court as the cash-strapped government could not arrange travel expenses in time for Sharmila and her entourage. Security forces on Thursday said they had arrested a Pakistani suicide bomber of the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) outfit in Baramulla district in Jammu and Kashmir. Military spokesman S.D. Goswami told IANS from Udhampur that the army and police caught Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, who had carried out an attack three months back on an army camp in Kupwara district. He was accompanied by three associates who were killed in the November attack. Gujjar, son of Walid Mohammad Gujjar, was a resident of Sialkot Daska in Pakistan. "The terrorist was part of the four fidayeen who carried out the attack on the army camp at Tanghdar on November 25," the spokesman said. "He has told his interrogators that he set fire to an oil depot inside the army camp and destroyed several vehicles before he was ordered by his colleagues to leave. "The fidayeen told his interrogators that the JeM militants were launched from Athmuqam in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and was tasked to attack any army camp near the LoC (Line of Control)," the spokesman said. "The group, with the help of GPS, crossed the border on foot on November 24 night and continued to walk till they reached the Tanghdar army camp after six-seven hours," he told the interrogators. After the attack, Gujjar fled to nearby forests and was in hiding for three days. He was asked by his handlers to go to Kupwara. He changed his clothes and boarded a van from Tanghdar, with his weapon concealed. He reached Kupwara and befriended some people who helped him to travel to Baramulla where he was arrested. Coming from a well-off farmer's family in Sialkot, Gujjar has five brothers and two sisters. He was lured by his school friend, who is also a JeM militant, to take to militancy. Gujjar said he got three months training in a JeM camp. The police action against JNU students and the conditions leading to Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide are not isolated incidents, but part of a larger project to change India into a "Hindu Rashtra", CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Thursday. "What happened in JNU is not matter restricted to only one university. You have seen what happened in Pune, Allahabad, Jadavpur, various places," Yechury said, participating in the ongoing debate in the Rajya Sabha on unrest in universities. He said there was interference in the order which was not sanctioned by law, demanding a house committee be set up to go into "all these issues." "You will see an effort in the field of education and higher education in general of what I would describe as an effort to replace Indian history with mythology, to replace the rich philosophy by Hindu theology. This is the larger project at work." said Yechury. "This is the project the government is patronising. The project of metamorphosing India's secular democratic republic into what they call a Hindu Rashtra. This is an attack on Indian constitution," said the leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist. The new buildings will support more than 272 students and 13 teachers at Efogi, Kavovo and the surrounding villages of Launamu, Kagi, Naduri and Manari. The infrastructure was funded by Australia under the partnership between Australia and Papua New Guinea to protect the Kokoda Track region and deliver services to its communities. ON Wednesday, under the Kokoda Initiative, the Australian government opened a new double classroom, two new staff houses and toilet facilities at Efogi and Kavovo villages on the Kokoda Track. Teachers at Efogi Primary School will no longer have to conduct elementary classes in the local community hall as has been the case due to inadequate facilities. When the community hall was in use, classes were either cancelled or conducted under trees, said Ms Joyce Sam, Teacher in Charge at Efogi Elementary School. Now we will not be doing that because we have a new classroom. The students and I are very happy and are very thankful to the Australian government for this new building. The accommodation is expected to increase the teacher retention rate in both villages. Inadequate teacher accommodation has been one impediment to the retention of teachers. Rod Hilton from the Australian High Commission said Australia has invested in health, education and water and sanitation all along the Track, from Depo in Central Province to Kokoda, Kanga and Gorari in Oro Province. In recent years, Australia has built or renovated over 50 health and education infrastructure, including 16 double classrooms, in the Kokoda Track region. AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal started his five-day visit to Punjab on Thursday to boost the political prospects of the Aam Aadmi Party. Kejriwal, who arrived here on a regular flight from Delhi, drove immediately to Sangrur town in Punjab. He was received here by top AAP leaders of the Punjab unit and some party leaders from Delhi. "I am starting my five-day trip of Punjab today. I will be visiting villages and meeting with common people," Kejriwal told the media after landing here. "We will meet families affected by the drugs problem. We will try to understand their problems. We will meet families of farmers who committed suicide and understand their problems too. The AAP philosophy is that we meet people, listen to their problems and find solutions," he said. "Other parties make their manifestoes in air-conditioned rooms. We go to villages and homes of people," Kejriwal said while taking a dig at other political parties. Kejriwal will travel to Punjab's three regions - Malwa, Majha and Doaba, during the visit, starting from Sangrur and Bathinda districts in the agriculturally-fertile south-west Punjab. Kejriwal will visit Ferozepur and Faridkot districts on February 26, Khadoor Sahib, Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts on February 27, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar districts on February 28 and finally go to Ludhiana, Fategarh Sahib and Patiala districts on February 29. "He will interact with various sections of the society comprising families of distressed farmers who have been committing suicides, members of Dalit families and unemployed educated youth and know the concerns of the women folk about their safety and security," an AAP spokesman said. He will meet the business community, comprising traders and captains of industry, to know the problems faced by them in the state. The Congress in Punjab had earlier said that it will oppose Kejriwal's visit if the Aam Aadmi Party does not change its agenda for the state. "Kejriwal should not play with fire by instigating the sentiments of the people of Punjab. This is a very dangerous style of being done by the AAP," Congress leader and Ludhiana MP Ravnit Singh Bittu had said. Kejriwal had addressed a major AAP rally last month at the Maghi religious fair in Punjab's Bathinda district. The AAP is posing a serious political challenge to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance and the Congress, which have dominated Punjab's political space for decades, in the run up to next year's assembly polls. LeEco Day, the Chinese smartphone maker's mega shopping carnival on Thursday, received an incredible response from consumers with 25,000 units being sold in 16 minutes on Indian e-commerce major Flipkart. The company had put up benefits valued at around Rs.8 crore along with exciting offers such as exchange offers on old smartphones, cash back offers on Axis bank cards, Bluetooth headset giveaways worth Rs.2,800 and a bumper prize of Mahindra KUV 100. With the brand gaining popularity in India in a short span of time, LeEco plans to personally undertake the delivery of its 'superphones' to first few customers across the 4 cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Rome, Feb 25 (IANS/AKI) A large-scale deployment of Western troops in Libya is "unthinkable" and "absurd", Italy's Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti said on Thursday. "Can you imagine... what it means to intervene with a military occupation? It is unthinkable, it is absurd, no one has ever considered it," Pinotti told the private Canale 5 TV channel amid reports that special forces are already on the ground to fight the Islamic State militant group. She declined to comment on a report by Le Monde newspaper of a secret French operation. "Unilateral action has never helped Libya," Pinotti said in an apparent reference to air raids against then Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 that were initially conducted by France, Britain and the US. "As soon as the Libyan government is installed and begins to stabilise the country, it will need security back-up such as trainers and protection forces, something Italy is willing to do," she added. Libyan troops should fight on the ground against IS, but only upon the request of a national unity government, Pinotti said. Lawmakers from Libya's internationally recognised parliament in Tobruk have yet to hold a confidence vote on the proposed UN-backed unity government amid in-fighting and reports of threats against MPs. The North African country has descended into chaos after the NATO-backed ouster of long-time dictator Gaddafi in 2011, with rivals governments in Tobruk and Tripoli, each backed by a multitude of militias. IS, which has come under pressure in Syria and Iraq from the international coalition against it, has exploited the turmoil in Libya to expand its presence there and has recently threatened its oil installations. Italy will allow armed US drones to depart from Sigonella air base in Sicily as part of defensive missions to protect special forces from IS attacks in North Africa, Premier Matteo Renzi said earlier this week. Italy will authorise the defensive military strikes on a "case by case" basis, Renzi said in an interview on Tuesday with RTL radio. A member of the anti-IS coalition and Libya's biggest buyer of oil and gas, Italy has a particular interest in defeating Islamist militias and stabilising its former colony, where the turmoil is fuelling the smuggling of tens of thousands of migrants to Europe across the Mediterranean. --IANS/AKI vd As the makers of world's cheapest Rs.251 (less than $4) smartphone went gaga over being part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Make in India" and "Digital India" initiatives in last few days, a top government official clarified on Thursday that the government has nothing to do with "Freedom 251" smartphone. "This is not a government project. 'Make in India' team has nothing to do with this," wrote Amitabh Kant, secretary of department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), in a Twitter post. The tweet comes on the heel of the fact that the government is already keeping a close watch on "Freedom 251" and its Noida-based maker Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd. On February 23, Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said his department is keeping a close watch on Ringing Bells. The minister said the Department of Telecommunications has inquired whether the company can provide phones at such a low price, which works out to less than $4. ALSO READ: Ringing Bells stops taking bookings for Freedom 251 phone "This was done to ensure that there are no discrepancies later. If there are any, we will take action as per the law. Our department is keeping a watch," Prasad said in New Delhi. Earlier, informed sources told IANS that the telecom ministry has done an internal assessment on viability of the handset 'Freedom 251' and found such a device cannot be offered for not less than Rs.2,300-2,400. Ringing Bells has promised to deliver 25 lakh handsets by June 30. In an earlier chat with IANS over phone, Ringing Bells president Ashok Chadha said the company will hand over 25 lakh "Freedom 251" phones to the people who have registered for it online. "I am hopeful that we will be able to start delivery latest by April 10 and finish well before the June 30 deadline," Chadha told IANS. According to Chadha, the company is looking to set up two more units - one each in Noida and Uttarakhand. But how fast the company is going to start the manufacturing and churn out devices is a big question. Chadha said that while the manufacturing cost of the phone is high, it will be recovered through a series of measures like economies of scale, innovative marketing, reduction in duties and creating an e-commerce marketplace. However, how well is the little-known firm placed to achieve this task is not yet clear. Taking the world by surprise, the company launched "Freedom 251" smartphone last week that, it said, has been developed "with immense support" from the government. There are, however, some apprehensions about its final appearance and performance. The Indian Cellular Association has also written to the telecom ministry, urging the government to get to the bottom of the issue as selling a smartphone this cheap is not possible. An Uttar Pradesh Police head constable was shot dead in Pilibhit in the early hours of Thursday by a mentally unstable person, police said. Subhash Yadav of Pooranpur police station was patrolling the area when the assailant, whose identity was not known immediately, snatched his service revolver and opened fire. An eyewitness informed senior police officials who reached the crime spot and overpowered and arrested the assailant. Two waiters standing nearby were also injured and admitted to a nearby medical facility where their condition was said to be out of danger. CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury on Thursday accused the BJP-led NDA government of attempting to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra and demanded that a house committee probe the issues arising out of the unrest in JNU, Hyderabad University and other institutions. The government's undue "interference which is not sanctioned by the law" in the working of the educational institutions is aimed at promoting their agenda of Hindu Rashtra, Yechury said while initiating a debate in the Rajya Sabha over unrest in Hyderabad University, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and other institutions. "It's an effort to replace secular India with a Hindu nation," he said. The incidents at JNU, where the police acted against some students accused of sedition, and the circumstances of the suicide by Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar of Hyderabad University, were not isolated ones and were a part of a larger game plan, the Communist Party of India-Marxist leader said. "What happened in JNU is not a matter restricted to only one university. You have seen what happened in Pune, Allahabad, and at various other places," he added, saying that the constitution was being violated and it must not be allowed to happen. Referring to the government's plan to install the national flag in all central universities, he said a "much larger Tricolour" was in his heart. Yechury, however, supported action against any anti-national element in the educational institutions, saying if there was anything of that sort happening, then it must be dealt with according to the law. He said the allegations against JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and other students did not merit invocation of the law of sedition. He criticised the government and the Delhi Police for their alleged inaction against those who attacked students and journalists in Patiala House court in Delhi where Kanhaiya Kumar had been produced. "Delhi Police chief says that the students are guilty unless proven otherwise. This is against the existing system which says the accused is not guilty unless proven otherwise," he said and wondered, "What is happening in the country". In his over 25-minute speech, Yechury said if raising slogans was an anti-national activity, then he too would like to raise some and was ready to be arrested. "We want freedom from hunger. We want freedom from Manuwad," he said while repeating his demand to have a house committee to probe the incidents at JNU and Hyderabad University. Seeking to defend the government's action, Bhupender Yadav of the BJP said the accused students of JNU were raising slogans against the country and hence the arrests. "Yechury ji you should know whether they were raising slogans for freedom of speech or speech for freedom," he said. Yadav said the government did not want to close down the JNU as was being alleged by some people. The debate on the issue would continue as the house took up other business after 12 p.m.. Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who was released from the Yerwada Central Jail (YCJ) in Pune on Thursday morning after serving a sentence for illegal possession of AK-47 rifle, said the feeling of being "free" is "the most amazing", but it is yet to sink in. After spending a sleepless night full of anxiety, Sanjay, sporting a stylised hairdo and a bearded look, came out of jail in casuals, to a rousing welcome by friends and family members. While addressing the media outside his residence here, Sanjay said: "For 23 years, I wanted to taste freedom, and finally the day has come that I have. I walked out of jail as a free man, but it's not sinking in me. I know I will come to terms with it... It still feels like I am out on a furlough and parole. "But just to be free is an amazing feeling." Sporting a relaxed demeanour, the 56-year-old, who savoured a cup of tea first when he returned home, said he was missing his father, late actor Sunil Dutt the most. "If my father was alive, he would have been the most happy person. His only fight was to see his son free. And today I can say, 'Baba I am free now'," said the actor, who after coming out of jail and visiting the Siddhivinayak temple, prayed at his mother Nargis Dutt's grave first and later folded his hands in front of his father's portrait at his Pali Hill residence. At the media conference, he was flanked by his wife Manyata, who was emotional upon being asked about her sentiments on Sanjay's return. Sanjay called her his "pillar of strength" and "best half", adding that his suffering was lesser than that faced by Manyata while he was in prison. He also shared some tidbits about his experience in jail, saying that he has learnt how to make paper bags and how he enjoyed being a radio jockey at YCJ. The "Munna Bhai" actor even quipped that "like a good husband", he gave the "hard-earned" money he made from the paper bags, to his wife. Now, he is looking forward to spending time with his family and children, and "most of all" his work. "I want to get back," he said on an emotional note at the conference, where his twins -- son Shahraan and daughter Iqra -- made a brief appearance, hugging and kissing their father. The love of his fans was visible when he arrived home to a hero's welcome amid tight security. In fact, Sanjay's "Chal Mere Bhai" co-star Salman Khan had personally sent bodyguards to provide security for him. "Salman is my younger brother, and I will always pray for him," he said. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday thanked Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu for allocating Rs.4,682 crore to Odisha in the railway budget 2016-17, which is hike of 30 percent from last year's outlay. "Total outlay for Odisha for the year 2016-17 is Rs.4,682 crore, against a demand of Rs.5,000 crore, which is an increase by 30 percent from last year budget outlay. We appreciate the enhancement in outlay and request railway minister not to revise this downwards like last year," said Patnaik in a statement, noting that last year's actual allotment was 35 percent less than the original allotment for Odisha. Noting his government has been offering to bear construction cost as well as to give land free of cost to important projects, he thanked the ministry for accepting the offer of partnership and sanctioning the two important long-sought projects of Jeypore-Malkanagiri and Jeypore-Nabarangpur. "State's demand for sanctioning the other economically viable lines has been accepted by railway minister and we are thankful for the sanction of Junagarh-Ambaguda via Nabarangpur, Bereahmpur-Sambalpur and Banspani-Badbil lines with partnership of state," said Patnaik. He also expressed his gratitude for accepting the demand for extending the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) from Kharagpur to Vijayawada through coastal Odisha. Patnaik also hoped that the railway ministry would consider the demand of the government for a Rail based Mass Rapid Transit System for greater Bhubaneswar area, considering the fact that Bhubaneswar has now emerged as the number one Smart City in the country. Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who hails from the state thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the railway minister for an allocation that would help in developing rail infrastructure in the state, noting it proves that the central government is giving importance to the eastern parts of the country. However, Odisha Congress president Prasad Harichandan said the budget has nothing new for Odisha. "The railway budget is disappointing. There is no provision of new trains and new projects for the state," said the PCC president. Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, on returning home, has chosen to describe his six-day state visit to India as "very successful", contending that it helped to clear misunderstandings between the two neighbours and restore harmonious relations. The assertion comes after Kathmandu during the past six months has accused New Delhi of intervening in its sovereign constitution-drafting process; of imposing a blockade which caused a humanitarian crisis in the landlocked Himalayan nation; and of stoking and supporting the Madhesi agitation in the southern Terai plains. New Delhi, in turn, accused Kathmandu of not addressing the internal political conflict in the Nepali Terai, which has cross-border security implications. India also raised, on international platforms, the issue of Nepal's human rights violations. It also accused Nepal of stoking 'anti-India' sentiment and has been irritated, though not particularly worried, about Nepal's attempt to use the 'China card'. However, the two neighbours, for now, appear to have chosen to forget the mutual recriminations and get down to the task of much desired economic progress. During Oli's state visit, the two sides signed nine agreements, ranging from infrastructure to rail and road transit. They agreed on post-earthquake reconstruction in Nepal, strengthening of road infrastructure in the Terai area of the Himalayan nation, transit routes, rail transport, and the 400 KV Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar transmission line. Oli's visit also took him to Bhuj, in Gujarat, which has risen like the Phoenix after destruction wreaked by the January 26, 2001, earthquake. Oli described the Bhuj visit as significant, as he thought the reconstruction activities there after the 2001 temblor could be tremendously useful for Nepal's own reconstruction. Oli, on return to Kathmandu at the end of his February 19-24 visit, said his main mission was to "clear the misunderstanding" with India and take ties between the two neighbours to the same level as in 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal. After the bilateral talks with Modi in New Delhi, Oli said: "The misunderstanding that persisted in the last few months is no longer there. I believe our relationship will greatly benefit from our discussions. It is high time to look at India-Nepal relations with a forward-looking approach in the interest of the two countries and their people." However, while Oli described Nepal's Constitution -- promulgated on September 20 last year -- as "historic", Modi called it a "major achievement" and stressed that its success depends on "consensus and dialogue". With the Nepal PM listening, he said: "The announcement of the new constitution in Nepal came after decades of struggle there... I appreciate the contribution of the political leadership and people of Nepal for it... But its success depends on consensus and dialogue." "I am confident on the basis of these principles and through political dialogue and by taking all sections together, you (Oli) will be able to resolve all issues relating to the constitution satisfactorily and take Nepal forward towards the path of development and stability." Modi's assertion amply demonstrated that India did not fully endorse the new constitution as it needed a wider ownership and inclusion. The conversation took place only a month after Nepal's parliament passed two constitutional amendments which avowedly sought to address the grievances of the Madhesis and other minorities of the Nepali Terai. While the two leaders described the document differently -- showing the distance in the understanding of issues, Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said the Nepali PM has given assurances on issues pertaining to constituency delimitation and citizenship, and that India was confident these would be followed through. A significant feature of Oli's state visit was the absence of a joint communique at the end of the visit. The development marked a departure as the tradition of issuing joint communiques at the end of visits of Nepali heads of state or government to India has usually been followed -- at least since 1990. Officials privy to the visit said preparations were afoot in New Delhi earlier on the joint communique and senior officials from both the sides were engaged in finalising its wording. But at the last moment, no joint statement was issued after India refused to say categorically that it welcomed Nepal's new constitution. On the other hand, Nepal wanted to get the phrase 'India welcomes the new constitution in Nepal' incorporated in the joint communique, a Nepali official said in Kathmandu. Oli is learnt to have assured that the pending issues regarding the demands of the Medhesis would be addressed in a time-bound manner. Modi told Oli that India has always wanted peace, stability and prosperity of Nepal and that it would extend all possible help to ensure its all-round development. What emerges from the Oli visit is that Nepal is more interested in appeasing India rather than reaching out to its own people in the Terai. This may have partially satisfied India's desire to reassert its centrality in Nepal but it does not solve the problem of Madhesi and Tharu alienation. (Deepak Goel, Senior Editor with IANS, has been a Nepal-watcher for more than 25 years. He can be contacted at deepak.g@ians.in) The NHRC on Thursday issued notice to the Delhi government's health department and Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi over alleged inaction in the abduction of a pregnant woman from a hospital here. "The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that an expectant woman went to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan hospital on February 6 for delivery along with her mother-in-law. "However, she was allegedly lured away by some persons from the hospital premises and returned home only the next day evening in a delirious condition without her newborn child," a commission statement said here. Following the incident, her husband informed the Delhi Police but no action was taken. "The commission has observed that the report raises the serious issue of violation of human rights, following which a notice has been issued to the health department and the police commissioner, calling for a report in the matter within two weeks." According to a report with the NHRC, the victim could not tell where she was taken and where she delivered the child except that some persons dropped her at the Bhajanpura traffic signal. "The family alleged that she was abducted by some persons in collusion with the hospital staff who got her delivery done," the statement added. Pakistan is looking to do just about enough for India to resume the dialogue process, said a Pakistani daily on Thursday. An editorial "All For Show" in The Nation said that an anti- court (ATC) on Tuesday sentenced two Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) members to 10 years in prison, for raising funds for the banned outfit. "With relations between India and Pakistan balanced on a knife's edge, one wonders if this crackdown is a strategy to improve relations between both as a form of appeasement to India, or a genuine effort to limit in Pakistan," it said. The conviction of Kashif Siddique and Rashid Iqbal makes it potentially the first time that members of JeM have been convicted under the Anti- Act. The daily said that the state wants to convey that dialogue resumption between India and Pakistan is a priority for the Nawaz Sharif government. "The past few days has seen the government pick up its pace with regards to the Pathankot investigation. While the two convicted seemingly had nothing to do with the attacks themselves, Pakistan is looking to do just about enough for India to resume the dialogue process. "It remains to be seen whether India will take this bait, however. This action is not likely to soften the Indian government's expectations of Pakistan." The editorial said that it must be remembered that bringing JeM down "may help in the talks process, but benefits Pakistan more in the way of eliminating a prominent terrorist outfit". "It is axiomatic that Pakistan cannot hope to eliminate terrorism from its soil and leave such groups unscathed," it said and added that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) looks likely to visit India to continue its investigation, but the journey will be futile if the investigators are denied entry into Pathankot airbase. The Pakistani Marine Security Agency (PMSA) on Thursday impounded two more Indian boats off the Gujarat coast along with 12 fishermen. Pakistan officials had earlier taken into custody 16 Indian boats along with 88 fishermen. As many as 53 Indian fishing boats with more than 315 fishermen have been seized by the neighbouring country's agencies since October last year. The two boats (one from Okha and the other from Porbander) with a dozen fishermen were captured by the Pakistani marines near the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in the Arabian Sea off Jakhau coast, National Fish Workers Forum secretary Manish Lodhari said. He said the two boats had ventured into the sea for catching fish some five days ago. Earlier on February 7, a day after the arrest of 11 Pakistani fishermen and their boat from Indian waters off the Gujarat coast, the PMSA had seized two Indian boats off the Okha coast with 12 fishermen on board. Lodhari said that the Pakistani officials had seized over half a dozen Indian fishing boats along with more than 50 fishermen on January 25 from near the IMBL off the Porbandar coast. On December 20 last year, 10 Indian boats with 68 fishermen were also captured by the PMSA off the Jakhau port of Gujarat. Almost a dozen Indian boats with over 60 fishermen were captured by the Pak Marines in October last year, according to Lodhari. A Pakistani terrorist who attacked an Indian army camp in Jammu and Kashmir three months ago has been arrested, the military announced on Thursday. Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, of Daska in Sialkot in Pakistan, was caught in Baramulla where he escaped to after attacking the army camp at Tangdhar in Kupwara district on November 25. That attack left the three Pakistani associates of the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) activists and an Indian civilian dead. Military spokesman S.D. Goswami told IANS from Udhampur that the army and police trapped Gujjar, son of Walid Mohammad Gujjar. Five others suspected of helping Gujjar were also arrested after his interrogation. "The terrorist was part of the four fidayeen who carried out the attack on the army camp," the spokesman said. "He told his interrogators that he set fire to an oil depot in the army camp and destroyed several vehicles before he was ordered by his colleagues to leave. "The fidayeen told his interrogators that the JeM militants were launched from Athmuqam in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and told to any army camp near the LoC (Line of Control)," the spokesman said. "The group, with the help of GPS, crossed the border on November 24 night and continued to walk until they reached the Tanghdar army camp after six-seven hours," he told the interrogators. After the attack, Gujjar fled to nearby forests and was in hiding for three days. He was asked by his handlers to go to Kupwara. He changed his clothes and boarded a van from Tanghdar, with his weapon concealed. He reached Kupwara and befriended some people who helped him to travel to Baramulla where he was arrested. Coming from a well-off farmer's family in Sialkot, Gujjar has five brothers and two sisters. He was lured by his school friend, who is also a JeM militant, to take to militancy. Gujjar said he got three months training in a JeM camp in Pakistan. Tripura's Left Front government Thursday night criticised Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu for neglecting the northeastern states in the 2016-17 rail budget. "The railway budget presented in the parliament by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has neglected the northeast by not providing adequate funds for the new constructions and on going constructions of railway infrastructure in the region," Transport Minister Manik Dey told reporters. "Six years after the finalisation of a new India-Bangladesh railway project -- Agartala (India)-Akhaura (Bangladesh), the railway minister has allocated only Rs.150 crore while the project required Rs 1,000 crore," he said. The Agartala-Akhaura railway project was finalised in January 2010 when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during her visit to New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the railway project with Hasina during his visit to Dhaka in June last year. "The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) led central government prepared the railway budget to appease the corporate sector," Dey said adding that no new trains were introduced and no major railway project announced in the budget for the northeastern region comprising eights states. He said that Tripura's three MPs - Jitendra Chowdhury, Sankar Prasad Datta (both Lok Sabha) and Jharna Das Baidya (Rajya Sabha) - and the state government had urged the prime minister and railway minister on a number of times to set up a railway division and a railway recruitment board in Tripura, but the budget has neglected all these. "Though there are proposal to increase allocation of meagre funds for some of the railway projects in the northeastern states, but there is no specific reference about many on going projects in the region," Dey added. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday faced a tough time defending the Centre and the Delhi Police in the Rajya Sabha, with the opposition members staging a walkout even before he had finished his statement. The Delhi Police were trying their best to maintain law and order in the national capital, he said while replying to a call attention motion on complete breakdown of law and order in Delhi. "I am not saying that the Delhi Police is perfect. As no person can be perfect, how can an organisation like this (which is so large) can be perfect?" he said, adding that the government was doing everything possible to maintain peace. There were vociferous protests by the Congress, left and other opposition members when Rajnath Singh said that those involved in violence against journalists as well as Jawaharlal Nehru University students and teachers inside the Patiala House court complex on February 15 and 17 had been booked and the law would now take its own course. The opposition accused the government of trying to save the guilty as the attack was carried out on its directions. Nationalist Congress Party leader D.P. Tripathi said no one in the history of independent India was beaten up like those in the Patiala House courts. "Gangsters are (now) teaching nationalism," Tripathi remarked, adding that it was a dangerous situation. In response, the home minister said that the law was taking its own course, but the opposition asked him how people how could be clearly seen attacking others were let off immediately after an FIR was filed against them. The opposition members asked Rajnath Singh to book the culprits under stringent provisions of law. Rajnath Singh, however, kept on repeating that the guilty would be punished, but the opposition was not satisfied. The members alleged that the government was trying to save its own party MLA who too was seen attacking people in the court premises. As the home minister was about to finish his reply on the motion, the opposition members walked out of the upper house. During his reply, the minister also tried to reason that Delhi was one of the largest cities in India and that the Delhi Police were facing shortage of personnel. K.C. Tyagi of Janata Dal-United asked the home minister to be his "real self" as he has handled riots well during his chief ministership in Uttar Pradesh. Rana Daggubati, who plays a Naval officer in the trilingual "Ghazi", touted as India's first sub marine-based war film, has been shooting non-stop ever since the movie went on the floors in January. The period drama revolves around the mysterious disappearance of Pakistan's premiere sub, PNS Ghazi, near the eastern coast of India, en route to the Bay of Bengal, during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Rana recently shot for a major underwater war sequence for the film. Being a certified diver, he didn't require any underwater lessons for the film. However, he rehearsed a bit before canning the final shots. Talking about the experience, Rana told IANS: "We began shooting on January 3 with the schedule drawing to a close on Tuesday. Two submarines have been created in a large pool in Hyderabad. I am currently on a 12-day break and will resume shooting from March 10 for a start-to-finish schedule." "I am quite good at diving, but the last time I did it was around four years ago. It was shot over three days and required me to be underwater from six in the morning to two in the night. It was taxing but I was committed to giving it my best. The fact that it's a first of its kind movie motivates me to keep working hard," he reminisced. There may not have been heavy-duty physical preparation involved for the war drama, but Rana did have to lose a few kg of his weight. "I was quite bulked up for 'Baahubali', so I had to shed some weight. I also underwent agility training as part of my prep," he said. The trilingual, which is directed by Sanklap Reddy, is being shot in Hindi and Telugu and will be dubbed in Tamil. The actor's research also involved meeting Indian Naval officers, particularly those on board the Indian naval ship. "My father helped me get in touch with many of them including those on INS Vikrant at the time," he added. Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital on Thursday announced hiving off its commercial finance division into a separate wholly owned subsidiary. In a statement, Reliance Capital said the board of directors approved the transfer of its commercial finance division into a separate wholly owned subsidiary. The move aligns with the existing corporate structure of Reliance Capital having all its operating businesses as a wholly or majority owned subsidiaries. The commercial finance business has an aggregate asset under management (including securitised portfolio) of Rs.15,049 crore as on December 31, 2015. "All operating businesses of Reliance Capital Ltd., except the Commercial Finance business, are held in its wholly or majority owned subsidiaries. Accordingly, to align the overall operating structure, it is proposed to transfer the Commercial Finance division of the Company into a wholly owned subsidiary," Sam Ghosh, executive director and group CEO, Reliance Capital, was quoted as saying in the statement. "This will also facilitate the treatment of the company as a Core Investment Company (CIC) in terms of applicable RBI regulations," Ghosh added. The proposal will enhance management focus on Reliance Commercial Finance and also provide flexibility to the company to unlock value through stake sale, Reliance Capital said. The demerger will be soon filed for requisite approvals and would be effective from April 1, 2016, subject to necessary court and regulatory approvals. As per the scheme, the commercial finance division of Reliance Capital would be merged into Reliance Gilts Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital, and this merged entity would be renamed Reliance Commercial Finance Limited. Reliance Capital would be applying to the Reserve Bank of India for registering itself as a CIC, post the transfer, and this move would also facilitate the application of banking licence, as and when the RBI policy permits. The Indian rupee weakened by 15 paise on Thursday to touch its new 30-month closing low. The rupee closed at 68.71 against the US dollar at a level which was last seen during late August, 2013. It weakened by 15 paise to 68.71 to a US dollar from its previous close of 68.56 to a greenback. During the intra-day trade rupee value dwindelled to 68.79 to a US dollar from its previous close of 68.56 to a greenback. "Indian rupee opened marginally higher against the US dollar, thanks to risk-on sentiments across Asian markets. However, demand from importers brought it back above 68.50 levels on spot, closing at 68.71," Anindya Banerjee, associate vice president for currency derivatives with Kotak Securities, told IANS. "Central bank would remain active till the union budget, as they trying to prevent a blowback of a weak currency on bond investment from FIIs (foreign institutional investors)." The weakness in the rupee value indicates the massive outflow of foreign funds from the Indian equity and debt markets. The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the equity markets during the day's trade. Data with stock exchanges showed that FIIs divested Rs.1,465.68 crore. In addition, the slide in rupee's value even dented the equity indices. The weakness in rupee value led to the barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to close the day's trade down 113 points, or 0.49 percent. Similarly, the wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended the day's trade in the red -- lower by 48.10 points, or 0.69 percent, at 6,970.60 points. French archaeologists have unearthed skeletons at a burial site in south France that provide a clinching evidence of the presence of Muslim communities in the country during the early medieval period. Yves Gleize and Fanny Mendisco from the University of Bordeaux in France found that three graves at the burial site at Nimes city appear to follow Islamic rites, including the position of the body and the head orientation towards Islam's holy city of Mecca. The discovery confirms their expansion north of the Pyrenees range of mountains which form a natural border between France and Spain. "The joint archaeological, anthropological and genetic analysis of three early medieval graves at Nimes provides evidence of burials linked with Muslim occupation during the eighth century in south of France," Gleize said. The team also found genetic evidence indicating their paternal lineage from North African ancestry. Radiocarbon dating showed that the skeletons were likely from the 7th-9th centuries. In the study, published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, Gleize and Mendisco propose that the skeletons from the Nimes burials belonged to Berbers integrated into the Umayyad army during the Arab expansion in North Africa in the eighth century. Despite the low number of Muslim graves discovered, the authors believe that the findings provide some of the first archaeological and anthropological evidence for Muslim communities in south France. The rapid Arab-Islamic conquest during the early medieval period led to major political and cultural changes in the Mediterranean. The study assumes significance because the early medieval Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula is well documented but scientists have less evidence of the Muslim expansion north of the Pyrenees. The early middle ages or early medieval period was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to the 10th century. Sarath Fonseka, who was Sri Lanka's army commander when the military crushed the Tamil Tigers, was sworn in as a minister by President Maithripala Sirisena on Thursday. Fonseka was appointed the minister of regional development, Xinhua news agency reported. Although Fonseka contested the parliamentary elections in August last year, his Democratic Party failed to secure any seats. The Democratic Party signed a collective agreement with the ruling United National Party earlier this month, after which Fonseka was sworn in as a member of parliament. Fonseka, who led the military to end a 30-year civil conflict in the island nation, was awarded the highest rank of Field Marshall by President Sirisena. A former 40 year Atheist analyzes Atheism, without resorting to theism, deism, or fantasy. *** If You Don't Value Truth, Then What DO You Value? *** If we say that the sane can be coaxed and persuaded to rationality, and we say that rationality presupposes logic, then what can we say of those who actively reject logic? *** Atheists have an obligation to give reasons in the form of logic and evidence for rejecting Theist theories. A team of US researchers including an Indian-origin scientist has formulated a new method that can predict with 70 percent accuracy the likelihood that your tweets -- that are part of an ongoing debate or a movement -- will become part of a larger and even violent protest later. The study from researchers at Arizona State University, Texas A&M University and Yahoo and funded in part by the US Military's Office of Naval Research looked at 2,686 Twitter posts to create a system that reliably spots future online protesters. "The ways in which protest-related events affect a person are not observable, resulting in a lack of knowledge of factors operating at that time causing his next post to be a declaration of protest," wrote lead researchers Suhas Ranganath, Fred Morstatter and colleagues from Arizona State University. "A user is subject to various types of influence in his past and many of them are in conflict with each other. This may lead to ambiguities on whether his posts will contain declarations of protest in the future," they added. The paper titled "Predicting Online Protest Participation of Social Media Users" was published as part of the proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) conference in Phoenix, Arizona, recently. To reach this conclusion, the team observed tweets regarding the Nigerian election in 2015, which eventually sparked widespread protests due to irregularities and militant violence. The team employed Brownian motion theory to design the formula -- a theory that is usually employed to track the movement of particles as well as model stock market fluctuations and other highly complicated systems, www.nextgov.com reported. The findings can also be applied to scenarios when the complete spreading mechanism is not known like in the case of terror-related tweets. "In these scenarios, we go into the history of the user and see who have tried to interact with him and the nature of the interactions. So the individual user's response to the attempt of organizations like IS (Islamic State) to interact with him can be modelled using the proposed method," the team told Defense One website. The researchers, however, caution that predicting a protest tweet is different than predicting the moment of actual radicalisation The paper is part of a $750,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research to study how crisis manifests itself in social media. US Ambassador to India Richard Verma on Thursday met Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das to discuss the potential for investment and business in the state. Verma said that the current $150 billion business between India and America is set to go up to $500 billion. Raghubar Das told Verma that there was ample potential of investment in Jharkhand in the areas of mining, automobile, IT, defense, education and clean energy. "The state has 40 percent minerals of the nation. Land bank has been established to sort out the problems of land acquisition. Jharkhand investment office has been opened in New Delhi where state related information can be secured," the chief minister stated. Ambassador Verma has been on two days' visit to Jharkhand. He met regional business leaders at a programme hosted by the Jharkhand Chapter of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to discuss opportunities for deeper and broader economic engagement between U.S. and Indian companies. At the conclusion of his visit on Thursday Ambassador Verma said, "I had fruitful meetings with Chief Minister Raghubar Das and Governor Draupadi Murmu regarding the opportunities for strengthening collaboration in trade and investment, education, health, and anti-human trafficking efforts in Jharkhand. Abu Dhabi, Feb 25 (IANS/WAM) Emirates Mobile Voluntary Hospital, arrived in Sudan to participate in the humanitarian mission to treat one million children and elderly across the north African country. This initiative, which is the first of its kind, is carried out in collaboration with the Saudi German Hospital, Dar Al Ber Association, and in strategic partnership with the Sudanese Centre for Voluntary Work and UAE Voluntary Centre, Arab Association for Humanitarian Work, and the UAE Societal Readiness Programme "Jahezyia" and National Training Foundation. Ambassador for Humanitarian Work, Reem Osman said that the mobile hospital will provide therapeutic, surgical, training services and preventive for needy groups with participation of a group of senior physicians and surgeons. The mobile hospital include 15 beds, separate sections for primary health care, emergency care, surgical and sterilisation equipment, medical instruments and units of intensive care, care for intermediate or transitional, pharmacy section, in addition to the laboratory and the radiology section, maintenance section and unit for power generation and medical supplies with a specific order. Osman noted that the mobile hospital is working in Sudan to support the efforts of the United Arab Emirates- Sudanese voluntary medical camps. --IANS/WAM ksk Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Arun Mahaur was shot dead on Thursday by unidentified assailants on a motorcycle in Agra's Mantola area, police said. Senior police officials said a hunt was on for the killers. Members of Hindutva groups roamed the streets following the killing and shops in the Nai ki Mandi area downed their shutters. There was tension in the area. Mahaur was vice president of the city unit of VHP. Haryana on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it would take at least 15 days for the repair and restoration of Munak canal that was damaged during the Jat agitation and restore it to its original condition. Haryana told the apex court bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit that three Poclain machines and seven dumpers have been pressed into service for the repair and restoration of Munak canal, but it would take at least 15 days to restore it to its original condition. However, Haryana said that the time period of 15 days was subject to condition that "there should not be any interruption by the agitators during the execution of work". Appreciating that a team of officials from Delhi government too was present at the canal site for the joint restoration of breach, the bench said that both Delhi and Haryana should mutually do it. The bench also said that there was nothing adversarial in the release of water to the national capital from Haryana. Even in the last hearing of the PIL by the Delhi Jal Board on February 22, the court had said: "We are indeed happy to note that there is no adversarial element in this litigation as both the governments appear to be willing to co-operate with each other in every respect." The court was told that Delhi has sent its manpower and machinery to contribute to the efforts for the restoration of the canal. In the course of the February 22 hearing, the court was told that Delhi government would lend all possible technical and other assistance required for the restoration of the damaged canal. Haryana told the court that it had on February 22, released 500 cusecs of water which would reach Delhi's Haiderpur Water Treatment Plant after taking its normal travelling time. The court was also told that besides 500 cusecs, Haryana has also released another 700 cusecs of water through the Yamuna. Disputing the claim of Haryana government over the quantity of water released by it, the counsel for Delhi told the court that the national capital had received less than 50 percent of the water it gets from the neighbouring state. However, reiterating that Haryana has released 500 cusecs and 700 cusecs of water, its counsel said that there may be some loss of water on account of seepage en route. In the course of the last hearing of the matter on February 22, Haryana had told the apex court that Munak Regulator and barrages at Khubru and Mandora village had been hit by violence in wake of the Jat agitation demanding reservation in Haryana. Munak Regulator and barrages at Khubru and Mandora village are the three points from where water is supplied to the NCT region. The court in the last hearing on February 22 had directed the centre to take "appropriate steps" to ensure that the proper security is provided to the three barrages at Munak, Mandora and Khubru to prevent any further mischief affecting supply of water to Delhi at the three points. A day before Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was to fly down to Punjab for a five-day tour, state Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had said "seasonal birds" could be expected in the state as Assembly polls were round the corner. When Kejriwal arrived in Chandigarh on a regular flight from Delhi, he said he had come to visit villages and meet common people to understand their problems. "Other parties make their manifestos in air-conditioned rooms; we go to the villages and homes of people," he added. Nationalism is in the air, at least on prime-time television. The debate has cleaved the country and its news anchors into two camps: liberal or nationalist. You can't be both. India is on the cusp of radical change, each side would have you believe, and there will be no looking back from here. Television can be a hair-raising experience even at the sanest of times. Deutsche Boerse has started off its proposed merger with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) by playing nicely. The euro 14-billion German exchange has yet to divulge what cost savings it could achieve from a tie-up, but it's possible to take a guess. So far, the merger looks carefully calibrated to avoid offence. The challenge before the banking sector, in particular public sector banks (PSB), is the recovery of bad debts called non-performing assets (NPA). Even relatively new private sector banks such as ICICI, Axis, HDFC, Yes and Kotak Mahindra are reeling from the rising number of NPAs. The Reserve Bank of India has asked banks to clean up their balance sheets. But how? Full recovery of NPAs is impossible. But writing off NPAs means incurring heavy losses. The recovery of loans is not helped by the Debts Recovery Tribunal, the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act or asset reconstruction companies. PSBs have to perform so many non-banking duties - implement social security schemes, provide loans, collect taxes and fees, register documents, sell stamp paper etc. The banking sector is a sinking ship. Saving it entails wasting more public money. Even after their balance sheets are cleaned up, the NPA weed will sprout again. Sudhir Keshav Bhave, Mumbai Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201 E-mail: letters@bsmail.in All letters must have a postal address and telephone number With reference to Barun Roy's column, "It's time for smart villages" (February 24), the majority of India's population lives in the villages. If we can make our villages smart by providing good sanitation, infrastructure and roads and by generating employment, we can solve the problem of migration to crowded cities. As unemployment is a pressing problem, the government's first task should be to create job opportunities for the village youth. Investments in infrastructure projects - especially for the improvement of roads - and labour-intensive industries and encouragement of small-scale and cottage industries in rural and semi-urban areas will go a long way in facilitating employment opportunities. As the tourism industry is doing quite well, villages should be well-connected with nearby tourist spots so that the rural folk can sell their handicrafts and other wares at these spots. This will boost their livelihood. Building toilets should be accorded top priority while setting up smart villages. For this, the government should engage corporate houses and public sector undertakings through their corporate social responsibility schemes. Non-governmental organisations working for the uplift of the underprivileged should be given wholehearted support to build toilets and educate people on hygiene. Veena Shenoy, Thane (West) Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201 E-mail: letters@bsmail.in All letters must have a postal address and telephone number A panel of state officials and industry experts will develop proposed regulations for selling alcoholic beverages through third-party providers, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. The Alcoholic Beverage Control E-Commerce Task Force will be led by State Liquor Authority Chairman Vincent Bradley. The group will hold its first meeting at 10 a.m. Monday at the SLA's Harlem office. Video conferencing will be available in Albany and Buffalo. The meeting will be broadcast live on sla.ny.gov. According to Cuomo, the task force will focus on four key points, including identifying and defining third-party providers and issuing permits for third-parties to sell alcoholic beverages. There are several third-party websites that sell alcoholic beverages, including craft beer and hard cider. In New York, however, these websites aren't regulated. In the third quarter of 2015, online alcoholic beverage sales totaled nearly $88 billion, Cuomo's office said. "This administration has worked tirelessly to cut red tape and reduce burdensome regulations in order to solidify New York's role as a leader in the craft beverage industry," Cuomo said. "This task force will continue our efforts to modernize laws in order to encourage investment and expand opportunities for small businesses and craft retailers across the state." Cuomo held a summit with craft beverage producers in October to discuss the industry's success and more steps the state could take to assist breweries, cideries, distilleries and wineries. A month after the summit, Cuomo formed a working group to review the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control Laws. With the new task force focusing on e-commerce regulations, state officials see an opportunity to boost an already successful industry. "This is another example of the governor's continuing effort to make the state a better place to do business by helping New York retailers and producers reach new markets and providing clear direction for large and small businesses, including hundreds of family owned craft manufacturers," Bradley said. Here is the list of the task force's members: Vincent Bradley, Chairman, New York State Liquor Authority Kevin Kim, Commissioner, New York State Liquor Authority Michael Arton, Associate General Counsel, Anheuser Busch Michael Correra, Executive Director, Metropolitan Package Store Association Sean Croman, Associate General Counsel, Amazon Keven Danow, Partner, Danow, McMullan & Panoff Lester Eber, Vice President, Southern Wine and Spirits Thomas Edwards, President, New York State Liquor Store Association Kevin Fortuna, Founder, Lot 18 Elke Hofmann, Elke Hofmann Law Mark Koslowe, Managing Partner, Buchman Law Firm Paul Leone, Executive Director, New York State Brewers Association Brian McKenzie, President, New York State Distillers Guild Connie Oehmler, Chief Operating Officer, Verity Wine Partners Lynne Omile, General Counsel, Distilled Spirits Council of the United States Nicholas Rellas, Founder, Drizly Kristin Techel, Partner, Strike & Techel, Beverage Law Group William Tomaszewski, General Counsel, Wine.com Jim Tresize, President, New York Wine & Grape Foundation Jeff Saunders, President, New York State Retailers Alliance Brock Wanless, Assistant General Counsel, Groupon Scott Wexler, Executive Director, Empire State Restaurant & Tavern Association The editorial, "Lower the temperature" (February 25) does well to caution the coalition government at the Centre not to alienate the Opposition from parliamentary debates. But it should have also spared some lines of advice for the Opposition, in particular the Congress. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held a meeting with members of major Opposition parties, the Lok Sabha speaker and the chairman of the Rajya Sabha to emphasise the need for cooperation. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu, too, pleaded for peaceful conduct of proceedings in the two Houses of Parliament. Yet there were frequent adjournments in the Rajya Sabha on the very first day of the Budget session. Actually, all parties are interested in nurturing their political constituencies: Hindus, Dalits, minorities, tribals and now, students. The Opposition is still unwilling to reconcile with Modi's ascension to the PM's post. That is why they have no time to discuss issues vital for the progress and security of the country, such as terrorist attacks and labour and economic reforms. The Congress' opposition to the goods and services tax is a glaring example of this. Is it really wise or necessary to include an 18 per cent tax limit in the Constitution, as the party has demanded? At a time when India is at the cusp of opportunities, it lacks mature and prudent leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, B R Ambedkar, Ram Manohar Lohia and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The youth of our country deserve better leaders. Y G Chouksey, Pune Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201 E-mail: letters@bsmail.in All letters must have a postal address and telephone number Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had to borrow Rs 5 from a bureaucrat to pay for a bus ticket in Patna on Wednesday. Kumar had boarded one of the special buses reserved for women in the state capital, which he was to inaugurate later. When approached by a conductor with an electronic ticket-vending machine, Kumar found he had no money on him. So he asked Amrit Lal Meena, principal secretary, Bihar urban development and housing department, to pay for the ticket. The chief minister often finds himself out of money as he leaves his home without any. Employees have very low awareness about the benefits offered under the group health scheme of their organisations, a recent ICICI Lombard survey says. A survey on trends in employee benefits programmes for 2015 found only 19 per cent were aware of all benefits provided by the health insurance scheme. The survey said only eight per cent of the employees found the existing sum insured adequate against the perception of 45 per cent employers. Further, it said eight per cent employees were not aware of any one of the benefits in the group health insurance policy. It added only 21 per cent of the respondents know only one of the benefits and services, while only 38 per cent knew about the sub-limits which increase out-of-pocket payments for the insured. Amit Bhandari, head- Health & Agricultural Insurance, Underwriting & Claims, at ICICI Lombard, said while awareness among employees was low, in several cases the company-provided health cover was not sufficient to meet their expenses. The survey showed the sum insured was often breached and the choice of hospitals was the main reason for that, he added. Survey data showed that in 2013-14, for such sum-insured breach cases, there were 1,033 secondary cases and 2,084 tertiary cases. According to norms, there was no restriction on the choice of hospital for treatment of any ailment. Hence, even for viral fever, nothing stops a patient from visiting a high-end hospital for treatment. This increases expenses for the insurer when ordinarily the treatment could have been done otherwise at a secondary care hospital at a lower cost. With respect to the top 10 cases for sum insured breach, neoplasms or cancer-related diseases occupy the top spot followed by heart ailments and genito-urinary diseases. Metro and tier-1 cities had seen higher quantum of breaches, especially with medical costs being higher in these regions. Difficulties were also faced by employees when a hospital they go to falls out of the network provided by the respective insurer. The survey showed 35 per cent of employers end up spending time on coordination in case of a non-network hospital. Bhandari said some customisations could be offered within the network of providers. With respect to value-added benefits, wellness benefits was a big area on which corporates were working on. The report said 68 per cent of corporates provided wellness benefits while only 55 per cent employees were aware of such initiatives. Some of them included annual health check-ups, yoga sessions and health talks, among others. Money being spent on outpatient department (q) was also gradually on the rise. The survey showed 37 per cent of employees incur an expense in the range of Rs 10,000-25,000 annually and 14 per cent employees incur expenses greater than Rs 50,000. Of them, about 48 per cent of the total spend was on pharmacy, followed by 24 per cent on diagnostics. Going forward, Bhandari said, there could be health care assistance models which would come up in the industry. Lots of employees surveyed said they do not understand the costs involved. Assistance services would be able to help them here, he said. Staying with an insurer for group health scheme for a longer duration would enable more accountability and better services, Bhandari added. After her shrill and acerbic speech while replying to a discussion on the suicide of Dalit student Rohith Vemula and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) row in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani was markedly even-tempered on Thursday when replying to a discussion in the Rajya Sabha. Irani started by thanking her colleagues, including those from the Opposition parties, to have "rightly" advised her to be calmer. She, however, marshaled her arguments with finesse to defend the government's actions in both incidents - in the aftermath of the suicide of Vemula in the Hyderabad Central University and the JNU issue. Her reply was cut short when Opposition members objected to her comments that students at JNU had published derogatory pamphlets about Goddess Durga and worshipped Mahishasura. Irani, who had read out the contents of the pamphlets in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, repeated those on Thursday. Congress leader Anand Sharma said the minister was setting a dangerous precedent. "Every religious leader and deity has been derogatorily referred by some persons. Will all this be discussed here? Can we allow it here? Then there will be a war in the House," Sharma said. When Irani persisted and the chair expressed his helplessness in the matter, the Opposition members continued to protest and the House was adjourned for the day. Irani quoted from Macbeth, Vemula's letters and other letters to make her point that she was being targeted in the controversy and how the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was guilty of discriminating against Dalits. Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asked whether sedition and breaking the country into pieces can be called "free speech". The minister also taunted the Opposition attacking the government over the Patiala House court complex incidents, in which lawyers attacked journalists, teachers, students and JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar. "What happened in courts is condemnable," he said, and added after a pause, with sarcasm, "vandalism is condemnable but sedition is free speech." Initiating the debate in the morning, CPI(M) chief Sitaram Yechury slammed the government for trying to suppress dissent and impose their idea of a "theocratic, fascistic Hindu Rashtra". He sought the setting up of a House panel to examine the latest developments. Yechury, an alumnus of JNU, said Home Minister Rajnath Singh used "a parody tweet" of terrorist Hafiz Saeed to attack JNU students. On the government's plans to hoist flags in all universities, he said: "The Tricolour in our heart is much larger than any flag... we don't want certificates of patriotism from those who killed Mahatma Gandhi." There have been 12 instances of technical fault being reported during take off or landing and a case of tyre burst while taxiing by Air India planes in the last three months, Lok Sabha was told today. During the last three months, there were 12 incidents of technical faults during take-off and landing by Air India planes and one incident of tyre burst, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said in a written reply. The minister said such incidents are investigated by the Permanent Investigation Board of the airline in association with officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. In response to another question, Sharma said Air India had received a total of 394 complaints of flight delays from its passenger in January this year. The total number of complaints on this count rose to 3,507 last year as compared to 1,943 in 2014, Sharma said. Air India had received a total of 829 complaints from its passengers for the flight delays in 2013, the Minister said, adding that the national carrier has a well-defined compliant-handling procedure where all complaints are received whether pertaining to delays or any other issue. A 13-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped by a youth while she was on her way back home after work at Purkazi town in the district, police said today. According to the complaint filed by the girl's father, the incident took place last evening when the accused, Khushnasib, kidnapped the victim and took her to a nearby field and raped her, Circle Officer, Akil Ahmad said. A case has been registered against Kumar under IPC sections 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation), SC/ST Act and POCSO Act, he said. The accused have been arrested, police said. Pakistan's anti-terrorism court holding the Mumbai attack trial has finally recorded the statements of all Pakistani witnesses in the high-profile case that has been going on in the country for over six years. The anti-terrorism court (ATC) Islamabad which held the hearing yesterday at the high security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi recorded the statements of the final witness, concluding the process. Five witnesses have not recorded their statements despite a number of court summons. The court has declared them proclaimed offenders. "All the Pakistani witnesses of the Mumbai case have recorded their statements. Now only Indian witnesses are left to record their statements," a prosecution lawyer told PTI. He said the trial would be concluded once the India witnesses record their statements. The prosecution lawyer said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the trial court yesterday that the Interior Ministry has written to the Foreign Ministry over summoning of the 24 Indian witnesses to Pakistan for recording of statements. The court adjourned the hearing till March 2. In the last hearing, the court, which is holding the trial of the seven accused including Mumbai attack mastermind and LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, had ordered the FIA to present all 24 Indian witnesses in court to record their statements. Besides, it had also ordered to bring back to Pakistan the boats used by Ajmal Kasab and other militants on the grounds that it is a case property and should be duly examined. A court official had said earlier that the statements of four key Indian witnesses recorded by the Pakistani commission in 2012 were not admissible in the trial court as the Indian government had not allowed their cross-examination. The 8-member Pakistani judicial commission had visited India on behalf of the Pakistani anti-terrorism court (ATC). The statements of the Indian witnesses were supposed to be used as evidence in the trial. However, Lakhvi's lawyer had challenged the commission's proceedings because Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S S Shinde did not let its members cross-examine witnesses. The trial court here subsequently declared the proceedings of the commission illegal. Pakistani authorities have arrested seven LeT members involved with the planning of the attacks. Apart from Lakhvi, other arrested LeT men are Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Sadiq, Shahid Jamil, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum. A trial is underway against them at the ATC since 2009. Lakhvi, 55, secured bail in December 2014 and was subsequently released from Adiala Jail on April 10, 2015, after the Lahore High Court set aside the government's order to detain him under a public security act. A total of 445 Indians, most of them fishermen, are currently lodged in jails in Pakistan, the Rajya Sabha was informed today. In addition, 74 missing defence personnel, including 54 prisoners of war, are believed to be in Pakistani jails since 1971, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said, in written reply to a question. He said 392 Indian fishermen and 53 other Indian civilian prisoners are currently lodged in Pakistan's custody, adding the government regularly takes up with Islamabad the issue of their early release and repatriation. On prisoners of war, Singh said Pakistan does not acknowledge their presence in its custody. The Minister said a total of 1262 Indian fishermen were arrested in foreign waters in 2015. To a separate question, Singh said a total of 2,102 Indians were injured or killed in the last three years during various tragedies in foreign countries out of which 1,575 were brought back. This is in addition to 35,000 people evacuated from Nepal following the devastating quake in that country in April last year, he said. Replying to another query, Singh said India was ready to play a meaningful role in Syria's peace process, if required. He, however, added that Syrian government has not extended any invitation to India for its participation in the peace talks. In response to a question on Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifting 2500 kilos of sandalwood to Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu during his visit there in August 2014, the Minister said only "dead trees and seized sandalwood" were given. "Since no live/green trees were felled, the question of planting saplings in their stead does not arise," the Minister said, adding the wood was taken from Tamil Nadu. He said the cost of the sandalwood gifted to the temple was Rs 1.88 crore and expenses incurred towards transportation, insurance and packaging was Rs 2.85 lakh. Seven Indian companies are among those from 20 countries named in a list whose components were used by the to make explosives, a EU-mandated study today said, suggesting that more work needs to be done to track the flow of chemicals and other items to the terror group. The study by Conflict Armament Research (CAR) showed that 51 companies from 20 countries such as Turkey, India, Brazil, and the US produced, sold or received the over 700 components used by to build improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Turkey topped the list of countries with a total of 13 firms involved in the supply chain. It was followed by India with seven companies, CAR said in a statement. The study was completed in 20 months. Seven Indian companies manufactured most of the detonators, detonating cord and safety fuses. Under Indian law, transfer of this material requires a licence. Those were all legally exported under government-issued licenses from India to entities in Lebanon and Turkey, the CAR said. According to the report, the terror group mostly uses Nokia 105 mobile phone for remote detonation. Companies from Brazil, Romania, Russia, the Netherlands, China, Switzerland, Austria and Czech Republic were also involved, it said. The study said that governments and firms need to do more to track the flow of cables, chemicals and other equipment. CAR's executive director James Bevan said, "These findings support growing international awareness that in Iraq and Syria are very much self-sustaining - acquiring weapons and strategic goods, such as IED components, locally and with ease." The report said that CAR gained access to the components through partners including the US-backed Kurdish YPG in Syria, the Iraqi Federal Police, the Kurdistan Region Security Council and forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government. These components were seized during battles in the Iraqi towns of al Rabia, Kirkuk, Mosul, and Tikrit and the Syrian town of Kobani. In two separate incidents, nine Sri Lankan fishermen were arrested by the Coast Guard for allegedly fishing in Indian waters, while four fishermen from this coastal hamlet were reportedly beaten up by naval personnel of the island nation off Katchatheevu. The Sri Lankan fishermen were arrested by the Coast Guard while fishing off Kodiyakarai, Joint director of fisheries department Suburaj said, adding the Coast Guard also seized their two boats. The fishermen were later taken to Karaikal to be produced before a court, he said. Meanwhile, four Tamil Nadu fishermen were allegedly beaten up by Sri Lankan naval personnel off Katchatheevu. S Sagayam, president of Rameswaram fishermen Association said that the four were part of about 2,000 who had put out to sea last night from here in 568 boats. He said the naval personnel came to the spot in fast boats, attacked the four with plastic pipes, cut the fishing nets of 20 boats and chased them away. They also snatched the GPS equipment and cellphones from the fishermen, he said. Seventy-four veterans who were killed in a training exercise deserve acknowledgement on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. Last year, Schumer, D-N.Y., launched a campaign on behalf of 74 sailors who were killed in June 1969 when the USS Frank E. Evans collided with an Australian aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. Among those killed in the collision was Larry Reilly Jr., the son of Syracuse-area resident Larry Reilly Sr. The names of the sailors weren't included on the Vietnam memorial wall in Washington because the deaths were considered "not directly linked to war," according to Schumer's office. Even though the ship supported American military operations during the war, at the time of the collision it was outside of the designated Vietnamese combat zone. Schumer sent a letter to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus calling for a review of the decision. In June 2015, the Navy informed Schumer that it supports adding the 74 names to the Vietnam memorial. The final decision, however, rests with Carter and the Defense Department. "For more than four decades, surviving crew members and relatives of those lost on the USS Frank E. Evans have struggled to understand why geographical lines have superseded these sailors' sacrifice and service," Schumer said in a statement. "By withholding the names of these 74 veterans, including Larry Reilly Jr., from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, we are denying individuals who bravely served this country and paid the ultimate sacrifice the proper recognition they deserve." Along with Reilly's son, there were four men with New York ties who died on the USS Frank Evans: James Franklin Bradly of New York City; Terry Lee Henderson of Buffalo; Dennis Ralph Johnson of Tarrytown; and John Townsend Norton of Brooklyn. Schumer said he's urging Carter to approve the request and add the sailors' names to the memorial. "With Memorial Day just a few months away, we should be able to look at 74 additional names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in our nation's capital," he said. More than 58,000 names of soldiers who were killed or missing in action in the Vietnam War appear on the memorial wall. Some names have been added over the years, including seven in 2015. Here is the letter Schumer sent to Carter: Dear Secretary Carter, I write to request that the names of the 74 Sailors lost aboard the USS Frank E. Evans on June 3, 1969, be added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Those aboard were essential to the American military efforts in Vietnam, and I strongly agree with the Department of the Navy that their presence in the South China Sea was directly linked to the war. By withholding their names from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, we are denying the deceased crewmembers of the USS Frank E. Evans the proper recognition for their brave and noble service. Just a few days after providing main and support fire for ground troops on the gun line in Vietnamese waters, the USS Frank E. Evans was cut in half after it collided with an Australian aircraft carrier during a joint naval exercise in the China South Sea. Seventy- four American sailors all of whom were likely to return to conflict after the exercise were killed. However, as this tragedy took place outside of the official Vietnamese combat zone, this valiant crew was ineligible for inclusion on the Vietnam Veteran Memorial. As a staunch supporter of this case, I submitted a letter to Secretary Mabus in early 2015, requesting a review of the Evans memorial decision. In a letter dated June 10, 2015, the Department of the Navy declared its support of the recommendation to add the 74 Sailors who were lost aboard the USS Frank E. Evans to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The Navy acknowledged that the Evans was outside of the combat zone and participating in a training exercise, and also recognized this tragedy could be an exception to the established criteria, a conclusion that I fully concur with. Since 1969, surviving crewmembers and relatives of the lost have struggled to understand why geographical lines supersede recognition of service. On two other notable occasions, exceptions have been made for Vietnam Veterans who were neither directly involved in combat, nor in close proximity of enemy lines. These exceptions resulted in those specified veterans names being inscribed on the Memorial Wall. The combat-related service of these 74 lost Sailors deserves acknowledgement on that same Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I urge you to give full consideration to this request. Sincerely, Charles E. Schumer United States Senator Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh hailed the Railway Budgettoday terming it as a "public interest budget". "Therailwaybudgetfocuses on providing amenities to passengers and developing infrastructure across the country. This isa public interest budget," Singh said in a statement. Congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, the Chief Minister said, "There was no increase in fares and freight charges which is a great relief to the people." "The Budget caters to all sections of the passengers. The investment in the sector has been doubled which will develop the infrastructure and railways network," he added. Several other provisions like toll-free helpline number for women passengers, insurance to passengers, mobile chargers in general bogies, GPS facility, additional compartments in long-distance trains, 'AsthaRail' circuit for pilgrims will serve common man, Singh said. "Besides, Mr (Suresh) Prabhu has also laid stress on the skill development in the Railways which is a positive step," Singh said expressing hope the Budget will be benefit all. Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh Congress criticised the Budget saying it reflects the corporate vision of the NDA government. "Common people have already been bearing the brunt of hike in passengers fare, tatkal and premium tatkal fare hike since 2015-16. It is surprising the government is now making hollow claims of not increasing the passenger train fares," Chhattisgarh Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel said. "This Budget clearly reflects the corporate vision of BJP-led NDA government as for rich class bullet trains and three new AC trains have been introduced - Uday, Hamsafar and Tejas while only one train announced for the common people that is an unreserved Antyoday express," Baghel added. Accusing the Centre of ignoring Chhattisgarh, the Congress leader said Minister (Suresh) Prabu overlooked allocation of funds for three key projects in the state - Rowghat rail project, three-lining of Howrah-Mumbai route, Raipur-Visakhapattnam route double-lining and electrification. A delegation of five African heads of state arrived in Bujumbura today at the start of a two-day visit to push for talks to end Burundi's deep political crisis. The visit comes just days after a trip by UN chief Ban Ki-moon to Burundi as part of growing international efforts to bring an end to 10 months of deadly turmoil in the central African country. The African Union agreed to send the delegation -- which is headed by South African President Jacob Zuma and includes the leaders of Ethiopia, Gabon, Mauritania and Senegal -- during its January summit when Burundi successfully faced down a plan to deploy 5,000 peacekeepers to the country. Ban, on his first visit since the crisis erupted, met President Pierre Nkurunziza on Tuesday and said he had won a guarantee that "inclusive dialogue" would begin between the government and its opponents. But the main umbrella opposition group CNARED, whose leaders are in exile, dismissed it as a "false opening", saying Nkurunziza did not want real negotiations to bring peace. The opposition was angered by the president's apparent attempt to choose who should participate when he said the dialogue would include all Burundians "except those engaged in acts of destabilisation". Previous talks have failed, with the Burundian government refusing to sit down with some of its opponents who it accuses of involvement in a failed coup last May and months of violence including grenade and rocket attacks. "The heads of state are coming to consult with the government and other stakeholders on the revival of an inclusive dialogue," said an African diplomat in Bujumbura who did not want to be named. "The issue of deploying a peacekeeping force in Burundi is not on the agenda," the diplomat added. CNARED chairman Leonard Nyangoma welcomed the delegation's visit but held out little hope of a breakthrough. "Nkurunziza is a diehard and without strong pressure and real sanctions he will never agree to the meaningful negotiations that are the only way out of this crisis," he told AFP by telephone. Burundi's upheaval was triggered by Nkurunziza's controversial decision last April to run for a third term which he won in an election in July. Over 400 people have been killed since April while more than 240,000 have left the country. Violent attacks have become routine, raising fears of a return to the civil war fought between 1993-2006 in which around 300,000 people died. Authorities today recovered all 23 bodies of people, including two foreigners, killed in Nepal, a day after their small plane crashed into a mountain in a remote Himalayan region amid bad weather. Police and army personnel, who were mobilised since yesterday after the burnt-out wreckage of the Twin Otter aircraft was found in the western district of Myagdi, returned to the site today for search operation. So far, seven bodies have been taken to Pokhara and kept at Gandaki Hospital for postmortem, according to a staff at the private Tara Air that operated the plane. The staff added that the remaining bodies will also be soon taken there. The ill-fated plane was on a flight from the resort town of Pokhara, 125 km west of here, to Jomsom, the starting point for people trekking the Himalayas which is also popular among Hindu pilgrims visiting the Muktinath temple when it went missing. The N9-AHH aircraft lost contact with the control tower just eight minutes into the 20-minute flight on the difficult route which goes through the mountains, is notoriously windy and which only small planes can fly. The plane crashed in Dana village in the remote mountain region of Myagdi district yesterday morning, killing all 20 passengers and three crew members on board. The rescue works were hampered this morning as the site was covered with snow and there was fog. Due to mountain wind, no aircraft could fly to the site for carrying out rescue works in early morning today. However, the search works resumed as weather cleared after some time, according to officials. One Kuwaiti and another Chinese national were the two foreigners killed in the accident while two children were among the passengers. The bodies will be handed over to the families as soon as all the remains arrive in Pokhara. The bodies will be flown to Kathmandu in case the family members of the deceased belong to the capital city, the airlines staff said. Meanwhile, the government has formed a five-member inquiry committee to investigate into the crash. The committee headed by Rajesh Raj Dali, former general manager of Tribhuvan International Airport, is supposed to submit its report within 90 days. In a nation accustomed to demonstrations over police shootings of unarmed black men, this was something completely different: more than 10,000 mostly Chinese-Americans rallying in support of the Chinese-American officer who pulled the trigger. The rally this past weekend for Peter Liang, a rookie New York officer convicted of recklessly firing a bullet that killed an innocent man in a dark stairwell, marked an unexpectedly large outpouring of activism from an ethnic group that often has to struggle to be heard above the din in the city. Many said they believe Liang is being made a scapegoat for acts of police brutality largely committed by whites. Demonstrations were also held in Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle. Yan Sun, a political science professor from Queens, said she and other demonstrators believe that prosecutors looking to make a point about police accountability felt free to make an example out of Liang because he comes from a community that isn't thought to carry a lot of political clout. "We feel of one of our own is sacrificed because we don't make noise," she said. Other Asian-Americans have looked on the protests with dismay, saying Liang is no victim and the demonstrators are taking on the wrong fight. The officer was on routine patrol in a public housing project when he entered the stairwell with his gun drawn and accidentally fired a shot when he was startled by a noise. The bullet ricocheted and struck Akai Gurley, 28, killing him. Liang testified it was an accident, but prosecutors said he was reckless to have his gun out and his finger on the trigger, and failed to help Gurley as he lay dying. A jury convicted Liang of manslaughter on February 11. He could get up to 15 years in prison, or as little as probation. "I believe, a lot of people believe, they're using him as a scapegoat," said Steve Chung, a demonstrator from Brooklyn. Annie Tan, an activist and educator in Chicago, said she sympathizes with those who see injustice in the way so many white officers who have shot black men have been acquitted or have not faced charges. She said Asian-Americans have also been ill-treated by the criminal justice system, citing the case of Vincent Chin, who was beaten to death in Michigan in 1982. The attackers, two white men, were given three years' probation "But does that mean we free Peter Liang for what he did? No, absolutely not," she said. New York City has a long history of fraught racial politics, and complaints by Asian-Americans about being ignored politically are not new. In 1990, Mayor David Dinkins was heavily criticized for failing to quickly intervene when black activists organized a boycott of Korean grocers. Australia today announced an ambitious plantoboost thecountry's defence capabilities by pledgingto spend USD 139 billion over the next decade in what Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called "high stakes" and "momentous times" in Asia. The announcement came withthelaunch of2016 Defence whitepaper that includes bolstering thecountry's naval strength by doubling the size of its submarine fleet to 24, as well as commissioning three additional air warfare destroyers, nine anti-submarine frigates and 12 patrol boats. The ambitious plan also includes adding some 2,500 new military jobs to expand the total defence force to 62,400 personnel. "These are momentous times. The stakes are high. And as the opportunities expand, so does the cost of losing them," Turnbull said, citing increased defence spending in countries across Asia and possible flashpoints for conflict in South China Sea and Korean peninsula, as well as the increasing threat of global terrorism. The prime minister called the present times in Asia one of the biggest strategic challenge Australia has faced "in peacetime", even as its closest ally, the US directs its foreign policy pivot towards the Asia-Pacific region, where China's increased assertiveness has fueled tensions. In the next two decades, said Turnbull, "half the world's submarines and half the world's combat aircraft" would be deployed in the Indo-Pacific region. "We would be concerned if the competition for influence and the growth in military capability were to lead to instability and threaten Australia's interests, whether in the South China Sea, the Korean peninsula or further afield," he added. According to anofficial statement, theWhite Paper has beenthe culmination of detailed analysis of Australia's strategic environment, its defence priorities and objectives, and the capabilities required to achieve these outcomes. ThefederalGovernment hasalso set a new benchmark for transparency and funding by releasing an Integrated Investment Program and Defence Industry Policy Statement. The fully costed, ten-year Integrated Investment Program wouldbringtogether all capability-related investment including new weapons, platforms, infrastructure and science and technology. Apart from this, the government would also invest in comprehensive upgrades to defence infrastructure to support its larger future force, including key bases, training and testing ranges and fuel and explosive ordnance facilities and modernised information management, operational communications, and command and control systems. Australia is also participating in the US-led air campaign against the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and Syria. unveiled a massive new investment in the nation's defence capabilities today to address what Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called "high stakes" and "momentous times" in Asia. Citing increased defence spending around the region and potential flashpoints in the South China Sea and the Korean peninsula, he said the government was committed to combating the most challenging strategic environment "we have faced in peacetime". "These are momentous times. The stakes are high. And as the opportunities expand, so does the cost of losing them," Turnbull said in launching a new Defence White Paper in Canberra. "A stronger supports a safer Australia, a safer region and a safer world." The government said it would spend 195 billion Australian dollars ($139 billion) over the next decade, including a doubling of its submarine fleet to 24, three additional destroyers, nine new frigates and 12 offshore patrol boats. New air defence weapons would boost the force's capabilities with 72 F-35s, known as Joint Strike Fighters, added from 2020, while the army's equipment and armoured vehicle fleet will be upgraded. Some 2,500 new military roles will be created to expand the total defence force to 62,400 personnel. The cash injection would take Australia's defence spending to two percent of GDP by 2020-21, three years earlier than previously outlined, Turnbull said. The announcement comes with Australia's close ally the United States pursuing a foreign policy "pivot" towards Asia, while Beijing flexes its muscle in the region through a military build-up in the contested South China Sea. At the same time, tensions are high on the Korean peninsula after North Korea's January nuclear test and a rocket launch this month. Turnbull said that in the next two decades, there would be increased military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region, including "half the world's submarines and half the world's combat aircraft". "We would be concerned if the competition for influence and the growth in military capability were to lead to instability and threaten Australia's interests, whether in the South China Sea, the Korean peninsula or further afield," he added. "We have a strong, vital, vested interest in the maintenance of peace, stability and respect for the rule of law. The decisions we take now will impact on our defence capability and outlook for decades to come." Three bidders -- DCNS of France, Germany's TKMS and the Japanese government -- are competing for the submarine project to replace Australia's current diesel and electric-powered Collins Class submarines. A decision on the winner is due this year. is part of the US-led campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq, contributing military jets and special forces. It also started carrying out air strikes against ISIS targets in Syria last year. Australia today warned that terrorists might be in the "advanced stages of preparing attacks" in Indonesia and advised travellers to take precautions, just days after a similar warning about neighbouring Malaysia. "Recent indications suggest that terrorists may be in the advanced stages of preparing attacks in Indonesia," the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said in an updated travel advisory. "We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Indonesia, including Jakarta, Bali and Lombok, due to the high threat of terrorist attack."The advisory did not raise the overall threat level, which is at "exercise a high degree of caution", and noted that the department continued to "receive information that indicates that terrorists may be planning attacks in Indonesia, which could take place anywhere at any time". It said travellers should be particularly careful when in places that have low levels of security and while at possible known terrorist targets, listing previous attack sites such as nightclubs, bars, cafes, restaurants, hotels, airports and places of worship. "The Indonesian government has recently increased security across Indonesia, which underscores the ongoing high threat of a terrorist attack," it added. DFAT on Sunday warned of possible attacks in and around the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, that they could be indiscriminate and may target Western interests or locations frequented by Westerners. Indonesian police on Friday arrested dozens of suspected Islamic extremists on Java island, but it was not clear if they were linked to gun and suicide attacks in Jakarta last month that left four civilians and four assailants dead. The Jakarta attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group, which has provided a potent new rallying cry for Islamic extremists in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. Indonesia suffered several major bomb attacks by Islamic radicals between 2000 and 2009, but a subsequent crackdown weakened the most dangerous networks. Some 400 migrants from Syria and Iraq demanded to leave a transit camp in northern Greece today and have begun a 70-kilometre trek walking to the country's border with Macedonia. Police said the migrants, mostly from Syria, walked out of the newly built camp near Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki, and were on a highway near the city. It was yet another sign of trouble in Greece as it scrambles to cope with border restrictions imposed recently by Austria and Balkan countries while some 4,000 migrants and refugees continue to arrive on Greek territory daily. The Greek government underlined its annoyance today by recalling its ambassador to Austria for consultations "in order to safeguard friendly relations" between the two states, said Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias. Greece does not detain people entering the country illegally if they are from Syria, Iraq and several other countries considered eligible for asylum. Refugees and migrants arriving at the mainland port of Piraeus, near Athens, would usually take buses or trains straight to Idomeni on the border with Macedonia. But the clampdown has led to massive crowds on the border: about 2,800 people were there and only 100 were allowed to cross in the morning. Authorities said 40 buses were stopped at various points along the country's main 500-kilometre highway leading north from Athens. Traffic has also been slowed by tractor blockades by farmers protesting bailout measures. "It took me 20 hours to get here. The police kept stopping us, but I couldn't wait." said 23-year-old Syrian university student Walaa Jbara, speaking near the border and clutching his smartphone. "I'm checking the on Facebook, and I know the Macedonians are not letting people through." Greece as well as international aid agencies have strongly criticised Austria and Balkan counties for the new transit rules. An Indian-origin doctor, who was filmed in a sting operation in the UK, agreeing to perform an abortion because the foetus was a girl has been allowed to practice medicine again after a review by a medical tribunal. Dr Palaniappan Rajmohan had been suspended for three months in October last year after he admitted an abortion based on the gender of a foetus was wrong. At a routine review hearing last month ahead of the end of his suspension, the UK's Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) ruled that his fitness to practice was no longer impaired after he said he thought he was acting in the best interests of the patient. He is now free to practice, although his ban will remain on his public record. In 2012, undercover reporters from 'The Daily Telegraph', acting on specific information, accompanied pregnant women to nine clinics in different parts of the UK. A woman, who was 12 weeks pregnant, had an appointment with Rajmohan at the Calthorpe clinic in Birmingham. She said she wanted to terminate her pregnancy because she and her partner "don't want a girl". "Is that the reason," asked Rajmohan. When the pregnant woman asked if he could put down a different reason for the termination, the doctor said: "That's right, yeah, because it's not a good reason any time. "I'll put too young for pregnancy, yeah?" The patient agreed. Last year's MPTS hearing found that Rajmohan agreed to record a false reason for a woman wanting to terminate her pregnancy, which he recorded as "too young for pregnancy". The panel concluded that the doctor had acted dishonestly and suspended his registration with immediate effect. In a statement read out during his review hearing in January, Rajmohan said: "I'm ashamed and sorry that I have brought disgrace to the profession, public trust and also let down my colleagues, at the same time bringing disrepute to my employing trust." He added that he felt he needed to help the patient and was worried about her given her determination that she did not want her pregnancy. The panel concluded that Rajmohan had "developed sufficient insight" into his past misconduct for it to be "satisfied that the risk of any repetition is low". "It has also concluded that the public interest in sending out a signal to you, to other practitioners and to the public that your actions were unacceptable has now been served. Accordingly, the tribunal has determined that your fitness to practice is no longer impaired by reason of your misconduct," the MPTS ruling concluded. Agrochemicals major BASF India today said it will stop its rice yield enhancement project and close field testing sites in the country as part of a global restructuring exercise. "Consequent upon the global restructuring, the yield enhancement project in rice will be discontinued and the field testing sites in India will be closed. The restructuring is expected to be completed by the end of the year 2016," BASF India Ltd said in a regulatory filing. In 2014-15, income from contract research of plant science business in India was Rs 80.6 million, which constituted 0.2 per cent of total income of company for the year. BASF India's parent company BASF-SE, Germany has decided that it will refocus global biotechnology research portfolio as well as restructure the global operations of its plant science subsidiary. In India, the company has been engaged in a project to develop yield enhancing traits in rice on behalf of BASF Plant Science Company, Germany. Brian Hutchings "learned a lot" after spending more than four years in prison, he told state parole board commissioners in January. The Jan. 13 parole hearing ultimately led to conditional release from Hudson Correctional Facility Wednesday for Hutchings, a former Auburn police officer who was imprisoned on separate theft and bribery convictions. Hutchings was facing a maximum of seven years after he was found guilty of grand larceny and other related charges in 2012. A jury determined Hutchings stole approximately $45,000 from the Cayuga Police Benevolent Association while serving as group treasurer from 2001 to 2008. Hutchings, a 19-year veteran of the Auburn Police Department, was previously convicted in 2011 for accepting bribes to have contracting work done on his home for confidential police information: the locations of state Department of Transportation commercial truck inspection stops, dates and times. The 54-year-old Auburn man will now be on parole until 2021, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. A transcript from the January parole hearing indicates Hutchings told the board he intends to repay the $55,055.45 in restitution owed from the larceny. Hutchings also stated he has a pending appeal related to the conviction. Along with getting a job, Hutchings stated he wants to attend religious services regularly and develop improved coping methods. He said he learned better people skills through the prison's Aggression Replacement Training Program. "I'm terribly sorry and I apologize to the Auburn Police Department with a full heart, my family, my friends, and everybody that I've come into contact, and I would never, ever be around it ever again, never," Hutchings told the board. "I look forward to being reunited with my family." As part of his bribery conviction, a jury found that Hutchings had threatened, pepper sprayed and struck a contractor with a police baton after the worker's company refused to dismiss $1,800 owed for work to Huchings' driveway. The former Auburn police officer told the parole board in January that he had encountered the worker during a traffic stop. Hutchings stated the employee stepped out of the vehicle for a cigarette and would not return after repeated commands. Hutchings said the employee then charged him, prompting the pepper spray which proved ineffective, he said and the subsequent baton use, according to the transcript. The transcript indicates Commissioner Otis Cruse, a member of the January parole board, asked Hutchings if he thought the traffic stop of a worker related to the bribery enterprise was coincidental. Hutchings replied that he stopped the vehicle "not knowing it was (the company) truck or him." At the conclusion of the hearing, Hutchings stated he wanted to express his "deepest sorrow for everything that's happened," according to the transcript. Parole board members stated Hutchings' risk assessment upon release through the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions system was determined to be very low. "... and I just feel that I'm a better person at this point, and I would be very welcomed back to the community to show that I have been rehabilitated," he said. Parole board commissioners stated they sought opinions from judges and attorneys about Hutchings' possible early release. One of the letters submitted was from Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann, who said his correspondence strongly opposed the former police officer's early release. Budelmann said his opposition is based on past "horror stories" he has heard related to conduct similar to what Hutchings displayed in the bribery conviction. Further, the DA called Hutchings' claims of a coincidental traffic stop with the contractor "completely false." "I certainly hope he lives up to his assertions to the parole board that he intend to be a better person and live a better life," he said. Chinese telecom firm Huawei today said it sees investment opportunities in India in the coming years and will continue to focus on research and development (R&D). The company, however, has not decided if it will also start manufacturing of mobile handsets in the country even as it aims to have a huge growth in smartphones sales. "Currently, we understand what the expectations of the government are, and its incentives for manufacturing, and we look at positively to this," Huawei India CEO Jay Chen told PTI at the Mobile World Congress here. On whether it will set up a manufacturing unit in India, he said: "My strength is not in manufacturing, my strength is on much more on the R&D, solutions and services." Manufacturing in India is the big concept and as part of the government's 'Make in India' initiative, Huawei is very positive, Chen said. He added however that the company has to see what is the best way to contribute to this initiative. "Huawei, from the very beginning, looks at India as a strategic market. From day one, we have long term strategy, we never go back from India no matter how difficult the situation is," he said. Chen said last six years have been very challenging but it's also been very encouraging, especially under the new government, and the pace of economic development has increased while there is positivity. As part of its strategy, the company wants to invest in India and grow its business. "Under the Modi Government, there is positivity and industry has become more active. In our view, more spectrum and merger and acquisition policy really gives a positive message to the industry," he said. "We see also technology innovation from 3G to 4G. Here people in Mobile World Congress are talking more and more about 5G. With all these developments, Huawei in India will do well," he added. Chen said that after the spectrum auction last year, operators made investments in network infrastructure and Huawei is getting the opportunity to gain market share. The company had signed deals with operators including Vodafone and Idea Cellular for deploying various technologies including 4G. US Vice President Joe Biden took a thinly-veiled swipe at Donald Trump on today, decrying during a visit to Mexico the Republican White House hopeful's "dangerous" rhetoric against the neighboring country. Addressing Mexico's foreign and finance ministers and other government officials, Biden said the message expressed about Mexicans and Mexico in the US election campaign is "disturbing," but that this episode of "xenophobia" will pass. "Some of the rhetoric coming from some presidential candidates of the other team are I think dangerous, damaging and incredibly ill-advised," Biden said. "But here's what I'm here to tell you: They do not, they do not, they do not represent the view of the vast majority of the American people," he said. "This too shall pass.... We have gone through these episodes of xenophobia but they have always been overcome." Trump has angered Mexico from the start of his candidacy by declaring that the country was sending rapists across the border and that he would force the neighboring government to pay for a giant wall to keep illegal migrants out. The Republican front-runner has also clashed with Pope Francis over the immigration issue after the pontiff said that anyone who "only wants to build walls and not bridges is not a Christian." Trump initially said Francis's comments were "disgraceful" but he later softened his tone, saying he had a "lot of respect" for the first Latin American pope. At the end of Biden's speech at the high-level US-Mexico economic dialogue, Finance Minister Luis Videgaray praised his "inspirational" words while Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu said the two nations share values "to make this region the most productive and prosperous in the world." Immigration is a hot-button issue in the US presidential race, which features two Republican candidates who are sons of Cuban immigrants: senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. But both senators, who are Trump's closest competitors, have taken a hard stance on the issue. While Rubio backed immigration reform in 2013, he has since hardened his position and now competes with Cruz for support from conservatives demanding more deportations for the 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States. The Budget session of two Houses of Bihar Legislature began today with the address of Governor Ramnath Kovind, which highlighted steps taken for maintaining "rule of law" and quality improvement in education, health, roads and power among others. The Governor's address spoke of progressive steps taken in different fields and also listed future priorities in the form of "7 resolves" for the next five years of the coalition ministry. During the address opposition BJP and its allies protested against so-called 'achievements' of the government listed by the Governor. The Governor's speech claimed that there had been a fall in heinous crimes in Bihar. According to National Crime Record Bureau report for 2014, while the national average of heinous crime for 2014 was 229.2 per cent per one lakh population, it was 174.2 per cent in Bihar, he said adding Bihar was at the 22nd position among states in terms of crime. To curb incidents of acid attacks, the government has effected check on sale of acid besides providing adequate compensation and treatment to victims of acid attacks, he added. In addition to this, the Governor said, provision has been made for providing reservation in government jobs to victims of acid attacks. In a bid to perk up ratio of policemen in comparison to population, a total of 43,761 posts have been created from Deputy Superintendent of Police down to constable levels. The Governor's address reiterated the policy of zero tolerance to corruption by the state government. A total of 57 complaints of corruption have been filed before special court for attachment of properties earned through dubious means to the tune of Rs 53.14 crore, he said. (REOPENS CES8) Giving further details, he said 797 government officials have been caught in a total of 734 trap cases. Out of it a total of 53 trap cases were done in 2015 itself. In the education sector, due to sustained efforts only 0.86 per cent children in the age group of 6-14 have been out of school as compared to 12 per cent in 2005, he said. Money was made available to 17.35 lakh students, both boys and girls, for purchase of bicycle. In the area of Health, efforts were on to build at least one additional primary health centres in 534 blocks, he said. In roads sector, 6282 bridges, small and big, have been constructed. The road construction department along with rural works department have laid 74,000 km of roads in the state. In boost power supply in the state, production has started in two units of 110 MW at Kanti thermal power in Muzaffarpur. Works are underway for modernisation of power plant at Barauni and Nabinagar in Aurangabad, he added. Under rural electrification programme out of a total of 2944 electricity deprived villages, 1864 have been electrified and special campaign has been launched for rest of the villages. As part of resolve to build toilet at every household, a sum of Rs 23,554 crore would be spend. In addition to this Rs 602 crore would be spend in urban areas to stop open defecation, he said. The Governor in his address talked about social security pension for elders, widows and physically handicapped and said a total of 67.85 lakh citizens were availing pension. Under Mukhyamantri Girls marriage scheme, a sum of Rs 7.62 crore has been spent in 2015-16 fiscal, he said. As part of government's commitment for women empowerment, 35 per cent reservation was being provided to females in all government jobs, he added. In a bid to end traffic chaos in Patna, the Patna Metro project has been conceived, the Governor said in his address. Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot today accused BJP of misleading people over the JNU issue and "foisting its ideology on educational institutions". "HRD minister Smriti Irani is trying to foist a particular ideology on educational institutions which is very unfortunate," he said. "Congress has huge contribution in the freedom of the nation and in containing separatism in the country but BJP is teaching us the definition of nationalism which is unfortunate," Pilot said. He also demanded stern action against two BJP MLAs, Kailash Choudhary and Gyandev Ahuja, for their "derogatory remarks" against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi over the JNU issue. "Congress will raise this issue in the Assembly and demand action against them. Our intention is not to disrupt the proceeding of the Budget session but the demands should be fulfilled," the state Congress chief said. A BJP MLA in Jammu and Kashmir has stoked a controversy by alleging that some police officials of the state were agents of ISIS and Pakistan, accusing the men in khaki of taking money from 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). "There are some elements of Pakistan in police which, I think, take money from ISIS, (Pakistani spy agency) ISI, militants, Hafiz Saeed, LeT and JeM and vitiate the atmosphere in Nowshera, Sundarbani and Rajouri-Poonch," BJP MLA from Naushera Ravindra Raina alleged in a video. The video, which was released by Independent MLA from Langate Sheikh Abdul Rashid, shows Raina making the statement while talking to reporters. Rashid, on his part, claimed the video clearly shows how the BJP MLA was threatening to kill him. He also said it was for the top officials of the police to answer the serious allegations leveled by the BJP MLA. BJP President Amit Shah today claimed that his party will form the next government in Uttar Pradesh after assembly election in the state due next year. "I am confident that the party will form a majority government after 2017 election," he told reporters after inaugurating the party's newly renovated state office. Shah said that he didn't want to talk about politics, but he wanted to refer to nationalism. "I want to ask Congress and specially its Vice President Rahul Gandhi that whether he consider slogans raised in JNU as anti-national or freedom of speech," he said. He must clarify about his party's ideological ground, he said. The BJP President said that he had been raising the question for the last six days, but Rahul was maintaining silence. He asked the party workers to raise the issue in every village and said that such slogans would not be supported in democracy. Shah said that strict action should be taken against those involved in such activities. Attacking Rahul, Shah had alleged yesterday in Bahraich, that he was supporting the forces dividing the country for "votebank politics". "I specially want to ask Congress and its workers whether those raising slogans like 'Afzal Guru tere hatrayre zinda hain' and 'Bharat ke tukde honge' were traitors or not," Shah had said at a public meeting after unveiling of a statue of 11th century king of Shravasti, Raja Suheldeo. Rahul has come out in support of JNU students, who are protesting the arrest of JNU Students' Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charge, and has accused RSS and BJP of imposing their ideology. (REOPENS DES 43) Responding to senior Congress leader Kamal Nath's comment on Modi's frequent foreign visits, Shah said former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used to go abroad more often than Modi but he did it so quietly that no one got a whiff of it. "The only difference was Manmohanji went abroad silently and came back after reading out his written speech. Sometimes, he would read out a speech in Thailand which was supposed to be delivered in Malaysia whereas, when Modiji visits a country, he attracts international attention and the whole world listens to him," said Shah. The BJP chief also lashed out at Congress for opposing the creation of Uttarakhand and said it was the result of BJP's efforts that the state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh. Senior party leaders including former chief ministers Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank and Vijay Bahuguna (who recently defected to BJP), Harak Singh Rawat, BJP state in-charge Shyam Jaju, state BJP chief Ajay Bhatt shared the dais with Shah as a large crowd gathered to listen to him despite section 144 being in force. Earlier, accompanied by Bhatt, Jaju, Harak Singh Rawat and others, Shah paid obeisance at Kedarnath and Badrinath shrines. Two brothers were today arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its money laundering probe in the Rs 6,000 crore suspicious forex transactions case at a Bank of Baroda (BoB) branch here. Official sources said Varun and Gaurav Bhatia were arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and were later produced in a court which sent them to five days custody till March 1. They said the duo were called for questioning at the agency's office here and were later arrested as they were allegedly "not cooperating" with the investigators. They claimed the duo had floated three firms and had sent about Rs 100 crore remittances to Hong Kong and other overseas locations in alleged violation of foreign exchange and PMLA laws. With the latest action, ED has made a total of six arrests in this case which it is probing along the CBI and the Income Tax department. ED has termed this case to be an alleged incident of trade-based money laundering, where accused traders evade custom duties and taxes to generate slush funds. Those arrested last year were said to be alleged middlemen for at least 15 fake companies, out of the total 59 which were involved in the perpetrating of the economic crime unearthed in October, 2015. The ED had said the four allegedly connived with each other in "forming" fake companies and business entities in Hong Kong by "over valuing" the export value and subsequently claiming duty drawbacks. CBI had also arrested BoB AGM S K Garg and Jainish Dubey, who headed the foreign exchange division at its Ashok Vihar branch here, under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act and also filed a charge sheet against them. A Canada-based organisation has launched a 'Million Dollar Campaign' for modernising 20 villages in Punjab by ensuring women's empowerment and environmentally-friendly practices. The Indo-Canadian Friendship Society of British Columbia said it would collect one million Canadian dollars from the Canadian community by the end of this year as part of the initiative. Announcing this during an interaction here, former Canadian Cabinet minister and society member Herb Dhaliwal said the organisation headed by Gurdev Singh Gill is already pursuing such work in about 20 villages. "We will seek matching grants from the Punjab government or the government of India and spend the total amount on modernising Punjab villages through women's empowerment and environmentally-friendly practices, etc," he said. He said that basic facilities like underground sewerage, infrastructure, water, solar-powered lights and facilities for hygiene and sanitation will be provided under the initiative. Major Central trade union leaders today called for strengthening of their unity to fight 'anti worker" and 'anti-people' policies of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre. They were addressing the 41st Session of AITUC here. In his address, AITUC National president Ramendra Kumar alleged that the Centre was making all efforts to implement its hidden agenda, vis a vis the RSS, by saffronising the education sector and whipping up communal passion. AITUC General secretary Gurudas Dasgupta said that the nation was going through an "extremely critical situation and the future of its people remained a question mark." He alleged that workers were being attacked and laws were being changed to suit the needs of corporates in the country and abroad. To fight the Centre's 'anti-people' and 'anti-worker' policies, there was a need for all trade unions to unite to carry forward the struggle to defend the rights of the people the people and labourers, he said. Dasgupta chose the platform to greet 'comrade' Kanhaiya Kumar, JNU Students union President, who is in judicial custody in connection with the February 9 event at the university campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. He also extended support to students of JNU and Jadavpur Universities in their 'battle'. "We are with you to carry on the battle. We are with JNU and Jadavpur University students," Dasgupta said. Endorsing the view of both Kumar and Dasgupta, CITU President A K Padmanabhan said workers were under 'serious attack' for the last 24 years, due to the policies of both erstwhile Congress and present BJP Government. It was the duty of the 11 central trade unions to safeguard the rights and interests of lakhs of workers and also farmers, youth and students, as government was 'foisting' sedition charges against those who "showed dissent", he said. The unions decided to observe March 10 as 'National Protest day' against the Centre and some state governments' anti-workers policy, Padmanabhan said. World Federation of Trade Unions General Secretary George Mavrikos, HMS president C A Raja Sridhar,LPF General Secretary M Shanmugam also spoke at the open session. On the heels of Anti-Corruption Bureau filing a charge sheet against NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal and his family members, police in Navi Mumbai today submitted another charge sheet, concerning a real estate project, against his son Pankaj, nephew and former MP Sameer and three others. Yesterday the state Anti-Corruption Bureau had filed a voluminous charge sheet against Chhagan Bhujbal (who was PWD minister in the previous government), Pankaj, Sameer and 14 others in the Maharashtra Sadan scam case. The latest one is about cheating of flat-buyers, according to a senior IPS officer of Navi Mumbai police. Taloja police had in last June registered an FIR and Navi Mumbai Economic Offences Wing of police took over the case later. Pankaj, Sameer and others are charged with cheating, criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust under IPC and under Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act. The case involves an amount of Rs 44 crore and concerns 2,300 people who had booked flats in the project 'Hex World' in Kharghar area, promoted by Devisha Infrastructure, a company owned by Bhujbals, by paying 10 per cent advance. The company took the bookings in 2010. But the work didn't start, so a group of some 30 buyers approached a court over the delay which led to registration of FIR. Years of discussion and debate over what to do with an aging power plant in Lansing were more or less put to rest Monday when the state Public Service Commission announced that it had rejected a proposal to revamp the facility to burn natural gas rather than coal. So instead of putting more than $100 million into the Cayuga power plant, New York State Electric and Gas and National Grid will upgrade power substations in Auburn and Elbridge and construct a new 14-mile transmission line between them. Assuming the plant can't find a buyer, the decision will be a blow to jobs and tax revenue in Tompkins County. On the plus side, a new power line will mean a more stable power supply for Auburn, something that area businesses have supported. But it's not an overall win for this area, because the new transmission line will be affecting some private property along its route. The Auburn Transmission Project has been opposed along the way on a number of fronts. Some Throop residents are against the expansion of rights of way in their town; the New York Farm Bureau is concerned about the impact to farmland in the area; and the towns of Brutus and Elbridge are both on record in opposition to the original transmission line proposal. A new transmission line will strengthen Auburn's overall infrastructure base, making the city less reliant on outside power and increasing the stability of the local supply. But the decision to go ahead with this project should not mean an end to the communication between the power companies involved and the landowners who will be affected. A year ago, state Sens. Mike Nozzolio and John DeFrancisco asked the Public Service Commission to take the concerns of their constituents into consideration. It's time for the senators to step up again and work with NYSEG and National Grid to make sure this transition goes as smoothly as possible. Chhattisgarh government has been strictly enforcing the law banning cow slaughter in the state where about 31,000 cattle had been rescued from animal smugglers in the past 12 years, a minister said today. "The Chhattisgarh Government is strictly enforcing the law to ban cow slaughter," Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal said in a statement here. As many as 1,373 cases of cattle smuggling had been registered so far under the Chhattisgarh Agricultural Cattle Preservation Act, which was enacted in 2004. In these cases, around 30,922 bovines were rescued from smugglers, he added. Chief Minister Raman Singh had enacted the law to ban cow slaughter in the very first year after assuming office in December 2003, he said. The smuggling of cattle attracts imprisonment up to seven years and a fine of Rs 50,000. Chhattisgarh was the first state in the country to enforce the law in letter and spirit to ban the slaughter of cows, buffaloes and their progeny, Agrawal said. China today said it has started constructing its first overseas logistics facility in the strategically-located Djibouti to support PLA's anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast, bolstering its presence in the Indian Ocean. Under a deal reached between China and Djibouti, the logistics facility will help Chinese troops carry out international peacekeeping operations and perform humanitarian rescues, Wu Qian, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defence, told a media briefing here today. Qian said China has begun construction of logistics facility in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa to support People's Liberation Army's escorting of ships in the Gulf of Aden and waters off the Somali coast. Chinese Foreign Ministry earlier said the centre, which the American defence officials termed as a military base, is aimed at providing better facilities to the personnel on Chinese vessels such as better rest and replenishments. Djiboutiis strategically located near the world's busiest shipping lanes, controlling access to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. It serves as a key refuelling and transshipment centre, and is the principal maritime port for imports to and exports from neighbouring Ethiopia. China uses Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles where Chinese escort ships halt for supply and rest facilities and invested in two major ports, Hambathota and Colombo in Sri Lanka. In the Arabian Sea, China has taken over the Pakistan port of Gwadar as part of its development of the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. According to China, it has so far dispatched over 60 vessels in 21 missions to Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia coast to carry out escort missions to counter piracy. "During these operations, we find they meet difficulties in getting rest and replenishment and supplies. Therefore we need to provide better service in this regard. China and Djibouti are friendly countries. "Now we are having consultation sin having building up these logistics facilities," Chinese Foreign Ministry official Hong Lei had said. China in the past consistently denied building military bases out of its territory. But with its first refurbished aircraft carrier in operation and with two more under construction, analysts said China is on the lookout of bigger port facilities in Asia and Africa. (Reopens FGN 18) China has reportedly signed a 10-year contract with Djibouti to build the military facility. The base would serve as a logistics hub for China to be able to "extend their reach," an American defence official said. It comes at a time when China's outreach to Africa both in terms of trade and investments surpassed the US and India. China has already cemented its foothold in the Indian Ocean by signing contract with the UN-backed International Seabed Authority in 2011 to gain rights to explore polymetallic sulphide ore deposit in Indian Ocean over the next 15 years. China's defences in the South China Sea are "absolutely necessary", Beijing said today, as it accused the US of militarising the region. The defence ministry spoke out as tensions rose between the two powers over reports that Beijing has deployed surface-to-air missiles, fighter jets, and radar installations in the contested region. "The US is truly the one pushing militarisation in the South China Sea," said ministry spokesman Wu Qian at a regular monthly briefing. "China's building of defence facilities on the South China Sea islands and reefs is absolutely necessary." Beijing claims almost the whole of the South China Sea -- through which a third of the world's oil passes -- while several other littoral states have competing claims, as does Taiwan. "It is China's legitimate right to deploy defence facilities within its own territory -- no matter whether that deployment was in the past or at the present, no matter whether for a temporary or long-term basis, and no matter what kind of equipment has been deployed." A US official told AFP that Beijing has deployed surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island in the disputed Paracels chain -- apparently HQ-9s, which have a range of about 200 kilometres. Citing two unnamed US officials, American broadcaster Fox said Tuesday that US intelligence services had spotted Chinese Shenyang J-11 and Xian JH-7 warplanes on the same island. Reports also surfaced this week of probable radar installations on reefs in the nearby Spratly islands that would "exponentially improve" the country's monitoring capacities. The United States has in recent months sent warships to sail within 12 nautical miles -- the usual territorial limit around natural land -- of a disputed island and reef transformed into an artificial island in what it says is a defence of the right to free passage. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Thursday concluded a visit to the US for talks with US secretary of state John Kerry, who told reporters last week: "There is every evidence, every day, that there has been an increase of militarisation of one kind or another. It's of a serious concern. China will establish a USD 15.3 billion fund to assist workers who lost their jobs due to the massive industrial restructuring undertaken by the government in almost all sectors following the economic slowdown, a minister said today. Allocated over two years, the 100 billion Yuan (USD 15.3 billion) fund will cover training and job seeking, said Feng Fei, vice minister of industry and information technology. The processes of dealing with poor-performing "zombie companies," and undertaking mergers and acquisitions mean that job losses will be inevitable. Thus, re-employing workers will be a major task, Feng said. He said cutting overcapacity was listed as one of the five major tasks in supply-side structural reform along with destocking, deleveraging, reducing costs and shoring up weak growth areas. The Chinese government has stepped up efforts to slash excess production capacity in saturated sectors, especially in steel and coal resulting in huge job losses. From 2011 to 2015, 91 million tonnes of outdated capacity in the iron industry and 94.8 million tonnes in the steel industry were eliminated. Besides job losses in various manufacturing and mining sector, the government has also announced plans to cut the size of the 2.3 million strong army by retiring three lakh troops in the next few years. China's economy, the second largest in the world grew by 6.9 per cent year on year in 2015, its lowest annual expansion in a quarter of a century as the Communist giant embarked on painful economic reforms. The 6.9 per cent growth rate is the slowest in the country since the 3.8 per cent in 1990, a year after the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown rocked the country and isolated it internationally. China drew a lot of flak for 'starting' a currency war after it resorted to nearly four per cent devaluation of yuan in August which led to a sharp sell-off in emerging-market currencies, including the rupee. A Chinese tech firm has abandoned a multi-billion dollar investment in an American hard-disk manufacturer, state media reported today, after the plan came under scrutiny from US lawmakers. Unisplendour Corp (UNIS) will rescind its USD 3.8 billion dollar offer for approximately 15 percent of California-based Western Digital, the Global Times reported. The decision followed an announcement that the deal would be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a group tasked with examining outside acquisitions for potential national security concerns. The announcement triggered a clause that allowed UNIS, a subsidiary of state-owned Tsinghua Unisplendour Group, to withdraw from the deal, Western Digital said in a statement Tuesday. CFIUS has increased its scrutiny of Chinese firms in recent years as capital increasingly flows from China into the US. Growth in the world's second largest economy has waned in recent years, and Beijing has pushed local firms to look beyond the country's borders for deals that can both improve their balance books and strengthen their operations. As a result, eye-popping acquisitions of US companies by Chinese firms have become increasingly common. The Unisplendour investment would have given the company a seat on Western Digital's board and made it the largest shareholder. The company's core business is hard drives and other storage devices. Last week, the Chinese firm HNA agreed to pay USD 6 billion for a Ingram Micro, a California-based tech company that distributes products for Apple and Microsoft. And earlier this month, state-owned China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) offered USD 43 billion for Swiss pesticide and seed giant Syngenta, which, if completed, will be the biggest-ever overseas acquisition by a Chinese firm. As the number of such deals has increased, so have reviews by US regulators. Over the last three years, CFIUS has reviewed 68 Chinese acquisitions, more than any other country, according to a report from the committee to the US Congress. The UK held the number two spot with 45 reviews, followed by Canada with 40. Bids in the manufacturing sector, especially in the category of "computer and electronic product", were most likely to receive scrutiny, it said. In 2014, the committee rejected only one of the 147 deals that were notified of the review process the document showed. Chinese scientists have successfully isolated two Zika virus strains, which will assist research into a possible vaccination and the transmission pattern of the mosquito-borne disease that has triggered a global health emergency. The two strains were isolated from blood and urine samples from two patients, state-run Xinhua agency reported today. The urine test was the first successful isolation from a sample such as that, according to the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Guangzhou No. 8 People's Hospital. With five confirmed imported Zika virus cases and the weather beginning to warm up across the country, China is on high alert. The isolation can help scientists study the transmission pattern of the virus while provide a foundation for the invention of reagent and vaccine. Chinese scientists have announced on Monday they had decoded the gene sequence of the first imported Zika virus. The World Health Organisation has declared a global health emergency over the Zika virus and its suspected links to birth defects. The virus has been reported in at least 34 countries, many of them in Central and Latin America. WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have advised pregnant women to consider delaying travel to Zika-infected countries. Zika virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also carries dengue fever and yellow fever. The disease was first discovered in Africa in the 1940s but is now spreading in Latin America. Scientists say there is growing evidence of Zika's links to microcephaly, that leads to babies being born with small heads. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and two Union Ministers Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan today hailed the allocations made for the state even as the opposition Congress termed it as "disappointing." As Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu allocated Rs 4,682 crore for railway projects in Odisha, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram said he was delighted over the Rail Budget, 2016-17. "It is a historic Rail Budget for Odisha. No central government in Independent India had made such a big allocation," Oram said. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Prabhu for an allocation, which would help in developing railway infrastructure in the state. He said Odisha would be benefited from the Centre's Develop East mission. Odisha Congress Committee (OPC) president Prasad Harichandan, however, said "The Railway Budget is disappointing. There is no provision of new trains and new projects for the state." CPI state secretary Dibakar Nayak dubbed the Rail Budget as "anti-people" and "partisan." Earlier, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had thanked Prabhu for accepting most of the state's demands and allocating 30 per cent more for the state than the previous Rail Budget. Congress today alleged that Maharashtra's Education Minister Vinod Tawde held a director's post in a private media company and demanded his sacking from the Cabinet over conflict of interest. The Minister, however, said it was an honorary director's post and, since he received no remuneration from the company, there was no question of conflict of interest. Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, addressing a press conference, said, "As per the information we have obtained from Registrar of Companies, Tawde is a director in Shree Multimedia Vision, a for-profit company. He did not disclose this information in his election affidavit. This is not only ethically wrong but also a criminal act. Tawde should be immediately relieved of the minister's post." Chavan also alleged that Dilip Karambelkar, a business partner and a long-time friend of Tawde's, was made the president of Maharashtra State Marathi Encyclopedia Corporation without following the due process. "Karambelkar's name was nowhere in the list of nominees. But suddenly, after Tawde's OSD spoke to the deputy secretary of education department, he was given the post. We all know all the OSDs in this government are RSS workers," he said. Tawde said he held no shares in Shree Multimedia Vision. "I am not a partner in the company but only an honorary director, whereby I can sign the annual account sheet of the company but don't get any remuneration," he said. "Since I do not earn anything from the company, I did not mention it in election affidavit. When I don't have any interest in the profit or loss, there is no question of conflict of interest." About Karambelkar's appointment, Tawde said they were friends, but claimed that he got the post only because he was eligible. State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said the Companies Act does not provide for an honorary director's post and that a person can only be a director or a non-executive director. "Whether you are paid or not, being a director makes it your responsibility to work for the profit of the company," he added. Tawde, a senior BJP leader from the state, had landed in a controversy earlier over his educational qualification mentioned in the election affidavit. Congress today distanced itself from its senior leader P Chidambaram's remark that the case of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, who was hanged in 2013, "was perhaps not correctly decided". "The decision of the honourable Supreme Court in the Afzal Guru case is final and declaratory of law and justice in the case. It is futile to reopen this debate since the matter has attained judicial finality. Every citizen and instrumentality of the government is bound in law to accept the judgment of the final court," party spokesman Ashwani Kumar told reporters. Kumar, also a senior advocate like Chidambaram, said that "Congress party accepts the SC judgment in the case as final and correct". Replying to a question, he said the Supreme Court has itself said that "we are not infallible but we are final" Chidambaram has been quoted as having said in a newspaper interview that he felt it was possible to hold an "honest opinion" that the Afzal Guru case was "perhaps not correctly decided" and that there were "grave doubts about the extent of his involvement" in the Parliament attack. Chidambaram was Union Home minister when Afzal Guru's mercy plea was rejected by the previous UPA government in 2011. Congress and Left parties in poll-bound West Bengal already have an "alliance at the lower level" and the party high command is "not blind" to the state unit's views in favour of a tie-up to take on ruling Trinamool Congress, PCC Chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said today. "The alliance has taken place at the lower level and it is a fact. The workers have come together to unitedly fight the atrocities and terror unleashed by the ruling party," Chowdhury, a known detractor of state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, told reporters at the AICC briefing. Asked what was the view of Congress high command on the alliance, he said "our leadership is not blind. It is very conscious. Our views are very clear. In order to defeat (ruling Trinamool Congress) all democratic and secular forces should come together." Replying to another question, he said the ideology and opinion in Congress and the Left were similar on the issue of taking on Trinamool Congress. State units of Congress and also CPI(M) have pitched for an alliance. Congress had contested the last Assembly polls in alliance with Trinamool Congress which led to the ouster of CPI(M)-led Left Front from power after over three decades of rule. Chowdhury, who was Minister of State for Railways, dismissed the NDA government claims that the provisions in the railway budget 2016-17 would help development of eastern India including West Bengal. As a mom who recognizes the importance of protecting the reproductive rights of women, I was disappointed to read Ryan Kangas' recent letter to the editor which misrepresents the debate on federal funding of Planned Parenthood and fails to recognize the real threats to women's reproductive rights. A doctor's most important responsibility is to uphold and respect the rights of their patients. Any health-care professional or organization that may be breaking the law and violating the rights of their patients must be investigated, held responsible, and prevented from harming any future patients. Planned Parenthood was shown allegedly violating the rights of women as they make a very personal and significant decision. Congressman Katko did not vote against women's reproductive rights. He did the opposite. He voted to allow an investigation into an organization that may be violating the rights of women during one of the most vulnerable and trying moments of their life, while protecting and preserving federal funding for women's health care. What's more, Planned Parenthood is just one of many organizations providing health-care services to women in our country. In fact, throughout our community, there are over 10 times as many community health centers with reproductive health programs as there are Planned Parenthood facilities. Understanding the reality of health care in our region is crucial to recognizing that Rep. Katko has staunchly supported affordable, accessible health care for central New York women. Our representative cast votes in defense of transparent, safe and legal health care for women in our community. Cammy Sherman Auburn The hearing on the maintainability of a petition filed in a Paksitani court, seeking direction to the government to bring back Koh-i-Noor from British Queen Elizabeth-II could not be held today. The Lahore High Court office will fix the next date of hearing on the plea filed by Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffry to bring back the famed diamond, which India has been trying to get from the UK for years. The hearing could not be held as the judge was busy in other cases. The petition has named Queen Elizabeth II and British High Commission in Pakistan respondents in the case. In the plea, he made Pakistan's claim over the 105-carat gem on the basis that it hailed from the territory that became Pakistan in 1947. During the last hearing, he told the Lahore High Court that Koh-i-Noor diamond was "Pakistan's asset" and it is in "illegal possession" of Britain. "The British government had refused to hand over the diamond to India. Now, Pakistan should lay claim on it as it is first entitled to have it. It is the Pakistani government's duty to bring it back," he had said. LHCJustice Khalid Mahmood Khan had asked the petitioner to give reference of the law under which the Pakistani government could seek the return of the diamond from the British government. In December last year, the LHC registrar's office had dismissed the plea terming it as non-maintainable and said that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the case against the British Queen. However, on February 8 the court overruled the objection and admitted the petition for hearing. In the petition, Jaffry argued that Britain "forcibly and under duress" stole the diamond from Daleep Singh, grandson of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh, and took it to Britain. "The diamond became part of the crown of incumbent Queen Elizabeth-II at the time of her crowing in 1953. Queen Elizabeth has no right on the Koh-i-Noor diamond," he said. Claiming that the diamond was cultural heritage of Punjab province and its citizens owned it in fact, he sought direction to the government to bring the diamond back to Pakistan from the UK. The Koh-i-Noor is one of the Crown Jewels and is now on display in the Tower of London. India has made regular requests for the jewel's return, saying the diamond is an integral part of the country's history and culture. India says that Koh-i-Noor was illegally acquired and demands that it should be returned along with other treasures looted during colonial rule. Criticism of political parties or government policies should not be equated with anti-national activities, according to Aligarh Muslim University Vice Chancellor. Lt Gen (Retd) Zameer Uddin Shah was replying to an allegation made in a letter by Aligarh BJP MP Satish Gautam that in recent weeks the institution had witnessed several events which were "anti-government and anti-BJP" in their content. Gautam had cautioned AMU students against indulging in activities similar to those carried out recently by some JNU students and asked the VC to ensure that in the future no permission is given to any function which can be construed as "anti-national" and "anti-government". In a detailed reply to Gautam's letter, Shah today noted that freedom of expression and the right to debate were essential elements in any institution of higher learning and it would be imprudent to encroach upon this basic right of the students. "Your concerns have been taken note of but it has to be understood that AMU is an autonomous institution where there is no bar on holding discussions within the framework of India's Constitution," Shah said. On the allegation that AMU was inviting only speakers holding "anti-BJP" views at different conferences and seminars, Shah said, "We have several fora and platforms in the university which organise such functions and there is complete freedom for them to criticise different political parties and governments." He stressed that this freedom of expression should not be viewed as "anti-national" activity. "AMU has always espoused the cause of nationalism and pluralism and would always continue to do so in the future," the VC said. "Shortly after the present crisis at JNU campus, a number of protests were organised by AMU students in support of the JNU student leaders. All these protests were completely peaceful and within the framework of modern democratic societies. "I would like to ask Gautam whether there is any evidence whatsoever of any objectionable speech, slogan or placard during these protests. Then what is the justification of raising such contentious issues at this juncture," Shah said. He said raising issues like beef politics and questioning the patriotism of any section would only lead to polarisation of the society. In his letter, Shah conceded that there were differences between the Centre and the AMU community over the issue of minority status, but these differences, he stressed, "should be bridged". He said the AMU was in the process of bridging this gap and was trying his best to explain its viewpoint to the central government. AAP government today refuted the claim of Congress leader Ajay Maken in the Delhi High Court that they indulged in "large scale wastage of taxpayers' money" on its political activities by launching a massive advertisement campaign to glorify its one year in power. "It is denied that the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) has sanctioned Rs 100 crores for the anniversary and promotional campaign and petitioner (Ajay Maken) has no source to substantiate this contention," a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath was told. The submission was made by the Delhi government through an affidavit on Maken's application seeking to restrain Arvind Kejriwal-led government from publishing or airing any advertisements and promotional campaign in and outside Delhi. Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Maken, objected to the contentions of Delhi government saying they have not disclosed the amount they have spent on these advertisements. "Its Delhi's tax payer money which are being spent by AAP government and its Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to glorify their image," Singh, who was assisted by advocate Aman Panwar, submitted. They said, "We can understand in Delhi, but why are they issuing such advertisements outside Delhi". Delhi Congress chief Maken also alleged that advertisements were published and aired in newspapers, TV channels and radio in and outside Delhi in violation of government advertisement guidelines and sought appropriate action against the concerned officials "for the large scale wastage of the taxpayers' money on political activities of the ruling party." However, the Delhi government's Directorate of Information and Publicity, in its reply said that "no huge chunk of public funds has been issued for radio and TV ads". "The Delhi government has not indulged in any political promotional campaign whatsoever," it said, adding "there has be no large scale wastage of taxpayers money in any manner". "The advertorials, which as per the case of Maken violate guidelines, merely, inform public of the policies initiated by the government and refer to plain facts and figures," Delhi government affidavit said. It also stated that the advertorial which appeared in the papers were created, developed and designed by the newspaper themselves with respect to Delhi not having the discretion to amend the same. The fate of BJP MLA O P Sharma will be decided in the next session of the Delhi Assembly, with the House's Ethics Committee recommending stripping him off the membership for allegedly making "sexist" remarks against a woman AAP legislator. The committee submitted its recommendation to Speaker Ramniwas Goel yesterday, after investigating the matter for nearly two-and-half months. Goel had suspended Sharma in the middle of the winter session in November last year for rest of the session for using derogatory language against AAP MLA Alka Lamba inside the House. Goel had later referred the matter to the Ethics Committee for further probe. Sources said the committee had repeatedly asked Sharma to tender apology to Lamba for his behaviour but he remained defiant following which it decided to recommend terminating his membership. They said a final decision would be taken by the House. Sources said the Speaker may give a final opportunity to the BJP legislator to apologise for his objectionable remarks. Earlier this month, Sharma was arrested after he was caught on camera beating a CPI activist in Patiala House Court complex when JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was brought for hearing of the sedition case against him. Last week, Sharma had called the move to sack him "an attack on democracy". He had said he had an inkling of such a possibility five months ago as the panel had only AAP MLAs. The sources said the Ethics Committee has held that the BJP legislator is a "habitual offender" besides being "unapologetic" about his "misbehaviour". "The committee in its several meetings had given Sharma an opportunity to apologise to Lamba, but he refused to do so. Since Sharma refused to apologise, the committee has concluded that his conduct is unbecoming of an MLA," a source said. In December, the Delhi Assembly had passed a resolution to recover Rs 18,560 from Sharma's salary towards the cost incurred in replacing a mike he had damaged during the Budget Session and warned him not to repeat such action. An Inspector of Delhi Police and his wife have been convicted by a Special CBI court here for amassing disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 31.55 lakh, 11 years after he was booked by CBI. Virender Singh Chauhan who was posted at Kalyanpuri police station and his wife Manju have been convicted under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. Chauhan has been sentenced to undergo four years of rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs five lakh while his wife Manju has been sentenced to undergo two years of rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs 1.5 lakh. "CBI had registered a case against Sh. Virender Singh Chauhan on January 10, 2005 on the allegations that while working as a public servant amassed assets which were disproportionate to his known sources of income," CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh said here today. She said after thorough investigation, charge sheet was filed against Chauhan, now posted as Eighth Battallion in Mehrauli and his wife. "During trial, the prosecution examined 43 witnesses. On conclusion of trial, the Court found the accused guilty and convicted them. The trial Court also ordered for forfeiture of the disproportionate assets," she said. Shiv Sena today accused Delhi Police of running away from the situation in JNU, where students "challenged" law and order and said the issue indicated a law and order meltdown. "The JNU incident is only a spark which shows what is happening in the country. Slogans advocating disintegration of the country and that Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Assam should break free are being heard in a university in the country's capital," an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said. "A remembrance day is being observed for Afzal Guru, who attacked Parliament and was hanged for his action. Warnings of an Afzal Guru taking birth in every house are doing the rounds. These incidents are an indication of a law and order meltdown," it said. Police turned into mute spectators and did not enter the campus to arrest a group of students who "mocked" them and "challenged" the law and order situation, it said. "This is nothing but cowardice and a sign of running away from the situation. If universities become dens of anti- nationals, autonomy should be consigned to flames. "Had the police stormed the complex and dragged the group out and arrested them, the whole country would have patted their back," it said. "Our police, CBI and army can enter the Golden Temple, but cannot enter a university to catch hold of people who want to break the country. "The police and CBI can enter a chief minister's office and his home. They can also enter the homes of a Union minister, a member of Parliament and insult them after putting them behind bars. But when it came to JNU, they remembered autonomy," the Sena said. JNU is caught in a row over an event on February 9 on the campus against the hanging of Guru wherein anti- slogans were allegedly raised. The varsity's students union president Kanhaiya Kumar is in judicial custody in a sedition case in connection with the event. Besides Kanhaiya, students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, also accused of sedition, had surrendered to the police on Tuesday night and were arrested yesterday. British DJ Goldie has been awarded with an MBE by Prince Charles for his contributions to music and the arts. The 50-year-old artist and musician, who has appeared in movies like "Snatch", and the James Bond film "The World Is Not Enough", received the honour from The Prince of Wales at an Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, reported Independent online. "It's a bit of a shocker but a very, very beautiful thing to happen. I think it also stands for what you can achieve - anything really. It was beautiful in there, just great. I'm very happy," Goldie said. He was announced as the recipient of an MBE in the New Year's Honours List last month. Goldie made his breakthrough to the mainstream in 1995 with his debut album Timeless, from which his signature track "Inner City Life", now considered one of the most important songs of the British electronic music scene in the '90s, was released and became a Top 40 hit. However, he also made sure to emphasise that he would never have made it without support from government-funded programmes for youth, as he grew up in the care system in Walsall and moved between foster homes for a long time. He called for funding for arts to be protected from cuts as he feels that many other youngsters today are capable of exceeding his own achievements. Efforts are being made to change the country's national anthem and replace 'Jana Gana Mana' with 'Vande Mataram' as has been demanded by the right-wing groups, historian Tanika Sarkar said today. "The right-wing groups have been demanding since long to make 'Vande Mataram' the national anthem. So, don't be sure that 'Jana Gana Mana' will remain national anthem forever," Sarkar, a former JNU professor, told students at the varsity. Sarkar was fifth lecturer in the series of the "nationalism" open-air lectures, organised at the varsity in protest of the branding of the university as "anti-national" in wake of an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. The professor who retired from JNU's Centre for Historical Studies to which Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya belonged, made the remarks during a lecture titled 'Gandhi's Nation'. Khalid and Bhattacharya, besides JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar, have been arrested on charges of sedition. Member of Parliament and former education minister of Kerala E T Mohammed Basheer, said the agitation in JNU was not just about the particular university but about the nation. "The government wants to attack the entire country by attacking autonomy of institutions, This agitation is not just for JNU but for the entire nation," he said. Professors from various universities are taking the nationalism lectures at JNU. Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who was released from prison this morning, stated that he is not a terrorist and wants to leave behind the bitter memories of being convicted in connection with the 1993 serial blasts case. "I am not a terrorist. I have been acquitted of charges under TADA and conspiracy. The Supreme Court had also acquitted me under (IPC) section 120-B of conspiracy and TADA. I got the sentence under the Arms Act," the 56-year-old actor said, addressing the media after returning to his home in suburban Bandra here. "I request the media that whenever they write or mention anything about me, don't write 1993 blasts case before my name... I'm not into it," Dutt said. The "Munnabhai" fame actor, who walked a free man today out of the prison, said, "For 23 years I have been waiting for this moment... For freedom. I did everything (followed the law). It's a feeling that will take a while to sink in. "I miss my father (Sunil Dutt) today. I wish he was alive to see this day...If he would have been (alive), he would have been the happiest person," he said. After landing in Mumbai, the 56-year-old actor visited the Siddhivinayak temple and his mother Nargis Dutt's grave. "She (Dutt's mother) passed away when we were very small. I went to seek her blessings as I am a free man today," he said. Soon after stepping out of the Yerawada prison near Pune where he had been lodged since 2013, Sanjay kissed the earth. "I love my dharti maa...I am born here, I'm proud to be an Indian," he stressed. When asked about Justice P D Kode having absolved him of the terror tag and conspiracy in the blasts case, he said, "The court had said I am not a terrorist. That was a big thing. I wish my father was alive to hear this. Even the Supreme Court had endorsed it." On the criticism over he being granted remission and the furloughs availed by him while serving the sentence, Dutt said, "It's a misconception (that he got preferential treatment for leaves). It has nothing to do with me being a celebrity as I was also not allowed to do many things. May be, it (celebrity status) went against me." When asked how was his last day in jail yesterday, the actor said he did not sleep and he even did not have food for the last four days. "I was like I will be out of jail...Not come here again (jail). To a query on if his wife Manyata was his pillar of strength when he was serving the term, Sanjay termed her as his "best half and not better half". "Whenever I was getting weak, she was my pillar of strength. I think she suffered more than me as she had to look after two kids, bring them up, take decisions," he said. When asked about his earnings in jail, Dutt said in a lighter vein, "Like a good husband I gave all the money to my wife." He said now he would like to spend quality time with his family and near and dear ones. "I would like to spend time with my family and kids now." On what was the first thing he did after being back home, Dutt said, "The first thing I did after reaching home was to have homemade tea." To a question on actor Ranbir Kapoor doing a biopic on him, he said, "I love him." Sanjay also said that he made friends in the jail. "I made some friends in the jail. They all love and respect me," he said. During the interaction with media, Manyata said the feeling that Dutt is back home, is yet to sink-in her. "I need some space and time to digest the fact that he has come back home now," she said. Dutt had surrendered in May 2013 after the apex court upheld his conviction by a special court here for possession of arms and ammunitions which was part of the consignment used in the 1993 serial bomb blasts. During the investigation and the marathon trial, he spent 18 months in jail. On July 31, 2007, the TADA court in Mumbai sentenced him to six years' rigorous imprisonment under the Arms Act and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000. In 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling but reduced the sentence to five years, following which he surrendered to serve the remainder of his sentence. During his imprisonment, Dutt was granted parole of 90 days in December 2013 and again for 30 days later. His release today is 103 days ahead of the end of his full prison term. Congress today took a swipe at the BJP-led Maharashtra government over early release of Sanjay Dutt from jail, saying the actor was given a "separate justice" because he is a celebrity and not a commoner. The Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, "The actor was earlier released on parole many times (while serving the jail term). There are thousands of such good-behavioured convicts in various jails. Will government award similar justice to such prisoners?" A "separate justice" was handed to Dutt as he is a "celebrity and not a commoner", he alleged. The government used the "special rights" to release Dutt on parole on several times when he was serving the jail term in connection with the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, he claimed. "Law is same for every prisoner, but since Dutt is a celebrity, he was given a seperate justice and this act of government is objectionable," Vikhe Patil said. The former Congress minister said that around 50 lakh cases are pending before various courts of law in the state. "Many undertrial prisoners accused in cases of bomb blast, terrorism and other crimes are languishing in jails. Their family members are crying for them and also urging courts to speed up hearing of such cases. "It's wrong on part of government to keep the accused under custody for a couple of years without trial. Many such complaints of violation of human rights were filed," he said. Vikhe Patil said in state like Maharashtra even the trial for cases like pick-pocketing takes five-seven years to commence. He appealed to government to take appropriate steps to clear the backlog of court cases. MARCELLUS The people who attended Wednesday's Friends of the Marcellus Free Library gathering probably didn't expect to take a quiz when Mary Raye Casper visited to speak about the War of 1812. But, that's exactly what they did as Casper presented her information on the conflict through a quiz with 13 questions perhaps one for each of the original colonies represented by 13 stripes on the Star Spangled Banner that gained notoriety as a result of one of the war's battles. "I like that you know these things. I love it," Casper said when one of the Friends members inadvertently gave away one of the answers. "That's what it's all about." What else the presentation was about was the United States Daughters of 1812, an nonprofit organization made up of women whose ancestors served in some capacity during the War of 1812 that seeks to preserve history and increase knowledge of what is also called America's Second War of Independence. A member of this national group, Casper spoke about its mission before delving into the conflict itself. She said the group works out of its national museum and library in Washington, D.C. to preserve documents and relics from the war but also works in local areas to place plaques and monuments honoring people and events from the war. In a slideshow presentation, she produced a photo of a plaque the group placed at the Old Marcellus Village Cemetery to commemorate local men who fought during the war. Casper also spoke about the nearby Onondaga Arsenal that stored weapons and supplies during the war but has now fallen into disrepair. "It's pretty much a ruin by now," she said. "It's unfortunate that it's been allowed to deteriorate. There's an argument over who owns the land." Casper noted the group has also placed plaques on the grave sites of local War of 1812 veterans and at local sites significant to the conflict throughout central New York. "We do have some War of 1812 sites in the area," she said. "A lot of the most important battles and conflicts during the War of 1812 took place along the northern border of New York." Some of these battles, she noted, included those that took place at Fort Niagara and at Sackets Harbor as well as in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. "Our organization has placed many monuments and plaques in these areas," Casper said. Then came the quiz. The attendees learned about the causes of the war, that President James Monroe declared the war, who inspired the Uncle Sam, that America had 17 states at the time and about the role of the USS Constitution Old Ironsides in the war. They also learned who said, "Don't give up the ship" in a battle, that the State of Liberty stands literally on top of what was Fort Wood during the war, why the British attacked Washington, D.C., that Dolley Madison saved a portrait of George Washington when the White House was set afire and that State Department clerk Stephen Pleasonton saved the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and other documents. Finally, they learned that Mary Pickersgill sewed the flags that flew at Fort McHenry and Baltimore Harbor and that spangled means tilted and refers to how the stars on the American flag do not all point the same way. The last question who won the war? The choices the United States, Great Britain and Canada. The answer Casper noted that all three countries claim victory from the war in some way. The United States gained a national identity, respect from Europe and control of its interior. Great Britain earned a lasting peace after 20 years of fighting France and three years battling the United States. Canada, a British colony at the time, defended itself against American invasion. "It was basically, in a way, a draw," Casper said. "We didn't address a lot of the reasons we went into the war." Government today said it was making sincere efforts to secure the release of an Indian sailor who was onboard a vessel hijacked by pirates off the Ivory Coast on February 11. Ten other Indian crew members were rescued by Nigerian Navy from the vessel Maximus on February 19 but Rohan Ruparalia and a Pakistani seamen were taken hostage by the pirates. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said India was in touch with the Nigerian authorities to secure Ruparalia's release. He said the Indian Mission in Nigeria is in touch with Dubai-based owner of the vessel as well as with Nigerian authorities. "Our mission is in touch with his family. We have assured our full support and efforts to seek safe and early release of Rohan Ruparalia," Swarup said. He said one pirate was killed and six were arrested during the operation Nigerian Navy carried out to take control of the ship from pirates. The MEA spokesperson said India had requested both Ghana and Nigeria to help secure release of the Indians following hijacking of the ship. He said the government of Ghana had tasked its Navy to track the ship and as it headed towards waters of Nigeria, the countries' navy deployed five ships to rid it from control of pirates. An Egyptian court has convicted four Coptic Christian teenagers for contempt of Islam today, after they appeared in a video mocking Muslim prayers, sentencing three to five years in prison and referring a fourth, who is under 18, to a juvenile detention facility. The harsh ruling, which has followed a surge of blasphemy cases in Egyptian courts, underscores a culture of intolerance within the country's judicial system at a time when the Egyptian president is seeking to position himself as an advocate for religious reform. Their teenagers' lawyer, Maher Naguib, said his clients, who are high school students in the southern province of Minya, haven't been detained and didn't appear in court for the trial. He described the ruling as "unbelievable" and said the judge should have just punished the teenagers with a fine. The video was filmed by the students' teacher, who is also a Christian, and who was sentenced to three years in prison for insulting Islam in a separate trial. The 30-second video showed the students pretending to pray, with one kneeling on the floor while reciting Qur'anic verses and two others standing behind him and laughing. One waved his hand under a second's neck in a sign of beheading. Some ten security trucks surrounded the court building in the southern city of Bani Mazar. The families of the students cried, and some women wailed in disbelief and collapsed on hearing the verdict. Naguib said the video came to light in April 2015, shortly after Islamic State militants in Libya beheaded dozens of Egyptian Christians. The video prompted calls by angry Muslims to evict the students and the teacher from their village. They were detained and the teacher and his family were ordered to leave the village after a meeting of the village elders. Christians make up approximately 10 percent of Egypt's population. They have long complained of discrimination by the Muslim majority. Christians were among the main supporters of the army chief-turned-president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led the military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi amid mass protests against Morsi's rule. Egypt has witnessed a spike in blasphemy charges in recent months. El-Sissi has vowed to purge extremism and modernise Egypt's religious discourse. Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, the former Sri Lankan army chief who vanquished the LTTE, was today sworn-in as a Cabinet minister, days after he joined the ruling coalition. Former Army General and Democratic Party leader Fonseka, who was elected to the Sri Lankan Parliament earlier this month, took the oath of office before President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat here. The 65-year-old was made the Cabinet Minister for Regional Development. The United National Party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe named Fonseka to Parliament earlier this month as a national list member for a seat vacated by the death of Land Minister M K A D S Gunawardena. Secretary to the President P B Abeykoon and Fonseka's family members were present during his swearing-in. Today's developments come over a year after the change in government in Sri Lanka that was earlier ruled by former strongman Mahinda Rajapkasa, with whom Fonseka had a fall-out. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has asked for an investigation into human rights abuses by Fonseka's troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the final phase of the nearly three decade-long war that ended in 2009. Sri Lanka has opted for a domestic inquiry while the UNHRC has asked for an international investigation. The government is under pressure from the Sinhala- majority nationalists not to allow an international investigation. The former general had a fallout with Rajapaksa, under whom he had served, following which he was charged in a number of cases, ranging from corruption to engaging in politics in uniform. He was also sentenced to 30 months in jail after having mounted a failed bid to unseat Rajapaksa in his January 2010 re-election. Fonseka, who was nearly assassinated by a LTTE suicide bomber in 2006, was pardoned by Sirisena days after he assumed office as the new president last year. All ranks and medals denied to Fonseka by the Rajapaksa regime along with his pension were restored. The Human Rights Watch had earlier this month said Fonseka's appointment to parliament sends "worrying signals" on accountability and contradicts the government's pledges to probe atrocities allegedly committed under his command during the brutal civil war with the LTTE. eYantra founder and serial entrepreneur Phani N Raj has launched 'Restaurant Cash Back App - Zaggle', which benefits the customers with cash back on every bill they pay at food outlets, and plans to invest an additional USD eight million in the business model. The company has already invested up to USD two million, and plans to invest an additional USD eight million. Zaggle has been initially launched for 1400 outlets in Hyderabad and Pune including restaurants, bars & clubs, according to a company statement. Within six weeks since going LIVE, Zaggle, available on Android and iOS platforms, has crossed 70,000 downloads. The App doubles up as a directory of restaurants and other food outlets in chosen locations. Upon dining at the specified joints, Zaggle user can click the picture of the bill and upload it on the App. This helps him accrue points that can be redeemed as e-vouchers upon visit to identified brand stores, the statement said. The cash back can be redeemed against more than 50-plus e-vouchers including mobile recharge, movie tickets and more from leading brands like Flipkart, Amazon, Dominos and Freecharge, the company added. The United States' decision to sell eight nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan would affect "some aspects" of Indo-US relationship, a top American military commander has said, amid India's strong protest over the deal. "With regard to the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, while I don't have a professional opinion on that sale itself, certainly it will affect some aspects of our relationship with India," the US Pacific Command (PACOM) Commander, Admiral Harry Harris, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing yesterday. Harris, who will visit India next week, was responding to a question from members of the House Armed Services Committee. "I know that I will be asked about it when I go to India, and I hope to be able to tell them that that sale is just one aspect of many military sales that we make across the world, and that we view our relationship with India very importantly," Harris said. "I hope that we can work through this sale, and their perception of it, to continue to improve our relationship with India," Admiral Harris said, responding to a question on the issue from Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard, the first ever Hindu Congresswoman elected to the US House of Representatives, expressed serious concern over the Obama Administration's decision to sell the fighter jets to Pakistan. "There's a potential sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan that I and other members of Congress have expressed very serious concerns about, given the fact that Pakistan has long harboured and given safe haven to various terrorist groups that continue to launch destabilising attacks within India, as well as Afghanistan," she said. "The recent release of Hafiz Saeed, one of the masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, where six US citizens were killed, even at the protests of the United States there are a number of other concerns that we have," she said. "But in particular, I'm wondering if you can talk about how, as you and others have spoken of the importance of this opportunity to strengthen our relationship with India, as we head into a strong partnership into the future and the benefits that that brings us, what impact could this sale of F-16s have on our relationship with India and the work that you and others are doing to strengthen that?" Gabbard had asked. India had summoned US Ambassador Richard Verma to convey its "displeasure and disappointment" over Obama Administration's decision to sell eight F-16 fighter jets worth nearly $700 million to Pakistan. India disagreed with the US' rationale that such arms transfers help Pakistan in combating terrorism and believes the US military aid to Pakistan goes into anti-India activities. The Pentagon had said that the F-16 aircraft will facilitate operations in all-weather and non-daylight environments. Additionally, according to the Pentagon, it will provide self-defence and area suppression capability, and enhance Pakistan's ability to conduct counter-insurgency and counter terrorism operations. The US' decision to sell eight nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan would affect "some aspects" of Indo-US relationship, a top American military commander has said ahead of his visit to India, which has strongly protested the nearly USD 700 million deal. "With regard to the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, while I don't have a professional opinion on that sale itself, certainly it will affect some aspects of our relationship with India," the US Pacific Command (PACOM) Commander, Admiral Harry Harris, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing yesterday. Harris, who will visit India next week, was responding to question from members of the House Armed Services Committee. "I know that I will be asked about it when I go to India, and I hope to be able to tell them that that sale is just one aspect of many military sales that we make across the world, and that we view our relationship with India very importantly," Harris said. "I hope that we can work through this sale, and their perception of it, to continue to improve our relationship with India," Admiral Harris said, responding to a question on F-16 from Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard, the first ever Hindu Congresswoman elected to the US House of Representatives, expressed serious concern over the Obama Administration's decision to sell the fighter jets to Pakistan. "There's a potential sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan that I and other members of Congress have expressed very serious concerns about, given the fact that Pakistan has long harboured and given safe haven to various terrorist groups that continue to launch destabilising attacks within India, as well as Afghanistan," she said. "The recent release of Hafiz Saeed, one of the masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, where six US citizens were killed, even at the protests of the US -- there are a number of other concerns that we have," she said. India had summoned US Ambassador Richard Verma to convey its "disappointment" over Obama Administration's decision to sell eight F-16 fighter jets worth nearly USD 700 million to Pakistan. India disagreed with the US' rationale that such arms transfers help Pakistan in combating terrorism and believes the US military aid to Pakistan goes into anti-India activities. The Pentagon had said that the F-16 aircraft will facilitate operations in all-weather, non-daylight environments, provide a self-defence/area suppression capability, and enhance Pakistan's ability to conduct counter-insurgency and counter terrorism operations. Top Republican senator John McCain today acknowledged the "timing" of the announcement on the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan was "really bad" and that the Obama administration needs to explain the reason behind its decision which "complicates" India-US relations. At a time, when the US is pushing hard to improve its defence relationship with India as part of its effort to maintain its dominance in the Asia Pacific region, such a move tends to "complicate" India-US ties, McCain, Chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters at the Defence Writers Group. "I think that the future of Asia, if we want to have the kind of influence that we always had and a deterrence to the Chinese behaviour is a very close relationship between the United States and India. Which by the way the F-16 issue complicates that," McCain said. Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has put a hold on the administration's notification to the US Congress early this month on the proposed sale of F-16s to Pakistan. "This is really a tough one for me and for a lot of people. I think the timing was really bad on this issue," McCain said on his position on the sale of F-16s to Pakistan. He said that he would have "rather seen and kicked off" this over it to the next administration. "It is not that far away. You know that F-16 issue has been hanging out there for four-five years. I think we could have waited a little longer," he said. The Arizona Senator said he has talked to Corker about it. "I have recommended to him that he has a hearing on the Foreign Relations Committee. I love my colleagues, but there is not one in 20 that is really focused on this issue. So we really do need some Congressional interest in this to make a decision," he observed. "Frankly I am very conflicted on this issue. I would like to see an argument made by the administration rather than just an announcement. The two countries that are very important to us are India and Pakistan," he said. "So it is not very often that I duck on an issue, but honestly, I am still thinking about it as to what we need to do. I think, the best way to do it is to have a hearing in the foreign relations committee which is their area of responsibility. I think Corker is going to do that," McCain said. Israeli archaeologists have discovered an extensive fabric collection of diverse colour, design and origin from copper mines dating back about 3,000 years to the biblical era of King David and Solomon. This is the first discovery of textiles dating from the era of David and Solomon, and sheds new light on the historical fashions of the Holy Land, researchers said. The ancient copper mines in Timna are located in Israel's Arava Valley and are believed by some to be the site of King Solomon's mines. The arid conditions of the mines have seen the remarkable preservation of 3,000-year-old organic materials, including seeds, leather and fabric, and other extremely rare artifacts that provide a unique window into the culture and practices of this period. The textiles also offer insight into the complex society of the early Edomites, the semi-nomadic people believed to have operated the mines at Timna. The tiny pieces of fabric, some only 5 x 5 centimetres in size, vary in colour, weaving technique and ornamentation. "Some of these fabrics resemble textiles only known from the Roman era," said Orit Shamir, a senior researcher at the Israel Antiquities Authority. "No textiles have ever been found at excavation sites like Jerusalem, Megiddo and Hazor, so this provides a unique window into an entire aspect of life from which we've never had physical evidence before," said Erez Ben-Yosef from Tel Aviv University in Israel. "We found fragments of textiles that originated from bags, clothing, tents, ropes and cords," Ben-Yosef said. "The wide variety of fabrics also provides new and important information about the Edomites, who, according to the Bible, warred with the Kingdom of Israel," Ben-Yosef said. "We found simply woven, elaborately decorated fabrics worn by the upper echelon of their stratified society. Luxury grade fabric adorned the highly skilled, highly respected craftsmen managing the copper furnaces," he said. "They were responsible for smelting the copper, which was a very complicated process," he added. Copper was used to produce tools and weapons and was the most valuable resource in ancient societies. Its production required many levels of expertise. "The possession of copper was a source of great power, much as oil is today," Ben-Yosef said. "If a person had the exceptional knowledge to 'create copper,' he was considered well-versed in an extremely sophisticated technology," he said. To support this "silicon valley" of copper production in the middle of the desert, food, water and textiles had to be transported long distances through the unforgiving desert climate and into the valley. The discovery of fabrics, many of which were made far from Timna in specialised textile workshops, provides a glimpse into the trade practices and regional economy of the day. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has set a 2018 deadline for the completion of the Rs 2,000-crore grand memorial to Maratha icon Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj off the Mumbai coast. "The Chief Minister has set a deadline of 2018 for the project to be completed. He has directed the relevant departments to ensure that all preparations are done for the Bhumipujan which might take place in either April or May this year," said an official in the Chief Minister's Office. In November last year, the state government had announced that the Bhumipujan ceremony for the memorial would be done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, delay in the project has seen the government come in for criticism. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray has criticised the government's move and said that instead of building the memorial, it would do well to restore and protect the various forts constructed by the 17th Century Maratha ruler. The project was conceptualised by the previous Congress- NCP government. But things had not moved beyond the identification of the site for the proposed memorial. After the Union Environment Ministry granted approval to the project, the BJP-led state government set up a committee under party MLC Vinayak Mete to draw up plans for the same. The project envisages the construction of a 190-ft high monument standing five kilometres inside the Arabian Sea off the coast of Girgaum Chowpatty. In the last budget, the state government had made an initial allocation of Rs 90 crore for the project, which is estimated to cost around Rs 2,000 crore. The height of the statue of Shivaji astride a horse reportedly would be higher than the planned Statue of Unity of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Gujarat, which is to be 182m high. The plan for the Shivaji memorial project was conceived almost 30 years ago. The previous Congress-NCP government had twice spoken about constructing the memorial -- before the 2004 and 2009 Assembly elections. Veteran CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta today said students in JNU had not raised any anti-India slogans and that false charges had been foisted on them. "False charges were being foisted on the students of JNU and their leader, Kanhaiya Kumar. The students have not raised any anti-India slogans," he told reporters here on the sidelines of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) session. Dasgupta, General Secretary of AITUC, said he supported the students. Reacting to the clarification by HRD Minister Smriti Irani on the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula of University of Hyderabad, Dasgupta alleged, "She (Smriti) is a liar." Irani, during the debate on the issue in Lok Sabha yesterday, had stated that her ministry had no role in Rohith's death. This blog is dedicated to encouraging people to make quilts and laundry bags to send to Aussie service men and women currently serving overseas and to express our gratitude for their service. We care about the people - not the politics or the mission. Our quilts are not works of art, but works of the heart. Cyclone-devastated said it was likely to need more foreign aid today as the body count from the most powerful storm in its history climbed to 44. France became the latest country to join the relief effort following last weekend's deadly super-cyclone, flying in three tonnes of supplies and 40 engineers to help rebuild crippled infrastructure. But with Care Australia confirming the death toll had reached 44 -- up from 42 previously -- and that about 35,000 people were homeless, officials said "requires all the support that can be given". Severe tropical cyclone Winston lashed the Pacific nation overnight on Saturday, packing wind gusts of 325 kilometres (202 miles) per hour and leaving a trail of destruction. Australia and New Zealand have so far led the response, sending planes laden with supplies, helicopters and medevac teams. New Zealand is also dispatching two naval ships this weekend, while France sent two military transports from New Caledonia. In addition, there has been financial support from Canberra, Wellington, India, China, the United States, Japan, Nauru and the Asian Development Bank. "We've had a lot of assistance already and we're grateful to our friends in the community," government spokesman Ewan Perrin told Radio New Zealand. "But as we go through our more detailed assessments of the damage and area needs we'll be able to go back to the international community and see if we can source some more things." Aerial photographs show some villages in outlying islands were flattened in the tempest and Perrin said getting aid through to them was a challenge. "It's a widespread disaster. The government's working as hard as it can around the clock to get the materials out to the people in need," he said. "Obviously with 300 islands and 900,000 people, we can't service everybody at once. So I'd ask for people to be patient, the government is on its way." He said there had been minimal contact with some isolated communities "so we're not sure how much further the death toll will rise". Save the Children estimated 120,000 youngsters were in communities that bore the brunt of the tempest. "Alongside lifesaving aid like food, water and healthcare, we need to ensure that children do not continue to be traumatised and distressed by what they have experienced," the agency's local chief Iris Low-McKenzie said. A 74-year-old French national was injured after he fell from a moving train here, police said today. The man suffered head and shoulder injuries and has been taken to Bengaluru for treatment, hospital officials said today. Cameroon was rescued by an alert engine pilot, Sujay, who noticed him lying on the track at Nanjundapuram on February 23. He took him to the Government hospital here, police said. The incident occurred on Monday night after the victim had boarded the Yashwantpur Express from Kerala to Bengaluru. He reportedly slipped after the door in his compartment accidentally opened and fell off the train. When Cameroon did not reach his destination, his wife lodged a missing person's complaint, police said. As his condition showed steady progress, his daughter Jonah arrived here yesterday and took him to Bengaluru for further treatment, hospital officials said. French President Francois Hollande has suggested that Argentina could take in some of the hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing civil war. The idea appeared to be an off-the-cuff comment during a conference by Hollande and Argentine President Mauricio Macri yesterday after they met privately and signed agreements on issues ranging from fighting terrorism to increasing cultural exchanges. Hollande lauded Argentina's history of receiving immigrants, mentioning Syrians and Lebanese who arrived in the South American nation decades ago. Then, without referring to Argentina by name, he said through a translator that "we must make an effort wherever we are" to receive people in refugee camps in Jordan and Syria. With necessary controls implemented, refugees could be received in places with "existing communities from those countries that can help," he added. As Hollande spoke, Macri didn't make any notable facial expressions. The two leaders then left. It wasn't clear if the two had discussed the issue privately or if Argentina was contemplating taking in some of the hundreds of thousands of Syrian's who have fled their country's civil war. Receiving refugees was not one of the agreements the two leaders mentioned. Beginning in the early 20th century, Argentina took in thousands of Syrians and Lebanese, waves of immigrants that continued to come during times of turmoil in the Middle East. Carlos Menem, who was Argentine president in 1989-1999, was born to Syrian parents. However, Argentina has not received many Syrian refugees in recent years. Since 2014, about 200 have come in under "Program Syria," according to immigration authorities. The program gives humanitarian visas for two years and appears to have mostly been used by Syrians with relatives in Argentina. Hollande, who is on a tour of South America, planned to attend a ceremony Thursday paying tribute to victims of Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship. He also planned to meet with Estela de Carlotto, head of the human rights group Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. A Jewish teacher in France is to face trial in April for allegedly lying to police by claiming he was attacked by three Islamic State jihadists, a prosecutor said today. The teacher, Tsion Sylvain Saadoun, is charged with "false accusation of an imaginary crime", said Brice Robin, prosecutor in the southern city of Marseille. In November, just days after a devastating IS attack in Paris that left 130 people dead, Saadoun invited press to his home in Marseille, claiming he had been attacked with a knife by three men who said they were tied to IS. "After a particularly thorough investigation, it emerged that the statements of the so-called victim of an attempted murder were neither backed up by emergency services who intervened, nor by forensic experts," Robin said. He said any injuries were believed to be due to "self-mutilation". However Saadoun maintains he is telling the truth. He has given a detailed account of the incident to police, and told AFP two men armed with knives had attacked him after asking whether he was Jewish or Muslim. He said they had shown him a picture of Mohamed Merah -- who killed Jewish children and soldiers in the city of Toulouse in 2012 -- as well as an IS T-shirt, and threatened to kill him. Saadoun said a third attacker then arrived on a scooter and filmed the incident. "He is really saddened that he is not believed," said his lawyer Karine Sabbah. Saadoun is not the only French teacher to be accused of lying about an IS attack. In January, a nursery school teacher was sent for psychiatric tests after admitting he lied about an attack in his classroom. The 45-year-old man in Aubervilliers, northeast of Paris, initially said a man had burst into his classroom and cut him with a box cutter and scissors. But he later admitted inventing the story and cutting himself on the neck and side. There is no doubt however over another attack in Marseille in January, when a teacher wearing a Jewish skullcap was set upon by a self-radicalised teenager. The German government has given its nod for a loan proposal relating to Kochi Metro Rail Limited's (KMRL) Rs 741 crore-project to create an integrated water transport system in and around the coastal city. KMRL said the project was expected to get the final clearance in the board meeting of German Development Bank KFW to be held on the March 9. The total cost of the project is Rs 741 crore, excluding 72 crore for land acquisition, in which KFW would provide financial assistance to the extent of 85 million Euros, approximately, Rs 595 crore, as a long term soft loan, while Kerala government would contribute Rs 102 crore. The initiative has been taken up by KMRL for developing a modern and integrated water transport system for the Greater Kochi region under the Unified Metropolitan Transportation Authority (UMTA). It includes the introduction of modern water-craft, renovation of boat-jetties, re-development of access roads with street lights and provision of connectivity between the boat-jetties and the bus and metro stations. "We have come one more step closer to the project of integrated water transport for the city. I am confident that we will be able to sign the agreement with KfW in the month of March itself," KMRL Managing Director Elias George said in a release here. Apart from the ferry service development, the project also recommends developing existing and new access roads providing increased accessibility to the jetties and also enhanced mobility within the islands and infrastructure for ensuring safety and security to all its users by way of active and well-lit streets and CCTV cameras. chief executive Sundar Pichai met with the European Union's top anti-trust official Margrethe Vestager today in an effort to narrow differences ahead of a landmark competition decision on the company. Pichai, a 43-year old from India, faces the task of improving attitudes towards in Europe, where national governments are pushing the EU to take a closer look at its dominance of the search engine market. A spokesman for Vestager confirmed the meeting, but refused to provide any further details of what was discussed. European competition officials have been investigating the US tech giant for years over alleged monopolistic practices involving its search engine but a solution has been elusive. is also under fire in Europe for paying extremely low taxes through the use of complex cross-border financial arrangements. This was the first meeting between Competition Commissioner Vestager and Pichai, the new CEO of Google, and follows a meeting last March with Eric Schmidt, the company's chairman. Three successive proposals by Google for an amicable settlement have been rejected and last year Vestager sent the company a "statement of objections" over its online shopping services. It said Google had diverted traffic from rival price-comparison services like Kelkoo, which operates in several European countries, to favour its own product. Google responded in late August that Brussels's findings were wrong and based on a flawed evaluation of the market. If no agreement is reached and the group is found to have broken EU anti-trust rules, it could face fines amounting to billions of dollars. A decision is expected before this summer. In addition to the initial investigation into Google's search engine which began in late 2010, the European competition service opened a second probe in April to examine the group's Android mobile operating system. This software, used by a wide range of brands, is installed in more than 80% of the world's smartphones. A grand welcome awaits Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who is on way home after being released from Pune's Yerawada prison, as the lane leading to his building dons several banners while a band of drummers is all prepared to greet him. The entrance to the 56-year-old actor's building - Imperial Heights - in Pali Hill area of Mumbai has been decorated with flowers. Dutt's fans were seen dancing outside his residence following his release from the jail. Besides fans, his old staff and several policemen were present outside the building. After Dutt landed in Mumbai, he first visited the famous Siddhivinayak temple in Dadar area. There was some chaos due to the huge crowd, including mediapersons and the policemen, when the "Munnabhai" visited the temple. Dutt later visited his mother's grave in Marine Lines area. The actor is expected to be at his residence soon and address the media. Greece today said it would not be left by the rest of the EU to become the "Lebanon of Europe" by hosting millions of migrants and refugees. Speaking ahead of a crucial meeting in Brussels, Greek migration minister Yannis Mouzalas criticised other countries for "unilateral" actions that affect Greece. "A very large number (of participants) here will attempt to discuss how to address a humanitarian crisis in Greece that they themselves intend to create," he told reporters. "Greece will not accept unilateral actions. Greece can also carry out unilateral actions. Greece will not accept becoming Europe's Lebanon, a warehouse of souls, even if this were to be done with major (EU) funding." Four million refugees have fled Syria for the relative safety of neighbouring countries, according to the United Nations, with more than one million in Lebanon. Greece is the main entry point for migrants to the EU, with most of them coming over the Aegean Sea to Turkey via the Greek islands. Athens faces growing pressure to stop "waving through" migrants to the rest of Europe, but it has criticised the response of the EU. Mouzalas in particular criticised Balkan countries that held talks in Austria on Wednesday at a meeting excluding Greece for agreeing border measures that would affect his country. Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman would be willing to plead guilty in a US court in exchange for a "relatively reasonable" prison sentence, his lawyer said today. Two US courts have formally requested Guzman's extradition since he was recaptured on January 8, with charges of drug trafficking in California and murder in Texas. His lawyer, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, told Radio Formula that if he is extradited, Guzman could plead guilty and "negotiate a sentence that is not long, something relatively reasonable" in a "medium-security prison." The leader of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel is back in the prison that he escaped from in July, when he fled through a 1.5-kilometer tunnel, humiliating President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration. Pena Nieto had refused to extradite Guzman before his escape, but last month he vowed to ship the fallen drug lord to the United States "as soon as possible." The Mexican attorney general's office has said that the extradition process could take a year. Impressed with Hardik Pandya's ability to hit big shots from the first ball, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni says the youngster has proved to be a "game changer" for India with his all-round talent. Pandya hit a quick-fire 18-ball-31 and then bowled four tight overs with figures of 1/23 in India's 45-run win over hosts Bangladesh in the Asia Cup T20 opener. "Good to see him bowl four overs. It will give us a lot of strength -- three fast bowlers and two proper spinners. You don't need to change your team as every base is covered. People may feel that having seven proper batsman is a luxury but what's the harm, if we have someone like him (Hardik). "If he gets going, he gets you those 15 runs extra. If 160 is par-score, he can give you 165-175. It is good for bowlers. We wanted somebody like him. He is a game-changer," Dhoni said at the post match press conference. "We don't need to tell Hardik anything. He knows only one thing - that is to hit the ball, that's what he does. He is someone who likes to clear the boundary," Dhoni said when asked about instructions given to Pandya when he went to bat. "The more games he will play, better he will get. But definitely he has a skill, which is a difficult one - that is to hit from the first ball." Dhoni said Pandya's all-round ability gives the side much needed balance. "To a lot of extent, people who can bat and bowl, are able to contribute in this format. More all-rounders you have, better it is. At times, you can go with four specialist bowlers if you have 4-5 good part-timers. In good conditions, Yuvi, Raina can do the job. In other formats you can debate but T20 is a game of all-rounders. If I want, he (Hardik) can give me one, two or four overs," Dhoni said in praise of the Baroda youngster. But as has been with Dhoni, there was a bit of caution that was laced with all the words of praise that he showered on Pandya. "But I won't like to comment on T20 performances as it is entirely different from 50 overs. In T20, you can get away in the four overs, but in ODI, you will bowl for five overs, then come back for a second and third spell, it will be completely different scenario but he is definitely somebody, who has the talent and can do the job for us. (REOPENS FGN 2) While Pandya dominated Dhoni's press conference, he did not forget to mention how special Rohit Sharma's 83 was. "Overall, wicket was a difficult one to bat on. It was after 20 overs, when we scored 160, it might have given an impression that wicket had become easier to bat on, which was not the case. That makes Rohit's innings even more special because, after three wickets fell, we needed a partnership. That's when Hardik went and started playing his shots. At that time, Rohit made sure Hardik gets strike. "Rohit himself used pace of the deliveries bowled back of length. He played cut shots, exploited the field. Because of Rohit, Hardik expressed himself and played those big shots." Asked about his problems with back spasm, Dhoni said that it is difficult to judge just after the match as to how good or bad the condition of the back is. "The body remains warm after the match, so it might give fake signals. You can only judge the next day as to how the condition is. I was under a lot of dilemma and found it difficult to convince people that I will make sure that I go through 20 overs. There are still two more days before the next match (against Pakistan) and luckily we have Parthiv around. This blog is written solely by John Ray, who has a Ph.D. degree in psychology and 200+ papers published in the academic journals of the social sciences. It does occasionally comment on issues in psychology but is mainly aimed at giving a conservative psychologist's view on a broad range of topics. There are very few conservative psychologists.The blog originated in Australia and many (but not most) posts discuss Australian matters. Australians have an unusually good awareness of events outside their own country. Australian newspapers feature news from Britain and the USA not as an afterthought but as a major part of their coverage. So Australians do tend to have a truly Western heart, which is the reason behind the old name for this blog. So events in Australia, Britain and the USA all feature frequently here, plus occasional coverage of other places, particularly Israel.SCOTUS is the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest court in the landThe "GOP" stands for "Grand Old Party" and refers to the Republican party. The GOP is at present center/Right, while the Democrats have been undergoing a steady drift Leftwards and now have policies similar to mainstream European Leftist parties.The ideological identity of both parties has however been very fluid -- almost reversing itself over time. In the mid 19th century, the GOP was the party of big government and concern for minorities while the Democrats advertised themselves as "The party of the white man" -- an orientation that lasted into the mid 20th century in the South. The Democrats are still obsessed with race but have now flipped into support for discrimination AGAINST whites.Was Pope Urban VIII the first Warmist? Below we see him refusing to look through Galileo's telescope. People tend to refuse to consider evidence if what they might discover contradicts what they believe.Climate scientist Lennart Bengtsson said. The warming we have had the last 100 years is so small that if we didnt have meteorologists and climatologists to measure it we wouldnt have noticed it at all.The term "Fascism" is mostly used by the Left as a brainless term of abuse. But when they do make a serious attempt to define it, they produce very complex and elaborate definitions -- e.g. here and here . In fact, Fascism is simply extreme socialism plus nationalism. But great gyrations are needed to avoid mentioning the first part of that recipe, of course.Beatrice Webb, a founder of the London School of Economics and the Fabian Society, and married to a Labour MP, mused in 1922 on whether when English children were "dying from lack of milk", one should extend "the charitable impulse" to Russian and Chinese children who, if saved this year, might anyway die next. Besides, she continued, there was "the larger question of whether those races are desirable inhabitants" and "obviously" one wouldn't "spend one's available income" on "a Central African negro".Hugh Dalton, offered the Colonial Office during Attlee's 1945-51 Labour government, turned it down because "I had a horrid vision of pullulating, poverty stricken, diseased nigger communities, for whom one can do nothing in the short run and who, the more one tries to help them, are querulous and ungrateful."The book,, authored by T.W. Adorno et al. in 1950, has been massively popular among psychologists. It claims that a set of ideas that were popular in the "Progressive"-dominated America of the prewar era were "authoritarian". Leftist regimes always are authoritarian so that claim was not a big problem. What was quite amazing however is that Adorno et al. identified such ideas as "conservative". They were in fact simply popular ideas of the day but ones that had been most heavily promoted by the Left right up until the then-recent WWII. See here for details of prewar "Progressive" thinking.R.I.P. Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet deposed a law-defying Marxist President at the express and desperate invitation of the Chilean parliament. He pioneered the free-market reforms which Reagan and Thatcher later unleashed to world-changing effect. That he used far-Leftist methods to suppress far-Leftist violence is reasonable if not ideal. The Leftist view that they should have a monopoly of violence and that others should follow the law is a total absurdity which shows only that their hate overcomes their reasonFranklin Delano Roosevelt was a war criminal. Both British and American codebreakers had cracked the Japanese naval code so FDR knew what was coming at Pearl Harbor. But for his own political reasons he warned no-one there. So responsibility for the civilian and military deaths at Pearl Harbor lies with FDR as well as with the Japanese. The huge firepower available at Pearl Harbor, both aboard ship and on land, could have largely neutered the attack. Can you imagine 8 battleships and various lesser craft firing all their AA batteries as the Japanese came in? The Japanese naval airforce would have been annihilated and the war would have been over before it began. FDR prolonged the Depression . He certainly didn't cure it. WWII did NOT end the Great Depression . It just concealed it. It in fact made living standards worse Joe McCarthy was eventually proved right after the fall of the Soviet Union. To accuse anyone of McCarthyism is to accuse them of accuracy! The KKK was intimately associated with the Democratic party . They ATTACKED Republicans!People who mention differences in black vs. white IQ are these days almost universally howled down and subjected to the most extreme abuse. I am a psychometrician, however, so I feel obliged to defend the scientific truth of the matter:The average African adult has about the same IQ as an average white 11-year-old and African Americans (who are partly white in ancestry) average out at a mental age of 14. The American Psychological Association is generally Left-leaning but it is the world's most prestigious body of academic psychologists. And even they have had to concede that sort of gap (one SD) in black vs. white average IQ. 11-year olds can do a lot of things but they also have their limits and there are times when such limits need to be allowed for. America's uncivil war was caused by trade protectionism . The slavery issue was just camouflage, as Abraham Lincoln himself admitted . See also here Leftist psychologists have an amusingly simplistic conception of military organizations and military men. They seem to base it on occasions they have seen troops marching together on parade rather than any real knowledge of military men and the military life. They think that military men are "rigid" -- automatons who are unable to adjust to new challenges or think for themselves. What is incomprehensible to them is that being(to use the extreme Prussian term for following orders) actually requires great flexibility -- enough flexibility to put your own ideas and wishes aside and do something very difficult. Ask any soldier if all commands are easy to obey. Haryana government today suspended senior IPS officer and former IGP Rohtak, Shrikant Jadhav and two DSPs following allegations of omission and commission in containing the Jat reservation agitation and related violence in Rohtak. "Former Rohtak IG Shrikant Jadhav and two Rohtak DSPs Amit Dahiya and Amit Bhatia have been suspended with immediate effect," Haryana's Additional Chief Secretary (Home) P K Das said this evening. When asked on what charges they had been suspended, he said, "this is on the basis of allegations of omission and commission in containing agitation and related violence in Rohtak". On February 21, the Haryana government had shifted IG of Rohtak Range Shrikant Jadhav amid the Jat agitation in the state which claimed 28 lives. Jadhav had later been posted as IG State Crime Record Bureau, Madhuban. Rohtak, Jhajjar and Meham, which fall under Rohtak Range, had been the worst-hit areas of Jat stir, with miscreants torching several shops, vehicles and commercial establishments and causing heavy damage to property, besides indulging in vandalism. The Haryana Government today also transferred six police officers with immediate effect including those who were posted in the worst-hit areas like Rohtak and Meham. The DSPs of Meham, Rohtak and Gohana--Surinder Singh, Sukhbir Singh and Vinod Kumar have been shuffled. Surinder Singh will swap his place of posting with Gurdiyal Singh, who is currently DSP, State Crime Branch. Sukhbir Singh will swap his place with Shamsher Singh, DSP, State Crime Branch while Vinod Kumar, been posted as Assistant Commissioner of Police, Faridabad. Rajesh Kumar, DSP, First IRB Bhondsi has been posted as DSP, Gohana. On February 23, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had faced "hostile" crowd when he visited violence-hit Jat dominated Rohtak district to take stock of the situation. The Chief Minister had said that the state government would also take strict action against those officers be it from district administration or police department for dereliction in duty. "Those government officers and police officers who made any lapse in performing their duty, the state government will take action against them," he had said. (REOPENS DEL 58) Sanjay Kumar, IGP, Administration, Panchkula has been posted as IGP, Rohtak Range, Rohtak, against vacancy, an official release said. Veer Singh, ACP, Faridabad has been posted as DSP, Rohtak. Vivek Chaudhary, DSP, Mewat has been posted as DSP, Rohtak, it said. Havas Media Group India has bagged the integrated media mandate of hearing care service provider Amplifon India in a multi-agency pitch. The size of the account wasn't disclosed. For Havas Media, this win comes on the back of a stellar new business performance in 2015 where it won more than Rs 300 crore of new business. "We were impressed with Havas Media's strategic thinking and passion. With their keen interest in our business and senior management involvement, the course has been set for a long term relationship," Amplifon India CEO Samit Verma said in a statement today. ****** Central Leather Research Institute gets new Director * B Chandrasekaran has been appointed as the Director of the city-based Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI). A former Chief Scientist with CLRI, he assumed office recently, an official release said today. "He is a Leather Technologist and specialises in Cleaner Production Technologies, Leather Education, Leather Product Design and Development, CAD Techniques for Leather Product Design, Organisational Development, Consultancy in R&D and Organisational Excellence," it added. ****** Royal Exchange ties up with Al Fardan Exchange for remittances * Muthoot Finance's Royal Exchange (USA) company has tied up with Al Fardan Exchange (UAE) for instant money transfer to India. With this, expats in UAE will now be able to transfer money to India through 60 branches of Al Fardan exchange across UAE. The money remitted can be collected from any of the 4,500 branches of Muthoot Finance or through over 5,000 branch network of agents Royal Exchange in India. "Al Fardan Exchange is expecting to increase substantial amount of business with this tie-up to garner more market share in the remittance business of Indian corridor in particular", said K R Bijimon, Director of Royal Exchange and Chief General Manager, Muthoot Finance. Axis Bank adds feature in app to locate ATM, branch * Private sector lender Axis Bank has launched the augmented reality (AR) feature into its app to enable customers locate a nearby ATM, branches on a real time basis. "The feature enables users of the Axis mobile app to conveniently locate and navigate to the nearest Axis Bank ATMs, branches, preapproved residential properties and many more, on a real-time basis," Axis Bank said in a release. The 'Near Me' feature is available in the pre-login module of Axis Mobile app. "Users of the mobile app can view actual streets in a 360 degree mode, through their mobile phone camera, anywhere in the country," the bank said. * * * * * * * * * Qwikcilver launches Woohoo gift card exchange * Prepaid solutions company Qwikcilver has launched an integrated Gift Card Trading Exchange marketplace, wherein consumers can convert their unused or partially used gift cards to cash. The Woohoo Gift Card Secondary Market Exchange, enables consumers to convert unused or partially used Gift cards to cash, by listing the cards at a price of their choice, on the Woohoo Gifting App. Consumers will also have the opportunity to convert loyalty points, generated from various loyalty programs of multiple banks and NBFCs channels to digital gift cards, which can subsequently be sold on the Woohoo Secondary Marketplace. * * * * * * * * * Emeritus Institute launches course on digital marketing * Emeritus Institute of Management in collaboration with the executive arm of Columbia Business School has launched a course on digital marketing. The 10-week certificate programme starting from October 6, has been uniquely designed to assist professionals to transform into digital marketers of the future. The programme focuses on how marketers can reach digitally savvy audiences, build deep customer relationships, and influence the digital path to purchase. Candidates with over five years of work experience as on September 1, 2016 can apply for the course. The last date for applying for this course is September 30, 2016. * * * * * * * * * TechGig Code Wizards to provide jobs opportunities to 40,000 * TechGig Code Wizards, a recruitment drive for final year Engineering and MCA students is set to offer job opportunities to over 40,000 freshers across the country. TechGig network is operated by Times Business Solutions - a Division of Times Internet. The latest edition of the coding contest, TechGig's Code Wizards 2016, is going to see over 25 top IT Companies screen and shortlist students from over 100 campuses across India. TechGig.Com helps employers identify and hire the best programmers straight from the colleges through this premium-coding contest Code Wizards. Qwikcilver launches secondary market for trading gift cards * Qwikcilver Solutions today launched 'Woohoo Gift Card Secondary Market Exchange' to allow consumers to trade gift cards. The platform will allow consumers to convert their unused or partially used gift cards to cash by listing the cards at a price of their choice on the Woohoo gifting app, it said in a statement. Consumers can also convert loyalty points generated from various loyalty programs of multiple banks and NBFCs to digital gift cards, which can subsequently be sold on the marketplace, it added. **** Didi raises $550,000 in pre-series A funding * Didi, an on-demand hyper-local platform for cleaning services, today said it has raised USD 550,000 in pre-series A funding from international venture capitalists and angel investors. Didi raised USD 550,000 in pre-series A funding from international VCs and angels, including ex-McKinsey directors and partners, it said in a statement. Didi is the leading home and commercial cleaning services provider in Mumbai. It is currently operational in Mumbai and Thane (City). **** Mastercard Loyalty Solutions partners with Thanks Again * Mastercard Loyalty Solutions today said it is partnering with US-based Thanks Again, the world's only airport loyalty coalition program, to introduce it in the Indian market. Thanks Again is global loyalty and consumer engagement platform that makes travel more rewarding for frequent travelers, it said. "A unique consumer rewards program, Thanks Again aims to entice more outbound Indian travelers to North America and will enable cardholders from India to earn additional Mastercard merchant funded reward points when they shop, dine, pre-pay for parking or spend on special services at more than 100 airports across North America," it said in a release. The exclusive partnership will provide Mastercard prepaid, credit, debit and commercial cardholders opportunity to earn points after registering their card on Thanks Again India website. "Registered cardholders can earn one Thanks Again point for every USD 1 spent on their Mastercard card at more than 100 participating airports and thousands of merchants across North America," it added. The accumulated points will be incremental and can be redeemed for airline miles, hotel points and other airport perks. The Madras High Court today dismissed a suit seeking to declare the election of M H Jawahirullah as President of Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) in October last. Justice K K Sasidharan refused to declare the election of Jawahirullah and also that of P Abdul Samad and O U Rahamathullah as General Secretary and Treasurer respectively at a party meeting held on October 6, 2015 as illegal and contrary to the party constitution. The Judge dismissed the suit filed by M Thameemum Ansari who claimed himself to be General Secretary of the party. "Ansari is not entitled to represent MMK in his capacity as General Secretary on account of the expiry of his term (on September 21, 2015) and subsequent election of the three rivals," the Judge ruled rejecting the petition as not maintainable. The Madras High Court today expressed hope that PMK would conduct its proposed annual public meeting with all maturity and public responsibility. A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh made the observation while disposing of a PIL seeking to quash permission granted by the court to PMK for the meeting to be held in Vandalur on the city outskirts on the ground of violence during similar meeting in the past. Petitioner Varaaki, journalist and founder president of Indian Makkal Mandram, said he had opposed grant of permission by authorities to PMK for the meeting in Mamallapuram in 2013 also, but on the court's directive it was allowed. The meeting was marred by violence and vandalism. The bench in its order said, "We are of the view that in such matters of law and order, the issue should be left to the police authorities to take due care to ensure that there is no breach of law and order nor destruction of private or public property. It is for the authorities to provide requisite conditions and ensure those conditions are adhered to." Observing that it had been stated that conditions had already been specified, the bench said the issue would be of their implementation and cancellation of permission in case of any violation. "We would expect respondent PMK to conduct the meeting with all maturity and public responsibility," the court said, disposing of the PIL. The Kerala High Court today rejected a plea by the state government for an early hearing of CBI's revision petition challenging the acquittal of CPI(M) politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan in a corruption case and posted it after two months. In his order, Justice P Ubaid said that in view of huge pendency of very old cases, this case cannot be taken up earlier. "Now, I do not find any extraordinary situation for an urgent hearing in these matters," he said and adjourned the matter for hearing after two months. The Judge wondered why the government was very particular in having the case heard immediately. "All are cautioned that judicial floor shall not be used for political ends. Cases from year 2000 onwards are pending before me for consideration," the Judge said. He was passing orders on the plea filed by the state government last month seeking "urgent" hearing of the revision petition filed by CBI and two others against a CBI court verdict acquitting Vijayan in the SNC Lavalin graft case. CPI(M) had come out publicly against the Congress-led UDF government, alleging that it wanted early hearing to build a case against the party and its leader Vijayan during the coming assembly polls. When the case came up for hearing today, CBI sought adjournment on the ground that the Additional Solicitor General would appear for it. The state government, however, opposed CBI's plea and requested for immediate hearing of the matter. Meanwhile, A Francis, an accused in the case, filed a petition seeking to prohibit Director of Prosecution Asaf Ali from appearing in his capacity as the state Public Prosecutor and to recall the order impleding the state of Kerala as additional respondent in the case. The CBI special court in Thiruvananthapuram had in November 2013 discharged Vijayan and six others from the case relating to alleged loss of Rs 374.50 crore caused by them to state exchequer in the award of contract to Canadian firm SNC Lavalin for renovating three hydel projects in the state. After helping bring aid to 110,000 people in besieged areas in Syria, the UN expressed optimism today hundreds of thousands more would soon be helped, but acknowledged a first humanitarian airdrop was unsuccessful. A diplomatic push in recent weeks to secure access for desperately-needed humanitarian aid to all of the some 480,000 people estimated to be living in besieged parts of Syria has made great strides, top UN official Jan Egeland told reporters in Geneva. In the less than two weeks since the 17-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG) agreed in Munich to increase humanitarian aid in parallel with a push to try to secure a ceasefire, more than 180 trucks filled with aid have reached six areas under siege from different sides. They have thus brought assistance to just under a quarter of the 480,000 people estimated to be living in 17 besieged places across the country. Egeland, who is the special advisor to the UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, said permission had been requested to bring aid to besieged parts of Aleppo, Homs and Eastern Ghouta. "We have high hopes that we will be able to get through to these places," he said. In principle, he said, it should be possible to negotiate sustained road access to all but one of Syria's besieged areas. Egeland said he was "quite hopeful" that "this black chapter in the history of humanitarian work... Will soon be over." He pointed out that for nine out of 12 months last year, no food at all reached people in the besieged areas. Some 200,000 people meanwhile live in Deir Ezzor, which is under siege by Islamic State jihadists, with whom there is no negotiation underway for access over land. Yesterday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP)carried out its first humanitarian airdrop in Syria to try to help the civilians stuck there, but Egeland acknowledged that the attempt had run into "problems". WFP dropped a first cargo of 21 tonnes of food, many of the pallets "missed target, and others... The parachutes did not open and the food was destroyed," he said. Hungary's Prime Minister has called for a national referendum on the European Union's plan for a mandatary quota for the resettlement of migrants and refugees. Analysts said the proposal was an attempt by Viktor Orban to establish himself as a leader of those opposed to the EU scheme, and demonstrate his growing influence on the European stage. Orban said that the referendum question would be: "Do you want the European Union to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary even without the consent of Parliament?" He said a "no" vote would be "in favor of Hungary's independence and rejecting the mandatory settlement plan." A political expert, however, said the question proposed by the government was not valid because national referendums could only be about issues decided by Hungary's parliament. "A Hungarian national referendum can in no way obligate a decision-making body of the European Union," said Attila Mraz, specialist on political participatory rights at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. The EU has set up a scheme to share 160,000 migrants arriving in overburdened Greece and Italy. But so far, barely 600 people have been relocated, and only some EU partners have offered places for them - fewer than 5,000 spots in all. For Hungary, the plan would gravely impact people's lives and "redraw Hungary and Europe's ethnic, cultural and religious identity" for generations to come, Orban said. "The Hungarian government believes that neither the union nor Brussels nor the European leaders nor any European body has the authority to do this," he said. "We feel that introducing a settlement quota without the consent of the people is nothing but abuse of power." He said the referendum question had already been submitted for approval to the National Election Office. Analysts said that Orban was trying to become the leader of the movement opposed to the German and EU position on quotas. "It is not a wider anti-EU initiative but Orban wants to show strength on the migrant issue," said Tamas Boros, analyst at Policy Solutions, a political research and consultancy firm. "He wants to show Europe what an influential politician he is." Boros said that with the referendum idea Orban was also trying to give leaders of other countries in the region opposed to the quota plan, like Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, a resource that could be used to put pressure on EU leaders. For the referendum to be valid, turnout has to be above 50 percent. In a step to secure its bases after the Pathankot attack, the IAF has sought the services of trained canines from paramilitary ITBP for security duties. ITBP officials said today the Air Headquarters has sought help from the Union Home Ministry to allow it "procure" a contingent of trained dogs for anti-sabotage and explosive detection duties from one of the paramilitary forces, preferably the ITBP. The Indian Air Force(IAF), they said, has informed that at present it does not have "adequate" number of canines to deploy for such duties and hence it is seeking "immediate" help in this regard from their counterparts in the internal security domain after a comprehensive security audit of its 950 flying and non-flying bases necessitated the urgent requirement for having these security measures. The audit also brought to fore chinks in the security of these bases including at Pathankot. The IAF is understood to be interested in procuring these four-legged soldiers from the inventory of border guarding force Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force as it is not only decorated as the 'centre of excellence' in this domain but is also credited with training the most versatile breed of Belgian Malinois dogs for infantry patrol and operations role in the country for the first time. The ITBP canines are also the most relied by security agencies to conduct anti-sabotage checks before and during the conduct of a VVIP event. Sources said the IAF is preparing a comprehensive security of its bases and deployment of security dogs is one of the most important aspects highlighted in the recently completed audit done by it. The IAF has, meanwhile, set in motion its plans to procure more and more pups for training them in anti-sabotage security duties and deploy them in phases at these bases for vigil and perimeter patrol. Till that time, they said, the IAF will procure fully-trained canines from the ITBP and take Labradors and German Shepherd breed of dogs for deployment in the first phase. They said a meeting between the officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, ITBP and IAF is soon expected to take place during which the exact numbers, cost and delivery timelines would be finalised. The January 2 attack on the Pathankot air base, which houses fighter jets and attack helicopters, left 7 security personnel dead while four militants were also killed. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Trade and industry bodies of the region today welcomed the Railway Budget, saying it focused more on consolidation rather than expansion. Local chapter of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry President D Nanndakumar said the budget addressed key issues on innovative measures and highlighted the out laying of investment opportunities and new financing methods. Complimenting Union Minister Suresh Prabhu for having taken a bold step to announce such an overall "matured" Rail Budget, he said the chamber welcomed the positive announcements like 'no hike' in railway fares, installation of CCTV in all stations, commissioning of WIFI facilities in 100 stations this year, E- Ticketing facilities through Foreign Debit and Credit Cards and so on. However, the Chamber expressed its deep concern and disappointment, as none of the demands of Coimbatoreans found place including the long pending demand for introduction of an exclusive express train between Coimbatore and Bengaluru. Tirupur Exporters Association President A Sakthivel welcomed the budget for keeping the rail fares and freight charges at the same level, as it would be beneficial to the people across the board. The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and Australia is likely to be finalised in the next six months, a senior official said today. "The CECA is under negotiation at the moment. We expect it to be concluded in the next six months. This is an important agreement for India and Australia," Amanda Hodges, Senior Trade Commissioner of Australian Trade Commission, said at a media briefing here. The talks for CECA, or Free Trade Agreement (FTA), between India and Australia started in 2011 to boost bilateral trade and investment. Both sides were expecting to conclude negotiations by December last year, but there were differences in areas like duty cut on dairy products and wines. Several rounds of negotiations have been completed for liberalising trade and services regime, besides removing non-tariff barriers and encouraging investments. Replying to a query, Hodges said at the moment, six of the top Indian IT companies have made significant investments in Australia. She said Indian IT firms have an opportunity to partner with Australian research institutions and technology companies for process improvements and developing new products. "Several Indian IT companies are already exploring opportunities to invest in Australian startups, commercialise Australian research and integrate novel Australian IT solutions into their supply chain," she said. Australian government's National Innovation and Science Agenda is in the process of establishing "landing pads" in some global innovation hubs. Landing pads are operational physical spaces in which Australian market-ready startups can access entrepreneurial talent, mentors, investors and a wider-connected network of innovation hubs. She said two landing pads have been established, one each in San Francisco and Tel Aviv. However, Hodges did not spell out clearly whether a landing pad will be established in India. Parents of students in the Flagstaff Unified School District may soon be able to track the routes of their students buses to and from school and receive alerts for a late bus on their smartphone or tablet. The FUSD governing board voted Tuesday night to award a contract to Synovia Solutions, a company that provides GPS tracking for vehicles that can help the district track its own buses, as well as provide information to parents. Assistant Superintendent of Operations Bob Kuhn told board members other districts that had implemented the GPS systems had saved money by identifying delays in routes, as well as receiving information about how long buses are parked at bus stops and when they are running versus turned off. Parents will be able to access their childs bus route information with an app called Here Comes the Bus which will show them in real time where their childs bus is, and if there is any delay. A free version of the app will give information about the bus routes taken. A version with a fee will allow parents to use a code to access exact information about their childs bus. Alternative bus stops can also be announced using the app, Kuhn said. The technology can be used to track where students get on and off the bus with their student ID card, which can notify a parent if a student gets off the bus at a friends house, or takes an unexpected stop, Kuhn said. The technology will first be included on four or five school buses before being applied to the whole fleet. District spokeswoman Karin Eberhard said the technology will take time to install, and there is not a deadline set for installation, but parents should not expect it before next school year. Magnet enrollment Superintendent Barbara Hickman said the MIT-e program at Sinagua Middle School will be adding another section of 30 students next school year, meaning 120 students will be accepted instead of the traditional 90. Hickman said 177 students applied to be in the program, most with grades that would qualify them for admission. She said in order to allow access to qualified students, the program would have to add the section. The Pre-AP program at Mount Elden Middle School is also increasing in enrollment. Hickman said 65 seventh-graders are enrolled in Pre-AP. Award The districts iREAD (iPad for Reading, Engagement, Achievement and Development) program was recognized by Apple as a distinguished program for the second time. The distinction lasts for two years, and the district received a plaque from Apple to display and commemorate the distinction. Terming India as a gateway to Asian markets and a key-player in the regional economy, South Africa has said the bilateral trade between the two countries has doubled in four years. "Figures showed that trade between South Africa and India increased from R42 billion to over R90 billion over the 2010 to 2014 period and that exports from South Africa to India increased from R22 billion to over R40 billion in the same period," South Africa's Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies said. "This is indicative of the high demand for locally manufactured value-added products in the Asian market and as a key-player in the regional economy, India also provides a good platform for South Africa to re-integrate with Western Asia," the minister said. Davies led a delegation of 26 companies for the 7th annual Investment and Trade Initiative (ITI) to India. The four-day visit will see the delegation visiting Hyderabad and New Delhi as part of South Africa's Department of Trade and Industry's export and investment promotion strategy to focus on India as a high growth export market and FDI source According to Davies, the aim of the ITI is to increase South Africa's exports of value-added products into the Indian market and to explore joint-venture opportunities with Indian companies for investment projects. "This will in turn contribute in meeting the broader objectives of the national-industrial policy and the development of the South African economy," he said. The ITI will mainly target the promotion of South Africa's agro-processing (fruit juices, fresh and dried fruit), chemicals (agro-chemicals, and active pharmaceutical ingredients, mining (beneficiated metal products and jewellery) and capital equipment (mining equipment, safety equipment) sectors. India and the Maldives will set up a joint working group to explore ways of improving tourism ties between the two countries, Union Minister Mahesh Sharma said today. "We want to take the tourism relations with Maldives to new height. With the formation of joint working group, both the countries will see what best can be done to give a boost to tourism," Sharma told reporters after meeting wit a delegation led by Maldives Tourism Minister Moosa Zameer here. He said India would also sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Maldives for cooperation in the field of tourism to further increase tourist traffic between the two countries. Stating that "relationship with Maldives as a neighbouring country has been since a long time", Sharma said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always given importance to this relationship. He also said that Indian Hotels, including Oberoi, is planning to set up facilities in Maldives. Zameer said both the countries would "work together" as a "lot could be done" in the field of tourism like medical and high-end tourism. Stating that last year about 50,000 Indian had visited Maldives, he said the number of tourists going from India is "growing". He said India and Maldives would also try to "improve the civil aviation connectivity" between them for easy flow of tourists. "There is a lot of scope for India and Maldives to work together to take the relationship between the two countries to the next level," he said. India's camp office in Djibouti, which was nerve centre of a major evacuation operation in strife-torn Yemen last year, will soon stop working from there. The camp office in Djibouti, a country neighbouring Yemen and across the Red Sea, was set up to ensure smooth implementation of 'Operation Raahat'. "Consequent upon successful completion of Operation Rahat, it has been decided to relocate the Camp Office of Embassy of India in Sana'a, Yemen in Djibouti, to the Headquarters of the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi," the External Affairs Ministry said in a release. It said a Yemen cell has been constituted within the Gulf Division in the Ministry which will look after the functions of camp office in Djibouti. In the wake of violence, Indian Embassy in Yemen's capital Sana'a was closed and all its functions were carried out from the Djibouti camp office. Embassy of India in Amman, Jordan, has been designated as the nodal point for issuing visa and other consular services to Yemeni nationals and Indian nationals resident in Yemen, the MEA said. India has the third highest child mortality rate among SAARC countries with 48 deaths reported per 1000 live births, Union Women and Child Development minister Maneka Gandhi informed the Rajya Sabha today. According to World Bank data of 2015, country's under-five child mortality rate is 48 deaths per 1000 live births. Afghanistan has the highest rate at 91 followed by Pakistan 81. "In India, the office of the Registrar General of India regularly releases reliable estimates of child deaths in terms of Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) using data collected through Sample Registration System (SRS)," Gandhi said in a written reply. According to ORGI, the U5MR, estimated as number of child deaths per 1000 live births, was 85, 77, 59, 55, 52 and 49 in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. She said India is also likely to miss the target of reducing U5MR by two-third, though 'narrowly'. "The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) has the goal to reduce by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015, the under-five child mortality rate. As per the latest India Country MDG monitoring report titled 'Millennium Development Goals India Country Report 2015', the U5MR was estimated at 125 deaths per 1000 live births in 1990" "In order to achieve the target, U5MR is to be reduced to 42 deaths per 1000 live births by 2015. As per SRS 2013, the U5MR is at 49 deaths per 1000 live births. It is likely to reach 48 deaths per 1000 live births by 2015, missing the target narrowly," the minister said. The three-day 'India Show' scheduled to begin at Lahore from tomorrow was cancelled due to security concerns from both the sides. The show was to be organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Industry (Ficci) along with Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and Trade Development Authority of India (TDAP). "Government sources and Pakistan side have indicated high security threat perception and it left Ficci in a situation to postpone the Show," a Ficci source said. Last year also, the show was not held. Representatives of over 100 Indian companies were expected to participate in the function. As per the programme, about 40-member Ficci delegation, headed by its President Harshavardhan Neotia, was scheduled to go to Pakistan for the event. An MEA spokesperson said: "We always favour such shows because it helps in increasing trade and economic engagement between the two countries". Trade between the two countries has increased from USD 1.9 billion in 2011-12 to USD 2.3 billion in 2014-15. Undeterred by China scuttling its previous attempt to get Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and one of the Pathankot attack masterminds Azhar Masood banned by the UN, India today said it will again move the global body with the demand soon. "We will be moving to 1267 Sanctions Committee to also include the name of Masood Azhar on the sanctions list. It is a great anomaly that the organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed is listed but not its leader," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said here. He also noted that India has already submitted to the UN's Sanction Committee a fresh list of 11 terrorists from Pakistan -based terror groups affiliated to al Qaeda, Taliban and other outfits responsible for terrorism in the country. On February 18, a fresh submission of 11 individuals and one organisation linked to terrorism in India, was submitted to the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (Da'esh) and al Qaeda Sanctions Committee. The UN had banned JeM in 2001 but India's efforts to ban Azhar after the Mumbai terror attacks did not fructify as China, one of the five permanent members of the UN group with Veto Powers, didn't allow the ban apparently on the behest of Pakistan. Undeterred by China scuttling its previous attempt to get Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and one of the Pathankot attack masterminds Masood Azhar banned by the UN, India today said it will again move the global body with the demand soon. "We will be moving to 1267 Sanctions Committee to also include the name of Masood Azhar on the sanctions list. It is a great anomaly that the organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed is listed but not its leader," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said here. He also noted that India has already submitted to the UN's Sanction Committee a fresh list of 11 terrorists from Pakistan -based terror groups affiliated to al Qaeda, Taliban and other outfits responsible for terrorism in the country. On February 18, a fresh submission of 11 individuals and one organisation linked to terrorism in India, was submitted to the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (Da'esh) and al Qaeda Sanctions Committee. The UN had banned JeM in 2001 but India's efforts to ban Azhar after the Mumbai terror attacks did not fructify as China, one of the five permanent members of the UN group with Veto Powers, didn't allow the ban apparently on the behest of Pakistan. India is sending at least 40 tonnes of medicines, food and tents through an Indian Air Force plane to cyclone-hit Fiji as the archipelago nation reached out for foreign help. IAF is flying a C17 transport aircraft from Delhi to Chennai with about 20 tonnes of medicine and food. From Chennai, another 20 tonnes of tentage will be picked up and flown to Fiji, defence sources said. Cyclone-devastated Fiji today said it was likely to need more foreign aid as the body count from the most powerful storm in its history climbed to 44. Parts of the country remain paralysed after a massive tropical cyclone, Winston, struck the island nation over the weekend. Tropical Cyclone Winston, the most powerful tempest ever documented in the southern hemisphere, made landfall over the Fijian archipelago on Saturday night with wind gusts that reached 200 miles per hour. The storm razed villages and caused extensive flooding, driving thousands of people from their homes. India and a consortium of top UK research institutions, including the Cambridge University, have signed an MoU to conduct a research programme in the field of crop science to help tackle global challenges in the areas of food security, crop science and biotechnology. Scientists from Cambridge University will collaborate with Indian counterparts to conduct research in the field of crop science as part of an agreement signed yesterday. The UK-India Collaboration programme in crop science aims to enhance collaborative research, promote knowledge exchange, and support capacity building to develop resilience in food security. The focus of the latest Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in New Delhi will be on tackling global food shortages with research into increasing crop yields and improving disease and drought resistance. The agreement was signed on behalf of the University of Cambridge by the Vice-Chancellor Professor Leszek Borysiewicz, along with Professor K VijayRaghavan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, and Dr Nafees Meah, Director, Research Councils UK India, on behalf of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). "This collaboration builds on the close links already established between leading researchers in the United Kingdom and India and is another great example of both countries' commitment to growing our partnerships in translational and applied research," Prof Borysiewicz said. "This collaboration will create opportunities for leading experts in the UK and India to come together to tackle global challenges in the areas of food security, crop science and biotechnology," he said. All parties agreed on the importance of crop science as an area of enormous potential for scientific collaboration, and its central role in driving global food security in India and beyond. The agreement foresees joint projects focusing on the fundamental science underpinning yield enhancement, disease resistance and drought resistance; research into crop re-breeding; and the translation of fundamental research into sustainable agriculture practice. It also contemplates the establishment of a joint Indo-UK Plant Science Centre in India. (Reopens FGN 13) About Diwali, the British Prime Minister said "one of the things about this festival that appeals to me is the huge reach and scale of appeal - if we look at India, there are over a billion people, speaking hundreds of languages, following various faiths, united by this festival of light. "For the rest of the world, colourful celebrations taking place, in Singapore, South Africa to Australia and look at Britain where people right now are buying gifts at Leicester's Gold Mile... Or the string of lights on Wembley's Ealing Road." May said. "As I said those 5 days of festival has become such a recognised and important part of our national lives. We have just heard some references to the meaning of Diwali and when we look at it, its relevance extends beyond India, beyond the Indian diaspora, even beyond Hindu, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and different ways of festival.There is a message for all of us whatever be our faith. "Now I have to say I have not read the 24,000 verses in the epic poem of Lord Rama's return to Ayodhya.But I do know stories from many Diwali celebrations that I have attended in my own constituency, where over a number of years the children have actually acted out the story of Rama," she said. Relating the message of Diwali to her role, May said "As a PM we should give importance to the values of charity, sacrifice, responsibility.To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, losing yourselves in service of others.Values of good conduct, Dharma, taking the right path and ensuring the good triumphs over evil... The values we now need even more." "The Mission of my government is a fairer Britain, no matter who you are you can achieve your dreams and the achievements of the British Indian community - 1.5 million people demonstrate just how much a country can achieve when talents are unleashed. "People of all backgrounds and potentials can achieve that - in politics we have Priti Patel in the Cabinet, Alok Sharma in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, MPs Shailesh Vara and Rishi Sunak in Commons, Peers like Jitesh Gadhia, Dolar Popat, Sandip Verma, Ranbir Suri in Lords.In education system there are more chances and opportunities created, like in Avanti Trust, achieving great things, proves why need to go further and support faith schools," May said. "Our economy has become more successful and dynamic including different industries such as technology, films, fashion and society becomes stronger as people from all backgrounds play their parts in making our schools, hospitals, armed forces the best they can be. We celebrate the achievements of British Indians, I want to remember the importance of removing the barriers. As the world's two largest democracies, India and the US are uniquely poised to help bring greater security and prosperity to the entire region, a top US military Commander said today. "I'm excited about our growing relationship with India -- which I've made a priority line of effort at PACOM. As the world's two largest democracies, we are uniquely poised to help bring greater security and prosperity to the entire region," Admiral Harry Harris, Commander of US Pacific Command said during a conference. Noting that the two visionary policies are now coinciding, he said as the US rebalances west, to the Indo-Asia Pacific, and India implements it Act East policy initiative. "In our last October's Malabar exercise, between India, Japan and the United States, shows the security interconnectedness of the Indian Ocean, Asia, and the Pacific Ocean," he said. Harris is headed to India next week to participate in the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi and meet his Indian counterparts. "My intent and goal with India is to improve dramatically our mil-to-mil because that's my lane, our mil-to-mil relationship, military-to-military relationship with India," he said. "I have made India a primary line of effort, a formal line of effort at PACOM to improve and increase our interaction and interoperability with India," he added. Looking forward to his India visit, Harris said the two countries share values and share interests and concerns. "So now, I'm excited about the opportunity to work with India," said the PACOM commander. Harris said he does not know if joint maritime patrols by India and the US would be discussed while he is in India. PHOENIX The Maricopa County Attorneys Office announced Wednesday it will stop distributing iPhones to employees in the wake of a national legal battle between Apple and the FBI. Concerns over electronic privacy and police investigations rose to the forefront of public consciousness this month after a federal judge ordered Apple help the FBI unlock an iPhone used by one of the shooters in last years San Bernardino attack. Apple claims unlocking the device could compromise security for all iPhone users, while the FBI contends the phones contents are critical for continuing its investigation of the attack. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said he made a decision that his office cannot in good conscience issue iPhones as the smartphone of choice to new employees. If Apple has a legitimate interest in concerns over the availability of an encryption key then that should be the problem to work on, but that shouldnt be an excuse to not cooperate with legitimate law enforcement investigations, Montgomery said. The office issues 564 smartphones, 366 of which are iPhones, according to the news release. Under the new policy, the office would not issue iPhones to new employees or as upgrades or replacements for old devices. Sgt. Jonathan Howard, a spokesman with the Phoenix Police Department, said in an email that police searches of electronic devices are now commonplace, and officers can obtain a warrant to examine a device in any scenario where they have probable cause to believe evidence of criminal conduct exists on it. The requirements and process for obtaining those warrants is the same as applying for a warrant for any other location where someone would expect a reasonable expectation of privacy, Howard said. However, issues arise when officers encounter encrypted devices that prevent them from accessing data without inputting a special key to decrypt the content. In the San Bernardino case, the only person who knew the encryption key was the shooter, Syed Rizwan Farook, who died in a gun battle with police. San Bernardino County, Farooks employer, issued the phone to him for work purposes. The county paid for software that would have allowed it to unlock the phone, but the application never made it onto Farooks device, according to reports by the Associated Press.. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in the December attack. Montgomery said the roadblocks encryption poses arent unique to mass shooting investigations. He said people use phone encryption to shield criminal evidence in child pornography or drug trafficking investigations, and the inability to retrieve data because of security measures on iOS devices has hampered prosecutions by his office. Montgomery said he believes Apple should develop a way to allow law enforcement to access devices while maintaining consumer privacy. If Apple wants to be known as the official smartphone provider to ISIS and Sinaloa cartel, thats fine, but there are going to be consequences, Montgomery said. Ted Crews, an attorney at a local law firm, said he disagreed with Montgomerys decision. He said asking Apple to create a master encryption key would allow other agencies to decrypt any iPhone, which would compromise users privacy. Right now, Apples got the best encryption available, and if the government makes them do what theyre asking them to do, that encryption is meaningless, Crews said. What the county attorney should be doing, is issuing a statement that all of their employees are going to be required to carry iPhones because theyre clearly the most secure. Apple did not respond to a request for comment on the attorneys offices decision. Days after criticising China for acting like a bully in its neighbourhood, top Republican Senator John McCain today said "it is a very good time" for India and the US to announce that they are "considering" joint maritime patrols in the disputed South China Sea. However, McCain felt that the time is not ripe for actual joint patrols by India and the US in the seaway which has been the focus of a bitter dispute between China and its neighbours Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei as the Chinese have claimed almost the whole of the South China Sea resulting in overlapping claims with the other nations. McCain attributed this to Indian public opinion which he noted is not ready for such an action. "I would lean towards it (India-US joint patrols in South China Sea). But you have to smooth the path before you just announce it. I think, it is a very good time to announce that you are considering it," McCain, Chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters during a breakfast meeting with the Defence Writers Group. "I think, right now, we would have to prepare Indian public opinion," McCain said adding that any decision in this regard would be a "presidential" one. McCain was one of the first top American leaders to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he assumed office in 2014. "I am a great fan of Mr Modi. I think, he is exercising leadership that is commensurate with the size and influence of India," he said heaping praise on the Indian premier. "I believe that Mr Modi is probably one of the most prominent leaders that has emerged from India in my lifetime," he said when asked about the India-US defence relationship. McCain asserted that there is a great area of defence cooperation between India and the US. "That does not mean a NATO, that does not mean a formal military alliance. Do not take me wrong. I understand India's public opinion," he said. "But it does mean cooperation, such as joint exercises, such as training, such as search and rescue, all the kinds of things that improve our military and diplomatic ties and others," McCain said. A 21-year-old Indian student studying at prestigious Cambridge University was found not guiltyto charge of raping a fellow student in her room after a night out. Prithvi Sridhar who had moved from Bangalore in 2013 to study engineering at the university's prestigious Queens' College was forced to take a gap year as a result of the accusation in November 2014, Cambridge Crown Court was told this week. "Prithvi Sridhar and his family are grateful today for the jury's verdict clearing his name of these false allegations," said a statement released by the Prithvi's family yesterday. "Since he was first interviewed on the January 16, 2015, when these allegations were first put to him his life has been devastated. He has had to take a gap year from Queens' College where he had achieved a first in his first two years and put his life on hold in order to prepare for his trial," it said. Prithvi's alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court that Prithvi forced himself upon her while returning to her room after a night out drinking. The jury, however, believed Prithvi's account that he had never had sex with his accuser and would never have sex with anyone without consent. "We are all extremely relieved and we are very happy. His life could have been ruined by this allegation but we're glad he can now get back on track," Prithvi's father said outside the courtroom, adding that he now looks forward to moving on with his life and completing his degree at the college. "Prithvi would like to thank the jury for their careful consideration of the evidence and fair deliberation in this trial; his family and friends who have supported him throughout these difficult times; Queens' College who have supported him throughout the proceedings," the statement said. Prithvi received the highest marks in the world for economics in the Cambridge-affiliated Outstanding Cambridge Learner award, while a student at Mallya Aditi International School in Bangalore in 2012, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported. The exams are run by Cambridge Assessment, a non-teaching department of the University of Cambridge. "The College is taking all possible measures to ensure the welfare of all those affected by the trial," said a Queens' College spokesperson. Suicide bombers hit a Shiite religious building and a military checkpoint in a Shiite-majority neighborhood of Baghdad, killing 15 people, an Iraqi security official has said. The Islamic State group yesterday claimed responsibility for the attacks, which took place in Baghdad's Shula district, via a statement posted online, Iraq's national agency reported. In one attack, a bomber detonated an explosive belt among people leaving a Husseiniya, or a Shiite place of worship, killing 10 and wounding 34, Brigadier General Saad Maan told The Associated Press. Another bomber hit the checkpoint at the entrance to Shula, killing five people three of them soldiers and wounding 14. The Islamic State terror group is taking advantage of the Russian airstrikes in Syria by using the newfound 'air cover' to manoeuvre and reposition fighters, a new report has claimed. A report released by IHS Janes' Terrorism and Insurgency Center stated that despite losing ground in Iraq and being targeted by US-led coalition airstrikes in both Iraq and Syria, the extremist group managed to carry out 935 attacks between October 1 and December 31, 2015. Russian warplanes began flying their first sorties in the Syria during the last week of September. Russia's initial stance was that its planes were targeting the Islamic State, but reports soon emerged that the airstrikes were helping prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's beleaguered forces. According to the report, the spike in attacks equates to a five per cent increase from the prior quarter. The Islamic State has been taking advantage of Russian airstrikes in Syria, using the newfound air cover to manoeuvre and reposition fighters, the report was quoted as saying by The Washington Post. Despite the increase in attacks, the average fatalities per attack -- approximately three -- remained consistent with the past year. Additionally, the Islamic State's attacks also "continued to track above the average recorded over the preceding 12 months", the report said. Number of attacks, however, does not equate to the group's ability to hold territory. The extremist group has lost ground in both northern Syria and Iraq, though it has retained the ability to mount effective counter-attacks and raids in both areas, it said. According to US officials the Islamic State now has 25,000 fighters, down from a height of 35,000. In London last week, the spokesman for the US-led operation against the Islamic State, Army Colonel Steve Warren, told reporters that the Islamic State is now in a "defensive crouch" in Iraq and Syria. Russia began its air campaign in Syria under a shroud of secrecy, funnelling supplies and equipment into a Syrian airbase in Latakia province for more than a month before its first strike aircraft started operating. Russian planes, in conjunction with detachments of Russian artillery and troops, began pounding areas held by opposition forces and al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra. Following an ISIS attack on a Russian airliner that claimed the lives of all 217 on board, Russia launched a series of high profile bombing missions against the Islamic State's capital of Raqqa with long range bombers and sea-launched cruise missiles. Israel today denounced an Iranian decision to give thousands of dollars to relatives of Palestinians killed during Israeli-Palestinian violence that has soared in recent months. Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Fathali, said yesterday that Tehran would offer USD 7,000 to the families of each Palestinian killed in what he called the "Jerusalem intifada". Iran will also give USD 30,000 to Palestinian families whose homes have been destroyed by Israel because a member is accused of carrying out an anti-Israeli attack, he told a conference in Beirut. According to Iran's official agency IRNA, representatives of the Palestinian militant movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, met with Fathali during his visit. The money pledged is in addition to the monthly aid paid since 1987 by an Iranian institution to families of Palestinians killed in the violence, he said. "This shows again that Iran encourages terrorism," said Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon. "Following the conclusion of the nuclear agreement (with world powers), Iran remains a major player in international terrorism," he added. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, has written to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging condemnation of the Iranian initiative, Israel public radio reported. A wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming assaults that erupted in October has claimed the lives of 28 Israelis, as well as an American, a Sudanese and an Eritrean. The violence has also seen 176 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, most while carrying out attacks but others during clashes and demonstrations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under political pressure to halt the violence, has moved to expedite demolitions of alleged attackers' homes as a punitive measure. Iran and Israel are ardent foes. Netanyahu was one of the most vociferous critics of the nuclear deal that was implemented in January, leading to the lifting of international sanctions on Tehran. The oil-flush Islamic republic is expected to reap an economic reward worth billions of dollars following the landmark accord. Israel fears the money will be used to finance Iranian misdeeds in the region and to support groups hostile to the Jewish state such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. Italy's Senate has approved a landmark bill recognising same-sex civil unions but only after removing a provision that would have allowed gay adoption, much to the disappointment of gay rights activists. A final vote on the full text of the draft law -- which campaign groups have criticised as watered-down -- is seen as a formality and is expected within two months. Italy is the only major European country to have so far given no legal rights to same-sex couples. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi put his government on the line for the bill, resorting to a confidence vote yesterday in the Senate to push through the amended text. Renzi had also bowed to Catholic pressure with the so-called "super amendment", which removes from the original text rights for same-sex pairs to adopt their partner's children. A requirement that couples be faithful was also dropped from the revised text. It was approved by 173 votes to 71 against. Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party failed to push through a more robust version of the bill last week, after the opposition Five Star Movement (M5S) withdrew its support at the last minute. While diluted, the text maintains provisions including the obligation to mutual moral and material support, the right to a residence permit for foreign partners and to take a same-sex partner's name. The amended draft does not close the door on individuals in same-sex couples making case-by-case adoption requests, with a handful having already been approved by some courts in the name of the child's best interest. The bill now needs to go before a vote in the lower house, where Renzi has a more comfortable majority, and should in theory be fully approved within two months. "The accord on civil unions is a historic event for Italy," Renzi wrote on Twitter Wednesday. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told reporters the removal of the provision for gay adoption was a "victory for common sense". "We have given a great gift to Italy by preventing two people of the same sex from having a child, just as nature does," he said. "We are preventing a revolution against nature." Gay rights groups have voiced anger, on the streets and on social media, saying the bill has been diluted too much. "We haven't waited 30 years for this," said a joint statement yesterday by some 30 groups, vowing to express their "anger... In the streets, before the courts and at the ballot box. As violence rocked neighbouring Rohtak, many locals in this district went out of their way to offer help to thousands of those stranded on the Delhi-Ambala National Highway due to blockades put up by Jat protesters for four days. These samaritans came to the rescue of the people including women and children offering them food and shelter. "I can tell you that there were a large number of local residents and other volunteer groups and social organisations who helped those stranded on the highway. They offered them food, water and even shelter," Panipat's Superintendent of Police, Rahul Sharma said today. He said these samaritans also lent a helping hand to the police. "Police was largely engaged in maintaining law and order. These samartians and volunteers also formed peace committees including in rural areas, which helped in maintaining brotherhood and harmony. Panipat by and large remained peaceful during the stir," Sharma said. Some of the samaritans including Ravinder and Bhupinder came to the rescue of many stranded on the national highway. They provided free food and lodging facilities at their Dhaba on the GT road, helping those who had got stuck. There were also a large number of Sikh volunteers who ran a round-the-clock 'langar' (community kitchen). "We had appealed to the Sikhs and asked all Gurudwaras to provide assistance to the stranded people," SGPC President, Avtar Singh Makkar said. Many Sikh youth cooked rice, prepared tea and gave biscuits and other snacks to the stranded people. The Jat stir in Haryana claimed 28 lives and left more than 200 injured. An angry Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien today snubbed Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar during a short duration debate asking him to behave responsibly as a minister in the House. This happened when Javadekar took objection to Kurien asking Shiv Sena member Sanjay Raut to restrict to time limit while speaking on the discussion on the row in JNU and Hyderbad University. "Please give some more time to this member. You have given time to members on other side," Javadekar said. Kurien got angry over his interference and said, "As a minister, you should be responsible. I am ready to give more time but I am restricted as the government is asking one bill to be taken after the debate." "You should help the chair. You are doing exactly the opposite. That is my complain," he said. As tempers rose on this issue, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukthar Abbas Naqvi interfered to control the situation. He said the Minister's feeling was of cooperation. Meanwhile, Congress leader Pramod Tiwari raised objection to Minister's behaviour and asked the chair, "Can a minister accuse the chair? Insult to the chair is insult of the House. Action should be taken." To this, Kurien said, "I will go through the records and take appropriate action." Later the discussion continued. Ten persons from Tamil Nadu, arrested by Andhra Pradesh forest personnel while on a 'pilgrimage' on the charge of smuggling red sanders, have been granted bail by a court in Tirupati, following the intervention of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. The Tirupati court granted bail to the ten persons, hailing from Tuticorin District, after Jayalalithaa deputed two government advocates to move the court with the help of local lawyers, an official release said here tonight. The state government acted based on the pleas of relatives of the accused, seeking their release. The 10 persons were on pilgrimage to Tirupati when they were arrested at a check-post, the release said, adding they had been lodged in a Chittoor prison since February 16 last. Private carrier Jet Airways today said it has inked a codeshare pact and loyalty exchange programme with the Korean Air which will allow passengers of the two airlines seamless travel between India and South Korea. As part of the pact, which will come into force on March 1, Jet Airways and Korean Air will be able to connect from multiple points in India to Seoul over various gateway points in Asia. Korean Air is one of the world's top 20 airlines and carried more than 24 million passengers in 2015. It operates over 462 flights per day to 129 cities in 46 countries with a fleet of 167 aircraft, including 10 jumbo jets A380s. Under the arrangement, Jet Airways will place its marketing code on Korean Air-operated non-stop flights between Incheon, Seoul and Mumbai, as well as flights between Incheon, Seoul, Bangkok and Singapore. Similarly, Korean Air will place its marketing code on Jet Airways flights on Singapore-Mumbai and Bangkok-Mumbai-Delhi routes, a release said. Codesharing allows an airline to book its passengers on its partner carriers and provide seamless transport to multiple destinations where it has no presence. The codeshare will strengthen the global network of both the airlines and provide more choice to customers travelling between India and South Korea, with seamless and convenient connections over the international gateways, Singapore and Bangkok, it said. "We are pleased to commence our codeshare partnership with Korean Air, offering our guests convenient flight connections between India and Seoul. This is the next step in strengthening our position in Asia, allowing us to win new customers in the region," Senior Vice President (Commercial), Jet Airways, Gaurang Shetty said. Under the loyalty club partnership, members of both Jet Airways frequent flyers' programme 'JetPrivilege' and Korean Air's 'SKYPASS' will benefit from frequent flyer mileage accrual and redemption opportunities across the entire network of the two carriers. With the new pact coming into effect from March 1, Jet Airways would operate codeshare flights with 23 airlines across the world. Besides, it partners in 30 frequent flyer programmes. "We are delighted with this partnership which will provide our customers with better access between Korea and India. Through this partnership and Korean Air's additional destinations to be launched in India, we are hoping to contribute to strengthening the two countries' economic relations as well," Korean Air's Senior Vice President for International Affairs and Alliance, Yong Soon Park said. PHOENIX Calling claims that fetal research helps cure diseases is a lie, state senators voted Wednesday to outlaw scientific research on aborted fetuses. SB 1474 would bring to a halt virtually all work done on tissue from fetuses that were the result of elective abortions. The only thing doctors and laboratories could do is test the tissue to diagnose the life or health of the mother or the fetus, or conduct pathological studies to find out if the fetus was diseased. The measure, approved by an 18-11 margin, also would make it a state crime not only to sell fetal tissue, something already illegal under federal law, but even to give it away or transfer it, something that is now permitted. And Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, added last-minute language to ensure that state health officials could find out what happened to the tissue even if it infringes on physician-patient relations. Separately, the Senate voted by the same margin to permanently disqualify any organization that offers elective abortion from being part of the State Employees Charitable Campaign which allows state workers to have donations to groups deducted automatically from their paychecks. I believe that abortion kills unborn human beings, said Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills in support of SB 1485. And he said while these are employee donations, the system is administered with tax dollars. If you want to support that, buy your own stamp, he said. Much of what is driving the debate on SB 1474 is the question of the relative merits of the research. Planned Parenthood Arizona said it does not provide fetal tissue, though other affiliates nationally do. Donations generally come after a woman has given her consent. And clinics are allowed to charge for their costs. Legal fetal tissue research has profound potential to advance human health and prevent immeasurable suffering, said Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix. Fetal tissue research saves lives, she continued. There is no substitute for fetal tissue research. Sen. Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, disputed those claims. The truth is, is that no one with Parkinsons or Alzheimers (diseases) has been cured from using aborted fetal tissue research, she said. Yet this is the kind of misleading information that Planned Parenthood has been giving women to convince them to sign off on on this on having their aborted babies body parts trafficked in the name of research, Lesko continued. She called fetal research outdated science. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today took the battle on the JNU controversy into the opposition camp asking whether sedition and breaking the country into pieces can be called "free speech". He also contended that the developments of February 9 on JNU when anti-national slogans were raised were "much more serious" as he read out from the pamphlets carrying anti-India material, which were circulated in the campus. "Sedition has become free speech. Can hate speech ever be called free speech. Can sedition be free speech. Can you have a free speech to say I have the right to break the country into pieces?" he asked the opposition benches amidst thumping of desks by the treasury benches. Jaitley, an eminent lawyer, was referring to slogans in the campus which called for a war for destruction of the country and lauded terrorists who had been convicted by the highest judiciary, "The core question is, are we going to give respectability to those whose primary ideology is that they want to break this country," the Leader of the House said while intervening in the debate on 'Situation arising out of recent incidents in institutions of higher education with reference to JNU and University of Hyderabad'. He noted that being a mainstream party, Congress does not have the history of supporting the "fringe". The minister also taunted the Opposition for their attack on the government over the Patiala House court complex incidents in which lawyers attacked journalists, teachers, students and JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar. "What happened in courts is condemnable," he said and added after a pause with sarcasm, "vandalism is condemnable but sedition is free speech." Accusing the opposition of attempting to sidetrack the main issue by "going into bylanes", Jaitley condemned the violence in Patiala House but added the anti-Indian nature of the protest at JNU and also at the Jadavpur University was serious. Jaitley agreed with Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad that two Congress Prime Ministers--Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi-- had fallen to the terrorists' bullets and said "that precisely should have been the reason for you (Congress) to speak more vigorously against the offences in JNU." He also referred to his support to the then Home Minister P Chidambaram when maoists had massacred 75 CRPF personnel that he should not resign when everyone was demanding his head. "At least I expect you (the opposition) to be with us on this," he said. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury intervened to say, "Don't give us a lecture on nationalism. If the country breaks into pieces we will not be here. We have fought (divisive tendencies). Jaitley also trained his guns at Rahul Gandhi, suggesting that his visit to the campus in the aftermath of the controversial protest amounted to providing "respectability" to a movement whose charter was to break India. He also suggested that Congress, along with Left parties, had jumped into the issue "without giving prior thought" in view of the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal. Jaitley defended the police entry into JNU, arguing that the campus was not a "sovereign territory" like some foreign embassy. Seeking to turn tables on Congress, he cited a Parliament Question of 1983 in which the then Indira Gandhi government had justified entry of police in JNU and arrest of 350 students, including 50 girls, after the Vice Chancellor was gheraoed. Suggesting that Congress had done so in view of West Bengal polls, he quipped, "The tragedy of Bengal is that there are three Congress parties - the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and Congress Marxist." Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien took objection to this, reminding that his party was separate since 1998. Jaitley asked opposition parties not to "camouflage" the offence at JNU, saying "its a very serious offence...One is jihadist, the other is maoist. Its an alliance of the two. You have been in power for long, you should have thought before making a visit to the JNU campus." "Just because West Bengal elections is round the corner, should the Congress party take a stand that police should not take enter University campuses," Jaitley said. In an apparent reference to Rahul's visit to the JNU campus, the Finance Minister said that "some people think before they act but this was an incident in which Congress took their step first and thought about it later. "....Had you thought before (about visiting JNU), you would not have gone into this situation," he said accusing the Congress of "indirectly or directly adding respect to a movement whose charter was to break this country." He also answered questions by opposition over BJP tying up with PDP which had spoken in favour of Afzal. Both BJP and Congress had realised that they have to work with mainstream parties of Jammu and Kashmir to fight separatists, Jaitley said, while pointing out that both the parties have had alliance with NC as well as PDP at some point of time. He asked the Congress to take a clear stance on the matter, he said these are the issues on which all parties should speak the same language. Jaitley also invoked B R Ambedkar, saying the maker of Constitution had warned of threats country faces from the inside. He said Ambedkar had also referred to people who wanted free speech to overthrow the state. Elements like maoists wanted to use provisions like free speech to overthrow the system of Parliamentary democracy because they don't believe in it, he said. With government under intense attack over JNU issue, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today trained his guns at Rahul Gandhi, suggesting that his visit to the campus in the aftermath of the controversial protest amounted to providing "respectability" to a movement whose charter was to break India. He also suggested in Rajya Sabha that Congress, jointly with Left parties, had jumped into the issue "without giving prior thought" in view of the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal. Jaitley, a noted lawyer-turned-politician, defended the police entry into JNU, arguing that the campus was not a "sovereign territory" like some foreign embassy. Seeking to turn tables on Congress, he cited a Parliament Question of 1983 in which the then Indira Gandhi government had justified entry of police in JNU and arrest of 350 students, including 50 girls, after the Vice Chancellor was gheraoed. He contended that the developments of February 9 on JNU were "much more serious" as he read out the pamphlets carrying anti-India material which were circulated in the campus. "The core question is, are we going to give respectability to those whose primary ideology is that they want to break this country," Jaitley said while intervening in the debate on 'Situation arising out of recent incidents in institutions of higher education with reference to JNU and University of Hyderabad'. Referring to slogans which called for war for destruction of the country and lauded terrorists who had been convicted by the highest judiciary, Jaitley questioned: "Can hate speech be called free speech?" He noted that being a mainstream party, Congress does not have the history of supporting the "fringe". Jaitley agreed with Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad that two Congress Prime Ministers had fallen to the terrorists' bullets, a reference to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, and said "that precisely should have been the reason for you (Congress) to speak more vigorously against the offences in JNU. At least on this issue, we expected you to be with us." Suggesting that Congress had done so in view of West Bengal polls, he quipped, "The tragedy of Bengal is that there are three Congress parties - the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and Congress Marxist." Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien took objection to this, reminding that his party was separate since 1998. Jaitley asked opposition parties not to "camouflage" the offence at JNU, saying "its a very serious offence...One is jihadist, the other is maoist. Its an alliance of the two. You have been in power for long, you should have thought before making a visit to the JNU campus. "Just because West Bengal elections is round the corner, should the Congress party take a stand that police should not take enter University campuses," Jaitley said. In an apparent reference to Rahul's visit to the JNU campus, the Finance Minister said that "some people think before they act but this was an incident in which Congress took their step first and thought about it later. "....Had you thought before (about visiting JNU), you would not have gone into this situation," he said accusing the Congress of "indirectly or directly adding respect to a movement whose charter was to break this country." He also answered questions by opposition over BJP tying up with PDP which had spoken in favour of Afzal. Both BJP and Congress had realised that they have to work with mainstream parties of Jammu and Kashmir to fight separatists, Jaitley said, while pointing out that both the parties have had alliance with NC as well as PDP at some point of time. He asked the Congress to take a clear stance on the matter, he said these are the issues on which all parties should speak the same language. Asking the opposition not to sidetrack the main issue, Jaitley condemned the violence in Patiala House but also reminded the House of the serious anti-Indian nature of the protest at JNU and also at the Jadavpur University. In remarks laced with sarcasm, he said, "Vandalism is condemnable, but sedition is free speech?" Jaitley also invoked B R Ambedkar, saying the maker of Constitution had warned of threats country faces from the inside. He said Ambedkar had also referred to people who wanted free speech to overthrow the state. Elements like maoists wanted to use provisions like free speech to overthrow the system of Parliamentary democracy because they don't believe in it, he said. Jaitley also criticised former Finance Minister P Chidambaram without naming him, over his remarks in a write up that the case of Afzal Guru, who was hanged after being convicted in the terror strike on Parliament in 2001 "was perhaps not correctly decided". Referring to some of the slogans, he asked whether the police could have remained a mute spectator to the incident. With regard to questions over slapping of sedition charge, he cited a Supreme Court verdict delivered during the Prime Ministership of Jawharlal Nehru when a Communist leader had been convicted for a speech made against the Congress party. At one point CPI leader D Raja asked what basis the government had for arresting JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, the Finance Minister said since the matter is sub-judice, he would not want to speak of the evidence against him. Earlier several parties, including Congress had criticised the government saying that it had punished someone for the crimes of the other. Jaitley also asserted that free flow of ideas in Indian Universities is safe in India and that BJP did not believe that only one ideology should prevail. He also emphasised that in case a student belonging to disadvantaged sections suffers mental disturbance, it needs to be addressed, comments made in response to opposition's concerns in the aftermath of Rohith Vemula's suicide. Jaitley also made a reference to the protests earlier held in University of Hyderabad saying that while Yakub Memon had been lauded, though a picture of Ambedkar had been used in the background. He also added that outsiders wearing masks had come to JNU when slogans against India were made. Under attack from the Opposition over his luxurious watch, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddarmaiah today said he would declare it as a state asset and hand it over to the government. "About the expensive watch I was wearing, which has been discussed almost everyday and reported in the media, I have this much to say that I will be declaring it as the state asset and deposit it with state secretariat," he told reporters here. The controversy was fuelled by former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy whohad claimed the diamond-studded Hublot watch was worth Rs 70 lakh and had been gifted to Siddaramaiah and that he had proof for his claims. Siddaramaiah revealed that the expensive watch was gifted to him by his close friend (NRI) Gopal Pillai Girish Chandra Verma who visited India last July. "The full name of the person who gifted this invaluable watch is Gopal Pillai Girish Chandra Verma. He had come to India in July last year. I know him since 1983 and whenever he visits India, he meets me," the Chief Minister said. Siddaramaiah further clarified, "Verma gifted me the watch, even though I was not keen on accepting it. However, he insisted that I accept it and I accepted because of our long friendship but I did not know how expensive it was." The CM said he would furnish relevant documents of the watch to the Lokayukta and Income Tax. The Chief Minister's decision to declare the watch as a state asset comes in the backdrop of criticism from various quarters. State BJP President and MP Prahalad Joshi had sought a probe by the Enforcement Directorate to find out the owner of the watch and whether customs duty had been paid for it. A complaint had been filed by city-based activist S Bhaskaran with the state Lokayukta seeking Siddaramaiah's prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act for accepting the expensive gift and not declaring it before appropriate authorities. Reacting to Siddaramaiah's announcement, Congress MLC V S Ugrappa, who had yesterday suggested three options including declaring the watch as a state asset, welcomed it. Seeking to turn the tables, he asked Kumaraswamy to declare his "luxurious" assets, including cars and watches, as state asset. Replying to a query, Ugrappa said the Chief Minister was busy with recent by-election, and Taluk and Zilla Panchayat polls and hence could not find time to come out with facts about the controversy earlier. Kumaraswamy had argued that the Chief Minister should have come out openly the very next day the watch controversy came out in public. The Kashmir High Court Bar Association today rejected Rs 50 lakh from the Prime Minister's relief package sanctioned for the Bar Library, an Association spokesman said. Accepting any relief package from the Prime Minister was contrary to the Bar Association's previous resolutions and its stand on the issue of Kashmir, he said. In the September 2014 floods, the High Court Bar Library was completely washed away and there is a need to rebuild it for the junior members of the Association, he said. "When Mohammad Qasim, Mohammad Shafi Sharieti, Ghulam Qadir, Bhat, Tarfiq Ahmad Dar, Muzaffar Ahmad Dar, S A R Geelani and hundreds of other Kashmiris were languishing in jails and even (JNU students) Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid were held for supporting the cause of people of Kashmir, accepting any package from Prime Minister of India for High court Bar Library was immoral and unethical and against the very stand of the Bar Association," the spokesman said. It was also stated that accepting any concession, in whatever form, from the Prime Minister or other departments of the government of India would against the cause for which a dozen of Bar members have given their lives, the spokesman said. Kick-starting his five-day visit to Punjab, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal today lashed out at his political opponents, saying other parties make their manifestos sitting in air conditioned rooms while his party cadre would visit villages and homes to understand their problems. The Delhi Chief Minister, who began the tour with a visit to Sangrur, said he would visit families of farmers who committed suicide and those affected by the drug problem. "I am starting my five-day trip of Punjab today. I will be visiting villages and meeting with common people," Kejriwal said. "I will be meeting families affected by the drug problem. AAP will try to understand their problems. We will meet families of farmers who committed suicide and understand their problems too. The AAP philosophy is that we meet people, listen to their problems and find solutions," he said. Hitting out at his political opponents, he said other parties make their manifestos in air-conditioned rooms but "We will go to villages and homes of people". Kejriwal along other party leaders including Punjab's AAP convenor Sucha Singh Chhotepur, Bhagwant Mann, MP, Sanjay Singh, Sukhpal Singh Khaira from Punjab, left for Sangrur to meet the next of kin of brick kiln worker Satguru, who had committed suicide along with his wife Rani recently as he was under a debt of Rs 70,000. The Chief Minister is also slated to visit Bathinda district, an AAP spokesman said. Posters, meanwhile, appeared in Bathinda questioning the performance of Kejriwal. AAP had successfully organised a mega rally in Muktsar last month. The party hopes to sweep the state polls next year and is locked in a tussle with Congress and the ruling SAD-BJP combine. In October last, Kejriwal had visited Punjab, which was hit by protests due to desecration of Guru Granth Sahib. The party has been raising its voice against the issue of drug addiction and farmers suicide and alleged irregularities in buying pesticides. AAP had opened its account in Lok Sabha by winning four seats in Punjab in 2014 general elections. However, two of its MPs - Dharamvira Gandhi and Harinder Singh Khalsa - have been suspended on the charge of anti-party activities. Kejriwal is also slated to meet the business community, to understand the problems faced by them in the state, a AAP spokesman said. Kejriwal also attacked the private schools which are making education "a business" but also said there are private schools as well which are doing good work and shaping the future of students "in a good manner". "We strongly criticise these schools for making education a business and the government is committed to take action against them. In previous governments, people had vested interest in private schools, but in the AAP government, no minister has vested (interest) in these schools. "We have only interest to provide quality education to the children of Delhi," he said. The Delhi CM said he has got to know that "some private schools" demand donation at the time of admission, adding that he is very sure that his government will stop this practice. Patting his government's initiatives in the health sector, he said mohalla clinics project was being praised across the globe including in USA, Paris, London. "At these air-conditioned mohalla clinics, free medicines are given to patients. Once all 1,000 such clinics are set up, people will find health facilities within 2-3 km radius of their residence. They won't need to go to hospitals for small diseases. "We are also setting up 122 poly clinics where eight types of specialist doctors will be available. We have saved money in every government's work. Through this saved money, we made medicine and medical tests free in government hospitals which is first-of-its-kind of experiment in the country," he added. At the function, several cultural programmes were organised where school participated. Besides, Delhi Police, home guard personnel and students also participated in the parade. SAD today termed the visit of Aam Aadmi Party Convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to Punjab as "drama" aimed to "score some political points". Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Secretary and Punjab Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema said it was surprising that when everyone is denouncing the violence in Haryana and expressing solidarity with the people affected by it, Kejriwal didn't get time to visit the affected people in his home state. "It was Kejriwal's duty to visit his home state but he preferred the one in which elections are due next year which proved heights of his hypocrisy," Cheema said, adding this was not the first time when his "thinking has been exposed." After the attack on Pathankot airbase, Kejriwal reached Punjab to meet the kin of the martyred Subedar Major Fateh Singh and Havildar Kulwant Singh and also gave cheque of Rs 2 lakh each family which was a good gesture, he said. But it is surprising that he didn't get the time to visit Garud Commando Gursewak Singh's family in Ambala district, again his home district, as there are no elections due in Haryana, Cheema alleged. In the last session of Delhi Assembly, on a query of AAP MLA Alka Lamba, it was informed that 402 persons have died of extreme cold conditions in the national capital, the SAD leader said. It was strange that AAP government could not provide quilts to the needy who died due to extreme winter conditions, but the Delhi Chief Minister is distributing cheques of Rs 50,000 to the victims of different incidents in Punjab because elections are due here, he said. SAD also dared Kejriwal to participate in a debate on development done by him in Delhi with that done by the SAD-BJP government in Punjab. Senior SAD leaders and party MPs Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Balwinder Singh Bhundur said the Delhi Chief Minister should list his achievements as well as tell the people of Punjab what social welfare measures he has taken. "What we have learnt from your massive Rs 532 crore advertising blitzkrieg is that you opened one dispensary to fulfil the your promise of augmenting the health sector in Delhi," they said in a statement. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today welcomed the Railway budget giving a green signal for the state's proposal for launching suburban train services but said the state had expected more projects. Talking to reporters, Chandy said Kerala was one of the first states to sign an MoU with the Indian Railways to set up a Joint Venture Company to implement rail projects on cost sharing basis. Three key projects were mooted by the state and one of them was the suburban service from Thiruvananthapuram to Chenganoor. The other two are Sabari Rail project and Nilambur-Sulthanbattery-Najenkode Rail line, he added. He said that electrification and doubling of rail projects in the state was progressing fast. On the proposal to change the timings of government offices to check rush of commuters, Chandy said a decision in this regard could be taken only after consulting with the workforce. "Many factors have to be taken into account before effecting change in office timing," he added. State BJP President Kummanam Rajasekharan termed the budget as "historic and satisfactory". "The budget has considered the aspirations of all sections in the society without hiking ticket fares," he said. State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said it was sad that no new trains had been sanctioned for the state. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President V M Sudheeran said the budget had dashed Kerala's hope for rail development. "Nothing in the budget to redress the difficulties for commuting and improving the infrastructure. It had only made certain proposals with an eye on the coming elections in states to hoodwink the people," he charged. Kerala government is aiming for a 10-12 per cent growth in domestic and foreign tourist arrivals and exploring new source markets like East Asia and Russia for tourism opportunities. "Last year has been a difficult year for the tourism industry and we achieved a flat or marginal growth compared to 2014. This year and in 2017, we are expecting double digit growth (about 10-12 per cent) in tourist arrivals," Kerala Tourism Deputy Director Nandakumar K P told PTI here. In 2015, as many as 7,75,390 foreign tourists visited Kerala from January-October, a growth of 6.60 per cent. Last year, 76,71,277 domestic tourists visited the southern state from January-August, a growth of 7.40 per cent, according to government data. The state, which is facing competition from Sri Lanka and South Asian countries, is planning to attract tourists by branding 'Kerala: the home of Ayurveda'. "We are exploring new markets like Russia, East Asia, China and Japan, besides focusing on strengthening the traditional markets like the European Union and the US. For wooing tourists, we have branded the state as 'Kerala: the home of Ayurveda'. "We decided for branding because we are facing a lot of competition from Sri Lanka and South Asian markets. Moreover, we are combining wellness with sightseeing," he said. Meanwhile, Kerala is signing an agreement with Saint Petersburg in Russia for joint promotion this week. "To increase our visibility and help increase foot print, we decided to do joint promotions with other states in the country as well as foreign destinations. We are planning to sign an MoU with Saint Petersburg this week. We are looking at similar opportunities and may sign many such MoUs in future," he said. Meanwhile, the state has rolled out Seaplane Project to improve connectivity and will initially provide service in the priority circuit, consisting of the three airports of Trivandrum, Cochin and Calicut with destinations like Astamudi, Punnamada, Kumarakom, Bolgatty and Bekal. The 'Gods Own Country' has also rolled out 'Project Muziris' that aims to reinstate the 3,000-year culture for posterity. "This is the largest heritage conservation project in the country, where we are upgrading infrastructure and planning 25 museums for understanding of Muziris Heritage. It will be inaugurated in a week or two," Nandkumar said. The state is also developing the 2,000-year-old spice route for helping the modern day travellers to traverse the path used by traders and explorers. "The spice route, which has received support from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), is expected to be inaugurated by November this year," he added. The ancient commercial city of Kozhikode in Kerala is all set to become a major IT destination with the inauguration of Rs 600 crore ultra-modern Cyber Park by President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday. Interestingly, unlike the state-backed IT parks in capital Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, the cyber park in Kozhikode is sponsored by a daily labourers' co-operative society- Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS Ltd)- which has over the decades diversified into different areas. The society, founded by a renowned reformer Guru Vagbhatananda of north Malabar in 1925, started as a collective of daily wage earners, taking up small works like building rural roads and minor bridges. Its dream IT project- UL Cyberpark- is built in 14 acres owned by the society in Nellikkunnu village near Kozhikode city. "With a perfect blend of social, academic and entrepreneurship facilities that create an ideal eco-system for the growth of IT, ITES and other knowledge-based sectors, Kozhikode is shaping up its infrastructural facilities in tune with the Kerala Governments vision to translate the state into a major IT Hub in the country," the society said in a release here. It said UL Cyber Park is an ambitious project of ULCCS Ltd, by creating an IT/ITES SEZ Park with a total built-up area of 2.7 million sq ft based on the master plan prepared by world's leading architect Nikken Sikki from Japan. Acknowledging efforts of the society, the Kerala government has approved it as an accredited agency towards undertaking infrastructure projects in Kerala. Recently, acknowledging the contribution of ULCCS in sustainable rural development, the United Nations had endorsed ULCCS as a unique model in the area of sustainable rural development and sponsored a study tour for the leadership team of ULCCS Ltd towards visiting global cooperatives in Europe. At Lowell Observatory, the story of the Clark Telescope is one that many staffers know by heart. The telescope, housed in the impossible-to-miss white dome atop Mars Hill, was commissioned by observatory founder Percival Lowell in 1896. In subsequent decades, it played a starring role in astronomical research, including Lowells studies of peculiar markings on Mars, the first detection of the expanding nature of the universe and moon mapping for the Apollo program. It should come as no surprise, then, that exploring the Clarks history brings up a rich collection of historic photographs, long-buried documents and hand drawn maps, notes and diagrams. For much of the past year, Lowell Historian Kevin Schindler took on the task of finding and compiling those artifacts. Well over half of the historic images had never been published until earlier this month when Schindlers The Far End of the Journey: Lowell Observatorys 24-inch Clark Telescope was published. The 134-page coffee table book showcases an array of diverse visuals in its detailed documentation of the telescopes century-long story, from a device crafted to search for life on Mars to the 21 month-long restoration of the telescope that wrapped up in October. The Clark is more than just Lowell, its Flagstaff. It has been an icon in the skyline for 120 years, Schindler said. The Clarks story represents a history of Flagstaff, a history of science, a history of technology, he said. Many of the pictures and papers featured in the book have long been stowed away in Lowells own archives. An effort by observatory archivists to move everything into the campus brand new Putnam Collections Center in 2013 helped unearth new findings, Schindler said. He tracked down other images on a chance trip to Johnson Space Center in Houston. There, he found photographs of astronauts who visited Lowell in the 1960s to learn moon mapping techniques and peer through local telescopes, including the Clark. That was golden, Schindler said. For years I had been looking and I hadnt found anything here. The University of Arizona proved to be another treasure trove of photographs documenting the time when the Clark was moved to Mexico for several months in 1896 and 1897. The collection of pictures show Mexican workers in wide-brimmed hats unloading the telescope parts from train cars and assembling the dome and structure in the small community of Tacubaya near Mexico City. Those images helped answer questions that Lowells Clark Telescope restoration team had been scratching their heads over as they undertook restoration of the telescope, Schindler said. The Lowell team kept wondering how workers had moved the telescope more than a century earlier without cranes and other equipment, he said. The photos showed that large teams of men took the telescope apart into dozens of much smaller pieces and shipped them on rail cars, Schindler said, pointing to images of wooden crates being unloaded. It was hard work, and another photo shows the men taking a break to sip down a local alcoholic beverage made by fermenting the sap of agave plants. One of the last chapters of the book describes how the telescope has been used for outreach in recent years and documents visits by famous figures, from Hillary Clinton to Bill Nye. The book ends with a behind-the-scenes account of the nearly two-year process of restoring the historic telescope. Photos show cranes reaching into the Clarks dome to extract the telescope, workers using intricate pulley and strap systems to stabilize heavy components and delicate brass pieces that had been meticulously cleaned and shined. An image-rich book seemed the most appropriate way to document the telescopes story, Lowell Director Jeff Hall said. The Clark is so visually impressive that a pictorial history seemed like something that would be used more than 300 pages of text, Hall said. We felt it was critical to document what was done to preserve this part of the observatorys history, he said, referring to the most recent restoration efforts. Schindler has worked at Lowell for 20 years and spent much of that time doing public programming, which included a major focus on the Clark. Even so, as he set about writing the book, Schindler said he was pleasantly surprised to find himself still discovering new things. The book also provided the opportunity to gather personal stories from people like Lowell Astronomer Otto Franz, who has used the Clark Telescope to study binary stars, the children of Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh and Jim Christy, who discovered Plutos largest moon, Schindler said. Many other parts of the book were drawn from nuggets of information Schindler said he gathered from countless people over his time at Lowell. There are a lot of heroes that have worked here through the years, he said. The book is available in Lowells Starry Skies Shop and on Amazon for $49.95. It will also be available in select local bookstores. Two persons, accused of killing a person, have been acquitted by a Delhi court which said the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubts. Additional Sessions Judge Paramjit Singh freed Najafgarh residents Naresh and Sachin while giving them benefit of doubt saying there was nothing on record to prove their guilt. "Having regard to the fact and circumstances of the present case, I am of the considered opinion that the prosecution has failed to prove the guilt of accused persons on record beyond reasonable doubts. "Accordingly, I acquit both the accused of the charged offences, giving them the benefit of doubt," the judge said. The court observed that for an accused being convicted only on the basis of circumstantial evidence, circumstances should be unerringly pointing towards the guilt of the accused and should form a chain so complete that there is no escape from the conclusion. "It is clear that in order to convict the accused on the basis of the circumstantial evidence, it is essential that the circumstances from which the inference of guilt is sought to be drawn must be cogently...And unerringly pointing towards guilt of the accused and the circumstances, taken cumulatively, should form a chain so complete that there is no escape from the conclusion that within all human probability the crime was committed by the accused and none else," the judge said. According to the prosecution, on January 31, 2014 at DDA Park in Dwarka here, both the accused allegedly killed Narender Kaushik and absconded. Kaushik went missing on January 31, 2014, after he left for his work on his motorcycle, following which a missing complaint was lodged by his son, the police said. The court, while acquitting the accused, observed that the testimonies relied on by the prosecution lacked confidence and there were material contradictions in the case. "...There are material contradictions/ discrepancies in the testimonies and these contradictions/discrepancies are fatal to the case of the prosecution," it said. The US today hailed the reconciliation efforts of the Sri Lankan government in the past year as "very impressive". "I want to congratulate the Government of Sri Lanka for their very impressive continuing steps towards reconciliation," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a joint media meet with his Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera. "Their efforts to try to address the regional issues, and most importantly, to make peace in their own country are very, very significant. And we really welcome you here," Kerry said. Samaraweera, who is in Washington to attend the US-Lanka strategic dialogue, said the relationship between the two countries has elevated recently. Several Left parties today staged a protest seeking withdrawal of sedition charges against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and a government job for the younger brother of Rohith Vemula who committed suicide in Hyderabad University. During their sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar, Left leaders also hit out at HRD Minister Smriti Irani over her speech in Parliament yesterday, saying the BJP leader targeted opposition over the JNU row and Vemula's suicide but had no answers to his mother's questions. "Kumar has been arrested on the basis of fake evidence. We demand his immediate release and withdrawal of charges against him," CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said. Reddy, who met Kumar in Tihar jail today along with the latter's brother Manikant, said the students' leader is "prepared" for a long battle ahead and that his family has expressed full faith in the party. Kumar is leader of All India Students' Federation, a wing of CPI. The former MP termed Kumar's arrest as an example of "misuse of state machinery and police" and said "people's democratic and constitutional rights were under attack" in NDA rule. "RSS and BJP are dividing the country on religious, food, region and caste lines. They are the forces trying to impose RSS ideology on all," he alleged and added the Left parties will fight them at all levels. CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat slammed Irani for "not addressing" the concerns raised by the Opposition and Vemula's mother, Radhika, in her speech. "When Irani delivered her speech yesterday, Rohith's mother was with me. She had certain queries for Irani. She wanted to know on what basis Rohith and other students were called anti-national extremists? Why Rohith's stipend was stopped? Rohith's mother has also questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not taken action against those who called the Dalit scholar "anti-national", Karat said. Delhi CPI Assistant Secretary Dinesh Varshney, CPI (M-L) politburo member Ramji Roy, Pran Sharma of SUCI (C), RSP secretary Shatrujit Singh, Dharmender Kumar Verma of AIFB and Communist Ghadar Party of India's Prakash Rao were part of the protest. Lena Dunham says she "felt sick" when a judge ruled Kesha couldn't leave her recording contract. The "Girls" actress was horrified to learn that a court has decreed the "Tik Tok" hitmaker must abide by her agreement with producer Dr Luke, despite her claims he sexually abused her. "When I saw the outcome of Kesha's court case last Friday, I felt sick. Actually sick -- I wanted to ask my Uber to pull over so I could throw up in a New York City trash can," she said. Dunham also hit out at Sony Music for opting to engage in a "protracted legal battle" with Kesha when they could have made the case "go away" by agreeing to let her record with someone other than Dr Luke, whose real name is Lukasz Gottwald. Dunham continued in an essay for her Lenny newsletter: "Sony could make this go away. But instead the company has chosen to engage in a protracted legal battle to protect Gottwald's stake in Kesha's future. "Although the company insists that Kesha and Gottwald never need to be in a room together and that he will allow her to record without his direct involvement, they are minimizing what Kesha says regarding how Gottwald's continued involvement in her career would affect her physical well-being and psychological safety. "So let me spell it out for them. Imagine someone really hurt you, physically and emotionally. Scared you and abused you, threatened your family. Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag today slammed Pakistan for giving "candid support" to terror groups like JeM and LeT as he called on the international community to join hands in combating the menace. Days after suspected LeT operatives struck in Pampore in Jammu and Kashmir, Suhag hit out at Pakistan, saying, "Terrorist groups like LeT and JeM get candid support from across our western borders." Read more from our special coverage on "TERRORISM" India gives new list of terrorists from Pak-based groups to UN The attack at Pampore left three army personnel dead, including two Captains of the Special Forces. Two CRPF personnel, too, were killed by three heavily armed "foreign" terrorists who were shot dead after a fierce 48-hour-long gun battle. At a seminar organised by army think tank CLAWS, Suhag also said that the spreading influence of Islamic State, in particular through social and other forms of media, has thrown up challenges of global and regional security. "What is worrying is that these groups can no longer be dismissed as regional manifestations of violence," he said. Noting that such jihadist outfits take advantage of the international connected systems of finance, commerce and transit to stay flexible and reach any part of the globe, Suhag said it was "necessary for international community to fight this menace as one by sharing of intel and adoption of training techniques from each other". He added that the 9/11, 26/11 and recent Paris attacks have changed the perception among world leaders regarding the threat from . The Army Chief said, "We need to address not only the methods but also the factors that contribute to the spread of . "The main threat comes from fundamental ideology and twisted interpretations which are promoting radical thinking." BJP leader and spokesperson M J Akbar, who also spoke at the event, termed Pakistan a "sanctuary of jihad". No untoward incident was reported from anywhere in Haryana today where life was fast returning to normalcy even as the people in violence-hit districts were asked to provide photo, video or other evidence of vandals who damaged property during the Jat quota agitation. Peace and normalcy was returning to the state and no untoward incident was reported from anywhere today, officials said. Twenty eight people were killed and over 200 injured in the Jat quota agitation in Haryana. While vehicular traffic had resumed on various routes which had remained blocked due to the quota agitation, train services from Delhi to Chandigarh have also resumed their normal operations, an official spokesman said. "The damaged railway lines at Rajlu Garhi railway station in Sonipat district have been repaired to resume rail services between Delhi and Chandigarh. However, minor repair work was still being carried out on the railway line," he added. Jhajjar's Deputy Commissioner, Anita Yadav, has asked the people of her district to provide video, photo or other material related to those agitators who indulged in violence/vandalism. The video/photos can be provided to the district administration, the DC said, while pointing out it would prove immensely helpful in the investigation process. Any such video, photo or other material related to agitation in the Jhajjar district could be sent to district administration either on WhatsApp number 8199820068 or through email id infojhajjar20@gmail.Com. The messages received on this number and email id would be included in the investigation at administrative level and the name and details of person giving the information would be kept secret, the DC said, according to an official release here today. The Jat dominated districts of Jhajjar and Rohtak, saw massive damage to business properties by angry mob during the quota agitation. In Kaithal, Commissioner of Police, Ambala-Panchkula division, O P Singh said today that stern action would be taken against those who indulged in violence during the Jat quota agitation and added evidence in this regard was being collected. Singh said that the administration had started collecting evidences of violent activities during the agitation and those found guilty will be punished. Singh has directed Superintendent of Police to immediately cancel the arms licenses if the role of arm license holder was established in violent activities during the agitation. The Haryana Board of School Education, today announced postponement of the practical examination of Classes 10 and 12 examination which were scheduled to start from today. Now these exams will now be held on March 30 after theory examination. The spokesman also said that the affected persons of the recent law and order disturbances in Haryana can also apply online at www.Ulbharyana.Gov.In for the claim of their loss to commercial or residential properties and damage of vehicles and those applying online need not submit their application formal manually. The Haryana Government today issued transfer of six police officers with immediate effect including those who were posted in the worst-hit areas like Rohtak and Meham. Surinder Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Meham and Gurdiyal Singh, DSP, State Crime Branch will swap their place of posting, an official release said. Sukhbir Singh, DSP, Rohtak and Shamsher Singh, DSP, State Crime Branch will swap their place of posting. Vinod Kumar, DSP, Gohana has been posted as Assistant Commissioner of Police, Faridabad. Rajesh Kumar, DSP, First IRB Bhondsi has been posted as DSP, Gohana. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had visited Jat dominated Rohak city earlier this week to review the situation. Rohtak which was the epicentre of the Jat stir saw massive damage to private property. Khattar had also said that the state government would take strict action against those officers be it from district administration or police department for dereliction in duty. The Lok Sabha today passed a bill to grant voting rights to people who became citizens of the country following the exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh, even as the Opposition questioned the delay on part of the government in bringing the measure. Moving the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2016 for consideration and passage, Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda urged the members to pass the Bill without delay. The minister had introduced in the Lok Sabha the Bill to amend Section 11 of the Delimitation Act, 2002 and Section 9 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. The Bill was later passed unanimously by a voice vote. Gowda urged the House to pass the bill in the current session to enable the grant of voting rights to the people in these enclaves. "EC is already working on it. The central government will provide all assistance to the state so that the people who have come from Bangladesh can be given the basic rights in the upcoming elections in West Bengal," the Minister said. The term of the 294-member West Bengal Assembly ends on May 29 and elections are to be held before that, hence there was a sense of urgency for early passage of the bill. Congress member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said it was imperative on the part of the government to ensure voting rights to the people, especially when the time was too short due to the impending elections. TMC member Kalyan Banerjee and Shiv Sena's Anandrao Adsul too favoured passing the legislation at the earliest. Lashing out at the government for "inordinate delay", RSP MP N K Premachandran questioned the reasons for delaying the Bill when the 100th Amendment Constitution Bill was passed in July last year. "Why was the Centre sleeping over it for all this time," he asked. Echoing Premachandran, CPI(M) leader Mohammad Salim too questioned the delay on part of the Centre and the state government to expedite the process of granting voting rights to people living in these enclaves. Supporting the Bill, TDP MP Jayadev Galla said when the government was giving voting rights these citizens, it should also consider giving voting rights to NRIs. Malaysia plans to extend e-tourist visa facility to travellers from India as it hopes to attract 10 lakh tourists from the country this year as against 7,22,141, who visited last year. "We are eyeing 10 lakh Indian tourists this year," Dato Daljit Singh, Indian Community Relations Advisor to the Minister of Tourism and Culture, Malaysia, said here today. He said tourism sector contributes 12 per cent to Malaysia's GDP and India has always been an important market. Singh, also a member of the Tourism Malaysia Board of Directors, said the country is working on e-tourist visa for China and the facility may be offered to the India as well. "After we complete working with the Chinese government, as we are in the middle of the process, then we are also going to work with the Indian government on e-visa," he said. Asked if visa-on-arrival can also be on the cards for Indians, he said, "We can look at all these subjects. We get a lot of suggestions from local (travel) agents. Slowly, we will take up these issues". Bulk of Indian tourists to Malaysia come from Delhi and Mumbai, he said, adding there has been a significant increase in the number of young couples visiting the country. As part of its efforts to raise awareness on 'Malaysia as a destination of choice', Tourism Malaysia has embarked on a 'Sales Mission' to India and Sri Lanka between February 25 and March 3. Singh and Musa Yusuf, another senior functionary from Tourism Malaysia, are leading a delegation of officials of Malaysia Tourism Board as part of the Mission, which will cover several Indian cities including Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Kochi, besides Colombo. "Two million Indians live in our country, therefore, Malaysia is like second home for tourists from India, with all types of Indian food available," Singh said. A man has been arrested at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here after two live bullets were recovered from his baggage, officials said today. The incident occurred yesterday when personnel of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) posted at the airport detected two bullets of .32mm calibre loaded in the magazine from the baggage of Vinay K. He was supposed to take an Air India flight to Ahmedabad. "Vinay was asked to produce documents but could not do so," a CISF spokesperson said. Carrying live bullets without proper documents is illegal under civil aviation rules. Vinay was later handed over to Delhi Police, which booked him under various provisions of the Arms Act. Mechanised boat fishermen of the region would go on an indefinite strike from tomorrow pressing their demands, including steps to secure the release of 27 of their colleagues detained in Sri Lanka. Around 1,500 mechanised boats from Rameswaram and neighbouring Pamban and Mandapam would stay off the sea from tomorrow, as decided at a recent meeting, Tamil Nadu Coastal Mechanised Boat Association President P Sesuraja said here today. He said the state and central government should take necessary steps to secure the release of the fishermen and their 79 boats held by the Sri Lankan government. The association also wanted suitable compensation for 18 boats allegedly sunk by Sri Lankan Navy in the sea, he told PTI here. Besides, he said the central government should take necessary steps to allow them to fish in their traditional area. Sesuraja said if the government failed to meet their demands, the mechanised boat fishermen would intensify their stir and stage a demonstration in front of the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai on February 29, in which fishermen organisations of eight districts would participate. WASHINGTON Both sides agree with the intent of the Land and Water Conservation Fund to help acquire and improve federal and local park projects but they disagree on how it should be implemented. President Barack Obama included $900 million in his fiscal 2017 budget to revive the program, which expired last fall after 51 years of using royalties from offshore oil and gas leases to fund park projects. One of the projects listed in the budget is on the Coconino National Forest. Advocates say the program was a vital source of funding for local governments to develop parks 93 in Phoenix alone that they may not have been able to acquire otherwise. But where supporters see a broadly used tool for local governments, critics see another example of federal overreach in the program, which would dedicate $575 million to federal land acquisition in the presidents budget request. The federal government owns an awful lot of land, particularly out West, and they dont need to be buying up a lot more, said Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott. Gosar and others say they want to see the money end up in the states hands, because the states are better at conservation than the federal government, he said. That is one goal of a plan put forward by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources who let the Land and Water Conservation Fund expire on Sept. 30 without a renewal vote. Bishops proposed alternative, the Protecting Americas Recreation and Conservation Act, would still direct $900 million to park acquisition but would focus on giving states grants and limiting federal land and water acquisition to 3.5 percent of the total fund. But others say there is no need to do away with the old program and that, without it, communities will struggle to maintain and develop parks. A report by the City Parks Alliance said that more than 98 percent of the nations counties have a park project as a result of the conservation fund. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, introduced a bill in April that would have permanently reauthorized the fund. Despite drawing 200 cosponsors, including 26 Republicans, the bill has yet to get a hearing. Grijalva praised Obamas decision to include a reauthorization of the fund in his budget request, saying in a statement that it will help ensure the great outdoors parks, rivers and wildlife habitat are accessible to all Americans today and for years to come. Under the presidents budget request, at least $9.6 million of the requested $900 million would go to federal parks in Arizona but local officials welcomed the funding. Phoenix Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Judy Weiss said that since the fund was created more than five decades ago, the city has received $10.2 million in grants for local parks, which it matched to create $20.4 million worth of projects. Among the 93 Phoenix park projects funded by the program are South Mountain Park, Echo Canyon Park and, most recently, Long Homestead Park. Phoenix in fact, all of the Valley cities has made great use of the fund since 1965, and I dont think that in some cases we would have had the park development we had without that federal money, Weiss said. That was echoed by Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, who said, Tucson and Arizona have benefited from this fund in the past. President Obamas proposed budget includes funding in connection with Saguaro National Park, said Rothschild, a member of the Mayors for Parks Coalition, which supports the fund. That park, which sits on the east and west sides of Tucson, is an important recreational area for this valley of about a million people. The Interior Department said the Saguaro project would protect 137 acres in the park and add employee housing to existing structures on park land, saving $10,000 a year in rental housing and storage space costs. Other federal lands in the state that are included in Obamas proposal include the Ironwood Forest National Monument, the Agua Fria National Monument and the Coconino National Forest. Catherine Nagel, executive director of City Parks Alliance, called the fund vital to communities because parks boost economic activity and promote public health by giving residents a place to exercise and socialize, reducing obesity and health care costs in the process. Nagel said parks are especially important to Arizona because they can slow down and capture storm water, which can prevent flooding and alleviate droughts. Parks are an underutilized asset for Americas communities, she said. What were finding is that parks are vital to the economic, environmental, and social health of our communities. The Mumbai police has identified 16 spots across the megapolis which are "dangerous for clicking pictures", a senior police official said today. The move comes in wake of several deaths here while clicking selfies, he said. According the official, these spots include popular sea-fronts like Bandra Bandstand, Marine Drive and Juhu Chowpatty. Last month, police had initiated process of identifying and marking certain spots in the city as 'No Selfie Zones' in a bid to discourage people from putting themselves at risk while taking selfies. In January, three girls - identified as Tarannum Ansari (18), her friends Anjum Khan (19) and Masturi Wasim Ali Khan (19) - were clicking selfies standing on a rock jutting out of sea near a fort during which they lost balance and fell. A local youth, Ramesh Walunju, had jumped into sea to save the girls, but could save two of them. Walunju, however, drowned during the rescue process. Police had said Tarannum's body remained untraced. With the JNU row refusing to die down, filmmaker Hansal Mehta says he wants to make a film on the "invasion" of educational institutions by political establishment. Calling the row unfortunate, the "Aligarh" director said his film will talk about the issue. "It is unfortunate. I will express myself about that through some film, a short or feature. "I have something in mind about the general crisis, invasion by political establishment into the educational institutions. There is something running in my mind but I can't talk much about it because it is in the development stage," Hansal told PTI in an interview. Another educational institution that saw the students up in arms against the government is Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). The students have been protesting from past few months against the appointment of veteran actor Gajendra Chauhan as FTII's chairman. The suicide of Dalit student Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad University had also caused widespread anger among the students, who alleged caste discrimination in universities. NATO said today it has launched an investigation into an attack on a Swedish charity clinic in Afghanistan that killed three and which was blamed on the Afghan army and "foreign soldiers." A NATO spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the presence of foreign troops, but told AFP the alliance had opened "a preliminary probe to determine if the allegations concerning civilian victims are credible." The raid -- which happened in the early hours of February 18 in the unsettled central Wardak Province -- involved Afghan special forces and foreign soldiers, according to the charity involved, the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA). Officials from the United Nation's UNAMA mission also pointed the finger at Afghan forces, condemning the raid during which it said two patients and a 15-year-old boy were summarily executed without explanation. The Swedish charity, which runs health, education and other development programmes in almost half of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, called today for "explanations" from the Afghan government and foreign forces, as well as an independent investigation. In Stockholm, Cooperation Minister Isabella Lovin condemned recent attacks against clinics in Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, which she said were "deeply worrying." "The countries concerned have a duty to investigate crimes against international law, including in the case" of the Wardak attack, she added in a statement, recalling that Afghanistan was one of the biggest recipients of Swedish development aid. On paper NATO's remaining 13,000 soldiers in Afghanistan are only there for training and as advisers for the Afghan army. But in practice they are increasingly finding themselves drawn into fighting. Three were injured in a class with Taliban fighters at the start of this week. The Afghan Taliban today released a video which they said showed anger trigged by the raid in Tangi Saidan. "It's a barbaric attack!" says one old man, presented as a local resident. "Afghan civilians were killed in this attack," he added in the 13-minute video. Three bodies are then shown, described as "martyrs of the hospital. Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor starrer "Neerja", based on the life of brave air hostess Neerja Bhanot, was today declared tax-free in Gujarat. The Gujarat Government issued an official notification in this regard. The announcement was made this evening, shortly after the movie's producer, Atul Kasbekar, and Sonam's father, Bollywood star Anil Kapoor, held a brief meeting with Chief Minister Anandiben Patel in Gandhinagar. "We were here to make an appeal to the CM about making the movie tax-free. We are confident the CM will consider our appeal," Kapoor told media persons after the meeting. "During the meeting, the Chief Minister praised the subject of the movie," said Kasbekar. Directed by Ram Madhvani, the biographical film stars Sonam in the titular role of flight attendant Neerja. The movie revolves around the 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi and how the 22-year-old Neerja fought for the lives of her passengers. Maharashtra has already declared the film tax-free. An 8-member delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture, Nepal today visited Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) campus here for consultation on agricultural administration with the officials of the varsity. The visit was scheduled as a part of the policy reform process to accelerate agricultural growth and enhance food security in Nepal. Talking to senior officials of the university, Yubak Dhoj, Director General, Department of Agriculture, Goverment of Nepal, congratulated the efforts of PAU towards the extensive agricultural mechanisation in the state. The delegates were visibly overwhelmed with the vast outreach and extension programmes conducted by the university and queried on the extension mechanism and reasons for its success in the state, a PAU spokesman said. Bee keeping and mushroom cultivation were the other areas of interest, he added. Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) today said it has dispatched its first tanker of liquid nitrogen to Assam Livestock Development Agency. The first tanker carrying liquid nitrogen (LN) of 99.95 per cent purity was dispatched from the refinery's Marketing Terminal at Numaligarh to Assam Livestock Development Agency (ALDA) here, NRL said in a release here. The LN sourced from NRL would be used by ALDA for storing and transporting high yielding cattle semen for artificial insemination of local cattle, it said. This would help high milk yielding cattle, giving a boost to the agricultural and animal husbandry sector of the state. LN has wide industrial applications in refrigeration industry, refineries and oil exploration, it added. US President Barack Obama has signed a legislation authorising special trade preferences for Nepal, which grants duty-free tariff benefits for up to 66 types of items, to help the country recover from the last year's devastating quakes. The items include certain carpets, headgear, shawls, scarves, and travel goods, according to a statement issued by the US Embassy, Kathmandu today. "The Nepal programme is authorised for ten years and designed to help Nepal's economic recovery from the earthquakes that struck the country last year. "The programme grants duty-free tariff benefits for Nepali exports not currently eligible for benefits under the General System of Preferences (GSP)," the statement said. The Nepal Trade Preferences Legislation also outlines a trade capacity building programme, focused on helping Nepal implement the World Trade Organisation's Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), according to the statement. Obama signed the legislation yesterday. "This is a tremendous opportunity for Nepali business to expand their imports to US markets," remarked US Ambassador to Nepal Alaina B Teplitz. "We look forward to learning more about Nepal's plans for implementing the TFA and how the United States Government can contribute to this goal," she added. "To implement the new trade preference programme, the US needs to complete certain administrative steps. Firstly, the President must certify that Nepal meets the eligibility requirements of the programme, which are the same as those for African Growth and Opportunity Act countries," according to the US Embassy. The US is also required to request a review by the US International Trade Commission of the products covered by the preference programme to ensure that an increase in imports of these products into the US will not adversely affect the US economy. These statutorily-required reviews may take several months to complete, according to the statement. Odisha's long standing demand of getting a dedicated freight corridor (DFC) was fulfilled today as Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu announced three DFCs in his speech for 2016-17 Railway Budget. Of the three DFCs, East-West and East Coast dedicated freight corridors would pass through Odisha boosting the state's economic activities, an ECoR official said adding Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had been demanding extension of the fright corridors for a long time. While the East-West corridor would connect Odisha through Bondamunda-Rourkela-Jharsuguda and Brajaraj Nagar stations in the western region of the state, the East Coast corridor would connect the state's coastal districts through Jaleswar-Balasore-Bhadrak-Cuttack-Bhubaneswar-Khurda Road and Berhampur stations, a release issued by the East Coast Railway said. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has lauded Prabhu's Budget for accepting the state's demand. Besides, Prabhu announced Rs 4,682 crore for Odisha, 93.64 per cent against the state's demand of Rs 5,000 crore for 2016-17. Last year in the 2015-16 Rail Budget, the state got Rs 2,514 crore (78.56 per cent) against the state's demand of Rs 3,200 crore, it had received only Rs 1,420.98 crore (44.96 per cent) against the demand of Rs 3,160 crore in 2014-15, state government officials said. The Rail Budget also mentioned that the industrial town of Paradip would get special connectivity under the all India scheme to connect important ports of the country. The Rail Budget has allocated Rs 200 crore for the development of Haridaspur-Paradip railway line. The pilgrim town of Puri also got Prabhu's attention as he announced that the city would be developed as a national centre for religious rail tourism and would be connected with other pilgrim centres of the country, said the ECoR official. Around 15808 pregnant women from rural areas of Kanpur district are being monitored online by the Health Department to ensure safe child deliveries. The district had organised Motherhood Week from January 27 to February 3, during which women from rural areas of the district were examined, said Kanpur Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr R P Yadav. During the programme, it was found that of the 15808 pregnant women examined, there were 1843 cases of high risk pregnancy and 123 critical cases, he said. The high risk pregnant women are being monitored by women doctors at CHC level, while the critical cases are being constantly monitored by doctors at district hospital, said Yadav. The rest of the pregnant women are being monitored by Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM) and asha workers, said Yadav. All information relating to delivery dates of these women, diseases they are suffering from and complications they can possibly face during delivery, is maintained at the Mother & Child Tracking System Portal of the Health Department, said Yadav. With this information, the health department has made all preparations to ensure safe deliveries for all these pregnant women. He also said that all these women will be taken to hospital in an ambulance at the time of the delivery. Also they will be treated free of cost, before and after the delivery, and medicines will be provided to them for free, said Yadav. A total of 1,58,229 industrial units have been set up in Uttar Pradesh with an investment of Rs 24,368 crore since the Samajwadi Party government came to power in 2012, the state assembly was informed today. Replying to a question by Suresh Kumar Khanna and Satish Mahana of the BJP, the state's Minister for Dairy Development Ram Murti Verma said that this has given direct and indirect employment to over 15 lakh people. To supplementaries by Mahana on whether the state government will give companies incentives like subsidised power, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Khan alleged that some industries are stealing electricity. "Unfortunately, industrialists indulge in power theft despite receiving subsidy in coal and other fuels," Khan said. Americans love guns. And Americans hate anyone who dares to criticize their infatuation. The first truth is rooted in Americas almost unique constitutional right to bear arms a legal and cultural paradigm that allows its citizens to own more than 300 million guns. This is roughly twice as many firearms per capita than there were in 1968, so its a growing love affair. Its also a painful one according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as many as 1.4 million Americans were killed or injured by guns between 2001 and 2013. The second truth is, perhaps, best proved by the outcry after British journalist Piers Morgan condemned Americas gun culture. More than 100,000 people signed a petition in 2012 called Deport British Citizen Piers Morgan for Attacking 2nd Amendment. But more foreigners should be speaking out about Americas deadly relationship with the gun. The right to bear arms, and the sheer number of firearms bought and sold in this country every year as a result, has undeniable global implications. For a start, Americans in effect support the worlds gun economy. In addition to the 8.6 million guns made in the U.S. in 2012, 4.8 million more were imported from overseas. The U.S. import volume of foreign guns more than tripled between 2003 and 2012. More insidious, though, is how the licit American gun industry affects the illicit Latin American gun market. The ease with which guns can be purchased in the U.S., and the fact that many sales may be conducted without background checks, has deep consequences. The majority of guns found in Mexico and Central America are from the United States. It is estimated that more than 250,000 guns flow south of the border into Mexico a country with just one official gun retailer every year. Roughly 45 percent of U.S. firearms licensees are believed to rely on Mexican trade for their survival. To the north, Canada estimates that 50 percent of the guns used in crime in Ottawa were smuggled across the border. In 2014, El Salvador had almost 4,000 killings, a rate of about 62 homicides per 100,000 (in the U.S. it is about 4 per 100,000). Most of these slayings were committed with guns and about 50 percent of guns traced in El Salvador that year came from the United States. The lifting of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in the U.S. in 2004 resulted in more than 2,600 estimated additional homicides in Mexico. Even as the 2nd Amendment contributes to rising crime in nearby countries, it also validates the concept of governing with guns, both at home and abroad. The U.S. government has, in one decade between 2006 and 2016 spent more than $6 billion on small arms alone. That figure reflects a wider trigger-happy reality in which about 250,000 bullets were fired by U.S. troops in Iraq for every rebel killed. Such governmental largesse has consequences. The Pentagon acknowledges that it has lost track of about 190,000 rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces. And 43 percent of the 747,000 weapons given to the Afghan National Army could not be accounted for. Without question, U.S. government-funded arms have ended up in the hands of Islamic State militants. And ammunition magazines identical to those given to Afghan government forces by the U.S. military have been found on dead Taliban fighters. But the 2nd Amendment isnt just upholding the worldwide gun market, fueling smuggling networks and inadvertently arming terrorist groups. Americas passion for guns also inhibits effective global gun control treaties. The multilateral Arms Trade Treaty would, among other things, have prohibited the U.S. from transferring arms to states that might use them in genocide or crimes against humanity. Although the U.S. signed the treaty in 2013, Congress refused to ratify it, in large part because the National Rifle Association claimed that it would curtail American citizens right to bear arms. Amnesty International insisted that wasnt true but lawmakers listened to their favorite lobby. The U.S. is also to blame for watering down the United Nations 2001 Program of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons. Then-Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton ensured the program made no mention of the civilian possession of arms nor the need for laws to control them in the final document. It is not just the United States that deserves criticism. Russian and Chinese state arms manufacturers have caused untold harm, as have private manufacturers in the European Union. But Russia and China dont pretend to be fully functioning democracies, and the EUs gun makers have limited sway politically. America, on the other hand, legitimizes and embraces political donations from gun manufacturers. (All but three of the 45 senators who torpedoed gun control measures in Congress in 2013 accepted donations from gun lobbyists.) And it fails to stem the flow of illegal guns to the drug gangs of Latin America. Americas gun control debate has now hit the political mainstream: President Barack Obama makes a point of speaking out after mass shootings. That discourse should acknowledge that measured gun control will not just affect Americans, but could also benefit the entire world. It is estimated that more than 250,000 guns flow south of the border into Mexico a country with just one official gun retailer every year. At least 104 students of a zila parishad-run primary school in neighbouring Palghar district were today admitted to hospital as they suffered health problems after consuming food, district officials said. Over a 50 students of the school at Kasa Budruk village complained of health problems immediately after eating the packed food this afternoon. "Nearly 280 students of the ZP school at Kasa Budruk in Palghar district were served the food under scheme this afternoon. After eating, over 50 students immediately complained of severe stomach ache, nausea, giddiness and other health problems," Vikramgadh tehsildar Suresh Sonawane said. After being alerted about the situation, local police as well as the revenue and health department officials arrived at the school. "As a precautionary measure, the authorities took all the 280 students to Kasa Rural Hospital for medical checkup. While 104 affected students were hospitalised, others were discharged after medical examination," district health officer S B Gaikwad said. The packed was supplied by the ISKCON center located at Wada (in Palghar district), Sonawane said, adding, "The food samples have been collected for laboratory analysis." Newly-elected MLA Amit Ghoda visited the hospital and enquired about the health of the children. Over fifty per cent of the population defecates in the open in India which has highest number of people in the world indulging in the practice, Lok Sabha was informed today. Replying to a question about whether India has the highest number of people in the world defecating in the open, Union Minister Ram Kripal Yadav replied in affirmative. "Yes. As per Joint Monitoring Programme Report, 2015, 59.43 per cent of people defecating in open in the world are from India," said Yadav, Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation. Responding to another question, the minister said the number of persons defecating in the open in the country has decreased to 50.05 per cent (as on February 19, 2016) from 57.95 per cent as on October 2, 2014 when the 'Swachh Bharat' Mission (Gramin) was launched. "As per data submitted by states/Union Territories on online Integrated Management Information System (IMIS), the percentage of rural households defecating in open was 57.95 per cent on October 2, 2014. This has decreased to 50.05 per cent on February 19, 2016," he said. Nadia (in West Bengal), Indore (in Madhya Pradesh) and Bikaner (in Rajasthan) districts have been declared open defecation-free by respective state governments after the Mission was launch. The minister said Sikkim, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh have least number of rural households which defecate in open at 0.10 per cent, 3.69 per cent and 5.49 per cent respectively. On the other hand, Odisha, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir have higher number of people defecating in open at 77.16 per cent, 76.25 per cent and 67.68 per cent respectively. The minister said that under the Mission, the government has set a goal to achieve Swachh Bharat by October 2, 2019. Eighteen Indian fishermen were today apprehended by Pakistan Maritime Security Agency and three of their boats seized near Jakhau port off Gujarat coast, according to National Fishworkers Forum. "The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency apprehended around 18 Indian fishermen along with three of their boats near Jakhau port off the Gujarat coast during afternoon," NEF secretary Manish Lodhari told PTI. He said two of three boats were registered at Porbandar while one was registered in Okha. "These fishermen were captured by Pak MSA near International Maritime Boundary Line. They will reach Karachi by tomorrow morning," said Lodhari, who remains in touch with the Pakistan agency for coordination. Last week, MSA had apprehended a total of 88 Indian fishermen in two incidents in as many days from the Arabian Sea off the port and seized a total of 16 boats. Pakistani authorities have shut 254 suspected and unregistered religious madrassas across the country as part of a crackdown on religious seminaries involved in extremism. 167 suspected seminaries in Sindh, 13 in Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa, two in Punjab, and 72 unregistered seminaries in Sindh have been closed, said Balighur Rehman, minister of state for interior and narcotics control with the National Assembly. The minister shared the government's measures to curb sectarian violence under the National Action Plan to combat terrorism, their implementation and the results achieved until February 16. Regarding registration and regulation of seminaries, the state minister said the government had completed 100% mapping on agreed parameters in Islamabad and Punjab. He added that 80% of the mapping exercise has been completed in Sindh, followed by 75% in K-P and 60% in Balochistan. "There are 190 foreign-funded seminaries in the country, of which 147 are in Punjab, 30 in Balochistan, seven in K-P and six in Sindh." The government is countering hate speech and banning dissemination of extremist material and so far 2,471 cases have been registered, 2,345 people arrested and 73 shops involved in the business sealed, Rehman told the house. On misuse of loudspeakers, he said 9,945 cases had been registered, 10,177 people arrested and 2,664 devices confiscated. launched a major campaign under the National Action Plan that was put in place after militants stormed an army school in December, 2014 killing at least 150 people, mostly schoolchildren. Parkash Singh Badal will head a SAD-BJP government if the alliance is voted to power in the 2017 Assembly election, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has said. "If the people of Punjab gives SAD-BJP coalition the responsibility of forming the next government, Badal would be the chief minister again," he said. Under the leadership of Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab government has implemented historic decisions to improve the cultural-socio-economic face of the state, Sukhbir said while interacting with NRIs from the USA, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and Australia at his residence last night. Urging the NRIs to be wary of the alleged anti-Punjab and anti-Sikh propaganda being spread by Opposition parties, the Deputy Chief Minister said, "We will go to the people with our development agenda." He urged Punjabis worldwide to counter forces indulging in defaming and denigrating the image of state by dubbing the Punjab as "bankrupt" and Punjabis as "drug addicts". Sukhbir said the state's gross domestic product during the previous Congress rule was Rs 5,04,937 crore while during 2007-12, it rose to Rs 1,09,874 crore and from 2012 till today it stands at Rs 13,51,348 crore. Regarding revenue in VAT collection, he said from 2002-07, the state gained Rs 19,960 crore while during 2007-12, it rose to Rs 44,209 crore and from 2012 till now, the figure stands at Rs 62,706 crore. Speaking about revenue receipts, the Deputy Chief Minister said the previous Congress government in its 5 year rule yielded only Rs 36,000 crore whereas during 2007-12, this figure was Rs 68,757 crore which rose to Rs 99,741 crore since 2012 till now. He said Punjab has become power surplus state due to persistent efforts of present regime. In 2011, the power board stood at lowly 17th rank whereas in 2015 it was conferred 'best power utility' award. The state has spent Rs 30,000 crore to achieve the power surplus status by adding 6,100 MW in power generation, Sukhbir added. Pakistan today said a team of special investigators probing the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase will visit India soon to collect evidence. "The special investigation team will shortly visit India to collect evidence on the airbase attack," Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said. He, however did not give any date for the visit. The special investigation team, that included experts from civilian and military intelligence agencies, was set up by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last month to probe the January 2 attack. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said last week that India had already agreed to the visit of Pakistani experts to collect evidence. Pakistan has already lodged an FIR into the Pathankot attack which has paved the way for the prosecution of anyone who is found guilty of involvement in the attack. The FIR by the Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab police, however, did not name Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, whom India has accused of having masterminded the deadly assault. On the meeting of the foreign secretaries of the two countries, Zakaria said there was no hurdle for it. He, however, refused to give any date for such a meeting, which was initially planned for mid-January but was postponed due to the Pathankot attack. Zakaria said the officials of the two countries were in touch to work out the date for the meeting. Responding to a question, Zakaria rejected that the "struggle in Kashmir" was anyway linked to terrorism. He also expressed concern over the "exceptional treatment" given to India by the Nuclear Supplier Group. "Pakistan is a peaceful country and also wants peace in this region. We are, therefore, against any arms race," Zakaria said. Pleased over allocation of Rs 4,682 crore to Odisha against the demand of Rs 5,000 crore in the Railway budget, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today thanked Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu for accepting some of the state's major demands. Patnaik, however, requested the Railway Minister not to revise the allocation downward as it was done previous year. Last year, the actual allotment was 35 per cent less than the original allotment for Odisha, Patnaik pointed out in his rail budget reaction. There is an increase of 30 per cent in the allotment this year as compared to the last year, Patnaik said. He appreciated sanctioning of two important new line projects - Jeypore-Malkangiri and Jeypore-Nabarangpur and Junagarh-Ambaguda Via Nabarangpur, Bereahampur-Sambalpur and Baspani-Badbil lines. Most importantly, the state's demand for extending the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada through the coast of Odisha has been accepted, Patnaik said. He pointed out the exclusion of Bhubaneswar from the Rail-based Mass Rapid Transit System, saying, "considering the fact Bhubaneswar has now emerged as the Number One Smart City in the country, we hope Railways can still include MRTS for the greater Bhubaneswar area." The state government has pledged to re-develop Bhubaneswar station with world class facilities and has been asking railways for similar re-development of Bhubaneswar New, Puri, Naraj and Cuttack stations, he said. Though no specific station was named, the Railway Minister announced to re-develop 400 stations through PPP. "We hope and expect important stations in the state are taken up under this scheme," Patnaik pointed out. Amid growing competition from rivals like Amazon and Flipkart, e-commerce major Snapdeal has put its 200 employees on a 'performance improvement' notice under which they need to improve within a month or get terminated. "The PIP process is expected to cover about 200 team members. As part of the on-going performance management and development programme, some team members at our contact centre have been offered a performance improvement plan (PIP)," a Snapdeal spokesperson said. Under PIP, employees have been given 30 days to improve performance, and failure to improve will result in termination of services. The spokesperson said while many have opted for PIP, some have decided not to go for it and instead move on voluntarily. "Snapdeal has over one million daily transacting users on its ecosystem and all our efforts are focused on becoming part of the daily life of millions of Indians," the spokesperson said. Following the notification, some employees demonstrated outside a Delhi-based call centre of Snapdeal. According to reports, Snapdeal has started reducing employee count at its contact centre from November last year, bringing it down to about 600, from a peak of 1,800-2,000. According to industry sources, this has been a practice for some time now. "When you have cheaper third-party sourcing available, keeping a huge team for customer-support services does not make sense. Large e-commerce companies are already doing it," they said. There have been no lay-offs, the company said, which has a team of some 8,000 people across the country. The booming online commerce in India has created thousands of jobs across the country. While most of these companies continue to be driven by investor money, concerns around profitability are being raised and many of these firms are now looking at restructuring their business model to run leaner operations. A Roman Catholic bishop in the Philippines has called on Catholics to boycott both of Madonna's concerts she's playing in the country's capital this week, describing her music "suggestive" and her clothing "vulgar". The 57-year-old star is in the middle of the Asian leg of her Rebel Heart world tour, promoting her 13th studio album, and is performing at the same hall in the capital where Pope Francis granted an audience to Filipino families roughly a year ago, reported CNN online. "Why is the Catholic Philippines the favourite venue for blasphemy against God and the Holy Mother?" asked Ramon Arguelles, archbishop of Lipa City, a region in the south of Manila. "Pinoys and all God-loving people should avoid sin and occasions of sin," he said. Madonna's representatives have not responded to these comments, as the star arrived in the Philippines earlier this week and has spent some of her time visiting Catholic-run orphanages, one of which was near the presidential palace, documenting the experience on Instagram. The pop diva has often used religious imagery in her songs and music videos, and Arguelles described these as the "subtle attacks of the evil one". He even went as far as to suggest that Madonna was just a stage name. "It's not even her real name. She is just using (Madonna) to taunt Mother Mary," the bishop continued. An Indian-origin Malaysian woman today sued Malaysia Airlines and the government for USD 7.6 million in damages over the loss of her husband on Flight MH370 which mysteriously disappeared nearly two years ago with 239 people onboard. 32-year-old K Sri Devi's husband S Puspanathan, then a governance specialist, was among the 239 passengers including five Indians and crew on board the Beijing-bound Boeing 777 aircraft. Devi, who is a housewife, filed the 32 million Malaysian Ringgit (USD 7.6 million) negligence suit before the Kuala Lumpur High Court by her lawyer Shailender Bhar. In the lawsuit, Devi along with her two young sons and parents-in-law have alleged wrongful death of Puspanathan due to alleged negligence and breach of contract by the airline and government agencies. The suit was filed against Malaysia Airlines and eight others from the government over the disappearance of flight MH370 which is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean two years ago two years ago, The Malaysian Insider reported. The aircraft left Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in the wee hours of March 8, 2014 for Beijing and was declared as having "ended in the Southern Indian Ocean and all lives lost". Apart from a wing part called flaperon, no other part of the plane has been found so far despite a massive search operation in the Indian Ocean. Included in the suit as plaintiffs are the couple's children Haresh Varmer, 5, and Thashvarmen, 3, and Puspanathan's parents, G Subramaniam and A Amirathan. Bhar said among those named as part to the action were Malaysian Airlines System Bhd, Malaysia Airlines Bhd, the Department of Civil Aviation, Immigration Department, Royal Malaysian Air Force and the government. He said the thrust of the suit was that the owner of the aircraft was negligent in causing the aircraft to go missing. He added that the Civil Aviation and Immigration departments were also in breach of their statutory duties. The plaintiffs are seeking damages for, among others, loss of support, nervous shock and bereavement. Bhar said his clients had written to the Royal Malaysian Air Force, Civil Aviation and Immigration departments for clarification but none was forthcoming. "The family has been waiting for answers and the plane to be discovered but to no avail," he said, adding that under an international convention, the suit must be filed within two years of the incident. The Polish government is hopeful of signing a pact with India for cooperation in coal mining and related fields to achieve a common goal in the next two months. Polish deputy minister of economic development Radoslaw Domagalski-Labedzki today said the subject was discussed in a meeting with India's coal secretary Anil Swarup. Speaking on the sidelines of an ICC-organised programme here, the minister said that his government possesses a lot of expertise in terms of technology in underground coal mining. "Both of us are now looking forward to signing an agreement in two months," he said. The MoU would be for providing machinery, knowledge sharing and technology in underground mining from Poland. Last year, India imported over 10 million tonnes of coal from Poland. Poland has been active in coal mining for over 100 years, but in the last few years it was affected due to subsidised pricing of the commodity in the global market. "Polish economy is highly dependent on coal energy and we will not deviate from this. However, we are increasing our investments in various renewable energy resources like solar, bio-mass and more. Besides, we are also innovating new technologies for cleaner coal energy," said Domagalski-Labedzki. Besides, Poland is also exploring options to enter the food processing sector in India and a team of at least 20 Polish companies are scheduled to visit the country in March. "We were enlightened about the mega food parks that are coming up across the country during the Make in India week and the centre has invited us to discover investment opportunities here," added the Polish minister. Another area of interest for Poland is home furnishing and it is currently studying the market opportunities here. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to Delhi's AAP government and the Delhi Police Commissioner over reported abduction of a pregnant woman from LNJP Hospital. The Commission has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report that a woman, who went to LNJP Hospital in Delhi on February 6 for her delivery along with her mother-in-law, was allegedly lured away by some persons from the premises of the hospital and she returned home the next day in a delirious condition without her newborn child. The husband of the woman has alleged that the incident was reported to the police but no action had been taken, said an NHRC statement. "The report, if true, raises a serious issue of violation of human rights," observed the Commission while issuing notices and calling for a report on the matter within two weeks. The family alleged that she was abducted by some persons in collusion with the hospital staff who got her delivery done. Reportedly, there have been several instances of abduction of children from LNJP Hospital, the Commission said in its statement. Pressure was building on Syria's warring parties to abide by a partial ceasefire brokered by Moscow and Washington as the UN discussed a draft resolution that would endorse the agreement due to take effect Saturday. The 15 members of the Security Council hope to adopt the text on Friday when UN envoy Staffan de Mistura will report on efforts to silence the guns and revive peace talks. Russia and the United States have set a deadline of midnight Damascus time (2200 GMT) Friday for the "cessation of hostilities" between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and non-jihadist rebel forces. The deal -- which excludes the Islamic State (IS) group and other Sunni extremists -- marks the biggest diplomatic push yet to help end the five-year conflict in Syria which has claimed more than 270,000 lives and displaced more than half of the population. But US President Barack Obama sounded a note of caution on Wednesday. "We are very cautious about raising expectations on this," Obama said in the Oval Office, where he was hosting Jordan's King Abdullah II. "The situation on the ground is difficult" he said. "But we have seen modest progress over the course of the last week or so with respect to humanitarian access to populations that are threatened." Russia and the United States are on opposing sides of the conflict, with Moscow backing Assad and Washington supporting the opposition, but the two powers have been making a concerted push for the ceasefire to be respected. US Secretary of State John Kerry said Russian and US officials would meet in coming days to form a taskforce to monitor implementation of the ceasefire. The Kremlin said Assad had assured President Vladimir Putin of "the readiness of the Syrian government to facilitate the establishment of a ceasefire". Putin and Assad also "stressed the importance of continuing an uncompromising fight" against IS, Al-Nusra Front and "other terrorist groups," the Kremlin said. The agreement allows military action to continue against IS, which seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra and other jihadist groups. Syria's army said it will exclude the bastion of Daraya near Damascus from the ceasefire because rebel forces there included jihadists. The Russian defence ministry said it was in talks with rebel groups in five Syrian provinces -- Hama, Homs, Latakia, Damascus and Daraa -- on implementing the deal. The Kremlin said Putin also discussed the deal with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Iran. Britain's Prince Harry will travel to Kathmandu next month on a maiden visit to Nepal and meet people affected by last year's devastating earthquakes. The prince will visit Nepal between March 20 and 23. "Prince Harry is really looking forward to his first trip to Nepal. It is a country he has long wanted to visit," a Kensington Palace spokesperson said today. "The Prince has been moved by the stories of resilience of the Nepali people following the earthquakes last year and is now eager to learn more about their country and culture," the spokesman said. Harry, the fifth-in-line to the British throne, will meet survivors of last April's earthquake in the region, which claimed over 9,000 lives. "With Britain and Nepal currently celebrating 200 years of cooperation, Prince Harry will experience the strength of the relationship and traditional warmth of the Nepali welcome," the spokesperson said. The 31-year-old royal will also take part in a trek and visit a national park. The tour will begin and conclude in Kathmandu, where he will meet President Bidhya Devi Bhandari. Having served alongside Gurkhas in Afghanistan, the prince will visit the British Gurkha Camp in Pokhara, where he will commend the bravery and service to the Crown of an "exceptional group of soldiers", the 'Evening Standard' reported. His visit to South Asia is expected to coincide with that of his older brother, Prince William, to India and Bhutan. The exact dates and details of the visit by Prince William and wife Kate have not been announced yet but they are expected to make their first visit to the Taj Mahal in Agra during the tour. Congress today said Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul winning the floor test was "not the last chapter" as the issue is before the Supreme Court. "It is not the last chapter. The whole issue is before the Supreme Court," party spokesman Ashwani Kumar told reporters when asked about the dissident Congress leader proving his majority on the floor of the Assembly with the support of 40 MLAs. The 40 MLAs who lent support to Pul comprised 27 Congress legislators, 11 from BJP and two Independents. The nine Congress MLAs of the former chief minister Nabam Tuki camp who shifted their allegiance to Pul yesterday voted for him. The Speaker did not vote. The 17 Congress MLAs loyal to Tuki were absent following CLP chief whip (Tuki group) Rajesh Tacho's stern direction to abstain from voting in support of Pul. However, chief whip of CLP (Pul group) Pema Khandu had issued another whip directing the party MLAs to vote in favour of the incumbent chief minister. A revolt by Congress dissidents led by Pul led to a political crisis in the state that finally led to imposition of President's rule on January 26. The Supreme Court was considering pleas against imposition of President's rule and also hearing petitions seeking examination of constitutional schemes on the scope of discretionary powers of the Governor. After Centre's recommendation for withdrawal of President's rule, Congress moved the Supreme Court and got an order for maintenance of status quo in the crisis-ridden state till it examined judicial and assembly records on disqualification of 14 rebel Congress MLAs by former Speaker Nabam Rebia. However, later, the apex court virtually paved the way for government formation in Arunachal Pradesh by vacating its order on maintenance of status quo. Maharashtra government today decided to pay Rs 6.03 crore to Allied Digital Services Private Limited (ADSL) for installing CCTV cameras in Pune and Pimpri- Chinchwad for effective surveillance. The company has already been paid Rs 42.5 crore, said a government resolution (GR) issued here. "The Commissioner of Police, Pune, will be the controlling officer for disbursal of funds," the GR said, adding the state government had hired the firm to implement the Rs 225 crore project. Earlier this month, the state government had decided to pay Rs 22.96 lakh to Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) as consultation fee for the Mumbai CCTV project for a four-month period. After the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the then Congress-led state government had announced plans to install 5,000 CCTVs across the city. However, the project got delayed for over two years allegedly due to bickering within the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance. A team of Mumbai Police officials had gone to New Delhi and Haryana to study similar CCTV projects there. The government had launched the first phase of the project in November last year covering south Mumbai -- from Colaba to Worli -- where 1,381 cameras have been installed. Two former Railway ministers-- Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad--and a leader of Trinamool Congress, which held the Rail portfolio thrice, today trashed the Railway Budget as "disappointing" and a "big zero". Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan said the railway budget was mere "jugglery of words" while the NCP dubbed it as "housekeeping budget" which was "directionless" and devoid of goodies for the common man. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar while describing the budget as "disappointing" said it did not have anything impressive in terms of cleanliness and safety. Kumar, a senior JD(U) leader also said he was not impressed by the decision not to raise passenger fares. "With the decline in international oil prices, they should have actually lowered the train fare...No increase in fare could serve the purpose of breaking news, but it's not a big deal in view of falling international oil prices," Kumar told reporters in Patna. Kumar, who was the Railway Minister during Prime Minister A B Vajpayee's term, said there were no "concrete proposals" for enhancing safety or to check delayed running of trains. "Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is a personal friend. My good wishes are with him but there is nothing in the Railway Budget to cheer about," Kumar said. "The depreciation reserve fund has dwindled to less than 40 per cent under the present regime. Hence, there is no impressive allocation of funds on enhancing safety," he said. During his tenure as Railway Minister, Kumar had created a safety reserve fund of about Rs 17,000 crore for making journeys safe and secure. Lalu Prasad, who is RJD President, said the Budget has "cheated" people as it has nothing to offer. He also said there was no concern for "safety" aspect in the Budget. "It is all over. It has derailed. There is nothing in the Rail budget. It has cheated people. Let the financial Budget be presented, it will be further finished...," Prasad told reporters in Patna. Prasad, who served as Railway minister during UPA I, said that he had achieved a surplus of Rs 60,000 crore during his tenure as the Railway minister. He had not even asked from the government to support the Rail Budget. The Trinamool Congress described the budget as a "big zero" and said there was nothing new at all. "The Railway Budget is a big zero. Last year it had no depth. This year too. Nothing new at all. Freight rates and passenger fares were increased earlier. Zero plus zero equals zero," TMC national spokesperson Derek O'Brien said in a statement. Besides West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Dinesh Trivedi and Mukul Roy of TMC had held the Railway portfolio. "(Suresh) Prabhu's first railway budget was directionless and this one has also failed to meet expectations", Chavan, a former Maharashtra Chief Minister, said in Mumbai. Maharashtra BJP today hailed the Railway Budget saying it focuses on providing amenities to the ordinary commuters and also aims at improving services delivery. "There is an effort to improve railway services. At the same time, fare hike has been avoided," state BJP president Raosaheb Danve said here. "The Budget puts the common man on the centre stage and envisages many user firendly measures like fully unreserved trains and mobile charging for all," Danve said. The proposed Churchgate-Virar and CST-Panvel rail elevated corridor will help improve train travel in Mumbai, the BJP leader said. "Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has laid emphasis on improving infrastructure. I welcome the budget on behalf of Maharashtra BJP," Danve said. Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan said the Railway Budget was mere jugglery of words. "(Suresh) Prabhu's first Railway Budget was direction-less and this one has also failed to meet the expectations," the former Maharashtra Chief Minister said. "When (Narendra) Modi made (Suresh) Prabhu the railway minister, the latter was not a member of either House", he said. According to Chavan, the minister has failed to deliver and he has not done anything concrete for his home state Maharashtra. (Reopens BES24) "The budget tabled by Prabhu will broaden the path of development. The budget doesn't impose any additional financial burden on commuters and will ensure a pleasant travel for them," Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said. "Being from Mumbai and Maharashtra, he (Prabhu) has given both a good deal. I thank him on behalf of the state," he said. The railway budget is advantageous to Maharashtra and this is the first time that Khandesh (in northwest Maharashtra) has got such a significant share, the CM said. The Railway Budget will act as an engine for development, he added. Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das today termed the rail budget as "progressive and historic" which addressed the poor, Dalit, senior citizens, the handicapped, women, pilgrims and the North East. "It is a progressive and historic rail budget. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi's concern about the NE remaining untouched by development has also been addressed with proposals to connect it through broad gauge (Lumding-Silchar section in Assam)," Das said praising Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. The rail budget has also given priority to the Prime Minister's 'Swachh Bharat Mission' dream of 2019 when the nation will celebrate Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversay, he said. It has also proposed separate toilets for the Dibyang (the handicapped), Das added. The Budget session of Rajasthan assembly beginning next week is likely to be a stormy affair with opposition Congress gearing up to corner the state government on the issues of alleged derogatory remarks by two BJP MLAs and disinvestment of some units of power plants. While Congress is demanding suspension of BJP MLAs, Kailash Chaudhary and Gyan Dev Ahuja, for their comments, BJP said the opposition members were unnecessarily creating issues in order to impede the assembly session. "The Budget session will begin on February 29 with the speech of Governor Kalyan Singh. The meeting of Business Advisory Committee (BAC) will take place on the same day to decide the business of the House," Government Chief Whip Kalu Lal Gujar said. Rajasthan budget of 2016-17 is likely to be presented on March 8 though BAC will finalise the date. "We expect the session will go smoothly but Congress members are taking up non-issues as their issues. Our two MLAs made comments on Rahul Gandhi who sided with anti-national elements and Congress should reply why he was in support of those who shouted anti-India slogans," Gujar said. He said Congress should not mislead the people of the state and the nation on the issue. The two MLAs had recently critised Gandhi for siding with those who raised "anti-national" slogans in JNU. Choudhary had termed Gandhi a "traitor" while Ahuja supported Choudhary for his statement and alleged that the varsity was a den of "sex and alcohol". "The two BJP MLAs have made derogatory public statements and they should be arrested. Congress will prominently raise this issue in the assembly session along with other issues," Leader of Opposition Rameshwar Dudi said, adding the party has submitted a memorandum to the Governor seeking their arrest. "We are demanding action against them and if no action is taken before the session begins, we will take up this matter in the Assembly," he said. Deputy Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chand Meena said the Cabinet's decision to disinvest eight units of Kalisindh and Chhabara thermal power plants will be strongly opposed during the session. "Due to financial mismanagement of the government, the debt on power companies of the state has risen to about Rs 1 lakh crore which was Rs 66,000 crore in November 2013. Instead of taking steps to contain the losses, the government is going for disinvestment just to benefit private companies which will be against the interest of the state," Meena said. Accusing the Raje government of neglecting the state, Dudi said in the last two years the government has done nothing worth highlighting and has failed to fulfill expectations of the people. "The government has neglected youths, farmers and other sections of the society. No decision on setting up of refinery was taken so far. Youths are awaiting vacancies but the government is sitting idle," he said. Dudi said issues of deteriorating law and order and escape of dreaded criminal Anandpal Singh from police custody will also be taken up. The Barnet Eye has had over three million views! It is the leading blog in the London Borough of Barnet. We welcome guest blogs from contributors as well as feedback on our stories. Many thanks for all your support The Mill Hill Lib Dem team would like to thank all of the people in Mill Hill who supported our campaign and were so kind to us when we spoke to you a... A little tool to help you defeat the invisible men I've added an IP address lookup tool. If you get an email or you have a stats counter on your blog, you can see who it is and where they came from using this. If you've got an email from someone, view the email. Click on File, then click on properties, then click on details. Now click on message source You will see some text as follows :- X-Originating-IP: [1.2.3.4] Where I've put 1.2.3.4, cut and paste this number into the IP lookup and hey presto, you know where the email came from. If it says it's from your bank, but the IP address is Freds chipshop, you know it's a scam. State-run fertiliser firms RCF has decided to acquire 11 per cent equity stake for about Rs 180 crore in the proposed joint venture firm for revival of closed urea plant at Sindri in Jharkhand. Besides Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertiliers (RCF), the National Fertilisers Ltd (NFL) has also announced to acquire 11 per cent stake in the proposed joint venture firm for the same amount. The government has decided to revive FCIL's Sindri unit by investing the proceeds of sale of part of its land to Jharia Rehabilitation Development Authority (JHReDA), Jharkhand. "... The Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on February 25, 2016 has accorded in-principle approval to take a minimum of 11 per cent equity stake in the revival of Sindri unit of FCIL by forming new Joint Venture Company with other PSUs," RCF said in a regulatory filing. According to sources the RCF will pay about Rs 180 crore to acquire 11 per cent stake. The government has decided to revive FCIL's Sindri unit by investing the proceeds of sale of part of its land to Jharia Rehabilitation Development Authority (JHReDA), Jharkhand and by forming JV with other PSUs having relevant experience. In May last, the Cabinet had approved the revival of closed urea unit of FCIL at Sindri with an investment of Rs 6,000 crore. This unit was lying defunct and was not in operation since 2002. Therefore, the unit and other associated facilities were lying unutilised. The annual consumption of urea in the country is about 31 million tonnes, out of which 23 million tonnes is produced indigenously and rest is imported. Former Republican presidential candidate Senator Rand Paul has introduced a joint resolution in the US Congress to block the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. The resolution (SJ Res 30) calls for prohibiting sale of eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, which the State Department had recently notified to the Congress. Introduced by Paul on February 24, the resolution also calls for prohibiting sale of other military hardware to Pakistan including eight Advanced Integrated Defensive Electronic Warfare Suites (AIDWES), 14 Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems (JHMCS). Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has put a hold on the sale of F-16s to Pakistan. The Obama administration is hopeful that it would be able to overcome legislative challenges to proceed with the sale of the F-16s, which it promised to Pakistan several years ago. Turkey's constitutional court has ruled that the rights of two Turkish opposition journalists charged with revealing state secrets in a hugely controversial case had been violated, paving the way for their release after three months in jail. The Cumhuriyet newspaper's editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul have been detained since November over a report alleging that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government tried to ship arms to Islamists in Syria. They had been due to go on trial on March 25 and had so far been held in jail for 92 days. The constitutional court, which convened to discuss the journalists' individual petitions, yesterday ruled that their "rights to personal liberty and security had been violated," the court said in a statement on its website. "Their freedom of expression and freedom of press" was also violated, it added, ruling to send the dossier to the lower court for "the removal of violation." The decision was overwhelmingly approved with 12 votes for and three against, Turkish media reports said. The case has now been sent back to the lower criminal court which should rubber-stamp the top court's decision and thus allow the release of the journalists possibly within hours, the private NTV television station reported. Reports said their lawyers had already filed the petition for the pair's release at the Istanbul court which ordered their arrest. Dundar and Gul were placed under arrest in late November over a report in May that claimed to show proof that a consignment of weapons seized at the border in January 2014 was bound for Syria. Since then, they have both been held in the Silivri jail on the outskirts of Istanbul. They have been formally charged with obtaining and revealing state secrets "for espionage purposes" and seeking to "violently" overthrow the Turkish government as well as aiding an "armed terrorist organisation." Both Erdogan and the head of the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) Hakan Fidan -- the president's hugely powerful but low-profile ally -- are named as plaintiffs in the 473-page indictment. Turkish prosecutors demanded life terms for the pair, as well as aggravated life sentences, which impose tougher conditions. Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was "delighted" by the decision for the journalists expected release but warned they still faced trial. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today welcomed initiatives announced in the Railway Budget like a Rail Auto hub here and nil increase in fares, but said it has however failed to meet the expectations of the people of the state on the whole. She said the first ever Rail Auto Hub to be set up here would cement the city's position as a major automobile manufacturing centre. "I am happy that the Railway Minister has spared the common person and not levied any increase in the rail fares," the chief minister said. She also welcomed the announcement of the Delhi-Chennai (north-south) dedicated freight corridor, but said it and the one proposed on East Coast, terminating in Vijayawada, "ought to have been extended" to Thoothukudi (in Tamil Nadu). "This would have fulfilled Tamil Nadu's long standing request to create a Chennai-Thoothukudi dedicated freight corridor," Jayalalithaa said in a statement. She thanked the Railway Minister for upgradation of Nagapattinam and Velankanni stations and urged that similar steps be taken for pilgrim centres like Rameswaram. Hailing enhancement of passenger amenities, she said measures to improve redressal mechanisms were positive, too. However, service quality and grievance redressal to the common man who may not be digitally literate nor owning a smart phone should also be ensured, the chief minister said. She said the Railway Minister seemed to have been "buffeted by the headwinds" facing him in terms of the overall slowdown in the international economy and the possible impact of the Seventh Pay Commission. With the Railway capital expenditure expected to be stepped up substantially to Rs 1.21 lakh crore, it was "surprising that no specific projects" was announced, including several projects in Tamil Nadu which she had requested. She said no specific plans for upgradation of suburban transit system in Chennai was a "major omission." As regards "new structures", it was unfortunate that only a "token consultation" was held with states before finalising the draft MOU which "lacks clarity". "The present structure where 75 per cent of the equity and the entire land cost are to be met by the states, with all control with the Ministry of Railways, is simply unacceptable," she said. Jayalalithaa said her government was prepared to engage with the Railway Ministry on reworking the MoU to ensure a more balanced and acceptable draft. "On the whole, the Railway Budget has failed to meet the expectations of the people of Tamil Nadu. With no new trains and no new railway lines announced, the budget belied the sense of expectation," she said. (REOPENS MDS2) Jayalalithaa said she would have been happy to hear a update on the Diamond Quadrilateral High Speed rail corridors announced last year. "I do hope that with the enhanced capital budget and better project management practices, the railway projects currently under implementation in Tamil Nadu, including the Villupuram-Kanniyakumari double lining, would be completed speedily," she said. The formulation of a National Railway Plan has been announced in which multi-modal integration and consultations with state governments have been mentioned. "I do hope that genuine consultation takes place with state governments and our concerns are adequately addressed," she said. The Gujarat government today told the Legislative Assembly that it collected Rs 471.38 crore less VAT and cess from the sale of petrol and diesel in 2015 as compared to 2014. In a written reply, Energy and Petroleum Minister Saurabh Patel said the government collected a total of Rs 15,974 crore through VAT and cess on petrol and diesel during the calender years 2014 and 2015. The reply came in response to a written question by BJP MLA Rajnikant Patel, who had sought details of VAT and cess rates on fuels and the revenue collected through these taxes in the last two years. The government reply said it had collected Rs 8,223.17 crore in 2014, while the collection dipped to Rs 7,751.79 crore in 2015, a fall of Rs 471.38 crore. As of December 31, 2015, the state was collecting 23 per cent VAT and 2 per cent cess on petrol and 21 per cent VAT and 3 per cent cess on diesel. On January 5 this year the government hiked these two taxes saying the constantly falling fuel prices was making a dent in the revenue. Now the VAT on both fuels is 24 per cent and the cess 4 per cent. The Samjhauta Express train today resumed its service, days after it was suspended due to protests by Jats in Haryana, leaving many people stranded on both sides of the border. The move came after Pakistan yesterday resumed the Lahore-Delhi 'Dosti' bus service. Samjhauta Express left for Atari via Wagha Border with over 100 passengers on board. The train leaves for India twice a week -- Monday and Thursday. Pakistan and Indian authorities had extended the visas of the passengers who were to leave for their destinations earlier this week by the Lahore-Delhi Dosti Bus service and the Samjhauta Express but were stranded because of the agitation. The bus and train services between the two countries were suspended after the Jat agitators blocked major road and rail routes in Haryana for days, demanding quota under OBC. At least 28 people were killed in the violent agitation. Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt today walked out of Yerawada jail a free man after being released 103 days ahead of his prison term and asserted that he is not a terrorist and wants to leave behind the bitter memories of conviction in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. "I am not a terrorist. I have been acquitted of charges under TADA and conspiracy. The Supreme Court had also acquitted me under (IPC) section 120-B of conspiracy and TADA. I got the sentence under the Arms Act," the 56-year-old actor said, addressing the media after returning to his Mumbai home. "I request the media that whenever they write or mention anything about me, don't write 1993 blasts case before my name... I'm not into it," Dutt said. According to ADG (Prisons) B K Upadhyay said the actor did not get any special treatment in prison. A relieved Dutt, clad in a blue shirt and jeans, stepped out of the Yerawada prison near Pune, lugging a huge bag. As he walked out, Dutt turned back and saluted the tricolour atop the prison building and touched the soil before heading to the car in which his wife Manyata, twins Iqra and Shahraan and filmmaker-friend Rajkumar Hirani. Before taking a chartered flight to Mumbai, Sanjay told reporters at the airport, "There is no easy walk to freedom, my friends". Dutt was set free after completing prison formalities at around 8.45 AM and came out escorted by police who had tightened security in the area. Dutt, son of Indian film icons Sunil and Nargis Dutt, returned to his home at Bandra in Mumbai to a grand and emotional welcome by his family members, including two children, and sisters Namrata and Priya. Lanes leading to his house were lined with hoardings like "Welcome Back Sanju Baba", "Bandraites Welcome Back Bandra Boy Sanjay Dutt" with a picture of young Dutt with his mother Nargis. Also, a photo of his late actor-politician father Sunil Dutt was put up at the gate of his building 'Imperial Heights' along with a message that read - "Dutt Sahab Amar Rahe". Fans were seen eagerly awaiting Dutt's return. After landing in Mumbai, the actor visited the Siddhivinayak temple and his mother Nargis Dutt's grave. "She (Dutt's mother) passed away when we were very small. I went to seek her blessings as I am a free man today," he said. The actor said, "For 23 years I have been waiting for this moment... For freedom. I did everything (followed the law). It's a feeling that will take a while to sink-in." "I miss my father (Sunil Dutt) today. I wish he was alive to see this day... If he would have been (alive), he would have been the happiest person," he said. Saudi jets are due to arrive at a Turkish base this week take part in the air campaign against Islamic State jihadists in Syria, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said today. "We are expecting the planes to arrive today or tomorrow (Friday)," Cavusoglu told the state-run Anatolia agency, adding that Saudi equipment and personnel had already arrived on the ground. The planes are to be stationed at the Incirlik base, which is already hosting US, British and French war planes taking part in the strikes against IS fighters in Syria. Private NTV television said four Saudi F-15 jets would arrive at Incirlik on Friday. It said that 30 ground personnel and equipment had already arrived aboard C-130 Hercules military transport planes on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia and Turkey both see the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as essential for ending Syria's five-year civil war and are bitterly critical of Iran and Russia's support of the Syrian regime. The two overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim powers have in recent months moved to considerably tighten relations that had been damaged by Riyadh's role in the 2013 ousting of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, a close ally of Ankara. Ankara has said it is in favour of a ground operation in Syria, but only if it is conducted in coordination with Saudi Arabia and other Western and Gulf members of the anti-IS coalition. "We have since the beginning argued for the necessity of ground operations and all kinds of strategic moves to be carried out in addition to the air campaign," Cavusoglu said. Markets watchdog Sebi has imposed a total fine of Rs 4 lakh on two companies -- Calibre Trades Finance and Assam Entrade -- for not registering with the regulator's online complaint redressal system SCORES. SCORES provides a centralised database of all complaints. Online movement of complaints to the listed companies concerned and upload of their Action Taken Reports (ATRs) are done through this system. The regulator has slapped a fine of Rs 2.5 lakh on Calibre Trades Finance and Rs 1.5 lakh on Assam Entrade. A Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) probe found that the firms failed to obtain SCORES authentication within the mandated timeframe even after repeated reminders. The regulator, through two circulars in August 2012 and April 2013, had directed all the listed companies to obtain SCORES authentication within the stipulated time period. Thereafter, Sebi again advised the companies in December 2013 to submit the requisite information. However, these two companies again failed to submit the requisite information for SCORES authentication. "Failure to comply with the directions of Sebi contained in the circulars and thereafter the directions contained in the letter dated December 2, 2013 amounts to repeated violation of the directions given by Sebi," Sebi's Adjudicating officer S Madhusudhanan said in two separate orders. In the matter of Calibre Trades Finance, Madhusudhanan said "failure... To obtain SCORES authentication has deprived the investors of an avenue, through which they can seek redressal of their grievance, if any." While Assam Entrade obtained mandatory authentication in August 2014, Calibre Trades Finance has still not obtained SCORES authentication. Launched in 2011, SCORES helps investors view, track and follow up the action taken on their grievances. The online redressal system has significantly helped in reducing processing time of complaints. Several top separatist leaders including chairman of moderate Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were today placed under house arrest or detained here, officials said. General Secretary of hardline Hurriyat and chairman of Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) Shabir Ahmad Shah was taken into custody by police from his Sanat Nagar residence and was lodged at Rajbagh police station, they said. The police action comes days after hardline Hurriyat asked people to offer funeral prayers in absentia today for the three militants who were killed in a 48-hour long gunbattle at Pampore early this week. The Hurriyat had also called for a sit-in protest at every district headquarters after the Friday prayers and a general strike on February 27 to protest registration of sedition charges against the Kashmiri Scholar Prof S A R Geelani, alleged harassment of Kashmiri students in Delhi and the detention of JNU students. Besides Shah, the Hurriyat said dozens of amalgam leaders and activists including provincial president Nayeem Ahmad Khan, spokesman Ayaaz Akbar, Principal secretary Peer Saifullah were either placed under house arrest or detained by police at different police stations to prevent them from visiting Pampore today to offer special prayers in absentia for the three slain militants. However, the Hurriyat said some leaders managed to reach the Khankah at Pampore despite police crackdown and led the funeral prayers for the militants. Chairman of moderate Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was also put under house arrest at his Nigeen residence in the outskirts of the city. Mirwaiz was scheduled to lead a march from Hurriyat headquarters at Rajbagh after a joint meeting of heads of various constituents of the amalgam, a hurriyat spokesman said. He said former Chairman of Hurriyat Prof Abdul Gani Bhat chaired the meeting and later tried to take out a march which was scuttled by police. The Hurriyat leaders were carrying placards which read "revoke AFSPA and stop harassing Kashmiris". Earlier, the spokesman said the hurriyat passed a resolution which condemned the arrest of Geelani and JNU students under sedition charges, "growing intolerance, frequent restrictions on the activities of separatist leaders. For Book Clubs I am available to book clubs, either in person or via Zoom, upon request. Contact me at morelonhouse --at-- optonline --dot-- net for details. Six militants, including a Pakistan national involved in the attack on an army camp in Tangdhar sector near the Line of Control last November, were arrested as security forces unearthed a militant module in north Kashmir's Baramulla district, police said today. Security forces launched a manhunt in Baramulla district following inputs about entry of a Pakistani militant into the district headquarter town yesterday, a police official said. He said the forces were successful in arresting a Jaish-e-Mohammad militant Mohammad Sidiq alias Shahd, a resident of Sialkot in Pakistan. Five other members of the module were also arrested. They have been identified as Suhail Arif, Rasshid Rasool Bhat, Javaid Ahmad Dhobi, Farhan Fayaz and Ehsan Fayaz, the official said. During interrogation, the Pakistani militant told police that he was part of the 'fidayeen' (suicide) squad of Jaish which had attacked the Army camp at Tangdhar on November 25 last year. Three militants and a civilian were killed as the army repusled the attack. Sidiq also revealed that after managing to escape to Baramulla, he was to meet other members of the Jaish to carry out further attacks in Kashmir or outside the Valley, the official said. "He was in process of creating a base and superstructure for furtherance of terrorist activities in Kashmir which was foiled by action of police and other security forces," he added. The security forces recovered one AK 47 rifle, five AK magazines, 150 AK rounds, six grenades and a wireless set from the arrested militants. Somalia's president says at least 180 Kenyan soldiers were killed in Somalia in an extremist attack on their base in January by al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, speaking in an interview on a Somali cable TV channel, said yesterday that between 180 and 200 Kenyan soldiers were killed in the January 15 attack. Kenya's military spokesman denied the figures given by the Somali President but declined to give an official death toll. The attack happened in the town of El-Ade, not far from the Kenyan border. Kenya has provided a major contingent to the African Union force that is fighting al-Shabab, a Somali Islamic extremist group that is trying to overthrow Somalia's government. South Africa has told the United Nations it is withdrawing its troops from the joint UN-African Union mission in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur, a UN official said. "The government of South Africa decided to withdraw its troops from the mission," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The 850 troops will end operations on April 15. "Of course, we will have to look at the contingency in terms of how we fill those gaps," she said. Relations between Sudan and the United Nations have been tense over Khartoum's demands that the 17,000-strong UNAMID peacekeeping mission shut down. South Africa's decision to pull out comes after five weeks of intense fighting that have sent some 85,000 people fleeing in the Jebel Marra area while UN officials are seeking to verify reports of an additional 50,000 on the move. "It's a very large number for a very short period of time," said the official. The 85,000 civilians, mostly women and children, have fled to north Darfur, but UN officials are seeking access to central Darfur where unconfirmed reports suggest 50,000 people have been driven from their homes there. The Khartoum government has denied access to UNAMID, said the official. A large influx of 63,000 civilians taking refuge at the UNAMID camp set up at Sortoni, in north Darfur, is prompting concerns. "We are very concerned by the swelling of the makeshift camp at Sortoni. 63,000 people is a large number of civilians," said the official. "We are very concerned on how in the mid-term we can deal with this." Sudan's army has been trying to crush rebels of Abdulwahid Nur's faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA-AW) in Jebel Marra, saying it was responding to attacks by the rebels. The UN says that some 300,000 people have been killed in the fighting in Darfur since 2003 and 2.5 million displaced. Sri Lanka suffered a nationwide blackout for several hours today as the electricity network collapsed during an official visit by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key. The state-run Ceylon Electricity Board said supply was gradually being restored across the island after lightning tripped the main supply at a key distribution point. "We have initiated an investigation," Energy Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya told reporters. "It is suspected that a lightning strike on the transmission line was the issue." The island's usually heavy traffic descended into chaos as motorists were held up on main roads for hours after traffic signals failed and police were left overwhelmed. Shops and offices closed early and parliament was disrupted as authorities said restoring the electricity supply could take three hours. Power blackouts occur sporadically in Sri Lanka, with today's outage the first time in five months that the country was plunged into darkness. The sudden outage came on the second day of Key's two-day visit, which got off to a shaky start Wednesday after Sri Lanka gave him a baby elephant as a gift, sparking anger from animal rights activists. Sri Lanka overcame their batting failure with a disciplined bowling performance to beat United Arab Emirates by 14 runs in a round robin league encounter of the Asia Cup T20, here today. Put into bat by UAE, the defending World T20 champions could manage only 129 for eight in 20 overs with only Dinesh Chandimal (50) making a significant contribution. But skipper Lasith Malinga dealt twin blows in the very first over with two block-hole deliveries to peg back UAE, who only managed 115 for 9 in their stipulated overs. The target was a small one but UAE's inexperience against big teams was the main factor in not being able to chase down a small total. In a match that never rose to dizzy heights, the only notable incident was pacer Dushmantha Chameera being barred from completing the final over of the innings for bowling two beamers which is illegal as per rules. It was Angelo Mathews who completed the formalities. The batsmen, even after recovering from the top-order damage, never went for the chase. Within the first five overs, UAE lost four wickets with seasoned duo of Malinga (4/26 in 4 overs) and Nuwan Kulasekara (3/10 in 4 overs) sharing the spoils. With half of the team being back in the dug-out before the total reaching even 40, it was virtually impossible for the qualifiers to make a match out of it. It started with the very first delivery that left-handed opener Rehan Mustafa (0) faced. Malinga bowled one that was full and swung into batsman's pads. It would have crashed into middle and leg and the decision was an easy one for the umpire. In that very over, Malinga dealt another telling blow removing UAE's best batsman Mohammed Shahzad (1) with another full delivery that went through his defences. Muhammad Kaleem (7) tried to clear mid-off but Angelo Mathews took a simple catch to give Kulasekara his first wicket. UAE were in tatters at 16 for four when Muhammed Usman (6) tried a hoick off Kulasekara but Chamara Kapugedara took a regulation catch at first slip. At that moment, the match was virtually over but Swapnil Patil (37) to save his team the blushes. But Patil did not play too many big shots even when he was set. None of the other batsmen crossed 15-run mark for UAE. (REOPENS FGN 20) Rangana Herath (2/22) got a couple of middle-order wickets and kept the pressure on UAE. However UAE will take some positives out of this match, especially a good performance from their bowlers led by skipper Amjad Javed (3/25), who got the first three Sri Lankan wickets including Chandimal, Tillakaratne Dilshan (27) and Milinda Siriwardana (6). Chandimal scored 50 off 39 balls with seven fours and one six, adding 68 runs for the opening stand with Dilshan. Sri Lanka were 72 for one after first 10 overs but some poor shot selection saw them score only 57 in the next 10, losing seven more wickets. After the openers, none of the Lankan batsmen could cross 10-run mark. However the bowlers did the job for them on the day. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury today castigated the BJP for trying to suppress dissent and impose their idea of a "theocratic, fascistic Hindu Rashtra" on the country and asked the government to "stop interfering" in universities which have been set up under central laws. Amid a raging controversy over suicide by a Dalit student and arrests in JNU, he also demanded the setting up of a House Committee to examine the latest developments in various central universities, while initiating the debate in Rajya Sabha on the situation arising in the central institutions of higher learning, including JNU and Hyderabad University. Yechury said an effort was being made to metamorphosise India, a secular democratic republic, into a "theocratic, fascistic Hindu Rashtra". "Please do not castigate the entire student community and the institutions," and "stop this tirade for advancing your brand of nationalism", he said and termed the government's "interference" in some univerisities as "illegal". ALSO READ: Lok Sabha advances JNU row debate to Wednesday Seeking stern action against all anti- activities, Yechury said the government was trying to suppress dissent and asked it not to castigate the entire student community and the institutions. Observing that the ruling dispensation was seeking to impose its idea of "narrow nationalism" as against the concept of nationalism defined by a range of people from Emperor Ashoka to Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, Yechury said "this is a serious matter" and wanted to know if opposition to the government could be called "anti-national". Maintaining that all central universities have been set up under central laws, he sought the setting up of a House Panel to examine the latest developments like "interference" by the Centre in them, while referring to letters written by HRD Minister Smriti Irani to the Hyderabad University. Referring to Rohith Vemula, the Dalit student of Hyderabad University, he said stopping of his scholarship led to a situation being created for him to commit suicide. He said such interference was not only limited to the JNU or Hyderabad University, but could be seen in other insitutions also in different parts of the country and "today you are castigating the entire university as anti- ." Yechury demanded that the House Committee should "go into what is happening in all central universities" and quoted Jawaharlal Nehru to say that universities were places where debate on all ideas should flourish. On JNU and the speech by its students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, he said "I too want aazadi (freedom). I want freedom from hunger, Manuwad (ancient religious laws) and poverty. You arrest me if you want to for that, but stop conspiring against our children. Yechury, an alumnus of JNU, said the university has produced outstanding students who have excelled in all fields. He also took a jibe at Home Minister Rajnath Singh saying being the Minister he was the repository of all intelligence inputs but, he used "a parody tweet" of terrorist Hafeez Sayeed to attack the JNU students. On the government's plans to hoist flags in all universities, he said "the tri-colour in our heart is much larger than any national flag... We don't want certificates of patriotism from those who killed Mahatma Gandhi". He also attacked the government and the police for inaction when attacks were mounted on the Kanhaiya Kumar and journalists by a group of lawyers in Patiala House Court. He also demanded removal of sedition charges against Kumar. On Left parties being called a 'witch' by a BJP MP, Yechury said "yes, we are witches. We forewarn. Understand the prophesy of witches", and quoted Shakespeare's play Macbeth in which the witches speak of the upcoming doom for the rulers. Participating in the debate Bhupender Yadav (BJP) questioned whether the JNU incident reflected "freedom of speech" or "speech for freedom" and sought to know how students distributed pamphlets on Kashmir. "Anti-national activities cannot be allowed in the JNU campus in the name of freedom of speech," he said, prompting Yechury to ask who were those who raised such slogans or distributed pamphlets. "Universities form future generation...We cannot allow anyone to plant seeds to divide the nation there," he said. Amid protests by Congress leader Anand Sharma who asked Yadav to authenticate the pamphlets and posters he was displaying in the House as per rules, Leader of the House Arun Jaitley said his party colleague (Yadav) will do so. Jaitley also accused the Opposition of being "intolerant" for not allowing Yadav to put forth the "alternative point of view", saying "why should this level of intolerance be allowed on alternate view point." Yadav then continued his speech saying Indian culture showed respect and was tolerant towards all "whether it was 'Rishi Charvak' or 'Jainism'". "But if a cultural event aimed at dividing the nation is organised in JNU, the administration has every right to interfere," he said and added slogans were raised in favour of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat talking of judicial killing. He attacked the Left parties saying they were instrumental in Mahishasur worship in JNU and sought votes in West Bengal's Durga Puja pandals. Reacting to this, Yechury said it was BJP which joined hands with PDP. Yadav also hit out at the CPI(M) asking why its Politburo had no representation from ST or OBCs and how many faculty members of JNU were Dalits/OBCs or STs. He also said the government did not want to close down JNU but wanted to protect its dignity. The discussion will continue. Swaraj Abhiyan will hold a Kisan Sansad on February 29 to focus on the issues and expectations of farmers from the Union Budget. The Kisan Sansad on February 29, when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the budget in Parliament, will offer farmers' reaction to the budget, said Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav. The gathering will also present a budget on farming and farmers. Farmers and their representatives from across the country will attend the meet, he said. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu today said a ceasefire agreed between Syria's warring parties was only valid inside Syria and was "not binding" for Turkey if its national security was threatened. "It must be known that the ceasefire is valid in Syria," Davutoglu said in televised remarks in the central Anatolian province of Konya. "When it is a question of Turkey's security, then the ceasefire is not binding for us," he added. Turkey on successive days last week targeted Kurdish fighters inside Syria with artillery barrages, saying that the army was responding to incoming fire, and had repeatedly reserved the right to open fire again. Russia and the US have set a deadline for the "cessation of hostilities" between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and non-jihadist rebel forces. The deal, which marks the biggest diplomatic push yet to help end the five-year conflict in Syria, excludes the Islamic State group and other Sunni extremists. Davutoglu said Turkey would closely monitor how the ceasefire would be implemented, adding: "We support the ceasefire under any circumstances." Turkey has demanded that the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia should remain outside the scope of the truce. It sees both as offshoots of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies. "To us, YPG is a terrorist organisation the same as Daesh (IS) and (Al-Qaeda affiliate) Al-Nusra," the prime minister said. "There is no terror reference to YPG in the ceasefire. There should have been but there is not." A militant Kurdish group claimed a suicide car bomb that killed 29 people in the capital Ankara last week but Turkish officials said the bomber was a Syrian Kurd working on behalf of the PYD, which has denied being behind the attack. Davutoglu today said if Turkey's security was concerned, "we do not get permission from anyone, we do not ask anyone but we do what's required." He warned the YPG and the PKK "not to support terror in Turkey" just because of the ceasefire in Syria. "When it's a question of the security measures Turkey will take, the only place to have a say is Ankara," the premier said. Syrian government troops backed by Russian airstrikes recaptured a town in Aleppo province from Islamic State militants today in a key advance just two days ahead of a US and Russia-engineered cease-fire that is to take effect in Syria. The town of Khanaser was seized earlier this week by the extremist Islamic State group, cutting government military access to the provincial capital, also called Aleppo, said the Syrian government and the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group. SANA said the army took Khanaser, around 50 kilometers southeast of Aleppo city, after three days of heavy battles and that heavy fighting was still underway to reopen the road. On Tuesday, IS seized Khanaser and surrounding hills, severing the government's main land route to the city. In the push on Khanaser, the Syrian army and pro- government Shiite militias were backed by Russian airstrikes, The Observatory said. The advance comes ahead of a cease-fire meant to start on midnight tomorrow. The Islamic State group and al-Qaida's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, however, are not included in the truce proposed by the United States and Russia. The cease-fire is aimed at achieving a temporary "cessation of hostilities" that would bring back the Syrian government and its opponents to the negotiating table in Geneva. The Syrian opposition has agreed to abide by the truce but expressed major concerns and reservations about what it said were ambiguities and the lack of any clear mechanism to implement the agreement. Turkey's prime minister echoed those concerns today, saying he is worried that Russia will continue to hit Syrian civilians or the moderate opposition during the truce. Ahmet Davutoglu has accused Russia of striking the moderate opposition in Syria in the past five months under the guise of hitting militants. Davutoglu said the cease-fire would have "no meaning if Russia continues with its irresponsible bombings." Meanwhile, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told state-run Anadolu Agency that Saudi aircraft would arrive "today or tomorrow" at the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey to join the fight against Islamic State in Syria. Cavusoglu did not say how many planes Saudi Arabia would be sending to the base. A key element of the cease-fire deal is humanitarian access to besieged and hard-to-reach areas across Syria. The United Nations announced the first high-altitude airdrop of 21 metric tons of aid yesterday over the city of Deir el-Zour, which is under siege from Islamic State extremists. A Syrian asylum-seeker appeared in court in Sweden today accused of war crimes, with photographs on the Internet forming part of the evidence against him, a prosecutor said. Mohamad Abdullah, 31, who arrived in Sweden in July 2015, admitted to being a member of the regime in his home country, but not a fighter. The case against Abdullah, who was arrested on Tuesday, was based on photographs and other information that appeared on social media, Reena Devgun, a prosecutor with the Swedish International Public Prosecution Office, told AFP after the closed-door hearing. She would not elaborate on the alleged crime but said it was believed to have been committed between March 2012 and July 2015. Abdullah, who has not yet been formally charged, was remanded in custody by the Stockholm District Court. Around 163,000 asylum-seekers arrived in Sweden last year, part of the huge wave of migrants flooding into Europe, many fleeing war in Syria. In December, Hassan al-Mandlawi and Al-Amin Sultan, both Swedish nationals, were sentenced to life in prison after graphic videos showed them taking part in the killing of two men in the northern city of Aleppo which has been ravaged by more than four-years of war in Syria. A BJP MLA in Telangana, T Raja Singh was booked for allegedly giving a "hate" speech against a particular community, police said today. A representative of a local NGO had lodged a complaint at Golconda Police Station alleging that T Raja Singh, who represents Goshamahal Assembly constituency here, gave a "hate" speech against a community, which was subsequently uploaded on social media, Inspector Khaleel Pasha said. Following the complaint, a case under section 295 A (hurting religious sentiments) of IPC was registered and police is investigating into the allegations, Pasha added. Tension prevailed in Sardhana area here as activists of Arakshan Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (ABSS) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) raised slogans against a particular religion after a condolence meeting. The sloganeering took place yesterday after a condolence meet for a dalit youth, Kuldeep, from Muzaffarnagar who was killed in Sonipat on February 21 during the pro-quota stir by the Jat community, police said. Activists of ABSS and AIMIM had gathered at Ambedkar Dharamshala at Bhatwada for the condolence meet, SP (Rural) Pravin Ranjan said. After the meet, they marched in procession to submit their demands to Sardhana Tehsildar when some of them blocked the road and raised slogans against a particular religion. Police today booked nine persons - ABBS' tehsil president Amit Gautam, General Secretary Gaurav Parcha, AIMIM city president Wali-ur-Rahman and six others - for hurting religious sentiments and blocking road, but no arrest has been made so far. Extra force has been deployed in the area to prevent any untoward incident, the SP (Rural) said. Thai police are hunting for the parents of a newborn infant who survived being stabbed multiple times and buried alive in a field, officers said today. The baby boy, who had more than a dozen stab wounds, was discovered in a shallow grave covered with leaves by a farmer in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen. The woman found the stricken baby after hearing the infant's cries while her cows grazed on a eucalyptus plantation on Tuesday, local media reported. "We've deployed police to find the culprit," case officer Nopporn Rithnual told AFP. The infant was now "out off danger" according to Nopporn and being cared for at a hospital in the province, with local TV channels airing footage of doctors hovering around the child's bed. Police have yet to uncover a motive behind the grisly crime. Abortions are illegal but common in Thailand, which has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the region but a conservative society that stigmatises premarital sex. Despite the country's reputation as one of the globe's sex industry hubs, sex education targeting youth is limited and largely focuses on promoting abstinence. In 2011 an undertaker was sentenced to 40 months in prison for helping hide roughly 2,000 illegally aborted foetuses on the grounds of a Buddhist temple in Bangkok. In a veiled dig at the Congress on the ongoing JNU row, senior RSS functionary Indresh Kumar said it was "unfortunate" that those who once fought for country's freedom were taking sides of "anti-nationals" today. "A debate is on whether there should be patriotism or anti-nationalism in educational institutions against the backdrop of slogans like 'Pakistan Zindabad', 'India would be divided into hundred pieces' that were raised in JNU. Unfortunately, people who were once a part of India's freedom movement are today standing with such elements," Kumar said at a seminar here yesterday without naming any political party. "People who were ready to sacrifice their lives for the country, are today willing to compromise the interest of the nation. I pray that God gives them some wisdom," he said. Kumar said the laws formed by the British during its rule dealing with anti-national activities, need reform. "There are many laws in the country dealing with anti-national activities which were framed by the Britishers. These need to be revamped in the current scenario," he said. A nation should be run without compromising on patriotism because there won't be any prosperity if the country is not united, Kumar added. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi has been rocked after an event was held in the campus earlier this month where allegedly anti-nationals slogans were raised by some students. JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested in a sedition case, while two other students--Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, booked under the same charge surrendered before police two days ago. The Flying Scotsman, one of the world's iconic locomotives today completed its inaugural run after a decade-long, 4.2 million-pound refit, rekindling memories of the bygone steam engine era among thousands of cheering fans. The locomotive steam engine made the journey from London King's Cross to York, where it will go on display at the National Railway Museum (NRM). It arrived in York almost an hour later than expected, after it was twice held up by reports of trespassers. The engine, which retired from service in 1963, has been restored for the NRM, which bought the locomotive for 2.3 million pounds in 2004. Built in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, in 1923, the Flying Scotsman soon became the star locomotive of the British railway system, pulling the first train to break the 100mph (161kmph) barrier in 1934. Former MP turned TV presenter Michael Portillo, said: "This is certainly the most famous journey and most famous locomotive in Britain." The first disruption on its inaugural run happened near St Neots when the train was brought to a standstill while British Transport Police cleared the lines after reports of around 60 people on the track. No arrests were made. Network Rail said the number of people on the trackside had caused "safety concerns" and resulted in a number of services, including Flying Scotsman, having to slow down." The train was halted a second time north of Doncaster following reports of trespassers on the track which were later found to be false. Crowds gathered at King's Cross for its scheduled departure at 07:40 and thousands lined the route, while some of the 297 passengers paid up to 450 pounds for a ticket to travel on the train. Among the passengers was 83-year-old Ron Kennedy, from Leigh-on-Sea, in Essex, who drove Flying Scotsman from 1956 until it was retired in 1963. He said "It's unbelievable. I never dreamt about being on it again. To be out with it is just fantastic." NRM director, Paul Kirkman, said the restoration project was a "long old journey" but added that it was "incredibly satisfying" to see the locomotive returned to service. The locomotive undertook a series of test runs through Cumbria and Lancashire earlier this year. Three NDFB(S) militants have been apprehended during a joint operation be security forces in Assam's Baksa district today, a defence spokesman said. Acting on specific information about the presence of NDFB(S) at Barimakha village where they were involved in extortion and illegal arms dealing, a joint team of the army and police launched an operation and apprehended the three militants. Two AK-47 rifles, a 9 mm pistol and some ammunition have been seized from the militants identified as Bhubneswar Boro, Sarjib Basumatary and Lepho Boro. The apprehended militants said they earlier owed allegiance to the disbanded Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT). A two-and-a-half-year-old untrained dog of labrador breed, belonging to Tamil Nadu Police Commando Force, will be auctioned on March 4, police said today. "A male labrador of Tamil Nadu Commando Force, born on June 30, 2013 and untrained will be auctioned on March 4, 2016 at 11.00 hrs," a police release said. The fawn-coloured dog, certified by the Kennel Club of India (KCI), will be auctioned at the office of the Additional Director General of Police, Operations, on Boat Club Road, RA Puram, here. "Participants are requested to register their name on March 4, 2016 at 10.30 hours," it added. Leading global telecom operators including China Mobile, Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and SoftBank have joined hands to launch five-year programme GTI 2.0, which aims to advance existing 4G technology and industrialization of 5G technologies. "With the support and guidance of 5 Chairman/CEO from top operators, Sunil Bharti Mittal (Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises), Shang Bing (Chairman of China Mobile), Masayoshi Son (Chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group Corp), Chang-Gyu Hwang (Chairman and CEO of KT) and Vittorio Colao (CEO of Vodafone Group Plc), GTI 2.0 was officially launched," Bharti Airtel said in a statement today. GTI 2.0, a five-year strategic plan and mission, aims to continue to promote the global development of existing 4G technologies, TD-LTE and FD-LTE, encourage their convergence and to foster a cross-industry innovative and a synergistic 5G ecosystem. In India, Bharti Airtel has launched 4G service on both the technologies. Reliance Jio Infocomm too has spectrum to deliver 4G services using both these technology but it is yet to launch its services. Aircel and State-run BSNL have launched 4G service on small scale using TD LTE technology. Founded in 2011, GTI is platform of 122 operator members and 103 industrial partners. Industry has completed the GTI 1.0 mission by building an end-to-end TD-LTE ecosystem and achieving global commercialization of TD-LTE as well as converged network which uses both TDD and FDD LTE technology. By the end of December 2015, there were 76 TD-LTE commercial networks in 43 countries, and 91 TD-LTE networks in progress, with a total of 1.4 million TD-LTE base stations serving 470 million subscribers globally, the statement said. "We have led the roll-out of TD-LTE in India and are confident that it will emerge as the preferred standard for evolving mobile technologies. We look forward to collaborating with the consortium partners towards developing technology ecosystem for the future," Mittal said. China Mobile, world's largest telecom operator said that it will fully support GTI 2.0 objectives. "It is important for the industry to continue developing 4G and to work together to develop the standards for 5G technology ahead of its expected commercial introduction from 2020 onwards," Colao said. An investigation by Canadian safety regulators into a crash that killed two people touched off a global recall of nearly 2.9 million Toyota SUVs, according to US government documents posted today. Last week Toyota announced the huge recall because the rear seat belts can be cut in a severe crash. If that happens, the belts won't restrain passengers. Canadian investigators found the problem in crash tests done after two rear-seat passengers died in a May, 2011, collision in Eastern Canada between a Toyota RAV4 and a Chevrolet Silverado pickup. The front-seat occupants survived. The unusual crash drew interest from Canadian regulators, who did crash tests in October and found that the belts could come in contact with a metal seat cushion frame in a severe crash. Transport Canada, the Canadian auto safety regulator, presented its findings to Toyota, which did its own investigation and confirmed the problem, according to a Transport Canada statement. "As a result of the department's investigation into this safety issue, lives will be saved in Canada and around the world," Canadian Minister of Transport Marc Garneau said in a statement. The Canadian government said that Toyota Canada cooperated in the probe and was not aware of the safety issue until Transport Canada's investigation. Included in the recall are 1.25 million RAV4s in the U.S. and Canada from the 2006 through 2012 model years and the RAV4 electric vehicle from 2012 through 2014. Also included is the Vanguard sold in Japan from 2005 to 2016, the Japanese automaker said last week. Vehicles in Europe and China also are affected. Toyota says dealers will add plastic covers to the frame at no cost to customers. Two Left workers were today arrested for allegedly damaging university property and preventing police from discharging their duties during the incident of 'ransacking' at Burdwan University Administrative campus on February 23. Sheikh Naseem Ahmed and Sheikh Feroz, were picked up from their residences in Burdwan town at around 1.30 AM, the police said. While Ahmed is the secretary of the town zonal committee of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the CPI(M), Feroz is a DYFI member, police said. Burdwan police station inspector in-charge Priyabrata Bakshi said the duo were arrested on several charges, including assaulting university employees, attacking women police personnel and illegally entering the campus with lathis and bamboo poles on February 23. The arrests were made on the basis of the Vice-Chancellor Smriti Kumar Sarkar's complaint, he said adding that the police also instituted a suo motu case against the duo. CPI(M) town zonal committee member Tapas Sarkar said the arrest was part of a "pre-planned operation". The CPI(M) today gave a deputation to the officer in-charge of Burdwan police station demanding immediate release of the two DYFI members. Activists of the SFI, students' wing of the CPI(M), had allegedly ransacked the Administrative Campus of Burdwan University on February 23 following which the police baton charged them. They damaged motorbikes, furniture, window panes and the authorities were forced to call the police to protect the staff and property of the university, the VC had alleged. SFI district secretary Dipankar Dey had claimed that around 12 activists were injured in the baton charge. He had said that the organisation wanted to give a deputation to the authorities on the "repeated publication of erroneous result" for the second year's examination. Militant outfit United A'chik Liberation Army which signed a peace pact with Meghalaya government will formally lay down arms at a ceremony at Tura on February 29 as a step for lasting peace in the Garo Hills region, officials said today. Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and his cabinet colleagues will be present at the disbanding ceremony which would also be witnessed by church leaders, NGOs and senior citizens, they said. "United A'chik Liberation Army (UALA) shall lay down arms formally on February 29 at Dikki Bandi Stadium at Tura where all the surrendered cadres of UALA shall be present for the ceremonial handing over of arms and weapons and formal disbanding," chairman of the Committee for Peace and West Garo Hills district deputy commissioner, Pravin Bakshi said. The ceremony, he said, is part of the completion of the peace process following the signing of the formal agreed 'text' by UALA chairman Novembirth Ch Marak alias Chiindik in Tura in December last year. Marak was directed to ensure that the disbanded cadres report to the district police for verification and also submit the list of such cadres and the weapons, he said. Following the ceremony, there shall be a period of psychological and spiritual counselling for the disbanded cadres and they shall be linked up with skill development programmes for self employment opportunities. The outfit, which has a cadre strength of 71, was formed with the demand for a separate Garoland to be carved out of the state. Several rounds of dialogues had taken place between the outfit and the government in the past one-and-a-half year before the declaration of the peace pact on December 18 last. Chief Secretary P B O Warjri said the government will facilitate rehabilitation of the UALA cadres and give Rs 2.5 lakh to each of them as seed money for income generation initiatives. India has emphasised that an "unrelenting focus" on poverty eradication should remain at the core of UN's operational activities which must be closely aligned to national development plans even as it cautioned against "externally-imposed prescriptions". Counsellor in the Indian Mission to the UN Amit Narang said that as the world transitions from the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals, the 2030 Agenda presents a "meta-template" for development that has tangible implications for the "delivery" of developmental interventions by the UN System. "An unrelenting focus on poverty eradication as the central and primary objective should therefore remain at the heart of UN's operational activities for development. This indeed was the mandate of the previous QCPR and this strategic direction must be maintained," he said. In his statement on 'Operational Activities for Development Segment' at the 2016 Substantive Session of the Economic and Social Council, Narang also said that the UN System must sharpen its tools to attack the problem of poverty more "directly". He cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the special session of ECOSOC recently in which the Indian leaders had said that while there has been progress over the past 70 years, eradication of poverty remains the greatest unfinished business of the 20th century. "A universal yet differentiated agenda should not mean a one-size-fits-all approach. As the 2030 Agenda itself mandates, the implementation of the SDGs must be acutely conscious of the different starting points and circumstances of countries," Narang said. He added that the operational activities of the UN system must also be responsive to and closely aligned to national development plans. "Externally imposed prescriptions should be avoided and national policy space respected," he said. Narang said while India appreciates the need of enhancing support to humanitarian activities, it is carefully assessing the proposals which favour a so-called bridging of the humanitarian-developmental divide. (Reopens FGN1) "While we should indeed enhance support to urgent humanitarian activities, we are conscious, if not cautious, that this should not come at the cost of a redoubled focus on promoting growth and development and ending poverty; in other words in creating conditions that reduce the chances of humanitarian crises," he said. He noted that the international community cannot talk of balanced implementation of an integrated agenda and yet have funding structures and functional implementation that responds to selective donor priorities. "A related important issue is that of the governance structures of the funds and programmes where imbalance in the representation of developing and developed countries needs to be addressed. "Universality, in other words, must also translate into how the UN Development System is governed and administered," he added. Narang said while the 2030 agenda includes several new features like universality, differentiation, leaving no one behind, fit for purpose, "we are not sure however that there exists a common understanding yet of what these features mean for the functioning of the UN System. He questioned how the system can deliver on a universal agenda while being dominated by donor-centric issues and how a broad strategic direction be reconciled with respecting national circumstances and priorities. "Even as the UN System prepares to rethink its role, it is of utmost importance that it does not slacken its focus on the needs of the poorest and the most deprived," Narang said. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Juba today to try and revive a shaky peace deal that has so far failed to end South Sudan's two-year-old civil war. Ban was greeted at Juba's airport by Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin before being driven to see President Salva Kiir whose dispute with rival Riek Machar triggered civil war in December 2013. Fighting has continued despite an August peace deal with at least 18 killed in the latest incident in the north-eastern town of Malakal last week when government soldiers participated in an attack on a UN-protected camp for nearly 50,000 civilians seeking shelter from the war. The August deal, signed under international pressure, leaves Kiir as president and returns Machar to his old job as deputy, but in a sign of the levels of mistrust between the two men Machar remains in exile despite his reappointment earlier this month. The battle for control of the country has repeatedly pushed South Sudan to the brink of famine, with millions only saved from starvation by the intervention of the UN and aid agencies. South Sudan won its independence from Sudan in July 2011 after decades of civil war, but less than 18 months later Kiir and Machar's political battle for control of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) became a real war splitting the country along ethnic lines, pitting Kiir's Dinka people against Machar's Nuer. The conflict has been marked by rights violations and attacks on civilians with children murdered or recruited into militias, women and girls abducted into rape camps and used as sex slaves, multiple ethnic massacres, attacks on UN bases and aid workers. An African Union investigation published last year found evidence of forced cannibalism and concluded that war crimes had been committed. A succession of UN rights reports have also found evidence of war crimes. Neither Kiir nor Machar have faced any sanctions for the actions of armed forces under their command. During his visit Ban is due to visit a UN camp in the capital housing people uprooted by the fighting, some of the more than 2.3 million South Sudanese forced from their homes since the war began. Uttar Pradesh Assembly witnessed angry exchanges between the government and the Opposition today over the condition of sugarcane growers with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Khan charging the previous BSP government with selling sugar mills at throwaway prices. Dharampal Singh of BSP had asked a question on bank loans to the farmers hit by hailstorm. His party colleague and Leader of Opposition Swami Prasad Maurya alleged the government was only befooling farmers and it had not raised the sugarcane prices for successive years. Our government led by Mayawati had made substantial increase, Maurya added. Responding to Maurya's charge, Khan said though sugarcane prices had been raised by the Mayawati government, sugar mills were sold away at throwaway prices during the BSP rule as a result of which there was no let up in the problems of the farmers. Maurya retorted saying only the mills that had been lying closed for 15 to 20 years were sold and the money earned was deposited in the treasury. Khan said only a meagre amount was deposited and the real sum went elsewhere and accused the BSP government of being solely responsible for the plight of farmers. He said BSP was punished for it by the people. Khan asked the BSP leader to go through the records to satisfy himself that maximum payments to the sugarcane growers were made by the present government. Maurya said while the Samajwadi Party government is siding with mill owners, the Mayawati dispensation had forced them (owners) to make payment and also sent some of them to jail. The United States has backed Libyan lawmakers' support for a new national unity government after the country's internationally recognized parliament said it was prevented from forming one. "The United States welcomes the February 23 endorsement for the Cabinet of the Government of National Accord, signed by a majority of Libyan House of Representatives members," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement yesterday. Legislators from the internationally recognized parliament -- located in the remote eastern town of Tobruk -- signed a petition on Wednesday saying they were "forcibly prevented" from holding a confidence vote on the line-up of a new unity administration on Tuesday, when parliament lacked a quorum. "We are deeply concerned by reports that a small hardline minority used physical intimidation and threats to disrupt the February 23 session of the House of Representatives in Tobruk in order to prevent a vote on the cabinet," Kirby said. "We strongly condemn all attempts to obstruct the Libyan political process." A Presidential Council, born of a UN-brokered agreement in December between representatives of the country's rival parliaments, last week put forward a unity government of 18 members. Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 ouster of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, allowing extremist organisations including the Islamic State group (IS) to gain significant ground. IS fighters briefly occupied the heart of a city near the capital Tripoli on Wednesday before they were ousted by fighters loyal to the government. The United States and China have agreed on a draft resolution imposing fresh sanctions on and the Security Council could vote on the measure in the coming days, diplomats have said. The United States circulated the draft text to the other three permanent council members -- Britain, France and Russia -- and was set to formally present it to the full 15-member council soon, said the diplomats yesterday, who asked not to be named. "There is good progress on the resolution and we are hopeful that there will be an adoption in the coming days," a council diplomat said. Negotiations on the draft resolution began six weeks ago after carried out its fourth nuclear test on January 6 and claimed it was a thermonuclear device. "There were a significant number of blockage points between these two countries," said the diplomat referring to the United States and China. "But there is agreement between these two countries," he added. After talks in Washington on Tuesday with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, US Secretary of State John Kerry said "there is no question that if the resolution is approved, it will go beyond anything that we have previously passed. The United States and China have agreed on a UN resolution on North Korea and will not accept Pyongyang as a nuclear weapons state, the White House said today. US National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed during a meeting "on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through a UN Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions," it said in a statement. "They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," said the statement from National Security Council spokesman Ned Price. Price said President Barack Obama joined the meeting "to underscore his interest in building a durable, constructive, and productive US-China relationship" and that the US leader looked forward to welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping to a March 31-April 1 nuclear security summit in Washington and "working together towards its success." The White House statement came as diplomats at United Nations headquarters in New York said Washington and Beijing had agreed on a draft resolution imposing fresh sanctions on North Korea and the Security Council could vote on the measure in the coming days. The United States circulated the draft text to the other three permanent council members -- Britain, France and Russia -- on Wednesday and was set to formally present it to the full 15-member council soon, said the diplomats, who asked not to be named. "There is good progress on the resolution and we are hopeful that there will be an adoption in the coming days," a council diplomat said. Negotiations on the draft resolution began six weeks ago after North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test on January 6 and claimed it was a thermonuclear device. A council diplomat described the draft resolution as a "significantly substantive text" while another diplomat said it contained "a large number of very tough measures," as well as names to be added to the sanctions black list. Among the toughest measures, the United States had been pushing for a ban on North Korean ships in all ports, but that met with strong resistance from China. Beijing has been reluctant about backbiting sanctions that would take aim at North Korea's already weak economy out of concern that the isolated state could collapse, unleashing chaos on China's border. After North Korea carried out a rocket launch on February 6, the Security Council renewed its pledge to impose new sanctions to punish Pyongyang. The US Navy will step up its operations in the South China Sea with "greater complexity", a top US admiral has warned, drawing sharp rebuke from China which is building military facilities on islands in the hotly disputed area. "We'll be doing them more and we'll be doing them with greater complexity in the future," Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, told American lawmakers on the growing friction in the South China Sea. "We'll fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows," Harris, who is set to visit India next week, said. He said China was building military capabilities in the South China Sea leading to escalating tension in the region. "In my opinion China is clearly militarising the South China Sea," Harris, in a hearing on Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. "You'd have to believe in a flat earth to believe otherwise," he said. "China's intent to militarise the South China Sea is as certain as a traffic jam in DC," Harris said in reference to congestion on the streets of Washington. The harsh assessment from the US military's top commander in the Pacific comes amidst a series of reports of increasing Chinese capabilities on disputed islands in the resource-rich South China Sea. In Beijing, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian said, "I have noted that according to media reports, Adm. Harris made his remarks while seeking additional defense budget funds from Congress." "We don't interfere in your seeking defense budget funds, but you can't carelessly smear China while asking for more money," Wu said. Last week, satellite images showed China had installed a surface-to-air missile battery on the Paracel Islands near Vietnam. And on Monday, reports surfaced that China is installing a high-tech air search radar that may be capable of detecting US stealth aircraft on one of its man-made islands in the Spratly Islands. "We must continue to operate in the South China Sea to demonstrate that that water space and the air above it is international," Harris said. Since October, the US Navy has carried out two such freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea to emphasise saying the missions are an important way of upholding international law. The Asia Pacific region has witnessed tension after China flexed its military muscle in the South China Sea. The South China Sea is also a major shipping lane. Over half of the world's commercial shipping passes through the area. China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea, resulting in overlapping claims with several other Asian nations like Vietnam and the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. They accuse China of illegally reclaiming land in contested areas to create artificial islands with facilities that could potentially be for military use. The United States is submitting a draft UN resolution that calls for "tougher, more comprehensive" sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear and ballistic tests, the US ambassador said today. "It is a major upgrade" from past sanctions resolutions, Samantha Power told reporters ahead of a Security Council meeting to discuss the new package of measures. "There will be, provided it goes forward, pressure on more points -- tougher, more comprehensive -- more sectors. It's breaking new ground in a whole host of ways," she said. The draft text was presented to the 15-member council after the United States and China, Pyongyang's sole ally, agreed on the package of measures, capping six weeks of tough negotiations. The UN Security Council decided to impose new measures on North Korea after it carried out its fourth nuclear test on January 6 and test-fired a rocket on February 7. Both tests were in violation of a series of resolutions barring North Korea from developing nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The United States and China have been at odds over how to respond to the latest tests. Beijing fears too much pressure on Pyongyang could trigger the collapse of the pariah regime, unleashing chaos on its border. The United States had argued that a tough international response was needed to the nuclear test that North Korea defiantly followed by the rocket launch a month later. After the Washington and Beijing agreed on the draft resolution, French Ambassador Francois Delattre said "the conditions are now met" for a "strong and consensual" response from the Security Council. "We believe we'll have soon a resolution establishing unprecedented sanctions," Delattre said. Venezuela's Ambassador Rafael Ramirez, who holds the council presidency, said he expected a vote on the draft resolution at the weekend. The council has imposed four sets of sanctions on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006. There are 20 North Korean entities and 12 individuals on the UN sanctions blacklist, which provides for an assets freeze and a global travel ban. The Uttarakhand government is launching a Sampark Smart Class programme to enhance learning outcome in mathematics and English subjects at primary level. "The Sampark Smart Class approach is unique and a path breaking innovation. It will be an asset for our education system for years to come and bring in a revolution in the way Maths and English are taught in our schools," Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat was quoted in statement issued by Sampark Foundation. With an investment of Rs 40 crore from Sampark Foundation, the programme is being successfully implemented in more than 12,000 primary government schools with 4.5 lakh children, the statement said. Former CEO of HCL Technologies and Sampark Foundation founder Chairman Vineet Nayar has invested close to Rs 650 crore for setting up the platform. The objective of the joint initiative of Uttarakhand government and Sampark is to ensure that 80 per cent of children are able to do basic Math operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) and use 500 new words to speak and write in English after a year of implementation, it added. The class programme comprises 3D teaching learning aids, audio lessons with music and songs combined with stories and games to make learning fun. "We are glad to partner with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, government of Uttarakhand and invest Rs 40 crore in Sampark Smart Class transformation programme in Uttarakhand. Both me and my wife are from Uttarakhand which makes this project a very special one for us," Nayar said. In 2014 and 2015, the Sampark Smart Class programme was implemented across 2,000 schools and Sampark Foundation has trained more than 2,500 teachers. Universities should become centres of social innovation and students should utilise their knowledge for bringing social change, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said here today. "Mere gaining knowledge is not sufficient. This knowledge should be transformed into public utility and in (bringing) change in lives of people," Fadnavis said while addressing the third convocation of Gondwana University here. He said the country needs youths who are have the desire of bringing about equality, justice and development. "There are many such youths in the country," he added. Fadnavis appealed to the students of the varsity to conduct research on local issues and develop technology and make innovations of international standards. "India is the country of the young which is its strength. When population of several countries in Europe, Asia and in the US is getting older, India has a great opportunity of providing skilled manpower and human resource that will help us in emerging as a big power. The University can play an important role in creating the human resources with required skill and technology," he said. Vietnam has protested recent actions by China in the disputed South China Sea, saying they threaten peace in the region. The commander of US forces in the Pacific, Adm. Harry Harris Jr., said Tuesday that China has installed new radar on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratly Islands, and media reports say Beijing has sent fighter jets to Woody Island in the Paracels, where it has deployed anti-aircraft missiles. Asked about the reports, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said today that China is conducting activities that seriously violate Vietnamese sovereignty and threaten peace, security and freedom of passage in the region. He said Vietnam is protesting the actions and urging China to act responsibly to maintain peace and stability. Unlawful sea fishing has "almost" come to a grinding halt in Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, in the wake of heightened sea vigil along the Odisha coast helping in the safety of the endangered species, a coast guard official said. Interception of an al-Qaida operative near Cuttack and arrest of activists of outlawed SIMI from Rourkela recently have prompted security forces to be more vigilant to curb possible infiltration of subversive anti-national elements through the sea route, officials said. As a result of the threat perception, security vigil has been enhanced besides intensifying round-the-clock patrolling which have brought illegal sea fishing in Gahirmatha marine sanctuary "almost to a grinding halt", a coast guard official said in Paradip. "Coast security has been stepped up in a coordinated manner with our counterparts in Haldia (West Bengal) and Vishakhapatnam. Sea-route security has been stepped up because of intelligence inputs warning, infiltration of foreign vessels with intent of subversive and terror ploy. However, Odisha coast has so far remained untouched by foreign vessels' infiltration", the coast guard official said. Fishermen and crew of sea-worthy fishing vessels have largely stayed away from venturing into the sea with the considerable tightening of security, Additional Fisheries (marine) Officer, Paradip, Bharat Chandra Sahoo, said. Ban on sea fishing remains in force within the 20 km long marine sanctuary to ensure the safety of olive ridley marine turtles. The state government in a bid to curb high mortality of these marine species has prohibited fishing activity within a seaward radius of 20 km from Gahirmatha marine sanctuary from November 1 till May 31 in accordance with Orissa Marine Fishing Regulation Act (OMFRA), 1982. In the last fortnight not a single trawl intrusion has been detected. This security patrolling by the Coast Guard has also invigorated the turtle conservation drive, a forest official said. "Joint patrolling by forest, state marine police and marine fisheries has been going on in a well-oiled manner because of the strong presence of Coast Guard ships, " Divisional Forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) Division, Bimal Prasanna Acharya, said. There is an increase in awareness level among the fishermen communities. As a result, unlawful sea fishing activity has been brought down considerably this year, the DFO said. A talathi (village accountant) and his aide were arrested by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials for accepting bribe from a farmer in lieu of furnishing him a land-related document in Sinnar taluka of the district, police said today. The accused, identified as Sandeep Balasaheb Medhe, a village accountant who was holding the charge of villages Dubere and Manegaon, and his accomplice Gautam Jadhav, were arrested today, ACB said in a press release. Medhe had demanded Rs 8,000 from the farmer for furnishing him a 7/12 statement for a piece of agricultural land owned by his wife, it said. He asked the victim to hand over the money to Gautam Jadhav near a temple in Manegaon, it said. However, the victim approached the ACB, following which a trap was laid, it said. Medhe and Jadhav were caught red-handed while accepting the bribe money, it said. A case has been registered and further investigation is on, it added. Claiming that ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance in Punjab was confronted with a "tsunami of anti-incumbency", Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal today said the party will replicate the Delhi anti-corruption model if is voted to power in the state. Kick-starting his five-day visit to Punjab, where Assembly elections is due early 2017, Kejriwal claimed that the party would form its government in Punjab as the present dispensation is "confronted with a tsunami of anti-incumbency." "Corruption would be eradicated in Punjab after we come to power. The Delhi experience would be replicated in Punjab where 52 officials have been nabbed," he said. Terming as "cruel joke" the "meagre compensation" paid by the state government to farmers for the damaged crop, Kejriwal promised adequate compensation to them if comes to power. "We have done it in Delhi where compensation of Rs 50,000 per hectare was given for farmers in 307 villages for their damaged crops, which was never done by any previous government," Kejriwal said while addressing different gatherings. Kejriwal met wives of farmers, who recently committed suicide due to heavy debt. "I think the compensation of Rs three lakh announced by the state government for families of farmers, who committed suicide, was also embezzled by corrupt officials and politicians as on the ground, no such compensation was given to any family," he said in Sunam district. Kejriwal promised that if voted to power in the state, the government would provide necessary health and education facilities. (Reopens DES33) In the first leg of his Punjab tour, Kejriwal visited Mauran, Chhajli, Mehal Kalan, Sirsi wala, Mansa Kainchian, Banwala, Takht Damdama Sahib and Kotshameer regions. Villagers apprised the Delhi Chief Minister that over Rs 150 crore of the people were duped by the chit fund companies which were allegedly operational under political patronage. Kejriwal promised the villagers that he would make sure that they get their money back after their party is voted to power. "People of Punjab frequently come with information that AAP is all set to win about 100 seats in Punjab, but I told them we should win all the 117 seats to eradicate corruption from its root. "They should ensure that not even a single seat should go either to Congress or SAD-BJP combine to show them their misdeeds," Kejriwal said. Earlier in the day, Kejriwal attacked his political opponents, saying other parties make their manifestos sitting in air conditioned rooms while his party cadre would visit villages and homes to understand their problems. Kejriwal was accompanied by other party leaders including Punjab's AAP convenor Sucha Singh Chhotepur, Bhagwant Mann, MP, Sanjay Singh and Sukhpal Singh Khaira. Posters, meanwhile, appeared in Bathinda questioning the performance of Kejriwal. AAP had successfully organised a mega rally in Muktsar last month. The party is locked in a tussle with Congress and SAD-BJP combine. AAP has been raising its voice against the issue of drug addiction and farmers suicide and alleged irregularities in buying pesticides. The party had opened its account in Lok Sabha by winning four seats in Punjab in 2014 general elections. However, two of its MPs - Dharamvira Gandhi and Harinder Singh Khalsa - have been suspended on the charge of anti-party activities. The national drug price regulator NPPA has warned of action against companies violating its pricing norms as it found prices of more than 4,700 medicines had increased beyond permissible limits. Although over 95 per cent of stock keeping units of medicines were found to be complying with its order during an internal study. According to the National Pharma Pricing Regulator (NPPA), of the 1,01,418 pharma stock keeping units observed, prices of 4,724 SKUs were found to have changed beyond permissible limit as per Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO) 2013. It further said prices of 17,226 SKUs rose within the permissible limit as per as DPCO 2013. While prices of 18,104 SKUs declined, there was no change in those of 60,998 SKUs as per the study conducted by NPPA in August last year. It found that 95.4 per cent of SKUs complied with the DPCO, 2013 from pricing perspective. "After ascertaining status in respect of the cases observed for price violation from the manufacturers concerned, NPPA will take necessary action in such cases where price violation has been established under provisions of DPCO 2013," NPPA said. The drug price regulator said out of the 4,724 SKUs, the prices of which have gone up in violation of the DPCO, 2013, 829 were scheduled SKUs while 3,895 were unscheduled SKUs. Out of the total SKUs studied, 12,213 were scheduled SKUs while 88,811 were in the non-scheduled category, NPPA said. NPPA's mandate is to fix/ revise the prices of controlled bulk drugs and formulations and to enforce prices and availability of the medicines in the country. It also monitors the prices of decontrolled drugs in order to keep them at reasonable levels. By Allison Lampert MONTREAL (Reuters) - A proposed bailout of aircraft maker Bombardier Inc could give the Canadian and Quebec governments control of a separate board for the new CSeries jet programme, eroding the influence of the company's founding family, two sources familiar with the matter said. Bombardier has struggled to launch the CSeries, with years of delays and cost overruns roiling the Montreal-based company. It wrote down the value of the 100-150 aircraft programme in October, sold a stake in its rail business to Quebec's pension fund and got a $1 billion lifeline from the Quebec government. The proposal from the Quebec government would give it two seats and the federal government two seats - provided the latter matched the province's $1 billion invested in the company - on a seven-person board for the CSeries programme. Bombardier itself would only be able to nominate three of the seats, putting the company's representatives in a minority, one of the sources said. The federal government is under pressure from Quebec, which took a 49.5-percent stake in the CSeries in return for its investment, to financially support the planemaker, which employs about 18,000 in Quebec's aerospace sector. On Friday, senior government sources said the federal government will also likely offer up to $1 billion in aid. But some in the country's ruling Liberal party are pushing for the company to make tough concessions around control of Bombardier Inc, such as a change to its dual-class structure which has helped the Bombardier-Beaudoin family to control the company. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this month that Ottawa would announce a decision on financial support before the federal budget on March 22. "Think of it like a subsidiary," said one of the sources, referring to the CSeries board proposal. SHARE STRUCTURE The plan was submitted by the Quebec government and is supported by Bombardier, the same source said. The company submitted a request for financial help on December 11. It was not known whether the federal government would accept the Quebec proposal. "They (the controlling family) understand that if people are investing in the company, they will require representation," said the source. The sources, who are familiar with the thinking of both Bombardier and the Quebec government, declined to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. A Bombardier spokeswoman declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Industry Canada, the government ministry handling the Bombardier request for financial help, reiterated the government would only make a decision after conducting due diligence. A federal source familiar with the talks said it's too early to say whether Quebec's proposal about a separate CSeries board would be part of a federal bailout of Bombardier. But Ottawa is concerned about the parent company's dual class share structure, which gives the Bombardier-Beaudoin family a roughly 54 percent voting stake. Bombardier has balked at changing the company's share structure, privately citing fears of an outside takeover. Concerns over Bombardier's ownership structure prompted Quebec pension fund Caisse de depot et placement, a Bombardier shareholder, to take only a token part of a 2015 equity offering. The Caisse later bought a $1.5-billion stake in Bombardier's profitable rail unit and got three spots on a new board for the division. Bombardier received a boost this month when the company secured its first order in 16 months. That was for up to 75 CSeries jets to be supplied to Air Canada. (Additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Martin Howell) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Fed's December rate hike may have spurred recent declines in equity markets because it was misinterpreted as a firm commitment to raise rates steadily through the year, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Thursday. Bullard said in an interview on CNBC that despite the Fed's commitment to a gradual, "data-dependent" rate path, the Fed's own economic projections made it seem rates were on a preset course. "I worry that we somehow signal that we are on a freight train path," said Bullard, who is advocating changes in how the Fed presents quarterly forecasts which currently include the rate path each member expects will be appropriate. (Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) By Tommy Wilkes and Manoj Kumar NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will pump $17.6 billion into its decrepit, loss-making railway network in the coming fiscal year, up a fifth from this year, but the government shied away from the politically unpopular move of raising fares ahead of crucial state polls. The world's fourth-largest rail network, saturated and slow after years of underinvestment, is one year into a five-year, $137-billion investment plan that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is betting on to overhaul the system and boost economic growth. (Graphic: India's railway network, recent growth rates | Click http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/2015/02/24/082831f4ee.jpg) Presenting the annual rail budget for 2016/17 on Thursday, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said the network needed more revenue to offset a wage bill rise of $4.7 billion, slower growth in passenger and freight receipts and to fund the 21 percent rise in the budget to 1.21 trillion rupees. (Click http://in. .com/subjects/india-budget-2016 for full coverage of railway and union budget) "These are challenging times," Prabhu told parliament. Modi has prioritised overhauling India's dilapidated infrastructure in his first 20 months in power. But in keeping fares low, his government is sticking to a tried and tested political formula of avoiding tough but critical decisions to cut subsidies and ease a squeeze on central government funding. Some 23 million, mostly poor, people use India's trains every day, and together with the railways' workforce of 1.3 million, have made successive governments reluctant to adopt reform. "The railways budget is going to put more pressure on the general budget. They should have gone for a marginal hike in fares," said N.R. Bhanumurthy, an economist at Delhi-based, government-funded think tank, the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. Modi's government is also expected to focus on more populist spending measures in Monday's union budget, as he looks to shore up support ahead of four state elections this year. India government bonds and the rupee slumped after the railway budget was announced, as fears grew that New Delhi would widen its 2016/17 fiscal deficit target of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product to afford higher spending. Railway-related stocks Kalindee Rail and Texmaco Rail extended losses after the budget as Prabhu, to rounds of parliamentary applause, stuck largely to smaller announcements such as free WiFi at railway stations and the world's first bio-vacuum toilet on a train. Still, some analysts praised Prabhu for avoiding too many spending promises that the railways cannot afford. "The budget comes out to be focused on consolidation rather than expansion," said Jaijit Bhattacharya, an infrastructure expert at KPMG in India. "Overall, a mature rail budget that balances much needed investments with the revenue and funding constraints." The money spent on the railways is a little over 2 percent of overall public expenditure, but its symbolic importance and political resistance to change have discouraged governments from scrapping the tradition of a separate budget. HEAVILY SUBSIDISED Cheap fares mean little extra income to improve services. A 3,150-km (1,960-mile) trip between New Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram can cost as little as $8, not much more than a trip on the underground in London. India inherited a railway network from the British more than twice as long as China's, but has since grown it by a fifth to 65,000 km (40,390 miles). China now has a network close to double the size. The government will hand the railways 450 billion rupees in funding for next year, up 12.5 percent on this year, but most of that will be sucked up by the wage bill. It is in rising revenues that Prabhu said he will find the cash to keep the modernisation plan on track. The railways predict a rise in revenue receipts to 1.85 trillion rupees next financial year, up 10.1 percent from this year. That compares with a rise of 7 percent over last year, as fewer travellers took trains than expected. The railways will also look to areas such as advertising and station redevelopment to boost the share of non-tariff revenue. Prabhu said the railways also would seek to revive its freight business, which provides two-thirds of revenue, but is struggling as industrial production falls. "We need to look beyond the current approach to expand the basket of freight commodities. We will make sure we recapture the traffic," he said, announcing plans for three new dedicated freight corridors across India. ($1=68.71 rupees) (Writing by Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Kim Coghill and Clarence Fernandez) Indian governments action to increase spending on irrigation and crop insurance is not enough to end a cycle of indebtedness that has led to thousands of farmer suicides, and a complete overhaul of credit and subsidies to is needed, activists said. Drought in many parts of the country has hit rice, cotton and other crops, and lower world commodity prices have added to the farmers' plight. More than half India's farming households are in debt, owing banks and moneylenders hundreds of millions of rupees, despite numerous loan write-offs by successive governments. Read more from our special coverage on "FARMERS" Tens of thousands of across the country have killed themselves over the past decade, several farmers' lobbying groups said. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who presents the federal budget for fiscal 2016-17 on February 29, has to balance stimulating economic growth with aiding and poorer sections of society. Farmers' groups have been demanding better monsoon forecasts, bigger fertiliser subsidies and a state-funded insurance scheme for all crops, to help farmers improve yields and help prevent crop failures. The need of the hour is a focus on the dying farmer community," said activist Kishor Tiwari, who heads a task force set up to recommend action to tackle farmer suicides in Maharashtra, which accounted for more than half of all suicides among Indian farmers in 2014. "Debt is a core issue, and it needs a long-term plan to resolve it," he said. While inter-generational bonded labour in the farming community is no longer as common as before, the number of poor and landless workers who are in debt bondage is rising, particularly in agriculture, brick kilns and stone quarries, activists say. Indian farmers seldom own the land they cultivate, and often take loans to buy seeds and fertilisers. Only about one tenth of India's 263 million cultivators take out crop insurance because of the high premiums. Unpredictable weather and low crop yields have made farming unviable for many. Financial assistance provided by the government usually doesn't cover the losses, and some farmers have migrated to urban areas for low-paid jobs, even selling their blood to make ends meet. Tiwari, in a plan submitted to the Maharashtra government, has recommended direct cash subsidies for farmers instead of the current indirect agriculture credit. He also suggested the central and state governments help underwrite full crop insurance cover and promote the adoption of organic farming methods in drought-prone districts, to help restore soil quality and benefit from the higher price of organic produce, even though yields are lower. A total of 5,650 farmer suicides were recorded in India in 2014, more than half of them in Maharashtra, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. The states of Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chattisgarh and Karnataka also had large numbers of farmer suicides. The Cabinet last month cleared a proposal for the country's first major crop-damage insurance scheme. The government has said it will reduce premiums to be paid by farmers, and ensure faster settlements. Delays in estimating crop damage and paying claims are a big challenge, said Sunita Narain, director of non-profit Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi. The government must encourage the use of new technologies, including remote sensing and mobile-based image capturing systems to improve yield data and claims processing, she said. "Insurance coverage has to be universal and payouts enough to cover losses," she wrote in a blog. Farm output contributes about 15% to India's $2 trillion economy, and farmers and rural communities are a large and powerful vote bank. Politicians have often promised to waive farmers' loan repayments, but have not addressed the underlying reasons for their chronic indebtedness, Tiwari said. "Loan waivers are not the solution; it is like a simple dressing for a cancer tumour. You need to excise the tumour and address the cause of the disease," he said. observation,comments,dialog,history: CYPRUS; UN mitigation against foreign beligerance wanes, risking cultural extinction. my militancy for this Heritance. By Amanda Cooper LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Thursday on concerns about oversupply amid a slowing global economy, although strong U.S. gasoline demand helped limit losses. The lack of any immediate action by the world's largest exporters to follow through on a proposal to freeze production at January's levels also continued to undermine the market. Brent crude futures were down 45 cents, or more than 1 percent, at $33.96 a barrel at 0950 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 35 cents at $31.80 per barrel. "The basic overriding position in the oil market at the moment is that the global production exceeds global demand by quite a wide margin," said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst, CMC Markets. In a sign of the excess supply, U.S. crude stockpiles rose 3.5 million barrels last week to an all-time peak above 507 million barrels, data from the Department of Energy showed on Wednesday. A slowing global economy also risks hurting demand for oil and keeping prices very low. Citi cut its forecast for global economic growth this year to just 2.5 percent, from a previous forecast of 2.7 percent. "Global growth prospects are worsening further, with deterioration across advanced economies alongside previous weakness in emerging markets," Citi economists said in a research note. A boost for oil prices after Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar last week proposed to keep their output unchanged from January, provided other major OPEC and non-OPEC producers joined them, has since faded. Iran has already branded the idea "a joke", while Iraq, one of the largest contributors to rising OPEC output, has said it supports the freeze, but its production will continue to rise. "The underlying fundamentals are still bearish and the market is reacting this morning," PVM Oil Associates Tamas Varga said. There were some supportive indicators, though, that limited losses on Thursday. Strong U.S. demand for gasoline supported crude on Thursday, although analysts said this effect would ease. U.S. gasoline demand stood at 9.06 million barrels per day (bpd) during the week ending Feb. 19, up from 8.6 million bpd in the week ending Jan. 22, the Energy Department said. (Additional reporting by Manesha Pereira; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Susan Fenton) By Amanda Cooper LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Thursday, driven lower by concerns about oversupply in a slowing global economy, although strong U.S. gasoline demand helped limit losses. The lack of any action by the world's largest exporters to follow through on a proposal last week to freeze production at January's levels if others did too also weighed on prices. The proposal by Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar has been branded "a joke" by Iran, while Iraq, one of the largest contributors to rising OPEC output, has said it supports a freeze, but its production will continue to rise. Brent crude futures were down 37 cents at $34.04 a barrel at 1445 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 48 cents at $31.67 per barrel. "The basic overriding position in the oil market at the moment is that the global production exceeds global demand by quite a wide margin," Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said. In a sign of the excess supply, U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 3.5 million barrels last week to an all-time peak above 507 million barrels, Department of Energy data showed on Wednesday. A slowing global economy also risks hurting demand for oil and keeping prices very low. Citi economists, whose bank cut its forecast for global economic growth this year to just 2.5 percent from a previous forecast of 2.7 percent, said in a note: "Global growth prospects are worsening further, with deterioration across advanced economies alongside previous weakness in emerging markets." Some indicators, however, limited Thursday's losses. Weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday showed crude inventories rose to a fresh record high above half a billion barrels, but the figures also suggested output has fallen to about 9.1 million barrels per day, the same level as in October 2015. [EIA/D] "We would argue that the numbers are starting to show more credible evidence that the low prices are really starting to bite," consultant JBC Energy said in a note. "With U.S. output in decline and more reports of production shut-ins (albeit small ones) popping up around the globe, the volumes in question as well as the broader trends are starting to matter, especially from a seasonal perspective. While still only a scenario at this point, we see a credible chance that prices will at least temporarily rise to the $50 level over the next four months." (Additional reporting by Manesha Pereira; Editing by Susan Fenton and Alexander Smith) By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rallied as much as 3 percent on Wednesday with Brent prices helped by of stalled loadings for the United Kingdom's North Sea oil while U.S. crude futures rose after strong demand for gasoline offset worries about record high crude inventories. Some traders bet Brent and U.S. crude futures would fall in coming days as OPEC remained opposed to cutting output, and as U.S. refiners entered seasonal maintenance that causes a bigger buildup in crude stockpiles. Brent, the global benchmark for crude, settled up $1.14, or 3.4 percent, at $34.41 a barrel after market sources cited loading problems for North Sea crude. A supertanker chartered by oil trader Vitol to carry North Sea Forties to South Korea was unable to load at Hound Point, a marine terminal in Scotland, due to technical issues, traders and industry sources told . "If there are loading issues in the North Sea, that would partly explain Brent's outperformance today," said Matt Smith, who tracks crude loadings for Clipper Data in New York. U.S. crude futures settled up 28 cents, or nearly 1 percent, at $32.15 after gasoline demand rose more than 5 percent over the past four weeks compared with a year ago, government data showed. The strong gasoline numbers took attention away from U.S. crude stockpiles, which rose 3.5 million barrels last week to reach an all-time peak above 507 million barrels. Still, U.S. crude's discount to Brent widened to its most in 10 weeks, after trading at a premium to the UK benchmark just two months ago. [L2N1632J9] Some traders think crude prices will head lower in coming days and weeks after Saudia Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi ruled out output cuts in favour of a deal to freeze output at January's highs. "We feel it's just a matter of time before we break below $30 to the downside," said Tariq Zahir, fund manager at New York's Tyche Capital Advisors, who is wagering that nearby U.S. crude futures will weaken versus forward contracts. "The talk of a bottom having formed in crude prices will be proven wrong again for the umpteenth time." Oil has slid from more than $100 a barrel since mid-2014, pressured by excess supply and a decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to abandon its traditional role of cutting production to boost prices. The Saudi-led OPEC has stepped up diplomatic activity with other oil producers after crude prices hit 12-year lows last month. Venezuela's oil minister said a mid-March meeting was being planned to get more OPEC and non-OPEC producers to join the production freeze plan. Iran, which opposes any move to limit its oil output until its crude exports reach pre-sanction levels, has called the freeze plan "laughable." (Additional reporting by Alex Lawler and Ahmad Ghaddar in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Lisa Shumaker) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked lenders to spread out, in equal instalments, provisions they make when they take over troubled loan accounts under a special restructuring programme to deal with stressed assets. The asked to build up over four quarters provisions amounting to at least 15% of the loan for so-called strategic debt restructuring (SDR). In that programme, will swap part of the loan for majority ownership of a troubled company and then look for a new owner. Indian are coping with $117 billion of stressed loans. Critics say the SDR programme helped banks camouflage the scale of the problem, because they did not have to make extra provisions and they would struggle to sell the companies they were acquiring through debt-for-equity swaps Read more from our special coverage on "RBI" Banks should build provisions such that, by the end of the 18-month period from the reference date, they hold provision of at least 15 per cent of the residual loan," the said in a document posted on its website. Under other amendments to SDR announced on Thursday, the also said lenders will be required to sell at least 26% of the exchanged equity in a troubled company within 18 months to keep the loan's current classification. The revised rules will be applicable prospectively, the regulator said, but added it would be prudent for banks to follow the new rules in cases where they have already decided to undertake strategic debt restructuring. Among other changes, the RBI said half the banks in a joint lenders' forum can agree to initiate a "corrective action plan" on a trouble borrower. Previously that needed approval of 60% of the lenders by number in a lending group. A US federal judge will hold a hearing on Thursday that may offer the first details on any progress in settling over 500 lawsuits filed against AG, a top supplier and many current and former top executives over excess emissions in 580,000 US diesel vehicles. Late on Monday, lawyers representing owners filed a consolidated 719-page complaint against VW, supplier Robert Bosch GMBH, which helped develop emissions controls, along with VW's current and former CEOs and other executives, accusing them of racketeering, mail and wire fraud, among other misconduct. The plaintiffs are asking that VW be ordered to buy back vehicles that don't meet emissions standards, and pay "significant" damages. The suits have been consolidated before US District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco. Lawyers for VW, the Justice Department and owners plan to update Breyer on the "settlement process" Thursday. Breyer named former FBI director Robert Mueller to help reach a settlement. VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said the company hopes to resolve the lawsuits. "We support Judge Breyer's efforts, working through Director Mueller, to bring about a prompt and fair resolution of the civil litigation" she said. "We are also committed to resolving the US regulatory investigation as quickly as possible, as we focus on rebuilding trust." VW has admitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board it installed software that allowed diesel vehicles to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution in real world driving, but passed emissions tests. California and the EPA have declined to talk about the ongoing settlement talks. Ginivan said VW is "cooperating with the agencies." VW faces litigation filed by owners, including some who want VW to buyback vehicles, and auto dealers. VW has said it is considering buybacks. "This case arises out of one of the most brazen corporate crimes in history, a cautionary tale about winning at any cost," the complaint said. The US Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into VW's cheating and in January sued VW for up to $46 billion for allegedly violating environmental laws. The states of New Jersey, Texas, New Mexico and West Virginia have also sued VW. VW named lawyer Ken Feinberg in December to "develop an independent, fair and swift process for resolving these claims." But more than two months later, Feinberg hasn't announced any programme yet. The mutual fund (MF) sector wants the government to modify the definition of equity funds to cover those investing at least 50 per cent in equity instruments, from the present limit of 65 per cent. Reducing the threshold limit would ensure asset allocation products with equitable risks are promoted, leading to penetration of debt markets and promotion of real balanced portfolios. It will encourage more numbers of investors with lower risk appetite to invest in funds, goes a note sent by sector representatives to the finance ministry.. Read our full coverage on Union Budget 2016 Converting a tax break intended to get money into equities into one that will get money into MFs, including debt, might not be a step in the right direction, was the reservation of the head of one fund house. The sector has reiterated a demand that investment in retirement or pension schemes offered by MFs up to 1.5 lakh be allowed a tax exemption under Section 80CCD of the Income Tax Act, instead of section 80C, with exempt-exempt-exempt status. Accordingly, where there are matching contributions by an employer, the total of employer and employee contributions should be taken into account for calculating tax benefits under 80CCD. MFs want investments in equity-linked savings schemes to be re-incentivised, either by allowing a deduction of Rs 50,000 under a separate subsection or over and above the existing 80C limit of Rs 1.5 lakh. As of now, only those investing in the National Pension System can claim I-T deductions under 80CCD. Experts believe section 80C is overcrowded -- products such as EPF, PPF, life insurance premia, Ulips, tax saving fixed deposits and home loan repayment. The sector also wants intra-scheme switches, a switching of investment within the same scheme of an MF, to be exempt from capital gains tax. Currently, switching of investment in units from a growth option to dividend option (and vice versa) within the same scheme constitutes a 'transfer' under section 47 of the Act and is liable for this tax. MFs want the incidence of Securities Transaction Tax paid by them on sale of equity shares to be abolished or levied only at redemption by the investor. Investors are required to pay on both occasions. There is a need to include MF units redeemable after three years and whose underlying investments are into infrastructure assets under section 54EC, they contend. Under this section, tax exemption on long-term capital gains is available if these are invested in bonds issued by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development or the National Highways Authority of India, redeemable after three years. The sector believes there is a need for harmonising the tax treatment on investments in debt-oriented MFs and direct investments in debt securities. A direct investment in a listed debenture is treated as a long-term investment if held for more than 12 months. However, the holding period in a debt-oriented MF scheme has to be 36 months to be so regarded. There is also a demand for regarding any fund of funds investing 65 per cent or more of the corpus in equity instruments as equity oriented funds and taxed accordingly. The requests will help the sector to deepen its penetration, said Manoj Nagpal, chief executive, Outlook Asia Capital. One of the most important drivers for MFs will be SIPs (systematic investment plans) and it is unfortunate the sector hasnt demanded tax incentives for long-term SIPs. MF WISH LIST FOR BUDGET The otherwise technocratic Suresh Prabhu had to seek refuge in words more than numbers while presenting his second Railway . Alliterations, acronyms and poetry marked his speech as he comfortably skipped finer details. Banking on public-private partnerships (PPP) mode, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is looking at private sector for meeting increased capital expenditure. The government intends to set up dedicated freight corridor, port connectivity project, logistic park and warehouses, redevelopment of stations etc, through the PPP mode. In the current financial year, against the Estimates of Rs 5,781 crore through PPP, the Revised Estimates stand at Rs 27,269 crore. For 2016-17, the investment through PPP mode is estimated to be Rs 18,340 crore, 32 per cent less than the Revised Estimates in 2015-16. Railway has failed to meet the expectations of the people of Tamil Nadu, said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. The Chief Minister however appreciated the Railway Minister for sparing the common man and not levying any increase in the fares. The Chief Minister had set hope in two factors. "I do hope that with the enhanced capital and better project management practices being put in place, the railway projects currently under implementation in the State, including the double lining of the entire stretch from Villupuram to Kanniyakumari, would be completed speedily. Read our full coverage on Union Budget 2016 "The Railway for 2016-17 carried considerable weight of anticipation and apprehension. The Railway Minister seems to have been buffeted by the headwinds facing him in terms of the overall slowdown in the international economy and the possible impact of the 7th Pay Commission," said Jayalalithaa. "With no new trains and no new railway lines announced, the budget belied the sense of expectations nursed by many segments of the population. With the Railway Capital Expenditure expected to be stepped up substantially to Rs 1.21 lakh crores, it is surprising that no specific projects were announced, including several projects in Tamil Nadu which I had requested through my letter dated 11th February, 2016," she said. Read more from our special coverage on "RAIL BUDGET 2016" Rail Budget 2016 is a balance between growth, operation efficiency, says India Inc Rail Budget 2016: Counter tickets can be cancelled through cellphone BJP President Amit Shah lauds rail budget Rail Budget 2016: Earnings fall short of target by Rs 15k cr Rail Budget 2016: Govt targets new source of revenue, cost cuts She welcomed the announcement of the first ever Rail Auto Hub to be set up at Chennai, which would cement Chennai's position as a major automobile manufacturing centre not just in India but even internationally. While welcoming the announcement of the North-South Dedicated Freight Corridor from Delhi to Chennai, she said the proposed East Coast Corridor, which terminates in Vijayawada, ought to have been extended to Thoothukudi, which would have fulfilled Tamil Nadu's long standing request to create a Chennai-Thoothukudi dedicated freight corridor. She thanked the Railway Minister for announcing the upgradation of the Railway Stations at the pilgrim centres of Nagapattinam and Velankanni. But there are stations at many other important pilgrim centres that need similar upgradation, she said. "I would have been happy to hear a specific update on the Diamond Quadrilateral High Speed rail corridors, which were announced with considerable fanfare in last year's Railway Budget," said Jayalalithaa. Corporates have hailed the Railway Budget, saying freight corridors, long-term freight negotiations, container trains and connectivity to ports will go a long way to create a railway network of global standards. The Salvation Army is still seeking nominations for the 2016 D.J.'s Hero Scholarship Awards. Seven Nebraska high school seniors will be chosen to receive the award, named in honor of the late D.J. Sokol, for commitment to others and to their community. Nominations must be postmarked by Wednesday, March 2, 2016 to be eligible for entry. Forms are available at most Nebraska high school guidance offices, online at SalArmyOmaha.org or by calling 402-898-5906. Honorees receive a $10,000 scholarship toward their selected college or university. D.J.'s Heroes will be recognized at the D.J.'s Hero Awards Luncheon on May 10, 2016 at CenturyLink Center Omaha. Criteria for selecting honorees include: *Nebraska residency *High school senior *Commitment to others and to the community *Courage to act independently *Greatest achievement in life *Ability to overcome challenges/adversity Proceeds from the luncheon benefit Salvation Army programs for children and families. The 7.5 million commuters on Mumbais local trains have been spared a fare hike but they have not got any new trains on the suburban lines either. In the Railway on Thursday, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said all low platforms on the Mumbai suburban lines would be raised in the next financial year, to ensure better safety for passengers.. Read our full coverage on Union Budget 2016 But, no timeline was given for the completion of the projects. The minister also announced in-principle approval for the Rs 11,414-crore Mumbai Urban Transport Project III (MUTP-III), but again, did not provide any roadmap for it. The techno-economic feasibility study for the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus-Panvel high-speed corridor has already been completed. According to recommendations, the corridor should get a nine-car service, with a travel time of 45 minutes. The project would be completed by 2019, reducing the travel time from the current 77 minutes. Rites Limited presented an interim report to the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation, which will execute the project in association with the state government through a public-private partnership. The corridor will establish connectivity between south Mumbai and the Navi Mumbai International Airport. For the Churchgate-Virar corridor, the railway ministry has already completed a techno-economic feasibility study. The project would be implemented through a private sector partnership on design-build-finance-operate-transfer model. According to the study, it has been estimated that about 1.7 million passengers would use the corridor in 2019-20. The concessionaire will enjoy the freedom of setting tariff. Other sources of revenue could be commercial development and advertisement on the station building. MUTP-III comprises the Panvel-Diva-Vasai-Virar corridor, a fast one on the Harbour line, the laying of fifth and sixth lines between Borivali and Virar, between Diva and Thane, and the Kalwa-Airoli rail link. The projects are aimed at increasing the operational efficiency of Mumbai suburban services. Opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) criticised Prabhu for what they perceived to be neglect of the commuters. NCP Spokesman Nawab Malik said that the face hike was hidden. His party colleague and the Mumbai unit chief Sachin Ahir said the Railway has failed to impress the Mumbai commuters: There is nothing new in the . It is totally disappointing. The state BJP units representatives, however, claimed the Railway Budget would help boost economic growth. Shares of most railway-related companies, especially wagon manufacturers, lost ground after the presentation of the Railway on Thursday. While Texmaco Rail & Engineering, Titagarh Wagons and Kalindee Rail Nirman fell around eight per cent each, BEML, Hind Rectifiers, Kernex Microsystems and Stone India slipped four-six per cent. Also Read: Railway Budget 2016: Suresh Prabhu fails to take the bull by its horns This year's Railway Budget has taken a diverse course from last year. It has brought the freight sector into consideration which was missing last year. Prabhu has realised that without healthy growth in freight traffic, shoring up finances is well-nigh impossible. While the bulk of the speech concentrated on passenger amenities and digital connect with them, the real direction came when the minister spelt out three steps he proposed to increase the freight output of the Railways. It would have been better if the exercise for revising the tariff structure had been initiated well in advance to be incorporated in this Budget. Let us hope that this exercise will be completed without any delay to reap the benefit in the lean season - from June to September. India and UK institutions to collaborate for crop sciences research The collaboration will create opportunities for leading experts in the UK and India to come together to tackle global challenges in the areas of food security, crop science and biotechnology The collaboration will create opportunities for leading experts in the UK and India to come together to tackle global challenges in the areas of food security, crop science and biotechnology Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under the Ministry of Science and Technology, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a consortium of top UK research institutions for establishment of a joint India-UK collaboration programme in crop science. The aim of the agreement is to enhance collaborative research, promote knowledge exchange, and support capacity building to develop resilience in food security. The agreement was signed by Prof K Vijay Raghavan (Secretary, DBT), Sir Leszek Borysiewicz (vice chancellor of University of Cambridge) and Nafees Meah of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) of UK. It was also signed by representatives from the National Institute for Agricultural Botany (NIAB), in Cambridge; the John Innes Centre, UK; the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, UK; and Rothamsted Research Institute UK. Prof Leszek Borysiewicz said, This collaboration builds on the close links already established between leading researchers in the UK and India and is another great example of both countries commitment to growing our partnerships in translational and applied research. Prof K Vijay Raghavan added, The UK has been a long-standing partner with the Government of India in science and technology and the collaboration has grown from strength to strength. Our partners are the best in the UK and together we can be the best anywhere, working together to address a key global problem. This collaboration will create opportunities for leading experts in the UK and India to come together to tackle global challenges in the areas of food security, crop science and biotechnology. All parties agreed on the importance of crop science as an area of enormous potential for scientific collaboration, and of great importance for global food security in India and beyond. The agreement foresees joint projects focusing on the fundamental science underpinning yield enhancement, disease resistance and drought resistance; research into crop re-breeding; and the translation of fundamental research into sustainable agriculture practice. It also contemplates the establishment of a joint Indo-UK Plant Science Centre in India. BS B2B Bureau CCEA gives nod for Rs 10,700 crore railway projects Approvals include construction of six railway lines and a railway bridge to cater to both increased passenger and freight needs in various areas of the country Approvals include construction of six railway lines and a railway bridge to cater to both increased passenger and freight needs in various areas of the country The Cabinet Committee of Econmic Affairs on February 17, 2016 approved construction of six railway lines and a railway bridge to cater to both increased passenger and freight needs in various areas of the country. The proposals will cost over Rs 10,700 crore and most part of the expenditure will be met through extra budgetary resources (institutional financing). Six approved projects include doubling of Hubli-Chickajur railway line; construction of Wardha (Sewagram)-Ballarshah third railway line; doubling of Ramna-Singrauli railway line; construction of third railway line between Anuppur-Katni; doubling of Katni-Singrauli railway line; and construction of additional bridge & doubling project of Rampur Dumra-Tal-Rajendrapul. Doubling of 190 km long Hubli-Chickajur broad gauge single railway line, with estimated expenditure of Rs 1294.13 crore, is likely to be completed in 4 years & 3 months years during 13th Plan period and will cover the areas of Chitradurga, Davangere, Haveri and Dharwad. This stretch is part of an important rail link of passenger trains between Mumbai and Bangalore and goods trains to the ports at Mangalore. The project to construct Wardha (Sewagram) Ballarshah third railway line of 132 km, involving Rs 1443.32 crore investment, is likely to be completed in five years and will be located in Wardha and Chandrapur districts. This project is very important from goods originating point of view of Nagpur Division where many collieries and many sidings are proposed on the section. Doubling of 160 km long Ramna-Singarauli railway line has been approved at a cost Rs.2675.64 crore and is likely to be completed by 2019-20. The Ramna-Singrauli section falls in Dhanbad Division of East Central Railway. At present traffic utilisation of the section is 105 percent, resulting in detention of trains and loss of revenue. In order to attain the desired fluidity and increase in the sectional capacity, doubling of this single line section is very essential from operational point of view. Railways will spend Rs 1595.76 crore for construction of 165 km long third railway line between Anuppur-Katni in Madhya Pradesh. The project is likely to be completed in 5 years and 3 months spanning over 12th and 13th plan period. The project would cover the districts of Anuppur, Shahdol, Umaria and Katni districts of Madhya Pradesh. With anticipated increase of freight traffic, the capacity utilisation on this section will reach upto 175 percent. In order to meet the growth in the freight and passenger traffic, tripling of third line between Anuppur-Katni is essential. Construction of doubling of 261 km long Katni-Singarauli railway, with a cost of Rs 2084.90 crore, will be completed in 5 years & 3 months. Katni-Singrauli is a critical and busy section carrying coal from Northern Coal Fields towards Western and Northern thermal power plants. Provision of doubling between Katni-Singrauli section would provide the necessary line capacity for introduction of additional mail/express and passenger trains to serve the people of the area and transportation of coal from collieries. This will also boost overall development of the region. Construction of additional bridge and doubling project of Rampur Dumra-Tal-Rajendrapul sector in Bihar, involving cost of Rs 1700.24 crore, is likely to be completed by 2019-20. The project is located in Begusarai and Patna districts of Bihar. At present this is the only railway bridge connecting both North and South Bihar. Existing single line has resulted in heavy detention of goods and passenger traffic. In order to streamline the operation of traffic in this single line section, it is very essential that one additional bridge and doubling of this section is undertaken. BS B2B Bureau Railways to give top priority to finish dedicated freight corridor project For reversing the trend of declining modal share of freight trains, Railway Budget proposes to expand freight basket of Indian Railways, rationalise tariff structure and build terminal capacity For reversing the trend of declining modal share of freight trains, Railway Budget proposes to expand freight basket of Indian Railways, rationalise tariff structure and build terminal capacity Railway Minister will give top priority for completing Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project, Indias ambitious attempt to reform freight transport. Stating this in his railway budget speech, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said, The Dedicated Freight Corridor project, the largest infrastructure project in the country, is gaining momentum. It is proposed to take up three freight corridors - North-South connecting Delhi to Chennai, East-West connecting Kharagpur to Mumbai & East Coast connecting Kharagpur to Vijayawada - on high priority to ensure structuring, award and implementation in a time-bound manner through innovative financing mechanisms including PPP. Before the closing of this financial year, Minister plans to award almost all the contracts for civil engineering works. Prabhu said, Given the emphasis on rapid expansion of freight business, it is essential to build more dedicated freight corridors for increased traffic with consequent benefits for the economy and environment. Since assuming the office, contracts worth Rs 24,000 crore have been awarded against Rs 13,000 crore worth of contracts in the last 6 years. For reversing the trend of declining modal share of freight trains, Suresh Prabhu has proposed to expand freight basket of Indian Railways, rationalise tariff structure and build terminal capacity. The freight basket of Indian Railways is dominated by 10 bulk commodities which enjoy a share of around 88 percent. Indian Railways will have to look beyond these to expand revenue base. The Ministry is currently undertaking a full-fledged market study to assess supply and demand scenarios, service level and infrastructure requirements so that an action plan to re-capture that traffic through either containerisation or new delivery models, eg, roll-on roll-off, will be developed and implemented. Network capacity limitations do not allow for running of time-tabled freight trains but from this year a time-tabled freight container, parcel and special commodity trains will be started on a pilot basis. Prabhu also said that the container sector would be opened to all traffic barring coal and specified mineral ores and part-loads would be permitted during the non-peak season. All existing terminals/sheds would be granted access to container traffic, where considered feasible. He said that the current tariff structure of Indian Railways has led to out-pricing of freight services. A review of tariff policy will be undertaken to evolve a competitive rate structure vis a vis other modes, permit multi-point loading/unloading and apply differentiated tariffs to increase utilisation of alternate routes. The possibility of signing long term tariff contracts with our key freight customers using pre-determined price escalation principles will be explored which would provide predictability of revenues to Indian Railways and of costs to customers, Prabhu added. BS B2B Bureau SHOWCASING INDIA WHAT: India Exhibition Lahore 2016 WHEN: February 26-28, Lahore, Pakistan WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The exhibition aims to apprise Pakistani companies about Indian products with the aim to boost bilateral trade between the neighbours. Expect an exhibition showcasing some of India's best technologies and products as well as B2B meetings between companies for trade and possible joint ventures. ARMING THE ARMY WHAT: Joint Military and Industry Interaction Roundtable Series WHEN: February 24, New Delhi WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The series organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Indian Army to promote discussions regarding the Army's manufacturing needs with the industry. The sessions will be joined by India's Army's brass including DG (Perspective Planning), DG (Army Air Defence), DG (Mechanised Forces), DG (Infantry), DG (Artillery), DG (Army Aviation) and DDG (Directorate of Indigenisation), besides defence PSU chiefs, DRDO officials as well as SMEs. SMART MANUFACTURING WHAT: TN Manufacturing Summit WHEN: February 24, Chennai WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The seventh edition of the event is themed around Smart Manufacturing. Participants will share their experiences on smart factories (using new materials and techniques to produce faster through automation and digitisation); policy and regulation, and job creation and value addition. TEA TIME WHAT: 4th Indian Tea Forum WHEN: February 26-27, Siliguri WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The forum brings together various stakeholders from the tea industry, including producers, wholesalers, packagers, distributors, brokers, warehousing suppliers, start-ups and tea entrepreneurs. Participants can expect discussions around online marketing, digital branding and promotion, greater value addition in tea production and higher price realisation. There is also a buyer-seller meet. UNSHACKLING WOMEN WHAT: 2016 Women's Empowerment Principles WHEN: March 15-16, New York WHAT TO LOOK FOR: On the occasion of the International Womens' Day, the annual event brings together women entrepreneurs, business leaders, civil society, government and UN officials to discuss principles of diversity and to unleash the potential of women. The panel discussions are around how various companies around the world implement women empowerment principles in accordance with new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), set forth in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A Financial Times publication which provides a highly credible benchmark for assessing the investment landscape across Europe has placed Dublin third in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rankings. The software and IT sector accounted for 45% of all of the Dublins FDI from 2010-2014 and several major US tech companies have now got a presence in Dublin. As a region, Dublin was also ranked as being the best Small European Region of the Future and as being the Best Small European Region for Economic Potential and for Business Friendliness. According to the report, the appeal of Ireland for foreign direct investment is enhanced by an attractive tax system and government agencies such as the Industrial Development Agency (IDA), Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) network which provide companies and start-ups with vital support and financial aid. The report also claims that the citys thriving start-up community, combined with its strong local ecosystem for entrepreneurship, also make it an ideal location from which to set up and grow, a business. Greg Swift, Head of Enterprise, Local Enterprise Office Dublin City says, "In addition to being the only English speaking country in the Eurozone, the business climate that has been created is very favourable and this is evidenced by Dublin being the second best Major European City for Business Friendliness in these rankings. The strong infrastructure for FDI which exists in the city and region enhances the ease with which companies can establish themselves in Dublin." The European City of the Future report shows that Dublin is home to: 9 of the worlds top 10 technology companies 50% of the worlds top banks 250 global financial institutions 10 of the worlds top 20 insurance companies 9 of the worlds top 10 pharmaceutical companies 17 of the worlds top medical technology companies Source: www.businessworld.ie About us A group of Nebraskans who want voters to uphold the Legislatures repeal of the death penalty kicked off a statewide education campaign Wednesday. The group scheduled a news conference at the Capitol to launch the campaign and unveil its new name: Retain a Just Nebraska. The name change from Nebraskans for Public Safety reflects the action needed to support the death penalty repeal (LB268) passed last session, said spokesman Dan Parsons. Support for abolishing the death penalty is diverse, he said, and includes fiscal conservatives, law enforcement officials, faith leaders and murder victims families. Senators won a hard-fought battle in passing a repeal bill introduced by Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, one he had introduced 37 times during his tenure in the Legislature. The bill advanced through three rounds of debate, was vetoed by Gov. Pete Ricketts, and then senators voted to override the veto. Before the repeal could go into effect, Nebraskans for the Death Penalty launched a petition drive to stop the repeal until Nebraska voters could weigh in in November on whether or not the state should continue to have capital punishment. Now those who supported the repeal want voters to endorse it. After eight years of listening to the arguments in the Legislature, both for and against the death penalty, Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash worked last session to persuade senators repeal was the best choice. He wants Nebraska voters to get the same information that helped him reach his conclusions, he said. When he arrived to the Legislature in 2009, he said, senators voted to change the method of execution to lethal injection, and promises were made that the last barrier to beginning executions was gone. Each year that went by, however, those promises were buried deeper and deeper with continuing, expensive appeals and increasing difficulty in obtaining lethal injection drugs, he said. Nebraska hasnt executed a condemned inmate since 1997. Ten men are currently sentenced to death in Nebraska. No matter how the November vote turns out, Coash said, executions still will not happen. He is featured in the groups first online advertisement that was to premier Wednesday on YouTube. Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld also is part of the anti-death penalty campaign. The state should lead by example, he said. If were going to condemn killing people, we also should not kill people. Locking away a person for life for the crime of murder both serves justice and safeguards the community, he said. Miriam Kelle, whose brother James Thimm was tortured and killed by Michael Ryan, believes the death penalty causes additional harm to victims families, she said. Ryan never was executed, but rather spent three decades on Nebraskas death row before dying of cancer in May. With the death penalty, there is no finality for victims families, Kelle said. We are promised a punishment, and then made to wait for it. For years and years, the scabs are ripped off over and over. Parsons said the message for voters about how Nebraskas capital punishment system fails to work will be carried by people directly affected by it. The campaign has a new website that can be found at retainajustnebraska.com. UPS and The Burren Smokehouse today hosted an event featuring expert advice and solutions for small business owners on how to grow their footprint internationally. Attendees were presented with an opportunity to hear from UPS experts on how their collaboration with The Burren Smokehouse has helped the family-run Clare business to capture the full benefit of growth opportunities abroad. Local business operators were also able to speak with the UPS team about their business and the steps that are required to improve customer experience in the domestic and global market. The Burren Smokehouse signed a contract with global logistics company UPS in August 2015 as part of plans to broaden its overseas footprint and to ensure the Lisdoonvarna company's products sold online can be efficiently delivered to their customers in Ireland and overseas. Source: www.businessworld.ie Irish print management and digital design company, Custodian, are celebrating 24 years in business this week at their offices in Lesson St, Dublin. The company provides services to clients such as Irish Distillers, eir, Trocaire, Laya Healthcare, An Post and Trinity College. They manage a range of services from initial design right through to the procurement, management of print production, logistics and delivery of finished goods to customers. Custodian has seen their turnover increase threefold since 2006 and they employ staff of over 50 people. The business has grown to become one of Ireland's leading production houses in the area of print media, graphic design and associated digital services with an annual turnover of 18m. Commercial Director of Custodian, Alan Brogan this week commented, "In building the brand Custodian, our core values have stood to us well, resulting in our strong record of retaining clients, renewal of contracts and building a business of 18m with optimism of further growth of 15%. "We are continually striving to expand our capabilities and investment in new systems and new technologies that will ensure better outcomes and greater savings for our clients." Source: www.businessworld.ie About us BT will have to open up more of its network to rivals and meet tougher targets on fixing faults, British regulators said on Thursday, but stopped short of recommending that Britain's biggest telecoms group be split up. Ofcom said BT should reduce its grip on the network that provides broadband to millions of homes, both through BT's own services and those of rivals. Competitors including TalkTalk, Vodafone and Sky, which rely on BT's Openreach network to deliver broadband, wanted the regulator to recommend that Openreach should be spun off, saying it did not have enough incentive to improve networks and service while it remained part of BT. Ofcom stopped short of recommending a split but did not rule it out in future. Ofcom Chief Executive Sharon White said: "Today we've announced fundamental reform of the telecoms market - more competition, a new structure for Openreach, tougher performance targets, and a range of measures to boost service quality." BT has strongly defended its record of investing in broadband through Openreach. On Tuesday, BT Chief Executive Gavin Patterson promised to deliver more, including extra investment in fibre lines into people's homes and businesses, but only if Openreach remained part of BT. Ofcom recommended BT should open up its infrastructure so rivals can lay their own fibre lines, and the governance of the unit should be overhauled. "The new model might require Openreach to become a ring-fenced, 'wholly-owned subsidiary' of BT Group, with its own purpose and board members," Ofcom said. "If necessary, Ofcom reserves the right to require BT to spin off Openreach as an entirely separate legal entity, with its own shareholders." (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie Moscow has stated that among its defense and security priorities for 2016, Central Asia and the South Caucasus will top its agenda. Kavkaz 2016, the main strategic military exercise of the year, will take place in the Southern Military District (MD), while Tsentr 2015 occurred in Central MD with among its vignettes a rehearsal of intervention in Central Asia. Surprisingly in this context, the Defense Ministry plans to restructure the 201st Base in Tajikistan from divisional to brigade status. This initiative is driven by Moscows growing concerns about the future of Central Asian security as it faces multiple potential threats stemming from Afghanistan and Islamic State (ISIS). But paradoxically, Moscows latest moves to strengthen the basing of its forces in Tajikistan serves as an indicator of official perceptions that the region could suffer a serious security challenge. BACKGROUND: A key feature of Moscows drive to boost Central Asian security, tied to its threat assessment as indicated in the 2015 National Security Strategy and its 2014 Military Doctrine, is linked to ongoing efforts to further strengthen the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Moscow also works through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and on a bilateral basis with its partners and allies in the region. Some of these efforts contain novelty and offer evidence that the Kremlin may struggle to activate the CSTO as cover for Russian military or security operations. Yet in early February 2016, despite previously declared efforts to increase troop numbers based in Tajikistan, Colonel-General Vladimir Zarudnitsky, the Commander of Central MD, announced that the 201st Base would transition to brigade status. This implied a radical reduction in Russian military personnel numbers, seemingly contradicting the official Russian defense and security narrative about an increased threat level to Central Asia. Indeed, in April 2015, Major-General Yevgeny Tubol, the Commander of the 201st Base stated that the troop numbers there would increase over a five year period from 5,900 to 9,000. Tubol directly linked this boost in numbers to the impact of the NATO drawdown from Afghanistan with anti-government forces recapturing territory and elements of the local fighters announcing they had joined forces with ISIS. While Russian defense officials consistently expounded an increased threat narrative, and sought to reassure their Tajik counterparts as well as offering to insert Russian border troops on the Tajik-Afghan border and actively using multilateral frameworks, the 201st structure was changing. By November 2015, the 149th Motorized Rifle Regiment was relocated from southern Khatlon Region to Lyaur 25 kilometers south of Dushanbe. The Central MD leadership justified this movement of Russian force elements away from the vicinity of Tajik-Afghan border on the basis of increasing the combat readiness and capacity-building of the 201st Base. IMPLICATIONS: For many observers, the contradiction appeared all too apparent, especially when compared with plans to create three divisions in the Western MD as part of a restructuring of the 20th Combined Arms Army. Alexander Golts, deputy editor of Yezhednevny Zhurnal, highlighted the military dialectic the Defense Ministry is securing Russias Western border against NATO by using divisions and increasing military personnel numbers, while simultaneously taking the opposite course of action to handle the credible potential threat facing the Central MD by downsizing to a brigade structure. However, despite these twists in Russian defense planning, there are grounds to see the changes in Tajikistan as a reflection of actual security concerns. The unravelling of the contradiction at the heart of these initiatives lies in the origins of Moscows military restructuring in recent years, its involvement in conflict, and the distinctions in the differing possible theaters of operations. During the reform of the Armed Forces in 2008-12, Russia abolished its reliance on mass mobilization, which was at best a theoretical capacity. It instead transitioned from a division-based to a brigade-based structure, jettisoning the old skeleton or cadre units mostly existing only on paper and attempted to boost combat readiness by fully manning smaller brigades. These were also viewed as more adaptable and faster to use in times of crises. However, following the appointment of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in November 2012, a number of the older divisions were restored. These units nevertheless failed to reach fully manned divisions and existed in name only, mainly in an effort to restore officer confidence and demonstrate that the new defense leadership respected Russian military tradition and culture. Likewise, the promise of division status and boosted numbers for the 201st Base, which was previously designated as the 201st Motorized Rifle Division, no doubt also struggled to reach its target numbers. Moreover, the shift in the security environment occurring rapidly in this period persuaded Moscow that the 201st Base must be able to react fast to a crisis in the country, while the General Staff could see that small numbers of Russian regular forces had effectively assisted in destabilizing Ukraine. The conundrum is solved by reference to the General Staff understanding that conflict on Russias Western border would differ greatly from the smaller scale militant or insurgency threat from the south. Although the restructuring of the 201st Base confirms an increased anxiety over Central Asian security, there is no parallel increase in the tempo of military and security exercises or operations. Tsentr 2015 involved the CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Forces (KSOR), which conducts joint exercises annually, simulating intervention to interdict terrorist or militants groups. But there are also novelties, such as the plans to stage the CSTOs first exclusively intelligence-based exercise in Tajikistan in April 2016, or operation Illegal 2016 that will target illegal migration, with mechanisms being formed to share information on migrant levels in Central Asia and possible security implications. Moreover, CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha has revealed that talks are underway to form a CSTO crisis response center. While Russian defense officials portray Central Asia as a potential theater of operations in response to Islamic militant activity, regional governments are more cautious. Dushanbe, for instance, shares concern about cross border activity, but so far restricts its response to creating special reconnaissance units to beef up border security rather than turning to Moscow for greater help. CONCLUSIONS: There remains widespread speculation about the future of Afghanistan and its impact on Central Asias security, including the risks presented by CIS recruits to ISIS returning to their homelands. Russian and Central Asian experts have nuanced and divergent views on these issues that do not necessarily correspond to the level of security risk commonly represented in official Russian security documents and discourse. Nonetheless, the General Staffs priorities are different. It is no doubt anxious about the commitment of forces and logistical support, though on comparatively small scales, to Donbas and Syria; both of which still present conflict escalation risks. In these circumstances Moscow must prioritize scarce resources, including its military potential, and contingency plan for worst case scenarios in Central Asia. Restructuring the base in Tajikistan is one element in this developing strategy, as are efforts to strengthen security capacities in the region through multilateral and bilateral mechanisms. Yet, Russias intervention in Syria, in so far as it was tied to combating ISIS, suggests that Russia might be willing to act preemptively in certain circumstances in Central Asia if it judges there to be a possible threat to Russian security. AUTHORS BIO: Roger N. McDermott is an Affiliated Senior Analyst, Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen and an Advisory Scholar: Military Affairs, Center for Research on Canadian-Russian Relations (CRCR) Georgian College Ontario, Canada. Image Attribution: www.themoscowtimes.com, accessed on Feb 25, 2016 Iranian filmmaker Ahmad Farahani: "I could not tell myself the lie" Published on February 25, 2016 Story by Angelo Boccato en it pl es fr de Last October, during the Festival Internazionale in Ferrara, northern Italy, the Iranian journalist and filmmaker Ahmad Jalali Farahani presented an expose on the crackdown on journalists in Iran through a screening of his 2014 documentary We are Journalists. We sat down with the director to discuss his work. The suppression of journalists in Iran began after Mahmoud Ahmadinejads rise to power in 2005 and continued following his second electoral victory against Mir-Hossein Mousavi in 2009. This victory was overshadowed by allegations of electoral fraud, leading to massive protests, brutally repressed by the countrys security forces. Farahani s documentary depicts a state of constant intimidation, under which Iranian journalists are force to live with the danger of arrest, imprisonment, violent beatings, torture and exile. The Director experienced this brutality first-hand, when he was imprisoned in 2010. After experiencing these threats, his family migrated to Denmark, where he has been living ever since. The director, who also has experience as both a stage and screen actor, has no doubts about the value of freedom of speech and journalism: Freedom of speech is very important for the freedom of the world, not just in Iran and in the Middle East. We are Journalists is a film about the meaning of real journalism. Ive lost my job, my future; the regime seized my home and bank account.Everything. Why? I could not tell myself the lie. We have two kinds of journalism in Iran, real journalism and fashionable journalism. If you say that you are a real journalist in Iran, you may face torture, jail and a process of isolation." He explains how more than 150 journalists left Iran after 2009 and more than 300 more lost their jobs. Ahmadinejads regime banned the Association of Iranian Journalists and a lot of newspapers have also been closed since 2009. The state of repression is continuing today, under the government of Hassan Rohani. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists 2015 Prison Census, Iran ranks third for having the highest number of detained journalists, in a list that includes Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain, Eritrea and Saudi Arabia. One of the strengths of the documentary is the fact that the director does not provide a distanced viewpoint on these processes of repression, but rather that of a witness within the country itself. During our conversation Farahani discusses Ahmad Zeidabadi, the first journalist exiled to a remote region of Iran since the Revolution of 1979. Specifically, he was sent to Gonabad, in the north-eastern Razavi Khorasan province. Zeidabadi is a well-known Iranian journalist who was arrested in June 2009, shortly after Ahmadinejads re-election. He was sentenced in November of the same year to six years in prison, five years in exile and a complete ban from political and journalistic activities as quoted by Reporters without Borders. UN experts called on Iran to stop the intimidation of journalists ahead of parliamentary elections last November, following the arrest of five journalists. In the same month, Reyhaneh Tabatabaei, a reporter and political activist, was sentenced to one years imprisonment for spreading propaganda against the regime. The complex architecture of power in the Islamic Republic is the key to understanding the power struggle that is currently occurring, and its domestic effects in the context of this weeks elections, set to be held on the 26th of February. These consultations will elect, for the first time, both the Islamic Consultative Assembly, also called the Islamic Parliament, and the Assembly of Experts, composed by theologians charged with electing, removing and supervising the Supreme Leader of Iran. In the context of the Iranian political scenario, Farahani is critical of Western attitudes: Western countries, like the UK, hope that they can support some moderate party inside Iran in order to change the political situation in the country. That is not a good decision. If Western countries think it could forward their agenda, this is not true. Reformist and moderate political parties in Iran have no power, no money The exclusion of the moderate cleric Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, from the list of candidates for the Assembly of Experts in Iran, along with other moderate and reformist candidates, supports this argument. Farahani argues that external organisations should opt for supporting internal actors in Iran: [Western pressure groups, NGOs, etc] should remember that any change should come from inside Iran. Of course, they should support Iranian journalists outside of the country, but they should also connect with journalists and human rights activists inside it and push their own politicians to talk very seriously about human rights and not just about nuclear deals. [The Iranian people] are tired of revolution, he concludes, We can see what has happened in Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, and other countries around us. I dont want to talk to intellectuals in the West but with normal, ordinary people. If the world wants to change the behaviour of the Iranian regime then they should support us because we are journalists. Story by Angelo Boccato Contributed photo Atmosphere will play in Corpus Christi at House of Rock on Friday as part of the Welcome to Texas Tour. SHARE Contributed photo Minnesota based hip-hop band Atmosphere is formed by rapper Sean Daley, aka Slug, and DJ and producer Ant. The band will play at House of Rock Friday as part of the Welcome to Texas Tour. By Natalia Contreras of the Caller-Times Jarrod Lerma, 23, knew if he wanted to see Atmosphere live, he'd have to travel out of town or even out of state. That's why in December, when House of Rock officials announced a show in Corpus Christi for Friday, he did not think twice about buying a ticket. The Minnesota independent hip-hop band formed of rapper Sean Daley, aka Slug, and DJ and producer Ant are back in Texas after about two years. However, this time they won't only visit the major cities like Dallas, Austin and Houston but as part of their Welcome to Texas Tour they have included Lubbock, San Antonio, El Paso and Corpus Christi. In February 2011 the band began the Welcome to Minnesota Tour where they would drive around Minnesota and play at all of the cities that they would not typically play at, Daley said "People that would want to see the show would have to drive three to six hours ...," Daley said. "So we said, what if drove to those towns? And it was phenomenal. After five years we decided to try other states." Lerma said what he loves most about the band is the storytelling style and the way the lyrics can be personal and yet universal. "The first album I listened to was Seven Travels," Lerma said. "I like how he brings stories of things he has been through. Those lyrics speak to you in a personal level." A few of Atmosphere's most well known singles include "Sunshine," "Modern Man's Hustle," "God Loves Ugly," "Give Me," "The Woman with The Tattooed Hands," "Smart Went Crazy," "Trying to Find A Balance," "Just For Show" and "Kanye West." David Villarreal Jr. said he has been holding on to his ticket like it's part of him. "This is a whole different show to ever come to Corpus Christi," Villarreal said. "I told everyone who has heard at least one Atmosphere song that they have to be there." Daley said the crowd can expect a little bit of everything Friday but mostly a lot of fun. "We've never been the kind of band that focuses on the new album," Daley said. "Our focus is to make a good time. We make a lot of different kind of noises but our focus is usually to try and have a good time and offer some smiles." Twitter: @CallerNatalia IF YOU GO What: Atmosphere Welcome to Texas Tour When: 7 p.m. Friday Where: House of Rock, 511 Starr St. Cost: $20/tickets available in advance only Information: texashouseofrock.com Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Siham Ashour decorates Wednesday for the upcoming 3rd annual International Food Festival which will be Saturday at the Islamic Society of Southern Texas. This year, the festival will feature a Bedouin-style tent in the center where the vendors will be located. SHARE Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Siham Ashour decorates Wednesday for the upcoming 3rd annual International Food Festival which will be Saturday at the Islamic Society of Southern Texas. This year, the festival will feature a Bedouin-style tent in the center where the vendors will be located. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Nada Alqadi decorates Wednesday for the upcoming 3rd annual International Food Festival which will be Saturday at the Islamic Society of Southern Texas. Foods from about 10 countries will be available during the festival. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Siham Ashour decorates Wednesday for the upcoming 3rd annual International Food Festival which will be Saturday at the Islamic Society of Southern Texas. The festival is an opportunity to learn about Islamic culture. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Siham Ashour decorates Wednesday for the upcoming 3rd annual International Food Festival which will be Saturday at the Islamic Society of Southern Texas. Foods from about 10 countries will be available during the festival. By Rachel Denny Clow of the Caller-Times An annual food festival Saturday isn't just about the food. With "Get to know your Muslim neighbor" 30-minute information sessions with Imam Mohamed Elghobashy the Islamic Society of Southern Texas' 3rd annual International Food Festival will educate people about Islam and give them an opportunity to ask questions. "The food is a draw, but once people are here the curiosity comes out," said organizer Fiona Tagari, organizer. Foods from about 10 countries will be represented at the festival and a variety of vendors will have goods for sale. This year, there will also be a henna artist, children's parade and a visit from the Corpus Christi Police Department's mobile museum and SWAT team. "Besides the variety of food, we have food items that we have never had in Corpus Christi before," Tagari said. "If you haven't been here before, come for the food. There are also so many other activities." Parking at the mosque, Abulqasim Masjid, is limited, but shuttles will transport people from the parking lot at 701 Nile Road. In addition, road construction on McArdle Road has reduced traffic to one-way. Twitter: @CallerClow IF YOU GO What: International Food Festival When: noon to 5 p.m. Saturday Where: Islamic Society of Southern Texas, 7341 McArdle Road Cost: Admission free; food and vendor prices vary Information: www.facebook.com/ISSTFestival Caller-Times file The whooping crane Festival offers participants the rare opportunity to view the endangered whooping crane in its natural habitat. SHARE By Esther Hackleman, Esther.M.Hackleman@caller.com Aviary enthusiasts flocking to Port Aransas can participate in various events throughout the four-day whooping crane Festival, including educational speakers, workshops, and environmental tours celebrating the wildlife of the Gulf Coast. What started as a small environmental awareness program in Rockport in 1997 has flourished into an annual attraction. "It has just grown with each passing year," Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Ann Vaughan said. "It's much more of an educational and conservation-minded festival." Organizers expect 2,500 to 3,000 people to this year's event. "The No. 1 reason we want people to come to Port Aransas is to discover what a wonderful location Port Aransas is," Vaughan said. Port Aransas is such an ideal birding location that it has attracted visitors from Canada, Australia and China who have preregistered for this year's festival. Birders can easily see up to 100 species of birds, Vaughan said. This year, the whooping crane Festival will host several special events to create awareness about the endangered whooping crane that winters in the Coastal Bend. One of those events is the internationally recognized photography of artist Zhongjie Zheng, who chronicles the life cycle of Siberian cranes in China. The art exhibit will remain on display through Monday, and Zheng will speak at a special Friday evening reception at the Port Aransas Art Center. New to the festival is the Wine, Whine and Design event, a Thursday evening painting class for amateur and seasoned artists to create their own whooping crane on a 16- by 20-inch canvas. The $50 class fee includes painting materials and will be used as a donation for the Port Aransas Art Center. The festival also will host guided field trips for visitors to experience birding, dolphin watching and environmental photography in addition to the multiple guest speakers. Carter Smith, the executive director of Texas Parks and Wildlife, will kick off speaking portions of festival at 9 a.m. Friday. "People would learn much more about not only the endangered whooping crane but also other nature related topics from the various speakers we have," Vaughan said. Twitter:@Caller_Esther IF YOU GO What: whooping crane Festival When: Friday-Sunday Where: Port Aransas Civic Center, 710 W. Avenue A Cost: $20 entry; activity prices vary Information: 361-749-5919, www.whoopingcranefestival.org photos by Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Pilar Roussell (from left), 14, Aleeyha Saenz, 9, and Audrey Moralez, 14, take a photo with signs at Premont Elementary School showing what they want to be when they grow up. The tailgate party was hosted by Texas A&M University-Kingsville. SHARE Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Amber Garcia (left), 8, and Havannah Lopez, 10, hula hoop during a tailgate party in Premont. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Melissa Cantu, a cheerleader for the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Javelinas, performs a cheer during a tailgate party at Premont Elementary School on Monday. By Beatriz Alvarado of the Caller-Times Through a partnership with Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Premont ISD can now afford to address one of its biggest academic barriers: mental health issues among students. "Premont is really a microcosm of the entire situation of all school districts because the mental health component is often ignored. It's hard to get a kid to learn, to focus ... if they haven't eaten in a while. Or if they are dealing with depression," said Steve Bain, associate professor and chair of the university's educational leadership and counseling department. "As we address academic issues, we cannot ignore the fact these students are holistic in their makeup and not just brain and body." The Texas Education Agency gave Premont ISD a reprieve from closure in 2013, and the district formed a partnership with A&M-Kingsville to improve academics. The rural school district of about 500 students weathered its second closure threat this past December. Alliance leaders from the district and university met for a quarterly assembly on Wednesday to share progress by implemented programs. The first partnership of its kind in the state provided guidance for Premont to win a nearly $2 million grant in 2014, and this year Premont won a 5-year, $5 million grant to continue initiatives the 2014 grant started. In addition to paying the salaries of eight highly specialized teachers to train and mentor less experienced teachers and teacher performance bonuses and stipends to address high turnover, this year's grant will fund staff for the first PreK-3 program in Premont, an after-school program and a licensed professional counselor. Bain will oversee the counselor. Contractually he's been counseling Premont students for about two years and urged alliance leaders to fill the position full time. As the chair for the university's educational leadership and counseling department, he said he will continue counseling students. He also wants to use the skills of counseling practicum students from the university at the schools. "(Premont) doesn't have a lot of mental health resources counseling services," he said. "That's great for our students, and it's great for the students at Premont." Premont ISD school board President Michelle McCleery, who attended the Wednesday meeting, said the alliance has provided the district with hope for the future of its students. "That is a gap we have not been able to close," she said of the grant's counseling component. "Not only have you touched the lives of those children, but you are essentially saving our community." Twitter: @CallerBetty COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Green N Go Cab driver Phillip Benesh turns off his meeter after reaching his fairs destination, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. The popular ride-sharing company Uber is the topic of the day at City Hall. SHARE By Matt Woolbright of the Caller-Times City Council has taken the first step in regulating transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft, and it may mean ride-hailing services' days operating here are numbered. The ordinance, which must be voted on a second time before becoming law, mandates certain permits, fees and background checks for all vehicles for hire and their drivers. The council voted 7 to 2 in favor of the ordinance with Councilman Mark Scott and Councilwoman Colleen McIntyre opposing it. If the ordinance becomes law, Uber is expected to end its operations in the city, which began in 2014, Sarfraz Maredia, the company's general manager in south and east Texas, told the Caller-Times earlier this month. In an email Tuesday, Uber called the council's ordinance the result of a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the business. "Uber's platform is built on technology that makes it possible to focus on safety for riders and drivers before, during, and after every trip in ways that haven't been possible before," the company said in a statement to the Caller-Times. "We urge the City of Corpus Christi to follow the lead of dozens of other cities and states and embrace modern regulations that preserve people's ability to earn money and request a ride at the tap of a button." The company doesn't oppose background checks an Uber official reached out to the Caller-Times Tuesday saying as much but there is opposition to background checks based on fingerprints rather than identifying information like a name, Social Security number and date of birth, City Councilwoman Colleen McIntyre explained. "The fingerprint piece of the ordinance is the part that's difficult," she said. She added the practice had been described to her in the past as "unnecessary and onerous" when discussed as part of a peddler ordinance. "So I question the need for it for both the taxi drivers and the Uber drivers and the possible impact of it," McIntyre said. "Right now the requirement is for both to have to do fingerprints. What I would like to see is for neither to have to do fingerprints." But as the split vote showed, the council was divided on whether the fingerprint requirement is necessary. "We are here to protect the citizens and we need to do everything we can to do that," City Councilwoman Carolyn Vaughn said. "Buyer beware, I understand that they have the choice of whether or not to get in that vehicle but the city needs to do everything it can to make sure the vehicle they get into is safe." Mayor Nelda Martinez said the requirement isn't burdensome enough to warrant opposition. "We're talking about $40 a one-time fee for a background check," she said. She went on to call it "a small price to pay for public safety." Reporter Fares Sabawi contributed to this report. Twitter: @reportermatt In other business In other business, City Council ... ... Thanked and said goodbye to Councilwoman Lillian Riojas, who sat behind the dais as a member of the council for her final time. Riojas is moving to San Antonio to take a new job with Valero. ... Approved an ordinance updating regulations on beach camp fires, which bars beach visitors from burning wood with metal like nails, screws or springs still attached. ... Heard a presentation on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's proposed flood map details. ... Listened to an update on the regional effort to build an industrial desalination facility. ... Passed a slate of resolutions supporting four affordable housing projects, mostly in the Calallen area. SHARE Kelly Soranka By Natalia Contreras of the Caller-Times A wife angry her husband was leaving with another woman, rammed a Jeep into the woman's Cadillac. The husband told police he was arguing with his wife and called his 25-year-old female friend to pick him up at his home in the 3000 block of Jamaica Drive about 4 p.m. Tuesday, according to a Corpus Christi police news release. The man's friend picked him up and as they tried to leave, the wife chased them with her Jeep. The man told officers his wife intentionally rammed the Cadillac into a utility pole at the corner of Laguna Shores Road and Glenoak Drive. The wife tried to leave but officers detained her, the release states. The pole was snapped in half and traffic on Laguna Shores Road was shut down briefly while AEP replaced the pole, police said. The man's friend was treated by emergency medical personnel for minor injuries, police said. Kelly Soranka, 24, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault to a family member and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. She remained in Nueces County Jail on Wednesday. Her bail was set at $75,000, jail officials said. Twitter: @CallerNatalia SHARE By Julie Garcia of the Caller-Times Rockport police found a man dead inside a house early Thursday after a more than three-hour standoff with SWAT. While en route to a domestic disturbance call about 10 p.m. Wednesday, officers received more calls about multiple shots fired inside and outside one of the buildings at a town homes complex on Farm-to-Market Road 3036, according to a Rockport police news release. Police said Elvin Clyde Loyd III, 28, barricaded himself and his 8-month-old son inside an apartment. During the first hour of the standoff, several shots were fired inside and outside the house by the man, police said. The man's family members told police he had access to multiple weapons and ammunition, including a shotgun and AR-15 gun. About 2 a.m., SWAT members with the San Patricio Sheriff's Office entered the home. Police said the man was dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound when they found him. It appears the gunshot wound occurred more than an hour before SWAT entered the home, the release stated. The child was found unharmed. The baby's mother was at the home when police first arrived, said Rockport police Cmdr. Larry Sinclair. She and the boy are staying with family in Rockport. Neighbors were evacuated to the Fulton Volunteer Fire Department and the road was closed in that area to traffic. The Aransas County Sheriff's Office, Fulton VFD, Fulton Police Department, Rockport Volunteer Fire Department, San Patricio Sheriff's Office, Texas Department of Public Service and Allegiance emergency medical services assisted in the hourslong incident. Twitter: @Caller_Jules Caller-Times file Def Leppard will perform at the American Bank Center for its rescheduled tour date of May 5. SHARE By Esther Hackleman, Esther.M.Hackleman@caller.com Def Leppard will set Corpus Christi alight with its new tour date set for May 5. The iconic rock band, known for hits such as "Pour Some Sugar on Me," "Rock of Ages," and "Foolin," reset the performance at the American Bank Center after the group's Feb. 5 concert was postponed. The tour was postponed after doctors told lead vocalist, Joe Elliott, he must rest his voice. "The doctor basically said that if Joe continues to sing without resting his throat for a month he might do permanent damage," the band's drummer, Rick Allen, said on Twitter. The tour follows the group's latest self-titled album, which was released in October. Tickets purchased for the February concert will be honored for the rescheduled dates, according to the news release. Fans who are not able to attend the May concert can be reimbursed by the point of sale. Twitter:@Caller_Esther SHARE COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES A woman walks past campaign signs as she walks past the Nueces County Courthouses parking lot on the first day of early voting in Texas, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016. James O. Gardner Mark A. Gonzalez By Krista M. Torralva of the Caller-Times District Attorney Mark Skurka wants to continue the battle against domestic violence while his primary opponent Mark A. Gonzalez says change isn't happening fast enough under his leadership. The winner that emerges from the Democratic primary will face unopposed Republican James O. Gardner in November. Skurka and Gonzalez have both publicly attacked each other's credibility. Gonzalez has said the office has been plagued by allegations of prosecutors mishandling cases and needs his perspective to strengthen cases. Skurka, who has denied any wrongdoing, said Gonzalez isn't fit to lead the office because he's never prosecuted a case, among other things. In his 10 years as a lawyer, Gonzalez has built a record as a criminal defense lawyer even tattooing the words "not guilty" on his chest. "I would think me being a criminal defense guy, that brings the best perspective to actually prosecute cases it's like I work from the outside in," Gonzalez said. Skurka, who has been in the office 29 years, was first elected in 2010 to finish a term vacated by former District Attorney Carlos Valdez. Skurka was re-elected in 2012 for his first four-year term. "I know that office inside and out better than anyone else," Skurka said. "I'm proud of my record. I run on my record." At a time when domestic violence homicides has reached a rate higher than any year in recent history, those cases have been part of each candidates' platforms. Skurka estimated about a quarter of the district attorney's cases are from domestic violence. After a string of back-to-back family violence killings in 2014, Skurka started initiatives including an annual awareness summit about domestic violence. He also helped secure grant funding for GPS monitors ordered for domestic violence offenders out on bail awaiting trial. That time between arrest and trial is what Gonzalez said he finds troublesome. In most cases, the offender is going back home to his victim and continuing the same behavior and it's typically months before cases go to trial, he said. Skurka pointed to a myriad of factors that contribute to those delays including DNA testing, backlogs in the courts, the type of cases and whether suspects are in jail. But Gonzalez said the district attorney can control the urgency and priority in filing those cases. Early voting ends Friday. The primary election is March 1. Twitter: @CallerKMT Nueces County District Attorney The district attorney leads an office of about 45 lawyers and about 30 support staff members. The office handles the prosecution of misdemeanor and felony cases in Nueces County and has an annual budget of about $4.2 million. The position pays about $140,000 a year plus a $12,000 county supplement and is a four-year term. James O. Gardner Republican Age: 50 Occupation: attorney, former prosecutor Political experience: No previous political board position or offices held. Mark A. Gonzalez Democrat Age: 36 Occupation: attorney Political experience: Previously ran for district judge Mark Skurka Democrat Age: 56 Occupation: Nueces County District Attorney Political experience: Elected District Attorney in 2010 (special election to replace Carlos Valdez) Re-Elected in 2012 What are your top three goals for the office? Gardner: Implement a sustainable training and mentoring program for prosecutors and staff. Implement a Domestic Violence Prevention program and prosecution strategy that does not re victimize the victims of domestic violence and that incorporates drug and alcohol counseling along with victim assistance. Change/Innovate the case intake process to eliminate backlogs, save tax payer dollars, and eliminate the Friday Misdemeanor Arraignment docket. Gonzalez: My top three goals for the DA's Office is to be completely transparent, highly efficient, and to lead by example. Transparency means providing the defense ALL the evidence in every case. Efficiency means the timely filing and prosecution of all cases that are currently experiencing a huge back log. Most importantly I plan to lead by example. I will be in the courtroom trying every kind of case from the top to the bottom. Skurka: My top three goals for the office would be to increase the salaries of prosecutors and staff to make them commensurate with similar sized offices and neighboring counties' district attorney offices, increase efficiency of the office with the addition of the Odyssey case management program and to implement programs to assist in the investigation and prosecution of domestic violence cases. What distinguishes you from your opponent(s)? Gardner: I am the ONLY candidate that has served in the U.S. Armed Forces. I was the Noncommissioned Officer in Charge of Physical Therapy Services when I was honorably discharged. Additionally, I am the ONLY candidate that has prosecuted and defended individuals that have been charged with committing crimes, both misdemeanors and felonies. Being on both sides of a criminal case gives me a unique perspective that neither of my opponents possess. Gonzalez: I plan to run on my professional record as opposed to my opponent who chooses to run on the past and attack me personally in the media. I have no experience on being unethical. I have never been in charge of an office plagued with factual ethical violations. I will make changes and will be progressive. I look forward to a fresh ideas and I will bring trust back to the citizens of Nueces County. Skurka: I have 29 years experience in prosecution. My opponent has never prosecuted a case. I have been the top administrator of the District Attorney's office as the First Assistant District Attorney for 11 years and as the elected District Attorney for the last five years, managing a $4.2 million dollar budget, 44 prosecutors and 29 support staff. My opponent has no management or administrative experience. I am Board Certified in Criminal Law. My opponent is not. What's your strategy for improving prosecutors' salaries and maintaining morale? Gardner: First, I would like to create incentive pay for prosecutors who become board certified in criminal law or criminal appellate law. Second, properly supervising, training, and mentoring prosecutors will improve their trial skills, self-confidence, and morale. Current feelings of being "over whelmed" and "under supported" will be things of the past. Finally, appreciate and value the prosecutors, and the work they do, and turn over will decrease and workplace morale will increase. Gonzalez: I will lead by example. I will inspire my prosecutors by being in the courtroom, trying cases that won't be on the news, cases that no one will hear about because every case is important. I will fight for a bigger budget, for bigger salaries, but most importantly let them know that our work isn't about the money. What we are doing is what is just, and what is right, protecting our community! Skurka: Salaries are set by the Commissioners Court. Every year as the elected District Attorney, I have requested salary increases for prosecutors and staff. I have achieved two separate raises for prosecutors, raising salaries by approximately $5,000. I will continue to prepare salary surveys for the commissioners showing that Nueces County prosecutors are underpaid compared to similarly sized offices and neighboring prosecutor offices and advocating on behalf of the prosecutors and staff. Would you consider reallocating funds to create a domestic violence unit? If no, why not? If yes, how would you make it happen? Gardner: Creating a domestic violence unit can be costly. Before tax payer dollars are spent I would like to see what other jurisdictions are doing to combat domestic violence. The 34th Judicial District Attorney's Office in El Paso, Texas has a very interesting domestic violence program. I would also like to visit El Paso, Bexar County (San Antonio), and Harris County (Houston) to see how these offices address domestic violence cases. I do not like reinventing the wheel, especially with very limited tax payer dollars. I would like to implement different parts of these programs and tailor them to the needs of this community. I would also work closely with the Women's Shelter of South Texas and take a message of prevention to all of the 11th and 12th graders in Nueces County. Prevention must be part of prosecution. NO TE DEJES! Gonzalez: Money does not need to be allocated to create a domestic violence unit. We can create a unit or division without money. What needs to happen is that these cases need to take priority and get filed immediately. What happens under Mr. Skurka, is typically, cases take 6-9 months before they get filed. During that time the victim is placed back in the same environment. Months go by and what happens to the victims, the same behavior because no one has been held responsible. The current programs or forums are not working. The woman's shelter has been open for over 34 years. There is a problem and I will fight to fix it. I will fight to educate both the victim and the offender and hold offenders responsible so people know that it is not OK to commit domestic violence in Nueces County. Skurka: It would be very difficult to reallocate existing funds for this purpose due to our limited resources. A better idea would be to obtain funding from the Commissioners Court to create a special unit specializing in domestic violence cases, similar to our Violent Crime/Gang and Child Protection Unit. These prosecutors would specialize in these cases, which are often difficult to prosecute. I would also seek grants for funding these positions. Since these DV cases can be both misdemeanor and felony, support staff such as additional investigators, victim assistants, paralegals and social workers would be necessary to complete the unit. I am currently working with CCPD and the Women's Shelter to begin a "call out" program where officers responding to a DV scene can call upon the Women's Shelter to send victim advocates to come to the scene to assist victims of DV, instead of waiting days for assistance. FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2013 file photo, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks in Des Moines, Iowa. This is a year of auditioning, positioning, networking and just plain hard work for people who are considering running for president in 2016. You could see them stirring in 2013 as they plugged holes in resumes, took preliminary steps to build potential campaign organizations and made carefully calibrated moves to get better known by Americans generally and key constituencies in particular. Most _ but not all _ are ticking off items on what could be called the presidential prep checklist. And theyve got baggage to deal with. (AP Photo/Justin Hayworth, File) SHARE Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, right, looks at one of special prosecutors during a pretrial motion hearing at the Collin County courthouse on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015, in McKinney, Texas. Paxton is accused of encouraging wealthy investors to pump more than $100,000 into a tech startup called Servergy without revealing he was being paid by the company. (Jae S. Lee/The Dallas Morning News Via AP, Pool) All said and done, former Gov. Rick Perry's successful defense against charges that he used his veto power to oppress and coerce a public servant did Texas a valuable service: It clarified state law by finding the remaining charge against Perry unconstitutional. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found, basically, that governors can exercise their veto right as loudly and threateningly as they want. Good to know. The criminal defense being put up by indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton is an entirely other matter. Where Perry's case may turn out good for state constitutional law, Paxton's poses it a threat. The people of this state don't need to be protected by criminal statute from a governor's vociferous veto, and conversely, it can be argued that a governor needs to be able to exercise that right without fear of retaliation via criminal indictment. The veto power is a check and balance against the legislative branch and therefore is in the people's best interest. But state law should protect people from swindlers who try to part them from their money. That's the world of difference between the Paxton and Perry cases. Say what one will about Perry and we have said plenty but his case had nothing remotely to do with parting private citizens from their money. Perry was accused of using the threat of withholding funds from the Travis County Public Integrity Unit if District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg didn't resign. Lehmberg, who had pleaded guilty to drunken driving, didn't resign and Perry followed through with the veto. While we still disagree strongly with Perry that the indictment was politically motivated, there's no disputing that the case was entirely about Perry's practice of politics. Having been critical of his actions, and having pointed out that they met the dictionary definition of coercive, we should point out in fairness and admiration that he tried to hide absolutely nothing. He did what he did boldly, baldly, publicly. The Paxton case is a polar opposite. It's about what was hidden from people who invested money through Paxton and whether they were cheated. Paxton is accused of steering them to investments without disclosing that he represented those investments and profited from them via commissions. Stop us when this starts to sound remotely political. Didn't think so. The events occurred before he was attorney general and during his time in the Legislature and weren't connected to his lawmaking duties. The case should hinge on whether he is guilty of doing what the indictment says he did not whether the alleged actions and behaviors are illegal. The law says they are. And the inner voice within the average honest person says they should be. But Paxton has staked out a defense position that the indictment is unconstitutionally vague. He claims that the statute "unconstitutionally regulates free commercial speech." That's a non-Latin way of saying buyer beware. Paxton's effort to save his skin is directly at odds with the public's best interest in being protected by law from flimflam artists. Rather than try to establish that he didn't do what the indictment says he did, he's focused on trying to have what the indictment says he did declared legal. This wouldn't be as much of a problem if he were just a guy named Ken Paxton. But he's Ken Paxton, attorney general, sworn to use the law in the best interest of the people of Texas. This is why he shouldn't have been elected attorney general in the first place. This also is why he should resign or at least take a leave. Good or bad, Perry was being a governor. Paxton is directly at odds with being an attorney general. Hello everyone, I hope you had a good week. By the time you have read this I will have testified in front of the Nebraska Judiciary Committee on a bill regulating the use of police body cameras. I will address the body cam bill shortly, however before I do, you should be aware of what is happening in state government. The mood of the state, and country for that matter, which is reflected in the actions by the legislators, is often described as a pendulum. From the war on drugs, to crackdowns on all types of crimes in our country, we have devoted large amounts of resources to the criminal justice system. This resulted in significant increases in our prison population and significant decreases in overall crime rates. Its funny how those two are connected. The pendulum has now swung to the opposite side and we are seeing an assault on the criminal justice system and specifically the police like never before. Many changes have been made or are being proposed with the sole purpose of reducing the prison population. Crimes that would have resulted in a prison term before now will be given probation. There are many schools of thought here and I am sure you have your own opinion. The Nebraska Legislature has several bills under consideration, from legalizing marijuana, to making it more difficult to seize the assets of drug runners when they are caught. The bill concerning police body cameras is interesting, because it appears to ride both sides of the fence, so to speak. The police chiefs in Nebraska oppose the bill primarily because it attempts to put a police procedure into a state law which is very difficult to change as technology changes. The other reason I oppose this bill, is it attempts to place many arbitrary rules, many developed by the ACLU, on the use of body cams. The Beatrice Police Department, like many agencies, deployed body cameras in part to help alleviate any concerns that may be raised about police misconduct, at the urging of many, including the ACLU. A funny thing happened after these cameras were deployed. It not only has failed to show the perceived police misconduct, but it has helped us in many situations to collect evidence against the bad guys. Now the ACLU is proposing placing restrictions on when we can activate the cameras under the smokescreen of privacy rights, when in fact I believe they never thought police body camera footage would assist law enforcement in making a case against criminal activity. It reminds me of a saying my Mom used to use, You cant have your cake and eat it too. The state has a system in place through the Nebraska Crime Commission, where best practices can be adopted and agencies encouraged to follow them. We dont need these police procedures codified in state law, which as the saying goes, takes an act of congress to change. SHARE Students across Texas are preparing for state assessment tests that require them to demonstrate their knowledge of various school subjects including American history. But one part of American history that few students will be able to display more than cursory knowledge about is black history. Why? Because our textbooks look as if they were written generations ago. Students only get a glimpse of black people in history, other than when the textbooks talk about slavery or the Civil Rights Movement. But even these glimpses offer poor context. It's time for a change. Consider the following passages from two sections of an American history textbook that is used across Texas: The state's response to abolition was to strengthen the slave codes and moments like "Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831 sent a wave of hysteria sweeping over the snowy cotton fields and planters in growing numbers slept with pistols by their pillows." The discussion of Nat Turner's rebellion focuses primarily on the impact on white Americans. It is not the story of a courageous black man or a social movement of politically conscious workers. Also consider this quote: The Pious Christian moderation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came under heavy fire from this second wave of younger Black leaders who privately mocked the dignified Dr. King ... Malcolm X trumpeted Black separatism and inveighed against the "blue-eyed White devils" ... With frightening frequency, violence or the threat of violence raised its head in the Black community. The Black Panther Party openly brandished weapons in the streets ... These glimpses present limited notions of black identity. Martin Luther King Jr. is an integrationist and peace keeping activist, while Malcolm X is a militant and a violent figure. Neither of these descriptions fully captures either individual. Now consider the policy language around recognition of black people in American history from the Texas Education Agency: Students should be able to: compare the effects of political, economic and social factors on slaves and free blacks identify the causes of the Civil War, states' rights and slavery identify the effects of slavery and Reconstruction identify selected racial, ethnic and religious groups that settled in the United States and explain their reasons for immigration identify ways conflicts between people from various racial, ethnic and religious groups were solved Texas textbooks do not even live up to these basic requirements. So why is there such a disconnect between what students should learn about black lives and what they actually are learning? The adoption of Texas curriculum standards is a complicated and recursive process that involves the Texas Education Agency, the State Board of Education, an expert review committee and other committees made up of educators, parents, business leaders and employers. At no point are the recommendations of the experts or the other review committees binding or prioritized over the desires of the State Board of Education. Textbooks are written based on these skewed standards, and the adoption of these textbooks is another complicated process run through the politicized State Board of Education. There are policies that would combat the problem. Ethnic studies scholars should review all materials prior to adoption. This was proposed but struck down recently by the State Board of Education. Major publishing houses should not be granted adoption deals without their materials being first approved by experts, including ethnic studies scholars. Students, teachers and ethnic studies scholars should have a representative present when the State Board votes to reform or maintain a particular adopted textbook. Finally, standards need to be written by education and subject area experts, not elected officials with political biases. This is only a start. But it's a start that needs to happen. The stories of black lives in Texas textbooks do not demonstrate historical understanding nor do they serve our students. More in depth knowledge of Black History will not only speak truth to the historical struggles of Black people, but will also enable all students to think critically about equality and race in the future. Naomi Reed is a postdoctoral fellow and Karen Moran Jackson is a research associate at the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis at The University of Texas at Austin. SHARE Laura Mobley Greenwood, Brady, Texas Support Skurka for district attorney My father, Bill Mobley, was the district attorney for the 105th Judicial District which included Nueces, Kleberg and Kenedy counties. He was elected in 1968 and remained in office until his death in February 1983. I was raised around the district attorney's offices, the courts, and the courthouses. I learned at an early age to respect and love the integrity of what it meant to be "District Attorney." I have experienced firsthand what it takes for someone to be district attorney ... the amount of danger it involves dealing with criminals, the many hours of work and countless hours away from the family. My father, Bill Mobley, would be so very happy to see Mark Skurka be re-elected as the district attorney of Nueces County! Mark Skurka's outstanding experience, love for his community, love for his family, amazing intelligence and character, his overwhelming integrity concerning the position of district attorney upholding the laws of the State of Texas for the citizens in his jurisdiction, would make my father so very proud to call Mark Skurka district attorney. I want to take this opportunity to voice my support and the support of my family and many of my friends for Mark Skurka for district attorney! According to Oliver Kittipong Veerataecha, chief strategy and innovation officer at Y&R Thailand, street arts, local chic, the sufficiency economy, micro-segmentation, and the rise of SMEs are all huge trends that are impacting Thailands creative industries and the wider business landscape. Theres a new generation of Thais that are passionate and have entrepreneurial dreams and aspirations, says Veerataecha. These people are interested in small scale projects that make a big impact. Self-improvement and a desire to redefine things are strong trends. We are seeing local wisdom and youth power having a big influence in Thailand. According to We Are Socials 2016 Global Digital Trends report, Thais top the list for the amount of time spent using mobile Internet, registering an average of 3.9 hours per day. But in the last year, Veerataecha says that this trend has matured and taken on a new meaning. On the surface at least, it continues to fuel the growth of new Internet and social media idols. But its the lasting fame, success and fortune of this group that is fuelling a wider entrepreneurial drive in Thailand. Paruj Daorai, executive creative director at Leo Burnett Thailand observes a knock on effect that has impacted the advertising industry. This article is part of the On The Ground: Thailand series Its not just YouTubers and creators. There are many self-made entrepreneurs, writers, artists and all kinds of people who are launching startups in Thailand now, says Daorai. These people have built their reputation by themselves. They come up with their own ideas and they build their own businesses after gaining influence. Theyre also thought leaders and theyre spreading the word. In the last year, Daorai has seen many creativity training workshops, seminars and mass exhibitions led by people who dont come from the ad industry. On top of that the Thai government has been active in promoting the value of creativity through campaigns and education initiatives. A Thai government initiative to drive creativity in Thailand A lot of people, including brand marketers and marcom people are joining these creativity workshops. There are lots of books and media on this topic now, says Daorai. And people are being taught to be creative on their own. Its really popular. Although this awareness could aid the creative agency agenda, it is forcing the industry to work harder. If we dont continue to improve, the problem is that clients may no longer use their ad agency, says Daorai. More and more people can think of cool content ideas for Facebook on their own, build their fan base and start selling products to make money. While Daorai says that big brands and SMEs eventually look to agencies for scale and more professional marketing and advertising services, hes not underestimating this trend of creative empowerment coming from outside the ad industry. Anyone can be creative now. We all have access to the same information, says Daorai. But as ad agencies in Thailand focus more on results-oriented creativity, he believes that the industry will simply have to continue to prove its value in a market where he says entrepreneurs and SMEs are sometimes more creative than agencies. A handful of locally produced books on creativity that are helping to spark national discussion Creative seminars, exhibitions and workshops by non-advertising creatives Non-advertising creatives are leading creative thought leadership Marketing and advertising skills are being democratised Lagging behind in digital One area the Thai industry could improve is in digital marketing creativity and effectiveness. Satit Jantawiwat, chief creative officer at JWT Thailand admits its still a work in progress. In creative advertising, Thailand used to be a leader and in the top rankings of the world, says Jantawiwat. However, when we entered the digital era, consumers changed so fast that agencies and clients have had a hard time catching up. Despite the creative savvy of Thai marketers, Jantawiwa says client requests for viral video clips with demo and pack shots are still the norm. We know for a fact that consumers can smell advertising a mile away, says Jantawiwa. Pete Nuchanatanon, head of marketing at Google Thailand is more optimistic. If you just look at the three Thai ads in the YouTube leader board, people watched these ads for a combined total of over 100 years, says Nuchanatanon. Seeing as millions of users choose not to skip these ads, the brands know they just won a little love from these consumers. However, this focus on views and watch time could also just be a creative plateau for Thailands marketing and advertising landscape. Jureeporn Thaidumrong, owner and chairwoman at JEH United thinks the problem may come down to Thais being more artistic and craft-driven than scientific. What is missing in our creative process is the technologist, says Thaidumrong. I think theres hope though. We are starting to see brands embrace technology and focus more on solving problems for consumers instead of just doing viral content. Three of the top ten ads in Asia-Pacific on YouTube in 2015 came from Thailand and they're all long form videos that are more like short films than ads. Watch them below: Measuring creative success in Thailand In Thailand, brands are slowly becoming more results-oriented when it comes to digital. Daorai says that awareness is still an important metric to marketers but that theyre demanding more real-time, digital and social media marketing insights and analytics in their tool kit. In the past, brands would just want 10 or 20 million views for a video or campaign and call that success, says Daorai. Now they know they can buy those things or place their video on a fan page with a lot of followers. At the same time, brands are learning that they cant just keep using the same tricks. A good example is Hormones, a popular drama series about youth culture in Thailand, which was launched exclusively online on YouTube for the first two seasons. Engagement has steadily declined through to the most recent season launched on LineTV. Its a lesson relevant to brands. They tried to repeat the success using the same formula and thats very difficult, says Daorai. The problem for LineTV is that they got Hormones season three not season two. Season one was the big hit. So Line got the tail end and the decline. This is Thailand and you cant show something again without making it more extreme or more interesting. In terms of producing groundbreaking creative work, Daorai says that Thailand has fallen short in the past year. Sadly I cannot name one brand or agency that has done work like that, he adds. The most recent Thai creative trends are more gimmicky with brands doing social experiment ads or controversial clips to get attention. Daorai also observes a trend towards ads that get brand exposure at the cost of driving negative discussion in the community. In addition, slapstick and tearjerker ads continue to be mainstays in Thai advertising. Its our nature. We love soap operas. We love to get emotional with the characters, says Daorai. Thais are expressive and introverted at the same time. Were kind of bipolar. On the inside were crazy but outside we are kind of quiet. In order to move beyond the limitations facing the industry, Daorai believes the agency creative process will need to jettison the factory production line way of working. Its cliched but time is money, especially these days, says Daorai. If you have a friend whos a client, they will tell you how frustrated they are waiting for an agency to come up with an idea and do it. And if you cant relieve the clients frustration they will leave your agency eventually. From accounts and planning to strategy and creative, the agency process is rigid and laggard. In order to take things to the next level, Daorai says Leo Burnett Thailand recently explored design thinking and did a hands-on workshop with design firm Ideo. Its very early stages. It will be a while before design thinking takes off in Thailand but its starting, says Daorai. The economy isnt great and brands are using smaller budgets to try things first before committing. This is a time to test things. As things improve, well also be better equipped and think Thailand will bounce back. On the positive side, Thai people are seeing the value of creativity and design like never before, he adds. And in the long run this will serve the country well. You might also like: Last year Campaign Asia went to Bangkok for the YouTube Fanfest event and met with some of Thailand's top independent creators. Watch the video below to hear their stories: The final tally is not yet available. Last year's event raised more than US$50,000. The event, held at The Cube at PMQ in Hong Kong's Central district, included a silent auction, table sales and a casino-night event on behalf of Mother's Choice, which provides loving and nurturing care for babies and children needing permanent homes and for single girls and their families facing crisis pregnancies. Items bid upon and purchased by various leaders of the region's media industry in the silent auction included paintings by Picasso and Chagall, a three-night stay in Rome, a private box at Ascot for 12 people, Wimbledon 2016 tickets for two, and a 7-night stay at Villa Girifalco in Tuscany for up to 12 people. Josh Black, CEO of GroupM Content, bemoaned his up-and-down night at the casino games, but praised the venue and the industry for coming out. "It was a great night," he said. "I had lots of fun catching up with people, and its always good when the industry gets together for a good cause." One of Mother's Choice efforts is Project Bridge, which "connects nurturing volunteer 'bridge families' to children with special needs who are waiting to be adopted." Children with special needs typically wait longer to join their 'forever families' and research has shown that it is far better for them to wait in a family, not institutional care, according to the organisation. I can say with certainty that we have never seen a more chaotic time in the industry, said Michael Kassan, chairman and CEO of MediaLink, opening the first panel discussion for the 350 attendees at the fourth Media360Summit in Hong Kong today. Henry Tajer, global CEO of IPG Mediabrands, who stepped into his role early last year right in the midst of the mediapalooza, quipped that he thought it was my welcome party. I was pleased to find out it wasnt, he added. But it definitely brought to the forefront the T of tenacity, to see agencies come together and fulfill promises. As much as we talk about all the pitches that happened, thats just process. The work begins once thats done. Tajer believes that 2016 is set to witness more changes as there are more brands in the marketplace that need to rethink what theyre doing and take moves to shift to adapt. Its a whole new era for marketing as a whole. See all our Media360Summit coverage Rahul Welde, vice-president of media at Unilever Asia, said that transformation is the umbrella T that is driving these changes, as brands and businesses seek to adapt to a changing environment. Consumers now look at brands differently, from a perspective of user consumption and increasingly, as media, he added. As marketers we have to revisit the old models. A this all came together in 2015 and is not an issue that will go away. I think were looking at the early phases of transformation from all sides, be it brand, agency or media. Welde noted that the media reviews that took place last year, Unilever's included, were part of a cycle of assessment that many brands typically undertake, made more prominent by an across the board need to review marketing needs. I think whats changed is the cycle of reassessment in terms length of time, he added. Its healthy and helps everyone take stock of whats happening and does whats best for the brand and consumers. Christophe Cases, deputy global managing director and CEO of Greater China at Havas Media Group, said that the pace of change and chaos is more acutely felt in China. I think the need to rethink marketing for brands in Asia may be more dramatic and rapid than other regions, he said. However, Mainardo de Nardis, CEO of OMD Worldwide, disagreed with fellow panelists on the number of pitches last year being an unprecedented event. Yes, there were a lot of pitches last year but there were pitches the last two year before as well so Im not seeing huge change taking place there," he said. "Clients are just reviewing their needs. That being said the industry has changed phenomenally in every aspect including talent, which I believe is the most important thing we need to address. (Story continues below) #media360summit Tweets But some aspects of the business have yet to be addressed and to illustrate de Nardis pointed to the pay-for-performance space, where on one side its about one-to-one marketing at scale and performance with multi-screen measurement and transparency, but on the other side, its selling on commission on paid media. This hasnt evolved, he added. How is it going to change? I think this is the biggest black hole in the industry today, and agencies need to be more open about it. De Nardis said that more and more, agencies need to earn their seat at the table and not take it for granted. He cited market changes as a great opportunity for doing exciting things and trying out new ideas. Welde said he believes the role of media agencies is changing, and that there is a role for them to play in this new state of affairs. He pointed to the creation of ULTRA (Unilever Trading Desk) to illustrate. We just launched our own trading desk, but we still did it with our agency partner Mindshare, he added. It not that the agency is out of the picture, the main thing is that accountability is getting redefined. The onus is on agencies to redesign themselves, added Havas Cases, and operate outside boundaries to create value. Welde said that with areas like programmatic, change is taking place faster than what the industry is used to. We have to step up the pace of change to match and execute some of these transformation models we talk about, he added. Its a lot of buzzwords, but it all now needs to come to bear and be better than what we were before. Picking up on the talent theme in a later session, Lindsay Pattison, CEO of Maxus Worldwide spoke on leadership, culture and change covering, Gen-Y and gender inequality: | BY Lynchy | CB Exclusive DDB Sydney executive creative director Cam Hoelter has transferred to the networks flagship New York office as executive creative director, reporting to chief creative officer Icaro Doria. Says DDB Group Sydney CCO, Toby Talbot: One of the best elements of being part of a global network is being able to work with extraordinary talent and offering them opportunities like this. Cam is a great bloke and amazing ECD and I look forward to working with him on global clients. In the five years Hoelter has been at DDB Sydney, the agency has picked up an impressive nine Cannes Lions, including two Gold and the Black Effectiveness Lion for the agencys work on McDonalds including such stand out work as McDonalds becomes Maccas, I see fries, Macitbetter, The Extraordinary Lunchbox and Create Your Taste. Says Hoelter: After almost five incredible years at DDB Sydney I am looking forward to the move to New York and the challenge of the new role and deeply humbled DDB has afforded me this amazing opportunity. DDB Sydney is a brilliant agency and its sad to leave Toby and the team. But Ive had the opportunity to work with some amazing people on truly great brands. And its now given me an opportunity to work at one of the worlds iconic agencies, DDB NY. Im really excited to be working with former DDB Group Australia CEO, Chris Brown again and NY CCO, Icaro Doria and continuing the great work theyre already doing over there. Adds Talbot: Since I returned to DDB Sydney in 2014, we have been re-structuring the creative department to ensure we host some of Australias most senior talent as Creative Partners, with the most recent addition of the brilliant Ant Melder to work alongside Pete Galmes, Michael Barnfield, Steve Jackson and Noah Regan. We have a very strong senior creative line-up that will work across Hoelters portfolio. Hoelter joined DDB Sydney in March 2011 from The Campaign Palace where he was CD for two years. Before that he spent a highly decorated decade at Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne. He has created some of Australias most loved and iconic brand campaigns for clients including Fosters Pure Blonde, Lion Nathans Hahn Premium Light, Bonds, NAB, Panasonic, Lumix, Sorbent, Libra, Twisties, Mercedes-Benz and Westpac. In todays world, it seems that everywhere you look, you will find at least one person in a group with some sort of technology in their hand, whether it be a smartphone or a tablet. They may be checking out the weather, scrolling through their newsfeed, pinning a new recipe for supper, or perhaps one of my youngest childrens favorite pastimes, watching surprise egg videos. Social media has forever changed the way society works, whether it is sharing an idea, communicating news, or expressing their opinion. With social media, news that would have taken days or possibly weeks to share, can now be shared in a matter of minutes. The city of Beatrice recently hopped on the bandwagon and created our very own Facebook page. We also became more active on our Twitter account with the hope to open new doors of communication with our citizens. Those of you who like our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter, will find a variety of information, such as when the next City Council or BPW Board meetings are, any current job openings the city has to offer, community events, as well as some helpful tips and tidbits. Social media is also an inexpensive way for the city to get information out to our citizens, as well as our citizens to provide feedback to the city. Recently, the City Council was looking at the possibility of removing one-way streets. With the help of our IT Department, we were able to post a simple online survey and hear back from a number of our citizens on their wishes. The city can also use social media as a way to provide information to our citizens. A while back, there was some concern expressed in regards to the skateboard park equipment, and it was amazing to watch the information we provided spread throughout our social media accounts. So, if you havent already done so, I would encourage you to like us on Facebook at City of Beatrice, Nebraska and follow us on Twitter @BeatriceNE. While our posts may not be as funny or clever as those of our Police Department, we do promise to keep you informed of what is going on in your community. Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 9:08AM By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla The take away from MWC was that phones are great as standalone devices and pocket computers, they can be awesome when you extend their functionality with great accessories and ecosystems. This years Mobile World Congress in Barcelona brought the focus back on smartphones with various new flagship models sporting the latest processors, the latest display technology, improved cameras and software as well as better battery life, water resistance features and premium materials. Where are the wearables? While MWC is mostly a mobile show, there was a lot of attention paid to accessories and ecosystems but nary a mention of smart watches or wearables. It seems the interest for these devices has slowed after last years frenzy and this may be because of a number of reasons. The Apple Watch seems to be the dominant smart watch even if Apple hasnt revealed sales numbers, analysts like IDC have estimated, 11.6 million Apple Watches sold in calendar 2015. Android Wear devices, which are based on Googles operating system seem as fragmented as Android phones with various manufacturers offering one off features and a lack of standardization in functionality across the line. Still, it is surprising that we didnt see more wearable announcements at the show, specially given that smart watches have out shipped traditional Swiss watches for the first time. Accessories, ecosystems and VR The take away from MWC was that phones are great as standalone devices and pocket computers, they can be awesome when you extend their functionality with great accessories and ecosystems. LG demonstrated this with their LG G5 flagship which, is an impressive device on its own, really shines as a tool with the addition of various modules and accessories. LG has addressed the inherent limitation of smartphones which are phenomenal multifunctional devices that are constrained by their thin size and enclosures. By enabling users to add camera and audio modules (along with replaceable batteries), LG can create more interest in specific functionalities within their devices. Samsung also looked at accessories to play a major role in the success of its Galaxy S7 devices. The company no longer owns the market in large devices and the curved display gimmick has been played out (even If the new devices have better software to support it) so the next step is to leverage VR, create standalone cameras for shooting panoramic movies as well as battery cases and wireless charging docks. HTC, in a way, was ahead of its time. Its RE Camera launched two years ago. While not a 360 or VR camera, it did extend the functionality of their (and other) phones while freeing up the phones resources. The companys HTC Vive VR headset is an expensive example of a first-mover product that has already generated a lot of buzz. VR is buzzy The idea of VR and its applications is really catching on. While the better examples of the technology are still expensive, limited and far from complete, we can expect every major technology company to be working on something VR related. MWC 2016 has shown that the bar can still be raised in mobile and smartphones and while these devices continue to become more powerful, better connected and multifunctional, companies can grow their markets by extending experiences through accessories and services that can help people consume as well as create the next generation of content. Only workplaces in the Canberra CBD can get the puppies delivered, and Uber suggests you should also ask your boss and check there are no people in the office who are allergic. When asked if there was a disturbance, police would only say they were called by the ambulance service and that investigations are ongoing, including regarding who called the ambulance. "The employees that I've spoken to are really quite devastated and trying to take it all in, while its encouraging the receivers say all entitlements will be paid, we'll make sure that is the case." Not all of these sensible measures appear in the Coalition's reform bill however. Partial optional voting below the line is the most notable of these. The bill will sanction an increase in the number of allowable "mistakes" from three to five for voters determined to allocate preferences their way, but the absence of a mechanism to facilitate this allocation will be read for what it is: an attempt to stem the trickle-down of preferences which might aid minor party candidates. It has been far too many years since the Woke theology interlaced its canons within the fabric of the Indoctrination Realm, so it is nigh time to ask: Does this Representative Republic continue, as a functioning society of a self-governed people, by contending with the unusual, self absorbed dictates of the Woke, and their vast array of Victimhood scenarios? Yes, the Religion of Woke must continue; there are so many groups of underprivileged, underserved, a direct result of unrelenting Inequity; they deserve everything. No; the Woke fools must be toppled from their self-anointed pedestal; a functioning society of a good Constitutional people cannot withstand this level of "existential" favoritism as it exists now. The two sides are back at the bargaining table after an offer to the workforce was crushed by 85 per cent to 15 per cent in a ballot in late 2015, with the ATO hierarchy responding by giving its senior executives a 3 per cent pay rise and commissioning a survey of all other employees to determine what went wrong. Raleigh, N.C. The North Carolina Republican Party (NCGOP) today launched its "Raise The Flag 2016" campaign, which seeks to return Old Glory to her rightful place above headquarters after the building was repeatedly attacked by radical vandals.The effort will serve as an election year rallying cry for Republicans to stand up to radical leftists and defeat them in November, by raising the flag for Republican candidates and the Republican cause in 2016.The NCGOP kicked off a multi-media campaign including traditional and social media, telephone and mail outreach lead by Lt. Governor Dan Forest. This effort will raise funds to replace flag poles to host the American, North Carolina and GOP flags, as well as provide funds for Party building efforts.The effort details a series of violent acts over the last decade against the North Carolina Republican Party Headquarters on Hillsborough street that damaged the NCGOP and resulted in permanent damage and removal of the party's flag poles.Lt. Governor Dan Forest described the vandalism in the letter:"In 2004, the North Carolina Republican Party Headquarters was vandalized during a mob protest that turned violent. Radicals smashed windows, left vulgar messages on the walls and even attempted to set the building on fire! In fact, the physical scars from these attacks can still be seen by anyone who walks into the Party offices today. While three vandals were arrested and charged with felonies for their assault on our State Party's Headquarters, that was the beginning of the attacks on our building, not the end. In the years since, we have had to replace our sign in front of the building and these radicals even tore down our flag poles."Supporters will have the opportunity to sponsor flying the new flag over GOP Headquarters."While it is long past time for NCGOP to fly Old Glory above headquarters, this campaign is not just about our flag poles," said NCGOP Chairman Hasan Harnett. "Our 'Raise The Flag 2016' campaign will help us send a Republican to the White House, defend the Governor's mansion and protect our U.S. Senate seat. We won't back down to the radicals who sought to destroy our building and we won't back down to Democrats in this critical election year.""NCGOP is raising the flag in 2016 to elect Republicans up and down the ballot committed to fighting liberal policies that would take our state backwards," said NCGOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse. "Our headquarters has been subject to attacks by radical vandals time and time again and we will not let the remnants of their actions be visible any longer. In this crucial year for our Party we will return Old Glory to her rightful place and see that our candidates defeat the Democrats come November."For more information, visit raisetheflag2016.com [Your Business Name] Contact Info Phone: Fax: Email: Web: CAPITOLHILLCUBANS.COM Business Overview Geographic Area Line of Business Brands We Carry Products and Services Discounts Offered Additional Information Business Hours Timezone We Accept Three college students who first met while attending a Catholic high school in Florida have launched a scholarship fund to help others experience faithful Catholic education at a Newman Guide college. As we went off to different colleges, we kept in touch and found time to catch up whenever we returned [] Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact. Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here. Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2. Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) has released a notification on the recruitment happening. These are the posts they are calling for Managerial Post in E&P, Petrochemical and Gas Sourcing. Managerial jobs are generally absolved positions, which means representatives don't get additional time pay regardless of the possibility that they work past their consistently booked hours. Details of this recruitment is listed below. Name of the post and Number of posts allocated Senior Manager - Geologist: 2 posts Senior Manager - Geophysicist: 1 post Senior Manager - Drilling Engineer: 1 post Senior Manager - Reservoir Engineer: 1 post Senior Manager - Petro physicist: 1 post Manager - Petrochemical PADC: 2 posts Deputy Manager - Petrochemical Technical Services: 2 posts Manager - Gas Sourcing: 2 posts Who is Eligible for the Managerial Posts in IOCL? Qualification: M. Sc. or M Tech in any of the following subject from a recognized Institute is must for candidates applying for senior manager- Geologist Geology Applied Geology Petroleum Geology M. Sc. or M Tech in Geophysics from a recognized Institute is must for candidates applying for Senior Manager-Geophysicist. BE, B.Tech or equivalent degree in Mechanical/ Petroleum Engineering from a recognized University /Institute is must for candidates applying for Senior Manager-Drilling Engineer. BE/B.Tech or equivalent degree in Petroleum Engineering/any other engineering discipline with relevant experience of working as a Reservoir Engineer, OR, Master's degree in Geosciences (Geology / Applied Geology / Geophysics / Applied Geophysics) with relevant experience of working as a Reservoir Engineer is must for candidates applying for Senior Manager- Reservoir Engineer. M.Sc./ M.Sc.Tech./ M.Tech in Geology/ Applied Geology/Petroleum Geology/Geophysics/Applied Geophysics or BE/B Tech in Petroleum Engg from a recognized University/ Institute is must for candidates applying for Senior Manager- Petro physicist. Minimum BE/B.Tech in Plastics or Polymer Technology from a recognized University/Institute is must for candidates applying for Manager- Petrochemical. Graduate Degree in Polymer / Plastic Engineering or other Engineering Graduates with specialization in Plastic processing from a recognized University / Institute is must for candidates applying for Deputy Manager- Petrochemical - Technical Services. MBA or equivalent Degree (Full-Time) from a recognized University / Institute is must for candidates applying for Manager- Gas Sourcing. Age Limit Senior Manager: 42 years Manager: 39 years Deputy Manager (Petrochemical - Technical Services) - 36 years Relaxations: Relaxation in upper age limited for OBC/SC/ST/PH/Ex-servicemen as per Govt. of India rules. How Candidates are Selected for Managerial Posts in IOCL Candidates can be selected either by written exam or by conducting a personal interview. What is the Application Fee? Application fee for IOCL-Managerial Post are as mentioned below, General & OBC candidates - Rs. 1000/- SC/ST/PwD Candidates - Rs.500/- How to Apply for Managerial Posts in IOCL Candidates interested in the IOCL job can apply online to the Managerial post thorugh Indian Oil Corporation Ltd's Website. What are the Important Dates Associated with job/post? Managerial Post in IOCL has listed out the important date. Below are the details. Last Date to Apply: 23 March 2016. About Indian Oil Corporation Limited: Indian Oil Organization Restricted (IndianOil) is India's biggest business venture headquartered in Delhi, with a business turnover of Rs. 4,50,756 crore (US$ 73.7 billion) and benefits of Rs. 5,273 crore for the year 2014-15. It is additionally the main Indian corporate in Fortune's prestigious 'Worldwide 500' posting of the world's biggest corporates, positioned at the 119th position for the year 2015. Governor McCrory Urges Residents to Remain Watchful News Release: Raleigh, N.C. As storms continue to move across the state, Governor Pat McCrory is cautioning residents to remain alert during the overnight hours when storms can be most deadly. He urged North Carolinians to keep their mobile phones charged and weather radios on and close by so they could continue to receive tornado or severe storm warnings through the night. "We've been fortunate so far with no reports of serious injuries or widespread damages, but we're not out of the woods yet," said Governor McCrory. "We've seen before how deadly overnight storms can be. Please continue to stay tuned to the weather and heed directions from your local officials." Severe thunderstorms will continue to move eastward through this evening before diminishing in intensity tonight. A Tornado Watch remains in effect for much of eastern North Carolina until 11 p.m. Gusty winds will persist tonight and Thursday as skies clear behind the cold front. As nighttime falls across the state, North Carolina Emergency Management officials recommend that you update your ReadyNC mobile app and review with family members the safest place for refuge in your home. During tornado warnings, North Carolina Emergency Management officials remind you to go to a basement, under the stairs or to an interior room on the lowest floor. Stay away from windows and put as many walls as possible between you and the outside. People in modular homes should seek shelter in a sturdy building. If driving, you should leave your vehicle immediately to seek safety in an adequate structure. Do not try to outrun a tornado in your vehicle, and do not stop under an overpass or a bridge. As of 7 p.m., there were fewer than 120,000 power outages with most outages reported in Forsyth, Gaston, Guilford, Mecklenburg and Wake counties. More information on tornadoes and overall emergency preparedness can be found in the ReadyNC mobile app and online at www.ReadyNC.org. Be sure to update your ReadyNC app to ensure it has all the latest features. Contact: Crystal Feldman govpress@nc.gov I am a mommy, a wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a believer of the Most High! I love to travel, to spend time with my boys and to tell others about the amazing grace that has changed my life. I love coffee, popcorn, reading and watching old movies. I love to be able to see Christ through the eyes of children here in Ethiopia and am humbled that my Lord has chosen to use me! I'm enjoying every single second of our Ethiopian journey... Odds of seeing a limited edition Ferrari F60 America in real life a slim, considering the production will be limited to only 10 units worldwide, so, heres a video close-up with the beast. Made to commemorate 60 years of Ferrari in North America, the dramatic-looking, F12berlinetta-based drop-top is so exclusive that even a revealing video of it its hard to find. So, for the time being, you can take your mind off seeing it in the wild or on the move. The cars exclusive looks were created to echo Ferraris American spirit painted in the classic North American Racing Team livery and sporting special anniversary badges and although its based on the F12b, very few design traces indicate this fact. The engine, on the other hand, is untouched, boasting the same 730hp (740PS) power output as any other modern Ferrari 6.3-litre V12. The interior is something unexpected from the Italian car manufacturer as well, Ferrari creating an asymmetrical design with the drivers area trimmed in red and the passenger side in black. The video also lets you see the cabins odd red trim in all its glory, although it might not be everybodys cup of tea. The models price tag is as shocking as its style, coming in at an eye-watering $2.5 million. VIDEO The moment weve all been waiting for has finally happened; Morgan Freeman has become a GPS navigation voice. To promote his new film London Has Fallen, Freeman has teamed up with Google to offer navigation guidance for the companys Waze app, making us one step closer to having Freeman narrating our lives. Thats everyones dream, right? In London Has Fallen, Freeman plays the vice president of the United States and when giving directions on Waze, he addresses the driver as if theyre the president of the U.S., surely another dream of many. Its unclear if Freeman will only lend his voice to Google for the theatrical run of London Has Fallen or if, for generations to come, hell be able to tell you when to make a right hand turn. Note: Unrelated Morgan Freeman commercial follows below Video Ford is going to replace the Ka city car in Europe with a new model, putting to rest previous reports that suggested otherwise. The confirmation came from the lips of Barb Samardzich, Fords Chief Operating Officer who spoke to AutoNews. Its coming, I can say that, she said during Fords Mobile World Congress tech event. What she didnt say though is when the new Ka is scheduled for launch. Unlike the current model which is based on the Fiat 500, the new Ka will be based on the Brazilian model which in turn is built on the Fiesta platform. Ford has said that they have made significant enhancements to adapt the Brazilian Ka for Europe. The new Ford Ka was reportedly scheduled to arrive by the end of 2015, with the company still remaining silent about when their new city car is finally coming. Note: Brazilian Ford Ka pictured PHOTO GALLERY No car is perfect and in the world of high-end exotics, one of the downfalls of such high-powered machines is a lack of practicality and minimal luggage space. But how bad can it be? Can an Italian hypercar be used to buy groceries or is it simply impossible? To find out, one Pagani Huayra owner headed to a local Whole Foods store in Greenwich, Connecticut. This particular Huayra is dubbed Gemini Uno and is finished in gloss blue carbon fiber and is worth well in excess of $2 million. As the car is mid-engined, it doesnt have a trunk and unlike most other supercars, the Huayra doesnt have a bonnet either and instead features two aerodynamic flaps up front. To make up for this lack of space at the front and rear, Horacio designed the Huayra with two carbon fiber storage compartments in front of the rear wheels. They are sizeable enough to store two grocery bags each but actually getting the groceries into the carbon boxes is quite a laborious process. If youre wealthy enough to own a Pagani, chances are you can just have your groceries delivered. Problem solved. VIDEO Vin Diesel may have already confirmed that Fast 8 will be set in New York but just like the seventh film in the franchise, an international trip will be thrown into the mix. Local publication Iceland Review says that some scenes from the upcoming action flick will be filmed in the town of Akranes with the local mayor confirming that film crews will arrive in the small town in April. While shooting in the country, the Fast 8 crew will apparently stage the largest ever explosion in Iceland, meaning we can expect just as many crazy stunts as previous Fast and Furious movies. A reader at Jalopnik came across a number of military vehicles at docks in Portland which he believes are bound for filming in Iceland. They included two heavily armored Dodge pickup trucks and two custom Ripsaws produced for the United States Army by Howe & Howe Technologies. Earlier in the month, it was confirmed that Fast 8 will be released on April 14, 2017. It will then be followed by the ninth film on April 19, 2019 before the then 20-year saga concludes on April 2, 2021 with Fast and Furious 10. PHOTO GALLERY Ever since Ford made the announcement that four new SUVs are coming before 2020, Bronco fans have been bucking wild with speculation of a reprisal of OJs favorite getaway vehicle. Talk of a new Bronco has been rampant for some years now, with the Michigan Assembly plant mooted as a possible building location and the Ranger as a likely platform. Bronco is one of Fords most loved nameplates, with forum Bronco6G dedicated to discussing a revival of tough SUV. Theyve put together a very interesting rendition of a possible future Bronco, which pays homage to the original 1965 model, the 2004 concept and other iterations. It fuses them with modern styling elements and rugged off-road appointments. Tom, of Bronco 6G told us: You can see the classic round headlights and square inset front grille evolved from the 1st gen Bronco, which was also showcased in the retro-futuristic 2004 Bronco concept. Our concept features a modern body on frame next generation Bronco that retains a tall, boxy, tough, no-frills design with a strong focus on utility and off-road capabilities. We fitted separate versions with different grilles, wheel fender shapes, varying ride heights, and cargo rack for some different looks. Well, Tom we think the rendering hits the sweet spot and if Ford is indeed planning to resurrect the Bronco, they could do a lot worse than to head in this direction. Over to you guys; would you buy a new Ford Bronco if it looked like this? By Mitchell Jones Renderings courtesy of Bronco6G Photo Gallery CLASSIC FORD BRONCO Beyond recalling over 11 million vehicles worldwide, the VW Group may actually be forced to undo the environmental damage created by its fleet of emissions-cheating diesel cars. The German company is already facing fines of up to $90 billion due to many of its models emitting up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide. Now, the Financial Review reported that a number of environmental and consumer groups are asking the federal government to take things even further. Some pundits suggest that Volkswagen should be forced to fund infrastructure to power electric cars in order to offset the huge amounts of pollution released by its illegal 2.0-liter and 3.0-liter diesel engines. According to a German publication, the EPA has talked with Volkswagen about it producing electric vehicles at its Tennessee plant and potentially aiding in the roll-out of a nationwide network of electric charging stations. In the 1990s, the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States stipulated that a number of truck manufacturers that cheated in emissions tests would have to invest $1 billion into developing more environmentally-friendly engines, so there is a precedent for such measures to be implemented. PHOTO GALLERY The Audi R8 Spyder has been spotted testing sans camouflage in Namibia ahead of its official debut later this year. The undisguised nature of the car means that it is almost production ready while the location indicates that this is hot weather testing for the car. As has been the case with the previous R8, there is not expected to be much to separate the Spyder from its hard top sibling. It gets the same internal and external design but now with a ventilated engine cover and possibly a more upright engine bay window. It will be heavier than the hardtop model thanks to the changes needed to make the convertible as rigid as the latter. The car is expected to be offered only with the 5.2-litre V10 mill that produces 610bhp. This engine has been mated to a seven-speed DSG and Quattro AWD system. The hardtop variant was launched for the Indian market for Rs 2.47 crore (ex-showroom Dehi) at the 2016 Auto Expo. The convertible will come to India a few months after its European debut and is likely to be priced Rs 20 lakh (the difference between the older models) more than the hardtop variant. Source: cars_in_Namibia Photo: Jennifer Zielinski - Castanet File Photo Liberal Stephen Fuhr spent almost three times that of incumbent Ron Cannan to become MP for Kelowna-Lake Country in October's federal election. Fuhr outspent and outpolled the Conservatives' Cannan during the Liberal Party's return to power in Ottawa. Fuhr's campaign spent more than $114,000 in advertising, nearly three times the $42,646 Cannan spent. That total was just $8,000 less than was spent by unsuccessful Liberal candidates the previous four federal election campaigns combined. In contrast, Cannan spent just over $140,000 in election and re-election campaigns in 2006, 2008 and 2011. Including office and other expenses, Fuhr's spending was just over $130,000, while Cannan's campaign spent a little north of $75,000. Expense information from other candidates in Kelowna-Lake Country is not yet available on the Elections Canada website. Only partial information is available for candidates in the Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola riding. Conservative incumbent Dan Albas spent more than $92,000 in his re-election bid. Of that, $46,000 was spent on advertising, while a large chunk, $28,000, went to voter contact calling services. Green Party candidate Robert Mellalieu spent slightly more than $4,700, about half of that on advertising. Financial information from Liberal Karley Scott and NDP hopeful Angelique Wood had not yet been posted on the website. Photo: Contributed - City of West Kelowna West Kelowna council has given first three readings to a bylaw allowing it to borrow up to $10.5 million for construction of a new city hall. Fourth and final reading is contingent on electoral approval. The borrowing bylaw, approved Tuesday, will now be forwarded to the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development for review and approval. Council also agreed, as expected, to seek approval from voters for the borrowing of the funds through an alternative approval process. After ministerial approvals are received, council will consider setting the deadline date for the AAP and the number of eligible electors in West Kelowna to determine the 10 per cent of voters to be defined in the AAP. City hall, if approved by the electorate, will be part of a larger civic centre, to be built on privately owned land at 3641 Elliott Rd. Ownership of all land associated with the new city hall will be transferred to the city once all construction agreements have been finalized. Council also agreed to a communications plant to inform West Kelowna residents and property owners about the AAP, the civic centre project, the Westbank Centre revitalization plan, a plan to revert Mount Boucherie Community Centre to its intended use as a community hall and the Interior Health commitment to locate health services in the civic centre project. The plan spans one month and includes a mail out to every home in West Kelowna two weeks before the AAP begins, advising of an open house hosted by mayor and council that will include an open microphone to take questions. Photo: Thinkstock.com Conditions are really bad and they are extreme in the back country, says Jeff Vick, a level two avalanche technician with Vernon Search and Rescue. Vick, a former director of the Big White ski patrol, says both skiers and snowmobilers should be heeding warnings from the Canadian Avalanche Centre. It issued a bulletin last Friday. With the warming trend and the persistent slabs, we've got some deep layers that are not very stable, says Vick. The centre tells you what is safe. Late Sunday and early Monday, Vick and other searchers combed an area in the Pinnacle Peaks region, east of Cherryville, looking for six snowmobilers who were eventually found safe and sound. The search was hampered by avalanche conditions. Larger areas that are exposed, we can't go, said Vick. Also, at night when we can't see these areas, that also hampers our search. Last Saturday in the mountains near Golden, an Alberta man was killed and a second snowmobiler was sent to hospital following an avalanche. Avalanche centre advice should be the backwoods adventurer's first reference point, says Vick. They give us tons of information specific to an area we're going in to. Past history, current alpine forecast, and on and on. I go in with my eyes wide open, he said. As an expert, he also looks for tell-tale signs. I look for wind-loading on slopes. I look for cracks that might appear. I look for whomping in the snow when it's hollow and you can feel it go down as you walk on it. I look for small slides on slopes. A route should be planned on the conditions of the day. Some avalanches are preventable and down to basic mistakes such as everyone gathering at the bottom of a slope to watch someone go up the slope and then they're totally exposed, said Vick. People not taking precautions, going one at a time across a slope so if someone gets caught it is only one and not the whole group. Snowmobile courses are popular and Vick says many out on the slopes have some form of training. However, he adds, it doesn't stop there. What would be appropriate would be mentoring so you'd go out with somebody who already knows what's going on. In the guiding industry, you have to be very accomplished before you lead anyone in the mountains, snowmobiling not so much, Vick said. Photo: CTV The owner of a vehicle that allegedly struck and killed two cyclists out for a weekend ride north of Whistler, B.C., denies having given the driver permission to use her car. Carmen Ned has filed a response to a civil suit in B.C. Supreme Court saying she gave neither express nor implied consent for Samuel Alec to take her vehicle on May 31, 2015. Alec is accused of fatally hitting cyclists Ross Chafe and Kelly Blunden on Highway 99 in a collision that also killed the vehicle's sole passenger, Paul Pierre Jr. Chafe's wife, Lizanne Bussieres, alleges Alec was impaired at the time of the crash, and is seeking damages from him, Ned and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. In his response filed in court last year, Alec blames the incident on Chafe's negligence, though none of the allegations have been proven in court. In August, RCMP charged Alec with impaired driving causing death, criminal negligence causing death and failure to remain at the scene of an accident. Photo: Nicholas Johansen Const. Jon Fleming scours the ground for evidence. Five police vehicles were parked on Ross Road in West Kelowna Wednesday night, as officers scoured the ground for evidence with flashlights. RCMP responded to reports of gunshots at a home in the residential neighbourhood near Hewl Road just after 7 p.m. Police had a portion of the front yard of a house taped off at 8:45 p.m., as well as a covered bus stop across the road. Const. Jon Fleming said they were in the initial stages of investigating reports of gunshots in the area, and were compiling evidence. There were reportedly no injuries stemming from the incident. A neighbour said he heard what he thought were gunshots and saw two people flee the scene. I was sitting on the couch with my niece and I heard three loud pops, so I booked it to the door and opened the door and heard a man's voice say 'Dude let's go, let's F-ing go,' he said. Then I saw two people start to book it towards Mount Boucherie. I lived in Texas, and there everyone has guns ... so I'm familiar with the sound and it sounded just like bullets. The man said the RCMP took two dogs up Mount Boucherie to search for the people who fled the scene. One woman who had lived in the area for seven years, said she didn't know the residents at the house in question, but had never seen anything out of the ordinary in the neighbourhood. It's so quiet, there's so many kids playing in the cul-de-sacs down the streets and stuff, she said. A police officer was in the living room of a house across the street from the taped-off house, questioning the residents. Check back on Castanet for more information as this story develops. Photo: The Canadian Press The federal government will have to mull a new system to distribute medical marijuana and Canada's multi-million dollar cannabis industry was thrown into flux Wednesday after a judge ruled patients can grow their pot at home. Federal Court Judge Michael Phelan struck down a law introduced by the former Conservative government that required patients to buy cannabis through the mail from licensed producers, writing it was an "arbitrary and overbroad" violation of charter rights. He suspended his decision for six months to allow the Liberal government time to craft new legislation. The federal government has 30 days to appeal. "It's a victory for not just medical cannabis patients, but really all Canadians," said Kirk Tousaw, a lawyer who represented the four British Columbia plaintiffs in the constitutional challenge. Canadians who use cannabis for illness or pain have faced regulatory upheaval in recent years. The old Medical Marijuana Access Regulations allowed licence-holders to grow pot themselves or find designated growers. The former Conservative government nixed those rules in 2013 when it introduced the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, which required patients to order cannabis from commercial producers. A court injunction has kept the old program alive for about 28,000 licence holders. Phelan extended that injunction on Wednesday until a further court order. The system created by the Tory regulations has grown into a booming industry with more than 20 licensed producers. While Phelan's decision changes nothing in the short-term, it breeds uncertainty about the future of the fledgling medical-pot business. Shares of leading cannabis producer Canopy Growth Corp. dropped six per cent on the TSX Venture Exchange Wednesday, while Aurora Cannabis Inc. shares dropped nine per cent. Mark Zekulin, president of Tweed Marijuana Inc., a subsidiary of Canopy, said the company is valued at $250 million to $300 million and employs more than 200 people. He said he doesn't expect the Liberal government to scrap the licensed-producer system entirely. "We've built a world-class facility ... and are producing very high-quality product that you can't get anywhere else," he said. "I don't think six months from now it's just going to get shuttered and people are going to be out of jobs." Peace Naturals CEO Mark Gobuty said personal growth can coexist with licensed producers in a regulatory regime. "We're all allowed to grow tomatoes and cucumbers at home, but how many of us do?" he asked. Health Minister Jane Philpott said she was reviewing the decision with the Justice Department and it's too early to say whether the government would appeal. "We are obliged to ensure that Canadians who need access to medical marijuana can do so," she told reporters in Ottawa. "We're going to have to completely review the regulations." The Liberals have committed to legalizing recreational marijuana but have said little about their plans for medical cannabis. Philpott said the two should be treated as "separate issues." John Conroy, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, urged the government to get to work quickly on crafting new legislation. He said marijuana dispensaries, which have sprung up in large numbers in Vancouver and Toronto despite being illegal, should be included in the regime. He applauded sections of Phelan's judgment that criticized federal government experts who testified that home-growing bred grave public-safety risks. "All of these allegations about mould, fire, home invasion, public safety are all things that can be dealt with," he said. "They had virtually no evidence to support those types of problems in legal operations." Shawn Davey, one of the four representative plaintiffs, said he couldn't afford the amount of cannabis he needs under the rules brought in by the Conservatives. "Marijuana has helped me 110 per cent," said Davey, who suffered a severe brain injury after being hit by a truck while riding his motorcycle. "(Pharmaceutical drugs) make me feel like nothing but crap. This makes me feel like heaven." Contractors are upset over a string of break-ins at construction sites around Vernon. According to an anonymous builder with Sawchuk Developments Co. Ltd. of Kelowna, there have been three recent break-ins on one site in the 2700 block of 39th Avenue with at least $10,000 in tools, copper wiring and piping taken. Two of the break-ins took place on Sunday, Feb. 21 and one on Monday, Feb. 22. The company has released surveillance video of a person of interest. The man is believed to be in his thirties with blonde hair and was seen wearing dark pants, a dark sweatshirt, blue running shoes and a black hat with a red brim. "He may have an accomplice, according to the contractor. Items taken include bandsaws, drills, grinders, lights and plumbing tools as well as the copper pipes and wiring. At least two other contractors have complained of break-ins at sites along Anderson Way and the Recreation Centre, he claims. According to the contractor a man has been questioned by police. RCMP confirm an investigation is ongoing but have not released any details. BC COMMENTS WELCOME Comments are pre-moderated to ensure they meet our guidelines. Approval times will vary. Keep it civil, and stay on topic. If you see an inappropriate comment, please use the flag feature. Comments are the opinions of the comment writer, not of Castanet. Comments remain open for one day after a story is published and are closed on weekends. Visit Castanets Forums to start or join a discussion about this story. Introducing Reactions Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016 There's a new way to show your approval, or disapproval, of posts on Facebook. The social media platform launched its new reaction 'like' button worldwide on Wednesday. It gives users six ways to express themselves. The feature allows users to hover over the 'like' button on their desktop, or hold down the 'like' button on a mobile device to access five emoji reactions. You can stick with the original or choose to say you love the post, think it's funny with a haha, share a wow or express a negative reaction with a sad or angry face. Not every moment you want to share is happy, wrote Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Sometimes, you want to share something sad or frustrating. Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years, but not because people want to tell friends they don't like their posts. People wanted to express empathy and make it comfortable to share a wider range of emotions. Love is the most popular reaction so far, which feels about right to me! Head over to the Castanet Facebook page for top articles throughout the day and a place to test the new 'reaction' buttons. I want to comment on Crystal Findlay's frustration about the need for regulations and by-laws to prevent predatory towing. I believe her about being towed in that short of time. I too was towed (after business hours) within twenty minutes from a parking lot behind a condo I just began renting. I want to suggest to Crystal Findlay that the business may not have even been aware of her tow. When I called the lot property manager, I was informed that this was an ongoing issue and my tow was completely unauthorized by him. That tow cost me $262.50 and I was told I was lucky not to pay the 'night retrieval rate.' This all happened in under two hours. The towing company has since had to take down their sign and did not respond to my complaint via the Better Business Bureau. I can't believe this isn't regulated via bylaws either. Yes, it was costly and I wish I had been towed by the city even. Unfortunately, my medical issue made me have to park for the twenty minutes and I had major surgery after... but predators count on stuff like that. Maybe investigate it and if it's the same situation as mine, make a report to the Better Business Bureau. Veronica Roesler Photo: Contributed - Thinkspace Architecture A new long-term facilities plan will not result in the closure of any schools within the Vernon school district. We have been assured this will not lead to school closures, board chair Kelly Smith said Thursday, following a meeting of trustees. But, Smith said the review, currently underway by Thinkspace Architecture Planning Interior Design consultants, is important. Neighbourhoods grow and they shrink, said Smith. We have one school with five portables. We need to know about renovations. It is 10 years since our last review. Without a review, the Ministry (of Education) won't let us do the required work. The final report is expected to be complete by June. In the North Okanagan Shuswap, School District 83 is mired in controversy over trustees' proposals to close elementary schools in Armstrong and Salmon Arm as they struggle to cut $1.3 million from the 2016-17 budget. The proposals follow a March 2015 long-term facilities report highlighting declining enrolment. School District 22 is not facing the same scenario, said Smith. We need to cut $319,000 (from the 2016-17 budget) which is way less than we thought, Smith admitted. The last report stated $800,000. The change in circumstances is due to a reduction in the employer's premium payment to the teachers' pension plan, saving the district some funds. However, district officials and trustees must wait until March 15, when the ministry releases 2016-17 funding figures. We hope the per-pupil funding remains the same, said Smith. The problem is more students arrived in B.C. schools over the past year, 6,500 kids. Will the province be able to afford to pay per student at the same level? Eighty-seven per cent of the board's operating expenditures relate to the employment of staff, either salaries or benefits, stated a report to trustees. Photo: CTV Homeless campers on the grounds of Victoria's courthouse are staging a block party as they face eviction. The party got off to a rough start this morning as police cars arrived with sirens blaring to investigate a disturbance at one of the tents within the camp. Police were not commenting, but a photographer at the camp says there was an alleged assault. Today is the deadline set for campers to move, but city police and British Columbia's government say the timeline is a soft one geared towards people voluntarily leaving for shelters as opposed to a forced eviction. A placard outside the camp invites people to a block party later today that includes guest speakers and people from other B.C. homeless camps. Victoria's camp grew from a few tents last spring to more than 100 people and dozens of tents, forcing the issue of homelessness from alleyways and parks to the highly visible manicured grounds of the downtown courthouse. Photo: Thinkstock.com Vernon directors were left steaming after the North Okanagan Regional District board rejected a proposal that would have seen a big water rate hike for major water users. Instead the board voted to go back to a staff recommendation of a two per cent increase in the 2016 budget that will be absorbed by everyone, including domestic users. Our goal was to avoid rate shock, said Bob Fleming, electoral area B director, who led the group in favour of the staff recommendation. Fleming conceded a simple majority of five stakeholders voted in favour of the staff proposal, leaving the two Vernon representatives, Akbal Mund and Bob Spiers, voting against it. Spiers had pushed for a change in the rates to make the big commercial, industrial and institutional users in the Greater Vernon area pay more for water, stating at an earlier meeting that they should pay their fair share. Some users, especially the higher user business class would have paid eight to ten per cent more. It would have been significant, said Fleming. Our goal was two to three per cent more. Fleming said the domestic category has also been simplified, going from five to three rates. The 2016 budget is estimated at $20,412,000. If you have just started your journey in an online casino or are looking for a new site to play,... This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions Senator Lamar Alexander on Wednesday said in a hearing on the presidents proposed budget for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission it is critical that the U.S. ends the 25-year-old nuclear waste stalemate. Senator Alexander, who leads the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development that oversees funding for the NRC, focused on the need to ensure regulators are prepared to: review licenses for new nuclear waste storage sites, safely extend existing reactor licenses, review licenses for new reactors, such as small modular reactors, and reduce the NRC budget to reflect its actual workload. At a time when everyone wants to produce more carbon-free electricity it makes no sense whatsoever to undermine this source of power by continuing this logjam and not opening Yucca Mountain to dispose of used nuclear fuel. Federal law designates Yucca Mountain as the nations repository for used nuclear fuel, and the Commissions own scientists have told us that we can safely store used nuclear fuel there for up to 1 million years. Theres no excuse for Congress to continue to keep Yucca Mountain closed, Senator Alexander said. He also said he intends to include in this years appropriations bill a pilot program that would allow the creation of consolidated storage sites for used nuclear fuel, and a change in the law that would allow the Department of Energy to contract with private storage facilities to store used nuclear fuel. The goal is to make sure that used fuel that is currently stored at more than 75 sites around the country could be moved to consolidated storage sites before being placed in a permanent repository. These new storage facilities would not take the place of Yucca Mountain we have more than enough waste to fill Yucca Mountain to its legal capacity but rather would complement it. To end this stalemate we need to move on all tracks, he said. Senator Alexander also voiced concern at the hearing about why President Obamas budget request for the NRC did not include money for Yucca Mountain. Utilities paid money collected from customers from 1983 to 2013 into the Nuclear Waste Fund to pay for disposal of used nuclear fuel. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said the government couldnt collect more fees until it complied with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Senator Alexanders full opening remarks as prepared follow. Click here to view a video of his statements. Were here today to review the presidents fiscal year 2017 budget request for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the independent federal agency responsible for regulating the safety of our nations commercial nuclear power plants and other nuclear materials. The budget request for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is $970.2 million dollars. This is a decrease of $19.8 million dollars from fiscal year 2016. This decrease from last year's appropriations bill is a positive step toward making the Commissions budget reflect its actual workload. I also appreciate the Commissions efforts to identify more ways to reduce spending and reduce the NRCs funding needs for the coming year. We want to work closely with the Commission to make sure the Energy and Water Appropriations bill we are drafting reflects those savings, making the best use of taxpayer dollars. However, we also want to make sure we continue to invest in nuclear power, which provides more than 60 percent of our countrys carbon-free electricity. Safely extending licenses for our existing reactors, licensing new reactors, including small modular reactors, and solving the nuclear waste stalemate are all important to the future of nuclear energy. Today, I will focus my questions on four main areas: Licensing facilities for used nuclear fuel and solving the nuclear waste stalemate; Safely extending licenses for existing reactors; Licensing new reactors; and Making sure the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is operating efficiently. Licensing Facilities for Used Nuclear Fuel To ensure that nuclear power has a strong future in this country, we must solve the 25-year-old stalemate about what to do with used fuel from our nuclear reactors. Last year, Sens. Feinstein, Murkowski, Cantwell, and I reintroduced bipartisan legislation, to create temporary and permanent facilities to store and dispose of our used nuclear fuel, consistent with the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Americas Nuclear Future. Sen. Feinstein and I, with the support of the leaders of the authorizing committee, plan to include in the Energy and Water bill we're drafting this year, a pilot program for nuclear waste storage and language that allows the Secretary of Energy to contract with private storage facilities, as we have in the past. These new storage facilities and repositories would not take the place of Yucca Mountain we have more than enough waste to fill Yucca Mountain to its legal capacity but rather would complement it. I strongly believe that Yucca Mountain can and should be part of the solution. Federal law designates Yucca Mountain as the nations repository for used nuclear fuel, and the Commissions own scientists have told us that we can safely store nuclear waste there for up to 1 million years. But regardless of where we build permanent repositories, we still need facilities where we can consolidate all of the used fuel that is currently located at more than 75 sites around the country. The Blue Ribbon Commission concluded that "it would be prudent to pursue the development of consolidated storage capability without further delay", and Sen. Feinstein and I agree with that recommendation. Over the last four years, we have heard from communities and states who are interested in hosting a consolidated storage site. I support moving forward with consolidated storage on as many tracks as we can, whether it's at a private facility or one built under our pilot program, and it is important to make sure that the Commission is ready to act expeditiously. I understand that at least one private company is planning to submit an application to the Commission later this year for a license to build and operate a consolidated storage facility, and there may be others. I want to make sure that the Commission has all the resources it needs in fiscal year 2017 to complete a review of these applications. I also want to be clear that the Commission should continue licensing activities for Yucca Mountain. The Nuclear Waste Fund, which is money that utilities have collected from customers on their monthly bills from 1983 until 2013 and paid to the government to dispose of their used nuclear fuel plus accrued interest, will have a balance of about $37.5 billion at the end of the year, and there are still several steps to go in the licensing process for Yucca Mountain. The government has been prevented from collecting fees since 2013, when the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Court said the federal government should comply with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act as it is currently written i.e. open Yucca Mountain or until Congress enacts an alternative nuclear waste management plan. Yet for the sixth year, the Commission has not requested any funding to continue licensing activities for Yucca Mountain, even though the Commission will run out of money later this year for that purpose and there are still several more steps that need to be taken. Safely Extending Licenses for Existing Reactors Instead of building more windmills, which only produce 14 percent of our carbon-free electricity, or solar farms, which only produce 1 percent of our carbon-free electricity, the best way to make sure the United States has a reliable source of cheap, efficient, carbon-free electricity is to extend the licenses of the nuclear reactors that are already operating. Most of our 100 reactors have already extended their operating licenses from 40 to 60 years, and some utilities are planning to begin the process to extend these licenses from 60 to 80 years. The Commission told the Subcommittee in last year's hearing that it had already developed the framework to safely extend licenses beyond 60 years, and I want to make sure that the Commission has the resources it needs to take any additional steps it needs prior to receiving those applications. Licensing New Reactors In addition to the reactors we already have, the Commission also needs to be ready to review applications for new reactors, including small modular reactors. I understand that NuScale may file an application for design certification of a small modular reactor with the Commission later this year. Last week, NuScale received a permit from the Department of Energy, which will allow the company to build a small modular reactor module within 10 years on the property of Idaho National Laboratory and to use the site for 99 years for its operation. This new reactor design has been supported by the Department of Energy's small modular reactor program, which this subcommittee has funded since 2012. The subcommittee has also provided the NRC with funding to prepare to receive applications for small modular reactors. I want to make sure the Commission is ready to review this new technology once it receives an application. I also understand that the Commission has requested $5 million to look at advanced reactor designs, and I'd like to understand more about the Commission's plans for these funds. Making Sure the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is Running Efficiently One of the challenges for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is to make sure the agency is running effectively and focusing on the right goals. In the early 2000s, the Commission began planning to receive a large number of applications for new reactor licenses, and Congress increased the Commissions funding from $470 million in FY2000 to a high of $1.043 billion in FY2014. But most of these expected licenses were never actually submitted, which has left the Commissions workforce and budget out of balance with its actual workload. In June 2014, the Commission began an effort, known as Project Aim, to address this imbalance by looking at the work that would be needed over the next several years and then aligning its workforce and budget with that forecast. As a result of the first step of this effort, the Commission's budget has decreased. In fact, this year's budget request is about $74 million dollars less than what the Commission received in 2014. Last year, we worked with the Commission to cut its budget request by about $30 million dollars, and I'm pleased this years budget request continues in the right direction. I understand that the Commission's staff has identified an additional $32 million in savings that could be applied to this year's budget request. I want to make sure the bill Sen. Feinstein and I are drafting this year reflects those additional savings so taxpayer money is used effectively. I look forward to working with the Commission as we begin putting together our Energy and Water Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2017, and also with my Ranking Member, Senator Feinstein, who I will now recognize for an opening statement. Larry Freed, 53, was convicted Wednesday of federal fraud charges connected to the use of $6.7 million in tax-increment financing money his companies received to redevelop a former Goldblatt's Department store on Broadway in Uptown, seen in 2001. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune archive photo) A Chicago developer whose firm counts Block 37, a downtown Target store and Streets of Woodfield among its projects faces up to 230 years in prison after a jury found him guilty Wednesday of bank fraud, mail fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. Larry Freed, 53, was charged in 2013 with federal fraud charges related to a $105 million line of credit he received on properties in Chicago and the suburbs, according to prosecutors and court records. Advertisement "This crime began because he had a large financial empire and was overextended at a time when the real estate market was crashing," Renato Mariotti, lead prosecutor on the case for the U.S. attorney's office, said Thursday. "He was running out of cash, and was willing to do things that were illegal to get that cash." For example, Freed fraudulently recorded $7 million he withdrew from a partnership that controlled the Streets of Woodfield in Schaumburg as "loans," prosecutors alleged. Advertisement "He stole money from the Streets of Woodfield several million dollars without the consent or knowledge of his partner," Mariotti said. Freed also took tax increment financing from the city of Chicago to which he wasn't entitled, meaning taxpayers are out almost $2 million, said Mariotti, who said he expects the city to seek restitution. The 2013 indictment said Freed received a total of almost $2.5 million in TIF funds from Chicago in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Tax increment financing is a special funding tool used by the city of Chicago to promote public and private investment. The case file also includes a 2008 resignation letter to Larry Freed from Al O'Donnell, then the executive vice president of finance and treasury at Joseph Freed & Associates, which was founded in 1965 by Freed's father. "What has me concerned more than anything is the continued use of partnership cash as a funding source for ongoing obligations of the company," the financial executive wrote to Freed in the three-page letter. Among other things, O'Donnell raised concerns about using historical tax credit money, earmarked for a project on South State Street, for corporate obligations. "The mindset and culture is unsettling and most aggravating." The lesson from Freed's case: "Whether in good times or bad, it's important to be upfront with your business partners and lenders and to play by the rules," Mariotti said. Freed's first job after college was working in corporate real estate for May Department Stores. Two years later, Herb Simon, co-founder of what is now shopping center developer Simon Property Group, asked Freed join his firm. When Freed was home for the holidays and casually mentioned that conversation, it became clear that his parents hoped he would pick up the mantle, according to a 2009 Tribune story. Freed joined the family business in 1986 as it became the largest privately owned shopping center developer in the Midwest. The same year, Freed took on its first historic preservation project by redeveloping Wieboldt's department store in Wicker Park. In 1993, Larry Freed became president and a year later his mother, Joyce Freed, who ran the back office, died unexpectedly. As the health of his father, Joseph, worsened, Larry Freed took on more responsibility. He continued to build and redevelop suburban strip malls in Illinois and Michigan, while also saving old Chicago retail buildings. Freed also moved the firm's headquarters from Palatine to Chicago. Advertisement In recent years the firm helped to restore a Louis Sullivan building and other structures that made up the former Carson Pirie Scott department store on State Street. The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency praised Joseph Freed & Associates in 2011 for its work on the Loop project. The firm then helped land Target as a tenant in the restored building. Joseph Freed & Associates also was credited with attracting such tenants as Whole Foods and Crate & Barrel to the Streets of Woodfield in Schaumburg. The firm gained control of the long-troubled Block 37 project in 2007, when a previous developer ran into financial trouble. But the primary lender on Block 37 foreclosed on the mixed-use property bordered by State, Dearborn, Randolph and Washington streets in 2009. While Freed fought the Block 37 lender in court, his real estate firm's financial troubles led Freed and Caroline Walters, of Palatine, the vice president of his firm, to lie to the city of Chicago and banks to get money, prosecutors alleged. Walters pleaded guilty this month to a charge of making a false statement to a financial institution, according to prosecutors. Freed eventually lost control of Block 37. Advertisement Long before Block 37, Freed's firm redeveloped the former Goldblatt's department store in the Uptown neighborhood, using $6.7 million in tax increment financing from the city for the project. The firm used notes guaranteeing payment of the TIF money to get a $15 million loan from Cole Taylor Bank, according to court documents. Several years later, the redevelopment of the former Goldblatt's used the same TIF notes as collateral to get a $105 million line of credit from a bank consortium led by Bank of America, without disclosing that the TIF money was already pledged to Cole Taylor, according to prosecutors. When Cole Taylor asked about the double pledge, the venture fraudulently told the bank it would end the double pledge, but didn't tell the bank that the Bank of America group already had declared Freed's firm in default. Trial evidence also showed that Freed signed false affidavits in 2009 and 2010 to get millions in TIF payments from the city, even though the money was owed to the two bank groups, according to the release. A sentencing date for Freed has not been set. A status hearing in the case is set for March 24. Walters faces up to 30 years in prison. She's scheduled to be sentenced June 10 by U.S. District Judge Robert Dow, who also presided over Freed's trial. Advertisement A spokesperson at Joseph Freed & Associates declined to comment on the guilty verdict. A representative from the city's Law Department couldn't be reached for comment. Through his lawyers, Freed declined an interview request. byerak@tribpub.com Twitter @beckyyerak Dr. Mark Holterman allegedly performed 25 experimental surgeries on a newborn who suffered irreperable brain damage. The child's family settled a $30 million malpractice lawsuit involving Holterman. (University of Illinois at Peoria) The University of Illinois plans to pay $10 million of a proposed $30 million medical malpractice settlement involving a catastrophic brain injury to a Chicago-area toddler due to surgical complications, the Tribune has confirmed. The proposed settlement was reached last week just as a civil trial was about to start in a lawsuit alleging negligence against Dr. Mark Holterman, a pediatric surgeon. The lawsuit said Holterman performed 24 experimental surgeries on a baby who was born in November 2009 with a leak in his esophagus. In the final surgery performed in 2011, Holterman used a suturing device that severed the boy's pulmonary artery, according to the suit, which was brought by the child's mother, Ethel Chavez. Advertisement Holterman was practicing at the University of Illinois' Chicago hospital when some of the earlier procedures were performed, said Sherri McGinnis Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the university's Chicago campus. The surgeon also operated on the Chavez child at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Rush will pay $20 million of the settlement, Gonzalez said. Advertisement Holterman has been on the faculty of the University of Illinois' College of Medicine for more than 18 years, according to Gonzalez. He is working at the medical school's campus in Peoria. Since he is a university employee, Holterman is covered under the school's self-insurance program for medical malpractice, Gonzalez said. The university's board of trustees is scheduled to consider the proposed settlement at the upcoming March meeting, Gonzalez said. "Our caregivers are dedicated to delivering accessible, compassionate health care to the people of Illinois," Gonzalez said in a statement. "We are saddened by these events and extend our deepest sympathy to the family." asachdev@tribpub.com Twitter @ameetsachdev Jennifer Jones, 34, bought her first condo, a one-bedroom, as a single in her 20s and now is buying a larger place but staying the Gold Coast neighborhood. Nationally, single women are the second largest group of homebuyers, behind only married couples. (Kristen Norman / Chicago Tribune) Shopping for a Chicago condominium, Jennifer Jones realized her money could last a lot longer by buying, versus renting. Plus, she could renovate it to exactly her tastes, cobbling together her personal dream condo. After first buying a place in her 20s, Jones is now selling that condo and buying a new, bigger one. She's one of many different generations of women buying on their own in the city. Advertisement Nationally, single women make up 15 percent of all buyers the second largest group behind married couples according to 2015 data from the National Association of Realtors. That number has declined a bit since 2010, when the number was 20 percent. But in Chicago, brokers say single women are a force in the market, and some are snapping up homes at a rate higher than national trends. Advertisement Data provided by Zillow show a higher proportion of single, never-been-married women buying homes in Chicago 12 percent, topping the national average of 9 percent, according to the real estate marketplace. The living room inside of Jennifer Jones' apartment. (Kristen Norman / Chicago Tribune) The median age of single female homebuyers is 50, reports the National Association of Realtors, and 72 percent buy a single-family home. But among first-time homebuyers, the typical age is 32, noted Jessica Lautz, the group's managing director of survey research and communications. Lautz herself bought her first home when she was single and in her late 20s. Chicago brokers say clients range from divorced women buying their own place for the first time, to moms hoping for more room or young singles ready to make a big purchase. Mary MacDiarmid, a broker with @properties, has helped multiple young women buy condos. Chicago's rents are more reasonable than in other big cities like San Francisco or New York, she pointed out, which might more easily allow a real-estate move when ready. MacDiarmid remembers when purchase paperwork included the word "spinster," for women to check if unmarried. Now, she said, many clients buy their own place, to fit their own life, marriage on the mind or not. The bathroom inside Jennifer Jones' apartment. (Kristen Norman / Chicago Tribune) For Jones, moving back to Chicago from New York meant making a decision to plant roots. Plus, after paying Manhattan rents, she realized Chicago cash could go much further and for a longer commitment. "I said, 'Oh my gosh, I could actually make this work and purchase a place,'" she said. Advertisement She looked at seven different places, from Gold Coast to River North, her first day shopping. "I ended up buying the first place I saw," the 34-year-old private banker said. A decade later, she has just listed that condo, hoping to buy again. This time, she eyed more space, hoping to trade her one-bedroom for a two-bedroom with a den, while staying in Gold Coast. "I've narrowed it down to which street I want to live on," she said. After looking at three places, she put an offer in this month. The sales of both her current condo and her new future home close in April. She counsels friends to buy instead of rent. Jennifer Jones poses for a portrait in her apartment in the Gold Coast. (Kristen Norman / Chicago Tribune) "It's a big decision, but it shouldn't be scary," she said. "You kind of need to demystify the whole process." Advertisement Wanting more space in the same neighborhood rings familiar to Abbey Helmetag, 44, a mom of three in La Grange. After living in a home for 11 years that she bought with her then-husband, she loved the area but felt she and her three kids, ages 8, 10 and 13, were outgrowing the home. "As they were getting older, we needed more space," she said. So she targeted a small radius within their school district, buying a four-bedroom in July with more livable space, including a finished basement. Women often prioritize a certain community, Lautz said, especially if they live alone or need help with children. "They often want to buy to be close to friends or family," she said. The view from the balcony at Jennifer Jones' apartment. (Kristen Norman / Chicago Tribune) For singles, buying one's own place has obvious benefits targeting a favorite neighborhood, decorating or making renovations that follow only your individual preferences. Advertisement Cons for singles, the same as anyone embarking on home ownership, include being in charge of the property, whether that's mowing the lawn or choosing cabinets. Or the time Jones came home from work to find water dripping from her bathroom ceiling after a toilet overflowed upstairs. "It all falls to you at the end," Jones said. "Something happens in my place, it's up to me to fix it." For many friends, she added, that's where renting maintains an allure. "They just don't want the burden. If something goes wrong, they like to be able to call the landlord." She added, "I think that they'd feel more confident if there was a partner involved." During the purchase process, being one instead of a couple can bring obstacles. The living room inside Jennifer Jones' apartment. (Kristen Norman / Chicago Tribune) "Some lenders could look at an unmarried couple or a married couple favorably because they do have dual buying power," Lautz said. Advertisement Alicia Hutchinson, 60, grew up with generations of women who had bought their own property. An aunt owned her home; after Hutchinson's grandfather died, her grandmother bought a duplex she and cousins grew up in. After years of renting a converted West Loop studio, Hutchinson decided to buy, echoing many friends who owned condos and town homes. "I'm kind of like the last one to do this," she said. "We're all single." She spent a year perfecting her credit to be ready for such a major purchase. "I was really tired of paying rent," she said. "That and paying for parking." In April, she hopes to move into a house she purchased in Indian Head Park. Advertisement "It's scary," she said. "I haven't slept much, but it's exciting." If embarking on a real-estate purchase alone, experts advise getting a trusted second opinion. "It's one of the largest financial decisions you'll ever make," Jones noted. A background in financial services helped Helmetag feel fluent in the paperwork and calculations, she said. But she recommends someone buying their first home bring someone to act as counsel or support. "If you're doing this on your own, the one thing that is beneficial is having the right people, and trusting them," she said. Ten years ago, women used to bring parents to showings, said MacDiarmid. Advertisement Now, she said, "They're more on their own. They're not looking for someone else's approval. They're looking for another set of eyes." MacDiarmid said finding a good lender and agent is key. And "have realistic expectations," she added. "They find out what they can spend if they want to, they know what they'd like to spend, and they figure out somewhere in the middle where they're comfortable," she said. When Hutchinson visits girlfriends, the setting is often at their own owned property for example, a friend's Bronzeville townhouse, or her soon-to-be home in Indian Head Park. "We don't feel like we have to have someone else help us to do this," Hutchinson said. "We want to do this on our own. It just gives a great sense of accomplishment, to have something that's yours." abowen@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter @byalisonbowen Prima Cider from Long Grove, that's their Prima Harvest pictured, will be among the 48 makers at Cider Summit on Saturday. (Keri Wiginton / Chicago Tribune) The first Cider Summit was held in Seattle in 2010. It drew fewer than 500 people. Six years later, the cider festival has also sprung up as an annual event in Portland and San Francisco, but the biggest version, which is expected to draw close to 4,500 people across two sessions on Saturday, is in Chicago. Advertisement About 140 ciders will be poured from 48 cider makers (from the Northwest, New England and Midwest, as well as France, Canada, Spain, England and Germany), and for the first time, cider cocktails will be available, including from coming cider bar The Northman. The sessions will be staged at Navy Pier between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. and 4 to 8 p.m. Tickets, which cost $35 for eight four-ounce pours and a souvenir glass, will be available until 11:59 p.m. Friday at cidersummit.com. Tickets will not be available at the door. (Additional pours, however, can be purchased after the initial eight at the festival for $2 each.) Advertisement Before the cider starts to flow, we talked with Cider Summit founder Alan Shapiro to check on the state of an industry that has seen wild growth and innovation in recent years. Q: The rise of cider during the past five years has been fascinating to watch. Creatively, where is cider now? A: There's a lot of finding its identity and explaining its identity to consumers. I talk to cider makers a lot about the evolution of wine in the 70s and 80s, and craft beer in the late 80s up until now. It wasn't all that long ago that craft beer had 2 percent of the total beer market. (Now it is at 11 percent.) Cider has crossed 1 percent of the total beer category. So there's plenty of upside. It's just taking several different paths. There are a lot of taste profiles out there, and they're not what people would have tasted during the mid 90s, when cider was essentially a new generation wine cooler. That's very much not the case now. Q: How would you describe the current cider landscape, then? A: Experimentation is a big part of what's happening fruit flavors, barrel aging and spices. There are more and more great artisan producers and an enormous array of experimental cider happening. There's sort of a craft beer influence in that anything goes. Q: Are the experiments working? That is, is it good cider, or are there many, shall we say, admirable efforts that don't quite work out? A: Well, the experiments are bringing a lot of consumers to the category, especially the local and regional brands. So in that way, it's working. National brands, after a few years of incredible growth, have started to slow to a more moderate growth, but the local and regional guys are very healthy and growing. There's a growing level of understanding and sophistication, which we're seeing at the festival. At least three-quarters of the people who attend are what I'll call "cider curious" they're figuring it out. So we want to give some of the smaller producers the chance to get in front of those consumers. We try to keep a level playing field. Everyone has the same amount of space. Q: What's your advice for people new to cider for how to spend the four hours at Cider Summit? Advertisement A: Study the list of ciders, which are available on our website. Do some planning about what strikes their curiosity. I recommend they try to do an assortment between large and small producers and different styles. Q: What are the basic styles? Is it as simple as sweeter and drier? Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. > A: There's more to it than that. There have been some good jobs with definitions: Modern American. Normandy or French style. Traditional English. Hopped cider. They've come up with a dozen categories. Q: Cider sales have been dominated by Angry Orchard, a product of Boston Beer Co. (aka Sam Adams), with Anheuser-Busch and Miller trying valiantly to get their piece of the (apple) pie. What is your feeling about there being such a thing as "big cider?" A: It reminds me of when Sam Adams released Cranberry Lambic in the 1990s. It was a mixed bag. There were definitely more authentic representations of what they were trying to do, but they brought great awareness to the category in a way none of the smaller companies could have. Two million consumers heard the word lambic for the first time, and some of them were pulled in. Angry Orchard and Woodchuck have overall done a service to bring awareness to cider and build the distribution base. By and large I think that's how people in the cider industry regard it for now. Not all consumers are coming in at that level now. In fact, it's probably less and less. Q: After blistering sales growth for cider for a few years, it slowed in 2015. What's your best guess on where cider will be in 10 years? Advertisement A: The consumer awareness, education and sophistication will grow exponentially. The category will continue a more steady growth model 15 to 30 percent annually, not the 80 percent it was. And there will be greater awareness for artisanal products and a very regionalized business, marked by this big phase of experimentation. jbnoel@tribpub.com Twitter @joshbnoel His film was "Underworld," generally deemed the first gangster film. It starred George Bancroft and was directed by Josef von Sternberg. It could not have been the toughest writing task of Hecht's career, which began when he came to Chicago in 1910, an ambitious teenager from Racine, Wis. He was a reporter, covering all manner of crimes and mischief, serving as a foreign correspondent in Germany, creating the legendary "1001 Afternoons" column for the Daily News, cavorting with lowlifes and literary figures in a city of which he would later lovingly recall: "I have lived in other cities, but been inside of only one. I once wore all the windows of Chicago and all its doorways on a key ring. Salons, mansions, alleys, courtrooms, depots, factories, hotels, police cells, the lake front, the rooftops and the sidewalks were my haberdashery." "What I always say about the way we made this film," Knibbe said in the True/False interview, "is that, in a way, we are really honest about the manipulation. It is a film that is supposed to be very cinematic, and the only way to do that is to manipulate. So the point was never realism or objectivity, because I think that's a big problem with the way this kind of subject is portrayed normally. The City Council of Charlotte, N.C., opened the bathroom door only to see the state threaten to slam it shut. On Monday, the council approved broad civil rights protections for gay, lesbian and transgender people. On Tuesday, conservative state politicians vowed to override at least one part of the decision. Advertisement Their biggest concern? The new law includes a provision that allows transgender people to use public bathrooms that match their gender identities. Opponents dubbed it "the bathroom bill." The evangelist Franklin Graham, a North Carolina native, had called the law "wicked" and "filthy" and said it "would allow pedophiles, perverts and predators into women's bathrooms." North Carolina's speaker of the House on Tuesday called it "a major public safety issue." Advertisement ------------ FOR THE RECORD Feb. 24, 6:24 a.m.: An earlier version of this post attributed a remark to South Carolina's speaker of the House. It was North Carolina's speaker of the House. ------------ The governor, Pat McCrory, a Republican, released a statement saying he was "disappointed and saddened." "As governor, I will support legislative action to address this regulation and will remain committed to protecting the privacy and safety of all men, women and children of all ages in North Carolina," it said. As LGBT activists around the U.S. turn their attention toward expanding rights for transgender Americans, they have met growing opposition from lawmakers in conservative states who have repeatedly focused on bathrooms. Forty-four bills that limit bathroom and locker room use or allow business owners to deny service to transgender people are currently under consideration in 16 states, according to a report released Monday by the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT advocacy group. Advertisement Last week, South Dakota's Legislature approved such a ban. Activists including transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner urged the state's governor to veto the bill. Of the 20 largest cities in America, Charlotte was among three that didn't have "nondiscrimination protection" for LGBT people, said Cathryn Oakley, a lawyer at the Human Rights Campaign. Another is Houston, where the City Council approved an equal rights measure that included protections on bathroom use, only to see voters override it in a referendum in November. Opponents wielded signs that said, "No men in women's bathrooms." Charlotte's new law is the result of a political gamble. The City Council first deliberated over a package of LGBT protections in March 2015 which the Charlotte Observer said at the time was "the most controversial ordinance it has considered in years." But there wasn't enough support to pass an ordinance that included transgender people. Council Member LaWana Mayfield and her colleagues who favored the broader ordinance faced a choice: Leave out transgender people or hold out for a more inclusive bill down the road. Advertisement "It would have been next to impossible to come back later and get trans protection added," Mayfield said. So she and a like-minded colleague joined with conservative members in a 6-5 vote against an ordinance that offered protections to gays and lesbians. "A good bit of my pushback and comments of interest not necessarily in a positive way came from the gay community, mostly the gay white male community," Mayfield said. "Why not reach for something as opposed to nothing?" she said they told her. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> But in the next local election, last November, the Human Rights Campaign and other advocacy groups got involved and helped elect two new council members who supported protections for transgender people. Advertisement After hours of debate Monday, the City Council voted 7 to 4 in favor of a complete ordinance, drawing applause from supporters as opponents held up signs that said "Don't do it, Charlotte." One woman shouted at the council, "Real discrimination happened at a lunch counter in Greensboro!" and a man begged the council to vote no, saying, "I'm not scared of transgenders, but sexual predators will see this as a chance for fresh victims," the Charlotte Observer reported. On Tuesday, conservative state lawmakers vowed to oppose Charlotte's new ordinance, which is set to take effect in April. "I think it's just inappropriate," Republican Sen. David Curtis, who represents a district outside Charlotte, told the Lincoln Times-News. "We have rules in our society and that's just one of the rules in our society. This liberal group is trying to redefine everything about our society. Gender and marriage just the whole liberal agenda." Curtis added: "We generally don't get involved in local politics. We need to do what's right. I don't think we should let national criticism stop us from doing what we should do." Rep. Tim Moore, speaker of the North Carolina House, said in a statement Tuesday that Charlotte had "gone against all common sense" and that he and other conservatives were exploring the possibility of passing legislation to overturn it. Advertisement For Roberta Dunn, 71, a Charlotte-area transgender woman and advocate, the new protections had been needed for a long time to prevent discrimination by businesses and employers and, yes, to allow her to use the lady's room. She said she resented the unfounded accusations that transgender people were more likely to be pedophiles. "I don't look proper in the men's room," she said. "Young boys would look at me. Men, they'd be like, 'What are you doing in here?' ... I am a woman. I feel that I've been a woman since I was 5 or 6 years old, and that's where I belong." matt.pearce@latimes.com Twitter: @MattDPearce MORE NATIONAL NEWS Mining companies' declining fortunes imperil the restoration of land they've mined Advertisement Scalia's death probably linked to obesity, diabetes and coronary artery disease, physician says Art collective builds a dream house in Santa Fe with millions of dollars and junk As women choose to marry later, or not at all, they're reshaping what it means to be married in the United States, Rebecca Traister argues in her new book, "All the Single Ladies." (Vintage Images / Getty) It is a challenge to exult in being a single woman of a certain age. While other people's marriages seem to come in multiples, and their grandchildren proliferate, our lives are different. Some of us fill our time with work, friends, travel, volunteering. Others trudge through the thickets of online dating, with its pornographic come-ons, sudden silences, and transatlantic entreaties from men who seem to be failing English as a second language. Life, at this point, has begun to seem nasty, brutish and long, if not quite long enough to snatch romantic happiness from the jaws of unwanted solitude. Advertisement The good news, of a sort, is that there are more of us now than ever separated, divorced, widowed and never-married. In 2009, the proportion of American women who were married fell below 50 percent, and the number of adults younger than 34 who had never married reached 46 percent. Better yet, this demographic shift has been prompting a cultural one too. The evidence includes a spate of books seeking not just to normalize but to applaud the condition of singleness. In "Singled Out" (2006), social psychologist Bella DePaulo coined the term "singlism" to denote the stigma and discrimination faced by single people, but also made the case for remaining single by choice. Advertisement About one in every seven American adults now lives alone, sociologist Eric Klinenberg reported in "Going Solo" (2012). Solitude can be tough on older adults, he observed, but in general singles often have strong social networks and are more engaged in civic life than their coupled peers. Kate Bolick adopted a more idiosyncratic approach: Mingling memoir with sketches of women writers who led unconventional lives, she tried in "Spinster" (2015) to detoxify an anachronistic epithet and exalt the solo state of mind. Now comes Rebecca Traister, a well-published feminist, with "All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation" yet another (mostly) celebratory take on single women. Examining both the present moment and the sweep of American history, she describes single women as important agents of social change. "Women, perhaps especially those who have lived untethered from the energy-sucking and identity-sapping institution of marriage in its older forms, have helped to drive social progress of this country since its founding," Traister argues. Single or late-marrying women, she writes, have been integral to the abolitionist, suffragist, labor, civil and gay rights, and, of course, feminist movements, and to the transformation of marriage itself. Traister counts herself a beneficiary of that last reform impulse. A virgin until 24 (this may be one of the book's more shocking revelations), with a checkered romantic history, and a young adulthood focused on work and strong female friendships, she ultimately got lucky: She met her future husband at the bar of a restaurant where she had stopped to pick up a takeout dinner. She married at 35 late, but not extraordinarily so for her generation and social class and managed to have two children before her window of opportunity closed. Though Traister is no longer one of us, she retains her memories and her empathy, as well as her feminist commitments. Drawing on historical and contemporary sources, as well as her own reporting, she has produced a wide-ranging, insistently optimistic analysis of the role of single women in American society. Among the topics she covers are the power of female friendship, the diversity of attitudes towards sex, alternate paths to parenthood and the special challenges encountered by poor women and women of color. As she concedes, a disproportionate number of her subjects she interviewed about 100 women, and includes the stories of about 30 are "college-educated feminists, writers and New Yorkers." These are the circles in which she travels. Among her interviewees are Gloria Steinem (married at 66, widowed three years later) and law professor Anita Hill (partnered, but unmarried), famous for having injected sexual harassment into the national conversation. Traister did seek out a handful of women with more conservative leanings, including those whose religious affiliations dictated premarital chastity. Deliberately missing, though, are the voices of men, to the book's detriment. It may not be possible to understand completely what today's single women are up against without listening to those male voices: anxiety-ridden, change-resistant, frustrated, but also, in some cases, struggling, sympathetic and brave. Synthesizing scholarship by Stephanie Coontz and others, Traister traces how American women have responded to the constrictions of marriage and cheers what she calls "the invention of independent female adulthood." Poverty, loneliness and stigmatization can make independence "punishing," she admits. But her preferred mode is celebration and of nothing more so than female friendships, which she sees as "foundational" and "largely unacknowledged." Advertisement If single women are unhappy, she says, cultural pressures are largely to blame. She takes Lori Gottlieb to task for her controversial 2008 Atlantic piece, "Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough" (expanded two years later into a book of the same title). But at least Gottlieb endows women with agency, even as she argues (accurately) that their romantic choices diminish with age. Traister emphasizes that our culture often presumes that an unwed woman "has not been selected chosen, desired, valued enough." She quotes a 2011 University of Missouri study that found that middle-class, never-married women experienced "a heightened sense of deviant visibility within their families and communities" at events such as weddings, while being "made to feel invisible and inconsequential" in other social environments. But Traister prefers not to linger on the sadness, even despair, expressed by some of her older interviewees. She would rather talk about singleness as an economic advantage, even though having a second household income is clearly a plus. "Postponing marriage has become a strategy by which women may make economic gains, positioning themselves closer to parity with their male peers," she writes. As a remedy for "systemic gendered economic inequality," which includes traditionally lower pay for jobs dominated by women, she counsels not marriage, but more progressive social and economic policies. Traister knows that the issues are thornier for lower-income women. She cites the work of the sociologists Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas, whose 2005 book "Promises I Can Keep," argued that unmarried motherhood served to imbue economically unstable lives with love and meaning. One of Traister's interviewees, Tanya, "a thirty-year-old urban farmer and social activist from the Bronx," pregnant with her fifth child, by three different ex-partners, described each of her children as a choice. But a good one? That seems debatable. It is also difficult to buy Traister's lukewarm defense of the so-called hookup culture in part because she never mentions the collegiate sex ratios (women outnumbering men) that facilitate it. She is an honest enough reporter to note that her own young research assistant "expressed reservations about my putting too positive a spin on a culture of casual sex" dictated primarily by men and their preferences. Traister's response is to observe that pressures on women for sex, along with a lack of attention to female gratification, are longtime, not generational, problems. A similar ambivalence characterizes her discussion of online dating. She writes that Internet dating apps such as Tinder take "the process of erotic coupling to new consumerist heights" and can be dehumanizing. But, based on a single anecdote, she declares that "Tinder probably hasn't invented a new level of awful for women in dating." Advertisement For the most part, Traister purveys a common-sense feminism that accepts complexity and contradiction not least when she credits single women with the creation of more egalitarian and fulfilling marriages. Once upon a time, she suggests, "(a) potential mate could more easily get away with offering only a pay check, a penis, and a pulse" but no longer. "By demanding more from men and from marriage," she writes, "it's single women who have perhaps played as large a part as anyone in saving marriage in America." To those of us still on the outside looking in, that seems painfully ironic. Julia M. Klein, a cultural reporter and critic in Philadelphia, is a contributing editor at Columbia Journalism Review and a contributing book critic at the Forward. Follow her on Twitter @JuliaMKlein. "All the Single Ladies" By Rebecca Traister, Simon & Schuster, 339 pages, $27 You know those people who tell you that dating in your 20s is joyous, carefree and full of possibility? I am not one of those people. I am here to tell you that dating as a young adult is more like a vast expanse littered with trash fires as far as the eye can see. Advertisement RELATED: TRENDING LIFE & STYLE NEWS THIS HOUR OK, yes -- I'm being dramatic. You will probably find some wonderful people in there as well. Possibly a bit charred on the edges, but there. Over the course of these 10 years, most of us will date a mix of people. Good people, bad people, good people who make bad decisions. Advertisement Maybe you won't date anyone. In which case, I applaud your wise restraint. But this article is not for you. This is for those of us learning, in those young-adult years, to identify the people who do or do not belong in our lives -- and sometimes it takes lots of mistakes to figure that out. And sometimes (cough cough, points at self) it might take until our 30s to implement that knowledge. In any case, here are 10 potential romantic partners I suggest you avoid. 1. The Emotional Manipulator This person uses your feelings against you. No matter the situation, the blame for every relationship issue falls to you. You could have plans to meet, be standing out in the cold and rain waiting for two hours and it is somehow you who misunderstood their needs. Everything they say and do is designed to make you feel insecure and fearful that they might leave you, so you are constantly apologizing and feeling like you are in the wrong. You are not. But you are with the wrong person. 2. The One Who Won't Be Hated I once dated a guy who was obsessed with over-explaining his actions. My friends called him "disclaimer guy" because he did sweet things like surprising me at the airport with flowers while simultaneously telling me that these weren't grand gestures -- just the mark of a nice guy. When I was hurt after it ended, he repeatedly told me that I wasn't "allowed" to feel hurt or speak poorly of him to my friends because he had always pointed out that everything he did was devoid of intense emotion. It wasn't his fault that I read into these actions. 3. The One Who Is So Nice (or Seemingly So Feminist) When someone claims they are "nice," run in the opposite direction. Anyone who is truly nice won't need to announce it. Especially in a fit of rage as you tell them you're not interested in them. The worst combo I've encountered is a man who insists he's a nice guy feminist. Again, this is not a label that needs to be screamed; if you are one, it will be evident in your behavior. 4. The Open Relationship Evangelist Advertisement Open relationships are far more common these days, or at least people seem more willing to talk about them. But you still find people who don't understand that communication and honesty is essential in these arrangements. A man I once dated emphasized that he wanted to keep things casual. I consented to this -- with the stipulation that we be truthful with each other about any additional romantic partners. Seven months into us seeing each other, I asked point-blank about the other people he might be dating. He swore that there wasn't anyone else and that he didn't want there to be, but months later admitted that there had been others. He knew the truth would have made me walk away sooner. 5. The One Who Is Obsessed With Their Ex There's nothing more irritating than constantly being compared to an ex. "My ex always did this" or "When my ex and I went on vacation ..." Sometimes I think it's because they were the one dumped. Sometimes it's residual feelings. Sometimes they haven't had that many relationships, and they only know how to keep analyzing things side by side with the last person in their life. But always being pitted against (the memory of!) another person is tiresome. Next! 6. The One Who Is Selfish in the Bedroom -- and Everywhere Else Fantasies are fun. Enacting them with your partner can be physically gratifying and stimulate intimacy. But role-playing in the bedroom is not meant to be one-sided. (Got that, porn industry?) One of my boyfriends was under the impression that fantasies consisted of him telling what he wanted and me instantly complying. He never asked what turned me on or what he could do to excite me sexually. This kind of aloofness tends to infiltrate other parts of a relationship, leading you to realize that this person is not capable of seeing past their needs or desires. 7. The One Obsessed With Settling Down Advertisement These people are so focused on the end-game that they're missing all the fun casual, getting-to-know-you stuff, which is important and exciting. Someone who rushes to get into a serious relationship, I've found, has made up their mind where things are going instead of letting ... things ... happen. With a person like this, I had to ask myself: "Are they even listening to me?" (No.) "Am I just a space-filler?" (Yes.) Settling down can't be forced. It's a joint decision. 8. The Person Who Thinks Marriage Is a Trap Marriage is a trap and THEY WILL NOT BE TRAPPED, OK? Their refrains -- "Why is everyone in such a rush to get married?" and "I'm not looking for anything serious" -- make you think twice about even wearing a white sundress, lest they think you're dropping a hint. Sure, they'll tell you that "everyone who gets married is unhappy," but don't be surprised when they get engaged to the person they date right after you. 9. The One Who Wants You to Be a Mind Reader A friend of mine, a white Italian woman, dated a Korean man for several years and was devastated when he broke up with her. His explanation? His mother had told him that American girls were easy and not acceptable for marriage or a serious relationship. Never relaying to her that race could be a deal-breaker, he assumed she knew they wouldn't make it long-term. She did not. 10. The Secret Traditionalist Advertisement Publicly declaring that women can do anything, while you privately maintain they should stay home, raise children and clean the house? No, thanks. An ex-boyfriend of mine used to proudly boast of my professional exploits, saying I was on my way to conquering the world. But when we talked marriage and kids, he insisted that I would take on a traditional role and put aside my ambitions for the sake of our future children. Instead, I put him aside. In my experience, these red flags don't magically disappear after your 30th birthday. But you will spot them quicker once you've seen them before. Good luck and godspeed. RELATED STORIES: Couples who divvy up household chores have best sex lives, study finds Two new books explore the complexity of dating, love Advertisement Who wrote your potential love's online dating profile? You're in Colorado, where recreational marijuana is legal. You decide to indulge and eat a weed brownie. (First one since college!) Advertisement Nothing seems to happen. You can still reel off the state capitals, hold a coherent conversation and an entire bag of salt-and-vinegar potato chips doesn't sound particularly tasty. So you eat another brownie. And, waiting for something to happen, perhaps one more. Advertisement And then blam! Anxiety. Sweats. Panic. Heart palpations. And your Colorado vacation takes an unwelcome turn to the emergency room. Another potential outcome, of course, is that you have an extraordinarily fun night and play video games. But the more dramatic scenario has happened with increased regularity, according to a Northwestern doctor's study to be published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Out-of-state visitors to Colorado emergency rooms for marijuana-related symptoms accounted for 163 per 10,000 visits in 2014, up from 78 per 10,000 visits in 2012, according to research published by Dr. Howard Kim, a Northwestern research fellow and emergency medicine physician. The 109 percent increase far outpaced the 44 percent increase among Colorado residents since the state's recreational marijuana sales began Jan. 1, 2014. Kim, who was a resident at the University of Colorado when the research began, didn't study how marijuana was consumed by patients who showed up in his emergency room with mostly gastrointestinal, psychiatric and cardiovascular issues. But the most likely cause, he said, was edible marijuana, and tourists' lack of understanding about dosing themselves. Smoking marijuana or inhaling its THC as vapor (known as vaping) results in fairly immediate impact; the effects of edible marijuana can take two to four hours to peak, Kim said. Combined with perhaps feeling a bit more footloose on vacation, tourists have become more likely than locals to find themselves in distress. "It's not like emergency rooms are being overwhelmed by visits from out-of-state tourists," Kim said. "But the trend is significant." According to a Colorado Tourism Office survey, 8 percent of visitors to the state during the first half of 2015 visited a marijuana dispensary. Nearly 7 percent of respondents said that the legalization of marijuana was a primary motivation for their trip, up 2 percent from the previous year. Advertisement With 426 retail cannabis outlets across the state as of Feb. 1, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue, educating visitors has been a challenge on a number of levels, said Mike Van Dyke, who monitors the potential health impacts of legalized marijuana for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Despite the legalization, prohibitions abound, including smoking in public and smoking in most hotels and public indoor spaces. Visitors have been careless about disposing leftover weed at the end of a trip and often don't know they're not allowed to legally transport the marijuana out of state, Van Dyke said. But the biggest difficulty has been educating tourists about marijuana edibles. With public smoking prohibited and only retail shops selling marijuana there is nothing like Amsterdam's legendary cafes for tourists to frequent in Colorado, which has a handful of private pot-smoking clubs visitors are often left to indulge in marijuana edibles for a high. But most people have no idea how to properly dose themselves and fail to realize the unique potency of Colorado marijuana until it's too late. Marijuana advocates have adopted a slogan of "Start low and go slow" with regard to edibles, and shared the sentiment on Denver billboards with the advice, "Don't let a candy bar ruin your vacation." Van Dyke, who contributed to Kim's research, runs a marijuana education project called Good to Know (www.goodtoknowcolorado.com), but he suspects it's been more effective with Colorado residents than tourists. "Visitors are here for a short time, and it's hard to get to those people," Van Dyke said. Advertisement The key to educating pot tourists, he added, is the conversation that happens between salespeople (known as "budtenders") and consumers. He noted that it's difficult to ensure that those conversations are being had. "We've been talking about how to figure that out for awhile, and we can't find an accurate way to do it," he said. "All the retailers I've been to which is not a huge number are doing a good job telling people how to appropriately use these products." However, Van Dyke said the study points to an issue that both the marijuana industry and government need to resolve. "There really needs to be a joint effort between public health and the industry to figure these things out," he said. (Pun not intended, he added.) "There's a perception that marijuana is completely harmless, but there are plenty of health effects that go along with marijuana use," he said. "Trying to get the message across that this isn't a completely harmless drug is a challenge." As with most things, being a responsible pot tourist is incumbent on the individual traveler. Educate yourself on Colorado marijuana law. Know that eating professionally cultivated marijuana is more of a long game than a sudden high. And because marijuana can't be smoked in hotels, consider renting accommodations via Airbnb or VRBO, where there are fewer restrictions. Advertisement "One of the things I'd like to get across to tourists is safe disposal of the remaining product," Van Dyke said. "We see people leave their marijuana behind in their hotel room. Imagine leaving a chocolate on the counter of where you were just staying. There's a potential for someone to come across it and not know that it's not just an ordinary chocolate." Michael Elliott, the executive director of Marijuana Industry Group, a trade association of licensed marijuana businesses, said tourists need to read the labeling carefully on weed products, particularly edibles, which have strict requirements. "Educating tourists, particularly about edibles, is probably the biggest challenge," Elliott said. "We don't want people taking two, three, four, five times as much as they should and to have an incredibly unpleasant experience, like if you've had too much alcohol." Then he paused and added, "Though unlike alcohol, no one has ever overdosed and died from marijuana." jbnoel@tribpub.com Twitter @joshbnoel Spain: Tourists hoping to visit the country's sunny beaches this spring and fall should plan far in advance, as terror attacks in Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia have caused thousands to divert their travel here and to neighboring Portugal. The expected influx of visitors has also created an increased demand for hotel rooms, and many rates have risen significantly. Holiday goers should expect to see crowded tourist sites throughout the Western Mediterranean this year. Burma/Myanmar: As of March 1, tourists will no longer be allowed to climb the historic temples of Bagan. Officials said the Buddhist temples, which are nearly 1,000 years old, have been damaged from the thousands of tourists who climb the popular pagodas to view the sunrise or sunset each year. Tourist operators hope that temples in good shape may be reopened in the future, but beginning March 1, scaling the pagodas will be strictly prohibited. Advertisement Easter Island: Health officials declared a dengue alert for the island, also known as Isla de Pascua, earlier in February. The alert notes that the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that carry the infection are not found on mainland Chile. Although the number of people infected remains very low, it is wise for tourists to take added precautions against mosquito bites by using repellent, covering the skin with long sleeves and pants when possible and sleeping under mosquito nets if screen windows are not available. There is no vaccine for dengue and symptoms can include fever, body aches and chills, loss of appetite, joint pain and rash. Iceland: National tourist organizations are asking tourists to better inform themselves before visiting the island nation. To assist with this process, at least one agency (Promote Iceland) will soon offer tutorials with advice on things like packing, driving, etiquette and more. International visitors have recently found themselves in dangerous situations while ignoring warning signs at various nature sites; the online "academy" may help travelers prevent injury to themselves and the country's fragile ecosystem. Advertisement India: A recent rise in selfie-related tourist deaths has prompted authorities in the southwestern state of Karnataka to contemplate deploying security patrols to protect tourists from themselves. The proposed security personnel would be on alert to warn tourists of potential dangers along canals and elsewhere. Additional police will likely be posted on public holidays and weekends, when popular sites are busiest. Compiled from news services and travel sources. For updates, check with the State Department at 888-407-4747, www.travel.state.gov. Larry Habegger and Dani Burlison are freelance reporters. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, seen here on Feb. 9, 2016, in Pilsen, kept close tabs on the public fallout of two police shootings, according to a new batch of emails released by City Hall. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) Mayor Rahm Emanuel released a batch of emails Wednesday showing him keeping close tabs on the public fallout of two police shootings in late December that were the first in Chicago since the Laquan McDonald scandal. The 44 emails written by Emanuel were part of more than 1,400 pages City Hall released in response to a Chicago Tribune open records request for emails and text messages over a six-day period in late December when a Chicago police officer shot and killed teenager Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones, a mother of five, on the West Side. Advertisement City Hall already had released text messages from Emanuel last month, the administration's first acknowledgment that the mayor has used texts to conduct city business. Like the text messages, Emanuel's emails were mostly short sentences asking for updates on the police response, keeping tabs on the media coverage of the shooting and seeking contact information for the families of those who were killed. Advertisement That hands-on approach differs with how Emanuel has characterized his knowledge and involvement with the October 2014 McDonald shooting. In that case, Emanuel has said he was not fully briefed on the shooting until five months after it happened and has said he was not aware that police officers' reports were dramatically at odds with the police video of the shooting until 13 months later after Emanuel had agreed to pay a $5 million settlement to McDonald's family. The Emanuel administration's release of the mayor's emails and text messages comes after the Tribune filed a lawsuit last year on the grounds that the mayor violated state law by refusing to release emails and text messages sent and received on his personal accounts that pertain to public business. When releasing the text messages last month, the mayor's administration said City Hall had a policy prohibiting texting on city-issued phones, but Emanuel used an exception allowed for international travel because he was vacationing in Cuba. An Emanuel spokesman said at the time that the mayor does not have a city-issued cellphone but occasionally uses one "on international trips due to web-infrastructure or security reasons." All of Emanuel's emails released Wednesday indicate he sent them from an iPhone. Spokeswoman Shannon Breymaier said the emails sent by the mayor while in Cuba came from the government phone, while those sent after he returned to Chicago came from a personal phone the device he typically uses to connect to his city email, she said. "His personal phone is configured to allow him to access his city email account," Breymaier said. The statement is the first time Emanuel's administration has acknowledged he uses a personal phone to access his government email. Like his text messages, Emanuel's emails from Cuba reflect that the mayor had checked in with his top aides and interim Police Superintendent John Escalante for updates on the shooting of LeGrier and Jones and another separate police shooting later that day on the South Side. Just hours after LeGrier and Jones were shot Dec. 26, Emanuel sent an email to his deputy chief of staff for public safety, Janey Rountree, asking her to update his chief of staff Eileen Mitchell and other top aides. "Je just briefed me on police shooting," Emanuel told Rountree, apparently referring to Escalante by his initials. "Can you update Eileen and staff?" Advertisement When Rountree replied that "everyone is aware and responding," Emanuel replied, "I talked to Eileen and Escalante. They have my input." The rest of the mayor's message was redacted. After the briefings, Emanuel emailed top staffers and asked if anyone had identified a minister for the Jones family, but what he meant was not immediately clear from his initial email. "Other matter is given age of couple the more likely have a monster," Emanuel wrote. "Make sure we are in touch with them if assumption is accurate." Rountree later responded that she had realized Emanuel meant to type "minister" instead of "monster." "Typo. My fault. Sorry," Emanuel responded. "Anything new? Aware of 22 been briefed by je." The last sentence was a reference to a police-involved shooting later that day in the 22nd police district, where a police shooting had been spurred by an altercation between two brothers. As Dec. 26 rolled on, the mayor relayed that he had reached a Jones family member and expressed his sympathies, referring to it as a "good call." It's unclear who Emanuel spoke with because the name was redacted by his office. Advertisement Later in the day, Emanuel's staff drafted a short letter to the Jones family on his behalf. He sent two emails offering input on the letter. In one email, the mayor noted a missing word in a sentence while the other email was redacted by his administration. Rountree asked Emanuel if he would approve of the letter being texted to the Jones family member as well as hand-delivered to a vigil for the shooting. "Yes," Emanuel responded. "Do both ASAP." jchase@tribpub.com bruthhart@tribpub.com Twitter @ChaseJohn Advertisement Twitter @BillRuthhart Odalis Sharp and several of her children sing outside the federal courthouse Wednesday. The Sharps were there to support Ammon Bundy and other defendants who have pleaded not guilty to a federal conspiracy charge related to the armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge. (Beth Nakamura / AP) PORTLAND, Ore. Ammon Bundy and another 15 defendants pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal conspiracy charge related to 41-day occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge. Several of the accused, however, expressed doubt that they enjoy the presumption of innocence. Bundy sat at the main defense table while most of his co-defendants sat in the jury box as they listened to a government prosecutor read the indictment and U.S. District Judge Anna Brown tell them their rights. Advertisement Brown reminded the defendants that they are considered innocent until proven guilty. One by one, she asked them if they understood. Bundy simply said "yes," but four co-defendants took the opportunity to express doubt. "It's difficult to understand presumption of innocence when I've spent the last month in a jail cell and been led around in shackles and chains," Ryan Payne said. Advertisement Another, Jason Patrick, told the judge: "You're the federal government; you're going to do whatever you want." The judge tackled several procedural issues during the nearly two-hour hearing, which started with Bundy, sporting a fresh haircut, blowing a kiss toward the Odalis Sharp and her children. The family gospel band traveled from Kansas in January to sing at the occupation. One daughter, 18-year-old Victoria Sharp, was at the traffic stop in which authorities arrested Bundy and fatally shot Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum. The judge set an April 29 trial date, though that seems unlikely to occur. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight said he expects to file a superseding indictment with additional charges after investigators finish examining firearms, electronics, American Indian artifacts and other evidence. Brown warned Knight to make it snappy, saying the accused deserve a right to a speedy trial not one in 2017. She also pressed prosecutors to start turning over FBI reports and evidentiary material to defense attorneys and their clients. "They've been in custody for weeks. They need information," Brown said. She told prosecutors to produce at least some discovery material by March 4. A total of 25 people are charged in connection with the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which began Jan. 2 and lasted until Feb. 11. The occupiers wanted the U.S. government to relinquish public lands to locals and free two Oregon ranchers who they say were wrongly imprisoned for setting fires. Defense lawyers and their investigators plan to visit the refuge Thursday and Friday, their first look at the scene. The judge denied Bundy's request to tag along with his attorneys. One of the defendants, Kenneth Medenbach, told the judge he plans to serve as his own lawyer and made a motion to have his case dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Brown scheduled a hearing for next week to go over those issues. Advertisement Associated Press WASHINGTON In what's already a contentious Supreme Court confirmation battle, it looks like President Barack Obama is considering -- or at least trying to make it appear he is considering -- going the bipartisan route: As The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis and Juliet Eilperin report Wednesday, the president has started the vetting process to seriously consider Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, R, as a replacement for the late Antonin Scalia. This doesn't mean Sandoval is a sure choice or even a finalist; the term-limited popular Republican governor is probably among several nominee picks Obama is considering. And some in Nevada are skeptical Obama is even seriously considering Sandoval. Advertisement But purely from a political perspective, Sandoval could be a strong pick for two big reasons: 1. Of the names that have been floated so far, he is one of the most difficult for Republicans to shut down. Turning aside a moderate Republican governor could make life difficult for vulnerable Senate Republicans defending seats in blue states. Advertisement 2. Sandoval's resume is the stuff of Republican recruiting dreams. He was the first statewide Hispanic to win office in Nevada. He's served as Nevada's governor since 2011. He favors the death penalty, school choice vouchers and gun rights. Before he was governor, he served as a federal district judge in Nevada from 2005 to 2009, a spot he surprised many by leaving to run for governor. Today, his resume make him an automatic short-lister for just about any national position, from Supreme Court to cabinet to vice president. (The one big hitch: Sandoval favors abortion rights, making it tough for him to make a national GOP ticket.) If Obama is truly looking to go the consensus route, Sandoval is an almost unparalleled option. He has proven time and again he can draw up a bipartisan coalition of supporters. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., actually recommended to President Bush the then-attorney general for an open spot on U.S. District Court. (In Nevada political circles, it's common knowledge Reid was deftly maneuvering to get one of his most formidable potential opponents out of Nevada. Sandoval left the bench to run for governor in 2010 and defeated Reid's son, Rory Reid.) In Sandoval's 2005 Senate confirmation hearing for the bench, senators from both sides praised him. "There has been a lot of squabbling in recent years here with judges," Reid said at the time. "Brian Sandoval will cause no squabbles. Everyone will vote for him. He is a class act." "[He is] somebody we both agree is an outstanding choice for the bench," said then-Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. "He is going to make a great judge, no question," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a top Republican on the Senate panel in charge of considering all judicial nominations. The Senate confirmed his appointment unanimously. In picking Sandoval, Obama could also make the case he's not selling out the Democratic Party's core principles entirely. The governor's record on abortion, expanding Medicaid, same-sex marriage and even Syrian/Iraqi refugees could be made palatable for Democrats. As with every decision, of course, there are potential downsides. For one, Sandoval would be skipping several levels of courts to get to the nation's highest. "I'm sure there would be questions on his full legal credentials," University of Nevada-Reno Professor Eric Herzik said, adding he thinks Sandoval's actual nomination is a long shot. Sandoval and Obama might argue that he has both legal experience and real-world political experience. "As a former federal judge, I am cognizant of the legal issues," Sandoval told the Los Angeles Times in 2014. "As governor, I am forced to deal with their ramifications." Advertisement Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval sits in his office at the Capitol in Carson City, Nev., on April 17, 2015. (Cathleen Allison / AP) And then there's the very important matter of abortion. Sandoval is a Republican and is conservative on many issues, but the Supreme Court is the court that decides the future of abortion restrictions. Putting a pro-abortion-rights justice on the court will quite simply be a very hard sell with many of the most animated sections of the GOP base. These voters might be just fine with Sandoval being a Cabinet secretary or even president; the Supreme Court is another matter. Beyond that, it's a virtual certainty conservatives would balk at a GOP governor who has been "soft" on Obamacare and same-sex marriage. Given Sandoval would be replacing a very conservative, originalist justice in Antonin Scalia, he would certainly represent a move to the left on many issues that are of the utmost importance to the activists. Sandoval may be fiscally conservative, but that doesn't really matter on the court. Social issues and policy do. Sandoval looks like a consensus pick that could -- but probably wouldn't -- break what is shaping up to be a Republican blockade of Obama's nominee. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday he wouldn't even personally meet Obama's nominee, and all 11 members of the Senate panel that would review Obama's nominee agreed not to hold hearings until a new president is inaugurated. There's a saying in Washington: When no one's happy, that's when you've found compromise. And if anyone could get the Senate to compromise, it might be Sandoval. On the other hand, if no one's totally happy, the default will probably just be to wait for the next president. COLUMBIA, S.C. Hillary Clinton expressed regret Thursday for 20-year-old comments about young, black "super-predators" as she and Democratic rival Sen. Bernie Sanders appealed to black voters likely to decide the upcoming South Carolina primary. Clinton campaigned before largely African American audiences across South Carolina, while Sanders went to Flint, Mich., the majority-African American city suffering from a contaminated-water crisis that has prompted accusations of racism and government neglect. Advertisement Black voters, and her family's long association with them, are the linchpin of Clinton's strategy for winning the first Southern primary Saturday. The winner will have a strong claim to momentum going into the next round of voting in Southern and Midwestern states with sizable African American populations - starting three days later, on Super Tuesday. "My life's work has been about lifting up children and young people who've been let down by the system or by society, kids who never got the chance they deserved," Clinton told Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart. Advertisement Sanders spent the day outside South Carolina, focused on three states with contests on the calendar in March: Ohio, Michigan and Illinois. The senator from Vermont drew a raucous crowd of 3,600 to a packed university gymnasium in a suburb of Cleveland. Recent polls in Ohio, which holds its primary March 15, have suggested a tight race. Sanders also stopped at a church in Flint, where he convened a forum on the water crisis. At the end, Sanders tried to broaden the implications of a city with crumbling infrastructure, where a government decision led to poisonous levels of lead in the water. "As a nation, we have got to get our priorities right," he told an audience that was majority-white. "This is the richest country in the history of the world." Clinton was confronted with her own 1996 comments about gang crime during a videotaped encounter with a young African American activist Wednesday evening, and the tense exchange hung over the Democratic contest Thursday, although Clinton did not address it during her public events. Ashley Williams, a 23-year-old activist from Charlotte, interrupted Clinton during a private fundraiser in Charleston, South Carolina. Williams stood and demanded an apology from Clinton for the high incarceration rate for black Americans, and told the candidate: "I am not a super-predator, Hillary Clinton." At issue was a quotation from Clinton in 1996, at the height of anxiety during her husband's administration about high rates of crime and violence. During his presidency, Bill Clinton shepherded a sweeping crime bill through Congress that was heralded at the time but has since been widely criticized for increasing incarceration rates and sentence durations, notably among black inmates. "They are often the kinds of kids that are called 'super-predators,' " Hillary Clinton said then. "No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel." Advertisement Clinton has disavowed much of the 1994 crime law. In a written response to Capehart on the issue Thursday, Clinton said, "Looking back, I shouldn't have used those words, and I wouldn't use them today." She also told NBC host Chuck Todd that her remarks had been "a poor choice of words." Her campaign did not respond to a separate request for comment on the encounter with Williams or explain whether the candidate disavows the idea of "super-predators." In an interview Thursday, Williams said she wants all candidates to be held accountable for their past actions and statements that touch on racial justice. "All the candidates who are running for president need to be held to the same kind of scrutiny in terms of the way that they have been complicit in mass incarceration and damaging communities of color across the United States," Williams said. "Bernie can get it, too. They can all get it." Advertisement The Clinton campaign has criticized Sanders for his support of the 1994 crime bill when he was a congressman. In a statement, Sanders's campaign manager Jeff Weaver said that Sanders voted for the bill to protect provisions embedded in it that preserved the assault-weapons ban and included domestic-violence protections for women. Weaver noted that Sanders criticized mass incarceration at the time that the bill was being considered. "When this so-called crime bill was being considered, Bernie Sanders criticized its harsh incarceration and death penalty provisions," Weaver said. "Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, resorted to dog-whistle politics and dehumanizing language." Clinton has also sought to put a spotlight on Flint, squeezing in a visit to the city in the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary, which she lost to Sanders. Michigan holds its Democratic primary March 8. Sanders was also scheduled to appear Thursday night at a large-scale rally in Chicago. Illinois is among the states that vote March 15. Advertisement In two stops in rural South Carolina communities, Clinton billed herself as a unifier who would solve the intractable partisan ills of Washington in order to solve the painful ills of South Carolina's impoverished and under-educated. Hours from any major city, Clinton sought to speak to the South which those in rural communities know all too well, addressing the lack of good schools or educational opportunities, health-care availability and rising prescription drug costs. In drawing a contrast with Sanders, whose campaign has focused on the power of big banks and Wall Street, Clinton said she was ready to lead on the enormous issues facing many Americans. "We are not a single-issue country, and I am not a single-issue candidate," Clinton said. Also Thursday, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said that they are preparing to endorse Clinton for president in an effort to help her campaign secure critical Hispanic votes in next week's Super Tuesday primaries. Jim Bailey was named one of Carol Stream's Citizens of the Year in 2003. (Provided by family) Jim Bailey was a longtime community volunteer in Carol Stream, where he spent a decade on the library board and was named one of the village's Citizens of the Year in 2003. "Jim taught me about the importance of volunteerism and always encouraged civic responsibility," said Carol Stream library trustee Nadia Sheikh. "He was passionate about honoring the diversity within our community and our nation as a whole, and I respected him for that." Advertisement Bailey, 74, died of complications from ischemic heart disease Jan. 20 at his Cullman, Ala., home, said his wife of 36 years, Leigh. He had moved to Alabama last May. Born and raised in Memphis, Tenn., Bailey was the youngest of 10 children, his wife said. He attended Messick High School in Memphis and was good friends with Steve Cropper and Donald "Duck" Dunn, musicians who went on to play in bands including Booker T. & the MG's. Advertisement After high school, Bailey enlisted in the Air Force, serving for eight years and specializing in maintaining and modifying computer equipment at the dawn of the computer era. He also had a tour of duty in Vietnam, his wife said. Bailey left the Air Force in 1967 and took a job in Pennsylvania for the now-defunct business equipment manufacturer Burroughs Corp., first as a field engineer and then as a system test engineer. In 1971, Bailey moved to Illinois to work as a project leader for a Champaign firm overseeing the design and manufacturing of an automatic test board for printed circuit boards. The following year, he joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he worked for two years as a research engineer and with his team developed the first touch-screen panel, his wife said. "Jim was always on the cutting edge," said former U. of I. Center for Advanced Computation associate director Pete Alsberg, who worked alongside Bailey. "Jim was always up for anything and the bigger the challenge, the more interested he became." From 1974 until 1977, he designed and developed law enforcement systems for a Champaign-based technology firm. He later worked in sales for a Paris manufacturer of kiosks that print out boarding passes at airports. Bailey moved to Carol Stream in 1982 and became involved with the village's Rotary Club, serving as an officer, and also as a member of the Carol Stream Historical Society. In 2003, he was named one of the village's Citizens of the Year. In 2005, Bailey won a four-year seat on the Carol Stream library board of trustees. He won re-election to two-year terms in 2009, 2011 and 2013, including stints as vice president and president. He also served on a variety of board committees. "Jim was a person who was quiet of mouth, but his intentions were always the best," said trustee Ed Jourdan. "And he had a very straightforward way of looking at things. Sometimes he was a little bit opinionated, but you know what? So are a lot of people. He was very, very honest in what he expressed. And his intentions were always the best." Advertisement During Bailey's time on the board, trustees had a highly charged, long-running debate over whether to sell a 7.5-acre parcel of land on Kuhn Road that the board had purchased in 2003 for a possible new library. Ultimately, Bailey and four other trustees voted in 2013 to retain the tract and lease it to the Carol Stream Park District. A first marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his wife, Bailey is survived by daughters, Julie Lynn Morris, Jacqueline Ann Bailey, Amy Bailey Ackley and Arminda Branaman; four grandchildren; and a brother, Joe. A visitation will take place from 1 to 4:30 p.m. March 6 at Heritage Presbyterian Church, 965 Kuhn Road, Carol Stream. A service will follow from 5 to 6 p.m. Goldsborough is a freelance reporter. The Tribune continues endorsements today in contested primaries for the U.S. House. Read the candidates' answers to the editorial board survey here: elections.chicagotribune.com/candidates/. Advertisement 10th District The north suburban 10th District is among the nation's most competitive good news for voters, who get more and better choices at election time. Republican Robert Dold won the seat in 2010, lost it to Democrat Brad Schneider in 2012 and reclaimed it in 2014. Advertisement Schneider, a Deerfield management consultant, hopes to wrest it back in November. But first, there's a primary showdown against Nancy Rotering, an attorney who is mayor of Highland Park. Schneider is a business-friendly moderate who won our endorsement in the 2012 primary over three others. He remains a fine candidate and we won't be disappointed if he wins this one. But Rotering, who says her No. 1 legislative priority would be combating gun violence, impressed us with the passion she would bring to that perennial lost cause. As mayor of the North Shore suburb, she passed an assault weapons ban meant to invite a lawsuit from the firearms lobby. The measure survived legal challenges all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and has become a model for other municipalities, she says. She's spoiling for a fight at the federal level. On most matters, Schneider and Rotering agree more than they disagree. Their biggest difference is over whether Congress should have approved the nuclear deal negotiated between the White House and Iran. Rotering says she would have been a yes; Schneider was an early and loud no he felt it didn't go far enough to constrain Iran but says he's solidly committed to enforcing and strengthening it. Both say changes are needed to preserve the Affordable Care Act, but Rotering who has a master's degree in health services management, worked in benefits analysis for General Motors and has practiced health care law would likely bring more to those discussions. Our endorsement goes to Rotering. Dold, of Kenilworth, is unopposed in the Republican primary. 7th District Nonprofit consultant and former military journalist Thomas Day, of Chicago, wants to create an "ecosystem for manufacturing jobs" in the 7th District. He says the district is missing out on federal funding for training programs that would help "upskill" unemployed residents to fill jobs in the modern economy. He believes Rep. Danny K. Davis, also of Chicago, has ignored the local digital startup community. Maybe the congressman isn't a fixture at 1871, Chicago's entrepreneurial hub. But the district has benefited greatly from legislation Davis authored creating federal tax credits for developers who build in disadvantaged areas, and from his support for higher education grants for predominantly black colleges. He also sponsored the recently reauthorized Second Chance Act, which provides funding to help ex-offenders re-enter the community after completing their sentences. Davis is endorsed. 11th District Advertisement DuPage County Board member Tonia Khouri of Aurora has the backing of the Republican establishment in the 11th District primary, but why is a mystery. Her campaign website provides scant information that would be useful to voters; it's mostly a list of her supporters, with a photo gallery and a "donate" button. She didn't fill out our candidate survey and stonewalled our requests for an interview. (The Sun-Times reports that she skipped its endorsement process, too.) Two other strong candidates Naperville physicist Herman B. White and Darien cardiologist Nick Stella made their way onto the ballot without help from the political machinery. Neither has held elected office, but their backgrounds more than qualify them to represent the district. Both are well prepared to address the deficiencies of the Affordable Care Act, for example. Our choice is White. He's a longtime scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, where the Democratic incumbent, Rep. Bill Foster, also of Naperville, spent 22 years. White has served on research advisory panels to several federal agencies, is a trustee for North Central College, and served on the boards of Edward Hospital and the Teachers Academy for Mathematics and Science in Chicago. He says he would advocate for technological innovations that would drive economic growth. White is endorsed. Foster has no opponent in the Democratic primary. 12th District Paula Bradshaw of Carbondale and Sadona M. Folkner of Fairview Heights are running for the Green Party nomination. No endorsement. Incumbent Rep. Michael Bost is unopposed in the Republican primary. Charles "C.J." Baricevic is unopposed on the Democratic side. 13th District Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville has been a key player on legislation affecting farmers and veterans, two major constituencies in the 13th District. As a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, he helped craft and pass a five-year highway bill, the first in nearly a decade. Carrollton pharmacist Ethan Vandersand says Davis has a "terrible" voting record and is particularly upset that Davis voted for the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill negotiated between GOP leaders and the White House. We agree with Davis that the measure contains significant wins for conservatives, including a modest stab at entitlement reform; Vandersand is stuck on all the things it didn't do, especially defunding Planned Parenthood. Vandersand says he was called by God to run for Congress and declined to be interviewed by the Tribune. Davis is endorsed. Advertisement Mark D. Wicklund of Decatur is unopposed in the Democratic primary. 14th District When Spring Grove businessman John J. Hosta ran for the Democratic nomination here two years ago, his top priority was to reverse the trade policies he blamed for killing manufacturing jobs in the U.S. It's still his favorite talking point and his proposed fix for virtually all of the nation's fiscal challenges. How about a Plan B? Our endorsement goes to Jim Walz of Gurnee, a salesman for a regional snack food distributor. Walz believes the country has been "skunked" by those trade agreements but "there are a lot of moving parts." Walz is practiced at building political consensus he spearheaded an advisory referendum on campaign finance spending in 2012 and serves on the board for Warren Township High School District 121, where he's leading the charge to convert to solar energy. Also on the ballot is Jesse Maggitt, an Army veteran and businessman from Plainfield. The winner faces three-term Republican Rep. Randy Hultgren in November. 15th District Is Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, too liberal for the 15th District? State Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon, thinks so. McCarter is trying to oust Shimkus, who was elected to his first term in 1996 and currently represents the most Republican district in Illinois. McCarter has the backing of the conservative Club for Growth PAC, which has spent almost $300,000 on the race. McCarter slams Shimkus for marching with protesters outside a Planned Parenthood clinic, for example, then voting for an omnibus spending bill that included money for the organization. That's a misleading gotcha: Shimkus cast a responsible vote for a compromise spending package that nobody loved. McCarter says he would have shut down the government rather than vote for a bill that failed to defund Planned Parenthood a tactic discouraged by the National Right to Life Committee, which has endorsed Shimkus. Our endorsement, too, goes to Shimkus. Advertisement 17th District Two Republicans are vying for a shot at second-term Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, in November. Both are pro-life, Second Amendment stalwarts. Patrick Harlan, a Galesburg fuel truck driver and president of the Knox County Tea Party, has built his campaign around "faith, family and freedom." Jack Boccarossa, a Christmas tree farmer from Milan, has a more specific agenda: He wants to go to Washington to protect the Rock Island Arsenal, where he worked for 42 years. That experience positions him to advocate against cuts at the arsenal, which accounts for 6,000 local jobs, in the next round of military realignments. For 25 years, he was the arsenal's liaison to the Small Business Administration, pushing back against the wasteful procurement practices exemplified by the Pentagon's $435 hammer. Congress could use a good dose of that. Boccarossa is endorsed. Follow the Editorial Board on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook. Elk Grove High School English teacher Sandra Lee, center, led a recent discussion in her Preparatory World Literature and Composition class, which includes both regular ed and special ed students. (Karen Ann Cullotta / Chicago Tribune) Officials at Arlington Heights public schools say they will lose more than $1 million in annual special-education funding under a new proposal being floated by the Illinois State Board of Education. The state board's proposal to take dollars from special-education funding and send them to general state aid would result in a loss of $800,000 for Township High School District 214 and $372,000 for Arlington Heights School District 25, said Illinois state Rep. David Harris, R-Arlington Heights. Advertisement Under the ISBE plan, more than $300 million would be taken from a special-education account to help cash-strapped school districts across the state, bolstering their general state aid budgets in an effort to make public school funding more equitable. But Harris said that many school districts in Chicago's suburbs that are considered affluent, including those in Arlington Heights, would be hurt by the plan, which would bring cuts to state funds used to provide mandated special-education services. Advertisement "This ISBE proposal hasn't gone anywhere, and I don't know if it will," said Harris, who added that changes to state education funding would require approval by the Illinois General Assembly. "But if they're talking about taking more than $300 million in special-education funding and redistributing it to increase general state aid across the state, it sounds like they would be robbing Peter to pay Paul," Harris said. Stacey Mallek, assistant superintendent for business for District 25, said while the ISBE proposal would include an increase of $99,000 in general state aid, the district would lose $471,000 in special-education dollars, adding up to a overall reduction of $372,000 in state aid. Any reduction in state funding would be very difficult for the district, Mallek said, as demand for special-education services, which the law requires districts provide, have been on the uptick for several years. For example, Mallek said, the district spent $13.4 million on the services in 2010, with the cost rising to almost $17.7 million in 2015. "There are more students each year who qualify for special-education programs, some of whom require transportation services," Mallek said. "And if we can't accommodate them in the district, we are required to pay their tuition at other public and private settings." Mallek said District 25 officials have been conveying their concerns to Harris "to let him know the impact to the district." "We would oppose any legislation that would take money away from our district, and send it to another district," Mallek said. Advertisement Cathy Johnson, the associate superintendent for finance and operations at Arlington Heights-based Township High School District 214, said the ISBE proposal would result in a reduction in state funding for the district's special-education programs. "The way the new funding would be formulated, we'd lose $800,000 in special-education funds, and when you look at that happening year after year, it would have a very negative effect," Johnson said. "At this time, we're watching the state funding proposal, to see how much further this goes," Johnson added. "But whatever happens, we are required by law to essentially spend at least the same amount on special education programs that we spent the previous year." kcullotta@tribpub.com Twitter: @kcullotta An anticipated first meeting with an online match ended in robbery in an Aurora parking lot, Aurora police said Wednesday. The 26-year-old Aurora man's first date with a digital acquaintance was supposed to be in the lot Tuesday. But instead of a woman he'd been messaging for days, the man found himself in the car with a robber. Advertisement During the course of days-long conversation through the messaging app of a popular dating site, a woman or someone using a woman's profile asked the man if he smoked marijuana. He told her he didn't. Later, the two agreed to meet in person around 6:40 p.m. Tuesday at a parking lot in the 2600 block of Ogden Avenue, Aurora, according to police. The block is across South Eola Road from Waubonsie Valley High School and across Ogden Avenue from Fischer Middle School. The area is adjacent to a small strip mall with several fast-food restaurants, a pizzeria, a Cantonese restaurant, a day care, a gas station and a bank. Advertisement When the man got to the parking lot and messaged his date, she replied that she was running late and asked him if he would buy marijuana from her dealer, who was in the area. She said she would pay him back when she got there. The man agreed. The woman told him to sound his horn so the dealer would know which car he was in, according to police. He honked. When he did, a man who had been standing outside a neighboring gas station approached, got into the car and demanded all of the victim's money, according to police. Fearing he would be attacked, the victim handed over an undisclosed amount of cash. The suspect ran from the scene. The Aurora man was not injured, according to police. The man later tried to contact the woman he'd been messaging, only to discover that her profile had disappeared from the site. Police are working on leads in the continuing investigation, said spokesman Dan Ferrelli. They aren't naming the online dating site because no charges have been filed in the case, he said. Aurora police warn that social media and online dating sites offer people with criminal intentions the "luxury of anonymity." "They can be very adept at gaining trust (and personal information) without you knowing exactly who you are dealing with," police news release said. "These types of incidents occur pretty regularly and are very difficult to investigate because the criminals know how to hide their tracks." Police warn social media users to do everything possible to verify the identity of anyone they meet in person. They suggest having a phone conversation before agreeing to meet in public, and using tools such as Google to verify personal information. The Aurora Police Department shared information about the incident Wednesday in a Facebook post titled "Important Reminder About 'Hooking Up' on Social Media." So far, nearly 200 people have engaged with the post. Doug and Joanne Stowe have gone to the Memory Cafe in Barrington. (Todd Shields, Pioneer Press) It's been almost three years since Joanne Stowe of Barrington first noticed her husband's dementia setting in. Now, the former mechanical engineer has "full-blown dementia," she said. Doug Stowe, 76, is suffering from Parkinson's disease, his wife says, and he's begun attending a new program started by the Barrington Area Council on Aging. Advertisement Once a month, Joanne and Doug spend a morning at Lutheran Church of the Atonement in Barrington, where the Memory Cafe provides socialization and activities for people with memory loss. Bonnie Scherkenbach, one of four social service coordinators at Barrington Area Council on Aging, said Memory Cafe offers a series of programming, such as musicians and artists, to visit with and perform for clients. Facilitators for Memory Cafe also plan for field trips. In March, the group will attend a play at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights. Advertisement "The challenge is that the friends of people with dementia disappear. Socialization falls off because their friends don't know how interact with them anymore," said Scherkenbach, who has a master's degree in gerontology from Chicago-based National Lewis University. "Memory Cafe attempts to fill that void. It gives people a chance to socialize and interact with no judgment from others." She also said the program is growing in clients 18 people attended the most recent get-together. "The demand is growing and if we could get funding, maybe we could schedule the cafe twice a month," she said. The idea for this began in 2014, when Scherkenbach attended the Governor's Conference on Aging in Chicago and went to a breakout session. There, she said she learned about a similar "memory cafe" in Rockford, and so she decided to try and bring it to Barrington. "There's not a lot offered to people who have this problem. If you do find one, it's costly," Stowe said. "It's been a godsend because we don't have immediate family near us." Participants and their family members are asked to register ahead of time to help facilitators plan the program, Scherkenbach said. tshields@pioneerlocal.com Twitter @tshields19 By Dezan Shira & Associates Editor: Jake Liddle Resume fraud cases have risen in China in recent years. This is hardly surprising as, due to Chinas increasingly competitive job market, applicants are willing to take sometimes drastic measures to appeal to potential employers. This can have significant consequences for the employer, such as wasted expenditure in the recruiting and hiring process and loss of efficiency and productivity. Moreover, leaving the issue to the contract termination stage will lead to severe legal complications. Here, we examine a case study that illustrates the risks of resume fraud and detail the relevant risk management precautions that can be taken. Case Study Company A and Employee A signed an employment contract for a managerial role. In the following months, Company A observed that Employee As performance was not meeting the requirements for the role, and was displaying competency issues. Suspicious, Company A decided to run a background check, and discovered significant differences in the information provided by Employee A in their resume, and the actuality of their work experience. Company A deemed this dishonest behavior that breached the rules of PRC labor law, the employment contract and the companys employee handbook, and therefore decided to terminate the employment contract with Employee A. Employee A disagreed with the decision and filed an application with a local labor dispute arbitration committee to request a reinstatement of the employment contract. The case underwent the legal procedures of arbitration, first hearing, second hearing and a retrial. In each instance, it was heard that the termination of the employment contract was unlawful, and that the employment contract should be reinstated. RELATED: Payroll and HR Services from Dezan Shira & Associates Legal Rights An employer enjoys the right of information. It is at the discretion of the employer to approach an employee to gain this information; if they do not, the employee is not obliged to disclose anything themselves. Furthermore, an employer gains the right to terminate an employment contract only when the dishonesty of the employee constitutes fraud, as stipulated in the Labor Contract Law. Article 39 of the Labor Contract Law states that the employer is entitled to unilaterally terminate the employment contract in cases where the employee is found to seriously violate the employers internal regulations, or where the employment contract signed by the employee is against its real intention by means of deception or coercion. A claim can be made on either of these clauses, but the evidence required will vary from article to article. In order to successfully file a case, the company needs to prove the following: The employee consciously submitted false information with intent to deceive or sign an employment contract against the will of the company; The company has clear and valid internal regulations in place; and, The internal regulations explicitly specify that submitting a false resume is severe enough to justify an immediate termination. Risk Management In order to prove this, evidence of the employees fraudulent information needs to be appropriately preserved. The employer also needs to make sure that the resume was submitted by the employee themselves with the knowledge of the resume being false. In cases where a resume is submitted via the internet or a third-party (i.e., under any circumstances in which the identity of the sender is hard to track), it needs to be proved that the resume was not modified after leaving the hands of the employee. In addition to this, proof that the false information submitted in the resume has affected the performance of the employee is also required in some cases. To avoid such labor disputes, employers are suggested to request a printed resume signed by the candidate stating that all the information provided is accurate and not falsified during the recruitment process. While evidence collection is crucial to safeguarding against legal procedures, conducting due diligence and background checks during the recruitment period is the most effective preventative measure, especially when hiring for positions with greater responsibility. It can be seen that without taking the relevant precautions, a company may lack the legal basis to terminate the employee. About Us Asia Briefing Ltd. is a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates. Dezan Shira is a specialist foreign direct investment practice, providing corporate establishment, business advisory, tax advisory and compliance, accounting, payroll, due diligence and financial review services to multinationals investing in China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Singapore and the rest of ASEAN. For further information, please email china@dezshira.com or visit www.dezshira.com. Stay up to date with the latest business and investment trends in Asia by subscribing to our complimentary update service featuring news, commentary and regulatory insight. Human Resources and Payroll in China 2015 This edition of Human Resources and Payroll in China, updated for 2015, provides a firm understanding of Chinas laws and regulations related to human resources and payroll management essential information for foreign investors looking to establish or already running a foreign-invested entity in China, local managers, and HR professionals needing to explain complex points of Chinas labor policies. Labor Dispute Management in China In this issue of China Briefing, we discuss how best to manage HR disputes in China. We begin by highlighting how Chinas labor arbitration process and its legal system in general widely differs from the West, and then detail the labor disputes that foreign entities are likely to encounter when restructuring their China business. We conclude with a special feature from Business Advisory Manager Allan Xu, who explains the risks and procedures for terminating senior management in China. An Introduction to Doing Business in China 2015 Doing Business in China 2015 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in China. Compiled by the professionals at Dezan Shira & Associates, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Chinese market, but also for companies that already have a presence here and want to keep up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes. China's reserves of phosphorus, a key element for growing food, could be exhausted within the next 35 years if the country maintains its current production rate, a new study has found. However, China could delay exhausting its phosphorus reserves by more than 20 years through improving agronomic use efficiency of the mineral to the average level of 80 percent in developed countries without impairing current crop yields, said the study, published this week in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Zengwei Yuan of Nanjing University and colleagues modeled the phosphorous cycle in China since the 1600s and evaluated the mineral's potential for eutrophication, which may lead to algal blooms, plant overcrowding and oxygen depletion. They found China intensified its phosphorus mining, particularly during the last 60 years, to feed increasing populations and meet people's demand for animal protein. In 2012, China's annual phosphorus extraction reached 12.5 million tons, accounting for more than 40 percent of the global phosphorus production, they said. About 70 percent of the domestically exploited phosphorus was used to produce synthetic fertilizers. The study revealed phosphorus over-application by Chinese farmers. In 2012, China's crop production saw an average use of 80 kilograms of phosphorus per hectare, more than double the figure that crops can generally assimilate and far higher than the average level of the developed countries. Meanwhile, only 4 percent of natural phosphorus resources were eventually ingested by Chinese residents in 2012, slightly lower than the 5 percent in the United States. The researchers also found China has become a net phosphorus exporter since 2003, exporting mainly phosphorus-containing chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides, while importing crops, specifically soybeans from the US, Brazil and Argentina. As a result, phosphorous accumulated rapidly in China's surface waters and lands in the last decade. With the phasing out of inefficient capacity and upgrading of technology, China's industrial restructuring over the past five years is on the right path, a minister told a press conference Thursday. Miao Wei, minister of Industry and Information Technology, speaks at a SCIO press conference on Thursday. [China.org.cn] The country eliminated 91 million tonnes of outdated capacity in the iron industry and 94.8 million tonnes in the steel industry from 2011 to 2015, said Industry and Information Technology Minister Miao Wei. For the cement industry, the capacity cut was 640 million tonnes, while the aluminum sector saw a reduction of 2 million tonnes, Miao told reporters. These industries had stockpiled inventories before China's economy protracted slowdown. Now, with shrinking demand both at home and abroad, their profits are being hurt, prompting the state to roll out plans to help reduce excessive capacity.P The State Council, China's cabinet, announced earlier this month that crude steel production capacity will be slashed by 100 million tonnes to 150 million tonnes over the next five years. While the market is forcing unneeded capacity to exit, hefty spending on technological upgrading has improved the level of industrial development, according to Miao. During the 2011-2015 period, 37.5 trillion yuan (5.7 trillion U.S. dollars) was invested around the country to help companies upgrade their systems and equipment, 2.7 times the amount in the 2006-2010 period, he said. The industry also became greener, with energy and water consumption for every 10,000 yuan of industrial output falling 25 percent and 35 percent respectively in five years from the end of 2010, Miao told reporters. China's industrial output continued to slow in 2015 amid downward pressure on the nation's economy and rising costs. It grew 6.1 percent year on year, lower than the 8.3-percent rate in 2014. Viewed against the economic backdrop in and outside China, the 6.1-percent industrial growth was not a low speed and still "in the reasonable range," Miao said. China's economy grew 6.9 percent year on year in 2015, the slowest annual expansion in a quarter of a century. You are here: Home While meeting with the World Bank's President Jim Yong Kim, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in Beijing that China is experienced in dealing with various risks and has sufficient policies and tools on Wednesday. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with World Bank's President Jim Yong Kim in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 24, 2016. [Photo: Xinhua/Rao Aimin] "We will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, as well as an innovation-driven development strategy," said Li. China is willing to enhance macro policy coordination with international society via the G20 group, he said. Li praised cooperation between China and the World Bank in such areas as urbanization and reform of pharmaceuticals and the healthcare system. He called on the two sides to strengthen research on new growth momentum, to help China to maintain medium-high growth and achieve a medium-to-high level of development. Kim said all major economies should improve macro policy coordination against the backdrop of a weak global economy. China has maintained relatively fast economic growth by changing and through structural reform, he said. The World Bank will strengthen policy communication with China and conduct in-depth discussion with China on issues concerning the G20 summit and the development issues that China is interested in, said Kim. The World Bank is willing to deliver more rational and objective opinions about Chinese economy to international society, he added. Kim is visiting China for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting slated for Feb. 26-27 in Shanghai. China will open its State-funded science programs to overseas researchers, Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang said on Wednesday. Wan Gang (center), minister of science and technology, interacts with journalists after a news conference on China's scientific reform and progress in Beijing on Wednesday. [Photo/China Daily] "Every project under the newly launched Major R&D Programs will be open to applications from international partners, and we encourage overseas research institutions to apply for the grants with a mainland partner," Wan said at a news conference hosted by the State Council Information Office. On Feb 16, the ministry initiated the Major R&D Programs, a new national funding program that will replace previous science projects, including the State High-Tech Development Plan, the National Basic Research Program of China and a number of State-funded projects operated by other ministries. The ministry initiated 25 special pilot projects under the program, covering a wide range of research fields from quantum technology to forestry cultivation. Before the integration, some projects were open to foreign researchers and some were not, and only a few foreign scientists had taken the post of chief scientist for major national science and technology programs. "Openness and cooperation is highlighted in the reform of national sci-tech programs," Wan said. Besides opening the national programs to overseas researchers, the ministry is also strengthening government cooperation and promoting exchanges among young scientists. With steadily growing research funding and capacity, mainland research programs are becoming increasingly attractive to scientists from across the globe. Shi Ling, an associate professor of electronic and computer engineering at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said more Hong Kong researchers are turning to the mainland for innovation opportunities. "While Hong Kong has strength in the financial and service industries, the mainland side has great competitive advantages in manufacturing. The urgent need to upgrade the manufacturing industry on the mainland provides a golden opportunity for Hong Kong," he said in an e-mail to China Daily. Miguel Esteban, a Spanish scientist who became the first foreign chief scientist for the 973 program in 2010, received 25 million yuan ($3.9 million) in funding for stem cell research. "In Western countries, if you work on something, you will find it is very difficult to change to something else because you want to develop in a different area or you just want to innovate. You are expected to continue doing what you are doing, and retire just doing that," Esteban, who was a kidney cancer physician at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, said in a previous interview. "In China, if you have an idea that is brilliant enough, you can get the right support to change. I think that is a big advantage compared to the Western countries, in particular Europe," he said. Ministry to eliminate tech bottlenecks The Ministry of Science and Technology will soon publish detailed rules to implement the August revision of the Law on Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements, Minister Wan Gang said at a news conference on Wednesday. "We are working on regulations concerning the implementation of the law," Wan said. "Once promulgated, this policy will stimulate researchers to further transfer their sci-tech achievements." "Institutional bottlenecks" impede technology transfers in China, Wan said. "In the past, a research institute had to get approval from the Ministry of Education when they sold technology for more than 5 million yuan ($765,000), and from the Ministry of Finance if it exceeded 8 million yuan." "We also stipulate that the individual or team that accomplishes a scientific breakthrough can take a 50 percent or higher share of the benefit generated from it," he said. In 2014, China's trade in technology reached 857 billion yuan. Last year it was estimated at 920 billion yuan. Tong Qingxi, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the capital chain is also significant in technology transfers. "Many scientific achievements are laid aside because they are short of transfer capital," Tong said in an essay published in Beijing-based China Science Daily on Wednesday. In the tail of February when Chinese people are still in a post-Lunar New Year festive mood, they have been suddenly pulled back to harsh reality through a topic seen as taboo in such a holiday season death. A joint statement released by nine ministries called for burial of deceased family members in a cemetery plot rather than the traditional one-plot-for-one-body practice, in efforts against mass occupation of land by expensive cemeteries. The statement came on Wednesday, two days after the Lantern Festival, and caused discussions over life and death one month earlier than due as the topic is usually popular in Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Festival known as a day when people visit cemeteries and pay tribute to ancestors. With or without the festivity-mutilated statement, Chinese people are still frustrated with the beyond-reach prices of cemeteries especially in big cities where sky-high housing prices, job pressure, and air pollution have already made for difficult standards of living. This leads to philosophical frustrations why is it equally hard to die? How hard can it be? In Beijing, a burial plot can claim from 40,000 yuan ($6,214) per square to tens of thousands of dollars, while price tag also pick up from 50,000 yuan ($7,655) per square and up in Shanghai and Guangzhou. The per square cost of where the body will be laid can rival that of a comfortable apartment one can buy to live an actual life. Soaring prices didn't scare people away from getting their dead family members into earth though. Traditional Chinese funeral rites advocate extravagant burials in a way to make their ancestors rest not only in peace, but also in dignity. Convention also prefers the practice of bodies being buried in the soil than ash spreading as a Chinese saying goes "Falling leaves settle on their roots". This explains why authorities have promoted eco-friendly funerals, such as spreading ash to the sea, but for years they've only received cold shoulders. One downside of the two-child policy will be a shortfall of pediatricians, according to a health official. Jin Shengguo, from the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), said at a press conference Wednesday that China will strive to increase the number of pediatricians to 140,000 -- 0.6 pediatricians for every 1,000 children -- by 2020, up from the current 118,000 pediatricians. The country's 35,950 health institutions with pediatric departments receive 471 million outpatient visits annually, and provide care to 21.62 million inpatients on average, according to the NHFPC. In per capita terms, each pediatrician has to see 17 outpatients every day, more than double the average of other specialists. To ease the shortfall, the country will improve the training of pediatric resident doctors, train doctors who shift to pediatric care, and provide bespoke courses, Jin said. Song Yi, an official with the Ministry of Education (MOE), said the ministry is addressing the demand for pediatricians triggered by the introduction of the two-child policy. Song said the MOE requires the nation's top 38 medical schools to enroll more students on post-graduate pediatric courses, and aims to have at least one higher learning institute in each region offering undergraduate pediatric courses. Police in east China have arrested a former pharmacist and her daughter for illegally selling hundreds of millions of yuan worth of vaccines. The pharmacist, surnamed Pang, was head of the pharmacy at a hospital in Heze city in Shandong province. After leaving the hospital, Pang began illegally selling vaccines. She received a suspended jail term for the offence in 2009. Starting in 2011, Pang teamed up with her daughter, a medical school graduate, to buy vaccines from sales representatives of over 100 manufacturers and sold them to 300 buyers, including staff at local centers for disease control and prevention across China. Their sales totaled 310 million yuan ($47.5 million), said the public security bureau in Jinan, capital of Shandong, citing an investigation of their 22 bank accounts. It is against the law in China to sell vaccines without proper licenses. The two also violated the law that requires vaccines be kept in the cold chain at any time, exposing users to potential health risks, police said. Manufacturers who sold the vaccines to the unlicensed duo have received administrative punishments from drug watchdogs, and related disease control and prevention workers are facing criminal investigations. The case has been transferred to prosecutors. Pregnant women looking for maternity matrons are facing fierce competition and can expect to pay higher salaries than they would have last year. Yunjiazheng.com, a leading home-help employment website operating in China's top-tier cities, said the average monthly pay for maternity matrons this year is 12,000 yuan (US$1,837), a 20 percent increase over 2015. Some maternity matrons are paid up to 18,000 to 20,000 yuan per month. Known in China as a "yue sao," a maternity matron cares for newborn babies while living with its family, usually for a month after birth while the mother rests. The steep rise in their average salary has been attributed to the newly introduced two-child policy and a desire to give birth to "Year of the Monkey" babies, who are thought to be blessed with cleverness. "The demand for maternity matrons has been rising constantly, but this year it's simply crazy because even bookings for September and October are already filled up," said a maternity service agent surnamed Zhou who has been working in the business for 10 years. Xu Wenyi, a local high school physics teacher who is due to give birth to her second child at the end of April, said she was lucky to seal a deal with a maternity matron at the beginning of January. "We started to look for one at the end of this year right after my baby anomaly scan and had to quickly settle on a recommendation from a neighbor," she said. The maternity matron, who Xu said seems reliable and possesses multiple professional certificates, will cost 12,000 yuan per month and will be at her home for three months. "She told me that her monthly income in 2013 was 6,000 to 8,000 yuan, and she worked for our neighbor for 9,000 yuan a month last March, but she has not accepted deals under 11,000 yuan since the end of last year," Xu said. Xu, who spent a month after giving birth to her first child three years ago at a postpartum care center that cost 30,000 yuan, said she'll have to stay at home this time because her first child needs constant care. Zhou said the increasing awareness of maternity services has driven up the price over the past few years. "Few people knew about the existence of the service 10 years ago, but now even families with no extra room for the matron will hire one and ask her to sleep on the sofa," she said. There has been an increase in the number of new maternity matrons over the past year, but there are still not enough to meet the growing demand, say observers. Officials estimate that an extra 40,000 to 50,000 babies will be born each year because of the two-child policy, and that the city will see around 260,000 births this year. The Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC) convened its bimonthly session Wednesday, deliberating legislation on deep sea exploration and the agenda for the fourth annual session of the 12th NPC. Zhang Dejiang (C), chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), presides over the opening meeting of the bimonthly session of the NPC Standing Committee in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 24, 2016. [Photo: Xinhua] Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over the opening meeting. The draft law on deep seafloor resource exploration, submitted for a second reading, stresses that the activity should feature the principles of peaceful use and cooperation. The draft reads exploration and development should protect the maritime environment and safeguard the common interests of mankind. China is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which states that international seabeds and their resources are the common property of mankind. According to the draft, the nation will protect the rightful interests of Chinese citizens and organizations in their exploration of deep seafloor resources and deep sea surveys. A report presented by the NPC law committee said legislation is necessary to ensure sustainable exploitation. Also deliberated were a work report by the NPC Standing Committee and a State Council report following the inspection of vocational education, delivered by Minister of Education Yuan Guiren. According to Yuan, China's vocational education has received increased government support following a survey by the top legislature last year that exposed weaknesses in the system. By December, all provincial governments in China had set a budgeted amount of spending for each student at vocational colleges and allocated the money to colleges accordingly, Yuan said. To prepare for the NPC annual session next month, legislators also deliberated draft lists of the presidium and general secretary for the annual session as well as those who will sit as observers. In addition, legislators reviewed the qualifications of several NPC deputies as well as appointments and dismissals during Wednesday's meeting. The Fourth Session of the 12th NPC will begin in Beijing on March 5. Peking University Third Hospital, Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Beijing Friendship Hospital were ranked the top 3 in overall medical services in China's capital, according to a report released by the city's health regulator on Feb. 24. Peking University Third Hospital.[File photo] The report was produced after researching 105 hospitals in the city in terms of service capacity, efficiency, safety and specialization based on Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs), an assessment tool classifying and analyzing hospital cases into groups, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning explained. Peking University First Hospital was assessed as providing the widest range of healthcare, and Peking Union Medical College Hospital as being handling the most difficult cases. In addition, Peking University Third Hospital, Peking Union Medical College Hospital and another 19 hospitals were assessed as being able to provide efficient services with relatively low cost and a small length of hospital stay when dealing with the same kind of disease, according to the report. The report also includes hospital rankings in terms of specialized medical care like in oncology, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and gynecology. Chinese scientists have isolated two Zika virus strains, which will assist research into a possible vaccination and the transmission pattern of the virus. The two strains were isolated from blood and urine samples from two patients. The urine test was the first successful isolation from a sample such as that, according to the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Guangzhou No. 8 People's Hospital. With five confirmed imported Zika virus cases and the weather beginning to warm up across the country, China is on high alert. The isolation can help scientists study the transmission pattern of the virus while provide a foundation for the invention of reagent and vaccine. Chinese scientists announced Monday they had decoded the gene sequence of the first imported Zika virus. Hu Kaihong: Ladies and gentlemen, good morning! Welcome to this SCIO press conference. Today, we are honored to have Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei here to share with you information on stabilizing industrial growth and restructuring the economy, and then take your questions. Joining him at this press conference are Mr. Feng Fei, vice minister of industry and information technology, and Mr. Zhang Feng, spokesperson and chief engineer of the ministry. Now, I will give the floor to Minister Miao. Miao Wei: Good morning, dear friends from the press, ladies and gentlemen. First I would like to extend my gratitude to every media friend for your care and support of the work undertaken by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Let me give you a brief introduction about current industry situation. To be specific, it is about how to look at the current industry situation in the context of the "new normal." We have given you background materials to offer a large amount of information and data. I would like to briefly speak about "how to look at the overall picture." From 2015, the economic environment, both at home and abroad, has been severe and complicated. The pressure of the downturn in the industry is growing. With the firm leadership of the CPC Party Central Committee and the State Council, the industrial sector has adhered to the general principle of making progress while ensuring stability. On the one hand, we focus our job on transforming and upgrading traditional industries; on the other hand, we nurture and strengthen new emerging industries. We will try our best to stabilize growth and steadfastly push forward the "Made in China 2025" plan. So the industry generally maintains the steady development trend, as shown in four aspects: First, the speed of industrial growth has been kept within a proper range. In 2015, China's industrial added value above designated size grew by 6.1 percent, a slower rate compared to the two-digit growth rate in past years. However, considering the changes in domestic and foreign circumstances, 6.1 percent growth is still in the reasonable range of industrial operation. Put it under the international environment, we can see since the financial crisis, demand from international markets has shrunk; by last year, the global trade growth rate had been lower than the general economic growth rate for four consecutive years. As a result, China's exports declined significantly. In 2011, China's trade in goods export grew by 20.3 percent from a year ago, but in 2012, the growth rate slipped to 7.9 percent and has continued dropping ever since. In 2015, China's industrial products' exports saw a negative growth rate of 1.8 percent. By looking at the domestic situation, we can see the restrictions on resources and the environment grew tighter, and the prices of labor, raw materials and land are all rising. In such circumstance, it is unnecessary and impossible to blindly pursue high-speed growth. While looking at the structural adjustment, we found that due to replacing business tax with a value-added tax, some businesses gradually moved out of industrial operations;R&D design, brand marketing, logistics and purchase, they were all gradually forming a relatively independent industry. This is a result of the social division of labor changing. While looking at the operational situation of industry, industrial added value above designated size in the four quarters of 2015 grew by 6.4 percent, 6.3 percent, 5.9 percent and 5.9 percent on a year-on-year basis. The quarterly fluctuation range was not more than 0.5 percent. Looking at the regions, we found the growth of the industrial added value above designated size in 19 provinces was higher than the nation's average growth rate. Through analysis, we found the provinces suffering a big drop in growth rate were those that have a large share of energy, resources and heavy industry in their economy. All in all, 2015 was a very tough year, but we held on and overcome the pressure of downturn, and kept up the steady operation of industry. Second, the industry restructuring has made positive changes. Traditional industry is still the leading industry in China, and is the significant foundation for the new industry to develop. We are now focusing on work in the following areas: First, strengthening technology transformation. During the 12th Five-Year Plan, China invested 37.5 trillion yuan worth of technology-transforming fund - less than 8 trillion yuan per year on average, but still 2.7 times more than the 11th Five-Year Plan. However, in last year alone, the investment for technology transformation was 9.5 trillion yuan, much higher than the average number. Enterprises' technology transformation can get a slew of new technologies, techniques and new equipment into operation and promote the development level of the entire industry. Second, cutting the outdated industrial capacity. During the 12th Five-Year Plan, we cut outdated iron-making capacity of 91 million tons, steel production capacity of 94.8 million tons, electrolytic aluminum 2 million tons, concrete 640 million tons and plate glass 160 million weight cases. The mechanism where market helps phase out excess capacity is taking shape. Third, industry realized energy conservation and emission reduction. By the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan, the unit energy consumption and water consumption in industrial value added decreased by 25 percent and 35 percent respectively compared with the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan, and the targets for restricting the emission of pollutants were overfulfilled. Forth, we implemented three strategies of the "Belt and Road" initiative, the Yangtze River Economic Zone, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Province coordinated development. The industrial arrangement has seen a further optimization by complementing each other's advantages and making gradual progress. Third, integrated innovation has witnessed a surge in new industry. This represents the future development direction and is the hope for the future. First, the innovative system is taking shape for manufacturing technologies with enterprises as the principal body and with functions integrated in regard to production, study, research and use. Industries of new generation of information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials, new energy automobile and more are growing fast. In 2015, the high-tech industry's industrial added value grew by 10.2 percent, 4.1 percent faster than the growth of the entire industry. We have some important accomplishments, such as the 28-nanometer integrated circuit was put into large-scale production, and the first C919 large passenger aircraft reached the final assembly stage. In other areas, high-speed trains and nuclear equipment have gone global, for example, and the output of new energy vehicles approached 500,000. Second, the integration of informationization and industrialization has made solid progress. The informationization of key industries has entered a new phase of integrated application. Through hard work in recent years, the popularization rate of digitization designs for large-and-medium-sized enterprises rose 23.5 percent. And the popularizing rate of digital control of technological process of key technologies in main industries is more than 70 percent. Third, the Internet economy is moving ahead of the global rate, information consumption is rapidly expanding; the new formats of mobile Internet, Internet of things, cloud computing, big data and more have become the new engines of growth. Fourth, the enterprise development environment, particularly for small and micro companies, has significantly been improved. Streamlining administration and delegating power, easing restrictions and strengthening regulation where necessary, and improving services have created both vitality and power in their development. One example is that, last year we strengthened management of enterprise-related fee-charging. This measure alone has reduced the burden on enterprises by more than 110 billion yuan. Another example is that the policy of halving the corporate income tax for eligible small and micro companies cut their tax liability by nearly 100 billion yuan. Besides, we twice reduced the electricity price for industrial enterprises, thus cutting their electricity costs by more than 60 billion yuan. Last year, we established a national development fund for medium and small enterprises with a total scale of 60 billion yuan. The number of entrepreneurial bases for small enterprises has exceeded 1,700, with more than 120,000 enterprises having settled down and more than 4.2 million jobs provided. All types of entrepreneurial gathering areas, small and micro businesses' entrepreneurial bases, and service platforms enjoy vigorous development. At the same time, large enterprises have continuously improved their competitiveness. Last year, 56 Chinese manufacturing enterprises ranked among the world's 500, 11 Chinese engineering machinery enterprises were among the global top 50, four Internet companies gained a ranking in the global top 10 according to market capitalization, and two integrated circuit design companies were rated among the global top 10. While acknowledging our achievements, we are clearly aware that there are many difficulties and problems needing to be solved in the country's industrial development. One example is that severe overcapacity exists in some industries, and, at the same time, a large number of key equipment, core technologies and high-end products await a significant breakthrough. Another example is that, some consumer demand, featured with huge purchasing power of Chinese consumers, cannot be effectively met at home, so they have to go overseas to shop or use online shopping channels from overseas producers. All these are the problems we are facing. The development of China's manufacturing industry has reached a critical juncture as it moves from merely being big to strong. In spite of the great difficulties, challenges and downward pressures, China's positive economic fundamentals and long-term trajectory remain unchanged, the basic characteristics that China's economy has strong resilience, great potential and ample room for maneuver has not changed, the strong support and conditions for sustained economic growth are unchanged, and the forward movement of the country's economic restructuring and upgrading remains unchanged. These are four "no-changes" we can clearly identify. China has the world's most complete industrial system and industrial supporting capability. More than seven million university graduates emerge every year as representative of the new generation of the national labor force with knowledge and skills, creating new vitality. All these have provided comprehensive advantages and strong potentials for the sustainable industrial development. China's economy is still in an important period of strategic opportunities which can achieve a great deal. China's industry will play an important supporting and leading role in comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society. The above is a brief introduction to the situation. Now, my colleagues and I would like to take the questions from you. Hu Kaihong: Thank you, Minister Miao Wei. Now let's move on to the questions. Please give the names of news agencies you represent before asking questions. CCTV: Minister Miao has told us how to understand the current situation of industry. You said that there is a rather heavy downward pressure. What will your ministry do to ensure industry can achieve steady growth and structural adjustment? Thank you. Miao Wei: We believe that if we can stabilize industrial growth, the general economic situation can be stabilized, and if our industry grows stronger, our nation becomes stronger. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that the real economy is fundamental to a country, and industry provides the foundations for national development. Premier Li Keqiang has also required us to promote the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, push it to an advanced level in the global industrial chain, and ensure it can play a more effective role as a pillar industry in the economy. Last year, the State Council began to implement the "Made in China 2025" and "Internet+" strategies. This was an important deployment the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council made to shape a bright future for the manufacturing industry. Since last year, the State Council has also taken a series of policies and measures favorable for industrial growth, structural adjustments and increased benefit. You may notice that recently, eight ministries, including ourselves, issued several documents on letting the financial market support industrial growth, structural adjustment and creating more benefits.These policies and measures have begun to produce effects, and industry's downward trend has been curbed. We are firmly confident in this regard. In 2016, we will follow the CPC Central Committee's plan and adopt the development approach featuring innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development. We will promote structural reform on the supply side and further implement the "Made in China 2025" strategy. We will reduce production capacity, inventory, leverage level and costs. We will address all weak links, promote innovation, achieve stable growth, adjust the overall structure, promote transformation and increase benefits. We will strengthen and improve traditional advantages, accelerate development momentum, and strive to promote the sustainable, healthy development of industry. Specifically speaking, we will work in the following five aspects. First, start to implement the "Made in China 2025" strategy in all aspects. First, we are working on the implementation plan of 11 key projects, programs and action plans, including the big program the State Council announced on May 19, 2015. Second, we are promoting five major projects in five areas, including establishing a manufacturing innovation center, promoting intelligent manufacturing, strengthening the overall industrial base, promoting green manufacturing and promoting high-end equipment innovation. For example, this year, the project to strengthen the industrial base will develop 30 to 50 significant products and technologies to address problems we have identified. Third, we are formulating the guiding opinions on how to combine the "Made in China 2025" with "Internet+" strategies, so as to closely integrate the manufacturing industry, "Internet+", mass entrepreneurship and innovation. Fourth, we will continue to develop further supporting policies. I must say that currently, there are still many policy tools at our disposal. When the situation of the industrial sector changes, we will submit them to the State Council for approval and announce new policies and measures in time to keep industry growing steadily. Second, we are striving to stabilize industrial growth. Following the central authorities' plan and requirements, we will focus on structural reform on the supply side. Specifically speaking, we will focus on the following tasks. First, we will develop guiding opinions on using different policies in six major industries, which is also known as the three-year action plan. Second, we will start a new round of major technology upgrading projects. A batch of major projects will be implemented to transform and upgrade traditional industries. Third, we will implement a specific action plan to improve the supply of consumer goods. A strategy will be implemented to increase product variety, improve product quality and create famous brands. Efforts will be made to help enterprises to cope with market changes more easily. Fourth, we will encourage the adoption of green construction materials, steel structures and aluminum extrusions in all fields and promote the usage of new-energy cars. Yesterday, the State Council studied the development of new-energy cars and publicized a news release. Third, we are working resolutely to solve the problem of excess production capacity. First, we will vigorously deal with "zombie enterprises." We are working with the National Development and Reform Commission to develop specific plans. Second, we are promoting the exit of low-efficiency production capacity. The production capacity of enterprises unable to meet the requirements of energy efficiency, environmental protection, safety and production standards should be phased out according to laws and regulations. Third, we are encouraging capable enterprises to make mergers and adjust corporate structure in different industries and regions. Fourth, we firmly refuse to approve any projects likely to increase the production capacity of industries with excess capacity. Fourth, we will continue to work harder to promote the development of small and micro enterprises. Fifth, we will continue to streamline administration, delegate power and upgrade service. We will unleash the vitality of enterprises by reforming the government. To summarize, we are confronted with significant challenges and problems this year, but we have already had responding plans. The details can be found in the materials we have provided. That's briefly what I want to say. Reuters: It is reported that the central government is arranging special funds to cut excess capacity, especially in the steel industry. It is also reported that you are going to provide tens of billions of yuan to help local governments solve these problems. Can you give us an exact number of the funds and explain how they will be used, either in personnel placement or for other uses? Another question is about the recently-published Provisions on Internet Publishing Service. It is not clear to us how to identify which foreign companies are subject to these provisions. Does it cover our foreign news agencies or other foreign companies? Thank you. Miao Wei: The first question relates to the work in the charge of Vice Minister Feng Fei. I'd like to invite him to take the question. The second one goes to Chief Engineer Zhang Feng. Let's start with Mr. Feng. Feng Fei: Thank you for your question. The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of last year clarified the work to facilitate structural reform on the supply side, which is, as you know, cutting capacity, inventory and costs, de-leveraging and making up for any deficiencies. Cutting capacity is a task of top priority for structural reform on the supply side. It involves joint efforts by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to facilitate the removal of Zombie companies and an orderly disposal of excess capacity. A Zombie company refers to a failing company that is in the situation of shutdown, semi-shutdown, deficits year-by-year or insolvency and continues to operate with support primarily from central government subsidies and renewed bank loans. At the very beginning of this year, the State Council decided to carry forward the work mainly in the steel and coal industries, as they both face very severe excess capacity and more obstacles in market-based exit. Therefore, guiding opinions were published in January to soak up excess capacity in these industries and help them out. During the process, we are guided by the general principles of restructuring under market pressure, organization by local governments and support from the central government. We primarily focus on proper handling of staff placement when restructuring. Since such withdrawal and capacity cutting involves unemployment, we give more emphasis to merging and reorganization and less to bankruptcy liquidation in dealing with Zombie companies. To solve the problem, the central government decided to set up a two-year special subsidy fund of 100 billion yuan (US$15.31 billion) for industrial companies' structural adjustment in the aspects of staff placement, job transfer and skills training. Restructuring also involves assets disposal, where market-orientation should be employed in disposing non-performing assets. Thank you. Zhang Feng: Thanks for the question from that reporter. Internet publishing is in the charge of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. As for your question, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as the authority in charge of the Internet industry, licenses and puts on record Internet information services businesses primarily pursuant to the Regulation on Internet Information Service. Those who are going to be engaged in Internet publishing service activities should obtain a license from the administration of Internet publishing service business before going through related formalities at the telecommunication administrations of related provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will cooperate with related departments to promote a sound development of Internet publishing service business and safeguard the legal rights and interests of consumers. Thank you. Ta Kung Pao: Minister Miao mentioned in his remarks that a great many Chinese citizens have swept clear overseas markets with bulk purchases and these cases can be spotted many times in news headlines. Therefore, how should we view this phenomenon? What if those people shop around and purchase at the overseas markets as a result of their gratification for qualities and brands of the overseas products? Then how should we improve the manufacturing and brand building abilities of Chinese products? Besides, according to the Ministry of Commerce, consumption now contribute more than 60 percent to the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) as national economic growth has been successfully transformed to be driven by domestic demand. Therefore, my question is how can Chinese manufacturing keep up with the pace of its consumption. Thanks. Miao Wei: Thanks for your question. I have noticed such media coverage. My colleagues and I visited the research institute affiliated to the China National Tourism Administration to investigate the case. According to the administration, outbound travel by Chinese citizens in 2015 totaled 120 million visits with their consumption reaching US$104.5 billion, increases of 12 and 16.7 percent year on year. We also learned from the administration about overseas consumption, consisting of food, accommodation, transport, visits and shopping. We particularly paid attention to overseas shopping in addition to the other four factors that are indispensable costs during overseas travel. For example, crowds of Chinese headed to Japan during the three-day holiday starting from May 1 last year to buy toilet seats which they later found were manufactured in Hangzhou, capital of China's southeastern Zhejiang Province. But they flocked there for brands that represent the quality and have won customer trusts; meanwhile, Chinese products and prices are less appealing to customers. Secondly, there are products, such as, the processed commodities from agricultural byproducts that are less expensive in overseas markets for various reasons. So, price is another factor in addition to quality. Let's take milk powder for example: the price in overseas markets may not be necessarily higher than those of the domestic market. I believe many media friends have travelled abroad. I don't know whether you have ever purchased milk powder overseas. However, by comparing the price of milk in the supermarkets both home and abroad I discovered that many brands are cheaper overseas than those provided by Chinese supermarkets. Milk serves as the major ingredient of milk powder. Thirdly, the way of consumption for the Chinese citizens is much influenced by the close relationship within big families. Many people are going abroad for the first time in their lives. Therefore, they are more willing to spend on specialties and local products as presents for their relatives and friends. Now, let me answer your second question. Consumption plays an increasingly important and apparent role in driving the growth of the national economy. During the ongoing economic development, personal incomes have grown obviously. The primary factors influencing consumption in the much less affluent period were the limited supply and the comparatively low prices. With the growing number of middle class in China, prices have given way to the consideration of quality, brand and personal pride. Therefore, we need to adapt to the changes in consumption by pressing ahead with supply-side reform so as to meet the increasing material and cultural demands of our people. As an industrial ministry, our major task is to satisfy people's material demands. As I have just mentioned, we are going to take three years to improve product variety and quality and the brand building abilities of our producers, comparing them with the overseas manufacturers, supporting their brands, upgrading their quality and increasing their variety to meet the demands of our people.Thank you. ITAR-TASS: China's industrial overcapacity is so severe that I heard of some China-Russia joint projects realizing an industrial transfer from China to the east of Russia. Can you talk about the issue? And how do you think about China-Russia industrial cooperation? Thank you. Miao Wei: Thank you so much. During my special trip to Russia last year, I met with Denis Manturov, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade, and we came to an agreement on establishing a mechanism on industrial cooperation, which expands the area from civil aviation to the whole industrial circle under my ministry and its Russian counterpart. China encourages its enterprises to invest, build workshops and manufacture in Russia so as to meet the needs of the local market. We had lots of exchanges and plans on the issue. With strategic partnership relations, China and Russia have mutual trust in politics and both economies are very complementary. Through bilateral industrial cooperation, we can achieve win-win development and contribute more to the development of both economies. China National Radio: Minister Miao mentioned the quality of commodities made in China when answering the question on consumption a few moments ago, and considering China's industrial growth rate dropped by 2.2 percentage points last year, it's obviously important for the Chinese manufacturing industry to realize transformation and upgrading. Can the long-term plan of "Made in China 2025" resolve current problems in China? Does it have a competitive edge compared with the Industry 4.0 of Germany? We've noted that the plan is more about the work of the government, so how will the market and enterprises play their roles in it? The second question is that we've seen that the launching conference for 5G technology R&D has taken place. What progress has been made and when can it be popularized? Thank you. Miao Wei: I'll answer the first question and the second one will be answered by Zhang Feng. The State Council issued the plan of "Made in China 2025" last year, which is a guideline for the work in the next 10 years as you mentioned. It has attracted great attention from both home and abroad and it is widely acclaimed. What counts now is how to implement the 10-year plan and divide it into 10 annual plans under State Council requirement. And then we need to take concrete actions and make progress step by step advancing towards the target. At the end of last year, the leaders of the State Council convened the second conference for the leading group of the plan, during which the 2016 work plan was deliberated. The 2016 plan will focus on five large projects with concrete targets and detailed measures. We need to allow enterprises to play a major role as most of the tasks will be carried out by them, especially leading ones in the sector. It is necessary to turn the big plan into annual ones, take actions and make it come true step by step. I've mentioned during our discussions before that rather than seeking the grandness of an annual plan we need to resolve some key problems every year in a down-to-earth manner and make progress step by step. As for the comparison between "Made in China 2025" and "Industry 4.0," some work has been done before. Industry 4.0 also plans to take 10 years or more to improve the German industrial level from 3.0 to 4.0. The overall level of Chinese enterprises is lower than that of Germany and so we are faced with more challenges as we need to make up for the levels of 2.0 and 3.0 and also pursue for 4.0. Be it "Made in China 2025" or "Industry 4.0," we both focus on the promotion and application of new information and telecommunication technologies and try to bring about profound and revolutionary changes to the industrial sector. To realize the target, except fro industrial enterprises, telecommunication enterprises, especially those in the Internet sector, can play a significant role. The Chinese Internet enterprises, including Alibaba, TenCent and Baidu, have all prospered over the past few years. We need to bring their competitiveness into full play. As I mentioned, the State Council issued two important documents last year, namely, Made in China 2025 and Internet Plus Action Plan. Recently, under the requirement of the State Council, we are discussing how to integrate the two documents so as to promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation. I'll release some of our considerations here. It is necessary for the large-sized industrial enterprises to build up open Internet platforms through which employees and all the social resources can be integrated to push forward development rather than seeking innovation and development on their own. Haier Group and CITIC Heavy Industries Co. have taken a lead in this way. We also encourage enterprises in the sectors of Internet, industry and telecommunication to establish another platform offering public services to the small and micro businesses. Generally speaking, all those deeds can help traditional industry to undergo a complete and revolutionary change and, through the process, we can follow the tide and make progress. It is essential for us to clarify the role of the government during the process, which includes creating a good environment, offering good services and bringing the roles of the industrial and Internet enterprises into full play. As for the second question, Zhang Feng will give you an answer. Zhang Feng: Earlier this year, China officially started the research and test of 5G technology. Building an open R&D and experiment platform, China invited enterprises at home and abroad to play a part, in a bid to promote the formulation of 5G standards, advance the R&D and industrial development of 5G technology and lay the foundation for its commercial use in 2020. China launched 5G R&D in tandem with other countries in the world. First, we have built a collaborative work mechanism. Quite a few enterprises, universities and research institutes in China have set up the IMT-2020 (5G) promotion group and conducted research on 5G requirements, technologies, spectrum and standards. Second, we have engaged in 5G R&D. Many enterprises and universities have invested heavily in comprehensively conducting 5G R&D in all fields. We have published the White Paper on 5G Vision and Requirements and suggestions pertaining to 5G have been adopted by the International Communication Union. Third, we have intensified international cooperation. Some universities and research institutes in our country have built a multi-channel and multi-layer relationship with many foreign agencies. Our ministry will encourage domestic and foreign businesses to enter into a partnership on R&D and make a contribution to the development of the new generation of mobile communication technology. On the basis of our holistic arrangement, the basic research and test of 5G technology will be carried out between 2016 and 2018 in three phases -- key technology test, technology solution test and systematic test. China News Service & Chinanews.com: Minister Miao just now talked about "Made in China 2025," and also talked about promoting smart manufacturing, strengthening industrial base and enforcing green manufacturing among five major projects. My question is whether there will be any landmark projects revolving around the five major projects launched recently? If there are any, please give details on the projects. Thanks. Miao Wei: As I said just now, we have drawn up the work plan for 2016 which is going through signing procedures and will be announced soon. I give you some examples here. The project of strengthening industrial base, for example, will center on 30-50 landmark projects and technologies this year to address the shortage of fundamental parts, fundamental techniques, fundamental materials and technologies. For the high-end equipment innovation project, a key task this year for us is to kick-start the special project of plane engine and gas turbine. For the construction project of manufacturing innovation center, we are planning to build two or three national technology innovation centers and support the building of provincial technology innovation centers. The focus that those centers will place is on making a breakthrough in technologies shared by all players in the sector, rather than solving the core technology issue that a single business can do. That is the biggest difference. Since our technology innovation centers are dedicated to solving shared industrial technologies, they should play a leading role of enterprises which refer to a slew of enterprises, particularly major enterprises in the field, rather than a single enterprise. Now, we have a power battery innovation center to work as a pioneer in this aspect. To our knowledge, except for BYD, makers of new energy vehicles don't produce but purchase batteries. You all know, the progress made in power battery technology determines the performance, quality and safety of a car, so we work together with nine enterprises to establish a research institute or R&D platform with a fund of 500 million yuan (US$76.55 million). That is our plan this year. I will not go into details about other projects. Anyway, we have detailed plans. In the near future, you will see the details after the document concerning the five major projects is released. You will then know which enterprises are undertaking the task, and which universities and research institutes are brought in. The information about foreign firms involved will also be disclosed. NHK: Two questions. First, the Chinese government has vowed to boost mass entrepreneurship and innovation. Didi Taxi can be considered as an innovation model, but there is some contradictory existed between Didi's service and government's traditional supervision. How does the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) view enterprises like Didi Taxi? Will they support those innovation-oriented enterprises in the future? The second question is about "zombie factories". In January, the People's Daily published a series of reports on "zombie factories", including Heilongjiang Longmay Mining Holding Group Co. Ltd. Although the local government and the group have released a reform program, some people still complain about the speed of its reform and recombination. What's MIIT's comment on that? How to deal with contradictions between central and local governments on the "zombie factory" issue? Thank you. Miao Wei: Mr. Feng, please answer the second question, and I will take the first one. Companies like Didi Taxi are actually a new product emerging from the shared economy in the Internet era. Of course, the emergence of new things will surely have great impact and influence on tradition industry; for example, Didi has had great impact on traditional taxi operations. In fact, it is the Ministry of Transport that is partly in charge, while the MIIT also participates in the supervision, since it calls for some Internet technology application. Generally speaking, we actively support those companies, and instruct them to draw on their advantages and eliminate disadvantages. For supervision, I noticed that the Ministry of Transport has already drawn up a range of management ideas and is seeking opinions from the public. You can contact the Ministry of Transport for further information. Feng Fei: Thanks for your question. I also read a related report on this. Actually, during the recombination process, there are three difficulties: staff resettlement, assets disposition and the willingness for recombination. To solve these difficulties, as I mentioned earlier, staff resettlement depends on a strong social policy and proper special compensation fund. When designing such policies, we mainly focus on incentives and guidance mechanisms, in order to let enterprises develop a will for recombination. The recombination should be promoted by market mechanisms rather than the government. The government should focus on obstacles and difficulties existing in the market. Take recombination as an example: the government should provide support on perfecting the market environment through financial instruments, including annexation loans and involvement of the capital market and fund companies. During the recombination process, tax, especially capital gains tax, is another problem needing a more detailed and precise tax policy. Generally speaking, we should let market and enterprises play their respective roles, while government should focus on providing necessary stimulus and support. Thank you. Hu Kaihong: The last two questions. CRI: The backgrounder says we should accelerate the planning and the implementation of industrial restructuring with an overall plan to eliminate the so-called 'zombie enterprises.' What is the idea behind the plan, and how is it being carried out? Regarding the removal of zombie enterprises, what goals do we have for 2016? Feng Fei: Thank you for your questions. Pushing forward industrial restructuring and eliminating 'zombie enterprises' are requirements from the central authorities, according to which, the NDRC and the MIIT will jointly draft the actual implementation plans. In our general idea, the corporate sector will be placed in the primary position, the government will push forward the transformation, the market will play a guiding role, and the entire process will be conducted according to law. We pay more attention to using the market mechanism, economic measures and law-based approaches to steadily phase out zombie enterprises by means of mergers, acquisitions, debt reorganization and bankruptcy liquidations, although we favor more mergers and fewer bankruptcies. Also in our general thinking, we should "tackle both the superficial matters and their fundamental causes to solve both immediate and chronic problems." In so saying, I mean that we should perfect the long-term market mechanism of phasing out enterprises. I've already defined "zombie enterprises" just now. First, local financial institutions should stop giving credit to zombie enterprise; they should apply differentiated approaches and stop issuing new loans. Second, we should step up law reinforcement on environmental protection, energy efficiency, quality control, safety and technologies in order to force out zombie enterprises through laws and regulations. Third, as I mentioned just now, we will use the market stimulation mechanism to encourage more enterprises to conduct mergers and reorganizations, and remove any obstacles to this for a better market environment. This is our overall thinking, and we are accelerating the drafting of concrete plans. We also mentioned just now that we would seek to solve the two relatively difficult problems: resettlement of redundant employees and disposal of assets. Properly solving these issues will help maintain social stability in phasing out zombie enterprises. Thank you. HK China Review News: The next Taiwanese leader has put forward the "New Southbound Policy," in a bid to strengthen corporate cooperation, especially on OEM, with southeastern Asian countries. At the same time, in our plan "Made in China 2025," intelligent manufacturing is set as a main target for the development of China's manufacturing sector. My question is: how big is the room for cross-Straits cooperation among related industries? How do you view the prospect of cross-Straits corporate cooperation? And what industries will feature cross-Straits cooperation in the future? Thank you! Miao Wei: Since the Mainland and Taiwan signed the ECFA, the economic and investment activities have been constantly making new breakthroughs. The cross-Straits industrial cooperation are becoming increasingly frequent, its scale expanding, its mode seeing innovation and its level being raised. Practice shows cross-Straits industrial cooperation and exchanges have achieved a mutually complementary, win-win result, apart from raising the competiveness of the enterprises involved. Such cooperation has helped the Mainland learn from Taiwan some experiences in industrial development, and Taiwan shares the abundant market and development opportunities on the Mainland. The both sides of the Taiwan Straits share a consensus on further deepening industrial cooperation. Last year, the first Cross-Straits Industrial Development and Cooperation Forum was held in Beijing. At the forum, up to 300 delegates from the corporate and science and technology sectors on both sides discussed future industrial development and cooperation. The industrial sectors from both sides fully realize that deepening cross-Straits industrial cooperation is essential, with a promising future. As you all know, global industrial and science and technology cooperation is constantly accelerating, amid which the industrial sectors on both sides of the Taiwan Straits face shared opportunities and challenges. Strengthening cross-Straits industrial cooperation, especially on the innovation front, is necessary. Both sides favor the docking between the Mainland's "Made in China 2025" and the Taiwan's "Productivity 4.0" in that both sides could make the most of their respective advantages. The docking of plans will especially emphasize the cooperation on robots, green manufacturing, and industrial parks. We are set to move forward the docking and early start of a batch of projects, expand and deepen cross-Straits industrial cooperation, so that the industrial chains and value chains on both sides will have win-win results in common development. Thank you. Hu Kaihong: That marks the end of today's press conference. Thank you again, Minister Miao Wei, Vice Minister Feng Fei, Chief Engineer Zhang Feng, and all friends from the press. The deaths of seven Przewalski's gazelle have aroused debate over whether grassland fences should be removed completely. [Photo/Weibo.com] The deaths of seven Przewalski's gazelle, a species even more endangered than the giant panda, have aroused debate over whether grassland fences should be removed completely. The antelopes were killed by barbed wire fences around Qinghai Lake, the last stronghold of the species, in northwest China's Qinghai Province, when they tried to jump the fences. The deaths were discovered by Namgyal, an environmental volunteer and herdsman, on Saturday when patrolling the lake on his motorcycle. "Six were male. Their dead bodies were stiff. Some were hanging on the wire, while others were lying in pools of blood," he said. Wang Enguang, head of wildlife and nature reserves in Qinghai, told Xinhua that the local government has sent investigators to the site. "They died in different locations and at various time. Some might have been chased by predators when they tried to jump the fences," Wang said. Przewalski's gazelle has China's highest level of protection. Once found all over north and northwest China, the gazelle is now found only around Qinghai Lake. It was named after the Russian explorer who collected a specimen and took it back to St. Petersburg in 1875. Despite the population of Przewalski's gazelles recovering from 300 in the mid-1990s to more than 1,000 today, and their habitat being enlarged, they still face a fight for survival against highways, wolves, the weather and, most dangerously, fences. It was not the first time that fences have killed gazelles during migration. The new tragedy questions the future of these fences, originally built to restrict the movement of livestock, mark ownership of grassland, and to increase productivity. Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. Italian authorities see soft power as one of the assets to increase Italy's influence in the world, but much more could be done to exploit the country's attraction potential which is centered on its millenary culture, experts said. Presently Italy is in a quite good position as regards soft power, Raffaele Marchetti, an international relations professor at LUISS University in Rome, told Xinhua in a recent interview. However, in his view much more can be done to exploit the resources and tools to increase the country's soft power. "The world has a natural goodwill and attraction for Italy's culture. Just to make an example, Italian is one of the most studied languages in London and Tokyo, though it is not certainly studied for business, but just for passion," Marchetti noted. Culture is the central element of the Italian soft power which is declined in many different aspects, from diplomatic policy to capacity for dialogue, he said. "The image of contemporary Italy is that of a pacific country, which derives from a cultural approach to international issues," he added. According to Marchetti, Italian citizens living abroad are a "soft power multiplication factor" as both Italian communities and the many Italians holding important posts in cultural circles or international organizations abroad have played a fundamental role in spreading the Italian soft power influence especially in recent times. In fact Italians are particularly good at making culture central in big events, as the recent world exposition held in Milan showed, he said. For all these reasons, international soft power classifications have placed Italy at quite high ranks. Different governments have certainly had different impacts on Italian soft power, which however has a more stable strength than the changeable influence of single governments, the professor told Xinhua. Marchetti also underlined that the issue becomes more problematic when it comes to economy. He noted that Italian companies are considered to be creative and innovative, but the Italian industrial system has many weak points and the public debt is very high. But "never undervalue soft power, which is fundamental for each country's development," he said. Italian politicians have pursued using soft power to reach national goals. Italian President Sergio Mattarella in his recent official visit to the United States emphasized Italy's contribution to the United Nations ideals and missions to reinforce his country's candidacy to the 15-member UN Security Council. On June 28 the UN General Assembly will vote to elect the new non-permanent members to the Security Council for the years 2017-2018. The Italian president said that though his meetings at the UN headquarters earlier this month were not the occasion for electoral campaigning, a goal like a non-permanent seat can be reached only through good relations and by building consensus. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has frequently recalled Italy's typical attitude of using soft power to address international issues and crises. "Italy is not hiding, it is in many theaters, but does so without resounding statements: we need our typical attitude, more of soft power than hard power," Renzi said after the Paris attacks last November. "I think, believe and hope that Italy can react not with calm but with wisdom and balance," he added. Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni in his address to the 11th Conference of Ambassadors which gathered 131 Italian heads of mission in Rome last July also reaffirmed how openness to dialogue remains the guiding light of his country's foreign policy. "This is our soft power, an economic, cultural and lifestyle soft power," he said. In 2012, the then prime minister Mario Monti at a public conference defined soft power as "a modern activity which uses the leverage of the traditional capacities of Italians," namely their very much appreciated "creativity which derives from Italy's ancient culture." Flash China hopes the U.S. government takes a positive stance on China in a responsible manner, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Hua Chunying made the comment when asked if China is worried that Donald Trump, who is inching closer to becoming the Republican Party's presidential candidate, might really mean what he said if elected president, like calling for higher tariffs on Chinese goods to offset RMB devaluation last month. "I am following with interest the presidential election in the United States, which is the country's domestic affair, so I don't want to comment on the specific remarks of candidates," Hua said when answering a journalist's question at a regular news briefing. She emphasized China and the United States, as the largest developing country and largest developed country, share an important responsibility to maintain world peace, stability, security and development. "A sustainable, healthy and stable China-U.S. relationship is in the fundamental interest of the two countries and the world at large," Hua said. "China hopes and believes the U.S. government will take a responsible attitude towards China and make positive policies." During his ongoing visit to the United States, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said they attach great importance to bilateral ties, and were willing to maintain and enhance exchanges and dialogues at all levels, enhance practical cooperation and have sound interactions in the Asia-Pacific region, Hua said. "China is willing to work with the United States to maintain and advance our bilateral ties," the spokeswoman added. Flash Unilateral actions do not help in the resolution of the refugee crisis, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday during a meeting with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi. "Unilateral and uncoordinated actions do not contribute to the handling of an international problem. Solution can be reached only through the closer cooperation at European and international level," said Tsipras, according to an e-mailed press release from his office. During Grandi's first visit to Greece after assuming office earlier this year, the UNHCR head seeks to further support Greece to assist incoming refugees, as well as NATO's upcoming operation in the Aegean Sea in an international attempt to stem the refugee influx, according to the press release. Wednesday's meeting was held as Greece was under increasing pressure this week with thousands refugees remaining stranded in the country, after several neighboring Balkan countries and central European states have introduced additional restrictions in cross-border movements. Athens has filed formal complaints with Austria and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in protest of such "unilateral moves" despite decisions taken at a recent EU summit for collective response to the challenge. For his part, Grandi urged other European countries to provide further support to Greece. "The resettlement program agreed between the European Union countries has not progressed. We have repeatedly stressed to member states and other countries of Europe that they will have to participate in these resettlement programs to welcome refugees legally and not leave them at the mercy of traffickers," he told Greek national news agency AMNA after visiting hot spots on Lesvos islands and refugee accommodation centers in Athens. UNHCR and humanitarian organizations such as the Doctors Without Borders have expressed "great concern" over the build-up along borders and additional hardships for refugees and asylum seekers. "UNHCR is concerned by recent restrictive practices adopted in a number of European countries that are placing additional undue hardships on refugees and asylum seekers across Europe, creating chaos at several border points, and putting particular pressure on Greece as it struggles to deal with larger numbers of people in need of accommodation and services," an UNHCR press statement read. "Such measures risk violating EU law and undermine efforts for a comprehensive and coordinated approach to deal with the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe," the announcement added. Approximately 3,500 refugees were queuing near the Idomeni border crossing between Greece and FYROM on Wednesday, according to the latest update from Greek police, after Skopje barred Afghan nationals from entering the country since the weekend. Hundreds of refugees were transferred to overcrowded temporary reception camps in the nearby city of Thessaloniki and Athens on Tuesday, local authorities said, while thousands of refugees reaching Piraeus port every day from the Greek islands hope to continue their journey to northern Europe. Meanwhile, 40 buses carrying refugees from Athens were lined on the national highway connecting the Greek capital with northern Greece since early Wednesday due to the build-up at Idomeni, Greek police announced, adding about 500 refugees started from the outskirts of the city of Lamia in central Greece continue their trip on foot. The distance from Lamia to Idomeni is about 260 kilometers. "The situation is not sustainable and will become worse in coming days. Greece today can accommodate in humane conditions 3,700 people in centers on the mainland. If people will not be allowed to cross the borders in the following hours, Greece's reception system will reach its limits within a week," Marie Elisabeth Ingres, head of the Doctors Without Borders mission in Greece warned on Wednesday. The humanitarian organization stressed in a press release that "restrictions in movement result chaos and humanitarian crises, exposing refugees to the risk of violence and exploitation at the hands of traffickers." Flash The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned the remarks of the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who warned that Syria would be hard to be held together if the cessation of hostilities did not succeed, according to state news agency SANA. "Kerry's remarks run counter to the reality and fall in the framework of misleading the public in a bid to hide his country's responsibility for the crimes committed in Syria," the ministry said in a statement. "The U.S. and its allies and regional tools hold all responsibility for the eruption and continuation of the crisis in Syria through supporting terrorism," the ministry added. A day earlier, Kerry said if a political transition to a government to replace the current administration in Syria did not unfold, there would be options, in a reference to an undefined plan B the U.S. has, which could include military action. Moscow said it had no idea what the U.S.' plan B might be. Russia and the United States agreed to enforce a cessation of hostilities starting from Feb. 27. Any party engaged in conflicts in Syria will indicate to Russia or the United States their commitment to and acceptance of the terms for the cessation of hostilities by no later than 12:00 Damascus time (1000 GMT) on Feb. 27, according to a joint statement issued by the U.S. State Department. On Tuesday, the Syrian government and rebel groups accepted a plan for a cessation of hostilities. Syrian President Bashar Assad reassured his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call Wednesday that his administration will resolve to observe a cessation of hostilities as planned by Russia and the United States, according to SANA. Russia's President Vladimir Putin phoned Assad on Wednesday, in which both leaders discussed the current situation in Syria in light of the agreed upon ceasefire, according to SANA. Both presidents also agreed on the need to continue the war against the terrorist-designated groups, namely the Islamic State (IS) and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, both were excluded from the ceasefire plan as they are designated as terrorist groups by the UN. Flash The Saudi-backed Yemeni government announced Wednesday that it has "strong proofs and evidence" that the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah is supporting the Houthi rebels in Yemen. A government official based in Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh told Xinhua that the internationally recognized Yemeni government is "determined to submit a complete file of complaints to the UN Security Council and the Arab League, confirming the interventions and terrorist acts of Hezbollah in Yemen." "A lot of proofs and documents will indicate that Hezbollah movement is directly involved in the ongoing war by dispatching military experts and backing the Shiite Houthi militias against the Yemeni people, " the government source said. The Yemeni government, which is supported by Saudi Arabia, has long accused Iran of arming and financing the Shiite Houthi against the legitimate President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, but Iran denied the accusation. The Saudi-led coalition has carried out military operations against Houthis in Yemen since March 2015 in an effort to restore Hadi's authority. Hadi and some members of his government has recently returned to the country's temporary capital of Aden after six months of exile in Riyadh. The airstrikes by the coalition and ground battles in Yemen have left about 6,000 people killed, half of them being civilians, and more than 1.5 million people displaced. Flash Russia on Wednesday formally handed over 10,000 pieces of AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles to Afghanistan. Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar (2nd R) receives AK-47 guns from Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Alexander Mantytskiy (3rd R) in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Feb. 24, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] A hand-over ceremony of military assistance, attended by Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Anif Atmar and Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Afghanistan Alexander Mantytskiy, was held here in Hamid Karzai International Airport. "The Afghan National Security and Defense Forces received an important military assistance today. An important assistance from an important friend at a crucial time," Atmar told reporters during the ceremony to receive the assistance. "I am very much thankful to the people and government of Russia. Russia's assistance represents the friendship between the two nations," he added, while appreciating Russia's assistance to the country's security forces. "The supplies had also include ammunition. The supplies have been provided by the friendly country of Russia based on a bilateral security agreement that had already signed between two countries and that the supplies would be directly handed over to the Afghan national forces," he said. Similarly, Mantytskiy told the audience that his country will spare no efforts to support Afghan forces in providing security to Afghans. Since Jan. 1 last year, Afghan security forces have assumed the full security charges from NATO and U.S. forces after the foreign troops switched their mission from combat to support role, which focuses on training, advising and assisting Afghan forces. Nearly 13,000 foreign forces within the framework of NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission are presently stationed in Afghanistan. You are here: Home Flash French special forces were conducting discreet action against the Islamic State (IS) in Libya in coordination with the United States and Britain, a local daily reported on Wednesday. In a report posted on its website, Le Monde said French President Francois Hollande gave the green light to "an unofficial military action" by both an elite armed forces unit to halt the progress of insurgents in the North African state. It added specialist bloggers had reported sightings of French special forces in eastern Libya since mid-February. "The last thing to do would be to intervene in Libya. We must avoid any overt military engagement, but act discreetly," the daily quoted a senior French military official as saying. A press document issued by the French presidency in December 2015 unveiled that French jet fighters had conducted two intelligence flights over the Libyan towns of Sirte and Tobruk controlled by Islamist fighters. Other reconnaissances flights have been planned over the struggling country, according to the document. You are here: Home Flash Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called again on Wednesday for holding an international conference to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to achieve peace in the Middle East. He made the remarks in a meeting with Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boiko Borisov in the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA. "The conference has to produce an international mechanism similar to the one found recently and managed to resolve the crisis in the region," said Abbas. He also said the Palestinians are determined to apply to the UN Security Council against Israel's insistent settlement policy, arrests and raids on the West Bank, which failed the rescue of the peace process. Meanwhile, Borisov reiterated Bulgaria's position that backs the peace process based on the two-state principle, according to the WAFA. He had earlier met with the Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah. Hamdallah explained that Israel's continuous land confiscations and settlement expansions would undermine the Palestinian aspirations for independence. "We hope that Bulgaria would support our attitude towards freedom and independence," said Hamdallah, "we hope that Bulgaria would recognize the independent state of Palestine." Flash U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday expressed caution about a plan to end the war in Syria, while saying progress had been made on fighting the extremist group the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria. "We are very cautious about raising expectations on this," Obama said, after meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II at the White House in the day. Jordan is on the U.S.-led coalition conducting airstrikes in Syria. "The situation on the ground is difficult," Obama said. "If, over the next several weeks, we can see some lessening of the violence that's been wracking that country, then that provides us a basis to build a longer-term ceasefire both in the north and the south." The United States and Russia on Monday announced the plan for a cessation of hostilities in Syria that will begin Feb. 27. The plan will not include IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Any party engaged in conflicts in Syria will indicate to Russia or the United States their commitment to and acceptance of the terms for the cessation of hostilities by no later than Saturday noon, Damascus time. Obama noted that if some progress was made in Syria, that would lead to a political transition to end the fighting in the war-torn country. "It also would allow us, then, to focus all our efforts -- all the parties in the entire world community, including Russia" on the fighting against IS. "We have seen progress in pushing back against ISIL in territory both in Iraq and now in some portions of Syria," Obama said. "But a lot of work remains to be done." The two leaders also talked about how to solve the problem of Syrian refugees during their meeting. Flash The Riyadh-based Syrian opposition group Higher Negotiation Committee (HNC) has agreed to a two-week truce, in response to the cessation of hostilities agreement between Russia and the United States, the Saudi al-Arabiya TV said on Wednesday. After a meeting in Riyadh Wednesday, the Saudi backed HNC said the two-week truce "constitutes a chance to test the seriousness of the other party (Syrian government) in committing to the cessation of hostilities deal." The HNC said it had "attentively studied" the Russian-U.S. agreement, and it "values and looks positively" to any effort that could be conducive in bringing the shelling of Syrian civilians to a halt. While denouncing the terrorism committed by the Islamic State (IS) group and the al-Qaida-linked groups, the HNC also slammed the intervention of the Shiite militias in the fight alongside the Syrian administration. The HNC said the ceasefire agreement ignored "the Russian and Iranian role in committing aggressions in Syria," and didn't include a clear identification of the territories that will be included in the cessation of hostilities deal. Russia and the United States agreed to enforce a cessation of hostilities in Syria starting from Saturday. Warring parties have to decide whether they will agree to the deal by noon on Friday (1000 GMT), and to halt fighting at midnight on Saturday. On Tuesday, the Syrian government and rebel groups accepted the plan. The deal excludes the IS and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, as both groups are designated by the United Nations as terrorists. You are here: Home Flash Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced Wednesday that his government has accepted Russia's offer to mutually lift a ban on cargo trucks transit starting Feb. 25. "As they are opening up their territory, we are taking similar measures based on a principle of reciprocity," Yatsenyuk told a cabinet meeting. The prime minister has instructed the country's Interior Ministry and the police to ensure the security of movement of Russia-registered trucks through the territory of Ukraine. On Feb.14, Russia suspended movement of Ukrainian commercial vehicles via its territory, in response to the blocking of about 600 cargo trucks with Russian plates heading to the European Union (EU) countries by Ukrainian nationalists. One day later, Kiev banned Russian freight vehicles from moving through Ukraine, saying it was a tit-for-tat response to Moscow's actions. The cargo transit row marked the latest development of a political dispute between the two ex-Soviet neighbors, which erupted two years ago over different views on the unrest in Crimea and Ukraine's eastern regions. Russia has taken a series of restrictive measures against Kiev, including the suspension of a Russia-Ukraine free trade agreement in response to Kiev's joining a free trade zone with the EU. Besides, Moscow has also imposed a total ban on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine since Jan. 1, while restricting the automobile and railway transit of goods from Ukraine via Russia. For its part, Ukraine has canceled preferential import duties on a range of Russian goods and imposed an embargo on some products made in Russia. Flash The UN Security Council on Wednesday welcomed the U.S.-Russian agreement on partial ceasefire in Syria as "an important step toward alleviating" the suffering the Syrian people, who have been through dire humanitarian situation over the past five years since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in March 2011. Ambassador Rafael Ramirez Carreno of Venezuela, who holds the rotating council presidency for this month, told reporters after a closed council meeting here that the 15 council members reiterate their call for "an immediate, sustained and unhindered humanitarian access" to the Syrian people in need, particularly those in the besieged areas in Syria. The council president said that the closed council meeting touched upon the humanitarian situation in Syria. Earlier Wednesday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here that the U.S.-Russian deal is seen as "the important first step" to ending the suffering of the Syrian people. On Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed an agreement as "a signal of hope" to end the Syrian conflict, which has been going on for nearly five years. The agreement was announced Monday by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the terms of a nationwide cessation of hostilities in Syria scheduled to come into effect on Feb. 27. "The secretary-general strongly urges the parties to abide by the terms of the agreement," said a statement issued here by Ban's spokesman. Kerry and Lavrov reached a provisional agreement on terms of a cessation of hostilities in Syria, where more than 250,000 people have been killed since March 2011. The two foreign ministers are co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) Ceasefire Taskforce formed in Munich, Germany. Yet, the agreement, which excludes the Islamic State (IS), the Nusra Front or other terror organizations designated by the Security Council, still awaits commitment from Syria's warring government and armed opposition groups. It also leaves questions open on how to respond to breaches of the ceasefire. Flash Stopping the bloodshed in Syria is currently the main goal of all those interested in a political settlement in the war-torn country, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers an address following adoption of a joint statement by Russia and US on Syria. [Photo/Xinhua] "The main goal is to stop the bloodshed in Syria and to prepare the ground for a settlement," Peskov told reporters. On Monday, Russia and the United States announced a plan of cessation of hostilities in Syria, demanding that any party engaged in the conflict in Syria indicate to Russia or the United States their commitment to the ceasefire by no later than 12:00 p.m. Damascus time (1000 GMT) on Saturday. But the agreement excluded the Islamic State (IS), the Nusra Front and other terrorist organizations designated by the United Nations Security Council. "Russia and the United States are using their influence and potential to bring parties with opposing views on the Syria settlement closer together," Peskov said. Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, during which the Syrian leader confirmed Damascus' readiness to facilitate the ceasefire's implementation, the Kremlin said in a separate online statement. Putin also had a telephone conversation with King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The Kremlin said the latter welcomed the reached agreements and expressed readiness for joint work with Russia to implement them. Peskov said Putin is expected to hold several other international phone calls Wednesday, including one with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, primarily related to resolving the Syrian conflict. Flash Israel's security service "systematically" abuses Palestinians under interrogations, and in some cases tortures them, two Israeli human rights organizations said in a report released on Wednesday. Palestinian women hold posters bearing a portrait of hunger striking Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qiq, who is imprisoned in an Israeli jail, during a demonstration in his support in Gaza City on Feb. 21, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] The 69-page study by B'Tselem and Hamoked is based on testimonies by 116 Palestinians who were interrogated at the Shikma Interrogation Facility in the southern city of Ashkelon, between August 2013 and March 2014. Nearly every detainee was exposed to some abuse, and about one-third of them had been beaten or abused by soldiers or police officers. "Time and again, the detainees interviewed described unlawful conduct by the authorities," the report read. "The descriptions bear a striking resemblance to accounts previously provided by detainees held at other interrogation facilities. Taken together, it would seem that this conduct constitutes official interrogation policy," according to the report. This alleged policy includes violence and degradation during arrest and interrogation, prolonged binding to a chair in exceedingly painful positions, exposure to extremes of heat and cold, detention in isolation in filthy cells, little and substandard food, extensive sleep deprivation, threats, swearing, shouting and mocking. A 1999 ruling by Israel's Supreme Court prohibited the use of tortures, including some of the methods that are detailed in the report. The researchers, however, said their study show that the use of violent interrogation continues "backed by state authorities ranging from the Supreme Court to the State Attorney's Office, the military, and the Israeli Prison Service. The Shin Bet security service called the report "twisted," and said in a statement that all of its interrogations are conducted "in accordance with the law and in order to prevent activities aiming at damaging the security of the country." The agency added that its operations were regularly monitored "by internal and external bodies." It added that the detainees were "terror suspects." The report was released amidst a surge of violent Palestinian uprising, which has led to a wave of arrests of hundreds of Palestinian suspects since mid-September. The violence has claimed the lives of at least 170 Palestinians and 28 Israelis. Flash The newly-announced cessation of hostilities in Syria marks a major step forward towards a political solution to the country's crisis, but analysts warn the ceasefire could be very fragile considering the complexity of Syria's situation. A Syrian man walks past a poster bearing a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on a street in the capital Damascus on February 23, 2016, a day after a ceasefire deal was announced. [Photo/Xinhua] On Tuesday, the Syrian government and rebel groups accepted a plan for a cessation of hostilities beginning Saturday, as agreed upon by the United States and Russia. The ceasefire plan is welcomed by the United Nations as "a signal of hope" for an end to the nearly five-year-old conflict. However, analysts say its implementation faces many challenges as enmity between the warring sides remains. The first source of concern here is the blurring distinction between extremists groups and opposition forces. In other words, who on earth are the "terrorists"? In a joint statement, the United States and Russia made it clear that the ceasefire agreement will not apply to "Daesh," also known as the Islamic State, the Al-Nusra Front, or other terrorist organizations designated by the UN Security Council. However, the boundaries between extremist groups and opposition forces are not so clear on the battleground of Syria. As some analysts have observed, extremist groups are now increasingly infiltrating the opposition forces, and it is commonplace in Syria that several different armed forces form an alliance, uniting together to fight against government troops. The rebel alliance Army of Conquest is a good example. The coalition,which has seized Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, is composed of dozens of small opposition groups which aim to overthrow the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, as well as a range of mostly jihadist and Islamist groups, the most prominent being Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Secondly, government troops, backed by further Russian air strikes, might not be quite willing to stop military operations at a time when they have been gaining the upper hand in the prolonged conflict. President al-Assad has said recently he was ready for a ceasefire in Syria only on condition that the "terrorists" did not exploit it. He said in an interview with the Spanish El Pais Newspaper that for the truce to hold terror groups must be prevented from "using it to improve their positions." He also insisted that any ceasefire deal must ensure that other countries are prevented from sending over more terrorists and weapons, or any kind of logistical support. "If we don't provide all these requirements for the ceasefire, it will harm stability. It's going to make more chaos in Syria," the president said. Washington's motives are a third source of concern. Andrew Tabler, an expert on Syria at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, pointed out that "Washington's stated policy is not to end the Syrian war." "They just want to settle it down so it boils a little more slowly. It's yet another attempt to contain a conflict that has been uncontainable," he said. Tabler also added that true peace will not come until the regime of president al-Assad can reach an agreement with the opposition rebels. You are here: Home Flash More threats were made against New Zealand schools Thursday a day after bomb hoax calls -- possibly from overseas -- disrupted six schools. The New Zealand Police said Thursday that staff were responding to further incidents involving calls "of a concerning nature" made to an unspecified number of schools. Police and school staff were searching the schools, said a New Zealand Police statement. "Today's calls may be linked to the events of yesterday, where calls were made to six schools around the country," said the statement. "These calls were of an automated nature and our initial inquiries suggest that they may have originated from overseas." Police searched six schools -- four in the North Island and two in the South Island -- before giving them the all-clear, Superintendent Chris Scahill said in a statement on Wednesday. Each call had stated an explosive device had been left on site. Police were aware of "very similar incidents" occurring abroad, including in Australia and the United States, in which recorded voice messages were directed at schools. New Zealand Police were liaising with law enforcement agencies overseas in their investigation, said Scahill. Flash The European Parliament's political group leaders on Wednesday debated on the latest deal between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) on EU's reforms, and they held that both sides will be better off with Britain in the bloc. Manfred Weber, the leader of the European People's Party (EPP) group in Parliament, said that a divided Europe is a weak Europe, adding that British Prime Minister David Cameron got a solid outcome in the negotiations for British citizens. If the British people decide to remain in the EU, they will find an ally in the EPP Group for the swift implementation of the agreement. "We have a common history and culture: without London, Europe would not be the same. No to Brexit!" said Gianni Pittella, leader of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the Parliament, during the debate. Pittella said that the UK has done so much in being a factor for peace and democracy. The best place to fight for these principles is in the EU. "Europe is not a marriage of convenience. The United Kingdom should stay in the EU as it is part and parcel of Europe," he said. Pittella urged that people "cannot be held hostage by the UK Conservative Party while Europe is experiencing the worst crises in its history." British MEP Ashley Fox, who is with European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group in the Parliament, said that he will be supporting the campaign to remain in the EU. "My reasoning is simple. Britain's economic recovery though good is still fragile and I will not put it at risk by tearing us away from the single market," he said. "And I also believe that my constituency will be safer and my country more secure if we continue our cooperation with our European partners," said Fox. Concerning London Mayor Boris Johnson's recent announcement to campaign for Britain to leave the EU in the referendum slated for June 23, Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group in the Parliament, said that "the Mayor of London is acting against the interests of London's citizens and all for personal ambition and not for a better Europe nor a better Britain." Verhofstadt called on people to use the deal to put Europe back on track and make Europe work again. However, some British MEPs who tend to make Britain leave the bloc still had a hard-line attitude on this issue. Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, expressed his support for the vote to leave. "I have to say the British public will decide; which is our safest option? Is it safe to stay within an organization whose own police boss tells us there are 3,000-5,000 terrorists that have now come into our continent through the migrant crisis or is it safest to take back control of our own borders and our own democracy? After much consideration I have decided to opt to vote for us to leave," he said during the debate. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk on Wednesday also attended the plenary debate at the European Parliament. Tusk said the EU would respect the decision of British people with regard to the country's decision on whether or not to stay in the EU. However, he said that "if the majority votes to leave, that is what will happen. It will change Europe forever. And it will be a change for the worse." "Only the British people can and will decide that. What we could do on our side was to agree a new settlement for Britain within the EU. And we did," said Tusk. Cameron on Saturday announced that Britain would hold a referendum on June 23 to allow people to come to a decision on Britain's EU membership. The announcement was made a day after British and EU leaders reached a deal on Britain's "special status" in the bloc. Vietnam Committee on Human Rights Paris, 25 February 2016 Paris, 24.2.2016 (VCHR) The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) described a pattern of grave violations of religious freedom in Vietnam at the Asia Pacific Religious Freedom Forum (APRFF), a high-level gathering of international personalities and organizations engaged in the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief. The Forum, held in Taoyuan, Taiwan, from 18-21 February 2016, was organized by the Democratic Pacific Union, led by former Taiwanese Vice-President Annette (Hsiu-lien) Lu and the US-based China Aid, presided by activist and former political prisoner Bob Fu. Over 100 religious leaders, legislators, government representatives, journalists and civil society activists from 27 countries around the world took part in the APRFF, which is the first organization of its kind to bring together such a wide range of international personalities and organizations to discuss strategies to protect and promote religious freedom in the Asia Pacific region and beyond. International participants included Commissioner Katrina Lantos-Swett of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Members of Parliaments from Taiwan, Indonesia, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, the Netherlands, Israel and European Union, with video messages from the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief Prof. Heiner Bielefeldt, and US Congressman Christopher Smith. By bringing together so many influential international and regional specialists, the Forum provided a rare opportunity to work together and exchange ideas, and opens new perspectives to advance religious freedom and collectively address the serious violations of this freedom confronting Asia and the Pacific region, said Vo Tran Nhat, VCHR Executive Secretary, panelist at the event. In his presentation, Vo Tran Nhat described how Vietnam, rather than seeking to promote freedom of religion or belief, has set up an elaborate system of restrictions and controls aimed at draining religious freedom and human rights of their very substance. Of particular concern, he said, was the new draft Law on Belief and Religion currently under debate in Vietnams National Assembly (5th Draft), which grossly contravenes the rights enshrined in Article 18 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Vietnam is a state party. Participants of the APRFF, including Katrina Lantos-Swett next to Annette Lu, and Vo Tran Nhat on the front row Vo Tran Nhat also unveiled the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights new report entitled: Freedom of Religion or Belief in Vietnam: State Management of Religions. The report analyses the new draft Law as well as other religious legislation in Vietnam, and demonstrates that they are designed to impose state control and turn religions into tools of the Communist Party. Religious communities refusing to submit to its dictates risk harsh persecution. The VCHR report contains an important section on Vietnams policy of stealth repression against non-recognized, independent religious organizations such as the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), or its affiliated Buddhist Youth Movement, which are subjected to pervasive harassments, travel restrictions, Police surveillance and economic sanctions. It described the case of UBCV Patriarch Thich Quang o, 2016 Nobel Peace prize nominee, subjected to diverse forms of detention (internal exile, prison and house arrest) over the past 30 years on account of his peaceful engagement for religious freedom, democracy and human rights. Vietnam systematically violates freedom of religion and belief, and the new draft law, if voted as such, will subject religious communities to the control of the one-Party state. Urgent measures must be taken to prevent this happening, said Vo Tran Nhat. In its recommendations, the VCHR report called on Vietnam to withdraw the 5th draft Law on Belief and Religion and prepare a new draft that conforms to Vietnams obligations under Article 18 of the ICCPR, in consultation with religious and belief communities (both recognized and unregistered), international legal experts and the UN Special Rapporteur on FoRB. It called on the international community to ensure thatbilateral relationships with Vietnam be dependent on measurable progress on freedom of religion and belief and human rights, and include specific provisions on the respect of these rights in trade agreements such as the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, or implementing legislation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other economic agreements to which Vietnam is a party. The report also urged the US to re-designate Vietnam as a country of particular concern for religious freedom violations as recommended by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom in their 2015 annual report. At the closing of the APRFF, participants adopted the Taiwan Declaration which underscored the crucial role of freedom of religion or belief and human rights in general for democracy, economic development and the expansion of civil society, and pledged to establish and reinforce existing networks of religious freedom advocates committed to promoting religious freedom in their respective countries and abroad, including the creation of both governmental and non-governmental mechanisms to promote religious freedom and related human rights in the Asia Pacific region. A pedestrian takes a photo at a telecom signal tower surrounded by trees at Tsinghua University, Beijing, Feb 19, 2016.[Photo provided to China Daily] As venture capitalist Peter Thiel points out in his bestseller Zero to One, the history of progress is a history of better monopoly businesses replacing incumbents. However, how to pass on their social benefits and discard evil dregs has been a question that has baffled governments of many. One of the ways China Tower Corp Limited, dubbed as the epitome of a "new State-owned enterprise model", trying to answer this question is by forming a shared infrastructural platform that aims to reduce wastage of resources and capital by the three telecom giants. The State-owned enterprise, which was established in 2014, is responsible for not only cell tower construction, but also providing supporting facilities and daily maintenance such as air conditioning and utility supply. It was set up as the big three telecom carriers agreed to pool their tower assets to avoid overlapping construction after quashing rumors of a possible merger. Earlier this month, China Tower announced that it has integrated some 584,000 construction orders placed by the three into 485,000 over the past year, with the latter equal to one third of the country's existing signal towers. "The sharing rate among new towers is as high as 74.7 percent," said Tong Jilu, president of the company, adding that despite efforts made, the overall sharing level is still low compared to international standard, merely 1.3 tenants per tower by the end of 2015. The company aims to further drive up average tenant number by 0.2 percentage points this year and enable a better 4G network coverage, said Tong. Shared platform "Network on high-speed train is getting better. Now I can send photo within a second," said Su Haili, an attendant who works on Beijing-Shanghai service. Along the railway line past Shandong province, telecom carriers placed a construction order of building more than 200 towers. Given an average base station costs around 188,000 yuan, the pool model last year saved 50 billion yuan ($7.65 billion) investments for the industry and reduced the land use by 13,000 mu (867 hectare), said Tong. "China Tower is part of a shared economy." Encouraged by the authorities, China Tower last year announced that it had completed an injection of 203.5 billion yuan worth of telecommunications tower assets from its clients and shareholders China Mobile Communications Corp, China United Network Communications Group Co and China Telecommunications Corp. The SOE is planning an initial public offering (IPO) as part of next move in 2017. The big three telecom carriers currently own 94 percent stake, while China Reform Holdings Corp, a government-backed investment firm, acquired the remaining 6 percent in October. Ambassador Yang Yanyi, Head of the Chinese Mission to the EU. The protectionist sentiment and the confrontational approach that have emerged in the European Union are worrying, as well as being regrettable and misleading. On Friday, the European Commission opened new anti-dumping investigations on steel products originating from China, and the European steel industry organized a demonstration against so-called Chinese dumping in the EU market and the granting of Market Economy Status to China. Nobody should be under any illusion: overcapacity, including excess capacity in the global steel sector is one of the many challenges we are all faced with. Not only the European steel industry has been hard hit, iron and steel industries in China and many other emerging economies are suffering badly from excessive production and flagging demand. According to some estimates, cutting back the overcapacity in China by 30 percent in those industries with most excess capacityiron and steel, coal, cement, shipbuilding, aluminum and flat glassis expected to affect the employment of 3 million workers. Not to mention that China is also confronted with many other daunting tasks: lifting 70 million people out of poverty, advancing industrialization to transform China into a post-industrial society, rebalancing the economy from investment and net exports to consumption and innovation. The situation is serious and requires a response. But what kind of response? Grumble, curse, cut the ground from under other's feet? Retreat into protectionism and be at each other's throats? If history serves as a guide, these are unwelcome if not irresponsible responses. They may help to give vent to the anger and frustration of some and obtain short-term gains, but they fail to serve the common long-term interests of all. Obviously the response to the challenges is up to each and every country. I only wish to share what we believe to be the best possible approach and option, and what China has been doing and will continue to do with regard to the issue. First, digest the problem and not dump it onto other's doorsteps. The development of the steel industry in China has been mainly to meet its domestic demand, rather than to export products to other countries. To effectively deal with the overcapacity problems, China has taken tough measures to control new capacity. Painful as it is, China has cut its steel industry capacity by more than 90 million tons over the past few years and its investment in iron and steel assets by 13 percent last year. The growth of Chinese steel production has basically come to a halt. To continue to address overcapacity in a serious and resolute manner, China has made elimination of overcapacity the top priority for this year and will cut the steel industry capacity by another 100 to 150 million tons. Premier Li Keqiang meets with visiting World Bank President Jim Yong Kim in Beijing on Wednesday. WU ZHIYI / CHINA DAILY China is getting new dynamics for economic growth and creating new jobs, Premier Li Keqiang assured the visiting chief of the World Bank on Wednesday. The Chinese economy is regaining its composure and making new progress, the premier told Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group. China has earned rich experience from its past reform and development and "has accumulated an ample stock" of policies and political instruments to deal with the difficulties it faces and any new challenges and risks. Kim was in Beijing ahead of the Group of 20 meeting of central bankers and finance ministers, scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Shanghai. The Chinese premier expressed willingness to improve information-sharing and strengthen coordination and collaboration with the international community. The forthcoming meeting of G20 central bankers and finance ministers will focus on stabilizing the global financial market and promoting economic growth. But Li did not mention the so-called second Plaza Accord primarily a consensus about the yuan that some overseas media have talked about. Many Chinese commentators think the Plaza Accord of 1985, reached in New York by finance ministers from five developed countries, did not solve many problems in the world and was partly to blame for the Japanese asset bubble and subsequent slowdown. Zhang Yiming, a commentator on Easternmoney.com, a financial information website, went so far as to call it a product of "Western imperialism". Zhao Xijun, deputy dean of the School of Finance at Renmin University of China, said it is very important for China to enhance policy-level communication with other countries through international platforms such as the G20. "As we are now all facing the pressure of the global economic downturn, it is important for countries around the world to know more about each other's policies and thus to avoid policy conflicts, such as a currency war," Zhao said. Although China's foreign exchange reserve fell in January to $3.23 trillion, the lowest in the past three years, Xiao Lian, an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the number is still manageable. "The foreign exchange reserve is affected by many elements, not just import and export numbers," he said. "China's foreign reserve outflow has been a trend for one year or so. I believe that if necessary, the government will take due measures to deal with it." Xiao also said that it is China's own decision whether to join the expected "New Plaza Accord". zhangyue@chinadaily.com.cn Professors at universities, like Renmin University of China in Beijing (above), were actively sought by listed firms to work as independent directors and offer advice and, in the process, earn fat pay checks for what are essentially part-time jobs. CHINA DAILY As academics quit as independent directors, China Inc appears set to purge corruption Over the past few months, at least 270 college professors and university officials have resigned their part-time but highly-paid corporate jobs as independent directors with listed companies, according to media estimates based on filings to bourses. Their exits came after the Ministry of Education last November banned high-ranking academics from holding corporate jobs, following the Chinese government's decision to widen the anti-corruption campaign to the education sector. According to media estimates, university professors and academics make up more than 35 percent of around 7,800 independent directors serving some 2,800 listed companies in China. Typically, an independent director's role is that of an internal watchdog, an objective expert who is expected to protect the interests of the company and all shareholders, especially minority shareholders, by preventing the company management from acting in a reckless, illegal or corrupt way. But senior academics' close relations with listed companies are believed to have brewed corruption and bribery, instead of independent oversight responsibilities. The director-management nexus could have its roots in the pay packets that the former receive from companies. On average, an independent director may take home 65,000 yuan per year from a company. But remuneration varies greatly. Some listed companies offer annual compensation packages worth more than 400,000 yuan to their independent directors. So, if an academic serves several companies at the same timethat is what some academics do, in facthe/she stands to earn millions of yuan in additional income every year. This could act as a strong incentive for looking the other way when the managements commit wrongdoings, or, worse, aid and abet them. A widely reported case was that of Song Chang, 51, a business professor at the top-ranking Renmin University of China in Beijing. He doubled up as an independent director on four listed companies. He was investigated by the securities regulator for alleged insider trading. Another prominent case involved Liu Ya, former vice-president of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. He was sacked by the university in December for not intimating it about his corporate jobs. The university said Liu violated rules that required him to disclose additional income of 1.27 million yuan ($193,100) between 2009 and 2014 from working as an independent director on six listed companies. "On many occasions, the job (of an independent director) degenerated into a vehicle (of patronage) based on personal connections, which are leveraged for the mutual benefit of directors and companies," said Dong Dengxin, a finance researcher at the Wuhan University of Science and Technology. Experts pointed out the root cause of the problem lies in the highly concentrated shareholder structure of Chinese companies. In China, many listed companies are either State-owned enterprises or family-controlled private businesses. Under the current regulation, independent directors are elected by the general assembly of shareholders. But, in reality, what happens is, the majority shareholders, by virtue of their brute majority, dominate the assembly proceedings and wield undue influence, nominating their own candidates as independent directors. Such a practice may not be contravening any rule or law but violates the spirit of fair play nevertheless. "The existing shareholder structure is a major defect of the Chinese capital market, which results in power abuse by large shareholders," said Liu Jipeng, director of the Capital Research Center at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing. "Independent directors, who are supposed to check the power of major shareholders, have become rubber stamps. How can they be truly independent if they are hired by the big shareholders?" As more and more independent directors morphed into puppets whose strings were pulled by corrupt corporates, compromising the interests of minority shareholders, calls emerged for an overhaul of the system. So, in 2013, the government banned government officials and Communist Party members from holding corporate jobs. But it exempted college professors and academics. However, in 2014, the securities regulator issued a guideline to better regulate independent directors. It clarified on their obligations, and allowed independent directors to serve for a maximum term of six years at no more than five listed companies. But experts said the existing guidelines are insufficient to address the problem fully. Detailed supplementary regulations are necessary to empower small shareholders to appoint independent directors and to hold them legally accountable when they fail to perform their job properly. Liu Junhai, a professor of law at the Renmin University of China, said improvements to the system would have far-reaching implications for the Chinese capital market, which has been plagued by fraud and scandals. "It is time to strengthen corporate governance at the micro level to help lift the market out of the tangle, especially as the recent market rout eroded investor confidence," Liu said. "Ultimately, a healthy stock market depends on the quality of every listed company as investment value could only emerge when companies are profitable and have clean and strong corporate governance." This is not lost on all listed companies. Some of them have realized the importance of having truly independent directors on their boards, which can be for their own good, Liu said. A workshop of Goodbaby Group in Kunshan, Jiangsu province.GAO ERQIANG/CHINA DAILY Goodbaby Group, China's largest manufacturer and retailer of baby-care products like buggies and safety seats for cars, is looking at potential acquisitions in Japan to increase its market share in Asia. The Jiangsu-based company has already acquired some production assets in Europe and North Africa in the past couple of years. "We have been trying for years to make inroads into Japan, but customers (there) are very loyal to some well-established local brands. So, we're considering market entry through acquisitions," said He Xinjun, senior vice-president of Goodbaby. "Besides, an acquisition is the fastest way to increase exposure and expand distribution network in a foreign market," he told China Daily at a forum against air pollution in Beijing. He, however, did not disclose the names of Goodbaby's potential targets or the size of its planned investment in Japan. Japan has many profitable baby-care companies. For instance, Japan's Pigeon Corp, whose baby products are popular in China, has been making profits for four straight years. It was projected to post a 10 percent year-on-year rise in operating profit for the year to Jan 31 to 14 billion yen ($117 million) on sales of 93 billion yen. Goodbaby recently launched a new model of baby stroller with an air purifier that can be installed in even other brands of carriages. "The product is only for the Chinese market at the moment," he said. "Though it is new, it has sold very well in some major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai where there is heavy air pollution." About 70 percent of Goodbaby's business is in overseas markets such as Japan, North America and Europe, with the rest in China. Though the Chinese child care market is expected to see a big boost in the next decade in the wake of the policy allowing couples to have two children, the company faces sharp competition from overseas companies whose products find favor with Chinese parents. Experts said compared with international baby-care producers, Chinese brands lag in marketing and branding. Yet, they can build their brands in developed countries by acquiring local brands. Goodbaby is already the largest supplier of strollers in North America, Europe and China. But it wants to master design and manufacturing as well so it could stamp its name on baby-care products. Wan Gang, Chinese minister of science and technology, speaks during a press conference concerning the reform of China's science development and technical innovation held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 24, 2016. (Xinhua/Pan Xu) BEIJING -- China is to improve basic research through new national sci-tech plans, said Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang on Wednesday. China will support scientists in new fields of research with a natural sciences plan. A key R&D plan will focus on basic research fields that address future needs, including quantum communication, life sciences, stem cells and environmental protection, Wan told a press conference on Wednesday. The R&D plan will involve basic research while targeting technology for fields and industries vital for economic and social development, Wan added. China has plans for research and exploration in materials science, neutrinos and gravitational waves. More basic researchers will be trained, and laboratories and research centers will be built, Wan said. To address low efficiency resulting from redundant programs, over 100 state-funded programs will be merged into five plans: human resources, natural sciences, major sci-tech, R&D and technical innovation. The R&D plan was launched earlier this month. BEIJING -- China's vocational education has received more government support following a survey last year that exposed weaknesses in the system. By December, all provincial governments had set a budget for each student at vocational colleges and allocated the money to colleges , said Minister of Education Yuan Guiren, when briefing the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the bi-monthly session that opened on Wednesday. Yuan did not reveal the average spending per student but agreed to raise the amount to at least 12,000 yuan (about $1,850) in 2017. The central government also expects similar policy for students at secondary vocational schools and 26 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have done so, he said. Yuan's report was a followup to the NPC Standing Committee's survey of vocational education in 2015. From March to May Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, led a team to investigate vocational education and found many problems in the system, including poor public recognition and erratic funding. At the bi-monthly session in June, the top legislature reviewed the survey results and questioned officials including vice premier Liu Yandong, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei and Yuan. The central government has since issued policies on 64 related issues. Nationally, in 2015, about 15 billion yuan was spent in improving quality in vocational schools and colleges and training teachers, while 4 billion yuan was spent on infrastructure of secondary vocational schools. About 92 percent of secondary vocational school students pay no tuition and about 40 percent receive financial assistance. The annual allowance increased from 1,500 yuan in 2014 to 2,000 yuan in 2015. Low-income families receive an extra allowance of 3,000 yuan every year to support their children at vocational schools. To address complaints that schools failed to train students to meet the demands of industry, the ministry launched 165 trial projects to connect schools with businesses last year. Vocational schools in rich provinces are encouraged to take students from less developed regions. About 95 percent of vocational school students are employed right after graduation and about 90 percent of vocational college graduates, Yuan said, while admitting that there are still outstanding problems, such as a general bias against vocational school graduates, skilled blue-collar workers and technicians. Many vocational schools still need to improve their courses while those in less developed regions require better facilities, he said. More is needed to encourage enterprises to become involved, he said. The ministry is drafting a revision to the vocational education law and hope the bill can be reviewed by the legislature as early as possible, he said. WELLINGTON - New Zealand telecoms company Spark and Chinese giant China Telecom Global said Thursday they had signed a deal to boost Internet traffic between the two countries and across the Pacific region. The deal would see the two companies partnering to carry all their respective Internet traffic between China and New Zealand and throughout the Pacific, and provide Spark with a leading position in Chinese transit services, they said. The improvements would lower latency times between the two countries, reducing load times for web content and improving shared application performance, which was particularly important for businesses running remote applications, Spark general manager wholesale and international Lindsay Cowley said in a statement. "This collaboration will provide the largest and most direct data transit services, not just between China and New Zealand, but throughout the Pacific too," said Cowley. China Telecom Global vice-president of carrier business development Steven Tan said in the statement that it was China Telecom Global's first such agreement in Oceania, giving it the ability to deliver Chinese content directly to New Zealand and into the Pacific. As China has over 600 million Internet users, Cowley said it's more important than ever for New Zealand businesses to have high quality access into the Chinese Internet market, not just for their own success, but for the wider New Zealand economy. China's five largest commercial lenders started providing interbank transfers and transfers within accounts of a bank via mobile banking for free on Feb 25, 2016. [Photo/IC] China's five largest commercial lenders started providing interbank transfers and transfers within accounts of a bank via mobile banking for free on Thursday, as part of their efforts to deal with increasing competition from Internet finance companies. These banks will soon provide similar transfers not exceeding 5,000 yuan ($766) via Internet banking for free. They signed an agreement on Thursday to tighten up the management of personal bank accounts and improve relevant banking services. The banks will have differentiated management approaches for personal bank accounts that will be classified into three categories. For instance, a personal bank account that is opened via electronic channels such as mobile and Internet banking, with the bank taking necessary measures to crosscheck the client's identity, can be used for purchases and payments not exceeding a total of 10,000 yuan per day, apart from making investments on wealth management products. Otherwise, it could only be used for small purchases and payments with the account balance capped at 1,000 yuan. Xu Luode, vice president at Bank of China Ltd, said, "The classification and differentiated management of personal bank accounts have a distinct feature of Internet finance, showing that the Chinese banking sector is taking a major step forward in developing Internet-based financial services." China's largest bank card association China UnionPay (CUP) and Visa Inc. signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Shanghai on Thursday with the parties agreeing to collaborate on payment security, innovation and financial inclusion. The deal was signed between Shi Wenchao, president of CUP and Charlie Scharf, CEO of Visa Inc. It will enable CUP and Visa Inc, two world-leading payment networks, to work together on the basis of meeting regulatory requirements to strengthen and create new value for the bank card ecosystem benefiting consumers, merchants, financial institution, and technology partnerssaid Shi. Scharf said collaboration would address major challenges facing the payment industry and champion the idea of win-win cooperation embodied in open payment networks. The two parties will be working together on innovation as digital payments transform commerce, and expand access to financial services for the underserved.. A man checks stock prices at a brokerage in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Jan 26, 2016. [Photo/IC] China's stock market tumbled by more than 6 percent on Thursday, and investors' concerns about the upcoming registration-based IPO system might be a main reason, experts said. Other factors include rising property prices in big cities, tighter liquidity in the financial system and investors' booking profits after the market's recent rebound. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped by 6.41 percent to close at 2,741.25 points on Thursday. The Shenzhen Component Index plummeted by 7.34 percent, while the startup index ChiNext declined by 7.56 percent. Only 47 shares' closing prices increased, while another 1,436 shares declined by the 10 percent daily limit in the Chinese A-shares market. Technology and small-company shares led the decline. Ma Wenya, chairman of fund management company Beijing Techsharpe Co, said that investors' concerns about the coming registration-based IPO system could be a main reason for the decline, and that investors' sentiment made the condition worse. In December, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, authorized the State Council to adjust rules based on the securities law to allow stock listing to be changed from an approval-based system to a registration-based one starting from March 1. "In the short term, most investors do not know the coming registration IPO system's influence on the market, so many of them will not participate in the A-share investment," said Ma. "But the registration-based IPO system is good for small-cap stocks in the middle term and will benefit large-cap stocks in the long term," said Ma. With experts expecting a real estate boom in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, Ma said many stock investors were selling their shares and purchasing property. Hong Hao, managing director and chief strategist at BOCOM International, said the market is still speculating about when the registration-based IPO will be formally introduced. The national legislative session, due to open in early March, will discuss the new system. Deng Haiqing, chief economist at JZ Securities Co, said it's normal that people have concerns about the registration-based IPO system because detailed rules have not been established, but China should stick to the reform because it is good for the long-term development of China's capital market. Sheng Xiaolan, a civil servant in Zhejiang province, said on Thursday, "I sold my shares in the morning and earned a bit from the rebound." caixiao@chinadaily.com.cn The counter for L'Oreal products at a department store in Xuchang, Henan province. GENG GUOQING/CHINA DAILY French cosmetics giant L'Oreal SA said it now sells more in China than it does in its own country. Chief Executive Officer Alexis Perakis-Valat said on Thursday in Shanghai that its Chinese sales increased 4.6 percent to 14.96 billion yuan ($2.29 billion) last year. One of the major growth engines driving the sales of the company last year is the multi-brand make-up boom. And he attributed the boom to the sweeping craze for "selfies", with women, he said, demanding products which make them look "instantly good". Despite that annual sales rise in China actually falling 3.1 percent on 2014, Perakis-Valat said he is confident that China "will soon become" the company's number one market. The United States is now the largest market of the company. L'Oreal first entered China in 1996 and within nine years the country was in its top 10 markets, rising to its third by 2010. In recent years, Perakis-Valat said, China has been "really waking-up to makeup". The latest figures showed last year the French firm's cosmetics sales grew 10.9 percent, while those for other skincare products increased 2 percent and perfume by 6.2 percent. It does not give out exact growth rates for specific types of sales in China, but the CEO said "in China, things are always bigger and faster". He did reveal, however, that on the Nov 11 online shopping carnival, its cosmetics brand Maybelline sold 100,000 lipsticks in 24 hours. And he said e-commerce sales in China recorded upward of 60 percent growth during the whole year. While China's overall luxury market has reported sluggish, if not negative, growth in recent years, Perakis-Valat said L'Oreal has not seen any slowdown in the sector. He used the company's 600-yuan face serums as one of its luxury items, for instance, and said he remains optimistic that those types of product will continue to enjoy solid and healthy growth in China. Its biggest luxury brand here is Lancome, which he claimed rose to number one in the luxury market in China during 2015. The company also announced the appointment of Stephane Rinderknech as its China CEO. Perakis-Valat will continue to be responsible for the Asia-Pacific region as executive vice-president and a member of L'Oreal's executive committee. Beijing-based tech company Unisplendour Corp Ltd has pulled out of a proposed $3.8 billion investment in the US disk drive maker Western Digital Corp because the Chinese firm deems the US government would not approve the deal. Unisplendour, a subsidiary of State-owned conglomerate Tsinghua Holdings Co Ltd, said on Wednesday the decision was made after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a government organization that reviews foreign investments in US businesses, announced it will investigate the deal for security reasons. The Chinese company had been attempting to purchase a 15 percent stake in Western Digital since September. The deal would have made Unisplendour Western Digital's largest shareholder and given it a board seat in the California-based company which sells hard drives to a long list of US government agencies. Unisplendour is still finding ways to work with Western Digital. The companies said they will set up a $158 million software joint venture, with the Chinese firm holding a 51 percent stake. The collapse of the deal sent the Shenzhen-listed Unisplendour stock down, dropping 5.78 percent to close at 66.52 yuan ($10.18) on Wednesday. The move had a greater impact on Western Digital, which is bidding for flash-memory giant SanDisk Corp. The company trimmed its offer to $15.8 billion in cash and stock, sharply down from the original offer of $19 billion. Shares of the two companies also went down. "Unisplendour pulled out of the transaction because it was concerned that CFIUS would disapprove the acquisition of (the) Western Digital (stake). We do not know if there was a possible mitigation that would have satisfied CFIUS, but was unacceptable to Unisplendour," said Theodore Moran, senior fellow and principal CFIUS investigator at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. It was the third time this year that an investment plan was stranded because of security concerns from the US. Gene Cao, principle analyst at Forrester Research Inc, said the scrapped deal adds uncertainties to future tech acquisitions. "Recent failed acquisitions underlined Chinese technology companies will find increasing difficulty when buying out a US firm in both hardware and software segments," Cao said. Contact the writer at paulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com and gaoyuan@chinadaily.com.cn Didi Chuxing, a car-booking mobile app owned by Didi Kuaidi, is shown on a mobile phone, Sept 17, 2015. [Photo / IC] Didi Kuaidi, Uber's rival in China, plans to raise about $1 billion, which could value China's top ride-hailing company at more than $20 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday citing sources. The new round of fundraising will provide more funds for Didi Kuaidi, so as to deal with challenges from Uber China. Currently, Uber and Didi Kuaidi are in fierce competition in China's car-hailing market, with both spending heavily to subsidize fares to attract more drivers and riders. Didi Kuaidi, which is backed by Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent, has the largest market share of car-hailing apps in China. According to a report by China Internet Network Information Center earlier this year, Didi Kuaidi holds 87.2 percent of China's private car hailing market. Last month, Didi Kuaidi announced a strategic partnership with China Merchants Bank, under which the bank became the first bricks-and-mortar bank that can offer in-app credit card payments to Didi Kuaidi users. Earlier, Didi Kuaidi said in September it had completed a $3 billion fundraising effort, which boosted its valuation to $8 billion. Uber's Chinese business boosted its valuation last month to more than $8 billion after raising more than $1 billion in its latest funding round, but the US ride-hailing app is not yet profitable in the Chinese mainland because of the intense competition. "We're profitable in the United States, but we're losing over $1 billion a year in China," Uber CEO Travis Kalanick told Canadian technology platform Betakit on Monday. Uber currently operates in more than 40 Chinese cities and plans to be in 100 by the end of the year. Agencies contributed to this story. HKCTS and CITS claim merger could create market leader in nation's tourism industry Two of the country's leading tourism firms are planning to merge, creating the market's biggest travel operator. China National Travel Service (HK) Group Corporation (HKCTS) and China International Travel Service Group Corporation (CITS) announced they were considering a strategic reorganization on Tuesday, although the proposals have not been finalized yet. Both are State-owned travel service providers, and the proposal will be subject to the approval of the relevant supervisory authorities. In a statement, China Travel International Investment Hong Kong Ltd, the listed subsidiary of HKCTS, insisted the revamp "does not involve any material asset restructuring of the company nor any securities issues, and does not have any material impact on the normal operation of the company". Its shares rose 3.73 percent to HK$ 2.78 (36 cents) on Wednesday in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, while China International Travel Service Corporation Ltd enjoyed a 4.73 percent bounce to 47.65 yuan ($7.3) at the Shanghai Stock Exchange. China has four State-owned tourism companies, all relatively small, said Lin Zhouyong, an analyst from Haitong Securities Co, who was not surprised by the proposed merger, adding that it is reasonable to reform or integrate them. At the end of 2015, HKCTS' assets were worth around 100 billion yuan, and it delieverd annual net profit of 2.37 billion yuan last year. CITS's net profit is expected to rise 9.38 percent to 1.608 billion yuan in 2015. Competition in China's tourism industry is fierce and growing, and has been attracting significant amounts of investment, said Wei Changren, general manager of tourism industry consultancy CTCNN.com Inc. "Once the two groups merge, its scale will be huge, making it easier to attract more capital," said Wei. "Both own some non-tourism businesses, and it is still unclear whether those will be kept or spun off." CITS has three major business unitstravel agency, duty free shop service and investmentas well as a tourism project-development operation. HKCTS' business structure is more diversified, involving seven business units, including travel agency, hotels, real estate and logistics. Foreign residents learn how to make sweet dumplings, a traditional treat for Chinese Lantern Festival, in Shanghai on Saturday. [Photo/China Daily] To achieve its ambitions to become a global innovation and technology hub by 2030, Shanghai is going all-out to attract foreign talent to speed up its transformation. Since June, the city government has introduced several beneficial policies such as providing permanent resident's permits for high-level overseas passport holders and offering subsidies to high-tech professionals. One policy now means international students who obtain master's degrees at Chinese universities can instantly get work permits if they land a job with a company in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, while bachelor's degree holders who want to start a business can apply for two-year residence permits. "The enhanced recruitment system has been widely applied to help graduates find jobs and help companies hire overseas professionals with better abilities," said Chen Hao, deputy director of the municipal government's organization department. "People always play the core role in the growth of companies, which eventually contributes to the development of the city." According to Shanghai Education Commission, more than 53,800 international students were studying in Shanghai in 2013, up 30 percent on 2010. Foreign residents learn how to make sweet dumplings, a traditional treat for Chinese Lantern Festival, in Shanghai. [Photo/China Daily] The Ministry of Public Security released a host of measures on Wednesday to help Beijing's Zhongguancun Science Park attract and hold overseas talent. The measures, which will take effect on Tuesday, are aimed at four groups: high-end foreign professionals, overseas Chinese who start businesses in Beijing, foreign students in Beijing and foreigners who work for entrepreneurial startups in the city. The ministry is working with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security to set up a service center to review residency and visa applications from foreign professionals working in the Zhongguancun Science Park, a high-tech hub in the capital that covers 488 square kilometers and currently has more than 20,000 companies. The center will also provide consultation services to foreigners. Foreign nationals can consult or submit applications starting on Tuesday at the Beijing security bureau's exit and entry administration hall in Dongcheng district or at the bureau's administration office at Beijing Capital International Airport. The ministry stipulated that immigration officers must respond to applications for permanent residence by high-end foreign professionals within 50 working days after an application is submitted. The current review requirement is 180 days. Those professionals' spouses and children under the age of 18 will also be qualified to apply for permanent residence in China. Foreign workers at startup businesses in Zhongguancun and technical professionals employed by companies in the science park will be eligible to apply for a work visa when they arrive in China. They can also apply for permanent residence in China through an assessment system that will evaluate and accumulate their contributions to Zhongguancun, the ministry said. Students from overseas universities who are invited by enterprises in Zhongguancun for internship programs will be allowed to apply for a short-term private visa upon arrival in China. Foreign students at universities in Beijing will also be permitted to work for enterprises in Zhongguancun or start their own businesses after obtaining approval from their school. Wan Gang (center), minister of science and technology, interacts with journalists after a news conference on China's scientific reform and progress in Beijing on Wednesday. WANG ZHUANGFEI/CHINA DAILY China will open its State-funded science programs to overseas researchers, Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang said on Wednesday. "Every project under the newly launched Major R&D Programs will be open to applications from international partners, and we encourage overseas research institutions to apply for the grants with a mainland partner," Wan said at a news conference hosted by the State Council Information Office. On Feb 16, the ministry initiated the Major R&D Programs, a new national funding program that will replace previous science projects, including the State High-Tech Development Plan, the National Basic Research Program of China and a number of State-funded projects operated by other ministries. The ministry initiated 25 special pilot projects under the program, covering a wide range of research fields from quantum technology to forestry cultivation. Before the integration, some projects were open to foreign researchers and some were not, and only a few foreign scientists had taken the post of chief scientist for major national science and technology programs. "Openness and cooperation is highlighted in the reform of national sci-tech programs," Wan said. Besides opening the national programs to overseas researchers, the ministry is also strengthening government cooperation and promoting exchanges among young scientists. With steadily growing research funding and capacity, mainland research programs are becoming increasingly attractive to scientists from across the globe. Shi Ling, an associate professor of electronic and computer engineering at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said more Hong Kong researchers are turning to the mainland for innovation opportunities. "While Hong Kong has strength in the financial and service industries, the mainland side has great competitive advantages in manufacturing. The urgent need to upgrade the manufacturing industry on the mainland provides a golden opportunity for Hong Kong," he said in an e-mail to China Daily. Miguel Esteban, a Spanish scientist who became the first foreign chief scientist for the 973 program in 2010, received 25 million yuan ($3.9 million) in funding for stem cell research. "In Western countries, if you work on something, you will find it is very difficult to change to something else because you want to develop in a different area or you just want to innovate. You are expected to continue doing what you are doing, and retire just doing that," Esteban, who was a kidney cancer physician at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, said in a previous interview. "In China, if you have an idea that is brilliant enough, you can get the right support to change. I think that is a big advantage compared to the Western countries, in particular Europe," he said. Tian Fengbo and Qiaoqiao. China Daily. A guide dog that was stolen from a blind masseur in Beijing was returned with a note from the dognappers asking its owner to "please forgive us". The 7-year-old black Labrador, named Qiaoqiao, was stolen by an organized gang of dog thieves on Monday, the Beijing Public Security Bureau said on Tuesday. The dog's owner, Tian Fengbo, 47, from Shunyi district, said a worker at Tian's massage establishment was walking Qiaoqiao on the street on Monday morning when the gang approached and took the dog. "We don't use a leash for walking her around in the mornings," Tian said. Qiaoqiao was grabbed by the occupants of a silver van that was passing by. The distraught owner called the police, and the Beijing Public Security Bureau immediately released information about the incident on its micro blog, hoping for public assistance. Local police also investigated. Tian said the thieves sent the dog home secretly on Tuesday evening. "I burst into tears when I heard Qiaoqiao's voice," he said. The thieves were still at large. "I hope they will stop stealing dogs, no matter whether they are guide dogs or any other dogs," Tian said. "A dog is just a dog to them. But to the owner, it is a friend, or even a family member." Guide dogs, often Labradors or golden retrievers, are sent to foster families as puppies for nearly a year of socialization. Dogs that show promise receive another year of training. Tian said that while Qiaoqiao was missing, he dared not go out alone. Tian met Qiaoqiao for the first time in 2010 at the China Guide Dog Training Center, the country's first and only guide dog training center. It is based at Dalian Medical University in Northeast China's Liaoning province. After spending 20 days at the center training with Qiaoqiao, Tian brought the dog home. He said that every time they crossed the road, Qiaoqiao would stop and check whether it was safe before crossing with Tian. "I felt brave and confident to go outside alone with Qiaoqiao by my side. I felt I was the same as any other person." Tian said Qiaoqiao seemed nervous the first evening after she returned home. "But she is much better now and can eat or go outside as usual," he said. In one of those startling feats of memory, I can vividly recall the first time I encountered China, in the shape of a plate of sauteed beef with bamboo shoots and water chestnuts. I was 17, had my first paycheck in my pocket, and was determined to sample what exotic delights provincial Oxford could offer, which, to be honest, wasn't much. Remember, this was a time in the 1960s when there was no Internet (yes, children, it's true), no mobile phones, television was limited to six hours a day, and most people's view of the world was based on what they'd learned at school, coupled with, in my case, the foreign news pages of the UK press. I think I can date my growing fascination with the huge, sprawling country that has the frozen temperatures of the northeast on one hand, and the near tropical climes of Hainan province in the south, from that plate of beef with bamboo shoots and water chestnuts. For the record, I loved it. But a quick check here with my Chinese colleagues showed that what I was eating that day was a hybrid dish aimed at foreigners. How times have changed. A quick check on how many Chinese restaurants there are in the Greater London area shows 4,000 restaurants and 8,000 Chinese fast-food outlets. OK, so much of what they serve is tailored for what they perceive is the Western palate, but I cite the statistics as one way of showing how much influence Chinese culture has in the UK now. You don't have to look too far for other signs of Chinese influence. Take the way Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, is celebrated. Obviously, it doesn't come anywhere near the organized anarchy that is travel in China at the beginning and end of the holiday, but there are dances, displays, special menus in restaurants, promotions in department stores, and advice on how it all works. Increasingly, children - certainly in my family - open their red envelopes of "lucky money" with great anticipation. And here I have to make an admission. My colleagues here at China Daily, both in Beijing and London, are avid users of the social messaging app WeChat. This past week, I was introduced to the system of sending a digital "red envelope" and am proud to share with you, dear readers, the fact that I accumulated the staggering sum of 15.51 yuan ($2.38). Not sure what that buys you in Beijing right now but I'll let you know. Traditional Chinese medicine is another area which has long fascinated Britons, particularly acupuncture. In the last few years, virtually every town center has had a traditional Chinese medicine outlet - in the UK, there are now an estimated 3,000 licensed practitioners. Indeed, acupuncture is now recognized as an acceptable method of pain relief offered by Britain's state-run National Health Service. I have tried it myself. In other words, if you can get it on the NHS, you've arrived. It was France's General Charles de Gaulle who once lamented: "How can I govern a country that has over 300 different types of cheese?" I'll bet China's masters over the centuries have entertained similar thoughts. The president has traveled to 40-plus countries since taking office, seeking to dovetail strategies In the three years that President Xi Jinping has been in office, he has traveled the globe to win support for China's new solutions, initiatives and strategies. He has visited more than 40 countries on 20 trips during this time to outline new concepts proposed by the country, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the Silk Road Fund and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Observers said the country's leadership and its diplomats are trying to help China and its friends to achieve greater impetus for growth and to improve global governance. China started to reinforce diplomatic efforts soon after Xi proposed co-building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road when visiting Kazakhstan and Indonesia in 2013. The Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives, which are aimed at improving cooperation with countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. In 2014, during his trips abroad, Xi called for development strategies to be linked with countries such as Mongolia, and this trend has been increasing, according to news releases and speeches. In May last year, China and Russia released a joint statement to help dovetail the Belt and Road Initiative with the Eurasia Economic Union initiative, led by Russia. The EEU, established at the start of last year, is an economic union of states located primarily in northern Eurasia. Such efforts were promoted further during Xi's trip to the Middle East in January. Addressing the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo on Jan 22, he mentioned the word "links" three times during his speech, calling for better efforts to dovetail production capacity and think tanks between China and Arab countries. On Dec 22, Foreign Minister Wang Yi used the word "links" 15 times when delivering a speech on China's diplomatic efforts at a think tank seminar in Beijing. He said China would make more intensive efforts to link strategies with various countries this year, including those in South Asia. Wu Bingbing, a professor of Middle East studies at Peking University, said such efforts by China show that the country is flexible and is viewing the issue not solely on an economic front, but also culturally. The desire to match shared interests lies behind the efforts to link different strategies, Wu said. He said Xi's diplomatic drive had taken time to cover all the major regions because China was taking a responsible and prudent approach that required observation and thought, behind which lay "great sincerity". Guo Yanjun, deputy director of the Institute of Asian Studies at China Foreign Affairs University, said Xi's desire to link strategies showed that China was not acting solely in its own interests but for common development with all countries. China's calls to build the Community of Common Destiny were aimed at showing that a shift in power on the global stage could be achieved peacefully, Guo said. A biologist works with cell of Aedes mosquito in the laboratory of Biology from University of Campinas (UNICAMP), in Campinas, Brazil, February 11, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] China is playing an increasingly prominent role in world's science and engineering as the country becomes the second-largest performer of research and development (R&D), according to the Science and Engineering Indicators 2016 (Indicators) report from the US National Science Foundation. Indicators 2016 makes it clear that Global R&D spending shows an overall upward trend mainly in North America, Europe and East Asia and Southeast Asia, while the US science and engineering (S&E) enterprise continues to lead the world. According to Indicators 2016, China is now the second-largest performer of R&D, accounting for 20 percent of global R&D spending as compared to the United States, which accounts for 27 percent. Between 2003 and 2013, China increased its R&D investments at an average rate of 19.5 percent annually, greatly exceeding that of the US. In 2014, China ranked second in high-tech manufacturing, where the US maintained a slim lead with a global share of 29 percent to China's 27 percent. China's commercial knowledge-intensive services grow rapidly, which has surpassed Japan to move into third place behind the United States and the European Union. China has also made significant strides in S&E education, which is critical to supporting R&D as well as knowledge and technology-intensive industries. China is the world's number one producer of undergraduates with degrees in science and engineering. These fields account for 49 percent of all bachelor's degrees awarded in China, compared to 33 percent of all bachelor's degrees the US awards. University degree production in China has grown faster than in major developed nations and regions, rising more than 300 percent between 2000 and 2012. The number of S&E graduate degrees awarded in China is also increasing. However, the US continues to award the largest number of S&E doctorates and remains the destination of choice for internationally mobile students. Beijing built only four charging spots for electric-powered city buses in the last year, falling far short of its target of 172 piles, and modified less than 10 percent of the buses it had planned to make more environmentally friendly. The National Audit Office, China's top auditing authority, on Wednesday publicized the unspent funds allocated to governments at all levels as well as unmet targets of government projects. Beijing's government had planned to modify 2,500 buses to make them more environmental friendly, but work was completed on only 194 vehicles, mainly due to insufficient coordination of government departments and the lack of an efficient authority to organize the work, the office said. China issued guidelines this month to ensure the construction of 5 million charging spots by 2020. In five years, China intends to have nearly 12,000 large charging stations, an increase from 780 at the end of 2014, including 3,850 for public buses, 2,500 for taxis, 2,450 for special vehicles such as sanitation cars and 2,400 integrated charging stations for public usage. President Xi Jinping (L, front), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, confers a military flag to Commander Liu Yuejun and Political Commissar Zheng Weiping of the Eastern Theater Command in Beijing, capital of China, Feb 1, 2016. Xi on Monday conferred military flags on the five newly-established theater commands of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). [Photo/Xinhua] The 27th Group Army recently became the first army of the People's Liberation Army to relocate its headquarters in the country's new military reform, the military newspaper PLA Daily reported on Thursday. The 27th Group Army, which has a long and honorable history, received a relocation order from the Central Military Commission on Dec 2 to move from North China's Hebei province to new barracks in Shanxi province before Jan 5. The army's leading group later held a meeting to arrange the relocation work. Soldiers and officers left for Shanxi's barracks separately on Dec 14, 23 and 27. The relocation was completed by the end of last year. 143 barracks and more than 2,600 pieces of equipment in the headquarters in Shijiazhuang has been registered and recorded. The remaining fifty-one million yuan in maintenance fees for the 27th ground army will be left to a newly established ground force unit, the PLA Daily reported. In November, the Central Military Commission held a three-day PLA reform meeting in Beijing, during which President Xi Jinping, also the chairman of the Central Military Commission, gave guidelines on reform. The general command for the PLA Army, the PLA Rocket Force and the PLA Strategic Support Force were established. President Xi conferred military flags at their inauguration ceremony held on Dec 31 in Beijing. After the reshuffle, the People's Liberation Army was regrouped into five new theater commands to replace the former seven military area commands. The five commands are the Eastern Theater Command, the Southern Theater Command, the Western Theater Command, the Northern Theater Command and the Central Theater Command. President Xi conferred the military flags of the five theater commands to their leaders on Feb 1 in Beijing. Zhu Yingqin and her husband Cui Liangjun work to level an open space behind their house in Hegang village, Changfeng county, Anhui province.[Photo by Zhu Lixin/China Daily] Two days before Monday's Lantern Festival, migrant workers Zhu Yingqin and her husband Cui Liangjun already were busy packing their luggage into their car, ready to return to their city jobs, even though they prefer rural life. The couple works in Hefei city, the capital of East China's Anhui province, and live in a tiny, cheap room that's perpetually bathed in darkness. "The earlier we return to the city, the more money we can earn", Zhu said. Cui carried the luggage to his car, which was stuffed with liquor when they arrived in Hegang village in Hefei's Changfeng county for the Spring Festival. As a tradition in the countryside, the couple bought two bottles of liquor, each priced at about 60 yuan ($9.20), for the household of each relative they planned to visit. Even though they brought more than 20 bottles, it wasn't enough. Cui said he planned to buy no more, "since some relatives did not have close relationships with us anymore". "Money for the liquor was our largest expenditure during the festival," Cui said. When relatives gathered, they were likely to gamble the day away, but Zhu had banned her husband from participating in such games as "making money has been not easy for us", she said. Zhu put their quilts in bags and left them on the bed for upcoming visits, saying "we will still come back sometimes since we have grown some wheat in the fields". She said she wasn't eager to return to their "village in the city", especially to their 10-square-meter rented room. "There is no sunshine all year around in the room, which is priced at 300 yuan per month for rent," she said. Despite the uncomfortable conditions, Zhu was still worried more about a rumor she heard weeks ago that the "village in the city" would be demolished soon. With the rapid development of the city's urban areas, it has been harder for migrant workers to find an affordable housing in the city. There are other challenges, too. The couple had worked in Xiamen city in Fujian province from 2000 to 2006. But without a local The family returned to Hefei in 2006, mainly for their son, but found their former dwelling, which they had built with earth and straw, had collapsed in the ensuing years. Their current 40-square-meter rural house, constructed with bricks and tiles, was built six months ago, a refuge from the city, where the couple doesn't feel they truly belong. "One day, when we get old, we will need a shelter in our hometown," Zhu said. The couple, neither of whom finished primary school, said they had little choice for proper jobs. Zhu, 45, has been working for a food company in Hefei since the end of 2011. She picks sunflower seeds and melon seeds, earning a little more than 100 yuan from each 12-hour "boring and tiring" work shift. Cui, 46, has been taking temporary jobs over the years, such as installing stages and billboards for advertising agencies. Although satisfied with his salary of 20 yuan an hour, he said "the work is just too strenuous". In 2013, Cui bought a car, purchased with the family's savings and about 40,000 yuan borrowed from relatives, to ferry passengers around the city. But he abandoned the business a year later since it was illegal and risky. Though not expensive, the car brought the couple some respect, as well as envy, from local villagers. "I heard recently that some other local villagers working in cities are also planning to buy cars," Cui said. He thought some of the potential car buyers would try to borrow money from him soon, but Zhu reminded her husband: "We don't have money to lend." Zhu said the family still had a debt of more than 40,000 yuan, which they borrowed when they bought an apartment in the city last year. The apartment, located near the Hefei suburbs, cost 540,000 yuan. The couple paid 180,000, of which 80,000 yuan was borrowed from relatives, and obtained a 20-year mortgage for the remainder. The apartment was bought for the couple's son, Cui Yao, 21, who is a sophomore at Central South University in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. Fellow villagers also have bought apartments in the city, "mostly located in the suburbs where the home prices were much lower", Zhu said. The couple views their son as their pride and hope, because he is one of the few college students in the village, which has more than 1,000 registered residents. "I believe our lives will become much easier after my son's graduation," Zhu said. The family will take ownership of their apartment at the end of this year, a little early for Zhu, who had hoped to delay the delivery so that they could receive some compensation, and also because the family hadn't saved enough money for the home decor. Her husband and son laughed at Zhu and said: "You wish!" Lei Tao (second from right), his wife and two children with his parents and sister in Qianyang.[Photo by Zhu Changzhen/China Daily] Seventeen years ago, at the age of 5, Lei Tao was lured away from his home in Qianyang county in Shaanxi province by a child trafficker's promise of fireworks, and sold to a family without a son in Yichuan county in Henan province. As an adult, the migrant worker retained only vague childhood memories of his biological parents, a family grocery store and an older sister. He wanted to reconnect with them, but the search was daunting. Xiuxiu, Lei's wife, helped him look for his family for years. They joined an online community, "Baby Coming Home", and submitted his DNA information to the public security department's database. "There are many families suffering such pains like us on the Internet,"Lei said. "People do not know whether they can find their families, but they do not stop trying." Lei had worked in construction since he was 16, taking jobs in Heilongjiang and Guangdong provinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region over the years. He is working at a construction site in Luoyang, Henan province. Finally last fall, the DNA database found a match. Lei was informed that his biological parents lived hundreds of kilometers away in Shaanxi province. He clearly remembers the day when he met his parents again. It was the day after Mid-Autumn Festival. "When seeing my parents, I could not recognize them at first,"he said. "They had become old and gray." This Spring Festival, a time when families reunited around China, was special for Lei and his relatives. "It is really very lucky that I found my biological parents in my lifetime,"he said. If he had not, he would have spent the holiday with his 83-year-old foster grandma, like he has since 1999, in Yichuan. "Of course, she is very nice to me,"Lei said. "But now, everything is different." For one, he has a sister. Lei Yan, 23, brought many toys as New Year's gifts when she returned to the family home in Qianyang. She knew her long-lost brother would be back with his wife and two children in tow. The two children, a 3-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son, happily played with the toys, and Lei Yan was deeply moved by the scene, which made her think of her childhood without her brother. Knowing Lei was back, more than 20 people gathered to welcome him, and ask how he lived over the past years. Tears of sorrow became tears of joy. "The lost son returning home as a family of four? It looks like a dream,"said Lei's father. For Lei, who was once surnamed Zhang, this year's Chinese New Year was very sweet indeed. "This year is very special to me. We had a reunion dinner with my family, parents and relatives and we gathered together to watch the New Year's Gala on New Year's Eve,"he said with a smile. "I also shot off firecrackers at the midnight." During his hometown visit, Lei helped at his parents' grocery store. He planned to stay until the end of the Lantern Festival on Feb 22, warm with the thoughts of his biological parents and the caring foster grandmother in Henan who wants the best for him. "My best wish is to make the two families become much closer in the future,"Lei said. Migration from rural areas to cities and an imbalance between the sexes has left the cost of marriage unaffordable for some country families, China Youth Daily reported After the noise of firecrackers faded, Zhang Hu and his wife returned home with heavy hearts. Their son's marriage cost the impoverished family their entire savings and a debt of as much as 150,000 yuan ($23,000). It is a huge sum for a family from a poor mountainous village in Northwest China's Gansu province. Fodianwan village is a notoriously poverty-stricken village in Qingyang. "Our village is so poor that there is barely any girl willing to marry young men from here," said Zhang Hu. He said villagers had been used to the soaring price of betrothal gifts, or caili in Chinese, which means money a man takes to propose to the woman he loves. The less developed an area is, the more costly the marriage is for the groom, especially in a place such as the Loess Plateau in Northwest China where the natural environment is harsh. "Love is no longer about tender feelings, but a matter of price," said Liu Yanwu, a professor of sociology at Wuhan University. Liu has surveyed the changes in cost of marriage in rural areas over past decades: from the 1970s to 1980s, marriage was hardly a burden to a rural family, and in the 1990s, a marriage cost the income of a rural labor of three or four years on average. But since 2000, the cost has witnessed a sharp increase: today, it needs a rural labor to work for 20 years to pay for the marriage if expenses such as house purchase are included for a typical rural marriage the groom's family is expected to provide house, and even a car in some better-off areas, for the newlyweds. In rural areas of Qingyang, the price of betrothal gifts has jumped from around 10,000 yuan in 2004 to 150,000 yuan by last year. The marriage of Zhang's son almost dragged the family back to poverty. One reason for the soaring bride price is the imbalanced sex ratio in China. For every 100 newborn girls, there were 115 boys born across the country last year, and in rural areas, where only boys are regarded as the heirs to carry on the family line, the ratio between men and women of marriageable age is even higher in some places it is close to 2 to 1. The imbalance makes the competition for a wife fierce among rural bachelors. The migration of rural populations to cities is also blamed for the rising cost of rural weddings. As China's urbanization has gathered pace up since the opening-up and reform policy was introduced in the late 1970s, more and more rural people have migrated to cities seeking better pay and an improved life. As a result, the number of women of marriageable age in rural areas is in decline and there are not enough partners for rural young men, said Zhang Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. China is taking steps to ensure the enforcement of verdicts in civil cases, and those who have won judgments can rely on the court to help them impose judgments, an official of China's top court said on Thursday. There long had been no clear rules on how to appeal cases in which the losing sides refused to abide by the verdicts, "although our laws pointed out defaulters, including debtors, should face criminal consequences when they do not carry out judgments," Zhang Genda, deputy director of verdict enforcement bureau at the Supreme People's Court, said during a news conference. Typically, residents would call police when debtors refused to repay them as ordered by the court, the police would investigate and then prosecutors would follow-up with charges where appropriate, Zhang said. But sometimes, verdicts were still hard to enforce, he said. To more effectively prod defaulters to abide by verdicts, the top court issued a judicial interpretation in July 2015 that said residents have the right to appeal to courts themselves if police refuse to take their cases, he said. "In other words, the way to ask defaulters to enforce verdicts has been diversified. Our courts can not only receive cases brought by prosecutors, but also by residents," Zhang said. On Thursday, the top court also disclosed six cases in which judgment defaulters were sentenced for refusing to carry out verdicts. Guo Kecun, a native of Henan province, was sentenced to 30 months in prison in December after refusing to pay back salaries to workers. A factory boss, Guo had been ordered by a court in the province's Shangqiu city to pay the salaries of 17 workers totaling about 118,000 yuan ($18,000) in January last year. Guo was detained twice for failing to pay as the verdict required, said Yan Yan, director of the bureau's property enforcement department. "Local police refused to file the case after the workers reported it, so they came to the court and filed the lawsuit," Yan said. "The court decided to criminally punish him, because of the clear facts and the seriousness of his default." Although there are no statistics on how many such cases have been brought by residents, they have "accelerated the enforcement of verdicts," Zhang added. Beijing police seized 280 kilograms of illegal drugs last year, nearly doubling the previous year's haul of 150 kilos, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau reported on Thursday. The number of suspected drug dealers detained in the capital last year reached 11,000, more than three times the previous year's number, the bureau said. Of those, 660 suspects were involved in online trading of 56 kilos of illicit drugs. Nationwide, China added about 530,000 new drug users to its database. Registered drug users numbered 2.35 million at the end of the year. In 2015, across the country, there were 165,000 cases related to drug crimes, 194,000 suspects were detained and 102.5 metric tons of drugs were seized. The new two-child policy is making job hunting more difficult for women as about 40 percent said they were asked whether they planned to have a second child during job interviews, according to a report in Chongqing. China dropped its decades-long one-child policy in October and allowed each family to have two children. The country now has about 270 million married women of childbearing age. This change has put millions of career women in a dilemma between family and career. Employers also face big challenges as more female workers will have two maternity leaves, in total seven to eight months. A human resources website www.job.cq.qq.com conducted a survey among 500 employers and 5,000 job seekers about how the two-child policy affects the job market. The southwest municipality has 30 million people. Though two thirds of employers said the policy would make no difference to their recruitment, the survey showed that more than 70 percent of job seekers believe that bearing a second child will make women less popular in the job market. Forty percent of employers said they will give priority to married women with two children, according to the survey. Lin Xia, 29, quit her job after giving birth to her first child. She is now preparing to return to work. After several inquiries at a job fair, she found that the employers are concerned about future birth plans. "I thought it would be easier to find a job after giving birth," she was quoted as saying by the website. "I had to answer whether I will have a second child before I could get a chance for a job interview." Liang Siqi, 23, a college graduate, said although employers did not ask her the child question yet, she will not plan to have two children. "It (having two children) will definitely affect my career and personal life, so I will have only one," she said. Zhou Jiansong, who is in charge of human resources at a large private high-tech group in Chongqing, said the company will discuss birth issues with interviewees in order to make a better work plans. "We fully respect a women's right to bear a child or two," he said. "But you don't want them to go on maternity leave soon after they join your company." Qu Sancai, a senior partner at a law firm, said that for the employers, asking the two-child question is not helpful during the interview as there is no way they can stop employees from having a child. "I will not ask such questions when recruiting women," he said. "I am more concerned about their future stability at a job." The experts expect more labor dispute cases concerning maternity leave rights when bearing a second child in future. Lan Yunpeng, director of Chongqing Labor Disputes Arbitration Commission, suggested that legislators should improve laws and regulations and draft an Employment Non-Discrimination Act as soon as possible, according to the Chongqing Economic Times. "We should make the employers dare not discriminate against females and employing women becomes their legal duty," he said. At the same time, he said, the government should give incentives to companies who employ women. Deng Rui contributed to the story BEIJING -- A compilation of editorials, commentaries and reports concerning President Xi Jinping's recent remarks on reporting and public opinion has been published by the People's Publishing House. The book, soon to be available at Xinhua Bookstores nationwide, could help officials and Party members better understand Xi's remarks, said the publishing house. Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said the Party's media work should guide the public, serve the country's overall interests, unite the general public, instill confidence and pool strength, tell right from wrong and connect China to the world. He was speaking during a symposium on Friday, following his visits to the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television, the country's three major news providers. Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology Wang Zhuangfei / China Daily China will spend 100 billion yuan ($15.3 billion) over the next two years to relocate workers in steel, mining and other sectors suffering from overcapacity, officials from the nation's industry watchdog said on Thursday. The government is also trying to close a large number of nonprofitable State-owned enterprises, known as "zombie" companies, to curb production of steel, flat glass, cement and more materials amid weak demand, said Feng Fei, vice-minister of industry and information technology. "The 100 billion yuan fund, set up by the central government, is designed to help laid-off workers get new jobs by offering training and other services," he said at a news conference, adding that local authorities will play a key role in solving the layoff issue. The central government is more in favor of mergers and acquisitions instead of bankruptcies in eliminating zombie enterprises, Feng said. Because of sluggish foreign exports, China's industry output grew by 6.1 percent year-on-year last year, while the rate was 8.3 percent in 2014, according to Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology. Miao estimated that the growth rate this year will stay around 6 percent. "It will not be practical to pursue faster growth," he told the same news conference on Thursday. The minister said that besides encouraging growth of technology-intensive emerging sectors, eliminating surplus production capacity is a key to keeping industry readings on a healthy track. The worst-affected industries in China's industrial restructuring include coal, steel, cement and glass. As the country aims to cut crude steel production by 100 million to 150 million metric tons in the next five years, roughly half a million workers will need to find jobs elsewhere, according to an estimate from the China Iron and Steel Association. Some companies in sectors with overcapacity are making attempts to send workers to industries that are better off. Heilongjiang Longmay Mining Holding Group Co, an SOE that operates four major mines in Heilongjiang province, has relocated 22,500 workers to agriculture, timber and public service areas since November. Declining demand sank coal prices, leaving 90 percent of the mining companies losing money, according to Jiang Zhimin, deputy chief of the China National Coal Association. But skepticism remains. Gao Jianqiang, an instrument technician from a medium-sized steel factory in the inland industrial city of Lanzhou, said he does not put all his hopes in the government fund. "There are just too many factories that are not doing well. One-hundred billion yuan sounds like a huge sum, but I do not think it will solve problems for everyone," said the 45-year-old. The factory Gao works for lost 7 billion yuan last year. Gao said some of his colleagues will be hired by a subway company after the city's first underground railway line opens in two years. He said he had no idea whether he will be able to find a new job. Heilongjiang Daily contributed to this story. gaoyuan@chinadaily.com.cn In the peak of the traditional job-hunting season, many women say it is getting more difficult for them to find satisfactory employment. Lin Xia, 29, quit her job after giving birth to her first child. She is now preparing to return to work. After several inquiries at a job fair, she found that the employers were concerned about whether she had plans for a second child. "I thought it would be easier to find a job after giving a birth," said Lin, who is from Chongqing. "I had to answer whether I will have a second child before I could get a chance for a job interview." China dropped its decades-long, one-child policy in October to allow each family to have two children. This change has put 270 million married women of childbearing age in the position of choosing between family and work. The employers also face big challenges as more female workers will have two maternity leaves for a total of seven to eight months. In a survey recently published by classified advertising website Ganji.com, career women who might be considering having a second child were asked what kinds of pressure they might expect. More than 76 percent of the respondents mentioned concerns about the financial burden of raising two children, while more than 71 percent said it would be difficult to balance career and family. Additionally, nearly 56 percent said that having a second child would definitely have a negative effect on their career. A survey conducted by Chongqing-based human resources website job.cq.qq.com found that over 70 percent of job seekers believe that having a second child would make females less popular in the job market, although two-thirds of the employers said the policy will make no difference during their recruitment. Liang Siqi, 23, a college graduate in Chongqing, said she will not plan to have two children if "it will definitely affect my career and personal life". Feng Lijuan, a senior expert on human resources at 51job.com, a leading Chinese job finding platform, said she would not say "there is discrimination against career women". "There is no doubt that with the economic downturn pressure, many employers, especially private companies, are facing growing human resources costs and falling profit rates. They have to consider the potential contribution of employees they are going to hire," said Feng. "For example, if a job requires frequent business trips, extra work and more attention to work instead of family, a capable male candidate would be more suitable," Feng said. Feng said Chinese women shoulder more family responsibility. "It is not only about maternity leave; a female employee might only fully get back to work after three to five years after having her first child. "Taking the economic situation under consideration, it is not realistic to require companies, especially fast-growing startups, to give absolute equality when choosing their employees," added Feng. "It is not about gender choice. I would say this is a market choice." Wang Yixin, a senior consultant at Zhaopin, said the positive side is that more companies are trying to attract more talent by providing support to career women. "Different from before, it is not only employers choosing employees. Many talents, including professional career women, also choose employers," said Wang. "According to our survey, many large enterprises are very open to their employees choice of having a second child." Contact the writers at tanyingzi@chinadaily.com.cn Hojatollah Ayoubi (fifth left, second row), head of Iran's Cinematic Organization, with Shi Yongxin (sixth left, second row), the abbot of Shaolin Temple, and monks and others during a trip to the temple in Henan province. [Photo provided to China Daily] The past decades have seen numerous foreign movie s featuring kung fu , and now the m art ial art will connect China and Iran on the big screen. Way to Shaolin is the first joint film production of the two countries. When Chinese producer Shen Jian paid a visit to Iran last year, he was surprised by the locals' enthusiasm for Chinese martial arts. Many young Iranians spoke of Jet Li, the Chinese kung fu star, and his 1982 film The Shaolin Temple, which captivated a generation of Chinese and ushered in a golden era for martial arts genre in the mainland. "But it was kind of sad that most Iranians have very few opportunities to see Chinese martial arts movies on the big screen," says Shen. "We believe they (martial arts films) have a big market in Iran." Iran has film censorship rules that guide domestic titles and foreign movies. So, most Iranian movie enthusiasts see Jet Li and his martial arts movies using video discs. Despite its lack of access to global films, Iranian cinema has made its mark in the world at least since the 1990s. The British Academy Film Awards are now broadcast on the Chinese mainland. The organizer of the event is seeking more cooperation with China. [Photo/Agencies] The 69th British Academy Film Awards were held in London on Feb 14 and broadcast in more than 200 countries including China. In 2015, the awards presentation was officially shown for the first time on the Chinese mainland through Youku, among the country's major streaming websites. Amanda Berry, chief executive of British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the body behind the awards, says as her organization seeks to expand cooperation with geographic regions outside the West, it would look to China, the world's second-largest film market, as a likely partner. In March last year, Britain's Prince William, who is also president of BAFTA, led delegates to a visit of Shanghai for the Great Festival of Creativity, an expo organized by the British and Chinese governments to promote UK's creative industry. Berry was on that team. When President Xi Jinping visited the United Kingdom in October, Prince William had presented him a gift on behalf of the academy to symbolize ties between his country and China. "As our industry becomes more global, there will be more opportunities for creativity and innovation," Berry tells China Daily in an interview over the phone from London. "Lots of people in China are aware of the Oscars, and we'll work hard to raise the profile of not only BAFTA but the whole British film industry." Photo taken on Nov 6, 2015 shows bronze lamps unearthed from the excavation site of royal tombs of Marquis of Haihun State during the Western Han Dynasty in Nanchang, capital of East China's Jiangxi province. [Photo/Xinhua] More than 400 relics unearthed from a Chinese tomb will be displayed in Beijing, authorities said Monday. The precious items from the tomb of the first "Haihunhou" (Marquis of Haihun) will be on show for three months at the Capital Museum starting from March 2, said Xu Changqing, head of the Jiangxi Cultural Relics and Archeology Research Institute. "Some items will be displayed to the public for the first time," Xu said. It will be the second time that the relics from the tomb are on public display. Last year, a display featuring 120 items from the tomb attracted some 180,000 visitors to the Jiangxi Provincial Museum. The tomb, which dates back to the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD), was unearthed in Nanchang city, capital of East China's Jiangxi province. It covers roughly 40,000 square meters and contains eight small tombs and a burial site for chariot horses. The tomb is thought to belong to Liu He, grandson of Emperor Wu. Liu was given the title "Haihunhou" after he was deposed as emperor after only 27 days. Haihun is the ancient name of a very small kingdom in the north of Jiangxi. Excavation of the site started in 2011. Artifacts unearthed so far include a portrait of Confucius, nearly 3,000 wooden tablets and bamboo slips and a large number of bronze, gold and jade items. Pupils display self-made cards for teachers before Chinese Teachers' Day at Dongguan Yifu Elementary School in Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei province, Sept 9, 2015. China's Teachers' Day falls on Sept 10 every year. [Photo / Xinhua] I was recently surprised by a school in China that had the school manager spying on classes through a window while taking photos. My enquiries revealed that this just a typical school that has no trust in their teachers. They (teachers) have to be watched to ensure that students behavior is adequately controlled. This further proves that in China, teaching is not a profession but a job. Encouraging and advising to help schools create a more professional teaching environment is difficult because of this lack of trust. Indeed it may be a fundamental difference between education in the West and in the East. Teachers in the West have earned respect and trust over many years, and are trusted to act professionally without supervision. Abuse of this trust usually results in steep consequences. Supervision and the assessment of staff are done by appraisal systems. Teachers are comfortable in seeking help from management and other teachers if they have a problem. Many teachers in China must do as they are told to achieve high results with their students. If they dont follow the rules they face deduction of salary or dismissal. Sharing of problems and seeking help is considered an indication of weakness. Most teachers fear management and are rarely rewarded for good practice. The result is a lack of initiative, reluctance to share and a reluctance to do any more than they are required to do. Inadequate appraisal systems along with traditional suspicion that workers do not do their duties without constant supervision, inevitably leads to a need for spying. In the West, it is the leaders of a subject department who monitor the work of their teachers. They regularly look at students work, look at value added test results, and talk with students and parents. They know quickly and without secrecy which teachers need help and which ones are doing well. In China, some teachers fear that students not made to sit properly for 12 hours a day will result in punishment for them (the teachers). They fear making proposals to change things for the better. They fear being noticed. They fear being forgotten. They fear other teachers gossiping about them. They fear their students getting very high marks because other teachers will say bad things about them. They fear low results. They fear complaining. They fear a manager peering through the window at them. Teaching is one of the highest valued professions and until it is developed and treated as, the education will inevitably be second rate. There must be trust and respect in a profession. I feel that there is a lot of respect and trust from parents in teachers here, but less so from school management. The original blog is at: http://blog.chinadaily.com.cn/blog-1065966-32603.html US Secretary of State John Kerry (R) and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi shake hands at a joint news conference after their meeting at the State Department in Washington, February 23, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] Less than four weeks ago, United States Secretary of State John Kerry visited China. Now Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is in the United States. Their talks have by and large centered on the same topicsthe Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the South China Sea. If the short interval between the two meetings indicates the pressing nature of the issues at hand, the ray of hope that has emerged from the talks in Washington is proof that there is always a way out of an impasse if both parties are willing to search for one. Perhaps even better. When the two countries' top diplomats last met, Beijing only agreed in principle to the United Nations Security Council taking "further measures" against Pyongyang's nuclear program. Now both are optimistic an agreement on the draft of a new UN resolution can be reached soon. It is a shame that seven weeks after Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test and three weeks after its most recent rocket launch, in defiance of what was in effect a UN ban, international endeavors to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula bogged down because of related parties' inability to agree on how to respond. Given the urgency to stop Pyongyang's nuclear adventure, we hope that their "near future" will not just be diplomatic rhetoricthe state of affairs on the Korean Peninsula brooks no more foot-dragging. Beijing and Washington have spent too much time wrangling over the proper approach to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions. So much so that they have actually distracted themselves from their professed shared goal. Beijing will have been pleased to hear from Kerry that Washington wants "a negotiated outcome", and that its missile defense system would not be needed in the Republic of Korea "if we can get to denuclearization". So with the key points of contention taken care of, there appears to be very high probability the two countries will be able to agree on a substantive new UN resolution. Since denuclearization is the consensus and a negotiated outcome is in the best interests of all, they should strive to make sure the next UN resolution is able to rein in Pyongyang's nuclear program and sophisticated enough to prevent any hazardous fallout. That, again, entails close coordination and cooperation between Beijing and Washington. A researcher checks the conditions of rats used for laboratory tests at the National Institute of Biological Sciences in Beijing. [Photos by Feng Yongbin/ China Daily and Liu Dawei/ Xinhua] A private company in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has reportedly received more than 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in funds for research over the last decade, yet made little progress in its so-called projects. China Youth Daily on Wednesday urged greater scrutiny of how scientific research funds are used: It is appalling that some local authorities have turned a blind eye to the wasting of scientific research funds, much of which has gone directly into the pockets of "project directors". Thanks to the glamorous projects they led, many researchers have even been promoted without making any research contributions. China's financial support to scientific research has been on a steady rise in recent years, as over 1 trillion yuan has been spent on research and experimental development in 2014 alone. However, the distribution of governmental funds has been rather porous, allowing greedy officials and rent-seeking companies to easily grab much of the money in the power-money exchanges. On the one hand, high-tech companies that don't have connections with local science and technology officials are often granted limited access to big projects. On the other, those succeeding in applying for such projects are usually under loose supervision, with regard to whether they have started the research and the authenticity of their scientific findings. Measures must be taken to break the intertwined chains of interests and put the research funds in the right hands. Governments at all levels, for starters, should be banned from directly managing scientific projects and professionals be entrusted with the tasks of ensuring the necessary rules are followed, supervising the research, evaluating the research results, and holding anyone who acts up accountable. Besides, applications for research programs and the actual findings are supposed to be disclosed for public scrutiny. That may significantly exclude those of little scientific value from being funded in the first place. The public should also be involved in the evaluation of scientific findings as well. In other words, not only professional agencies but also citizen representatives should be allowed to assess what a project has achieved. As for the potential corruption and abuse of funds, all departments concerned have to punish rent-seekers and corrupt officials based on thorough investigations. Shanghai government issued the strickest ban on setting off fireworks and firecrackers this year with the aim to improve air quality. [Photos by Gao Erqiang / China Daily] A report about the positive effects of Shanghai's ban on fireworks received a thumbs-up from the public, Beijing News reported on Wednesday. The paper further comments: Before Spring Festival, government officials in Shanghai expressed concerns about the enforcement of the new regulation released on Jan 1, worrying residents would not accept the ban on fireworks. But the air pollution the city encountered during last year's biggest holiday meant residents obeyed the ban much better than expected this year. Residents in Chinese cities have been rightly concerned about the poor air quality. From 8 pm on the eve of Chinese Lunar New Year to 6 am the next morning, more than 200 cities across the country experienced heavy or hazardous pollution; 66 of those cities even saw the air quality index exceed the scale. Of course the cities shrouded in the severe smog should blame a habitual laziness in their governance of local authorities, since Shanghai's enforcement of a comprehensive ban achieved its desired effect and won netizens' applause. MA XUEJING/CHINA DAILY The huge price society has paid for a fabricated story that went viral during the just-concluded Spring Festival, which sparked heated debates online and offline, highlights the need to reflect on how we should use cyberspace. In the story that was first posted on a local online forum, a 28-year-old woman, who claimed to be from a well-off family in Shanghai, split up with her boyfriend after being served dinner on the eve of Spring Festival at his family home in a small village in East China's Jiangxi province because she abhorred their poverty. The woman also posted a photograph of her boyfriend's home which showed the humble dwelling, chopsticks of uneven length lying on an old, moldy wooden table, and meat and fish preparations in old steel plates. Such dishes were served the same way by poor families to "honored" guests in the years gone by. Given that the woman chose to split up with her boyfriend on a special occasion and venueduring Spring Festival at her boyfriend's homeseems to confirm an old Chinese saying that marriages should be based on two families' social and economic status. The story instantly tickled public nerves and caused many to circulate it via social media without questioning its authenticity. But the fierce war of words subsided after a report by the Jiangxi provincial cyberspace watchdog said the story was fakea non-Shanghai mother who had never been to Jiangxi had posted the story in anger after quarrelling with her husband over where they should spend the Spring Festival holiday. The huge price the society, including the media, has paid for circulating and debating over the concocted story has made it necessary for all citizens to self-reflect on their behavior in the era of the Internet. Its adverse effects on public psychology have raised a question on the reliability of circulated information in cyberspace. Perhaps the story was reposted with such alacrity and speed by netizens and then picked up by print media outlets because it involved a sensitive topic: the social and monetary gaps between urban and rural areas. Despite China's tangible economic and social development, the still wide rich-poor divide, especially the urban-rural gap, added spice to the story. But netizens should not use the excuse of "spicy story" to absolve themselves of the wrongdoing of reposting it without checking the facts. Even if non-professional social media users can be forgiven for joining the debate without determining the story's authenticity, the lack of basic vigilance by professional media outlets in reporting and commenting on the story calls for self-reflection. The professional media should take the case as a profound lesson on how to choose stories from a sea of information in the era of the Internet. This poses a challenge to the traditional media, but at the same time it provides the professional media the opportunity to raise their reliability and competitiveness. For Internet users, the reposting of unauthenticated and "irresponsible" stories may not be illegaland no netizen has been held accountablebut such acts do constitute an "abuse" of the Internet and cause a lot of damage to the credibility of cyberspace. The "story of the Shanghai woman" case once again shows that individual netizens should have basic integrity, if not legal consciousness, which will help them to post or repost only authenticated information. China has the world's highest number of Internet users and their number is growing. The Internet has indeed made communication easy, but it has also led to misunderstandings and misinterpretations. As such, the Internet should not be considered a realm free of self-restraints. While freely roaming in the virtual world, netizens should guard against the abuse of the Internet, in order to clean cyberspace of the false stories and information. The author is a senior writer with China Daily. Police escorts Pei Jianqiang who was brought home from the Republic of Guinea at Beijing Capital International Airport, Jan 1, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] At an anti-graft inspection meeting on Tuesday, China's central discipline inspection authority announced that it will launch a new round of anti-corruption inspections in 32 entities as well as in four provinces that had been already inspected. The return of investigators to Liaoning, Shandong, Hunan and Anhui provinces, which had previously been inspected, aims to ensure the effect of inspection lasts. Each of the provinces saw officials lose their positions after the inspectors found problems. The General Administration of Customs, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and the China Food and Drug Administration are among 32 central government agencies to be inspected starting from this month. President Xi Jinping has pointed out several times that the discipline inspection authority should reexamine places and departments already inspected. The reexaminations can consolidate the achievements of anti-corruption campaign and act as deterrent to corruption. Meanwhile, the new round of anti-graft inspections may find new problems and improve the overall work of anti-corruption campaign. A formation of the Nanhai Fleet of China's Navy on Saturday finished a three-day patrol of the Nansha islands in the South China Sea. [Photo/Xinhua] The Americans are repeating their daily attacks on China militarizing the South China Sea. In the latest attack they released photos of two batteries surface to air missiles in the Paracel Islands to convince the ASEAN leaders in Sunnylands that China is militarizing the South China Sea. They would not tell the world that the missiles are defensive weapons, unlike the offensive B 52 bombers and missile destroyers. Even if China were to build military bases in the South China Sea to the size of Diego Garcia or Guam, it would not only be legitimate, it would be just like a pin in the ocean compared to what the Americans are doing and building in the region. The American military bases are spread across the western Pacific Ocean for many years and with offensive weapons and nuclear capability to hit every country in the region. Below is a brief extract from a book ' Rebalancing U.S. Forces: Basing and Forward Presence in the Asia-Pacific' by Carnes Lord and Andrew Erickson. Erickson and Justin D. Mikolay begin the book with an examination of Guam. Political constraints and friction with allies and partners around the region have led U.S. military planners to look to Guam, U.S. territory on the edge of the Western Pacific battle space and an island whose residents and political leaders, unlike those on Okinawa, actually clamor for a larger military presence. The result is plans to greatly expand the base of submarines, airpower, and Marines on the island. Singapore is now the key logistics and maintenance hub for Navy and Air Force operations in the South China Sea, and is the critical gateway for the U.S. presence into the eastern Indian Ocean.. American bases abroad are one of the clearest manifestations of the United States' own brand of imperialism, deny or disguise it though it will. In Japan alone there are 109 American bases and another 89 in South Korea. And there are bases in Thailand and the Philippines as well. And the US deployed 325,000 military personnel in Asia and Africa according to Global Research, 97,000 in Asia, 40,258 in South Korea, 40,045 in Japan, 491 in Diego Garcia, 100 in the Philippines and increasing, 113 in Thailand, 195 in Singapore, 200 in Australia, 16,600 afloat in ships and aircraft carriers. With the pervasive presence of American bases in the region, who is the one that is militarizing the region and the South China Sea? Who is more dangerous? Who carries more destructive weapons and is more deadly? The US is crying wolf at the sight of a tree when they are hiding behind a forest. The US have been militarizing the region and the whole world for the last 70 years, with bases in foreign lands all across Asia and South East Asia. The author is a political observer from Singapore. The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and don't represent views of China Daily website. The Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education is seeking to employ 70 distinguished professors from around the world as part of their latest recruitment drive. The department hopes to appoint 20 professors to universities administrated by the Ministry of Education and 50 to provincial universities. Overseas candidates who started working as professors in Jiangsu universities after Jan 1, 2015, are required to have 3 years of overseas research experience as a minimum. Professors that started working in Jiangsu during the period between Jan 1, 2013 and Jan 1, 2015 are required to have at least 2 years of research experiences abroad. Over a 3-year employment term, successful distinguished professor candidate working at both provincial universities and those administered by the Ministry of Education will be granted a 120,000 yuan ($18,000) pension (exempt from individual income tax) per year. Professors in fields of natural sciences will be granted an annual research fund of one million yuan, while professors in humanities and social studies will be granted 500,000 yuan annually to conduct studies. Professors selected to work in universities administrated by the Ministry of Education will be granted a fund of at least two million yuan for research projects in natural sciences or one million yuan for subjects related to humanities and social studies. Two young Chinese men, Huang Zuhong and Fu Hailong recently took on a seven-day challenge to survive in the wild without any food, water or supplies, on a mountain in Southwest China's Chongqing. [Photo/IC] Two young Chinese men recently took on a seven-day challenge to survive in the wild without any food, water or supplies, reported Chongqing Morning Post on Wednesday. They also broadcast the whole process online. Both of the men, aged 20, are fans of Edward Michael "Bear" Grylls, widely known for his survival television series Man vs. Wild. Inspired by the show, the two young men, Huang Zuhong and Fu Hailong, started their seven-day challenge on Feb 16 on Huanggua Mountain, Southwest China's Chongqing municipality, with only knives, a hoe, flint, a fire extinguisher and a bucket of iron wires. Their first day began with far more difficulties than they had imagined. It took them about five hours to build their camp, which was made out of bamboo and hay. To keep up their energy, they had to eat everything they found as long as it was nontoxic, such as crawfish from the creek, worms and termites in rotten wood, as well as herbs and fruit. Huang even ate an earthworm and a spider. At night, they had to take shifts to watch the fire, which they used for both light and boiling water. According to Huang, they could only sleep about three hours per day at most. The fourth and fifth days were the hardest, as their bodies finally felt the effects of insufficient food, and their shelter also leaked when it rained. Luckily, they found some eels and snails in the rice field on the sixth day, which helped them to power through the toughest period. Online viewers expressed great support for us as we neared our mental and physical limits, Huang recalled. The last day of the challenge coincided with the traditional Chinese Lantern Festival. It was also an unforgettable day for Huang and Fu, as they caught a rabbit and a vole. Both agreed that it was the best thing they ever ate. "We are fine, just a little tired," Fu said after the challenge was done. When asked about what they learned from the challenge, both men said that this experience will encourage them to get through any difficulties they encounter in the future. Even though some say it is too dangerous, I know what I am doing and what I want, Fu said. Hu Yongqiang, a gastroenterologist at a local hospital, recommended a physical checkup for Huang and Fu since consumption of uncooked food could lead to parasite infections and gastrointestinal bleeding. Hu also advised other people without survival skills not to follow suit. Land mine removal expert Ok Chann plays with a rat trained to find buried mines, on Friday. The African rats use their sensitive noses to detect the explosives. DENIS GRAY/ASSOCIATED PRESS It's been a busy morning for Cletus, Meynard, Victoria and others of their furry band. Tiny noses and long whiskers twitching, they've scurried and sniffed their way across 775 square meters of fields to eliminate a scourge that has killed thousands of Cambodians: land mines. Meet the Hero Rats: intelligent, surprisingly adorable creatures with some of the most sensitive noses in the animal kingdom. Sent from Africa, where they successfully cleared minefields in Mozambique and Angola, they began the same task in northwestern Cambodia early this month and have already scored tangible results. Two hectares have been declared mine-free around this village where more than 15 people have been killed or wounded by the explosives, forcing some to abandon their homes and rice fields and seek jobs elsewhere. One villager, Khun Mao, said the rats have been sniffing for suspected mines in a rice field he had been afraid to cultivate for years. He said that while it is too soon to say whether the rodents can remove every mine, "To me, these rats are wonderful." "The villagers have started to get excited about farming their land again. You can see the light in their faces," said Paul McCarthy, Cambodia program manager for the Belgian nonprofit organization APOPO, or Anti-Personnel Land Mines Detection Product in English. On a recent morning, the African giant pouched rats were working two suspected, taped-off minefields. Each rodent wore a harness connected to a rope strung out in a straight line between two handlers standing about 5 meters apart and outside the danger zone. The rodents then darted from one handler to the other, constantly sniffing the ground and only taking time out to scrub their bodies with tiny front paws or to answer nature's call. The handlers moved a step or two down the field to repeat the process, and a second rat was later sent over the same terrain to double check. Two-year-old Victoria proved particularly swift"very active", one team member calls her. She stars in APOPO's "adopt-a-rat" fundraising drive. Learned response At the second field, Merry and Meynard were completing three hours of effort as a midday sun beat down on the parched earth. The duo had earlier nosed in on an explosive, halting just above it and scratching the groundthe learned response when a rodent detects TNT inside a landmine. A deminer with a detector followed and the mine was dug up and detonated. Unlike standard mine detectors, the super-sniffers pick up only TNT and not other metal objects. And unlike wage-earning humans, the rats work for peanutsand their other favorite, bananas. Theap Bunthourn, operations coordinator for the 34-member team, cited other advantages of using rats: They are cheaper to acquire and train than mine-sniffing dogs and easier to transport. PARIS - Paris police officials have vowed to beef up security for Chinese residents and holidaymakers in the French capital, who have become a main target of robberies. There was a rise in the number of theft and violent robberies targetting Chinese in 2015, according to Paris police chief Michel Cadot, who attended a meeting late Tuesday with representatives of Chinese community and Chinese embassy to address the security issue that worries Chinese. During the meeting, Codet hoped to closely cooperate with relevant parties and take concrete measures to improve security for the Chinese. Many robberies targeting Chinese tourists or residents had been committed by young offenders who often got minor punishment under French laws, according to a French police officer who also attended the meeting. Asians, notably Chinese, were a "top target" for pickpockets because they were believed to carry more cash than other holidaymakers, according to the French police. Wang Jiaqing, Executive Chairman of the Association of Chinese living in France, said the safety of Chinese residents and their properties were still under threat. Both Wang and his wife were victims of crimes in Paris. Li Ping, Minister Advisor for Consular Affairs at the Chinese Embassy in France, said the embassy has held 12 meetings with French police on the improvement of Chinese security. He also hoped to further strengthen dialogue and cooperation to ameliorate their protection. Wreckage of Twin Otter plane, operated by private Tara Air, is pictured after it crashed due to bad weather, in Myagdi, Nepal, February 24, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] KATHMANDU - The rescue team mobilized to the Tara Air crash site in Nepal will not be able to take the dead bodies to Kathmandu, Nepal's capital city, on Wednesday as the weather condition in the site has worsened, a senior Nepalese government official said. The Chief District Officer (CDO) of Myagdi, CDO Sagar Mani Pathak, said the rescue team was unable to take the dead bodies to Kathmandu as the accident site may see snowfall anytime. Nepalese authorities have confirmed that all 23 on board the ill-fated plane have been dead. Two foreigners, a Hong Kong resident and a Kuwaiti national, were among those on board. The weather was such that helicopters were unable to operate there, he said, noting that two helicopters sent to search for the missing plane have been stationed two hours south of the crash site. The Viking 9N-AHH Twin Otter with three crew was en route from Pokhara city to Jomsom, Mustang in the western Nepal when it crashed in Myagdis Rupse area. The plane took off from Pokhara Airport at 7:50 am local time and lost contact with Pokhara Air Traffic Control 10 minutes later when it reached the airspace of Ghorepani, Myagdi. US President Barack Obama on Wednesday praised his country's cooperation with China on climate change and hotspot regional issues. Obama made the remarks during an official meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the White House. Wang is on a US visit from Feb 23 to 25. Asking Wang to convey his greetings to President Xi Jinping, Obama said the US-China relationship is of vital importance, while both countries should continue communication and coordination. Obama said he looked forward to Xi's attendance at the fourth Nuclear Security Summit to be held in Washington in late March. Wang extended Xi's greetings to Obama and said China expects to maintain high-level strategic communication with the US and strengthen cooperation on international and regional hotspot issues to face global challenges together. China supports the US in holding the Nuclear Security Summit, he added. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (center) poses for a photo with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (left) and ranking member Ben Cardin during a visit to the Capitol Hill on Wednesday. [Photo/Xinhua] Foreign Minister Wang Yi has referred to the historical fact that Washington used to support China's sovereignty claims over the Nansha Islands, and he said "it should, at least, honor its commitment to not taking positions" regarding the Nansha Islands disputes. The senior Chinese diplomat made the remarks in a reply when he was meeting with US senators, including the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker. In response to questions, Wang introduced China's principles and positions regarding the South China Sea issue, and he said safeguarding peace and stability and ensuring navigation security and freedom there "serves China's own interests". China, based on international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is ready to embark on reconciliation with relevant countries to tackle divergences, Wang said. "Also, China firmly safeguards its own lawful rights and interests," Wang added. The senators said although divergences exist between the two sides upon issues such as human rights and the South China Sea, the two countries should work on closer cooperation to promote security and prosperity in the world. When meeting with Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Wang touched upon the Korean Peninsula situation and said that goal is not sanctions but that the situation should be resolved "through negotiations". The US said it is ready to strengthen communication and coordination with China upon issues such as the Korean Peninsula situation. A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched during a successful intercept test, in this undated handout photo provided by the US Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency. THAAD provides the US military a land-based, mobile capability to defend against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, intercepting incoming missiles inside and outside the earth's atmosphere.[Photo/Agencies] SEOUL -- South Korea and the United States are expected to launch a joint working group next week to discuss the deployment in the South Korean territory of a sophisticated US missile defense system, Yonhap news agency reported Thursday citing a government source. The source was quoted as saying that the joint working group would be launched next week due to shortage of time to finish the forming of it within this week. Preliminary talks between Seoul and Washington have already started to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korea. The talks are reportedly discussing various preparations to launch the working group, including who will represent each side. The joint working group was originally scheduled to be launch on Tuesday, but it was delayed at the request of the US side, according to the report. Seoul and Washington jointly announced the start of missile defense talks on Feb. 7 when the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched a long-range rocket, which the allies see as a prohibited test of ballistic missile technology. The rocket launch came amid ongoing discussions at the UN Security Council about tougher new sanctions against what Pyongyang claimed was its first H-bomb test on Jan. 6, the fourth of its nuclear detonations. South Korean Defense Ministry's vice spokesman Nah Seung-Yong told a regularly scheduled press briefing that the US Forces Korea (USFK) command has been preparing with the Seoul ministry to launch the joint working group on behalf of the Pentagon. After the USFK command completes internal discussion with the US government, the command will make preparatory talks with the Seoul ministry based on the internal conclusion, the vice spokesman said. The launch of the working group is widely expected to draw anger from neighboring countries, especially China and Russia, as the THAAD's radar covers far beyond the DPRK. The X-band radar is known to locate missiles as far as 2,000 km, spotting missiles in the territories of China and Russia bordering the DPRK. Senior US envoy to visit S.Korea this week for DPRK talks (Xinhua) Updated: 2016-02-25 16:04 SEOUL - A senior US diplomat will make a two-day visit to South Korea this week for talks about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear and missile programs, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday. Assistant US Secretary of State for Northeast Asian affairs Daniel Russel will visit Seoul from Friday to Saturday to meet South Korean officials, including First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-Nam and Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Hong-Kyun, Seoul's foreign ministry spokesman Cho June-Hyuck told a regular press briefing. Russel will discuss with his South Korean counterparts about ways of cooperation between Seoul and Washington in dealing with the DPRK's rocket launch and nuclear test, including sanctions at the UN Security Council as well as bilateral and multilateral restrictions, the spokesman said. Cho said that fresh UN Security Council resolutions, which include stronger and more effective factors than ever, have been in the final stage of coordination among relevant parties following talks earlier this week between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State John Kerry. Pyongyang tested what it claimed was its first hydrogen bomb on Jan. 6 and went ahead with the launch of a long-range rocket, which outsiders see as a banned test of ballistic missile technology, on Feb. 7. Seoul has since pushed for all-round pressures on the DPRK by encouraging the international community to come up with tougher new sanctions. South Korea has claimed that stronger restrictions would create an environment forcing change in Pyongyang and make the DPRK pay a harsh price for "reckless provocations." Three days after the rocket launch, South Korea decided to stop operations at a jointly-run factory park in the DPRK's border city of Kaesong. The DPRK responded a day later by closing down the industrial zone, deporting all South Korean workers and freezing assets there. Dismissing calls for simultaneous push for denuclearization and peace treaty on the Korean peninsula, Cho said that it is high time to focus on creating an environment to force change in the DPRK rather than to talk about resuming dialogue with Pyongyang. South Korea has maintained its position that the DPRK's denuclearization should be a top priority in any talks with the DPRK, Cho noted. KATHMANDU - Authorities in Nepal's western Myagdi district said on Thursday that the bodies of all 23 people killed in a small plane crash have been recovered. The bodies were being brought to a helipad in Surkepatal, 150 meters down from the crash site in Soli Ghopte Bhir, said Sagarmani Pathak, chief district officer of Myagdi. Security officials said the bodies would be brought to the western city of Pokhara, where the ill-fated plane took off Wednesday, for identification. According to Nepal Army Spokesperson Brig General Tara Bahadur Karki, civilian helicopters have already reached the crash site. "We have got report that the climatic condition is good after the snowfall on Wednesday evening, which had prevented airlifting of the bodies," he said. The Twin Otter plane of Tara Air crashed in Dana of Myagdi district, killing all 23 people aboard, including three crew members, two infants and two foreigners from China's Hong Kong and Kuwait. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks at a joint news conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry (not pictured) after their meeting in Washington, Feb 23, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday urged the US to honor its promise of not taking sides on sovereignty disputes over the Nansha Islands and play a constructive role in regional stability. Wang made the remarks as he briefed US lawmakers on China's stance on the South China Sea issue on Wednesday during a visit to the Capitol. "In history, the US used to support China's claim on sovereignty of the Nansha Islands and reefs. Now it should at least keep its promise of not taking sides on the sovereignty dispute over the Nansha Islands and play a constructive role in keeping peace and stability in the region," he was quoted by a press release issued by the Foreign Ministry as saying. Wang's Feb 23-25 visit to the US came amid US accusations of recent Chinese military deployment on some of its islands in the South China Sea, making headlines in the international media. The Foreign Ministry has long accused US of taking sides on the South China Sea issue by supporting other claimant countries and only focusing on China's deployment there while ignoring military construction by some countries on illegally occupied islands in the past decades. The Defense Ministry also said earlier this week that US reconnaissance is the root of "militarization" in the South China Sea. Wang emphasized to US lawmakers that ensuring peace and stability as well as the safety and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea is in China's interests. In the meeting attended by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, ranking member Senator Ben Cardin and others, Wang said China is willing to resolve the disputes with related countries through negotiations and the basis of international law. But he also voiced China's determination to protect its lawful rights and interests. The US lawmakers said ties with China represent the world's most important diplomatic relationship. They stressed that Washington and Beijing should seek closer cooperation despite divisions. The visit came a few weeks after US Secretary of State John Kerry's Beijing visit in late January. The two men have met three times in a month. Shi Yinhong, a professor of US studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing, said the visits are apparently driven by recent rising tensions in the South China Sea and unexpected changes on the Korean Peninsula. Both the Foreign Ministry and Ministry of National Defense voiced "serious concerns" toward negative comments from "The 2016 Defense White Paper" released by the Australian Department of Defense on Thursday. The document read: "Australia is particularly concerned by the unprecedented pace and scale of China's land reclamation activities" in the South China Sea and calls upon China to be "more transparent about its defense policies", the Guardian reported. The document also noted future plans of Australia to boost defense expenditure. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said "China, of course, does not expect to see regional tension or an arms race" when asked about Australia's increasing budget on building new types of submarines and whether China is concerned by such an arms race in the Asia-Pacific. "The relevant parties are hoped to stop so-called joint military drills and joint patrols, and stop consistently increasing military deployment in the Asia-Pacific," Hua said. Also on Thursday, the Ministry of National Defense criticized US Admiral Harry Harris' attempt to lobby for a greater defense budget by accusing China of "seeking hegemony" in the neighborhood. Harris, commander of US forces in the Pacific, said at a congressional hearing earlier this week that "China seeks hegemony in East Asia" and a change of "the operational landscape". "I've noticed that Admiral Harris has made the remarks to get more military budget from the Congress," ministry spokesman Wu Qian said. "You have your right to strive for more military budget, which we do not intervene, but it is in appropriate to ask for more money by carelessly smearing China," Wu added. Harris has been known for his high-profile and outspoken approach as he recently has stood at the forefront of challenging China's sovereignty in the South China Sea. "How could such a country be called a 'hegemon' when its islands and reefs have been occupied by other countries for decades, its coastal waters have faced close-in reconnaissance by warships and airplanes of other countries and its military has never waged a war?" Wu said. Wu added that: "In China, hegemony is a word reserved for a certain country, and that country is supposed to know well about that." Greg Austin, a Professorial Fellow with the EastWest Institute in New York, said in an online article that there is "a big lie" perpetrated by the Pentagon, a lie claiming that China's actions in the South China Sea "threaten commercial shipping". "There is an obsession with minute adjustment in military deployment by China, and not others," Austin wrote in a column on The Diplomat magazine website. A DPRK soldier stands in front of the Unha 3 rocket at the launch site in Tongchang-ri, on April 8, 2012. [Photo/IC] The United States and China have agreed on a proposed UN resolution on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and will not accept Pyongyang as a nuclear weapons state, the White House and United Nations diplomats said on Wednesday. US National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed during a meeting "on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Koreas provocations, including through a UN Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions," the White House said in a statement. The statement came as diplomats at United Nations headquarters in New York said that Washington and Beijing had agreed on a draft resolution imposing fresh sanctions on the DPRK and that the Security Council could vote on the measure in the coming days. The US circulated the draft of the sanctions on Wednesday to the other permanent members of the Security Council Britain, France and Russia and was set to formally present it to the full 15-member council soon, said the diplomats, who asked not to be identified. "There is good progress on the resolution, and we are hopeful that there will be adoption in the coming days," one diplomat said. Another diplomat described the draft resolution as a "significantly substantive text", while yet another said it contained "a large number of very tough measures", as well as names to be added to the sanctions blacklist. Beijing offered no direct comment on Thursday about the White House statement. (Photo : GETTY IMAGES) Van Diemen's Land Company (VDL), the largest maker of dairy products in Australia, is set to come under the ownership of China's Moon Lake Investments. Advertisement Australia's largest supplier of dairy products is set to change hands as a A$280 million (1.3 billion) deal with a Chinese company was approved by the government on Tuesday. The Tasmanian Land Company (TLC), which owns the Van Diemen's Land Company (VDL), will be sold to Moon Lake Investments, a Chinese company owned by billionaire Lu Xianfeng, Australia's Treasurer Scott Morrison confirmed on Tuesday. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement "This will guarantee more than 140 local jobs, generate an intended additional investment of over $100 million and an expected additional 95 jobs. Moon Lake has given guarantees that all current VDL employees will be offered ongoing employment with Moon Lake on terms no less favorable than their current employment arrangements," Morrison said in a statement. The Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approved the sale given that Moon Lake's investments in Australia complies with the Australian Taxation Law. Morrison added that the national interest test, which looks at the sale's positive impact on the workforce and the country's economy, added to the favorable decision. VDL's dairy farms are located in Northwestern Tasmania, which will receive more economic activity with Moon Lake's additional investment projects in VDL's farms. According to Morrison, Moon Lake will continue to supply milk and milk products in Australia. VDL produces more than 8 million kilograms of milk solids a year. "The land on which VDL operates has important cultural and natural heritage considerations. Moon Lake has committed to honor the terms of all environmental and cultural agreements entered into by VDL, including with the local Aboriginal community," Morrison said. Tasmania's senator Eric Abetz welcomed the decision, saying that it shows Tasmania is open for business. "Tasmania has turned the corner on economic recovery courtesy of State and Federal Liberal Governments, this is just another notch in Tasmania's belt which will help to put us on the map," Abetz said. Advertisement TagsVan Diemen's Land Company, Moon Lake Investments, Lu Xianfeng, Australia China partnership, tasmania (Photo : Getty Images) China reportedly has made several changes to its tourism policy towards Taiwan, resulting in a sharp 40 percent decline of Chinese tourists to the island. Advertisement In a move that has been touted as 'anti Taiwanese', China has made several changes to its tourism policy regarding Taiwan - potentially causing severe problems for the Taiwanese industry. These changes allegedly came into effect after pro-independence leader Tsai Ing-wen won the island's presidential election earlier this year. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement According to Taiwanese media, since the end of January's elections, Chinese authorities have placed a quota on outbound tourists to Taiwan. This has reportedly resulted in a sharp 40 percent decline of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan. The Chinese government has also reportedly suspended 80 percent of tour packages to Taiwan. Restrictions have also been imposed on Taiwanese tourists visiting China. Taiwan tourists now can visit only four cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen and Guangzhou - as opposed to 47 cities before the election. Experts say this is likely to also affect China as the country sees a large number of Taiwanese tourists each year. There is a little doubt, however, that Taiwan's tourism industry will feel the full brunt of the recent restrictions. Until a few months ago, twas witnessing a boom in Chinese tourists. The surge in Chinese tourists was the result of the fact that both countries had permitted free travel since 2012. The latest changes to China's tourism policy towards Taiwan may be an indication of how the Communist Party intends to deal with Tsai and her new government. China has cautioned the new Taiwanese government to abandon all quests for independence and maintain the foundations of mutually beneficial relations developed under the leadership of outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou. China considers Taiwan an integral part of its country, which is waiting for unification after a separation in 1949. Taiwan, on other hand, claims to be a sovereign state and continuously seeks support from the international community to assert its freedom from China. Advertisement TagsTaiwan, Taiwan's Tourism Industry (Photo : Getty Images) Amazon Kindle has unveiled new read-all-you-can service in China for a monthly subscription fee of only 12 yuan. Advertisement Amazon Kindle officially rolled out a new subscription service in China on Tuesday, offering clients all-you-can-read e-books for a monthly subscription fee of only 12 yuan ($1.84). The company said the move follows its observation that there is a growing interest in China for paid content. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The initiative dubbed 'Kindle Unlimited' gives Chinese Kindle subscribers access to over 44,000 digital books. Using Amazon's Kindle app, subscribers can now read as many e-books as they can on any smartphone or tablet computer as well as on any Kindle device. According to Gu Fan, the head of Kindle content product management at Amazon China, the service aims to offer Chinese clients a more flexible way to read. It is also aimed at encouraging China's developing interest in the virtual book industry. Economist Zhu Ning, who recently published his book The Guaranteed Bubble, claims that the number of books read by Chinese people is "embarrassingly low." Amazon China unveiled Kindle in December 2012, and by the end of last year, the company saw a 37-fold jump in the number of active paid readers per month. When the company noticed the decrease in the number of books being read by people, it launched the Kindle Unlimited service. However, Amazon needs to team up with more publishers and writers to maintain a sustainable growth of the new subscription service. Zou Jihua, the digital media division director of China South Booky Culture Media Co Ltd, said that cooperating with Kindle is more of a marketing strategy instead of creating big money through selling. However, he stressed that as long as books are popular in China, money can be earned in different ways. Advertisement TagsAmazon, Kindle, Amazon China, e-books, digital books (Photo : Reuters) Citing national security concerns, a group of 46 US legislators have demanded a full investigation into Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group's bid to take over the Chicago Stock Exchange. Advertisement Fears of covert Chinese 'manipulation' have cast doubt on Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group's bid to take over the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX), according to experts, as a group of 46 US legislators have stepped up their campaign to strike down the deal over national security concerns. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Republican Congressman Robert Pittenger, a member of the US House Financial Services Committee, on Tuesday called into question the Chinese company's motives for wanting control over the 134-year-old American market institution. "Thoughtful observers of China would concur that an acquisition of a major US asset by a Chinese firm would require Chinese government approval," Pittenger wrote in an op-ed column for Fox News. "Until China discloses more information, we should remain skeptical of their objectives." "Dominant Role" Pittenger and 45 other US congressmen are calling on the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) to launch a full-scale investigation into the Casin Group's bid to purchase the CHX. The proposed acquisition is the first time a Chinese-owned -- "possibly state-influenced" -- firm has attempted to gain access to the $21 trillion US equity marketplace, the legislators said in their letter to CFIUS. Bloomberg claims the Casin Group did not respond to several requests for comments on the letter, but notes that the company's listed real estate unit has seen its shares rise 27 percent since the CHX deal was made public. The company has no ties to the securities industry, and no previous experience in owning an exchange, according to reports. "Given the lack of transparency in China, we do not know the extent of state influence on this company," wrote Pittenger. "The Chinese government maintains a dominant role in many domestic market sectors." Political Connection Analysts have argued that Pittenger's suspicions are overblown, pointing out that the size of the CHX makes it an unlikely target for an attempt to manipulate US markets. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) likewise has adequate safeguards to protect US interests in the deal, market experts have added. "An acquisition of the miniscule Midwestern bourse would give its new Chinese owners an important lesson on the importance of robust disclosure, smart regulation and free capital markets," the financial journalist Rob Cox wrote in an opinion column for Reuters. "That's a good thing." But Pittenger thinks otherwise, drawing what he claims is a problematic political connection between CCEG executives and a key industry committee under the local government of Chongqing. "State influence in this matter could allow the Chinese government access to vast amounts of financial data on individuals and institutions, as well as the ability to shut down or alter trading should there be any confrontation between our two countries," the congressman said. Advertisement TagsUS-China relations, Chicago Stock Exchange, Committee on Foreign Investments in the US (Photo : Reuters) Admiral Harris of the US Navy's Pacific Command wants Washington to deploy more Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles in the South China Sea to counter China's growing naval power. Advertisement For months last year, the US weighed the possible outcomes of challenging China's land reclamation activities in the South China Sea, but now that it has, the US Navy's top commander in the Pacific says Washington would not back down. The US Navy needs more advanced weapons like Lockheed-Martin's air-launched Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) in view of Washington's plans to increase US freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, Admiral Harry Harris told the US Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement "We must continue to operate in the South China Sea to demonstrate that that water space and the air above it is international," Harris said, adding that the new LRASM is a "great capability we need to bring on line fast." "Game-Changer" Harris made the statement after satellite images surfaced earlier this week suggesting China is building a high-frequency radar system on a disputed area of the South China Sea. The images have led to speculations that the Chinese military is setting up an anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) zone in the territory. The US military's new LRASM is designed to counter the A2/AD weapons and technologies of countries like China and Russia, and is a "game-changer," according to the Pentagon. US defense secretary Ashton Carter highlighted the missile system when he unveiled the Pentagon's 2017 budget before the US Senate earlier this month. Experts say the new Lockheed missile is capable of sneaking through defensive zones undetected by radar, and is equipped with target-seeking technology that allows it to partly discern and destroy enemy vessels by itself. The US Navy plans to buy the first 24 LRASMs that will roll out of Lockheed-Martin's manufacturing plants next year, and then another 464 through 2021, according to Bloomberg. "Strategic Capability" Harris repeated Washington's earlier claims that Beijing is militarizing the South China Sea, and said the US should deploy more naval assets in the vicinity of the Asian waterway to deter China's increasing military presence there. "I need weapons systems of increased lethality that go faster, go further, and are more survivable," Harris told legislators in the armed services committee, adding that the US Navy's sub-sonic ship weapon -- the Harpoon -- is "essentially the same missile we had in 1978, when I was a newly commissioned ensign." Harris claims China is building high-performance JIN-class attack submarines, and deploying anti-ship missiles that can be fired increasingly far from US vessels, making them more difficult to detect and defeat. "When armed, a JIN-class SSBN will give China an important strategic capability that must be countered," Harris said. Beijing and Washington traded accusations of militarizing the South China Sea last week in the wake of reports that China had deployed HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island, part of the Paracel island group disputed by Beijing, Hanoi and Taipei. China has defended its right to establish defensive positions in areas it claims are its sovereign territory, and has likened Chinese defensive positions in the South China Sea to US military installations and weapons in Hawaii. Advertisement TagsUS-China relations, Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Admiral Harry Harris (Photo : Getty Images) China's top two billionaires Wang Jianlin (L) and Jack Ma (R). As per Hurun, China has outpaced the U.S. to become home to largest number of billionaires in the world. Advertisement China-based wealth research firm 'Hurun' has revealed that the country has outpaced the U.S. to become home to the largest number of billionaires in the world. This is despite the economic slowdown and other problems like corruption and the stock market crash that has been plaguing Chinese businesses for over a year now. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The report claims that China now has 568 billionaires as compared to 535 billionaires in the U.S.. China leapfrogged the U.S. in August last year, adding a further 99 billionaires to the list since then. Beijing has also overtaken New York to become the new billionaire capital of the world. Hurun's report disclosed that China's real estate sector produced the largest number of billionaires - 117. Followed by the manufacturing sector with 94 billionaires, while the technology sector created 68 billionaires. China has largest number of billionaires under the age of 40 and largest number of self-made female billionaires in the world, Hurun's report stated. Hurun's latest numbers are likely to be subjected to lot of scrutiny and debate as the prestigious Forbes Magazine is yet to disclose its billionaire ranking for 2016. As per Forbes 2015 report, China was way behind the U.S. in terms of the number of billionaires. China had 335 billionaires as compared to 536 billionaires in the U.S. in 2015, according to Forbes. Currently, China's no 1 billionaire is real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin, who reportedly owns asset worth up to $24.2 billion, followed by Alibaba owner Jack Ma, who has a net worth of $22.7 billion. Advertisement TagsChinese Billionaires, china (Photo : Getty Images) China has called on foreign media to stop targeting Beijing and look into the weaponry of other claimant-countries in the South China Sea. Advertisement China has accused the international media of targeting Beijing for its alleged deployment of missiles and radars in the South China Sea, totally ignoring the weaponry of other claimant-countries in the disputed waterway. Last week, reports surfaced that China had deployed missiles, fighter jets, and radar equipment to the disputed Woody island in the Paracel group of islands, which were also being claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement "I suggest to the media that, in your reports, you not selectively pump up or ignore things," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press conference on Wednesday. Ownership Hua reiterated that Beijing is free to deploy anything it deems fit to the China-controlled Paracels islands. Hua has called on the media to tread carefully on the South China Sea dispute and not zero in on China's arms deployment in the Paracels. "Because when you pay attention to what China is deploying, do you also pay attention to other countries which have, over the years, deployed radars and advanced weapons on Chinese islands they have occupied,?" Hua emphasized. Media " I hope friends in the media can objectively, rationally and calmly make their reports," Hua added. China is laying claim to a large portion of the South China Sea through which $5 trillion worth of maritime goods passes through each year. Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam and Taiwan have overlapping claims. Recently, Vietnam issued a diplomatic note to Beijing demanding China stops violating Hanoi's sovereignty in the disputed islands. Naval operations On Tuesday, Admiral Harry Harris, chief of the US Pacific Command, said that the US military will not stop its naval operations in the South China Sea despite China's opposition. He urged China to stop militarizing the South China Sea region. Harris said China's deployment of missiles, radars and jets on Woody island and the Spratlys and the building of airstrip on the Fiery Cross Reef were "actions that are changing the operational landscape in the South China Sea." Harris's statements came on the heels of the recently-concluded talks between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department where they tackled the South China Sea dispute. Advertisement TagsWoody island, Paracel Islands, International media, Naval operations, china (Photo : Getty Images) Workers work to load steel on a truck at a steel wholesale market on March 12, 2009 in Shenyang of Liaoning Province, China Advertisement Excess industrial production has worsened the economic slowdown in China, according to a report released on Monday by the European Chamber of Commerce. Ultimately, this could lead to global economic disorder, the report warns. According to the New York Times, the report conducted by the European Chamber of Commerce in China blames the leaders for failing to address the pressing issue of industrial production in the country. The report also points blame towards uncooperative government officials and ineffective government policies. The report noted much inefficiency in China's major industries like steel, cement and chemicals. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement According to the president of the chamber, Joerg Wuttke, the failure to address the issue could hold back China's economic recovery. More so, Wuttke noted that parochialism has also aggravated the problem. For years, China has been suffering from overcapacity or excess production. This happens when demand for a product falls well below the industry's capacity to produce. Experts say the problem has been aggravated as the government has focused its resources on heavy industries like shipbuilding and glassmaking in recent years. This was done despite the declining global demand. Overcapacity has also resulted in tensions among China's trading partners. Chinese producers have decided to export the excess and some foreign countries do not take this too well. The United States for instanc has imposed tariffs on select Chinese steel, while Europe is fighting against the importation of cheap Chinese steel. Chinese officials have downplayed protests against cheap Chinese steel in Europe by stating that overcapacity is not just happening in China, but all over the world. The Chinese government is already reconstructing the steel industry and has promised to cut production in some industries that over produce. In the report, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China offers several suggestions to combat overproduction such as cutting capital expenditures and imposing value-added tax so local government units have other sources of income. Advertisement TagsEuropean Chamber of Commerce, Joerg Wuttke, China economy (Photo : Getty Images) In this handout image supplied by the UNICEF, debris left by Tropical Cyclone Winston is seen on February 21, 2016 in Tamavua, Suva, Fiji. Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Winston made landfall in Fiji on Saturday, continuing its path of destruction into Sunday. Advertisement China on Monday provided emergency humanitarian aid worth $100,000 to Fiji Red Cross Society after a cyclone hit the country over the weekend. China was the first country to help out Fiji after the severe tropical cyclone claimed at least 20 lives. Gu Yu, the minister of the Chinese embassy in Fiji, stated that China sympathizes with Fiji in this great crisis and pledged to provide help to its people in building their homes back, according to Chinese state media. The national president of the Fiji Red Cross Society Cathy Wong accepted the aid from China on Monday, Feb. 22. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Gu said the Chinese embassy is in close connection with relevant departments of the Fijian government for disaster situation updates. He emphasized that China will keep on helping Fiji and will be actively involve in the country's reconstruction projects. While accepting the humanitarian aid, Wong stated that China is the first country to donate to the Fiji Red Cross Society. She noted that Fiji Red Cross is very grateful for the timely donation provided by the Red Cross Society of China. Sehe said the society will make effective use of the aid provided by providing disaster relief and reconstruction to victims of the cyclone. The natural disaster that struck Fiji was named Winston, a category five tropical cyclone. This is the highest level based on their maximum sustained winds or its severity. Winston swept through Fiji between the Pacific island country's main island of Viti Levu and northern island of Vanua Levu. The cyclone had wind gusts of over 320 kilometers per hour, tearing roofs and uprooting trees on its wake. It reportedly cut off power supplies and communications as well. In response, Fiji has declared a state of natural disaster for 30 days. At least 20 people died when the cyclone struck. Advertisement TagsChina-Fiji, Fiji, Winston, Fiji tropical cyclone Girl Scouts in troubling 'conflict' with Catholic values, leader says 25 February, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , | ST. LOUIS (Christian Examiner) The archbishop of St. Louis has instructed Catholic parishes in the diocese to evaluate whether or not the Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) are in "conflict with Catholic values." In a letter last Thursday (Feb. 18), Archbishop Robert Carlson claims the organization founded in 1912 is exhibiting "a troubling pattern of behavior and it is clear to me that as they move in the ways of the world it is becoming increasingly incompatible with our Catholic values." "We must stop and ask ourselves is Girl Scouts concerned with the total well-being of our young women? Does it do a good job forming the spiritual, emotional, and personal well-being of Catholic girls?" Carlson said the archdiocese and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had been investigating the GSUSA for several years, believing that they had drifted too far away from accepted Catholic social positions to be of further use for the instruction of young Catholic girls. He claimed the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) promoted contraception as a means of birth control and "reproductive rights" for those who were legally minors. He also wrote that the Girl Scouts continued to maintain association with female leaders such as Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan who promote values inconsistent with Catholic teaching. Steinem is a noted feminist. Friedan is author of the Feminine Mystique and co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL). "In addition, recent concerns about GSUSA and their position on and inclusion of transgender and homosexual issues are proving problematic," Carlson wrote. "Our culture is becoming increasingly intolerant of a Catholic worldview regarding these issues. While Catholics are called to treat all people with compassion and mercy, we must at the same time be mindful of whom we allow to teach and form our youth and the messages they present." Carlson acknowledged in the letter that the Girl Scouts are a secular organization with no direct link to the Catholic Church, and they, he said, are "not obliged to uphold the teachings of our faith." However, he added, the group's "troubling pattern of behavior" and its leftward drift are making it "increasingly incompatible with our Catholic values." In addition to lamenting the acceptance of homosexual lifestyles by Girl Scout leaders, Carlson also expressed regret the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) had made similar moves by adopting policies first to allow gay scouts to participate, and last year lifting the ban on gay adult scout leaders. The Catholic Church reportedly decided to allow BSA programs in its parishes to continue since the BSA's new rules on adult leaders left the hiring of adult leaders with the churches which chartered the scouting units. As for the Girl Scouts, Carslon said he takes the situation seriously. "Therefore, I am asking each pastor that allows Girl Scout troops to meet on parish property to conduct a meeting with troop leadership to review these concerns and discuss implementing alternative options for the formation of our girls. Our primary obligation is to help our girls grow as women of God," Carlson wrote. Carlson then wrote that he was disbanding the Catholic Committee on Girl Scouts and forming a new committee to help build character and moral clarity among young Catholic women the Catholic Committee for Girls Formation. Gabe Jones, spokesman for the archdiocese, later said that if a Catholic priest decides his parish is better served by disassociating it from the Girl Scouts, he has the authority to make a change and provide alternative avenues of service and learning for the girls. On Feb. 19, the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri's CEO Bonnie Barczykowski issued a formal response to the archbishop's letter. "Although we are a secular organization, we greatly value our long-standing partnerships with religious organizations across many faiths," Barczykowski wrote. "We provide the opportunities for girls to build leadership skills that when combined with their faith formation develop them into strong women, who will lead in their homes, communities, our country and our world." On the Girl Scouts website, the group denied any claim that it had a direct affiliation or partnership with any abortion provider, such as Planned Parenthood. It also denied an organic connection between it and the WAGGGS. It did, however, claim that the Girl Scouts (USA) is an "inclusive organization," or one accepting of lesbian leaders and scouts. The website also contained two form letter responses to the archbishop's letter, one for a local scout leader and another for a "supporter" of the Girl Scouts. The letters are available for download and only require the sender to fill in their name and address. Like the BSA, the Girl Scouts continue to hemorrhage memberships. In its 2010 annual report, it listed a total membership of 3.18 million (2.33 million were scouts; the remainder were adult leaders). In its 2014 annual report, that number had dropped to 2.8 million. Current figures provided on the organization's website indicate further decline in 2015. The Girl Scouts now claim only 2.7 million members. Tornado onslaught in Louisiana spawns prayer, relief crews 25 February, 2016 by Staff/Louisiana Baptist Message , | CONVENT, La. (Christian Examiner) A powerful storm ripped through south Louisiana Tuesday (Feb. 23), spawning at least seven tornadoes, damaging many Louisiana businesses and homes, leaving thousands without power and causing two confirmed deaths. As many spent today assessing the damage, Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief Teams are prepping their gear as they prepare to respond as early as today. Southeast regional coordinator Tom Long Wednesday said individuals were still assessing areas where teams will minister, including Livingston and Assumption Parishes, two areas that sustained significant damage from tornadoes. Currently, teams are on standby. "We haven't had a major storm recently in the state, but it takes just one event to remind people of a need to reach out and pick up a tarp, work on a chainsaw unit or serve a meal," Long said. "It's so important we get our people and churches involved in disaster relief. This is one of the largest ministry arms we have in our convention." According to the National Weather Service, seven tornadoes touched down in Louisiana Tuesday. The outbreak was caused by a strong low pressure system that moved in from Texas early that morning but was completely out of the state by 9 p.m. The powerful storm ripped through Louisiana killing two in an RV park while damaging hundreds of homes in LaPlace Tuesday afternoon. Authorities in St. James Parish at 6 a.m. Wednesday said they continue to search the Sugar Hill RV park in Convent for survivors. Three people are still missing. About 300 people lived in the park. Thirty were transported in ambulances after a tornado toppled campers and vehicles. Two deaths have been confirmed and seven people were in critical condition late Tuesday. About 100 RVs were damaged. High winds and heavy rainfall left as many as 26,000 without power at some point in the day and many schools and businesses shut down earlier in the day as a precautionary measure as the storms approached.. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards traveled to Convent Tuesday evening to assess the damage. "I ask all Louisianans to pray for the victims of the terrible storms that touched down in Louisiana today and especially at the Sugar Hill RV Park in Convent," Edwards said in a news release from the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. "And let us not forget their families and the first responders working so tirelessly tonight to save lives. We will do all that we can to help restore the families, businesses and communities destroyed by this tragedy." In Ascension Parish, multiple businesses and homes reported structural damage, including a group of businesses near one another off Airline Highway in Prairieville that included a newly built Gold's Gym, Agave Blue restaurant and Investar Bank. Livingston saw a power line fall on an occupied vehicle off US Highway 190, but no one inside was injured. Between 20 and 25 homes sustained damage in the town. In Paincourtville, a True Value store, LeBlanc's Brother concrete plant and the Assumption water tower sustained significant damage. A few miles to the east, a small funnel cloud touched the FedEx facility on the grounds of Louis Armstrong International Airport in Kenner, though no damages or injuries were reported. The damage prompted a state of emergency declaration by Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards in seven parishes. They are Assumption, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. James, St. John the Baptist and Washington. Anyone wanting to help can donate money for disaster relief operations by clicking here. Long added for more information, individuals can contact their local Baptist church or association, or call the state disaster relief office at 318.448.3402. This story was produced by the staff of the Louisiana Baptist Message and first appeared here. It is used with permission. Instances of arbitrary detainments of Christians and campaigns against churches and crosses in China continues to be reported in international media. A 2016 report of abuses documented around the globe, mostly carried out by governmental machinery, was recently released by Human Rights Watch. The report pointed out that in the reign of President Xi Jinping, churches have come under increased scrutiny, while thousands of crosses were demolished and many churches were razed to the ground. The government said that the church buildings were taken down because they violated construction laws. However, Christian groups say that the aim of the state was to suppress the freedom of religion. "Individuals and groups who have fought hard in the past decade for human rights gains were the clearest casualties of an aggressive campaign against peaceful dissent, their treatment starkly contrasting with President Xi's vow to promote 'rule of law.' Between July and September, about 280 human rights lawyers and activists were briefly detained and interrogated across the country," the report said. "In addition to the nationwide round-up of about 280 lawyers and activists in 2015, human rights lawyers were increasingly subject to physical assault, including by court officials. In August, lawyer Zhang Kai was detained for providing legal advice to Christians in Zhejiang Province who had resisted the authorities' forced removal of crosses on church buildings. Other lawyers, including Pu Zhiqiang and Tang Jingling, detained in separate cases since May 2014, remain in custody pending trial or verdict," it continued. The Chinese government denied the allegations made in Human Rights Watch report that the state is acting against the minorities. "The criticizing of the freedom of religious belief in China by Human Rights Watch is a product of subjective bias and prejudice, and has no foundation in reality. The cases it quoted in its report are only some common criminal cases processed by China's judicial authority, which are not related to religious belief," an official statement from the government said. The government asserted that those apprehended were "cases of superstition and fraud. Some so-called religious leaders in the report are actually violators of public order, swindlers or rapists, hiding behind the disguise of religion. The trials of these people have been transparent and strictly abide by Chinese laws." Recently, the leader of China's largest megachurch Pastor Gu Yuese from Hangzhou was arrested. He was at the forefront of protesting the removal of crosses in Zhejiang province since 2014. Charges of embezzlement of funds was brought against him, which Bob Fu of China Aid said was a "political revenge." Fu had said in a statement, "His arrest marks a major escalation in the crackdown against those who oppose the forced demolition of crosses. He will be the highest-ranking national church leader arrested since the Cultural Revolution." Some 40 Christians from Hong Kong also published an open letter saying that Gu's arrest was related to his protests against government crackdown on churches in the area. Pentecostal church affiliates in India protested against "steadily increasing attacks on Christians," and asked the government to intervene and shield them from violence. Tirunelveli District Pentecostal Churches Federation in the state of Tamil Nadu said they were being attacked by Hindu fundamentalists who want them to stop preaching Christianity, even though the country mandates freedom of religion. The gathering of the members pointed out they never fought back against those who attacked them, which would have amounted to disturbing peace in the society, in accordance with the teachings of their religion. "Though we're being targeted, we've never retaliated and done anything that would undermine the tranquillity of society as Christianity is all about love, compassion and brotherhood. Without breaching the limits and encroaching upon others' religious rights, we're following and practising our religion. However, heads of a few Hindutva outfits are encouraging their cadres to orchestrate attacks against us," R. Babu Paul Dinakaran, district secretary of the Federation, told The Hindu. The federation further said that the attacks led them to question their firm belief that they were living in a democratic and tolerant country. They noted that even those distributing the pamphlets and praying in the prayer halls were being attacked. The federation urged the government to take lawful action against the perpetrators, and take down boards that carry inflammatory messages that incite people against religions. The Catholic Secular Forum in India released a report identifying Tamil Nadu among the top five states with the highest numbers of anti-Christian attacks, with the state of Madhya Pradesh leading the list. Three devout Christians made statements last week that point to the challenge for evangelicals as we step into the muddy waters of another electoral season. The first comes from Pope Francis. Responding to Donald Trumps views on illegal immigration from our southern border, he said that anyone who wants to build a wall is not Christian. I didnt think the Pope was judging Trumps relationship to God (hes said on other occasions, Who am I to judge?). I think he was making a moral pronouncement about the wall: He was saying it would be unchristianor immoralto build such a wall. I trust we never get to a point where morality and policy are completely divorced. But in this instance, as in so many, its difficult to determine what in fact is the Christian position. Despite the ugly rhetoric, Trump and friends are deeply concerned about the security of US citizens. This is a moral concern, a Christian concernwe want to protect the lives and jobs of our fellow citizens. I dont happen to think building a wall is the best way to achieve security, nor the best way to live up to our national ideas of welcoming the tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe free. My Christian faith informs my judgment. But it would be self-righteous to say that mine is the Christian position and that any other is not Christian. Many political solutions are rife with moral ambiguity. The security barrier that separates Israel from the West Bank is a deeply troubling phenomenon: it divides people, brings unnecessary hardship to those who must cross it daily to work, ... 1 Historically, Christians in Israel and the Palestinian territories havent gotten along much better than their respective governments. The list of issues to argue about is long: security, the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, equality of citizenship in Israel, refugees, acts of lethal violence, and the search for justice and peace were examples listed at a gathering last month of 30 Palestinian Christians and Messianic Jews. However, the group didnt gather to argue. Instead, they spent four days in study and prayer before issuing a statement of unity. In times of tension and violent conflict, relationships suffer, while suspicion, accusation, and mutual rejection thrive, the statement read. At such times it is even more essential that we who affirm our unity in the Messiah must uphold ethical standards of life that are worthy of our calling, in all our attitudes, words, and deeds. The conference was hosted in Cyprus by the Lausanne Initiative for Reconciliation ... 1 The worlds deadliest terrorist group is not in the Middle East. Its in Nigeria, where the Islamist insurgency of Boko Haram and other forces killed more than 4,000 Christians in 2015. That death toll increased 62 percent from 2014, according to a new report. In response, Nigeria's largest confederation of Christian churches is, for the first time, jointly endorsing a commitment to revive churches in the West African nations north before they collapse from a decade of violence that has killed thousands of Christians and driven away more than 1 million. Most of the time, our brethren from southern Nigeria are ignorant of what is happening in northern Nigeria, said Samuel Dali, president of the Church of the Brethern in Nigeria. We want the churches in the south and other parts of Nigeria to see this terrorism as not only for the churches in the north but for the whole country, because whatever affects Christians in northern Nigeria, eventually it ... 1 5 things you probably didn't know about the book of Revelation There's a high probability that most Christians today have not opened their Bibles to the book of Revelation or have read very little of it. Revelation is one of the least favorite books of the Bible because of its eschatological nature. Yet no matter how much we shy away from Revelation, it is still a crucial key to understanding the redemptive work of God for all mankind, and while most of our ideas and concepts of the last book of the Bible may be true, there are also some things that not many Christians know that just may encourage us to open the last book more often. It's not the only book that talks about the end times Revelation is not the only part of the Bible that speaks of the end times nor is it the only part that talks of present darkness and destruction. In the gospel of Matthew, there is a lengthy recording of Jesus's explanation and exhortation on the second coming. The book of major and minor prophets were also at one point in history prophetic stories of things to come, and there is much more destruction and wrath in all of those books than Revelation. However, there's a reason why it's important to read these parts as well -- because we need to know the seriousness and danger that lies behind the sinfulness of the world so that we may understand the gravity of God's forgiveness and redemption. Some of the things in Revelation have already happened The destruction of the temple and fall of Jerusalem are recorded in Revelation as things that have already passed and not allegories of a "spiritual Jerusalem" falling at the hands of sinners. This part of Revelation is crucial not only to Christians but to the Jewish culture as it is one of the very few written accounts of the fall of the nation's capital. The book shows ONE revelation Revelation is the story of one single revelation, and not a group of separate prophetic revelations. Sure, the mark of the beast, the antichrist and the tribulation are all part of the story, but none of those are the highlights of the Revelation nor of the Bible. The one true highlight throughout scripture was, is and will always be Jesus Christ. The letter is written to seven churches that he pastors When reading Revelation 1, one might think that John hated or was intensely mad at the churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea because of all the judgment and warnings he spoke against them. This is far from true because John loved these churches so dearly because they were communities that he pastored. Revelation was meant to encourage and not scare John wrote Revelation not as a horror story that would scare people into believing that Jesus was real and is going to come back to toss unbelievers in a pit of fire, but as a letter of encouragement that would edify persecuted Christians, telling of the future glory that would come when Jesus returns. Another African nation declares itself an Islamic state, sparking public protests President Yahya Jammeh has unilaterally declared the African nation of Gambia as an Islamic state, the second one in the continent after Mauritania. The declaration, which coincided with the celebration of 51 years of independence, did not sit well with some groups who argued that Gambia is a "secular state" and that such a change must be constitutionally confirmed in a referendum, CBN News reported. "You cannot make such a declaration without going through a referendum," National Reconciliation Party leader Hamat Bah told Jammeh, according to Al Jazeera. Newspaper editorials also called the declaration "an affront to the Constitution of the Gambia, which is based on secular traditions and does not entertain the establishment of any religion as a state.'' Earlier in February, the Gambia Supreme Islamic Council hosted a 300-member conference to defend the president's declaration and encourage peace between Muslims and non-Muslims. Jammeh said the proclamation of The Gambia as an Islamic state is in line with the country's religious identity and values. "Accepting Allah's religion as your religion and as your way of life is not negotiable,'' he said. He also assured the nation that Gambia's identity now as a Muslim country will not lead to persecution of other faiths. "Let me make it very clear: that does not mean Christians cannot worship in their way of life," he said. "Christians should be given their own respect; the way they celebrate Christmas or whatever will continue. In our relationship with all the rest of the religions, nobody has the right to interfere with their way of life." "I have not appointed anybody as an Islamic policeman," Jammeh said late last year. "The way women dress is not your business; you are Muslim, she is a Muslim; you should not tell her how she should dress, it is not your business, in the next world you cannot defend her." However, weeks after his declaration he reportedly issued an executive order prohibiting all female civil employees from working with their hair uncovered. The president later withdrew his EO and allowed women to work freely without the head covering after protest from opposition groups. Jammeh has held power in Gambia since staging a coup in 1994. He has a "deplorable human rights record and rampant corruption," Human Right's Watch's Jeffrey Smith said in a recently issued statement. According to reports, many citizens are concerned the declaration and the president's violent record could lead to an increase in persecution of religious minorities. Gambia is a majority Muslim country as only 5 percent of the population are Christians, according to a Pew Research study. The nation is also not listed on Open Door's 2016 World Watch List. In a statement, Open Doors said that while the country has a secular constitution, "Islamic extremism as a persecution engine is present in the country.'' "Non-violent measures are taken to Islamise the country, particularly the educational system/institutions, public institutions, media, and marriage/family." Pakistan, Iran and fellow African nation Mauritania also identify themselves as Islamic states, according to reports. Archbishop of Uganda condemns 'deep betrayal' of biblical standards in Anglican Communion The Archbishop of Canterbury's attempt to heal divisions over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion is on the brink of failure after the Church of Uganda disclosed it is to boycott the next meeting of the communion's central body. Archbishop of Uganda Stanley Ntagali, who in common with most of his fellow Global South primates is strongly conservative, has openly condemned the "spirit of defiance against Biblical faith and order" that he says "has infected the structures and leadership" of the Anglican Communion. In a passionate letter that makes clear his disappointment and hurt, he says he feels "betrayed" by Anglican leaders. Accusing the leadership of lacking the will to follow through on discipline, he describes it again as "another deep betrayal". He said that as a result, Uganda will not be at the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka, Zambia in April. This comes after the US Episcopal Church declared that in spite of "consequences" imposed by the primates in January as a result of its liberal policies on gay ordination and gay marriage, its delegates will attend and vote at the meeting. In his Lenten letter posted on his website and reported also by George Conger at Anglican Ink, Archbishop Ntgali said he was greatly burdened in praying for his country which has been going through local and national elections. Uganda currently imposes heavy criminal penalties for homosexual activity. But his second "burden in prayer" was for the Anglican Communion which he said had been "torn at its deepest level" in 2003 after openly gay Gene Robinson was consecrated Bishop of New Hampshire. He said the communion was "broken" and in need of a new constitution. "We felt so betrayed," he said, referring to the actions of The Episcopal Church at the time. "It was a double betrayal betraying the clear message of the Bible and betraying an agreement the primates had made unanimously." Thirteen years later, with a new Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, in TEC and a new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Uganda was "cautiously optimistic" that the tear in the fabric of the communion could be repaired and betrayal healed, he continues. "The overwhelming majority of primates voted that there should be relational consequences for TEC because they are officially promoting false teaching. They should, therefore, not be allowed to represent the Anglican Communion in ecumenical and interfaith dialogues. Likewise, they should not be allowed to vote on matters of doctrine and polity within the Anglican Communion," he said. This was an important, symbolic vote because it was a rebuke. It also enabled the primates to re-state their commitment to the doctrine of marriage as between one man and one woman, and in line with resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference. Recent statements by TEC and others had made clear this was a "symbolic" and not a "substantive" vote. Archbishop Ntgali, who was the only primate to leave the meeting before the vote, "Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is like we are back in 2003 where we continue to be betrayed by our leaders. The Primates voted to bring discipline to TEC and, yet, we now see that the leadership of the Anglican Communion does not have the will to follow through. This is another deep betrayal." He also explained he left the meeting early because he sensed that the leadership was "not serious" about restoring Biblical faith within the Communion. "A spirit of defiance against Biblical faith and order has infected the structures and leadership of the Anglican Communion. It is a very sad season in the life of our Anglican Communion." He said the Church of Uganda's Provincial Assembly has resolved that the Church of Uganda will not take in meetings of the Anglican Communion until "godly order" is restored. "This has not yet happened. The Church of Uganda, therefore, will not be participating in the upcoming April meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka." He and other primates will debate what they do next at the next meeting of the Gafcon Primates Council meeting in Chile in April. Calais Jungle demolition to go ahead: 'It's as if the government wants people to disappear' Campaigners today condemned the verdict that French authorities can legally demolish a large part of the so-called 'Jungle' camp outside Calais, where thousands of refugees are living in the hope of making it across the Channel to a new life in the UK. A court in Lille this afternoon ruled that the eviction plan for the camp was legal, after Judge Valerie Quemener on Tuesday postponed the decision. She had said she had a "real problem" reconciling the difference between the number of refugees and migrants estimated to be living in the camp by French authorities, and figures given by NGOs and other aid agencies. According to the Calais prefecture, between 800-1,000 people of a population of 4,000 would have to leave the southern part of the camp under plans to bulldoze it. Help Refugees and Auberge des Migrants, charities working in the Jungle, however, put the number at more than 3,450. Of these, at least 305 are unaccompanied children, many of whom have fled war and persecution in countries such as Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. A spokesperson for the Pas-de-Calais prefect's office today said: "The order [for demolition] is applicable, except for common social areas". Speaking to Christian Today ahead of today's verdict, Tanya Freedman of Help Refugees said the charity could not predict Quemener's decision, but they remained hopeful given that she had taken two days to deliberate. "We hope that means better measures are going to be taken," Freedman said. Now that the decision to go ahead with the demolition has been made, however, Help Refugees said in a statement that it would appeal the verdict. This verdict will strip refugees of their homes once again without adequate alternative provisions. - Help Refugees "We are devastated to announce that this afternoon the court ruled against us and have upheld the decision to demolish the Southern section of the 'Jungle'," the statement said. "We will be appealing this decision immediately. We are shocked that this verdict will strip refugees of their homes once again without adequate alternative provisions. Our census revealed 3455 refugees will be evicted and it was stated in court that only 1156 alternative places are currently available across France. "Our concerns particularly remain with the 305 unaccompanied children who will be evicted from their living quarters without proper assessment, safeguarding or suitable alternative provisions...We will do everything in our power to assist the refugees and minimise their trauma." The charity said it had received no confirmation of when evictions and bulldozing will begin. Tensions rising Teams working on the ground in Calais report a desperate situation. Poor facilities, lack of sanitation, and inadequate shelter mean that thousands are struggling to survive the winter. "There is no dignity," Vincent de Connick of Secours Catholique, part of the charitable arm of the Catholic Church, told Christian Today. Speaking from the camp on the French coast, he said: "There's much tension and worrying about the evacuation." Campaigners fear that the alternative to the Jungle is an even worse prospect for the thousands of refugees set to be displaced. While Calais is cold and wet, those living there have created small communities in the hope of recreating some semblance of normality. Among the makeshift shelters, thrown together with whatever plastic sheeting they can find, are half a dozen mosques, an orthodox church, cafes, restaurants, shops, libraries and even a theatre actors from London's Shakespeare's Globe performed there earlier this month. A number of charities and volunteers offer French and English lessons, legal advice on claiming asylum and opportunities to meet with people from all over the camp. "It's not normal life," de Connick said. "But it's at least social life. It's human being life." These facilities are at risk under the bulldozing plans. According to Help Refugees, the prefecture promised in court today that "social spaces" would not be destroyed; the charity understands these to include the church, mosques, the schools, the women and children's and youth centres, and the library. But lots of services will still be lost, Freedman said this morning. "Commercial enterprises which give people a place to be. Those little things that make people feel some semblance of normal life." Refugees who will be moved on from their temporary homes in the southern part of the camp are being offered bleak alternatives. Lawyer for the prefecture Pascale Leglise said they may be relocated to one of 98 refugee centres across France including Dunkirk, where conditions are worse even than Calais or to converted shipping containers in the northern part of the Jungle. These containers are heated, and provide good protection from the cold, but little more than that, campaigners say. Each is totally bare apart from six sets of bunk beds, so inhabitants can only stand up or lay down when inside. One man already living there tried to build a wooden box for his shoes but was stopped by authorities who said no additional furniture was allowed, Freedman said. "No one wants to feel that they are in a facility, almost like a prison". De Connick said that while the containers do provide adequate shelter, "refugees are not only bodies that need to be at a good temperature at night. They need social life, spiritual life, cultural life." There simply isn't enough space there for all the refugees that will need rehousing when the demolition goes ahead, he added. It's as if the government would like to make people disappear. - Vincent de Connick "The solution to eradicate the camp is not a solution as long as it does not provide proper solutions for everybody, and that's why we were forced to go to court," he said. "We would like the camp to disappear in the future and we're ready to collaborate, but it must take time we have to discuss it with the refugees, experiment and try different solutions. It's as if the government would like to make people disappear before the Spring because they are afraid of new arrivals." 'Appalling' action by governmental authorities Campaigners have condemned the French and British authorities for their handling of the situation, particularly of those refugees who have family in the UK and are therefore legally allowed to claim asylum in Britain. Hollande's government is "still afraid by the number," de Connick said. "The point for them is to empty Calais and send people everywhere that's not Calais," he added. The British government, meanwhile, "applies the law when it wants to send people back but not when it has to welcome them." Freedman branded the French authorities' actions so far "appalling". "They've allowed this to happen," she said of the conditions in Calais. "They gave this space to the refugees a year ago, and said 'this is where you can go', and then abandoned them. They've done almost nothing... There's nobody there regularly to explain [to refugees] what their rights are. It's a huge failure in the system." The main concern for these charities is the plight of unaccompanied minors, hundreds of whom are living in the Jungle. Child protection agencies registered around 1,600 in France in 2015, but the true figure is believed to be far higher. "They are the most vulnerable. These young people are alone in the world. Some have lost their parents, some were sent by their parents because they thought it was their best chance of survival. Nobody would wish this on any young person they need support, they need guidance, and to be in education," Freedman said. Nobody would wish this on any young person they need support, they need guidance, and to be in education. - Tanya Freedman Dr Philip McCarthy, CEO of the Catholic Social Action Network (CSAN), yesterday told Christian Today that the future for vulnerable people living in the camp in Calais is bleak should the demolition go ahead. "Some will be forced into the arms of people traffickers, some will attempt the risky crossing of the Channel. Some will be dispersed only to come back," he said. "We're urging our government to intervene," Freedman added. "No one should be living in the mud." How could the Bible help Christians think about the EU Referendum? The European Union is a secular construct with foundations rooted firmly in Christian concepts of solidarity, subsidiarity and the common good. Many church leaders across Britain would support the "in" argument, recognising the aspirations of a union rooted in high ideals. Does the Bible have anything to say about it? In the sense that it's even remotely interested in the technicalities of 21st-century inter-governmental treaties, no. But there are verses that provide imaginative jumping-off points for a serious critique of the EU project. As long as we're careful not to say they were written with the EU in mind or to claim divine backing for our position, they can at least help us talk about it. Genesis 11:1-9 Everyone has heard the story of the Tower of Babel. God scattered the people over all the earth because he feared nothing would be impossible for a people that built a tower to reach into the heavens with "one language and a common speech". This is about usurping God's sovereignty. I've always thought the punishment was a bit hard on the people who gathered on the Plain of Shinar. Would the world be richer or poorer if we all spoke one language today? This passage does seem to suggest that diversity is part of God's wider plan. The original intention of splitting up the people of the world into language groups and hence into nations may be seen as part of the divine order to restrain evil. Deuteronomy 17:14-20 This passage preaches against exploiting power in the name of greed and lust. It is about ensuring that power is answerable to God. No-one today is demanding racial purity or religious exclusion. The point here, following on from Babel, is that evil is restrained by limiting the accumulation of power. God gives land to possess, and sets up kings to rule "like all the nations around us". The principle is that God sets up nations: they are part of the divine order. The exhortation not to allow the king to accumulate horses or silver and gold is a specific prescription to mitigate power. The point is that the king is accountable, while Brexit proponents argue the EU is not accountable in any way that the peoples of each nation state can initiate or change policy. Power is centralised, not dispersed. 1 Kings 21 The descendants of Ahab, King of Samaria, are punished by God because of Ahab's wife Jezebel's murderous plot to seize Naboth's vineyard. Ahab, repentant, humbles himself and wears sackcloth after the deed was done, so God decides to punish his house in the days of his son instead. In our times, Greece is bankrupt. Workers are unemployed, families are being made homeless, people are starving and healthy men and women are committing suicide, unable to cope with life. God cares for the poor, destitute and underdogs of society. He pours his wrath upon those who just provide wealth for the wealthy and deprive the poor. The story of Naboth's vineyard establishes that authorities are not free to pursue any policy they please policies such as so-called "austerity" which ride roughshod over the rights of the poor. Matthew 22 "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." This is Jesus accepting the principle of state power. From Caesar comes notions of social law, to which Christians are subject. But what happens when EU law overrides national law, as Brexit supporters argue is the case with the overarching corpus of legislation emanating from Brussels? The UK's liberal democratic concept of Caesar is fundamentally challenged by the EU's oligarchical concept of Caesar. Christianity makes it plain that all men are equal before God: no matter how poor or wealthy they may be, everybody counts. In political guise, this may be seen to point to democracy: the involvement of ordinary men and women in the framing of the laws by which they are governed. The EU is anti-democratic and unaccountable, say its opponents. Romans 13 Let everyone be subject to the governing authority. Which authority that should be is what is contested in the Brexit debate. Supporters of remaining in Europe could use this passage to advocate for obeisance to Brussels. But we are also told there is no authority except that established by God. Britain's Coronation Service contains the words: "So be thou anointed, blessed, and consecrated Queen." Supporters of Brexit feel strongly that British sovereignty is being usurped. (With thanks to Adrian Hilton at Christians for Britain for some input. Article and comment putting the case of Christians for the EU to follow soon.) Essure female contraceptive device has killed over 300 unborn children and should no longer be sold U.S. lawmaker A contraceptive device inserted into the female body has already caused the death of over 300 unborn children and should be pulled out from the market, a Pennsylvania congressman has revealed. Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick has accused the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of turning a blind eye on the foetal deaths and the harsh effects of the surgical sterilisation device called Essure to women's bodies. Fitzpatrick, who is being supported by some victims of this birth control device, charged that the FDA's own data indicated that it already has "adverse event reports" including miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, and stillborn deaths. He added that the agency failed to thoroughly follow up complaints it has received that Essure has killed unborn babies, and even underreported the magnitude of the situation. "When it comes to data reporting we're talking about more than just numbers. We're talking about 300 unborn children who were killed because of the failure of a product," the lawmaker said, as quoted by LifesiteNews. "They've been telling me that with respect to Essure, there have been five foetal deaths," he added. "If you actually read the narratives of those reports that have been filed, those complains, the number exceeds 300." According to its own website, Essure claims itself to be a "permanent birth control" method that can help a woman "stop worrying about an unplanned pregnancy." It involves the insertion of a metal coil into a woman's fallopian tubes. This irritates the fallopian tubes, creates a scar tissue and blocks the woman's eggs from being released into the uterus for fertilisation. "Women are being harmed. Citizens are being harmed," Fitzpatrick said. The lawmaker has already filed a bill in Congress seeking to permanently ban the sale of Essure. "The failures of Essure are well documented and wide-ranging," Fitzpatrick earlier said. "Yet in the face of all these facts, this device remains in the market, certified with the FDA's stamp of approval. That's unacceptable to me and unacceptable to the tens of thousands of 'Essure sisters' who are living with this device's effects." 40 Muslim refugees find Christ, get baptised at Barry Island A Welsh church has celebrated an extraordinary baptismal service, remarkable both for the candidates and for the location. Tredegarville Baptist Church, located in Cardiff city centre, baptised 40 young adults in the cold February sea at the resort of Barry Island and most of them were refugees and asylum-seekers from Iran and Afghanistan. Reported by The Baptist Times, the baptism was the second in less than a month. It was conducted by Tredegarville's pastor, Rev Phylip Rees, though the baptisms themselves were carried out by leaders of the congregation in pairs. The event was a public witness to the candidates' faith. Supporters boiled kettles on the beach and made hot drinks for them as they came out of the water and bystanders asked about the meaning of the event. Rees told Christian Today the church had "a big ministry in reaching Muslims with the unconditional love of Jesus Christ". "We do not compromise on the Gospel message, but the initial catalyst used by God was in my wife and I inviting a young Iranian couple to live in our family home. It started there, and I cannot emphasise enough how important the ministry of hospitaility is to the cause of Jesus Christ." He said: "Those who are in Christ are expected to evangelise in the city centre every week and this and personal witnessing brings a steady flow of new people to the church.'' The church has engaged in ministry to Muslim refugees and asylum seekers in addition to students and other internationals for the last 13 years. The largest language group is Farsi, spoken in Iran. Two midweek Bible studies at the church have now divided into two sittings, with an average attendance of 70 people. The first session is a rolling programme to introduce people to the basic beliefs and behaviours of Christians, followed by preparation for baptism, while the second is a Bible study for those who are endeavouring to live the disciplined Christian life. Rees told Christian Today he was committed to outdoor baptisms. "We have lost more than what we have gained in building baptismal pools into our churches," he said. "In fact if I was building a new church, I would not have a baptismal pool in it as we have sanitised baptisms. What is more, I would not baptize anyone who has a problem with being baptised in cold water, and I told those who were being baptised that the baptismal service would take place even if there was a blizzard and if they wanted to be baptized then be there even if they had to walk to Barry from Cardiff!" Grand Imam denounces American Christians who accept gay marriage The former Grand Mufti of Egypt has rejected the bishops of the Episcopal Church of the USA for endorsing gay marriage, calling it unbiblical, according to Anglican Ink. "Unfortunately some Heads of Churches in the United States accept same-sex marriages. I wonder what is left of the Bible in those Churches," Sheikh el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of the al-Azhar in Cairo said, speaking at the Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah in Indonesia. Sheikh el-Tayeb, the premier Sunni religious leader and Islamic jurist in the Muslim world, asked American Christians whether they were being faithful to Christ: "What will they say in front of Jesus, peace be upon him?" During the talk, he also denounced US government policy for using foreign aid as a means of pressuring nations to adopt its own views on homosexuality, and suggested liberal churches were giving moral sanction to this blackmail. Although he did not explicitly reference the US Episcopal Church (TEC), it is assumed it was the intendend audience. TEC has recently received sanctions from the Anglican Communion for approving gay marriage and consecrating gay bishops. According to a statement from the primates at last month's meeting in Canterbury,TEC will "no longer represent us on ecumenical and interfaith bodies, should not be appointed or elected to an internal standing committee and that while participating in the internal bodies of the Anglican Communion, they will not take part in decision making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity." Sheik el-Tayeb was formerly the Grand Mufti of Egypt, between 2002 and 2003 and is considered to be one of the most moderate Sunni clerics in Egypt. Indian Christians protest book which claims Jesus was a Hindu Indian Christians in Maharashtra state have protested against a book by one of the founders of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) claiming Jesus was a Hindu. First published in 1946 and written by Ganesh Savarkar, Christ Parichay translated into English as Jesus was a Tamil Hindu claims Jesus was a Brahmin and that Christianity is just a sect of Hinduism. It says his real name was Keshao Krishna and that his mother tongue was Tamil. The author also claims he was rescued from the cross by the Essenes and healed with medicinal herbs. He was then taken to Kashmir and spent the rest of his life in the Himalayas, where his tomb can still be found. The book has been reprinted by a Mumbai-based trust dedicated to propagating the teaching of Savarkar and his brothers, according to Mid-Day news. The RSS promotes a Hindu nationalist ideology espoused by the ruling BJP party that has been blamed for outbreaks of violence against Christians and for anti-conversion laws passed in several Indian states. Groups affiliated to it practise "re-conversion" or "ghar wapsi" ceremonies at which Christians and Muslims are "welcomed back" to the Hindu religion. Many of them are from the poorest communities and the campaign is highly controversial, with Christian and Muslim leaders arguing that their members were targeted with financial and social incentives. According to the beliefs promoted by the RSS, all Indians were originally Hindus and communities practising different religions are ultimately apostate. The re-issue of Savarkar's book is designed to bolster this argument. It has drawn fierce criticism from Christians, says Mid-Day. Fr Nigel Barrett, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Bombay, said: "There is an attempt to re-write history and draw us into controversy. Christianity is well grounded and based on the person of Jesus who without a doubt is a real person in history. The RSS is welcome to claim what they will, it doesn't affect us. Our faith in Jesus is based on a personal encounter with Christ." Dr Abraham Mathai, President of the Indian Christian Voice and former Vice Chairman of the Minorities Commission, said: "The book is a sign of high ignorance of the author. Jesus Christ was born 2000 years ago in Bethlehem and died at Calvary. Yes, Christianity came first to India rather than the West, when St Thomas, one of Jesus's apostles came here to preach. The basis of this book is completely false." A delegation to the from the Maharashtra United Christian Council to the Chief Minister led by Rev Sanjay Londhe demanded the book be banned. Londhe asked why, if Jesus were a Hindu, some Hindu organisations were against the Church. "They should not burn churches and attack Christians," he told Mid-Day. The opposition Congress Party questioned the timing of the book's release. "It appears to be deliberate. They want to create confusion among the Indian masses. They must stop it," party spokesperson Sachin Sawant said. Sunday trading showdown set for House of Commons A showdown over Sunday trading is set to occur in the House of Commons in early March after a committee of MPs passed the government's last-minute amendment to the Enterprise Bill on Thursday. Labour has said it will oppose the change which would allow local authorities to relax restrictions on opening hours for large stores on a Sunday. With over 20 Conservative MPs set to rebel against their own party, the changes could be defeated if the Scottish National Party (SNP) join the opposition. However there are hints the SNP may have done a deal with the government. When the proposals were first suggested in November, Angus Robertson, the SNP's Westminster leader, said the "legislation will impact on workers in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK". He promised: "The SNP will continue to work with the representatives of shop workers and we will oppose the Tory proposals". But Hannah Bardell, SNP spokeswoman on business, has now said her party would reconsider the concerns before deciding whether to oppose. This has raised the suggestion among campaigners the SNP might withdraw their opposition, despite research showing Scottish shopworkers would lose up to 1,400 per year under the change. The SNP were contacted for a comment but declined to do so. The government has applied the principle of English votes to English laws (Evel) to the amendment, which was introduced late to the Enterprise Bill, meaning neither the House of Lords nor the House of Commons have debated the measure fully. Evel allows a grand committee of English and Welsh MPs to veto the votes of Scottish MPs on legislation only affecting England and Wales. However the principle will have no effect on the Sunday trading amendment because it was introduced so late to the proceedings. As a result, the whole House of Commons will vote on the changes with the SNP holding the balance of power to decide whether or not to support the Conservatives' policy. A vote is "almost certain" after a counter-amendment was tabled against Sunday trading. In addition to opposition within parliament, a legal challenge has been launched against the government by a number of organisations within the Keep Sunday Special (KSS) campaign. They have written a 'letter before action' threatening judicial review, questioning the government's consultation which they called a "sham". "Evidence that does not the government's agenda has been ignored" and the evidence "quoted is irrelevant and outdated", a statement said. "The consultation amounts to an advocacy document for the proposals instead of being a balanced account of the views expressed by respondents to the consultation, suggesting that the government had made it decision on this policy before considering consultation responses," the statement continued. A spokesman for the Keep Sunday Special campaign said: "We do not enter into this action lightly, and do so with a heavy heart. "There are fundamental flaws in the process that the Government has taken and full consideration is needed, not the inadequate process that has taken place to date." KSS are not the only ones questioning the government's approach. Christian public policy charity CARE, who have campaigned against the changes, called it a "lamentable lack of proper transparency". "The list of procedural failures are longer than your average Sunday shopping list," said CARE's CEO Nola Leach. "Not only has the Lords been denied the chance to properly scrutinise the plans, but the Commons have been denied a Second Reading debate on extending Sunday trading. "Instead the government deliberately shoehorned the proposals into the Enterprise Bill in the full knowledge that doing so would deny Peers and MPs adequate opportunities to examine the proposals," she added. Swedish teen rescued from ISIS-run Mosul speaks out A 16-year-old Swedish girl rescued from ISIS-controlled territory near Mosul last week has spoken out about the "hard life" she endured under Islamic State. Having just left school, Marlin Stivani Nivarlain - then 15 - was convinced to travel to ISIS by her 19-year-old boyfriend, who went on to fight for ISIS, she told Kurdistan 24 in a short interview. "At first we were good together, but then he started to look at ISIS videos and started to speak about them and stuff like that. And I don't really know anything about Islam or ISIS... so I didn't know what he meant. "And then he said he wanted to go to ISIS and I said OK, no problem, because I didn't know what ISIS means, what Islam is. Nothing," she said. She subsequently ran away from her foster home in Boras, east of Gothenburg, and travelled across Europe by train, bus and car, before crossing the border into Syria from Turkey. "When we come to Syria, ISIS took us in a bus with some other women and men to Mosul in Iraq," where the militants provided them with a house, she said. "I get my house and in the house we didn't have anything no electricity, no water, nothing and we didn't have any money either. "It was totally different to Sweden, because there we didn't have anything and in Sweden we have everything." She was rescued by Kurdish anti-terrorist forces on February 17, who said the teen "was misled" by her boyfriend on leaving Sweden. The rescue operation was initiated by a phone call to her mother where she asked to go home, and her mother's decision to contact the Swedish authorities, she suggested. "It was really hard life," she said. "So when I had a phone I started to contact my mum and said 'I want to go home'." Nivarlain is currently being "provided the care afforded to her under international law" in Iraqi Kurdish territory and would be sent home as soon as possible, a statement from the Kurdish regional government said. The most influential religion in the West (clue: it's not Christianity) It's been creeping into our public life for years. Some of it has come from overseas but we have our own homegrown versions too. It's a religion that many of us find hard to understand and in its most extreme forms, it's repressive, demeans human dignity and leads to horrendous consequences. What is this faith through which so many of our decisions are now made, before which we're all made to bow and opposition to which will get you branded as small-minded and backward-looking? The religion is called 'choice'. Choice has become the prism through which we're supposed to view all our decisions. Don't believe me? Here's what David Cameron told the House of Commons this week when asked about Sunday Trading laws: "You've got these restrictions on opening hours for many stores...I think it's time to modernise our approach to give families more choice..." Essentially, the Prime Minister is suggesting that if some people want to be allowed to shop all day on a Sunday they must be allowed to. On the surface, this sounds reasonable. Sunday is a day like any other, goes the argument, so we should be free to shop as much as we like. However, one person's choice affects another person's ability to make a choice. So, in this case, as soon as big shops are allowed to open all day on Sundays there will be pressure on employees to work an eight hour shift, or longer. The choice for me to be able to shop for a new TV at 9pm on a Sunday means that someone who works in that shop doesn't have the choice to spend time with their family. Advocates say employees could choose to work somewhere else in a job that doesn't require Sunday working, for example. But this is simply unrealistic. Many working in retail jobs won't just be able to choose to work elsewhere. So for Cameron, choice is king. But it isn't just the Conservative leader who's made this appeal. In fact, his Labour predecessor Tony Blair was obsessed with choice. It became one of the most oft-repeated words of his tenure as Prime Minister and the engine which generated much of his policy. In one key speech in 2003, Blair used the word 'choice' an astonishing 31 times. "Specialist schools increase choice for parents and pupils...So too with the health service...We are expanding choice for patients...choice for all patients everywhere," he said. Warming up to his theme, Blair made a passionate case for choice as a driver of equality. "Extending choice for the many, not the few is a key aspect of opening up the system in the way we need. It is choice with equity we are advancing...Choice and consumer power as the route to greater social justice." Blair's unswerving addiction to 'choice' as the best option for all public services was spotted early by one academic who said, "If New Labour hasn't broken with the Thatcherite settlement then the 'choice' and 'open-ness' it promises will be conceived in market terms." Written in 1998, this has proved remarkably prescient. 'Choice' as defined by Blair and now Cameron isn't about individuals or families deciding what's best for them. To take the example of Sunday trading again, what's actually going on is that big corporations are demanding that they be allowed to open longer and we're being told that will be good for us. What looks like choice is actually an illusion. Large companies demand the rules be fixed according to their desires and the rest of us are expected to fall in line. So we've seen choice applied to shopping and choice applied to politics, but the advocates of choice don't stop there. We're now encouraged to consume education as a choice. Parents need to move to the right area so they can choose the right school for their children. We're offered choices over the most banal of transactions. We live in a world where Subway offers 37 million possible sandwich variations. So what's the problem? Well, no-one's suggesting that we ban all choice and opt for some kind of Soviet-style system where everything is decided for us. But we do need to examine whether we've gone too far the other way, and whether having as much choice as we do in the West today is actually bad for us. This is where things get really interesting. Does choice actually fail to deliver on the very thing it promises happiness and satisfaction? Psychologist Barry Schwartz thinks so. In fact in this popular Ted Talk he argues that too much choice has paralysed us. A Christian response to a culture that promotes choice above all else is urgently needed. But we have our own version of the choice culture. We talk about 'church-shopping' when we've moved to a new area, to find the place that 'works for us'. And you only have to scan the shelves of a Christian bookshop to know we're now offered a bewildering array of literature, music and other products, designed to make sure we keep consuming. The gospel instructs us to subsume our own personal preferences not only to God, but to our sisters and brothers. "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ," Paul tells the Ephesians. This is actually the opposite of unfettered choice. It's about limiting our own desires and preferences so that the common good is upheld. The choice to be able to buy whatever we want, whenever we want, has consequences. Just look at Amazon.com, whose deeply troubling office culture and the affect it has on many employees was revealed by the New York Times. The choice to have a new mobile phone ever year or so and for that phone to have a dizzying choice of features is another example. We in the West may have a vast array of choice but the workers building smartphones and people in the awful conflict zones where the minerals to create them are mined aren't allowed much choice. In other words, in giving ourselves virtually unlimited choice, our fellow human beings aren't afforded the choice to live in peace and dignity. What does our faith say here? I find Paul's statement in 1 Corintians 10 helpful. "'All things are lawful', but not all things are beneficial. 'All things are lawful', but not all things build up. Do not seek your own advantage, but that of others." In other words, yes, we have more choice than ever before in history. But it might not be good for us, for our world or our fellow humans. That should give us cause to stop, think, and reject maximum choice as the only way we can negotiate our daily lives. Three Coptic Christian teenagers face jail time for 'contempt of Islam' Three Coptic Christian teenagers were today sentenced to five years in jail after being charged with insulting Islam, according to AFP. The three, who are still in high school and aged between 15 and 17, were filmed by their teacher pretending to pray while reciting verses from the Qur'an in January last year. The students are shown in a video laughing, and one appears to pretend to slit the throat of another; apparently mocking ISIS-style beheadings. The lawyer representing the teenagers, Maher Naguib, told AFP they were "sentenced for contempt of Islam and inciting sectarian strife". "The judge didn't show any mercy," Naguib added. "He handed down the maximum punishment." A fourth defendant, aged 15, was sent to a juvenile detention centre for an indefinite period. The teacher, Gad Younan, had previously been sentenced to three years in prison for his role. When the video was found last year, Naquib previously told the Associated Press that the teenagers were forced to hide in their homes "to avoid insults, beating and harassment". "This is all because of random and spontaneous action by some youngsters inside a bedroom and for only few seconds," he said. Hundreds of Muslims attacked Coptic homes and businesses in the village where the students live. Eyewitnesses said more than 15 Christian-owned shops were damaged. Locals also called for the students to be evicted from their village. Historically, Egypt has been plagued by sectarian violence. Islamic extremists attacked the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria on New Years Eve in 2011, killing 21 people and wounding numerous others. However, thousands of Muslims then formed human shields outside churches across the country to allow Coptic Christians to safely attend Christmas masses the following week. Christians returned this gesture by joining hands to create a protective barrier for Muslims praying in Cairo during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. But despite some displays of solidarity, religious liberty remains an issue. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom last year found that the Egyptian government "has not adequately protected religious minorities, particularly Coptic Orthodox Christians and their property from periodic violence". It condemned "discriminatory and repressive laws and policies that restrict freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief" and the practice of convicting citizens of blasphemy. Current legislation in Egypt also dictates that churches cannot be built near schools, villages, railways, residential areas, government offices and canals, among other stipulations. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pledged to change this, however, and has committed to ending religious intolerance throughout Egypt; calling for a "religious revolution" to tackle extremism. Earlier this year, he pledged to rebuild every single one of the dozens of churches, Christian institutions and homes destroyed during the last two years of anti-Christian violence in Egypt. "God Has created us different, in religion, manner, colour, language, habit, tradition, and no one can make us the all same," al-Sisi told worshippers during a Coptic Christmas Eve mass at St Mark's Cathedral in Abbassiya. "We have taken too long to fix and renovate churches that were burned. This year everything will be fixed. Please accept our apologies for what happened. God willing, by next year there won't be a single church or house that is not restored." U.N. pushes countries to prioritise LGBT rights, abortion as part of its global plan The United Nations is urging countries to prioritise LGBT rights and to include abortion as part of its grand plan to tackle the so-called global humanitarian crisis. In the latest U.N. report "One Humanity: Shared Responsibility," which will be the basis for discussions between governments at the World Humanitarian Forum in Istanbul this May, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked governments to include abortion and LGBT rights in their efforts to tackle the humanitarian objectives of Sustainable Development Goals, a massive new 15-year U.N. development plan adopted by the General Assembly last year, LifesiteNews reported. Ban, who is now in his final year as Secretary General, said "priority must be given to providing women and adolescents with comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services without discrimination." "Countries have a 'core' obligation to prohibit discrimination on the basis of "sexual identity," he said. He also underscored the need to include abortion as an option for women, adding that "providing abortion is an obligation under humanitarian law and the laws of war." Last year, U.N. member states blocked any reference to sexual orientation and gender identity during the negotiations on the goals. They also rejected language that might be interpreted as including LGBT rights. In the new U.N. goals, reproductive health refers back to a landmark 1994 U.N. agreement on population and development that expressly rejected any right to abortion under any circumstance and "only permits abortion in U.N. programming where it is legal." Legal experts have likewise rejected the claim that abortion is a right under humanitarian law. Meanwhile, diplomats blasted the U.N. human rights chief this week for demanding countries to legalise the killing of unborn babies with disability as a response to the Zika virus which has afflicted many countries. Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in early February that countries affected by the Zika virus must loosen up or repeal pro-life laws on women's reproductive rights. In countries where "sexual and reproductive health services are criminalised, or simply unavailable, efforts to halt this crisis will not be enhanced by placing the focus on advising women and girls not to become pregnant," Zeid said. She added: "Women should be able to have an abortion if they want." The Vatican described the call of the Human Rights Commissioner's to liberalise abortion laws as an "illegitimate response." "Children with birth defects deserve to be protected and cared for throughout their lives, in accordance with our obligation to safeguard all human life, healthy and disabled, with equal commitment." Nicaragua also rejected the call for abortion, particularly directed at developing countries. "We cannot allow this epidemic to be manipulated to force countries" to "change laws on the right to life," a Nicaraguan government statement said. 5 things to know about Jonathan Horowitz A quick introduction to the New York-based artist who borrows freely from the likes of Warhol and Lichtenstein for his own particular take on 21st-century politics and popular culture 1 New York-based artist Jonathan Horowitz (b. 1966) works in video, sculpture, sound installation and photography and was described by Interview magazine as the cleverest artist alive. His work explores politics, war, celebrity and popular culture, although he summarises it as being about people. 2 Horowitz appropriates or quotes other artists like Jasper Johns , Andy Warhol , Sol LeWitt and Roy Lichtenstein to investigate and satirize iconic art. Self-Portrait Mirror #4, 2011 (above), is one of a series that copies Lichtensteins mirrors. Horowitz commissioned reproductions using the same Ben-Day dots that mimic printing tones, but each painting was made without stencils by hand, becoming a portrait of each maker. 3 For 590 Dots in 2014, Horowitz invited 590 individuals to paint a single black dot which proliferated as multiple circles rather than coming together as one picture. He commented that its incredible to see all the variations in texture and shape and size that result from the process. Each contributor was paid $20. 4 Horowitz has recently updated the Andy Warhol celebrity portrait for the digital age by downloading and magnifying images of Beyonce sourced from an advertising campaign. The images of Beyonce are from a Pepsi ad campaign, the artist told Time Out magazine in London. Id previously paired them with images of polar bears from a Coke campaign to create a broad metaphor for capitalism, pseudo democracy everything really. But then it occurred to me that Beyonce didnt need to be paired with anything. 5 Critical of the choice of Minimalist sculptures for the Washington Holocaust Museum, Horowitz made a copy of Ellsworth Kellys iconic Diagonal with Curve in the same pink as the triangular patch that homosexual Germans were forced to wear under Nazi rule. Main image at top: Jonathan Horowitz, Self-Portrait in Mirror #4, 2011 . Oil on canvas. 36 x 36 in (91.4 x 91.4 cm). This work was offered in First Open | Post-war and Contemporary Art on 4 March 2016 at Christies in New York and sold for $75,000 Time keepers: The tradition of watchmaking in their hands Le Garde Temps Naissance dune Montre is doing something no one has done in Switzerland for over a century re-learning how to make watches the de-mechanised, 100 per cent human way. Whats more, youll soon be able to bid on the projects School Watch at Christies Hong Kong For any fully signed-up watch aficionado, a visit to a watch factory in Switzerland really is a golden-ticket moment especially when youre donning a cleansuit and elasticated shoe mitts bearing the logos of such distinguished brands as Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin or Audemars Piguet. But, writes the respected international watch writer Alex Doak, until your tour ventures into the hallowed ateliers proper, where the worlds finest watchmakers tweezer-together flawlessly hand-polished components, the chances are youll start in a room resembling the bowels of an ocean liner. Its in these machining rooms that rank upon rank of hulking, computer-controlled milling machines steadily churn out stacks of identical, rough components, day and night. What separates the brands, to a greater or lesser degree, is how much finish is applied downstream and how many components are wrestled into each watch. Click to play: La naissance dune montre: An introduction to the project, and a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process It has been increasingly the case since the late 19th century, when American industrial methods first crept over the Pond and into the Jura mountains. And now, with greater automation, the ability to programme a five-axis CNC machine has become more valuable than making a wheel with nothing but a hand-operated lathe. Thankfully, the gradual erosion to the point of near-extinction of the crafts that underpin the Swiss industrys heritage has not gone unnoticed and six years ago the grandmaster of finish Philippe Dufour, and multi-axis-tourbillon maestros Stephen Forsey and Robert Greubel decided to take things into their own hands. This year, their collaborative teaching project, named Le Garde Temps Naissance dune Montre has finally born fruit, and Christies has the honour of auctioning its very first watch with proceeds from the sale contributing to the further development and progression of the Naissance d'une Montre project. This watch is as much about the future as it is about the past. It exemplifies the beauty of traditional handmade workmanship combined with the technical know-how that has been learned from generations of watchmaking. Alex Doak caught up with the principal players to find out more. Michel Boulanger, a French watchmaking teacher at the Diderot vocational training college in Paris, was chosen by Robert Greubel, Stephen Forsey and Philippe Dufour, all members of the Time Aeon Foundation, to put the techniques learned into practice by creating a timepiece by hand using traditional tools, such as the uprighting tool, the hand-mandrel lathe and the topping tool What was the critical mass that led you to to initiate Le Garde Temps? Stephen Forsey: Robert and I are really the last generation of watchmakers who received proper training, before mechanisation took over nearly all of the manufacturing processes. I remember a particular moment in class at Hackney, where the UKs old watchmaking school was. It was the Eighties, when quartz and digital technology had (temporarily) ruined the traditional Swiss industry, and a teacher asked us the question, with his dry humour: Now, you seem like an intelligent bunch of young men. Why on earth would you want to do an outmoded thing like watchmaking? Robert found it in France too, and Philippe the same in Switzerland. Philippe has been a staunch defender of hand-finish for 30 years, but really struggled to find the skills when he tried to build a team. Robert Greubel: We realised that due to the widespread use of industrial methods, an entire heritage of knowledge and techniques would disappear. So we decided to join forces and transmit our expertise to a young watchmaker by creating a complicated mechanical timepiece. What made Michel the perfect student for this project was that he was really interested in learning the traditional techniques and knowledge Were there many candidates, and how did you find your man? Stephen Forsey: There are a lot of young people out there with the fire burning inside them, and there were a lot who were interested in the Le Garde Temps Naissance dune Montre project, but we soon realised most of them just wanted to become independent watchmakers. We wanted it to develop into a school, rather than a business, to spread the learning to a wider audience. Robert Greubel: I first met our successful candidate, Michel Boulanger, in the Eighties when he was studying at Lecole dhorlogerie dAnet. His father had an atelier where I used to go to work on my own projects. Michel had been teaching watchmaking in Paris since 1997, when I called him up in the summer of 2010 with our proposal. What marked out Michel as the ideal student? Robert Greubel: What made Michel the perfect student for this project was that he was really interested in learning the traditional techniques and knowledge. Furthermore, Michel is a teacher, so would have the opportunity within his job to pass on what he learned to his students. Stephen Forsey: Michel had the right qualities and baggage. The ideal candidate needed not only the basic skills on paper, but we had to be sure he would finish the project. Sure enough, he took a full sabbatical from his job. Thanks to the regular round-trips between Switzerland and his workshop in the Beauce region to the south-west of Paris, and working within the framework of a six-year project, Boulanger embarked upon the creation of an exceptional timepiece How did the three of you divide up the teaching responsibilities? Robert Greubel: Every month Michel came to La Chaux-de-Fonds for a week to expand his knowledge from Stephen and me, as well as the other watchmakers practising at Greubel Forsey. Philippe Dufour helped with the mechanism and the balance spring. Stephen Forsey: Robert would give Michel that little bit of a boost when necessary, too. Because wed committed time and budget to this project, mostly to the cost of Greubel Forsey, he needed to see it the whole thing through. Its been a fantastic adventure What was the hardest part of the watch to perfect? Robert Greubel: Without any doubt the micron tolerance. The micron is just one thousandth of a millimetre and is extremely difficult to master while making and polishing the smallest parts. What has been the biggest challenge of the tutoring process? Stephen Forsey: Michel also had his own ideas at the start, which made things complicated! But to learn properly, you sometimes just need to make mistakes yourself. Michel Boulanger: There were no major challenges in the tutoring process; the main challenge was the technical and aesthetical design, the parts manufacturing, the decoration and assembly and the final adjustments. The challenge is to start with the raw material such as brass, nickel silver, steel and then create complex parts using a traditional hand-operated lathe, jig borer, face lathe, pivot polishing tool. This watch has a very avant-garde, architectural design, like a Greubel Forsey, but are the underlying principles traditional? Robert Greubel: Yes. The timepiece is a circular wristwatch of pure design, driven by a manually wound movement with a three-handed display, and with a large tourbillon mechanism following the great traditions of 19th century watchmakers in particular, Jacques-Frederic Houriet and Abraham-Louis Breguet. Greubel Forsey, Philippe Dufour and Michel Boulanger. An exceptional, extremely rare and very fine 18k white gold semi-skeletonised tourbillon prototype wristwatch Unadorned Piece-ecole. Handcrafted timepiece with three hands and tourbillon. Diameter of timepiece: 45 mm. Total height of timepiece: 15.1 mm. Frequency: 2.5 Hz (18,000 vibrations per hour). Blued steel hands. Case in white gold. Hand-sewn strap. Tang buckle. Estimate: On request. This watch is offered in the Important Watches sale on 30 May at Christie's Hong Kong Now the prototype is complete, how will Michel pass the skills and knowledge further downstream? Robert Greubel: Since we initiated the project six years ago, Michel has been a teacher-turned pupil. Hes been a teacher in France and the idea is that hell now transmit his new skills and knowledge to his pupils, and secure them for future generations of watchmakers. Stephen Forsey: Beyond the teacher-student relation, weve also invested in an online platform to explain and spread the word. Weve also filmed hours and hours of footage depicting the techniques and processes, all freely available to students and watchmakers on YouTube. This has been a big part of the project to create an archive. Compare that to when I was at school in Hackney; I had just two textbooks George Daniels Watchmaking and F.J. Brittens Watch and Clockmakers Handbook and the last one dates from 1880! Michel has obviously learned a lot since 2012, but what about you, Robert and Stephen? Robert Greubel: We learn something every day as watchmakers; there are so many forgotten and lost techniques to revive and re-discover. It has really reinforced our commitment to safeguard these traditions. Thanks to the project, the rest of the watch community is now much more sensitive to the loss of traditional skills too. Stephen Forsey: Weve also learned a lot about how difficult it is to gain leverage! However, a good number of the 11 pieces have been firmly committed to, which is brilliant. Hopefully, Michel will remain active and pass on his skills, but its fragile theres so much resting on his shoulders. It has been a fantastic adventure to exchange with him, however, and also to work more closely with Philippe. This isnt just about hand-finishing parts, its about making those parts entirely by hand Michel, how are you taking this adventure onwards? Michel Boulanger: Now that the prototype is almost finished, I need to reinforce these skills by re-doing all of the different steps. This will happen naturally because there will be 11 properly decorated timepieces to make! Stephen Forsey: It should be known that without our sponsors and partners, we really couldn't have come this far, let alone finally presented a finished decorated watch this year. We're especially grateful to Christie's for their support and agreeing to auction the School Watch on 30 May in Hong Kong. Finally getting this recognition has been such an important step forward. The first working prototype of La naissance dune montre Why do you think the project has suddenly gained this (clearly well deserved!) support? Stephen Forsey: Well, we hoped for more partners quicker. But right from the start, we experienced difficulty in getting people to understand what this was all about. It is only recently have they realised this isnt just about hand-finishing parts, its about making those parts entirely by hand in the first place. Fortunately, we remain better watchmakers than communicators! The Naissance dune Montre School Watch will be auctioned at Christies Hong Kong on 30 May. Estimate: $450,000-650,000. The other 11 Decorated watches will also retail for SFr.450,000. For more information: legardetemps-nm.org Main image at top: The challenge was to start with the raw material such as brass, nickel silver, steel and then create complex parts using a traditional hand-operated lathe, jig borer, face lathe and pivot polishing tool For more features, interviews and videos, visit Christies Daily A Katy school was evacuated Thursday after a student told authorities a fellow student claimed to have a bomb on campus. The suspected bomb was later determined to e a broken cellular phone. The incident happened about sometime after about 11 a.m. at Katy Junior High School at 5350 Franz Road, according to officials with the Katy Independent School District. Officials said a student brought a package to campus that appeared to have wires attached to it. The student reportedly claimed the package was a bomb but then tossed it away. When questioned later, the student denied claiming to have had a bomb. The school was evacuated as a precaution while police searched the school building for the reportedly discarded package. Searchers later found the suspected bomb, which turned out to be a broken cellphone. Staff members monitored the students, who were moved to the gym and commons area. They were given lunch and water. Once police determined the school building was safe, students returned to their classrooms. Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis will perform at 8 p.m. on March 4 at Main Street Crossing. Tickets start at $35. Willis and Robison have released three albums together in recent years, after each of them first enjoyed successful solo careers doing their own thing, despite living and raising four children together. The Austin-based couple's latest album together is 2014's "Our Year," a solid collection of collaborative yet subtle duets, where the two take turns lending the leading voice. It includes original numbers and well-worn covers like Tom T. Hall's "Harper Valley PTA," which Willis delivers with respect and angst. Robison's own "Anywhere But Here," is another highlight of the album, which includes the hook "It's getting harder to remember anywhere but here." "I really feel like we came up with a sound, the way that the vocals blend together, and it rejuvenated me as an artist and a performer, which I really needed after 20 years," Robison said in his bio published on his website. "There's a lot of great duos, and I love that. That close-harmony singing, it's real organic; it's a really lovely thing." Main Street Crossing is located at 111 W. Main St. in Tomball. Learn more at www.mainstreetcrossing.com or call 281-290-0431. klein Festival lauds German heritage Klein Forest High School will be the site of this year's Klein German Festival, an annual celebration of music, food and culture beginning at 5 p.m. on Feb. 26. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children in fifth grade and younger. Admission is free for preschool children. Tickets are not available at the door and are only available for purchase before the event at any Klein ISD school or administrative building. Dinner will be served until 7 p.m. during the event, followed by music and performances. Klein Forest High School is located at 11400 Misty Valley Drive in Houston. Learn more at www.kleinisd.net. centrumSchool choirs are set to take stage Choir students from local high schools will share the stage at the Centrum at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 as they participate in "A World of Song," a 16th annual celebration of cultures through song. Tickets are $12. Pamela Elrod Huffman, SMU Meadows School of the Arts, is the special guest conductor for the event that unites choir students from Klein, Klein Collins, Klein Oak and The Woodlands College Park high schools. The concert is presented by the Cypress Creek Foundation for the Arts and Community Enrichment. The Centrum is located at 6823 Cypresswood Drive in Spring. Learn more at www.cypresscreekface.org or call 281-440-4850. sam houston race parkWine tasting part of racing event Sam Houston Race Park presents the Maxxam Racing Festival starting at 6 p.m. on Feb. 27, featuring more than $250,000 in stakes races and the $100,000 Maxxam Gold Cup. General admission starts at $7. A wine tasting event on the club level is $20, which includes free general admission to the park, six tastings and a commemorative Sam Houston Race Park tasting glass. The live racing season ends in two weeks. Sam Houston Race Park is located at 7575 N. Sam Houston Parkway West in Houston. Learn more at www.shrp.com or call 800-211-3381. lone star collegeAuthor to speak after screening "Dead Man Walking" author Sister Helen Prejean will speak at Lone Star College-Tomball at 7 p.m. on March 2 in the teaching theater (E100). The event is free. At 4:30 p.m., before the nun speaks, the film "Dead Man Walking" starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn will be shown. Prejean is a Catholic activist whose work focuses on the moral issue of the death penalty which she opposes. Autographed books can be purchased for $15. Lone Star College-Tomball is located at 35000 Tomball Parkway. Learn more at www.lonestar.edu or call 281-351-3300. klein isdSuperintendent to host dinner Klein Independent School District Superintendent Jim Cain will host a community dinner at 6:30 p.m. on March 3 at Kleb Intermediate School. A pizza and salad dinner will be provided free of charge and Cain will update attendees about district news and answer questions. Kleb Intermediate School is located at 7425 Louetta Road. Call 832-249-4172 for reservations. jones parkFestival focuses on nature Speakers and organizations will educate the public about nature during Naturefest at Jesse H. Jones Park and Nature Center from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on March 5. Noted speakers will discuss birds, native plants, nature photography and more. Guided nature walks will be available and local hunting advocacy group SCI Houston will present its Senesory Safari exhibit, allowing attendees to see wildlife up close. Jesse H. Jones Park and Nature Center is located at 20634 Kenswick Drive in Humble. When Texans have an especially successful weekend of fishing, Ron Smith hears about it. "My email box will be full when I come in on Monday morning," said Smith, manager of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Angler Recognition Program and the person who receives, coordinates and certifies applications from anglers hoping for inclusion in one of the 44 categories of recreational fishing awards and records maintained by the state's fisheries agency. "My inbox can be pretty packed - people sending in pictures of their fish or asking questions about the status of their applications," Smith said. "That's a good thing. It tells me that the program is popular." It is, and becoming more so. "The program has seen a lot of recent advancements. The website for the Angler Recognition Program's really been expanded and upgraded, and we've automated as much of the system as we can," he said. "I'm of the opinion our program is now one of the best in the country." It's certainly one of the most comprehensive and busiest. Smith receives 30-40 applications a month from anglers looking to have a fish they caught certified as worthy of listing in one of the Angler Recognition Program's three-dozen-plus categories - categories that run the gamut from congratulating a young angler on catching his or her first fish to documenting and certifying the capture of a state-record fish, the heaviest of its species ever taken from Texas water. Texas' two-million-plus anglers are enamored of big fish and invariably measure their catches against those of others. Texas' Angler Recognition Program gives them the opportunity to indulge both. "Most fishermen are, by nature, at least a little competitive. Some are really competitive," Smith said. "That's one of the reasons there's so much interest in the program and the records. Everybody who participates is excited about their fish. They want to see their name in the records." Texas' fish-records program gives them plenty of ways to do just that. The state maintains separate record categories based on a fish's weight, length, how it was caught, where it was caught, if it was kept or released, and even if it was caught from public water or private water. The most coveted records, of course, are the state records for the heaviest fish of a particular species taken from public water in the state. But Texas also certifies and lists records for the heaviest fish taken from individual lakes, rivers and bay systems - so-called "water body" records. And those records are divided into categories for fish taken on rod-and-reel; fly-fishing tackle; bow-fishing gear; other legal fishing gear (such as trotlines); fish measured, caught and released; fish meeting a minimum length considered to be "trophy class" for the species, and further fractures these categories into listings for junior anglers (younger than 17) and adults. Scaling the steps The process of applying for recognition of a catch can be fairly complicated, depending on the category the angler targets. But the program's website (tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/programs/fishrecords/) does a comprehensive job of explaining the sometimes daunting requirements, and helping anglers meet those requirements. Applications for records based on weight of the fish involve the most steps. One of the most basic - finding an acceptable scale on which to weight the fish - can be the most challenging. TPWD requires fish submitted for a weight record be weighed on scales certified as accurate by the Texas Department of Agriculture or by the International Game Fish Association. To help anglers find certified scales, TPWD maintains on the Angler Recognition Program's website a list of "official weigh stations," businesses that voluntarily agree to maintain a set of certified scales anglers can use to weigh their fish. They can also sometimes find a local feed store or marina that has a certified scale. "More and more, grocery stores, with the exception of some of the smaller, locally owned stores, don't like to do it," Smith said of allowing anglers to weigh their fish on the business' certified scales. Some of the other basics for anglers looking to apply for a weight record: the fish must be weighed within three days of being caught; the weighing must be witnessed by at least one "disinterested" person whose name and contact information must be on the application; the fish must have been legally caught and landed from Texas waters; applications for state-record fish must be notarized; and the application must be filed with TPWD within 60 days of the catch. Also, a series of photographs are required for catch-and-release, state record by weight, water body record and Big Fish Award categories, with photos to include side views of the fish lying on its side next to a ruler or other measuring device and others from several angles so the fishes' species can be easily identified. If the species can't be clearly identified from photos, TPWD requires the angler provide the fish to agency biologists for positive identification. Worth the trouble Poor photos are one of the problems Smith said he sees with Angler Recognition Applications, with perhaps the most common being anglers not measuring their fish according to the rules. That requires the fish's mouth to be closed and the tail fin squeezed or turned to obtain the maximum length. Despite the steps required to have a fish certified for one of the record categories or for one of the Big Fish awards given to anglers who catch a trophy-size fish, a lot of Texans participate in the program, receive the printed certificates acknowledging their feat and get their name in the record listings. "There are some people out there who have almost 200 Big Fish awards," Smith said. And, while most anglers will never land a state-record fish, they certainly stand a good chance of setting a water-body record. On many of the state's lakes, bays and rivers, water body records for many or most of the popular fish species are vacant. "There are a lot of water-body records out there waiting to be set," Smith said. More than an honor Those records and the other angler recognition awards don't just benefit anglers' egos. They benefit the state's fisheries and fisheries management. "Our fisheries biologists make regular use of the information in the Angler Recognition Program," Smith said, adding the data helps fisheries managers spot trends in fish and fishing, gauge effectiveness of fishing regulations and used in developing fisheries management plans. A good example of that is tied to the most recent state-record fish certified by the program. That fish, a 5.98-pound spotted bass caught Jan. 9 from Lake Alan Henry, replaced another Alan Henry "spot" as the state record. And the lake, near Lubbock, has been coughing out a string of huge spotted bass. Turns out, the spotted bass in Alan Henry are Alabama spotted bass, a distinct subspecies of spotted bass that have the genetic predisposition to grow much larger than the Kentucky spotted bass native to Texas. Alan Henry is the only lake in Texas stocked with Alabama spotted bass, and TPWD fisheries managers are considering proposing changing fishing regulations on that reservoir to enhance the trophy spotted bass history. Information garnered from the Angler Recognition Program supported what fisheries manager's other research showed and played a role in how those managers are looking at this special fishery, Smith said. "The program has a lot of benefits," Smith said. "I think some of the best benefits come from the Young Anglers and First Fish categories that get young people engaged and excited about fishing." But the Texas Angler Recognition Program does the same for adult anglers. Smith sees evidence of that when he checks his email on the Monday after a nice weekend. And as Texas rushes headlong into spring, he's anticipating what's coming. "It about to get real busy around here," he said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate It's the difference between five or 50 hands shooting up when the professor asks a question. When it comes to college classes, size matters. While some students prefer to find their groove in a large university, others enjoy the intimacy of a smaller learning environment. RELATED: May the odds be ever in your favor when applying to these selective colleges StartClass examined smaller top-tier schools with fewer than 5,000 undergraduate students to find some of the best small college in America. The schools were evaluated based on a Smart Rating, which takes into account a school's career readiness, academic excellence, admissions selectivity, financial affordability and expert opinion based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics. RELATED: Hey, bro! These are the frattiest colleges in America While New York, California and Massachusetts pretty much owned the list of 25 best small colleges, there are many smaller top-tier schools across the country, including one in Texas. >> Click the gallery above to see the best small colleges in the U.S., according to StartClass. An undetermined number of HISD employees could lose their jobs, teachers no longer would get bonuses, and campuses would receive less funding for gifted students under a budget-cutting proposal presented to the school board Thursday. The proposal represents the administration's first step toward closing a projected $107 million budget shortfall that officials blame on the state funding system. For the first time, the Houston Independent School District expects to have to send a large chunk of money roughly $161 million back to the state because it is considered too property wealthy. The district did not release an estimated number of positions that may be cut, though in some cases, particularly in the custodial and maintenance department, some jobs are currently unfilled, said Glenn Reed, general manager of budgeting. The plan also calls for all campuses to receive $179 less per pupil, leaving principals to decide whether to cut staff, field trips, supplies or other expenses. For a school with 1,000 for students, the proposed reduction would equal $179,000. Administrators also pitched changes to the district funding formulas that are provided in addition to baseline per-student funding, depending on students' particular needs. Campuses would receive about half as much for each gifted student, dropping the allotment to about $211. Low-income or at-risk would see an $88 increase to $352 per student. Funding for each homeless or refugee students would jump more than $500 to $704. It's unclear whether magnet schools that serve gifted students would keep the same allotment they receive on top of the typical per-student funding. The money for the struggling students would come from ending the longer school hours offered at several low-performing campuses, part of outgoing Superintendent Terry Grier's signature Apollo reform program. The cuts proposed so far represent more than 5 percent of the district's $1.9 billion operating budget. A final vote is not expected until June. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Lawyers for Shannon Miles, the man accused of gunning down a Harris County deputy in August, want a state lawmaker to stop interfering in the case, according to court records. "It is now clear that Senator Whitmire has a strong interest in seeing Mr. Miles prosecuted quickly," attorney Anthony Osso wrote in a motion filed late Wednesday. "This is dangerous." Miles, 31, is charged with capital murder, accused of ambushing Deputy Darren Goforth at a Cypress-area gas station on Aug. 28 TIMELINE: How the Goforth killing unfolded a sex scandal Earlier this month, he was declared incompetent to stand trial and committed to a state hospital for at least 120 days to regain his mental health. The transfer was expected to take at least three months as he waited in line behind 60 other Harris County inmates because of a limited number of beds at maximum-security state hospitals. A day after the finding, state Sen. John Whitmire contacted state officials and put Miles on a fast track to be moved immediately, saying it might not be safe for him to be locked up by the co-workers of the man he is accused of killing. His attorneys disagreed and, during an emergency hearing last week, asked the judge to stop the expedited transfer. SCANDAL GROWS: Sheriff's office fires third deputy tied to Goforth case In the most recent filing, Miles' lawyers argue that Whitmire controls the purse strings for the state's mental health facilities and, therefore, could influence doctors evaluating the suspected gunman's competency. "His interference in this prosecution therefore places a thumb on the scale of finding competency restoration," according to the motion. "Particularly if the case is a close one, doctors may feel pressured to conclude that Mr. Miles can assist his legal team when he cannot." State District Judge Susan Brown said she will revisit the transfer on March 2. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Dozens of "Cruz 2016" stickers dotted the audience at a Republican dinner in Harris County Wednesday night, welcoming Ted Cruz back to Texas as he seeks to solidify critical home-state support ahead of Super Tuesday. The packed event, featuring Cruz and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, set the stage for Houston's televised GOP debate on Thursday, the last showdown before voters in a dozen states head to the polls on Super Tuesday. Cruz, who recent polls show could be losing his lead in Texas, seized on the opportunity to emphasize his home state's role in the Republican presidential nominating process. "Super Tuesday, I am convinced, will be the most important day of the entire presidential election cycle," the Texas senator told a crowd of roughly 1,200 at the Bayou City Event Center in southwest Harris County. "And the crown jewel of Super Tuesday is the great state of Texas." A resounding victory in Texas is seen as a must for Cruz, who finished third in Nevada, South Carolina and New Hampshire, after coming out on top in Iowa. Cruz, more so than his competitors, has concentrated his efforts on campaigning in the southern states of the so-called "SEC primary," touring them by bus last summer. RUBIO IN HOUSTON, TOO: Candidate gets the rock-star treatment Texas' 155 Republican delegates, allocated proportionally, make it Super Tuesday's biggest prize. One poll released on Wednesday by the University of Houston showed Cruz 15 points ahead of Trump, while another, by SurveyUSA, showed the rivals tied. "The time for the circus I believe has ended," Cruz said after lauding Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who endorsed him earlier in the day, and reciting what he would do on his first day in the Oval Office. "P.T. Barnum is fun to watch, but there comes a time when the clowns and the acrobats and the dancing bears, it's time to put them away." Though not a Cruz campaign event, the dinner featured several of the senator's backers, including Abbott and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. "I feel very good about the momentum that Ted Cruz has in the state of Texas, as well as the states that we see on the horizon for Super Tuesday," Abbott told reporters prior to the dinner. Asked how Texans would react to Trump, Abbott acknowledged the billionaire's appeal before he pivoted back to Cruz. "The reality is that Donald Trump has tapped into very real concerns that a lot of Americans feel. Frankly, even Bernie Sanders has tapped into very real concerns. Americans are tired of the status quo in the United States," Abbott said. "Ted also taps into those concerns but has real solutions for those concerns." Carson followed Cruz's 20-minute address, delivering a version of his own winding stump speech. "I love coming to Texas because there are a lot of people here with common sense," Carson said. The retired neurosurgeon, who has trailed the rest of the GOP field in several recent Texas polls, discussed removing regulations, creating "ladders of opportunity" and reducing the national debt, among other topics. "If I were in charge of America and I wanted to destroy it from inside, I'll tell you what I would do. I'd drive wedges between all the people ... I would have a war on everything," Carson said. "Any resemblance to what's going on I'm sure is coincidental." The dinner drew a small handful of protesters, who welcomed arriving guests with chants of "Hey hey, ho ho, GOP has got to go." With just hours to go until the Republican presidential candidates' debate at the University of Houston, the campus community and nearby residents are likely to be caught up in traffic, if not excitement. The debate sponsored by CNN and Telemundo starts at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Moores Opera Center at the Moores School of Music, 3333 Cullen. While the opera house seats 800, just 25 tickets were available to the university, under terms of the contract, so the event is guaranteed to bring hundreds of visitors. THE LEAD: Debate night in Houston with a side of managing expectations -- The remaining Republican candidates for president gather at the University of Houston tonight for the last debate before Super Tuesday. Heres what to watch for, per AP: Does Marco Rubio take it to Donald Trump, the front-runner who's getting hard to stop? Or mix it up with Ted Cruz, the one he might want to try to put away before making the nomination race essentially one on one? It's a question he's got to answer really soon. -- From Politicos Alex Isenstadt: For Rubio and Cruz, this might be their last best chance. The final Republican presidential debate before the Super Tuesday contests has the potential to be an epic display of anger and rhetorical aggression, with Rubio and Cruz going after one another on everything from policy to character as each struggles to emerge as the single alternative to Trump. -- Twitter talk >> CNNs @teddyschleifer: Dan Patrick seems eager to mismanage expectations: We don't only need to win Texas -- we need to win Texas big, and win every delegate. Welcome to Thursday, folks. All eyes are officially on Texas now. Read on for everything you need to know about the state of the race, with just about two days until early voting ends. (And happy birthday, Dad!) -- UH GOP debate could prove make-or-break night for Cruzs White House bid, by Houston Public Medias Andrew Schneider. Still, Cruz will need to win a lot more than just his home state in order to break Trumps momentum. The billionaire now holds a 4-to-1 lead in the GOP delegate count, with the two senators tied for second. The stage at Moores Opera House could make the difference between a revival and a swan song for Cruzs presidential campaign. -- Why Ted Cruz is in trouble in Texas, CNNs Teddy Schleifer. -- Rebecca Elliott, Ben Wermund and I wrap up Wednesdays news: As Houston readied to become the center of the Republican universe, hosting a crucial presidential debate to be aired on CNN and Telemundo, the GOP hopefuls lined up, holding rallies and headlining dinners. With Trump still missing on the eve of the debate, Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio spent the day firing up supporters, some of whom drove halfway across the state to hear from their preferred presidential candidate. -- What does the Abbott endorsement mean now? Read the Chronicles Mike Ward on that: Cruz was a go-to problem solver when he worked for then-Attorney General Abbott. He came into office with the same tea party cred that helped put Abbott in the Governor's Mansion. And then there were the poker parties where the two talked politics and debated heady principles. That Texas-bred alliance, born of like minds and political philosophies, has helped both men get where they are today. And a big victory here next week could reinvigorate Cruz's sagging campaign, making his return to the familiar turf of Texas all the more special for the state's junior senator. -- THE POLLS ARE ALIVE! We got a handful of polling data yesterday on the Texas primary. Heres a roundup of the major ones: *WFAA Texas TEGNA: Cruz and Trump both had 32 percent support from likely and actual GOP primary voters, with a 3.9 percent margin of error. It is the most recent survey of Texas voters and the first one to show Cruz no longer leading in his home state. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has double the support of Bernie Sanders with 61 percent compared to his 32 percent. Seven percent of likely or actual Democratic voters were undecided. * KTVT-CBS 11/Dixie Strategies: Looking at the statewide results according to the poll taken Monday February 22 Cruz now leads Trump by more than eight percentage points. Clinton still leads Sanders by a wide margin at 61% to 30%. But the gap has closed somewhat between the two candidates. * The University of Houstons Hobby Center for Public Policy and Houston Public Media: Cruz with 35 percent and Trump with 20 percent. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio won eight percent, while Ben Carson rounded out the top four with 7 percent. Undecided respondents made up 19 percent. -- Poll: Texans favor background checks on all gun sales, by the Texas Tribunes Ross Ramsey. Support varied from one group to another, but virtually every subset of the electorate favors the checks: 92 percent of liberals, 86 percent of moderates, 66 percent of conservatives; 76 percent of whites, 89 percent of blacks, 82 percent of Hispanics; 71 percent of men, 85 percent of women. There was a distinction among conservative voters: Among those who identify more with the Republican Party, 79 percent favor background checks. But among those who identify with the Tea Party, 48 percent favor the checks and 51 percent oppose them. -- Court tosses abuse-of-office case against former Gov. Perry, by the Express-News Peggy Fikac. The road to Wednesday's decision was a costly one for Perry. The tab for his high-powered legal team, led by Buzbee, was about $2.5 million as of last month, campaign finance documents show. After initially relying on taxpayer funds, Perry paid most of that from his state campaign account. Buzbee said there is no mechanism for him to ask for reimbursement in the state criminal system. SPEED READ In final weeks, millions spent in handful of House races, The Texas Tribune Grieder: National state of mind: They say all politics is local. But thats not so in Texas. Not anymore, Texas Monthly Trump follows footsteps of legends with Fort Worth visit Friday, Forth Worth Star-Telegram Two billionaires write checks to Texas House Speaker Joe Straus leading challenger, The Dallas Morning News Culberson faces challenges from the right, Houston Chronicle How is Paxton paying for his criminal defense? The Texas Tribune Student newspaper retracts story that got Ted Cruzs national spokesman fired, The Dallas Morning News University of Houston basks in GOP debate spotlight, The Texas Tribune Green on Green: A Texas Supreme Court candidate with a checkered past may be betting on confusion at the polls, Texas Observer Democrats press GOP to consider a Supreme Court pick, The New York Times RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE -- Bernie bears down for Super Tuesday, by Politicos Hanna Trudo. Dont count out Bernie Sanders yet. Despite the grim outlook for the South Carolina primary Saturday, interviews with over a dozen state Democratic party chairs and local officials in Super Tuesday states suggest Sanders is within striking distance of Hillary Clinton in at least 5 of the 11 contests that will take place on March 1. -- RNC sees leverage over Trump, by Politicos Daniel Strauss. Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus has begun stating in private meetings that the party has sway over its at times unwelcome front-runner because it has tools Trump will need to use to win a general election voter data and field, digital and media operations that a nominee typically inherits from the party infrastructure. -- Is Trump making the GOP greater again? by Politicos Steven Shepard and Eli Stokols. But it turns out that Trump is helping the GOP grow just not with the kinds of voters they see as critical to the partys long-term success. Republicans smashed turnout records in the four states that voted in February, the last three of which Trump won resoundingly. Overall, turnout in the first four states is up nearly 28 percent from 2012 including a more than 50 percent jump in Iowa and a 128 percent surge in Nevada on Tuesday night. Democratic turnout, meanwhile, is down about 23 percent from 2008 levels across the first three states all battleground states in the general election. The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p. Fear was a New Yorkers constant companion in the 1970s and 80s. We lived behind doors with triple locks, some like engines of medieval ironmongery. We barred our ground-floor and fire-escape windows with steel grates that made us feel imprisoned. I was thankful for mine, though, when a hatchet turned up on my fire escape, origin unknown. Nearing our building entrances, we held our keys at the ready and looked over our shoulders, as police and street-smart lore advised; our hearts pounded as we tried to shove the heavy doors open and slam them shut before some mugger could push in behind us, standard mugging procedure. Only once was I too slow and lost my money. A neighbor, who worked at a midtown bank, lost his life. So to read Saul Bellows Mr. Sammlers Planet when it came out in 1970 was like a jolt of electricity. Just when New York had begun to spin out of controlsteadily worsening for over two decades until murders numbered over 2,200 a year, one every four hoursBellows novel described the unraveling with brilliant precision and explained unflinchingly why it was happening. His account shocked readers: some thought it racist and reactionary; others feared it was true but too offensive for a decent person to say. In those days, I felt I should cover my copy with a plain brown wrapper on the subway to veil the obscenity of its political incorrectness. The book was true, prophetically so. And now that we live in New Yorks second golden agethe age of reborn neighborhoods in every borough, of safe streets bustling with tourists, of $40 million apartments, of filled-to-overflowing private schools and colleges, of urban glamour; the age when the New York Times runs stories that explain how once upon a time there was the age of the mugger and that ask, is new york losing its street smarts?its important to recall that todays peace and prosperity mustnt be taken for granted. Hip young residents of the revived Lower East Side or Williamsburg need to know that its possible to kill a city, that the streets they walk daily were once no-go zones, that within living memory residents and companies were fleeing Gotham, that newsweeklies heralded the rotting of the Big Apple and movies like Taxi Driver and Midnight Cowboy plausibly depicted New York as a nightmare peopled by freaks. Thats why its worth looking back at Mr. Sammler to understand why that decline occurred: we need to make sure it doesnt happen again. A septuagenarian Holocaust survivor who lives on 90th Street near Riverside Drive (my turf for most of the last 45 years), the novels main character, Artur Sammler, sees disorder and decay wherever he looks. Out in the public realm, vandals have cut the receivers off pay phones and turned the booths into reeking urinals. In the parks, dog waste has killed the grass, and bums are everywhere. In one park, Sammler observes a wino sullenly pissing on newspapers and old leaves, while a homeless woman sleeps on a bench, her sea cows belly rising, legs swollen purple. Even the freshly opened daffodils show smudges of soot on their pure yellow petals. Central Park promenaders who now savor the lush Great Lawn or the sublime Bethesda Fountain should know what a heroic effort of philanthropy and policing it took to reclaim what less than two decades ago was a dusty, sterile, graffiti-marred wasteland where dope dealers and muggers reigned. Nothing you see today is the pure production of nature but springs instead from civic will and vision. Along with disorder went crime. Sammler knows he cant jog in Riverside Park any more because of the muggers, and he sees in the parks trees and bushes cover for sexual violence, knifepoint robberies, sluggings, and murders. Crime pervades the whole city, even into private sanctuaries. Sammlers niece opens her window to admire a beautiful sunset and then forgets to lock it, allowing burglars to climb in from the roof below, as used to happen routinely. The least of her losses is the financial one. The sentimental value of her lockets, chains, rings, heirlooms was not appreciated by the insurance company. Such things are precious to her because they link her to her dead husband, her dead parents. For such loss, and the loss of her sense of safety in her own home, there can be no recompense. How wonderful it would be to have the privileges of remoteness that $50,000 a year could buy, Sammler thinksclub membership, taxis, doormen, guarded approaches, all of the insulation that only 17 years later, as Tom Wolfe calculated more lavishly in Bonfire of the Vanities, took an income of $1 million a year. (Since Dickens, our best urbanologists have been our novelists.) But, Bellow points out, even the opulent sections of the city were not immune. You opened a jeweled door into degradation, from hypercivilized Byzantine luxury straight into the state of nature. The novels personification of all that crime is a tall, powerfully built thief whom Sammler sees several times working the Riverside Drive bus, a dandified black man sporting a camels-hair coat, homburg, and Dior sunglasses. Sammler, slightly taller, can watch him over the heads of the other standees as he skillfully snaps open the handbags and methodically empties the purses of his unaware victims. One day, shielded from the other passengers by his broad, well-tailored back, the thief robs a weak old man with red-lidded eyes of sea-mucus blue, cowering in the buss back corner, his false teeth dropping from his upper gums in his terror. The thief pulls open the mans jacket with its ragged lining, takes out his plastic wallet, and methodically rifles through the contents, pocketing the money and the Social Security check, while dropping the family photos like so much trash. Then, in a gesture of ironic contempt, he jerks the knot of the old mans tie approximately, but only approximately, into place. So much, in other words, for the old mans claim, through the symbol of his otherwise useless necktie, of membership in a civilized community, where civility and forbearance govern our relations with one another and family bonds matter. And so much for his social security in the literal sense, if the state cant even secure him from invasion and violation in public and in broad daylight. Its the ultimate satire: the state that promises you the security of an old-age pension cant even provide you the security to keep itthe primary purpose of a state. Its almost as bad as todays Britain, where the welfare state provides for your welfare not by stopping omnipresent thugs from beating you senseless but by sewing you up afterward for free. As a Holocaust survivor, Sammler views this fraying of the social order with special unease. Like many people who had seen the world collapse once, Mr. Sammler entertained the possibility it might collapse twice. He knows firsthand the evil of which men are capable. Clubbed in Poland into a mass grave, he alone survives and crawls out through the blood-slick bodies of the innocent dead, among whom lies his wife. Fighting alongside the partisans in the Polish forests, hunted like a rat, he learns the evil he himself can dowith pleasure in the doing. He surprises a Nazi soldier, makes him throw his rifle into the snow and strip off his warm clothes, which Sammler, himself nearly a corpse, badly wants. Dont shoot, the scared young man cries, I have children. But Sammler, his human compassion dried up, puts two bullets into the young mans head. Bone burst. Matter flew out. And Sammler felt joy, felt bliss. His heart was lined with brilliant, rapturous satin. And now, in New York, Bellow remarks, this civil margin once removed, Mr. Sammler would never trust the restoration totally. Out of understandable anxiety for the social order, Sammler phones the police twice to have the bus thief arrested. They go through the motions with bored cynicism. If they will post a cop on the bus, Sammler says, hell point out the pickpocket. We dont have enough manpower, the desk officer replies; youll have to get on our waiting list. A waiting list? Sammler objects. This man is going to rob more people, but you arent going to do anything about it. Is that right? The confirmatory answer is silencethe contempt-edged passivity that anyone who called the cops in the seventies and eighties, when, as Bellow remarks, the police were never around when you needed them, will remember well. Obsessed with the thief, in whose evil actions there is illumination of normally hidden potentialities within human nature, Sammler watches for him on the bus. Like most law-abiding citizens in those days, he pretends not to see malefactors in the midst of their doings, lest his look be construed as a challengea continual experience of self-abasement, as I remember well. A dry, a neat, a prim face declared that one had not crossed anyones boundary; one was satisfied with ones own business. But the robber notices Sammler watching him and follows him home into the lobby of his building. Holding him against the wall with his forearm, speaking no more than a puma would, the robber calmly unbuttons his camels-hair coat, opens his fly, and displays to Sammler his penis, a large tan-and-purple uncircumcised thing like a snake or an elephants trunk, along with his great oval testicles. The thing was shown with mystifying certitude as a prominent and separate object intended to communicate authority. Then the thief returns it to his trousers. Quod erat demonstrandum. He releases Sammler, concluding the session, the lesson, the warning, the encounter, the transmission. No reader of Sammler has ever forgotten this scene, and even the novels characters cant stop talking about it. Was it sixteen, eighteen inches? a wide-eyed nephew asks Sammler. Would you guess it weighed two pounds, three pounds, four? And indeed, it is the books central moment: in it come together Bellows key themes of crime, race, the sexual revolution, and the fragility of the social order. While Bellow was writing Mr. Sammlers Planet, not only were the criminals who preyed on the city overwhelmingly black (as is still true in New York), but much worse black violence threatened to destroy urban America in a latterday version of the European upheaval that nearly killed Sammler. Race was the social problem. In 1965, riots raged for six days in Los Angeless Watts ghetto, leaving over 30 dead and whole blocks in ashes; in 1967, over 40 died in the Detroit ghetto riots before the National Guard, with army reinforcements, restored order; and over 25 died in the Newark riots, in which the looters, shooters, and arsonists left $10 million of property in ruins. A year later, after Martin Luther Kings assassination, rioting raged in black neighborhoods for days in over 100 cities. Meanwhile, black radicalsmost notably, the weapons-toting, cop-killing Black Pantherswere calling for armed revolution. The year Sammler appeared, Tom Wolfe jeered at the white elites embrace of the Panthers in his hilarious essay Radical Chic, describing a party Leonard Bernstein had thrown to introduce the paramilitary-garbed black-power group to such friends as Richard Avedon, Lillian Hellman, Robert Silvers, and Barbara Walters in his Park Avenue duplex. But for Bellow, despite his keen sense of the absurd, such antics were no laughing matter. They were part of the reason why New York was falling apart. Since the nineteenth century, bohemians, writers, and intellectuals have toyed with the romance of the outlaw, as Sammler puts it. He thought often what a tremendous appeal crime had made to the children of bourgeois civilization. Whether as revolutionists, as supermen, as saints, Knights of Faith, even the best teased and tested themselves with thoughts of knife or gun. Lawless Raskolnikovs. But in Sammlers New York, and in elite culture generally in the sixties, that romance of the outlaw focused primarily on blacks, whose status as social victims and outcasts transformed their criminal acts (ex officio, so to speak) into manly, quasi-heroic revolts against oppression, however inchoate. Another of Sammlers nieces, a rich, pretty Sarah Lawrence grad, embodies this prevailing worldview: she regularly sends money to defense funds for black murderers and rapists. Her uncle has no patience with this attitude. You cant excuse a crime by saying it has been committed by a victim. To whom would this not apply, if you start to say poor creature? he dryly objects. But though this exculpatory impulse springs partly from a widespread wish to make amends for centuries of racial injustice and to see the unity of the different races affirmed, its roots go deeper than that. The American elite, Bellow saw, had lost confidence in its core values. The labor of Puritanism was now ending; the Puritan outlook that had guided America for three and a half centuries, the bourgeois outlook that formerly was believed, trusted, was now bitterly circled in black irony. Without faith in their core bourgeois values and in the social order that rested on those values, the old elite had ceased to believe in its own legitimacy. Not surprisingly, Mr. Sammler was testy with White Protestant America for not keeping better order. Cowardly surrender. Not a strong ruling class. Eager in a secret humiliating way to come down and mingle with all the minority mobs, and scream against themselves. Perhaps he had in mind Johnson-administration attorney general Ramsey Clark, son of Supreme Court justice Tom Clark, who was asserting at that moment that white Americas racism and oppression (rather than black criminals) were responsible for black crime and that evil America was the worlds chief perpetrator of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. (In later years, he became a defender of Saddam Hussein and the blind terrorist sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.) Or perhaps he had in mind Mayflower descendant William Sloane Coffin, son of a Metropolitan Museum board president, who as Yales chaplain and then as minister of Riverside Church went from being a civil rights Freedom Rider to becoming the countrys leading Vietnam War protester, draft-resistance advocate (for whom civil disobedience seemed to be his creeds main sacrament), and denouncer of Americas lack of social justice. Or hundreds like them, including New Yorks then-mayor John Lindsay, whose Dutch ancestors arrived in Manhattan in the seventeenth century. Americas elites, at least the most vocal among them, no longer believed in the importance or legitimacy of policing their own streetsor the world. As we only later came to grasp clearly, all the resultant disorder that Bellow catalogedpublic spaces despoiled by drunks, drug dealers, addicts, and madmen; unchecked vandalism; the stench of human and canine waste everywhere; the sordid parade of prostitutes of all genders around Times Square (whose modern romanticizers either werent there or else have a rarefied taste for the squalid and perverse)all these so-called victimless crimes turned out to be the great incubator of serious crime. Potential wrongdoers accurately concluded from the lack of order-keeping policing that the authorities didnt care, so they could rob, mug, steal cars, and so on with impunity, right up to a gang of black 14-year-olds shooting another kid to death, as Sammlers nephew casually reports. To the elites, in fact, all the victimless disorder wasnt just harmless but healthy: drugs were mind-expanding, madmen were marching to the beat of a different drummer, blasting boomboxes were the exuberant expression of what we hadnt yet learned to call multiculturalism, and restraint was oppression. As Bellow understood, social disorder flowed from cultural change. Of all the Puritan restraints, sexual restraint was Number One on the elites hit list. The opposite of a virtue, it was now deemed harmful, malignant. As the ascendant psychotherapeutic worldview had it, Sammler caustically notes, the bad puritanical attitudes from the sick past . . . have damaged civilization so much. In the 1960s, the elites wanted the final triumph of the EnlightenmentLiberty, Fraternity, Equality, Adultery! With the struggles of three revolutionary centuries finally won and the constraints of church and family cast off, the American elites demanded one ultimate liberation. They clamored for the privileges of aristocracy, . . . especially the libidinous privileges, the right to be uninhibited, spontaneous, urinating, defecating, belching, coupling in all positions, tripling, quadrupling, polymorphous, noble in being natural, primitive, combining the leisure and luxurious inventiveness of Versailles with the hibiscus-covered erotic ease of Samoa. Because black Americans, as elite culture saw it, already enjoyed this sought-for sexual freedom, white Americans, Bellow says, had formed an idea of the corrupting disease of being white and the healing power of black. They saw blacks as the mythical noble savages, free from hypercivilized inhibition, their natural potency unimpaired. From the black side, Bellow writes in Sammler, strong currents were sweeping over everyone. Child, black, redskinthe unspoiled Seminole against the horrible Whiteman. Millions of civilized people wanted oceanic, boundless, primitive, neckfree nobility, experienced a strange release of galloping impulses, and acquired the peculiar aim of sexual niggerhood for everyone. Hence, as Sammlers pretty niece tells him after a few drinks, A Jew brain, a black cock, a Nordic beauty is what a woman wants. And men have similar ambitions, Sammler muses. Did not LBJ, according to an apocryphal but plausible story, expose himself to reporters, demanding to know whether a man so well hung could not be trusted to lead his country? Trouble was, Americans wanted two mutually exclusive things, Sammler observes. They sought the privileges, and the free ways of barbarism, under the protection of civilized order, property rights, refined technological organization, and so on. But you can have only one or the other. That is the meaning of the camels-hair-clad robbers self-display. Yes, here is the big black member that everyone wants; but it is attached to a criminal. Its freedom, power, and authority are lawless, ready to make use of anyone, barbaric, bestial. Throughout, Bellow describes the robber as an elegant brute with the effrontery of a big animal. He is an African prince or great black beast . . . seeking whom he might devouras Saint Peter described that incarnation of evil, the devil. His gesture expresses to Sammler that he has the power and the will to devour him if need be. President Johnson might claim the authority to rule the world; the robber claims the alpha males authority to rule the jungle, the state of nature, by force and violence. As the classical political philosophers held, the civilized order that protects our lives and property rests on restraint. We curb our freedom of aggressive impulse to ensure the safety of all, ourselves included. The resultant freedom to go about our cities unmolested and to channel our energies into the civilized arts and sciences that generate human progress is a higher freedom than the liberty we relinquish. We limit our sexual freedom in order to form stable families that teach children to internalize civilizations self-restraint and make it part of their character, a process that turns the raw material of nature into human beings. I thought everybody was born human, Sammlers pretty niece tells him. He replies, with this civilizing process in mind: It is not a natural gift at all. Only the capacity is natural. All the old impulses persist in all of us, of course, which requires a perpetual effort of restraint from both the individual and the society. When the curbs break down enough, whether within the individuals conscience or the order-keeping activity of society at large, what results is the elegant brute of a robber or the 14-year-old murderers or the black urban underclass that was forming at the very moment Bellow was writinga subgroup of blacks whose sexual freedom produced skyrocketing illegitimacy rates and weak families whose children crowded into the ranks of robbers and murderers. For many middle-class people, like Sammlers pretty niece, a sexual adventurer who has done it in too many ways with too many men, the result was an epidemic of divorce that left a generation of wounded children, determined either never to get divorced and inflict the same pain on their own children or else never to get married in the first place. Bellow himself, who had five wives, plus affairs and one-night stands beyond enumeration, came to judge the sexual revolution a thirty-year disaster. The Enlightenment, emphasizing reason, liberation, and dreams of human perfectibility, lost sight of these fundamental truths about human nature and the social order. It expelled the old worlds demons, Bellow saysthose imaginary embodiments of the human evil that everyone once knew existed. But the heirs of the Enlightenment notables who freed mankind from superstition and vassalage now threaten to bring the demons back through sheer ignorance of the reality they represented. Sammler wonders whether the worst enemies of civilization might not prove to be its petted intellectuals who attacked it at its weakest momentsattacked it in the name of proletarian revolution, in the name of reason, and in the name of irrationality, in the name of visceral depth, in the name of sex, in the name of perfect instantaneous freedom. Ignorant of what they are doing, they hack away at the basic conditions of the civilized order by which they live. When Sammler, who between the wars was the London correspondent for several Warsaw magazines, gives an informal talk at Columbia about his acquaintanceship with such luminaries as H. G. Wells, J. M. Keynes, and John Strachey, a bearded listener rudely interrupts. How dare Sammler quote George Orwells statement that British radicals were protected by the Royal Navy? . . . Thats a lot of shit, the man splutters. Orwell was a fink. He was a sick counterrevolutionary. Its good he died when he did. The Levis-clad man has no use for the notions that an anti-Communist (though still a leftist) like Orwell could be great and that radicals were free to spout their revolutionary nostrums not only because liberal England gladly tolerated diversity of opinion but also because it guarded its liberal freedom with the very military might the radicals despised. The audience shouldnt listen to Sammler, this effete old shit, the young man continues. His balls are dry. Hes dead. He cant come. The young man, in other words, subscribes to the philosophy of the thief in the camels-hair coat: all authority resides in the genitals, beside which Sammlers wide erudition and the Western culture over which he ranges so widely throughout the novel count as nothing. The mans last charge comes almost verbatim from an outburst during a lecture Bellow gave at radical San Francisco State. He resisted his initial impulse to say, Lets choose a young lady from the audience for a trial heat and see about this, he reported in a letter. But in Sammler, he changed the heckler from the creative-writing instructor he actually was to a poor mans Jean Genet who wrote a book about homosexuals in prison. . . . Buggery behind bars. Or being a pure Christian angel because you commit murder and have beautiful male love affairs. He made him, in other words, a representative of the emerging academic culture that was turning against the Western tradition it was entrusted to transmit: ignorant, coarse-minded, anti-intellectual, irrational, hyper-ideological, sex-crazed, substituting sloganeering and invective for argument, obsessed with the marginal and the oppressed as evidence of Western societys fundamental, inexpiable injustice. The professors were turning against Western culture because, with religion weakened among the elites, culture was the last authoritative bastion of Thou Shalt Nots, the repository of the great thinkers conclusions about what kind of life and behavior is best for man, what makes our existence meaningful and human, what allows us to fulfill our highest potentialitiesand what leads to strife and sorrow. This final push for liberation on campus, including a liberation from Enlightenment reason itself, didnt want to hear about the right life or the wrong. Every kind of experiment in livingcoupling in all positions, tripling, quadrupling, polymorphouswas fine in elite cultures united effort to conquer disgust. The eras artists and playwrights turned against culture, too: Bellow mentions the painting of Andy Warhol, with its fey, arch insistence that theres no difference between the higher accomplishments and the lower, or among art, commerce, and celebrity; and he mentions the Performance Groups famous production of Dionysus in 69, whose naked actors evidently had missed Nietzsches caution that art needs the shaping, ordering Apollonian element to contain the frenzy, sexual license, and intoxication of the Dionysian, which, left to itself, ends in murder. For the elites, it was Dionysus all the way. Thats what worried Bellow most about the radical professors and their elite allies. You dont found universities in order to destroy culture, he wrote after the fracas at San Francisco State. For that you want a Nazi party. Who could tell where the professors overturning of the Thou Shalt Nots would end, now that sexual restraint had evaporated? They claimed they wanted a revolution, and they hailed the Black Panther revolutionaries and black radicals who brandished rifles at Cornell in 1969. Sammler, for his part, cant help recalling that almost all modern revolutions, from the Jacobins to the Nazis and the Communists, have ended with the streets running with blood, because murder has been at their heart, rather than an incidental means to an end. For revolutionary leaders like Stalin, the really great prize of power was unobstructed enjoyment of murder, while the revolutionary masses in turn loved the man strong enough to take blood guilt on himself. For them an elite must prove itself in this ability to murder. Each modern revolution (the American one alone excepted) overturned civilizations ultimate restraint and became a conspiracy against the sacredness of life. So while Sammler understands the violence of the camels-hair-clad robber as a brutish reversion to the state of nature when society fails to keep order, he knows from experience that when a revolutionary elite calls for the overturning of restraints and the trashing of culture, it can end in something still worsein the elites seizing control of the government and unleashing against some of its own citizens the very same murderous violence that government theoretically exists to curb. And such elites have done so even with the genius of the Nazis, who learned how to abolish conscience and how to get the curse out of murder by making it look ordinary, boring, or trite. Even in the sixties and seventies, New Yorkers didnt expect to hear jackboots marching up Riverside Drive, however, and for all his dark thoughts, Sammler doesnt believe, as a few refugee friends do, that Nazisms second coming is inevitable. But at that time, we certainly understood Sammlers weary resignation that hed have to give up the Riverside bus and use the subway instead, which he hated. We were giving up so much of our citywalking in certain neighborhoods, coming home very late (or even going out after dark for milk or bread) unless absolutely essential. We came to wonder if New York was a place that stunted human possibility instead of expanding it. I remember coming back from London in the mid-seventies and seeing Gotham with new eyes, as one does after an absencethe potholed streets and broken sidewalks; the graffiti smeared everywhere, as if punks had defaced the whole city; the dirt and litter; the shabby, ill-tended buildings; the thugs and bums; the rumpled, stoop-shouldered, careworn pedestrians, even on Fifth Avenue. It looked like a second-class town, trending downward toward insignificance, with the whimper of disorder and crime. Or toward death, with the bang of race riots. Many of us felt with Sammler that liberal beliefs [in the classical sense] didnt seem capable of self-defense, and you could smell decay. Could it be that the radical assault on culture would succeed and that a whole generation of new mutants, in critic Leslie Fiedlers term, would grow up not understanding the traditional virtues and vices, and blind to lifes nobler possibilities? Already you could see that some of the professorial radicals students, the hippie flower children pursuing their bliss, would crumble under the dangers the world holds for everyone. Innocent, devoid of aggression, opting out, much like Ferdinand the Bull, Sammler muses of them. How similar also to the Eloi of H. G. Wells fantasy The Time Machine. Lovely young human cattle herded by the cannibalistic Morlocks who lived a subterranean life and feared light and fire. Or prey at least for the muggers and seducers all around themand in for the rude surprise that the world would demand more than sex, drugs, and rock and roll. God forbid that jackboots ever did goose-step up Riverside Driveor need to be halted under some distant palm or pine by the likes of these. But neither the death of New York nor the death of conscience ever happened. Like most Americans, the majority of New Yorkers (chiefly in the outer boroughs rather than Manhattan) were pragmatic folk, capable of learning from experience. They didnt want to lose their town, and they elected Rudy Giuliani to clean it up. And all over the country, kids turned against the way their baby-boomer, sexual-revolutionary parents had brought them up, and resolved to do something different. They understood there was a better way to live. How did they know it? A residue of the old culture, too strong to die? A pragmatic or instinctive understanding that there is a right and a wrong life for man, which some of the old philosophers called Natural Law? From page one of Mr. Sammlers Planet, Bellow himself insists that, beyond the explanations we construct through Enlightenment reason, the soul has its own natural knowledge. We all have a sense of the mystic potency of humankind and an inclination to believe in archetypes of goodness. A desire for virtue was no accident. We all know that we must try to live with a civil heart. With disinterested charity. We must live a life conditioned by other human beings. We must try to meet the terms of the contract life sets us, as Sammler says in the astonishing affirmation with which Bellow ends his book. The terms which, in his inmost heart, each man knows. . . . As all know. For that is the truth of itthat we all know, God, that we know, that we know, we know, we know. Top Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images At five minutes to ten on Thursday evening, May 7, 2015, David Cameron, prime minister of the United Kingdom for perhaps only a few hours longer, was sitting at home in Dean, Oxfordshire, feeling gloomy. The exit polls were due at ten oclock, and the signs werent promising. For a month, opinion polls hadnt budged, and on all but the most optimistic of readings, they showed Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, becoming Britains next prime minister. During the day, one of Camerons trusted former advisors, fresh from some voter research of his own, phoned to say that the early voting seemed to reflect the polls. The prime minister should prepare for defeat. There was some cause for hope: Labour couldnt win a majority. And it looked as though the Conservatives would have more seats than the main opposition, who were going to lose heavily in Scotland. But it seemed unlikely that the Tories would win enough seats to be able to form any sort of governing coalition. They might, perhaps, win 270 seats but would then need other parties to take them up to 323 and majority control of the House of Commons. And then Big Ben struck ten. The BBC announced first that, as expected, the Conservatives would remain the largest party in the new Parliament. Then, to Camerons delightand disbeliefthe preliminary figures were announced: the Conservative Party would win 316 seats to Labours 238. As the night wore on, the news got better. The Liberal Democrats, Camerons junior coalition partner, had started the night with 57 seats and ended with only eight. Labour won almost no seats at the expense of Conservatives and lost almost its entire Scottish contingent. (The Scottish Nationalists won 56 seats, including all but three seats in Scotland.) And the Conservatives? They finished with 331 seats and a parliamentary majority. Cameron remained prime minister. The 2015 elections marked the first time in nearly a century that a British governing party had increased its share of the vote after a full term in office. The achievement makes Cameron one of the most successful political leaders in British history. How did he do it? The story begins in 1997, when, after 18 years of Conservative Party power, Tony Blairs Labour Party won a landslide victory. It was the worst Tory result for more than 150 years, and the party wasnt sure how it had happened. Had people turned against the Conservatives because they resented the party of Margaret Thatcher and wanted more spending on public services? Or, fed up with a party that no longer seemed to trust its instincts, had they punished the Tories for abandoning Thatchers robust leadership in favor of the more conciliatory John Major? It is only a slight caricature to say that the conclusion that the party needed to rediscover Thatcherism won out. That premise united the party and suited the available leadership candidates, and no one had a better idea. But it didnt work. Tony Blair took advantage of good economic conditions, his own personal moderation, and brilliant communications skills to win two more elections. In 2001, the Conservatives gained just one seat; in 2005, they picked up only 33. After eight years out of power, the Conservatives held just 198 seats, one of the weakest Tory positions in modern history. Enter David Cameron. In 2005, having served in Parliament only four years and not yet 40, Cameron declared his candidacy for the vacant Conservative leadership. Few gave him a chance, but his timing was perfect. The Conservative Party was fed up with losing and more willing to take risks in order to win again. Cameron wowed a party conference with a charismatic performance, the impact of which was far out of proportion to its content. He talked of the need for change and of the importance of optimism and accepting the modern world. He reassured the party faithful that he opposed British adoption of the euro; but in other ways, he wore his ideology lightly. Central to his victory were insights from polling, which showed that, when asked about issues such as immigration policy, voters expressed views resembling official Conservative positions. Yet when told that these were Tory positions, voters rejected them. Cameron offered the chance to detoxify the partys brand, as pundits put it. He was a young family man who seemed kind and moderna different kind of Tory. Taking office, the new Conservative leader made a dazzling first impression, much of it pure style. He rode a bicycle, he was pictured often with his children, and he was witty and confident in the House of Commons, even when he went up against Prime Minister Tony Blair. He had the look of a winner. His main policy moves were to change the subjects that Tories usually spoke about. He didnt shift the partys positions on immigration or Europehe just stopped, as he called it, banging on about them. He found a new formula to describe Tory tax-cutting, proposing to share the proceeds of growth between higher spending and lower tax. This was a clever way of rebranding the traditional party policy of ensuring that the state grew more slowly than the economy. Cameron talked a good deal about contemporary concerns, such as the environment, obesity, and social obligation. He said that Conservatives should not always be talking about what they would bring backin the past, they had pledged to bring back selective schools or bring back capital punishment or bring back imperial measurement. Camerons experience caring for his disabled son, Ivan, who tragically died, reassured voters that he cared about the National Health Service and, to an extent, exempted him from traditional Tory political liabilities on health policy. This was no small advantage to gain. He also tackled head-on the well-worn notion that Conservatives believe that there is no such thing as society. This much-distorted statement of Margaret Thatchers was intended as a corrective to the idea that society can pay for things, or that society can be to blame for the deeds of individuals or families. It was a statement about personal responsibility, yet the quotation had long been used to suggest that Conservatives didnt believe in community or in social obligation. To clear it up, Cameron stated clearly that Conservatives do believe in society, but it is not the same thing as the state. From this formulation arose his signature ideathe Big Society. Through a combination of such measures as decentralization of power to local communities, use of the bully pulpit, encouragement of charities as deliverers of public services, and the creation of independent schools, Conservatives would create stronger social support than the big state provided. Camerons mix of policy, priority, and tone proved attractive, and he soared in the polls. He had created an approach that might be called warm-weather modernization, well adapted to the politics of the long boom. Then, with the financial crisis and subsequent major recession, the weather turned cold. Despite a downturn in fortune after Gordon Brown replaced Tony Blair in mid-Parliament, Cameron always looked like the favorite to become prime minister. In the months before the 2010 election, however, his lead faded slightly, for two reasons. The first was the decision by Cameron and his shadow chancellor and right-hand man George Osborne to come clean (more or less) about cutting public spending. They did not, by any means, indicate the full program of cuts to come, but they hinted at it and gave some examplesincluding a public-sector pay freeze. The second reason is that the Big Society, never a strong electoral factor, whatever its policy strengths, looked eccentric and irrelevant at a time of economic crisis. In May 2010, therefore, the Conservatives were the largest party and the result was one of the biggest swings and seat gains in modern times, but Cameron didnt win the anticipated majority. Moving swiftly, Cameron formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, essentially swapping a referendum on voting reform (which the Tories won, defeating the Liberal Democratic plan) for Liberal support of his tough economic program. Straightaway, the chancellor of the exchequer announced that the coalition would raise taxes and cut spending in roughly a 20:80 ratio, with the goal of reaching a balanced budget before the end of the parliamentary term. What became known as the austerity program was internationally controversial. Was it really necessary? Was it counterproductive? The Nobel economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman led the critical charge against it. He regarded the Cameron policy as stupid and those who advocated it as ignorant. The facts have not been kind to his thesis. Despite eurozone troubles, which reduced exports and hurt consumer confidence, the British economy grew at a comparable rate with that of the U.S., with its huge stimulus. A crisis of confidence among creditors, a real possibility in 2010, was avoided. And a great deal of progress was made on reducing a structural deficit that had already been too large when the financial crisis hit. The government had capitalized on a rare moment when people were willing to accept spending reductions. The decision to reduce the deficit was not, of course, merely a macroeconomic one. It also required big cuts in public spending, forcing the pace of public-service reform. The government agreed to protect the real value of pensions, not to cut health spending (the NHS being almost a national religion in Britain and the Tories not trusted with it), to maintain education and science spending, and, most controversially, to meet the international aid target of 0.7 percent of national incomea promise that was made in better times but that the prime minister would find hard to abandon, even if he wished to. The Liberal Democrats had insisted on implementing their policy of raising the starting salary before one must pay income tax to 10,000 (it was well on its way to 11,000 by the end of Parliament). This meant that in some unprotected departments, including the administration of justice, policing, and arts and rural affairs, Parliament had to make appropriations cuts of up to 20 percent. A program of reorganization, contracting out services, cutting central administration, and using information technology more effectively allowed these cuts to be made without creating severe political problems. Indeed, as police-force numbers shrank, so did crime. And as local government spending went down, satisfaction ratings for local government services went up. Rather unexpectedly (at least for British politicians), large reductions in welfare spending, which the government had worried about, proved hugely popularin particular, placing a cap on the total amount that one household could receive. The government argued that nobody should receive more in benefits than the average family earned working. Labour offered no effective alternative. Still, the Big Societys electoral impact is debatable. The language about empowerment and community helped Cameron project himself as a new kind of conservative, but voters, while interested in better public services, seemed remarkably unmotivated by the opportunity for greater control over these services, including the chance to set up their own local schools. And when, in mid-Parliament, strategy director Steve Hilton left Downing Street for personal reasons, Cameron began concentrating more on his economic message, bringing in the Australian Lynton Crosby to run his reelection campaign. The Big Society wasnt mentioned. The strong consensus among political analysts in Britain is that the Big Society idea was a flop and has now been abandonedyet much of what Cameron spoke about has become policy. Michael Gove, the education secretary, set the pace. Alongside policies to make exams more rigorous and toughen teaching standards, Gove set out to establish new types of schoolsfree schools. Inspired somewhat by Geoffrey Canadas Harlem Childrens Zone, which British Conservative politicians have always admired, free schools are set up by parents or teachers with a distinct ethosemphasizing traditional standards, for instance, or reading. Today, 252 free schools operate in Britain, a tiny percentage of the total number of schools (more than 20,000). But the government has also let thousands of existing schools become academies, which operate independent of local government control and often involve external sponsorssimilar to American charter schools. Together, the free schools and academies now account for 21.6 percent of Britains state schools. Students in these schools have achieved qualifications in math and English at 5 percent higher rates than students in regular state schools. Other results proved more disappointing. Few voters turned out for police-commissioner electionsa new reformand some localities defeated efforts to turn their governing authorities into mayoralties. Both these moves had been designed to encourage greater local leadership and civic involvement. But the government did not give up. It set up a system that enabled groups of local authorities to band together and bid for funding that would otherwise have been controlled by central government. As part of the deal, the larger areas agreed to elect mayors. The result has been a surge of political momentum behind the idea of an alternative economic center to London in the north of England, with transport and political links between previously isolated small cities. Riots in several British cities in summer 2011 inspired another successful Big Society program. The government noted that 120,000 of the most troubled families accounted for 9 billion of public spending8 billion of which was spent on reacting to these families problems, while only 1 billion went toward prevention. The Troubled Families Programme began with a 448 million budget drawn from several departments, including Education, Work and Pensions, Justice, Home Office and Communities, and Local Government. Local councils tapped this shared funding to design programs in their areas. Caseworkers were assigned to each family, and continued funding was made contingent on resultsgetting children back into school, putting adults back to work or on a path to work, and reducing youth crime and antisocial behavior. The results have been promising. The average savings to the taxpayer per troubled family was 12,000more than twice the average cost of the programs intervention, at 5,493, according to a 2014 government report that studied costs and benefits across seven areas. In Manchester, for every 1 invested in the program, 2.20 in benefits have been realized. These efforts have helped more than 100,000 families cease the activitiestruancy, crime, unemployment, antisocial behaviorthat got them identified in the first place. In sum, the Big Society has been and remains a pillar of Camerons program, even if, as a political theme, it was not a success. As the 2015 election approached, Cameron came under pressure to make concessions to the UK Independence Party (UKIP), an anti-EU and, increasingly, anti-immigrant group that seemed a threat to Tories everywhere. The prime minister agreed to a referendum on Europe that had wide Conservative support, but he quickly realized that he could never outbid UKIP on immigration. So he reverted to a tactic that has worked for him in the past: he stopped talking about the issue. In the election, UKIP won 12 percent of the vote, much of it taken from Labour, but only one seat in Parliament. During the last few weeks of the campaign, Cameron waved a letter incautiously left behind on his desk by the previous Labour treasury minister as a joke. Sorry, it said, theres no money left. This attack proved devastatingly effective. A stronger Labour rival than Ed Miliband might have done better at the ballot box, and a weaker economy would certainly have tightened the election. The economy was by far the most important factor in the 2015 Tory victory, with only doubts about Miliband running it close. Labour ran a campaign designed to highlight living standards and found that they were emphasizing a Tory strength rather than exposing a weakness. In the end, David Cameron managed to make his policieswhich were actually quite boldseem like the only reasonable alternative, while fashioning himself as a decent man doing his best. And people rather liked that. Photo: Despite his upper-class pedigree, Camerons down-to-earth style endeared him to voters. (MIRRORPIX/THE IMAGE WORKS) Earlier this month, a conservative weekly in Poland published a cover photo depicting six disembodied, olive-hued hands groping a white woman dressed in a European Union flag. The Islamic Rape of Europe, ran the headline. The cover of the Polish magazine wSieci was widely decried as Islamophobic, with one commentator writing that it carries immediate echoes to nationalist propaganda of an uglier historical moment, and noting the pictures similarity to 1930s fascist propaganda. The February cover of wSieci. But what began as an argument over how to appropriately cover immigrationa story that has roiled the region for monthsis also part of a wider debate over European nationalisms effect on the continents press. Poland, which recently elected one of the continents most conservative governments, has become the canary in the coal mine. Charges of rising nativism in Polands press come just two months after the countrys rightist Law and Justice party, which took power in a landslide legislative victory in October, pushed through a hastily-drafted amendment to the countrys media law, granting the government tighter control of the countrys public news services.* Several high profile Polish journalists have either been fired or quit in protest since the law took effect in early January. Early this month, Polish culture ministry official Krzysztof Czabanski* told Germanys Deutsche Welle that he hopes to transform the state news services into outlets with a national mission focused on Polish history and patriotism.* Sign up for CJR 's daily email Cleaning house at the public broadcasters is common after a change in government in Poland, says Anna Sojewska, a longtime Brussels correspondent with private Polish daily Rzeczpospolita. It wasnt like the public media was very objective under the previous governmentit wasnt, she says. People know they have different media, and normally the public media is linked to the government. But the recent moves have wrought unprecedented structural changes on the public broadcasting system, which was created in 1993, shortly after the end of the Cold War. The system included several television and radio broadcasting companies owned by the Polish government but overseen by a semi-autonomous administration board called the National Broadcasting Council. The Law and Justice partys January reforms effectively bypassed that administrative structure, shifting operation of the system, including the right to hire and fire journalists and editors, from the NBC directly to the executive branch of the Polish government. Polands Treasury Minister now oversees public broadcasting.* Once they changed the law, and it was signed by the president, the pace was incredible, says Adam Szynol, a professor of journalism and social communication at Polands University of Wroclaw, and a critic of the amendment.* Each government tries to have influence on public media, but with this president, it was overnight. European Union observers outside Poland have sharply criticized the new scheme. The director general of the European Broadcasting Union, a body that includes most of the continents public broadcasters, called the changes a worrying interpretation of the public service media remit. International criticism, however, has largely worked in Law and Justices favor, making the fight over the media law Exhibit A for the ruling partys argument that European agencies meddle too much in Polish affairs. When EU media commissioner Gunther Oettinger, a German citizen, criticized the new media rules, incoming Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro brushed off the claims by citing Nazi Germanys 1939 invasion of Poland. Some have protested against the changes, but not all Polish reporters oppose them. We have two private [television stations] that are not in favor of this government. If the public television is supporting the government, that is more normal for me, because you have more balance, says Dominika Cosic, who covers European affairs for daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna and weekly news magazine Do Rzeczy.* Polish public opinion is increasingly skeptical of European initiatives, particularly German-led efforts to resettle refugees from the Middle East across the continent, and Polish state media is merely reflecting that, she says. The apparent move to turn the state news services into party organs appears similar to a 2010 effort in Hungary by then-new leader Victor Orban, who seized control of that countrys media through a series of strikingly similar legal and administrative reforms within weeks of his nationalist Fidesz party taking power.* Hungary faced criticism from European and international press freedom advocates, but moved ahead with the reforms, and has been rated only partly free by Freedom Houses widely-followed Freedom of the Press report since 2011. The Hungarian example makes people think perhaps we should react, we should be tougher, because we didnt react in Hungary, says Sojewska, the Brussels correspondent. The European rush to defend Polish public media, she says, is a way for embattled European Union institutions, weakened by their mishandling of the continents ongoing financial and migration crises, to prove they can still impose continent-wide standards. For Law and Justice, the stakes are proving that Poland can defy European norms of public press freedom and get away with it, she says. Public broadcasting holds about a 20 percent share of the Polish television and radio audience, and remains influential in Polish politics, according to Szynol. Theyre still opinion makers for policy makers, theyre still the leaders on TV, and in commentary, he says. But Law and Justice has also announced desires to shrink foreign ownership of Polands privately-owned media, believed to be as high as 80%, and bring most under control of Polish companies. They say they want to re-Polandize it, says Szynol. But how they intend to do that, no one knows. The Guardian has noted that Jarosaw Kaczynski, leader of Law and Justice, used one of his first speeches after taking office to inveigh against the countrys largest private newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, a left-leaning paper often used as a tip-sheet by foreign observers. Kaczynski termed the papers attacks on Law and Justice against the very notion of the nation. Still, criticism of the new media law from outside Poland has been met with scepticism even by some of the laws critics. Its not that Im going to defend it, says Sojewska. If you watch the [public] reporting now, its like the old communist times. But Polands previous left wing government also fired people who were more right wing, and nobody here [in Brussels] said anything, she says. The sudden firestorm about the media law from European neighbors is a reaction to Law and Justices sharply anti-European ideology, she says, more than a defense of the public media system. The Law and Justice party is a very easy target, she says. *Corrections: An earlier version of this story understated the impact of the Polish media law on Polish state radio and TV broadcasters and incorrectly described the Polish Press Agency as a broadcaster. It gave an incorrect title for Polish official Krzysztof Czabanski and incorrectly identified Polands government-run National Broadcasting Council as a public-private entity. Additionally, an earlier version of this story misspelled Adam Szynols last name and included a quotation from Dominika Cosic that referred to two private newspapers. That line has been corrected to refer to private television stations. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Barbara Petersen has been fighting back efforts to make Floridas government less transparent for more than 20 years. There havent been many battles more consequential than the one shes waging right now. Over the last few years, there have been reports about a handful of people or firms using the states strong public records law in gotcha-style stings, essentially to extract legal fees from unwitting violators. Predictably, that led to demands to change the law. But when a legislative fix was introduced late last year, with strong support from local municipalities, it was hardly tailored to the problem: Instead, the bill would give judges complete discretion over when to award attorneys fees in records cases, by changing the word shall to may. The effect on records disputes, as I wrote in January, would be to make litigation less likely, and the threat of a suit a less effective deterrent to misbehavior. The measure represented a serious threat to public-records access, by weakening an important incentive for compliance. But then Petersen, the president of the nonprofit First Amendment Foundation, got to work. When the bill was filed, I immediately started letting people know, she says. This was going to be huge. This was like dropping a nuke on Tallahassee because of a mouse over on College Avenue. The foundation, started in the 1980s by a consortium of media groups, is a leading institutional advocate for open government in the statebut Petersen didnt come to this fight alone. The foundation had recently worked to organize the Florida Sunshine Coalition, gathering together a variety of groups and individuals who have an interest in government transparency, even though it isnt their primary focus. Those connections were helpful in getting people like Rich Templin, a lobbyist for the Florida AFL-CIO, pushing back on the change to the law. Sign up for weekly emails from the United States Project Petersen also alerted the media, helping to attract widespread coverage to the proposal. And she worked directly with the bills Senate sponsor, Sen. Rene Garcia, and testified before a Senate committee, something she rarely does. Those efforts paid off: Garcia was willing to listen to reason, Petersen said. He amended his Senate bill to require a judge award attorneys fees when an agency wrongly withholds records unless the judge finds, according to the revised language, that the public record request was made for the primary purpose of (1) harassing the agency or (2) causing a violation of the public records law. That change addresses concerns about predatory records requests, while maintaining the default expectation that violators will have to pay legal feesan important incentive to comply with the law. The House version hasnt been amended, so the issue isnt entirely resolved yet. But at this point, the Florida Senate is no longer considering a bill that would have dramatically weakened the states public records law. Thats a winone Petersen can claim much of the credit for. She relishes the fight, said Dave Wilson, senior editor at The Miami Herald and board chairman of the First Amendment Foundation. Shes really made it her lifes work. Very few people who have benefited from her work know about it. In fact, reporters who cover the legislature told me they rarely see Petersen walking the halls. Much of her work is behind the scenes, one of the reasons so few people outside of media circles and the legislature know what she does. Every year Petersen tracks every bill that affects Floridas public records and government in the sunshine laws, focusing her advocacy on the ones that seem to overreach. The foundation doesnt whine about every bill, she adds, but we pick out the ones we think we can fix. Those efforts have impact: Over the years, Petersen has become the states leading advocate for government transparency. Some legislators will ask where the foundation stands on a public records law amendment before voting on it. (Not everyone is so friendly: In the charged atmosphere after 9/11, when Petersen opposed some bills of questionable utility that had to do with airplanes, I had one lobbyist call me and tell me I would be personally responsible for the next terrorist attack, she recalls.) Petersen came to this role in 1995, following a circuitous route. After a variety of odd jobs, from bookkeeping to pumping gas at a marina, she went to law school in her late 30s. She then worked for four years on a legislative committee tasked with updating Florida laws to handle new technological demands, including the public records law, which did not yet take into account electronic records. The opportunity to run the First Amendment Foundation was a dream job, she says. Though the foundation is supported by many of the major newspapers in the stateit gets nearly a quarter of its funding from media organizations, board vice-chair Bob Shaw told meit sees its mission as upholding open government and free expression more broadly. We dont see ourselves as representatives of the media, said Shaw, a retired editor for The Miami Herald and Orlando Sentinel. Large news organizations, which still have budgets to fight records violations, would have been less affected by the legal-fees change than small sites or private citizens, he noted. In this case, its the non-corporate public we were standing up for. There have been lots of exemptions passed in recent years that narrow the publics right to records but I dont recall any bill as far reaching as this one was. Petersen also worked to narrow the scope of another bill this session, this one to exempt all of the personal information on voter rolls. Thats the kind of information the Herald used in 2013 to uncover ballot fraud. The people who would still have access to that information? Campaign workers, like the one indicted after the Herald uncovered his actions. Petersen worked with the bills sponsors to get the language changed. Now it only exempts the information of 16- and 17-year-olds who have pre-registered to votean obvious fix to address the stated concerns of the original measures proponents, while maintaining transparency and the access needed for public oversight. As the legislative session continues, Petersen will continue to track the attorneys fees bill, the voter file bill, and the 72 other measures, according to the foundations ticker, that would affect the publics right to know. I dont get tired of it, she said. I get frustrated, but I dont get tired of it. I dont think theres anything more fundamental to a democratic society than the peoples right to oversee their government and hold it accountable. Thats why we call public officials public servantsthey work for us. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Susannah Nesmith is CJRs correspondent for Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. She is a freelance writer based in Miami with more than 25 years working for regional and national outlets. Follow her on Twitter @susannahnesmith. Wyoming Man to Serve Probation for Workers Compensation Fraud A Sheridan man accused of collecting disability payments while working for a tree service company has entered a no contest plea to one count of workers compensation fraud. The Sheridan Press reports that Victor Rodriguez recently entered the plea in District Court. As a part of the plea agreement, a separate fraud charge was dropped. Court documents state that Rodriguez twice fraudulently claimed workers disability in 2012. Workers compensation fraud carries a maximum punishment of five years imprisonment and $5,000 fine. As a part of the plea agreement, Rodriguez will serve one to five years of probation if Judge John G. Fenn agrees to the plea deal. If Rodriguez successfully completes his sentence, the charges will be removed from his record. Washington Grocery Store Worker, Aesthetician Charged in Separate Workers Comp Fraud Cases One claimed she hurt herself chasing a shoplifter, and the other insisted her spa injury was so serious she couldnt work. Now the two women in these unrelated cases face felony theft charges alleging they stole workers compensation benefits. Marlo Diana Johnston and Sulia Hernandez Carranza each have been charged with one count of first-degree theft. The Washington Attorney Generals Office filed the charges based on investigations by the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I). Fibbing about a chase Charging papers say Carranza claimed she injured her knee in May 2014 when chasing a shoplifter in her job as a loss prevention specialist at a Pasco grocery store. L&I opened a workers comp claim for Carranza, which provided medical care for the workplace injury. The store allowed her to keep working with medical restrictions while her knee was being treated. In April 2015, however, Carranza admitted she wasnt really injured on the job, according to the charges. She apologized to her employer, saying she filed the false claim to get medical treatment for a painful, preexisting knee problem. Carranza is accused of stealing more than $11,000 in L&I benefits, including more than $7,200 for medical treatment. The amount also includes nearly $3,900 that L&I reimbursed the store for providing Carranza with light duty instead of requiring her regular job tasks. Concealing job as aesthetician Johnston is accused of stealing more than $16,000 in wage replacement payments while signing official L&I documents that she wasnt working due to a workplace injury. In reality, charging papers say, she was working as an aesthetician at a medical services spa in Edmonds from September 2012 through February 2013. Charging papers say she hid the fact she was working from L&I, her attorney, her L&I vocational counselor and the doctor who approved her to receive wage replacement benefits. Johnston originally injured her left hand while working for a Bellevue salon and spa in 2007. L&I investigators discovered the case last year while comparing L&I workers comp records with state Employment Security Department payroll records. Five North Carolina Women Staged Three U-Haul Accidents Five Wilmington, N.C., women were arrested in connection with an alleged staged auto accident ring, according to an announcement by Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin. Investigators allege that over the course of three separate vehicle crashes, the women provided false statements to law enforcement and insurance companies in an effort to receive insurance benefits. Doris Canty was charged with one count each of obtaining property by false pretense and insurance fraud. Canty was arrested on Feb. 8 in New Hanover County and placed under a $5,000 bond. Jessica Denise Goodman was charged with three counts each of attempting to obtain property by false pretense and insurance fraud, two counts of felony conspiracy and one count each of misdemeanor conspiracy and misdemeanor child abuse. Goodman was arrested on Feb. 11 in New Hanover County and placed under a $100,000 bond. Extase Shyneice Pollock was charged with two counts of felony conspiracy and one count each of injury to personal property, insurance fraud and misdemeanor conspiracy. Pollock was arrested on Jan. 29 in New Hanover County and placed under a $5,000 bond. Shaquetta Sade Washington was charged in New Hanover County with one count of aiding and abetting to obtain property by false pretense. Washington was arrested on Feb. 16 in New Hanover County and placed under a $5,000 bond. Investigators seek an additional suspect in association with this case. Teresa Halsey Pollock is wanted for two counts of felony conspiracy and one count each of attempting to obtain property by false pretense, insurance fraud and misdemeanor conspiracy. The allegedly staged accidents occurred on Aug. 4, Oct. 10 and Dec. 4, 2015, and involved Repwest, Wilshire and Allstate insurance companies. AP contributed to this story. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Prosecutors in Ventura County, California, filed a misdemeanor charge of vehicular manslaughter Monday against a man who drove his pickup truck onto train tracks last year, causing the deadly derailment of a Southern California commuter train. The charge, announced by District Attorney Gregory Totten, stems from the Feb. 24 collision that killed the Metrolink trains engineer, 62-year-old Glenn William Steele, and injured 34 others in the city of Oxnard. The filing came two days before the statute of limitations for such a charge. Jose Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez, 54, of Yuma, Arizona, was initially jailed by investigators but was released. Police found the disoriented driver of the demolished Ford F-450 pickup 1.6 miles from the crossing 45 minutes after the crash. His attorney, Ron Bamieh, said Sanchez-Ramirez accidentally turned onto the tracks and made repeated attempts to get the vehicle off the rails, then ran for his life as the train approached out of fear that fuel he used to power tools for his work repairing farm machinery might cause an explosion. Prosecutors announcement said he did not notify authorities of his predicament prior to the collision and derailment. Bamieh disputed that, saying Sanchez-Ramirez, who doesnt speak English well, tried to get help from a passer-by, attempted to call his employer, and eventually reached his son to help him speak with police. The National Transportation Safety Board said Sanchez-Ramirez turned right 55 feet prematurely onto train tracks in what it termed a mistake getting caught there during the dark early morning hours. The investigation took nearly a year to complete and was submitted for review Feb. 10. Sanchez-Ramirez is scheduled to be arraigned March 23 in Ventura County. Oxnard Police Assistant Chief Jason Benites said the filing is serious and indicates there is some degree of contributory negligence that caused Steele to be killed. If found guilty, Sanchez-Ramirez faces up to a year in jail. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Amputations are among the worst on-the-job injuries. Each year, about 25 workers in Washington suffer from amputations so serious lost arms, hands, legs or feet that they require ongoing specialized care. The medical care and assistance these injured workers receive are key to their physical and mental recovery. The Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) and Harborview Medical Center announced a new agreement to provide focused help for the most traumatic on-the-job amputations. The two organizations have worked together to create a new Center of Excellence for medical care for amputees. Harborview, part of UW Medicine, is already nationally recognized for its work with amputees. Thanks to the agreement, workers with amputations can now have their ongoing medical care managed by UW Medicine physicians and staff at the new Center of Excellence. Traumatic amputations increase the complexity of patients medical needs. These cases often involve multiple types of health care providers working together. We want these catastrophically injured workers to know that were going to be there for them, said Joel Sacks, director of L&I. By improving the coordination of care, workers with amputations can concentrate on recovery and not feel overwhelmed with details. Workers will leave the hospital with a discharge plan that carefully coordinates follow-up appointments with specialists. Then the doctors and care coordinators at the new Center of Excellence will communicate with all of the workers health-care providers, as well as with the employer and L&I. The new Center of Excellence for Amputations will reinforce our touchstone role in bringing the best available trauma care to Washingtons citizens, said Dr. Janna Friedly, director, UW Medicine Rehabilitation Amputee Program at Harborview Medical Center. We commend Labor & Industries for leading the way on paying for care coordination. To streamline care for amputees insured by L&I, a group of highly-trained staff from the agency will manage catastrophic claims. They will coordinate closely with UW Medicine and with staff at hospitals where workers are initially treated. Losing a limb is one of the worst things that can happen to you on the job, commented Matt Pomerinke, a mill worker who lost his arm 15 years ago. Getting out of the hospital is just the first step on a long road and theres a lot to do. With this support, workers can focus on recovery with less worry. L&I is also improving computer systems that will make it easier to track care for serious injuries and streamline the timing of other services, such as evaluations for prosthetics. The new center is part of an L&I project to improve care for catastrophically injured workers. L&I plans to partner with the medical community to establish additional centers of excellence for burns, head and spinal cord injuries, and multiple trauma/crush injuries. Source: Washington Department of Labor & Industries Leading Contemporary Composer Georg Friedrich Haas Comes Out as Kinky Paddles are displayed for sale at the DomConLA convention on May 18, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. DomCon brings together enthusiasts of BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Submission and Dominance) and other sexual fetishes. The convention, started in 2003 by fetish professional, Mistress Cyan, is claimed to be the largest convention of its kind in the U.S. DomConLA will continue through May 20. (Photo : David McNew/Getty Images) It's a common business practice to make sure your house is in order -- and that's exactly what the political microtonal composer Georg Friedrich Haas has done. The Austrian-born Haas recently opened up about the strange sexual nature of his most recent marriage, which has helped propel his music to new heights. Haas' charming candor in and OKCupid message appealed to Mollena Williams, a writer and sex educator. Soon after their initial hookup, they were married, and they haven't looked back since. While the focus seems to home in on the kinkiness of their relationship, the marriage isn't rooted in their sexual desires. Instead, it's a romantic partnership that is inherently beneficial to both parties. Haas even said he needs his partner while he works. Zachary Wolfe at The New York Times wrote about the couple: "Their marriage can seem, in [a sexual] regard, distinctly old-fashioned, and not in a Marquis de Sade way. While the terms they negotiated at the start of their relationship do not prevent her from pursuing her own professional and personal life, Ms. Williams-Haas devotes much of her time to supporting the work of a man - "Herr Meister," she has nicknamed him - for whom a "good day" is one in which he composes for 14 or 15 hours. "'She makes my life as comfortable as possible,' Mr. Haas said." Perhaps this is the sort of muse Haas had been searching for, yet he has consistently produced some of his generation's best microtonal works. With his works challenging the conventional Western semitonal scale, Haas' personal life too takes on an air of protestation, one in dealing with the taboo nature behind BDSM lovemaking. Until next time, preview Mr. Haas below. 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. TagsGeorg Friedrich Haas, Mollena Williams eighth blackbirds Ghostlight Performed at MCA Chicago March 25 and 26, the prestigious Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago -- founded in 1967 as one of the world's largest contemporary art venues -- presents Ghostlight, a new concert by Grammy-award winning ensemble eighth blackbird, who perform two pieces that were written for the ensemble: David T. Little's Ghostlight and Bryce Dessner's Murder Ballades. The evening will also feature a very special guest performer in Will Oldham, who often records under the moniker Bonnie "Prince" Billy, for Rzewski's Coming Together, and the ensemble joins him on several of his songs. Ghostlight, slated for MCA's Edlis Neeson Theater this March 25-26, is inspired in part from ancient ceremonies and was developed throughout the course of eighth blackbird's yearlong residency at the MCA. Bryce Dessner's Murder Ballades explores acts of revenge and betrayal, recounted through simple, upbeat melodies. Its first iteration was commissioned in part by MCA Chicago and features on the ensemble's 2016 Grammy -- nominated Filament album. Dessner has now expanded the composition for this concert. The evening also features a special guest performer, Bonnie "Prince" Billy joining the ensemble for Rzewski's Coming Together. This piece traces Sam Melville's descent from sanity into madness, inspired by a letter written by Melville -- convicted for bombing eight New York City buildings in 1969 -- months before the Attica prison riot that marked his death. eighth blackbird will also join Bonnie "Prince" Billy in several of his songs that he selected for the program. Tickets to either the March 25 or 26, performance of eighth blackbird's Ghostlight with Bonnie "Prince" Billy they are available through the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's official website or by phone at (312) 280-2660. 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Tagseighth blackbird, Ghostlight, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, MCA Chicago, MCA AKRON, Ohio -- Among promises made on Akron's $1.4 billion sewer project was one that former Mayor Don Plusquellic trumpeted particularly loudly: local residents would be hired to do much of the work. Those promises may be in peril, however, as state lawmakers work to ban local hiring requirements. Moreover, agreements made by the city have already allowed some of the largest contractors a workaround to avoid hiring existing residents. Obligated under a court order to spend at least $1 billion to stop its sewers from overflowing into the Cuyahoga River, Akron touted local hiring requirements as a way to ease the economic impact that the expensive project would have on the city. Akron is facing an increasingly dire economic situation, according to the Greater Ohio Policy Center, as poverty continues to rise out of the great recession and young professionals look elsewhere for work. On the largest portion of the sewer project, a 6,000-foot-long sewer tunnel to be drilled below downtown, Kenny and Obayashi construction companies have agreed to hire at least 35 percent "local residents" to do the work. That's short of the 50 percent Plusquellic advocated for, but better than the city did on its last major construction project, to rebuild all of its public schools. Except an attachment to the contract defines "local resident" as anyone who has lived in the city seven days prior to the start of construction. That means that Kenny and Obayashi could hire anyone, relocate them to Akron seven days before construction begins and earn credit toward the city's 35 percent requirement. Akron spokeswoman Christine Curry said that the city is still pursuing local hiring requirements on other projects, but could not elaborate on the narrow definition included in the Kenny/Obayashi contract, which was negotiated by Plusquellic's administration. "We absolutely would like to see jobs going to the residents, obviously you want a qualified workforce working on a job, but it has more to do with providing for the citizens of the community in the city where the project is taking place," Curry said. The city struggled with contractors so much that Plusquellic proposed starting a new construction company to perform work on the sewer project, a strategy that construction experts said was unprecedented in Ohio. At the very least, the city will still collect income tax on workers living in the city under the Kenny/Obayashi contract. George Johnson, who heads the local union representing city service workers, said collecting taxes on contract work has been a problem. "When you have local hires, its hard not to pay local taxes," Johnson said. "The contractors have not been keeping up with the city (taxes), and the city doesn't have anyone, on a full time basis, tracking that." If momentum continues in Columbus, however, the whole idea of requiring companies to hire locals, or even relocate their workers before starting work, will become a thing of the past. Area Democratic representatives have vocally opposed proposals to strike local hiring. "Cities like Akron use local hiring requirements to put unemployed residents back to work," Rep. Emelia Sykes, of Akron, said in June after the house passed a law banning local hiring. Last year's law later stalled in the senate, but house Republicans are now working on new legislation that has support. Macedonia City Center Macedonia City Council meets at Macedonia City Center, on Valley View Road. Council will consider a measure Thursday night that would increase income tax for residents who work outside the city. (John Harper, cleveland.com) MACEDONIA, Ohio -- Macedonia will consider a proposal Thursday to increase the amount of income tax paid by residents who work outside the city. City Council could vote on a proposal by Mayor Joseph Migliorini to cut an income tax credit for those who live in Macedonia but work and pay taxes in another city. The effect, if passed, would be an additional $500 in income tax on a $50,000 salary. Since the city is not actually changing its tax rate, merely altering its credit structure, the hike does not need voter approval. Councilwoman Sylvia Hanneken opposes the tax increase, which Migliorini says is necessary to pay for increased road maintenance costs. Hanneken, a former U.S. Department of Defense financier, has questioned Migliorini's budget figures, pointing to raises and increased salary projections in the city's fire, police and service departments. Migliorini claims that the city's cash reserves will be depleted from about $2 million to less than $100,000. Hanneken said the city moved its $2 million cash reserves into other accounts. Councilman Dave Engle says he wants to table the income tax proposal until the public has a chance to weigh in. "I've never seen so many emails opposed to something in my life," Engle said. "My general conclusion is that most people in Macedonia are either completely opposed to it, or are completely opposed to letting council make the decision by themselves." Follow the council meeting in the live feed below starting at 7:30 p.m. Council meetings are held at Macedonia City Center, 9691 Valley View Road. NORTHFIELD CENTER TOWNSHIP Ohio -- Local officials are moving to tear down the house where an arson-caused explosion killed a family of four last month, the Akron Beacon Journal reports. The township's zoning inspector has asked Huntington Bank, which holds the mortgage on the burnt-out home, to demolish the house. There are a few options: the township could demolish the home and bill the bank, the bank could voluntarily demolish the home or the bank could turn the home over to the Summit County land bank. Investigators believe 43-year-old Jeff Mather blew up the home intentionally while his wife, Cindy, and daughters, 8 and 12 years old, were inside. Macedonia Mayor Don Kuchta says politics tarnished his reputation: In an interview with The Nordonia Hills News Leader, the former Macedonia Mayor said he's proud of his legacy, despite a series of political setbacks that drove him from office in the last year. "I would still be working now but I am tarnished," Kuchta told the newspaper. "If you go back and look over the years there was never any shenanigans going on and I would never take bribes from anyone." Kuchta said he left the city in better financial shape and a with more vibrant business community than when he arrived in 2004. Kuchta became at odds with City Council after trying to fire the city's former finance director, Scott Svab, following a spat with the city's law director about salaries. Council voted against the mayor, preventing him from firing the finance director and resulting in roughly $80,000 being paid out while Svab was on paid leave. Svab exposed that Kuchta had been receiving free services as part of the city's assistance programs for low-income seniors. The article did not mention that Kuchta admitted to having a city contractor install a cement walkway at his home. Summit County could get up to $2 million for more demolitions: As part of $350 million in statewide grants to fund house demolitions, the Summit County Land Bank will get an additional $2 million to fund demolitions and other blight-prevention projects, according to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. Tons of dirt moved into Summit County Fairgrounds for motocross: About 3,000 tons of dirt have been dumped inside the arena at the Summit County Fairgrounds as crews have spent the last week sculpting a motocross course for this weekend's event, the Beacon Journal reports. The event, Summit Indoors MX, takes place this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and 7 p.m. Failure to control a vehicle, falsification, Nobottom Road: A Cleveland man, 49, was arrested at about 10:30 p.m. Feb. 20 after he ran a 2012 Chrysler 200 into a home's front yard. When police arrived, the car was stuck in deep mud, and the front end was badly damaged. A 30-year-old Cleveland woman was a passenger in the car, which contained an open bottle of Richards Wild Irish Rose and a used crack pipe. The man said he was giving the woman a ride to the home of a Nobottom man - whom the woman initially said was her uncle - and missed the driveway. Police ran the woman's name through their computer and found she was wanted in Brook Park for heroin possession and solicitation. She was arrested. Later, the woman changed her story, saying the Nobottom man had contacted her through an ad she posted on Craig's List for massages. She insisted that a massage was all she was going to perform. The Nobottom resident told police he didn't know the man and woman, and that his wife was home. He said the man and woman had asked him for help after they drove their car onto his property. He said he gave the woman a can of Pepsi and sent her on her way. Meanwhile, the driver lied to police about his identity. They later found he was wanted for a felony, and had a long list of aliases and several convictions for obstructing official business and falsification. He was also driving with a suspended license. Stolen car, North Rocky River Drive: Police are looking for two men who ran from police after they were caught in an apparently stolen car. At 1:35 a.m. Feb. 22, police saw a maroon 1993 Oldsmobile weaving and moving slowly southbound on North Rocky River near Nancy Drive. Police checked the license plate number and discovered that the car's owner, a Parma woman, had a suspended driver's license. An officer pulled the car over, and two men stepped out. The driver - described as white, about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, with short brown hair and a chinstrap beard - bent down as if he were going to tie his shoe. As the officer exited his cruiser, the driver ran eastbound on West Bagley Road, then through a yard near Runn Street. The officer chased the driver but lost him. When the officer returned to the Oldsmobile, the passenger - described as white, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and 170 pounds - was gone. The car's steering column had been partly stripped, and the driver's-side door lock had been pulled out. Police were unable to reach the car's owner. Operating a vehicle under the influence, West Bagley Road: A Berea woman, 47, was arrested at about 1 a.m. Feb. 19. Police saw a Buick Century the woman was driving turn right from Lindberg Boulevard onto West Bagley without a turn signal. An officer checked the license plate number and learned that the Buick's owner, a 47-year-old Cleveland man, had a suspended license. The officer stopped the car just east of Baker Street and noticed the car's owner was in the passenger seat. The driver smelled of alcohol. When the officer told her why he pulled her over, she laughed. She failed field sobriety tests, and the officer found two crack pipes in her coat pocket. The car's owner was also arrested after police found a third crack pipe in the passenger seat, where he had been sitting. Petty theft, North Rocky River Drive: A worker at Speedway, 880 North Rocky River, was fired and faces charges after he was caught stealing $350 in lottery tickets from the store. The store manager called police Feb. 16 and reported the missing tickets. The following day, the manager called again, saying that surveillance video showed the worker - a 19-year-old Berea man - stealing the tickets on Feb. 14 and Feb. 16. Police were at the store when the man arrived for work Feb. 18. After the manager fired him, police escorted him outside. The man admitted stealing three to five lottery tickets. OVI, Valley Parkway: A Berea woman, 53, was arrested at about 3:15 a.m. Feb. 21. A car the woman was driving did not come to a complete stop before turning right on red from North Rocky River Drive to West Bagley Road. Also, the woman did not signal a turn. Police followed as the woman turned south onto Valley Parkway. Her car was weaving and drifting left of center. Police pulled her car over in a parking lot near Wallace Lake. Marijuana possession, Prospect Road: A Berea man, 23, was arrested at about 9:30 p.m. Feb. 21. The man was driving a pickup truck, with its headlights off, southbound on Prospect. Police stopped the truck just south of West Street. The man spoke lethargically to police, and his eyes were glassy. The man admitted smoking marijuana earlier, and that he had a bag of marijuana in his pants pocket. OVI, West Bridge Street: A Berea man, 60, was arrested at about 3 a.m. Feb. 17. Police saw the man's Hyundai Santa Fe turn right from North Rocky River Drive onto West Bagley without signaling. After turning onto Valley Parkway, the car was weaving, and went left of center. The car continued to weave after turning left onto North Quarry Lane. Police stopped the car on West Bridge. Shoplifting, East Bagley Road: Police are looking for a man who stole over-the-counter drugs at 5:10 p.m. Feb. 3 from Walgreens, 6 East Bagley. Surveillance video showed the man grabbing eight boxes of Prevagen - a health supplement for the brain - nine cans of Rogaine and two packages of Mommy's Bliss Baby Probiotic Drops. He dropped the items into a basket, removed the packaging and left the store without paying. The man was described as Middle Eastern, 25-35-years-old, 6 feet-6 feet 5 inches tall and 150- 200 pounds. He had a buzz haircut, and was last seen wearing black pants and a white and black jacket. Call Berea police at 440-234-1234. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The joy ride on cheap gasoline is coming to an end. The average price of a gallon of gasoline in Northeast Ohio and across the state is now about $1.80. And rising, says GasBuddy. The national average price is $1.72. The Internet-based price watchdog is reporting plenty of stations here already at $1.89 or $1.99. Ohio price leader Speedway, owned by Marathon Petroleum Corp., has already set most of its Ohio station prices in the $1.80-to-$1.89 range. Northeast Ohio gasoline prices are now higher than average prices across the nation. Dealer wholesale prices Wednesday were, in some cases, about $1.60 a gallon, including almost 50 cents in taxes and delivery charges. Don't look to oil prices as the reason for today's price leap. But oil could play a role in the next up-tick. Although oil fell most of the day from Wednesday's $32.15 closing price, the contract price shot up by nearly a dollar at the end of the trading today, closing at $33.07 a barrel on news that Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar had agreed to meet in March to discuss reducing production. The key to the current gasoline price increases came Wednesday in the latest report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The EIA found that: Gasoline stockpiles declined by at least 2.5 million barrels and by as much as 2.6 million barrels. In the Midwest alone, supplies fell by about 1.4 million barrels. Overall refinery operations declined by about 1 percent to about 87 percent of capacity. The EIA estimated Midwest refineries were running at about 92 percent of capacity. Demand grew to 9.6 million barrels per day (403.2 million gallons per day) -- up about 372,000 barrels per day. Demand is running about 2.5 percent higher than this time last year, the EIA estimated. The nation's oil stockpiles increased to 507.6 million barrels, the highest in more than 85 years. You can expect to see refinery capacity continue to drop when spring maintenance shutdowns begin in earnest and demand -- along with prices -- continues to increase when winter leaves for good. Tom Kloza, founder of Oil Price Information Services and considered the dean of U.S. oil analysts, has predicted the national average price of gasoline in 2016 will range from $2.15 to $2.25 a gallon. That forecast does not rule out much higher price spikes in the spring. Updated by the author to include end-of-day price increase in crude oil on news that OPEC producers had agreed to meet in March. Orange police cruiser.JPG Orange police on Tuesday arrested a man accused of trying to rob a gas station before breaking into several houses. (File photo) ORANGE VILLAGE, Ohio -- A Maple Heights man tried to rob a gas station before he broke into several houses late Tuesday in Orange Village, police said. Jack Williams, 35, is charged with aggravated robbery and five counts of aggravated burglary in the string of incidents. He could face more charges once an investigation is complete, Orange Village police said. A Sunoco employee reported at 8:30 p.m. that a man entered the gas station and pointed a gun at him. The employee ran into a back room and the man left without taking anything, police said in a news release. Just after 9 p.m., officers investigated a report of a man with a knife inside a house on Orange Tree Drive. The man then left the house and burglarized several others, police said. Officers from Moreland Hills, Warrensville Heights, Solon, Chagrin Falls, Woodmere, Bentleyville, and Bainbridge helped in the search. Williams was taken into custody just after 10:30 p.m. while committing a burglary at a house on Emery Road, police said. Williams threw the gun he used in the attempted robbery at one of the houses he burglarized, police said. Detectives recovered the gun Wednesday morning. In 2011, Williams was sentenced to a year of probation after pleading guilty to attempted robbery and theft in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. His criminal history also includes previous convictions for receiving stolen property and theft, according to common pleas court records. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Reggie Rucker, the former Cleveland Browns player who pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing money from his anti-violence nonprofits, apologized for his actions and to succumbing to what his attorney said was a gambling addiction. Rucker acknowledged that he let down those who donated money to his groups, as well as the general public as a whole, in a brief statement outside the federal courthouse in downtown Cleveland. He said he intends to pay back the money he took. "I hope they'll forgive me. I hope they'll...at some point in time, give me another chance," Rucker said in a brief statement outside the federal courthouse. "That's all I ask. I'm sorry." His attorney, Michael Hennenberg, said in a separate interview that his client has accepted full responsibility for his actions. "When a person accepts responsibility for wrongdoing, that of course impacts a person's reputation," Hennenberg said. "It doesn't change all the good he has done, but he's a human being who made a big mistake and allowed his gambling addiction to overtake him." Rucker, 68, of Warrensville Heights pleaded guilty to wire fraud and making false statements to the FBI. Federal prosecutors say Rucker, 68, used the bank accounts of his non-profit agencies, including the Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance, as his own. Under an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office, Rucker asked for a prison sentence of between 21 and 27 months. He will be sentenced May 23. Hennenberg said that the federal government contacted Rucker about a year ago for its investigation. He said Rucker has cooperated the whole time and that it took a long time to sort out the finances. Rucker originally insinuated that he was set up. However, Hennenberg said Wednesday that his client "has not blamed anyone for his misconduct" but himself. The Peacemakers Alliance has worked to move past the scandal. The organization now has a new director and hopes to secure city funding in the future. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A state parole board on Thursday decided to free Akron native Frank Freshwaters, who escaped from an Ohio prison farm in 1959 and spent more than half a century as a fugitive. Freshwaters has been in custody for about nine months. He will be freed on parole on or after April 24, JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said in an email. Freshwaters was arrested in May in Brevard County, Florida, where a deputy U.S. marshal from Cleveland found him living under an assumed name. He had been on the run for 56 years, after he walked off the Sandusky Honor Farm, where he was serving time in connection with a 1957 fatal accident on South Arlington Road in Akron. Freshwaters struck Eugene Flynt, a husband and a father, who was walking across the street. At the time, Freshwaters was driving more than 50 mph in a 35 mph zone. Freshwaters was initially sentenced to five years of probation on the second-degree manslaughter conviction. He violated probation and was sentenced to one to 20 years in prison. Freshwaters, who went by the name William Cox while on the run, was arrested once in 1975, but West Virginia officials blocked his extradition to Ohio. He is being housed at the Southeastern Correctional Institution in Lancaster. Smith said the parole board would prefer that Freshwaters be paroled to West Virginia. Click here to see a timeline of Freshwaters' escape and capture. Lorain police cars.jpg Lorain City Schools are on lockdown while police search for a "possible perpetrator." (File photo) LORAIN, Ohio -- All Lorain City Schools are on lockdown Thursday morning, while police search for a "possible perpetrator," a school spokeswoman said. "Earlier this morning district officials were notified of a possible perpetrator in our district," school district spokeswoman Erin Gadd said. "All buildings have been placed on lockdown as an added precaution while the Lorain Police Department conducts their investigation." Gadd said most of the district's school buildings are less than 10 years old and have the latest security measures in place to keep students safe. Lorain police did not answer any questions about the lockdown and said that the office expects to release additional information later in the day. Come back to cleveland.com for more on this developing story. naughtybynature.jpg Rap group Naughty By Nature, currently on tour, participated in Glenville High School's Black History Month program on February 23. Later, they performed at the House of Blues in downtown Cleveland. (Inkwell Entertainment) CLEVELAND, Ohio - Grammy-winning hip-hop group Naughty by Nature, currently in the midst of a 27-city U.S. tour (over 33 days) commemorating their 25th anniversary, spent part of yesterday afternoon in Cleveland, participating in a Black History Month program at Glenville High School. After thanking the school for allowing them to be a part of the program, and offering words of encouragement to the students, each member of the group was presented with a proclamation from the City of Cleveland by Glenville principal Jackie Bell. The school appearance was organized by Charm Warren, a native Clevelander, who served as an industry mentor to rapper/actor Treach, Vinnie and DJ/producer Kay Gee, years before they were offered a record deal. During an interview session preceding the program, the group covered a variety of topics pertaining to their experiences in the ever-changing music industry. A key point the group stressed is the importance of being involved in all aspects of promotion and merchandising in order to create greater career longevity. Treach says, "you will definitely have a longer career span being involved behind the scenes." "Because of artists like us and Diddy, Jay-Z and 50 Cent, at least the young kids now are more aware of the business side of things; they're conscious of diversifying and investing in other ventures, as well," says Kay Gee. While discussing some of today's artists they find compelling, among them Kendrick Lamar, Drake and J. Cole, I asked if there are any current artists they're interested in collaborating with. "Well, if they're interested in collaborating with us, that's the thing" says Kay Gee. "A lot of people may feel like we may be past our prime, and may look at the situation as 'what can we get out of collaborating with Naughty by Nature?'" "The music game changes, but we stick to our signature sound," says Treach. "That's why we default to our peer groups, our fan base that was there when we first started," says Vinnie. "We want everybody to check out our most recent video, "God Is Us," featuring Queen Latifah, which we released in sync with this tour, and the reaction to date has been very positive, and fans find it refreshing. "So a lot of the time it's not about reaching out for who's current or who's on the radio right now, there's enough of us in our peer group to come out and make incredible music and penetrate the market where the young people will look and say 'Hey, maybe I need to get with them on a remix.'" Speaking of collaborations, during the early days of Naughty By Nature, Treach was featured on the track "Five Deadly Venoms" with Apache, Live Squad and Tupac Shakur - one of the greatest artists of the genre. "It was amazing working with Tupac," says Treach. "Everybody only sees the public image of him- that he was a wild guy out there who was in and out of jail. Nah, he was a soldier, he was a family person, and he took pride in everything he did. And he overdid some things, in a positive way, like recording 300 or 400 records - records that are still popping up, and taking on movie roles, showing how multitalented he was." Their 75-minute, high-energy set in front of an excited crowd at the House of Blues included the video for their latest single "God Is Us," which features Queen Latifah and is from their most recent album,"Anthem Inc."; as well as their biggest hits: "O.P.P.", "Feel Me Flow," "Craziest," "Everything's Gonna Be Alright," and of course their signature piece, the crowd anthem "Hip Hop Hooray." watch now watch now watch now When Fantasia James-Hollins drops off 3-year old daughter Antalisa for day care at Boston's Dimock Health Center, she greets clinic staff members and teachers by name. For her, being at the clinic is like coming home. "I've been off and on this campus since I was, basically, born. My mother used to come here," said the 29-year old mother of two. With a history of hypertension and other health issues in her family, James-Hollins has made her kids' health care a priority. "I can ask my doctor things that a lot of people may be embarrassed to ask their doctor," she said. "I just have so much a greater comfort being here, and I think that that does help you to be a step ahead of health and education." History of Community Care Providing access to care is a part of the Dimock Center's DNA. It began as the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1862 during the Civil War and was one of the nation's first health-care facilities run by and for women. Its breakthrough nurse training program graduated America's first black nurse. "With that history came a lot of responsibility to the community," said Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan, Dimock's president and CEO. Fantasia James-Hollins and 3-year-old daughter Antalisa at the Dimock Health Center in Roxbury, Mass. Source: CNBC Today, Dimock is a nonprofit community health center that serves 17,000 patients on a 9-acre campus in Roxbury, in the heart of Boston's African-American community, where almost 1 in 3 residents suffers with chronic health issues like asthma, high blood pressure and obesity. "Health disparities in the black community come from a number of things; it comes from the poverty level, it comes from the education status, access to health care," Minter-Jordan said. A big part of its primary-care model involves trying to reduce those barriers for their predominantly low-income patients. "We not only have the delivery of health care but we have social services," she said. "If someone has diabetes and they cannot afford food, then that is something that we need to address in our model. Or, if someone has hypertension and cannot afford their medicine, we also have to address that." Coordinated Care There is a movement within the health industry to manage patients' health through greater coordinated care, through what's known as a medical home. Dimock's chief medical officer Dr. Holly Oh, said that kind of approach has been integral to what the clinic does. "The total picture of health: that's what we're trying to get at," she said, "working to connect (patients) up to resources and services that they might need to achieve total health and wellness." Dimock gets 75 percent of its funding from state and federal sources. The health center has ramped up its fundraising to help expand programs and fund programs to assist its predominantly low-income patients. The clinic has tried to create a seamless primary-care setting. Everything from dentistry and optometry to health screenings and a pharmacy are under one roof to make it more likely that patients will follow up on treatment. It's finding success when it comes to preventive care. According to the most recent government data, in 2014 Dimock ranked well above the national average for health centers on almost a dozen federal health-quality measures. The clinic outperformed when it came to issues that impact African-Americans most: prenatal care, cholesterol treatment, asthma management and cancer screenings; African-Americans are twice as likely as whites to die from asthma, prostate and cervical cancer. The Dimock Center in Roxbury, Mass. began as the New England Hospital For Women and Children Bertha Coombs | CNBC One area in which Dimock lagged was in depression screening. So now the clinic has moved its mental health services into the primary-care setting, enabling doctors and counselors to work in side-by-side offices. "When a family comes into our clinic, we're assessing the family," said Minter-Jordan, "(and) really trying to remove the stigma we often see in our community surrounding behavioral health by having it integrated seamlessly in our primary-care clinics." watch now China's health authority has warned about the spread of the Zika virus as the weather warms up in mosquito-prone parts of the country. State news agency Xinhua reported that National Health and Family Planning Commission spokesperson Xiong Huang told a press conference on Wednesday that China had confirmed five imported cases of the virus since its first case on February 9. Zika has been blamed for a big spike in babies born in Latin America with microcephaly, a birth defect that causes the babies to have unusually small heads and is associated with developmental problems, after their mothers caught the virus while pregnant. The World Health Organization (WHO) has called the outbreak an international health emergency. The virus has no vaccine or treatment, and in about 80 percent of people causes no symptoms. watch now The Chinese official said that the country's latest confirmed cases were a 38-year-old man and his eight-year-old son from Yiwu City in the Zhejiang Province, who were bitten by mosquitoes while visiting Fiji and Samoa. The other three people diagnosed with Zika were from the Jiangxi, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces. "We should be vigilant as the spread of the illness can not be ruled out in some regions where the mosquito population will increase as the weather warms," Zinhua quoted Xiong as saying. The official added that authorities would intensify efforts to quarantine infected people and reduce the number of mosquitoes. The announcement came as the head of the that the Zika outbreak would likely worsen before nations hit by the virus got any relief. The first blow came with Apple's refusal to unlock iPhones for the FBI, and it gained the attention of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump , who called for a boycott of the company. "Have you noticed that they have thrown everything at Apple but the kitchen sink, and the darned thing just won't come down?" the " Mad Money " host asked. It seems to Jim Cramer these days that with so much negative news surrounding Apple , the stock refuses to plummet. It makes him think that the stock could have a real upside later in the year. Apple could have some real upside later in the year, which is why I reiterate my view that you want to own this stock, not trade it. "Hate him or love him, Trump's got more airtime than anyone on Earth, and if he chooses to hammer Apple, it won't be positive for the company's sales," Cramer said. Second, if Apple did unlock the phones, Cramer would not be surprised if China would want to do the same. China is a big growth market for the company, and it seems natural to him that the Communist party would join Trump in a boycott of Apple's products. Read more from Mad Money with Jim Cramer Cramer Remix: The true victim of oil's collapse Cramer: Left-for-dead industrials suddenly back Cramer: Bullish charts for these big daddy oils The third issue is that Cramer has seen more channel-check studies with analysts saying that Apple's sales are going to be horrendous and cellphones have peaked. They all try to outdo one another in negativity. While there could be excess inventory because Apple is about to launch its iPhone 7 in the fall, Cramer has heard reports that Apple will have an event in March with a new iteration of the Apple Watch. "Perhaps more important than all of this is that Apple's got a buyback of immense proportions," Cramer said. Cramer thinks it is entirely possible that Apple is buying back stock with the knowledge that the next time it reports will be before the new iPhone 7 is released. He thinks selling the stock now with everyone aware that Apple could have a weak quarter could be counterintuitive. And at 10 times earnings, maybe the bad news is already baked in to the shares. "Apple could have some real upside later in the year, which is why I reiterate my view that you want to own this stock, not trade it," Cramer said. It looks as if the M & A boom is reaching a "running out of ideas" phase. As the easy pickings in mergers and acquisitions have been harvested, boards seem to be contemplating deals that look like variations on ones that have been tried before but failed for regulatory or other reasons. Take a look at merger discussions between the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse. Just four years ago the European Commission vetoed a proposed $9 billion merger between Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext. At the time, the EU's competition supremo said the combined entity would create a "near monopoly" in certain derivative products that would hamper competition. While there are differences in the footprints of the LSE and NYSE Euronext, which was ultimately gobbled up by the Intercontinental Exchange , there are likely to be substantial overlaps that cause headaches for competition czars the world over. Similarly, United Technologies revived, albeit briefly, hopes it might succeed where General Electric once failed, in uniting with rival conglomerate Honeywell . The two companies have discussed a merger that would create a $160 billion behemoth, though United Technologies said on Monday that regulatory obstacles would be "insurmountable." Maybe the companies and their markets haven't changed so much since the EU squelched a GE-Honeywell tie-up 15 years ago. More from Breakingviews : U.S. shale on rocky road to swing-producer status Then there's Time Inc , the magazine publisher spun off from Time Warner , which is mulling a bid for the core Internet properties of Yahoo , according to Bloomberg News. It seems to have escaped the attention of the parent of the Sports Illustrated, Time and Fortune titles that it was once part of a conglomerate that bought Yahoo's close rival, AOL. The merger failed to capture any form of synergy from the escapade. Maybe this time it's different because Yahoo fancied getting into the magazine business, Time's bread and butter, but recently conceded defeat. The company, which derives most of its $30 billion market value from its stake in China's Alibaba , decided to shutter its online glossies a week ago. Read More Pro Insight: Santelli talks with Robert Heller Last year, announced M & A deals hit $4.7 trillion globally, 42 percent more than in 2014 and the largest total ever, by Thomson Reuters' tally. So perhaps corporate chieftains are getting short of inspiration while still wanting to climb on the bandwagon. That's a recipe for recycling old ideas and it's hard to see how most will fare any better this time around. For more independent commentary and analysis from Reuters Breakingviews, visit breakingviews.com Trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Brendan McDermid | Reuters "With a year of transition behind us, I'm confident that we have the right strategies in place to fuel our long-term growth," said Art Peck, Gap's chief executive officer, in a statement. Gap shares moved lower after the bell when the retailer posted quarterly results that largely met expectations but forecast that it could face a challenging year ahead . The company reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of 57 cents per share, adjusted, on $4.39 billion in revenue. Analysts expected Gap to report earnings per share of 57 cents on revenue of $4.46 billion, according to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates. Shares of Weight Watchers fell more than 15 percent in extended trading on Thursday after the company reported a decline in fourth-quarter sales as subscriptions fell. The weight management services provider reported a net loss of $11.3 million, or 18 cents per share, in the quarter ended Jan. 2, compared with net income of $4.4 million, or 8 cents per share, a year earlier. Active subscribers fell 4.8 percent in the quarter. Palo Alto Networks saw shares continued to rise after hours; they got an initial boost during the regular session when the company released its earnings report earlier than it planned. The security firm reported higher-than-expected second-quarter revenue as companies and governments spent more to protect themselves from cyberattacks. Total revenue for the fiscal second quarter 2016 grew 54 percent year-over-year to a record $334.7 million, compared with total revenue of $217.7 million for the fiscal second quarter 2015. HP Inc. shares fell more than 3.5 percent in after-hours trading Thursday, a day after it posted a larger-than-expected revenue drop in its personal systems and printing segments. Kraft Heinz's stock was up more than 3 percent in extended trading after the company reported quarterly earnings and revenue that beat analysts' expectations on Thursday. The food company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.575 per share. "We are working to implement proven management methodologies, remove inefficient spending and streamline our organization, while investing in our brands and innovation to drive long-term profitable growth," Kraft Heinz CEO Bernardo Hees said, in a statement. Shares of SunEdison soared more than 25 percent after the bell on Thursday when reports surfaced that the solar-power company defeated an injunction on a deal with its yieldco, TerraForm Power . In January, David Tepper-led hedge fund Appaloosa Management sued to prevent SunEdison's yieldco from taking over some of Vivint Solar's assets after SunEdison acquires the rooftop panel installer. TerraForm is to acquire Vivint's residential solar rooftop portfolio after SunEdison completes the Vivint transaction. Appaloosa sought "immediate injunctive relief" last month, given that SunEdison's acquisition of Vivint could close "at any time," the hedge fund said in a filing in a Delaware court. CNBC's Christine Wang and Jacob Pramuk and Reuters contributed to this report. Apple filed a motion on Thursday to vacate a California judge's order compelling the company to create software that would allow FBI agents to access an iPhone used in the San Bernardino, California, terrorist attacks. The government has said Apple must help because there is no way to get at the data on a smartphone used by San Bernardino shooter Rizwan Farook without the company engineering a special operating system. The company said, among other things, that the judge's order violates the company's First Amendment rights. "No court has ever granted the government power to force companies like Apple to weaken its security systems to facilitate the government's access to private individuals' information," the tech giant said in a release. On the First Amendment, Apple said that being forced to write a new set of code reflecting the government's opinion of privacy (not the company's) constitutes a violation of its rights against compelled speech and viewpoint discrimination. Apple also said the demand violates its Fifth Amendment right to be free from arbitrary deprivation of liberties "in that it would conscript Apple to develop software that undermines the security mechanisms of its own products," the company said in a fact sheet about the motion. In a conference call with reporters, Apple executives contended that the government is asking the court to order the company to do something that has not been authorized by Congress something that the Department of Justice and the executive branch has shied away from. Before Apple creates any software to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters, the U.S. government needs to ensure it is adequately protected and will not be abused, a member of the House Intelligence Committee contended Thursday. Rep. Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut, said he wants to make sure the FBI can retrieve the data only on the iPhone in question and not other devices. He echoed Apple CEO Tim Cook in questioning how much authority the FBI should have to access Apple devices. "Before we give this authority, we need to answer the question that Tim Cook asked, which is where are the limits of this authority?" Himes said on CNBC's "Closing Bell." "We all want to make ourselves absolutely comfortable that once this code exists that Apple is getting asked to write that it is very well protected." watch now watch now watch now Shale producers may not snap back quite as fast as hoped if oil prices stay in the $30-per-barrel range for much longer. Energy drillers say the U.S. is finally beginning to see real declines in production, and the longer prices stay low, the longer it will take to reverse the effects across the industry of cutbacks in production, capital spending and staffing. A Halliburton oil well fielder works on a well head at a fracking rig site January 27, 2016 near Stillwater, Oklahoma. J. Pat Carter | Getty Images "Now you're starting to see the decline, and I believe you're going to continue to see the decline as you move through 2016," said Devon Energy CEO David Hager to an audience at the annual IHS CERAWeek energy conference this week. "Right now to summarize it: $30 and $2 does not work $30 oil and $2 gas," he said. "Most of us are in place to make sure we can survive, and make sure we are in place when it turns." U.S. production reached a peak of 9.6 million barrels a day in April 2015, six months after OPEC moved to a market-based strategy that sent prices skidding. U.S. oil output was lifted by the industry's recently completed projects, and production was also supported by hedging, ready financing and technology gains. But financing is no longer easy, and some producers face real hardship, including fire sales or bankruptcy. "They're going through another round of cuts, and it's now about protecting your balance sheet," said Daniel Yergin, IHS vice chairman, in an interview. But he said the industry should come through this downturn better positioned because of its emphasis on technology and innovation. There was some hope in the industry that a proposed production freeze between Russia and Saudi Arabia could lead to talks of output cuts, but the industry learned at the IHS CERAWeek conference that cuts are not on the agenda. Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Naimi made it clear this week that a production cut is not now possible since big producers would not agree to it. He told CERAWeek attendees Tuesday that while there is no war against shale, high costs producers must find ways to lower costs or liquidate, a comment that pushed oil prices lower. On Thursday, WTI crude rallied in the afternoon to close up 3 percent on news of a major oil producers meeting set for March. WTI crude 200-day moving average: $44.78 90-day moving average: $37.33 30-day moving average: $30.64 (Source: Stockcharts.com) "There's a great chance longer term we could overshoot this thing," Hager said. "The strategy now is to survive, keep your strength up, because I do believe there's a brighter day around the corner," he added. Companies are cutting dividends, issuing stock and taking other steps to shore up balance sheets, the Devon Energy CEO noted. IHS data shows that U.S. exploration and production companies issued about $5 billion in stock year-to-date compared to about $20 billion for all of last year. Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield said, "This is the worst I've seen it from a balance-sheet standpoint. Everybody's debt is trading at 30 cents on the dollar, 40 cents on the dollar." watch now Big banks have banded together to battle back against the rising tide of payment start-ups. Seven banks have invested in a digital payment network to launch a peer-to-peer mobile product to help them fend off a growing number of start-ups elbowing into their space. Smartphone-based peer-to-peer payment between banks' apps is expected to launch for most firms this summer, and represents a growing challenge from Wall Street to fintech firms like Square and PayPal . BB&T , Wells Fargo , PNC Financial Services Group , Capital One , Bank of America , JPMorgan Chase and US Bancorp are participating in the new clearXchange network, representing 60 percent of the current mobile banking market. The bank-run payments service merged last year with risk management system Early Warning, which was backed by another consortium of American banks, bringing the total tally to seven banks on the project. "By using this, you'll be able to send seamlessly between banks," said Gavin Michael, head of digital for JPMorgan Chase , one of the banks in the clearXchange network. Representatives of US Bancorp, BB&T and Wells Fargo confirmed their participation. The other banks did not respond to a request for comment. watch now A man who was been working as an analyst for Barclays has been arrested on charges that he tortured a cat belonging to his roommate in their New York City apartment, prosecutors said. The analyst, 24-year-old Declan Garrity of the United Kingdom, has been put on leave because of Wednesday's arrest, and faces possible further action from Barclays, CNBC has learned. "Barclays placed him on a leave of absence pending a thorough investigation," a spokesman for the financial services giant said. The spokesman declined to comment when asked if Garrity was still being paid during his leave. Garrity's lawyer, Davim Horowitz, did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Garrity, whose Facebook page says he's a native of Northern Ireland, is in the U.S. on a work visa, prosecutors said. Barclays Bank building Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images Garrity had been working at Barclays' offices in New York since October 2014, according to his LinkedIn page. He wrote that in his job he was responsible for ensuring that all new and existing client relationships had appropriately undergone "Know Your Customer" screening, which is done to verify the identity of clients. He graduated with honors from Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 2013, and subsequently received a master's in international business from the Hult International Business School, with distinction, according to his LinkedIn profile. A criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office says that last November the 180-pound Garrity moved into an apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The apartment was already occupied by another person, and that person's cat, named "Lucy," who weighs just 8 pounds. The complaint says that Garrity's roommate told police that "shortly after [Garrity] moved into the apartment, the individual observed Lucy's behavior change, including hiding in the individual's bedroom closet, not eating and constantly licking her paws." On Jan. 25, Garrity told his roommate that "an iron had fell on the cat" while the roommate was at work, the complaint said. Lucy was found to have a broken pelvis after that incident, according to authorities. Last Saturday morning, the complaint says, that the roommate came home from work and found Lucy "hiding in her carrier [with] her rear foot facing in the wrong direction," and that she was damp and missing hair. The roommate also saw paper towels on a bedroom vanity with "cat hair and blood." A veterinarian who examined Lucy found that she had suffered a dislocated and fracture bone in her leg, several broken ribs, broken teeth, burns across various areas of her body, as well as broken claws. When Garrity spoke to a detective from the New York Police Department's Special Victims Division, he told her "that he was in the apartment alone with Lucy on the night" of Friday and into Saturday morning, according to the complaint. Garrity was charged by prosecutors with "torturing and injuring animals." He was also charged with two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, with one of those counts accusing him of acting "in depraved/sadistic manner," according to court documents. Garrity was arraigned Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court. He was ordered held on $5,000 bail, which he had not posted as of midday Thursday, according to the city Department of Correction's database. He is next due in court Monday. Lucy The Cat Source: gofundme "You have more firms. You take off some of the regulation. You let them do whatever the heck they want. You get more innovation," he said. The banking industry could experience the same type of transformative moment if the big financial institutions were broken up, he told CNBC's " Squawk Box ," as part of a wide-ranging interview. "You broke that thing up and what did you get? You got all the phones we're talking about this morning," said Bullard, arguing the environment created by the 1984 dismantling of AT&T gave rise to the cellphone revolution. The nation's megabanks need to be split up like the old AT&T monopoly in order to foster innovation in the new digital age at the intersection of financial services and information technology, St. Louis Fed President Jim Bullard said Thursday. The tighter banking regulations after the financial crisis have not solved the "too big to fail" problem, said Bullard, a longtime advocate of smaller banks and a voting member this year on the Federal Reserve's policymaking committee. But he admitted banks are safer today than they were in 2007 and 2008. He said, "We had to implement Dodd-Frank," referring to the financial reform law that in part requires large banks to hold more just-in-case capital, so American taxpayers would not be on the hook to bail them out if there were another global shock. "You [still] have very big firms that are unlikely to innovate into the future," Bullard said. "We're writing all these laws, all these detailed things, about exactly what they are doing today without much thought about what they're going to do tomorrow." Bullard's position echos what Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, the newest central bank policymaker, told "Squawk Box" last week. Pointing to the role smaller banks can play in the system, Kashkari said that the big institutions are still "too big to fail" and that he's going to work with experts to help craft by the end of the year a plan to address the problem "once and for all." Pointing to the smaller banks, Kashkari said they are still "too big to fail" and that he's going to work with experts to help craft by the end of the year a plan to address the problem "once and for all." In a speech the day before appearing on CNBC, Kashkari urged Congress to consider bold rules, including breaking up the largest banks or turning the institutions into "utilities" by creating huge cash cushions so they can't fail. Such rules would go further than the post-crisis Dodd-Frank regulations. In the meantime, "the Financial Stability Oversight Committee, they're naming particular firms as being 'too big to fail.' In some ways, that's ensconcing the status of these firms as if it's going to be the same companies for the next 50 years or 100 years," Bullard said. Companies with a designation of "too big to fail," or more formally referred to as a "systemically important financial institution," are required, among other things, to hold more capital. Bullard said Kashkari has the right idea. "You've got to think more deeply about this longer term. Whatever you think about Dodd-Frank, it's about how you're going to get the innovation." Bullard cited cutting-edge ideas surrounding virtual currencies like bitcoin and peer-to-peer lending as examples. Regulators, policymakers and legislators need to foster an environment so these kinds of advancements start in the United States, Bullard said, giving U.S. banks a further leg up on the "bureaucratic nightmares" in China and their closely tied to government counterparts in Europe. Chinese dredging vessels are purportedly seen in the waters around Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in this still image from video taken by a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft provided by the United States Navy May 21, 2015. U.S. Navy/Handout via Reuters China on Wednesday complained the media were ignoring radars and weapons deployed by other claimants in the South China Sea, and unfairly targeting China, following reports of its deployment of fighter jets and radars in the disputed waterway. Over the past week or so China has been reported to have deployed advanced missiles, fighters and radar equipment on islands in the South China Sea, especially on Woody Island in the Paracels. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying reiterated that as far as China was concerned, there was no dispute over ownership of the Paracels, and so China could deploy what it wanted on its territory without reproach. "I suggest to the media that, in your reports, you not selectively pump up or ignore things," Hua told a daily news briefing on Wednesday. watch now "Because when you pay attention to what China is deploying, do you also pay attention to other countries which have over the years, on Chinese islands they have occupied, deployed many radars and advanced weaponry? I hope friends in the media can objectively, justly, rationally and calmly make their reports." China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims. The comments, which come as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visits the United States, follow remarks on Tuesday by Admiral Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, that China was "clearly militarizing" the South China Sea. WHEN: TODAY, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25 WHERE: CNBC'S "SQUAWK ON THE STREET" Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC EXCLUSIVE interview with Honeywell Legal Advisor Christine Varney, former Head of DOJ Antitrust today on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." Following is a link to the video on CNBC.com: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000496807. All references must be sourced to CNBC. FABER: NOW, LETS GET TO HONEYWELL. HONEYWELL WANTS TO BUY UNITED TECHNOLOGIES BUT THAT COMPANYS CEO SAYS ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. THE KEY REASON, CONCERN THE TWO COMPANIES OVERLAPPING PRESENCE IN AEROSPACE WOULD MOVE ANTITRUST REGULATORS TO BLOCK A DEAL. HONEYWELL DISAGREES AND BELIEVES ANTITRUST CONCERNS WOULD IN ITS WORDS NOT BE A MAJOR ISSUE. CHRISTINE VARNEY RAN THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENTS ANTITRUST DIVISION FROM 2009 TO 2011. SHE NOW HAS THE ANTITRUST PRACTICE AT CRAVATH, SWAINE & MOORE AND IS A KEY ADVISER TO HONEYWELL ON ITS ANTITRUST STRATEGY FOR THE UNITED TECHNOLOGIES DEAL. NICE TO HAVE YOU HERE. VARNEY: GOOD MORNING. FABER: GOOD MORNING. YESTERDAY, AIRBUS CEO COMES OUT AND SAYS I DO NOT SEE THAT SUCH A COMBINATION WOULD BE IN THE INTEREST OF AIRBUS. IM UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT THE LEADERSHIP OF UNITED TECHNOLOGIES SHARES MY ASSESSMENT. BOEING SAYS HEALTHY COMPETITION IN OUR SUPPLY CHAIN IS VITALLY IMPORTANT TO BOEING AND OUR COMMERCIAL AND MILITARY CUSTOMERS AND THEY SAY WE WOULD ANTICIPATE TAKING A VERY CLOSE LOOK AT THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF A POTENTIAL DEAL. IT DOESNT SOUND LIKE THE CUSTOMERS ARE IN YOUR CORNER. VARNEY: WELL, I THINK ONCE WE GET STARTED IN TALKING THROUGH WHAT THE ISSUES ARE AND HOW EASILY THEYRE RESOLVED, EVERYBODY, INCLUDING UNITED TECHNOLOGIES WILL SEE THIS IS A VERY PRO-COMPETITIVE DEAL. YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER, HONEYWELL IS AN $80 BILLION COMPANY WITH A WIDE PORTFOLIO. UTC, GREAT COMPANY. A LITTLE BIT SMALLER, ALSO WIDE PORTFOLIO. THE OVERLAPS WERE TALKING ABOUT ARE SO SMALL AND SO NARROW IN AEROSPACE, THERES NO MORE THAN $5 BILLION OF OVERLAP WHICH IS EASILY DEALT WITH THROUGH DIVESTITURES. WHEN YOU ARE LOOKING AT A DEAL OF THIS SIZE WITH $3.5 BILLION IN SYNERGIES AFTER THE DIVESTITURES THAT IS GOING TO BE GREAT FOR ALL OF THE CUSTOMERS. FABER: MANY PEOPLE COME BACK TO YOUR ASSERTION ABOUT POTENTIAL DEVESTITURES AND OVERLAP AND SAY WE DONT SEE THAT AT ALL. AND I WILL TRY AND QUOTE HERE FROM WHAT IS A NEURTAL SOURCE HAS BEEN COVERING THIS INDUSTRY FOREVER AT COWAN HE SAYS THAT THERES NO WAY THE LIKELY DIVESTITURES ARE THAT SMALL. HE COMES AT A 15-18 BILLION OF OVERLAPS AND THINKS THE DIVESTITURES WOULD BE FAR, FAR HIGHER. HOW DO YOU GET TO YOUR NUMBER WHEN OTHERS ARE SAYING THE NUMBER IS MUCH MUCH LARGER? AND JUST TO GIVE YOU SOME APUS, RAM AIR TURBINES, WHEELS, SENSORS, BIZ JET HELO ENGINES, NOT EVEN SURE I AM PRONOUNCING IT PROPERLY DIGITAL ENGINE CONTROLS, FUEL PUMPS, HE GOES ON AND ON. VARNEY: SO I THINK ITS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER BOTH COMPANIES HAVE INCREDIBLY STRONG PORTFOLIOS IN ADDITION TO THEIR AEROSPACE PORTFOLIOS. AEROSPACE, HONEYWELL, INCREDIBLY STRONG ON THE ELECTRONICS SIDE, UTC INCREDIBLY STRONG ON THE MECHANICAL SIDE. PUTTING THOSE TWO COMPLEMENTARY PORTFOLIOS TOGETHER AND DIVESTING THE OVERLAPS IS WHAT IS GOING TO GIVE US THE SYNERGIES. THE NUMBERS THAT HONEYWELL HAVE COME UP WITH ARE SOMETHING IM VERY CONFIDENT IN. HONEYWELL KNOWS HOW TO DO THIS. DAVE COTE IS A WORLD CLASS CEO. THEY HAVE CRUNCHED THE NUMBERS AND WHEN WE LOOK AT THE OVERLAPS, THEY ARE IN SMALL PROPULSION ENGINES, AUXILIARY POWER UNITS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROLS. THOSE ARE THE PRINCIPLE AREAS OF OVERLAP. THERES SOME OVERLAP IN THE BUILDING CONTROLS SIDE, DE MINIMIS. I DONT THINK ANYBODY THINKS THATS A PROBLEM. BUT WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE SMALL PROPULSION ENGINES, THE APUs AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROLS IN APUS AND THE PROPULSION ENGINES THESMALL ENGINES, THERES ABOUT SIX PLAYERS IN THAT SPACE RIGHT NOW. POST DIVESTITURE THERE WOULD STILL BE SIX PLAYERS IN THE SPACE. GE, ROLLS, WILLIAMS TO NAME A FEW. THATS A PRETTY EASY DIVESTITURE. ITS VERY IDENTIFIABLE. SOMETHING BOTH THE CUSTOMERS AND THE ANTITRUST AUTHORITIES ARE GOING TO BE EASY TO DIGEST. ITS A VERY STRAIGHTFORWARD DIVESTITURE. FABER: THIS ENVIRONMENT SEEMS TO BE TOUGHER THAN IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN EVEN WHEN YOU WERE RUNNING THE ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT DIVISION AT DOJ. IM JUST THINKING, I COVER M & A, ODP STAPLES IS BEING CHALLENGED AND THEY ARE GOING TO COURT HALLIBURTON, BAKER HUGHES HAS BEEN A REALLY LONG SLOG. UNCLEAR WHERE THATS GOING TO END UP. GE WAS PREVENTED FROM DOING A DEAL WITH ELECTROLUX FOR ITS APPLIANCES UNIT. ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE PROPERLY ACCUSTOMING YOUR CLIENT TO THE CURRENT CONDITIONS WHERE M & A WHEN IT EVEN COMES CLOSE TO POTENTIALLY PUSHING THE LINES SEEMS TO BE SOMETHING THE ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT DIVISIONS ARE SAYING NO. VARNEY: I AM 100% POSITIVE THIS DEAL IS DOABLE WITH THE PACKAGE OF DIVESTITURES I'VE TALK ABOUT. FABER: HOW, WHY? VARNEY: WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE DEALS THAT DONT GET DONE, WHAT PRINCIPALLY HAPPENS IS THE PARTIES DONT UNDERSTAND THEY REALLY DO HAVE TO DIVEST OVERLAPPING ASSETS. THEY CANT MAKE ARGUMENTS THAT OTHERS WILL COME IN AND REPOSITION, OTHERS WILL COME IN AND ENTER. DEALS THAT GET DONE ARE THE DEALS THAT WALK IN THE DOOR WHERE THE CEOs HAVE PUT ON THE TABLE HERE ARE THE OVERLAPPING ASSETS, THEY ARE GOING TO BE DIVESTED. THEYRE GOING TO BE DIVESTED TO A CREDIBLE BUYER. COMPETITION IS GOING TO BE MAINTAINED. THOSE DEALS GET DONE. LOOK, DAVID, IVE LOOKED MANY CEOs IN THE EYES AND TOLD THEM YOU CANT DO THIS DEAL. THIS IS NOT ONE. THIS IS A TOTALLY DOABLE DEAL. FABER: IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE HALLIBURTON BAKER HUGHES, AS FAR AS I KNOW, I HAVE NO IDEA IF YOURE INVOLVED. VARNEY: IM NOT. FABER: GOOD THEY WALKED IN WITH A DIVESTITURE PACKAGE AND THEY'VE BEEN SLOW WALKED FOREVER HERE AND NOTHING IS GETTING DONE. VARNEY: I THINK THAT SOME DIVESTITURES ARE MORE COMPLICATED THAN OTHERS. I THINK THATS A POTENTIALLY A COMBINATION WHERE YOU HAVE SO MANY DIFFERENT PIECES THAT ARENT COHERENT, A LOT OF POTENTIAL DIFFERENT BUYERS. ITS A LITTLE BIT MORE COMPLEX. I DONT HAVE ANY REASON TO BELIEVE THAT DEAL WONT GET DONE. I THINK ITS A QUESTION OF FINDING THE RIGHT BUYERS FOR THE ASSETS AND PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER. THIS DEAL, WE HAVE A MUCH SMALLER GROUP OF ASSETS. THEYRE VERY SYNERGISTIC. ITS VERY CONCEIVABLE THAT ON THE AEROSPACE SIDE YOU GET ONE OR MAYBE TWO BUYERS. THATS NOT A COMPLICATED DIVESTITURE. FABER: WHAT ABOUT THE CUSTOMERS HERE? I MENTIONED AIRBUS IN PARTICULAR THE EU ALSO RULES ON THESE THINGS AND AS WE KNOW FROM GES ATTEMPT TO BUY HONEYWELL 16 YEARS AGO CAN SAY NO WAY NOW MARIO MONTI IS NO LONGER THE COMPETITION COMMISSIONER BUT SO WHAT AIRBUS IS A CUSTOMER THEY CARE ABOUT THAT. ARE YOU CONFIDENT THAT EU VARNEY: I AM VERY CONFIDENT; YOU KNOW CUSTOMER CONCERNS ARE IMPORTANT BUT I THINK ONCE AIRBUS AND BOEING AND OTHER CUSTOMERS SEE THE SYNERGIES THAT WILL GO DIRECTLY TO THEIR BOTTOM LINE, 3.5 BILLION IN SYNERGIES WHEN AIRBUS AND OTHERS ARE UNDER SO MUCH COST PRESSURE IS REALLY GOING TO ACCRUE TO THEM AND ON THE EU THAT DECISION 16 YEARS AGO WAS ACTUALLY OVERTURNED BY THE COURT IN EUROPE IT WAS HELD UP ON A TECHINCALLITY BUT THE IDEA THAT YOU ARE SIMPLY TOO BIG HAS BEEN DISCREDITED BOTH IN EUROPE AND THE US AND I DON'T SEE THE DEAL FAILING FOR THAT REASON. FABER: SO GIVEN YOUR CONFIDENCE, AND YOURS IS AN IMPORTANT VOICE HERE, WOULD YOU ADVISE YOUR CLIENT TO POTENTIALLY BE WILLING TO DO SOME THINGS TO DEMONSTRATE ITS WILLING TO TAKE ON THE RISK OF ANTITRUST, TO OFFER A LARGE BREAKUP FEE OR GO HELL OR HIGH WATER AS WE SAY IF IT WAS WILLING TO TRY AND FORGE A MERGER AGREEMENT? VARNEY: I WOULD ADVISE MY CLIENT TO GET IN THE ROOM WITH UTC AND WORK OUT THOSE DETAILS. THIS IS A VERY DOABLE DEAL. THE FIRST STEP IS SITTING DOWN WITH THEIR ANTITRUST ADVISERS AND REALLY UNWINDING WHY THERES NO ANTITRUST ISSUE, THEN LET THE CEOS CUT THE DEAL. FABER: WELL SEE IF IT MOVES FORWARD FROM HERE. BUT FOR NOW CHRISTINE VARNEY WE APPRECIATE YOU JOINING US. VARNEY: THANK YOU, DAVID. About CNBC: With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa, CNBC World and CNBC HD , CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news and provides real-time financial market coverage and business information to approximately 371 million homes worldwide, including more than 100 million households in the United States and Canada. CNBC also provides daily business updates to 400 million households across China. The network's 15 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 4:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide. CNBC at night features a mix of new reality programming, CNBC's highly successful series produced exclusively for CNBC and a number of distinctive in-house documentaries. CNBC also has a vast portfolio of digital products which deliver real-time financial market news and information across a variety of platforms. These include CNBC.com, the online destination for global business; CNBC PRO, the premium, integrated desktop/mobile service that provides real-time global market data and live access to CNBC global programming; and a suite of CNBC Mobile products including the CNBC Real-Time iPhone and iPad Apps. Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web site at http://www.nbcumv.com/mediavillage/networks/cnbc/. Spain's acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (L) and Socialists (PSOE) leader Pedro Sanchez sit at the start of their meeting at Parliament in Madrid, Spain, February 12, 2016. A deal between Spain's center-right party Ciudadanos and the Socialist party could propel the latter's leader, Pedro Sanchez, to the role of prime minister next week. Spain currently has a leadership vacuum following an inconclusive poll in December 2015. The Popular Party, headed by acting leader Mariano Rajoy, took the most votes in that election but has failed in attempts to form a coalition. The center-right Ciudadanos had talked with Rajoy but has instead chosen to form an alliance with his Socialist opponents. "The agreement is intended for the vast majority of Spaniards, not for political parties," read a statement from Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera on the party website. Between them, the Socialists and Ciudadanos only command 130 seats of the 350-seat lower house. And Sanchez will need further support to become prime minister in a confidence vote scheduled to take place on Wednesday, March 2. "What we agreed we cannot do alone," said Rivera, urging other parties to join the alliance. watch now watch now watch now watch now watch now European markets posted strong gains by Thursday's close, as investors cheered on a positive set of corporate earnings, rather than dwelling on the slump in oil prices. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index came off session highs, yet closed up 2 percent provisionally, with banks and telecoms leading in the sector space, both finishing above 3 percent. European markets came under slight pressure during morning trade after data showed that the inflation rate in the euro zone in January was 0.3 percent year-on-year, rather than a preliminary reading of 0.4 percent. European markets Brent crude fell into over 50 cents to last stand around $33.80, while U.S. WTI crude fell over 2 percent, last trading around $31.40. Oil and gas stocks however shook off the price decline, with Seadrill closing up near 9 percent and Statoil up 3 percent. French oil firm, Technip led the sector, finishing up over 11.5 percent, after the company posted its fourth-quarter earnings. In the report, the company said while it expects business to dip during this coming year, it believes its 2016 dividend is well covered, according to Reuters. Basic Resources was the only sector to close in the red, as a decline in metal prices weighed on stocks. Rio Tinto closed over 3.5 percent down. Earnings to the rescue: Lloyds jumps 13.6% watch now The FAA is mulling a change in proposed regulations for drones, and big tech will have its say. The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday a committee to draft recommendations for rules that could ease restrictions on operating drones in crowded or public places. The FAA has invited mostly commercial stakeholders, including Alphabet 's Google X, Intel and GoPro , to the group. The committee will start working on recommendations next month and give a final report to the FAA by April 1, when the agency will review its findings and file a proposal. It comes as business interests have ramped up pressure on the FAA and Congress for wider drone use amid concerns about public safety and privacy. Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., right, shows the collision avoidance feature of an AscTec Firefly drone with Intel RealSense cameras during the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images The rule could change how Alphabet and others integrate drones into their businesses. Ultimately, it could allow use of a wider array of drones over public spaces, benefiting not only companies who make drone deliveries but also those who sell the devices to recreational users. "They want maximum flexibility and minimum regulatory intervention," said David Swindell, director of the Center for Urban Innovation at Arizona State University and a drone policy expert. GoPro which is launching a drone camera this year said it would participate to "protect the rights of recreational users and to promote safe and responsible flying." It is unclear whether Google X will accept a spot on the rulemaking committee. In a statement, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said the company is "honored to contribute to the thoughtful work of the FAA." He added that drones' potential "will only be realized if stakeholders come together to address issues of concern to policy makers and consumers." The committee will give guidance on operating rules for a class of drones that would be able to fly over people who are not controlling them. The FAA wants standards for the aircraft to prevent crashes and potential injuries. Previously, the FAA proposed that "micro" aircraft under 4.4 pounds would fall into that category, but the agency will consider scrapping size requirements in favor of performance and safety standards. "The FAA will pursue a flexible, performance-based regulatory framework that addresses potential hazards instead of a classification defined primarily by weight and speed," FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in a statement. watch now The dispute between Apple and the FBI continues to be a major news story. Among the many to weigh is John McAfee, founder of the self-titled antivirus software program. The Libertarian Party presidential candidate told CNBC on Thursday that creating a backdoor for the FBI would create a bigger security issue. "I'm trying to point out to the world that what they're doing is deceptive," he said. "They want the backdoor so that they can have access to every iPhone in the planet." In the scenario where the FBI prevails in the battle with Apple, McAfee thinks the case will open the door to further invasion of the public's security. "If the FBI succeeds in getting Apple to do a backdoor, the next thing is Android: Apple is 5 percent of the world market, Android is 95 percent," McAfee said on "Power Lunch." "If that happens we are all at risk, no matter what you're using," he added. European ministers are meeting Thursday to discuss the latest escalation in the region's migrant crisis amid rising concerns that the survival of the region could be at stake. Interior and Justice Ministers from the European Union (EU) are meeting in Brussels to discuss plans agreed by Austria and the Balkan nations on Wednesday to fingerprint all migrants entering their countries and to turn away anyone without a passport or valid documents. People walk on shore after arriving with other migrants and refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos by crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey on November 26, 2015. BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images This comes as Greece and Eastern Europe also threatened to not cooperate with the EU if they were refused either more help with the crisis, or more leeway with relocation quotas, respectively. Balkans rebel At the meeting in Vienna on Wednesday, Austria warned that the influx of migrants needed to be reduced immediately with the country's interior minister saying it was "a matter of survival for the EU." The country also criticized Germany for sending "mixed" messages over its stance on migrant crisis by calling on some countries to restrict the flow of migrants while supporting economically-depressed Greece by allowing migrants to travel onwards. "Germany has to decide what signals Germany wants to send," Austrian interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said after talks with her counterparts from Western Balkan countries, Reuters reported, a region which most migrants travel through on their way from Greece to northern Europe. Read More 1 million migrants arrived in Europe in 2015: UN "Currently they (Germany) are sending the following signals: that they are allowing Greece to agree to the open-door policy, and on the other hand they are demanding that Austria stop all those who want to travel to Germany or reduce the quota of 3,200," Mikl-Leitner added. Neither Greece nor Germany were invited to the meeting and both countries criticized the talks. Greece also recalled its ambassador in Vienna after the exclusion, the country's foreign minister said according to Reuters. 'Warehouse of souls' watch now A senior law enforcement official told CNBC that officials are "frustrated" by Apple CEO Tim Cook's interview on ABC News Wednesday, particularly Cook's argument that the FBI's proposal in the dispute about access to a San Bernardino, California, shooter's iPhone would affect "hundreds of millions of users." Officials point to the text of the court order issued last week and argue that their proposal is "a solution for a single device by serial number in a single case." The official also responded to Cook's analogy that creating new software to access the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook would be akin to creating the "software equivalent of cancer." Cook's argument is that new software designed just to eliminate the security features of Farook's iPhone would inevitably be targeted by hackers and thieves and possibly escape into the control of hostile third parties. Apple CEO Tim Cook Getty Images That doesn't convince many officials in Washington. "If you're talking cancer cells," the official said, responding to Cook's analogy, "in this case [Apple] would create the cancer cell, they would use the cancer cell and they would destroy the cancer cell, in their own facility, where you would think they have very good security." That private assessment by a government official differed from the public tone of FBI Director James Comey in testimony Thursday before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In his public remarks, Comey went out of his way to praise Apple for its cooperation before the dispute went public last week. He declined an opening offered by a member of Congress to repeat government claims that Apple is acting out of concern for its business model. And Comey suggested he could see both sides of the issue, saying the dispute "is the hardest question I've seen in government" and emphasizing the need for conversation and negotiation. Herbalife soundly beat Wall Street expectations Thursday, and provided an update on a probe of the company by the Federal Trade Commission. The nutrition company reported earnings per share of $1.19 on $1.1 billion in revenue. Analysts had expected earnings of 94 cents per share on $1.07 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters. Herbalife noted in its annual report that it's in discussions with the FTC to resolve an investigation into concerns over federal law compliance involving advertising, marketing and sale of business opportunities. The company also provided weak guidance and now expects earnings in a range of $4.05 to $4.50 per share for fiscal 2016. The company had previously forecast $4.35 to $4.75 per share. It explained that the new guidance accounts for a currency headwind of 80 cents per share. watch now watch now A general election is due to take place in Ireland on Friday with polls suggesting that no one party will gain enough of a majority to govern alone. At present, Ireland is governed by a coalition made up of the largest political party, Fine Gael, which is led by Prime Minister Enda Kenny and the Irish Labour party. Campaign posters for the parliamentary elections on lamposts in Dublin, Ireland, on February 21, 2016. Caroline Quinn | AFP | Getty Images However, polls suggest that the election race the first since the country successfully exited its international bailout program is wide open. CNBC looks at the main issues: Who are the main players? A day ahead of the vote, polls continue to indicate that the smaller parties and independent candidates could play a crucial "kingmaker" role when it comes to forming a government. Earlier this week, an in-depth voter poll carried out by The Irish Times and IPSOS MRBI showed that party support for Prime Minister Enda Kenny's center-right Fine Gael party stands at 28 percent, on a par with the level of support for independents and smaller fringe parties at the same level. However, support for Fine Gael's coalition partner, Irish Labour, stands at only 6 percent, raising fears that the party might be close to collapse and the make-up of any future coalition would be very different. The polls, conducted on a sample of 1,200 voters from across the country, showed that a possible contender for the election is Fianna Fail, a populist, centrist party led by MichealMartin. The party currently has a support level of 23 percent and Martin has proved popular in televised debates between party leaders. Left-wing Republican party Sinn Fein is currently trailing with 15 percent of the vote, the lowest level recorded for the party in an Irish Times/IPSOS MORI polls in more than four years. The popularity of the party's President Gerry Adams suffered following media interviews in which he seemed confused over the party's fiscal policies, according to various Irish news reports. Asked which of the four main party leaders they would prefer to see as prime minister, or Taoiseach, 24 percent of voters polled preferred Enda Kenny with an equal amount preferring Fianna Fail's Micheal Martin. Only 12 percent preferred Gerry Adams and only 4 percent preferred Joan Burton, the leader of the beleaguered Labour. What could swing the vote? Ireland exited its 85 billion euro bailout program in December 2013, a program it needed following the collapse of its banking sector during the financial crisis. It has since experienced robust growth and falling unemployment. In fact, Ireland is booming, with the country's central bank forecasting economic growth of 6.6 percent in 2015 although it forecast a lesser but still robust 4.8 percent expansion in 2016, making Ireland one of the best performing economies in the euro zone. The success of the economy could be a key swing factor for voters and is expected to give incumbent Enda Kenny a potential boost. Economic growth has come at a cost, however, with austerity measures a key component of the country's return to growth. With the public weary of cuts this is something that Kenny's rivals, such as Martin, have used against him. The likely outcome? Economists believe that despite the strong economic recovery, public dissatisfaction with their politicians is high, meaning that the formation of a coalition government could be messy. "Coalition government is the norm in Ireland, and even minority administrations have proved effective in the past, but as elsewhere, dissatisfaction with the political classes is high and the political landscape is fractured," RBC Capital Markets economists Sam Hill and Timo del Carpio said in a note this week. "Polls show support for non-party aligned 'independent' candidates running at 25 percent, which will make the formation of a stable administration difficult and a second poll this year cannot be ruled out. Regardless of the result, however, a significant deviation from Ireland's current economic course is unlikely." watch now Researchers in the U.K. have made what is described as a "breakthrough reclassification" of pancreatic cancer, which offers new opportunities to treat the often-fatal disease. A study co-led by professor Andrew Biankin and colleagues at the University of Glasgow's Institute of Cancer Sciences has found four "key subtypes" of the cancer, with each possessing "their own distinct clinical characteristics and differential survival outcomes," according to a statement released on Thursday. The researchers' paper was published in the journal Nature, and named the subtypes as: - Squamous - Pancreatic Progenitor - Immunogenic - Aberrantly Differentiated Endocrine eXocrine, or ADEX. Currently, the prognosis for someone diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is one of the worst for the group of diseases. According to Cancer Research U.K., around five percent of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survive for five years or longer, with just one percent surviving for 10 years or more after being diagnosed. The Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research states that treatment options for someone with pancreatic cancer are "limited", with the surgical removal of tumors possible in less than one fifth of patients. Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs died of the disease in 2011. Peter Bailey, first author of the study, said that treatment for pancreatic cancer was currently "like hitting the disease with a mallet with your eyes closed." In its release the University of Glasgow said that researchers hoped their findings would "help to identify the correct targeted treatment for each individual subtype of the disease." The study used data from the Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative and the Queensland Centre of Medical Genomics. A key finding in the study was the identification of the Immunogenic subtype. It was found that this subtype could "potentially prove to be responsive to types of immunotherapeutic cancer treatments," the university said. "The four subtypes that we have identified represent a reclassification of the disease and as such should provide a basis to offer new insights into personalized therapeutic options for individual patients and a launch pad to investigate new treatments," Biankin, who is the university's Regius Chair of Surgery and director of the Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre, said. Personalised treatment While I am now a U.S. citizen, my sister, a business owner and part of the fastest growing segment of job creators in the U.S., Latina entrepreneurs, is still in limbo as the fate of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans awaits its day in the Supreme Court. DAPA, which would grant "deferred action status" to certain undocumented immigrants and undocumented parents of U.S. citizen children, would give my sister a work-permit and protection from deportation. She would not be receiving amnesty, or a path to citizenship. She is a mother of four U.S.-born American citizens who, like me, will never consider, any other nation as their home. And then there is my mother, whose tourist visa was revoked at the Texas border for having a U.S. born son. She also sits within the first circle of hell waiting for her 10-year ban to end so she can be with her family united and unafraid. From the outside, it might seem like my life is in perfect order. My first book, "My (Underground) American Dream," is being published on Sept. 13. The rights to the book have been optioned to America Ferrera's Take Fountain Productions to develop the book into a TV series. I continue to live the American Dream. I also continue to live in fear -- for my sister, for my nephews, for my mother and for the millions of lives that are at stake because there isn't the political will in our nation's capital to do what we must, even though a variety of experts have argued that comprehensive immigration reform would be a boon for our national economy. Immigration reform would strengthen our national security and enhance our global competitiveness by training and keeping the next generation of innovators here in the U.S. instead of sending them back to their countries of origin so they can compete against us. Despite all of the arguments to take action, one year later, Republican leaders have dug in even more than before in direct opposition to any action on immigration. Trainers have Orca killer whales perform for the crowd during a show at the animal theme park SeaWorld in San Diego. (File photo). SeaWorld employees posed as animal rights activists in an attempt to spy on the company's opposition, the marine park's CEO said during an earnings call Thursday, according an Orlando Sentinel article. Six months ago, animal rights organization People for Ethical Treatment of Animals accused a SeaWorld employee of infiltrating it as a mole. In a statement provided to CNBC, SeaWorld said it had decided to end the spying. "We recognize the need to ensure that all of our security and other activities align with our core values and ethical standards," Joel Manby, CEO of SeaWorld, said in the statement. "As always, the security and well-being of our employees, customers and animals remain at the forefront of our business practices." The company also said Paul McComb, the employee who PETA accused of acting as a spy, remains on SeaWorld's staff. In this kind of market, the moves most likely to benefit you in the long run require confidence. Investors with the nerve to move against the herd are those that typically win. The is down more than 8 percent since its high in the middle of 2015, and the beginning of 2016 has been marked by nerve-shattering turbulence. Unfortunately for women, confidence as investors is exactly what they lack, based on a recent research. While men's biggest investment mistake is arguably overconfidence they trade too often, trying to time the market women have the opposite problem. Take A Pix Media | Getty Images Women's biggest mistake as investors is self-doubt: a lack of confidence that can lead to inaction. Some of the self-doubt is internal, some from cultural factors, and experts argue that some comes from the mind-set of the financial services industry, which has been slow to adapt to the rise of women as an economic force. Women control $11.2 trillion of investable assets in the United States, according to a study by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Turner Moffitt at the Center for Talent Innovation. "Where investing is made accessible and approachable for women, women not only invest more but are better investors," said Sallie Krawcheck, the former top Wall Street executive now working on an online financial advisor called Ellevest, aimed at women, which is set to launch this year. Women are basically as financially literate as men: 35 percent of U.S. women and 39 percent of men passed a literacy assessment. But American women, despite being among the most financially literate women in the world, are 44 percent less likely than American men to consider themselves knowledgeable, according to Hewlett's and Moffitt's study. The lack of confidence carries a big cost. For instance, more young women than young men defer retirement planning in their 20s, according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute. They take Social Security early, cutting their lifetime benefits. And financial advisors have long noted that wives often defer to their husbands, even though research shows that generally speaking, women are better investors than men. "The women we're talking to at Ellevest say they've got stacks of investment research," said Krawcheck, "They're going to invest as soon as they read it, as soon as they figure it out. Which ends up being never." Krawcheck, long known as the most powerful woman on Wall Street, was CEO of wealth management firm Merrill Lynch during its acquisition by Bank of America ; she left in 2011. Ellevest is backed by $10 million in funding from some of the biggest names in the investment business, including Chicago-based research firm Morningstar and Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz . Some of the other reasons behind some women investors' lack of confidence are complicated and probably deeply cultural, said experts. Parents even treat their sons and daughters differently when it comes to teaching them about money: They talk to their sons about money more than they talk to their daughters about it, and boys have earlier access to credit cards, according to a survey by Baltimore, Maryland-based T. Rowe Price. In some cases, educated, independent, breadwinning women seem to have an aversion to the idea of being an investor. About five years ago the Washington, D.C.-based Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement was running a series of investment seminars to help a group of nurses prepare for retirement. The institute was interested in part for research purposes, because nurses would be highly educated and, presumably, interested in investing. What happened, though, stunned M. Cindy Hounsell, the institute's president. The group held the seminars, but hardly anybody came. "One or two people," Hounsell remembers. The team changed the names of the seminars so that they were no longer about "investing." Instead, they were about "financial security." The room filled up. "Women don't consider themselves investors," Hounsell says. "There has to be a whole mind-set shift to bring more women into the circle." Krawcheck, Hounsell and Judith Ward, senior financial planner and vice president at Baltimore-based fund company T. Rowe Price, suggested a few steps for women to take if they are looking to overcome their fear of investing and build confidence. Women need the higher returns that come from investing, because they live, on average, almost five years longer than men. Just start. Experts said women seem to delay too long on the front end. "I don't know if it's women's lack of confidence versus not knowing where to start," said Ward. "It just seems like men are more willing to take a plunge." The most important rule for women is to begin, with the safest long-term route being a low-cost, diversified portfolio. You'll probably lose more money delaying a year than you would by making a mistake with that kind of investment portfolio. Women's reluctance to invest may be similar to their reluctance to ask for a raise. "Trying to get a promotion, they feel like they need to be 90 percent. Men think half is good enough," said Ward. Find an advisor you like and/or trust enough to use. One reason that women might be checked out of investing is that they don't like their financial advisors. One sign of this, said Krawcheck, is that if the male half of a couple dies, the women leave their joint financial advisor at a rate of 70 percent. Her advice: Meet as many times with an advisor as you need to even if that is five or six meetings. But if you don't feel comfortable, move along. watch now Where investing is made accessible and approachable for women, women not only invest more but are better investors. Sallie Krawcheck CEO and co-founder of Ellevest Absent of these actions, Treasury believes that in the coming months the government will be forced to make difficult decisions as large debt obligations, many with constitutional guarantees for payment, come due. "We believe that there needs to be two phases to this," Weiss said. "In the first phase, the debt will need to be restructured and there has to be oversight." Treasury believes the two proposals must be enacted together in order to be successful in stemming the crisis. Weiss outlined the key components of the administration's multi-step plan for the U.S. territory, which is struggling to manage a $70 billion debt load. "The urgency could not be more apparent," Antonio Weiss, the third-ranking official at the Treasury Department, said during a hearing in front of the House of Natural Resources Committee. "What started as a recession has turned into a fiscal and liquidity crisis that shows signs of becoming a humanitarian one as well." A senior Treasury official told U.S. lawmakers Thursday that they need to act now to help Puerto Rico get out from under its debt burden. Debris is scattered around the government housing project Puerta de Tierra which is undergoing renovation work, in San Juan, December 2, 2015. "The governor has already been forced to curtail services," Weiss detailed. "As the debt payments become larger, as the most senior debt becomes duethe decisions become more difficult." At a concurrent House hearing, William Isaac, global head of financial institutions at FTI Consulting and former FDIC chair in the U.S., warned of the potentially perilous impact allowing Puerto Rico to restructure all of its outstanding debt could have on the broader municipal market. "I believe that the credibility of the commonwealth government and its future access to private sector financial markets will suffer drastically should they attempt to default on or restructure the general obligation debt that is given priority under Puerto Rico's Constitution," Isaac said. "The market reaction to a potential failure by the commonwealth government to repay these obligations would in the long run increase its financing costs to much greater levels, assuming it were able to access the market at all." Isaac said he believes that a better solution is to treat Puerto Rico like any other U.S. state and allow the commonwealth's municipalities access to Chapter 9 bankruptcy laws. He estimates the plan would allow Puerto Rico to restructure 75 percent of the island's total debt. In addition, Weiss also warned that the Government Development Bank, which has historically served as the principal source of short-term liquidity, is "dangerously undercapitalized" and that in the absence of additional emergency fiscal measures or financing alternatives, a cascading series of defaults is on the horizon. "Debt payments in May and June, including nearly $800 million of constitutionally prioritized debt, are unlikely to be made," said Weiss. Read MoreFiery debate over Puerto Rico's debt at summit A default of this magnitude will likely result in mounting litigation between competing creditor classes and also against the Puerto Rico that Treasury believes would last for a better part of a decade, and could ultimately lead to the central government being forced to shut down entirely. When questioned by lawmakers on how the 18 different Puerto Rico-issued bonds, all with varying degrees of legal protections, would be restructured, Weiss stressed that Treasury is not suggesting a one-size fits all solution. "Our basic philosophy on this is that the restructuring should include all of the debt.we're not saying that the (general obligation) debt, which has a Puerto Rican constitutional priority, or some of the revenue bonds which have a claim on some of the [revenue] streams, that all those need to be treated equally," Weiss told lawmakers. "What we can do, working together, is to design a restructuring authority whereby everyone is part of the discussion, but that there is a differentiated treatment per existing priorities and claims." The framework would also include a stay on litigation to protect the provision of vital public services and allow time for voluntary negotiations to take place, a voting mechanism to prevent holdout bondholders from blocking a reasonable compromise, and if negotiations fail, a court-supervised structure to ensure an orderly resolution. The other time-sensitive component to Treasury's plan would be the enactment of a "strong, independent federal oversight" board that would "address the commonwealth's longstanding history of fiscal management and inadequate financial disclosure." The second phase will focus on creating greater economic opportunity and rewarding work by granting Puerto Rico access to tools such as the earned income tax credit. Parmesan Grated Cheese from Great Value Source: WalMart Wal-Mart Stores ' Great Value food brand has been slapped by a lawsuit over a cheese product it sold that allegedly contained wood pulp. The plaintiff, Marc Moschetta, claims he was induced to purchase Great Value's "100% Grated Parmesan Cheese" at a premium price because he believed it was, indeed, 100 percent cheese. But it contains 7 to 10 percent cellulose, a filler and anti-clumping agent derived from wood chips, according to the Feb. 23 New York complaint, which accuses the retail brand of deceptive business practices. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and alleges "material misrepresentations" under New York law and laws in 42 other states. The 8-ounce cheese costs $2.98 on Walmart.com. "We know earning customer trust starts with high standards for the products we carry," Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove told CNBC. "We take this matter seriously. We will review the allegations once we have received the complaint and will respond appropriately with the court." The case has not yet been granted class action certification, but attorney Jason Sultzer said others have expressed interest in joining the case against Walmart. Talk of the housing market, housing affordability, credit availability really anything having to do with most Americans' single largest investment has been conspicuously absent from the political conversation in this election cycle. Voters, however, tend to vote with their pocketbooks, and their homes take up an awful lot of space in those cluttered bags. "The biggest problem is that no candidate has any idea what to do about fixing housing. It was easy eight years ago because the plans were about stabilizing the housing market and helping those at risk of foreclosure because of temporary economic distress. Candidates are really good at pushing emergency solutions and one-time programs," said Jaret Seiberg, financial services policy analyst at Guggenheim Securities. Prospective home buyers view a kitchen while touring a house for sale in Helotes, Texas. Matthew Busch | Bloomberg | Getty Images The housing "crisis" is largely over, but there is still plenty of repair work to be done, namely fixing the housing finance system. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue under government conservatorship, eight years after the fact, and are still paying all their profit back to the U.S. Treasury, ironically putting them in danger of needing another bailout. Political candidates don't seem to want to touch that complicated conundrum, nor do they want to address the more basic issue of weakening housing affordability, as home prices and rents soar. Perhaps, it is because they don't have to. But voters have expressed big frustrations about the economy, of which housing is a significant part. That's why Super Tuesday becomes so important. Super Tuesday is largely thought to be when the primaries and caucuses move from local to national, as voters in 12 states and one U.S. territory go to the polls next Tuesday, March 1. Victories by candidates on that day could mean a huge push in momentum for their campaigns. It is worth noting that the 12 states holding contests, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia, were not only less affected by the housing crisis, but have stronger housing markets today than most other states in the nation. The states voting and holding caucuses saw half as many foreclosure sales as a percentage of all sales between 2008 and 2012 than states not holding contests, according to a new report from Trulia, a real estate company owned by Zillow Group . In addition, the median listed home price in Super Tuesday states has risen about 50 percent during the last four years and is now 7.7 percent higher than the median home price in states not holding contests the Super Tuesday median home was worth 2.8 percent less in 2011. Santulli hazing unlikely to end binge drinking, says MU professor Professor Phil Wood discusses how difficult it is to curb binge drinking in fraternities and sororities, what MU is doing and what it's not doing. Crime Report Shelby County 911 - A Crime Report SHARE Raymon Muhammad By Yolanda Jones of The Commercial Appeal Memphis police have arrested an 18-year-old man in connection with the robbery of a tax-preparation business last week on South Third. Raymon Muhammad was booked in the Shelby County Jail Wednesday night on an aggravated robbery charge. The robbery occurred at 9:46 a.m. last Wednesday at Tax Pros Etc. at 3084 South Third. According to an arrest affidavit, an employee at the business told police that as he walked in with a backpack of money, a man walked in behind him and put a gun to his head and took the backpack. The suspect ran from the business and got in a Infiniti with tinted windows and fled north on South Third. Dispatchers broadcasting the robbery to officers said the suspect stole a gray and black duffle bag with $50,000 in it, but the amount of cash taken was not including in the arrest affidavit. Muhammad was developed as a suspect after witnesses identified him from a police photo lineup. He remains in jail on a $230,000 bond. He also faces separate charges for stealing a car, vandalism and robbery in separate incidents. No other arrests have been By Yolanda Jones of The Commercial Appeal Memphis police said four suspects are being held in a Mississippi jail in connection with the fatal shooting of a man on Feb. 4 near the Parkway Village area. Bertram Thompson, 29, was found with gunshot wounds in the middle of Outland Road near Winchester. A motorist called police to report seeing a body in the roadway. Thursday, Memphis police spokesman Louis Brownlee said D'quevion Brown, Derrick Gardner, Marchello Gardner and Johnathan Smith have been charged with first-degree murder in perpetration of attempted robbery. The four suspects are being held in the Sunflower County Jail in Indianola, Mississippi. By Katie Fretland of The Commercial Appeal Shelby County Criminal Court Judge James Lammey sentenced two men to 15 years in prison Thursday for the aggravated rape of a woman in 2011. Devan Denton, 27, and Leon Denton, 26, were convicted of raping the victim Oct. 16, 2011, in Southeast Memphis, said Assistant District Attorney Josh Corman. They were also convicted of facilitating the robbery of the victim and two other women, one who was beaten with a handgun, fracturing her eye socket. Antonio Howard, the uncle of Devan Denton and Leon Denton, is serving more than 100 years in the crime. Gary Shorb, president and CEO of Methodist Healthcare since 2001, announced Thursday he plans to retire at the end of the year. SHARE August 13, 2013 - Michael Ugwueke, left, will replace Methodist CEO Gary Shorb, right, when the hospital chief retires at the end of the year. By Kevin McKenzie of The Commercial Appeal In the coming months, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare chief executive officer Gary Shorb will hand more responsibilities to the hospital administrator selected to succeed him as top executive. Shorb on Thursday told the Memphis health care systems board and its 12,000 employees that he will step down Dec. 31 from the CEO position hes held since October 2001. Michael Ugwueke, president and chief operating officer of the seven-hospital system that had $1.85 billion in total revenue for 2015, will become the new CEO on New Years Day 2017. The transition marks new top leadership for one of the city's largest employers and the retirement of one of the most high-profile corporate executives in Memphis. Officials say Shorb will remain active in civic affairs outside the hospital system. Shorb, 65, will serve as a senior advisor until April 2017 at the hospital network, which will begin a $275 million expansion near Downtown of Methodist University Hospital. Its not easy to leave, but the time is right, for me personally, I think for the organization and we absolutely have the right guy in place to move in, Shorb said. The board officially chose Ugwueke (pronounced like you-GWICK-ee) to succeed Shorb last May and unanimously confirmed that decision on Thursday. Ugwueke joined Methodist in 2007 to turn around Methodist South Hospital and by 2014 was president and chief operating officer for the health care system, Methodists traditional spot for the CEO-in-waiting. Shorbs leadership in Memphis has extended well beyond the health care industry. He joined Methodist in 1990 as an executive vice president, following four years as president the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, and brought with him skills and experiences from working as a project engineer for Exxon and serving as a U.S. Navy lieutenant commander. He earned a bachelors in civil engineering from Clemson University and an MBA from the University of Memphis. At the Greater Memphis Chamber, Shorbs roles have included chairman of the board. As the chambers chairman in 2005, and vice chairman of the Memphis Tomorrow group for top CEOs, led the recruiting team that helped bring International Paper Co.s headquarters from Connecticut to Memphis. Hes currently chairman of Memphis Fast Forward, an initiative that brings local government and business leaders to target issues including jobs, crime and health. I think its safe to say that Gary will remain engaged in the community, said Phil Trenary, chief executive of the Greater Memphis Chamber. Leadership is not just something you turn off overnight. Shorb said he will remain active in the community and intends to stay in Memphis. He and his wife, Glenda, a former English professor at the University of Memphis, have two grandchildren and a grown daughter and son. Some transfer of duties among top executives at Methodist has been underway, with the retirement effective April 15 of Donna Abney, one of three executive vice presidents. Her position wont be filled and some of those duties have transferred to Ugwueke, Shorb said. Shorb, whose salary in 2013 according to an IRS filing was $1.5 million with other compensation of about $650,000, said hell maintain oversight of Methodists government affairs as well as the Methodist Foundation to continue fundraising. Methodists board chairman, FedEx chief financial officer Alan Graf, noted Shorbs community-minded leadership. His compassion for community-minded leadership has led MLH to the strongest performance in the organizations history, which has better positioned MLH to meet the future needs of Memphis and the Mid-South, Graf said in a statement. Ugwueke, 57, arrived in the United States at age 21 from Nigeria with $4,000 and a desire for health care career, although he couldnt afford medical school. He earned a bachelors degree from historically black Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina; a masters in public health from Emory University in Atlanta; and a doctor of health administration from the Medical University of South Carolina to start his career in administration. Michaels extensive healthcare experience with large systems in Atlanta, Chicago and Washington D.C. has prepared him to take the reins of MLH and continue the community leadership position, Graf's statement says. Shorb pointed to key changes since the 1990s that he said have helped boost Methodist's success. Those include attracting Le Bonheur Childrens Hospital to become part of the system, winning perhaps 70 percent of the managed care contracts with large health insurers and partnering with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center to make academic hospitals of Le Bonheur and the systems flagship Methodist University Hospital. By Jody Callahan of The Commercial Appeal Memphis police have arrested a suspect in the fatal robbery of a hair shop in Whitehaven earlier this month. Julius Russell, 33, has been charged with first-degree murder in perpetration of a robbery. He is being held in the Shelby County Jail. The incident happened around 4 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Bundles of Hair shop at 5090 Millbranch. According to police, two men dressed in black and wearing ski masks entered the store. Someone in the store opened fire on the suspects, police said at the time, and the suspects fired back. Employee Willie Abston was killed in the incident, which netted the thieves "several cases" of hair weaves. According to an affidavit, Russell told his girlfriend just minutes after the killing that he'd just stolen some hair. A witness also identified Russell from a photo lineup, police said. The affidavit says Russell told police that "it was a robbery that went bad." The affidavit also says that Russell was arrested on Feb. 13; it was unclear why he was just identified as a suspect in the hair shop robbery 11 days later. It's also unclear whether police were still looking for another suspect. In an incident from June 2015, the same girlfriend told police that Russell began assaulting her while they were riding in a car, an affidavit says. He then pulled out a gun and threatened to kill her. Russell also threatened to kill another passenger in the car and fired two shots into the air, police said. He was charged with aggravated assault in that incident. Brooklyn Faris needed to get to Chicago for a liver transplant but all flights were canceled due to a blizzard. By Jody Callahan of The Commercial Appeal Sometime around 1 p.m. Wednesday, the Faris family got the call they'd been desperately wanting. A liver was available in Chicago for their adopted daughter Brooklyn, who had just turned 2 in December. She suffers from a condition called Alagille Syndrome, which prevents the liver from properly eliminating wastes from the bloodstream. Can you be here by 10 a.m. Thursday?, doctors at Lurie Children's Hospital asked. If not, we'll have to give the liver to someone else. Of course we can make it, Nicholas and Jesse Faris thought. There are numerous flights from Memphis to Chicago every day. But what they didn't realize was that Chicago was snowed in Wednesday. "The crazy thing is that today of all days, Chicago has a blizzard. All flights are canceled," said Ashleigh Carroll, a family friend. Carroll and several other family friends have been working over the last few weeks to raise money for the family, including trying to raise $75,000 to help offset the bills for Brooklyn's transplant (see details at cotaforbrooklynf.com). When they heard about this situation Wednesday afternoon, those friends started reaching out to the community. They tried social media, asking if anyone perhaps had access to a plane. Ashleigh's husband John also reached out to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Someone there then called FedEx. "It was a pretty bad weather situation that was affecting Chicago," said Patrick Fitzgerald, a senior vice president at FedEx. "They called us and we were happy to help." Around 7 p.m. Wednesday, the family boarded one of FedEx's smaller, non-cargo jets for the flight, landing a little after 9:15 p.m. "This is just the quintessential Memphis experience: Memphis helping other Memphians," said Brooklyn's mother, Jesse Faris. "They just bent over backward with us and really helped us out in a pinch. We were overwhelmed with gratitude." Brooklyn is scheduled for a 13-hour surgery at 10 a.m. Thursday. If all goes well, the family hopes this transplant will let her get back to the business of being a fun-loving toddler. "The way it has presented in her body has just been her liver," her mother said. "Once the transplant happens and it's successful, she should be symptom-free from this syndrome." Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks during a campaign stop at a high school cafeteria Sunday in Londonderry, N.H. SHARE By Richard Locker of The Commercial Appeal NASHVILLE Gov. Bill Haslam is endorsing U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio in the Republican presidential race, Rubios campaign announced Thursday morning. The governors office confirmed the endorsement. The Rubio campaign issued a statement on the governors behalf saying: To win in November, conservatives need a candidate who inspires Americans from all backgrounds. With Marco standing next to Hillary Clinton on a debate stage, the choice between the future and the past will be clear to every American. Marco has the innovative policy agenda to reclaim the American Dream for all our people, and his conservative ideas will bring the Republican Party and America into the future. Soon after the announcement, Rubios campaign released an ad featuring Haslam. The Florida senator made a campaign stop in Franklin, Tenn., on Sunday. Ohio Gov. John Kasich plans stops in Memphis today and Nashville and Knoxville on Saturday, and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump plans a rally in Millington Saturday, ahead of the states Super Tuesday primary. Dr. Ben Carson had said he will visit a Memphis church Sunday, but that visit was cancelled Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile on the Democratic side of the presidential race, Hillary Clinton announced Thursday that shell make a campaign stop in Nashville on Sunday, with details to come later. SHARE By Linda A. Moore of The Commercial Appeal Tennesseans went the polls in numbers that "shattered" early voting records for presidential primaries, while Shelby County bucked the statewide trend with Democrats' votes outnumbering Republicans'. Across Tennessee, 385,653 people voted early in the presidential primaries, with 257,209 Republicans and 128,374 Democrats pulling ballots. "That shattered the record that was set in 2008 of 329,154 voters," said Tre Hargett, Tennessee Secretary of State, during a news conference in Nashville. In Shelby County 43,542 people 17,145 Republicans and 26,397 Democrats voted early. That compares with 27,278 early voters in 2008, the last presidential primary with no incumbent, data from the Shelby County Election Commission show. Early voting ended Tuesday and the state's official primary election day is March 1. Tennessee, one of the Super Tuesday states holding primaries next week, has been a big player in this year's presidential race, Hargett said. State officials are also expecting heavy turnout on Super Tuesday with potentially as many as 1.3 million total voters. "Tuesday is going to be a big day no matter what and we know that there's a lot of interest in this election," Hargett said. "I think there are personalities in this race that may not have been what we've seen in previous presidential elections and I think people are very engaged and interested." Local party leaders say that interest in the GOP primary, in particular, is driving up poll numbers. "I think it still shows an energized Republican group going out to choose our candidate," said Mary Wagner, chairwoman of the Republican Party of Shelby County. Wagner said she isn't bothered that Republican voters were fewer in number in Shelby County. Statewide numbers show that Tennessee is still a red state. "That doesn't shock me," Wagner said. "Shelby County is thought of across the state as a Democrat stronghold, although I like to think otherwise." On the Democratic side, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are running with significantly less "rancor" than Republican primary candidates, which is contributing to GOP turnout, said Randa Spears, chairwoman of the Shelby County Democratic Party. "I think there's more attention being paid to the Republicans right now in this phase just because of the intensity of the competition of that primary," Spears said. Hargett said more candidates are visiting Tennessee this election cycle thanks to where the state's primaries now fall on the elections calendar. Earlier this month, former president Bill Clinton stumped for his wife, Hillary, at Whitehaven High School. Ohio Gov. John Kasich will make a Memphis stop Friday, GOP front-runner and real estate mogul Donald Trump is scheduled to appear at a rally in Millington on Saturday and Dr. Ben Carson will visit a Memphis church on Sunday. The presidential candidates are not the only races, however. Also on the local ballot is the primary race for General Sessions court clerk, with Republican Richard Morton and Democrat William Stovall challenging incumbent Democrat Ed Stanton Jr. Republican voters will also choose among 432 party delegates. Follow more politics and policy coverage from the InforMemphis team on Twitter and Facebook. Beth Joslin Roth, center, of The Safe Tennessee Project talks about "MaKayla's Law," a bill that would penalize adults who leave loaded guns unattended and accessible to children if the children get them. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Sherry Jones, left, R-Nashville, and Sen. Sara Kyle, D-Memphis. By Richard Locker of The Commercial Appeal NASHVILLE Democratic lawmakers unveiled a bill Thursday to deter gun owners from leaving loaded guns accessible to children and named it MaKaylas Law after the 8-year-old East Tennessee girl killed by an 11-year-old neighbor with his fathers shotgun. MaKayla Dyers mother, Tasha Patterson of White Pine, and grandfather, Robbie Huddleston of Illinois, agreed to have MaKaylas name on the bill and support the effort, said Beth Joslin Roth, policy director for the Safe Tennessee Project, which is helping push the bill. If approved, the bill would make it a violation for a person to recklessly place, leave or store a firearm in a location in plain view and readily accessible to a child under 13 if the gun is left unattended and either contains ammunition or ammunition is in the immediate vicinity unless it has a trigger lock or similar device or is in a locked container or cabinet accessible only by the owner or his or her spouse. A violation would be: - A class A misdemeanor if a child under 13 gets the gun under those circumstances but does not fire it or permit another to fire it. A class E felony if the child discharges it or permits another to and the discharge causes bodily injury to the child or another. - A Class C felony if the discharge results in the death of the child or another. Senate Bill 2294/House Bill 2058 was filed by Sen. Sara Kyle, D-Memphis, and Rep. Sherry Jones, D-Nashville, and is set for review Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee and Wednesday in the House Civil Justice Subcommittee. - A Jefferson County Juvenile Court judge found Benny Tiller, 11, delinquent by reason of first-degree murder in MaKaylas Oct. 3 death and ordered him held in state custody until age 19. No one else has been charged. Law enforcement officials say the girl was killed by a shotgun blast to her chest after the boy got his fathers 12-gauge shotgun in their mobile home near White Pine and fired it through a window. Citing figures compiled by Safe Tennessee Project, Kyle said that last year in Tennessee, there were at least 25 shootings involving children, resulting in 10 tragic, preventable deaths. An analysis of these tragic deaths shows that they were 100 percent preventable had the guns been stored safely, Kyle said. Will passing this bill prevent all these tragedies? Of course not. But this law will mean more when we hold parents responsible and they think about how they store their gun and the consequences of leaving them available so children have access. Kyle said the law would be a deterrent, a criminal consequence to make a parent or others to think twice leaving their guns out accessible to children that could possibly lead to a deadly mistake. Jones said similar laws have passed in 27 states. She cited the death of a 7-year-old boy in Crossville last month, when four children were left in a car outside a cellphone store while adults paid a bill and one child found a pistol in the car and accidentally fired it. In Davidson County, she said, a 5-year-old boy was shot in the head after his father left a loaded handgun on the coffee table. Safe storage would have saved those lives, she said. Roth said Tennessee is ninth among states for accidental shootings, with 21 so far this year, compared to 52 for all of last year. Roth cited safe-storage guidelines she said were issued by the National Rifle Association and other groups. This bill is not in any way an anti-gun bill. This bill is a pro-responsible gun ownership bill. Responsible gun owners support this type of legislation, she said. The bill also would require licensed gun retailers to post signs in 2017 warning that it is a criminal offense to leave a loaded firearm accessible to children under 13. Ken Ross, Memphis Press-Scimitar/The Commercial Appeal files Joseph R. Hyde Sr. (left) is applauded by Brooks Hays (center) and Norfleet Turner on Feb. 24, 1966, during a dinner at The Auditorium where Hyde received the fifth annual Human Relations Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. More than 1,500 people jammed together at tables to enjoy a steak dinner and applaud the Memphis businessman, Bible teacher and humanitarian. Hyde is chairman of the board of Malone & Hyde Inc.; Hays is special assistant to President Johnson and Turner is chairman of the board of First National Bank. SHARE Feb. 25 25 years ago: 1991 Fewer Memphis youths are using drugs because of an education and intervention campaign in city schools, officials say. The number of students suspended from school for drug or alcohol offenses has gone down steadily during the past five years, while the overall suspension rate has been going up, statistics show. Drug and alcohol suspensions have dropped from 504 in 1985-86 to 315 in 1989-90. The decline is consistent with findings of a nation-wide survey showing that illegal drug use among high school seniors has reached the lowest level in 15 years. 50 years ago: 1966 An elected mayor and a 13-member council will be the basis of the new form of Memphis city government to be voted on by the public in the August election, Program of Progress directors unanimously decided yesterday. The recommendation to separate the administrative and legislative functions of municipal government was the first in a series of decisions to be made by the 25-member committee before submitting a final draft to the public. 75 years ago: 1941 A four-point smoke-abatement program for Memphis was announced yesterday by Commissioner Robert Fredericks. Under it the city will require elimination of smoke from city-owned schools, gas and water plants, elimination of smoke from downtown buildings, plants and apartment buildings, burning of oil by railroads operating in the city and establishment of a full-time smoke bureau. 100 years ago: 1916 The cooking class of the Nineteenth Century Club, of which Miss Mary Rose Edgington is chairman, will meet this morning to prepare such Virginia dishes as brains stuffed with pecans and mushrooms, beaten biscuits, spoon bread and raisin fritters with currant jelly sauce. 125 years ago: 1891 On the motion of Major Pettit, the Legislative Council has authorized the borrowing of $9,135 from the privilege and collection funds to pay the salaries of the policemen and firemen. SHARE By Jennifer Pignolet of The Commercial Appeal The Memphis Shelby County Education Association teacher union has dropped its lawsuit against Shelby County Schools, according to court documents. The union was suing the school district for continuing to withdraw money from teachers' paychecks to go to the Tennessee Education Association after the local union broke away from its former state affiliate. The school district had said it was still withdrawing the money but had not distributed it pending approval from each teacher on which union they want to receive their money. TEA had filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit, as a ruling to stop SCS from withdrawing dues from teachers' paychecks would have meant a loss in funds for TEA. A hearing was held last month, when the judge on the case disclosed a possible conflict of interest. Another hearing was scheduled in front of a new judge Wednesday, but was cancelled because the case had been dropped. Court documents show the union voluntarily dismissed its own suit without prejudice. Lawyers for the local union did not respond to a phone call seeking comment. A statement from SCS was not received by press time. SHARE By Daniel Connolly of The Commercial Appeal (Editor's note: The name of Kevin Vaughan was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.) CCL Label, a label maker for products such as Roundup herbicide, requested a 10-year property tax break from Collierville Thursday. Representatives said a tax break known as a PILOT, or payment-in-lieu-of-taxes would help convince the Canadian company to expand its operations and add more than 130 jobs in Collierville rather than in Clinton, South Carolina. "If we're granted this PILOT, we're very confident this facility would be built here," Kevin Vaughan, a local development specialist who is helping CCL, said. Collierville's Industrial Development Board heard CCL's presentation Thursday but isn't expected to vote on the request until its next meeting, which hasn't been scheduled. The total proposed tax benefit to the company wasn't available Thursday. The statement that Collierville is competing with South Carolina for the jobs appeared to contradict the company's news release from July, in which it described definite plans to expand in the Memphis area. The situation shows how companies hold most of the power in economic development negotiations, said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a Washington-based organization that's critical of subsidies to business. He said CCL's talk about considering South Carolina might or might not be true. "We can't know if they're just faking it to get a PILOT. They could be. There's a possibility that they're very wed to the Memphis area," he said. Because local officials can't know what CCL leaders are really thinking, they have to take the company's statements seriously, LeRoy said. He said he hoped local officials would make the effort to understand the business conditions that prompted CCL to invest locally. Brian Evans, general manager of the CCL facility in Collierville, addressed the contrast between last year's firm statement of intent in Memphis and the current talk about South Carolina. "As you evaluate different options, sometimes your perspective can change," he said. "Certainly I would prefer to see it here in Collierville. I'm here in Collierville." Vaughan said the town and Shelby County government would get more money under the PILOT agreement than if the land next to the existing CCL factory remains an undeveloped field. CCL Label's facility at 670 Progress Road in Collierville employs 168. The labels it makes now go on the outsides of packages. The company plans to invest in jobs, buildings and equipment for a new product line: in-mold labeling, in which the labeling and container are molded together. The venture, in cooperation with the Turkish company Korsini-SAF, would mean an investment of more than $20 million. Wearing a traditional Japanese kimono, Chieko Iwata, Japan Outreach Coordinator for Mississippi State University, shares information about life in her homeland with students at Southaven Middle School on Thursday. During February, the Mississippi Geographic Alliance has been making stops at schools and public venues throughout the state with a 21-foot-by-26-foot map of Asia provided by the National Geographic Society. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal) SHARE Mary Jane Jackson (top left), with the Mississippi Geographic Alliance, leads a group of sixth-graders at Southaven Middle School on a field trip across Asia without ever leaving the campus. An interactive floor map provided the students with opportunities to traverse the worlds largest continent while learning facts about its population, climate and geography. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal) By Ron Maxey of The Commercial Appeal How many sixth-graders does it take to fill Russia? A lot more than it takes to fill Japan, where three or four kids can do the job. Having students stand within the borders of various countries on a giant floor map is one of the hands-on or, in this case, feet-on techniques that help convey knowledge of geography, Barbara Boone of the Mississippi Geographic Alliance said Thursday. She and some colleagues were at Southaven Middle School as part of the organization's National Geographic Giant Traveling Map Tour. "Our children don't know geography," Boone said between presentations, "so we try to fill in that gap." The tour is part of the Alliance's broader mission of teaching and maintaining interest in geography. Housed at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, the organization is affiliated with the National Geographic Society. Each year, Boone said, the Alliance gets a giant map of a different continent from the National Geographic Society and takes it on a statewide school tour. This year, the featured continent is Asia. Starting on the Gulf Coast, the tour moves north. Two DeSoto County schools were added this year, Southaven Middle and Overpark Elementary in Olive Branch. Megan Stanford, Southaven Middle's Spotlight teacher, said she got an email that the program was available. "I quickly responded," she said. "It's a great learning tool." Sixth-graders went through the program Thursday, and Southaven Middle's seventh-graders will see presentations Friday. During the presentation to each group, Boone takes the students on a "tour" of the continent as she walks across the map pointing out countries and sharing information about it. "Who knows where Europe ends and Asia begins?" Boone asked one of the final groups Thursday afternoon. "Right here, along the Ural Mountains," she said while moving to that spot on the map and pointing to the mountain range. Chieko Iwata, Japan Outreach Coordinator at Mississippi State University, is part of the tour group. She provides information about her home country as part of each presentation. Dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono, she explained to students that the attire is worn for special occasions. "They're always very attentive," she said of students watching the presentation. "They ask questions like, 'Do you have cars?' or 'Do you have candy?' In some cases, they know so little about the country." Hayden Gamble was one of the sixth-graders who saw the presentation. "I learned about the Japanese culture," he said. "I had read things, but it's not as interesting as the interactive." For more information on the Mississippi Geographic Alliance or its Traveling Map Tour, visit the website at mga.olemiss.edu. SHARE It takes quite an effort to make sense of the rhetoric employed by Tennessee politicians who want the state attorney general to file a lawsuit aimed at keeping refugees from entering the state. In fact, it's nearly impossible. Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, R-Collierville, who wonders what could be more "welcoming" than exercising the state's right to "protect the people within its borders," is sponsoring the resolution in the Senate. Not to label this a case of doublespeak, but only if a "Keep Out, No Trespassing" sign somehow translates to "Welcome" does that argument make sense. "(W)ould you feel welcome," Norris continued, "in a state that did not stand on its rights, to defend your rights, to defend the peace, safety and happiness of the people of this state? Nonsense. You come here more likely than not because you flee those places where you had no such rights. Would you feel welcome in a state that had those rights but didn't rise to enforce them?" Actually, the question is moot because someone who is denied entry into the state of Tennessee would not have the opportunity to "feel welcome." And let's face it: Refugees from, say, Syria, for example, would enjoy the rights that come with residency in the United States, but they're mainly trying to lessen the chances of being killed along with their families by bullets or barrel bombs. Logical inconsistencies being unusually remarkable in anti-immigrant rhetoric, another supporter of the lawsuit even found some mushy language to muddy his thoughts. "We in Tennessee have a heart to take care of those people," said Sen. Mark Green, R-Clarksville. "However" one could hear that word coming "our federal government has failed to protect us. It's very clear that some people who want to do us harm have infiltrated these refugees." Congratulations to Sens. Steve Dickerson, R-Nashville; Thelma Harper, D-Nashville; Lee Harris, D-Memphis; Sara Kyle, D-Memphis, and Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, for exercising the critical thinking skills required to vote against the resolution, which passed the Senate with 27 votes and is headed to the House. And to Gov. Bill Haslam, who doesn't have the authority to veto resolutions but has taken the trouble to look into the refugee resettlement program and has come away with the understanding that it doesn't represent a serious threat to the state or its people. The likelihood of a terrorist entering the U.S. as a refugee, in fact, is quite small. The process of vetting the program's applicants takes 18 to 24 months on the average to complete and excludes military combatants. It begins with a referral from the United Nations refugee assistance agency. Its initial stages involve in-depth interviews, reference checks and biological screening. Preference is given to survivors of torture, victims of sexual violence, targets of political persecution, the medically needy, families with multiple children and female heads of household. All that before the applicant is reviewed by nine U.S. government agencies that consider such factors as whether the applicant has family members in the U.S., employment opportunities and the like, with extra precautions for Syrians. In other words, there are a lot easier ways to infiltrate the United States to do us harm than refugee resettlement. As there are much better ways to represent American values than discriminating against frightened, shellshocked Syrians in search of a better life in a place where "welcome" doesn't mean "you can't come in." SHARE Steve Cohen By Steve Cohen, Special to Viewpoint The recent resignation of U.S. Department of Justice Pardon Attorney Deborah Leff, just over a year after she was appointed, is alarming. President Obama's appointment of Leff was a wise move that underscored his commitment to just and careful consideration of the thousands of petitions for clemency still pending. Her departure, however, is an ominous sign that the office, with a staff of only 10 attorneys and nearly 10,000 petitions still awaiting review, will need significantly more resources to complete its work. Congress recently approved funding for additional attorneys and the office is now staffing up. However, to ensure that all potentially meritorious petitions have a full and fair chance at approval, there needs to be a commensurate increase in staffing at the White House Counsel's Office to review petitions once they are received from the Department of Justice. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of the "fierce urgency of now." Surely, there can be no fiercer urgency than restoring freedom to those whose liberty is being deprived due to unjustly long sentences that both Congress and the president have agreed should no longer be permitted. In 2010, the Fair Sentencing Act scaled back some of the most egregiously racially disparate maximum sentences. But the law was not made retroactive. Policies like draconian mandatory minimums and sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine that have had an unconscionably racially discriminatory impact have been widely rejected, but shamefully, people continue to sit in prison because of them. Every day that someone continues to serve a sentence, the length of which has been repudiated, is a day justice is denied. As Dr. King so rightly noted, "Justice too long delayed is justice denied." Some may argue we cannot afford to devote more attorneys to clemency petitions. But how can we afford not to? Restoring liberty to those from whom it is being unjustly withheld must be a high priority. Devoting more resources to review of clemency petitions, moreover, may ultimately save money. On average, taxpayers spend approximately $30,000 a year to incarcerate federal inmates. In addition, the prison population is aging. The fastest-growing population at federal correctional facilities is now prisoners over age 50. From 2009 to 2013, this population increased 25 percent. The health care costs alone are becoming staggering. The Bureau of Prisons has seen health care costs skyrocket 55 percent in recent years. We now spend roughly the same amount on health care for prisoners as we do on the entire agency that put many of them behind bars in the first place: the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives. President Obama is committed to criminal justice reform, and the eighth year of a presidency is a rare opportunity with respect to pardons and commutations. The White House needs to devote the resources necessary to enable the president to fulfill his constitutional responsibilities. Increased staffing at the White House Counsel's Office makes both moral and fiscal sense, and it should happen without delay. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, represents Tennessee's 9th Congressional District and is the ranking member on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. SHARE By Eli Lake Watching President Barack Obama make his end-of-term push Tuesday morning to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, my thoughts turned to terrorists. I tried to imagine what two hardened jihadis must think about the president's plan. "Are we still on for the car bombing at the embassy?" "I don't know. The infidel leader says he wants to close the prison in Cuba. Let's wait to see what Congress does." It sounds absurd. It is absurd. And yet, it gets to one of the main arguments Obama has made for closing Guantanamo since he took office in 2009. He said Tuesday that the prison's existence is "counterproductive to our fight against terrorists, because they use it as propaganda in their efforts to recruit." The president is not alone in this view. In 2008, when Obama was running for the White House, no less an authority than Gen. David Petraeus said he favored closing Guantanamo because it was a recruitment tool. George W. Bush and John McCain have said as much themselves. This is true in the narrowest sense. For years, the Taliban, al-Qaida and other jihadis have featured Guantanamo in propaganda. When James Foley was beheaded in 2014, he was wearing an orange jumpsuit, the same color as the jumpsuits worn by early Guantanamo detainees. But in a more important sense, Guantanamo doesn't really matter in the battle for the hearts and minds of would-be terrorists. Charlie Winter, a senior research associate at Georgia State University's initiative on transcultural conflict and violence, and an expert in jihadi propaganda, told me Tuesday that Guantanamo is a part of the general message about the abuse and unlawful detention of Muslim prisoners. But Winter stressed that Guantanamo is "one of many things held up by radical Islamists as evidence of the anti-Muslim conspiracy." For the Islamic State in particular, a bigger propaganda tool has been portraying the U.S. and Iran as allies in tormenting Syria's Sunni Muslims. Other jihadis have featured U.S. drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan in recruitment propaganda. There is also the U.S. support for Israel and Saudi Arabia. None of which means Obama should cancel the Iran nuclear deal, suspend aid to Saudi Arabia and Israel, and end the drone war. The enemy gets a vote on whether there is war or peace, but it doesn't get a vote on strategy. So why, then, does Obama insist on closing Guantanamo? It's not that the prison is counterproductive. Rather, the president has said it "is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law." This is not really a strategic argument. It's a moral one. Obama wants to close Guantanamo because he thinks it's an example of how his predecessor exceeded the rule of law in prosecuting the war against jihadis. But this argument, too, is disingenuous. It's true that Obama has winnowed the pool of Guantanamo detainees to 91 and he plans to transfer 35 of these prisoners to third countries. But for those remaining, Obama does not propose an end to their indefinite detention which, let's face it, is what troubles their supporters in the Muslim world. Rather, he plans to indefinitely detain these prisoners at a new facility inside the United States, where they will face a modified military tribunal. To do this, Obama would have to persuade Congress to change the law that would prohibit such transfers. All of this is too much for the American Civil Liberties Union. In a statement Tuesday, the group's executive director, Anthony Romero, praised Obama's efforts to close Guantanamo. But he said, "his decision to preserve the Bush-created military commissions is a mistake." He added, "The president's continuing embrace of indefinite detention without charge or trial will tarnish his legacy." Romero should criticize Obama. He has a fundamental disagreement with the president on whether America should treat global jihadis as enemy fighters or as suspects for law enforcement. Back in 2008, Obama was on Romero's side. Even during his presidency he has spoken of his desire to get America off of a war footing, particularly after he authorized the raid to kill Osama bin Laden. But in the end, al-Qaida and its offspring have scuttled Obama's plans to end the war against them. To the president's credit, he has readjusted. His successor will inherit the global war on terror that Obama tried to end. And that global war is likely to fuel jihadi propaganda and recruitment efforts, regardless of where the remaining prisoners at Guantanamo are indefinitely detained. Eli Lake is a Bloomberg View columnist. SHARE By Leonid Bershidsky Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders evokes the Koch brothers as the enemies of everything he stands for. Charles Koch, chairman and chief executive of Koch Industries, has responded, spelling out where he agrees and disagrees with Sanders. The two clearly need to have a face-to-face conversation, because I'm not sure they understand each other well. Koch agrees with Sanders that the U.S. is a two-tiered society in which a privileged few reap a disproportionate share of the benefits. But Koch says he and Sanders part ways when it comes to a solution: "I disagree with his desire to expand the federal government's control over people's lives. This is what built so many barriers to opportunity in the first place." Rush Limbaugh likes to say that "under capitalism, the rich get powerful, and under socialism, the powerful get rich." I was born and raised in the Soviet Union, so I know where he's coming from. I'm not sure, however, that Limbaugh, Koch and Sanders are talking about the same kind of socialism. As far as can be deduced from Sanders' public statements, he advocates a modern European kind of socialism, with two specific benefits guaranteed to all: health care and higher education. Providing these doesn't really require a "big government" at least not a bigger one than the U.S. already has. Government employees accounted for about 14.6 percent of the workforce (in 2008, the latest official data). That share is not so much smaller than France's (about 20 percent in 2014, according to the International Labor Organization) or Germany's (15.4 percent), yet those countries have comprehensive health care and almost tuition-free public universities. Another way to compare government sizes is to look at government expenditure as a share of economic output. The U.S. spends less, but not much less than some European countries that provide "socialist" services. The Heritage Foundation puts the U.S. public expenditure at 38.9 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 44.3 percent for Germany and Spain. (However, France spends 57 percent). What Sanders proposes which his audiences seem to like is within the realm of possibility for the current U.S. government size. The experience of European countries offers a path. Koch either doesn't realize this or prefers to ignore it. Koch is correct, however, in another respect. The reforms Sanders wants aren't radical enough. He says he wants to find free college education with a financial transaction tax and free health care by closing tax loopholes for corporations. That would entail making the government bigger in terms of expenditure as a share of GDP. Instead, he should be talking about replacing the patchwork quilt of social programs and entitlements with more streamlined and modern systems, perhaps even clearer and more logical ones than those in Europe. The U.S. chaos of regulations is the result of decades of legislative battles, lobbying and public pressure in other words, politics. That makes it inefficient and convoluted; Koch is right about that. Sanders, however, cannot talk about coming up with a system that is more efficient and transparent, because it is politically difficult. His talk of swapping Obamacare for a newly designed "Medicare for all" system gives his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, her strongest arguments against him. Many voters believe that incremental improvement is the only way forward. They don't see radical change as feasible, and they are insecure about their own benefits: What if a new system took them away? Socialist Sanders and libertarian Koch could find common ground. If they worked together, they could apply a "regulatory guillotine" to the current system, cut wasteful programs, kill off the "corporate welfare" that both sides dislike and the richest economy of the world might find the resources to make health care universal and education free, without seriously boosting the tax burden. This may sound utopian. It's true that in emerging economies where attempts have been made to redesign systems from scratch, the results have been uneven at best. Some experiments have been rather successful, however. Poland, one of the least socialist countries in today's Europe, has universal health care and free college education. Its government spends 42.2 percent of GDP. Koch and Sanders already agree on some important policies, such as criminal justice reform, an area where the government could get "smaller," benefiting everyone. Other such areas could be identified if the U.S. adopted the same approach to reforms as emerging economies sometimes do: The old system is dysfuctional, and a new one is needed. That would require input from both socialists and libertarians, both Sanders and Koch. A level playing field and basic benefits for all are not opposing concepts. Leonid Bershidsky, a Bloomberg View contributor, is a Berlin-based writer. Select Commodity All Ajwan Alasande Gram Almond(Badam) Alsandikai Amaranthus Ambada Seed Amla(Nelli Kai) Amphophalus Antawala Anthorium Apple Apricot(Jardalu/Khumani) Arecanut(Betelnut/Supari) Arecanut(Betelnut/Supari) Arhar (Tur/Red Gram)(Whole) Arhar (Tur/Red Gram)(Whole) Arhar Dal(Tur Dal) Ashgourd Astera Avare Dal Bajra(Pearl Millet/Cumbu) Bajra(Pearl Millet/Cumbu) Balekai Bamboo Banana Banana - Green Barley (Jau) Bay leaf (Tejpatta) Beans Beaten Rice Beetroot Bengal Gram Dal (Chana Dal) Bengal Gram(Gram)(Whole) Ber(Zizyphus/Borehannu) Ber(Zizyphus/Borehannu) Betal Leaves Bhindi(Ladies Finger) Bitter gourd Black Gram (Urd Beans)(Whole) Black Gram Dal (Urd Dal) Black pepper BOP Bottle gourd Bran Brinjal Broken Rice Broomstick(Flower Broom) Bull Bunch Beans Cabbage Calf Capsicum Cardamoms Carnation Carrot Cashewnuts Castor Seed Cauliflower Chapparad Avare Chennangi Dal Cherry Chikoos(Sapota) Chili Red Chilly Capsicum Chow Chow Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum(Loose) Cinamon(Dalchini) Cloves Cluster beans Cock Cocoa Coconut Coconut Oil Coconut Seed Coffee Colacasia Copra Coriander(Leaves) Corriander seed Cotton Cotton Seed Cow Cowpea (Lobia/Karamani) Cowpea (Lobia/Karamani) Cowpea(Veg) Cucumbar(Kheera) Cummin Seed(Jeera) Custard Apple (Sharifa) Dalda Dhaincha Drumstick Dry Chillies Dry Fodder Dry Grapes Duck Duster Beans Egg Elephant Yam (Suran) Field Pea Firewood Fish Foxtail Millet(Navane) French Beans (Frasbean) Galgal(Lemon) Garlic Ghee Gingelly Oil Ginger(Dry) Ginger(Green) Gladiolus Cut Flower Goat Gram Raw(Chholia) Gramflour Grapes Green Avare (W) Green Chilli Green Fodder Green Gram (Moong)(Whole) Green Gram Dal (Moong Dal) Green Peas Ground Nut Oil Ground Nut Seed Groundnut Groundnut (Split) Groundnut pods (raw) Guar Guar Seed(Cluster Beans Seed) Guava Gur(Jaggery) He Buffalo Hen Hippe Seed Honge seed Hybrid Cumbu Indian Beans (Seam) Indian Colza(Sarson) Isabgul (Psyllium) Jack Fruit Jaffri Jamun(Narale Hannu) Jarbara Jasmine Jowar(Sorghum) Jute Kabuli Chana(Chickpeas-White) Kacholam Kakada Kankambra Karamani Karbuja(Musk Melon) Kartali (Kantola) Khoya Kinnow Knool Khol Kodo Millet(Varagu) Kulthi(Horse Gram) Lak(Teora) Leafy Vegetable Lemon Lentil (Masur)(Whole) Lilly Lime Linseed Lint Litchi Little gourd (Kundru) Long Melon(Kakri) Lotus Lotus Sticks Lukad Mahedi Mahua Mahua Seed(Hippe seed) Maida Atta Maize Mango Mango (Raw-Ripe) Marasebu Marget Marigold(Calcutta) Marigold(loose) Mashrooms Masur Dal Mataki Methi Seeds Methi(Leaves) Millets Mint(Pudina) Moath Dal Mousambi(Sweet Lime) Mustard Mustard Oil Myrobolan(Harad) Neem Seed Niger Seed (Ramtil) Nutmeg Onion Onion Green Orange Orchid Ox Paddy(Dhan)(Basmati) Paddy(Dhan)(Common) Papaya Papaya (Raw) Patti Calcutta Peach Pear(Marasebu) Peas cod Peas Wet Peas(Dry) Pegeon Pea (Arhar Fali) Pepper garbled Pepper ungarbled Persimon(Japani Fal) Pigs Pineapple Plum Pointed gourd (Parval) Pomegranate Potato Pumpkin Raddish Ragi (Finger Millet) Raibel Rajgir Ram Rat Tail Radish (Mogari) Raya Resinwood Rice Ridge gourd(Tori) Ridgeguard(Tori) Rose(Local) Rose(Loose) Rose(Loose)) Round gourd Rubber Sabu Dan Sabu Dana Safflower Sajje Same/Savi Season Leaves Seemebadnekai Seetafal Seetapal Sesamum(Sesame,Gingelly,Til) Sesamum(Sesame,Gingelly,Til) She Buffalo She Goat Sheep Snake gourd Snakeguard Soanf Soapnut(Antawala/Retha) Soji Soyabean Spinach Sponge gourd Squash(Chappal Kadoo) Sugar Sugarcane Sunflower Sunhemp Suram Surat Beans (Papadi) Suva (Dill Seed) Suvarna Gadde Sweet Potato Sweet Pumpkin T.V. Cumbu T.V. Cumbu Tamarind Fruit Tamarind Seed Tapioca Taramira Tender Coconut Thinai (Italian Millet) Thogrikai Thondekai Tinda Tobacco Tomato Toria Tube Rose(Double) Tube Rose(Loose) Tube Rose(Single) Turmeric Turmeric (raw) Turnip Walnut Water Melon Wheat Wheat Atta White Peas White Pumpkin Wood Yam Yam (Ratalu) Select State Select Market This is a guest post for Computer Weekly Open Source Insider written by Umair Shahid in his role as head of PostgreSQL at Percona -- a company known for its work delivering enterprise-class ... In this guest post, Aidan McClean, CEO and co-founder of online electric vehicle hire firm UFODRIVE, highlights the shortcomings in the UKs car charging infrastructure The UKs 2030 ban on the ... The artist formerly known as Kanye West has tied a ribbon round his recent package of white supremacist slogans, George Floyd family agitation and anti-Semitic tropes with an agreement to purchase ... 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The meeting was led by Michael Chelelwa who was a member of Kabwata Baptist Church (KBC) many years ago, but moved on when his employers transferred him out of town.Since we were combining our 30 anniversary meetings with our missions conference, we began the evening with presentations from our missionaries. The first presentation was made by Pastor Kennedy Kawambale, who was ordained in July 2015 to plant a church in the Chamba Valley area east of Lusaka. This is an area where there is a new housing development. He spoke of an attendance that is now around forty on Sundays.The second missions presentation was made by Pastor Oswald Sichula, who was ordained as a missionary in 2008 after being a pastoral intern at KBC for a while. He was sent to plant a church in the St Bonaventure area south of Lusaka and this year (in 2016) the church is being constituted as an independent local church. His report was, therefore, a kind of farewell because next year this time he will not be our missionary.The third missions presentation was made by Pastor Monametsi Bahudi from Gaborone, Botswana, who was ordained as a missionary in 2012. He took over the church planting work that was started in 2004 by missionary pastor Kapambwe Nsenduluka who is now in India. Pastor Bahudi was excited because after being the only Reformed Baptist pastor in Botswana, his church ordained Pastor Michael Legodi last year as their missionary to Francistown.The music ministry sang a song entitled, Through the flame.Logan Nyasulu read the first seven years of the history of KBC (1981 to 1988). This comprised the first five years when Lusaka Baptist Church was planting KBC and ended soon after the church called me as its pastor in 1987 and the church elected its first fully-fledged eldership comprising Dr Duncan Mugala, David Toka, Wishard Yenga, and yours truly.Logan went on to interview George Samututa who is currently one of the three longest serving members of KBC. George came with copies of the minutes of a church members meeting in 1985 (31 years ago!) where members were being urged to pray for a pastor.Before the preaching of Gods word, I took time to welcome all who were present. I also talked about our goal at these commemorative meetings and missions conference to raise K150,000 towards the construction of a majestic entrance to our Chisamba campus of the African Christian University ACU). This is our university. Its main campus is strategically located along the Great North Road as you head out of Lusaka. We want to construct an entrance there that will testify of what the ACU is all about.The preacher on this first evening was Pastor Lawrence Lama, from Bethel Baptist Church in Kabwe. He preached from 1 Corinthians 12. He asked whether we were still holding on to the biblical standards of the church. He also warned us against the danger of contentment. Then he proceeded to ask and answer three questions:(1) What is the biblical truth that the apostle Paul emphatically affirms in this text? Pastor Lama said that the truth being affirmed was that the Corinthian believers were the body of Christ. This truth emphasises the close organic union between Christ and believers. Christians do not exist for themselves; they belong to Christ. That truth must be applied to todays church and to KBC in particular. We are the body of Christ.(2) How does one become a member of Christs body? Pastor Lama said that you become a member of this body by repentance and faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit baptises you into Christs body. Putting it negatively, church membership or being born in a Christian family does not make you are member of Christs body. Then positively, everyone who has truly trusted in Christ, whether he is a Presbyterian or an Arminian or a Charismatic, is part of the body with us as Reformed Baptists. We must accept that.(3) How do we relate to the head of the body and to its members? Pastor Lama said that we are obligated to enter into relations with all those who are members of this body because we are one with them. The apostle Paul used this to re-establish proper relations of believers with one another despite their differences. We must have mutual dependence, mutual affection, mutual respect and appreciation, and intimate fellowship. With respect to Christ, our role is that of submission. We are his.That was how our first day at these commemorative meetings ended. In closing, we sangRevive Thy work, O Lord!Thy mighty arm make bare;Speak with the voice that wakes the dead,And make they people hear! It will take a brave council to embrace the Prime Ministers plans for prison reform and actively seek to have one of his proposed six new build prisons within their own authority boundary. Naturally, local residents would be sceptical about a giant prisoner rehabilitation centre close to their own homes, yet there could be significant advantages not least for the local economy, with job creation and new homes, bringing investment to tired conurbations. With prison governors having greater autonomy over how their facilities are run, and the services they buy in, they would be more accountable not just to Westminster, but also to their local communities. Prison is, of course, a punishment for doing something bad, but education should be at the heart of prisoner rehabilitation. It raises self-esteem and enables you to look beyond your immediate environment, providing a sense of responsibility for your own actions and behaviour towards others. These are qualities which need to be developed amongst offenders. In his recent coruscating attack on top universities for their lack of equality (Oxford accepted just 27 black men and women out of an intake of more than 2,500 in 2014) the Prime Minister commented that, if youre a young black man, youre more likely to be in a prison cell than at a top university. He also pointed out that, only one in ten of the poorest white boys go into higher education at all. Perhaps this means that we need more research into rising SEN numbers, and if theres a relationship between special needs, crime and incarceration? So, given the low educational achievement of so many of todays prisoners, with about 35 per cent unable to read or write, which, in turn, encourages re-offending because they cant get jobs, universities and colleges could take an active role in raising aspiration and achievement, perhaps sponsoring academies within the prison complex. Such a programme could lead to more prisoners qualifying in specific trades, or ultimately gaining a university place; if every big business committed to funding just one student, what a difference that could make. Timpsons has an exemplary record, already employing over 350 ex-offenders, nearly 10 per cent of its workforce. Building the new prisons alongside military bases could also bring about a revolution, with prisoners learning discipline and developing their fitness by training alongside army recruits. Some may enjoy the lifestyle and camaraderie (replacing the gang culture which they previously relied on as family) choosing to join up, provided they meet the rigorous standards required. Alternatively, some prisoners could even be recruited and trained to work in the prison service, bringing a fresh perspective to the role. As part of their training, prisoners benefiting from the new regime should be required to act as mentors, helping to identify those who are disengaged because they dont want to admit that they lack the most basic literacy and consequently dont understand it. As one ex-prisoner recently said, theres no point in putting up notices inviting people to learn to read, if they cant read the notice! Within the prison complex, it would also be sensible to build a communal living space for prisoners approaching release, making them self-sufficient by using any earnings to pay for food and teaching them independence, how to budget and even to cook basic meals. Its not about making life easy for prisoners, but supporting them to become good citizens in the future, with an understanding of what is expected of them, enabling them to socialise and communicate. Whilst there are, of course, wicked people who care nothing for others and commit the most appalling crimes, some people can be victims of their own traumatised upbringing and an ignorance of how they should behave. Drugs, alcohol, gangs intervene, giving them a purpose, however wrong; they can feel excluded and jealous of what others have achieved through their own hard work. Theft and violence become a way of life because there is no alternative. They know nothing else. 61 per cent of prison leavers re-offend within 2 years, dropping to 19 per cent for those with a job. So, it makes sense to rehabilitate, to develop their skills and employment prospects, whilst ensuring that they appreciate the impact of their actions on helpless victims. Im no apologist for crime and those who commit crime, but I dont see the point in locking people up for 23 hours a day, making them angry and frustrated when there is an alternative. It simply means that when they eventually get out, all they want to do is make retribution by committing more crime. I believe in giving people a chance, but if they abuse it, then throw the book at them! In the meantime, those brave, visionary council leaders should rise to the challenge and explore the opportunities for their own areas; having a brand new pioneering, reforming, prison could turn their authorities into an enterprise zone in more ways than one. Garvan Walshe was national and international security policy adviser to the Conservative Party until 2008. What do you call a peace agreement in which everybody but the Russians stop fighting? Though many wags have noted it was first negotiated at Munich, the true analogy isnt Munich but Yalta. If in 1945 the United States could reasonably claim to be exhausted, and Europes population, destroyed by six years of war could have been forgiven for its unwillingness to confront the Soviet Union in another war to protect Eastern Europe from communist domination. With the Red Army in control of the territory there was little that could be done. Perhaps more importantly, even after Germany had been defeated, Russian cooperation appeared to be needed for the campaign against Japan. Before the atomic bombs had been perfected, military planning called for massive conventional aerial bombardment by US planes flying from bases in Eastern Russia. Failing to secure Russian cooperation could have set the war against Japan back years, and accepting Soviet demands for control over Poland was a price that the Western Allies could not have avoided paying. If Yalta was a necessary compromise, in Syria the West has not only been weak, but managed the astonishing feat of being simultaneously cynical and naive. Weak by failing to intervene before the civil war broke out; failing to act to limit the destructiveness of Assads campaign against the rebels; or to prevent his use of chemical weapons; or even go much beyond verbal condemnation of indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population; and, finally failing to give non-extremist rebels the wherewithal to defend themselves and their population. Cynical in Washingtons attempt to trap Moscow and Tehran into a quagmire regardless of the consequences and naive in a refusal to understand that a narrow focus on ISIS reinforces Sunni extremism instead of addressing it. We have now been comprehensively outmanoeuvred because we have failed to understand the situation. The cessation of hostilities that goes into force on Friday excludes terrorist groups. The problem: Russia has a rather more expansive definition of terrorist than we do, including within the category anyone fighting against the Assad regime quite a few of whom the Wests diplomatic involvement is intended to protect. Were Russia supremely scrupulous when it comes to adhering to international agreements we could, Im sure, be certain that they would only attack fighters affiliated with ISIS and the Nusra Front. It goes without saying that the Kremlins adherence to law is scarcely stronger than the international sphere than the domestic. Put yourself in the position of a Syrian opponent of the regime. You rose up peacefully against your dictator in the name of democracy and freedom: values by which the West defines itself but which you think have a place in your country too. As he began to shoot demonstrators and torture their families, the West offered verbal condemnation and sanctions but little practical support. When he began to use chemical weapons, the West gave the appearance of wanting to intervene, but, obsessed with its own psychodrama after Iraq, declined to follow through. Insofar as it has helped to support rebel groups, it has done so in numbers too small to make any difference. Last year, it even cut back on the humanitarian aid funds supporting the refugees (driving more to risk their lives and cross to Turkey and Europe). In the middle of the civil war, subject to indiscriminate shelling by the Damascus Regime, raids by Hezbollah and now bombardment by the Russian air force, Syrians need protection. The only people attempting to do this are Sunni extremist groups that receive funding and support from Sunni Arab powers. Like the Poles, in whose national myth Yalta is but one of a series of betrayals, Syrians will remember the promises we made and failed to keep for generations. SUBSCRIBE Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates straight in your inbox. Close Worryingly, Peru's main pipeline has spilt at least 3,000 barrels of crude oil into the Amazon region. The Chiriaco and Morona rivers in the northwestern part of Brazil are polluted, while about eight indigenous communities here are dependent on the two rivers for their water sources, even as heavy rains here prevent the conservation efforts. While a landslide caused the first rupture, according to Petroperu, the state-owned operator of the pipeline, it is not clear why the subsequent leakages took place, according to the BBC. A water quality emergency in five districts close by the spill has been declared by Peru's health ministry. The national environmental regulator OEFA explains that Petroperu might be slapped with fines of up to 60m soles ($17 million U.S.) However, tests need to confirm whether the spills, occurring in late January and early February, are affecting the health of local communities or not. "It's important to note that the spills... are not isolated cases. Similar emergencies have emerged as a result of defects in sections of the pipeline," was OEFA's statement. Petroperu pledges that it would be involved in a complete cleanup and also offer food and water to affected communities. However, the damage has halted the transportation of up to 6,000 barrels of oil a day. It might take "some time" to resume operations, said the company president German Velasquez. He added that the company would evaluate the pipeline built in the 1970s so that he could prevent future spills. This has happened with Petroperu's preparations to be part of oil production with a private partner, after it finished more than 20 years of "refining, commercializing and transporting" crude. The company hopes to put up to 49 percent of its actions on Lima's stock exchange. Petroperu is also facing criticism over reports that it has paid children to clean up sludge. Even though Velasquez denies the charges, he is said to be thinking of firing company officials. One of them was probably involved in employing children. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Close A huge meteor suddenly exploded on Feb 6 at about 621 miles, or 1,000 km off Brazil, releasing an energy equivalent of 13,000 tons of TNT. This is just about the amount of energy used in the atomic weapon that decimated Hiroshima in 1945, says Daily Mail. Measuring 18 meters across and piercing through the earth's atmosphere at 41,600 miles per hour, the fireball landed in a local lake called Chebarkul, marking the largest event of its kind since the February 2013 fireball that crashed over Chelyabinsk, Russia. It had injured over 1,600. The event was not noticed mainly because of its lesser impact. The Chelyabinsk fireball released 500,000 tons of TNT energy, about 40 times greater than the last one, as astronomer Phil Plait wrote in his blog. "As impacts go, this was pretty small," Plait said. "After all, you didn't even hear about it until weeks after it occurred." NASA has gone public with some information, on the fireball, yet it is too early to release information on the scale of the meteor. NASA said that with the meteor disintegration proceeding at top speed, the result is what many call an "explosion," even though they are just witnessing the transformation of kinetic energy into light and heat. "The increase in surface area means more heating and glowing, then those pieces break up and get smaller, and you get a runaway cascade," said a NASA researcher. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Close US health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that 14 cases of possible Zika infections may have been caused by sexual intercourse including those that involved pregnant women. According to the health agency, all 14 case involve men visiting countries where outbreaks are particularly and may have spread the virus to their sex partners after arriving home as mentioned in a report by Reuters. While reports of such possibility have not been fully established by evidence, CDC is studying the various ways through which the virus could be transmitted. "In two of the new suspected sexual transmission events, Zika virus infection has been confirmed in women whose only known risk factor was sexual contact with an ill male partner who had recently traveled to an area with local Zika virus transmission; testing for the male partners is still pending," CDC said in a statement as quoted by NBC News. Scientists previously noted that Zika infection via sexual transmission is rare. In fact, only very few cases have been reported and confirmed. However, if all women in the foregoing possible Zika cases were tested positive, it will bring a new complex perspective to Zika's medical mystery linked to various neurological birth defects as well as paralysis. "We were surprised that there was this number. If a number of them pan out, that's much more than I was expecting," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the deputy director at the CDC as stated in a New York Times report. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Close Many Ebola survivors have to live with neurological health problems for an extended period of time after symptoms of an infection have already disappeared, a new study is reporting. "While an end to the outbreak has been declared, these survivors are still struggling with long-term problems," study author Dr. Lauren Bowen, from the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, said reported in the press release. For this research, the team analyzed the health of 82 survivors with the average age of 35 from Liberia, one of the three West African nations where the Ebola outbreak, which started in 2013, was widespread. The researchers monitored patients' brain health six months after they were first infected with Ebola. The team found that the majority of them suffered from some kind of neurological problem. The most common symptoms were headache, memory loss, depressed attitude, weakness, muscle pain, tremors, abnormal reflexes and abnormal eye movements. The researchers added that two of the patients had suicidal ideation and one suffered from hallucinations. "More than 28,600 people were infected with Ebola in West Africa during the outbreak. Of that number, 11,300 died. We wanted to find out more about possible continued long-term brain health problems for the more than 17,000 survivors of the infection," Bowen said. "It is important for us to know how this virus may continue to affect the brain long term." Prior to this study, the World Health Organization (WHO) reasoned in 2015 that patients who had more severe infections are more likely to have ongoing health problems. The study's findings are scheduled to be presented at the 68th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Vancouver, Canada. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Siachen, The High-Altitude Madness! By M.Ashraf 25 February, 2016 Countercurrents.org (The highest battleground which came into being because of some overzealous mountaineers has turned into an arena of high-altitude madness!) Recently ten Indian soldiers died due to an avalanche on the Siachen Glacier. Some years back more than 150 Pakistani soldiers had been killed by a similar avalanche in the area. Siachen in Balti language means land of abundant roses. However, the glacier itself is nothing like the land of roses. Rather it has proved to be a real bed of thorns for all the soldiers posted there. The dispute has an interesting history. Wikipedia describes Siachen Glacier dispute as,The Siachen Glacier is located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalaya Mountains at about 35.421226N 77.109540E, just northeast of the point NJ9842 where the Line of Control between India and Pakistanends. At 76 km (47 mi) long, it is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and second-longest in the world's non-polar areas. It falls from an altitude of 5,753 m (18,875 ft) above sea level at its head at Indira Col on the East Turkestan border down to 3,620 m (11,875 ft) at its terminus. The entire Siachen Glacier, with all major passes, is currently under the administration of India since 1984, while Pakistan controls the region west of Saltoro Ridge.After the ceasefire of Indo-Pak Conflict a Ceasefire Line was established by the UN. The line followed various features held by the two warring sides. The 1949 Karachi agreement only carefully delineated the line of separation to point NJ9842, after which, the agreement states that the line of separation would continue thence north to the glaciers. According to the Indian stance, the line of separation should continue roughly northwards along the Saltoro Range, to the west of the Siachen glacier beyond NJ9842, as the international boundary lines that follow mountain ranges often do so by following the watershed drainage divide such as that of the Saltoro Range. The 1972 Simla Agreement made no change to the 1949 Line of Control in this northernmost sector. However, the line was never formally demarcated on the ground beyond point NJ9842 but shown on US and Pakistani maps straight to Karakoram pass that left the Glacier on the Pakistani side. India believed it to be a cartographic error. The entire area being the most inhospitable frozen wasteland nobody bothered about it for quite some time. In late seventies and early eighties, the famous mountaineer Colonel Narinder (Bull) Kumar led some mountaineering expeditions to various peaks in the area. He in fact went to Indira Col and even brought some equipment left by foreign climbing expeditions which had gone to the area from the Pakistani side. He convinced General Prem Hoon, the Corps Commander to send patrols into the area and establish posts along the Saltoro Range to claim Indian sovereignty on the area. In 1984, India launched Operation Meghdoot, a military operation that gave India control over all of the Siachen Glacier, including its tributaries. Between 1984 and 1999, frequent skirmishes took place between India and Pakistan. Indian troops under Operation Meghdoot pre-empted Pakistan's Operation Ababeel by just one day to occupy most of the dominating heights on Saltoro Ridge to west of Siachen Glacier. For either country it is impossible to launch any large scale operation. The life on the glacier especially on the higher posts is like living in a cold hell. Minus 60 degrees Celsius temperature, snowstorms for weeks on end depositing sometimes more than 30 feet of snow, frost-bite and metal bite and above everything else the lack of oxygen causes cerebral and pulmonary oedema. Mountaineers climb to these heights after acclimatization and in good weather and do not stay more than a week or so. Here, the soldiers continue to stay for months on end with rotation to higher posts every twenty days or so. The guns need to be fired every few hours to prevent the firing mechanism from freezing. There have hardly been any casualties in armed conflict. Most of casualties have been due to the severe climatic conditions. Hundreds of soldiers on both sides have been disabled due to extreme living conditions. Apart from being a cold hell, the area is quite costly to maintain. The high-altitude equipment, dry rations, kerosene for heating apart from the consumption of ammunition to maintain guns in working condition are quite costly. It is said that it costs rupees five hundred to fly a litre of kerosene by helicopters to the area.Specialized mountain equipment has to be imported at exuberant prices. Incidentally, the same West European high-altitude equipment manufacturing firms are supplying equipment to both the warring sides! Finally, the worst fallout is the extreme pollution of the environment. Almost one metric ton of waste is dumped into the crevasses of the glacier by the soldiers every day. Apart from normal garbage, empty ammunition shells, parachutes and so on are dumped. The snows have blackened in many places. Major portion of the waste is plastics, metals, chemicals which affect the water going into the Shyok River. In fact, Siachen is the source of water going through Indus. All these pollutants have effect on the water. It is becoming the highest junk yard after the Everest base camp. Huge military presence has adversely affected the flora and fauna in the area. There have been many attempts to sort out the dispute but so far these have failed. Manmohan Singh was the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Siachen. He suggested peaceful resolution of the dispute. In fact, environmentalists have suggested that Siachen should be declared a Peace Park. The resolution of the dispute is stuck up. The Indian side wants Pakistanis to authenticate on a map the positions held by them at present. It may be worthwhile to ask the top Political and Army brass to hold the talks on the glacier itself so that they realize the actual ground conditions. Both sides may then agree to leave the area alone and bring an end to this high-altitude madness! The sooner it happens, the better for both the suffering soldiers and the fragile environment. Mohammad Ashraf I.A.S. (Retired) is Former Director General Tourism, Jammu & Kashmir Email: ashrafmjk@gmail.com For more articles on Siache demilitarization Click Here An Open Letter To The People Of West Papua By James Burrowes & Robert J. Burrowes 25 February, 2016 Countercurrents.org James Burrowes - 1942 Wa wa wa wa. We have recently been discussing your ongoing courageous struggle to liberate yourselves from more than 100 years of occupation, first by the Netherlands, briefly and brutally by Japan during World War II, and now by Indonesia. In that regard, we would each like to share a brief message with you, our friends from West Papua. From James: I have been very impressed with the information gleaned from my son Robert Burrowes after his recent meeting in Brisbane with your leaders Octovianus Mote, Benny Wenda, Jacob Rumbiak and Rex Rumakiek of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua. The work and dedication you have been devoting to the cause of freedom for West Papua has inspired me to recall my own experience with some of your ancestors during my 4 years with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during World War II, which included 2 years as a coastwatcher. Ten months of this time was spent in enemy-held territory as a signaller. James Burrowes-2016 I am 92 years old now, but in those days from 1942 to 1945 I was Sergeant James Burrowes VX136343 in 'M' Special Unit of the Allied Intelligence Bureau, known as the 'Coastwatchers'. Our intelligence role for the war effort was described by Admiral Halsey, Commander of the US 7th Fleet, in these words: 'Without the Coastwatchers, the Pacific War would not have been won!' Therefore, in this context, I would like to briefly relate the contribution of some of your Papuan ancestors who were also coastwatchers, assisting and being part of parties infiltrated into Japanese-held territory. Those I can name include Papuans known to us as Yali, Mas, Buka and Mariba although I can name many others such as Golpak, his son Kaole, Yauwika, Rayman and Ishmael. Some, including Sgt-Major Simogun, are famous and were duly honoured with the British Empire Medal and/or Loyal Service Medal for their fighting service. I mention the first four named for a specific reason. I recall one very notable incident when eleven coastwatchers paddled ashore in rubber crafts from a submarine at Hollandia (now Jayapura, the capital of West Papua) only to be wrecked by the surf, losing most of their equipment, before being ambushed by the Japanese. Five coastwatchers (including Papuans Mas and Buka) were killed and those remaining (which included the Papuans Yali and Mariba and the Indonesian known as Lancelot) somehow managed to escape and, after incredible hardship, later rejoined allied forces. On a personal note, I am lucky to be here today. I was selected to go on that Hollandia venture but, at the last minute, the signaller Jack Bunning replaced me after recovering from sickness. He was one of the men killed! I am also lucky to be one of the handful of Australian coastwatchers still alive to tell our story. I would be thrilled if any survivor or relative of any of the Papuans named is still able to connect with this experience from some 72 years ago. Hollandia party: West Papuan & Australian coastwatchers in - WWII I have included a photo of the Hollandia party (in which you will see the four Papuans), a photo of Sgt-Major Simogun, and two photos of myself from way back then and now. Coastwatcher Sgt Maj Simogun BEM LSM - WWII I sincerely wish you the very best of success in your long-term struggle for independence. You helped us to preserve the independence of Australia from Japan. Best regards Jim Burrowes From Robert: When I was a child, each year my father would take me to the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne at the beginning of July. I would listen to an old man talk about the sinking of the 'Montevideo Maru', a Japanese prisoner of war ship that was sunk during World War II, killing all of the 1,053 Australian prisoners of war on board. I would watch my aunt crying as this story was told. One of the prisoners on this ship was my father's older brother, Robert (Bob), who had been captured at Rabaul during the Japanese invasion on 22 January 1942. Bob was a member of the 34th Fortress Engineers of the Australian Imperial Force and had been responsible for installing guns at Praed Point in Rabaul Harbour. Apart from his older brother, my father also lost his twin brother Thomas (Tom) during the war. Tom was a member of the RAAF's 100 Squadron and the Beaufort Bomber on which he was a wireless airgunner was shot down over Rabaul on his first mission on 14 December 1943. My childhood is dotted with memories of my uncles: wearing Bob's war medals to school on ANZAC Day, going to the Shrine of Remembrance each year, and listening on those rare occasions when Dad talked about his brothers. Sometimes, when asked, Dad would also talk about his own experience during the war. He was a member of 'M' Special Unit, a coastwatcher operating behind enemy lines in Japanese-occupied New Guinea. Whenever he talked about his experience and the efforts of fellow coastwatchers, Dad would invariably mention their heavy reliance on the Papuans who also served as coastwatchers. In his words: 'Without them there would have been NO Coastwatchers as they were the ones guiding us, carrying all our gear, building our thatched shelter, cooking, protecting us as sentries you name it.' In 1966, the year I turned 14, I decided that I would devote my life to working to end human violence. This is more than a life passion: It is why I live. One of the things that I have learned is that we can use thoughtfully applied nonviolent strategy to defeat occupying powers. I wrote a book on how to do this. See 'The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense: A Gandhian Approach'. http://www.sunypress.edu/p-2176-the-strategy-of-nonviolent-defe.aspx Just as Papuan ancestors helped my father and fellow coastwatchers to play a key role in defeating an occupying power, it is now my duty and great privilege to help the people of West Papua to defeat another one. Papua Merdeka! Robert J. Burrowes James Burrowes served in New Guinea during World War II. Jim's war service and the death of his two brothers inspired Jim's son Robert to seek and apply nonviolent ways to resolve conflict. Robert's email address is flametree@riseup.net and his website is at http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com Police Disrupts Candle Light Vigil For Rohith Vemula By Countercurrents.org 25 February, 2016 Countercurrents.org Rohith Vemula's mother and more than 100 students from Hyderabad Central University were detained by the Delhi Police while holding a candle light vigil at India Gate in memory of Rohith. Police even dragged Rohith Vemula's mother. While being detained in Tilak Marg and Parliament Street Police Station they held a candle light vigil inside the police station. Later, the agitators were released by the police. Arundhati B one of the participant in the vigil said in a facebook post "We had no weapons other than candles. They fear light. The call for the candle light vigil was given by the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice. Thousands of students marched through the streets of Delhi on 23rd February demanding justice for Rohith Vemula who committed suicide inside University of Hyderabad hostel room on January 17 after being targeted by the university and the right wing sangh parivar. Thousands of students, including those from the Jawaharlal Nehru University joined the protest march organised under the banner of Joint Action Committee for Social Justice of University of Hyderabad from Ambedkar Bhawan to Jantar Mantar. The main demands of the students are: Enact Rohith Act against the caste discrimination in education spaces. Punish the culprits (SmritiIrani, BandaruDattatrya, Appa Rao, Ramchandra Rao, Alok Pandey and Susheel Kumar). Remove Appa Rao from post of Vice Chancellor. Employ a family member of Rohith in the university. Pay a minimum compensation of 50 lakhs. Drop the false police cases against the five research scholars. Appoint a special public prosecutor in the concerned case of Rohith. Constitute a judicial inquiry (non-MHRD members) into all cases of discrimination and harassment of Dalit, Adivasi, OBC, Religious Minority students in all higher educational institutions. Implement Affirmative action policies in all higher education institutions, irrespective of the management of the colleges. Even though the 'Justice for Rohith Vemula' campaign has reached the national capital, the police have not yet arrested or even questioned any of the four persons named as accused in the case abetting the suicide of Rohith Vemula. The accused are moving across the country freely. Why Shouldnt We Discuss Afzal Guru? By Sreekumar Kodiyath 25 February, 2016 Countercurrents.org Mohammed Afzal Guru, the only accused sentenced to death in the parliament attack incident of 2001 was secretly hung on 9th February, 2013. His body was buried hastily inside the jail compound by the authorities and it was only then that the world was informed of this operation. The idea was to prevent any delay that might have been caused by a possible judicial review of his mercy petitions rejection by the President of India. As an expatriate student during that time, I and many of my friends with me had to vent our shock and anger through the social media and our group discussions. We were already concerned about the trial process, flawed death penalty jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of India and how democratic institutions sometimes defer to public pressure. It was the faulty trial and evidence which bothered us the most. Internet in general was rife with debates. There were ones who were completely against death penalty and ones who supported awarding of death penalty in exceptional cases. What everyone agreed was on the case miserably failing below the standards laid down by Supreme Court of India in the Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab (1980) including the rarest of rare test. What intrigued us was how someone could be hung on the basis of a trial without a proper lawyer and fabricated evidence. What bothered us more was how all the flaws were acknowledged by the court and yet it proceeded to direct his hanging. We discussed it till we were exhausted, read every opinion on it and debated for days and nights. The scene shifts to February, 2016 and we wake up to the massive controversy and the turn of events subsequent to the programme conducted by students of JNU on the anniversary of Afzal Gurus hanging. What was difficult for me to fathom is the fact that the programme was organised to discuss the same incident which we had openly discussed, condemned and wrote about extensively back in 2013. More interesting was how the same person had been transformed from being the victim of a flawed trial to the parliament attacker terrorist conclusively and how even a mere reference to his trial and execution is being suddenly regarded with suspicion and anti-nationalism. While the despicable prime time televisions analogous reference to Afzal, the terrorist and the brave jawans of the army side by side was not surprising, difficult to comprehend was the relative quiet on this topic in every other discussion. It was somehow a Kashmiri issue now. Even in few regional protests organised against the treatment of the JNU students, the organisers confessed that Afzal Guru shouldnt be mentioned as that would be highlighted by the media and the topic diverted. Then came the surrender of the JNU students and their interrogation by the Delhi Police which too were littered with references to Afzal Guru. This was one obsession for the nation in 2016. Are you with Afzal Guru or with us? And a fear is slowly gripping the entire country. Quietly, a polarisation is taking place which is invading even into our personal spaces. Thinking and debating platforms are shrinking and whatever is left is being dominated by shouting matches. Borrowed phrases from Rwandan genocidaires find their presence in the vocabularies of the so called patriots. Maoist and terrorist identities are conveniently attributed to quell dissent. State begins to regard learning and academia with a Khamer Rougian hostility. It is in this context that there is a need to force the topic back into the discussion spaces. If debates on the freedom of expression are what we are fighting for, then an opinion on the hanging of Afzal Guru is a part and parcel of the same. It would be unwise to ignore one at the cost of the other. It is not the problem of Kashmiris alone, but his fate can befall anyone who questions the narratives of the state especially in the present political climate. Afzal Gurus case and his execution isnt something which we can proudly flaunt as an example of our legal process. It only exposes the decayed core of our policing system, trial processes and the state of affairs in the lower judiciary. While 80 witnesses were examined on behalf of the prosecution, Afzal Gurus court-appointed lawyer found it convenient to do nothing. While meeting and discussing the case with a client is crucial for devising defence strategy and arguments, the court-appointed lawyer felt it convenient to avoid such a meeting. While the evidence against Afzal was evidently tampered with, his court appointed lawyer found it convenient to remain silent. This is not intended to be an exhaustive critique of the case. Carefully wading through 107 pages of the Supreme Court judgement exposes one to numerous other inconsistencies, lapses and logical fallacies. The message that is intended to be conveyed is the susceptibility of the system to be abused. An image or video in your laptop computer or phone can take you all the way to hangmans scaffold. Our anti-terrorism laws and the arbitrary nature of many of their provisions deserve to be discussed and debated. Our system of awarding death penalty deserves to be discussed and debated. The way in which trial court functions deserves to be discussed and debated. The archaic policing system inherited from the colonial rulers deserves to be discussed and debated. The way in which we condone torture in custody deserves to be discussed and debated. And as long as a person has been hung under the shadows cast by the festering rots in our institutions, his case would forever remain a bloat in the landscape of justice and democracy. Mentioning it becomes necessary to ensure that we learn from our mistakes. Remembering it becomes necessary to prevent its repetition. Discussing it becomes necessary to affirm our commitment to free speech. Sreekumar Kodiyath is an independent researcher The Rape Of East Timor: "Sounds Like Fun" By John Pilger 25 February, 2016 Johnpilger.com Secret documents found in the Australian National Archives provide a glimpse of how one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century was executed and covered up. They also help us understand how and for whom the world is run. The documents refer to East Timor, now known as Timor-Leste, and were written by diplomats in the Australian embassy in Jakarta. The date was November 1976, less than a year after the Indonesian dictator General Suharto seized the then Portuguese colony on the island of Timor. The terror that followed has few parallels; not even Pol Pot succeeded in killing, proportionally, as many Cambodians as Suharto and his fellow generals killed in East Timor. Out of a population of almost a million, up to a third were extinguished. This was the second holocaust for which Suharto was responsible. A decade earlier, in 1965, Suharto wrested power in Indonesia in a bloodbath that took more than a million lives. The CIA reported: "In terms of numbers killed, the massacres rank as one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century." This was greeted in the Western press as "a gleam of light in Asia" (Time). The BBC's correspondent in South East Asia, Roland Challis, later described the cover-up of the massacres as a triumph of media complicity and silence; the "official line" was that Suharto had "saved" Indonesia from a communist takeover. "Of course my British sources knew what the American plan was," he told me. "There were bodies being washed up on the lawns of the British consulate in Surabaya, and British warships escorted a ship full of Indonesian troops, so that they could take part in this terrible holocaust. It was only much later that we learned that the American embassy was supplying [Suharto with] names and ticking them off as they were killed. There was a deal, you see. In establishing the Suharto regime, the involvement of the [US-dominated] International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were part of it. That was the deal." I have interviewed many of the survivors of 1965, including the acclaimed Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who bore witness to an epic of suffering "forgotten" in the West because Suharto was "our man". A second holocaust in resource-rich East Timor, an undefended colony, was almost inevitable. In 1994, I filmed clandestinely in occupied East Timor; I found a land of crosses and unforgettable grief. In my film, Death of a Nation, there is a sequence shot on board an Australian aircraft flying over the Timor Sea. A party is in progress. Two men in suits are toasting each other in champagne. "This is a uniquely historical moment," babbles one of them, "that is truly, uniquely historical." This is Australia's foreign minister, Gareth Evans. The other man is Ali Alatas, the principal mouthpiece of Suharto. It is 1989 and they are making a symbolic flight to celebrate a piratical deal they called a "treaty". This allowed Australia, the Suharto dictatorship and the international oil companies to divide the spoils of East Timor's oil and gas resources. Thanks to Evans, Australia's then prime minister, Paul Keating -- who regarded Suharto as a father figure -- and a gang that ran Australia's foreign policy establishment, Australia distinguished itself as the only western country formally to recognise Suharto's genocidal conquest. The prize, said Evans, was "zillions" of dollars. Members of this gang reappeared the other day in documents found in the National Archives by two researchers from Monash University in Melbourne, Sara Niner and Kim McGrath. In their own handwriting, senior officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs mock reports of the rape, torture and execution of East Timorese by Indonesian troops. In scribbled annotations on a memorandum that refers to atrocities in a concentration camp, one diplomat wrote: "sounds like fun". Another wrote: "sounds like the population are in raptures." Referring to a report by the Indonesian resistance, Fretilin, that describes Indonesia as an "impotent" invader, another diplomat sneered: "If 'the enemy was impotent', as stated, how come they are daily raping the captured population? Or is the former a result of the latter?" The documents, says Sarah Niner, are "vivid evidence of the lack of empathy and concern for human rights abuses in East Timor" in the Department of Foreign Affairs. "The archives reveal that this culture of cover-up is closely tied to the DFA's need to recognise Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor so as to commence negotiations over the petroleum in the East Timor Sea." This was a conspiracy to steal East Timor's oil and gas. In leaked diplomatic cables in August 1975, the Australian Ambassador to Jakarta, Richard Woolcott, wrote to Canberra: "It would seem to me that the Department [of Minerals and Energy] might well have an interest in closing the present gap in the agreed sea border and this could be much more readily negotiated with Indonesia ... than with Portugal or independent Portuguese Timor." Woolcott revealed that he had been briefed on Indonesia's secret plans for an invasion. He cabled Canberra that the government should "assist public understanding in Australia" to counter "criticism of Indonesia". In 1993, I interviewed C. Philip Liechty, a former senior CIA operations officer in the Jakarta embassy during the invasion of East Timor. He told me: "Suharto was given the green light [by the US] to do what he did. We supplied them with everything they needed [from] M16 rifles [to] US military logistical support ... maybe 200,000 people, almost all of them non-combatants died. When the atrocities began to appear in the CIA reporting, the way they dealt with these was to cover them up as long as possible; and when they couldn't be covered up any longer, they were reported in a watered-down, very generalised way, so that even our own sourcing was sabotaged." I asked Liechty what would have happened had someone spoken out. "Your career would end," he replied. He said his interview with me was one way of making amends for "how badly I feel". The gang in the Australian embassy in Jakarta appear to suffer no such anguish. One of the scribblers on the documents, Cavan Hogue, told the Sydney Morning Herald: "It does look like my handwriting. If I made a comment like that, being the cynical bugger that I am, it would certainly have been in the spirit of irony and sarcasm. It's about the [Fretilin] press release, not the Timorese." Hogue said there were "atrocities on all sides". As one who reported and filmed the evidence of genocide, I find this last remark especially profane. The Fretilin "propaganda" he derides was accurate. The subsequent report of the United Nations on East Timor describes thousands of cases of summary execution and violence against women by Suharto's Kopassus special forces, many of whom were trained in Australia. "Rape, sexual slavery and sexual violence were tools used as part of the campaign designed to inflict a deep experience of terror, powerlessness and hopelessness upon pro-independence supporters," says the UN. Cavan Hogue, the joker and "cynical bugger", was promoted to senior ambassador and eventually retired on a generous pension. Richard Woolcott was made head of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra and, in retirement, has lectured widely as a "respected diplomatic intellectual". Journalists watered at the Australian embassy in Jakarta, notably those employed by Rupert Murdoch, who controls almost 70 per cent of Australia's capital city press. Murdoch's correspondent in Indonesia was Patrick Walters, who reported that Jakarta's "economic achievements" in East Timor were "impressive", as was Jakarta's "generous" development of the blood-soaked territory. As for the East Timorese resistance, it was "leaderless" and beaten. In any case, "no one was now arrested without proper legal procedures". In December 1993, one of Murdoch's veteran retainers, Paul Kelly, then editor-in-chief of The Australian, was appointed by Foreign Minister Evans to the Australia-Indonesia Institute, a body funded by the Australian government to promote the "common interests" of Canberra and the Suharto dictatorship. Kelly led a group of Australian newspaper editors to Jakarta for an audience with the mass murderer. There is a photograph of one of them bowing. East Timor won its independence in 1999 with the blood and courage of its ordinary people. The tiny, fragile democracy was immediately subjected to a relentless campaign of bullying by the Australian government which sought to manoeuvre it out of its legal ownership of the sea bed's oil and gas revenue. To get its way, Australia refused to recognise the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the Law of the Sea and unilaterally changed the maritime boundary in its own favour. In 2006, a deal was finally signed, Mafia-style, largely on Australia's terms. Soon afterwards, Prime Minister Mari Alkitiri, a nationalist who had stood up to Canberra, was effectively deposed in what he called an "attempted coup" by "outsiders". The Australian military, which had "peace-keeping" troops in East Timor, had trained his opponents. In the 17 years since East Timor won its independence, the Australian government has taken nearly $5 billion in oil and gas revenue - money that belongs to its impoverished neighbour. Australia has been called America's "deputy sheriff" in the South Pacific. One man with the badge is Gareth Evans, the foreign minister filmed lifting his champagne glass to toast the theft of East Timor's natural resources. Today, Evans is a lectern-trotting zealot promoting a brand of war-mongering known as "RTP", or "Responsibility to Protect". As co-chair of a New York-based "Global Centre", he runs a US-backed lobby group that urges the "international community" to attack countries where "the Security Council rejects a proposal or fails to deal with it in a reasonable time". The man for the job, as the East Timorese might say. John Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US. Follow John Pilger on twitter @johnpilger and through his website: www.johnpilger.com Watch John Pilger's film Death of a Nation - The Timor Conspiracy Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora? By Mary Scully 25 February, 2016 Countercurrents.org Today is Kashmiri Womens Resistance Day & also the 25th anniversary of the Kunan Poshpora mass rape & torture case of February 23rd, 1991. On that night, an elite regiment of the Indian army, on the pretext of hunting for militants, entered the twin villages of Kunan & Poshpora for a search operation. All men in the villages were herded into a nearby field while women were asked to remain indoors. Troops entered the homes & raped at least 23 girls & women, including a pregnant woman & women in front of their children. The Indian government has repeatedly rejected charges of mass rape & torture as baseless, absurd, & unfit for criminal prosecution. It has campaigned to acquit the army of such charges & discredit those who make them. By October 1991, the case was closed by the Indian police. Human rights groups challenge the conclusions of the Indian government. Even the US State Department, under President George H.W. Bush (the CIA guy), in its 1992 report on international human rights said there was credible evidence the Indian army engaged in mass rape at Kunan Poshpora. In December 2012, the rape & murder of a women student in Delhi galvanized a protest movement & inspired five young Kashmiri women to investigate & write a book about the incident. The women are Samreen Mushtaq, Essar Batool, Natasha Rather, Munaza Rashid, & Ifrah Butt. The book was published by The University of Chicago Press & distributed by Zubaan Books in Delhi, India. The book entitled, Do you remember Kunan Poshpora? is part of an eight-volume series on Sexual Violence & Impunity in South Asia & was officially released last month at the prestigious Jaipur Literature Festival. It will be released today at an event in Srinagar. The book is important first of all to bring justice to the women of Kunan Poshpora but it also has international political importance since mass rape of women is a widespread military practice. It is an orchestrated, cold-blooded, & systematic military operation, not a case of troops gone wild. It is particularly notorious now in Kashmir, the Democratic Republic of Congo, & in Guatemala where in 2012 Mayan women testified at the trial of general Jose Efrain Rios Montt who employed mass rape in the civil war between 1960 & 1996. In all cases, despite overwhelming, irrefutable documentation, impunity for the military is served up in place of justice. Our deepest respect to the women of Kashmir & the authors of this book for standing up against the brutal edifice of military occupation. Mary Scully has fifty years of political activism behind her in the US: antiwar, women's rights, civil rights, Palestinian solidarity (since 1967), in particular. She running as an independent socialist candidate for US president 2016. Palestinian Hunger Striker, Muhammad al-Qiq, On The Verge Of Death By Charlotte Silver 25 February, 2016 Electronicintifada.net Muhammad al-Qiqs body has collapsed and his heart rate has slowed, lawyers report, as the 33-year-old Palestinian journalist and father of two enters day 92 of his hunger strike against his detention by Israel without charge or trial. Meanwhile, Israel is still refusing to allow al-Qiqs wife Fayha Shalash and their two young children to be with him during what is feared may be his final hours. On Tuesday, Shalash spoke by telephone from the occupied West Bank to a solidarity rally for her husband in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott. Muhammad al-Qiq did not go on strike to harm himself or to hurt his two children who wait for him minute by minute, but rather to tell the Israelis: our decision is to live free or to die with dignity, Shalash said. This is the message of every Palestinian to the world, Shalash added. No negotiations Since Sunday, all negotiations between al-Qiq and Israel have ceased. Jawad Bolous, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, said Israels failure to respond to al-Qiqs final compromise forced them to cease following up on the case. Al-Qiqs family said he is now in Gods hands. Issa Qaraqe, the Palestinian Authority head of prisoner affairs, said that Israels silence was proof of its deliberate intention to let al-Qiq die. Qaraqe suggested that Israel may be trying to make an example of al-Qiq for other Palestinian prisoners. The Israelis apparently decided to put an end to this wave of strikes, he told Al Jazeera. A prisoner may pay his life for it, but for [the Israelis] it would be a message delivered. Pressure While direct negotiations have ended, Israel brought two high-ranking Hamas prisoners under heavy guard to al-Qiqs bedside on Monday. This was reported by the Hebrew website Local Call, as well as by Palestinian media. While there has been no announcement of the purpose of the visit, reports claimed the men told al-Qiq that the Hamas leadership was not interested in individual hunger strikes at present and that the organization feared his death would escalate the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. In other words, their goal was likely to convince al-Qiq to accept terms for ending his hunger strike. But al-Qiq, who has been arrested by the Palestinian Authority and Israel for alleged involvement with Hamas several times in the past, remains on strike. Al-Qiq has maintained that he would not end his strike unless he was transferred to a hospital in the occupied West Bank. However, last weekend he agreed to be transferred to a Palestinian hospital in occupied East Jerusalem on condition the Israeli authorities promised his administrative detention order would not be renewed. When Israels high court initially offered to transfer al-Qiq to al-Makassed hopsital earlier this month, he refused, stating he would not break his strike until he was free. Pick up the phone Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and BTselem, have called Israels detention of al-Qiq unlawful and demanded his immediate release. Martina Anderson, an Irish member of the European parliament and the chair of the European Unions delegation to Palestine, called on the European Union to intervene on behalf of Muhammad al-Qiq. Al-Qiq is undertaking this strike for all Palestinian prisoners, Anderson said. He is hunger-striking in protest at being detained without charge and against being tortured. Anderson called on EU High Representative Federica Mogherini to pick up the phone and call Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to intercede on Al-Qiqs behalf. But doctors and lawyers fear that any intervention at this point may be too late to reverse the damage the last three months without food has wreaked on his body. In Belfast on Wednesday, youth activists from the political party Sinn Fein joined Palestine solidarity activists to hold a vigil in solidarity with al-Qiq at the citys International Wall. Charlotte Silver is an independent journalist and regular writer for the Electronic Intifada. She is based in Oakland, California and has reported from Palestine since 2010. Follow her on Twitter @CharESilver. Ali Abunimah contributed translation. Hillary Clinton's Global-Burning Record By Eric Zuesse 25 February, 2016 Countercurrents.org On 17 July 2015, Paul Blumenthal and Kate Sheppard at Huffington Post bannered, including women, Blacks, Hispanics, etc. n 17 July 2015, Paul Blumenthal and Kate Sheppard at Huffington Post bannered, Hillary Clinton's Biggest Campaign Bundlers Are Fossil Fuel Lobbyists and the sub-head was "Clinton's top campaign financiers are linked to Big Oil, natural gas and the Keystone pipeline. This description of her fits for a politician who does the lobbyists' bidding while she provides liberal rhetoric that denies she will, and so who burns-up not only the planet but the trust of the liberals who have voted for her in the mistaken belief that because her label is Democrat and because she makes her appeals to women, Blacks, Hispanics, and other disenfranchised groups, she's not actually representing (just like the Republicans do) their common-enemies, which go beyond such ethnic or other groups and constitute the top-0.0001%-economic-class that's exploiting almost the entire public women, Blacks, Hispanics, etc. not to do. Her record does show that she represents those lobbyists , not the public. As I had reported previously , the Hillary Clinton State Department's two environmental impact statements on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline were triple-hoaxes that totally and scandalously ignored the proposed pipeline's impact on climate-change but that did discuss the impact of climate-change on the proposed pipeline (as if anybody even cared about that); neither of the two studies had even one climatologist on the team that prepared the report; and the State Department didn't do either of the reports themselves, but instead hired two oil-industry contractors that were proposed to the State Department by TransCanada Corporation, which is the company that was proposing to build and own the pipeline. So: those studies' were rigged to enable the President to approve the Pipeline which he ultimately decidedto do. Furthermore, on 2 May 2013, Steve Horn headlined, "Digging Into TransCanada's Lobbying History, and he found that, indeed, Hillary Clinton was surrounded by TransCanada lobbyists while the reports were being prepared by TransCanada's chosen oil-industry contractors. On 12 March 2014, I headlined "Keystone XL Pipeline Corruption With State Department Should Not Be Legal, and reported that, "The Office of Inspector General (IG) of the U.S. State Department has determined that all of the corruption that was entailed in the preparation of the Hillary Clinton State Department's two Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) on the TransCanada corporation's proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, and that is still present in the John Kerry State Department's final EIS, was legal. This didn't mean that it was at all ethical. It was disgustingly corrupt, regardless of whether it was legal. But, he found: it was legal. Hillary Clinton is also a big champion of fracking. In September 2014, Mariah Blake bannered "How Hillary Clinton's State Department Sold Fracking to the World, and reported that, "As part of its expanded energy mandate, the State Department hosted conferences on fracking from Thailand to Botswana. It sent US experts to work alongside foreign officials as they developed shale gas programs. The energy-companies didn't pay for those sales-calls by the U.S. Secretary of State; taxpayers did. On 10 April 2015, New Yorkers Against Fracking sent a letter to Clinton , opening, "We, the undersigned citizens groups from across the United States, write to urge you to join the growing majority of Americans against fracking. Probably, she will, verbally, join' them, but her record shows that she often doesn't follow her word, but that she does reliably follow her money: where that points, she goes (but as much in the dark as she possibly can ergo, her private email server being used for government-business). She earns her keep, for the lobbyists, and for her financial backers SHARE Reed Schmitt Bingham Greenebaum Doll LLP has elected six attorneys, including Evansville's Reed Schmitt, to the firm's partnership. All were promoted from within the firm following the annual meeting in Indianapolis. Schmitt has more than 30 years of experience in the areas of estate planning and administration, corporate law and commercial litigation. He has been involved in complex estate administration matters, including will contest litigation and contested guardianship proceedings. His corporate practice includes representing small, family-owned businesses to much larger multistate corporations. He is an active member and Past President of the Evansville Bar Association. Joining him as newly elected partners are Jared A. Cox, James R. Irving and William J. Kishman of Louisville; Alexis B. Kasacavage of Lexington; and Tonya Vachirasomboon of Cincinnati. "Our six newly elected partners exemplify the professionalism and dedication to legal excellence that we strive for at BGD," said firm Managing Partner Tobin McClamroch in a release. SHARE Continuing 'Alvin & the chipmunks: the road chip' Through a series of misunderstandings, Alvin, Simon and Theodore come to believe that Dave is going to propose to his new girlfriend in Miami and dump them. They have three days to get to him and stop the proposal, saving themselves not only from losing Dave but possibly from gaining a terrible stepbrother. Stars the voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney. (PG) 'the boy' An American nanny is shocked that her new English family's boy is actually a life-size doll. After violating a list of strict rules, disturbing events make her believe that the doll is really alive. Stars Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans and James Russell. (PG-13) 'the choice' Travis (Benjamin Walker) and Gabby (Teresa Palmer) first meet as neighbors in a small coastal town and wind up in a relationship that is tested by life's most defining events. (PG-13) 'Creed' Former world heavyweight champion Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) serves as a trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan), the son of his late friend and former rival Apollo Creed. (PG-13) 'daddy's home' A mild-mannered radio executive strives to become the best stepdad to his wife's two children, but complications ensue when their freewheeling and freeloading real father arrives, forcing him to compete for the affection of the kids. Stars Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg and Linda Cardellini. (PG-13) 'Deadpool' A former Special Forces operative turned mercenary (Ryan Reynolds) is subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopting the alter ego Deadpool. (R) 'dirty grandpa' Right before his wedding, an uptight guy is tricked into driving his grandfather, a perverted former Army general, to Florida for spring break. Stars Robert De Niro, Zac Efron and Zoey Deutch. (R) 'the 5th wave' Four waves of increasingly deadly alien attacks have left most of Earth decimated. Cassie is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother. Stars Chloe Grace Moretz, Matthew Zuk and Gabriela Lopez. (PG-13) 'the forest' A woman (Natalie Dormer) goes looking for her twin sister in an infamous Japanese forest beneath Mount Fuji where lost souls retreat to commit suicide. With the help of a local American guide (Taylor Kinney), she treks into the danger of the mysterious forest. (PG-13) '45 years' A married couple preparing to celebrate their wedding anniversary receive shattering news that promises to forever change the course of their lives. Stars Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay. (R) 'the Good Dinosaur' An epic journey into the world of dinosaurs where an Apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend. Stars the voices of Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand and Maleah Nipay-Padilla. (PG) 'how to be single' New York City is full of lonely hearts seeking the right match, and what Alice, Robin, Lucy, Meg, Tom and David all have in common is the need to learn how to be single. Stars Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Alison Brie and Leslie Mann. (R) 'the hunger games: mockingjay Part 2' As the war of Panem escalates to the destruction of other districts by the Capitol, Katniss Everdeen the reluctant leader of the rebellion must bring together an army against President Snow, while all she holds dear hangs in the balance. Stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth. (PG-13) 'Kung Fu Panda 3' Continuing his "legendary adventures of awesomeness," Po must face two hugely epic, but different threats: one supernatural and the other a little closer to his home. Stars the voices of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie and Dustin Hoffman. (PG) 'THE lady in the van' A man forms an unexpected bond with a transient woman living in her automobile, which is parked in his driveway. Stars Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings and Jim Broadbent. (PG-13) 'norm of the north' Displaced from their Arctic home, a polar bear named Norm and his three lemming friends wind up in New York City, where Norm becomes the mascot of a Corp. he soon learns is tied to the fate of his homeland. Stars the voices of Rob Schneider, Heather Graham and Ken Jeong. (PG) 'race' Jesse Owens' (Stephan James) quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy. (PG-13) 'the revenant' Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a 19th century fur trapper who seeks vengeance against the companions who robbed him and left him for dead following a vicious grizzly bear attack. (R) 'ride along 2' As his wedding day approaches, Ben heads to Miami with his soon-to-be brother-in-law James to bring down a drug dealer who's supplying the dealers of Atlanta with product. Stars Ice Cube, Kevin Hart and Tika Sumpter. (PG-13) 'risen' The epic biblical story of the Resurrection, as told through the eyes of a nonbeliever. Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), a powerful Roman military official, and his aide Lucius (Tom Felton), are tasked with solving the mystery of what happened to Jesus in the weeks following the Crucifixion, to disprove the rumors of a risen Messiah and prevent an uprising in Jerusalem. (PG-13) 'star wars: the force awakens' A continuation of the saga created by George Lucas and set 30 years after the events of "Return of the Jedi" (1983). Stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley. (PG-13) 'the witch' A family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic and possession. Stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie. (R) 'zoolander No. 2' Derek and Hansel are modeling again when an opposing company attempts to take them out from the business. Stars Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Penelope Cruz. (PG-13) SHARE By Staff Report A Kentucky man was sentenced to five years in prison for possession of child pornography during a hearing at U.S. District Court in Evansville on Wednesday. John Thomas Allen, 34, of Harned, was sentenced to 60 months in prison after pleading guilty. The arrest came due to an investigation that began in 2013, spearheaded by the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force and the Evansville Police Department. In November 2013, a task force officer with the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force found downloadable child porn files on a peer sharing network. Investigators obtained a search warrant that led them to Allen's apartment, according to a release from the Department of Justice. Allen admitted to investigators that he was the user of the laptop and disc drive on which files were found. Officials eventually found more than 1,000 previously deleted pornographic images. Some of which included minors younger than 12 taking part in "sadistic or masochistic conduct and other depictions of violence," according to the release. U.S. District Chief Judge Richard L. Young sentenced Allen to 10 years of supervised release following his prison stint. Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Shellenbarger, who prosecuted the case, said Allen must register as a sex offender, can't have contact with minors and must participate in a sex offender treatment program while on supervised release. SHARE Michael Vernon Loveless By Mark Wilson of the Courier and Press A special prosecutor has been requested for the case of an Evansville firefighter facing preliminary charges of rape and battery. Vanderburgh County sheriff's deputies arrested Michael Vernon Loveless, 42, at the home he shares with his girlfriend on the North Side. Loveless is a member of the Evansville Fire Department and is stationed on the North Side. The woman told deputies that an intoxicated Loveless arrived at the home with a family member, threatened her with a handgun and at one point put it to his own head and pulled the trigger, not knowing it was unloaded. In open court during Loveless' initial hearing Wednesday, the alleged victim was identified as a local attorney. A special judge was appointed to conduct the hearing and Prosecutor Nicholas Hermann filed a motion requesting appointment of a special prosecutor as well. Loveless appeared by video from jail. Special Judge Keith Meier, who retired as Warrick Superior Court judge last year, found probable cause for his arrest on the charges. "This is a very atypical type of situation," Meier said. He gave Hermann 72 hours to file formal charges and ordered Loveless to return to court at 10 a.m. Monday. Hermann noted the presence of children during the alleged incident as well as the seriousness of the alleged incident and threats Loveless reportedly made and asked for an order of no contact between Loveless, the alleged victim and her children. He also asked that Loveless be placed on electronic monitoring as a condition of bail. Attorney Marcy Groves appeared in court on behalf of the alleged victim, and asked for a higher-than-normal bond and that the alleged victim and her children be notified if Loveless comes close. "We are very concerned for her safety. We don't think a no-contact order is sufficient to protect her," she said. Meier granted all those requests, ordering that the alleged victim and children be notified if Loveless were to come within 1,000 feet or nearer to them. He set Loveless' bond at $500,000 surety or $50,000 cash. The woman told investigators on Tuesday that she threw the gun out a window while Loveless attempted to load it. Loveless then cut his head and arm with a knife before threatening to kill her with it, according to the woman's statement to deputies. The woman reported being raped during the encounter. "At one point (she) stated for the safety of herself and her children that were in the house, she had intercourse with Loveless as he continually threatened to kill her then himself," a probable cause affidavit reads. The woman told investigators that Loveless allowed her to leave so she could take her three children to school, the release states. There is no indication in the affidavit that the children were physically harmed. Deputies arrived at the residence after speaking with the alleged victim at the command post, and they arrested Loveless without incident while he walked to his car. Evansville Fire Chief Mike Connelly said Loveless is on unpaid administrative leave, per the department's collective bargaining agreement and city and state codes. Connelly said Loveless has been an Evansville firefighter nearly 11 years and is assigned to Station 2 on T.J. Maxx Road. MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS Washington Middle School 8th grade science teacher Joe Newman helps James Hanna, 14 years-old, with a genetics worksheet the class was working on Thursday morning, February 18, 2016. SHARE MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS Washington Middle School science teachers Joe Newman (left) and Brandon Buck use a electronic whiteboard to search education sites for information to support their class plan during their PLC period Thursday morning, February 18, 2016. MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS Washington Middle School eight grade science teacher Joe Newman address his students as they study genetics in class Thursday morning, February 18, 2016. MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS Carson Johnson, 14 years-old, a eight grader at Evansville's Washington Middle School leans on the room's heating and air unit while he works on a science class genetics worksheet. Students were encouraged to work in different areas of the room during class, February 18, 2016. MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS Washington Middle School 8th graders Deysheona Sherman (right) and Katherine Smiddy hold their hands up to answer questions during a class discussion on genetics in science class Thursday morning, February 18, 2016. By James Vaughn of the Courier and Press Joe Newman was preparing students for an upcoming science test last Thursday morning. He asked his eighth-graders questions about inherited and acquired traits for a lesson on heritability. Each time he asked a question, half the class raised their hand to answer, and they answered correctly every time. The students worked together, asking their peers for help on problems they didn't understand. Not a peep was made about anything else. When the bell rang, Newman told the class that any student who didn't understand the material should stay. "If you walk out, you're saying 'Mr. Newman, I know it all,' " he said. The students who had questions stayed behind to ask them. Washington Middle School, a 6-8 grade facility on the city's Southeast Side, hosts 410 students everyday. Of those students, 54 percent are white, 24.6 percent are black, 16 percent are multiracial, 4.4 percent are Hispanic and less than a percent of the population is Asian. Twenty-three percent of students pay for their meals. Despite an eagerness to succeed, teach and learn, Washington is an F school. It just received its sixth consecutive F from the state. Washington, along with Caze Elementary School, was spared from state takeover last month when the Indiana State Board of Education decided to allow the two schools to continue their own improvement efforts. The decision, in part, was thanks to the state's adoption of the "hold harmless" policy, which allowed schools to keep their 2013-14 letter grade if it was better than the 2014-15 grade due to glitches in ISTEP testing, the scores from which determines a school's grade. Now in its second year of turnaround, Washington has another year-and-a-half to bring that F up to a B, and principal Michele Branson is determined to do so. 'MY KIDS ARE WORTH IT' Branson knows turnaround. She should. She took Delaware Elementary School from an F to a B in three years. It is now an A school. She took North Junior High School from an F to a C in one year before the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation placed her at Washington. "Washington has the benefit of the many years of me messing it up," Branson said, "or just me learning from the mistakes that I made and learning from the teachers about what works and what doesn't." Having led multiple turnarounds, Branson knows what's different about Washington. "There has been an eagerness on the staff since the very beginning," Branson said. Because of that, Washington is moving through the turnaround process at a much faster rate. Its goal is a "B in three," she said. "We say it everyday. It's on every form of communication we have. If you ask a student in the hallway or any parent in the building, they would be able to tell you our goal is a 'B in three,' " Branson said. Last year, Branson focused on creating a master teaching schedule that allows teachers who teach the same grade levels and subjects to collaborate with each other. For that, she implemented PLC's, or Professional Learning Communities, in which teachers spend one period a day co-planning assignments and assessments. She also focused on behavior by creating school-wide expectations. This year, the focus is on how teachers teach. "If we are teaching new standards and we're using new assessments, then we have to change the way we teach," Branson said. "We have to update it." Teachers are now assessing students as they go to make sure they're up to speed. The grading scale has also changed. It's not about what grade a student receives anymore it's about whether or not they are "proficient" or "not proficient" in each of the state standards. And if they're not, what can the teachers do to change that? Standards-based grading usually takes two to three years to implement, Branson said. But Washington did it in a year. "What that does for us is it pinpoints, specifically, what does a student know and what do they not know," Branson said. "I was hesitant and I tried to slow the teachers, but they were so passionate about it." Another focus this year is on discipline in the classroom. "When I look at school turnaround, I look at it from the triangle perspective," Branson said. "You have the academic side and you have the behavior side." When those two sides work in harmony, a school reaches its peak, she said. Next year, she hopes all the changes that have been made will come together. "I want to see it for the community," she said. "Because that's the high-five at the end." But there are roadblocks. Just as Washington began the turnaround process, Indiana changed state standards, again. "All of our curriculum maps everything had to be changed and adjusted," Branson said. "On top of that, the ISTEP test changed, so we had to adjust to a new assessment." ISTEP was changed again this year and is expected to be more challenging. Students are preparing to start the test in a couple of weeks despite continued confusion about last year's test. "It was a reality check for a lot of folks and we had to make adjustments," Branson said. "When you're working this hard, to not see those jumps is a challenge. Then you see in the paper, you know, you're an 'F school' again because the state says the test was invalid. They allowed schools to keep last year's grade because they realize there were issues with testing, but that doesn't help me." She wants the community to see the progress that's being made. But more importantly, she wants her students to know they're making progress, she said. "It's frustrating," Branson said, crying. "You're gonna have to give me a minute They're worth it. My kids are worth it. They are worth being at an 'A school,' and nobody wants anything more for them than the people in this building." 'I WANT PEOPLE TO SAY WOW' Mianna Barnes, Shatoya Hickman and Miles Suggs, all 14, all eighth-graders, have been together at Washington for three years. They entered the school as sixth-graders, and in a few months they will graduate and head to Bosse High School. They've witnessed change firsthand, not only in the school, but in themselves. "The behavior has changed a lot since sixth grade," Barnes said. Referrals to the office have dropped significantly. There were 254 referrals last January compared to 56 last month, Branson said. "On the first day of seventh grade, (Branson) said nothing is going to be the way it was," Suggs said. "And she meant it." Now, the students are rewarded for positive behavior. From dances to "Fun Fridays," they know what being on their best behavior means, so they hold each other accountable in the classroom. Two years ago, the students said, the school was filled with drama, fighting and students disrespecting teachers. When those things happened, teachers just sent students to the hallway, they said. No further disciplinary action was taken. "Now, if you even talk back to a teacher, you're being sent down to the office," Suggs said. "There is no such thing as a hallway anymore." They've noticed a change in teaching styles, too. "In sixth grade, I honestly feel like they didn't put much thought into their lesson plan. They basically just said, 'Here's what we're going to do' and threw work at us," Suggs said. "But now they break it down to where you understand it more." Now, the students said, teachers provide them with packets. When it's time for a test, the teachers go through all of the work in the packet to make sure each individual student is prepared. If a student doesn't do as well as they'd like on a test, they can retake it until they are proficient. The students have grown personally as well as a result of the changes. Hickman said in sixth grade she was "childish" and didn't pay attention in class. "Now, I'm all about my grades and worried about high school. I have people here, like them two," she said, pointing to Barnes and Suggs, "who keep me doing what I need to be doing in class." Now, She steers clear of the drama and her teachers refer to her as a model student. All three of their grades have improved over the past three years. They earned F's in sixth grade. Now, they're on honor roll. They know why people think what they think about the school, but they don't think it's fair. "Outside of school, people do kind of throw it at us," Hickman said. "But honestly, I don't feel like we should have a low score because of how really Washington is." "They're not the ones in here putting in this time," Suggs added. "We wouldn't have an 'F,' but the state of Indiana is stupid." "Don't say they're stupid," Barnes said, cutting Suggs off. "Just say they made a stupid decision to give us a test that they couldn't grade. Like, I understand that you want to challenge us, but challenge us when you know you can grade that challenge." They want the community's response to be different. "I want people to say, 'Wow. You go to Washington? That's awesome. That's good," Barnes said. 'YOU BETTER ALL BE ON THE SAME TEAM' Joe Newman and Brandon Buck teach seventh- and eighth-grade science. This is Newman's second year at Washington and Buck's first. The two work side-by-side to plan curriculum. That collaboration is the reason Buck left Lincoln School for Washington. He was the only science teacher at Lincoln. "Sometimes, when I was teaching all grades, I felt like I was stretching myself too thin and I think that's a disservice to the students," Buck said. "But when you have two grades between the two of us, I think it's a lot more efficient and effective. We can make much better lesson plans that way." For the teachers, the progress at Washington is all about that collaboration. For Buck, it's the only real difference. "It doesn't matter where you are," Buck said. "Kids are kids and they're going to respond to how you teach and what the adult expectations are in the building." Newman has been in the classroom for 22 years. "(But) personally, I've been a better teacher in the last two years, and I'm getting better all the time," he said. Things are different at Washington, he said. They have to be. "Brandon has been at another school that was failing. I came from a school that wasn't," said Newman, who transferred to Washington from Central High School. "The staff at Central, of course, wanted to get better. Everybody wanted to get better. We were doing PLC's. We wanted to have a higher letter grade than what it was. But when you have an 'F' grade, you better all be on the same team." As teachers, they hear similar things about Washington from the community. But it doesn't phase them. Their answers are always the same. "When I give them my answer, they kind of just look at me," Newman said. "Because my answer last year is the same as this year: I love it. Good things are happening. We're trying to transform this school." SHARE By Megan Erbacher of the Courier and Press The University of Southern Indiana, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, was built upon "strong community leaders," said Mark Bernhard, USI associate provost for Outreach and Engagement. That's why, Bernhard said, university officials have taken their role as a community partner very seriously. So to highlight partnerships with local individuals, organizations and communities, USI's Outreach and Engagement will host the second Celebration of Engagement from 3-5 p.m. March 1. "Whether it's student experiential learning, faculty conducting applied research, bringing business leaders on campus to provide lectures or other things, we're really looking at ways to have mutually beneficial partnerships that enhance the overall learning experience for, really, everybody," Bernhard said. The Celebration of Engagement is free and open to the public. It will start in the Fireside Lounge in University Center East. Deaconess Health System CEO Linda White will give the keynote address at 3:45 p.m. Guests then move to the second floor of the Performance Center lobby for refreshments. The Dr. M. Edward Jones Engagement Award will also be presented during the event. "It's important to take the time each year to showcase our history as an engaged university and to highlight the successful work we have accomplished in partnership with the community," he said. "Our goal is to enhance our engagement efforts with an eye toward increased excellence in learning." Preregistration is preferred, but not required, at eventbrite.com/e/celebration-of-engagement-tickets-20813860818. SHARE By Zach Osowski, zach.osowski@courierpress.com INDIANAPOLIS The fate of the Regional Cities bill funding a third region is still up in the air after the House Ways and Means Committee heard testimony but did not vote. Chairman Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, said the bill would be rescheduled but did not give a date as to when. If the bill is going to pass before the committee deadline, a vote would need to be taken by Monday at the latest. The committee heard hours of testimony from Indiana Economic Development Commission representatives, and from interested parties in all three regions, including Southwest Indiana. All of them urged the committee to move the bill forward. Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke led off the testimony for the Southwest region, saying there was tremendous momentum in the area because of the Regional Cities announcement. "Our region has been beaming with pride ever since we were selected as one of the three regions to receive state funding," Winnecke said. That funding is still uncertain after the IEDC awarded three winners when the Indiana legislature originally approved money for just two. Several committee members asked IEDC board member John Thompson, who chaired the Strategic Review Committee that made the recommendation, why three were picked. "I feel like we're kind of backed up against a wall," said Rep. Cherrish Pryor, D-Indianapolis. "Because all three are expecting money." Thompson said the committee was so impressed by the presentations from the three winning regions that they wanted to keep the momentum going. That, coupled with the extra money brought in by Gov. Mike Pence's tax amnesty program, led to the third project being awarded. Both Thompson and IEDC member Victor Smith told the committee there was no ranking of the three winners. Thompson said if the bill fails to pass, he would personally like to see the $84 million already allocated go to two regions instead of being split into thirds. Smith told committee members the three regions were aware the funding was contingent on legislative approval. Winnecke said if the Southwest region doesn't get the money, the proposed projects would still move forward, but at a much slower pace. Sussex News Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Recently floated solutions provider Over The Wire has more than doubled its net profit in its first public financial report. For the half-financial year ending 31 December, the Brisbane-headquartered company's net profit hit $1.4 million, up $783,000 from the same half the previous year. Revenue for the six-month period was also up by 45 percent to $11 million. The company offers data centre co-location, hosted services and managed IT service solutions. OTW runs two data centres in Brisbane, with 120 racks in its primary facility. OTWs networking business was still the biggest earner with $4.9 million. This includes OTWs specialty supplying customised session initiation protocol (SIP) voice and WAN solutions. Voice solutions was the biggest in terms of growth, adding an additional 73 percent in revenue to reach $3.5 million. Growth was underpinned by two big acquisitions last year. OTW acquired Gold Coast VoIP provider Faktortel for $5.3 million in July and Brisbane-based data centre and enterprise hosting business Sanity for $3.5 million. OTW attributed the growth in voice solutions to being able to cross-sell into the Faktortel and Sanity client bases. The Faktortel acquisition also allowed OTW to gain a stronger foothold in NSW and Victoria. Managing director Michael Omeros said the company was well-positioned to continue its expansion outside Queensland. We are pleased with the performance of business over the last six months, he said. Together with listing in December 2015 and completing two acquisitions, we have been able to maintain strong organic growth. OTW floated on the ASX in December, offering $10 million of shares at $1 dollar each. Shares were trading at $1.16 at the end of trading on Tuesday 23 February. OTW expects revenue for the entire 2016 financial year to be $22 million, which would be a 36 percent increase. Macquarie Telecom has returned to profit after the collapse of its cloud business Ninefold. The Australian communications and data centre giant reported a $2 million net profit for the half year ending 31 December 2015, compared to the $2.5 million loss from the same time last year. Revenue was also up slightly, going from $95 million to $100.1 million. During the 2015 full year results, MacTel blamed a $4.3 million loss in part to its cloud business Ninefold, an approved federal government supplier of cloud server hosting and virtual servers. Ninefold then announced it was shutting down in November, saying on its website at the time: Significantly more investment is required if we are to make what weve built go to the next level... After an evaluation of the underlying technical platform, much consideration and deep reflection, we have decided not to embark on this journey. Ninefold launched in 2011 as one of the first locally hosted public cloud providers in Australia. It struggled to compete with the likes of cloud giants AWS and Microsoft after they set up their own Australian-hosted services. MacTels pointed out that the overwhelming majority of cloud services are still conducted through the Macquarie Hosting business. The hosting business alone accounted for $32.5 million revenue for the half, up an additional $2 million from last year. The company also sold the land and core building of Sydney data centre Intellicentre 2, which had a carrying value of $43 million. Our commitment to world class customer services has translated into strong customer retention and revenue growth. We are also leveraging our investments in our data centre facilities in Sydney and Canberra to drive profit growth, Macquarie Telecom chief executive David Tudehope said. Given the strong results, MacTel expects the full year earnings depreciation to reduce from $31.3 million to $24-26 million. Shares were up 50 cents from $8.50 to $9 from the end of trading on Tuesday to 11:30am on Wednesday. Just six days after Ingram Micro announced plans to become part of Hainan, China-based HNA Group, the distributor revealed in a filing that its second in command will leave his post. Paul Read will step down Friday as president and chief operating officer of the company after 29 months on the job, according to a document filed Tuesday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Read will remain employed by Ingram Micro until September to assist with the transition, the filing stated. Read was not immediately available for comment. "When Paul came to Ingram [in September 2013], he was looking at succession planning," Damon Wright, Ingram Micro's executive director of investor relations, told CRN USA. "With this deal now and HNA wanting [CEO Alain Monie] to lead the company for some time, it made Paul reevaluate what his future was at Ingram." Wright emphasised that Ingram Micro is not under any pressure to cut executive head count or payroll from Tianjin Tianhai, which announced Wednesday plans to acquire the distributor for US$6 billion. HNA is Tianjin Tianhais largest stockholder. "This was Paul's decision based on Paul's career objectives," Wright said. "This was not HNA coming in and making changes to the management team." Wright said he doesn't see any reason for additional executives to leave Ingram Micro, adding that partners have no reason to be worried. "Executives recognise there's a fantastic opportunity with Ingram Micro," Wright said. But Wright acknowledged that individual leaders will make their own decisions about their post-HNA future with Ingram Micro based on their own career paths and trajectories. Wright said the company doesn't currently have a plan in place for replacing Read, who in his role has been responsible for Ingram Micro's worldwide IT distribution business and the associated logistics support organisations. The distributor's regional leaders, including US chief exec Paul Bay, have reported to Read, while Read has reported directly to Monie. Even after officially relinquishing his title Friday, Read will be available to serve in whatever role Monie needs until September, said Wright, who declined to say whether conversations about Read's departure began before or after the HNA deal was announced. Wright will continue to receive his base salary (which was US$747,115 in 2014), benefits and equity award vesting until he leaves the company in September. If Read signs a general release and departs within six months of a change in who controls Ingram Micro, he will be eligible to receive a severance payment equal to twice his salary and target bonus (which was US$180,000 in 2013 and 2014), a prorated 2016 bonus, one year's worth of health insurance coverage payments, outplacement services and accelerated vesting of outstanding equity awards. Ingram Micros stock was up 0.1 percent in after-hours trading Tuesday, to US$35.75 per share, more than 8 percent below Tianjin Tianhai's offering price of US$38.90 per share. Read's departure was announced after the market closed. This article originally appeared at crn.com Optus has announced its mobile and landline customers can make calls to Fiji for free for the next two weeks. The telco is offering the free calls to allow customers to contact friends and family that may have suffered the consequences of the severe weather at the island nation. Optus customers with a prepaid or post-paid mobile, or home landline will receive free standard voice calls to Fiji from 12:01am AEST Wednesday 24 February until 11:59pm 10 March 2016. Optus alerts though that customers may experience some difficulties as a consequence of the cyclone such as busy tones, recorded voice announcements or calls going straight to voicemail. The announcement came after rival Telstra decided not to charge customers calling Fiji from 5pm 20 February until 5pm on 27 February. Telstra is offering free standard voice calls and texts made from personal post-paid mobiles and fixed lines to Fiji. For Telstras personal pre-paid customers, a refund will be applied by 7 March. Multinational consulting firm Capgemini has announced the expansion of its global AWS service capabilities, including boosting the capabilities of its dedicated migration factories in India. The AWS push, labelled 'Capgemini Cloud Choice with Amazon Web Services', would see the consulting firm "further invest in its dedicated migration factory, leverage AWS technology and develop sector-specific IP solutions hosted on AWS". The Capgemini migration factory for AWS, in Chennai and Bangalore, will support customers migration of enterprise applications to the AWS Cloud, announced Capgemini. AWS worldwide partner ecosystem vice president Terry Wise endorsed Capgeminis plans. We are delighted to be working with Capgemini as they expand their commitment to AWS customers, including a dedicated migration factory, Wise said. With our respective strengths and methodologies, Capgemini and AWS help enterprise customers become more agile in building and migrating applications. Capgemini said that the financial services vertical would be a key goal, as well as asset-intensive industries such as the energy sector. The enhanced migration services would also benefit customers looking to move their SAP systems into the cloud or those considering SAP Hana. The news comes after Accenture and AWS announced a global joint venture at the AWS re:Invent conference in October last year. Capgemini is a AWS premier consulting partner, and has joined forces with the vendor since 2008. Thomas Duryeas chief technology officer Rhys Evans has departed the solutions provider to join National Australia Bank. Evans, who is now delivery manager at NAB Labs, told CRN that he resigned just before Logicalis acquisition of Thomas Duryea was revealed in December. I wanted to peruse new and interesting ideas - so what better place than a startup within a bank, said Evans. Thomas Duryea chief executive Andrew Thomas said that an internal search is currently on to fill the CTO vacancy, while paying tribute to Evans six years with the company. We're proud of how far he progressed at TD, starting life as an SA, promoted to practice manager, then to CTO, Thomas told CRN. His new role seems a perfect fit for his passions combining consumer and enterprise IT. NAB Labs is a unit within the giant financial institution that invests and researches into new technology ventures and other emerging areas. Last July, NAB Labs announced it would allocate $50 million over three years to invest in innovative businesses in Australia and overseas. Evans declined to discuss his work with his new employer, telling CRN: I'm not allowed to talk on behalf of the bank or specifically what we are doing. Even before joining Thomas Duryea in 2009, Evans was a channel veteran, having worked for Ethan Group, PKBA (now Anittel) and Invizage after graduating from RMIT University with a maths degree. Dicker Data has purchased 17 hectares of land adjacent to its current facility in the southern Sydney suburb of Kurnell for $18 million. The company announced that the value, which excludes GST, is subject to future agreed adjustments. The purchase will be funded from a combination of existing cash and a draw-down on the receivables facility. Negotiations started in 30 October 2015 when Dicker Data exchanged conditional contracts to acquire the 172,060 square metre property at 238-258 Captain Cook Drive. Chief executive David Dicker said the plans are to build a new facility to have all staff in the same office and expand warehousing capacity. "We are particularly pleased that weve been able to secure the property adjacent to our current facility. As our operation continues to grow we believe that this new land will give us the capacity we need to maintain the strong growth trajectory weve been on," he said. Within the purchased land there is 10 hectares of useable space, according to Dicker Data. Following the distributor's expansion, any land in excess may be subdivided and sold. In this month's HPE distribution changes, Dicker Data was one of the winning disties, gaining access to the combined HPE and Aruba portfolio. News VMware NSX Chief Casado Departs For Job At VC Firm, Says Dell-EMC Turmoil Wasn't A Factor Kevin McLaughlin Share this Martin Casado, VMware's top software-defined networking executive, dropped a bombshell Wednesday by revealing that he's leaving the company to join venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. VMware said Wednesday it has hired former Broadcom executive Rajiv Ramaswami to replace Casado as general manager and executive vice president of its Networking and Security business. Ramaswami has spent the past six years at Broadcom, and has previously held executive roles at Cisco Systems and IBM. Casado said in a blog post that he'll be joining Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Park, Calif., as a general partner starting April 1. He said he'll continue working with VMware as an external strategic adviser. [Related: VMware Says NSX Software-Defined Networking Sales Catching Fire, But Partners Want Less Expensive Versions] "So, there it is. I am becoming a VC," Casado said in the blog post. Casado's departure comes during a tumultuous period for VMware, which is seen as the centerpiece of Dell's $67 billion bid to acquire parent company EMC. VMware shares are down nearly 40 percent since the deal was announced in October. In an interview with Re/code, which was first to report on Casado's departure, he insisted that the Dell-EMC turmoil wasn't a factor in his decision to leave. Casado has spearheaded efforts to pitch VMware's SDN technology, called NSX, as a network security technology. That appears to be paying off, as VMware said last month that NSX is on a $600 million bookings run rate, compared with $200 million at this time last year. While Casado is one of the most well-respected executives in the tech industry, his departure won't dim the prospects for NSX, said Bill Schell, president of August Schell, a Rockville, Md.-based VMware partner. "The product is solid and the future remains brilliant," Schell told CRN. "Our deployments are going extremely well and our opportunities for new implementations are accelerating." Andreessen Horowitz was an early investor in Nicira, the SDN startup Casado co-founded and which VMware acquired for $1.2 billion in 2012. Before Nicira, Casado was a researcher at Stanford University and created the OpenFlow protocol, a key enabling technology for SDN. Casado said in the blog post that Andreessen Horowitz approached him about becoming a general partner focused on the enterprise space, an offer he found too enticing to refuse. "Given my familiarity and history with the firm, and how rare these opportunities are, I knew this was my chance. So I accepted," he said in the blog post. Sorry... ..An error has occured: If you have any queries about this error, try emailing feedback@mirror.co.uk and we'll do what we can to help you. ZID:308457493 Carnival Cruise Line has postponed its entry into China by nearly a year, pushing the start-up of the Miracle from spring 2017 to early 2018. Carnival issued the following statement: Following a recent review of our fleetwide deployment plans over the next few years and the best formula for balancing capacity needs, we have decided to enter the Chinese market in early 2018 and remain excited about expanding our operations to this part of the world. Carnival Miracle, which was originally scheduled to begin service in China in spring 2017, will now continue to operate Mexican Riviera and Hawaii cruises throughout 2017 and will be repositioned to China in early 2018. It is unknown whether AIDA is also postponing its market entry or whether Costa is pushing its newbuilds back, in light of the significant capacity increases planned for China and the reported price pressure from 2015 and going into 2016. At press time, Carnival Corporation had not yet responded to a request for comment. According to Cruise Industry News estimates, passenger capacity in China will be up 70 percent in 2016, following a 60 percent increase in 2015 over 2014. A further 37.2 percent capacity increase is projected for 2017. Without the Carnival Miracle, the 2017 capacity increase is estimated at 32.8 percent. The U.S. Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston is completing an exercise in the area with a simulated Hurricane Ike level storm making a direct impact, coordinating emergency response operations with multiple agencies and industry partners. The exercise is simulating severe damage to infrastructure in the Houston Ship Channel, several life-saving emergencies, oil and chemical releases, wildlife impacts and more after the Category 3 hurricane made landfall. According to the Coast Guard, the exercise controllers are injecting obstacles throughout the drill to see how the players rely on one another to collaborate across agency and industry lines to come up with innovative ways to overcome obstacles for the safety of people on the water and the safety of the environment. Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston is hosting the two-day full scale exercise with five other federal agencies, nine state agencies, six local agencies and nine industry partners. The exercise design team hopes the drill will increase communication throughout the region, which will decrease duplication of effort and make response to real disasters a more efficient process. The exercise will also familiarize everyone with the emergency response plans and give players experience for qualification in different positions. The debate between Apple and the FBI has become a major national public issue. The key component missing from this debate is the economic impact to US corporations and the US economy. The FBI versus Apple debate is about data at rest. We should not forget that the US government to local law enforcement agencies can already capture data in flight with our mobile devices. For instance, it has been well publicized that Harris Corporation makes a surveillance technology device called StingRay that can intercept your location, who you are calling, can record your conversation and capture SMS text messages. The StingRay will simulate cell phone towers into tricking nearby mobile phones into connecting to them and revealing your private information whether you are a terrorist or not. Your data and mobile phone device information are going through this StingRay device and being stored for analysis with thousands of other mobile phone users. The StingRay technology can cost upwards of $400,000, but the US federal government funds most of the purchases, via anti-terror grants. If the StingRay is not capturing data in your area, your cell phone provider (Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, etc.) is required by law to track every single phone call you make/receive and the duration of the call including your location data. In addition, your text message content may be retained depending on provider, including pictures, IP information, payment history, and service applications on your mobile device. The image above shows which states are using cell phone surveillance technology. Lets set aside the FBI versus Apple debate and look at a broader economic picture. What we do know is the US government is asking Apple to fully cooperate with an ongoing terrorist investigation and is alluding to some type of a backdoor to allow the US government to access data at rest for Apple mobile devices and possibly other criminal cases as indicated by the NY Attorney General. Apple is a US-based company. The US government could force Apple to have a backdoor under the guise of matter of national security and permit the US government to access Apple devices at will. If this did happen, this could be a financial disaster for US corporations selling any type of device that contains encryption technology. If we look at other mobile devices, such as BlackBerry, this is a Canadian company and the CEO has gone to battle with the Pakistani government refusing to handover its encryption technology using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) for mobile devices. The Pakistani government wanted to decrypt the encrypted communications between a BlackBerry mobile device and BES to read contacts, email, text messages, applications, social media, pictures, etc. on a mobile device to fight and investigate terrorism. The CEO of BlackBerry refused to cooperate and was going to shut down BlackBerry operations in Pakistan. BlackBerry stood its ground and won a victory with the Pakistani government as the government rescinded its shutdown order. The Pakistani government came to terms that if BlackBerry was forced to leave the country, the move would have affected thousands of enterprise customers in the country and cause a negative financial impact. When we look at other mobile phone makers, Apple is the only mobile phone manufacturer in the United States. Other phone manufacturers are mostly based out of Korea, China, and Canada. If the US government is going to force a backdoor on Apple devices, then to be fair, they should be enforcing a backdoor on other mobile phone devices as well. We know the US government would not be successful forcing China to install a backdoor on all of the mobile devices made in China and expose its citizens and government officials to the US government. This puts Apple in a very unfair competitive situation where BlackBerry, Samsung, LG and other mobile device makers would thrive at the demise of Apple because they are headquartered outside the USA. [ MORE: Apple's lawyers release list of other iOS devices waiting for backdoors ] Right now, if the US government forces Apple to have a backdoor, Apple may become the most shorted stock in US history as other mobile device makers outside of the US will thrive. The US government would have to convince foreign country governments to install backdoors that would expose mobile devices to unfriendly governments and hackers. We know the US government would not be successful at this request as this flies in the face of capitalism. Imagine if Apple was forced to have a backdoor in its software as the US government tries to use the terrorism threat to strong arm tech companies into providing backdoor access to its devices. Would this also happen for other US tech companies such as RSA, Microsoft, Cisco, Google, Symantec, Oracle, Facebook, Palo Alto Networks, HP, IBM, Hitachi, Computer Associates, etc. that make encryption software and technologies? The US government needs to be more practical and pragmatic at considering the financial consequences and business impact it would have to start installing backdoors into successful mainstream US made encryption technology. US corporations would lose significant global market share for trying to sell its products in foreign markets, because what foreign company would want to risk their intellectual property to a product that contains a backdoor. The US government would place a foreign corporation in jeopardy if the decryption passcode was ever lost in addition to allowing the US government to spy on a foreign corporation and would be exposed to hackers. These foreign companies would seek other companies that sell tech products that dont have backdoors, because they need privacy and security for the product/service that they are producing. [ MORE ON THE DEBATE: Many unanswered questions in Apple-FBI controversy ] The US government is struggling just like the private sector with record security breaches in all major branches of the US government. How could US corporations place all of its investment eggs in one basket hoping nothing bad would ever happen with the decryption passcode being lost or misplaced with a US government agency? Why would US corporations want to expose themselves to the rest of the world with hackers always trying to break into their products? Having a backdoor in US based encrypted products would allow technology savvy terrorist organizations to continuously attack a product that could expose the data of thousands of US companies and create massive security breaches on an exponential scale. This could hurt the overall US economy. Lets say the US government gets its way and mandates backdoors for every encryption technology product made in the USA. What if the US government agency lost or misplaced the decryption passcode. This could destroy a US corporation if the backdoor decryption passcode was lost. Is the US government going to be responsible and accountable for the major financial losses and the workers that get laid off? What is the US government going to do for the company they just financially destroyed and the fallout for the impacted companies that just had their sensitive data exposed? Is their immunity or a safe harbor for all the impacted US companies? A compromise may be in order. As an Air Force veteran, we all want to fight terrorism on a domestic and global level. We will have situations where the US government will need to solve terrorist attacks within the USA and abroad. Just saying no to assist our US government to prevent and solve terrorism is not a solution. While the idea of having a backdoor and having a master key has been discussed by many, this solution can cause severe economic harm to a company as it is not a practical solution. This is the solution I propose using mobile devices as an example: 1. Modify existing algorithms (AES256 or Triple DES) to create a random key for each unique mobile device, whereby a separate encryption key is installed only on one device. No more master encryption key for every device which can expose every device. 2. The encryption key that is stored on a device can be easily read. For instance, the encryption key can be the device serial number imprinted on the device and displayed by default on the main PIN entry screen. 3. For Part 1 of the decryption method--The device serial number can be reverse engineered with a special algorithm (held with the device manufacturer i.e. Apple) to determine the device encryption key. Once the encryption key is determined, the encryption key value will need to go through a second algorithm to determine the first half of the encryption key that can only partially unlock one device. The second part of the encryption key will need to be decrypted by the US government and requires two independent parties to complete the entire process. The manufacturer is in full control of the decryption process. 4. For Part 2 of the decryption methodThe device manufacturer will provide the US government agency the encryption key and the first half of the decrypted key using tamper-proof encrypted communications to share this sensitive information. The device manufacturer will provide the US government a provided algorithm to decrypt the second half of the encryption key to have the full decrypted key value to enter the device and read the contents at rest. The US government agency can only unlock one device at a time. The US government would not be able to unlock a device without the manufacturer initiating the decryption process. The benefits to the aforementioned decryption process is to comply with the US Constitution, respect the privacy of US citizens by only unlocking one device at a time and not on a mass scale, and to protect the manufacturer from catastrophic financial loses and erosion of its customer base. There will be no exposed backdoors for hackers or terrorist groups to attack since only one mobile device can be attacked at a time. In addition, this method could support other foreign governments and not just the US government alone. The device manufacturer can determine if they want to support or decline government requests to view the contents of its customer devices to ensure proper due diligence is being performed to protect its customers from government overreach. This will be a cooperative process to fight terrorism, but also respect the privacy and security of US citizens and the financial viability of US corporations. Bottom line, the US government needs to rethink its encryption backdoor strategy, because the US government is playing with billions of dollars and thousands of jobs that could adversely impact the US economy if they make a single mistake. If we stop and think about the consequences if Apple was forced to install a backdoor into its software code and if the US government lost the decryption passcode, this single action could destroy an innovative multi-billion dollar global corporation at the expense of a single mistake. If Apple is hypothetically forced to install a backdoor into its software code, you can bet Apple will relocate its headquarters outside the US and kill thousands of jobs in the US. It is time to compromise with a better solution and stop rolling the dice with the thought of using a backdoor with this modern day dilemma. Note: Special thanks to Dr. Mansur Hasib author of Cybersecurity Leadership: Powering the Modern Organization for peer review. Within the last few weeks, four organizations have confirmed Phishing attacks targeting employee data. In three of those cases the attacks were successful, leading to breach notifications. One of the targeted firms was a security company, and luckily the attack failed. Spear Phishing is a targeted Phishing attack, but one variant of a Spear Phishing attack has spiked in popularity over the last year or so. It's called BEC, or Business Email Compromise. It's a Phishing attack that targets businesses, and uses corporate email as the attack path. BEC attacks are personal, rarely automated, and when messages are exchanged it's the attacker talking on the other side. If done right, the victim will never know something's wrong until it's too late. The attacker spoofs the look of a legit company email (including email address, Outlook images, etc.) and impersonates someone in a position of power. The leverage is fear, because most employees don't want to deny a request form the CEO. Sometimes, a key email account is compromised directly and used to stage a BEC attack. BEC attacks aren't rushed, and thanks to social media and basic website design, most attackers can get the profiling data needed just by casually browsing LinkedIn and the corporate website. In a report set for release tomorrow, PhishLabs said the number of organizations targeted with BEC attacks grew tremendously in 2015 as attackers refined their techniques and sought new victims. In all, 22 percent of Spear Phishing attacks the company analyzed in 2015 were motivated by financial fraud or related crimes. "BEC attacks target smaller more nimble organizations, where exceptions to standard accounting processes are more likely to be made based on personal requests from members of the executive team. Analysis of attack indicators shows that in most cases, targeting requires very little effort. BEC attackers appear to glean the information they need from readily-available public sources and business networking sites," the report explains. There have been four public disclosures of BEC attacks in the last few weeks, and only one of them was a failure. In each case, the attacker was targeting employee data, and the presumption is that the compromised records are part of a larger scheme to commit tax fraud. The first confirmed attack is Magnolia Health Corporation in California. As reported earlier this morning on Salted Hash: On February 3, 2016 someone impersonated Magnolia's CEO (Kenny Moyle) by sending a spoofed email. The email appeared to have the proper address, naming scheme, and by all accounts looked legitimate. The forged email requested personal information for all active employees of Magnolia and each of the facilities managed by them, including Twin Oaks Assisted Living, Inc., Twin Oaks Rehabilitation And Nursing Center, Inc., Porterville Convalescent, Inc., Kaweah Manor, Inc. and Merritt Manor, Inc. The Phishing attack was successful, and the attacker walked away with an Excel spreadsheet containing employee number, full name, address (city, state, zip) sex, date of birth, Social Security Number, hire date, seniority date, salary/hourly status, salary/rate, department, job title, last date paid, and assigned facility. The attack wasn't discovered until February 10. The second attack also happened on February 3. BrightView, a company formed after Brickman Group and ValleyCrest Companies merged their landscaping businesses in 2014, issued breach notifications employees in California. The notice reported that a Phishing email led to the compromise of full names, job title and division, employee ID, hourly rate, current work status, last paid date, annual salary, home address, date of birth, and Social Security Number. The attack was discovered 24-hours later on February 4. The third attack happened on February 5. Polycom, the communications company that is known for their video and telephone conferencing offerings, disclosed a Phishing attack that targeted employee data. The attack was successful and compromised names, addresses, date of birth, Social Security Number, and salary information. The fourth attack this month failed. First reported by journalist Brian Krebs, the CEO of KnowBe4 a security company that deals with awareness training against Phishing and Social Engineering reported that he was impersonated, and that the attacker attempted to get the company's new CFO to turn-over W2 information. Given the business that KnowBe4 is in, awareness training is what prevented disaster in this case. The email and request just didn't feel right. PhishLabs One thing KnowBe4 mentioned in a press release on the incident is that the attackers used a compromised GoDaddy server to send their email. This fact was also observed by PhishLabs, and marked as a new development in BEC cases. Earlier this month, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said they've received 896,000 of fraudulent tax-related contacts since October 2013. In addition, the report noted that more than 5,000 victims who have collectively paid over $26.5 million due to fake tax collection and IRS impersonation scams. Records like those compromised by the attacks reported this month are all a criminal needs to commit tax fraud. According to the FTC, tax refund fraud is their largest and fastest growing ID theft category. The U.S. Congress should allow an expert commission to recommend ways to resolve the contentious debate over police access to encrypted communications before passing "knee-jerk" legislation, one lawmaker said. Even as Apple and the FBI fight in court over access to a terrorist suspect's iPhone, a 9/11 Commission-style digital security panel should try to find a compromise between smartphone users' privacy and law enforcement access to encrypted devices, Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, said Wednesday. [ ALSO ON CSO: The economics of backdoors ] "Given the complexities of this issue, there's no legislative, knee-jerk response that will solve this problem," McCaul, chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said during a forum hosted by think tank the Bipartisan Policy Center. "This is an urgent issue, and I believe [a commission] is the best vehicle." McCaul declined to comment on a legislative proposal, not yet introduced as a bill, that would require Apple and other tech vendors to help law enforcement agencies break into encrypted devices. He hasn't yet seen the full plan from leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he said. Still, any proposal to enforce police wiretap-style rules on encrypted devices wouldn't work, McCaul said, because such a regulation would introduce insecure "back doors." McCaul and Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat and Senate Intelligence Committee member, plan to introduce a bill to establish their proposed digital security and encryption commission. The 16-member commission would include law enforcement leaders, privacy advocates, encryption experts, tech industry representatives and other groups, the two lawmakers said. The lawmakers would expect the commission to produce recommendations in about a year, they said. Both sides in the encryption debate are dug in, with the FBI, Obama administration and other law enforcement agencies pitted against many technology vendors, privacy groups and cybersecurity experts. In late 2014, FBI Director James Comey began raising concerns that investigations are "going dark" because of new encryption services on smartphones. A commission would give all sides room to look at the issue again and seek alternatives, the two lawmakers said. Even though many commissions don't produce work that leads to solutions, "this could be a case where we prove the pundits wrong," Warner said. It's a complex issue that needs more debate, Warner added. Many law enforcement and intelligence officials acknowledge that "encryption is here to stay, and it protects Americans' personal information, financial information, intellectual capital," he said. "This genie's not going to be put back into the bottle." Four cybersecurity experts speaking after Warner and McCaul agreed that a commission is a good idea. A commission debate could help separate hype from fact and educate the public about the issue, they said. A commission could offer a "more pragmatic approach" than the current encryption debate, said Susan Hennessey, a national security fellow at the Brookings Institution and former National Security Agency lawyer. "Getting people in a room who are willing to, as a matter of first principle, believe there might be a solution, represents a step forward." But a presidential panel already voiced strong support for end-to-end encryption in 2013, noted Michael German, a former FBI agent who's now a fellow in the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program. The FBI and other government agencies have "not heeded these recommendations," he said. The government wants digital technologies to build in more access to information than it demands from other products, German added. "We don't require the people who manufacture paper shredders to have a chip that records and scans that document so it's recoverable," he said. "The piece of technology that has destroyed more evidence than any other ... is the flush toilet, and yet we realize the benefits of indoor plumbing to our society outweigh the fact that certain evidence is going to be beyond the government's reach." When I was a kid growing up on Montreal, every now and again a door to door salesman would knock on the door. My parents would roll their eyes and chase the interlopers away. Sometimes they would be selling encyclopaedias (remember them, no? never mind), other times knives and even vacuum cleaners. But, once in a blue moon there was an insurance salesman. I would sit in the living room and listen to the conversation. It always fascinated me as a child that people would engage in this sort of business. Years later, I get it now. Insurance makes sense. But, back then it was a curious thing to me. Now, the curious aspect has returned. As I prepare for the onslaught that is the RSA Conference next week in San Francisco I wondered if this will be the prevailing theme for the conference. Or is it just too early for that to be hitting mass adoption just yet? I guess we shall see. When you experience a website breach you find new levels of despair at first. You feel violated and then you get over it. You clean up the mess and move on. Well, that is if you are able to move on. The curious question is, how much damage was done? Was the information of your one million plus customer base splashed across the Internet? Thats the type of damage that could possibly end a company. Enter, the cyber insurance play. This is an insurance product family that is meant to protect companies from Internet based risks. My curiosity rises up around this subject. I wonder how they can validate that a company has taken the necessary steps to prove they were diligent in protecting their assets? I would imagine that the bar is set rather high otherwise insurance companies will be paying out at an alarming pace based on recent news headlines. I did a search on one insurance company's website to see what sort of forms they had. When I performed a search I came up with with a check list of the security controls they were expecting. Malware protection, password controls, usage policies, IDS systems, backups and so forth. All pretty standard fare. The part that grabbed me was that they wanted to know the companies attack history for the last few years. If history has taught us anything it is that most firms have little visibility into how often or how they have been attacked. When the insurance company questionnaire wanted to know how quickly a company had detected an attack, between 15 minutes and and hour, I actually laughed aloud. On average it seems that companies have a good 200 days before they detect a breach. So much for passing that part of the application. Now, where is your company headquartered? This is going to play into the type of coverage youre able to get. Example, Europe vs North America. No surprise there but, it needed to be said. The need to have coverage for breaches is rising with every passing day. It is getting more expensive all the time. According to a PWC survey it seems that at least 59% of respondents to their survey are incorporating cyber-insurance into their battle plans. Just from my initial examination of the market space it seems that there is a lot of ground to cover yet. But, the need for cyber-insurance seems self evident. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate When orthopedic surgeon Dr. F. Scott Gray has a particularly complex reconstructive surgery, in addition to reviewing the patients MRI and CAT scans, he might employ a three-dimensional printer to make a model that allows him to gauge the best approach. For certain things we do, MRI and CAT scans are wonderful. But with 3D anatomy, theres nothing like holding it in your hands, said Gray, a 60-year-old Ridgefield resident. He said the benefits of having a 3D model include allowing him to practice the procedure in advance, reducing the surgical time, planning the incision more accurately and diminishing the risk of patient infection. Most of what I do doesnt require a 3D printer, but Im glad I know how to use it, Gray said. Technology enthusiasts in Fairfield County have long enjoyed the possibilities for 3D printers that create solid objects from a digital file. As the machines moved from patented heavy industrial use to a wider and more-affordable tinkerer and hobbyist base, opportunities are now seen beyond 3D Star Wars figures as small businesses create prototypes for products to sell or show to potential investors. The strength of 3D printing ability is to get the idea out quick and getting it tested, said Vladimir Mariano, co-founder and president of the Fairfield County Makers Guild (FCMG). No matter what the idea ... in a few hours you are holding it in your hands. Compare that to going to a production facility and waiting weeks or months to get it back. The iterations are much faster. The makers guild is a nonprofit, community-operated workspace in Norwalk with tools and technology to help turn concepts into physical objects. Mariano, a 34-year-old Norwalk resident, said FCMG members projects range from the practical to artistic including a drain filter and a cell phone clip for cars. Its both people solving problems and people trying to make things for a business. As for cost, Mariano said the printer filament is almost a non-issue. The time is hours to wait for one print to complete. If you know how to design, youre a lot better off. Mark Mathias, career technologist and the founder of Westport Mini Maker Faire, sees a 3D printer as a catalyst for new ideas. Mathias, who owns three 3D printers, expects more than 10,000 participants to attend the fifth annual Westport Mini Maker Faire on April 30 at the Westport Library. Its no longer a novelty. Its 3D printing 2.0, putting things to practical use, Mathias said. Orlando Fonseco, a 39-year-old Westport resident who with friends developed a Chumbobb fishing product using a 3D printer at the library, cited cost and a fast turnaround as the reasons why they chose 3D printing. Molds cost thousands of dollars and take months to create. After many trials and errors, we are currently on version number seven. Financially, there was no way we would've gotten to this point without the capability of 3D printing. 3D printers allow anyone to design, manufacture and refine prototypes at their own pace." Game changer Peter Gioia, economist at Connecticut Business & Industry Association in Hartford, calls 3D printing a game changer for Connecticut businesses and forecasts that any company in the realm of manufacturing will have one. Entrepreneurs can create 3D prototypes at commercial printers. There are also 3D printers at Stamford Innovation Center, Fairfield Universitys new entrepreneurship incubator space in downtown Fairfield, University of Bridgeports engineering incubator space and some local public libraries including in Norwalk and Westport. As for how local universities and small businesses can work better together on 3D printing and projects, Tarek Sobh, University of Bridgeports dean of the school of engineering, noted his school already makes its 3D printer center available to local industries and government agencies and its incubator space is home to five startups with printer access. A possibility for the future is to send printer requests online, but Sobh noted the schools 3D printers are already heavily used. As for how far the 3D printer can go, it might be like the Star Trek episode Trouble with Tribbles, where the fictional alien species quickly multiples. Case in point: Mariano of FCMG built two 3D printers himself one of which includes parts made on a 3D printer. Betty Wong is a Greenwich-based freelance journalist. bettymwong@gmail.com BRIDGEPORT - A Stratford mom, who was arrested after she showed up at her daughters school with a handgun, was granted special probation Wednesday. Following a brief hearing Superior Court Judge Earl Richards granted accelerated rehabilitation to 37-year-old Elizabeth Vargas. Based upon the facts of this case, it is unfortunate that an arrest was even made, Vargas lawyer, John Drapp III, said later. Ms. Vargas is looking forward to putting this ordeal behind her. Under accelerated rehabilitation, a program for nonviolent offenders, Vargas did not plead guilty to the charge against her of possession of a weapon on school grounds but was placed on 18 months of probation. If she commits no other crime during that probation the charge against her will be dismissed. State prosecutors did not object to Vargas getting accelerated rehabilitation and the judge found there is little likelihood she will offend again. Vargas, of Weibe Avenue, had a permit for the .380-caliber pistol, police said. Police said shortly before 9 a.m. on Jan. 20, they were contacted by the assistant principal at Wooster Middle School, Jim Singletary, that a parent who was picking up her daughter was carrying a gun on her waistband. Officers immediately escorted Vargas outside the school and once outside, Vargas surrendered the gun and her permit. Police said the gun was unloaded. Vargas stated she was on her way to pick up her brother to go to the shooting range when she received a phone call from Singletary, police said. Singletary told her to come to the school to pick up her daughter because she was involved in a fight. Vargas stated she immediately went to the schools office and had signed in when Singletary confronted her, police said. I explained to Vargas the seriousness of carrying a weapon on school grounds, police said Singletary told them later. The issue: Should the manufacturer of the AR-15 Bushmaster rifle used in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School killings be held liable for putting such a deadly weapon into a civilian martketplace? Maybe. Maybe not. Whats incontrovertible, though, is that the question is a fair one and one that should get an airing in a court of law. A coalition of the families of Sandy Hook victims have sued Remington, the manufacturer of the weapon; the company that distributes the gun on Remingtons behalf; and the now-defunct Riverview Sales Inc., of East Windsor, which sold the gun to Nancy Lanza, mother of Adam Lanza, who went on to perpetrate the horror that left his mother, 20 first-graders and six educators dead on Dec. 14, 2012. The manufacturer claims it is exempt under a 2005 law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), that protects the gun industry from most but not all liability suits. What we wrote: The PLCAA needs, if not repeal, a major overhaul. A gun manufacturer certainly cannot be held responsible for every gun death that occurs in America, but in many cases, victims should have their day in court... Letting a suit go forward is not a guaranteed judgment against a gun manufacturer. The suit will be won or lost on the merits of the case. Editorial, Feb. 5, 2016 Where it stands: During a three-hour hearing in Bridgeport Superior Court on Monday, Judge Barbara Bellis listened to arguments from the lawyers representing the Sandy Hook families and those representing the defendants. The purpose of Tuesdays hearing was for the judge to hear arguments about whether the lawsuit should go before a jury or, as the defendants argued, should be tossed out because the defendants are exempt from liability under terms of a 2005 law that protects the gun industry from most but not all liability suits. One of the exceptions in the PLCAA is the concept of negligent entrustment. Plaintiffs in this case maintain that Remington was essentially negligent in turning a military-style weapon loose on a commercial market. Judge Bellis continued the case until April 17, at which time she said she will issue a decision on whether the lawsuit can go to trial. Where we stand: As mentioned above, the suit will be won or lost on the merits of the case and the strengths and weakness of the parties arguments. A robust discussion is under way not only in Connecticut but around the country on the issue of gun safety. We need more airing of concerns and facts on all sides of the issue, not less. We encourage Judge Bellis to let this matter move forward and contribute to this important dialogue. 'Joe Biden can have them': Mastriano vows to bus migrants to Delaware Leesburg Electric: With prices soaring, late fees are being waived Prices are up, so Leesburg Electric has decided that, as of Oct. 1, late fees will be waived. Yo Gotti, Modest Mouse and Weezer are a few of the top performers who will be on stage during Memphis in Mayas Beale Street Music Festival. The 2016 Beale Street Music Festival marks the 40th anniversary of the festival held at Riverfront Park overlooking the Mississippi River only a few feet from Beale Street. aWeezer! Are you serious? That is awesome!a U of M freshman Jacob Feld said upon seeing the festival lineup. aI love live music, and music is a passion of mine. It is a lot of fun to be in a setting like that to see live music and so much live music in a three-day time period.a The festival will be from April 29 to May 1 with ticket prices for a single day at $45, three-day passes at $105 and VIP experience three-day passes ranging from $595 to $695. Feld felt this yearas lineup is pretty solid, although previous years had better performing acts. He thought festival curators missed out in signing a local band to perform at the fest. aChinese Connection Dub Embassy, they have been playing in Memphis and in thegreater Memphis area,a Feld said. aThey are an amazing reggae band that flow and play well together. I have seen them at Cooper Young Fest; I have seen them at Brister Fest. I would recommend adding them to the festival line up.a Psychology major Raychelle Alexander has not been able to attend the festival in the past due to money but said this year it will be no problem. aI love pop and rock music,a the senior said. aI have not had the money in previous years to go, but I do now. Weezer, Trina and Panic! At the Disco: I want to see them all.a Having grown up listening to Paul Simon, senior international business major David Fenster will be attending the festival just to see Simon perform. aI really liked Paul Simon,a he said. aMy dad is a big Paul Simon fan as well as Simon and Garfunkel. He is a good artist.a Senior Chris Sledge attended the festival for the first time last year when a friend gave him a free ticket. aI did not know anyone performing last year, but I went since I had a free ticket,a the sports management major said. Sledge enjoyed his time at the festival last year, but he will not be going this time unless someone gives him another free ticket. aIf there was more urban music to my liking, I would pay the $45 and go,a Sledge said. aIf they get Future, I would go.a Lifestyle | Daily Life | News | The Sydney Morning Herald Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later. Dismiss Peter Vicary-Smith, who has been running consumer association Which? since 2004, is to receive a bumper pay package of 819,000 in the year to June The consumer associations magazine Which? is extremely useful. It is produced by a charity which receives annual tax breaks worth 2 million. So it is very surprising to learn that its chief executive is to receive a bumper pay package of 819,000 in the year to June. The staggering remuneration of Peter Vicary-Smith, who has been running Which? since 2004, has been pumped up by bonuses and incentives. It probably makes him the highest paid boss in the charitable sector. Mr Vicary-Smith is in many ways a typical modern charity chief executive. He is a former employee of McKinsey, a management consultant company. He worked in the private sector for several years before doing stints at Oxfam and Cancer Relief UK, and then joining Which? Many charity bosses are no longer low-paid idealists who spend their lives working for one or two charities. They flit between the charitable and private sectors. And if they end up as chief executives of charities, they are likely to be paid amounts which some people will think obscene. According to one survey, more than 1,000 charity chiefs are paid six-figure salaries by voluntary organisations that are dependent on donations, endowments or public funding. At the top of the pile are people such as Mr Vicary-Smith, who work for charities which have other sources of revenue than personal donations. Other examples include Philip Sugarman, the outgoing boss of St Andrews Healthcare, who trousered 751,000 a year, and Professor Jeremy Farrar, who runs the Wellcome Trust and takes an annual 405,000. But there are plenty of chief executives of charities partly dependent on personal donations who are paid very large sums. Justin Forsyth, a former Labour strategist who has just stepped down as chief executive of Save the Children, was paid at least 160,000 a year. Stuart Earley, the head of the Scottish SPCA (which looks after the welfare of animals north of the border) receives 216,000 a year. He has pointed out in his defence that he does not get the same perks as David Cameron, who, however, is paid only 142,000 a year. Over in America, David Miliband, brother of Ed and former Blairite shooting star, pockets an annual 407,000 as head of the International Rescue Committee, which is far more than he ever earned as a Cabinet minister. In 2015, his organisation received a share of a 3 million grant from our own lavish Department for International Development. Doubtless, all these gentlemen, and others like them, would claim that they are paid the market rate. I suspect this may be true in some instances, but not in others. In either event, most people who give to charities dont want a sizeable chunk of their donation to end up lining some chief executives wallet. Shouldnt charity bosses be paid less than their counterparts in the private sector by virtue of the job they do? When they are trying to raise money for the poor and destitute, it cant be right for these people to behave like fat cats. Isnt the problem today that too many charities regard themselves as businesses? But if a charity is just a business, the bosses in charge will expect to be paid as though they have their noses in a private sector trough. The notion of working for modest recompense for a cause that you care passionately about is considered quaintly old-fashioned. Yet there are still people in some walks of life who do not expect to be rewarded handsomely for doing good. A bishop in the Church of England will be fortunate to get 50,000 a year, and a vicar a modest 25,000, though in both cases, admittedly, they are given free housing. David Miliband pockets an annual 407,000 as head of the International Rescue Committee The point is that because they have a calling, these clerics are prepared to put up with low pay and a pretty derisory pension, though they may sometimes grumble about it. By contrast, many charity bosses do not appear to believe that the nature of their work demands any financial hardship. There are exceptions, of course. Perhaps the most striking is the Salvation Army, one of the biggest charities in Britain. The Sally Armys equivalent of a chief executive is a so-called Territorial Leader, who is paid just 15,500 a year. It is true that the organisation employs what its website calls a very limited number of specialist staff who earn more than 60,000 a year. But no one at the Salvation Army earns a wage of more than 100,000. Surely the reason the Sally Army has not been corrupted by fat-cattery is that it is still motivated by a sense of Christian duty to feed the hungry in body and spirit. Unlike many large charities, it has not become business-minded. The consequence of the transformation of some charities into businesses is plain to see. It helps to explain the abuses reported in the Mail last year, including high-pressure boiler room tactics to raise money which even extended to targeting people with dementia or memory problems. If a charity loses sight of its original moral imperatives, and if its senior executives are interchangeable with their counterparts in the private sector (and between various charities), we should hardly be astonished when it ends up behaving like a heartless cold caller. Moreover, a large charity with tiers of executives who are removed from the people they are supposed to serve is more apt to become a politicised pressure group. For example, in 2014, Oxfam produced an advertisement criticising Government cuts that could have come straight from Labour HQ. It was chided by the Charity Commission for its appearance of bias. The Salvation Army pays its equivalent of a chief executive just 15,500 a year Can anything be done? The Government is in a strong position to rein in the pay of charity bosses since some charities receive almost half their income from public funds. Dont hold your breath, though. Ministers, who have done little or nothing to control the spiralling pay of quangocrats, cant be relied on to exert pressure on overblown charity bosses. No, a better hope is that private donors (who in this country gave 10.6 billion to charity in 2014) should exercise their judgment, shunning those organisations which overpay their senior executives, as well as those which spend too great a proportion of their income on overheads. Most of this financial information is available online. Here, Oxfam earns another black mark, as in the most recent financial year for which figures are available it spent more than a quarter of the funds it raised on running costs and staff wages. On the plus side, its chief executive was paid a not outrageous 122,538 a year, significantly less than the bosses of some similar charities. I personally give to charities which avoid politics, dont indulge their senior executives and keep their running costs to a minimum. Oh, and if I get an unsolicited present from a charity a ballpoint pen, perhaps the letter goes straight into the wastepaper basket. The admirable Sally Army is guilty of none of these sins. By the way, I should point out that the average salary of a charity worker is thought to be around 20,000 a year, while there are many people who work in charity shops for virtually no pay. They have every reason to resent overpaid bosses. When the junior doctors dispute began, there was a measure of sympathy for the strikers. For though the new contract promised to reduce their maximum hours and increase basic pay by 13 per cent, it also meant more antisocial shifts. Some may even have believed the BMA union leaders claim that their chief concern was about patients safety. Yet with every appointment cancelled or operation postponed, sympathy is draining away. So, too, is any belief that the strikers are interested in anything but hard cash and avoiding weekend work (which millions in other occupations, from bus drivers to shopworkers and journalists, do without fuss). Junior doctors from across England stand outside Richmond House, Department of Health to deliver a 18-metres long scroll petition addressed to David Cameron and signed by 50,000 members of the public Indeed, this weeks call for a wave of 48-hour strikes exposes the rank hypocrisy of the BMA militants talk about safety. For if the walkouts go ahead, tens of thousands more operations will be cancelled. Inevitably, this will cause prolonged suffering and, yes, acute danger to patients. And all for what? There is simply not enough cash in the public purse for Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to reverse his decision to impose the new contracts, strikes or no strikes. Meanwhile, the case for a seven-day health service the object of the deal grows ever stronger. Indeed, yesterday David Cameron cited research finding that every year around 11,000 more patients die if they are admitted to hospital between Fridays and Mondays, compared with other days of the week. Thats 5,000 more than Mr Hunt had previously maintained. True, the hours worked by junior doctors are a long-running scandal (though the new contracts should ease the burden). But so, too, are these dramatically higher death rates caused by reduced services at weekends. If doctors wish to retain the high respect due to their profession, they will ignore the BMA militants politically motivated strike call and cooperate in providing a health service fit for a civilised nation. Money speaks louder IF you believe the scaremongers, Brexit would be a disaster for the economy. So can they explain why, at this time of uncertainty over the referendum, Germanys stock exchange is desperate for a slice of the London action? Why has scaremongering HSBC abandoned all thought of leaving the City? Why did loans to our firms rise more sharply last month than since 2008? Scaremongers say Brexit - which David Cameron is hoping to stop - would be a disaster for the economy Why, for that matter, is Airbus pushing more trade our way and Aston Martin ramping up production in Wales? True, referendum jitters have brought the pound (and euro) down against the dollar. But even this boosts exporters. To listen to some big business leaders rhetoric, you might think were teetering on the edge of a precipice. But look where theyre putting their money! Their confidence in Britain in or out seems rock solid. In deepest despair, Europes border agency chief says nothing can stop at least another million migrants from arriving this year, while Austria warns the EUs survival is at stake. Meanwhile, the in and out camps quibble over whether Mr Camerons footling deal, which merely tinkers with migrant benefits, is legally binding. Doesnt migration on this historic scale make the question irrelevant? The Queen is delighted that Crossrail will become the Elizabeth Line in 2018. Her 25 years on the throne were marked by the Jubilee Line in 1979. But no airport has been named after her, an honour bagged by John F Kennedy, Indira Gandhi, Pierre Trudeau and Ronald Reagan, as well as John Lennon, John Wayne, Bob Hope, Wolfgang Mozart, Franz Liszt and the Greek physician Hippocrates. Perhaps theyll rename Heathrow one day. Scroll down for video The Queen is delighted that Crossrail will become the Elizabeth Line in 2018 Lord Sugar, 68, who says hes supporting the UK remaining in the EU, sometimes displays questionable political judgment. After agreeing to accept the post of enterprise tsar from Gordon Brown in 2009 and subsequently a peerage Sugar hailed the Scot as one of the best prime ministers weve had in years. Then he quit Labour, calling the party anti-enterprise. Hes good at bullying wet-behind-the-ears contestants on The Apprentice but like some recently anointed peers isnt regarded as an adornment to the Upper House. Al Alvarez has been talking about his friendship with fellow poet Sylvia Plath, pictured, who killed herself, aged 30, in 1963. As the wife of controlling Ted Hughes, who became Poet Laureate, her death is discussed endlessly in feminist circles. But an extract from her 1963 journal, quoted in the current New York Review of Books, makes her out to be rather flighty. She says she and Alvarez were in bed at his London home when the telephone rang. She says she put her foot over his manhood so that he was appropriately attired to receive the call. But Alvarez, now 86, tells me: She made this up. Why, I dont know. We were good friends but I never f****d her. Ever. Al Alvarez has been talking about his friendship with poet Sylvia Plath, pictured, who killed herself in 1963 Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames Churchills grandson trashes shadow defence minister Emily Thornberry for hiring Gordons Brown ex-aide Damian McBride, calling it the latest example of rat returning to sinking ship. Soames has also commented: (Nigel) Farage and George Galloway... a bigger pair of rotters it would be hard to find. He finds Eurosceptic, Tory ex-Chancellor Nigel Lawson deeply unconvincing and berates ITVs political editor Robert Peston, boring for Britain nightly he advises the languid Londoner to get a haircut, put on a tie and generally smarten up. Shouldnt Soames, 68, be offered a late-night TV slot? Robert Sellerss The Secret Life of Ealing Studios tells a curious story about the popular comic Tommy Trinder, who died aged 80 in 1989. Novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, then acting as a slave girl extra, met him in a dark studio corner. He wore a short toga, she said, adding: He was doing a little dance, lifting his toga and muttering, Now you see it, now you dont. The golden years of British cinema! Naomie Harris, pictured, told ITV's Lorraine Kelly that she is 'completely in love' with co-star Will Smith Bond girl Naomie Harris, 39, tells ITVs Lorraine Kelly: Im filming with Will Smith at the moment and Im completely in love with him. Advertisement The runway at London Fashion Week is renowned for its glitz, glamour and, of course, gorgeous clothes. But behind-the-scenes it's a different matter altogether. Fresh-faced models have to dash around a tiny room, jumping from the make-up chair to the hairdresser's stool as quickly as possible so the glam squad can get them catwalk-ready. As a cloud of cough-inducing hairspray fills the hot, cramped studio the girls also have to ensure that they've got their camera-ready smiles on in case they get caught unawares by a backstage photographer. The runway at London Fashion Week is renowned for its glitz, glamour and, of course, gorgeous clothes. But behind-the-scenes it's a different matter altogether, pictured models at AF Vandevorst AF Vandevorst - a Belgian label run by husband-and-wife team, An Vandevorst and Filip Arickx - unleashed their latest collection of curiosities during day four of London Fashion Week, pictured models backstage Never one to shy away from a carefully orchestrated shocker, the duo chose to splatter bright red eye shadow around their models' eyes so it looked like blood, pictured a model backstage at AF Vandevorst It's down to the expert team of beauty and hair gurus - usually wielding brushes, tweezers and cotton buds - to follow the designer's vision and turn the girls into icons. AF Vandevorst - a Belgian label run by husband-and-wife team, An Vandevorst and Filip Arickx - unleashed their latest collection of curiosities during day four of London Fashion Week. Never one to shy away from a carefully orchestrated shocker, the duo chose to splatter bright red eye shadow around their model's eyes so it looked like blood. The daring beauty look was achieved by haphazardly sprinkling the powder onto the eyelid and then arranging into place using the make-up artist's thumb. To ensure all attention was on the eyes, faces were left clear save for a spot of natural-looking foundation. Gel was slicked through the hair to make it look unclean. It was then curled and pinned up in random sections at the back. Gel was slicked through the hair to make it look unclean. It was then curled and pinned up in random sections at the back, pictured a model backstage at AF Vandevorst Over at Holly Fulton, beauty mastermind Sam Bryant pulled out all the stops to create a 'techy, modern and conceptual make-up look', pictured a model backstage A model backstage at the Holly Fulton show is caught curling her eyelashes while waiting to get her make-up done Clearly pleased with the beauty look, models backstage at Holly Fulton were spotted making eyes at themselves in the mirror and taking pre-show selfies Glam rock queen Pam Hogg opted for a typically punk look for her Autumn/Winter 2016 presentation on day two of the British style spectacular, pictured models backstage The Toni & Guy team get to work on the models' punk-inspired hairdos backstage at the Pam Hogg presentation Over at Holly Fulton, beauty mastermind Sam Bryant pulled out all the stops to create a 'techy, modern and conceptual make-up look'. A light dusting of bronzer was added to the model's pore-free faces before their eyes were given a space-age feel. Sam wet the eyelids with MAC Mixing Medium before placing over a sheet of silver leaf. He then used a buffing brush to break it up in random places for a broken glass effect. Clearly pleased with the striking look - which contrasted perfectly with the London-based designer's folky garment line - models were spotted making eyes at themselves in the mirror and taking pre-show selfies. Glam rock queen Pam Hogg opted for a typically punk look for her Autumn/Winter 2016 presentation on day two of the British style spectacular. The hair team from Toni & Guy began by pulling the model's locks into a tight updo to give the impression of a buzz cut. A large section of hair was then pulled out at the front and styled into a giant quiff on the top of their heads. As the girls casually scrolled through Instagram on their phones, The Body Shop beauty team were tasked with painting their lips black and adding heaps of kohl to the eye lids. The pretty rocker aesthetic complimented the veteran designer's red latex jumpsuits, sheer body stockings and spike-encrusted bralets to perfection. The Body Shop beauty team were tasked with painting the models' lips black and adding heaps of kohl to their eye lids backstage at the Pam Hogg presentation Amanda Wakeley, who was given the royal seal of approval after the Duchess of Cambridge stepped out in her designs, enlisted the help of make-up maestro Polly Osmond Using Kevyn Aucoin products, Polly created covetable matte complexions and chose to accentuate key feature of the face such as the cheekbones and eyebrows Fans of a bold lip can rejoice after Mary Katrantzou sent models down the runway with cherry-stained pouts, pictured models backstage For her Dolly Parton-inspired Rodeo Queen collection, the Greek-born designer contrasted a dark lip colour with her girls' porcelain skin. Any mistakes were touched up with cotton buds while eyes were kept completely natural Meanwhile, Amanda Wakeley stayed away from gimmicks and focused on easy-to-wear beauty looks. The Chester-born fashion designer, who was given the royal seal of approval after the Duchess of Cambridge stepped out in her designs, enlisted the help of make-up maestro Polly Osmond. Using Kevyn Aucoin products, Polly created covetable matte complexions and chose to accentuate key feature of the face such as the cheekbones and eyebrows. Meanwhile, hair professional Leigh Keates devised a clean, easy-to-achieve style by placing the hair into a centre parting and tying at the back in a low ponytail. Batiste dry shampoo was used to help add texture to the daytime-appropriate look. The elegant grooming complimented Amanda's functional clothing range, which featured collarless, cocoon-shaped coats, minx-hooded sweatshirts and a must-have chocolate brown silk dress. Fans of a bold lip can rejoice after Mary Katrantzou sent models down the runway with cherry-stained pouts. For her Dolly Parton-inspired Rodeo Queen collection, the Greek-born designer contrasted a dark lip colour with the girl's porcelain skin. Any mistakes were touched up with cotton buds while eyes were kept completely natural. Hair was divided into a centre parting while the front section was gelled into a retro-like fringe. Make-up whiz Isamaya Ffrench used black kohl pencil on the water line of Georgia May Jagger backstage at Ashley Williams before bleaching her brows peroxide blonde Georgia May Jagger prepares to get her hair done backstage at Ashley Williams as the glam squad rush to get the models ready London-based designer Ashley Williams appeared to hark back to the Nineties for her simple yet stunning beauty look Georgia May Jagger was spotted joking around backstage with her fellow models before walking for pal Ashley Williams on the closing day of fashion week Behind-the-scenes at Preen by Thornton Bregazzi all eyes were on a giant table in the middle of the room which was piled high with different coloured hair extensions and wigs The hair team were charged with creating 'tough girl texture' on each of the girls using KMS California products, pictured backstage at Preen by Thornton Bregazzi Georgia May Jagger was spotted joking around backstage with her fellow models before walking for pal Ashley Williams on the closing day of fashion week. The London-based designer appeared to hark back to the Nineties for her simple yet stunning beauty look. Make-up whiz Isamaya Ffrench used black kohl pencil on the water line of each of the girls before bleaching their brows peroxide blonde. The team from WAH were also on hand to sort out any broken nails. Meanwhile, behind-the-scenes at Preen by Thornton Bregazzi all eyes were on a giant table in the middle of the room which was piled high with different coloured hair extensions and wigs. Lead hair stylist James Pecis was charged with creating 'tough girl texture' on each of the girls using KMS California products. He said: 'I wanted the hair to have a rock and roll element to it that paired with the individuality of the models hair Ive kept the girls fringes and have stayed with their natural hair colours.' James looked to 'tough, cool girls' like The Runaways and Chrissy Hynde for inspiration adding: 'This look incorporates a strong shape with short layers on the top for extra edge.' Final touches are added to the models at the Preen by Thornton Bregazzi show before they take to the catwalk Hair took centre stage behind-the-scenes at Barrus as the glam squad were tasked with creating dozens of intricate braids In what is likely to be the go-to look come festival season, fishtail plaits were styled with French and Dutch braids, tied with clear bands and held in place with hairspray As the style at Barrus was so elaborate, a team of three hairdressers were spotted working on one girl at a time Clearly a big trend for next season, models at Bora Aksu also sported pretty plaits. Head stylist James Pecis created romantic folk braids on the girls using KMS California products, pictured models backstage Make-up artist Georgina Graham was on hand at Bora Aksu to paint the models' eyelids an iridescent shade of purple using Kiko products Hair took centre stage behind-the-scenes at Barrus as the glam squad were tasked with creating dozens of intricate braids. In what is likely to be the go-to look come festival season, fishtail plaits were styled with French and Dutch braids, tied with clear bands and held in place with hairspray. As the style was so elaborate, a team of three hairdressers were spotted working on one girl at a time. The Body Shop beauty team were also on hand to create fresh-faced make-up looks that showcased the girl's natural beauty. Clearly a big trend for next season, models at Bora Aksu also sported pretty plaits. Head stylist James Pecis created romantic folk braids on the girls using KMS California products. He said: 'The inspiration for the collection comes from the story of Queen Olga of Russia, so is a mixture of 19th century Russian aristocracy meets Amish farm girl. 'I wanted the hair to really reflect the absence of electricity, so it is feather light with a fluffy texture around the face, which is offset by the clean braids.' Meanwhile, make-up artist Georgina Graham was on hand to paint the models' eyelids an iridescent shade of purple using Kiko products. A baby blue colour was added to the corner of the eye which gradually blended into a dark purple. Eyes also made a statement at Leaf Xia. Retro-inspired gel liner was painted across the lid and exaggerated towards the brow to give a Sixties feel. Hair stylist James, working at Bora Aksu, said: 'The inspiration for the collection comes from the story of Queen Olga of Russia, so is a mixture of 19th century Russian aristocracy meets Amish farm girl' A model poses for a backstage photographer while getting her make-up down at the Bora Aksu show Help sometimes comes from the most unexpected quarters. And none, royal watchers would agree, is quite so unlikely as the benefactor quietly engineering the social rehabilitation of the Duchess of York. It has been more than 20 years since the former Sarah Ferguson fell so spectacularly from grace following the cringeworthy scandal in which she was photographed having her toes sucked by financial adviser John Bryan in 1992, while still married to the Duke of York. Though the divorce that followed, in May 1996, was civilised to a degree - she has remained on extremely good terms with her former husband, Prince Andrew - her financial clout and social standing were severely diminished with the loss of royal trappings. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, left, has been extending a warm hand to Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York But Fergie, now 56, is nothing if not redoubtable. Her announcement earlier this month that she is to carve out a new life for herself in Switzerland is just the latest in a long line of reinventions. Shes spent the past two decadess trying, in her characteristically haphazard fashion, not only to create a new life and rectify her finances, but to secure herself a dignified place back within royal circles. And with her trademark chutzpah, Fergie could be on the verge of achieving her dream. This week, she was included in the Court Circular. She featured in the list of royal engagements because she attended an event last month as the official representative of Prince Andrew. The last time Fergie is believed to have been included in the Court Circular, which is approved personally by the Queen, was when she attended Princess Dianas funeral in 1997. And it seems that her return to the royal fold is being aided by someone else who once knew the chill afforded to a royal outsider, namely Camilla. The surprising friendship between the two - both women scorned at various points in their lives - appears to have grown in recent years following the sudden death in 2014 of the Duchess of Cornwalls beloved younger brother, Mark Shand. The charismatic adventurer, who died aged 62 when he fell and hit his head on a pavement in New York, was best known for his wildlife charity The Elephant Family, of which Fergie was a patron. The suprising friendship has grown between the two women appears to have grown in recent years following the sudden death in 2014 of the Duchess of Cornwalls beloved younger brother, Mark Shand According to a source, Camilla adored her brother and so is instinctively fond and slightly misty-eyed about anyone who helped him out, as Fergie did as patron and long-standing supporter of the charity. When Charles and Camilla became Royal Presidents of the charity in 2014 following Shands death, Fergie was conspicuously dropped from the guest list of its glitzy parties. It is believed this was to please Charles, but Camilla has now personally ensured that she has been reinstated. The source says: Camilla is a peacemaker by nature - look how she managed to get the Queen, William and Harry on side after the most inauspicious of beginnings. Shes also befriended Kate. Having been vilified herself for so long, she has much sympathy for Sarah. According to a source, Camilla adored her brother and so is instinctively fond and slightly misty-eyed about anyone who helped him out, as Fergie did as patron and long-standing supporter of the charity' In spite of the tensions between Charles and the Duke, she rather likes Andrew. She also likes their girls and she doesnt approve of holding grudges. In return, Fergie has said I love her about Camilla because she has always been so nice to me. She has known her for many years as her late mother, Susan, was friends with the then Mrs Parker Bowles. Indeed, over the past couple of years, there have been other signs that Fergies royal rehabilitation was under way. A couple of summers ago, she was invited by the Queen to Balmoral, her first visit to the house since the Nineties. Charles still lays the blame for a series of scandals at Fergies door. Hes reduced to hand- wringing when he hears her name. But if anything can help thaw Charless froideur, its Fergies new alpine base She has also attended various charity events in royal palaces, and in autumn 2014, the Queen even gave her permission to host one herself, for Children in Crisis, at Windsor Castle. Last summer, for the first time in years, she was invited to accompany Prince Andrew to the Royal Enclosure at Ascot. There, she curtseyed to the Queen, who waved cheerfully at them both, though, apparently, Prince Philip looked horrified when he saw his sons former wife. It is Philip, along with Charles, who is the key obstacle to Fergie resuming her life - albeit in more reduced circumstances as an ex-wife - within the Royal Family. Sources say Philip has not spoken to her since the publication of the toe-sucking photographs while she was staying at Balmoral. And while the Queen is said to be more forgiving, Philip will not budge. Charles, too, became more fixed in his disapproval of his wayward former sister-in-law after the tabloid cash-for-access scandal in 2010, in which Fergie appeared to offer an undercover reporter an introduction to Prince Andrew in return for 500,000. Fergie is older and wiser, but nothing will sway Philip, and the tension that exists between Charles and Andrew remains, says a royal source. Charles still lays the blame for a series of scandals at Fergies door. Hes reduced to hand-wringing when he hears her name. But if anything can help thaw Charless froideur, its Fergies new alpine base. Charles and Philip may remain the toughest nuts to crack, but with her independent life - and her new-found friendship with Camilla - it seems Fergie may finally have earned the respect she has longed for A source said: The Royals are much more well disposed towards her now she isnt living at Royal Lodge with Andrew. They never approved of such an unorthodox arrangement; they wanted clarity. For her part, Fergie claims it is the wine and cheese that have drawn her to the Alps. But as another source says: She is reinventing herself as a polished, sophisticated Euro-aristo type who lives in the mountains. This week it emerged that she has requested Swiss residency and wants to settle properly in Chalet Helora, the luxury property in exclusive Verbier which she and Andrew bought last August for 13 million. They have a joint mortgage, which Andrew is believed to pay, in addition to providing Fergie with a clothing allowance. Fergie claims it is the wine and cheese that have drawn her to the Alps. A source says: She is reinventing herself as a polished, sophisticated Euro-aristo type who lives in the mountains' Fergie has also re-invented herself physically, having lost 4st. She credits her weight loss to a Fusion Xcelerator juicer, which can be bought through her Duchess Discoveries website for $99.99 (68). Said the source: She used that juicer for a year and was convinced it had helped her lose weight before she agreed to promote it. These things are selling very well in the U.S. and she has been approached by lots of other companies to work with them. Eyebrows were raised again when she appeared on the QVC shopping channel to promote a brand of hair tongs. These, too, have been a success. She is also said to be in advanced discussions on a significant deal concerning a range of products, from homeware to food, which includes a tastefully packaged tea brand, Duchess Blends. Fergie has also re-invented herself physically, having lost 4st. She credits her weight loss to a Fusion Xcelerator juicer, which can be bought through her Duchess Discoveries website for $99.99 (68) The teas are great and look beautiful, says a source, who has tried them. There is mint humbug, strawberries and cream, chocolate. She found these teas helped her lose weight. Some of them are designed to act as substitutes for pudding. She has met with the managing director of Fortnum & Mason, who have a royal warrant. And funnily enough, her teas look set to take on Prince Charless Duchy Original organic range. Fergies huge variety of entrepreneurial activity also includes publishing and film interests. She is working on childrens books including Fergies Farm, based on her childhood in rural Hampshire, and the licensing interests of Budgie the Helicopter and Little Red. In addition to the film The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt, for which she was a co-producer, she has conducted research for a forthcoming film about Prince Albert, the screenplay of which is being written by Julian Fellowess niece, Jessica. One insider told me she is a tough negotiator and recently turned down one film company in the U.S. because they wouldnt give her a big enough slice of the pie. And she is not lost for company either. Though she lives alone in Verbier, a frequent visitor is Manuel Fernandez, a 47-year-old former soldier turned entrepreneur. He visits the chalet when Andrew isnt there. The staff know him and he converses with them in fluent French because he speaks three languages. Hes a competent skier and gets on well with Beatrice, though Eugenie is more wary. He is a force for good in her life: he is polite, courteous and affectionate. She stops showing off when shes with him. He wont embarrass her or the girls. Andrew has met him and seems to approve. Whether the two are anything more than close friends is unknown. And with so much of her business empire inextricably linked to the title Duchess, it seems highly unlikely that Fergie would downgrade herself to a mere Mrs with a second marriage. Funnily enough, two of her powerful, door-opening friends have Verbier connections: tycoon Sir Richard Branson and Fergies former boyfriend, businessman Paddy McNally. The 77-year-old McNally - who is worth north of half-a-billion pounds, a fortune he made from Formula 1 hospitality - is apparently uber generous, and would never shut the door on her. Of course, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single royal in possession of a ski chalet will find her general popularity enhanced. And Camilla is by no means the only royal who is fond of her. Another peacemaker is Prince Harry, who has been to stay at Chalet Helora with his cousins, Beatrice and Eugenie, to whom he is very close. Says a Verbier source: Harry gets on with Fergie really well. He thinks shes hilarious, and they have a mutual adoration society. He loves being part of her redsetter mob [a Royal Family nickname for her] and they ski together, then gas over mulled wine. To her credit, apart from her charity work and determination to support herself, she can take pride in her two daughters. Beatrice and Eugenie are considered among the best-mannered young royals, says a source. So her parenting skills must count for something. And despite the many mistakes she has made during her colourful life, she remains fiercely protective of the Royal Family. She may be short on memory concerning her less-than-royal antics, but she is long on loyalty and staunch in defending her former husband and daughters status at all costs, says a source. Fergie adores the Queen, and despite the dramas, the Queen is said to have a soft spot for her. This evening, once our four young children are tucked up in bed, my husband Paul and I will head upstairs together for an early night. We might share a bubble bath, with candles and sultry music. Afterwards, we might give each other a massage and, chances are, we'll make love before falling asleep in each other's arms. Considering the chaos of family life, you might imagine this to be a special occasion, but we have sex practically every night. Intimacy is a huge part of our 13-year relationship; the glue that bonds our marriage together. Having four children is no excuse for letting your love life dwindle. Mother-of-four Rachel Gully was shocked when she read a story in the Mail about another mother-of-four who no longer wants sex with her partner. Rachel can't imagine going for days, let alone months, without sex That's why I was shocked when I read in the Mail about the disturbing, unapologetic confession of a mother-of-four who revealed she no longer wants sex with her partner. I felt desperately sorry for this couple: only in their 20s and having been together for no more than six years, I was surprised they would let a crucial side of their relationship wane. I, too, am a stay-at-home mother of four children - Jake, ten, Kyla, nine, Abigail, five, and Zachary, three. I'm 31 and have no outside help when Paul, 39, who owns his own logistics company, is at work all week. I've also suffered from postnatal depression, and I know how debilitating and lonely that can feel. But after a day spent looking after the children, I positively yearn for Paul's embrace. His desire for me makes me feel alive, confident and secure. It has boosted my self-esteem and I believe helped me through postnatal depression, as well as the devastation of two miscarriages. I could never imagine going for days - let alone months - without making love with him. I was 17 when we met while working for the same logistics company: Paul was one of the bosses. When we started dating, we waited months before making love. When we did, the chemistry was palpable - and it has remained so over a decade together and four children. For some women - and their partners - the thought of sex during pregnancy is a huge turn off. But for me that's when my libido goes through the roof. Rachel pictured with husband Paul. They believes that it's important to keep your sex life as a priority and not let your children take over life Paul used to joke: 'Leave me alone, I'm exhausted!' Of course, there are times when nature knows best. Like most new mums, sex was the last thing on my mind immediately after giving birth. But it never even occurred to me that things wouldn't pick up again in the bedroom as soon as I healed. After my six-week check-up, we became intimate again and it felt so natural. It was gentler than before the birth, but a relief to be able to show each other physical affection again. Not that it was plain-sailing: I struggled with over-tiredness and began to suffer lethargy. I was also worried I wasn't bonding with Jake. When he was four months old, I was diagnosed with postnatal depression and prescribed antidepressants. Rachel feels that her sexual relationship with Paul helped her to get over her postnatal depression For some, libido vanishes with depression. But, if anything, sex became more important to me, as it helped me more than any medication. The endorphin release that sex produces boosted my feel-good hormones like no tablet ever could. Eight months later, I was thrilled to be pregnant again and, as with Jake, our sex life remained regular throughout the pregnancy. After the birth, however, I found I wasn't as sexually confident as before. My body had changed, but the fact Paul found me attractive made me feel sexy and desirable. We were lucky, of course, that our two children slept well. I can completely understand why some mothers say they are too exhausted to want sex. Am I doing it just for Paul? I crave my husband's physical attention as much as he needs me. I make an extra special effort for him But even on my most bleary-eyed days, I can spare an hour to be intimate with my husband. It's about putting the effort in. Am I doing it just for Paul? I crave my husband's physical attention as much as he needs me. I make an extra special effort for him, too. I may live in a mum uniform of jeans and a T-shirt during the day, but underneath it I always wear beautiful, matching, lacy lingerie. It's as much a treat for me as it is for him. Naturally, there have been moments where our sex life has dwindled a little. In 2009, I suffered two miscarriages. The first was around eight weeks and the second was confirmed at our 12-week scan. It was devastating and this was the first time I became very wary of sex - wanting to get pregnant but at the same time worried if I did. Paul was very understanding. We took things slowly. It took six months to get pregnant again, but at 27 weeks I was diagnosed with placenta praevia (where the placenta blocks the neck of the uterus) and sex had to take a back seat for six weeks, until Abigail was born. The pair go to bed around 10.30pm and make love most night. Rachel says she'd have to revaluate her entire relationship if they didn't make love every few days Before the birth I was hospitalised and ironically, despite the fact we didn't even share a bed during that period, those six weeks apart really brought Paul and I together more than ever. Whenever he'd visit, he'd squeeze on to the small hospital bed and we'd share a cuddle. I missed him terribly. My pregnancy with Zachary, 14 months later, was a lovely surprise. It was a textbook pregnancy and Paul and I were intimate even up to the night before the birth. That boosted my self-esteem no end. Today, sex is just as important to us as it ever was, if not more so. As busy working parents of four children, you might expect us to have to schedule it into the diary, but that would spoil the fun. Instead, we simply go to bed around 10.30pm and make love most nights. SEX SECRETS Women who live with their partners have sex four times a month on average - down from six times a month in 1990 Advertisement I'd have to re-evaluate my entire relationship if I hadn't had sex for more than a few days. It's not that I think Paul would look elsewhere. Some women say they go off sex because their body has changed or their partner's body has altered. Paul and I are by no means perfect specimens. I was a size 8 and now I'm a 14-16. Paul's weight has fluctuated, too. But in all that time, we've never stopped fancying each other. There are even times when Paul nips home in his lunch hour so we can make love. Of course, relationships are based on more than just sex. But while my children are my priority while they are young, I'd say it's naive for any wife to neglect her husband or her sex life. After all, Paul is my best friend. He was here before we had our children and he will be here when they've flown the nest. We see it happen so often - couples separating when their children have left home because they have nothing at all in common. I could never allow that to happen. PAUL SAYS: Paul thinks that keeping lines of communication open in a marriage is crucial. Having sex with his wife brings them a feeling of togetherness which reinforces their love If Rachel was to reject me I'd have spoken up about it months ago. Keeping the lines of communication open in a marriage when it comes to sex is vital and I think Rachel and I have become really good at this over the years. Of course after children things do change, but exhaustion is no excuse. If you value something, you should put the work in and that includes sex. I can honestly say that I still think Rachel is sexy and beautiful. I love her more than ever and sex brings a feeling of togetherness and being 'one' which reinforces that love. It doesn't always have to be about full sex either. Our children are forever rolling their eyes when they come into the kitchen and Mum and Dad are having another cuddle or kiss. But I hope we're doing that long into our old age. It's what keeps any marriage alive. A couple of months ago I paid a visit to Jo Hansford in her famous Mayfair hair salon. Jo is about as expert as you can get in the upmarket colouring business, catering to those who want - and can afford - the very best. This is where Nigella Lawson and Joanna Lumley are said to nurture their hair, as well as the Duchess of Cornwall and Liz Hurley. Wealthy ladies even fly in regularly from the U.S., Dubai and other far-flung spots, just to have their hair coloured, their greys painted over and hidden from view for another month or so. But as you can see (below) from my most current photo, post visit, I am not among them. I remain stubbornly, proudly, and unapologetically grey. The usual estimate is that well over 70 per cent of grey-haired women in this country, are colourers (stock) As grey as most 61-year-old women, in fact, but one belonging to a very small minority of non-colourers, who decide not to dye their hair. Our membership is very small indeed: the usual estimate is that well over 70 per cent of grey-haired women in this country, and perhaps as many as 90 per cent in the U.S., are colourers. So why do I refuse to join them? My reasons are mixed. Its partly a matter of not actually wanting to pretend Im younger than I really am, by faking the light brown hair of my youth, and partly a matter of resenting the time it would take in maintenance. Once youve embarked on a colouring regime - unless youre a wizard at the bathroom basin - youre tied to it. TV historian Mary Beard (above) refuses to bow to pressure and dye her naturally grey locks. The 61-year-old doesn't want to pretend she is younger than she is and claims she would resent the maintenance required Yet plenty disagree with me, Jo Hansford, included. Although we got on really well, Jo - who is warm, funny and frank - wasnt going to disguise the fact that, in her view, my hair did me no favours. A colour would turn back the clock ten years, she says. There have been plenty of other critics too, probably the most memorable being a snipe from a particular TV critic, who in a review of my BBC documentary Meet The Romans in 2012, declared my hair a disaster and suggested that I should be kept away from TV cameras altogether. At least he knew my name: Whos the grey-haired witch talking about the Romans? was another, anonymous comment on Twitter. Mary's latest programme for Radio 4 'Glad To Be Grey' and sets out to explore some of the issues behind the hair colouring industry - said to be worth an astonishing 327 million in the UK. Above, Helen Mirren, 70 So why was I putting myself through another stern critique of my grey hair? Id gone to Jos salon, not for a make-over, but to interview her for a programme Ive been making for Radio 4 on this topic. Very dear to my heart, its called Glad To Be Grey and sets out to explore some of the issues behind the hair colouring industry - said to be worth an astonishing 327 million in the UK. What I unearthed were some very depressing attitudes to ageing - against both men and women. Given our current life expectancy, grey is likely to be the natural hair colour of most of us for more than half of our adult lives. Why, then, do most of us go to so much trouble to conceal it? One thing Id never really thought about before was the financial side: who is making money out of the mass hair colouring? Given our current life expectancy, grey is likely to be the natural hair colour of most of us for more than half of our adult lives. Above, Jamie Lee Curtis, 57, has embraced her natural salt and pepper colour at an early age One answer is, obviously, those hair product companies. Over the past 40 or 50 years they have massively increased their profits by getting us to think colouring is something women my age would take for granted, like a trip to the dentist. Look at how the language has changed. When I was a child, people used to buy hair dye. Now we buy rinses, tints, highlights and colours, which seem much more joyous, fun and even natural. But, as people in the hair industry repeatedly told us, the economics of the High Street salon are a big factor, too. A cut and blow dry isnt how most salons pay the rent; its by colouring. And thats not just because they can charge a lot more for complicated procedures than simple ones, the point about colours, as Id already realised myself, is that they require regular professional maintenance. Women are said to spend 140,000 on their hair in their lifetime - 40,000 of it in the salon. And thats the average: presumably there are women paying much, much more. Eighty-four-year-old Carmen Dell'Orefice has startling white hair, above. Over the past 50 years companies have increased their profits as most women come to think colouring is something to take for granted While no-one suggests stylists actively and consciously push clients to colour simply to boost profits, I got the sense everyone working in the business was aware of the economic logic. A colour can cost anything between 50 and 180, depending on salon and location, and most women need their roots touched up every six weeks, if they are lucky. Whether they say it out loud or not, colouring is what your local salon needs you to do. Important though it is, money isnt the root of our obsession with colouring. More than anything, it is about societys attitude to ageing. The whole process of going grey, after all, is caused by the bodys production of pigment wearing out with time. It happens to almost everyone, usually at some point after the age of 30 (personally, I found my first greys in my 40s). But Ive never really been convinced that putting the clock back is as easy as it sounds. By my age, the clash between apparently youthful hair and old skin (and I mean colour and texture as well as wrinkles) often ends up making people look older, not younger. So why are we so unwilling to look our age? Why do we treat it as a compliment if someone takes us for ten years younger than we really are? The fear of grey, trivial as it might seem, is diagnostic of our fear of growing old, and the general sense that from the age of about 30 everything is downhill Some women might well reply that they try to recapture that youthful hair colour to keep, or to be successful, in their jobs. During research for the programme, we discovered plenty of evidence of older-looking women being passed over for all kinds of opportunities in the workplace in favour of younger-looking colleagues. One particularly depressing statistic revealed that talent progression - in other words, moving up the career ladder - for women stops at 45. For men, its 55. Depressing, like I said. Never is this gender divide more apparent than in the world of television. Things are changing, but its still the case that craggy male presenters, with a shock of grey hair - or no hair - are generally assumed to command deep authority, yet wrinkled, grey-haired ladies are not. I may have bucked the trend on this, but not without taking plenty of flak along the way. It is perhaps no surprise that some women, with a thinner skin than mine, assume colouring simply comes with the job. Colouring itself, of course, is not the enemy. If its done by a free choice, it can be hugely celebratory and fun. Even, Ive occasionally flirted with the idea of a few bright pink highlights (I havent had the nerve yet, but its on my bucket list). But when women feel forced into it, if they feel it is impossible to live with an entirely natural head of grey hair, and if they think their only option is to try to conceal even the first tell-tale strands, then colouring points to even deeper problems than the glass ceiling at work. Mary Beard suggests the fear of grey is diagnostic of our fear of growing old, and the general sense that from the age of about 30 everything is downhill. Above, Actress Judi Dench, 81, attends the 'Philomenia' Premiere The fear of grey, trivial as it might seem, is diagnostic of our fear of growing old, and the general sense that from the age of about 30 everything is downhill. It made me think that what is required here is a bigger revolution: one that goes beyond hair dye, and shakes up all those assumptions and makes old age (or lets call it maturity) a badge of pride. Yes, its great to be young, with ambition, strength, verve, energy and aspirations. But being 60 can be great, too. OK, my knees are creakier than they were and, my clubbing days are over, but on the plus side Im not plagued by the anxieties that troubled me 40 years ago. I am more confident, I have a thicker skin and, luckily, more ready cash than I used to have back then. So, if letting your sleek grey hair waft in the wind is one way of displaying contentment with the pleasures of later life, then I am keen to lead the Glad to be Grey revolution. Another surprising discovery during the course of my research, is that men have not been left entirely untroubled by the colour-brigade. As I became more attuned to the tell-tale signs of unnatural colour, I began to suspect men were doing a lot more colouring than they were letting on - the basic rule of thumb being that a man with glossy, black hair aged 60-plus is definitely at it, unless proved otherwise. Although having said that, my husband, whos in his 70s, has bucked the usual genetics, having very few grey hairs - unless he is secretly colouring it, too! Mary began to suspect men were doing a lot more colouring than they were letting on - the basic rule of thumb being that a man with glossy, black hair aged 60-plus is definitely at it. Above, Hollywood star Dianne Keaton We were keen to talk to some of these men on the programme, and the production team rang a load of the obvious suspects (I bet you can guess some of them). But not one agreed to be interviewed. Eventually, after drawing endless blanks, I persuaded a plucky male colleague, Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek, at Cambridge University, to come out (as he put it!) on the radio. Just a few years younger than me, he retains a distinctive head of dark, glossy hair. Until I nerved myself to confront him, I was never 100 per cent certain whether he was a colourer or not. Once hed confessed, Simon was happy to defend his right to dye, and we sparred a bit about what kind of concealment hair colouring was. Simon pointed out that there was a certain inconsistency in me getting worried about concealing my natural hair colour with tints, but not about concealing my natural smell with deodorant! But the reasons he gave for using colour - for a good few years - were the same old thing. He was, he said, anxious about ageing; he positively liked it when people treated him as younger than he really was. So maybe, when it comes to colouring, there isnt such a difference between women and men as we tend to imagine. We are both at it, men not quite as actively as women, but still in large numbers. The big difference is that women are prepared to talk about it, whatever side of the divide they are on. Men are still in the closet, and can hardly be enticed to utter a word on the subject. I guess in a way that makes us women the lucky ones. Ivanka Trump has had a whirlwind few weeks, serving as a key member of dad Donald's presidential campaign and helping him to secure a sweeping victory the primary in South Carolina on Sunday, where she proudly addressed crowds to thank them for their support - and all while eight-months pregnant. But that doesn't mean that she isn't taking the time to soak up every minute of her pregnancy as she counts down the remaining few weeks ahead of her due date next month. In that spirit, the 34-year-old entrepreneur shared a new image of her large baby bump, proudly posing in the mirror for the selfie, while wearing her 'favorite non-maternity maternity dress', a bright floral-print number from her eponymous clothing collection. Scroll down for video Showing it off: Ivanka Trump proudly posted an image of her growing baby bump on Instagram on Monday Talented tot! The proud mother, 34, also shared a video of her two-year-old son Joseph serenading herself and her husband Jared Kushner, 35, before enjoying an afternoon nap That same day, Ivanka also spent some much-needed time relaxing at home with her husband Jared Kushner, 35, and their children, Arabella, four, and Joseph, six, ahead of the impending arrival of their newborn, who is due early next month. And what better way that to relax than with a sweet serenade from her son, who sang both of his parents an original ditty before enjoying a nap on Wednesday afternoon. Ivanka, who is known for encouraging her children to embrace as many extra-curricular activities as possible, shared a video of Joseph singing the short, but oh-so-sweet, song on her Instagram on Monday, admitting in the caption that the young boy is not the only one who is feeling a bit weary these days. 'Joseph is ready for a nap,' she posted alongside the clip of her son standing against the wall while wearing what appears to be a large onesie. 'I feel a little sleepy too!' she then admitted, before adding several heart-shaped emojis. But while Joseph's adorable song is undoubtedly well-meaning, the little boy's less-than-dulcet tones likely did more to wake Ivanka up than they did to leave her feeling particularly restful. In the video, the young boy proudly sings, in a loud, confident voice: 'Goodnight daddy and mommy! I'm sleepy, daddy and mommy!' We've seen it before! It is not the first time Ivanka has worn her 'favorite non-maternity maternity dress', she also donned it when posing in this image with her kids earlier this month Celebration: This is the victorious message Ivanka tweeted on Sunday after joining her father Donald to help him celebrate his landslide win in South Carolina It is not the first time that Ivanka has showcased her son's singing skills on Instagram; in December, she posted a clip of the little boy sitting on the floor of what looked like the family playroom, banging away on a xylophone while singing about how much he 'loves his mommy'. '#FBF to this precious moment,' she said of the video, in which Joseph can be heard singing 'I love my mommy, I love my mommy.' On Sunday, Ivanka celebrated her father's victory in South Carolina with a beaming family photo on Twitter. 'Happy Sunday!' the heavily pregnant 34-year-old wrote alongside a photo of her clutching her son Joseph and daughter Arabella the morning after Donald Trump took a staggering 35.2 per cent of the vote in the Republican primary. Just 12 hours earlier, Ivanka had been stood on stage in Spartanburg with the entire Trump clan - as her stepmother Melania joked that they had a hospital on standby in case she went into labor. Ivanka, dressed in blue with red lipstick for the event, laughed as the attention was turned to her baby bump. Smile never leaving her face, she began by thanking South Carolina for her father's win, saying: 'This is an amazing, amazing night. 'The momentum since the beginning of this campaign has been unbelievable and that's because my father's message resonates so deeply with so many people. Proud parents: Ivanka and her husband Jared, pictured are expecting their third child together in a matter of weeks 'As a family, we're incredibly proud, we're incredibly grateful to each of you so thank you for being here to support us. I will say this, my father is an incredibly hard worker and he'll be working for each and every one of you. 'Together we'll make America great again,' she added. The Donald patted Ivanka's stomach with his hand and said: 'She insisted on being here. It was so important to Ivanka. She insisted on being here, so thank you. I have a great family, I just really want to thank all of you. 'And Ivanka, we have a hospital ready just in case and South Carolina, we're going to have a baby and there's nothing wrong with that,' Trump said as the crowd cheered. Ivanka has been a pivotal member of The Donald's campaign team. A day before Saturday's vote, she issued a video message urging voters to back her father. Sat at a desk in a messy office with a city view and magazine clippings of herself propped up in the window, she said: Busy bee: Ivanka has been busy helping her father Donald with his presidential campaign, and was by his side as he claimed a victory in South Carolina on Sunday The whole gang! Donald Trump Jr. (pictured, left) posted this picture of the Trump family to Instagram saying the flight home would be even better after his father claimed the win in South Carolina 'I am Ivanka Trump and I'm very excited that this Saturday the 20th is the Republican primary in South Carolina. 'We are all gonna be there, my whole family, obviously my father, my siblings, and myself.' The jewelry designer and executive at the Trump Organization said the 'energy, the passion, the excitement, the momentum in South Carolina has really been unparalleled'. 'And we're looking forward to that translating that into your vote on Saturday,' said Ivanka. Ivanka made seven campaign stops ahead of Tuesday's primary, traveling to New Hampshire even though she is eight months pregnant. One mother requested to sleep on campus to make sure her son settled in Others complain to lecturers when they think the child's marks are too low Your parent showing up with you on your first day of university seems like the stuff of nightmares, but for many young adults it's actually a reality. According to new research from the Queensland University of Technology, helicopter parents are following their children to tertiary education and becoming overly involved in their lives. Clinical psychologist Dr Judith Locke, who conducted the research, has been interested in the topic of over-parenting for some years. Overbearing: Research has shown an increase in 'helicopter parenting' at university with parents becoming over involved in their children's lives Seen it all: Dr Judith Locke, a clinical psychologist, has been researching helicopter parenting for several years She said examples include parents who choose their child's university course for them, or edits their assignments. 'There was a case in Canada where a mother wanted to spend the first two weeks of term in on campus housing with her child to make sure they settled in,' Dr Locke told Daily Mail Australia. 'She wanted to sleep on a camp bed in the dorm. The university denied her request.' Other helicopter parents email their child's university to organise their class timetable or ask lecturers to increase grades. Some would drive their child to university daily, or call them to wake them up in time for a lecture. Going too far: There was one case in Canada where a mother wanted to sleep on the floor of their child's on campus room for two weeks to make sure they settled in Over involved: Many helicopter parents continue to do their child's homework when they start university, and will drop them to lectures daily Although parents think they are helping their child by ensuring they do well on paper academically, the research has shown that it can actually have a negative impact both in the long and short term. 'When parents are making these decisions or providing academic pressure it has been found the adult student disengages from their education and often has increased depression and decreased satisfaction with life,' Dr Locke said. In the long term helicopter parenting can also result in children who can't be independent because they've never had to do anything for themselves, Dr Locke explained. 'It makes you unable to do things yourself': Dr Locke said that helicopter parenting actually makes it more difficult for children to be successful later in life Changing styles: The psychologist believes that children are less independent and capable due to helicopter parenting 'A parent doing their child's university assignments might make them successful in their homework right now, but then they may become less successful later in life,' she said. 'Because if you are used to your parents sorting everything out for you, it makes you unable to do things yourself.' Dr Locke believes that part of the reason helicopter parenting is more common now is because the definition of what good parenting is has changed. Dr Hilary Jones got more than he bargained for as he waited backstage at ITV's Lorraine when a stranger asked him for some very intimate medical advice. A prankster pretended he had a health problem and pulled down his boxer shorts to show the unsuspecting celebrity medic a 'hair bump' on his posterior. Fortunately, Dr Hilary saw the funny side when it was revealed he had been the victim of a joke by James 'Murr' Murray and Brian 'Q' Quinn, who appeared on the show to discuss their hidden camera comedy show Impractical Jokers. James 'Murr' Murray, who is part of hidden-camera show Impractical Jokers, appeared on ITV's Lorraine and the prankster set up Dr Hilary Jones backstage James asks if Dr Hilary will look at a medical concern he has and starts to pull down his boxers The series sees the duo pulling pranks on unsuspecting members of the public in New York and New Jersey. But the jokers then set up Dr Hilary Jones backstage. James, who was sitting on the other side of the sofa, asked him for medical advice and then pulled down his boxers and questioned the doctor about his bottom. Later Lorraine said: 'Hilary was backstage waiting to come on because we're doing [health section] The Pulse soon, he had no idea what was about to happen.' Lorraine asked Brian, who stayed with her and directed James with an earpiece: 'What are you going to get him to do?' Brian said: 'First I'm going to have him introduce himself. Americans have a reputation for being a little bit loud a little bit brash. We're going to hit that straight on the head. He told James to 'introduce yourself buddy.' Backstage James was flicking through a newspaper while Hilary sat far away from him on a sofa. Hilary diligently tries to help with James' problem and feels what the bump on his posterior could be Brian 'Q' Quinn, who's also part of the comedy troupe, gave James directions and Lorraine couldn't stop laughing James started the conversation and asked: 'How are you? Are you on the show today?' Hilary replied: 'I am, I do a medical round up.' James carried on: 'Great I want to get your medical opinion on something,' before he jumped up and pulled down his boxers in front of Hillary. Brian was seen telling him over an earpiece to 'get closer' and James began to speculate on what his fictional problem could be. He told Hilary: 'I don't know if it's like a hair bump. It's down here, do you see it?' Brian told him to get closer: 'I'm just getting word his eye sight's not that good, get closer.' Meanwhile, back in the green room James continued: 'It's just round here, do you see it?' and gestured to his buttock, leaving Hilary little choice but to take the bait and feel for the bump. At one point James stood on the coffee table with Hilary going along with the prank despite James having taken his trousers off Afterwards Hilary admitted he had no clue about the prank when he met James and Brian in the studio Meanwhile, Brian and Lorraine couldn't contain their laughter in the studio while Hilary tried to find the problem. Brian said: 'Is that the nicest guy in the world? Oh my God I can't believe it.' When Hilary joined them back in the studio Lorraine asked: 'Did you have any idea what was going on?' Hilary replied: 'In the words of Hugh Grant, b*******.' Lorraine pulled a shocked face and said: 'You can't say that.' Hilary continued: 'No I had no idea at all. I've seen so many bits and people putting their bits in my face. It happens all the time.' 'Then he put his foot in the fruit on the table, I thought, okay, is there a chaperone.' The doctor was a good sport and said he had so many people 'putting their bits in my face ' he was used to such queries Lorraine couldn't help laughing at the prank by Brian and James, actor Steve Carrell is reportedly a fan of their show The prankster duo appeared to speak about their series, which starts at 10pm on Mondays on Comedy Central. It follows four members of the comedy troupe The Tenderloins as they coerce one another into doing public pranks while being filmed by hidden cameras. Brian said: 'We've known each other 26 years since high school and the show kind of grew out of that. James pointed out they don't get much negative reaction, he said: 'I think most people get the pranks are on us. There's very little collateral damage.' American actor Steve Carrell is reportedly a fan of their show which they were thrilled with, Brian said:' That's unbelievable, we're huge fans of his.' The duo can tell when someone will be good for a prank. Brian said:' You develop it after a while you see someone coming and you're like "Yeah." Her husband gave opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn a dressing down over his scruffy appearance yesterday, but his wife Samantha proved that she's also a fan of a laidback ensemble as she made a trip to the shops. The mother-of-three, 44, opted for comfort as she browsed the windows of the Chanel store in Fulham, London, and of course she looked anything but scruffy in her casually chic outfit. She wrapped up against the chilly spring weather in a black coat and kept her hands warm in a pair of leather gloves. Scroll down for video Samantha Cameron wrapped up against the chilly spring weather in a black coat and kept her hands warm in a pair of leather gloves as she browsed the shops in Fulham, West London Mrs Cameron visited the Joseph store during her leisurely browsing session, but it appears she emerged empty handed as she wasn't carrying a bag. The sun may have been shining, but she sensibly bundled up in a red and brown fringed scarf. She was also seen carrying a black leather Smythson handbag - not surprising as she held the role of creative director of the luxury stationery and accessories brand until her husband was elected in 2010. Although she stepped down from the position, she is still on the payroll as a part-time consultant. Bright, white trainers are the latest trend in footwear and Mrs Cameron showed she's ahead of the curve when it comes to footwear Mrs Cameron visited the Joseph store during her leisurely browsing session, but it appears she emerged empty handed as she wasn't carrying a bag Did Sam Cam take inspiration from Victoria Beckham? Bright, white trainers are the latest trend in footwear with celebrities such as Victoria Beckham ditching their heels in favour of the comfortable shoe The Prime Minster's wife opted for a pair of sharp black trousers, cut just above the ankle. Mrs Cameron visited the Joseph store during her leisurely browsing session, but it appears she emerged empty handed as she wasn't carrying a bag. And she shunned heels for a trendy pair of white 'flatform' trainers, showing off her fashion credentials. Bright, white trainers are the latest trend in footwear with celebrities such as Victoria Beckham ditching their heels in favour of the comfortable shoe. The designer even stepped on to the catwalk at the end of her New York fashion week show this weekend, wearing a pair of box fresh Stan Smith trainers - a departure from her usual towering stilettos. Samantha Cameron (pictured here with Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet and Cheif Executive of the BFC Caroline Rush) made her first appearance at London Fashion Week this season at the Christopher Kane AW16 show Despite being an ambassador for the British Fashion Council Sam, pictured on the front row, made a fashion faux pas by not wearing a dress by the designer which is normal custom at fashion week However despite her style blunder Sam remained popular as ever and was pictured (left and right) conversing with US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour Samatha appeared to put on a brave face despite her husband's current political dilemma. David Cameron was braced for a frosty reaction in front of MPs today as he reports back to the House of Commons about the deal he reached in Brussels on Friday However, despite being ahead of the curve when it comes to footwear Mrs Cameron managed to make a style faux pas at the weekend, when she attended Christopher Kane's show at London Fashion Week. The British Fashion Council (BFC) ambassador was pictured in a bright floral dress courtesy of Mary Katrantzou's at the Tate Modern show. It has become something of a custom for attendees to wear the label of the brand they have come to see at fashion weeks across the globe. Instead she opted for a colourful piece from the Greek fashion designer's resort collection costing 785. A Dutch clothing company been accused of 'selling misogyny' after releasing images from its latest adverts featuring fully clothed men and giant scantily clad female models. Suitsupply's latest campaign called 'Toy Boys' sees miniature men treating women's bodies like a playground, zipping down a model's breasts as though they're a slide in one image and spraying water over another's face from a hose in another. The pictures sparked outrage on Twitter where users branded them 'sexist' however the CEO Fokke de Jong defended them by claiming they showed women with the 'upper hand.' Suitsupply released their latest campaign called 'Toy boys' which saw miniature men pictured on scantily-clad giant women A man in a suit poses next to a woman in just a bikini in the controversial adverts for the Dutch brand In all the photos the men are seen fully dressed, showcasing the brand's fashions. In the most controversial shot, two men appear to use a topless woman's breasts as a slide to promote the brand, which has stores in London and New York as well as across Europe. Ikire Jones posted on Twitter: 'Yo Suitsupply, are you selling suits or misogyny this season? Just wanted to know so I can accessorize accordingly.' @Pepperonina questioned the campaign's name, he wrote: 'Clearly it's still the woman who's the toy here, exploited by some micro-jerks.' @WvSchaik posted: 'Hey Suitsupply, if you want me to buy some suits, please ditch the sexist adverts, OK?' Twitter users were outraged by the 'sexist ads' which the CEO Fokke de Jong claimed showed the women with the 'upper hand' The ad campaign is called 'Toy Boys' and shows the men supposedly being 'playthings' for the women In a press release to explain the images, the company wrote: 'Sometimes it seems like it's a woman's world these days, and we just live in it. The modern woman is a confident tower of power, who knows exactly what she wants. 'She's beautiful. She's brilliant. She's a bona fide titan. It's hard not to feel well, dwarfed. 'So what's a guy to do? You're a modern gentleman, but the tables have turned. You have a certain way with the ladies, that is, until they have their way with you. 'You're a playboy, but what happens when the playboy becomes the plaything?' In response to the negative reaction, CEO Fokke de Jong told FEMAIL: 'The reaction from some people is that this campaign is sexist. The men in our toy boy campaign are depicted as play dolls for the women, we dont see the men having the upper hand here.' The campaign was photographed by Dutch photographer Carli Hermes and it's not the first time the company has caused outrage with its advertising. CEO Fokke de Jong told FEMAIL: 'The men in our toy boy campaign are depicted as play dolls for the women, we dont see the men having the upper hand here.' But Twitter users argued the images showed half-dressed women and were 'sexist' in their portrayal The campaign was photographed by Dutch photographer Carli Hermes and it's not the first time the company has caused outrage with its advertising In 2014, Suitsupply used scantily clad women in their campaign which were then pictured topless on its website In 2014, the company's ad campaign showed suited men surrounded by scantily clad or topless women. Visitors to their website had the option to choose the 'uncensored' version which then saw the women with their tops removed. When employees from SuitSupplys flagship New York store recently conducted an 'Ask Me Anything' online chat for a mens fashion fashion forum, the response they got to the campaign was far from positive in April 2014. Craigslist users have been known to post some pretty strange requests, but one man is soliciting something very, very specific from readers. In his ad, Kit, 34, claims to be starting a bluegrass band called The Portland Portmans, and is searching four women who look like Natalie Portman who live in Oregon to join his aptly-named group. But they can't just be pretty faces, as the band will apparently play real music he asks for those who can play bluegrass instruments, too. Wanted: A nanamed Kit, 34, put out a Craigslist ad for women who look like Natalie Portman and can play musical instruments What an idea: He claims to be starting a bluegrass band called The Portland Portmans 'Do you look like Natalie Portman? Can you play upright bass, banjo, guitar, mandolin or dobro? Then get in touch,' he opens the ad, which went up on the site on Monday. 'I'm putting together a band called The Portland Portmans, a bluegrass band composed of people who resemble Natalie Portman, and I'm still looking for members.' He explains that he plans for the group to play gigs in local bars two to three times a month, and sets are likely to include costumes to really play up each member's lookalike status. 'The idea is that we dress each member in a different costume from Natalie Portman's film career for example, the banjo player can be Padme Amidala, the bass player can be the little girl from Leon, and so on,' he wrote. He adds that having a familiarity with the 34-year-old's career in film is 'crucial', something he clearly possesses as well though, being a man, he obviously doesn't look a thing like Natalie. Dress up: He said the idea would be to play gigs in bars and dress up as Natalie's characters, like her little girl hitman in Leon: The Professional No Keiras, please! The poster also noted that Keira Knightley lookalikes need not apply even though some people think Keira looks a lot like Natalie 'But I figure we can probably get away with one member who doesn't [look like her],' he added. He had one final request, too: He asks that no one who looks like actress Keira Knightley, who some people seem to confuse with Natalie Portman, waste his time. Speaking to Daily Mail Online, Kit, who currently lives in Amsterdam but is looking to move to Portland, admitted that the posting was really just an attempt to tease his wife. 'She has a theory that music boards are littered with Portmanalikes. I'm not quite sure where it comes from,' he said. And while he has received a few replies, 'actual legit Portmanalikes are proving thin on the ground' which he thinks may have something to do with the fact that most people who play bluegrass music are 'old men with beards'. In November, she joked that if she had sex like her character Annalise Keating does, she'd throw her neck out The asked creator Shonda Rhimes to go easy on the over-the-top sex scenes while she recovered Shonda Rhimes definitely knows how to dream up a steamy sex scene for her shows but as it turns out, steamy doesn't always mean safe. How to Get Away with Murder star Viola Davis, 50, joked last year that if she had sex in real life like her character Annalise Keating does, she'd 'throw her neck out'. But it seems that those injuries can happen even when the sex is make-believe, too. On the Sway in the Morning radio show, she revealed that she actually threw her back out during sex scene on set and asked Shonda to tone down the hot-and-heavy staging for a bit while she recovered. Must-see TV: Viola Davis, 50, stars as Annalise Keating on the hit show How to Get Away with Murder Ouch! She admitted in a recent interview that she threw her back out when she was thrown up against a wall during a sex scene Getting physical: The steamy scene was filmed with Billy Brown, who plays her lover, Nate 'I blew my back out,' she said of a scene she did with actor Billy Brown, who plays Nate her formerly-married lover who carried on an affair with her while his wife was in the hospital dying from cancer. 'He threw me up against a wall. All I can say is I was totally committed to the scene,' the Emmy winner added. With an injury like that, Viola asked the writers to take it easy for a while when it comes to the more aggressive love scenes but that doesn't mean they're gone for good. 'I just told them to slow it down for a minute,' she said. 'I'm going to get back into it. I have to. It's Shondaland! You know, they're gonna have me doing all kinds of stuff with all kinds of people.' Tame: Viola (center) asked the show's creator Shonda Rhimes to go easy on the sex scenes for a while What will they do? Shondaland shows are known for their hot and heavy sex scenes, and characters are regularly getting frisky on HTGAWM It's not like she didn't see it coming. At a Paley Center panel in New York in November, Viola joked that real-life couples' passion isn't usually quite as crazy as it can be portrayed in Shondaland the name for Shonda's production company, which also puts out Scandal and Grey's Anatomy. 'People have sex onscreen, and, now, we know people don't have sex like that,' she said. 'At some point I said, "I've got to take the wig off before somebody throws me up against the wall". Who gets thrown up against a wall!? I mean, I'd throw my neck out. Those scenes I feel go too far.' Besides being over-the-top, she admitted, they can also be quite uncomfortable. She told Seth Meyers on Late Night in November that she's incredibly thankful for body make-up and censors that obscure some things for the people at home. So not sexy: Viola said that filming sex scenes can be uncomfortable, especially because it is done in front of a room full of people Don't look! On Thursdays, she sends her mom with money to the casino so she won't see the sex scenes As for the men and women working on set, she told ABC News: 'I will say that [Im] not comfortable [with those scenes], but why should I be, you know? You're having sex. I mean, how many times do people have sex in front of a lot of people, unless you're a porn star?' But though she'll put up with it for the sake of her art, there is at least one person whom she refuses to let see her getting frisky on TV: her mom. Mothers who drink alcohol during pregnancy increase the chance that the next three generations in their family may develop alcoholism, experts have warned. That increase occurs even if the mother ingests only a small amount, scientists from Binghampton University, New York revealed. The study was the first to investigate the effect that alcohol consumption during pregnancy has on alcohol-related behavior for generations that were not exposed to alcohol in the uterus. Study author Dr Nicole Cameron, an assistant professor of psychology, said: 'We now need to identify how this effect is pass through multiple generations by investigating the effects alcohol has on the genome and epigenome (molecules that control gene translation).' Children born with fetal alcohol syndrome face lifelong health problems - including depression, aggression, anxiety, delinquency and a lower capacity for learning, according to a new study Dr Cameron and her team arrived at their conclusions after investigating the effect in rats. They gave pregnant rats the equivalent of one glass of wine, four days in a row, at a period that is the equivalent of the second trimester in humans. Juvenile male and female offspring were then tested for water or alcohol consumption. And when they reached adolescence, the males were tested for sensitivity to alcohol by injecting them with a high-alcohol dose. That made them unresponsive - or fall over drunk - and the scientists measured the time it took them to get back on their four paws. The study found that if a mother drinks during pregnancy - even just a bit - she raises the risk that her offspring will become alcoholic. When a mother consumes the equivalent of one glass of wine four times during the pregnancy, her offspring and grand-offspring, up to the third generation, show increased alcohol preference and less sensitivity to alcohol Dr Nicole Cameron Dr Nicole Cameron, said: 'Our findings show that in the rat, when a mother consumes the equivalent of one glass of wine four times during the pregnancy, her offspring and grand-offspring, up to the third generation, show increased alcohol preference and less sensitivity to alcohol. 'Thus, the offspring are more likely to develop alcoholism. This paper is the first to demonstrate trans-generational effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy on alcohol-related behavior in offspring.' To date, no study has shown a transgenerational effect of prenatal ethanol exposure on ethanol consumption in the second or third generation, she said. Past research has looked at the effects of alcohol exposure during pregnancy, and studied the effects only on the fetuses directly exposed to alcohol in the womb. Other studies have looked at the effects on cellular activity over multiple generations, but never alcohol-related behaviors over multiple generations. Dr Cameron and her team will now focus their research on investigating how the effect is past down through the generations. The study was published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The Zika outbreak is likely to get worse before it gets better, the head of the World Health Organization has warned. Director general Margaret Chan made the comments at the end of her two-day visit to Brazil, the country at the epicenter of the Zika crisis. Her stark warning came as the first cases were reported in the Czech Republic today. 'Things may get worse before they get better,' Ms Chan said at a news conference in Rio de Janeiro. 'Don't be surprised to see microcephaly reported in other parts of Brazil.' The Zika outbreak is likely to get worse before it gets better, the head of the World Health Organization has warned As yet, Brazil's Zika outbreak has been concentrated in the northeastern part of the nation. Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly, a condition marked by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems. Ms Chan underscored that scientists are still working to determine causality between the virus and the birth defect. Today, the WHO also said that while Zika has been detected in breast milk from two mothers, there have been no reports of Zika being transmitted to babies via breastfeeding. It said the benefits of breastfeeding for the infant and mother 'outweigh any potential risk of Zika virus transmission through breast milk'. Brazil said this week it has confirmed more than 580 cases of microcephaly, and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating more than 4,100 additional suspected cases of microcephaly. A health worker draws blood from three-month-old Shayde Henrique who was born with microcephaly in Joao Pessoa, Brazil. Speaking on a visit to Brazil, WHO director general Margaret Chan warned people in the country the outbreak was likely to get worse before it improved One of the people from the Czech Republic, today diagnosed with Zika, had been to the Dominican Republic, pictured above, where a member of the Dominican Air Force sprays during an operation to combat the mosquito aedes aegypti that transmits the virus Zika, in Santo Domingo World Health Organization director Margaret Chan wears a t-shirt from the Brazilian campaign against zika 'ZikaZero' next to Brazilian Health Minister, Marcelo Castro at a press conference where she warned the worst was not over After Brazil, Colombia has been hardest hit by Zika infections with the country's health officials reporting on Wednesday a probable case of microcephaly possibly linked to Zika in an aborted foetus. Don't be surprised to see microcephaly reported in other parts of Brazil Margaret Chan, WHO Colombia has reported more than 37,000 cases of Zika including 6,356 in pregnant women but has yet to have a confirmed microcephaly case linked to the virus. At least 34 countries, mostly in the Americas, have active Zika outbreaks and the virus is expected to spread. The WHO declared the outbreak an international health emergency on February 1, citing a 'strongly suspected' relationship between Zika infection in pregnancy and microcephaly. Scientists are also studying a potential link between Zika infection and Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological disorder that can weaken the muscles and cause paralysis. The CDC is investigating 14 new cases of possible sexual transmission of the ZIka virus in the US Today, it was confirmed that two Czechs returning from separate trips to the Caribbean have been diagnosed with Zika. Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek the virus had been detected in a man returning from Martinique and in a woman who traveled to the Dominican Republic. Their conditions do not require hospitalisation, he said. Earlier this week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was looking into 14 suspected cases of the virus. In two of the reported cases, the infection has been confirmed in women whose only known risk factor was sexual contact with an ill male partner. In both cases the male partner had recently traveled to an area where the Zika virus is present, the agency said. The CDC said they are still waiting for testing to be completed on the male partners. Scientists have discovered pancreatic cancer, illustrated, is in fact four separate diseases, raising hopes of new treatments Pancreatic cancer has long been thought to be a solitary - yet deadly - disease. But a new study suggests that assumption is wrong. Instead, scientists have discovered that pancreatic cancer is in fact four separate diseases. And, each disease has different genetic triggers and survival rates, they said. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly forms of the disease - with a five-year survival rate of just five per cent, and a 10-year survival rate of just one per cent. It has famously claimed the lives of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs and actor Alan Rickman. This discovery is a breakthrough in the quest to effectively treat the disease, scientists claimed, raising hopes of new, targeted therapies. Study author Professor Sean Grimmond, of University of Melbourne, said: 'Knowing which sub-type a patient has would allow a doctor to provide a more accurate prognosis and treatment recommendations.' Nearly 8,800 people in the UK are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year - and only 20 per cent survive more than a year after being diagnosed. And in the US, 53,070 adults are diagnosed each year - with only 29 per cent surviving more than a year, according to the American Cancer Society. Professor Grimmond said there is an urgent need for more knowledge about the genetic causes for the cancer. To arrive at their findings, the team of scientists analyzed 456 pancreatic tumors. They were hoping to figure out what processes are damaged when normal pancreatic tissues are transformed into aggressive cancers. Professor Grimmond said: 'We identified 32 genes from 10 genetic pathways that are consistently mutated in pancreatic tumors. 'But further analysis of gene activity revealed four distinct sub-types of tumors. 'This study demonstrates that pancreatic cancer is better considered as four separate diseases, with different survival rates, treatments and underlying genetics.' The four sub-types are: squamous, pancreatic progenitor, immunogenic and ADEX, he revealed. His team also discovered 10 genetic pathways that transform normal pancreatic tissue into cancerous tumors. Some of those processes relate to bladder and lung cancers. That finding opens the possibility of using treatments for these cancers to also treat pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is known to be one of the most deadly forms of cancer. Its current survival rate is only five per cent after five years,a and one per cent after 10 years. The disease recently claimed the life of actor Alan Rickman (pictured left), and Apple Inc co-founder Steve Jobs (right) in 2011 Professor Grimmond noted that there are already cancer drugs available or in development that could target parts of the 'damaged machinery' that leads to pancreatic cancer. For instance, some strains of the disease are associated with mutations that are normally linked to colon cancer or leukemia, which experimental drugs are being used to treat. Study co-author Dr Peter Bailey said: 'The standard of care for pancreatic cancer really hasn't changed in the last 20 years. If we can predict more accurately which treatment would be most effective for each patient, we can ensure patients have the best chance of living for as long as possible, as well as possible Leanne Reynolds, of the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK 'There are a number of different chemotherapeutic options but in general it's not very selective - it's like hitting the disease with a mallet with your eyes closed.' The results of the study are 'incredibly exciting,' according to the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK. Leanne Reynolds, head of research for the charity, said the findings meant that in the future 'the right patients can be given the right treatment at the right time'. Ms Reynolds said: 'This is crucial for people with pancreatic cancer, because the disease is difficult to diagnose, is often diagnosed terribly late, and just four per cent of people live for five years or more after diagnosis. 'If we can predict more accurately which treatment would be most effective for each patient, we can ensure patients have the best chance of living for as long as possible, as well as possible.' Dr Emma Smith, from Cancer Research UK, said: 'Identifying different types of pancreatic cancer and revealing the disease's complexity is an important step towards finding more effective treatments. 'This will help to ensure patients are given the therapies that are most likely to help. A 24-year-old has been left with horrific burns after an e-cigarette battery blew up in his pocket and set his entire leg on fire. Robbie Robson's leg went up in flames and a loud bang went off 'like a firework' as his fiance Kerry Anne watched on and screamed in shock. The civil engineer suffered second and third degree burns and may require surgery after the explosion on Saturday, while the pair were out shopping in Aylesham, Kent. Robbie Robson's leg went up in flames after his e-cigarette battery exploded in his pocket - leaving his fiancee Kerry Anne (left) watching on in horror The civil engineer suffered second and third degree burns and may require surgery after the explosion on Saturday, while the pair were out shopping in Aylesham, Kent Mr Robson had been carrying some spare batteries for his e-cigarette in his trousers when one exploded and set his entire right leg on fire. He managed to reach into his pocket to push out one battery which had rapidly burnt through the material of his trousers. The other battery then melted onto his thigh - so he pulled it off before putting out the fire engulfing his entire leg Mr Robson had been carrying some spare batteries for his e-cigarette in his trousers when one exploded and set his entire right leg on fire. He managed to reach into his pocket to push out one battery which had rapidly burnt through the material of his trousers. The other battery then melted onto his thigh - so he pulled it off and threw it away before putting out the fire that had engulfed his entire leg. He said: 'We were just stood in the shop and all of a sudden there was a loud bang. 'It was just like a firework went off and the next thing I know my leg caught on fire. I managed to luckily put it out and get the batteries out my trousers. 'People need to be aware of this so it doesn't happen to anyone else.' The civil engineer, from Aylesham, went straight to A&E at Kent and Canterbury Hospital where he was cleaned up, revealing serious burns from the top of his thigh down to his ankle. If the burns fail to heal properly, doctors have warned he will need extensive skin grafts Mr Robson has been using e-cigarettes since June last year to give up a 30-plus cigarettes-a-day habit. He always carries a spare pair of batteries in his pocket in case the e-cigarette runs out of charge He was then sent to Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead the following morning, where he was told he had second and third degree burns. If the burns fail to heal properly, he will need extensive skin grafts. In the meantime, Mr Robson has been told to walk on it as little as possible and to rest. I want Robbie to rest up. I offered to make his Pot Noodle but he wouldn't let the situation beat him - and because I wouldn't make it right. He has just done amazing Mr Robson's fiancee, Kerry Anne Vincent 'However, the way he handled it and how he has dealt with the pain after has just been amazing. I have never seen anyone be so calm and brave. He was truly amazing,' Miss Vincent said. 'And even now, knowing his leg will be scarred and he may need surgery it hasn't phased him. 'I want him to rest up - I offered to make his Pot Noodle but he wouldn't let it beat him, and because I wouldn't make it right. He has just done amazing.' Mr Robson has been using e-cigarettes since June last year to give up a 30-plus cigarettes-a-day habit. He started with an 'average e-cig' but it kept breaking so he decided to move on to a more 'expensive, larger tank'. This type needs 18650 40A rechargeable batteries and Mr Robson says he always carries a spare pair of batteries in his pocket in case the e-cigarette runs out of charge. His ordeal comes just days after MailOnline reported the stories of three other people left scarred by exploding e-cigarette batteries. Jana Barker holds the burnt remnants of her handbag and the e-cigarette battery which caught fire while she was travelling in a car with her husband and daughter The device caused horrific burns when it caught fire in her bag, which was resting on her lap Wullie Scott, pictured here with wife Louise, was at a family dinner when the battery exploded in his pocket Mr Scott suffered third degree burns and needed a skin graft after the battery ignited in his jeans Jana Barker was left with horrendous burns on her leg after the device caught fire in her handbag while she was travelling in a car near Stockport. Meanwhile, Wullie Scott, suffered third degree burns in the terrifying blast in his parents' kitchen after a family dinner. Mr Scott, from Fife, needed a skin graft after suffering injuries which went as far down to his shin as well as burns to his wrist from trying to slap out the flames. And last week Dan Walker, 20, told how he has been left scarred for life after an e-cigarette battery exploded 'like a firework' in his pocket. Speaking about Mr Robson's ordeal, his fiancee, a former Miss European beauty queen, said: 'We were in our local shop, just finding some nibbles to have a nice evening together. Infertility treatment could be revolutionised after scientists succeeded in making sperm from scratch in the lab. The landmark study brings hope to thousands of men, including survivors of childhood cancer, who are desperate to become fathers. The breakthrough means that in the future, sperm grown from slivers of their skin could allow them to have children that are genetically their own. Around one in seven couples has trouble conceiving, and although infertility is traditionally considered a female issue, the problem is as likely to lie with the man as the woman. And while IVF can help some men, many are told that nothing that can be done. The breakthrough means that in the future, sperm grown from slivers of their skin could allow them to have children that are genetically their own (file image) The creation of sperm in the body is so complex and lengthy that it had been thought impossible to recreate in a dish. Scientists have had some success in recent years, but the latest research, from China, is the most thorough and promising yet. The Nanjing Medical University team not only succeeded in making mouse sperm in the lab they used it to fertilise eggs, which led to the birth of baby mice. Importantly, these pups were healthy and went on to have young of their own, the journal Cell Stem Cell reports. The team began by taking embryonic stem cells blank cells with the power to turn into other cell types, creating a repair kit for the body. They used a cocktail of chemicals, hormones and testicular cells to turn them into spermatids. These are round, early-stage sperm, which lack tails but can still fertilise eggs. The researchers plan to start trying to create human sperm soon and say it could be in use in IVF clinics within a decade. The stem cells used came from embryos but using a sliver of a mans skin as starting material for the new sperm would allow him to have children that are genetically his own. Researcher Jiahao Sha said his work holds tremendous promise for treating male infertility. He added: Because currently available treatments do not work for many couples, we hope our research could substantially improve success rates for male infertility. British and US experts agreed the work has the potential to transform IVF treatment but cautioned that what works in mice doesnt always work in people. The Nanjing Medical University team not only succeeded in making mouse sperm in the lab they used it to fertilise eggs, which led to the birth of baby mice (file image) Safety is also a major concern. Dr Terry Hassold, as Washington State University, said the technique could revolutionise assisted reproduction as we know it. He added: All IVF clinics would be likely to hop on it. Dr Kyle Orwig, of the University of Pittsburgh, said the research has the wow-factor. However, only time will tell if it will help men. Professor Allan Pacey, a Sheffield University male fertility expert, said being able to make artificial sperm would be remarkable. By unlocking the secrets of male reproduction, the breakthrough could also lead to new contraceptives and even miracle pill to treat infertility. However, it also raises a host of ethical concerns, including the possibility of a dystopian future in which men are redundant from the process of creating life. Reports of a stillbirth in Brazil suggests that the Zika virus may be linked to additional birth complications, experts have warned. In January, a pregnant woman infected with Zika delivered a stillborn child, it has emerged. The baby was missing a substantial portion of brain tissue, in addition to severe swelling and fluid build-up in other parts of the body. The woman didn't report any Zika symptoms - but the infection was found in the fetus, according to a case report. Thus, disease detectives need to take a closer look at stillbirths in Zika-affected areas, concluded a team of scientists from Yale University and the Hospital Geral Roberto Santos in Salvador, Brazil. The Zika virus has already been linked to microcephaly (pictured here on a baby) - a birth defect that results in an abnormally small head and brain damage. But now, scientists have also linked Zika to stillbirths, the absence of brain tissue and dangerous fluid build-up in babies Case study co-author Dr Albert Ko, of Yale, said: 'These finding raise concerns that the virus may cause severe damage to fetuses leading to stillbirths and may be associated with effects other than those seen in the central nervous system.' Zika has been spreading rapidly through Latin America. The virus raised global concern after Brazil saw a surge of babies born with a birth defect called microcephaly. The defect causes babies to be born with unusually small heads - which can signal underlying brain damage. However, scientists are still working to determine if the mosquito-borne virus actually causes microcephaly. Yet, in several previously published studies, scientists found both the virus and serious brain abnormalities after fetal or newborn death. The case report could cause doctors to be on alert for other congenital problems - such as fluid build-up - during prenatal ultrasounds of at-risk women. The fluid build-up problem described in the study is called hydrops featalis. If hydrops fetalis alone is spotted in an ultrasound, 'you might not immediately attribute it to Zika virus because what has been described are brain abnormalities,' maternal-fetal viral infections expert Dr Sallie Permar, of Duke Human Vaccine Expert, told the Associated Press. Yet, the case suggests 'that this could be a systemic infection of the fetus, that not only the brain development could be affected,' Dr Permar added. An ultrasound of the stillborn in the case report showed no sign of trouble in the 14th week of pregnancy. Scientists warn that the mosquito-borne virus may be responsible for those additional defects. They urged disease defects to take a closer look at stillbirths in Zika-ravaged areas But, by 18 weeks, another ultrasound showed that the fetus was underweight. The woman's doctors detected a range of defects by week 30 - including microcephaly and hydrops featalis. And, two weeks later, the fetus died. The Zika virus was detected in brain tissue and amniotic fluid in subsequent testing. Dr Ko said: 'Additional work is needed to understand if this is an isolated finding and to confirm whether Zika virus can actually cause hydrops fetalis.' The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned pregnant women - as well as those considering becoming pregnant - against traveling to Zika-affected areas. But if a pregnant woman has already traveled to at-risk regions, she can undergo tests to detect if she was infected. Ultrasound exams can also track fetal health. A once-a-day HIV prevention pill failed to protect a gay man from a drug-resistant strain of the virus, doctors have revealed. The 43-year-old man had been taking Truvada pre-exposure prophylaxis medication (PrEP) - pills every day for two years. However, the man recently tested positive for a drug-resistant HIV strain, reported the HIV/AIDS website PoZ. Blood tests indicate the man was infected 'very recently'. He tested positive for the p24 antigen which appears within three weeks of HIV infection and disappears a few weeks afterwards. Additionally, the man tested negative for HIV antibodies which usually appear two to eight weeks after infection. The report suggests PrEP may not be as effective on drug-resistant strains, experts warn. Doctors revealed a 43-year-old man who had been taking daily pre-exposure prophylaxis medication (PrEP, pictured) - which is believed to prevent HIV infection - has contracted a drug-resistant strain of the disease The study was presented by Dr David Knox, a HIV specialist at the Maple Leaf Medical Center, at the 2016 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston. Truvada, manufactured by Gilead, is a combination of two drugs - known as tenofovir and emtricitabine - and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2012, as PrEP to prevent HIV infections. Initial trials last year found it to be 90 per cent effective in preventing HIV infections among gay and bisexual men and transgender women who consistently took the daily pill. Pharmacy records of the individual at the heart of the case study showed that he had consistently filled his Truvada prescription on time. Doctors conducted dried blood-spot testing on a sample that was taken 16 days after his positive HIV results. PrEP can sometimes be ineffective in the face of drug resistant virus, in the same way that treatment itself can sometimes be ineffective in the face of drug resistant virus Dr Richard Harrigan, of the British Columbia Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS That test indicated that he had adhered well to Truvada during the previous one to two months. However, that time period overlaps with when doctors estimate he contracted HIV. Dr Robert Grant, of University of California, San Francisco, who was head of a trial that first proved PrEPs effectiveness, told PoZ: This person claims he was taking PrEP every day and I believe him. Doctors conducted additional tests on samples taken a week after the man received his positive results. Those tests found that the virus contained many drug-resistant mutations. However, the man is currently undergoing HIV treatment and has a fully suppressed viral load. Dr Richard Harrigan, of the British Columbia Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, told PoZ: I certainly don't think that this is a situation which calls for panic. It is an example that demonstrates that PrEP can sometimes be ineffective in the face of drug resistant virus, in the same way that treatment itself can sometimes be ineffective in the face of drug resistant virus. BOOK OF THE WEEK A Mothers Reckoning by Sue Klebold (WH Allen 16.99) The biggest cloud on Sue Klebold's horizon, as she set off for work in Denver, Colorado, on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, was the declining health of Rocky, the elderly family cat. Other than that, everything was hunky-dory. She had just turned 50, felt secure in a long and loving marriage, and had a rewarding job working with disabled students. Dylan, pictured right as a small child, took an arsenal of guns and home-made bombs with his friend Eric to Columbine High and murdered 12 pupils and a teacher. His mother, pictured left, had no idea he was planning it Best of all, her two sons, both named after British poets, were thriving. The elder, Byron, had a decent job and was sharing an apartment with a friend. The younger, Dylan, was in his final year at Columbine High School in Littleton, just outside Denver. He had put a few fairly innocuous disciplinary problems behind him and was making excellent progress. Three days earlier, he had gone with a date to the school prom, looking happy and handsome. When she heard him get home at 4am, Sue had got out of bed to ask how his evening had gone. He'd said it was the best night of his life. That was Saturday. But on this Tuesday morning a message flashed on her office phone. It was her husband, Tom, telling her to call him immediately. His voicemail marked the abrupt end of her old, contented existence, and the start of a new one of unimaginable anguish. For 17-year-old Dylan, with his friend Eric Harris, had that morning taken an arsenal of guns and home-made bombs to Columbine High and murdered 12 pupils and a teacher, and wounded 24 others, before killing themselves. In A Mother's Reckoning, Sue chronicles the deeply painful soul-searching she has done since that terrible day. At times, the guilt and grief have been virtually unendurable. Tom often said he wished Dylan had killed them, too. After all, in a way, Dylan had. He had killed the people they were, and the lives they had led. In A Mother's Reckoning, Sue chronicles the deeply painful soul-searching she has done since that terrible day She, too, sometimes longed for death. 'I prayed I'd pass away in my sleep,' she writes, 'a quiet deliverance from the agony of waking up and realising it hadn't all been a terrible nightmare.' When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, less than two years after the tragedy, it at first seemed like a blessed exit route. But she recovered. Almost 17 years on, the pain endures, and so do the questions. The more charismatic Eric appears to have been a homicidal psychopath, Dylan a suicidal depressive. Eric wanted to kill, and didn't care if he died. Dylan wanted to die, and didn't care if he killed. It was a catastrophic cocktail of psychological frailties. Eric wanted to kill, and didn't care if he died. Dylan wanted to die, and didn't care if he killed. It was a catastrophic cocktail of psychological frailties Yet Sue had no notion that Dylan was anything but a typical middle-class American teenager. She liked most of his friends (except Eric), and enjoyed watching him mature as he prepared to go to college. He didn't seem unhealthily interested in guns, or violent imagery. Beyond the question of how they were going to pay for his college education (heartbreakingly, Sue berates herself for airing this anxiety in front of him, as if he might have decided to free them from the obligation), they had no real concerns about his future. One afternoon, in an instinctive demonstration of a mother's love, Sue threw her arms around him and told him how proud she and Tom were of him. 'He looked down, embarrassed, and whispered his thanks,' she recalls. Less than two weeks later he had helped to perpetrate what at the time was the worst school massacre in U.S. history. Adam Lanza murdered even more children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, but 'Columbine-related materials' were found in his belongings. It is thought that at least 17 subsequent attacks on schools can be tied to Columbine. So how and why did it happen? This book, as harrowing as it is engrossing, challenges the glib if understandable verdict of all those who felt there must have been signs of impending tragedy, and that more engaged parents would have spotted them. A Mothers Reckoning by Sue Klebold For those of us who are also parents of teenagers (I have a son who is exactly the age Dylan was when he died), it would be somehow reassuring to know that theirs was a dysfunctional family or that there were indeed neon danger signs. It wasn't and there weren't. Yet, plainly, on one basic level, Sue and Tom Klebold did not really know their son. The attack was carefully plotted, yet they had no idea that he was feeling unhappy, still less suicidal, still less murderous. That's what makes it such a scary book to read. The Klebolds were a family rather like mine, and maybe yours, too. Yes, they lived in a society in which firearms are readily available, but Sue tried to pass on to her sons her own hatred of guns and is sickened by the oft-aired argument from the powerful pro-weapons lobby that if her boy had grown up 'more habituated' to guns, or if the teachers had been armed, Columbine could have been avoided. Besides, even with access to guns, he didn't really fit the profile of a potential school killer. He wasn't a brooding loner, and although he was bullied, picked on by a group of younger kids for his height (he was well over 6ft tall) and long hair, it doesn't appear to have been too much of a torment. Alarmingly, he and Eric are lionised even now by some victims of bullying, as if they were heroes rather than mass murderers. But to Sue, it was no less alarming when, shortly after the massacre, the two boys appeared on the cover of Time magazine, next to the headline The Monsters Next Door. 'Despite the monstrous nature of what he had done,' she writes, 'it hurt me terribly to see that word used to describe him and utterly surreal to see his face under that iconic logo. It was still hard to believe Dylan had done something horrendous enough that the neighbours would know about it, let alone the entire world.' This book doesn't just record her own turbulent emotions, but also the response of those neighbours, and of the wider world. Their lawyer told them to prepare for 'a firestorm of hatred', and it duly rained down upon them. But they received much kindness, too. Even in the immediate wake of the massacre, the local community rallied round. Food was routinely delivered to their door (although the lawyer insisted they must check it for poison) and from further afield, people 'from all walks of life wrote to us; clergymen, attorneys, teachers, social workers, policemen, U.S. Marines, and prisoners. 'The generosity was astounding. People offered legal services, confidential talks, massages, and private cabins where we could hide from the press.' BIOGRAPHY While it is yet day by Averil Opperman (Orphans Publishing 16.99) Kind and careworn beneath her modest Quaker cap, the wise old eyes of Elizabeth Fry have gazed out from our five pound notes for a decade now. This year she will be replaced by Churchill, and in the years I've been folding her face into my purse I'm ashamed to admit all I knew about her was that she did something worthy on prison reform. Kind and careworn beneath her modest Quaker cap, the wise old eyes of Elizabeth Fry have gazed out from our five pound notes for a decade now Luckily, Averil Opperman's perfect gem of a biography brings this spirited British heroine to life in a way that her rather sober portrait could never do. The courageous daughter of a Norfolk gent, Elizabeth (eventually) fell for her stolid suitor and gradually exchanged her love of bright fashion and opera for days spent campaigning for law reform and reading to prostitutes. Born in 1780, Elizabeth was the third of 13 children of kindly banker John Gurney and his wife Catherine. The siblings spent a joyful childhood playing hide and seek in the many rooms, corridors and cupboards of their home, Earlham Hall. As a Quaker, their father believed in educating his seven daughters and allowing them to speak freely. And as a 'gay' Quaker, Gurney allowed his energetic brood to enjoy music, dancing and fine clothes of which their 'plain' brethren (like his brother Joseph) disapproved. But there was sadness too. Catherine Gurney died when Elizabeth was just 12 and her youngest brother was still a toddler. As a small child, little 'Betsy' had been more sensitive than her elder sisters. She felt she was neither commanding like Kitty, nor beautiful like Rachel, and became so terrified of death that she would regularly creep through the house in the middle of the night to check on her delicate mother. Now her worst fear had come to pass. She was inspired to good works by a visiting American Quaker and, aged 18, she had established a school for 70 poor local children in the laundry of Earlham Hall Betsy's love of gaiety and her desire to please her merry family would always battle against her more serious side that caused her to question their luxurious life. 'I am a bubble, without reason, without beauty of mind or person,' she wrote in her diary at 17. 'If some kind or great circumstance does not happen to me, I shall have my talents devoured by moth and rust.' She was inspired to good works by a visiting American Quaker and, aged 18, she had established a school for 70 poor local children in the laundry of Earlham Hall. 'Betsy's Imps', her bemused siblings called the mucky kids. And although Elizabeth dreaded 'turning plain', she knew that was what was happening to her. The shift was cemented when she married the London banker Joseph Fry in 1800, taking her time to appreciate the good, honest heart that dwelt beneath his blunt manners. She would bear him 11 children, her interest in social reform growing as her family did. She remained a nervous woman, possibly suffering bouts of post-natal depression and requiring doses of opium and wine to settle her through the fears of the night. But when she heard about the appalling conditions of the women in the recently rebuilt Newgate prison, she didn't think twice, striding in alone when the male turnkeys dared enter only in pairs. Ever practical, she quickly established order and cleanliness. She read the bible, put the women to wholesome (and profitable) needlework and established a school for the children incarcerated with their parents. Before long she was educating their mothers, too. 23 Number of months a 5 note is in circulation Advertisement The authorities were astonished at the changes wrought by the quiet charisma of one woman and soon she found herself advising both king and parliament. Watching her at work with the prisoners soon became one of the most fashionable sights in London. Opperman includes distressing descriptions of the 19th century British penal system. There are awful tales of young mothers executed for petty crimes leaving wailing infants behind them, and we can't begin to imagine the horrors endured by many of those transported to Australia. Disreputable sailors would offer them for sex at ports or rape them throughout the foul voyage. Many died on arrival. But Fry established a system through which the ships were supplied with clean clothes, teachers and the means for each woman to make a quilt she could sell when the ship docked. Fry also set up the first training system for professional nurses. Florence Nightingale would later take some of Fry's Nurses with her to the Crimea. Though her achievements make her sound saintly, Fry's diaries reveal a wonderfully warm, self-doubting woman to whom many modern working mothers will find it easy to relate. For while Fry could quell the tempers of lawless criminals and arrogant politicians, she often failed to control her own strong-willed children. Her in-laws irritated her, as did a Quaker community more interested in debating the finer details of a modest wardrobe than providing bread to the children freezing to death in the streets outside. ANATOMY OF A SOLDIER by Harry Parker ANATOMY OF A SOLDIER by Harry Parker (Faber 14.99) Anyone who remembers the awful results of being asked, as a child, to write a first-person account of a day in the life of the penny may flinch at the prospect of Afghan veteran Harry Parkers debut novel. The story of the Afghan war of British soldier BA5799 later revealed as Captain Tom Barnes is narrated by a series of objects associated with him and the terrorists he is fighting, including a helmet, an army boot, a boys bicycle, a bag of fertiliser and an improvised exploding device. At first this is irritating but gradually its raison detre becomes clear, which is to allow an objective, dispassionate account of what happens to Tom, seen from a variety of angles. What makes it work is the matter-of-fact way horrific events are brought to life. That and some truly powerful writing. The mayhem caused to a human body by an IED is graphically and harrowingly narrated; the rehabilitation of a double amputee is masterfully and movingly told. Who would have thought a beer glass could understand human emotions so well? Parkers novel may well be the finest so far to emerge from the UKs 21st century wars. THUS BAD BEGINS by Javier Marias THUS BAD BEGINS by Javier Marias (Hamish Hamilton 18.99) Spain 1980. In the aftermath of Francos long Fascist dictatorship, 23-year-old Juan takes a job as gofer to film director Eduardo Muriel, a man he comes to respect and admire almost unreservedly for his intelligence and urbanity. The almost concerns Muriels treatment of his wife, Beatriz. Installed in the Muriel home, Juan witnesses what the world does not see Muriels verbal abuse of his wife and disdain for her. Juan overhears the director cruelly dismiss her requests to be allowed to sleep with her husband. Muriel learns of a shocking rumour about his friend, Dr Jorge Van Vechten, and, without revealing its substance, asks Juan to get close to the man, hoping he will let slip something that will confirm it. Spying becomes Juans role and of his own volition he begins to follow Beatriz to try to unlock the secret of what she has done to make her husband despise her. Marias in this beautiful translation from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa writes elegant and beautiful sentences, reminiscent of Proust but accessibly less complex, with powerful imagery: a long marriage becomes a view from the window you get used to and the transitoriness of life like chalk wiped from a blackboard. Magnificent. EILEEN by Ottessa Moshfegh EILEEN by Ottessa Moshfegh (Cape 16.99) Eileen is a disturbed young woman whose life is caught between looking after her alcoholic father and a lowly admin job at the local boys prison. At once full of self-loathing while feeling smugly superior to her workmates, Eileen dreams of escaping from her snowy New England home town to New York but makes do with the excitement of shoplifting. Her love life consists of lusting over hunky prison guard Randy, who hardly notices her existence. Everything changes with the arrival of Rebecca, a stunningly beautiful and classy education officer. Dazzled by Rebeccas charisma, Eileen is flattered by the attention bestowed upon her by the sophisticated newcomer and rapidly plunges into what she assumes will be a life-changing friendship with her. It doesnt take long though before it begins to dawn on her that Rebecca is even more troubled than she is herself, but its too late to prevent herself being drawn into a criminal and potentially deadly situation. Jat protest leader Hardik Patel is presently facing sedition charges It seems the courts are apprehensive about media coverage of sensitive issues. And rather than just cautioning the media, they are imposing a complete gag. After curbs on coverage of the JNU case, it is now the turn of the sedition case involving Gujarat Patel quota stir leader Hardik Patel. Journalists were surprised when the Supreme Court on Thursday asked them not to report the Patidar stir case, in which the court is framing rules to make those who damage public property pay for the losses. The order came after Kapil Sibal, the lawyer for Patel, pointed out that the press coverage had ignited passions during several riots. Centre's gift for future fathers Husbands can now be by the side of their partners when their children are born, even in government hospitals. With private hospitals allowing husbands to be with their wives during delivery, government hospitals have not lagged behind. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to allow birth companions during deliveries in government hospitals. Other than the husband, a female relative can be with the pregnant woman at the time of delivery. Somebody's name is missing The top brass of Delhi Police, including two DG level Special Commissioners of Police Deepak Mishra and Vimla Mehra, will be present to welcome the new incumbent Alok Kumar Verma as police chief BS Bassi retires. Curiously, the name of another DG rank officer Dharmendra Kumar is missing from the scheduled event which is to be organised by the Delhi Police on February 29 for the farewell parade of Bassi and reception of Verma. BJP's Swachh drive at 'home' As the saying goes, charity begins at home. And the BJP is taking the Swachh Bharat campaign quite seriously. The party has been renovating lavatories and toilets on the campus of its 11, Ashoka Road national headquarters. The party office already boasts of several toilets that have been newly built, as also the ones attached to individual chambers of functionaries. Rudy mocks cheating fiasco Lending over-emphasis to formal degrees and certificates gives rise to Hajipur-like incidents, said Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister for Skill Development, sending the audience into peals of laughter at India Todays Education Conclave on Thursday. He was referring to the 2015 incident where parents and relatives scaled a 3-storey school building, hanging precariously, to pass cheating notes to their wards to clear the Class 10 board exams. The sprawling Entrepreneur Development Institute in Pampore has been closed to outsiders, after the building was damaged in a three-day encounter between the security forces and heavily-armed militants who used the site as a bunker to attack security personnel. Six people, including three soldiers, died in the attack on Saturday. The campus has two other buildings, and jehlum is one of them. Several employees outside jehlum are congratulating each other for being alive. One of them is Syed Mueed, who works as an information technology manager at the institute, and is the son of Muzaffarabad-based militant chief Syed Salahuddin. Syed Mueed (circled) was evacuated by security personnel as militants struck the Entrepreneur Development Institute in Pampore on 20 February. Mueed works as an information technology manager at the EDI. The EDI building was seriously damaged in a stand-off when three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants occupied it after attacking a CRPF convoy Mueed is one of the 100 people who were evacuated by the special operation group of the police when terrorists struck the campus. Mueed refused to talk to the media, but his colleagues said he was the not the only one who was evacuated. Why do you want to carry news of only his evacuation when all of us were evacuated? He is one among us, said Abdul Rouf Khan, who works as a trainer at EDI. Mueed, 31, is one of Hizbul Mujahideen leader Salahuddins three sons. All Salahuddins sons have distanced themselves from the militants activities. Mueed's two brothers practice medicine. Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin. The militant chief's three sons have distanced themselves from his activities. Hizbul Mujahideen is accused of launching the highest number of attacks against security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. Meanwhile, as the campus returns to normalcy, a sentry at the gate of the building said that there are directions from the police not to allow anyone inside the campus except EDI employees. However, police guarding the building said the directions were passed by the EDI director. Inside, the contractor has started initial work around the sprawling main building. Tin sheets have been erected on the outer wall of the building facing the Srinagar-Jammu highway to prevent people from taking pictures of the structure. Work is on to erect tin sheets around the building so that no one enters it as the threat of unexploded bombs looms large. On the top floor of the main building, employees check the damage done to the structure. Each wall in every room is scarred by thousands of bullets exchanged in the 48-hour long operation, which started on Saturday afternoon when three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants entered the building after attacking a CRPF convoy on the highway. The top floor has been completely gutted, while scores of grenades have left gaping holes on each side of the third and top floor of the building. Insurance officials move from room to room to assess the damage. Mueeds colleague Khan had two mobile phones when militants entered the building and didnt leave them behind. I went to my room to get my mobile as I thought my mother would die of anxiety if she calls after hearing about the encounter and gets no response, he said. Another employee says that he didnt leave behind his mobile phone despite being told to do so by militants. I even went back to the third floor to also get my laptop, he said. Teen fidayeen who escaped Tangdhar nabbed By Naseer Ganai in Srinagar Jammu and Kashmir Police have arrested a Pakistani teenage suicide bomber associated with the Afzal Guru squad of Jaish-e-Muhammad from Kanispora area of Baramulla. The militant has been identified as 17-year-old Muhammad Sadiq alias Shahid, and is a resident of Sialkot in Pakistan, police said. Pakistani militant Muhammad Sadiq, 17, was arrested in Baramulla, J&K The arrested ultra is part of the fidayeen group which attacked the army camp in Tangdhar, around 156 km north of Srinagar on November 25 last year. Tangdhar is close to the Line of Control. Due to his young age, Sadiq was asked by other militants to escape after the attack, police said. On November 25 last year, the Army killed three militants after a fierce gunfight. They had tried to storm the army camp in Tangdhar, but Sadiq escaped. A civilian working at the camp was killed, and two soldiers, including an army officer, were wounded. JeM had claimed responsibility for the attack. They told him to run away as he was very young, a senior police officer said, while adding that the militants probably directed him to go towards Kupwara and asked him to seek directions there. Divyansh Kakrora drowned in a septic tank in Ryan International School Taking a stand on students safety in government and private schools, Delhi High Court on Thursday said it should never again be possible for a child to die after falling into a water tank, as happened in two different schools, and sought suggestions on guidelines to prevent such incidents. The recent deaths raised several questions on the safety and security of children inside school premises. On January 30, a five-year-old boy, Divyansh, drowned in a septic tank in Ryan International School in Vasant Kunj. In a similar incident on January 27, five-year-old Ankit died after falling into an open septic tank in an MCD school in the Kapashera area of south Delhi. A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath further said the authorities concerned should give suggestions to the court so that it can give an order to prevent such incidents. We would like to invite suggestions from the authorities concerned, so that on basis of which a court direction can be given to avoid such incidents in future, the judge said. It also said that on the basis of the suggestion it will make an order, which has to be complied by all schools, so that children are not subjected to any untoward incident. The court's direction came during the hearing of a PIL by Col (retd.) Devinder Sehrawat, MLA from Bijwasan constituency, through advocate Kamlesh Kumar Mishra, who has sought judicial inquiry into the deaths of the children and also called for disaster management assessment of all schools. Your freedom ends where my nose begins. That is what reasonable restriction to free speech means: Say and do what you want as long as you dont break the law - or impinge on others freedom. Dissent is the lifeblood of democracy. Incitement is its death knell. In India, however, dissent often crosses the line into incitement. Congress activists burn an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah during a protest against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest Insurgent groups have many benefactors: Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, Maoists, and Kashmiri separatists. They instigate dissent with the hope that it will morph into violence and anarchy. The key for any government is to differentiate between dissent and incitement. By treating both with the same heavy hand, it plays into the narrative of those who want violence and not debate. The anti-national controversy is a red herring. Journalists opposed to the government are not anti-national. But some of the causes they espouse are. The relationship between journalists and politicians is, by definition, adversarial. The fourth estate must be a watchdog, not a lapdog. Instigators In the debate over anti-nationals, the real anti-nationals escape scrutiny. They are the hidden instigators and their reach is both wide and malignant. They include a relatively small section of students at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). The Modi government made a mistake treating all students in the JNU crackdown with the same bludgeon. That gave the real culprits those who seek to weaken India, not just engage in dissent the pretext they were looking for. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) rally on the JNU issue marching towards the Jadavpur University campus in Kolkata The obvious error was using the draconian law of sedition against the president of the JNU Students Union Kanhaiya Kumar. That elevated a students protest into an anti-government movement - exactly what the instigators wanted. Sedition is a serious matter. It should be invoked in the rarest of rare cases. A colonial-era law aimed at curtailing Indian freedom fighters against the British, it has no place in an independent country. Fortunately, the courts agreed. As jurist Fali Nariman wrote in The Indian Express last week: In 1962, when a challenge was made to the constitutional validity of the offence of sedition as incorporated in Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, the Supreme Court held that it preferred to follow the more liberal interpretation of the term sedition as given by the Federal Court in 1942 rather than the pedantic and strictly colonial interpretation of sedition rendered in the Privy Council opinion of 1947," Nariman stated. Sedition is a serious matter. It should be invoked in the rarest of rare cases. "As a consequence, sedition in India is not unconstitutional, it remains an offence only if the words, spoken or written, are accompanied by disorder and violence. Mere hooliganism, disorder and other forms of violence, though punishable under other provisions of the penal code and under other laws, are not punishable under Section 124A of the penal code, Nariman wrote in The Indian Express. Army veterans join the anti-JNU chorus marching against 'anti-national' sloganeering in New Delhi Sedition One of the publications in my media group, Sterling Newspapers, carried a cover story by our national affairs editor, Harish Mehta, on the Khalistani agitation. In the course of the story, Harish interviewed a terrorist, Rajinder Kaur, who made seditious remarks against the serving prime minister. Within weeks of the cover story being published, the home ministry issued us a notice. An FIR was filed. We were accused of sedition. The offence carries capital punishment. All of us were charged: Myself as editor-in-chief and publisher, my national affairs editor Harish Mehta, and the terrorist Rajinder Kaur. We got a stay on the trial from the Delhi High Court. Eventually, the stay was vacated and the trial began in the Patiala House Court complex - where the trial of Kanhaiya Kumar could be held unless the Delhi High Court, following his bail hearing next Monday, quashes the case. We were lucky. Our defence rested on a journalists right to convey the truth without inciting violence. We had an outstanding judge in the trial court. Despite a dozen visits to Patiala House Court between 2009 and 2011, including deliberate adjournments by government lawyers, the case was thrown out and we received a clean acquittal. Jawaharlal Nehru University students agitate for the release of SU President Kanhaiya Kumar Vigilance The charge of sedition against Kanhaiya is unjustified. He has been used as a pawn by vested interests. While attention is focused on him, real culprits like Umar Khalid may get away. They are instigated by groups whose raison detre is anti-Indianism. The anti-national debate over Kanhaiya confuses real issues. First, anti-national elements will use every opportunity to weaken Indias unity. The government must target these treacherous elements in India and outside - but not students who are their sacrificial goats. The Indian Penal Code has sufficient provisions to book rogue students. Sedition isnt one of them. Second, dont let anti-nationals control the narrative. They know India is too big and stable to be damaged beyond a point. Their aim is disruption, not destruction. Deal with them with clinical precision. Third, use the law of sedition sparingly - on those who incite violence and advocate the overthrow of the state - not on sloganeering students. Its counter-productive. Nationalism cant be forced upon citizens. By definition it is voluntary. Much more important is national interest. That needs protection and constant vigilance. Confusing nationalism with national interest allows the enemies of India to hide behind a veil provided by overwrought students and their instigators. The Supreme Court has raised serious concerns over damage to public property during agitations such as the recent Patel protests in Gujarat and the Jat quota stir in Haryana. People who indulge in such vandalism should be made to pay for the loss of the nation's assets, a bench headed by Justice J S Khehar said yesterday. Making it clear that the apex court will lay down guidelines in this regard 'within its parameters' if the Centre failed to do so, he said: 'No one can hold the country to ransom during agitations. Electricity board officials restore power supplies in Rohtak on Wednesday after the Jat quota agitation put Haryana on the edge 'Whether it is BJP, Congress or any other organisation, they must realise that they can be held accountable for the damages to public property. 'Whoever is holding protests, they will collect the money and pay for the damages. What is happening in this country? This is happening everywhere now.' The court was hearing petitions filed by Patel (Patidhar) quota stir leader Hardik Patels plea to quash sedition proceedings against him. During the Patel quota stir in Gujarat which raged between July and August last year, eight people were killed and scores of public property damaged. The court also referred indirectly to the ongoing Jat quota stir in Haryana, without naming it. The discontent has claimed 18 lives and injured 150 so far, as well as causing damage to public property, including buses and public buildings in large numbers. The Supreme Court said 'nobody should be able to hold the country to ransom during agitations' When the hearing began and Patels lawyer sought an adjournment, the bench told Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who was appearing for Gujarat government, that 'there was an ancillary issue along with the petition which the court would like to take up and that was damage to public property. It said: 'Who should be made to pay for the damage of property? This has to be decided. Such people should be made to know the consequence of their actions. It is high time one took a call on it.' Justice Khehar added: 'We cannot allow people to burn nations properties and take the country to ransom in the name of agitation.' Meanwhile, Rohatgi told the court that with a charge-sheet now filed against Patel, the plea to quash the FIR had become meaningless. But the court said it could be considered whether the two 'are substantially the same'. It is to be noted that on December 15, the court had issued notice to the Gujarat government on a fresh petition filed by Patel against a high court order refusing to quash sedition charges against him for allegedly attacking places like police stations in the state. 'At best the case is of intemperate language and the provisions invoked against him does not fit in... this is a totally different case. From where does sedition come I dont understand,' senior lawyer Kapil Sibal told the bench while appearing for him. Water trickles back to capital By Mail Today Reporter Days after supplies were hit by the Jat quota stir, water distribution improved in north and west Delhi as four treatment plants began functioning at full capacity - but residents in the city's south and central areas continued to face shortages. The supply of water may be affected for the next two weeks in the Capital as it will take at least 15 days to repair the damaged Carrier Lined Channel in Munak canal, according to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). Several areas of Dwarka, Rohini, and parts of north-west Delhi are still without water. CRPF personnel stand guard at the partially damaged Munak canal in Sonepat, Haryana According to the DJB, water treatment plants at Haiderpur, Bawana, Nangloi and Chandrawal were functioning at 100 per cent capacity, while Wazirabad and Okhla plants were operating at limited capacity. Only the Dwarka plant was non-functional. 'This is a relief to north and west Delhi. Tankers that were plying in these areas have now been reallocated. More tankers have been diverted from west Delhi to Dwarka and Janakpuri. There is still limited supply in central and some parts of north Delhi,' said a senior government official. The official said Bindapur, Karala, Janakpuri and Dwarka were still facing the worst shortage. 'DJB will get water and tankers there in next two shifts. 'Water in areas with narrow roads is being provided by DJB through rickshaws after placing trailer on nearest wide road,' the official said. Hooda aide booked for sedition By Mail Today Reporter As Haryana limped back to normal after violence in the Jat quota stir claimed 28 lives, police charged former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hoodas close aide Virender with sedition for allegedly inciting violence during the agitation. The death toll in the violence that put Haryana on the edge and left a trail of destruction was put at 28 by state DGP Yashpal Singhal. More than 200 people, including a few security personnel, were also injured during the nine-day-long agitation. Singhal said yesterday's sedition charges were in connection with an audio clip of Virenders conversation in which he allegedly incited violence. An FIR has been registered in Rohtak against Virender and Man Singh Dalal, who also allegedly figured in the taped conversation, under various sections of the IPC, including Section 124-A (sedition) and Section 120-B (conspiracy), Singhal told the media. 'They have also been charged with Sections 153-A and Section 153-B of the IPC,' he said. 'The FIR against the duo has been registered on a complaint of a Bhiwani resident Pankaj Kumar,' he added. Virender had earlier accepted that the voice in the clip was his, but alleged that it had been doctored. He has maintained that he had never talked about instigating Jats or anyone. BSP Chief Mayawati overshadowed the Congress and the Left by forcing the inclusion of a Dalit person on the panel probing the suicide of Rohith Vemula. However, Mayawati ran into Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Smriti Irani, who chided the Opposition for playing politics over a student's death. Irani said she will cut off her head and present it to the BSP leaders if they are not satisfied with her response on the issue. BSP chief Mayawati claims the government is forcing RSS ideology in Indian universities Mayawati's hijack of the Rohith Vemula issue lead to frequent disruptions in the Rajya Sabha. She alleged that two Union ministers; Irani and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, were responsible for the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula, and sought the government to take action against them. Government is forcing RSS ideology in Indian universities, said Mayawati. She also accused the Modi government of not doing enough to punish those she alleged were responsible for pushing the student to take his life, and demanded the resignation of two central ministers - Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani. The HRD minister immediately countered her. Have a discussion right away, sir. Who uses a child as a political tool? There was a Dalit in the committee formed, why are you ignoring that Mayawatiji? said Irani. Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani accused Mayawati of using Rohith Vemula's suicide as a political tool The BSP chief, who had rushed a party panel to the Hyderabad University, dubbed the BJP anti-Dalit as she targeted the ruling party. Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House Ghulam Nabi Azad backed the BSP chief, saying: The thinking of this government is My way or the highway. I support the demand. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley appealed to the opposition parties to let order prevail in the House. Behenji you must hear the governments version and your concerns will also be addressed, he told Mayawati - but failed to convince the opposition leader. The suicide of PHD student Rohith Vemula and the alleged discrimination against Dalits in Indian universities has sparked outrage The BSP lawmakers chanted anti-government slogans and reached the chairs podium. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi stood up and sought to take up another issue. The House has already agreed to debate the JNU and Hyderabad issues later in the day. If Ms Mayawati wants, and other parties agree, all business can be suspended to take up the debate on campus crisis right now, he said. 'Students' Voice Being Muzzled' By Mail Today Bureau The congress attacked the Modi government over the issues of Rohith Vemulas suicide at Hyderabad University, and the JNU crisis, charging the Centre with trying to muzzle the voice of students across campuses as the Lok Sabha debated the controversies. Congress chief whip in the Lower House Jyotiraditya Scindia cited FTII, Pune, IIT-Chennai, Hyderabad University and JNU campus as examples of institutions being used by the BJP-led Centre to target its political rivals and crush the voices of students who dared to oppose the RSS. Congress chief whip in the Lower House Jyotiraditya Scindia cited FTII, Pune, IIT-Chennai, Hyderabad University and JNU campus as examples of institutions being used by the BJP-led Centre to target its political rivals and crush the voices of students who dared to oppose the RSS As Scindia led the charge, Rahul Gandhi, who had lent his support to the students protesting Vemulas suicide, cheered the Guna MP. Scindia said Rohith killed himself as he was suspended from the hostel and expelled from the college under pressure from the BJP. In the House they are swearing by Ambedkars values upholding the rights of the downtrodden and Dalits, and outside in practice they are indulging in brutal suppression of those who do not fit into their ideology, Scindia said. Deswa, produced by Bollywood star Neetu Chandra, was allegedly pulled from the ongoing Patna Film Festival over its controversial political content A Bhojpuri film produced by Bollywood star Neetu Chandra and starring Ashish Vidyarthi has allegedly been pulled from the ongoing Patna Film Festival over its controversial political content. Close on the heels of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadavs call to film-makers to resist portraying Bihar in a poor light, the 132-minute movie Deswa, directed by Chandra's brother Nitin Chandra, had both of its scheduled viewings cancelled. The 2011 movie, which has been shown at different film festivals in India and abroad, revolves around the theme of lawlessness in Bihar in the years before Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took over the state government, and was due to be shown on Tuesday and Thursday. A fictional account, it depicts Bihars turnaround over a period of six years through its protagonists, who take to law-breaking during the RJD regime in 2003 when there was a spurt in crime. According to sources, the organisers of the film festival realised too late that the content of the film was not suitable for screening under the changed political circumstances at a time when the RJD was part of the Grand Alliance government in Bihar. The seven-day festival - organised by the Art and Culture department with support from the Directorate of Film Festivals, Union ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and the Pune-based National Archives of Films - began on February 19 and concludes on Thursday. It had listed Deswa among various movies of different languages to be screened for cinema lovers. Deswa is a Bhojpuri film starring Ashish Vidyarthi (left). It has been produced by Bollywood actor Neetu Chandra, and directed by her brother Nitin N Chandra (right). As per the original schedule, it was scheduled to be screened at 6pm at Elphinstone theatre on Tuesday and 10am on Thursday at Mona cinema, but was unceremoniously dropped at the last minute. In fact, the organisers had already booked the flight tickets and arranged accommodation for the movies director Nitin Chandra after inviting him to attend the festival. The film had two screenings scheduled, both of which have been pulled from the programme Chandra had the shock of his life when he reached the Mumbai airport on Tuesday only to be told by the airline staff that his ticket had been cancelled. Sharing his experience on his Facebook wall, Chandra said that he subsequently found out that SP Mishra, director, Art and Culture department of the Bihar government, had sent him a brief mail the previous evening stating that Deswa would not be shown during the festival 'due to unavoidable reasons'. 'Inconvenience caused to you is regretted,' the two-sentence letter said. Chandra said that the entire episode had left him heart-broken. 'I do not know what mistake have I committed? After all, I had not asked them to show the film at Patna Film Festival' he said. 'My Bhojpuri film has been shown in eight countries,' he said. 'The Government of India has also honoured the film. Even Chief Minister Nitish Kumar applauded it.' The films producer and Bollywood actor Neetu Chandra said she was in shock. 'I am still in shock,' she posted on her Facebook wall. 'I do not know whom to ask. We are so sad and disappointed. Who is answerable?' Art and Culture officials said the screening had been dropped because of technical reasons. They said that since the film had already been screened in the past, it was decided not to repeat it. Windfall: Chancellor George Osborne is hatching plans for the bank levy Some of Britains biggest banks could have to cough up hundreds of millions of pounds more in tax, under plans being drawn up by the Treasury. While the bank levy is gradually being reduced it will no longer apply to global operations from 2021 a new 8 per cent surcharge is being introduced on UK profits. This was welcomed by international lenders, such as HSBC and Standard Chartered, which had complained they had been unfairly penalised by the bank levy, which applies to a banks funding and debt. But they may not be too pleased with the latest plans being hatched by the Treasury. Global banks often raise money from their UK parent, which is passed to overseas subsidiaries. The Government is proposing to include this funding within the scope of the bank levy in certain circumstances. He's launched an app which helps porn users hide and delete their stash No longer in a regular job, the Perth man has set up his own businesses Jason Jordan and his business promises to be your porn buddy - but it's not what you think. The Perth man and IT guy, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 12 years ago, has created an app that will hide collections of pornography and if needed, instantly delete them remotely in the case of prying eyes or an emergency. The former Radio 6PR host told Daily Mail Australia the basis of his idea has been around a lot longer than the internet. 'Prior to the internet coming along, if you had a stash of naughty magazines or videotapes, if anything happened to you it was the solemn oath of that mate [the 'porn buddy'] to remove them,' he said. Perth man Jason Jordan has created an app called Porn Buddy which can be used to remotely delete a person's pornography stash. The app is one way of creating an income for Mr Jordan, who has multiple sclerosis His app for the modern day allowed a trusted person to instantly delete any material kept on a computer remotely should anything happen to you. 'That way, no one finds the weird stuff you're into after you die.' 'There might not be just be your every day vanilla Playboys... there might be something a little more... interesting. Your reputation might be destroyed'. It could also apply to other situations - say if someone loses their faculties - or if someone wanted to delete their collection of pornography before someone else on their computer discovered it. The app has been available for the past six months to anyone who wants to hide and instantly delete a porn stash remotely It costs $10 yearly to subscribe to Mr Jordan's app - which he says he doesn't use himself as he doesn't collect porn Once a unique code for the user is entered into the app, it will delete the stash from anywhere, given the computer storing the material has an internet connection. It leaves no trace. 'I'm not going to judge anyone. Lots of people enjoy adult content but wouldn't want their family to know,' Mr Jordan told WA Today. It was originally to be called Folder Agent, but Mr Jordan said he chose a more 'salacious' name to gain more attention. Porn buddy allows Mr Jordan, who has MS, to create an income for himself, as he cannot carry out physical work The idea of the app is to prevent any unwanted eyes from seeing a person's hidden collection of pornography on a computer A year-long subscription costs $10, but he would not say how many people used the app, which was launched about six months ago. He told Daily Mail Australia he didn't use Porn Buddy himself as he didn't collect porn. The app is one of the business ventures Mr Jordan has embarked upon since his MS diagnosis. It allows him to combine his abilities as a 'tech guy' and philosophy that '90 percent of success is showing up', and a need to create an income despite being unable to carry out physical work. When his life changed 12 years ago, he was working on his computer. He suddenly had double-vision and was unable to regain normal eyesight for about quarter of an hour. Other symptoms included facial numbness, tingling feet and lack of balance. Mr Jordan's app, Porn Buddy, leaves on trace on a computer and appears in bills as 'Folder Agent' He took to Google to diagnose himself, coming up with two possibilities - a brain tumour, or multiple sclerosis. Mr Jordan was 'happy' to find out it was MS. Starting businesses was his was of generating income and avoiding the 'death sentence' of sitting at home watching daytime television, waiting for his MS to get worse. He also runs a website called MultipleShirts.com, selling humorous slogan t-shirts, mainly featuring M.S. related sayings or quotes. He also runs a website called MultipleShirts.com, selling humorous slogan t-shirts, mainly featuring M.S. related sayings or quotes The endorsements are flying Marco Rubio's way, but the votes don't seem to be following. Rubio, who pulled ahead in the endorsement race in early February, and received a surge this week after winning second-place in South Carolina was thwarted again by Donald Trump in Nevada last night. Trump bested the Florida senator by 22 points, while Rubio's beats Trump in endorsements among governors, senators and House members 30-to-1, according to 538. 'I haven't seen any evidence that these are helping,' Michael Cornfield an associate professor of political management at the George Washington University, told Dailymail.com. The big reason, he suggested, was because of timing. 'This is all last minute,' Cornfield said of the flurry of support suddenly coming Rubio's way. Scroll down for video Marco Rubio received a flurry of endorsements this week after the South Carolina primary, where he bested Ted Cruz for second place, but the nods didn't seem to help him in Nevada Actor Donnie Wahlberg was one of the non-political endorsements. He got behind Rubio and campaigned for the Florida senator in Nevada Cornfield pointed out a number of ways endorsements can boost a candidate: bonus publicity, donors, volunteers and votes. 'They say, 'I like x and x is for y, I'm for y,' Cornfield said filling out a basic equation in the frame of mind of a voter. But in a way endorsements are also a little bit like seeds. After the initial planting they need some time to grow before a candidates can really reap that harvest. For Rubio in South Carolina, it was considered a very positive thing for his campaign to get the nod from the state's governor, Nikki Haley. The only problem was that Haley decided to endorse just days before voters headed to the polls, giving neither the candidate, nor brand new surrogate, enough time to really pool resources. In Nevada, Cornfield witnessed this too. 'In Nevada he had Gov. Sandoval sort of show up on Tuesday and give a non-endorsement endorsement and you have Sen. [Dean] Heller give an endorsement, but there's no indication that they provided resources,' Cornfield explained. Yesterday morning before the caucuses Rubio dropped by Sandoval's office with the pols telling press it wasn't for an endorsement, though Sandoval called the senator a 'impressive guy.' As a point of comparison, Cornfield pointed to Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader, who officially endorsed Clinton today, but assisted her on Saturday in his home state of Nevada by calling the head of one of the major unions, having its members come out and caucus for Clinton. 'That'a an example of an endorsement backed by commitment,' Cornfield explained. The Sarah Palin endorsement was successful because Donald Trump made a big deal about it - and it signaled to her supporters that it was OK to support Trump too This uptick in endorsements, signaling the mainstream establishment pick, would normally 'be a big moment,' argued Republican strategist Ford O'Connell. 'That said, though, nothing in this cycle has gone according to script,' he told Dailymail.com. From Sunday on, Rubio has picked up support from Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sens. Heller, Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C. The entire South Florida GOP delegation got behind him, now that the other Floridian, Jeb Bush, is out of the race. Six more House members also fell in line. Today the popular young Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said he, too, would be supporting Rubio. And on top of that, actor Donnie Wahlberg got behind the Florida senator and campaigned alongside him in Nevada. Trump, by comparison, has only two members of Congress in his corner and they both endorsed him today. California Rep. Duncan Hunter and New York Rep. Chris Collins are backing The Donald. The other big endorsement the billionaire received came from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, which Cornfield suggested was more successful than anything he's seen coming from the Rubio camp. 'It was on TV and it was on the internet and people could see if and use it as a frame of reference,' Cornfield said. 'If you don't get that in enough time or with enough oomph endorsements don't matter all that much,' he added. Actor Donnie Wahlberg (left) shares a mic with Rep. Jason Chaffetz (middle), one of 40 members of congress who have backed Marco Rubio while Rick Harrison from 'Pawn Stars' also puts in a good word (right) There's also the danger that with the Republican electorate being increasingly anti-establishment, Rubio could get penalized by voters for having the mainstream GOP line up behind him one by one. 'I think there's something to that. I think people at this point are going to say, oh, well if the establishment is backing him I'm not. A backlash,' Cornfield suggested. O'Connell was a bit more charitable. 'I don't know if it hurts him,' O'Connell, who worked for the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, replied. 'In general endorsements tend to help.' 'Now the question this cycle is if they can help in the way they have helped in previous cycles,' O'Connell continued. 'With Trump, he's just a unique political animal.' There's one endorsement, that both O'Connell and Cornfield agreed would help Rubio and it was one was already rumored to be getting that of 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney. 'It would have been great if he had gotten Mitt Romney a month ago in Nevada and in other places,' Cornfield said. O'Connell suggested that 'nobody dislikes Mitt Romney' and an endorsement from the previous nominee could activate a large donor network Rubio might not have had access to before. 'But the clock is ticking,' O'Connell said. 'If they're going to get behind Rubio, they better get behind him in the next nine days.' Nearly 40 gnome homes have been evicted from a Pennsylvania state park after a decision change sent them packing. Park management at Little Buffalo State Park gave permission for Steve Hoke to create the mini, magical houses in December, Pennlive.com reported. Since then, he has made 38 tiny houses in tree roots, hollow logs and on stumps around the forest near Newport, about 25 miles northwest of Harrisburg. Scroll down for video Kicked out: Nearly 40 gnome homes have been evicted from a Pennsylvania state park after a decision change sent them packing Hidden treasure: One of several gnome homes along Fisherman's Trail in Little Buffalo State Park in Newport, Pennsylvania is seen here Small world: Hoke has made 38 tiny houses in tree roots, hollow logs and on stumps around the forest near Newport, about 25 miles northwest of Harrisburg Creator: Steve Hoke (pictured) is the man behind the mini, magical gnome houses Hoke told ABC 27: 'It became a total part of me and my wife and kind of what we do during the day. 'So it's kind of what retirement was all about for me.' He says the houses were a major attraction for children. Hoke told Pennlive.com: 'My ultimate goal was to get kids out of their houses and away from their electronics and go for a walk. 'That is exactly what happened.' Park Manager Jason Baker gave the OK originally, but it was later decided the homes could affect wildlife habitat, Baker told Pennlive.com. Baker said: 'It's not really overtly harmful but those little trails [to the houses] and the compaction and people leave stuff behind and all that kind of builds up and it does affect the quality of the habitat for wildlife.' Wooded adventure: Hoke says the houses were a major attraction for children Relocated: Hoke removed the little abodes Monday after being told he had until February 29. They are currently in his driveway. An 'eviction notice' for the gnomes is seen here Passion: Hoke has said 'It became a total part of me and my wife and kind of what we do during the day. So it's kind of what retirement was all about for me' Hoke told ABC 27: 'Since I've been doing this. I haven't seen a piece of litter in the woods. Not one.' According to the TV station, trinkets were left in the gnome homes by people. Hoke told Pennlive.com: 'That was another special part, the interaction that people had with those things. Little pieces of furniture. ... I collected a lot of notes out of them.' Hoke removed the little abodes Monday after being told he had until February 29. They are currently in his driveway, Pennlive.com reported. Duncannon and Millerstown have both offered to house them in local parks. Friendly face: One of the smiling gnomes is revealed in the Pennsylvania state park U.S. spy agencies have told Congress that Hillary Clinton's home computer server contained some emails that should have been treated as 'top secret' because their wording matched sections of some of the government's most highly classified documents, four sources familiar with the agency reports said. The two reports are the first formal declarations by U.S. spy agencies detailing how they believe Clinton violated government rules when highly classified information in at least 22 email messages passed through her unsecured home server. The State Department has already acknowledged that the emails contained top secret intelligence, though it says they were not marked that way. It has not previously been clear if the emails contained full classified documents or only some information from them. The agencies did not find any top secret documents that passed through Clinton's server in their full version, the sources from Congress and the government's executive branch said. However, the agency reports found some emails included passages that closely tracked or mirrored communications marked 'top secret,' according to the sources, who all requested anonymity. Scroll down for video New questions: Hillary Clinton, who was campaigning in Columbia, South Carolina today, denies she received information marked as top secret - but the fresh disclosure says spy agencies have found emails which parallel top secret documents, in some cases word for word In some cases, additional classification markings meant access was supposed to be limited to small groups of specially cleared officials. Under the law and government rules, U.S. officials and contractors may not transmit any classified information - not only documents - outside secure, government-controlled channels. Such information should not be sent even through the government's .gov email network. The front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president and former secretary of state has insisted she broke no rules. Clinton's lawyer, David Kendall, did not respond to a request for comment. Clinton campaign spokespeople did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Two sources said some of the top secret material was related to the CIA's campaign of drone strikes against Islamist militants in the Middle East and South Asia. That campaign has been widely reported by Reuters and other media outlets, but it officially is classified as a 'Top Secret/Special Access Program' (SAP), meaning only a limited number of people whose names are on a special list are allowed to learn details about it. One source said the reports identified some information in messages on Clinton's server that came from human sources, such as confidential CIA informants, and some from technical systems, such as spy satellites or electronic eavesdropping. The Clinton campaign criticized the State Department's decision last month to withhold the 22 emails containing top secret information from the public, blaming it on 'bureaucratic infighting' and 'over-classification run amok.' Still hanging on: The secret server scandal will not end, despite the strength of Hillary Clinton's campaign for the Democratic nomination, where she remains the frontrunner 'As we have previously made clear, we are not going to speak to the content of the emails,' a State Department official said on Wednesday when asked about the intelligence agency reports. Clinton's use of a private server in her New York home for her government work is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department's and spy community's internal watchdogs and several Republican-controlled congressional committees. Two of the sources told Reuters that one of the reports on the emails came from the CIA. Three sources said the other report came from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), which analyzes U.S. spy satellite intelligence. A spokesman for NGA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. CIA spokespeople declined to comment. The two spy agencies' reports were sent to Congress in the past few weeks by the intelligence community inspector general, an official government watchdog for multiple spy agencies. The inspector general's office has confirmed that it requested the reports from two intelligence agencies, but didn't identify them. Ex-Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been pictured having fun in the sun in Barbados, after settling a six-figure claim for punching a producer in a row about a steak. Clarkson seems to have swapped cars for a jetski while he gets away from it all on his Caribbean holiday. The 55-year-old was also pictured strolling among sun loungers on the beach in a baby-blue holiday get-up. It comes after Clarkson officially apologised to producer Oisin Tymon, who launched the lawsuit against both Clarkson and the BBC after the presenter gave him a bloody lip in a fight which led to him being sacked from the motoring show. Making waves: Ex-Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has swapped cars for a jetski while he gets away from it all in Barbados, after settling a six-figure claim for punching a producer in a row about a steak Motoring: Clarkson was photographed in Barbados as it emerged that the presenter and his former employers have agreed to pay out more than 100,000 to the producer Oisin Tymon Calm at last: It comes after Clarkson officially apologised to Mr Tymon, who launched the lawsuit against Clarkson and the BBC after the presenter gave him a bloody lip in a fight Clarkson flew into a rage after being told he could not order a sirloin steak after a day of filming in March last year, calling Mr Tymon a 'lazy, Irish ****' during a confrontation at a hotel in North Yorkshire. It emerged yesterday that the presenter and his former employers have agreed to pay out more than 100,000 to the producer, following his claim for personal injury and racial discrimination. The move will allow the BBC the dodge the embarrassment of a full tribunal hearing. Clarkson and BBC bosses had been set to give evidence in an open hearing which would have laid bare the internal working of the Corporation. In an apology issued through Mr Tymon's lawyers Slater & Gordon today - nearly a year after the fight - Clarkson said: 'I would like to say sorry, once again, to Oisin Tymon for the incident and its regrettable aftermath. 'I want to reiterate that none of this was in any way his fault. 'I would also like to make it clear that the abuse he has suffered since the incident is unwarranted and I am sorry too that he has had to go through that. 'I am pleased that this matter is now resolved. Oisin was always a creatively exciting part of Top Gear and I wish him every success with his future projects.' Apology: Clarkson, left, yesterday officially apologised to producer Oisin Tymon, right, for punching him Colleagues: Mr Tymon (left) and Clarkson (right) pictured filming together in China in December 2011 Sacked: Clarkson was fired by the BBC over the incident and co-stars James May, left, and Richard Hammon, right, both quit; they have now joined Amazon No details of the settlement were given, but it is understood to be in excess of 100,000. Clarkson and the BBC both contributed to the compensation fund. CLARKSON'S FULL APOLOGY TO TOP GEAR PRODUCER HE PUNCHED AND CALLED A 'LAZY IRISH ****' I would like to say sorry, once again, to Oisin Tymon for the incident and its regrettable aftermath. I want to reiterate that none of this was in any way his fault. I would also like to make it clear that the abuse he has suffered since the incident is unwarranted and I am sorry too that he has had to go through that. I am pleased that this matter is now resolved. Oisin was always a creatively exciting part of Top Gear and I wish him every success with his future projects. Advertisement The BBC sacked Clarkson, 55, from Top Gear following the outburst, and his co-presenters, James May and Richard Hammond, also left. The star has tried to apologise to Mr Tymon several times before, and last June he tweeted that he was 'so sad and sorry it's ended like this' after his last Top Gear show with Hammond and May was aired. He also called on online trolls to stop abusing the producer after a number of Clarkson fans called for Mr Tymon to be sacked and said that he had a 'punchable face'. However, today's statement is the first time that Clarkson has issued a full, public apology to his victim over the incident. Mr Tymon's lawyer, Paul Daniels, said: 'The action involving Mr Tymon has been concluded. Oisin is keen to put the matter behind him now that it has been brought to a close. 'Oisin greatly appreciates all of the support he has received, including from the BBC. He remains focused on the creative work he loves at the BBC.' Replacements: Chris Evans is the new presenter of Top Gear alongside sidekick Matt LeBlanc A spokesman for the BBC said: 'The action involving Mr Tymon and the BBC has been resolved. 'Oisin is a valued member of the BBC who behaved with huge integrity in dealing with the very difficult circumstances last year - a situation in which, as Tony Hall has stated, he was completely blameless. 'We are pleased that matters have now been resolved. Oisin has made an important contribution to the BBC in his 12 years with us, and we hope to see him continue to realise his potential in his role as a development executive. 'We believe Oisin has a very exciting future at the BBC.' Clarkson, May and Hammond have signed up to launch a rival motoring show on Amazon's TV service, after they were replaced as Top Gear hosts by presenter Chris Evans and a host of sidekicks including Friends actor Matt LeBlanc. The sacked star is currently believed to be filming his new show in the Caribbean. But the fraternity is still under Florida State University has suspended the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, after a member complained that pledges were forced to act like slaves in a Plantation-themed drinking game. The unnamed TKE member waited until he graduated in December to report the 2013 incident on the school's anti-hazing website, according to a statement released by Florida State officials on Wednesday. According to the recent graduate's report filed in January, TKE members forced pledges to participate in a drinking game called 'Old South,' in which the new members were made to act as slaves and serve drinks to the more senior fraternity brothers. Scroll down for video Florida State University has suspended the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity following allegations of racist hazing at the fraternity. Above, members of the fraternity pose outside the Westcott Building on campus in October 2013. It's unclear if any of the brothers in the above picture were participants in the alleged hazing A former brother at the fraternity made the complaint after graduating in December. Above, members of the fraternity pose around a Confederate flag at a 2013 'Dukes of Hazzard' party. It's unclear if any of the brothers in the above picture were participants in the alleged hazing. TKE brothers also reportedly drove pledges to far-away locations like Ocala (185 miles away) or Thomasville, Georgia (34 miles away), and abandoned them there to find their way back to Tallahassee without their cell phones or wallets. In another hazing ritual, pledges were ordered to steal traffic cones and then clean them for hours on end. While TKE's national headquarters say they do not tolerate racism, pictures on the Lamba Iota chapter's Facebook page paint quite a different picture, with several photos of brothers and their female friends posing in front of a Confederate flag during a 2013 'Dukes of Hazzard' theme party. 'The actions reported to the university by a recent FSU graduate were abhorrent and not indicative of our student body,' FSU president John Thrasher said in a statement. 'Florida State University has worked diligently throughout its history to be an academic environment that values diversity and respects every student. The actions taken by Student Affairs were strong and swift. Racist behavior demeans every one of us and we will not permit it to represent this university.' School officials suspended the fraternity on February 3, after hearing of the allegations. The former member says pledges were forced to take part in a drinking game called 'Old South,' in which they had to act like slaves and serve drinks to the more senior fraternity brothers. Above, brothers pose outside the fraternity's building in June 2015. It's unclear if any of the brothers were involved in the alleged hazing Some of the members asked the school for permission to hold one last meeting before their suspension was instated so that they could terminate members who 'do not meet the standards of TKE' and the school allowed the meeting. The names of the members that were expelled from the fraternity have not been released. Meanwhile, Florida State University police have investigated the allegations and were unable to find evidence that the fraternity still engages in hazing practices. Nonetheless, charges could not have been leveled anyway since too much time has passed since the alleged incident. The school still has the power to kick the fraternity off campus if they find evidence of student conduct violations, so the investigation continues. The fraternity will also meet with FSU Student Affairs to undergo diversity training. Tallahassee attorney Don Pumphrey is representing the fraternity in their Student Code of Conduct hearings with the school, and says his firm is 'committed to affirmatively eliminating hazing'. Above, the exterior of the TKE house on the Tallahassee, Florida campus of Florida State University 'We're honored to work with TKE and hope this process will improve all of the fraternity culture in moving toward greater transparency in hazing allegations, hazing investigations and due process,' Pumphrey told the Tallahassee Democrat. When contacted by local news station WCTV, the national offices of TKE issued a statement saying they are taking the allegations seriously. 'The alleged actions of the Lambda-Iota Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon do not align with our values and are not a reflection of the thousands of great men who make their campuses and communities better each day in the name of TKE. We do not tolerate racism. 'Since our founding in 1899, Tau Kappa Epsilon is proud that we are the only national fraternity to never have had an exclusionary clause in our history. 'As is stated by Florida State University, these disgusting acts took place in 2013 and the current TKE members have shown no evidence that these inappropriate acts of past members still occur today. 'We will continue to cooperate with Florida State University as they investigate the validity of these allegations. If these allegations can be validated, we will take swift and appropriate toward the parties involved,' the statement says. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson said not guilty by reason of insanity is 'the only reasonable and sensible' verdict The woman was able to push emergency button while struggling with him Michael Tanouye, 31, forced his way into a bathroom and sexually assaulted a woman, according to an FBI affidavit A man who tried to rape a woman in the bathroom of a Japan Airlines flight from Hawaii is not guilty by reason of insanity, a judge has ruled. Michael Tanouye, 31, forced his way into a bathroom and sexually assaulted a woman as the plane was en route to Kansai International Airport, according to an FBI affidavit. The woman, who was returning home to Japan with her mother after a four-day vacation in Hawaii, had gone to use the restroom about an hour and 45 minutes after takeoff. While struggling with Tanouye, she was able to push the bathroom's emergency button. The woman's mother, flight attendants and other passengers tried to open the lavatory door but were unable because Tanouye was blocking the door, the affidavit said. They had to open the door by removing screws from its hinges. But during a brief trial on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson said not guilty by reason of insanity is 'the only reasonable and sensible' verdict. The verdict is the same for a charge that Tanouye assaulted an inmate at Honolulu Federal Detention Center after the plane landed in Honolulu. The judge's conclusion is based on facts that Michael Tanouye's defense attorney and a prosecutor agreed upon, including conclusions from mental health evaluations. Doctors determined Tanouye, of Hilo, Hawaii, suffers from severe mental illness and didn't know what he was doing was wrong at the time of the assault in October 2014, defense attorney Richard Sing said. The incident occurred on a Japan Airlines (pictured, file photo) flight from Hawaii in October 2014 Before the incident, Tanouye was heard shouting something incomprehensible, and his mother told a flight attendant he suffers from depression and is on medication. He stood up to walk around and appeared calm, telling flight attendants he was going to visit his grandmother. Flight attendants agreed not to serve him alcohol because he was on medication. After the incident, Tanouye's mother gave him a dose of his medicine and he fell asleep, the affidavit said. The captain of the plane decided to turn around and return to Hawaii because of the incident, court documents said. Advertisement A crucial component ISIS uses to control its roadside bombs is made by an American company, a new report reveals. The 'microcontrollers' are manufactured by an innocent Arizona firm but their normal use is subverted by the terror group's armourers and they are turned into deadly improvised explosive devices. The hi-tech components are among hundred of items produced around the world which are sourced by ISIS and trafficked into their terror heartland in Iraq and Syria. These include hair bleach and even Nokia mobile phones. Global: Components lawfully made and traded by 50 companies across 20 countries were identified during a 20-month investigation into previously ISIS-held territory and used ID numbers and branding to track their journey from innocent company factories to the ISIS bomb-making production line in Iraq and Syria Hi-tech: Conflict Armament Research field investigation teams in Iraq and Syria examined more than 700 components used by IS forces to manufacture IEDs and found household items including hydrogen peroxide, fertilizer, mobile phones and American made 'microcontrollers', which act as the 'brain' of the remotely controlled bombs Deadly: ISIS have used IEDs to devastating effect against their enemies in Syria and Iraq, which use microcontrollers - found in everyday harmless electronics - to programme the bombs to explode at any time. IEDs have become one of the key weapons of modern 'asymmetric' warfare, with terror groups using them to maim and kill both civilians and enemy forces Conflict Armament Research (CAR) spent 20 months uncovering the secrets of how ISIS makes its bombs by combing through 'ingredients' found after the group had been beaten back by Iraqi or Kurdish forces. The report names dozens of companies as the unwitting sources for the deadly weapons - among them Microsoft, whose Nokia mobile phones are used to set off explosions. Many of the companies involved helped CAR track what had happened to the items they manufactured or supplied to third parties, to help piece together the picture of how ISIS brings death to civilians and enemy forces in Iraq and Syria. IEDs have become one of the key weapons of modern 'asymmetric' warfare, with terror groups using them to maim and kill both civilians and enemy forces. US technology: CAR documented US brand Microchip of microcontrollers (pictured) used to be the 'brain' of the IEDs. The brand has been found before in Iraq and was used by insurgents in bombs that killed US troops during the 2003 invasion of Iraq The homemade bombs became the scourge of American and British forces in Iraq and then Afghanistan where thousands of servicemen and women were killed or injured by the devices. They have also grown in sophistication, allowing their users to detonate them remotely, or leave them to be triggered by passing troops or civilians. Among the devices studied by CAR were some found in Kobane, the town on the border between Syria and Turkey which became a symbol of the defiance of ISIS by Kurdish forces. Their use there reflected ISIS trying to stop the Kurdish fightback in a battle which left the town a ruin. Devices and components were found in parts of Iraq which have seen a series of clashes between ISIS and either government forces - now backed by allied airstrikes and American and British military advisers - or Kurdish Peshmerga militias. These include Tikrit, Kirkuk and Mosul. CAR found that 700 components made by 50 companies from 20 countries around the world had found their way into the terrorists' homemade bombs. Of the 700 items many, such as aluminium paste and chemical fertiliser, are intended for domestic or agricultural use and not subject to rigorous export controls. As such, their supply lines are unregulated and easily intercepted by terrorists. Detonators and other more dangerous items used in mining are more tightly controlled, and can only be exported under licence. But CAR concluded that the licensing system is not sufficient to prevent these deadly components falling into the hands of ISIS. Perhaps the most surprising element of the report will be the link between a factory in Arizona and death in the ISIS heartland. The probe found microcontrollers from Microchip Technologies, of Glendale, Arozina, being used in ISIS-linked devices. The American components allow the bombs to be detonated remotely, or detonated in response to pressure changes - so that, for example, a Humvee driving over it would set it off - or to be timed to detonate at a specific time. It is unclear where they are manufactured but one expert with links to the US Army told MailOnline that most micro controllers are manufactured in China. Supply: CARs investigations mapped out the legal trade in component parts across the region, where companies have lawfully traded components with regional trade and distribution companies. The companies then sold them to smaller business and are the weakest link in allowing the goods to fall into ISIS hands and then be smuggled across the border to Syria and Iraq Detonator: In one investigation, researchers found detonator cord in Kobane, Syria, that was made in India. They traced it back to where it was imported to Lebanon by Maybel, a Beirut-based military contractor. While Lebanon confirmed the cable was imported legally but couldn't explain how it slipped through the net and into ISIS' evil clutches Parts made by Microchip Technologies were also found in IEDs that killed US troops in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. The firm is one of the world's leading manufactures of microcontrollers, which are used in millions of everyday devices from automatic light sensors in offices to remote car keys, meaning their export from the US is not regulated. ISIS's bombmakers subvert their innocent design to turn them into crucial parts of their terror devices, CAR said. 'The only thing that limits ISIS is their imagination when it comes to programming what can trigger the bomb', an expert who wished to remain anonymous told MailOnline. Although will to assist the CAR investigation, Microchip said it was unable to trace how their devices reached the battlefield in the Middle East because not enough information was provided. The majority of the firms named in the report were able to help investigators to track down the missing link to find how their components ended up with ISIS. This allowed CAR to piece together vital supply lines that allow ISIS to obtain material necessary to build bombs. The multinational origin of the components is striking. Detonation cable manufactured by the Indian company Economic Explosives and imported into Beirut for the Lebanese Ministry of Defence contractor Maybel was found in one of ISIS' bombs in Kobane, northern Syria. Lebanon's government confirmed the cable was imported legally but couldn't explain how it slipped through the net and into ISIS' evil clutches. In all cases cited in the report, manufacturers lawfully sold their products into the region only for traders, usually in Turkey, to get hold of them and sell them on to ISIS. The distributors are all over Turkey and in a lot of cases we can't tell when exactly the stuff has crossed the border' James Bevan, Executive Director, CAR Among the 13 Turkish companies identified, eight are intermediaries that have traded in components produced in Brazil, China, India, Holland, Romania and Russia. 'Turkey is where we most often lose the trail,' James Bevan, CAR Executive Director said. 'In some cases we have found the local supplier, but then the trail goes cold. 'The distributors are all over Turkey and in a lot of cases we can't tell when exactly the stuff has crossed the border.' Turkey's government refused to assist CAR. Other companies whose components were found in the IEDs included the Microsoft-owned mobile phone giant Nokia, whose phones are used to set off bombs. Eight firms were from India. Turkey remains the focus of CAR's investigations, as it is there that ISIS agents are able to access the material. In April 2015 in Tikrit, Iraqi, forces seized ISIS bombs consisting of typical household chemicals including a type of paste. The paste was produced by three companies in Brazil, Romania and China, and sold to three Istanbul-based distributors. One of these was Gultas Kimya, who told investigators: 'We cannot control what our clients may or may not do after they receive the materials. Our company does not and didn't export this style of product to Iraq and/or Syria.' Metkim, another Turkish company dealing in the same aluminium paste, told CAR: 'Now we are going to keep a batch number record for Aluminium Paste sales so that we can control which product is sold to which company.' Hydrogen peroxide, often used to bleach hair, was discovered in fanatics' explosives following the second battle of Tikrit in 2015. The chemical was found to have been produced in Holland in 2014. It had been sent by road to Antwerp, Belgium, where it was loaded onto the container ship MSC Sarah, which set sail for the Middle East in early 2015. Bomb factories: ISIS are producing bombs on a 'quasi-industrial' scale, according to CAR, who found the stockpiles above in Kobane, northern Syria after ISIS had retreated from Kurdish forces. Investigators say they found 'production lines' where different stocks of materials were compiled. CAR suspect the bombs are assembled closer to the front line, where the electronics and chemicals meet Choke-point: Both Iraq and Turkey have large agricultural and mining sectors, that use chemicals and explosives. The report found that small-scale commercial enterprises appear to have sold, 'whether wittingly or unwittingly', components to ISIS or ISIS-linked middlemen.The vast majority of suppliers export to Turkey, where smaller distributors sell on the goods and they fall into ISIS hands After arriving in Erbil, Iraq, the substance was transferred to two Turkish suppliers, after which it made its way into the hands of ISIS. Neither of the Turkish companies responded to CAR's requests for information. Of the 50 companies identified by CAR, only around 80 per cent responded to explain how their products were being used by ISIS fanatics. Of those firms to respond all of them said they had no idea how it happened. MailOnline contacted nine companies selling products such as signal relays, microcontrollers, detonators and transistors. Only one company, STMicroelectronics from Switzerland, responded. A spokesman said they are taking the matter 'seriously' and are investigating - adding: 'ST has only recently become aware of this issue and based on our investigation the parts appear to be counterfeit which is an ongoing problem in our industry. 'We would of course NEVER sell products for use by ISIS or any other similar organisation.' The report made clear: 'While this report focuses on the origin of supplies captured from IS forces, there is no evidence to suggest, nor does CAR in any respect imply, any direct transfer of goods to IS forces by the countries and companies mentioned in this report. CAR's investigations map out the legal trade in component parts across the region. In all identified cases, producers have lawfully traded components with regional trade and distribution companies. These companies, in turn, have sold them to smaller commercial entities. By allowing individuals and groups affiliated with IS forces to acquire components used in IEDs, these small entities appear to be the weakest link in the 'chain of custody'. Crude: ISIS said this was the picture of the bomb that blew up the Russian airline over the Sinai desert last Autumn. The mostly innocuous household, agricultural and industrial components have been used by the terror group to kill hundreds of civilians. CAR has called for additional oversight of the import of the materials to ISIS neighbouring countries in a bid to track down middlemen supplying the components to ISIS A million more migrants will arrive in Europe this year, the EUs borders chief declared yesterday. Fabrice Leggeri said it was impossible to halt the flood of arrivals who already number 110,000 this year. Experience has shown that fences and patrols at sea do not stop the refugees, he added. Michael Gove said EU immigration policies were causing misery, with free movement diktats stopping the UK choosing who it wanted to let in. The Justice Secretary said this meant Britain could neither be humane to refugees nor wise economically. Scroll down for video Justice Secretary Michael Gove has said EU immigration policies were causing misery, with free movement diktats stopping the UK choosing who it wanted to let in. Pictured: Migrants climbing the fence in Macedonia The head of the EU's border agency has warned fences will not stop the influx of migrants into Europe. Pictured are refugees being helped ashore on Lesbos, Greece, after making the trip from Turkey An Afghan woman breaks down in tears after arriving on the island having poverty and conflict abroad A Pakistani couple hug after arriving in Greece today. More than 110,000 people have reached Europe already this year Ministers are braced today for embarrassing statistics that will put the influx into Britain at sky-high levels. Net migration is expected to be 300,000 or more making a mockery of David Camerons pledge in 2010 to reduce it to the tens of thousands. In his first public comments since declaring for the Out campaign, Mr Gove said the right of all EU citizens to come to the UK was tying this countrys hands. Britain is forced to turn away non-EU migrants with skills the country wants and is left with less room to let in genuine refugees. EU nationals are adding 180,000 to the population every year. Mr Gove told the BBC: This is an issue where I believe that control should be with politicians here who are accountable to the British people. One of the problems with the EU migration policy at the moment is that its creating misery on our borders, a terrible situation which means we are not in a position to be both humane and also wise with respect to our economic future. Thats why we need to leave, take back control and decide who we want to stay in this country and at what rate. Our immigration policy means that we have some people who can come into this country who we might want to say no to and others, who we might want to attract, who cant currently come in. Afghani families wait in the port of Piraeus, after their arrival from the islands of Lesbos and Chios today Greece is currently grappling with a blockade of refugees after Macedonia closed its borders to Afghans So its not for me a matter of numbers, its a matter of the type of people that we want in this country. Thats why I think we need to leave, take back control and decide who we want in this country and at what rate. EU leaders are now worried that tens of thousands of refugees are poised to start making their way through Europe via Romania, Ukraine and Poland. Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, said the handling of the crisis had key significance for the referendum campaign. Mr Leggeri, who heads the Frontex border agency, said: It would be a success if the refugee numbers for this year remained stable in comparison to 2015. We are confronting a situation in Syria this year which will result in another million refugees. Despite immigration being the publics number one concern, the PM has refused to seek any limits on the principle of free movement in his EU negotiation. A NGO serves food to migrant families waiting in Greece today. The boss of the EU's border agency has said closing border control gates and erecting fences does little to help address the crisis A summit will be held next month in Brussels in order to push through a deal with Turkey that will help stem the flow of migrants entering Europe via the country The latest net migration statistics due to be published by the ONS may beat the previous high of 336,000. The record was set for the year to June 2015. The latest figures will cover the 12-month period to the end of September last year. Some ministers fear that, for the first time, net migration from inside the EU may be higher than the figure for people who are from the rest of the world. Last week it emerged the number of EU nationals working in the UK had rocketed by 215,000 in a single year. They included more than 120,000 Eastern Europeans, almost 50,000 of them Romanians and Bulgarians. Almost 1.2million Eastern Europeans now work in the UK. The total number of EU workers has rocketed by 840,000 to a record two million since Mr Cameron came to power on a pledge to curb mass migration. A young girl holds fruits collected at a food stand while she waits in the port town of Piraeus, Greece Employment minister Priti Patel said: Being a member of the EU has meant that the UK has lost control of its borders and its immigration policy. As a result of EU rules, the UK is open to 500million people from other EU member states who can live and work in the UK with no restrictions. The mass influx of migrants from Eastern Europe in particular has contributed to pressures on the UKs housing stock, public services and infrastructure. It's often cast away as being a health threat for people in a far away land - but now, the Zika virus is well and truly knocking on Australia's door. Queensland health authorities are busy spraying parts of the state with insect repellent in a bid to stop the contagious Zika virus from spreading after a man infected with the virus stated at The Globe Hotel in Rockhampton. The Australian man was a fly-in fly-out worker who was recently in South America when he was infected and has now been diagnosed with the virus. Shortly after, the type of mosquito that carries the Zika virus (Aedes aegypti) was detected in the vicinity of the hotel. Scroll down for video The Globe Hotel in Rockhampton, Queensland An Australian fly-in fly-out worker who had recently been in South America stayed at The Globe Hotel in Rockhampton, Queensland before he tested positive for the Zika virus The man is the eighth Queenslander to be diagnosed with Zika virus. If a mosquito in Australia bit someone that had been infected with the disease overseas, the mosquito would then carry the infection onto the next person it bit. Queensland health authorities are taking no risks and are spraying all yards, homes and businesses within a 200 metre radius of the hotel. 'Homes and businesses outside of this area are at a reduced risk because the Aedes aegypti (the type of mosquito that carries the virus) is not known to fly very far,' Queensland's Acting Chief Health Officer Dr Sonya Bennett said. The biggest warning of all goes out to pregnant women. 'Wearing insect repellent at all times of the day will also help reduce your risk of being bitten by a mosquito... Any pregnant woman in the affected area who is concerned should also visit their GP to discuss their options for testing,' Dr Bennett said. Pregnant women that are infected with the Zika virus could see severe birth defects in their child, like microcephaly If a pregnant woman is infected with the virus (particularly in her first trimester) there is a risk that the baby will suffer from microcephaly. Microcephaly is a birth defect that results in the child being born with a small head, and in most cases a smaller brain which results in severe developmental issues. Health officials will be door-knocking through the Rockhampton area on Thursday to speak with any pregnant women. Health authorities say the main threat is to pregnant women that travel to countries with a high rate of infection. KEY COUNTRIES OF CONCERN American Samoa Aruba Barbados Bolivia Brazil Colombia Cape Verde Costa Rica Curacao Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador French Guiana Guadelope Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Jamaica Marshall Islands Martinique Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Puerto Rico Saint Martin Samoa Suriname Tonga Trinidad and Tobago US Virgin Islands Venezuela Advertisement The South Korean government have also gone to lengths to prevent the spread of the virus - fumigating train carriages WHAT ARE ZIKA VIRUS SYMPTOMS? Conjunctivitis (red, itchy eyes) Skin rash Fever Joint aches and pains Headache Advertisement For women who travel prior to conception, at the moment research shows that the virus doesn't linger for too long, meaning there is a low risk that their child would be affected. For people who are not pregnant, the virus will have a similar effect to Dengue Fever, but it is unlikely to cause any long-term side affects. The US Department of Health and Human Services said: 'About 1 in 5 people infected with Zika will get sick. For people who get sick, the illness is usually mild. For this reason, many people might not realise they have been infected.' The Aedes aegypti is the type of mosquito which carries the virus - it's the same mosquito that carries Dengue Fever and Yellow Fever However, research is currently under way that may link Guillain-Barre Syndrome with the Zika Virus. The Brazaillian Ministry of Health reported a spike of GBS in people that were also infected by Zika. GBS is a debilitating syndrome that attacks the nervous system and immune system which can result in paralysis. There is currently no vaccine for the virus that is mainly transmitted through mosquitoes, but could also be sexually transmitted. The virus has been around since the 1940's but has attracted more attention recently after being found in new countries. The link between Zika virus and microcephaly is also becoming far more prevalent. The virus was first discovered in the Zika forest in Uganda in 1947, but it has recently become more widespread The Queensland Department of Health has asked residents to minimise their exposure to mosquitoes by tipping out any water in things like plastic containers, tarpaulins or buckets. They also advise to store anything that can hold water undercover or in a dry place, keep bins covered and throw out any rubbish lying around like unused or empty containers, tyres, additional materials and keep work sites tidy. Austria warned yesterday that reducing the record influx of migrants was a question of survival for the European Union. Vienna has come under fire from Germany and Greece for imposing daily limits on the number of migrants that can apply for asylum or pass through to other countries. It hosted a summit yesterday with ministers from nine countries along the west Balkans route used by migrants travelling from Greece towards northern Europe. Austrian interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said the countries 'had to reduce the influx now' We have to reduce the influx now. This is a question of survival for the EU, Austrian interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said after the talks. Austria believes measures are necessary because the EU has failed to get off the ground any effective common response to the continents biggest refugee crisis since 1945. We want to generate pressure so that the EU can reach a solution. A partnership with Balkan countries is not only in the interest of these countries but also of the EU. We want to generate pressure and urgency, Mrs Mikl-Leitner said. A joint statement from the participants said that after hundreds of thousands of people trekked through the Balkans last year, many ending up in Germany, Sweden and also Austria, the inflow must be massively reduced. Countries throughout the western Balkans have begun unilaterally to impose restrictions, largely because of Austria imposing limits. Macedonia has closed its frontier to Afghans and introduced more stringent document checks for Syrians and Iraqis seeking to travel to northern and western Europe. We did not take a unilateral decision, Macedonias foreign minister Nikola Poposki said. We reacted because of the actions of other countries. Greece, where thousands of Afghans have been held up at the Macedonian border, angrily protested at being excluded from the ministerial meeting in Vienna, underscoring the deep rifts within the EU. She said the very survival of the European Union relied upon something being done quickly. Austria has already put its own daily limit in place Austrian officials said that the conclusions of the talks would be presented to a meeting of EU interior and justice ministers today in Brussels. Mrs Mikl-Leitner also announced the creation from April 1 of an international command centre with Interpol and Europol based in Vienna to combat people-smugglers. Hungarys prime minister yesterday called a referendum on whether his country would accept an EU plan to share out refugees that he warned would redraw Europes ethnic, cultural and religious identity. Viktor Orban said the scheme to relocate 160,000 people was nothing but an abuse of power. The Hungarian government attempted to stop the introduction of the quota system in September but it was outvoted at a summit in Brussels. Mr Orban said yesterday: We cannot make above the heads of people, against the wishes of European people, decisions that seriously change their lives, and the lives of future generations. The quota could redraw Europes ethnic, cultural and religious identity. Neither Brussels nor any other European body is authorised to do that. Austria hosted a meeting of the countries along the western Balkan route preferred by most migrants The referendum will ask voters: Do you want the EU to prescribe the mandatory relocation of non-Hungarian citizens to Hungary without the approval of the Hungarian parliament? In December, Hungary joined Slovakia in filing a legal complaint against the plan, which would see Hungary take in 2,300 migrants. The scheme was set up to share 160,000 migrants currently in Greece and Italy, but so far, barely 600 people have been relocated and only some countries have offered places for them. He says the threats are a result of ignorance as he is doing a public service An Australian bow hunter is the target of a global hate campaign after he posted photos of himself next to the dead feral cats he shot. Zach Slattery, from South Australia, was subjected to thousands of abusive messages and death threats as animal rights activists campaigned to have his culling methods stopped, reported the ABC's 7:30 report. But the 22-year-old says the threats he receives are a result of ignorance and killing the feral cats is a public service. South Australian bow and arrow hunter, Zach Slattery, became the target of a global hate campaign after he posted images online with the feral cats he killed 'I've had death threats, like people coming to shoot me, hang me, skin me, and use me as a bathroom rug,' he said. The online abuse was frequent and police have since been called to his house after the photos of Mr Slattery's hunting trips on Kangaroo Island, just off the mainland of South Australia, were posted online. 'This is awful! Let's hunt the a**ehole in the pic and wipe the smile off his face,' wrote one user. 'I would love to see him dead and hanging upside down. I hope he's a victim of a hunting accident someday soon,' wrote another. The 22-year-old says the threats he receives are a result of ignorance and killing the feral cats is a public service The Federal government plans to cull two million feral cats by 2020 Feral cats are estimated to kill tens of millions of native Australian animals each year, causing some species to become extinct. By 2020 the Federal government plans to cull two million feral cats. 'It's just that some people don't understand the effort and the shots we make are 100 per cent humane, 99 per cent of the time. 'With a bow it's quite sudden. You're going for shock and blood loss, so it's quite quick,' said Mr Slattery. But not all agree with need to cull the animals or Mr Slatter's method of killing the feral cats using a bow and arrow. 'The cat is injured and not killed, and obviously is going to be suffering from those injuries and may well die later on from those injuries after a lot of pain and lingering suffering, said Clair Fryer, the spokesperson for People for the Ethical treatment of Animals. A number of petitions aimed at the Australian government were launched in hopes of stopping Mr Slattery. 'Citizens, such as Zach Slattery of South Australia, should not be allowed to legally murder feral cats. 'His photos of him smiling and posing with their dead bodies on Facebook is an outrage. 'It should be against the law for the public community to take part in animal population control, especially by savage and disrespectful means,' read a petition on change.org. A number of petitions were launched in hopes of stopping Zach Slattery from assisting the Federal Government in culling the feral cats A teenage boy who was shot dead by Missouri police Wednesday morning left a suicide note and may have been trying to get killed, police said. Officers from the Blue Springs police department responded to a reported burglary in the Kansas City suburb around 5am when they were confronted by the 16-year-old, who was brandishing a knife, according to police. Police said the teen confronted officers who shot and killed him, according to the Kansas City Star. A spokesperson for the Missouri Highway Patrol, which leads the investigation into the shooting, told the Star officials found a suicide letter in the boy's home that made reference to a confrontation with police. Blue Springs police at the scene of Wednesday morning's shooting that left a 16-year-old dead A neighbor who said he has known the victim for 10 years told reporters he was surprised to hear the theory that the killing was a suicide. 'It seems unreal and seems unlikely that was really the case,' Kevin Woods told Fox 2. 'But you can never tell what's going through people's minds.' Another neighbor told the Star he woke up from the sound of gunshots. 'I heard a fast series of pops in rapid succession,' Wes Barttrum said. 'Im not that familiar with gunfire and to me it sounded like fireworks. I thought it might be kids pulling a prank. That kind of thing sometimes has happened out here.' Police told the Star Wednesday's incident was the first fatal police shooting in Blue Springs since 2011. According to KSHB, the two officers involved in the shooting have been put on paid leave while the investigation is ongoing. Neighbor Kevin Woods was 'baffled' by Wednesday's shooting and said 'it seems unlikely' that the teen would have been looking to commit suicide Police said the teenager left a suicide note and may have been trying to provoke a confrontation with cops Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is being accused of abandoning his promises of significant tax reform and instead tinkering at the edges of the system. Mr Turnbull has ruled out major change in favour of two savings measures seen as 'politically safe'. The first change is curbing the excessive use of negative gearing by wealthy investors, and the second is reducing the extensive parking of pre-tax income in superannuation accounts, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Scroll down for video Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said Labor's plans to limit negative gearing to new homes and wind back capital gains tax concessions, will force down house prices and make homeowners poorer The government is considering putting a cap of $50,000 on claimable losses for negative gearing. It's also considering cut the amount of income that can be diverted to superannuation without income tax being paid on it to $20,000 from the current allowance of $30,000, or $35,000 for those over the age 50. 'If this is where the broad-ranging tax debate lands us, every claim Malcolm Turnbull made that he would provide economic leadership, is dead,' Labor finance spokesman Tony Burke told Sky News on Thursday. Mr Turnbull said Labor's plan to limit negative gearing to new homes and wind back capital gains tax concessions will force down house prices, making every home owner poorer. Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer told the Nine Network on Wednesday that Labor's policy was irresponsible because it would 'increase the cost of housing for Australians, for those people who own a home and for those people who would like to get into the housing market'. She later put out a statement saying: 'The point I was making is that under Labor's policy there will be increased demand for new property, pushing up prices for new property.' Mr Turnbull said Labor's policy would result in downward pressure on housing prices 'It is clear from Labor's ill-considered policy that existing house prices will decline,' she said. Opposition leader Bill Shorten said the coalition under Mr Turnbull was chaotic. 'The real issue here is that the government's running a scare campaign which even their own ministers can't keep to,' Mr Shorten said. Opposition leader Bill Shorten said the coalition under Mr Turnbull was 'chaotic' and young people would be able to buy their first home, under Labor's plan to limit negative gearing Mr Turnbull told reporters the policy would clearly result in 'downward pressure on housing prices'. 'It will be a shock to the market and it will have the inevitable consequence of a decline in housing prices, housing values and all of the flow-on negative economic consequences of that.' Mr Shorten defended Labor's policy saying no party could hope to govern unless it was prepared to deal with tax reform and 'creating a fair system for all Australians'. her fee and sue her for child support if she went through with the pregnancy A set of triplets at the center of a major surrogacy case have been born in California and are being tended to in hospital. The three boys were born seven weeks premature on Monday night, according to a lawyer for Melissa Cook, the 47-year-old surrogate mother who refused to have an abortion at the request of the biological father, sparking a legal battle. The lawyer, Harold Cassidy, told Fox News that the babies were immediately taken from Cook following the birth after a judge granted the father full parental custody. The father, identified in court papers only as C.M., is a 50-year-old postal service worker from Georgia who agreed to pay Cook $33,000 to carry anonymously donated eggs he had fertilized. Fighting for custody: Melissa Cook, 47, gave birth to the triplets on Monday night, according to her lawyer. She is suing for custody of the children after the biological father requested she have an abortion Surrogate mother Melissa Cook, 47 (left and right), filed a lawsuit in January against the single man who hired her to get pregnant and then asked her to abort one of the embryos However C.M. requested Cook abort one of the embryos when it was discovered she was carrying triplets, as the pregnancy was deemed high-risk due to Cook's age. C.M. also said he could not afford to raise three children as a single parent. Cook, who is pro-life, refused the abortion, and set into action a legal battle that challenges California's surrogacy laws in a federal court. In the state, a gestational surrogate has no parental rights. 'It's an attempt to reduce women to an object, or a breeding animal,' Cassidy told Fox News. You can't tell a mother who gives birth to children that what happens to the children is none of her business. 'The hospital personnel refused to let Melissa see the children, allow her to know what their condition is, refused to tell her their exact weights, and she is not being permitted to see the children at all. 'We have a mother who loves them, who fought for them, who defended their life, who stands ready to take care of them. 'You can't tell a mother who gives birth to children that what happens to the children is none of her business.' Cook is suing C.M. on the basis that California's surrogacy law is unconstitutional. She also wants to be declared the legal mother of the children, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The surrogacy feud first made headlines in November, when Cook was days away from the 20-week break-off mark for legal abortions. At the time, the father had reportedly been threatening to withhold Cook's fee if she did not perform the abortion, and to sue her for child support. According to their agreement, the father agreed to pay Cook $33,000 and another $6,000 for each additional child. Already a mother of four, Cook says she did not want to abort the third embryo because she had bonded with all three unborn children The 47-page complaint filed in January claims California's surrogacy laws are unconstitutional, violating due-process and equal protection rights. Each of the triplets 'has a fundamental right to get to know and love their mother and to continue their relationships with her,' the lawsuit reads. 'I no longer view surrogacy arrangements in the same favorable light I once did. Children derive a special benefit from their relationship with their mother,' Cook said in a statement, obtained by Daily Mail Online. 'I now think that the basic concept of surrogacy arrangements must be re-examined, scrutinized and reconsidered,' she added. Cook is being represented in the lawsuit by New Jersey lawyer Harold Cassidy, who famously defended the surrogate mother in the 1980s Baby M case. In that case, couple William and Elizabeth Stern hired Mary Elizabeth Whitehead to get pregnant with Mr Stern's sperm, and give up custody of the child at birth in favor of Mrs Stern. But Whitehead decided to keep the baby after giving birth and sued to be recognized as the child's mother. She won that right, but primary custody was eventually awarded to Mr Stern, with Whitehead getting only visitation rights. 'The surrogacy contract in this case and the California Surrogacy Enabling Statute will not withstand constitutional scrutiny,' Cassidy said of his new case. 'The notion that a man can demand that a mother terminate the life of one of the children she carries by an abortion, and then claim that she is liable for money damages when she refuses, is cruel to the mother.' Cassidy tells Daily Mail Online that Cook is suing so that she can ensure the third child does not go to a stranger in adoption, as C.M. has allegedly threatened to do. In the lawsuit, Cook (pictured with a friend) makes a claim that she is the legal mother of the three children, despite not sharing any DNA with them In the court documents, she asks that a judgement declare her the legal mother of all three children so that she can sue for custody when they are born. She also wants the courts to rule that C.M.'s threats to sue her for not going through with the abortion are illegal. According to the complaint, Cook and C.M. entered into a surrogacy agreement last spring, through the California-based company Surrogacy International, Inc., in which Cook agreed to carry the embryos, give birth 'and then surrender the child or children to the exclusive custody' of the father. Cook claims that C.M. knew that there could be as many as three children born in the process before they even signed the agreement, but that he started to express financial concerns after Cook became pregnant with the fertilized eggs in August. During IVF treatments, women are sometimes implanted with multiple embryos to ensure that at least one of them is viable. In cases where all the embryos are successful, mothers have the option to either do nothing and carry multiple babies to term, or narrow down the number of embryos through selective abortion. When C.M. found out that all three embryos were successfully growing, he apparently grew nervous at the thought of caring for three children at the same time, and began to inquire with the surrogacy company about aborting one of the embryos, the complaint claims. 'I never anticipated something such worse (sic) like draining my finances so fast,' C.M. wrote in his lawyer in September.'... I do not have any more money in the bank, and my job does not pay great biweekly,' This is when Cook, who describes herself as pro-life, grew anxious and she offered to adopt the third child, if the father could not afford three children at once. At the end of September, Cook told the father that she would not 'abort any of them. I am pro life and I am not having an abortion'. By November, C.M. made a final decision and asked Cook to abort one of the fetuses. When Cook again stated that she would not go through with an abortion, C.M.'s lawyer told Cook that his client 'understands, albeit does not agree, with your decision not to reduce' - and threatened to sue Cook for damages and child support if she didn't go through with the abortion, citing a clause in the surrogacy contract that gives Cook the option to ask her to abort. C.M. also has allegedly told Cook that he will pursue adopting the third son to a stranger, as opposed to her - the woman who is carrying the children. 'They are human beings. I bonded with these kids. This is just not right,' Cook told The New York Post about her decision to fight the father, back in November. Ms Cook has four children of her own, including a set of triplets. California is considered to be one of the most surrogacy friendly states in America. Commercial surrogacy is permitted - with many hopeful parents entering into financial contracts with surrogates. Other states that are surrogacy friendly include Illinois, Arkansas, Maryland and New Hampshire. Ms Cook is divorced, but is engaged to a new partner according to her Facebook page. Teens identified as Denzel Murray, 14, Shaquell Cooper and Ethan Phillip, both 15, and Onandi Brown and Travis Beckford, both 17 Charges against five teenage boys who were accused of gang-raping an 18-year-old girl at a playground in Brooklyn last month have been dropped after she admitted to having consensual sex with the boys and her father. The unnamed girl has recanted her allegations of sexual assault against Denzel Murray, 14, Shaquell Cooper and Ethan Phillip, both 15, and Onandi Brown and Travis Beckford, both 17, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson announced Wednesday afternoon. 'Working closely with the NYPD, my office has thoroughly investigated disturbing and very serious allegations of a gang rape at gunpoint last month inside the Osborn Playground in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn,' a statement from Thompson's office reads. 'The complainant, as well as her father, provided multiple inconsistent accounts to NYPD detectives and to experienced Special Victims prosecutors about important material facts in this case. Scroll down for video Free to go: Denzel Murray, 14, is one of the five teenage boys who had the sexual assault charges against him dismissed on Wednesday. He is pictured above smirking after his arrest in January Accused: The teens (pictured, outside court) claimed the girl was having sex with her father in the Brooklyn park when they arrived on January 7 New floodlight-style lighting offers some illumination at the Osborn Playground in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The lighting was installed after the young woman made the rape accusations against five teen boys 'The complainant has recanted her allegations of forcible sexual assault and the existence of a gun, and she does not wish to pursue criminal charges against any of the defendants. 'She also refuses to cooperate with any prosecution against her father, who was engaging in sexual conduct with her. That night, this young woman's father and the five young men engaged in conduct that was reprehensible and wrong, but because of the lack of reliable evidence, criminal charges simply cannot be sustained.' Thompson said that he hopes the young woman 'gets all the support she needs going forward,' adding that victim advocates have been working with her and will provide any assistance she may need in the future. Originally authorities charged the five teens accused - ages 14, 15, 15, 17 and 17 - as adults, each with one count of rape, two counts of criminal sex act, and one count of sex abuse in connection with the alleged assault. The girl involved claimed that she was with her 39-year-old father in the park drinking at about 9pm on January 7 when the group of teens approached them. She told investigators that the group accosted them in the park and ordered the father to leave. When he returned moments later and hurled a bottle at the teens, one teen pulled out a handgun and ordered him to leave, according to investigators at the time. The bespectacled 14-year-old was facing rape and related charges along with his co-defendants The new lighting comes after the 18-year-old girl said she was gang raped by a group of five teenage boys in Osborn Playground (above) in January Police Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said at the time that the young woman gave a very credible report. 'She had physical injuries at the time,' he said. 'She was traumatized.' Her father said he wandered around for several minutes looking for help. He claimed he went into a store but a merchant refused to let him use a telephone, police said. He then flagged down two police officers and told them he feared his daughter was being murdered, Boyce said. 'Apparently he was hysterical,' Boyce said. 'He said a gun was pointed at him.' In an interview with Eyewitness News in January, the dad defended his actions that night, saying he felt that if he stayed behind and tried to defend his daughter, he would have been shot. He said: 'The one put a gun in my face telling me to run, and all of them had their way with her.' The girl also offered her side of the story, saying she was scared when her father took off running, leaving the men to take turns raping her. The officers found her alone in the playground with bruises and cuts. Pieces of her clothing were found strewn near the park. Shaquell Cooper (left) and Ethan Phillip (right) also seemed to be smiling and scowling prior to their court appearance in January. The charges against them were dismissed Wednesday The New York Post reported that sources said the girl was combative and tried to flee from cops at the scene. Travis Beckford, 17, was the last of the five teens to be identified in the alleged incident, but is now free Sources also said she bit an officer. She initially refused to go to hospital but was then taken by ambulance and interviewed the next day. The young woman claimed to have bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, but was not prescribed any medicines. She also had multiple healed scars on her arms. After the suspects' capture, at least two of them told investigators they believed the sexual encounter was consensual, police said. Following the teens' arrests in January, two of the boys insisted that they had consensual sex with the 18-year-old. They also claimed to have witnessed the young woman having sex with her father in the park before the man staggered away from the scene, leaving his daughter alone with the teens. 'Can we have some of that?' one of the boys allegedly asked the father. 'We did get that information from two of the persons arrested, from no one else,' Boyce said. Pictured: surveillance video shows the suspects in the rape entering a bodega before the alleged incident The 18-year-old woman had been inside Osborne Park in Brownsville drinking beer with her father when the five teens approached them, police previously said The young woman's father denied claims of incest made against him by two of the male teens. 'They're just trying to get out of the thing they did,' the unnamed father told the New York Post in January on his way to a deli to buy beer. 'I want them to rot in jail.' Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Lisa Nugent said in January that none of the four suspects was identified by witnesses who viewed lineups and photo arrays. Parliament has passed laws allowing the cultivation of medical marijuana on the one-year anniversary of the death of a medicinal drug campaigner, prompting a controversial senator to also for recreational use to be legalised. The laws cleared the upper house on Wednesday, one year to the day after Dan Haslam lost his five-year battle with bowel cancer after alleviating nausea brought on by chemotherapy using cannabis. As senators paid tribute to the tireless efforts of his mother, Lucy, in campaigning for change, Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm called for the recreational use of cannabis to also be legalised. Scroll down for video The controlled cultivation of medicinal marijuana was legalised on Wednesday, on the one-year anniversary of the death of Dan Haslam - whose mother Lucy has campaigned for change Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm took the opportunity to call for the recreational use of medical marijuana to be legalised He said the bill on medical marijuana was 'good, but far from perfect', and 'comprised almost wholly of red tape.' 'Legalising recreational cannabis use would deprive organised crime - whether Middle Eastern crime gangs, Asian triads, bikie gangs or relatives of Darth Vader - of a major source of income, and relieve police of the cost of finding and destroying illicit crops,' he said. Senator Leyonhjelm pointed to American states which had legalised recreational use of marijuana, where 'the sky had not fallen'. Most people had tried it at some point, including him, and US President Barack Obama, he said. Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the new legislation was thanks to Ms Haslam's efforts. 'Your family's grief, your family's pain and suffering, has not been in vain,' Greens leader Richard di Natale said of the Haslams (Dan pictured left, Lucy right) 'Your family's grief, your family's pain and suffering, has not been in vain,' the Greens leader said. Lucy Haslam thanked politicians for listening to the people and making Australia a better place for thousands of sufferers. Weve shown that politicians cant ignore people power. A Facebook page called Dans Story, run by his parents, celebrated the announcement on Wednesday. We lost you one year ago today Dan. but you changed the law for everyone else today. Bittersweet day! Rural Health Minister Fiona Nash said the missing piece laws allowed patients access to medicinal cannabis legally cultivated and manufactured in Australia. Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the new legislation was thanks to Ms Haslam's efforts The health department is also considering rescheduling medicinal cannabis, which is still classified as an illicit drug. Labor and the Greens welcomed the laws as a good first step, acknowledging there was still a long way to go before patients could legally use medicinal cannabis. No family should have to choose between getting their loved on the medicine they need and breaking the law, Labor frontbencher Katy Gallagher said. Health Minister Sussan Ley said the Thereapeautic Goods Administration had undertaken public consultation on down-scheduling medical cannabis with an interim decision due in March. This will simplify arrangements around the legal possession of medicinal cannabis products, placing then in the same category as restricted medicines such as morphine, rather than an illicit drug. That would reduce barriers to access, no matter what state a patient lived in, she said. An independent advisory committee would also be established to oversee the next stage of the rollout. The health department is also considering rescheduling medicinal cannabis, which is still classified as an illicit drug (Mr Haslam pictured relieving nausea caused by chemotherapy using marijuana) Rural Health Minister Fiona Nash said the missing piece laws allowed patients access to medicinal cannabis legally cultivated and manufactured in Australia Beauty blogger: 'Zoella', whose real name is Zoe Sugg, is known for posting online videos of herself sampling make-up and other lifestyle products Teenage girls are shunning classic books for a romance novel by a 25-year-old beauty blogger, research shows. Girl Online, the debut book by Zoella, is the most popular title among UK adolescents, despite being written with a ghost-writer and receiving mixed reviews. Zoella, whose real name is Zoe Sugg, is known for posting online videos of herself sampling make-up and other lifestyle products. Young girls have flocked to the Brighton-based bloggers YouTube channel, which has attracted more than ten million subscribers. Her novel tells the story of a 15-year-old girl whose blog about friendship, boys, family and anxiety goes viral after she finds love in New York. The book came top for secondary school pupils in a survey of 725,000 children at 3,300 schools. The annual study by Keith Topping, education research professor at Dundee University, found the novel was the seventh most popular among primary school children. It suggests reading habits have changed dramatically since a time when young girls would settle down with an E Nesbit or C S Lewis title. Yesterday, critics voiced concerns over the findings, warning that the dominance of unchallenging books could harm literacy levels among teenagers. In second place was science fiction novel The Maze Runner by James Dashner and in third place was fantasy tale The House of Hades by Rick Riordan. Helen Fraser of the Girls Day School Trust, former boss at Penguin Books UK, said Miss Suggs novel was popular because her life experiences are similar to those of her fans, who look to her for advice and reassurance. Romance novel: Girl Online, the debut book by Zoella, is the most popular title among UK adolescents, despite being written with a ghost-writer and receiving mixed reviews Couple: Miss Sugg with her boyfriend Alfie Deyes at the launch of her beauty collection in September 2014 But Girl Online, which sold a record-breaking 78,109 copies in its first week of publication in 2014, sparked controversy after publisher Penguin admitted Miss Sugg was helped to write it by childrens author Siobhan Curham. It received mixed verdicts in the national press and parent reviewers warned that it is not heavy on informative content. One wrote on the Amazon website: If you are looking for an educational book, this isnt it. Another said the novel makes me weep for humanitys future. A young reader added: Im 13 and I liked Zoe before this but the book is terrible very badly written. Ten million subscribers: Young girls have flocked to Brighton-based blogger Zoellas YouTube channel The study found boys prefer non-fiction, and that at primary level they tend to focus on one author, whereas girls prefer more variety. GIRL ONLINE BY ZOELLA: A LOVE STORY FOR THE DIGITAL AGE Girl Online, penned with the help of a ghost-writer, tells the story of 15-year-old blogger Penny Porter. Loosely based on Zoellas own experiences, the novel explores what it is like to fall in love while growing up in a digital world, and follows the characters struggles as her life is broadcast online. Penny begins writing under an alias about friendship, boys and her crazy family, as well as panic attacks that have plagued her since she was in a car crash. She and her family travel to New York, where Penny meets an American guitarist, Noah. After falling in love, she returns home to find Noah has a huge YouTube following of his own and a girlfriend. After a friend leaks news of the relationship to a celebrity website, Penny vows never to write her blog again. Advertisement The report also noted that at primary school pupils tend to read books above the difficulty level for their age group, but the difficulty of books plateaus or declines at secondary school. Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said the books most children are required to read by their school are not sufficiently challenging. He added: Unless we rid ourselves of this classroom culture of low aspirations and low expectations we will never be able to match the educational level of our economic competitors. This will have long-term consequences for the prosperity and well-being of our country. Two months ago Miss Sugg begged her fans for privacy after spotting die-hard followers peering through the windows of the 1million home in Hove, East Sussex, which she shares with her blogger boyfriend. She and partner Alfie Deyes claimed fans had been turning up to take pictures next to their house number and even riding on their parents shoulders trying to get a glimpse of the couple. Campaigners have hit out after Florida legislators voted to remove a statue of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith from Washington D.C. 94 years after it was placed there. Florida's House of Representatives voted to remove Kirby, known as the last Confederate general to surrender to Unionists, from a plinth in the Capitol Building's National Statuary Hall by 83 to 32. While lawmakers insist the decision is due to the fact that Kirby spent none of his adult life in Florida, campaigners say the move is an attempt to write prominent Confederates out of history. Activists hit out at Florida lawmakers today after they voted 83 to 32 to favor of removing a statue of General Edmund Kirby Smith, known as the last Confederate to surrender to the Unionists, from Capitol Hill The move to take down Kirby's statue comes after legislators also voted to remove the confederate flag from its official seal. David McCallister, the chief of Florida heritage operations for Sons of Confederate Veterans, told Dailymail.com: 'They have done this for their own "eracist" agenda. 'They want to erase all Confederate symbols from Florida. The seal is just one example. Republican Jose Felix Diaz, who proposed the bill, said it has nothing to do with erasing history, and that he has received death threats over it 'Kirby is a good role model. He never owned a slave. In fact he cared for his family's former slave Alexander Darnes and paid for his education, something he could never have afforded at the time. 'Kirby was also a great educator. He was a professor after the war and was known as a botanist. He was also a keen student of history, and would have wanted everyone to learn it. 'The Confederate history is the shared history of all Floridians and he would have wanted people to know it. The story of Kirby Smith should be taught to people. 'He set an example that many modern Floridians would do well to follow. He should be applauded, not trashed.' Meanwhile Jose Felix Diaz, the Republican representative for Miami who proposed the bill, says he is not trying to remove the statue because Smith was in the confederacy. During a debate on the issue, Diaz said Smith, who was born in St. Augustine, left Florida at a young age in the 1930s before Florida was even a state, according to the Tampa Bay Times. He said that Florida needs to look at other important figures that might be better deserving to represent the state, such as environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Diaz, who says he has received death threats over the proposal, added: 'We are certainly not trying to forget the history of Florida.' However, McCallister disagreed, saying: 'I think to say that a man that serves in the military gives up his status as a Floridian is ridiculous and foolish. Possible replacements for Kirby include environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas (pictured), railway tycoon Henry Flagler, and entertainer Walt Disney 'He [Kirby] was always identified as a Floridian. When he was in Cuba after the war, he wrote to say that all he wanted was to go home to Florida.' The bill will now be passed to Governor Rick Scott who is expected to sign it after it also passed a Senate vote by 33 to 7, a margin too large to allow for a veto. Florida will not be the first state to remove a statue of a Confederate from the Statuary Hall after Alabama replaced Confederate Army Lt. General Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry with Helen Keller, the first deafblind person to earn a degree. While a final decision has yet to be made on who will replace Kirby, potential candidates include Douglas, entertainer Walt Disney, and railway tycoon Henry Flagler. Starbucks and sandwich chain Pret a Manger are to begin selling alcohol in a bid to attract late night drinkers away from pubs. Both chains have begun trialling selling wine and beer, evening meals and later openings in some outlets and are now looking at ways to expand nationwide. And in a bid to woo coffee snobs who dont like the mainstream chains, Starbucks has revealed a new look shop. In a bid to woo coffee snobs who dont like the mainstream chains, Starbucks has revealed a new look shop The US giant is calling the concept Star R - which refers to its Starbucks Reserve coffee. Unlike its normal stores, customers are treated to table service from uniformed waiters and waitresses holding iPads to take orders. Wine, from vineyards in its home state of Washington, craft beer and tapas are available after 4pm. Starbucks American boss Howard Schultz has said he wants to open up to 100 of the shops around the world. More locations in London will follow as well as Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol. Rival Pret a Mangers trial store opened in London and sells dinners to tempt theatre goers with meals including lemon & rosemary chicken or meatballs for less than 6, served to customers tables on crockery. Diners can also choose from a selection of French red and white wines, prosecco and British craft beers. Brigid Simmonds, chief executive at the British Beer & Pub Association, said: As long as theres a level playing field, and coffee shops have to jump through the same hoops as pubs when it comes to the burdens of the licencing system, there is no general reason why coffee shops shouldnt serve alcohol. Rival: Pret a Manger is also to begin selling alcohol in a bid to attract late night drinkers away from pubs After all, most pubs now sell great coffee, and also compete vigorously with the restaurant sector on our high streets. She said the coffee shops will not be able to compete with the way pubs serve cask beer which the coffee shops would struggle to imitate. 'Star R' stores: Starbucks American boss Howard Schultz has said he wants to open up to 100 of the new shops around the world Anthony Pender, of the British Institute of Innkeeping, said: We have been watching the developments around brands such as Starbucks offering alcohol with interest. We do not believe this will have a long-term negative effect on the pub industry because we provide a very different experience to these types of food outlet, particularly in the evening and late night space. The great British pub occupies a key part of our countrys culture and there are few things that can beat enjoying a drink with friends in a quality pub. As well as opening new outlets Starbucks is also planning on novelty to compete with upmarket coffee shops. This includes coffee making that looks like a chemistry laboratory: funnels, siphons and glass chambers. These gadgets can create six different coffees with five different brewing methods. Rhys Iley, vice president of Starbucks operations across Europe said: The new shops are theatre for coffee. We want to showcase our coffee credentials and we are showing the science behind it. We are finding customers want to come in the evening as an alternative to the pub. Nick Sandler, creative chef at Pret, said at the time of the trials launch last year: Customers have been asking us for some time about creating an early evening menu, so were giving it a go. Evening dining is particularly important to customers in this area of the city who are looking for somewhere convenient and affordable to eat before heading to the theatre. To stay relevant in the face of changing consumer behaviours, chains have to innovate and adapt to compete James Sawley, retail specialist Pret also sells alcohol at its Gatwick Airport outlet and some of its central London and station shops are open until 11pm or midnight. It will now look at where else it will sell alcohol and open late. Retail specialist James Sawley, from HSBC Commercial Bank, said: More and more restaurants and cafes are doing all day menus as the frequency of eating out is increasing. From pubs to cafes to restaurants, chains are expanding their menus from breakfast and into the evening. To stay relevant in the face of changing consumer behaviours, chains have to innovate and adapt to compete. Lord Owen is the most senior Left-winger yet to back Brexit after declaring Britain should leave the EU Lord Owen has declared that Britain should leave the 'dysfunctional' European Union. The SDP founder and former Labour foreign secretary said it was 'dangerous for British security'. In a bombshell new book, he slams David Cameron's 'failed' negotiations' and the lack of concessions on free movement, saying he is now convinced the public should vote to leave. 'To remain in the EU is in my judgment a more dangerous option for British security in its deepest sense economic, political, military and social than is being admitted or even discussed in the wake of Cameron's failed negotiations', he writes. 'Europe has moved away from us. Its elite chose a different path long ago and it is not a path the UK ever wished to follow.' Lord Owen is the most senior Left-wing figure yet to back Brexit. The peer, foreign minister from 1977-79, was once deeply pro-European. He later formed the SDP, partly over Labour's decision to support withdrawal from the former European Economic Community. The 77-year-old, who has joined Vote Leave, warns that the EU wants its own defence policy, which he says would be a major threat to Nato. He partly blames 'foolish' EU decisions for triggering the Russian conflict with Ukraine and criticised the 'inexplicable' decision to speed up Turkey's EU membership. 'To tie ourselves to a flawed and dysfunctional structure when we can face the challenge and capture the opportunity of world markets outside makes no sense at all,' he told The Sun. A onetime contestant on America's Next Top Model was charged on Tuesday after allegedly jumping a turnstile at a New York subway station to get out of paying the fare. Andrea Phan, 25, was charged with theft of services and criminal trespass for the 5 p.m. jump at the J and Z station at Canal St in Lower Manhattan, The New York Daily News reported. Phan appeared in the 21st season of ANTM as 'Shei' in 2014, and officially placed fifth. She was arraigned on Wednesday at Manhattan Criminal Court for skipping out on paying for the subway ride, which costs $2.75. Next Top Jailbird: Andrea Phan, 25, was charged with theft of services and criminal trespass for the 5 p.m. jump at the J and Z station at Canal St in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday The model, who works under the name Shei Phan, is pictured here at the launch of America's Next Top Model Cycle 21 in LA in August 2014 Phan had to spend the night in jail after her arrest. In court it was revealed that she had a warrant against her from an earlier incident in Brooklyn, however any further details were not disclosed. At the arraignment, the model - originally from Oklahoma City - accepted a deal to have the charges dropped, pending a six month good behavior bond. Judge Ushir Pandit-Durant warned Phan to 'stay out of trouble' or else the charges will be brought forward, which is standard for many low-level offenses, The Daily News reported. Phan listed her address as a place on 63rd Street. Bad move: Phan (not pictured) was busted jumping a turnstile at a subway station in Lower Manhattan Tuesday Phan has posted numerous shots of herself modeling on her Instagram account. However, according to her personal website, she gave up modeling to pursue a career as an artist. 'Shei realizes that modeling was not her soul passion and just like always falls into the arms of art,' the website said. The 5 ft 9 catwalker was eliminated from Top Model in episode 14. For the first time ever, Abercrombie & Fitch has debuted on the list of America's most hated retailer. The clothing company scored a 65 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) for the retail industry, which is almost 10 points below the entire sector's overall score, CNN Money reported. Since CEO Mike Jeffries left the company in December 2014, Abercrombie & Fitch had been working to re-brand itself. This low score could mean bad news for the retailer, which has over 300 locations in the United States. Most hated: Abercrombie & Fitch has debuted on the list of America's most hated retailer for the first time ever The clothing company scored a 65 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) for the retail industry, which is almost 10 points below the entire sector's overall score Since CEO Mike Jeffries (above left) departed from his position at the company in December 2014, Abercrombie & Fitch had been working to re-brand itself 'Normally when we see that kind of a gap, it's a company so large it has monopoly power like, Walmart or McDonalds,' Forrest Morgeson, ACSI's director of research, told CNN Money. 'Abercrombie and Fitch is not that, they aren't that large this can spell serious trouble for the company.' The report by ACSI is based on a survey of 9,358 customers who are asked about their recent shopping experiences at the biggest retailers in America. Abercrombie's score was the lowest across all six different sector categories that the index established, including department and discount stores, specialty retail stores and supermarkets. Fran Horowitz, President & Chief Merchandising Officer, told Daily Mail Online that the company has placed an 'intense focus' on customers over the last year. 'Over the last year, we have placed an intense focus on putting the customer at the center of everything we do, and our consumers are responding to this,' Horowitz said. 'The data we have from our consumers tells us they are positive on our brands, on our new offerings, and on the work we have done to improve the shopping experience. 'We are confident that we will continue to improve the customer experience over the coming year.' Just ahead of Abercrombie with a score of 66 is Walmart. Since 2006, the retail giant has ranked the lowest among department and discount stores. 'Walmart is doing fine business-wise, but at the same time, people really don't like them,' Morgeson told CNN Money. The report by ACSI is based on a survey of 9,358 customers who are asked about their recent shopping experiences at the biggest retailers in America Abercrombie's score was the lowest across all six different sector categories, including department and discount stores, specialty retail stores and supermarkets. For the second year in a row, customer satisfaction in retail is down. However, stores that scored high marks among customers include Nordstrom, Amazon, Wegmans and Costco. 'Your highest-end supplier in a particular industry tends to be the most satisfying,' Morgeson told CNN Money. 'It really is quality customers are looking for over price.' The ACSI survey also showed that customers prefer to shop online, as Amazon ranked the highest among Internet retailers with a score of 83. In addition, Netflix's score decreased 6 percent in 2015 to 76, as the company increased prices for its standard plan by $1 in October. 'It's a sensitive tightrope that Netflix has to walk,' Morgeson told CNN Money. 'It may not seem like a lot, but it's [11%] more for the same service you got last month.' Just ahead of Abercrombie with a score of 66 is Walmart. Since 2006, the retail giant has ranked the lowest among department and discount stores. France has demanded 1.3billion in back-tax from Google - 10 times as much as Britain got in its 'disproportionately small' deal. The French have demanded the substantial sum, despite Google having a much smaller operation there. The revelation has put increasing pressure on George Osborne to reopen the deal he made with the multi-national giant to repay just 130million paid to the UK in back taxes. Scroll down for video Google's 130million 'sweetheart' tax deal that was settled with HMRC last month has been described as 'disproportionately small' by an influential committee of MPs, as it emerges France are demanding 1.3billion The Commons public accounts committee said: We expect HMRC to monitor the outcome of other tax authorities investigations into Google and reopen its settlement with Google if relevant new evidence becomes available. The committee's report into the deal had criticised HMRC for accepting the offer from Google to cover unpaid taxes dating back to 2005. It said the figure seems disproportionately small, given the firms vast revenues in the UK. MPs said the taxman seems unable to collect a fair share of corporation tax from global companies in the UK. The damning report also accuses HM Revenue and Customs of double standards over its failure to penalise Google for its controversial tax arrangements. Ordinary taxpayers face an automatic 100 fine if they are even a day late filing their tax self-assessment. Fines mount rapidly if payment is delayed by more than three months and can amount to 100 per cent of the sum owed. But HMRC admitted to the committee that Google was not fined a penny last month when the firm finally agreed its controversial deal. The report said Google and other multinationals appeared to have been given an advantage not enjoyed by the average taxpayer. And it said HMRC appears to have settled for less corporation tax from Google than other countries are willing to accept. The revelation has put increasing pressure on George Osborne to reopen the deal made with Google MPs urged HMRC to reopen its settlement with Google if other countries succeed in forcing the firm to pay more in tax. George Osborne faced a barrage of criticism last month when he claimed the deal with Google was a major success. Critics claim the payment amounted to less than 3 per cent of the firms total UK revenues over the period. The report found that HMRCs six-year investigation into Googles tax affairs took far too long to get money out of the firm. The committee also warned that the secrecy surrounding the so-called sweetheart deal meant we cannot judge whether it is fair to taxpayers. And it voiced dismay at the failure to penalise the firm for dragging its feet. In evidence to the committee, HMRC admitted that the system of fines used for ordinary taxpayers does not work in relation to large businesses. Last night HMRC said it would tighten the rules this year to make it easier to fine multinationals for late payment of tax. Google insists it has paid all taxes that are due, and says it simply follows the international tax rules. But MPs on the committee, who questioned Google executives Tom Hutchinson and Matt Brittin earlier this month, accused the firm of being disingenuous. The report said: There is nothing in the rules that says you must set up two companies in Ireland and send large royalty payments, via the Netherlands, to a company that is tax resident in Bermuda. Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee (pictured left) told Google's Europe president Matt Brittin (right) last week that he 'lives in a different world' after he admitted he did not know how much he gets paid Google revealed in evidence to the committee that its global tax rate reached a five-year low last year. The firm said it paid an overall tax rate of 21.3 per cent on its profits in 2011. This fell to 16.8 per cent last year. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said the report showed it was far too easy for companies like Google to use loopholes to pay the least amount of tax possible. David Cameron has been urged by allies to sack Michael Gove as Justice Secretary after he claimed the EU deal could be torn apart by European judges. After Mr Gove made his sensational claim yesterday, the Government immediately slapped it down and sent out the Attorney General to explain why his colleague was wrong. The Prime Minister's claim the deal is legally binding and irreversible has been a central part of his pitch to the country since launching his referendum campaign this week. David Cameron, pictured right launching his Conservatives.IN campaign with activists last night, has been urged to sack Michael Gove, left in Downing Street this week, after his claim the EU deal was not irreversible According to the Daily Telegraph, those loyal to Mr Cameron believe Mr Gove should be removed in the weeks following the in-out referendum on 23 June. It comes as experts spoke out in support of the Justice Secretary's claim that the summit deal is not legally binding. Among them, Marina Wheeler - the QC married to Boris Johnson - declared today the Justice Secretary was right in his analysis of the powers of the European Court of Justice. She told The Times: 'Michael Gove, the lord chancellor, is not wrong. 'Whats important is (the deal's) status under EU law: if the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg considers any part of the agreement (or measures taken to implement it) to be incompatible with existing EU law, it can strike them down.' Mr Gove's deputy Dominic Raab, a Tory MP and former Foreign Office lawyer, said the deal Mr Cameron brought back from Brussels was less binding than 'the kind of legal guarantee you get when you buy a dishwasher'. Mr Cameron was said to have been angered by the row triggered by Mr Gove, who is a close friend and confidant. The Prime Minister has sacked Mr Gove from the Cabinet before - demoting him from Education Secretary to Chief Whip, docking his pay by more than 30,000, in 2014. Mr Gove had reportedly promised to keep a low profile after making his initial intervention in the referendum campaign but instead sparked the biggest row of the first week of the campaign. Assuming he wins on June 23, Mr Cameron is expected to reshuffle his Cabinet and he has been urged to sack his Justice Secretary then. As the row blew up, it emerged Chancellor George Osborne entertained Mr Gove for dinner on Saturday night, hours after the referendum officially began and Cabinet ministers launched campaigns against the PM. Mr Osborne's gesture had been aimed at ensuring peaceful relations across both sides of the Tory divide, the Independent said. The clash centres on whether or not Mr Cameron's deal is equivalent to an EU treaty - as asserted by Attorney General Jeremy Wright and disputed by Mr Gove. Last night, a copy of the deal with the 27 other EU member states was lodged at the UN, which the Government claims makes it 'irreversible'. Boris Johnson's wife, the human rights barrister Marina Wheeler, has endorsed Mr Gove's argument today and insisted he was 'not wrong' Ms Wheeler, marked no 6 above, took silk on Monday in a ceremony on the Strand and was seen with Boris Johnson and other members of the family But Mr Gove said: 'The European Court of Justice is not bound by this agreement until treaties are changed and we don't know when that will be.' He said Mr Cameron was 'absolutely right that this is a deal between 28 nations'. Mr Gove, also the Lord Chancellor, told the BBC: 'The whole point about the European Court of Justice is that it stands above the nation states.' Before 7am yesterday, No 10 said Mr Gove's claims were 'not true'. Ex-attorney general Dominic Grieve was also deployed to contest the claim. A later statement from aides to Jeremy Wright, current Attorney General, said although challenges could be brought to the court, the UK agreement had 'very similar legal strength' to existing treaty obligations. But Mr Raab said: 'The EU's own legal advice makes clear the UK deal is based on vague assurances.' And Martin Howe QC, who wants to quit the EU, said: 'Governmental claims that the summit deal is legally binding are highly misleading.' The odds are stacked: Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood sent a letter (pictured) to all civil servants telling them that government resources must only be used in the referendum campaign if it supports Britain's membership of the EU. It means those campaigning to leave do not have access to the same resources The clash laid bare how rules devised by Mr Cameron and Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood have stacked the odds in favour of the Remain camp. While Whitehall officials were free to rubbish Mr Gove's argument, he could not call upon the help of a single civil servant. It comes after the PM attacked Boris Johnson for joining the Out campaign. Last night a source close to the Tory leadership told the Spectator magazine that Mr Johnson's decision will be a disaster for him because 'he'll face the kind of scrutiny he's not faced before. He's not good on detail'. Brexit rebels: Mr Gove is one of a number of Cabinet ministers, including Iain Duncan Smith, left, and Theresa Villiers, right, pictured arriving at Downing Street on Tuesday, who are campaigning to leave the EU How will your MP vote? Full list of all the Conservative politicians who have declared their stand on the EU referendum debate The arrest of three notorious pranksters by counter terrorism officers has prompted some to question whether it was an 'overreaction' and 'waste of police time'. Hundreds have taken to social media to criticise Victoria Police over the decision to take Max, 20, Arman, 18, and a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, into custody for questioning. But others have supported police over the early morning raid of the two Jalal brother's home in South Morang, Melbourne, with many calling for the 'comedians' to be charged and sent to jail. The boys, who dress up in traditional Arab robes and fake terror attacks to try and scare unsuspecting bystanders, surrendered themselves to police on Thursday morning. Three infamous pranksters have been arrested by Victoria Police over controversial videos Max(L), 20, Arman Jalal, 18 (R) and a 16-year-old who can not be named for legal reasons attended a police station on Thursday shortly after counter terrorism detectives executed a warrant at their Melbourne home Thomas Woods wrote on Facebook: 'Seriously the police investigating the Jalals surely have better things to be doing.' Gul N Mehmet Tan tweeted: 'Why Dont The Police catch the real criminals (sic)' Dragan Ubiparipovic said: 'Go stop real crime, taking this to far.' Zaky Mallah said: 'A police search warrant to raid the Jalal brothers home? What are the Vic police searching for? The fake golden gun? Or the Muslim robes?' Kevin Farrugia said: 'All you guys saying well done vic pol, send them away, they're just some teens trying to make people laugh, doesn't need all this publicity. disappointing vic pol...' Kane GaryTurtels said: 'Well done Victoria police. I can now sleep at night knowing you have saved the community from these crazy kids.' Mary B said: 'What an overreaction from police!!! #Jalals' Others questioned why it had taken the police so long to take action, as the first 'extreme' suicide bomber hoax video aired in December. Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther from Victoria Police confirmed that police had been investigating the pranksters for the past month Vivian said: 'Why have they been allowed to continue with this behaviour for so long?' Michael L tweeted: 'About time Victoria Police.' Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther from Victoria Police told media that the response has been 'driven by the changing nature of these posts and the escalation in terms of content'. 'We believe the tipping point has been reached where the content is completely unacceptable and it is in fact criminal. And that is how we will be proceeding with it,' he said. 'They have caused some significant alarm in our community when we already have heightened security. 'The videos portray terrorists in a certain way and it causes anxiety and problematic behaviours within the community. 'It is problematic for police attending incidents like this as there is potential for serious injury and that is of concern to us. This behaviour is not okay.' He said the counter terrorism unit is involved because the videos create fear in the community and promote criminal behaviour. The boys were slammed for their latest video which showed them firing a fake AK-47 at a five-year-old girl and her father while they were standing by a phone box The pair can then be seen running for their life from the phone box, with the phone left swinging on its cord The trio were slammed for the video, which saw them dressing in Arab robes and brandishing fake guns The men revealed that they tried to make amends after the 'drive by shooting' video and gave the little girl some sweets 'I quite deliberately chose to bring this matter and pursue it within my command,' he told the press conference. 'The counter terrorism command has a preventative aspect, so it looks at high risk members as well as those that provide an environment where that could happen.' The Assistant Commissioner confirmed that police had been investigating the pranksters for the past month - but said they have not yet been charged. Police said they did not see the videos as 'childhood pranks' and revealed that there had been a number of complaints to Crimestoppers. Hundreds of people on social media have commended the police for their action, saying that the videos caused 'fear' in the community. Darren Lawson said: 'Even though it was a prank, it could have scared people and caused heart attacks, anxiety attacks or other medical problems. 'Not only that, if they had of pranked the wrong person, they could have got themselves killed too.You can't run around with fake guns pretending to shoot someone in the public and expect nothin will happen.' Mary Campagnolo said: 'Congratulations to Victoria Police! Can't see a vestige of humour in these kind of pranks! Who could possibly laugh at a young girl traumatised by three dim witted hooligans.' The trio first came under fire in December last year with a 'public bomb scare' stunt that showed a man in a white robe thrusting a bag into a man's lap Another part of the video showed one of the 'pranksters' launching the backpack into the open window of someone's car The pranksters were slammed for their latest video which showed them firing a fake AK-47 at a five-year-old girl and her father while they were standing by a phone box. The girl was seen running for her life in the disturbing footage which attracted thousands of damning comments. 'What happens if there was a police officer there who witnessed that?' Commissioner Ashton said. 'It could be a very deadly situation very quickly.' Some of the more shocking moments in their videos include hurling suspicious parcels at random strangers before sprinting off and staging the kidnap of a woman on a busy Gold Coast street. One of the 'entertainers' is also seen appearing to simulate a sex act with a chicken in a spoof version of an MTV Cribs video which also shows a number of the animals being kept in a fridge. In an interview with Daily Mail Australia the day before their arrest, the pranksters defended their antics, claiming that they never wanted to spread fear and that it was all supposed to be 'funny'. 'You shouldn't take life too seriously. Everyone should laugh more, it helps you live longer,' Max said. 'We get a lot of negative comments and even death threats with people saying they are going to shoot us. But we just try to ignore it and laugh it off.' Speaking on Wednesday, Max said that he was 'aware' of an ongoing police investigation, but at that point he had not heard anything from police. The brothers even claimed that Arman was shot during filming for a suicide bombing prank (shown) They posted pictures of him in hospital, saying: 'It's been a hard 2 weeks filming without you little Jalal' The 20-year-old Law student, who has started his degree at Victoria University, said he had thought about how the extreme videos might affect his career. 'It has crossed my mind, but I want to concentrate on the videos,' he said. The trio first came under fire in December last year with a 'public bomb scare' stunt that showed a man in a white robe thrusting a bag into a man's lap. The man immediately tossed the bag away from him and jumped into a nearby lake in the clip which has more than 85 million views. Another part of the video showed one of the 'pranksters' launching the backpack into the open window of someone's car. The driver quickly abandoned the vehicle leaving the door flung wide open. Despite an outpouring of negative comments, the brothers amassed legions of followers with their official Facebook page attracting over a million likes just days after they released the video. The eldest brother, Max (pictured), whose Facebook pages states: 'I do bomb pranks for a living', attended Mill Park Secondary College with Arman The entertainers, who have more than 1.8 million likes on their Facebook page, have defended their antics, pictured is Arman Despite an outpouring of negative comments, the group amassed legions of followers with their official Facebook page attracting over a million likes just days after they released the video Max Jalal is pictured (left) with his brother Arman (second right) posing in front of sports cars 'In just one week we managed to achieve 1 million likes on this page, that's crazy,' they wrote on Facebook. 'We couldn't of done it without you guys, so we would like to personally thank each and every one of you for all the support and feedback you've given us! P.s f*** the haters.' Max revealed that they first started filming prank videos around six months ago after seeing some videos on YouTube. 'We stumbled across some pranks online and we thought that we wanted to do something controversial that would get people talking. 'It has just exploded from there with a few of our videos. Now we have lawyers telling us whether we can or can't do something, so we go right up to the limit. The 16-year-old involved said the trio started getting paid for their videos around two months ago and that it was 'big business'. 'We are monetising through Facebook and YouTube and we get money from sponsors and brands.' The drive by shooting prank, which has more than 3.2million views, also shows the pranksters firing fake shots at two men standing by their parked car during the day One of the men is seen diving for cover behind the car after hearing multiple gun shot sounds The pranksters, who are from Melbourne, then fire fake shot at three men waiting by a bus stop The three men can all be seen sprinting from the scene after hearing multiple gun shots The trio has received at least $4,500 for their latest 'drive by shooting' prank through Facebook views alone. They revealed that they have been approached by companies saying they are willing to pay them up to $100,000 per month. Arman, 18, who attended Mill Park Secondary College with Max, said: 'I want to do bomb pranks for a living.' The Jalals teamed up with up with another comedian Shammi (left) to stage the prank on his girlfriend Sarah Reay-Young (right) Shocked families and children can be seen watching the pranksters stage the public kidnapping (right) on a busy street The trio also sparked outrage with a video in January which showed them running up behind a woman, tossing a garbage bag over her head and bundling her into a van. In the video, the Melbourne pranksters teamed up with up with Shammi another controversial prankster who came under fire for his cruel pranks againts his girlfriend Sarah Reay-Young. While Shammi was on a date with his girlfriend, the brothers ambushed her and staged the public kidnapping as she screamed out for help. But the comedian has now spoken out, saying he believes the trio are becoming 'too extreme'. 'My girlfriend wasn't impressed at all, she was pretty upset at the time and I think we may have taken it a bit too far,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'When she watched it back she felt better about it all. She didn't know anything about it before it happened, I told her we were going to get lunch. 'It was all over in about five seconds, but she wasn't impressed. Even though she's prepared for pranks, you still wouldn't think about it straight away. The decomposing body of a 24-year-old Australian man, Jonathan William Bond, has been found in the rented room of a guesthouse in the Cambodian capital. Mr Bond began renting the room a month ago while working as a teacher at the nearby Western University campus in Phnom Penh. Earlier in February, the owner of the guest house Sem Sok Khuch, 36, took his family on holiday to Cambodia's coastal resort town of Sihanoukville. While they were away, Mr Khuch's sister, who lives in a room in the guesthouse, noticed a foul smell coming from the Australian's room. Jonathan Bond, whose decomposing body was found with a syringe in the room he rented in Phnom Penh, Cambodia by the sister of the guesthouse's landlord after she went to investigate a foul smell Mr Bond, 24, worked as a teacher at Western University in Phnom Penh and rented this room (above) a month ago, but when his landlord went on holiday the young Australia apparently overdosed on drugs At first she thought it was dead animals, but on February 20 she entered the room to investigate. Inside the room she found Mr Bond's body and she called police. Officers investigated the scene and found a syringe near the body, which they believed was used to inject drugs. Scattered around the room are clothing, computer equipment and other belongings. Following a post mortem investigation, forensic authorities said they believed Jonathan Bond had been dead for four to five days before he was discovered and that he possibly died from a drug-induced heart attack. Mr Bond was described in reports by expatriate Australians living in Cambodia as a 'popular teacher'. According to his Facebook page, Mr Bond moved to Phnom Penh in the middle of last year. The Medicare and credit cards, along with Mr Bond's passport and foreigner employment card found in the rented room in Phnom Pneh where his decomposing body was found, dead from an apparent drug overdose The passport of Jonathan Bond, found in the room he rented in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh where his decomposing body was found this week by the sister of guesthouse's landlord In a post on his page on July 25, 2015, he wrote 'HEAR YE! HEAR YE! Due to some unforeseen changes in my overall life plan I have moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia for at least the next year. 'I'm teaching at a uni and I'm about to move in to my very own apartment. As I result I will be using fb considerably more and may even post photos to prove this is not a elaborate hoax. 'If anyone is ever in the country or has friends that want insider tips just hit me up. I'd more then happy to show people the cheapest and/or best places to drunk (among other things of course).' Mr Bond's last post on his Facebook page was on December 17, in which he uploaded a photograph of a street mural. A Texas police officer was able to rescue a man from his burning truck before the car was engulfed by flames, authorities said. The 29-year-old man had crashed into a wall on an exit ramp on a freeway in Corpus Christi while driving at high speeds before his 1995 Chevy Suburban caught fire on Monday just before 6.30pm. In the dramatic dash cam footage, Corpus Christi Police Officer Jon McGinley is shown breaking the passenger side window with his baton before pulling out the unidentified man with the help of a bystander. On Monday evening, Corpus Christi Police Officer Jon McGinley is in dash cam footage breaking the passenger side window of a burning truck with his baton before rescuing a 29-year-old man 'Come on man, get out of the car,' McGinley is heard shouting at the man after he broke the window and made his way inside the man's car. 'Hey, your truck's on fire, get out. Come on!' The officer then tells the man to crawl out of the passenger's side as he alerts him a second time that his car is on fire. Bystanders are eventually seen running to the scene (pictured) before one of them helps bring the man out of the car and carry him to the side of the freeway Moments later, a bystander is seen running to the scene from the left before opening the passenger side door and going inside the car. He along with McGinley then drag the man out of the burning car, bringing him to safety on the side of the freeway. At that point, several other witnesses are seen running to the scene of the crash in an effort to help out. Police said the man was taken to hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries Police said the man was taken to hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries. Following the incident, the ramp was closed to traffic for more than an hour until the car was towed away from the scene. As of Tuesday, the driver was not facing any charges. A father found a thick layer of mold stuck in the top of his baby son's 'leak-proof' sippy cup. Simon O'kanada of Mirabel in Quebec, Canada, opened the Tommee Tippee cup last week in a bid to work out why his son routinely fell ill. To his horror, clumps of brown residue had congealed inside the contraption right next to the hole where liquid comes out. Posting pictures of the disgusting discover on Facebook last week, O'kanada's friend Marie-Pier told friends that a Tommee Tippee employee 'laughed out loud' when they called to complain about it. Simon O'kanada of Mirabel in Quebec opened the Tommee Tippee cup last week in a bid to work out why his son routinely fell ill. To his horror, clumps of brown residue (pictured) had congealed inside the contraption This was a picture posted online by another outraged parent who found goop in their sippy cup 'My friend Simon Okanada wondered why his son was always sick,' she wrote. 'He broke the anti-spill top of his Tommee Tippee bottle and discovered mold inside the mouthpiece. 'It doesnt wash and cant be seen unless it is broken open. 'He called the company, and the lady on the phone laughed out out loud.' Responding to the news, Tommee Tippee insists this residue build-up would not happen if the product were used properly. 'When used with recommended liquids (cold, light fluids including water and non-pulp juices) and cleaned in line with instructions, there are no problems,' a spokesman told Buzzfeed News. 'Difficulties have arisen though when liquids that are not recommended for use in the cups have been used, like thick formula milk, pulpy juice and warm liquids. 'We also recommend that cups are not left for long periods before being cleaned.' The firm also posted a statement on its Facebook page: 'We learned, as a result of posts, that some people were not satisfied with the result of the sippy valves used in our sippy cups. It is the latest complaints from parents. One posted this on Facebook just a few months ago Tommee Tippee insists this residue build-up would not happen if parents used cold drinks not warm milk It seems from this picture posted by another angry parents that liquid seeped out the container into the cap This picture posted online late last year is one of the many to spark fear in parents across the globe The cups are incredibly popular with parents as they are advertised as 'leak-proof' 'We apologize for the inconvenience and we assure you that we are actively working on the subject.' Nonetheless, the news has swept the internet, striking fear in parents across the globe. And it turns out the complaints are nothing news. A sweep through Amazon and Facebook shows parents have been posting pictures of their moldy Tommee Tippee cups for months. One mother commented on Facebook: 'WARNING: All the people who have been using anti-spill cups for some time THROW THEM OUT! 'Open your cups, remove the anti-spill guard and break it into two. Mold settles in the cap and makes children sick!! If you can, take pictures and join the other parents who have raised a complaint against the consumer service. Neither the dishwasher or washing by hand removes it!!' A light aircraft that crashed in a Los Angeles street on Monday is owned by a 39-year-old man recently accused of stalking Sandra Bullock, it has been revealed. The plane was approaching Whiteman Airport when a gust of wind set it down, causing it crash into several cars on San Fernando Road in Pacoima. No one was injured in the crash, however the plane turned out to be registered to Joshua J. Corbett, of Montrose, who is still facing charges of stalking and burglary after allegedly breaking into Bullock's house while she was home in summer 2014, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. Scroll down for video Scene: The light aircraft, which came down in a street in Pacoima on Monday afternoon, is registered to Joshua J. Corbett, who is awaiting charges of stalking and breaking into the home of Sandra Bullock The 39-year-old is accused of jumping the fence of Bullock's house and entering through a sun door early on the morning of June 8, 2014. She was home, locked herself in the closet and called 911 Out and about: Sandra Bullock and boyfriend Bryan Randall pick up food in Austin, Texas, on Saturday While Corbett is the owner of the plane, he was not in the aircraft at the time of the crash. The plane was piloted by his father, Henry Corbett. Corbett Jr. is awaiting a court hearing on April 12. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree residential burglary, stalking and possession of a machine gun and is being held on a $2.2 million bond. Bullock awoke early the morning of June 8, 2014, to find an intruder in her home. She didn't know it at the time, but the man had lurked outside her gates for several days, writing in a spiral notebook about his obsession with the Oscar-winning actress. He had jumped her fence and rang her doorbell for 10 to 15 minutes before entering her home through a sunroom door. Bullock got a glimpse of him as he walked past her bedroom and toward her attic, giving the actress an opportunity to seal herself behind a security door, hide in a closet and call police. Corbett's attorneys denied their client wanted to hurt Bullock and said he needed mental health treatment. The items presented in court during a hearing this week and released on Friday include a two-page letter Corbett wrote to the Oscar-winning actress the day before he entered her home. Once Bullock locked the door to her bedroom and got into the closet, she dialed 911. Over the next 15 minutes, she guided police through the gates of her home and led them to her location, opening the door only after confirming with a police dispatcher that officers had secured the home. Los Angeles city firefighters look at the wreckage of a small plane that crashed on approach to Whiteman Airport in the Pacoima area of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley Monday, Feb. 22, 2016 An investigator photographs damaged parked cars after a small plane crashed in the Pacoima area of LA Bullock's fear is evident on the call she was breathing heavily and sounded near tears at points. Although she saw only one man, Bullock heard what she thought were two voices. About three-and-a-half minutes after calling police, Bullock heard a new noise. 'I hear them,' Bullock said. 'I hear someone banging on my door.' Police were already on their way, and a dispatcher assured the actress they were coming with lights flashing and sirens blaring. 'Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,' the actress responded. 'You're doing good,' the dispatcher told Bullock about six minutes into the call. 'Thank you,' Bullock said, letting out a nervous laugh. The actress thanked the dispatcher 10 times during the call. When he was arrested, police found Corbett with a two-page letter professing his love for Bullock that was apparently written the day before, about 20 hours before his arrest. This undated photo provided by the Los Angeles Superior Court shows the first page of a letter that Joshua James Corbett wrote to actress Sandra Bullock, that is included as evidence in the Los Angeles court case against Corbett for stalking the Oscar-winning actress The letter makes clear Corbett has been watching Bullock, commenting on her comings-and-goings. 'You could have had me today however you chose other people over me,' the letter opens. 'I'll be around as you know.' After his arrest, police reviewed Bullock's surveillance footage and saw Corbett outside the actress' gate on each of the three days before he hopped the fence. The letter was signed, 'Always and forever, Love, your husband.' The electronic-chain was placed in administration in January this year The decision comes after receivers failed to find a buyer for the company More than 2,800 employees will be affected by the closure Dick Smith is set to close all its stores in Australia and New Zealand The man who started the troubled electronics retailer Dick Smith says he is 'incredibly angry' at the group who floated his former company for $520 million and blames them for putting almost 3,000 people out of work as the chain finally goes under. Entrepreneur Dick Smith, who shares a name with the embattled retailer, says Anchorage Capital, who bought the company from Woolworths for $94 million in 2012, knew it would not be worth $500 million when they listed it on the market in 2013 and blames them for the company's recent demise. 'I'm incredibly angry about the utter dishonesty of Anchorage Capital and I hope ASIC and the Senate Inquiry do something about them,' Mr Smith told the Sydney Morning Herald. Scroll down for video The man who started the troubled electronics retailer Dick Smith says he is 'incredibly angry' at the group who floated his former company for $520 million and blames them for putting almost 3,000 people out of work Dick Smith will be closing its remaining 301 stores across Australia and New Zealand in the next eight weeks He says he has no interest in buying back rights to the company name and pin-pointed a push for 'quick growth' as the reason for plummeting sales and profits. 'The staff could still be there, if they didn't have this ridiculous, never-ending growth strategy,' he said after the company announced it would be closing its remaining 363 stores across Australia and New Zealand in the next eight weeks. Approximately 2,460 Australian staff and 430 employees from New Zealand will be affected by the closure of the electronic-chain. Employees were briefed about the closure of the stores on Thursday and are expected to be paid out in full. Mr Smith says he has no interest in buying back rights to the company name and pin-pointed a push for 'quick growth' as the reason for plummeting sales and profits. More than 2,800 employees will be affected by the closure of the electronic chain Mr Smith, who has not been involved in the company for more than 30, previously said the company could have survived alongside its competitors under better management and blaming a push for 'quick growth' for plummeting sales and profits, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The accomplished businessman, who started the company in 1968 as a car radio installation business, said he has never owned shares in Dick Smith Electronics and did not plan to as 'those types of organisations' are 'too risky'. 'When I owned Dick Smith it was a company selling electronic components. I've never been involved in consumer electronics I don't know how anyone could make any money out of it,' Mr Smith said. 'When I owned Dick Smith it was a company selling electronic components. I've never been involved in consumer electronics I don't know how anyone could make any money out of it,' Mr Smith said The closure comes following receivers Ferrier Hodgson failure to win 'acceptable' offers for the Australian company that was placed in to administration in early January after losing more than 80 per cent of its value since August. 'While we received a significant number of expressions of interest from local and overseas parties, unfortunately the sale process has not resulted in any acceptable offers for the group as a whole or for Australia or New Zealand as standalone businesses. The offers were either significantly below liquidation values or highly conditional or both,' said James Stewart, Receiver to Dick Smith Holdings. Shares for the electronics retailer fell almost 60 per cent in November last year after the company revealed that its stock was worth $60 million less than expected, with profits also forecast to fall short of Dick Smith's $48 million target. The company announced voluntary administration in January, owing roughly $150 million. When Natasha Stork started having stomach pains just eight weeks after giving birth to her first child she put it down to possible post-pregnancy aches. But the 34-year-old from Melbourne was left shattered when doctors informed her in August last year the cause of her pain was actually a tumour in her stomach. Mrs Stork was quickly diagnosed with stage four melanoma after doctors found several more tumours in her liver, small intestines, bowels and hip. Natasha Stork, 34, was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma eight weeks after giving birth to her first baby Marley in Melbourne when doctors found tumours on her stomach, liver, small intestines, bowels and hip 'I was in disbelief, I was terrified. I had just had a baby eight weeks before so I thought the abdominal pain had something to do with my uterus,' Mrs Stork told Daily Mail Australia. 'Because of the amount of cancer - it was stage 4 - they put me on medication immediately. 'They needed something to work quickly due to how much cancer I had. It worked and I had what they call a 'complete response' - all of the tumours shrunk and disappeared within about eight weeks.' But because the tumours had shrunk so quickly, doctors had warned the new mother that they would return. 'I had a couple of tumours return within a month - it was back in the lining of my liver and they saw something on my small intestines and behind my stomach,' she said. Mrs Stork has since started another treatment called Keytruda, which is administered via intravenous every three weeks for about two years. Mrs Stork was diagnosed with stage four melanoma after doctors found several more tumours in her liver, small intestines, bowels and hip. She had put severe abdominal pain down to post-pregnancy aches The 34-year-old's husband Grant took her to hospital (pictured) in August suffering severe stomach pains and the couple were left shattered when doctors informed her the cause of her pain was actually a tumour She said her cancer diagnosis blind-sided her and came just a few weeks after she had a mole cut out of her arm. 'I had the mole checked out because I was taking my daughter in for a check up. The mole was very small and darker than the rest so I just asked the doctor,' Mrs Stork said. 'They cut it out and gave me a call saying it was melanoma but it hadn't gone beneath the first layer of skin... the pain started a few weeks later.' Mrs Stork said her pregnancy was completely normal despite the tumours but her oncologist believes the growth hormones may have helped the melanoma spread. She has now had five infusions with her new medication and apart from a 'recent hiccup' that resulted in emergency surgery, Mrs Stork says the treatment looks like it's working. Mrs Stork, pictured with husband Grant and baby Marley, has since started a treatment called Keytruda, which is administered via intravenous every three weeks for about two years The first time mother said she hasn't been able to breastfeed Marley due to the cancer treatment she is undergoing 'I had some horrible pains in my stomach that felt like contractions so we went to emergency, they felt around and thought it felt like another large tumour,' she said. It turned out to be problems with a 1cm tumour on her small intestines, which resulted in doctors having to remove parts of her organ. 'They removed 10cm of my small intestine that night and I'm in recovery at the moment,' she said. 'I'm not allowed to pick up my baby for six weeks. 'They are quite optimistic. I've only got one visible tumour left. That one visible tumour is in between my stomach and spleen. I'll be having another scan next week to see if it's getting bigger or smaller. 'If it's getting any bigger they'll do another surgery to remove it. It's just taking it day by day. Natasha Stork is one of thousands to help raise awareness for melanoma by participating in the Melanoma Institute Australia's annual Melanoma March next month Mrs Stork said her pregnancy was completely normal despite the tumours but her oncologist believes the growth hormones may have helped the melanoma spread 'I've had this persistent tummy ache for six months. I've been still able to do all the things a new mum does. I just haven't been able to breastfeed due to medication, which is quite upsetting.' Australia has the highest rates of melanoma in the world. More than 1,500 die annually from the disease - one person every six hours. It remains the third most common cancer in men and women across the country. Mrs Stork is one of thousands to help raise awareness for melanoma by participating in the Melanoma Institute Australia's annual Melanoma March next month. Each year participants in Melanoma March walk or run a four kilometre course to raise money for vital research. There are 24 Melanoma March events happening across Australia this year from Adelaide to Rockingham, Bathurst to Devonport and Darwin to Melbourne. To find out where the nearest Melanoma March is to you, visit melanomamarch.org.au. Australians have been warned to brace themselves for the possibility of a new terrorist attack in Indonesia, with intelligence suggesting planning could be at 'advanced stages'. The Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday posted an updated travel advisory on its website for Australian travellers. 'Recent indications suggest that terrorists may be in the advanced stages of preparing attacks in Indonesia,' the advice says. Australians have been warned to brace themselves for the possibility of a new terrorist attack in Indonesia. Smoke can be seen after an explosion near Starbucks during the Jakarta bombings last month (pictured) An injured police officer is carried away from the site of a bomb blast in front of a shopping mall in Jakarta However, the overall level of advice has not changed, with travellers still told to exercise a high degree of caution in Indonesia, including Bali. 'We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Indonesia, including Bali, at this time due to the high threat of terrorist attack,' the website reads. 'You should also be aware of the severe penalties for narcotics offences, including the death penalty; some specific health risks; and risks associated with natural disasters. 'The Indonesian Government has recently increased security across Indonesia, which underscores the ongoing high threat of a terrorist attack.' A view of the police station in front of a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, where a bomb blast took place A police armoured personnel carrier is seen parked near the scene of an attack in central Jakarta last month Australia travellers have been warned about the possibility of a new terrorist attack in Indonesia. One of the tourist destinations Lake Temple (pictured) in Bali Australians have been warned to brace themselves for the possibility of a new terrorist attack in Indonesia This comes after several bombs exploded outside Starbuck's cafe and a shopping centre in the heart of the Indonesian capital, killing eight people, including the terrorists. 'The attack demonstrates the continuing terrorism threat in Indonesia, including in locations frequented by foreigners,' the travel advice website continues. 'We continue to receive information that indicates that terrorists may be planning attacks in Indonesia. has shut down websites and ordered TV programs off air The small gay community in conservative, Muslim-majority Indonesia is facing a sudden and unexpected backlash, with ministers and religious leaders denouncing homosexuality, LGBT websites blocked and emboldened hardliners launching anti-gay raids. When a minister criticised counselling services for gay students at a university last month, it triggered a heated media debate and was the start of what activists say has been a sustained assault on gay rights. Hardline Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu this week labelled the influence of the gay community 'a threat' and said fighting it was akin to 'a kind of modern warfare'. Under attack: Muslim group marching to blockade pro-LGBT protesters in Yogyakarta, in Java island 'It's dangerous as we can't see who our foes are, but out of the blue everyone is brainwashed,' he was cited as saying by news website Tempo. The government has shut down a slew of websites, ordered TV programs depicting gay lives off the air and demanded all instant messaging apps remove same-sex emoticons - like men holding hands and the symbolic rainbow flag - or face a ban. Indonesia's top Islamic clerical body has revived a push for gay sex to be criminalised, saying it is not only 'deviant' but against the country's founding principles, and lawmakers are reportedly considering drafting an anti-homosexuality bill. Homosexuality is generally taboo in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation and gay people have in the past suffered verbal and physical attacks. However it is legal in most of the country, with a notable exception being ultraconservative Aceh province, and homosexuals have mostly been able to quietly get on with their lives. A pro-LGBT protester crashing to the floor during a clash with police in Yogyakarta, in Java island It is unclear why the recent furore has gained such momentum, but it follows a push by religious leaders and conservative politicians to bolster public morality in Indonesia, with crackdowns on prostitution and the availability of drugs and alcohol. Activists also say that gains made abroad for LGBT rights, particularly the legalisation of same-sex marriage across the entire United States in June, have heightened scrutiny of Indonesia's gay community and fanned homophobia. Much of the concern from senior political figures has revolved around a sense that the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community is seeking to push for changes viewed as contrary to Indonesian culture, like same-sex marriage. 'What's forbidden is (groups) saying 'Hey you, let's be lesbian and gay.' That's wrong,' said Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who has requested the United Nations Development Fund not finance LGBT programs in Indonesia. Those working with the gay community say there has been a corresponding spike in harassment, stalking and online abuse, with many fearing radical groups railing against a so-called 'LGBT emergency' could become violent. Indonesian Muslim women walking past a banner saying 'homosexual and lesbian banned from entering our neighborhood' in Bandung, West Java province Radical group the Islamic Defenders Front has stormed boarding houses in the city of Bandung hunting for same-sex couples, while in Yogyakarta radicals massed outside an Islamic school famous for accepting transgender students. Hardliners have been putting up signs denouncing homosexuality and scuffles broke out this week as police stopped a rally by supporters of the gay community from going ahead in Yogyakarta, several hundred kilometres east of Jakarta. 'It's getting worse and worse. It's become dangerous for us,' Ryan Korbarri, general secretary of gay outreach group Arus Pelangi, said. Staff at the organisation have started travelling in pairs and taking different routes home, while another Jakarta-based group Suara Kita shut its distinctive rainbow gate for the first time ever, biding time until the heat dies down. Transvestites who work as make-up artist lining up during beauty contest event in Banda Aceh The unusual wave of anti-gay rhetoric - particularly from senior government officials - has shocked rights activists at home and abroad, with President Joko Widodo being urged to uphold Indonesia's national motto 'unity in diversity'. 'President Jokowi should urgently condemn anti-LGBT remarks by officials before such rhetoric opens the door to more abuses,' said New York-based Human Rights Watch, referring to the president by his nickname. Despite his silence so far, many still have faith in Widodo, whose past promises to address human rights abuses and champion minority groups have earned him the strong backing of almost all LGBT people in Indonesia, said Teguh Iman from Suara Kita. Flight Centre founder Graham Turner has made an awkward 'joke' during a conference call, explaining a key focus for the company was to 'capture Baby Boomers before they die.' The comment was made during a conference call with Flight Centre's Brisbane brokers in front of 150 journalists and investors to discuss the company's impressive half yearly results. Earlier in the Q&A session, Mr Turner had another uncomfortable moment when he asked the company's chief operation officer Melanie Waters-Ryan if she was over 50 and in fact, a Baby Boomer. Flight Centre founder Graham 'Skroo' Turner (pictured) has made an awkward 'joke' during a conference call, explaining the company's new strategy was to 'capture Baby Boomers before they die' The comment was made during a conference call with Flight Centre's Brisbane brokers in front of 150 journalists and investors After being asked the question, Ms Waters-Ryan simply responded: 'No,' according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Flight Centre said later the comments were intended as a joke and Mr Turner meant no offence as 'he himself is a Baby Boomer.' 'He was just having a bit of a joke,' a Flight Centre spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia. 'He's a really down to earth candid guy.' In the meeting, it was unveiled the company's net profit has climbed 16 per cent to $116.7 million, The Courier Mail reported. Mr Turner established the Flight Centre travel business in 1981. In August 2010 its market capitalisation was $1.9 billion and they currently have 8000 staff. Flight Centre have said the comments were intended as a joke and Mr Turner meant no offence as 'he himself is a Baby Boomer' Fashion PR Roxy Jacenko is enduring one of the most stressful years of her life, with her husband facing a possible prison sentence, her family feuds ongoing and the hateful photo scandal surrounding her four-year-old daughter Pixie. In the past Ms Jacenko has dismissed out of hand that she worries about husband Oliver Curtis's criminal charge for alleged insider trading that have been hanging over the couple for three years. 'I don't ever think anything about it,' she said in 2013 and said she 'had never once discussed it' with her husband. But on May 2, that will all change when Oliver Peter Curtis stands trial in the NSW Supreme Court on charges of insider trading. In the witness box is expected to be his former friend, John Hartman, with whom Curtis shared an extravagant three years of wild spending and a luxury lifestyle. Scroll down for video Looking like the perfect family, Roxy Jacenko (right) smiles with husband Oliver Curtsi and their daughter Pixie, but the cloud hanging over the couple is set to darken this year when Mr Curtis finally goes to trial in May on insider trading charges Crown witness: John Hartman was Oliver Curtis's childhood friend and as wealthy and privileged 23-year-olds they lived the high life of luxury cars and beautiful women but it all came crashing down when Hartman went to prison for insider trading Roxy Jacenko and her then schoolgirl sister, Ruby (pictured), faced off in court after the 18-year-old allegedly slapped her in a Kings Cross nightclub in 2008. The sisters are estranged Curtis and Hartman were private schoolboys at the exclusive Catholic school Riverview and from wealthy and privileged backgrounds in the rich North Shore Sydney suburb of Mosman. Curtis is the son of a mining magnate and financier, Nick Curtis, a founding partner of Riverstone Advisory and the former executive chairman of rare earths miner Lynas Corp. John Hartman's father is Sydney North Shore obstetrician Keith Hartman, who delivered James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch and has an Order of Australia for services to obstetrics and gynaecology. After leaving school, Oliver Curtis and John Hartman became investment bankers and flatmates in an apartment overlooking Bondi Beach. Roxy Jacenko (pictured with daughter Pixie) has come under fire for creating the four-year-old's Instagram career which critics claimed was 'just asking' for attacks such as the lewd photo-shopped images being circulated in the Australian fashion industry By the age of just 23, they were driving luxury cars, dating beautiful women and taking expensive holidays. They 'lived the dream' of a high-powered working life and social success. It would blow up in their faces in 2008, but until seven years ago the pair appeared to have the world at their feet. That was the year that Curtis was a finalist in the Cleo Magazine Bachelor of the Year contest. He was dating socialite and Lara Bingle's best friend Hermione Underwood, and holidaying in Lake Como, on the ski fields of Whistler in Canada and in the casinos of Las Vegas. John Hartman had studied economics at Sydney University, while working as a bookie's assistant at Randwick racecourse. On graduation, he became an equity dealer at Orion Asset Management. Oliver Curtis landed an investment banker role before he could complete his degree, later setting up Riverstone Corporate Advisory. Oliver Curtis, pictured following a court appearance, was a high flying investment banker in his early 20s Roxy Jacenko's revelation about the lewd photo scandal surrounding her daughter prompted an online attack by commentators claiming that she should not be promoting her child on social media One of the lewd photo-shopped images of Roxy Jacenko's daughter Pixie (above) are believed to be are believed to be of a prostitute in a glass window in Amsterdam's red light district prompting Ms Jacenko to call the creators of the images 'pedophiles' But Hartman was engaged in something other than legitimately buying millions millions of dollars worth of shares for Orion's clients. In 2009, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) froze Hartman's bank account. He eventually pleaded guilty 25 charges of insider trading and passing on information and became the country's youngest convicted insider trader, sentenced to four-and-a-half years. The sentence was reduced on appeal and Hartman served 15 months at Silverwater Correctional Centre in western Sydney, walking free in March 2012. Hartman had cut a deal with ASIC, to give evidence against Oliver Curtis. In 2013, Curtis was charged with alleged crimes which mean he faces up to $220,000 in fines and/or five years jail. By the age of just 23, Oliver Curtis (pictured with daughter Pixie) and his friend John Hartman were driving luxury cars, dating beautiful women and taking expensive holidays, but their perfect world came crashing down Fashion PR Roxy Jacenko (pictured) has a successful agency with luxury clients including Peugeot, Dolce & Gabbana and Le Coq Sportif but if her husband goes to prison 2016 could prove a nightmare year for her Roxy Jacenko, pictured on Channel 10's The Project, has been attacked by commentators criticising the social media career she has created for her daughter, one saying that she had turned her daughter into 'public property' Ms Jacenko is also facing possible legal action from fashion house Romance Was Born (pictured) about an Instagram His pending trial has been continually delayed, but is set to start in just over two months with Hartman as star witness against his former childhood and school friend. His wife Roxy Jacenko's happy life as the boss of a highly successful public relations firm and the mother of two small children, Pixie and Hunter, is under threat. ASIC alleges that between May 2007 and June 2008 Oliver Curtis traded on 45 separate occasions, using inside information from John Hartman. The trial will be held under the glare of the media spotlight with cameras following the arrival at court of Curtis, Hartman and Jacenko, if she decides to attend court. The trial is expected to last six weeks. Roxy Jacenko is no stranger to legal proceedings. In 2008, police took out an Apprehended Violence Order against her then-schoolgirl sister, Ruby, after the 18-year-old allegedly slapped her in a Kings Cross nightclub. The sisters are estranged. Ruby Jacenko (pictured) is estranged from her sister Roxy and their father Nick also has a strained relationship with the high profile fashion PR Take a bow: Pixie Curtis has a children's hair ribbon business called Pixie's Bows, but her presence on Instagram at the tender age of four has drawn criticism following her mother revelations about a lewd photo campaign Ms Jacenko is also estranged from her fashion manufacturer father, Nick Jacenko, who is in a relationship with fashion designer Lisa Ho. In November 2014, Ms Jacenko and Mr Curtis sold their Woollahra house in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, prompting speculation they needed the money for legal fees. Last year, Mr Curtis's trial appeared to be on and off the court calendar. A different kind of legal stoush could be brewing for Ms Jacenko,after the fashion designers for the label 'Romance was Born' consulted lawyers this week about a message she posted on Instagram. Luke Sales and Anna Plunkett, who created the label 'The Romance was Born' are consulting lawyers, after Ms Jacenko posted a pointed message on her Instagram account in the wake of the lewd photo scandal surrounding her daughter Pixie. The message was in response to a fashion spread last weekend in a Sydney newspaper entitled 'Local Heroes' which featured a Romance was Born design among dresses by twelve prominent Australian designers, the Australian reported. Should her husband Oliver Curtis lose in the upcoming Supreme Court trial for insider trading, it remains to be seen whether Roxy Jacenko and the couple's daughter Pixie (above) would visit him in prison Reproducing part of the page where a 2016 Romance was Born skirt was featured, Ms Jacenko wrote 'Labelled a "local hero" in a Mag today. But in reality ... There's nothing heroic about what you had a part in ......' This follows a social media storm which erupted over indecent photo-shopped images of four-year-old Pixie Curtis allegedly being shared by three male Australian fashion identities. Last week, Ms Jacenko revealed that doctored photos were being circulated of her daughter's head superimposed on inappropriate body images. The photo-shopped pictures are believed to be of a prostitute sitting in the glass windows which populate Amsterdam's red light district and a woman reading a pornographic magazine. Ms Jacenko described the alleged perpetrators of the photos as 'paedophiles', however her revelation prompted an online attack by commentators claiming that she should not be promoting her child on social media. Ms Jacenko's daughter Pixie Curtis has her own modelling career and an Instagram account with more than 100,000 followers. The preschooler has 110,000 Instagram followers and her own line of children's hair ribbons, Pixie's Bows. One columnist, Corrine Barraclough, wrote that Ms Jacenko had turned her daughter into 'public property'and that, as a result, had 'waived any right to sympathy' over the obscene images because she had 'failed to properly consider the risks.' But a furious Ms Jacenko struck back, saying 'So, that means, that if a girl wears a short skirt and gets raped, then it is her fault for wearing a short skirt?' Should Oliver Curtis unsuccessfully defend himself during his upcoming trial and be sentenced to jail time, it is reasonable to expect that Ms Jacenko and her children would visit him in jail, causing another media bun fight at the prison gates. Ms Jacenko's fashion PR agency Sweaty Betty boasts more than 70 clients, with luxury brands Peugeot, Dolce & Gabbana, Le Coq Sportif and Australian supermarket giant, Coles. Donald Trump's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination could face its stiffest challenge on the debate stage Thursday night as rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz know they must land damaging blows against the front-runner in the final days before next week's Super Tuesday primaries. At a CNN-hosted event at the University of Houston, the two senators will have one of their last and best chances to derail the blunt-spoken political outsider. But as the race tightens just five GOP contenders remain of the 17 who started the journey last year pressure is increasing on Rubio and Cruz to determine which of them will emerge as the 'not Trump' candidate. There likely can be only one: Trump's victories so far have not been outright majorities, meaning that his opposition has been split among several candidates. He would likely fare worse in a lengthy one-on-one contest. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is leading polls in nearly every state as Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz fight for the number-two slot Rubio has outperformed Ted Cruz in recent statewide contests, but unlike Cruz he has yet to win a state outright Ted Cruz won the Iowa caucuses but then sputtered amid Trump's dominance The result could be Rubio and Cruz pursuing a path of mutually assured destruction with Trump staying above the fray and coasting through the debate. So far, Trump's surprising hold on the top spot has remained strong in the raucous contest to pick a Republican candidate in the November election, despite his politically incorrect statements against Hispanics and Muslims, his salty language and a self-funded campaign that hasn't spent heavily on television advertising. He may well become the inevitable Republican after the Super Tuesday votes in 11 states, with 595 delegates at stake. But Thursday's debate will have much to say about how Americans, chiefly in the south, cast their ballots five days from now. So far, after four primary and caucus contests, Trump has 82 delegates, Cruz has 17 and Rubio has 16. A candidate must have 1,237 state delegates to win the Republican nomination at the party's convention this summer. Rubio, who has support from some mainstream Republican heavyweights, has shown little willingness to take on the former reality television star. That could change Thursday night. 'The vast and overwhelming majority of Republicans do not want Donald Trump to be our nominee,' Rubio told NBC, suggesting that Trump is winning only because the other candidates are splitting the majority of the electorate. The New York billionaire has plainly predicted the relative civility between Rubio and himself is about to disappear. The race now shifts from single-state campaigns to a new phase where the candidates must compete across several states at the same time. Tuesday features voting in a mix of states that include Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, Massachusetts and Virginia, with more to come in the weeks afterward. 'Now these campaigns are in the position of having to use debates to try and shape or change voter perceptions across more than a dozen states in the space of 18 or 19 days,' said Republican strategist Kevin Madden. 'That's a daunting task.' Trump won Nevada's presidential caucuses on Tuesday with more than 45 percent of the vote, scoring his third consecutive victory. Ohio Gov. John Kasich is still hanging on despite signs that his campaign could be over if he loses in his home statenest month Rubio edged out Cruz for runner-up for the second consecutive contest, with Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson far behind. As they seek to become the Trump alternative, Cruz and Rubio have significant liabilities. Cruz comes into the debate at the weakest point of his presidential campaign after a staff shakeup and three consecutive third-place finishes. Cruz signaled an aggressive stance heading into the debate. He lashed out at Trump and Rubio as 'Washington dealmakers' on Wednesday. Rubio, Cruz said, had worked with Democrats to craft an immigration overhaul, while Trump has given money to Democrats and backed their priorities at times in recent years. Rubio, meanwhile, had a primetime stumble in a recent debate, repeating himself several times in what he now calls 'the New Hampshire disappointment.' Justice Antonin Scalia spent his final hours at a Texas ranch in the company of a secretive society of hunters that has existed for more than 300 years. Several members of the 35-strong hunting party at the Cibolo Creek Ranch where Scalia was found dead are known to be current or former members of The International Order of Saint Hubertus. John Poindexter, the owner of the ranch, is known to hold a leadership position in the Order, as does C. Allen Foster, a prominent Washington lawyer and Scalia's traveling companion for the trip. Scroll down for video Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry paid tribute to Justice Scalia when he died, posting this picture on Facebook of the pair of them hunting (not the hunt the judge was on at the weekend he died) Justice Antonin Scalia spent his final hours on a Texas ranch in the company of a secret society of hunters that originated in Austria in the 1600s, it has been revealed Foster traveled on a private plane to the ranch with Scalia after he opted to leave his U.S. marshal detail behind, while Poindexter was the man who found the Supreme Court Justice dead in bed on the morning of February 13. Ranks in the Order include Grand Prior, the most senior position, Grand Master, and Knight Grand Officer - though it is not clear which of these roles the men occupy. According to records unearthed by the Washington Post, private planes owned by Wallace 'Happy' Rogers III and A. J. Lewis III were also chartered to the ranch, but it is unclear if the men were there. Rogers, a prominent hunter and museum owner, and Lewis, the owner of a restaurant wholesale business, are both former members of the Order's elite. The International Order of Saint Hubertus, founded in 1695 by Count Anton von Sporck, is named for Saint Hubertus (pictured) the patron of hunters The Cibolo Creek Ranch was used as a meeting place for the American branch of the Order in 2010, when 53 members converged for 'three days of organized shoots, "gala" lunches and dinners.' According to a website for the Order, it was created in 1695 by Count Anton von Sporck, ruler of Bohemia, which now forms part of the Czech Republic. The aim was to gather the finest Noble hunters from across Bohemia, Austria, and the Austo-Hungarian Empire, ruled by the Habsburg family, one of the most powerful European dynasties. It was named after Saint Hubertus, the patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians, and metalworkers. The Order's aim was to promote the gentlemanly sport of hunting, considered one of the finest pursuits a young Nobleman could take up during the 17th Century, and to promote the conservation of game animals on which the sport relied. The Order was disbanded after Austria fell into the hands of Adolf Hitler during the Second World War, and refused to become part of the Nazi propaganda machine. According to the group, Hermann Goering, who founded the infamous Gestapo police force, asked to become a member in 1938, and executed the Grand Prior when he was turned down. The Order was restituted in 1950, and in 1966 the first American branch was established at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco. It is under the Royal Protection of King Juan Carlos of Spain, Archduke Andreas Salvator of Austria and the Grand Master is Istvan von Habsburg Lothringen, Archduke of Austria, Prince of Hungary. Members of the order often wear green silk coats emblazoned with their logo of a Germanic cross and the Latin words 'Deum Diligite Animalia Diligentes' - meaning 'Honoring God by honoring His creatures.' Asked about the Order, Poindexter responded: 'There is nothing I can add to your observation that among my many guests at Cibolo Creek Ranch over the years some members of the International Order of St. Hubertus have been numbered. Members of the Order, distinguished by their crest (pictured) included Noblemen from the royal families of Europe. The American branch of the Order was founded in 1966 in San Francisco 'I am aware of no connection between that organization and Justice Scalia.' The revelations that a secret society was attending the ranch alongside Scalia comes amid controversy and conspiracy after it was decided that there would be no autopsy for the Supreme Court Justice. Descriptions of the judge being found with a pillow 'over his face', the fact that the death was certified over the phone, and the suddenness of his passing all contributed to theories that his death may not have been natural. However, his son Eugene has since said there is 'no doubt' in his mind that his father died of natural causes. Thousands paid tribute to Scalia, a lifelong Catholic, at his funeral last week. A sheriff's incident report, released on Tuesday, shows there was 'nothing out of the ordinary' in Scalia's room when he was found dead. John Poindexter, the owner of the Cibolo Creek Ranch (pictured) and the man who found Scalia dead is a member, as is lawyer C. Allen Foster, Scalia's travel companion It describes a pillow being over his face, but not in a way that would obstruct breathing. There was also breathing apparatus on Scalia's bedside, to treat his sleep apnea, but he was not hooked up to it at the time. A doctor's letter was also released that revealed Scalia had been suffering from coronary artery disease, obesity, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and high blood pressure - alongside being a smoker. Donald Trump is giving Mitt Romney a taste of the Twitter trolling his opponents in the 2016 race have had to endure for the last eight months. After the former presidential candidate said he believes the GOP frontrunner is hiding a 'bombshell' in his personal finances like failing to pay taxes or giving less to veterans than he claims, Trump came after him full force on Twitter. 'I'm going to do what @MittRomney was totally unable to do- WIN!' Trump said. He also posted a picture of him self next to a stack of papers and said, 'Signing a recent tax return- isn't this ridiculous?' SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO After Romney, a former presidential candidate, said he believes the GOP frontrunner is hiding a 'bombshell' in his personal finances like failing to pay taxes or giving less to veterans than he claims, Donald Trump came after him full force on Twitter The tiff started when, speaking to Neil Cavuto on Fox News on Wednesday, Romney said Trump has repeatedly 'dodged' and 'delayed' questions about his taxes Trump hit back hours later on Twitter calling Romney a 'fool', referring to the 2012 candidates own embarrassment over unpaid taxes which came to light during his campaign against Obama The tiff started when, speaking to Neil Cavuto on Fox News on Wednesday, Romney said Trump has repeatedly 'dodged' and 'delayed' questions about his taxes. Trump hit back hours later on Twitter calling Romney a 'fool' and a 'dope' and referred to the 2012 candidate's dust up with Democrats in the last national election over unpaid taxes. Top Democrat Harry Reid claimed that year that he had it on good authority that Romney hadn't paid taxes in a decade - but never provided any proof. 'Mitt Romney,who totally blew an election that should have been won and whose tax returns made him look like a fool, is now playing tough guy,' Trump tweeted today. To get up higher than the 13 percent rate Romney claimed he paid, he and wife Ann did not deduct all of their charitable contributions - which accounted for roughly 30 percent of their income that year. The Washington Post reported that had they taken all the deductions available to them, they would have only paid 10.55 percent in taxes. The dispute with Trump comes as Republicans eagerly await to hear who Romney plans to endorse for the nomination. He shut down reports he planned to endorse Marco Rubio - a rumor stemming from two Republican sources speaking to the Huffington Post this week - despite Trump's clear lead in the field after winning three of the four primaries so far. Trump pounced on the report today and said on Twitter, 'Why doesnt @MittRomney just endorse @marcorubio already. Should have done it before NH or Nevada where he had a little sway. Too late now!' And he said, 'Mitt Romney, who was one of the dumbest and worst candidates in the history of Republican politics, is now pushing me on tax returns. Dope!' Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com Neither Cruz nor Rubio have released taxes during the campaign. However, both had to publish tax details when they ran for Senate. Attempting to deal a blow to Trump's emboldened position after the Nevada primary, Romney told Cavuto: 'I think we have good reason to believe that theres a bombshell in Donald Trumps taxes. I think there is something there. 'Either he is not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is or he hasnt been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay or perhaps he hasnt been giving money to the vets or the disable like he has been telling us hes been doing. 'The reason I think there is a bombshell in there is because every time he is asked about his taxes he dodges and delays and says, "Well, were working on it." 'Hey were not talking about the taxes that are coming due this year. 'Of they're working on those, they won't be ready for months. We are talking about taxes already filed, back taxes.' Trump pushed back on Twitter and said, 'Just for your info, tax returns have 0 to do w/ someones net worth. I have already filed my financial statements w/ FEC. They are great!' Delhomme denies allegations and thinks this is part of a smear campaign by two village trustees Vilair Fonvil and Asher Grossman A meeting opened to the public in a New York town erupted into chaos Tuesday night as a resident accused the mayor of having sex with his wife. Reginald Alfred approached the microphone at the Rockland County village meeting and started sharing details of how Spring Valley Mayor Demeza Delhomme ruined his 12-year marriage, The Journal News reported. Alfred, who is a 48-year-old maintenance man, claimed that the mayor destroyed his family with his actions by using his 'power' to sleep with his wife. 'Mr. Delhomme is trying to use his power to get into my house,' Alfred said during the intense meeting. 'He destroyed my house. He destroyed my family. I have two daughters.' Scroll Down for Video A meeting opened to the public in a New York town erupted into chaos as a resident accused the mayor of having sex with his wife. Reginald Alfred approached the microphone (pictured) at the Rockland County village meeting and started sharing details of how Spring Valley Mayor Demeza Delhomme ruined his 12-year marriage Spring Valley Mayor Demeza Delhomme (above) is being accused of ruining Reginald Alfred's 12-year marriage by allegedly having sex with his wife Another resident yelled to the mayor asking if he knew Alfred's wife, and he responded: 'I know everybody in this community. I don't know the person.' Alfred had left the mic but returned at least once more and called the mayor a 'liar.' 'I saw him in my house for Thanksgiving with the food inside,' Alfred told the crowd of residents and city officials. He explained that his wife works at the bank that mayor goes to, but Delhomme kept denying his claims about the affair or that he knew his wife. Alfred did not provide any physical evidence of the accusations he lodged at the mayor during the meeting. Despite having no evidence, several people in the crowd can be heard in the video from the meeting cheering their support for Alfred. 'If you really did this, you should be ashamed of yourself,' one resident can be heard saying while speaking at the podium. 'You are supposed to be a counselor, man, to take care of families, not destroy them.' In another outburst at the meeting, village trustee Vilair Fonvil yelled: 'You're screwing his wife and you said you don't know him?' The shouting match at the village's municipal office calmed down as Emilia White, the deputy mayor, defused the situation after it last for more than 19 minutes. While speaking to the New York Post, Delhomme denied Alfred's allegations and said he filed a police report after the meeting Tuesday. The shouting match at the village's municipal office (above) calmed down as Emilia White, the deputy mayor, defused the situation after it last for more than 19 minutes 'I wish that man would get some kind of psychiatric help. I feel so bad for these kids involved,' Delhomme told the Post of Alfred's two daughters. The mayor admitted to the Post that Alfred's wife does indeed work at the bank he goes to, but he would not say if he knew her on a more personal level. 'I don't owe anyone that information,' Delhomme told the Post. Delhomme believes that the infidelity accusation is part of smear campaign by village trustees Vilair Fonvil (above) and Asher Grossman The Democratic mayor thinks this is part of an alleged smear campaign by two of the city's trustees, Asher Grossman and Fonvil, according to the Post. 'They've been battling me since I got elected,' Delhomme told the Post. 'They put him up to this.' This is not the first time Delhomme has been involved in a scandal. The mayor, who presides over the small village of 32,000 residents, pledged in November to cut any Jewish developer projects in secretly recorded conversations, citing that it was revenge for their lack of support in his 2013 election. Since the aftermath of his comments being made public, he has tweeted several photos himself with orthodox Jewish people. Last January, during a huge snowstorm, he ordered the Department of Public Works to install a generator at his girlfriend's house. In August of 2014, Delhomme was jailed for contempt of court charges, because he refused to fulfill a judge's request that he open a community center in Spring Valley for a summer day camp. He spent four days in jail and was then released. He was also caught on camera saying that he is 'the king of the village' during a June 8 local government meeting that also turned sour. Ohio's 'Shawshank Fugitive' may win his freedom in a parole hearing nearly 60 years after his escape following his capture in rural Florida last year. Frank Freshwaters disappeared from a prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter after killing a married father-of-three and violating probation. After 55 years on the run, the 79-year-old widower was finally tracked down by investigators last May in Brevard County, and returned to Ohio. Scroll down for video 'Shawshank Fugitive' Frank Freshwaters (pictured left, in his 1959 mugshot, and right, last year) may win his freedom in a parole hearing nearly 60 years after his escape while serving time for manslaughter There, investigators say he was living off Social Security benefits in a weathered trailer under an alias - William Cox. For years, he lived under multiple assumed names, worked as a truck driver and even collect Social Security, according to NBC News. After his capture, he was taken to a prison in southeast Ohio, where he has been awaiting a decision after the majority of the parole board held a closed hearing on the matter in August. On Thursday, the full parole board in Columbus, Ohio, is set to hear arguments on whether to grant Freshwaters his freedom. Freshwaters was not expected to attend the hearing, but the board will hear from both sides, including his attorney. Relatives and other witnesses on both sides of the case were not permitted at the earlier hearing but will have an opportunity to attend or provide testimony for the public hearing. Prosecutors believe he must serve his time as he has spent decades avoiding responsibility. In 1957, Freshwaters, of Akron, was speeding and hit and killed Eugene Flynt (pictured), 24, with his vehicle 'He has spent nearly 60 years avoiding taking responsibility for what happened,' Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said, according to Florida Today. 'Freshwaters failed to comply with his probation, and did not pay a dime of the $1,500 he was ordered to pay in restitution to Flynt's family. 'Freshwaters was eventually sentenced to serve between one and 20 years in prison, yet spent only seven months behind bars before escaping in 1959. Since then, Freshwaters has lived free, had a family, and even collected Social Security under an assumed name.' Gordon Beggs, an attorney representing Freshwaters, previously said the inmate has a large community of supporters in Florida and elsewhere, including some that submitted statements to the board on Freshwaters' behalf. Last year, one of Freshwaters' sons, Jim Cox, of West Virginia, said he hopes to attend the hearing and is heartbroken his father must wait months for a decision. 'We just want him out and want him home,' Cox said. In 1957, Freshwaters, of Akron, was speeding and hit and killed Eugene Flynt, 24, with his vehicle. Freshwaters was living off Social Security benefits in a weathered trailer (pictured) under an alias in Florida After his capture, 79-year-old Freshwaters (pictured in a wheelchair) was taken to a prison in southeast Ohio Freshwaters pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was given five years in prison instead of up to 20 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was given five years in prison instead of up to 20 years in prison. But after violating his probation in 1959, he was sent to the notorious Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield - which served as the setting for the critically-acclaimed 1994 film 'The Shawshank Redemption' starring Morgan Freeman. From there, he was sent to a minimal-security state honor camp in Sandusky to serve the rest of his sentence - but escaped just seven months into his sentence. He was first caught in 1975 in West Virginia but was not extradited as the state's governor concluded Freshwaters had a 'flawless 16-year residency there. Arch Moore, the state's then-governor, concluded Freshwaters had been rehabilitated during life on the lam, saying he didn't believe the fugitive was a danger to society. Investigators believe he'd been in Florida since the 1980s but after his capture, the Erie County prosecutor decided not to file any new escape-related charge against Freshwaters. After violating his probation in 1959, Freshwaters was sent to the notorious Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield - known as the setting for the 'The Shawshank Redemption' starring Morgan Freeman (pictured with co-star Tim Robbins in the film) Freshwaters served less than seven months at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield (above), which is now one of the state's biggest tourist attractions, before he escaped from a prison camp It was concluded that the possibility that he could serve up to 20 years on his original charge allowed for 'sufficient penalty'. Richard Flynt, who was just three when he lost his father, previously told ABC5 that Freshwaters 'lived a long, fruitful life' and 'deserves to pay.' He believes the inmate should have to spend the rest of his life in prison and is ready to testify against him in today's hearing. A former school teacher who fled ISIS in Iraq has described how a metal torture device known as 'the Biter' causes pain 'worse than childbirth'. The tool has been described as a device similar to a hunting trap - a metal clamping jaw with sharp teeth that cut into the flesh of the victim. The brutal instrument, also known as 'the Clipper', is reportedly used to punish women in the ISIS-held city of Mosul, when they venture out with any skin on show. A brutal instrument known as the Biter is reportedly being used by ISIS to punish women in the city in Mosul, if they venture outside without being covered up (file picture) The tool, pictured, has been described as a device similar to a hunting trap - a metal clamping jaw with sharp teeth that cut into the flesh of the victim The extremists insist that any woman in public should be fully veiled, wear loose or baggy trousers, socks, gloves and be accompanied by a male relative. And now Fatima, who fled the terrorist stronghold told the Independent how her sister was punished with 'the Biter' because she had gone outside with her hands on show after forgetting her gloves. The 22-year-old, who is now a housewife said: 'The Biter has become a nightmare for us. My sister was punished so harshly last month because she had forgotten her gloves and left them at home. 'The bruises and scars are still visible on her arm. She said the biting punishment is more painful than labour.' Fatima said she decided to flee the brutal regime and head for a refugee camp in Kurdish-controlled Syria after seeing the terror group become more violent in the past year. She also added that she decided to make the journey after several failed attempts as her children were starving. It is not the first time that reports have suggest the jihadist group have used the torture device. In 2014, a woman in Raqqa spoke out saying her chest was clamped by the spike after she tried to breastfeed her baby. Fatima, a 22-year-old teacher has described how she fled ISIS in Mosul, pictured, as the brutal regime became more and more violent In addition, public executions and whippings are said to be becoming ever more frequent as ISIS loses ground in an attempt to set up a self-styled caliphate She said: 'did not know what a "biter" was and I thought it is a reduced sentence, I was afraid of whipping, so I choose the "biter", then they brought a sharp object that has a a lot of teeth and held me, placing it on my chest and pressing it strongly, I screamed from pain and I was badly injured. They later took me to the hospital. 'I felt then that my femininity has been destroyed completely, we can no longer afford to live this way, I was not the only one that was tortured with this instrument, there were a lot of women in the headquarters and their situation was tragic.' Meanwhile many people who have fled the regime and made it to the refugee camp confirm that Mosul is running short of food, water, fuel and electricity. Baby milk has not been available for six months and a kilo of rice costs more than 7. In addition, public executions and whippings are said to be becoming ever more frequent as ISIS loses ground in an attempt to set up a self-styled caliphate. It has imposed its own sickening brand of medieval justice across swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, executing prisoners for so-called 'crimes' such as blasphemy and being homosexual. Two women have revealed they almost got a ride from Uber driver Jason Dalton during his shooting spree in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Dalton, 45, is charged with killing six people and injuring two on Saturday night. Mallory Lemieux and Tori Curtis, both college students, claim they requested a car from the ride-share app and received a notification saying they would be with Jason in a Chevrolet. However, moments before leaving the bar they were in, Lemieux's father texted saying police were looking for a man in a Chevrolet, adding: 'multiple shootings with people dead...get home please'. Fearing the worst, Lemieux says she canceled the car and tried to order another - but again was assigned to Jason in a Chevrolet. When she tried once more, the same thing happened, she told ABC News. Four minutes after she canceled the ride for the last time, police arrested Dalton after he drove out of a bar parking lot. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Tori Curtis (left) and Mallory Lemieux (right), both college students (pictured here with a friend, center), claim they requested a car with the ride-share app from the bar they were in and received a notification saying they would be with Jason in a Chevrolet Moments before Tori (left) and Mallory (right) left the bar they were in, Mallory's father texted saying police were looking for a man in a Chevrolet, adding: 'multiple shootings with people dead...get home please' Charged: Jason Dalton, 45, is charged with killing six people and injuring two on Saturday night 'It definitely just makes us feel really lucky that we followed our instinct and we didn't get in that car,' Curtis told ABC News on Wednesday. They did not state which bar they were in. The news comes after Daily Mail Online exclusively revealed police believe Dalton was 'aiming at kids' during his shooting spree. Undersheriff Paul Matyas said investigators had reason to believe that the shooter was aiming at young children when he opened fire at 6pm on Saturday near an apartment complex in Kalamazoo County. Tiana Carruthers, 25, was shot multiple times from five feet away but survived and was able to give an account of what happened. The suspect drove up to her and asked if her name was Maya or Mara and she said no. He drove away but circled around the parking lot of the complex until he was about five feet away and then drew a gun. 'From inside his car he started shooting at her. He shot all over the place and hit her several times,' the officer said. Abigail Kopf, 14, (left) was still fighting for her life in hospital on Tuesday after she was shot in the head. Tiana Carruthers (right) was shot after she jumped in front of children when the gunman arrived at her apartment Tyler Smith, 17 (right), was killed in the parking lot of Seelye Kia, along with his father, Rich (left), while they were looking at cars, multiple reports suggest Sisters-in-law Mary Jo Nye, 60, (left) and Mary Lou Nye, 63, (right) were killed during the shooting spree Barbara Hawthorne (left), 68, and Dorothy Brown (right), 70, were also identified as victims of the rampage. None of those shot and killed are believed to have known Dalton 'She had thought something wasn't right when he circled back. There were some kids she was babysitting and she told them to go into the house. 'A bunch of them headed that way but there were three or four kids that stayed. 'We think he may have been trying to hit the kids based on the spray that the shots took.' Matyas described the children as 'little bitty tykes'. He added: 'The suspect fired a tremendous amount of shots everywhere he went'. Investigators had interviewed the suspect's family to see if they could offer any clues as to what sparked the shooting rampage. 'They are just shocked. They didn't see it either. They've not indicated to us any recent bizarre behavior,' Matyas said. 'We've spoken to the wife and they weren't home that day. The two kids were with the mom. 'The family was never at risk at any point in time in this whole episode.' Dalton appeared to have no extreme views and no alcohol or drugs were involved in the incident, police said. Matyas said: 'He had no affiliations with anybody for anything.' Investigators focused on a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and a cellphone seized from Dalton, as well as the fact that he picked up fares for the Uber car-hailing service between or after the shooting episodes. 'This person was not on our radar at all. He had no prior police contact, no criminal record. He was just an average guy with a family. He was an average guy. 'That's what's scary. If there was something that had alerted you, that's one thing. But there's nothing, just nothing. 'Here we are almost three days in and we don't know why any more than ten minutes after it happened. Matyas added: 'We're probably weeks away from finding out, but in the end, the final analysis might be: This was a guy who just cracked up.' He said the town was reeling from the mass shooting. 'This is something that we've seen happen in Oregon, in Connecticut and in Columbine. 'And on Saturday night, it visited Kalamazoo.' Advertisement Fiji is in a state of natural disaster and its people are in urgent need after Cyclone Winston ripped through the Island nation and left a trail of destruction and heartbreak with 44 dead, more than 35,000 homeless and everyone - babies, families and the elderly - with nothing. Devastating images show the impact of Fiji's biggest ever storm, with debris scattered everywhere and nothing but single walls standing for some homes. Mothers cradle children in the wreckage of their homes, children huddle together as they seek refuge at evacuation centres and fragile, elderly citizens are forced to fend themselves, left with nothing but the shirt on their backs. A state of natural disaster and a nationwide curfew had been declared for the next 30 days by the Fijian Government, who has initiated the clean-up process by clearing the huge amounts of debris scattered everywhere. Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama is warning his devastated nation it faces a long and difficult recovery. 'Almost no part of our nation has been left unscarred,' Mr Bainimarama said in a national address on Wednesday. Scroll down for video Fijian woman Kalisi holds her son Tuvosa, 3, as she sits on a bed in the remnants of her home damaged by Cyclone Winston in the Rakiraki District of Fiji's Ra province The shell of a house remains after Fiji's most powerful every cyclone, Cyclone Winston, left little standing and intact in Nasau Village Salome Ululagi stands in the remains of her house destroyed by Cyclone Winston in the village of Tavua on Koro Island in Fiji Naresh Kumar of Tuvu Lautoka looks at the remains of his house after it was destroyed by Cyclone Winston. The Category 5 Tropical Cyclone made landfall in Fiji on Saturday February 20, continuing its path of destruction into Sunday 21 February A woman holding her daughter in the remnants of her house after Cyclone Winston hit the region in the Rakiraki District of Ra province on Viti Levu in Fiji. Cyclone-devastated Fiji said it was likely to need more foreign aid on February 25 as the body count from the most powerful storm in its history climbed to 44 Locals taking shelter in an evacuation centre located in a church after Cyclone Winston in Ra province on Viti Levu in Fiji Makereta Nasiki (R), aged 13, sitting in her room, showing the damage caused by Cyclone Winston in the town of Ba on Viti Levu in Fiji A destroyed home located in front of one of the highest points on the island, where villagers evacuated to after the eye of the cyclone passed over them to seek safety from the unrelenting storm surges that were experienced during Cyclone Winston A Total Service Station in Ba Town was left in absolute ruins, the metal shelter crashed to the ground after Cyclone Winston Young children and families preparing for another night in an evacuation centre after Cyclone Winston hit the region, in Ba on Viti Levu He said Winston, believed to be the most powerful storm ever to hit Fiji, had left 'a terrible trail of destruction in its wake' and created a need that is great and urgent. 'Right now the priority is on restoring essential services and supplying our people with sufficient food, water and shelter,' he said. The immense scale of destruction across the Pacific nation is becoming apparent as rescue workers reach outlying areas in the hard-hit north and west of the main island as well as remote islands exposed to the full fury of the Category 5 storm. Cyclone Winston struck with 325km/h gusting winds on Saturday night, destroying thousands of homes, knocking out power across the islands and leaving a death toll that has risen steadily as news filters back from cut-off areas. Aid workers with UNICEF Australia have delivered emergency water and sanitation kits plus medical and education supplies to Koro Island - a small outpost between Fiji's two largest islands which was among the worst-hit. Clean water and food are becoming urgent problems for remote areas as power and communications remain down across large parts of Fiji. Children playing on the Rakiraki river near the village of Rakiraki after Cyclone Winston hit the region, on Viti Levu in Fiji A tree crashed through this house, gutting the property as it made its pass of destruction through Ba in Fiji A mother with her son in their damaged house after Cyclone Winston hit the area in the Rakiraki District of Ra province on Viti Levu in Fiji 'The scale and reach of this disaster is enormous and the needs for this response are immense,' UNICEF Fiji aid worker Alice Clements said. 'Whole villages have been wiped out - where there was once a house, there's now a concrete slab.' Local media are reporting new stories of devastation regularly: the government-owned Fiji Broadcasting Corporation said only eight of 161 houses remained standing in one province in the centre of Fiji's largest island, Viti Levu. The Fiji Times Online reported more than 34,000 people remain in 424 evacuation centres across the country, most of them in the Western Division of the main island. Damage to homes and land at Urata after tropical cyclone Winston hit parts of Fiji. The image was taken during a Royal New Zealand Air Force flyover to help assess the severity of the impact caused by Winston A Total Service Station in Ba Town was left in absolute ruins, the metal shelter crashed to the ground after Cyclone Winston Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne says HMAS Canberra will be dispatched to assist Fiji and should arrive on March 1. Four Globemaster cargo planes have already arrived, carrying 19 tonnes of supplies along with aircraft and personnel while Australia has also sent a six-person medical assistance team, 32 defence personnel and staff from the immigration and trade departments to help Australians get home. People wishing to donate to the relief effort can do so through a number of charities including UNICEF's Fiji Children's Emergency Appeal at www.unicef.org/fiji and CARE Australia's Cyclone Winston Emergency Appeal at www.care.org.au A full list of humanitarian groups is available on the Australian Council for International Development website. A woman who was dubbed Britain's fattest teenager is set to move to a specially-designed house half a mile from 20 fast-food outlets. Georgia Davis, 22, from Aberdare in Wales, is known as the Takeaway Princess in her neighbourhood and has been clinically obese since she was five. She once weighed 63 stone and was so big she could not walk. Now 50 stone, she is still too big for her current house, and the new 150,000 property - which will be paid for out of her benefits - has been specially designed with a double front door, and widened rooms and corridors. Georgia Davis, 22, (pictured in 2011 with her mother), is known as the Takeaway Princess in her neighbourhood. She once weighed 63 stone and was so big she couldn't walk. She's set to move into a specially adapted house after dropping to 50 stone - just half a mile from 20 takeaways Georgia Davis is set to move to a specially-designed house half a mile from 20 fast-food outlets. Pictured is a map showing some of the types of takeaways she will live near In November, it emerged that Miss Davis (left) had found love with fitness club cleaner Matthew Takel (right) But the home is just yards away from tempting takeaways and fast food delivery outfits, and neighbours believe it will be a paradise for the obese comfort eater. Miss Davis will have plenty of options including five Chinese takeaways, two Indians and an array of pizza and kebab shops. The new flat, which she is due to move in to in April, is on the site of a former school in Aberaman, South Wales A source told The Sun: 'She will be in paradise here. There's a chippy up the road, a pizza parlour and kebab shop. 'But we will welcome her to her new home and hope she's happy here.' Most takeaways offer the Just Eat online ordering service, which Miss Davis often uses. David Morris, 40, of Pizza Kebab, added: 'I used to deliver to her some years ago so it will be good to have her as a customer again.' Cynon Taf Community Housing Group is believed to have paid for the building through taxpayer-funded grants from the Welsh Government, and the NHS, from bank loans and rental income. Miss Davis first came to national attention in 2008 when, aged 15, she had a 64in waist and weighed 33st. Miss Davis first came to national attention in 2008 when, aged 15, she had a 64in waist and weighed 33st. Pictured (right) is Miss Davis in 2012 Miss Davis blamed her initial bingeing on comfort eating following the death of her father from emphysema when she was little At seven she weighed 11st. As a teenager her daily intake included multi-packs of crisps, litre bottles of fizzy drinks, chips and sausages In 2012, firefighters had to demolish part of her parents house to rescue the bedridden woman to take her to hospital She blamed her initial bingeing on comfort eating following the death of her father from emphysema when she was little. THE TWENTY TAKEAWAYS NEARBY Gulshan (Indian) - 0.6miles Jin Ocean (Chinese) - 0.6m Morgan Fish Bar - 0.6m Turkish Delight - 0.6m Yummies (Pizza) - 0.5m Subway - 0.5m Giovanni's Fish Bar - 0.5m Fresh (Bakery) - 0.5m Southern Fried Chicken - 0.5m Aberdare Charcoal Grill - 0.5m Jaipur (Indian) - 0.5m Silver City (Chinese) 0.5m Baguette Express - 0.4m Lucky Star (Chinese) - 0.4m Papa Bull (Pizza) - 0.4m Aberaman Pizza & Kebab - 0.4m Golden Bowl (Chinese) - 0.4m The Sun (Chinese) 0.4m Sumbul (Turkish) - 0.4m Mamarif Kebab & Pizza House - 0.4m Advertisement At seven she weighed 11st. As a teenager her daily intake included multi-packs of crisps, litre bottles of fizzy drinks, chips and sausages. She was banned from her school canteen for over-eating. She had stopped attending PE lessons long before. At home, she watched television, surfed the internet and ate. In 2012, firefighters had to demolish part of her parents house to rescue the bedridden woman to take her to hospital. And again in April last year it took a seven-hour operation to get her out of the house. Two cranes, seven police cars, two fire engines and 11 medics had to lift her from her home for a seven-hour operation after she picked up a severe infection. Rescue efforts included the use of a mobile crane, but when the first crane proved not strong enough to lift the patient, a larger crane had to be summoned, closing local roads. Miss Davis was finally removed and was taken in a reinforced ambulance to Royal Glamorgan Hospital where she spent the next 203 days and underwent the lifesaving treatment which has reduced her weight by a third. In November last year she announced that she had fallen for fitness club cleaner Matthew Takel, who was her second ever boyfriend and first in three years. Mr Takel, 43, who is a fan of Marvel comics and horses, hooked up with her at the end of October 2015, while she was in hospital. Like many of the restaurants frequented by Miss Davis, her new local takeaways Chicken King, pictured left and Silver City, in Aberdare, are registered on Just Eat. Surprisingly, one of Chicken King's most popular dishes is a donner kebab Pictured, Marmaris Kebab and Fish Bar and Morgan Fish Bar in Aberdare, are two of the many fast food outlets Miss Davis can choose from just a half a mile from her front door Pictured, Cafe Tina and The Sun Chinese takeaway. Cafe Tina is one of only two cafes Miss Davis can visit along her new fast-food expressway of the of the 53 people who were arrested in the rally Independent MP Alex Greenwich got a standing ovation his brief speech hailing the original protesters as heroes The NSW government has apologised to protesters from first Mardi Gras w Advertisement They packed into NSW Parliament and erupted in cheers as MPs apologised, but the first Sydney Mardi Gras protesters say they are still waiting to hear from police almost 40 years after they were bashed and arrested. Some so-called 78ers, more than 500 who took to the streets of Darlinghurst in June 1978 protesting against the criminalisation of homosexual acts and discrimination against the gay community, rejoiced in Thursday's apology. Successive MPs from all sides of politics lined up to speak, each apologising and reflecting on the impact of the 78ers in the state and their personal lives. Sydney Independent MP Alex Greenwich received a standing ovation after his brief speech, in which he said NSW would not now have 'the gayest parliament in Australia' without the original protesters. Members of Sydney homosexual community demonstrate, before being arrested and bashed by police in what would evolve into the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Ronald Chris, a member of the 78ers, answers a question at the NSW Parliament House after the government apologised to the original protesters 'Many 78ers, who participated in that peaceful march that ended in brutality from government agencies, could not back then imagine the day where you have two openly gay members of parliament sitting across this chamber and delivering a formal apology on behalf of this parliament for what happened to you,' Mr Greenwich said. Being gay in 1978 brought with it huge social and economic risks, Mr Greenwich said. Following the initial Mardi Gras march, 53 people who were arrested had their names, addresses and occupations printed in the Sydney Morning Herald, which apologised on Wednesday. 'There were significant and devastating repercussions for the 53 people,' Mr Greenwich said.'People lost their jobs and people lost their families.' Liberal MP Bruce Notley-Smith is among those who publicly apologised at the historic milestone on Thursday Members of the NSW parliament lower house delivered apologies to the activists who descended on Darlinghurst in June 1978 protesting the criminalisation of homosexual acts Steve Warren, a member of the 78ers, answers a question at the NSW Parliament House While welcoming the apology, 78er Peter de Waal said he really wanted a chance to sit down with police over a cuppa. 'To ask them why they were so obsessed with violence and if they know what it did to our lives,' he said. Broadcaster Julie McCrossin was arrested that night, but commended the force for the changes it had made since. Fairfax apologised for printing the names and addresses of the of the 53 people who were arrested in the rally, in turn losing their jobs and families The NSW are still yet to apologise for the event which saw hundreds of activists arrested and bashed 'They have completely changed themselves, they have GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer) liaisons ... they march on a float in Mardi Gras. They've done a tonne,' she said. 'If they could pull off an apology that would be nice.' A British-Canadian man whose conviction for sex abuse at an elite Indonesian school was quashed last year has been ordered back to jail. Overturning the acquittal that saw Neil Bantleman walk free, officials say they are unable to find him but hope he will 'co-operate' and hand himself in to begin serving his 11-year sentence. Bantleman, 46, and teaching assistant Ferdinad Tjiong have now been ordered to serve the sentence for abusing three children at the school. Pictured in April beside Tjiong (right), Bantleman gives the thumbs up from inside a prison cell in Jakarta. The pair's convictions were quashed, but this has now been overturned and they have been ordered back to jail Indonesian officials say they are unsure where Canadian school administrator Neil Bantleman is and hope he will 'co-operate' by handing himself in. Here he is pictured with his wife Tracy following his release in August The decision marks the latest twist in the long-running case after prosecutors appealed an acquittal which was announced in August last year. The case against the two was heavily criticised as fraught with irregularities and the men received strong support from foreign governments. They were also supported by the elite Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS), which has been a favourite with expatriates and wealthy Indonesians for decades. Tjiong was returned to jail early today but authorities are still looking for Bantleman, said Chandra Saptaji, spokesman for South Jakarta district attorney's office. 'We have executed the ruling against [Tjiong], we have put him back in Cipinang prison this morning to serve his sentence,' Saptaji said. 'We are still looking for Neil, we hope he will cooperate.' When prosecutors appealed the acquittals, authorities ordered Bantleman to remain in Indonesia. Rully Iskandar, a spokesman for JIS, said Bantleman's travel ban was supposed to remain in place until the end of February, pending the Supreme Court decision, but gave no indication where he was currently. 'We have been communicating with Neil's and Ferdi's family and of course they were shocked, this is unexpected,' said Iskandar. The pair were jailed in April last year after being found guilty of abusing three kindergarten students, now aged between six and seven. They appealed and were freed from prison after the High Court in Jakarta unexpectedly overturned their convictions, citing a lack of evidence. However, prosecutors then appealed the acquittals. Five Indonesian cleaners were also jailed last year for committing sexual abuse at JIS. Their lawyers claim they are innocent. Neil Bantleman, 45, kisses his wife Tracy after it was announced in August last year his conviction for sexually abusing three students at a school in Jakarta had been overturned The pair had an emotional reunion outside the courthouse after Bantleman spent months maintaining his innocence Upon his release in August last year, a tearful Bantleman declared: 'The truth has finally come out.' And the pair's lawyer, Hotman Paris Hutapea, claimed their sentence had been overturned by a higher court citing a lack of proof of wrongdoing. 'The previous verdict has been overturned by the Jakarta high court because there was no evidence of sodomy.' The two cases had triggered concerns about the justice system in Indonesia, with observers criticising the investigation as being flawed and the criminal trial for a lack of transparency. The cases have been closely watched by expatriates and diplomats in Jakarta, many of whom send their children to the U.S.-embassy backed school. The school is attended by children of foreign diplomats, expatriates and Indonesia's elite. It has 2,400 students aged three to 18 from about 60 countries. Hutapea has said that the sexual abuse claims were motivated by money. The principal and a number of other teachers have alleged the same. The mother of one of the children had sued the school for alleged negligence and was seeking $125million in compensation - this case was thrown out. Evidence from medical reports from three different hospitals in Jakarta and Singapore showed no major injuries or abnormalities in the three children, the court said. Lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea (centre) raises the hands of Bantleman and Indonesian teaching assistant Ferdinand Tjiong (left), who has now been returned to jail Advertisement The EU's migration system is just ten days from 'completely breaking down' if it does not curb the number of people arriving in Europe, the bloc's migration commissioner has warned. Europe has until a March 7 summit with Turkey to restrict the flow of refugees into the continent or face a melt down in the EU's migration set up, according to Dimitris Avramopoulos. He told a meeting of interior ministers in Brussels today: 'In the next 10 days, we need tangible and clear results on the ground. Otherwise there is a risk that the whole system will completely break down.' Refugees and migrants try to get food distributed by Greek volunteers after their arrival from the eastern Greek islands to the Athens' port of Piraeus The EU remains deeply divided over how to handle the migrant crisis, especially over recent border closures by several member states that have threatened the passport-free Schengen area. Refugees are pictured lining up for food on the Greek-Macedonian border Syrian refugees, who tried to go to Greek island of Chios, are seen in a boat after they were caught by Turkish Coast Guard The boat was picked up near the Ciftlikkoy area in the Cesme district of Turkey. The migrants were returned to Turkey, failing in their attempt to cross on this occasion Migrants are helped by volunteers after their arrival on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to Mytilene, Lesbos island, Greece today Today the French courts gave permission for part of the Jungle (pictured) to be demolished, forcing people into the new temporary housing near the camp, in Calais A Kurdish migrant pushes a pram with her children through a muddy area in the southern part of the Jungle It comes as the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras warned his country was turning into 'a warehouse of souls' as more and more nations close their borders to migrants. Tsipras spoke out ahead of EU talks aimed at reducing the flow of refugees through the Balkans and as Germany was warned to expect 2.5million more migrants in the next four years. Ahead of the meeting, Tsipras threatened not to cooperate with future EU agreements on the migrant crisis if the burden was not fairly shared among member states. Athens is seething over a series of border restrictions along the migrant trail to northern and western Europe that has caused a bottleneck in Greece, the main entry point to Europe. 'Greece will no longer agree to any deal if the burdens and responsibilities are not shared proportionally,' Tsipras told the Greek parliament on Wednesday, adding: 'We will not allow our country to turn into a warehouse of souls.' Tearful: A Syrian Kurdish migrant hugs a young child after their arrival with others at Mytilene Rescue: Hundreds of migrants continue to arrive by boat after crossing to Greece from Turkey Refugees and migrants queue up for food rations at the transit centre for refugees near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce A man sits at the refugee centre near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, waiting for permission to cross the into Serbia A young boy carries blankets on his head as he finally crosses into Macedonia from Greece on Thursday A girl and her brother wait at the reception centre for migrants and refugees in Schisto, near Athens, where 1,300 migrants, mainly Afghans, are stranded His warning came as it emerged German people will have to brace for another 2.5 million refugees arriving in the country over the next four years. The figures were drawn up by the economics ministry in Berlin and show the vast numbers still to come if there remains no change in the open-door policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Suddeutsche newspaper in Munich said the internal report drawn up for bureaucrats struggling to cope with the one million-plus who have arrived over the last 13 months was leaked to it. German leaders are now talking of cutting budgets - despite record tax earnings - to pay for the housing, education, clothing, feeding and policing of the migrants. 'Money for other things we might want is simply not there, even if the numbers look different at first sight,' said junior finance minister Jens Spahn. 'The entire surplus is completely reserved for financing the refugee crisis.' With a further 3.6 million refugees on the way, the record 19.4 billion budget surplus the government took in last year in taxes will soon be eroded. Two Pakistani migrants tried to hang themselves in Victoria Square, Athens, Greece, in protest over delays in their planned travel to the north of the country An elderly refugee in a wheel chair waits along with other migrants at the Athens port of Piraeus this morning A girl carries her toys in a plastic crate after arriving in Athens from one of the Greek islands, having survived the dangerous journey Children play as refugees and migrants, mostly from Afghanistan, wait in a queue to receive food distributed by the Greek army at a transit camp in the western Athens' suburb of Schisto The Greek Prime Minister spoke out ahead of EU talks aimed at reducing the flow of refugees through the Balkans. A woman is pictured at a camp site on the Greek-Macedonian border German Chancellor Angela Merkel (centre) casts her vote during an asylum debate as part of a meeting of the German Federal Parliament, Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany today 'Refugee numbers have to sink, or else we won't be able to manage any more,' said finance minister Wolfgang Schauble. The economic ministry's Internal figures are based on around 500,000 people arriving every year between 2016 and 2020. A spokesman later said the figures are estimates and that a true picture is 'impossible' to paint. News of a new wave of refugees arriving plays directly into the hands of the far right which is gathering strength, particularly among communities with high numbers of migrants housed among them. Police overtime bills are spiking all over the country as officers struggle to protect facilities housing asylum seekers from firebomb attacks, threats and physical attacks against individuals. Regional elections in three German states next month will see successes for the Alternative for Germany (AFD) party and a hammering for Mrs. Merkel's conservatives. Refugees and migrants arrive aboard the Diagoras passenger ship at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Greece Waiting in line: Greece is turning 'into a warehouse of souls' as more countries close their borders to migrants, Alexis Tsipras has warned Ministers from non-EU members Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey will also be in Brussels as the European Union reaches outside the borders of the 28-nation bloc in a desperate attempt to deal with the stream of people. Migrants are pictured waiting in Athens, Greece Children wait with other migrants and refugees to cross the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, northern Greece Today, ministers from non-EU members Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey will also be in Brussels as the European Union reaches outside the borders of the 28-nation bloc in a desperate attempt to deal with the stream of people. The talks come a day after Austria warned the EU's future was at stake at a meeting of Balkan states in Vienna from which an angry Greece was excluded, and after Hungary announced a referendum on refugee quotas. Greece on Thursday recalled its ambassador in Vienna, the country's foreign ministry said, after Austria excluded it from a meeting of Balkan states on Europe's migrant crisis. The move to recall the envoy for consultations was designed to 'safeguard friendly relations between the states and the people of Greece and Austria', a statement from the ministry said. The EU remains deeply divided over how to handle the migrant crisis, especially over recent border closures by several member states that have threatened the passport-free Schengen area. The EU issued a stern warning on Tuesday that a 'humanitarian crisis' was looming, especially in Greece, and that it was 'concerned' by developments on the Balkans route The crisis ratcheted up at the weekend after Macedonia closed its Greek border to Afghans because countries further up the route were turning back groups from that country Light relief: A migrant plays with his child as migrants and refugees wait to cross the Greek-Macedonian borde 'We want all the contacts on Thursday to allow us to avoid surprises - we have to avoid that one country is surprised by the measures taken by another,' said a source from the current Netherlands presidency of the EU. Austria in particular has caused anger in the EU by announcing that it will cap asylum applications at 80 a day, saying it is overwhelmed by the numbers coming up through the Balkans from Greece. Thursday's Brussels meetings will start with a working breakfast between the ministers from Serbia, Macedonia and the EU countries on the main Western Balkans route for migrants and refugees to reach northern Europe. The EU issued a stern warning on Tuesday that a 'humanitarian crisis' was looming, especially in Greece, and that it was 'concerned' by developments on the Balkans route. Brussels was also 'coordinating a contingency planning effort, to offer support in case of a humanitarian crisis both outside and within the EU', it said. The crisis ratcheted up at the weekend after Macedonia closed its Greek border to Afghans because countries further up the route were turning back groups from that country. A child sits on bags and waits while refugees form a line behind her to receive food handouts at the port of Piraeus A Syrian man holds his son as they arrive with refugees and migrants on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to Mytilen Long road ahead: A Syrian woman cries as she talks to her relatives after her arrival with other refugees and migrants from the Turkish coast to Greece Greece is the arrival point for around four fifths of the huge flow of people fleeing war and poverty who are arriving in Europe - mainly via Turkey - in the worst crisis of its kind to face Europe for more than half a century. One hundred thousand migrants have already arrived this year and more than a million last year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Greece has been threatened with effective suspension from the frontier-free Schengen zone if it does not do more to stop waving through migrants to other countries, and improve reception and registration conditions for refugees who land on its soil. The EU's Dublin regulations say that migrants must apply for asylum in the first country they land in but this system is set for an overhaul in the coming months as it has proved unworkable. Turkey's deputy interior minister will meet ministers from all 28 EU states at the main talks later on Thursday, as the EU pushes Ankara on a deal aimed at cutting the number of arrivals. Turkey and the EU signed a deal in November under which Ankara agreed to curb the number of refugees crossing to Greece in return for three billion euros ($3.2 billion) in aid and the speeding up of its EU membership bid. A priest has played a recording of a woman barking like a dog and screaming during an exorcism which he claims is the sound of Satan being burned alive by the words of the gospel. The clip was played to the congregation at the Ostrog Serbian Orthodox monastery in Montenegro to highlight the fact that there are not enough exorcists currently working in the church. The priest Arsenije Jovanovic wearing dark glasses is seen holding a mobile phone in which the recording of the exorcism is playing so that the believers can hear what is happening. Priest Arsenije Jovanovic, who played the recording at a monastery in Montenegro, which he claimed was the sound of Satan during an exorcism A woman's voice is heard barking like a dog, and then screaming as the priest who was next to her reads prayers. Father Jovanovic said: 'This is how humanity screams! But at the same time this is a wonderful scream, because she is not the one screaming, the screaming is from Satan inside her, because the gospel is burning him.' Another priest, father Slagjan Mijaljevic, said it was not surprising that there was a shortage of priests who could carry out all exorcisms as it was difficult work. He said: 'An exorcism can last up to an hour and needs to be performed by older priests in monasteries that are far from the cities, where it can be carried out in complete purity and under the guidance of the sacraments. 'A spiritual person who is doing the exorcism must be very strong. Father Jovanovic said he wanted to play the recording to to highlight the fact that there are not enough exorcists currently working in the church The recording was played to the congregation at the Ostrog Serbian Orthodox monastery in Montenegro 'Most priests don't want to take it on, even though people are asking for help. Unfortunately the result is that today there is a lack of exorcists.' He said the people undergoing an exorcism will scream, suddenly speak in foreign languages and even try and attack the priest. He added: 'When the devil comes out of a person, the person usually does not remember anything. 'The most impressive exorcism that I ever had to attend to was the banishing of the devil from a man after 12 years of possession. Advertisement Shrouded in steam through the scenic British countryside almost a century after it was built, the Flying Scotsman gave trainspotters a day to remember. But the excitement was too much for some yesterday, who forced it to come to a 'shuddering stop' on its inaugural journey by standing on the line. The train, which departed London King's Cross at 7.40am and arrived in York at 1.20pm yesterday, came to a halt near St Neots in Cambridgeshire. And the conductor of one of the world's most famous trains leaned out of the window 50 miles into its first official run after a 4.2million refit. Footage taken from inside shows him yelling: Will you get right off the line side?! You are causing the railway to be shut. Right off the line side!' Scroll down for video Glorious: The Flying Scotsman makes its first run with passengers after a major refit and overhaul, at Greatford crossing in Lincolnshire Here she comes: The Flying Scotsman has completed its journey from London to York despite being 20 minutes behind schedule Arriving in York: Many trainspotters wanted the perfect picture, but one group further south went too far, causing it to 'suddenly stop' Arrival: Network Rail pleaded with trainspotters to be safe, and after the first disruption the vehicle had a smooth journey to York Steaming through: The locomotive, pictured at Colton Junction near York, looked majestic in its original livery of British Rail green Refit costing 4.2million: Dozens of photographers watched the historic steam train on its inaugural journey at Colton Junction near York The Flying Scotsman eventually completed its trip in five hours 40 minutes - running 20 minutes behind schedule due to the trespassing incident. Following the disruption, Network Rail pleaded with the several thousand spectators lining the route to stay safe while watching the iconic train. Passengers had described a 'shuddering stop', while footage filmed from the stationary train showed people walking down the tracks holding cameras. The Rail magazine's editor Nigel Harris, who was on the train, said it had to carry out a big break following rampant trespass by mindless hordes. An NR spokesman said: 'The number of people beside the track is already giving us safety concerns and means we are having to slow trains down. 'Trespassing on the railway is illegal and incredibly dangerous. Please help us to make today a success and stay off the railway.' Spectacular trails of steam were left in the wake of the locomotive, including outside Arsenal FCs Emirates Stadium as it travelled north from London. Thousands of people gathered on platform one at London's King's Cross to watch the historic steam locomotive depart ahead of the journey. Smoking: The Flying Scotsman powered past the Eggborough Power Station near Selby, North Yorkshire, as it neared its destination Waving: The engineering marvel leaves a trail of steam in its wake as it travels near East Retford in Nottinghamshire on its marathon trip Greatford in Lincolnshire: The National Railway Museum bought it for 2.3million in 2004 before work got under way on its restoration Fantastic moment: A worker waves to the Flying Scotsman as it travels past the Lincolnshire village of Greatford, near Stamford Wonderful: The steam engine - seen at Greatford - will be kept at the NRM in York until March 6 before embarking on a tour around the UK Hello: A passenger enjoying a drink on board waves to a spectator after the train took on water at Connington Junction in Peterborough Watching it go: The Flying Scotsman passes through Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire, in between St Neots and Huntingdon Making tracks: The Flying Scotsman passed through the Cambridgeshire village of Offord Cluny during its journey from London to York Passengers had paid as much as 450 for a ticket. In total, 297 passengers were on the journey, including VIPs, fundraisers, competition winners and ticket-buying members of the public. Among them was Michael Portillo, who was 'very excited' to witness the 'engineering triumph' while filming for the BBC's Great British Railway Journeys. He said: 'This is certainly the most famous journey and most famous locomotive in Britain. 'It's absolutely wonderful that it's able to run today from London to York. We've got a very excited bunch of passengers. We've got a whole lot of history.' Asked why the Flying Scotsman was so popular, he replied: 'Partly it's because it was an engineering triumph. It was a big locomotive, it was powerful and it reached 100 miles per hour. 'And partly because of the extraordinarily successful marketing in the 1920s onwards so Flying Scotsman became entirely iconic.' Shout: The train conductor peers out of the window (left) before leaning out (right) to shout at trespassers on the railway line near St Neots Through Hertfordshire: The engineering marvel, pictured travelling over the Digswell Viaduct near Welwyn Garden City, has been restored Beautiful: Described by Michael Portillo as an 'engineering triumph', the legendary locomotive is pictured near Hatfield in Hertfordshire Potters Bar: The National Railway Museum bought the Flying Scotsman for 2.3million in 2004 and has spent a decade restoring it Gunners: The train left an incredible trail of steam outside Arsenal's Emirates Stadium as it roared past the North London football ground Snaps: Photographers watched the majestic train depart from King's Cross in London, but another group later on forced it to come to a halt Mr Portillo said Sir Nigel Gresley, who designed the locomotive, had 'an eye for engineering, for design, for style and for marketing'. The last man to drive the historic train before it was taken out of service in 1963 was also on board for the trip up the East Coast Main Line. Ron Kennedy, who first drove the Flying Scotsman in 1956, beamed with delight as the majestic steam engine pulled into King's Cross. The 83-year-old from Essex, who had first worked as a cleaner at the station almost 70 years age, said: 'It's unbelievable. I never dreamt about being on it again. To be out with it is just fantastic. It was a good engine. We didn't know them by their names, we knew them by their numbers. So to us it was 60103.' 'When the railway museum took it over they didn't know what to do with it but public donations meant they could put it back together again. Delighted: Passengers include VIPs, fundraisers, competition winners and train fans - some of whom paid as much as 450 for a ticket Chuffed to be there: Admirers throng platform one at Kings Cross Station as they catch a glimpse of the majestic locomotive Ready to depart: Excited onlookers took advantage of the rare opportunity to photograph the locomotive at platform one of King's Cross Majestic: Trainspotters were covered in steam at King's Cross as the locomotive, taking 297 passengers to York, left the capital Puffing: The iconic train has been painted in its original livery of British Rail green to mark the completion of the decade-long refit 'I think they've done a wonderful job. It belongs to the public really so let's keep it so it's always there for our children and grandchildren.' We've got a very excited bunch of passengers. We've got a whole lot of history Michael Portillo Paul Kirkman, director of the National Railway Museum in York, said the Flying Scotsman was a reminder that 'railways have been making this country run properly for nearly 200 years'. He said: 'It's a very special day because it's the world's most famous locomotive and it's back on the tracks again heading up the route that it would historically have done up the East Coast Main Line. 'Not quite all the way to Edinburgh but to a very good substitute in the National Railway Museum in York. 'It's the culmination of years of work to get this thing done, so to see it steaming back into here and steaming out back to the museum in York is an incredibly satisfying experience.' This week marks the anniversary of the iconic locomotive leaving Doncaster Works on February 27, 1923, after it was built. The last time the train made its way to Edinburgh was in 2000, with its last outing in 2005 from York to Scarborough. Working hard: Crew members in the engine room as the train, built in 1923, prepared to depart King's Cross station at the start of the trip Leaving King's Cross: Crew members were on hand to ensure the locomotive - known by its former crew as 60103 - safely departed Tough graft: The crew work inside the engine room of the train, which was expected to travel to York in five hours before the delays Wednesday: The train, pictured passing through Kilburn as it arrived in London ahead of the trip, broke the 100mph barrier back in 1934 The Flying Scotsman's incredible engineering prowess was demonstrated when it became the first train to break the 100mph barrier in 1934. The original Flying Scotsman train service began in Edinburgh in 1862 and still runs today. Its journey between Edinburgh and London took ten hours and stopped just once - for a half an hour stop for lunch at York. The National Railway Museum bought the locomotive for 2.3million in 2004 before work got under way on its restoration two years later. For its restoration, Flying Scotsman was painted in its original livery of British Rail green and had its nameplates have been reattached. The steam engine will be kept at the museum until March 6 before embarking on a tour around the country. THE FLYING SCOTSMAN: TEN FACTS ABOUT THE LEGENDARY LOCOMOTIVE The Flying Scotsman, an A3 Pacific class locomotive, was originally built in 1923 for the London and North East Railway. It was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and has been in the public eye since it first went into service, having been on display at the British Empire Exhibition the following year. The Flying Scotsman took eight hours to complete the trip between London and Edinburgh and in 1934 was officially credited with becoming the first steam locomotive to be clocked at 100 miles an hour. It holds a second record for the longest non-stop run of 422 miles when it was in Australia. The locomotive weighs about 100 tons. The Flying Scotsman has covered around 2,500,000 miles in its long career. It had five numbers, 1472, 4472, 502, 103 and 60103. Doncaster railway works is where the engine was built. The Flying Scotsman took eight hours to cover the 392 miles between London and Edinburgh. At one stage it had a tender with a corridor to enable crew changes during the Edinburgh trip. Advertisement A long-time Victorian Catholic bishop has apologised for moving pedophile priests among parishes to avoid scandalising the church. In his apology, he said he's sorry and regrets not doing his job very well in handling pedophilia in the Ballarat diocese. But retired bishop Ronald Mulkearns, 85, denies trying to cover up widespread child sex abuse. Bishop Mulkearns knew about pedophile priests whom he sent for treatment and moved among parishes, the child abuse royal commission has heard. The 1971-97 Ballarat bishop admitted he wanted to protect the reputation of the church but told the inquiry he was trying to stop further offending. Counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said Bishop Mulkearns covered up the conduct of pedophile priests. Scroll down for video Victorian bishop Ronald Mulkearns issued a grovelling apology for moving pedophile priests among parishes to avoid scandalising the Catholic church 'Your time as the bishop of Ballarat was characterised by offending pedophiles coming to your attention and you effectively covering up their actions so the public wouldn't become aware of and think less highly of the church, is that right?' Bishop Mulkearns replied: 'Well, that's certainly not been my intention. 'I can only say that I'm terribly sorry for the fact that I didn't act differently in the interests of everybody.' Ms Furness suggested he chose to protect the church's reputation over the protection of children, but Bishop Mulkearns said that was not completely true. 'I certainly wanted to protect the reputation of the church,' he said via video link from his Ballarat nursing home. 'I wanted to make sure these incidents didn't happen in the future and tried my best to work in such a way that it wouldn't happen in the future, but of course, they weren't telling you the truth about what was happening, so it made it difficult to deal with them.' In his apology, he said he's sorry and regrets not doing his job very well in handling pedophilia in the Ballarat diocese After a 1991 complaint about improper conduct by priest Paul David Ryan with a schoolboy, Bishop Mulkearns noted it was agreed he would remain in Penshurst parish 'so that his change would not be seen as completely out of the ordinary'. Bishop Mulkearns agreed when Ms Furness said the point of that was to ensure there was no scandal about Ryan leaving early. Commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan said Bishop Mulkearns protected the church by moving priests away from where their offending might continue. 'You also removed them to avoid notoriety coming to them in one parish. You moved them to another parish,' Justice McClellan said. Bishop Mulkearns said: 'Not without some activity, some treatment beforehand.' Justice McClellan suggested the bishop's advisers 'knew what was going on', but Bishop Mulkearns said he could not recall who knew what at that stage. But retired bishop Ronald Mulkearns, 85, denies trying to cover up widespread child sex abuse Cardinal George Pell, who was among the bishop's advisers while he was a Ballarat priest, will give videolink evidence to the commission from Rome next week. Bishop Mulkearns said he told the archbishop of Sydney about the problems of pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale when he sent him to the Catholic Enquiry Centre in Sydney in 1982. Bishop Mulkearns admitted he retired as bishop early because he was not handling the pedophilia problem well. 'I'm terribly sorry that I didn't do things differently in that time, but I didn't really know what to do or how to do it.' The 85-year-old has advanced cancer and only months to live. His questioning on Thursday was limited to 90 minutes on medical grounds and he will continue giving evidence at another time. A teenage girl has allegedly been indecently assaulted by a man who kissed her on the lips as she walked to school in Sydney. The 16-year-old was walking through Cowells Lane Reserve in Ermington in Sydney's west, near Kissing Point Road, about 9am on Wednesday when the man approached her. 'The girl attempted to leave the area. However, the man stopped the girl and allegedly indecently assaulted her by kissing her on the lips,' police said on Thursday. 'She left the park a short time later and the man was last seen walking toward Kissing Point Road. A teenage girl has allegedly been indecently assaulted by a man who kissed her on the lips as she walked through Cowells Lane Reserve (pictured) on her way to school in Sydney After the alleged assault, the girl walked to her high school where she confided in a friend. The friend took her to a nearby police station in Rosehill to report the incident to police, who are appealing to the public to come forward with any information they may have about the man's identity or the incident. The man is described as being of Caucasian appearance, aged in his 20s, about 160cm tall and of a large build. He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans and walking toward Kissing Point Road. David Cameron today defied the EU critics in his own party by insisting the problems caused by immigration could get worse if Britain quits the EU. On the day official statistics confirmed net migration in the year to the end of September was 31,000 higher than the year before at 323,000, Mr Cameron insisted his new EU was a crucial part of the solution. But in an escalation of Tory referendum clashes, employment minister Priti Patel claimed the latest rise in net migration made clear the need to leave the EU and impose new border controls at British ports. The rise was party driven by a dramatic 38 per cent increase in the number of Romanian and Bulgarian migrants coming to Britain - and the ONS release today said 10,000 of the 55,000 arrivals were not here for work purposes. The new ONS data out today showed net migration stood at 323,000 in the year to the end of September 2015 - 31,000 higher than 12 months ago David Cameron visited the BAE Systems Typhoon factory today, pictured, and claimed staying in the EU with his new reforms was vital to help control migration The Prime Minister insisted a vote to quit the EU would void his deal and any agreement to let Britain back into the single market would not include his limits to benefit claims. He said: 'If we were to vote to leave the EU, the countries outside the EU that have full access to the single market, like Norway, they have to accept the free movement of people. 'In fact, if we left the EU the deal that Ive just negotiated doesnt stand. 'So we actually have to accept free movement if were in the same position as Norway, and we wouldnt have the welfare restrictions that Ive just negotiated.' On a visit to BAE Systems in Lancashire, Mr Cameron insisted he was 'convinced' Government action on both EU and non-EU immigration would work. The Prime Minister said the Government could hit its target of getting net migration down to the tens of thousands - a reduction of almost 70 per cent on today's figure of 323,000. Ahead of the new data, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith had claimed rising levels of immigration could fuel the far right. The new migration statistics show the first drop off in net migration in almost two years and a cut from the peak seen last summer. Data out last year showed a net 336,000 people arrived in Britain in the year to June 2015. Ms Patel, who issued a statement via the Vote Leave campaign, said: 'Once again, net migration has gone up putting pressure on our jobs, housing, and our public services. ROMANIAN AND BULGARIAN IMMIGRATION UP BY 38 PER CENT In the 12 months to September 2015: 617,000 people arrived in the UK. This is up 0.3 per cent on the previous year. 257,000, or 42 per cent, arrived from the European Union. This figure is up 4 per cent on the year. 130,000, or 21 per cent, arrived from the 'EU15' group of countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. This figure is up 5 per cent on the previous year. 69,000, or 11 per cent, came from the 'EU8' group of countries: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. This figure fell on the year by 9 per cent. 55,000, or 9 per cent, came from Bulgaria and Romania. This was up 38 per cent on the year. The remaining 2,00 (0.3 per cent) came from Malta, Cyprus and Croatia. This figure was down by 60 per cent on the previous year. Advertisement 'More than half of the people coming here have come from the European Union showing that we cannot control our borders while we remain members of the EU. 'The proposed deal will do nothing to reduce the level of immigration from the EU, and will leave unelected politicians in Brussels and judges from the EU Court in control of our borders. 'The only way to take back control is to Vote Leave.' Ukip leader Nigel Farage said the rising numbers from Romania and Bulgaria were 'even higher' than he had predicted. Home Secretary Theresa May, arriving for a meeting in Brussels today, said net migration remained 'too high' but insisted Mr Cameron's deal with the EU would 'clamp down' on abuses and reduce the pull factor of migration. But Mr Farage insisted: 'Record levels of migration inside the EU cannot be reformed. 'Either we control our border outside of EU or we have complete open door.' Speaking in Brussels ahead of a meeting with her European counterparts, Mrs May, who backs the prime minister, said: 'Net migration into the UK remains too high. 'Immigration at these levels puts pressure on public services, on housing, on infrastructure, it can hold down wages and push British workers out of jobs. 'The deal the Prime Minister agreed last Friday with the EU will clampdown on abuse of free movement, it will reduce the pull factor of our welfare system, and make it easier for us to deport people who are abusing our generosity. Migration from the 'EU2' nations of Bulgaria and Romania has rocketed in recent years and figures today revealed a 'statistically significant' 15,000 rise on 12 months previously. 2015 data marked p is provisional 'We've also set out tough controls for countries joining the EU, which will help prevent the sort of mass migration that we've seen in the past.' Mrs May continued: 'So there is more to be done, we need to continue to reform skilled migration from outside the EU, we need to continue to reform free movement, and we need to continue strengthening Europe's external borders, that's why I'm here today, that's what we'll be discussing, and it's in Britain's national interests for us to be part of the EU, working with others to strengthen Europe's external borders.' David Cameron, pictured today campaigning in the referendum, faced a new blow today when the immigration figures were release She added: 'Well Europe is indeed dealing with a migration crisis and that would be the same whether the UK was in the EU or outside of the EU. 'As members of the EU we are able to work with others to strengthen Europe's external borders.' A Downing Street spokesman confirmed that Mr Cameron's 'ambition' remains to bring net immigration into the UK below 100,000, but declined to put a timeframe on the target being met. He also declined to say whether the PM agreed with Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith's warning of a short-term spike in immigrant numbers ahead of the introduction of the 'emergency brake' on benefits agreed in Brussels last week, which is unlikely to come into force until 2017. The Number 10 spokesman said senior MEPs had made clear there was no reason why the brake should not be applied 'in a matter of months' after the UK votes to remain in the EU, and said it would take 'a large chunk' out of the benefits available to new arrivals. 'We are very clear, and the Prime Minister has always been clear, that the pull of the in-work benefits system can be a real incentive to people to come to this country,' said the spokesman. Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of campaign group Migration Watch UK, said: 'Today's figures show that there is no sign of any let-up in the severe pressures of immigration on the UK.' Total immigration to Britain in the year to the end of September was 617,000 - off set by emigration of 294,000 people. In the detail of its analysis, the ONS said the total level of EU immigration was largely unchanged - but did note a 'statistically significant' rise in the number of Bulgarian and Romanian migrants of 15,000 to a total of 55,000. Of these, 28,000 had a firm job to go to while 45,000 of the group were in Britain for work-related reasons. The number of asylum claims detailed in the data rose to 38,878 a 20 per cent increase on the last year and the fifth successive year they have risen. There were 828,000 National Insurance Number registrations issued to foreign adults in 2015, an increase of 60,000 on the previous year. Ukip leader Nigel Farage hit out after the publication of the figures, insisting it was impossible to 'reform' runaway migration from inside the EU Separate labour market figures out earlier this month said there were two million EU citizens working in Britain in 2015. The new statistics come against a backdrop of a million or more refugees thought likely to get into Europe this year. Several thousands migrants are camped in Calais waiting for a chance to get into Britain. But as Britain's referendum debate turned to the impact of EU citizens migrating to Britain, Conservative ministers defying the Prime Minister to back a Brexit warned of the need to get control of Britain's border. Of the total 323,000 net migrants, 172,000 were estimated to be EU nationals who have a right of free movement to come to Britain. The Government's target remains to get net immigration down to the 'tens of thousands'. The so-called 'Jungle' camp in Calais, pictured yesterday, has become the subject of political dispute in the referendum as the Prime Minister warned a Brexit could see it move to Kent HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER BOASTS HIS PEOPLE WILL STILL BE ABLE TO CLAIM BENEFITS IN BRITAIN UNDER DAVID CAMERON'S NEW DEAL Hungary's prime minister has boasted how workers from his country will still be able to claim benefits in Britain under David Camerons renegotiation deal. A triumphant Viktor Orban told the Hungarian parliament how eastern European countries had successfully worked together to protect to their interests. As part of his renegotiation, Mr Cameron had wanted to stop all newcomers getting in work benefits, such as tax credits, until they had paid into the system for four years. Viktor Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister pictured at last week's EU summit, has insisted his people will still be able to claim benefits in Britain under the new deal But EU leaders refused to allow this and insisted benefits could only be stopped completely at the very beginning of a persons stay in the UK before their entitlements are gradually increased over four years to the full amount. Countries also insisted that Britain should only be allowed to have the restrictions in place for seven years, rather than the 13 years Mr Cameron had requested. Mr Orban told MPs in Budapest: We have succeeded in ensuring that these social benefits cannot be taken away. In the future it will only be possible to initiate suspension of these benefits for a fixed period - after this time the old rules will have to be reverted to. This means that we have even succeeded in protecting benefits which people working in the UK did not pay for in the form of contributions. Mr Orban, who has been an outspoken critic of Brussels, did praise other elements of Mr Camerons deal. He said the prime minister had sought to reform the very essence of the European Union. He praised Mr Camerons push to make the EU more competitive and said he welcomed moves to reduce bureaucracy. During the renegotiation summit in Brussels, the leaders of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia which are known as the Visegrad 4 gathered in a war room to plot how to minimise Mr Camerons changes to benefit rules. After the meeting, the Polish prime minister Beata Szydlo tweeted that the agreement was good for Europe, adding: We took care of the interests of Poles using social benefits in EU countries. Leaked diplomatic minutes of the summit, obtained by the Mail, showed that the Czech Republics prime minister Bohuslav Sobtoka, told leaders that the four countries would get a beating at home if they accepted cuts to benefits for workers already in Britain. John Stevens, Daily Mail Brussels Correspondent Advertisement Iain Duncan Smith warns out of control immigration fuels the far right - and suggests David Cameron's deal will make it WORSE Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has warned runaway immigration fuels far right politicians and warned the deal secured by the Prime Minister in Brussels will make the situation worse. Mr Duncan Smith, a leading member of the Vote Leave campaign, hit out on immigration hours before new migration statistics revealed an increase of 31,000 on the year to September 2015. His warning came shortly after Justice Secretary Michael Gove also raised fears about the impact of migration on Britain and Europe. Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Gove, both seen this week leaving Cabinet, have issued warnings about the migration levels in Britain The Brexit camp has insisted only by leaving the EU and reinstating full border controls can the UK have any hope of hitting the Government's ambition of reducing net migration to the tens of thousands. Mr Duncan Smith told the Guardian: 'If you do not control your borders my observation is that you get parties led by people like Marine Le Pen and others who feed off the back of this, and ordinary decent people feel life is out of control.' He added: 'I would lay even money that they follow the trend over the past two quarters showing an ever-increasing number of migrants from eastern 'So is this agreement negotiated in Brussels going to limit the numbers coming into the UK? My answer to that is no. 'The truth is, there is one clear way that we could be sure to deliver on that manifesto commitment and that's to regain control of our borders.' Mr Duncan Smith said because the agreement on the emergency brake would not likely come into force until 2017 it was create an incentive to come sooner. And the Work and Pensions Secretary warned the deal struck by Mr Cameron to 'index' child benefit claims to a recipients home country would be 'fiendishly complicated' and would be 'bound' to increase costs. Since 2010, migration from the European Union has generally risen before easing during 2015. ONS migration figures from the past 12 months are based on provisional data And he warned: 'It may well be because there has been so much publicity in countries like Poland and in eastern Europe generally that some people know more about our benefits system than they did. 'Do people react to publicity? They do.' Justice Secretary Michael Gove issued his own migration warning yesterday. He told the BBC: 'This is an issue where I believe that control should be with politicians here who are accountable to the British people. One of the problems with the EU migration policy at the moment is that it's creating misery on our borders, a terrible situation which means we are not in a position to be both humane and also wise with respect to our economic future. 'That's why we need to leave, take back control and decide who we want to stay in this country and at what rate. 'Our immigration policy means that we have some people who can come into this country who we might want to say no to and others, who we might want to attract, who can't currently come in.' Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford said: 'Free movement within the EU is not the only driver of recent high levels of net migration, but it has played an important role. 'While EU migration is a defining issue in the referendum debate, the truth is that it's difficult to predict EU migration levels with confidence in either the stay or leave scenario. 'Whether Brexit would reduce migration will depend in part on the treaties and policies that followed, and these cannot be known in advance.' How will your MP vote? Full list of all the Conservative politicians who have declared their stand on the EU referendum debate A survivor of the Columbine High School shootings who went on to become a state legislator is pushing for teachers in Colorado schools to be armed with guns. Colorado State Representative Patrick Neville has introduced a bill which if passed would allow teachers with concealed weapon permits to carry guns within the state's schools. The Republican said arming 'good people' with weapons was the only way to prevent school shootings such as Columbine from occurring. Colorado State Representative Patrick Neville, far right, has introduced a bill which if passed would let teachers with concealed weapon permits to carry guns within the state's schools The state legislator was a teenage student at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, when Eric Harris, left, and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people during a shooting spree The Hill reported Neville as saying in a statement: 'Unfortunately, the current system continues to leave our children as sitting targets for criminals intent on doing harm. 'The only thing that is going to stop murderers intent on doing harm is to give good people the legal authority to carry a gun to protect themselves and our children. 'More of my friends would still be alive today.' An aerial shot of the school in the aftermath of the shooting, in which 12 students were killed and one teacher Eric Harris, left, and Dylan Klebold, right, opened fire at their school one morning in 1999 before killing themselves, in what was the 'deadliest high school shooting US history' at the time An armed response unit arrives at the scene of the massacre shortly after Harris and Klebold opened fire Neville attempted to introduce the same bill last year, and it is expected to be defeated once again in the Democrat-controlled Colorado House. The state legislator was a teenage student at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, when two of his fellow peers opened fire at the school grounds one morning. Dylan Klebold and his friend Eric Harris gunned down thirteen people, including 12 students and one teacher, before killing themselves in what was the 'deadliest high school shooting US history' at the time. An Egyptian blogger is to go on trial for 'insulting the nation's women' after he claimed on live television that 30 per cent of the female population would cheat on their husbands. Taimour Subki, who runs a Facebook page titled 'The Diary of a Crushed Husband,' hurriedly backtracked on the claim after the interview on a talk show spread on social media this month. An uproar on social media has led to the cancellation of the talk show, aired on private satellite station CBC, that hosted him in December. Taimour Subki (pictured) runs a Facebook page called The Diary of a Crushed Husband and claimed on national television that 30 per cent of women are prepared to cheat on their husbands if given the chance He stated: 'Many women cheat on their husbands. I can say that 30 percent of women are ready to be deviant'. In particular, he claimed, women in the southern cities of 'Asyut, Minya, Sohag, Qena, Luxor and Aswan'. But in a Facebook post prior to his arrest, he claimed his remarks - in which he said the woman were not 'deviant' because no men had encouraged them - had been taken out of context. He added: 'I didn't mean to insult anyone and I was speaking generally.' But prosecutors say Subki, who was arrested last week, had been spreading false news that disturbs public peace. The arrest comes amid an unprecedented crackdown in Egypt against freedom of speech, dissidents, and anyone the country's increasingly repressive security agencies choose to target. Yesterday president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi publicly stated that excessive criticism of the government is contributing to attempts to bring down the state, telling Egyptians not to listen to anyone but him. He did not go into specifics in an address broadcast live, saying only that he would 'remove from the face of the Earth' anyone plotting to bring down the government. In recent weeks, Egypt has seen startlingly public shows of anger over police abuses and brutality. Rights groups have documented arbitrary arrests, torture and disappearances. Even stalwartly pro-government TV commentators have raised alarm over a series of perceived miscarriages of justice, police brutality and economic problems - a shift from the near blanket avoidance of criticism in the past two years. Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi (pictured) has overseen an unprecedented crackdown on human rights, freedom of speech and political dissent El-Sissi appeared angry as he addressed an audience that included public figures, youth groups and university students and some military officers. 'Please, don't listen to anyone but me. I am dead serious,' he said sharply. 'Be careful. No one should abuse my patience and good manners to bring down the state. 'I swear by God that anyone who comes near it, I will remove him from the face of the Earth,' he said, then added, seeming to address those conspiring against the state, 'What do you think you're doing? Who are you?' It is 'still very early for open democratic practices, like criticizing and pushing [officials] out of office,' he said, adding that democracy is being practiced but 'under difficult circumstances, so let us safeguard Egypt.' As military chief, el-Sissi led the July 2013 overthrow of Egypt's first freely elected president, an Islamist whose divisive rule ignited mass protests. Pc Hassan Ali (pictured) was under investigation accused of being part of the Rotherham sex ring when he died last year. At least 54 police officers are accused of turning a blind eye to the abuse At least 54 police officers operating in and around Rotherham are accused of turning a blind eye to more than a decade of horrific child abuse by gangs of Asian men. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating 194 allegations against officers who are said to have ignored the desperate pleas of terrified schoolgirls while they were being repeatedly raped. Some are even claimed to have been part of the paedophile sex ring. Victims say at least one constable molested girls. Others are said to have tipped off the grooming gang's gun-toting ringmasters as to when their South Yorkshire colleagues were closing in. The scale of the investigation came to light in the trial of rapist brothers Arshid, 40, Basharat, 39, and Bannaras Hussain, 36 - three of the first six people convicted yesterday for carrying out a devastating catalogue of abuse on local girls. The trio - known as Mad Ash, Bash and Bono - targeted 15 vulnerable girls, one aged only 11, over a sixteen year period. They subjected them to brutal rapes and regular beatings after impressing them with their supposed wealth, drugs, guns and cars. Arshid forced one girl to have two abortions before she was 16. The men were given access to their victims by trusted local foster carer Karen MacGregor, 58, and Shelley Davies, 40. MacGregor took in girls - all of whom were white - from children's homes in the area, offering them a safe and comfortable living environment in her 'Hansel and Gretal house'. But once they were in she pimped them out as prostitutes, making them 'earn their keep' by having sex with a succession of men who were often double their age. The women, along with the brothers' uncle, Qurban Ali, 53, were all found guilty of child sex offences. They will be sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court tomorrow. According to an independent inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay, more than 1,400 girls were abused in Rotherham from the late 1990s well into the 2000s, predominantly by gangs from the town's Pakistani community. A National Crime Agency investigation was launched last June. It has identified more than 300 suspects and 9,000 lines of inquiry. However, it was only during the last two month's trial that size of the probe into alleged police wrongdoing regarding the abuse was brought to light. Brothers Arshid (left), 40, and Basharat Hussain (middle), 39, were yesterday found guilty of committing multiple rapes and indecent assaults on teenagers in Rotherham. Their younger brother, Bannaras Hussain (right), 36, admitted ten charges - including rape, indecent assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm The Hussain brothers' uncle, Qurban Ali (left), 53, was also found guilty of conspiracy to rape. Shelley Davies, (right) 40, was found guilty of conspiracy to procure prostitutes and false imprisonment The court was told that one officer had sex with under-age girls, handed drugs to the grooming gang and tipped them off when colleagues were hunting for children in their possession. The constable denies the allegation. Another is said to have helped to broker a deal in which Arshid Hussain returned an abused girl to police on the promise he would not be arrested. Most of the claims made to the IPCC are similar: that agencies knew what was happening but failed to act. Since the scandal was uncovered in 2013, the watchdog has received 194 allegations of police misconduct. The victims - as made apparent during the first trial into the abuse - tend to recount the same story of not being believed or being simply ignored when they reported their perpetrators to South Yorkshire Police. The police watchdog is now involved in 54 ongoing investigations into 'allegations about how South Yorkshire Police dealt with child sexual exploitation in Rotherham'. These cover a range of accusations, from a failure to act on reported child sexual exploitation to corruption. The IPCC said it is undertaking 'ongoing research and analysis work' into the claims made by 41 complainants to date. Ninety-two of the allegations relate to police officers who have been identified. The other 102 involve as yet unidentified officers. Of the 54 officers named so far, 26 have been told they are being investigated. The remaining 28 are still being examined. During the Hussain brothers' trial, one woman spent three days describing how she was repeatedly abused and assaulted from the age of 11. Karen MacGregor, described in court as a 'mother figure', took in girls from children's homes purporting to give them a safe haven and support - only to then have them abused She told the jury how she told a detective called Kenneth Dawes about what happened but no action was taken. She said: 'He used to have sex with girls and he used to take drugs from people and pass them on to Ash.' The jury was told Pc Dawes was arrested in 2015 and is currently under investigation. Another police officer who was mentioned in the trial - Pc Hassan Ali - died last year following a road traffic accident in Sheffield. Pc Ali was told he was under investigation by the IPCC on the day he was killed. The probe followed complaints about his dealings with alleged child sexual exploitation victims. IPCC deputy chair Rachel Cerfontyne stressed that the watchdog are committed to getting to the bottom of all allegations brought forward from victims. She said: 'Our investigative work examining allegations about how South Yorkshire Police responded to reported child sexual exploitation in Rotherham continues to expand. 'This is complex work dealing with non-recent allegations and involving vulnerable and traumatised victims. We are committed to ensuring the allegations are investigated sensitively and thoroughly.' South Yorkshire Police are not the only authority engulfed by accusations they let down the vulnerable local girls. Victims have also pointed the finger at Rotherham Council representatives for a series of failures during their horrific ordeals. One woman described how a councillor was involved in a deal with Arshid Hussain to return her when she and him went missing. She told the court the councillor had rung Hussain and arranged for her to be dropped off at a petrol station on the understanding 'he wouldn't get done'. Another victim, who said she was made to work as a teenage prostitute, told the jury she had proof police and social workers knew that she was being abused by Arshid Hussain in 2000. She said: 'Why did they leave it 15 years before knocking on my door and saying they knew?' The tearful mother of one of the victims told the trial how she found an exercise book in which her daughter had recorded heartbreaking details of the abuse to which she was subject. The woman said the police and social services were not interested in the book and she later burned it. Some of the women cited distrust of the police as they told the court why they went to the media to tell their stories before they went to the authorities. One said: 'The only reason the police started this investigation was because The Times printed my story.' Dr Alan Billings, police and crime commissioner for South Yorkshire, said: 'People weren't listened to the first time around and that was a disgrace and that's the scandal of what happened in South Yorkshire at that time. 'I do hope now they realise that this time they would be listened to if they come forward.' An Orthodox-Jewish Israeli has been arrested after going on the rampage and smashing up passenger plane equipment when an 'immodest' film was shown during a flight from Poland. The 36-year-old, from Beit Shemesh, 'ran wild' and broke two screens during the El Al flight from the Polish capital Warsaw to Tel Aviv after becoming enraged by the movie, Truth. Police were alerted and the man, who lives in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood, was arrested when the Boeing 737 landed at Ben Gurion International Airport on Wednesday. The 36-year-old, from Beit Shemesh, 'ran wild' and broke two screens during the El Al flight from the Polish capital Warsaw to Tel Aviv after becoming enraged by the movie, Truth Truth, which stars Cate Blanchett (left), Robert Redford (right) and Denis Quaid, charts the controversy around a 2004 report on 60 Minutes about George W. Bush's national guard service According to the New York Post, El Al - Israel's national carrier - told Arutz 7: 'In the course of an El Al flight from Warsaw to Tel Aviv, the passenger ran wild and damaged the plane's equipment. 'El Al will not tolerate violent behaviour of any kind in the course of its flights, and therefore the police were called.' Truth, which stars Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford and Denis Quaid, charts the controversy around a 2004 report on 60 Minutes about George W. Bush's national guard service. According to IMDB the film, due for release in the UK in March, contains a brief nude picture and contains sexual references and swearing. Police were alerted and the man, who lives in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood, was arrested when the Boeing 737 landed at Ben Gurion International Airport (pictured) on Wednesday Haaretz reports that he started striking and pushing screens, breaking two of them after being angered by the content of the film. The website says the aircraft had only larger screens spaced between seats rather than individual sets on each seat. 'King Jimmy' Savile molested 72 victims at the BBC and was still abusing women in 2006 aged 79 when the corporation brought him back to host the last ever Top of the Pops, it emerged today. The 'monstrous' entertainer indecently assaulted a woman after filming the episode with presenters Edith Bowman and Reggie Yates, a long-awaited report revealed, as further details of the shamed Jimll Fix It star's heinous crimes were made public today. Savile's horrific reign of abuse dated back to 1959 when he raped a 13-year-old girl, before attacks followed 'in the corridors, canteens, staircases and dressing rooms of every BBC premises'. Other vile crimes exposed included the rape of both a virgin teenager in a hotel and a 15-year-old work experience girl he met in the BBC canteen over a cup of tea. Twenty one of Savile's female victims were aged 15 or younger, the youngest being eight, while young boys - including an eight-year-old - were also preyed on by the depraved monster. Scroll down for videos Heinous crimes: Jimmy Savile molested 72 victims at the BBC and was still abusing women in 2006 when the corporation brought him back to host the last ever Top of the Pops aged 79 (pictured after the final show) Savile's reign of abuse dates back to 1959 when he raped a 13-year-old girl, before attacks followed 'in the corridors and dressing rooms of every BBC premises'. He is pictured during the Top of the Pops show in 2006 Revelations: Savile's most recent attack happened in 2006 after filming for Top of the Pops (left), it emerged today, as the three-year review by Dame Janet Smith (right, at a press conference this morning) was published He even had a London Team - a group of schoolgirls he treated like his personal harem - who were regularly waved into his dressing room by a BBC receptionist before the filming of Top of the Pops. There, one victim said she and others 'did whatever Savile told them' before later taking part in the show. Savile arranged for the group to appear on the podium - and in turn on television - but only on the condition that each time he could choose one of the girls to have sex with. Another of Savile's victims was a 12-year-old girl from Scotland. She was sexually assaulted in a Top of the Pops dressing room after seeing the DJ rape a 10-year-old boy while still wearing a Womble costume. Afterwards the presenter put an arm round each of them and told them that what had happened was a 'secret'. In another incident he had a 19-year-old girl meet him at a portable corporate hospitality cabin in Shepherds Bush, west London, before forcibly kissing and groping her behind a curtain while smoking a cigar in a smoke-filled room. When she ran out and complained to Saviles radio producer Ted Beston the victim 'was treated as if she was being silly', the report by retired judge Dame Janet Smith found. Journalist and broadcaster Mark Lawson also saw Savile assault a young woman who was working on BBC Radio 4's Front Row, on which the paedophile appeared in 2006, the review says. Savile was nearly 80 years old when he discussed the last edition of Top of the Pops on the programme. The revelations of Savile's campaign of abuse at the BBC came as: Dame Janet's inquiry concluded today that the BBC must undergo self-examination to ensure Saviles terrible reign of abuse is never repeated; It emerged low-ranking and middle managers knew about Savile's abuse but senior executives, who were absolved of any blame by the report, were not compelled to give evidence; The monster Jimll Fix It star raped a virgin who was under 16 at a hotel, raped a 15-year-old girl on work experience after meeting her in the BBC canteen, and indecently touched a woman in his most recent attack in 2006 when aged 79 after filming of the last ever Top of the Pops episode; Victims branded the 10million inquiry an 'expensive whitewash' because Dame Janet Smith had no power to make senior BBC manager give evidence as part of her three-year review; A parallel inquiry into paedophile Stuart Hall revealed BBC bosses were aware or should have been that the It's a Knockout presenter was abusing girls; BBC Director General Tony Hall apologised to the victims of Savile and Hall, saying: 'I am deeply sorry for the hurt caused to each of you. We let you down and we know it'; Veteran DJ Tony Blackburn, 73, accused the BBC of making him a 'scapegoat' after he was sacked on the eve of the release of the damning report into the Savile sex abuse cover-up. BBC Director General Tony Hall, who today apologised to the shamed entertainer's victims, said Savile 'used his celebrity to promise access to excitement and fun, and then grotesquely exploited it'. He referred to Savile being known at the time as 'King Jimmy' because of his popularity at the corporation. It also emerged BBC bosses missed five opportunities to snare the 'untouchable' star - who died in 2011 aged 84 - as he molested victims over a period of five decades. Savile struck at the BBC Theatre at Shepherd's Bush, where Jim'll Fix It and Clunk Click were filmed, Television Centre where Top Of The Pops was filmed, and Broadcasting House. SAVILE REPORT'S KEY FINDINGS Jimmy Savile abused 72 victims at the BBC going back to 1959 when he raped a 13-year-old girl at Lime Grove Studios; The DJ sexually assaulted 57 women or girls and 15 boys, with the youngest girl he raped being 13 and youngest boy being 10. He was responsible for eight rapes two of them against males; Saviles youngest male and female victims were both eight years old at the time of the assault; His most recent attack was in 2006 when he indecently touched a woman following filming of the last ever episode of Top of the Pops when Savile was aged 79; Other vile crimes exposed included the rape of both a virgin teenager in a hotel and a 15-year-old work experience girl he met in the BBC canteen over a cup of tea; Savile was a 'serial sexual predator' and the BBC missed five opportunities to stop his misconduct; Despite the revelations, Dame Janet controversially said the corporations failure to stop Savile was not the fault of senior managers; She concluded that some of the disgraced DJ's colleagues were aware of his depravity but believed senior managers were never told. Although top executives claimed to have no idea about Savile's paedophilia, rumours that he liked young girls were rife among some of the top BBC's top stars; Dame Janet said she could not rule out the possibility that 'a predatory child abuser could be lurking in the BBC even today'. Advertisement If staff did dare try and report him they were told 'keep your mouth shut, he is a VIP', the review found, while a parallel inquiry into paedophile Stuart Hall revealed BBC bosses were aware or should have been that the It's a Knockout presenter was abusing girls. Despite the revelations, Dame Janet controversially said the corporations failure to stop Savile and Hall was not the fault of senior managers. It also emerged rumours were abound that Savile owned a caravan he used to drive around and carry out depraved sexual assaults, while the studios where he presented Top of the Pops were said to resemble scenes from a Carry On film. With the set awash with young girls, staff locked doors and even cupboards to their offices and hospitality rooms amid rumours of what the DJ got up to away from the cameras, one of the BBC's ex-editors said. The ex-husband of presenter Anne Diamond, Mike Hollingsworth, added: 'I recall Savile owning a Winnebago, which he used for the occasional stopovers in London. 'There were rumours, of course, about what he used it for but because he was a loner, no one ever seemed to actually see if anything untoward was happening.' Despite senior management claiming to have no idea about Jimmy Savile's paedophilia, rumours that he liked young girls were rife among some of the top stars at the BBC, it also emerged. From Lord Michael Grade to Dame Esther Rantzen, Chinese whispers had travelled. There were stories of him licking a young girl's hand, jokes about him 'screwing minors' and that he was a necrophiliac, but they were never investigated at the time. Dame Janet's long-awaited review found there was a culture of 'reverence and fear' towards celebrities at the corporation and that 'an atmosphere of fear still exists today in the BBC'. When a junior female employee at Television Centre complained to her supervisor that she had been sexually assaulted by Savile, she was told 'keep your mouth shut, he is a VIP', the report found. Dame Janet said girls who dared to complain about being sexually assaulted were regarded as 'a nuisance' and their claims not properly dealt with. Eight complaints about Savile's behaviour were made to BBC staff as early as the late 1960s, but each time they were brushed off or not escalated up the chain of command. The BBC failed you when it should have protected you. I am deeply sorry for the hurt caused to each of you. Today we say sorry. We let you down and we know it BBC Director General Tony Hall In late 1989 or early 1990 Savile stuck his hand up a female junior employee's skirt at Television Centre. The woman, referred to as C51, complained to her boss but was told 'keep your mouth shut, he is a VIP'. More than a decade earlier, in November 1976, Savile was in front of the rolling cameras presenting Top of the Pops when he put his hand under the bottom of a member of the audience next to him. She leapt into the air and later complained to a BBC employee, but her accusation was shrugged off and she was told it was 'just Jimmy Savile mucking about'. In the mid-1970s Ian Hampton, bass player with the pop group Sparks, also tried to raise the alarm. He had heard rumours that Savile had sex with under-age girls and spotted him leaving the Top of the Pops studio with a young girl. The guitarist alerted a BBC presenter, but was told 'not to be silly', while on another occasion he spoke to producer Robin Nash, but was told 'not to be ridiculous'. Dame Janet said there was a culture of not reporting complaints at the BBC from the 1970s right the way through to the 1990s, and a fear of saying anything that might 'rock the boat'. Shocking: BBC bosses missed five opportunities to snare 'King Jimmy' Savile as he molested 72 victims as young as eight over five decades in every corridor he worked, a long-awaited report revealed today Damning: Dame Janet's long-awaited review (pictured left) found there was a culture of 'reverence and fear' towards celebrities at the corporation. A parallel inquiry also published today into Stuart Hall (pictured yesterday) found BBC managers were aware or should have been that he was abusing girls She warned there was a particular fear of whistleblowing at the corporation and 'I was told that an atmosphere of fear still exists today in the BBC'. She added: 'As I have said, there was a culture of not complaining about anything. The culture of not complaining about a member of the Talent was even stronger. 'Members of the Talent, such as Savile, were to a real degree protected from complaint. 'The first reason for this is because of a deference or even adulation which was, and still can be, accorded to celebrity in our society. 'The second reason was because of the attitude within the BBC toward the Talent. The evidence I heard suggested that the Talent was treated with kid gloves and rarely challenged.' She added: 'There was a feeling of reverence for them and a fear that, if a star were crossed, he or she might leave the BBC.' She criticised the hierarchy, rivalry and 'macho culture' in parts of the BBC, and its complaints procedures. Tony Blackburn (pictured at his Hertfordshire home today) said he plans to sue the BBC after being sacked over the contents of Dame Janet Smith's report into the Jimmy Savile sex abuse cover up A parallel inquiry also published today into jailed Its A Knockout presenter Stuart Hall found BBC managers were aware or should have been that he was abusing girls. Dame Janets three-year inquiry into Saviles ability to sexually attack children in every BBC premises he ever worked in concludes he was considered untouchable and more valuable than the values of the BBC. Dame Janet recommended: This report makes sorry reading for the BBCThe BBC ought to undergo a period of self-examination, adding that members of The Talent, as Savile was, should be put in no doubt as to the standards of behaviour expected of them. She said young people attending recordings of Top of The Pops had been in moral danger and the BBC made no attempt to ensure children were kept out of Saviles clutches. Dame Janet concluded some of his colleagues were aware of his depravity but she believed senior managers were never told. During the years covered by her investigation, the BBC was a place of sexual discrimination and sexual harassment, the review concluded. There were also 'serious failings' in the BBCs culture and systems of communication, management and investigation, and had these been addressed at the time, Saviles abhorrent behaviour could have been curtailed. BBC Director General Tony Hall called it a 'very sobering day' for the corporation as he apologised to the victims of Savile and Hall. He said: 'It should never have started. It should certainly have been stopped. There is nothing as compared with your pain. 'It was a dark chapter. The BBC failed you when it should have protected you. I am deeply sorry for the hurt caused to each of you. Today we are sorry. We let you down and we know it.' He added: 'Savile committed his crimes in many places but it was the BBC that made him famous. 'What this terrible episode tells us is that fame is power, a very strong form of power. And like all power it must be held to account, it must be challenged and it must be scrutinised, and it wasn't.' Lord Hall added that, while the review found the BBC as a corporate body had not known about the allegations, 'it seems to me that the BBC could have known'. He said: 'Just as powerful as the accusation you knew, is the legitimate question "How could you not have known?" 'Much of this was down to the culture of the BBC at the time.' One of Savile's victims was a 12-year-old girl from Scotland who persuaded her aunt to take her to see Top of the Pops. The girl had travelled to London to visit the relative, who agreed to accompany her to the studios in December 1973. FIVE HIGH RANKING BBC MANAGERS WHO SHOULD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT SAVILE AND HALL'S ABUSE Dame Janet highlighted several individuals who either knew about the abuse carried out by Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall, suspected it, or should have known, but failed to report it or take proper action. Ted Beston, Savile's Radio 1 producer. Dame Janet said Savile's Radio 1 producer Ted Beston (pictured) was a 'provider' of young women for Savile, whom he 'admired', and that he knew the presenter had casual sex with teenage girls Dame Janet said Mr Beston was a 'provider' of young women for Savile, whom he 'admired', and that he knew the presenter had casual sex with teenage girls. She highlighted a case in late 1978 or early 1979 when Mr Beston invited a 19-year-old waitress he knew to meet Savile at a drinks party. Once there the presenter took her off to a curtained area where he forcibly kissed and groped her. The teenager, referred to as C33, ran out of the area and told Mr Beston what had happened, but he just treated her 'as if she was being silly', the report found. Mr Beston denied knowing that Savile had sex with under-age girls, and, while Dame Janet said there is 'some evidence' Mr Beston did know about this, she could not be sure he did. Dame Janet said: 'I found that he knew that Savile would have casual sex with teenage girls as and when he could get it. 'Although he denied it, I'm satisfied that Mr Beston must have realised from their appearance that some of the girls might well be under age. He admired Savile and I don't think it ever crossed his mind that he should have reported him. But he should have done.' Canon Colin Semper, who worked as a producer on Speakeasy and helped write God'll Fix It, and eventually became head of religious programmes at the BBC. Dame Janet went out of her way to praise the honesty of the evidence Canon Semper gave her, and said the failure to stop Savile's behaviour had clearly weighed heavily on his mind. But she said Canon Semper should have reported his suspicions about Savile to his superiors at the BBC. The report states: 'I accept that Canon Semper did not 'know' that Savile had sex with under-age girls in the sense of ever seeing it happen, but he clearly did 'think' that Savile had casual sex with a lot of girls, some of whom might have been under age. 'Canon Semper did not make any report to his managers. I have concluded that he ought to have discussed his concerns with a manager.' Douglas Muggeridge, controller of Radio 1 and 2 in 1973. He has since died and so was not interviewed by Dame Janet. Mr Muggeridge launched two investigations into Savile in 1973 after hearing rumours about his sexual impropriety, but neither of these were pursued thoroughly and they failed to identify Savile's abuse or stop it. The first involved a meeting between Savile, Derek Chinnery, then head of programmes for Radio 1, and Doreen Davies, an executive producer, at which Savile's denial appear to be taken at face value. In 1973 Douglas Muggeridge (left), controller of Radio 1 and 2, 'heard rumours of Savile's sexual impropriety'. He held meeting between Savile, Derek Chinnery (right), then head of programmes for Radio 1, and producer Doreen Davies, where Savile denied there was any truth to the rumours and the BBC bosses believed him BBC publicity officer Rodney Collins heard of rumours about Savile from the press, but no hard evidence was found and the probe was abandoned. In a scathing assessment of these investigations, Dame Janet said: 'It appears to me that the main concern which prompted his inquiries was the risk of damage to the BBC's reputation, rather than the welfare of any girls who might be sexually involved with Savile. 'It seemed likely that, as a result of his inquiries, he believed the rumours to be untrue. Even so, I am surprised that he should have closed the book quite as completely as he appears to have done.' He should have shared his concerns with senior colleagues and kept an eye and ear on Savile, she said. Raymond Colley, the regional television manager at BBC Manchester from 1970 to 1986. Mr Colley, one of freelancer Stuart Hall's bosses, gave the It's A Knockout star a talking to shortly after taking up his post about the star's conduct. In her report Dame Janet said this suggested rumours of his sexual acts were known even then. She criticised Mr Colley for failing to follow up this warning by checking up on the star's behaviour at the BBC. She said that while there was no evidence Mr Colley had known about Hall's activities, he should have done, saying: 'He overestimated his own authority and he underestimated Stuart Hall's duplicity. Had Mr Colley kept a watch on Hall it is likely he would have been stopped.' Tom German, regional news editor at the BBC in Manchester in the 1970s. Mr German, who has since died, was 'probably aware' Hall was having sex on BBC premises, but had not known any underage girls were involved, Dame Janet said. She added: 'If he was it seems to me he should have shared his concerns with Mr Colley. He did not do so and this may well have been the fifth missed opportunity.' Advertisement She and a 10-year-old boy ended up being taken to a dressing room to meet Savile, who still had on the Womble costume he had worn to present the show. The woman, who now lives abroad, told the review that after chatting for around 15 minutes Savile raped the boy before sexually assaulting her. Afterwards the presenter put an arm round each of them and told them that what had happened was a 'secret'. The victim said she remembers walking to the Tube station and telling her aunt they had seen Slade and had had pop and biscuits with Savile. The report said: 'She did not tell anyone what had happened. The power of celebrity and the trust we accord it, which show no real sign of diminishing in our society, make detection of a celebrity abuser even more difficult Dame Janet Smith 'She thought it was her fault and that she might go to hell for what she had done.' Savile was a regular visitor to Scotland and owned a cottage in Glencoe, which was sold after his death. The woman came forward after seeing a newspaper advertisement placed by a firm of solicitors, inviting victims of Savile to make contact. The man who had been in Savile's dressing room with her had instructed the same firm and one testimony supported the other, with Dame Janet saying 'I accept their accounts as true'. The review heard evidence that Savile would on occasion bring an entourage of middle-aged men with him to the studios. Describing the man who escorted the two children to his room, the report said: 'If the man with the earring was one of the entourage, it would explain first why a boy of 10 and a girl of 12 were let into the studio. 'Second, if the man with the earring was keeping guard outside the dressing room, the risk which Savile took by behaving as he did with these two children would be much reduced.' Dame Janets 372,000-word report interviewed 380 witnesses in relation to Saviles conduct. She identified 72 BBC victims of Savile including eight rapes two of them against males going back to 1959 when he raped a 13 year old girl at Lime Grove Studios. Twenty one of his female victims were aged 15 or younger, the youngest being eight. Failure to act: Dame Janet (pictured at a press conference this morning) said girls who dared to complain about being sexually assaulted were regarded as 'a nuisance' and their claims not properly dealt with 'Sorry': BBC Director General Tony Hall (pictured at the press conference today) apologised to the victims of Savile and Hall, saying: 'I am deeply sorry for the hurt caused to each of you. We let you down and we know it' Dame Janet found that no senior manager at the BBC 'ever found out about any specific complaint relating to Savile's inappropriate sexual conduct in connection with his work for the BBC' Of his male victims, the youngest was an eight-year-old boy. His most recent attack was in 2006 when he indecently touched a woman following filming of the last ever episode of Top of The Pops when Savile was aged 79. Ian McGuinness, who was a staff relations officer at Thames Television in the 1970s, told the review that every Christmas 'amusing tapes' were made at Television Centre. These consisted mainly of film clip 'howlers', where something had gone wrong and there had to be a retake. The material was circulated among the staff for amusement. Mr McGuinness said one year, either 1975 or 1976, there was a film of a short sketch in which a man representing Savile was sitting on the Jimll Fix It chair with another man, dressed up as a little girl, sitting on his knee. The man acting the part of Savile was making salacious comments about the girl, the report said, and the announcement made on the film was 'Jimmy So Vile'. Meanwhile, Dame Linda Dobbs, who conducted the Stuart Hall inquiry, said he had 21 victims at the BBC from 1967 to 1991, the youngest being aged 10. In Halls case, the inquiries concluded some BBC managers were aware what he was up to. BBC FAILED VICTIMS, THE PUBLIC AND AUDIENCES BY TURNING A BLIND EYE TO APPALLING ABUSE, SAYS TRUST CHAIRMAN The BBC failed the victims of Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall by turning a blind eye to the abuse they suffered, BBC Trust chairman Rona Fairhead has said. In a statement, Ms Fairhead said she is 'appalled' by what happened and said everything will be done to ensure that history does not repeat itself. 'I am saddened and appalled by the events recounted here and in a few moments I want to address how we will aim to ensure we never allow them to happen again. 'But our primary thoughts must be with the victims - the survivors of the abuse perpetrated by Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall. Today's reports lay bare the full horror of what happened to them. Those experiences can never be erased. 'No one reading the reports can be in any doubt that the BBC failed them. It failed not just them, but the public, its audiences and its staff. 'It turned a blind eye where it should have shone a light. And it did not protect those who put their trust in it. 'On behalf of the BBC and its staff past and present, I want to apologise to the survivors for all they have suffered. 'I also want to commit to them directly that we will ensure the BBC does everything it possibly can to prevent any such events in the future,' she said. Advertisement One BBC manager who knew about Stuart Hall was named in the report as Ray Colley, Regional Television Manager, North West 1970 86. A woman who complained to him about Hall told the inquiry of daily sexual harrasment, saying: If you were female, at the slightest opportunity he put his arms around you and forced his body against yourshe could stroke your knee or tweak your stocking top, put his hand on your breast or rub your back. But she said the reaction of Mr Colley, who was present during some of the incidents, was: Oh, come on, you can take a joke, she said, or to say words to the effect of, you can handle that, couldnt you, youre a big tough girl. Mr Colley, the report said, gave Hall a dressing down about his conduct after the former arrived at BBC Manchester in 1970, suggesting rumours about Hall's sexual activity were circulating even then. However he failed to take any subsequent 'positive steps' to check if Hall was behaving. Meanwhile, Dame Janet found that no senior manager at the BBC 'ever found out about any specific complaint relating to Savile's inappropriate sexual conduct in connection with his work for the BBC'. However, she highlighted several people who, if they had escalated their concerns, could have helped stop Savile sooner. And she underlined an occasion when the BBC's investigation fell short. Dame Janet also said she could not rule out the possibility that 'a predatory child abuser could be lurking in the BBC even today'. She stated that child sex abusers like Hall and Savile are often 'highly intelligent, articulate and charismatic but manipulative people'. She said: 'Stuart Hall is an example. Savile, too, was intelligent, charismatic and extremely manipulative, even if not always very articulate. Any organisation could be duped by such an individual.' Dame Janet added: 'The power of celebrity and the trust we accord it, which show no real sign of diminishing in our society, make detection of a celebrity abuser even more difficult. 'Until a complaint is made, such people are likely to enjoy the confidence and approval of all of those around them.' In the 1970s, Canon Colin Semper, who was then a reverend, worked with Savile on God'll Fix It and was subsequently promoted to head of religious programmes. Dame Janet said: 'I accept that Canon Semper did not "know" that Savile had sex with under-age girls in the sense of ever having seen it happen, but he clearly did 'think' that Savile had casual sex with a lot of girls, some of whom might have been under age. 'Canon Semper did not make any report to his managers. I have concluded that he ought to have discussed his concerns with a manager.' She also found that there was one occasion when 'a senior manager heard disturbing rumours about Savile'. Savile acts as doorman at London's Victoria Palace Theatre for the arrival of the Princess of Wales in 1984 Rubbing shoulders with royalty: Savile also met Prince Charles on a number of occasions during his career REPORT IS AN 'EXPENSIVE WHITEWASH' SAYS VICTIMS' LAWYER BECAUSE DAME JANET HAD NO POWER TO MAKE SENIOR MANAGERS GIVE EVIDENCE Savile and Hall's victims will see Dame Janet's report as an 'expensive whitewash', according to Liz Dux (pictured), the lawyer representing them Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall's victims will see Dame Janet Smith's report as an 'expensive whitewash', according to a lawyer representing them. Liz Dux, of Slater and Gordon Lawyers, represents 168 victims of abuse. The specialist abuse lawyer said: 'All the Savile and Hall victims have ever wanted from this report is truth and accountability. 'Despite millions having been spent on the inquiry, my clients will feel let down that the truth has still not been unearthed and many will feel it is nothing more than an expensive whitewash. 'It is unfortunate that Dame Janet had no power to compel senior managers to give evidence, giving the impression that the whole picture of who knew what has not been revealed. 'With 117 witnesses giving evidence of concerns and rumours, it's implausible to suggest that this did not reach the upper echelons of the BBC. 'What's apparent is that the senior managers only had to scratch at the very surface and a lot of Savile's offending would have been revealed. 'There is real concern that the culture of fear and oppression referred to might have prevented more from speaking out more candidly and still exists today.' Advertisement In 1973 Douglas Muggeridge, the controller of Radio 1 and 2 who has since died, 'heard rumours of Savile's sexual impropriety', she stated. He set up to lines of inquiry - a meeting was held between Savile, Derek Chinnery, then head of programmes for Radio 1, and Doreen Davies, an executive producer. The report stated: 'Savile was asked whether there was any truth in the rumours. He said there was not and it appears that Mr Chinnery and Ms Davies believed him.' The second line of inquiry saw BBC Radio publicity officer Rodney Collins look into similar rumours, but he found no hard evidence. This report makes sorry reading for the BBCThe BBC ought to undergo a period of self-examination Dame Janet Smith Dame Janet stated: 'It appears to me that the main concern which prompted his (Mr Muggeridge's) inquiries was the risk of damage to the BBC's reputation, rather than the welfare of any girls who might have been sexually involved with Savile. 'It seems likely that, as a result of his inquiries, he believed the rumours to be untrue. Even so, I am surprised that he should have closed the book quite as completely as he appears to have done.' She said that, in 1969 and 1971, the BBC received 'a number of wake-up calls' about the risks teenage girls were exposed to on Top Of The Pops. These included newspaper reports about the picking-up of teenage girls at the show by staff members while it was facing another probe into claims that producers were playing records for money. The report found: 'The BBC's investigations into the possibility that young girls attending Top Of The Pops were at risk of moral danger did not evince any real concern for the welfare of the young audience. 'The impression I have is that the BBC regarded these girls as something of a nuisance.' 'SOCIETY OWES YOU A GREAT DEBT': DAME JANET THANKS VICTIMS OF SAVILE AND HALL Dame Janet thanked Savile and Hall's victims for 'your contribution and your courage'. She said: 'Some of you told me and Dame Linda that you blame yourselves for what happened and for not reporting it at the time. You are not to blame and your reasons for not reporting it are wholly understandable. 'Society owes you a great debt. Your legacy is that you have helped to convince us all of the importance of ensuring that young and vulnerable people have the confidence to report abuse, and when they do so their voices will be heard and treated with the same respect as those with power in our society. 'I think that is a legacy of which you can be justifiably proud.' Advertisement BBC Trust chairman Rona Fairhead today said that the BBC 'failed' victims of Savile and Hall, adding: 'It turned a blind eye, where it should have shone a light. And it did not protect those who put their trust in it.' Ms Fairhead said the survivors are owed an 'enormous debt of gratitude' for the courage they have shown. She added: 'Their bravery has created a vastly deeper understanding of the issues and I am confident that, from here forward, nothing will be the same. 'We believe that these reports are clear, thorough and authoritative, and I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dame Janet Smith, Dame Linda Dobbs and the review team. We accept the conclusions and recommendations of their reports in their entirety.' Ms Fairhead said the publics trust in the BBC needs to be restored. 'We need to demonstrate, through our actions, that the BBCs values are for everyone and non-negotiable,' she said. 'For, as Dame Janet makes clear, these events happened in the past but they raise serious issues that remain relevant and need to be addressed today. 'We fully support Dame Janets recommendation that the BBC Executive immediately reviews its policies and procedures on child protection, complaints, whistleblowing, and investigations - and that all of those should also be independently audited and published. 'It is important that this work also takes account of the variety of working relationships people have with the BBC, from freelancers and occasional contractors through to full-time members of staff.' Rumours that Savile liked young girls, was a necrophiliac, and used his campervan for sex were rife among staff and stars at the BBC By Anthony Joseph for MailOnline The report states that Dame Esther Rantzen heard that Savile was sexually interested in young girls Despite senior management claiming to have no idea about Jimmy Savile's paedophilia, rumours that he liked young girls were rife among some of the top stars at the BBC. From Lord Michael Grade to Dame Esther Rantzen, Chinese whispers had travelled. There were stories of him licking a young girl's hand, jokes about him 'screwing minors' and that he was a necrophiliac, but they were never investigated at the time. Dame Janet Smith's report, which was published today, reveals some of the shocking rumours which had been doing the rounds at the time. The report states that Dame Esther heard that Savile was sexually interested in young girls. She first heard a rumour about him in the early 1970s from a researcher who had come into the BBC from a job in Fleet Street. She heard that the people making a programme about Savile in the ITV series This is Your Life had wished to include the parents of a young girl with heart problems for whom Savile had provided financial help. The parents refused to allow that and she said that 'the implication was that there was another side to it which was a darker side'. But, she said, this rumour was one of many which 'swirled around' at that time in respect of all sorts of famous people. Dame Esther said that she was told by a sound editor of Savile's Travels that Savile had recorded himself having sex with nurses at Stoke Mandeville; there was no suggestion that the nurses were unwilling. Dame Esther Rantzen (left with Savile) heard that the shamed entertainer was sexually interested in young girls. Louis Theroux (right) was warned Savile abused dead bodies - two years before making a film about him Michael Grade, controller of BBC1 from 1984 to 1986, admitted there was a 'groupie culture' around certain BBC stars Her personal experience of him was that he was repulsive in the way he kissed or, rather, licked her hand and up her arm when they met. On the ITV Exposure programme broadcast in October 2012, Dame Esther said 'We all blocked our ears to the gossip I feel that we, in television in his world, in some way colluded with him as a child abuser, because I now believe that's what he was'. Lord Grade, who was Controller of BBC One in the mid-1980s, told Channel 4 News that he had 'fleetingly' heard rumours about Savile but never heard anything that he thought required investigation. Sir Terry Wogan is reported to have described a conversation about Savile with well-known columnist Jean Rook, in which she asked: When are you going to expose him?' And he replied: 'That's your job' In 2012, when asked by Channel 4 News as to why he never acted on it, he said: 'People would cast aspersions in a general conversation - no-one said 'I know someone who has been attacked by an artist'. 'I never heard anything that gave me cause to think we should investigate or do anything about it. But the entertainment industry is awash on a sea of rumours. 'I wouldn't like anyone to get the idea that in the seventies the people in authority in broadcasting were in any way permissive, or turned a blind eye.' Sir Terry Wogan is reported to have described a conversation about Savile with well-known columnist Jean Rook, in which she asked: When are you going to expose him?' And he replied: 'That's your job'. Sir Terry, who died of cancer aged 77 last month, is reported to have commented to the press: 'And nobody ever did (expose him), even though everybody had heard these rumours.' The review wished to speak to Sir Terry but unfortunately he said he was too busy working on Children in Need. The review then asked him if he could confirm the accuracy of the press report, to which he replied confirming Ms Rook had made the reported remark but his recollection was that he had not replied directly but had only thought to himself 'Surely that's your job'. He added that he knew nothing about Savile apart from a vague rumour, which, he said, tended to be about Savile's sharp commercial practices and his shameless use of charity work for his own greater glory, rather than his sexual behaviour. Andy Kershaw, who became a Radio 1 DJ, first heard rumours and stories about Savile in the early 1980s. He heard from many sources that, in the 1950s and 1960s, Savile had a reputation as a gangland enforcer and would personally use physical violence against anyone who upset those who ran nightclubs and dance halls in Leeds. Tony Brandon (far left) with (from left to right) Jimmy Saville, Tony Blackburn and Terry Wogan receiving their top DJ awards from the Reveille Newspaper When Mr Kershaw joined the BBC he was advised by John Walters, who had in the past produced programmes with Savile, to steer clear of Savile because he was a 'bad lot' and 'nasty piece of work'. Mr Kershaw found that was so. He heard stories relating to Savile's interest in underage girls; for example it was said he had sex with young teenage girls in his campervan. Mr Kershaw added these rumours were rife throughout the entertainment industry and were not limited to the BBC. Andy Kershaw, who became a Radio 1 DJ, first heard rumours and stories about Savile in the early 1980s. He heard from many sources that, in the 1950s and 1960s, Savile had a reputation as a gangland enforcer and would personally use physical violence against anyone who upset those who ran nightclubs and dance halls in Leeds. Mark Lawson told the review of a 'joke' that dated from two decades ago: 'What do Margaret Thatcher and Jimmy Savile have in common? They both screwed the miners/minors.' When Mr Kershaw joined the BBC he was advised by John Walters, who had in the past produced programmes with Savile, to steer clear of Savile because he was a 'bad lot' and 'nasty piece of work'. Mr Kershaw found that was so. He heard stories relating to Savile's interest in underage girls; for example it was said he had sex with young teenage girls in his campervan. Mr Kershaw added these rumours were rife throughout the entertainment industry and were not limited to the BBC. Mark Lawson, the journalist, broadcaster and author, heard rumours about Savile before he joined the BBC and afterwards. Whilst at the BBC, he heard that Savile was a groper and a paedophile. He told the review of a 'joke' that dated from two decades ago: 'What do Margaret Thatcher and Jimmy Savile have in common? They both screwed the miners/minors.' Mr Lawson also saw Savile assault a young woman who was working on BBC Radio 4's Front Row, on which the paedophile appeared in 2006, the report says. He was nearly 80 years old when he discussed the last edition of Top of the Pops on the programme. BBC arts presenter Lawson appeared on Front Row for 16 years before quitting the show after being accused by colleagues of 'horrendous' bullying. Stuart Hall abused 21 victims at the BBC - the youngest of whom was just ten years old - and senior managers KNEW... but told one victim 'you can take a joke' By Anthony Joseph for MailOnline Disgraced presenter Stuart Hall abused 21 victims at the BBC and the youngest was just 10 years old. Staff at BBC Manchester knew the former It's A Knockout host was taking women into his dressing room for sex, although not that some of them were under age, a report by former High Court judge Dame Linda Dobbs found. The report said he had 21 female victims at the BBC, with the youngest aged 10, between 1967 and 1991, but no complaints were passed on to senior management. Fall from grace: The ex-BBC presenter Stuart Hall has spoken out in the first interview since his release from jail in December, after he was charged with abusing 13 girls - one of whom was just nine years old Free man: The 86-year-old even went so far as to describe the people who spoke out against him as 'vindictive' and 'malicious'. He was pictured yesterday enjoying a stroll in Oldham, Greater Manchester However, it emerged that senior managers knew one victim who was told 'you can take a joke'. Hall, now 86, was released in December after serving half of a five-year jail term for historical indecent assaults against girls aged between nine and 17. One BBC manager who 'knew' about Stuart Hall was named in the report as Ray Colley, Regional Television Manager, North West 1970 86. A woman who complained to him about Hall told the inquiry of 'daily sexual harrasment', saying: 'If you were female, at the slightest opportunity he put his arms around you and forced his body against yourshe could stroke your knee or tweak your stocking top, put his hand on your breast or rub your back.' But she said the reaction of Mr Colley, 'who was present during some of the incidents', was: 'Oh, come on, you can take a joke', she said, 'or to say words to the effect of, 'you can handle that, couldn't you, you're a big tough girl'.' Mr Colley, the report said, gave Hall a dressing down about his conduct after the former arrived at BBC Manchester in 1970, suggesting rumours about Hall's sexual activity were circulating even then. However he failed to take any subsequent 'positive steps' to check if Hall was behaving. Hall's wife Hazel (pictured with her husband) has now sold the 1.2million four-bedroom mansion where the couple used to live Summarising Dame Linda's report, Dame Janet Smith said: 'There were concerns that management would not deal with it because of Hall's importance to the success of his shows and his celebrity status; he therefore became 'untouchable'.' The report said people who were interviewed gave various reasons for a failure to report him, including it being nothing to do with them, fears they were too junior to interfere or might lose their job, or that it was up to management to take action. The reports said Hall's actions had to be seen in the context of the behaviour standards of the time, but added: 'It is difficult not to conclude that, in view of the unusual opportunities for the abuse of young girls that some of the BBC's work generated, it should have put in place measures designed to prevent such abuse. 'Whether such measures would have prevented some or all of the especially inappropriate conduct committed by Hall in connection with his work for the BBC is difficult to say. 'It is likely at the very least that they would have prevented those incidents with which the Hall investigation is primarily concerned, namely those which took place on the BBC's premises in Manchester.' The report said young female visitors to BBC Manchester were jokingly referred to as 'Hall's nieces' who had come for 'elocution lessons'. It also referred to Hall's 'laddish sexuality, characterised by risque banter and often unwanted tactility'. The official inquiry also concluded that the BBC must undergo 'self-examination' to ensure Jimmy Savile's 'terrible' reign of abuse. Savile was found to have molested 72 victims as young as eight. Dame Smith controversially said the corporation's failure to stop the monster Jim'll Fix It star was not the fault of senior managers. Her long-awaited review found there was a culture of 'reverence and fear' towards celebrities at the corporation and that 'an atmosphere of fear still exists today in the BBC'. Today, BBC director-general Lord Hall apologised to the victims of Savile and Hall. 'Very difficult': Stuart Hall, pictured left in December near his bail hostel, told inmates before his release that he had no intention of handing back his OBE to the Queen, right, despite his conviction for sex attacks He said: 'The BBC failed you when it should have protected you. I'm deeply sorry for the hurt caused to each and every one of you.' He added that one account of a Savile victim in particular had stuck in his mind. 'One of the survivors was told 'Keep your mouth shut, he's a VIP',' he said. 'This hit me because it made it so very clear that we, the BBC, did that. 'Savile committed his crimes in many places but it was the BBC that made him famous. 'What this terrible episode tells us is that fame is power, a very strong form of power. If you were female, at the slightest opportunity he put his arms around you and forced his body against yourshe could stroke your knee or tweak your stocking top, put his hand on your breast or rub your back A woman who complained about Hall 'And like all power it must be held to account, it must be challenged and it must be scrutinised, and it wasn't.' In June 2013, Hall was jailed for 15 months after he admitted indecently assaulting 13 girls, before the sentence was doubled by the Court of the Appeal, which ruled it was 'inadequate'. Last May he received an additional 30 months in jail - to run consecutively - for two indecent assaults on another girl. Yesterday, Stuart Hall has insisted that he is the victim in his first interview since he was released from jail for abusing 13 girls - one of whom was just nine years old. The disgraced ex-BBC presenter described how going 'from being a national treasure to the bottom of the pond has been very difficult'. The 86-year-old even went so far as to describe the people who spoke out against him as 'vindictive' and 'malicious'. Hall served just half of his five-year jail term. And he was photographed enjoying his freedom yesterday in Oldham, Greater Manchester, near to the bail hostel were he is currently staying. 'I am bearing up. I am living in a vacuum. It's like being in a void,' the It's A Knockout presenter told The Sun in his first interview since his release from prison last December. 'I don't look more than a day ahead. I live one day at a time.' His comments came on the eve of the release of a report into sex crimes at the BBC. Sacked Tony Blackburn claims he has been made a 'scapegoat' by the BBC after being axed on the eve of damning Jimmy Savile sex abuse report By Sam Tonkin and Darren Boyle for MailOnline Tony Blackburn, pictured today, said he has been 'axed' by the BBC after almost 50 years following allegations that he had seduced a 15-year-old girl in 1971, a claim that he has strongly denied Veteran DJ Tony Blackburn last night accused the BBC of making him a 'scapegoat' after he was sacked on the eve of the release of a damning report into the Jimmy Savile sex abuse cover-up. Blackburn, 73, claimed the corporation's Director General Tony Hall decided personally to 'terminate' his contract over the contents of the 10million review by Dame Janet Smith. The Radio 2 star, fired after five decades on the air, is now planning to sue the BBC after saying 'all relationships' he had with the corporation had been 'terminated with immediate effect'. Dame Janet today condemned the BBC for its deferential culture and attitude towards 'untouchable' stars - but cleared management of any wrongdoing despite revealing they were warned of Savile's abuse. Blackburn claims he was sacked because his evidence to Dame Janets review concerning an investigation in 1971 contradicted the BBCs own version of events. He has pledged to take legal action against the corporation for destroying his reputation, claiming the BBC was making him a 'scapegoat' for the 'cover-up' of abuse. The investigation in 1971 followed an allegation of assault made by the mother of a 15-year-old girl, Claire McAlpine, who alleged she was seduced by the DJ as well as several other celebrities. Ms McAlpine took her own life in March 1971 after appearing on Top of the Pops. According to the Smith review, which was published today, Blackburn is referred to as 'A7' and is accused of seducing the young girl, an allegation the DJ strongly denies. Blackburn, who was the first DJ to broadcast on Radio 1 in 1967, says he was never interviewed over the incident but claims the BBC says he was interviewed twice. In a statement released last night, he said the decision to sack him had been taken by BBC Director General Tony Hall. Tony Blackburn, pictured in 1971, has denied allegations he seduced a 15-year-old girl that same year Claire McAlpine, pictured on the set of Top of the Pops took her own life after she claimed she had been abused by BBC stars in 1971. Tony Blackburn said Ms McAlpine had withdrawn any allegation against him Claire McAlpine, pictured left, with Jimmy Savile on Top of the Pops, had written a diary before taking her life He said: 'I am told that the decision was taken personally by the director-general. Quite naturally, I am devastated. 'The reasons for the BBC taking this decision are that my evidence to Dame Janet Smith shows, I believe, that a cover-up took place - one that I had no knowledge of. This goes against what the BBC believe. TONY BLACKBURN'S STATEMENT FOLLOWING HIS AXING BY THE BBC This week, two days before the publication of the Dame Janet Smith Report, the BBC informed me that all relationships I had with them were being terminated with immediate effect. I am told that the decision was taken, personally, by the Director General. Quite naturally, I am devastated. The reasons for the BBC taking this decision are that my evidence to Dame Janet Smith shows, I believe, that a cover up took place - one that I had no knowledge of. This goes against what the BBC believe. In 1971 allegations were made by the mother of a 15 year old girl whose diary apparently contained suggestions that she had been seduced by celebrities including me. I am told that the mother told the BBC, a few weeks after her initial complaint, that her daughter had withdrawn the allegation against me. I have never seen the diary and neither has anyone at the BBC or the Dame Janet Review. That same year this seemingly troubled teenager tragically took her own life. Dame Janets report makes no suggestion that I was guilty 45 years ago of any misconduct whatsoever with this girl. Nor did a Coroners inquest or a subsequent police inquiry into her death. The BBC have made clear that they are not terminating my relationship with them because of any misconduct. They are destroying my career and reputation because my version of events does not tally with theirs. I was not guilty of any inappropriate conduct; my lawyers will take immediate action against anyone suggesting that I was. According to BBC records seen by Dame Janet, I was allegedly interviewed about the girls diary before her death in 1971 by a very senior figure at the BBC, Bill Cotton Jr. I was also, supposedly, interviewed by Brian Neill QC as part of his report in to the Payola scandal at the BBC. I have repeatedly told Dame Janet and the BBC I was never interviewed by either man in this context and the BBC records are either very vague or have, conveniently, disappeared. Regardless of these facts, the BBC is axing me after five decades of broadcasting. Sadly what is happening to me now seems to be entirely in keeping with the past BBC culture of whitewash and cover-up. In 1967, I proudly opened Radio 1 for the BBC. Over the past 49 years I have enjoyed my time working for them immensely and I am grateful to my millions of listeners for their continued support over the decades. Sadly, despite being aware of my evidence for many months, if not years, the BBC have decided to make me a scapegoat and have taken away any future opportunity I have to broadcast for them. Naturally, I am now left with no choice but to take legal action against the BBC. They have taken away a career I love and I will not allow them to destroy my reputation. Advertisement 'In 1971, allegations were made by the mother of a 15-year-old girl whose diary apparently contained suggestions that she had been seduced by celebrities including me. 'I am told that the mother told the BBC, a few weeks after her initial complaint, that her daughter had withdrawn the allegation against me. 'I have never seen the diary and neither has anyone at the BBC or the Dame Janet review. That same year this seemingly troubled teenager tragically took her own life.' According to Blackburn's statement, he claims the Dame Janet report makes no suggestion that he is guilty of any crime or misconduct with the girl. 'Nor did a coroners inquest or a subsequent police inquiry into her death,' he added. 'The BBC have made clear that they are not terminating my relationship with them because of any misconduct. They are destroying my career and reputation because my version of events does not tally with theirs. 'I was not guilty of any inappropriate conduct; my lawyers will take immediate action against anyone suggesting that I was. 'According to BBC records seen by Dame Janet, I was allegedly interviewed about the girls diary before her death in 1971 by a very senior figure at the BBC, Bill Cotton Jr. 'I was also, supposedly, interviewed by Brian Neill QC as part of his report into the Payola scandal at the BBC. 'I have repeatedly told Dame Janet and the BBC I was never interviewed by either man in this context and the BBC records are either very vague or have, conveniently, disappeared. 'Regardless of these facts, the BBC is axing me after five decades of broadcasting. 'Sadly, what is happening to me now seems to be entirely in keeping with the past BBC culture of whitewash and cover-up. 'In 1967, I proudly opened Radio 1 for the BBC. Over the past 49 years I have enjoyed my time working for them immensely and I am grateful to my millions of listeners for their continued support over the decades. 'Sadly, despite being aware of my evidence for many months, if not years, the BBC have decided to make me a scapegoat and have taken away any future opportunity I have to broadcast for them. 'Naturally, I am now left with no choice but to take legal action against the BBC. They have taken away a career I love and I will not allow them to destroy my reputation.' The Dame Janet report accused the BBC of covering up allegations concerning Blackburn from 1971. The former Court of Appeal judge's team interviewed Blackburn in 2013 where he denied ever being questioned about the allegation. However, Dame Janet said: 'For my part, I am satisfied that an investigation did take place, which comprised an interview with A7 at which he denied the allegations.' Sir Brian Neill, QC who conducted the 1971 review said: 'Mr A7 told me the girl had come to see him on several occasions and had invented stories for the purpose of getting access to him. 'He said she seemed to him in a sort of fantasy world but that she had not made any sexual advances of any kind.' Road rage rarely goes beyond shouting and swearing, but one HGV driver was so irate he climbed out of his lorry and tried to attack another driver. The shocking incident was caught on dashcam from what is believed to be a van. The vehicle filming was driving towards a far right M6 toll booth when a large red lorry from Clitheroe-based T & J Haulage crossed over several lanes in an attempt to enter the same one. Extreme road rage pon dashcam: The vehicle filming was driving towards a far right M6 toll booth when a large red lorry from Clitheroe-based T & J Haulage crossed over several lanes in an attempt to enter the same one 'Where the f***ing hell you going?' the van driver can be heard shouting as he speeds up to avoid collision, thereby getting to the tollbooth first. However, as the van approaches a junction afterwards the lorry suddenly pulls out in front him and blocks his way. The raging lorry driver climbs out - first stopping to put his shoes on properly - and storms towards the van. The footage captures him banging angrily on the door and swearing as he tries to get in before breaking the windscreen wipers. The van driver, who posted the clip on Idiot UK Drivers Exposed is now calling for the man to be sacked following his shocking behaviour. He wrote online: 'As i went up the slip road for the toll TAG lane i had my right hand indicator on to move over to the far right hand lane 'As i looked back this idiot was indicating as i was right on top of him i could not stop which he was aggrieved about and blasted his horn and as you will see in the video the rest is history. Revenge: As the van approaches a junction afterwards the lorry suddenly pulls out in front him and blocks his way Confrontation: The raging lorry driver climbs out Hang on: He stops to make sure his shoes are on properly first 'I did reported it to Staffordshire police who told me Greater Manchester Police would have to take a statement as i live in Manchester but, that was two weeks ago so this is why the video is now on here. 'If the driver new he was in the wrong lane he could of gone to any of the toll booths and pressed the intercom and told the operator the number on his tag' (sic). Most online commentators also blame the lorry - 'A master c**kwomble in his natural habitat. Just because you are indicating and driving a huge heavy vehicle, does not mean you have right of way! Bully boy, plain and simple.' Another writes: 'If you need to get out of your vehicle at any time ever...... for whatever reason.... to have a rant at anther driver...... being out in public is not for you. ' But a few do criticise the van filming: 'Right so you were behind him. You had a toll coming up and you floored it. You were playing the have to beat the lorry game. So sorry. No bloody sympathy.' The identity of the two drivers is not known. Now look here: The lorry driver storms towards the van. The footage captures him banging angrily on the door and swearing The initiative aims to help make schools more A real estate agent who calls homosexuality a 'mental illness' and blasts gay parents for bring their children up in a 'perverted' environment has been slammed for his 'homophobic' comments. Denis Mulheron, owner of Sunstate Property Group, sent a hate-filled email about the Safe Schools program to Age reporter Jill Stark who recently wrote an article about the initiative - which hopes to help make schools a safer for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex students The controversial comments made by the Gold Coast agent, who made several inappropriate remarks protesting against 'poofterism', were made public when Ms Stark posted them on Twitter. Do you not inderstand[sic] this is how poofters and dykes kept bringing vunarable[sic] young children into their unnatural perverted way of life,' he wrote signing off with a Sunstate Property signature. Scroll down for video Denis Mulheron - owner of Sunstate Property Group - sent a hate-filled email about the Safe Schools program to Age reporter Jill Stark The controversial comments made by the Gold Coast agent, who made several inappropriate remarks protesting against 'poofterism', were made public when Ms Stark posted them on Twitter 'They should seek a cure for their mental illness poofterism should still be illegal a man sticks his dick in another mans ass[sic].' The post, littered with spelling mistakes, goes on to condemn a 'movement to make out pooferism[sic] is normal' and implores the community to revert back to traditional family values. Fergus Hunter, political reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald, responded to Ms Stark stating that he had also received an email from Mr Muleron whose homophobic correspondence boldly calls for genocide. You see the problem is faggots are trying to force their unnatural perverted lifestyle on to normal people by indoctrinating vunarable[sic] same as the disgusting medibank add[sic] showing dykes and poofs kissing. Ms Stark made the shocking comments public - asking how many people would support his business given his views on homosexuality Fergus Hunter, political reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald, responded to Ms Stark stating that he had also received an email from Mr Muleron whose homophobic correspondence boldly calls for genocide The Safe Schools program aims to help make schools a safer for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex students He then goes on to assert that AH, which some Twitter users suggests refers to Adolf Hilter, had the right idea and that we should kill them before back tracking and saying they should instead be forced to seek a cure. The bizarre email has been condemned online, with Sunstate Property Group's Facebook and website temporarily shut down after they were inundated by users disgusted by the 'hateful and homophobic' rant. 'Denis Mulheron Sunstate Real Estate: Talented in the art of homophobic/Islamophobic hate mail. Great advertising!' one woman posted on Twitter. 'This man Denis Mulheron needs to seek urgent medical help. He's clearly insane,' posted another. Jason Chapman questioned why Mr Muleron, who has been in property for over 40 years, would destroy their business and reputation to simply 'spew vile hate'. 'In the age of social media unacceptable hate finally has consequences,' Mr Chapman wrote on Facebook. While others urged those disturbed by the email to 'swing by and leave an inquiry' on Sunstate's website. Others urged those disturbed by the email to 'swing by and leave an inquiry' on Sunstate's website Mr Muleron (pictured left) said he stood by his comments and that he was not concerned about the online backlash Mr Muleron told Newscorp that he stood by his comments and that he was not concerned about the online backlash for Sunstate as he had sold the Gold Coast company and would be 'out of there in ten days'. Daily Mail Australia have contacted Mr Mulheron for comment. This comes as Bill Shorten and Liberal senator Cory Bernardi shared a testy corridor exchange with in Parliament House after the Opposition Leader railed against Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's decision to review the Safe Schools Program at a press conference. 'At least I'm honest, Bill. You're a fraud!' Mr Bernardi said interrupted Mr Shorten. 'At least I'm not a homophobe either, mate,' the Labor leader said in return. Earlier, Mr Bernardi had reportedly warned the Liberal party room the Safe Schools program should not be taxpayer funded. According to a Fairfax report, he said the program could 'indoctrinate children into a Marxist agenda of cultural relativism'. A street performer dressed a Batman has been arrested in Times Square after he was accused snatching $50 out of a tourist's hand and running away. The character had been posing with two visitors on Broadway near 44th Street at 8.30pm last night when he allegedly grabbed the cash and made a run for it. However, he was caught a short time later and detained by the NYPD and taken into custody. A street performer dressed a Batman has been arrested in Times Square after snatching $50 out of a tourist's hand and running away Pictures then surfaced on social media showing the moment the actor was handcuffed and led the police car. A Better Times Square Twitter account wrote: 'A dark night for Gotham when fake batman is led away in cuffs.' According to the New York Post, the man is now awaiting charges. The incident is the latest in a string of arrests by police on the costumed characters in Times Square. City officials say they had to take action after physical attacks on some visitors, including children. The incident is the latest in a string of arrests by police on the costumed characters in Times Square, pictured The unruliness peaked last month when a Spider-Man was accused of punching a police officer for telling a woman the character could not force her to pay up. The new crackdown is in response to tourists often feel pressured to tip anything from $5 to $20 (3 to 12) after getting a photograph. In the last three years, a man dressed as Cookie Monster was charged with shoving a two-year-old, a person attired in Super Mario's overalls was accused of groping a woman, and an Elmo figure pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after unleashing an anti-Semitic tirade. New York City Council said it was considering legislation to regulate costumed characters in the tourist hotspot Meanwhile last year a video emerged of a tussle between a costumed Spider-Man and another man in Times Square. New York City Council said it was considering legislation to regulate costumed characters in the tourist hotspot. Advertisement An intrepid photographer has sailed across the world's most dangerous sea to Antarctica to capture the beauty and wilderness of the White Continent. Massimo Rumi, from Reggio in Italy, photographed icebergs, penguins and the remote polar landscape during a three week sailing expedition at the end of last year. 'Antarctica switched off completely the noise in my mind and I could feel every moment with overwhelming intensity,' Mr Rumi said. Massimo Rumi, from Reggio in Italy, sailed across the world's most dangerous sea to Antarctica to capture the beauty and wilderness of the White Continent Gorgeous sunsets and endless sunlight: Mr Rumi photographed icebergs, penguins and the remote polar landscape during a three week sailing expedition at the end of last year The Sydney-based photographer fulfilled a lifelong dream by visiting Antarctica on the nine-man, 50ft sailing yacht. 'I had been to more than 100 countries but what I was really missing was a remote and almost unexplored place, where you can experience true isolation, where everything is untouched and unique and I immediately thought of Antarctica,' he said. 'I did some research, looking for something different than the big cruise-ships where you find yourself with hundreds of people and you do not have much flexibility and freedom of movement.' He then found a photographer who was organising a photo tour on board a small sailing yacht for only nine people, including the crew. The view on the sailing yacht which Massimo and eight others slept in for three weeks, taken in November- December 2015 in Antarctica Mr Rumi captures on camera three Gentoo penguins in their natural habitat Mr Rumi was the only passenger who managed to avoid motion sickness during the crossing of the Drake Passage - deemed 'the world's most dangerous sea'. 'But being claustrophobic I did struggle to sleep in the bunk,' he said. 'It took me some time to adapt to the small confined place of a sail boat as my only sailing experience was in larger boats, in warm weather, and for only few days. 'In this situation we were nine people, in freezing cold weather, with no shower for three weeks, with almost 20 hours of sunlight, strong winds and big waves.' Mr Rumi said that no photographs can prepare the mind for the spectacle of seeing an iceberg for the first time The Sydney-based photographer fulfilled a lifelong dream by visiting Antarctica on the nine-man, 50ft sailing yacht Antarctica has never been permanently occupied by man and is only accessible from November to March. It has no towns, no villages, no habitation - bar the odd research station. 'Every single day was overwhelming. The mindfulness I have experienced in Antarctica was nothing like any other trip in my life,' Mr Rumi said. 'I guess our mind is not prepared for what you see there. It has a way of changing you. It's a place of incredible beauty and teeming wildlife. Electric blue to dazzling white, the icebergs come sculpted by the sea and the sun into an amazing variety of shapes Mr Rumi captures a stunning image as the sunsets over the icy waters of Antarctica 'A special moment was when we crossed the Polar Front and we started to see our first icebergs. No photographs can prepare the mind for this spectacle. 'Electric blue to dazzling white, the icebergs come sculpted by the sea and the sun into an amazing variety of shapes.' With temperatures dipping to a -10 degrees celsius even during Antarctica's summer season, Mr Rumi's main concern was having equipment capable of withstanding the harsh conditions. Mr Rumi said the Gentoo penguins were friendly and inquisitive. He pictured them in the glistening sunlight With its disorientating conditions of endless daylight and dizzying blizzards, Antarctica remains one of the least known and yet most intriguing destinations in the world 'As a photographer my main worry was about having the right photo equipment with plenty of memory cards and batteries, and more than one camera body. 'You don't want to take any risks when you go on a once in a lifetime trip. 'I took with me three camera bodies and unfortunately on my first landing my Canon 70-200 lens fell off a rock and I could not use it anymore. It was the only tele lens I had with me. 'What started off as a disaster ended up actually being a good thing. I was able to take more intimate and closer shots of the wildlife and I was able to capture the mood and atmosphere of Antarctica.' To see more of Mr Rumi's Antarctic adventures, visit his website. Despite the stunning scenery, Mr Rumi had to endure freezing cold weather, with no shower for three weeks, with almost 20 hours of sunlight, strong winds and big waves Mr Rumi was the only passenger who managed to avoid motion sickness during the crossing of the Drake Passage - deemed 'the world's most dangerous sea' March of the penguins: He pictured Gentoo penguins climbing to the top of a slope in Antarctica Massimo's images show a journey at the bottom of the Earth, in one of the last true wilderness areas in the world, largely unchanged since the early explorers The series of stunning images were taken by professional photographer, Massimo Rumi during a three week sailing expedition Mr Rumi wraps up warm in winter clothing as he takes pictures of his surroundings This frozen continent at the end of the Earth has never been permanently occupied by man and is only accessible from November to March Penguins atop of an iceberg A baby penguin stands alone as Rumi takes his picture with the sun setting behind Having travelled to over a hundred countries, the explorer realised that he had never visited a remote place and this led to his research for a trip to Antarctica A giant, lone iceberg floating in the Antarctic ocean with electric blue and pure white tones A colony of penguins: Mr Rumi travelled across the world's most dangerous sea, the Drake Passage 'A special moment was when we crossed the Polar Front and we started to see our first icebergs. No photographs can prepare the mind for this spectacle' Denmark's first ever surplus food supermarket has opened in Copenhagen where shoppers can buy discounted items once destined for the rubbish bin. Aiming to help tackle the country's food wastage problems, WeFood began trading three days ago, selling damaged or expired goods for up to 50 per cent less than other stores. The initiative, launched by the the NGO Folkekirkens Nodhjaelp, has been welcomed by business leaders, politicians and even the royal family. Princess Mary of Denmark is pictured at the launch of the WeFood supermarket in Copenhagen on Monday The business was formed a year-and-a-half ago but only became a reality after being financed by a crowdfunding project that raised 106,000 Princess Mary even inaugurated the business during its opening event and was pictured being welcomed to the store by staff members. Managed by volunteers, the business was formed a year-and-a-half ago but only became a reality after being financed by a huge crowdfunding project that raised 106,000. Per Bjerre, from Folkekirkens Nodhjaelp, said: 'WeFood is the first supermarket of its kind in Denmark and perhaps the world as it is not just aimed at low-income shoppers but anyone who is concerned about the amount of food waste produced in this country. He added: 'Many people see this as a positive and politically correct way to approach the issue,' The Independent reported. According to RT, Eva Kjer Hansen, the Danish food minister, also praised the initiative. 'It's ridiculous that food is just thrown out or goes to waste. It is bad for the environment and it is money spent on absolutely nothing. Jeremy Corbyn (pictured at a previous Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament rally) was condemned by his own MPs for deciding to share a platform with political rivals on Saturday while the rest of the party campaigns for Britain to stay in the EU Labour MPs have been ordered to join a 'national campaign day' for Britain to stay in the EU on Saturday, but Jeremy Corbyn has chosen to speak at a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) rally instead. It has caused fury within the party, with MPs slamming the Labour leader for the 'barmy' decision to speak alongside Labour's left-wing rivals - including SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Plaid Cymru's Leanne Wood and the Green party's Caroline Lucas - at the Stop Trident demo. Michael Dugher, who was sacked by Mr Corbyn last month, condemned him for campaigning against official Labour party policy to scrap Britain's nuclear deterrent on the same day as the rest of the party was being instructed to campaign on Europe. 'This weekend's #StopTrident demo might more accurately be called #StopLabourPartyPolicy,' he wrote in a scathing article for The Times' Red Box website. Other internal critics hit out at Mr Corbyn for distracting the public's attention away from its pro-EU stance and again highlighting the party's damaging internal divisions. John Woodcock told MailOnline: 'Aside from being another sign that the 'open minded' review of defence policy is nothing of the sort, Jeremy's choice to speak at the CND rally just ensures another weekend of public focus on Labour's divisions over a policy we can't change when we should be holding the government to account and making the case to remain in the European Union.' Local Labour parties have sent out instructions to members on how to campaign for Britain to stay in the EU, setting out a six-point plan to sell to voters on the doorstep - from claims that the EU saves the average familiy 450 a year at the checkout to claims that 'millions of British jobs are linked to Europe'. Last night Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson took the extraordinary step to urge David Cameron to call a vote on Trident as soon as possible and before the Labour leadership has time to change party policy on the issue. Currently the party's policy is officially to support the renewal of Britain's nuclear deterrent and it survived an attempt by the leader to change the policy at the Labour party conference last autumn. Michael Dugher (left) described Jeremy Corbyn's decision to attend the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament rally at the same time as other Labour MPs are being told to campaign for the EU as 'political sadomasochism' while deputy leader Tom Watson (right) has urged David Cameron to call a vote on Trident before Mr Corbyn has time to change Labour party policy on the issue A Huntingdon Labour party leaflet instructs members how to campaign in the EU referendum The leadership wants to change the party's policy in time for the upcoming vote in the House of Commons on renewing the four submarines that carry the Trident warheads, which is estimated to cost 31billion. Speaking at a trade union event last night, Mr Watson revealed that he had told the Prime Minister that he and many Labour colleagues would support a Commons vote on renewing Trident. FORMER LABOUR FOREIGN SECRETARY BACKS BREXIT Lord Owen (pictured) is the most senior Left-winger yet to back Brexit after declaring Britain should leave the EU Lord Owen has declared that Britain should leave the 'dysfunctional' European Union. The SDP founder and former Labour foreign secretary said it was 'dangerous for British security'. In a bombshell new book, he slams David Cameron's 'failed' negotiations' and the lack of concessions on free movement, saying he is now convinced the public should vote to leave. 'To remain in the EU is in my judgment a more dangerous option for British security in its deepest sense economic, political, military and social than is being admitted or even discussed in the wake of Cameron's failed negotiations', he writes. 'Europe has moved away from us. Its elite chose a different path long ago and it is not a path the UK ever wished to follow.' Lord Owen is the most senior Left-wing figure yet to back Brexit. The peer, foreign minister from 1977-79, was once deeply pro-European. He later formed the SDP, partly over Labour's decision to support withdrawal from the former European Economic Community. The 77-year-old, who has joined Vote Leave, warns that the EU wants its own defence policy, which he says would be a major threat to Nato. He partly blames 'foolish' EU decisions for triggering the Russian conflict with Ukraine and criticised the 'inexplicable' decision to speed up Turkey's EU membership. 'To tie ourselves to a flawed and dysfunctional structure when we can face the challenge and capture the opportunity of world markets outside makes no sense at all,' he told The Sun. Advertisement 'You may have read that this view is not shared by all our MPs. But I have made it clear to David Cameron that if he honours his promise of a vote on Trident I will support it,' he told an audience in London. 'There are enough Labour MPs to guarantee that the vote is won. I know the PM is currently pre-occupied with the European Referendum but I happen to believe that the sooner this vote is tabled, the greater certainty we can give to industry, our allies and our enemies, that British Industry will deliver the Trident project in good time.' Mr Corbyn will rush back from the Yorkshire and Humber regional Labour conference to speak at Saturday's rally, which is being organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. More than 9,000 people are expected to attend the event, which starts at midday from Hyde Park and will end in Trafalgar Square. Responding to criticism from Labour MPs to the decision to attend Saturday's rally, Mr Corbyn's spokesman said: 'Part of his mandate in the leadership election was his stance against Trident. 'He got an overwhelming mandate for that and he's entitled to express his views.' But Mr Dugher described the decision to attend the Stop Trident vote as an act of 'political sadomasochism,' pointing to polls showing that the public backed renewing the nuclear deterrent. 'For Jeremy to share a platform with many of Labour's political opponents including from the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens and denounce what is still Labour party policy is quite frankly barmy' he wrote on the Red Box website. 'We could and should be spending this weekend attacking the Tories. There's plenty of issues to choose from: worries about the economy, attacks on disabled people, the crisis in the NHS, or the fact the Tories are tearing each other apart on Europe. 'But, alas, no. This weekend is an opportunity for Labour to take a penalty into what looks like a gaping, open Tory goal. Instead, we will conspire (once again) to boot the ball firmly into the back of our own net.' It comes as Labour's former foreign secretary Lord Owen became the most Left-wing figure yet to back Brexit, declaring that Britain should leave the 'dysfunctional' EU, which was 'dangerous for British security'. In a bombshell new book, he slams David Cameron's 'failed' negotiations' and the lack of concessions on free movement, saying he is now convinced the public should vote to leave. 'To remain in the EU is in my judgment a more dangerous option for British security in its deepest sense economic, political, military and social than is being admitted or even discussed in the wake of Cameron's failed negotiations', he writes. 'Europe has moved away from us. Its elite chose a different path long ago and it is not a path the UK ever wished to follow.' The peer, foreign minister from 1977-79, was once deeply pro-European. He later formed the SDP, partly over Labour's decision to support withdrawal from the former European Economic Community. The 77-year-old, who has joined Vote Leave, warns that the EU wants its own defence policy, which he says would be a major threat to Nato. Jeremy Corbyn wants to change Labour's pro-Trident policy in time for the upcoming vote in the House of Commons on renewing the four submarines that carry the Trident warheads (one of which is pictured docked in Faslane, Scotland Earlier this week Ms Thornberry caused jitters in her party and army chiefs by refusing to commit Labour to spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence. She backed a future defence policy increasingly based on capabilities dubbed 'geeks, spooks and thugs' - cyber experts, spies and special forces - as she questioned whether nuclear submarines would provide long-term value for money. Ms Thornberry condemned cuts to the Army as a result of the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), claiming it was now 'at its smallest size since the Napoleonic wars', while the Royal Navy's fleet had been reduced and the RAF was relying on 40-year-old Tornados. But asked whether her policy review would include the commitment to meeting the Nato target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence, she said: 'I can't say at the moment, I'm afraid. Also, a big question is what do you include in the 2 per cent?' Ms Thornberry also outraged MPs in her party earlier this month when she compared Britain's state-of-the-art nuclear deterrent to World War Two spitfires. Tear gas and police baton charges were used to stop more than 1000 migrants trying to get into Britain via the Channel Tunnel today. The vast crowd of would-be asylum seekers congregated in Calais just days before a large part of their illegal 'Jungle' camp is due to be destroyed. 'We are absolutely desperate, and need to get to England as quickly as possible,' said Khalid Zahir, a 22-year-old from Afghanistan who was among the group. Scroll down for video Tear gas and police baton charges were used to stop more than 1000 migrants trying to get into Britain via the Channel Tunnel today The migrants set off from Calais at around 9pm on Wednesday, and by midnight many were close to the undersea link at Coquelles A spokesman for Calais police confirmed that riot control measures were used to keep the group back 'If we don't get across to England shortly then we fear that we will be moved out of Calais completely.' They set off from the town centre at around 9pm on Wednesday, and by midnight many were close to the undersea link at Coquelles. 'Riot control measures were used to keep them back,' said a spokesman for Calais police. 'There were no recorded incursions into the tunnel. Members of the group were dispersed from the area in the early hours of the morning.' Gilles Debove, a police trade unionist spokesman, said: 'Everything went calmly. We escorted the immigrants to stop the kind of trouble that we have seen in the town before.' There are currently some 5,000 refugees sleeping rough in the Calais area, as they try to get to Britain to claim asylum. The vast majority live in the Jungle, on the outskirts of the port town, but a French judge is preparing to give the green light for part of it to be demolished. The vast crowd of would-be asylum seekers made a desperate bid to reach Britain before a large part of their illegal 'Jungle' camp is destroyed Gilles Debove, a police trade unionist spokesman, said the immigrants were escroted to stop the kind of trouble that has been seen in the town before Police said there were no recorded incursions into the tunnel as the group was dispersed from the area in the early hours of the morning The Help Refugees charity said there were 3,455 people living in the affected part of the Jungle who faced being 'evicted from their homes in the midst of winter, without sufficient alternative accommodation on offer'. A spokeswoman said: 'Our concerns remain with welfare of the unaccompanied minors. 'We have had no assurances from the French authorities that they will conduct assessments to determine best interests of these children and ensure proper safeguarding is in place before removing them from the camp and the communities they know and trust. 'We urge them to delay the demolition of the southern section of the camp until these needs are met... our concerns will be heard at the court in Lille.' French CRS anti-riot police officers pictured patrolling the Jungle migrant camp in Calais on Sunday There are currently some 5,000 refugees sleeping rough in the Calais area, as they try to get to Britain to claim asylum The Help Refugees charity said there were 3,455 people living in the affected part of the Jungle who faced being 'evicted from their homes in the midst of winter, without sufficient alternative accommodation on offer' French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the eviction would be done 'progressively, by persuasion and with respect for people's dignity'. The evicted migrants have been offered heated accommodation in refitted containers set up next door to the Jungle. But many are reluctant to move there because they lack any communal spaces and movement is restricted. A toddler was repeatedly beaten and sexually abused by his babysitter before she was caught on camera slamming his lifeless body to the ground, a court has heard. Gloria Fields, 31, from Staten Island, New York, is in custody after Anthony Delgado died hours after being in her care on Sunday. The youngster's mother Marta Delgado, 25, left the toddler with Fields - who lived a floor above her in the same building - for two days so she could move to a new apartment. Scroll down for video Anthony Delgado, aged 16 months, left, who died after being left in the care of neighbour Gloria Fields, right Just hours after leaving her son, she got a text from Fields saying the child had fallen while out in Manhattan. When Anthony returned to his mother's house, he was found unconscious and died just an hour later. NBC New York reported how at an arraignment hearing for Fields, the family of the 16-month-old gasped in horror and shrieked uncontrollably after hearing details of the brutal abuse he endured. According to prosecutors, Fields beat the child, breaking his collarbone before sexually abusing him. She also slammed his body to the ground and was seen carrying the boy's limp body around the city while smoking a cigarette. The youngster's mother Marta Delgado, 25, left the toddler with Fields - who lived a floor above her in the same building - for two days so she could move to a new apartment Richmond County District Attorney Michael Mahon told the hearing: 'No creature on this earth, let alone an innocent child, deserves to undergo such horrific torment. 'I want to thank the NYPD for their efforts in investigating this case and I want to ensure the public that my office intends to aggressively prosecute this atrocious crime.' According to sources, surveillance footage filmed earlier that night captured Fields carrying the baby upstairs to Delgados apartment. Then it shows Anthonys grandmother chasing her down the stairs. However it is not known why. Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told the New York Daily News that Anthony had 'bruises on his face.' Neighbors in the building where Anthony was killed said he was a sweet toddler who had caring parents Dr. Barbara Sampson, New York's Chief Medical Examiner, rule the cause of death was blunt force injuries to the head and torso Fields has been charged with murder, aggravated sexual assault and seven counts of assault. Neighbors in the Staten Island building where they lived said Anthony was a sweet toddler who had good parents. Samantha Liebman told 1010 WINS : 'Theyre good people, and theyre responsible with the kids.' Manny Rivera, 50, who visited the building to drop off flowers at the grandmother's apartment, told the Daily News: 'I've known them for a lot of years. This is the heart-in-mouth moment in which a state trooper and another highway motorist had an incredibly close call with a semi truck. The shocking footage, taken from a camera mounted onto the dashboard of a police car, shows a trooper walking back to his cruiser having stopped a woman on the highway. After getting back into his car, the trooper watches on as the driver of the BMW in front indicates left and begins to pull back into Interstate 70. The shocking footage, taken from a camera mounted onto the dashboard of a police car, shows a trooper walking back to his cruiser having stopped a woman on the highway After getting back into his car, the trooper watches on as the driver of the BMW in front indicates left and begins to pull back into the road, shown above Suddenly, a semi truck comes blaring into view, clipping the trooper's car and narrowly missing the BMW in front, which was seconds from merging into the same lane as the truck. A spotlight mounted to the side of the cruiser is then seen bouncing onto the hood of the car before coming to a rest, having been smashed off by the passing truck. The trooper can be heard to audibly exhale his frustration at the close call, while the driver in front gets out of her vehicle and begins to run over to the patrol car, before the footage ends. The semi truck can then be seen roaring into view, forcing the car in front to slam on the brakes As the truck passes it clips the trooper's car and narrowly missing the BMW in front, which was seconds from merging into the same lane as the truck The video, from the Missouri State Highway Patrol, has been used as a warning to remind motorists to slow down or move over when passing vehicles on the side of the highway. It was tweeted by @MSHPTrooperGHQ, the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Twitter page, as part of a drive to make motorists aware of the laws surrounding passing vehicles which are stationary. The tweet containing a link to the video read: 'In-car video of a patrol car getting sideswiped. #MoveOverSlowDown' The same account also sent out another tweet saying 'Two different incidents, same story. Side-swiped while stopped on the side of the road #MoveOverSlowDown #ItsTheLaw' A spotlight mounted to the side of the cruiser is then seen bouncing onto the hood of the car before coming to a rest, having been smashed off by the passing truck But repeatedly ruled out because he was never thought to have an STD He has always been suspected as perhaps being famous London killer with his doctor reveals side effects and his need for pills Prince Albert Victor (pictured), who was Queen Victoria's grandson, was identified many years ago as potentially being the mystery man behind the Whitechapel murders A member of the Royal Family who was once suspected to be Jack the Ripper was driven to kill by a sexually transmitted disease that sent him mad, newly found letters claim. Prince Albert Victor, who was Queen Victoria's grandson, was identified many years ago as potentially being the mystery man behind the Whitechapel murders. Now freshly discovered letters claim he turned to killing after contracting syphilis from a prostitute and going insane. The Prince's involvement in the murders has been routinely debunked due to a lack of evidence that showed he ever had the STD. But two confidential letters sent by the prince - the Duke of Clarence and Avondale - to his surgeon show he was suffering badly from gonorrhoea, most likely caught from a prostitute. The first letter was written while he was training to be an army officer in 1885 while the second was written on Sandringham-headed notepaper over a year later. He describes suffering from 'glete', a term used to describe the discharge caused by gonorrhoea, in the mornings. The Prince, who was the son of King Edward VII and was once second in line to the throne, wrote to the surgeon: 'I have taken those capsules regularly, four a day. 'There is still a slight sign of glete, but so slight, that it is hardly percep[tive] and only when I get up of a morning.' In the second letter, he asked his surgeon - named only as Roche - to send him more pills. He wrote: 'I think I had better go on taking them for a bit. I still continue to have this tiresome glete which comes on at times, although at present it has stopped.' Freshly discovered letters claim he turned to killing after contracting syphilis from a prostitute and going insane. The first letter was written while he was training to be an army officer in 1885 He describes suffering from 'glete', a term used to describe the discharge caused by gonorrhoea, writing: 'I have taken those capsules regularly, four a day. There is still a slight sign of glete, but so slight, that it is hardly percep[tive] and only when I get up of a morning' He added: 'It is very anoying (sic) as I really thought it had stopped for good. I am perfectly well in every other respect, and really do not see why this should go on as it does.' The two letters have been owned by a British collector of royal correspondence for over 20 years and are now being sold by International Autograph Auctions with a pre-sale estimate of 3,000. The fact that such a senior member of the Royal Family had an STD would be regarded as a scandal today - but the Jack the Ripper connection makes this tale even more salacious. Richard Davie, of Nottingham-based IAA, said the letters lend weight to the suggestion Prince Albert (pictured) was a suspect Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who brutally murdered at least five ladies of the night in London's East End in 1888. The mystery has led to numerous theories as to the true identity of the killer and spawned countless books, TV documentaries and films, including the 2001 Johnny Depp movie 'From Hell' which implicated the prince. The royal, known as Eddy, was first implicated in the Ripper killings in 1970 by the British Physician Dr Thomas Stowell. He sensationally claimed the STD drove the prince insane and compelled him to commit the murders. He also claimed the Royal Family knew he was responsible for at least two of the murders. Dr Stowell suggested he had either possessed or had seen evidence to back up this theory 80 years before and appeared on a BBC current affairs programme discussing it. In his 1972 book that explored the prospect of Prince Albert being the Ripper, the crime writer Michael Harrison stated there was not 'the slightest evidence' the royal had had syphilis. Despite this, his name will seemingly continue to be linked with enthusiasts for years to come. Richard Davie, of Nottingham-based IAA, said that although the two letters hardly constituted new evidence in the Ripper investigation, they do lend weight to the suggestion Prince Albert was a suspect. He said: 'These must be the first documents ever to reveal a member of the Royal Family had contracted a sexually transmitted disease, most probably from a prostitute. 'This would today be regarded as a scandal worthy of tabloid newspaper coverage. In the second letter, he asked his surgeon - named only as Roche - to send him more pills. He wrote: 'I think I had better go on taking them for a bit. I still continue to have this tiresome glete which comes on at times, although at present it has stopped' He added: 'It is very anoying (sic) as I really thought it had stopped for good. I am perfectly well in every other respect, and really do not see why this should go on as it does' 'But when you add in the mystery and intrigue surrounding Prince Albert Victor's connection with the Jack the Ripper enquiry then these letters become even more significant and interesting. 'I'm no legal expert, but a written document that would appear to back up a motive for a murder suspect would be worthy of closer scrutiny by investigating police officers today. 'It makes you wonder what the likes of Frederick Abberline and his team of detectives working on the Jack the Ripper case at the time would have made of these letters.' However, a Jack the Ripper expert today rubbished the prospect that these letters proved Prince Albert Victor, who was known as Eddy, was the ripper. Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who brutally murdered at least five ladies of the night in London's East End in 1888. The mystery has led to numerous theories as to the true identity of the killer and spawned countless books, TV documentaries and films Dr Jan Bonderson, a crime historian and author of the 2013 book 'The True History of Jack the Ripper', said: 'Prince Albert Victor was implicated in the Ripper murders and has been regarded as a suspect but that has been discarded. 'He didn't fit the description for Jack who was meant to have been an ordinary Joe, not a member of the aristocracy. 'Besides, Prince Albert was in Scotland at the time of one of the murders. 'OK, so he had gonorrhoea at the time but so did most men who visited prostitutes. A man who has been to five different courts and racked up a $100,000 legal bill over a $250 speeding fine said that after a four year battle he still won't rest until 'justice' is served. Mustafa Al Shakarji, from Townsville, Queensland was pulled over and fined $250 for speeding in March 2012 after a police radar allegedly detected him doing 28 kilometres over the speed limit. But the pharmacist, who secretly recorded the officer who booked him, is adamant he was not speeding and is determined to prove the authorities wrong. Scroll down for video Mustafa Al Shakarji has been to five different courts and racked up a $100,000 legal bill over a $250 speeding fine said that after four year battle he still won't rest until 'justice' is served The pharmacist was pulled over and fined $250 for speeding in March 2012 after a police radar detected him doing 28 kilometres over the speed limit Mr Al Shakarji, who immigrated to Australia from Iraq in 2002, first appealed the fine in the Magistrates Court and when he lost he then took the case to the District Court. The back and forth between him and police has continued ever since, accumulating a legal bill that is estimated to exceed $100,000, A Current Affair reported. Now, after going through five different courts and losing a final appeal the determined driver said he will be the first person to take a speeding fine all the way to Australia's High Court. Mr Al Shakarji found an expert who argues that the radar device which caught him doing 88 kilometres per hour in a 60 zone - should not have been used in such a 'built up area' as it can cause discrepancies in the reading. Radar consultant Roy Zegers also argues that the device was incorrectly attached to the steering wheel column and not the dashboard which could have affected its precision. After going through five different courts and losing a final appeal the determined driver said he will be the first person to take a speeding fine all the way to Australia's High Court Mr Al Shakarji found an expert who argues that the radar device which caught him doing 88 kilometres per hour in a 60 zone - should not have been used in such a 'built up area' Mr Al Shakarji secretly recorded the officer who booked me as a police dash camera also collected evidence The officer argued that Mr Al Shakarji had been exceeding the speed limit in a 60 kilometre zone Radar consultant Roy Zegers also argues that the device was incorrectly attached to the steering wheel column and not the dashboard which could have affected its precision 'The whole operation by the operator of the device comes into question because you are now using a device outside the guidelines,' radar consultant Roy Zegers told A Current Affair. Despite representing himself, Mr Al Shakarji, who was not at risk of losing his licence over the infringement, has estimated the legal battle to cost around $20,000. However, Mr Zegers thinks that once the costs incurred to the Crown are taken into consideration the bill will be closer to $100,000. That figure may deter some, but Mr Al Shakarji said the case is now a matter of principal and that he does not intend to let it go until he believes 'justice' is served, no matter how costly. 'I know by having the truth on my side I will finally have justice done,' he told A Current Affair. 'If not at this level, it will be the next. If not today, it will be tomorrow.' Despite representing himself, Mr Al Shakarji, who was not at risk of losing his licence over the infringement, has estimated the legal battle to cost around $20,000 However, Mr Zegers(right) thinks that once the costs incurred to the Crown are taken into consideration the bill will be closer to $100,000 This is not the first time Mr Al Shakarji has contested a speeding fine, attracting attention five years ago after he used Google Earth to dispute a fine he was issued in 2009. According to the Townsville Bulletin, the then 26-year-old appealed the ticket Brisbane District Court and and was granted a re-trail in the Townsville Magistrates Court. He told the local paper that after growing up in a country 'rife with corruption' he felt obligated to stand up for himself. Proportion of Labour's income from unions has shot up 50% under Corbyn The Tories received more than 5million in donations in the last three months of last year - more than all other political parties put together, new figures revealed today. The full sum given to the Conservatives was nearly double the 2.67million given to Labour between October and December 2015 - an extraordinary amount of money to be given to a political party with more than four years to go until the next General Election. More than 80 per cent of Labour's donations came from trade unions - drawing criticism that the party remained in hock to powerful left-wing firebrands such as Len McCluskey, whose Unite union donated nearly 900,000 in the three-month period. The proportion of Labour's income coming from the unions shot up by more than 50 per cent since Mr Corbyn was elected leader in September. Electoral Commission figures published today revealed the Tories received nearly double the amount donated to the Labour party in the last three months of 2015 Meanwhile the Tories relied on wealthy individuals, with three individuals donating more than 600,000 between them - more than 10 per cent of the total. The figures also revealed a surprise 180,000 sum of donations given to the British National party, despite it winning just 1,667 votes at last May's General Election and a month later being removed from the official list of political parties by the Electoral Commission - the elections watchdog. Despite its election collapse at the General Election, when they lost all but eight of its MPs, the Lib Dems received a healthy 828,657 in the last three months of 2015. Ukip received nearly 200,000 in the third quarter of 2015, while the SNP received just 54,000, despite their election landslide in Scotland. The Greens received 46,230 - just ahead of the Cannabis is Safer than Alcohol party, which raked in 40,789 in the three-month period. At the latest Tory fundraising ball earlier this month, Charlie Mullins, the managing director of Pimlico Plumbers, posted a string of pictures with top Tory figures, including David Cameron (left) and Boris Johnson (right). The Tories raked in more than 5m in three months from wealthy donors, such as Mullins Ex-leader Nick Griffin lost his European Parliament seat in 2014 and was expelled from the party later that year. The BNP vote collapsed by 99.7 per cent at the 2015 general election but the latest figures from the Electoral Commission reveal that the party was given 180,000 in the last three months of 2015 The figures for the top parties were topped up with a total of 2.2million of public funds. As the official Opposition party Labour was handed 1.5million by the UK taxpayer, the Tories accepted 300,000, Ukip received 90,000 and the Greens 52,000. The Lib Dems did not receive any public funds in the last three months of last year. 'IT WAS PRETTY LOW LEVEL ITEMS': TORY DONORS AT GLITTERING BLACK AND WHITE BALL MOAN ABOUT THE AUCTION PRIZES Guests at the Tories annual fundraising ball have complained the auction prizes were not up to their pre-election standard. But what was on offer to donors at The Brewey? A set of four election posters - including the image of Ed Miliband in Alex Salmond's pocket - signed by three Tory prime ministers for 50,000 A day campaigning with London Mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith, including lunch with Tory chairman Lord Feldman, for 35,000 A 1,000 Kurt Geiger voucher sold for 1,020 A 1,000 Selfridges gift card sold for 1,500 Twenty tickets to see Adele, pictured above for 30,000. Advertisement The figures out today show that 2.1million of its donations came from trade unions - four fifths of its total. Compared to the third quarter of 2015 - before Mr Corbyn was elected leader - the proportion of Labour donations from the unions was just 31 per cent. In addition to the 900,000 from the Unite, it received more than 350,000 from Unison, the public services union, 327,460 from GMB and 317,475 from the shop workers union USDAW. Tory MP Chris Philp said: 'It's no surprise that private and business donors are abandoning an increasingly extreme Labour party. 'Their policies of more spending, more borrowing, higher taxes and printing money would threaten the financial security of every family and business in this country. 'This is further evidence that Labour are now a serious threat to our economic security'. But Labour hit back, claiming the latest figures exposed the extent of the advantage the Tories would be given if they push through their reforms to trade union funding and crackdown on Short Money. Shadow Cabinet minister Jonathan Ashworth said: 'These figures show the extent of the Tories' unfair and partisan moves to rig the political system and give themselves an unfair advantage. 'In the final quarter of 2015 the Conservative party raised a staggering 2.2 million from just 49 members of the exclusive 'Leaders Group' of donors. He added: 'Through the Trade Union Bill and cuts to Short Money the Tories are using their parliamentary majority to deliver partial party funding reform and damage the opposition, while leaving their own funding base untouched and spending more on Special Advisers. Three Christian teenagers have been jailed for five years in Egypt after they were deemed to have mocked Muslim prayers in a video. The Coptic Christians were sentenced for contempt of Islam by a judge in the central Egyptian province of Minya while a fourth defendant, 15, was handed a juvenile detention for an indefinite period. Defence lawyer Maher Naguib said the four had not intended to insult Islam in the video, but merely to mock the beheadings carried out by ISIS jihadists. Defence lawyer Maher Naguib said the four had not intended to insult Islam in the video (pictured), but merely to mock the beheadings carried out by ISIS jihadists The video was filmed on a mobile phone in January 2015 when the three teenagers, who were sentenced to five years, were aged between 15 and 17. Their teacher who is also seen in the video has already been sentenced to three years in jail. The four teenagers were still free as of Thursday and Naguib said he planned to appeal the judgement. 'They have been sentenced for contempt of Islam and inciting sectarian strife,' Naguib told AFP. 'The judge didn't show any mercy. He handed down the maximum punishment.' In the video, one teenager can be seen kneeling on the ground and reciting Muslim prayers while others stand behind him, laughing. The Coptic Christians were sentenced for contempt of Islam by a judge in the central Egyptian province of Minya while a fourth defendant, 15, was handed a juvenile detention for an indefinite period Later one of them is seen making a sign with his thumb to indicate the beheading of the one who is kneeling. The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, an independent rights group, said ahead of Thursday's judgement that it watched the video and found that the four teenagers were performing scenes 'imitating slaughter carried out by terrorist groups'. The Commission said in a statement that the four were detained for 45 days and subjected to 'ill-treatment' before being released pending trial. The group warned that there was a return 'of using contempt of religion as accusations against writers and religious minorities'. Another rights group, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said that between 2011 and 2013, 42 defendants were tried in similar cases and of them 27 were convicted. Writer Fatima Naoot (pictured) was recently jailed for three years for insulting Islam after she criticised the slaughter of animals during a major religious festival Egypt's constitution outlaws insults against the three monotheist religions recognised by the state -- Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Copts, who comprise up to 10 percent of Egypt's 90-million population, are the Middle East's largest religious minority. They have long suffered sectarian violence including attacks on churches. In 2014, a Coptic Christian teacher was jailed for six months after parents of her students accused her of evangelising and of insulting Islam. In a separate case the same year, a Coptic man was sentenced to six years for insulting Islam, after posting a picture of prophet Mohammed on his Facebook page with an insulting comment. Thursday's judgement comes a month after female writer Fatima Naoot was jailed for three years for insulting Islam after she criticised the slaughter of animals during a major religious festival. A retired Marine has admitted killing and dismembering his girlfriend after her skeletal remains were discovered in a jungle in Central America. Brian Brimager pleaded guilty at South California's federal court yesterday to the second-degree murder of Yvonne Lee Baldelli while they were living together on a Panamanian island. The 39-year-old told the court he stabbed his girlfriend in the back, chopped up her body with a machete and dumped her remains. He also admitted trying to cover up the grisly murder by withdrawing money from the 42-year-old's bank account and sending fake emails to her friends and family to make them think she was still alive and traveling with another man. Scroll down for video Brian Brimager pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Yvonne Lee Baldelli (pictured together in Panama in 2011) while they were living together on a Panamanian island The 42-year-old, from Laguna Niguel, California, was last seen in September 2011 when she arrived in Panama with Brimager. Her family reported her missing the following January 'Brian Brimager took a young woman's life in a heinous way and then further victimized her family by creating a cruel lie that she was happily traveling the world with another man,' Laura Duffy, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, told KTLA. Baldelli skeletal remains were discovered stuffed inside a military style backpack by a local on Isla Carenero in 2013 - two years after she disappeared. The following year, FBI agents and Panamanian forensic specialists found traces of blood on the walls and floor of the hostel El Sapo in the Bocas del Toro archipelago, which is the popular tourist spot where Baldelli was last seen The 42-year-old, from Laguna Niguel, California, was last seen at a steakhouse in the town of Bocas del Toro with Brimager on November 26, 2011, according to the U.S. Attorney's office, which also said he physically abused her before she went missing. Baldelli's niece Lauren Beyer told Laguna Niguel Patch that her aunt had been hoping for a 'new start' in Panama after losing her job as a regional sales representative for Proctor & Gamble. 'She decided that living in the area was very expensive but that she still wanted to live near the beach,' Beyer said. 'She wanted to start a new life in Panama, where my grandparents also live.' Brimager (right) has been in custody since June 2013 on charges including obstruction of justice and falsifying records related to the investigation into Baldelli's (left) death The 39-year-old told the court he stabbed his girlfriend (pictured together) in the back, chopped up her body with a machete and dumped her remains It was just two months after the couple had moved to the tropical paradise where they would support themselves through Brimager's guitar playing in bars while she would act as his manager. She was only reported missing by her family in January 2012 who said it was common for Baldelli to be out of contact for periods of time. Panama police say Brimager left Panama for Costa Rica and the United States about 10 days after last being seen with Baldelli. He has now admitted murdering Baldelli, dismembering her body and disposing of her body parts in a remote jungle area. He then engaged in an elaborate scheme to cover up the crime, including destroying evidence and sending fake emails, according to court papers. The former Marine destroyed Baldelli's dog - a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named GeorgiaMae -clothes and jewelry, and dumped a bloody mattress in the ocean, court documents reveal. Investigators also found he had conducted two Internet searches on Baldelli's computer, one for 'washing mattress' and a second for 'washing mattress blood stain,' according to documents. He is said to have packed her belongings into garbage bags and left them outside the hostel for disposal. The indictment claims that on November 29 Brimager began sending fake emails to a hotel manager, friends and family from Baldelli's account. Scene of the crime? Baldelli and Brimager lived in this house while in Panama and the FBI has said it will search the water for more remains Brimager murdered Baldelli (pictured), dismembered her body and disposed of her body parts in a remote jungle area Then, on his way back to California, he made a two-day layover in Costa Rica and used her ATM card to make it look like she was withdrawing money. This was to back up the retired Marine's story that had Ms Baldelli had 'broken up with Brimager and was headed to Costa Rica with a man named Tony Gonzales.' 'Brimager impersonated Baldelli over email in an attempt to trick her friends and family into believing she was still alive, thereby obstructing, influencing and impeding investigation into her disappearance and suspected death,' the indictment says. When the suspect landed in San Diego on December 12, 2011, another woman, known as K.W., met him at the airport. 'He proposed to her two days later and they married shortly thereafter,' the document states. Brimager has been in custody since June 2013 on charges including second degree murder, obstruction of justice and falsifying records related to the investigation. He has now pleaded guilty on both counts. 'Now that Brimager has finally admitted his crime, we hope that the truth, and knowing that their daughter's murderer will serve decades in prison, will give this grieving family a sense of justice and peace,' Duffy told the network. Defense attorney Devin Burstein said his client was deeply remorseful for his actions. 'He's accepted responsibility for his actions,' Burstein said. 'He's deeply sorry, and nobody should be judged solely on the worst mistake of their life. More facts and circumstances will come out at sentencing.' The defense had previously tried to get the case dropped claiming he could not be charged in the United States for a crime in a foreign country. The 39-year-old former Marine faces up to life in prison at his May 25 sentencing hearing. Her family, who are also mourning the loss of Baldelli's sister Michelle Valenzuela who died from breast cancer in 2014, said they were looking forward to finally getting justice for Yvonne's murder. Jim Faust, her father, told assembled media outside the court house yesterday, that he had always believed Brimager was 'a very arrogant person' and said that the killer could have made it much easier on their family by admitting the crime sooner. 'We loved Yvonne... he took that away from us,' he said. 'It has taken a great toll, not only emotionally, but physically - especially on Michelle. 'We hope that the scenting will take place and we can put a lid on it, as far as we can do.' A Justice for Yvonne Baldelli Facebook page, set up by the victim's loved ones, posted a statemtn after the guilty plea. One in four sex offenders convicted in Norway last year came from a migrant background, it has emerged. Of the 399 people found guilty, 90 were either born inside or outside Norway to foreign parents. The statistics emerge as countries throughout the EU struggle to cope with social problems caused by hundreds of thousands of migrants entering Europe. The study, conducted by Norway's TV2, involved analysing all the judgments handed down in the country's courts last year. Pictured are the out-of-control celebrations in Cologne at the New Year, where more than 800 women filed police complaints saying they were groped and sexually assaulted Kristian Gundersen, a professor at the University of Oslo, told the paper: 'Its not necessary ones ethnic background that can accurately explain these figures. 'It could be finances, it could be age, in this case it is almost exclusively men, so you cant bring in gender but these are the kinds of factors you must take into account.' Migrants from Muslim countries have been involved in a handful number of high profile sex attacks in recent months. In Belgium, an Afghan migrant aged 16 is accused of raping a worker at a refugee centre just two weeks after undergoing a course on how to treat women. Police say the 16-year-old followed the catering firm worker into the basement of the centre in Menen, Belgium, and attacked her. A spokesperson for the Red Cross later claimed the teenager was thought to have been watching the girl some time prior to the attack. A group of refugees enter an arrival centre in Norway's north near the town of Kirkenes. File image In Austria, an Iraqi man is alleged to have raped a 10-year-old boy at a public swimming pool because of a 'sexual emergency'. And in Cologne, Germany, more than 800 women filed police reports alleging they were sexually assaulted during New Year's Eve celebrations in the city square. The attacks occurred during out-of-control celebrations in the city's main square. More than 800 women filed police complaints in the following weeks. Police at the scene took notes describing being overwhelmed by drunken mobs of men and dozens of emotional victims claiming they had been assaulted. Most accused men of 'North African or Arab' appearance as having carried out the attacks, and described being forced to run a 'gauntlet' of men groping them. The disappearance of flight MH370 and the shooting of MH17 just months later may both have been masterminded by Vladimir Putin, according to an astonishing claim by an aviation expert. US science and technology expert Jeff Wise said a new report into the MH17 disaster in July 2014 could provide clues linking Russia to the earlier disappearance of a second Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200. Wise, who spearheaded CNN's coverage of missing MH370, made the incredible claim after the release of a report by the UK-based investigative-group,Bellingcat. The disappearance of flight MH370 and the shooting down of MH17 just months later may both have been masterminded by Vladimir Putin (pictured), according to an astonishing claim by an aviation expert Debris of the Boeing 777, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which crashed while flying over the eastern Ukraine region near Donetsk, Ukraine, July 17 2014, killing all 298 people on board The investigative organisation used social media and other online resources to examine MH17, which crashed down in the Ukraine during a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. It points to a Russian brigade it believes 'provided, and possibly operated' a Buk-M1 missile launcher that brought the aircraft down, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board. The report summary suggests the military unit would only have taken the action with approval from the highest ranks of the Russian military. It concludes: 'Ultimately, responsibility for the downing of MH17 from a weapon provided and possibly operated by the Russian military lies with the Ministry of Defense and the Supreme Commander of the Russian Armed Forces, President Vladimir Putin.' Wise wrote that 'we don't know Putin's motive' but that based on Bellingcat's year-long report 'Putin obviously felt he had reason enough'. Wise (pictured), who spearheaded CNN's coverage of missing MH370, made the outlandish claim after the release of a report by the UK-based investigative-group, Bellingcat Bellingcat used social media and other online resources to examine MH17, which crashed down in the Ukraine during a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The reconstructed wreckage of the plane is pictured Bellingcat shot to fame four years ago when it produced evidence it claimed showed the Syrian government was using chemical weapons on its own citizens. Last year Wise suggested MH370, which went missing while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was in fact hijacked on the orders of Vladimir Putin and secretly landed in Kazakhstan. He based his wild theory on pings that the plane gave off for seven hours after it went missing, that were recorded by British telecommunications company Inmarsat. Wise said hijackers 'spoofed' the plane's navigation data to make it seem like it went in another direction, but flew it to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is leased from Kazakhstan by Russia. The new Bellingcat MH17 findings, he appears to suggest, adds weight to the astonishing theory that Russian president Vladimir Putin may have been behind both disasters. He wrote on his blog: 'By this point I think the relevance of this story to MH370 should be clear. Indonesian national search and rescue agency personnel pictured during the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the Andaman Sea in 2014 'Within four months, two Malaysian Airlines 777s were taken out of the sky under suspicious circumstances. 'We know from the analysis of MH370s satcom system carried out by Mike Exner, Victor Iannello, Gerry Soejatman and others, that if a spoof hijacking was perpetrated on MH370 then whoever carried it out possessed an extremely high level of technical sophistication. 'So high, in fact, that the attack must not only have been state sponsored, but sponsored by a state with cutting-edge technology in aircraft systems and satellite communications. 'That being the case, if we suppose that MH370 was hijacked by someone other than Russia, then that would mean that two Malaysian Airlines 777s - of which only 15 existed out of a worldwide commercial aircraft fleet of perhaps 18,000 - happened to be targeted within the span of four months by two different major powers. 'Talk about bad luck!' Hillary Clinton was heckled last night at her own fundraiser by a Black Lives Matter activist. The activist demanded an apology from the former first lady for mass incarceration and her claim 20 years ago that children in gangs had become 'super-predators.' The Huffington Post identified the protester as Ashley Williams. She says she paid $500 to attend the Clinton fundraiser in Charleston, South Carolina, with an unnamed associate. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Hillary Clinton was heckled last night in Charleston, South Carolina, at her own fundraiser by a Black Lives Matter activist The activist demanded an apology from the former first lady for mass incarceration and her claim 20 years ago that children in gangs had become 'super-predators' Clinton testily told Williams, 'You want to hear the facts or do you just want to talk?' as a supporter hollered, 'You're trespassing!' Williams was there to ask Clinton about a remark she made in Keene, New Hampshire, in January of 1996 while talking about the Violent Crime Control Act. Clinton said at the time, that the government must have an 'organized effort against gangs, just as in a previous generation we had an organized effort against the mob.' 'We need to take these people on. They are often connected to big drug cartels. They are not just gangs of kids anymore,' she said. 'They are often the kinds of kids that are called "super-predators." 'No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way but first we have to bring them to heel and the President has asked the FBI to launch a very concerted effort against gangs everywhere.' In a video posted to YouTube, Williams holds up a sign with an apparent reference to the speech that says, 'We have to bring them to heel.' Several seconds into the silent protest Clinton acknowledges Williams and reads the sign. 'I'm not a super-predator, Hillary Clinton,' Williams tells her. The Democratic presidential candidate is visibly irritated by the confrontation and says, 'OK, fine, we'll talk about it.' Williams continues talking, however, and asks, 'Can you apologize to black people for mass incarceration?' 'Can I talk, and then maybe you can listen to what I say?' Clinton then asks. At that point in the dialogue, Clinton brings up her speech over the summer advocating for criminal justice reform, but Williams shouts at her and says, 'You called black people super-predators.' The interruption did not go over well with the 100 or so donors reportedly gathered at the private event. 'You're being rude,' one attendee told Williams. Another can be heard saying, 'This is not appropriate.' Williams keeps looking at Clinton the entire time and says, 'You called black people super-predators, that's rude.' The Democrat testily replies, 'You want to hear the facts or do you just want to talk?' as a supporter hollers at the activist, 'You're trespassing! 'You know what, nobody's ever asked me before. You are the first person to ask me, and I'm happy to address it, but you are the first person to ask me,' Clinton says as Williams is escorted out of the event The back and forth goes on for another 30 seconds or so, with Clinton telling her, 'You will get a chance to talk.... I'll tell you what, if you will give me a chance to talk,' I'll approach your subject. 'You know what, nobody's ever asked me before. You are the first person to ask me, and I'm happy to address it, but you are the first person to ask me,' Clinton says as Williams is escorted out of the event. With Williams out of the picture, Clinton then picks up where she left off and says, 'Umm OK, back to the issues that I think are important.' In the background another donor is heard saying, 'Thank you,' while others clap. South Carolina votes on Saturday and African-Americans constitute an estimated 55 percent of the Democratic electorate there. Uber driver Jason Dalton charged with murdering six people in Michigan seemed depressed in the days before the shooting rampage and told his wife he was 'tired,' it emerged this morning. Dalton, 45, a married father-of-two, was arrested in Kalamazoo over the weekend after allegedly going on a deadly shooting spree while driving a Chevrolet for the popular ride-sharing service. Attorney Paul Vlachos, who has been hired to represent Dalton's family, went on ABC's Good Morning America Thursday offering new details on the suspect's demeanor leading up to the tragic events of Saturday night. Scroll down for video New details: Uber driver Jason Dalton charged with murdering six people in Michigan had seemed depressed in the days before the shooting rampage, according to his family's attorney Gun shop visit: Kalamazoo gunman Jason Dalton casually strolled around a gun store before he bought a tactical jacket designed to hide a gun hours before his rampage left six dead, surveillance photos obtained by the Daily News show First interview: Attorney Paul Vlachos, who has been hired to represent Dalton's family, went on ABC's Good Morning America Thursday revealing that Jason didn't seem like his usual gregarious self in the days leading up to the shooting spree 'He's been acting different in the last couple of days,' the lawyer revealed. 'His wife asked him and he said he was tired.' Vlachos explained that Carole Dalton had noticed that her usually upbeat husband 'seemed to be depressed and down, which was not his normal character. 'Jason, by all accounts, was a fairly gregarious character, a good father, well-known in the community, well-liked, and there was nothing to indicate that something like this would occur,' the family attorney said in the interview. When Dalton's family learned of the deadly rampage and his alleged involvement in it, they were bewildered. Vlachos said: 'Theyre thinking like everybody else: why?' According to the lawyer, the Uber drivers wife has not been able to come to term with what had happened. She's still in disbelief, Vlachos revealed. On Wednesday, it emerged that Dalton visited a gun shop shortly before the rampage and switched cars after the first shooting. Dalton randomly shot at people at an apartment complex, a car dealership and a restaurant, killing six and badly wounding two others Flowers for the fallen: A makeshift memorial is seen near where people were shot near car dealership in Kalamazoo, Michigan At least one passenger who rode in Dalton's car that night, apparently after the deadly spree had begun, recounted that the Uber driver seemed oddly calm and even appeared to be fatigued to the point of almost falling asleep at the wheel. 'He didn't say much and he didn't act abnormal. He was rather quiet,' Marc Dunton told Reuters of the ride he shared with two friends, taking the front-passenger seat beside Dalton. Prosecutors say Dalton randomly shot at people at an apartment complex, a car dealership and a restaurant, killing six and badly wounding two others, including 14-year-old Abigail Kopf who was left in critical condition. 'Right after the first shooting at the apartments, he left the scene and sideswiped a car,' said Paul Matyas of the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department. The accident prompted him to switch cars, from a silver Chevrolet Equinox to a Chevy HHR, both vehicles belonging to his parents. Dalton was denied bail on Monday after a court hearing in which a detective testified that he admitted to the deadly spree. Hours before the first shooting occurred on Saturday evening, Dalton and a friend visited Southwick's, a gun shop he frequented in nearby Plainwell, a shop employee told Reuters. Barbara Hawthorne (left), 68, and Dorothy Brown (right), 70, were also believed to have been inside the vehicle when it was hit by a barrage of bullets Sisters-in-law Mary Jo Nye, 60, (left) and Mary Lou Nye, 63, (right) were killed during the shooting spree while sitting inside a car with the 14-year-old girl at the Cracker Barrel Fighter: The parents of Abigail Kopf (left and right), 14, who was shot in the head in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Saturday, say their daughter is fighting for her life. The teen was initially declared dead Tyler Smith, 17,(right) was killed in the parking lot of Seelye Kia, along with his father, Rich (left), while they were looking at cars, multiple reports suggest Dalton was a regular customer who usually spent time chatting with the staff, but he bought a heavy-duty tactical jacket and left the store within 10 minutes, said the employee, who asked not to be identified. 'He's in here enough for me to know he talks to the guys about guns and different stuff,' she said. Searching for a motive behind the violence, investigators focused on a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and a cellphone seized from Dalton, as well as the fact that he picked up fares for Uber between or after the shooting episodes. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3461269/Michigan-Uber-driver-swapped-cars-deadly-shooting-spree.html#ixzz41BcbDwXA Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook A kindergarten teacher has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old boy in her classroom. Jennifer Robinson, 47, is being held without bond in a county jail in Georgia following accusations she had sex with the teenager on at least 10 occasions. Robinson, who has a daughter who turns 14 this year, faces a maximum sentence of five life terms plus 100 years in prison. Scroll down for video Kindergarten teacher Jennifer Robinson (left in a police mugshot, and right), 47, has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old boy in her classroom The alleged abuse took place between July 1 last year and earlier this week, when she was arrested, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Robinson, whose Facebook page suggests she is a grandmother and mother to two daughters, had sex with the boy in her kindergarten classroom at Upson-Lee South Elementary School in Thomaston over the summer break, police said. They also had sex in her car near the school's playground, at her two homes and in an industrial park not far from Thomaston County Airport, Upson County Sheriff Dan Kilgore said. Robinson, who is divorced, faces five counts of child molestation and five counts of aggravated child molestation. Each of the child molestation charges carries a maximum 20-year sentence and each of the aggravated molestation charges carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. The teacher, who has worked at the school for nearly 20 years, was arrested after taking a day off sick on Monday. The teenager attended Upson-Lee Middle School (pictured) which is about a mile away from the kindergarten Robinson had left her Facebook account open on her classroom computer and a teaching assistant went over to turn it off after notifications kept going off. However, when she looked at the computer she found 'inappropriate content ... from an underage person', Sheriff Kilgore said. The school employee informed the school's principal and deputy superintendent, who called the police. The sheriff said Robinson admitted to the relationship, which allegedly was going on as recently as Sunday. 'We are shocked and saddened by this,' Thomaston-Upson Schools Superintendent Maggie V Shook said. 'We immediately terminated Robinson and have another teacher in the classroom,' she added. Ms Shook said Robinson met the teenager through a relative and that the eighth-grader was never one of the accused's students. He is said to attend Upson-Lee Middle School, which is about a mile down the road from the kindergarten. Police do not believe there are any more alleged victims. Advertisement Australia has unveiled its biggest ever investments in the nation's peacetime defence capabilities in the face of a mounting military presence on its doorstep and numerous global security threats. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull cited increased defence spending around the region and potential flashpoints in the South China Sea and the Korean peninsula as the most challenging strategic environment 'we have faced in peacetime'. Australia will spend $195 billion over the next decade in an exponential expansion of its naval, air force and military might- along with a huge boost to its spying and surveillance forces. 'These are momentous times. The stakes are high. And as the opportunities expand, so does the cost of losing them,' Mr Turnbull said in launching a new Defence White Paper in Canberra on Thursday. Scroll down for video Australia has announced it would spend $195 billion over the next decade, including buying three additional destroyers, nine new frigates and 12 offshore patrol boats Joint Strike Fighters, also known as 72 F-35s, will be added to the air defence forces amid the sweeping new expansion of Australia's defences 'A stronger Australia supports a safer Australia, a safer region and a safer world.' The government said it would spend $195 billion over the next decade, including a doubling of its submarine fleet to 24, three additional destroyers, nine new frigates and 12 offshore patrol boats. Maritime surveillance would also be boosted by the purchase of seven US-made MQ-4C Triton drones and eight P-8A Poseidon aircraft. New air defence weapons would boost the force's capabilities with 72 F-35s, known as Joint Strike Fighters, added from 2020, while the army's equipment and armoured vehicle fleet will be upgraded. Some 2,500 new military roles will be created to expand the total defence force to 62,400 personnel, with 900 jobs focused on improved cyber, intelligence and space security. The cash injection would take Australia's defence spending to two percent of GDP by 2020-21, three years earlier than previously outlined, Turnbull said. The 2016-17 defence budget is $32.4 billion, with the additional investment boosting the annual funding to $58.7 billion in 2025-26. The announcement comes with Australia's close ally the United States pursuing a foreign policy 'pivot' towards Asia, while Beijing flexes its muscles in the region through a military build-up in the contested South China Sea. At the same time, tensions are high on the Korean peninsula after North Korea's January nuclear test and a rocket launch this month. Australia will be a doubling its submarine fleet to 24 amid soaring tensions in the the South China Sea and the Korean peninsula Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (C) speaks to Army Cadets after the launch of the 2016 Defence White Paper at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra on February Mr Turnbull said that in the next two decades, there would be increased military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region, including 'half the world's submarines and half the world's combat aircraft'. 'We would be concerned if the competition for influence and the growth in military capability were to lead to instability and threaten Australia's interests, whether in the South China Sea, the Korean peninsula or further afield,' he added. 'We have a strong, vital, vested interest in the maintenance of peace, stability and respect for the rule of law. The decisions we take now will impact on our defence capability and outlook for decades to come.' At a regular press briefing Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that China was 'dissatisfied' with statements it found 'negative' in the white paper about its South China Sea policy. 'In the hopes of relieving tensions and the possibility of arms race, we hope that relevant countries can give up joint drills and stop increasing their military presence in the region,' she said. Some 2,500 new military roles will be created to expand the total defence force to 62,400 personnel, with 900 jobs focused on improved cyber, intelligence and space security John Blaxland, a military expert at the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, said Canberra's boost was consistent with other nations, adding that the global average for defence spending was between 2.1-2.3 percent of GDP. 'In a world where the clouds are getting darker and where power dynamics are shifting and that shifting is creating rub points that could turn into spark points, the insurance policy which is the... Australian Defence Force is becoming less politically contentious,' Blaxland told AFP. Three international bidders -- DCNS of France, Germany's TKMS and the Japanese government -- are competing for a submarine project worth some$50 billion to replace Australia's current diesel and electric-powered Collins Class submarines. A decision on the winner is due this year. Australia is part of the US-led campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq, contributing military jets and special forces. It also started carrying out air strikes against IS targets in Syria last year. 'These are momentous times. The stakes are high. And as the opportunities expand, so does the cost of losing them,' Mr Turnbull said in launching a new Defence White Paper in Canberra on Thursday - which they never finalized - in 2001 Neighbors say the couple often fought and court records show they started divorce Police now say Mr Titchener is a 'person of The disappearance of a hairdresser in the San Francisco Bay Area has taken a turn after her husband committed suicide and severed remains were found in a marsh 30 miles away from her home. Shelly Titchener, 57, was reported missing by her husband Paul, 62, on February 15 - two days after he says they got into an argument and she left home to stay with friends for a few days. Hopes for finding Mrs Titchener turned grim on Sunday though, when fishermen found a severed torso floating in a marsh about 30 miles away from the couple's home in Brisbane, California. On Tuesday, Mr Titchener appeared on local news station KRON for an interview to publicize his wife's disappearance, saying he worried about her because she left behind medications to treat bi-polar disorder and depression. Just hours later, he jumped to his death off the Bay Bridge and now police consider him a 'person of interest' in his wife's disappearance. Police executed a search warrant on the couple's home Wednesday morning, just hours after the suicide, and were even seen swabbing Mr Titchener's white Chevrolet for evidence. Scroll down for video Person of interest: Paul Titchener is considered a 'person of interest' in the disappearance of his wife Shelly. He committed suicide on Tuesday, two days after remains which may belong to his wife In his television interview, Mr Titchener's voice never wavered as he told how he and his wife got into an argument the night before Valentine's Day and she stormed out. 'Maybe it was a red flag that her thinking wasn't that clear. She was a little upset at the time,' he said. He explained that it took him two full days to report his wife missing because he believed she had been staying with friends. Mr Titchener claims he started calling her friends when he couldn't get into contact with her (she left her phone behind) and none of them said they had seen her. Adding to his concern was the fact that she left behind medication to treat bi-polar disorder and depression, and that she had limited access to money. In a strange twist, someone reported seeing Mrs Titchener the day her husband officially reported her missing, saying she was spotted shopping at a Nordstrom in San Mateo. But she wasn't seen again for more than a week when her husband decided to appear on TV on Tuesday - the same day he committed suicide. Mr Titchener told KRON that one of the their two adult sons had organized the search effort to find his wife, plastering the community with missing poster ads with the hairdresser's picture and information. Bizarre: Mr Titchener committed suicide on Tuesday, just hours after giving an interview (above) about his wife's disappearance Missing: During the interview, Mr Titchener said one of his sons had started a canvassing effort in the community, plastering missing persons posters for his wife 'I think he recognized that I wasn't in good enough shape to try to do what we needed to do,' he said. He added that he missed his wife 'tremendously' and worried about what might have happened to her. 'It's kind of a nightmare you never wake up from, and you're hoping it has a happy ending,' he said. Hours later he committed suicide by jumping off the Bay Bridge. His body was pulled out of San Francisco Bay 45 minutes later and his remains identified through fingerprinting. Investigation: Authorities executed a search warrant on the couple's home in Brisbane, California Wednesday morning, just hours after Mr Titchener committed suicide Tuesday night Looking for clues: Police were taking evidence from the white Chevrolet registered to Mr Titchener on Wednesday Just two days after giving the interview, a severed torso was discovered by fisherman floating near the Dumbarton bridge - about 30 miles from the couple's home. Police have not positively identified the remains found on Sunday, but they are looking into whether they might belong to Mrs Titchener. The morning after Mr Titchener's suicide, authorities raided the couple's home looking for possible evidence in the case. While police will not call Mr Titchener a suspect in his wife's death, they say he is now a 'person of interest'. Meanwhile, neighbors and family members have spoken out to describe the couple's relationship. Mrs Titchener's brother Scott Carmichael spoke with ABC 7 and said he felt that his brother-in-law may have been holding back information when he first learned that his sister was missing. Family: The couple had two sons together. One of them wrote on Facebook on Wednesday: 'My mother Shelly Titchener and father Paul Titchener have recently passed. I hope that you will all respect the privacy of my family and I. Thank you to everyone who supported us in the search for my mother.' George Hawawini, 46, who lives directly across the street from the couple's home, and has known them since the 1980s, said they fought often. 'You could hear the yelling. They didn't know how to hide it very good,' Hawawini told the San Jose Mercury News. Court records also show the couple initiated divorce proceedings in 2001, but never finalized the end of their marriage. Hawawini says Paul would sometimes come visit him at his restaurant to complain about his marriage issues. Still, Hawawini says he doesn't believe his neighbor could have killed his wife. 'Everybody's assuming that he did it just because he jumped off a bridge,' Hawawini said, 'but who knows at this point.' The couple leave behind two sons. On Wednesday, one of the sons wrote on Facebook: 'My mother Shelly Titchener and father Paul Titchener have recently passed. I hope that you will all respect the privacy of my family and I. Thank you to everyone who supported us in the search for my mother.' Anyone with information on the case is being asked to call police at 415-467-1212. For confidential help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or click here Armed police were left red-faced when they stormed a cafe in a London suburb - only to discover it was being used for a film set. Film crew were shooting a short movie at Hussar's Coffee House in Hampton Wick, south-west London, when police carrying semi-automatic rifles interrupted filming. Director Tarryn Meaker, 37, described how three officers wielding 'big guns' arrived at the coffee house when someone raised the alarm. She believes a passing motorist may have reported seeing guns in the cafe. Actors using fake weapons caused a concerned member of the public to alert alarm cops to Hussar's Coffee House in Hampton Wick, south-west London Recalling the incident last Sunday, she said: 'Someone obviously saw, panicked, called the police and decided not to stick around. 'We had a sign up at the window to say filming was in progress but at one point it was taken down so maybe someone saw something they didn't like. 'The poor police officers arrived ready to go with real guns, which was unexpected. 'I'm from South Africa so the guns didn't bother me too much. I think I was most worried I hadn't done something I should have. 'I was more worried we might get shut down than anything else because I just wouldn't be able to afford it.' She believed the mix-up may have come about as she had informed the Met Police last Wednesday but it was Surrey Police who arrived at the scene. Director Tarryn Meaker, 37, (pictured left) with the armed Surrey police who were called out by a passing motorist to reports of a man in possession of a firearm - but arrived to find it in fact being used for a film set Police were called out to Hussar's Coffee House (pictured) in Hampton Wick to reports of guns in the cafe Ms Meaker will be submitting her film, That Day Comes, at festivals including the Cannes Short Film Corner. She said she felt awful the police had been called out for a false alarm, but was complimentary about how quickly they responded. 'The police were awesome', she said. 'Where I grew up, if you call the police and say there's a guy with a gun here, maybe they will arrive in an hour or so, but these guys were so quick. 'I would like to send them a thank you for being so understanding.' A spokesman for the Met said: 'Police were called at 15.47 on Sunday, 21 February to High Street, Hampton Wick to reports of a man in possession of a firearm. 'Officers attended and found it was a film production. No offences were disclosed.' The mix-up in Hampton Wick comes after petrified Londoners contacted police fearing the capital was under attack when a red double decker burst into a fireball close to Parliament for Jackie Chan's film The Foreigner earlier this month. The bus was blown up on Lambeth Bridge but producers for the film also starring former Bond, Pierce Brosnan, failed to warned locals, meaning many including a group of children playing in a park nearby were terrified. A Met spokesman said they received two calls from the public, but their team knew there was filming on the bridge and were able to reassure the panicked callers. Flames shot up in the air when the explosion broke the roof of the bus on the bridge. A large fire then engulfed the vehicle spreading debris across the road. The name of the event is a lyric from 'In the Ghetto' by 80s star MC Rakim Cambridge University will host the UKs first ever hip-hop conference to examine the likes of Kanye West, Dizzee Rascal and Tinie Tempah. Hip hop scholars from around the world have been invited to attend the symposium at Wolfson College in June to discuss differing interpretations of rap songs. The event is titled It Aint Where Youre From, Its Where Youre At, a line from the track In the Ghetto by 1980s star MC Rakim. The hip hop conference's website gives a detailed preview of the event, which will be held in June Organisers have admitted some academics at the historic university would find the conference problematic but that plenty more were supportive. And they say the genre that made stars of Jay Z, Tupac and Public Enemy is already well-established in many of the UKs most traditional institutions. Cambridge musicologist James Butterworth, who organised the event, said it is a valid topic for study because it us unquestionably the most listened-to music in the world. He said: Hip hop studies spans so many areas of the humanities and social sciences more than any other musical form but the challenge in this context is to think about it as an art form. Hip hop has gone mainstream in the UK over the past 10 years with the likes of Dizzee Rascal and other grime artists, but there are still lots of aspects of it that exist outside the established music industry that are worth examining. I am sure there are some people at Cambridge who will find this conference problematic, but there are plenty more who will want to get involved. Tinie Tempah (left) and Kanye West (right) will be examined by hip hop scholars from across the globe Talks at the conference will cover the influence of hip hop via linguistics, gender studies and musicology. Two keynote speakers from the United States have already been announced, and visiting scholars have been invited to submit proposals for essays on the theme. The event website reads: How can an emphasis on where youre at help us to understand the ethics and aesthetics of hip hop? What relevance does the privileging of orientation have to the development of hip hop studies as an interdisciplinary field? We encourage papers that shed light on this phrase and its implications for hip hop culture and hip hop studies, particularly in relation to issues of place, space, temporality, language, ethnicity, ethics, and politics. Organisers said some academics would find the conference, at Wolfson College, pictured, 'problematic' Dr Butterworth told Times Higher Education: You may be surprised that many music faculties at UK universities offer courses in hip hop. Cambridge has a course in hip hop, and I have taught a course at the University of Oxford on hip hop that is a compulsory module for all first-year music students. Other universities offering modules on hip hop include Soas, University of London, as well as the universities of Bristol and Southampton. The conference is described on its website as a 'network that aims to bring together scholars from any discipline working on hip hop' He added: Sadly, if its reported that students are studying Kanye West, then it normally becomes a story about dumbing down, which is disappointing. Dr Butterworth and sociologist Richard Bramwell are currently examining how hip hop is used in the prison system, based at Cambridges Institute of Criminology. Dr Bramwell is the lead investigator on a project called, Performing hip hop Englishness, which is funded by the governments Arts and Humanities Research Council. Yesterday, there was mixed reaction on social media to the conference. School governor Zibah Nwako wrote on Twitter: Bound to be creative, different and interesting. But Dr Sally-Ann Burnett, director at the private BPP University Business School, said: What next? Studying Kanye West = dumbing down! University of Cambridge to host hip hop conference. PhD student Thando Njovane added: I can't be the only one who's amused by the thought of Cambridge hosting a hip hop conference. Oh to be a fly on the wall. Marina Wheeler, seen leaving home yesterday, came to the defence of Michael Gove today Marina Wheeler, Boris Johnson's wife, today waded into a furious row over whether David Cameron's EU deal is legally binding by declaring Michael Gove is right to say it is not. Ms Wheeler, a human rights barrister who took silk on Monday, said there was 'no escaping' the fact the European Court of Justice had the 'final say'. Justice Secretary Mr Gove provoked outrage yesterday by appearing to undermine Mr Cameron's key claim that his deal with EU leaders is 'irreversible'. The Government rolled out the Attorney General, Jeremy Wright, to slap down Mr Gove's claims that EU judges could unpick the deal. But Ms Wheeler today became the latest legal expert to come to Mr Gove's defence. Writing in The Times she said: 'Somewhat prematurely Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, appears to have told MEPs that the deal is legally binding and irreversible and underlined that the 28 nations intended it to be compatible with EU treaties. 'But there is no escaping the fact that as the supreme interpreter of EU treaties, the court has the final say.' Ms Wheeler said the Luxembourg court was 'hard to predict' and said even if the UK's deal is eventually written into a full treaty, the judges could still end up disagreeing with it. She said this had happened in 2009 following a dispute over which European body was the final arbiter on human rights - with the European Court of Justice declaring itself superior. Ms Wheeler said: 'The judgment prompted astonishment and dismay. But theres no getting around it. 'It might be thought Brexit or no Brexit that there is a crisis of judicial legitimacy at the heart of the EU that someone needs to address.' Mr Gove said: 'The European Court of Justice is not bound by this agreement until treaties are changed and we don't know when that will be.' He said Mr Cameron was 'absolutely right that this is a deal between 28 nations'. Mr Gove, also the Lord Chancellor, told the BBC: 'The whole point about the European Court of Justice is that it stands above the nation states.' Before 7am yesterday, No 10 said Mr Gove's claims were 'not true'. Ex-attorney general Dominic Grieve was also deployed to contest the claim. A later statement from aides to Jeremy Wright, current Attorney General, said although challenges could be brought to the court, the UK agreement had 'very similar legal strength' to existing treaty obligations. Ms Wheeler, a human rights barrister, took silk on Monday, left. She is married to London Mayor Boris Johnson, right at his general election count last May Following the ceremony on the Strand to make her a QC, Ms Wheeler was spotted with her children and husband How will your MP vote? Full list of all the Conservative politicians who have declared their stand on the EU referendum debate Joe Biden is heading to the Academy Awards. The vice president will introduce Lady Gaga according to White House officials before she performs her Oscar-nominated song Til It Happens to You from the college-campus rape documentary The Hunting Ground. Vice President Biden will also use the opportunity to speak about the White House's It's On Us campaign, which was launched in September 2014 to help put an end to sexual assault on college campuses. Big names: Joe Biden (left) will introduce Lady Gaga (right) at the Oscars before she performs her song from The Hunting Ground, a campus rape documentary White House presence: First Lady Michelle Obama previously presented the Best Picture Oscar at the 2013 ceremony This is not the first time the White House has played a role in the Academy Awards ceremony, with Michelle Obama presenting the Best Picture Oscar to Argo in 2013, though she did that via satellite from Washington DC. Vice President Biden will actually be in Los Angeles however for the ceremony, and will attend with his wife Dr. Jill Biden. The Oscars have come under fire this year for a lack of diversity, a topic which President Obama commented on last month, saying; 'I think when everybody's story is told, then that makes for better art.' The group has no problem awarding those who have been convicted of sexual assault however, having given the Best Director Oscar to Roman Polanski in 2003 for The Pianist. Polanski was not allowed to attend the ceremony as he is a fugitive from the United States after pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a minor following a 1977 incident. The director admitted to having sex with a 13-year-old girl and served 42 days in prison, but after his release a judge rejected his plea deal and he fled to Paris where he continues to live before he could be sentenced to more time behind bars. There have been attempts to extradite him since that time but they have all failed Recent history: The Academy previously awarded Roman Polanski with the Best Director Oscar in 2003 despite the fact he admitted to having sex with a 13 year old (above receiving his ward in France in September 2003) He continues to direct overseas and his rape of a 13-year-old girl did not put off Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly from working with him on the 2011 film Carnage. That film also starred Kate Winslet, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Sunday's ceremony. The director of the FBI insists phones around the world will not be at greater risk of getting hacked if Apple help them access the San Bernardino killer's iPhone. The tech giant has argued technology around the world will be more vulnerable if they design software for federal agents to break into Syed Farook's encrypted cell phone. The firm has made it clear they have no intention to follow orders by a federal judge to hand over code that can help authorities get into the device. But James Comey says the software would only work on the jihadi's device and would be retained by the technology giants - so no one else would have access to it. 'The idea of it getting it out in the wild and working on my phone or your phone at least the experts tell me is not a real thing,' he said. As Comey testified to the House Intelligence Committee, Apple filed a new motion to suppress the judge's orders, forcing them to help hack the phone. It has also been reported that Google plans to follow Microsoft in throwing its legal support behind Apple during the dispute. FBI Director James Comey insists phones around the world will not be at greater risk of getting hacked if Apple help them access the San Bernardino terrorist's iPhone Apple says the FBI is seeking 'dangerous powers' through the court system. They asked a federal magistrate to reverse her order that the company help the FBI hack into a locked iPhone. The filing represents Apple's first official response since the judge's order last week and builds upon arguments voiced by the company's chief executive and supporters. The Justice Department is proposing a 'boundless interpretation' of the law that, if left unchecked, could bring disastrous repercussions for digital privacy, the company warned in a memo submitted to Magistrate Sheri Pym. 'The government says: 'Just this once' and 'Just this phone.' But the government knows those statements are not true,' lawyers for Apple wrote. The idea of it (the hacking software getting it out in the wild and working on my phone or your phone is not a real thing FBI Director James Comey to the House Intelligence Committee In a copy of the brief provided by the company, Apple argued that the government's request is 'unprecedented' and violates the company's First Amendment rights. 'This case is not a case about one isolated iPhone,' Apple said in the filing, reiterating previous comments. On Capitol Hill, Comey said the dispute with Apple represents the 'hardest question I've seen in government. He also that it is 'going to require negotiation and conversation.' The bureau's chief defended the government's demand for the tech company to help access the device. 'I do think the larger question is not going to be answered in the courts, and it shouldn't be. Because it's really about who do we want to be as a country, and how do we want to govern ourselves,' Comey told the House Intelligence Committee. A week ago, a federal magistrate in California directed Apple to help the FBI hack into a phone used by one of the assailants in the December shootings in San Bernardino, California. Apple was expected to file a formal objection on Friday. A magistrate judge in Brooklyn is weighing a similar Justice Department request in a separate case, and a decision is expected soon. Comey told the House Intelligence Committee the code used to break into the device would only work on Sayeed Farook's phone and would be retained by the technology giants Days after making his first public statement on the matter in an Internet blog post, Comey appeared determined to dampen down the tension that has flared publicly between the government and the company in the week since the judge's order. He acknowledged at one point that Apple had been very helpful in the months leading up to the court clash and said that there were 'no demons' in the debate. The government says: 'Just this once' and 'Just this phone.' But the government knows those statements are not true Apple's comments in motion to judge He also conceded the benefits of encryption but also said the FBI would continue to need the ability through a warrant and court order to intercept encrypted communications in criminal and terrorism investigations. 'If we're going to move to a world where that is not possible anymore, the world will not end but it will be a different world than where we are today and where we were in 2014,' he said. 'So we just need to make sure that the bureau explains what the costs are so that people don't look at us five years from now and say, 'Where were you guys when this happened?''' Comey reaffirmed what he posted in a statement Sunday night that the Justice Department was not trying to send a message or set a precedent by going to court to obtain access to the phone. Instead, he said, 'It's about trying to be competent in investigating something that is an active investigation.' Comey said there had been 'plenty' of negotiations with Apple before the government sought the judge's order. But at some point, Apple reached a point at which it was not willing to 'offer the relief the government was asking for.' At the same hearing on Thursday, Microsoft's legal chief, Brad Smith, said that the company plans to file an amicus brief next week in support of Apple's position. According to Recode, Google will follow suit and deliver its own 'soon. They cited sources familiar with the company. As Comey testified to the House Intelligence Committee on the matter, Apple filed a new motion to suppress a judge's orders to hack the phone. The firm, headed by CEO Tim Cook says the FBI is seeking 'dangerous powers' through the court system Authorities have spent months trying to break into Syeed Farook's phone. He is seen arriving at Chicago O'Hare International Airport in 2014 with wife Tashfeen Malik. On December 2, 2015, they killed 14 people in a terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino Apple has made clear it has no intention of complying. The company's chief executive, Tim Cook, told ABC News that it would be 'bad for America' if his company complied with the FBI's demand and said he is prepared to take the fight to the Supreme Court. Apple has said Congress, not the courts, should resolve the dispute. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, signaled Thursday that she is eager for Congress to take up the matter. 'I don't think it should be up to one judge to decide on the encryption policy as we go forward. This is not about one case,' Pelosi said. Comey acknowledged that last week's order from Magistrate Sheri Pym could help guide other courts considering the same issue in the future. But he rejected Apple's assertion that the order could create a slippery slope affecting millions of other iPhone users. He also said he had been told by technology experts that the combination of the phone and operating system are 'sufficiently unusual that it's unlikely to be a trailblazer because of technology being the limiting principle.' Apple has made clear it has no intention of complying. The company's chief executive, Tim Cook, told ABC News that it would be 'bad for America' if his company complied with the FBI's demand and said he is prepared to take the fight to the Supreme Court Pictured are the fourteen people who died in the December 2 attack in San Bernardino, California. The FBI is seeking to hack into a phone used by one of the killers, but Apple is fighting the order in court, and reportedly, in its software labs At one stage she allegedly tried to adopt him so he could live with her Teacher Jamee Hiatt, 31, allegedly gave a gun to a 13-year-old student she has been accused of having sex with A married teacher allegedly gave a gun to a 13-year-old student she has been accused of having sex with. Jamee Hiatt, 31, was arrested last month and charged with having sex with the boy on countless occasions between the summer of 2014 and the end of last year. A court heard that Hiatt and the boy started meeting outside of school when he was just 11 years old, when he was one of her students at Leslie Middle School in Michigan. At one stage she even allegedly tried to adopt the boy so he could live in her home, prosecutors said. Now allegations have surfaced claiming she gave the boy a gun - and that the firearm was later used in a shooting. Mother-of-two Hiatt, who has been married for eight years, was arrested on January 22 after investigators allegedly found evidence of a relationship between her and the boy. The relationship allegedly took place during the 2013-2014 school year when Hiatt was a teacher at Leslie Middle School. The victim is now 14 years old, but was between 13 and 14 at the time of the sexual relationship, authorities have said. Hiatt taught the boy when he was aged 11, when they are said to have first got to know each other outside of school. However, he had left the local schools system when the alleged sexual encounters began. Prosecutors said at a court hearing earlier this month that Hiatt gave the boy, who is now 14, a gun, the Detroit Free Press reported. Assistant prosecuting attorney Kathleen Hawkins said: 'We believe the defendant has, in the past, purchased a firearm, given it to our 14-year-old victim and that firearm was later discovered to be used in potentially a shooting at Loomis Park.' The relationship allegedly took place during the 2013-2014 school year when Hiatt was a teacher at Leslie Middle School (pictured), which the boy used to attend The gun has not been described in court records and it is not clear how it may have been used in the shooting in Jackson, Michigan, or what happened in the shooting. Daily Mail Online has contacted prosecutors for more information. Hiatt previously claimed the weapon had been stolen and she has been arraigned for allegedly filing a false police report. Detective Gary Schuette told Jackson County District Court last month that the teacher 'cultivated a relationship with [the boy] which ultimately led the two of them to continue their relationship shortly after school'. Det Schuette added in court that Hiatt admitted to sleeping with the boy. The teenager told police that Hiatt had sex with him 'so many times that he couldn't begin to tell how many times that there were', Det Schuette said. However, he could recall up to six different sexual encounters which took place at Hiatt's home and in a parking lot. Jackson County Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Walker said Hiatt offered the boy a cellphone, money and 'even went so far as filing guardianship over him' so he could live in her home. At one stage, while the boy's father was in jail for violating his probation, she had power of attorney over him. Hiatt resigned from Woodworth Elementary School (pictured) a day before she was arrested on January 22 Hiatt left the school in 2013 and later worked at Woodworth Elementary School, in Leslie, where she resigned from a day before her arrest. 'Obviously, my client has a lot of things she regrets about everything that's transpired,' Hiatt's attorney, Phillip Berkemeier, told the court earlier this month. She 'believes she was played by this young man that she was involved with to a certain extent', Mr Berkemeier said. Hiatt will undergo psychiatric tests before she faces trial. She is charged with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and another of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. She is being held on a $100,000 bond and is barred from seeing anyone under the age of 16, including her two young children. An unemployed conman who posed as a high ranking Mercedes Formula 1 team manager to dupe hotel staff and trick other victims into attending 'business' meetings in Germany has been jailed for two years. Stuart Howatson, 37, even donned liveried clothing to assume the glamorous and powerful false persona and order computer security systems worth up to 750,000. The conman was also jailed back in 2010 for fabricating a distinguished police career by claiming to have served with the Met Police as an armed officer, dog handler and a Queen's protection officers. Coventry Crown Court heard the latest fraud was not for any personal gain and that Howartson suffers from a variety of personality disorders. Stuart Howatson, pictured left and right, has been jailed for two years for impersonating a Mercedes official The court heard that the 37-year-old committed 12 counts of fraud and a theft during 2014, netting him several free stays at hotels in north Worcestershire as well as 1,500 from a hotel guest who fell for a bogus job offer. Prosecutor Sharon Bahia said: 'The frauds relate to separate offences all stemming from one central falsehood - that being that the defendant was the chief operations officer of the Mercedes F1 racing team.' False email accounts purporting to belong to his assistants at Northamptonshire-based Mercedes were set up to book hotel rooms in Bewdley and Kidderminster, Ms Bahia added. Four people fell victim to the frauds, including an engineer who flew to Cologne with his wife to meet Howatson, who had promised him a job with Mercedes and a company car. Ms Bahia said of the victim: 'He describes the defendant as being very knowledgeable about the workings of Mercedes-Benz. Howatson claimed to be chief operations officer at the Formula One team (file picture of a Mercedes car) Howatson claimed to be part of the Mercedes team while Lewis Hamilton, pictured, drove for them 'This defendant suggested to him that he should come to work for Mercedes-Benz as an operations director. He was offered Bupa health care and Rosetta Stone software in order to learn German. 'He states his disbelief at the lengths the defendant went to in order to con him into believing that he had genuinely been offered a lucrative position.' Howatson's lawyer, Nick Devine, told the court the frauds committed against software companies - relating to contracts worth 1.1 million US dollars, 224,000 and 23,904 euros - would not have benefited his client financially. Mr Devine told Recorder Derek Sweeting QC: 'Mr Howatson suffers from a variety of personality disorders that have manifested themselves quite clearly in his behaviour throughout this series of offences. 'The plain fact of the matter was that he was enjoying the fact that he was dealing with these big figures, and the fact he was pretending to be someone with the kind of authority to enter into such contracts. Coventry Crown Court, pictured, heard Howatson fraudulently agreed a 750,000 computer deal for Mercedes 'It was all about what he got out of the pretence of being somebody in a considerable position of authority in a glamorous line of business.' Passing sentence, Recorder Sweeting told Howatson - who was jailed in 2010 after inventing an illustrious police career - that his jail term had been reduced by a third because of his guilty pleas. 'You carried off the deception with a great deal of persuasive skill,' he told Howatson, of Fisher Road, Bishops Itchington, Warwickshire. 'The victims have commented on the lengths you went to. 'The real purpose of the fraud was to make you feel better and more powerful, and to carry through the persona of being chief operations officer for the Mercedes-Benz racing team.' Lawsuit: Daniel Hughes, 45, (pictured in a mug shot) is suing the Ritz after they gave him the wrong hotel key and he got in bed with a nine-year-old girl A Pennsylvania man who was acquitted of molestation after ending up in the wrong Ritz Carlton room and in bed with a nine-year-old girl has claimed that the hotel is responsible. Daniel Hughes, 45, of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, is suing the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton, St Louis, for unspecified damages, according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He says a clerk gave him a key to the wrong room after he had been out drinking and it led to him being prosecuted. A nine-year-old girl claimed Hughes, then 42, got into her bed wearing only his underwear and touched her sexually on the morning of March 6, 2011. Hughes attorney, Scott Rosenblum, argued that Hughes only cuddled the girl, thinking he was in bed with a woman he had been out drinking with earlier. Rosenblum also argued that Hughes was staying at the Ritz for a business conference and confused his current room number with the room number he had at a previous hotel which was 1619. His room at the Ritz was actually 811 and he misplaced his key which led him to request the key for room 1619 from the front desk. A St. Louis County jury found Daniel Hughes not guilty in April 2014 of child molestation and statutory sodomy. Hughes filed the suit against the Ritz on February 19 and claims that the hotel was negligent when they gave him the incorrect key without checking what room he was in. They also failed to ask him for his identification. Hotel staff failed to take 'any reasonable and customary key-security precautions that are standard within the hotel industry and particularly within the luxury hotel market to which the Ritz-Carlton belongs,' alleged the suit. Hughes also claims that the key mix-up lost him a position with Enterprise Leasing Co. where he earned nearly half a million dollars the year before the incident and where he claims he could have made over $1 million in 2015. After the trial, the girl's parents sued Hughes for $50,000, spread over five yearly payments. He was able to settle the suit later that year for an undisclosed amount. Some 16 bodyguards are said to now work for him at his Palo Alto home He could be seen in Berlin with at least five other men surrounding him He is said to be so concerned about his own security that he now has no less than 16 people protecting him at his $7million Palo Alto, California home. So it may not come as a surprise that Mark Zuckerberg, who was threatened by ISIS supporters earlier this week, wasn't taking his chances when he headed out for a casual jog while in Berlin. Zuckerberg, pictured in one of his signature gray T-shirts while carrying his iPhone on Thursday, had at least five men surrounding him, in what appeared to be more than just a casual running club. Scroll down for video Facebook friends? Mark Zuckerberg runs with bodyguards through Berlin; The tech mogul is said to be increasingly concerned with his security after threats Not taking any chances: Zuckerberg runs with the group through the center of German capital Berlin The billionaire must have packed several of the same T-shirt for his trip to Berlin, given that this one got particularly wet during a workout The Facebook CEO's show of strength in Berlin's Pariser Platz square comes just a day after supporters of ISIS threatened him and Twitter chief Jack Dorsey. A new 25-minute video titled Flames Of The Supporters, found by Vocativ on Wednesday, features pictures of both entrepreneurs covered in bullet holes. In it, the militants claim they control more than 10,000 Facebook accounts, 150 Facebook groups and 5,000 Twitter profiles - and warn they will retaliate to any attempt to drive them off the sites. Text flashes up on the screen, which reads: 'To Mark and Jack, founders of Twitter and Facebook and to their Crusader government. 'You announce daily that you suspend many of our accounts. 'And to you we say: Is that all you can do? You are not in our league.'. It continues with shots of their militants on Facebook and Twitter, hacking accounts and changing their profile pictures to ISIS propaganda. 'If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete your sites, Allah willing, and will know that we say is true,' it warns in subtitles. Zuckerberg, who was later pictured in Berlin with his wife Priscilla, has reportedly bumped up his security detail back home in Palo Alto due to threats from unstable website users, according to Page Six. The billionaire is in Germany for two days of talks as the country debates how to tackle online xenophobia and hate speech amid an influx of refugees in to the country. Facebook agreed in December to abide by German laws on hate speech on their sites in Germany, responding to complaints by the government that they are too slow to take down xenophobic abuse posted online. Entourage: Zuckerberg is now so concerned about security that he reportedly has no less than 16 people protecting him at his $7million home in Palo Alto The Facebook boss has arrived in Germany for two days of talks as the country debates how to tackle online xenophobia and hate speech amid an influx of refugees in to the country The internet entrepreneur and recent father seemed in good spirits while out for a jog with colleagues Dressing down: Zuckerberg was later seen leaving his hotel with wife Priscilla Chan in the pouring rain Finally ditched the T-shirt! Zuckerberg later donned a suit with open neck shirt ahead of receiving the newly established Axel Springer Award, which is awarded to outstanding entrepreneurs Happy to be here: Zuckerberg, who is 5ft 7in, stands with Springer CEO Mathias Doepfner, who is exactly a foot taller, as he arrives to receive the Axel Springer Award Like fellow tech visionary Steve Jobs, who always wore a black turtleneck and jeans, Zuckerberg famously wears the same outfit every day - barring special occasions - and he made no exception for the jog, donning his signature T-shirt. He has previously said making clothing decisions every day is a 'frivolous' waste of his time. The new father joked last month upon returning from a two-month paternity leave what he should wear, picturing his closet which was filled with nothing but identical T-shirts and hoodies. First day back after paternity leave. What should I wear? he captioned the picture. Her birth was, of course, announced on Facebook and the couple vowed to give away 99 per cent of their fortune to charity in her honor. He also only took half of the paternity leave offered to Facebook employees. The company announced in November last year that new fathers working at Facebook will now be allowed to take four months of paid paternity leave. Natalia Strelchenko, 38, was strangled and beaten to death at her home in Manchester last August A world-renowned pianist sent a text message saying she was having 'bad times', hours before he allegedly murdered her, a court heard today. Natalia Strelchenko, 38, was strangled and beaten to death at her home in Manchester last August. The Russian's husband John Martin is accused of killing her after losing his temper on their second anniversary. Martin, 48, a Norwegian musician, denies both murder and manslaughter. Giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court, her first husband of 10 years, Vladimir Suzdalevich, said he received a text message from Ms Strelchenko shortly before her death. Mr Suzdalevich, an organist and conductor who said he had remained 'close friends' with Ms Strelchenko, said he received the text late on August 29 'but I was too late to react,' having read it the following day. He said: 'The text message, I remember it very well, she wrote we are having bad times in Manchester, I'm looking forward to starting a new semester in Belfort in September.' The court was told that Ms Strelchenko was living in Manchester but by January 2015 she had got a job at a conservatory in Belfort, France. Mr Suzdalevich said that Martin had been 'anxious' that she was seeing other men although he had no proof. Mr Suzdalevich said she had disclosed to him that she wanted to end the violent relationship with Martin, who is alleged to have killed her because her career had taken off while his had not. He added: 'I knew that she was afraid of it (separating) because he didn't want to let her go, she was afraid because of all this violence. I think she was afraid to say 'I'm leaving you now'.' Ms Strelchenko was found with head and neck injuries at the couple's home in Newton Heath, Manchester. Martin has also pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of a male youth who cannot be identified for legal reasons. Mr Suzdalevich told the court that he had met Ms Strelchenko whilst studying together at the Russian State Conservatory in St Petersburg before moving to Norway for work commitments. He described her to the court: 'She was the centre of my life for 10 years, she liked very much to play the concerts, to be the centre of the party, she loved the life and engaged many people around her to do something in music, inspire people around her.' He told jurors that he met Martin in 2011 and had been 'happy' that his former partner had met someone. He said: 'I was happy that she was trying to organise her private life.' The Russian's (centre) husband John Martin (left) is accused of killing her after losing his temper on their second anniversary But he said that following one meeting with the couple his former wife had telephoned him on their way home, telling him there had been 'struggling and fighting in the car'. He said: 'She said that she was standing by a road and didn't know what to do and asked me to come. She said that they were driving and arguments in the car and it was impossible to stay in the car, struggling, physically. He began to push her. They only way to stop it was to get out.' He told the court that Ms Strelchenko had been a 'big success' and had watched her develop her 'truly international musical career' after her first big concert at Wigmore Hall in the UK in 2006 or 2007. He described Martin as 'not a stable man', in terms of his emotions, adding: 'I could see he was very changing in mind from time to time, he was very quiet and other times he was furious. He was not a stable man, he was in a different state of mind. 'She was not very stable (emotion-wise) because she is an artist. I told her this is not the man you need to support you in your life and career.' The court was told that Ms Strelchenko was living in Manchester but by January 2015 she had got a job at a conservatory in Belfort, France Officers attended the address and discovered 38-year-old Natalia Strelchenko with serious head injuries. Paramedics attempted to revive her at the scene, but she sadly died a short time later Upon being told they were getting married, Mr Suzdalevich said he told her it was 'not the way to solve the problem.' 'I say to her many times he's a difficult man to get married with. He didn't make her happy. I knew he was grabbing her and holding her tight, and pushed her,' and motioned that Martin would grip her neck. Martin met Ms Strelchenko whilst studying together at the Russian State Conservatory in St Petersburg before moving to Norway for work commitments. Prosecutor Rob Hall asked: 'Was she happy in the relationship?' Mr Suzdalevich answered: 'I think she was happy sometimes but I hear a lot of trouble so I could not say that she was happy. She told me he was not stable, not able to rely on.' He added that she had told him there had been violence and he had been jealous of her meeting with old friends. 'But the most trouble, he was jealous from time to time and he began to be unpredictable, the struggling and arguments were happening.' The court heard that when she fell pregnant with Martin's child she believed she was 'alone' after he left her, and she aborted the child. During cross examination by Stuart Denney QC, he said to the witness: 'I'm going to suggest to you that you have simply concluded he was jealous.' Mr Suzdalevich replied: 'Yes of course it was my conclusion. We could see he was jealous, but he didn't use these words to describe it.' The barrister suggested that the defendant, who had been sat with his head bowed, 'got fed up with her behaviour in the house', with her lack of housework and financial contributions. Mr Suzdalevich agreed with him. On paper, Asher Potts was a model student. The 18-year-old had one of the highest GPAs at Harrisburg High School, was the runner-up for homecoming king and was an active member of the community. But his teachers and classmates were left stunned after police revealed Potts isn't actually a teenager - but a 23-year-old Ukrainian national called Artur Samarin. He had been masquerading as a schoolboy for four years because his visa had run out, and managed to achieve stunning credentials while doing so. The alleged fraudster is accused of using a fake ID and social security card to apply for a place at the Pennsylvania school after moving from Eastern Europe. Asher Potts, a star student at Harrisburg High School, has been arrested after it was revealed he was actually a 23-year-old Ukrainian national named Artur Samarin. He is pictured with Pennsylvania State Rep. Patty Kim, D-Harrisburg on his induction into the National Honor Society in May 2014 Courtesy of WHTM He registered under the name Asher Potts in 2012, and by May 2014 he had a 4.16 GPA. He was also a member of the ROTC and Naval Sea Cadet Program. Until his arrest, Samarian was actively involved in school life and took part in a list of extra-curricular activities. On the academic side he also excelled, juggling honors and AP classes, while enrolling in courses at the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. He was recently one of the youth panelists on a town hall forum to discuss violence, an event that was covered on TV station Local21News. Samarin (mugshot pictured) is accused of using a fake ID and social security card to apply for a place at the Pennsylvania school after moving from Eastern Europe. His U.S. visa had run out One of the people also speaking at the event was Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter He was also was a member of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank's inaugural Junior Advisory Council. Potts was also a member of the ROTC and Naval Sea Cadet program, according to ABC27. State Rep. Patty Kim, D-Harrisburg, also tweeted about Potts when he was inducted into the National Honor Society in 2014. As of September, Samarin was also believed to have been elected as student council president. However he was arrested on Wednesday and charged with false identification, Penn Live reported. The circumstances of his arrest are not clear but he is believed to have been arrested at his home. When he was arrested, police said Samarin had a Pennsylvania driver's license issued under the name of Potts. Kirsten Keys, a spokeswoman for the school district, told Penn Live: 'We are treating this as a serious matter. 'At this time, the investigation is in the hands of the Harrisburg Bureau of Police. The district will continue to cooperate fully with the police department as they move forward with their investigation.' Gene Veno, former Chief Recovery Officer at the school district who knew Samarin from his work with the school board, told PennLive that Samarin was 'focused and driven' and 'always a gentleman.' 'I marveled at his maturity,' Veno said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has confirmed that it's monitoring the case. Online court records don't list an attorney for Samarin, who remained in jail Thursday on charges including identity theft and tampering with public records. The Harrisburg City Police Department told Daily Mail Online they could not release more information because of the ongoing investigation. Jeremy Corbyn has made light of yesterday's row over his appearance by insisting David Cameron is jealous of him. The Labour leader made the gag as he prepared for a TV interview earlier today. In extraordinary exchanges at Prime Minister's Questions yesterday, Mr Cameron blasted at Mr Corbyn that his mother would demand he 'do up his tie, put on a proper suit and sing the national anthem'. Mr Corbyn made light of the jibe today as he set up an interview shot with a cameraman. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn today made light of the row over his appearance at Prime Minister's Questions, teasing that David Cameron was jealous of his shopping on Holloway Road He said: 'I've gotta to do me tie up because of the Prime Minister. 'He's actually jealous of the jacket. 'You know what he's really jealous of? That I can go shopping in the greatest shopping centre in the world - Holloway Road N7 and he's stuck with Bond Street.' Yesterday's ugly exchanges in Parliament came as Mr Corbyn demanded the government settle with junior doctors a day after the British Medical Association announced a new wave of strikes in protest at the imposition of a new contract. The row began as Mr Cameron claimed the data actually showed the number of excess weekend deaths was much worse than thought - at 11,000 a year rather than 6,000. The Prime Minster then claimed the Government was building an NHS for patients, prompting Mr Corbyn to highlight a campaign against cuts in Mr Cameron's Oxfordshire constituency. The remark prompted a heckle from the Labour benches about Mary Cameron signing a petition against local authority cuts. Mr Cameron responded: 'I think I know what my mother would say, I think she'd look across the Despatch Box say 'put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem!' The furious Labour leader hit back: 'If we're talking of motherly advice, my late mother would have said: 'stand up for the principle of a health service free at the point of use for everybody' because that's what she dedicated her life to, as did many of her generation.' After the exchanges, Mr Corbyn quoted Albert Einstein on Twitter in a fresh dig at the PM. He said: 'If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes & shoddy furniture let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas & shoddy philosophies.' Later yesterday Mr Cameron ditched his suit jacket and tie as he addressed a Tory EU referendum rally this evening just hours after ridiculing Jeremy Corbyn over his outfit choices. The Prime Minister attended the rally at the ICA in central London in a relaxed shirt just hours after claiming that his mother Mary would tell Mr Corbyn to 'put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem'. Realising the irony of his advice with his latest attire, Mr Cameron told activists tonight: 'I have to say, as you can see, I have tonight ignored my mother's own advice. First World War hero Lawrence of Arabia had a secret love for the woman who taught him Arabic and was not gay as has been speculated, a new book has claimed. In the book The Boy in the Mask - The Hidden World of Lawrence of Arabia, author Dick Benson-Gyles claims Lawrence loved Farida al Akle, who taught him Arabic in the Lebanon. Some accounts have speculated that Thomas Edward 'TE' Lawrence was homosexual, but Mr Benson-Gyles, of Plymouth, Devon, said that belief was false. Lawrence of Arabia (left) 'loved' Farida al Akle (right), 'and she loved him' according to author Dick Benson-Gyles He said: 'Some have suggested that Lawrence was gay or repressed gay. But I have shown that he loved an Arab woman and she loved him.' While studying Lawrence, Mr Benson-Gyles travelled to Lebanon to meet Farida prior to her death in 1975. He explained that Lawrence had a dislike of being touched, so their relationship could have been 'spiritual'. After meeting Farida in Lebanon to speak about her relationship with Lawrence, Mr Benson-Gyles received a 'confessional' letter from her where she revealed more. Previous accounts had suggested Lawrence of Arabia was gay, but Mr Benson-Gyles said that is false He said: 'She said in the letter: 'I have not told you the truth.' 'She said the relationship between the two was a 'union of a soul with a soul.' 'He was alone with her for two months learning Arabic. 'He didn't like being touched but she said he had - at one time - his arm around her.' 'People were so keen to say he [Lawrence] was a homosexual.' The private life of Lawrence, who led Arab rebels as Britain's ally during the First World War, has remained largely secret. Mr Benson-Gyles said he was shy with women - with his reticence was a combination of guilt that was pushed on to him by his mother, and due to a male rape and brutal beating he suffered as a prisoner of war. Mr Benson-Gyles has penned The Boy in the Mask - The Hidden World of Lawrence of Arabia Evidence for that attack - which other accounts have suggested was exaggerated by Lawrence - has also been unearthed by the author. Mr Benson-Gyles believes Lawrence suffered psychological damage and that he asked his fellow soldiers to beat him in 'a tragic attempt to exorcise the memory of his rape'. All those incidents point to Lawrence being a 'repressed heterosexual,' the author believes. Farida wrote to Mr Benson-Gyles to speak about her 'spiritual' relationship with Lawrence He explained that his interest in Lawrence began while he was studying at university in Ireland. He said: 'I thought if he was anything like he is in the film, he must have been a pretty interesting bloke. 'I first read the 1955 biography and I thought he was another hero whose feet were made of clay. 'But the interest I had made me look further and my faith in him was restored.' The writer also relates the full story of Lawrence's background as the illegitimate son of an Anglo-Irish aristocrat. He added: 'As I was in Ireland [at university] I started to do some research into his father's family. 'In previous biographies there have never been more than two pages about his Irish ancestry, this book goes into more detail.' Lawrence is best known as the British soldier who led Arab rebels in the First World War, fighting against Turkey, Germany's ally. He became a celebrated hero with a flamboyant, romantic image thanks to press coverage and his own account of his adventures. But the 1962 Oscar-winning film Lawrence of Arabia helped preserve his status as a hero and started Mr Benson-Gyles' lifelong fascination with the adventurer. Peter O'Toole (right) starred as Lawrence of Arabia in the 1962 film as the officer who disrupted supply routes The location of TE Lawrence's camp, which researchers found with Google Earth and an old map in 2014 His research has also found evidence that the British hero sympathised with Irish nationalists and was offered a post in the Free State Army. The approach was made by Michael Collins, the Irish rebel leader, when they met during negotiations in London that led to an independent Ireland in 1922. Lawrence was flattered but turned down the offer and instead joined the RAF. The Boy in the Mask - The Hidden World of Lawrence of Arabia is published by Lilliput on Tuesday March 1. Former Kids Company worker Colin Okomi (pictured) beat his teenage daughter and jabbed her in the head with scissors after she fell in love with the wrong boy, a court has heard A former Kids Company worker beat his teenage daughter and jabbed her in the head with scissors after she fell in love with the wrong boy, a court has heard. Colin Okomi allegedly lashed out at 17-year-old Aasiyah, pushing her against the window and kicking her to the ground, because he did not want her marrying her Turkish boyfriend. The 45-year-old, who worked at the charity for seven years, then allegedly grabbed a pair of scissors and dug them into his daughter's head several times. When he found out months later that the pair had secretly married in an Islamic ceremony, he allegedly turned up at the couple's home, where he tried to stab Aasiyah's 19-year-old husband Erhan Ozyen. During a 999 call following that alleged incident, terrified Aasiyah told the operator: 'My dad's just tried to stab my husband. Please take him away from me.' The charity worker, from Stockwell, south London, is accused of assaulting his daughter and harassing the married couple. But, in evidence today at Inner London Crown Court, Okomi insisted it was against his religion to 'manhandle' his daughter. 'I have never in my life put my hands to my daughter,' he said. 'Islamically for a father to manhandle his daughter like that is major. You can't do things like that ' Aasiyah had previously told jurors that her father assaulted her at their home in May 2014 because she was insistent she wanted to marry Mr Ozyen. Giving evidence, she told the court: 'He put his hands around my neck and pushed my hands up against the window. He then kicked me so hard to my right thigh and I fell to the floor. 'When I was on the floor he kicked me repeatedly. He kicked me in my back, my head and all over my torso. 'He hit me several times with a full two litre plastic water bottle. He hit me with this across the face, splitting my lip open. 'As I was about to leave, my father took some scissors and dug them into the left side of my head three or four times.' Okomi is then accused of harassing the couple with a series of menacing phone calls, before allegedly turning up at their home with a dog chain and trying to stab Mr Ozyen. Today, Okomi admitted going round to the house but denied taking the chain saying: 'Anybody who knows Islam knows it is forbidden for a Muslim to have a dog.' He added that he still believed his daughter's marriage was invalid. He told the jury: 'Some ceremony. I still don't recognise it. That's the reason we are here, because I don't recognise the marriage.' Okomi told the court how Aasiyah was only 15 when she first mentioned she wanted to marry her future husband. The charity worker, from Stockwell, south London, is accused of assaulting his daughter. In evidence at Inner London Crown Court (pictured), Okomi insisted it was against his religion to 'manhandle' his daughter But her father told the jury he was wary of the teenage boy, because he was depressed and vulnerable. 'I have dealt with people like that for a number of years and know how it can link to extremism,' he said. 'I was concerned he was susceptible to this.' That year, in 2013, he took his family to Egypt to study Arabic and Islam, warning Mr Ozyen not to contact him or his daughter. While abroad, Okomi told his daughter that she should not marry him. He said he believed that was the end of the matter and Aasiyah had accepted his decision. But, by the time the family returned to Stockwell, south London, in May 2014, Aasiyah had become 'rude' which left Okomi wondering if his daughter still hoped to marry Mr Ozyen, the court heard. Islamically for a father to manhandle his daughter like that is major. You can't do things like that Colin Okomi As tensions increased between the pair, Okomi alleged assaulted her. After the alleged attack, Aasiyah immediately moved out of the house. Seven months later, she married Mr Ozyen. Describing how he felt when he found out about the wedding, Okomi said he was 'upset'. 'I wanted to find out how that ceremony took place and who had endorsed it, because everybody knows that according to Islamic jurisprudence that this was incorrect,' he told the court. 'I wanted to know who had sanctioned and approved it. I wanted to find out who was involved with her getting married without me knowing about it.' Shortly after, the court was told how Aasiyah began receiving anonymous phone calls. One allegedly threatened: 'You think this is a joke. I will kill you.' Jurors were also told how the young couple's front door was also knocked in the middle of the night. In another phone call to his daughter on Christmas day that year, Okomi demanded the matter be taken back to Brixton Mosque and discussed with the Imam. During that, conversation Okomi allegedly told her he would 'mash up' and 'damage' Erhan, and that if she got pregnant he would 'kick the baby out of my stomach.' But when she refused Okomi is said to have turned up on her doorstep looking menacing with a dog chain in his hand. A young girl died after having a 'medical episode' in a private school swimming pool, it was revealed today. The Year 7 pupil, aged 11 or 12, was in a swimming lesson at The Abbey School in Reading, Berkshire, when she experienced problems and had to be pulled from the water by teachers. An ambulance was called and the girl was taken to a hospital just a few hundred yards away where she was later died. The incident unfolded at the 15,000-a-year school one day before it broke up for half term holidays. A Year 7 girl at The Abbey School, pictured, in Reading, died after a 'medical episode' in the swimming pool The school closed the pool this week in as a mark of respect for the unnamed pupil. Several people left message of support for the girl's family on Facebook after the incident. Ambreen Hussain said on social media: 'RIP The school didn't tell us it happened in the pool. They closed the pool this week out of respect. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family. Very upsetting.' Paula Miall added: 'The worst thing that could happen to any parent, losing a child. Absolutely awful. Thoughts with her family. Heart breaking.' A spokesman for the South Central Ambulance Service said paramedics were called to the school at 2.24pm on Thursday, February 11. 'We were called to a female student being pulled unconscious from a swimming pool. We sent an ambulance, and officer and the air ambulance and she was taken by land to the Royal Berkshire Hospital.' The girl was taken to Royal Berkshire Hospital, pictured, but died of natural causes It was understood that there will not be an inquest held into the girl's death who was believed to have died from natural causes. Thames Valley Police were not called into investigate as there were no suspicious circumstances. A spokesman for The Abbey School said: 'We are deeply saddened to confirm the loss of one of our pupils. 'She was a much-loved member of our school and our thoughts and prayers are with her family. Advertisement Authorities destroying scores of dangerous hoverboards were forced to run for cover - when they set on fire. Trading Standards officials took the 90 devices that were imported into the UK from Hong Kong and destroyed them. After electrical testing the boards were found to have defective battery packs and other faulty features which could have led to them catching fire or exploding without warning. Scroll down for video Hoverboards, pictured, being confiscated by Trading Standards for being a potential hazard caught on fire while they were being destroyed Ninety of the devices, pictured, were taken by officials after being imported into the UK from Hong Kong After the fire started the boards had to be doused with a powder-based extinguisher before the metal was recycled afterwards The boards were so dangerous that even during their destruction some caught fire and had to be doused with a powder-based fire extinguisher. After being crushed, the material was sent for recycling. Richard Walsh, Surrey County Council's cabinet member for localities and community wellbeing, said: 'Our focus is on protecting consumers and the swift actions of our trading standards officers have prevented a large consignment of potentially dangerous products ever going on sale.' After electrical testing the boards, pictured, were found to have defective battery packs and other faulty features which could have led to them catching fire The consignment brought into the UK via Heathrow Airport was worth around 7,500 and were stopped at an inspection point in Surrey The 7,500 consignment had been brought into the country via Heathrow Airport and sent to an inspection point in Surrey where officers with Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards found possible problems with the boards. A further haul of 50 hoverboards, also brought in through Heathrow, has been impounded by trading standards officers while investigations continue. The gadgets have been plagued with warnings over safety after a number of hoverboards have blown up when plugged in to charge. Online retailer Amazon has told customers who bought 'hoverboards' to throw them out after concerns they can catch fire and Trading Standards officials revealed that 80 per cent of hoverboards are unsafe. A further haul of 50 hoverboards also brought into the UK via Heathrow has been impounded by Trading Standards pending investigations More than 32,000 hoverboards were held at the UK border in December after they were deemed not safe to use. Boards with low quality batteries are feared to be prone to exploding, with fires said to have been caused by batteries in cheap models bulk produced in China then rebranded in the UK and US. National Trading Standards said more than 38,000 hoverboards had been 'subject to intervention' due to safety concerns, and more than 80 per cent had been assessed as unsafe. They were even banned from being used in Windsor Great Park by the Crown Estate in line with the Crown Prosecution Service's guidance, according to The Sun. Three 'evil and ruthless' care home workers have been jailed after admitting assaulting an elderly resident. Anita Ray, Lorna Clark and Adeshola Adediwura were caught abusing 84-year-old Florence Maddison at the Old Deanery care home in Braintree, Essex. Footage showed Ray, 45, slapping Mrs Maddison, who is partially paralysed and has dementia, while on a separate occasion Adediwura, 33, was seen striking her on her knuckles with a hair brush. Three 'evil and ruthless' care home workers have been jailed after admitting assaulting an elderly resident. Above (left to right), Lorna Clark, Anita Ray and Adeshola Adediwura, who were sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court The women were all handed four months in prison after being charged following an undercover investigation by BBC Panorama, which aired in April 2014. Judge Patricia Lynch, sentencing, described the abuse as a 'massive breach of trust' and said the women were a 'disgrace'. She told them: 'You deserve to be punished. We are dealing with an 84-year-old lady who was vulnerable physically and vulnerable mentally and she could not help the way that she behaved because of her condition. 'I understand that caring for elderly people in a nursing home is not an easy job but you were supposed to be professionals and there is no excuse for your behaviour.' Clark, 46, Ray and Adediwura, all from Essex, had each admitted one charge of assault at Chelmsford Crown Court at an earlier hearing. The abused emerged after Panorama sent a reporter to work at the home following a tip off from a whistleblower in 2013, prosecutors said. The tree women were caught abusing 84-year-old Florence Maddison, pictured with her daughter Debbie at Christmas, at the Old Deanery care home in Braintree, Essex The women were all handed four months in prison after being charged following an undercover investigation by BBC Panorama, which aired in April 2014. Above, footage from the investigation showed Clark throwing a bag strap One clip, which was also played in court, showed Ray struggling to lift Mrs Maddison from a bed on November 24, 2013, before slapping her. Before the assault Ray could be heard saying: 'We shouldn't have to put up with this. This is ridiculous. I'm not listening to you, you have nothing to say.' In the second video played to the court Adediwura could be seen hitting Mrs Maddison across the knuckles four times with a hairbrush before forcing the brush on her lips and teeth. In the video, recorded on February 3, 2014, she said: 'You are not going to take me down. I am going to be the one to take you down.' Meanwhile, Clark was filmed grabbing Mrs Maddison's neck while helping her dress on February 8, 2014. The court heard Mrs Maddison, a former social worker, was forced to give up her job after having a stroke in 1985. She also suffered from cancer and diabetes, as well as being partially paralysed. One clip showed Ray, pictured outside court, struggling to lift Mrs Maddison from a bed on November 24, 2013, before slapping her Martin Mulgrew, prosecuting, said Mrs Maddison was a 'highly vulnerable' victim who was unable to wash and dress herself. Mrs Maddison's daughter, Gillian Lee, told the court her mother had been left defenceless at the hands of her abusers because of her disabilities. She added: 'Knowing these vile people were exercising control over my mum and other vulnerable people is beyond my ability to adequately express. 'These so-called carers were evil and ruthless and totally lacking in any standard of compassion for an elderly lady. 'Time and time again, she was saying "stop youre hurting me". They took no notice of her pain and distress.' But barristers representing the defendants said the home had not been adequate for Mrs Maddison's needs and said none of the women had had sufficient training. Gareth Hughes, mitigating for Clark, who is originally from the Philippines, said the home was not able to offer the kind of specialist care somebody with Mrs Maddisons difficulties needed. He added: 'It was a chaotic environment and, although she had some training, it was not the kind of specialist training that was clearly appropriate.' Joanne Eley, mitigating for Ray, said Mrs Maddisons placement at the Old Deanery had been inappropriate because it was not equipped to deal with her dementia. She also said Mrs Maddison, who is still at the care home, which has been renamed as the New Deanery, did not suffer any physical injury following the slapping incident. Meanwhile, Evelyn Hicks, representing Adediwura, originally from Nigeria, said the attack had been an 'isolated incident'. She said: 'She originally applied for a job as a housekeeper but was persuaded to become a career. 'She had no training or background as a carer, nothing at all to suggest she was fit for the role.' In the second video played to the court Adediwura could be seen hitting Mrs Maddison across the knuckles four times with a hairbrush before forcing the brush on her lips and teeth while Clark was filmed grabbing Mrs Maddison's neck while helping her dress on February 8, 2014 The court heard Mrs Maddison was still at the care home (pictured), which has been renamed the New Deanery Speaking after sentencing, Mrs Lee said the whole system needed to learn from their convictions. She added: 'They say that they werent properly trained but there were plenty of other, innocent carers who didnt behave like this. 'We are so grateful to the whistleblower, the BBC and the police for bringing them to justice. 'We would say to other relatives concerned about their loved ones, dont be afraid to get a hidden camera and prove whats happening.' Dont be afraid to get a hidden camera and prove whats happening Mrs Maddison's daughter, Gillian Lee Mrs Maddison's granddaughter Natalie Collins, 40, also spoke of her relief at the sentences outside court. She said: 'It has been a long two years. My family have been through an awful lot and it is closure for my nan. 'I think it sends a message out that you cannot get with this sort of thing. I feel sorry for them [the three care workers] that their lives have gone the way that they feel they have to do these things.' An inspection carried out by the Care Quality Commission after the documentary found the Old Deanery was failing in eight out of nine key areas. Since the abuse allegations were made, the home has been rebranded as the New Deanery with new management. DCI Stephen Jennings, of Essex Police, added: 'The offenders have already lost their jobs at the care home and these convictions mean they will never be able to work in this field again. school says it is also considering changing its official seal Harvard University has confirmed they will abolish the word master from academic titles due to its racist connotations and links to slavery and are considering changing their official seal. College Dean Rakesh Khurana announced in an email to students that House leaders decided to change the title 'to reflect the current realities of the role' and it had been approved by the Massachusetts university president. It comes as the school also debates whether to scrap their seal which features the crest of the former slaveholding Royall family. Historic change: Harvard University (pictured) will drop the title 'house master', after it was claimed to have racist connotations and links to slavery Isaac Royall, born in 1719 in Antigua, was the son of wealthy sugar plantation and the owner of many slaves. House masters are the heads of the 12 halls of residence and are responsible for overseeing the pastoral care of undergraduates. Ivy League institutions adopted the term from British schools, notably Oxford and Cambridge, where 'master' is short for 'schoolmaster'. However, in the American context, it has been criticized for its associations for slavery. And in an email, seen by the Washington Post, Mr Khurana said: 'I write on behalf of myself and my fellow residential House leaders to let you know that the House Masters have unanimously expressed desire to change their title. 'In the coming weeks, the College will launch a process in which members of the House leaders docket committee, working with senior College team members and the House leadership community as a whole, will suggest a new title that reflects the current realities of the role.' Princeton university is still deciding whether to remove references to President Woodrow Wilson, who many students claim was racist The decision came after Mr Khurana previously told students that a committee will suggest a new title that reflects the current realities of the role over the coming weeks. I have not felt comfortable personally with the title, he told the college newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. The recommendation to change the title has been a thoughtful one, rooted in a broad effort to ensure that the Colleges rhetoric, expectations and practices around our historically unique roles reflects and serves the 21st century needs of residential student life. A Facebook page describing itself as a union of white Harvard students then emerged at the university, prompting outrage among students. Critics denounced the group as racist, and the discovery sparked an investigation into how the group came about. The page includes a description which claims that it was formed to defend the inherent rights of White Europeans. There are also links to the website of the American Renaissance, a group listed as a White Nationalist extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Protests concerning the issue of race are sweeping through universities across the nation. Supporters believe that the protesters demands for greater racial awareness is a sign of progress. But others complain the demands are interfering with colleges and universities as places of education. Princeton University has also made changes to reflect growing racial awareness. It announced that it would be changing the title master of the residential college to head of the college, on November 18. The administration at Princeton is still deciding whether to remove references to President Woodrow Wilson, who led the university from 1902 to 1910, but who many students claim was a racist. Yales president Peter Salovey also said that he had been discussing whether to make a change to remove the word master from titles since the beginning of the school year. Other universities have lost members of staff under the pressure of the protests. The President and chancellor of the University of Missouri both stepped down as a result. A 54-year-old Vermont man was arrested and charged, after his girlfriend's eight-year-old son described how he helped grow 'special medicine' plants. An affidavit said the second grade student revealed to Windsor Det. Jennifer Frank and school officials he assisted his mother's boyfriend in growing 'special medicine that can cure anything at all,' the Times-Argus reported. Frank said the boy claimed people came to the Windsor residence often. Busted: Steven Mann, 54, and Leona Hunt, 25, were arrested Friday, according to Windsor police The boy reportedly said in the affidavit his mother Leona Hunt's boyfriend Steven Mann also had a 'green thumb.' Windsor police said in a news release last week that Mann and Hunt, 25, were arrested at their apartment Friday morning. Police said they found two 'grow rooms' next to the child's bedroom. Windsor police said: 'Discovered inside the apartment was a sophisticated indoor growing operation. 'Fifty (50) marijuana plants were confiscated with a street value of approximately $75,000. 'Also confiscated were numerous bags of marijuana packaged for sale, quantities of Hallucinogenic mushrooms, Hashish and U.S. Currency.' Recovered: Police said that 'Fifty (50) marijuana plants were confiscated with a street value of approximately $75,000' Mann and Hunt were arrested for marijuana cultivation, possession of a hallucinogenic drug, possession of a depressant or stimulant and cruelty to a child, Windsor police said. Mann pleaded not guilty this week to a felony count of cultivating more than 25 marijuana plants. Mann 'was released on a $10,000 unsecured appearance bond,' the Times-Argus reported. A woman who answered a phone listing for a Steven Mann in Windsor County said it was the wrong number. A teenage girl was killed when she was hit by a van as she crossed the road to school - almost exactly three years after her four-year-old brother died. Zoe Shapiro, 17, was struck by the van after leaving her father's house to go to school on the opposite side of the road. Her devastated mother Jo Corbett-Weeks, 43, who also has a five-year-old son TJ, said today: 'I am numb. To lose one child is awful but to lose two in three years is more pain than I can begin to express.' Jo Corbett-Weeks with her daughter Zoe Shapiro, 17, who was struck by a van on her way to school yesterday Rescue teams desperately tried to save the teenager who was struck at 8.30am yesterday morning on Birmingham Road, in Great Barr. She was taken to the city's Queen Elizabeth Hospital but died a short time later. Her death comes a week before the third anniversary of the death of her four-year-old brother, Max Corbett-Gardener. He died following complications from his severe epilepsy. Speaking today, their heartbroken mother said: 'Zoe was a happy, lovely, fun-loving, beautiful bubbly girl. She had friends and a boyfriend and plans for her future. All that is over now. 'She was very close to her little brother Max and she was so strong when he died, probably stronger than me, and I will always remember that. Zoe's death comes a week before the third anniversary of the death of her four-year-old brother, Max Corbett-Gardener (pictured) 'I told TJ that Zoe wouldn't be coming home again and he cried his heart out. I don't know how he will react when it sinks in that he has lost his brother and sister in three years.' Zoe lived with her mother in Malvern, in Worcestershire, but was staying with her father, Dominic Shapiro, 44, the night before she died. The gifted student, who had plans to study psychology at university, attended the Q3 Academy which was opposite her father's home in Great Barr, Birmingham. Ms Corbett-Weeks, a part-time barmaid, added: 'Dominic and myself split up a long time ago but Zoe lived with me and often spent nights with her dad. 'Zoe had just said goodbye to her dad and was crossing the road when she was hit by a van. Apparently the van had gone through a red light. 'Dominic heard ambulances but only realised Zoe had been knocked over when the school phoned him. 'She was resuscitated and taken to hospital but there was nothing they could do. Next Friday [March 4] is the anniversary of Max's death.' Ms Corbett-Weeks had previously slammed council chiefs after Max's specially made headstone featuring a teddy bear was removed without her permission. She was told the star-shaped stone - for which she had saved 3,000 - was 'not in keeping' with others in the cemetery and it was removed three days after it was erected. Malvern Town Council, who are responsible for running the cemetery, said they removed the stone after receiving a complaint from another family. Zoe lived with her mother in Malvern, in Worcestershire, but was staying with her father, Dominic Shapiro, 44, the night before she died Zoe had just said goodbye to her father and was crossing the road when she was hit by the van yesterday Touching tributes, flowers and teddy bears have been left at the scene of the crash with one poignant message reading: 'I'm sorry I couldn't help more this morning. RIP Zoe.' In a letter to parents, head teacher of Q3 Academy Caroline Badyal said: 'It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I have to inform you that one of our students was involved in a fatal road traffic accident. 'This incident is now a police investigation and we are supporting the police with their investigation. 'The Academy is offering counselling to any students and staff affected in any way and we are working with Sandwell Council to make sure appropriate support is available. 'I know you will support us in respecting the family's privacy. Our thoughts are with the family and friends at this difficult time.' PC Julie Lyman, from West Midlands Police, added: 'We have spoken to a number of witnesses at the scene. 'But we would still like to hear from anyone who saw what happened and has not yet spoken to an officer. 'This is a devastating tragedy for the girl's family and her friends and our thoughts remain with them at this difficult time.' Avoids jail: Andrew Picard, 18, from Westminster, London, was found with more than 2,000 pornographic images of children on his computer A former Eton College student avoided jail today despite making and distributing appalling indecent images of children and bestiality film clips. Andrew Picard, from Westminster, London, was found with more than 2,000 pornographic images of children on his computer at the prestigious school near Windsor, Berkshire. The 18-year-old son of a top lawyer sat in his college dormitory sharing the pictures in chat rooms and was 17 when he was caught sharing material with an undercover police officer. Picard, who was arrested at Eton after his IP address was traced there, admitted ten counts of child pornography - and at Oxford Crown Court was today handed a ten-month prison term, suspended for 18 months. He was let off jail after being credited for his work with doctors in the past year to address his offending - but this was said to be a perk of his privileged position. The offences dated from January to February last year when Picard made indecent images of youngsters and shared them via chat messages on Skype. Thousands of images and clips were found on Picards computer and hard drive that showed acts so appalling that Judge Peter Ross could not bring himself to describe them. Others showed children as young as two being raped and forced to have sex with dogs. Cathy Olliver, prosecuting, said the undercover officer had entered a teen chatroom, for those aged between 13 and 19 years, on February 9, 2015, when he was contacted by a user called 'AP16MUK' - standing for Andrew Picard, aged 16, male, from the UK. Picard messaged the undercover officer asking: Do you want to see pics of boys and girls your age, nude? Boasting of having hundreds of videos, Picard added the officer on Skype and shared indecent images of a boy aged ten and girls aged eight and 14 years. Asking the undercover officer for proof he was aged 14 years as he said and not some old man, Picard later shared a video of his own face. His IP address led police to Eton school in Berkshire where staff were able to identify him as a pupil, Ms Olliver said. He was arrested from school on suspicion of distributing indecent photographs of children. Prestigious: Picard was arrested at Eton College in Windsor, Berkshire, after his IP address was traced there Picard admitted one count of possessing indecent pictures of children, one count of making indecent pictures of children and eight counts of distributing indecent photos or recordings of a child. Detectives found 1,185 indecent images and videos on his computer and on hard-drives seized from his school dormitory. They also discovered chat logs from the chatrooms where Picard boasted about the quality of his videos and asked users who claimed to be as young as 14 to exchange naked shots of themselves for indecent videos he would provide. Ms Olliver said it was a feature of Picard's offending that he would send images in return for the user to strip, showing him their underarm or groin. She added: There are aggravating features, the children are very young, in obvious pain and distress, and the number of photographs distributed. Dressed in jeans, trainers and a navy jumper, brown-haired Picard squeezed his eyes shut as Judge Peter Ross described some of the vile Category A material found in his possession. Do you want to see pics of boys and girls your age, nude? What Andrew Picard asked an undercover police officer One of his videos showed a girl as young as three being raped, while others showed young children being forced to have sex with dogs. Sallie Bennett-Jenkins, QC referred to her client's remorse and pointed to the good work he had been doing with doctors in the past year, undergoing constant treatment with numerous doctors and psychiatrists. This is a young and very able man who has hopes for the future, she added. He was able to have this opportunity [to seek help] and this was something Andrew sought for himself, by himself. Sparing Picard jail, Judge Ross said a term of custody would undo the good work he had done in the past year undergoing extensive counselling. He said: This defendant Andrew Picard was a privileged young man. His family are clearly wealthy enough to send him to school in Eton. Quite how you found your way into this unpleasant world Mr Picard, the world of chatrooms and exchanging this material, is not clear to me. Why you did it doctors and others have sought to explain - the emotional difficulties you had, issues around your sexuality. However he blasted all those who deal in child sexual exploitation, saying they were not victimless crimes. All too often in these courts we see the internet and chatrooms providing a degree of assumed detachment in terms of what is said and the material that is viewed. Please make no bones about it, these are children, some of them very tiny, and they are being abused and tortured simply to provide sexual gratification, mainly, to adult males Judge Peter Ross Please make no bones about it, these are children, some of them very tiny, and they are being abused and tortured simply to provide sexual gratification, mainly, to adult males. All over the world, too often in the third world, children being made objects of the most appalling abuse. It forms a currency and you played a part in that. You were seeking to obtain your own sexual gratification. A mental health treatment requirement was added to his sentence for 18 months, which will continue with his existing providers. He was made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and was ordered to pay 1,200 in prosecution costs. Picard's wealthy family live in prime real estate next to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. His father is a managing partner in the London office of a large American corporate law firm. The judge added: It has been said that you and your family have suffered deeply as a result of your arrest and public exposure. Couple say they were shocked and saddened to be discriminated against Delorme warns she'd rather close than be forced to sell gay wedding cakes A Texas baker has refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple because she claimed it went against her Christian beliefs. Ben Valencia and his fiance Luis Marmolejo had visited Kern's Bakery in Longview, last week to get a quote for a cake for their special day. But the couple were shocked when co-owner of the store, Edie Delorme, refused to sell them a wedding cake - due to their sexual orientation, Longview News-Journal reports. Scroll down for video Ben Valencia (right) felt 'saddened' after a Texas baker Edie Delorme (left) refused to make a wedding cake for him and his fiance because she claimed it offended her Christian beliefs 'It just kind of makes you feel dehumanized,' Valencia told the Longview News Journal. 'People shouldn't have to worry about going into a business, especially a public business that serves the public, and have to worry about being turned away for something, for who you are.' But DeLorme has defended her decision to turn away the couple explaining that gay weddings clashed with her belief that marriage is meant to be between a man and a woman. 'We just felt that was not an event that we needed to participate in,' Delorme added. The dispute began after Valencia and Marmolejo, who plan to tie the knot on March 27, entered the bakery to get a price for a wedding cake made of individual petit fours. They had just received a competitive quote when DeLorme challenged the couple who the cake was for. Ben Valencia and his fiance Luis Marmolejo (pictured together) had visited Kern's Bakery last week to get a quote for a cake for their special day But the couple were shocked when co-owner of the store, in Longview, Texas, (pictured) refused to sell them a wedding cake - due to their sexual orientation When they explained it was for their upcoming nuptials, the baker owner replied in an allegedly 'disgusted' tone: 'Sorry. We don't provide cakes for homosexual marriages'. However, DeLorme, who owns the bakery with her husband David, said the firm would often refuse cake orders if they felt they did not fit their values. They had previously turned down an order for a beer themed creation and risque cakes. But Valencia and his fiance, who have been together for two years, believe that their refusal amounts to discrimination. 'I wasn't really mad,' Valencia said. 'I was more like saddened by it, because that is the first time anything like that has happened to me.' Recent cases of business owners refusing to serve homosexual couples has landed many firms with discrimination claims. Last year, a court ruled that a Christian baker from Colorado who also refused to make a wedding cake for a gay marriage ceremony cannot use his religious beliefs as a defense. Valencia said he and his partner were shocked as he had never experienced 'anything like it' before But DeLorme has defended her decision to turn away the couple explaining that it was her belief that marriage is meant to be between a man and a woman Jack Phillips, who owns Masterpiece Cakeshop near Denver, was accused of discrimination after refusing to bake a wedding cake for David Mullins and Charlie Craig in 2012. Philips said forcing him to make cakes for gay marriage ceremonies violated his right to freedom of speech and his religious freedoms. But in August of last year, Colorado Court of Appeals rejected his argument. He will now face a fine if he refuses to bake another one of the cakes, is required to train his staff in anti-discrimination law, and will need to submit a quarterly compliance survey. In Portland, Oregon, a bakery that declined to make a wedding cake for a gay couple three years ago was ordered to pay $135,000 in damages in July, 2015. The owners of Sweet Cakes, Melissa and Aaron Klein, refused to make a cake for Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer saying doing so would violate their religious freedom, but the argument was again rejected. In 2013, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that a photographer who wouldn't take pictures of a gay couple's 2006 commitment ceremony violated the state's anti-discrimination law. Last year, Jack Philips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop near Denver, Colorado, was accused of discrimination after refusing to bake a wedding cake for David Mullins and Charlie Craig in 2012 A panel of three judges ruled that Philips' actions had clearly broken anti-discrimination laws, while saying he cannot use his religious beliefs as a defense And in Washington state, a florist has been fighting a lawsuit filed after she refused to provide services for a gay wedding in 2013. But DeLorme claims that if the authorities attempt to force her to make wedding cakes for homosexual couples she would close her company. She added that even if her gay nephew wanted her to make a cake for his wedding, she would refuse. Yet in Texas, discussions are underway to expand a new law allowing preachers to refuse to officiate at gay weddings. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal indicated the legislation, which followed the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, may be extended to allow faith-based organizations to refuse service to gay couples without repercussion. Meanwhile, Valencia and Marmolejo are counting down the days to their nuptials. And they have got the cake of their dreams thanks to another baker who got in touch after seeing their story. Tee Allen, who owns Mama Tee's Cakes and Catering in White Oak, told the Kilgore News Herald: 'I don't care if you're pink, purple, polka-dotted, gay or straight,' she said. 'If you want me to make you a cake, I'm going to make you a cake.' Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer were awarded $135,000 after a bakery in their home state of Oregon refused to make them a gay marriage cake two years ago because of religious beliefs Advertisement A trainspotter drove 50 miles and waited nearly an hour to see the Flying Scotsman yesterday - only for his view to be blocked by another train. Ryan Allen, of Spilsby, Lincolnshire, thought he had set up at the perfect spot next to the East Coast Main Line in the village of Little Bytham. However, he was left disappointed when a commuter train whizzed by at the exact moment the locomotive passed. All that could be seen was the red and white body of the Virgin train, with the thick white smoke of the Flying Scotsman in behind it. He tweeted his unfortunate moment in a video, saying: 'I had a feeling this would happen!'. It has since been retweeted more than 1,200 times. Obstruction: A trainspotter drove 50 miles and waited nearly an hour to see the Flying Scotsman steam past yesterday in Lincolnshire Blocked view: Ryan Allen was left disappointed when a commuter train whizzed by at the exact moment the Flying Scotsman passed Oh dear: Mr Allen thought he had set up at the perfect spot next to the East Coast Main Line in the Lincolnshire village of Little Bytham There it is: Mr Allen posted his unfortunate moment as a video on Twitter, saying: 'I had a feeling this would happen!' Quick shot: Virgin replied to him apologising and offered him a free train trip to the US to see one of the famous rail networks in Georgia Virgin Trains apologising to him in a reply and offered him a free train trip to the US to see one of the famous rail networks in Atlanta, Georgia. A spokesman on its Twitter account told him: 'We feel bad about that photobomb! I hear Atlanta, Georgia has a super busy rail network. Fancy a trip courtesy of Virgin Atlantic? Because we'd love to make you the #FlyingYorkshireman in apology!' Shrouded in steam through the scenic countryside almost a century after it was built, the Flying Scotsman gave other trainspotters a day to remember. But the excitement was too much for some yesterday, who forced it to come to a 'shuddering stop' on its inaugural journey by standing on the line. The train, which departed London King's Cross at 7.40am and arrived in York at 1.20pm yesterday, came to a halt near St Neots in Cambridgeshire. And the conductor of one of the world's most famous trains leaned out of the window 50 miles into its first official run after a 4.2million refit. Footage taken from inside shows him yelling: Will you get right off the line side?! You are causing the railway to be shut. Right off the line side!' Glorious: The Flying Scotsman makes its first run with passengers after a major refit and overhaul, at Greatford crossing in Lincolnshire Here she comes: The Flying Scotsman has completed its journey from London to York despite being 20 minutes behind schedule Arriving in York: Many trainspotters wanted the perfect picture, but one group further south went too far, causing it to 'suddenly stop' Arrival: Network Rail pleaded with trainspotters to be safe, and after the first disruption the vehicle had a smooth journey to York Steaming through: The locomotive, pictured at Colton Junction near York, looked majestic in its original livery of British Rail green Refit costing 4.2million: Dozens of photographers watched the historic steam train on its inaugural journey at Colton Junction near York The Flying Scotsman eventually completed its trip in five hours 40 minutes - running 20 minutes behind schedule due to the trespassing incident. Following the disruption, Network Rail pleaded with the several thousand spectators lining the route to stay safe while watching the iconic train. Passengers had described a 'shuddering stop', while footage filmed from the stationary train showed people walking down the tracks holding cameras. The Rail magazine's editor Nigel Harris, who was on the train, said it had to carry out a big break following rampant trespass by mindless hordes. An NR spokesman said: 'The number of people beside the track is already giving us safety concerns and means we are having to slow trains down. 'Trespassing on the railway is illegal and incredibly dangerous. Please help us to make today a success and stay off the railway.' Spectacular trails of steam were left in the wake of the locomotive, including outside Arsenal FCs Emirates Stadium as it travelled north from London. Thousands of people gathered on platform one at London's King's Cross to watch the historic steam locomotive depart ahead of the journey. Smoking: The Flying Scotsman powered past the Eggborough Power Station near Selby, North Yorkshire, as it neared its destination Waving: The engineering marvel leaves a trail of steam in its wake as it travels near East Retford in Nottinghamshire on its marathon trip Greatford in Lincolnshire: The National Railway Museum bought it for 2.3million in 2004 before work got under way on its restoration Fantastic moment: A worker waves to the Flying Scotsman as it travels past the Lincolnshire village of Greatford, near Stamford Wonderful: The steam engine - seen at Greatford - will be kept at the NRM in York until March 6 before embarking on a tour around the UK Hello: A passenger enjoying a drink on board waves to a spectator after the train took on water at Connington Junction in Peterborough Watching it go: The Flying Scotsman passes through Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire, in between St Neots and Huntingdon Making tracks: The Flying Scotsman passed through the Cambridgeshire village of Offord Cluny during its journey from London to York Shout: The train conductor peers out of the window (left) before leaning out (right) to shout at trespassers on the railway line near St Neots Passengers had paid as much as 450 for a ticket. In total, 297 passengers were on the journey, including VIPs, fundraisers, competition winners and ticket-buying members of the public. Among them was Michael Portillo, who was 'very excited' to witness the 'engineering triumph' while filming for the BBC's Great British Railway Journeys. He said: 'This is certainly the most famous journey and most famous locomotive in Britain. 'It's absolutely wonderful that it's able to run today from London to York. We've got a very excited bunch of passengers. We've got a whole lot of history.' Asked why the Flying Scotsman was so popular, he replied: 'Partly it's because it was an engineering triumph. It was a big locomotive, it was powerful and it reached 100 miles per hour. 'And partly because of the extraordinarily successful marketing in the 1920s onwards so Flying Scotsman became entirely iconic.' Through Hertfordshire: The engineering marvel, pictured travelling over the Digswell Viaduct near Welwyn Garden City, has been restored Beautiful: Described by Michael Portillo as an 'engineering triumph', the legendary locomotive is pictured near Hatfield in Hertfordshire Potters Bar: The National Railway Museum bought the Flying Scotsman for 2.3million in 2004 and has spent a decade restoring it Gunners: The train left an incredible trail of steam outside Arsenal's Emirates Stadium as it roared past the North London football ground Snaps: Photographers watched the majestic train depart from King's Cross in London, but another group later on forced it to come to a halt Mr Portillo said Sir Nigel Gresley, who designed the locomotive, had 'an eye for engineering, for design, for style and for marketing'. The last man to drive the historic train before it was taken out of service in 1963 was also on board for the trip up the East Coast Main Line. Ron Kennedy, who first drove the Flying Scotsman in 1956, beamed with delight as the majestic steam engine pulled into King's Cross. The 83-year-old from Essex, who had first worked as a cleaner at the station almost 70 years age, said: 'It's unbelievable. I never dreamt about being on it again. To be out with it is just fantastic. It was a good engine. We didn't know them by their names, we knew them by their numbers. So to us it was 60103.' 'When the railway museum took it over they didn't know what to do with it but public donations meant they could put it back together again. Delighted: Passengers include VIPs, fundraisers, competition winners and train fans - some of whom paid as much as 450 for a ticket Chuffed to be there: Admirers throng platform one at Kings Cross Station as they catch a glimpse of the majestic locomotive Ready to depart: Excited onlookers took advantage of the rare opportunity to photograph the locomotive at platform one of King's Cross Majestic: Trainspotters were covered in steam at King's Cross as the locomotive, taking 297 passengers to York, left the capital Puffing: The iconic train has been painted in its original livery of British Rail green to mark the completion of the decade-long refit 'I think they've done a wonderful job. It belongs to the public really so let's keep it so it's always there for our children and grandchildren.' We've got a very excited bunch of passengers. We've got a whole lot of history Michael Portillo Paul Kirkman, director of the National Railway Museum in York, said the Flying Scotsman was a reminder that 'railways have been making this country run properly for nearly 200 years'. He said: 'It's a very special day because it's the world's most famous locomotive and it's back on the tracks again heading up the route that it would historically have done up the East Coast Main Line. 'Not quite all the way to Edinburgh but to a very good substitute in the National Railway Museum in York. 'It's the culmination of years of work to get this thing done, so to see it steaming back into here and steaming out back to the museum in York is an incredibly satisfying experience.' This week marks the anniversary of the iconic locomotive leaving Doncaster Works on February 27, 1923, after it was built. The last time the train made its way to Edinburgh was in 2000, with its last outing in 2005 from York to Scarborough. Working hard: Crew members in the engine room as the train, built in 1923, prepared to depart King's Cross station at the start of the trip Leaving King's Cross: Crew members were on hand to ensure the locomotive - known by its former crew as 60103 - safely departed Tough graft: The crew work inside the engine room of the train, which was expected to travel to York in five hours before the delays Wednesday: The train, pictured passing through Kilburn as it arrived in London ahead of the trip, broke the 100mph barrier back in 1934 The Flying Scotsman's incredible engineering prowess was demonstrated when it became the first train to break the 100mph barrier in 1934. The original Flying Scotsman train service began in Edinburgh in 1862 and still runs today. Its journey between Edinburgh and London took ten hours and stopped just once - for a half an hour stop for lunch at York. The National Railway Museum bought the locomotive for 2.3million in 2004 before work got under way on its restoration two years later. For its restoration, Flying Scotsman was painted in its original livery of British Rail green and had its nameplates have been reattached. The steam engine will be kept at the museum until March 6 before embarking on a tour around the country. Justice Minister Dominic Raab today announced the bespoke scheme would be abandoned The Government today admitted a 23million to scheme to design bespoke GPS tags for criminals would not work and better technology could be bought off the shelf. The scheme, announced by then justice secretary Chris Grayling in July 2014, had been intended to save money by increasing sentencing options for judges. But 18 months later and after most of the money has been spent, Justice Minister Dominic Raab today said the project had been a failure. Labour said the move 'beggars belief' and called on ministers to reveal exactly how much the scrapped process has cost the taxpayer. He told MPs: 'Developing bespoke tags has been challenging and it is now clear that it will be more appropriate to pursue our goals using off-the-shelf technology which is already available. 'That is why the Ministry of Justice will be terminating our contract to develop a bespoke tagging product with Steatite Limited and will shortly begin a new procurement process for proven tags already on the market.' Mr Raab insisted satellite tracking of offenders still offered a 'huge opportunity' to reduce reoffending and slash costs for the taxpayer. And he insisted: 'We want to use technology to make sure we not only deliver the punishments that society rightly expects but also improve supervision in the community and support offenders to change their lives.' Problems with the programme became clear in July last year when minster Andrew Selous told MPs there had been 'significant problems' and 'considerable delays' with the scheme. A review into the scheme at that stage led to today's announcement to scrap the contract. Shadow prisons minister Jo Stevens said: 'It beggars belief that the Ministry of Justice has had to abandon yet another procurement process. 'From the overcharging scandal to G4S and Serco still being paid to deliver tagging equipment after they had been barred from running the contract, this whole saga has been a shambles from start to finish. 'The Tories must now come clean on how much this latest episode of financial mismanagement has cost the taxpayer and get on with focusing on the rehabilitation of offenders.' David Cameron visited HMP Onley earlier this month in a bid to put prison reform at the heart of his legacy as Prime Minister The move marks the latest in a string of U-turns since Michael Gove replaced Mr Grayling as justice secretary, including scrapping the controversial criminal courts charge, ditching plans for 'secure colleges' and terminating a controversial 5.9 million bid to run prison training services in Saudi Arabia. FIASCO THAT LET TERROR SUSPECT FLEE One of Britains most dangerous terror suspects was able to flee the country after a fiasco involving his GPS tag. Al Qaeda-trained fanatic Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed (pictured) became the subject of an international manhunt after being accused of tampering with his tag. He had given police the slip by escaping from a mosque wearing a burkha. But the 29-year-old walked free from court in November 2013 after it was successfully argued the tag, which used satellite navigation technology, was faulty. Lawyers for the Somali-born British citizen had claimed he had damaged his electronic tag when kneeling down to pray. They said that the tags do not appear to have been stress-tested to cope with a devout Muslim who prostrates himself in prayer five times a day. Mohamed, who was linked to the Al-Shabaab terror group and accused of plotting attacks in east Africa, had been placed under a terrorism prevention and investigation measures order, to restrict his movements. Advertisement Announcing the Steatite contract in July 2014, Mr Grayling had claimed the 23.2 million deal offered better value for money to the taxpayer, saving around 20 million a year compared with the old G4S and Serco contracts which were terminated after an overcharging scandal. Mr Raab insisted the Government would press ahead with planned GPS pilot schemes announced by David Cameron in a speech on prison reform earlier this month. And he said Mr Gove had given the green light to expand a 'sobriety tag' scheme in London to learn more about the project before a possible national rollout. Mr Cameron launched a bid to make prison reform part of his legacy as Prime Minister earlier this month. In a speech, Mr Cameron said he wants to end the 'out of sight, out of mind' attitude to prisoners. 'My starting point is this: we need prisons,' he said. 'Some people including, of course, rapists, murderers, child abusers, gang leaders belong in them. For me, punishment that deprivation of liberty is not a dirty word. 'I never want us to forget that it is the victims of crime who should always be our principal priority. And I am not unrealistic or starry-eyed about what prisons can achieve. Not everyone shows remorse and not everyone seeks redemption. 'But I also strongly believe that we must offer chances to change; that for those trying hard to turn themselves around, we should offer hope; that in a compassionate country, we should help those who've made mistakes to find their way back on to the right path.' He pointed to shocking figures showing nearly half of inmates are caught reoffending within a year of release. A sobriety tag scheme initiated by Boris Johnson in south London, pictured in 2014, is to be rolled out across the capital after early success. It may be considered for national expansion later Leaving the EU would be a blow to lads' holidays and stop film fans watching Netflix abroad, a Scottish MP claimed today. The 23-year-old SNP MP Stuart Donaldson - the second youngest member of the House of Commons - claimed that leaving the EU would bar British tourists from the European health card that guarantees free healthcare when travelling on the continent. He said access to free healthcare abroad was essential for youngsters heading on cheap booze holidays to popular European destinations such as Ibiza and Zante. But his claims were dismissed as 'desperate care stories' by pro-Brexit supporters, who said the European health card was a scheme open to countries outside the EU and not dependent on EU membership. Stuart Donaldson claimed that leaving the EU would bar British tourists from the European health card that guarantees free healthcare when travelling to popular holiday destinations such as Magaluf (pictured) The West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MP also claimed that leaving the EU would bar British tourists from watching Netflix series, such as Breaking Bad (pictured) overseas In a heated debate on the EU referendum in the Commons today, Mr Donaldson said he had been contacted by youngsters concerned that leaving the EU would limit the easy access to popular holiday destinations across the continent. Mr Donaldson, who was elected as the MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine in last year's election, told MPs he was once caught up in a fight during a 'lads holiday' abroad and ended up in hospital, but was treated 'quickly for free' because of his European health insurance card. He also claimed that Brexit would stop British tourists from accessing the TV streaming service Netflix while on holiday abroad. Making the case for staying in the EU, Mr Donaldson said: 'I've got a scar on my chin here and I received this scar when I was 17 or 18 while engaged in a cultural visit in a southern European country, more commonly known as a lads' holiday. 'Unfortunately, half-way through this trip I partook in one too many libations and ended up in a fight with the pavement and it's safe to say the pavement won and I had to engage with local medical services. Stuart Donaldson said the European health insurance card is vital for British youngsters who end up in hospital during trips abroad, but Brexit campaigners say access to the scheme is not dependent on EU membership 'Being younger than I am now, I didn't have any travel insurance. The whole process at the hospital was made incredibly easy by the fact I was carrying a European Health Insurance card in my wallet and this allowed me to be treated quickly for free. 'I know this seems insignificant but it is a practical way in which being an EU citizen impacted positively on my life and I'm sure it's an experience shared by many other people my age.' Stuart Donaldson (pictured) said he had relied on the European health insurance card when he ended up in hospital abroad after he was caught up in a fight Outlining his vision for how the EU could benefit TV viewers in the future, Mr Donaldson added: 'I would like to see a single digital market where customers have the ability to buy and use digital content across borders. 'And why is this? I want to be able to watch Netflix abroad. If my sunbathing or sightseeing is rained off I want to be able to sit in my hotel room without being told by my screen that the current programme is unavailable in my location.' But his remarks were dismissed by Robert Oxley, head of media at Vote Leave. 'Pro-EU supporters are desperate to scare voters into voting to remain,' he said. 'All week long we've had outlandish claims that simply don't stack up to scrutiny. Voting to leave the EU will return control over our borders, economy and democracy but won't stop us from heading abroad for a cheeky trip or some quiet time to catch up with our favourite TV series.' He added that access to the European health insurance card is not linked to EU membership. Mr Donaldson's comments came in a debate in which Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond insisted the Government will be 'bound' by the outcome of the referendum and will have no choice but to abide by EU rules to leave. He dismissed suggestions that voting to leave could lead to Britain negotiating a better deal with the EU, telling MPs that Brussels would show the UK 'two fingers' if voters opted to quit. But Bernard Jenkin, the Tory MP for Harwich and North Essex, suggested Parliament should have to give its consent to any action while insisting that 'there is no obligation to go for Article 50 [a clause in the Lisbon Treaty governing countries who want to leave the EU].' Mr Hammond disagreed. 'That is not the view and the opinion of the experts inside Government and the legal experts that I have talked to,' he said. He added: 'I tell the House frankly that if we reject the best of both worlds package that has been negotiated by the Prime Minister, if we reject the unique and privileged position in the European Union that is on offer to Britain, the mood of good will towards Britain will evaporate in an instant. 'That will be our negotiating backdrop. To those who say they will have to negotiate a sweetheart trade deal with the UK outside the EU I say this: There will be no desire at all among the political elites of the remaining 27 member states to help an exiting Britain show that it can prosper outside the EU. Employment minister Priti Patel (pictured) said it was vital that ex-convicts were able to 'leave their past behind bars' and told employers that they had a responsibility to create a 'better society' Employment minister Priti Patel has told companies to employ ex-offenders to help the Government achieve its radical programme of rehabilitating prisoners. She said it was vital that ex-convicts were able to 'leave their past behind bars' and told employers that they had a responsibility to create a 'better society'. And she claimed that employing ex-prisoners would boost companies financially, pointing to evidence that nearly half of companies in the UK that hire people from disadvantaged groups had benefited from new markets and new contracts secured by ex-offenders, recovering drug addicts and ex-homeless people. Her 'See Potential' initiative, which is backed by music mogul Simon Cowell and business magnate Sir Richard Branson, builds on David Cameron's wide-ranging prison reforms agenda, which he announced earlier this month. He unveiled plans for prisoners to no longer force ex-convicts from declaring their criminal convictis on job applications as he condemned the scandalous failure' of the justice system to rehabilitate criminals. Another radical scheme he announced was a plan to allow inmates out of jail during the week to help them re-integrate with society and to find work when they are released. Ms Patel wants more firms to take part in the Department for Work and Pensions' 'See Potential scheme, which targets ex-offenders, recovering drug or alcohol addicts and homeless people. Telling more firms to think about employing ex-convicts, she told industry leaders last night: 'Businesses should give ex-offenders the chance to leave their past behind bars and look to their futures. 'We all need to look beyond a person's background and allow true talent and potential to prosper. 'A person's past should never be a barrier to work. It's the challenges and someone's experience of overcoming them that makes them such a valuable asset in the workplace. 'We need to see the contribution that people can make regardless of their background. 'We want everyone to benefit from the rewards that work brings. Not just the financial rewards, but the sense of purpose and pride that comes with having a job. Reforms unveiled earlier this month by David Cameron, pictured speaking to inmates being trained as baristas at HMP Onley, would require former inmates only to declare their criminal record at interview stage The 'See Potential' initiative, which is backed by music mogul Simon Cowell (pictured on an advert) and business magnate Sir Richard Branson, builds on David Cameron's wide-ranging prison reforms agenda, which he announced earlier this month 'For many people, a job is transformative, it's a lifeline, it's a way out of poverty and it's a step up to a better life. But often it is these very people, who face the greatest barriers to entering the workplace.' FIRM DISCOVERED IT EMPLOYS EX-CONVICT GUILTY OF GBH AGAINST ANOTHER EMPLOYEE, BUT DIDN'T SACK HIM Employers at COOK decided to employ 2 per cent of their workforce from troubled backgrounds, but soon discovered that one of the ex-offenders had been convicted of a crime against one of their own employees Catering firm COOK revealed the challenges of employing ex-offenders after discovering that one of the ex-convicts they employed had been locked up for a crime against one of their own employers. The victim was left badly injured and the firm, which delivers home-cooked frozen meals, considered sacking him. But after speaking to the victim, they decided to give the ex-offender a second chance and the pair now work together and are good friends. Rosie Brown, COOK's People Director, said: 'It was an extraordinary situation [but] we spoke about it and thought either we say to the new employee he couldn't work for us, or we give him a second chance. 'We sat down with both men and the head of our kitchen, who they both trusted, and chatted it through. 'In the end one was able to apologise, and the other was able to forgive. And now they're good friends.' Advertisement One firm that has taken part in the scheme revealed the challenges of employing ex-offenders after discovering that one of the ex-convicts they employed had been locked up for a crime against one of their own employers. Catering firm COOK, which delivers home-cooked frozen meals across Kent, decided to employ 2 per cent of their workforce from disadvantaged communities who had been involved in crime, drugs, alcohol problems or homelessness. But they soon found out they were now employing the ex-offender in the kitchen - with access to knives and other harmful equipment, but instead of sacking him, they decided to consult his victim and the pair now work together. Rosie Brown, COOK's People Director, said: 'It was an extraordinary situation [but] we spoke about it and thought either we say to the new employee he couldn't work for us, or we give him a second chance. 'We sat down with both men and the head of our kitchen, who they both trusted, and chatted it through. 'In the end one was able to apologise, and the other was able to forgive. And now they're good friends.' She added that ex-offenders are the most committed workers in the company because they 'desperately want a second chance'. Ms Patel, urging other firms to follow their example, highlighted evidence that employing people from troubled backgrounds could actually help the company open up to new markets. 'Almost half of employers say that hiring people from disadvantaged groups has even helped them financially, often by opening up new markets and helping them to secure new contracts,' she told business leaders last night. 'It makes sense for you, your staff, your business and the wider community. 'But most importantly, it's also a chance your chance, to help create a better society and make a difference to people's lives.' Ministers abandon a 23MILLION plan to design their own GPS tags for criminals and admit they could have just bought them off the shelf Justice Minister Dominic Raab today announced the bespoke scheme would be abandoned The Government today admitted a 23million to scheme to design bespoke GPS tags for criminals would not work and better technology could be bought off the shelf. The scheme, announced by then justice secretary Chris Grayling in July 2014, had been intended to save money by increasing sentencing options for judges. But 18 months later and after most of the money has been spent, Justice Minister Dominic Raab today said the project had been a failure. Labour said the move 'beggars belief' and called on ministers to reveal exactly how much the scrapped process has cost the taxpayer. He told MPs: 'Developing bespoke tags has been challenging and it is now clear that it will be more appropriate to pursue our goals using off-the-shelf technology which is already available. 'That is why the Ministry of Justice will be terminating our contract to develop a bespoke tagging product with Steatite Limited and will shortly begin a new procurement process for proven tags already on the market.' Mr Raab insisted satellite tracking of offenders still offered a 'huge opportunity' to reduce reoffending and slash costs for the taxpayer. And he insisted: 'We want to use technology to make sure we not only deliver the punishments that society rightly expects but also improve supervision in the community and support offenders to change their lives.' Problems with the programme became clear in July last year when minster Andrew Selous told MPs there had been 'significant problems' and 'considerable delays' with the scheme. David Cameron visited HMP Onley earlier this month in a bid to put prison reform at the heart of his legacy as Prime Minister A review into the scheme at that stage led to today's announcement to scrap the contract. Shadow prisons minister Jo Stevens said: 'It beggars belief that the Ministry of Justice has had to abandon yet another procurement process. 'From the overcharging scandal to G4S and Serco still being paid to deliver tagging equipment after they had been barred from running the contract, this whole saga has been a shambles from start to finish. 'The Tories must now come clean on how much this latest episode of financial mismanagement has cost the taxpayer and get on with focusing on the rehabilitation of offenders.' The move marks the latest in a string of U-turns since Michael Gove replaced Mr Grayling as justice secretary, including scrapping the controversial criminal courts charge, ditching plans for 'secure colleges' and terminating a controversial 5.9 million bid to run prison training services in Saudi Arabia. A sobriety tag scheme initiated by Boris Johnson in south London, pictured in 2014, is to be rolled out across the capital after early success. It may be considered for national expansion later Announcing the Steatite contract in July 2014, Mr Grayling had claimed the 23.2 million deal offered better value for money to the taxpayer, saving around 20 million a year compared with the old G4S and Serco contracts which were terminated after an overcharging scandal. Mr Raab insisted the Government would press ahead with planned GPS pilot schemes announced by David Cameron in a speech on prison reform earlier this month. And he said Mr Gove had given the green light to expand a 'sobriety tag' scheme in London to learn more about the project before a possible national rollout. Mr Cameron launched a bid to make prison reform part of his legacy as Prime Minister earlier this month. In a speech, Mr Cameron said he wants to end the 'out of sight, out of mind' attitude to prisoners. 'My starting point is this: we need prisons,' he said. 'Some people including, of course, rapists, murderers, child abusers, gang leaders belong in them. For me, punishment that deprivation of liberty is not a dirty word. 'I never want us to forget that it is the victims of crime who should always be our principal priority. And I am not unrealistic or starry-eyed about what prisons can achieve. Not everyone shows remorse and not everyone seeks redemption. 'But I also strongly believe that we must offer chances to change; that for those trying hard to turn themselves around, we should offer hope; that in a compassionate country, we should help those who've made mistakes to find their way back on to the right path.' A wealthy New York trader whose daughter owns a handbag company he used to operate, was arrested for hitting his wife in the face with a purse from a rival brand. Joseph Botkier, 69, who once served as chief operating officer of the Botkier handbag company heralded by celebrities like Beyonce, decided to put a Prada clutch on his wife Maria's face as they argued in the lobby of their ritzy Manhattan apartment building early on Sunday morning, according to the New York Post. Alleged victim: Joseph Botkier (pictured left), 69, is accused of hitting his wife Maria (pictured right) in the face with a handbag during an argument When police arrived the apartment complex at 2 River Terrace where Leonardo DiCaprio also owns two condos, they found a loaded 32-caliber semiautomatic handgun while they were searching the couple's apartment. Joseph was charged with assault and well as criminal possession of a weapon though his Wife Maria told the New York Post on Wednesday that she was the true aggressor. Neither Maria nor her husband has said what fueled the argument. 'I was attacking him and everything, beating him up, kicking him, ripping his pants apart,' Maria said. 'And he just didnt know what to do. He just grabbed this [purse that] was on the seat and just, like, wanted me to stop. And unfortunately, he hit me over the forehead, like [a] heavy piece of metal.' Maria was left with a gash above her eye from the impact. She told the New York Post that she does not want to press charges against her husband. Weapons charge: When police arrived the apartment complex at 2 River Terrace (pictured), they found a loaded 32-caliber semiautomatic handgun while they were searching the couple's apartment 'In jeopardy is his job, his future . . . I do not want to press charges, said Maria who when asked if the purse was a Botkier replied: 'No, it was a Prada.' Botkier bags cost between $228 to $448 whereas Prada bags can cost thousands. Joseph Botkier posted $8,550 cash bail at his arraignment on Monday in Manhattan Criminal Court and his lawyer Alex Spiro said that he will deny the charges. Joseph and Maria's daughter Monica is a fashion photographer turned handbag designer whose Trigger bag she released in 2003 launched her successful brand loved by models and celebrities. The Taliban terrorists were killed when a senior commander demonstrating the safe way to handle a suicide vest accidentally detonated the device, file Seven Taliban terrorists have been killed and two were seriously injured after they were blown up at a suicide bomber training session in a Madrassa in Afghanistan. The explosion ripped through the Hazrat Sahib Madrassa in Mastofi villiage in the Andar District on Wednesday night. A senior Taliban commander was believed to have been showing several recruits on the safe way of manufacturing and handling suicide vests so they do not detonate prematurely. Unfortunately for the commander and his recruits, the device exploded. Ahmad Fahim Amiree, spokesman for the regional police headquarters in central Ghanzi province told Shamshad TV that seven terrorists including the commander were killed with two others wounded. According a local Afghan news agency, the Taliban commander was believed to be a man called Farouq. The terrorists have yet to comment on the incident. Afghan authorities have just received a shipment of 10,000 automatic rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition from Russia as 'a gift', following the reduction in Nato's presence in the war-torn country. The Kabul government made a request to Moscow for military aid including small arms, artillery and attack helicopters. Afghan national security adviser Hanif Atmar said: 'This donation represents a deep friendship between two nations. This important donation is from an important friend of Afghanistan in a crucial time for Afghanistan and the region.' The guns and ammunition were provided under an existing security agreement between the two countries, he added. Russia's ambassador, Alexander Mantytskiy, told the gathered military and security officers that his country is willing to work with Afghanistan to combat problems like terrorism and drugs. The incident happened on Wednesday in a Madrassa in Mastofi, near the Afghan border with Pakistan Wednesday's delivery comes as Russian officials say they have become impatient with the failures of Washington's policies in Afghanistan. While never a member of the coalition, Russia cooperated with the United States for years by allowing military supplies to travel through its territory, and in other areas such as counter-narcotics and weapons supplies. Meanwhile, Moscow has been urging the Taliban to open talks with the government in Kabul in advance of the new 'combat season' in spring. VICTIM 1 - counts one and two She was just 16 years old when she walked into the Croydon Army Careers and Information Office and met Edwin Jock Mee. He rapidly started to quiz her about her love life, demanding to know if she had a boyfriend and asking to see her belly button piercing. As she left, Mee badgered her to join him for a coffee. The next two times she visited the office, Mee slapped her bottom, taunting her with the words: Its you who needs the army when she dared complain to him. VICTIM 2 - count three The hopeful recruit, now 23, was still a teenager when Mee slapped her on the bottom leaving her feeling embarrassed and shocked. She burst into tears in the witness box as she recalled the sergeant ridiculing her quiffed hair and telling her it would scare the Taliban. Mee also grilled her on her love life and asked if she would date other races. She applied to join the army online and was invited for an interview with Mee in 2011 but struggled with physical training during a two-day cadet camp. When she appeared in his office in a skirt, Mee humiliated her by ordering her to lay on the floor in his office and perform sit-ups for him while he held her ankles. Mee then invited her to a physical training session after which he took her back to his office and a hand hit my bum. She walked out of his office, told her mother, and never returned. VICTIM 3 - counts four five and six Mee told her she was beautiful and sexy and pestered her to join him for a coffee with him after interrogating her about her love life. Mee invited her into his office on a Sunday and hugged and kissed her when she arrived. He showered her with compliments and tried to hold her hand which she shrunk away from but put up with as she wanted to get into the army. Mee spanked her on the bottom when they were in the kitchen at the ACIO but when she told him off, he just laughed. Opportunistic Mee even pounced on her when she visited to drop off a medical form, slapping her on the bottom with such force she was left in shock. He molested her a third time at his home in September 2011 after luring her there under the pretence that he had a DVD she needed to watch urgently. Mee collected her from the station in his army van and drove her to his house, where he badgered her to kiss him and spanked her for a third time. She told him not to do it and later confessed to a Corporal that Mee had smacked her bottom. Prosecutor Rosina Cottage QC.The prosecution say that the offences committed against her show the continuing pattern of behaviour; personal comments, asking to go for coffee, the slapping of the bottom to see how far he could go and what he could get away with. There was no reason for her to be told to come to his home save to allow him to touch her sexually away from the office.' VICTIM 4 - count seven Mee demanded to know if the shy 17-year-old army hopeful was a virgin before molesting her seconds after her mum turned her back. She had joined the army on the advice of her mother, but was later too frightened complain of the assault because she feared she would not be successful. Mee instructed the mum to stop coming to the interviews with her daughter and brazenly smacked her bottom on the last time she was accompanied. She said: I was just very shocked and a bit overwhelmed, I didnt know what to say, I wasnt expecting that to ever happen so I was just completely speechless, I didnt know what to say. I just looked down and wanted to leave, we were on our way out anyway, I just wanted to leave. The young cadet then hid the attack from her mum. She always thought so highly of Jock, she always praised him and said what a good person he was, she said. He was my own personal recruiter so I always saw Jock, I didnt see anyone apart from Jock. Mee the started bothering her to meet him for drinks to celebrate his birthday and harassed her about her sex life. He asked if I had a relationship, if I had a boyfriend and he also asked if I was a virgin, she said. Then he asked me to go out for a drink with him. She later withdrew her application after Mee hounded her about eight times for a drink and started asking her to get her mums permission to go back to his house. He said he wasnt able to control himself once he has had a drink, she told the court. What did you understand that meant, asked Ms Cottage. Very touchy feely. With whom? Me, she replied. I was very shy, I was 17, I was still a bit young so I would never say no directly I would just make an excuse up. VICTIM 5 - counts eight, nine and ten (not guilty on one sexual assault and no verdict on rape) Mee assaulted the woman, in her early 20s, after threatening if you f**k with me I will definitely f**k with you. He initially spotted her at the Croydon recruitment centre and instructed her to wait for him to be interviewed. Mee then lured the cadet into discussing her private life with him and threatened to halt her application, telling her: I am from the army, I can do anything. He quizzed her about her life and demanded to know if she had ever worked as a prostitute before leering at her chest. But at the next appointment, Mee started to threaten her. He explained a little about himself and about his ex-wife, he told me if I help him, he will help me fill the application but if I f**k with him, he will f**k with me, she said. She told jurors she felt so bad when she left his office, but was forced to keep returning to see Mee who continually pestered her about her sex life. Every conversation is out of the application, it is just about myself and not about the application - I was embarrassed, she said. He said I am here to help you, if you dont want me to help you then you will leave everything. He then pompously told her: I am from the army, I can do anything. Your application is in my hands so I can do anything with you. I was scared to say anything, she added. When she returned to the office she sat at the computer to take a test when Mee loomed behind her and pressed his body into hers. He then rubbed her thigh saying youll be okay before telling her dont get scared, theres no camera in this room. VICTIM 6 - counts 11, 12 and 14 Mee pounced on the schoolgirl, who was just turning 18, when she left the toilet at the ACIO and slapped her bottom so hard her friend heard it. When she returned to the office for the BARB test, he hugged her while sitting down, nestling his head in her cleavage and touching her bottom. During an open day on Wimbledon Common to promote the ACIO she called him a perve but gave him a hug when she saw he looked offended by the jibe. But Mee lunged at her, kissing her on the lips. She was so disgusted as she walked away that she threw up into her own mouth, said Ms Cottage. Mee shamelessly hugged her in front of another officer on a separate occasion at the ACIO but she did not see or hear from him again. VICTIM 8 - counts 15, 16, 17 Mee raped the 18-year-old Sierra Leonean cadet who was left feeling like an abused child after pretending to ring the Home Office to secure her visa. The teenage immigrant thought of Mee as a father figure and someone she could really lean on despite him hounding her to have sex with him and slapping her bottom. In August 2011, the young woman returned to the recruitment centre for a formal interview with Mees boss. But Mee told her there was a problem with her paperwork and her application to the Home Office for a visa had not yet been granted. She said: He told me he can help me. He said I know what to do. That is what he told me at first - I know what to do. He told me that because I need to go to [army] selection, my passport was with the Home Office and he told me he was going to help me, she said. He just said a call that I can make and I said why dont you do it. He said you know what you can do that will make me do it. Mee then told her to go into the kitchen and said he would interview her rather than his boss. He started asking me if I am going to have sex with him, I asked him I am going to do the interview because I am waiting to see your boss and he was like dont worry about that I have done it already, she told the court. Dressed in his army uniform Mee then lunged at her and kissed her on the lips. He said there is no one here and that is what made me really terrified now - then I knew he was playing on me all this while and that there was nobody in there. Mee told her he had to go into another room to speak to the Home Office on the telephone. When he came back into the kitchen he demanded that she lift her dress up and said he wanted to see her pants. He said dont worry, no one will know, it is just between me and you, she said. Mee then repeatedly harassed her until she lifted her skirt up. He was just staring at me, she added. The war veteran then climbed on top of her and brutally raped her. I told him I was suffocating and that is when he got scared of it and he jumped off me, said the tearful witness. When her visa arrived, she tragically believed it was thanks to Mee that she was granted leave to stay in the country until she was spoken to by the Military Police. I started to realise that was done with so many girls there and everybody was keeping it as a secret, she said. All the girls might be coming back to this same office and they might meet him there and because of their naivety they might not know they have to say something if that happens to them. Diary entries written by the witness about the day she was allegedly raped revealed that Mee had offered to marry her to help her stay in the UK. She wrote: Jock also got a message from the Home Office that they are not going to grant me the extension because I was late to pay the money. Jock had to beg for me and he also sent them a letter to appeal on my behalf. I am so thankful to God that Jock helped me out in that. He has always been there for me, if they dont agree he said he will marry me. LOL. That is so sweet of him, God please dont let anything happen to me. Lisa Wilding QC, for Mee, asked if he had offered to marry seriously. That is why I put LOL because that is what I thought because he was telling me all these things I wasnt aware of, she said. In another entry she thanked the sergeant for helping her get her papers to stay in the country. I also thank Jock for making that call to the Home Office - he helped me a lot, if he didnt call they should have refused me, she wrote. Asked in cross examination why she failed to report the rape to her friends, the young cadet said she was like an abused child. He is just like a father who is abusing a child and the child doesnt know they are abusing it - you are torn between love and hate - that is how I felt, she said. VICTIM 10 - count 20 The determined candidate was training regularly to improve her run times and preparing for army selection in September. But then Mee called her into his office and demanded a kiss and asked her if she fancied him. He brazenly slapped her bottom as she left his office. VICTIM 11 - count 21 She was the youngest of all Mees recruits and was just 15 years old when she visited the ACIO. The Republican governor being considered for the Supreme Court vacancy by the President Obama has ruled himself out of being nominated. Brian Sandoval, the Nevada governor who is pro-choice and Hispanic issued a statement making clear he did not want to have his name put forward to the Senate by the White House. The move sends the White House scrabbling back to the drawing board to work out how they could break the blockade put in place by the Republican-controlled Senate on filling Justice Antonin Scalia's vacant seat until the new president is elected. Sandoval issued a statement on Thursday afternoon saying he had told the White House, the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and minority leader - and senior Nevada senator - Harry Reid and Dean Heller, the junior Nevada senator, that he did not want to be part of the process. Scroll down for video Deadlock: Brian Sandoval who the the White House is as one of several potential nominees to the Supreme Court - a move which would challenge Republicans determined not to hold hearings Crisis: The death of Antonin Scalia on a hunting trip earlier this month has created a crisis for the White House and the Senate. Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry paid tribute to Justice Scalia when he died, posting this picture on Facebook of an earlier hunt 'Earlier today, I notified the White House that I do not wish to be considered at this time for possible nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States,' he said. 'I have also spoken to Senators Reid, Heller and McConnell and expressed the same desire to them. 'The notion of being considered for a seat on the highest court in the land is beyond humbling and I am incredibly grateful to have been mentioned.' The possible choice of Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval for the Supreme Court vacancy would have given President Barack Obama a shot at breaking Senate Republicans' planned blockade of any election-year confirmation. His is the only name to emerge so far from the White House as actively being considered. Hillary Clinton also threw her opinion into the question today, saying as she campaigned in South Carolina that the president should nominate a 'true progressive'. Clinton said she hopes Obama taps 'a true progressive who will stand up for the values and interests of the people in this country'. McConnell, said that regardless of whom Obama nominates, likely in the next few weeks, 'This nomination will be determined by whoever wins the presidency in the fall.' Senate Democrats are intent on pressuring Republicans and plan to stand in front of the Supreme Court at noon on Thursday and renew their demand that the Senate consider the president's nominee, with hearings and a vote. Bold move: A decision by Obama to push for a Republican on the bench would call the Senate blockade on hearings into question - but has already attracted opposition from his liberal allies McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said Wednesday that the leader's office is working with the White House to schedule a meeting with the president, but noted that his position wasn't likely to change much. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the president is also hoping to meet with Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley of Iowa. Disgraced Canadian billionaire Marco Muzzo's voice was trembling when he stood up in court Wednesday to beg forgiveness from the family whose children he killed in a drunken driving crash, only they were not there to hear his plea. Edward Lake and Jennifer Neville-Lake walked out of the courtroom in Newmarket when Muzzo, 29, got up to speak, having previously said that there was nothing the killer of their three children could say that would assuage them. Muzzo took the witness stand on Day 2 of his sentencing hearing, saying he is tortured by the grief and pain he has caused with his actions. Marco Muzzo (right), seen arriving in court Wednesday in Newmarket, Ontario, for a two-day sentencing, read an emotional statement expressing remorse for killing three children and their grandfather in a DUI crash Harrison, Milly and Daniel Neville-Lake died with their grandfather during the crash. Their mother Jennifer told Muzzo today in court: 'I don't have anyone left to call me mom. You killed all my babies' The grandson of a Canadian real estate billionaire was drunk on the afternoon of September 27, 2015, when he smashed his Jeep SUV into a van carrying Daniel Neville-Lake, nine, his brother Harrison, five, and sister Milly, two, and their grandfather Gary Neville, 65. Muzzo, in his first public remarks since the deadly Ontario crash, acknowledged that his words of apology 'would be of no consolation' to the Neville-Lake family, reported the Toronto Star. 'Ever since the tragedy that occurred as a result of my inexcusable conduct, I have wanted to say that I am sorry and apologize to your family,' he said while choking back tears. I could never have imagined the degree of suffering and pain I have caused. If I could reverse the hands of time, I would without hesitation. Drunken driver Marco Muzzo A visibly shaken Muzzo opened his statement by saying that he is filled with 'great remorse, sympathy and unimaginable regret. He also said that listening to Jennifer Neville-Lake's emotional victim impact statement, in which she talked about the heartbreak of losing all her children at once, filled him with horror. I am at a loss for words and I am on a constant search for the right way to express to you my sorrow, Muzzo said, addressing the victims parents, who had stormed out of the courtroom in protest earlier. I know that there are no actions that can ever change what has happened. I know that there is no step that I can take to bring back your children, Daniel, Harrison, and Millie Neville-Lake and your father Gary Neville I pray that I could but I cannot. I could never have imagined the degree of suffering and pain I have caused. If I could reverse the hands of time, I would without hesitation. I want nothing more than to attempt to bring some peace to your hearts and minds. Muzzo was returning home from his bachelor party in Las Vegas when the crash occurred (above), having just gotten off a private jet with his wedding to Taryn Hampton weeks away The 29-year-old defendant vowed to spend the rest of his life atoning for his conduct by educating the public about the dangers of drinking and driving. Muzzo added that he prays every day for the Neville-Lake family and expressed hope they could find comfort in their faith. 'I will forever be haunted by the reality of what I have done and I am truly sorry,' Muzzo concluded. Outside the courthouse, Mrs Neville-Lake told reporters she had no interest in Muzzo's expressions of remorse, as heartfelt as they may be. I dont want to listen to the man who is responsible for killing my children, she declared. Theres nothing he can say, his actions spoke louder than words. I don't see why I should put myself through that. I dont want to listen to the man who is responsible for killing my children. Theres nothing he can say, his actions spoke louder than words. Victims' mother, Jennifer Neville-Lake Jennifer Neville-Lake said maybe one day she would be willing to read Muzzo's apology in written form, but noted to the station CTV News that for her, forgiveness was not like a piece of clothing you could put on. Its a process. The family have asked the presiding judge to bar Muzzo from trying to contact them in the future. The billionaire's attorney on Wednesday submitted 92 letters of support written by Muzzos friends, family and employees, who described him as a humble, kind and hardworking man, not the rich, spoiled brat he has been made out to be in the media. Defense attorney Brian Greenspan asked the judge to sentence Muzzo to eight years in prison, reminding her that his client had no prior criminal record and that he has taken responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty earlier this month, thus sparing the victims family the agony of having to go through a lengthy trial. The prosecution has asked that Muzzo be sentenced to 10-12 years, with Crown lawyer Paul Tait arguing that his punishment 'must reflect public abhorrence' to the crime, reported CBC.ca. Tait compared Muzzo's fateful decision to get behind the wheel of his car with a blood alcohol level of three times the legal limit to 'having a loaded gun walking down the street.' Every drunk driver has a choice, and in this case, that choice had catastrophic consequences, he added. Marco Muzzo is expected to learn his fate on March 29. Jennifer (left, pictured with Milly, Daniel and Harrison and her husband Edward) said Muzzo had robbed her of her identity when he killed her children. Edward told the court he had chest pains, night terrors and suicidal thoughts after the crash Earlier in the sentencing hearing, Jennifer Neville-Lake sobbed as she recalled finding out all three had died in the crash,CBC reported. 'I don't have anyone left to call me mom,' the bereaved mother told Muzzo in court. 'You killed all my babies. I miss my kids. I miss my dad.' 'When you took my children, you took away my identity as a mother,' she said during a 45-minute statement. 'And without my kids, I am nothing anymore.' 'I walk through the empty rooms of our home every day, searching for my family.' Edward Lake, the children's father, said he had suicidal thoughts, night terrors and chest pains after the crash, CBC reported. He told the court he would miss being a father. Muzzo was driving home from the airport, having just flown back from his Las Vegas bachelor party during the crash in September. He was set to marry Taryn Hampton in October. The children's grandmother, who was driving the family car during the crash, survived. Harrison and Milly passed away at the hospital while holding hands as she sang to them from her phone. She had been pinned in the car and screaming the names of the children and her husband when officials arrived on the scene - unaware that her husband was dead. Gary Neville (pictured), 65, the children's grandfather, was also killed in the drunk-driving crash. His wife was at the wheel and survived Canadian Business Magazine ranked Muzzo (pictured), the son of a property billionaire, the 52nd wealthiest person in Canada with a fortune that tops $1.7 billion Taryn Hampton, pictured leaving the court in Newmarket in October, was supposed to marry Muzzo that same month at the time of the crash Also injured was Jennifer's grandmother, Josephina Frias, who was in the car as well at the time of the crash. The grandparents of the three children often cared for them as their parents worked full time. Another car was also hit in the crash, but none of the passengers suffered any major injuries. A GoFundMe site set up for the Neville-Lake family raised more than $250,000 to help them with their expenses. The Toronto Sun reported in September that Marco Muzzo worked for the billion-dollar construction empire that was founded by his grandfather, who shares the same name and was estimated to be worth $1.7billion at the time of his death in 2005 from cancer. Bickford also claimed he has never even met Anthony 'Tony' Jones Said he was instead with his wife and friends on September 12, 2014 Bickford disputed claims he met with the child abuser on the day Family of Anthony Jones said the pair met on the day William went missing A convicted paedophile who was once a person of interest in the case of William Tyrrell has hit back at claims made by a child molester that the two were supposed to meet the day the toddler went missing. Paul Bickford is serving a two-year suspended sentence for the indecent assault of an 11-year-old girl suffering from Asperger's syndrome. This week he denied claims made by the family of convicted paedophile Anthony 'Tony' Jones that the pair were together on September 12, 2014 when William disappeared from his grandparent's house on the NSW mid-north coast. Convicted paedophile Paul Bickford has denied claims he was with child abuser Athony 'Tony' Jones on the day William Tyrrell disappeared William Tyrrell (pictured) was three-years-old when he disappeared from his grandmother's front-garden in Kendall, on the mid-north coast of NSW, 30-minutes south of Port Macquarie Bickford said instead he was with his wife on that day, and the couple were entertaining friends for lunch, and he has never been contacted by or met with Jones. He did not however, deny that he was a paedophile. 'I would have expected to be interviewed because I would expect them to go through all the convicted paedophiles to have a look who was where,' Bickford told the Daily Telegraph. He then said that despite his initial involvement in the case, police had told him and his wife he was no longer a person of interest in the case. Bickford also revealed the William Tyrrell cause had brought him 'grief', and On Thursday the family of convicted paedophile Anthony 'Tony' Jones told police that he had planned to visit sex offender Paul Bickford on the day four-year-old William vanished from his grandmother's house in Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast on September 12, 2014. William Tyrrell was wearing his now renowned Spiderman suit (pictured right on the morning he vanished) at the time he disappeared Jones' ex-wife said the 59-year-old was a 'cretin' and should be 'punished to the fullest extent of the law' for his convicted crimes William has not been seen since he vanished in September 2014 while the case continues to stump Australia Jones - who has a whopping 90 convictions against his name including aggravated indecent assault of a minor - maintains that he was 'out bush' looking for metal scraps when William went missing, while Bickford said he was having lunch at his wife's home with friends in Port Macquarie. The pair have repeatedly denied being friends or having any involvement in the boy's disappearance. But the Jones family, who have disowned the paedophile, said that is 'bulls**t' and that Jones had come home drunk after meeting with Bickford the day of William's disappearance, the Daily Telegraph reported. 'Paul Bickford was living in the pub at the time of the Tyrrell disappearance. He knew Paul Bickford was in the pub as well as we do,' a statement from the Jones family said. Convicted sex offenders Paul Bickford and Tony Jones deny having any involvement in the disappearance of William Tyrrell (pictured) The home in Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast where William Tyrrell disappeared from in September 2014 The statement said the details surrounding if he was going to visit Bickford were 'sketchy' but they were certain his name had been mentioned. They both lived in the Kendall area and had been driving vehicles that matched the description of two cars - a grey sedan and a white station wagon - that had been seen driving near the Tyrell house around the time he was snatched. Jones, 59, recently pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a minor, but has a rap sheet of more than 90 criminal offence that cover a range of different crimes. His crimes, carried out in Sydney, Wellington, Bathurst, Dubbo and Port Macquarie, span four decades and include assaulting women, stealing, and escaping police custody, The Daily Telegraph reported. His love story is compared to The Notebook, but what this 76-year-old Alabama man did for his wife on their 59th wedding anniversary might make you cry even harder than the film. Arthur Burch sees his wife Patricia, 77, every day at noon, when he gets to feed her lunch at the Dothan retirement center where she moved in 2007 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. But every night Arthur goes to sleep alone, and so he decided that for this upcoming anniversary he would forego jewels for something priceless - a portrait of his wife, right above his heart. Scroll down for video Arthur Burch, 76, celebrated his 59th wedding anniversary with wife Patricia by getting a portrait of her face drawn right above his heart Arthur now only sees Patricia once a day, when he goes to the Wesley Manor Retirement Center in Dothan, Alabama to feed her lunch. Patricia had to move there in 2007 after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's The couple are pictured on their wedding day on December 21, 1956, in Scottsburg, Indiana 'Now I can carry her with me for the rest of my life,' Arthur told the Dothan Eagle. It was the third tattoo Don Childree, with the Good Luck Tattto & Piercing Parlour, was drawing for Arthur - but this time he especially felt some pressure. 'Knowing how much he loves Patti, it was definitely a challenge because I wanted it to be as perfect as he portrayed her,' Childree told DailyMail.com. Once Childree's work was complete, he said Arthur turned around, looked at him and said: 'I'll be able to take her home for the first time in eight years'. Both men cried. Childree said it was the most emotional he's ever gotten about a tattoo. But he knew how much it meant to Arthur, who has never missed a day since his wife had to move in 2007. 'It's just like him breathing or tying his shoes every morning,' Childree said of Arthur's daily visits to the Wesley Manor Retirement Center. 'It's part of his life.' Patricia has been part of Arthur's life since he watched her skate at an Indiana roller rink. The couple are pictured in their yearbook photos from, left Patricia in Year 12 at Scottsburg High School in Scottsburg, Indiana, and right, Arthur in Year 11 at Henryville High in Henryville, Indiana But every night Arthur goes to sleep alone, and so he decided that for this upcoming anniversary he would forego jewels for the priceless tattoo - so she could always be with him Arthur's tattoo was drawn by Don Childree (pictured) at the Good Luck Tattoo & Piercing Parlour in Dothan The couple are pictured with their daughters Lisa and Melanie. Patricia has been part of Arthur's life since he watched her skate at an Indiana roller rink They got married on December 21, 1956 in Scottsburg, Indiana, in Patricia's home and her uncle married them. Arthur was only 17 when he married 18-year-old Patricia, and he said neither of their families believed it would last. Fast-forward more than five decades later and the couple have two children and a love as strong as it was on their wedding day. Melanie Burch Hadley told the DailyMail.com that for many years it was Patricia watching over Arthur. 'My mother took care of my dad for several years,' she said. 'He had had spine surgery, so she took care of him a lot. And theres five year difference in me and my sister. And then it was Arthur's turn, moving the couple from their home in Indiana to Dothan after Patricia's diagnosis so they could be closer to Melanie and escape the harsh winters. Arthur credits the couple's everlasting devotion to a rule they made when they were younger: Never to go to bed mad at each other. And now, Patricia will once again be close to Arthur's heart when he drifts off to sleep. 'We said "till death do us part"' and we meant it,' Arthur said. 'She may not recognize, or know me, but she's still mine. But some days I can tell she knows me because of the way she grins.' 'When it comes down to it, I love her.' Alabama police have released body cam footage of a mental patient being tasered by police officers - five days before he died from the injuries he sustained. The video shows Randy Nelson struggling to breath after he was jolted and held on the floor at a Athens-Limestone Hospital. Sergeants Dusty Meadows and Greg Lott were called to the emergency room on February 3 when hospital staff failed to calm the 49-year-old down and give him medication during a mental health exam. His mother Dorothy, who accompanied him to the appointment, watched as the horrifying incident unfolded. Police were called when staff at Athens-Limestone Hospital in Alabama couldn't get mentally-ill patient Randy Nelson to calm down Wearing a hospital gown and pants, he frantically paces across the room and swings his arms in the direction of officers - but it doesn't look like he is trying to hit them. During the encounter Meadows and Lott call Nelson 'buddy' and tell him to calm down. 'What's going on, man? You okay?' Meadows says. 'They're going to give you some medicine to make you feel better, all right? Just lay on back, they'll take good care of you, okay?' However the nine-minute clip, recorded from Meadow's camera, the shows him trying to throw items at the officers. Nurses and support staff are cleared from the treatment room and warned to stand back. One of the officers then takes out a stun gun and warns Mrs Nelson he is going to have to use it. Nelson suddenly jolts and falls to the floor. He then rolls onto his back but continues waving his arms around. Wearing a hospital gown and pants, he frantically paces across the room and swings his arms in the direction of officers - but it doesn't look like he is trying to hit them He starts throwing objects at the officers, prompting them to clear the room of all hospital staff This is the moment one of the officers took out the stun gun and jolted Nelson in the back as he walked away The officer stands over a subdued Nelson with the weapon still out. He is then seen writhing on the floor He then drags down a set of tubes and starts tugging at them. Eventually, the officers and nurses manage to role Nelson onto his front, restrain him and handcuff him. At one point, a hospital employee has Nelson's head pushed face down onto the floor, his hand on the back of the patient's neck and his knee in between his shoulder blades. One of them is then seen removing the prongs fired from the taser from his back. Throughout, the video appears to show Nelson having breathing problems. According to AL.com, about seven and a half minutes after the officers arrived, hospital personnel notice that Nelson's breathing is short and one worker notes that he is 'kinda blue.' They get him on a backboard and take him for further treatment. Nelson died Feb. 8 at a separate hospital. Johnson said Wednesday that both Meadows and Lott remain on active duty. The Alabama Bureau of Investigation is leading the probe into Nelson's death. Nelson had a lengthy history of mental illness and run-ins with police. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that more work is needed to stamp out neo-Nazi hate speech on the world's biggest social networking site. He met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff in Berlin, to address critics' claims that Facebook needs to respond to anti-immigrant postings more quickly. Violence against migrants and refugees has spiked in the country, after Ms Merkel announced that Germany's borders were open to Syrians in August. Hate: Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg understands that more work is needed to stamp out hate speech on the social media site, after a spike in violent crimes against refugees and migrants in Germany Response: Mr Zuckerberg met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff in Berlin, to address critics' claims that Facebook needs to respond to anti-immigrant postings more quickly Facebook has faced months of criticism from politicians and regulators in Germany over its privacy practices and a slow response to anti-immigrant postings by neo-Nazi sympathisers. We in Germany obviously want illegal content to be removed from the internet, said chief of staff Peter Altmaier, after a meeting with Mr Zuckerberg in Berlin. That concerns not only Facebook, but Facebook among others. My impression is that Mr Zuckerberg understood the importance of this issue. He described the meeting as very good and constructive. While Facebooks rules forbid bullying, harassment and threatening language, critics say it doesnt enforce them properly. This comes despite Facebook having hired a Bertelsmann business services unit to monitor and delete racist posts on its platform in Germany. Problem: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and lawmakers vote on the introduction of expedited asylum proceedings in the German Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, February 25 The Facebook boss attended a technology showcase in the German capital, after Facebook opened a new office there last week. He posted pictures of himself jogging with a minder at the Bradenburg Gate on his Facebook page. I was able to go for a run this morning, he wrote. Its my first time running in snow in 20 years. In September last year, Ms Merkel confronted Mr Zuckerberg in a conversation overheard at the UN. Speaking to the European leader at a luncheon, Mr Zuckerberg was heard saying 'We need to do some work' in reference to the German effort against racist posts on the internet. 'Are you working on this?' Ms Merkel, who has seen an increase in violence against immigrants in her country during a massive intake of Syrian refugees, pressed. Mr Zuckerberg replied, 'Yeah', before a speaker at the event in New York made the rest of the conversation inaudible. On tour: Mr Zuckerberg posted pictures of himself jogging with a minder at the Bradenburg Gate on Facebook The Facebook boss attended a technology showcase in the German capital, after Facebook opened a new office there last week Mr Zuckerberg has announced a partnership with European research institutions in artificial intelligence (AI), beginning with the donation of four graphics processing unit (GPU) servers to the Technical University of Berlin. Facebook is testing a personal digital assistant called 'M' within its messenger service that is powered by AI and can answer questions with live human help and perform tasks such as buying gifts online and booking restaurants. 'It was very clear from the beginning that we couldn't do this without a significant part of that research being done across Europe,' Mr Zuckerberg said of Facebook's AI research. A businessman who used his airlines miles to upgrade to a comfier First Class seat last month got a punishment instead when he was forced to sit on a urine-soaked cushion for three hours. Mike Feinberg was traveling home to Des Moines, Iowa from St Louis, Missouri and realized about an hour into the flight that his seat was wet. 'I turn to the gentleman next to me... and I go, "Is your seat wet?" And he goes, "No." And I said, "Mine is."' 'So, I just kind of reach down between my seat to see what's going on, and I go, "It's urine."' Feinberg, a sales representative for a medical supplies company, told WHO-TV. Scroll down for video Uncomfortable: Mike Feinberg recently spent three hours on a flight sitting on a seat that was soaked in another man's urine After at first just laughing and giving him a blanket and plastic bag to sit on, a flight attendant gave him some airline pajamas to change into as he was wearing the urine soaked suit, right Feinberg says he immediately alerted a flight attendant, but all she did was offer him blankets and a plastic bag to sit on. She told him that an older gentleman sat in that seat on the last flight and had been getting up a lot to go to the bathroom and 'must have missed once'. Making the flight even more uncomfortable was the fact that the plane was held on the tarmac for about 40 minutes once they reached Des Moines. By then Feinberg says his pants were soaked. Obviously upset about the incident, Feinberg went to talk to a gate attendant once he deplaned but he didn't get much sympathy at first. Flight from hell: A stewardess on the flight from St Louis, Missouri to Des Moines, Iowa was only able to give Feinberg some blankets and a plastic bag to sit on. Above, a stock image of an American Airlines plane He says the gate attendant 'looked at me like that's terrible, but what do you want me to do about it?' Eventually they offered Feinberg a shower, and a pair of pajamas to change into along with a $200 voucher for a future flight, a gesture Feinberg found to be 'an insult'. More than anything, he says he's frustrated the airline refused to share their policy for dealing with bio-hazardous waste, something he has some knowledge of due to his line of work in the medical industry. 'I don't know who was sitting there before. He could have been the nicest guy in the world, but could have Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, could have had Ebola. I don't know what the guy had.' In a statement to WHO-TV, the airlines said 'Our aircraft cleaners are trained to look for visible items like trash left on the seats, floor and seatback pockets. We regret that the cleaners did not detect that this particular seat was wet. If our customer service agents or flight crew had been notified before the flight, we would have removed the affected seat cushion and replaced it with a new, clean one.' who demonstrates an exceptional talent for innovation, to create and transform markets, and shape culture The award is given to an Priscilla Chan was looking radiant as she stepped out with husband Mark Zuckerberg in Germany on Thursday. The couple were at a reception honoring Zuckerberg as he received the first ever Axel Springer Award in Berlin. The winner of the award is decided upon by the executive board of the digital publishing house, and is given to an individual who 'demonstrates an exceptional talent for innovation, create and transform markets, shape culture, and also face their social responsibility.' Zuckerberg, 31, was also opening a new Facebook office in the German capital. Scroll down for video Big night: Priscilla Chan looked radiant as she stepped out with her husband Mark Zuckerberg in Berlin on Thursday night Glowing: It has been three months since she gave birth to her first child with Zuckerberg, daughter Maxima Chan Zuckerberg Nice stroll: Earlier in the day the couple went out in the rain in decidedly more casual attire Chan, 31, was spotted earlier in the day in a sweater and jeans while taking a walk with some bodyguards and her husband, who was attired in his trademark hoodie. The spouses got dolled up for Zuckerberg's big honor later in the night through, with Chan donning a black sweater dress and her husband wearing a suit. Zuckerberg recently returned to Facebook after taking paternity leave following the birth of daughter Max, and managed to actually make money while he was back at home. He is now the 16th richest man in the world according to Forbes thanks to his estimated $47.1billion net worth. His wife meanwhile has been keeping busy with her own endeavors despite recently giving birth. She has been hard at work on the private school school she is starting in East Palo Alto to serve disadvantaged youths and their families. The Primary School - a comprehensive preschool and K-8 school - will open this August, and Chan will serve as Chief Executive Officer. Once the school is finished it will be able to serve 700 children and their families. The school will first open in a temporary location with two infant and toddler classes and one preschool class. Each year an additional grade will be added with 50 children accepted into each class. Honor: The couple attended a reception where the Facebook founder was honored with the first ever Axel Springer Award Charitable: In December the couple revealed that they would donate 99% of their wealth Big deal: The award is given to an individual who demonstrates an exceptional talent for innovation, to create and transform markets, and shape culture Chan and Zuckerberg were open with their fertility struggle, revealing Chan suffered multiple miscarriages before her first successful pregnancy. Pictured here with Mathias Doepfner, left, and Friede Springer Zuckerberg dressed up from his trademark t-shirt for the occasion - but didn't go so far as a tie Chan spent two years talking to residents in the area and doing research before beginning work on her idea for the East Palo Alto school. 'My experiences of running an after school program in a low income housing project and working as a pediatrician in a safety net hospital has shown me first hand that we need a better way of caring for and educating our children,' wrote Chan on her Facebook page about the new endeavor last October. 'The effects of trauma and chronic stress create an invisible burden for children that makes it very difficult for them to be healthy and live up to their academic potential. We must address these issues holistically in order to allow children to succeed.' She then added; 'For the past year, our small team has been working with East Palo Alto and Belle Haven families, educators and leaders to develop a model to address these complex needs. The work is ongoing and we look forward to sharing as we make progress!' The couple have donated large amounts to education in the past, including $100 million gift to New Jersey schools and $7.5million in college scholarships to undocumented students. An Algerian man who almost killed his 25-year-old student victim as he raped her in a darkened alley has been jailed for eight years. The man, identified only by his first name Rheda, is believed to have shouted 'Inshallah' - meaning if Allah wills it - as he attacked his victim as she walked home from a disco at 5am in Hannover. Afterwards, after badly beating his victim, the 37-year-old man is believed to have asked if she enjoyed it. Guilty: An Algerian man has been jailed for eight years after violently raping a 25-year-old German student as she walked home from a nightclub in Hannover (file image) He consistently denied attacking the student, despite the fact he was identified by the woman and had her blood on his clothes when he was arrested. The young woman, identified only as Lara, said it was the worst moment of her life. 'He asked me in broken German if I had the time,' she told the court. 'Before I could reply he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me down an alleyway. He told me "I need sex". 'I opened my mouth to scream but he put his hand over my mouth. I had a pepper spray, and I tried to spray it at him but he grabbed it off me and used it on me instead. 'Then he threw me to the ground and tried to pull off my trousers but he couldn't do it. Then he started screaming at me to get undressed.' She told the court that she was terrified he was going to kill her during the violent attack. The young woman said she had tried to buy some time by begging him to leave her alone, but nobody came past. Attack: The man, identified only by his first name Rheda, is believed to have shouted 'Inshallah' - meaning if Allah wills it - as he attacked his victim (file image of Hannover) When she tried to scream again, she said, he started beating her in the face and sprayed her again with the pepper spray. He banged her head on the ground repeatedly until she was almost unconscious, she added. 'He put his hand over my mouth and closed my nose, and I thought I was going to suffocate,' she continued. 'I then indicated to him that I had given in and would do what he wanted if he let me breathe.' She continued: 'Afterwards he asked me if it was good, and if I had enjoyed it. I never would have thought something like that could happen to me. I just couldn't comprehend it.' Donald Trump who has a proclivity to use four-letter words, but not the top tamale told tonight's Republican debate audience that former Mexican President Vincente Fox should apologize for dropping the f-bomb. 'This guy used a filthy, disgusting word on television, and he should be ashamed of himself and he should apologize, okay?' Trump said. Fox exploded in an expletive-laden rant on Thursday when a TV interviewer asked him about Trump's pledge to build a wall on America's southern border and force Mexico to pay for it. 'I declare that I'm not going to pay for that f***ing wall!' Fox told Fusion TV's Jorge Ramos, speaking in English.'He should pay for it. He's got the money,' he said of Trump, a billionaire who is sinking his own money into a front-running bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Scroll down for video Donald Trump said on tonight's Republican debate stage that former Mexican President Vicente Fox should apologize for saying, 'I'm not going to pay for that f***ing wall' EL F-BOMB! Former Mexican president Vicente Fox said he won't help pay for a wall between his country and the United States, despite promises to the contrary from Donald Trump TWITTER-BURN: Trump said if he had cursed his way through an interview about his proposed border barrier, he would have been pilloried for it 'BUILD THAT WALL! BUILD THAT WALL!' Securing America's southern border has become a major point of Trump's campaign rhetoric as he runs the leading Republican presidential campaign Trump, upon hearing about Fox's comments pushed back by threatening to build the wall taller. 'It just got ten feet taller,' Trump quipped. 'I saw him make the statement. I saw him use the word that he used. I can only tell you, if I had used even half of that word, it would be a national scandal,' Trump continued, alluding to the fact that he had mouthed the word at a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, before that state's primary and the utterance ended up all over the media. Indeed, Trump has taken to censoring himself when speaking publicly during this campaign to specifically not use the f-word, although leaving his audience in no doubt that is what was intended. During a live rally in New Hampshire at the Great Bay Community College earlier this month, Trump spoke about bringing business back to the Granite State from Mexico. The tycoon left the crowd in no room for error as to what he would tell Mexicans who would be losing out if they complained. However, Trump did not technically use the f-word. He blanked it out and mouthed where he would tell Mexican businessmen to go. However, while Trump says he is appalled at the use of the f-word in public debate, he is not afraid of using 'lesser' swear words. While at Fort Dodge in Iowa, the billionaire told his rally that if he was president he would 'bomb the sh*t' out of ISIS if he was in the Oval Office. As for Fox, he also suggested during the interview that he didn't think Trump would win the race. 'No no no, democracy can not take that crazy people that don't know what is going on in the world today,' he responded. An outraged Trump responded on Twitter, writing that Fox 'horribly used the F word when discussing the wall.' 'He must apologize!' The Donald insisted. 'If I did that there would be a [sic] uproar!' Fox said the result of this week's Republican Nevada presidential caucus 'worries me.' 'He won 44 percent of Hispanics! I'd like to know who those Hispanics are, because they are followers of a false prophet!' 'He's going to take them to the desert, and if they think that they will benefit with an administration led by Donald Trump, they're wrong,' Fox said. 'They must open their eyes. Please, you Hispanics in the U.S.! open your eyes!' NOT THE FIRST TIME: Former Mexican president Felipe Calderon also lashed out against the Trump wall this month, calling it 'stupid' and counterproductive 'It is not to defend our race, it is not to defend our creed, but to defend the same nation that is hosting you. This nation is going to fail if it goes into the hands of a crazy guy.' 'What is Trump?' Fox asked. 'He's not a Republican. Absolutely not. Those are not the Republican principles. He is not a Democrat. He is just himself. He is egocentric.' Fox is the second former Mexican president to be openly critical of Trump's rhetoric. The real estate tycoon has insisted over and over again in campaign speeches that sealing the southern U.S. border will give the federal government a new level of negotiating muscle on trade and immigration, changing the balance of power in a way that could close a $54 billion annual trade deficit. The cost of a 1,000-mile-long wall, Trump says nearly half of the border is protected by 'natural barriers would cost less than $12 billion, 'peanuts' by comparison. Trump has also told DailyMail.com in interviews that America would recoup billions in expenses related to immigration control if Mexicans could no longer walk into deserted regions of Arizona,, California, New Mexico and Texas. Fox, who ran Mexico from 2000 to 2006, said two weeks ago on CNBC that 'Mexican people, we are not going to pay any single cent for such a stupid wall. And it's going to be completely useless.' ANGRY: Fox spoke with Fusion TV host Jorge Ramos on Thursday 'The first loser of such a policy would be the United States. If this guy pretends that closing the borders to anywhere either for trade [or] for people is going to provide prosperity to the United States, he is completely crazy.' Calderon also questioned how an 'admirable society like the American society could produce such kind of candidates.' Trump said on February 12 during a speech in Tampa that a reporter asked him for a response to Calderon's comments the day after they were broadcast. In a line he has repeated in more than a half-dozen speeches since then, he gave his answer. A teenage girl who threw herself in front of a train used school computers to access a pro-suicide website and exchanged thousands of Facebook messages about taking her own life, her inquest has heard. Amber Jackson, 15, accessed the website from the computer at Bitterne Park School in Southampton where she spoke with other teens about self harm and suicide. The youngster, who had fears about her upcoming GCSE exams jumped in front of train near her home in Southampton on September 1, 2015. Amber Jackson, pictured, spoke online more than 17,000 times about wanting to take her own life Amber's father, Tony Jackson, told the the inquest, he was very concerned about his daughter's use of a pro-suicide website while using a school computer. The site, the hearing heard, allowed people to publish their own fan fiction stories and exchange their experiences of self-harm and plans for suicide. Mr Jackson told the inquest: 'It was not until after her death that we identified this website. 'Amber acted almost in the role of a counsellor to these girls who shared their problems with her. She acted as a confidante. 'We feel, to an extent, that what influenced Amber was that she burdened herself with everyone's problems. 'Younger people have used the site almost as a journal to document their issues of self harm. The site was accessed at Amber's school, and during school hours using school equipment. The school never to our satisfaction addressed our concerns about it. 'We asked another pupil if the website was accessible at the school and she said it was, despite the school saying their firewall would take care of it. 'We feel very strongly that children at senior school level feel a great deal of pressure to perform academically and in some cases this pressure is relieved in damaging ways, and this website is one of those ways.' Amber Jackson's father Tony, left, told the inquest that his daughter had accessed pro-suicide websites using computers at her school where she and fellow young people would discuss self-harm Mr Jackson said that Amber was very concerned about her GCSE's and she felt that achieving anything less than good results was unacceptable. Her parents in fact had to counter the pressure piled on by the school and reassure her that if she was not to get top marks it would not affect the rest of her life. He recollected a holiday to Tunisia five months before her death where she brought revision notes and sat doing schoolwork around the hotel swimming pool. The coroner heard that Amber had also been affected by a series of 'nasty messages' she had received from a friend the night before her death. The same night, Amber went on Facebook and started inquiring in a group chat if anybody knew anything about CCTV coverage at train stations. Mr Jackson told the coroner that Amber's peer group of friends had an influence on her behaviour as conversation topics such as suicide became the norm, and he even recalled seeing a friend of hers at the funeral who had slashes on her arms. 'Because of the peer group she associated with there was a lot of negative influence and normalised discussion of suicide and self harm,' Mr Jackson continued. 'We do feel this group of peers from the school had an influence on Amber.' Amber Jackson's inquest heard the schoolgirl discussed her funeral playlist with a friend on Whatsapp Speaking very highly of his daughter, Mr Jackson added: 'She was a very intelligent, caring person and she would always put others before herself. 'As a teenager she was almost too good. There was no running upstairs and slamming doors. She was really quite delightful.' Coroner Sarah Whitby heard that at approximately 11.40am on September 1, 2015, Ms Jackson jumped in front of the train. The inquest, which was held in Winchester, Hampshire heard from pathologist Sanjay Jogai who described Ms Jackson's injuries as 'unsurvivable'. The coroner heard that Amber, who sought a counsellor for depression while attending Bitterne Park School, had a number of conversations with friends about disliking school and discussed suicide. Ms Jackson contacted counsellor Debra Fleet three weeks before her death and told her in a text message that she 'wanted to fade away.' Detective Constable Tony Gittins, from the British Transport Police, spoke with a number of Amber's friends following her tragic death. 'Amber was described by one friend, who she visited just 40 minutes prior to her death, as "inward",' said Det. Con Gittins. 'She elaborated that Amber did not talk about her feelings and would bottle things up. Amber did not like school and was not looking forward to going back later that week after the summer break. 'Her friend said Amber felt under pressure with GCSE exams coming up and was fairly apprehensive of results for science exams she was due to receive after the break,' added the officer. 'Amber was not bullied at school but other people would occasionally say mean comments about her.' Suzanne, Amber's mother, broke down in tears as she heard of her daughter's anxieties about returning to school. Amber Jackson's inquest heard the 15-year-old school girl accessed pro-suicide websites using the computers at Bitterne Park School in Southampton and was worried about her GCSE exams The coroner heard that Det. Con.Gittins went 'above and beyond' his call of duty in helping the family investigate the circumstances surrounding their daughter's death. In new evidence which was not previously submitted to the coroner's office but was asked to be explored by the family, the inquest heard that thousands of social media conversations had been uncovered in which Amber spoke of ending her life. A legal representative for the family said: 'There were 28,000 Facebook messages between Amber and [her friend]. 'It is the family's position that they are saying approximately 60 per cent of those messages, so by doing the maths in excess of 14,000, maybe even between 16,000 and 17,000, touch upon the subject of suicide or suicidal ideation. 'There was also a Whatsapp conversation between Amber and a friend in July last year which makes reference to Amber writing out her funeral playlist of songs. That playlist has been collected.' The inquest heard that the day before her death Amber visited three friends. However, the conversations that took place within the peer group were dismissed by the coroner as evidence, despite protestations by the family's solicitor who believed they may have invited access into Amber's state of mind shortly before her death. Coroner Ms Whitby said: 'I know there were ups and downs in the friendship group and I know there were conversations of suicide. 'She was a teenage girl going through a maelstrom of emotions but I do not see how this evidence can assist me in answering the question of how she came by her death.' Recording a narrative verdict, Mrs Whitby said: 'To consider a conclusion of suicide I must be sure that Amber's intention was to take her own life. 'Amber was a much-loved member of a secure family. She had a character that led her to have low self esteem but she was very concerned about helping other people. 'Her family are very concerned about self-harm and suicide sites on the internet and they have commented on Amber and her friends' involvement in these. 'I am aware that the safeguarding children board are investigating these concerns. 'I will record that on September 1 2015 Amber deliberately jumped onto the tracks in front of a non-stop moving train and died at the scene as a result of the impact and a significant head injury. 'I cannot be sure of what her intent was and take into account the maelstrom of life a teenager goes through and conflicting emotions. 'Amber deliberately chose to jump in front of the train but evidence as to her state of mind does not explain whether or not she intended the outcome to be fatal.' It may look like a high resolution video game but this astonishing video actually shows a real life police shoot out with a wanted gang in Colombia. This astonishing point of view footage shows the moment police chasing down a gang of burglars became involved in a vicious shoot out before apprehending all four of the offenders. The film was posted on Facebook by Colombian National Police with the title: 'It's not an action movie in Barranquilla we capture a gang dedicated to the theft of residences.' This astonishing point of view footage shows the moment Colombian police chasing down a gang of burglars became involved in a vicious shoot out before apprehending all four of the offenders The alleged gang are accused of terrorising a local neighborhood in the northern city of Barranquilla with a string of burglaries. This footage was taken from one of the police officer's body camera. Local reports said police caught the suspects 'red-handed' as they were carrying out a burglary and four of the men, who are all aged between 21 and 33, were arrested. The footage shows the police officers pulling up to the scene in their car and immediately jumping out and opening fire on the suspects. Police in unmarked cars managed to trap the suspects, who were in a stolen yellow taxi, in a pincer movement on the narrow street. They immediately surrounded the car and an exchange of gunfire can be heard before the officer filming the incident runs towards the car. The film was posted on Facebook by Colombian National Police with the title: 'It's not an action movie in Barranquilla we capture a gang dedicated to the theft of residences' The officer runs past a suspect being held on the floor by other officers and enters the burgled house, speaking briefly to the two female victims who had been tied up by the assailants The alleged gang are accused of terrorising a local neighborhood in the northern city of Barranquilla He runs past a suspect being held on the floor by other officers and enters the burgled house, speaking briefly to the two female victims who had been tied up by the assailants. He then joins his colleagues who have managed to pin down the other three suspects. As the alleged burglars are searched the officers discover they are each carrying guns and several mobile phones. All four are handcuffed and taken to the local police station for questioning. A spokesman for the force said: 'We are relentless when it comes to safety.' As the alleged burglars are searched the officers discover they are each carrying guns and mobile phones Electronics chain was placed in administration in January this year More than 2,800 employees will be affected by the closures Warning comes as all Australia and NZ Dick Smith stores are set to close Entrepreneur Dick Smith has warned Gerry Harvey against staying in the consumer electronics industry, after the company Smith founded announced they would be closing all their remaining stores. On Thursday it was announced that all 301 remaining Dick Smith stores in Australia and New Zealand would close, affecting more than 2,800 employees. The electronics chain was placed in administration in January, and receivers failed to find a buyer for the company. Smith told the Herald Sun that if Gerry Harvey wasn't careful, he would be next. 'I just reckon there's no money in consumer electronics - that's why I sold out 30 years ago,' he said. 'And Gerry should realise that quickly.' Scroll down for video The man who started the troubled electronics retailer Dick Smith says he is 'incredibly angry' at the group who floated his former company for $520 million Dick Smith said he is 'incredibly angry' at Anchorage Capital, who floated his former company for $520 million and he blames them for putting almost 3,000 people out of work as the chain finally goes under. Smith, who shares a name with the embattled retailer, says the private equity firm, who bought the company from Woolworths for $94 million in 2012, knew it would not be worth $500 million when they listed it on the market in 2013 and blames them for the company's recent demise. 'I'm incredibly angry about the utter dishonesty of Anchorage Capital and I hope ASIC and the Senate Inquiry do something about them,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald. Dick Smith will be closing its remaining 301 stores across Australia and New Zealand in the next eight weeks He says he has no interest in buying back rights to the company name and pin-pointed a push for 'quick growth' as the reason for plummeting sales and profits. 'The staff could still be there, if they didn't have this ridiculous, never-ending growth strategy,' he said after the company announced it would be closing its remaining 363 stores across Australia and New Zealand in the next eight weeks. Approximately 2,460 Australian staff and 430 employees from New Zealand will be affected by the closure of the electronic-chain. Employees were briefed about the closure of the stores on Thursday and are expected to be paid out in full. Mr Smith says he has no interest in buying back rights to the company name and pin-pointed a push for 'quick growth' as the reason for plummeting sales and profits. More than 2,800 employees will be affected by the closure of the electronics chain Mr Smith, who has not been involved in the company for more than 30 years, previously said the company could have survived alongside its competitors under better management and blaming a push for 'quick growth' for plummeting sales and profits, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The accomplished businessman, who started the company in 1968 as a car radio installation business, said he has never owned shares in Dick Smith Electronics and did not plan to as 'those types of organisations' are 'too risky'. 'When I owned Dick Smith it was a company selling electronic components. I've never been involved in consumer electronics I don't know how anyone could make any money out of it,' Mr Smith said. 'When I owned Dick Smith it was a company selling electronic components. I've never been involved in consumer electronics I don't know how anyone could make any money out of it,' Mr Smith said The closure comes following receivers Ferrier Hodgson failure to win 'acceptable' offers for the Australian company that was placed in to administration in early January after losing more than 80 per cent of its value since August. 'While we received a significant number of expressions of interest from local and overseas parties, unfortunately the sale process has not resulted in any acceptable offers for the group as a whole or for Australia or New Zealand as standalone businesses. The offers were either significantly below liquidation values or highly conditional or both,' said James Stewart, Receiver to Dick Smith Holdings. Shares for the electronics retailer fell almost 60 per cent in November last year after the company revealed that its stock was worth $60 million less than expected, with profits also forecast to fall short of Dick Smith's $48 million target. The company announced voluntary administration in January, owing roughly $150 million. A 29-year-old woman has been found dead in a luxury apartment under suspicious circumstances. Police were called to the dock-side address on Eastlake Parade in Kingston about 1.50am today, where they found a dead woman and a 31-year-old man, who is helping police with their investigation. No charges have been laid and police will not comment on the nature of the relationship between the man and woman. The body of a 29-year-old woman was found at the Element Apartments in Canberra early on Friday. Police could be seen at the crime scene on Eastlake Parade in Kingston later in the morning Members of the ACT Policing Criminal Investigations team are examining the scene and are being assisted by AFP Forensic Services. The investigation is ongoing and police are speaking to neighbours. Police would not say if there was a disturbance at the address and would only say they were called by the ambulance service, the Canberra Times reported. A report will be prepared for the ACT coroner, police said. The apartment complex is a new addition to the Kingston Foreshore, a lakeside development that includes restaurants, bars and a boardwalk. Police are urging anyone that may have heard anything suspicious along Eastlake Parade about 1.30am today to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. The woman's body was found at the Element Apartmentson the Kingston foreshore A 31-year-old man was also present at the apartment when police arrived and is helping with investigations Donald Trump says he's not a fan of endorsements, and he's unlikely to be overjoyed by a backer he got today: former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke. Duke said during his radio show that he's not formally endorsing Trump, but he gave him the equivalent of an endorsement when he said 'supportive of his candidacy' and told his listeners to vote for the billionaire. 'Voting for these people, voting against Donald Trump at this point, is really treason to your heritage,' the white nationalist said, according to Buzzfeed. David Duke, pictured, said during his radio show today that he's not formally endorsing Donald Trump but gave him the equivalent of one when he said he is supportive of his candidacy' and the white nationalist told his listeners to vote for the billionaire When Trump boasted this week he'll 'have many endorsements soon,' it's unlikely he was referring Duke, a one-term, ex-state representative from Louisiana and former KKK leader. Duke is a felon and once ran for president himself as a Democrat, in 1988. That same year he switched his party affiliation to Republican and went on to win a Louisiana House seat in a special election. He ran for president again in 1992 as a Republican but gained almost no traction in the primaries. From 1974-1980 he was a part of the KKK. Duke says he left because he couldn't persuade members not to do 'stupid or violent things. Instead, he formed his own pride organization - the National Association for the Advancement of White People. Rubbing elbows with Duke and his supporters can be costly. Republican Congressman Steve Scalise - the third highest-ranking GOP member of the House- was urged to resign in 2014 after his 2002 attendance at an Duke group meeting was unearthed. He apologized and kept his House seat, but the kerfuffle is evidence of the toxicity that even a thin relationship with Duke can bring. Today Duke tethered himself to Trump and said on his show, the David Duke Radio Program, 'Im not saying I endorse everything about Trump. In fact, I havent formally endorsed him. 'But I do support his candidacy, and I support voting for him as a strategic action. I hope he does everything we hope he will do.' 'When this shows over, go out, call the Republican Party, but call Donald Trumps headquarters, volunteer,' Duke said today. Trump is seen above in a photo posted to his Twitter account this morning of him signing his tax return He also told his listeners 'it is your job now to get active. Get off your duff. Get off your rear end thats getting fatter and fatter for many of you everyday on your chairs. 'When this shows over, go out, call the Republican Party, but call Donald Trumps headquarters, volunteer,' Duke said. 'Theyre screaming for volunteers. Go in there, youre gonna meet people who are going to have the same kind of mind-set that you have.' Duke's praise today for Trump follows his elation in an interview late last year that the GOP candidate was making it 'OK to talk about these incredible concerns of European Americans today.' Greece has warned it would not be turned into warehouse of souls by the rest of the Europe after tens of thousands of migrants were left trapped in the country. Two desperate men yesterday attempted to hang themselves in a square in the centre of Athens as frustrations grew with border closures that have stopped people leaving. One of the men, a Pakistani, was left unconscious after tying a noose made from twisted lengths of fabric to a tree and was taken to hospital. Two desperate men yesterday attempted to hang themselves in a square in the centre of Athens as frustrations grew with border closures Greek officials estimate 20,000 migrants have been stranded there after neighbouring Macedonia abruptly shut its border on Monday to anyone not Syrian or Iraqi At a makeshift migrant camp in one of the capitals suburbs, hundreds queued for food. Greek officials estimate 20,000 migrants have been stranded there after neighbouring Macedonia abruptly shut its border on Monday to anyone not Syrian or Iraqi. With all migrant centres full, Greek authorities have started using stadiums as temporary accommodation. The UNs refugee agency yesterday announced it is looking to lease entire hotels with hundreds of rooms for at least nine months. More than 800,000 people last year arrived from Turkey on the Greek islands, where they got boats to Athens and then headed to the Balkans and continued their journeys up through Europe. But the tough new restrictions being enforced by Macedonia, which is only letting 200 people through a day, have created a bottleneck with thousands continuing to arrive each day in the country but with no way to leave. The Greek Prime Minister has warned his country will block future EU agreements if other member states refused to share the burden of refugees. Alexis Tsipras said Greece: Will not accept turning the country into a permanent warehouse of souls with Europe continuing to function as if nothing is happening. Groups of frustrated migrants, including families with small children, yesterday walked along the countrys main motorway in the hope of reaching Macedonia after authorities stopped their buses to ease the crowds at the blocked border. One of the men, a Pakistani, was left unconscious after tying a noose made from twisted lengths of fabric to a tree and was taken to hospital The Greek Prime Minister has warned his country will block future EU agreements if other member states refused to share the burden of refugees The men, one of whom was unconscious, were rushed to hospital from the square, a common destination for migrants when they reach Athens from the Aegean Sea islands We have been here for six days. We cannot take it any more, said Hasan, an Iraqi in a group of hundreds heading towards the small border town of Idomeni. One couple were using a plastic box as a crib for their baby, pulling it along the road. Nearly 3,000 people are currently massed at the border. Wassim al Mousalli, 37, a pharmacist from Damascus said he, his wife and children aged three and six had spent two days camped at the crossing. We spent the night in a small tent, the children were very cold, he said. I want to reach Germany, and my main question is why are the borders being kept closed. Walaa Jbara, a 23-year-old Syrian student, said: It took me 20 hours to get here. The police kept stopping us, but I couldnt wait. Mr Tsipras said it was unacceptable for EU partners to force Greece to shoulder the crisis. He said: We did and will continue to do everything we can to provide warmth, essential help and security to uprooted people. Other migrants tend to two Pakistani men who tried to commit suicide by hanging themselves with twisted lengths of fabric from a tree in central Athens' Victoria Square Bystanders said the men were upset because of delays in their planned travel to northern Greece, from which migrants start their long trek through the Balkans to wealthier European countries We will either be in a union of common rules for all or everyone will do as they please: we will not accept the latter. At a meeting in Brussels yesterday, Greece threatened to block all EU efforts to handle the crisis unless countries along the migrant route up through Europe began allowing people through again. Relations between EU countries were strained to breaking point as Greece accused Austria of behaving like it still has an empire. Athens officials were furious after Austria joined with nine other countries to warn they would no longer allow migrants to be waved through. The countries said they had been forced to take matters into their own hands to protect their borders after the EUs attempts at a unified response had failed to yield results. As talks descended into chaos yesterday, Greece recalled its ambassador from Vienna. Greek officials estimate 20,000 migrants have been stranded in Greece after neighbouring Macedonia (pictured) abruptly shut its border on Monday to anyone not Syrian or Iraqi The restrictions have caused a bottleneck of thousands of people at the Greek-Macedonian border (pictured) The countrys migration minister, Yannis Mouzalas, said the other states were trying to make it take the brunt of the crisis. He echoed the PM in when he said: Greece will not accept becoming Europes Lebanon, a warehouse of souls, even if this were to be done with major funding. Greece will not accept unilateral actions. Greece, too, can take unilateral action. Lebanon hosts around a quarter of the four million Syrians who have fled to neighbouring countries. In a strongly worded statement, the Greek foreign ministry accused Austria of holding attitudes from the 19th century a time when it had an empire in central Europe. In response, Austrias interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner raised the possibility of excluding Greece from the EUs passport-free travel zone, Schengen. If it is really the case that the Greek external border cannot be protected, can it be still a Schengen external border? she said. A Marine was brutally attacked in Washington D.C. on the same night a decorated Iraq War veteran was subjected a vicious beating and robbery in the city, it has emerged. Michael Schroeder, a 35-year-old veteran who also served in Iraq, was attacked in the north west of D.C. on February 12. His head was bashed in by thugs who stole the former serviceman's wallet as he made his way home after going for drinks with friends. The sickening assault took place on the same evening Chris Marquez, a 30-year-old Marine whose heroic actions inspired two statues, was beaten up outside a McDonald's. Scroll down for video Michael Schroeder, a 35-year-old veteran Marine served in Iraq, was attacked by thugs in Washington DC Schroeder was found lying face down by the side of the road, hidden between two parked cars, WUSA 9 reported. Thankfully, a father and son passing by in a taxi spotted the brave serviceman's motionless body and called police. Schroeder was taken to hospital with a fractured skull, severe concussion, high fever, convulsions and unable to speak. His family were only able to track him down to George Washington the next evening, by which time his mother, Diedre Schroeder, was panicking. 'It's an angel whoever found him and I'm very, very grateful,' she said. 'Michael could've died that night.' Speaking in a weak voice from his hospital bed, Schroeder said he had little memory of the attack that left him unconscious in the freezing cold. The sickening assault took place on the same evening Chris Marquez, a 30-year-old Marine whose heroic actions inspired two statues, was beaten up outside a McDonald's (CCTV footage of the attack pictured) In the grainy footage, Marquez is seen sprawled out on the sidewalk as one of the suspects, wearing a white vest, towers over him 'I wasn't trying to find trouble. I was actually just trying to walk home,' he said. 'It's hard for me to understand because there would've been zero reason for it,' he added. Surveillance footage shows him walking through a parking lot and turning around a corner at about 1.34am. At 3.47am, the bright lights of ambulances are seen rushing past in the same direction. When paramedics found the veteran he was cold, bleeding from the back of the head and incoherent. His injuries suggest he was subjected to a cowardly attack from behind. Schroeder's family have called for police to treat the assault as an attempted murder investigation. Police are yet to identify a suspect. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the Iraq War veteran pay for medical expenses and it has already raised more than $15,000. Anything extra will go to veterans' charity the Recon and Sniper Foundation. Another attack on a war hero took place on the same night in Washington D.C., with Marquez also bashed over the head from behind. The same suspect in the white vest then kicks Marquez while he is down on the ground, after another teenager appeared to bend down and rob him Marquez, an Iraq vet with eight years of active duty, says he was just sat eating a meal when the teenagers started intimidating him, but they turned violent when he tried to leave the restaurant Surveillance footage taken outside a McDonald's shows three youths approaching Marquez and asking him if 'black lives matter'. They start calling him a racist, but when he tried to leave the restaurant, the tense situation quickly took a violent turn. Video from cameras inside and outside the restaurant show a teenager wearing a white vest punching Marquez from behind, knocking him unconscious and causing him to fall to the floor. Marquez, who had survived ambushes in Fallujah at the height of the Iraq conflict, is then seen struggling on the floor. Another teenager, dressed in black, bends down and appears to rob Marquez. Another suspect then steps back and appears to kick Marquez in the head. Marquez was left in hospital with a neck brace. Two teenagers have been arrested - one male and one female who are both 17 years old. A third suspect is still being hunted down by cops. Their names have not been released. Marquez, 30, a US Marine who served in Iraq, lies in a hospital bed after he was brutally attacked while eating at a Washington D.C. McDonald's DC Metro Police have detained two youths - one male, one female, both aged 17. They also released grainy stills of the three suspects saying they are still seeking the third in connection with the vicious attack 'I felt threatened and thought they were trying to intimidate me, so I figured I'm just going to keep to my food, eat my food and hopefully they'll leave me alone,' Marquez told WJLA. Marquez told police that the youth hit him in the head with a handgun. 'As soon as I walked out of the McDonald's I got hit in the back of the head, or the side of the head,' he told WJLA. 'I just dropped to the ground, and [the McDonald's manager] says I looked unconscious.' The veteran believes that the attack was a hate crime, and that he was targeted because he was white. 'I believe this was a hate crime and I was targeted because of my skin color,' he told The Daily Caller. 'Too many of these types of attacks have been happening against white people by members of the black community and the majority of the main stream media refuses to report on it.' Marquez was taken to George Washington Hospital where he was evaluated for several hours and treated for head trauma and an eye contusion. He was left with bruises and cuts to his face, and says that he's had trouble sleeping since the event due to a sharp pain that he often feels in his head. That wasn't the only indignity the veteran suffered: when he awoke on the sidewalk outside McDonald's, he found his pants ripped and his wallet containing $400 in cash, three credit cards and his Veterans Affairs medical card, among other things missing. The youths used the cards that night to the tune of $115, and Marquez hopes that the trail will help police catch them. Inspiration: Marquez and a fellow marine were photographed carrying an injured comrade out of a battle, an image that inspired two statues, including this one at Camp Pendleton, San Diego The veteran seemed troubled by the teens' accusations of racism, telling The Daily Caller, 'When I was in the Marine Corps, I served with people from many different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, and races. Like all Marines, I fought for the freedom of all Americans and not just one particular group.' Marquez served eight years on active duty in the Marines as a rifleman and scout sniper from 2003-2011, and was awarded a Bronze Star for valor on his first deployment for carrying his commander's body out of combat after he was killed in an ambush, according to The Daily Caller. During his time in the Corps he was deployed to Iraq three times and Afghanistan once. But he was best known for a photograph showing him and a fellow Marine carrying a wounded sergeant out of a house in Fallujah, after a firefight that became known as 'The House of Hell' in Marine Corps lore. That photograph in turn inspired two statues named No Man Left Behind, which are currently on display at Camp Pendleton in San Diego and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. A man from southern China was so disappointed at not having produced a son that he cut off his own penis as a way of punishing himself. The 36-year-old, known under a pseudonym of A Yong, used a knife to sever around 1.2 inches of his penis on February 22, the People's Daily Online reports. The man from a rural area near Quanzhou City was upset that he had two daughters and had reportedly been taunted by local villagers. Surgeons perform an operation in a hospital's operating room (File photo) According to Chinese media, the man has two daughters aged three and 13. He was taken to the Emergency Room at the Fujian Armed Police Force Hospital in Quanzhou around 11pm on February 15. His family members say that he had drunk around five shots of alcohol that night before coming to a drastic decision to cut off part of his penis. When A Yong's family members realised what he had done, they rushed him to hospital immediately with the organ in a bag of ice. Huang Zhihong, a doctor on the night shift at the time, said: 'The severed part is around 1.2 inches long.' In rural China, a son is valued more than a daughter as boys can carry on the family name (File photo) The patient reportedly shouted at medical staff that he did not want it put back on. According to doctor Huang, A Yong had already been to a local clinic for first aid. Staff at the hospital immediately performed surgery on A yong. His manhood was allegedly sewed back on after a four-hour-long operation. Doctor Huang who undertook the surgery told reporters that the healing process will take around six to 12 months. A female passenger from China was so unhappy with the fact that the bus driver couldn't give her change that she grabbed the steering wheel of the vehicle causing it to crash. The woman, who is reportedly in her 60s, had put 20 Yuan (2.19) into a payment box at the front of the bus and then demanded the driver handed over her change of 19 Yuan (2) in Shanghai. Not pleased when the driver said he was unable to, the woman tried to take control of the steering wheel causing the bus to crash in the Songjiang District recently. Passenger road rage! The moment the bus crashes into the curb in Shanghai, east China's Zhejiang province Dangerous driving: The woman grabs control of the steering wheel fighting with the man before it later crashes There were passengers on board the bus number 14 at the time. According to China News, the bus luckily didn't hit anyone but one passenger onboard was injured in the incident. The driver, named Zhou Wei, tried explaining to the woman that passengers must use exact change. He told her that if she visited the bus depot, she would be able to get her money back. Zhou told reporters: 'I told her that I was unable to give her change'. As the bus came to a junction, the woman can be seen in the video grabbing hold of the steering wheel trying to take control. The vehicle lost control and crashed into a curb. A spokesperson from Shanghai Public Security Bureau said: 'The hospital has confirmed that the injured woman fractured three ribs. The elderly woman violated China's Criminal Law section 114 - endangering members of the public and we have now taken criminal coercive measures'. In a fit of rage: The bus hurtles towards the curb after the woman grabs hold of the steering wheel An injured giant salamander has been found at a sewage plant in central China. The unusual discovery was made in Zhenzhou, Henan Province today, reports Huanqiu.com, an affiliation of the People's Daily Online, and the animal was immediately sent to the local wild animal rescue station. Experts suspected the rare amphibian, which measured 27 inches in length and weighed eight pounds, had escaped from a farm or a restaurant. Rare: This giant salamander was found in a sewage plant today Zhenzhou, Henan Province, east China Escaped: Staff at the Zhenzhou Forestry Wild Animal Rescue Station suspect it came from a restaurant The giant salamander was found at the Matougang Sewage Plant in Zhenzhou. After it was retrieved from the processing section of the plant, the muddy animal received medical treatment for minor injuries sustained during its ordeal. With an injured tail, the giant salamander was sent to the Zhenzhou Forestry Wild Animal Rescue Station. The director of the centre, Dong Chaowei, told reporters that he suspected the amphibian could have escaped from a restaurant or a farm and went into the urban sewage system, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency. But Dong said it could also have been released on purpose. The giant salamander remains in the centre where it is being carefully looked after by staff who hope for a speedy recovery. Injured: The amphibian hurt its tail when is escaped and climbed into an urban sewage system in China Tiny: This salamander is relatively small, it measured 27 inches in length and weighed eight pounds Pictures taken after the rescue show the rare creature being washed, measured and cared for in some water. They also show the staff at the centre carefully looking after the salamander, feeding and dressing its wounds. Giant salamanders are the largest species of amphibian in the world, and can grow up to six feet in length. The ancient animals are often described as the 'living fossil' because they have remained unchanged for 170million years. They have also been declared 'critically endangered' by the Zoological Society of London. Shocking: Staff were working at the sewage plant in Henan Province today when they found the rare creature Emergency: The muddy animal received medical treatment for minor injuries sustained during its ordeal The amphibians are also one of the oldest species on the planet, but have suffered from a huge dip in population over the past thirty years with human consumption the major cause of this decline. In China, giant salamanders are called 'wa wa yu' - or 'baby fish' - because their distress call sounds like the cry of a baby The amphibians are sometimes considered to be a luxury food item as well as an important source of traditional medicines, in spite of its rarity. As they are slow and easy to hunt, catching the salamanders in nets is not a problem for Chinese poachers and they have been killed in droves - although they are now a protected species in China. The creatures tend to be most commonly found in rocky mountain streams and lakes with clear fast-running water, and are known to dine on crabs, lobsters and large fish. Images of the scenes were shared and Chinese web users said 'well done' He used a forklift truck to move two vehicles to the roof and left them there A man in eastern China has been praised online after he took drastic measures to warn people not to park in front of his garage. The owner of a garage in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, decided to pick up the cars parked in front of his garage by using a forklift truck and placing them on the roof, the People's Daily Online reports. Pictures of the scenes were posted onto the Chinese social media on February 21 and were quickly shared. Many web users cheered the garage owner's decision by saying 'well done'. Smart move! A man China has resorted to drastic measures to stop illegally parked cars in front of his garage One of the two viral pictures shows the man using the forklift truck to lift a black Volkswagen while another one shows a navy car had already been moved to the rooftop. According to reports, the owners of the two cars in question were unable to get their vehicles off the roof. This is because both the police and the garage's owner said they were not able to get involved as it was a 'private matter'. In order to get their vehicles back, the cars' owners reportedly had to hire a forklift themselves to bring their vehicles down. While the owner of the garage, who remains unidentified, said that the two vehicles had parked illegally and needed to be moved. He said that instead of having them towed away, he was considerate enough to help them find a separate free spot - on the roof. One of the owners said they planned to sue the man for scratches to their vehicle. The story has gained a lot of attention online. On news site 163.com, the garage owner was commended for his actions. One user wrote: '[The owner] deserves it. People who park illegally are very annoying.' While another said: 'Should give the driver a 1,000 Yuan fine as well.' On China's Twitter-like site Weibo, the reaction was similar. A user said: 'This is the consequence of not parking your car properly.' China is likely to see more bachelors in the coming years as many of them are finding it too expensive to get married. New statistics show a wedding ceremony costs 100,000 Yuan (10,993) on average in rural China while the average yearly income for a Chinese person was revealed to be 10,489 yuan (1,151), according to a report from 2014. According to the latest statistics released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics, China's sex ratio was 115 men to 100 women, the People's Daily Online reports. Experts say the gap could leave 30 million Chinese men single by 2020. Rural men in China are finding it harder to find a wife as the cost of getting wed rises (File photo) For many men in rural China, the high cost involved in getting wed is completely out of their budget (File photo) Liu Yanwu, a sociologist from Wuhan University told the Global Times that China currently has around 20 million men aged between 20 and 45 in rural villages that cannot find wives. He says that more than two-thirds of these man are unable to find wives because they cannot afford the cost involved with marriage. Betrothal gifts are becoming big business as families realise they can use their daughters to claim a substantial amount of cash. According to CRI English, in Shandong province, the average amount of money needed to marry is 100,000 yuan (10,993). However the cost can be higher. For many men in rural China this is completely out of their budget. In some extreme cases, bachelors in rural areas are turning to agencies in countries such as Vietnam With more people moving to the country's larger cities to work, the search for a wife is hard (File photo) Recently the case of one rural family in China has been highlighted in Chinese media. Zhang Hu, a father who lives in a mountainous village in northwest China's Gansu province, spent his entire savings and borrowed a further 150,000 yuan (16,496) to ensure his son married. He told reporters from China Daily: 'Our village is so poor that there is barely any girl willing to marry young men from here.' The money has now flung the family back into poverty as they struggle to pay back the giant sum. For a typical rural marriage, a man is expected to have a house and in some cases a car. Rural men in some ways are becoming desperate to find a life partner. And with more people moving to the country's larger cities to work, the search becomes harder. Ji Rusong, a lawyer from a rural area says: 'In the process of urbanization, more and more people migrate from the countryside to the cities. Then rural areas become empty shells. With the ageing population, we will see a bigger development gap between rural and urban areas. I think we need to find ways to narrow this gap'. A Help to Rent scheme should be launched to help people move out of the trap of homelessness, a charity has suggested. The scheme could be the equivalent of the Help to Buy scheme for first-time buyers, except it would help those struggling to save for a deposit or find a flat. Homeless charity Crisis said it is 'only fair' that the support offered to first-time buyers is extended to people in other areas of the housing market that are suffering, such as tenants who cannot afford the growing expense of renting a home. It is calling on the Government to provide a rental deposit version of the popular Help to Buy scheme, which helps those purchase a home with a deposit of just 5 per cent. An equivalent of the Help to Buy scheme should be made available to those struggling to save for a deposit It would see the Government guarantee a deposit handed over by someone who was previously homeless. Crisis said the move would ease landlords' fears that letting properties to people who have been homeless is too risky. As many as 82 per cent of private landlords across England are unwilling to rent to homeless people, according to research for the charity. The survey of more than 800 landlords found their main concerns were that people who have been homeless pose a greater risk of rent arrears and that they were worried their property would need to be more intensively managed. Crisis has launched a campaign called Home: No Less Will Do - calling for stronger action across England to help homeless people secure a home to rent. No money would change hands at the beginning of the rental - instead a deposit guarantee would be provided which would allow a landlord to make a claim on the deposit if the property was damaged or the tenant fell behind with their rent. LANDLORDS SURVEY RESULTS 82% of landlords are unwilling to rent to homeless people amid a perceived greater risk of rent arrears 55% of landlords they were unwilling to let to tenants on housing benefit 18% of tenants increased the deposit on renting to a homeless person Advertisement Crisis claimed that homeless people are finding it increasingly difficult to secure a place to rent, with many struggling to afford upfront costs such as a deposit, rent in advance and agent fees. It comes at a time when the cost of renting is on the increase, having risen five per cent during the past year to an average across the country of 739 a month, according to separate research earlier this week by Direct Line for Business. The Government has launched several schemes in recent years to help people onto the property ladder, such as the Help to Buy equity loan scheme which includes an interest-free loan of 20 per cent of the value of a property - or 40 per cent for those buying in London. Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, said: 'We need action to tackle this homelessness trap. The Government already helps first-time buyers struggling for a deposit; it's only fair they extend this help to those who need it most.' The deposit guarantee would be in the form of a bond underwritten by the Government, which would responsible for picking up the bill in the event of the landlord drawing on the deposit funds. Adding up: Renting a home requires a deposit and often rent in advance and agent fees Chris Norris, head of policy, public affairs and research at the National Landlords Association, said: 'It's a win-win situation: a homeless person finds a stable place to live and the landlord finds a tenant who wants to stay and make the house their home. That's why we're backing this campaign and calling on the Government to take action.' David Smith, policy director at the Residential Landlords Association, added: 'It is expensive and time-consuming for a landlord to find a new tenant and most landlords will do all they can to keep tenants in their homes rather than face an empty property. Many landlords would be much less reluctant to rent to people who were homeless if the risks could be better managed.' High house prices and tighter restrictions on obtaining a mortgage mean more people will be renting for longer, according to experts. A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said: 'One person without a home is one too many, which is why we are increasing central funding to tackle homelessness over the next four years to 139 million. 'The Government has funded Crisis to help nearly 9,000 single homeless people into sustainable private rented sector accommodation through a 14 million programme. 'However, we are clear that there is more to do to prevent and tackle homelessness and we will look at the recommendations of this report with interest.' Jonathan Harris, director of mortgage broker Anderson Harris, said: 'Help to Buy has proven to be extremely popular among first-time buyers - why wouldn't 'Help to Rent' enjoy equal success, particularly at a time when rents and the other costs associated with renting are rising? With the cost of buying high and the difficulties associated with getting a mortgage, renting is going to be the only option for many would-be first-time buyers, for the foreseeable future at least. 'Landlords rely on the deposit as a guarantee that their property is going to be looked after so if there was some way this could be guaranteed by the government, more might be willing to rent to those who have previously been homeless. SIX THINGS THAT ARE KEY TO BEING HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL, ACCORDING TO EMMA SEPPALA 1. STOP CHASING THE FUTURE: WHY HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS ARE FOUND IN THE PRESENT Seppala writes that we are constantly wondering, 'what am I doing right now to help reach my future goals' and if we can't find an answer, we will come down on ourselves and rush to find some busy work.Seppala suggests embracing how precious every minute is to do something more and move ahead Seppala writes that we are constantly wondering, 'what am I doing right now to help reach my future goals' and if we can't find an answer, we will come down on ourselves and rush to find some busy work. We put an intense amount of pressure on ourselves with always having to do something, which can result in emotional exhaustion and lower relationship quality. 'You're caught up in the compulsion to constantly achieve, always adding meat to your bio and feathers to your cap,' reads her book. 'You haven't finished one task before your mind is on to the next'. Always having your mind one step ahead of your actions, will actually keep 'you from the very success you are chasing'. Seppala suggests embracing how precious every minute is to do something more and move ahead, meaning get to the point when you will never question whether it's working for you. 'And you may even pride yourself on your willpower'. Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, a Hungarian psychologist, believes that when you are immersed in one single thing you will actually enjoy it. He calls what you're doing the 'flow' state' and this idea suggests that 'whether you're an Olympic athlete or a mathematician, you are at your best when you're in the flow'. 2. STEP OUT OF OVERDRIVE: TAP INTO YOUR NATURAL RESILIENCE While we can't change certain situations, such as work and life's demands, we can learn how to become more resilient without overextending ourselves. A study showed that people who are more resilient are able to bounce back faster when they use positive emotions as a response to a stressful experience 'Everyone is working on overdrive, because they think this is the only way to be successful,' said Seppala Anxiety and fear are helpful responses to situations, otherwise humans may have gone extinct a long time ago. Your heart rate increases, you develop tunnel vision and your hearing becomes more sensitive all of which are symptoms of fight or flight. Stress is what keeps us alive, but studies have shown long-term stress is what damages our health. While we can't change certain situations, such as work and life's demands, we can learn how to become more resilient without overextending ourselves. A study from 2004 showed that people who are more resilient are able to bounce back faster when they use positive emotions as a response to a stressful experience. 3. MANAGE YOUR ENERGY: THE HIDDEN BENEFITS OF CALM There is no secret that the more we do, the more exhausted we feel. 'When you're constantly in overdrive, it can lead to burnout, which as much as much as half of the American workforce experiences', Seppala said.Seppala said that breathing exercises are an 'absolutely critical' part of her own life, too There is no secret that the more we do, the more exhausted we feel. 'When you're constantly in overdrive, it can lead to burnout, which as much as much as half of the American workforce experiences', Seppala said. But by calming yourself throughout the day, you can learn to manage your energy. Two years ago, Seppala and her colleagues investigated ways to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They instructed 11 veterans with the disorder to participate in breathing meditation and 11 did not receive any instructions. The first group that did the yoga-based exercise reported 'lower PTSD symptoms and anxiety a month and even a year later Seppala told Business Insider that breathing exercises are an 'absolutely critical' part of her own life, too. 4. GET MORE DONE BY DOING MORE OF NOTHING: THE SECRETE TO ACCESSING CREATIVITY Another reason to play more is it is beneficial to your physical health and helps you be more creative. 'We understand that resting the body (i.e. sleep) is important, but often forget that it's equally important to rest the mind. It's a chance to unwind our mind and loosen up our thoughts,' explains Seppala A study from 2011, looked to see if the time of day has any effect on our problem solving skills. Researchers found that during non-optimal times of the day, when our brain has slowed down a bit, the participants showed greater problem solving insight. 'A side effect of taking time for ourselves, detaching from work, and relaxing is often enhanced positive mood, which research shows also leads to greater insight and better problem solving,' Seppala shares on her website. Another reason to play more is it is beneficial to your physical health and helps you be more creative. 'We understand that resting the body (i.e. sleep) is important, but often forget that it's equally important to rest the mind. It's a chance to unwind our mind and loosen up our thoughts,' explains Seppala. 5. ENJOY A SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIP WITH YOURSELF: HOW YOU RELATED TO YOURSELF AFFECTS YOUR POTENTIAL In the book, Seppala describes happiness as 'an unexpected path to success and believes we can hinder our journey with self-criticism and compassionate behavior towards yourself. 'Research shows that when we are hard on ourselves and self-critical, we're actually hurting our resilience,' said Seppala In the book, Seppala describes happiness as 'an unexpected path to success and believes we can hinder our journey with self-criticism and compassionate behavior towards yourself. 'Research shows that when we are hard on ourselves and self-critical, we're actually hurting our resilience,' Seppala told The Huffington Post. 'We're hurting our ability to bounce back in the face of challenge. 'Research shows that compassion toward ourselves is actually incredibly powerful for building resilience.' The University of Texas has shown that when our self-worth relies on out-competing others we become more insecure and anxious. Having self-compassion for yourself can increase your own inner strength, productivity, your health and decreases stress levels. 'When you are motivated by self-compassion, you understand failure not as a painful indicator of defeat but as a learning opportunity from which growth can follow,' states Sepella. 'Whereas self-criticism leads to painful and self-defeating emotions in the face of failure, Self-Compassion therefore embraces challenge.' 6. UNDERSTAND THE KINDNESS EDGE: WHY COMPASSION SERVES YOU BETTER THAN SELF-INTEREST 'If you have a more altruistic way of interacting with people and become a leader who knows your employees, you have a more positive and more productive workplace', Sepella told CBS News. 'Success comes from caring for and being interested in and maintaining a responsibility for colleagues as friends' We have been taught to think that you have to 'look out for number one' if you want to be successful, but Sepella believes it is the complete opposite. Compassion for others doesn't not only help them, but it benefits your health physical and mental. 'If you have a more altruistic way of interacting with people and become a leader who knows your employees, you have a more positive and more productive workplace', Sepella told CBS News. 'Success comes from caring for and being interested in and maintaining a responsibility for colleagues as friends.' You can train yourself to be more compassionate, according to Seppala and her colleagues. The robot decoys have a Styrofoam core, and can be shot many times When a poacher gets caught hunting illegally, its often too late; the poacher in question may be fined, but by then, the animal is already dead. Now, American wildlife law enforcement officers are turning to robotic decoys, using a remote-controlled task force of deer, foxes, and other animals to trap poachers before any harm is done. Robo-animals are difficult to differentiate from real ones, and can move their heads, tails, and legs and with a Styrofoam core, theyre difficult to kill. Scroll down to see the robots in action When a poacher gets caught hunting illegally, its often too late; the poacher in question may be fined, but by then, the animal is already dead. American wildlife law enforcement are turning to robotic decoys, using a remote-controlled task force of deer, foxes, and other animals to trap poachers before any harm is done. Shown, a robo deer that can remotely move its head. HOW OFFICERS USE ROBO-ANIMALS When tipped off about illegal hunting, officers employ a realistic looking robo-animals. With a remote control, officers can move the animal's body. The animal is placed in a field, or other 'vulnerable' area to lure in poachers. In the efforts against poachers, the robo-animals offer a new approach in tackling the issue first-hand, before an animal is harmed. Advertisement Officers across the country have been successful in stopping illegal hunting in the act using robo-animals, The Washington Post writes. Decoys include deer, elk, bears, turkeys, foxes, and wolves, and they can be very convincing. These robotic replicas are in high demand, Jim Reed of the Human Society Wildlife Land Trust explained to The Washington Post. When officers are tipped off about illegal hunting, be it in the wrong place or season or just illegal altogether, they set out with a remote-controlled decoy. Then, they stake out the area from a concealed spot, like a bush or nearby truck and wait for poachers to catch the bait. Decoys are placed in a vulnerable setting (like an open field), and nearby officials manipulate them with remote controls so that they move just like living animals, the Human Societys website explains. If a passing poacher shoots at a decoy, officials have solid evidence to support the poachers prosecution. The organization donates robotic animals to help stop illegal hunting, and such realistic looking poacher-traps are not cheap. Decoys include deer, elk, bears, turkeys, foxes, and wolves, and they can be very convincing. A robo-fox is pictured on the left These robotic replicas are in high demand. When officers are tipped off about illegal hunting, be it in the wrong place or season or just illegal altogether, they set out with a remote-controlled decoy, and stake out the area from a concealed spot. Robo-wolf pictured left A deer costs roughly $2000, and a black bear is more than double that. At Custom Robotic Wildlife, the decoys are made from once-living materials, using hides acquired by legally hunted animals to build the most realistic looking model. Most popular is the whitetail deer, owner Brian Wolslegel told The Washington Post. The organization donates robotic animals to help stop illegal hunting, and such realistic looking poacher-traps are not cheap. A deer costs roughly $2000, and a black bear is more than double that. Robo-bear pictured left he robotic decoys are made with a Styrofoam core, which has proven to withstand upwards of 100 shots in some cases, and the motor is easily replaceable if damaged. A robo-deer pictured left While catching a poacher in the act is like winning the lottery, Wolslegel told The Washington Post, when the poacher is caught, the animal often dies anyway. The robotic decoys are made with a Styrofoam core, which has proven to withstand upwards of 100 shots in some cases, and the motor is easily replaceable if damaged. A collection of the animals available, which inluce bears, birds, raccoons and coyotes Different versions of the animals can be made to perform different moves on command For each of the robotic decoys, Wolslegel says officers have issued $30,000 in fines as a result. In the efforts against poachers, the robo-animals offer a new approach in tackling the issue first-hand, before an animal is harmed. Unfortunately, few of these heartless criminals are actually caught in the act, making it difficult for conservation officers to enforce anti-poaching laws, the Human Society writes. s cost effective and can teach humans how to grow in harsh conditions Researchers are proposing that we 'grow' satellites while in orbit, and reuse the hybrid inorganic and organic materials to feed our astronauts. The project, 'grow a tree in space', suggests Nasa uses living cells to make individual components of a spacecraft. The team says, 'if we can translate cells' ability to aggregate, to create the most complex living organisms in lieu of what is traditionally made of metal, we may realize mankind's first live starship'. Researchers are proposing that we 'grow' satellites while in orbit, and reuse the hybrid inorganic and organic materials to feed our astronauts. The project, 'grow a tree in space', suggests using living cells to grow individual components of a spacecraft WHAT ARE THE FIRST STEPS TO GROWING A TREE IN SPACE? While actually growing organic material openly in the vacuum and temperature of outer space is not currently possible, scientists could take initial steps toward that goal one of which may be to grow existing species encapsulated by a material such as aerogel in a protected layer or cocoon to withstand the extreme conditions. Another alternative would be creating a completely new species of genetically modified flora and fauna that has a better chance of surviving the frigid temperatures, along with cutting-edge methods to provide oxygen and nutrients. Advertisement 'Cells are beautiful and amazing. 'They have the ability to attach to each other without any preconceived structural configuration, and they self-aggregate into complex systems autonomously,' David Barnhart, director of USC's Space Engineering Researcher Center, told USC News. 'How do we make the outside of currently clunky mechanical spacecraft to something like a cell that expands and contracts seamlessly, to allow more 'cells' to attach and grow to any size in space?' Barnhart and Nicole Livia Atudosiei of Bioterra Bucharest University collaborated in producing a paper about other ways of manufacturing space platforms that could transport food into space. And they call this technology 'bio-terran capability in space' or 'growing the environment itself'. 'If we can clone sheep and land humans on the moon, we should be able to solve the challenges to grow a tree in space,' Barnhart said. While actually growing organic material openly in the vacuum and temperature of outer space is not currently possible, scientists could take initial steps toward that goal one of which may be to grow existing species encapsulated by a material such as aerogel in a protected layer or cocoon to withstand the extreme conditions, Barnhart said. Another alternative would be creating a completely new species of genetically modified flora and fauna that has a better chance of surviving the frigid temperatures, along with cutting-edge methods to provide oxygen and nutrients. He envisions using genetically modified Australian eucalyptus that can survive in the freezing temperature. The idea of growing these platforms in space is a way to conserve costs and Barnhart believes the organic material can be used as a food source once it is in orbit or as other platforms for satellites in the future. Another alternative would be creating a completely new species of genetically modified flora and fauna that has a better chance of surviving the frigid temperatures. Barnhart envisions using genetically modified Australian eucalyptus (pictured) that can survive in the freezing temperature Not only will this minimize debris left in space from satellites, the 'grow a tree in space' proposal will also help humans learn how to grow vegetation in extreme conditions. By 2050, many experts predict a majority of the world will be plagued by droughts, heavy storms and landslides. 'Such research could help us understand how to grow in austere conditions, such as growing in arid or dry conditions that haven't traditionally been suitable for crops,' Barnhart said. 'It could open up a whole new field of extreme biological technology.' While a working, orbiting 'live starship' is far off, Barnhart and Atudosiei said scientists already imitate nature for todays satellite functions. Heat pipes in large satellites use fluid to transfer thermal energy similar to the ways trees do for nutrient transport, for example. Do you call a spade a spade? Or would you describe it as a garden tool with a metal blade and a long, often wooden, handle? The answer could give a hint to your political preferences, according to new research. A group or researchers in Kent found that conservative politicians prefer using nouns in their speeches compared liberals. And it can be as simple as referring to someone as 'an optimist' compared to describing them as 'optimistic'. President Barack Obama (shown) is the most recent of 15 Democratic presidents. A study has found Democrats, considered to be more liberal, use fewer nouns in speeches than more conservative Republicans. This can be as simple as referring to someone as 'an optimist' compared to describing them as 'optimistic' Researchers from the University of Kent studied the speeches of politicians in three languages across three countries - Poland, Lebanon and the US. The researchers, led by Dr Aleksandra Cichocka at the university's School of Psychology, established that conservatives, more than liberals, generally tend to refer to things by their names instead of describing them in terms of their features. THE SIMPLE WORD TRICK The researchers found conservatives, more than liberals, tend to refer to things by names, instead of describing them in terms of features. Examples of this would be saying someone is an idealist rather than describing them as idealistic, or that someone is a pessimist rather than calling them pessimistic. If you describe someone as 'a homosexual' you're more likely to be conservative, while calling someone 'homosexual' - without the 'a' - makes you more liberal. This use of nouns, rather than adjectives, is thought to preserve stability, familiarity and tradition, all of which appear to be valued more highly by conservatives than liberals. Advertisement Examples of this would be saying someone is an idealist rather than describing them as idealistic or that someone is a pessimist rather than calling them pessimistic. Other examples listed in the paper included using the word 'spades' rather than 'spatulous', or describing someone as 'a homosexual' rather than 'homosexual'. To measure participants' relative preferences for nouns, the researchers showed them incomplete sentences describing different people. They were asked to complete with either a noun or an adjective. For example, participants read that 'Magda had no doubts about the success of her business. Magda...' and were asked to choose either a noun - 'is an optimist' - or an adjective - 'is optimistic'. This use of nouns, rather than adjectives, is thought to preserve stability, familiarity and tradition - all of which appear to be valued more highly by the more right-wing conservatives than left-wing liberals. The use of nouns, rather than adjectives, is thought to preserve stability, familiarity and tradition - all of which appear to be valued more highly by the more right-wing conservatives such as the Prime Minister David Cameron, pictured, than left-wing liberals The US study also looked at the two main political parties and included 45 speeches delivered by Republicans, considered to be more conservative, and 56 speeches delivered by Democrats, considered to be more liberal. The findings showed conservative political leaders are more likely than liberals to use parts of speech that stress clarity and predictability. The last Republican US President, George W Bush. Republicans, considered more conservative, uses more nouns than Democrats, considered liberal The researchers said this is because nouns 'elicit clearer and more definite perceptions of reality than other parts of speech', they fulfil the desire for 'structure and certainty' that is common among social conservatives, the researchers said. The findings, published in the Journal of Political Psychology, were consistent across the three countries, looking at speeches in three different languages. 'We wanted to collect data in different languages and different socio-political contexts,' Cichocka told MailOnline. 'The US has a two-party system. Therefore, it was fairly easy to identify the more conservative presidents, representing the Republican Party, and the more liberal presidents, epresenting the Democratic Party, for language analysis.' 'The Polish study provided the opportunity to test our ideas in a very different political context - the post-Communist one.' In Poland, social conservatism was associated with noun preferences in Polish. The study additionally found that 'personal need for structure accounted for the association between ideology and grammatical preferences'. In a follow-up study, conducted in Arabic, the researchers found 'social conservatism was associated with a preference for the use of nominal sentences, composed of nouns only, over verbal sentences, which included verbs and adjectives,' Cichocka added. 'We chose Lebanon in order to conduct a study in Arabic. In this language, one can build sentences that are comprised solely of nouns.' The third was the US study, in which the researchers found that more conservative US presidents used greater proportions of nouns in major speeches. 'We hope that future research would examine the consequences of using or being exposed to nouns as well as other grammatical forms,' Cichocka said. Advertisement Astronauts on the International Space Station have front-row seats to the stunning light shows on Earth. With 16 sunrises and sunsets every day, ISS crew members are often treated to the sight of dazzling auroras dancing across our planet. Now, Nasa has released a ultra-high definition 4K timelapse of the Auroras Borealis and Australis as seen from 250 miles above Earth. Scroll down for video With 16 sunrises and sunsets every day, ISS crew members are often treated to the sight of dazzling auroras dancing across our planet. Now, Nasa has released a ultra-high definition 4k timelapse of the Auroras Borealis and Australis as seen from 250 miles above Earth WHAT ARE AURORAS? There are two types of auroras - Aurora Borealis, which means 'dawn of the north', and Aurora Australis, 'dawn of the south.' The lights are created when charged particles from the sun enter Earth's atmosphere. Usually the particles are deflected by the Earth's magnetic field, but some enter the atmosphere and collide with gas particles. These collisions emit light, in many colours although pale green and pink are common. Advertisement 'Harmonic produced this show exclusively for Nasa TV UHD, using time-lapses shot from the International Space Station, showing both the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis,' Nasa wrote. '[These] occur when electrically charged electrons and protons in the Earth's magnetic field collide with neutral atoms in the upper atmosphere.' While the astronauts on the space station are often treated to spectacular light shows created by the aurora from their unique perspective, they are often on the Earth's horizon. But in February the green glow, caused by electrically charged particles thrown out by the sun interacting with the gas atoms in the atmosphere, right in the path of the space station. Major Tim Peake managed to capture the stunning moment as the space station passed through the green haze by taking a picture out of a window. Posting the image on Twitter, he described the aurora as being like a 'thick green fog' which was 'eerie but very beautiful'. 'Harmonic produced this show exclusively for Nasa TV UHD, using time-lapses shot from the International Space Station, showing both the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis,' Nasa wrote. '[These] occur when electrically charged electrons and protons in the Earth's magnetic field collide with neutral atoms in the upper atmosphere' There are two types of Aurora - Aurora Borealis, which means 'dawn of the north', and Aurora Australis, 'dawn of the south.' In this image, part of the ISS can be seen against the stunning backdrop of an aurora The ISS orbits at around 248 miles above the Earth's surface at more than 17,000mph, meaning it orbits the planet once every 92 minutes. This gives the astronauts an unrivalled view of the planet and how it interacts with the space around it The picture is one of a string of images Major Peake has managed to capture of the aurora during his time on board the space station. The ISS orbits at around 248 miles above the Earth's surface at more than 17,000mph, meaning it orbits the planet once every 92 minutes. This gives the astronauts an unrivalled view of the planet and how it interacts with the space around it. The aurora, which are usually called the northern and southern lights because they occur close to the poles, are the effect of energetic particles from the solar wind colliding with the gas in the atmosphere. The Earth's magnetic field tends to funnel these particles towards the poles, meaning the collisions become concentrated there, producing bright colourful displays. Nasa said studying the aurora from space could provide scientists with details about the behaviour of the sun. It said: 'The dancing lights of the aurora provide spectacular views on the ground, but also capture the imagination of scientists who study incoming energy and particles from the sun. 'Aurora are one effect of such energetic particles, which can speed out from the sun both in a steady stream called the solar wind and due to giant eruptions known as coronal mass ejections.' The latest video follows Nasa Television's recent launch of an ultra-HD video channel called NasaTV UHD described as 'the first ever non-commercial consumer ultra-high definition (UHD) channel in North America'. The space agency has also today released a short video of 4K crew observations of Earth - although you will need a screen capable of displaying 4K resolution for the full effect. The aurora, which are usually called the northern and southern lights because they occur close to the poles, are the effect of energetic particles from the solar wind colliding with the gas in the atmosphere The Earth's magnetic field tends to funnel these particles towards the poles, meaning the collisions become concentrated there, producing bright colourful displays. Nasa said studying the aurora from space could provide scientists with details about the behaviour of the sun. The International Space Station passed through a 'thick green fog' of an aurora as it orbited 248 miles above the Earth. British astronaut Tim Peake captured the extraordinary moment on camera The space agency has also today released a short video of 4K crew observations of Earth - although you will need a screen capable of displaying 4K resolution for the full effect Most people on Earth are lucky if they get to see the aurora - also called the Northern Lights (pictured above Tromsoe, Norway, or the Southern Lights, once in their lifetime. The picture above shows the kind of stunning displays they can produce, but from the ISS astronauts are treated to a unique perspective Almost half a century since man first walked on the moon there are plans to build a human outpost orbiting our satellite. Such an outpost is intended to support a crew of four astronauts for up to 60 days in cislunar space - the region around the moon. It would allow them to operate robots on the moon's surface and analyse moon rocks, as well as provide a base for deep space trips to Mars, for example. There are plans to build a human outpost (illustrated) orbiting our satellite. Such an outpost is intended to support a crew of four astronauts for up to 60 days in cislunar space the region around the moon The plan is the brainchild of Lockheed Martin's space systems division. The division is looking at ways to use Nasa's Orion capsule as a cislunar base as part of Nasa's Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) projects. Josh Hopkins, space architect at Lockheed Martin, told Space.com's Leonard David that the base could be used as a place from which to operate robots on the moon, as well as receive lunar samples before they are shipped back to Earth, and even as a laboratory. Unlike the International Space Station (ISS) there would be no need for orbit change manoeuvres, because the outpost would remain in a stable cislunar orbit for thousands of years. The plan is the brainchild of Lockheed Martin's space systems division, which is looking at ways to use Nasa's Orion capsule (pictured in the 'birdcage') as a cislunar base as part of Nasa's Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) projects ORION CAPSULE BEGINS STRUCTURAL TESTING It is set to become the spacecraft that takes humans to an asteroid and eventually Mars. But before that, in 2018, Nasa's Orion capsule will fly 43,000 miles (69,202km) beyond the moon and back in a vital test of its systems. In a step towards that goal, its manufacturer Lockheed Martin says its has installed Orion into something known as the 'birdcage'. This is its structural assembly tool and will be used by engineers in Florida to test and outfit the spacecraft ahead of its launch. It will undergo proof-pressure testing where the structural welds are stress tested to confirm it can withstand the environments it will experience in space. Additional structural tests will follow including proof-pressure testing of the fluid system welds followed by X-ray inspections. Once the crew module passes those tests it will undergo final assembly, integration and entire vehicle testing in order to prepare for EM-1, when Orion is launched atop Nasa's Space Launch System (SLS) for the first time. Advertisement This means it would operate with a high degree of autonomy and little ground support, making it more affordable to run. The fact the Orion capsule will have communications systems and life support systems means these are already designed, which will also help keep costs down. However, the outpost would be outside the Earth's protective magnetic field - 1,000 times further from the Earth than the ISS - so experts will have to work out how to limit astronaut's exposure to higher levels of radiation. Other challenges include 'developing techniques and operations, how to bring up spare parts for the outpost [and] how to deal with emergencies,' he said. It's likely it would take several phases to build such a base. 'We're looking at getting something up and operating in cislunar space relatively soon...but also be able to bring additional generations of technology up after first launch,' Dr Hopkins said. The base could work as a test-run for the equipment needed for crewed Mars missions, which would be 1,000 times further away from than the moon is from Earth. William Pratt, NextSTEP study manager at Lockheed Martin said Nasa is interested in a habitat that can evolve module by module, so that it becomes closer to a system that could be used in a transit system to get humans to Mars. Advertisement After nearly a year in orbit, America's space-endurance champ, Scott Kelly, is just a few days away from returning to Earth and he can't wait. Kelly held his final news conference from the International Space Station on Thursday. He told reporters that space is a 'harsh environment,' and you never feel perfectly normal. Scroll down for video Kelly held his final news conference from the International Space Station, telling reporters that space is a 'harsh environment,' and you never feel perfectly normal.' SCOTT KELLY AND THE TWIN STUDY Scott Kelly, together with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, boarded the ISS in March last year as part of a first-of-its-kind experiment to test how the human body copes with prolonged space travel. They will be the first astronauts to spend a year on the station. Mr Kelly's identical twin Mark has remained on Earth, allowing Nasa to examine the changes between these genetically identical people in two vastly different environments. Both the Kellys will be subjected to 10 experiments in human physiology, behavioural health, microbiology and molecular. By staying on the station for 12 months, the astronauts will provide key information on how an eventual Mars mission - estimated to last three years there and back - might play out. Advertisement From a hygiene perspective, he said, he feels as if he has been camping in the woods for a year. From a physical point of view, though, he feels 'pretty good.' The toughest part? Being isolated from loved ones, a situation that will pose even more of a challenge for astronauts sent to Mars. Despite all this, Kelly said he could go another 100 days or even another year 'if I had to.' By the time he comes home, he will have spent 340 consecutive days aloft, a U.S. record. The world record is 438 days, set by a Russian cosmonaut in the 1990s. Even that will pale in comparison to a Mars expedition, expected to last two to three years round trip. Scientists hope to learn much from Kelly's mission to pave the way to Mars in another two decades; they also will collect data from his Russian roommate for the year, Mikhail Kornienko. Along with Kornienko, Kelly will check out of the space station Tuesday, riding a Russian capsule back to the planet to end NASA's longest space flight. They will land in Kazakhstan. Then Kelly will be hustled home to Houston. The 52-year-old astronaut said he can't wait to jump in his pool and dine at a real table with friends and family. Kelly rocketed away last March on a research-packed mission, leaving behind two daughters and his girlfriend. He lightened things up recently by donning a gorilla suit a gag gift from his identical twin, retired astronaut Mark Kelly and cavorting through the station. The brothers hope to go fishing in Alaska once things settle down. ISS commander Scott Kelly has entered the record books by spending the most cumulative days in space for any US astronaut. The Nasa astronaut has been in space for 383 days and counting, beating Mike Fincke, a two-time space station resident, who was the previous record holder at 382 days. Breaking such a record for time in space is vital for Nasa's research into finding out how a trip to Mars impacts the human mind and body. 'Records are meant to be broken. Look fwd to one of my colleagues surpassing my end 500+ days on our #JourneyToMars,' Kelly tweeted today. In this July 12 photograph, Kelly is seen inside the Cupola, a special module which provides a 360-degree viewing of the Earth and the space station. On each additional day he spends in orbit as part of his one-year mission, Kelly will add to his record and to our understanding of the effects of long-duration spaceflight Station Commander Scott Kelly passed astronaut Mike Fincke, also a former station commander, on Oct. 16, 2015, for most cumulative days living and working in space by a Nasa astronaut (383 days and counting). Kelly is scheduled to come home March 2, 2016, for a record total 522 days in space Kelly is set to break another record October 29 on his 216th consecutive day in space, when he will beat astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria's record for the single-longest spaceflight by an American. Lopez-Alegria spent 215 days in space as commander of the Expedition 14 crew in 2006. The 51-year-old launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 27 and is scheduled to return to Earth on March 2, 2016, for a total of 522 days in space. Waiting for him is his girlfriend of seven years, Amiko Kauderer, who is in Texas, working as a public relations officer at Nasa. Kauderer snapped this photograph of herself saying goodbye to her boyfriend of five years, Scott Kelly, who is currently on the ISS The 'One Year Crew,' consists of Commander Kelly (left) and Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Koneinko (right). Each additional day in orbit as part of the one-year mission along with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, Kelly will continue to add to his record and to our understanding of the effects of long-duration spaceflight Scott Kelly's trip is designed to test how the human body copes with prolonged space travel. Nasa is planning to compare Kelly's health to that of his identical twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who has remained on Earth. Called the 'Nasa Twin Study', the Kellys will be subjected to 10 experiments in four areas: human physiology, behavioural health, microbiology and molecular. Mark who is married to former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, says he has no intentions of consuming bland space-type food or working out and running two hours a day on a treadmill, as his brother is doing in space. 'This is a chance in a lifetime,' said Dr Craig Kundrot, the deputy chief scientist of Nasa's Human Research Program. 'In this case we've got two genetically identical individuals and we can monitor what kind of changes occur in Mark in an ordinary lifestyle and compare those to the changes that we see in Scott.' By staying on the station for 12 months, the astronauts will also provide key information on how an eventual Mars mission - estimated to last three years there and back - might play out. A mission to the red planet will require long periods of time in reduced-gravity environments, both in space and on the surface of the red planet. But, until now, crew members have only spent about six months on the Space Station at a time. Kelly is not the only human breaking records for time in space. Expedition 44 commander Gennady Padalka broke the 10-year-old record for the number of cumulative days in space June 28, as he reached 804 days in space. The second image was posted last month and said: 'Good morning Texas! Great view of you, the moon, and Venus this morning.' Texas is seen to the right of the ISS, the moon and Venus are pictured bottom left Blue veined landscapes have also been captured by the astronaut in the magnificent pictures posted to twitter on Monday When he returned to Earth September 11, Padalka had spent 879 days living and working in space. As well as carrying out numerous scientific experiments on the ISS, Kelly has been a prolific photographer. Earlier this week, he captured a series of ethereal images of Australia from his lofty perch on the ISS. The photographs make the country appear to be covered in sapphire coloured rivers, red veined mountain ridges and yellow lakes. With a likeness to cells under a microscope the breath-taking photographs give an almost eerie representation of Australia. This week, he also demonstrated what water looks like in space by popping an Alka-Seltzer tablet into a dyed globule of water. Scientists at the International Space Station carried out the experiment to test their brand new camera. THE YEAR-LONG ASTRONAUTS Scott Kelly This is the fourth spaceflight for Mr Kelly, 51, a former Nasa shuttle commander and Navy test pilot whose identical twin brother, Mark, also was chosen as an astronaut in 1996. The two will conduct many of the same medical experiments over the coming year so scientists can compare the results. Scott Kelly's first two flights were aboard shuttles. He spent more than five months on the space station in 2010 to 2011. It was during that mission that his sister-in-law, then Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, nearly died after being shot in the head in Tucson, Arizona. Once he's back home in Houston, Kelly imagines it will be 'hard to walk away' from spaceflight. He'd love to pilot one of the new US spacecraft in development. But he figures if he cuts in front of other astronauts awaiting assignments, 'someone will run me over with their car.' What will Kelly miss the most, besides his loved ones? The weather. 'It never changes on the space station,' he said. 'Even though it's a pretty nice environment, I guess it's like living in Southern California, people get sick of it ... after a while.' Mikhail Kornienko It is the second space mission for Mr Kornienko, 54, a former paratrooper whose helicopter-pilot father was part of the search and rescue team for the first Soviet cosmonauts back in the 1960s. His father brought back souvenirs from the returning Soyuz capsules: uneaten food rations and pieces of the orange silky parachutes used for the final descent. 'Mom made gorgeous skirts out of them,' he said. 'I still have a small piece of one of those parachutes. 'I cherish it as if it were something sacred.' A religious man, Mr Kornienko is taking into orbit a folding icon depicting the Madonna and Child. His previous station stay was in 2010, 12 years after his selection as a cosmonaut. He figures he'll miss the same things he dreamed about last time he flew: water not in the form of blobs as in space, but water you can swim in, as well as grass, forests and fields. Mr Kornienko already says he'd take on another one-year mission after a break, of course. Advertisement Scott Kelly (right) and his identical twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly (left) pose for pictures during a press conference at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan in March Posting this image on Twitter, astronaut Scott Kelly wrote: 'Day 166. #Venus photobombed the #Moon tonight. Good night from @space_station! #YearInSpace.' This image shows the curvature Earth, the moon and Venus behind it as well as part of the International Space Station in the foreground Scott Kelly tweeted a message about his record-breaking adventure earlier today, saying 'records are meant to be broken' Nasa's brand new RED Epic Dragon gadget is capable of capturing resolutions up to 4K - four times the resolution of normal HD camera. The video shows a ball of water floating around the gravity-free space station. He then injects a drop of blue food dye into it, before adding some red dye, which turns the water green. The 'One Year Crew,' consists of Commander Scott Kelly and Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Koneinko, who are specifically investigating the medical, psychological, biomedical challenges faced by astronauts during long-duration space travel. The international space station has been occupied since November 2000 and in that time, more than 200 people from 15 different countries have visited. Crews are usually assigned 35 working hours a week and conduct research in different disciplines to advance scientific knowledge of the Earth space, physical, and biological sciences. 'What makes this exciting for me, this one-year flight, is about the science and everything we're going to learn from expanding the envelope on the space station,' Kelly said in an interview in December. 'If we're ever going to go to Mars someday, the International Space Station is really a great platform to learn much more about having people live and work in space for longer durations. 'It's close to the Earth, and it's a great orbiting facility.' Kelly, a former Navy fighter pilot, said his goals are the same as they are every time he flies in space: 'No one gets hurt, we don't break anything and we leave as friends.' A meat-eating dinosaur discovered in Arizona suffered from 'record-breaking pain', according to a new study. The beast lived around 193 million years ago and shows evidence of having suffered from up to eight maladies during its life. Along with a series of broken bones, the Jurassic-age Dilophosaurus wetherilli had a disease which caused its middle finger on its right hand to stick up constantly. A meat-eating dinosaur discovered in Arizona suffered from 'record-breaking pain', according to a new study. The Dilophosaurus wetherilli dinosaur lived around 193 million years ago and shows evidence of having suffered from up to eight maladies during its life. It was discovered in Arizona in 1942 Along with a series of broken bones, the Jurassic-age Dilophosaurus wetherilli had a disease which caused its middle finger on its right hand to stick up constantly DILOPHOSAURUS WETHERILLI Dilophosaurus wetherilli measured about 20 feet (6 meters) long and wereamong the largest carnivores of its time. A fully mature adult weighed as much as 1,100 pounds (500 kg) and the species was famous for its cranial crests, giving it a reptile like appearance. These creatures lived about 193 million years ago during the early Jurassic Period, Advertisement 'It's constantly slipping everybody around it the bird,' study co-author Phil Senter told Live Science. 'It wasn't being rude. It couldn't help it' The creature sets a record for most upper-body injuries ever seen on a theropod dinosaur, which is a group of bipedal, mostly meat-eating dinosaurs. The previous record-holder was a famous Tyrannosaurus rex named Sue, who has a total of four bone injuries on its shoulder and forelimbs. The latest injured dinosaur was found in the Kayenta Formation in Arizona in 1942, but this is the first time its maladies have been studied in-depth. The result have been published in the journal Plos One. The adult dinosaur measured about 20 feet (6 meters) long and was among the largest carnivores of its time. A fully mature adult weighed as much as 1,100 pounds (500 kg) and the species was famous for its cranial crests, giving it a reptile like appearance. When Senter took a closer look at the dinosaur, he discovered a series of fractures on its left shoulder blade and its left radius, which is the bone between the elbow and thumb. The dinosaur Dilophosaurus wetherilli has eight major injuries (indicated by the stars). It sets a record for most upper-body injuries ever seen on a theropod dinosaur. Among other injuries, scientists found a a series of fractures on its left shoulder blade and its left radius, which is the bone between the elbow and thumb (C) 'We don't know if both of those injuries happened at the same time or not,' Senter told Live Science. 'I wouldn't be surprised if they did, though.' The dinosaur's left thumb bones and right middle finger were also infected, perhaps as a result of a puncture wound. Senter found three bony tumors on its right side, and the bone that runs from the shoulder to the elbow was deformed. Senter believes it had osteodysplasia, a condition where the bones are easily deformable. The adult dinosaur measured about 20 feet (6 meters) long and was among the largest carnivores of its time. A fully mature adult weighed as much as 1,100 pounds (500 kg) and the species was famous for its cranial crests, giving it a reptile-like appearance While researchers don't know for certain what caused the dinosaur's injuries, they suggest it may have happened through fighting with a rival. This could have injured its left side, causing the dinosaur to favouring its right side when moving. The fact that it also had osteodysplasia could have caused the right side to become deformed. Many of the fractures healed, which means that the dinosaur may have lived months, and even years, after the fight. Advertisement It is a stunning image on the north pole of another world. Nasa has revealed these incredible images of Pluto's northernmost region, revealing the incredible diversity of its frozen terrain - and its strange yellow hue. They show vast canyons up to 45 miles (75 kilometers) wide, and giant pits that are 45 miles (70 kilometers) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) deep. Scroll down for video The enhanced color image of the north polar area shows long canyons run vertically. The widest of the canyons is about 45 miles (75 kilometers) wide. THERE COULD BE ALIENS BENEATH PLUTO'S CRUST, SAYS BRIAN COX Alien life may be lurking beneath Pluto's crust, according to physicist Brian Cox. His comments come after the historic flyby of the dwarf planet by New Horizons, which uncovered huge glaciers and mountains made of water ice. These features hint at the possibility of subterranean seas on the dwarf planet warm enough for organic chemistry to thrive, said Cox. The probe 'showed you that there may well be a subsurface ocean on Pluto,' Cox told The Times. '[This] means - if our understanding of life on Earth is even slightly correct - that you could have living things there.' Advertisement The enhanced colour image of the north polar area shows long canyons run vertically across the polar areapart of the informally named Lowell Regio, named for Percival Lowell, who founded Lowell Observatory and initiated the search that led to Pluto's discovery. The widest of the canyons (yellow in the image below) is about 45 miles (75 kilometers) wide and runs close to the north pole. Roughly parallel subsidiary canyons to the east and west (in green) are approximately 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide. The degraded walls of these canyons appear to be much older than the more sharply defined canyon systems elsewhere on Pluto, perhaps because the polar canyons are older and made of weaker material. These canyons also appear to represent evidence for an ancient period of tectonics. A shallow, winding valley (in blue) runs the entire length of the canyon floor. To the east of these canyons, another valley (pink) winds toward the bottom-right corner of the image. The nearby terrain, at bottom right, appears to have been blanketed by material that obscures small-scale topographic features, creating a 'softened' appearance for the landscape. Large, irregularly-shaped pits (in red), reach 45 miles (70 kilometers) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) deep, scarring the region. These pits may indicate locations where subsurface ice has melted or sublimated from below, causing the ground to collapse. The color and composition of this region shown in enhanced color also are unusual. High elevations show up in a distinctive yellow, not seen elsewhere on Pluto. The yellowish terrain fades to a uniform bluish gray at lower elevations and latitudes. New Horizons' infrared measurements show methane ice is abundant across Lowell Regio, and there is relatively little nitrogen ice. 'One possibility is that the yellow terrains may correspond to older methane deposits that have been more processed by solar radiation than the bluer terrain,' said Will Grundy, New Horizons composition team lead from Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona. The image was obtained by New Horizons' Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). The widest of the canyons (yellow in the image below) is about 45 miles (75 kilometers) wide and runs close to the north pole. Roughly parallel subsidiary canyons to the east and west (in green) are approximately 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide. The image resolution is approximately 2,230 feet (680 meters) per pixel. The lower edge of the image measures about 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) long. It was obtained at a range of approximately 21,100 miles (33,900 kilometers) from Pluto, about 45 minutes before New Horizons' closest approach on July 14, 2015. Not long ago, our best image of Pluto was of a blurry, blob that orbited on the edge of our solar system. But since New Horizon's flyby of the dwarf planet, astronomers have gained an unprecedented insight into its varied terrain, which includes vast plains, parallel blades known as 'snakeskin terrain,' and ice volcanoes. Now, to help understand the diversity of its features and to piece together how Pluto's surface has evolved, scientists have put together a stunning geological map of its surface. This map covers a portion of Pluto's surface that measures 1,290 miles (2,070km) from top to bottom, and includes the vast nitrogen-ice plain informally named Sputnik Planum and surrounding terrain. The map is overlaid with colors that represent different geological terrains. Each terrain, or unit, is defined by its texture and morphology smooth, pitted, craggy, hummocky or ridged, for example This map covers a portion of Pluto's surface that measures 1,290 miles (2,070km) from top to bottom, and includes the vast nitrogen-ice plain informally named Sputnik Planum and surrounding terrain. It is part of a heart-shaped feature, informally named 'Tombaugh Regio' (Tombaugh Region) after Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930. As the key in the figure indicates, the map is overlaid with colours that represent different geological terrains. Each terrain, or unit, is defined by its texture and morphology smooth, pitted, craggy, hummocky or ridged, for example. How well a unit can be defined depends on the resolution of the images that cover it. All of the terrain in this map has been imaged at a resolution of approximately 1,050ft (320 meters) per pixel or better, meaning scientists can map units with relative confidence. The various blue and greenish units that fill the center of the map represent different textures seen across Sputnik Planum, from the cellular terrain in the center and north, to the smooth and pitted plains in the south. The blue and greenish units represent different textures seen across Sputnik Planum, from the cellular terrain in the center and north, to the smooth and pitted plains in the south. The black lines represent troughs that mark the boundaries of cellular regions in the nitrogen ice. Purple represents the chaotic mountain ranges that line Sputnik's western border, and the pink, floating hills at its eastern edge The black lines represent troughs that mark the boundaries of cellular regions in the nitrogen ice. The purple unit represents the chaotic, blocky mountain ranges that line Sputnik's western border, and the pink unit represents the scattered, floating hills at its eastern edge. The possible cryovolcanic feature informally named Wright Mons is mapped in red in the southern corner of the map. The rugged highlands of the informally named Cthulhu Regio are mapped in dark brown along the western edge, pockmarked by many large impact craters, shown in yellow. By studying how the boundaries between units crosscut one another, mission scientists can determine which units overlie others, and assemble a relative chronology for the different units. For example, the yellow craters (at left, on the western edge of the map) must have formed after their surrounding terrain. Producing such maps is important for gauging what processes have operated where on Pluto, and when they occurred relative to other processes at work. The base map for this geologic map is a mosaic of 12 images obtained by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at a resolution of 1,280 feet (about 390 meters) per pixel. The mosaic was obtained at a range of approximately 48,000 miles (77,300km) from Pluto, about an hour and 40 minutes before New Horizons' closest approach on July 14, 2015. Pluto's terrain may be even more complex than thought. Earlier this month, scientists said that hills of water ice could be 'floating' in a sea of frozen nitrogen on Pluto, moving over time like icebergs in Earth's Arctic Ocean Hills of water ice on Pluto 'float' in a sea of frozen nitrogen and move over time like icebergs in Earth's Arctic Ocean. This shows the inset in context next to a larger view. The resolution is about 1050ft (320 meters) per pixel and 300 miles (almost 500km) long and 210 miles (340km) wide. It was taken 9,950 miles (16,000km) from Pluto, 12 minutes before New Horizons' closest approach to Pluto on July 14 NEW HORIZONS' NEW MISSION The spacecraft that gave us the first close-up views of Pluto now has a much smaller object in its sights. New Horizons is now track to fly past a recently discovered, less than 30-mile-wide object out on the solar system frontier. The close encounter with what's known as 2014 MU69 would occur in 2019. It orbits nearly 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto. Nasa and the New Horizons team chose 2014 MU69 in August as New Horizons' next potential target, thus the nickname PT-1. Like Pluto, MU69 orbits the sun in the frozen, twilight zone known as the Kuiper Belt. MU69 is thought to be 10 times larger and 1,000 times more massive than average comets, including the one being orbited right now by Europe's Rosetta spacecraft. On the other end, MU69 is barely 1 percent the size of Pluto and perhaps one-ten-thousandth the mass of the dwarf planet. So the new target is a good middle ground, according to scientists. The team plans to formally ask Nasa next year to fund the mission extension for studying MU69. Scientists promise a better name before showtime on January 1, 2019. Advertisement These hills, which can be seen in the latest images studied by the New Horizons team, are believed to measure one to several miles across. They are found in the vast ice plain informally named Sputnik Planum within Pluto's 'heart' and are likely miniature versions of the larger, jumbled mountains on the region's western border. Their discovery follows news last week that Pluto may be covered in a lot more water ice than astronomers previously thought, which could boost the chances for finding a liquid sea and alien life. Nasa describes the feature as 'yet another example of Pluto's fascinating and abundant geological activity.' Because water ice is less dense than nitrogen-dominated ice, scientists believe these water ice hills are floating in a sea of frozen nitrogen and move over time like icebergs on Earth. The hills may be fragments of the rugged uplands that have broken away and are being carried by the nitrogen glaciers into Sputnik Planum. This image depicts an entire day on the dwarf planet. The space agency released a series of 10 close-ups of the frosty, faraway world today, representing one Pluto day, which is equivalent to 6.4 Earth days. The New Horizons spacecraft took the pictures as it zoomed past Pluto in an unprecedented flyby in July. Pluto was between 400,000 and 5 million miles from the camera for these photos 'Chains' of the drifting hills are formed along the flow paths of the glaciers. When the hills enter the cellular terrain of central Sputnik Planum, they become subject to the motions of the nitrogen ice, and are pushed to the edges of the cells, where the hills cluster in groups reaching up to 12 miles (20km) across. At the northern end of the image, the feature informally named Challenger Colles honouring the crew of the lost space shuttle Challenger appears to be an especially large accumulation of these hills, measuring 37 by 22 miles (60 by 35km). This feature is located near the boundary with the uplands, away from the cellular terrain, and may represent a location where hills have been 'beached' due to the nitrogen ice being especially shallow. The more detailed map reveals the spread of water ice across much of Pluto, much more than previously known. Some regions on the map, including Sputnik Planum, the western region of Pluto's 'heart,' and Lowell Regio in the north, were observed to exhibit little evidence of water, if any at all. This suggests that the bedrock in these areas is buried beneath an accumulation of other ices, such as methane, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide. Flowing ice and a extended haze are among the discoveries from Nasa's New Horizons mission, which reveal distant Pluto to be an icy world of wonders. This panorama was captured by the New Horizons spacecraft from 18,000 kilometers (11,00 miles) away, just 15 minutes after the probe's closest approach THE BIGGEST ICE VOLCANO IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM: IMAGES REVEAL 90 MILE-WIDE CRYOVOLCANO ON PLUTO The most detailed image yet of a giant mountain on Pluto, which is suspected to be an ice volcano, was released by Nasa last month. It is one of two potential cryovolcanoes spotted on the surface of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015. At about 90 miles (150km) across and 2.5 miles (4km) high, this feature is enormous. The feature, known as Wright Mons, was informally named by the New Horizons team in honor of the Wright brothers. If it is in fact a volcano, as suspected, it would be the largest such feature discovered in the outer solar system. 'These are big mountains with a large hole in their summit, and on Earth that generally means one thing a volcano,' said Oliver White, a New Horizons researcher. The most detailed image yet of a giant mountain on Pluto, which is suspected to be an ice volcano, has been released by Nasa (left). It is one of two potential cryovolcanoes spotted on the surface of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015. At about 90 miles (150km) across and 2.5 miles (4km) high, this feature is enormous Mission scientists are baffled by the sparse distribution of red material in the image and wonder why it is not more widespread. Also perplexing is that there is only one identified impact crater on Wright Mons itself, telling scientists that the surface - as well as some of the crust underneath - was created relatively recently. This is turn may indicate that Wright Mons was volcanically active late in Pluto's history. The other potential ice volcano on Pluto has been named Piccard Mons, is up to 3.5 miles (6 km) high. Both ice volcanoes are located near Pluto's South Pole. 'We're not yet ready to announce we have found volcanic constructs at Pluto, but these sure look suspicious and we're looking at them very closely,' said Jeff Moore, a planetary scientist at Nasa said in an earlier release. Nasa says that if Pluto does have cryovolcanoes, it may be an indication that there is volatile ice that coats its surface. Advertisement Advertisement The race is on as top airline carriers fight it out to provide the world's longest non-stop service. Qantas currently holds the record, offering a 16 hour and 55 minute journey from Dallas to Sydney. However in a matter of days this will be eclipsed by Emirates when on March 1 it launches the Auckland to Dubai route. This has an estimated flight time of 17 hours and 15 minutes (approximately 8,800 miles). But rather than this lengthy journey being a unique round-trip for long distance travellers, by 2018 passengers could be spending as long as 19 hours in the air with Singapore Airlines as it will operate an Airbus A350 on non-stop flights from Singapore to the US west coast and New York. How the airlines are competing to get the world's longest, non-stop fight across the globe. Singapore Airways is set to lead the way with 19 hour flights from Singapore to New York by the end of 2018 While acknowledging its 18-hour flights set to be introduced, Qatar Airways refused to be drawn on what would be next In the short-term, Qatar Airways is set to up the bar by introducing two 18 hour routes from Doha to Auckland and Doha to Santiago, in the coming months. However, as the first of the big aviation players to launch a super route, Dubai-based airline, Emirates is not only introducing the Auckland to Dubai route.Towards the end of next month it also hopes to launch a 17 hour and 35 minutes flight route from Dubai to Panama City. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of Emirates Airline and Group, said in a statement: 'Having just one stop on the long haul to New Zealand will make the journey quicker and more comfortable. 'This will be a boon to many business people, tourists, expatriate New Zealanders and other travellers in Europe, parts of Africa and the Middle East. 'It will offer passengers a one stop link to New Zealand via Dubai for passengers from Birmingham, Newcastle and Glasgow, in addition to cutting journey times by almost three hours in removing the stopover in Australia.' Emirates is pushing its way to the top of the longest non-stop flights list with two journeys well over 17 hours EMIRATES' AUCKLAND TO DUBAI ROUTE The new service to be launched in March will have an estimated flight time of just under 16 hours from Dubai to New Zealand and 17 hours, 15 minutes in the other direction, cutting journey times by almost three hours each way. With the introduction of the non-stop service, Emirates will fly more than 2,000 seats a day in each direction on New Zealand services. The Boeing 777-200LR aircraft that will operate the new, non-stop route are purpose-built for ultra-longhaul flights, carrying up to 266 passengers. Like Emirates' other New Zealand flights, the aircraft will offer three cabin classes: eight First Class suites, 42 lie-flat Business Class seats and 216 comfortable Economy Class seats. Advertisement He said a non-stop service between Dubai and Auckland has been in the airline's sights for some time. But it doesn't look as though Emirates will stand alone for long as the carrier with the longest non-stop flights. With competition in the aviation industry being fierce, rivals are aiming to push the bar even higher. Qatar Airways' CEO revealed that the state-owned airline is adding two ultra-long-haul routes Doha to Auckland and Doha to Santiago, Chile. It will become the longest and second-longest routes with flight times of around 18 hours. But by 2018, Singapore Airlines will take over the crown. Its route from Singapore to New York will be around 19 hours, in its newly-ordered Airbus A350-900s. This will come about when the airline relaunch the route which ceased service in 2013, when the A340-500s that were used for the journey were retired. 'Our customers have been asking us to re-start non-stop Singapore-US flights and we are pleased that Airbus was able to offer the right aircraft to do so in a commercially viable manner,' said Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong. 'This is another example of how we strive to meet and exceed our customers' expectations by remaining at the forefront of product and service innovation in our industry. It will also further strengthen the Singapore hub by providing the fastest and most convenient air connectivity between North America and Southeast Asia.' Until all of these flights get off the ground, the record will still be held by Qantas. Saudia currently have a flight time of 16 hours and 40 minutes for their route from Jeddah to Los Angeles. Delta's Johannesburg to Atlanta route is also the same length of time. A spokesperson for Delta admitted longer routes had not yet been discussed. 'Delta's network is under constant analysis but we don't have plans at this time to add additional ultra long-haul international routes,' they said. But if passengers are prepared to spend more time in the air, it's important the facilities are available to them to stay healthy. Airbus spokesman Justin Dubon told MailOnline Travel: 'It obviously up to the airlines as customers as to what they offer the passengers on board, and how long they plan to develop these routes. 'But if you are going to be in the air for that amount of time, you need lots of space, and facilities such as showers, bars, open areas. 'New technology today means that aircraft can fly longer routes and importantly open up more markets. With the A380s we have seen this, that it is a great aircraft for the opening up and sucking up of new markets around the world.' Bob Atkinson, travel expert, TravelSupermarket, added: 'We live in a fast lane world and want to get everywhere as quick as we can. These flights will definitely appeal to those who can afford it and think this is the best way to jet set. But, I'd encourage you to check out the competition before you're lulled into thinking these new routes are spectacularly quicker. 'I still think a lot of people will prefer to take a quick stop over to stretch their legs than bother saving an hour or two. 'Anything over 12 hours on a plane can feel a long time. So, actually, a quick stop over can feel rejuvenating rather than a burden.. 'Stop overs are also things to be celebrated, not seen as negative; they're a great chance to see two countries in one holiday, if you can spare a day or night or two. So, until these so called mega routes really become game changers in terms of cutting flying time, I don't think they're really going to make much difference to people's flying desires.' Finnair apologised and said they cannot A mum was left fuming after an airline refused to warn other passengers about her teenage daughter's severe peanut allergy which could kill her. Kathy Miller and her family, from Colchester, Essex, travelled to Ivalo in Finland, via Helsinki, for a dream trip to see the famous Northern Lights. Mrs Miller's daughter Emma, 17, suffers from a severe peanut allergy and has to carry an EpiPen with her at all times. Scroll down for video Emma Miller, 17, suffers from a severe peanut allergy and has to carry an EpiPen with her at all times Airborne particles or even touching surfaces with traces of the nut can cause her throat to close as she goes into anaphylactic shock. After booking the flights on Finnair, the group's travel agent informed the company on three occasions about Emma's allergy but received no response. They were then horrified to be told nuts would still be served on the plane when it flew from Heathrow Airport. The fuming family confronted the stewards who finally relented and agreed not to sell any peanuts, but then refused to make an announcement about the situation. The same situation unfolded on the connecting flight from Helsinki and passenger unknowingly opened a packet of nuts, she had taken on to the plane, in the row in front of the family. The family said that they confronted the stewards who finally relented and agreed not to sell any peanuts, but then refused to make an announcement about the precarious situation NUT ALLERGIES ON AN AIRCRAFT Speaking to MailOnline Travel, Amena Warner, Nurse Advisor at Allergy UK, said: 'There is a risk that a nut allergic passenger could experience allergy symptoms while travelling on an aircraft. 'The main risk comes from cross contamination - if other passengers eat peanuts without washing their hands afterwards, and then touch things like the tray tables and seat belts, traces of peanut protein maybe transferred. 'Highly peanut allergic people, may potentially suffer a serious allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. 'Symptoms of which could include difficulty in breathing and swelling of the tongue or throat, or collapse. 'Peanut allergy has doubled in the last ten years and this is the leading cause of anaphylaxis due to food. 'Anaphylaxis is a potentially fatal condition. But not every person with peanut allergy reports having a problem. When it does occur, it can be extremely distressing.' Advertisement Mrs Miller said the passenger had been as shocked as the family when she realised the danger to the Colchester Sixth Form college student. 'We explained the situation to the passenger and she was mortified. 'She looked so upset and shoved them away immediately, while apologising, to us,' she added. Mrs Miller, 48, fumed: 'We could not believe the attitude of the staff. 'It was insensitive and bordering on arrogant and was really quite cruel to Emma. 'They said 'we can't do anything' but all we were asking them was to take a few nut products off their shopping cart and make an announcement to the other passengers.' 'It may not be important to them but for us it really could be the difference between her living and dying.' Emma's allergy is so severe she was the only participant unable to complete a recent hospital course which introduces tiny amounts of peanut in a bid to increase tolerance. The student said: 'What is more important to them - selling a few chocolate bars with nuts in or my life. 'And even if they are not willing to change their policy, I think we should have made us aware and we could have made alternative arrangements.' Her mother added: 'On a flight Emma is cautious about even going to the toilet as she has to touch door handles which other people have touched. As soon as we get on board we use wet wipes to wipe the arm rests and surfaces. 'A few milligrams is enough for a reaction and EpiPens are only supposed to keep her alive until the paramedics arrive. They only last for ten minutes and obviously this is a major problem when you are flying.' The family of four travelled to Ivalo in Finland, via Helsinki, for a dream trip to see the Northern Lights Emma's allergy is so severe she was the only participant unable to complete a recent hospital course which introduces tiny amounts of peanut in a bid to increase tolerance The upset family said the experience has made them have to consider taking face masks for Emma, along with rubber gloves. During their holiday the family desperately tried to make alternative arrangements to get home, but could not find any other flights out of Ivalo. On the trip back to Helsinki, staff were again unaware of the situation and only agreed to sell nuts away from the family. The family then split up on the flight back to London with Mrs Miller's husband Greg, 50, and other daughter - university student Becky, 19, continuing on the Finnair flights. Mrs Miller was forced to shell out thousands of pounds for the business class British Airways tickets for herself and Emma. She praised the firm for its handling of their predicament. After explaining the situation, British Airways happily gave out warnings about Emma's allergy upon boarding and during the flight. Emma said she was trying not to let the experience taint her amazing holiday memories. The family spent a week away in Finland, staying in a snow igloo at Kakslauttanen. Speaking to MailOnline Travel, a spokesperson for Finnair said: 'We are sorry to hear the family has been disappointed with their experience with Finnair. 'Due to the processes used in the kitchens of our catering supplier, Finnair unfortunately cannot guarantee that any meals are 100 per cent free of traces of peanuts. 'Also, we cannot control what other passengers bring on board, nor are we able to make special arrangements regarding, [for example] cabin announcements or service on board. Nuts are also a part of our Sky Bistro buy-on-board offering. 'If you suffer from a severe allergy, it is important that you are aware that we cannot guarantee an allergen-free meal, cabin or environment. A passenger is suing Royal Caribbean after alleging he was 'was flung nearly 18 feet against his cabin door' and 'knocked unconscious,' during a stormy trip on the Anthem of the Seas earlier this month. Bruce Simpson claims that the cruise line were wrong to sail out into the storm with 4,529 passengers and 1,616 crew, and claims he was left injured as a result of the rocking on board. On a scheduled journey from New Jersey to Florida and the Bahamas, Royal Caribbean were forced to turn the ship back due to storms off the coast of Florida and 150mph winds. Scroll down for video The Anthem of the Seas, operated by Royal Caribbean, is the third largest cruise ship ever built, but owners Royal Caribbean are being sued by one passenger who says they were wrong to sail through a storm Piles of broken furniture have been stack on the deck as passengers see external damages for the first time since the terrifying storm Frightened passengers posted pictures of damage from on board Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas as the ship swayed Court documents provided to CNN state that Simpson says the ship began to 'rock and tilt violently,' that led to him being sent crashing into the door of his cabin, suffering 'injuries to his face, torso and hands.' In a written statement, attorney Jason Itkin told CNN: 'They took a calculated risk when they sent their passengers into the storm, and we don't think the passengers should be the ones that pay for Royal Caribbean's lack of judgment.' The claim was filed at federal court in Miami. A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean told MailOnline: 'Royal Caribbean International have not been served and until their legal council have had a chance to review the claim, we cant share anything more around this.' In a statement at the time, Royal Caribbean said four people were injured but not seriously and the damage to public areas and cabins 'in no way affect the sea worthiness of the ship.' The ship experienced 'extreme wind and sea conditions' that were not expected as it made its way from New Jersey heading to Florida and the Bahamas in a week-long round-trip vacation. Passengers were told to stay in their rooms as furniture slammed about the ship's main halls. According to Royal Caribbean, the ship 'encountered some high winds and seas during its transit to Port Canaveral, Florida. In an abundance of caution, the Captain asked all guests to stay in their staterooms until the weather improved. 'There has been no damage to the ship due to the weather,' a spokesperson said at the time. Hurricane-force winds reaching 150mph caused huge swells, which sent the ship teetering through the night at angles of 45 degrees Furniture toppled and broke as the ship was tossed around by giant ocean waves The journey cost passengers from $1174 (842) per person based on two sharing an interior stateroom. The cruise line has since offered a full refund and 50 per cent off the passengers' next cruise. Passengers on board the stormy sailing took to social media to comment and share photos and video of their experiences on the ship. Shara Strand said she was 'shaking all over' and suffering panic attacks during the high wind and rough seas. Shara said she's been on more than 20 cruises before, but never experienced anything like what happened on the Anthem of the Seas. 'I'm not being over dramatic by saying it was the scariest moment of my life - having no control in hurricane-like winds for hours on end with baby on board, not being able to leave our cabins. 'Royal Caribbean should be ashamed of themselves for continuing on a course Mother Nature deemed unfit,' Shara wrote on Facebook. In the ship's kitchen, cutlery, coffee urns, sugar packets and more was sent sprawling across the floor as waves slammed into the ship The ceiling of a Royal Caribbean cruise collapsed as the ship endured 150mph winds, which caused the ship to rock back and forth for hours on ends and causing damage to the furniture and structure inside the vessel Terror at sea: Waves crashed against the cabin windows as passengers hunkered down to brave the storm Jacob Ibrag, who was on board the Anthem of the Seas, told MailOnline: 'Around 3.30pm, the rocking of the boat and the winds truly started to take a toll on the ship. 'First thing my family and I did though was rush back into our cabins and try to prepare for the worst.' Before the ship was locked down early this morning, Jacob said he and his family walked around the ship and witnessed a group of passengers get trapped in an elevator. 'At one point a group of ten people got stuck in the middle of floors in an elevator. 'People banded together to help the mechanic on site to get the people out,' Jacob said. He said the ship's rocking was so intense, he's sure people on board became ill. Advertisement A castle built by King William almost 900 years ago is at risk of toppling into the sea after recent storms lashed Lunan Bay, Angus. Local walkers and history buffs believe the long-decaying Red Castle, or rubeum castrum, is about to fall foul of a growing fissure below its foundations - a 100ft by 4ft crack. The castle was built overlooking Lunan Bay by King William the Lion, to stop invaders gaining a foothold on the strategic beach near Montrose. Local walkers and history buffs believe the long-decaying Red Castle, or rubeum castrum, is about to fall foul of a growing fissure below its foundations The castle was built overlooking Lunan Bay by King William the Lion, to stop invaders gaining a foothold on the strategic beach near Montrose The castle is part of an estate that was given to local nobles in 1197 and reallocated by Robert the Bruce in 1328. In 1579 James Gray was kicked out of the castle by his new wife Lady Elizabeth Beaton when it emerged he was in love with her daughter. His subsequent two-year campaign of attacks on the castle ended its usefulness as a noble residence. Jag Betty of research website Strange Places in Scotland said: 'I reckon it's due to the recent bad weather, the wind and the storms over the last few weeks. 'It is a fantastic structure and it will be sad to see it start to crumble.' Local historian Norman Atkinson has seen the River Lunan and coastal storms take their toll on the site over the decades. 'There were attempts to safeguard and restore the castle in the past,' he said. However, the President of the Montrose Society, Sandy Munro, believes intervention would now be too late. He said: 'In my opinion it should have been taken into the guardianship of Historic Scotland long ago, as should many other wonderful historic castles, for example Ballenbreich on the south bank of the Tay. The castle, which was built by King William almost 900 years ago, could topple into the sea after recent storms lashed Lunan Bay, Angus Local historian Norman Atkinson has seen the River Lunan and coastal storms take their toll on the site over the decade 'It has a magnificent setting on an unspoilt and beautiful bay, and is one of the east coast of Scotland's most distinctive landmarks, especially with its 'scottie dog' profile, much photographed since being created by a bolt of lightning a few years back, aside from having a wonderful history going back nearly 900 years.' 'However, it would be very expensive for the landowner or anyone to take that on.' But Historic Environment Scotland, which has marked the structure as a nationally important monument, said a recent visit had not found any more erosion to the cliff face than on a trip in 2013. A spokesman said: 'We regularly monitor the situation at Red Castle, and are aware of the condition of the monument and eroding cliff face. 'One of our field officers inspected the site just a few weeks ago, where they found that there had been no obvious change to the condition of the monument since our last visit in 2013. 'We are happy to work with all interested parties to ensure the sustainable management of the site and its surrounding area in the long term.' Historic Environment Scotland has marked the structure as a nationally important monument, and recently said a visit had not found any more erosion to the cliff face than on a trip in 2013 EasyJet is planning to resume a twice-weekly service to Sharm el-Sheikh in May if Britains government lifts its ban on flights from the UK to the Egyptian beach resort. No UK-based airline has flown to the popular Red Sea destination since early November after a Russian passenger jet was bombed by terrorists shortly after it took off from its airport. An easyJet spokesman said flights will operate twice a week from London Stansted starting 29 May, while all summer flights from Manchester, Gatwick and its base in Luton have been cancelled due to low demand. EasyJet said it will resume flights from Stansted, but not from Manchester, Gatwick or Luton airports The spokesman said: As we expect there still to be some demand from people across the UK to fly to Sharm this summer we are planning to operate our twice weekly flights scheduled to Sharm from London Stansted Airport. We have no confirmation from the UK government that we will be able to resume flights yet, but if we are these will be the only easyJet flights to Sharm el-Sheikh this summer. These flights are scheduled to operate from 29 May. Flights from Manchester, Luton and Gatwick are scheduled to resume at the start of the winter travel season in October, assuming the government has given its blessing. Isis claimed responsibility for the Metrojet disaster last October, which killed all 224 passengers and crew on board. The UK flight ban that went into effect last 4 November has led to a dramatic drop in visitors and economic misery in Egypt. Sharm el-Sheikh has reportedly suffered a tourist decline of as much as 85 per cent. Most UK airlines had previously announced that they had cancelled all flights up to March or May, pending further announcement from the government. The bombing has led to a dramatic drop in visitors to Sharm el-Sheikh and economic misery for Egypt Monarch Airlines has extended its cancellation up to and including 24 March and is prepared to scrap additional flights, including those over Easter, if the government doesnt change its advice by tomorrow. Thomas Cook and Thomson have suspended their flights up to and including May 25. British Airways said it will not be operating any flights to or from the holiday resort until at least 15 September. Nearly a million British nationals visit Egypt every year and most visits are trouble-free, according to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. It said there is still a high threat of terrorism in Egypt and further attacks in the country are likely, but it has not raised the threat level for Sharm el-Sheikh or Hurghada or advised against all but essential travel to the resorts. The government advised airlines not to fly to the region amid concerns about poor security at its airports. Airlines said they will not return to the region until the security concerns are resolved. Following the attacks Egypts government said it was enhancing security measures to protect tourists at the airports and the resorts. An intoxicated flyer was arrested after attacking co-passengers and cabin crew during a flight to Iceland. The man, who was on-board the Wizz Air flight from Gdansk in Poland to Keflavik Airport, was said to be 'very drunk' during the four hour flight this morning, local media reported. The airline called ahead to police officers who met cabin crew upon landing and took the passenger into custody. Scroll down for video Man was arrested after attacking others on-board the Wizz Air flight from Gdansk in Poland to Keflavik Airport At the time of publication, the identity of the man arrested has not been disclosed. However, this latest incident is the third of its kind to take place this month, according to Grapevine which reports that two men were barred entry on to a flight to Gdansk at Keflavik Airport. While a third passenger, separately, was also denied boarding for being too intoxicated. In fact, Iceland has experienced so many alcohol-fuelled incidents at 30,000ft, a term has been invented to describe the offenders. The term 'flugdolgur, which translates as 'air hooligan' in English, was created in 2013 following an incident which saw a drunken passenger on a New York-bound flight from Iceland duct-taped to his seat by fellow passengers. He was fixed to the chair after attacking one woman, spitting on other passengers and screaming that the plane was going to crash. A friend of one of the passengers, Andy Ellwood of New York, posted a picture of the subdued flyer to his Tumblr with details of the incident. This latest incident is the third of its kind to take place this month, according to Grapevine which reports that two men were barred entry on to a flight to Gdansk at Keflavik Airport (above) He wrote: 'The passenger drank all of his duty free liquor on the flight from Iceland to JFK yesterday. 'When he became unruly, (i.e. trying to choke the woman next to him and screaming the plane was going to crash), fellow passengers subdued him and tied him up for the rest of the flight. He was escorted off the flight by police when it landed.' IcelandAir's Vice President of Corporate Communication, Gujon Arngrimsson, confirmed to reporters that the man was acting dangerously. The unruly passenger was arrested and transported to a hospital in Queens after being taken off the plane, said Marsico of the Port Authority. Being a curious traveller is not a bad thing but some tourists have been asking questions that leave the locals completely baffled. It's not that their queries are confusing. Indeed, many are quite straightforward. But when you put them into context, they become completely nonsensical. The examples of these faux pas can include anything from asking about the snow in the summer in North Carolina to whether it's possible to swim in alligator infested waters in Florida. Locals living in holiday destinations have taken to Reddit to complain about the hapless tourists who visit their home town One visitor to the Everglades asked user ScramblesTD, who worked at the park, if he was 'allowed' to swim in the alligator infested waters People living in holiday destinations around the world have been answering a Reddit question about the most ridiculous tourist moments. For user ScramblesTD, it was the time he worked at a park in the Everglades. Despite the fact that the Florida wetland is known for its alligators, on visitor felt the need to ask whether he is 'allowed' to swim in the water. Kinnakeet reflected over the time that he worked at a ski area in North Carolina and a tourist from Florida asked where the snow went in the summer. Exasperated, he told her that they 'trucked it all into a refrigerated cave'. Being near Yellowstone National Park has been a great source of amusement for shradicalwyo. Bad travel planning by tourists is another cause of vexation to locals. In particular, Reddit users complained about the travellers who had no concept of the size of a country He's had questions ranging from 'at what elevation do the deer turn into elk' to 'where do the moguls go in the summer?' But perhaps the best one is when it was the wildfire season and a tourist asked if they could 'turn off' the smoke. Bad travel planning by tourists is another cause of vexation to locals. In particular, Reddit users complained about the travellers who had no concept of the size of a country. Mr_Nexxus is amused by the Europeans 'who can't comprehend how big Canada is'. In the past, he's had tourists asking him directions to Whistler when he's in Niagara - close to 2,800 miles away. The road journey is more likely to take a week than the few hours that the tourist had anticipated. Yellowstone National Park might have a great many sights but it seems that the wild life is a source of confusion. One visitor asked 'at what elevation do the deer turn into elk?' Another user, Green7000, reflected that he had a similar experience when he met a family in Scotland who were planning to journey to the USA. They had apparently planned to travel between New York and Los Angeles in a week while stopping at all of the key attractions in between. It would have been a 40-hour journey minimum, if there no stops or traffic. Sometimes, it's not the question asked but how it's asked. Andromeda321, who's an American expat in Amsterdam, recalled a time that he was stopped for directions. A female tourist spoke very loudly and clearly, ensuring that he understood the question. To add insult to injury, she then told him that his English was very good. She recently split from her boyfriend Greg Cannell. But Olympia Valance showed no signs of heartache as she stepped out in Melbourne this week. Stunning in a black crop-top and trousers, the actress was among guests at the Kookai fashion show on Wednesday. Scroll down for video Stylish: Olympia Valance showed her ex-boyfriend just what he is missing as she put on a glamorous display at the Kookai fashion show in Melbourne on Wednesday Wearing her brunette locks tied into an edgy top-knot, Olympia opted for a fresh-faced make-up look. She showed off a healthy tan in an off-the-shoulder crop-top which gave a glimpse of her toned abs. Pairing the top with some high-waisted trousers, the 23-year-old finished her look with some open-toed sandals. Fresh-faced: The 23-year-old opted for a natural make-up look and wore her hair in an edgy top knot She accessorised with a beaded clutch bag and a simply gold bangle. Her outing at the event comes after her recent split from Greg with whom she spent more than a year with. Announcing their separation on Twitter earlier this month, she told fans: 'Just a quick note from me- Sadly Greg & I have separated.' It's over: Olympia and her boyfriend Greg Cannell announced they had broken up after a year together earlier this month Flaunting it: The star has shared a number of snaps with fans since her split including this one in which she posed in her underwear 'To the most incredible man ever, I wish him so much happiness and success.' Weeks earlier the pair had seemed more loved-up than ever as they attended star-studded parties and posed for snaps appearing across one another's social media accounts. Earlier this year Olympia was signed to ROAR talent agency, which looks after Chris and Liam Hemsworth, sparking speculation she had set her sights on Hollywood. 'The agency is actually small and deals with only 42 people worldwide, which is good, because it helps the actors create a more personal relationship with the agent,' she told publication Neon Kosmos. She's traveled to Los Angeles from North Carolina in the hopes of finally getting a definitive diagnosis for her mystery illness. And Jenelle Evans was pictured leaving a medical center on Tuesday in the company of her boyfriend David Eason. The 24-year-old took to Twitter to explain to fans: 'Just been in the hotel not feeling great (unhappy emoticon) lots of doctor appts.' Scroll down for video Heading out: Jenelle Evans and her boyfriend David Eason were pictured leaving a medical center in Santa Monica on Tuesday The reality star kept it casual in her loose-fitting white tank and blue jeans as she strolled outside, clutching a water bottle for replenishment. She propped on a pair of sunglasses and slung a black purse across her chest. Jenelle explained to TMZ on Monday that she has been getting 'joint pain, knee pain, pelvic pain and hot flashes' for the last six weeks. 'The reason doctors are so concerned is because I've been having severe hot flashes' the young mother-of-two told reporters. Replenishment: The couple had water bottles handy to rehydrate The reality star added that she will consider walking away from Teen Mom 2 if doctors say it is causing her too much stress. Meanwhile sources have even said there are fears Jenelle could have a tumor. She has been hospitalized twice in the last month as a result of the unknown medical condition - which is affecting her motor skills. Helpful: David placed a gentle hand upon Jenelle's back as the couple made their way outside of the building RadarOnline reported last week that Jenelle was in hospital in North Carolina and a source revealed: 'She can't walk from her muscles in her legs and hips being so weak,' the source explained. 'She's dizzy and very pale. She's also having hot flashes and cramps.' During her first round of doctor visits it was thought it was just anxiety but the TV star insisted on more tests. She also saw doctors at NYU in New York but with no luck. 'They think it's her pituitary gland in her brain causing all of this,' the source explained. 'That might mean a tumor, but Jenelle's not sure.' Jenelle is mum to six-year-old son Jace with ex Andrew Lewis and also shares Kaiser, one, with her ex fiance, Nathan Griffith. Searching for answers: Evans explained to TMZ her health concerns when she and her boyfriend arrived to LAX on Monday He will take to the stage at the Dolby Theater on Sunday to host the 88th Academy Awards. But unlike most Oscars emcees in the weeks approaching the big night, Chris Rock has kept press to a minimum and stayed quiet on last month's racial inequality debate surrounding the whitewashed nominees list. In December The Hollywood Reporter got to interview the comedian as he posed for a cover shoot and quipped he was only hosting the Oscars because Ellen DeGeneres turned down the gig. Scroll down for video Doing promo: In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter two months ago Chris Rock joked that he was only hosting the Oscars because Ellen DeGeneres said no The Grown Ups actor explained he wasn't exactly clamoring for the hosting job. 'I told my agent I wanted to present because it's like, what's easier and better than presenting? You come in, do something really funny and get out of there,' he revealed. 'But it just seemed like a good time. I hadn't [hosted] in a while, and I'm in between projects, 'And let's not get it twisted: I'm only here because Ellen said no.' he quipped. See full coverage of the Oscars 2016 as Chris Rock jokes about hosting the show Nailed it: Ellen hosted the Oscars last in 2014 and received rave reviews for her antics including a massive A-list selfie which went viral Loving her work: Rock said he admired what Ellen did with the show (pictured handing out pizza to the stars) and added his all-time favourite Oscars host was Steve Martin Ellen, 58, hosted for the second time in 2014 and received rave reviews for her fun and memorable stage antics including taking a massive A-list selfie and ordering pizza for the star-studded crowd. Rock said he admired what Ellen did with the show and added his all-time favourite Oscars host was Steve Martin. 'Steve Martin wanting to be funny is about as funny as a human being can get,' he gushed. While not having worked on his monologue at that point, Rock joked: 'You could learn how to take out a pancreas in two and a half months,' Sneak peek: The star flexed his comedic muscle with a variety of jokes during the clip 'Steve Martin wanting to be funny is about as funny as a human being can get,' Rock gushed No press: The 51-year-old comedian was set to do a cover profile with THR before the diversity scandal hit last month Five weeks after filming promo clips and the photoshoot THR reports Rock cancelled all further press as a whirlwind of controversy surrounded the list of 20 all-white acting nominees by the Oscars board. It was the the second year in a row that no person of colour had made the cut. On Twitter the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite made the rounds and stars such as Jada Pinkett-Smith and Spike Lee vowed to boycott the ceremony. On the cutting room floor: Rock posed for a photoshoot which didn't get used Keeping quiet: The star cancelled all press opportunities after the #OscarsSoWhite controversy - including his THR cover profile But Rock stayed quiet on the controversy except for one tweet last month which read: 'The #Oscars. The White BET Awards.' The comedian canceled his cover profile with THR, keeping him free to to save all his thoughts on the hot topic for the biggest night in Hollywood. Rock hosted the Academy Awards for the first time back in 2005 and didn't hold back on the edgy dialogue and cutting one-liners that year. What's in store: The comedian hinted at one of his Oscars skits as he shared a snap of him wearing an astronaut suit and captioned it 'Getting my outfit together' She's known for her super-chic ensembles and high-glam finish. But on Wednesday model and television personality Kendall Jenner proved she can stun in casual wear as she stepped out of her Milan hotel, just hours after landing to attend fashion week. The 20-year-old epitomised effortless chic, wearing a white, high-rise turtle neck, black spray-on jeans and a long black coat - all topped off with a red tartan button-up. Scroll down for video Effortless: Kendall Jenner proved she can stun in a white crop top and tartan shirt as she stepped out of her Milan hotel on Wednesday, just hours after landing to attend Milan Fashion Week She kept her tartan top unbuttoned, exposing its plush blue lining, and the lower extremities of her enviable midriff. Her black coat could be seen dangling out from beneath her top and falling past her gym-honed calves. She completed the look with a pair of mirrored aviator sunglasses, classic white adidas sneakers and a furry black purse. See Kendall Jenner updates as she wears a white crop top at Milan Fashion Week 2016 Casual glam: The 20-year-old epitomised effortless chic, wearing a white, high-rise turtle neck, black spray-on jeans and a red tartan button-up Stepping out: She completed the look with a pair of mirrored aviator sunglasses and classic white adidas sneakers Gorgeous: The model showcased her natural beauty as she stepped out free of make-up Still smiling: Kendall seemed in sprightly spirits despite her hectic schedule Earlier in the day, she stuck to her fail-safe style of all-black as she was pictured arriving in Milan. She rocked her off-duty uniform, which comprised form-flattering separates, and bared her make-up free face for her flight from London where she'd spent the last few days. Kendall highlighted her supermodel stems in a pair of skin-tight leggings which she dressed up with a pair of leather heeled boots and a flowing duster coat. The Victoria's Secret model wore a cosy cowl-neck top and accessorised with a leather bowling bag. She ditched every inch of make-up for the journey from the UK fashion capital to the Italian one and her hair sported an equally natural style. See Kendall Jenner updates as she dons all-black ensemble at Milan Fashion Week 2016 Pucker up! The catwalk pin-up greeted one of her pals with a peck on the cheek as they caught up in the city Off-duty uniform: Earlier in the day Kendall stuck to her fail-safe style as she rocked an all-black outfit on arrival to Milan Muted flying colours: Kendall, 20, slipped into a pair of leggings, a cowl-neck jumper and a flowing duster coat for her flight from London to Milan Less is more: The CK pin-up bared her make-up free face (right) which boasted a flawless complexion despite the lack of foundation Supermodel stems: The second youngest member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan elongated her endless legs with a pair of heeled boots Kendall arrived in Milan after the opening ceremony of fashion week had finished but she is expected to make appearances on the catwalk and the front row over the course of the event. Her sighting followed her whirlwind trip to London earlier in the week where she enjoyed a night out with former lovers Rhianna and Drake and met her Madame Tussauds wax work figure in the flesh. She arrived in the UK capital on Saturday and was pictured sampling the delights of the city, including, Sexy Fish, Everyman Cinema and Burger King over the course of her stay. Grub's up: The Victoria's Secret model was pictured in Burger King after a late night out in Oxford Street, central London, in the early hours of Tuesday morning Pout and about: She concluded her trip to the UK capital by meeting her Madame Tussauds wax work figure in the flesh on Tuesday She concluded her short trip with a visit to the iconic London museum and she looked positively thrilled with her doppelganger. Kendall donned a form-fitting knitted jumper dress, which featured a double zip, and ensured she stuck to her high-fashion credentials while simultaneously prioritising comfort. Teaming the knee-grazing garment with a pair of thigh-high leather boots, the eldest of Caitlyn and Kris Jenner's two daughters added an edge of racyness to her look. She's been praised for her realistic and down-to-earth attitude to body image. And as fashion continues to follow suit in matters of diversity, Fiona Falkiner was thrilled to announce on Thursday she had joined the Target family as an ambassador. Appearing in a photo-shoot for the retailer alongside Sonia Kruger, the 33-year-old glowed as she flaunted her famous hourglass figure. Scroll down for video 'This is a dream come true for me!' Fiona Falkiner joined the Target family on Thursday alongside Sonia Kruger in a glowing photo-shoot 'I am so excited I can finally announce I have joined the Target family alongside Jessica Mauboy and Sonia Kruger,' she wrote on Instagram. 'This is a dream come true for me! Weve been creating some beautiful things which I cant wait to share with you.' Dressed in a denim shirt tied up just under her bust, The Biggest Loser host shined with a big, warm smile as she placed one hand on her hip. Sparkling! The two beloved television personalities sparkled in the shoot, standing next to one another with Fiona's arm around Sonia's waist Just radiant! Dressed in a denim shirt tied up just under her bust, The Biggest Loser host shined with a big, warm smile as she placed one hand on her hip Joining the family: Fiona and Sonia join fellow ambassadors Jessica Mauboy (second left) and Dannii Minogue (second right) She had been styled in a high-waist black midi skirt, and her height was pumped up with a pair of beige, pointed-toe heels. Her makeup was light and radiant, allowing for her natural beauty to shine through. In another snap, she playfully twisted the lose ends of her shirt, while her right wrist was embellished with a bold turquoise bangle. The two beloved television personalities sparkled in the shoot, standing next to one another with Fiona's arm around Sonia's waist. Power group: The women are reflective of the increasing diversity in the fashion industry Arriving on set: Earlier this month, Fiona was seen leaving the studio in Sydney wearing a figure-hugging black midi dress Glowing: Fiona's skin was seen walking with a friend toward the studio Wild! She also wore animal print espadrilles In this shot, Fiona is styled in navy skinny jeans, and a baby blue shirt open over the top of a semi-sheer T-shirt. Sonia meanwhile works a couple of enduring fashion trends expertly, namely denim-on-denim, with a light blue shirt over the top of distressed jeans of a slightly darker hue. Earlier this month, Fiona was seen leaving the studio in Sydney wearing a figure-hugging black midi dress and animal print espadrilles. Again flaunting her perfect skin, the bubbly blonde slung a large black leather tote bag over one arm. Luscious: The Biggest Loser host's hair was cascading in light waves They sat side by side together on the judging panel of The X Factor. And Cheryl Fernandez-Versini was reunited with Nick Grimshaw once again as they presented during the BRIT Awards in London's O2 Arena on Wednesday. Despite the fact Nick sensationally quit the singing show last week amid a major reshuffle of the judges and presenters, Cheryl, 32, seemed to harbour no hard feelings with her friend, dancing with him backstage as they put on their best Rihanna impressions. Scroll down for video Standing together: Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, 32, was reunited with Nick Grimshaw, 31, once again as they presented during the BRIT Awards in London's O2 Arena on Wednesday Clutching microphones and pretending to sing along to Work, the pair seemed to be having the time of their lives at the awards, whilst Rihanna took to the stage to perform her new hit. Between dancing and singing, the pair also took to the stage at the show where they presented the Best British Breakthrough Act - which was won by Catfish and the Bottlemen. Clad in a lemon yellow gown, the I'll Stand By You hitmaker turned heads in her retro ensemble, but only had eyes for her co-host as they cuddled up close. See full coverage of the BRIT Awards 2016 with more news and red carpet pictures Ready to work! Dancing backstage the pair put on their best Rihanna impressions Mime time: Clutching microphones and pretending to sing along to Work, the pair seemed to be having the time of their lives at the awards, whilst Rihanna took to the stage to perform her new hit Getting into it: Grinding up against each other the pair put on an energetic display Ahead of the show, Nick, 31, took to Twitter to gush over the star, tweeting: the 'Best British Breakthrough Act' is too hard to say. who can help me come and say it tonight??? 'hang on.... @CherylOfficial has saved the day! see yer ont stage babezzz [sic].' The Radio 1 DJ also took to Instagram to share a video of the pair together, which Cheryl also shared. Reunited: Despite the fact Nick sensationally quit The X Factor last week amid a major reshuffle of the judges and presenters, Cheryl, 32, seemed to harbour no hard feelings with her friend Ready to work: Between dancing and singing, the pair also took to the stage at the show where they presented the Best British Breakthrough Act - which was won by Catfish and the Bottlemen The couple's friendly display came after Nick decided to step down as a judge on The X Factor after just one series on the panel. Explaining his decision to quit the show he said the experience was something he had only ever wanted to do 'once'. Elaborating, he said: 'It was one of those things that I thought about over Christmas when I had some time off, and I thought that it was one of those things that I just definitely wanted to do once. Not-so-mellow yellow! Clad in a lemon yellow gown, the I'll Stand By You hitmaker turned heads in her retro ensemble, but only had eyes for her co-host as they cuddled up close No hard feelings! The couple's friendly display came after Nick decided to step down as a judge on The X Factor after just one series on the panel Standing strong: Nick and Cheryl seemed delighted to be on the stage together once more He continued: 'And I loved it, and I'll miss it I guess, but I think whoever does it next, they're going to have the best time, because it's really, really fun.' Meanwhile, new presenters Olly Murs and Caroline Flack also decided to leave the show, with original host Dermot O'Leary tipped to return in a bid to boost ratings for the series. But Cheryl and Nick put all the X Factor controversy behind them as they settled in at the 36th BRIT Awards, which saw the likes of Adele, Rihanna, Little Mix and Justin Bieber take to the stage. Firm friends: Cheryl (centre) and Nick (second from left) worked together on the X Factor judging panel in 2015 He is going through an increasingly messy legal battle with his ex-wife Denise Richards, But Charlie Sheen denied threatening to kill her and their daughter Lola during an appearance on The Dr Oz Show on Wednesday. He was responding to a claim in the Starship Troopers actress's $1.2 million lawsuit against him, where she says she overheard him telling the 10-year-old: 'I'm going to kill you and I'm going to kill your mom.' Scroll down for video Denial: Charlie Sheen hit out at claims he thretaned to kill ex-wife Denise Richards and their daughter Lola during an appearance on The Dr Oz Show on Wednesday Sheen, 50, told the TV medic: 'I would never speak about any of my children like that ever, and I would never threaten their mom. 'That's not who I am. I wouldn't do that.' When pressed on the matter by the prominent heart surgeon, he said he would admit he was at fault if he ever said anything like that. The Platoon actor said: 'Well, you got to own your own crap. I'd apologise and hope to move forward. What else can you do?' See more of the latest on Charlie Sheen as he denies threatening to kill his ex-wife Home from home: He previously appeared on the show to talk about his HIV diagnosis and struggle with addiction Claim: Richards said in legal documents she heard the actor telling daughter Lola (L) he was going to kill her Richards, 45, made the claim in the suit she filed after she and their girls were allegedly evicted from the home he bought for them in his exclusive Beverly Hills gated community. However he told the medical professional that he felt he was being punished for giving her the house in the first place, as 'Operation Harmony' to bring together children with Richards and those with his other ex-wife Brooke Mueller did not work out as he intended. Wall Street star Sheen did however concede another claim made in the legal documents, that he texted Lola a message which said, 'Your dad is a rock star genius . . . Your mom is a p**s wart,' may be true. He said: 'I don't know. Sure, I probably did, yeah. And it's regrettable.' Confession: He did admit to the famed heart surgeon he may have called his ex a 'p**s wart' Legal fight: Richards is claiming he is not holding up to previous financial promises made for his daughters This was just the latest in a string of appearances Sheen has made on Mehmet Oz's show. He previously chatted with the TV doctor about his struggles with abuse and his travails since being diagnosed HIV positive. Thrice-divorced Sheen, who is said to be worth $150 million, was also fuming about Richards' claims he was not giving her the financial support he previously promised for twins Lola and Sam. But the Two And A Half Men actor did say he is hoping the $55,000-a-month he hands over to both the actress, who he was married to until 2006, and Mueller could be reduced. He said: 'We came up with a number a long time ago and I had a great job and everybody was living large. And that's not the case right now. 'But there's still that expectation to still keep paying this kind of money. 'Operation Harmony': Sheen said he bought her the house so the could have a 'progressive' family life Happier times: The then HIV-free actor with Richards when they were still married back in 2005 'At some point you just can't justify it, especially when there's no gratitude behind it. None. 'I would send somebody flowers every hour if I got that kind of dough tax free.' As well as his girls with Richards, father-of-five Sheen also has six-year-old twin boys Max and Bob with Mueller. The actor also has a grown up daughter, 30-year-old Cassandra Jade Estevez, who got married to her long-term boyfriend Casey Huffman back in 2010. Home and Away star Johnny Ruffo has been disqualified from driving and fined more than $3000 for a string of offences including driving while his licence was cancelled. Ruffo, 27, pleaded guilty in January to driving an unregistered and uninsured white Audi S5 through Sydney's CBD in September last year. In Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday, Ruffo's lawyer Nic Angelov said the soap star now understood he was unfit to handle the responsibilities of driving. Scroll down for video Home and Away star Johnny Ruffo has been disqualified from driving and fined more than $3000 for a string of offences including driving while his licence was cancelled 'His intention is to get the vehicle registered and then sell it,' Mr Angelov said. 'He's going to get rid of the car.'He accepts that the responsibilities (of driving) he has not met, and they are not for him.' Last month Ruffo pleaded guilty to five charges after driving while his licence was cancelled in an unregistered vehicle. The 2011 X Factor Australia finalist had admitted to a string of driving offences, including driving while his licence was cancelled. The 2011 X Factor Australia finalist, who drives a white Audi SS Coupe was caught driving an unregistered and uninsured white Audi S5 through Sydney's CBD in September last year Popular: Ruffo has made a name for himself as Chris Harrington on long-running show Home And Away Ruffo was caught driving an unregistered and uninsured white Audi S5 through Sydney's city centre in September last year. Back in December Ruffo racked up $3253 worth of speeding fines in just seven months. He fronted the Downing Centre Local court in December to ask the Magistrate for an annulment on five driving charges after he failed to appear in November as he was 'sick,' The Daily Telegraph reported. 'I was speeding while I was driving and it was just a miscommunication between myself and the people that open my mail,' Ruffo said. 'Don't speed while you're driving.' The star plays Chris Harrington in the long-running soap Home and Away. Not fit: In Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday, Ruffo's lawyer Nic Angelov said the soap star now understood he was unfit to handle the responsibilities of driving She's the clear front-runner for this year's Best Actress award at the Oscars, but Brie Larson didn't show the slightest hint of nerves as she arrived in Los Angeles ahead of Sunday's ceremony. The 26-year-old looked cool and casual as she strolled through LAX airport on Wednesday, showcasing her natural beauty as she went make-up free. Brie looked remarkably fresh-faced having just jetted in from Vietnam, and wore a Unesco - aka United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - which she had picked up during her trip. The big day awaits: Brie Larson jetted into Los Angeles on Wednesday, ahead of Sunday's Academy Awards The Room star was keeping comfortable for the journey, and also sported a long blue coat with printed trim, skinny jeans and black loafers. Brie wore her dark blonde hair in its natural waves and finished off her look with a celebrity staple - a pair of oversize sunglasses. The actress has been in the industry since she was a child, but has catapulted to fame thanks to her starring role in Room, in which she portrays a woman who escapes the enclosed space where she has been held captive for many years - and where her son was born. Brie is the favourite to win this year's Academy Award for Best Actress, having taken home Golden Globe, Critics Choice, SAG and BAFTA awards already. How does she do it?: Make-up Brie looked remarkably fresh-faced after stepping off a flight from Vietnam Keeping tight-lipped: The 26-year-old is yet to comment after her estranged father spoke out about their relationship Meanwhile, the rising star's father - who she has been estranged from for many years - spoke out in a recent interview with DailyMail.com. Sylvain Desaulnier said: 'Its my daughter and I love her to death. I dont want to say more. This is my daughters career. This is her life, this is her thing. Im very proud of her.' Desaulnier split from Brie's mother Heather in 1995 when his famous daughter was just six. The couple also have a second daughter, Milaine. Cool and casual: Brie wore a printed coat over a Unesco T-shirt, with skinny jeans, loafers and large sunglasses Firm favourite: Brie is expected to win this year's Best Actress award at the Oscars. She is pictured here at the SAG Awards last month Speaking in Elle magazine recently, Brie said her strained relationship with her father influenced her choice of career. 'I don't think he ever really wanted to be a parent,' she admitted. 'It wasn't until truly recently that I realized that's why so much of my work was so volatile.' She added of her father: 'When legally I didnt have to have visitation with him anymore, I jumped on it. 'As a kid I tried to understand him and understand the situation. But he didnt do himself any favors.' It was reported that the two hadn't spoken in 10 years, however Desaulnier denies this, calling the claim 'inaccurate'. They've enjoyed a short stint in the humid South African jungle for I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! Australia. But the warm weather is certainly over for Bindi Irwin and her family who landed in the chilly American state of Oregon on Monday. Bindi, along with her mother Terri, younger brother Robert and pro wake boarder boyfriend Chandler Powell, were pictured exiting the less than busy Portland International Airport with their heavy luggage in tow. Scroll down for video Family time: Bindi Irwin, 17, enjoys time with her American grandparents despite having an estranged relationship with her paternal grandfather, Bob Irwin The 17-year-old, who won Dancing With The Stars in the US last year, looked snug in an over-sized winter themed cardigan, stone washed jeans, a black T-shirt and matching ankle length boots. The keen traveller didn't show one sign of jet lag as she managed to monitor her phone in one hand and pull a bright red suitcase and a patterned rug sack with the other. The Wildlife Warrior also slung a khaki shoulder bag with a jumper tied to the handle over one shoulder as she walked alongside her grandmother, Judy, who is based in the coastal state. Winter attire: The 17-year-old, who won Dancing With The Stars in the US last year, looked snug in an oversized winter themed cardigan, stone washed jeans, a black T-shirt and matching ankle high boots Glossy mane: Bindi's hair looked glossy than ever, with no strands out of place from her hour an a half flight from California to Portland Meanwhile Terri, 51, seemed acclimatised to the below than freezing temperatures. The Eugene native walked out of the airport in just a cardigan over the top of a blue T-shirt with a green dragon emblazoned across the front. She teamed the look with a pair of blue jeans and a practical pair of non-slip boots. Meanwhile Chandler stepped out in a pair of thongs. The 19-year-old athlete didn't seem too worried about the cooler conditions, and placed a coat over his black T-shirt with a V-neck collar and jeans. Not even bothered: Terri seemed acclimatised to the below than freezing temperatures Simple attire: The Oregon native walked out of the airport in just a cardigan over the top of a blue T-shirt with a green dragon emblazoned across the front Robert, 12, also dared the weather in just a black T-shirt and khaki pants. He looked to be in good spirits despite lugging a large backpack and suitcase. Bindi's grandfather, Clarence, helped his visiting grandchildren and daughter with their luggage before placing each item accordingly into the boot of the car. The grandparents beamed as they chatted to their extremely busy grandchildren who are based in Queensland, Australia. The family of three help run Australia Zoo - a wildlife sanctuary owned by their father, Steve Irwin, who was tragically killed by a stingray in 2006. Like mother like daughter: Terri Irwin and her look-a-like daughter walk side by side as they leave the airport Daring the cold: Robert also dared the weather in just a black T-shirt and khaki pants Peferct relationship: Bindi's grandfather, Clarence, helped his visiting grandchildren and daughter with their luggage before placing each item accordingly into the boot of the car Estranged relationship: Despite having a happy relationship with their American grandparents, Bindi and Bob are estranged to their paternal grandfather, Bob Irwin Despite having a happy relationship with their American grandparents, Bindi and Robert are estranged from their paternal grandfather, Bob Irwin. The 17-year old spoke out following reports of an increasingly strained relationship with Bob, who has previously reflected on his struggle to cope after son Steve Irwin was fatally struck by a stingray in 2006. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the 5th annual AACTA Awards in December, Bindi claims her grandfather became reclusive in the years following his death. No connection: Bindi claims her grandfather, who still operates the Bob Irwin Wildlife & Conservation Foundation having retired from Australia Zoo in 1992, has even rejected well meaning gifts from the family 'Everyone deals with grief differently,' she said. 'When my dad passed away he chose to distance himself from everything that dad loved the most. 'At the moment were really just respecting his wishes because he hasnt had anything to do with us for a long time and he decided his own path. Thats important so good for him.' Bindi claims her grandfather, who still operates the Bob Irwin Wildlife & Conservation Foundation having retired from Australia Zoo in 1992, has even rejected well meaning gifts from the family. 'There was one year where we sent birthday presents to him and he opened them up and he sent them back,' she recalled. 'With things like that you realise that people need to deal with grief how they need to deal with grief and as long as it doesnt hurt yourself or hurt those around you then thats the way to go.' Reality TV: Bindi, Robert and Terri Irwin wrapped up their two-day visit to camp I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! recently They may have buried the hatchet but when it comes to stealing each other's style, there are not rules. Amber Rose did what she does best at the All Def Movie Awards in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday night. The 32-year-old lived up to her blonde bombshell reputation in a racy lacy figure flaunting dress. All front: Amber Rose did what she does best at the All Def Movie Awards in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday night The model dared to bare in a tight black mini dress with long sleeves which would have been an impressive showcase for her famous curves on its own, but Amber decided to take it up a notch. The front of the star's dress featured a plunging neckline with just a thin bit of string standing between the world and the star's cleavage. Amber's chest struggled to get itself free but the lace stood firm, keeping her breasts restrained but not out of sight. While the daring look is certainly not for the faint heart, it is on-trend with Los Angeles' clubs packed with women wearing a similar look. Saucy and sexy: The model dared to bare in a tight black mini dress with long sleeves which would have been an impressive showcase for her famous curves on its own, but Amber decided oi take it up a notch Curves for days: The front of the star's dress featured a plunging neckline with just a thin bit of string standing between the world and the star's cleavage Accolade: Inside the ceremony, Amber happily clutched her gong for Most Likely to Steal Your Girl Award What a coup! Amber hit the stage to accept her unusual prize Her support team: As she later left the awards, she was flanked by a member of her entourage in a MUVA t-shirt, her nickname for herself The lace-up look was made more mainstream thanks to the queen on figure flashing, Kim Kardashian. Kim first stepped out in a jumpsuit created by Givenchy last year and has since wore variations on the lace-up theme in a bodysuit and a dress. Kim and Amber have long been not on the best of terms thanks to their shared romantic history - namely they both have loved Kanye West. On-trend: The lace-up look was made more mainstream thanks to the queen on figure flashing, Kim Kardashian (seen here in August wearing Givenchy) Moving forward: Kim and Amber have long been not on the best of terms thanks to their shared romantic history - namely they both have loved Kanye West - but they ladies recently buried the hatchet However, when Kanye went in a rant against Amber's estranged husband Wiz Khalifa and brought their son Sebastian into it, for the sake of the children Kim and Amber buried the hatchet. But while Kim has waved the white flag she may need to step in again, not because Amber is stealing her style, but because husband Kanye is once again on the rampage. Kanye took the stage as a surprise guest at Yo Gotti's album release party at Los Angeles hotspot 1OAK on Tuesday night when he grabbed the microphone for a live rant. Stunning: Karrueche Tran was also at the ALL Def Movie Awards, looking super-sexy in a slinky brown dress with a dropped neckline to reveal her cleavage Looking sauve: Rants and Twitter fights aside, also attending the All Def Movie Awards was a rather preppy looking Snoop Dogg who wore a knitted cardigan with black slacks and a pair of Kanye's Yeezy sneakers Dressed to impress: Also at the awards was Eva Marcille, who stunned in a burnt orange gown, and a suit-clad Marlon Wayans Among other things, the rapper again wanted to address Amber's previous comments about a particular sex act he liked. The Famous hitmaker took aim at the model's claims about their sex life as he yelled: 'That b***h never stuck no fingers in my a**. I don't play like that!' Amber during their last fight had tweeted: 'Awww @kanyewest are u mad I'm not around to play in ur a**hole anymore?#FingersInTheBootyA**B***h.' Date night: Robin Thicke cut a dapper gent in a three-piece suit as he led his gorgeous girlfriend April Love Geary out of the venue Leading the way: The 38-year-old musician led the way, but all eyes were on his gorgeous 20-year-old model girlfriend Wow-worthy! The 27-year-old beauty flaunted her incredibly pins and much of her chest and torso in the racy garment Good night? The ex-girlfriend of Chris Brown couldn't take the smile off her face as she exited the venue Rants and Twitter fights aside, also attending the All Def Movie Awards was a rather preppy looking Snoop Dogg who wore a knitted cardigan with black slacks and a pair of Kanye's Yeezy sneakers. Also at the awards was Eva Marcille, who stunned in burnt orange, and a suit-clad Marlon Wayans. Winning the red carpet as always was Russell Simmons thanks to his stunning girlfriend Lucy McIntosh. The 28-year-old Australian wowed in a simple black dress with cut-outs on either side of her thin physique. Bare back: The model beauty revealed the racy low-cut design of the dress on the back Russell created the All Def Awards which have been heralded as an alternative Oscars as not only because it had black nominees, but it also had Academy Awards host Chris Rock's brother Tony hosting Wednesday night. The All Def Awards will be aired Sunday on Fusion during the Academy Awards, Russell has described his awards as 'not the black Oscars, but they could be... [the event] will be a fun, entertaining and hopefully thought-provoking celebration of the uncelebrated'. All hail the king: Russell Simmons created the All Def Awards and looked pleased as punch as he walked the carpet with girlfriend Lucy McIntosh Harrison Ford is back in the pilot's seat after his frightening plane crash last year. The Star Wars star was seen shopping in Santa Monica before getting behind the controls of his private plane at The Santa Monica Airport on Wednesday. The 73-year-old wore a light blue button-up shirt and dark pants as he arrived at the airport. Scroll down for video Pilot: Actor Harrison Ford looked relaxed as he got back in the pilot's seat on Wednesday The Indiana Jones actor brushed his hair back off his forehead, and shielded his eyes from the glare with sunglasses. Harrison, who is married to Supergirl actress Calista Flockhart, 51, looked upbeat as he strolled through the parking lot. He was later seen climbing aboard his Cessna 680 Sovereign twin-jet airplane, which is painted green and white plane - matching his helicopter. In March, the actor and longtime aviator was seriously injured when he crash-landed his vintage World War II plane in Santa Monica shortly after taking off from the airport. Casual: The Star Wars star suffered broken bones and was hospitalized after his plane crash landed due to an engine failure in Santa Monica in March The actor suffered broken bones and spent a month in hospital recovering. He has since made a full recovery, although he has said he has no memory of the terrifying crash. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled that the crash was not the actor's fault, but rather was due to an engine failure. Airborne: The 73-year-old wore a light blue shirt and dark pants as he climbed into the plane Ground control: The actor was seen wearing a headset and sitting with a co-pilot A few months later, Harrison broke his ankle on the set of Star Wars when he was injured by the door of The Millennium Falcon, the space ship piloted by his character Han Solo. On Wednesday, Harrison was seen at the controls of the plane, wearing a headset and sitting with a co-pilot. The actor also recently unveiled a new look at Disneyland's plans for a Star Wars section of the iconic theme park on the Disneyland 60th anniversary special on ABC on Sunday. New 14-acre expansions are underway at both Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida, to create an interactive Star Wars experience, including letting fans take the controls of The Millennium Falcon. Vicky Pattison has hits back at Kristin Scott Thomas after the actress criticised British women for 'getting drunk in a mini skirt'. The Cornwall-born star, who moved to France when she was 19, upset many Brits this week when she claimed her fellow countrywomen all dressed the same and made a show of themselves at the weekend. Leading the backlash against The English Patient star was I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Here! winner Vicky, who has openly been photographed and filmed enjoying wild nights out in the past. Scroll down for video Not impressed: Vicky Pattison (left) hit out at actress Kristin Scott Thomas for her disparaging comments about British women She told The Sun: 'Accusing women of wearing mini skirts they "dont have the legs for" is body-shaming and damaging. 'I cant believe what an anti-feminist, chauvinistic attitude to the female form she holds.' Vicky, 28, also accused Kristin's comments of classism, suggesting she seemed to generalise working class women. She added: 'To say British women are vulgar is plain wrong. Having a good time: The 28-year-old insisted there is nothing wrong with getting dressed up. putting on fake tan and enjoying some drinks with friends 'There are plenty of classy British women - she could just look at her fellow actresses who represent us around the world.' Vicky went on to use Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet and Emma Watson as classy and talented examples of British women. The Loose Women panellist's comments came after Kristin's criticism was published in French beauty magazine Marie France this week. She said: 'French women make getting dressed seem simple... and they can be attractive without abusing their sexy side. There is no vulgarity, its all about subtlety. Showing some leg: Vicky showed off her legs in a short dress as she attended a launch party in Essex earlier this week 'The English are terrible and very much the opposite, like they wear mini skirts when they dont have the legs for it. In France, that would obviously be in bad taste. French women would never get drunk on a Saturday in a mini skirt in November. 'The English are much more concerned with what is fashionable. They follow all the latest trends, even though they all look the same. Right now, for example, English girls are all wearing buns on their heads! 'And they love tanning, especially fake tan, which means, by summer, everyone is orange.' They've been rumoured to be suffering from a bad romance. But fitness fanatic Tim Robards has dismissed claims that he and his reality starlet girlfriend Anna Heinrich are heading into rocky relationship territory. The 33-year-old fitness fanatic took to his Instagram on Thursday to let his 165,000 followers know that he and 29-year-old Anna were going strong and still living together after Woman's Day reported Anna had moved out of their shared home in Bondi. Scroll down for video 'Anna is actually 29 and the only thing she is taking out is the rubbish!': Tim Robards has hilariously hit back at claims he and Anna Heinrich have split In fact, the chiropractor took it one step further and decided to hilariously decipher 'gossip mag language' used in the article. He started the post, which included a picture of the printed piece, saying: 'The term 'Heated argument'... Actually means 'god I'm full, no I don't want your last piece of steak thanks. 'The term 'tensions so high they didn't finish food' actually means... 'Anna the chip thief finished off my last sweet potato fries. 'Tim, 32' actually means 'Tim is looking amaze balls for 33 haha [sic].' All good: The 33-year-old fitness fanatic took to his Instagram to let his 165,000 followers know that he and 29-year-old Anna were going strong and still living together - the pair pictured together on Thursday afternoon He continued: 'Seen moving boxes from their apartment' actually means 'was snapped outside work taking his weekly supply of #TRM youfoodz meals home with him''Anna, 30, has already moved out' interprets as 'Anna is actually 29 and the only thing she is taking out is the rubbish!' OK! magazine also reported the pair were 'living primarily apart'. A source revealed to the magazine that Tim is known to 'drop' his blonde lady love back at her own place before leaving for his own apartment. A representative for the couple has since dismissed the claims, telling Daily Mail Australia: 'Please know that there is no truth to this rumour, or these erroneous reports whatsoever.' New article: The chiropractor took it one step further and decided to hilariously decipher 'gossip mag language' used in the article Earlier this month Tim and Anna looked as loved up as ever while attending the Myer Autumn/Winter 2016 collection launch. Referring to his girlfriend, Tim revealed he accepted the ups and downs of the pair's two-year relationship, telling Daily Mail Australia: 'There's always trouble with Anna. There's always trouble in paradise.' Tim, who is yet to propose to Anna, then went on to reveal an engagement may be just around the corner. 'That would be nice,' he said when asked if an engagement ring will present itself any time soon. Good news: Tim, who is yet to propose to Anna, then went on to reveal an engagement may be just around the corner 'I do get a lot of pressure,' he added, no doubt referring to 2015 Bachelor star Sam Wood's recent proposal to Snezana Markoski just a few months after dating. Tim and Anna are certainly not shy when showcasing their love through cute couple snaps on social media. Recently Anna shared a sweet video of the pair on Instagram which showcased their recent holiday in Mexico. Meanwhile Tim last posted a cute selfie showing the reality television couple at small town Berry on the South Coast of New South Wales. She's tackling an epic new role, playing Queen Victoria. And as well as playing the monarch at the tender age of 18 as she ascended the throne, Jenna Coleman's anticipated new TV drama also follows the young Queen's marriage to Prince Albert. The 29-year-old was spotted shooting wedding scenes with onscreen husband Tom Hughes in East Yorkshire this week, as work continued on the drama from acclaimed novelist Daisy Goodwin. Scroll down for video Wedding belle: Jenna Coleman looked beautiful in a lace gown and floral garland as she shot wedding scenes for her new TV drama Victoria in Yorkshire Jenna was seen strolling around set in a cream lace gown which she covered up with a white robe to protect the delicate dress in between scenes. Clearly taking note of portraits of the monarch on her wedding day in 1840, Jenna also had a beautiful white flower garland perched on top of her dark hair. With a sweep of blusher on her cheeks and a glittering necklace and earrings, Jenna was ready for another long day on set. Royal role: The Doctor Who star had a floral garland perched on her dark locks, taking inspiration from wedding portraits of the real-life monarch Here comes the bride: With a sweep of blusher on her cheeks, white heels and a shimmering necklace peeking out from under her robe, Jenna was ready for her scenes Make room for the groom: Jenna's onscreen husband Tom Hughes was seen on set for the first time, looking dapper in full military costume for his role as Prince Albert The actress was seen carrying a notebook, her phone and a bottle of water around the set, which has set up home at the stunning gothic church Beverley Minster in Yorkshire. Jenna's onscreen husband Tom Hughes was seen on set for the first time, looking dapper in full military costume for his role as Prince Albert. The rising British star kept himself entertained during the long day by listening to tunes through headphones. Careful! A white robe protected Jenna's delicate costume in between takes, as an aide lifted up the lace skirt In costume: Rising star Tom sported full period costume and carried a bouquet in prep for his scenes In her first role since Doctor Who, Jenna plays the British monarch from her ascension to the throne at the tender age of 18 through to her courtship and marriage to Prince Albert. BAFTA-nominated actor Rufus Sewell was also spotted on set, with the actor, who has himself played a royal on screen in the 2003 TV drama Charles II: The Power and The Passion, cast as Lord Melbourne, Victoria's first prime minister and close confidant. The pair's friendship became a popular source of gossip that threatened to destabilise the Government angering both Tory and Whigs alike. All-star cast: BAFTA-nominated actor Rufus Sewell, cast as Lord Melbourne, was also spotted on set alongside Peter Bowles Key role: Rufus plays Lord Melbourne, Victoria's first prime minister and close confidant Grand entrance: David Oakes who plays Prince Ernest was seen arriving at the stunning gothic church Beverley Minster in Yorkshire Victoria will begin with a 90-minute episode followed by seven one-hour episodes. The series has been created and written by acclaimed novelist Daisy Goodwin, in her screenwriting debut, who will also serve as executive producer alongside Dan McCulloch (Indian Summers) and Damien Timmer (Poldark). Torchwood star Eve Myles and The Sarah Jane Adventures actor Tommy-Lawrence Knight will also be joining the stellar line-up. Speaking at the announcement of her role, Jenna gushed: 'I am delighted to be cast as Queen Victoria in this ambitious drama of her life. She is a vivid, strong, inspirational and utterly fascinating woman in British history and I can't wait to tell her story.' Family ties: Prince Ernest was Prince Albert's older brother by 14 months with the two raised as though twins Every little detail: The costume department made sure every member of cast was dressed to perfection In his own world: Tom kept himself entertained between scenes by listening to tunes through headphones Get us to the church on time: Beautifully dressed extras were seen hurrying inside the church for the wedding scene Politics, gossip and marriage: Queen Victoria's early reign Victoria turned 18 on 24 May 1837. Less than a month later on 20 June 1837, her uncle William IV died at the age of 71, and she became Queen of the United Kingdom. The British Empire was at the height of its power in Victoria's early reign, and she ruled over 450 million people, one quarter of the worlds population. The United Kingdom though was already an established constitutional monarchy, with the sovereign holding little political power and Victoria's early years on the throne were spent developing her understanding of British politics. In the early part of her reign, she was influenced by two men. At the time of her accession, the government was led by the Whig prime minister Lord Melbourne (played by Rufus Sewell in the series), who at once became a powerful influence on the politically inexperienced Queen. Victoria's reliance upon Lord Melbourne increased her support of the Whig party, and Melbourne ensured that the Queen was surrounded by ladies-in-waiting from notable Whig families, a situation that would lead to the so-called 'bedchamber crisis' after Melbourne, briefly, resigned in 1839. While the Queen's intimate friendship with Melbourne was the subject of much gossip, her reputation also suffered in 1839 when one of the court's ladies in waiting, Lady Flora Hastings was falsely accused of becoming pregnant by Sir John Conroy, a man the Queen openly despised. When the matter became a public scandal, the Queen was accused of spreading the false rumours and her early popularity with the public was severely dented. Victoria had met her future husband Albert at the age of 17 before ascending to the throne, when her uncle played matchmaker between the two cousins. According to Victoria's diary, she enjoyed Albert's company from the moment they met, but the future Queen decided that she was too young to marry. In October 1839 Albert paid another visit, and just five days after he had arrived at Windsor, the Queen proposed. They were married on 10 February 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace, London, with the besotted Queen writing in her diary of their wedding: 'I NEVER, NEVER spent such an evening!!! MY DEAREST DEAREST DEAR Albert ... his excessive love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love & happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before!' Victoria desired that Albert receive the title King Consort, but was met by opposition from British officials who refused to see a German prince assume any part of the sovereign power. Prince Albert though was to become a hugely influential adviser to the Queen, with his interests lying in the arts, science, trade and industry. He established the Great Exhibition of 1851, the profits from which helped to establish the famed South Kensington museums in London. Advertisement Advertisement She walked a handful of shows at New York Fashion Week earlier in the month but was noticeably absent from the London run this week despite having paid a visit to the UK capital in the throes of Fashion Week. But Kendall Jenner was back doing what she does best on Thursday as she made a stomping return to the catwalk on the second day of Milan Fashion Week. The Victoria's Secret model was the stand-out star of the Fendi show as she strutted her stuff down the runway in a pair of bright blue ruched leather thigh-high boots which only served to accentuate just how slim her limbs are. Scroll down for video Back to the day job: Kendall Jenner was back to her catwalking-queen best as she led the model line-up down the Fendi runway during her stomping debut at Milan Fashion Week on Thursday Kendall, 20, had the audience in awe as she stomped down the length of the catwalk in a colourful ensemble - the centre-piece being a pair of bright blue boots which were rendered in ruched leather and reached high on her thighs. The skin-tight statement footwear clung tightly to her lithe legs as she strutted her stuff down the length of the runway confidently, being careful not to lose her footing. Creative director Karl Lagerfeld - who is also at the helm of French fashion house Chanel - styled the boots with a kooky coat-and-dress combo which provided the perfect complement. Kendall modelled a navy coat which was A-line in design and had a green and blue fur stole attached to the collar while she wore an intricately-designed sheer dress beneath it but it was barely visible. See more of the latest Kendall Jenner updates as she smoulders on the Fendi runway for Milan Fashion Week Strutting her stuff: Kendall, 20, was the stand-out star of Karl Lagerfeld's Italian fashion house's Autumn/Winter '16 showcase These boots were made for walking: The Fashion Week frequenter had the privilege of modelling a statement piece from the new collection - a pair of bright blue ruched leather boots Making an entrance: Kendall emerged from a glow of orange light and entered the main arena which was darkened and the spotlight fixated on the runway He is fur real: The fashion-designing hero sent a bevy of beautiful models, dressed in all variety of fierce fur coats, down the catwalk All in the details: Frills emerged as a recurring theme with Kendall sporting frilled leather cuffs on both wrists Leading lady: The CK pin-up was a sight to behold in her fashion-forward outfit with her hair lightly flowing behind her Follow the leader: Kendall had the privilege of heading up the model line-up for the final lap of the runway While all eyes were on the boundary-breaking collection, Kendall's make-up was also a sight to behold as her eyes were artistically done up. Her peepers boasted impeccably-applied brown, green and blue eyeliner with delicate designs affording drawn to the side of each. The bevy of beautiful models sported similar looks while their hair was mostly coiffed into middle partings and style relatively naturally. Hey now ladies, let's get in formation: The colourful collection and the bevy of stunning catwalk stars made for a beautiful finale Flawless: After having given her face a brief from make-up, she boasted a flawless complexion which only required a light layer of foundation Standing tall: Kendall cut a statuesque figure in the towering statement footwear which elongated her already lengthy pins Here she comes: Kendall had the MFW fash-pack enarmoured as arrived onto the catwalk without having confirmed her appearance Frills and spills: The girls sported Karl's latest footwear creation - thigh-high heeled boots featuring frilled hems Colour chameleon: Kendall's bright brown peepers were decorated with artistically-applied multi-coloured eyeliner Model good looks: The second youngest member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan struck a smouldering pose backstage ahead of the show Playful pin-up: Kendall playfully stuck her tongue out behind a grumpy model's back as the line-up had the finishing touches put to their looks Bags of style: She carried a statement bag which was made from different coloured strips of leather Back in the spotlight: The Los-Angeles-born lady seemed delighted to be back in the fash-pack fold as she lapped up the attention from the cameras in the candid backstage shoot The man of the moment: Fendi Creative Director Karl made a typically low-key entrance to the venue, dressed in his on-duty uniform Keeping his cool: The 82-year-old German fashion hero showed no signs of nerves as he headed into the venue Kendall showed her playful side, larking around backstage in an impromptu photoshoot as the line-up had the finishing touches put to their looks. After the last model stepped off the catwalk, Karl, 82, joined the girls backstage and he seemed pleased with how the show had went as he was in good spirits. Model of the moment wasn't only celebrating a rousing return to Milan Fashion Week but shortly afterwards she discovered she'd hit the 50-million Instagram followers mark. Marking the occasion in true Jenner style, she shared a previously unseen image of herself, all dolled up and flashing the peace sign, alongside the caption: '50 mil.' Model of the moment: Karl - who has close friendships with many of the world's top models - was full of awe for young Kendall Monochrome mates: Kendall colour co-ordinated with Karl in a black and white ensemble as she slipped into her model off-duty uniform Earlier this week, he showed off an angrier side to his otherwise laid-back personality. But Phillip Schofield was back to his fun-loving and cheeky best on Thursday's episode of This Morning, as he pretended to sniff glue during an arts and craft segment. He and his co-host Holly Willoughby, 35, were being taken through a series of different methods to create handcrafted Mother's Day gifts, when the 53-year-old surprisingly inhaled the scent of the sticky stuff. 'You can't do that!' Holly Willoughby jokingly scolded Phillip Schofield as he sniffed glue on Thursday's episode of This Morning While creating their own tea cup pin cushions, they had the pleasure of using PVA glue, and Phillip couldn't resist in giving it a sniff. Clearly unaware of how it appeared during the live broadcast, he sighed as he said: 'Ah I love that smell!' But Holly - who dazzled during her appearance on the episode, in a figure-hugging white pencil skirt and blush pink blouse - looked shocked as she quickly reprimanded him: 'You can't do that!' Realising, then, the error of his ways, Phillip quickly backtracked and explained that he wasn't actually partaking in glue-sniffing, and rather enjoying a trip down memory lane. Breathing deeply: The hosts were being taken through a series of different methods to create handcrafted Mother's Day gifts, when the 53-year-old surprisingly inhaled the scent of the sticky stuff Rogue! Phillip then tried to explain that he wasn't glue sniffing, rather inhaling the PVC for the memories He insisted: 'No! Not that, it's infant school stuff!' 'No! Not that, it's infant school stuff,' he insisted. 'I'm not glue-sniffing, it's just a case of... oh, that's a memorable smell!' The TV presenters then fell about in a fit of giggles as they then made fun of each other's rather poor attempts at tea cup pin cushions. Meanwhile, it was a more serious side of Phillip the viewing public got to witness on Tuesday as he became incredibly riled when discussing on-off lovers, Stephanie Davis and Jeremy McConnell. Speaking to showbiz correspondent Ferne McCann, the silver haired gent hit out at the couple and their seemingly tumultuous romance, blasting their behaviour as 'nonsense'. Hilarity: The TV twosome then fell about in stitches after their cheeky moment on live TV, while trying to make teacup pin cushions in a Mother's Day craft segment Well done! Holly's attempt was pretty good, but Phillip's left a lot to be desired When the former TOWIE star announced Jeremy and Stephanie were back together, after he claimed they had split on Monday, the TV host interjected: 'Who cares! Do you know what? I'm sick to death of these two.' Ferne followed Phillip's lead and didn't hold back on broadcasting her honest thoughts on the TV couple, admitting she finds the way they're conducting themselves 'embarrassing'. She explained: 'This is what I think, right, they were supposed to appear on Loose Women yesterday and they pulled out because they broke up but less than 24 hours she was posting on Twitter, 'I'm still madly in love with him, we're trying to work things out'. He posted a picture on his Instagram of them cuddling on the bed.' Stunning: Holly, 35, looked typically beautiful in a figure-hugging white pencil skirt and blush pink blouse on the episode 'I should imagine the production team of Loose Women are pretty furious that they pulled out of the show and then rocked up later on,' Phillip added. Speaking from experience, Ferne offered the one-time soap actress and the Irish model some sage advice. 'I think it's embarrassing on their part. If you're going out with someone and you have a squabble, you haven't got to post it all over you social media,' she said, to which Phillip fired back: 'Now theyre embroiled in all this nonsense, I cant be bothered anymore.' 'I'm sick to death of these two': Earlier this week, Phillip slammed Stephanie Davis and Jeremy McConnell's behaviour as 'nonsense' when conversation turned to the couple's relationship 'This is what I think': Ferne McCann and the ITV hosts didn't hold back as they shared their honest thoughts on 'Jephanie', Phillip showing off a rare side of his personality They've had their fair share of ups and downs as a couple. But it seems Kylie Jenner is sticking by her man, despite his financial issues, as she could be seen hugging Tyga in an Instagram snap shared to his account on Wednesday. The 18-year-old beauty had traveled to San Francisco to support him as he performed a show on his Rawwest Alive Tour, just as it was revealed by TMZ that the rapper's 2013 Mercedes G-Wagon is set to be repossessed after he had missed payments. Scroll down for video By his side: Girlfriend Kylie Jenner was spotted cuddling Tyga in a photo he posted to Instagram on Wednesday, as the star had traveled to his San Francisco show, sticking by his side through more financial woes Uh oh! A repo company is now after Tyga's 2013 Mercedes G-Wagon after the star failed to make payments. They've been trying since last month to retrieve the vehicle, though have failed so far as it is parked at Kylie's place behind two security gates Tyga could be seen holding up his shirt to reveal plaid red boxers in the photo, which was snapped in front of a mirror. Kylie stood behind him, with her arms wrapped around him and resting on his belt as she could be seen laying her head on his shoulder. She looked stylish in an over-sized camouflage jacket, while Tyga sported a black, graphic T-shirt and coordinating baseball cap, worn backwards. See more of the latest Kylie Jenner updates as she stands by her boyfriend Tyga Where's all that money go? Tyga is reportedly in financial trouble once again as a repo company is after his 2013 Mercedes G-Wagon following missed payments, despite the numerous snaps the star shares to Instagram of him looking flush with cash Grateful: In another snap Tyga showed off a shiny gold chain and coordinating watch as he posed with a massive stack of cash on a private jet Silly: The star even goofed around with his massive piles of money, sharing another photo in which he held a stack up to his face like a phone while a friend fanned some more out like playing cards to show off the wealth The father-of-one captioned the loved-up snapshot of the duo: 'Wavybaby.' However, though their the snap seemed to show that their relationship was on more solid footing, the 26-year-old's financial situation certainly is not. Tyga appears to be in a bit of financial trouble, as TMZ has reported that a repo company is after him for not making payments on his 2013 Mercedes G-Wagon. It's reportedly the same one that he gave to ex Blac Chyna, but was seen being driven by girlfriend Kylie to her birthday dinner at Nobu after getting repainted last August. The luxury vehicle, which would have set the rapper back $233,000, was rumored to have been a birthday gift for Kylie, though she has denied it. Documents report that the rapper has not made payments since October. They also have Kylie listed as his girlfriend and so her home is reported as a place to repo the SUV. However, though they have been trying since last month, they reportedly have not been able to retrieve it since it is parked at Kylie's house, which has two security gates. This is not the first time Tyga has had financial woes, as the star was previously slapped with tax liens totaling $120,000 and has faced eviction due to non-payment of rent. Earlier this month Page Six reported that an unlawful detainer notice was delivered to the $4.8million property that the rapper is renting, and legal papers which are part of the eviction process name Michael Ray Stevenson - Tyga's birth name - as the defendant. Eviction notice: Tyga was also served an eviction notice earlier this month by his landlord for the $4.8million Hollywood Hills home he is renting The trouble continues: And last August TMZ reported that Tyga was ordered to pay $70,000 to the owner of his former Calabasas property following a dispute over rent payments DailyMail.com has contacted Tyga's representative for comment. It has previously been estimated that Tyga has been renting the property, which sits in the Hollywood Hills above the Sunset Strip, for $17,000 a month, but DuJour magazine claimed the star was in fact forking out $40,000 a month after a recent interview at the house. It seems that Tyga's landlord is hoping to get someone else in and the rapper out as soon as possible, as DailyMail.com revealed last week that the property was available for rent on Airbnb, at $2495 a night. 'Perfect day' The father-of-one was just spotted enjoying a lavish Valentine's Day with girlfriend Kylie, who later posted a shot of a blinged-out wristwatch, implying it was a gift from her beau Better make that dough: Currently the rapper - who is apparently in a bit of financial trouble - is on his Rawwest Alive Tour, having just performed in San Francisco on Wednesday And this isn't the first time Tyga has had an issue with a landlord, as last August TMZ reported that he was ordered to pay $70,000 to the owner of his former Calabasas property following a dispute over rent payments. The judge ruled against the star after he failed to appear in court, although he had claimed that he was trying to buy the house. Just two months earlier, TMZ claimed that Tyga was ordered to pay $80,000 to a landlord over a different house in Calabasas, which he allegedly owed $124,000 in rent for. Goofing around: Tyga seemed oblivious to his financial woes as he could be seen laughing in bed in a video shared on Snapchat on Thursday by girlfriend Kylie Playful: Snapchat Queen Kylie pulled a silly face as she played around on the app with Tyga on Thursday However, amidst all of his financial issues Tyga still appears to be living the high life, frequently taking to Instagram to show off large stacks of cash, trips on luxe private jets in the company of exotic animals, showstopping jewelry, and more. He recently enjoyed a lavish, romantic date with girlfriend Kylie in New York City, taking a helicopter ride over the Statue Of Liberty before heading for a romantic dinner in the Big Apple. The make-up designer also showed off a blinged-out wristwatch following the date, implying it was a gift from her beau. Relaxed: The duo didn't seem to be worried about Tyga's growing financial issues Standing by her man: Kylie added to her display of affection for Tyga by posting another Snapchat on Thursday of her cuddling the rapper Can't keep their hands off each other! The reality star could be seen sharing a hug with the father-of-one, at times looking up at the camera, but otherwise resting her head on his shoulder Currently the star is busy traveling for his Rawwest Alive Tour, writing on Instagram ahead of Wednesday's show: 'San Fran gon b lit tonight!! #rawwestalivetour.' She stayed out late celebrating with the best of British musical talent. But Ellie Goulding didn't display any of the signs of her hard-partying night at the BRIT Awards 2016 as she arrived in Paris without a scrap of make-up on. Looking well-rested and freshfaced, Ellie smiled when she left the London Eurostar before her live concert at Zenith's hall on Thursday. Scroll down for video Freshfaced: Ellie Goulding arrived in Paris, France for the next stop on her Delirium World Tour on Thursday afternoon Ellie was perfectly polished in a prim, Victoriana-style blouse, which featured frilly cuffs and a black pussy bow at the collar. Adding a sexy edge to the ensemble, the British musician teamed it with leather trousers and a pair of vintage Chanel heels. Youthful Ellie was proudly displaying a make-up free complexion and making minimal effort to draw attention to her new, fuller pout. Make-up free: She was barefaced but showed no signs of her late night at the BRIT Awards 2016 Looking cute: The blonde was prim in a black blouse with white collar and cuffs for the Paris arrival Toting the belongings: Ellie's friends and aides carried her many suitcases Late night? Ellie was seen hitting Universal Music's afterparty after the music bash on Wednesday On Wednesday night, the blonde had skipped the red carpet, despite being nominated in the Best British Female Solo Artist category, which she went to Adele on the evening. She did, however, indulge in a few of the suitably star-studded afterparties including one hosted by Universal Music. On the big night, Ellie told Capital FM: 'Its a pretty hectic night, its pretty full-on. Its nice to be around people that you know and youve gotten to know in the music industry and you get to celebrate with your label. Sexy edge: Ellie teamed her prim blouse with a pair of sexy leather trousers Excited: She shared her excitement at restarting the concert tour on Thursday Hanging out: The British beauty shared a leggy snap of herself in her hotel room She revealed that she was backing Years & Years on the night, adding: 'Theyve had an incredible year. I hear them on the radio all the time in America and all over the place . I root for them, I really do, because theyre lovely guys and theyve worked really hard and they deserve it.' It's been a busy week after Ellie put in an appearance at Tuesday night's ELLE Style Awards too, to present British Brand of the Year to Stella McCartney. Ellie's latest date on the calendar is one of the Delirium World Tour, this time in France, and she shared her excitement via Twitter. She wrote: 'And so the Delirium tour resumes.... En route to Paris and I can't wait for tonight! What a crazy few weeks.' Giddy: Ellie was smiling broadly as she emerged from the Paris transport link Busy week: Ellie has also attended the ELLE Style Awards this week Jamie Foxx held nothing back on Sunday as he boldly took a stance against claims that the Academy Awards are racists against people of colour. And the 48-year-old star showed his support for the award show on Tuesday as he made an appearance at a pre-Oscar dinner in honour of director David O Russell. The evening was hosted by lifestyle publication Haute Living Pre Oscars Dinner for David O. Russell Evening honours: Jamie Foxx, 48, attended a Pre-Oscars dinner in celebration of director David O. Russell, 57, on Tuesday. Tyrese Gibson, 37, was also a guest Jamie wore a casual ensemble, complete with a diamond-pattered green pullover and a pair of jeans.The Ray star donned a stylish brown hat for the dinner, which was also attended by Fast And The Furious actor Tyrese Gibson, 37. The talent layered a printed T-shirt under a blazer and paired his top half with grey denim jeans. Honouree David, 57, wore a pale blue suit, shirt, and tie before toning down his look with a set of New Balance sneakers. Guests included Nick Jonas, Rami Malek, and Irena and Mike Medavoy. Guests arrived and received Perrier Jouet Champagne. Haute Living publisher Seth Semilof gave a celebratory toast for David O. Russell and congratulated the acclaimed director and producer on his work in film and his efforts behind the Ghetto Film School. Russell gave a brief speech about the importance of the Ghetto Film School and called upon Stosh Mintek, Alvy Johnson and Chris Butler as honored guests from the Ghetto Film School. Night out attire: Jamie presented himself in an upscale casual ensemble, complete with a diamond-pattered green pullover and a pair of jeans Simple: For his look, Tyrese layered a printed T-shirt under a blazer and paired his top half with grey denim jeans. (L-R) Dave Brown, Jamie Foxx, Chris Butler, Tyrese Gibson, David O. Russell and Seth Semilof Not having it: Earlier this week, Jamie made waves when he dared call out alleged race-baiting talent while speaking at Sunday's American Black Film Festival Awards in Beverly Hills. (L-R) Dr. Gabriel Chiu, Jamie Foxx, David O. Russell, Samir Shah and Christine Chiu Talent: Rami Malek and Matthew Weiner attend Haute Living Host Pre-Oscars Dinner for David O. Russell Nice to meet you: Nick Jonas and Tyrese Gibson introducing each other at the party Following a speech from film student Chris Butler, Tyrese Gibson gave a passionate speech saying, "I'm from the ghetto" and sharing how he came to succeed in film. Guests dined on Seared Ahi Tuna, Crab Stuffed Mushrooms, Mixed Greens, Scottish Salmon, New York Strip, Petite Filet, Double Cut Pork Chop, Sauteed Broccoli and Asparagus, Cheesecake and Mastro's signature Warm Butter Cake. Samir Shah closed out the night presenting David O. Russell with a Graham Chronofighter Oversize Target watch as a donation to David's charity. Dressed to the Nines: David O. Russell and Haute Living Executive Editor Laura Schreffler pose together Earlier this week, Jamie made waves with his remarks at Sunday's American Black Film Festival Awards in Beverly Hills. 'All these Oscar talks, I dont even trip about that. I mean, whats the big deal? I was sitting at home with my Oscar, like "Whats all the hubbub?" ' he began, according to Us Weekly. The Dream Girls star said a friend asked him if he was upset, to which he replied that he was 'kind of, but not really,' before noting that he reached out the fellow Oscar winner Denzel Washington, 'and we just Instagrammed our Oscars together.' Take note: Jamie reportedly created his own hashtags to drive his point into the wall. '#WhatsTheBigDeal' and '#ActBetter,' he noted, for which many believe was a dig at Will Smith Words of wisdom: He then discussed a conversation he had with actor Sidney Poitier, who the first African-American to win an Academy Awards for Best Actor in 1964 Jamie reportedly created his own hashtags to drive his point into the wall. '#WhatsTheBigDeal' and '#ActBetter,' he noted, for which many believe was a dig at Will Smith, who received criticism for his accent as Nigerian doctor Bennet Omalu in Concussion. He then discussed a conversation he had with actor Sidney Poitier, who the first African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1964. 'I was with Sidney Poitier just a couple weeks ago, and in 1963 all he asked for was an opportunity to act. That's all we have to do, opportunity. If you turn the camera on and say "OK . . . win an award . . . and action," we'll all have taken, like, 10 steps back. It's all about the art. Who cares about anything else?' he concluded. Dinner time: On Thursday, Jamie dined with a friend at Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills Emily Ratajkowski posted a string of very sexy topless pictures on Instagram on Thursday, teasing fans with her latest scantily-clad modelling shoot. The 24-year-old Blurred Lines model went braless for a behind-the-scenes image, wearing nothing but an open white shirt dressed up with a series of gold necklaces, before hinting at the rest of the camera roll on screen. Model Emily's other shots, shared on social media, see her strip down to a tiny pair of bottoms as she contorts her enviable curves for the camera, exposing everything but her carefully covered up nipples. Scroll down for video Today @naj_jamai @jacquieaiche A photo posted by Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) on Feb 25, 2016 at 3:12pm PST Straight from the screen today @jacquieaiche @naj_jamai #sneakpeek A photo posted by Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) on Feb 25, 2016 at 2:57pm PST While her face wasn't in the first picture, a hint of her long brunette hair could be seen cascading down past her shoulders and it served as a preview of things to come. She simply captioned the image with the word: 'Today.' Earlier on, she embraced an environmental theme as she stepped at Global Green USA's annual pre-Oscar party. She was the star of the green carpet as she arrived at Mr. C's hotel in Beverly Hills on Wednesday night. She's not shy: Emily Ratajkowski has posted a very sexy topless picture of herself on Instagram on Thursday, which will no doubt delight her fans Bloomin' lovely: Emily embraced the environmental theme as she stepped at Global Green USA's annual pre-Oscar party in Beverly Hills earlier that day The model turned actress once made her a name for herself thanks to her lack of clothing, but she certainly proved that fully clothed she shines just as bright. For the event - which seeks to recognize those helping in the fight against climate change - the Gone Girl actress stepped out in a ruched and layered mesh dress. The black gown, which finished just above the actress' ankles, was slightly sheer but rather conservative and featured giant red roses on it. With the dress' floral designs already making such an impact, Emily kept the rest of the look simple wearing no jewellery and accessorizing just with a pair of tan strappy heels. Simply stunning: For the event - which seeks to recognize those helping in the fight against climate change - the Gone Girl actress stepped out in a ruched and layered mesh dress Balancing act: The black gown, which finished just above the actress' ankles, was slightly sheer but rather conservative and featured giant red roses on it Perfect pose: The 24-year-old made sure to show off her look from all angles on the green carpet The star's hair was pulled pack in a relaxed updo with strands of her brown locks falling around her face in curls. Also making an impact on the red carpet was comedian Heather McDonald, who wore a far more revealing look. The 45-year-old showed off her slender shape in a very tight nude mini dress with black embroidery across it. Legs eleven: Also making an impact was comedian Heather McDonald, who wore a far more revealing look Can't miss her: Standing out thanks to a cacophony of colours and patterns, was Paula Abdul, who wore a striking purple mermaid fit skirt but paired it with an unusual pattern shirt that demanded attention And cheese: Emily and the 53-year-old former American Idol host posed up inside the party Standing out thanks to a cacophony of colours and patterns, was Paula Abdul, who wore a striking purple mermaid fit skirt but paired it with an unusual pattern shirt that demanded attention - but not for all the right reasons. Going for a more understated look was Maggie Grace who wore a navy dress with white edging and a sheer ruffle. Dedicated to support the evening, Maggie came along despite it being a tough night for her. Feeling blue? Going for a more understated look was Maggie Grace who wore a navy dress with white edging and a sheer ruffle Ex files: Last year at the same event, Maggie and her then-love Matthew Cooke revealed they were engaged - they have since split It was this event a year ago that she and director Matthew Cooke revealed they were engaged, however, it was revealed earlier this month that the pair had called it quits. Despite the relationship breakdown, Maggie smiled away on the red carpet. However, where one love story ends another blooms, with Two and Half Men's Melanie Lynskey and Jason Ritter stepping out on the carpet together looked very loved up. Going strong: Love was blossoming between wo and Half Men's Melanie Lynskey and Jason Ritter Inseparable: The pair have been dating quietly since last year and kept a hold of each other both down the carpet and inside the event Love experts: Ed O'Neill brought his wife of 30 years, Catherine Rusoff, along as his date The pair have been dating quietly since last year and kept a hold of each other both down the carpet and inside the event. While many celebrities were just there to support the night and have a good time, Stevie Wonder was pulling double duty as guest and musical act. The iconic singer brought two of his nine children along, sons Kailand and Mandla, to watch him perform alongside Charlie Puth. Ready to rock: Musician Courtney Love caught up with director Nicholas Jarecki inside Mr. C His boys: Stevie Wonder brought two of his nine children along, sons Kailand and Mandla Different approaches: Sports Illustrated star Robyn Lawley dressed in the night's colour while Mia Maestro whore what appeared to be an organic cotton dress The night also recognized the World Banks Connect4Climate initiative, as well as the UN Foundation and Global Green Champions. Global Green USA seeks to help people, places and the planet through initiatives to fight back against climate change and also to help rebuild communities affected by it, as well as impacted by sea level rises and environmental degradation. Its programs include creating green adorable housing, schools and neighbourhoods. Advertisement Moschino is a fashion brand synonymous with 'experimental,' 'bold' and often 'wacky'. So Charli XCX was right at home in a green quilted shell suit on Thursday afternoon, as she turned out for the AW16 presentation at Milan Fashion Week, in the company of the fashion crowd. The 23-year-old was more covered up than usual with her bomber zipped right up and her silhouette just outlined by a pair of figure-hugging trousers posing as jeans. Scroll down for video Bold: Charli XCX picked out a bold green shell suit for the Moschino AW16 presentation at Milan Fashion Week on Thursday She was keeping things casual with lace up, flat boots on her feet, while also slicking her hair back into a straight and sleek appearance behind her nape. Sharing one of the plush, front row sofas with Giampaolo Sgura and Chiara Ferragni, the brunette looked ready to see what the designer brand had in store for the forthcoming fall season. The theme this year was 'It's Lit,' with just one of the capsule collection pieces - an update on their iconic teddy bear and Barbie phone cases - resembling a pack of cigarettes and brandishing the slogan 'Fashion Kills'. Sandwiched in: Giampaolo Sgura, Charli and Chiara Ferragni shared one of the plush front row sofas at the event Keeping comfy: She added flat, lace-up boots to the look and slicked back her hair for her fashionable look Taking her seat: Charli had made a special journey from London to be in Italy for the latest show in Fashion Week British musician Charli had hot-footed over from London in swift style, especially to be among the elite guests at the presentation at Italy's bi-annual fashion previews. The previous evening, the star had been on the red carpet for the BRIT Awards 2016, where she'd been impeccably turned out in a floaty princess dress that corseted in at the waist in a glamorous fashion. Charli later changed into a party-ready ensemble to make an appearance at Warner Music's star-studded afterparty, which was held at London's Free Masons Hall. Suitably bold: The show, presented on plush rugs and with chandeliers in place, was suitably decadent and over the top Fancy: The theme this year was 'It's Lit,' with just one of the capsule collection pieces - an update on their iconic teddy bear and Barbie phone cases - resembling a pack of cigarettes and brandishing the slogan 'Fashion Kills' All the memorable themes: One of the models wore statement leather, while another showed some skin in a slashed pattern Fashion fabulous: Models walked through broken mirrors and passed by broken picture frames This week, the star also showed her face at Tuesday night's ELLE Style Awards, taking the red carpet in a vintage-inspired green satin dress that was not to everyone's style tastes. She's been busy promoting her new single Vroom Vroom - set for release as an EP this coming Friday - on which she worked with enigmatic producer SOPHIE. The single shares the name of her new pop label; something that she gushed about in a statement to Fader this week, saying: 'Vroom Vroom Recordings is my new, experimental pop label, and it will combine my love for bubblegum pop with mystery and darkness. 'The artists coming up through it will be sharp, potent, and deadly ... I've worked with SOPHIE on the new EP and what we create together speaks for itself. I'm making beautiful party songs right now and this is just the start. The album goes to other places and I can't wait for people to hear it.' Busy bee: Only the previous evening, Charli had been wowing on the red carpet at the BRIT Awards 2016 Changing it up: She then moved onto the afterparties late into the night, hitting the Warner Music Group After Party before turning in Also this week: Charli also put in an appearance at Tuesday night's ELLE Style Awards at the Tate He's earned a legion of female fans thanks to his dashing appearances in the likes of War And Peace and Grantchester. But James Norton's family are ensuring all the attention doesn't go to his head, keeping the handsome star in check as his profile continues to soar. The 30-year-old actor revealed that during a recent gathering for his grandfather's 90th birthday, his great-aunt brought him back down to earth with a bump by telling him he's only good looking on TV. Scroll down for video Harsh words: TV hunk James Norton, pictured at the BRIT Awards on Wednesday night, has confessed his great-aunt recently told him he doesn't look as good in real life Rumoured romance: James was reportedly seen looking cosy with his War And Peace co-star Jessie Buckley at the BRIT Awards this week James joked to the Gloucestershire Echo: 'She goes, "I don't get it. You're much better looking on film than you are in real life". I'm just lucky the camera's kind.' The Cambridge University graduate remains modest about his newfound success, saying he finds his sex symbol status 'weird but flattering'. And James' good looks are alleged to have caught the eye of one lucky lady in particular; his War And Peace co-star Jessie Buckley. Modest: The 30-year-old actor, pictured in ITV drama Grantchester, isn't letting his newfound fame go to his head Charming: James' star turn in War And Peace opposite Lily James earned him a new legion of fans, although he admits he finds his sex symbol status 'weird' The pair - who played siblings Princess Marya and Prince Andrei Bolkonsky on the popular BBC One adaptation of Tolstoy's classic novel - reportedly hit it off during filming and attended the BRIT Awards together on Wednesday night. According to the Mirror, the pair looked very much like an item at the Warner Music after-party, despite Jessie saying they were 'just good friends'. A source told the paper: 'They spent the whole night together and were chatting and laughing loads. At one point Jessie planted a kiss on James.' Just last week, the actor said he was single, telling The Telegraph: 'My love life right now is infinitely less interesting than that of any of my characters'. MailOnline has contacted James' representative for comment. James is best known for his role as crime-solving vicar Sidney in Grantchester and for playing psychopath Tommy in Happy Valley, as well as his charming turn in the epic Russian tale. US Navy to sail more in contested parts of South China Sea The US Navy plans to increase "freedom of navigation" operations in the South China Sea as Beijing continues its military buildup in the contested waterway, a US admiral said Wednesday. The sailings involve a US warship coming within 12 nautical miles of islets claimed by China as a way of rebutting Beijing's assertions of sovereignty. Since October, the Navy has carried out two such freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, saying the missions are an important way of upholding international law. This US Navy photo obtained February 1, 2016 shows the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur as it conducts a live fire gunnery exercise on January 15, 2016 in the South China Sea Lt.j.g Jonathan Peterson (US Navy/AFP/File) "We'll be doing them more and we'll be doing them with greater complexity in the future," Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, told lawmakers in Washington. "We'll fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows." China's claims to almost all of the South China Sea are widely disputed and the body of water has long been viewed as a potential flashpoint. China is using dredgers to turn reefs and low-lying features into larger land masses for runways and other military uses to bolster its claims of sovereignty in the region. Satellite imagery released by a Washington think tank this week shows China is installing radar facilities on its artificial islands. China has also deployed surface-to-air missiles and lengthened a runway to accommodate fighter jets on one such islet, Woody Island. "China's intent to militarize the South China Sea is as certain as a traffic jam in DC," Harris told the House Armed Services Committee in reference to congestion on the streets of Washington. Miami police charge two teens in murder of boy, 6 The authorities in Miami charged two teens on Wednesday in connection to the murder of a six-year-old boy who was shot while playing outside the apartment complex where he lived. Earlier on Wednesday, police arrested Irwen Pressley, 17, and Leonard Adams, 18, in the shooting of King Carter on Saturday, Miami-Dade police Major Calvin James told a news conference. Carter was caught in the middle of a shootout after Pressley and Adams opened fire on a rival in the apartment complex in which the boy lived, officials said. Authorities in Miami charged two teens in connection to the murder of a six-year-old boy who was shot while playing outside the apartment complex where he lived Joe Raedle (Getty/Getty Images/AFP/File) "Right now, it appears it was some sort of beef with rival factions," James said. "This was all about a beef." The teens are facing charges of attempted first degree murder and second degree murder. Carter -- whose family says he wanted to become a police officer -- was playing with other children when he was shot. His killing shocked Miami residents, who have staged demonstrations against violence and candlelight vigils. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez offered a $20,000 reward for information about the shooters. "We still need more information," he said during the news conference. "There may be additional subjects out there that we need to bring to justice." Police are looking for a vehicle with possible bullet holes in connection to the case. At least 67 people age 18 or younger have been fatally shot in Miami-Dade County since 2013, according to a count by local television station WPLG. US, China agree on UN North Korea resolution The United States and China have agreed on a UN resolution on North Korea's nuclear "provocations," the White House announced Wednesday, with diplomats saying it would include fresh sanctions and could go to a Security Council vote soon. Diplomats at UN headquarters in New York said Washington and Beijing, Pyongyang's main backer, had agreed on a draft resolution that contained "very tough measures." The United States circulated the draft text to the other three permanent council members -- Britain, France and Russia -- on Wednesday and was set to formally present it to the full 15-member council soon, said the diplomats, who asked not to be named. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department in Washington, DC Saul Loeb (AFP) Negotiations on the draft resolution began six weeks ago after North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test on January 6, claiming it had successfully developed a thermonuclear device. During a meeting at the White House Wednesday, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed "on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through a UN Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions," said a statement from National Security Council spokesman Ned Price. "They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," added the statement. Underscoring the importance that the US placed on the negotiations, the statement said that President Barack Obama dropped in on the meeting. - 'Significantly substantive text' - The announcement came despite substantial and very public disagreement between the US and China on the best way to handle North Korea. China wants its reclusive neighbor to halt its nuclear weapons program and return to six-party international talks, but it has insisted that dialogue is the only way to curb Pyongyang's behavior. The biggest obstacle to talks, it argues, is Washington's stubborn insistence that it will not sit down with North Korea until the country takes steps towards denuclearization. Washington, on the other hand, insists that China, which is one of Pyongyang's biggest trading partners, should pressure the intransigent country into behaving better. Beijing, however, fears that too much pressure could trigger the collapse of the pariah regime, creating a political and humanitarian crisis on its border and removing a buffer against US troops currently stationed in South Korea. "There were a significant number of blockage points" between the United States and China, a Security Council diplomat said, adding that now "there is agreement." "There is good progress on the resolution and we are hopeful that there will be an adoption in the coming days," the diplomat said. One diplomat described the draft resolution as a "significantly substantive text", while another said it contained "a large number of very tough measures," as well as names to be added to the sanctions black list. However, it stopped short of the strongest measures proposed by the United States, which had met with strong resistance from China. - Xi to attend nuclear summit - The council has imposed four sets of sanctions on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006. After North Korea carried out a rocket launch on February 6, the Security Council renewed its pledge to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang. There are 20 North Korean entities and 12 individuals on the UN sanctions blacklist, which provides for an assets freeze and a global travel ban. But a UN panel of experts said this month that sanctions had failed to prevent Pyongyang from scaling up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. After a decade of sanctions, the panel said, it found "no indications that the country intends to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs." "There are serious questions about the efficacy of the current United Nations sanctions regime," the experts said in a confidential report. The White House statement added that Obama joined the meeting between Rice and Yi "to underscore his interest in building a durable, constructive, and productive US-China relationship." The US leader also said he looked forward to welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping to a March 31-April 1 nuclear security summit in Washington and "working together towards its success," the statement said. Kim Jong-Un's nuclear ambitions John Saeki/Adrian Leung (AFP) US Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi leave following a press conference at the State Department in Washington, DC Saul Loeb (AFP) Picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) attending a concert in Pyongyang KNS (KCNA via KNS/AFP/File) Japan's Sharp accepts Taiwanese offer in rare foreign takeover Money-losing Sharp on Thursday accepted a multi-billion-dollar bailout from the parent of Taiwan's Foxconn, ending speculation over its uncertain future with the first foreign takeover of a major Japanese electronics firm. Sharp -- which has teetered on the edge of bankruptcy for years -- had been mulling rival offers from Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision, better known as Foxconn, and the public-private Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ). On Thursday, its board unanimously chose the rescue package from colourful billionaire Terry Gou, whose firm is the world's biggest electronics supplier, counting iPhone maker Apple among its top clients. Embattled Japanese electronics giant Sharp has accepted a multi-billion-dollar bailout from the parent company of Taiwan's Foxconn Toshifumi Kitamura (AFP) But after the announcement, Foxconn said it would postpone signing the deal because it had to review a new "key document" it had received from Sharp. "We notified Sharp... that our side needs to clarify the content and postpone signing a deal," it said in a statement to AFP. "We look forward to clarifying it soon so the deal can come to a satisfying ending." Foxconn did not elaborate, and a Sharp spokeswoman could not offer further details. Gou, 65, has been courting Sharp for years, but Japan's government was reportedly concerned about Sharp's key technologies falling into the hands of a foreign firm. Despite its bleeding balance sheet, Sharp is still a leader in liquid crystal display (LCD) technology and the firm remains one of Japan's best-known corporate brands overseas. Foxconn's chief held meetings with Sharp this month at its headquarters in Osaka, declaring a deal was all but done. But Sharp's chief refused to show his hand, insisting both offers were being considered seriously. Under the deal Hon Hai will take a 65.9 percent stake in Sharp worth 489 billion yen ($4.34 billion). Media reported the value of the deal could reach 700 billion yen if it includes Sharp's debt. Sharp's volatile stock dived nearly 15 percent to 149 yen in Tokyo on fears the deal would dilute the value of current investors' shares, although analysts cheered the tie-up. "Hon Hai and Sharp complement each other," said Yukihiko Nakata, a technology professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University and a former Sharp engineer. "Sharp is strong in research and development, while Hon Hai knows how to market products to customers such as Apple and it also has expertise in production... Together they can go global." - Fall from grace - The pair have worked together for years on large-sized screen technology, including for televisions, and jointly operate an LCD panel plant in Japan. "This is a win-win for Hon Hai and Sharp with respect to the Apple business," Taiwan's Fubon Securities said in recent analysis. Media reports suggested the Taiwanese firm's offer would keep Sharp intact, while it would be broken up under the rival Japanese bid. "The only advantage (of the Japanese offer) was economies of scale, but that alone is not enough to compete in the global market," Nakata said. While the deal may keep Sharp in business, it is a blow to Japan's once mighty electronics sector. Along with rivals Sony and Panasonic, Japan's electronics giants were hammered by steep losses in their television units owing to stiff competition from lower-cost rivals, particularly in South Korea and Taiwan. They were also outmanoeuvred in the mobile phone business, and critics have seen Sharp as a prime example of a so-called zombie company that should be allowed to die. Japan Inc. is littered with money-losing firms kept alive through bailouts and other assistance, partly to avoid massive job losses. Century-old Sharp, which also supplies smartphone and tablet screens to Apple but started life making belt buckles and pencils, was among Japan's leading firms with an internationally recognised brand. The company's name once graced the jerseys of Manchester United players, but it has long since withdrawn from sponsoring the English Premier League football club. Sharp piled up eye-watering losses after the 2008 global financial crisis and has struggled through a restructuring plan that has yet to pull it out of the red. Saddled with huge debts, the firm this month posted a whopping nine-month net loss of more than $900 million, hit by restructuring costs and a slump in demand for its smartphone screens. Sharp's chief Kozo Takahashi refused to be drawn on which offer he favoured, but said his company was putting "more manpower" into evaluating the Taiwanese offer Patrick Lin (AFP) Hong Kong in spat with last governor over academic freedoms Hong Kong has hit back at former colonial governor Chris Patten after he said academic freedoms in the city were under threat, as tensions with London rise over Beijing's growing influence. In an article published earlier this week, Britain's Patten said "the autonomy of universities and free speech itself" were at risk in Hong Kong due to interference from the Chinese authorities. "The rationale seems to be that, because students strongly supported the pro-democracy protests in 2014, the universities where they study should be brought to heel," said Patten in an article for global opinion site Project Syndicate, referring to huge street rallies that brought parts of the city to a standstill for more than two months. Former British governor Chris Patten, holding a yellow umbrella -- a symbol of the Occupy movement in Hong Kong -- said academic freedoms in the city were under threat Str (AFP) "The city's government blunders away, stirring up trouble, clearly on the orders of the government in Beijing," he added. Patten's comments come after a liberal scholar was rejected for a senior post at Hong Kong University, prompting protests from staff and students, and a pro-Beijing stalwart was appointed its council chairman. He also said that universities should "control their own academic governance" -- Hong Kong's unpopular leader Leung Chun-ying is chancellor of all the universities in the city, a long-standing tradition. Hong Kong's education bureau issued a statement late Wednesday chastising Patten for "acting in complete ignorance of the facts". It said he could have revised legislation over who should head universities during his five-year tenure as the city's last governor, before the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997. "The current practice of the chief executive being the chancellor of the government-funded universities precisely stems from the then Governor Patten's decision," the statement said. It defended Hong Kong's academic freedoms, calling them "an important social value" safeguarded by law. The bureau also rebuked Patten for saying local government was acting on Beijing's orders. "Such a claim is totally groundless and a sheer fabrication," it said. Tensions in the city have heightened since the disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers known for publishing titles critical of Beijing. Four are now under official criminal investigation in China and the fifth, Lee Bo, a British passport holder, says he is "assisting" authorities there. Lee's case sparked the most outrage as he is the only bookseller to have disappeared from Hong Kong. The others were last seen in Thailand and southern mainland China. Patten attacked Beijing for "abducting a British citizen on the city's streets". The booksellers case has sparked international concern, with Britain saying earlier this month that Lee Bo's disappearance was a "serious breach" of the agreement signed with Beijing before the handover, which protects Hong Kong's way of life for 50 years. Young protesters are increasingly frustrated that they are not being heard by authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing. Street battles with police earlier this month left more than 100 injured, sparked by an attempted crackdown on hawkers in the commercial district of Mong Kok. Philippines' Aquino tells voters to end surge of dictator's son Philippine President Benigno Aquino urged voters Thursday to stamp out the stunning political resurgence of Ferdinand Marcos' family, as the nation marked 30 years since a "People Power" uprising toppled the late dictator. The election campaign is the latest chapter in an almost Shakespearean tale of feuding between the Aquino and Marcos families, two of the most powerful clans in a nation famed for elite dynasty rule. Human rights groups say tens of thousands were thrown in prison and tortured during the elder Marcos' 20-year rule, and the government estimates the family plundered $10 billion from state coffers. Philippine President Benigno Aquino (R) along with former president Fidel Ramos (L) re-enact the "jump" simulating the premature announcement of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos fleeing, during 30th anniversary celebrations of the "people power" Ted Aljibe (AFP) But pollsters say a young electorate is likely to help the charismatic and unrepentant Ferdinand Marcos Jnr become vice president in May elections. "Mr. Marcos' rule was not the golden age. It was a very painful chapter of our history," Aquino told about 3,000 students and government workers at a ceremony marking the 1986 uprising. Aquino's late father and namesake was shot dead by pro-Marcos soldiers and police at Manila airport in 1983 as he tried to return from US exile to lead opposition to the dictator. Public outrage over the murder ignited the revolution, which was led by the assassinated democracy hero's wife, Corazon Aquino. It forced the Marcos family into US exile as the soft-spoken and still revered Corazon came to power. The Marcos patriarch died in Hawaii three years later. But the Marcos family was allowed to return in the early 1990s and its controversial matriarch, Imelda, set in train a remarkable political comeback for herself and her children. The clan held mostly local positions in its home provinces until Marcos Jnr won a seat in the Senate in 2010, gaining a platform for a tilt at the country's second most powerful position. - 'A period of darkness' - "Martial law really happened. There was a dictator who, with his family and cronies, monopolised power in exchange for the very lives and freedom of Filipinos," Aquino said on Thursday. "If he (Marcos son) does not even realise what wrongs were committed by his family, what is our assurance that he will not repeat them?" Addressing the electorate, where nearly half are aged 35 or younger, according to official data, Aquino said: "Let us work together to ensure the Philippines will no longer go through a period of darkness." Hundreds of Marcos regime torture victims vowed on Monday to hound the son's electoral effort. Their spokesman said they hoped to stop the attempt to "rewrite history and bring back his father's abusive leadership framework". Marcos Jnr has repeatedly said his family has nothing to apologise for, portraying his father's rule as a time of economic prosperity. He has also gained popularity for helping to derail Aquino's efforts to strike peace with Muslim rebels. Marcos campaign manager Jonathan de la Cruz criticised the campaign against him, urging foes to instead solve problems faced by the electorate including poverty, lack of jobs, crime, and bad rail service. "Instead of focusing on the problems now before us and which, if left unresolved, will hound and hobble our future generations, they have chosen to demonise Senator Marcos," Cruz said in a statement. Aquino, who remains reasonably popular, is barred by the constitution from standing for a second six-year term. Vice presidents are elected separately in the Philippines. Aquino's choices for president and vice president, both lagging in the polls, are widely held as lacklustre politicians. The race to succeed Aquino has Vice President Jejomar Binay holding a slim lead over rookie Senator Grace Poe and Rodrigo Duterte, a tough anti-crime regional politician. Philippine air force helicopters drop confetti on the crowd next to people power monument (R) during the 30th anniversary celebration of the "people power" revolt that topped late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Ted Aljibe (AFP) Pissarro painting looted by Nazis to return to France A painting by Camille Pissarro will return to a Jewish family in France whose art collection was looted by the Nazis in 1941, a lawyer who led the negotiations said. The University of Oklahoma will give back "La bergere rentrant des moutons" -- or "Shepherdess bringing in sheep" -- to Holocaust survivor Leone Meyer, her New York lawyer Pierre Ciric told AFP about the restitution agreement signed Monday. Meyer is the adoptive daughter of late businessman Raoul Meyer, who was co-owner of the French retail company that owns the upscale department store chain Galeries Lafayette. A visitor looks at a painting by Camille Pissaro at an exhibition in the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum in Madrid Dominique Faget (AFP/File) He deposited his art collection in a vault at the bank Credit Commercial de France in 1940 before the Nazis seized it during their occupation of France. Pissarro completed "Shepherdess bringing in sheep" in 1886. The oil-on-canvas painting -- valued in its last appraisal at $1.5 million -- was later acquired by a Swiss merchant and a New York gallery before it was bought by collectors Aaron and Clara Weitzenhoffer. They bequeathed it to the University of Oklahoma in 2000. Under the settlement's terms, the painting will be displayed for five years in France before it will move on a rotating basis between the University of Oklahoma's Fred Jones Museum and a French museum. The deal also requires Meyer to donate the painting to a French art institution during her lifetime or in her will. "The priority was for public display," Ciric said about the negotiations, which began after Meyer filed suit in May 2013. Syrian army retakes key town on road to Aleppo from IS The Syrian army retook a strategic town from the Islamic State group on Thursday, paving the way for the reopening of its sole supply route to main northern city Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops still needed to clear the jihadists from hills overlooking the key highway before it could be fully secured. The road through the town of Khanasser is the sole link between government-held areas in and around Aleppo and those in the rest of the country. Syrian government forces patrol near Aleppo's thermal power plant on February 21, 2016 George Ourfalian (AFP/File) State news agency SANA hailed its recapture just two days after its fall to the jihadists. The army's counteroffensive was backed by Russian air strikes which killed 20 IS fighters, said the Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group. It is not the first time that the government's supply route to Aleppo has been cut. Rebels severed it in 2013 and IS also did so last year before being pushed back. The new fighting for the road comes with the army on the offensive north and west of Aleppo, where rebel forces in the east of the city are almost completely surrounded. That offensive is supposed to come to an end when a Russian and US-brokered ceasefire goes into effect at 2200 GMT on Friday. But the war against IS will go on as the group is specifically excluded from the planned truce, as is Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Turkey has pushed for the exclusion too of the main Syrian Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Units (YPG), which has also seized territory from rebels northwest of Aleppo in recent weeks. Turkish artillery shelled YPG-held territory in Aleppo province throughout Wednesday night, the Observatory said, without immediately reporting any casualties. The renewed bombardment came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday again lashed out at Western policy towards the YPG, charging that the militia were a "terror group" just like IS and Al-Qaeda. Marcos sits through mass for victims of husband's regime Imelda Marcos sat through a memorial mass for victims of her late husband's regime, after the former Philippines first lady arrived at the wrong church service, witnesses said Thursday. The wheelchair-bound widow, 86, listened Wednesday as a torture victim shared harrowing memories and a Catholic priest delivered a homily on the lessons of Ferdinand Marcos's martial-law rule. Ric Malasa, an aide to Marcos, who remains a member of the House of Representatives, told AFP a member of her staff had whispered to her they had turned up at the wrong service at Manila's popular Redemptorist Church. Former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos pictured next to a bust of her late husband, ex-president Ferdinand Marcos Ted Aljibe (AFP/File) But he added Marcos replied: "It's fine. We're all praying to the same God." Human rights groups say tens of thousands of people were jailed and tortured during Ferdinand Marcos's 20-year military-backed rule, which ended in a bloodless popular revolt that chased the family into US exile 30 years ago Thursday. The current authorities now estimate the family plundered $10 billion from state coffers, which allowed the flamboyant first lady to live a jetset lifestyle in which she amassed hundreds of pairs of shoes as well as jewellery and pieces of art. But mass-goers, many of them campaigners for the rights of people who suffered imprisonment and torture during the Marcos regime, showed no sign of disrespect to the widow at the service, according to Carlito Latorre, a lay missionary. "One of the victims, a man, shared how he lost his sense of hearing from the torture," Latorre told AFP. "The priest said martial law must not be repeated and its lessons must not be forgotten," Latorre said, adding Marcos left abruptly after the homily. "We're hoping she listened to the sermon and that she would not disregard it," he added. Ferdinand Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989, but his heirs returned to the Philippines in the early 1990s to set in train a stunning political comeback. Chinese lawyer behind "illegal religious gatherings": report A Chinese human rights lawyer was accused by state media of being the "mastermind" behind a series of "illegal religious gatherings" Thursday, in the latest in a deepening crackdown on lawyers and activists. Zhang Kai, who represented churches fighting back against the Communist party's campaign to take down crosses, was seized by security officials last August. He disappeared from the city of Wenzhou, dubbed "China's Jerusalem" for its large Christian population, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, and his whereabouts remained unconfirmed for months. Chinese human rights lawyer Zhang Kai has been accused of being the mastermind behind a series of "illegal religious gatherings" Greg Baker (AFP/File) Citing information from the city's public security bureau, state-run website Wenzhou Online said that Zhang had been identified as the "mastermind" behind a series of "illegal religious gatherings". It further accused him of "accepting foreign trainings", "encouraging people to confront the government", and cheating people out of money, among other claims. Under President Xi Jinping, China's ruling Communist party under has reasserted controls over civil society, detaining more than 130 human rights lawyers and legal staff in the past year. Last week, UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called on China to release about 250 detained human rights lawyers, legal assistants, and activists "immediately and without conditions". The website, which referred to Zhang as a "criminal suspect," also quoted his alleged confession. "I violated national law, disrupted social order, endangered national security, and violated the professional code of conduct for lawyers," it cited Zhang as saying. "I also warn those so-called human rights lawyers to take me as a warning and not collude with foreigners, take money from foreign organisations, or be engaged in activities that break the law or harm national security and interests," he continued, according to the report. China invited international censure after it detained and expelled a Swedish human rights activist Peter Dahlin who had aided Chinese lawyers, after parading him on state television confessing to breaking the law. While forced public confessions are an old practice in Communist China, there has been a resurgence of such incidents since Xi took power in 2012. Issoufou far ahead in Niger presidential election count Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou on Thursday had a commanding lead in his quest for a second term in the uranium-rich African nation after elections the opposition has denounced as rigged. With 4.9 million votes from Sunday's election counted -- representing two-thirds of the 7.5-million strong electorate -- the 63-year-old incumbent had nearly 50 percent, well ahead of his closest rival, detained former parliamentary speaker Hama Amadou. Amadou, who is behind bars on baby trafficking charges he says were concocted, had garnered only just over 16 percent, while former prime minister Seini Oumarou had about 11 percent, the electoral commission said. Niger's Independant electoral Commission (CENI) members check the results of the presidential election on February 25, 2016 at the palais des congres in Niamey Issouf Sanogo (AFP) Issoufou's aides told AFP they were confident the man nicknamed the "Lion" would make good on his promise to deliver a "knockout blow" to his opponents in the first round. The final score could be announced later Thursday, electoral officials said. Turnout in the areas that have announced results so far was over 67 percent. Issoufou needs 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off. The opposition had on Tuesday already declared it would not recognise the result, saying the election was rigged in Issoufou's favour. "Clearly, everything has been organised for a first-round win (by Issoufou). The official results have yet to be announced but it's so obvious," Amadou Boubacar Cisse, one of his challengers, told AFP on Thursday. A total of 15 candidates ran for president of the vast impoverished country on the edge of the Sahara Desert, which has been rocked over the past year by attacks by Boko Haram jihadists operating out of neighbouring Nigeria. Voters also cast ballots for members of parliament. Guzman could plead guilty in US: lawyer Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman would be willing to plead guilty in a US court in exchange for a "relatively reasonable" prison sentence, his lawyer said Thursday. Two US courts have formally requested Guzman's extradition since he was recaptured on January 8, with charges of drug trafficking in California and murder in Texas. His lawyer, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, told Radio Formula that if he is extradited, Guzman could plead guilty and "negotiate a sentence that is not long, something relatively reasonable" in a "medium-security prison." Drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted into a helicopter at Mexico City's airport on January 8, 2016 following his recapture during an intense military operation in Los Mochis, in Sinaloa State Alfredo Estrella (AFP/File) The leader of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel is back in the prison that he escaped from in July, when he fled through a 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) tunnel, humiliating President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration. Pena Nieto had refused to extradite Guzman before his escape, but last month he vowed to ship the fallen drug lord to the United States "as soon as possible." Chadian UN peacekeeper kills own commander, doctor in Mali A soldier in the Chadian contingent of the UN's peacekeeping force in northern Mali killed his own commander and an army doctor on Thursday following weeks of tensions over living conditions, UN sources told AFP. The soldier had started an "insurrection" against the contingent's top brass the previous evening before shooting the two men dead, said a source within the UN force, known by the acronym MINUSMA. "Dozens of Chadian peacekeepers have been unhappy with their working conditions in northern Mali," the MINUSMA source said. A UN peacekeeper of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) is seen on the Independance square on April 8, 2015 in Timbuktu, northern Mali Sebastien Rieussec (AFP/File) "The peacekeeper decided he wasn't going to stand for how his superior spoke to him after being accused of some pretty serious things," the source added. The man was arrested, along with a dozen other Chadian soldiers accused of "disobedience", at the contingent's base north of the city of Kidal. The 2,000 Chadian soldiers of the African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA) -- MINUSMA's predecessor -- were at the forefront of a French-led military intervention launched in January 2013 to oust Islamist rebels who had taken over vast stretches of the north in the chaos following a coup. Dozens of Chadian troops deserted their posts in a dispute over pay and conditions in recent years, complaining that they hadn't received a salary for months. "Everyone knows that the Chadian soldiers are always complaining about their living conditions. But that's not a reason to shoot your boss," a local politician told AFP without wanting to be named. China to secure 'de facto' control of S. China Sea: US admiral China is on its way to securing "de facto" control of the South China Sea, a top US admiral warned Thursday, amid growing unease over Beijing's continued military build up in the contested waterway. By building air bases and hardened bunkers on tiny islands, some of which are reclaimed from the sea, and by installing sophisticated radar and missile defense systems, China has shown it is determined to achieve military primacy in the region, Admiral Harry Harris said. Beijing's claims to almost all of the South China Sea are widely disputed and the body of water has long been viewed as a potential flashpoint. Part of the city of Sansha on the island of Yongxing, also known as Woody island in the disputed Paracel chain, is shown July 27, 2012 "If China continues to arm all of the bases they have reclaimed in the South China Sea, they will change the operational landscape in the region," Harris told Pentagon reporters. "Short of war with the United States, China will exercise de facto control of the South China Sea." Harris, who heads up the US Pacific Command, visited the Pentagon after several hearings in Washington at which he warned lawmakers about the pace of China's maritime militarization. "Harris is raising alarm about what could happen if there's not sufficient push back, that's what he's trying to provoke here, a more robust response from the region and outside the region," said Bonnie Glaser, a senior Asia advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The US cannot do this alone." China is using dredgers to turn reefs and low-lying features into larger land masses for runways and other military uses to bolster its claims of sovereignty in the region. Satellite imagery released this week shows Beijing is installing radar gear, and China has also deployed surface-to-air missiles and lengthened a runway to accommodate fighter jets on one islet, Woody Island, in the Paracels. Beijing appears to be preparing what is known as an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the entire South China Sea, through which it can militarily query any vessel or aircraft. "I am concerned about the possibility that China might declare an ADIZ," Harris said. "I'm concerned about it from the sense that I would find that to be destabilizing and provocative." Still, he noted, the United States would ignore any such designation. - Freedom of navigation - General Joe Dunford, who is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and America's top officer, earlier on Thursday told lawmakers that he worried China wants to hamper the United States as it operates in the region. "It's very clear to me that those capabilities that are being developed are intended to limit our ability to move into the Pacific or to operate freely within the Pacific, and we call that anti-access, aerial-denial capabilities," Dunford told the US House Appropriations Committee. The United States has repeatedly said it rejects China's claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea, and since October has carried out two high-profile "freedom of navigation" operations in which it sailed two warships within 12 nautical miles of islets claimed by China. "We need to, and we must, continue to exercise our rights of freedom of navigation in international waters and airspace," Harris said, adding that "like-minded" nations should do the same. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said China's military presence in the South China Sea was increasing the risk of "miscalculation or conflict" between regional countries. "Chinese behavior is having the effect of self-isolation, and it's also galvanizing others to take action against it," he told the House Appropriations Committee. Carter said other nations in the region are responding by stepping up their own maritime defense activities and aligning themselves with the United States. "Old allies, like Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines, and then new partners, like Vietnam and India, that are working with us increasingly," he said. The South China Sea is a vital waterway through which trillions of dollars of cargo flow each year, much of it destined for the United States. US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter testifies before the House Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, February 25, 2016 Jim Watson (AFP) Woman recants; prosecutor to drop charges in park rape case NEW YORK (AP) A district attorney said Wednesday a young woman who accused five teenage boys of chasing away her father and gang-raping her in a playground has recanted her story and he's dropping criminal charges against them. The collapse of the case was no surprise after a series of revelations that challenged the woman's initial story that she'd been attacked by a group of boys who drove off her father with a gun to get her alone. Cellphone video snippets had emerged, showing the woman smiling, with her clothes partially removed, during the Jan. 7 encounter. More disturbingly, the boys told police that when they encountered the woman she was having sex with her father in the Brooklyn park. FILE- In this Jan. 11, 2016 file a sign with the playground name is affixed to the fence at the Osborn playground in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, N.Y. Prosecutors say theyll ask a judge to dismiss charges against five teenage boys after a young woman who said they gang-raped her at the playground in January recanted the accusation. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File) "That night, this young woman's father and the five young men engaged in conduct that was reprehensible and wrong," Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson said, "but because of the lack of reliable evidence, criminal charges simply cannot be sustained." The boys had been charged with rape, criminal sex act, sexual abuse and other charges. They have said the encounter was consensual and maintained their innocence. Prosecutors will ask a judge next week to formally dismiss the charges against Travis Beckford, Onandi Brown, Denzel Murray, Shaquell Cooper and Ethan Phillip, who range in age from 14 to 17, a spokesman for Thompson said. Authorities have no plans to charge the woman, who's 18. The woman initially told police her father was driven off by the boys, then returned and was ordered out of the park a second time by a boy who pulled a gun. The father later flagged down a police car for help, but questions arose immediately about how much time elapsed before he summoned assistance. The father claimed to have gone for help immediately but been turned away from two neighborhood convenience stores, but workers at one shop said the man only asked to use the phone and didn't say anything about an attack. In a statement, Thompson said the woman provided "multiple inconsistent accounts" of the encounter when she was questioned by detectives. He said the woman didn't want to pursue the criminal case against the boys anymore. "The complainant has recanted her allegations of forcible sexual assault and the existence of a gun, and she does not wish to pursue criminal charges against any of the defendants," he said. Lawyers for the boys cited the cellphone video showing the woman smiling, but it remained unclear when during the encounter that video was taken or what happened after the camera was turned off. Murray's attorney, Kenneth Montgomery, said he thinks the decision made by prosecutors illuminates what they were willing to do: investigate the case. "I'm thankful they didn't rush to judgment," he said. "My client and his family are elated." Phillip's attorney, Abdula Greene, said they were happy with the district attorney's decision, especially because the allegations were so shocking that they made national headlines. "Finally, Ethan can go back to normalcy," she said. But she took offense with Thompson's characterization that her client did something wrong. "There wasn't criminal wrongdoing on behalf of Mr. Phillip. ... That's why I have to take pause with the statement," she said. "It says that their conduct was wrong and reprehensible, and then you have a recantation that she was forced and you have a recantation that there was a weapon. It says to me there was no wrongdoing." FILE- In this Jan. 14, 2016 file photo, new floodlight-style lighting illuminates Osborn Playground in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Prosecutors say theyll ask a judge to dismiss charges against five teenage boys after a young woman who said she was gang-raped at the park in January 2016 recanted her accusation. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File) Britain registers agreement with European Union at the UN UNITED NATIONS (AP) Britain on Wednesday registered at the United Nations the agreement that it reached last week to try to keep the United Kingdom in the European Union. British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said that under the U.N. Charter, member states have to register decisions that are at the level of a treaty. "That puts beyond doubt that the deal that the prime minister agreed is legally binding and irreversible in international law," he said. The agreement was key to Britain's announcement of a referendum on June 23 on whether Britain should remain in the EU or leave the 28-nation bloc. Prime Minister David Cameron said the deal with the EU would give Britain more control over its future, lessen welfare payments to migrants, and protect Britain from being absorbed into a feared European "superstate." The referendum is expected to be hard-fought, especially because Cameron's Conservative party is divided, and the "out" campaign has the support of popular London Mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative and possible future prime minister. EU President Donald Tusk, who oversaw the deal that Cameron brokered with the 27 other EU leaders, insisted Wednesday that an "out" vote in the British referendum would "change Europe forever. And it will be a change for the worse." Rycroft said there is an issue about when the agreement with the EU enters into effect, because part of it only applies if Britain votes to remain in the EU. Police: Man brandished gun before US marshal opened fire ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) An Albuquerque man fatally shot outside his family's home by a deputy marshal had followed the federal officer in the dark and brandished a weapon twice before the marshal opened fire, state police said Wednesday. The account from New Mexico State Police investigators comes in contrast to statements from family members of Edgar Camacho-Alvarado who said the 23-year-old was repairing his pickup truck around 3 a.m. Saturday when U.S. marshals entered an Albuquerque trailer park looking for George Bond, a homicide suspect who was on the state's most wanted list. Before locating Bond, they confronted Camacho-Alvarado who state police said in a statement late Wednesday afternoon had started following Deputy U.S. Marshal Paul Hernandez near the trailer park's entrance. Camacho-Alvarado allegedly brandished his weapon before fleeing to his trailer, which is situated several doors down from the park's entrance, authorities said. Grisel Alvarado, left, stands on the front stoop of an Albuquerque, N.M., home Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, where her nephew, Edgar Camacho-Alvarado, was fatally shot Saturday, Feb. 20, as federal marshals sought to execute an arrest warrant for another man. Family members were gathered at the home two days after the shooting that they say happened as Camacho-Alvarado was repairing his pickup truck. (AP Photo/Mary Hudetz). When Hernandez found Camacho-Alvarado at the front steps of his house, he opened fire after Camacho-Alvarado raised his gun and pointed it at the marshal, state police said. Four shots were fired, and Camacho-Alvarado was fatally struck by a bullet that hit him under his right armpit and stopped near his left shoulder blade. "Two Deputy U.S. Marshals secured Mr. Camacho-Alvarado by moving him from the steps, handcuffing him, and rendering first aid," state police said. In a letter sent to the U.S. Attorney's office in Albuquerque, a lawyer for Camacho-Alvarado's mother said witnesses described federal marshals pulling him from the front door of the home as he flailed his arms "unable to respond to law enforcements commands." They also said Camacho-Alvarado was shot in the back. Juan Alvarado said his grandson Camacho-Alvarado's mother rushed out of the home after hearing shots and shouted "don't shoot" before marshals pushed her away and kept her from her son. In the days since the shooting, criticisms claiming a lack of information and transparency in the investigation mounted as Camacho-Alvarado's family said their requests for answers from federal authorities had been stonewalled. Robert Gorence, the attorney retained by Alvarado's family, announced the family intended to file a tort claim this week, saying the primary purpose is to get more information from authorities including why Camacho-Alvarado was shot when authorities were at the trailer park to arrest another man. Bond, the homicide suspect, was arrested hours after the shooting at a nearby trailer. The details released by state police late Wednesday signified the first account from law enforcement on the case other than confirming Monday that Camacho-Alvarado had been shot while marshals sought to execute an arrest warrant for someone else. A handgun was found near Camacho-Alvarado's body, state police said. A search of his room turned up another handgun and ammunition. Camacho-Alvarado was convicted of felony larceny in 2013, according to online court records, and state police said he was wanted on a probation warrant when the shooting happened. UN diplomats: US and China agree on new NKorea sanctions UNITED NATIONS (AP) The United States and China have reached agreement on a U.N. resolution that would impose tougher sanctions on North Korea as punishment for its latest nuclear test and rocket launch, U.N. diplomats said Wednesday. One Security Council diplomat called the draft resolution "significantly substantive" and expressed hope that it will be adopted in the coming days. Another said the draft had been circulated on Wednesday to the three other permanent council members Russia, Britain and France. The Security Council is scheduled to hold closed consultations Thursday afternoon on compliance with the North Korean sanctions resolutions, and the U.S.-China draft could be discussed then with the 10 non-permanent council members. South Korean protesters shout slogans during a rally to oppose the possible deployment of the United States' advanced defense system THAAD, or Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, on Korea Peninsula, in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The United States and China have reached agreement on a U.N. resolution that would impose tougher sanctions on North Korea as punishment for its latest nuclear test and rocket launch, U.N. diplomats said Wednesday. The signs read " Oppose deployment of the THAAD." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) Both diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because all discussions on the proposed resolution have been private. Their comments follow a flurry of activity in Washington, including meetings between China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday, and with National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Wednesday afternoon. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Rice and Wang agreed "on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through a U.N. Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions." "They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," Price said. Earlier on Wednesday, Kerry told a Congressional hearing: "We're on the brink of achieving a strong United Nations Security Council resolution." North Korea started off the new year with what it claims was its first hydrogen bomb test on Jan. 6 and followed that up with the launch of a satellite on a rocket on Feb. 7 that was condemned by much of the world as a test of banned missile technology. Over the past 10 years, North Korea has conducted four nuclear tests and launched six long-range missiles all in violation of Security Council resolutions. South Korea's U.N. Ambassador Oh Joon has urged the Security Council to adopt "extraordinary" measures to make clear to the North "that it will no longer tolerate its nuclear weapons development." The U.S., its Western allies and Japan, also pressed for new sanctions that go beyond the North's nuclear and missile programs. But China, Pyongyang's neighbor and supporter on the council, is reluctant to impose measures that could threaten the stability of North Korea and cause the country's economy to collapse. Wang said Tuesday that a new U.N. resolution alone cannot resolve the North Korean nuclear issue and that dialogue was needed. He said China was urging a "parallel track" in which there were both talks on denuclearization the top priority of the United States and replacing the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a formal peace treaty, a key demand of Pyongyang. While the U.S. and China were discussing a new U.N. resolution, the United States took tougher steps of its own against North Korea, tightening sanctions and announcing it will hold formal talks with South Korea on deploying a missile defense system that China fears could be used against it as well North Korea. Fijians urged to immediately bury those who died in cyclone WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) Fijians in remote places were being urged Thursday to immediately bury loved ones who died in a powerful cyclone rather than waiting for autopsies. Government spokesman Ewan Perrin said that many remote islands and isolated communities still do not have electricity or refrigeration, and so the government is asking people to bury the dead in the interests of public health and safety. The death toll from Cyclone Winston remained at 42 Thursday with at least four others still missing. The cyclone tore through the Pacific Island chain last weekend with winds that reached 177 miles (285 kilometers) per hour, making it the strongest storm in Fiji's recorded history. Two boys are under a bus shelter that is supporting a fallen tree in the village of Talecake, Fiji, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, after cyclone Winston ripped through the island nation. The cyclone tore through Fiji over the weekend with winds that reached 177 miles (285 kilometers) per hour, making it the strongest storm in Fiji's recorded history. (Brett Phibbs/New Zealand Herald via AP) NEW ZEALAND OUT, AUSTRALIA OUT Perrin said authorities have now managed to travel to all the islands affected by the storm but still haven't reached a handful of isolated communities. He said people who do bury their dead are being asked to recall as many details as they can, such as the time of death and the events that preceded it. "It would take several days for pathologists to reach some of these sites and there's no power for refrigeration," he said. He said 45,000 people are now staying in emergency shelters after thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed. In some cases, he said, entire communities might be moved to safer ground when it comes time to rebuild. The government is distributing aid and satellite phones and hopes to soon move into the rebuilding phase of the recovery, he said. Joseph Hing, a Fijian who works for UNICEF, wrote about his experience traveling to hard-hit Koro Island, where at least 10 people have died. "As we sailed closer, we started to smell the dead carcasses of livestock that were floating past the ships," he said. He said uplifted coral created a hazard on the sea's surface and that when they could see the island clearly "It looked like someone took a torch and just burned from one side to the other." A car drives along Kings Road near Lautoka, Fiji, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, where power poles lean over after cyclone Winston ripped through the island nation. The cyclone tore through Fiji over the weekend with winds that reached 177 miles (285 kilometers) per hour, making it the strongest storm in Fiji's recorded history. (Brett Phibbs/New Zealand Herald via AP) NEW ZEALAND OUT, AUSTRALIA OUT Sanjogeeta Kiran, right, with her sister Sulva Kiran, second left, and her children Shivendera, left, and Raajeen, sit amid the debris of their home in RakiRaki, Fiji, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, after cyclone Winston ripped through the island nation. The cyclone tore through Fiji over the weekend with winds that reached 177 miles (285 kilometers) per hour, making it the strongest storm in Fiji's recorded history. (Brett Phibbs/New Zealand Herald via AP) NEW ZEALAND OUT, AUSTRALIA OUT Asian Americans debate support for convicted NYC cop NEW YORK (AP) In a nation accustomed to demonstrations over police shootings of unarmed black men, this was something completely different: more than 10,000 mostly Chinese-Americans rallying in support of the Chinese-American officer who pulled the trigger. The rally this past weekend for Peter Liang, a rookie New York officer convicted of recklessly firing a bullet that killed an innocent man in a dark stairwell, marked an unexpectedly large outpouring of activism from an ethnic group that often has to struggle to be heard above the din in the city. Many said they believe Liang is being made a scapegoat for acts of police brutality largely committed by whites. Demonstrations were also held in Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle. FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2016 file photo, protesters attend a rally in the Brooklyn borough of New York in support of former NYPD police officer Peter Liang, who was convicted of manslaughter for the 2014 shooting death of Akai Gurley, in a housing project stairwell. When Chinese-Americans took to the streets in support of Liang, it was an unexpected outpouring of activism from an often-marginalized political community. Many demonstrations across the country say they were driven to act by a manslaughter verdict they viewed as scapegoating. But the case has also sown discomfort among some members of the community, who say Liang is unworthy of such a stand. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File) Yan Sun, a political science professor from Queens, said she and other demonstrators believe that prosecutors looking to make a point about police accountability felt free to make an example out of Liang because he comes from a community that isn't thought to carry a lot of political clout. "We feel of one of our own is sacrificed because we don't make noise," she said. Other Asian-Americans have looked on the protests with dismay, saying Liang is no victim and the demonstrators are taking on the wrong fight. The officer was on routine patrol in a public housing project when he entered the stairwell with his gun drawn and accidentally fired a shot when he was startled by a noise. The bullet ricocheted and struck Akai Gurley, 28, killing him. Liang testified it was an accident, but prosecutors said he was reckless to have his gun out and his finger on the trigger, and failed to help Gurley as he lay dying. A jury convicted Liang of manslaughter on Feb. 11. He could get up to 15 years in prison, or as little as probation. "I believe, a lot of people believe, they're using him as a scapegoat," said Steve Chung, a demonstrator from Brooklyn. Annie Tan, an activist and educator in Chicago, said she sympathizes with those who see injustice in the way so many white officers who have shot black men have been acquitted or have not faced charges. She said Asian-Americans have also been ill-treated by the criminal justice system, citing the case of Vincent Chin, who was beaten to death in Michigan in 1982. The attackers, two white men, were given three years' probation "But does that mean we free Peter Liang for what he did? No, absolutely not," she said. New York City has a long history of fraught racial politics, and complaints by Asian-Americans about being ignored politically are not new. In 1990, Mayor David Dinkins was heavily criticized for failing to quickly intervene when black activists organized a boycott of Korean grocers. The city has a large and growing Asian population but still relatively few Asian politicians. Asians make up 13 percent of the population and 6 percent of the New York Police Department's uniformed force of around 35,000 officers. The judge who presided over Liang's trial was born in Korea. There are likely to be more demonstrations, both for and against Liang, before he is sentenced on April 14. Steph Yin, 25, said she has had arguments with her parents and family friends who support leniency for Liang. Yes, she said, Asian-Americans are often been unheard and wrongly stereotyped as quiet and passive. But that doesn't make Liang's conviction a cause to rally around, she said. "At the end of the day, he killed somebody who didn't deserve to be killed," she said. ___ Follow Deepti Hajela at www.twitter.com/dhajela. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/deepti-hajela FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2016 file photo, protesters attend a rally in the Brooklyn borough of New York in support of former NYPD police officer Peter Liang, who was convicted of manslaughter for the 2014 shooting death of Akai Gurley, in a housing project stairwell. When Chinese-Americans took to the streets in support of Liang, it was an unexpected outpouring of activism from an often-marginalized political community. Many demonstrations across the country say they were driven to act by a manslaughter verdict they viewed as scapegoating. But the case has also sown discomfort among some members of the community, who say Liang is unworthy of such a stand. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File) Israel cooperation puts Palestinian forces in a tough spot RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) It was nearly 2 a.m. when Amjoud Sallaj heard a loud explosion outside his home. In a matter of seconds, Israeli troops burst into the building, ransacking apartments in a door-to-door search for wanted Palestinian militants. When the raid was over, the apartments had been trashed, furniture destroyed and Sallaj's 30-year-old son, Ahmad, had been taken into custody. Palestinian officials say that such raids, carried out in Palestinian-controlled territory, have become a daily occurrence since a wave of violence erupted five months ago undermining the public's trust in their own security forces and jeopardizing one of the last areas of official contact between Israel and the Palestinians. In this Monday, Feb. 15, 2016 file photo, an Israeli soldier keeps guard by an arrested Palestinian man at the Amari Palestinian refugee camp, near the West Bank city of Ramallah during clashes with Palestinians that erupted after they entered the camp early in the morning. Palestinian officials say Israeli military raids in Palestinian-controlled territory have dramatically increased since a wave of violence erupted five months ago _ undermining the publics trust in their own security forces and jeopardizing one of the last areas of official contact between Israel and the Palestinians. (AP Photo/ Nasser Shiyoukhi, File) "The Israeli forces enter our territory every night, since the beginning of the current uprising, and this has a significant impact on the morale of our forces and on the image of these forces in the eyes of the public," said Adnan Dameri, the spokesman for the Palestinian security forces. "In every joint meeting, we tell the Israeli side that the daily incursions embarrass the Palestinian forces," he added. Security cooperation between the Israeli military and Palestinian security forces began following interim peace accords reached in the 1990s that granted the Palestinians limited autonomy in 40 percent of the West Bank. Although those agreements gave Israel overall security control in the West Bank, it yielded significant day-to-day responsibilities to Palestinian forces in a joint effort to control Islamic militants and to prevent friction between Israeli troops and Palestinian civilians. The system broke down during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, but resumed once the fighting subsided and has continued to function for the better part of a decade. Today, at a time when peace efforts are at a standstill and tensions are high, security is one of the last areas of coordination, playing a critical role in preventing near-daily violence from spinning out of control. The security coordination has also benefited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. A clampdown by his forces and Israeli troops has kept the rival Hamas militant group in check. But the Palestinians say Israel's recent stepped-up activity is putting them in a difficult situation. With the coordination still in place, the public widely sees the forces and Palestinian political leaders as essentially helping perpetuate Israel's half-century military occupation of the West Bank. Israel captured the area, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip all claimed by the Palestinians for a future independent state in the 1967 Mideast war. The cooperation also has hurt morale. Under procedures in place, Israeli forces inform the Palestinians they are going in, ordering them to retreat to their barracks until they complete their operation. "It's very depressing to leave your position and our missions just because the occupation forces have an operation that you know is against your people," said Saleh Naser, a police officer in Ramallah. Sallaj said that during Tuesday's night-time raid on his home, which is located in Askar refugee camp near the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, troops detonated the main entrance to the building, and then pried open the doors of the four apartment units where his sons and their families live. He described seeing hundreds of soldiers in the camp, including dozens throughout his building. Sallaj, 55, said the families were each confined to one room of their apartment as soldiers moved through, leaving behind a trail of destruction. When troops found photos of children holding plastic guns, he said they interrogated two of his grandsons, a 9-year-old and a 5-year-old, about the pictures. Sallaj said he does not know why his son was arrested. He said it is the first time he has been sent to jail. "This is the occupation," he said. "We expect nothing but the destroying of our life and our properties." In a statement, the military said it confiscated guns, ammunition and grenades during the raid on a number of locations in Nablus, including Askar, and arrested nine Palestinians. It said soldiers were attacked by a stone-throwing mob, and that it shot one man "in light of the continued assault." The current wave of violence erupted last fall, with clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces at a Jerusalem holy site quickly spreading across Israel and into the West Bank. Twenty-eight people have been killed on the Israeli side in Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car ramming attacks, while at least 166 Palestinians have been killed, including 119 people said by Israel to be attackers. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, confirmed there has been "increased activity" in the West Bank due to the rising violence. The breadth of operations is based on the "threat assessment," he said. Lerner said Hamas has been trying to take advantage of the unrest, and that Israel has uncovered bomb labs and foiled planned suicide bombings, kidnappings and shootings of Israelis. He said the raids took place in "order to prevent those attacks before they put innocent lives at risk." Amani Sarahneh, spokeswoman for the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, said she monitors new raids daily. "Each day, I collect the names of the detainees arrested overnight. Usually, I have up to 30 people arrested every night in various places in the West Bank," she said. Israeli officials say they are aware of the Palestinian concerns and keep them in mind as they set security policy, but ultimately they do whatever security conditions dictate. Alon Eviatar, a former high-ranking official with COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees Palestinian civilian affairs, said the Palestinian complaints are not a "new phenomenon," and Israeli officials are aware of this constraint. "As long as the Palestinian security apparatus can do the job, Israel wants to let them do it," he said. "If they can do it, do it. Better for Israel." ___ Associated Press Writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report. Blanketed by winter snow, orchards are mostly idle around central Washington, the production hub of the nation's top apple producing state. But in a basement lab in the city of Wenatchee, Washington State University scientists are meticulously working. They slice, taste and measure appearance, firmness and crispness of dozens of apples, including a new variety dubbed 'Cosmic Crisp,' a name inspired by white pores contrasting against its red skin. 'Cosmic Crisp is the first big release the Washington industry is going to have all to itself,' said Kate Evans, a lead scientist at WSU's Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center. A sliced Cosmic Crisp apple is shown at Washington State University's Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center in Wenatchee, Washington Kate Evans, a lead scientist at Washington State University's Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center in Wenatchee, Wash., poses for a photo in a fruit cooler holding a box of Cosmic Crisp apples Trademarked and focus group-tested, Cosmic Crisp was developed by the WSU lab over the last 20 years. For at least one decade, it will be available for planting only to Washington farmers. That type of restriction is a reflection of the increasingly fragmented apple industry, where major growers have moved away from relying on few varieties for their income. Rather, many are diversifying their orchards, aiming to cash in on the premium prices of licensed niche apples, and creating competition among breeders to develop the next big flavorful apple. 'We used to grow all Red Delicious and Golden Delicious.' said Steve Lutz of Columbia Marketing International, a marketing firm owned by apple producers. 'We're taking what used to be a macro-market and cutting into smaller and smaller pieces with these new varietal apples.' The apple is a brand new trademarked and focus group tested variety developed by the WSU lab over the last 20 years. For at least one decade, it will be available for planting only to Washington farmers A trellised orchard is shown near East Wenatchee, Wash. The orchard is the type of orchard that will grow the new Cosmic Crisp apple variety that will be exclusive to Washington state growers for 10 years The shift from relying on the Red Delicious brand became urgent after the Washington industry tanked in the 1990s, losing hundreds of millions of dollars and prompting a federal government bailout. Back then many reasons were given for the slump, but chief among them was an oversupply of apples, especially the Red Delicious. While the industry has recovered, reminders of its pitfalls were seen last year, when a combination of factors, including the West Coast ports shutdown and a high yield, led to the jarring image of millions of pounds of apples, mostly Reds and Goldens, left to rot in fields. In 1999, Red Delicious accounted for 51 percent of the share nationwide sales. By 2015, that number had dropped to 25 percent, according to data from the Washington Tree Fruit Association. Cosmic Crisp will join Kiku, Ambrosia, JAZZ, Opal, Braeburn, Pacific Rose, Snapdragon, SweetTango and other trademarked varieties aiming to take a bigger slice of the consumer market, which already includes the well-established Fuji, Gala and HoneyCrisp. Many of these varieties were developed through breeding programs in New Zealand, Canada, Japan and Europe. 'This industry has been highly successful,' Lutz said. 'When you're very successful you're reluctant to throw out what you're doing and be risky. We were late to start the breeding program.' Workers at a McDougall & Sons Inc. apple packing and processing plant in East Wenatchee, Wash., sort and box apples for shipment Major growers in Washington have moved away from relying on only a few major apple varieties for their income, and are instead diversifying their orchards, aiming to cash in on the premium prices of licensed and heavily marketed niche apples such as Kiku, Ambrosia, JAZZ, and Opal American farmers have responded by partnering with universities. WSU is developing apples beyond the Cosmic Crisp, while Cornell University introduced the Snapdragon and RubyFrost, and the University of Minnesota made its mark with the highly successful HoneyCrisp, which became one of the best sellers nationwide. The HoneyCrisp 'proved to sales, marketers and growers that we don't have to be at 99 cents a pound. We can get retail sales up to the $2.99 a pound range,' said Todd Fryhover, president of the Washington Apple Commission. The staple varieties, however, are still moneymakers, and make up the biggest chunk of the apples exported. Steve Lutz, far right, of Columbia Marketing International, a marketing firm owned by apple producers, watches as workers sort Granny Smith apples at a McDougall & Sons Inc. 'They're kind of the workhorse of the industry,' said Peter Van Well of Van Well Nursery in East Wenatchee. 'I think growers are realizing that they've got to have a combination. They've got to have a mix of the main varieties and a mix of these club varieties.' Next year, the first Cosmic Crisp trees will be planted with the target of having the first sales in 2019. Should the Cosmic Crisp be successful with consumer taste buds, Washington farmers, who already grow 60 percent of the country's apples, have the potential to reap all the benefits, and recoup the money invested in the breeding program. Figures aren't immediately available from the Wash. tree Commission. Canadian teacher surrenders after Indonesia court verdict JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) A Canadian teacher was in custody Friday after surrendering to authorities after Indonesia's Supreme Court overruled his acquittal and that of an Indonesian teacher on charges they sexually abused three children at a prestigious international school, and ordered longer prison terms for both. Canada and the United States both expressed shock at the court decision. Neil Bantleman and Ferdinant Tjiong had been sentenced to 10 years in prison last April by the South Jakarta District Court. They appealed to the High Court, which acquitted them in August, ruling there was insufficient evidence to convict them. FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 14, 2015 file photo, Canadian teacher Neil Bantleman, right, hugs his wife Tracy, left, after he was released from Cipinang prison in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesia top court has overruled the acquittal of Bantleman and his Indonesian colleague Ferdinant Tjiong and heightened their sentence to 11 years in jail for sexually abusing three young children at a prestigious international school in Jakarta. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File) Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi said a three-member panel of judges handed down a verdict Wednesday based on the prosecutors' appeal. "The judge panel concluded that the defendants were proven to have violated the 2007 Child Protection Law," said Suhardi, who uses a single name. "It did not only reinstate the District Court's verdict but also lengthened the sentence to 11 years." The two teachers at the Jakarta International School, now called the Jakarta Intercultural School, also were ordered to pay a fine of $7,440 each or serve six more months in jail, Suhadi said. Chandra Saptaji, head of the general crime section at the South Jakarta Prosecutors' Office, said Bantleman, who was in Bali, surrendered after communicating with authorities through the Canadian Embassy. "I can say that he was cooperative," Saptaji told The Associated Press. "He took the initiative by flying back to Jakarta escorted by officials from the embassy and the prosecutors' office. Saptaji said Bantleman was admitted Friday morning to Cipinang Prison, the same prison in eastern Jakarta where Tjiong was taken on Thursday. The Canadian government said it was "deeply dismayed and shocked" by the court's ruling. "This decision is unjust, given the many grave irregularities throughout the various proceedings in this case and the fact that all evidence presented by the defense has systematically been rejected," Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said in a statement. "Mr. Bantleman and Mr. Tjiong were not provided the opportunity to demonstrate their innocence. Despite Canada's repeated calls for due process, this case was not handled in a fair and transparent manner," Dion said. U.S. Ambassador Robert O. Blake also expressed disappointment, saying the verdict would impact international views about the rule of law in Indonesia. Bantleman and Tjiong were arrested in July 2014 following allegations from the parents of a 6-year-old student that he had been sodomized. Four male janitors at the school were already sentenced to eight years in prison in that case and a woman received a seven-year sentence as an accomplice. Police said a sixth suspect killed himself in custody by drinking bathroom cleaner. Under Indonesian law, both Bantleman and Tjiong can still challenge the sentence by filing for a judicial review by the Supreme Court if they have new evidence. The South Jakarta District Court threw out a civil lawsuit in which a child's parents sought $125 million from the school for alleged negligence. The school in southern Jakarta is attended by children of foreign diplomats, expatriates and Indonesia's elite. It has 2,400 students aged 3 to 18 from about 60 countries. Gelchenyuk double leads Canadiens to 4-3 win at Capitals WASHNGTON (AP) Montreal's Alex Galchenyuk scored twice as the Canadiens won 4-3 at the NHL Eastern Conference-leading Washington Capitals on Wednesday. Canadiens goaltender Mike Condon made 33 saves for the visitors, who built a 3-0 lead and chased Capitals goalie Braden Holtby in the second period before holding on as Washington tallied two late goals. Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Fleischmann added goals for the Canadiens. Montreal Canadiens center Alex Galchenyuk, right, skates past Washington Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov after scoring a goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game, on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Trailing 4-1, the Capitals scored twice inside the final minutes, including Andre Burakovsky's goal with 2:53 remaining. Jason Chimera and Dmitri Orlov also scored for the President's Trophy front-runners, who had been 17-1-1 over their previous 19 home games. Boston's David Pastrnak had two goals, including one on a penalty shot, as the Bruins blew past Pittsburgh 5-1. Jimmy Hayes, Landon Ferraro and Brad Marchand also scored for the Bruins, who won all three against the Penguins this season with a 14-3 goal differential. Tom Kuhnhackl scored for Pittsburgh, which is a point above New Jersey in the fight for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene scored in the shootout while Shawn Matthias had a goal in his Colorado debut as the Avalanche downed San Jose 4-3. Anaheim extended its season-best winning streak to six games by edging Buffalo 1-0, moving within two points of the Pacific Division lead. Montreal Canadiens center Alex Galchenyuk, right, shoots the puck as Washington Capitals center Brooks Laich defends during the third period of an NHL hockey game, on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, in Washington. The Canadiens defeated the Capitals 4-3. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Rubio pushed land deal as he backed law limiting critics WASHINGTON (AP) As a young state legislator, Marco Rubio pushed Miami-Dade County officials to allow a multimillion-dollar industrial development to be built on restricted land near the Florida Everglades, months after he backed a law that made it harder for people to challenge such projects, The Associated Press has learned. Around the same time, Rubio then a rising Republican star in the state also requested state money to be earmarked to benefit a flood-prone area around the development project. Those efforts by Rubio, now a U.S. senator and the leading establishment alternative to GOP presidential rivals Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, provide a glimpse into how he handled the intersection of his public role as a young lawmaker and his private representation of a company that stood to benefit from his political connections. This frame grab made from standard definition video from a Miami-Dade County Commission meeting on May 30, 2002, shows Marco Rubio, left, pushing for approval of a development project backed by Carlos C. Lopez-Cantera, seated at right. Rubio was in the Florida House Republican leadership at the time. Years before his Republican presidential bid, Rubio pushed Miami-Dade County officials to allow a major industrial development to be built on restricted land near the Florida Everglades. That was two months after he backed a law as a member of the Florida Legislature that made it harder for people to challenge the kinds of developments he advocated for as a private attorney. (Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners via AP) There's no evidence Rubio violated Florida ethics rules by his work for the developer in May 2002. But his seat in Tallahassee, the state capital, put him in the position of advocating before a county commission that relied on lawmakers like him to fight for state money. "I always had a problem when legislators would lobby at the county commission, because you always felt like if you didn't vote their way, does this mean we'll lose funds in Tallahassee?" said Katy Sorenson, a former county commissioner and Democrat. The commission approved the application for the plan near the Everglades, though Sorenson voted against it because it would have required moving the so-called urban development boundary, an important safeguard that protected agriculture and the local water supply. That boundary was established in the 1970s, and the county considers periodic requests to move it. Todd Harris, a senior adviser for Rubio's presidential campaign, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Rubio never lobbied in the traditional sense because that was illegal under state law. But Harris said the part-time nature of Florida's Legislature meant that "virtually every legislator makes their living from outside employment." "Marco did not gain personally from this, or any other vote because his compensation was not tied to any other specific project," Harris wrote in response to detailed questions from the AP, noting the law firm Rubio worked for was paid a standard retainer for its work. Rubio's 2002 request to the county involved Pan American, a Miami company owned by well-known real estate developer Carlos C. Lopez-Cantera. He wanted to build a project then known as Shoppyland west of the city, but environmental critics said it was too close to an important water source. Lopez-Cantera did not respond to detailed phone messages left with his staff at Pan American's offices on Monday and Tuesday. His son, Carlos, is Florida's lieutenant governor, among Rubio's closest political allies and running for Rubio's seat in the U.S. Senate. Rubio's campaign told the AP the younger Lopez-Cantera worked for his father's company and recommended hiring Rubio to do the legal work "because of his experience in land use and zoning." At the time, Rubio was a young lawyer earning $96,000 a year at the politically connected firm Becker & Poliakoff. He asked county commissioners on May 30, 2002, to consider the Shoppyland proposal while mentioning his legislative responsibilities which had required the commission to reschedule the hearing. "I do want to begin by thanking you for your continuance the last time I was before you," Rubio said, according to archived recordings of county meetings obtained by The Associated Press. "When I signed up for the job of the Legislature, they told me it was part-time, but it hasn't worked out that way." Rubio's opponent during his 2010 U.S. Senate run raised his Miami lobbying registration. Rubio's campaign then acknowledged he registered as a lobbyist in a non-traditional sense to work on county issues, mostly local zoning matters. But they said in a statement at the time that he "never met with elected officials to influence them on behalf of clients." At the May 2002 meeting, Rubio won approval of the application right after commissioners green-lit a nearby development known as Beacon Lakes. That project was pushed by Armando Codina, the former business partner of then-Gov. Jeb Bush, who recently dropped out of the 2016 GOP presidential race. Both projects had required the commission to move the development boundary and provoked opposition from environmental groups. A Sierra Club representative argued to commissioners that the business park would cost taxpayers money and threaten the water supply of more than 1 million people. Before voting against Rubio's proposal, commissioner Dennis Moss also noted the presence of Florida's political heavyweights at the hearing. "There are a lot of state and ex-state folks around here these days," Moss said. "I'm not going to say anything further," he deadpanned. Years later, Moss, currently a Democrat, gave $250 in March 2009 to the campaign of Kendrick Meek, who ran unsuccessfully against Rubio in the 2010 U.S. Senate campaign. Land use and zoning laws were Rubio's specialties, his firm's website once stated. It also touted Rubio's role in Tallahassee as House majority whip. While in that leadership role in March 2002, Rubio was one of 73 co-sponsors of a bill that sought to fund cleanup efforts in the Everglades. The bill included language that limited who could challenge development projects based on their environmental impact. Certain nonprofits that might want to object also had to be in existence for a year and have at least 25 of members from the county, the bill said. The bill's supporters, meanwhile, said it still allowed challenges from citizens if a project affected their "use or enjoyment of air, water, or natural resources." But opponents like the Sierra Club had told the AP the legislation could leave them vulnerable to interpretations by the courts. A month after voting for the bill, Rubio registered with Miami-Dade County as a lobbyist for Pan American on the development. It was the seventh time Rubio registered as a lobbyist with the county. Further details of his efforts recorded in government documents were destroyed in 2007, a normal practice under county policy. In January 2002, he requested an earmark for $750,000 in state funds for an early phase of a flood mitigation project in an 83-square-mile area called the C-4 basin, documents show. Except for a small portion of land around Miami's airport an area that generally doesn't suffer flooding problems most of the C-4 basin was outside of Rubio's district at the time, according to an AP mapping analysis. The business park was near both the center of the basin and canals important to the improvement plan. After the boundary changes and Pan American's sale of a portion of the property for $23 million in 2008, the land has since transformed into an industrial park with a Goya Foods Inc. operation and commercial warehouses. "When I was at the county, we knew that he was influencing the process, that he was in the mix," said Cynthia Guerra, a former Miami-Dade environmental official who opposed development boundary expansions as head of the Tropical Audubon Society. She said, "We never really appreciated the unwelcome influence of the state Legislature." ___ Associated Press writers Curt Anderson and David Fischer in Miami contributed to this report. ___ Follow on Twitter: Chad Day at https://twitter.com/chadsday and Jack Gillum at https://twitter.com/jackgillum In this image made from video, the sun sets near an industrial park next to the Florida Everglades, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, in Miami. Years before his Republican presidential bid, Marco Rubio pushed Miami-Dade County officials to allow a major industrial development to be built on restricted land near the Florida Everglades. That was two months after he backed a law as a member of the Florida Legislature that made it harder for people to challenge the kinds of developments he advocated for as a private attorney. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) In this image made from video, an industrial park, including a Goya food building, left, is seen across from a canal near the the Florida Everglades, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, in Miami. Years before his Republican presidential bid, Marco Rubio pushed Miami-Dade County officials to allow a major industrial development to be built on restricted land near the Florida Everglades. That was two months after he backed a law as a member of the Florida Legislature that made it harder for people to challenge the kinds of developments he advocated for as a private attorney. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) In this image made from video, cars exit the parking lot of a Goya food building in an industrial park near the the Florida Everglades, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, in Miami. Years before his Republican presidential bid, Marco Rubio pushed Miami-Dade County officials to allow a major industrial development to be built on restricted land near the Florida Everglades. That was two months after he backed a law as a member of the Florida Legislature that made it harder for people to challenge the kinds of developments he advocated for as a private attorney. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) 30 years after Marcos' fall, his son aims for No. 2 job MANILA, Philippines (AP) Three decades after a "people power" revolt ousted his dictator father, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was wooing voters on the campaign trail this week in his bid to become the Philippines' next vice president. He has a decent shot at fulfilling that ambition polls show he is in second place among six rivals. If he wins, that would put him one step away from the presidency his father and namesake lost in the army-backed public uprising in February 1986 amid allegations of plunder and widespread human rights violations. Thirty years ago Thursday, Ferdinand Sr. and Imelda Marcos and their family fled the country after four days of massive street protests that saw rosary-clutching nuns and ordinary citizens kneeling before tanks and protesters sticking yellow flowers into the muzzles of assault rifles of pro-government troops. In this Feb. 22, 2016 photo, Vice-presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. autographs the palm of a supporter during his campaign sortie in Muntinlupa city, southeast of Manila, Philippines. Three decades after a "people power" revolt ousted his dictator father, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was wooing voters on the campaign trail this week in his bid to become the Philippines' next vice president. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) At a ceremony Thursday attended by President Benigno Aquino III, protest leaders and others re-enacted events from that historic revolt near a monument commemorating it. Aquino condemned the abuses, including the 1983 assassination of his father, opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. He criticized the younger Marcos for refusing to even acknowledge his family's misdeeds. "If he couldn't even see what was wrong in what their family did, how can we expect that he won't repeat these?" Aquino said. Marcos Jr. made no mention of the uprising when he addressed listeners Monday in a poor village near Manila where supporters of his father live. Instead, he talked about how people have suffered under leaders since his father's departure, tapping into disillusionment over persistent poverty and corruption that plague the country, as well as an ongoing Islamic insurgency in the south. He did not utter the name of Aquino, a scion of a political clan whose longstanding rivalry with the Marcoses has shaped the country's political scene for decades. "Our leaders, instead of nurturing and helping us, sowed infighting and divided us into groups," Marcos told the crowd of a few hundred villagers, many of whom chanted his nickname, Bongbong, and wore red, the color associated with his family. "I'm fighting to start a movement to unite the Filipino people," he said on a sparse stage where he stood with a handful of local town officials, a far cry from the scenes of his family's heyday. Marcos, 58, appears to have a strong following among younger people who did not witness abuses during the 1972-81 period of martial law under his father or the popular revolt that overthrew him. When asked if he would eventually seek the presidency, he refuses to answer categorically. Filipino voters cast separate ballots for president and vice president, so often candidates from different parties are elected. The vote is May 9. "I am perplexed by the viability of Bongbong's candidacy for vice president," said Gerard Finin of the East-West Center in Hawaii. "The longing for a stronger and more effective Philippine state has not faded." Still, sidestepping the past is daunting in a country that still celebrates the Marcoses' downfall each year as a national reminder of how Filipinos once stood up to a dictatorship. In 1986, years before the era of Facebook, Twitter and cellphones, unarmed Filipinos rapidly massed along a highway in Manila by word of mouth and anti-government radio broadcasts to protect the defense minister, the military deputy chief of staff and their forces who defected from an ailing Marcos. The Marcoses lived in exile in Hawaii for several years and Ferdinand Sr. died there in 1989. Imelda Marcos returned to the Philippines in 1991. Her husband's remains were brought home later to his northern hometown of Batac, where his glass coffin has become a tourist attraction. Imelda, now 86, went to a popular Roman Catholic church in suburban Baclaran district of Manila in a wheelchair Wednesday to hear Mass with her aides, apparently unaware that a group of Marcos-era human rights victims were inside holding a program and recalling how they were tortured and abused by troops. Imelda Marcos, who appeared stoic, quietly left after the communion, according to witnesses. Despite her reputation for extravagance, best exemplified by the 1,220 pairs of shoes she left behind in the presidential palace after her husband's downfall, she and her children enjoy a degree of popularity, particularly in her late husband's northern political stronghold of Ilocos Norte province. She has faced some 900 civil and criminal cases in Philippine courts since 1991 but has never served prison time. Many of the cases have been dismissed for lack of evidence and a few convictions were overturned on appeal. Nearly 10,000 Filipinos won a U.S. class-action suit in 1995 against the Marcos estate for torture, summary executions and disappearances with jurors awarding US$1.9 billion to the victims. More than 7,000 have been compensated after years of waiting. Imelda Marcos twice ran unsuccessfully for president but won seats in the House of Representatives, where she is running for re-election to a third and final term in May 9 elections while a daughter is running unopposed as Ilocos Norte governor. Left-wing activists, including those detained during the period of martial law, gathered at a university Monday to launch a coalition against Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s vice presidential run, dubbed the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacanang, or CARMMA. Malacanang is the presidential palace in Manila. Coalition leader Bonifacio Ilagan, who was imprisoned and tortured during martial law, warned that if the young Marcos was elected, he would be tantalizingly close to capturing the presidency, which would give him a chance to redeem his family's name by rewriting history. "He's the number one defender of his father's regime," Ilagan said. "If he wins as vice president, it's almost a complete reversal of what was won in 1986." _____ Associated Press writer Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report. Yellow confetti rain on the military component during the 30th anniversary celebration of the "People Power Revolution" that toppled the 20-year-rule of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and helped install Corazon "Cory" Aquino to the presidency, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 at suburban Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines. The four-day People Power saw hundreds of thousands of Filipinos trooping to EDSA Avenue fronting two military camps to lend support to mutinous soldiers who broke away from Marcos.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) Philippine President Benigno Aquino III addresses the crowd during the 30th anniversary celebration of the "People Power Revolution" that toppled the 20-year-rule of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and helped install his late mother Corazon "Cory" Aquino to the presidency Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 at suburban Quezon city northeast of Manila, Philippines. The four-day People Power saw hundreds of thousands of Filipinos trooping to EDSA Avenue fronting two military camps to lend support to mutinous soldiers who broke away from Marcos.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) Students hand flowers to soldiers during the 30th anniversary celebration of the "People Power Revolution" that toppled the 20-year-rule of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and helped install Corazon "Cory" Aquino to the presidency Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 at suburban Quezon city northeast of Manila, Philippines. The four-day People Power saw hundreds of thousands of Filipinos trooping to EDSA Avenue fronting two military camps to lend support to mutinous soldiers who broke away from Marcos.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) Yellow confetti rain on the crowd during the 30th anniversary celebration of the "People Power Revolution" that toppled the 20-year-rule of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and helped install Corazon "Cory" Aquino to the presidency, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 at suburban Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines. The four-day People Power saw hundreds of thousands of Filipinos trooping to EDSA Avenue fronting two military camps to lend support to mutinous soldiers who broke away from Marcos.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) In this Feb. 22, 2016 photo, Vice-presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., second right in front, greets supporters during his campaign sortie in Muntinlupa city, southeast of Manila, Philippines. Three decades after a "people power" revolt ousted his dictator father, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was wooing voters on the campaign trail this week in his bid to become the Philippines' next vice president.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) In this Feb. 22, 2016 photo, a supporter takes a selfie of the tarpaulin poster of Vice-presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. during his campaign sortie in Muntinlupa city, southeast of Manila, Philippines. Three decades after a "people power" revolt ousted his dictator father, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was wooing voters on the campaign trail this week in his bid to become the Philippines' next vice president. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) In this Feb. 22, 2016 photo, Vice-presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., foreground, greets supporters during his campaign sortie in Muntinlupa city, southeast of Manila, Philippines. Three decades after a "people power" revolt ousted his dictator father, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was wooing voters on the campaign trail this week in his bid to become the Philippines' next vice president. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) In this Feb. 22, 2016 photo, Vice-presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. waves to supporters during his campaign sortie in Muntinlupa city, southeast of Manila, Philippines. Three decades after a "people power" revolt ousted his dictator father, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was wooing voters on the campaign trail this week in his bid to become the Philippines' next vice president. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) In this Feb. 22, 2016 photo, Vice-presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. talks to the media during his campaign sortie in Muntinlupa city, southeast of Manila, Philippines. Three decades after a "people power" revolt ousted his dictator father, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was wooing voters on the campaign trail this week in his bid to become the Philippines' next vice president. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) Dissent, squabbles: migrant crisis takes toll on EU evermore BRUSSELS (AP) The European Union's once-tight unity is being rapidly eroded as hundreds of thousands of refugees and other migrants walk a well-trodden path through the Balkans and into the bloc's heartland. Greece on Thursday took the tensions to a new level, recalling its ambassador from Vienna in anger after Austria and other Balkan nations held a meeting that could put more pressure on Athens to deal with the migrants. Diplomats saw no precedent in recent EU history for such a move. As some EU countries move to restrict new entries, those further south and east fear that thousands of migrants will get stuck and overwhelm their nations. That has prompted several to start acting unilaterally, showing little concern for coordinating with their EU partners. A man carries his belongings after his arrival with other refugees and migrants from the southeastern Greek islands to the Athens' port of Piraues, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Balkan border controls leave thousands people stranded in Greece as the country scrambles to cope with border restrictions imposed recently by Austria and Balkan countries while some 4,000 migrants and refugees continue to arrive on Greek territory daily. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) "Right now the unity of the union and lives human lives are at stake," said EU migration chief Dimitris Avramopoulos at Thursday's meeting of the bloc's 28 interior ministers to assess the rapidly deteriorating situation. The fear of crumbling unity has spread like wildfire throughout the EU in the last few days. Some see the lack of a common response to the continent's immigration crisis as a Litmus test for the bloc. EU President Donald Tusk has been warning about an unraveling of unity for weeks but the EU now seems to be unable to stop it. There are even fears that the migration crisis could even fuel the "out" campaign for Britain's EU membership referendum on June 23. The impact of increasing go-it-alone new border restrictions and refugee quotas was evident on the ground Thursday on Greece's border with Macedonia. Some 2,800 people massed to get into Macedonia but only 100 were allowed to cross. The bottleneck came after Macedonia severely restricted the number and nationalities of people it is allowing to travel across its territory and continue north toward more prosperous European countries. Macedonian officials have said the move comes in response to similar actions by countries further up along the route, including Serbia and Austria. "The police kept stopping us, but I couldn't wait," 23-year-old Syrian university student Walaa Jbara said near the border, clutching his smartphone. "I'm checking the news on Facebook, and I know the Macedonians are not letting people through." Greece is getting increasingly angry about such policies. The government recalled its ambassador from Vienna following a meeting there Wednesday where Austria and many regional European neighbors agreed to tighter border controls but did not invite Greece. The border closures are squeezing Greece between the Balkan nations to the north and Turkey, where most of the refugees are coming from. If northern nations did fully close their borders, Greece's refugee reception capacity could become overwhelmed within days. NATO is beginning a surveillance mission in the sea between Greece and Turkey and its decision to return any rescued migrants to Turkey could help relieve some pressure on Greek reception centers. But Greek Deputy Interior Minister Ioannis Mouzalas said his nation refuses to become "a warehouse of souls." He declared that, in the wake of border restrictions that were not common EU decisions, "Greece too, can take unilateral action." Mouzalas threatened to block decisions at a March 7 EU immigration summit if the sharing of the refugee burden was not made obligatory for member states. Hungary, increasingly a recalcitrant EU member since Prime Minister Viktor Orban came to power in 2010, has called for a national referendum on the EU's plan for mandatory quotas for refugees. The EU head office said it fails to understand how such a vote could affect a decision already made by all EU nations, including Hungary. The EU plans to share 160,000 migrants who have already arrived in overburdened Greece and Italy with other EU nations over two years. But so far, barely 600 people have been relocated, and only some EU nations have offered places for them fewer than 5,000 spots in all. An immigration dispute has even erupted between Belgium and France, two founding nations who have almost always stood side-by-side in the 60-year history of the union. On Thursday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve criticized its northern neighbor for tightening border controls over concerns about a flood of migrants from a camp in France. Belgium has sent up to 290 extra police officers to their common border after French authorities moved to close a migrant camp in Calais. Cazeneuve described Belgium's move as "a strange decision" and rejected fears that hundreds of migrants would soon move into Belgium. In Germany the destination of choice for many migrants lawmakers on Thursday approved a package of measures to speed up migrant processing and cut the number of newcomers. The package foresees special centers being set up to quickly process migrants who have little realistic chance of winning asylum. It also means some asylum-seekers likely including Syrians will have to wait longer to bring their relatives to Germany. Laws were also approved to increase the deportations of foreigners convicted of crimes. Germany registered nearly 1.1 million people as asylum-seekers last year and officials are keen to ensure that number is lower this year. ___ Kantouris reported from Idomeni, Greece. Lorne Cook in Brussels, Derek Gatopoulos in Athens and David Rising and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to the story. ___ Follow Raf Casert on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/rcasert Refugees and migrants are helped by volunteers after their arrival on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to Mytilene, Lesbos island, Greece, on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Balkan border controls leave thousands people stranded in Greece as the country scrambles to cope with border restrictions imposed recently by Austria and Balkan countries while some 4,000 migrants and refugees continue to arrive on Greek territory daily. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo) Refugees stand in queue to receive food distributed by a non-governmental organization at a refugee camp in the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni , Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The Greek interior ministry said about 12,000 people have been stranded in Greece since neighbor Macedonia began turning Afghan immigrants away at the border and slowing the number of crossings for others heading to central and northern Europe. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) Migrants are helped by volunteers after their arrival on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to Mytilene, Lesbos island, Greece, on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Balkan border controls leave thousands people stranded in Greece as the country scrambles to cope with border restrictions imposed recently by Austria and Balkan countries, while some 4,000 migrants and refugees continue to arrive on Greek territory daily. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo) A Syrian man holds his son as they arrive with refugees and migrants on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to Mytilene, Lesbos island, Greece, on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Balkan border controls leave thousands people stranded in Greece as the country scrambles to cope with border restrictions imposed recently by Austria and Balkan countries while some 4,000 migrants and refugees continue to arrive on Greek territory daily. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo) A Syrian Kurdish migrant hugs a young child after their arrival with others at Mytilene, Lesbos island, Greece, from the Turkish coast, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Balkan border controls leave thousands people stranded in Greece as the country scrambles to cope with border restrictions imposed recently by Austria and Balkan countries, while some 4,000 migrants and refugees continue to arrive on Greek territory daily. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo) A Syrian woman cries as she talks to her relatives after her arrival with other refugees and migrants from the Turkish coast to Mytilene, Lesbos island, Greece, on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Balkan border controls leave thousands people stranded in Greece as the country scrambles to cope with border restrictions imposed recently by Austria and Balkan countries while some 4,000 migrants and refugees continue to arrive on Greek territory daily. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo) Inmates making razor wire in the workshop of the Marianosztra state prison, in Marianosztra, Hungary on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Hungary is increasing its production of razor wire, posts and other elements needed to build border fences meant to stop the flow of migrants. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky) A man sits on a bed at a dormitory in a transit camp, where refugees and migrants, mostly from Afghanistan, stay in the western Athens' suburb of Schisto, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Balkan border controls leave thousands people stranded in Greece as the country scrambles to cope with border restrictions imposed recently by Austria and Balkan countries while some 4,000 migrants and refugees continue to arrive on Greek territory daily. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) A woman holds a baby after their arrival with other refugees and migrants from the southeastern Greek islands to the Athens' port of Piraeus, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Balkan border controls leave thousands people stranded in Greece as the country scrambles to cope with border restrictions imposed recently by Austria and Balkan countries while some 4,000 migrants and refugees continue to arrive on Greek territory daily. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) Paramedics put a Pakistani man, who tried to commit suicide by hanging himself with twisted lengths of fabric from a tree, on a stretcher in central Athens' Victoria Square on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Bystanders said the men were upset because of delays in their planned travel to northern Greece, from which migrants start their long trek through the Balkans to wealthier European countries. The men, one of whom was unconscious, were rushed to hospital. Victoria Square is where most newly-landed migrants head after reaching Athens from the Aegean Sea islands. (AP Photo/Thanassis Kamvyssis) Inmates making razor wire in the workshop of the Marianosztra state prison, in Marianosztra, Hungary Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Hungary is increasing its production of razor wire, posts and other elements needed to build border fences meant to stop the flow of migrants. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky) Inmates making razor wire in the workshop of the Marianosztra state prison, in Marianosztra, Hungary on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Hungary is increasing its production of razor wire, posts and other elements needed to build border fences meant to stop the flow of migrants. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky) A Pakistani man, who tried to commit suicide by hanging himself with twisted lengths of fabric from a tree, lies on the street as other migrants wait for the ambulance in central Athens' Victoria Square on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Bystanders said the men were upset because of delays in their planned travel to northern Greece, from which migrants start their long trek through the Balkans to wealthier European countries. The men, one of whom was unconscious, were rushed to hospital. Victoria Square is where most newly-landed migrants head after reaching Athens from the Aegean Sea islands. (AP Photo/Thanassis Kamvyssis) A Pakistani man, who tried to commit suicide by hanging himself with twisted lengths of fabric from a tree, lies on the street as other migrants wait for the ambulance in central Athens' Victoria Square on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Bystanders said the men were upset because of delays in their planned travel to northern Greece, from which migrants start their long trek through the Balkans to wealthier European countries. The men, one of whom was unconscious, were rushed to hospital. Victoria Square is where most newly-landed migrants head after reaching Athens from the Aegean Sea islands. (AP Photo/Thanassis Kamvyssis) A Pakistani man, who tried to commit suicide by hanging himself with twisted lengths of fabric from a tree, lies on the street as other migrants wait for the ambulance in central Athens' Victoria Square on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Bystanders said the men were upset because of delays in their planned travel to northern Greece, from which migrants start their long trek through the Balkans to wealthier European countries. The men, one of whom was unconscious, were rushed to hospital. Victoria Square is where most newly-landed migrants head after reaching Athens from the Aegean Sea islands. (AP Photo/Thanassis Kamvyssis) People rush to cut down two Pakistani migrants who tried to commit suicide by hanging themselves with twisted lengths of fabric from a tree in central Athens' Victoria Square on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Bystanders said the men were upset because of delays in their planned travel to northern Greece, from which migrants start their long trek through the Balkans to wealthier European countries. The men, one of whom was unconscious, were rushed to hospital. Victoria Square is where most newly-landed migrants head after reaching Athens from the Aegean Sea islands. (AP Photo/Thanassis Kamvyssis) Other migrants tend to two Pakistani men who tried to commit suicide by hanging themselves with twisted lengths of fabric from a tree in central Athens' Victoria Square on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Bystanders said the men were upset because of delays in their planned travel to northern Greece, from which migrants start their long trek through the Balkans to wealthier European countries. The men, one of whom was unconscious, were rushed to hospital. Victoria Square is where most newly-landed migrants head after reaching Athens from the Aegean Sea islands. (AP Photo/Thanassis Kamvyssis) Other migrants tend to two Pakistani men who tried to commit suicide by hanging themselves with twisted lengths of fabric from a tree in central Athens' Victoria Square on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Bystanders said the men were upset because of delays in their planned travel to northern Greece, from which migrants start their long trek through the Balkans to wealthier European countries. The men, one of whom was unconscious, were rushed to hospital. Victoria Square is where most newly-landed migrants head after reaching Athens from the Aegean Sea islands. (AP Photo/Thanassis Kamvyssis) People rush to cut down two Pakistani migrants who tried to commit suicide by hanging themselves with twisted lengths of fabric from a tree in central Athens' Victoria Square on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Bystanders said the men were upset because of delays in their planned travel to northern Greece, from which migrants start their long trek through the Balkans to wealthier European countries. The men, one of whom was unconscious, were rushed to hospital. Victoria Square is where most newly-landed migrants head after reaching Athens from the Aegean Sea islands. (AP Photo/Thanassis Kamvyssis) A volunteer performs to entertain refugees while waiting to be allowed to continue their trip to southern Macedonia, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The Greek interior ministry said about 12,000 people have been stranded in Greece since neighbor Macedonia began turning Afghan immigrants away at the border and slowing the number of crossings for others heading to central and northern Europe. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) A volunteer performs to entertain refugees while waiting to be allowed to continue their trip to southern Macedonia, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The Greek interior ministry said about 12,000 people have been stranded in Greece since neighbor Macedonia began turning Afghan immigrants away at the border and slowing the number of crossings for others heading to central and northern Europe. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) A migrant's clothes drying by the highway before moving toward Craotia in Adasevci, about 100 kms west from Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The bottleneck came after Macedonia severely restricted the number of people it is allowing to cross and continue their northward journey toward more prosperous European countries, in response to similar actions by countries further along the route. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) A stranded Syrian migrant sleeps in front of the wire fence that separates the Greek side from Macedonia, at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni,Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The Greek interior ministry said about 12,000 people have been stranded in Greece since neighbor Macedonia began turning Afghan immigrants away at the border and slowing the number of crossings for others heading to central and northern Europe. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) People rush to cut down two Pakistani migrants who tried to commit suicide by hanging themselves with twisted lengths of fabric from a tree in central Athens' Victoria Square on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Bystanders said the men were upset because of delays in their planned travel to northern Greece, from which migrants start their long trek through the Balkans to wealthier European countries. The men, one of whom was unconscious, were rushed to hospital. Victoria Square is where most newly-landed migrants head after reaching Athens from the Aegean Sea islands. (AP Photo/Thanassis Kamvyssis) Shootings, fire shatter happy family bonds in Phoenix home PHOENIX (AP) The Phoenix home where a man gunned down his parents and sisters was always a place of fun family outings. Vic Buckner, 50, manned the grill and was known for his barbecue skills. His wife, Kimberly, 49, was a gracious host. Their daughter Emma, 6, loved drawing and ballet, and older sister Kaitlin, 18, was studying to become an ultrasound technician. The family bonds were shattered this week when the oldest son, Alex Arthur Buckner, 26, opened fire in the home Tuesday morning, killing his parents and his two sisters. This image made from video provided by KNXV ABC-15 Arizona shows firefighters atop a house engulfed in flames in Phoenix on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. Police and firefighters braved bullets and flames as they responded to the fatal shooting and house fire. (KNXV ABC-15.com via AP) He then shot at officers who tried to rescue the victims, authorities said. Kaitlin Buckner called 911 shortly before 5 a.m., pleading for help and saying her brother had shot her. The first officers on scene ran into the burning house because they felt they had to act quickly. Faced with gunfire and smoke, they were able to pull out only two victims. A tactical team stormed in nearly an hour later when the shots stopped, killing Buckner as he raised his weapon. All the victims had gunshot wounds, but a medical examiner will determine how they died. Investigators continue to comb through charred and water-damaged debris of the house where the Buckners often hosted family get-togethers. Rick Zard, a cousin of Alex Buckner, said Vic Buckner grilled some of the best barbecue, and Kimberly Buckner, whose brother is Zard's father, loved to have people over. "We had Christmas at her house. She opened up her home to everybody," Zard said. "She was just that way. She cared about everybody and never left anybody out." The couple was devoted to all three of their children, he said. "They were raised in just the most loving family I've ever known. That sounds so cliche, but that house was filled with nothing but love," Zard said. Kaitlin Buckner had just started taking classes at community college with a goal of being an ultrasound technician. "She was extremely intelligent and had a bright future," Zard said. "She just had the biggest, brightest simile. She was just always in a good mood." Zard, who lives in Phoenix, said his 4-year-old daughter and Emma regularly played together. The 6-year-old loved to draw and be in the company of others. "Even the first time she'd meet somebody, she'd take right to them. She was extremely outgoing and extremely playful," he said. Alex Buckner suffered from emotional problems, Zard told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "What happened isn't because of anything in his upbringing," he said. "He was always fun, outgoing and playful and he was extremely loving. What happened there, that's not him. That's not who he was." The family has started a GoFundMe page as well as Chase Bank account to help with the overwhelming costs of five burials, including one for Alex Buckner. "As much as it hurts to realize what happened and the fact that he was a part of it, we all understand it wasn't him," Zard said. "He was a victim in this just as much as everybody else." __ Follow Terry Tang on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ttangAP This image made from video provided by KNXV ABC-15 Arizona shows firefighters atop a house engulfed in flames in Phoenix on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. Police and firefighters braved bullets and flames as they responded to the fatal shooting and house fire. (KNXV ABC-15.com via AP) TV OUT An officer walks under police tape at the scene of a fatal house fire and shooting Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, in Phoenix. Officers dodged bullets fired by the shooter and donned breathing gear to enter the burning home to help the victims. (AP Photo/Morry Gash) Police officer Steve Blasko walks near police tape at the scene of a fatal house fire and shooting Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, in Phoenix. Officers dodged bullets fired by the shooter and donned breathing gear to enter the burning home to help the victims. (AP Photo/Morry Gash) Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton walks through the scene of a house fire and shooting, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, in Phoenix, Ariz. Phoenix police and firefighters braved bullets and flames as they responded to a shooting and house fire Tuesday, authorities said. Stanton called it "unspeakable violence" but that the first responders' heroism gave residents reasons to take heart. (Danny Miller/The Arizona Republic via AP) MARICOPA COUNTY OUT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT Weather Service: Virginia tornado had winds of up to 165 mph WAVERLY, Va. (AP) Tornadoes tore through towns as far north as Pennsylvania, heavy snow canceled hundreds of flights in the Midwest and power outages left tens of thousands of residents from the Carolinas to New England in the dark as severe weather raked across a broad swath of the country for a third day. The storms Wednesday claimed at least a half-dozen lives, three of them in the tiny town of Waverly, Virginia, where a 2-year-old child and two men, ages 50 and 26, were killed during the storm, said Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller. Their bodies were found about 300 yards from their mobile home. On Tuesday, a tornado that ripped through a recreational vehicle park in Louisiana left two people dead, and a man died of blunt-force trauma when storms hit in Mississippi. Utility trucks make their way down West Main street in the Town of Waverly, Va.,, after it was hit by a tornado earlier in the day, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. (L. Todd Spencer/The Virginian-Pilot via AP) MAGS OUT At least five structures were damaged Wednesday in Waverly, a town of approximately 2,000, and roads leading into town had to be closed because of downed trees and debris tossed by winds gusting to 60 mph, Geller said. In Appomattox County, Virginia, a tornado with estimated winds of up to 165 mph left an 8- to 10-mile path of destruction, injuring seven people and killing a 78-year-old man, state police said. Edward Keith Harris was found outside his home in Evergreen late Wednesday, Sheriff Barry Letterman told a news conference Thursday. At least 15 structures were destroyed and 25 injuries were reported when the storm passed through Essex County and the town of Tappahannock, about 45 miles northeast of Richmond, state police said. The injuries ranged from minor to serious, but there were no confirmed fatalities. In Waverly, Larry D. Turner, 50, Devine J. Stringfield, 26, and 2-year-old Ivan T. Lewis died Wednesday afternoon when a twister hit Turner's mobile home in a neighborhood sandwiched between railroad tracks and U.S. 460. Their bodies were hurled 300 yards across the highway and into a field adjacent to a cemetery, police said. The toddler's 30-year-old mother, whose name was not released, was also in the trailer but survived. She remained hospitalized Thursday. Police did not release any further details about the victims, but a state lawmaker and neighbors described Turner as a caring neighbor, fun-loving guy, and concerned citizen who was deeply involved in his community. The toddler's mother was Turner's girlfriend, and Stringfield was her brother, said neighbor Timothy Williams. Williams, whose own trailer two doors down from Turner's was destroyed, described Turner as "a good dude" who sometimes came to Williams' house to hang out and watch TV. Williams said he also was a frequent guest of Turner's. "He loved to cook," Williams said. "Every time I was over there, he was cooking." State Del. Roslyn Tyler, who represents part of Sussex County where Waverly is located, said she had known Turner for about 30 years, and that he was a strong advocate for his community. Whenever someone in Waverly needed help in an emergency, she could always count on a call from Turner, Tyler said. "He came from a big family in that particular area and knew everybody," she said. In southern Michigan, a 6-year-old girl died following a three-vehicle crash. State police say Harlyn Radley died after the crash Wednesday afternoon near Battle Creek when a car driven by the child's mother lost control and collided with another vehicle. A third vehicle then struck the wreckage. Police say speed and heavy, wet snow were fact In South Carolina, Darlington County Corner Todd Hardee said in a statement that Michael Gaines Sr., 58, had stopped on a road near his home Wednesday to remove debris from the road when a pine tree fell on him. Sheriff Wayne Byrd said the victim was being a good Samaritan when he was killed. The line of storms moved across Pennsylvania and the New York City area Wednesday night, bringing strong winds and heavy rains that knocked down trees and caused scattered power outages. The storms spawned at least two tornadoes in Pennsylvania. One damaged dozens of homes and barns and leveled an Amish schoolhouse with 100-mph winds as it carved a path of destruction over a 5-mile stretch of rural eastern Lancaster County. The National Weather Service also confirmed that a tornado touched down near Wyalusing in Bradford County, where several buildings were reported damaged. A crew was already at work Thursday rebuilding the Amish schoolhouse, which roofer Derek Cummings said looked like it had been hit by a bomb. He said it was hoped the 1,200-square-foot, one-story school could be rebuilt in a week. Emergency management officials said they had no reports of deaths or injuries. In the Midwest, a powerful storm brought heavy snow and biting winds, leading to mass flight cancellations at Chicago airports and school closings in several states. The Chicago Department of Aviation reported more than 1,100 flights had been canceled at the city's two major airports by Wednesday evening. Bill Bunting with National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center estimated 20 to 24 tornados hit from Louisiana to Florida on Tuesday. On Tuesday, one of the hardest-hit areas along the Gulf Coast was a recreational vehicle park in the town of Convent, in southern Louisiana. RVs were tossed about and lay on top of wrecked cars and pickup trucks as a tornado that forecasters later said had winds of 140 mph tore through the park. Two people were killed there, and 31 injured people were taken to area hospitals, St. James Parish Sheriff Willy Martin said. In Mississippi, 73-year-old Dale Purvis died of blunt-force trauma in a mobile home west of Purvis, Lamar County Coroner Cody Creel said. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said an apparent tornado in the Pensacola area significantly damaged more than 70 homes and 24 apartments, leaving three people with minor injuries. He stopped at The Moorings apartment complex, where winds ripped the roof off of at least two buildings. Residents in LaPlace, Louisiana, were cleaning up Wednesday after a tornado ripped up trees, tore roofs from houses and terrified local residents. Nearly 200 homes were damaged. Rose Fuselier, 80, had a gaping hole where her home's front window once stood. "The whole backyard is covered with trees, and then my shed is torn up, too. The roof is gone, and the siding is partially gone," she said. Still, she said others suffered damage even worse than hers: "I lucked out. I lucked out." ___ Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana, in LaPlace, Louisiana; Melissa Nelson-Gabriel in Pensacola, Florida; Bill Fuller and Chevel Johnson in New Orleans; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Alanna Durkin Richer and Steve Szkotak in Richmond, Virginia; Kasey Jones in Baltimore and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report. ___ This story has corrected a word in the 4th paragraph to 'tornado,' instead of 'funnel cloud.' Tornado damage along Richmond Highway in Appomattox County is shown on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. State police say at least seven people have been injured in Appomattox County, where a funnel cloud left an 8- to 10-mile path of destruction. (The News & Advance/News & Daily Advance via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT Alice Clerval stands in front of her home that was destroyed during storms in Appomattox County, Va., on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. (Jill Nance/The News & Advance via AP) Debris from chicken houses that were leveled in a severe storm is strewn along Millwood Road in Gap Pa. Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016 . The roof was blown off the house in the background. (Blaine Shahan/LNP Media Group via AP) Rescue Task Force team members check a chicken house that was blown down during a storm Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, on Millwood Road in Salisbury Township, Pa. Strong storms have moved through Pennsylvania causing multiple building collapses, tearing roofs off homes and downing trees and power lines. (Blaine Shahan/LNP Media Group via AP) Erin Freed walks her son, Mason, 5, home after picking him up from the bus during the snowfall in Mundelein, Ill., as snow fell in the suburbs of Chicago on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. (Gilbert R. Boucher II/Daily Herald via AP) In this aerial photo debris is scattered from farms and houses near the village of White Horse in Lancaster County, Pa., Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Strong storms have moved through Pennsylvania causing major damage in Lancaster County. (Dan Gleiter/PennLive.com via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT A chain of people pass poultry amongst the debris of a farm in the aftermath of a storm Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, in Gap, Pa. Crews in central and eastern Pennsylvania are working to restore electricity after strong storms moved across the state and possibly caused some tornadoes. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) The Latest: Dead pig found at German mosque building site BERLIN (AP) The Latest on the migrant crisis in Europe (all times local): 5:55 p.m. Police say a dead pig with Chancellor Angela Merkel's name daubed on it has been found at a construction site where a mosque is being built in the eastern German city of Leipzig. Refugees sleep on benches and on the floor, in a tent at the transit center for refugees near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, while waiting for permission to cross the border into Serbia, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Hundreds of migrants from Afghanistan and other nations remain stranded on borders of Macedonia with Serbia, unable to cross, and some of them forced backward toward Greece. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski) The animal's corpse had the words "Mutti Merkel" written on it in red letters. "Mutti," or "mom," has become a common nickname for the German leader over the years. Police spokesman Uwe Voigt said that "in view of the circumstances it appears likely that this is a xenophobic act," news agency dpa reported. Authorities were investigating. Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung condemned the incident. In a 2013 incident after plans for the mosque became known, pigs' heads were found at the same site. Police say no perpetrator has ever been found. ___ 5:50 p.m. An Albanian government minister says Albania will not build a wall to prevent Syrian refugees from transiting the tiny western Balkan country. European Integration Minister Klajda Gjosha said Thursday that Albanian authorities are aware of "a great number of Syrians waiting to enter Albania." Gjosha said the government is taking steps to cope with registering the arrivals. Albania, which has not been in the migrant route into Europe so far, has recently put up some shelters in the south with limited capacities. ___ 5:00 p.m. A French court has given the green light for the state to evict hundreds of migrants from their shelters at a camp in the northern port city of Calais. A court official said the Lille Administrative Court ruled on Thursday that French authorities can evict migrants from their tents and lean-tos in the densely populated southern portion of the camp but cannot entirely raze it. Common spaces like schools and places of worship must be kept in place. The official asked not to be named ahead of the official announcement. State authorities estimate that 800-1,000 live in the southern sector of the camp. Humanitarian groups say there are over 3,000. ___ 4:50 p.m. Albania's Interior Ministry says that Germany returned 458 asylum-seeking Albanians to their home country in January while 1,126 others returned voluntarily. Spokesman Ardian Bita also said Thursday that fewer Albanians sought asylum in Germany in January compared to the previous month, with 1,308 requests compared to 1,800 in December. Albania is one of Europe's poorest countries and many people there dream of a better life in Germany. But Germany has recently been trying to return economic migrants from the Balkans as it struggles to absorb huge numbers fleeing war in the Middle East. ___ 4:35 p.m. Germany's interior minister says unilateral measures by one or several countries aren't helpful as the European Union tries to stem the flow of migrants and find a coordinated approach. Berlin is pinning its hopes on cooperation with Ankara to stop migrants crossing to Greece ahead of a March 7 EU summit with Turkey. Germany and Greece were left out of an Austrian-hosted meeting Wednesday of countries situated on the migrant route. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Thursday: "We know how difficult the situation is for all concerned, but unilateral national measures only divert the problems to others." De Maiziere said Germany wants to see progress on the Turkey-Greece border by March 7. If there isn't any, he said countries should take unspecified "common, coordinated European measures." ___ 4:20 p.m. Albanian police have stopped 12 Pakistanis who had illegally crossed the border from neighboring Greece. Police spokesman Gentian Mullai said Thursday that the Pakistanis were found near the southernmost border crossing of Kakavie, 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the capital Tirana. He said they were kept there for a few hours of questioning before being sent back to Greece. Mullai said in a statement that they had hoped to pass through Montenegro and that their final destination was Germany. Albania has not been on the migrant route into Europe so far, and such crossings are very rare. ___ 3:30 p.m. Hungary is increasing its production of razor wire, posts and other elements needed to build border fences meant to stop the flow of migrants. Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs says that production is being sped up in case Hungary, which last year built fences on its borders with Serbia and Croatia, decides to also build a fence on the Romanian border, or if there is demand for the fence from other countries. Last year, Hungary sold neighboring Slovenia 24,000 rolls of razor wire, 16,000 fence posts and 48,000 fasteners and also donated 100 kilometers (62 miles) of razor wire, a pile driver and other equipment to Macedonia. Fence elements are manufactured in prison workshops. Inmates in Marianosztra, northern Hungary, produce around 100 rolls of razor wire a day. ___ 1:55 p.m. Greece's Foreign Ministry says it is recalling its ambassador to Austria back to Athens for consultations, a day after Austria held a meeting with officials from Balkan countries to discuss how to limit the numbers of migrants flowing into Europe, but excluded Greece. Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias recalled the ambassador Thursday "in order to safeguard the friendly relations between the states and the people of Greece and Austria," the ministry said in a statement. Greece's massive maritime border with Turkey and the close proximity of its islands to the Turkish coast have made it the main point of entry for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty at home and hoping for better lives in Europe. The ministry said it was "clear that the big problems of the European Union cannot be dealt with, with thoughts, mentalities and extra-institutional initiatives that have their roots in the 19th century." It said such acts could "undermine the foundations and the process of European unification." ___ 1 p.m. The European Union's head office says it fails to understand how Hungary's call for a national referendum on the EU's plan for each member to get a mandatory quota of resettled refugees could affect a decision that has already been made by all EU nations. Observers feel the proposal is an attempt by Prime Minister Viktor Orban to establish himself as a leader of those opposed to the EU refugee scheme. The EU plans to resettle 160,000 migrants who have arrived in overburdened Greece and Italy. But so far, barely 600 people have been relocated, and only some EU nations have offered places for them fewer than 5,000 spots in all. EU spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said EU Commission officials "fail to understand how it would fit into the decision-making process which was agreed to by all member states, including Hungary." She added "it appears the domestic debate on this issue is ongoing." ___ 12:10 p.m. Police in northern Greece say 400 mostly Syrian migrants have walked out of a transit camp near Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki, and are heading toward the country's border with Macedonia. Some 2,000 migrants were taken to the newly built camp on Wednesday as authorities scrambled to cope with delays at the border after Balkan countries imposed transit restrictions at the weekend. But the 400 migrants from Syria and Iraq demanded to be allowed to leave on Thursday and began walking or seeking others means of transport to reach the border town of Idomeni, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) to the north. Greece does not detain migrants from Syria, Iraq and several other countries considered eligible for asylum. ___ 11:45 a.m. Demolition crews are set to move into a sprawling slum camp in Calais for thousands of migrants trying to get to Britain, as French authorities try to close an embarrassing and often shocking chapter in Europe's migrant crisis. Closing the camp known as "the jungle" would be the most dramatic step by the French state to end Calais' yearslong migrant problem, which has transformed this port city into a high-security tension point, fueled far-right sentiment and defied British and French government efforts to make it go away. Critics contend that closing the camp may not solve the problem. An eviction deadline Tuesday for the camp's southern sector came and went, with migrants and humanitarian groups trying to stave off bulldozers via a legal complaint, a letter to the interior minister and public pleas. A judge at the Administrative Court in Lille is likely to decide Thursday on a request by humanitarian groups to postpone the destruction. ___ 11:40 a.m. German lawmakers have approved a package of measures meant to speed up the processing of migrants and cut the number of newcomers. Parliament voted 429-147 on Thursday for the package, with four abstentions. It foresees special centers being set up to quickly process migrants who have little realistic chance of winning asylum and means that some likely including some Syrians will have to wait longer to bring relatives to Germany. Germany registered nearly 1.1 million people as asylum seekers last year and officials are keen to ensure that the number is lower this year. Lawmakers also approved plans to amend laws so even a suspended prison sentence would be grounds for deportation if someone is found guilty of certain crimes including bodily harm, sexual assault or violent theft. ___ 11:20 a.m. France's interior minister is criticizing Belgium for tightening border controls over concerns about a flood of migrants from a camp in France. Belgium has sent up to 290 extra police officers to their common border after French authorities moved to close a migrant camp in Calais known as the jungle. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Thursday described Belgium's move as "a strange decision." He says such decisions can be done through dialogue, "and we can do it by informing the country concerned beforehand, which was not the case." Cazeneuve described work at the camp as a "humanitarian action" aimed at providing real shelter for migrants who have applied for asylum in France. He rejected fears that hundreds of migrants would move into Belgium. ___ 11:10 a.m. Thousands of people, mainly from Syria and Iraq, remain trapped at Greece's northern border with Macedonia after the latter drastically reduced the number of people it was allowing to cross to a trickle. About 2,800 people were waiting in a camp at the Idomeni border area Thursday, while another 800 people were about 17 kilometers (10 miles) away waiting at a roadside service station. Greek police said Macedonian authorities had allowed just 100 people to cross Thursday morning. Further south, dozens of families, many with young children, determined to reach the border area began walking north along a highway in central Greece after being stuck on buses due to roadblocks by farmers protesting pension reform. Police were attempting to stop the group, leading the refugees to stage a sit-in on the highway. ___ 10:45 a.m. Greece is maintaining its threat to take unilateral action if other EU nations take actions that would force Athens to shelter ever more migrants and refugees. Deputy Interior Minister Ioannis Mouzalas criticized a meeting in Vienna where Austria and many of its southern neighbors along the Balkan route agreed to tighter border controls and warned that sooner or later they will have to shut their doors entirely. The border closures would squeeze Greece in between the Balkan nations to the north and Turkey, from where most of the refugees come. With a full closure, Greece reception capacity could become overwhelmed in days. Speaking before a meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels, Mouzalas said: "Greece will not accept unilateral actions. Greece, too, can take unilateral action." ___ 9:40 a.m. Germany's Parliament is debating new measures meant to speed up the handling of migrants and cut their numbers, as well as legislation making it easier to deport foreigners who commit crimes. Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet has already approved the package of measures and they aren't expected to meet wide resistance in Thursday's vote. The plans involve using special centers to quickly process migrants who have little realistic chance of winning asylum. They'll also amend laws so even a suspended prison sentence would be grounds for deportation if someone is found guilty of certain crimes including bodily harm, sexual assault, violent theft or serial shoplifting. Those changes come after a spate of thefts and assaults on women in Cologne on New Year's Eve, blamed largely on foreigners. Syrian refugees stand in queue to receive food distributed by a non-governmental organization at a refugee camp in the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The Greek interior ministry said about 12,000 people have been stranded in Greece since neighbor Macedonia began turning Afghan immigrants away at the border and slowing the number of crossings for others heading to central and northern Europe. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) A Syria father helps his son to get dressed as stranded refugees wait to be allowed to cross the the Greek-Macedonian border near the northern Greek village of Idomeni,Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The Greek interior ministry said about 12,000 people have been stranded in Greece since neighbor Macedonia began turning Afghan immigrants away at the border and slowing the number of crossings for others heading to central and northern Europe. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) Refugees and migrants try to get food distributed by Greek volunteers after their arrival from the eastern Greek islands to the Athens' port of Piraeus, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Greece has threatened to block decisions at a forthcoming EU migration summit if sharing of the refugee burden is not made obligatory for member states. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) Men play cards in a tent at the transit center for refugees near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, while waiting for a permission to cross the border into Serbia, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. Hundreds of refugees and migrants from Afghanistan and other nations remain stranded on borders of Macedonia with Serbia, unable to cross, and some of them forced backward toward Greece. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski) Refugees stand in queue to receive food distributed by a non-governmental organization at a refugee camp in the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni , Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The Greek interior ministry said about 12,000 people have been stranded in Greece since neighbor Macedonia began turning Afghan immigrants away at the border and slowing the number of crossings for others heading to central and northern Europe. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) An Iraqi woman wrings a shirt as she hangs clothes to dry on an iron fence while, stranded refugees wait to be allowed to cross the Greek-Macedonian border near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The Greek interior ministry said about 12,000 people have been stranded in Greece since neighbor Macedonia began turning Afghan immigrants away at the border and slowing the number of crossings for others heading to central and northern Europe. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) Other migrants tend to two Pakistani men who tried to commit suicide by hanging themselves with twisted lengths of fabric from a tree in central Athens' Victoria Square on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Bystanders said the men were upset because of delays in their planned travel to northern Greece, from which migrants start their long trek through the Balkans to wealthier European countries. The men, one of whom was unconscious, were rushed to hospital. Victoria Square is where most newly-landed migrants head after reaching Athens from the Aegean Sea islands. (AP Photo/Thanassis Kamvyssis) German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center right, casts her vote during a asylum debate as part of a meeting of the German Federal Parliament, Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Germany's Parliament is debating new measures meant to speed up the handling of migrants and cut their numbers, as well as legislation making it easier to deport foreigners who commit crimes. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn) A man and children take apples, provided by humanitarian workers, at the transit center for refugees near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, while waiting for permission to cross the border into Serbia, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Hundreds of migrants from Afghanistan and other nations remain stranded on borders of Macedonia with Serbia, unable to cross, and some of them forced backward toward Greece. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski) Refugees and migrants take hot soup and bread, provided by humanitarian workers, at the transit center for refugees near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, while waiting for permission to cross the border into Serbia, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Hundreds of migrants from Afghanistan and other nations remain stranded on borders of Macedonia with Serbia, unable to cross, and some of them forced backward toward Greece. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski) An Iraqi refugee girl drinks milk in a tent at the transit center for refugees near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, while waiting for permission to cross the border into Serbia, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Hundreds of migrants from Afghanistan and other nations remain stranded on borders of Macedonia with Serbia, unable to cross, and some of them forced backward toward Greece. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski) A man sits near railway tracks at the transit center for refugees near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, while waiting for permission to cross the border into Serbia, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Hundreds of migrants from Afghanistan and other nations remain stranded on borders of Macedonia with Serbia, unable to cross, and some of them forced backward toward Greece. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski) Refugees and migrants queue up for hot soup and bread at the transit center for refugees near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, while waiting for permission to cross the border into Serbia, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Hundreds of migrants from Afghanistan and other nations remain stranded on borders of Macedonia with Serbia, unable to cross, and some of them forced backward toward Greece. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski) Vietnam protests Chinese actions in contested waters HANOI, Vietnam (AP) Vietnam is protesting recent actions by China in the disputed South China Sea, saying they threaten peace in the region. The commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. Harry Harris Jr., said this week that China has installed new radar on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratly Islands, and media reports say Beijing has sent fighter jets to Woody Island in the Paracels, where it has deployed anti-aircraft missiles. Asked about the reports, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said Thursday that China is conducting activities that seriously violate Vietnamese sovereignty and threaten peace, security and freedom of passage in the region. "Despite protests and concerns by Vietnam as well as the international community, China has continued with actions that not only seriously violate Vietnam's sovereignty, escalate militarization of the East Sea, but also threaten peace, stability in the region, and maritime and overflight security, safety and freedom," Binh said in a statement on the ministry's website. East Sea is the Vietnamese name for the South China Sea. He said Vietnam is protesting the actions and urging China to act responsibly to maintain peace and stability. Binh said Vietnam has "undisputable" sovereignty over the Paracels and Spratlys. Vietnam, China and Taiwan claim all of the Paracels, and the three along with the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim all or parts of the Spratlys. Massive land reclamation by China in the Spratlys and its other recent actions have caused concern among countries in the region and in the United States. France programs slow death for Calais migrant camp CALAIS, France (AP) A green light Thursday from a French court sets in motion the evacuation of a large swath of a sprawling migrant camp in Calais where thousands dream of getting to Britain, with promises of a progressive and humane process in what could be a slow death for the wind-swept outpost. But sceptics say the bid to end an embarrassing chapter in Europe's migrant crisis is not over, warning that many migrants will simply scatter along the northern coast. The state announced this month that the densely populated southern half of the camp known as the "jungle" would be razed. A Tuesday night deadline for migrants to pull up stakes was pushed back after human rights groups and migrants took the issue to court. A child rides his bicycle in a makeshift camp for migrants near Calais, France, Thursday Feb. 25, 2016. The clock is ticking for some hundreds of migrants waiting for a judge to decide whether to postpone an eviction order in the camp locally referred to as "the jungle". (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) In a partial victory for the state, the court in Lille ruled that the makeshift shelters where migrants sleep can be destroyed but that common spaces like places of worship, schools and a library that have sprung up must stand. The port city of Calais, with ferries and the Eurotunnel rail system to Britain, has for years lived with migrants escaping conflict, human rights abuses and poverty, hoping for the good life across the English Channel. Numerous small camps have been bulldozed inside the city. But the current camp, with an estimated 4,000 migrants, has transformed the port city into a high-security tension point, fueled far-right sentiment and defied efforts to make it go away. France's interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve lauded the court decision. Cazeneuve denied that bulldozers and police who began patrolling this month inside the camp would flatten the sprawling makeshift settlement. "It has never been our intention to send in bulldozers to destroy the camp," Cazeneuve said in remarks broadcast after the court ruling was announced. Officials estimate the number of migrants who will be affected at around 800 to 1,000. Humanitarian organizations say over 3,000 migrants live in the targeted southern sector. Authorities said they will increase daily efforts to move uprooted migrants into a container camp set up last month in the northern sector and encourage them to go to a temporary welcome centers where they can reconsider their plans and eventually apply for asylum in France. No time limit was set on what is likely to be a weeks-long process. "There will be people who try to stay as long as possible," said Francois Guennoc, an official with one of the associations that brought the legal action, Auberge des Migrants (Migrant Shelter). He has heard that some inside the camp have already left for other points, including Paris. The ruling "is going to prompt people to set up small improvised camps all over," said Michel Jansen of Doctors Without Borders. Like other critics, he said there are not enough available places to house the uprooted. And he pointed to the case of a Red Cross-run camp in nearby Sangatte used during its three-year existence by some 68,000 refugees that was shut down in 2002. Afterward, hundreds moved up the coast to set up small camps around Calais. Neighboring Belgium, concerned about an influx of Calais evacuees, began implementing border checks on Wednesday. Another filthy camp known as a haven for smugglers, near Dunkirk, France, is being relocated to a more hygienic site with heated tents under the supervision of Doctors Without Borders. In announcing plans to close the Calais camp, authorities cited security and sanitation concerns and the increasingly tarnished image of Calais, a city of nearly 80,000 that takes pride in drawing tourists to its Opal Coast. An increasingly bold tactic of migrants trying to sneak into trucks is exasperating drivers. But it is hard to dissuade weary travelers who come to Calais driven by a dream circulated among migrants, peddled by smugglers. Increased security has compounded the dangers for migrants trying to get to Britain. At least 20 have died since late June, according to the prefecture. "We have this border in Calais particularly difficult to trespass," said Prefect Fabienne Buccio, the region's state official, after the ruling. "It is now extremely dangerous to cross over to England ... There is no reason for migrants to come to Calais since they can no longer get to England from here." A "descent shelter" awaits them, she said, "and, most importantly, we will get them out of the hands of smugglers." An Afghan living at the camp, Hayat Sirat, was not tempted by one of the new shelters. "Going to Britain ... is what people (here) want," he said. "So destroying part of the jungle is not the solution." ___ Ganley reported from Paris. Ben Barnier and Chris Den Hond in Calais contributed to this report. A migrant family walk in the mud in a makeshift camp where over 1,000 migrants mostly from Iraqi Kurdistan live in Grand-Synthe, near the northern town of Dunkerque, France, Wednesday Feb. 24, 2016. The clock is ticking for hundreds of migrants in the nearby port city of Calais waiting for a judge to decide whether to postpone an eviction order in the camp locally referred to as "the jungle". (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) Volunteers help migrants build shelters in a makeshift camp for migrants near Calais, France, Thursday Feb. 25, 2016. The clock is ticking for hundreds of migrants waiting for a judge to decide whether to postpone an eviction order in the camp locally referred to as "the jungle". (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) A migrant looks for signal between containers set to replace a makeshift migrant camp near Calais, France, Thursday Feb. 25, 2016. The clock is ticking for hundreds of migrants waiting for a judge to decide whether to postpone an eviction order in the camp locally referred to as "the jungle". (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) A child rides his bicycle in a makeshift migrants camp near Calais, France, Thursday Feb. 25, 2016. A French court has given the green light for the state to evict some hundreds of migrants from their shelter in part of the camp locally referred to as "the jungle". (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) Migrants walk and play outside a makeshift migrants camp near Calais, France, Thursday Feb. 25, 2016. A French court has given the green light for the state to evict some hundreds of migrants from their shelter in part of the camp locally referred to as "the jungle". (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) Year after Nemtsov killing, Russian opposition under threat MOSCOW (AP) Every weekend Nadezhda Mityushkina comes to the bridge across from the Kremlin and sits down on the low stone parapet at the spot where charismatic opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down a year ago. Mityushkina and several dozen other opposition activists and regular Muscovites have been holding vigils at the site for a year now to try to prevent municipal workers or pro-government thugs from destroying the makeshift memorial to Nemtsov, who was shot dead shortly before midnight on Feb. 27, 2015. The brazen killing sent shivers down the spine of an opposition that had already been marginalized by President Vladimir Putin's systematic crackdown over recent years. While some have been driven into exile or have gone quiet in the year since then, those who stayed have grown increasingly defiant. FOR STORY RUSSIA NEMTSOV ANNIVERSARY - FILE In this Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015 file photo people lay flowers at the place where Boris Nemtsov, a charismatic Russian opposition leader and sharp critic of President Vladimir Putin, was gunned down, just off Red Square in Moscow, Russia. A year after the killing the Russian opposition is more beleaguered than ever, with its leaders branded as traitors and many of President Vladimir Putins critics driven into exile. (AP Photo/Denis Tyrin, File) "Seven or eight years ago, when people were jailed for 15 days, everyone was terrified, and then people got used to it," said Mityushkina, 53, who works with children with special needs. "Later, people were sentenced to lengthy prison terms, and everyone got used to that, too. Then Boris was killed. If you look at the past years you can see how things got scarier, and for me it was not a turning point but rather a point of no return." Opposition leaders are increasingly treated like lepers. For example, when Nemtsov's close ally Ilya Yashin was running for a seat in the local legislature in Kostroma outside Moscow last year, local printers refused to produce his leaflets and residents were afraid to canvass for him for fear they would be fired from their jobs. Anti-Putin protests in the winter of 2011-12 drew 100,000 at their peak, but the numbers then dwindled dramatically as a result of apathy at the lack of progress and fear of arrest. The largest opposition gathering in recent years was a march of mourning held two days after Nemtsov's death. The Moscow city government has refused to allow the opposition to hold a march past the site of the shooting on Saturday to mark the anniversary, but made a rare concession by allowing the march to take place in another central location. The turnout will serve as a test of the opposition's appeal at a time when Putin's approval ratings are over 80 percent. Kremlin-controlled media have branded everyone opposing Putin as traitors in the service of a hostile West, and Nemtsov was named one of the leaders of the "fifth column." For the opposition, it is this atmosphere of hatred and intolerance of dissent that made such a killing possible. Several Chechen men were arrested shortly after Nemtsov's slaying, including five who are due to go on trial this year. The suspected triggerman served as an officer in the security forces of the Moscow-backed Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. Nemtsov ally Yashin, who this week released a report on Kadyrov, said he was certain that the killers would not have acted without his approval. Kadyrov has denied any involvement. Nemtsov's death did not put an end to the incendiary comments about the opposition. Instead, as the one-year anniversary approached, Kadyrov launched a series of stinging attacks on the liberal opposition on his Instagram account, where he has 1.7 million followers. In language reminiscent of the Stalinist purges, he denounced opposition leaders as "enemies of the people." He posted a video featuring Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister, and fellow opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza seemingly in the crosshairs of a rifle. The video appeared particularly ominous as Kara-Murza nearly died last year of what he said was deliberate poisoning. A week later, Kasyanov had a cake thrown in his face at a Moscow restaurant by a group of men some said were Chechens. "It always starts with harmless pranks, and when society gets used to the fact that it is OK to behave like that toward opposition leaders ... that means tomorrow you can ratchet up the pressure," said Dmitry Gudkov, the only opposition member in Russia's parliament. "If the government does not crack down on this right now, it will mean that it either has no control of what is going on or that it has a role in it." Kasyanov said the attacks against the opposition reflect fears by those around Putin that the president's control is slipping. "That's why they are so hysterical about me and my activists," he said. In spite of the hostility toward them, opposition activists have been fighting to keep Nemtsov's memorial intact. Mourners started bringing flowers, candles and photographs to the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge on the night he was killed, but municipal workers along with Kremlin supporters have dismantled the memorial repeatedly. Each time, activists have stubbornly brought back new flowers and pictures. One activist set up a website to collect donations and arrange flower deliveries The government has turned down numerous requests to put up a monument or at least a plaque to commemorate Nemtsov, who in the 1990s served as a regional governor and then a deputy prime minister. One Moscow official argued that putting up a plaque on the bridge would mean honoring the crime, not the man; another said a monument on the bridge would be a hazard; a third claimed that it would cause controversy since City Hall also is receiving appeals not to put up the plaque. On Saturday, a week before the anniversary, Mityushkina, 53, and her friends were on the bridge waiting for a flower delivery. "It's important for us to keep his memory alive," she said. "If you imagine the plaque that should be here, the makeshift memorial is replacing it and we are like nuts and bolts of that plaque to keep it in place." Before a battered Chevy arrived, packed with tulips and roses, a middle-aged man passed by, laid down a bouquet of white chrysanthemums with a black ribbon on it and quickly walked away toward St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square. ___ Vitnija Saldava, Vladimir Isachenkov and Olga Tregubova contributed to this report. FOR STORY RUSSIA NEMTSOV ANNIVERSARY - FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2011 file photo, Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader, speaks to The Associated Press Television News in Moscow, Russia. Nemtsov, a top opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead late at night on Feb. 27, 2015, as he was walking just outside the Kremlin. A year after the killing, the Russian opposition is more beleaguered than ever, with its leaders branded as traitors. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) FOR STORY RUSSIA NEMTSOV ANNIVERSARY - FILE - EDS NOTE NUDITY, GRAPHIC CONTENTS - In this Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015 file photo police investigate the body of Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader and a former deputy prime minister, just off Red Square in Moscow, Russia. A year after the killing the Russian opposition is more beleaguered than ever, with its leaders branded as traitors and many of President Vladimir Putins critics driven into exile. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, file) FOR STORY RUSSIA NEMTSOV ANNIVERSARY - In this photo taken on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, Russian opposition activist Ilya Yashin talks to the Associated Press on a bridge, where Boris Nemtsov was shot dead a year ago, in Moscow, Russia. A year after the killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, the Russian opposition is more beleaguered than ever, with its leaders branded as traitors and many of President Vladimir Putins critics driven into exile. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) FOR STORY RUSSIA NEMTSOV ANNIVERSARY - FILE In this Friday, Oct. 9, 2015 file photo a man sweeps snow off a portrait of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov at the place where he was gunned down on Feb. 27, with the Kremlin in the back, in Moscow, Russia. A year after the killing the Russian opposition is more beleaguered than ever, with its leaders branded as traitors and many of President Vladimir Putins critics driven into exile. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr, File) FOR STORY RUSSIA NEMTSOV ANNIVERSARY - FILE In this Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015 file photo Russian police investigate the lifeless body of Boris Nemtsov, a former Russian deputy prime minister and opposition leader just off Red Square, with St. Basil Cathidral in the background, in Moscow, Russia. A year after the killing the Russian opposition is more beleaguered than ever, with its leaders branded as traitors and many of President Vladimir Putins critics driven into exile. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, file) FOR STORY RUSSIA NEMTSOV ANNIVERSARY - In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016 former Russian Prime Minister and one of opposition leaders Mikhail Kasyanov poses in his office in Moscow, Russia. A year after the killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, the Russian opposition is more beleaguered than ever, with its leaders branded as traitors and many of President Vladimir Putins critics driven into exile. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) FOR STORY RUSSIA NEMTSOV ANNIVERSARY - In this photo taken on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, Dmitry Gudkov, the only opposition member in Russias parliament, poses in State Duma, lower parliament chamber, in Moscow, Russia. A year after the killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, the Russian opposition is more beleaguered than ever, with its leaders branded as traitors and many of President Vladimir Putins critics driven into exile. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) Possible choice of Nevada governor tests Senate Republicans WASHINGTON (AP) The possible choice of Nevada's Republican governor for the Supreme Court vacancy would give President Barack Obama a chance at breaking Senate Republicans' planned blockade of any election-year confirmation. Brian Sandoval, Nevada's first Hispanic governor and a supporter of abortion rights, would test the unified Republican caucus' insistence that voters in November and the next president should make the lifetime appointment to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. The White House is considering the 52-year-old Sandoval, two people familiar with the process said Wednesday. The two people declined to be named because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the possible replacement for Scalia. FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2016 file photo, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval participates in the National Governors Association Winter Meeting in Washington. Two people familiar with the process say the White House is considering Sandoval as one of several potential nominees to the Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File) Still, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that regardless of whom Obama nominates, likely in the next few weeks, "This nomination will be determined by whoever wins the presidency in the fall." Senate Democrats plan to stand in front of the Supreme Court at noon on Thursday and renew their demand that the Senate consider the president's nominee with hearings and a vote. Some organizations made clear that they would have serious problems with the selection. "Sandoval's checkered history on reproductive freedom should raise some serious flags - it certainly has for us," said NARAL Pro-Choice America in a statement. Before Sandoval became the state's first Hispanic governor, he was the state's first Hispanic federal judge. In Nevada, Sandoval's critics have more often come from the right than the left. In November 2012, he became the first Republican governor to expand Medicaid as part of Obama's health care law, drawing fire from conservative members of his party. Sandoval also has been criticized for raising taxes. Limited to two terms, Sandoval's final term as governor expires in early 2019. He announced last year that he would not seek the seat of retiring Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader, in this November's election, a race in which Sandoval would have been a strong favorite. Mari St. Martin, Sandoval's communications director, said Wednesday that the governor hasn't been contacted by the White House. At the National Governors Association meeting over the weekend, Sandoval said he was honored his name was mentioned as a potential successor for Scalia but had heard nothing to think Obama is considering him. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said Wednesday that the leader's office is working with the White House to schedule a meeting with the president, but noted that his position wasn't likely to change much. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the president is also hoping to meet with Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley of Iowa. Sandoval's consideration was first reported by The Washington Post. ___ Japan utility admits it delayed report of Fukushima meltdown TOKYO (AP) The operator of Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear plant acknowledged Thursday it failed for two months to announce that meltdowns had occurred in the cores of three of the reactors. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said its officials were unaware of a company emergency manual that defined a meltdown as damage exceeding 5 percent of a reactor's fuel. Instead, TEPCO described the condition of the reactors as less serious "core damage" for two months after the plant was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, despite early damage estimates ranging from 25 to 55 percent. FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2011 file photo, the Unit 4 reactor building of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station is seen through a bus window in Okuma, Japan when the media was allowed into Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant for the first time. The operator of the damaged nuclear plant has acknowledged it failed for two months to announce that meltdowns had occurred in the cores of three of the reactors. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 its officials were unaware of a company emergency manual that defined a meltdown as damage exceeding 5 percent of a reactor's fuel. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, Pool, File) TEPCO has been accused of softening its language to cover up the seriousness of the disaster. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Japan's nuclear regulatory unit at the time of the accident, was also reluctant to use the word "meltdown" and replaced a spokesman after he suggested one day after the disaster that one had occurred. His successors further softened their description, saying there was only external damage to the fuel cladding. TEPCO said its initial wording may have been misleading, but didn't affect its response. "Core damage or meltdown, it didn't make any difference in how we responded to the emergency, which was to cool the cores no matter what," TEPCO spokesman Shinichi Nakakuki said. He said the company promptly reported the estimated damage percentage to the government as required by law. In May 2011, TEPCO finally adopted the term "meltdown" after a computer simulation showed fuel in one reactor had almost entirely melted and fallen to the bottom of the primary containment chamber, and that two other reactor cores had melted significantly. Experts are developing remote-controlled robots to locate and assess the melted fuel key to a successful decommissioning of the plant, which will take decades. TEPCO and government officials in charge of the cleanup of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant say they are unaware of any internationally accepted definition of what constitutes a meltdown, and don't know where the company's 5 percent benchmark came from when it was set in 2003. TEPCO said it discovered the emergency manual this month and promised an investigation into why it was overlooked. ___ This article has been corrected to show that the nuclear agency spokesman made his comment one day after the accident, not several days. ___ Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at twitter.com/mariyamaguchi Spain: Man arrested for spreading IS armed group propaganda MADRID (AP) Spanish police have arrested a Moroccan man for allegedly posting pro-Islamic State armed group videos and other propaganda on the Internet. An Interior Ministry statement said the 20-year-old was arrested Thursday in Spain's North African enclave city of Ceuta. The ministry said the man had become more radical in recent weeks, posting videos of IS executions of prisoners on Internet sites he managed, as well as pictures of alleged IS members with weapons. He also posted a photograph of himself with a handgun. The detention comes after police in Ceuta on Tuesday arrested three suspected members of a jihadi cell that sought to recruit IS fighters. A fourth was arrested in Morocco. Italy's fashion elite resists tendency toward fast fashion MILAN (AP) Behind the scenes at Milan Fashion Week, the industry's future is shaping up to be a game of fast vs. slow fashion. Word has rippled across the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel of a movement to speed up the fashion cycle and strut runway creations straight into store windows and consumers' shopping bags. But that notion faces resistance in the Italian fashion system. Italy, after all, gave birth to the slow food movement in the late 1980s after the arrival of the first McDonald's in the heart of Rome, seen as an affront to the nation's world renowned tradition of culinary excellence. So, too, is this new interpretation of fast fashion an anathema to Italian craftsmanship. Guests film models with their smart phones during the Costume National women's Fall-Winter 2016-2017 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Carlo Capasa, president of Italy's fashion chamber, said Italian fashion is driven by "a spirit to create desire," whereas fast fashion is "to satisfy a need." "The different between creating a desire and satisfying a need is the difference between slow fashion and fast fashion," he said. Not only does it take time and research to create fashion innovations both in terms of innovative designs and new techniques it takes time for the public to fully grasp them, he said. "Because if a creator is a true creative, he is proposing something that doesn't really exist," he said, making the incubation period between presentation and sale important "for people to understand the message." Mario Boselli, the honorary chairman of Italy's fashion chamber, views the debate as a contrast between the U.S. and U.K. business models in the fashion industry and the approach favored by the French and Italians. "New York has always been the land of branding and marketing. We and France, we are more the area of creativity and manufacturing," Boselli said. "I think the logic is different. They follow their interest, we follow ours." And what if consumers can't wait? "The world is wide and varied," Boselli replied. Designers themselves see an inherent danger in immediately gratifying the push for novelty, what Ennio Capasa, the founder of Costume National, called "the crisis of Twitter" that has caused youth to quickly grow tired of things. "The risk of satisfying the market is to not spark emotions. The system becomes flat, less emotional. It does not favor us designers," said Ennio Capasa, who is also the fashion chamber president's brother. For Fausto Puglisi, an Italian designer who first found success in the United States, the idea of shortening the cycle is wearying. "People should understand, if you make something that is about research and luxury and beauty, it needs time," Puglisi said. "I don't understand what is going to happen in the future. We can kill ourselves." One compromise could be to get select items straight to the consumer. In that vein, Prada has announced that two bags will be available immediately in its Milan, Paris, London and New York stores after Thursday's preview show. "This is another story," Carlo Capasa said. "This is communication. If that becomes a form of communication, this is good." A model wears a creation for Costume National women's Fall-Winter 2016-2017 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) A model wears a creation for Costume National women's Fall-Winter 2016-2017 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Models wear creations for Costume National women's Fall-Winter 2016-2017 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Models wear creations for Costume National women's Fall-Winter 2016-2017 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) A model wears a creation for Costume National women's Fall-Winter 2016-2017 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) From Western Union to Apple: When tech battled government NEW YORK (AP) The fight between Apple and the FBI over access to a San Bernardino killer's iPhone isn't the first time industry and government have tangled over privacy and security. Every revolution in communications technology has sparked new battles over its use that changed the course of law enforcement, surveillance and civil liberties. Here are a few famous cases that helped establish the rules that govern the government's access to our conversations and other personal details: THE TELEGRAPH FILE - This May 16, 1944 file photo shows a t device used by Western Union which translates a telegram into holes on a tape, and then passes it along to the box-like apparatus at upper left. The fight between the FBI and Apple over access to a San Bernardino killers iPhone isnt the first time industry and government have tangled over privacy and security. With every revolution in communications technology, new fights have emerged that changed the course of law enforcement, surveillance and civil liberties. (AP Photo) The telegraph upended nineteenth-century notions of time and distance, making possible same-day and sometimes faster communication where previously it had taken days or weeks for a mailed letter to arrive by train or steamer. Its users, though, had little expectation of privacy. All messages passed through the hands of telegraph operators, and the telegrams themselves were easily accessible to government agents. Many states had privacy laws forbidding the telegraph company to let others read a telegram meant for you, according to a Mississippi Law Journal article by Wesley MacNeil Oliver, a Duquesne University law professor. But it was far less clear what evidence the government needed to present a court to justify a wiretap. Western Union, eager to let customers know it was looking out for their privacy, jumped at the opportunity to object to government subpoenas in the mid-to-late 1800s. The company would argue that the government's requests for information were too broad and that they were unreasonable searches not permitted by the Constitution. The company's efforts helped set a standard for telegram subpoenas, Oliver wrote. For instance, the government had to provide a "reasonably accurate description of the paper wanted, either by its date, title, substance, or the subject it relates to," instead of just requesting an "indiscriminate search" for information contained in a broad swath of telegrams, he said. THE TELEPHONE Law enforcement efforts soared with Prohibition, leading to a confrontation with phone technology. A particularly famous case revolved around Roy Olmstead, a former Seattle police officer who became known as "King of the Northwest Bootleggers" for running a ring of liquor importers and distributors in the 1920s. Federal agents tapped the phone company's wires outside Olmstead's company offices and by his home in an era when there was no warrant requirement for doing so, said Richard Hamm, a history professor at the State University of New York at Albany. Evidence gathered from the taps was crucial to Olmstead's conviction. The case went to the Supreme Court, where four of the then-major phone companies filed briefs in support of the convicted bootlegger, arguing that the warrantless wiretaps violated constitutional prohibitions on unreasonable searches and self-incrimination. The Supreme Court upheld Olmstead's conviction in 1928, ruling the wiretap evidence allowable since Olmstead's physical house wasn't searched nor his papers seized. But the decision galvanized legislative efforts to ban wiretapping by federal agents, Hamm said. The 1934 Communications Act, which regulated telecommunications and set up the FCC, also criminalized wiretapping and barred the use of wiretap evidence in court. Almost 30 years later, another Supreme Court case involving the FBI bugging of a public telephone booth largely overturned the Olmstead decision. The high court used the case to lay out the broad principle that the Fourth Amendment protects individual privacy, said Washington University Law professor Neil Richards, and not just the "physical sanctity of the home." THE TELEPHONE RINGS TWICE A 1977 Supreme Court case, United States v. New York Telephone Co., features prominently in the Justice Department's case against Apple, largely because it revived and reinterpreted a law as old as the Constitution for the modern age. In that case, a regional AT&T subsidiary gave FBI agents information but refused to lease them phone lines to install a "pen register" a device that records the numbers dialed on a phone to investigate a gambling ring. The company argued that it couldn't do so with a warrant under then-current wiretap law. A federal judge, backed by an appeals court, forced the company to provide technical assistance to the government. The case made its way to the Supreme Court, which found the lower court had the right to compel the phone company's assistance under the 1789 All Writs Act, which allows federal courts to issue "necessary or appropriate" orders in line with legal rulings. The Justice Department has cited the same law against Apple. As Justice Byron White wrote in the majority opinion: "The power conferred by the Act extends, under appropriate circumstances, to persons who, though not parties to the original action or engaged in wrongdoing, are in a position to frustrate the implementation of a court order or the proper administration of justice." The All Writs Act isn't a blank check, said Derek Bambauer, a law professor at the University of Arizona. The subject of a court order can't be too far removed from the case, so as Bambauer puts it, "you can't order an independent third party firm to hack into the phone in question." The order also can't place unreasonable burdens on the third party, and it must be necessary for the warrant. FILE - In this Sept. 25, 2015 file photo, a Apple iPhone 6S is displayed at an Apple store on Chicago. The fight between Apple and the FBI over access to a San Bernardino killers iPhone isnt the first time industry and government have tangled over privacy and security. Every revolution in communications technology has sparked new fights over its use that changed the course of law enforcement, surveillance and civil liberties. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato) FILE - This undated photo shows a rotary dial telephone in Houston. The fight between Apple and the FBI over access to a San Bernardino killers iPhone isnt the first time industry and government have tangled over privacy and security. Every revolution in communications technology has sparked new fights over its use that changed the course of law enforcement, surveillance and civil liberties. (Dan Hardy/Houston Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT Opposition wins control in Jamaica, ousts prime minister KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) The opposition narrowly won Jamaica's parliamentary elections Thursday, defeating the party led by the first female prime minister to govern the largest English-speaking country in the Caribbean. Preliminary results from the Electoral Commission showed the Jamaica Labor Party capturing 33 spots in the 63-seat Parliament, enough to form a government. With discontent high among Jamaicans over high crime and a poor economy, turnout was around 47 percent. The leader of the Jamaica Labor Party, Andrew Holness, was greeted by cheering supporters as he arrived at party headquarters in the capital following the announcement of the results in a hard-fought fight with the People's National Party of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2015, file photo, Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller attends a multilateral meeting at the Caribbean Energy Security Summit at the State Department in Washington. Simpson Miller is fighting to keep her job amid high crime and unemployment in the largest country in the English-speaking Caribbean. Voters in Jamaica are choosing a new Parliament on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, and polls show it is likely to be a close race between the ruling Peoples National Party of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and the opposition Jamaica Labor Party. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File) Holness, ready to form a government as the new prime minister, pledged to create jobs and grow the economy while improving education and health care. "We don't take it that we have won a prize," he told the crowd. "The cost of victory is to keep the commitments we have made." Simpson Miller became the country's first female leader in 2006. That first term ended in 2007, but she returned as prime minister in 2011 amid a shrinking economy and one of the highest levels of debt relative to GDP in the world. Her government negotiated a $930 million aid package with the IMF. The Jamaican dollar has declined, the cost of living has gone up and wages have been stagnant. The IMF, however, has praised the government for cutting debt and making other reforms to its economy and the country's stock market was rated among the best performing in the world last year. "It makes no sense we stop the progress now," said voter Herbert Hall. "We've made a lot of progress with the economy and development. It would be chaos if we change now." But Holness' campaign pledge to make the economy more dynamic with cuts to the income tax and other measures resonates with many in a country with widespread poverty and a youth unemployment rate above 30 percent. "I'm voting for change," Velma Johnson said as she waited to cast her ballot. "Wages are frozen and there's a lot of arrogance about this government." Polish prosecutors to probe secret files on Lech Walesa WARSAW, Poland (AP) Prosecutors of Poland's historical institute are investigating the authenticity of documents the institute has released that purport to show that Solidarity founder Lech Walesa collaborated with the communist regime in the 1970s for money, the institute's head said Thursday. Walesa, 72, former president, the founder of the Solidarity freedom movement that helped topple communism in 1989 and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, denies he informed the security police on anyone and denies he ever took money from them. He says the documents are forged. Lukasz Kaminski, head of the National Remembrance Institute, said that based on Walesa's statement, special prosecutors have opened a probe into documents alleging that Walesa collaborated under the codename "Bolek." Among the documents are reports on worker discontent at the Gdansk shipyard, where Walesa worked, receipts for money signed "Bolek" and finally the discharge of Bolek in 1976, when he was no longer considered a valuable source. Documents photographed in Warsaw,, Monday, Feb. 22, 2016. Polish state archive released documents which allegedly show that democracy leader and former president Lech Walesa collaborated with the communist secret police in the 1970s, before he took leadership of a movement that eventually helped topple communism. The Institute of National Remembrance allowed journalists to view hundreds of photocopied pages which it says come from the file on Walesa. At bottom is local spelling for Walesa and "Bolek" was a codname. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) Last week the institute seized the documents from the home of the last communist-era interior minister, the late Gen. Czeslaw Kiszczak, acting on a law that requires key historical document to be handed in. It rushed to make photocopies of the documents available to journalists and historians, before having them checked by graphologists or other experts who could say whether they were authentic. Police are known to have fabricated documents during that time. If the investigation proves that all or some of the documents were fabricated or forged, the authors could face prosecution. China: UN resolution will impact China-NKorea exchanges WASHINGTON (AP) A U.N. resolution proposed against North Korea after its recent nuclear test and rocket launch will affect exchanges with its traditional ally China, that country's top diplomat said Thursday. Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in Washington for talks with top U.S. officials, said the resolution would entail actions "to limit the development of nuclear missile technologies" in North Korea, but he provided no details. Diplomats said Wednesday that the U.S. and China have agreed upon a resolution. The U.S. said a draft of resolution was due to be submitted Thursday to the Security Council, the U.N.'s top decision-making body. A mock Scud-B missile of North Korea, center, and other South Korean missiles are displayed at the Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The United States and China have reached agreement on a U.N. resolution that would impose tougher sanctions on North Korea as punishment for its latest nuclear test and rocket launch, U.N. diplomats said Wednesday.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) China has been critical of neighboring North Korea's Jan. 6 underground nuclear explosion and Feb. 7 rocket launch, but as its main trading partner and supporter on the council, it has been reluctant to impose measures that could threaten the isolated nation's stability and cause its economy to collapse. "We are saying to the international community, and we have the understanding of other members on the Security Council, that the normal exchanges, especially those affecting the livelihood of the North Korean people, should not be adversely affected," Wang told the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. "On the other hand, in order to uphold the international nuclear nonproliferation regime, for the sake of denuclearization, our exchanges will be affected to some extent. And this has not come as a surprise to us," he said. The U.S. has been pushing China to increase pressure on Pyongyang, and last week President Barack Obama signed into law tough new U.S. sanctions that could hit Chinese banks and companies that deal with North Korea. The U.S. and close ally South Korea are also considering deployment of a missile defense system, strongly opposed by China. Wang said that Washington and Seoul must also consider China's national security interests. He played down the influence Beijing has over North Korea, saying that ultimately, "the DPRK will go in the direction it has set for itself." He was referring to North Korea by the abbreviation for its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. He called for resumption of international nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang, hosted by China, that have been in limbo for eight years. China is urging parallel talks both on denuclearization the top priority of the United States and replacing the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a formal peace treaty a key demand of Pyongyang. "We must not give up on peace talks which provide the only viable solution to the nuclear issue," Wang said. South Korean protesters shout slogans during a rally to oppose the possible deployment of the United States' advanced defense system THAAD, or Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, on Korea Peninsula, in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The United States and China have reached agreement on a U.N. resolution that would impose tougher sanctions on North Korea as punishment for its latest nuclear test and rocket launch, U.N. diplomats said Wednesday. The signs read " Oppose deployment of the THAAD." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) Some experts contend Brazil is exaggerating Zika crisis RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) Often drowned out by the dire warnings and fear surrounding Zika, some medical professionals are saying that Brazil and international health officials have prematurely declared a link between the virus and what appears to be a surge in birth defects. A few even argue that the Brazilian government is being irresponsible, given that a connection hasn't been scientifically proven between the mosquito-borne virus and the birth defect known as microcephaly, which causes infants to be born with abnormally small heads. "It's a global scandal. Brazil has created a worldwide panic," said Alexandre Dias Porto Chiavegatto Filho, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Sao Paulo, one of the most-respected universities in Latin America. "I'm not saying that Zika is not causing microcephaly, but I am saying that the ministry has yet to present any scientifically credible evidence to support that conclusion." A municipal health worker draws blood from 3-month-old Shayde Henrique, who was born with microcephaly, in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. U.S. and Brazilian health workers knocked on doors in the poorest neighborhoods of one of Brazil's poorest states Tuesday in a bid to enroll mothers in a study aimed at determining whether the Zika virus is really causing a surge in birth defects. The teams started in Joao Pessoa, the capital of Paraiba state which is one of the epicenters of Brazil's tandem Zika and microcephaly outbreaks. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Chiavegatto and others argue there are still too many unanswered questions to blame Zika. Why are the vast majority of the cases of microcephaly being reported in Brazil? Why haven't they also shown up in proportional numbers in other countries hit hard by Zika, such as Colombia? (The answer, some say, is that Brazil was hit by Zika first, and microcephaly cases might be expected to crest elsewhere in the months ahead.) And how can conclusions be drawn from government statistics that are flawed and possibly vastly underreported in the past, before Brazilian officials required doctors to report microcephaly cases? In an article published Wednesday by the Annals of Internal Medicine, 14 Brazilian and American researchers said the link between Zika and microcephaly "remains presumptive." The strongest evidence is circumstantial, they said, and there are challenges in confirming the connection. But Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Castro recently said he was "absolutely sure" of a causal link between Zika and microcephaly. He and other scientific experts around the world have pointed to studies that detected the presence of Zika in the brains of dead fetuses and in the placentas of babies diagnosed with microcephaly in the womb. While visiting Brazil on Wednesday, Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, said microcephaly can be caused by many things but that her organization was affirming that "Zika is responsible (for it in Brazil) until evidence to the contrary emerges." And the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned pregnant women against traveling to more than 30 destinations where the virus has been registered, most in Latin America. Every week, the evidence is "getting stronger and stronger," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday. He cited several published cases where the virus was found after fetal or newborn deaths. Still, despite the heavyweight support and anecdotal evidence, some critics are not satisfied. Luis Correia, who teaches scientific method at the Bahia School of Medicine and Public Health, said the small-scale studies cited by health officials don't equal proof. "There appears to be a sort of scientific illiteracy within the ministry that has led them to mix up association with causality," said Correia. "They are confusing hypothesis with fact." Correia compared the situation to finding a bystander at the scene of a murder. That person could have committed the crime or just have been a witness. Correia and Chiavegatto stressed that another unknown factor, either alone or in tandem with Zika, might be triggering microcephaly. Both suggested that because the majority of mothers of babies with the condition are poor women from Brazil's less-developed northeast, this theoretical unknown factor could be lurking in poverty and poor living conditions. Some speculate that politics, not science, may have pushed Brazil's health ministry to jump the gun on Zika. The line of thinking is that President Dilma Rousseff's deeply unpopular, scandal-plagued government is facing so many problems that health officials felt compelled to err on the side of caution and a robust response. This week, the CDC and Brazilian health officials started work in Paraiba aimed at trying to scientifically establish the link. Several CDC teams hope to recruit more than 100 mothers with babies with microcephaly, and two to three times that number of mothers with healthy infants born around the same time and in the same area. The recruitment phase will take at least four or five weeks, and it's unclear how long the teams will need to analyze the data. There are also many questions surrounding Brazil's baseline of microcephaly cases. Since October, the Health Ministry says 5,640 cases of microcephaly have been reported. Of those, 950 have been discarded and 583 have been confirmed as microcephaly. The remaining cases are still being investigated. Before this outbreak, authorities said that on average Brazil had about 150 reported cases a year. If true, that would mean the country had a rate that was only a fraction of that of much richer countries. "It is possible that the baseline number in Brazil includes a lot of underreporting," said Ganeshwaran H. Mochida, a pediatric neurologist and researcher at Boston Children's Hospital. And of the 583 confirmed cases of microcephaly, only 67 have been connected to Zika by blood tests. Government health officials argue that the presence of the virus can't always be detected, as it doesn't stay active in the body more than a few weeks. There are also anomalies, such as in southern Sao Paulo state, far from the hard-hit northeast. On Jan. 30, the Health Ministry reported 101 cases of microcephaly, a huge jump from the total of 18 for the two previous months combined. "It's very difficult to make any conclusions based on this data," said Eugene Brusilovskiy, a statistics lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. "The weight of the reporting is not uniform. There is also not uniformity from state to state, or from week to week." ___ Prengaman reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press writer Bruce Douglas in Rio de Janeiro, Joshua Goodman in Recife, Southern Cone news director Victor Caivano in Buenos Aires and Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed to this report. ___ Follow Jenny Barchfield on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JennyBarchfield and Peter Prengaman: https://twitter.com/peterprengaman A municipal health worker sprays insecticide in a junk yard to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the Zika virus in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, Monday, Feb. 22, 2016. A 16-member team of the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is starting work on a "case-control" study aimed at determining whether the Zika virus really does cause babies to be born with the devastating birth defect microcephaly, as Brazilian researchers strongly suspect. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Brazils President Dilma Rousseff, right, and Director-General of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, pose for photo with a T-shirt of the mosquito eradication program, during a meeting at the Planalto Presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. Chan is on a two-day visit to Brazil. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres) FILE - This January 2016 microscope image provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the Zika virus. On Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, the CDC said it is investigating more than a dozen possible Zika infections that may have been spread through sex. The 14 cases all involve men who visited areas with Zika outbreaks, and who many have infected their female sex partners, who had not traveled. (Cynthia Goldsmith/CDC via AP) A soldier carrying a fumigating machine enters a home as residents wait outside in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Feb. 22, 2016. Cuban President Raul Castro announced Monday that he is dispatching soldiers to help keep the Zika virus out of Cuba, calling on the entire country to help kill the mosquito that carries the disease. Castro says Cuba has yet to report a case of Zika. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan) Brazilian and U.S. health workers from the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) talk with a resident as they search for mothers and infants to recruit for a study aimed at determining whether the Zika virus is causing babies to be born with a birth defect affecting the brain in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. Their goal is to persuade about 100 mothers of infants recently born with the defect as well to enroll in the study. They also need participation as controls of two to three times as many mothers from the same areas who delivered babies without microcephaly at about the same time. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Environmentalists sue for more rules to protect sage grouse BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) Environmental groups sued Thursday to force the Obama administration to impose more restrictions on oil and gas drilling, grazing and other activities blamed for the decline of greater sage grouse across the American West. A sweeping sage grouse conservation effort that the government announced last September is riddled with loopholes and will not be enough to protect the bird from extinction, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Idaho. It follows several legal challenges against the same rules from the opposite end of the political spectrum. Mining companies, ranchers and officials in Utah, Idaho and Nevada argue that the administration's actions will impede economic development. A male sage grouse struts in the early morning hours April 22, 2015 on a lek outside Baggs, Wyoming. Environmental groups sued Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, to force the Obama administration to impose more restrictions on oil and gas drilling, grazing and other activities blamed for the decline of greater sage grouse across the American West. (Dan Cepeda/The Casper Star-Tribune via AP) The ground-dwelling sage grouse, known for their elaborate mating ritual, range across a 257,000-square-mile region spanning 11 states. The new rules and land use policies for federal lands in the region were meant to keep the popular game bird off the endangered species list. They are backed by more than $750 million in commitments from the government and outside groups to conserve land and restore the bird's range. But the lawsuit from the Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity and two other groups said the rules have too many exceptions favorable to industry at the expense of the bird. "Each state had its own specific loophole," said Erik Molvar with WildEarth Guardians, another plaintiff in the case. "For Wyoming, there are huge loopholes for oil and gas. Nevada has loopholes for geothermal power. In southeastern Oregon, there were loopholes for wind farms. And everywhere there are loopholes for transmission projects." Interior Department spokeswoman Jessica Kershaw declined to comment directly on the lawsuit, but she said the government's conservation plans follow the best science and were crafted in partnership with state and local officials. "The plans are both balanced and effective, protecting key sage-grouse habitat and providing for sustainable development," Kershaw said in an emailed statement. The grouse population once was estimated at 16 million birds across North America. It's lost roughly half its habitat to development, livestock grazing and an invasive grass that encourages wildfires in the Great Basin of Nevada and adjoining states. There are now an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 greater sage grouse. The Prairie Hills Audubon Society of South Dakota was another plaintiff in Thursday's suit. Notably absent was its parent organization, the National Audubon Society. The influential, New York-based advocacy group supports the administration's plans and wants them to be given time to work, spokesman Nicholas Gonzalez said. ___ Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at https://twitter.com/matthewbrownap . Sage grouse gather on the prairie Monday, Feb. 9, 2015 near Pinedale, Wyoming. Environmental groups sued Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, to force the Obama administration to impose more restrictions on oil and gas drilling, grazing and other activities blamed for the decline of greater sage grouse across the American West. (Alan Rogers/The Casper Star-Tribune via AP) In Chicago, Sanders found his place in civil rights movement CHICAGO (AP) Bernie Sanders was in his first year at the University of Chicago, 20 and with a thick New York accent, when he took to the steps of the administration building to rail against a university policy of racially segregated housing. "We feel it is an intolerable situation, when Negro and white students of the university cannot live together in university-owned apartments," Sanders told a crowd of about 200 students that afternoon in January 1962. Then he and a few dozen students headed to the fifth floor, where they began a 15-day sit-in outside the university president's office, passing their time reading and eating dinners of donated cheese and salami sandwiches. As Sanders and fellow Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton jockey for support from black and Latino voters ahead of Saturday's South Carolina primary, much of the debate has centered around which candidate has a stronger record of fighting for minorities. The issue could be especially important in South Carolina, where black voters form a majority of the Democratic electorate. In their last primary contest, in Nevada, a large majority of blacks supported Clinton amid questions about Sanders' early commitment to civil rights. In this 1962 photo provided by Magnum Photos, University of Chicago student Bernie Sanders, center, and other CORE activists attending a sit-in at the university during the civil rights movement. As Sanders and fellow Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton jockey for support from black and Latino voters, much of the debate has centered around which candidate has a stronger record of fighting for minorities. (Danny Lyon/Magnum Photos via AP) As a U.S. senator from Vermont, which has a tiny black population, Sanders has faced skepticism from black voters about his longstanding involvement in race relations. Earlier in the primary he tangled with Black Lives Matters protesters, who complained at the time that his message of addressing economic inequality would not always serve as an antidote to systemic racism. But it's clear Sanders was at least a local civil rights leader, taking action on campus and in Chicago neighborhoods at a time when such activities were primarily happening in the South, according to an Associated Press review of contemporaneous news coverage and interviews with former classmates of Sanders. They recall a student who was serious-minded about politics, if not his studies, and inclined toward long discussions of public policy. He once wrote more than 1,500 words critical of campus rules forbidding students from having sex that filled a full page of the school newspaper. He became active in the campus chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality after arriving in Chicago in the fall of 1961 and before the academic year ended was voted the group's chairman. In 1963, two weeks before Martin Luther King Jr.'s march on Washington, Sanders was arrested at a demonstration against segregation in Chicago schools. "As far as whites go, he was in the top 1/1000th of 1 percent of people who acted, took it seriously and were willing to put themselves on the line," said Mike Parker, a former classmate who was arrested with Sanders and about 150 other protesters that day. Parker was released; Sanders and three others described by prosecutors as having "engineered" the protests were later fined $25 each, according to a 1964 Chicago Tribune article. "It was just the beginning of the civil rights movement, and there were very few whites willing to stand up and take a chance, not only to speak of politics but to get arrested for it," added Parker, now 75 and an activist in California. "He was one of the few." Clinton took the stage in Chicago earlier this month with the mother of Sandra Bland, a black woman found dead in a Texas jail cell. Erica Garner, whose father, Eric Garner, died after police put him in a chokehold, is featured in a pro-Sanders campaign ad and stumped with him in South Carolina. Sanders' campaign has highlighted his civil rights activism in ads in South Carolina, just as Clinton's campaign has highlighted her own record on the issue. Through Monday, at least one in five of Sanders' television ads there featured a direct reference to his civil rights work or his stances on racial issues, according to data from Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group. One features Benjamin Jealous, a former NAACP president, comparing Sanders' work with his own parents' activism. Sanders is someone who "came up in the Congress of Racial Equality," Jealous says. Another ad quotes Martin Luther King Jr. and says, "Bernie Sanders. He was there when Doctor King marched on Washington." Scrutiny of Sanders also has increased. Civil rights icon John Lewis, backing Clinton, appeared to question Sanders' role, saying recently, "I never saw him." The Georgia congressman later clarified his comments, saying he didn't intend to doubt Sanders' participation. Another flap involved a photograph from the University of Chicago archive used by the Sanders campaign. The photographer, Danny Lyon, said it showed a young Sanders speaking during the 1962 sit-in. But other former classmates said the lanky guy holding court in the hallway was actually another student. That prompted criticism from some who accused Sanders of exaggerating his involvement. Even classmates who don't believe Sanders was in the photo, however, said there's no doubt he was helping lead the event and was a fixture on campus. Bruce Stark, who was treasurer of CORE and participated in the sit-in, said his most lasting impression of Sanders was how much older he seemed. "He never smiled," Stark said. "He was absolutely earnest and absolutely sincere just the way he comes across on TV." ___ Associated Press writer Chad Day and researcher Barbara Sambriski contributed to this report. Iran's reformists hoping for boost in parliament election TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran's reformists are hoping to win their strongest presence in parliament since 2004 as hard-liners try to stave off a blow to their power in nationwide elections Friday, the first since Iran's landmark nuclear deal with the West. Although Iran's authorities exercise great control over who can run, the elections will be seen as a gauge of how much reformists, riding in large part on the nuclear deal, can pursue a comeback into Iran's political structures after years in the cold under hard-liners' domination. Reformists were largely pushed out of parliament by clerical authorities who barred their candidates from running in the previous three elections. The barring of the majority of reformists from the race this time as well means they are unlikely to win a majority. Parliament's powers are limited and ultimate authority rests with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. An Iranian woman walks in front of an electoral banner of Hamideh Ghadiri, a candidate of parliamentary elections in Vanak square in northern Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The banner reads in Persian: "Hamideh Ghadiri - defender of women's rights." (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Still, in Iran's complex politics, the parliament has influence and the elections are a critical barometer of public opinion that the ruling clerics cannot discount. A stronger reformist presence in parliament would give moderate President Hassan Rouhani support as he tries to repair the economy and move toward warmer ties with the United States and the West. It has been a sometimes bitter campaign. Reformist candidates have been hitting hard on the theme that the nuclear deal which led to the lifting of most international sanctions on Iran will improve the ailing economy and lead to a greater opening to the West. Hard-liners have been telling voters that reformists will weaken the country's resistance to its longtime enemies and on the economic front, they've warned that Rouhani will reduce cash handouts to the poor to help compensate for higher food and fuel prices. "This is a competition to confront a movement that, if it wins the house, will endanger the country's independence, dignity and security," prominent hard-liner Hossein Shariatmadari said, "a movement that has shown it favors putting Iran in the hands of arrogant and plundering powers." Hard-liners have accused reformist rivals of being "British agents" since Britain with its imperial past is often depicted in Iran as an even more devious enemy than the United States. One campaign poster showed a photo-shopped Queen Elizabeth II pointing to a reformist list urging Iranians to vote for them. The hard-line camp is largely made up of loyalists of Rouhani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who during his two terms in office avidly stoked tensions with the U.S. and cracked down on internal dissidents. In a bid to squeeze them out, reformists have allied with moderate conservatives, many of whom split with the hard-liners because of Ahmadinejad. While experts consider it unlikely that reformists could win a majority alone in the 290-seat parliament, some expect them to expand their presence from the fewer than 20 they currently hold and build a majority with the moderate conservatives, reducing the number of hard-liners. All the elections take place under the overarching power of Iran's cleric-run hierarchy, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the top. A clerical-dominated body, the Guardian Council, has the right to vet candidates in election and it has barred thousands of candidates from this vote. Reformists say that initially only 30 of their 3,000 would-be candidates were allowed to run. But the council later reversed the disqualifications of 1,500 candidates, including some reformists. In the end, the reformist camp says it has about 200 candidates in the running with a slogan of "hope, stability and economic prosperity." "Our big goal is to stop extremists from controlling the next parliament," said prominent reformist political activist, Hossein Marashi. At the same time as parliamentary elections, Iran is holding a vote Friday for the 88-member Assembly of Experts, the body that would eventually choose the successor to the 76-year-old Khamenei. While disqualifications may have prevented any possibility of a reformist majority, a substantial bloc would mean a new shift in Iran's politics. Reformists stormed to power with the 1997 election of President Mohammad Khatami, followed by 2000 parliamentary elections that brought a reformist majority in parliament for the first time. The movement pressed for an easing of Islamic social restrictions, greater public voice in politics and freedom of expression and better ties to the international community. But that hold was broken in the next election in 2004, when reformist candidates were largely barred from running. Ahmadinejad's election victory in 2005 sealed the movement's downfall. Reformists were all but shut out of politics for nearly a decade until Rouhani was elected. Their return in significant numbers would reduce hard-liners' ability to block Rouhani's agenda of economic reforms in parliament. He can also try to push through some laws ensuring a greater degree of social and political freedoms. Prominent political analyst Saeed Leilaz said voter turnout will be the key. "If there is a high turnout Friday, hard-liners will have no chance to win. Their weak performance under Ahmadinejad has isolated them so that moderate conservatives broke with them," he said. Iran's Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said Thursday that a turnout of 70 percent is expected. And for many voters the deciding factor could be the economy. Rouhani and the reformists are promising an economic windfall from the nuclear deal. "The economy, I would say, trumps everything else," said Nancy W. Gallagher, the interim director at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, which has commissioned a series of public opinion polls in Iran since 2006. "Youth unemployment is a particular concern as this is a highly educated society with a lot of young people," she said. "The youth are having a very hard time getting any job, let alone one that matches what they've been led to believe based on their credentials." ___ In a twist, GOP-led Nebraska may give up redistricting power LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) In 2008, for the first time in 44 years, red-state Nebraska awarded one of its Electoral College votes to the Democratic presidential candidate, and aghast Republican Party leaders decided they wouldn't let it happen again. They redrew the state's political lines so the congressional district that favored Barack Obama and included the state's largest black community would take in more Republican voters. Then they pushed the change through the Legislature despite Democrats' complaints. The doctoring worked: When Obama ran for re-election, the new district went to Republican Mitt Romney by a comfortable margin. In most states, that would be the end of the story a naked but predictable case of gerrymandering for political advantage. In this Feb. 18, 2016, photo, Neb. State Sen. John Murante of Gretna stands in the Legislative Chamber in Lincoln, Neb. Sen. Murante is among Republicans in Nebraska backing an idea thats almost unthinkable in the current hyperpolarized climate: turning over political map drawing to a new independent commission. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) But in Nebraska, a state with a different slant on partisanship, the episode didn't sit well. This year, a number of Republicans, including the Legislature's speaker, are joining with the outnumbered Democrats to back an idea that's almost unthinkable in the current hyperpolarized climate: turning over political map drawing to a new independent commission and lessening the role of politics in the process. Only six states have similar nonpartisan panels for congressional redistricting, and those were often installed by voters, not politicians. "There was a certain segment of the public that did not have faith in the maps we adopted," said state Sen. John Murante, a Republican who helped draw the new GOP-friendly map as a legislative staffer before he was elected, and now is backing the new system. The proposal appears to have a good chance of passing, with support from top Republicans. Kathay Feng, national redistricting coordinator for the liberal group Common Cause, said it's almost unheard of for legislators to willingly give up their power to set legislative and congressional boundaries. "I'd call it refreshing," Feng said. "It reflects an increasing clamor from grassroots groups that say, 'We won't stand it anymore.'" Majority parties usually aren't shy about changing election districts. In 2010, when the GOP had an edge in a majority of legislatures, the resulting maps helped Republicans win a 33-seat U.S. House majority even while receiving 1.4 million fewer votes than Democratic candidates. Nebraska's 2nd District was a mixed bag politically in 2008, even though Republicans outnumber Democrats by 18 percent statewide. It included urban Omaha, with its warehouse lofts and African-American community, and some older suburban subdivisions and Offutt Air Force Base. After Obama carried the district by a single percentage point over Republican John McCain, the Legislature reacted by moving several racially mixed neighborhoods into the overwhelming Republican 1st District, replacing them with more affluent suburban precincts. The 2nd District's 25 percent minority population wound up being much smaller than it would have been in 2012, even though the Hispanic and black populations were both growing. Thanks to the new borders, the GOP's edge over Democrats in the 2nd rose by about 2,500 voters. In a state that's only 4.9 percent black, "The small number of minority voters was shifted to an area where they would be an even smaller minority," said former Democratic state Sen. Brenda Council of Omaha, who is black. But Nebraska's history can make such political manipulations awkward. The state has the nation's only single-chamber Legislature, and members don't organize by party or have formal party leadership. Republicans hold 36 of the 49 seats but frequently break ranks on votes. "It's what people expect of the unicameral," said Republican Galen Hadley, speaker of the Legislature. Sen. Heath Mello, an Omaha Democrat who served on the legislative committee that drew the districts in 2011, said the redistricting vote after the 2008 election was distasteful to lawmakers from both parties. "It's the one experience I've had in my legislative career that really felt like raw partisanship, and it didn't need to be," Mello said. Under the new plan, district maps would be drawn by a nine-member independent panel appointed by lawmakers from each of the state's three congressional districts. No more than five could have the same political affiliation. The system wouldn't eliminate any political considerations, but states with similar panels have had fewer complaints about gerrymandering. The next opportunity to draw new maps won't happen until after the next census in 2020. Republican Sen. Bob Krist said the change could help the GOP if the growth in urban and Hispanic voters eventually gives Democrats the upper hand. "Someday, you may be in the minority," Krist said. Murante said he's primarily concerned about the views of Nebraska voters who were disappointed with by the map tinkering. "I hope that with this bill, we can improve the level of public trust," he said. ___ McFetridge reported from Des Moines, Iowa. ___ Follow Scott McFetridge at: https://twitter.com/smcfetridge . Follow Grant Schulte at: https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte . In this Feb. 18, 2016 photo, Speaker of the Legislature Galen Hadley of Kearney, a Republican, listens to a debate at the Legislative Chamber in Lincoln, Neb. A number of Republicans, including the Legislatures speaker, are joining with the outnumbered Democrats to back an idea thats almost unthinkable in the current hyperpolarized climate: turning over political map drawing to a new independent commission and lessening the role of politics in the process. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) In this Feb. 18, 2016 photo, Neb. State Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha speaks during debate at the State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. Krist is among Republicans in Nebraska backing an idea thats almost unthinkable in the current hyperpolarized climate: turning over political map drawing to a new independent commission. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) In this Feb. 18, 2016 photo, Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha, a Democrat, left, speaks to Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha, a Republican, at the State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. Mello teamed up with Sen. John Murante of Gretna, a Republican, for a revamped redistricting system. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) A look at the proposed cease-fire for Syria BEIRUT (AP) The U.S. and Russia have agreed on a cessation of hostilities for Syria that is set to take effect at midnight Friday, local Damascus time. It is the first attempt at a cease-fire in the war-torn country in years and despite the skepticism, U.S. and Russian officials have described it as the best pathway for ending five years of violence that has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced another 11 million. Here's a look at the proposed deal: THE AIM To achieve a reduction in violence that would allow aid operations across the country and bring the Syrian government and the opposition back to the negotiating table in Geneva for a U.N.-facilitated political transition process. Indirect talks launched earlier this month collapsed within a few days because of increased violence on the ground and a Russian-backed government offensive in Aleppo, near the Turkish border. A Syrian shopkeeper waits for customers next to paintings of of President Bashar Assad, and Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, center, at the popular Souk Tawil old market in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. Russias President Vladimir Putin spoke Wednesday with key players in the Syrian conflict including President Assad, ahead of a U.S.-Russia-engineered cease-fire, as the opposition and its backers voiced concerns that the proposed truce due to begin later this week would benefit the Syrian government. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) WHO DOES IT APPLY TO? All combatants except the Islamic State group, Syria's al-Qaida branch known as the Nusra Front and any other militia designated as a terrorist organization by the U.N. Security Council. The only two other such militias are the Abdallah Azzam Brigades, an armed group that has carried out joint attacks with the Nusra Front, and The Army of Emigrants and Supporters, a group affiliated with the extremists. Russia and the Syrian government and the U.S.-led coalition, according to the agreement, are allowed to keep on striking at the Islamic State group and the Nusra Front during the cease-fire. HAS IT BEEN ACCEPTED? Syria's government, the political opposition and rebel groups as well as the Kurds have accepted the proposed cease-fire but reserved the right to respond to any violations. All said they would keep fighting against the extremists. The main Saudi-backed Syrian opposition group said it would give the process two weeks to gauge the seriousness of the other side. THE MECHANISM In order to promote the implementation of the cessation of hostilities, a Cease-fire Task Force co-chaired by the United States and Russia has been established under U.N. auspices. It will meet for the first time on Friday and be chaired jointly by Russia and the United States. According to the agreement, this Task Force will work to delineate the territory held by IS and Nusra, ensure communications among all parties to promote compliance and resolve allegations of non-compliance. The U.S. and Russia will also establish a communication hotline to exchange relevant information after the cease-fire has gone into effect. LOOPHOLES Critics say it is not clear exactly where along Syria's complicated front lines the fighting would stop and where counterterrorism operations could continue. Also unresolved are how exactly breaches in the truce would be dealt with. The lines are particularly blurred when it comes to the Nusra Front and mainstream rebels fighting to topple Assad. They are often located in the same areas and in some cases cooperate with each other. This may quickly derail the deal, as the opposition and its supporters have already said they are concerned the Syrian government and Russia will continue to strike at mainstream rebels under the pretext of hitting Nusra during the cease-fire. WHAT HAPPENS IF IT FAILS? Russia says there is no Plan B if the cease-fire collapses and fighting is expected to worsen if it does. Saudi Arabia and Turkey may intensify weapons shipments to the rebels or decide to take part in a ground offensive in Syria, ostensibly against the Islamic State group. That could easily escalate the conflict into a wider war involving regional players. FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015 file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hand with Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Wednesday Feb. 24, 2016 with key players in the Syria conflict, including President Bashar Assad, ahead of a U.S.-Russia-engineered cease-fire, as the opposition voiced concerns that the truce due to begin later this week will only benefit the Syrian government. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File) Biden: Campaign rhetoric on Mexico 'dangerous, damaging' MEXICO CITY (AP) Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that some U.S. campaign rhetoric about Mexico and immigrants has been "dangerous, damaging and incredibly ill-advised" and is out of step with most Americans' attitudes. Speaking in Mexico City at Cabinet-level talks on boosting economic and commercial ties with one of the United States' top trading partners, Biden reassured Mexican officials that such talk does not reflect the countries' bilateral relations. "The main message I wanted to say to you is that I understand that you can't poison the well and at the same time work out a real estate agreement to buy the well," he said. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a joint message to the press with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, in Mexico City, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Biden led a high-level U.S. delegation for annual talks on boosting economic and commercial ties with Mexico, one of the United States' top trading partners. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Without naming names Biden was generally critical of Republican candidates, several of whom have proposed measures from walling the entire U.S.-Mexico border to deporting all 11 million people estimated to be living in the United States illegally. GOP front-runner Donald Trump said last year that Mexico was sending crime, drugs and "rapists" north of the border. "Some of the rhetoric coming from some of the presidential candidates on the other team are I think dangerous, damaging and incredibly ill-advised," Biden said. "But here's what I'm here to tell you: They do not, they do not, they do not represent the view of the vast majority of the American people." After meeting with Biden later in the day, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto referred to the immigration talk. "There are those who have the vision to eventually close themselves off, including, I daresay Mr. Vice President, to build walls," Pena Nieto said. "But that is only isolating. This is to be alone. It may look in one way like you're closing passage to a place, but seen another way it is isolation." Biden addressed the issue again, saying, "I feel almost obliged to apologize for some of what my political colleagues have said about Mexico, about the Mexican people." Biden was accompanied at the one-day meeting by U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. Jewell and her Mexican counterparts signed agreements to cooperate on energy issues, conservation and preparing for the impacts of climate change, the U.S. Interior Department said in a statement. The secretary also commended recent Mexican reforms opening its energy sector to private investment. "As allies and partners, the economies of the U.S. and Mexico are inextricably linked and a strong energy sector is a key part of that equation," Jewell said. Trade between the United States and Mexico totaled about $530 billion last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In an interview, Pritzker also said some of the talk emerging from the U.S. presidential campaign is not productive. Asked about negotiating improved trade amid Trump's calls for a wall between the two countries, Pritzker said: "Any kind of rhetoric like that that is un-American is concerning. What is important is what we're doing is we're building bridges, we're not building walls." Among goals set for 2016, Pritzker said the two countries plan to establish an energy business council to improve coordination on trade and use a mapping system for supply chains on both sides of the border to help determine where future border infrastructure projects are most needed. The High-Level Economic Dialogue forum between the United States and Mexico was established by President Barack Obama in 2013. This is the third year officials have met to discuss economic growth, job creation and competiveness. Also at Thursday's talks was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson, who last June was nominated to become Washington's next ambassador to Mexico. Her nomination was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in November. But it has been blocked in the full Senate by Sen. Marco Rubio, another Republican presidential candidate, who objects to her role in implementing the Obama administration's policy of normalizing ties with Cuba. ___ Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, second from right, addresses the Mexican delegation at the start of a meeting of the High Level Economic Dialogue between Mexico and the U.S., in Mexico City, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Biden is heading up a high-level U.S. delegation that's in Mexico for annual talks on boosting economic and commercial ties between the two countries. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) U.S. Vice President Joe Biden gestures as he gives a joint message to the press with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, in Mexico City, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Biden led a high-level U.S. delegation for annual talks on boosting economic and commercial ties with Mexico, one of the United States' top trading partners. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, right, is escorted out by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto following a joint statement to the press in Mexico City, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Biden led a high-level U.S. delegation for annual talks on boosting economic and commercial ties with Mexico, one of the United States' top trading partners. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) U.S. Vice President Joe Biden puts his hand to his chest as he tells Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto that U.S. campaign rhetoric about Mexico and immigrants does not represent the view of most Americans, in Mexico City, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Biden led a high-level U.S. delegation for annual talks on boosting economic and commercial ties with Mexico, one of the United States' top trading partners. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) In Chicago, triage for mentally ill before jail CHICAGO (AP) One of the nation's most crowded jails may get relief later this year with the opening of a 24-hour triage center in Chicago where police can take people experiencing psychiatric or substance-abuse crises. The goal is to ease pressure on the county jail, where officials have long complained that about a fifth of the detainees are locked up because of mental health problems. Based on successful models in other cities, the initiative comes as the Chicago Police Department and Mayor Rahm Emanuel try to deflect criticism over high-profile police shootings of young black men where mental health may have been a factor. Advocates for the plan, which Cook County officials shared with The Associated Press ahead of an official announcement, say it will work only if officers are properly trained. FILE - In this June 26, 2014 file photo, a man being booked into Chicago's Cook County Jail sleeps on the floor of a holding pen while he awaits his intake interview. Cook County plans to open a 24-hour triage center on the far South Side of Chicago where police can drop off people experiencing psychiatric or substance-abuse crises. The goal is ease pressure on the jail, where 1 in 5 detainees is locked up because of mental health problems. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast-File) "In a perfect world, one would hope officers observing a person with a mental health problem would get them to a treatment center," said Dr. Jay Shannon, chief of Cook County Health & Hospitals System. "I don't think it's as simple as 'build it and they will come.'" Nationally, as mental institutions closed in recent years, jails in large and small cities saw a surge in inmates with serious mental illnesses, most of them arrested for nonviolent crimes. This year, the county will spend $80 million for all health care, including mental health treatment, for adult and juvenile detainees. Cities smaller than Chicago with triage centers have reaped savings in jail and hospital costs. San Antonio, Texas, documented annual savings of $2.4 million in jail costs tied to public intoxication, $1.5 million in jail costs for mental health and $1 million in emergency room costs. Minneapolis saved $2.16 for every dollar spent on its triage center. Salt Lake City reported emergency room use by mentally ill people in crisis fell by 90 percent. "You can expect implementing a crisis triage unit will result in reduced use of the jail, which will make Sheriff (Tom) Dart happy, and also more cost-efficient use of the health care system and reduced pressure on emergency rooms," said Dan Abreu, an Albany, New York, researcher who provides technical assistance on jail diversion programs. In 2012, Chicago closed half its mental health clinics and the state closed three mental health centers, including a psychiatric hospital in suburban Chicago. Dart, who has complained about the Cook County jail becoming a "dumping ground" for the mentally ill, told The AP he believes the triage center's success will hinge on whether police are well-trained. "The concept is great. I'll never argue against more mental health services, but you have to think through the details," Dart said. Nearly all of his force has mental health crisis intervention training, he said, but Chicago and surrounding cities lag behind. Shannon, the county's top health official, said two notable police shootings Quintonio LeGrier and Laquan McDonald might have been avoided with a functioning triage center and officer training. LeGrier, a 19-year-old with mental health problems, had called 911 three times for help on Dec. 26. The officer who fatally shot him said LeGrier was coming at him with a bat. A police report said 17-year-old McDonald, who died after being shot by an officer 16 times, showed "irrational behavior," such as ignoring verbal directions and "growling." A medical examiner's report said the hallucinogen PCP was found in his system. Spurred by the uproar over those shootings and others, Chicago is training more officers in de-escalation strategies to employ with people in crisis. By the end of the year, about 35 percent of street officers will have that training, said Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. "We are excited and eager to start using the (triage) facility," he said. A triage center "would save hundreds of thousands of dollars. It would save lives," said N'Dana Carter, who gets counseling at one of the city's remaining mental health clinics. She and others affected by mental illness protested the closures and demanded more services recently outside Emanuel's office, and collected citizen comments to deliver to the embattled mayor in black trash bags they called "body bags." The center would be located at an existing outpatient clinic on Chicago's South Side in an area that county data shows sends the most people with mental illness to the jail. Cook County's health system has budgeted $3 million for its operation, including staffing with master's level therapists though experts say that figure may need to grow. Community providers of mental health and substance abuse treatment would provide follow-up care. "We treat any behavioral health need at any time," said Dr. Margie Balfour, chief clinical officer at Tucson's Crisis Response Center, which has a budget of $25 million in a county with one-fifth the population of Cook County. "No one is too acute or too violent. ... We never say no to the cops." ___ Follow AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson at https://twitter.com/CarlaKJohnson In this Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016 photo, N'Dana Carter poses for a portrait Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, in downtown Chicago. Cook County officials will announce next week plans to open a 24-hour triage center on the far South Side of Chicago where police can drop off people experiencing psychiatric or substance-abuse crises. In 2012, the city closed half its mental health clinics and the state closed three mental health centers, including a psychiatric hospital in suburban Chicago. Carter gets counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder at one of the citys remaining mental health clinics. She and others affected by mental illness have formed the Mental Health Movement to protest the closures and demand more services. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) FILE - In this June 26, 2014 file photo, a U.S. veteran with post-traumatic stress sits in a segregated holding pen at the Cook County Jail after he was arrested on a narcotics charge in Chicago. Cook County plans to open a 24-hour triage center on the far South Side of Chicago where police can drop off people experiencing psychiatric or substance-abuse crises. The goal is ease pressure on the jail, where 1 in 5 detainees is locked up because of mental health problems. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast-File) FILE - In this June 26, 2014 file photo, a lone inmate in Division 2 Dorm 2 of the Cook County Jail, where male prisoners with mental disorders bunk, sits arms folded on his bunk in Chicago. Cook County plans to open a 24-hour triage center on the far South Side of Chicago where police can drop off people experiencing psychiatric or substance-abuse crises. The goal is ease pressure on the jail, where 1 in 5 detainees is locked up because of mental health problems. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast-File) Giant rooftop greenhouse takes root in Chicago CHICAGO (AP) As the sun rises, the glowing lights in the huge rooftop greenhouse dim. Here, lettuce never sleeps. It grows, quickly much more quickly than it would in a farm field. And there is a lot of it, as well as other types of salad greens and herbs. At nearly two acres this greenhouse atop a soap factory in Chicago's historic Pullman neighborhood is enormous. Its owners, New York-based Gotham Greens, claim there is no bigger rooftop greenhouse in the world. "It's hard to picture what a 75,000-square-foot greenhouse really feels like when you're in it," says Viraj Puri, CEO and co-founder of Gotham Greens, which began producing lettuce crops here in October. The climate-controlled commercial facility will produce leafy greens year-round even through Chicago winters for customers including local restaurants and grocery stores. Jenn Frymark, chief greenhouse officer and a co-founder of New York City-based Gotham Greens, points to lettuce crops at the company's Chicago rooftop greenhouse on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016. The 75,000-square-foot facility, which opened in October, is one of the largest rooftop greenhouses in the world. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) Gotham Greens has three other smaller rooftop greenhouses in New York City two in Brooklyn and the other in Queens. One of the Brooklyn facilities rests atop a Whole Foods supermarket and provides greens directly to the store. And there are plans for more greenhouses. Various growers have been trying indoor vertical farming in old warehouses in the upper Midwest and elsewhere for a few years now though some indoor farms have struggled to make it, partly due to the cost of running lights to grow the plants. Puri and co-founder Jenn Frymark, the company's chief greenhouse officer, say their concept solves that problem in a number of ways. An important one is that they rely on the sun for major help. Perhaps surprisingly, "winter is actually much easier for us than summer," Frymark says. The greenhouse is kept warm partly by heat from the building below a factory where Method brand eco-friendly soap is made. Both businesses are helping rejuvenate a neighborhood on Chicago's far South Side where Pullman luxury rail cars were once made. Neither Gotham Greens co-founder claims this to be the farm of the future for many crops. Right now, greens and vining plants, such as tomatoes, do best in this setting, they say. But they believe there is a niche market, especially for greens, which are highly perishable. Much of the time, lettuce in the United States comes from California and Mexico and reaches places like Chicago and New York days after being picked. One of the first customers of Gotham's Chicago greenhouse was the restaurant LUXBAR Chicago. Staff there says customers have begun asking for fresh, locally grown food. "How often do you go to a restaurant and talk about their lettuce?" LUXBAR general manager John Damas asks, grinning. "It's kind of strange. But to be able to cut down lettuce and harvest it by hand and have it delivered on the plate within hours is a huge deal." ____ Online: AP Video about the greenhouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXAll3LnU08 ___ Martha Irvine, an AP national writer, can be reached at mirvine@ap.org or at http://twitter.com/irvineap. On Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016, in Chicago, a giant rooftop greenhouse owned by New York-based Gotham Greens sits atop a soap factory. The climate-controlled commercial facility will produce leafy greens year-round _ even through Chicago winters _ for customers including local restaurants and grocery stores. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) Viraj Puri, CEO and co-founder of Gotham Greens, stands in the company's Chicago rooftop greenhouse on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016. The 75,000-square-foot facility, which opened in October, is one of the largest rooftop greenhouses in the world -- and Puri claims it is the biggest of all. The company also has three other smaller rooftop greenhouses in New York City. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) A wind turbine twirls near a giant rooftop greenhouse owned by New York-based Gotham Greens on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016, in Chicago. The greenhouse, which sits atop a factory where Method brand soap is made, opened in October and is 75,000 square feet. It is one of the largest rooftop greenhouses in the world -- and its owners claim it is the biggest of all. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) A man waits for a bus on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016, in front of an abandoned building that was part of the Pullman Palace Car Co., where luxury rail cars were once made. The Pullman neighborhood, as it is known, is now home to a giant rooftop greenhouse owned by New York-based Gotham Greens. The greenhouse sits atop a factory where Method brand soap is made. Both businesses represent new industry that has moved into the historic neighborhood, which has many structures that are recognized as state and national landmarks. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) This Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016 photo shows a mural in Chicago's historic Pullman neighborhood. The artwork is a homage to the Pullman Palace Car Co., which was once based nearby and where luxury rail cars were made. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) This Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016 photo shows a giant rooftop greenhouse owned by New York-based Gotham Greens atop a factory where Method brand soap is made. Heat from the factory helps make heating the 75,000-square-foot greenhouse easier in the winter. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) A wind turbine twirls behind a giant rooftop greenhouse owned by New York-based Gotham Greens on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in Chicago. The greenhouse, which sits atop a factory where Method brand soap is made, opened in October and is 75,000 square feet. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) Young lettuce plants sit in slots to grow in the Gotham Greens greenhouse in Chicago on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016. Most lettuce in the United States comes from California and Mexico, and is already several days old by the time it reaches places like Chicago and New York. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) Sun reflects off the leaves of butterhead lettuce at the Gotham Greens rooftop greenhouse in Chicago on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016. Most lettuce in the United States comes from California and Mexico, and is already several days old by the time it reaches places like Chicago and New York. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) A salad made with freshly harvested lettuce from Gotham Greens sits on a kitchen counter at the LUXBAR Chicago restaurant on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, as executive chef Jose Sosa works in the background. The restaurant was one of the first customers of produce from the 75,000-square-foot local rooftop greenhouse, which opened in October atop a soap factory. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) The Latest: Sheriff didn't expect eviction to turn violent BAILEY, Colo. (AP) The Latest on the shooting of three deputies in Colorado (all times local): 1:25 p.m. A Colorado sheriff says deputies serving an eviction notice followed a resident into his house to ensure he wouldn't get away and didn't expect things to turn violent. Jefferson County SWAT officers work at the scene where a man opened fire on sheriff's deputies before the officers returned fire, killing the man, outside Bailey, Colo., Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. Authorities say the man, who lost ownership of his home two years ago, opened fire on the officers trying to serve an eviction notice. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) Authorities say Martin Wirth came out with a rifle Wednesday and opened fire, killing a deputy and wounding two others before dying in a shootout. Despite Wirth's anti-police views, Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener told reporters Thursday that deputies thought he was more likely to run away than shoot at them. Wegener says a previous attempt to evict Wirth in 2014 ended peacefully after he talked to the sheriff's office. Activists had planned to protest at his home outside the mountain community of Bailey. The sheriff says the deputies didn't force a violent confrontation but Wirth did. ____ 11:45 a.m. A man who fatally shot a Colorado sheriff's deputy and wounded two others was acquitted of killing a man during a chess game more than two decades ago. Jurors in 1994 found Martin Wirth not guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of his 24-year-old neighbor during an argument in Fort Collins. It's about 100 miles northeast of the home near the town of Bailey where deputies went Wednesday to evict Wirth. He opened fire and then died in the shootout. In the earlier slaying, the Coloradoan newspaper reported at the time that prosecutors said the two were arguing inside the victim's house and Wirth left to get a revolver. Wirth testified that the man provoked him to come outside and then lunged for his gun. Wirth shot him twice in the chest. Jurors told the newspaper they were conflicted about the verdict. A law enforcement officer works at the scene where a man opened fire on several sheriff's deputies before the officers returned fire, killing the man, outside Bailey, Colo., Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. Authorities say the man, who lost ownership of his home two years ago, opened fire on the officers trying to serve an eviction notice. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) This undated photograph provided by the Park County, Colo., Sheriff's Department of Nate Carrigan, a corporal with the department who was shot and killed while serving an eviction notice with other officers to a man in Bailey, Colo., early on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. Authorities say the man, who lost ownership of the home years ago, opened fire on the law officers as they entered the home and tried to serve the notice near the Colorado mountain community. (Park County Sheriff's Department via AP) Big swells mean rare surfing meet to happen in Hawaii HALIEWA, Hawaii (AP) Organizers of the rarely held and invitation-only Eddie Aikau big-wave surfing competition in Hawaii say the event will be Thursday. The competition in memory of legendary big wave surfer hasn't been held for six years. Organizers require waves around 40 feet (12 meters) tall and a swell that lasts long enough to run multiple heats. In more than 30 years, those conditions have only been met nine times, including Thursday. FILE - In this Dec. 8, 2009, file photo, Mark Healey of Hawaii, takes a spill down the face of a large wave in the second heat of The Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau surf contest at Waimea Bay located on the north shore of the island of Oahu in Hawaii. The Eddie is a go. Organizers of the rarely-held and invitation-only Eddie Aikau big-wave surfing competition in Hawaii say the event will be held Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The competition in memory of legendary big wave surfer Eddie Aikau hasn't been held for six years. Organizers require waves around 40 feet tall and a swell that lasts long enough to run multiple heats. (AP Photo/Eugene Tanner, File) Obama's pick for Education focuses on states' role WASHINGTON (AP) President Barack Obama's nominee for Education Secretary told senators Thursday that the focus of decision-making on elementary and secondary education is "rightly shifting" to the states and away from the federal government. John B. King Jr. is poised to oversee the Education Department as it is losing some of its authority. A bipartisan education law passed by Congress and signed by Obama in December revamps the widely criticized No Child Left Behind Act, and substantially limits some of the federal government's influence ushered in by that 2002 law. The new law bars the Education Department from telling states and local districts how to assess the performance of schools and teachers. Instead, states and districts must come up with their own goals for schools, design their own measures of achievement and progress, and decide how to turn around struggling schools. Acting Education Secretary Dr. John King, Jr., right, talks with Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., left, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, before the start of King's confirmation hearing as Education Secretary. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) "As a former teacher, principal, and state commissioner, I know from personal experience that the best ideas come from classrooms, not conference rooms," King said at the hearing. Under questioning from senators, King promised his department will adhere to the new law and its limits on federal intervention. King, who began his career in education teaching high school social studies, joined the department in January 2015. He oversaw federal education programs for preschool through 12th grade before being tapped by Obama late last year to succeed longtime secretary Arne Duncan, who stepped down in December. King is currently serving as acting secretary. In a sharply partisan Senate where Republicans have held up several of Obama's nominations and are pledging no hearings for a potential Supreme Court nominee King looks to be an exception. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who served as education secretary under former President George H.W. Bush, pressed the administration to nominate a new secretary after the bipartisan education overhaul was signed. He said he didn't think it was appropriate to go a whole year without a secretary firmly in place. "We need an education secretary who is confirmed and accountable to Congress while we're implementing a law that may govern elementary and secondary education for some time," Alexander said. After the hearing, Alexander said he thought King was "well received" by the panel and scheduled a committee vote on his nomination March 9. "I think his prospects are excellent," he said. In addition to the new law, senators also quizzed King on student loans and college campus sexual assault, among other issues. On student loans, critics have complained the government didn't move swiftly enough to take action against for-profit schools like Corinthian Colleges, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year amid fraud allegations. The move closed schools, left thousands of students with hefty student debt and frustrated their efforts to earn degrees. The Education Department said earlier this month it will create a new student aid enforcement unit to respond more quickly to allegations of illegal actions. "There's a lot of work to do to protect our students and borrowers, and we intend to do that," King said in response to questions on the issue from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. The Obama administration has taken steps to push colleges to better tackle the problem of sexual assault, including releasing the names of colleges and universities in 2014 that were facing Title IX investigations for their handling of such cases. King said that continues to be a priority. Before coming to Washington, King served as commissioner of education for the state of New York, where he pushed an ambitious improvement agenda for the state's public schools. During his 3 1/2 years as commissioner, King became a lightning rod for criticism over linking student test scores to teacher evaluations and a rushed implementation of the Common Core academic standards for grades K-12. The state's largest teachers' union said upon his departure that it had "disagreed sharply and publicly with the commissioner on many issues." In his opening testimony, King said his New York City public school teachers "literally saved my life." He told the story of his mother's death when he was eight and his father's passing four years later. Both were educators. He cited two of his New York teachers "Mr. Osterweil" and "Miss D" for his success. "If not for them, I could not have survived that turbulent period, and I certainly wouldn't be sitting before you today," King said. ___ Associated Press writer Jennifer C. Kerr contributed to this report. ___ Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick Acting Education Secretary Dr. John King, Jr., testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, during his confirmation hearing as the Education Secretary. Obamas choice to serve as Education Secretary says he rose to his current position because New York City public school teachers literally saved my life. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Acting Education Secretary Dr. John King, Jr., right, and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., left, arrive to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, for the confirmation hearing for King as Education Secretary. Scott introduced King to the committee. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Ohio board OKs parole for inmate who walked away in 1959 COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) The first time Frank Freshwaters walked away from an Ohio prison facility, he did so without permission. This time will be different. Ohio's parole board decided Thursday that the man authorities characterized as a twice-caught, 55-year fugitive should be released on or after April 24, the week after his 80th birthday. Exactly where Freshwaters will go hasn't been settled a son in West Virginia would welcome him, as would a friend in Florida but the conditions for his release include five years of supervision. Relieved supporters, including two of his sons and his attorney, hugged and wiped away tears at the board's announcement after the panel heard from both sides in an hourslong meeting. FILE - This pair of photos shows Frank Freshwaters, left, in a Feb. 26, 1959, Ohio State Reformatory photo released by the U.S. Marshals Service, and right, in a May 4, 2015, booking photo released by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office in Florida. An Ohio board scheduled a Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, hearing to receive arguments about whether to grant parole to Freshwaters, 79, of Akron, Ohio, who disappeared from a northern Ohio prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter and was found last year in Florida. (Ohio State Reformatory and Brevard County Sheriff's Office via AP, File) Freshwaters wasn't there; he remained at a southeast Ohio prison, awaiting word on the outcome. The Akron man was reportedly speeding when he fatally struck 24-year-old Eugene Flynt in 1957. He was imprisoned at the Ohio State Reformatory after violating his probation in the manslaughter case, and he disappeared from a Sandusky prison camp months later in 1959. Freshwaters' attorney, Gordon Beggs, told the board that Freshwaters had worried about being sent back to the Reformatory and had lived a clean life ever since, adopting a new name as he sought a fresh start. "The violations occurred 60 years ago," Beggs said. "They do not reflect the man Mr. Freshwaters is today." Investigators who tracked down the 79-year-old widower last May said he was living off Social Security benefits under the name William Harold Cox at a weathered trailer in rural Brevard County, Florida. Freshwaters had been using the Cox name since the 1970s. Why he wasn't located by authorities for so long is a mystery. He was found once before, in 1975 in St. Albans, West Virginia, but its then-governor concluded Freshwaters had a "flawless, 16-year residency" there and refused to extradite him to Ohio, saying he didn't believe he was a danger to society. The Summit County prosecutor's office acknowledged the health and family factors raised in support of Freshwaters' release but argued against parole, saying he had changed his name to hide, never paid the restitution ordered for his victim's family and continued to avoid accountability. "I can't dispute that he's in ill health. I can't dispute that he has a family in spite of all the things he's done who love him dearly, and friends who love him. But this isn't about that," said Brad Gessner, the prosecutor's chief counsel. "It's about the justice that victims are entitled to." Flynt's son, Richard, took a softer tone, telling board members that he didn't believe Freshwaters had paid for what happened but that holding him more accountable was up to them. Freshwaters' family said he wasn't hiding. His son Jim Cox told the board his father has been haunted by the accident. Another son, Jeff Lloyd, extended his sympathies to the victim's family in his comments to the board. "I'd like to apologize to Mr. Flynt for the loss of his father because I can relate," said Lloyd, who hadn't known Freshwaters but connected with him because of media coverage of the case. He said he'd apologized privately, too, when the brothers met Flynt briefly before the hearing. Lloyd said he told Flynt they were sorry about all this. Then they shook hands. ___ Find Kantele Franko at http://www.twitter.com/kantele10 . Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/kantele-franko . Richard Flynt, right, a son of 1957 manslaughter victim Eugene Flynt, watches from the audience as the Summit County, Ohio, prosecutor's chief counsel, Brad Gessner, left, argues against parole for former fugitive Frank Freshwaters, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, shortly before the full state parole board granted parole for Freshwaters during a hearing in Columbus, Ohio. Freshwaters, 79, from Akron, Ohio, disappeared from a northern Ohio prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter and was found last year in Florida. He didn't attend the Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, parole hearing. (AP Photo/Kantele Franko) Family of teen in medical custody dispute sues hospital BOSTON (AP) The family of a Connecticut teen who was involved in a more than yearlong, medical custody dispute in Massachusetts has filed a lawsuit against Children's Hospital in Boston. The suit, announced Thursday, alleges the civil rights of Justina Pelletier of West Hartford and her parents, Louis and Linda Pelletier, were violated and they suffered extreme emotional distress after the hospital diagnosed Justina's problems as psychiatric and the state took custody of her. Justina, now 17, attended the announcement in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse in a wheelchair. Speaking in a quiet voice, she said she was treated badly during the ordeal. Justina Pelletier sits outside the Statehouse in Boston during a news conference on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. The Pelletier's filed a lawsuit against Children's Hospital in Boston over a medically-related custody dispute. The case hinged on dueling diagnoses of Justina's condition. (AP Photo/Bob Salsberg) "Just imagine being in a psych ward without needing to be in a psych ward," Justina said. "I'm very angry, and I just don't understand how this happened, and I really don't want this to happen ever again to any other family." The case stems from dueling diagnoses. Tufts Medical Center in 2012 had treated Justina for mitochondrial disease, a rare genetic disorder that affects cellular energy production. But Children's Hospital later arrived at the psychiatric diagnosis. When her parents rejected the second diagnosis and tried to take her back to Tufts, allegations of medical child abuse were raised against the Pelletiers, and the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families took custody of Justina. She eventually was returned to the care of her parents in 2014 after first being transferred to a medical facility in Thompson, Connecticut. Children's Hospital said in a statement Thursday that it will defend its care of the teenager. "Boston Children's Hospital welcomes the opportunity to vigorously defend the medical care it provided to Justina Pelletier," the hospital said. "We are committed to the best interests of our patients' health and well-being, according to the high standards we follow for every patient placed in our care." The hospital said it was required by state law to report suspected cases of child maltreatment to the Department of Children and Families, and it was up to the child welfare agency to decide whether to seek temporary custody orders. The state was not named in the lawsuit. Kathy Jo Cook, a Boston attorney representing the family, said DCF was acting on the advice of doctors when it sought custody of Justina. The lawsuit, which also claims negligence and malpractice by several Children's Hospital doctors, was filed in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston and seeks unspecified monetary damages. The girl and her family endured nearly 18 months of "emotional, physical, spiritual and psychological suffering and pain," according to the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, the director of the Christian Defense Coalition who said he was a spokesman for and spiritual adviser to the family. Louis Pelletier said his daughter has had three surgeries since returning home but was improving and hoped to walk again. She was doing horseback riding as part of her therapy, he added. The Latest: Family grateful 55-year fugitive will be paroled COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) The Latest on a man who was found in Florida 55 years after disappearing from an Ohio prison camp (all times local): 5:20 p.m. Relatives of a man who disappeared from an Ohio prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter and was found last year in Florida say they're relieved and overjoyed that he's been granted parole. Richard Flynt, right, a son of 1957 manslaughter victim Eugene Flynt, watches from the audience as the Summit County, Ohio, prosecutor's chief counsel, Brad Gessner, left, argues against parole for former fugitive Frank Freshwaters, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, shortly before the full state parole board granted parole for Freshwaters during a hearing in Columbus, Ohio. Freshwaters, 79, from Akron, Ohio, disappeared from a northern Ohio prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter and was found last year in Florida. He didn't attend the Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, parole hearing. (AP Photo/Kantele Franko) Ohio's parole board decided Thursday that Frank Freshwaters should be released April 24, about a week after his 80th birthday. Exactly where he'll go hasn't been settled, but the conditions for his release include five years of supervision. One of Freshwaters' sons wiped tears from his eyes after the decision was announced. Another son who was born months after the accident that got Freshwaters in trouble says he's hoping to get to know him better. Prosecutors had argued that Freshwaters changed his name, avoided accountability and never paid the restitution ordered for his victim's family. ___ 4:45 p.m. An Ohio board has granted parole to a man who disappeared from an Ohio prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter and was found last year in Florida. Frank Freshwaters wasn't at Thursday's hearing before the state parole board in Columbus. Investigators who tracked down Freshwaters say the 79-year-old widower was living off Social Security benefits under an alias at a weathered trailer in rural Brevard County, Florida. His attorney argued for Freshwaters' release, saying he has lived a clean life and never forgot the accident that led to his case. A son of the victim in the manslaughter case told the board that Freshwaters should be held accountable. Freshwaters was first caught in West Virginia in 1975 but wasn't extradited then. ___ 4:25 p.m. An Ohio man says the fugitive who struck his father with a vehicle, was imprisoned for manslaughter and went on the run for 55 years hasn't really paid for what he did. Frank Freshwaters was imprisoned in 1959 after violating probation and disappeared from a Sandusky prison camp later that year. Investigators found the 79-year-old widower last May in rural Brevard County, Florida. They say he was living off Social Security benefits under an alias at a weathered trailer. Richard Flynt is the son of the pedestrian Freshwaters struck. He told Ohio's parole board Thursday that Freshwaters should be held accountable. Flynt told board members that the specifics of how are up to them. An attorney arguing for Freshwaters' release says he has lived a clean life in recent decades. ___ 3:25 p.m. A prosecutor's office is urging Ohio's parole board to not release a man who disappeared from a prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter and was found last year in rural Florida. The chief counsel for Summit County's prosecutor says Frank Freshwaters changed his name, avoided accountability and never paid the restitution ordered for his victim's family. Investigators who tracked down Freshwaters last May say he was living off Social Security benefits under an alias at a weathered trailer in Brevard County. The 79-year-old widower was returned to Ohio and had a closed parole hearing in August. Freshwaters didn't attend Thursday's public hearing in Columbus. His attorney argued in favor of parole. Freshwaters was first caught in West Virginia in 1975 but wasn't extradited then. ___ 3 p.m. Two sons of a man who disappeared from a prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter are asking a board to grant him parole. The board heard arguments Thursday in Columbus about whether to grant parole for Frank Freshwaters, a 55-year fugitive who was captured in Florida last year. He left prison camp in 1959 while serving time for hitting a man with a vehicle. One son told board members Freshwaters has been haunted by the accident. The other apologized to the son of the man Freshwaters fatally struck. Investigators who found Freshwaters say he was living off Social Security benefits under an alias at a weathered trailer in rural Brevard County. He was first caught in West Virginia in 1975 but wasn't extradited then. He is now 79. ___ 2:40 p.m. A friend of a man who was a 55-year fugitive has told Ohio's parole board that he can live with her family if he is released from prison. Frank Freshwaters disappeared from a prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter and was found last year in rural Brevard County, Florida. Investigators who found Freshwaters say the 79-year-old widower was living off Social Security benefits under an alias at a weathered trailer. Shirl Cheetham got choked up Thursday as she talked to the board about him. She said that Freshwaters has become like family and that he'd be welcome to live with her family in Florida. Freshwaters was first caught in West Virginia in 1975 but wasn't extradited then. ___ 2 p.m. An attorney has asked an Ohio board to grant parole to a man who disappeared from a prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter and was found last year in rural Florida. Frank Freshwaters wasn't at Thursday's hearing before the full state parole board in Columbus. But his attorney, Gordon Beggs, told the board Freshwaters has lived a clean life and never forgot the accident that led to his case. Investigators who tracked down Freshwaters last May say he was living off Social Security benefits under an alias at a weathered trailer in rural Brevard County, Florida. The 79-year-old widower was returned to Ohio and had a closed parole hearing in August. He was first caught in West Virginia in 1975 but wasn't extradited then. ___ 1 p.m. An Ohio board will hear arguments on whether to grant parole for a man who disappeared from a prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter and was found last year in rural Florida. Frank Freshwaters wasn't expected to attend Thursday's hearing before the full state parole board in Columbus. It was slated to hear from both sides, including an attorney for Freshwaters. Investigators who tracked down Freshwaters last May say he was living off Social Security benefits under an alias at a weathered trailer in rural Brevard County, Florida. The 79-year-old widower was returned to Ohio and had a closed parole hearing in August. Companies experiment with build-your-own smartphone programs NEW YORK (AP) If you could build your dream smartphone, what would it look like? Now suppose you could put it together yourself. That's the promise of modular design, a new concept in smartphones that would basically let you snap together different components like Lego blocks. Say you want a great camera. Snap! A vivid screen and good sound because you watch a lot of video? Snap! But maybe you could live with a smaller battery because you spend most of your day at home or work. Snap! Sure, phones now offer choices in color and storage. Motorola goes a bit further in letting you choose custom backs made of wood or leather. But the rest of the phone is pretty standard. You're stuck with the processor, battery and other hardware chosen by Motorola, Apple, Samsung and other tech companies. This Feb. 11, 2016, photo, shows a high-fidelity audio system for the LG G5 phone, in New York. The module connects to the phone's bottom to offer higher-quality sound. LG is dipping its toes into a modular-design concept with its upcoming G5 smartphone. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) With modular design, you could just pay for the components you need instead of settling for whatever manufacturers put in their designs. And instead of buying a new phone every year or two, you could just upgrade individual parts as they wear out or become obsolete. LG is dipping its toes in the modular-design concept with its upcoming G5 smartphone, announced this week at a wireless conference. The bottom of the phone pops out to let you swap in new hardware. For starters, you'll be able to attach a camera grip with physical shutter buttons or insert a high-fidelity audio system if regular MP3-quality sound isn't good enough for you. Google's Project Ara, which isn't making products yet, is also outlining a modular-design approach that starts with a structural frame and lets you add cameras, sensors and batteries. Google figures a phone could cost as little as $50 using the most basic parts. A Dutch startup called Fairphone is selling the $580 Fairphone 2 online. Though it comes assembled, you can replace the screen for less than $100, or the camera for $40. An expansion port will let people add components perhaps for wireless charging or mobile payments that Fairphone or outside parties make in the future. Chinese phone maker ZTE has circulated concept designs. Other startups exploring modular phones include Finland's PuzzlePhone (as in the components fit together like a puzzle). Modular phone design is similar to how hobbyists build their own personal computers or soup up their cars. But there's no guarantee the idea will take off. For one thing, modular design is itself a trade-off. Many consumers want phones to be thin, light and power efficient, and that means all the parts have to be tightly integrated. You give that up when you go modular. Samsung, for instance, rejects modular design, preferring to offer "the best combination of features and functionality" in a compact and elegant design, says Justin Denison, Samsung's senior vice president for U.S. product strategy and marketing. Modular design also isn't easy. Project Ara missed its 2015 target for a pilot project in Puerto Rico and suggested in cryptic tweets that designing modules has proven more complicated than expected. Google had no further comment. Ronan de Renesse, lead analyst for consumer technology with the research firm Ovum, says many parts in current smartphones are designed specifically to work together. Swap in a new camera or screen, and the older processors might not know what to do with it. The camera might stutter, the screen might blink, and both might drain the battery faster than expected. Lego-like parts also could allow dust or water to intrude into the phone's innards. Their connections might also give way over time. "I don't think those phones are going to be reliable enough for the mass market," de Renesse says. There's already some buzz around the phones. Fairphone has sold about 35,000 units and is targeting 150,000 this year. The company says many of its customers are environmentally conscious about e-waste and don't need up-to-the-minute advances in phone technology. Many big phone makers introduce features just to have something to brag about in ads, says Miquel Ballester, Fairphone's co-founder. "I don't really think it's always what the customer is looking for." Even if the appeal is limited, the concept could have broader influence. LG's G5 isn't fully modular, as users couldn't replace processors, cameras and screens themselves. LG's Frank Lee says the modular design for now is mostly about enhancing the phone's capabilities with optional features. But perhaps one day, he says, people will be able to swap in a slower, but more power-efficient processor on days they'll be away from chargers. In the future, he says, "we won't be referring to them as phones anymore." ___ More articles by AP Technology Writer Anick Jesdanun: http://bigstory.ap.org/content/anick-jesdanun . This Feb. 11, 2016, photo, shows a camera grip, at bottom left, with physical buttons to take the photos and record video with the LG G5 phone, in New York. The grip connects to the phone's bottom. LG is dipping its toes into a modular-design concept with its upcoming G5 smartphone. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) This Feb. 11, 2016, photo, shows the LG G5 phone with the bottom of the phone popped out, in New York. The module contains the battery, which can be removed and inserted into a different module with extra features, such as a camera grip with physical shutter buttons. LG is dipping its toes into a modular-design concept with its upcoming G5 smartphone. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) This Feb. 11, 2016, photo, shows the battery, bottom, of the LG G5 phone popped out, and a camera grip, top, with physical shutter buttons, in New York. The battery can be removed from the phone and inserted into a different module with extra features. LG is dipping its toes into a modular-design concept with its upcoming G5 smartphone. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Saudi piles pressure on Lebanon for siding with Iran BEIRUT (AP) Saudi Arabia has lashed out at Lebanon, cutting off billions of dollars of aid and telling its citizens to leave the country, after Beirut sided with Iran in the fallout over the execution of a Saudi Shiite cleric, in a diplomatic dispute that threatens Lebanon's struggling economy. The tension reflects the worsening Sunni-Shiite conflict in the Middle East, which is driven by regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Iran, who are fighting proxy wars in Syrbia, Yemen and, to a lesser extent, in Iraq. Saudi's punitive measures against Lebanon began last week after the Lebanese foreign minister, Gibran Bassil, an ally of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, declined to support Saudi resolutions against Iran during two meetings of Arab and Muslim foreign ministers. In this Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016 photo, Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Assiri, center, receives Sunni clerics during their visit to express their solidarity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, at the Saudi Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanon is getting hammered by punishments from a furious Saudi Arabia, which has cut off billions in aid and told its citizens not to visit the country, in an escalating diplomatic crisis that was prompted by Beiruts siding with Iran against the kingdom and that now threatens to wreck Lebanons fragile economy. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) The resolution sought to condemn Iran over attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions following Riyadh's execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr in early January. Riyadh announced Friday it was halting $4 billion in aid grants due to what it described as stances taken by Lebanese officials which "were not in harmony with the ties between the two countries." This week, Saudi Arabia called on its citizens not to travel to Lebanon for safety reasons and ordered those staying there to leave. Its Gulf allies Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar predictably followed suit, issuing similar warnings. The United Arab Emirates also banned its citizens from traveling to Lebanon and withdrew a number of diplomats from the country. Lebanon's political elite is deeply divided between two powerful Saudi and Iran-backed coalitions. The spat has exacerbated divisions among Lebanon's notoriously fractious politicians, who traded accusations over the billions of dollars lost. Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 and parliament has failed to elect a new head of state because of lack of a quorum. Concerns have been sparked that further steps could be taken by Saudi Arabia and its neighbors, such as gulf airlines halting flights to Beirut or the eviction of thousands of Lebanese who work in the oil-rich region, a move that would have a devastating effect on Lebanon's crumbling economy. There are some half a million Lebanese living in the gulf. They transfer billions of dollars to their home country in remittances, giving a boost to Lebanon's economy, which has among the highest debt in the world currently standing at $70 billion or 145 per cent of GDP. Lebanese economist Louis Hobeika said the eviction of Lebanese migrant workers in the gulf would be the most damaging move Saudi could make. Yet, he suggested that such retaliation would be mutually harmful. "Lebanese hold key positions in companies and it is not very easy to replace him," he said. Some analysts say Saudi Arabia is going to deport some foreign workers anyway as projects in the kingdom are cancelled due to falling oil prices. Speaking to reporters on Thursday before a Cabinet meeting, Economy Minister Alain Hakim urged calm. He said Lebanese should not "panic before any measures by gulf states because such fears harm our economy." Local media reports say some worried citizens were changing their accounts in Lebanese pounds to U.S. dollars but officials say people should not worry about the pound since the Central Bank can defend it with its $40 billion foreign currency reserves. Central Bank governor Riad Salameh told the daily Al-Akhbar that "markets did not show any fears and were very normal this week." Saudi officials say they want Lebanon to "fix the mistakes" but did not say how they can be fixed. "Mistakes were made in two international arenas," said Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Assiri. "What is wanted now is for the side that made the mistake to fix it." Some local media reports in Lebanon have argued that the Saudis may be applying pressure to secure the release of a member of the royal family held in Lebanon since October on drug charges. Abdul-Mohsen al-Waleed Al Saud , was detained in Beirut after authorities seized two tons of amphetamine Captagon pills before they were loaded onto his private plane. On Wednesday, a Lebanese prosecutor indicted Al Saud of dealing and using drugs. Other analysts suggest Saudi Arabia may be seeking to compensate for its declining hold over Lebanon. Saudi Arabia's influence has been dwindling in Lebanon since early 2011, when pro-Saudi prime minister Saad Hariri was ousted by Hezbollah and its allies. For the past two years, the Saudi-backed March 14 coalition has failed to see one of their leaders elected president. Now they are nominating legislator Suleiman Franjieh, a friend of Assad and a close ally of Hezbollah, for the country's top job. Meanwhile, Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to back Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces, is benefiting from recent victories against Saudi-backed insurgents in Syria. "Saudi Arabia (is) feeling for a good reason that its influence in Lebanon is on the decline," said Ayham Kamel, a Middle East expert with the political risk and consulting firm, Eurasia Group. "The Saudi message is don't think you can translate victories in Syria and control the system in Lebanon. We have plenty of leverage through our economic muscles," Kamel said. ___ Follow Bassem Mroue on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bmroue In this Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Assiri, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press as he stands next to a picture of King Salman, at the Saudi Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanon is getting hammered by punishments from a furious Saudi Arabia, which has cut off billions in aid and told its citizens not to visit the country, in an escalating diplomatic crisis that was prompted by Beiruts siding with Iran against the kingdom and that now threatens to wreck Lebanons fragile economy. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) In this Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016 photo, Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Assiri, right, speaks with former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, at the Saudi Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanon is getting hammered by punishments from a furious Saudi Arabia, which has cut off billions in aid and told its citizens not to visit the country, in an escalating diplomatic crisis that was prompted by Beiruts siding with Iran against the kingdom and that now threatens to wreck Lebanons fragile economy. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) In this photo released on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016 photo by Lebanon's official government photographer Dalati Nohra, Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam, right, meets with Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Assiri, left, at the government House, in Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanon is getting hammered by punishments from a furious Saudi Arabia, which has cut off billions in aid and told its citizens not to visit the country, in an escalating diplomatic crisis that was prompted by Beiruts siding with Iran against the kingdom and that now threatens to wreck Lebanons fragile economy. (Dalati Nohra via AP) Halal foods pioneer gets 2-year prison term for export fraud CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) A businessman who is considered a pioneer in the U.S. halal foods industry was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for committing fraud in exporting beef products to Malaysia and Indonesia. U.S. District Judge Linda Reade granted 74-year-old William Aossey Jr. some leniency, departing from federal guidelines that called for a longer sentence. She also fined him $60,000. Dozens of supporters had pleaded with Reade to give Aossey probation, describing him as a generous businessman and ambassador for U.S. trade who shouldn't spend the final years of his life behind bars. But federal prosecutors had sought a lengthy prison term, saying Aossey had betrayed foreign governments and customers who trusted him and his company's products. FILE - In this September 2010 file photo, William Aossey Jr., founder of Midamar Corp., a Cedar Rapids-based company considered a pioneer in the sale of halal foods business, poses in front of an image of Damascus, at Midamar Corp. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. On Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, a judge sentenced Aossey to two years in prison for committing fraud in exporting halal beef products to Malaysia and Indonesia. (Mary Willie/The Des Moines Register via AP, File) MAGS OUT, TV OUT, NO SALES, MANDATORY CREDIT Aossey founded the Midamar Corp. in 1974 in his hometown of Cedar Rapids and built it into a brand that distributed more than 200 halal food products. A son of Syrian immigrants, Aossey had been a leader in the relatively large Muslim community and enjoyed relationships with many politicians. Aossey was convicted last year of directing employees to falsify packaging labels so Midamar could export beef products that did not meet Malaysian and Indonesian standards for halal, or slaughter practices based on Islamic law. A lengthy investigation also led to charges against Midamar, a related halal certification organization and two of Aossey's sons. The products at issue came from a Minnesota slaughterhouse that wasn't approved for importation by Malaysia or Indonesia. Instead, Midamar employees removed that slaughterhouse's federal establishment number and replaced them with labels falsely showing that the products had come from an Omaha, Nebraska, slaughterhouse that had been approved to export to the countries. In all, 22 shipments worth more than $740,000 were involved. UN chief to South Sudan: Respecting peace deal not an option JUBA, South Sudan (AP) U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the leaders of South Sudan on Thursday to respect the terms of a peace agreement that ended two years of civil war last year. The U.N. chief also said a global aid appeal for conflict-torn South Sudan is just 3 percent funded, and the world body is releasing $21 million in emergency money to help. Ban spoke after talks with South Sudan's president and rebel leader. He appealed to them to put peace above politics and establish a transitional government of national unity, saying the government must step up to its responsibilities to protect the population, which has suffered violence, mass displacements and hunger. UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, speaks to the press in Juba, South Sudan, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, The UN Secretary General visited South Sudan as part of his tour in Eastern Africa, and urged its warring parties to accomplish peace for the sake of the people of South Sudan. (AP Photo) "Respecting the terms of the peace agreement is not an option, it is a must," Ban said. South Sudan was plunged into civil war two years ago after a falling out between President Salva Kiir and his deputy, Riek Machar sparked a political crisis that then boiled over into a violent rebellion. Tens of thousands have died and at least two million people have been displaced from their homes. Some of the fighting was along ethnic lines, and both sides have been accused of carrying out serious human rights abuses. Though the peace agreement was signed in August, there is still some sporadic fighting. Kiir this month re-appointed Machar as vice president, but Machar has yet to return to South Sudan, citing security concerns. Ban called on Kiir and Machar to "rebuild mutual trust" and turn attention to the country's humanitarian and economic crisis and "massive human rights violations." South Sudan's Foreign Affairs Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin, said Kiir assured Ban of his commitment to implement the peace agreement. Cruz lifts hold on bill to resolve Flint water crisis WASHINGTON (AP) Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Thursday lifted a hold he placed on bipartisan legislation to address the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where lead-contaminated pipes have resulted in an ongoing public health emergency. Senators had reached a tentative deal a day earlier for a $220 million package to fix and replace the city's lead-contaminated pipes, make other infrastructure improvements and bolster lead-prevention programs nationwide. Cruz and at least one other GOP senator objected to a quick vote on the deal, delaying Senate consideration of the bill until at least next week. A spokesman for the Texas senator, Phil Novack, said Thursday night that Cruz had reviewed the bill and will not prevent it from moving forward in the Senate. Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, right, talks with Lucas Marmolejos, 7, left, after speaking at a rally, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) There was no word on whether other holds on the legislation had been removed. Earlier Thursday, Kristina Baum, a spokeswoman for Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said there were "a few holds" on the bill. Inhofe chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and was a main architect of the Flint deal. Baum declined to identify senators who were objecting to the bill, but said Inhofe and other senators were "genuinely trying to work through their concerns." Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairwoman of the Senate Energy Committee, said she was optimistic lawmakers could resolve the dispute and take up both the Flint bill and a larger energy package it is tied to next week. Novack declined to specify the nature of Cruz's concern, but many Republican senators have said it's too early to provide funds for Flint without specific plans from state and local officials. Some Republicans also question whether Flint is analogous to natural disasters such floods or hurricanes, since the crisis was the result of a political decision. Flint's drinking water became tainted when the city switched from the Detroit water system and began drawing from the Flint River in 2014 to save money. The impoverished city was under state control at the time. Regulators failed to ensure the water was treated properly and lead from aging pipes leached into the water supply. Elevated levels of lead have been found in some children's blood. Lead contamination has been linked to learning disabilities and other problems. The crisis in Flint has become an issue in the presidential campaign. Campaigning in Flint on Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he hopes people will look at the city's water crisis and say, "Never again." Hillary Clinton said there are a "lot of Flints" and that she wants to help them. Flint is a majority black city, and Clinton questioned whether a similar crisis would have occurred in a "white, affluent suburb of Detroit." The legislative impasse over Flint has blocked a bipartisan energy bill that had been moving forward in the Senate. Under the tentative agreement, the Senate would vote on the energy bill before taking up the Flint legislation as a separate bill. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said the plan provides $100 million for subsidized loans and grants to any state that declares an emergency due to a public health threat from lead or other contaminants in its public drinking water supply. "Certainly Flint is an extreme example right now, but there are problems all over the country" with lead in aging pipes, Peters said. "We've got a widespread national problem and there should be resources to help every state in the union." Peters and other supporters said the deal would use federal credit subsidies to provide incentives for up to $700 million in loan guarantees and other financing for water infrastructure projects nationwide. The bill would be paid for by redirecting up to $250 million from an Energy Department loan program approved in the 2009 economic stimulus law. In comments issued after Cruz's hold became known, Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, the nation's largest environmental organization, said: "Ted Cruz only cares about one thing and that's Ted Cruz. It's clear that he'll do anything to promote his own political aspirations without any regard for what's right for Flint and communities like Flint across the country." ___ Follow Matthew Daly: http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC CEO Tim Cook defends Apple's resistance in FBI iPhone case CUPERTINO, California (AP) Apple CEO Tim Cook got a standing ovation Friday at his first stockholder meeting since his company's epic clash with the FBI unfolded. He defended the company's unbending stance by saying: "These are the right things to do." On Thursday, the tech giant formally challenged a court order to help the FBI unlock an encrypted iPhone used by a murderous extremist in San Bernardino, California. Federal officials have said they're only asking for narrow assistance in bypassing some of the phone's security features. But Apple contends the order would force it to write a software program that would make other iPhones vulnerable to hacking by authorities or criminals in the future. FILE - In this April 30, 2015, file photo, Apple CEO Tim Cook responds to a question during a news conference in New York. Apple Inc. on Thursday asked a federal magistrate to reverse her order that the company help the FBI hack into a locked iPhone, accusing the federal government of seeking "dangerous power" through the courts. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) Major tech companies are rallying to Apple's cause, and now plan a joint "friend of the court" brief on its behalf. Facebook said it will join with Google, Twitter and Microsoft on a joint court filing. A Twitter spokeswoman confirmed that plan, but said that different companies and trade associations will likely file "multiple" briefs. Apple filed court papers on Thursday that asked U.S. Magistrate Sheri Pym to reverse her order on the grounds that the government had no legal authority to force the company to weaken the security of its own products. The company accused the government of seeking "dangerous power" through the courts and of trampling on its constitutional rights. The dispute raises broad issues of legal and social policy, with at least one poll showing 51 percent of Americans think Apple should cooperate by helping the government unlock the iPhone. The FBI and other law-enforcement agencies insist they need to get into the phone in order to run down every lead in the San Bernardino shootings, which were at least partly inspired by the Islamic State extremist group. But skeptics have questioned whether this particular device a work phone issued by one shooter's employer is likely to contain much useful information. Both assailants took care to destroy their personal phones prior to the massacre. Some police officials acknowledge similar doubts. "If they went out of their way to destroy the other phones, there's a pretty good chance there may not be anything of value," said Jarrod Burguan, San Bernardino's police chief. "This may be a whole lot of saber rattling and back and forth for nothing." Burguan, however, believes police still have "a duty and a responsibility" to make sure there's no useful evidence on the phone. It's unclear how the controversy might affect Apple's business. Analysts at Piper Jaffray said a survey they commissioned last week found the controversy wasn't hurting the way most Americans think about Apple or its products. At least one shareholder at Friday's meeting voiced support for the company's stance. "Apple is 100 percent correct in not providing or doing research to create software to break into it," said Tom Rapko, an Apple investor from Santa Barbara, California, as he waited in line to enter the auditorium at Apple's headquarters. "I think if you give the government an inch, they'll take a yard." Cook offered only brief remarks about the FBI case, and most questions from shareholders concerned other aspects of Apple's business. But the CEO won praise during the meeting from the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Internet rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "We applaud your leadership," said Jackson, a longtime civil rights leader and former adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr. "I recall the FBI wiretapping Dr. King in the civil rights movement," Jackson added. "We cannot go down this path again. Some of us do remember the days of (former FBI director J. Edgar) Hoover and McCarthy and Nixon and enemies lists." Apple's share price has seen little change since the issue erupted in the news last week. Overall, though, the company's stock has declined in recent months over worries that iPhone sales were slowing around the world. A hearing on the iPhone legal dispute is scheduled for next month. ___ Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Tami Abdollah in Washington, Amanda Lee Myers in Los Angeles and Bree Fowler in New York contributed to this report. Apple shareholders enter building 4 for the annual shareholders meeting Friday, Feb. 26, 2016, at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. Apple CEO Tim Cook defended his company's opposition to the FBI's iPhone-hacking plan at the company's annual shareholder meeting, one day after the tech giant formally challenged a court order to help the FBI unlock an encrypted iPhone used by a murderous extremist in San Bernardino,Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot) FBI Director James Comey appears at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on world wide threats on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Comey said the dispute between the FBI and Apple is "hardest question I've seen in government" (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) FBI Director James Comey speaks at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on world wide threats on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Comey says the issues raised in the Justice Department's dispute with Apple Inc. represent the "hardest question I've seen in government." (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) FBI Director James Comey, left, accompanied by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, right, speaks at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on world wide threats on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Comey says Apple had been "very cooperative" in the dispute and that there have been "plenty" of negotiations between the two sides. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) FBI Director James Comey, seen in reflection, speaks at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on world wide threats on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Comey says the issues raised in the Justice Department's dispute with Apple Inc. represent the "hardest question I've seen in government." (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Apple shareholders enter building 4 for the annual shareholders meeting Friday, Feb. 26, 2016, at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. Apple CEO Tim Cook defended his company's opposition to the FBI's iPhone-hacking plan at the company's annual shareholder meeting, one day after the tech giant formally challenged a court order to help the FBI unlock an encrypted iPhone used by a murderous extremist in San Bernardino,Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot) Univ. of Missouri fires instructor after student run-ins KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) The University of Missouri on Thursday fired an assistant professor who had been suspended after run-ins with student journalists during protests last year, including a videotaped confrontation where she called for "some muscle" to remove a videographer from the Columbia campus. Melissa Click's actions were "not compatible with university policies and did not meet expectations for a university faculty member," Pam Henrickson, chairwoman of the university system's governing board of curators, said during a conference call with other top administrators. Henrickson said Click's conduct demanded "serious action." More than 100 state lawmakers had called for the dismissal of the 45-year-old assistant communications professor, who last October also was recorded telling police to get their hands off students during a protest, then hugging the students and cursing at an officer who grabbed her. FILE - This Nov. 9, 2015 file frame grab provided by Mark Schierbecker shows Melissa Click, right, an assistant professor in the University of Missouri's communications, is seen during a run-in with student journalists during protests on the Columbia campus. Top administrators at the school on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, announced they had fired Click. She was suspended after being videotaped calling for "some muscle" to remove a student videographer during the protests. (Mark Schierbecker via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT Click, who was suspended last month, has said she regretted her actions. A message left Thursday with her St. Louis attorney wasn't returned, and her home telephone has been disconnected. But in a document released Thursday by curators, Click insisted her actions were to try to keep black protesters "safe from retaliation." She said the widely circulated video clips of her at protests didn't reflect the "tense" atmosphere. "While some would judge me by a short portion of videotape, I do not think that this is a fair way to evaluate these events," she wrote, adding that those moments "deserve to be understood in a wider frame of reference." Henrickson said lawmakers' outrage had no bearing on the curators' 4-2 vote to dismiss Click during a closed meeting Wednesday night. Henrickson, who along with fellow curator John Phillips cast a dissenting vote, declined to discuss her rationale, saying that she supports the board's action. She said Click would receive no parting severance package. Click has until March 4 to appeal the decision. According to documents released Thursday by the curators, Click was represented by an attorney both times she was questioned by university-hired investigators. A video clip that went viral showed Click calling for "some muscle" to remove a student videographer during protests on Nov. 9 that were spurred by what activists said was administrators' indifference to racial issues on campus. The Columbia chancellor and system president resigned after the protests escalated, with one student's hunger strike and an announcement by members of the football team that they would refuse to play. Click later was charged with misdemeanor assault. A Columbia prosecutor ultimately agreed to drop the case if Click completed community service, but the case prompted curators to order an investigation of her by its general counsel. More recently, police body camera footage was released from the October homecoming parade that shows Click's confrontation with police after demonstrators blocked the vehicle of Tim Wolfe, at the time the university system's president. The video shows Click telling police to "get your hands off the children" and cursing at an officer who grabbed her shoulder. As Columbia police pushed protesters onto the sidewalk, Click hugged students and spoke with them before stepping between an officer and a student. Hank Foley, the Columbia campus' interim chancellor, said Thursday that Click's firing was "in the best interest" of the school and a cautionary lesson about behavior that can easily be caught on cellphone video. Earlier this month, he said the homecoming parade footage showed a pattern of misconduct. Associate law professor Ben Trachtenberg, who heads the campus' Faculty Council, said Click's firing was "a very unfortunate and self-inflicted wound on the university," largely because curators decided Click's fate rather than allowing the school use its normal, on-campus procedures for reacting to faculty misconduct. ___ Jamie Vardy: Claudio Ranieri's all-nighters behind Leicester's 'theme park ride' Jamie Vardy has revealed manager Claudio Ranieri stays up all night studying rivals and called Leicester's season a "theme park ride". The England striker believes Ranieri has worked wonders taking the Foxes to the top of the Barclays Premier League. Leicester host Norwich on Saturday with a two-point lead after a heartbreaking late 2-1 defeat to Arsenal in their last game. Claudio Ranieri, left, and Jamie Vardy have teamed up to devastating effect at Leicester this season Ranieri replaced Nigel Pearson in the summer and Vardy - the league's 19-goal top scorer - said the former Chelsea boss is the best he has worked with and rarely rests. He said: "It's a difficult one, obviously each manager I've played under have all got different attributes. Every one has been brilliant to me but you'd probably say yeah because of what he's (Ranieri) done in coming in and the little tweaks he made to help us on the pitch. "I think he examines every single aspect of every opposition we're playing. He comes into our team meetings where he's been up all night watching 50-60 clips of just one of the opposition's players and he will tell you exactly what he's done in 49 of them and what he did in the other 11. "It's mental how much detail he goes into but it's a help to us and hopefully gives us an advantage." When asked to describe Leicester's season in three words Vardy told Betfair: " Theme park ride." Ranieri gave the players last week off before they returned on Monday to prepare for the visit of the Canaries. They were given a programme to follow and had heart rate monitors to track their progress, and Ranieri has been pleased with the results. He said: " I gave the players some programmes and they respected it and worked well. We had their GPS and when they came back the results were good. I trust them because they are very professional players. I gambled with them - we did not achieve nine points because we lost to Arsenal but they played well." Ranieri returned to Italy during Leicester's break and watched Real Madrid's 2-0 win over Roma in the Champions League, and admitted he rarely switches off. "I bring my laptop with me. If I have a spare hour I watch - then spend time with my family - then another hour. I went to watch Roma and Real Madrid - I scouted Ronaldo, not a bad young player," he joked. Daniel Amartey is likely to be included against Norwich as he prepares to make his debut following a January move from FC Copenhagen and Jeff Schlupp is back after a hamstring injury, but Danny Simpson is suspended. Army sergeant jailed for raping and spanking women at recruitment office An army recruitment sergeant who served in Iraq and Afghanistan has been jailed for 11 and a half years for a string of sexual assaults on female recruits. Edwin Mee, 46, was convicted of 16 offences including rape following a trial at London's Southwark Crown Court last year. The Glasgow-born officer used his power to "abuse and bully" women as young as 15, who were mostly from abroad but based in Croydon, south London. Former Army sergeant Edwin Mee was found guilty of 16 sex offences following a trial at London's Southwark Crown Court His campaign of abuse began by spanking women on the bottom and escalated to raping a vulnerable recruit. Sentencing him, Judge Alistair McCreath told Mee he acted in a way that was "demeaning" and "distressing" for the victims, including one woman who had been abused "dreadfully". The judge said: "The offences you committed were against nine young women, all of whom were seeking to join the army. All came under your direct control as a recruitment officer. "It was a situation of real and important trust. What you did to each one constituted a serious abuse of that trust. "You will be registered as a sex offender for the rest of your life." Mee, with long white hair and a white beard, showed no emotion as he was sentenced. The divorced father-of-five carried out a series of sex attacks on nine women aged from 15 to their early twenties in 2010 and 2011. In total, he was found guilty of 13 sexual assaults, two rapes and one count of assault by penetration. His trial heard that Mee would stay late at the careers centre and conduct interviews with applicants out of hours to "deliberately" target his victims. He asked a 16-year-old if she had body piercings and wanted to see the piercing in her tummy. Later he slapped her bottom and, when she complained, told her: "It's you who needs the army." Another of his victims said she saw Mee as a father figure before he raped her. Judge McCreath said the sexual assaults "set the context for very serious offending" against a female recruit who was raped. He said: "To slap a young woman on the bottom, whether over the clothes or not, is to invade their privacy and is to act towards them in a way that is demeaning and distressing to them." The rape victim had been taken to a "private place" and Mee "abused her dreadfully", the judge added. Mee, of Tavistock Road, Croydon, served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Oman, Northern Ireland and Bosnia during his military career. Following a tour of Afghanistan, he returned to his base in Germany suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder and attempted suicide, the court heard. In mitigation, Jane Bickerstaff QC said Mee had also suffered a "psychotic episode" since his conviction in May last year. She said: "A man who served his country for two decades in a distinguished way clearly suffered because of that. He continues to need treatment." Ms Bickerstaff added that Mee, who has a three-year-old daughter, had been medically discharged from the Army in April 2014 with "adjustment disorder". Judge McCreath acknowledged Mee had served his country well during military tours in "dangerous places". Those tours had inflicted "injuries not visible" and there was "clear evidence" Mee suffered mental health problems, the judge said. Frampton and Quigg argue over dressing rooms ahead of showdown Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg took part in a lively press conference on Thursday ahead of their super-bantamweight unification fight - with a dispute breaking out between the pair over the dressing rooms for the contest. The two undefeated British world champions meet in a hugely-anticipated clash on Saturday at Manchester Arena, where Frampton's IBF belt and Quigg's WBA crown will be on the line. Northern Irishman Frampton feels he deserves the best dressing room on the night as he is the "star of the show", his name coming first on the promotional material for the event. Carl Frampton, second left, and Scott Quigg, second right, were involved in a heated press conference in Manchester But Bury's Quigg is adamant he should have it, pointing out: "I'm the home fighter." Frampton claims his opponent's stance on the matter is the result of being superstitious, something he regards as a weakness. And to ram home the point, Frampton played Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" out of his phone down the microphone towards the end of the press conference. The two fighters later briefly started pushing each other as they posed for head-to-head photos. "It's a bit of a laughing matter - on my part, anyway," Frampton said when asked at the press conference about the dressing room issue. "There is a bit of dispute. Scott wants the dressing room that the star of the show usually goes in. "Contractually, I'm the A name here. It's Frampton v Quigg. I'm coming to the ring second. I'm entitled to that dressing room. "He wants it, so I've said why not just lock the door and we'll go into different dressing rooms? "But I think he's very superstitious, and superstition is a weakness, I think - I don't care which dressing room I'm in." Quigg then said: "Okay - that's that solved. I'm the home fighter, and I'm in the home dressing room. This is my arena." Quigg's promoter Eddie Hearn subsequently added there was nothing in the fight contract about the dressing rooms, before Frampton asked his opponent: "If you back yourself so much, does it matter which dressing room you have?" Quigg responded: "What makes you think you're coming to my arena and choosing what dressing room you have? "You wanted to be on the left side of the poster, to be announced and come out second. All your demands. "I'm having that dressing room and that's it. If you want to think it's weakness, you do that." Frampton replied: "I know it is, and this is about principle." There were also heated words on Thursday between Frampton's trainer Shane McGuigan - son of Barry McGuigan, another in attendance - and his counterpart Joe Gallagher, who was accused of showing disrespect. It all made for an entertaining prelude to what is expected to be a thoroughly entertaining spectacle on Saturday night. Quigg, 27, was excellent at the same venue in his last fight in July as he beat Spain's Kiko Martinez inside two rounds to take his record to 33 fights, 31 wins (23 KOs), two draws. At the same time, 29-year-old Frampton - who has been widely seen as the narrow favourite for this contest - overcame Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Jr in Texas on points after being knocked down twice early on, his record moving to 21 fights, 21 wins (14 KOs). Frampton said on Thursday: "I just believe I'm a better fighter than him, plain and simple. "In every single department, I think I'm that little bit better than Scott." Quigg said: "Nobody does what I do. The way I have lived since I dropped out of school, I have dedicated my life to this sport. U.S. to boost S.China Sea freedom of navigation moves, admiral says By Idrees Ali WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The United States, which is worried by China's military buildup to assert dominance in the South China Sea, will increase freedom-of-navigation operations there, a senior Pentagon official said on Wednesday. "We will be doing them more, and we'll be doing them with greater complexity in the future and ... we'll fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows," Admiral Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Command, told a hearing of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. "We must continue to operate in the South China Sea to demonstrate that water space and the air above it is international," Harris said. On Tuesday, Harris said in comments coinciding with a visit to Washington by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that China was "changing the operational landscape" in the South China Sea by deploying missiles and radar as part of an effort to militarily dominate East Asia. China says its military facilities in the South China Sea are "legal and appropriate," and on Tuesday, in an apparent reference to U.S. patrols, Wang said Beijing hoped not to see more close-up reconnaissance, or the dispatch of missile destroyers or strategic bombers. Wang met with U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice on Wednesday and they "candidly discussed" maritime issues, the White House said in a statement. Rice emphasized strong U.S. support for freedom of navigation and urged China to address regional concerns, the statement said. China's official Xinhua news agency said of the meeting that both countries believed all sides should work hard to maintain the peace and stability of the South China Sea. "The South China Sea issue should be resolved via dialogue and peaceful means," Xinhua added. Harris, asked what more could be done to deter militarization, said the United States could deploy more naval assets, although there were significant "fiscal, diplomatic and political hurdles" in the way of stationing a second aircraft carrier group in the region. "We could consider putting another (attack) submarine out there, we could put additional destroyers forward ...there are a lot of things we could do, short of putting a full carrier strike group in the Western Pacific," he said. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims. Harris's comments came a day after he said China had deployed surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island in the South China Sea's Paracel chain and radars on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratly islands further to the south. On Tuesday, his command said China's repeated deployment of advanced fighter aircraft to Woody Island was part of a disturbing trend that was inconsistent with Beijing's commitment to avoid actions that could escalate disputes. Last month, a U.S. Navy destroyer carried out a patrol within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracels, a move China called provocative. Syria opposition says supports two-week truce to test other side's commitment BEIRUT, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Syria's opposition said on Wednesday it supported the idea of a temporary two-week truce to test the seriousness of the other side's commitment to a U.S.-Russian plan for a cessation of hostilities. A statement seen by Reuters from the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee said it "views a temporary two-week truce as a chance to establish how serious the other side is in committing to the points of the agreement." Cuba allows 7 dissidents to travel abroad ahead of Obama visit By Daniel Trotta and Nelson Acosta HAVANA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The Cuban government has granted seven dissidents who are out of prison on parole a one-time permission to travel outside the country in an apparent gesture to the United States ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama. Four others in the same category were not granted the permission for reasons not immediately clear, dissidents reported. "We welcome the news ... and we continue to encourage the Cuban government to allow the remaining four former prisoners to travel as well," Peter Boogaard, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement. U.S. critics of Obama's opening to Cuba have complained that the president has received little in return for restoring diplomatic relations with the former Cold War enemy. To cement improving ties, Obama will visit Cuba on March 21-22. Around the time of detente in December 2014, Cuba's Communist government released 53 people whom Washington considered political prisoners. But some of those 53 were arrested again after being released and two remained in jail, according to the dissident group Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation. Secretary of State John Kerry told a congressional budget hearing that Washington expressed its disappointment to Havana over the re-arrests but that he expected Cuba to release them. "We believe they will be released ... and that signifies some listening, some movement" on the part of the Cuban government, Kerry said. Cuba considers the opponents a tiny minority that has lost legitimacy by accepting funding indirectly from the U.S. government. The seven granted travel freedom were summoned to the Interior Ministry and told they would be allowed one trip abroad, though upon their return they would resume serving sentences out of prison with a ban on foreign travel. "It appears to be some kind of gift they want to present to Obama, but in reality it is nothing concrete because when we come back we will return to legal limbo," said Martha Beatriz Roque, one of the seven. The 11 dissidents were among 75 opponents rounded up in the 2003 Black Spring crackdown. With the intervention of the Roman Catholic Church and Spain, all 75 were released in 2010 and 2011 under the condition that they leave Cuba. With eye on China's rise, Australia to boost defence spending by $21 bln By Colin Packham SYDNEY, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Australia will increase defence spending by nearly A$30 billion ($21.6 billion) over the next 10 years, seeking to protect its strategic and trade interests in the Asia-Pacific as the United States and its allies grapple with China's rising power. Defence spending will rise to A$195 billion, or 2 percent of GDP, by 2021-2022, as Australia buys new equipment including frigates, armoured personnel carriers, strike fighter jets, drones and submarines, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told an armed forces audience in Canberra on Thursday. The defence strategic plan was designed in mind of the changing nature of regional security, particularly China's economic and military rise and an increased U.S. focus on the Asia-Pacific, Turnbull said. "The United States will remain the pre-eminent global military power over the next two decades," Turnbull said. "It will continue to be Australia's most important strategic partner through our long-standing alliance, and the active presence of the United States will continue to underpin the stability of our region." The announcement riled Beijing, where the Foreign Ministry expressed "dissatisfaction" with Australia's "negative" remarks on the South China Sea and its military development. Tensions between China and its neighbours Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan over sovereignty in the South China Sea have risen after China embarked on significant reclamations on disputed islands and reefs in the area. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Defence Minister Marise Payne said Australia welcomed China's economic rise and noted it would seek greater influence in the region. "As a major power, it will be important for regional stability that China provides reassurance to its neighbours by being more transparent about its defence policies," Payne said. "The Government will seek to deepen and broaden our important defence relationship with China while recognising that our strategic interests may differ in relation to some regional and global security issues." Australia has urged China and other claimants to refrain from island-building and militarization in the South China Sea in an effort to lower tensions. "We hope the Australian side can correctly and positively view China's development and strategic intent," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing later on Thursday. Asked if China wanted to see an arms race in the region, Hua said: "The answer to that is definitely no". RIDING TWO HORSES Analysts said the report illustrated the difficult balancing act Australia is engaged in. "It is going to require very deft and delicate diplomacy from Australia to ride two horses simultaneously - have an ally in Washington and a friend in Beijing," said Professor James Curran, University of Sydney. "I think they have got the balance just about right but in the future it is going to be hard to keep the U.S. happy as they increasingly expect more from their allies in the region." In addition to detailing the number of new submarines, Payne said Australia would commit to a continuous shipbuilding program starting with nine frigates and 12 offshore patrol vessels. The supplier of the submarines will determined later this year. Reuters reported earlier this month the competition for the A$50 billion ($36 billion) contract to build Australia's next submarine fleet is narrowing to a race between Japan and France. China last week urged Australia to consider Japan's wartime history and the feelings of other Asian nations when making its submarine decision. The size of the Australian military will increase to 62,400, the plan said, the highest since 1993. Australia will also purchase unmanned drones for the first time, improving its ability to protect maritime sovereignty and borders and provide support to troops. Cyber security investment will be boosted, Australia said, while also committing A$1.6 billion to funding projects to develop new weapons and technology. Three vie to replace Philippines as AFF Cup co-hosts - report Feb 25 (Reuters) - Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore have offered to step in as co-hosts of the 2016 AFF Suzuki Cup after the Philippines withdrew following a contractual row about the use of the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila, Singaporean media reported. A decision on who will join Myanmar in co-hosting the Nov. 19 - Dec. 17 tournament for the 11 countries in Southeast Asia will be made on March 12 in Vietnam. "Right now Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia are the countries who have stated their interest," AFF general secretary Azzuddin Ahmad was quoted as saying by Singapore's Today newspaper on Thursday. Singapore co-hosted the biennial event with Vietnam in 2014 but the National Stadium pitch in the city-state came under fire for its poor quality. Malaysia staged the tournament two years earlier along with Thailand, the current champions. Indonesia overturns acquittal of intl school teachers convicted of student abuse JAKARTA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Indonesia's supreme court has overturned the acquittal of two teachers, a Canadian and Indonesian, convicted of sexually abusing students at an international Jakarta school and ordered them to serve out their original sentence. The two teachers were originally sentenced to 10 years in prison but were acquitted in August, 2015. The Supreme Court reimposed the sentence and added another year to their sentence. "They have been sentenced again to 11 years," Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi said by phone. Canadian national teacher Neil Bantleman and Indonesian teaching assistant Ferdinand Tjiong were convicted on charges of abusing kindergarten students at the Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS). Australia warns travellers of possible militant attacks in Indonesia JAKARTA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Australia issued a warning on Thursday about possible militant attacks being planned in Indonesia, only days after a similar warning for the Malaysian capital, another sign of rising concern over militancy in Southeast Asia. "Recent indications suggest that terrorists may be in the advanced stages of preparing attacks in Indonesia," said the travel advisory on an Australian government website (http://smartraveller.gov.au/countries/indonesia). The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not respond to a request for more details. Australia issued a similar statement on Sunday about possible attacks in and around Kuala Lumpur. The British, New Zealand, Canadian and other diplomatic missions in Malaysia soon followed with notices advising against travel to coastal islands in the eastern state of Sabah. Malaysia has been on high alert since a bomb and gun attack in Indonesia's capital in January in which eight people were killed, including four attackers. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State militant group. Australia has consistently placed Indonesia in the second-lowest of four warning categories, recommending that travellers "exercise a high degree of caution". Indonesia has been cracking down on suspected militants since the attack in Jakarta last month. However, a spokesman for the Indonesian national police, contacted after the Australian warning was issued, said there were no indications of an imminent attack. Eritrea won't shorten national service despite migration fears By Edmund Blair ASMARA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Eritrea is not prepared to stop forcing its youth into lengthy stretches of work as soldiers and civil servants, a conscription policy that is driving waves of refugees to make the perilous trip across the Sahara desert and Mediterranean Sea to Europe. European nations say that the poor Horn of Africa nation is moving only slowly and cautiously to stabilise the economy to stem the tide of migrants which is aggravating the refugee crisis that is gripping the European Union. The Asmara government insists conscription is vital for national security saying that it fears attack by its far bigger neighbour Ethiopia with which it fought a bloody and expensive war that ended in June 2000. On paper, citizens between the ages of 18 and 40 must complete 18 months of service to the state but diplomats and those who have fled say this can stretch to a decade or more. The government reserves the right to extend length of service in periods of emergency. Eritrea is raising national service salaries, printing new local currency notes to deter people-traffickers and investing in mining and other sectors, but diplomats are not convinced it is doing enough to retain its young people. Western diplomats said the strategy, boosted by a new EU financial package, showed greater engagement and openness by one of Africa's poorest countries, which has championed "self reliance" and has long accused world powers of trying to push it into isolation with U.N. sanctions. But the diplomats, who all spoke on condition of anonymity, accused Eritrea of back-tracking on privately made commitments by some officials last year to fix national service at 18 months, a term stipulated four years after Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia in 1991. European nations say that as long as national service dragged past the time limit Eritrean youths would continue to leave the country, thereby losing valuable workers that are needed to prop up the domestic economy. Each month as many as 5,000 people flee Eritrea according to U.N. figures, estimates the Eritrean government disputes. The government puts the population at about 3.6 million, while other estimates suggest it could be almost double that. "The government is doing the utmost that it can do, under the circumstances," Information Minister Yemane Ghebremeskel told Reuters in Eritrea, saying salaries would rise but there were no plans to scrap or cut national service. "Demobilisation is predicated on removal of the main threat," Yemane said in his office overlooking Asmara. "You are talking about prolongation of national service in response to ... continued belligerence by Ethiopia," he said referring to Eritrea's neighbour with a population of 97 million. ERITREA "ENGAGING MORE" Eritrea, which sits on the Red Sea coast next to one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, won independence after decades of conflict in which the death toll for both sides was tens of thousands dead. It also fought a border war in 1998 to 2000. It has complained that world powers failed to push Ethiopia to accept an arbitration ruling on demarcating their boundary. The government in Addis Ababa has said it wants talks on implementation, which Asmara rejects saying the ruling is clear. Diplomats want the Eritrean government to make creating more jobs in the state-dominated economy a priority to discourage young people from fleeing, but believe the government is acting cautiously. "They are engaging more," one Western diplomat said. "You have to build their confidence. They don't move quickly." Eritreans in national service receive military training, but many move to civil service jobs after a few months, working as medical professionals, teachers, engineers or other jobs. For years, they have earned less than regular civil servants and often complain they are shunted into careers they didn't choose. "Some people come out after two to three years. Some serve more than 10," said another diplomat. "That makes it difficult for the young people to plan their life. That has been one of the main reasons why Eritreans get asylum so easily in Europe." Rights activists have described it as "forced labour" and accuse Eritrea of other rights abuses too, including holding political prisoners, allegations the government denies. Eritreans who have fled dismiss the idea of serious reforms to the national service system, run by President Isaias Afwerki since independence. However, others who have stayed said some national service conscripts were now being better paid. Abel Haile, a 21-year-old who fled this month to Ethiopia, told Reuters when he was drafted into the army in 2014 an army general told conscripts they would be in the military for just one year. He left 13 months later when he saw no end in sight. "It would mean sacrificing your whole life otherwise," he said in Enda Aba Guna, an Ethiopian town near the border. In Asmara, a 23-year-old who works at a ministry said she earned 500 nakfa - the equivalent of about $33 a month at the official rate but less on the black market. But she said she understood her earnings would rise under new rules. "We are waiting. Graduates pay is higher," she said, speaking while helping out in her family's small grocery shop. PUSH VS PULL FACTORS In a series of interviews, ministers accepted there were "push" factors like low pay driving people abroad, but mostly blamed "pull" factors enticing Eritreans away, saying migrants only needed to complain about what they said were injustices in national service to get asylum in Europe. Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed, who said ties with European Union states were deepening, also told Reuters that Western policies had "taken the young generation to Europe". The EU signed a 200-million-euro package of support last month with Eritrea, a nation that has in the past turned down some foreign aid when it believed it would create dependence not development. The EU package includes energy sector support. Generators from chronic power shortages often rumble in the capital, an elegant, low-rise city with buildings and street cafes from the early 20th century Italian colonial era. Most residents cannot afford the luxury of a private power supply, leaving shops in the dark as evening draws in. In rural areas, many are not connected to the national grid at all. Finance Minister Berhane Habtemariam said new mines - one commercial mine is in operation and three more are due to start by 2018 - would boost the economy, but he said the government also wanted investment in tourism, fisheries and other areas. He declined to give growth or other economic forecasts. "Every time we give figures, it is used by our enemies to attack us," he said, the kind of remark that fuels Eritrea's reputation as a reclusive nation, a description the government vehemently disagrees with saying it is open but faces threats. The African Development Bank estimates growth in 2015 was 2.1 percent up from 2.0 percent a year before. The minister said he did not know how the bank reached those figures, but said growth had been in double digits about five years ago when gold mining started and prices were higher. Berhane outlined some new national service pay scales, including for graduates who would receive 4,000 nakfa a month instead of 1,400 nakfa. Civil service pay across the board was under review and would help discourage migration, he said. SECRET PLAN, WORTHLESS NOTES Introducing new nakfa currency notes late last year was designed to rein in a black market and hit human traffickers abroad, such as those in Sudan who took cash from migrants in nakfa and had kept the old notes, the minister said. The new notes were issued in a six-week period - the timing of which had been kept "top secret" said one official - to ensure traffickers could not send their cash hoard back in time, leaving them holding now worthless old currency notes. "It might not stop (human trafficking) altogether, but I am sure it is going to have an impact," the finance minister said. While the official rate of around 15 nakfa to the U.S. dollar has stayed fixed, the black market rate has plunged to about 20-25 from 50-55 before the new notes were circulated. Western economic experts say floating the nafka currency would help scrub out the black market in a nation that relies heavily on remittances from Eritreans abroad. Government officials say it would simply hurt the economy. The government has instead limited circulation of the new notes and bank withdrawals to encourage more Eritreans to use cheques and bank transfers, trying to reduce the size of the cash economy that officials say allowed illegal trade to thrive. But this has created challenges for a country with just two commercial banks and 30 branches combined. A cash crunch has left shops and restaurants struggling to find customers, as few people have enough notes to spend on anything more than basics. "Demand is less than it was since the new exchange system," said Mohamed Nour, a 70-year-old clothes shopkeeper on one of Asmara's main commercial streets. "But we must have patience." Hungary's Orban says EU-Turkey migrant deal an "illusion" BERLIN, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban has said the European Union's promise of money and other concessions for Turkey in return for preventing more people leaving its shores for Europe is an "illusion". "We are begging Mr (Turkish President Tayyip) Erdogan submissively for security on our borders, in exchange for money and promises, because we can't protect them ourselves," Orban told Thursday's mass-selling German daily Bild. "This is making Europe's future and security dependent on the goodwill of Turkey." EU countries this month approved a 3 billion euro ($3.3 billion) fund for Turkey to improve living conditions for refugees there in return for a promise to ensure that fewer of them migrate on to Europe. The EU is counting on the deal to stem the influx after more than a million refugees poured in in 2015, the majority coming from the Middle East or Asia via Turkey. There is little sign of the flow ebbing this year. Orban has been one of the most outspoken critics of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming stance towards refugees. On Wednesday, he announced plans for a referendum on EU plans to create a system of mandatory quotas for migrants. "Brussels is making promises to the Turks that we can't keep - or don't want to keep. The plan to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees from Turkey and distribute them across Europe is an illusion," he said. PRESS DIGEST - Bulgaria - Feb 25 SOFIA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. -- Supreme Court of Serbia postponed its sitting on the request for the extradition of majority owner of insolvent Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) Tsvetan Vassilev to March 16 (Trud, Capital daily, 24 Chasa, Standart) -- Bulgaria's government agreed to send troops as part of a NATO mission aimed at bolstering the defense of Turkey's airspace. Eight Bulgarian troops will be deployed as of March 01, 2016 for six months (Trud, Standart, Sega) -- Bulgarian parliament voted on a first reading to approve new fines imposed for speeding (Trud, 24 Chasa, Standart, Monitor, Telegraf) PRESS DIGEST - RUSSIA - Feb 25 MOSCOW, Feb 25 (Reuters) - The following are some stories in Russia's newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. VEDOMOSTI www.vedomosti.ru - Russia wants to apply its law on media to online news aggregators such as Google and Yandex. The current law bans foreign ownership of more than 20 percent of media companies in Russia, the daily says. - Russian developers expect a 10-30 percent fall in demand for new apartments this year. KOMMERSANT www.kommersant.ru - Russia's law makers will debate on Feb. 26 a bill to introduce taxes on both Russian and foreign companies selling content to Russian customers online. - Belarus is worried by Russian plans to review the current system of state subsidies for imports of Belarussian-made engines which could affect the country's plants dependent on exports to Russia. - Police have completed an investigation into a criminal case involving former head of Russia's prisons and his deputy who will face corruption charges which resulted in damage to the state worth more than 2.7 billion roubles ($35.41 million). RBC www.rbc.ru - The Russian Orthodox Church could have received from the state at least 14 billion roubles in the last three years, the daily says adding that the revenues and spending of the Church remain closed for public. - Education Minister Dmitry Livanov sees no conflict of interest when a former senior official of a company controlled by tycoon Arkady Rotenberg is in charge of implementing a 2.8 trillion rouble ($36.72 billion) state project on building schools across the country. Rotenberg's company Prosveshcheniye is a leading publisher of school textbooks. ROSSIISKAYA GAZETA www.rg.ru - Russia has started construction of a huge shipyard in the Far East to produce supertankers and floating platforms for oil and gas extraction in Arctic offshore zones, the head of Russia's Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, says in an interview. - Russia is creating a radar shield over its territory by installing powerful long-range early warning radar stations across the country to monitor air and space including thousands of kilometres beyond its borders, the daily writes. MOSKOVSKY KOMSOMOLETS www.mk.ru - Russia is forming assault engineering and sapper units which could be attracted to clear the territory for the movement and operations of the regular army in urban conditions, says the Chief of Engineer Troops, Yuri Stavitsky. IZVESTIA www.izvestia.ru - Sukhoi fighters are bestselling items in Russia's arms exports and could bring the state more than $10 billion, the daily says adding that the activity of the Russian aircraft in Syria have demonstrated "all their merits". South Sudan sides trade barbs over peace progress after sanctions threat By Denis Dumo JUBA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - South Sudan's government said on Thursday that a threat of U.S. sanctions if the country fails to deliver on a peace deal should be directed at rebels in the country rather than the presidency. South Sudan descended into civil war in December 2013 following a row between President Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar. Both sides, under pressure from Washington, the United Nations and other powers, signed an initial peace deal in August and agreed to share out ministerial positions in January. But that deal has broken down repeatedly. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Kiir and Machar - who was re-appointed to his old post this month - would face individual sanctions if they did not deliver on the deal, warning of a "critical moment for South Sudan's survival". A spokesman for Kiir, Ateny Wek Ateny, said the threat "must be aimed at those who are putting impediments into the implementation process ... The problem is not with Salva Kiir". He said Kiir was ready to form a transitional government "tonight" if Machar's side, the SPLM/A-IO, submitted the names. James Gatdet Dak, spokesman for the SPLM/A-IO, said Machar's side was "ready to deliver" and Kerry's comments were helpful. "This is a good statement because it can put pressure on the two parties. But on our side we are ready to deliver, it is the government that has been violating the peace agreement," he told Reuters. This week, both sides agreed to let troops allied with Machar to return to the capital Juba for the first time since the conflict broke out, and a spokesman for Machar said he planned to return to Juba next week. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to visit South Sudan on Thursday and meet Kiir, who has led the country since independence from Sudan in 2011. NATO should open door to Macedonia, Georgia -Hungary formin BUDAPEST, Feb 25 (Reuters) - NATO should complete the accession process of Montenegro and should leave its door open to Macedonia and Georgia as well, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday. "If NATO does not continue the enlargement process that would also erode NATO's credibility significantly," Szijjarto told reporters on the sidelines of a conference. Cambodian PM tells troops to fire rockets at illegal loggers PHNOM PENH, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Cambodia's prime minister on Thursday called for a bigger effort to curb illicit timber trade, saying he had ordered military police to fire rockets from helicopters if they saw illegal loggers at work. Hun Sen created a task force in January led by National Military Police Commander Sao Sokha to raid timber warehouses and tackle the deforestation that is fuelling a multi-million dollar illegal trade. "I already gave two helicopters for raids and Sao Sokha has not fired a single rocket yet," the prime minister said in a televised speech. "I order that rockets be fired from above." An investigation last year by environment group Global Witness said Chinese demand for luxury rosewood furniture was fuelling a black-market trade in illegal logs across Cambodia. It alleged loggers were working in cahoots with government officials, military and police to get logs onto boats bound for Hong Kong. Hun Sen, who was speaking at the inauguration of a new environment ministry building, said he had suspected that too. Afghanistan govt revenue rises 22 pct in 2015, U.S. report says By Josh Smith and Mirwais Harooni KABUL, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's budget revenue increased almost 22 percent in 2015, a report by the United States Institute for Peace said, an encouraging turnaround for a cash-strapped government that remains heavily reliant on foreign aid. Since the U.S.-led military intervention toppled the Taliban regime in 2001, the country has depended on billions of dollars in foreign aid as it struggled to find domestic revenue sources, casting doubt on the government's ability to stand on its own. Increased revenue is key to reassuring donors as international attention on Afghanistan fades. The increase followed an 8 percent revenue decline in 2014, which, combined with unexpectedly high spending on war efforts, led the Afghan government to ask international backers for millions in emergency funding. The U.S. government-funded institute, in its report, said stronger tax collection efforts, corruption crackdowns and new taxes contributed to an "extraordinary turnaround" last year. "This experience demonstrates that targeted progress can be achieved, even in Afghanistan's challenging political and security environment," said the report, whose authors included an adviser to Afghanistan's Ministry of Finance. The government collected nearly 122 billion afghani ($1.7 billion) in 2015, which nevertheless "will not diminish the country's massive overall fiscal gap or its large aid requirements for the foreseeable future," the report noted. Some efforts were driven by targets and incentives from the International Monetary Fund, which gave the government a $75 million bonus for surpassing its revenue goals, said ministry spokesman Ajmal Hamid Abdulrahimzai. Fifty-six percent of the increased revenue was attributed to better collection efforts, especially in the customs department, which controls trade at Afghanistan's border crossings. MOBILE PHONE TAX Roughly 24 percent came from new taxes including on mobile phone use and imported gas, and increases in existing ones. "2015 was unprecedented in the past 13 years for Afghanistan's revenue but this is not enough and we will continue our efforts," Abdulrahimzai said. Abbas Ibrahimzada, a businessman and member of parliament's national economic commission, said this year could be more difficult as many business owners are leaving amid higher taxes, lingering corruption and increasing fears of violence. "You will witness that the government will not be able to collect half their target," he predicted. The institute report called the 2016 outlook "fairly good", but said efforts to squeeze more revenue from existing systems face "diminishing returns." Czech Republic reports first two Zika cases PRAGUE, Feb 25 (Reuters) - The Czech Republic has identified its first cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in two Czechs returning from separate trips to the Caribbean, Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek said on Thursday. The World Health Organisation warned Wednesday that the Zika outbreak would likely worsen before any relief comes to the countries besieged by the virus. Zika has been linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil. At least 34 countries, mostly in the Americas, have active Zika outbreaks and the virus is expected to spread. Brazil has been hit the hardest, followed by Colombia. Nemecek told reporters that the virus had been detected in a man returning from Martinique and in a woman who traveled to the Dominican Republic. Their conditions do not require hospitalisation, he said. "This is not a case of an infection having spread in the Czech Republic. It is a disease brought from the areas where we recommended that people not travel," Nemecek said. The Czech authorities have recommended avoiding the most heavily affected countries, especially pregnant women and children. WHO declared the Zika outbreak linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil an international health emergency on Feb. 1. France criticises Belgium's "odd" border reinforcement By Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS, Feb 25 (Reuters) - France criticised Belgium on Thursday for dispatching police reinforcements to bolster its French frontier, complaining that Paris was not told in advance of what its interior minister called an "odd" decision. Bernard Cazeneuve, in Brussels for an EU meeting, said he did not think France's plan to move migrants out of a squalid camp at Calais would, as Belgium fears, prompt many to move north along the English Channel coast to Belgian ports. The row between two founder members of the European Union over a frontier little policed for decades underscores strains on Europe's Schengen free movement zone caused by a surge in irregular immigration as well as the militant attacks in Paris. Cazeneuve said most migrants arriving at Calais in the hope of crossing to Britain came into France via Belgium, or Germany, and also referred to November's Islamic State attack on the French capital having been largely organised from Brussels, a source of continuing friction between the two governments. "To suggest that there could be ... a flow of migrants to the Belgian border has simply no basis in reality," Cazeneuve said of the French plan to rehouse migrants from Calais's "Jungle" camp -- a move that could start this week. "The pressure is in the opposite direction," Cazeneuve told reporters. "This decision seems odd to us." His Belgian counterpart ordered nearly 300 extra police to the Flemish coast on Tuesday to patrol the border and the area around the port of Zeebrugge and warned that "thousands" of migrants could head north into Belgium as some already have. Belgian regional officials said they had intercepted 950 Britain-bound migrants in January, up from 360 in November. A year on from Nigerian election victory, Buhari's reforms founder By Julia Payne and Ulf Laessing ABUJA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Almost a year after winning an election on promises to fix Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari's grand vision of reform is fading, with power centralised in his increasingly remote presidency and the bureaucracy in disarray. After axing almost 50 top civil servants and 40 ambassadors and shaking up ministries in a bid to excise endemic graft, the 73-year-old former military ruler has even started cancelling some weekly cabinet meetings. His aides said this was because under his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, the meeting had become a forum for ministers to hand out over-priced contracts to friends. Critics say the effect has been to leave government rudderless while Africa's biggest economy flatlines. Power is concentrated in Buhari's office, where files pile up on the desk of his chief of staff. Ministers appointed only in November - more than six months after Buhari's victory - are reluctant to make decisions, diplomats say. Government insiders admit things may be getting worse before they get better, but say that is to be expected given the scale of the task in hand. "Of course it's chaos. We're rebuilding a whole system. There is no depth in the bureaucracy," said a senior government source who asked not to be named. Buhari is too often absent to provide enough personal guidance, according to his critics. Since taking office in May, he has been on 26 overseas trips, visiting Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week, where officials say he hopes to drum up interest from investors. His opponents complain that his external focus comes at the expense of the two pillars of the domestic economy - the oil-producing Niger Delta and Lagos, the sprawling megacity that serves as Nigeria's commercial capital. He has visited neither as president. NO BUDGET Buhari has won plaudits from ordinary Nigerians for fighting graft as part of a crackdown on an elite whose wealth has grown for decades while most of the country's 170 million people remained in poverty. The army under his command has also reconquered territory from the Boko Haram group in the north, though the jihadists still regularly stage suicide attacks. But the ascetic general has not yet delivered on a promise to create jobs by ending reliance on oil. His civil service cull has cut avenues for graft but also created knowledge gaps, to the point that the government has so far been unable to produce a viable budget. Buhari last week fired a senior budget official who had been appointed in August, after he helped to produce a draft which labelled car or computer purchases as capital expenditures, according to Nigerian research group Budgit. One billion naira - more than $5 million at the official exchange rate - had been budgeted for office furniture alone. "This was really depressing when we expected that this should be a total shift from the wasteful culture that we had had in the past," said Oluseun Onigbinde, founder of the group. Buhari fired most of the top management at state oil firm NNPC but his replacements have struggled to get a grip on the massive and opaque entity, officials say. Some projects have been delayed as the newcomers struggle to locate the relevant files in the four NNPC towers. With no regular meetings, ministers are still trying to figure out what they can achieve, officials say. Buhari merged several ministries but since a cabinet retreat in November, he has left them to drift. Buhari's aides counter that the cabinet meets whenever there is something to decide, and that the government needs time to work out detailed plans - including funding - for such daunting tasks as road-building or the improvement of Nigeria's notoriously erratic power supply. But a senior civil servant who asked not to be named said ministers struggled to get the attention of Buhari's office. "There is a proposal, a consultancy does a study but then the report gets ignored," he said. Buhari asked Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to coordinate economic policy, but diplomats say he is being sidelined as the president personally handles all key issues, including a freeze of the naira exchange rate that is crippling investment. That leaves businessmen wondering how the West African oil producer can survive its worst economic crisis for decades. IMF reviews Zimbabwe economy, eyes first new financing since 1999 By MacDonald Dzirutwe HARARE, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has started talks with Zimbabwe's government to review its economic performance, stepping up engagement as Harare seeks a financial aid package after years of isolation. President Robert Mugabe's government started defaulting on debts to the IMF, World Bank, African Development Bank and several Western lenders in 1999 - leading to a freeze in IMF assistance - and is struggling to emerge from a catastrophic recession that ran for a decade until 2008. Without balance of payment support or foreign credit, Zimbabwe is running its budget hand-to-mouth, leaving it with virtually no money for infrastructure. With formal unemployment above 85 percent, Zimbabwe has since December 2013 softened previously sacrosanct policies in the hope of gaining fresh loans. At the same time, Western countries have eased sanctions imposed over alleged human rights abuses and vote fraud, looking beyond the rule of the 92-year-old Mugabe, Zimbabwe's sole leader since independence in 1980. An IMF team met government representatives on Wednesday under the final phase of a Staff Monitoring Programme, Christian Beddies, the IMF representative in Zimbabwe, told Reuters. The team will also meet central bank officials and local business leaders before March 10. "The team is also doing the annual Article IV consultation, which is an important ingredient in the re-engagement process," Beddies said. TARGETS MET Zimbabwe started the SMP - an informal agreement with the IMF to monitor implementation of its economic reforms - in December 2013, and has met its targets. These include softening provisions of its black empowerment law to attract foreign investment, making it easier for firms to lay off workers, and improving government financial accountability. A senior treasury official said Zimbabwe hoped to begin negotiations this year on new financial aid, which will require it to tackle difficult reforms such as cutting the state wage bill, 82 percent of the national budget. A parallel programme to clear $1.8 billion in external arrears would also be undertaken. "We are working on the structure of a new financing programme from the IMF and we will soon present to them a country strategy paper on this and the economic reforms that will support the programme," said the treasury official, who is involved in discussions with the IMF. The worst drought since 1992 has left 3 million people facing hunger and Zimbabwe has appealed for nearly $1.6 billion to help pay for grain and other food. Zimbabwe says it expects growth of 2.7 percent this year after 1.5 percent in 2015, but the World Bank says the economy will stagnate due to drought and weak commodity prices. Israel says Sudanese who wounded soldier was Islamic State sympathiser JERUSALEM, Feb 25 (Reuters) - A Sudanese migrant who stabbed and wounded a soldier in Israel two weeks ago was motivated by Islamic State ideology, the Shin Bet internal security service said on Thursday. It was the first such attack by an African migrant during five months when Palestinians have intensified anti-Israeli street attacks including stabbings, shootings and car rammings. The Sudanese assailant, Kamel Hasan, was shot dead after he wounded the soldier in the town of Ashkelon on Feb. 7. The bloodshed has been fuelled by factors including a dispute over Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound and the failure of several rounds of peace talks to secure the Palestinians an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory. In a statement, the Shin Bet said Hassan was a devout Muslim and that investigators found photos of "Islamic State loyalists taken in locations around the world" on his cellphone. "It looks like the attack was inspired by ISIS," the statement said, stopping short of alleging that Hasan had received direct instructions from the group. Since October, Palestinian street attacks have killed 28 Israelis and a U.S. citizen. Israeli security forces have killed at least 168 Palestinians, 111 of whom Israel says were assailants, while most others were shot dead during violent anti-Israeli protests. What constitutes genuine Islamic State action outside its Middle East fiefdoms is a question bedevilling security agencies worldwide. Israeli security services, like many around the world, are concerned by the prospect of "lone wolf" attacks by assailants influenced by Islamic State and its powerful social media outreach. Last year, the Shin Bet arrested several Israeli Arabs it said were trying to form an armed cell under orders from two fellow citizens fighting with Islamic State in Iraq. Pakistan province passes landmark law protecting women against violence By Asad Hashim ISLAMABAD, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Pakistan's largest province on Wednesday gave unprecedented protection to female victims of violence, in a bid to stem a rising tide of gender-related abuse in a country ranked as the world's third most dangerous place for women. The new law criminalises all forms of violence against women, whether domestic, psychological or sexual, and calls for the creation of a toll-free abuse reporting hot line and the establishment of shelters. Muslim-majority Pakistan, home to roughly 190 million people, sees thousands of cases of violence against women every year, from rape and acid attacks to sexual assault, kidnappings and so-called "honour killings". "The instances of violence against women have been on the increase, primarily because the existing legal system does not effectively address the menace and violence by some is perpetrated with impunity," said the text of the legislation passed by the Punjab assembly. In 2013, more than 5,800 cases of violence against women were reported in Punjab alone, the province where Wednesday's law was passed, according to the Aurat Foundation, a women's rights advocacy group. Those cases represented 74 percent of the national total that year, the latest for which data is available. The leader of one of Pakistan's largest orthodox Sunni Muslim seminaries denounced the new law as being in conflict with the Muslim holy book, the Koran. "Attempting to change religious and national values in the name of protecting women is a tragedy that is of great concern," Muhammad Naeem, head of the Jamia Binoria seminary in the southern city of Karachi, said in a statement. The new law establishes district-level panels to investigate reports of abuse, and mandates the use of GPS bracelets to keep track of offenders. It also sets punishments of up to a year in jail for violators of court orders related to domestic violence, with that period rising to two years for repeat offenders. Rights groups welcomed the law, but warned that its implementation remained a concern. "The change in law would only make a difference if there is effective enforcement and the legislature continues to engage with the issue and ensures oversight," said Zohra Yusuf, chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Libyan forces battle Islamic State in Sabratha, three killed By Ahmed Elumami TRIPOLI, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Libyan forces battled to clear Islamic State insurgents from the western city of Sabratha on Thursday, in fighting that killed at least three Libyans and one of the militants, officials said. Islamic State has gained ground rapidly in Libya in the last year, controlling the city of Sirte and attacking oil ports, as it takes advantage of the conflict between the country's two rival governments and their armed factions. U.S. warplanes hit Islamic State in Sabratha last week, a sign of growing Western engagement against the militant group in Libya as it expands beyond its original territory in Iraq and Syria. Fighting began in Sabratha on Tuesday, when militants stormed into the city, beheading 11 local security men before retreating after clashes with local Sabratha brigades. Islamic State is also fighting in Benghazi to the east. "A military operation has been started to wipe out the militants of Islamic State in Sabratha," Sabratha municipal council major Hussein al-Thwadi told Reuters. "At least three of our fighters have been killed and ten wounded." A militant commander was captured on Thursday, Thwadi said. A would-be Islamic State suicide bomber was also killed, before he could set off his explosives. Worried about the group's spread, Western officials say they are discussing air strikes and special forces operations against Islamic State in Libya, where militants exploited a breakdown of order since the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. In Benghazi, Libyan special forces commander Wanis Bukhamada told Reuters that French military advisers have been helping coordinate Libyan forces fighting Islamic State insurgents in the eastern city. He said the French advisers were not fighting. Later, the Libyan National Army leadership denied any French forces were with their forces in Benghazi. LNA media office manager Khalifa Al-Abeedi said the forces "firmly denied" any French military or advisers were aiding or fighting with them. The French newspaper Le Monde reported on Wednesday that French special forces and intelligence commandos were engaged in "a secret war" against Islamic State in Libya, in conjunction with the United States and Britain. France's Defence Ministry declined comment on the report. Libyan military forces in Benghazi are under the command of General Khalifa Haftar and are loyal to the government based in the eastern city of al-Bayda. A rival armed faction took over the capital, Tripoli, in the west in 2014 and declared itself the government. Haftar's forces have been advancing against Islamic State in Benghazi, the biggest eastern city, taking back neighbourhoods that have been under militant control for months. Last Friday, a U.S. air strike targeted Islamist militants in Sabratha, killing more than 40. Two kidnapped Serbian diplomats may also have been killed in that raid, though an investigation into their deaths is continuing. Western officials say any deeper international military involvement, such as training missions or a proposed Italian-led security stabilisation force, will require a request from a U.N.-backed Libyan national unity government. US leads 22 strikes against Islamic State in Syria, Iraq -statement WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - The United States and its allies conducted 22 strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Wednesday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement on Thursday. In Syria, there were seven strikes using attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft, the Combined Joint Task Force said. Near al-Hawl, five of the strikes hit two Islamic State tactical units and destroyed seven Islamic State buildings and a fighting position, it said, while near Albu Kamal, two strikes hit a gas and oil separation plant and a refinery. In Iraq, 15 strikes were coordinated with the Iraqi government, the statement said. Nine strikes near Mosul hit two tactical units, an improvised weapons factory, an IED factory, a mortar factory and a car bomb facility. Seven fighting positions were also destroyed. Thousands of West Africans gain identity documents, 1 million still stateless - UN By Kieran Guilbert DAKAR, Feb 25 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than 20,000 people in West Africa have gained identity documents in the past year as part of a drive to eradicate statelessness, yet around one million in the region still have no nationality, the United Nations said on Thursday. Stateless people, sometimes referred to as legal ghosts, are not accepted as citizens by any country, which means they are denied basic rights - leaving many unable to work or access healthcare - and are vulnerable to exploitation and traffickers. Many West Africans are left stateless by laws which prevent women passing their nationality to their children and a lack of birth registrations, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said. Around 22,000 people in Ivory Coast, Benin and Mali have received identity documents or birth certificates since the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) signed a declaration in January last year that it would end statelessness. "Thousands of people who, until now, did not have a determined nationality, will come out of the shadows," said UNHCR regional representative for West Africa Liz Ahua. "Thanks to the reforms currently being implemented in several states in West Africa, these men, women and children will finally be able to obtain a legal identity," she added. Around one million people are thought to be stateless or at risk of statelessness in West Africa, according to the UNHCR. Yet Ivory Coast, where statelessness helped fuel a decade of civil wars, is the only nation in the region to give an estimate - some 700,000 people - of the number of individuals living in limbo, so the figure could be far higher, experts say. Several West African countries have adopted action plans to tackle the issue, the UNHCR said. Guinea, Burkina Faso, Liberia and Togo are reviewing their nationality laws, while Senegal is working on a law to protect children from being born stateless. "Thousands of children in West Africa, such as street children, are not declared at birth... they can be easily exploited by human traffickers or forced to work," said UNHCR senior regional protection officer Emmanuelle Mitte. There are an estimated 10 million stateless people worldwide with other big populations in Nepal, Myanmar and Thailand. Pakistan's largest opposition party wants army chief to stay when term ends By Mubasher Bukhari and Syed Raza Hassan LAHORE/KARACHI, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Pakistan's largest opposition party has asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government to extend the term of the powerful army chief when he retires in November, party officials said on Thursday. Last month, army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif, widely popular for launching operations against militants in several parts of the country, broke a precedent of generals seeking to extend their terms and said he would step down when his three-year one ends. Since then, posters have appeared in major cities asking the general not to retire and hundreds of people have held rallies in his support. "Move on Pakistan," a new political party formed by influential businessmen in the country's rich Punjab province, has campaigned for his service to be extended. "Gen. Raheel Sharif is successfully running the war on terror not only against terrorists but also against their financiers and supporters," Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Khurram Jahangir Wattoo, who submitted a resolution in the Punjab Assembly asking for an extension, told Reuters. "If he retires, the present rulers would not be able to continue the operation with the same spirit." Since Sharif took office in 2013, the army has launched aerial and ground assaults against insurgent strongholds near the Afghan border, earning broad support from a population tired of militant violence. The army has also received acclaim for a 20-point plan to tackle militancy launched after Taliban gunmen attacked a school and killed 134 children in 2014. A TIME OF TENSION But the resolution comes at a time of tension between the army and the PPP over a security crackdown in Karachi, the capital of the Sindh province the PPP rules. Last year, a prominent PPP politician was arrested on charges of corruption and for aiding and abetting militants. The PPP condemned the arrest as politically motivated. The arrest, as well as raids on government offices by paramilitary soldiers, raised accusations that the military, which has a history of launching coups, was seeking to weaken civilian politicians in the country's largest and wealthiest city. But this week, PPP leaders spoke up in the general's support in what observers see as an attempt to mend fences in the face of mounting pressure. Hungary defends referendum on EU migrant quotas, raps Brussels "ivory tower" By Marton Dunai BUDAPEST, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Hungary said on Thursday its planned referendum on EU-mandated migrant resettlement quotas will cover only future proposals, not a separate one-off quota decision, but it rejected criticism of the vote as coming from an "ivory tower" in Brussels. Hungary has been at odds with the European Commission and some fellow EU countries over how to handle a large migrant influx into the bloc, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban proposed a referendum on Wednesday to see whether Hungarians accepted the quotas, something his government firmly opposes. The referendum plan may clash with an agreed EU-wide strategy to handle the refugee crisis, the European Commission said on Thursday. A spokeswoman withheld further comment pending clarifications from Orban, who set no date for the vote. Along with Slovakia, Hungary challenged in court a majority decision by EU governments in September to redistribute 160,000 migrants among member states over a period of two years according to one-off quotas. Szijjarto said that move was "made with a disregard to EU rules". "We do not think that matter is resolved because the European Court has yet to rule on it," Szijjarto told a news conference alongside Slovak counterpart Miroslav Lajcak, another staunch foe of quotas and Hungary's partner in the European Court challenge. "We think that decision, or move interpreted as a decision, is invalid... Hungarians reserve the right to be heard on any potential future decision that would make such a set-up systemic," he said. Szijjarto also rejected as anti-democratic criticism from Brussels, where diplomats have said Hungary's combative attitude and its referendum were "not helpful" to efforts to find a coordinated, EU-wide solution to the migrant crisis. "Not helpful in what? Asking for people's opinions in an important matter does not help? I don't get this attitude," Szijjarto said. "In the ivory tower of Brussels they may not like people expressing their views on important European matters but we think this is important enough that we don't decide without hearing what our voters have to say first." He rejected the concern by some legal analysts who said referendums could not be held on obligations arising from an international treaty, like the one signed by EU members. "We never signed any treaty that would allow anyone to tell us who we must or must not let enter our country. This is a matter of sovereignty," Szijjarto said. Slovakia's Lajcak, whose government faces an election on March 5, also said quotas were a misguided approach that did nothing to solve the crisis. Europe's free travel will end unless Turkey halts migrant flow, officials say By Gabriela Baczynska and Robert-Jan Bartunek BRUSSELS, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Europe's cherished free-travel zone will shut down unless Turkey acts to cut the number of migrants heading north through Greece by March 7, European Union officials said on Thursday. Their declaration came as confrontations grow increasingly rancorous among European countries trying to cope with the influx of refugees. Those recriminations culminated in Greece's recalling its ambassador to Austria on Thursday. "In the next ten days, we need tangible and clear results on the ground," the top EU migration official, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said after EU justice and home affairs ministers met in Brussels on Thursday. "Otherwise there is a danger, there is a risk that the whole system will completely break down." EU leaders are now pinning their hopes on talks with Turkey on March 7 and their own migration summit on March 18-19. The two meetings look like their final chance to revive a flailing joint response to the crisis before warmer weather encourages more arrivals across the Mediterranean. Seven European states have already restored border controls within the creaking Schengen passport-free zone. More said they would unilaterally tighten border controls unless a deal with Turkey shows results before the two March summits. That deal promises Turkey 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) in aid to help it shelter refugees from the Syrian war, in return for preventing their travelling on to Europe. "By March 7, we want a significant reduction in the number of refugees at the border between Turkey and Greece," German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. "Otherwise ,there will have to be other joint, coordinated European measures." Germany has been pushing the Turkey plan hard. Many other EU states are increasingly frustrated and sceptical, though. Another 110,000 people have arrived on the continent so far this year, mostly from Turkey via Greece, after more than a million arrived last year. CRUCIAL DATE "The 6th of March, the 7th of March is when you can expect the spring influx to rise. We have until that time to find solutions ... " said Klaas Dijkhoff, migration minister for the Netherlands, which now holds the EU's rotating presidency. "If that doesn't lead to lower numbers, we'll have to find other measures and we'll have to do more contingency planning," he said. NATO has agreed to send ships to the Aegean to help fight people-trafficking, and one military official said the aim was to have the mission running before March 7. The crisis was exacerbated when German Chancellor Angela Merkel last year waived EU procedures to take in hundreds of thousands of Syrians. Mutual recriminations have sabotaged efforts to share the burden systematically ever since. "We have no policy any more. We are heading into anarchy," said Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg's foreign minister. Belgium, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark have all introduced emergency border checks, allowed under the Schengen rules. But Austria, the last stop for most migrants before Germany, infuriated Brussels and Berlin last week by setting daily caps on the number of people it processes. CASCADE OF CLOSURES The decision set off a cascade of similar moves back through the western Balkans, the main migration route, leaving ever more migrants stuck in Greece. "If Greece is not able or willing to secure the EU's external border, others have to act," Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said. "If Greece insists that it cannot protect the Greek border, one has to ask themselves whether the Schengen border should be there." Struggling to emerge from years of economic crisis, Greece accuses other EU states of forcing it to take a disproportionate share of the migrants. It not only has withdrawn its Austrian ambassador but threatened to block other EU decisions if its fellow members do not share the burden. EU ministers agreed the EU's executive arm will monitor the Western Balkans route and offer humanitarian assistance to Greece or elsewhere if bottlenecks grow. But Athens is raging. Ally of Ukrainian president accused of meddling in prosecution By Natalia Zinets KIEV, Feb 25 (Reuters) - An ally of Ukraine's president has been accused by a former Ukrainian prosecutor of interfering in law enforcement. A representative of Ihor Kononenko, a business partner of President Petro Poroshenko and member of parliament of his political party, declined to comment on the allegation, made in a Reuters interview by ex-prosecutor Vitaliy Kasko. The representative, Taras Pastushenko, the spokesman for Poroshenko's party in parliament, cited an ongoing investigation into separate allegations by the economy minister as the reason why Kononenko would not comment. Corruption allegations are particularly sensitive in Ukraine, where a $40 billion Western aid programme is propping up an economy devastated by Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for rebels in the former Soviet republic's east. Kasko resigned as prosecutor last week alleging corruption in the prosecution service. Asked to explain his decision, Kasko said in the interview one example was that the head of the service, General Prosecutor Viktor Shokin, had told him Kononenko had asked the service to influence a prosecution. As a politician, Kononenko has no official role in the service. Kasko said Shokin had given him instructions, which Shokin had said came from Kononenko, to intervene in the case. "I received a firm request from the General Prosecutor in reference to this," Kasko said, declining to give details of the case. "I refused to carry it out. I didn't do as I was told." Shokin's office declined to comment on whether Shokin had asked Kasko to handle a case in a particular way to suit Kononenko. Shokin aide Vladislav Kutsenko had earlier described Kasko's resignation and general corruption allegation as attention-seeking. "The General Prosecutor's Office has become the subject of an information war carried out by the representatives of some politicians, public organisations, who ... for the most part just attack us with the usual lies," Kutsenko said in relation to Kasko's resignation and allegations. On Friday, President Poroshenko's spokesman said Shokin had resigned, but he remains in office pending confirmation of his resignation by parliament. Attempts to reach Shokin were unsuccessful. His office said he was on holiday and did not pass on contact details. The prosecution service is one of the institutions the Ukrainian government needs to reform under the terms of the aid programme and lenders have long said progress has been slow. Poroshenko, a multi-millionaire businessman, was elected in 2014 after Ukraine's Russian-backed president fled in the face of mass protests. He and Kononenko served together in the Soviet army in the 1980s and worked in Ukrprominvest, a onetime business group that Poroshenko controlled. Between them they now they own most of Ukraine's International Investment Bank. Kononenko resigned as deputy leader of the president's party in parliament after the minister's allegations, but remained a lawmaker. His office referred questions to his political party, which said he would not comment pending the investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). "Ihor Kononenko stated several times, and his position is, that until the investigation is completed in NABU he will not give any comments to the media," said Pastushenko, the spokesman for the party, Petro Poroshenko's Bloc, in the parliament. In response to questions about Kononenko's alleged influence, the president's office referred to two statements Poroshenko made after the allegations by Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius in a resignation letter on Feb. 3. His resignation has yet to be considered by parliament. The first presidential statement noted the minister's allegations were being investigated and Kononenko was cooperating. "The sooner society receives an answer to the question, the better," Poroshenko had said on Feb. 3. The other statement, on Feb. 9, also referred to the anti-corruption bureau's investigation but did not mention any individuals. "Nobody is safe from the Bureau's attention and any networking will not provide indulgence or protection," it said. Somali president says 200 Kenyans killed in military camp attack By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar MOGADISHU, Feb 25 (Reuters) - As many as 200 soldiers were killed in an attack on a Kenyan military camp in Somalia by al Shabaab Islamists last month, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told a television station, although Kenya rejected the figure. Kenyan authorities have refused to give a death toll following the Jan. 15 raid, which targeted troops working under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) near the southern Somali town of El Adde. Newspaper pictures of coffins draped with Kenyan flags bringing back dead soldiers after the attack increased the disquiet from ordinary Kenyans and the opposition alike over Kenya's continued presence in Somalia. Al Shabaab later distributed photos purporting to show the bodies of dozens of Kenyan soldiers, many apparently shot in the head. "When about 200 soldiers who came to help your country are killed in one morning, it is not something trivial," Mohamud told Somali Cable TV, a privately owned station. The interview was posted on YouTube on Thursday. "We have been winning for years and months but that El Adde battle, we were defeated. Yes, in war, sometimes something that you do not like happens to you," he said. Kenya sent soldiers into Somalia in 2011 after raids in the border region and kidnappings that threatened the tourism industry in the region's biggest economy and wider regional destabilisation. It later joined the AMISOM operation. Al Shabaab's attacks in Kenya have included a raid by gunmen on the upscale Westgate shopping mall in 2013 and a university in Garissa in 2015. Hundreds of people have been killed in al Shabaab attacks in the past two years. Kenya Defence Forces spokesman, Colonel David Obonyo, denied the number given by the Somali president and questioned the source of the information. "It is not true. This information never came from us or anyone in the government of Kenya," he told Reuters. The al Qaeda-aligned militants have been driven out of major strongholds in Somalia by AMISOM and Somali army offensives, but the group still controls some rural areas and often launches guerrilla-style assaults and bomb attacks. Al Shabaab, which has links to al Qaeda and seeks to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed government, initially said it had killed more than 100 soldiers in the attack. Ghana's president says he'll keep tight grip on spending before election By Kwasi Kpodo ACCRA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Ghana's government will not repeat mistakes made during the last election and will maintain strict fiscal discipline ahead of the 2016 vote, President John Mahama told parliament in an annual State of the Nation address on Thursday. Mahama, who will run for a second four-year term against main opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in presidential elections scheduled for November, said he would ensure a peaceful and transparent vote. He said the economy had begun showing positive signs, setting the stage for transformation, and listed numerous social infrastructure projects completed during his presidency. "Change is happening, Ghana is being transformed and we are impacting people's lives," he said in the 3-1/2 hour speech, which was often interrupted by jeers from the opposition bench. After years of crippling blackouts that have hurt businesses and angered voters, power generation is likely to be another electoral battleground. Mahama said the power crisis was almost over, and that the government had added generation capacity more quickly in the past year than at any time in Ghana's history. Ghana must still act quickly to match demand growth and ensure sustainable power supply, the president said. The main opposition party described Mahama's speech as "mere propaganda", saying he had not addressed the core economic issues facing Ghanaians, such as unemployment. "The president pushed the economy to the background," minority leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu told reporters shortly after the speech. "Agriculture is in the doldrums, there is massive youth unemployment and yet all we heard was about infrastructure." During the previous election in 2012, hikes in civil service wages caused the deficit to mushroom, triggering a fiscal crisis that the government is still working to overcome with the aid of an International Monetary Fund programme. That crisis, coupled with a fall in global commodity prices, has sharply slowed growth in Ghana, whose economy -- based on exports of gold, cocoa and oil -- was for years was considered one of Africa's most promising. Conciliator Rouhani seeks gains for moderates in Iran polls Feb 25 (Reuters) - President Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist trying to open Iran after years of sanctions, and his allies carry the hopes of many Iranians for greater freedoms on Friday when the country holds elections for parliament and the Assembly of Experts. Rouhani is expected to win re-election to the assembly, the body that chooses the Islamic Republic's supreme leader. On the same day, his allies are seeking to wrest control of parliament from hardliners bent on blocking an increase in Western influence after a 2015 nuclear deal Rouhani orchestrated with major powers. The contests have proven testy, with bad-tempered accusations traded and the mass disqualification of moderate candidates by a hardline-controlled vetting body. Hardliners close to conservative Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have accused moderates of being under Western influence, a charge Rouhani has said insults the intelligence of Iranians who, he argues, are just hungry for economic development. "Verbal abuse, accusations and insults are beneath the dignity of the Iranian nation and the country. It is not worth it to undermine the Islamic Republic and the government for a seat in the parliament. Instead of making insults and accusations, we have to pursue higher goals," Rouhani was quoted as saying by his website on Wednesday. The former nuclear negotiator has a track record as a conciliator: In his 2013 election, he secured the vote of pro-reform Iranians politically muzzled for years but also drew support from some in Khamenei's circle thanks to his impeccable background in Iran's clerical establishment. He hopes to repeat something of the same on Friday, bolstered by the deal with world powers under which Iran curbed activities that might have been applied to developing nuclear bombs and secured a lifting of economic sanctions in return. Rouhani has insulated himself from hardline critics of the talks by keeping the support of Khamenei, who backed Rouhani's efforts, although in Khamenei's view this was purely to improve the parlous state of Iran's economy and not to mend fences with the West. To prevent Rouhani's allies from being rewarded at the ballot box, however, hardline watchdog body the Guardian Council has blocked thousands of mostly moderate candidates from running in the two elections. The assembly elected on Friday will sit for eight years and may choose the successor to Khamenei, who is 76 and rumoured to be in ill health. The supreme leader wields immense power, controlling the judiciary, the security forces, public broadcasters and foundations that own much of the economy. AN INSIDER Rouhani, 67, has an unblemished background in Iran's clerical establishment. Khamenei praised Rouhani's election in 2013 as the "selection of a worthy individual who has more than three decades of service to the system of the Islamic Republic". He went into exile with the late founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, before the revolution and was appointed representative to the Supreme National Security Council shortly after Khamenei took power in 1989. In that role, he presided over the talks with Britain, France and Germany that led to Iran's suspension of uranium enrichment-related work in 2003, and resigned after hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005. Some analysts and officials say any success for the moderates' in Friday's vote could be seen as a challenge to Khamenei's authority. "Hardliners are worried about Rouhani's popularity and the support he gets from moderates and people. A powerful Rouhani might harm the delicate balance of power in Iran's political system," said a former senior Iranian official. On the other hand, he said, "if hardliners win more seats in the votes, they will put more pressure on Rouhani and his government to make him a lame-duck president." Influential former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is also running for an assembly seat, and the grandson of Khomeini, Hassan, who was barred from entering the race, are close allies of Rouhani. Hardliners trying to preserve the status quo have tried to thwart Rouhani's attempts to bring political pluralism at home after his success with Iran's foreign relations. Many Iranians who supported Rouhani's 2013 election, meanwhile, remain frustrated, fearing that Rouhani's focus on boosting Iran's economy has overshadowed his promises on internal reforms and improvements in human rights. However, "if Rouhani wants to win the 2017 presidential vote, he needs to improve the economy as well as making tangible social reforms," said political analyst Hamid Farahvashian. Ban urges South Sudan president, rebel leader to form government By Denis Dumo JUBA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged South Sudan's warring parties on Thursday to choose peace over politics as both sides squabbled over blame for protracted delays in forming a transitional government. Oil-producing South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 and in December 2013 descended into civil war after a dispute between President Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar. Both sides, under pressure from Washington, the United Nations and other powers, signed a preliminary peace deal in August and agreed to share out ministerial positions in January. But that accord has broken down repeatedly. Ban met Kiir in Juba and said he had spoken by phone to Machar, who has refused to return to the capital unless the government demilitarises the city. The U.S. government this week warned of sanctions against both sides if the peace process definitively collapses. "My message to the leaders of South Sudan is clear: put peace above politics, pursue compromise, overcome obstacles. Establish the transitional government of national unity without delay," Ban told reporters in Juba. "The parties must know that responsibility doesn't end with the signing of an agreement. In many ways, it begins. And it must begin now," Ban said. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Kiir and Machar, who was reappointed to his old post this month, would face individual sanctions if they did not deliver on the deal, warning of a "critical moment for South Sudan's survival". A spokesman for Kiir, Ateny Wek Ateny, said the threat "must be aimed at those who are putting impediments into the implementation process ... The problem is not with Salva Kiir." He said Kiir was ready to form a transitional government "tonight" if Machar's side, the SPLM/A-IO, submitted the names of their candidates for the cabinet. James Gatdet Dak, spokesman for the SPLM/A-IO, said Machar's side was "ready to deliver" and Kerry's comments were helpful. Italy's 5-Star bids for big time with strong chance for Rome mayor By Isla Binnie ROME, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) candidate for mayor of Rome made her debut speech on Thursday, promising a break with corruption and mismanagement as the party makes its bid to prove it is ready for national government. The 37-year-old lawyer and city councillor is running to replace a team of unelected bureaucrats who stepped in after former Mayor Ignazio Marino, from Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD), resigned in an expenses scandal. "This will not be easy, let's be clear about that," Virginia Raggi, who surveys show has a strong chance of winning, told journalists at the foreign press club in Rome. "We have to govern a city that has been raped for years by bad politics and a terrible administration." Running the capital would be the biggest test yet for M5S, among the most successful anti-establishment parties that sprung up in Europe during the financial crisis. It is now Italy's second-largest after the PD. Rome's last two mayors, from the centre-left and centre-right, both left office mired in scandal. But M5s's record running 16 small local administrations has been blotted by a rubbish crisis in the Tuscan city of Livorno and mafia allegations in a district of Naples, which were seized upon by opponents as a sign it is not fit to govern. Rome, where a major mafia trial is raking over years of alleged systemic corruption that reached right up into city hall, would hold far bigger challenges as well as the opportunity of a high-profile springboard to challenge Renzi. Raggi insisted M5S was "more than ready, more than mature," to take on services such as transport and waste collection which are widely deemed inadequate for a major European capital. Anger at a corrupt and inefficient political class fuelled M5S's ascent from its founding by comedian Beppe Grillo in 2009 to reaching 25 percent of votes at national elections in 2013. Tempers have already flared over the mayoral campaign, in which Raggi's most likely opponents are Guido Bertolaso, an ex-civil protection chief who is expected to run for the centre-right, and Renzi ally Roberto Giacchetti of the PD. Bertolaso faces trial in two cases related to his former role as civil protection chief, one of which concerned his handling of the 2009 earthquake that killed 300 people in the central city of L'Aquila. He denies wrongdoing. U.S. spy chiefs expect continuing problems in Libya, Ukraine By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - U.S. spy agencies expect continuing upheaval in Libya and Ukraine, top intelligence officials told Congress on Thursday. James Clapper, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, told a House of Representatives Intelligence Committee hearing that the United States had "great hope" that a new government of national accord will soon be formed in Libya. But at the same hearing, CIA chief John Brennan acknowledged that the United States in practice was pursuing a two-track policy in Libya, in which it was engaged both in a diplomatic effort to knit together two competing, regionally based self-proclaimed Libyan governments while also conducting "counterterrorism" operations against a growing contingent of Islamic State militants. U.S. officials now estimate that up to 4,000 foreign fighters have traveled to Libya to base themselves in Islamic State training camps that have sprouted up around the country, where they have joined up with hundreds if not thousands of local Libyans who have joined the movement. U.S. officials privately acknowledge that efforts to bring together rival government factions are moving slowly at best. Clapper told the hearing that the rival factions themselves are far from "monolithic," although even competing leaders agree that the Islamic State poses a major threat. While diplomatic efforts continue, officials privately say, the United States is likely to continue periodic air strikes against suspected Islamic State leaders like one that earlier this month targeted a militant named Noureddine Chouchane. At the hearing, Clapper and Brennan also discussed Russia's continuing involvement in Ukraine. Clapper said Russia still considers Ukraine to be "Little Russia." He said Russia "will continue I think to be a proxy for separatists to sustain their interests in Ukraine." Bomb explosion at police station kills 4 in northern Nigeria YOLA, Nigeria, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Several explosives seized from Boko Haram militants blew up at a police station in northern Nigeria on Thursday, killing at least four people and wounding several others, officials said. The devices stored in a police station went off when an officer tried moving them, said Ahmed Sajo, Adamawa state information commissioner in Yola, where the explosion happened. "Many police (officers) are feared dead," he said. The national emergency agency NEMA put the death toll at four. The story of Dalhousies 200 years evolves from the stories of our people the pioneers, innovators, creators and thinkers whose contributions and actions have made us what we are today. These are our graduates, faculty, students, staff and friends. And, collectively, they are the Dalhousie Originals. Each week during Dals anniversary year in 2018, we were introduced to 52 people who inspired us, challenged us and helped build Dalhousie into a national and international post-secondary institution. Discover the 52 Dalhousie Originals in the navigation menu for this page. Dalhousie professor Barb Hamilton-Hinch has been taking her students to visit the lands of the former community of Africville on the northernmost tip of the Halifax peninsula for about five years now. And for five years, shes noticed the same reaction from many of her pupils. When they hear about the stories, they cant believe that something like that happened within Halifax and that its so close to the university, says Prof. Hamilton-Hinch, who designs and teaches courses on diversity and inclusion in Dals School of Health and Human Performance. Africville, a close-knit community made up primarily of African Nova Scotians, was situated on the shores of the Bedford Basin for more than a century until city officials uprooted about 400 residents and bulldozed their church and homes in the area in pursuit of urban renewal, industrialization and integration during the 1960s. That many Dal students even some of those born and raised in Nova Scotia are unfamiliar with this dark chapter in Halifaxs history and about African Nova Scotian heritage more generally reinforces the need for more educational initiatives like this, says Hamilton-Hinch. Most of us go back five to eight generations, she says, noting her own African Nova Scotian lineage. And that history gets lost because as soon as people see someone who is Black they assume they are not from here. Thats why its so important for students to understand and see the strong history that exists of African Nova Scotians. Connecting with community Prof. Hamilton-Hinch will be taking her students to visit Africville on Friday, but this time as part of a larger African Heritage Month outing organized by Dals Office of Human Rights, Equity & Harassment Prevention (HREHP) and other partners across the university, including the DSUs Equity and Accessibility Office, the Global Health Office, and the Black Student Advising Centre. About 50 or so students from Dal and a few from Saint Marys University and Mount Saint Vincent University will participate in this Fridays Africville Remembered event, which will include a tour of the Africville Museum (built in 2011 with compensation funds a year after then-mayor Peter Kellys official apology) and a traditional oral storytelling circle held in the Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB) on Carleton Campus. Shakira Weatherdon, HREHPs Education Advisor, says the intention is to create an event that will foster conversations about African Nova Scotian history in much the same way as The Blanket Exercise has helped students learn more about Aboriginal history in an interactive and engaging way. Well be sharing and hearing stories about what life was like in Africville and starting to really draw connections to some of the impacts and remnants of that recent history, says Weatherdon, noting that two former residents of Africville Joyce Marsman and Sheila Lucas will be on hand to tell stories. Many of our students and staff drive past there, take buses past there, she says of the land, which was used after the dislocation for a variety of developments, including as an exit ramp for the Mackay Bridge, a new container pier, and a seaside park that until recently was used controversially as an off-leash dog park. Many people see this or have heard something about this, but we have many people who dont know what happened. (Left: Africville by air, ca. 1965. Bob Brooks, Nova Scotia Archives photo) Learning history Second-year Social Work student Nirupa Varatharasan says she first learned about Africville in a detailed way in two of her Social Work courses last year, and will be attending this weeks event to fill in the gaps in her knowledge. Originally from Toronto, Varatharasan says she doesnt remember ever learning about Africville in high school or if she did, it wasnt emphasized. Varatharasan says she also didnt get to know much about it during her first stint as a Dal student about a decade ago when she studied Science as an undergrad and Community Health and Epidemiology at the masters level. Im hoping to learn a bit more about the history, the people, the culture, and the long-lasting impacts of what happened at Africville from the perspective of the people who either lived there or have a personal connection, not something that I read out of a history textbook, she says. News that the Old Hickory Bar-B-Q restaurant at 4029 N. Main St. will soon be demolished stirred up memories for many in Dayton. As a native Daytonian, my parents first took me there as a child. I frequented the location before I moved south of town and continued to eat there on occasion until they closed. In spite of the smell of tangy ribs and chicken, I never strayed from the filet, a salad with red French, bread, steak fries, and stewed tomatoes. The building was erected in 1900, though its unclear exactly when Old Hickory Bar-B-Q opened on Main Street. I found reference to White Rock Inn at that address in a 1949 Chaminade High School Yearbook (an all boys school back then). It was likely in the 1960s. These comments from a 2009 review by James from Maryland describe the interior perfectly: We walk in and run right into a perfect old school 60s era horseshoe shaped bar right inside the door. Mirrors all around the outside wall and it still has all of the clam shell ashtrays hanging on the wall even though you probably haven't been allowed to smoke here for years. I mean time warp time. We are escorted to our booth and once again, seriously nothing has been updated since the 60s or 70s. All of the old furniture is kind of heavy and dark with magnificent BLUE leather and brass tacks. If you find yourself on North Main Street and you want a good, solid, nothin' fancy sort of meal, go to Old Hickory and get a little shot of retro. For any of us who thought Joe Kisss Hickory Bar-B-Q on Brown Street was not related to the Old Hickory Bar-B-Q restaurants, were wrong! According the history page on Joe Kisss Hickory Bar-B-Q site, Steve and Sylvia Kolb were the founders and original owners of the original Old Hickory Bar B-Q on Third Street, Main Street, and Woodman. In 1962, they went into ownership with Irene & Joe Kiss; forming The Old Hickory Bar-B-Q on Brown Street. Joe and Irene bought Steve and Sylvia out at Brown Street and changed the name to Joe Kisss Hickory Bar-B-Q in 1989. Feeling nostalgic? You can still have a great meal at Joe Kisss Hickory Bar-B-Q on Brown Street or at the Old Hickory Bar B-Q on Woodman Drive. Meanwhile, the Old Hickory Bar-B-Q restaurant site on Main St. will soon make way for a new Cassano's Pizza. Research shows that sperm count can also be reduced by talking on a phone that is charging, or even keeping it close by on a bedside table at night. (Representational image) Men who carry their mobile phone in a trouser pocket or talk on it for just an hour a day risk suffering with fertility problems, scientists warn. Research shows that sperm count can also be reduced by talking on a phone that is charging, or even keeping it close by on a bedside table at night. The quality of sperm among men in Western countries is steadily decreasing, and is considered the factor in 40 per cent of cases in which couples have difficulty conceiving a child. Heat and electromagnetic activity which emanate from a mobile phone are thought to be cook sperm, causing them to die. The findings have led to a leading British fertility expert to warn men about the risks of being addicted to mobile phones. Israeli scientists monitored 106 men attending a fertility clinic for a year. The study revealed that men who chatted on the phone for more than an hour daily were twice as likely to have low sperm quality as those who spoke for less than an hour, while those who talked on the phone as it charged were almost twice as likely to suffer problems. It also found that 47 per cent of men who kept their phones within 20 inches of their groin had sperm levels that were seriously affected, compared with just 11 per cent of the general population. The findings, published in Reproductive BioMedicine, support a link between dropping male fertility rates and the prevalence of mobile phones. Professor Martha Dirnfeld, of the Technion University in Haifa, which carried out the study, said: The sperm levels were down to a number that would make conception difficult. If you are trying for a baby and it doesnt happen within a year you might want to think of whether it could be your mobile phone habit that is to blame. The study concludes that men planning to conceive should turn off their devices while charging, or keep it at least 20 inches from the groin. Source: www.dailymail.co.uk 392 Indian fishermen and 53 other Indian civilian prisoners are currently lodged in Pakistan's custody. New Delhi: A total of 445 Indians, most of them fishermen, are currently lodged in jails in Pakistan, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday. In addition, 74 missing defence personnel, including 54 prisoners of war, are believed to be in Pakistani jails since 1971, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said, in written reply to a question. He said 392 Indian fishermen and 53 other Indian civilian prisoners are currently lodged in Pakistan's custody, adding the government regularly takes up with Islamabad the issue of their early release and repatriation. On prisoners of war, Singh said Pakistan does not acknowledge their presence in its custody. The Minister said a total of 1262 Indian fishermen were arrested in foreign waters in 2015. To a separate question, Singh said a total of 2,102 Indians were injured or killed in the last three years during various tragedies in foreign countries out of which 1,575 were brought back. This is in addition to 35,000 people evacuated from Nepal following the devastating quake in that country in April last year, he said. Replying to another query, Singh said India was ready to play a meaningful role in Syria's peace process, if required. He, however, added that Syrian government has not extended any invitation to India for its participation in the peace talks. In response to a question on Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifting 2500 kilos of sandalwood to Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu during his visit there in August 2014, the Minister said only "dead trees and seized sandalwood" were given. "Since no live/green trees were felled, the question of planting saplings in their stead does not arise," the Minister said, adding the wood was taken from Tamil Nadu. He said the cost of the sandalwood gifted to the temple was Rs 1.88 crore and expenses incurred towards transportation, insurance and packaging was Rs 2.85 lakh. London: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Thursday concluded a two-day visit to the UK where he attended the Extraordinary Meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) of which India is a member. During his visit, Jaishankar also had bilateral meetings with Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Letwin MP, minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hugo Swire, and UK National Security Adviser Mark Lyall Grant to discuss the follow-up actions on decisions reached during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit in London in November, 2015 and other issues of mutual interest, the Indian High Commission said in a statement. The foreign secretary also interacted with a select group of UK-based scholars and editors on a range of topics, including India's foreign policy and regional and global issues of contemporary importance. Thiruvananthapuram: Political turbulence has hit the Kerala Congress (M) with rumours of P.J. Joseph group breaking away and seeking the status of a separate constituent of the UDF amidst bargaining for the Assembly seats. However, Mr Joseph has denied the reports of his meeting Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in this connection. Mr Joseph held telephonic discussions with KC(M) chairman K.M. Mani in the evening and assured him that he would not leave the UDF, but said he could not be sure of his two colleagues Antony Raju and Francis George. Mr Joseph is not in good health to run the party and he wouldnt block his colleagues from leaving, it is said. A KC (M) leader told DC that most leaders of the Joseph faction would like to return to the LDF so that they would get seats in the Assembly elections. The dissidents say that Mr Mani has been hit by son-stroke and that it will ruin the party. At the farmers march held before Parliament on Wednesday, the Joseph faction abstained giving rise to speculation that not all is well within the party. Mr Francis George and Mr Antony Raju are keen to get Assembly seats. The latter who was a legislator from the then Trivandrum West seat in 2001 is eyeing the Thiruvananthapuram constituency. Mr. Raju had also stood with Mr Mani during the bar scam. Mr Francis George has been demanding Idukki Assembly seat where Mr Manis blue-eyed boy Roshy Augustine is the sitting MLA. KC (M) sources told DC that both Mr Antony Raju and Mr Francis George are certain to get Thiruvananthapuram and Idukki seats if they part ways with the UDF and join the LDF. The LDF would be happy to field Francis George against Roshy in Idukki as the High Range Samrakshana Samithi had wanted him as the Lok Sabha candidate in 2014. He is widely accepted in Idukki. In the case of Antony Raju, the LDF would deny a seat to V. Surendran Pillai who lost to V. S. Sivakumar of Congress in 2011, said a KC (M) source. Mr Mani is keen to see that Mr Thomas Chazhikadan who was defeated at Ettumanoor constituency gets a safe seat at Kaduthuruthy. Sitting MLA Mons Joseph would be given Ettumanoor. But if the Joseph faction leaves the UDF, there wont be any swapping of constituencies. Congress starts discussion on candidate list The Congress leadership will release its draft list of candidates on March 1. They have asked the DCC presidents to submit their list on Feb. 29. This was informed by KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran after holding talks with the three member sub-committee comprising DCC presidents, KPCC general secretaries in charge of 14 districts and KPCC secretaries. The meeting was also attended by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Home minister Ramesh Chennithala. The three member sub-committee will submit the first list of candidates on Feb. 28. Discussions will be held on the following day as well. Depending on this list, the three senior leaders will prepare the final list of candidates. In the meantime, the election committee meeting also has to be convened. Winnability and acceptability are the criteria for the candidates. We also intend to complete discussions with the allies at the earliest, said Sudheeran to reporters. He also alleged that a particular regional channel was misleading voters by releasing a list of candidates. Regarding holding talks with Bharat Dharma Jana Sena, Sudheeran said that the Congress would not initiate it. He compared BDJS to a still born. CPM to begin house visits in March CPM will begin its election campaign from next month with house to house mass contact programme across the state. The decision was taken at the state secretariat meeting here. The secretariat decided to start the formal campaign from first week of March and during the first phase party workers would be visiting each house in their locality to elicit their opinion on various issues and to convey partys view. During the proposed three day door to door campaign, the workers would be asked to spend a minimum of 5 minutes in each household. The secretariat decided to convene district committee meetings to discuss poll preparations on the ground. The discussion on prospective candidates would be held only after the election notification is issued. During this period, the CPM woud also hold seat saring discusoins with other constituents of the LDF. The party leadership felt that the present political climate was favourable for the LDF especially in the wake of serious corruption cases involving the ruling dispensation in connection with solar fraud and bar bribe case. Even the decision of the Congress High Command to not to project Oommen Chandy is seen as an admission of defeat, many in CPM circles believe. According to party leaders, Chandy was going around boasting about his governments major successes in infrastructure development, mega projects and and social welfare schemes. But the Congress national leadership does not seem to be convinced about projecting him as the chief minister and this was advantageous for the opposition LDF. The CPM leadership is keeping a close watch on the BJP-RSS considering the fact that the saffron brigade was making a strong bid to enter Assembly. Even though Vellapally Natesan factor failed to help the BJP during the recent local bodies poll, RSS is keen on strengthening the tieup with BDJS. Police, social workers and council leaders were all severely criticised for failing to prevent the abuse and the inquiry. (Representational Photo: Pixabay) London: Five people were convicted on Wednesday of multiple sex crimes against young girls in Rotherham, the northern English town which hit the headlines two years ago when it was revealed that as many as 1,400 children had been abused by gangs. The group, which included three British Asian brothers, their uncle and two white women, systematically carried out the sexual exploitation of 15 victims, aged between 11 and 21, over a period of 16 years from 1987, prosecutors said. They groomed vulnerable girls and women for abuse, often subjecting them to degrading and violent acts. "They were mocked and spat at. Some of the violence was extreme and protracted. The physical and psychological suffering these girls have endured is unthinkable," Peter Mann from Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said. "Their trauma is only matched in scale by the extraordinary courage they have displayed in coming forward to report their abuse and give evidence in this trial so that their abusers can at last be accorded the punishment they deserve." Brothers Basharat and Arshid Hussain, their uncle Qurban Ali and Karen MacGregor and Shelley Davis were found guilty of a variety of sex offences at Sheffield Crown Court. Bannaras Hussain, the third brother, had earlier pleaded guilty. Two other men were cleared. The guilty six will be sentenced on Friday.In 2014, an inquiry revealed huge numbers of children, mainly girls in social care homes, had been abducted, raped and beaten by gangs of predominantly Asian men in Rotherham. Police, social workers and council leaders were all severely criticised for failing to prevent the abuse and the inquiry said officials had not acted on evidence of abuse partly out of fear of being labelled racist. Mohammed Shafiq, Chief Executive of the Muslim campaigning organisation the Ramadhan Foundation, said British Pakistanis had to accept there was a problem in their community. "This is not a white conspiracy dreamt up by the far right or victimisation of the Pakistani community as some claim," said Shafiq, adding that some of those in the latest case were his distant relatives. "This is a concerted effort by a minority of Pakistani men who have groomed, abused and raped young white girls." Britain has been rocked by a series of child abuse scandals in recent years, although the Rotherham case was the most shocking. It helped prompt the government to order a major inquiry into historical abuse cases and whether politicians or those in powerful public roles had failed to act or deliberately covered it up. Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday denied accusations from hardliners that the candidates close to him were affiliated with Western powers, calling it an insult to the intelligence of Iranians. (Photo: AFP) Tehran: Iran's leader warned voters on Wednesday the West was plotting pit centrists close to President Hassan Rouhani against conservative hardliners in an election that could shape the Islamic Republic for years to come. In remarks reflecting an abiding mistrust of Rouhani's rapprochement with the West, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he was confident Iranians would vote in favour of keeping Iran's anti-Western stance on Friday in the first elections since last year's nuclear accord with world powers. Rouhani's allies, who hope the deal will hasten Iran's opening up to the world after years of sanctions, have come under increasing pressure in the election campaign from hardliners who accuse them of links to Western powers including the United States and Britain. Those accusations seek to tap into Iranians' wariness of Western motives and memories of a 1953 coup against nationalist prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh that was orchestrated by the United States and Britain and strengthened the Shah's rule. Rouhani on Wednesday denied accusations from hardliners that the candidates close to him were affiliated with Western powers, calling it an insult to the intelligence of Iranians. In remarks on his official website, Khamenei was quoted as saying he was certain the United States had concocted a plot after the nuclear deal to "infiltrate" the Islamic Republic. "When I talked about a US infiltration plot, it made some people in the country frustrated," said the Shi'ite clerical leader, who has final say on all major state policy in Iran. "INFILTRATION" "They complain (about) why we talk about infiltration all the time ... But this is a real plot. Sometimes even the infiltrators don't know they are a part of it," he said. "One of the enemy's ruses is to portray a false dichotomy between a pro-government and anti-government parliament," Khamenei was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. "The nation does not want a pro- or anti-government parliament, but rather a strong and faithful parliament that is aware of its duties and is not intimidated by the United States," he said at a rally in the city of Najafabad. Supporters of Rouhani, buoyed by Iran's nuclear deal, aim to gain influence in the elections for the 290-seat parliament and the 88-member Assembly of Experts, which will choose the country's next supreme leader. But potential detente with the West has alarmed hardliners, who have seen a flood of European trade and investment delegations arrive in Tehran to discuss possible deals in the wake of the nuclear agreement. Since then, hardline security officials have arrested dozens of artists, journalists and businessmen, including Iranians holding joint US or British citizenship, as part of a crackdown on "Western infiltration". Rouhani had criticised the arrests before, saying some "play with the infiltration word" to pursue their own political goals. Moves by hardliners to block moderate candidates and portray them as stooges of the West have soured the mood in the final days of campaigning, and Rouhani complained on Wednesday of a public discourse rife with "abuse, accusations and insults". Addressing political activists, former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of Rouhani's most powerful allies, said Rouhani's election in 2013 "was Iranians' first step to bring the country back to a path of moderation". "I hope people take the second step in Friday's elections," he said. In an apparent reference to hardliners' accusations that moderates were under Western influence, Rafsanjani said in a statement published on ISNA news agency: "Labelling rivals, in order to turn people's hopes into despair, has no results." "The Iranians ... will prove that they are seeking Iran's political independence and will say no to colonialism, extremism and tyranny." Rouhani has called for a high turnout, even though half of the candidates, mostly moderates and reformists, were disqualified by a hardline watchdog body, the Guardian Council. Rouhani's government signed a deal with six powers including the United States last July under which Iran curbed nuclear activities that might have been applied to developing atom bombs, and secured a lifting of economic sanctions in return. Jawaharlal Nehru University students are not allowed to inflict terrorism in the name of debate, army veteran Major General G D Bakshi on Wednesday said during his visit to the university campus. If we are asked to separate Kashmir, Manipur tomorrow, what will happen? When you chop off any part of the body, be it the left or right hand, blood will ooze out, the retired officer said, insisting that he has been invited by students who were concerned over the recent developments on the campus. Earlier on Wednesday, the Akhi Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad-organised event ran into trouble as protesters came out in solidarity with students arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with the controversial February 9 event. We doubt their intentions, they want a confrontation, JNU students union (JNUSU) vice president Shehla Rashid Shora said, urging protesters from various Left-wing student parties to allow the ABVP to host the event. She said that any confrontation will give the ruling class to extract sympathy from people. Is it possible to show magnanimity and be the big brother? We can sit in protest and hold placards, Shora told the student gathering outside the administrative block. The open flight of steps on one side of the building was allocated for the ABVP event. While paying homage to soldiers who killed in Pampore, Bakshi said, I want to talk about nationalism. What is a nation? The people and the territory! I am an India because I was born in this territory. Hindu, Muslim, Christian, it doesnt matter. Capt Pawan Kumar and Tushar Mahajan were JNU graduates, the retired Major General said, remembering army men who died in gunfight with a group of terrorists. He said the NDA cadets receive their university degrees from the JNU. We have laid our lives for the country, but has anyone on the campus has shed tears for them, he said, criticising the February 9 event commemorating the judicial killing of Afzal Guru, the 2001 Parliament attack convict. He also slammed the American ambassador to India for his comment on allowing free speech on campuses in India. I want to ask him if any university in the US would allow slogans in support of Osama Bin Laden, he told students. The ABVP didnt hold the event at the designated place outside the administrative block, as Left-wing activists continued to protest against the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya on charges of sedition. In compliance with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, Delhi Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra on Wednesday has directed all departments concerned, to prevent defacement and damage to trees within. The minister also said he could be contacted if someone sees a violation. Free The Tree - one month given to all my departments to comply. Inform me if u see a violation, Kapil Mishra tweeted. A circular issued by the Tourism Ministers office makes it mandatory for the departments concerned to remove advertisements, signages and electric wires. Trees play a vital role not just to enhance the aesthetics of tourist places but play a crucial role in mopping the pollutants. All the signboards, names, advertisements, any kind of boards or signages, electric wires and high tension cables are removed from the trees forthwith. It shall also be ensured that the concrete surrounding the trees is removed and all trees are looked after well. Further, due precaution be taken in future to prevent defacing of the trees in any manner whatsoever. It shall also be ensured that pruning of trees is done in accordance with law, says the circular. Check air pollution The city government has approved the Public Works Department proposal for comprehensive maintenance of roads to control air pollution in Delhi arising out of dust on roads. One of the major causes of air pollution in Delhi is the fine suspended particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) due to dust on roads and construction sites. The dust gathered on roads due to improper or non-cleaning of roads is compounded further by lakhs of vehicles plying on streets, the government said. Manual sweeping of roads contributes further to rising levels of air pollution since particles fly off and remained suspended on the surface thereafter, the government added. In view of the existing situation, the cabinet approved the proposal authorising the PWD to carry out mechanised sweeping of PWD roads to begin with, and introduce Mechanised Stack Parking System on PWD roads. The expenditure for this work will be borne under the capital head of Roads and Bridges. In a bid to extricate the municipalities from their financial woes, the BJP councillors of the three corporations are mulling to seek a special package from the Centre government during the ongoing Budget session. Though the city government gave the East and North Corporations funds in the form of loan to pay salaries to their employees till March, councillors are of the view that the amount is not sufficient to carry out civic agencies primary functions. Even, councillors of the financially stable South Delhi Municipal Corporation are supporting the special package claim, said sources. We are demanding a special package from the Union government to be given to us by the Delhi government, said Yogender Chandolia, Leader of House in North Delhi Municipal Corporation. We need money to carry out primary functions like sanitation. We have demanded Rs 500 crore for the North Corporation alone as special package from the Centre, added Chandolia. 1 lakh dustbins Under Swachh Bharat Mission approximately one lakh dustbins will be placed in all of six zones under the north civic agency by March 15, said North Corporation Mayor Ravinder Gupta on Wednesday. These dustbins will be provided with the help of RWAs, market associations and other organisations. These dustbins will be kept in over 5,400 parks as well as streetside and roads under the limits of North Delhi. It has been made mandatory for the street vendors to keep a blue dustbin, added the mayor. If vendors want to sell their goods, they have abide by the order.Gupta added that nearly 1,800 well-maintained big parks have been identified where utility toilets will be developed under Swachh Bharat Mission. A 30-year-old man was shot dead by the owner of a gym at his rented house in south Delhi's Vasant Kunj late on Sunday. Hardeep was shot for objecting nuisance created by a party at the gym on the building's ground floor, police said on Wednesday. A case has been registered, but the accused is yet to be arrested. The victim hailed from Haryanas Kaithal district and worked as an editor with a TV news channel. He lived with friends at a rented house in Kishangarh. According to police, a party was organised on Sunday night by gym owner Rinku.Rinku and his friends were drunk and played music at high volume. Hardeep went to complain on which he had an argument with Rinku, said a police officer. Hardeep was outnumbered due to which he chose to return to his room. After some time, Rinku went to Hardeeps room in an inebriated condition. In their statement, Hardeeps friends told police that Rinku was abusive and then opened fire. Hardeep was hit in the firing and sustained gunshot wounds in his abdomen, the officer added. A call was made to the police control room, but no police team reached the spot soon. Hardeep was taken to a private hospital in an autorickshaw. He was declared brought dead. The body was handed over to family after post-mortem at Safdarjung Hospital, the officer said. A case of murder under Indian Penal Code and Arms Act has been filed with Vasant Kunj police station. The investigating officers have conducted raids, but Rinku is yet to be arrested. On Wednesday, Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi took note of the incident and said that efforts are being made to trace Rinku. The gym and Rinkus house were found locked since the incident. A security guard at an office of Muthoot Finance in central Delhis Paharganj shot dead his 68-year-old uncle on Wednesday afternoon. The 45-year-old guard Rupesh Gupta has been arrested. The incident took place around 2.30 pm, when Rajendra Gupta came deposit money at the office of finance company, where his nephew Rupesh works as a security guard. When Rajendra came at the office, he had a heated argument with Rupesh over some family issue, following which Rupesh shot two bullets into his head with his licensed rifle, said a police officer. Rajendra was taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead.Police have arrested Rupesh and seized the gun. They have registered a case of murder at Paharganj police station. Natives of Delhi, both Rajendra and Rupesh lived in a two-storey house in Paharganjs Vasant road. Rajendra lived on the ground floor with his family, while Rupesh and his family live on the first floor. According to police, they both used to fight over petty issues frequently. During investigation, Rupesh told police that his uncle indulged in black magic over his children. He also allegedly harassed him over other issues. Rupesh was suspicious that his uncle was doing black magic on his children, over which they used to argue a lot among themselves. This could be a reason behind the killing, said a police officer. Police have been talking to the family members of both of them. Staff at the Muthoot office is also being questioned. Police are also scanning the CCTV footage from there. The United States' decision to sell eight nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan would affect "some aspects" of Indo-US relationship, a top American military commander has said, amid India's strong protest over the deal. "With regard to the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, while I don't have a professional opinion on that sale itself, certainly it will affect some aspects of our relationship with India," the US Pacific Command (PACOM) Commander, Admiral Harry Harris, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing yesterday. Harris, who will visit India next week, was responding to question from members of the House Armed Services Committee. "I know that I will be asked about it when I go to India, and I hope to be able to tell them that that sale is just one aspect of many military sales that we make across the world, and that we view our relationship with India very importantly," Harris said. "I hope that we can work through this sale, and their perception of it, to continue to improve our relationship with India," Admiral Harris said, responding to a question on F-16 from Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard, the first ever Hindu Congresswoman elected to the US House of Representatives, expressed serious concern over the Obama Administration's decision to sell the fighter jets to Pakistan. "There's a potential sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan that I and other members of Congress have expressed very serious concerns about, given the fact that Pakistan has long harboured and given safe haven to various terrorist groups that continue to launch destabilising attacks within India, as well as Afghanistan," she said. "The recent release of Hafiz Saeed, one of the masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, where six US citizens were killed, even at the protests of the United States -- there are a number of other concerns that we have," she said. "But in particular, I'm wondering if you can talk about how, as you and others have spoken of the importance of this opportunity to strengthen our relationship with India, as we head into a strong partnership into the future and the benefits that that brings us, what impact could this sale of F-16s have on our relationship with India and the work that you and others are doing to strengthen that?" Gabbard had asked. India had summoned US Ambassador Richard Verma to convey its "displeasure and disappointment" over Obama Administration's decision to sell eight F-16 fighter jets worth nearly USD 700 million to Pakistan. India disagreed with the US' rationale that such arms transfers help Pakistan in combating terrorism and believes the US military aid to Pakistan goes into anti-India activities. The Pentagon had said that the F-16 aircraft will facilitate operations in all-weather, non-daylight environments, provide a self-defence/area suppression capability, and enhance Pakistan's ability to conduct counter-insurgency and counter terrorism operations. Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag today slammed Pakistan for giving "candid support" to terror groups like JeM and LeT as he called on the international community to join hands in combating the menace. Days after suspected LeT operatives struck in Pampore in Jammu and Kashmir, Suhag hit out at Pakistan, saying, "Terrorist groups like LeT and JeM get candid support from across our western borders." The attack at Pampore left three army personnel dead, including two Captains of the Special Forces. Two CRPF personnel, too, were killed by three heavily armed "foreign" terrorists who were shot dead after a fierce 48-hour-long gun battle. At a seminar organised by army think tank CLAWS, Suhag also said that the spreading influence of Islamic State, in particular through social and other forms of media, has thrown up challenges of global and regional security. "What is worrying is that these groups can no longer be dismissed as regional manifestations of violence," he said. Noting that such jihadist outfits take advantage of the international connected systems of finance, commerce and transit to stay flexible and reach any part of the globe, Suhag said it was "necessary for international community to fight this menace as one by sharing of intel and adoption of training techniques from each other". He added that the 9/11, 26/11 and recent Paris attacks have changed the perception among world leaders regarding the threat from terrorism. The Army Chief said, "We need to address not only the methods but also the factors that contribute to the spread of terrorism. "The main threat comes from fundamental ideology and twisted interpretations which are promoting radical thinking." BJP leader and spokesperson M J Akbar, who also spoke at the event, termed parts of Pakistan as a "sanctuary for jihadis". The dreaded Islamic State miltant group has made life threats to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a new video which shows their photos riddled with digitally added bullet holes, mocking the social media websites' attempts to block terrorist content from their platforms. In the 25-minute video, the IS claim they are fighting back against efforts by the social media giants to wipe their platforms of accounts promoting terrorism. The video includes a direct threat to the tech entrepreneurs, branding them allies of the American "Crusader government". Pictures of Zuckerberg and Dorsey can be seen being blasted with a hail of bullets in the amateur footage which emerged. The video, titled "Flames of the Supporters" and released by a group calling themselves "the sons of the Caliphate army", ends with a direct threat to the two men, The Sun reported. A slide toward the end of the video reads, in English: "To Mark and Jack, founders of Twitter and Facebook and to their Crusader government. You announce daily that you suspended many of our accounts and to you we say: is that all you can do? you are not in our league. If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete you (sic) sites, #Sons_Caliphate_Army". In a separate slide, they also claim to have hacked more than 10,000 Facebook accounts, 150 Facebook groups, and more than 5,000 Twitter accounts. Two scholars who track ISIS activity online confirmed that the video was posted to multiple ISIS forums, including some on the social media platform. ISIS and related terrorist groups have targeted Dorsey at least twice in the past year. A group of self-identified ISIS supporters threatened the Twitter founder and CEO in March of 2015 for closing hundreds of their social media accounts. In its threat, the group claimed that Dorsey and his company started a "war" against the Islamic State, and that the "necks" of Twitter employees have "become an official target to ISIS soldiers and supporters." Twitter seems to have only stepped up its efforts to wipe ISIS off its platform since then. A few weeks ago, the company announced it had suspended more than 125,000 accounts for threatening or supporting terrorist acts over the past several months. Twitter also said it has grown its team that looks into reports of terror activity on its network. Zuckerberg reiterated his stance and Facebooks policy on helping to fight terrorism online. A Facebook spokeswoman did not immediately respond to request for comment on this weeks threat. A Twitter spokesman reiterated the company's policy and progress on suspending accounts that promote terrorism or any violent threat. More than two-thirds of the world's 33 major deltas are sinking and the vast majority of those have experienced flooding in recent years, primarily a result of human activity, a new study has found. From the Yellow River in China to the Mississippi River in US, researchers are racing to better understand and mitigate the degradation of some of the world's most important river deltas, according to Professor James Syvitski from the University of Colorado Boulder. Researchers found that over two-thirds of the the world's 33 major deltas are sinking and the vast majority of those have experienced flooding in recent years, primarily a result of human activity. Some 500 million people live on river deltas around the world, a number that continues to climb as the population increases, they said. "These deltas are starved of the sediments they need for stability because of upstream dams that trap the material. We are seeing coastal erosion increasing in many places across the planet," said Syvitski. River deltas are land areas created by sediment that collects at the mouths of rivers as they enter slow-moving or standing water like oceans and estuaries. Human effects on river deltas range from engineering tributaries and river channels, extracting groundwater and fossil fuels, trapping sediments behind dams, reducing peak flows of rivers and varied agricultural practices, he said. "Deltas are sinking at a much greater rate than sea levels are rising," Syvitski said. One positive action was taken on the 3,395-mile-long Yellow River recently when some major dams were flushed of their sediments and sent rushing downstream, said Syvitski. "This might be the first time that dam operators on the Yellow River have worked with people in the coastal zone to solve a problem," he said. But looming threats to the Yellow River Delta include the sinking, or subsidence of land, caused in large part by a move from rice farming to aquaculture raising fish and shrimp, he said. The land in some areas there is sinking by 10 inches per year as groundwater is pumped to the surface. "The rate of subsidence there is amazing the ground can sink 3 feet in four years and affect infrastructure like buildings and roads," Syvitski said. "But more importantly, lowering the land surface makes it much more exposed to the ocean environment, including storm surges from hurricanes and tsunamis," he added. Pakistan's military provides weapons and training to ISIS militants in Afghanistan and instructs them to kill the "infidel" Afghan forces, according to the terror group's fighters who laid down their arms. They also said that Pakistani military provides light and heavy weapons to ISIS fighters in Afghanistan. "Pakistani military gave us weapons and used to tell us that Afghan forces are infidels and you must kill them," Zaitoon, a former ISIS fighter who laid down his arms and joined the peace talks, was quoted as saying by the TOLO news yesterday. Arabistan, Zaitoon's co-fighter, said: "I was tasked to fight in Nazian district [in Nangarhar]. We used to present our daily report to Punjabis and Pakistanis and they encouraged us to fight the Afghan government." The 10-member group has joined the peace process due to efforts by the High Peace Council office in the province and also with the help of the Afghan security forces, said Chairman of Nangarhar Provincial Council Malik Nazir. "There were 24 men in two groups the first group was 14 Taliban fighters and the second group included 10 Daesh fighters who for the first time joined the peace process," Nazir added. The US Navy will step up its operations in the South China Sea with "greater complexity", a top US admiral has warned, drawing sharp rebuke from China which is building military facilities on islands in the hotly disputed area. "We'll be doing them more and we'll be doing them with greater complexity in the future," Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, told American lawmakers on the growing friction in the South China Sea. "We'll fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows," Harris, who is set to visit India next week, said. He said China was building military capabilities in the South China Sea leading to escalating tension in the region. "In my opinion China is clearly militarising the South China Sea," Harris, in a hearing on Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. "You'd have to believe in a flat earth to believe otherwise," he said. "China's intent to militarise the South China Sea is as certain as a traffic jam in DC," Harris said in reference to congestion on the streets of Washington. The harsh assessment from the US military's top commander in the Pacific comes amidst a series of reports of increasing Chinese capabilities on disputed islands in the resource-rich South China Sea. In Beijing, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian said, "I have noted that according to media reports, Adm. Harris made his remarks while seeking additional defense budget funds from Congress." "We don't interfere in your seeking defense budget funds, but you can't carelessly smear China while asking for more money," Wu said. Last week, satellite images showed China had installed a surface-to-air missile battery on the Paracel Islands near Vietnam. And on Monday, reports surfaced that China is installing a high-tech air search radar that may be capable of detecting US stealth aircraft on one of its man-made islands in the Spratly Islands. "We must continue to operate in the South China Sea to demonstrate that that water space and the air above it is international," Harris said. Since October, the US Navy has carried out two such freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea to emphasise saying the missions are an important way of upholding international law. The Asia Pacific region has witnessed tension after China flexed its military muscle in the South China Sea. The South China Sea is also a major shipping lane. Over half of the world's commercial shipping passes through the area. China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea, resulting in overlapping claims with several other Asian nations like Vietnam and the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. They accuse China of illegally reclaiming land in contested areas to create artificial islands with facilities that could potentially be for military use. New Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul today proved his majority on the floor of the Assembly with the support of 40 MLAs. The 40 MLAs who lent support to Pul comprised 27 of Congress, 11 of BJP and two independents. The nine Congress MLAs of the Tuki camp who shifted their allegiance to Pul yesterday voted for him. The Speaker did not vote. The 17 Congress MLAs loyal to former chief minister Nabam Tuki were absent following CLP chief whip (Tuki group) Rajesh Tacho's stern direction to the party MLAs yesterday to abstain from voting in support of Pul. However, chief whip of CLP (Pul group) Pema Khandu had issued another whip directing the party MLAs to vote in favour of the incumbent chief minister. Pul, sworn in on February 19 when Central rule was withdrawn from the state, had moved the motion of confidence in the House immediately after election of Wangki Lowang as the new Speaker to prove his strength. Participating in the motion, Pul said several attempts were made to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi but appointments were denied. "We have requested the party high command for change in leadership but did nothing against the Congress party ... Our government will be a Congress government with outside support from BJP and two Independents," he added. Ridiculing Tuki's claim that he still has the numbers, Pul said "whoever has the majority can form the government." "In a House of 58 members, 30 MLAs are required to form the government and we have support of 41. Moreover, to become the CLP leader, support of only 23 members is required and I have 28 with me," he said. Criticising Tuki, the new CM alleged that there was no consensus during the former's regime as he ran an "autocratic government" and the state's financial position was in bad shape. "The state recorded an over draft of Rs 1,253.14 crore with RBI during the last three years for which the state government was unable to provide salaries to the employees in time," he said. The Chief Minister said he has full faith in the judiciary and whatever was done to form the government was in accordance with the constitutional provisions. "Government formation and floor test have no links with the ongoing court cases," Pul said and assured to bring out a white paper on state's financial health soon besides continuing the corrective measures adopted by Governor J P Rajkhowa during the central rule in the state. Director of Sugar Breeding Institute (SBI), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, Bakshi Ram on Thursday suggested sugar cane growers to opt for different varieties of the crop to achieve high yield and better returns. Addressing the gathering, during the inauguration of the two-day 20th meeting of Sugarcane Research and Development Workers of Southern Karnataka, organised by Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya Sugarcane Research Institute, Mandya at Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) here, Ram cited the example of Uttar Pradesh, that has given a wake up call mainly to two States Karnataka and Maharashtra in sugar cane cultivation. Ram said, Uttar Pradesh has revolutionised sugar cane cultivation by opting for changed variety named CO 0238 and has achieved 13 per cent sugar recovery. So, the same variety of crop is being cultivated in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha too. Switch to new variety Ram felt that in the case of Karnataka, barring minor variations due to climatic factors, there is not much change in the scenario. The reason being, no variety change ever since the existing variety (CO 62175) was introduced in the year 1962. The area of cultivation is more than 60 per cent and its time to switch over to a new variety to improve the yield and also sugar recovery, he said. Effective management of soil health and also measures to check pests are other factors that would help in better cultivation of sugar cane, Ram added. R B Khandagave from S Nijalingappa Sugar Institute, Belagavi advised to take a cue from Australia, where the thrust is on technology and adoption of minimal recommendations in managing fertility of the soil. Khandagave said, to ensure better margins in sugar cane farming, two priorities should be followed judicious use of soil and water and bringing down the production cost. In the case of soil and water management, Australia would be a better model by incorporating technologies, while solar pumpsets would help reduce production cost. Director, Research, University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS), Bengaluru, T Sheshadri blamed impartial adoption of technologies in the realm as the major reason for problems plaguing sugar cane farmers. The farmers have failed to fully explore the potential. As a result, there is no change in the extent of production in the last five years, that can be recorded at 450 tonnes per hectare. Sheshadri pointed out, usage of local seeds, deterioration in soil health, non-adoption of organic manure, green manure and inter-cropping system and also failure in management of trash and poor drainage system, especially in low-lying areas, are among the causes that have resulted in farmers incurring loss in sugar cane cultivation. MCC Commissioner C G Betsurmath released the compendium on sugar cane cultivation in the region. Minister for Forests, Environment and Ecology Ramanath Rai said on Thursday that the department had received many appeals and objections regarding the complete ban on plastic. He said that he could not take any decision as the issue was now before the Cabinet. He said this while interacting with industrialists at a session organised by Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) in the city. The industrialists pointed that they were in favour of a ban on plastic below 40 microns, but not a complete ban on plastic, especially when there was no immediate alternative available. This would affect the direct employment of around one lakh people in this sector, the industrialists said. The industrialists asked whether Rai had issued directions to the BBMP and the KSPCB on raiding industries and seizing plastic materials. They questioned what was being done with the seized materials, because plastic below 40 microns was still easily available in the market. They urged the minister that a thorough check be done on this and legal action taken against those raiding the industries and selling the seized items for higher price. Rai said that all these points would be discussed with the officials. He said non-government organisations too had raised many points which would be discussed in the Cabinet. KASSIA members submitted a memorandum to Rai, KSPCB chairman Lakshman and member secretary Shantappa, listing out their demands. Rai said that the online processes for industries would be eased and soon the process of online fee would be started. He accepted that there was a need to resolve problems being faced by industries with regard to fixing consent fee, licences and renting buildings. He added that there was a need to take the approval of the Central Pollution Control Board, which would also be discussed. Scientists at two research institutes in Bengaluru made fundamental contributions to the historical discovery of gravitational waves. Delivering a talk on LIGO Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger, Parameswaran Ajith, an astrophysicist at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), said: Foundational work has been done by Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru, and Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune. For example, the team involved in LIGO study at RRI pioneered developing expected models of wave forms and computing expected models of wave forms using a technique called the Post Newtonian Approximation. Direct contribution of the ICTS is in terms of observation. Our team contributed by inferring the mass and spin of the final black hole, he said. There have been several tests to check the consistency of data with Einsteins theory, one of the test was developed and implemented at the ICTS while another test was developed at the RRI. The Chennai Mathematical Institute and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, were other institutes which contributed to the project. Ajith also said that while the discovery was made back in September 2015, the data verified over four months and finally the discovery made public in February. He said more announcements would be on the way as more data was to be verified. A Malaysian government agency has evinced interest in executing the elevated corridor project in Bengaluru on Build Operate Own and Transfer basis. The Rs 18,000-crore project is being implemented by the government through Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL) and aims to ease traffic in City. Bengaluru City Development Minister K J George held a preliminary discussion with a delegation representing Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), an agency of the Malaysian government. They have evinced interest in executing the project, he said adding that similar interest had been shown by firms from Japan and United Arab Emirates (UAE). George said the CIDB was keen on several infrastructure projects taken up by the State , particularly those in Bengaluru. American Engineering Company AECOM has been entrusted with the work to prepare a Detailed Feasibility Report of the six elevated corridors crisscrossing the City. Total length of the project is 82.7 km. AECOM is likely to give its report in the next couple of months. Once the DFR is ready, the project will be implemented within two years, the minister said. On the process of choosing the contractor to execute the project, he said the government was open to tenders, Swiss Challenge and even government-to-government level agreements signed between India and other countries. Swiss Challenge is a method of choosing an agency where the proposal of the first bidder is put online to invite others to implement at a lesser cost. If the first bidder accepts the improvised proposal of the second bidder, the contract will go to them, otherwise, the contract is given to the second bidder. Sariah Abd Karib, senior general manager, CIDB, said they have sound experience in construction of elevated corridors. In Kuala Lumpur, people can choose options to exit the city. There are three-level elevated corridors in the city measuring close to 2,000 km, she said. George said the government was open to adopting other models for implementing the Peripheral Outer Ring Road, including the Amaravathi land pooling method. The 67-km semi-circle six-lane road will be connected to Nice Road. The government has already received a loan of Rs 3,000 crore from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to implement the project. The cost of land acquisition itself is around Rs 8,000 crore, George said. Because of the huge cost involved , the government is planning to adopt land pooling or provide TDR or outrightly purchase lands . India will soon make a fresh move at the United Nations to seek international sanctions on terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammeds founder Moulana Masood Azhar, whom it suspects to be the mastermind of the January 1-4 terror attacks on the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab. Indias earlier attempts at international organization to seek sanctions on Masood Azhar were blocked by China, one of the five permanent members of United Nations Security Council, ostensibly at the behest of Pakistan. New Delhi also on February 18 last submitted a list of 11 individuals and an organization to the United Nations 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (Daesh) and Al Qaida Sanctions Committee, seeking sanctions on them, External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, informed the Lok Sabha in response to a query. We will be moving to 1267 Sanctions Committee to also include the name of Masood Azhar on the sanctions list. It is a great anomaly that the organisation JeM is listed, but not its leader, Vikas Swarup, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said. In a revelation that can embarrass the previous UPA government, former Union home secretary G K Pillai has accused the Congress of politicising the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case which was used to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During an interview to a news channel, Pillai said that he was not instrumental in getting the ministry to file contradictory affidavit in the Jahan case where a group of Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists were gunned down by the Gujarat Police. In fact, according to him, the affidavit was filed after intervention at the political level, making it obvious that the then Congress-led UPA government was responsible. On the intelligence agency-Gujarat Police operation, he said: We enticed the LeT operatives to come to India and target Prime Minister Narendra Modi (then Gujarat CM) and we laid a trap and killed them. The IB had enticed and trapped them and then targeted them. We used a source who they (LeT) thought was their source. It is always better to know your enemy as he is coming in rather than wait for him to plan an operation on his own without our knowledge. Our source had in fact told them that look if you come in you can target Modi and other high profile people and the LeT decided to come in. Pillai stated that Ishrat was a cover for the LeT and argued that it would be wrong to call it a fake encounter -- a charge slapped by the UPA government on Gujarat Police officers who were involved in the encounter. This was an intel operation involving the LeT. If it was an intel operation, then you should not talk about fake encounter. We should make that distinction. We cant mix up the two. Ishrat knew that something was wrong. An unmarried Muslim girl went with a married person, spent nights with him as husband and wife. She was a cover for them, he told the channel. A University of Hyderabad medical officer has trashed claims made by HRD Minister Smriti Irani in Parliament that no doctor was allowed near Rohith Vemulas body until 6.30 am after his suicide. Deputy Chief medical officer in the campus Dr M Rajashree told reporters on Thursday that she was informed of a students hanging at room 207 at the new research scholar hostel by 7.25 pm on January 17. Universitys security found Rohits body between 6.30 and 7 pm at his friend Uma Maheswar Raos room and informed DCMO. I was informed about the incident on the phone by 7.25 pm and I immediately rushed to the hostel, Dr Rajashree said. By the time I reached the room, his body had been removed from the blue cloth on which it was hanging from the fan. I examined the body for 10 minutes and declared him dead. I made notes in the university health book, she added. The doctor called university vice chancellor Apparao to inform him about Rohiths death. When the vice chancellor asked if the research scholar could be revived, she told him he was dead. After that, I stayed at the hostel till about 3 pm, she said. The health book Dr Rajashree presented before the press mentioned the time of Rohits death as approximately 7.30 pm on January 17. It also revealed that she informed the VC, Dean of Students Welfare, Registrar, police. It contained her signature. The entry also says Rohiths body was cold with bloody abdomen, protruding tongue and froth coming from the mouth. His eyes were dilated and there was no heartbeat or breathing. The FIR by the Gachibowli police also mentioned that the doors to hostel room 207 was open and Rohits body was lying on the table when they reached the spot by 7.25 pm. Quoting the Gachibowli police, under whose jurisdiction UoH falls, Irani on Wednesday claimed that students did not allow doctors to go near Rohiths body until 6.30 am on January 18, instead used the dead body as a political tool. The police also said the hand-written suicide note found near the body said no one was responsible for the death. A video link provided by students close to Rohit also showed Dr Rajashree and the Telangana Police present at about 7.30 pm near his body, backing her claims. However, agitating students did not allow the police to remove Rohits body for post-mortem until on January 18. The medical officer Dr Rajashree and the police rushed to the hostel on January 17 immediately after the security found Rohith hanging in the hostel room. We were all there when the medical officer declared him dead. I think the HRD minister has ied to the Lok Sabha, Prashanth, one of the five suspended research scholars said. In keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modis Make in India initiative, the Railways will build two new locomotive factories at cost of Rs 40,000 crore. These loco factories will come up one each in Madhepura and Madhaora in Bihar. These will boost employment potential in entire eastern region, Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu said. Since a major chunk of Railways internal revenues come from freight traffic, the minister also promised building more freight traffic corridors and put three freight corridors on high priority. Given the emphasis on rapid expansion of freight business, it is essential to build more dedicated freight corridors for increased traffic with consequent benefits for the economy and environment, the railway minister said.. Accordingly, the North-South corridor connecting Delhi-Chennai, East-West connecting Kharagpur- Mumbai and East Coast connecting Kharagpur-Vijayawada will be put on high priority. The Railways earn 65 per cent of their internal revenue through freight traffic and 25 per cent through passenger traffic. But in the last few years, the freight traffic has shifted to road due to an increase in freight rates to cross subsidise losses in running passenger trains. Cross subsidy from freight to passenger has crossed Rs 30,000 crore this year. Prabhu said his aim is to revive rail freight traffic and for that he is in talks with various companies. Inadequacy of warehousing and transportation facilities is also one of the causes that that keep potential customers away from the Railways, he said adding the rail side warehousing and cold storage facilities will be developed on vacant land near freight terminals. To focus on providing last mile connectivity for freight business and significant reduction in logistic costs, at least 10 goods sheds will be developed in 2016-17. To capture the automobile traffic, we will soon inaugurate Indias first rail auto hub in Chennai, Prabhu said. Bengaluru has topped the list for the maximum number of crimes committed against women across the State, according to the crime statistics compiled by the State police for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. While the crimes against women continue to rise in Karnataka, Bengaluru reported nearly 27 per cent of the cases. A total of 4,862 cases have been reported in the City and these include 83 murders, 104 sexual assaults, 57 dowry deaths and 618 kidnaps and abductions. Of the total registered cases in 2014, 13 per cent were related to crimes against women. The State has reported as many as 1,37,338 cases under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 2014, of which, 17,792 cases were women-related crimes such as rape, kidnapping, dowry harassment, molestation among others. Pro-women forums say the reason for this disturbing trend is police inaction and their inability to protect women from falling prey to abusers, especially in incidents of rape, kidnapping or eve-teasing. According to them, these crimes can be prevented if the police were more active. K S Vimala of the All India Democratic Womens Association told Deccan Herald that the police and the judiciary were responsible for the increasing crimes against women because they had failed to act tough against the offenders. She said the police should take stringent action on incidents of crimes against women and the courts should pronounce the verdict in these cases quickly. This will act as a warning, she added. Meanwhile, officials of the police computer wing and crime records bureau are in the process of preparing the crime statistics for 2015. An official source involved in the data collection process said there had been no decline in crimes against women in 2015. DH News Service Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday declared his diamond-studded Hublot wristwatch, gifted to him by a friend of over 30 years, a government asset. He also said he would pay the necessary gift tax and declare the watch before the Income Tax department by March 15 and before the Lokayukta in June. I will, however, never wear the watch again. It will be placed in the Vidh ana Soudha. This is all thats there to the watch story, he told reporters after announcing that the watch was gifted to him by his Dubai-based surgeon friend, Dr Girish Chandra Varma. Claiming that he was not rich and had never indulged in luxury, Siddaramaiah said he had not owned an expensive watch before this gift. Till 1994, I used to wear pants and shirt, but after that I have been wearing only dhothi and kurta. I didnt even know how expensive the watch was, nor was I using it when the allegations were made. But it is definitely not Rs 70 lakh as claimed by (JD-S leader) H D Kumaraswamy, Siddaramaiah said. Siddaramaiah said he had remained silent all these days and had not disclosed Dr Varmas name owing to the latters busy schedule. He is a famous cardio-surgeon and had many appointments lined up. Hence he couldnt come to India immediately and furnish the affidavit, he said. Siddaramaiahs disclosure comes at a time when he has been facing the heat from various quarters seeking his clarification on the expensive watch. While State BJP chief Pralhad Joshi had filed a complaint with the Enforcement Directorate, City-based activist S Bhaskaran has complained to the Lokayukta. With the budget session starting next week, Siddaramaiah ensured that he made his stand clear. DH News Service Disclosure has raised more doubts: HDK JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, who first raised the Hublot watch controversy, on Thursday said Chief Minister Siddaramaiahs disclosure that the watch was gifted to him by a close friend in Dubai, raised more doubts than answers. The chief minister, all these days, denied the watch was expensive. He even claimed he had forgotten the name of the friend who had gifted him the watch. Now, he suddenly makes the disclosure that it was gifted to him by a friend whom he knew since 1983. How can he forget the name of his close friend? Kumaraswamy asked. He also sought to know why Siddaramaiah offered to give away the watch for Rs 10 lakh. Kumaraswamy had claimed that the watch cost Rs 70 lakh. It is clear that the chief minister finds himself in a tight spot and is trying to find an escape route, he said. He said he had convened a press conference in Bengaluru on Friday. Sources said he would clear the air on counter-accusations made by a section of Congress legislators that he owned several expensive watches, including Franck Muller and Rado, while his son Nikil drove high-end cars such as Lamborghini, Range Rover and Infinity Ex35. Who is Dr Varma? Dr Girish Chandra Varma (in pic) is the chief cardiac surgeon at NMC Specialty Hospital, Dubai, Al Nahda. He completed his MS in general surgery from Kasturba Medical College, Mangaluru, and MCh in Cardiovascular Thoracic Surgery from Bombay University. He attained clinical fellowship in cardiovascular surgery from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA, in 1996 and postgraduate diploma in cardiovascular surgery from the University Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris, in 1999. When Deccan Herald tried to contact Dr Varma at his Dubai hospital, the staff there stated that he was on leave till Saturday. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that he had known Varma since 1983. Varma, had done his MBBS in Davangere and MS in Mangaluru, he added. After practicing in Paris and the US, he has settled down in Dubai since 2005. During his visit in July last year to Bengaluru, he presented me the watch he was wearing and insisted that I use it. This, despite me resisting it. Because he is an old friend, I relented. I however wore the watch only for four months, from July end to November, he said. Inspired by 27-year-old Harish Nanjappa, who asked bystanders to donate his organs even as his body was cut in half following a ghastly road accident last week, the family of an 18-year-old brain-dead girl has donated her organs. The girl, Sanjana alias Sanju, gave a new lease of life to four people with the donation of her heart, liver, kidneys and eyes. The girl, who hailed from Hassan, was a student at Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering in Mysuru. She had met with an accident while riding pillion on a motorcycle with her friend near KRS dam near Mysuru on February 21. She suffered serious head injuries when a two-wheeler coming in the opposite direction hit her motorcycle. She was rushed to Apollo BGS Hospitals in Mysuru and then to Nimhans, Bengaluru. Doctors told us that her condition was critical and that nothing could be done about it. We decided to take her back to Hassan, said Chethan, her sisters husband. Her parents were moved by the accident in Nelamangala where the dying man was wishing to donate his organs. They decided to donate her organs, too. The family then contacted the Zonal Co-ordination Committee of Karnataka for Organ Transplantation and gave its consent to donate her organs. Sanjana was shifted to the BGS Global Hospitals in Bengaluru at 12.15 pm on Thursday and her organs were retrieved. The retrieved heart was then taken to Narayana Health, Hosur Road, via a green corridor. Meanwhile, her liver and a kidney were simultaneously transplanted into a 44-year-old woman from Bengaluru who was suffering from end-stage liver disease and a kidney failure. The recipient was on haemodialysis. Sanjanas corneas were sent to Narayana Nethralaya. The other kidney was taken to Victoria Hospital for transplant into another patient. Emotions ran high at BGS Global Hospitals when Sanjanas father, Eerappa, stepped in front of the vehicle carrying her heart and kneeled down with folded hands. My daughter was of the generous kind. She always helped the needy and lent money to the poor, he said. We thought, when she is no more, at least her organs should be of use to others. DH News Service Another man gets liver transplant as intended recipient takes ill Surgeons at Apollo Hospitals here had to work under an extremely tight deadline after being alerted at the last minute about the availability of a donor liver in what turned out to be the second organ transplant in Bengaluru on Thursday. Hospitals get alerts about 10 hours ahead of the transplant to plan the procedure, but that was not the case at Apollo Hospitals on Bannerghatta Road. On Thursday, a donor liver was flown from Mangaluru to Bengaluru and taken to Manipal Hospitals on Old Airport Road for transplant. But the recipient there took ill and, in a last-minute move, the liver was taken to Apollo Hospitals for transplant. Dr Mahesh Gopasetty, transplant surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, said they were alerted about the donor liver at 7.30 am. We quickly activated our system to see if we had a suitable recipient. We had one, and he was called in at 8 am. Since he hails from Salem, we arranged an ambulance for him from Krishnagiri to ensure that he reaches in time, Dr Gopasetty told Deccan Herald. Ideally, the liver should be transplanted within eight to ten hours. The procedure was over in nine hours, he added. The liver is that of a 21-year-old brain-dead boy, Vineeth Raj. It was retrieved at AJ Institute of Medical Sciences there. It was then flown to Bengaluru and zipped on a green corridor to Manipal Hospitals and later to Apollo Hospitals. The recipient is a 50-year-old man who suffered from Cryptogenic Liver Disease and liver cancer. He was awaiting transplant for the past six months. DH News Service The parents of 21-year-old brain-dead man, Vineeth Raj, have donated his kidneys and eyes, too. He was the only son of Krishna Moolya and Geetha, who hail from Manjeshwar, Kasargod district. Since the family is poor, Raj was working at an under-construction building in Mangaluru. On Tuesday night, he suffered an electric shock and fell from the second floor. He was rushed to a hospital and then to AJ Hospital where doctors declared him brain-dead on Wednesday night. After his parents wished to donate his organs, doctors at the hospital informed the Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka for Transplantation, which arranged for harvesting of the organs. While his liver was transplanted into a man in Bengaluru, one of his kidneys was donated to a patient at AJ Hospital and the other to a recipient at Yenepoya Hospital. DH News Service Sanjay Dutt Walks Out Of Yerwada Jail After Spending 42 Months In Prison Everyday mindfulness is linked to improved blood glucose levels, according to new research. The study, which was conducted by researchers at Brown University, found that participants with higher everyday mindfulness scores had lower blood glucose levels than those with low everyday mindfulness scores. What is everyday mindfulness? Mindfulness is a meditation technique which teaches you to pay attention purposefully to our moment by moment experience, with an accepting and non-judgemental attitude. The awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment to moment is known as being mindful. Mindfulness can only be known by being mindful. Everyday mindfulness is the cultivation of being present to ones thoughts, sensations and emotions in a non-judgemental and accepting manner in everyday life. A skill that is cultivated through daily regular practice for at least 20 mins a day. How was the study conducted? The study is part of a wider programme at Brown University to test the potential effect of everyday mindfulness on risk of cardiovascular disease. The researchers hypothesise that people practicing mindfulness are more likely to be able to follow a healthy lifestyle. The study involved 399 participants. Those with high everyday mindfulness scores were less likely to be obese and more likely to believe they had control over important things in their life. This study demonstrated a significant association of dispositional mindfulness with glucose regulatio, and provided novel evidence that obesity and sense of control may serve as potential mediators of this associatio, wrote the authors. As mindfulness is likely a modifiable trait, this study provides preliminary evidence for a fairly novel and modifiable determinant of diabetes risk. Mindfulness and diabetes: Were getting a signal This study is one of the few to investigate the potential benefits of mindfulness for people with diabetes. Although this study did not look specifically at the link between mindfulness and diabetes despite finding a 20 per cent lower risk of diabetes amongst people with high mindfulness scores, the researchers argue that the study wasnt large enough to draw definitive conclusions it did look at the relationship between mindfulness and blood glucose, which has an obvious relevance to people with diabetes. The researchers hope that further studies will elucidate the relationship between mindfulness and metabolic/cardiovascular conditions. Eric Loucks, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in the Brown University School of Public Health, said: Theres been almost no epidemiological investigations on the relationship of mindfulness with diabetes or any cardiovascular risk factor. This is one of the first. Were getting a signal. Id love to see it replicated in larger sample sizes and prospective studies as well. Mindfulness for diabetes workshops are available in the UK at Mindfulness4Diabetes.com and UK based Stressmanagement.co.uk also offers Diabetes Management with Mindfulness (DMM) Courses, The findings are published in the American Journal of Health Behaviour. A group calling themselves the sons of the Caliphate army posted a video on YouTube that showed pictures of Zuckerberg and Dorsey being riddled with bullet holes The Islamic State has released a new video on YouTube in which they make death threats to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The video, titled Flames of the Supporters was released by a group calling themselves the sons of the Caliphate army and shows pictures of Zuckerberg and Dorsey being riddled with bullets holes. A slide towards the end of the video reads, To Mark and Jack, founders of Twitter and Facebook and to their Crusader government. You announce daily that you suspended many of our accounts and to you we say: is that all you can do? you are not in our league. If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete you sites, Allah willing, and will know that we say is true. #Sons_Caliphate_Army. In a separate slide, the group claims to have hacked more than 10,000 Facebook accounts, 150 Facebook groups, and 5,000 Twitter accounts. Both Facebook and Twitter have taken steps to shut down accounts belonging to the Islamic State. It was earlier reported that Facebook was planning to combat terrorist propaganda its own form of counter speech. The company would attempt to discredit extremist content with posts, videos, and videos from users that would counter the original propaganda. It was also reported that the Islamic States English-language reach on Twitter has been stalled over the recent months. Dennis Lockhart, the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Atlanta, expressed concern on Thursday evening about the risk that the real estate market might overheat. For the first time in more than a decade, bankers face the potential of operating in a rising rate environment. Rising rates will create challenges in managing net interest margins and risks, Dennis Lockhart said in remarks at a banking conference in Atlanta, Bloomberg reported. We remain concerned about the potential for the commercial real estate market to overheat and hurt banks again. Lower energy prices and worries about China "have added new complexity" to the task of assessing the outlook for the US economy, he said. He added that the Federal Reserve would be 'data dependent' in its decisions. Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn announced it would delay a deal to purchase Japans Sharp after receiving new documentation. On Wednesday morning, Sharp had "couriered over a new key document to the management of Hon Hai" whose content needed to be clarified before proceeding, Foxconn, better known by its official name of Hon Hai Precision Industries. Earlier on Thursday, Sharp had accepted the 4.5bn pound takeover offer from its rival and even announced it would issue 3.28m new shares to be subscribed by Hon Hai Precision Industries at a price of 118 yen each. News of the deal sent shares in Sharp spiralling lower by 14.37% overnight to 149.0 yen in Tokyo, with trading having been halted at one point during the session. The decision taken by the board of the Japanese electronics-maker surprised some market observers, given Japans widely-known aversion to relinquishing its best-known brands to foreign buyers and the frequent conflict of interest disputes involving Taiwanese companies and their contract-manufacturing operations. Hon Hai Precision Industries had also been expected to lose out to Innovation Network of Japan, reports indicated. Details on the deals financial breakdown werent immediately provided although Foxconn reportedly paid a hefty premium. To clinch the deal the Taiwanese firm had promised Japanese authorities it would keep the company intact and not carry out major layoffs. Foxconn had already made a failed approach to buy-out Sharp in 2012. Nevertheless, loss-making Sharp had already been through two major bailouts in the last four years, fanning doubts about Foxconns ability to turn around the enterprise. Some analysts believed the Taiwanese firms bid was motivated by its desire to move into the market for screens for the next generation iPhone via the acquistion of Sharps technology and 10.4% share of the market for mobile displays. For the quarter ending in September, Sharp reported a net loss of $44m on sales of $5.9bn, versus Foxconns net profits of $1.16bn on revenues of $32.1bn. AstraZeneca has been buoyed by news that its acalabrutinib cancer treatment has been recommended for orphan drug status by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for three forms of lymphoma. The EMA gave positive opinions for the acalabrutinib in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma (Waldenstrom's macroglobulinaemia, or MG). Acalabrutinib is being developed by Acerta Pharma, in which AstraZeneca bought a 55% stake in December for an initial $2.5bn upfront plus another $1.5bn to be paid when acalabrutinib wins full approval by a regulator. The FTSE 100 company said the three positive opinions from the EMA's Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) were "important milestones" for the drug, for which it has previously projected peak sales of more than $5bn. "They reinforce the strategic rationale for our investment in Acerta, demonstrating clear progress in developing a potential best-in-class medicine that could transform treatment for patients across a range of blood cancers," said Sean Bohen, AstraZeneca's chief medical officer. Granting orphan drug status for a drug is designed to allow company to benefit from incentives such as reduced fees and protection from competition once the medicine is placed on the market. After the COMP's opinion is submitted to the European Commission for endorsement. To be granted orphan status by the EC, a medicine must be intended for the treatment, prevention or diagnosis of a disease that is life threatening and has a prevalence of up to five in 10,000 in the European Union. Analysts at Barclays project revenues of $1.6bn in 2025 ahead of key head-to-head data versus Imbruvica in relapsed refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (RR-CLL) 2018. Barclays said efficacy appeared to be at least in-line, with potentially a lower risk of major bleeding and atrial fibrillation. Combination data with Keytruda in solid tumours is due in the second half of 2016. James Fisher and Sons has been awarded a marine services service and support contract worth more than 25m. The deal is with Galloper Wind Farm - a joint equity partnership between RWE Innogy UK, UK Green Investment Bank, Siemens Financial Services and Macquarie Capital. Under the agreement, James Fisher will supply marine services and support to Galloper during the construction of a 336MW wind farm, located 27km off the coast of Suffolk. Services will include construction site set-up, marine co-ordination, the Offshore Wind Management System, crew transfer vessels, vessel refueling and emergency response services. Construction is scheduled to begin this June and to be complete in late 2017. Shares closed 0.89% higher to 958.50p. The European trading giant planned by Deutsche Borse and the London Stock Exchange Group will be based in London but headed by the German groups chief executive, according to people close to the two sides. They are set to proceed with plans to make London the domicile for the new holding company, despite the looming June 23 referendum on British membership of the EU, in a boost to the Citys role as Europes dominant financial centre. Financial Times The former chairman of Lloyds Banking Group has said its shareholders should be grateful that it did not abandon the takeover of rival HBOS during the financial crisis, even though the deal left them nursing big losses. Sir Victor Blank, speaking publicly for the first time since retiring in 2009, said Lloyds and the government had both ended up benefiting from the deal because the bank is now gaining from its dominant market share and the taxpayer funds used to bail it out had been recouped. Financial Times The spread of cyber-fraud has created a surge in economic crime against British companies, with more than half of all firms braced for an online attack, according to new research. Fifty-one percent of UK organisations have been the victim of economic crimes of any form in the past two years, up from 44pc in 2014. British firms are above the global average of 36pc of companies experiencing crime, research by PwC suggested. Telegraph BTs critics were braced for disappointment on Thursday, with Ofcom expected to downgrade its threat to break up the former state telecoms monopoly. In its once-a-decade review of the telecoms industry, the regulator is expected to attempt reform of the current structure of Openreach, BTs network division, rather than recommend a split. Telegraph Workers rights enshrined in European Union law could come under attack following a Brexit vote, the Trades Union Congress has warned, as it sought to shore up support among union members for staying inside the 28-country bloc. Many rights accumulated over decades, including paid annual leave, time off for antenatal appointments and fair treatment for part-time workers, are used every day by millions of workers, the TUC said. But if the UK votes to leave the EU, no one can say what will happen to these rights. Guardian The International Monetary Fund has urged the UK to ease back on austerity should the economy slow further, as it warned finance ministers at the G20 summit in Shanghai to boost public spending on infrastructure to fuel global growth. In a report on the UKs economic outlook, the IMF said the risks of a more severe downturn were mounting as David Camerons government battled sluggish productivity growth, a balance of ayments deficit, high levels of household debt, and the forthcoming referendum on EU membership. - Guardian BHP Billitons legal woes have worsened after it emerged that executives at its Brazilian joint venture have been accused of murder by police over the Samarco disaster that killed 19 people. The allegations, which could lead to criminal charges, came after BHP warned that it could take years to draw a line under the liabilities arising from the bursting of a huge dam holding waste materials last November. It has written off the value of the business on its balance sheet. The Times Digitimes Research: NTT DoCoMo looking to cross into smart family market in Japan, selling fixed and mobile networks together Japan-based telecom carrier NTT DoCoMo began establishing Uchisuma (smart family) experience zone in its stores and distributors' stores on October 16, 2015, looking to help consumers see the convenience brought by high speed Internet combined with network-supported home appliances. The telecom carrier is pushing cheap prices for the combination of fixed and mobile networks to attract demand from home users, and such a demand is growing to become a potential business opportunity, Digitimes Research's latest report about Japan's smart family market shows. DoCoMo launched DoCoMo Hikari network service, which combines NTT East and West's optical fiber fixed network with mobile networks in March 2015. The service provides friendly pricing to attract home users, and the company started pushing the Uchisuma experience zone half of a year later to let consumers that mainly use handsets, understand the changes offered by optical fiber services, and is pushing a new business model that bundles fixed and mobile network services. The Uchisuma's optical fiber network is able to transmit 1Gbps and showcases DoCoMo's in-house developed software/hardware applications such as d Market, family helper, Runtastic for Docomo fitness tracking, and surveillance services, as well as the OHaNas robot and the Sumakame for docomo CS-QR10-d surveillance system. In addition, NTT DoCoMo has also partnered with Sony and Philips Electronics Japan to develop smart lighting, wearable devices and home theater products that support the network. d Market is a platform DoCoMo specifically designed for smartphones and tablets and reached 14.26 million users by January 2016. dTV, a video streaming service, is the most used service on the platform, and DoCoMo is looking to expand the service from mobile devices to living rooms via Uchisuma. Although DoCoMo is not very familiar with the smart home market, the company is still expected to achieve strong results du to its large user base and range of services, Digitimes Research forecasts. Content from this article was part of a complete Digitimes Research Chinese-language report that has not yet been translated into English. If you are interested in an English version of the report or wish to receive more information about the report, click here to contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Digitimes Research also provides quarterly tracking services for market sectors such as China Smartphone, China Smartphone AP, Taiwan ICT and Taiwan FPD. Click here for more information about Digitimes Research Tracking services. Save my User ID and Password Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site. Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site. Columbus teachers union investigating if members worked during strike The Columbus Education Association will investigate whether members crossed the picket line during the union's three-day strike in August. Office market shows no signs of slowing down Total sales volume should exceed $3 billion this year and the record for pricing per square foot will fall for the seventh consecutive year. By STUART WILLIAMS and ALEX MUIR JLL Williams Muir Seattles population growth is far outpacing the national average, and due to the strong job market and high quality of living, it continues to attract millennials at a faster rate than nearly every other major U.S. city. In 2015 the economy continued to strengthen, with unemployment in the summer dropping to the lowest figure the region had seen since mid-2007. Local job growth looks to remain strong, with the most recent employment forecast from the Puget Sound Economic Forecaster calling for impressive growth of 2.3 percent in 2016. The Milken Institute recently released its 2015 Best-Performing Cities report, which listed Seattles greatest assets as its well-educated and highly skilled workforce, as well as the fact that high wages in tech industries support consumption-related jobs throughout the rest of the local economy. Due to those and several other factors, Seattle was ranked as the seventh best-performing large city in the U.S., an improvement of four spots from last years report. Leasing trends For the third consecutive year net absorption surpassed 2 million square feet, as nearly 2.5 million square feet were taken down in 2015. More than 7.1 million square feet have been absorbed since the beginning of 2013. As in previous years, the robust demand were seeing is driven primarily by the high-tech industry, which accounted for approximately 47 percent of all regional office leasing activity in 2015. No longer are tech companies looking exclusively for space in stereotypical creative submarkets such as Lake Union and Fremont. We have seen numerous tech tenants move into traditional high-rise buildings, including Groupon at 1201 Third, Uber at Second and Seneca, and PitchBook at 901 Fifth. With owners spending significant capital improving their buildings, it is no surprise that the trend of tech companies migrating to the CBD has intensified. These companies are finding not only the quality of space they desire, but also a level of amenities that only downtown can offer. Total vacancy in the Seattle metro area declined for the sixth consecutive year, dropping 50 basis points year-over-year to 10.2 percent, which is as low as the market has seen in the last 10 years. At 4.5 percentage points below the national average, the Seattle market is the sixth tightest office market in the country; behind Salt Lake City, Nashville, San Francisco, Portland and New York. Subsequently, average asking rents are up 7.5 percent year-over-year, and have hit a 10-year peak. Leasing market fundamentals will continue to improve with strong rent growth anticipated in the short and mid-term. Too much development? Seven major office projects were delivered last year totaling more than 2.2 million square feet. This makes 2015 the most active year for development since prior to the recession. With more than 5.9 million square feet under construction, Seattle is the second most active market in the U.S. for development as a percentage of existing inventory, behind only Nashville. While this is a substantial amount of construction, concern locally about overbuilding remains fairly low, since demand is as high as its been in recent memory. Were tracking more than 8.2 million square feet of tenant demand in the market. Fourteen companies are seeking space options of 100,000 square feet or larger, and there are just 10 existing blocks of space that can accommodate them. So, the supply coming to market in the next 24 months is needed. Flocking foreign investors In PWC and ULIs Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2016 report, Seattle was ranked as the strongest West Coast real estate market and fourth strongest overall in the U.S., up four spots from last years eighth place ranking. Additionally, Seattle was named the third best market in terms of investment potential and has surpassed San Francisco for the first time since 2010 to top the West Coast region. In total, the market saw 48 transactions over $10 million close, which makes 2015 the most active year for office investment sales since 2007. The $4.5 billion total volume represents a 157.8 percent increase over 2014. For the sixth consecutive year a new market-record for pricing was achieved, when 2201 Westlake traded for $792 per square foot. Four sales closed in 2015 where pricing exceeded $700 per square foot, and with how pricing has grown in the last five years, it is not unrealistic to imagine a $900 per square foot office sale occurring in Seattle in the near future. Perhaps the most notable sale of the year occurred in August, when Gaw Capital Partners acquired the 76-story Columbia Center for $711 million. This was the largest real estate transaction in the region since Amazon purchased its headquarters in 2012, and provided clear evidence of foreign investors interest in Seattle. The two largest office sales in the region this year Columbia Center and Amazon Phase VI were purchased by foreign investors, so it should come as no surprise that Seattle moved from eighth to fifth in terms of best U.S. cities for real estate investment in this years Foreign Investment Survey by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate. Foreign investors had increasingly been on bid lists for major assets in recent years, so 2015 was the natural progression of that trend, as efforts to enter the market became increasingly successful. As the market moves into 2016, strong landlord sentiment and expectations for robust demand will continue to fuel investor appetite for Seattles office assets. While it may be hard to match 2015s volume, we anticipate total office sales volume will exceed $3 billion and the market record for pricing per square foot will fall for the seventh consecutive year. Whats next for Seattle? Lake Union, Pioneer Square and the Seattle CBD are undeniably hot markets, but whats the next big thing in local real estate? We believe the answer is CHUG Capitol Hill, the University District and Georgetown. Like the acronym, these neighborhoods all have an association with beer, namely they brew it in Georgetown, they serve it at the countless bars in Capitol Hill, and they are major consumers in the University District. The other reasons these areas should heat up is because they have the young talent that employers seek, and all either have or will soon have great mass transit. Stuart Williams, a managing director at JLL with over 30 years of commercial real estate experience, specializes in investment sales and office leasing in Puget Sound. Alex Muir, a research manager at JLL, overseas office, industrial and retail research for Puget Sound. Other Stories: Fighting blight? Condemnation may be the way to go Neglected commercial properties generally pay less property tax, but demand more costly attention from government. By KINNON W. WILLIAMS Inslee, Best, Doezie & Ryder Williams Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once famously said, The right to swing my fist ends where the other mans nose begins. Likewise, a property owners right to manage their real estate as they see fit ends when it adversely affects neighboring businesses and community. The 2016 presidential campaign has brought renewed attention to eminent domain, most of it focused on alleged abuses of condemnation power to further private interests. Regardless of political rhetoric, governments right to take blighted commercial property is a last resort and strictly limited in most states, Washington included. Still eminent domain is, and will almost certainly remain, an important and legitimate method of controlling real estate blight. Neglected, vacant and abandoned commercial properties are more than an eyesore. Rat infestations, illegal drug trade, prostitution, arson, assault and even murder come with blighted properties. This kind of real estate generally pays less property tax but demands more costly attention from local government. In my law practice Ive witnessed the ill effects of blight. It can spread like a toxic plume, contaminating everything around it. Postcard image [enlarge] The city of Bellingham condemned the Aloha Hotel, where several rooms had been closed by health officials after hazardous levels of meth were found. Typically, property owners rely on government to make sure their neighbors do not damage local property values, public safety or general quality of life. Covenants, zoning, inspections and building code enforcement are common tools used by government. But what if those are not enough? Condemnation is not a cure-all for the highly complex and politically charged problems of urban blight. However, eminent domain can and does play an important role in protecting our communities. Goodbye Aloha Take for example the Aloha Motel, recently condemned by the city of Bellingham. Despite the citys best efforts, the Aloha a deteriorating 28-room, mom-and-pop style motel in the Samish neighborhood was a chaotic, revolving crime scene. According to court documents and media reports, between Jan. 1, 2013, and Oct. 1, 2014, police responded to 301 calls to the Aloha. Along with relatively run-of-the-mill drunken fights and sex traffic, one motel guest reportedly tried to plow people down in the parking lot with his minivan and another held a Yellow Cab driver at knife point while demanding money. Others at the Aloha sold heroin, crack and methamphetamine, even providing walk-up service at their motel room windows. At least 10 of the Alohas rooms were closed by county health officials after hazardous levels of meth were found; property owners refused to allow the remainder of the rooms to be tested. Drug overdose, armed robbery and assault calls were not unusual. A man found beaten unconscious at the motel later died in hospital. In yet another instance, police found a rotting body left in a room for six days with managements knowledge. Surrounding businesses complained of used needles, condoms and other garbage being dumped on their property. Worse, business owners said, Aloha guests repeatedly harassed and threatened customers, scaring off even longtime clientele. Said the owner of a nearby auto mechanic shop, Without customers, I cant operate a successful business all of the businesses on Samish Way are adversely impacted. Criminal activity at the Aloha Motel spilled onto the public sidewalks, threatening the safety of school children and their parents as they waited for the bus. After consulting with police, the Bellingham School District moved the bus stop. The city of Bellingham, with support from Whatcom County, repeatedly sought the cooperation of the Alohas managers and property owners but got nowhere, according to court documents. Finally, in October 2014, the city council officially declared the Aloha a blight on the community and directed staff to begin condemnation proceedings. 3 tests for blight The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution grants individual states the right to take private property for public use, with compensation. Common examples are road widening projects or utility corridors. Less common and more controversial is the use of eminent domain to combat blight. Under Washington state law, before any property can be condemned for creating blight it must meet certain tests. Specifically, Chapter 35.80A of the Revised Code of Washington requires government prove at least two of three conditions exist: 1. The property has not been lawfully occupied for a year or more. 2. The property constitutes a threat to public health, safety or welfare. 3. There has been illegal drug activity associated with the property in the 12 months prior to proposed condemnation. It is not enough for the property to be an eyesore, as shown by the case of the Aloha Motel. In February 2015, a Whatcom County Superior Court judge approved condemnation of the Aloha, giving the city of Bellingham the legal right to take the property under the public use and necessity requirements in state law. In July 2015, the city agreed to pay $1.58 million for the right to raze the motel. Eminent domain law requires property owners be compensated at fair market value, even blighted property. This is done with taxpayer dollars. Government can then keep or sell the property. If the property is sold, Washington law allows counties, cities and towns to restrict in perpetuity how the property is used to protect the communitys interest and prevent reoccurring blight. Just this month, the Bellingham City Council approved a plan by the Bellingham Housing Authority to build approximately 154 mixed-income apartments, offices and commercial spaces on the site of the former Aloha Motel. Phase one of the project calls for residential units to be built for homeless people with disabilities. Right to fight blight Ask any business owner whether they would prefer to operate in a safe and secure area or next to rundown buildings used for drug dealing and other illegal activities and the answer will be obvious. Businesses know the better managed the surrounding properties, the higher the property values are likely to be, which generally translates to better rents, better sales and a greater return on investment. The National Vacant Properties Campaign reports the cost of blight to local governments and taxpayers across the country to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Washington lawmakers who wrote, and later amended, this states eminent domain statute recognized that blighted properties strain the business community, destroy commercial centers and place economic and social costs on everyone. We should not be afraid of our government exercising eminent domain, but rather demand it use that power judiciously and responsibly for the good of our communities. Kinnon W. Williams is a partner in the Bellevue-based law firm Inslee, Best, Doezie & Ryder. His practice focuses on eminent domain. Other Stories: Survey: Low Income Housing Institute Image courtesy of Runberg Architecture Group [enlarge] LIHI wants to develop apartments on this site near Othello Station in south Seattle. Specialty: Nonprofit developer and manager of affordable housing; provides services to increase peoples self sufficiency Management: Sharon Lee, executive director; Lynne Behar, CFO; Robin Amadon, housing development director; John Syverson, facilities director Founded: 1991 Headquarters: Seattle Projects: Cheryl Chow Court, 50 affordable apartments for seniors near Ballard Library; August Wilson Place, 57 low-income apartments in downtown Bellevue; Gossett Place, 63 apartments for the homeless in Seattles University District Sharon Lee, LIHIs executive director, answered questions from the DJC about her organization and trends and issues in the industry. Q: How can we get more low-income/affordable housing in Seattle and Bellevue? A: On any given night there are 500 homeless families with children sleeping on the streets or in their cars. A few nights ago we moved a veteran family of six who had been living in their van into one of our three-bedroom apartments. They were lucky, but what about the rest? We need more apartments that rent from $200 to $600 per month to get homeless people off the streets. Even with a minimum-wage job you cant stop being homeless if theres only apartments renting for $1,800 per month. LIHI owns 1,800 low-income apartments, but we have to wait for someone to leave before we can move in a new family. It is outrageous for wealthy cities such as Seattle and Bellevue to have so many people who are homeless or at-risk of becoming so. Rents are out of control and as they go up homelessness increases. The January 2016 One Night Count showed 4,505 people sleeping unsheltered on the streets of King County a 19 percent increase from 2015. Mayor Murray proposed a larger Seattle Housing Levy for the ballot this fall. If it passes, it will help tremendously. We should also do what Portland did: tax Airbnb units and put the funds towards low-income housing. Also, Seattle and Bellevue should dedicate a portion of their general fund or issue bonds for affordable housing. We have 1 percent for the arts, but we dont even have 1 percent for housing. Q: Why arent more low-income housing developers building on the light rail line locally? A: LIHI plans to start construction in summer 2018 on two projects on land it recently bought near Othello Light Rail Station. One project called Othello Court will be at 7544 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. It will have about 150 apartments and retail. The other project will be at 7357 43rd Ave. S., across from Othello Park. It will have about 100 apartments. LIHI hopes to put a preschool on the first floor of that project, and include some apartments for immigrant families served by Refugee Womens Alliance. Runberg Architecture Group is designing the projects. We are purchasing a parcel at 8620 Nesbit Ave. N.E. on the Rapid Ride bus line in north Seattle near Greenwood. This is an up-and-coming area with new market-rate projects happening all around. When you build up, there are some great views of the downtown skyline. We acquired a terrific site at 1253 S. Jackson St. in Little Saigon, with the new First Hill Streetcar stop right in front. We like walkable neighborhoods with lots of amenities. We try to be near transit, parks, shopping and schools. Q: Is LIHI considering micro-unit projects? A: We are about to open a building in the University District near 50th and Roosevelt Way Northeast. We have 49 studios that average 350 square feet. We figure it is better to include a bathroom and kitchen in each unit. We also have lots of shared common space, including a community kitchen. One floor is for homeless young adults and two floors are for low-wage workers. The new home of the University District Food Bank is on the first floor, and we will have a wonderful green roof with vegetables and herbs. Q: Does LIHI have projects for suburban King County? A: We are proposing to construct an attractive new apartment building in downtown Renton for low-income households. We will set aside some apartments for homeless families with children and also for veterans. South King County is showing a significant increase in the numbers of homeless people. We would love to bring more affordable housing online in Bellevue and the Eastside. It is difficult to develop housing in King County outside of Seattle. In Seattle, we have the voter-approved Housing Levy. We also have Mayor Murray and the Seattle City Council jumping up and down on various housing solutions. But outside Seattle, King County and the suburban cities provide little money for low-income housing. Unfortunately even the wealthy cities, such as Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah and Kirkland, have not prioritized investments in affordable housing. This is sad as the people cleaning office buildings, serving food, working in child care and staffing hotels cannot afford the ever-rising market rents and must move or commute long distances. What would it take to get elected officials in the suburbs to give a damn about affordable housing? Q: Will we see high-rise low-income projects, given the increasing cost of land? A: Of course high-rise concrete and steel construction will cost more than the wood-frame buildings we typically develop. Yes it is time to build high-rises that serve low-income people. I just toured a low-income tax credit financed tower in Honolulu, where land costs are at a premium. This high-rise was made possible because public land was conveyed at nominal cost. I think it was $1. And it is right next door to transit. Portland has some nice examples of mid-rise buildings that are affordable. I hope we can get access to low-cost city, county or state land, especially around transit stations. The expensive per unit cost of mid- and high-rise construction can be partially offset by having public land which is donated. Q: What are the biggest issues in your industry? A: Nonprofit housing organizations serve people the market does not serve. Nobody else is going to deliver apartments that rent for hundreds of dollars below market. Sometimes we get a bad rap because we have to follow strict government wage rate requirements, green building practices, and our cost per unit is typically higher than the private sector. But if a city wants a healthy mix of incomes and we want vulnerable people cared for (and not on the streets), it is important to invest resources so that nonprofits can double or triple their production of affordable housing. At the state level, we have over 35,000 homeless school-age children. What kind of future do they have? We need our state legislators to increase the Washington Housing Trust Fund to $300 million per biennium. Other Stories: Speech of Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu introducing the Railway Budget for 2016-17 on 25th of February, 2016 Madam Speaker, 1. I rise to present before this August House the Statement of Estimated Receipts and Expenditure for 2016-17 for Indian Railways. 2. Let me begin with a couple of personal experiences. As the Railway Minister of India, I visit a number of places and meet a large number of people from all walks of life. On one visit to Mumbai Central station, I was pleasantly surprised to find a group of women engaged in cleaning. The station looked very clean. On seeing me, a lady came and thanked me for allowing her NGO to adopt the station. For the last five months she had been volunteering a day every month at the station. She said that she felt very happy to be contributing her little bit to this national cause. 3. In another incident, Alok Tiwari, an inspector in the Railway Protection Force, recently deputed to the social media cell of the Railway Board, shared his sentiments. He is responsible for taking action on passengers' requests for help on social media. He said that for the first time in his professional career, he has realised how his little actions were making a huge difference in passengers' lives. He felt enthused and proud to be part of Indian Railways. 4. Madam Speaker, it is people like these who are the soul of India and Indian Railways, and that is why this is not my Budget alone. This is a Budget which reflects the aspirations of each and every member of the Railway family; a Budget that reflects the aspirations of the common citizens of India...(Read more) Presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17 in Parliament today railway minister Suresh Prabhu said that two new corridors are planned for Mumbai suburban network, covering both Central and Western suburban lines, viz, Churchgate-Virar and CSTM-Panvel. The two corridors will be elevated and will greatly help in reducing congestion in suburban trains, the minister said. The CSTM-Panvel corridor will be integrated with metro lines for connecting Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport. He said all low level platforms in Mumbai suburban stations will be raised in the ensuing financial year to address safety concerns. Prabhu also said that the ongoing Metro works in Kolkata of around 100 km which when completed would quadruple the installed capacity. He was happy to announce that Phase I of East West corridor of Kolkata Metro would be completed by June 2018. The minister proposed to review the Ring Railway system in Delhi, comprising 21 stations in partnership with the state government. He suggested a new investment framework in which Indian Railways would share equity contribution with the state governments to ensure cost neutrality on operations. Prabhu proposed to develop suburban systems of Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Chennai by deploying innovative financing mechanisms. He said that Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram warrants a comprehensive suburban system. He also appealed to the state governments to work towards staggering of office timings to reduce peak load on suburban traffic. Tesla, GM fight heats up over `GM-backed' Indiana sales bill Tesla Motors Inc, which has long fought auto dealers over its practice of selling cars directly to consumers, has accused General Motors Co of being the prime mover behind a bill that sought to throw Tesla out of Indiana. Tesla has a licence for making direct sales to consumers in Indiana, and had operated a store in Indianapolis for two years. Indiana state representative Kevin Mahan had introduced a bill providing for the expiry of a dealer licence issued to a manufacturer after 30 months and which also carried the possibility of it not being renewed. Tesla would need to find franchised dealers to sell in the state after 30 months. The legislative battle comes as both companies prepare for a direct competition to sell lower-priced electric cars aimed at the mass market next year. The proposal which had been dubbed the ''Kill Tesla'' was specific to manufacturers of all-electric vehicles. ''I want Tesla here,'' Mahan said at a 27 January hearing of the Indiana House Roads and Transport Committee. ''But they need to have a dealership. This bill gives them 2-1/2 years to put a dealership system in place.'' GM has been publicly accused of being behind the legislation and writing of the bill for Mahan. According to Tesla, GM, which testified in a public hearing on 27 January to support the amendment, was behind the push. GM had been intensifying its efforts to block Tesla from operating company-owned stores instead of relying on independent dealers. GM had also supported a Michigan law passed in 2014 that barred Tesla from operating in the state. "GM believes that all industry participants should operate under the same rules and requirements on fundamental issues that govern how we sell, service and market our products,'' the report quoted GM spokesman Chris Meagher as stating in an email. ''This is nothing more than a protectionist effort by General Motors,'' Diarmuid O'Connell, Tesla's vice president of business development, said at the 27 January hearing. ''General Motors made a decision in the early part of the last century about their business model. I see no reason why, under general free-market principles, Tesla shouldn't have that same right.'' Indian solar power norms discriminatory: WTO In a setback to India's ambitious solar power programme, a World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute settlement panel has ruled in favour of the US, which had challenged New Delhi's alleged discrimination against US solar exports. The panel agreed with the US that India's "localisation" rules discriminated against imported solar cells and modules under India's National Solar Mission, according to an official news release citing US Trade Representative Michael Froman. India's domestic content requirements, the WTO agreed, is in breach of international trade rules as it discriminatea against US solar cells and modules by requiring solar power developers to use Indian-manufactured cells and modules rather than US or other imported solar technology. The panel rejected India's defence arguments and determined that India's local content requirements are inconsistent with the national treatment obligations in Article 2.1 of the Agreement on Trade-related Investment Measures (TRIMs Agreement) and Article III:4 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994. The USTR called it "an important outcome, not just as it applies to this case, but also as other countries consider localisation policies". Froman said it initiated this dispute in February 2013 because it considered that India's domestic content requirements are inconsistent with WTO rules that prohibit discrimination against imported products. The US, it said, has consistently made the case that India can achieve its clean energy goals faster and more cost-effectively by allowing solar technologies to be imported from the US and other solar producers. "Today, the WTO panel agreed with the United States that India's 'localisation' measures discriminate against US manufacturers and are against WTO rules," Froman said. The US and India "are strong supporters of the multilateral, rules-based trading system and take our WTO obligations seriously", he said. "This is an important outcome, not just as it applies to this case, but for the message it sends to other countries considering discriminatory 'localisation' policies." "The United States strongly supports the rapid deployment of solar energy around the world - including in India," Froman said. "But discriminatory policies in the clean energy space in fact undermine our efforts to promote clean energy by requiring the use of more expensive and less efficient equipment, raising the cost of generating clean energy and making it more difficult for clean energy sources to be competitive," he said. The US had challenged the government of India's imposition of domestic content requirements for solar cells and modules under India's National Solar Mission. (Also see: Sierra Club blasts anti-India WTO ruling on solar power and US wins WTO ruling against India in solar panel dispute ) A woman whose car was damaged in the accident that killed eight men in Donegal six years ago should not have any liability or blame apportioned to her, the inquest into the accident has been told. Anne McGilloway, 62, whose car was damaged close to the scene of the crash near Clonmany in July 2010 has been called as a witness to the inquest in Buncrana. A solicitor representing her today called for the inquest to be dissolved amid heated legal exchanges with the solicitor representing the man who has been jailed for causing the deaths by dangerous driving. Shaun Kelly, 27, of Ballymagan, Buncrana pleaded guilty and was jailed for eight years with the final four suspended for causing the deaths of the eight men in the collision at Glassmullan on the R238 between Buncrana and Clonmany on July 11th 2010. Solicitor Frank Dorrian for Mrs McGilloway said he would not allow some allegation, some unfounded attack to be sprung upon his client at the inquest. He said that any attempt to apportion liability or blame to anyone except who has pleaded guilty to the accident is is an unjust attack on a citizen. Mr Dorrian was responding to the assertion by solicitor Ciaran MacLochlainn that Mr Kelly had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death but he did not plead guilty to causing the accident. Coroner John Madden said he would not be dissolving the inquest. He told the jury that the coroners court is not a criminal court or a court of appeal. He refused this morning to accept an engineers report submitted by Mr Kellys legal team yesterday, saying it would imply guilt and we cannot do that. The inquest continues. Photo: The silver Renault that was damaged close to the scene of the tragic crash. A man charged with breaking stained glass windows and doors at a parochial house, told Ballyshannon Court last Friday that he is Gods slave and messenger. Stephen Clarke (46) of Glen Easton Close, Leixlip, Co. Kildare is charged with trespass and causing 2,5000 worth of criminal damage at the Parochial house, St Patrick's,, Ballyshannon on July 19 last. He is also charged with being drunk in public and using threatening or abusive words or behaviour at Main Street, Bundoran on July 18 last. Representing himself, he said, This court sits in a maritime jurisdiction, I am lost at sea. We are all lost at sea. Garda Kevin Garvin gave evidence that at 5.40pm on July 18, he was on duty at Bundoran Garda Station when a pub owner reported a male was acting in a disorderly manner. When they asked him to leave, he became abusive and when Garda Garvin asked him to leave, the man, Stephen Clarke, became abusive to him. Gda Garvin arrested and cautioned Mr Clarke, to which the defendant replied, Balls. Mr Clarke, Gda Gavin continued, then went off on a rant which he did not have time to record. At 5am the next morning, gardai received a call from Fr Cathal OFearrai saying that someone was smashing windows at the parochial house. Mr Clarke explained that he did this because, The Catholic Church is corrupt. I need somebody to enter the church and question them. In addition, When my the kids were taken away from me, I called on motu proprio (a term in church law relating to a papal edict) and I was told I could only use that in criminal court, so I had to get arrested. He implored the court to listen to him. When men of religious knowledge speak to me, they realise I am highly enlightened. Enda Kenny is aware of me. Judge Kilrane asked him, What did Enda Kenny promise to do for you? Mr Clarke replied, I met him in 2010 before the revelations came to me. I had a programme to create 20,000 jobs year in Ireland. He continued, This is crazy what we're going to each other: we're polluting our water, 25% of our sperm count is down because of wi-fi, and we can't pay back our debt. I'm only looking for the chance to meet with these men and explain to them that we're on the wrong track, to give them the chance to turn it around before God comes to take his vengeance. We're talking about 7 billion lives. As the case continued, he told the court, This is all trickery, dodgery, you'll be in Hell. You're ignoring it, you're following a path of destruction. He repeatedly asked Inspector Denis Joyce and Judge Kilrane are you really that thick? and he quoted scripture that the proofs were laid before them but there was a veil before their eyes and they could not see. He was remanded on continuing bail to Donegal Circuit Court on April 6 for the charges relating to the incident at the parochial house. Judge Kilrane found the facts proved in the Bundoran public order case and gave him the benefit of the Probation Act in respect of both charges. The chief executive officer of Pieta House was in Donegal on Friday to affirm the organisations commitment to providing services for Donegal and the north west. We are still 100 per cent committed to establishing Pieta House services in the north west, Brian Higgins, CEO of Pieta House, said. Danny Devlin of Action for Hope, the group raising funds locally for the north-west service, called the announcement, "very positive news for the people of the north west. Mr. Higgins said the support Pieta House has received from Donegal and Action for Hope has been huge. Pieta House provides free services for the prevention of self-harm or suicide. Since opening its doors 10 years ago, the organisation has opened nine centres around the country. In recent years, Donegal communities have hosted Darkness Into Light sunrise fundraising walks/runs to raise money for Pieta House. Mr. Higgins said Pieta House this year will roll out its resilience programme in Donegal, which works with people to build their strength and resilience. The CEO said the organisations therapy services bring people from a place of crisis to a place of calm. The resilience programme is designed to reach people before they are in crisis, he said. He said Pieta House plans to open a centre to serve the north west next year at a location to be determined. Mr. Higgins said they will be looking for a central, accessible site, and said the centre could be located in Donegal. Mr. Higgins also thanked the Donegal committee and county fundraisers for their work and support. Action for Hope raises awareness and promotes funding for establishment of a Pieta House in the north west, and Mr. Devlin said there is a ring-fenced bank account to fund the north-west service. There is also information on fundraising at the Action for Hope Facebook page. He said Donegal people have not had easy access to the facilities of Pieta House, whose closest centres to Donegal are in Galway and Dublin. There are no borders in relation to the service, Mr. Devlin said. It is open to everyone, far and wide. So Pieta now have informed us that they intend to start a therapeutical service in 2017, which is just next year, Mr. Devlin said. Im absolutely delighted with the announcement. It costs about 350,000 to run a Pieta House centre for a year, but Mr. Higgins said the onus for funding a north-west centre would not fall solely on Donegal. Two Donegal islands will join five Donegal communities this year in taking part in the Darkness Into Light fundraiser to benefit Pieta House. Darkness Into Light, the sunrise fund-raising walk/run to benefit Pieta House, will return to Letterkenny, Maghery, Donegal town and Falcarragh this year and also will come to Buncrana, Tory Island and Arranmore Island for the first time. The 5km Darkness Into Light walk/run will be held this year on Saturday, May 7th, starting at 4.15am. There will be a launch for all Donegal Darkness Into Light 2016 events at 8pm, March 4th, at the Station House Hotel in Letterkenny. Last year, more than 3,800 walkers and runners took part in Darkness Into Light in Donegal. Overall, about 100,000 people were said to have taken part in Darkness Into Light events held at 80 locations in Ireland and around the world in 2015. Donegal people are also involved in other events this year to raise money for Pieta House. For example, Declan Gallen of Letterkenny is one of a number of people who will embark next month on a 5,600-kilometre round trip from Galway to Norway in Land Rovers to benefit Pieta House. The group has set a goal of raising 20,000 for Pieta House, a national charity that works to prevent self-harm or suicide. Over the past 10 years, Pieta House has grown to almost 180 therapists and staff. Last year, more than 5,000 came through the doors of Pieta House suffering from suicidal ideation or engaging in self-harm. All Pieta House services are provided free, and 90 per cent of the organisations income comes from fund-raising events. For more information, each of this years Darkness Into Light events in Donegal has its own Facebook page. Primary school teachers across Donegal and Leitrim branches of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) are being asked to support industrial action, beginning with withdrawal of cooperation for the new model of inspection, School Self Evaluation. The INTO are balloting all members nationally for industrial action on the loss of of close to 4,000 management posts over the past five years and the resulting increase in workload. Voting will take place in member branches next week. "These posts of responsibility are the only way in which primary school teachers can get a promotion and gain the necessary experience to become a Principal Teacher," said Aine McGinley. "It is an unfortunate that the moratorium on posts was lifted in the public sector, however teachers still face this ban on promotion. The work has been carried out by teachers already under the pressure of an increasing workload, but now we are seeking to take action that will allow us equal opportunities with our public sector colleagues." X The average price of a litre of petrol has slipped to 121.9c, a 5 cent drop in comparison to last month according to the AAs National Fuel Price Index. Diesel prices have also tumbled, dropping by a further 7 cent to 105.4c. According to The AA, motorists will continue to see pump prices trend downwards in 2016 with the energy commodity heading towards its lowest mark since 2009. The month of December during that year saw motorists hand over 122.4c per litre of petrol, while diesel has not been this cheap since October 2009 when it clocked in at 105.3. These are chunky falls this month which is obviously good for us as drivers," says Director of Consumer Affairs Conor Faughnan. We dont know when we are going to run out of road in terms of price falls but for now oil remains fairly weak on international markets. As we emerge from winter in the northern hemisphere we tend to see Diesel drop in price relatively, so it's not a huge surprise to see that seasonal trend emerge. Diesel is very similar to heating oil so demand falls a bit in the spring. Oil prices have seen a dramatic fall since the middle of last year when it was holding above US$100 per barrel. The price for a barrel of crude oil slipped to US$27 last month the lowest in 23 years in a sign that pump prices will continue to fall in the short term. Compounding this is scepticism surrounding a possible production freeze between global oil producers, with Iran recently voicing their disapproval of the proposal. The price of petrol has declined 20 percent since February 2014. Diesel has dropped by 28 percent within the same time frame. We cant do a lot about world prices, we just have to take the rough with the smooth," says Conor. We do control our own taxes, though. A litre of either fuel actually only costs 30-40 cent. The reason why we pay so much at the pumps is Irish tax. This is a point that the AA expects to be making to the incoming government in the near future. Hi guys! Today I have my own homemade version of the Panera Quinoa Lentil broth bowl, aka soup. I dont know why they call it a broth bowl? Its just soup right? But they also have soup, so. Does it make it sound fancier? I guess if its fancy sounding you can charge $8 for a bowl? Anywho, call it a broth bowl, or soup, but my version will cost way less than $8, is vegetarian, and it tastes even better! I dont know about you guys, but I have been really trying to get my lazy butt to be more active lately. I started off the new year with a cold, and then pulled a muscle in my back, then HAD to watch too much netflix when it was rainy, and Im really good at coming up with excuses. The crazy thing is, when I do get into a good routine with my daily exercise, I feel so much better!! I even look forward to it. It really only takes a week or so of doing it routinely every day before I really get happy about it. I think I am getting better at having more good habits and less bad habits, and I think routine is key. What about you guys? Do you have to set a good routine to help you create healthy habits? How come the bad habits come so easily? I dont have to try at all to routinely do them! This Quinoa Lentil bowl starts with a simple miso broth. The combination of the delicious slightly puffy little quinoa grains, and the al dente lentils is really where its at here. The miso broth is super simple, made with just miso paste and water. This soup has its veggies too! Its loaded with tomatoes, spinach, carrots, and kale. Complete the whole thing with a squeeze of lemon, which really takes this soup from awesome to Oh yeah! You know what I mean. I used this kind of miso paste. You can use any kind you like, just follow the directions for the one you have. You may not need as much. The quinoa and lentils that I used take the same amount of time to cook, so I cooked them together. This soup is going to be all kinds of healthy for that body of yours, and its going to knock your socks off in the taste bud department. I really hope you like it! Make it, eat it, enjoy! Print Recipe Quinoa Lentil Broth Bowl Quinoa Lentil Broth Bowl Recipe that is full of good healthy veggies and grains! Prep Time 5 mins Cook Time 20 mins Total Time 25 mins Servings: 4 Author: Dora Daily Ingredients 1/2 Cup Quinoa 1/2 Cup Red Lentils 3 Cups Water 1 Cup Chopped Carrots 1 Cup Spinach Leaves 1 Cup Kale Leaves 2 Cloves Garlic Minced 1 15 oz Can Diced Tomatoes 1 Lemon 4 Tbs Fresh Green Onions for topping 4 Tbs Red Miso Paste 3 Cups Water Instructions Place quinoa and lentils in a pot with 3 cups water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until lentils are al dente. You want them cooked, but not mushy. In a medium sized pot, saute garlic, carrots, and canned tomatoes for 2 minutes. Add 3 cups water and bring to a simmer. Cook until carrots are tender. Turn off heat and whisk in miso paste. Add cooked quinoa and lentils. Add spinach and kale. Stir to combine until greens have wilted. Bring soup back up to a simmer if needed. Squeeze in half the lemon. Serve topped with green onions and slices of lemon. If you make this recipe, take a picture and tag it #dorasdailydish on Instagram! Id love to see your creations! Quinoa Lentil Broth Bowl Save dpa ElectionsData With dpa ElectionsData you get access to a unique collection of data. Via a programming interface (Rest-API), your developers can access detailed information, candidate profiles and live results for all national elections in the European Union and important international elections, like the US Midterm elections etc. The data pool also includes all heads of state and government as well as about 20,000 elected members of parliament throughout the EU. In addition to their data (name, party, constituency or list position), we collect social media profiles and official websites of individuals and parties. Black Box to Red Carpet, are a new theatre company, created by emerging actors from all across the country, wishing to make their mark on the national stage. One of the actresses in the theatre company, Caroline Montgomery, is a native of Dundalk. She spoke to the Dundalk Democrat about her acting roots in Dundalk, the exciting new venture and about the groups new production. I used to be quite involved in drama growing up in Dundalk, begins Caroline. I used to do quite a lot at Blackrock Primary School; they were always having talent shows, public speaking and debates and I remember a group of us won an improvisation award at a feis in the Fairways Hotel in 1999. Patricia Reynolds used to teach speech and drama at the school back then, I'm not sure if she still does. So I guess that's when I first got into drama and what I'm doing now has followed on from that. Also my parents have done a lot of amateur drama in Dundalk so I sort of followed them. I took speech and drama outside school with Maura Baldwin. I was in Bernie Baldwin's Christmas Carol in 1997 as one of the Cratchet children and I've been in a few plays in The Town Hall since. As an adult I've been in some plays with local group Cuchulain Players in the Town Hall and The Spirit Store and I've had a couple of small chorus parts in SONG's productions, Oliver and Pirate Queen. Basically a group of us had just completed a One Year Performance course in The Gaiety School of Acting. Two of us, myself and another girl, Nessa O'Donnellan, decided to start up our own group so as we could create our own acting opportunities rather than waiting for them to come to us. We gathered a group of people who had done the course with us and we all worked on setting it up together. Since then we have taken on some new members from outside of the original "Performance Class" group, it has expanded beyond that now. Some of us hope to pursue acting professionally and are using this experience as a step towards that goal. Some of us are just there to enjoy acting as a hobby. It's a mix of ages from 20s to 40s and over. We also have a few nationalities in the group so we're a mixed bag. We hope to create a new collaborative style of theatre company where there's something for everyone. We're a hands on group and all of us have been actively involved in all aspects of putting the play together such as organising a rehearsal space, sourcing and buying props and costumes, publicising the event, stage management and so on. The Play 'Death in High Heels' will be directed by John Delaney. The play is based on the novel, written by the British author Christianna Brand, the first in her 'Inspector Charlesworth' series. The play's setting is 'Christophe et Cie', a small couture house off Regent Street, London. After guests to the house have a lunch of rabbit curry, things take a dramatic turn, one of them has been poisoned. The play's main characters, Inspector Charlesworth and Sergeant Wyler, have a murder enquiry on their hands. Behind the glamour and gossip of a 1930s, secrets, lies and treachery rum amok. Caroline discussed the process of choosing the play. We read through a lot of plays before choosing this one. We started by getting together for table readings where each of us would take in some scripts of plays that we liked. We chose a selection of plays, divided them up between the group, read them and then gave a little report on why we liked a play or thought it would be suitable for our group to put on. Factors that restricted us were issues such as availability of copyright and cast availability; for example we had more women in the group than men when we started so we were looking at plays with good female characters. We chose 'Death in High Heels' because we found the characters in the story were layered and engaging, we liked the style of the Art-Deco era and the chance to do a detective mystery. The play has 10 characters allowing us to give a part to as many in the group as possible and it has a good balance of male and female parts to suit our group. It is our hope that we might write some of our own material for future productions, but we chose to put on an existing play for our first production just to get ourselves off the ground, gain some experience in producing a play and see where we go from there. Most of us have previous acting experience from having taken a course or having previously done some amateur drama, however organising the production, from choosing a play, hiring a director, sourcing a set designer and sound engineer, holding auditions, publicity and finding the venue were new areas for most of us and this is where we've really learned a lot. We've received a very positive response from everyone we've told so far, colleagues at work, friends from other drama groups or societies that some of us are involved in have been very encouraging and supportive. We also launched a Crowd Funding campaign on Fundit.ie and successfully reached our target. The money will go to set design, venue hire etc. We also sold some tickets this way. They are set to make their theatrical debut from Wednesday 24th Saturday 27th of February in the Bello Bar, Portabello, Dublin, where they'll perform 'Death in High Heels' a play which was adapted by one of Britain's most renowned TV-writers/playwrights Richard Harris (The Sweeney, The Avengers), not to be to be confused with the late-great Irish acting legend of the same name. Ireland is fast becoming one of the leading countries in theatre. Theatrical groups such as Black Box to Red Carpet keep the art alive. Tickets for 'Death in High Heels' cost 10 and can be bought on www.eventbright.ie. The IMRO 'Music Venue of The Year' awards have hailed The Spirit Store on George's Quay as the best live venue in the 'rest of Leinster'. This is the second time the venue has picked up a prestigious IMRO Award. In 2011, they picked up the award for 'Best Live Venue' . In a week when Tommy Tiernan proclaimed from stage, that the Spirit Store is "what every venue should be like", the quayside business won the Best Venue in Leinster Award at the IMRO ,(Irish Music Rights Organisation) awards ceremony in Dublin last Tuesday night last. Collecting the Award on the night were Derek Turner, Alan Anderson and Brian Loughran. The Spirit Store was nominated alongside Sky and the Ground, Wexford Cleeres, Kilkenny, The Set Theatre, Kilkenny and Wexford Arts Centre, Cornmarket, Wexford. IMRO's function is to collect and distribute royalties arising from the public performance of copyright works. IMRO is a not-for-profit organisation. The award is testament to The Spirit Store's popularity throughout the town, This dedication reached a global stage back in 2010, when Theguaridan.com included The Spirit Store as one of the best small music-venues in the world. Owner Mark Dearey was keen to praise the staff for being awarded the title. "This is a tribute to my staff,and I want to thank Brian, Alan and Derek in particular for sticking with a vision for the business during the really rough times. To our customers and gig goers, who keep music and comedy live in Dundalk , a huge thank you!" The Sodexo catering team at PayPal Dundalk were one of the four outstanding examples of dedication and commitment to responsible working practices celebrated at their companys Corporate Responsibility Awards, presented to individuals or teams for their efforts in the four categories Employer; Community; Environment; Nutrition, Health & Wellness. The Employer Award is given to an individual or group who have taken action to develop employees, foster diversity and inclusion, support human rights and support the companys health and safety performance. Shirley Collins, general services manager at PayPal in Dundalk linked up with the Community Rehab Care Centre in Dundalk to develop an ongoing place and train work programme. It runs for 12 weeks and employs two individuals with special needs at the one time. It covers induction, training, health and safety as well as other day to day life skills. At the end, the participants are presented with a Certificate of Completion, a very favourable boost to their CV in looking for work. It has been a great success with three former participants now in full time employment. Commenting on her win, Shirley Collins said: I would recommend and encourage any company to get on board as it has enriched the experience of our own staff. I think it is really important that people with disabilities are afforded the same opportunities as everyone else The other winners were Steven White, business development manager in the Dublin office for Community; The facilities team at the Portlaoise Schools Campus for Environment and Allstate in Belfast for Health and Wellness. The manager and teams at GSK OC Dungarvan and the Central Bank of Ireland were highly commended in the Employer and Environment Awards respectively. Commenting on the winners, Margot Slattery, country president, Sodexo Ireland, said: The judges were so impressed at the enormously practical and tangible achievements of the winners. They have made real differences in their working environment which have been acknowledged and appreciated not only by their fellow workers but by their clients too. My thanks to client relationship manager Tom Stack and corporate responsibility manager Edwina Hughes for all their hard work in co-ordinating the Awards. Sodexo Ireland, part of the global Sodexo Group the worlds largest services company, delivers services that improve the quality of life to clients in business and industry, education, financial and healthcare. It employs approximately 2,000 staff in 200 locations across Ireland, serves 90,000 people daily and spends almost 19 million annually on local Irish food. Join me as I attempt to watch 2,500 movies on DVD and Blu-Ray, including films from all around the world and spanning as many genres as I can muster. Check back often...new movies are posted daily! I can die now. Seeing Madonna in Manila live was one of the amazing things that happened in my life. Ive been wishing and praying and hoping for her to come in the Philippines for the longest time I could remember. I grew up with Madonnas songs, she was literally at every decade of my life. Madonna is the Pop Icon, Queen of Pop that every girl in my time look up to because she embodies an empowered woman, who goes for what she wants, doesnt take bull, say what she feels and express herself very well. While some moral religious standards may not agree to the way she lived her life or how provocative her music videos and kinda rated r18 her use of language sometimes , but shes been in the industry for 3 decades 32 years in the music industry is not a joke! Nobody could beat her staying power, how she can reinvent herself but maintain her brand through the years is just amazing. Madonna is the woman, every woman like me can relate to. Shes been through a rough teenage/ adolescent life, became rebelious, and then eventually fell inlove, got married, divorced, then married again and then found herself after being broken and become a devout mother. B*tch shes Madonna, whatever you say, whatever you think, Millenials might not be able to relate to her but to me and the people of my time (generation x and y I think) is so very ecstatic to have seen her live and alive and still got her grooves on! It was funny at the concert, I was noticing the age of the people who were there. It was 30 and above. Madonna is 57! Madonna came down in a cage from the roof of the stage with the first song Iconic from here Rebel Heart Album! The audience roared with excitement! OMG! MADONNA IS HERE! Screaaaaammmmmm! I even heared a male audience shout, Madonna, I love you! You are my first love! A lady at the washroom said after somebody announced the concert will be delayed for 30 minutes. We waited for 30 years whats 30 minutes! A gay guy at the VIP lounge said I wont miss it for world, damn shes Madonna! Shes MADONNA! and got an Amen among the audience, including me. At the concert, after 8 songs, Madonna finally spoke. Kamusta Kayo! Are you happy that I am here? The audience roared with a resounding yes! That sounded very happy! Our word for the day from her is Fuck Yeah! Madonna said this is her expression and she uses it everytime she is inspired or gets an inspiration. So she asked the audience that everytime she ask a question and the answer is yes, we should answer back with Fuck Yeah! (You can watchin this 3 minute speach at my video uploading at my YouTube Channel). You didnt think I cam here to sing just nothing more than 5 songs ? I came here to shut this city down! Bang Bang! Madonna yelled! The production was incredible. Her crosslike stage with a heart at the end (it was acutally a sphere or a dagger with a heart at the end has two entrance and exits, one in the middle and at the end where the heart is. Dancers were impecable as well, especially the part with that bending pole, that was crazy ! The show ended around 12:30 or 12-45am and it was the most incredible might of my life and seriously I can die now as I have my wish granted. Whatever amazing things that will come my way after this is all but a generous bonus! I must have done something good in my life to deserve this, seriously. Thank you MMI for the concert tickets! All the people who are going to watch the second day of the Rebel Heart Tour Philippine Leg is up for some treat, she didnt sing Crazy For You on day 1 but she just might today. I wish you luck and I bet you will all have a fucking great time! Fuck Yeah! Thats Madonna! Meanwhile you can visit my Instagram @earthlingorgeous to see snippets of the Madonna Live in Manila Rebel Heart Tour Philippines Leg Day 1 while I wait for YouTube upload. Stay gorgeous everyone! Heres the video! The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday said it recently discovered and halted an automated bot attack on its electronic filing PIN application website. Identity thieves used malware in an attempt to generate E-file PINs for 464,000 Social Security numbers stolen from another source, the IRS said. The hackers succeeded in accessing an E-file PIN for 101,000 of those numbers. No personally identifiable information was compromised or disclosed by its systems, the IRS said. It will mail notifications to let affected taxpayers know that their personal information was used to access the IRS application. Coordinated Response IRS cybersecurity experts are assessing the incident, and the service is working closely with other agencies and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. It also is sharing information with its Security Summit state and industry partners. The attack was not related to a temporary outage of IRS processing systems that occurred in January, the IRS said. The announcement comes less than a week after the IRS website experienced brief system outages due to a hardware failure. The outages affected electronic return processing, as well as several other systems provided by the service. No Immunity Large commercial enterprises also can find themselves vulnerable when targeted by sophisticated cyberattacks, noted Eric Chiu, president of HyTrust. Both public and private sector organizations can host large amounts of personally identifiable information that hackers can monetize once stolen, he told the E-Commerce Times. The information they may possess about citizens, employees and veterans could make them a target not only for financial information theft, but also for theft of information that could be used for identity fraud, as well as for activities that could impact political and national defense operations. Taxpayers need to check financial statements to make sure their Social Security numbers have not been used to help an attacker engage in any fraudulent activity, or to lure the taxpayer into a scam, Chiu said. Beware of Phishing Exploits Another potential risk is that attackers may use stolen Social Security numbers to contact taxpayers directly and pretend that the communication is from a legitimate government organization. The IRS has heightened its usual warnings during tax season, emphasizing that it does not call taxpayers by telephone and cautioning that attackers may attempt to use deceptive means, including bogus email, to engage with taxpayers. The FBI last year launched an investigation into a massive attack on the IRS, which compromised personal data belonging to more than 100,000 taxpayers. The hackers accessed data they found through the Get Transcript application, which allows taxpayers to access prior-year tax transcripts and employer payment information. Although the federal government has taken steps to increase protection against illegal hacking activity, it lacks the proper incentives to take the steps necessary to protect itself against repeated incidents, suggested analyst Jeff Kagan. Since the IRS is a government agency and not a business, they have no competition, he told the E-Commerce Times. Users cannot just switch to an organization that is safer. Because of that, there must be a lower sense of urgency regarding this information. CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday brought Apples dispute with the FBI to the public. Cook penned an open letter explaining the companys resistance to a federal magistrates order to create software that would let authorities access data in an iPhone used by the shooters in last years San Bernardino terrorist attack. Carrying out the order could undermine the security of all iPhone users, Cook argued. The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand, he wrote. Apple has complied with the FBIs request for information regarding Syed Farooks iPhone, having provided all of the data in the companys possession, according to Cooks letter. The problem surrounds the FBIs request that Apple provide a back door to the iPhones encrypted data, something Cook said is too dangerous to create. Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software which does not exist today would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someones physical possession, Cook said. Even though the FBI promised that the custom software would be used only in the San Bernardino investigation, Apple is concerned that it might be leaked or used later. That could undermine encryption for millions of other users, according to the letter. Electronic Privacy One of the issues raised by the FBIs request concerns the publics expectation of privacy regarding data stored on a phone, which could include everything from bank account information to medical records. The stakes are high for companies that promise to protect their customers sensitive data. This is definitely a question of privacy, said Michael E. Dergosits, a partner in Dergosits & Noah. Already there are programs that run on our phones like Google Maps that ask for personal information like your location or current position, so right now theres a great sharing of personal private information on the phone amongst applications, he told TechNewsWorld. Presumably, the owner of the phone can change settings to block this transmission of information or install security software, Dergosits continued. Those kinds of issues are already prevalent. But I think what were talking about is balancing interests between personal and public safety and personal privacy whether the federal government or state and local law enforcement should be in a position to be able to demand access to those kinds of capabilities. The big issue here is the publics perception of whats private, he said. Right now, theres a high expectation of privacy regarding information stored on a persons cellphone. Thats not the case when it comes to other types of searches, such as airport scans or voluntary background checks. If you have a document on the front seat of your car when you get pulled over, you cant have an expectation of privacy because its in plain view. But if you have it an envelope in your trunk inside a piece of baggage, then it would seem that your expectation is that you wouldnt want it to be within plain view or where anyone could see, Dergosits explained. If youre randomly stopped, the law enforcement [official] has to have some sort of probable cause for opening up a closed container that might have something private in it, he said. If they dont have probable cause, then they have to get a warrant. The same goes for going to a venue like an airport or concert venue, or somewhere where youre subject to search. Thats your personal choice to submit to that search. Talking to the People Cooks tactic of publishing an open letter was a smart way to democratize the issue and communicate Apples message directly, sidestepping the media spin, suggested Burghardt Tenderich, associate director at the USC Center for Public Relations. The strategy is to create a grassroots feeling to this, he told TechNewsWorld. They want to take it away from a discussion between the CEO of the worlds second most valuable company and the FBI, and really take it to the people. Because this issue directly affects Apples customers, it makes sense for the company to talk to them directly, Tenderich reasoned. It also gives the company complete control of its message. I would say the intention is probably to prevent this from happening, because according to Tim Cook, they have good technical reasons to believe that this isnt in the best interest of the public, said Tenderich. Maybe its also a defense strategy in case they are forced to develop this software, he added. They can point to this letter to say look, we fought this battle on your behalf.' Apple did not respond to our request for further details. Operation Blockbuster, a coalition of security companies led byNovetta, on Wednesday published a report detailing the activities of the Lazarus Group, the organization responsible for the 2014 cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment. Researchers last week published detection signatures to the companies respective software in the hope of disrupting the groups activities. The coalitions response has heavily wounded the malware arsenal the attackers used but has not eliminated the threats worldwide, Operation Blockbuster said. Last year, researchers began identifying several malware hashes publicized by the security community following the Sony attack. From those hashes they established a baseline of the malware capabilities, common code and libraries used in the malware samples, according to the report. They used the fragments of code and library functions to detect additional malware samples. They used proprietary tools and Totem, an open source Novetta-developed framework for large-scale file analysis and triage. Refining that process led researchers to detect and analyze more than 45 distinct malware families related to the Sony malware, according to Brian Bartholomew, a researcher at coalition memberKaspersky Lab. I think we are definitely putting a dent in their operation. I dont think it is going to make them disappear, but it is definitely causing them some headaches, he told the E-Commerce Times. Other members of Operation Blockbuster include AlienVault, Invincea, PunchCyber, Symantec, ThreatConnect and Volexity. Measured Tactics The Lazarus Group has conducted multiple attacks over at least six years, the most-well-known being the attack against Sony. The group also is responsible for some 43 malware families, said Bartholomew. They moved the line in the sand. They are still out there and functioning, he said. The malware definitely poses a real threat all over the world, Bartholomew said. The attackers were not very selective about their targets, and they have played by a different set of rules. Still, the progress the coalition has made in countering the massive malware attacks is impressive, according to Andrew Ludwig, senior technical director at Novetta who led the report. The biggest change comes with the identification and analysis of such a vast array of unique malware tools and capabilities that are all interrelated, he told the E-Commerce Times. Ever Present Threat Hacking groups are spawning because hacking is effective in cybercrime and cyber espionage. Revelation of the activities conducted by the Lazarus Group is proof of the growing problem, according to Ben Johnson, chief security strategist atCarbon Black. The big reveal that the Lazarus Group exists does not increase or change the current state of the threat landscape. It underscores that there are many other groups like this one that are acting with the intent to exfiltrate valuable data from an organization, potentially pin their attack on another group or country and act in accordance with whatever code they have set forth, told the E-Commerce Times. The details the report provides does little to change the malware landscape, noted Jeff Reingold, co-founder ofPanurgy. All thats new are reported details of the multiyear efforts and investigation by Novetta and others to gain more detail into who was behind the Sony Pictures attack, the specific malware code and techniques used. While the results of the investigation may help make a dent in the possible further damage that could be done by Lazarus or others using those same malware tools, it does not change the landscape much regarding ongoing and future attacks aimed at data theft and/or destruction, he told the E-Commerce Times. What To Do About It A good defense and a strong offense are tactics to continue countering malware organizations. The Operation Blockbuster report suggests that the Lazarus Group is a formidable threat actor capable of causing reputational and operational harm, noted Norman Comstock, researcher for theBerkeley Research Group. It accomplishes this by exfiltrating and leaking data, impairing system availability or recoverability with great patience and obfuscation, he told the E-Commerce Times. A full-frontal counterattack across borders poses many risks, noted Nathan Wenzler, executive director of security atThycotic. Dealing with a politically volatile group makes it difficult for cyberattack victims to do anything directly without it being seen as an act of aggression or even an act of war, he told the E-Commerce Times. Barring that, however, there are many defensive measures that corporations and government agencies should be implementing in order to defeat the types of attacks coming out of this group, Wenzler said. Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center on Wednesday announced that it paid approximately US$17,000 to resume normal operations after digital extortionists knocked its computer systems offline. The Los Angeles hospital discovered its computer network infected with ransomware earlier this month. Ransomware is a form of malware that scrambles data and key files on a system and demands a ransom be paid for a digital key to unscramble the data. After paying a ransom of 40 bitcoins, or $17,000, to the extortionists, the hospital was able to bring its electronic medical record system online, HPMC said. Bitcoins are a digital currency favored by cybercriminals because, like cash, theyre difficult to trace. It is important to note that this incident did not affect the delivery and quality of the excellent patient care you expect and receive from Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. Patient care has not been compromised in any way, HPMC CEO Allen Stefanek noted. Further, we have no evidence at this time that any patient or employee information was subject to unauthorized access, he continued. Initial reports about the incident pegged the ransom at $3.4 million, or 9,000 bitcoins. Those reports were false, HPMC noted. No Honorable Thieves Paying ransom might embolden the perpetrators of ransomware, according to Rick Orloff, CSO ofCode42. Its analogous to why the government doesnt negotiate with hostage takers. It encourages hostage-taking, he told TechNewsWorld. If a ransom is paid, it should be done with caution, observed Lee Kim, director of privacy and security for theHealthcare Information and Management Systems Society. In the best-case scenario, you will get the decryption key, she told TechNewsWorld. Youll be up and running and back to normal, but even if that does happen, you really should have some forensics and malware experts in there to make sure that there isnt any other malware on your systems, Kim continued. Dont trust criminals to do the honorable thing and not drop additional malware, she said. To Pay or Not to Pay Ryan Kalember, senior vice president of cybersecurity strategy forProofpoint, strongly opposed paying ransoms. Even if the attackers keep their word and decrypt your data, there is no guarantee that they will not leave other forms of malware running on the system in order to carry out other crimes, like sending spam emails, launching DDoS attacks, and stealing personal or financial data for use in online fraud and identity theft, he told TechNewsWorld. Paying cybercriminals often funnels money to organized crime and terror groups and should be avoided as a rule to not perpetuate the cybercrime cycle, Kalember said. However, whether to pay ransom isnt a black-and-white proposition, said Scott Gainey, senior vice president forSentinelOne. Its not a yes or no answer. It depends on the systems that were affected, he told TechNewsWorld. Law enforcement has come out strong against paying the ransom for fear it will open up a Pandoras box, but in this case, patients were being diverted to other hospitals and it was severely affecting the hospitals business, so they may not have had a choice, Gainey said. Moreover, the cost of cleaning their environment could exceed the ransom that these guys are asking for, he added. Lesson Learned The scale of the attack was relatively minor. In the grand scheme of things, this attack is not a large one in terms of records breached, as only individual systems were infected with ransomware, Proofpoints Kalember noted. What makes it notable is that the attack affected systems involved in clinical care, he added. The incident also may change the thinking of healthcare security pros about their systems. People often think of healthcare security as preserving confidentiality of data, said Daniel W. Berger, president ofRedspin, an Auxilio company. Health organizations have to start considering the fact that the integrity of the data and the availability of the data is in many ways more important than confidentiality, he told TechNewsWorld, because you can have a situation like this where the hospital had to revert to a manual system to provide care because the data wasnt available. 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The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, who was seen as critical of the efficacy of Pope Francis and Russian Patriarch Kirill signing a joint statement, has clarified his comments saying the meeting was of historical importance. "I agree to call that meeting historical, as we need to meet in order to discuss and to carry forward our path to unity," Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, head of the Ukrainian church was quoted as saying on the church's website Feb. 25. However, he noted that "the meeting in Havana is just the beginning of the path." Patriarch Kirill is often seen having a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill met on Feb. 12 in a historic meeting, uniting to issue a global appeal for the protection of Christians under assault in the Middle East. Their meeting in Havana took place nearly 1,000 years after the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity split apart, and was the first between a Roman Catholic pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch. "We must not fix our attention on one only point. We must think what to do after. The first thing is to free religion from politics. "We cannot reconcile with geopolitics, but we can reconcile with our brothers," Shevchuk said. Archbishop Shevchuk is Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and a member of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is an Eastern Rite Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See. The church has followed the spread of the Ukrainian diaspora and now has some 40 hierarchs in over a dozen countries on four continents, including three other metropolitan bishops in Poland, the United States, and Canada. Shevchuk said on Feb.14, "Speaking of the signed text of the Joint Declaration, in general it is positive. "In it are raised questions, which are of concern to both Catholics and Orthodox, and it opens new perspectives for cooperation. I encourage all to look for these positive elements. "However, the points which concern Ukraine in general and specifically the UGCC raised more questions than answers," said the Ukrainian bishop. GREEK CATHOLICS URGER TOUGHER LINE ON RUSSIA Ukraine's Greek Catholic church has urged a tougher line on Russian aggression in his country both from Pope Francis and the international community. A year ago Shevchuk had criticized a statement from Francis, in which he called the conflict between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists "fratricidal," saying it was "particularly painful for all the people in Ukraine." Archbishop Shevchuk has headed the church since March 2011 and he will meet with the Pope on March 5, at the end of the Synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. On the church's website he described the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church as composed of two realms. On one side, it shares "the same liturgy, theology and also some history with Orthodox Churches, especially with the Patriarchate of Moscow." On the other, it is in full communion with the successor of Peter. Because of this identity "we have always been stigmatized by the Orthodox. But being in Communion with the Holy Father is pivotal to us," he said. According to Archbishop Shevchuk, "it is natural that nowadays being Catholic means being ecumenical," and the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church thus has a mission to promote Christian unity. Rio de Janeiro, Feb 25 (EFE).- Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said during her visit to Brazil that the Zika virus crisis will get worse before it gets better, but she ruled out the possibility that it poses a threat for the Olympics Games which Rio de Janeiro will host this August. "Things could get worse before it gets better. We should be prepared for surprises," said the health specialist in a press conference on Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro where she concluded her two-day visit to Brazil, the country most affected by Zika. Chan said that 40 countries have already registered indigenous cases of Zika and that this number is likely to increase. She warned that the number of cases of babies born with microcephaly in other countries is also expected to rise, as it is happening in Brazil, but she said that the link between the virus and the defect is not yet scientifically proven. But the specialist adds, "Zika is the most probable cause (for the increase in cases of microcephaly) until proven otherwise." As for the Olympic Games, she said that Brazil is doing important work together with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to reduce risks and ensure that the event is something "pleasant" for Brazilians, visitors and the athletes themselves. Chan applauds the efforts made by the Brazilian government to tackle the mosquito carrying the Zika virus. According to the WHO director, Brazil is the epicenter of this new epidemic which threatens the world, but the Brazilian government was able to respond appropriately. "The protocols, scientific knowledge and technologies developed by Brazil will serve as a guide for the rest of the world. What we have seen in Brazil is the best way to combat this problem," she said. Ely, Cambridgeshire is best known for its majestic cathedral dubbed the 'Ship of the Fens' because it dominates the flat landscape. The city, which is the second smallest in England, is about 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about 80 miles by road from London. 17:55, 17 OCT 2022 Court for Liverpool woman facing heroin charges Douglas Courthouse A Liverpool woman who's accused of importing heroin to the Isle of Man has been further remanded in prison. 40-year-old Sharon Kirk appeared at Douglas Courthouse earlier this week via live video link. The Norris Green woman is charged with production of the Class A substance and possession of it with intent to supply from February 17th. The court was told the alleged substances still need to be forensically tested - there was no application for bail and she was remanded until her next appearance on March 22nd. For example, my net salary( after all deduction)is 2000 CHF, I worked for three weeks plus two other days. For the three weeks, I had 5 working day and 2 days off as agreed, I did not ask extra off. How much salary I should get? Quote: doropfiz An employer is not allowed to touch an employee, physically, in a way that he or she does not want. This is not allowed between any two people in a work place, and not allowed between any two people anywhere (other than, perhaps, emergency rescue workers). I'm very sorry you had to go through that uncomfortable experience. If - apart from the fact of losing your job - you are feeling upset about the way he touched you, then you could go to the the one of the centres for advice of people who have been made victims: "Service d'aide aux victimes" in French, "Opferberatungsstelle" in German. http://www.sodk.ch/fileadmin/user_up...ellen_2011.pdf Scroll down in this list. Thanks! The body touch happened at the beginning, he stopped after I told him to even though he didn't stop talking. Now I am really angry about the reason they fire me. Just now, I asked some questions about salary calculating, because I think her way is not correct, and she said she was extremely sad that I am questioning this. What kind of person they are! If I feel something not clear or correct, I can not put forward my questions?! I can only accept what they said?! I think What they need is not an employer, is an follower without any questions. One more question about calculating salary.For example, my net salary( after all deduction)is 2000 CHF, I worked for three weeks plus two other days. For the three weeks, I had 5 working day and 2 days off as agreed, I did not ask extra off. How much salary I should get?Thanks! The body touch happened at the beginning, he stopped after I told him to even though he didn't stop talking. Now I am really angry about the reason they fire me. Just now, I asked some questions about salary calculating, because I think her way is not correct, and she said she was extremely sad that I am questioning this. What kind of person they are! If I feel something not clear or correct, I can not put forward my questions?! I can only accept what they said?! I think What they need is not an employer, is an follower without any questions. Last edited by 3Wishes; 25.02.2016 at 21:19 . Reason: merging consecutive replies Any South Africans here ? I am originally from South Africa and I am living in Switzerland. I have just returned from a perfect visit to Cape Town. I took my daughter to visit for the first time and it was just wonderful to relive my childhood experiences with her. Just simple things like looking in the rock pools, watching the many variety of wild animals crossing our path, watching the sunset, body boarding, building sand castles, hiking amongst the fynbos, climbing rocks, seeing elephants.. having a braai and chatting with the locals who always have a good story to tell.. the list is endless.. Anyway, I am now feeling quite homesick and I would love to meet some other South Africans in the Winterthur area. I look forward to hearing from you ! Cathryn Hi everyone!I am originally from South Africa and I am living in Switzerland. I have just returned from a perfect visit to Cape Town. I took my daughter to visit for the first time and it was just wonderful to relive my childhood experiences with her. Just simple things like looking in the rock pools, watching the many variety of wild animals crossing our path, watching the sunset, body boarding, building sand castles, hiking amongst the fynbos, climbing rocks, seeing elephants.. having a braai and chatting with the locals who always have a good story to tell.. the list is endless.. Anyway, I am now feeling quite homesick and I would love to meet some other South Africans in the Winterthur area. I look forward to hearing from you !Cathryn Re: Freiburg - Assistance for Flat renting Do you want to be in the city proper or would you prefer a more rural/village type setting? Look at these websites to see what's available in your price range. The language the advert is in will likely tell you which side of the river it is. www.immoscout24.ch www.immostreet.ch www.homegate.ch www.home.ch Could your new employer provide someone to help you? My husband's did when he first moved here. They arranged some viewings for him with various agents and also helped us with registration, etc. Alternatively, many rental agencies will have staff who speak English so try and arrange viewings with an English speaking staff member. Have you actually had confirmation that your permit has been approved? Permanent residency in an EU country doesn't give you the right to move here as an EU national could. You are considered as a non-EU national and as such your employment has to be approved by the Swiss authorities. " I am a citizen of a non-EU/EFTA state in possession of an unlimited residence permit valid for an EU/EFTA state. Do I need visa to work in Switzerland? Whether or not you possess a residence permit valid for an EU/EFTA state does not affect your status in Switzerland. You are subject to the same provisions on entry and work as people who enter Switzerland from a third state. As a rule, you will need to apply for an entry visa, which will be issued by the Swiss diplomatic representation abroad as soon as you have been granted a work permit." https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home...rbeit/faq.html https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home...zulassung.html It should say somewhere in your contract the equivalent of "subject to permit approval". You/your wife will also need to apply for Type D visas at the Swiss embassy/consulate in Sweden. David, understand that Fribourg is a bilingual canton and the city itself is bilingual so this may make a difference in where you look for a place to rent. One side of the river is French, the other German. You'll hear both languages being spoken in the city all the time.Do you want to be in the city proper or would you prefer a more rural/village type setting? Look at these websites to see what's available in your price range. The language the advert is in will likely tell you which side of the river it is.Could your new employer provide someone to help you? My husband's did when he first moved here. They arranged some viewings for him with various agents and also helped us with registration, etc. Alternatively, many rental agencies will have staff who speak English so try and arrange viewings with an English speaking staff member.Have you actually had confirmation that your permit has been approved? Permanent residency in an EU country doesn't give you the right to move here as an EU national could. You are considered as a non-EU national and as such your employment has to be approved by the Swiss authorities.Whether or not you possess a residence permit valid for an EU/EFTA state does not affect your status in Switzerland. You are subject to the same provisions on entry and work as people who enter Switzerland from a third state. As a rule, you will need to apply for an entry visa, which will be issued by the Swiss diplomatic representation abroad as soon as you have been granted a work permit."It should say somewhere in your contract the equivalent of "subject to permit approval". You/your wife will also need to apply for Type D visas at the Swiss embassy/consulate in Sweden. It looks like Kim Kardashian is about to pull the trigger on her marriage. Rumor has it that the reality television star is filing for divorce from Kanye West after only 21 months of marriage. What's more, sources say that she's already started the paper work and is no longer wearing her wedding ring, either. How Does Kris Jenner Feel About Kanye West's Alleged Massive Debt? According to Naughty Gossip on Wednesday, Kanye is about to have the meltdown of his life when he finds out that Kim is walking away from their marriage. The couple just welcomed their second child together, a son named Saint West and also have a 2-year-old daughter, North West. Still, Kim reportedly has had enough of Kanye's public meltdowns and his Twitter rants while many insiders are worried that his mental health is deteriorating. WATCH: Did Wendy Williams Go Too Far With This Jab Against The Kardashian Clan? In Touch Weekly says that Kim is absolutely mortified by his behavior and that's why she's getting out as fast as she can to not only protect herself, but their two children, too. "[Kim's] embarrassed to no end over his gargantuan ego and ridiculous tweets," the source says. "By the end of Fashion Week, she just wanted to crawl into a hole and hide." The magazine claims that Kim has "kicked out" Kanye . . . and has filed divorce papers against the rapper. Another source though says it hasn't happened just yet. So far, a rep for the Kardashian family hasn't commented on the divorce rumors. Stay tuned with Enstars for all the latest updates here. The attorney for Brendan Dassey, one of the subjects of Netflix's Making a Murderer, recently revealed why she believes his big confession was a false one. Why Steven Avery & Brendan Dassey Can't Watch 'Making a Murderer' In Prison Attorney Laura Nirider, who is Dassey's new attorney hoping to get him another trial, spoke at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minn. this week. Nirider vehemently stated that she does not believe Dassey's confession to the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach was true. "I believe Brendan Dassey's confession to rape and murder was false," Nirider stated, according to Fox 9 in Minnesota. Why 'Making a Murderer's Steven Avery Is 'Smiling' Amid New Investigation She went on to explain that false confessions from juveniles are typically due to the use of interrogation tactics meant for adults, not on juveniles. This, combined with an alleged lack of accurately assessing body language makes his confession more suspect than once thought. Nirider then discussed when investigators spoke with Dassey about Halbach being shot in the head, which had not been publicly revealed at that time. The attorney noted that this information was ultimately "contamination," since it made it unclear whether Dassey had truly known this before the investigators brought it up. Dassey remains in prison without the chance of parole until 2048, when he will be 58 years old. His uncle, Steven Avery (who was also charged with the murder), is not eligible for parole, but he does have a new attorney, Kathleen Zellner, hoping to exonerate him. Making a Murderer is currently available to stream in full on Netflix. Zuh? Paul Glimcher and Michael A. Livermore in the NY Times: THE United States government recently announced an $18.7 billion settlement of claims against the oil giant BP in connection with the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April 2010, which dumped millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Though some of the settlement funds are to compensate the region for economic harm, most will go to environmental restoration in affected states. Is BP getting off easy, or being unfairly penalized? This is not easy to answer. Assigning a monetary value to environmental harm is notoriously tricky. There is, after all, no market for intact ecosystems or endangered species. We dont reveal how much we value these things in a consumer context, as goods or services for which we will or wont pay a certain amount. Instead, we value them for their mere existence. And it is not obvious how to put a price tag on that. In an attempt to do so, economists and policy makers often rely on a technique called contingent valuation, which amounts to asking individuals survey questions about their willingness to pay to protect natural resources. The values generated by contingent valuation studies are frequently used to inform public policy and litigation. (If the government had gone to trial with BP, it most likely would have relied on such studies to argue for a large judgment against the company.) Contingent valuation has always aroused skepticism. Oil companies, unsurprisingly, have criticized the technique. But many economists have also been skeptical, worrying that hypothetical questions posed to ordinary citizens may not really capture their genuine sense of environmental value. Even the Obama administration seems to discount contingent valuation, choosing to exclude data from this technique in 2014 when issuing a new rule to reduce the number of fish killed by power plants. Do we respond to contingent valuation studies the way we respond to all other known classes of economic decisions? Or do we behave differently when environmental value is involved? To find out, we conducted a study, just published in the journal PLOS One, that compared, at a neurological level, how people responded in both situations. In the budding field of neuroeconomics, researchers have found striking similarity in the brain structures responsible for valuation across a host of different kinds of decision making. Our study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine activity in the brains valuation areas when subjects were asked to value environmental proposals (for example, protection of sea turtles, cleanup of the Gowanus Canal in New York), snack foods (e.g., tortilla chips), consumer goods (e.g., The Simpsons: Complete Sixth Season DVD, a Moleskine notebook) and time spent on daily activities (e.g., jogging, doing laundry). Across all four types of questions, neural activity indicated that participants were paying attention. But when it came to putting values on things, we found differences. Specifically, when people put values on consumer goods, foods and time spent on daily activities, this was correlated with neural signals in the traditional valuation areas of the brain. But when people answered survey questions about the value of environmental proposals, their brain activity was uncorrelated with these areas. The takeaway was clear: The brain did not respond to contingent valuation studies the way it did to all other known classes of economic behavior. This means that contingent valuation does not line up with what we know about the neural basis of ordinary economic decision making. However, we do not yet know how it fails to line up. Contingent valuation may overestimate environmental valuation; it may underestimate it; it may overestimate sometimes and underestimate at other times. ... Far from subsiding, given that fundamentals remain in place, the slow-motion tsunami of sorts is worsening by the day. That explains why, as if to defy gravity, the rand, already a poor performer last year, has started 2016 lunging, depreciating even further against global currencies. It was suffering way before the festive season started, causing some to cut down on the festivities, while others tweaked or delayed their foreign travels. Pundits say the currency is partly sapped by a slowdown in China, the worlds largest economy. But then, China is often cited as a factor. At almost R18 against the US dollar (before attempting a comeback to below R17), the rand has, in a space of five months, taken much pain since late August when it breached the R14 mark. The previous worst level was R13,86/US dollar that the SA unit reached back in 2001. The African unit is worth just over R19 against the euro, itself lagging the greenback. Since the rand affects all facets of our lives, punters both in the property sector and elsewhere are keenly watching its movement. Of course, those invested abroad, are watching with glee. Its the opposite for those wanting to put their money in foreign markets. For context, explains Sesfikile Capital director Mohamed Kalla, some 35% of the SA listed property sector has a see-through exposure to offshore assets. A weaker rand will mean that these stocks will do better in rand terms, he tells eProperty News. But, he adds, broadly speaking, a weak rand is bad for the property sector and the economy at large. Arguing the rand is oversold, Catalyst Fund Managers Zayd Suliman is not delighted either. Suliman says: "Many SA listed property companies such as Resilient, Fortress, Redefine, Vukile & Rebosis amongst others, to varying degrees own properties offshore and will thus benefit from the weakening rand (2015 depreciation of 34% to the US Dollar) as the foreign denominated income and assets will be higher in Rands. Thus, the net asset value and distributable income will be higher." Players such as Delta Africa, Growthpoint, Pivotal and Redefine, which derive a portion of their earnings from foreign markets, seem poised to gain from currency conversion. Take Growthpoint, the countrys largest REIT valued at R62.5 billion in market cap and whose Australian asset held 51 properties valued at nearly R21 billion (of which the JSE-listed firm held 64%). That was in September 2014, when the local unit was worth around R11 per US dollar. On the strength of conversion alone, the value has, on the surface, surged in SA currency terms to breach the R30 billion mark. Flip the coin and the result remains positive but less mouth-watering. The Australian unit, which is what Growthpoint Property Australia or GOZ earns, hasnt left the rand that far behind. While the Aussie dollar was worth around R10 in 2014, it now hovers at around R12 (but softened against its US peer and euro). That implies a gain of barely a quarter the last 15 months, which would in turn lift the GOZ portfolio to about R25 billion. Regardless of which currency dynamics are at play, but assuming the rand sustains at these levels, the old hand Norbet Sasse-led groups bottom line could benefit from the determined tsunami: rand weakness. The same goes for the R45 billion Redefine which had a torrid 2015 on the JSE eroding shareholder value. While Marc Weiners group is heavily reliant on the home market, it earns a part of its revenue from Australia and Europe. While the latter claims 7.8% of Redefines property asset, Down Under is home to 7.5%. SA, on the back of a buoyant Gauteng market (home to 215 of the 333 properties worth a hefty R51 billion), accounts for the remaining chunk of group property assets and 83% of Redefines total distribution. Regardless of the quantum Redefine like Pivotal and Delta Africa, both on a drive to grow their presence outside SA derives from abroad, the continued weakness in the rand is sure to boost the figures post-conversion. A weaker rand will push the rand earnings/returns of hard currency denominated counters, says Kalla, noting that Capital & Counties Properties, Intu, Nepi and Stenprop have 100% offshore exposure. Also on that list are Mas Real Estate, Redefine International and Rockcastle. Companies with high offshore exposure, as the Sesfikile director puts it, include Fortress and Resilient both fine performers on the JSE. Sulaiman worries about the prevailing scenario hurting the rand, compounded by global risk aversion, set to negatively impact on foreign investor demand for SA listed property. Much as the rand appears oversold, catalysts for a re-rating do not appear on the horizon. Things work out differently for foreign-based investors. Some in this category is in line to receive rand-denominated dividends, though they tend to view their investments from the perspective of hard currencies. However, because the rand has depreciated markedly against these, foreign investors cant be looking forward to fatter dividends come end of the year. In fact, its almost a given that dividends will fall in dollar and euro terms. Still, the upside is that such softness provides foreign investors an opportunity to pile in. From the angle of euros, say, JSE-listed stocks are dirt cheap right now. Against this background, expect inflows. Right there, heat wave or tsunami aside, is something to smile about. A new study provides one of the first quantitative estimates of the methane leak rate from the blowout of a well in California in 2015, suggesting that methane emissions from this event temporarily doubled those from all other sources in the entire Los Angeles Basin combined. Globally, underground natural gas storage facilities hold reserves representing 10% of the world's annual gas consumption. On October 23, 2015, the blowout of a well connected to the Aliso Canyon underground storage facility outside Los Angeles - the fourth largest facility of its kind in the U.S. - resulted in a substantial release of natural gas, prompting major evacuations. Here, using airborne and surface measurements at and around the blowout site, Stephen Conley and colleagues quantified the gas release to the atmosphere from this event. Processed natural gas is composed primarily of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, and ethane. As part of this work, Conley et al. analyzed methane and ethane data from 13 research aircraft flights between November 7, 2015, and February 13, 2016 - two days after the leak was temporarily halted. Their data suggest that atmospheric leak rates from the blowout were up to 60 metric tonnes of methane and 4.5 metric tonnes of ethane per hour at times. Release at this scale, the authors say, effectively doubled the methane emission rate from Los Angeles while the leak was ongoing. The study highlights the utility of rapid-response airborne chemical sampling in providing leak rate data and how single vulnerabilities in the natural gas infrastructure can impact local and federal climate policies. ### Osteosarcoma is a cancer that develops in the bones of children and adolescents. It is one of the most aggressive cancers, with only a 15 per cent, five-year survival rate when diagnosed in an advanced metastatic stage. There are approximately 800 new cases diagnosed each year in the US, and no viable treatments. A new Tel Aviv University study offers tangible hope of a therapeutic pathway to keep osteosarcoma lesions dormant. It also provides the fundamental basic-science for novel nanomedicines tailored to maintain cancer cells in an asymptomatic state. The proof of concept was pioneered by Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro, Chair of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Head of TAU's Cancer Angiogenesis and Nanomedicine Laboratory. The study is the fruit of a five-year collaboration between Prof. Satchi-Fainaro's team, led by TAU PhD student Galia Tiram, and the laboratories of Rainer Haag and Marcelo Calderon of Berlin's Frei University. It was recently published in the journal ACS Nano. Finding the switch for cancer cells "We want to keep the cancer 'switch' turned off," said Prof. Satchi-Fainaro. "Once osteosarcoma metastasizes away from the primary tumor site, there is no effective treatment, just different ways of prolonging life. "A 1993 article in the New England Journal of Medicine by William C. Black and H. Gilbert Welch about dormant tumor lesions discovered in the autopsies of people who were considered healthy until their accident-related deaths provided the basis for our research. We decided to investigate osteosarcoma recurrence, with an eye toward the potentially therapeutic value of dormancy." Osteosarcoma tumors may return with a vengeance, even if they're caught early and excised from a primary site. In the case of "minimal residual disease," cancerous cells left after surgery in a localized spot suddenly "turn on," and the disease reappears. In the other case of "dormant micrometastatic lesions," mini-tumors undetected by current imaging technologies suddenly reemerge as large macro-metastases, primarily in the lungs. "We wanted to understand what causes the cancer cells to 'switch on' in these cases," said Prof. Satchi-Fainaro. "As long as cancer cells remain asymptomatic and dormant, cancer is a manageable disease. Many people live with thyroid lesions without their knowledge, for example. Ours is a very optimistic approach, and we believe it could apply to other cancers as well." A circuit-breaker for cancer cells? Prof. Satchi-Fainaro and her team of researchers used mice to create model pairs of osteosarcoma tumor tissues (part "silent" cancer, part "progressive" cancer) and observed their different characteristics. "We wanted to examine what was different, because we knew that if we could understand their genesis, then we could understand what kept the tumor tissue dormant," said Prof. Satchi-Fainaro. "If we could inhibit the growth of cancer, we could target it and keep it dormant." The researchers sequenced microRNAs in the tissue and found three microRNAs that were expressed in low levels in the aggressive tumor tissue and in high levels in the dormant tumor tissue. They then inserted the microRNA into the tumor tissues in a petri dish and observed a reduced malignant potential, demonstrated by decreased ability of the cancer cells to communicate with the normal cells present in the microenvironment. "We saw that the osteosarcoma cells treated with the selected microRNAs were unable to recruit blood vessels to feed their growth," said Prof. Satchi-Fainaro. "In order to keep these microRNAs stable in the blood, we needed to encapsulate them in a nanoparticle that circulates in healthy blood vessels, but that disembark and deliver the drug therapy at the leaky blood vessels that exist at tumor sites. We designed a nanomedicine that would have a special activation method at the tumor site in the target cell. "The mice treated with the nanomedicine lived for six months, which is the equivalent of 25-odd human years," she reported. "This makes us very optimistic. If we cannot teach tumor cells to be normal, we can teach them to be dormant." According to Prof. Satchi-Fainaro, there is major potential for this therapeutic approach. She and her team are currently exploring other tumor types and also plan to move the current research into clinical trials. "This has huge potential, because the insertion of microRNA affects many, many genes -- making it that much more difficult for cancer to avoid them and compensate for their loss with an alternative pathway," she concludes. "I hope our findings will apply to other tumor types as a universal approach to treating cancer." ### Tel Aviv University (TAU) is inherently linked to the cultural, scientific and entrepreneurial mecca it represents. It is one of the world's most dynamic research centers and Israel's most distinguished learning environment. Its unique-in-Israel multidisciplinary environment is highly coveted by young researchers and scholars returning to Israel from post-docs and junior faculty positions in the US. American Friends of Tel Aviv University (AFTAU) enthusiastically and industriously pursues the advancement of TAU in the US, raising money, awareness and influence through international alliances that are vital to the future of this already impressive institution. A group of researchers in China has discovered how mysterious mechanosensitive channels, a family of Piezo proteins, respond to mechanical force and, consequently, conduct ions for biological functions WASHINGTON, D.C., February 25, 2016 -- As blood flows through our vessels, the cells that constitute these vessels responds to the shear stress of blood flow to ensure normal circulation. This process of converting a mechanical force into a biological function is known as "mechanotransduction." But a bit of mystery has enshrouded the type of specialized mechanotransducers--force sensors--underlying the process and how they're able to sense a force and, subsequently, transduce to downstream biological functions. During the Biophysical Society's 60th Annual Meeting, being held in Los Angeles, Calif., Feb. 27-March 2, 2016, Bailong Xiao, an associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, in Beijing, China, will share a big discovery made while exploring how newly identified mechanotransducers function at the molecular level. "Mechanosensitive channels represent a class of ion channels that respond to mechanical force stimulation and allow ions to enter or exit cells," explained Xiao. "They are suspected of serving as key mechanotransducers for mechanotransduction, but the molecular identities of mechanosensitive cation channels in mammals were unknown until the identification of the evolutionarily conserved Piezo family of proteins--including Piezo1 and Piezo2--by Dr. Ardem Patatpoutian's lab at the Scripps Research Institute in 2010." Since then, it's been shown that Piezo proteins play critical roles in various mechanotransduction processes. "Piezo1, for example, plays a key role in sensing blood-flow-associated shear stress and, consequently, controlling vascular development and function," he said. "In humans, mutations of Piezo1 or Piezo2 genes have been linked to genetic diseases." Piezo proteins are complex transmembrane proteins that don't possess notable sequence homology with any known class of ion channels. "These features make it difficult to study their structure-function relationship using traditional site-directed mutagenesis approaches," Xiao elaborated. "While working in Patatpoutian's lab as a postdoctoral fellow, we previously demonstrated that Piezo1 proteins form a novel class of ion channels." This work was published in the journal Nature in 2012, and Xiao was co-first author. But fundamental questions remained unanswered, among them: How do these proteins three-dimensionally organize into mechanosensitive channels? How do they conduct ions and respond to force stimulation? After setting up his own lab at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Xiao began tackling these questions. In a paper the group published in Nature in 2015, along with collaborators at the university, they reported resolving the cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure of the full-length mouse Piezo1. Now in a paper published online in Neuron on Feb. 25, 2016, the group reports "functionally identifying bona-fide ion-conducting pore and mechanotransduction components," Xiao said. "Our findings demonstrate that Piezo1 proteins consist of distinct and separate modules responsible for ion conduction, mechanical force sensing and transduction to coordinately fulfill their function as sophisticated mechanosensitive channels." This is consistent with the structural organization of these functional modules into a unique three-bladed, propeller-shaped architecture of Piezo1, according to Xiao. "Our studies significantly advance our mechanistic understanding of how this evolutionarily conserved and physiologically important class of mechanosensitive channels respond to mechanical force and, consequently, conduct ions for biological functions," he added. In terms of applications, his group's studies "help us understand the specialized force sensors such as Piezo1 ion channels that play critical roles in vascular development and blood cell function, which might enable us to design novel therapeutics in the future to treat diseases caused by abnormal functions of these mechanotransducers," Xiao said. Next, Xiao and his group are planning more mechanistic studies to gain a better understanding of the mechanosensitive channels and to identify ways to manipulate their functions. "In the long run, we hope to develop novel therapeutics by targeting these mechanosensors," he said. Presentation #1722, "Structural and functional characterizations of the mechanosensitive piezo channel," is authored by Bailong Xiao. It will be at 9:45 a.m. PT on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 in Room 515B of the Los Angeles Convention Center. ABSTRACT: http://tinyurl.com/jdl83lw ### ABOUT THE MEETING Each year, the Biophysical Society Annual Meeting brings together more than 6,500 researchers working in the multidisciplinary fields representing biophysics. With more than 3,600 poster presentations, over 200 exhibits, and more than 20 symposia, the BPS Annual Meeting is the largest meeting of biophysicists in the world. Despite its size, the meeting retains its small-meeting flavor through its subgroup symposia, platform sessions, social activities and committee programs. The 60th Annual Meeting will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. PRESS REGISTRATION The Biophysical Society invites professional journalists, freelance science writers and public information officers to attend its Annual Meeting free of charge. For press registration, contact Ellen Weiss or the media line at the American Institute of Physics at or 301-209-3090. NEWS RELEASES Embargoed press releases describing in detail some of the breakthroughs to be discussed at the meeting are available on Eurekalert, Newswise and Alpha Galileo or by contacting the media line at the American Institute of Physics at or 301-209-3090. QUICK LINKS Main Meeting Page: http://tinyurl.com/hewekyj Symposia: http://tinyurl.com/h7lnk4p Itinerary planner: http://tinyurl.com/hslnx3p ABOUT THE SOCIETY The Biophysical Society, founded in 1958, is a professional, scientific Society established to encourage development and dissemination of knowledge in biophysics. The Society promotes growth in this expanding field through its annual meeting, monthly journal, and committee and outreach activities. Its 9,000 members are located throughout the U.S. and the world, where they teach and conduct research in colleges, universities, laboratories, government agencies, and industry. For more information on the Society, or the 2016 Annual Meeting, visit http://www.biophysics.org PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] --This winter has provided several dramatic developments in the ongoing debate about whether altering the "germline" - that is, the genome of a new embryo - should be allowed. Employing the technique could permanently alter not just an individual, but also that person's future genetic lineage. In a new research essay in the journal Cell, a duo of medical and legal experts from Brown and Harvard Universities argues that if the U.S. decides to consider the practice, it has a well-drawn regulatory roadmap to follow, courtesy of the United Kingdom. A year ago, the UK approved a medical treatment called mitochondrial replacement (MR) therapy. The mitochondria are parts within each cell that have their own small genome - distinct from that in the nucleus. Sometimes errant mitochondrial genes can cause serious health diseases. MR therapy proposes to take an egg cell from a woman donor with healthy mitochondrial genes and to swap in the nucleus of an affected mother-to-be. Once fertilized in the lab with the father's sperm, the resulting embryo would have the donor's healthful mitochondria, and the needed mix of mom and dad's nuclear DNA. In the Cell essay, Dr. Eli Adashi, former dean of medicine and biological sciences at Brown and Glenn Cohen, professor of law at Harvard, argue that germline editing - in which scientists would alter the nuclear genome of an embryo - and MR therapy are similar enough that the principles the UK used to consider and approve MR therapy give the U.S. a ready-made framework for evaluating germline editing. "Both must contend with breaching the germline barrier," Adashi and Cohen wrote. "Both entail the manipulation of a human embryo. Both must address significant safety concerns. Both must engage a skeptical public. Both must face up to the first-in-human imponderable. Both must grapple with ethical concerns. Both must stamp out unease with technology running unchecked. And both must assuage fears of an altered natural order known to man for millennia." "It follows that key insights derived from the MR experience may well prove applicable and potentially helpful to deliberating the genome editing challenge." Contradictory context The essay appears amid rapid-fire bouts of news, some supportive and some discouraging, from the debates swirling around MR therapy and germline editing. Earlier this month, the U.S. National Academies issued a report advising the U.S. government to follow the UK's lead - for the most part - on MR therapy. A key difference, though, was approving only the transfer of male embryos, because men don't pass on mitochondrial DNA to their offspring. A few days before that, the UK approved editing the genomes of human embryos - those produced but not used for in vitro fertilization - for research purposes. In this case, however, the experimental embryos would be destroyed at the conclusion of the study, again preventing genetic changes from appearing in an individual or being handed down through generations. If the U.S. government is going to consider therapeutic MR or germline editing like the U.K., Adashi said, it won't actually be able to approve any of the needed preclinical research, because of provisions tucked into to a spending law passed in December 2015. The act prohibits the Food and Drug Administration from using any appropriated monies to accept or approve any project "in which a human embryo is intentionally created or modified to include a heritable genetic modification." That law passed within two weeks of a major summit on genome editing that brought numerous prominent scientists together in Washington DC to debate the future of the technology. What the UK did right In Cell, Adashi and Cohen praise how the UK grappled with five prevailing concerns during the decade-long process that led to approving MR therapy: "the presence of a compelling medical rationale, the safety and efficacy of the preclinical science, the rigor of the ethical framework, the scope of the public engagement, and the soundness of the regulatory constructs." These same principles could guide assessments of germline editing, they wrote. The UK, through specially convened expert panels and studies; parliamentary debate; and public forums, meetings and interviews invested heavily in examining MR therapy's ethics, safety and public concerns, they wrote. "Applying the principles relied upon on in the regulatory evaluation of MR will go a long way towards assuring that the prospect of therapeutic genome editing in the human is the subject of a thorough, inclusive, ethical, safety-minded and confidence-inspiring process," Adashi and Cohen wrote. ### LOS ANGELES (Feb. 25, 2016) -- Cedars-Sinai has been selected by the White House to participate in its Precision Medicine Initiative Summit today in Washington. The summit, marking the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative, will bring together medical researchers, clinicians, community advocates and others from around the country. These experts are working to advance the president's goal of revolutionizing medical treatments by factoring in individual differences related to genetics, environments and lifestyles. Cedars-Sinai has embarked on its own institution-wide Precision Medicine Initiative, bringing together experts in cancer, heart disease, genetics, diabetes, pathology, informatics, statistics and other areas to identify novel therapeutic opportunities for treating and preventing a broad range of diseases. "We are very excited about the levels of expertise that Cedars-Sinai will be able to contribute to advancing the White House Precision Medicine Initiative," said Dermot McGovern, MD, PhD, director of the Precision Medicine Initiative at Cedars-Sinai. Chirag Patil, MD, associate professor of Neurosurgery and a neurosurgeon in the Department of Neurosurgery, was selected by the Obama administration to lend his expertise at the summit, which will feature remarks by the president, patient stories and roundtable discussions to build momentum and collaborations around precision medicine initiatives. Patil focuses his research on novel brain tumor therapies and precision science that allows him to tailor personalized treatments for individuals with malignant brain tumors. "In our program, we use tumor genomics and precision science to build a holistic mathematical model of cancer that then can be used to develop new, personalized cancer treatments," Patil said. "Right now, we're focused on the most common type of brain cancer and are developing a unique scientific process that could tackle several cancer types." Shlomo Melmed, MB, ChB, executive vice president, Academic Affairs, and dean of the medical faculty at Cedars-Sinai, said the medical center's Precision Medicine Initiative is intended to bridge the gap between the research bench and the patient bedside. "This institution-wide initiative holds the hope of applying novel technologies to clinical care that can ultimately lead to earlier detection and treatment of disease," Melmed said. ### A Chapman University psychologist and his interdisciplinary research team have just published a study examining the sexual satisfaction -- or dissatisfaction -- of heterosexual couples in long-term relationships, and what contributes to keeping sexual passion alive. In one of the largest studies to date that scientifically examines what contributes to a satisfying long-term sex life, the findings indicate foreplay, setting the mood, mixing it up, and expressing love are all factors that satisfied couples said they do regularly. "Sexual satisfaction and maintenance of passion were higher among people who had sex more frequently, received more oral sex, had more consistent orgasms, incorporated more variety of sexual acts, took the time to set a mood and practiced effective sexual communication," said David Frederick, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Chapman University and lead author of the study. "Almost half of satisfied and dissatisfied couples read sexual self-help books and magazine articles, but what set sexually satisfied couples apart was that they actually tried some of the ideas." To gauge sexual satisfaction over time, couples were asked to rate their sex satisfaction in the first six months together and then rate it for now. Dr. Frederick's team learned that the overwhelming majority (83 percent) of people reported they were sexually satisfied in the first six months of the relationship. Only half of people, however, reported currently being satisfied (43 percent of men and 55 percent of women), with the rest feeling neutral (16 percent of men and 18 percent of women) or dissatisfied (41 percent of men and 27 percent of women). Another set of items addressed whether respondents believed their sexual passion was the same, less or better now than early in their relationship. "We looked at common romantic and sexual behaviors that are rarely assessed in the literature but are likely important contributors to sexual satisfaction," said Dr. Frederick. "For example, while sexual variety is deemed important for sexual satisfaction, evidence on the effectiveness of specific forms of variety -- such as showering together or wearing lingerie or use of sex toys -- is lacking." Specifically, the research team found that sexually satisfied men and women engaged in more intimate behaviors, such as cuddling, gentle and deep kissing and laughing together during sexual activity; incorporated more acts of sexual variety such as trying new sexual positions or acting out fantasies; more frequently set a romantic or sexual mood such as lighting candles or playing music, and used communication effectively, such as saying "I love you" during sex or sending a teasing text earlier in the day. They also found that sexually satisfied men and women gave and received more oral sex, orgasmed more frequently, and had sex more frequently. Some key findings of the research included: Satisfied men and women were more likely to report that their last sexual encounter with their partner was "passionate," "loving and tender," or "playful". Nearly half of sexually dissatisfied women (43 percent) said that they were "just going through the motions for my partner's sake" compared to only 13 percent of sexually dissatisfied men during their last sexual encounter. Few people reported feeling pressured into sex by their partner (2 to 3 percent). About half of satisfied men (49 percent) and women (45 percent) reported their last sexual encounter lasted more than 30 minutes, compared to only 26 percent of dissatisfied men and 19 percent of dissatisfied women. Satisfied men and women were more likely than dissatisfied men and women to say they: tried a new sexual position, wore sexy lingerie, took a shower or bath together, talked about or acted out fantasies, gave or had a massage, went on a romantic getaway, tried anal stimulation, made a date night to have sex, or used a sex toy together. Feeling desired by their partners appears to be more of a problem for men than for women. Only 59 percent of men compared to 42 percent of women reported they felt less desired by their partner now than in the beginning. In contrast, two-thirds of men compared with half of women reported feeling as much desire, or more desire, for their partner now as in the beginning of the relationship. Most men and women reported feeling the same or more emotional closeness during sex now than in the first six months of their relationship (69 percent of men and 72 percent of women). Less than half of dissatisfied men and women, however, felt this way. Dr. Janet Lever, a co-author on the study, stated "It was encouraging to learn that more than one-third of couples kept passion alive, even after a decade or two together. That won't happen on auto pilot; these couples made a conscious effort to ward off routinization of sex." The study, called, What Keeps Passion Alive? Sexual Satisfaction is Associated with Sexual Communication, Mood Setting, Sexual Variety, Oral Sex, Orgasm, and Sex Frequency in a National U.S. Study, examined more than 38,747 married or cohabiting heterosexual men and women in the U.S. who had been with their partner for at least three years. The study is published in The Journal of Sex Research, and can be found here. The average age of the sample was 40 years old for women and 46 years old for men. ### Authorship was: Dr. David Frederick of Chapman University; Dr. Janet Lever of California State University, Los Angeles; Dr. Brian Gillespie of Sonoma State University, and Dr. Justin Garcia of the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. Consistently ranked among the top universities in the West, Chapman University provides a uniquely personalized and interdisciplinary educational experience to highly qualified students. Our programs encourage innovation, creativity and collaboration, and focus on developing global citizen-leaders who are distinctively prepared to improve their community and their world. Follow us on Facebook at: Chapman University Facebook On Twitter at: @ChapmanU On YouTube at: Chapman University YouTube Channel LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Feb. 25, 2016--Scientists have a new tool for unraveling the mysteries of how diseases such as HIV move through a population, thanks to insights into phylogenetics, the creation of an organism's genetic tree and evolutionary relationships. "It turns out that three different types of transmission histories are possible between two persons who might have infected each other," said Thomas Leitner of Los Alamos National Laboratory, the corresponding author of a new paper out this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Using phylogenetic inference in the epidemiological investigations of HIV transmission, we've determined that between two sampled, potentially epidemiologically linked persons, we can now evaluate the possibility that an unsampled intermediary or common source existed, even without a sample from that individual." Like a detective inferring the existence of an unseen actor in a sequence of events, the Los Alamos team used computational phylogenetic analysis to examine how strains of HIV, both in computer modeling and compared with real-life case studies, would be transmitted. The team's research has broad implications. "The inference of donor-recipient relationships we describe here is not restricted to HIV transmissions; it applies to all situations when an original population seeds a new population with a restricted random draw (a bottleneck) of individuals. We use HIV transmission to illustrate the effects because it helps trace contacts among people and untangle investigations into outbreaks. Also, statistical guidelines are needed for interpreting phylogenetic results in court." Phylogenetic inference of who infected whom has great value in epidemiological investigations, the authors point out, because it should explain how transmission(s) occurred. Until now, however, there has not been a systematic evaluation of which phylogeny to expect from different transmission histories, and thus interpreting the meaning of an observed phylogeny has remained elusive. "Previously it was thought that it would be impossible to say who infected whom and whether there were unsampled intermediary links in an alleged transmission, or if both persons were infected by an unsampled/unknown third party. We show that this is now possible in many cases," Leitner said. "This will have large impact on future epidemiological investigations, including forensics and outbreak investigations." In the paper, the team showed that certain types of phylogenies associate with different transmission histories, which may make it possible to exclude possible intermediary links or identify cases where a common source was likely but not sampled. "Our systematic classification and evaluation of expected topologies should make future interpretation of phylogenetic results in epidemiological investigations more objective and informative," Leitner said. The paper is titled "Phylogenetically resolving epidemiologic linkage," by Ethan O. Romero-Severson, Ingo Bulla, and Thomas Leitner. The work was supported by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/National Institutes of Health. ### About Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, BWX Technologies, Inc. and URS for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns. BOSTON -- An international collaboration of orga nizations, including Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has reached a milestone in creating a library of complete genetic blueprints for the thousands of different proteins in human cells. The collection - consisting of open-reading frames (ORFs), the portions of genes that code for full-length proteins - is an essential resource for scientists studying the basic mechanics of human cells and how those processes go awry in disease. In a paper published today by Nature Methods, the ORFeome Collaboration (OC), a group of 13 academic, commercial, and governmental organizations, announced that its collection of ORF clones now comprises about 80 percent of all protein-coding genes in human cells - 17,154 in all, and counting. It is the largest human-gene DNA collection openly available to the worldwide research community. "The OC ORF collection can be of enormous utility in a broad range of research applications," said the paper's senior author, David E. Hill, PhD, associate director of the Center for Cancer Systems Biology (CCSB) at Dana-Farber, one of the founding institutions of the OC. "To explore cell physiology in a comprehensive way, scientists need a resource that allows them to express virtually any cell protein of interest. The OC is a unique and valuable tool for that type of work." Thousands of scientists have used OC-supplied ORF clones in their research since the collaboration began in 2005. Applications include large-scale mapping of protein-protein interactions; production of recombinant human proteins; functional screening of specific proteins; development of disease-specific protein interaction networks; studies on the effect of knocking down or knocking out key proteins in cells, and other uses. The clones are available from multiple OC distributors around the world at minimal cost, with no restrictions by the OC on their use. Information on the collaboration and on ordering clones is available at the OC website: http://www.orfeomecollaboration.org/. "This website also has a searchable database where we provide rich annotation of clones and encoded proteins to enhance utilization in the community," said Stefan Wiemann, PhD, of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany, the first author of the study. Each ORF contains the protein-coding regions of a specific gene. The ORF clones are encased in plasmids, which are injected into bacteria and stored in freezers at the OC's multiple distribution sites. The clones are provided in the Gateway? vector format, which allows for easy transfer to a large variety of vectors for expressing the corresponding proteins using for example Escherichia coli, yeast, and mammalian cells, or even cell-free expression systems. The OC grew out of informal discussions among researchers at human ORFeome conferences sponsored by the CCSB at Dana-Farber in the early 2000s. "Attendees from various institutions began discussing what they were doing in the area of generating and validating ORFs," Hill explained. "We began to think about how we could work together to produce the largest possible collection." "Different members of the OC have performed different roles in its operation," Hill continued. "Some groups have worked on adding new clones to the collection, some do DNA sequencing, or concentrate on quality control of the ORFs and archiving them for members. Some do informatics work, while others are mainly involved in distribution. Reaching the current milestone has required a concerted effort from a very diverse group of people and organizations. Everyone involved has made an important contribution - which has made this a very enjoyable and productive collaboration." This phase represents the "end of the beginning" as OC members are continuing to work together to expand the human ORFeome as well as adding ORFeomes for other model organisms. ### The co-authors of the study are: Christa Pennacchio of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories; Yanhui Hu of Harvard Medical School; Preston Hunter, Jin Park, Catherine Seiler, Jason Steel, and Joshua LaBaer of Arizona State University; Matthias Harbers of DNAFORM Inc. and RIKEN Yokohama Institute, both of Kanagawa, Japan; Alexandra Amiet and Anja van Brabant Smith of Dharmacon, part of GE Healthcare, Lafayette, Colo.; Graeme Bethel of Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Melanie Busse and Tom Weaver of Source BioScience, Nottingham, United Kingdom; Piero Carninci, Yoshihide Hayashizaki, and Jun Kawai, of RIKEN Yokohama Institute; Mark Diekhans of University of California, Santa Cruz; Ian Dunham of Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute; Tong Hao, Kourosh Salehi?Ashtiani, and Marc Vidal, PhD, of Dana-Farber; J. Wade Harper of Dana Farber-Harvard Cancer Center; Oliver Heil, Agnes Hotz-Wagenblatt, Anika Jocker, and Ruth Wellenreuther of DKFZ; Steffen Hennig, Christoph Koenig, and Johannes Maurer of imaGenes GmbH, Berlin, Germany; Wonhee Jang and Lukas Wagner, of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH) , Bethesda, Md.; Bernhard Korn of Ressourcenzentrum fur Genomforschung gGmbH, Berlin, Germany; Cristen Lambert and Gary Temple of the National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH; Anita LeBeau, of HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology, Huntsville, Ala.; Sun Lu of GeneCopoeia, Inc., Rockville, Md. and Guangzhou FulenGen, LTD, Guangdong, China; Troy Moore of Open Biosystems, Inc., Huntsville, Ala.; Osamu Ohara of Kasusa DNA Research Institute, Kisarazu, Chiba, Japan; Andreas Rolfs of Harvard Medical School; Blake Simmons of HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology and Open Biosystems, Inc.; Shuwei Yang of GeneCopoeia, Inc., of Rockville, Md.; and Daniela S. Gerhard of the National Cancer Institute, NIH. The work was supported by a grant from the Ellison Foundation, Boston, and by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Sponsored Research funds, and research grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, to the RIKEN Omics Science Center and the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies. The German cDNA Consortium was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the frame of the German Genome Project and the National Genome Research Network programs. About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute From achieving the first remissions in childhood cancer with chemotherapy in 1948, to developing the very latest new therapies, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is one of the world's leading centers of cancer research and treatment. It is the only center ranked in the top 4 of U.S. News and World Report's Best Hospitals for both adult and pediatric cancer care. Dana-Farber sits at the center of a wide range of collaborative efforts to reduce the burden of cancer through scientific inquiry, clinical care, education, community engagement, and advocacy. Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center provides the latest in cancer care for adults; Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center for children. The Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center unites the cancer research efforts of five Harvard academic medical centers and two graduate schools, while Dana-Farber Community Cancer Care provides high quality cancer treatment in communities outside Boston's Longwood Medical Area. Dana-Farber is dedicated to a unique, 50/50 balance between cancer research and care, and much of the Institute's work is dedicated to translating the results of its discovery into new treatments for patients locally and around the world. The constant beating of the heart requires an enormous output of energy. To meet this demand, cardiomyocytes are loaded with mitochondria, organelles that generate the majority of energy for cells. These mitochondria are dynamically regulated to ensure that damaged mitochondria are removed and replaced by healthy mitochondria. In this month's issue of JCI Insight, James George, Anupam Agarwal, and colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham examined the role of the inducible stress response gene heme oxygenase-1 in mediating mitochondrial quality control in the heart. The research team found that overexpression of human heme oxygenase-1 in mice protected animals from dilated cardiomyopathy induced by the mitochondrial toxin doxorubicin. Additionally, heme oxygenase-1 overexpression reduced mitochondrial fragmentation and promoted the generation of new mitochondria. Cumulatively, this study demonstrates the importance of heme oxygenase-1 in controlling mitochondrial dynamics in the heart. ### TITLE: Heme oxygenase-1 regulates mitochondrial quality control in the heart AUTHOR CONTACT: Anupam Agarwal University of Alabama at Birmingham Email: agarwal@uab.edu View this article at: http://insight.jci.org/articles/view/85817 JCI Insight is the newest publication from the American Society of Clinical Investigation, a nonprofit honor organization of physician-scientists. JCI Insight is dedicated to publishing a range of translational biomedical research with an emphasis on rigorous experimental methods and data reporting. All articles published in JCI Insight are freely available at the time of publication. For more information about JCI Insight and all of the latest articles go to http://www.insight.jci.org. RUSTON, La. - The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Dr. Marisa Orr, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Louisiana Tech University, a five-year, $500,000 Early Career Development (CAREER) grant to support her research in engineering education. This award is the first NSF CAREER grant for engineering education at Louisiana Tech and the seventh CAREER grant awarded to a professor from Louisiana Tech's College of Engineering and Science. The NSF CAREER grant will provide Orr, who is also the associate director of the Integrated STEM Education Research Center at Louisiana Tech, with the funds to expand the scope of her research into empowering engineering students to make decisions that lead to academic success. Orr's funded program, "Empowering Students to be Adaptive Decision-Makers," will impact the way that policy decisions are made in engineering programs across the United States. The research, which will be available to students as well as other researchers in the field, will develop an online "Academic Dashboard" to help students leverage the research results and self-regulate their decision making. The dashboard will help students choose paths that are most likely to lead to success and make adaptive daily choices that help them achieve their goals. "I am excited to study the ways that students make academic decisions and equip them to do so more effectively," Orr said of the award. "What I love about this project is the connection between research and practice. The purpose of the Academic Dashboard is to put the student in the driver's seat of his or her education and provide some driving lessons based on what we learn in the research." Orr expects the work to lead to a more diverse group of engineering graduates by expanding the opportunities for students who have difficulty navigating the engineering curriculum. "I am excited to hear of Dr. Orr's NSF CAREER award," said Dr. Hisham Hegab, dean of the College of Engineering and Science. "These awards are very competitive and it's fantastic to see her work recognized by the NSF. Her research will have a direct impact on our students by helping them to make better decisions about their education. She is an excellent example of the value of investing in higher education in the State of Louisiana." Dr. David Hall, director of civil engineering, construction engineering technology and mechanical engineering at Louisiana Tech, says that Orr's research can help students find the right major earlier in their academic careers. "Beginning college students often struggle with selecting a major that matches their interests and unique abilities," Hall said. "Students commonly switch majors several times as they find their way. Dr. Orr has extensive experience in predicting student success using statistical analysis of large data sets from engineering schools around the country. Her CAREER project will use a data-focused approach to help students make informed decisions about their path through college, reducing the time to graduation while improving student satisfaction with their major and eventual career." Early Career Development or "CAREER" grants are among the most prestigious grants awarded by the National Science Foundation to support the careers of young academic researchers and help them become national leaders in research and education. Orr received a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, a doctoral degree and a certificate of Engineering and Science Education from Clemson University. She then spent two years as a postdoc in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University before joining Louisiana Tech in the fall of 2012. ### Surprisingly complex interactions between neurotransmitter receptors and other key proteins help explain the brain's ability to process information with lightning speed, according to a new study. Scientists at McGill University, working with collaborators at the universities of Oxford and Liverpool, combined experimental techniques to examine fast-acting protein macromolecules, known as AMPA receptors, which are a major player in brain signaling. Their findings are reported online in the journal Neuron. Understanding how the brain signals information is a major focus of neuroscientists, since it is crucial to deciphering the nature of many brain disorders, from autism to Alzheimer's disease. A stubborn problem, however, has been the challenge of studying brain activity that switches on and off on the millisecond time scale. To tackle this challenge, the research teams in Canada and the U.K. combined multiple techniques to examine the atomic structure of the AMPA receptor and how it interacts with its partner or auxiliary proteins. "The findings reveal that the interplay between AMPA receptors and their protein partners that modulate them is much more complex than previously thought," says lead researcher Derek Bowie, a professor of pharmacology at McGill and Director of GEPROM, a Quebec interuniversity research group that studies the function and role of membrane proteins in health and disease. "A computational method called molecular dynamics has been key to understanding what controls these interactions," says Philip Biggin, an Associate Professor at the University of Oxford and one of the senior authors. "These simulations are effectively a computational microscope that allow us to examine the motions of these proteins in very high detail." "A key aspect of this work has been the way that the three groups have used a mix of experimental and theoretical approaches to answer these questions," says Tim Green, a Senior Lecturer who headed the team working at the University of Liverpool. "Our work, using X-ray crystallography, allowed us to confirm many of the study's findings by looking at the atomic structure of AMPA receptors." Through the three labs' combined efforts, "we've been able to achieve an important breakthrough in understanding how the brain transmits information so rapidly," Bowie adds. "Our next steps will be to understand if these rapid interactions can be targeted for the development of novel therapeutic compounds." ### This research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Leverhulme Trust, the Medical Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Alfred Benzon Foundation, and the Canada Research Chairs program. Funding for GEPROM is provided by the Fonds de recherche du Quebec - Sante (FRQS). "Distinct Structural Pathways Coordinate the Activation of AMPA Receptor-Auxiliary Subunit Complexes," G. Brent Dawe et al, Neuron, published online February 25, 2016. http://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(16)00063-5 More than 70 percent of the population reports that reducing poverty is personally important to them A new national poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research provides a detailed look at the economic issues Americans identify as most important. The results ranked protecting Social Security and reducing unemployment at the top of the list, along with poverty and the federal budget deficit. "Although differences in economic status and partisan beliefs make for many differing opinions, Americans overall agree that certain areas, such as Social Security, wages, and reducing the federal deficit should be top priorities," said Trevor Tompson, director of The AP-NORC Center. "Our poll provides policymakers with detailed insights about these priorities, giving them the information they need to make informed policy decisions." Key findings from the survey include: More than 80 percent of Americans say it is extremely or very important to protect the future of Social Security and reduce unemployment. Slightly more than half of the American public (53 percent) describe the economy as in poor shape, while 46 percent believe it is in good condition. Twenty-seven percent of the public say their finances deteriorated over the past year, but 38 percent of those expect things to improve in the next year. Twenty-eight percent of those same respondents are not so optimistic, expecting a further decline in their personal finances. Income inequality is an important concern for nearly 60 percent of the population, and nearly 56 percent of Americans believe that reducing the income gap between rich and poor is the responsibility of the government, while 42 percent say it is not. Half of the public say that increasing the minimum wage is important to them personally, and 71 percent of the public is in favor of it. ### About the Survey The nationwide poll was conducted Jan. 14-17, 2016, using the AmeriSpeak Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cellphones were conducted with 1,008 adults. About The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research taps into the power of social science research and the highest-quality journalism to bring key information to people across the nation and throughout the world. http://www.apnorc.org The Associated Press (AP) is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the most trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world's population sees news from AP. http://www.ap.org NORC at the University of Chicago is an independent research institution that delivers reliable data and rigorous analysis to guide critical programmatic, business, and policy decisions. Since 1941, NORC has conducted groundbreaking studies, created and applied innovative methods and tools, and advanced principles of scientific integrity and collaboration. Today, government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world partner with NORC to transform increasingly complex information into useful knowledge. http://www.norc.org The two organizations have established The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research to conduct, analyze, and distribute social science research in the public interest on newsworthy topics, and to use the power of journalism to tell the stories that research reveals. About AmeriSpeak Omnibus AmeriSpeak Omnibus is a once-a-month, multi-client survey using a probability sample of at least 1,000 nationally representative adults age 18 and older. Respondents are interviewed online and by phone from NORC's AmeriSpeak Panel--the most scientifically rigorous multi-client household panel in the United States. AmeriSpeak households are selected randomly from NORC's National Sample Frame, the industry leader in sample coverage. The National Frame is representative of over 99 percent of U.S. households and includes additional coverage of hard-to-survey population segments, such as rural and low-income households, that are underrepresented in other sample frames. More information about AmeriSpeak is available at AmeriSpeak.org. Contact: For more information, contact Eric Young for NORC at young-eric@norc.org or 703-217-6814 (cell); Ray Boyer for NORC at boyer-ray@norc.org or 312-330-6433; or Paul Colford for AP at pcolford@ap.org, A contingent of NASA airborne instruments and scientists on the ground has joined colleagues from space agencies in Gabon and Europe this month to study the dense African tropical forests in Gabon. Gabon, a Central African country slightly smaller than the state of Colorado, is home to one of the most pristine rainforests on the planet. During the two-week-long NASA campaign, a collaboration with a European Space Agency (ESA) mission called AfriSAR, researchers are collecting measurements of plant mass, distribution of trees, shrubs and ground cover, and diversity of plant and animal species -- not only from Gabon's rainforest but also from the country's wetlands, mangrove forests and savanna. ESA launched the first part of the AfriSAR field campaign in Gabon in July 2015, when teams led by the French national aerospace research center collected radar and field measurements of the country's forests. Now NASA and the German space agency have joined the second leg of the campaign. The data will help prepare for and calibrate four current and upcoming spaceborne missions for NASA, ESA and the German space agency that aim to, among other goals, better gauge the role of forests in Earth's carbon cycle. "One of the questions we're really interested in at NASA is balancing the global carbon budget," said Lola Fatoyinbo, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead of NASA's contribution to the AfriSAR campaign. "We know how much carbon dioxide is being emitted into the atmosphere by fossil fuel emissions, but we don't have a good estimate of how much carbon is being taken up from the atmosphere and where it's stored - we think that forests absorb about a quarter of all these emissions, but we need better studies of forest biomass to confirm this." "With AfriSAR, we're getting very accurate measurements of the 3D structure of an ecosystem that is representative of the larger Congo Basin rainforest and of tropical forests in general, and this is going to allow us to get a better grip on how much carbon is stored in these ecosystems," Fatoyinbo said. Gabon's forest is part of the Congolian tropical forests, altogether the second largest rainforest in the world after the Amazon. About 85 percent of the country's land is forest: only about 1.5 million people live there. "The forests in Gabon are special: they are rich in plants and animals, but empty of people and intact in most places," said Sassan Saatchi, a senior scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He is part of the NASA AfriSAR team that operates the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR). The other NASA group participating in AfriSAR, led by Goddard scientist Bryan Blair, is in charge of the Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) instrument. During the AfriSAR campaign, UAVSAR flies 40,000 feet high mounted beneath a C-20A aircraft from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. LVIS flies at 28,000 feet onboard a B-200 airplane from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Both instruments collect measurements of surface topography and vegetation structure by sending out rapid pulses of either radio waves (UAVSAR) or laser light (LVIS) toward their targets. They then calculate the distance to objects below by measuring how long it takes for the signal to bounce back, creating 3D maps of the surface beneath. "LVIS studies the vertical structure of the forests by measuring the elevation of everything the photons hit: the top of the canopy, all of the leaves and branches and finally the ground" said Blair, principal investigator and developer of LVIS. "In tropical forests, the challenge is to get the laser pulse all the way to the ground because the whole canopy is closed; there's very few holes for the photons to get through." The data collected by LVIS will help calibrate and validate the information gathered by UAVSAR over the same targets, and vice-versa. The two datasets will also be compared to the airborne radar measurements that ESA and the German space agency are compiling during their current campaigns in Gabon. Finally, AfriSAR's ground teams from Goddard and JPL are performing several types of field measurements, such as tree width, forest structure and soil moisture, which will complement and refine the data gathered from the air. Both NASA airborne instruments are test beds for future space missions. LVIS is the precursor to the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation lidar (GEDI), a powerful laser altimeter that will be installed on the International Space Station in the near future to measure forests in 3D. UAVSAR will help develop the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, or NISAR, a joint U.S. and Indian radar-based satellite mission set to launch in 2020. In turn, the European space agencies' radar measurements in Gabon are aimed to prepare for ESA's BIOMASS satellite mission, which will deploy in 2020. The German space agency will also compare the data to the measurements collected by its TanDEM-X satellite constellation, launched in 2010. Furthermore, the forest data gathered in Gabon might help to inform policymakers working on climate mitigation and forest conservation policies, Saatchi said. AfriSAR is NASA's first collaboration with Gabon's young space agency, AGEOS, and also its first large international campaign in Africa since NASA participated in a hydrological study of the Sahel in the early 1990s. ### New Haven, Conn. -- A pregnant Brazilian woman infected with the Zika virus had a stillborn baby in January who had signs of severe tissue swelling as well as central nervous system defects that caused the cerebral hemispheres of the brain to be absent. It is the first report to indicate a possible association of congenital Zika virus and damage to tissues outside the central nervous system. Researchers led by Albert Ko, M.D. of the Yale School of Public Health and Dr. Antonio Raimundo de Almeida at the Hospital Geral Roberto Santos in Salvador, Brazil, describe the case in the current issue of the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Ko and colleagues said the case provides evidence that, in addition to microcephaly, (a condition marked by an abnormally small head in newborns and widely linked to the Zika outbreak in Brazil), congenital Zika infection may also be linked to hydrops fetalis (abnormal accumulation of fluid in fetal compartments), hydranencephaly (almost complete loss of brain tissue) and fetal demise (stillbirth). The researchers said that it is not possible to extrapolate from a single case the overall risk for these outcomes faced by women who are exposed to the virus during pregnancy. "These finding raise concerns that the virus may cause severe damage to fetuses leading to stillbirths and may be associated with effects other than those seen in the central nervous system," said Ko, chair of the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, who has worked on the Zika outbreak in the coastal city of Salvador with Brazilian colleagues since shortly after the first cases of the mosquito-borne virus were reported there in early 2015. "Additional work is needed to understand if this is an isolated finding and to confirm whether Zika virus can actually cause hydrops fetalis." The patient, a 20-year-old woman, was having a normal pregnancy during her first trimester. That changed abruptly during the course of the 18th week of pregnancy, when an ultrasound examination discovered that the fetus' weight was well below where it should have been at that point. The woman did not report any of the symptoms commonly associated with Zika (rash, fever, or body aches) prior to or during the early stages or her pregnancy, the researchers said. She also did not exhibit symptoms of other mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue or chikungunya. By the 30th week of the pregnancy, the fetus showed a range of birth defects. Labor was induced at the 32nd week. Researchers subsequently confirmed the presence of the Zika virus in the fetus. The strain of Zika that was found appears to be the same strain that is currently spreading elsewhere. Since Zika appeared in Brazil, the virus has spread rapidly throughout much of Latin America and into the Caribbean. Several cases have also been confirmed in the United States. The researchers said that since it is likely that large numbers of pregnant women in Brazil and beyond will be exposed to the same Zika strain as the woman in the case study, further investigations are needed to determine the risk of stillbirth and the other adverse outcomes. Ko worked on the study with colleagues from the Hospital Geral Roberto Santos in Salvador, the Universidade Federal da Bahia in Salvador, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Salvador and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Please contact plosntds@plos.org if you would like more information about our content and specific topics of interest. All works published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases are open access, which means that everything is immediately and freely available. Use this URL in your coverage to provide readers access to the paper upon publication: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004517 (Link goes live upon article publication) ### Contact: Michael Greenwood 203-737-5151 michael.greenwood@yale.edu About PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal devoted to the pathology, epidemiology, prevention, treatment, and control of the neglected tropical diseases, as well as public policy relevant to this group of diseases. All works published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases are open access, which means that everything is immediately and freely available subject only to the condition that the original authorship and source are properly attributed. The Public Library of Science uses the Creative Commons Attribution License, and copyright is retained by the authors. About the Public Library of Science The Public Library of Science (PLOS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. For more information, visit http://www.plos.org. Media Permissions PLOS Journals publish under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits free reuse of all materials published with the article, so long as the work is cited (e.g., Kaltenbach LS et al. (2007) Huntington Interacting Proteins Are Genetic Modifiers of Neurodegeneration. PLOS Genet 3(5): e82. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0030082). No prior permission is required from the authors or publisher. For queries about the license, please contact the relative journal contact indicated here: http://www.plos.org/journals/embargopolicy.php Springer is launching a new book series called Theory and Practice of Urban Sustainability Transitions. The series will provide compelling new insights for an international audience by exploring the dynamics, challenges and breakthroughs in accelerating urban sustainability transitions in cities. It draws from the growing area of transition thinking and action that developed in the last decade across the globe. Aimed at professionals and academics, the series will provide rich insights and concrete, inspiring cases and strategies by comparing governance approaches in different countries. The series reflects upon new visions for smart, low carbon or ecocities, as well as upon the role of low carbon technologies (hard technologies) and new forms of governance for sustainability transitions. It offers practitioners and policymakers frameworks for long-term strategic governance to deal with urban sustainability challenges and opportunities. Furthermore, it will provide scholars with state-of-the-art theoretical developments applicable to the context of cities. The five series editors are leading action researchers in transitions from the Netherlands and Japan. The first volume in the series Governance of Urban Sustainability Transitions-European and Asian Experiences will be published in the first quarter of 2016. The lead series editor, Dr. Derk Loorbach, professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands and director of the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, has been pioneering transition management from the turn of the century. He said, "Understanding transitions and influencing them in urban contexts are urgent challenges globally. This series will provide timely reflections of how transition studies and transition management evolve worldwide." Another series editor, Prof. Hideaki Shiroyama, dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo, has actively introduced transition research in the Japanese context. He said, "The series will provide possible recipes for tackling climate change, aging populations, stagnant economy, reorganizing welfare society and zero carbon growth." Mei Hann Lee, Editor Life Sciences at Springer, said, "Cities are at the center of tough challenges and exciting opportunities. Cities, which account for 60 or 70 percent of the world population, the gross national product (GNP) and CO2 emission, are at the heart of the debate in achieving the climate targets set in COP21. With a foundation of innovative research and ongoing practices, Theory and Practice of Urban Sustainability Transitions will provide new theories, best practices and conceptual tools." ### Springer is part of Springer Nature, a leading global research, educational and professional publisher, home to an array of respected and trusted brands providing quality content through a range of innovative products and services. Springer Nature is the world's largest academic book publisher, publisher of the world's highest impact journals and a pioneer in the field of open research. The company numbers almost 13,000 staff in over 50 countries and has a turnover of approximately 1.5 billion. Springer Nature was formed in 2015 through the merger of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media. Find out more: (http://www.springernature.com) One in four cases of colorectal cancer (CRC) detected in a guiac faecal occult blood testing (gFOBT) programme are diagnosed within two years of a negative screening result, a study in the UEG Journal (1) has found, suggesting that gFOBT should be replaced by more sensitive screening methods to improve detection rates. CRC is the most common type of digestive cancer in Europe (2) and annual incidence is predicted to rise by 12% by 2020 (3). The observational study was carried out on 772,790 people during the first round of the Scottish Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, in which individuals aged 50-74 years were invited to participate in gFOBT screening over a two year study. Overall uptake of the screening was 54%, and of the 1,979 individuals who were diagnosed with CRC during the study period, 25% of the cases detected were within two years of a negative screening result (interval cancers). Professor Evelien Dekker, United European Gastroenterology CRC screening expert, comments: "Although there are no universal guidelines on an acceptable interval cancer rate, this study supports the need to switch CRC screening with gFOBT to a more sensitive method, such as faecal immunochemical testing, to help reduce this figure". Due to its superior analytical technique and adjustable cut-off levels, faecal immunochemical testing (FIT) offers substantial clinical benefits which could help increase CRC detection during screening. Comparative studies between the two faecal tests have been performed and have demonstrated the superiority of FIT over gFOBT screening (4,5). FIT has been fully implemented in some areas of Europe such as France and Slovenia, demonstrating robust results so far. A nationwide programme is currently being rolled out in the Netherlands and other nations are piloting the method too. As well as its enhanced clinical benefits, utilising FIT has been shown to increase participation rates in CRC screening because the test is easier to perform and typically uses only a single faecal sample instead of the three required in gFOBT (6). "The simplicity of FIT should encourage a larger proportion of the public to undertake CRC screening, which also can help increase the levels early detection to improve survival rates" explains Professor Dekker. "With incidence of CRC expected to rise between now and 2020, implementing FIT across Europe should help increase screening participation rates. In the Netherlands we have experienced a participation rate that is 12% higher for FIT compared to gFOBT". The Need for Screening: With 355,436 people (46%) not participating in screening during the Scottish Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, the study also highlighted that 47% cases of CRC arose in these non-participants. This compares to just 28% of patients receiving diagnosis through a screening test, where the cancer is more likely to be detected at an earlier stage (see table below). UEG - Interval Cancer in CRC Screening Stage Screen-detected Cancer (%) Interval Cancer (%) Non-participant Cancer (%) A 33.9 18.7 11.3 B 25.6 25.5 25.3 C 25.2 28.5 29.3 D 6.3 18.9 21.5 Unknown 9 8.4 12.6 Distribution of screened-detected cancer, interval cancer and non-participant cancer by stage (A earliest stage; D latest stage) Early detection of CRC results in a high survival rate, emphasising the requirement that both an effective screening process and a high uptake of screening should be targeted to identify and treat the disease as early as possible. Professor Dekker adds: "These findings demonstrate that members of the public should be encouraged to participate in CRC screening and not ignore the potential symptoms of CRC after a negative screening result. Consultation with a doctor is strongly advised if symptoms occur, which include blood in the stool or a persistent change in bowel habits". ### Notes to Editors About UEG UEG, or United European Gastroenterology, is a professional non-profit organisation combining all the leading European societies concerned with digestive diseases. Together, its member societies represent over 22,000 specialists, working across medicine, surgery, paediatrics, gastrointestinal oncology and endoscopy. This makes UEG the most comprehensive organisation of its kind in the world, and a unique platform for collaboration and the exchange of knowledge. Find out more by visiting http://www.ueg.eu To advance standards of gastroenterological care and knowledge across Europe and the world, UEG offers numerous activities and initiatives, including: UEG Week, the biggest congress of its kind in Europe, and one of the two largest in the world. UEG Education, the universal source of knowledge in gastroenterology, providing online and classroom courses, a huge online library and delivering the latest GI news, fostering debate and discussion Training Support, funding for innovative training and educational programmes, as well as international scientific and professional co-operations UEG Journal , published bi-monthly, covering translational and clinical studies from all areas of gastroenterology , published bi-monthly, covering translational and clinical studies from all areas of gastroenterology EU Affairs, promoting research, prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of digestive diseases, and helping develop an effective health policy for Europe About Professor Dekker Professor Evelien Dekker, UEG spokesperson and colorectal cancer screening expert, AMC Amsterdam Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Netherlands. To interview Professor Dekker, or for further information, please contact Luke Paskins at UEG on 44-0-1444-811099 or media@ueg.eu References 1. Steele RJC, Stanners G, et al. Interval cancers in a national colorectal cancer screening programme. UEG Journal. January 2016. http://ueg.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/01/06/2050640615624294.full 2. Roberts SE, Samuel DG, Williams JG, et al. Survey of Digestive Health across Europe. Part one: The burden of gastrointestinal diseases and the organisation and delivery of gastroenterology services across Europe. Report for United European Gastroenterology. October 2014. 3. International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) 4. Van Rossum L et al, Gastro 2008 5. Hol L et al, Gut 2010 6. Allison JE, Halloran SP, Population screening for colorectal cancer means getting FIT: The past, the present, and future of colorectal cancer screening using the faecal immunochemical test for haemoglobin (FIT). Gut and Liver. March 2014. http://www.gutnliver.org/journal/view.html?doi=10.5009/gnl.2014.8.2.117 Malaria is a worldwide menace. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 500,000 individuals died from malaria in 2013 alone. While treatments for the disease exist, cures can also take a hefty physical toll. Professor of chemistry Robert Doyle in the College of Arts and Sciences, graduate students Brian Huta and Yan Nie, and an international team have begun to unravel the biochemical action of one such malarial drug. The drug chloroquine has long been used to treat malaria, but it is not without side effects. Chloroquine kills malaria by causing the pH in certain parts of the parasite's cell to increase, preventing important biochemical reactions. Unfortunately, excessive use of the drug can be toxic to humans too. Long-term use of chloroquine can lead to side effects from gastrointestinal distress all the way up to chemical harm to the heart and death Saposin B, a protein found in the cell's lysosome bound to the anti-malarial drug Chloroquine To better understand how chloroquine toxicity occurs, Doyle and his team set out to investigate what the drug binds to in human cells. Doyle had a hunch that chloroquine might be acting with a particular protein, saposin B, found in the lysosome of cells. Lysosomes break down and remove waste from cells, including excess lipids. People without saposin B develop a fatal, incurable condition, illustrating the importance of this protein in the cell. "I was studying saposin B interaction with a natural lipid found in cells. It occurred to me that the lysosome is where the anti-malarial drug chloroquine also localizes after you ingest it. Since saposin B can remove damaged lipids, I wondered if it might bind chloroquine and reduce the drug's toxicity as a consequence," Doyle says. The team was pleasantly surprised to find that saposin B does bind chloroquine. This result was unexpected because saposin B is known to bind lipids -- and chloroquine is not a lipid. "This is a new class of molecule for saposin B to bind," Doyle says. Doyle, Huta and Nie confirmed the binding activity with collaborators at SUNY Potsdam. In addition, collaborators in France determined the physical structures involved in binding. "The fact that we obtained a structure of the saposin B with chloroquine bound was also wonderful, since up until now there has been no structure of saposin B with any bound molecule," Doyle says. "Quite a first, and a testament to the skills of our collaborators in France." This new knowledge of chloroquine binding offers a suggestion as to the drug's toxicity. Because saposin B binds both lipids and the drug, prolonged use of the drug may keep saposin B busy binding chloroquine instead of removing damaged lipids from the cell, Doyle says. Now that the team knows that saposin B binds more than just lipids, the door is wide open to investigate other conditions in which the protein may play a role. "The results suggest that saposin B might be up to a lot more than originally thought. We think that it might have a role in play in certain lysosomal storage diseases and have started a new collaboration to explore this approach," Doyle says. To better understand how chloroquine toxicity occurs, Doyle and his team set out to investigate what the drug binds to in human cells. Doyle had a hunch that chloroquine might be acting with a particular protein, saposin B, found in the lysosome of cells. Lysosomes break down and remove waste from cells, including excess lipids. People without saposin B develop a fatal, incurable condition, illustrating the importance of this protein in the cell. "I was studying saposin B interaction with a natural lipid found in cells. It occurred to me that the lysosome is where the anti-malarial drug chloroquine also localizes after you ingest it. Since saposin B can remove damaged lipids, I wondered if it might bind chloroquine and reduce the drug's toxicity as a consequence," Doyle says. The team was pleasantly surprised to find that saposin B does bind chloroquine. This result was unexpected because saposin B is known to bind lipids--and chloroquine is not a lipid. "This is a new class of molecule for saposin B to bind," Doyle says. Doyle, Huta and Nie confirmed the binding activity with collaborators at SUNY Potsdam. In addition, collaborators in France determined the physical structures involved in binding. "The fact that we obtained a structure of the saposin B with chloroquine bound was also wonderful, since up until now there has been no structure of saposin B with any bound molecule," Doyle says. "Quite a first, and a testament to the skills of our collaborators in France." This new knowledge of chloroquine binding offers a suggestion as to the drug's toxicity. Because saposin B binds both lipids and the drug, prolonged use of the drug may keep saposin B busy binding chloroquine instead of removing damaged lipids from the cell, Doyle says. Now that the team knows that saposin B binds more than just lipids, the door is wide open to investigate other conditions in which the protein may play a role. "The results suggest that saposin B might be up to a lot more than originally thought. We think that it might have a role in play in certain lysosomal storage diseases and have started a new collaboration to explore this approach," Doyle says. The study, lead authored by Huta, was featured on the cover of the journal ChemMedChem. ### TUCSON, Ariz. -- Research led by scientists from the University of Arizona and the National Institute for Amazon Research in Brazil has discovered the reason for a discrepancy between large seasonal changes in photosynthesis in the Amazon forest. Most tropical forests appear green and photosynthesize all year long, but scientists long have debated whether -- and by how much -- the "greenness" of these forests can increase and decrease seasonally. In particular, scientists were puzzled by the seeming discrepancy between large seasonal changes in photosynthesis seen from towers on the ground versus smaller changes seen from satellites in space. An international team of scientists from the U.S., Brazil and Australia used high-tech forest photography to discover the reason for the discrepancy: Synchronization of new leaf growth with old leaf loss causes the large seasonal increases in photosynthesis and greenness measured from forest towers and is also consistent with the observations from space. The findings, published Feb. 26 in the journal Science, should help scientists improve their predictions of how these forests respond to future climate change by replacing assumptions about how tree canopies can increase or decrease their level of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is how all plants live, using sunlight to manufacture sugars and carbohydrates (their "food" supply) from atmospheric carbon dioxide, giving oxygen back to the atmosphere along the way. Scientific models that predict how climate and vegetation interact with each other long have represented tropical forest trees in a simplistic way, assuming they have consistent canopy greenness throughout the year -- unlike the dramatic cyclical changes in temperate forests, heralded by vibrant reds and yellows. "Across the landscape, at large scales seen by satellites, the forests always look evergreen," said Jin Wu, a postdoctoral research associate at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. "However, when we used cameras to look carefully every day at the trees one by one, it was very exciting. We saw dramatic leaf loss and rapid growth spurts of new leaves that couldn't be easily seen by satellites." Wu is the lead author on a study completed while he was a Ph.D. student with senior author Scott Saleska, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the UA. The discovery through photos showing that synchronized old leaf death and new leaf growth happened at the same time as the annual seasonal increase in forest photosynthesis was the key to the whole story, explained Saleska, who compared photosynthesis to human metabolism. "Simply put, when it comes to leaves and photosynthesis, it is no different than with us humans: Age matters," Saleska said. "When you swap out a bunch of old leaves and exchange them for young new ones instead, overall photosynthesis has to go up, even if the total amount of leaves doesn't change very much." The amount of leaves being exchanged is surprisingly high. When collaborating authors Bruce Nelson and Aline Lopes, staff researcher and graduate student, respectively, at Brazil's National Institute for Amazon Research, first started looking at the camera images of the forest at two sites near Manaus, they were astonished. "Fully a third of the trees in this forest lose most or all of their leaves, and then within just a month grow them all back again," Lopes said. "It's an amazing example of how dynamic individual trees can be, even in a forest that overall is classified simply as 'evergreen.'" Added Saleska: "There is the old saying that you can't see the forest for the trees. What this work shows is that sometimes, the opposite is true: You can't see the forest until you also see the trees -- and the individual leaves, too." ### The research was supported by the National Science Foundation's Partnership for International Research and Education, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the University of Arizona's Agnese Nelms Haury Foundation, the GoAmazon project (funded jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Brazilian state science foundations in Sao Paulo state and Amazonas state), the Brazilian Ministry of Science Technology, the Max Planck Society and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Irvine, Calif. -- The Aliso Canyon natural gas well blowout released more than 100,000 tons of the powerful greenhouse gas methane before the well was finally plugged Feb. 11, according to the first study of the event, to be published Feb. 26 in the journal Science. The results confirm that it was the largest methane leak in U.S. history. The University of California, Irvine joined the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, UC Davis and others to show that during the peak of the Aliso Canyon disaster, enough methane poured into the air every day to fill a balloon the size of the Rose Bowl. "The methane releases were extraordinarily high, the highest we've seen," said UCI atmospheric chemist Donald Blake, who has measured air pollutants across the globe for over 30 years. A co-author of the study, he also collected surface air samples near homes in the adjacent Porter Ranch residential area. The analysis of these samples found above-normal levels of several potentially dangerous compounds present in natural gas, including benzene, toluene and xylenes. "Some of the volatile organic compounds have been linked to health effects if exposure is long-term," Blake said. The disaster will substantially affect California's ability to meet greenhouse gas emission targets for the year, the researchers noted. "Our results show how failures of natural gas infrastructure can significantly impact greenhouse gas control efforts," said NOAA's Tom Ryerson, a lead scientist on the study. Fellow lead scientist Stephen Conley of Scientific Aviation and UC Davis said his first readings, in early November, were so high that he rechecked his gear. "It became obvious that there wasn't anything wrong with the instruments," he said. "This was just a huge event." At the time, Conley and his specially equipped plane were working with UC Davis on a California Energy Commission project searching for pipeline gas leaks. The state agency asked him to overfly the area around the breached Southern California Gas Co. well. Conley teamed with Ryerson, who had pioneered techniques for assessing oil spills with airborne chemical sampling during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe and the 2012 Elgin rig blowout in the North Sea. They assembled a group of researchers from UCI, the California Energy Commission and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, many of whom had previously collaborated on regional air quality projects. The team's measurements confirmed that high concentrations of methane and ethane were surging from the Aliso Canyon well into the densely populated San Fernando Valley. The analysis found that at its peak, the blowout doubled the rate of methane emissions from the entire Los Angeles Basin and temporarily created the largest known human-caused point source of methane in the U.S., twice the size of the next-largest source, an Alabama coal mine. According to the study, total emissions during the 112-day event were equal to one-quarter of the annual methane pollution from all other sources in the Los Angeles Basin combined. The disaster's impact on climate will be equivalent to the effect of annual greenhouse gas emissions from over half a million cars, it says. Eventually, more than 11,000 nearby residents were evacuated, and Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency. In addition to providing real-time air quality data from the leak site to state regulators, the measurements will let researchers check the accuracy of greenhouse gas measurements by remote sensing systems, such as satellites. The mega-leak has drawn attention to the broader problem of unintended emissions from natural gas production, processing, pipelines and storage infrastructure across the country. The study highlights the value of rapid-response airborne sampling for independent, time-critical, accurate and detailed information about major chemical releases, the authors said. Gauging leak rates, plume locations and plume composition could also help officials assess public health risks, the effectiveness of leak control, and climate and air quality impacts. "If we don't measure these things quickly, we won't have any idea what kind of response might be called for," Conley said. "We're happy that we could provide state officials with the scientific information they needed." Besides Blake, Ryerson and Conley, the study authors are Guido Franco of the California Energy Commission, Ian Faloona of UC Davis, and Jeff Peischl of NOAA and the University of Colorado Boulder CIRES. ### The work was funded by the California Energy Commission, the Southern California Gas Co., the California Agricultural Experiment Station and NOAA. About the University of California, Irvine: Currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 30,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. It's located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $4.8 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit http://www.uci.edu. Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UC Irvine faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UC Irvine news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists. First study published since Aliso Canyon well was plugged shows leak was equal to one-quarter of Los Angeles' annual methane pollution The Aliso Canyon natural gas well blowout released over 100,000 tons of the powerful greenhouse gas methane before the well was sealed on Feb. 11, according to the first study of the accident published today in the journal Science. The results confirm that Aliso Canyon is the largest methane leak in U.S. history. The research effort by the University of California, Davis; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and partners showed that during the peak of the Aliso Canyon event, enough methane poured into the air every day to fill a balloon the size of the Rose Bowl. "Our results show how failures of natural gas infrastructure can significantly impact greenhouse gas control efforts," said NOAA's Tom Ryerson, co-lead scientist on the study. The disaster will substantially impact California's ability to meet greenhouse gas emission targets for the year, the researchers said. Co-lead scientist and pilot Stephen Conley of Scientific Aviation and UC Davis said first readings in early November were so high he had to recheck his gear. "It became obvious that there wasn't anything wrong with the instruments," he said. "This was just a huge event." At the time, Conley and his specially equipped plane were working with UC Davis on a California Energy Commission project searching for pipeline methane leaks. The state agency asked him to overfly the area around the breached SoCalGas well. "Real-time information is invaluable for making good decisions," said the California Energy Commission's Guido Franco. Conley teamed with Ryerson, who pioneered techniques for assessing oil spills with airborne chemical sampling during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the 2012 Elgin rig blowout in the North Sea. They assembled a group of researchers from the University of California, Irvine; the California Energy Commission; and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, many of whom had previously collaborated on regional air quality projects. The team's measurements confirmed that high concentrations of methane and ethane were surging from the breached well into the densely populated San Fernando Valley. The analysis found that at its peak, the blowout doubled the rate of methane emissions from the entire Los Angeles basin and temporarily created the largest known human-caused point source of methane in the United States, twice as large as the next-largest source, an Alabama coal mine. Total emissions during the 112-day event were equal to one-quarter of the annual methane pollution from all other sources in the Los Angeles basin combined. The disaster's impact on climate will be equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from over half a million passenger cars. During the three-month event, Conley made 13 research flights in his single-engine Mooney TLS, carrying instruments that provided real-time measurements of methane and ethane, two components of natural gas, and captured air samples for more comprehensive analysis later in the laboratory. Eventually, more than 11,000 nearby residents were evacuated and Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency. In addition to providing real-time air quality data above and around the leak site to state regulators, the measurements will allow researchers the opportunity to check the accuracy of greenhouse gas measurements made using remote sensing systems such as satellites. Near the well site, co-author Donald Blake of UC Irvine gathered samples of the leaking natural gas to determine its composition and compare to Conley's airborne measurements. His analysis found a slew of other compounds present in natural gas, including benzene, butanes, pentanes and more. "The methane concentrations were extraordinarily high, the highest we've seen in ambient samples," said Blake, who has measured air pollutants across the globe for more than 30 years. "We also detected other volatile organic compounds." The mega-leak has drawn attention to the broader problem of fugitive emissions from natural gas production, processing, pipeline and storage infrastructure across the country. The study highlights the value of rapid-response airborne sampling for independent, time-critical, accurate, and detailed information about major chemical releases, the authors said. Measuring leak rates, plume locations, and plume composition would also help officials assess public health risks, the effectiveness of leak control, and climate and air-quality impacts. "If we don't measure these things quickly, we won't have any idea what kind of response might be called for," Conley said. "We're happy that we could provide state officials with the scientific information they needed." ### The authors of "Methane emissions from the 2015 Aliso Canyon blowout in Los Angeles, CA" are: Stephen Conley (Scientific Aviation and UC Davis), Guido Franco (California Energy Commission), Ian Faloona (UC Davis), Don Blake (UC Irvine), Jeff Peischl (University of Colorado CIRES and NOAA), and Tom Ryerson (NOAA). The work was funded by the California Energy Commission, the Southern California Gas Company, the California Agricultural Experiment Station, and NOAA. More information: Press kit with photos and b-roll: http://photos.ucdavis.edu/albums.php?albumId=1336566 AURORA, Colo. (Feb. 25, 2016) - The science of physical activity at work remains understudied despite widespread acceptance that it plays an important role in health. Now, researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have published a comprehensive review of ways to monitor physical activity and tools for occupational exposure scientists. The article describes techniques used to measure physical activity at work and elsewhere, focusing on pedometers, accelerometers and Global Positioning System technology. According to lead author Kenneth Scott, a PhD student in the Colorado School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology, it is the most comprehensive review of methods studying the connection between physical activity in the workplace and chronic ailments like heart disease. "Our economy has changed since the early 1900s when the field of occupational health was coming into its own," Scott said. "Now we have more workers who are sedentary during the work day, even in industries that we think of being very physically demanding such as mining. Workers, like many Americans, are facing common chronic diseases associated with physical inactivity." Inspired by midcentury studies connecting heart disease to inactivity among London bus drivers, the study proposes that the health effects of physical activity on the job can be better understood through careful study, similar to other well-characterized occupational exposures such as noise and lead. The article, Occupational Physical Activity Assessment for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management: A review of methods for both occupational health practitioners and researchers, was recently published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. It summarizes data on the public health implications of physical activity at work, highlighting complex relationships with common chronic diseases. And like so many CU Anschutz studies, it applies research to real world problems. According to the study, the intensification of work and increased length of the working day have likely impacted the health of sedentary and active workers alike. Too little physical activity can lead to an energy imbalance in which a person consistently consumes more energy than they expend. The evidence on occupational physical activity (OPA), though, indicates that there can be too much of a good thing. Excessive physical activity is associated with repetitive stress injuries, heat illness, fatigue and heart damage. It's possible that the type of physical activity people get at work has different physiological impacts than the type they get in the gym. Occupational health practitioners stand to benefit from understanding the strengths and limitations of physical activity measurement approaches, such as accelerometers in smartphones, which are already ubiquitous in many workplaces and in some worksite health programs. Such methods can be used to improve health as well as study it. Though no single technology yet measures physical activity perfectly, and there is no single gold standard for OPA measurement, a combination of methods and advanced tools can improve accuracy. "The devices that measure physical activity are being integrated with devices that measure physiological indicators like heart rate and body temperature," Scott said. "Those technological advances will help us understand what the impacts of physical activity at work are - how much activity is enough and how much is too much." So far, objective measurements have rarely been used to examine the relationships between specific occupational factors, physical activity levels and health outcomes. More accurate and precise measurement may help clarify its relationships with stress and cardiovascular disease risk, as well as with arthritis, depression, injury risk, and other health conditions. "People are beginning to realize that the workplace is a good place for positive health interactions," Scott said. "The more we expand opportunities for health in the workplace, the better." The study's co-author is Raymond C. Browning, PhD, of Colorado State University. ### The Colorado School of Public Health at CU Anschutz is the first and only accredited school of public health in the Rocky Mountain Region, attracting top tier faculty and students from across the country, and providing a vital contribution towards ensuring our region's health and well-being. Collaboratively formed in 2008 by the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and the University of Northern Colorado, the Colorado School of Public Health provides training, innovative research and community service to actively address public health issues including chronic disease, access to healthcare, environmental threats, emerging infectious diseases, and costly injuries. A team of Spanish researchers, with the participation of the University of Granada (UGR), has accurately detected a structure in the innermost region of a quasar (small, very far objects that emit huge amounts of energy, comparable to that emitted by a whole galaxy) at a distance of more than five billion light-years from Earth. It's the most accurate measure achieved until now of such a small and distant object, and it has been achieved thanks to the so-called gravitational microlensing effect, caused by stars belonging to a galaxy between us and the quasar, and which may magnify tiny regions within the quasar. In particular, the researchers have managed to measure the inner edge of the disk of matter (accretion disk) orbiting around the quasar Q2237+0305 (known as "Einstein Cross") through the study of the changes in the brightness of four different images of said quasar. Said images were obtained thanks to the OGLE (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment) and GLITP (Gravitational Lensing International Time Project) experiments, which monitored that quasar for 12 years and for 9 months, respectively. In the frontier of a black hole A quasar emits its energy due to a disk of hot matter orbiting around a supermassive black hole at high speed, and whose mass is the equivalent to a billion stars. Said disk's size is comparable to that of our Solar System but, being so far from us, it's not possible to measure its structure by usual means. In this case, it has been possible thanks to the gravitational microlensing effect, which has allowed the researchers to detect a structure in the disk's inner edge, in the very border of the black hole. Other than the UGR, this work has counted with the participation of researchers from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) astrophysical research institute, the University of Valencia (UV) and the University of Cadiz (UCA). As Jorge Jimenez Vicente, researcher at the UGR department of Theoretical Physics and Cosmology and one of the authors of this paper, explains: "the breakthrough of this work has been that we've been able to detect a structure in the inner edge of such a small disk at such a great distance, thanks to the gravitational microlensing effect. It would be the equivalent to detecting an Euro coin at a distance of more than 100000 kilometers". Only 1 in 500 quasars is affected by the gravitational microlensing effect. The information obtained will be very useful for understanding quasars, which in turn is essential to understanding how the galaxies were born and evolve. Jimenez Vicente notes that, in the future, when great monitoring programs are available, "the possibility of detecting high magnification events caused by the gravitational microlensing effect could be applied to thousands of quasars". An example of said monitoring programs is the planned Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, a telescope with a primary mirror of 8,4 meters in diameter, capable of analyzing the whole visible sky. It will be constructed in the north of Chile and will begin to operate in 2022. ### Bibliographic references: Resolving the Innermost Region of the Accretion Disk of the Lensed Quasar Q 2237+0305 through Gravitational Microlensing E. Mediavilla, J. Jimenez-Vicente, J.A. Munoz, T. Mediavilla 2015, ApJL, 814, L26 Link to complete article: http://www.iac.es/pdf/resultados/157_Perfil%20Disco.pdf ANN ARBOR -- Two University of Michigan-based scientists are leading an effort to explain the recent deaths of at least 75 howler monkeys living in the tropical forests of southwestern Nicaragua. Liliana Cortes-Ortiz and Kimberly Williams-Guillen are assembling a multi-institution team of experts to test various scenarios that might explain the Nicaraguan deaths, which come on the heels of smaller howler monkey mortality events in Ecuador and Panama. "It's really, really, really unusual to see this many monkeys sick all at once and to see this many monkeys dead all at once," said ecologist Williams-Guillen, a visiting scholar at U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment who has studied wild howler monkeys in Nicaragua since 1999. Williams-Guillen is also the director of conservation science for Paso Pacifico, an environmental nonprofit that works in Nicaragua's Pacific forests. She said her group has confirmed at least 75 deaths reported by Nicaraguan landowners and forest rangers, 70 of them since mid-January. Williams-Guillen plans to return to Nicaragua in a few days to investigate the monkey deaths and to look for other sick or recently deceased howlers. At this early stage, the researchers have four main cause-of-death hypotheses they'd like to investigate. They want to know whether the deaths were caused by: 1) drought or some other environmental stress resulting in lack of food or water; 2) poisoning by ingestion of plants containing high levels of toxic compounds; 3) pesticides or some other form of environmental contamination; or 4) a pathogen such as a mosquito-transmitted virus like yellow fever or Zika. "We don't know why this is happening, and we need to find out," said Cortes-Ortiz, a research associate professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology who studies primate evolution. "So we are putting together a team of experts to test all possible scenarios in the three countries where howler deaths have been reported." Cortes-Ortiz has studied howler monkeys in Mexico, Panama and Peru. She is the Mesoamerican regional coordinator of the Primate Specialist Group, which is part of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. "It is critical to conduct the proper tests and analyses to identify the cause of death for these howler monkeys and to understand whether the deaths in the different countries are related," she said. "At the same time, we need to avoid unfounded speculation and wait until we have solid information." Examination of some of the dead monkeys by the Paso Pacifico team showed mild dehydration, and the animals had full stomachs. That argues against lack of food or water as the primary cause of death, Williams-Guillen said. The researchers hope to collect tissue samples from dead howler monkeys and test for the presence of various pathogens, including the yellow fever virus and Zika, which are related. Those tests will be conducted at one of the partner institutions, not at the University of Michigan. While howler monkeys are known to be highly susceptible to the yellow fever virus, the disease has not been reported in Nicaragua for many years. And while Nicaragua has reported more than two dozen human cases of Zika recently, it is not known if the Zika virus sickens New World monkeys, Williams-Guillen said. "We have absolutely no evidence that these howler monkey deaths are due to Zika virus," she said. "Even so, it is legitimate to mention Zika in this context because it's an emerging infectious disease that has recently been detected in the same country where we're finding these dead primates." The U-M researchers will collaborate with researchers at several U.S. and Latin American universities who will analyze the blood and tissue samples. But before that can be done, various regulatory hurdles must be cleared. This month, Paso Pacifico applied for a research permit from Nicaragua's environmental ministry. The permit includes language that would allow the group to collect samples from dead howler monkeys and ship them out of the country for analysis, Williams-Guillen said. Other permits will be required to export the samples from Nicaragua and to bring them into the United States. The import permits will require approval from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Disney Conservation Fund has provided emergency support to Paso Pacifico to pay for the studies. Howler monkeys in Nicaragua, Panama and Ecuador are not considered threatened or endangered. But the International Union for the Conservation of Nature recently categorized them as "near threatened," due largely to habitat loss and fragmentation, according to Cortes-Ortiz. Large howler monkey die-offs could result in local population extinctions, which would impact the tropical dry forests where the primates live, Cortes-Ortiz said. Howler monkeys are fruit eaters and disperse plant seeds when they defecate, helping to maintain forest health. ### ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Screening for cancer has many obvious benefits - you're preventing cancer or catching it early. But each screening tool also comes with potential harms or risks. A new study finds most cancer screening guidelines do not clearly spell out the benefits and harms of the recommended actions. Researchers from the University of Michigan Health System examined 55 professional guideline recommendations for cancer screening or prevention. They found 69 percent did not quantify and present benefits and harms in comparable terms. "Almost all medical interventions have tradeoffs between different types of benefits and harms," says Tanner J. Caverly, M.D., MPH, clinical lecturer of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and a research investigator at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System Center for Clinical Management Research. "Patients rely on doctors to base screening recommendations on sound judgment as to whether, in their individual context, the benefits outweigh the harms. For this judgment, doctors need a clear understanding, in quantitative and comparable terms, about the degree of potential benefit and the degree of potential harm." The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, looked at guidelines such as mammography screening for breast cancer, PSA testing for prostate cancer, colonoscopy for colon cancer, HPV vaccination for cervical cancer and other screening tests. Guidelines were from agencies such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the American Cancer Society and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. The researchers found that 31 percent of guidelines recommending screening presented absolute effects for both benefits and harms. Meanwhile, 55 percent presented the tradeoffs unevenly, explaining the benefit but not the harm or presenting the numbers in different ways. For example, some studies used relative risk reduction, often a larger number, to show benefit - people who were screened were twice as likely to survive. But they used absolute risk, often a much smaller number, to demonstrate harm - 1 percent of people screened had a false diagnosis. "By unevenly presenting the statistics, guidelines can unintentionally give a false picture of the benefits and harms. The relative risk of "twice as likely" sounds significant, but in terms of absolute risk it might represent a very small difference," said senior author Angela Fagerlin, Ph.D., professor and chair at the University of Utah's Department of Population Health Sciences and a research scientist at the Salt Lake City VA. The researchers suggest that guidelines should quantify and present all important benefit and harm information in a well-designed table or graphic, so that they can be easily compared. "Improving how guidelines present the benefits and harms would help doctors better understand the trade-offs and facilitate informed discussions with patients. It would also help us to build better decision support tools for physicians," says Caverly, who is also a member of the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. ### Additional authors: Rodney A. Hayward, Elyse Reamer, Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher, Daniel Connochie, Michele Heisler Funding: VA Advanced Fellowship in Health Services Research & Development; Michigan Center for Diabetes Translational Research, National Institutes of Health grant P30DK092926; VA HSR&D Center of Innovation Disclosure: None Reference: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, published online Feb. 24, 2016, doi: 10.1093/jnci/djv436 Resources: U-M Cancer AnswerLine, 800-865-1125 U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, http://www.mcancer.org Clinical trials at U-M, http://www.mcancer.org/clinicaltrials mCancerTalk blog, http://uofmhealthblogs.org/cancer Researchers from Sheffield Robotics have applied a novel method of automatically programming and controlling a swarm of up to 600 robots to complete a specified set of tasks simultaneously. This reduces human error and therefore many of the bugs that can occur in programming, making it more user-friendly and reliable than previous techniques. This could be particularly advantageous in areas where safety of using robotics is a concern, for example, in driverless cars. The team of researchers from the University of Sheffield applied an automated programming method previously used in manufacturing to experiments using up to 600 of their 900-strong robot swarm, one of the largest in the World, in research published in the March issue of Swarm Intelligence journal. Swarm robotics studies how large groups of robots can interact with each other in simple ways to solve relatively complex tasks cooperatively. Previous research has used 'trial and error' methods to automatically program groups of robots, which can result in unpredictable, and undesirable, behaviour. Moreover, the resulting source code is time-consuming to maintain, which makes it difficult to use in the real-world. The supervisory control theory used for the first time with a swarm of robots in Sheffield reduces the need for human input and therefore, error. The researchers used a graphical tool to define the tasks they wanted the robots to achieve, a machine then automatically programmed and translated this to the robots. This program uses a form of linguistics, comparable to using the alphabet in the English language. The robots use their own alphabet to construct words, with the 'letters' of these words relating to what the robots perceive and to the actions they choose to perform. The supervisory control theory helps the robots to choose only those actions that eventually result in valid 'words'. Hence, the behaviour of the robots is guaranteed to meet the specification. We are increasingly reliant on software and technology, so machines that can program themselves and yet behave in predictable ways within parameters set by humans, are less error-prone and therefore safer and more reliable. The experiments carried out in the research required up to 600 robots to each make decisions independently to achieve the desired actions of gathering together, manipulating objects and organising themselves into logical groups. This could be used in a situation where a team is needed to tackle a problem and each individual robot is capable of contributing a particular element, which could be hugely beneficial in a range of contexts - from manufacturing to agricultural environments. Dr Roderich Gross, Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at Sheffield, said: "Our research poses an interesting question about how to engineer technologies we can trust - are machines more reliable programmers than humans after all? We, as humans set the boundaries of what the robots can do so we can control their behaviour, but the programming can be done by the machine, which reduces human error." Reducing human error in programming also has potentially significant financial implications. The global cost of debugging software is estimated at $312billion annually and on average, software developers spend 50 per cent of their programming time finding and fixing bugs. The research at Sheffield is an important step forward in the area of swarm robotics. The next stage of the research will focus on finding ways in which humans can collaborate with swarms of robots so the communication is two-way and they can learn from each other. ### The research was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) capital grant 'Human-Machine Co-operation in Robotics and Autonomous Systems'. A wise investor plays the financial market by maintaining a variety of stocks. In the long run, the whole portfolio will be more stable because of the diversity of the investments it contains. It's this mindset that resource managers should adopt when considering Pacific herring, one of the most ecologically significant fish in Puget Sound and along the entire West Coast, argue the authors of a paper appearing in the January 2016 print edition of the journal Oecologia. Just like a financial portfolio contains shares from different companies, the diverse subpopulations of herring from different bays and beaches around Puget Sound collectively keep the total population more stable, the study's authors found. "This paper shows that all of these little subpopulations are important to the stability of Puget Sound herring as a whole," said lead author Margaret Siple, a University of Washington doctoral student in aquatic and fishery sciences. "If you're a manager and you need to invest in multiple pieces of a natural resource, it's helpful to know what the impact will be of diversifying your efforts instead of just focusing on a few spots." Pacific herring swim close to shore to spawn in eelgrass or seaweed, and each subpopulation usually returns to the same area year after year. This life pattern has traditionally created a close relationship between the herring and First Nations peoples and tribes who harvest herring and their eggs on Pacific Northwest beaches, as well as the marine mammals and larger fish that feed on these small, silvery fish. Siple and senior author Tessa Francis, lead ecosystem ecologist with the Puget Sound Institute at UW Tacoma, analyzed 40 years of herring biomass data in Puget Sound to try to understand how the nearly 21 distinct subpopulations behave and relate to each other. They found that each smaller group varied out of synch with the others despite sometimes spawning near each other. They also found that high year-to-year variability, which is common in forage fish such as herring, was dampened by the existence of many distinct subpopulations, buffering the wellbeing of the entire Puget Sound herring population from the failures of any single group. "This paper shows that the local variability of herring helps ensure stability of the population," Francis said. "While biologists have recognized local variation in herring anecdotally, not all management has adapted to the 'local matters' perspective yet. This work shows that if you're interested in overall sustainability of the resource, protecting that local diversity is a good strategy." In Puget Sound, the commercial herring fishery is limited and targets juvenile fish in South and Central Puget Sound, mainly caught to be used as bait in sport fisheries, primarily salmon. Concern about overfishing has resulted in relatively light fishing for herring since around the late 1980s, compared with other regions. The Puget Sound herring stock is managed at a relatively fine scale, meaning all of the distinct subpopulations that spawn at various beaches in Puget Sound are known and counted by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. In Alaska and British Columbia, where the commercial herring fisheries are much larger, management doesn't yet account for what happens among smaller groups at individual beaches. But that local, beach-to-beach level is really how people and other animals most readily interact with herring, the researchers said, so it's important information to consider. "Salmon rely heavily on herring as a prey source. We also know that indigenous people connect to herring locally and are using the resource at a very local scale. Herring beaches are in their villages, they're walking distance from their homes," Francis said. This Puget Sound-focused study comes on the heels of a West Coast-wide effort last summer to bring together everyone who has a stake in Pacific herring from tribes, First Nations peoples and commercial fishers to fishery managers, nonprofits and scientists. The goal of the three-day summit in British Columbia was to capture the various roles herring plays in the ecosystem and understand how the species fits into the social, economic and ecological landscape. Now, a smaller working group is tasked with creating a way to bring social and cultural knowledge of herring into actual management of the fishery. As a starting point, the first day of the June summit was dedicated to hearing stories of how tribes and First Nations peoples interact closely with the fish. That intimate knowledge is lost to the existing herring management process, Francis said. "These social metrics are currently not used in fisheries management for herring, and yet herring is the forage fish of the people they come to shore to spawn and are tightly connected to people," she said. The working group's first paper that discusses the June meeting and initial findings was accepted in the journal Ecosystem Health and Sustainability this month. The team of about 20 people, the second working group of the Ocean Modeling Forum of which Francis is the managing director, will meet three more times, drawing inspiration from communities in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, and Sitka, Alaska. Ultimately, the group plans to construct a framework that agencies can adopt when they are ready to incorporate human dimensions, such as the cultural significance of fishing, into fisheries management. ### For more information, contact Siple at siplem@uw.edu and Francis at tessa@uw.edu. Related paper: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00442-015-3439-7/fulltext.html Posted with images: http://www.washington.edu/news/2016/02/25/herring-fisherys-strength-is-in-the-sum-of-its-parts-study-finds/ Plants transport water in pipe-like structures made of dead and empty cells within a vascular tissue called xylem. Sacha Escamez at Umea University concludes in his doctoral dissertation that different cell types work together to build the 'water pipes' in the xylem, to a greater extent than previously thought. This new insight can be used in modifying and improving properties of woody biomass. Xylem vascular tissue in plants (which is called 'wood' in trees and bushes) is a very important element because it transports water from roots to leaves while providing mechanical stability to the plant. The water-conducting parts of the xylem are formed after specific cells 'self-destruct' as part of a programmed cell death. These cells that die are also emptied, leaving hollow cell walls with their ends open, thus forming pipe-like structures. Sacha Escamez has participated in discovering that these 'self-destructing' cells make sure to protect the surrounding cells from potential damage connected with the former's programmed cell death. Meanwhile, the surrounding cells provide the 'self-destructing' cells with molecules called lignins, which contribute to building strong cell walls. The reinforcement of the walls of the 'self-destructing' cells by lignins is crucial in order to efficiently transport water. On the other hand, high amounts of lignin hinder the use of woody biomass for various applications. The new understanding of the extent of cellular collaboration during wood formation has implications for the quality and the chemical composition of wood. "This new knowledge is not only valuable from a basic research point of view; it is also an insight that can be used to modify and improve the properties of woody biomass, in particular with the aim of producing second-generation biofuels and biochemicals," says Sacha Escamez at the Department of Plant Physiology at Umea University. Second-generation biofuels is a generic term for biofuels produced from various types of biomass which do not compete with the production of food crops. Hence, it is a type of biofuels which can mainly be produced from wood. Biochemicals are chemicals that have been obtained through the conversion of plant biomass. Sacha Escamez has conducted the experiments on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Sacha Escamez has performed his doctoral studies within the research environment Bio4Energy. ### For the first time, genome sequencing has been carried out on Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis), a bacteria responsible for the disease Trachoma - the world's leading infectious cause of blindness, according to a study in Nature Communications. Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Menzies School of Health Research, Australia have discovered that genes can move from chlamydia strains in the eye to sexually transmitted strains of chlamydia, allowing them to then infect the eye and cause Trachoma - a neglected tropical disease. C. trachomatis is the major cause of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) worldwide and is also responsible for trachoma. Trachoma affects about 2.2 million people worldwide, and is still present in some Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory of Australia. The clinical impact of the results is that trachoma re-emergence may be more likely than previously thought, particularly if Chlamydia STI remains common. Dr Patiyan Andersson, Senior Research Officer at the Menzies School of Health Research (Menzies) and lead author of the paper, said: "This work came about from the analysis of frozen isolates that had been collected in the 1980s and 1990s. We were able to resuscitate chlamydia bacteria that had been frozen for 30 years, and study their genomes to find out how they had evolved." The study has resulted in a major change in the understanding of C. trachomatis evolution. It was previously believed that the different version of Chlamydia that caused trachoma were a completely separate lineage from those that cause STIs, this research team has proven otherwise. The team has provided strong evidence that the acquisition of just one or two gene variants can change an STI causing strain into a Trachoma associated strain. Because it is also now known that Chlamydia can readily exchange DNA this shows that there is a continued potential for new variant Trachoma strains to emerge. The study was led by Professor Nick Thomson from the Welcome Trust Sanger Institute and Associate Professor Phil Giffard, from Menzies, with important contributions from researchers at the Chlamydia Biobank at the University of Southampton. Associate Professor Giffard said: "The sequences of these strains were the biggest surprise of my scientific career to date - they were completely different to how they 'should' have been. Surprises are what every scientist hopes for. It was very rewarding to work with the same researchers who collected these strains in the Northern Territory in the 1980s, three of whom contributed even though retired, and also to work with our superb collaborators in the UK." The outcome of this study demonstrates the huge value of long term storage of clinical and biological material, and its analysis with modern high technology. There remain many important unanswered questions about C. trachomatis, which in many ways remains an enigmatic pathogen. However, this study has revealed some of its secrets. Professor Nick Thomson, group leader at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said: "Genomics has not only unified scientists across the world it has also challenged commonly held beliefs that make us rethink how we are tackling important diseases that have dogged human kind for centuries. Trachoma is a neglected tropical disease and one where the clear benefits of a combined skill set, using both classical and cutting edge techniques, have provided novel insights that are of immediate importance for tackling this disease." ### Notes to Editors: Publication: Andersson et al. (2016). Chlamydia trachomatis from Aboriginal people with trachoma are from novel lineages. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS10688 Participating centres: Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory 0810, Australia Pathogen Genomics, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, United Kingdom. Functional Genomics Centre Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich CH-8057, Switzerland. Institute for Veterinary Pathology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich, Zurich CH-8057, Switzerland. Department of Clinical and Experimental Science, Molecular Microbiology Group, University Medical School, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton SO16 6YD, United Kingdom. Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom. Selected websites: Menzies School of Health Research Menzies School of Health Research aims to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequality for populations in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, through excellence and leadership in research, education and capacity development. http://www.menzies.edu.au The Chlamydia Biobank The Chlamydia Biobank, a global resource centre for chlamydia research, is based at the University of Southampton. It was launched in 2015 and is the first dedicated collection of live Chlamydia trachomatis isolates, carefully selected to represent the full diversity of the species. The Biobank will save these and other rare chlamydia from extinction and will be available to use for vaccine development in the future should new trachoma strains emerge. http://www.chlamydiabiobank.co.uk/ The University of Southampton Through world-leading research and enterprise activities, the University of Southampton connects with businesses to create real-world solutions to global issues. Through its educational offering, it works with partners around the world to offer relevant, flexible education, which trains students for jobs not even thought of. This connectivity is what sets Southampton apart from the rest; we make connections and change the world. http://www.southampton.ac.uk/ http://www.southampton.ac.uk/weareconnected #weareconnected The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease. http://www.sanger.ac.uk The Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests. http://www.wellcome.ac.uk The deal to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is being implemented. Iranian centrifuges have been dismantled; enriched uranium has been shipped to Russia; the Chinese are rebuilding the heavy water reactor; and the UN and EU sanctions have been lifted. Billions of Irans frozen assets are being released. The deal is so far going according to plan. The EU can be proud of its initiative to start negotiations with Iran in 2003. These efforts have effectively prevented a military strike on Irans nuclear facilities with potential catastrophic consequences for a region already in turmoil. The EU has demonstrated its important role as a global actor in non-proliferation. Now it can reap the benefits. European trade delegations, along with those from Russia and China, fill Tehrans hotels. A market of 80 million people is ready to be accessed. Government officials and business managers are waiting for the US Treasurys instructions on the lifting of US sanctions to know when and on what conditions it is safe to invest in Iran. At the same time, as observed in the context of Irans parliamentary elections being held tomorrow, a political fight is taking place in Tehran. Following the nuclear deal, will the country become more open, or will it continue to see the West as the enemy? Can Iran become a different country in 15 years, when the deal expires? The contours of this identity battle are already visible. The current government is clearly in favour of transformation to an open society. As President Rouhani stated in his recent address to the UN General Assembly, I am speaking on behalf of a nation that, two years ago, again voted for constructive engagement with the world, and I can now proudly announce that today, a new chapter has started in Irans relations with the world. The Supreme Leader however seems to oppose this. He approved the final bilateral negotiations with the US and the deal itself. Yet he has made clear that negotiating with the US on other issues is out of question. Khamenei fears that the United States wants to influence the Iranian public opinion, targeting especially young people, and shape their views with respect to issues like the future of the Islamic revolution, the role of religion and the formulation of Iranian national interests. According to Khamenei, negotiating with Europe is different than negotiating with America because, negotiating with America means to open the path for influence in the fields of economy, culture, politics and security. This may seem contradictory. How can Iran negotiate with Europe without it affecting its politics, security situation, economy and culture and without allowing an open exchange of ideas? The Supreme Leader seems to want to perform a rather challenging balancing act. At a meeting with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps he warned against infiltration, but made a distinction between economic and security infiltration (the areas where Iran can neutralize the threat more easily) and intellectual, cultural and political infiltration. He stated: Economic and security infiltration is not as important as intellectual, cultural and political infiltration, for in cultural infiltration the enemy seeks to distort and undermine beliefs which underpin society. Creating an open society is thus not on his agenda. Nevertheless, the Supreme Leaders more receptive attitude towards Europe should be seen as an invitation for the EU and its members to become more active in engaging with Iran. The EU should design a comprehensive new strategy for relations with Iran. Immediately after the deal, the EU established a presence in Tehran in the form of a special representative. This should be supported by setting up an inter-sectoral group focused on Iran with access to the EU finance instruments as well as project coordination. In the initial phase, neutral areas of cooperation, such as fighting drug trafficking or environmental protection, should be identified and activities should be planned by the EU and Iran in close cooperation. Also, one of Irans economic priorities after the nuclear deal will be youth employment. The EU should establish a dialogue track devoted to this issue, providing know-how and experience. Advanced science and technology programs in fields other than nuclear or dual-use technologies should be designed for Iranian young scientists in cooperation with Irans Ministry of Science and Technology. Cooperation in the nuclear field will be possible, but challenging. On the one hand, the EU has tried during the last 12 years to include various ideas on cooperation as part of incentive packages for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. Cooperation in civil nuclear power, building light water reactors, etc. can again be put on the table. On the other hand, the JCPOA includes strong limitations on the dual use technologies and institutionalizes a special procurement channel. There is a need to coordinate future activities of the member states into an overall EU and E3+3 approach for cooperation in the nuclear field. In the long term, the EUs main policy instrument will be an EU-Iran Co-operation and Trade Agreement (CTA), which had been under preparation before 2003 but was put on hold because of the nuclear dispute. In preparing the new Agreement, attention should be paid to the structure and needs of the Iranian economy which includes the old economic structures such as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards-controlled entities, as well as new, more liberal, elements. Also, when the sanctions regime was in place, economic activity in Iran was heavily directed towards China, India and Russia. This was not the preferred choice for Iran, but rather a forced adjustment. The CTA should consider the cooperation/competition aspects on the EU economic engagement in Iran in the context of the Russian, Indian and Chinese interests and presence. The EU has previously been able to prevent military strikes against Iran and create a functioning framework for negotiations. The challenge of the implementation phase is to continue this policy, which requires a delicate handling of any future crises if Iran threatens to exit the deal and/or the US or Israel threaten military strikes. As the EU will chair the Joint Commission that will deal with disputes during the process, there will be ample space for the EU to mediate and resolve any outstanding issues. But for formulating a comprehensive EU policy towards Iran, the basic question remains: where does the EU want to find itself its relationship with Iran, as well as the region, in 15 years time? The opinions articulated above represent the views of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the position of the European Leadership Network or any of its members. The ELNs aim is to encourage debates that will help develop Europes capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security policy challenges of our time. Earlier, Evolution News responded helpfully to a question from an email correspondent. Here are more questions and answers. A reader writes with a few good queries on the nature of ID theory. Question: On the complexity and specificity arguments, Ive read that there are two arguments used as evidence for a designers existence. However, do such arguments entail that the designer is still intervening in the ongoing development of the universe and of life within it? Or does ID only state that there was a designer at least at the very beginning, and ID as a theory does not categorically state (or necessarily entail) that this designer is still interested in making changes? Thus, are the complexity and specificity arguments examples rather than actual requirements? Answer: ID is about design detection, and makes no statements about ongoing design or a design mechanism. We simply say that there are elements in the universe that give evidence of being designed. Anything further goes beyond what we can say. For example, we can say nothing about how (by what mechanism) design is instantiated. As for specified complexity and irreducible complexity, they are methods of design detection. I see irreducible complexity as a special case of specified complexity. There are probably other valid arguments for design, such as the fact that the universe is intelligible to us when there is no logical requirement that it be so. Question: Does ID associate any particular attributes with this designer? I am aware that various prominent ID proponents have said, on different occasions, yes and no and I do see a difference between a) ID theory itself, and b) personal opinion on aspects of the theory. The first is a necessary contingent on the theory itself. The second is not. My analogy for this is Christians believe certain things. Catholics accept the main Christian belief, plus a few other things. Answer: ID posits nothing about the attributes of this designer, other than the fact that the designer must be capable of carrying out design at the appropriate scale. Anything more is personal opinion. As one leading ID scientist has written: I myself do believe in a benevolent God, and I recognize that philosophy and theology may be able to extend the argument. But a scientific argument for design in biology does not reach that far. Thus while I argue for design, the question of the identity of the designer is left open. Possible candidates for the role of designer include: the God of Christianity; an angel fallen or not; Platos demiurge; some mystical New Age force; space aliens from Alpha Centauri; time travelers; or some utterly unknown intelligent being. Of course, some of these possibilities may seem more plausible than others based on information from fields other than science. Nonetheless, as regards the identity of the designer, modern ID theory happily echoes Isaac Newtons phrase Hypothesis non fingo(I make no hypothesis). (Michael Behe, The Modern Intelligent Design Hypothesis, Philosophia Christi, Series 2, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2001), pg. 165) Question: Inherent in ID theory, is there the idea that there was purpose in the design? And, if so, what specific purposes? Answer: ID also does not say anything about purpose, aside from the fact that things, especially biological things, look like they were made to carry out some particular function. They work together as a whole to make a functional organism. That functional organism is part of an ecosystem, and contributes to the functioning of that system. But is there an overall purpose to that system? To make a biosphere? This can be pushed out only so far; as to the reason for the existence of all of this why there should be such a planet, or the reason for our existence on the planet that goes beyond what ID can say. Final ends belong in the realms of philosophy and theology. Question: A personal question regarding how the ID debate has been fought. Why oh why was it based on biology??? IMHO, that was a terrible starting point! I would suggest later iterations and discussions focus on even more fundamental aspects of the universe. Time (apparently) is constant and measurable (not random and chaotic); the universal constant is just that a constant and without such a very, very limited range of variation, we could not exist (at least, not as we do now). Mathematics works again, in my thinking, a sign that this universe is rational; and if rational, designed (rationality and order from chaos???). I know Plato et al. discussed this, but it seems to have been ignored in the ID debate. As I hope I have clearly indicated, Im after answers that clearly differentiate ID as a theory in general from any personal takes on it (e.g., characteristics of the designer). Answer: ID is not based purely on biology, though it may appear to be sometimes. The extreme fine-tuning of the universe for life; the fact that mathematics is rational and elegant, and fits the needs of science; the fact that chemistry is ordered so as to make its discovery possible, and that the planet is ordered so as to permit intelligent life to discover science at all (see The Privileged Planet) all these are arguments for design, design that is detectable by minds such as ours. I suggest reading A Meaningful World, by Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt. The reason it often appears that the argument is all about biology is because it is from there that the majority of pushback comes. Thanks for your questions, and I hope my response helps. Image credit: Brian Jackson / Dollar Photo Club. An email correspondent asks: Given the saltations seen in the fossil record (as well as molecular data), it seems that the gradual ratcheting of point mutation by point mutation evolution has little efficacy in explaining the diversity of life. Doug Axe has done work on this. Are there other clear demonstrations of the improbability of getting from one adaptive peak to another via this model? Yes, an enormous literature exists within evolutionary biology about the implausibility of point-mutation-by-point-mutation transitions between adaptive peaks. The following list, which focuses only on animal macroevolution, runs only to 2011. Many more recent papers have been published. These papers represent a sample of biological thinking about the problem of animal macroevolution, or macroevolution generally, over the past three decades. The authors agree that some amendment, perhaps radical, is needed to fix textbook (standard) neo-Darwinian theory, in order to solve the open question of how animal form and complexity arose via an undirected evolutionary process. They do not, however, agree on the solution, and may disagree strongly among themselves, for instance, on the question of whether animal embryos will tolerate deep changes to their essential developmental control networks. The authors come from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, such as genetics, developmental biology, paleontology, and comparative anatomy. None is an advocate of intelligent design, and none would see his ideas as supporting intelligent design. A recommendation: While all the articles are thoughtful, if the reader is pressed for time, Thomsons 1992 article is the shortest and most accessible, while Mikloss 1993 article, although the longest, is the most wide-reaching and vigorously argued. 1. John F. McDonald, The Molecular Basis of Adaptation: A Critical Review of Relevant Ideas and Observations, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 14 (1983):77-102. In 1983, geneticist John McDonald (at the time, at the University of Georgia) surveyed the evidence bearing on the role of genetic variation in macroevolutionary change. He argued that naturally segregating variation that is, of the character or magnitude normally seen in animal populations appeared to play a limited role, if any, in macroevolutionary events (p. 92). So striking was this pattern that McDonald dubbed it a great Darwinian paradox (p. 93), placing the following points in italics for emphasis: Those loci that are obviously variable within natural populations do not seem to lie at the basis of many major adaptive changes, while those loci that seemingly do constitute the foundation of many, if not most, major adaptive changes apparently are not variable within natural populations. [p. 93] 2. Keith Stewart Thomson, Macroevolution: The Morphological Problem, American Zoologist 32 (1992):106-112. Keith Thomson is a vertebrate paleontologist and anatomist who taught at Yale and Oxford; at the time this paper was published, he was president of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Throughout his career, Thomson has been concerned with the explanatory adequacy of neo-Darwinism. The basic article of faith of a gradualist [neo-Darwinian] approach, he writes in this paper, is that major morphological innovations can be produced without some sort of saltation. But the dilemma of the New Synthesis [textbook theory] is that no one has satisfactorily demonstrated a mechanism at the population genetic level by which innumerable very small phenotypic changes could accumulate rapidly to produce large changes: a process for the origin of the magnificently improbable from the ineffably trivial. 3. George L.G. Miklos, Emergence of organizational complexities during metazoan evolution: perspectives from molecular biology, palaeontology, and neo-Darwinism. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 15 (1993):7-41. George Miklos is an Australian geneticist (who, when this paper was published, worked at the Australian National University in Canberra). His 1993 paper, the longest in this collection of articles, is an often vehement manifesto attacking the explanatory claims of neo-Darwinian theory, largely on the grounds that textbook theory completely ignores the relevant level of mechanistic detail where macroevolutionary change is concerned. From the Abstract: The popular theory of evolution is the modern synthesis (neo-Darwinism) based on changes in populations underpinned by the mathematics of allelic variation and driven by natural selection. It accounts more for adaptive changes in the colouration of moths, than in explaining why there are moths at all. This theory does not predict why there were only 50 or so modal body plans, nor does provide a basis for rapid, large-scale innovations. It lacks significant connection with embryogenesis and hence there is no nexus to the evolution of form. It fails to address the question of why the anatomical gaps between phyla are no wider today than they were at their Cambrian appearance.I believe that the search for the Holy Grail (evolution of complex morphologies and nervous systems) has been conducted in the wrong place and at the wrong levels by evolutionary biologists. [p. 7] 4. Robert L. Carroll, Toward a new evolutionary synthesis, Trends in Ecology and Evolution 15 (2000):27-32. Robert Carroll is a vertebrate paleontologist and professor emeritus at McGill University in Montreal. In this article, he argues: Research in many disciplines over the past 40 years has demonstrated that the patterns, processes and forces of evolution are far more diverse than hypothesized by Darwin and the framers of the evolutionary synthesisIncreasing knowledge of the fossil record and the capacity for accurate geological dating demonstrate that large-scale patterns and rates of evolution are not comparable with those hypothesized by Darwin on the basis of extrapolation from modern populations and species. [p. 27] 5. Scott F. Gilbert, John M. Opitz, and Rudolf A. Raff, Resynthizing Evolutionary and Developmental Biology, Developmental Biology 173 (1996):357-72. The authors are developmental biologists (Gilbert at Swarthmore College and Raff at Indiana University) and a medical geneticist specializing in developmental anomalies (Opitz at the University of Utah). In this paper, published during a period of rapid growth for the young field of evo-devo (evolutionary developmental biology), the authors argue that, despite its merits with smaller-scale phenomena, the Modern Synthesis (textbook neo-Darwinism) fails to explain macroevolution. They write: Starting in the 1970s, many biologists began questioning its adequacy in explaining evolution. Genetics might be adequate for explaining microevolution, but microevolutionary changes in gene frequency were not seen as able to turn a reptile into a mammal or to convert a fish into an amphibian. Microevolution looks at adaptations that concern only the survival of the fittest, not the arrival of the fittest. As Goodwin (1995) points out, the origin of species Darwins problem remains unsolved. 6. Douglas Erwin, Evolutionary uniformitarianism, Developmental Biology 357 (2011):27-34. Douglas Erwin is an invertebrate paleontologist at the Smithsonians National Museum of Natural History and a leading expert on the origin of animal body plans. He collaborates frequently with developmental biologist Eric Davidson (see reading 7, below) on macroevolutionary questions. In this paper, Erwin argues that the manifold discontinuities among the animal groups what he calls the clumpy distribution of morphologies (p. 27) is not an artifact of sampling, but the real signal of history. Neo-Darwinism, he continues, attempted to rescue [its] uniformitarian explanations by explaining away this empirical pattern as a result of various biases (p. 33). In Erwins view, however, the processes of evolution have changed fundamentally over time, and evolutionary events possible in the Cambrian, such as the origin of the animal phyla, were unique occurrences. 7. Eric Davidson, Evolutionary biology as regulatory systems biology, Developmental Biology 357 (2011):35-40. Eric Davidson was a developmental biologist at Caltech who pioneered the study of the purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) as a model system. In his books and articles, he strongly attacked the explanatory shortcomings of neo-Darwinism, arguing that the theory focuses attention at the wrong level (small-scale variation), neglecting the genuine mechanisms of body plan construction. This paper gives a good overview of Davidsons recent thinking, starting with his critique of neo-Darwinian theory: Of [neo-Darwinism], I shall have nothing to say, as mechanistic developmental biology has shown that its fundamental concepts are largely irrelevant to the process by which the body plan is formed in ontogeny. In addition it gives rise to lethal errors in respect to evolutionary process. Neo-Darwinian evolution is uniformitarian in that it assumes that all process works the same way, so that evolution of enzymes or flower colors can be used as current proxies for study of evolution of the body plan. It erroneously assumes that change in protein coding sequence is the basic cause of change in developmental program; and it erroneously assumes that evolutionary change in body plan morphology occurs by a continuous process. All of these assumptions are basically counterfactual. This cannot be surprising, since the neo-Darwinian synthesis from which these ideas stem was a pre-molecular biology concoction focused on population genetics and adaptation natural history, neither of which have any direct mechanistic import for the genomic regulatory systems that drive embryonic development of the body plan. [pp. 35-36] 8. Andreas Wagner, The molecular origins of evolutionary innovations, Trends in Genetics 27 (2011):397-410. Andreas Wagner is a theoretical biologist at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Zurich. His research focuses on how complex systems function, respond to perturbation, and are modified by evolutionary processes. Recently, he has been addressing the problem of innovation, or the origin of complex novelties in organisms, the sine qua non of any evolutionary theory: How did new structures body plans, organ systems, etc. come to be, where they did not exist before? In this paper, Wagner begins by expressing his dissatisfaction with standard (neo-Darwinian) theory: We know many examples of innovations, each a fascinating piece of natural history. However, we know few of the principles that explain the ability of living things to innovate through a combination of natural selection and random genetic change. Random change by itself is not sufficient, because it does not necessarily bring forth beneficial phenotypes. For example, random change might not be suitable to improve most man-made, technological systems. Similarly, natural selection alone is not sufficient: As the geneticist Hugo de Vries already noted in 1905, natural selection may explain the survival of the fittest, but it cannot explain the arrival of the fittest. Any principle of innovation needs to explain how novel, beneficial phenotypes can originate. [p. 397] These brief summaries are intended to orient the reader who may be unfamiliar with the authors or the disputes, but cannot substitute for a careful reading of the papers themselves. These papers are only a tiny sample, of course, of a very much larger scientific literature addressing the problem of macroevolution. Image: Purple sea urchins, by Gregory Slobirdr Smith [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons. The Aussie Dollar Spot Conversion Rates Fluctuate After Global Equities Volatility and Falling Oil Prices Causes Market Sentiment to Dampen Today Stocks market volatility has been dictating market sentiment since the turn of the year, with Australian Dollar spot conversion rates fluctuating in response to changes in market sentiment. Uncertainty regarding Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) policy outlook has also dictated AUD exchange rate movement with positive domestic economic progress offset by outside risks. Chinas well documented slowdown is showing little sign of a swift recovery which is likely to limit Australian Dollar gains. Here are some live FX rates for your reference: On Friday the Pound to British Pound exchange rate (GBP/GBP) converts at 1 The GBP to GBP exchange rate converts at 1 today. The live inter-bank GBP-EUR spot rate is quoted as 1.141 today. FX markets see the pound vs us dollar exchange rate converting at 1.113. FX markets see the pound vs new zealand dollar exchange rate converting at 1.971. Please note: the FX rates above, updated 21st Oct 2022, will have a commission applied by your typical high street bank. Currency brokers specialise in these type of foreign currency transactions and can save you up to 5% on international payments compared to the banks. Westpac Predict RBA will Hold Rates but AUD Exchange Rates will Decline During Wednesdays European session the Australian Dollar softened versus most of its currency rivals as market sentiment dampened in line with crashing crude oil prices and global equity market volatility. Oil prices initially softened after Saudi Arabia announced it would not commit to a production freeze. Prices fell further following US data which showed stockpiles vastly exceeded expectations. Uncertainty regarding Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) outlook has had a detrimental impact on the Aussie since the turn of the year, but analysts at Citibank do not believe that the central bank will ease policy in the forthcoming meeting. The RBA may not cut rates as fundamental data showed Australian economy may grow 2.5%. AUD uptrend may be limited if market volatility deteriorates. We revised down AUD 0-3 month and 6-12 month forecasts to 0.70 and 0.71 respectively. GBP to AUD Exchange Rate to Extend Losses on Gove Comments Since Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced his intention to support those campaigning to leave the EU, the Pound has been on a continuous slide versus its major peers. Wednesday has seen pressure mount after MP Michael Gove stated that the reforms Prime Minister David Cameron secured are not legally binding as the PM has claimed. Also weighing on demand for the Pound was data from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) which showed British Retail Sales growth slumped in February. Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates Struggle as Demand for Carry Trades Cools Bucking recent trends, the Euro softened versus many of its currency rivals on Wednesday as demand for financer assets is reduced as market sentiment moves toward stabilisation. With a complete absence of domestic data to provoke changes today, the Euro is likely to hold losses moving into the Asian and Australasian sessions. Comparative US Dollar strength is also having a detrimental impact on demand for the single currency thanks to EUR/USD negative correlation. US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rates Edge Higher despite Weak Services Output Although US economic data produced less-than-ideal results today, the Buck (USD) is holding a position of strength versus many of its rivals. The appreciation can be linked to safe-haven demand as global equity markets tracked falling crude oil prices. However, US data was particularly poor which could impact on the exchange rate as the North American session progresses. One of the more disappointing data results was the US Services PMI which failed to meet with expectations of a rise from 53.2 to 50.1, with the actual result dropping to 49.8; below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction. Usually, it's the UK spouse (sponsor) who needs to be earning at least 18,600. US applicant's income will only count if they are already in UK on a visa that allows them to work, such as student or work visa. So if you are in US, it's your UK spouse alone who must be earning. Alternative is savings of 62,500, kept for at least 6 months. This can be in either person's account or in a joint account, or a combination of any three. There are further rules if you are both living in US at the moment, and are returning to UK together. #expeditioncruising . Home to the famed Horizontal Falls and described by legendary naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough as on... Papa welcomed neighbors, and more distant farmers, who came to watch the silos progress. I had never before seen him glowing with such pride over any of the innovations he had introduced to Dunhams Hill the cream separator, crop rotation, the planting of legumes to restore worn-out soil, the binderthe silo was a special thing. from Papa Was a Farmer, Brenda Goldie Weisberg Meckler, circa 1912 Part Three Read Part one: Escaping Russia, becoming American Read Part two: From inventions on farms to tragedies With the rebuilding of the Weisberg home after a devastating fire, a Sears Roebuck kit house went up and Goldie tells the family story of the next impressive step on their southern Ohio farm. A silo was built, the first in the farming community. The silo was a special thingrising grandly amid its drab surroundings, it was indeed a work of art, Goldie writes in her memoir. Making silage The cutting of the still-green corn was something unheard of at that time. The ensilage cutter was making a debut, and many people came to watch it work. The stalks of tender corn were fed into the great maw of the beast, where they were cut up and blown into the silo from the top, through a large galvanized iron pipe, she writes. The heaviest man in the community was hired to climb the metal ladder, then was lowered to the bottom of the silo just before cutting began. It was his job to tromp all of that wet silage down as it was blown in, making sure it would ferment instead of mold by tromping all the air out. When the big fellow finally emerged at the top of that filled silo, sweat-soaked and covered with ensilage, cheers broke out. As he climbed down the ladder to shouts and applause and whistles, he met with happiness his friends throwing buckets of water all over him. Better milk The final step, Goldie writes, was carrying buckets of moist, rich soil up the metal ladder, spreading it across the ensilage at the top, and sowing grass seed upon it. The miniature meadow thus created was an added precaution against air getting into the ensilage. The cows began giving much more milk, were content and smelled of fermented beer, Goldie writes. Fathers ill Within the year, Goldies father began having more and more serious bouts of coughing, leveling him physically. A trusted doctor told the family the only thing that would save him would be a move to Arizona. Goldies mother blamed herself for accidentally starting the house fire, feeling sure inhaling smoke as her husband battled to pull treasured items out of the burning house damaged his lungs. Scholarly Goldie, a brilliant student and valedictorian of her high school class, was offered a full scholarship to Ohio Wesleyan College, a gift unheard of at that time. To the heartbreak of her educators, she was forced to turn it down. Instead, she became a one-room schoolhouse teacher at age 17. She easily passed the teaching certification course offered at that time, knowing she needed to help support her parents. She learned to love writing, teaching and directing plays. With the money raised by theatrical productions, Goldie bought books for her students. She was a passionate teacher who cared deeply for her students. Hollywood Goldie, born in Russia in 1900, raised as an American farm girl, would eventually become an impressive Hollywood screenwriter for Universal, was published in Colliers and became one of the pioneers in writing for television. Hers is a remarkable American life story, and it would not have been known had she not decided to write her first book at age 87. Papa was a Farmer shares a glimpse of early agriculture through the eyes of a sweet, intelligent girl called Goldie. Ohio hunters killed a total of just over 188,000 whitetail deer during all of the various deer seasons for 2015-2016, a number just slightly ahead of last years harvest. Sadly, according to most hunters, deer hunting was less than stellar with the increase due only to a huge difference in weather. Concerns Certainly, a valid concern and one that leads to a growing worry that Ohio hunters will never again see the numbers of deer seen previous to the management-by-planned-reduction of the overall herd that has been in effect for the last few years. Obviously, state wildlife officials have responded to lobbyists demanding less deer and are now attempting to somehow satisfy the wants and interests of hunters, insurance companies, and farmers, interests that represent a difficult challenge for management strategists. Regulatory changes Division of Wildlife officials claim to be, for the most part, pretty much where they need to be and have proposed very few regulatory changes for the 2016-2017 deer hunting seasons. The way it works is simple. Officials study the results of the recent season, see how they compare to the goals they had set, then propose a set of regulations and hunting seasons to the Ohio Wildlife Council for approval or suggested changes. Bonus gun season Season dates include a change for a two-day bonus gun season to be Dec.28-29, 2016, nearly a month after the week-long annual gun hunting season to be held Nov. 28- Dec. 4, 2016. Staying the same are county by county bag limits which include the drastic reduction in less expensive antlerless permits. Public input The Ohio Wildlife Council will vote on all proposals after receiving public input. Open houses to receive public comments about hunting, trapping and fishing regulations and wildlife issues will be held March 5. Open houses will be held at the ODNR Division of Wildlife District One, District Two, District Three and District Four offices and the Greene County Fish and Game Association clubhouse in Xenia. Regulations Open houses give the public an opportunity to view and discuss proposed fishing, hunting and trapping regulations with the ODNR Division of Wildlife officials. For Ohioans who are unable to attend an open house, comments will be accepted online at wildohio.gov. An online form will be available until March 6. Rule changes A statewide hearing on all of the proposed rules will be held at the ODNR Division of Wildlifes District One office at 9 a.m. March 17. The office is located at 1500 Dublin Road, Columbus, Ohio 43215. The Ohio Wildlife Council is an eight-member board that approves all of the ODNR Division of Wildlife proposed rules and regulations. The council will vote on the proposed rules and season dates during its meeting on Wednesday, April 13. Hello again! Cold winds have swirled outside my office window this week carrying with it the snow, leaving drifts in some places and laying bare the ground in others. Wind has been with us from the beginning of time, and the wind from God swept across the face of the waters, as we read in Genesis. Wind has filled the sails of discovery as men took to the seas and ground the grain to feed the masses using windmills first documented in Persia, around 500-900 A.D. The development of wind power would seem to be a no-brainer, as it would seem we have an inexhaustible supply and indeed we have seen wind farms pop up across the country. Wind turbines make an impressive sight when we first see them on the horizon and even more so when we get close to them. Wind energy If we could harness this energy in an efficient, effective and consistent manner, we could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels significantly. With the discovery and production of shale gas, we might think our energy future is secure, but there is still a place for wind technology in our future. This brings me to American biophysicist, professor of aeronautics and bioengineering, and dean at the California Institute of Technology, John O Dabiri. Dabiri was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1980 to Nigerian immigrants. His father was a mechanical engineer who taught math at a community college. His mother, a computer scientist, raised three children and started a software development company. It was his father doing engineering work on the side that encouraged and inspired young Johns love of engineering. Road to education John graduated first in his class in high school and was accepted by Princeton, the only university he had applied to. The summer after his junior year he accepted a summer undergraduate research Fellowship (SURF) in aeronautics at Caltech. Dabiri returned to Caltech for graduate school after graduating from Princeton with a BSR summa cum laude. He was finalist for both the Rhodes Scholar and the Marshall Scholarship. He has been awarded NFS research grants eight times in five different fields. He is currently a highly regarded professor at Stanford University. He is best known for his research of the hydrodynamics of jellyfish propulsion and the design of a vertical axis wind farm adapted from schooling fish. Yes, I said schooling fish. Noting that there is constructive interference in the hydrodynamic wakes of schooling fish, Dabiri suggested that extracting energy from flow vortices could aid more than locomotion. His models of the energy extraction mechanism are applicable to the design and evaluation of unsteady aero and hydrodynamic energy conversion systems like wind farms. His design of an array of vertical axis turbines led to about an order of magnitude increase in power output per area. Dabiri partnered with Windspire Energy for use of three of 24 turbines that stand approximately 30 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Innovative discoveries He started a company, Scalable Wind Solutions, to commercialize the software used to optimally place the wind turbines. This has also led to the U.S. Navy funding development of an underwater craft that propels on these concepts, using up to 30 percent less energy than before. These vertical axis turbines reduce the footprint of the area needed to for construction allowing multiple turbines on the same area that would be required for a single horizontal wind turbine. Increasing efficiency in power output as well as the amount of land required is a major step forward in the use and development of wind energy. As we continue to look for more practical applications of wind and solar energy we can be sure that John O Dabiri will be at the forefront of this research for many years to come. Upcoming dates On the FSA side of things we remind producers that March 15 is the deadline for 2016 NAP coverage on forage sorghum, oats, potatoes, soybeans, sunflowers and all spring planted specialty crops grown for food. USDA has also put another finance tool in its toolkit with the expansion of the Microloan program. FSA has begun offering farm ownership microloans, creating a new financing avenue for farmers to buy and improve property. These microloans will be especially helpful to beginning or underserved farmers, U.S. veterans looking for a career in farming and those with small and mid-sized farming operations. Microloans provide up to $50,000 to qualified producers and can be issued to the applicant directly from the FSA. As always, producers interested in applying for NAP coverage or a Microloan should contact their local FSA office for more information or to set up an appointment. Thats all for now, FSA Andy One hundred years ago gas engines and tractors were still pretty new, and most people didnt know what made them go when they ran, or what made them stop when they quit. A number of magazines had popped up, supposedly written by engine experts, to try to help neophyte engineers keep the stubborn contraptions going. One of these, Gas Power, the Magazine of Gas Engine Management, was established in 1903 in St. Joseph, Michigan. A column in the November 1916 issue of the magazine titled Jack, the Gas Engineer, Says, contains the following tidbits of wisdom: When you see your neighbor having trouble with his tractor, dont laugh at him too much; your turn is coming. No matter how good you are with a gas engine, you will someday run up against one that will make you think very little of yourself as a gas engineer. No power Right now I have an engine on my hands, out of which I simply cannot get the power. It is not the engines fault. It has done some pretty stiff work for me, but right now it isnt giving me the power, and it wont until I wake up and find out where I am neglecting it. One time I was running a tractor during threshing season and had gotten along so well that my hat was about two sizes too small. Everything was running so well that I went over to a stool and sat down to have a quiet little smoke. I wasted three matches trying to light them in the grease on my overalls and was just going back to the tractor to find a place where I could get a match to light, when one cylinder stopped firing. I tried the spark plugs, they were fine; I tried the coils, they were fine; I tried the compression, it was fine; I tried the valve timing, it was fine; I tried the wiring, it was glorious. By this time I was getting hot under the collar, and had wasted an overgrown half-hour, when one of the bundle pitchers crawled under the engine and handed me a 1/2 by 4-inch pin. Has that anything to do with the trouble? he asked. It sure had; it happened to be a contact pin, and it wasnt working very well so far from home. My hat fit me fine for a couple of days after that. Gas engine What is a gas engine? A gas engine is: A help or a hindrance. A money-saving machine or an expense account. A safe source of power or a contraption of the devil. A toy or a tool. In other words, a gas engine is just what you make it, it all depends on you. Do you love your wife? Yes? Then dont let her clean her gloves with gasoline beside the kitchen stove. This is a pendulum well call it public opinion. The editor tells us that somebody tipped the clock up so that the pendulum hung over toward large tractors, but then someone else kicked the clock over the other way and now the pendulum is over small tractors, and soon itll hang straight down over medium-sized tractors. Well hes a pretty good sort of fellow, and I guess hes right. But I think when someone takes the trouble to stand that clock up straight, and then wind it, why then well have all kinds of tractors. What do you think? I hopped onto Bills tractor early one day and said, Morning Bill, you look worried. Whats the matter? Well, Jack, he answered, I dont know just whats wrong, but she never sounded like this before, and I cant tell where the trouble is. I listened for a while and couldnt hear or see anything wrong. She was walking along nicely; pulling eight plows right along, and playing as pretty a little tune as you ever heard. A few days later, I saw Bill again and said, What was the matter with your engine the other day, Bill? Bill grinned, Well, he says, As near as I can figure it out, that was the first time I ever had her running right, and it didnt sound natural! We have surely come along some in the last 15 years. I remember well the first magneto-equipped automobile that was sold in Harvard, Illinois. It was a Haynes-Apperson two passenger car that had a one-cylinder motor perhaps it was a two cylinder, but I think not. What I do remember is that every loose man in town came to see that car when it was unloaded. It was then considered to be a wonderful product of human ingenuity. Probably there were several hundred people interested in that car. The other day at Cedar Rapids, I watched the cars that were driven onto the grounds. A big 12-cylinder one with all the refinements and improvements of the latest model did not attract any more than passing attention. Yet it was an immeasurably better machine than the old curiosity of a decade and a half ago. I suppose in a few years we will pay little attention to an airship unless it knocks our hat off. Magneto This man ran a tractor equipped with a high-tension magneto. For some reason, or lack of reason, he removed the magneto. When he replaced it, he failed to get it in time. Of course the motor would not start. The operator knew the magneto was sparking because he felt it. After wasting a lot of time, and not a few swear words, he sent for a factory man to fix it. Its surprising how many tractor owners do not know that a magneto must be timed to an engine, or how to do it. So, as someone once said, And thats the way it was, back in the days when engines, cars, trucks and tractors were young. COLUMBUS Conservation is alive and well in Ohio. That was the message at the Ohio Federation of Soil and Water Conservation Districts annual meeting held Feb. 22 and 23 in Columbus. The Champions of Conservation honored several individuals and groups at the awards luncheon Feb. 23. But that wasnt all attendees got to experience. Successful event Mindy Bankey, chief executive officer for the Ohio Federation of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, declared the conference a success. She said the conference was a blend of education and honors for attendees, and ultimately districts will benefit from what board members and technicians learned at the event. Education sessions Sessions included such topics as cover crops, phosphorus run-off, forestry, stormwater, technology in the fields for farmers, and there was even a session called breakfast on the farm. Last year, the Fulton SWCD brought the community to the farm for an agricultural experience. The Fulton SWCD brought over 3,000 people to a farm for breakfast and found out that over 50 percent of the events attendees had never been on a dairy farm. Grazing management One of the sessions taught by Bob Hendershot, a grazing specialist with the USDA- Natural Resources Conservation Service, about pasture soil health helped graziers learn more about why grazing animals are so important to improving the soil. Hendershot said the world cant have grasslands without grazing animals. The only known tool to heal the land, he explained, is animal impact everything that livestock do to the land. This is not just manure, but hoof action and salivating. Grazing actually adds biology, Hendershot said. Animals on pasture leave behind manure and saliva and young livestock even leave milk foam. Milk foam is what is often what is left on the animals muzzle after suckling from the mom. This all adds microbes to soil. To keep their eye on profits, Hendershot said farmers need to match animals and their forage values. Different stages of life depend on different feed values. Ewes with lambs or cows with a calf need a higher feed value than an animal not bred or those early in the gestation period. Hendershot also recommends keeping the time of the year in mind as well as the animal and its life stage different grass types and different time periods mean different feed values. Dont guess test, said Hendershot. He also urges graziers to keep the grazing area small, it helps minimize the number of places animals use for manure. Cooperator of the Year One of the big winners at the luncheon was Lohstroh Family Farms, named Farm Credit of Mid-America Cooperator of the Year. The farm concentrates on water quality, soil erosion establishing wildlife habit to education. George and Michelle Lohstroh along with their children Jonathon and Annie, work to spread the conservation message. To improve water quality and soil health, the Lohstrohs adopted controlled traffic practices to reduce compaction, use cover crops and no till to keep the soil microbes population up in the winter and increase the level of organic matter in the soil on their Mount Sterling, Ohio, farm. The farming operation includes pumpkins, cattle, soybeans and corn. The family has also added the use of solar and geothermal energy to their operation. The farm has used buffer strips along Deer Creek, fencing cattle out of the creek and streams and have worked to improve wildlife and pollinator habitat. Presidents Awards The Knox Soil and Water Conservation District earned the Districts Presidents Award. The district worked with the Knox County Farm Bureau, The Ohio State University and the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District to develop a mobile smartphone application to enable the farmer to gather the information necessary to comply with the state water quality regulations, such as the collection of weather, application location, forecast and speed the collection of their components up by providing simple drop downs for remaining record requirements. The app, Ohio Nutrient Management Record Keeper or ONMRK, was released this fall and is available to download online, Google Play and the App Store. The App allows producers to record the information on their smartphone then transfer it and use it on their computers. The app has been dowloaded thousands of times already. Individual award Tia Rice earned the Presidents Individual Award. Rice was a district administrator from Seneca Soil and Water Conservation District, who was diagnosed with cancer in July 2015 and died in October. Rice was known as a force to be reckoned with when it comes to conservation. She worked to spread the message, not just in her district but across the state and even nationally at conferences. Rices fiance and her daughter, Mike Thiel and Teahl Rice accepted the honor at the luncheon. Supervisors honored Two district supervisors were also honored at the conference. David Rohrer and Lawrence Burdell were both inducted into the Ohio Federations Supervisors Hall of Fame. Rohrer became a Wayne SWCD supervisor in 1987 and served for 25 years. He is a fifth generation farmer, growing corn alfalfa, wheat and potatoes as well as raising Holstein cattle. Burdell is a past OFSWCD president and served on the Gallia SWCD board for 26 years. Education awards The organization also honored three teachers for their work in natural resource education. Janet Scruby and Julianne Elder, both teachers at South Lebanon Elementary in Warren County, were honored for their work in conservation. The team of teachers work to add natural resource education into an environmental after-school science club called E-Club. Tracy Hall is a teacher at Lehman High School in Shelby County. Hall incorporates watershed education into her curriculum and encourages high school students to explore the possibilities of conservation-related science fair projects. With UK pig prices at an eight-year low, some of Scotlands major retailers must go further to support the Scottish pig sector through troubled times. In light of the poor returns to pig farmers, NFU Scotland has sent its pig producers out on a shelf watch, looking at the fresh pork being offered in a number of large retailers in Scotland. While these results show only a snapshot of the Scottish retail sector as a whole, they do throw up concerning results. The shelf watch on pork looked at shelves in nine different supermarket chains and 20 different stores. While there was excellent commitment from some, it is clear that other major retailers could significantly improve their support for domestic pig farmers. Aldi and Lidl were found to be the strongest supporter of Scottish fresh pork with the vast majority of pork in these stores originating from Scotland. Strong support for the domestic pig industry was also seen in Marks and Spencer and Waitrose where 100% of fresh pork and bacon was British. UK-only displays of pork were also evident in the Sainsburys, Morrisons and Co-operative Food stores visited. The biggest disappointment for producers was the discovery that Tesco and Asda were both found to be offering significant quantities of European pork over British and Scottish produce. Those taking part in the shelf watch also noted significant product co-mingling in these stores making it difficult for consumers to identify and support domestically produced pork when located alongside imported meat. Speaking after reviewing the findings, NFU Scotland Pigs Working Group Chairman Kevin Gilbert, who runs a breeder/finisher pig unit in Aberdeenshire, said: It is evident from our examination of Scottish shop shelves that some of our biggest retailers can go much further to support our industry. Fresh Scottish Pork was hard to find in many of the Tesco and Asda stores surveyed and, disappointingly, there were significant volumes of imported meat. Farmers are working hard in challenging conditions and producing to the highest standards of welfare and quality. We need to see our produce valued across the supply chain. We know that consumers want to buy locally produced sustainable food and the continued co-mingling of produce makes it difficult for them to identify pork which originates here, in Scotland. NFU Scotland will continue to work hard to highlight the quality and provenance credentials of Scottish pork and it is great to see it being prominently displayed in Lidl and Aldi. A special emphasis must also be put on bacon. While Dutch and Danish lead the bacon offering in the majority of our retailers, the good work being done in Waitrose and Marks & Spencer shows that a stronger commitment to home-produced bacon is easily achievable. NFU Scotlands pork watch surveyed a total of 20 supermarket stores, from Dunbar to Inverurie, which offered both fresh pork and bacon products. Collaboration between leading scientists in the UK and India will focus on tackling global food shortages with research into increasing crop yields and improving disease and drought resistance. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on 24 February 2016 between Indias Department of Biotechnology and a consortium of British research institutions including the John Innes Centre and the UEA. The aim of the MoU is to establish a joint UK-India collaboration programme in crop science, which will enhance collaborative research, promote knowledge exchange, and support capacity building to develop resilience in food security. The agreement was signed on behalf of the John Innes Centre by its director, Professor Dale Sanders. It was also signed by Professor K. VijayRaghavan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India and Dr Nafees Meah, Director, Research Councils UK India, on behalf of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Other signatories included representatives from the University of Cambridge, the University of East Anglia, NIAB in Cambridge and Rothamsted Research. The MoU was signed in the presence of Indias Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Dr Harsh Vardhan, and the Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Sh Y S Chowdary. Professor Dale Sanders FRS, said: The gauntlet, represented by the second sustainable development goal of zero hunger, has been thrown down at the global crop science community. I am delighted that the UK and India will be one of the first international research partnerships to pick up that gauntlet. I believe that we have a massive contribution to make together. Professor K. VijayRaghavan said: The United Kingdom has been a long-standing partner with the Government of India in Science and Technology, a collaboration that has grown from strength to strength. On the foundation of this excellence we are delighted to take a very new and very important direction in crop science. Our partners are the best in the UK and together we can be the best anywhere, working together to address a key global problem. Executive Dean of Science at the University of East Anglia, Professor Philip Gilmartin, said: This exciting initiative provides the opportunity to combine expertise in plant science, food security and environmental and climate science between the UK partner organisations and leading researchers in India to address important global challenges through collaborative research and interdisciplinary partnerships. Professor Leszek Borysiewicz from the University of Cambridge said: This collaboration builds on the close links already established between leading researchers in the United Kingdom and India and is another great example of both countries commitment to growing our partnerships in translational and applied research. This collaboration will create opportunities for leading experts in the UK and India to come together to tackle global challenges in the areas of food security, crop science and biotechnology. Dr Tina Barsby, CEO and Director of NIAB, said: We are delighted to be part of this international collaboration to develop and improve the translation of fundamental crop research into agronomic practice. We want to give farmers and growers throughout the sub-continent access to the most advanced developments in agricultural science and technology; essential for them to meet the challenges of growing crops in the face of changing climatic conditions and increasing food security demands. All parties agreed on the importance of crop science as an area of enormous potential for scientific collaboration, and its central role in driving global food security in India and beyond. The agreement foresees joint projects focusing on the fundamental science underpinning yield enhancement, disease resistance and drought resistance; research into crop re-breeding; and the translation of fundamental research into sustainable agriculture practice. It also contemplates the establishment of a joint Indo-UK Plant Science Centre in India. Defra Secretary Elizabeth Truss launched into the referendum debate at the annual conference of the National Farmers Union (NFU) when she said it was in farmers best interests to remain in the European Union. But UKIP MEP Stuart Agnew a free range egg producer said that Britain had nothing to fear from leaving and was perfectly capable of running its own affairs. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told those attending the conference in Birmingham that some 60 per cent of the United Kingdoms food and farming exports went to the EU. The trade with the EU was worth billions of pounds to the British agricultural industry, she said. If you look at the exports of British food and farming products to Europe, its 11 billion a year its a massive market. And by being a part of the European Union we are able to influence those rules. If we were to leave we would most probably, or definitely, have to follow the rules if we wanted full access to the single market. We would likely also have to accept free movement of labour and pay into the European Union, she said. That is a really vital market for many parts of British farming. The Secretary of State said that farmers currently had unfettered access to a market of 500 million people: I think thats really important. She said that the UK was still negotiating to regain access to the United States for British beef 20 years after BSE. We are currently working to get access for British beef to the US, to get access for poultry to China. I know how long and painstaking getting rid of some of the tariff barriers can be, because it is not just about the free trade agreement. Once you have got the free trade agreement, we know with a lot of farming products you need a separate agreement, you need things like inspections to the plant that we operate, you need inspections to the farms that is a whole load of work. I am hopeful that we are going to get there with the US on beef and its a big priority this year. We simply dont want to be in a position of renegotiating now right across the board. British farming at a disadvantage NFU president Meurig Raymond also expressed concern about UK farmers losing access to the single market NFU president Meurig Raymond also expressed concern about UK farmers losing access to the single market: The thought of renegotiating with all those countries and the tariffs would be quite an interesting exercise, to say the least. I think British farming would be at a disadvantage if we were to lose that single market access. He said that the NFU was working with a Dutch university, looking into what would be required in each sector of UK agriculture to ensure it did not become uncompetitive if the British people were to vote to leave the EU in the June referendum. He hoped that work would be completed in the next few weeks. The Governments team at Defra is divided on the issue of the European Union. Whilst Elizabeth Truss is campaigning in favour of the EU, George Eustice has joined Conservative colleagues who believe independence would be a better option. I have been an advocate of renegotiation for fifteen years but, in the end, despite the endeavours of David Cameron, the sort of fundamental reform I wanted to see was not possible, he said. I have therefore come to the conclusion that the only way to deliver the change I want to see is to vote leave, end the supremacy of EU law and replace our membership of the EU with a new UK-EU partnership instead. Elizabeth Trusss predecessor as Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, is also amongst those who believe that the UK should leave the EU. Departing CAP Divisions were also clear during a poultry breakout session at the NFU conference. Conservative MEP Julie Girling said she would vote to remain a member of the EU, and James Hook of P.D. Hook said his business was reliant on workers from other European countries. But Stuart Agnew, who produces free range eggs in East Anglia and who is the UKIP MEP for East of England, said the UK would be better off out. The UK ran a huge trade deficit with the rest of the EU, he said. The benefits of farming subsidies had reduced and, for poultry farmers, there were no subsidies at all. He said that the Common Agricultural Policy had been generous to farmers between 1972 and 1984. Ever since then we have been on a steady downhill slide of increasing regulation, and the support for the industry is getting harder and harder for farmers to get at. Thats why 20 per cent of them are still waiting for it he said, referring to delays in the Basic Payment Scheme. The Secretary of State was repeatedly challenged about problems with the system during her speech. Stuart Agnew said: We have had the best of it. Its now time to depart the CAP. Its not fit for purpose; 28 countries you are going to north of the Arctic Circle with commercial reindeer farming, down to a Mediterranean island where people are following clapped out draft oxen with a wooden plough, or to here in the UK with 550 horsepower tractors. You cannot get a common market in that situation. She talks about a leap in the dark, he said, referring to a warning from the Secretary of State about leaving the EU. I would suggest that when Turkey joins the European Union thats an extraordinary leap in the dark where we open our doors to another 80 million people who are a completely different culture to us. We have got a nine-pound-an-hour living wage. Well that to them is the top 10 per cent of earners. We cant cope like that, we really cant. Yes, it may increase our population and our customer base but it is going to give us an enormous housing problem, a big infrastructure problem with not only housing but with hospitals and, dare I say it, prisons, he said. Here today we were talking about poultry and how we need all this free movement of labour. I would disagree. You do not have to throw your doors open to, at the moment, 480 million people just to get a few people to work in agriculture. Alongside those who work in agriculture, you have got criminals, traffickers, people who are carrying infectious diseases, people who have murdered other people. All we need is a work permit system. Its not really very difficult where the employer sponsors the individual who comes to work, agrees to accommodate them, guarantee their good conduct and make sure they return when they finish. He explained workers who were already here would be able to stay, so farmers were not going to lose their existing labour. Stuart Agnew said other member countries would want to carry on trading with the UK if it was to leave the EU because the UK was an important market: We have a big, big trading deficit with the European Union. In everything it is 79 billion a year thats an enormous amount of money. But agricultural goods do reflect that its about 7 billion, I think, the deficit. In other words, we buy 7 billion more of agricultural goods from the European Union than we sell to them. So this business of a leap in the dark is simply nonsense. They are going to want our custom. They are desperate for our custom. 32 billion of that 79 billion is with Germany. A lot of that is cars. If Angela Merkel was to walk into the BM works and say, By the way, chaps, Im going to have a trade war with Britain, they would not let her out of their alive. Its as simple as that. Why Joey Logano knew from the start 2022 was going to be a playoff season Two former executives of a UK company that supplies technology-based products to the metals industry were charged Thursday with bribery and corruption. Michael Sorby, a former director of Sarclad Ltd, and Adrian Leek, the companys former sales manager, appeared in Westminster Magistrates Court in London. The SFO charged Sorby, 72, and Leek, 39, both from Sheffield, with one count of conspiracy to corrupt contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906, and one count of conspiracy to bribe under Section 1 of the Bribery Act 2010. The alleged offenses happened between 2004 and 2012 and concerned financial inducements offered to secure contracts for Sarclad, a technology provider in the metals industry, the SFO said. The SFO started its investigation in June 2013. The agency didnt say Thursday where the offenses occurred or who else was involved. Sarclads technology products help metal producers reduce manufacturing costs and improve product quality. The companys headquarters are in Rotherham (Yorkshire). It was founded in 1977 and now sells to steel manufacturers in 46 countries. Both defendants were granted unconditional bail at Thursdays hearing. Theyre scheduled to appear in the Southwark Crown Court in London on March 24. ______ Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here. Last week New York was the third state to create a program called the International Innovators Initiative (IN2NYC) based on the construct of the Global Entrepreneur in Residence program. This is a New York City based program created by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and the City University of New York (CUNY). IN2NYC is by far the most ambition program to date. It will help up to 80 selected entrepreneurs gain access to the visas they need to grow their businesses in New York City and is projected to create more than 700 jobs for New Yorkers in the first three years. The first program was in Massachusetts and is a state driven initiative. The second program was in Colorado and is a privately funded initiative. The New York program is a city driven initiative. When we started the Global EIR Coalition last year, we knew that Massachusetts and Colorado would be straightforward since they were both in process (MA was done, CO was almost done.) However, we didnt know which state would be next. Weve learned a lot about the process of getting things up and running, especially since each state or city university system, which is a key part of the Global EIR program, is different. New York, as with many things that New York (and New Yorkers) do is big and ambitious. Its impressive how the various constituents, especially the CUNY system and the NYCEDC, have come together. After working since 2010 on the Startup Visa and being endlessly frustrated by the inability of Congress to get anything done, I shifted my focus last year to a state by state approach, using the legal and functional framework created in Massachusetts by a team that includes Jeff Bussgang, a fellow board member with me on the Global EIR Coalition. We have several more states in the pipeline to launch and Im super excited about where this is heading. If you are in a state other than Massachusetts, Colorado, and New York and are interested in playing a leadership role around the Global EIR Coalition, please email me. Alesha Dixon thinks National Lottery players are changing lives. Alesha Dixon dressed as Jimi Hendrix The 'Britain's Got Talent' judge has praised the nation on their incredible contribution to charitable schemes, simply by purchasing a ticket every week, after a staggering 179 million was raised for arts and community projects last month. She said: "People do the lottery every month because they want to change their lives, even if you don't win, you are still changing someone's life and I think that's a brilliant way to do the lottery. Knowing how much money is going to good causes makes me want to do it every week because there's a bigger picture going on, which is incredible" The 37-year-old brunette beauty celebrated the record-breaking news by attending the Jimi Hendrix Museum in London dressed as the late music legend after the museum was restored recently and reopened to the public thanks to 1.2 million raised from the National Lottery. Speaking of the event, she explained: "I don't even know how much the British public are aware of how much money every month goes to good causes from the National Lottery. It was even a pleasant surprise to me. It's great to let the public know that they have single-handedly had an involvement in all these wonderful projects and every time you do the lottery you are helping someone which is great." Tom Hiddleston is whipping up a storm on the small screen at the moment with his performance in The Night Manager but he's is set to make his film return with High-Rise. High-Rise High-Rise will see Hiddleston team up with filmmaker Ben Wheatley for the first time and the actor takes centre stage in this great new piece of artwork. We haven't seen Hiddleston on the big screen since the release of Crimson Peak last autumn and this movie kicks off another very busy year for the popular actor. He will take on the central role of Dr. Robert Laing in High-Rise, which is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by J.G. Ballard. Amy Jump has adapted the book into a screenplay. Hiddleston is set to lead an all-star cast as Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss, James Purefoy, and Keeley Hawes are just some of the great names on board. 1975. Two miles west of London, Dr. Robert Laing moves into his new apartment seeking soulless anonymity, only to find that the building's residents have no intention of leaving him alone. Resigned to the complex social dynamics unfolding around him, Laing bites the bullet and becomes neighbourly. As he struggles to establish his position, Laing's good manners and sanity disintegrate along with the building. The lights go out and the lifts fail but the party goes on. People are the problem. Booze is the currency. Sex is the panacea. Only much later, as he sits on his balcony eating the architect's dog, does Dr. Robert Laing finally feel at home... Hiddleston returned to TV at the weekend with the first episode of The Night Manager, which is based on the book by John le Carre. His performance in the central role of Jonathan Pine has thrust him into the James Bond debate, with many watching calling for the actor to be the next 007. High-Rise is released 18th March. by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk find me on and follow me on Being an up-and-coming artist is one of the most exciting and exhilarating experiences that I think a human being can have. It's a rollercoaster ride that takes guts and determination, and a will of steel as friends often try to persuade you that a 'regular' day job would be so much easier. But 'easy' isn't an option when determination has it's claws firmly gripping you; and trust me, as time whizzes on, this roller-coaster ride begins to have a lot more 'ups' than 'downs'. Nina Schofield celebrates her No 1 hit 2016 has been nothing but melodic 'ups' for me so far, but hitting my first ever No1 is probably the most ecstatic feeling that I could ever have imagined. I wanted to describe that feeling so that all you Female First readers who are working towards a life in the music industry can see that, if you keep working at your passion, there will be a sparkling light at the end of the tunnel. My journey with Vintage & Morelli began a year ago when Silk Music introduced us over Skype. Marko (Vintage & Morelli's offstage name) and I hit it off straight away and when he sent me some of his music I was blown away. He asked if I wanted to write together for his debut album and I immediately jumped at the chance. What we created ended up being, 'We Are Future' and 'Prologue'. I can't explain how exciting it was to have created these songs in so little time over the internet. With 'We Are Future', Marko sent me the backing track and we spoke about his vision, which I understood straight away. I was so inspired that I wrote my initial melody and lyrical ideas at once and Marko loved it! Sometimes when I write with other people, the musical chemistry takes a while to kick in, but sometimes the magic develops really easily and this was definitely one of those times. Then Marko sent me this beautiful poem which ended up being 'Prologue', the opening track on the whole album and my first ever opportunity to add spoken vocals to emotive music instead of singing! I couldn't be happier with the success of this new record. The album 'My Rose Enchanted Destiny' was released a week ago and it looks like all the fun and hard work has paid off as it continues to climb the charts all over the world. Scoring a number 1 in Slovakia was just the tip of the iceberg, suddenly the album was 22 in the USA dance charts, 18 in Canada, and blowing up on Beatport; one of the world's biggest dance charts, landing a coveted spot at number 1 on the Chillout sounds and number 22 in the world. This album has taken on a life of its own and I have no idea what the future will hold for it, but I know that I'm really proud to have been a part of it and so thankful to Silk Music and Vintage & Morelli for making me a part of their musical family. It's also been a fantastic prelude to my own debut album which will be released in July - something I'm equally as proud to have created! So, music makers across the world, keep writing, keep singing and keep giving the joy of music - because one day that joy that you gave to all those thousands of people will come gushing back to you in one massive hit. It's incredible. Plus, for those of you who just love great music, check out the sound that's making me so so happy right now - enjoy! For more info on me visit: http://ninaschofield.com David Bowie's touring band are to pay tribute to the late music icon at tonight's (24.02.16) BRIT Awards. David Bowie The 'Space Oddity' hitmaker - who died in January at the age of 69 after a secret battle with cancer - will be remembered at the music bash at London's The O2 with his former band joined by several top-secret guest performers. BRITs boss Max Lousada said: "We wish to honour his life and work and pay a fitting tribute to one of our greatest icons." A source previously revealed that the guest musicians are likely to be artists such as Noel Gallagher, Blur's Damon Albarn and U2's Bono, rather than younger artists who weren't alive in the music legend's heyday. A music insider said: "A few artists approached the Brits to ask if they could be involved in the David Bowie tribute as they want to make sure it is done properly. "He was a British icon and they want to provide a credible farewell which can honour that. "The band will be full of musicians who grew up with Bowie and were inspired by him, meaning artists like Noel, Damon and Bono. "It is unlikely to involve young acts such as Sam Smith or Ed Sheeran, but there will be a few artists who are already singing on the night who will be asked if they want to take part too. "The organisers are putting everything into it. If they get it right, it will be epic." The BRIT Awards 2016 - which are sponsored by MasterCard - will be broadcast live on ITV at 8pm. Britain's Duchess of Cornwall launched a new book aimed at getting more people to visit libraries. Britain's Duchess of Cornwall The 68-year-old royal - who is a patron of The National Literacy Trust and the Book Trust - visited Islington Central Library yesterday (24.02.16) to celebrate the release of the Book Trust's new book 'Bear's Reading Adventure'. A tweet off Clarence House's official Twitter account reads: "The Duchess of Cornwall visited @Islingtonlibs this morning to hear about various literacy programmes and projects. (sic)" The book encourages families to visit libraries by featuring 10 missing stickers to collect on each visit. During her visit, Duchess Camilla - who is an avid reader - read some of the book to a group of children as well as joining in with a Read On Get On meeting, which aims to get children reading to a good standard before they leave primary school. Meanwhile, the Duchess' husband Prince Charles recently launched a 1 million fund to protect rare books. Speaking of his interest in books, he said: "I am one of those people who have been very lucky in the sense I was able to spend my childhood at Windsor Castle. In due course as I got a little bit older I started exploring the library which, as you can imagine, was absolutely fascinating. I ended up getting covered in dust." Bangladesh is a reliable sourcing destination for Germany consumers for its high quality garment products, German Ambassador to Bangladesh Thomas Prinz has said.We are very happy that Bangladesh is a reliable source for high quality garment in Germany, Prinz told reporters at a press conference held at the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) head quarters in Dhaka on Tuesday.The press conference was held to announce the BGMEA-BUFT Journalism Fellowship-2014, under which three winners and a group of journalists will attend a training programme on business journalism in Germany at the end of this month.Germany is the second largest single export destination for Bangladesh's garment products after the US, accounting for $4.33 billion in fiscal 2014-15, according to the Export Promotion Bureau. Prinz said Germany will support Bangladesh in its aim to double its apparel exports.We want to support Bangladesh in its endeavour to establish a sustainable , compliant, social and profitable RMG sector, said Prinz. He said the people in Germany are not abreast with the latest developments in Bangladesh's garment sector with regards to workplace safety and labour rights. The Rana Plaza incident is still fresh in their minds, even though it has been three years since the accident. A lot has been done in the sector since. He cited the emerging trend of green garment factories in Bangladesh as one of the positive developments that the journalists should highlight during their visit to Germany. The journalists must provide information on what's going on in Bangladesh. Prinz also urged them to report back on the constraints of the German retailers on issues such as the fair price. We do not even find fair prices for products that are produced in Germany -- there is a lot of competition between the brands. So, there are constraints and the journalists have to report on that, he said. In Germany, a top-selling T-shirt or jeans are selling at low prices, according to Prinz. He, however, said the real value of the work on those products that are made in Bangladesh and sold in Germany should not be so low. Prinz conceded that changing consumers' behavior is extremely difficult. (SH) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India Trendin.com, the online store of Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, which has a portfolio of apparel brands like Louis Philippe, Allen Solly and Van Heusen, won industry recognition at the recently concluded India Digital Summit.The Happy Hours Sales campaign, an email marketing campaign developed by Octane Marketing was voted as one of India's Top three Digital India 2016 best email campaigns for 2015 Trendin.com, the online store of Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, which has a portfolio of apparel brands like Louis Philippe, Allen Solly and Van# We are continuously looking for ways to deepen connection between brands and customer through digital messaging channels, Shivanandan Pare, head ecommerce & chief digital officer at Aditya Birla Fashion said.While email marketing is still the number one digital channel in terms of ROI, it is constantly evolving, and our customers are beginning to expect more from our communications, Pare added.With Mode Agile, we are able to offer a new experience every time a user opens our email for Trendin.com, he informed in an Octane Marketing press release.According to Pare, Mode Agile delivered higher conversion rates when benchmarked against traditional email offers campaign for Trendin.com.The Happy Hours Sales campaign had times specifying the time of the ongoing sale and this drove urgency.The countdown timer helped increase the email conversion rate by as high as 200 per cent when compared to the average of the preceding monthly campaigns.Open rates showed an improvement by 40 per cent and an overall 50 per cent increase in conversions and attributed revenue, Pare stated.Samarth Saxena, co-founder at Octane Marketing too said, Email continues to be India's top two digital channels for customer acquisition or engagement.However undifferentiated Batch and Blast Email campaigns are losing impact and India's marketers are looking to make email more compelling and personalised, Saxena too added.Mode Agile helps brands pull in data from other channels, whether social media, live inventory, local stores or website, helping offer a new experience every time a user opens email communication, he remarked.Mode Agile's end-to-end personalisation engine works with any ESP and allows marketers to automate, optimise, and personalise campaigns to drive online and offline sales.What's unique about contextual marketing is that it can be used at every stage of the consumer lifecycle, Octane also added. (AR) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India Europe's Textile and Clothing Information Centre or CITH has said that the European Union's textile and clothing exporters gained an additional 3.6 per cent market share in third countries. On the imports side, the EU imports rose 9.6 per cent in value terms, due to sharp increases from Asian countries.But imports from the Mediterranean area (Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia) achieved a modest growth or even decreased over the period. The 2015 evolution impacted the overall trade balance of the EU-28 with a deficit widening by 14 per cent which included 29 per cent for textiles and 13 per cent for clothing, CITH said in a report Europe's Textile and Clothing Information Centre or CITH has said that the European Union's textile and clothing exporters gained an additional# Textiles' sales to the US, EU's top market, recorded a growth of 16 per cent, thanks to a favorable exchange rate. Moreover, among the EU top10 customers, moderate expansion was recorded by Hong Kong and China (7 per cent and 6 per cent respectively). On the contrary, exports to Russia fell 27 per cent and exports to Ukraine slipped 1 per cent) on the back of depressed economy in those markets.Clothing exports to its main consumers indicated a higher growth rates than for textiles. Data shows a noticeable growth in the US, Hong Kong, South Korea, Canada and China (with rates between 19 per cent and 22 per cent), which made the US the second largest EU customer and China, the sixth. Exports to the Saudi Arabian and Mexican markets also experienced a significant expansion at 17 per cent and 15 per cent respectively. Clothing exports to Russia and Ukraine declined due to political turmoil.Textile imports from EU top 20 suppliers were all up, except from Egypt, Thailand and Australia. Among the main suppliers, the US witnessed the highest growth with 16 per cent, followed by China, Pakistan and Vietnam with 11 per cent.Clothing imports coming from most Asian countries recorded double digit growth rates. The top supplier, China, recorded a 6 per cent increase over 2014 with 30 billion of clothing articles sold to the EU market.In second place, Bangladesh recorded a 24 per cent increase in apparel sales to EU members over 2014. Strong imports' upturns were also observed from Cambodia (31 per cent), Vietnam (26 per cent), Hong Kong (25 per cent) and the US (26 per cent). With a 79 per cent increase, Myanmar is now ranking 17th in the top-20 EU's clothing suppliers, the CITH report said. (SH) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India FESPA Textile 2016 kicks off in just under two weeks' time as the largest digital textile event to date and will see over 65 exhibitors occupying two halls at the RAI Exhibition Centre, Amsterdam from March 8-11, 2016.As per a press release, the sold out event will see exhibitors demonstrating digital textile print technology for applications such as soft signage, apparel printing, garment decoration and interior decor. FESPA Textile 2016 kicks off in just under two weeks' time as the largest digital textile event to date and will see over 65 exhibitors occupying two# Occupying halls 4 and 5, visitors will be able to explore a multitude of different technologies and product launches showing hardware, consumables, software and more, the FESPA press release added.There will also be exhibitors in the digital halls showing textile solutions, so visitors will be steered along a bespoke Textile Trail of 141 stands.These include; Durst, EFI, Epson, Elkotb Textiles, Junkers & Mullers GmbH, HP, Mutoh, Sawgrass, Zund and many more.This will ensure that printers with a particular interest in digital textile will get the most from their visit, the organiser explained.FESPA's digital textile offering is complemented by a programme of inspirational content from industry experts.The educational line-up includes seminars on the show floor in the Digital Seminars Area, with sessions on direct to garment printing; revolutionising digital textile and dye-sublimation among others.The Digital Textile Conference, taking place on March 8, will provide delegates with a focused day of discussions including a keynote by international designers Bruno Basso and Christopher Brooke. (AR) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India Due to the high volume of interest from overseas organisations and individuals, donors can now also request duty and VAT exemption directly from the Ministry of Finance. Items will be approved for exemption that can provide immediate relief for victims of Tropical Cyclone Winston. In order to be approved for exemption, formal requests need to be submitted to Principal Economic Officer Mohammed Jabid via e-mail at mohammed.jabid@finance.gov.fj or via telephone (679) 932-5703. Once an approval letter has been granted, shipments need to be addressed to: (Name of the receipt individual or organisation) or (National Disaster Management Office) C/ Attorney General and Minister for Finance Ministry of Finance The Government of Fiji Suva Upon shipment, donors need to provide the Airway Bill or Bill of Landing, an invoice of the value of goods being shipped and the approval letter granted by the Ministry of Finance. Vehicles, jewellery and any normally prohibited items are not covered under this exemption. We thank those overseas who are keen to donate relief materials to affected Fijians. The need in Fiji remains great, and the Fijian Government is working hard to meet the urgent needs of our people. Every donation makes a difference for those Fijians who have suffered from the devastation this storm has brought to our shores. These guidelines are also available on the Fijian Government Facebook page. In the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Winston, the international community has rallied to support the recovery of the Fijian people by providing supplies, manpower and humanitarian assistance. The storm the most destructive on record in the Southern Hemisphere has left many Fijians stranded without adequate food, water or shelter and cut-off from essential medical services. The Indian Government has pledged over 2.1 million FJD as a cash grant to the Fijian Government for relief efforts and recovery activities, along with medicine, food, tents and transportation helicopter to deliver relief materials. The Australian Government has provided $7.7 million FJD in humanitarian aid-in-kind. The Australian Government has also provided four helicopters for aerial surveying and for the transportation of relief supplies, along with two aircraft for aerial surveying. The United States Government and the Peoples Republic of China have each pledged $213,675 FJD through the Red Cross. The French Government has provided one military aircraft and sent 40 engineers to assist with the provision of medical services and the transport of relief items. They have also mobilized 22 hours of helicopter flight time for humanitarian missions. Confirmation of the monetary value of aid-in-kind has not been finalized. The New Zealand Government has provided $424,000 FJD in humanitarian aid-in-kind along with four military helicopters, medical supplies and medical teams. The HMS Canterbury has also departed for Fiji to provide 40 military personnel to deliver relief assistance. The Japanese Government has pledged $153,833 FJD in relief assistance. The Governments of French Polynesia and Tonga have both contributed food rations for affected Fijian communities. The Government of Nauru has provided a cash grant of $153,833 FJD to the Fijian Government for relief efforts and recovery activities. The Asian Development Bank has pledged 4.28 million FJD in response to a letter of request sent by the Fijian Government. The Fijian Government appreciates the much-needed support given by the international community. The need of the Fijian people is great, and Fiji requires all the support that can be given to rebuild and fully recover from this tragedy. Malaika Arora Khan recently shared an adorable holiday picture with Deepika Padukone on Instagram. Not many people know that Malaika is very fond of Deepika and had even confessed that Deepika is her favourite. Malaika Arora Khan had told a daily, "For me, my favourite is Deepika Padukone. She is amazing, she is very good and is a brilliant actor. She is fantastic and has come a long way." It seems that Malaika Arora Khan is missing Deepika Padukone, who is currently shooting for Vin Diesel's xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. This is Deepika's first Hollywood project. Deepika Padukone's role in xXx: The Return of Xander Cage According to a report, Deepika Padukone will be seen playing a huntress in xXx: The Return of Xander Cage and also Cage's ex lover. And Nina Dobrev will play a witty, sarcastic techie while Ruby Rose will play a sniper. In an interview Deepika Padukone revealed that she is very nervous about her first Hollywood Film, "I am very excited. But I want to confess that I am very nervous. Most importantly I feel proud to be a part of a film where I get to flaunt my ethnicity.'' Deepika Padukone further added, ''The reason they are roping me is because of my background. I really hope that I do well in the movie and people go and watch it.'' Rumour has it that apart from xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, Deepika Padukone has also signed a film opposite Brad Pitt. Sanjay Dutt today spoke to the media outside his Bandra residence. The actor also requested media to never link him to '1993 Bomb Blasts case'. In a touching conversation, Sanjay talked about his relationship with his family and Salman Khan. Here is what he said- -Salman mera chhota bhaai hai aur hamesha rahega. Main pray karta hoon ki wo issey bhi bada star baney. (Salman Khan is like a younger brother to me and he will always be. I pray that he finds more success in life and becomes a bigger star. -Wish my father was present today to share this day with me. Proud to be an Indian, was born here and will die here. My father's only fight was to see his son free. My biggest relief was when court said 'you are not a terrorist'. Miss my father who longed to hear this all his life. DON'T MISS: Deepika Padukone & Malaika Arora Khan's Adorable Holiday Picture - I am not a terrorist, don't have TADA charges on me. Request the press to not mention my name in 1993 Bombay bomb blasts case. -My wife Manyata suffered more than me. Manyata is my best half. She has been my pillar of strength throughout, even at times when I have been weak. -After 23 years of struggle, I have got my freedom today. Still haven't come to terms that I've been released. - Didn't sleep last night, haven't eaten in 4 days. I had tea when I came back home. Looking forward to spend time with family and getting back to work. Taiwans stock exchange operator hopes a newly-announced cross-border trading link with the Singapore Exchange (SGX) will serve as a blueprint for similar connections with other bourses. In an exclusive interview with FinanceAsia, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) president Michael Lin (pictured) said the experience of setting up stock trading connections with SGX would allow more cost-effective and efficient establishment of links with other stock exchanges in the future. We can replicate the success this time so that we can execute similar plans within a shorter time in the future. The two Asian exchanges announced last month they would establish a cross-border trading link that would allow TWSE member brokers to trade Singapore-listed securities directly. Talks about setting up the link have been going on for years but it was not until early this year that the details were finalised. We have had discussions [about setting up trading links] with Singapore, Japan and Australia for more than 16 years ago but the regulatory environment and technology at that time were not favourable for execution, Lin told FinanceAsia. Before the establishment of the TWSE-SGX trading link, Taiwanese investors who wish to trade Singapore-listed securities would typically have to call up a local broker, who would then forward the request to a broker in Singapore to execute the trade. For investors, each step of the trade increases the costs. Currently for local investors, the cost of trading overseas securities is as much as 10 times the cost of trading Taiwanese stocks, Lin said. One of the main purposes of establishing the trading link is to reduce transaction costs for local investors. Lin said the programme was designed for retail investors who had shown interest in trading stocks in other markets. As technology improves it is now easier for retail investors to obtain and analyse information across different regions, Lin said. As a result many Taiwanese retail investors are able to invest on their own instead of buying through financial institutions. Under the TWSE-SGX partnership, trading of securities will be limited to Taiwanese investors trading Singapore-listed stocks - described as southbound trading - but the two exchanges have also sealed an agreement for northbound trading in the future, Lin said. The TWSE-SGX partnership came one and a half years after the commencement of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect in November 2014. Stock Connect linked two of Asias largest stock exchanges and allowed bilateral market access for investors. We hope that this type of cooperation between exchanges will make it easier for brokers everywhere to offer streamlined and cost effective cross-border investment services, TWSE chairman Lee Sush-der said in a statement. The Taiwan-Singapore trading link is pending final approval from the respective central banks and is expected to go live in the second quarter of this year. Corporate governance Taiwans stock market is geared towards large cap companies, with the top 30 companies accounting for 56% of the exchanges total market capitalisation in 2014, according to TWSE data. Foreign investment in Taiwanese securities has typically been concentrated in these companies because of their higher liquidity and stronger corporate image internationally. Many small companies in Taiwan are run by entrepreneurs who put the companys operation as their first priority, while shareholder relationships are not a big concern to them, Lin said. As part of its attempt to improve the corporate image of smaller Taiwanese companies in the international markets and protect the interests of investors, TWSE unveiled a five-year corporate governance roadmap in December 2013. The measures are designed for foreign institutional investors because they are the ones who really care about corporate governance, Lin said, highlighting the vital role that foreign investors play in the Taiwanese market. Foreign institutional investors, which owned 38.65% of stock in Taiwan-listed companies as of the end of July last year, could help stabilise the stock market because they tended to hold stock for longer than retail investors, Lin said. Under the roadmap, the exchange aims to complete a corporate governance evaluation system by 2017, under which listed companies will be ranked based on the non-financial aspects of the operations. They include information disclosure, investor communication as well as corporate and social responsibilities. The exchange is also pushing forward measures including electronic voting and live broadcasts of corporate roadshows to increase transparency of listed companies. Listed companies with good corporate disclosure will be included in a corporate governance index that serves as a new indicator for investors, according to the plan. TWSE is also working closely with the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to introduce a stewardship code in the first half this year. The code will outline the principles under which institutional investors must fulfil their responsibilities to monitor the management of companies. "Institutional investors play an increasingly significant role in stability and development of the market. As such, they are expected to leverage ownership rights and discharge their stewardship responsibilities to drive investee companies to elevate their quality of governance and eventually, bring values to the markets," according to a consultation paper published by the FSC. To tackle low trading volume in some small, illiquid companies, TWSE is also considering following some other Asia stock exchanges by imposing a free-float limit on listed companies, Lin said. It is also mulling a flexible listing system whereby companies with smaller market capitalisation will be subject to higher profitability requirements at the time of the listing. Foreign listings Taiwan started a program in 2008 to allow foreign companies and Taiwanese-owned businesses to conduct secondary listings on TWSE through the issuance of Taiwan Depositary Receipts (TDR). A number of Hong Kong- and Singapore-listed companies flocked to issue TDRs for funding in the first few years after the plan was established, although many of them did not have businesses in Taiwan. But the programme never really took off because many investors after 2011 turned back to the companies home markets, where liquidity was much higher. The trading volume of TDRs shrink significantly and there has not been any new TDR issuance since then. Lin believes there is little chance of any breakthrough in the TDR programme in the near future because of the technical difficulties of listing in two markets, such as different trading hours and trading rules. Now the exchange is targeting foreign companies that are willing to conduct primary listings in Taiwan. The number of companies offering so-called F-shares has grown steadily and accounted for approximately 8% of all listings on TWSE as of the end of last year. Lin hopes TWSE will remain as an important fundraising hub for small- and medium-sized non-Taiwanese companies but insists that they must have operational ties locally in order to be successful. Chinese auto parts manufacturer Cayman Engley Industrial is the latest company to list in Taiwan in the form of F-shares. The Jilin-based company operates a joint venture with Taiwans China Steel Corporation and Hongli Auto Parts. Having ushered in the 50th primary listing by a foreign company in December last year, TWSE has the third largest proportion of foreign listings among Asian markets, trailing only Hong Kong and Singapore. TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/24/16 -- Americas Silver Corporation (TSX: USA)(OTCQX: USAPF) ("Americas Silver" or the "Company") announced today that Darren Blasutti, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, will be presenting on Wednesday March 2, 2016 at 9:45 a.m. ET at the BMO Capital Markets 25th Global Metals & Mining Conference held in Hollywood, Florida. The presentation will be available on the Company's website at www.americassilvercorp.com. The Company also announced that, subject to TSX approval, it will be adjusting the exercise price of certain previously issued common share purchase warrants issued to Medalist Capital Inc. in connection with the provision of strategic advisory services, including: (i) 5,346,639 warrants issued on May 27, 2015 at an exercise price of $0.229; and (ii) 350,000 warrants issued on August 26, 2015 at an exercise price of $0.18 (the "Medalist Warrants"), to an exercise price of $0.13 (the five day volume weighted average price at the time of application to the TSX) with all terms otherwise remaining unchanged. The exercise prices of the Medalist Warrants are being adjusted in place of further compensation for subsequent strategic advisory services in relation to the Company's recent debt financing. The Company confirms that Medalist Capital Inc. is not an insider of the Company. About Americas Silver Corporation Americas Silver is a silver mining company focused on growth in precious metals from its existing asset base and execution of targeted accretive acquisitions. It owns and operates the Cosala Operations in Sinaloa, Mexico and the Galena Mine Complex in Idaho, USA. Contacts: Americas Silver Corporation Darren Blasutti President and CEO 416-848-9503 www.americassilvercorp.com Ford will reveal an expanded Vignale vehicle portfolio and customer experience and announce Ford Performance news at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show New Ford Kuga sport utility vehicle to make European motor show debut Ford of Europe Chairman and CEO Jim Farley, will host a news conference at 13.00 CET, March 1, on the Ford show stand Ford will reveal new vehicles and customer services for its upscale Vignale line and a further expanded performance line-up at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. Ford will dedicate its show stand on March 1 to an extended Vignale product line-up that offers superior refinement, unique design and advanced technologies. Ford of Europe Chairman and CEO Jim Farley will host a news conference at 13.00 CET, March 1, at the Ford stand, Hall 5, PalExpo, Geneva. The Ford Vignale line-up will be joined on the Ford stand from March 2 by Ford Performance models, and the new Ford Kuga sport utility vehicle making its European motor show debut. Media releases and further assets at http://geneva2016.fordpresskits.com will be made available from 20:00 CET, Feb. 29. About Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company is a global automotive and mobility company based in Dearborn, Mich. With about 199,000 employees and 67 plants worldwide, the company's core business includes designing, manufacturing, marketing financing and servicing a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs and electrified vehicles, as well as Lincoln luxury vehicles. At the same time, Ford is aggressively pursuing emerging opportunities through Ford Smart Mobility, the company's plan to be a leader in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience and data and analytics. For more information regarding Ford, its products worldwide or Ford Motor Credit Company, visit www.corporate.ford.com Ford of Europe is responsible for producing, selling and servicing Ford brand vehicles in 50 individual markets and employs approximately 53,000 employees at its wholly owned facilities and approximately 68,000 people when joint ventures and unconsolidated businesses are included. In addition to Ford Motor Credit Company, Ford Europe operations include Ford Customer Service Division and 24 manufacturing facilities (16 wholly owned or consolidated joint venture facilities and 8 unconsolidated joint venture facilities). The first Ford cars were shipped to Europe in 1903 the same year Ford Motor Company was founded. European production started in 1911. For news releases, related materials, photos and video, visit www.fordmedia.eu or www.media.ford.com. Follow www.twitter.com/FordEuor www.youtube.com/fordofeurope View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160224006732/en/ Contacts: Ford Motor Company Karl Henkel, 313-402-2310 khenkel1@ford.com CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Australian dollar weakened against the other major currencies in the Asian session on Thursday. The Australian dollar fell to a 6-day low of 0.9813 against the Canadian dollar and a 3-day low of 1.0754 against the NZ dollar, from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.9855 and 1.0799, respectively. Against the U.S. dollar, the yen and the euro, the aussie edged down to 0.7156, 80.19 and 1.5399 from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.7194, 80.70 and 1.5297, respectively. If the aussie extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 0.96 against the loonie, 1.05 against the kiwi, 0.69 against the greenback, 77.00 against the yen and 1.58 against the euro. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Muttenz, February 25, 2016 - Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, announced today that its Board of Directors will propose the election of Eveline Saupper, Claudia Suessmuth Dyckerhoff and Peter Steiner to the Board of Directors, subject to the approval of the Annual General Meeting of Clariant Ltd taking place on April 21, 2016. With the addition of the suggested new members, Clariant will expand its Board of Directors from nine to 10 members while replacing Peter R. Isler and Dominik Koechlin. Peter Isler, a member of Clariant's Board of Directors since 2004, has reached the statutory maximum age for board members of 70 and will therefore resign; Dominik Koechlin passed away in July 2015. Rudolf Wehrli, Chairman of the Board said: 'On behalf of the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee and all our employees, I'd like to sincerely thank Peter Isler for his valuable contribution during all the years, especially for his achievements as Chairman and longstanding member of the Audit Committee, for his contribution as a member of the Chairman's Committee as well as lately the Compensation Committee. At the same time we remember with sorrow Dominik Koechlin, who was an esteemed colleague and passionate entrepreneur. We are very pleased that, with Eveline Saupper, Claudia Suessmuth Dyckerhoff and Peter Steiner, when elected by our shareholders, we will add further experienced advice and know-how to our Board of Directors, especially in the fields of Legal, Tax, and Asian markets.' Eveline Saupper (57), a Swiss citizen, is Of Counsel at the law firm Homburger AG in Zurich, Switzerland, where she was a partner until 2014. Before joining Homburger in 1985, she worked as a tax specialist with Peat Marwick Mitchell (today KPMG) in Zurich. Eveline Saupper holds several board memberships including Syngenta AG, Baloise Holding AG (until April 2016), Flughafen ZArich AG, and StAubli Holding AG. She holds a PhD in law from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and is admitted to the Bar of Zurich. Eveline Saupper is also a certified tax expert. Claudia Suessmuth Dyckerhoff (48), German citizen, currently domiciled in Shanghai, China, with her family, is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company and, with effect from March 2016, a senior external advisor to McKinsey. For the last five years she has been leading the Asia health services and systems sector within McKinsey. She joined McKinsey in Switzerland in 1995. Since then she has focused on advising mainly healthcare companies in Europe, the USA, Greater China, and Asia. She holds a PhD in business administration from the University of St. Gallen/University of Michigan Ann Arbor, USA, focusing on strategy, organization and operational excellence, and an MBA from CEMS/ESADE. Peter Steiner (56), German citizen, is a German certified public accountant, tax advisor and business consultant with a focus on financing and investment management. He was previously a partner of the investment company One Equity Partners LLC and worked for MG Technologies AG as its chief financial officer. At Dyckerhoff AG, he was successively CFO, chief operating officer and finally CEO. Following his many years as an auditor for Arthur Andersen & Co., he was also CFO of SAba Bau AG. Peter Steiner holds several board memberships including Xella International S.A., Zeal Network SE, and Fixit Trockenmortel Holding AG. He studied business administration in Mannheim and Cologne, Germany, and finished with a master's degree. Corporate Media Relations Investor Relations Carsten Seum Anja Pomrehn Phone +41 61 469 63 63 Phone +41 61 469 6745 carsten.seum@clariant.com anja.pomrehn@clariant.com Claudia Kamensky Steven Massheder Phone +41 61 469 63 63 Phone +41 61 469 68 58 claudia.kamensky@clariant.com steven.massheder@clariant.com www.clariant.com Clariant is a globally leading specialty chemicals company, based in Muttenz near Basel/Switzerland. On 31 December 2015 the company employed a total workforce of 17 213. In the financial year 2015, Clariant recorded sales of CHF 5.807 billion for its continuing businesses. The company reports in four business areas: Care Chemicals, Catalysis, Natural Resources, and Plastics & Coatings. Clariant's corporate strategy is based on five pillars: increase profitability, reposition portfolio, add value with sustainability, foster innovation and R&D, and intensify growth. Press Release English: http://hugin.info/139777/R/1989069/730510.pdf This announcement is distributed by GlobeNewswire on behalf of GlobeNewswire clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that: (i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and (ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Clariant Finance (Luxembourg) S.A. via GlobeNewswire [HUG#1989069] B120M53R1 Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Based on preliminary, unaudited figures, Ferratum increased revenues by around 57% to EUR 111.0 million Adjusted operating profit (EBIT) rose by around 44% to EUR 17.0 million; adjusted EBIT margin at 15.3% Adjusted earnings before taxes (EBT) was around 68% higher at EUR 12.9 million; adjusted EBT margin increased to 11.6% Helsinki/Berlin, February 25, 2016 - Ferratum Oyj (ISIN: FI4000106299, WKN: A1W9NS), a pioneer in the field of financial technology and international provider of mobile consumer loans and small corporate loans, was able to seamlessly build on the positive development in the first nine months of 2015 according to preliminary, unaudited results. By posting a significant increase in sales, significantly higher EBIT and nearly doubling EBT, Ferratum reached a new record at the annual level. Consistent implementation of the growth strategy clearly had a positive impact on the company's development. Key factors in this context were the market entry into new countries and the expansion of the product portfolio. According to preliminary, unaudited figures for fiscal year 2015, Group revenues rose significantly by a total of 57.4% to EUR 111.0 million (2014: EUR 70.5 million). The positive revenue performance is due in part to the growing number of customers. This figure increased to more than 1.2 million customers in fiscal year 2015 (2014: 1.0 million). Despite increased marketing and selling expenses of EUR 16.2 million (2014: EUR 9.6 million) to further accelerate its growth, Ferratum managed to increase its operating profit. Costs of EUR 1.2 million related to the IPO were incurred in fiscal year 2014. In fiscal year 2015, the IPO costs still amounted to EUR 0.5 million. Adjusted for these IPO costs, operating profit (EBIT) increased by 43.9% to EUR 17.0 million (2014: EUR 11.8 million), which represents an adjusted EBIT margin of 15.3%. Including the IPO costs, EBIT rose by 55.3% to EUR 16.5 million (2014: EUR 10.6 million). This results in an EBIT margin of 14.8% (2014: 15.1%). The loan portfolio increased from EUR 61.5 million on December 31, 2014, by 73.5% to EUR 106.8 million on December 31, 2015, in other words by a total of around EUR 45.2 million. Based on the continued conservative risk provision model Ferratum uses, in which the expected payment defaults are already booked in the disbursement of a new loan, risk provisions in the lending business increased by 70.3% in fiscal year 2015 to EUR 34.7 million. Dr. Clemens Krause, CFO of Ferratum Group, commented as follows: "The full risk provision has already been posted on loans whose returns will only be posted over the duration of the loan. Particularly with the high-growth products PlusLoans and Credit Limit, there is a clearly marked time lag between the immediate booking of risk provision and the income posted later on." The positive development of Ferratum is therefore accompanied by a positive trend in the payment behavior of customers and a continually optimized risk management system. Adjusted earnings before taxes (EBT) rose by 67.5% in the reporting period to EUR 12.9 million (2014: EUR 7.7 million), which corresponds to an adjusted EBT margin of 11.6%. Including the IPO expenses, EBT rose by 90.2% to EUR 12.4 million (2014: EUR 6.5 million). This results in an EBT margin of 11.2% (2014: 9.3%). As a result, net income adjusted for IPO expenses of EUR 6.8 million last year was increased to EUR 11.4 million in fiscal year 2015. Including the IPO costs, this means an increase of 94.5% from EUR 5.6 million in fiscal year 2014 to EUR 10.9 million in the reporting period. Jorma Jokela, CEO and founder of Ferratum Group, is pleased with how positively business has developed: "We can once again announce a record year. The financial year 2015 is characterized by a significant increase in revenues and profitability. Our position could not be better in order to achieve the next milestones of our strategy in the dynamically developing Fintech environment. The course is set for growth." Ferratum Group thus achieved its goals in fiscal year 2015 and set crucial impulses for further growth in the first quarter of 2016: With market entries in Norway, Canada, France and Mexico, Ferratum has started operations in four markets in fiscal year 2015 and therefore created the prerequisites to further expand the loan business with private customers and benefit from economies of scale. Overall, Ferratum is now operationally active in 23 countries. Geographic expansion is an important part of its growth strategy, which provides for expansion of its activities to 30 countries in the medium term. Besides geographic expansion, the expansion of the product portfolio is also a critical success factor. The two products PlusLoans and Credit Limit enable customers to receive a larger loan amount for a longer period of time compared to classic microcredits. This makes it possible for Ferratum to increase its revenue per customer. These two products will be gradually introduced into existing markets. For example, Ferratum introduced the product PlusLoans in a total of two new countries in fiscal year 2015, which means the product is now available in eleven countries. Ferratum also managed to introduce the product Credit Limit in two new countries in fiscal year 2015. This offer was then introduced in Poland in the first quarter of 2016; currently customers in seven countries can choose Credit Limit. Furthermore, Ferratum started business with small business loans in the reporting period. The company already established the "Ferratum Business" division in 2015 in the three countries Sweden, Finland and Lithuania. The market entry into Denmark followed in February 2016. In the course of the further expansion of Ferratum Bank plc, a subsidiary and licensed credit institution with an EU banking licence, also the loan business in Spain was taken over by the bank in early 2016. Dr. Clemens Krause explains: "We make a distinction within Group Ferratum between two spheres. We assign all transactions that run under the EU banking licence of Ferratum Bank plc to the first sphere. These include in particular the European countries where a banking licence is a prerequisite for the lending business. Under the second sphere, we include the credit business outside Ferratum Bank plc and thus without the EU banking licence. This is particularly the case in all countries outside the EU and in some European countries where Ferratum has been in operation already for many years, such as the home market of Finland." The introduction of the Mobile Bank in select European countries was prepared with the pilot project in Sweden in fiscal year 2015. The deposit products of Ferratum Group have also been available for German customers since January 2016 under www.ferratumbank.de (http://www.ferratumbank.de). As part of the European expansion of the Mobile Bank, this is now to be introduced in Germany and then in other European countries in the first half of 2016. Jorma Jokela: "The introduction of the Mobile Bank in the European market is the most important strategic goal for 2016. We have meticulously developed this innovative platform in recent months and are confident that our platform can revolutionize the private banking business. But even here, we will proceed according to our proven principle - Sound Growth. For this reason, we will carefully explore each market before we decide to enter it." About Ferratum Group: The Finnish Ferratum Group, a pioneer for mobile consumer loans in Europe, offers short-term consumer loans for private persons. Ferratum's customers can utilize digital media to apply for consumer credit in amounts varying between EUR 25 and EUR 3,000. Moreover, Ferratum offers successful small businesses installment loans with a term of six to twelve months. Managed by its founder Jorma Jokela, Ferratum has expanded rapidly since it was founded in 2005: Ferratum has more than 1.2 million active and former customers who have been granted one or more loans in the past and 3.7 million total user accounts in its database (as of 31 December 2015; preliminary figures). Ferratum is represented in 23 markets. Contacts: Ferratum Group Dr. Clemens Krause, CFO T: +49 30 88715308 F: +49 30 88715309 M: clemens.krause@ferratum.com (mailto:clemens.krause@ferratum.com) Ferratum Group Paul Wasastjerna Head of Investor Relations T: +358 40 7248247 F: +358 20 741 1614 M: paul.wasastjerna@ferratum.com (mailto:paul.wasastjerna@ferratum.com) cometis AG Henryk Deter | Mariana Kuhn T: +49 611 20 58 55-61 F: +49 611 20 58 55-66 M: kuhn@cometis.de PARIS (dpa-AFX) - AXA (AXAHY.PK) Thursday reported fiscal 2015 net income of 5.617 billion euros, up 3 percent from $5.024 billion euros last year. On a per share basis, earnings increased to 2.18 euros from 1.94 euros last year. On an adjusted basis, earnings were 6.008 billion euros or 2.34 per share. Underlying earnings increased to 5.574 billion from 5.06 billion euros in the previous year. Underlying earnings per share rose to 2.16 euros from 1.95 euros last year. Total revenue for the year rose 1 percent to 98.534 billion euros from 91.99 billion euros in the prior year. On a reported basis, revenues were up 7 percent. The company said it plans to propose a dividend of 1.10 euro, up 16 percent from last year, at the Annual General Meeting on April 27. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Hexagon Composites' wholly owned subsidiary Hexagon Lincoln continues its prominent position in the North American transit bus market by signing a long-term agreement with one of its key customers, New Flyer Industries. The overwhelming majority of CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) transit buses in North America use Type 4 fuel tanks produced by Hexagon Composites. Demand for these vehicles continues to grow as they play an important role in lowering emissions and particulates in urban areas. This agreement affirms the Company's position as the leading supplier of fuel tanks to this market. "Our companies have a 20 year history of working together. We are pleased to have Hexagon Composites as our preferred supplier for CNG tanks and ancillary products. We are working together to implement new technologies to improve the value proposition for our customers," says Raul Ramirez, Director of Strategic Sourcing, New Flyer Industries. "Our team is providing valuable support to help engineer a more efficient system with new product offerings for these vehicles," says Chet Dawes, Vice President of CNG Automotive Products, Hexagon Composites. "This agreement is a reflection of the dedication and long-term collaboration between our companies." The multiyear agreement presents an estimated overall delivery value of USD 45 million (approximately NOK 380 million). For more information: Chet Dawes, Vice President CNG Automotive Products, Hexagon Lincoln, Inc. Telephone: +1 402 470 5015 | chet.dawes@hexagonlincoln.com Solveig D Saether, Communication Manager, Hexagon Composites ASA Telephone: +47 906 34 977 | solveig.saether@hexagon.no Hexagon Composites ASA is a publicly listed company with its headquarters in Alesund, Norway. The Group develops and produces composite cylinders for the storage and transport of various gases under pressure. www.hexagon.no Twitter: @Tuffshell and @HexagonASA This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Hexagon Composites ASA via Globenewswire HUG#1989158 LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Lloyds Banking Group plc (LLOY.L, LYG) reported that its fiscal 2015 statutory profit before tax declined 7 percent to 1.64 billion pounds from 1.76 billion pounds in the prior year. Profit for the year declined 36 percent to 956 million pounds from 1.50 billion pounds in the previous year. Earnings per share were 0.8 pence, compared to 1.7 pence last year. However, the Group's underlying profit increased by 5 percent to 8.11 billion pounds. Underlying earnings per share was 8.5 pence, compared to 8.1 pence last year. Net interest income rose 5 percent to 11.48 billion pounds from 10.98 billion pounds a year ago, reflecting margin improvement. Total income for the period was 17.64 billion pounds, up 1 percent from last year. Looking ahead to fiscal 2016, Lloyds Banking said its net interest margin for the full year now expected to increase to around 2.70 percent. Lloyds' board has recommended a final ordinary dividend of 1.5 pence per share, making a total ordinary dividend for the year of 2.25 pence per share. In addition, the board has recommended a capital distribution in the form of a special dividend of 0.5 pence per share. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Milestone means operators annually eliminate more than 350,000 tons of C02 and reduce electricity expenses by more than $150 million Eltek, the world leader in high efficiency power systems for telecommunications and industrial applications today announced it has installed more than 10,000 hybrid solar-grid power systems to remote telecom sites since it first launched hybrid-solar products in 2008. Solar power for telecom sites was once thought of only for off-grid telecom sites, but is now picking up momentum in a wide range of network locations. By using these hybrid solutions, which combine solar backup power and high-efficiency DC power systems, instead of diesel back up systems in the 10,000 locations, service providers have eliminated more than 350,000 tons of C02 from the atmosphere and reduced electricity expenses by more than $150 million. According to Bertrand Yeurc'h, Eltek Corporate Business Development Manager for Alternative Energy: "This achievement has been possible thanks to Eltek's high efficiency products and integrated hybrid solutions, combined with a global reach. Eltek has built various strategic partnerships over the years to ensure customer satisfaction and secure significant market share." Depending on the equipment configuration and site power requirements, the savings at each site varies significantly, but typically the operational cost is reduced by between 70 percent 80 percent primarily due to the reduction of diesel consumption by generators and reduced service costs. In addition, a hybrid solution provides a significantly improved reliability and uptime. More details on the Eltek hybrid solution can be found on the company's website. Eltek's ability to do turnkey projects in major countries across the globe as well as its MultiSite Monitor, which makes it possible to have a network wide overview to optimize utilization of energy sources and site performance, are other contributing factors to the company's success with hybrid sites. About Eltek Eltek is a strategic technology partner for power solutions. The company focuses on power electronics markets, where it is one of the leaders in telecom power and a growing force within industrial applications. Eltek is also pursuing growth opportunities within the datacenter market. Eltek is headquartered in Drammen, Norway and became part of Delta Group in 2015, a leading power and thermal management solutions provider. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225005173/en/ Contacts: North American Press Contact The David James Agency LLC David Rodewald, +1 805 494-9508 eltek@davidjamesagency.com OPORTO, Portugal, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Minister of Justice of Portugal has just granted Portuguese nationality to a new group of descendants of Sephardic Jews. The Portuguese newspaper "Jornal de Noticias" contacted Aleksandar Kitanovski, a Bulgarian citizen who is part of this new group of Portuguese nationals: "My mother, if alive, would be immensely happy with this special day. I received it for her. I have no words to describe my happiness," Kitanovski said, after putting the flag of Portugal on social networks. Previously certified by the Jewish Community of Oporto, Aleksandar Kitanovski belongs to a family of Portuguese origin who attended the Sephardic synagogue "Cal di Portugal" in Monastir, in Macedonia. His mother and his grandparents were among the few Jews of Monastir who survived the Holocaust, after the entire local Sephardic community was transported to the Treblinka concentration camp, in 1943, where it was exterminated. Michael Rothwell, delegate of the Oporto Jewish Community in matters regarding the Nationality Law, told the newspaper that Kitanovski is a professor of philosophy who asked for Portuguese nationality for sentimental reasons: "The great-grandfather of this new Portuguese citizen was called Marrano Pereira, something significant and rare, because this is a Portuguese surname (Pereira) connected with a qualifier (Marrano) usually attributed to the Iberian Jews who insisted on not leaving their faith, despite all odds." According to the Portuguese Nationality Law and its regulations, candidates for Portuguese nationality must first obtain a certificate, issued by the Jewish Community of Oporto or the Jewish Community of Lisbon, attesting that they are descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews. The Oporto community includes 150 members of 19 diverse origins and the Kadoorie Mekor Haim synagogue is the biggest synagogue in Sefarad. VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - Dynegy Inc. (DYN) and Energy Capital Partners, through a joint venture, have signed a definitive agreement to acquire ENGIE's U.S. fossil portfolio consisting of 8,731 megawatts of generation capacity for a purchase price of $3.3 billion. Dynegy said the ENGIE U.S. fossil portfolio complements the company's existing assets in PJM and ISO New England, and provides an opportunity to establish a presence in the Texas ERCOT market. The joint venture, named Atlas Power, is indirectly owned 65 percent by Dynegy and 35 percent by Energy Capital. Dynegy and Energy Capital will invest approximately $770 million and $415 million, respectively in the joint venture. The joint venture has secured financing for the $3.3 billion acquisition, as well as related transaction fees and working capital, with $2.25 billion in committed debt facilities and $1.185 billion in equity commitments from its owners, which includes transaction fees and initial cash balance. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. STOCKHOLM (dpa-AFX) - Sweden's economic sentiment worsened more-than-expected in February, while consumer confidence improved unexpectedly, survey results from the National Institute of Economic Research showed Thursday. The economic tendency indicator fell by 3.7 points to 108.4 in February from 112.1 in the previous month. Economists had forecast the index to decrease to 109.1. All of the business sector indicators contributed to the decline, except for construction, where firms report an unchanged situation, the think tank said. The confidence indicator for the manufacturing sector weakened notably to 115.7 in February from 121.5 in January. It was expected to drop to 115.0. The consumer confidence index climbed marginally to 98.0 in February from 97.6 in the preceding month. In contrast, economists had expected the index to fall to 96.8. The improvement was due to consumers being slightly more positive still about their personal finances as well as more positive about now being a good time to make major purchases. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. DUBLIN, IRELAND -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Workday, Inc. (NYSE: WDAY), a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, today announced that the Great Place to Work Institute ranked Workday #2 on its list of Ireland's Best Workplaces for 2016 in the Best Large Company category. "We are thrilled to be recognised again as a great place to work in Ireland," said Annrai O'Toole, chief technology officer, Europe, Workday. "It is a credit to our talented employees who live and breathe the culture we strive so hard to achieve at Workday. Last year we moved to a new European-headquartered office in Dublin 7, enabling us to further attract the most talented people the technology world has to offer, as we continue to produce the best cloud-based finance and human resources applications for our customers." Workday's strong performance was highlighted in the areas of fairness, respect, credibility, pride and camaraderie. Additionally, the company received recognition for its practices in the areas of celebrating, listening, and thanking. Workday has more than 4,900 employees globally, with over 400 employees based in Dublin and more than 750 employees based in Europe. Employees are Workday's number one core value, and the investment in its new office ties directly to plans to create another 200 highly-skilled jobs over the next few years. Attracting the talent needed to support new parts of the business is part of the continued success and growth in Europe. Methodology Great Place to Work Ireland is part of a global network with offices in 48 countries using the same assessment methodology to publish 45 country lists, as well as regional and global lists. The best known of these is the Fortune 100 list of Best Companies to Work For in the United States. The key defining feature of a great workplace is the level of trust that exists within it. From an employee's viewpoint, the definition of a great workplace is one where you trust the people you work with, you have great pride in what you do, and you enjoy the people you work with. The Great Place to Work Institute assesses the policies and practices in place in organisations under nine key areas: Inspiring, Speaking, Listening, Caring, Developing, Thanking, Hiring, Celebrating, and Sharing. They then benchmark these practices against other organisations in that country. The second key component of the assessment is an anonymous Trust Index survey that gathers the perceptions of employees under five dimensions: Credibility, Respect, Fairness, Pride, and Camaraderie. Finally, there is an in-depth qualitative analysis of open ended comments from employees. The 2016 full list of listed organisations and award winners, as well as past years' rankings, are available at www.greatplacetowork.ie. About Workday Workday is a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources. Founded in 2005, Workday delivers financial management, human capital management, and analytics applications designed for the world's largest companies, educational institutions, and government agencies. More than 1,000 organisations, ranging from medium-sized businesses to Fortune 50 enterprises, have selected Workday. Media Contact Lisa Stassoulli Workday +44 (0)7568 377476 Lisa.Stassoulli@Workday.com EDINBURGH, Scotland, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- System designed to catalyse a paradigm shift towards the preventive management of caries Calcivis, a medical devices company focused on revolutionising the management of tooth decay and enabling preventive dentistry, today announces that it will for the first time showcase a prototype of its Calcivis Caries Activity Imaging System device at the 151st Meeting of the Chicago Dental Society, held in Chicago, USA. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160225/337395 ) The Calcivis Caries Activity Imaging System is the first device to allow dentists to see active demineralisation, a key step to them practising the preventive management of caries. The Calcivis system is a sophisticated medical device and consumable combination designed to transform the assessment and management of dental caries and other dental conditions. Adam Christie, CEO of Calcivis, said: "I am pleased to be able to showcase Calcivis's lead product to dental professionals at the Meeting of the Chicago Dental Society. It is the first system that allowsdirect, real-time detection or imaging of active ongoing demineralisation. We are confident that these unique capabilities will catalyse a paradigm shift towards the preventive management of caries. We are excited about our plans for a controlled launch of the product in the UK market early next year and its US commercialisation by the end of 2017." Following the successful completion of the UK pilot study in 2015, Calcivis is on track to conduct two larger studies in 2016, including one to support the PreMarket Authorisation (PMA) filing to FDA and another in an orthodontic setting. These studies are expected to support a controlled launch of the product in the UK in early 2017 and in the US market later that year. The Calcivis Caries Activity Imaging System is an in-clinic device which combines a sensitive intraoral camera and application technology to deliver a precise amount of disclosing solution, containing a photoprotein, onto the tooth surface. The photoprotein binds calcium ions and emits a blue light signal proportional to the amount of calcium present. This exquisitely sensitive chemiluminescent system produces a 'demineralisation' map of the tooth enabling caries lesion activity assessment at a single patient visit and providing insight into other conditions including acid erosion. The resulting images provide a focus for discussion with patients about their caries management programme and allows the development of a tailored, rational, evidence-based treatment in line with dental best practice. About Calcivis Calcivis is an innovative medical devices company focused on revolutionising the management of dental caries or 'tooth decay'. Calcivis brings together novel biotechnology approaches and world-class device development expertise and is at the forefront of applying biotechnology to dentistry. The Calcivis Caries Activity Imaging System will, for the first time, allow the real-time detection and visualisation of calcium ions released by demineralising caries lesions in routine dental practice. Calcivis was established in 2011 and is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Company has been funded by Archangel Investors Limited and the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise. http://www.calcivis.com Contacts: Adam Christie, CEO Tel: +44-(0)7795-600571 E-mail: info@calcivis.com David Dible, Katja Stout, Citigate Dewe Rogerson Tel: +44-(0)207-638-9571 E-mail: calcivis@citigatedr.co.uk CapMan Press Release 25 February 2016 at 11 a.m. CapMan Nordic Real Estate acquires an office building in a fast developing area in Helsinki The CapMan Nordic Real Estate fund has signed an agreement to acquire a 7,800-square-metre office building locating at Hameentie 15 in central Helsinki. "We believe that there is a need for modern and effective office space in the fast developing Sornainen-Kalasatama area, where the tenants value convenience with a distinct character. We see significant value-add potential in refurbishing and leasing of the vacant premises in the property," says Juhani Erke, Partner at CapMan Real Estate and responsible for the investment. The property is acquired from a real estate fund managed by Pohjola Kiinteistosijoitus Oy. The focus of the 273 million CapMan Nordic Real Estate fund, established in 2013, is to acquire mainly office, retail and residential properties located in established submarkets of major Nordic cities. "KOy Helsingin Hameentie 15" is the fund's 15th investment overall and its fourth in Finland. For further information, please contact: Juhani Erke, Partner, CapMan Real Estate, tel. +358 505 495 104 Mika Matikainen, Senior Partner, Head of CapMan Real Estate, tel. +358 207 207 616 CapMan www.capman.com (http://www.capman.com/) CapMan is one of the European leaders in the private equity industry. For more than 25 years, we have been developing companies and real estate and supporting their sustainable growth. We are committed to understanding the needs of our customers in an ever-changing market environment. Our objective is to provide attractive returns and innovative solutions for our investors and value adding services for professional investment partnerships, growth-oriented companies and tenants. Our independent investment partnerships - Buyout, Real Estate, Russia and Credit - as well as our associated company Norvestia are responsible for investment activities and value creation. CapMan's service business offering includes fundraising advisory services, purchasing activities and fund management services to both internal and external customers. CapMan has 100 private equity professionals and assets under management of 2.8 billion. This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: CapMan Oyj via Globenewswire HUG#1989278 PUNE, India, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The report "Methyl Methacrylate Adhesives Market by Material Type (Composites, Metals, Plastics, and Others), by Application (Commercial Vehicle, Marine, Wind Energy, General Assembly, and Others), by Region - Global Forecast to 2020", published by MarketsandMarkets, The global MMA Market size projected to reach USD 1.30 Billion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 5.73% between 2015 and 2020. Browse 116 market data Tables and 54 Figures spread through 159 Pages and in-depth TOC on"Methyl Methacrylate Adhesives Market" http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/methyl-methacrylate-adhesives-market-74536936.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report. Report analyzes the Global MMA Adhesives Market with respect to the market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges in different regions. The major driver identified for the global MMA adhesives market is the growing demand from commercial vehicle, marine, and wind energy industries. Increasing use of advanced materials, compliance with environmental regulations, reduction of manufacturing cost, and increasing speed of production process led several end users to adopt MMA adhesives for bonding. Increasing demand for bonding dissimilar materials in applications, such as commercial vehicle and marine, is driving the demand for MMA adhesives Commercial vehicle and marine are some of the major applications of MMA adhesives. MMA adhesives enable bonding of thinner substrates with low read-through lines without any distortion on the outer surface of the component. These adhesives are extensively used by the marine and transportation industries, owing to the need for improving aesthetics along with maintaining design, costs, and speed of production. Composites bonding are the largest material type for MMA adhesives MMA adhesives are used to bond various material types such as composites, metals, plastics, and others. In 2015, the composites material segment accounted for the largest market share, in terms of value. Manufacturers are gradually shifting from traditional mechanical fasteners to MMA adhesives to reduce the weight of the vehicles and increase productivity. The current industry trend highlights the use of composite thermoplastics instead of heavy metals. Increasing use of lightweight materials such as composites, plastics, and aluminum develops a need for adhesive that can bond dissimilar materials, in-turn increasing the demand for MMA adhesives. Inquiry Before Buying: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=74536936 North America is the largest market for MMA adhesives Methyl Methacrylate Adhesives Market both in terms of volume and value, followed by Western Europe and Asia-Pacific. The U.S. is among the leading consumers of MMA adhesives globally, due to the increase in demand for MMA products in the country's market. MMA adhesives offer the benefit of high impact resistance and the ability to minimize the need for surface preparation. This increases the productivity and reduces the assembly costs, thus increasing the demand of MMA adhesives for bonding. The markets in other emerging economies, such as India and China, are also expected to witness rapid growth. Key Market Players in the MMA adhesives Market The key players in this market are Illinois Tool Works Inc. (U.S.), Arkema (France), SCIGRIP (U.K.), Scott Bader (U.K.), Lord Corporation (U.S.), Cyberbond L.L.C. (U.S.), Henkel AG & Company (Germany), Permabond L.L.C. (U.S.), Parsons Adhesive Inc. (U.S.), Huntsman Corporation (U.S.), and 3M Company (U.S.) among others. Browse Related Reports: Structural Adhesive Market by Type (Acrylic, Cyanoacrylates, Epoxy, Methylacrylate, Polyurethane, and Others), by Application (Automotive, Aerospace, Building & Construction, Bus & Truck, Marine, Rail, and Wind) - Global Forecasts to 2020 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/structural-adhesives-market-209974695.html Adhesives & Sealants Market by Technology (Water, Solvent, Hot-Melt, Reactive & Others), by Chemistry (PAE, PVA, VAE, EVA, SBS, Synthetic Rubber, Polyamide, Polyurethane, Epoxy, Cyanoacrylate, & Others), & by Application - Global Forecast to 2020 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/adhesive-sealants-market-421.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets is world's No. 2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers. We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository. Contact: Mr.Rohan Markets and Markets UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ Magarpatta city, Hadapsar Pune, Maharashtra 411013, India Tel: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Visit MarketsandMarkets Blog @http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/chemical Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - February 25, 2016) - As a leader in Google brand repair and search engine optimization (SEO), IC Media Direct is highlighting major changes that marketing businesses will face this year, as SEO and Internet reputation are set to face major reforms. With a notable presence in the industry, IC Media Direct has helped hundreds of companies and individuals manage their search engine results, ensuring to project a positive voice and message to its clients. See your Online Reputation Report now, by visiting http://www.icmediadirect.com. According to IC Media Direct experts, the year 2016 is expected to revolutionize how companies and Internet browsers adapt to accommodate various needs of users online. Last year, Google introduced the long-awaited 'Mobilegeddon' update, a new quality algorithm for content. The agency noted that mobile optimization will become far more important in controlling search results, as 2015 saw mobile searches surpass that of desktop and Google reported that they expect the shift to continue this year. As the number of mobile users increase, advertisers are becoming forced to capitalize on mobile-specific strategies more than ever before. For the first time, brands will need to invest in an approach to control search results outside of their conventional methods. IC Media Direct predicts that the separation of web and social media will become more difficult to recognize, as online content will be more readily indexed by search engines such as Google and Bing. Currently, tweets and other media posts are available in online search results -- however, 2016 will bring even more platforms to be indexed by Google, making individual posts carry the same value as independent web pages. This will cause better rankings for businesses with a stronger social media presence. Another change that SEO will face, according to the company, is the continued rise of video advertisements, ultimately overtaking written adverts on the Internet. This recent trend has been largely popularized by Facebook's silent autoplay videos, with Twitter and Instagram quickly following suit. A handful of technologies will lead to video content outpacing written in terms of reach, engagement, and ROI, causing advertisers to spend more money on video ads. As social media presence become more prevalent in search engine results, IC Media Direct believes that brands should take a more strategic approach with Internet channels for online brand reputation. Further SEO trends are expected to change with the extended indexing for apps on smartphone devices. Companies who maintain popular apps will see an improvement in their search ranking and due to Google extending their indexing methods to include smartphone applications. The tech giant anticipates a future where applications will overtake traditional websites on personal cell phones, causing app optimization to grow significantly over the next year. The shift toward mobile will continue with local search, which IC Media Direct predicts to become even more valuable to individuals seeking reputation management. IC Media Direct is a full-service Internet reputation and content marketing agency, specializing in online brand repair. Its extensive knowledge of SEO has helped industries project a positive image through the use of various media channels, building efficient messages with a strong impact on their audience. In 2015, the company has published a game-changing handbook on Google brand repair and has been awarded the New York Excellence Award by the SBIEC for two consecutive years. IC Media Direct attends a variety of well-known marketing conferences and events throughout the year, including ad:tech, Affiliate Summit, and LeadsCon, where it shares its expertise and techniques with businesses from all over the world. To see your Online Reputation Report, visit http://www.icmediadirect.com. IC Media Direct -- PR and Marketing News: http://icmediadirectnews.com IC Media Direct -- Reputation Management -- Addresses Online Marketing Trends for 2016: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ic-media-direct-reputation-management-054119771.html IC Media Direct -- Leads the Market in Google Brand Repair: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/ic-media-direct-leads-the-market-in-google-brand-repair/ar-AAcZjWT Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/2/25/11G084514/Images/IC_Media_Direct_-_Reputation_Management_-_How_SEO_-a678ca3beca2872ba20bcc1d38d71427.jpg Embedded Video Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3QHOeY8qAM Contact Information ICMediaDirect.com TEL: 1.800.595.0821 www.ICMediaDirect.com pr@icmediadirect.com BOSTON, MA and LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Entuity, the absolute best source of network insight, has been selected by TMK, one of the world's leading producers of tubular products for the oil and gas industry, to manage their enterprise WAN network. TMK clients include companies such as Shell, AGIP, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum and Lukoil. Keeping a global enterprise network operating at peak efficiency is no easy task. A top supplier of products to oil and gas companies in more than 80 countries worldwide, TMK took on the work of researching and implementing a new network management system that would help them improve overall network operations. Their goals were to increase the satisfaction of TMK's end-users, decrease the number of network-related incidents and shorten the recovery time spent on rectifying network issues. Key to meeting these objectives was moving away from using multiple network management tools, which were resulting in inefficient data collection and correlation methodology. TMK needed to find a network management solution that offered IT infrastructure monitoring with a single integrated product. Entuity network management not only met this requirement, but satisfied other criteria, including topology maps that could cover their entire IT infrastructure, strong root cause analysis, and advanced event management that offered features such as event filters and custom event notifications. Entuity was verified during a two-month proof of concept arranged by their local IT supplier, Unicorns, an Entuity Authorized Partner in Moscow. "During the pilot program, there were a few devices that were unique to us and they were quickly added to the Entuity software and put under management. Through this exercise we received dedicated assistance from our local partner Unicorns, as well as a fast response by Entuity support. This gave us the confidence that we were making the right decision in choosing Entuity," said Sergey Korablev, TMK IT Director. Entuity is making a big difference in evolving the efficiency, proactiveness and accuracy of TMK's network management and has helped them enhance their network's service delivery performance and end-user experience. "Entuity has helped our IT organization solidly improve the TMK end-user experience," said Sergey. Satisfaction levels are much higher throughout the entire company." For the full story, visit entuity.com. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. About Entuity Entuity takes the work out of network management. Our highly automated, unified, enterprise-class solution puts deep network insight at your fingertips, frees IT staff to focus on strategic projects, and easily integrates with major frameworks and networking environments. Entuity's support and services teams are frequently praised for their rapid response, networking expertise and involvement in special engagements. Founded in 1997 by two senior-level IT executives from the financial industry, Entuity is headquartered in London with US operations in Boston. For more information, visit entuity.com. Entuity is a registered trademark and SurePath is a trademark of Entuity, Ltd. All other marks and names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. Contact information: Laurie Azaria Klausner Entuity +1.508.357.6344 Ext. 17 Email Contact TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- BMO Financial Group today released a study which found that 34 per cent of Canadians have withdrawn money from their RRSP before retirement. The study examined the reasons behind Canadians' decision to make these withdrawals and their concerns about the consequences. According to the study, on average, Canadians have withdrawn $15,908 from their RRSPs. One third have paid back the money but 25 per cent expect they will never pay it back. The top reasons for making RRSP withdrawals, include: -- To buy a home (25 per cent) -- To pay off debt (21 per cent) -- To help pay living expenses (21 per cent) -- To cover costs after an emergency, such as a car accident or house flood (15 per cent) "Although it's not advisable to make withdrawals from an RRSP, it's clear that some Canadians have had to do so in order to meet short-term needs," said Chris Buttigieg, Senior Manager, Wealth Planning Strategy, BMO Wealth Management. "There are tax consequences associated with making early withdrawals from your RRSPs, so it's a good idea to speak with a financial professional to see if you have any other options before doing so." "Making an RRSP withdrawal to free up funds should only be considered as a last resort. To meet unexpected future needs, consider building up a contingency fund in a short-term savings vehicle such as a TFSA or savings account instead of dipping into your RRSP," Mr. Buttigieg added. "It's best to only make premature RRSP withdrawals for the purpose of buying a new home or paying for continuing education, as these withdrawals may qualify for the Home Buyers Plan or the Life Long Learning Plan, respectively." Withdrawing With Reason The study also found that, of those Canadians who have made an RRSP withdrawal, the majority (84 per cent) said they only did so as a last resort. Three quarters said they were very concerned about the potential consequences of this decision, including: -- Loss of retirement income (79 per cent) -- Withholding tax on the cash at the time of withdrawal (77 per cent) -- Not being able to save effectively for retirement (77 per cent) -- Loss of contribution room in the future (62 per cent) "If you've withdrawn from your RRSP early, a financial professional can help you assess the impact on your retirement savings and get your plans for your golden years back on track," said Mr. Buttigieg. Regional Breakdown ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- % who have paid Top reason for % who have made Average amount back making an RRSP withdrawn from the money an RRSP Region withdrawal RRSPs withdrawn withdrawal ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- National 34 $15,908 33 To buy a home ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To help pay Atlantic 40 $8,509 34 living expenses ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quebec 30 $12,622 42 To buy a home ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To help pay Ontario 35 $17,092 30 living expenses ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alberta 32 $16,538 35 To buy a home ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- B.C. 33 $24,100 28 To buy a home ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The BMO RRSP Survey was conducted by Pollara between December 30, 2015, and January 4, 2016, with an online sample of 2,177 adult Canadians. Data have been weighted using the latest census data to be representative in terms of age, gender and region. The margin of error for a probability sample size of 1,500 is +/- 2.5% and for a sample size of 2,177 is +/- 2.1%, 19 times out of 20. For more information on saving for retirement, please visit www.bmo.com/retirement. Get the latest BMO press releases via Twitter by following @BMOmedia. Also, get additional timely updates, related articles and insight on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. About BMO Financial Group Established in 1817, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified financial services provider based in North America. With total assets of $699 billion as of January 31, 2016, and close to 47,000 employees, BMO provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets. Contacts: Media Contacts: Jessica Bonin, Toronto 416-867-3996 jessica.bonin@bmo.com Valerie Doucet, Montreal 514-877-8224 valerie.doucet@bmo.com TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Torex Gold Resources Inc. (the "Company" or "Torex") (TSX: TXG) announced today an update on the operations ramp-up of the ELG Mine in Mexico. Fred Stanford, President & CEO of Torex stated: "The ramp up of the processing plant is tracking nicely ahead of plan, costs remain on budget, security and safety performance has been excellent, relationships with local communities continue to be productive, and the construction of production support facilities is drawing to a close. The next three milestones will be the declaration of commercial production, the resettlement of the El Limon village, and the commissioning of the El Limon Crusher / RopeCon. All of these milestones are on schedule for achievement in Q2 2016." He added, "I would like to commend the site leaders and their teams for their commitment to protecting the environment, and providing a secure and safe work environment. Of particular note, and something that is rarely achieved on a large construction project, is the safety performance of over 6 million hours worked since the last lost time injury. Well done, thank you, and I look forward to continued success." Operations Update Processing Plant -- The ramp-up remains on track for the declaration of commercial production in Q2/16 -- (60% of design throughput of 14,000 tonnes per day for 30 days) -- The first phase of the ramp-up was focused on achieving plant reliability / utilization. That phase is now completed, reliability / utilization at design levels have been demonstrated (90% utilization or 151 hours in a week) -- The design throughput rate per hour is approximately 650 tonnes per hour. The plant has consistently operated at 60% of that rate, approximately 400 tonnes per hour, through the 'reliability' ramp-up phase. During the past week additional grinding media has been added and the throughput rate is now approaching 500 tonnes per hour -- To date a daily performance of 11,300 tonnes through the plant has been achieved. As additional grinding media is being added, the teams are honing their skills and procedures for the push to full production of 14,000 tonnes per day -- The tailings filtration plant is delivering an excellent product for dry stack disposal -- As of February 22, 2016, 13,500 ounces of gold have been produced, and 7,288 ounces of gold have been sold at an average price of $1,196 per ounce. Mining -- Mining at the Guajes pit re-started in January. El Limon pit pre- stripping has started and construction of the haul road to the El Limon Crusher is advancing ahead of schedule. The RopeCon is mechanically complete and preparations are underway for electrical commissioning. Full commissioning of the El Limon Crusher and the RopeCon is anticipated in the second quarter of 2016 -- Plant head grades have been above Life of Mine (LOM) grade. However, it is too early to make definitive statements about reconciliation to the geological model. We expect to start work on grade reconciliation after commercial production has been achieved and the plant metallurgy has stabilized. Finance -- The total project cost estimate for the ELG Mine continues to be on budget at $800 million -- The Company executed a $7.6 million 4-year loan agreement with BNP Paribas and a $17.4 million finance lease agreement with BNP - Parilease for equipment expected to be delivered in 2016. In addition, the Company is negotiating a VAT loan in case the return process stalls. VAT refunds have restarted, and approximately $6M has been received so far in 2016. Community Relations -- Work continues on the construction of the second village for the resettlement of the Real Del Limon community. This resettlement is expected to be concluded early in the second quarter of 2016. Security -- The project area has remained quiet. The final agreement with the State Government for the provision of permanent police presence in the areas adjacent to the Company's projects, was signed in February. Under the terms of the agreement, the Company will provide facilities and vehicles to establish security checkpoints, while the State Government, through the State Police and Military, will provide human resources to enhance security in the mining area. El Limon Exploration -- Further geological work on the El Limon deposit has focused attention on an intrusive sill that projects from the main intrusive body. Much of the EL Limon deposit lies above this sill and conditions below the sill are also positive for gold skarn mineralization. This theory has support in drill results, in which 4 of 6 holes that pierced the sill, intersected mineralized skarn. There are also several highly magnetic targets underneath this sill, which have not been tested yet -- These and other 'near pit' exploration targets will be evaluated as opportunities to extend the ELG mine life About Torex Torex is an emerging intermediate gold producer based in Canada, engaged in the exploration, development and exploitation of its 100% owned Morelos Gold Property, an area of 29,000 hectares in the highly prospective Guerrero Gold Belt located 180 kilometers southwest of Mexico City. Within this property, Torex has the El Limon-Guajes (ELG) Mine, which started production in December 2015, and the Media Luna Project, at an advanced stage of exploration, with a positive PEA completed in July of 2015. The property remains 75% unexplored. CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Notwithstanding the Company's efforts, there can be no guarantee that the Company will not face unforeseen delays or disruptions. Forward-looking information also includes, but is not limited to, the capital cost estimate, the expected completion, commissioning of the mine and processing facilities of the ELG Mine, achieving commercial production and full production, expected revenues from operations, the further advances of funds pursuant to the lease facility (which are subject to certain customary conditions precedent), the successful completion of the VAT loan transaction, safety and security, and access to the ELG Mine. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", or "will be taken", "occur", or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including those risk factors identified in the Company's annual information form and management's discussion and analysis. Forward-looking information is based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information because the Company can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Contacts: Torex Gold Resources Inc. Fred Stanford President and CEO (647) 260-1502 fred.stanford@torexgold.com Torex Gold Resources Inc. Gabriela Sanchez Vice President Investor Relations (647) 260-1503 gabriela.sanchez@torexgold.com www.torexgold.com Dividend to increase by 53.8% Share split by 6 Regulatory News: The Board of Directors of Sartorius Stedim Biotech S.A. (Paris:DIM) resolved to submit a proposal to the Annual General Shareholders' Meeting (AGM) on April 5, 2016, to pay a dividend of 2.00 per share for fiscal 2015, up from 1.30 a year earlier. The total profit distributed would rise from 20.0 million by 53,9% to 30.7 million. Moreover, the Board of Directors decided to submit resolutions to the Shareholder Meeting to split by 6 the par value of each of the Company's shares (stock split). As a result, shareholders would receive 6 shares in exchange for each share held in Sartorius Stedim Biotech. This share split operation would be executed without any additional costs or formalities for the shareholders and will have no impact on their rights. The proposed stock split is a result of the significant increase of the share price in the past 2 years and aims at increasing the tradability of Sartorius Stedim Biotech shares. This press release contains statements about the future development of the Sartorius Stedim Biotech Group. We cannot guarantee that the content of these statements will actually apply because these statements are based upon assumptions and estimates that harbor certain risks and uncertainties. A profile of Sartorius Stedim Biotech Sartorius Stedim Biotech is a leading international supplier of products and services that enable the biopharmaceutical industry to develop and manufacture drugs safely and efficiently. As a total solutions provider, Sartorius Stedim Biotech offers a portfolio covering nearly all steps of biopharmaceutical manufacture. The company focuses on single-use technologies and value-added services to meet the rapidly changing technology requirements of the industry it serves. Headquartered in Aubagne, France, Sartorius Stedim Biotech is quoted on the Eurolist of Euronext Paris. With its own manufacturing and R&D sites in Europe, North America and Asia and a global network of sales companies, Sartorius Stedim Biotech has a global reach. The company employs approx. 4,200 people, and in 2015 earned sales revenue of 884.3 million euros. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225005698/en/ Contacts: Sartorius Stedim Biotech Petra Kirchhoff Vice President of Corporate Communications +49(0)551.308.1686 petra.kirchhoff@sartorius.com OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Itinerary for the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, for Thursday, February 25, 2016: Ottawa 10:30 a.m. The Prime Minister will attend the Cabinet meeting. Notes for media: -- Ministers will be available to media in the House of Commons Foyer as of 12:30 p.m. Montreal 3:30 p.m. The Prime Minister will tour Ubisoft. 5455 Avenue de Gaspe (10th floor) Montreal, QC Notes for media: -- Photo opportunity only -- Media should arrive no later than 3 p.m. for accreditation Contacts: PMO Media Relations: 613-957-5555 Ford Driving Skills for Life introduces a Drugged Driving Suit to its 2016 U.S. curriculum; new suit designed to stress lessons on the dangers of driving while impaired Program to expand focus on pedestrian safety, drowsy driving and the need to buckle up behind the wheel 2016 tour marks the 13th year of Driving Skills for Life taking its driving clinic across the United States and into 34 other countries Ford Driving Skills for Life launches its 13th global tour with the addition of a new Drugged Driving Suit for its U.S. curriculum that's designed to stress the dangers of driving while impaired. The program expands this year as Driving Skills for Life takes its training across the United States and travels to six additional countries worldwide. The 2016 program also provides experiences with a Drunk Driving Suit, which debuted in 2013. Students attending ride-and-drive events will wear both suits to gain perspective on how being impaired can slow movement, reduce coordination, blur vision and make tasks difficult. They'll also learn the importance of safety belt use and pedestrian safety, and about the risks of drowsy driving. "Our 2016 program features some of the newest and most innovative tools available to teach new drivers to be safe and make sound decisions behind the wheel," said Jim Graham, manager, Ford Driving Skills for Life. "Our new Drugged Driving Suit is intended to complement our Drunk Driving Suit, giving students a critical eye into the consequences of impaired driving." Driving Skills for Life takes its training to 15 stops in the United States this year, including Alabama, Arizona, California, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas, as well as other states. The safe driving message also expands globally as the tour travels to Argentina, Bahrain, Finland, Oman, Poland and South Korea. To date, Driving Skills for Life has reached 800,000 new drivers of all ages with free ride-and-drive courses, school and community events, and its interactive website. By the end of 2016, the program will have reached 1 million people in 35 countries. "Despite progress in recent years, teens continue to be overrepresented in motor vehicle crashes and fatalities across the country," said Jonathan Adkins, executive director, Governors Highway Safety Association. "For this reason, the association and the State Highway Safety Offices are looking forward to bringing this powerful program to even more teens and their parents coast to coast and around the globe." Ford Driving Skills for Life global milestones Ford Driving Skills for Life was established in 2003 by Ford Motor Company Fund, Governors Highway Safety Association and a panel of safety experts with the mission of teaching newly licensed drivers the necessary skills for safer driving and the importance of making good decisions behind the wheel. Through free, hands-on ride-and-drive courses, classroom material and an interactive website, the core curriculum focuses on vehicle handling, hazard recognition, speed management and space management, which account for 60 percent of all crashes. In its first 12 years, Ford Driving Skills for Life provided hands-on training to more than 41,000 teens in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Thousands of teens and parents have used the Web-based curriculum at www.drivingskillsforlife.com. "Ford Driving Skills for Life has grown in both content and reach since it launched 13 years ago," said Graham. "We focus on parental behavior, because research shows it has an impact on teen driving behavior. And we continue to modify the program to keep up with an ever-evolving world newly licensed drivers must face." About Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services is committed to creating opportunities that promote corporate citizenship, philanthropy, volunteerism and cultural diversity for those who live in the communities where Ford does business. Established in 1949 and made possible by Ford Motor Company profits, Ford Motor Company Fund supports initiatives and institutions that foster innovative education, auto-related safety, and American heritage and legacy. National programs include Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies, which provides high school students with academically rigorous 21st century learning experiences, and Driving Skills for Life, a teen-focused auto safety initiative. The Ford Volunteer Corps, established in 2005, continues Ford's legacy of caring worldwide. Through the Volunteer Corps, salaried employees, union members, retirees and their families participate in a wide range of volunteer projects in their communities. For more information on programs made possible by Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services, visit www.drivingskillsforlife.com About Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company is a global automotive and mobility company based in Dearborn, Michigan. With about 199,000 employees and 67 plants worldwide, the company's core business includes designing, manufacturing, marketing, financing and servicing a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs and electrified vehicles, as well as Lincoln luxury vehicles. At the same time, Ford is aggressively pursuing emerging opportunities through Ford Smart Mobility, the company's plan to be a leader in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience, and data and analytics. For more information regarding Ford, its products worldwide or Ford Motor Credit Company, visit www.corporate.ford.com For news releases, related materials and high-resolution photos and video, visit www.media.ford.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225005377/en/ Contacts: Ford Motor Company John Cangany, 313.317.7691 jcangany@ford.com OMAHA, NE -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Cosentry, the leading provider of IT solutions in the Midwest, today announced that Advance Services, Inc. has selected the company's Disaster Recovery Services in addition to Managed IT Services, and Help Desk Support Services currently handled by Cosentry. Cosentry's data center support allows Advance Services' IT team to focus on the initiatives that help grow the business in lieu of maintaining and supporting internal IT operations. Advance Services started in 1994 in Norfolk, Neb. and has grown to over 50 locations throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. Today, the company provides staffing for 40 of the current Fortune 500 companies and supports more than 1,400 clients, with friendly and employee service-oriented relationships. The company was constantly challenged to keep the existing network and applications systems optimized while also planning to expand the IT infrastructure to support future growth. Advance Services' IT department was stretched too thin trying to address common IT functions, such as: 1. Help Desk 2. Business Application Support 3. Backup and Recovery 4. Network Uptime and Distribution "With our small IT team, we needed an IT partner who could provide us with the kind of help desk support that was aligned with how we do business and could support our staff, regardless of time zone," said Dave Warren, Vice President, Advance Services. "We want our IT team to have more time to focus on business-critical initiatives than on taking and resolving help desk calls." Advance Services selected Cosentry to provide the aforementioned IT functions through its Bellevue and Lenexa data centers. In addition, Cosentry also supports the company's IT team by providing comprehensive managed services support and ensuring that all systems housed within the data centers are optimized and running smoothly. The resulting benefits are: 24x7 Help Desk services supporting all Tier 1 and Tier 2 trouble tickets. Backup services to ensure key systems and business data are always available. Ensuring the company's applications and servers are optimized. Moving forward, Advance Services will leverage Cosentry's innovative data center services to continue streamlining numerous business processes and implement the use of mobile devices, social media applications and a paperless process for job candidates. "We leave the day-to-day IT operations to Cosentry so we can focus on innovating for our business. Knowing that Cosentry is our IT partner allows us the freedom to continue to grow and expand," Warren concluded. "Many companies' IT departments are consumed with maintaining the IT infrastructure, leaving limited time for innovation," said Brad Hokamp, CEO, Cosentry. "We are proud of our ability to help Advance Services cost-effectively scale their business, while allowing the IT team to focus on innovative new offerings that will ensure growth and prosperity." About Cosentry Cosentry is the leading Midwest IT Solutions Provider, offering solutions that allow our clients to focus on their core business. Our customers can feel confident, knowing their IT Infrastructure is operating at the highest level of reliability, performance, and security. Cosentry has over a decade of experience providing data center services including Colocation, Cloud, Managed Hosting, and Managed Services. We operate as our client's local business partner, taking the time to truly understand their business while tailoring our solutions to meet each client's unique business and technical requirements. Whether virtualizing, consolidating, optimizing, or fully outsourcing data center and IT infrastructure, businesses can rely on Cosentry for help with resilient and versatile solutions. For more information, contact us at (866) 500-7661 or visit us at http://www.cosentry.com. All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners. For more information, please contact: Betsey Rogers Public Relations BridgeView Marketing (on behalf of Cosentry) 603-886-7087 betsey@bridgeviewmarketing.com LONDON, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- NewVoiceMedia, a leading global provider of cloud technology which helps businesses sell more, serve better and grow faster, has ranked among the London Stock Exchange Group's '1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain 2016', an index of the UK's most exciting and dynamic businesses, for the second consecutive year. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140910/705584-a ) The third edition of the report profiles a cross-section of the economy, celebrating some of the fastest-growing enterprises in the UK. The 1,000 businesses listed have, on average, grown their revenue by 50 percent over the past four years and outperformed their sector peers. Just 25 percent of the companies listed were featured last year. NewVoiceMedia is outperforming the rapidly expanding cloud customer contact market fivefold. A 20 million contact centre seat market is expected globally by 2020, with upwards of 30 percent cloud penetration, and last year, the company grew its international new business by 528 percent, while continuing to expand its UK base. The announcement follows the company being named a top 25 hottest, fast-growing start-up in Europe by independent media firm Informilo, as identified by some of the most active investors in the sector who nominated and evaluated businesses outside their own portfolios. NewVoiceMedia was also selected as one of the UK's top 50 growth-stage technology companies to join Tech City's 'Future Fifty Class of 2016', and was listed in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 in recognition of its global expansion and innovative technology. The company now serves more than 500 customers, spanning 128 countries and six continents, including Canadian Cancer Society, JustGiving, Lumesse, MobileIron, TNT and Wowcher. "We are delighted to be recognised as one of Britain's most inspiring and high-growth businesses for a second consecutive year," said Jonathan Gale, CEO of NewVoiceMedia. "We recently celebrated another year of incredible growth and continue to drive innovation that will transform the way organisations connect with their customers worldwide. Our rapid acceleration, together with our innovative technology, is helping us to attract the highest calibre people around the world who are dedicated to making our cloud capabilities best-in-class. We're honoured to be formally recognised by London Stock Exchange and look forward to continuing our growth trajectory ahead of the market." Xavier Rolet, CEO of the London Stock Exchange Group, commented, "Our unique methodology reveals once again a community of UK businesses richer and more varied than we believe ever identified in any other exercise of this type. We want particularly to shine a light on the companies variously identified as 'gazelles', 'the vital six percent' or 'scale-ups,' which have a remarkably disproportionate impact on UK national economic output. As the CBI recently confirmed, 3,000 scale-up medium-sized businesses contributed 59bn to the UK economy between 2010 and 2013, effectively making the crucial difference between recession and recovery. To put it another way, just a one percent increase in the number of high-growth businesses would create 230,000 new jobs and add 38bn or two percent to UK GDP." Chancellor of the Exchequer The RT Hon George Osborne MP, commented, "This year's list of 1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain is truly remarkable. The businesses and entrepreneurs in the report are a fantastic illustration of the UK's pioneering, entrepreneurial spirit and our nation's capacity to produce world-class innovation. It is my pleasure to congratulate all the companies featured and London Stock Exchange Group for all it does to support dynamic UK businesses up and down the country, as they grow and seek to achieve scale. UK high-growth businesses are leading the charge in rebuilding our economy. These companies are the backbone of the British economy. They create high-quality, well paid jobs, innovate and drive economic growth." A full database of all of the companies featured can be found athttp://www.1000companies.com. For further information about NewVoiceMedia, visit http://www.newvoicemedia.com. Based on the June 6, 2012 Market Trends: Contact Center as a Service, North America, 2012 research compiled by analysts Daniel O'Connell and Drew Kraus of Gartner, Inc., "The North America contact center as a service market is projected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 17.8% through 2016". About NewVoiceMedia NewVoiceMedia powers customer connections that transform businesses globally. The leading vendor's award-winning cloud customer contact platform revolutionises the way organisations connect with their customers worldwide, enabling them to deliver a personalised and unique customer service experience and drive a more effective sales and marketing team. With a true cloud environment and proven 99.999% platform availability, NewVoiceMedia ensures complete flexibility, scalability and reliability. Spanning 128 countries and six continents, NewVoiceMedia's 500+ customers include PhotoBox, MobileIron, TNT, Lumesse, JustGiving, Canadian Cancer Society and Wowcher. For more information visit http://www.newvoicemedia.com or follow NewVoiceMedia on Twitter @NewVoiceMedia. WISeKey and Cityzenith today announced at the Mobile World Congress their new partnership to aggregate, analyze and visualize critical city data in a highly secure fashion. WISeKey's IoT Cybersecurity will be combined with Cityzenith's platform, 5D Smart City to provide city managers and decision makers with the tools to improve their data analysis and decision-making abilities while protecting the data from cyber attacks. WISeKey and Cityzenith are both working with Microsoft CityNext, a global initiative empowering cities, businesses and citizens to re-imagine their futures and cultivate vibrant communities. Through the Microsoft CityNext initiative, WISeKey helps to engage cities around the world to cooperate in and contribute to the development, dissemination, and implementation of cyber security advancement, with a focus on the improvement of current conditions and mitigation of potential risks during the development of their smart cities. WISeKey is championing the ever-changing landscape of cyber-security for smart cities. The number of connected devices- a.k.a. Internet of Things- requiring digital identification and security now tops 4 billion globally and continues to rise rapidly; this number is expected to reach 50 billion by 2020. This trend shows that Cybersecurity is a key asset in ensuring protection of this infrastructure. At the heart of WISeKey's technology is the OISTE-WISeKey Cryptographic Root of Trust, which has been actively used since 1999 by over 2.6 billion desktop, browsers, mobile devices, SSL certificates and Internet of Things' devices. The OISTE WISeKey Cryptographic Root of Trust is ubiquitous and universal, and a pioneer in the identification of objects. Smart Cities will compile an unprecedented amount of personal data with no security embedded on these devices and no international regulations on personal privacy protection. The gap between a person and a digital identity leaves millions of devices and identities vulnerable to danger beyond identity theft. Cities have the moral and legal responsibility to protect the privacy of their citizens. "Currently, there isn't anything built into the Web that can verify who you are. Imagine expanding this to billions of connected objects", said Carlos Moreira, WISeKey CEO. "WISeKey's IoT identity systems have been the closest thing for years". Watch Bloomberg TV Coverage Zone of Mobile Privacy in the Swiss Alps "Our 5D Smart City platform bridges the gap between IoT data and users who need to understand it. WISeKey's identity verification for IoT devices ensures both the security of our platform and our users' data," says Michael Jansen, Cityzenith CEO, "Data security and privacy are core pieces of the Smart Cities puzzle we are able to solve by incorporating WISeKey's system into our platform. Together, we will make powerful security the rule rather than the exception for the Internet of Things." WISeKey together with over 70 companies and government bodies across 15 sectors and 25 countries have joined forces to create the World Economic Forum's Partnering for Cyber Resilience initiative. Together, the leaders of these organizations have signed a set of principles, which demonstrate their commitment to taking an integrated, strategic approach to technology risks and opportunities, and to play their role in providing a resilient digital environment for all. About WISeKey WISeKey is a leading global digital security and CyberSecurity company. Working at the forefront of information cybersecurity, identity management, and mobile security, WISeKey's mission is to facilitate the global growth of secure electronic transactions by providing individuals, businesses, cities, citizens, objects, and governments with advanced technology and services that authenticate and protect digital identity across the full spectrum of personal, business and administrative transactions online. At the heart of this 4th Industrial Revolution strategy is the OISTE-WISeKey Cryptographic Root of Trust which has been actively used since 1999 by over 2.6 billion desktop, browsers, mobile devices, SSL certificates and Internet of Things' devices. The OISTE WISeKey Cryptographic Root of Trust is ubiquitous and universal, and a pioneer in the identification of objects. WISeKey is a Global Growth Partner of the World Economic Forum. More articles on https://www.wisekey.com/media-corner/ Follow WISeKey on Twitter @wisekey, Linkedin, FacebookInstagram About Cityzenith Based in Chicago, with offices in London and Singapore, Cityzenith helps organizations around the world, both government departments and commercial enterprises, make sense of urban data big and small. The company's platform, 5D Smart City, provides city government agencies and corporate customers an intuitive, 3D browser-based, and real-time platform for managing all city data. 5D Smart City has now been adopted by 10 major world cities: San Francisco, Washington D.C., Chicago, London, Toronto, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dubai, Mexico City, and Singapore. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225005764/en/ Contacts: Cityzenith Oliver Keane, +1 (312) 843-4276 Director of Communications o.keane@cityzenith.com or WISeKey Youmna Abisaleh, +41 22 594 30 40 Head of Marketing and Sales yabisaleh@wisekey.com or WISeKey Investor Relations The Equity Group, Inc. Lena Cati, 212-836-9611 lcati@equityny.com OAKVILLE, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Terrestrial Energy is pleased to announce that it is submitting its Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) design to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) for Phase I of its pre-licensing Vendor Design Review. During the course of this review, which is an optional feedback process offered by the CNSC, Terrestrial Energy will be demonstrating that the design meets Canadian regulatory requirements in a number of technical topic areas. This is seen as the first step towards an eventual license application to build its first commercial demonstration IMSR power plant. Terrestrial Energy CEO, Simon Irish, made the following comment regarding the engagement: "Terrestrial Energy is entering a new phase of its development - moving ahead from reactor research and design, to engineering and regulatory compliance. This new chapter takes the Company towards the submission of a formal license application to build and operate the first commercial demonstration Integral Molten Salt Reactor plant in the 2020s." The Honorable Jeffrey Merrifield, former Commissioner at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said: "Attentive industry observers will appreciate the significance of Terrestrial Energy's announcement - this is the first Molten Salt Reactor system to begin regulatory engagement with a western nuclear regulatory authority. It also positions Terrestrial Energy as one of the leading Advanced Reactor system developers today that is taking definitive regulatory steps toward commercialization." Travis Bradford, Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University, specializing in energy and natural resource markets, and innovation said: "The unanimous global climate goals established at COP21 have amplified our collective resolve to reduce GHG emission. However, the practical pathways to deploy sustainable high impact technology solutions are still uncertain and there remain critical gaps in our current set of energy solutions. Terrestrial Energy's IMSR, a next generation Molten Salt Reactor, is designed to fill one of the most critical gaps - a scalable, clean, carbon-free industrial heat and power solution. Today's announcement puts the Company firmly on the path to being a significant part of the climate solution within the critical response horizon of the 2020s." Terrestrial Energy is developing a next-generation nuclear reactor based on its Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) technology. The IMSR represents true innovation in safety, cost and functionality. It will offer safe and reliable power solutions for electricity production, both on- and off-grid, and also energy for industrial process heat generation. These together extend the applicability of nuclear energy far beyond its current footprint. With this profile, the IMSR is capable of driving the rapid global decarbonization of the primary energy system by displacing fossil fuel combustion across a broad front. It is complementary to renewable power sources and ideal for distributed power systems on existing grids. Using an innovative design and proven Molten Salt Reactor technology, the IMSR can be brought to global markets in the 2020s. Terrestrial Energy is currently developing its IMSR commercial demonstration power plant for deployment in Canada. Social Media Facebook: TerrestrialMSR Twitter: TerrestrialMSR YouTube: Terrestrial Energy LinkedIn: TerrestrialEnergy Google+: TerrestrialEnergy Contacts: Terrestrial Energy Grant Draper (415) 745-0254 grant@capstreamx.com Terrestrial Energy Brian Smith (416) 822-3130 bsmith@the-lanes.ca Terrestrial Energy info@terrestrialenergy.com www.terrestrialenergy.com SAN MATEO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- BrightPoint Security, a leading Threat Intelligence Platform provider for automation, threat analytics, and sharing threat insight into critical cyber threats, today announced the latest release of its Sentinel Security Command Platform, advancing the speed and depth of threat intelligence data now available for security analysts and their executives. The new BrightPoint Security Exchange makes it easier for communities to quickly message and share their data and insight through conversational exchanges, enabling community investigation and remediation recommendations. Urgent sighting information is incorporated into BrightPoint's machine-learning engine where results are provided within minutes if the threat is active in the environment. Already a leader in machine learning and automated sharing of threat intelligence, BrightPoint Security's new release allows for ease of data access and deeper investigations into cyber threats and campaigns by going well beyond just sharing of threat indicators and observables. BrightPoint's Exchange easily integrates with existing workflows, speeding and simplifying the identification of relevant threats with context and recommendations. "Organizations continue to face the problem of lack of visibility behind the virtual perimeters of common organizations, their business partners, and others they want to collaborate with to gain a deeper understanding of the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) of attacks," said Rich Reybok, BrightPoint Security CTO. "Now, users can share their insights and the relationships of complex elements that go into determining adversary attack campaigns, which is far more valuable than sharing just observations of threats." The new Sentinel solution will make its public debut next week at the RSA Conference 16 in San Francisco. It will be unveiled in BrightPoint's booth number #4709 in the North Hall with demonstrations throughout the event. BrightPoint users now have the ability for threaded conversations with peers in their Trusted Circles while maintaining the same access control to align with attribution and publishing policies. Organizations can leverage the unique perspectives that security analysts have by utilizing BrightPoint's Security Command Platform for collaboration across organizations, ecosystems and industries to facilitate ongoing dialogues around TTPs among security analysts. Users can collectively work together on threat disruption and remediation, and build resistance with Sentinel's recommendation engine for proactive measures across the community. Today's new release of BrightPoint Sentinel enables users to attach documents, share tools and search conversations for threat data elements for input into accelerating machine-learning algorithms. From the Exchange threads, organizations can generate queries for sightings and orchestration to SIEM, and endpoint technologies for watch-lists and faster remediation. Informal conversations can begin to identify the elements for a more complete threat picture that can then easily create formal and structured STIX messages to share with ISACs, ISAOs or other Trusted Circle communities automated from within BrightPoint Sentinel. The latest release of Sentinel also offers significant enhancements to the solution's dashboard views for threat trends and metrics. Users now have access to a summary dashboard that gives information about their current threat risk rating and the rating of others in their Trusted Circle communities. Threat data sources and feeds can be measured for their effectiveness in providing the most critical risks and aligning budget with value delivered from a threat feed. Today's new release also expands BrightPoint's growing partner ecosystem, which currently includes Carbon Black, Hive, Elastic, HP ArcSight, IBM QRadar, RSA Security Analytics and Splunk. BrightPoint adds to this list by introducing new integrations with Tanium and deeper integration with Intel Security ESM. Sentinel can now publish lists of IP addresses associated with threats to Active Lists within Intel Security ESM, and can search Tanium for specific indicators of compromise (IOC) with its new expanded endpoint coverage. About BrightPoint Security BrightPoint Security delivers immediate predictive insight and prescriptive responses to protect businesses from cyber threats. BrightPoint enables secure community-based threat intelligence sharing to achieve the most relevant visibility and awareness of current and emerging threats across enterprises, their digital ecosystems and infrastructures. Venture backed, the company is headquartered in San Mateo, Calif. For more information, visit www.brightpointsecurity.com. BrightPoint Security, Sentinel and Trusted Circles are registered trademarks of BrightPoint Security in the United States and other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. Contact: Dan Spalding Email Contact (408) 960-9297 MONACO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Scorpio Tankers Inc. (NYSE: STNG) (the "Company") announced today that it has reached an agreement with an unrelated third party to sell five of its 2014 built MR product tankers (STI Chelsea, STI Lexington, STI Mythos, STI Olivia and STI Powai,) for approximately $166.5 million in aggregate. The sales of two of the vessels are expected to close in March 2016, and the sales of the three remaining vessels are expected to close in the second quarter of 2016. The Company will record a write-down of approximately $3.2 million during the first quarter of 2016 in connection with the entry into this agreement. About Scorpio Tankers Inc. Scorpio Tankers Inc. is a provider of marine transportation of petroleum products worldwide. Scorpio Tankers Inc. currently owns 79 product tankers (18 LR2, 14 Handymax, and 47 MR tankers) with an average age of 1.4 years and time or bareboat charters-in 11 product tankers (three LR2, one LR1, four MR and three Handymax tankers). The Company has contracted for 12 newbuilding product tankers (eight MR and four LR2 tankers). The four LR2s are expected to be delivered in 2016 (one per quarter) and the eight MRs are expected to be delivered throughout 2017. The Company has also reached an agreement to sell five of its 2014 built MR product tankers. Additional information about the Company is available at the Company's website www.scorpiotankers.com, which is not a part of this press release. Forward-Looking Statements Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts. The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words "believe," "anticipate," "intends," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "plan," "potential," "may," "should," "expect," "pending" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. In addition to these important factors, other important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the failure of counterparties to fully perform their contracts with us, the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand for tanker vessel capacity, changes in our operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, the market for our vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, charter counterparty performance, ability to obtain financing and comply with covenants in such financing arrangements, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other factors. Please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a more complete discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties. DENVER, CO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Choozle, a programmatic advertising platform that connects marketers with big data insights and real-time bidding across display, social, mobile and video, today announced the hire of United Kingdom Country Manager, Justin Galvin, to manage European operations. With the significant growth in online display advertising in the European Union, Choozle recognized a significant opportunity to provide a programmatic advertising platform and DMP services in a single, simple interface to the EU market. Previous to joining Choozle, Galvin has been creating pioneering digital media and Internet start-up projects since 1996. Galvin's past roles include Managing Director at EMEA Netbase, UK Country Manager, Shoutlet, and Co-Founder Managing Director at WDDG. His position at Choozle will be Country Manager and will be working to manage United Kingdom and European operations, develop business, and increase Choozle's global presence. "We are delighted to have a seasoned digital media veteran like Justin spearhead our expansion into the UK and across Europe," said Choozle CEO, Andrew Fischer. "Justin's entrepreneurial background combined with his ad technology experience will accelerate Choozle's partnerships with leading agencies and brands in the United Kingdom and beyond." Choozle has also proactively partnered with Webalytix, an analytical marketing agency based in the UK to drive partnership efforts in the region. Webalytix currently leverages the Choozle platform for its current client base and also serves as Choozle's preferred client management partner in the United Kingdom. "Whether a partner is ready to run Choozle on a self-service basis or they prefer a guided experience, the feature set and overall flexibility of Choozle's platform combined with its world class support and training will drive value for UK based agencies of all sizes and scope," said Justin Galvin. "I'm excited to join the Choozle team and translate their current traction into the UK and across Europe." Choozle's cloud-based platform blends the power of big data and real-time programmatic advertising into one simplified platform. Choozle clients have access to industry leading data services including data management (DMP) and CRM upload/match as well as a complete buy-side suite of tools (DSP) to power video, mobile, display, and social ad campaigns. Choozle's 400+ client list is comprised of leading global independent agencies including The Gate Media Group, Clarity Coverdale Fury, Levenson Group, Paradise Agency, analytical marketing agency Webalytix, and more. To learn more about Choozle and their programmatic ad buying solutions, please visit https://choozle.com/. About Choozle Founded in 2012 and based in Denver, Colorado, Choozle provides a programmatic platform that leverages detailed consumer data to power real-time advertising campaigns across display, mobile, social and video mediums -- all from a single, simple interface. Powered by a team of data-driven nerds, Choozle brings programmatic to the people with its simple, elegant, and affordable solution. As a proud member of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (EFCO), Choozle donates 1 percent of founding equity to support Colorado nonprofits. Learn more at https://choozle.com/ and connect on Twitter and Facebook. Media Contact: Seth Menacker TallGrass Public Relations (201) 638-7561 seth.menacker@tallgrasspr.com SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Wandera, the leading global provider of security and management for mobile data, announced today that the company experienced record growth across all of its key business segments. Wandera increased the amount of devices it protects by 270% in the last 12 months. The company added six of the world's top 10 consulting firms to its customer roster, onboarded a number of global telecom alliance partners including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and Orange, and received several industry accolades for its services including winning the Computing Vendor Excellence Award 2015 in the mobile security category. "From its founding in 2012, Wandera has grown to support over five hundred enterprise customers in over 60 countries. Our growth is in the triple digits and we are now protecting customers managing millions of devices," said Eldar Tuvey, founder and CEO of Wandera. Rapid Customer Growth Today the Wandera security and management platform for mobile data, secures businesses including Fortune Global 500 companies across the Financial Services, Insurance, Mining and Airlines vectors, including: Six of the top ten consulting services firms worldwide Five of the Top 50 of Forbes' 2015 America's Largest Private Companies and Global leaders in insurance, asset management and retail banking Accelerated Threat Prevention and Product Evolution Wandera's multi-level architecture, including the world's first cloud gateway for mobile, continues to evolve to keep ahead of the ever-changing mobility and threat landscape. In 2015: Wandera's cloud intelligence engine, SmartWire, scanned over 500,000 unique apps and over 5 million unique domains. This number continues to grow at a rate of 73% per year. This accounts for around 16% of all the apps in the Apple and Google app stores (iOS has 1.5 million apps, Android has 1.6 million). Saved customers over 10 terabytes a month in cellular data. This is the equivalent of saving 2,500,000 songs from being streamed per month on customers' accounts. Blocked over 5 million threats, including preventing apps leaking PII, phishing and man-in-the middle attacks. Protected customers against never-before-seen vulnerabilities in real-time including CardCrypt, a security flaw found by Wandera's security researchers in which 16 prominent companies including several international airlines were leaking PII and credit card details. Exponential Company Expansion Wandera doubled its staff in 2015, moving into larger corporate offices in Central London at the Wells and More building (45 Mortimer Street). The company also added a second engineering center in Brno, Czech Republic, which is known for its extensive expertise in security engineering and threat research. About Wandera Wandera is the leader in mobile data security and management, protecting enterprises with real-time threat prevention, compliance and data cost management. Wandera's multi-level architecture, which includes the world's first cloud gateway for mobile, offers unrivalled visibility and control. With the industry's largest mobile dataset, Wandera analyzes billions of daily inputs across its network in real-time to detect emerging mobile attacks and protect sensitive company data. Founded in 2012, Wandera is headquartered in San Francisco and London. For more information visit the website www.wandera.com Further information: Sasha Litvakov Wandera Email Contact 1 818 217 7565 Press inquiries: Mia Damiano Email Contact (703) 390-1502 SAN MATEO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Franklin Templeton Investments marks the continued expansion of its global multi-asset solutions capabilities with a new solutions offering. With this capability, Franklin Templeton enables financial institutions to address the needs of a specific global investor base by providing a tailored suite of multi-asset, open architecture funds. Investors will benefit from Franklin Templeton's global footprint and investment management team with the added flexibility to incorporate third-party managers for a one-stop multi-asset solution. "As the trend toward open architecture grows, we continue to seek new ways to make our investment expertise -- both traditional long-only and alternative solutions -- available to investors globally," said Rick Frisbie, executive vice president, head of Franklin Templeton Solutions. "Most recently, we worked with Citi's Global Consumer Business to understand key fund features and marketing support needs that could help meet the needs of its emerging affluent segment, and we developed a new suite of open architecture funds, managed by the Franklin Templeton Solutions investment team, that are designed to respond to those needs. We view this offering as a significant opportunity to expand visibility and access to our multi-asset investment expertise alongside a premier global financial institution." Through its open architecture multi-asset capability, Franklin Templeton Solutions has the flexibility to create comprehensive portfolio solutions for investors by allocating to a mix of in-house and third-party mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs). By employing tactical asset allocation, Franklin Templeton Solutions seeks to position portfolios to capitalize on opportunities presented by changing market conditions and reduce risks within a given portfolio's established investment objectives and risk profile. The team seeks to build different portfolios customized to meet the needs of investors in different regions and countries around the world. "As markets have evolved and investors' needs have changed, we have a long history of introducing innovative investment solutions to help investors meet their long-term investment goals," said Vijay Advani, co-president of Franklin Templeton Investments. "Our ability to develop this suite of funds is a testament to our success in building out our robust investment solutions capabilities and the confidence clients have in the expertise we bring in building a global range of funds to meet the needs of investors around the world. We are excited about the opportunity going forward for developing additional customized open architecture multi-asset funds for specific investor and financial institution needs globally." All investments involve risks, including possible loss of principal. Typically, the more aggressive the investment, or the greater the potential return, the more risk involved. Generally, investors should be comfortable with some fluctuation in the value of their investments, especially over the short term. Investors should consult their financial advisor for help selecting the appropriate fund, fund of funds, or fund combination, based on an evaluation of their investment objectives and risk tolerance. Investors should carefully consider a fund's investment goals, risks, charges and expenses before investing. To obtain a summary prospectus and/or prospectus, which contains this and other information, talk to your financial advisor, call us at (800) DIAL BEN / (800) 342-5236 or visit franklintempleton.com. Please carefully read a prospectus before you invest or send money. About Franklin Templeton Solutions Franklin Templeton Solutions is an integrated global investment platform that manages both custom and packaged multi-asset portfolios based on its Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA), Tactical Asset Allocation (TAA) and manager research capabilities. FTS' team of over 80 dedicated professionals globally, leverages the insights and investment strategies from Franklin Templeton's various investment management groups and employs both strategic and tactical asset allocation to create diversified outcome-oriented portfolios focused on risk-adjusted performance and tailored to client needs. FTS has more than 25 years of experience managing multi-asset and multi-style portfolios, with approximately US$40 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2015. Amongst FTS' offerings are retirement target and global asset allocation portfolios. About Franklin Templeton Investments Franklin Templeton funds' principal underwriter is Franklin Templeton Distributors, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE: BEN), a global investment management organization operating as Franklin Templeton Investments. Franklin Templeton Investments provides global and domestic investment management to retail, institutional and sovereign wealth clients in over 150 countries. Through specialized teams, the Company has expertise across all asset classes -- including equity, fixed income, alternative and custom solutions. The Company's more than 600 investment professionals are supported by its integrated, worldwide team of risk management professionals and global trading desk network. With offices in 35 countries, the California-based company has more than 65 years of investment experience and over US$728 billion in assets under management as of January 31, 2016. For more information, please call 1-800/DIAL BEN or visit franklintempleton.com. Connect with Franklin Templeton on Twitter (@FTI_US), Facebook and YouTube (FranklinTempletonTV). Copyright 2016. Franklin Templeton Investments. All rights reserved. Contact: Franklin Templeton Investments Corporate Communications: Craig Allen +1 212-632-4238 craig.allen@franklintempleton.com Stacey Coleman +1 650-525-7458 stacey.coleman@franklintempleton.com DUBLIN, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5dtv5t/china_medical) has announced the addition of the"China Medical Imaging Diagnosis Industry Report, 2015-2019"report to their offering. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 ) Against the background of a surge in social demand, handsome profit and the favorable opportunity brought by health care reform, the medical imaging industry, especially medical imaging equipment industry, has developed rapidly. Imaging equipment, the base of medical imaging industry, boasts a current market size of over RMB20 billion, has grown at a slower pace in recent years. However, the market segments including remote medical imaging and independent medical diagnostic services are in the period of growth. Led by the government, about 30%-40% of public medical institutions in China have realized regional intercommunication of medical imaging and set up local regional medical imaging centers. Compared with high barriers (heavy investment and sophisticated technologies) of imaging equipment sector, the thresholds for remote medical imaging and independent medical diagnostic services are relatively low. Combined with multiple favorable policies (the Guidance of the State Council on Actively Promoting Internet Plus Action and the Guideline on Advancing the Building of a Tiered-Diagnosis and Treatment System, both introduced in 2015) and a lucrative market capacity of more than 200 billion, the market segments including remote medical imaging and independent medical diagnostic services are attracting huge influx of social capital. In Apr 2015, AliHealth, a company under Internet giant Alibaba, signed a strategic agreement with China Resources Wandong Medical Equipment to explore the operation mode of an independent medical imaging institute on the Internet. In 2015, RiMAG set up three independent medical imaging centers (institutes) in Jiangxi. In the first half of 2015, the medical imaging diagnosis center (Hangzhou Dekang Medical Imaging Diagnosis Center Co., Ltd.) co-founded by Cosmos Group and Shanghai Shizheng Healthcare Technology (Group) was set up; the site selection of the project was completed at the end of December and the company is preparing for opening. In Nov 2015, APH (Fujian) Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. and Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare Co., Ltd. struck an exclusive strategic cooperation agreement whereby the two sides will establish regional medical imaging center projects across the country. Key Topics Covered: 1 Related Concepts of Medical Imaging Diagnosis 2 Development of Medical Imaging Diagnosis Industry in China 3 Upstream and Downstream Development of Medical Imaging Diagnosis Industry 4 Major Medical Imaging Equipment Suppliers in China 5 Major Independent Medical Imaging Enterprises in China Companies Mentioned - China Resources Wandong Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. - E-techco Group - EPiC Healthcare - GE Healthcare - Mindray Medical International Limited - Neusoft Corporation - Philips - Shandong Medical Imaging Research Institute - Shanghai Shizheng Medical Technology Co., Ltd. - Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare Co., Ltd. - Shenzhen Rimag Sunshine Medical Technology Co., Ltd. - Siemens Healthcare - Sino-US Tailimed (Beijing) Medical Technology Co., Ltd For more information visithttp://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5dtv5t/china_medical Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 DUBLIN, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/stpvmq/global_and_china) has announced the addition of the"Global and China Ternary Cathode Materials (NCA/NCM) and Battery Industry Report, 2016-2020"report to their offering. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 ) The global shipment of cathode materials reached 223,400 tons in 2015, surging by 35.89% from the previous year. Thanks to brisk demand for electric vehicles, LFP and NCA show rapid growth among which NCA gets primarily used for Panasonic 18650 cylindrical batteries (to be supplied to Tesla EVs) and substantial growth of LFP benefits mainly from China's EV demand, particularly robust demand for electric buses as well as application in energy storage field. Currently, the world's ternary material manufacturers are principally from Japan, S.Korea and China, holding a combined market share of 50% worldwide. Japanese companies are expert at technologies and have rich experience; S.Korean peers have sprung up and tend to outpace Japanese ones in both technology and quality; while Chinese counterparts that accessed into the industry late are mainly involved in the medium and low-end markets with gross margin of less than 10% and serious homogeneity of products. At present, concentration of ternary material supply is improving in China, with four leaders including Hunan Shanshan Advanced Material, Xiamen Tungsten, Ningbo Jinhe New Materials, and Shenzhen Zhenhua New Materials together holding close to 50% market shares. In future, the market will be seized by the listed companies with strength in technology and capital. In 2015, the shipment of NCM ternary material was up to 30,500 tons with a year-on-year surge of 45.2% in China, and the output value reported RMB3.27 billion, up 35% from a year earlier and manly spurred by growth in electric vehicles' demand for power batteries and substitution for LCO. In addition to NCM, there is also little shipment of NCA ternary material in China, mainly contributed by Tianjin Lishen's 18650 NCA ternary lithium batteries for JAC's Iev5. Since NCA has strong chemical activity and poses exceedingly high requirements on battery thermal management system, electric vehicles in China have rare use of NCA. In 2015, the shipment of NCA ternary material approximated 2,000 tons in China. With improvements in compacted densification, energy density, voltage, etc., ternary materials' application in the digital domain (like tablet PC and notebook computer) sees a rising proportion. What's more, the demand for ternary materials from electric tool market also keeps growing. Key Topics Covered: 1 Overview of Ternary Cathode Materials 2 Global Ternary Cathode Material Industry 3 China Ternary Cathode Material Industry 4 Ternary Cathode Material Industry Chain 5 Global and Chinese Electric Vehicle Market 6 Foreign Ternary Cathode Materials Companies 7 Chinese Ternary Cathode Materials Enterprises 8 Major Global Ternary Lithium Battery Manufacturers 9 Major Chinese Ternary Lithium Battery Manufacturers Companies Mentioned - AESC - ATL - Beijing Easpring Material Technology Co., Ltd. - Belgium Umicore - CITIC GUOAN Mengguli - China Aviation Lithium Battery - China Bak Battery - Fujian Zhonghe Co., Ltd. - Germany BASF - Henan Kelong New Energy Co., Ltd. - Hunan Changyuan Lico Co., Ltd. - Hunan Reshine New Material Co., Ltd. - Hunan Shanshan Advanced MaterialCo., Ltd. - Japan Nichia - Japan Sumitomo Metal Mine - Japan Toda Kogyo - Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co., Ltd. - Kingray New Materials Science & Technology Co., Ltd. - LEJ - LGC - Li-Tec&Accumotive - Ningbo Jinhe New Materials Co., Ltd. - Panasonic - Pulead Technology Industry Co., Ltd. - SKI - Samsung SDI - Shenzhen Green Eco-manufacture Hi-tech - Shenzhen Tianjiao Technology Co., Ltd. - Sinopoly Battery - South Korea L&F - Tianjin Lishen - Wanxiang EV - Xiamen Tungsten Co., Ltd. - Xinxiang Tianli Energy Material Co., Ltd. For more information visithttp://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/stpvmq/global_and_china Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- BMO Capital Markets, the investment and corporate banking arm of BMO Financial Group (TSX: BMO)(NYSE: BMO), was named Best Trade Bank in Canada in London-based Trade Finance Magazine's 2016 annual survey. This marks the sixth time in seven years that BMO has earned this prestigious distinction. The survey ranks firms on the basis of industry votes and feedback from Canadian participants, as well as input from the magazine's editorial team. "BMO Capital Markets demonstrated throughout 2015 it was deserving of Trade Finance's award for the Best Trade Bank in Canada. The bank's superior quality of service, dedication to innovation and unparalleled influence across the country made it a clear winner for this year's award," said Jason Torquato, Americas Editor at Trade Finance. "We take great pride in once again being recognized by Trade Finance Magazine for what we do to help clients with their trade financing needs," said Peter Grills, Managing Director, Global Trade & Banking, BMO Capital Markets. "What sets BMO apart is our focus on execution. We have an experienced team committed to service excellence and an industry-leading technology platform that allows our clients to transact with us easily and access the information they need, when they need it." In 2015, BMO Capital Markets established new trade finance offices in London and Hong Kong to support the evolving needs of multi-national clients and increase visibility in key regions. "We look forward to continuing this momentum in the year ahead," concluded Mr. Grills. About BMO Capital Markets BMO Capital Markets is a leading, full-service North American financial services provider. With more than 2,300 employees operating in 29 locations, including 16 in North America, BMO Capital Markets offers corporate, institutional and government clients access to a complete range of investment and corporate banking products and services. BMO Capital Markets is a member of BMO Financial Group (NYSE: BMO)(TSX: BMO), one of the largest diversified financial services providers in North America, with total assets of $699 billion as of January 31, 2016, and close to 47,000 employees. Contacts: Media Contacts: Pav Jordan, Toronto 416-867-3996 Pav.Jordan@bmo.com Valerie Doucet 416-877-8224 Valerie.Doucet@bmo.com Internet: www.bmo.com For immediate release FLow traders NAMED BEST eUROPEAN and asian etf mARKET mAKER IN THE 2016 ETF EXPRESS gLOBAL AWARDS AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, 25 February 2016 - Flow Traders N.V. (Euronext: FLOW), a leading global technology-enabled liquidity provider that specializes in exchange traded products ("ETPs"), has been voted Best European ETF Market-Maker and Best Asia-Pacific ETF Market-Maker by the ETF Express Global Awards 2016. It is the fourth consecutive year that Flow Traders is honored the title Best European ETF Market-Maker and the second time that Flow Traders is named Best Asia-Pacific ETF Market-Maker by the ETF Express Global Awards. Dennis Dijkstra, Co-CEO Flow Traders: "There is no better proof of our market making skills in these markets than winning these industry awards for Europe and Asia. It reflects our strengths and ambitions to be the best in what we do. We thank ETF Express for their appreciation and look forward to continue this performance in 2016". Sjoerd Rietberg, Co-CEO Flow Traders: "It is great to receive the recognition again for our role in the ETF ecosystem. We are proud to be named Best European ETF Market-Maker and Best Asia-Pacific ETF Market-Maker and we will continue with our strategy to make sure we maintain this quality going forward". The ETF Express Global Awards 2016 survey leading participants in the ETF space over the year 2015, recognizing excellence among managers and industry parties in ETFs around the world. Flow Traders is a leading global technology-enabled liquidity provider specializing in exchange traded products (ETPs). We provide liquidity in ETP markets 24 hours a day while seeking to stay market neutral at all times and without having directional opinions. While we do not have any clients, we enable investors to buy and sell ETPs efficiently by quoting bid and ask prices. We seek to earn small amounts of money on large numbers of individual transactions based on the differences between our ETP prices and the prices of the underlying or related instruments. Investors benefit from our activities due to increased liquidity, higher execution quality and lower overall trading costs. As such, we contribute to more efficient and transparent securities markets. We provide liquidity in over 4,000 ETP listings across the globe, tracking all underlying asset classes, including equities, fixed income, commodities and currencies with access to over 90 trading venues in more than 30 countries. The company has been named Europe's number one Trading House for ETFs in the EFT Risk European Rankings over three consecutive years - 2013, 2014 and 2015. Flow Traders is headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with trading offices in Asia and the US, covering all time zones. Flow Traders' shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (symbol: FLOW). For more information, please visit: www.flowtraders.com (http://www.flowtraders.com). ENDS NOTES TO EDITORS Contact Details Flow Traders Serge Enneman / Investor Relations Manager Phone: +31 20 7998655 Email: investor.relations@flowtraders.com Important legal information This press release is prepared by Flow Traders N.V. and is for information purposes only and the material contained in this document is provided 'as is'. It is not a recommendation to engage in investment activities and you must not rely on the content of this document when making any investment decisions. The information in this document does not constitute legal, tax, or investment advice and is not to be regarded as investor marketing or marketing of any security or financial instrument, or as an offer to buy or sell, or as a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell, securities or financial instruments. The information and materials contained in this press release are provided 'as is' and Flow Traders N.V. or any of its affiliates ("Flow Traders") do not warrant the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of the information and materials and expressly disclaim liability for any errors or omissions. This press release is not intended to be, and shall not constitute in any way a binding or legal agreement, or impose any legal obligation on Flow Traders. All intellectual property rights, including trademarks, are those of their respective owners. All rights reserved. All proprietary rights and interest in or connected with this publication shall vest in Flow Traders. No part of it may be redistributed or reproduced without the prior written permission of Flow Traders. This press release may include forward-looking statements, which are based on Flow Traders' current expectations and projections about future events, and are not guarantees of future performance. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our beliefs and expectations. Words such as "may", "will", "would", "should", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "project", "believe", "could", "hope", "seek", "plan", "foresee", "aim", "objective", "potential", "goal" "strategy", "target", "continue" and similar expressions or their negatives are used to identify these forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future whether or not outside the control of Flow Traders. Such factors may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, no undue reliance should be placed on any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as at the date at which they are made. Flow Traders expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update, review or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which such statements are based unless required to do so by applicable law. Financial objectives are internal objectives of Flow Traders to measure its operational performance and should not be read as indicating that Flow Traders is targeting such metrics for any particular fiscal year. Flow Traders' ability to achieve these financial objectives is inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond Flow Traders' control, and upon assumptions with respect to future business decisions that are subject to change. As a result, Flow Traders' actual results may vary from these financial objectives, and those variations may be material. Efficiencies are net, before tax and on a run-rate basis, i.e. taking into account the full-year impact of any measure to be undertaken before the end of the period mentioned. The expected operating efficiencies and cost savings were prepared on the basis of a number of assumptions, projections and estimates, many of which depend on factors that are beyond Flow Traders' control. These assumptions, projections and estimates are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and actual results may differ, perhaps materially, from those projected. Flow Traders cannot provide any assurance that these assumptions are correct and that these projections and estimates will reflect Flow Traders' actual results of operations. By accepting this document you agree to the terms set out above. If you do not agree with the terms set out above please notify legal.amsterdam@nl.flowtraders.com (mailto:legal.amsterdam@nl.flowtraders.com) immediately and delete or destroy this document. ETF Express Global Awards_PressRelease (http://hugin.info/171622/R/1989534/730674.pdf) This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Flow Traders NV via Globenewswire HUG#1989534 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Simavita Limited (ASX: SVA)(TSX VENTURE: SV) ("Simavita" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of the Special Meeting of the Company's shareholders which was held at 10:00 am today (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) in North Sydney, Australia. All three resolutions that were put before the meeting were passed unanimously on a show of hands. Details of the proxy votes received by the Company in relation to each resolution in the notice of special meeting and information circular are contained in the following table. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Description of Resolution For Against Abstain Totals ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Approval and ratification of First Tranche Placement ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Numbers of votes received 36,335,306 853,878 68,536 37,257,720 ------------ Percentage of votes cast 97.52% 2.29% 0.18% 100.00% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Approve and Authorization of Second Tranche Placement ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Numbers of votes received 38,528,190 853,878 68,536 39,450,604 ------------ Percentage of votes cast 97.66% 2.16% 0.17% 100.00% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Approval and Authorization of Issue of Common Shares and Placement Options to Dussman Pty Ltd ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Numbers of votes received 7,003,526 868,078 85,536 7,957,140 ------------ Percentage of votes cast 88.02% 10.91% 1.07% 100.00% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Simavita Simavita is a digital healthcare company that has developed an innovative software platform. The first application for the platform is a world first solution for the management of urinary incontinence, with a focus on the elderly. This platform technology is an instrumented incontinence assessment application that provides evidence-based incontinence management care plans to the residential aged care market. About SIM SIM is a wireless sensor technology that delivers evidence-based instrument incontinence data on individuals. SIM provides user friendly tools and software to assess the incontinence condition and to help plan better outcomes. SIM is used to detect, record and report incontinence events during a compulsory or recommended assessment period in residential aged care facilities to develop an evidence-based incontinence care plan. Conducting assessments is mandatory in many countries and the incontinence assessment creates an influential element of care of each individual. For more information on Simavita or SIM, please visit www.simavita.com. The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the transactions set out herein and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither TSX Venture Exchange not its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this Release. Contacts: Company Philippa Lewis Chief Executive Officer +61 2 8405 6381 Media and Investor Relations Glen Zurcher +61 420 249 299 glen.zurcher@irdepartment.com.au www.simavita.com BOULDER, CO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Spectralink Corporation ("Spectralink"), a global leader in mobile communications solutions for the workplace, today announced that its board of directors has appointed Doug Werking as Chief Executive Officer. Werking is a seasoned executive with deep operations expertise and a strong history with Spectralink. He succeeds Dan Mondor who has left the company for personal reasons. "We are pleased to welcome Doug to Spectralink as the CEO. He is an excellent leader who knows the business well, having served on the board of directors for two years. Doug is passionate about the opportunities ahead, and will accelerate the company's strategic growth initiatives and build upon the progress made by the current team," said Kurt Lentz, Member of Spectralink's Board of Directors. "As Spectralink continues to expand its enterprise mobility solutions into new markets, Doug's leadership and experience with scaling organizations will have a strong impact on the company's success." Werking brings nearly 30 years of experience and has held leadership roles at several large corporations in the energy and manufacturing industries. He has worked with more than 30 companies, in a variety of industries, to drive revenue growth, strategic planning, performance improvement initiatives and operational excellence. "We would like to thank Dan for his valuable contributions during his tenure with Spectralink," added Lentz. As Spectralink's new CEO, Werking's initial priorities will be to empower a customer-centric culture and sales execution excellence. Additionally, he will be focused on leading the continuing evolution of the company's operating model to enhance the customer engagement process. "I am honored to be joining this dynamic team as the new CEO in Boulder," said Werking. "Spectralink has built a great platform for success and is well positioned for further growth, as demand for communications solutions that enable workplace mobility continues to rise. I look forward to building on last year's success, and capitalizing on the momentum to create accelerated value for channel partners and customers." About Spectralink Spectralink -- The WorkSmart Company -- is the global leader in purpose-built wireless communications. Since 1990, Spectralink Corporation has deployed over 3 million purpose-built handset devices to customers around the world, enabling millions of workers to work smarter, with more efficient and reliable in-building communications. Spectralink solutions enable voice, texts, alarms, alerts, and key applications every minute of every day. They are highly interoperable with the leading enterprise call control, Wi-Fi access points and workflow applications. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, Spectralink brings productivity, reliability and ease of use to mobile workers everywhere. For more information, please visit www.spectralink.com or call 303-441-7500. Follow Spectralink on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. For further information, please contact: Steve Stewart Head of Marketing Spectralink Office: +1 303-441-7558 (US MT time zone) Mobile: +1 303-809-6009 (US MT time zone) Email Contact CHICAGO, IL -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Participate Learning today is announcing a new offering that empowers K-20 educators to seamlessly add Open Educational Resources to the Learning Registry simply by tweeting the resource URL alongside the ParticipateOER hashtag. This offering was launched in order to support the GoOpen Campaign from the U.S. Department of Education, which encourages states, school districts and educators to use openly licensed educational materials. "The success of the Learning Registry ultimately depends on the volume of submissions. This new offering minimizes the costs and effort associated with submitting resources to the Learning Registry," said Alan Warms, CEO of Participate Learning. "There is no requirement that involves learning a new system or signing up to a website or application. Just simply tweet with the hashtag and you're done with the submission. The goal is to encourage many more educators to submit to the Learning Registry." The Learning Registry -- a joint effort of the Department of Education and the Department of Defense -- acts as an aggregator of metadata, including the publisher, location, content area, standards alignment, ratings, reviews, and more. A live stream of submitted resources to the Learning Registry is accessible at www.participate.com/chats/participateoer. In the coming weeks, Participate Learning will enable teachers who tweet Open Educational Resources alongside ParticipateOER to provide additional metadata about the resource. Upon submission, teachers will be automatically tweeted a link, which will enable them to provide additional metadata and reviews. Participate Learning and its community of educators and digital resource experts will vet all ParticipateOER submissions before sending on to the Learning Registry. "There is so much trapped wisdom in our schools that could be supporting deeper learning for students," said Dr. Robert Dillon, Community Director of BrightBytes Institute and Director of Innovation at Affton School District. "Participate Learning has developed a simple and elegant tool to democratize resources for the benefit of all. Looking forward to seeing this culture of sharing develop." Participate Learning is a Certified Partner of the Canvas learning management system, created by Instructure. All Canvas users will benefit from the expanded availability of Open Educational Resources. "We strongly believe in the power of Open Educational Resources as a way to drive innovation in education. Participate Learning's contribution to ensuring great resources continue to get submitted to the Learning Registry is fabulous and we are excited to encourage our community to use it," shared Melissa Loble, VP of Partners and Programs for Instructure. Participate Learning empowers teachers to improve student outcomes by helping them find and share free vetted educational resources to take advantage of the preponderance of broadband and internet-connected devices in their classrooms. Contact: Brad Spirrison 312-804-9844 Email Contact DUBLIN, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/q4r37j/aortic_endografts) has announced the addition of the "Aortic Endografts Market: 2016 Edition" report to their offering. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 ) The aortic intervention market has consolidated. During 2015, Medtronic bought Aptus Endosystems for $110 million, Lombard Medical bought Altura for $23 million and Endologix merged with TriVascular in a $211 million deal. The only innovative company left standing independent in the space is Cardiatis, which is expected to be acquired during 2016 given its disruptive aortic flow diversion technology, its extensive patent portfolio, and the recent Veith symposium presentations highlighting its utility in repairing difficult to treat thoraco-abdominal aneurysms, . The global aortic endografts market was estimated at $1.8 billion in 2015, a growth of 6% over its level in 2014. At $1.4 billion in revenue, the infra-renal segment of the market has matured but is expected to continue growing in the low-single digit range during the rest of the decade. Aortic branch management strategies represent the next frontier in endovascular aortic aneurysm repair with the promise to expand applicability into the thoracoabdominal space and the aortic arch, an estimated $900 million in new market potential. Fenestrated and branched endografts are being used in many centers and have increased the proportion of aortic aneurysms treated endovascularly. During the rest of the decade these devices will become perfected, simpler to use and stockable in off-the-shelf configurations. The acceptance of the off-the-shelf aortic flow diversion technology that can bridge and preserve circulation in the celiac, superior mesenteric and the renals, is a game changer and promises to breathe new growth into the overall market. This report offers senior executives in the medical technology industry a comprehensive overview of the market with a consensus forecast to 2020 supported by three event impacted scenarios. The report, which has been tracking this highly guarded space since 2008, is the definitive guide to the current industry landscape. Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Aortic Aneurysms 2.1 Open Surgical Repair of Aortic Aneurysms 2.2 Endovascular Repair of Aortic Aneurysms 3. Aortic Endografts Market 3.1 Leading Companies & Their Devices 3.2 Recent Mergers & Acquisitions in the Space 3.3 Leading Companies Market Shares 3.4 Geographic Segmentation 4. Market Segmentation 4.1 Infra-Renal Aortic Endografts Market 4.2 Thoracic Aortic Endografts Market 4.3 Fenestrated & Branched Aortic Endografts 4.4 Aneurysm Sealing Endografts 4.5 Aortic Flow Diverting Endografts 5. Market Forecast 5.1 Endovascular Opportunity In Thoraco-Abdominal Aneurysm Repair 5.2 Endovascular Opportunity In Aortic Dissection Repair 5.3 Endovascular Opportunity In Ascending Aortic Arch Aneurysms 5.4 Future Scenarios 6. Companies In The Space 6.1 Bolton Medical 6.2 Braile Biomedica 6.3 Cardiatis 6.4 Cook Medical 6.5 Cordis 6.6 Endologix 6.7 Endospan 6.8 Gore Medical 6.9 Jotec 6.10 Lifetech Scientific 6.11 Lombard Medical 6.12 Medtronic 6.13 Microport Medical 6.14 Nano Endoluminal 6.15 Terumo For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/q4r37j/aortic_endografts Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 DUBLIN, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9mgkjs/global_injector) has announced the addition of the "Global Injector Nozzle Market Research Report By Vehicle Type, By Technology, By Fuel Type, By Geography - Global Forecast to 2020" report to their offering. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 ) The demand for automobiles is growing exponentially, which has further led to the increasing demand for fuel-efficient and eco-friendly vehicles. Moreover, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has imposed new regulations on its members and restricted the extraction and export of crude oil. This has further impacted the supply of crude oil to emerging countries such as India, China, Brazil, and South Africa, among others, who are major importers of crude oil and natural gas. To lower down these imports and conserve conventional fuel, vehicles need be more fuel efficient, in turn, driving the injector nozzle market. One of the major concerns is to control emission of harmful gases such as carbon monoxide (CO) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), among others. Furthermore, environmentalists are continuously stressing on the issue of ozone layer depletion due to excessive emission of harmful gases. In regard to this, several countries are focused on regulating the existing emission norms to control air pollution. Also, in order to adhere to the stringent emission standards, automobile manufacturers have started to refine its exhaust and fuel injection systems. Automobile companies are investing significantly in R&D activities to undergo technological advancements in the field of fuel injection. In the emerging economies, gasoline prices are higher than diesel, owing to which the demand for diesel engines is projected to increase in the future. However, advancements in gasoline engine (gasoline direct injection) have increased its fuel-efficiency, thereby making them compatible with diesel engines. In 2011, 13 major automobile manufacturers such as Ford, GM, Chrysler, BMW, Honda, Hyundai (HYMLF), Jaguar/Land Rover, Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota, and Volvo signed letters of commitment with the U.S. government to upgrade fuel economy standards of their cars and light-duty trucks to 23.2 km per liter (54.5 miles per gallon) by 2025. This is further expected to save 12 billion barrels of oil per day, which is half of the oil imported by the U.S. from OPEC countries on a daily basis. Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Market Overview 5 Global Injector Nozzle Market, By Fuel Type 6 Global Injector Nozzle Market, By Vehicle Type 7 Global Injector Nozzle Market, By Technology 8 Global Injector Nozzle Market, By Geography 9 Global Injector Nozzle Market: Competitive Landscape 10 Global Injector Nozzle Market, By Company - Continental Ag - Delphi Automotive Plc - Denso Corporation - Infineon Technologies Ag - Keihin Corporation - Magneti Marelli S.P.A - Robert Bosch Gmbh For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9mgkjs/global_injector Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Dynasty Metals & Mining Inc. ("Dynasty" or the "Company") (TSX: DMM)(OTCQX: DMMIF) is pleased to announce that it has received the Environmental Authorization for the Dynasty Goldfield Project located approximately 160km southwest of Dynasty's Zaruma gold mine and mill. "We are extremely pleased to receive the Environmental Authorization for the Dynasty Goldfield Project," commented Dynasty CEO, Robert Washer. "We would also like to thank the Ecuador Ministers of Mines and Environment and their staff, as well as the Government of Ecuador, for the support and cooperation we have received in consideration of this Environmental Authorization. This is a significant milestone for Dynasty, one which establishes a permitting framework for us to build and grow our gold production in the future in respect of this project, subject to obtaining adequate financing and finalizing a development plan and budget. We are now proceeding with registration of this Authorization and look forward to implementing a plan for the development of several shallow open pits along this system when economic conditions are appropriate and capital is available for this project. In addition, significant underground design work has been undertaken in the past and may also be carried out on this project in the future. It is anticipated that any production from the Dynasty Goldfield Project would be processed at the Company's Zaruma plant, and will assist in filling the spare capacity." Under the Mining Act, three main permits are required to begin a mining operation, the most significant of which is the Environmental Authorization, permitting the Company to continue to a mining licence following the formal registration of the number of mining hectares to be exploited - an administrative detail. The other two permits have already been obtained by Dynasty for this project. This Environmental Authorization is in consideration of three main concessions within the Dynasty Goldfield project. The Dynasty Goldfield Project is qualified under Ecuador's small scale mining regime and subject to a fixed 3% royalty and no windfall tax, with no need to sign a mining contract with the Government. The small scale mining regime allows open pit activities with an exploitation volume of up to 1,000 tonnes a day per concession, a total of 3,000 tonnes per day for the three concessions under consideration. With over one million ounces of gold (and 8.5 million ounces of silver) in the Measured and Indicated mineral resource categories and another 1.1 million ounces of gold in the inferred category (with 9.9 million ounces of silver), the Dynasty Goldfield Project has the potential to significantly augment Zaruma's production and reduce overall milling costs. The open pit opportunity for this project suggests a lower level of capital required for development and the potential for commencing production in a shorter time frame than a traditional underground operation. Mineral resource estimate for the Dynasty Goldfield Project is as follows: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tonnes Gold grade Contained Silver grade Contained Category (t) (g/t) Gold (ozs) (g/t) Silver (ozs) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Measured 2,909,000 4.7 437,000 38.1 3,567,000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Indicated 3,958,000 4.6 585,000 38.8 4,936,000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total M&I 6,867,000 4.6 1,022,000 38.5 8,504,000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inferred 7,825,000 4.4 1,118,000 39.4 9,901,000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: A cut-off grade of 2.0 g/t was used to derive the mineral resource estimate. The Dynasty Copper-Gold Belt is a historically unexplored mineralized corridor, approximately 90 km long and 20 km wide, which runs along a north east trend that begins in Peru and extends to Dynasty's Zaruma project. The property is located in Loja Province, south western Ecuador, covers 969.16 km2, and consists of fifty-two concessions at altitudes ranging from 600m to 1800m above sea level. These concessions are 100% owned by Dynasty with five of the project concessions subject to a 1% net smelter return (NSR) royalty payable to a related party. The Dynasty Goldfield Project covers an area of approximately 21,909 hectares within the Dynasty Copper-Gold Belt. The Dynasty Goldfield Project includes the Papayal Project and Cerro Verde quartz vein swarms and stockworks, where drilling has confirmed the presence to depth of high-grade gold and silver mineralization. From the time that Dynasty acquired the Dynasty Goldfield Project in 2003 until 2007, when the Ecuadorian Government introduced an exploration moratorium, the Company carried out geological mapping, sampling, geophysical surveys and diamond drilling. These works resulted in the identification of high grade gold and silver vein systems in the Cerro Verde, Papayal and Trapichillo areas and also have identified exploration targets in disseminated gold and gold - copper ore bodies. To date, 26,700 metres of drilling have been completed on the Dynasty Goldfield concessions, to depths of approximately 200 metres. In addition, a further 2,033 rock channel samples have been taken from 1,161 surface trenches at Cerro Verde, Iguana Este, Trapichillo and Papayal. The most recent Dynasty Goldfield 43-101 technical report can be found on both the Dynasty website (www.dynastymining.com) and at www.sedar.com. Brian Speechly, a Fellow of AusIMM (Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy), a director of the Company and a "qualified person" within the definition of that term in the National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. About Dynasty Metals & Mining Dynasty Metals & Mining Inc. is a Canadian based mining company involved in the mining, exploration and development of mineral properties in Ecuador. The Company is currently focused on gold production and continued development at its Zaruma Gold Project. The Company also owns the Dynasty Goldfield Project and the Jerusalem Project, both exploration properties in southern Ecuador. For further information please visit the Company's website at www.dynastymining.com or follow Dynasty on Twitter @DynastyMining. Forward-Looking Information This news release contains statements which are, or may be deemed to be, "forward-looking information" which are prospective in nature. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "projects", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Such information in this news release includes, without limitation, statements regarding Dynasty's future plans and expectations relating to the Dynasty Goldfield project, and anticipated benefits of the Environmental Authorization. Forward-looking information is not based on historical facts, but rather on then current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the business and the industry and markets in which the Company operates, including assumptions relating to the Company's ability to develop a development plan and budget for its Dynasty Goldfield Project and will be able to obtain financing in the future to develop such project, that the Company will have access to capital if required, that market conditions will remain at expected levels, and that the Company's equipment will operate at expected levels. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause Dynasty's actual results, revenues, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Important risks that could cause Dynasty's actual results, revenues, performance or achievements to differ materially from Dynasty's expectations include, among other things: (i) risks related to prior mining activity at its mines and declines, (ii) uncertainties relating to mineral resource estimates, (iii) risks related to availability of capital on satisfactory terms or at all, (iv) risks related to being an early stage producer; (v) risks related to Dynasty's lack of history in producing metals from Dynasty's mineral exploration properties and its ability to successfully establish mining operations or profitably produce precious metals, (vi) that Dynasty will be unable to successfully negotiate agreements with the holders of surface rights on areas covered by Dynasty's project concessions, (vii) changes in the market prices of gold, silver, and other minerals, which, in the past, have fluctuated widely and which could affect the profitability of Dynasty's operations and financial condition, (viii) risks related to governmental regulations, including taxation statutes and export regulations; (ix) risks related to Dynasty's primary properties being located in Ecuador, including political, economic, and regulatory instability, (x) uncertainty in Dynasty's ability to obtain and maintain certain permits necessary to the Company's current and anticipated operations, (xi) risks related to the timing of Dynasty's sales of precious metals including, but not limited to, shipment and other governmental regulatory delays, (xii) labour risks, (xiii) equipment risks, and other risks found in Dynasty's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2014, which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Other than in accordance with its legal or regulatory obligations, Dynasty is not under any obligation and Dynasty expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contacts: Naomi Nemeth Investor Relations Toronto Office: 1 416 366 3881 Toll Free: 1 888-735-3881 (North America only) info@dynastymining.com Nick Furber CFO Vancouver Office: (604) 687-7810 nfurber@dynastymining.com www.dynastymining.com Technavio's latest aerospace and defense report covers the present scenario and growth prospects for the global defense counter IED systems market 2016-2020 In this report, Technavio's aerospace and defense research experts announce their key market highlights for the global defense counter improvised explosive device (IED) systems market. Their findings include: By 2020, unmanned systems will observe rapid growth with a market share of close to 20% One of Technavio's lead analysts Abhay Singh, who specializes in defense research said, "The market is expected to grow rapidly compared to other IED systems. Such systems help military troops counter IED threats easily in the battlefield. As these devices are portable and easy to operate, it also helps access IEDs in dense and inaccessible areas, while it collects insightful information required in the battlefields. Also, as these devices are capable of doing long-distance surveillance activities and capture high-definition images, it has attracted substantial investments in the market." "For example, in August 2015, RE2 Inc. of Pennsylvania announced the development of underwater dexterous manipulation systems for the US Navy. This contract is worth USD 2.7 million. These systems are capable of remotely and effectively addressing waterborne IEDs, which include ports and on bridge pilings," states Abhay. Request sample report: http://bit.ly/1Ts2bd0 The market is expected to witness an increase in the number of investments from the Middle East and APAC over the next 10 years Rising tensions in the Middle East and African countries (i.e., Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Eritrea) have driven up defense budgets substantially. It is estimated that the growth in their defense will continue to drive the market over the forecast period. In 2013, Saudi Arabia was ranked fourth with USD 67 billion, Turkey 14th with USD 19.1 billion, and UAE 15th with USD 19 billion in defense spending. Middle East defense spending is expected to grow at an estimated 3.48% contributing to revenues worth USD 920 billion by 2020. Ballistic anti-missile systems, new generation warplanes, military electronics, cyber systems, helicopters, and light tactical armored vehicles with weapons systems are some of the popular items countries in the Middle East region are expected to procure during the forecast period. It is also anticipated that APAC will overtake the US in terms of defense spending by 2021. China and other countries in the region are also expected to increase the spending on weapons by 35% by 2021. India, one of the biggest arms importers in the world, has also increased its spending to USD 5.3 billion in 2013, and this trend is expected to attract new investments in the APAC market over the next four years. Introduction of unmanned systems will emerge as a key driver for this market until 2020 Unmanned systems are gaining immense popularity in the global military market. These systems have provided army troops with the means to locate the enemy, build new strategies, and collect insights. Hence, such systems are likely to be implemented for autonomous convoy and counter-IED efforts in the modern war field scenarios. Robotic and unmanned systems are expected to aid various field operations which include neutralizing roadside bombs and IED, screening vehicles, and searching buildings, bunkers, caves and tunnels. It is playing a key role in enhancing safety of military troops by consenting army personnel to inspect perilous objects from a safe distance. The Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering (TARDEC) is pursuing autonomous mobility applique systems (AMAS) in tactical vehicles developed by Lockheed Martin. These vehicles are capable of driving by themselves, using radar and lidar to access road surface, lanes, curves, and moving obstacles. Also, in a key development, the Robotic Systems Joint Program Office of the US Army made a USD 30-million worth indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract with iRobot in 2013 to supply PackBot FasTac robotic systems. There are many similar contracts in the pipeline that due to materialize over the course of the forecast period, and it is a significant emerging trend expected to positively impact the global defense counter IED systems market until 2020. Browse related reports: Global Non-Lethal Weapons Market Research Report 2015-2019 Global Missile Market 2015-2019 Global Battlefield Management Systems Market 2016-2020 Purchase three reports for the price of one by becoming a Technavio subscriber. Subscribing to Technavio's reports allows you to download any three reports per month for the price of one. Contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and a link to our subscription platform. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225005031/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 630 333 9501 UK: +44 208 123 1770 www.technavio.com media@technavio.com MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Note to editors: A photo and a B-roll video for this release will be available on the Canadian Press picture wire via Marketwired. Gathered in Montreal for their 94th Annual General Meeting, La Coop federee members once again demonstrated the strength of their cooperative model which, while being profitable, demonstrated all the required flexibility and agility to remain a market leader of the Canadian agricultural and agri-food businesses and of the Eastern Canadian retail market. Considering the challenges posed by an environment where paradigms are consistently shifting and, at a time where the twenty-first century agricultural business needs to address important issues, La Coop federee once again weathered the storm very well as it specifically took advantage of its diversified portfolio of activities reflecting its past strategic investments. In this context, La Coop federee announces sales of nearly $6.0 billion for the fiscal year ending October 31, 2015, 11.5% higher than those of the previous fiscal year and earnings before dividends to the organisation's members and taxes of $95.7 million, 29.7% higher than the $73.8 million achieved a year earlier. Finally, La Coop federee pays out to its members $35 million in dividends representing a 40% increase compared to the $25 million dividend paid in 2014. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Highlights (Fiscal years ended October 31, 2015 and October 25, 2014) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (In millions of dollars) 2015 2014 Change (%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revenue (Sales or turnover) 5 992.0 5 376.1 11.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Earnings before dividends to the organisation's members and taxes 95.7 73.8 29.7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dividends 35.0 25.0 40.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Assets 2 298.3 1 737.6 32.3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "After the sizeable changes we've experienced in 2014, the 2015 fiscal year was a period of consolidation and integration of the already-achieved gains. Even if we've reduced the scale of our investments and the growth of our activities, La Coop federee nevertheless remained vigilant to seize market opportunities ", declared Denis Richard, President of La Coop federee. La Coop federee's activities are subdivided in three sectors: The Agri-business Division (livestock, crops and grains), the Retail and Innovation Division (hardware stores, renovation centers, energy and innovation) and the Meat Division (pork activities and pork and poultry processing). The increase in revenue is explained by a better contribution of the Meat Division (Olymel s.e.c. subsidiary) and of the Agri-business Division. The contribution of these two groups more than offset for the transitory results of the Retail and Innovation Division following the acquisition of Groupe BMR. "In 2015, our cooperative continues performing well. We are boldly taking up the sustainability challenge facing the agricultural, agri-food and retail industries where price volatility, regulatory changes, globalization and a transition towards digital are every day facts. This year's results clearly demonstrate that our choices and strategic orientations are already bearing fruit ", declared Gaetan Desroches, Chief Executive Officer of La Coop federee. SECTOR REVIEW The best performance ever for Olymel s.e.c. Through its affiliate, Olymel, La Coop's network is present from one end of the value chain to the other. Nearly 10,000 employees work every day so that consumers can enjoy high quality pork and poultry meat products. To this effect, all Olymel plants are HACCP certified. The 2015 fiscal year took place in the context of an uncertain worldwide business environment despite a turnaround in the United States. However, this division followed the momentum started in 2014, recording the best results of its 25 years of history and generating record revenues of $2.805 billion in comparison to $2.756 billion last year. The good results of the 2015 fiscal year are explained by many factors including a significant reduction in raw material costs and an important volume increase in the sectors of processed pork and bacon. The excellent results of the Poultry and Western fresh pork sectors also contributed achieving positive results. The ability of Olymel to market its products was also helped by a weaker Canadian dollar which stimulated sales on international markets. Finally, let's mention that Olymel will celebrate in 2016 its 25th year of existence. A stronger than ever Agri-business Division which is reaping the fruits of its rationalisations and investments La Coop federee's Agri-business Division takes advantage of the synergies between three core sectors; livestock, crops and grains. It also benefits from partnerships in various joint-ventures in Quebec and Canada, allowing to consolidate its presence from coast-to-coast. For the 2015 fiscal year, the Agri-business Division is reaping the fruits of the multiple acquisitions it realized over the last few years despite the context of lower prices for many basic products. The acquisitions and partnerships realized outside Quebec allow La Coop federee to be very competitive in livestock as well as in crops. All things considered, sales of the Agri-business Division, net of inter-company sales, increased by $139.2 million to reach $1.765 billion while pre-tax earnings increased by $15 million to reach $54.1 million. Besides gains related to the disposal of material assets, operating results are up in most of the sectors. Retail and Innovation division: a year of transition In addition to operating the Agri-business Division, La Coop federee, through its Sonic, Unimat and BMR banners, offers farmers and consumers energy and hardware products that meet the needs of local people. The Retail and Innovation Division went thru a year of transition. The purchase of 100% of Group BMR during the fiscal year will be very positive over the long haul for the organization and its network. However, such a sizeable acquisition necessarily involves short term adjustments. More so, when we know that the renovation and building materials market continues to be challenging in Quebec. Despite this conjuncture, the many moves required by this transition have been carried out diligently: conversion of signs, logistical procurement adjustments to serve twice as many stores, cultural transition for human resources and rationalisation of selected corporate stores. Accordingly, in the context of the ongoing transformation of the activities of the hardware and materials sector, total sales of the Retail and Innovation Division amounted to $1.410 billion for the 2015 fiscal year which compares to $981.5 million for the 2014 fiscal year representing a $428 million increase. This increase is mostly explained by the acquisition in January 2015 of all outstanding shares of Groupe BMR which allowed to fully consolidate this subsidiary's sales. However, this increase is partly mitigated by a large decrease in oil product prices of the Sonic Energy Sector. A model of solidarity and shared benefits Founded on the values of solidarity, equity, honesty and responsibility, La Coop federee is inspired by the model that places human values above those of materiality and recognizes within the limits of sound management practices, the primacy of people over capital. "Our 2015 accomplishments and our future projects clearly illustrate the ability of La Coop federee being proactive towards a challenging environment and to continuously act in the best long term interest of its members ", concluded Gaetan Desroches, Chief Executive Officer of La Coop federee. Availibility of additional information Financial information along with a complete operational review of the fiscal year ended October 31, is available on La Coop federee's website at www.consoliderCoopererpourlavenir.Coop About La Coop federee Founded in 1922, La Coop federee is the largest agri-food organization in Quebec. It is owned by more than 90,000 members grouped into 72 cooperatives located in several Canadian provinces and is present in the majority of links of the agri-food chain. As a retailer, La Coop federee provides farmers with the necessary goods and services for operating their enterprises. Its activities are separated into three Divisions: Agri-business (livestock and crop production, and grain marketing under the Elite and La Coop banners), Retail & Innovation (energy, hardware and farm machinery, under the Sonic, Unimat, BMR and Agrizone banners) and Meat (under the Olymel, Flamingo and Lafleur banners). La Coop federee employs 12,200 people and its sales total $5.992 billion. Including its affiliated cooperatives, La Coop federee counts more than 18,350 employees with combined sales of $9.6 billion. www.lacoop.coop twitter.com/LaCoop_federee. B-roll footage of the La Coop federee will be available via satellite on Thursday, February 25th at 4:00 - 4:15 p.m. Eastern Galaxy 17 K18 Slot D U/L: 14373.5 H D/L: 12073.5 V Symbol rate: 7.5 FEC: 3/4 DVBS2 8PSK MPEG4 4.2.0 Contacts: Source: Ben Marc Diendere Senior Vice-president, Communications, Public Affairs and Branding @Marc_ben Information and interview requests: Marie-Helene Cliche Communications Manager C: 514 347-5939 marie-helene.cliche@lacoop.coop WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Setting up a potential clash at tonight's debate in Houston, Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., launched his first real attacks on Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump in remarks Wednesday night. Speaking to supporters at a rally in Houston, Rubio criticized Trump for his lack of foreign policy experience as well as his stance on Israel. Rubio argued Trump's remarks about foreign policy suggest he would not be ready to be commander-in-chief on his first day in office. 'You can't just say, 'Well, when I get there I'll hire the smartest people and they're going to tell me what to do,' Rubio said. He added, 'The smartest people are already there. They're already telling the president what he should be doing. He's ignoring it. You deserve to know exactly what the next commander-in-chief is going to do.' Rubio also attacked Trump for comments indicating he would try to take a neutral approach to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. 'The front-runner in this race, Donald Trump, has said he's not going to take sides on Israel versus the Palestinians because he wants to be an honest broker,' the Florida senator said. He added, 'Well, there is no such thing as an honest broker in that. Because the Palestinian Authority, which has strong links to terror, they teach little kids that it's a glorious thing to kill Jews.' The remarks are seen as an abrupt about-face for Rubio, who indicated he was reluctant to attack Trump just hours earlier. In an interview on NBC's 'Today' show, Rubio said he did not get into the presidential race to 'tear up other Republicans.' The Florida senator claimed he has only fired back at Senator Ted Cruz, R-Tex., in response to attacks from his rival. While Rubio's remarks at the rally later in the day were not in response to an attack from Trump, the real estate tycoon is widely expected to return fire in Thursday night's debate in Houston. The debate is the last before next week's Super Tuesday contests and could turn into a slugfest between Trump, Rubio, and Cruz. (Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore) Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Banque SYZ SA / SYZ Asset Management: Three phenomenal years for OYSTER Japan Opportunities . Processed and transmitted by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Three phenomenal years for OYSTER Japan Opportunities Geneva, 25 February 2016 - Thanks to pragmatic management combining conviction and flexibility, the OYSTER Japan Opportunities fund has obtained one of the best performances of the Lipper ranking over three years by being ranked in the first decile. Flexible and robust conviction-based management Joel Le Saux, the head of the OYSTER Japan Opportunities fund for the last three years, works together with Yoko Otsuka, his analyst. They regularly travel to Japan to meet with the companies held by the fund, but also to find new investment opportunities. The management process is based on fundamental analysis aimed at determining the intrinsic value of the companies analysed. With around 50 stocks, the portfolio consists of growth mid-caps that are less sensitive to the economic cycle, but also large companies that by nature are more sensitive to the economic situation. Consistent performance through all market phases The OYSTER Japan Opportunities fund has posted excellent performances over three years: +80.1% versus +64.5% for the Topix Total Return and +57.1% for its peers[1] (#_ftn1), thereby ranking it in the first decile of the Lipper ranking. Also, thanks to the flexible management style, its volatility is among the lowest of its peer group and its return profile is asymmetric. On average, the fund falls less than the market while benefiting from a rising market. The fund therefore offers a real alternative to passive management and posts more consistent performances over the long term than the growth or value approaches. Sharply rising stock market, notwithstanding an erratic macroeconomic context In spite of the expectations created by Abenomics, the Japanese economy treaded water in 2015, once again confirming its inability to achieve a sustainable rebound. Over the past three years, however, the Japanese stock exchange has recorded one of the best performances worldwide, a rise driven by the strong growth in corporate earnings. While the yen's weakness over the last three years has had a positive impact on export companies' results, it is not the only explanatory factor behind this positive trend. According to Joel Le Saux, listed companies' profitability has been significantly boosted by their refocusing on key hubs (large cities) as well as restored pricing power due to the reduction in surplus production capacity. During his recent trip to Japan, he also emphasised the benefits of the labour shortage and the declining unemployment, two positive figures for stimulating consumption. He also sees the continuous growth in international tourism to Japan, driven by the weak yen, as another positive theme. Administrative information OYSTER Japan Opportunities Available classes Management fee Performance fee Class C JPY PR 1.50% 10% relative* Class R JPY PR 1.00% 10% relative* Class C USD HP PR 1.50% 10% relative* Class C EUR HP PR 1.50% 10% relative* Class R EUR HP PRR 1.00% 10% relative* Class N EUR HP PR 2.00% 10% relative* Class I JPY PR 0.75% 10% relative* Class I EUR HP PR 0.75% 10% relative* * The percentage indicated for the performance fee applies to net annual outperformance relative to the following benchmark: Topix Net TR (Ticker TPXNTR, in JPY). Risk/return profile: Lower risk Higher risk Potentially lower return Potentially higher return 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Cumulative returns as at 01.02.2015 (Class R JPY PR) Period Fund Topix Total Return 1 year +17.4% +5.8% 3 years +80.1% +64.5% 2015 +19.8% +12.1% 2014 +8.8% +10.3% 2013 +50.9% +54.4% The prospectus, the key investor information, the articles of association, as well as the annual and half-yearly reports on the funds may be obtained from the representatives and paying agents. For any further information, please contact: Moreno Volpi Tel.: +41 (0)58 799 16 98 Email: moreno.volpi@syzgroup.com (mailto:moreno.volpi@syzgroup.com) Note to the Editor About SYZ Asset Management* SYZ Asset Management, the institutional asset management division of the SYZ Group, provides investment solutions to Swiss and international institutional investors, such as pension funds, insurance companies, corporations and investment funds. SYZ Asset Management meets the highest standards in terms of institutional management and service to its clients using its own resources as regards economic research and financial analysis as well as in portfolio management and risk management. *Any reference to SYZ Asset Management (SYZ AM) in this document, should be construed as being a reference to any one or more of the legal entities, listed below, dependent on the particular jurisdiction in which the document is published, subject to the investment products and services referred to herein being available to potential investors or categories of investors in such jurisdictions. SYZ Asset Management (Luxembourg) SA, SYZ Asset Management (Suisse) SA, SYZ Asset Management (Asia) Limited, SYZ Asset Management (Europe) Limited, SYZ (France) SAS About SYZ Group Founded in 1996 in Geneva, Swiss banking group SYZ focuses exclusively on asset management via two complementary pillars: high-end private banking and asset management. SYZ employs 580 staff and has CHF 40 billion in assets under management (EUR 39 billion, USD 40 billion). Headquartered in Geneva, the Group also has offices in Zurich, Lugano, Locarno, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Zaragoza, London, Luxembourg, Brussels, Paris, Dubai, Johannesburg, Miami, Nassau and Hong Kong. www.syzgroup.com (http://www.syzgroup.com) About OYSTER Funds OYSTER is SYZ Asset Management's UCITS investment fund range, developed by SYZ Asset Management to address the needs of a diversified client base including professionals. With a strong commitment to performance, this Luxembourg SICAV comprises nearly 30 sub-funds, covering a variety of asset classes, markets and investment styles. OYSTER is currently registered and/or distributed in various European and Asian countries through a vast distribution network. To satisfy a discerning and demanding client base, SYZ Asset Management entrusts management of its OYSTER funds to internal and external fund managers. A number of strategies have resulted in certain sub funds being the recipients of internationally recognized awards. www.oysterfunds.com (http://www.oysterfunds.com) This document has been issued in the UK by SYZ Asset Management (Europe) Limited (authorized and regulated by the FCA with reference number 666766) Contacts OYSTER Sicav 11-13 Boulevard de la Foire L-1528 Luxembourg info@oysterfunds.com SYZ Asset Management (Luxembourg) SA 54 rue Charles Martel L-2134 Luxembourg Tel. : +352 26 27 36 1 REPRESENTATIVES Switzerland Germany Italy Service de paiement Banque SYZ SA Rue du Rhone 30 CH-1204 Geneve Tel. : +41 (0)58 799 19 05 Zahlstelle BHF-BANK AG Bockenheimer Landstrasse 10 D-60323 Frankfurt Tel.: +49 (0)69 718 22 75 Soggetto incaricato dei pagamenti RBC Investor Services Bank SA Succursale di Milano Vie Vittor Pisani 26 I-20124 Milano Tel.: +39 02 305 756 1 Soggeto incaricato dei pagamenti State Street Bank SpA Via Col Moschin 16 I-20136 Milano Tel.: +39 02 879 671 53 Soggeto incaricato dei pagamenti Societe Generale Securities Services SpA Via Benigno Crespi 19/A-MAC 2 I-20159 Milano Tel.: 39 02 917 846 61 Soggeto incaricato dei pagamenti Allfunds Bank SA Via Santa Margherita 7 I-20121 Milano Tel.: +39 02 896 283 01 France Representant SYZ Asset Management (Suisse) SA Rue du Rhone 30 CH-1204 Geneve Tel.: +41 (0)58 799 19 05 Agent centralisateur BNP Paribas Securities Services 9 rue du Debarcadere F-93500 Pantin Tel. : +33 1 57 43 12 58 Spain Austria Entidad comercializadora Allfunds Bank C/ Estafeta N6 (La Moraleja) Complejo Pza. de la Fuente- Edificio 3 28109 Alcobendas Tel.: +34 (0)91 274 64 00 Zahlstelle Raiffeisen Bank International AG Am Stadtpark 9 A-1030 Wien Tel.: +43 (0)1 717 070 Belgium Sweden Agent financier - Financiele agent Caceis Belgium SA Avenue du Port 320 Havenlaan 86C b B-1000 Bruxelles Tel. : +32 (0)2 209 26 40 Paying Agent MFEX Mutual Funds Exchange AB Linnegatan 9-11 114 47 - Stockholm Sweden Tel.: +46 (0)8 559 03 650 United Kingdom Representative SYZ Asset Management (Europe) Limited Authorised and Regulated by the FCA Southwest House 11a Regent Street London SW1Y 4LR Tel: +44 (0) 20 30 400 500 Disclaimer Oyster SICAV is an open-ended multi-fund investment company established and regulated in Luxembourg and is managed by SYZ Asset Management (Luxembourg) SA which is described in this document as "SYZ Asset Management". Oyster SICAV is recognised by the FCA under s. 264 Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 with reference number 534187. This document has been issued in the United Kingdom by SYZ Asset Management (Europe) Ltd (authorised and regulated by the FCA (with reference number 666766). SYZ Asset Management (Europe) Ltd market the Oyster SICAV in the UK and copies in English of the SICAV's current Prospectus and Key Investor Information Document can be obtained from them. Instructions to purchase or redeem shares of any class available to UK Investors can also be placed with them. Potential investors in the United Kingdom are advised that none of the protections afforded by the UK regulatory system will apply to an investment in any Oyster SICAV sub fund and that compensation will not generally be available under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. An investment in sub-funds of Oyster SICAV involves risks that are more fully described in the Prospectus. The content of this advertisement is provided solely for information purposes and constitutes neither a recommendation to buy or sell. Always consider taking independent investment advice from a person authorised and regulated by the FCA prior to investing. [1] (#_ftnref1) Source: Lipper from 01.02.13 to 01.02.2016. R JPY PR share class. Past performance does not guarantee or predict future performance. Reference to an index is made for comparison purposes only. The index is not mentioned in the investment policy of the sub-fund. Press release (http://hugin.info/166509/R/1989618/730706.pdf) PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - February 25, 2016) - Nancy E. Pritikin has joined the Palo Alto office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP as a partner in the firm's Labor and Employment practice group. Pritikin joins from Littler Mendelson, where she co-chaired the firm's Complex Litigation and Jury Trials practice group. "Nancy is highly regarded for her experience as a lead trial attorney and has handled many high profile cases. She is also one of a handful of attorneys who has successfully served as lead trial counsel for multiple high profile cases. We enthusiastically welcome Nancy to the firm. She is a top-tier employment attorney and excellent fit for our formidable Labor and Employment practice," said Guy N. Halgren, chairman of Sheppard Mullin. "I am excited to join Sheppard Mullin, a full-service firm that can service my clients' needs beyond employment matters. I have been very impressed by the entrepreneurial culture of the Palo Alto office and the firm's significant nationwide growth, including the Labor and Employment practice group. I am also looking forward to again practicing with former colleagues Ron Holland, Paul Cowie and Ellen Bronchetti," Pritikin commented. "Nancy is a tough, no-nonsense litigator with a tremendous amount of nationally-renowned trial experience. I am glad to again be practicing with her and thrilled that she is joining us in Palo Alto. Nancy will be a significant asset to our Labor and Employment practice, in the Bay Area and firmwide," commented Paul S. Cowie, managing partner of Sheppard Mullin's Palo Alto office. Pritikin has specialized in employment litigation and labor law for her entire legal career. In addition to private practice, she has also worked as an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board and the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Pritikin has extensive courtroom experience and specializes in employment discrimination, wrongful termination, investigations of employee conduct and sexual harassment matters. Regarded for her experience as a trial attorney, Pritikin is well-versed in high-profile employment class action matters. In addition to representing a police chief in a highly-publicized sexual harassment case, she has represented the Supreme Court of California in litigation alleging disability discrimination. Pritikin appears regularly in state and federal courts, mediation, and arbitration forums and before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and she handles discrimination and sexual harassment issues arising under Title VII, The Family and Medical Leave Act, The Americans with Disabilities Act, The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, The California Fair Employment and Housing Act. Pritikin also has extensive knowledge of California wage and hour laws and leave laws. She has counseled employers in many aspects of the employment relationship, including avoidance of litigation, disability issues, drug testing, background investigations, sexual harassment investigations, reductions-in-force and development of personnel policies and procedures. Pritikin also provides leadership for NITA jury trial and deposition training. Pritikin received a J.D. in 1978, with honors, from University of Florida and a B.A. in 1975 from University of Florida. Sheppard Mullin has 40 attorneys based in its Palo Alto office. The firm's Labor and Employment practice group includes 115 attorneys firmwide. About Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP Sheppard Mullin is a full service Global 100 firm with 770 attorneys in 15 offices located in the United States, Europe and Asia. Since 1927, companies have turned to Sheppard Mullin to handle corporate and technology matters, high stakes litigation and complex financial transactions. In the U.S., the firm's clients include more than half of the Fortune 100. For more information, please visit www.sheppardmullin.com. CONTACT: GUY HALGREN (619) 338-6605 NANCY PRITIKIN (650) 815-2691 RALPH RICHARDSON (213) 617-5542 Successful manufacturing validation runs of Ovasave paving the way for a resumption of the CATS29 phase IIb trial in Crohn's disease in Q2 2016 as planned Regulatory News: TxCell SA (Paris:TXCL) (FR0010127662 TXCL), a biotechnology company developing innovative, personalized cellular immunotherapies using regulatory T-cells to treat severe chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, announces today it has successfully concluded the most important milestone in the transfer of its manufacturing technology to MaSTherCell, its contract manufacturing organization ("CMO") for the European manufacturing of TxCell's product portfolio, including its lead product Ovasave MaSTherCell successfully completed the manufacturing of a series of contractually defined validation runs of Ovasave. Validation runs are conducted as a test to demonstrate the capacity of a new manufacturing unit to manufacture products according to specifications. Validation runs are an industry-defined marker of the successful transfer of technology to a CMO. TxCell announced the signing of a strategic agreement with MaSTherCell in December 2015 for European manufacturing of all products from TxCell's first product platform ASTrIA. This was an extension to the agreement in July 2015 for the manufacturing of TxCell's lead product Ovasave for the ongoing CATS29 study. This trial is a phase IIb clinical study with TxCell's Ovasave in refractory Crohn's disease. Following the successful validation runs at MaSTherCell, TxCell has submitted an amendment of its CATS29 clinical protocol. Specifically, the amendment refers to site change approval for the European national competent authority agencies that initially approved the CATS29 study through the Voluntary Harmonized Procedure (VHP). This should enable TxCell to resume CATS29 in Q2 2016, as per the planning previously announced. Should the trial restarts effectively in Q2 2016, TxCell expects to complete recruitment in CATS29 at the end of 2017 and announce topline data by Q4 2017 or Q1 2018. The amendment will also be submitted to the FDA, where CATS29's Investigational New Drug (IND) dossier has been active since August 2015. "The achievement of critical transfer technology milestones with successful validation runs in only a few months, especially regarding stringent specifications that go with cellular therapy products is a major achievement for both TxCell's team and its strategic production partner MaSTherCell. TxCell is now on target for the resumption of the CATS29 trial of our lead product Ovasave in Q2 2016 as planned," said Stephane Boissel, CEO, TxCell. "This new strategy and the technology transfer will allow TxCell to fully concentrate on our key strengths of research, clinical development and new partnerships. This has given us the confidence to set ambitious product development schedules from our two discovery platforms based on Ag-Tregs (ASTrIA) and CAR-Tregs (ENTrIA). To accelerate further, TxCell expects to also rapidly secure a CMO agreement for production of its products in the USA, where Ovasave has both an open IND as well as a Fast Track Designation by the FDA and where Col-Treg, TxCell's second most advanced product, has obtained the orphan drug designation status in 2015." About ASTrIA ASTrIA (Antigen Specific Treg for Inflammation and Autoimmunity) is a TxCell proprietary cellular immunotherapy product platform composed of autologous antigen specific Type 1 Regulatory T cells (Ag-Treg). Ag-Treg based products from the ASTrIA platform are produced from the peripheral blood of patients. After white blood cell isolation, CD4+ T cells are educated to recognize a specific antigen. Antigen educated Treg cells are then isolated and expanded ex-vivo. Ovasave, the first Ag-Treg product candidate from the ASTrIA platform, has been developed for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and is composed of ovalbumin-specific Type 1 Treg cells. Ovasave is currently in a European Phase IIb clinical study in severe Crohn's Disease, entitled CATS29. Col-Treg is the second candidate from the ASTrIA platform and is composed of type-2 Collagen-specific Type 1 Treg cells. Col-Treg is developed for the treatment of steroid-refractory non-infectious uveitis. About ENTrIA ENTrIA (Engineered Treg for Inflammation and Autoimmunity) is the second TxCell proprietary cellular immunotherapy product platform and is composed of Chimeric Antigen Receptor engineered Foxp3+ Regulatory T cells (CAR-Treg). After their isolation from the blood of patients, Foxp3+ Treg cells are genetically modified by transduction with Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR). The CAR introduced into FoxP3+ Treg cells is designed to allow Foxp3+ Treg cell activation and immuno-modulation through in vivo recognition of a protein present in inflamed areas in patients suffering from autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. About TxCell: www.txcell.com TxCell is a publicly listed biotechnology company that develops platforms for innovative, personalized T cell immunotherapies for the treatment of severe chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases with high unmet medical need. TxCell is the only clinical stage cellular therapy company dedicated to the science of regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs). Tregs are a recently discovered T cell population for which anti-inflammatory properties have been demonstrated. Ovasave, TxCell's lead product candidate, is currently in a phase IIb clinical trial in refractory Crohn's disease patients. Col-Treg, its second product candidate, for the treatment of autoimmune uveitis, should enter clinical trials in 2016. Based in Sophia-Antipolis, France, TxCell is listed on Euronext Paris and currently has 44 employees. Disclaimer: This press release contains certain forward-looking statements concerning TxCell and its business. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that TxCell considers to be reasonable. However, there can be no assurance that the anticipated events contained in such forward-looking statements will occur. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties including the risks set forth in the registration document of TxCell registered by the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorite des marches financiers) on June 11, 2015 under number R. 15-049, and in the update of the registration document filed with the AMF on January 25, 2016 under number D.15-0402-A01, available on the Company's website (www.txcell.com) and to the development of economic conditions, financial markets and the markets in which TxCell operates. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to risks not yet known to TxCell or not currently considered material by TxCell. The occurrence of all or part of such risks could cause actual results, financial conditions, performance or achievements of TxCell to be materially different from such forward-looking statements. This press release and the information that it contains do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe for, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for, TxCell shares in any country. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225006243/en/ Contacts: TxCell BD Communication Department Tel: +33(0) 4 97 21 83 00 Fax: +33(0) 4 93 64 15 80 contact@txcell.com or Image Box Press relations Neil Hunter Michelle Boxall Tel: +44(0) 20 8943 4685 neil.hunter@imageboxpr.co.uk michelle.boxall@imageboxpr.co.uk or NewCap - Investor relations Julien Perez Pierre Laurent Tel: +33 (0)1 44 71 98 52 txcell@newcap.eu DUBLIN (dpa-AFX) - Budget airline Ryanair's (RYA.L, RYAAY) CEO Michael O'Leary is advocating for Britain to stay in the European Union. O'Leary has warned that the Irish Airline will cut investment in Britain and might increase flight prices if Britain leaves the EU bloc. Prime Minister David Cameron has set June 23 as the date of the referendum to determine if Britain remains a member of the European Union. However, if 'Brexit-- Britain's exit from the EU-- happens then Ryanair will invest more in European countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic, O'Leary said. Ryanair Cheif said the carrier will actively campaign for Britain to stay in the EU by running newspaper ads that promote EU membership and also posting pro-EU slogans on Ryanair planes. 'We'll be getting involved in the debate and trying to influence people to vote in favor of Europe because the UK economy and UK jobs are better off in Europe,' O'Leary said. More than 35 million passengers per year use Ryanair flights to travel between the U.K. and Europe. Ryanair expects 20 percent of its passengers to depart from London airports this year. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, together with the Honourable Dr. Jane Philpott, Minister of Health, today issued the following statement: "We are pleased to welcome the Special Joint Committee's reports, tabled in the Senate and the House of Commons today. The reports set out recommendations that our government will consider in crafting a framework on physician-assisted dying. "We are committed to developing an approach that is based on empathy and strikes the best balance among a range of interests. The Committee's work positions us to achieve the best possible solution for Canada on this complex social and legal issue that must be addressed in a timely manner. "We appreciate the diligent work that the members of this independent, multi-party Committee undertook over the past weeks, consulting with experts, stakeholders and Canadians. The Committee also reviewed the recent reports by both the federal and provincial External Panels on Options for a Legislative Response to Carter v. Canada, before drafting their report on this highly complex issue. "There are many elements that need to be considered as we move forward. It is important that we protect people's choices and freedoms in a way that makes sure our society protects the most vulnerable. In the coming weeks, the government will bring forward its response to the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in the Carter case." Quick Facts -- The Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying included members from the Senate and the House of Commons. -- The committee heard from 61 witnesses and received 131 written submissions over the course of its meetings. Related Products Federal Government releases report of the External Panel on Options for a Legislative Response to Carter v. Canada Statement by the Attorney General of Canada on timelines for a Government Response on Physician-assisted Dying Statement by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister of Health on establishing a Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying Associated Links Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying Physician-Assisted Dying Contacts: Media Relations Department of Justice 613-957-4207 Media Relations Health Canada 613-957-2983 TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Rubicon Minerals Corporation (TSX: RMX)(OTC PINK: RBYCF) ("Rubicon" or the "Company") announces the filing of a technical report for the Phoenix Gold Project, including the F2 Gold Deposit, located in Red Lake, Ontario, in accordance with the requirements of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (the "Technical Report"). The Technical Report, dated effective January 11, 2016, was prepared by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. ("SRK") which is a consulting firm independent of Rubicon. The Technical Report was filed on SEDAR pursuant to the press release of Rubicon dated January 11, 2016 announcing the results of an updated mineral resource statement for the F2 Gold Deposit. A copy of the Technical Report can be viewed online under Rubicon's profile at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.rubiconminerals.com. Recommended Exploration Work The Technical Report provides detail on the Phoenix Gold Project (the "Project") and the reduction in mineral resources in the 2016 SRK mineral resource estimate compared to the 2013 SRK mineral resource estimate. Although the underground development and trial stoping program in 2015 highlighted the complexity in the distribution of higher-grade gold intercepts in the upper part of the F2 Gold Deposit, both Rubicon and SRK believe there is a potential to expand the mineral resource with further exploration and delineation work. There are many high-grade gold drill intercepts with good widths below the 610-metre level that merit follow-up drilling. With the new understanding of the structural controls associated with gold mineralization above 610-metre level, there is further opportunity to explore and delineate additional gold resources with appropriately orientated drilling. The Company, in consultation with SRK and other geological advisors, has been developing updated exploration plans for the F2 Gold Deposit. In addition, the Company has been reviewing other historic exploration targets on its 286-square kilometre land package in Red Lake, Ontario, Canada. In addition, SRK believes that closely spaced drilling is required to demonstrate the continuity of the higher-grade gold mineralization above and below the 305-metre level of the F2 Gold Deposit. SRK also believes that there is an opportunity to expand the mineral resources with additional drilling, at oblique angles to the lithology packages and the east-west (mine grid) trending cross-cutting shear structures ("D2 structures"). A proposed exploration program should comprise of the following components: -- Step-out and infill core drilling targeting shallow (above and below the 305-metre level) gold mineralization and strike extensions with the objective to establish continuity of the higher-grade gold mineralization associated with D2 structures and expand the mineral resources; -- Follow-up diamond drilling in areas of lower drilling density below the 610-metre level, from existing development at the level. This program should target high-grade intercepts and the up-dip and down-dip extensions of the D2 structures intersecting the high-titanium basalt units ("HiTi basalt") with the potential to expand the mineral resources; -- Step-out core drilling to test the extensions of the modelled breccia zone and other breccia zones intersected by drilling; -- Underground development at the 610-metre level to establish additional drilling stations and provide access for drilling; -- Underground exploration drifting into the mineralized zones and sampling to study and characterize further the continuity of the gold mineralization and to validate the mineral resource model; -- Geological and mineral resource modelling to integrate new geology and drilling information and revised geological interpretation as required. The understanding of the distribution of the gold mineralization, its form and continuity, would also benefit from additional underground exposures. The underground ramp to 366-metre level should be completed to allow development of a 400-metre drive primarily within the HiTi basalt. This drive should provide good exposures to validate the geological interpretation and the mineral resource model. The Company is considering a phased approach to an exploration program. The preliminary phase includes approximately 25,000 metres of infill and step-out drilling from the 610-metre level, and between 244- and 366-metre levels, at an estimated cost of C$6 million. Further exploration and development work would be contingent upon a successful program. Other than conducting desktop studies, Rubicon does not have any intentions to proceed with this exploration program in the immediate future. This exploration program would require the Company to secure additional funding. Rubicon continues to evaluate strategic alternatives for the benefit of the Company and its stakeholders and remains in discussions with its lenders and other parties. RUBICON MINERALS CORPORATION Michael Winship, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Statements and other Cautionary Notes This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" and "forward looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to statements regarding the potential to expand the resource at the Project, the requirements to demonstrate the continuity of the higher-grade gold mineralization of the F2 Gold Deposit, the required components of a potential exploration program and the approximate cost and requirement for additional funding of a potential exploration program. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and represent management's best judgment based on facts and assumptions that management considers reasonable. The material assumptions upon which such forward-looking statements are based include, among others, that: the demand for gold and base metal deposits will develop as anticipated; the price of gold will remain at levels that would render the Phoenix Gold Project potentially economic; that any proposed operating and capital plans will not be disrupted by operational issues, power supply, labour disturbances, or adverse weather conditions; Rubicon will continue to have the ability to attract and retain skilled staff; and the mineral resource estimate as disclosed in the Technical Report will be realized. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Rubicon to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: possible variations in mineralization, grade or recovery or throughput rates; actual results of current exploration activities; actual results of reclamation activities; conclusions of future economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents and other risks of the mining industry; delays and other risks related to construction activities and operations; timing and receipt of regulatory approvals of operations; the ability of Rubicon and other relevant parties to satisfy regulatory requirements; the availability of financing for proposed transactions, programs and working capital requirements on reasonable terms; the ability of third-party service providers to deliver services on reasonable terms and in a timely manner; market conditions and general business, economic, competitive, political and social conditions. The Technical Report includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. The quantity and grade of reported inferred resources referred to in the Technical Report are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred resources as an indicated or measured mineral resource category. It is important to note that the information provided in this news release is preliminary in nature. There is no certainty that a potential mine will be realized. A mine production decision that is not based on a feasibility study demonstrating economic and technical viability does not provide adequate disclosure of the increased uncertainty and specific risks of failure associated with such a production decision. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this release and Rubicon disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Cautionary Note to U.S. Readers Regarding Estimates of Indicated and Inferred Resources This news release uses the terms "measured" and "indicated" mineral resources and "inferred" mineral resources. The Company advises U.S. investors that while these terms are recognized and required by Canadian securities administrators, they are not recognized by the SEC. The estimation of "measured", "indicated" and "inferred" mineral resources involves greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic feasibility than the estimation of proven and probable reserves. The estimation of "inferred" resources involves far greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic viability than the estimation of other categories of resources. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of a "measured", "indicated" or "inferred" mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of "inferred mineral resources" may not form the basis of feasibility studies, pre-feasibility studies or other economic studies, except in prescribed cases, such as in a preliminary economic assessment under certain circumstances. The SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute "reserves" as in-place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures. Under U.S. standards, mineralization may not be classified as a "reserve" unless the determination has been made that the mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the reserve determination is made. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of a "measured", "indicated" or "inferred" mineral resource exists or is economically or legally mineable. Information concerning descriptions of mineralization and resources contained herein may not be comparable to information made public by U.S. companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC. Mineral Resources Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues. The quantity and grade of reported inferred resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred resources as an indicated or measured mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured mineral resource category. The mineral resources in this press release were reported using CIM Standards. Qualified Persons The content of this news release has been read and approved by Howard Bird, B.Sc. (Hons.), P. Geo., Vice President, Exploration and is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Contacts: Rubicon Minerals Corporation Allan Candelario Vice President of Investor Relations +1 (416) 766-2804 ir@rubiconminerals.com www.rubiconminerals.com BORDEAUX, France, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- 2015 consolidated revenue: up 57% year-on-year to 14.1 million, with robust growth in all three group divisions. Strengthened and diversified sources of financing to meet cash requirements until the end of 2016 with a view to supporting its development. Implementation of equity line financing for a maximum amount of 10 million with Kepler Cheuvreux. 1 - 2015 results: growth in each of the group ' s three activities Consolidated revenue rose 57% year-on-year to 14.1 million in 2015, gaining from positive trends in all three segments: CHO Power (Renewable Energies) recorded full-year revenue of 555K, up 1.2 million over 2014 (loss of 596K). It is worth remembering that revenue is recognised according to the percentage of completion method, i.e. according as the CHO Morcenx project progresses. The two additional engines due to come on stream at the CHO Morcenx plant at the end of 2016 will bring the plant to its rated capacity, lead to deliver of Final Acceptance and alter the division's cash flow profile as a result. At the same time, the plan to gradually roll out the other power plants is continuing, in accordance with the required administrative process. It will require specific funding suited to this type of project, which is currently being assessed and structured to protect the interests of and optimise value creation for Europlasma shareholders. The recovery of Inertam (Asbestos Waste Treatment), which began at the end of 2014, is confirmed. Revenue grew 19% in 2015 to 11.3 million, as a result of an equivalent increase in tonnages processed and improved management of production capacity. Trends remain very promising in early 2016 with order intakes clearly on the upside, indicating the growing interest on the part of both French and European industry for neutralising the hazards of asbestos waste once and for all. Europlasma Industries (Plasma Solutions) is reporting record revenue growth to 2.2 million in 2015, from 117K in 2014, with revenues from a Chinese contract (amounting to1.7 million). The commercial redeployment of the division is starting to pay off, as is further confirmed early in 2016 with a substantial increase in the number of studies being commissioned and renewed interest from the Chinese market. 2 - Cash position The concurrent development of the 3 business units is still consuming cash for the time being, especially for CHO POWER until the 2 additional engines are put into operation, which will enable the CHO Morcenx plant to reach nominal capacity and economic performance. At 31 December 2015, the group's cash amounted to 6.8 million. This includes financing of the engines spread over the financial year in accordance with the percentage of completion of the contract by the supplier. To meet its cash requirements in 2016 to support its development, the group is implementing a funding plan that combines equity line financing with actions on working capital requirements. 3 - Equity line The group has secured an equity line for a maximum amount of 10 million with Kepler Cheuvreux. This equity line will enable the group to gain more leeway, diversify its sources of funding, and meet its cash requirements with flexibility. The terms of the transaction, are given below, and an explanatory Q&A document on the equity line is available on http://www.europlasma.com. Jean-Eric Petit, Chief Executive Officer of Europlasma, made the following statement: "The growth in revenue in all three business units reflects the company's recovery strategy over the past two years. Vigorous development and recovery efforts will continue but will require additional funding in 2016. The equity line has already proved its relevance in supporting the development of other industrial companies. Through its modularity, it will provide the Group with additional visibility and comfort. Access to sufficient financing for a growth stock like Europlasma and in a tough stock market environment proves the strength of our positioning and vision, and the relevance of our operational advances." Terms of the transaction This financing has a flexible structure based on two tranches: a first tranche of 5 million starting from the signature of the agreement, and a second tranche bringing the total amount to 10 million, that can be activated 6 months later. Europlasma will control the pace of the financial support provided by Kepler Cheuvreux and may suspend or terminate the agreement at any time. Within the framework of this system, and provided that the terms defined by the parties are respected, Kepler Cheuvreux has made a firm and final commitment to subscribe, over the next 6 months, for an amount equal to 5 million, i.e. an indicative number of shares of approximately 7,128,647[(1)], representing 10.2% of the Company's current share capital. The issue price of new shares will correspond to the weighted average market price preceding the issue, reduced by a maximum discount of 8%. This discount will enable Kepler Cheuvreux, which does not aim to retain Europlasma's share capital, to act as a financial intermediary and to guarantee the subscription of shares as part of a firm commitment. This transaction is implemented pursuant to the 10th resolution of the combined annual shareholders' meeting of 24 June 2015. Should the 1st tranche[(2)] be used in full, a shareholder owning 1.00% of Europlasma's capital before its implementation would see their stake decrease to 0.91% of the capital on a non-diluted basis[(3)], and 0.95% of the capital on a diluted basis[(4)]. If necessary, the implementation of the 2nd tranche will be detailed in a press release. The number of shares issued as part of this agreement and admitted to trading will be published in a Euronext market notice and communicated on the Europlasma website. For more information regarding the Equity Line, a Q&A is online on the company's website at the following link http://www.europlasma.com/en/regulated-information/financial-press-releases.html. Based on an indicative average share price of 0.70 over the last two months Resulting in the issue of 7,128,647 new shares Based on 69,667,524 shares comprising the share capital of Europlasma at 10 February 2016 In the event of the issue of 63,936,129 shares from the exercise of all existing dilutive instruments (including this finance line) at the date of this press release Disclaimer This release contains provisional information on the best estimates of the Management at the date of their publication. This information is by nature subject to risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and generally outside the Group's field of action. These risks include the risks listed in the Group's reference document available on its website http://www.europlasma.com. Consequently, the future performance of the Group may differ significantly from the provisional data communicated and the Group can make no commitment to the achievement of these provisional elements. About EUROPLASMA At the heart of environmental issues, Europlasma designs and develops innovative plasma solutions for renewable energy generation and hazardous waste recovery, as well as related applications for multi-sector companies wishing to reduce their environmental footprint. Europlasma is listed on Alternext (FR0000044810-ALEUP). For more information: http://www.europlasma.com Contact Europlasma Anne BORDERES Tel: +33(0)556-497-000 E-mail: contactbourse@europlasma.com Kepler Cheuvreux Thierry du Boislouveau Tel.: +33(0)1-53-65-36-85 thierry.du-boislouveau@keplercf.com According to the latest research study released by Technavio, the global pharmaceutical packaging market is expected to reach more than USD 84 billion in revenue by 2020. This research report titled 'Global Pharmaceutical Packaging Market 2016-2020', provides an in-depth analysis of market growth in terms of revenue and emerging market trends. This market research report also includes up to date analysis and forecasts for various market segments and all leading regions. Request sample report: http://bit.ly/1olxeuv "Pharmaceutical packaging products come in two major categories, namely primary and secondary packaging. These products are made of packaging materials such as plastic, glass, cardboard, aluminum foils, lead, tin, and wood. They are available in a variety of products such as bottles, blister packs, prefillable syringes and inhalers, vials, ampules, tubes, and pouches. Rise in easy self-medication procedures and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs is driving the growth of this market," said Sharan Raj, one of Technavio's lead analysts for packaging research. "Major customers of pharmaceutical packaging solutions are pharmaceutical manufacturers, though certain packaging solutions are tailor-made for points of purchase pharmacies also," added Sharan. Global pharmaceutical packaging market by product type 2015 (% revenue share) Plastic bottles 19.68% Caps and closures 14.61% Blister packs 13.70% Prefillable syringes 8.95% Parenteral containers 6.91% Prefillable inhalers 3.03% Pouches 2.85% Medication tubes 1.93% Other packaging 28.35% Source: Technavio research Top three segments of the global pharmaceutical packaging market: Global plastic pharmaceutical packaging market Electronic and smart lock Sensors and detectors Largest contributing segment: global pharmaceutical packaging market by plastic bottles The global pharmaceutical packaging market by plastic bottles was valued at over USD 12 billion in 2015. Bottles will remain the most broadly used packaging type for oral medications distributed in bulk to retail pharmacists. This segment will also continue to dominate applications in OTC medicines sold in capsule and tablet form of 50 or more. Plastic bottles are known to keep the composition of products unaltered in changing external conditions, thus preventing contamination. These bottles are made from rigid plastic high-density polyethylene (HDPE) polymers, and are customizable based on the needs of pharmaceutical companies. These containers are made of different types of resins, and are available in various sizes, colors, and shapes. They are also made using additives composed of antioxidants, impact modifiers, lubricants, stabilizers, and plasticizers. Second largest contributing segment: global pharmaceutical packaging market by caps and closures The global pharmaceutical packaging market by caps and closures was valued at over USD 9 billion in 2015. Caps and closures are essential components of pharmaceutical packaging that prevent product leakages and aid in tamper-resistant packaging, complying with regulatory authorities such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US. These components are also used in child-resistant packaging for over-the-counter drugs, which require closures that are less than 20 millimeter in diameter. Closures are of various types such as threaded ribbed closures, smooth wall closures, dropper tip caps, orifice reducers, and roll-on closures. Owing to their low cost, vendors sell these products in minimum bulk order to pharma companies. Global pharmaceutical packaging market by blister packs Blister packages have two elements, forming films and lidding elements. Forming films are usually made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and the lidding elements are made from a laminate of paper and foils, printed foils, or in some cases plastic. These packs have certain advantages over conventional modes of packaging, such as integrity of the product, patient compliance, trace evidence in case of tampers, and low probability of misuse. Blister packaging variants also assist in increasing the shelf life of products. This type of packaging is preferred for lowering the cost of production by almost 10%, and even 50% in cases of over-the-counter drugs. It is a highly adopted solution in Europe, accounting for packaging of more than 85% of solid drugs in the region. Browse related reports: Pharmaceutical Packaging Market in Europe 2015-2019 Pharmaceutical Packaging Market in North America 2015-2019 Global Cold Chain Market for Pharmaceuticals Market 2015-2019 Global Biopharma Cold Chain Packaging Market 2015-2019 Blister Packaging Market in the US 2015-2019 Purchase any three reports for the price of one by becoming a Technavio subscriber. Subscribing to Technavio's reports allows you to download any three reports per month for the price of one. Contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and a link to our subscription platform. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225005055/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 630 333 9501 UK: +44 208 123 1770 www.technavio.com media@technavio.com SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Hidden security flaws in software and network infrastructure pose great risks to successful mergers and acquisitions, and yet assessing the security of target companies is commonly omitted from the M&A due diligence process. According to the team at AsTech Consulting -- independent cyber security experts specializing in software and IT infrastructure security -- unidentified vulnerabilities can heavily influence the value of an acquisition, and more investment advisors and corporations are working with AsTech to uncover hidden security issues to guide valuation and deal negotiations. "A few years ago security audits were just for 'tech' companies but today almost every business is dependent on increasingly vulnerable, interconnected technology. Buyers no longer see this as an isolated 'IT' issue, it's become a boardroom issue," said David Fox, Managing Director, Strategic Value Advisors. Assessing security issues and overall cyber risk is seldom considered as part of due diligence in merger and acquisition discussions, but this is changing. Negotiating parties examine revenue, assets, inventory, channels, and partnerships, but fail to recognize that a security weakness in the network infrastructure or source code may compel remediation costs that annihilate a significant percentage of the subject valuation. Security breach remediation and customer notification routinely cost companies hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions. For example, there are 47 states with "breach notification" laws and, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the average cost of a security breach customer notification alone in 2014 was $500,000. "Hidden security issues can have a profound impact on any merger. In one recent case, the acquisition target discovered a breach during negotiations that affected their customers as well as the company itself. The acquiring company simply walked away from the table," said Greg Reber, founder and CEO of AsTech Consulting. "To meet the market's need, AsTech has launched an M&A Security Due Diligence Practice. Developed with M&A advisors, venture capital investors and security practitioners, this service focuses on getting useful information to the right players quickly, before it's too late to have an effect on negotiations." Dr. Martin Carmichael, former CISO of TD Ameritrade and McAfee, agrees, stating: "As CISO of TD Ameritrade, I engaged AsTech to perform a security evaluation after an acquisition deal was done. They discovered critical security flaws, which required significant remediation costs. This information would have affected the valuation, and negotiations." Guy Henshaw, board member of payroll company Evolution HCM, notes: "AsTech has helped our company assess the cyber risk of potential acquisitions on three occasions. They are adept at quickly assessing and analyzing risks: distilling results into very succinct reporting with recommendations. We will not go into a deal without the AsTech Due Diligence Cyber Risk Assessment." Depending on 'deal-specific variables,' there is a range of scrutiny that may be applied to this type of due diligence. A software company being acquired for the software itself doesn't need an IT infrastructure assessment, but rather a software security analysis which in most cases could produce key results within a few business days. "The business climate is changing and chief executives and board members are being held accountable by shareholders, employees, and others for costly security breaches," Reber said. "Legal disclaimers no longer excuse liability. Smart executives are scrutinizing security in advance, rather than waiting for hidden problems to emerge that can create costly remediation. Assessing security vulnerabilities in advance strengthens your negotiating position, regardless of which side of the table you're on." About AsTech Consulting AsTech Consulting has been helping Fortune 1000 companies manage risk and protect vital information assets since 1997. AsTech's technical team are true Internet security experts, providing a full suite of services focused on risk management and mitigation including Vulnerability Discovery and Remediation, Secure Development Training, Secure Software Development Lifecycle Consulting and Security Architectural Design. For more information, visit www.astechconsulting.com. Contact: Tom Woolf Public Relations Director Gumas Advertising 415.259.5638 twoolf@gumas.com TECH MAHINDRA AND COMPTEL ENVISAGE AN INTELLIGENT FUTURE FOR TELCO BILLING New Proof of Concept Will Showcase How Digital and Communications Service Providers Can Deliver a Higher Level of Customer Engagement at a Lower Cost Comptel Corporation (OMX Helsinki: CTL1V) and Tech Mahindra, a specialist in digital transformation, consulting and business re-engineering, today announced their collaboration to re-write telecommunications operators' billing playbooks. The partners are developing a new proof of concept, leveraging Comptel's Intelligent Data suite and supported by Tech Mahindra's implementation capabilities, that demonstrates the power of combining and enriching traditional charging and billing functions in the digital world. "The processes and monolithic software systems of yesterday are failing to cope with today's market demands. They are holding operators back when it comes to delivering the new generation of digital and living services customers desire quickly and cost-efficiently," said Pritam Parvatkar, Sr. Vice President Global Head, Alliances Partnerships, Tech Mahindra. "Charging and billing must shift away from a post-processing operation. A simplified, real-time, context-aware model will instead unlock customer engagement, cost-savings and revenue opportunities. Tech Mahindra and Comptel are committed to help our customers in their digital transformation and this is significant development" "Operators must evolve their billing systems if they want to truly become a perfect digital company," said Kari Onniselka, Executive Vice President, Intelligent Data, Comptel. "We are pleased to build on the synergy between Tech Mahindra and Comptel with this proof-of-concept effort, and to offer yet another solution that will help digital and communications service providers be better off in the short and long term." Comptel's and Tech Mahindra's future billing framework, which will be on display at the Centre of Excellence in Pune, India, natively combines policy, charging and data management components with embedded analytics. Operators are empowered with automated, real-time decision-making and action-taking capabilities, so they can improve time-to-market and elevate their offerings. About Comptel Corporation Life is digital moments. Comptel perfects these by transforming how you serve, meet and respond to the needs of "Generation Cloud" customers. Our solutions allow you to innovate rich communications services instantly, master the orchestration of service and order flows, capture data-in-motion and refine your decision-making. We apply intelligence to reduce friction in your business. Comptel has enabled the delivery of digital and communications services to more than 1 billion people. Every day, we care for more than 20% of all mobile usage data. Nearly 300 service providers across 90 countries have trusted us to perfect customers' digital moments. For more information, visit www.comptel.com. About Tech Mahindra Tech Mahindra represents the connected world, offering innovative and customer-centric information technology services and solutions, enabling Enterprises, Associates and the Society to Rise. We are a USD 4.0 billion company with 107,100+ professionals across 90 countries, helping over 800 global customers including Fortune 500 companies. Our innovation platforms and reusable assets connect across a number of technologies to deliver tangible business value to our stakeholders. Tech Mahindra is also amongst the Fab 50 companies in Asia as per the Forbes 2014 List. We are part of the USD 16.9 billion Mahindra Group that employs more than 200,000 people in over 100 countries. The Group operates in the key industries that drive economic growth, enjoying a leadership position in tractors, utility vehicles, information technology, after-market and vacation ownership. Connect with us on www.techmahindra.com || Our Social Media Channels Disclaimer Certain statements in this release concerning the future prospects of Tech Mahindra Limited ("the Company" or "TechM") are forward-looking statements. These statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties that could cause Company's actual results differ materially from such forward looking statements. The Company, from time to time, makes written and oral forward-looking statements based on information available with the management of the Company and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225005959/en/ Contacts: Richa Shah Global Media Relations Richa.shah@techmahindra.com or Comptel Corporation Jukka Janonen, +358 9 700 1131 Global Communications Manager jukka.jannonen@comptel.com or March Communications Hanah Johnson, +1-617-960-9875 comptel@marchcomms.com ABX464 Data in HIV Treatment Naive Patients Presented at CROI Supports Aim to Address Viral Rebound Second Phase IIa Study to Evaluate lasting Viral Control with ABX464 Planned Regulatory News: ABIVAX (Paris:ABVX) (Euronext Paris: FR0012333284 ABVX), an emerging leader in developing and commercializing anti-viral drugs and therapeutic vaccines for diseases like HIV/AIDS and chronic hepatitis B (CHB), today presented data from the Company's Phase IIa study demonstrating the safety and potent viral reduction capacity of ABX464 in treatment-naive HIV positive patients. Data were presented by Dr. Jean-Marc Steens, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at ABIVAX, summarizing the findings published in an abstract entitled, "Early Evidence of Antiviral Activity and Safety of ABX464 in HIV Treatment Naive Patients" at the Conference for Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston, USA. ABX464 is an orally available therapeutic that blocks HIV replication through an entirely novel mechanism, i.e. the modulation of the biogenesis of viral RNA, and acts by targeting the Rev protein. ABIVAX believes that ABX464 could address the urgent need for long-term control of HIV rebound following the cessation of treatment. "The positive results from this first Phase IIa study demonstrate the good safety and tolerability profile of ABX464, ABIVAX's drug candidate against HIV, as well as a dose-dependent viral load reduction," said Prof. Robert L. Murphy, M.D., Director at the Institute for Public Health and Medicine, Northwestern School of Medicine in Chicago, USA. Study Details The objective of the study presented at CROI was to evaluate the safety of ABX464 at ascending doses versus placebo in HIV-infected treatment naive patients from Mauritius and Thailand. Patients were randomized into 5 successive cohorts of 8 patients each: 6 received 14 or 21 days of ABX464, and 2 received placebo. Successive cohorts received 25, 50, 75, 100 and 150 mg QD. The 25, 50 and 100 mg cohorts took the drug while fasting for 21 days; the 75 and 150 mg cohorts took the drug with food for 14 days. Viral load reduction of >0.5 log (>68%) was observed in 1/6 patients in the 75 mg cohort, 2/6 patients in the 100 mg cohort and 4/6 patients in the 150 mg cohort. There were no significant viral load changes in the 6 placebo patients from these cohorts. The only adverse events noted were nausea, vomiting and headache. All adverse events were grade 1 or 2 and all patients completed at least 14 days of treatment. The most common drug-related adverse events were headache, nausea, and vomiting. All occurred within the first 24 hours of dosing and diminished; no event was greater than Grade 2. Preliminary PK analysis suggest these events are related to Cmax. ABX464 monotherapy showed dose related antiviral activity with 4-of-6 patients in the 150 mg dose group achieving 0.5 log10 reduction by Day 14. Preliminary PK analysis does not differentiate responders versus non-responders. "These data are very encouraging, and compel us to initiate a second Phase IIa trial," said Prof. Hartmut Ehrlich, M.D., CEO of ABIVAX. "One of the primary objectives of a second Phase IIa trial will be to evaluate the lasting effect of ABX464 in the control of the viral replication following treatment cessation. In addition, specific focus will be placed on the HIV reservoirs, which are at the origin of all viral rebound," said Dr. Steens. "The second Phase IIa study with ABX464 will be conducted in combination with on-going therapies in currently treated patients. Details of the new study, which will be conducted in Belgium, France and Spain, will be communicated in the coming weeks The abstract "Early Evidence of Antiviral Activity and Safety of ABX464 in HIV Treatment Naive Patients" will be available on the CROI website at www.croiconference.org. About ABX464 ABX464 is a first-in-class antiviral drug candidate for the treatment of patients with HIV-infection. It is an orally available small molecule that blocks HIV replication through an entirely novel mechanism, inhibition of Rev Activity. Preclinical data in humanized mice demonstrated that ABX464 monotherapy had an antiviral effect that was sustained following treatment interruption (Campos et al, Retrovirology 2015 12:30). A prior food-effect study demonstrated a three-fold increase in parent drug exposure when administered with food, without a significant impact on active glucuronide metabolite. ABIVAX (www.abivax.com) is an emerging global leader in the discovery, development and commercialization of anti-viral therapeutics and vaccines to treat some of the world's most life-threatening infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and chronic Hepatitis B. ABIVAX has 2 compounds in clinical stage research: ABX464 a novel first-in-class resistance-proof oral small molecule HIV/AIDS therapy; and, ABX203, a therapeutic vaccine that could cure chronic Hepatitis B. ABIVAX also is advancing additional anti-viral compounds and therapeutic vaccines that may enter the clinical stage in the coming 18 months. Follow us on Twitter @ABIVAX_ View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225006465/en/ Contacts: Investor relations Raquel Lizarraga raquel.lizarraga@abivax.com +33 1 53 83 09 63 or Citigate Dewe Rogerson Lucie Larguier abivax@citigate.fr +33 1 53 32 84 75 or LifeSci Advisors Chris Maggos chris@lifesciadvisors.com +41 79 367 6254 or Press relations ALIZE RP Caroline Carmagnol and Florence Portejoie abivax@alizerp.com +33 6 64 18 99 59 + 33 1 44 54 36 64 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2016) - Nano One Materials Corp. (TSXV: NNO) ("Nano One") Noram Engineering and Constructors Ltd. ("Noram") and its subsidiary BC Research ("BCRI") are pleased to announce that they have entered into a collaboration agreement. The parties will design, procure, construct, optimize and operate a lithium ion cathode material pilot production plant for the purposes of demonstrating cost, scalability, performance and novelty of Nano One's technology to third party strategic interests. Noram and BCRI bring globally recognized commercialization skills, process engineering and electrochemical expertise to the collaboration which complement Nano One's innovations in the fabrication of lithium-ion battery materials for electric vehicle, energy storage and consumer electronic applications. Noram President Tony Boyd says "We are pleased to support Nano One in advancing its materials processing technology for battery applications and look forward to contributing to the commercialization effort." Nano One CEO Dan Blondal adds that "This agreement launches a new phase in our relationship, and it is an exciting time to be leveraging each others expertise and scaling the technology, especially in light of rising demand for lithium and electric vehicles." Private Placement Nano One announces a non brokered private placement offering (the "Private Placement") of up to 1,166,666 shares at $0.30 per share for aggregate gross proceeds of $350,000. Net proceeds from this Private Placement will be used for technology and corporate development, and general working capital. Any securities issued pursuant to the Private Placement will be subject to a hold period under applicable securities laws, which will expire four months plus one day from the date of closing of the Private Placement. Closing of the Private Placement is subject to a number of conditions, including receipt of all necessary corporate and regulatory approvals, including approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Nano One Materials Corp. Dan Blondal, CEO For information with respect to Nano One or the contents of this news release, please contact John Lando (President) at (604) 669-2701 or visit the website at www.nanoone.ca. About Nano One Nano One Materials Corp is focused on developing novel, scalable and low-cost processing technology for the production of high performance battery materials used in electric vehicles, energy storage and consumer electronics. The patented technology can be configured for a wide range nanostructured materials and has the flexibility to shift with battery market trends and a diverse range other growth opportunities. The novel three-stage process uses equipment common to industry and is being engineered for high volume production and rapid commercialization. Nano One's mission is to establish its patented technology as a leading platform for the global production of a new generation of nanostructured composite materials. About NORAM and BCRI NORAM and BCRI have a global reputation for innovation and excellence in the supply of proprietary engineering and equipment packages to the chemical, pulp and paper, minerals processing and electrochemical sectors. They are recognized worldwide as a leader in the fields of nitration, sulfuric acid and electrochemistry. In addition to carrying out large assignments for major multi-national clients, NORAM and BCRI work with early-stage technology companies. They provide engineering design and fabrication support, sharing their experience in technology commercialization, and growing with companies as a strategic partner. Certain information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the commercialization of the Company's technology and patents. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expects" or "it is expected", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including: the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that is incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES HATFIELD, England, February 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Eisai has criticised strongly NHS England (NHSE) for further delaying access to a number of new cancer treatments. This failure is a result of the implementation by NHSE of a new Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), following a consultation NHSE confirmed at their Board meeting today. Those new licensed drugs that have been denied access since May 2015, will have to wait until at least July 2016 before they can be considered for the fund, though details around this process are vague. Lenvima(lenvatinib) is one such drug that has been stuck in limbo as a result of the consultation. Lenvatinib is used to treat an advanced form of thyroid cancer and may delay the progression of the cancer to a median of 18.3 months, compared to 3.6 months with placebo. Eisai today confirms that patients in England may have to wait for an unspecified period in order to access lenvatinib. "This is devastating news for patients with advanced thyroid cancer. These patients may belong to a small group, only 200 patients per year, but their need is great. Lenvatinib can make a real difference to the lives of patients due to its significant progression free survival benefit and so this news is particularly hard to understand," comments Dr Jonathan Wadsley, Consultant Clinical Oncologist, University of Sheffield. "This is hugely disappointing news for people living with thyroid cancer that has proved resistant to usual therapies. There are very few treatment options left for those patients whose thyroid cancer is not responsive to radio-iodine. The fact that an approved treatment exists which could delay progress of their cancer but they are not able to access it is particularly heartbreaking," comments Kate Farnell MBE, Founder of the Butterfly Thyroid Cancer Trust. "The decision to implement the new CDF pretty much as it was proposed in the consultation will put cancer treatment back to where England was prior to the creation of the Fund which is a tragedy for patients. Time is not a luxury that these patients have. I implore NHS England to rethink the decision around access to drugs that have been licensed since May 2015 to ensure important treatments like lenvatinib are made available to people as soon as possible. This is a drug that is manufactured in Hertfordshire, exported across the world, and yet people in England are denied access to it. This is an utterly disgraceful situation", commented Gary Hendler, CEO Eisai EMEA and President, Global Oncology Business Unit. Lenvatinib is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with progressive locally advanced or metastatic, differentiated (papillary, follicular, Hurthle cell) thyroid carcinoma (DTC), refractory to radioactive iodine (RAI).[i]Lenvatinib was granted orphan drug designation for locally advanced follicular and papillary thyroid cancer. The treatment was given Marketing Authorisation approval from the European Commission in May 2015, and has been denied access to the CDF process ever since. Lenvatinib demonstrates significantly prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) in RAI refractory DTC versus placebo. Lenvatinib shows a median 18.3 months progression free survival PFS versus 3.6 months for placebo (hazard ratio [HR] 0.21; 99% confidence interval 0.14-0.31, p<0.0001). For lenvatinib, the most common treatment related adverse events were hypertension, diarrhoea, fatigue, decreased appetite, decreased weight, and nausea. Notes to Editors About SELECT [i] The SELECT ( S tudy of ( E 7080) LE nvatinib in Differentiated C ancer of the T hyroid) study was a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III study to compare the PFS of patients with RR- radioiodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer and radiographic evidence of disease progression within the prior 13 months, treated with once-daily, oral lenvatinib (24mg) versus placebo. The study enrolled 392 patients in over 100 sites in Europe, North and South America and Asia and was conducted by Eisai in collaboration with the SFJ Pharmaceuticals Group. Participants were stratified by age (65, >65 years), region and 1 prior VEGFR-targeted therapies and randomised 2:1 to either lenvatinib or placebo therapy (24mg/d, 28-d cycle). The primary endpoint was PFS assessed by independent radiologic review. The secondary endpoints of the study included overall response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS) and safety. Data presented at ASCO 2014 and subsequently published in theNew England Journal of Medicineshowed that rates of complete response were 1.5% (4 patients) for the lenvatinib group and zero in the placebo group. The results for partial response were 63.2% (165 patients) in the lenvatinib group and 1.5% (2 patients) in the placebo arm. The median exposure duration was 13.8 months for lenvatinib and 3.9 months for placebo and the median time to response for lenvatinib was 2.0 months. The difference in OS between the groups was not significant. The confidence interval upper limit of median OS has not yet been reached. The six most common lenvatinib treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) of any grade were hypertension (67.8%), diarrhea (59.4%), fatigue (59.0%), decreased appetite (50.2%), weight loss (46.4%) and nausea (41.0%). TRAEs of Grade 3 or higher (Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events) included hypertension (41.8%), proteinuria (10.0%), weight loss (9.6%), diarrhoea (8.0%), and decreased appetite (5.4%). About Thyroid Cancer Thyroid cancer refers to cancer that forms in the tissues of the thyroid gland, located at the base of the throat near the trachea.[ii]Most people are in their 40s or 50s at time of diagnosis.[iii] The most common types of thyroid cancer, papillary and follicular (including Hurthle cell), are classified as differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) and account for approximately 90% of all cases.[iv]The remaining cases are classified as either medullary (5-7% of cases) or anaplastic (1-2% of cases).[v] About Eisai Co., Ltd. Eisai Co., Ltd. is a leading global research and development-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan. We define our corporate mission as "giving first thought to patients and their families and to increasing the benefits health care provides," which we call ourhuman health care(hhc) philosophy. With over 10,000 employees working across our global network of R&D facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries, we strive to realise ourhhcphilosophy by delivering innovative products in multiple therapeutic areas with high unmet medical needs, including Oncology and Neurology. As a global pharmaceutical company, our mission extends to patients around the world through our investment and participation in partnership-based initiatives to improve access to medicines in developing and emerging countries. For more information about Eisai Co., Ltd., please visithttp://www.eisai.com. References i. Schlumberger M et al. Lenvatinib versus placebo in radioiodine refractory differentiated thyroid cancer. NEJM 2015; 372: 621-630. Available athttp://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1406470Accessed: November 2015 ii. National Cancer Institute at the National Institute of Health. Available at: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/thyroid/Patient/page1/AllPages#1 . Accessed: June 2015 iii. Brito J et al. BMJ 2013; 347 iv. Cabanillas ME., Dadu R. Optimizing therapy for radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer: Current state of the art and future directions. Minerva Endocrinol 2012 Dec; 37(4): 335-356. v. Thyroid Cancer Basics. 2011. Available at: http://www.thyca.org. Accessed: June 2015 TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Investors and investment advisors are invited to listen to a February 2016 recorded update hosted by Portfolio Managers Laura Lau and Michael Clare on Brompton Oil Split Corp. (TSX: OSP)(TSX: OSP.PR.A) (the "Company"). The Portfolio Managers discuss the Company's portfolio and the Energy Sector. A link to the presentation recorded on February 23, 2016 has been posted to the Brompton Funds website. Class A Shares and Preferred Shares of the Company are available for purchase on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols OSP & OSP.PR.A, respectively. The Company invests in a portfolio (the "Portfolio") of equity securities of at least 15 large capitalization North American oil and gas issuers selected by the manager from the S&P 500 Index and the S&P/TSX Composite Index, giving consideration to, among other metrics, attractive valuation, growth prospects, profitability, liquidity, sustainability of dividends and a strong balance sheet. The Portfolio is focused primarily on oil and gas issuers that have significant exposure to oil, and includes equities of the following oil and gas issuers: Apache Corp. Cimarex Energy Co. Pioneer Natural Resources Co. ARC Resources Ltd. EOG Resources Inc. PrairieSky Royalty Ltd. Cenovus Energy Inc. Imperial Oil Ltd. Suncor Energy Inc. ConocoPhillips Keyera Corp. Vermilion Energy Inc. Crescent Point Energy Occidental Petroleum Exxon Mobil Corporation Corp. Corporation Chevron Corporation About Brompton Funds Brompton Funds, a division of Brompton Group which was founded in 2000, is an experienced investment fund manager with approximately $2 billion in assets under management. Brompton's investment solutions include TSX listed closed-end funds, mutual funds, hedge funds and flow-through limited partnerships. For further information, please contact your investment advisor, call Brompton's investor relations line at 416-642-6000 (toll-free at 1-866-642-6001), email info@bromptongroup.com or visit our website at www.bromptongroup.com. You will usually pay brokerage fees to your dealer if you purchase or sell shares of the investment fund on the Toronto Stock Exchange or other alternative Canadian trading system (an "exchange"). If the shares are purchased or sold on an exchange, investors may pay more than the current net asset value when buying shares of the investment fund and may receive less than the current net asset value when selling them. There are ongoing fees and expenses associated with owning shares of an investment fund. An investment fund must prepare disclosure documents that contain key information about the Fund. You can find more detailed information about the Fund in the public filings available at www.sedar.com. Investment funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to matters disclosed in this news release and to other matters identified in public filings relating to the Fund, to the future outlook of the Fund and anticipated events or results and may include statements regarding the future financial performance of the Fund. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terms such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "estimate", "predict", "potential", "continue" or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Actual results may vary from such forward-looking information. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made of the date hereof and we assume no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Contacts: Brompton's investor relations line 416-642-6000 or toll-free at 1-866-642-6001 info@bromptongroup.com www.bromptongroup.com VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- Belvedere Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: BEL) ("Belvedere") announces the resignation of David Pym, Toby Strauss and Markku Isohanni from the Board of Directors. "Regrettably due to setbacks in its funding efforts last year, the Company had to place its key operating subsidiary Belvedere Mining OY into administration last December," said Brian Hinchcliffe Company CEO, "As the Company restructures, it wishes to thank Messrs, Pym, Strauss and Isohanni for their time, service and for their hard work during their tenure." BELVEDERE RESOURCES LTD. Brian Hinchcliffe, Executive Chairman Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Contacts: Belvedere Resources Ltd. Brian Hinchcliffe Executive Chairman +1 (914) 815 2773 bhinch3@gmail.com www.belvedere-resources.com Capstone Mining Corp.is a Canadian base metals mining company, focused on copper. We are committed to the responsible development of our assets and the environments in which we operate. Our three producing mines are thePinto Valleycopper mine located inArizona, US, the Cozamin copper-silver mine in Zacatecas State,Mexicoand theMintocopper mine inYukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has two development projects; the large scale 70% owned copper-ironSanto Domingoproject in Region III,Chile, in partnership withKorea Resources Corporation, and the 100% owned Kutcho copper-zinc project inBritish Columbia, Canada, as well as exploration properties inChile. Capstone's strategy is to extend the lives of our current mines with mineral resource and reserve expansions, maintain the optionality on theSanto Domingodevelopment project, prudently progress the exploration portfolio and grow through acquisitions in politically stable, mining-friendly regions. We will pace our growth with our financial capacity, ensuring we retain, as a priority, sufficient financial flexibility to meet the requirements of our existing operations and our committed development projects, while maintaining an adequate cushion to deal with market volatility and operating risks inherent in the mining industry. Our headquarters are inVancouver, Canadaand we are listed on theToronto Stock Exchange(TSX). Further information is available at www.capstonemining.com. Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Technavio's latest global yoga and exercise mats market report highlights three key emerging trends predicted to impact market growth through 2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as something that has potential for significant impact on the market and contributes to its growth or decline. "Factors such as innovative product designs, popularity of yoga, and an increase in instances of obesity in North America are some of the key factors driving the demand for yoga and exercise mats in the region," said Brijesh Kumar Choubey, one of Technavio's lead industry analysts for retail goods and services "Annually, it is estimated that the US population spends close to USD 10.3 billion on yoga classes and products such as mats and apparel. In terms of gender, female practitioners of yoga account massively contributes to the revenue growth of this and the segment accounted for over 72% share in 2014. The region is expected to witness a greater demand for gym mats during the forecast period because of an increase in the demand for thick and shock absorbent materials," added Brijesh. Technavio's market research study identifies the following three emerging trends that are expected to propel the growth of the global yoga and exercise mats market: Rise in the number of yoga studios, fitness centers, and clubs Rise in product innovations Growth in online retail Rise in the number of yoga studios, fitness centers, and clubs The North America region has been witnessing a steady rise in the number of yoga studios, fitness centers, and clubs over the past decade. To enhance sales, these clubs come up with exclusive packages that attract consumer attention with yearly or monthly discounts that includes packages like free workouts for a month. The number of health clubs and fitness centers in the US was estimated to be close to 34,460 in 2014. During the same period, fitness memberships in various health clubs across the US was estimated to be close to 54.1 million and the number of yoga and Pilate's studios in the US rose at an annual rate of 5.9% from 2007 until 2012. By 2020 the number of fitness trainers is expected to rise by over 31% in the US. This trend marks the popularity of fitness activity in the region and is expected to immensely benefit the yoga and exercise mats market in North America until 2020. Rise in product innovations Vendors are launching many innovative and technologically advanced products for enhancing sales of yoga and exercise mats. This trend is anticipated to accelerate market growth and generate better results in terms of revenue for the leading vendors during the forecast period. For instance, the TERA smart mat designed by LUNAR is an interactive exercise mat. It tracks body movements through its embedded micro sensors when connected with a tablet or smartphone with its app. While practicing yoga and Pilates, this mat, through its LED light display, guides and corrects postures. Another innovation is the yoga mat introduced by Lululemon, which has a moisture-absorbing design that gives better grip in sweaty conditions. By offering such innovative products and catering to the needs of different customer groups, manufacturers are predicted to price these products at a premium for expanding their profit margins. Growth in online retail The e-commerce market for yoga and exercise mats is flourishing due to the emergence of the off-price online retailing strategy. Amazon.com, yogamatic.com, and eBay are some of the popular sites selling yoga and exercise mats. In 2013, online retailing constituted 8% of the total retail sales in the US and it is expected to reach close to 11% by 2018. The absence of overheads in online stores gives them a significant cost advantage, thus enabling vendors to offer products at lower prices. This affordability, coupled with the ease and convenience of online shopping makes this avenue a lucrative option for shoppers. Consequently, the growth in online retailing is one of the major factors is anticipated to further drive the growth yoga and exercise mat sales in North America. Browse related reports: Global Smart Wearable Fitness and Sports Devices and Services Market 2015-2019 Fantasy Sports Market in North America 2015-2019 Global Sports Footwear Market 2015-2019 Purchase any three reports for the price of one by becoming a Technavio subscriber. Subscribing to Technavio's reports allows you to download any three reports per month for the price of one. Contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and a link to our subscription platform. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225005069/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 630 333 9501 UK: +44 208 123 1770 www.technavio.com media@technavio.com A.M. Best has assigned a financial strength rating (FSR) of B++ (Good), an issuer credit rating (ICR) of "bbb+" and a Mexico National Scale Rating of "aa-.MX" to Assurant Danos Mexico, S.A. (ADM)(Mexico City, Mexico). At the same time, A.M. Best has also assigned a FSR of B++ (Good), an ICR of "bbb+" and a Mexico National Scale Rating of "aa-.MX" to Assurant Vida Mexico, S.A. (AVM)(Mexico City, Mexico). The outlook assigned to all ratings is stable. The ratings for ADM and AVM reflect their affiliation and strategic importance to Assurant Inc. as a stepping stone to grow in the Latin America market and good levels of risk-adjusted capitalization. The ratings also consider the strong reinsurance structure mainly supported by the group with the remainder placed among counterparties that have solid security levels and adequate operating performance. Partially offsetting these positive rating factors are the small market share of both companies that results in volatile operating performance, and higher than market average growth strategy that could put pressure on the capitalization of both subsidiaries within their respective segments. ADM and AVM initiated operations in 2004 and are owned by Assurant Holding Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V. (AHM), which is part of Assurant Inc., the subsidiaries' ultimate parent. As of 2014, ADM ranked 27th in Mexico's property and casualty (P/C) segment, while AVM ranked 21st within the life segment. Distribution channels for both companies are based on cross sales with financial institutions, auto companies and telecom carriers, among others. ADM and AVM follow their group's underwriting, enterprise risk management and corporate governance practices, and receive reinsurance support and benefit from its brand recognition in order to expand their market share in Mexico. Both subsidiaries also benefit from their group's capital contributions, whenever required, in support of growth targets. ADM has maintained adequate levels of risk-adjusted capitalization, despite historically volatile underwriting results. Its capital base deteriorated in 2014, affected mainly by negative bottom lines results from increased expenses due the company expanding its specialty insurance portfolio into other P/C lines of business. During 2015, ADM's reduction in premium retention, in conjunction with efforts to enhance its operational cost efficiency, generated improvements in both acquisition and operating expense ratios, and resulted in positive profitability with a return on assets of 0.4% and a 1.7% return on equity. AVM also maintains adequate levels of risk-adjusted capitalization. During 2014, the risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), strengthened as a result of approximately MXN 12.9 million in capital injections and finally achieved positive bottom line results. This trend was maintained through 2015, which A.M. Best expects to continue, therefore reducing AVM's dependence on capital injections from its group. Negative rating actions will occur if A.M. Best's views on parental support or strategic importance to its group for both subsidiaries deteriorate. Factors that could lead to positive rating actions for ADM include less volatile underwriting results that are reflected in a more stable operating performance, which translate into improvements in its capital adequacy ratios, as measured by BCAR. Additional negative rating actions could take place if sustained deterioration of operating performance or aggressive growth in premiums lead to a drop in capitalization to levels no longer supportive of the current ratings. Positive rating factors that could lead to an upgrade for AVM include sustained improvements in underwriting results that continue to strengthen its capital base and reduce its dependence on capital support from its group. Negative ratings factors that could result in a downgrade include a material deterioration in underwriting performance that results in a decline in risk-based capitalization. The methodology used in determining these ratings is Best's Credit Rating Methodology, which provides a comprehensive explanation of A.M. Best's rating process and contains the different rating criteria employed in the rating process. Best's Credit Rating Methodology can be found at www.ambest.com/ratings/methodology. Key insurance criteria reports utilized: A.M. Best's Ratings On a National Scale Catastrophe Analysis in A.M. Best Ratings Evaluating Country Risk Insurance Holding Company and Debt Ratings Rating Members of Insurance Groups Risk Management and the Rating Process for Insurance Companies Understanding Universal BCAR View a general description of the policies and procedures used to determine credit ratings. Also in accordance with Mexican regulations, the following is a link to required disclosures A.M. Best America Latina Supplementary Disclosure. Previous Rating Date: Not Rated Date of Financial Data Used: December 31, 2015 This press release relates to rating(s) that have been published on A.M. Best's website. For additional rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see A.M. Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. A.M. Best's credit ratings are independent and objective opinions, not statements of fact. A.M. Best is not an Investment Advisor, does not offer investment advice of any kind, nor does the company or its Ratings Analysts offer any form of structuring or financial advice. A.M. Best's credit opinions are not recommendations to buy, sell or hold securities, or to make any other investment decisions. View our entire notice for complete details. A.M. Best receives compensation for interactive rating services provided to organizations that it rates. A.M. Best may also receive compensation from rated entities for non-rating related services or products offered by A.M. Best. A.M. Best does not offer consulting or advisory services. For more information regarding A.M. Best's rating process, including handling of confidential (non-public) information, independence, and avoidance of conflicts of interest, please read the A.M. Best Code of Conduct A.M. Best is the world's oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright 2016 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160225006680/en/ Contacts: A.M. Best Company Salvador Smith, +(52) 55-1102-2720, ext. 109 Associate Financial Analyst salvador.smith@ambest.com or Alfonso Novelo, +(52) 55-1102-2720, ext. 107 Director, Analytics alfonso.novelo@ambest.com or Christopher Sharkey, 908-439-2200, ext. 5159 Manager, Public Relations christopher.sharkey@ambest.com or Jim Peavy, 908-439-2200, ext. 5644 Assistant Vice President, Public Relations james.peavy@ambest.com PEMBROKE, Bermuda - February 25, 2016 - Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:ENH), a Bermuda-based provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, today announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.38 per share payable on its ordinary shares. The dividend on Endurance's outstanding ordinary shares will be payable on March 31, 2016 to the ordinary shareholders of record on March 18, 2016. The Board of Directors also renewed the Company's authorization for the repurchase of up to 5 million ordinary shares in open market or privately negotiated transactions, from time to time, depending on market conditions. The new share repurchase authorization continues through February 28, 2018 and replaces the Company's prior share repurchase authorization, which was scheduled to expire on February 28, 2016. About Endurance Specialty Holdings Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. is a global specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance. Through its operating subsidiaries, Endurance writes agriculture, casualty and other specialty, professional lines and property, marine/energy and aviation lines of insurance and catastrophe, property, casualty, professional lines and specialty lines of reinsurance. We maintain excellent financial strength as evidenced by the ratings of A (Excellent) from A.M. Best (XV size category) and A (Strong) from Standard and Poor's on our principal operating subsidiaries. Endurance's headquarters are located at Waterloo House, 100 Pitts Bay Road, Pembroke HM 08, Bermuda and its mailing address is Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd., Suite No. 784, No. 48 Par-la-Ville Road, Hamilton HM 11, Bermuda. For more information about Endurance, please visit www.endurance.bm (http://www.endurance.bm). Contact Investor Relations Phone: +1 441 278 0988 Email: investorrelations@endurance.bm This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd via Globenewswire HUG#1988971 TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - February 25, 2016) -HudBay Minerals Inc. ("Hudbay", the "company") (TSX: HBM) (NYSE: HBM) announced today that Alan Hair, President and Chief Executive Officer, will be presenting on Monday, February 29, 2016 at 4 p.m. ET at the BMO Capital Markets 2016 Global Metals & Mining Conference held in Hollywood, Florida. The presentation will be available on Hudbay's website at www.hudbayminerals.com. About Hudbay Hudbay (TSX: HBM) (NYSE: HBM) is an integrated mining company producing copper concentrate (containing copper, gold and silver) and zinc metal. With assets in North and South America, the company is focused on the discovery, production and marketing of base and precious metals. Through its subsidiaries, Hudbay owns four polymetallic mines, four ore concentrators and a zinc production facility in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan (Canada) and Cusco (Peru), and a copper project in Arizona (United States). The company is governed by the Canada Business Corporations Act and its shares are listed under the symbol "HBM" on the Toronto Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange and Bolsa de Valores de Lima. Hudbay also has warrants listed under the symbol "HBM.WT" on the Toronto Stock Exchange and "HBM/WS" on the New York Stock Exchange. Further information about Hudbay can be found on www.hudbayminerals.com. For further information, please contact: Candace Brule Director, Investor Relations (416) 814-4387 candace.brule@hudbayminerals.com TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 02/25/16 -- INV Metals Inc. ("INV Metals" or the "Company") (TSX: INV) is pleased to announce the Board of Directors has approved the preparation of an updated Preliminary Feasibility Study ("PFS"), on its 100% owned Loma Larga project in Ecuador ("Loma Larga" or "Project") based on the appropriate laws and regulations applicable to large-scale mining which govern underground operations with production levels greater than 1,000 tonnes per day. Ms. Candace MacGibbon, CEO, stated, "We are very pleased with the recent announcement of the favourable definitive terms of the Exploitation Agreement ('EA') between Lundin Gold Inc. ('Lundin Gold') and the government of Ecuador announced in January 2016. Significant effort has been made since the creation of the Ministry of Mines in early 2015 to advance the mining sector within Ecuador and as a result, positive changes and clarifications in the laws governing mining have occurred since we announced the results of our PFS based on the medium-scale mining category in February 2015." Further, "The Company has performed a preliminary economic analysis of the Project at a production rate of approximately 2,500 tpd, applying similar tax assumptions for Loma Larga to those announced by Lundin Gold. Using similar parameters, assuming a 5% gold and by-product royalty and no advanced royalty, management believes the evaluation of Loma Larga at an increased optimal production rate may produce significantly increased returns dependent on gold and metal price assumptions." The Company is engaged in discussions with its consultants to update the 2015 PFS, which would include new resource estimates; determine increased optimal production levels; and complete the associated engineering and economic studies to evaluate the feasibility and economics of the Project within the large-scale framework. The new PFS will provide updated estimations of revenue, capital and operating costs, and mine and reclamation plans. Further details will be provided once the consultants have been engaged. The Company's cash balance as at December 31, 2015 was approximately $11.6 million (unaudited). There are no guarantees that the Company will enter into an acceptable exploitation agreement to operate as a large-scale mining project even if the updated PFS demonstrates positive economics. About INV Metals INV Metals is an international mineral resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of base and precious metal projects in Ecuador and Namibia. Currently, INV Metals' primary assets are: (1) its 100% interest in the Loma Larga (formerly Quimsacocha) gold property in Ecuador, and (2) its 35% interest in the Kaoko property, located in Namibia. The Company's technical report ("Technical Report") summarizing the results of its PFS prepared under the medium-scale category entitled "Technical Report on the Loma Larga Project, Azuay Province, Ecuador" dated March 20, 2015, is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's web site at www.invmetals.com. Forward-Looking Statement This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the potential of the Company's properties; the Project being categorized as a "large-scale" project under Ecuador's new mining laws and tax regimes; the future price of base and precious metals; the anticipated application of laws and regulations, including tax laws; the preparation and timing of the PFS; success of exploration activities; cost and timing of future exploration and development; the projections set forth in the preliminary economic assessment regarding the Project; requirements for additional capital; and other statements relating to the financial and business prospects of the Company. Forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievement of INV Metals to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to the timing of preparation of the PFS, actual results of exploration activities, conclusions of economic evaluations and the industry-wide risks and Loma Larga project-specific risks identified in the Technical Report in respect of the Project, risks associated with mining and mineral exploration activities, uncertainty in the estimation of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, including, without limitation, the assumptions on which such estimates are based and the potential for establishing new Mineral Resources in the PFS, assumptions regarding the categorization of the Project in a "large scale" mining category, changes in Loma Larga parameters as plans continue to be refined, uncertainty surrounding metallurgical test results, future prices of metals, economic and political stability in Ecuador and Canada, the results of discussions with the Ecuador government, estimated production rates and other assumptions and projections set forth in the preliminary economic analysis in respect of the Project, the availability of an EA and other required permits in respect of the Project, the risk of future unfavourable tax laws or changes in applicable laws and regulations in Ecuador and/or Canada, environmental risks and hazards, increased infrastructure and/or operating costs, availability of future financing, labour and employment matters, and government regulation. There is no guarantee that any drill targets or economic mineral deposits will be found on INV Metals' properties. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors, refer to INV Metals' Annual Information Form filed with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Contacts: INV Metals Inc. Candace MacGibbon Chief Executive Officer cmacgibbon@invmetals.com www.invmetals.com Captain401, Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based 401k retirement plan provider for modern companies, raised $3.5m in seed funding. Backers included SV Angel, SoftTech VC, Crunch Fund, Y Combinator, Susa Ventures, Slow Ventures, FundersClub and angel investors Jacob Gibson, Greg Brockman, Paul Buchheit, Justin Kan, Michael Siebel, Jared Friedman and Joe Montana. The company is using the funds to expand the offering and operations. Co-founded by Roger Lee, CEO, and Paul Sawaya, CTO, Captain401 provides small, medium and large sized businesses to set up 401k retirement savings plans for their workforce. Employees can enroll, set their own goals and invest towards meeting them. The platform automates all of the administration, and handles all compliance testing and paperwork. Employee accounts are created automatically and deductions synced with the employers payroll provider while contributions are processed automatically every pay period. FinSMEs 25/02/2016 Finnish early stage venture capital firm Lifeline Ventures closed its third fund, at 57m. Limited partners in Lifeline Ventures Fund III Ky include new institutions as well as private and family-owned investors. Led by Partners Timo Ahopelto and Petteri Koponen, and Advisor Ilkka Paananen (Supercell), The Helsinki based firm invests in health, web, games and tech startups. To date, it has backed approx. 50 companies exiting Applifier, Ditto, Supercell, Moves, and Nonstop Games. FinSMEs 25/02/2016 Revl, a San Francisco, CA-based startup launching a smart action camera, closed $2m in seed funding. The round was led by venture capitalist Bill Tai with participation from Y Combinator, James Lindenbaum, Lars Rasmussen, Frog Ventures, and others. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate production of the REVL camera, and introduce it to the general public via a crowdfunding campaign in spring 2016, develop new backend capacity via the REVL iOS app and conduct growth initiatives. Led by Eric Sanchez, founder and CEO, Revl is advancing an action camera designed for fully stabilized instant capture and share, with intelligent features to be announced later this spring. The companys partners, Sony, Ambarella and Frog Design, grants access to an array of stabilization technology, including access to sensors and chips. In addition to the funding, the company announced it has been accepted into Y Combinators Winter 2016 batch. FinSMEs 25/02/2016 SOCi, Inc., a San Diego, CA-based social media content discovery and marketing company, raised $2.25m in funding. Backers included new investors Taner Halicioglu, Doug Hecht, venture capital fund GrowthX and existing investors Trevor and David Klein, and Asaf Benhaim. The company intends to use the funds to expand into new sales verticals and continue innovating its platform. Founded in 2012 by Afif Khoury, CEO, SOCi develops a platform for enterprise social marketing on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. The solution features scheduling, design, lead generation tools, analytics, and reporting tools and leverages a proprietary algorithm that ranks social content on a zero through ten scale by analyzing more than 84 attributes allowing users to search and post proven content on any subject matter, regardless of their familiarity with the industry. Launched in early 2015, SOCi today serves nearly 100 partners, representing more than 3,000 businesses. They include brands and enterprises such as Aflac, Rhino Linings, VCA Animal Hospitals and Sit n Sleep. FinSMEs 24/02/2016 Spreedly, a Durham, NC-based cloud platform that connects merchants, platforms and payment gateways, raised $3m in new funding round. Backers include existing investor Belgian venture capital fund Emerge, as well as new investor Harold Mechelynck. The company, which has raised $5.5m in total capital since 2013, intends to use the capital to expand operations and introduce new product features designed to further improve its payment software solution. Led by Justin Benson, CEO, Spreedly provides a SaaS platform that allows customers to securely store credit cards and returns a universal credit card token that can be used to transact against any of the payment gateways and supported third-party APIs. When a customer is ready to charge an end user, the token is sent back to platform, along with the transaction type request, and the service maps that token to the underlying card stored in its vault and executes the transaction against the specified payment gateway. The company currently works with more than 100 payment gateways and PCI compliant endpoints globally, has more than 300 customers and handles over one million transactions each month totaling in excess of $3 billion on an annualized basis, up from $1 billion in June 2015. Emerge, which had previously invested over $2m in Spreedly, focuses on early stages of development (Seed and Series A) in technology startups. FinSMEs 25/02/2016 viisights, a Tel-Aviv, Israel-based video intelligence company, closed $1.2m seed funding round. The round was led by TheTime along with Maxfield Capital, ASF Ventures and LETA Capital. The company intends to use the funds to enhance the core technology and expand the team. Led by Asaf Birenzvieg, co-founder and CEO, and Simon Polak, Co-founder and chief scientist officer, viisights provides a SaaS-based video data management and intelligence platform for content discovery, brand safety and targeting. By offering a destination for video metadata and user-profile management, the solution aims to expand revenues for publishers with large video content libraries and deliver higher quality video ad targeting data for advertisers. FinSMEs 25/02/2016 Mumbai: Sanjay Dutt, who was released from the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune on Thursday morning after serving a sentence for illegal possession of AK-47 rifle, said the feeling of being "free" is "the most amazing", but it is yet to sink in. After spending a sleepless night full of anxiety, Dutt, sporting a stylised hairdo and a bearded look, came out of jail in casuals, to a rousing welcome by friends and family members. While addressing the media outside his residence, Dutt said: "For 23 years, I wanted to taste freedom, and finally the day has come that I have. I walked out of jail as a free man, but it's not sinking in me. I know I will come to terms with it... It still feels like I am out on a furlough and parole. "But just to be free is an amazing feeling." Sporting a relaxed demeanour, the 56-year-old, who savoured a cup of tea first when he returned home, said he was missing his father, late actor Sunil Dutt the most. "If my father was alive, he would have been the most happy person. His only fight was to see his son free. And today I can say, 'Baba I am free now'," said the actor, who after coming out of jail and visiting the Siddhivinayak temple, prayed at his mother Nargis Dutt's grave first and later folded his hands in front of his father's portrait at his Pali Hill residence. At the media conference, he was flanked by his wife Manyata, who was emotional upon being asked about her sentiments on Dutt's return. Dutt called her his "pillar of strength" and "best half", adding that his suffering was lesser than that faced by Manyata while he was in prison. He also shared some tidbits about his experience in jail, saying that he has learnt how to make paper bags and how he enjoyed being a radio jockey at the jail. The Munna Bhai actor even quipped that "like a good husband", he gave the "hard-earned" money he made from the paper bags, to his wife. Now, he is looking forward to spending time with his family and children, and "most of all" his work. "I want to get back," he said on an emotional note at the conference, where his twins son Shahraan and daughter made a brief appearance, hugging and kissing their father. The love of his fans was visible when he arrived home to a hero's welcome amid tight security. In fact, Dutt's Chal Mere Bhai co-star Salman Khan had personally sent bodyguards to provide security for him. "Salman is my younger brother, and I will always pray for him," he said. IANS Pune: Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt finally walked out a free man from the Yerwada Central Jail on Thursday after serving a 42-month prison-term. Present to receive him outside the jail amidst tight security were his wife Manyata and their children, sister and former MP Priya Dutt and her family, film director Rajkumar Hirani, thousands of fans, and a huge media contingent from across India and abroad. Sanjay Dutt was sentenced to undergo five years rigorous imprisonment for illegal possession of arms during the March 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. Arrested in 1993, he had already served 18 months as an undertrial and then returned to jail in May 2013 to serve the remaining 42 months of his sentence. Shortly after he walked out, the actor drove to Pune airport to board a chartered plane to Mumbai. Once in Mumbai, he will proceed straight to the famed Siddhivinayak temple to offer prayers. Then he will visit the Bada Kabrastan in Marine Lines and pray at the grave of his mother the late actress Nargis Dutt. He is scheduled to interact with the media later in the day. IANS By K Yatish Rajawat Two things Suresh Prabhu did not dwell upon in his speech and these two are the biggest challenges for the Railways going forward. These were the revenue projections for 2016-17 and revenues achieved in the current year 2015-16. After all, budget is about projections of revenues and expenditure based on the past years performance. The reason he did not dwell on these two things is because this has been a challenging year for railways. The revenue target set for 15-16 was at Rs 1,80,000 crore, what will be achieved is close to Rs 1,68,000 crore with a more than a month and a quarter to still go. The reason for this drop in achievement is a worry for not only the Railways but its business model. Initial number for the first half of 15-16 showed a growth of just 2 percent in freight the reason attributed was drop in bulk commodity shipment particularly foodgrains. But commodity shipment also includes iron ore and coal a decline in which shows an overall slowdown in the economy. The growth in freight includes a rise in freight rates so in terms of the volume the growth is even lesser. Now, the second part of the projection which Suresh Prabhu did not dwell upon is the targeted revenues for 2016-17 pegged at Rs 1,84,000 crore a 10 percent increase over the previous year. Prabhu is hitting for the covers here and being really brave by setting such a high target. Hoping for a good monsoon and need for replenishment in the overflowing godowns to drive the freight for foodgrains. Secondly, he is hoping for a major revival in demand for coal and iron ore freight. Thirdly, he is hoping that Railways will be able to change its business model on freight and attract automobile, white goods shipment etc. Or maybe all three. This is being brave against all the odds. Remember the target for the operating ratio for 2015-16 was 88.5 percent and what has been achieved is closer to 90 percent. This is also due to some budgetary savings of Rs 8,720 crore. However, it is difficult to explain if its accounting play or real savings. Getting his revenues and expenditure right is the first step towards ensuring sustainability of Railways and this was the goal Prabhu had set when he announced his last budget. This target seems to have been lost in the current speech of the railway minister. Now that what he did not dwell on is clear, let us look at what he did talk about. He spent an inordinate amount of time for passenger amenities which was clearly a demand from the citizens. This was a major demand from citizens and it shows in a survey here. Addressing the needs of the citizens is a low capex and high impact initiative. Therefore he has announced a list of initiatives here and I wont dwell on it here it has been captured well by the super active internet team at The Hindu newspaper. Under Prabhu, railways has become more customer-centric on the passenger side, but more needs to be done on the freight side. There is a lot which has to be done on the freight side and I have written about it here and here. Now some of these ideas have been incorporated by Prabhu in his working in the Railways. But a very simple idea of making freight as simple as booking a passenger ticket will ensure that the backend automatically become more customer centric. When an individual is allowed to book freight on the IRCTC site and his packet can be collected and delivered door to door you know that Railways has turned around. This is logistics muddle that should be the top most priority for the sustainability of Railways. Currently, freight is treated as a second citizens in terms of customer service. The freight docks are dirty, the procedure manual and paperwork intensive, the entry and exit for lorries, and vehicles cumbersome. There is no last mile service or connectivity Railways offers or has. India Post, the only organization has the infrastructure and connectivity but lacks in customer service. There is a play here to bring these too organization together and form a joint offering for small sized packets and door to door delivery, branded and marketed aggressively. These are the big ideas that will help bring a culture of customer-centric approach in the freight business in railways. The last and the most important aspect again as per his last budget is breaking the cycle of lack of investment plaguing the Railways for the last 15 years. Successive railway ministers from Lalu Prasad Yadav to Mamta Bannerjee had one simple formula to spend the capital budget in operational expenditure. In simple words, the money that was given to them for building the house was used for buying daily groceries. They fooled people, media and even Harvard in believing that they were making the Railways profitable. Now, Prabhu said in his speech that investment goal of Rs 1,00,011 crores has been met for 2015-16, and he has targeted another Rs 1,00,002 crore for 2016-17. These are ambitious targets and there are no concrete details on how to achieve them. Obviously, some of this capital expenditure will come from the main budget where he is seeking more than Rs 40,000 crore. This is another area that needs more attention from a structuring point of view to attract low interest loans from Japan, US and even pension funds. The time has come for railways to do its own sovereign like offering for international markets, directly and not through IRFC to raise funds. Hopefully, more will happen here so that the target of investment can be met, if not it will remain a brave announcement. Being brave in adversity is not easy, but being brave can be fool hardy if you are not planning in adversity. This maybe the time for some hard decisions too and it is time that they are taken to make Railways a better, leaner performance engine. K Yatish Rajawat, is a policy commentator and strategist based in Delhi, he tweets @yatishrajawat New Delhi: Missed revenue targets, less than expected budgetary support and good intentions marked Railway Minister Suresh Prabhus first fiscal year. And though he has laid the blame of falling revenue receipts at the door of a poor Indian economy, the minister has simultaneously made a new set of promises for the coming fiscal. What is his optimism based on? Does he believe he will be able to achieve revenue targets for FY17 whatever the state of the Indian economy is? Remember, two-thirds of Railways' earnings are from goods carriage which, in its current mix, is largely dependent on the state of the economy. Prabhu must be given full marks for keeping a tight control over costs to result in significant savings this fiscal as also the ability to adhere to his investment commitments. But perhaps good intentions and transparency may not be enough for him to achieve the ambitious targets set for FY17: Rs 8,479 crore net surplus even though total expenditure will rise more than 12% to Rs 1,71,060 crore. Prabhus Niti Ayog colleague admitted that targets the Railways had set for itself in FY16 were optimistic before going on to tell CNBC-TV18 that those for the next fiscal too may be on the optimistic side. To be fair to Prabhu, it is no mean feat to turn around the Indian Railways as any decision on its prime revenue generator, fares, is a political one. Add to that a skewed revenue basket where freight accounts for two-thirds of earnings, the task becomes even more tougher. Besides, earnings from freight have been falling steadily as roads are being preferred for transporting goods. Another spanner in the works is manpower - 51 paise of every rupee earned by the Railways goes into paying wages plus pensions to its employees and this hurts the Railways bottomline significantly. In fact, as per Budget estimates for next fiscal, Prabhu has raised the provisioning for pension payouts by a whopping 23 percent or Rs 8,000 crore. This is breaching earlier estimates and even projections made by the White Paper presented on the Indian Railways. In his speech today, Prabhu made many pronouncements on initiatives to improve finances, increase capex, improve organizational structure and keeping passengers happy. But he was also forced to admit that a slowing economy has meant the Railways missed out on its targets for both, passenger and freight earnings for FY16. Setting optimistic performance targets is one thing but achieving them in a turbulent economy is quite another. Prabhu has quietly advanced many of the revenue and operational targets initially set for 2015-16 to the next fiscal. Sachin Bhanusali, CEO of Gateway Rail Freight told CNBC-TV18 that the speech of Suresh Prabhu was peppered with good intentions but it would have been better to get a blueprint on how all the money that needs to be invested will be generated. Remember, the Railways has said its Plan Outlay for FY17 is Rs 1.2 lakh crore, of which it sees Rs 40,000 crore as gross budget support and about Rs 20,000 crore to be raised through borrowings. Mukesh Butani, Managing Partner, BMR Legal pointed out that subdued growth in revenues both passenger and freight presented a compelling reason for another increase in fares. But Mr Prabhu didnt give in to hiking fare as an easy solution to resources woes. Instead, he has proposed enhanced revenue mobilization through more innovative means Significant increase in capex projected to double from the average of previous year should facilitate modernization of railways. Debory said Prabhu may wait for the establishment of the Railway Development Authority (or a regulator for the Railways) before effecting any fare decisions. He also effectively hinted at a downward revision in freight rates. Either way, Prabhu has been prudent in not announcing any fare decisions at all in his speech today and may instead look to take these decisions during the course of next fiscal. As per the revised estimates for the current fiscal and budget estimates for FY17, Prabhu has shown an almost 10 percent decline in passenger revenues, almost 8 percent decline in freight revenues and a 9 percent decline in overall revenue receipts this fiscal. This has pushed up the operating ratio to 90 percent against the target of 88.5 percent. What is notable here is that Prabhu has set almost identical targets for revenue generation in the coming fiscal, having missed FY16 gravy train. A more worrying target though is that for pension payouts: Rs 42,500 crore next fiscal against revised estimates of Rs 34,500 crore for the current fiscal. Thats a jump of over 23%. This, when Axis Capital has noted in its latest report on the Railways that with many retirees over next two years, this is an opportune time for manpower rationalization but politics remains a roadblock. According to the White Paper on Indian Railways presented last year, the number of retirees was pegged at 57,233 in FY16 with pension outgo estimated at Rs 33,546. For the next fiscal, estimated number of retirees is 57,682 with pension outgo pegged at Rs 39,417. The provisioning we see in Prabhus second Budget is far more. Now lets come to fares. Many have lauded the minister for resisting the temptation of raising passenger fares but a Morgan Stanley analysis earlier had found passenger fares have moved up just 28 percent over the last decade versus a 91 percent increase in freight rates, with passenger losses being compensated by squeezing the freight customers. Railways freight traffic has been suffering due to myriad institutional and efficiency issues but hiking fares has made matters even worse for companies relying on this mode of transport. No wonder then that freight has moved over to truckers. The Axis Capital report quoted earlier notes that a 5-6 percent hike in passenger fares every year for the last 10 years would have garnered Rs 1.3 lakh crore versus the current passenger revenue loss of Rs 22,000 crore. On the issue of declining freight revenues, an analyst from a Mumbai-based brokerage had said earlier that roads now carry 70 percent of all freight in India with Railways left to carry the remaining 30 percent. This is lopsided and has happened because the Railways has a capacity constraint, it is unable to assure delivery timelines and is far more expensive than road transportation. A freight train runs at an average capacity of 25 km per hour! The Railways needs money to decongest tracks and improve its share in freight traffic. Bhanusali lauded Prabhus commitment to expand the freight basket, rationalize freight rates and offer a firm timetable for goods transportation to customers all initiatives announced by the minister in his speech today. Ficci president Harshvardhan Neotia welcomed rationalization of freight policy and review of PPP framework, saying these would help attract private players. Commendable are the measures for improving quality of travel (both unreserved and reserved), cleanliness drive through additional 30,000 bio-toilets, stress on non-fare revenues through station redevelopment & monetizing land along tracks, greater participation of State Governments in implementation of railway projects through joint ventures, he said. New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has called a meeting with economists just two days before he presents Union Budget for 2016-17 on Monday. Besides Jaitley, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha and other senior officials of the finance ministry will be present at the meeting with economists on Saturday morning. Officials confirmed the 90-minute meeting, but refused to say what the agenda was. The move is unusual as no finance minister before has called a meeting with economists two days before the Budget. Also because, by Saturday, the Union Budget would have been finalised, barring some last-minute changes. Industry officials said the last-minute meeting may be to get a grip on some quick-fix measures to package a bitter pill for the economy. It is being widely speculated that the government may not stick to the fiscal deficit target of 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2016-17. With economic activity not picking up at the desired pace and tax revenue staying sluggish, the government had last year redrawn the fiscal consolidation road map by stretching the time to reach the fiscal deficit figure of 3 per cent of GDP from two years to three years. There is little doubt about government meeting current year fiscal deficit target of 3.9 per cent, but achieving 3.5 per cent in 2016-17 and 3 per cent for 2017-18 is widely seen as uncertain. The Saturday meeting may be aimed at sensitising economists about some of the macro-economic indicators as well as fiscal health of the government, besides seeking some inputs on expenditure cuts and fiscal manoeuvring. Jaitley had met economists as part of pre-Budget meetings in January. During that round, he had also met industry captains, bankers, farmers and trade union representatives. The meeting with economists will come a day after the Economic Survey for 2015-16, which presents the state of economy, is presented in Parliament on Friday. On Saturday, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian is also scheduled to meet media to explain finer points of the Economic Survey. CEA is the author of the survey. PTI WASHINGTON/NEW YORK A spate of proposed Chinese takeovers of U.S. companies, from the Chicago Stock Exchange to makers of high-end semiconductors, has created a vibrant business for a small circuit of Washington insiders who advise on how to get cross-border deals approved by the U.S. government. Several former U.S. officials have in recent years joined the ranks of lawyers, consultants and lobbyists that have emerged as key brokers in trying to get Chinese acquisitions or investments in U.S. companies approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which scrutinizes deals for national security concerns. Because this interagency panel, comprising 16 U.S. government departments or agencies and chaired by the Treasury, does not publish its decisions or its reasoning for them, advisers say inside knowledge and connections are important to navigate what outsiders often see as a "black-box" review process. There have been 22 M&A transactions announced in the United States so far in 2016 involving Chinese acquirers, worth a combined $23 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data. That is a massive increase from 88 deals worth $13 billion for all of 2015, and 88 deals for $7 billion in 2014. For a graphic showing Chinese acquisitions of U.S. companies by number and value, see tmsnrt.rs/1T4e6hF It has all boosted corporate demand for former officials who served on CFIUS or have knowledge of the inner workings of the agency, several lawyers, consultants and lobbyists involved in the advisory work told Reuters. "We're just completely overwhelmed," said one lawyer involved in advising on the CFIUS process, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak with the media. China's aggressive, often state-backed overseas buying spree has set off alarm bells among some politicians in Washington who are already on edge as Chinas armed forces expand their presence in the South China Sea and because of high-profile hacking attacks against U.S. government agencies and corporations, which U.S. officials and security software companies have blamed on China. Adding to the tensions are attacks on Chinas trade policy, and in particular its surplus with the U.S., by Donald Trump, who is leading the race to be the Republican candidate in Novembers presidential election. Among the former officials who use their CFIUS experience in advisory work are Anne Salladin, who reviewed some 500 deals that went to CFIUS during her 20 years at the Treasury. Her role at law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP has included advising a Chinese private equity firm on the acquisition of some semiconductor-related assets. Other officials include former U.S. Treasury deputy assistant secretary for investment security and policy Nova Daly, now with the law firm Wiley Rein LLP, and former Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for policy Stewart Baker, now with law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP, according to the websites of their employers. Baker worked on the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Chinese PC and smartphone maker Lenovo Group (0992.HK) in 2014, while Daly advised U.S. hard-disk maker Western Digital Corp (WDC.O) on a proposed investment by China's Unisplendour Corp Ltd (000938.SZ) that was abandoned this week amid CFIUS concerns. All three of the former officials declined to comment for this story. Whitney Smith, a Treasury spokesperson, declined to comment on CFIUS's relationship with company advisors. GAUGING SENTIMENT Before a deal is announced, the advisors will often seek to gauge its chances for CFIUS approval by holding a preliminary meeting with key officials. If the initial reaction is hostile, then this can avoid the embarrassment and cost of announcing a deal that is later scuppered, said Mark Plotkin, a CFIUS expert with the law firm Covington & Burling LLP. A good CFIUS advisor will figure out what issues might crop up in a certain deal such as cutting edge chip technology or Pentagon contracts -- and discuss how to best handle these with the agencies most likely to be concerned, said Plotkin. "The CFIUS process is going to be a full-body X-ray of the target," he said. Another lawyer involved in CFIUS work, who spoke privately, said that he gives a 45-minute presentation to Pentagon officials and then carefully examines the questions asked, as well as body language, to judge their level of discomfort with a particular deal. It is not unlike a preliminary meeting that antitrust lawyers might request with the Justice Department or Federal Trade Commission about an antitrust review of a merger, the lawyers said. Not all CFIUS advisors are hired to help a deal go through. Some are brought in by corporate competitors to lobby against a deal, while others are tapped by investors making bets on whether a transaction will be cleared by CFIUS. For instance, Mario Mancuso, a partner at law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP who formerly sat on CFIUS as undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, now typically advises companies. But he also represented some investors in pork producer Smithfield Foods when China's Shuanghui International made a successful bid for the company in 2013. MORE WILLING TO HIRE This CFIUS advisory business is also benefiting from Chinese companies new willingness to spend on advisors. Traditionally, Chinese companies had been mistrustful of advisors, or unwilling to pay for them, some investment bankers and lawyers say. But the Chinese governments encouragement of outbound deal-making has spurred many of the countrys companies to spend on advisors, including CFIUS experts, these people say. A CFIUS review typically lasts between one and three months and can cost from as little as $50,000 to as much as $1 million for more complicated or controversial transactions, according to a CFIUS expert who has shepherded deals through the process. China led the pack of countries whose planned U.S. acquisitions and investments in 2014 were probed for U.S. security implications, making it the most scrutinized country by CFIUS, according to the latest CFIUS annual report, which was released last Friday. No official data is available for 2015. Chinese bids for technology and chip makers get particular scrutiny, CFIUS experts say. Semiconductors form electronic cores for a long list of military systems, including drones, guided missiles and bombs. To be sure, even with expert advice, companies can get it wrong. In the case of Western Digital, the company had told investors that it believed Unisplendour acquiring a 15 percent non-controlling stake would not be subject to a CFIUS review But CFIUS informed Western Digital it would review the transaction nonetheless, prompting Unisplendour to pull out. CFIUS concerns also killed other semiconductor deals in the past few weeks. Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc (FCS.O) earlier this month rejected an acquisition offer from China Resources Microelectronics Ltd CHRMI.UL and Hua Capital Management Co Ltd, over concerns that CFIUS would stop the deal. Last month, Philips (PHG.AS) scrapped a $3.3 billion deal to sell a division which makes LED lights to Chinese investors also because of CFIUS concerns. U.S. politicians have also began to agitate over some of these deals. Last week, a group of 46 U.S. lawmakers urged CFIUS to take a hard look at a bid by Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group to buy the Chicago Stock Exchange because of concerns that China would gain access to information about U.S. companies. COTTAGE INDUSTRY The cottage industry that has developed around CFIUS includes a wide array of actors. Law firms such as Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Covington & Burling offer to provide insight into how CFIUS will view a deal, tapping into their working relationships with CFIUS officials at several government departments. Skadden declined comment for this story. Lobbying firms, including Podesta Group and BGR Group, both of whom boast CFIUS experts on their websites, seek to persuade lawmakers and U.S. officials that a transaction is not threatening, as any concerns they harbor can trickle down to CFIUS officials, according to industry sources. BGR declined to comment, while Podesta did not respond to requests for comment. Management consulting firms, such as Accenture Plc (ACN.N) and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd, offer to help companies address national security risks identified by CFIUS. So-called "mitigation measures" can range from asset sales to ensuring that only U.S. citizens perform certain tasks. Deloitte declined to comment. Sorting out who among the advisors have connections and insight into CFIUS is not always easy. "Some of the law firms specializing in this stuff are excellent, while others sign companies on for terms that are utterly unimplementable," said Accenture consultant Andrew Walker, who helps companies comply with conditions imposed by CFIUS. (Additional reporting by Elizabeth Dilts in New York; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Martin Howell) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. WASHINGTON A U.S. federal judge will hold a hearing Thursday that may offer the first details on any progress in settling over 500 lawsuits filed against Volkswagen AG, a top supplier and many current and former top executives over excess emissions in 580,000 U.S. diesel vehicles. Late Monday, lawyers representing owners filed a consolidated 719-page complaint against VW, supplier Robert Bosch GMBH, which helped develop emissions controls, along with VW's current and former CEOs and other executives, accusing them of racketeering, mail and wire fraud, among other misconduct. The plaintiffs are asking that VW be ordered to buy back vehicles that don't meet emissions standards, and pay "significant" damages. The suits have been consolidated before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco. Lawyers for VW, the Justice Department and owners plan to update Breyer on the "settlement process" Thursday. Breyer named former FBI director Robert Mueller to help reach a settlement. German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported Sunday that U.S. officials want VW to produce electric vehicles in the United States as a way of making up for emissions cheating. VW has admitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board it installed software that allowed diesel vehicles to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution in real world driving, but passed emissions tests. VW, California and the EPA have declined to talk about the ongoing settlement talks. Suits have been filed by owners, including some who want VW to buyback vehicles, and auto dealers. VW has said it is considering buybacks. "This case arises out of one of the most brazen corporate crimes in history, a cautionary tale about winning at any cost," the complaint said, EPA declined to comment. VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan declined to comment, saying VW is "cooperating with the agencies." The U.S. Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into VW's cheating and in January sued VW for up to $46 billion for allegedly violating environmental laws. The states of New Jersey, Texas, New Mexico and West Virginia have also sued VW. VW named lawyer Ken Feinberg in December to "develop an independent, fair and swift process for resolving these claims." But more than two months later, Feinberg hasn't announced any programme yet. This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed Maharashtra government to appoint Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) here as an agency to submit a project report on uploading state Acts and amendments on the government website. A bench, headed by Justice Abhay Oka, hearing a petition, also directed that the IIT should design a comprehensive programme to upload bare Acts on government website immediately after it is passed or an amendment is carried out. The IIT has been asked to carry out the task as expeditiously as possible. The bench also directed that all the existing state Acts should be uploaded on government website in six months. As per existing rules, the government has to invite tenders for carrying out a project costing over Rs 3 lakhs. However, in this case, the high court directed that the state can ignore the tender process and straight away appoint the IIT as the agency to submit a report on uploading Acts on its website. The high court also made it clear that in future when a new Act is framed or an amendment carried out in any Act, it should be uploaded on the website in two days. The bench also said that the state should make available a copy of the Act or the amendment to the High Court library. The high court named the Joint Secretary of Law and Judiciary department as the officer responsible for implementing the process of uploading Acts on government website. It was hearing a petition filed by High Court administration seeking certain facilities for the courts. On behalf of the High Court administration, senior counsel S R Nargolkar argued that copies of the Acts published by the government are often not available in the courts and the judges cannot rely on privately-published Acts because they may contain mistakes. Hence it is necessary to upload the provisions of the Acts on government website, he argued. The petition also seeks separate enclosures in courts for the minors who are examined under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Currently, a minor witness/victim has to depose while facing the accused. This can put the child under pressure and inhibit him or her from telling the truth, Nargolkar said. The petition also demands round-the-clock security in every court, saying that documents and seized evidence material stored in courts must be guarded. The government said steps were being taken to provide 24-hour security. CCTV cameras were installed in Bandra court here and there was a proposal to provide them in other courts all over the state. The next hearing would be on March 2. PTI In a recent column in Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, one of Indias foremost thinkers, writes how corrosion of language has made it difficult for us to achieve or at least call for a better politics. In a subtle way, our crisis is deeper now because even the language in which we can begin to articulate a viewpoint is already considered corroded from the start; the words that are meant to carry the weight of the hopes of any party seem sinister even before they are uttered. The Telegraphs move to refer Union HRD minister Smriti Irani as aunty in its frontpage banner headline Aunty National on Thursday is a sad commentary on the state of our journalism where misogyny masquerades as critique and low-level sexist attack qualifies as anti-establishment bravado. In the already vitiated atmosphere of disgraceful political discourse, The Telegraph has somehow managed to plumb new depths, slipping further down the slope of misogyny which it has been guilty of traversing in the past. In her speech during the Budget session of the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, the minister took on the opposition over the issue of Rohith Vemulas suicide and the JNU row. In an emotional and forceful statement, Irani refuted the claims that her ministry had any role in the Dalit scholars suicide and insisted that JNU students had indulged in anti-national activities. The Telegraph is well within its rights to point out what it thinks are flaws and 'untruths' in the ministers arguments and whether or not those stand the test of scrutiny. But whatever the newspaper thinks of her politics, educational qualifications or even the thrust of her speech, the personal nature of the attack and the language employed to express it does two things: One, it reduces the minister down to her gender, crudely pointing out that her being a woman somehow has come in the way of her administrative capabilities. Why is the age of the minister and her gender important while her speech as a minister is being debated? Two, it denigrates a valid criticism to street-level mud-slinging, robbing the newspaper of the gravitas that it so loves to project. The mocking not only reveals the lack of intellectual heft in the publication that it must resort to sexist attacks to denigrate a woman, it also lays bare the hollowness of what goes by the name of liberalism in India. The publications despicable, derisive mocking and act of casting ageist aspersions on a minister sit at odds with its pose as a liberal newspaper that holds liberal values dear. If anything, The Telegraph showed scant regard for propriety of language and ended up harming women more by reinforcing everyday sexism. When it comes to misogyny though, The Telegraph is a repeat offender. On the edition dated 18 July, 2009 (Saturday), the venerable newspaper had carried a graphic depicting West Bengals top five administrators in saris, implying that the then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti, DG, police, Bhupinder Singh and two other state secretaries were not being able to shake off the inertia in the administration because they were behaving like women. The astoundingly sexist graphic was duly slammed by womens rights bodies who said they were shocked to see the misogynist graphic. To their credit The Telegraph carried the letter by Maitree, an organisation working for womens rights, criticising the newspaper. It read: We are shocked to see the graphic on the front page of the paper where you have portrayed men from the administration in saris suggesting that their inaction makes them women. The implication, thereby, is clearly that women are inactive and incompetent, the letter said. This is both a demeaning and humiliating stance towards women and we are amazed that a leading English daily holds such regressive attitudes and views. The organisation had staged a demonstration in front of The Telegraph office, demanding that the paper apologise. They also received support from Paschimbanga Ganatantrik Mahila Samity, a CPM-backed womens organisation, which said the graphic: exposes very clearly the entrenched patriarchal attitude that lies hidden behind the apparently super-modern and liberal facade of your newspaper. My Firstpost colleague Sanjay Pandey, who like me was once associated with The Telegraph, writes: I beg to differ with the Aunty National headline. I find it sexist and in bad taste. You could have found a better way to express your disagreement with the minister, but you found the easiest way out by attacking her gender. Calling a woman aunty to oppose her political stand on something is a kind of cowardice! If you thought this is one-off incident, allow me take you down the memory lane. On July 19, 2009, when I came for work, I saw a group of women protesting outside my (The Telegraph) office. Two womens organisations were protesting against the publication of a graphic on July 18. While the women rights activists protested outside, the editorial staff, particularly female employees, expressed disapproval against the sexist take though nobody talked about it aloud. No one raised a voice, but many employees agreed with activists that the graphic implied that women were inactive and incompetent. New Delhi: In what would be a key move if implemented, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday said the government is "actively considering" a separate set up for defence acquisition. Many countries like France have exclusive organisations which deal with defence acquisition. This was also one of the recommendations of the Dhirendra Singh Committee, that was set up the Defence Ministry to suggest changes to the Defence Procurement Procedure. "A separate set up for defence acquisition, at capital level as well as revenue level and OFB needs to be created. We are considering that," Parrikar said at the launch of the Defence Innovators and Industry Association (DIIA). He said it will take another six months for the concept to firm up. "This concept is under active consideration and definitely during the current calender year, this set up should be there," Parrikar said replying to questions. He said there should be continuity of information, knowledge and experience. The minister said that steps will be taken to ensure that there is career progression of officials and also that complacency does not creep in, besides any possible wrong doings. Told by a retired Admiral that in the navy there are some Admirals and senior officers who have been associated with the Arihant submarine project right from being a Lieutenant, Parrikar said, "I will look into it." The Dhirendra Singh Committee has proposed "Dedicated Procurement Organisation Outside The Government Of India Ministry Structure" in a report submitted last year. It had said that the procurement executive as now established is a result of the recommendations of the Group of Ministers post Kargil, and is one of the institutions created as part of the reorganisation of the higher defence management structures. "It has now functioned for more than a decade. Like any organisation it has its strength and weaknesses. It is our recommendation that the time is ripe for it to undergo a second set of reforms. "Its main drawback is that it essentially performs line functions whilst being embedded in a larger structure, which is designed to perform staff functions," the report had said. Meanwhile, talking about the proposed strategic partnership scheme, under which the Defence Ministry will tie up with one government and one private company for building strategic assets like submarines, Parrikar said the partner will be obligated to get at least 20 per cent material or technology from small and medium enterprises. He also said the ministry is considering proposals to give a push at least 200-300 start ups in the defence sector. PTI Reports of alleged incidents of rape of women in Murthal, Haryana at the time of the Jat protests has been categorically denied by the Haryana Police, the Khattar government as well as locals. The Haryana Director-General of Police (DGP) YP Singhal termed the reports as false at a press conference in Hisar, where he added that an investigating committee comprising of a financial commissioner and an inspector general of police had looked into the matter, but failed to find any evidence of the alleged incidents. "Investigations conducted by the principal secretary, Industries and Commerce, Devender Singh, and the Inspector-General of Police Paramjit Ahlawat, had found the allegations made in the report false and baseless," Singhal was quoted as saying at the press conference according to a report on The Financial Express. The DGP added that anybody with any information in the issue was welcome to approach the police. The Sonepat police too joined the chorus in denying the reports. "We talked to the people in the area, even those who were quoted in the report, but nobody told us about any sexual harassment by protesters," Superintendent of Police (SP) Abhishek Garg was quoted as saying according to a report on Hindustan Times. The ML Khattar-led Haryana government, which has been reeling under the agitations by the Jat community for caste-based reservation for nearly two weeks now, cleared the air surrounding the issue by denying the occurrence of any such incident. A government spokesperson also added that the Sarpanch of Kurad, a village in close proximity of the site of the alleged rapes, denied knowledge of the reports. "When some youth broke window panes of a few cars, some women who were seated inside the vehicles were injured. Such families were given shelter by the villagers in their own homes and gave them first aid and food. The media reports to this effect are totally false, misleading and not based on facts, the spokesman was quoted as saying according to The Financial Express. A report carried in The Tribune alleged that at least 10 women were molested by hooligans on National Highway 1 which occurred after a mob began to pelt stones at vehicles headed towards the National Capital Region (NCR). According to the report, the occupants of the vehicles abandoned their vehicles in order to save their lives, with a few women getting left behind, who were then targeted. The women reportedly were left on the fields after getting sexually assaulted, with the police allegedly persuading the victims and their families to not report the case in order to preserve their 'honour'. However, a report carried on The Hindu proved otherwise, with residents of the villages of Hassanpur and Kurad denying such reports. The locals are said to have learnt of the alleged incidents only after reading the newspapers as well as from the police. They however clarified that women were beaten with sticks and that they took to the nearby fields in order to hide themselves. "The mob broke my car windows and beat us with sticks. They threatened to beat the women travelling with us, but they escaped by running into the wheat fields," a resident of New Delhi, who was returning from Vaishno Devi, was quoted as saying, denying any incidents of sexual assault on the women travelling with him. Reports of the incident, most of which was based on the reports carried by The Tribune, sparked outrage among the masses, especially on social networking sites such as Twitter. The Punjab and Haryana High Court took suo moto cognizance of the matter on Wednesday, and added that an independent probe was required in this case. According to a report on Hindustan Times, Justice NK Sanghi wrote to the acting chief justice for further proceedings on the matter, adding that the court would be failing in its duties should it choose to sit idle. Members of the Jat community have been agitating for their inclusion into the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category that would guarantee them reservations in government jobs and educational institutions. The agitations turned violent around a week ago, with several mobs vandalising public property and also disrupting bus and train services passing through the affected regions. As many as 15 people have reportedly died in the clashes between the protesting members of the community as well as the security personnel comprising of police forces as well as the Army. Srinagar: Six militants, including a Pakistan national involved in the attack on an army camp in Tangdhar sector near the Line of Control last November, were arrested as security forces unearthed a militant module in north Kashmir's Baramulla district, police said on Thursday. Security forces launched a manhunt in Baramulla district following inputs about entry of a Pakistani militant into the district headquarter town , a police official said. He said the forces were successful in arresting a Jaish-e-Mohammad militant Mohammad Sidiq alias Shahd, a resident of Sialkot in Pakistan. Five other members of the module were also arrested. They have been identified as Suhail Arif, Rasshid Rasool Bhat, Javaid Ahmad Dhobi, Farhan Fayaz and Ehsan Fayaz, the official said. During interrogation, the Pakistani militant told the police that he was part of the 'fidayeen' (suicide) squad of Jaish which had attacked the Army camp at Tangdhar on 25 November last year. Three militants and a civilian were killed as the army repulsed the attack. Sidiq also revealed that after managing to escape to Baramulla, he was to meet other members of the Jaish to carry out further attacks in Kashmir or outside the Valley, the official said. "He was in process of creating a base and superstructure for furtherance of terrorist activities in Kashmir which was foiled by action of police and other security forces," he added. The security forces recovered one AK 47 rifle, five AK magazines, 150 AK rounds, six grenades and a wireless set from the arrested militants. PTI Mohammad Sadiq, 19, a resident of Sialkote in Pakistan, smiled to the dozens of cameras gathered inside the DIG's office in North Kashmir's Baramulla district; he appeared calm when he was paraded before the media on Thursday. Sadiq, wearing a Kashmiri Pheran and green striped sweater had his his hands tied by a long chain; there was barely any feeling of uneasiness on his face, as he moved behind a large desk which was decorated with arms and ammunition recovered from his possession. Sadiq belongs to the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group, tasked to carry out suicide attacks in Kashmir, along with three others. They infiltrated through Tangdar areas of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir, last November and struck an army camp on the Line of Control. On 25 November, pre-dawn the Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists attacked a Gorkha Rifles Camp along Kalsuri Ridge in Tangdhar area near the Line of Control in north Kashmirs Kupwara district, leaving a military contractor dead before three attackers were gunned down. It is unclear if the security agencies in Kashmir knew that a fourth attacker had escaped from the camp. Three of Sadiq's accomplices from Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hussain, Malik and Rizwan were all killed inside the army camp in November. NN Joshi, the defence spokesperson in Srinagar had said that the Army had managed to kill three militants in the operation by foiling an attempted suicide attack. However, no one talked about the fourth militant, who has escaped from the encounter site and was arrested two days ago by the Baramulla police. The police managed to catch Sadiq off-guard, the fourth suicide attacker alive he had managed to give a slip to security forces and was arrested two days back in Kanispora area of Baramulla. The Line of Control (LoC) along Kupwara district has witnessed some of the major gun battles between security forces and militants in the last few years. Although the security agencies say there are hardly any local militants in the area, many spots along the porous de-facto border between India and Pakistan along Kupwara in Kashmir Valley are prone to infiltration. Recently, the Core Commander of the Armys 15 Corps in Srinagar, Lt Gen Satish Kumar Dua, accepted that Kupwara has emerged as a major infiltration route in Kashmir. According to police sources, Sadiq has contacted his Pakistani handlers after slipping away from Tangdar, and was instructed to go towards Kupwara and then towards Baramulla. DIG north Kashmir, Gareeb Das, told Firstpost that Sadiq had stayed in Jungles for all these months and after the police in north Kashmir managed to bust a Jaish module in Handwara area, they received leads about him. A group of four people they were all the suicide attackers Fidayeen entered the Kupwara area and carried out attack on the Army camp in Tanghdar on 25 November last year, DIG Das told Firstpost. According to the DIG during interrogation Sadiq confessed of setting on fire an Oil depot inside the Army camp in Tanghdar, which led to the destruction of several vehicles, before he was asked by militants to leave the area. Das said that the group of four JeM militants were launched from Athmuqam in Pakistan administrated Kashmir and tasked to carry out Fidayeen attack on any camp near the LoC. Ultimately we isolated him from the civilian areas and arrested him. He added. This group of militants, with the help of GPS devices, started their journey on foot on November 24 near the LoC on PoK side and continued their journey till they reached the Tanghdar Army camp in around 6-7 hours and attacked it, DIG, Das said. According to the police, after they had carried out the attack, Sadiq was the only teenager in the group, and was asked by others to leave the site of the attack. He changed his clothes and boarded a Sumo along with his weapon from Tanghdar. After reaching Kupwara he was told to wait for a contact who will take him to another place and with the help of some people he reached Baramulla, DIG, Das, said. Before entering Kashmir, Sadiq had received three months of training in a JeM camp, where he was trained in in a Fidayeen attack. The arrest follows one of the worst encounters between security forces and militants on the outskirts of Srinagar, that left six people dead, including two officers of the elite Para forces of the Indian army. Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Thursday accused the Delhi Police of running away from the situation in JNU, where students "challenged" law and order and said the issue indicated a law and order meltdown. "The JNU incident is only a spark which shows what is happening in the country. Slogans advocating disintegration of the country and that Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Assam should break free are being heard in a university in the country's capital," an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said. "A remembrance day is being observed for Afzal Guru, who attacked Parliament and was hanged for his action. Warnings of an Afzal Guru taking birth in every house are doing the rounds. These incidents are an indication of a law and order meltdown," it said. Police turned into mute spectators and did not enter the campus to arrest a group of students who "mocked" them and "challenged" the law and order situation, it said. "This is nothing but cowardice and a sign of running away from the situation. If universities become dens of anti-nationals, autonomy should be consigned to flames...Had the police stormed the complex and dragged the group out and arrested them, the whole country would have patted their back," it said. "Our police, CBI and army can enter the Golden Temple, but cannot enter a university to catch hold of people who want to break the country. "The police and CBI can enter a chief minister's office and his home. They can also enter the homes of a Union minister, a member of Parliament and insult them after putting them behind bars. But when it came to JNU, they remembered autonomy," the Sena said. JNU is caught in a row over an event on 9 February on the campus against the hanging of Guru wherein anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. The varsity's students union president Kanhaiya Kumar is in judicial custody in a sedition case in connection with the event. Besides Kanhaiya, students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, also accused of sedition, had surrendered to the police on Tuesday night and were arrested on Wednesday. PTI As performances go, Union HRD Minister Smriti Iranis was impressive. On display during her debate in Parliament was a lot of anger, a sense of personal hurt and of course, her skill at clever oratory. She summoned the right material some not directly connected to the issues at hand, but good enough to be props for a strong argument to take on her detractors. She stood her ground emphatically. One can dismiss it as theatrics and say that her long response to the Oppositions charge on Rohith Vemula and the JNU matter cleverly took the emotional route to skirt many critical questions. For example, her speech didnt make clear why the BJP, which is so passionate about Afzal Guru, got into an alliance with the PDP in Jammu and Kashmir for power. The PDPs position on the hanged terrorist is clear: He was not a terrorist and his hanging was a gross miscarriage of justice. When you implicitly accept this position by aligning with the party in that state, how can you brand students who raise slogans in favour of Guru elsewhere as traitors? Again, its not unusual for MPs and ministers to send letters to ministries to get work often of a personal nature done. How many of them are pursued as vigorously as in the case of Rohith Vemula? And how many of them result in such punitive action from the authorities? His suicide may or may not be directly related to the Union minister Bandaru Dattatreyas letter to the HRD Ministry, but the possibility of it being an aggravating factor still weighs heavy on the general perception. Moreover, her speech does not explain the compelling necessity for her party to claim that he was not a Dalit. However, these are only a minor part of the real significance of what she conveyed. It has to do with the BJPs and the wider Sangh Parivars position on nationalism and other issues of significance for the Indian Right. The BJP had so far, appeared defensive, at least less than straight-forward, about these issues. Smritis speech dispels all ambiguity. It spells out very clearly where the party by extension, the wider Parivar stands. She removes all pretension from the us versus them debate by saying, I am not certifying your patriotism, but dont demean mine. I am not certifying your idea of India, but dont demean mine. A traitor within the gates is worse than the enemy standing outside them. The ministers words may not have come exactly this way, but the tone certainly conveyed this: Yes, we are like this. Take it or leave it. This might translate into if you are not with us, you are against us on the ground, and it might force those in the ideological middle to take a position this way or that, but it's clear that the government wont be desperate to capture or win over the middle any more. As the governments response to recent activities of the fringe elements suggests, it will side with them come what may. They are the partys most loyal constituents and fit perfectly into its narrative of the nation; in no circumstance, will it alienate them. Its interesting that the party would choose Smriti to be its commander in a crucial battle for ideological positioning. One would have expected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be in that position. But the HRD minister, with her brand of aggression, clarity and articulation, proved the perfect choice for a difficult job. It would not be a surprise if she overtakes other leaders in the party in prominence soon. She is exactly the kind of leader direct, combative and in your face the Indian Right requires. Of course, a victory in a parliamentary debate does not amount to much. But it serves to send out a message to the faithful on the ground. They can act without reluctance now and take forward the ideological agenda. A few days ago, the India Today magazine predicted a revival of sorts for Rahul Gandhi, arguing that he was emerging as a challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Dissing the argument, somebody made an interesting remark. "Nobody can dislodge Modi till two factors do not change: oil prices and Rahul Gandhi." On Wednesday, when Gandhi disappeared from Parliament, squeaking a meek apology when Smriti Irani was roaring on the floor, he proved his critics right. In running away from a battle that he had himself started, Gandhi proved that whatever hidden virtues he may have, leading from the front and looking the enemy in the eye, is not one of them. "I will speak, but they will not let me speak. Because they are scared of what I will say," Gandhi boasted before the debate began. In the end, by not getting up to speak, he brought upon himself the indictment of cowardice. This was, ultimately, Gandhi's battle. With his visits to Hyderabad and principled support to the JNU students, Gandhi had earned a showdown in Parliament with the government. And, for a change, he had a lot of people rooting for the cause he was championing. A sharp, impassioned yet logical take down of the government could have raised his stature, turned him into the voice of the liberal, secular nationalism. Alas, he stabbed himself in the back with both hands. In the end, he met the deserved fate of the man who dares his rivals to a fight and then fails to turn up at the appointed time. Fingers were pointed at his allegiance, barbs were thrown at his politics over a "dead child" and there were nasty slurs about him not being a worthy claimant to the legacy of his great grandfather and grandmother. And Smriti Irani got away with a mix of theatrics and half-truths packaged as rousing oratory. With the opposition MIA, the Lok Sabha became her stage, a set straight out of the soap that gave her the initial fame. With flaring nostrils, flailing arms, pointed fingers, lips curled at ends in a mix of derision and triumphalism, timely pauses and sobs, the HRD minister hectored the Congress from her bully pulpit. But, except for a TRS member, there was nobody to counter her performance. Nobody to challenge the version that Rohith Vemula died because there was no "doctor was allowed to examine him", that the "child" did not die because her colleague Bandaru Dattatreya's letter led to his suspension and harassment, that the sedition case against Kanhaiya Kumar is based on statements from the security staff and interim reports of the varsity (the police claim TV footage forms the basis) and her selective reading of text books from eras bygone. Nobody to ask her, where was the HRD minister all these months when campus after campus was in turmoil? (Some say she was busy writing her Parliament script). Nobody to counter the sword of the Jhansi ki rani (for her fans) and jhanson (guiles) ki rani (for her critics) as it flailed about in every direction. Gandhi, it seems, appears to have a mistaken conception that bite-and-run is the defining trait of a politician. He appears to believe that he will become the country's Prime Minister just by making guest appearances at fightbacks initiated by students and the civil society, delivering banal and vacuous lines of support and then watching from the distance as the battle escalates. No, Rahul, we do not have a polite word for those who want to join the feast when someone else has done the fighting and the killing. For the Congress, the abject surrender in Parliament, should be yet another call for rethinking its future under Gandhi. He has failed to define what his party stands for, it is boiling in its own stew of confusion because of Gandhi's inability to articulate the party's stand on crucial issues. And, while the India Today magazine charitably called him a challenger to Modi, the Congress leader is at the moment being humbled by the C-team of the BJP. When he is mocked by the likes of Anurag Thakur, silenced by a novice like Irani, what chance does he have of first graduating to the level of the B-team of the Gadkaris and the Naidus, then getting past Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and finally standing in front of the man who aims to dislodge? At the rate he is going, Priyanka Gandhi's children have a better theoretical possibility. The Congress will have to look for a better solution in the interim. Lucknow: BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday claimed that his party will form the next government in Uttar Pradesh after assembly election in the state due next year. "I am confident that the party will form a majority government after 2017 election," he told reporters after inaugurating the party's newly renovated state office. Shah said that he didn't want to talk about politics, but he wanted to refer to nationalism. "I want to ask Congress and specially its Vice President Rahul Gandhi that whether he consider slogans raised in JNU as anti-national or freedom of speech," he said. He said that Gandhi must clarify about his party's ideological ground. The BJP President said that he had been raising the question for the last six days, but Rahul was maintaining silence. He asked the party workers to raise the issue in every village and said that such slogans would not be supported in democracy. Shah said that strict action should be taken against those involved in such activities. Attacking Rahul, Shah had alleged yesterday in Bahraich, that he was supporting the forces dividing the country for 'votebank politics'. "I specially want to ask Congress and its workers whether those raising slogans like 'Afzal Guru tere hatrayre zinda hain' and 'Bharat ke tukde honge' were traitors or not," Shah had said at a public meeting after unveiling of a statue of 11th century king of Shravasti, Raja Suheldeo. Rahul has come out in support of JNU students, who are protesting the arrest of JNU Students' Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charge, and has accused RSS and BJP of imposing their ideology. PTI By the time Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani finished with her speech in Lok Sabha on Rohith Vemula's suicide and the JNU issue, she impressively justified her aggressive posturing throughout the day including her face off with Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati in Rajya Sabha. In her response to over four-hour-long discussion, Smriti nonchalantly combined the role of a scriptwriter, producer, director, minister, actor, orator and a hurt woman into one -- all to perfection. Her speech was a mix of emotions, rhetoric, substance and melodrama (anger, loaded pause, tears rolling and occasional choking with emotions). Thanks to her fiery delivery, the minister succeeded in convincing her political bosses and all in BJP's rank and file that she was competent enough to take on the high and mighty from the opposition ranks. This, at a time, when the entire opposition stood united against her, her government and the ideological stream she belonged to. Irani's speech on the floor of Lok Sabha was clearly an embodiment of the nationalist Hindutava thought process. For those belonging to this school of thought, her speech would serve as a document helping them in the indoctrination process of generations that would choose this stream of ideology in future. The effect of her speech was such that Home Minister Rajnath Singh complimented her on floor of the House. After today's speech in Parliament, Irani's detractors may have reasons to feel even more bitter about her but she did hike her importance both in the RSS-BJP hierarchy. Irani appeared well-prepared to deliver a shock and awe counter strike on the Opposition benches as she was armed with loads of documents to supplement her claims. From official notes, books to radical left literature she was equipped with all weapons that were needed to prove her point. From the point go she made it apparent who was on her radar for offence -- Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Trinamool Congress and the Left. It seemed she was waiting for this moment for quite some time -- to clear her name, her role as HRD minister, her government's position and to take on the opposition particularly the Congress and the Left. Anyone from the opposition benches who ever wrote to her seeking her's or her ministry's favour on different matters were at their wits end as Irani named everyone and asserted how effectively she addressed their issues. Most of these requests were either related to admissions or appointments in differnt Central-government aided institutions. Irani made it clear that she did not do any extra favour by sending repeated reminders to the Hyderabad Central University when her ministerial colleague Bandaru Dattatreya wrote multiple letters to her on different incidents happening in that university. She went on to quote letters written by Hanumantha Rao, Oommen Chandy, Shashi Tharoor (all Congress), Asaduddin Owasi, Pappu Yadav, Saugat Roy, Pradip Bhattacharya among others. Hitting out at the Congress where it could hurt most, she targeted its vice president Rahul Gandhi by first talking about how Atal Bihari Vajpayee had called former prime minister Indira Gandhi "Durga" after 1971 war victory against Pakistan and the following liberation of Bangladesh. "Chunao toh Indira Gandhi bhi hari thi lekin unke beton ne kabhi Bharat ki Barbadi ka nara lagane walon ka saath nahi diya (Indira Gandhi too had lost elections but her sons never supported those who shouted slogans for the destruction of India)," Irani said in an obvious reference to Rahul's father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and his uncle Sanjay Gandhi. Responding to the Congress's charge against her, Irani asked what her crime was. Was she being consistently targeted because she contested elections from Amethi (against Rahul Gandhi)? "Mera naam Smriti Irani hai meri jaat bata kar dikhao (My name is Smriti Irani, I challenge you to tell my caste). I am angry today because the mother who gives birth is accused of murder," said the minister in a voice that quivered with emotions. She vehemently denied that she allowed Rohit Vemula's suicide to become a Dalit versus non-Dalit battle. Contrary to that she charged Rahul and other opposition leaders of playing politics over Rohit Vemula's dead body. "Have you ever seen Rahul Gandhi go to a place twice? Six hundred young boys died in the Telangana agitation. Did Rahul Gandhi visited even once? He went to Hyderabad twice. In his suicide note Rohit says nobody is responsible for his death. That report is from the Telangana Police, not mine," Irani said. Smriti revealed that no doctor was allowed near Rohit for long when he was found hanging in a hostel room. "Who was competent to certify his death? Why did they not allow the doctors to revive his life, to take him to the hospital? Not one attempt was made to revive him. Those who were shouting slogans were not the once who wanted justice but they wanted to do politics. No police was allowed to go near him till 6.30 next morning. His body was used as a political tool," the minister said. She even cited that if the vertebrae in the neck does not get snapped and even if pulse falls down to a 30-40 beat, there is still a possibility that the victim could be revived if timely medical intervention is available. Irani said that all members of the executive council of the Hyderabad Central University on whose report action was taken against Rohit were UPA appointees and not NDA's. She also responded to Rahul's charge that all VC's in Central universities were RSS members. "Twenty Chancellors and 16 Vice-Chancellors in office are UPA appointees and if anyone among them with evidence could say that she had saffronised the university she would quit politics," Irani said. In course of her speech, she didn't even spare Telangana Chief Minister KC Rao either as she felt that the response by the state government was not adequate. The minister even quoted extensively from a book prepared by Teesta Setalvad, which was commissioned to her by Irani's predecessor in the UPA government -- Kapil Sibal. The minister presented a gamut of evidences how school textbooks from different classes were toeing Pakistan's line on Jammu and Kashmir. The entire history in these textbooks was lopsided as it was in stark contrast to reality and to what India believes on the issue. Shockingly, these were being taught to the students of class IV and VI. There is no indication that the national versus anti-national debate triggered by the JNU row would go away soon as she referred to the university's report that anti-India slogans were indeed shouted on 9 February in the campus. Irani pointed out that a leaflet distributed by Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and Kanhaiya Kumar on 10 February called India a "murderous republic" (because of Afzal Guru and Yakub Memom's hanging). The minister also quoted from another poster Mahisasur Martyrdom which went on to the extent of calling Goddess Durga as a "sex worker" for tricking Mahisasur into marriage and slaying him later. "Is this freedom of speech? I want to know if Rahul Gandhi, Saugata Roy or Saugata Bose would like to discuss this freedom of speech. I fail to understand the depravity of these so-called students," Irani said pointing to the empty Congress benches as the largest party staged a walkout. Perhaps this was the best available option for the Congress MPs to save their faces. Sangrur: Claiming that ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance in Punjab was confronted with a "tsunami of anti-incumbency", Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said the party will replicate the Delhi anti-corruption model if AAP is voted to power in the state. Kick-starting his five-day visit to Punjab, where Assembly elections is due early 2017, Kejriwal claimed that the party would form its government in Punjab as the present dispensation is "confronted with a tsunami of anti-incumbency." "Corruption would be eradicated in Punjab after we come to power. The Delhi experience would be replicated in Punjab where 52 officials have been nabbed," he said. Terming as "cruel joke" the "meagre compensation" paid by the state government to farmers for the damaged crop, Kejriwal promised adequate compensation to them if AAP comes to power. "We have done it in Delhi where compensation of Rs 50,000 per hectare was given for farmers in 307 villages for their damaged crops, which was never done by any previous government," Kejriwal said while addressing different gatherings. Kejriwal met wives of farmers, who recently committed suicide due to heavy debt. "I think the compensation of Rs. 3,00,000 announced by the state government for families of farmers, who committed suicide, was also embezzled by corrupt officials and politicians as on the ground, no such compensation was given to any family," he said in Sunam district. Kejriwal promised that if voted to power in the state, the AAP government would provide necessary health and education facilities. PTI Editor's Note: As Tamil Nadu heads into poll frenzy, the overarching theme of the campaigns both by the ruling party as well as the Opposition is that of governance. While Opposition parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) claim a breakdown of governance in the current regime, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam argues that governance has never been better in the state. In this series, Firstpost takes a dive into various aspects of governance in the past five years to analyse the merits and demerits of each partys claim. The first part of the series examined criticism, while the second part looked at how populist politics are eating away at the economy. In January 2016, Chennai-based Loyola College released the results of a routine survey conducted by their students ahead of every election. The results were rather startling corruption was placed at the top of a list of key election issues. Thirty six percent of respondents felt that the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government in Tamil Nadu had failed to control corruption. The survey also found that the two Dravidian parties, the AIADMK as well as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) were neck and neck in the contest. All parties in the state are at each other's throats over the issue of corruption. The spectre of 2G and land grabbing continues to haunt the DMK. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's biggest albatross is the Rs 65 crore disproportionate assets case which is currently being heard in the Supreme Court following a conviction in 2014 and an acquittal on appeal in 2015. All other parties have slammed the ruling party over various corruption-related issues. One such case is that of an engineer in the state agricultural department who committed suicide in 2015. S Muthukumarasamy jumped in front of a train at Thatchanallur in Tirunelveli district. Allegations abounded that he was driven to that end by the then agricultural minister Agri SS Krishnamoorthy who was said to be harassing him for bribes. Following a public furore, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa sacked Krishnamoorthy and subsequently, he was arrested. The state Crime Branch - Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) is currently investigating the case. An issue on which the ruling party has taken no action is one regarding allegations of murky power deals. Amongst these are purchase of costly power from private companies at a premium, non-maintenance of existing power generation plants, stalling and delaying implementation of power projects like Udangudi and Ennore as well as a solar power project by the Adani Group which is said to be overpriced. In September 2015, the state Electricity Minister Thiru R Viswanathan denied all charges in the Assembly and no probe has been forthcoming. The Aavin milk adulteration scam unearthed in September 2014 led to the arrest of influential AIADMK leaders. They were found to have taken over the contracts to transport Aavin milk from the plant to various areas, adulterating the milk en route. The case is pending. Other high profile corruption cases include the Rs 1 lakh crore granite scam and the even larger beach and river sand mining scam, all of which are stuck in various courts. "There is no big issue in this election," said Stalin Rajangam, political analyst. "There are only small issues which will be made bigger. Land grabbing, threatening will be seen as corruption. AIADMK will not come down due to smaller, invisible corruption. Last time, DMK indulged in land grabbing and that angered people. In Jaya's first term in 1991-96 people saw enormous corruption for the first time openly and they voted her out. Tamil Nadu voters are used to corruption now. It becomes an election issue only when it moves to the next level of threats and goondaism," he added. The DMK's MK Stalin has spoken out on corruption charges against his sister and prominent party leader. The Pattali Makkal Katchis (PMK) scion and chief ministerial hopeful Anbumani Ramadoss too has fended questions on corruption charges against him in a CBI case. Only Jayalalithaa remains mum. The AIADMK insists these charges are all political ploys to discredit the ruling party. "This is the cleanest government Tamil Nadu has ever seen," insisted a senior party leader on condition of anonymity. The people of Tamil Nadu will ultimately decide. The author tweets @sandhyaravishan Editor's Note: As Tamil Nadu heads into poll frenzy, the overarching theme of the campaigns both by the ruling party as well as the Opposition is that of governance. While Opposition parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) claim a breakdown of governance in the current regime, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam argues that governance has never been better in the state. In this series, Firstpost takes a dive into various aspects of governance in the past five years to analyse the merits and demerits of each partys claim. You can read the first part of the series here. They have emptied state coffers and gifted Tamil Nadu a debt of Rs 1 lakh crore, she thundered at massive public rallies across the state in 2011. This is an insult to Tamil Nadu. A fiscal deficit of Rs 17,607.71 crore is the biggest achievement of five years of M Karunanidhis goverment, she said. That was J Jayalalithaa, then Opposition leader, head of the powerful All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party, and she swept to power with a massive mandate in that election. Jayalalithaa had reason to make such confident statements thanks to her earlier track record. When she came to power in 2001, she inherited a bleeding economy with a revenue deficit of Rs 2,739 crore. When she demitted office in 2006, the exchequer had a revenue surplus of Rs 1,951 crores. But in 2016, as chief minister, the kajana (coffers in Tamil) continues to be kaali (empty in Tamil), despite the poll promises of 2011. Under the watch of Jaya, the usually intrepid administrator, Tamil Nadus debt has ballooned to Rs 2.11 lakh crore, around 19 percent of the states Gross Domestic Product (GSDP). Fiscal deficit too is hovering dangerously close to the allowed three percent mark at Rs 36,740.11 crore, the states fiscal deficit is currently at 2.92 percent of GSDP. Tamil Nadu has also posted a revenue deficit for the third year in a row a worrying Rs 9,154.78 crore or 0.7 percent of GSDP. As per the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act adopted in the early 2000s, the Tamil Nadu government is committed to keep fiscal deficit within three percent of GSDP, revenue deficit at zero and debt within 25 percent of GSDP. Finance Minister O Panneerselvam admitted in the Assembly that the revenue deficit was high but reasoned that it was due to the fall in global crude oil prices which meant a loss of Rs 4,000 crore in sales tax on petroleum products. When the state is implementing many unique schemes such as green houses scheme, free mixer, fan, grinder and laptops scheme, special public distribution scheme, special pension scheme, such a revenue deficit is unavoidable, said Panneerselvam. State Finance Secretary K Shanmugam too was at pains to explain that the states finances were doing just fine. The decrease in revenue is because of the downtrend in taxes particularly sales tax, transport, stamp and registration, and because of the global depression, said Shanmugam. Overall there has been a downtrend in economy and even manufacturing states like Gujarat and Maharashtra felt the impact of global economic slowdown, he stated. Analysts say that on paper, all is seemingly well. Upto one percent revenue deficit is acceptable, even though as per the Act it should be zero, said KR Shanmugam, Director of the Madras School of Economics, an expert in public finance. Overall everything is okay. Economic growth of nine percent is possible because the average growth in the past 11 years is 9.2 percent. Usually within the first two years of the Plan period growth will be low and after that it will grow much faster. Tamil Nadus sales tax and VAT on petro products is among the highest in the country, they simply cannot raise it any further, he added. Tasmac and Tangedco Challenges though lie ahead for the state government. The problems are simple two departments, one, a cash cow and the other, a massive drain on the exchequer. Tamil Nadu earns Rs 30,000 crore in revenue from the sale of liquor through the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac). This amounts to one-third of the states total revenue. On the other hand, the state power utility Tangedco (Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation) is bleeding, thanks to arbitrary decision-making, unnecessary purchase of expensive power from private producers and lack of generation of additional power by the state. Tangedco is weighed down with Rs 80,000-crore worth of borrowings and the state bears the burden. With elections looming, every party except the ruling AIADMK has promised to usher in Prohibition in the state. If Prohibition is an election issue, any govt that comes to power will have to do something about it, said R Srinivasan, associate professor at the Department of Econometrics, Madras University. Straightaway, the state loses Rs 30,000 crore in revenue. Fiscal deficit will double. Total debt burden will increase. Even if Prohibition is introduced in phases, with a well regulated liquor market, the state loses a substantial amount of tax revenue. A minimum of Rs 10,000 crore will be lost whichever way you go. This will again increase deficit, he said. Other factors loom large, keeping the state economy on shaky ground. Implementation of the Pay Commission in 2017-18 and appointments of teachers in new schools and colleges across the state would add to the payouts of salaries and pensions. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) too is a worry. Another issue here is we do not know what the loss would be if GST is implemented, continued Srinivasan. GST is stalled only for a political reason the technical issues raised by Congress can always be addressed. The state government claims there will be Rs 9,000-10,000 crore loss in tax revenue if GST is introduced, he added. Srinivasan also points out that the state government is yet to pass the Food Security Bill in the state Assembly, which would enable it to get funds from the Centre. But this would mean shifting from universal PDS (Public Distribution System) to targeted PDS, a move that could backfire politically. The opposition though points to growth figures to criticise the AIADMK government. In 2014, the Central Statistics Office pegged Tamil Nadu at a growth rate of 3.39 percent, the worst performing state in 2012-13, slower than the national average of 4.5 percent, below states like Bihar and Jharkhand. Growth, on the ground, means jobs and prosperity. Tamil Nadu is teetering on the brink of a collapse, unless serious fiscal measures are put in place to bolster revenues and cut expenditure. A hard and heavy hand of an uncompromising administrator is the need of the hour. Whether this cat will be belled in the midst of populist politics is the two lakh crore rupee question. Here's a glance at the state's growth over the years: The author tweets @sandhyaravishan Islamabad: Pakistan's anti-terrorism court holding the 26/11 Mumbai attack trial has finally recorded the statements of all Pakistani witnesses in the high-profile case that has been going on in the country for over six years. The anti-terrorism court (ATC) Islamabad which held the hearing on Wednesday at the high security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi recorded the statements of the final witness, concluding the process. Five witnesses have not recorded their statements despite a number of court summons. The court has declared them proclaimed offenders. "All the Pakistani witnesses of the Mumbai case have recorded their statements. Now only Indian witnesses are left to record their statements," a prosecution lawyer told PTI. He said the trial would be concluded once the India witnesses record their statements. The prosecution lawyer said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the trial court on Thursday that the Interior Ministry has written to the Foreign Ministry over summoning of the 24 Indian witnesses to Pakistan for recording of statements. The court adjourned the hearing till 2 March. In the last hearing, the court, which is holding the trial of the seven accused including Mumbai attack mastermind and LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, had ordered the FIA to present all 24 Indian witnesses in court to record their statements. Besides, it had also ordered to bring back to Pakistan the boats used by Ajmal Kasab and other militants on the grounds that it is a case property and should be duly examined. A court official had said earlier that the statements of four key Indian witnesses recorded by the Pakistani commission in 2012 were not admissible in the trial court as the Indian government had not allowed their cross-examination. The eight-member Pakistani judicial commission had visited India on behalf of the Pakistani anti-terrorism court (ATC). The statements of the Indian witnesses were supposed to be used as evidence in the trial. However, Lakhvi's lawyer had challenged the commission's proceedings because Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SS Shinde did not let its members cross-examine witnesses. The trial court here subsequently declared the proceedings of the commission illegal. Pakistani authorities have arrested seven LeT members involved with the planning of the attacks. Apart from Lakhvi, other arrested LeT men are Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Sadiq, Shahid Jamil, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum. A trial is underway against them at the ATC since 2009. Lakhvi, 55, secured bail in December 2014 and was subsequently released from Adiala Jail on 10 April, 2015, after the Lahore High Court set aside the government's order to detain him under a public security act. PTI BOGOTA Colombian health officials reported on Wednesday a "probable" case of microcephaly possibly linked to Zika, as the country closely watches potential impacts of the mosquito-borne virus. The country's National Health Institute said Zika virus was identified in the amniotic fluid surrounding a severely deformed and aborted foetus. The abortion was performed on an 18-year-old mother when she was 28 weeks pregnant. Photographs were not taken of the foetus, but the doctor in Popayan, in the southwestern region of Cauca, had reported the foetus having an abnormally small head and considered it microcephaly, the institute, known as INS, said. Zika infection in pregnant women has not been proven to cause microcephaly in newborns. In Brazil, a huge spike in the birth defect followed the arrival of Zika last year, leading scientists to strongly suspect a link. Colombia has had its own Zika outbreak since October, and is monitoring pregnant women exposed to the virus, but has yet to cite a case of microcephaly. The Popayan case cannot be confirmed as microcephaly since the remains of the foetus were thrown away immediately after the abortion and tests could not be made, INS said. Traces of Zika were detected in the amniotic fluid, it said. "Unfortunately in this case, the breach of guidelines by those responsible for handling the case in Cauca prevented an accurate diagnosis being reached," Martha Lucia Ospina, director of the INS said in a statement. "They discarded the fetal remains that were indispensable to diagnose or rule out Zika and the link with microcephaly and other abnormalities." Brazil said it has confirmed more than 580 cases of microcephaly, and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The country is investigating more than 4,100 additional suspected cases of microcephaly. Colombia - which has reported more than 37,000 cases of Zika including 6,356 in pregnant women - is seen as a key test case for the impacts of a Zika outbreak. The health minister last week said Colombia is reconsidering its own forecast of babies likely to be born with the rare birth defect linked to Zika. The government originally projected it could see some 500-600 cases of Zika-linked microcephaly. But it may take several more weeks, or months, for cases to emerge as signs of microcephaly may only be detected very late in pregnancy, experts say. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is a close cousin of dengue and chikungunya and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes. An estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms. (Reporting by Helen Murphy and Luis Jaime Acosta; Editing by Bernard Orr) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Suva: Cyclone-devastated Fiji said it was likely to need more foreign aid on Thursday, as the body count from the most powerful storm in its history climbed to 44. France became the latest country to join the relief effort following last weekend's deadly super-cyclone, flying in three tonnes of supplies and 40 engineers to help rebuild crippled infrastructure. But with Care Australia confirming the death toll had reached 44 up from 42 previously and that about 35,000 people were homeless, officials said Fiji "requires all the support that can be given". Severe tropical cyclone Winston lashed the Pacific nation on Saturday night, packing wind gusts of 325 kms (202 miles) per hour and leaving a trail of destruction. Australia and New Zealand have so far led the international response, sending planes laden with supplies, helicopters and medical teams. New Zealand is also dispatching two naval ships this weekend, while France sent two military transports from New Caledonia. In addition, there has been financial support from Canberra, Wellington, India, China, the United States, Japan, Nauru and the Asian Development Bank. "We've had a lot of international assistance already and we're grateful to our friends in the international community," said government spokesman Ewan Perrin. "But as we go through our more detailed assessments of the damage and area needs we'll be able to go back to the international community and see if we can source some more things." Aerial photographs show some villages in outlying islands were flattened in the tempest and Perrin said getting aid through to them was a challenge. "It's a widespread disaster. The government's working as hard as it can around the clock to get the materials out to the people in need," he said. "Obviously with 300 islands and 900,000 people, we can't service everybody at once. So I'd ask for people to be patient, the government is on its way." He said there had been minimal contact with some isolated communities "so we're not sure how much further the death toll will rise". Save the Children estimated 120,000 youngsters were in communities that bore the brunt of the tempest. "Alongside lifesaving aid like food, water and healthcare, we need to ensure that children do not continue to be traumatised and distressed by what they have experienced," said the agency's local chief Iris Low-McKenzie. AFP Rome: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi will put his government on the line Thursday by resorting to a confidence vote in the Senate to push through a watered-down draft law on same-sex unions which has angered gay groups. The Senate will vote around 1800 GMT on a "super-amendment" to the bill, which falls short of homosexual rights groups' demands by excluding key provisions. Renzi has bowed to Catholic pressure to remove stepchild adoption rights from the text to ease its passage through parliament, as well as any reference to the need for faithfulness in such unions. Italy is the only major European country to have so far given no legal rights to same-sex couples. Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party failed to push through a less watered-down version of the bill last week, after the opposition Five Star Movement (M5S) withdrew its support at the last minute. The Italian premier's party struck a deal late Wednesday with coalition partners on a revised version of the bill to put to a confidence motion in the Senate. While watered down, the text maintains provisions including the obligation to mutual moral and material support, the right to a residence permit for foreign partners and to take a same-sex partner's name. After the vote on the "super-amendment," the bill could be adopted by the Senate as early as Friday, before being passed by the Chamber of Deputies, where Renzi has a more comfortable majority, in theory getting definitive approval within weeks. "The accord on civil unions is a historic event for Italy," Renzi wrote on Twitter later Wednesday. But gay rights groups have voiced anger, on the streets and on social media, saying the bill has been diluted too much. "We haven't waited 30 years for this," said a joint statement Thursday by some 30 groups, vowing to express their "anger... in the streets, before the courts and at the ballot box." "Today the Senate is preparing to write a dark page in the history of civil rights in our country by approving a law which... completely ignores the existence and demands of gay couples' children," they said. The last attempt to push through such a bill was scuppered in 2007 by mass demonstrations against the centre-left government of Romano Prodi, and the failure was cited as one of the reasons behind the fall of his government. AFP Ankara: Saudi jets are due to arrive at a Turkish base this week take part in the air campaign against Islamic State jihadists in Syria, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday. "We are expecting the planes to arrive today or tomorrow (Friday)," Cavusoglu told the state-run Anatolia news agency, adding that Saudi equipment and personnel had already arrived on the ground. The planes are to be stationed at the Incirlik base, which is already hosting US, British and French war planes taking part in the strikes against IS fighters in Syria. Private NTV television said four Saudi F-15 jets would arrive at Incirlik on Friday. It said that 30 ground personnel and equipment had already arrived aboard C-130 Hercules military transport planes on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia and Turkey both see the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as essential for ending Syria's five-year civil war and are bitterly critical of Iran and Russia's support of the Syrian regime. The two overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim powers have in recent months moved to considerably tighten relations that had been damaged by Riyadh's role in the 2013 ousting of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, a close ally of Ankara. Ankara has said it is in favour of a ground operation in Syria, but only if it is conducted in coordination with Saudi Arabia and other Western and Gulf members of the anti-IS coalition. "We have since the beginning argued for the necessity of ground operations and all kinds of strategic moves to be carried out in addition to the air campaign," Cavusoglu said. AFP Washington: The United States and China have agreed on a UN resolution on North Korea's nuclear "provocations," the White House announced Wednesday, with diplomats saying it would include fresh sanctions and could go to a Security Council vote soon. Diplomats at UN headquarters in New York said Washington and Beijing, Pyongyang's main backer, had agreed on a draft resolution that contained "very tough measures." The United States circulated the draft text to the other three permanent council members -- Britain, France and Russia -- on Wednesday and was set to formally present it to the full 15-member council soon, said the diplomats, who asked not to be named. Negotiations on the draft resolution began six weeks ago after North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test on January 6, claiming it had successfully developed a thermonuclear device. During a meeting at the White House Wednesday, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed "on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through a UN Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions," said a statement from National Security Council spokesman Ned Price. "They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," added the statement. Underscoring the importance that the US placed on the negotiations, the statement said that President Barack Obama dropped in on the meeting. 'Significantly substantive text' The announcement came despite substantial and very public disagreement between the US and China on the best way to handle North Korea. China wants its reclusive neighbor to halt its nuclear weapons program and return to six-party international talks, but it has insisted that dialogue is the only way to curb Pyongyang's behavior. The biggest obstacle to talks, it argues, is Washington's stubborn insistence that it will not sit down with North Korea until the country takes steps towards denuclearization. Washington, on the other hand, insists that China, which is one of Pyongyang's biggest trading partners, should pressure the intransigent country into behaving better. Beijing, however, fears that too much pressure could trigger the collapse of the pariah regime, creating a political and humanitarian crisis on its border and removing a buffer against US troops currently stationed in South Korea. "There were a significant number of blockage points" between the United States and China, a Security Council diplomat said, adding that now "there is agreement." "There is good progress on the resolution and we are hopeful that there will be an adoption in the coming days," the diplomat said. One diplomat described the draft resolution as a "significantly substantive text", while another said it contained "a large number of very tough measures," as well as names to be added to the sanctions black list. However, it stopped short of the strongest measures proposed by the United States, which had met with strong resistance from China. Xi to attend nuclear summit The council has imposed four sets of sanctions on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006. After North Korea carried out a rocket launch on February 6, the Security Council renewed its pledge to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang. There are 20 North Korean entities and 12 individuals on the UN sanctions blacklist, which provides for an assets freeze and a global travel ban. But a UN panel of experts said this month that sanctions had failed to prevent Pyongyang from scaling up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. After a decade of sanctions, the panel said, it found "no indications that the country intends to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs." "There are serious questions about the efficacy of the current United Nations sanctions regime," the experts said in a confidential report. The White House statement added that Obama joined the meeting between Rice and Yi "to underscore his interest in building a durable, constructive, and productive US-China relationship." The US leader also said he looked forward to welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping to a March 31-April 1 nuclear security summit in Washington and "working together towards its success," the statement said. AFP The United States and China have agreed on a UN resolution on North Korea's nuclear "provocations," the White House announced Wednesday, with diplomats saying it would include fresh sanctions and could go to a Security Council vote soon. Diplomats at UN headquarters in New York said Washington and Beijing, Pyongyang's main backer, had agreed on a draft resolution that contained "very tough measures." The United States circulated the draft text to the other three permanent council members Britain, France and Russia on Wednesday and was set to formally present it to the full 15-member council soon, said the diplomats, who asked not to be named. Negotiations on the draft resolution began six weeks ago after North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test on 6 January, claiming it had successfully developed a thermonuclear device. During a meeting at the White House Wednesday, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed "on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through a UN Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions," said a statement from National Security Council spokesman Ned Price. "They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," added the statement. Underscoring the importance that the US placed on the negotiations, the statement said that President Barack Obama dropped in on the meeting. 'Significantly substantive text' The announcement came despite substantial and very public disagreement between the US and China on the best way to handle North Korea. China wants its reclusive neighbor to halt its nuclear weapons program and return to six-party international talks, but it has insisted that dialogue is the only way to curb Pyongyang's behavior. The biggest obstacle to talks, it argues, is Washington's stubborn insistence that it will not sit down with North Korea until the country takes steps towards denuclearization. Washington, on the other hand, insists that China, which is one of Pyongyang's biggest trading partners, should pressure the intransigent country into behaving better. Beijing, however, fears that too much pressure could trigger the collapse of the pariah regime, creating a political and humanitarian crisis on its border and removing a buffer against US troops currently stationed in South Korea. "There were a significant number of blockage points" between the United States and China, a Security Council diplomat said, adding that now "there is agreement." "There is good progress on the resolution and we are hopeful that there will be an adoption in the coming days," the diplomat said. One diplomat described the draft resolution as a "significantly substantive text", while another said it contained "a large number of very tough measures," as well as names to be added to the sanctions black list. However, it stopped short of the strongest measures proposed by the United States, which had met with strong resistance from China. Xi to attend nuclear summit The council has imposed four sets of sanctions on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006. After North Korea carried out a rocket launch on February 6, the Security Council renewed its pledge to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang. There are 20 North Korean entities and 12 individuals on the UN sanctions blacklist, which provides for an assets freeze and a global travel ban. But a UN panel of experts said this month that sanctions had failed to prevent Pyongyang from scaling up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. After a decade of sanctions, the panel said, it found "no indications that the country intends to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs." "There are serious questions about the efficacy of the current United Nations sanctions regime," the experts said in a confidential report. The White House statement added that Obama joined the meeting between Rice and Yi "to underscore his interest in building a durable, constructive, and productive US-China relationship." The US leader also said he looked forward to welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping to a March 31-April 1 nuclear security summit in Washington and "working together towards its success," the statement said. AFP Washington: The US and China showed no sign of quelling tension in the disputed South China Sea as their top diplomats met in Washington on Tuesday. A leading US military officer told Congress that China was seeking to control East Asia. But there was progress on another front. Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said they were close to agreement on a UN resolution to punish North Korea after its recent nuclear test and rocket launch. China has been reluctant to impose the kind of tough sanctions on its neighbor and traditional ally North Korea that the US has been seeking. But an even more pervasive source of strain in the relationship between the two world powers has been over accusations over militarization in the South China Sea, an important thoroughfare for world trade. China claims it has a historical right to most of those strategic waters, and has undertaken a massive land reclamation and construction effort on land features although five other Asian governments have territorial claims in the area. The US is not a claimant but says it has an interest in maintaining peace and stability, and freedom of navigation and commerce. The rhetoric has heated up since it emerged last week that China had Beijing deployed anti-aircraft missiles on a disputed island in the Paracels chain. Then on Monday, a US think tank reported that China has built new radar facilities in the Spratly Islands, which lie further south. The commander of US forces in the Pacific, Adm. Harry Harris, confirmed Tuesday new radar on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys. He told the Senate Armed Services Committee that China's construction and military facilities are changing the operational landscape in the South China Sea. Harris said that China is militarizing the South China Sea, "and you have to believe in a flat Earth to think otherwise." After meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Secretary of State John Kerry said that steps by China, Vietnam and others have created an escalatory cycle. "Regrettably there are missiles, fighter aircraft, guns, artillery and other things that have been placed in the South China Sea, and this of great concern to everyone who transits and relies on the South China Sea for peaceful trade, commerce and use," Kerry told a joint news conference. He did not elaborate on who had moved fighter aircraft to the region. Fox News reported Tuesday that China had deployed fighter jets to Woody Island the location in the Paracels where it had deployed anti-aircraft missiles. Capt Darryn James, US Pacific Command, did not confirm the report but said China has deployed some of its most advanced fighter aircraft to that island over the last couple of years. China denies it has aggressive intent. Wang contended that Beijing had shown restraint. He accused other countries of military construction on what he asserted were Chinese reefs and atols. In a poke at recent US freedom of navigation operations in the region, Wang said China does not want to see, "more close-up military reconnaissance, or the dispatch of missile destroyers or strategic bombers to the South China Sea." Harris, however, said he supported regular freedom of navigation operations by the US Asked what about the strategic goal of China's military buildup in the region, Harris told lawmakers: "I believe China seeks hegemony in East Asia." When asked if that meant regional control, Harris concurred. However, Wang and Kerry both stressed the importance of cooperation between the US and China, and expressed hope of reaching agreement soon on a UN Security Council resolution that is expected to stiffen international sanctions against North Korea. Kerry said a draft was being evaluated in both Washington and Beijing, and if approved it would go beyond previous resolutions against North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs. Wang said a resolution could be passed in the "near future." It's been seven weeks since the North's 6 January nuclear test, which was followed by a 7 February rocket launch. While China has joined in the international criticism, it has balked at imposing sanctions that could threaten the stability of North Korea. Wang said a resolution alone cannot resolve the North Korean nuclear issue and that dialogue was needed. He said China was urging a "parallel track" in which there were both talks on denuclearization the top priority of the United States and replacing the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a formal peace treaty a key demand of Pyongyang. The long-standing US position has been that North Korea needs to disarm first, but the Obama administration has recently indicated some flexibility on this point, although it says Pyongyang remains reluctant to resume talks on its nuclear arsenal. Kerry said Tuesday that North Korea can ultimately have a peace agreement with the US if it will come to the table and negotiate denuclearization. "We want a negotiated outcome," he said. Already this month, the US has taken tougher steps of its own against North Korea, tightening sanctions and announcing it will hold formal talks with its close ally South Korea on deploying a missile defense system that China fears could be used against it as well North Korea. Kerry said that both Russia and China have expressed concern over the missile defense system. He said the system would not be needed "if we can get to denuclearization." AP Samsung today announced that it has started mass producing worlds first 256GB ultra-fast embedded flash memory based on Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standard for next-generation high-end mobile devices, including smartphones. The company introduced the first 128GB UFS 2.0 flash memory back in February last year. UFS 2.0 promises better sequential read and write performance, closer to SSD and 50% decrease in energy consumption. It is based on the Samsungs most advanced V-NAND flash memory chips and a specially-designed high-performance controller and handles up to 45,000 and 40,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) for random reading and writing respectively, over two times faster than the 19,000 and 14,000 IOPS of the previous generation of UFS memory. For sequential reading, the 256GB UFS takes advantage of two lanes of data transfer to move data at up to 850MB/s, which is nearly twice as fast as a typical SATA-based SSD used in PCs. In terms of sequential writing, it supports up to 260MB/s, which is approximately three times faster than high-performance external micro SD cards. A 256GB UFS chip can store about 47 full HD movies. With the USB 3.0 interface, you can send 5GB-equivalent Full-HD video clip (average 90-min. movie size) in 12 seconds. Within this new storage environment, mobile users will get to take full advantage of the performance benefits of Samsungs latest UFS memory, said Samsung. Joo Sun Choi, Executive Vice President, Memory Sales and Marketing, Samsung Electronics, said: By providing high-density UFS memory that is nearly twice as fast as a SATA SSD for PCs, we will contribute to a paradigm shift within the mobile data storage market. We are determined to push the competitive edge in premium storage line-ups OEM NVMe SSDs, external SSDs, and UFS by moving aggressively to enhance performance and capacity in all three markets. Sony is axing its beloved Xperia Z series. The company has officially confirmed that it will not release a Xperia Z6 which means, Xperia Z5 will be the last phone in the Z series. Sony confirmed the news while replying to a fans question about the Xperia Z6 on Sony Germanys Facebook page, The Xperia Z line has reached its culmination Xperia X series represents a new chapter and evolution of our product strategy. Whilst the Xperia Z series was all about bringing the best of Sonys advanced technologies to smartphones, Xperia X series is based on bringing smart, adaptive Sony user experiences across camera, battery performance and hardware / software design. The news comes only days after Sony announced Xperia X, Xperia XA and the high-end Xperia X Performance with its Snapdragon 820 processor. These three phones represent a new chapter of the Xperia brand according to Sony. It is speculated that Sony could replace the Xperia Z series with the Xperia X series but nothing is confirmed yet. Last year, at IFA 2015, Sony became the first company to introduce a smartphone with 4K resolution display. It remains to be seen how the Xperia X series will fan out for the company. via Sony and BMI are suing Chicago's famous brewery and pizza spot for playing live the acts like Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Get away", Willie Nelson's "Crazy" and Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" without paying the royalty. Both companies are the leading organizations dealing with licensing and helping musicians and composers to deal with their copyright concerns. Piece Brewery and Pizzeria is a popular pizza spot located in Chicago's Wicker Park. They play live karaoke every Saturday night. As per the lawsuit of Sony and BMI that was filed on February 17, 2016, Piece's karaoke band has played all the three songs mentioned above on August 13, 2015. A representative who visited the spot that night witnessed the same, according to reports from Sun-Times. However, this wasn't the first time the problem arose for the Piece pizzeria. BMI had tried to get in touch with the Piece and its owner, Bill Jacob, nearly 70 times from May 2014. BMI wanted them to sign up to use the rights to play the songs in their live concert. The license will usually cost $300, according to The Daily Meal. It may cost more depending on the businesses they are signing up for, the duration or how often they will be playing the song and the format in which they are going to play the songs. They have also sent Cease and Desist letters to the pizzeria. The spokesman of BMI said that they were left with no options other than the lawsuit after their failed attempt to contact the owner of the pizzeria, Bill Jacob. The lawsuit will be more of an attempt to get the money they owe to the royalty agencies rather than crippling money through the lawsuit. Sony and BMI are expecting Piece to be barred from the use of songs without Royalty in the Future. Are you the kind of shopper who relies on food labels, such as "natural" and "organic," when it comes to your "healthier" food choices? Well, some advocates are raising and waving the warning flag. According to Jane Maynard, a blogger on healthy meal recipes, the food label "natural" has no standard meaning that the world has agreed upon, hence, could be misleading or deceiving. "That word pulls you in and makes you feel like for some reason that's a better food," the San Diego resident told NBC News. One of the studies conducted by Consumer Reports shows that 62%, a little over half of the consumer population, look for the "natural" label on food items, with the understanding that it is healthy-meaning it contains no artificial ingredients, harmful chemicals and pesticides, and hasn't been genetically modified. This is the reason why Maynard is calling the attention of concerned authorities. The lack of the universal definition or convened classification of the food label "natural" could cause confusion and deceit towards buyers. In fact, Consumer Reports cited numerous instances wherein products claim that they are 'natural', but turned out to contain artificial preservatives. Del Monte Fruit Naturals mixes in artificial additives that came from industrial ingredients. Kraft Natural Cheese includes cellulose powder, which are wood pulp used to prevent grated cheese from clumping together. Ironically, 100 percent Natural Wesson Vegetable Oil is not full made of natural ingredients and in fact contains genetically modified substances. Consumer Reports Food Safety and Sustainability Center is in solidarity with Maynard's cause. "We think the natural label is so incredibly misleading because it leads people to think that that food may meet those attributes, when in fact it does not," Urvashi Rangan, lead researcher from the organization, said. Consumer Reports, along with The Grocery Manufacturers of America, has filed a petition to the Food and Drug Association (FDA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to ban the use of the word "natural" in food labels, or else define the term and propose standard guidelines with the usage of the label. As laws and opinions change to become more accommodating of cannabis, the wide array of infused products also expands. Edibles or food items infused with weed has become a popular alternative to smoking weed. Eating edibles is often times more preferable for those who can't or don't want to smoke cannabis. It's less fussy to eat edibles but it's also been said to give a considerably stronger high to that of smoking or vaping. Here's a simple explanation as to why you get so high when you eat cannabis-infused products. Tetrahydrocannabinol or THC is the chemical that gets you high. To put it simply, when THC gets into your bloodstream, it eventually reaches the brain and it activates receptors that give you the feeling of being high. Here's a more detailed breakdown of that process. When you consume edibles, the THC in the food has to be absorbed through your digestive system. It roughly takes 30 to 2 hours for someone to get high but that can depend on a variety of factors that affects absorption and digestion. It's pretty safe to say it takes a considerably longer time to absorb the THC compared to when it's smoked or vaped. It's also good to know that heat is your friend when it comes to cannabis. Cannabis in its plant form has a lot of Tetrahydrocannabinol acid or THCA. THCA is not psychoactive so it does not get you high. But if THCA is subjected to heat, a chemical reaction takes place. Essentially this releases the carbon dioxide from the chemical chain which eventually converts the THCA to THC. This process is called decarboxylation. Once the plant has been decarboxylated, you extract the THC to butter. For edibles, butter is the most popular choice for "holding" the THC. THC is soluble in lipids or fat, and alcohol. This means that THC needs to be extracted from an oily substance or alcohol. The reason you extract is because you want to get to the THC directly instead of ingesting a lot of plant material before you get to the THC. As to why edibles provide a stronger high, the THC is metabolized by the liver when ingested. The liver converts the THC into a metabolite that is better received by the blood and brain, therefore, giving a more intense high. While in smoking or vaping, the body metabolizes the THC in a different manner because it does not pass through the stomach or liver. So for the next time you plan to ingest a few edibles, be responsible enough to know that each person has varying levels of tolerance and gets affected in different ways and forms. Finally, always remember to ask the proper amount of dosage especially for those who will be medicating using edibles for the first time. Zika - a new mosquito-borne virus - has caused worldwide concern. It's an alarming condition with rapid speed. What is Zika? How does it affect your health? Why should you be worried? Margaret Chan, World Health Organization Director- General, expressed her concern - calling Zika virus as an extraordinary event. She declared a public health emergency due to its widespread. Fact #1: Zika Virus is transmitted by mosquito Aedes Aegypti mosquito has spread Zika virus in more than 30 countries around the globe. World Health Organization estimates the virus will infect 4 millions of people in America. Fact #2: The virus that warns women to avoid pregnancy Zika virus may be passed down from a mother to her fetus. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many officials have been alerted to inform women to avoid pregnancy up to two years. Experts advise pregnant women who recently traveled to countries with Zika - to consult with their healthcare provider to conduct necessary health tests. It's still uncertain how Zika can cause pregnancy loss or miscarriage but a recent report in the United States found a link of Zika virus to microcephaly - an abnormal brain condition. A pregnant woman in Colombia was sent to hospital straight after she experienced rash and fever - typical signs of Zika. Fact #3: Zika symptoms Most common symptoms of Zika include rash, fever, red eyes, joint pain, headache and muscle pain. The incubation period of the virus is still not known but it could take few days to one week after being bitten by Zika-infected mosquito. Most people who are infected by Zika, don't realize it because it does not cause terrible illness as death caused by Zika virus is a rare case. Fact #4: Doing precautions at home might reduce the risk of Zika-mosquito bites Homeowners can get rid of standing water at home, particularly the ones outside the house in garbage, plant pots or trays. Water that sits more than five days is an ideal breeding place for these mosquitoes. Nose-to-tail dining is a dining movement that utilizes every part of the animal, and not just the parts that consumers consider "desirable". Those who are in the nose-to-tail dining movement, chefs, butchers, restaurateurs, and business owners alike, are proud of their ability to be able to take the "unwanted" cuts of meat and transforming them into gourmet dishes that can fetch prices to rival those of more expensive cuts. In the USA, the nose-to-tail dining movement is becoming more and more popular as both restauranteurs and diners look for that latest innovation in cooking, and using these formerly unwanted cuts of meat offer a whole new range of ingredients and cooking methods to produce unique and exciting dishes. Here are five great nose-to-tail dining experiences in the USA: 1. Publican (Chicago, Illinois) The Publican is a restaurant in Chicago that is proud of its nose-to-tail dining menu. According to sous chef James Lyons, "There are only so much you can do with a pork chop." To Lyons, using these less popular cuts of meat means a chance to be creative and to branch out with their offerings for their customers. Dining at the Publican can be a bit of an adventure where you can start your meal with an appetizer of crispy pig's ears, followed by a terrazine made from pig's tails, and you can end your meal with the white chocolate semifreddo. 2. Incanto (San Francisco, California) Owned by Chris Cosentino, an American celebrity chef and long-time advocate for nose-to-tail dining, Incanto is famous for using the offal for beef and pork - that is, heart, tripe, kidneys, and other meats from internal organs. Interestingly, Cosentino's least favorite cut of beef is the usually-beloved tenderloin, which he argues is tasteless and textureless. While one can argue that dining at Incanto feels and tastes like other fine dining restaurants, Cosentino actually says that his style of cooking is reminiscent of thrifty, peasant-style cooking, where all parts of the animal are utilized. 3. Locanda del Lago (Santa Monica, California) The Locanda del Lago is a restaurant that specializes in Northern Italian cuisine. There are two things that diners should look forward to when they visit Locanda del Lago. The first is their extensive wine list. If you're a wine lover and you love drinking good-quality wines with your meals, check our Locanda's wine list. The second thing is the monthly "Morso Della Bestia", which translates to "Bite of the Beast". This five-course dinner highlights nose-to-tail dining that utilizes a different animal every month, such as cattle, pork, lamb, or even rabbit! 4. Re:public (Seattle, Washington) The main mission of this restaurant's owners was to be able to bring both the rustic feel of European dining to the USA, as well as further the movement of nose-to-tail dining. When you step into the restaurant, you will immediately feel that unique twist in both decor and the menu. One glance at the menu, and you will see how much love, care, and devotion that the owners and chefs have put into the food. You have smoke anchovy tartines, crispy pig's tail with mustard, and an ox tail ragu pasta. Don't forget to order some of their authentic Italian desserts for afterward. 5. Smithfield's Restaurant and Bar (Ashland, Oregon) One of the greatest things about Smithfield's is that it's a steakhouse and a charcuterie all in one. You can dine on sumptuous, choice-cut steaks, along with smoked meats and sausages. However, if you really want to try the adventurous side of the menu, you can opt for their nose-to-tail dining options. Their charcuterie board features rabbit rillette and chicken liver parfait. They have a sumptuous roasted bone marrow with sourdough bread. Try out their great smoked and grilled meats, along with their delicious desserts. Do you have your own favorite Nose-to-Tail dishes or restaurants? Let us know in the comments! Native Tongues: Celebrating Jamaica's Miss Lou and Her Insistence on Cultural Pride Raikkonens best lap of 1m 23.477s put him almost a second up on nearest rival Daniil Kvyat in the Red Bull. They were the only two drivers to set their times on Pirelli's new ultrasoft tyre compound. Despite his table-topping effort, Raikkonen admitted he was still unsure as to the SF16-H's ultimate potential. "I don't know if this is going to be a good car," he said. "No one can tell, but it seems to be a good car even if there are still many things to try out. We don't look at what the other teams do, we do our stuff and get ready. It's up to us to make sure we are in a good position. There is a good potential but we can still improve." Force India tester Alfonso Celis was an impressive third fastest, his best supersoft-tyred run yielding a time 1.3s down on Raikkonen's best. The rest of the field clocked their quickest laps on either the soft or medium compound. After troubles earlier in the week, Renault enjoyed a day of excellent reliability with Kevin Magnussen racking up the day's highest lap total - 153 - en route to fourth in the time sheets, just ahead of Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen and Felipe Nasr in the 2015 Sauber. I certainly have had a workout over the last couple of days with over 260 laps completed!" quipped Magnussen. "It feels so good to be back in an F1 car and working through the programme and making strong progress. Our race simulation went well and Im really gelling with the team; its a real pleasure to be driving here and I cant wait to get back in the car on Tuesday. Manor rookie Rio Haryanto had an encouraging morning for Manor, only to lose control and nudge his MRT05 into the barriers at Turn 4 early in the afternoon. The Indonesian driver thus finished 11th, but was still happy with his start to the 2016 pre-season. Its been an important week for me and the team here in Barcelona and generally its gone well," he said. "Ive learned a lot about the new car and identified some areas for improvement, to make the second test even more positive for me. "I did make a mistake this afternoon and the damage to the car could not be repaired quickly, so its a shame we didnt complete our programme today. Generally though, weve achieved a lot of mileage and completed some good evaluation work." The only man behind Haryanto was Fernando Alonso, whose day was limited to a frustrating three laps due to technical problems on his McLaren. Thursday's unofficial testing times from Barcelona Polaris (NYSE:PII) says Yoenis Cespedes custom Slingshot, which was the talk of spring training this week, revved up demand for the three-wheeled motorcycle. According to the Minnesota-based company, the Slingshots Web traffic and consumer leads on Tuesday increased three-times over the sites average. Consumer leads are tallied based on the number of Web visitors who submit their information and ask to be contacted by a dealer. We are excited by the interest that Yoenis Cespedes vehicle has driven for the Slingshot brand! a company spokesperson told FOXBusiness.com. The Slingshot, which made its debut in 2014, has a starting price of $21,499. The top model, a Slingshot SL LE, starts at $26,499. Polaris, the maker of ATVs, snowmobiles and Indian motorcycles, has outperformed the market this year. Shares are up about 3.1% since the start of 2016, compared to a 5.1% drop in the S&P 500. Cespedes, the star outfielder for the New York Mets, has generated a lot of buzz this week with a convoy of head-turning automobiles. In addition to his Slingshot, Cespedes drove a custom Ford (NYSE:F) F-250, a Lamborghini Aventador and an Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione. All four vehicles were customized by Miami-based The Auto Firm, which counts several MLB stars among its clientele. Owner Alex Vega told FOXBusiness.com that he expected to deliver another new car for Cespedes, a Jeep, by Friday. Cespedes signed a three-year contract reportedly worth $75 million last month to remain with the Mets. What happened?Spotify, the biggest player in music streaming, announced that it will be moving its data centers and technology infrastructure to the cloud, opting to partner with the Google over the reigning champion, Amazon . This is particularly noteworthy, given that Spotify already has a relationship with Amazon Web Services, which currently houses the company's music files. Nicholas Harteau, Spotify's VP of Engineering & Infrastructure, noted the company selected the Google Cloud Platform because of the service's data analytics offerings. He also told the Wall Street Journal that Spotify "negotiated hard on the price." Does it Matter?Spotify is an established industry leader with over 75 million active users it can certainly serve as a posterchild for Google's cloud offerings at a time when it desperately needs one. Despite hosting a few household names such as Snapchat and Khan Academy, the Google Cloud Platform is still a distant third in the cloud infrastructure space, well behind the likes of Amazon and Microsoft . Synergy Research Group reported that at the start of 2016, Google controlled only 4% of overall market share, compared to 9% for Microsoft's Azure platform and an astonishing 31% for Amazon Web Services, who counts the likes of Netflix, Pinterest, and Airbnb among its customers. But Spotify's decision shines a bright light on Google's biggest differentiator in cloud services analytics. The company's BigQuery offering allows its enterprise customers to easily manage and interpret data at scale relative to other major cloud offerings. In Spotify's case, that could mean smarter music recommendations or improved radio stations. For data-dependent companies looking to outsource their infrastructure, those features could be a standout reason to partner with Google, but it's unlikely Amazon is in any danger of losing its throne. AWS pulled in an impressive $107 billion in revenue over 2015 at an operating margin of 28.5%. The company is well entrenched as the leader in cloud services. One more thing to note Spotify's announcement has reawakened speculations that Google (now Alphabet) is considering acquiring the music streaming company to bolster its own music offerings. Google previously made a bid to acquire Spotify in 2013, but negotiations broke down for several reasons; most notably that the price was too high. The article Instant Analysis: Amazon Web Services Just Lost a Big Opportunity to Google originally appeared on Fool.com. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Armun Asgari owns shares of Amazon.com and Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (C shares), Amazon.com, and Netflix. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. CVS Health Corporation (NYSE: CVS) took a few hits in 2016 from its major nemesis,Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA). Prime Therapeutics and Tricare kicked CVS to the curb in favor of Walgreens. As a result, CVS Health was forced to lower its financial outlook. It's no surprise that Walgreens stock has handily outperformed CVS over the past 12 months. But which pharmacy company is the better pick for investors with a long-term perspective? Here's how CVS Health and Walgreens compare. Image source: Getty Images. The case for CVS Health There are four key arguments for buying CVS Health, in my view. At the top of the list is the company's pharmacy benefits management (PBM) unit. This segment generated more than two-thirds of CVS Health's total revenue last year. It's the company's fastest-growing unit in terms of both revenue and profit. Having a PBM also gives CVS Health a wider reach across the healthcare spectrum than its competitors have. CVS Health is also in a great position to benefit from the increased numbers of senior adults in the United States. As Americans age, they tend to need more prescription drugs. That will help CVS, but it will also benefit its rivals. However, CVS Health's 2015 acquisition of Omnicare gives the company an advantage in the long-term and post-acute care market, which should grow thanks to the demographic trends. Next on the list is CVS Health's dividend. The dividend yield currently stands at 2.62%. Even better, CVS is using only 37% of earnings to fund the dividend program. That leaves plenty of room for dividend increases in the future. The last key argument for buying the stock is its valuation. Those contract losses to Walgreens caused CVS Health's share price to take a beating. As a result, the stock now trades at a low 12 times expected earnings. With the company projecting 10% adjusted earnings-per-share growth over the long term and the solid dividend, that's a quite attractive valuation. The case for Walgreens Boots Alliance I think there are also four major reasons for investors to like Walgreens Boots Alliance. Let's start with an advantage that the company has over CVS Health: a strong international presence -- thanks to the merger between Walgreens and Alliance Boots in 2014. The company's international sales totaled $13.3 billion last year. Walgreens Boots Alliance is also one of the largest pharmaceutical wholesalers and distributors in Europe. The pharmaceutical wholesale segment contributed $22.6 billion in revenue last year. It's also not insignificant that Walgreens is beating CVS Health in winning new business. Taking Tricare away from its rival added 9.4 million members. Getting the Prime Therapeutics contract brought in even more members -- 22 million. These wins certainly give the impression that Walgreens is simply outworking its competition. That's something investors like to see. This relates to the third key argument for Walgreens: its growth prospects. Wall Street analysts are projecting nearly 14% average annual earnings growth over the next few years. And that doesn't include the possibility that the company will succeed in its effort to buy Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD). The potential Rite Aid acquisition has played out like a pharmacy-chain soap opera over the past year. Speculation has ebbed and waned as to whether or not the deal will ultimately gain approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). It still remains to be seen if the FTC gives its blessing to the acquisition, but if it goes through, Walgreens will mushroom in size. Finally, Walgreens' valuation looks appealing. Walgreens stock trades at nearly 15 times expected earnings. That's higher than CVS Health's forward earnings multiple. However, factoring in growth prospects for the two companies makes Walgreens' valuation look even more attractive than CVS Health's. Better buy I think Walgreens gets the slight nod over CVS Health. Growth is the determining factor, in my view. Walgreens should experience stronger earnings growth, even if the Rite Aid deal falls through. However, I also suspect that both of these companies need to be looking over their shoulders. Amazon.com is seriously eyeing the pharmacy market. Although it would probably take years for the e-commerce giant to significantly cut into profits for CVS and Walgreens, the companies would be wise to prepare now for a potential new competitor. 10 stocks we like better than Walgreens Boots AllianceWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Walgreens Boots Alliance wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. Click here to learn about these picks! *Stock Advisor returns as of May 1, 2017 Keith Speights has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool recommends CVS Health. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Twice a year, wireless industry journalists breathlessly cover the results of the biannual RootMetrics Mobile Network Performance in the United States report. As soon as the study is released, various news outlets jump on the numbers, and those stories tend to take a pretty surface view of the data. Sometimes it's as simple as "Verizon Wins Again" or maybe the headlines get nuanced enough to point out that AT&T has worked its way to a close second whileT-Mobile andSprint have improved. Some media -- myself included -- have even taken a bit of a suspicious eye to the numbers, digging in a little deeper to offer context and some have even cited a competing report from OpenSignal that shows T-Mobile leading the way, trailed by Verizon, Sprint, and, lastly, AT&T. [Here's my take on the latest RootMetrics report.] But, in a broad sense, RootMetrics has been accepted as a viable standard by most, with Verizon, of course, embracing it enough to base its "A Better Network As Explained By Colorful Balls" ads on its data. RootMetrics, however, does have one major critic. T-Mobile's John Legere has been a vocal opponent of the validity of the research and, in a recent email to the media, he said that the company "should be banned as an independent source for network benchmarking, period!" That may sound like a bitter reaction from someone who leads a company that has consistently scored at the bottom of the report, but Legere backs up his hyperbole with some reasonable assertions. What is Legere saying?Basically, Legere takes issue with the choices made by RootMetrics in how to test his company's network. Here, he charges that those decisions tilt the results in favor of its rivals: Legere also questions exactly how independent the research firm is, asking "Do we have to pay RootMetrics millions like the other carriers do to get them to stop deliberately turning off significant portions of our network and skewing results during their drive tests? Coincidence? Doubt it." RootMetrics says anyone can purchase its highly detailed data, but that is not connected to its results. Legere then invites people to email him(though no specific email is provided) for "more examples of their incomplete methodology." T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray added that the current report is based on data that is seven months old while the Verizon ad is based on year-old information. Verizon topped the report in overall performance again. Data source RootMetrics. How did RootMetrics respond?In a broad sense, RootMetrics did not really disagree with what Legere had to say. It explained its logic in an email to The Motley Fool from Vice President Julie Dey, who answered a request to respond to Legere's remarks with statements including: Basically, for better or for worse, RootMetrics said it conducts its test with devices benchmarked at the beginning of a six-month testing period then sticks with that until the next report. "Switching our methodology midstream would render a scientific apples-to-apples comparison impossible," Dey wrote. She noted that voice-over-LTE testing will be part of the first half of 2016 testing that is currently under way."We are taking a wait-and-see approach to what the impact may (or may not be) for T-Mobile," Dey added. The RootMetrics VP also responded in a second email exchange with theFool to Legere's charges that the other carriers pay the company. She made it clear that the surveys are done independently but wireless carriers are able to purchase access to the in-depth results. That does not mean Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T in any combination are not RootMetrics customers. They may well be and they may spend millions as Legere claimed, but Dey is responding by laying out her case that the customer base does not dictate the results of the survey. It's a matter of perceptionLegere has an issue with testing methodology and RootMetrics has responded in a way that can politely be described as "We see your point, but that's how we chose to do it," or if you take the impolite interpretation, "Stuff it." The CEO is not wrong in pointing out the age of the data and the research firm does not dispute. It's simply how it chooses to do the report. The same could be argued on the issue of bias. If Legere considers the methodology unfair, which he clearly does, then he may draw the conclusion, even though he doesn't present evidence to back it up, that the research firm has allowed itself to be influenced by its paying customers -- which he presumes to include the other wireless carriers (or at least some of them). This is a dispute where both sides appear right. Legere has valid points, but so does RootMetrics. The real issue is how consumers, the media, and even investors interpret the results. If you look at them through Legere's lens, then you see something very different than what the survey says and how these results get reported. The article Here's Why T-Mobile's John Legere Thinks a Popular Study Is Wrong originally appeared on Fool.com. Daniel Kline has no position in any stocks mentioned. He is a T-Mobile customer who kind of misses wireless phones with physical keyboards. The Motley Fool recommends Verizon Communications. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. What happened? It's a marriage that the groom is pushing hard not to be canceled. Western Digital said in a Feb. 23 press release that it is "committed" to following through with its plans to acquire sold-state memory maker SanDisk . The announcement comes on the heels of news that China-based conglomerate Unisplendour had scuttled its plans to invest nearly $3.8 billion in Western Digital for a 15% stake in the company. Unisplendour pulled out due to a decision by a U.S. government agency to investigate the proposed investment, amid national security concerns. The monies from that deal were to be used to help fund the SanDisk acquisition. The departure of Unisplendour has resulted in Western Digigal pursuing the "alternative merger consideration" it laid out when the proposed acquisition of SanDisk was announced in October. This will see the company pay $67.50 per share in cash and just less than 0.24 shares of Western Digital for each share of SanDisk. The acquirer says it values the deal at $78.50 per share; SanDisk closed on Feb. 24 at $69.90. The acquisition now hinges on a shareholder vote; a special meeting has been convened for March 15. Image SOURCE: WESTERN DIGITAL. Does it matter?Western Digital is on the hook for the SanDisk deal. If it doesn't follow through with it, it will have to fork over a termination fee of more than $184 million. That is, however, significantly cheaper than the $19 billion or so it will part with to own SanDisk. Western Digital's stock price has declined by 61% during the past year, so investors might not be amenable to that kind of outlay when the vote happens next month. One prominent Western Digital shareholder, U.K.-based Alken Asset Management, has been vociferous in its opposition to the deal, going so far as to send a letter to fellow investors to reject it. Although they certainly have valid concerns, solid state is the clear way forward for the storage business in general and Western Digital, in particular. With the proliferation of mobile devices, and a general move toward slimmer and more transportable hardware, the traditional hard drive doesn't have a glittering future. Acquiring SanDisk would propel Western Digital into the 21st century memory space in a single stroke. The article Instant Analysis: Western Digital Says It Is "Committed" to SanDisk Merger originally appeared on Fool.com. Eric Volkman owns shares of SanDisk. The Motley Fool owns shares of Western Digital. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Islamic State hackers have announced the group's latest focus: Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. A video posted Tuesday by "Sons Caliphate Army," the self-styled hacking division of Islamic State, takes aim at the recent campaigns by Facebook and Twitter to shut down accounts by Islamic State extremists. The video was said to be authentic by Storyful, a news agency that verifies content posted online. As if to boast that the group still has accounts on social networks despite efforts to remove them, the video shows screenshots of Facebook and Twitter accounts bearing Islamic State imagery. It couldn't be verified whether the accounts were real. The video claims Sons Caliphate Army has more than 10,000 Facebook accounts, 150 Facebook groups and 5,000 Twitter accounts, which it says have been or will be used to distribute Islamic State content online "if Allah permits." The video doesn't threaten the lives of Mr. Zuckerberg or Mr. Dorsey, but it shows an image of the two U.S. technology executives with bullet holes. At the end of the video, a banner on the screen says, "To Mark and Jack, founders of Twitter and Facebook and to their Crusader government. You announce daily that you suspended many of your accounts, and to you we say: Is that all you can do? You are not in our league." The message adds that for every account that is closed, 10 more will be opened. Representatives from Facebook and Twitter declined Wednesday to comment on the video. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also declined to comment. The video comes on the heels of Twitter's announcement earlier this month that it suspended 125,000 Islamic State-related accounts over the past six months. A report published last week by George Washington University's Program on Extremism examined Twitter accounts during that period, finding that consistent suspensions of Islamic State-affiliated Twitter accounts reduced the number of times extremists would visit the social network. "What we found, specifically, was that users who did return had lower levels of activity and smaller networks," J.M. Berger, a fellow at the Program on Extremism, said in an email. "Twitter has also changed its terms of service to make it hard to come back, for instance by eliminating a loophole that previously let users create accounts without a verified phone numbers or email." Facebook doesn't disclose how many accounts or posts it has removed but says it doesn't tolerate extremist content on the network and removes offending content when it is reported. When Facebook's content reviewers remove Islamic State-related content, they often look at related accounts for content that is extremist in nature as well, an approach the company adopted about a year ago. Michael S. Smith II, a principal at Kronos Advisory LLC, a consulting firm specializing in the analysis of terrorist groups, was skeptical of the account takedowns' effectiveness, saying extremist content is still easily found on Twitter. "It's not doing anything," Mr. Smith said. "There are some minor implications there, but it doesn't do anything to significantly diminish the capability of the Islamic State online." This isn't the first time Mr. Zuckerberg or Mr. Dorsey have been named by Islamic State, Mr. Smith said. Until it was removed, the primary Twitter account distributing propaganda for Islamic State's Libya province included a composite image of Mohammed Emwazi, the now-deceased British militant known as Jihadi John, pointing a knife at Mr. Dorsey's head, Mr. Smith said. He said he expects to see an increased effort by Islamic State extremists or supporters to infiltrate social media in coming months. But he added that the group's central focus isn't online propaganda but expanding its reach in Iraq and Syria. "The group's most important claim is that they are presiding over a caliphate," Mr. Smith said. "The Internet is simply a tool used to manage a global influence operation." Write to Natalie Andrews at Natalie.Andrews@wsj.com Crude oil futures jumped 3 percent on Thursday, reversing earlier loses after confirmation of a meeting of major producers and news of project delays and job cuts in the industry. Venezuela reaffirmed a mid-March meeting of oil producers that would include Saudi Arabia, Russia and Qatar, to stabilize prices that have slumped 70 percent in a 20-month rout. The four countries are involved in an effort to get oil producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and elsewhere to freeze production at January's highs. Many traders believe an output cut and not freeze is what the market needs to clear the global crude glut. "It's the Venezuela headline that got the market excited enough to rebound, though it's baffling why as everyone knows of this meeting and that it's not going to achieve anything," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital, a New York energy hedge fund. U.S. crude futures settled up 92 cents, or 2.9 percent, at $33.07 a barrel. It had slid more than $1 at the session low. Brent crude futures finished up 88 cents, or 2.6 percent, at $35.29 a barrel, hitting a three-week high. It had also dropped more than $1 earlier. The rally in crude also boosted gasoline futures, which settled up nearly 5 percent after rallying from early in the day on strong demand for the motor fuel. Aside from the March meeting, traders said sentiment in oil was helped by project deferments in the U.S. shale industry and job cuts that will slow production. Continental Resources Inc, one of the biggest shale drillers in North Dakota, said it planned to continue deferring project completions in the Bakken fields due to low crude prices. Oil services provider Halliburton said it will start a new round of global layoffs that will cut 5,000 jobs. Oil prices had fallen as much 3 percent earlier on Thursday after data indicating new record highs in U.S. crude inventories. Stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for U.S. crude futures rose by more than 503,000 barrels to reach above 67.5 million barrels between Feb. 19 and Feb. 24, traders said, quoting data by market intelligence provider Genscape. Officially, the U.S. government reported on Wednesday that Cushing added 333,000 barrels last week to reach 65.1 million for a fourth straight week of record highs. Nationwide, inventories rose to all-time peaks above 507 million barrels. (By Barani Krishnan; Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Bernadette Baum) GOP front runner Donald Trump celebrated his Nevada win with all walks of life. He thanked the highly-educated, the poorly-educated, Hispanics and Evangelists for their support. He also gave a specific shout-out to two of the worlds most influential and richest casino moguls: Phil Ruffin owner of Treasure Island and Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ:WYNN). Steve is always calling. He's always got advice. Right, Steve? said Trump on Tuesday recalling to the crowd a conversation between the two that went like this, "Donald, I think you oughta do this and that. His advice I like to listen to. said Trump. Mr. Wynn has not endorsed any candidate. He speaks regularly with nearly all of the candidates. His communication with Mr. Trump is similar to conversations with the other candidates. - Wynn Spokesperson Despite the praise, Trump has not officially won Wynns official endorsement. A Wynn spokesperson tells FOXBusiness.com, Mr. Wynn has not endorsed any candidate. He speaks regularly with nearly all of the candidates. His communication with Mr. Trump is similar to conversations with the other candidates. In September, FOX Business Networks Charlie Gasparino reported Wynn was serving as an advisor to Trump. Presidential candidates are chasing deep-pocketed moguls like Wynn and Ruffin who are both self-made and have a net worth of $2.7 billion and $2.5 billion, respectively, according to Forbes. Donald Trump is brilliant, strong and the hardest worker Ive ever seen. He works 20 hours a day and needs no sleep. He will make a great president. - Phil Ruffin, Treasure Island Hotel & Casino Owner As for Ruffin, he has endorsed Trump telling FOXBusiness.com, Donald Trump is brilliant, strong and the hardest worker Ive ever seen. He works 20 hours a day and needs no sleep. He will make a great president. On Tuesday, Trump showed his appreciation for Ruffins support I want to just thank a couple of friends of mine that are here. The owner of this incredible hotel, Mr. and Mrs. Phil Ruffin, said Trump recounting details from a conversation he had with Ruffin. Donald, I want to put ten million dollars into your campaign." I said, "Phil, I don't want your money. I don't want it. I'm self-funding. Every time I see him it's hard for me to turn down money since that's not what I've done in my whole life, he said. With Ruffin committed and Wynn undecided, candidates are still on the hunt for big donor dollars. In December, FOX Business Networks Charlie Gasparino reported Ohio Governor John Kasich failed to woo Wynn after a meeting in Las Vegas. Kasich limped to fifth place in Nevada and with Super Tuesday less than a week away he is trailing Trump in his home state of Ohio 31 26 percent among the states likely Republican primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday. For the Nevada GOP Caucus, Trumps total vote exceeded the entire Nevada GOP vote in 2012. With Super Tuesday on the horizon, GOP contenders will make their case on the debate stage in Texas on Thursday night. The Lone Star State is one of 12 states in the presidential contest on March 1, the single most important day for candidates to win delegates. Texas alone holds 155 Republican delegates; Without winning that state candidates must conquer five others including Colorado, Minnesota, Vermont, Alaska and Arkansas to equal the amount. It will be a make or break moment for Texas Senator Ted Cruz who is poised to win his home state. In a new Monmouth University poll, Cruz has 38% support from likely GOP primary voters in Texas, billionaire businessman Donald Trump has 23%, Florida Senator Marco Rubio has 21%, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has 6% and Ohio Governor John Kasich has 5%. In Houston on Wednesday, Senator Cruz told the audience at a GOP dinner that Texas will play a key role on Super Tuesday adding, the crown jewel is the great state of Texas. Historically, Texas has been one of the key states that predicts who will be the eventual party nominee. Thomas Brunell, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Dallas says Cruz has everything riding on Texas and must meet pre-poll expectations. Cruz has to win Texas by more than just a couple points. If he doesnt win and beat Donald Trump in his home state then his campaign is done and the money will dry up, said Brunell. Brunell adds that the Republican primary debate will be Cruzs last opportunity to expose Trumps weaknesses and try new tactics before Super Tuesday. Ford O'Connell, Republican strategist and former advisor to the McCain-Palin 2008 campaign, says Trumps momentum has to do with the fact that Cruz and Rubio have been squabbling with each other instead of turning up the fire on Trump. You have to cast doubt that Trump can actually make America great again. This is not about his policies, his supporters dont care about policy. The question is can you cast doubt on his character and resume, said OConnell. He says the real estate mogul has two perceived strengths that can win him the nomination; He is a successful businessman and, if elected, he is going to protect the little guy. You have to go after the fact that it is a myth that he is actually a highly successful businessman and then you have to say, when it comes to protecting the little guy, he is a con artist, said OConnell. Even though only 5% of delegates have been awarded thus far, OConnell says Trump is psychologically running away with the nomination. He says while Texas is important for Cruz it may not be enough to win the Republican nomination. The reality of the situation is on March 1 there are 595 delegates up in the air. Even if he wins Texas, it might not be a great day for Ted Cruz, said OConnell. Cruzs campaign was designed with a southern strategy in mind, which OConnell says is a key to vaulting ahead to the nomination, but what he didnt factor in is Trump still being in the race at this point. There was a miscalculation by Cruz that he would pick up Trumps supporters. But whats happened here is Donald Trump is eating into Cruzs Evangelical margin so much that he either has a very narrow path to the nomination or Cruz may actually fold because of how well Trump did in South Carolina, said OConnell. In the South Carolina GOP primary, Trump won 32.5% support, while Rubio came in second with 22.5% and Cruz was third with 22.3%. Great grandmother Jean Dawson celebrated her 100th birthday on February 20, and she credits her longevity to a simple habit she picked up when she was 67: yoga. Dawson, of West Yorkshire, England, said she began the popular meditative practice after seeing a local advertisement, Metro.co.uk reported. She said shes made friends through yoga, and the exercise has helped her cope better with pain from a slipped disc in her back. It has given me good posture, balance, concentration, flexibility and stamina, Dawson told the news website. Dawson does yoga weekly and attends class every Monday morning, and her instructor described her as a role model. Florida health officials said Wednesday that three pregnant women in the state had tested positive for the Zika virus. Secretary of Health Dr. John Armstrong announced the cases Wednesday in his daily Zika update. A news release says all three cases are believed to be travel-related. Officials weren't identifying the counties where the pregnant women were diagnosed. In response to the news, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he had requested 250 more Zika antibody tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Zika is rapidly spreading through Latin America, and scientists are studying the virus' possible connection to babies born with unusually small heads. The birth defect called microcephaly can signal underlying brain damage. A total of 32 cases have now been reported in Florida. Miami-Dade County leads the state with 11 reported cases. All the cases so far have been travel-related, but the virus can be spread by bites from mosquitoes that are common in Florida. Florida health officials told the Miami Herald that only three of the 32 confirmed cases are still showing symptoms of the virus. Those symptoms include a fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes and can last between a few days and one week. There is no vaccine agaisnt the virus, which remains in a person's bloodstream for between 10 days and two weeks. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Czech Republic has identified its first cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in two Czechs returning from separate trips to the Caribbean, Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek said on Thursday. The World Health Organisation warned Wednesday that the Zika outbreak would likely worsen before any relief comes to the countries besieged by the virus. Zika has been linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil. At least 34 countries, mostly in the Americas, have active Zika outbreaks and the virus is expected to spread. Brazil has been hit the hardest, followed by Colombia. Nemecek told reporters that the virus had been detected in a man returning from Martinique and in a woman who traveled to the Dominican Republic. Their conditions do not require hospitalization, he said. "This is not a case of an infection having spread in the Czech Republic. It is a disease brought from the areas where we recommended that people not travel," Nemecek said. The Czech authorities have recommended avoiding the most heavily affected countries, especially pregnant women and children. WHO declared the Zika outbreak linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil an international health emergency on Feb. 1. Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly, a condition marked by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems. When Irianita Rojas was 8 years old, a cancerous tumor started growing in her abdomen. Now, 14 years later, the 35-pound mass has been removed from the Peruvian womans stomach. Rojas, 22, is from an indigenous community in the northeastern part of Peru, Central European News (CEN) reported. The mass was so large that it caused Rojas to look as though she was pregnant since she was a teen, affected her breathing and caused her constant pain. Rojas was unable to attend school or work. Her isolated Amazonian town, Tamshiyacu, provided little chance of the tumor being removed. Then, Peruvian health minister Anibal Velasquez visited the town, heard Rojass story and immediately ordered his staff bring the woman to the capital, Lima, for surgery. Rojas was airlifted to Arzobispo Loayza Hospital, where she underwent the three-hour operation. According to CEN, doctors are monitoring whether the cancer has spread but are hopeful they can treat her without surgery or chemotherapy. Rojas hopes to study accounting after she recovers. Airport travelers now have another way to pass the time during layovers and delays thanks to an interactive training kiosk offering lessons in lifesaving CPR skills. The kiosks debuted at five major airport hubs across the U.S. Wednesday. Each Hands-Only CPR training kiosk, provided by the American Heart Association (AHA) together with the Anthem Foundation, features a touch screen with a video program that gives users a brief how-to, followed by a practice session and a 30-second CPR test. Each is equipped with either a rubber torso or practice mannequin so users can receive feedback about the depth and rate of compressions and proper hand placement. Cardiac arrest remains a leading cause of death in the United States, and survival depends on immediately receiving CPR from someone nearby, Dr. Clifton Callaway, chair of AHAs emergency cardiovascular care committee and a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, said in a news release. Although in-person training is still the best way to learn high-quality CPR, the kiosk will provide additional training that could make a difference and save the life of someone you love. More than 359,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of a hospital each year, with more than 20 percent occurring in public places, according to the news release. For those who suffer cardiac arrest outside of the hospital, only 10 percent survive but effective bystander CPR provided immediately after cardiac arrest can double or even triple these chances, Dr. Craig Samitt, executive vice president and chief clinical officer at Anthem, Inc., said in the news release. Thats why for the past four years weve been working closely with the American Heart Association to help educate people about Hands-Only CPR and were excited to launch these new kiosks as an extension of this campaign. Wednesdays debut of seven kiosks follows the successful launch of a life-saving pilot kiosk at Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport in 2013. According to the news release, the Dallas-based kiosk has trained more than 25,000 travelers. The kiosks are now available at Chicago OHare International Airport, Indianapolis International Airport, Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. To learn more about the campaign, and other tips on Hands-Only CPR, click here. An international team of researchers who carried out detailed analysis of DNA disruption, gene expression and molecular pathways in tumors concluded that pancreatic cancer is actually four separate diseases, each with a different genetic trigger and treatment, Medical News Today reported. We identified 32 genes from 10 genetic pathways that are consistently mutated in pancreatic tumors, but further analysis of gene activity revealed four distinct subtypes of tumors, lead researcher Sean Grimmond, a professor at the University of Melbourne, told Medical News Today. The international team of researchers classified pancreatic cancer into four subtypes; squamous, pancreatic progenitor, immunogenic and aberrantly differentiated endocrine eXocrine (ADEX). The findings, which were published in the journal Nature, may allow patients to receive a more accurate diagnosis and for doctors to prescribe a more targeted treatment. It may also mean that some types of pancreatic cancer may be treatable with drugs already being used to treat cancers with similar genetics, Medical News Today reported. In the study, researchers analyzed the genomes of 456 pancreatic tumors to identify the genetic and molecular process that causes normal pancreatic tissue to change into aggressive cancer. In doing so, they found some subtypes of the cancer have mutations also seen in colon cancer and leukemia. Others had similar mutations to those seen in colon cancer and leukemia, Medical News Today reported. Grimmonds team also said each subtype of the cancer has different survival rates. The findings of this research are incredible exciting for anyone affected by pancreatic cancer, as they should mean that in the future the right patients can be given the right treatment at the right time, Leanne Reynolds, head of Pancreatic Cancer UK, told the news site. Usually, identical twins are born looking just that way: identical. But for a pair of parents in the United Kingdom, telling their identical newborns apart wont be so difficult one was born with lighter skin and hair, while the other was born with darker skin and brown eyes, Metro.co.uk reported. Identical twins are monozygotic, which means they were created in the same embryo but different sacs. Usually, identical twins share the same physical features, but that isnt always what happens, as was the case for Amelia and Jasmine, whose father is black and whose mother is white. Metro.co.uk didnt report the twins last name. When they were born, we were flabbergasted even the doctors couldnt believe it, Libby Appleby, their mother, told the news website. They look like theyre different races. Amelia is the spitting image of her dad, while Jasmine is a mini version of me. Dr. Claire Stevens, of Kings College Londons department of twin research, told Metro.co.uk that characteristics may differ in identical twins during a process called somatic mutation. The twins are thought to be the first identical twins born with different skin and eye colors in the U.K. A student in England who forgot to remove her tampon for nine days was told by doctors that had she left it in for one more day, she likely would have died. Emily Pankhurst, from Maidston, Kent, spent three days in intensive care and now, about a month after the incident, struggles to walk due to fatigue, Kent Online reported. Pankhurst, 20, said she wants to share her story as a warning to others who may not be paying attention to their body during stress. I was going through an extremely stressful time, trying to complete deadlines for essays and everything on top of me, she told Kent Online. I started complaining of fatigue, high temperature and constant headaches, which I believed were stress-related. However, down below I noticed abnormal discharge appear straight after my regular period. Despite seeing a doctor, she was not given an internal exam and was told to take a swap herself at home, the news site reported. Her mother insisted she shower and examine herself to see if she might have forgotten about a tampon. I went ahead and showered and to my shock, she was right. I found a nasty, smelly, foul tampon that had gotten so far up I couldnt feel a thing, Parkhurst told Kent Online. After removing the tampon, which was completely black, Parkhurst felt cold, confused and had a pounding headache. She was rushed to the hospital while her blood pressure plummeted, and doctors determined her symptoms were a sign of sepsis, the news site reported. The doctors and nurses rushed to my bedside. I was sent straight to X-ray to determine whether the infection had spread to my vital organs. Luckily it hadnt, she told Kent Online. I had an internal examination, which I hadnt received before, and they found major infection. My body had experienced toxic shock syndrome through battling sepsis. Parkhurst credits her mother with recognizing the abnormal symptoms and potentially saving her life. She now uses crutches to strengthen her legs and struggles with basic tasks. Girls my age are not aware of the dangers of using tampons, Parkhurst told Kent Online. It is so important to keep an eye on your health, especially during stressful life experiences. I hope my story can help others like myself to take care of their health and not take their life for granted, because you never know what might be around the corner. A woman struck by a rare, debilitating disease lives in fear that the muscle-wasting illness will come back and erase the progress that she has made. Samantha Evans, 21, first noticed an issue in her hands while playing softball in eighth grade, Cosmopolitan reported. She had stretched her hand to open her glove, but nothing happened. I didnt know why it wasnt working, Evans told the magazine. At first my mom thought it was the way I was holding my Razr flip phone. Her mother made an appointment with a neurologist near their Monroe, Louisiana, home, where she underwent an electromyogram to record the activity of her muscles. The test was inconclusive, as was an MRI, an EKG, an echocardiogram, a Lyme disease test and a multiple sclerosis test, Cosmopolitan reported. The neurologist told me hed never seen this before, Evans told the magazine. It was terrifying to hear that at 14. Gradually she lost the ability to hold a pencil, and her muscles withered so that her hands were locked in a fist. Her feet shrank several sizes and she had to use a special pole to button her pants, the magazine reported. Doctors told me Id be in a wheelchair by the high school graduation. One nurse even said, Youre going to be crippled for the rest of your life, she said. During this time Evans and her mother visited specialists all over the southeast looking for answers. Each doctor remained stumped. It took two years of symptoms before she visited a neurologist in Jackson, Miss., who finally provided answers, Cosmopolitan reported. The doctor landed on monomelic amyotrophy, which is characterized by progressive loss of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that are responsible for controlling the muscles in the limbs. It typically only occurs in one limb and is prevalent in Asian men between ages 15 and 25. The onset is insidious over months or years without any history of antecedent trauma or infection, Kevin Talbot, an Oxford neurologist, told Cosmopolitan. While not obviously treatable, the chief benefit in making the diagnosis is in allaying fears of a much more malignant neurological disorder. The condition stabilizes after one to four years, so by the time Evans was diagnosed the muscle wasting symptoms had plateaued, the magazine reported. She continued with her physical and occupational therapy to rebuild her muscles and restore fine motor skills. Evans was given special shoes to correct her feet and by junior year of high school, she had mostly recovered. If Im writing by pen longer than 20 minutes, my hand cramps, Evans told Cosmopolitan. If I run, my feet start cramping. Besides that, nothing. I walk normally now. Evans told the magazine she continues with her exercises out of fear that if she stops, the disease will return. It was a real medical mystery, she said. I dont know how else to explain it, and I probably will never know. I just hope it doesnt happen again. According to Betfair.com, Jennifer Lawrence probably wont win best actress at the Oscars Sunday. Im rooting for her, though -- not because of her acting, but because the movie she stars in, Joy, celebrates the difficulty of entrepreneurship. Lawrences character is based on real-life entrepreneur Joy Mangano, who invented the self-wringing Miracle Mop and other Ingenious Designs, as her company is known. Now she hawks them and other products on the Home Shopping Network. The film accurately depicts struggles businesses face. Joy goes deep into debt to finance her idea, overcomes manufacturing problems, persuades skeptical marketers and deals with such menaces as patent trolls. Patent trolls are usually lawyers/parasites who dont even come up with working prototypes for inventions they later claim as their own. They just grab someone elses idea, or buy a bunch of them, register patents with the government and wait. When someone with real technological and business skill creates something useful thats similar, the troll threatens to sue. Often the inventor pays just to keep the business alive. Its extortion. But when lawyers do it, its legal extortion. In Joys case, a lazy rival claims to have come up with her idea first; Joy risks a physical confrontation to defend her invention. I wont spoil the details of the movie -- but since the real Joy Mangano went on to make millions, you can guess that it has a happy ending. Writer/director David O. Russell, like many in Hollywood, has made movies critical of capitalism and businesspeople, so Im glad he saw a spark in Joy Mangano, the driven businesswoman. Hollywood may not understand economics or government regulation, but there are things Hollywood often gets right. Hollywood celebrates heroic individuals who fight injustice and corrupt establishments. Hollywood also has a healthy suspicion of the power of covert government activities. Sure, the Mission Impossible crew and plenty of other Hollywood heroes are secret agents -- and Hollywood consults with real cops, secret agents and military advisers to capture details more accurately. That helps the government shape messages to its liking. But plenty of Hollywood government agents end up being villains anyway. The film Sicario, nominated for three Oscars, shows an ordinary cop, played by Emily Blunt, lured into the dark world of the CIAs cross-border drug war. She thought she was just going to be stopping bad guys a little farther from home but discovers that she might be part of an elaborate assassination plot. Im biased in favor of Emily Blunt movies because we both are stutterers, but Id appreciate Sicario without that connection, too. Sicario is informative because throughout the movie, even the cops arent sure who the good guys are, and almost no one has any idea what the rest of the government is up to. It makes it clear that average citizens dont stand a chance of finding out. This is a realistic picture of the drug war. Corruption and lack of transparency are inevitable when government takes on a mission as hopeless as a war on a substance that lots of people want. When theres demand, customers tend to get what they want, even if other people dont approve. Hollywood writers and producers, who have also made plenty of movies about our failed attempt at alcohol Prohibition and the gangsters who rose to power in that period, sometimes understand that the drug war is unwinnable, too. The U.S. can send helicopters to destroy coca plants in Colombia -- or even build a wall between Mexico and America -- but that just increases profit margins, so drug-sellers take even greater risks to get their product to customers. The climax of Sicario involves underground tunnels used by Mexican cartels to move drugs (and illegal immigrants) across the border. None of the characters even consider the possibility of shutting down all the tunnels. They know theyd never find them all, and that if they did, the cartels would just build more. Even if they closed all the tunnels, the smugglers would use boats. And planes. Things dont work out as well for the characters in Sicario as they did for Joy Mangano. In real life, government efforts dont bring as much joy as entrepreneurship. I recently took a group of members of the Congressional Border Security Caucus to our Southern border. I founded this group in 2014 so that Members of Congress could join forces in pursuing border security first solutions to our illegal immigration problems. In McAllen, Texas, we received an updated briefing on the challenges that our border patrol agents and states like Texas face. The crisis on our Southern border has directly impacted millions in the Lone Star State and put the lives of tens of thousands of immigrants in jeopardy. But this is not simply a Texas problem. Americans all across the country remain equally concerned. A September CNN poll showed that illegal immigration is an important issue to every nine out of ten voters in the 2016 race. And a recent Rasmussen poll found that a majority of Americans believe that the administrations deportation policies are not aggressive enough. While candidates have been speaking to these concerns, much of the national media has ignored the fact we continue to face an unprecedented surge in border crossings. The winter months have historically been lighter in terms of border traffic, but apprehensions over the last few months are up almost thirty percent over previous years. Many media reports have also parroted the Obama administrations claims that these immigrants are fleeing violence and should be treated as refugees. But the vast majority of individuals who now stream across the border have cited the presidents own policies as their reason for coming. A Department of Homeland Security report from last year admits that 70 percent of Central Americans interviewed said they heard that if they came to the U.S. they would be allowed to stay. It was President Obamas own promises of executive amnesty that initially spurred tens of thousands of immigrants from Central America to illegally cross our southern border. The Central American immigrants knew that if they were able to enter the country illegally, they would not be deported. And they were right. Then in November 2014, President Obama forged ahead with even more orders giving amnesty and work permits to more than five million illegal immigrants. Along with Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, I have supported the 26-state, Texas-led lawsuit against the presidents unilateral and unconstitutional actions. Last year, a U.S. District Court Judge denied the Obama administrations request to allow his unlawful immigration plan to go forward and criticized the administration for not enforcing current immigration laws. Our case has risen all the way to the Supreme Court, which will make its ruling later this year. By ignoring and undermining immigration laws, this administration has sent all the wrong messages to illegal immigrants, and states like Texas have paid the price. The only way we will regain control of our country and our borders is to keep defeating bad policies in Congress and in the courts. We must continue to send a strong and public message that breaking the law is a losing strategy. We should only reward those willing to respect our laws and play by the rules. Reversing these policies will send the right messages to those who continue to cross our borders illegally. I voted multiple times to halt the Presidents executive actions on immigration and two committees I serve on took actions to strengthen current laws. The House Homeland Security Committee moved legislation to improve our border security. And the House Judiciary Committee approved a package of bills to strengthen enforcement of our current immigration laws. While the national media reports on emotional, human-interest stories, the economic impact of illegal immigration is often ignored. For example, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) calculated that the economic burden of illegal immigrants estimated burden for Texas taxpayers jumped from nearly $8.9 billion to $12.1 billion from 2010 to 2013 due to the increase in illegal immigrants entering Texas. That means roughly $1,200 for every Texan household. Unlike President Obama, the Border Security Caucus will continue to make border security and immigration enforcement a top priority. So must our next president. That is what the American people want. A small town bakery owned by a Christian family is under siege after they declined to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. Edie and David Delorme own the Kerns Bake Shop in Longview, Texas known around town for their petit fours and sugar cookies and also their custom-made wedding cakes. Click here to join Todds American Dispatch: a Must-Read for Conservatives! The Delormes are also devout Christians -- faithful members of a nearby Baptist church - and they run their bakery according to the tenets of their religious beliefs. That became a problem on Feb. 17th when Ben Valencia and Luis Marmolejo requested the bakers make a cake for their upcoming wedding. I was up front with them, Edie told me. I said, Im sorry but we dont provide wedding cakes for homosexual marriages. We dont do cakes that might conflict with our spiritual convictions, she said. It was not something personal against the two young men. We just need to be able to run our business in a way that honors God. She offered to provide the gay couple with a list of bakeries that would meet their needs, but she said the men simply walked out of the store. A few days later she received a telephone call from the local newspaper. The gay couple had gone public and had accused the Delorme family of discrimination. "It just kind of makes you feel dehumanized," Valencia told the News-Journal. "People shouldn't have to worry about going into a business, especially a public business that serves the public, and have to worry about being turned away for something, for who you are. Marmolejo told the newspaper he couldnt understand why the couple just didnt violate their religious beliefs. "I don't see how making a cake for somebody is going to compromise your beliefs, he said. Soon after the story was published, the Delormes were overwhelmed with a number of threats against the business and their family. Angry activists posted derogatory reviews on Yelp and other social networking platforms. See you in Hell, lady, read one angry message. Racist criminals. This business is run by a homophobic piece of s***, another message read. David and Edie said they have a long-standing policy to turn away any business that mighty conflict with their religious beliefs. They wont make any tobacco-related cake. They wont make any alcohol-related cakes either. And no risque cakes of any kind. We feel like if we are going to be putting our name on something, we want it to encourage Godly values, Edie said. David has especially been troubled at the violent threats directed at his family simply because they want to follow the teachings of Christ. Theres something wrong with that, he said. Homosexuals have a right to live their lives ... But we want to live and practice our faith and run our bakery in a way that honors God. The Delormes know that many Christian-owned businesses have been targeted by LGBT activists so they decided to obtain legal counsel. We are representing them, said Michael Berry, an attorney for First Liberty, one of the nations top religious liberty law firms. When they start to receive threats towards their family and their business simply because of their religious convictions theres something wrong with that picture. Berry said the Delorme family is on firm legal footing they have a right to run their business in accordance with their faith. So far, no formal charges or complaints have been filed against the Christian couple - but should that happen, First Liberty said they are prepared to defend the bakery. We just want equal rights, David told me. We want to be treated equally. Mr. Delmore raises a pretty good point. Shouldnt Christian Americans have the same rights and privileges as LGBT Americans? Voactiv, an online publication reported this week on a new ISIS threat aimed directly at Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, CEOs of Facebook and Twitter. A 25-minute propaganda video on the social media site Telegram shows Zuckerberg and Dorsey covered with bullet holes. It ends with a direct threat to the two leaders. If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete your sites, Allah willing, and will know that we say is true, Voactiv reported. Why the threats from ISIS against the online giants? Because it appears that the terrorists free ride on powerful media platforms might finally be be coming to an end. Last October, the House Subcommittee on National Security, heard testimony that ISIS alone was generating some 200,000 tweets a day. Since then, the terrorist mass murders in Paris and San Bernadino have awakened sleeping giants on both sides of the Atlantic. At recent meetings in Europe, I heard a new sense of urgency from diplomatic, police and intelligence officials in Rome, Brussels, and France vowing to do what it takes to keep their citizens safe from Islamist terrorist attacks. They made it clear that they expect better cooperation from U.S.based Internet companies -- whose powerful communications and marketing platforms are leveraged by terrorists for recruitment, fundraising and command and control in their countries or else. Meanwhile in Silicon Valley the winds of change are finally blowingat least when it comes to terrorist mass murderers. As the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Centers Digital Terrorism and Hate Project, I regularly meet with leaders at the social media giants urging them to set transparent rules on hate and terrorist postings and to deploy real people--not avatars--to deal with the threat from this burgeoning global subculture of hate. We also have urged the same companies to be proactive. It was never enough to see problematic postings or online recipes for pressure cooker bombs removed for a few hours, if such purveyors of mayhem and hate could immediately get back on their servers. We know that these companies have the technological where with all to create tripwires and firewalls to block repeat offenders. Facebook has been the most responsive, though with over 1.5 billion pages, their record is far from perfect. Google and YouTube have upgraded their efforts. And now, after Paris and San Bernadino, Twitter, long the propaganda weapon of choice of terrorists, recently removed 125,000 terrorist-related accounts. There are strong indications that they will undertake additional steps to degrade the terrorists manipulation of their social media platform. All this is what has lead to ISIS new threats. All this should have informed Apples wrong decision not to help the FBI access information locked within an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernadino mass murderers. To the best of my knowledge, there is no legal or moral basis to protecting the right of terrorists -- dead or alive-- to encrypt their murderous schemes. Yes, there is reason to worry about backdoor abuses by the NSA or MI5; but there is also the obligation of companies not to gift those who plot mass murders in our streets, with the cloak of secrecy that will cripple real-time anti-terror efforts by authorities. Instead of lawyering up, Apple, should mensch up and work with other companies to help degrade -- not empower-- terrorists. After all, the leading high-tech powerhouses in Silicon Valley prove every day that there is always a creative technological answer whenever their market share or business model is challenged. Beyond the Apple /FBI dispute, when it comes to the broader issue of encryption, we look to Silicon Valley Inc. not Capitol Hill -- to come up with a system that would provide a temporary key for law enforcement, who after obtaining the necessary warrants, could obtain data in terrorists encrypted files. Here is a quote that appeared recently in Al Risalah, an online magazine for terrorists: Just as a Mujahid does not enter the battlefield without his Iman (faith) and his weapon, you must not exchange correspondence without encryption. Memo to Apple, et al: Does America really have to wait for a Supreme Court decision or the next 9/11 before you do your share to fight terrorism? For now, sophisticated evildoers know they have the upper hand. So you thought there was room for only one billionaire political outsider from Manhattan to run for president? Largely overlooked because of The Donalds domination and Bernies righteous rise is the political lane or more accurately, the political autobahn available to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for president. And Trumps numbers from South Carolina along with Sanders staying power only make it more likely that he will get behind the wheel. Why? Because these two unlikely, polarizing candidates are pulling many American voters in directions they did not expect to go. On the Republican side, the central presidential policy of the favored frontrunner is a militarized round-up of millions of illegal immigrants. Donald Trumps idea of foreign policy is kicking the sh*t out of ISIS and marveling at North Koreas demented dictator for executing his own uncle reportedly by a pack of wild dogs, no less. (This guy doesnt play games.) On the Democratic side, the man dominating the debate erased a huge deficit in Nevada to give Hillary Clinton a startling scare (and who only lost Iowa by the slimmest of white, unkempt hairs) is a senator whose rants about corporate America are straight from the pitchfork populism of the early 1900s. Bernie Sanders doubles federal spending with every speech. His ardent advocacy of central planning and the taxes he would raise would make even Marx and Engels blush. Trump and Sanders are paving a path to the presidential race for Mayor Bloomberg. And Hillary Clinton? Bloomberg may believe that its just as likely for her to win the White House as do a perp walk for compromising national security with her secret email server. Either way, shes a compromised candidate and he knows it. So the political landscape shows Mayor Bloomberg can run. And our recent national poll of likely voters shows that he has a shot to actually win. Simply put, he would be the strongest independent candidate in modern history, the very second he announced. Here are the numbers. In a matchup between Trump and Clinton, more than half of all voters 68 percent of swing voters would consider supporting a new independent candidate. An astounding 84 percent of voters would be willing to vote for a genuine political Independent who could work with both political parties, was a very successful self-made businessman, had significant success as three-term mayor of a large city, and was willing to finance his own campaign. In a three-way race with Trump and Clinton, Bloomberg would start with nearly 30 percent of the vote. Think about that for a second. He would be just outside the margin of error of Clinton and within shouting distance of Trump having not spent a dime of his billions, and without a moments media coverage. That is one heck of a starting position. His biggest strength is what voters have long sought and still want, according to our poll a candidate with strong leadership skills who can work with both parties to get things done. Trump, at best, can claim only half of that mantle. What separates Bloomberg is a proven record on voters most pressing priorities: Spending, debt, and deficits. Turning a vast budget deficit into a significant budget surplus is his biggest single accomplishment especially among Republicans. But in the era of rage against Washington and Wall Street, shouldnt being a fixture in New York financial circles not to mention his $50 billion net worth be major problems? Apparently not. We gave voters ten different negative facts about him from corporate investigations to mayoral scandals and those two mattered the least. So what does our research indicate is his biggest weakness? His self-serving campaign to change the term limit law so he could run for mayor again and then arguing for changing it back after he left. He may be an outsider, but that smacks of a typical pol. The pundit class has persistently failed to predict the themes of the 2016 race, whether it was the rocket rise of Trump to his enduring staying power or Sanders unexpected challenge to Clintons endangered frontrunner to shoe-in and then back again. And that is what has made it such compelling viewing. There is absolutely no doubt that Michael Bloomberg and his billions would roil this race even further. Bloomberg the man along with his message may match the moment better than anybody else. In the words of another unlikely outsider who ran for president and won you aint seen nothin yet. Syndicated columnist George Will told viewers Wednesday on "Special Report with Bret Baier" that Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is "on a glide path" to the nomination after winning the Nevada caucuses and clinching New Hampshire and South Carolina. "Trump can reasonably feel he's on a glide path to the nomination and therefore he ought to play defense. But the way he plays defense is by offense by constantly throwing hand grenades and monopolizing the conversation day by day," Will said. The latest attack came from outside the 2016 presidential field by way of 2012 Republican nominee and former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., who speculated that there could be a "bombshell" in Trump's tax filings. Will said Romney effectively shifted the conversation to Trumps finances: "He showed how a gentleman used his stiletto on Neil Cavuto's show by definitely moving to the front burner the issue of tax returns, which will not go away." "We haven't seen institutions like the Club for Growth or Americans for Prosperity, which have ample resources, going after the tax returns and other parts of Trump's past and business," Will said. Attorney General Loretta Lynch confirmed to Congress Wednesday that career Justice Department attorneys are working with FBI agents on the criminal investigation of Hillary Clintons email practices and the handling of classified material. Legal experts say the assignment of career Justice Department attorneys to the case shows the FBI probe has progressed beyond the initial referral, or "matured," giving agents access to the U.S. governments full investigative tool box, including subpoena power for individuals, business or phone records, as well as witnesses. The Associated Press reported earlier this month that career lawyers were involved, but Lynch's comments are the most expansive to Congress. "If the FBI makes the case that Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information and put America's security at risk, will you prosecute the case? Republican Congressman John Carter asked Lynch during a budget hearing. "Do you know of any efforts underway to undermine the FBI's investigation? And please look the American people in the eye and tell us what your position is as you are the chief prosecutor of the United States," Carter pressed. Lynch replied, "...that matter is being handled by career independent law enforcement agents, FBI agents as well as the career independent attorneys in the Department of Justice. They follow the evidence, they look at the law and they'll make a recommendation to me when the time is appropriate," She confirmed that the FBI criminal investigation is ongoing, and no recommendation or referral on possible charges had been made to her. "I am not able to comment about the specific investigation at this time. But what I will say is again that this will be conducted as every other case. And we will review all the facts and all the evidence and come to an independent conclusion as to how to best handle it. And I'm also aware of no efforts to undermine our review or investigation into this matter at all." The White House has been criticized for its public comments, including those of President Obama, that the transmission of classified information on Clinton's unsecured, personal server did not jeopardize national security. Last month, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Clinton was not the target of the FBI probe, and it was not "trending" towards Clinton. During congressional testimony in December, FBI Director James Comey was asked by Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, Does the President get briefings on ongoing investigations by the FBI like this? Comey replied, No. National Security Defense attorney Edward MacMahon, who routinely handles classified information as part of his case work, said "Lynch appears to be sending a message that there is no need for a special prosecutor because she has assigned career Justice Department lawyers, and not political appointees, to work with FBI agents on the Clinton matter." MacMahon who recently represented CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, who was convicted of leaking intelligence to a New York Times reporter and is now serving a three- and-a-half-year prison sentence, said the pairing of FBI agents and Justice Department attorneys generally reflects the fact that the investigation has moved beyond an initial inquiry. As a general matter, a U.S. attorney is assigned as an FBI investigation progresses. The partnership with the U.S. attorney allows the FBI to use the investigation tools of the U.S. government, including subpoenas for evidence, business or phone records, as well as witnesses. And you need (a) U.S. attorney to convene a grand jury. It is not publicly known whether any of those actions have been taken. But an intelligence source close to the FBI probe said the career professionals at the bureau "will be angry and walk off if no indictment recommendation is followed through." At least 1,730 Clinton emails contain classified information, and the rest held by the State Department must be released by the end of the month based on a federal court imposed timetable. One of the newly declassified 2012 emails sent four days after the Benghazi terrorist attack, includes highly sensitive information about the evacuation of Americans from Tunisia. The email included a rare redaction for intelligence called the B 1.4 (g) exception which pertains to vulnerabilities or capabilities to national security including defense against transnational terrorism. The email chain was forwarded, on Sept. 16, 2012 at 8:12 a.m, from Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills' government account to Clintons unsecured personal server. One of the emails early in the chain was sent by Denis McDonough, then Deputy National Security adviser. His address is redacted citing unwarranted invasion of personal privacy and could also be a private account because other government accounts on the email chain are not redacted. There might be a bombshell revelation to be discovered in Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trumps tax returns, 2012 party nominee Mitt Romney said Wednesday. He also called on the entire GOP field to release their tax returns. I think theres something there," Romney said of Trump's returns, "Either hes not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasnt been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay, Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, told Fox News Neil Cavuto on Your World. Trump responded later Wednesday on Twitter, slamming Romney for losing a winnable election, and calling him "awkward" and "goofy" when the governor asked for the real estate magnate's endorsement. The reason I think theres a bombshell in there is because every time hes asked about his taxes, he dodges and delays and says well, were working on it. Hey, were not talking about the taxes that are coming due this year Were talking about taxes that already filed, Romney, a multimillionaire businessman, said. This was an issue in my [2012] campaign. Thats why Im so sensitive to it, Romney said. Romney was pressured by President Obamas reelection campaign in 2012 to release five additional years of his personal tax returns after the Republicans campaign said he hadnt paid more than 13 percent in taxes in the previous decade. Were going to select our nominee. We really ought to see from all three of these fellows what their taxes look like to see if theres an issue there, he added, also pointing to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, I think in Donald Trumps case, its likely to be a bombshell. Perhaps he hasnt been giving money to the veterans or to the disabled like hes been telling us hes been doing. I think thats the reason theres a bombshell [in his returns], he said. Cavuto pressed Romney as to whether the governor was indeed questioning the amount of Trumps declared charitable donations. Well, if his taxes show that he hasnt made any contributions to the disabled veterans that would be a big issue, and Im not saying thats the case, Romney said, Im just saying there are things that could be issues. Trump, who skipped Fox News January GOP debate in Des Moines, Iowa, to hold a nearby rally he described as a benefit for veterans groups, has repeatedly voiced his commitment to such groups in his campaign speeches. The New York billionaire tweeted on January 29 that the veterans event raised $6 million. Romney told Cavuto that voters have a right to see [candidates] tax returns before deciding on a nominee. Were now in late February and we still havent seen Donald Trumps or Marco Rubios or Ted Cruz taxes. If in fact [their] taxes have some real problems, lets get them out there and see them, he said. When people decide they dont want to give you their taxes, its usually because theres something they dont want you to see, Romney said. Trump submitted a financial disclosure form when he announced his presidential bid in June 2015. At the time, he declared his net worth to be about $10 billion. Donald Trump's Republican rivals tried to present themselves Wednesday night as the ideal candidates to block the real estate billionaire's path to the GOP nomination and then beat Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the general election. Speaking at a special forum in Houston hosted by Fox News' Megyn Kelly, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called on Republican voters Wednesday to unite around his campaign, saying that his was "the only campaign that can beat Donald [and] has beat Donald," a reference to his win in last month's Iowa caucuses. Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson shrugged off calls for them to quit the race, with Kasich saying he would beat Trump in a head-to-head contest. At one point, Kasich sparred with Kelly, who said Republicans "see you, even though they like you, struggling to get above bottom rung [and] question whether you're stealing votes from candidates who could actually win." "I'm husbanding my resources," Kasich responded. "The people calling for me to get out are the people who are inside the Beltway ... I'm certainly not listening to a bunch of lobbyist insiders." However, Kasich said that Trump would likely keep his run of victories going over the next couple of weeks, but claimed that the Republican Party's proportional system of delegate allocation would keep his campaign viable. Carson noted that only a small fraction of the current delegates had been awarded through the first four contests, saying "We have a long way to go." Carson later encouraged an audience questioner to "stop listening to the pundits and listen for yourself. Look at the candidates running ... and you can see how consistent they are." Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has finished second in each of the last two nominating contests, acknowledged that Trump was "the frontrunner and I'm the underdog, but I've been an underdog my entire life." Rubio added that his campaign "would not allow the conservative movement to be defined by a nominee who isn't a conservative." Rubio also took a shot at Trump, though he did not mention that candidate's name, for his remarks on Muslims. "When you're president, you have an enormous megaphone," Rubio said, "You get to set the tone and agenda for the entire country. We already have a president that's incredibly divisive. We should not be pitting and dividing Americans against each other." The forum was held six days before a dozen states hold primaries and caucuses as part of Super Tuesday, during which 595 delegates will be awarded. "I think he's got a fairly low ceiling," Cruz said of Trump, who won Tuesday's Nevada Republican caucuses for this third straight convincing victory. "In the head-to-head polls, Donald consistently loses to [Democratic frontrunner] Hillary [Clinton]. I consistently beat Hillary." "And if Donald does win the general election, who knows what the heck he'll do as president?" Cruz asked. Cruz reserved his strongest language for Planned Parenthood, which he referred to as a "criminal enterprise" and the reason "millions of young boys and girls have never breathed a breath of fresh air." He repeated his vow to order a Justice Department investigation of the healthcare provider "on day one" of his presidency and took another shot at Trump for saying that Planned Parenthood "does do wonderful things" during a debate in South Carolina earlier this month. "There are a lot of things Donald has said that I disagree with," Cruz said, "and that is very near the top." Carson got one of the biggest reactions of the evening when he explained his comment earlier this week that President Barack Obama was "raised white." "He was raised by his white grandma in Hawaii in a very affluent area [with] a private school [education] and spent his formative years in Indonesia with his white mother," Carson said. "Now, if that's a typical black experience ..." as the audience broke out laughing. Carson went on to call the media firestorm over his remarks "ridiculous analysis" designed "to ridicule me and divide wedges." Thanks, but no thanks. That was the answer Thursday from Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval following reports that President Obama was considering him as a potential nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy. Sandoval says hes already told the White House hes not interested. Earlier today, I notified the White House that I do not wish to be considered at this time for possible nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States, Sandoval said in a statement, adding hes told key Senate leaders the same. The notion of being considered for a seat on the highest court in the land is beyond humbling and I am incredibly grateful to have been mentioned. It remains unclear how serious the White House may have been about considering Sandoval. The nomination of any Republican to the seat left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia would be seen as an attempt by Obama to break the Senate GOP blockade of any of his choices. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said his 54-member GOP caucus is opposed to holding confirmation hearings or a vote on Obama's pick, insisting that the choice rests with the next president. Whether GOP senators would ease their opposition with a Republican nominee is an open question. But on the campaign trail, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton already had come out against the Sandoval nomination idea. There has been some talk maybe the president will nominate the Republican governor of Nevada. Now I love Nevada and I know the governor has done some good things, but I sure hope the president chooses a true progressive who will stand up for the values and the interests of the people of this country, she said earlier Thursday. The White House still wont confirm that Sandoval was under consideration. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Obama plans to meet next week with leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and intensive consultation on a nomination will continue. Sandoval's communications director said Wednesday that the governor had not been contacted by the White House. Sandoval met with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Monday in Washington while he was in town for a meeting of the National Governors Association. On Thursday, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said she thought it would be a good idea for President Obama to nominate a Republican. Before Sandoval, 52, became the state's first Hispanic governor, he was the state's first Hispanic federal judge. He supports abortion. But liberal groups swiftly came out against the nomination idea. "Nominating Sandoval to the Supreme Court would not only prevent grassroots organizations like Democracy for America from supporting the president in this nomination fight, it could lead us to actively encouraging Senate Democrats to oppose his appointment," said Democracy for America. Limited to two terms, Sandoval's final term as governor expires in early 2019. He announced last year that he would not seek Reid's seat, in this November's election, a race in which Sandoval would have been a strong favorite. The Associated Press contributed to this report. As a sport shooter and hunter, Iowan Nathan Gibson was delighted when his two daughters, Meredith and Natalie -- ages 12 and 10 -- took up shooting as a passion and a sport. But when a little-known law that bans kids from using handguns was used to stop them from shooting at a local gun range, that came to an end. Now, Gibson and his daughters have notched a legislative victory at the state Capitol in a push to change that -- as a bill advances that would allow children to use handguns. The bill, which would allow children under 14 to handle pistols and revolvers under parental supervision, passed the Iowa House of Representatives on Tuesday, though it has triggered an intense debate in the state about the proper balance between gun rights and basic child safety. Gibson, who supports the measure, says his daughters are delighted as the bill they have advocated for brings them one step closer to being able to resume practicing their sport. "Theyre feeling ecstatic, theyre on Cloud 9, Gibson told FoxNews.com, noting that his girls have been at the legislature every week lobbying lawmakers. Its a lot of work to do for two little girls. The bill, which now goes to the state Senate, has formed part of the wider debate over the extent to which Second Amendment rights should be regulated in the name of safety. The National Rifle Association supports the bill, while Iowa gun safety groups have been vocal in their opposition, with some pointing to cases where children have accidentally shot parents or instructors. I think children do not have the necessary judgment about using guns and I dont think they are old enough to understand the consequences, Iowans for Gun Safety's Executive Director Jeremy Brigham told FoxNews.com. Our concern is that the bill doesnt stipulate where the gun can be used. Id rather stick with the long guns and have them be supervised on shootings ranges, not simply wherever the parent thinks its suitable, he said. Democrats slammed the bill, fearing it allows toddlers to wield firearms. "What this bill does, the bill before us, allows for 1-year-olds, 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds to operate handguns, Democratic Rep. Kirstin Running-Marquardt told KCCI Des Moines. We do not need a militia of toddlers. Republicans backing the bill called the rhetoric overblown. Thats over the top. Its a soundbite that theyre trying to use and deflect form the actual issue, Rep. Gary Worthan told FoxNews.com. This bill gives a responsible parent the option to teach their children firearm safety and not be subject to a misdemeanor. Gibson also dismissed the fears. A solid good parent is not going to put a gun in the hands of a 1,2,3 year-old and a parent who is, isnt going to pay attention to the law anyway, he said. While the Gibsons have notched a major victory, the road ahead may be difficult. Rep. Worthan believes the chance of the bill getting through the Senate is a coin-toss. I would say it has about a 50/50 chance of getting through the Senate, and I wouldnt be surprised if it comes back with a lowering of the maximum age, he said, adding that Second Amendment bills are frequently a problem getting through the Senate Judiciary. Brigham agreed, saying that the Senate's Democratic Majority Leader has indicated he may not even bring it up for a vote, and that theres a majority in the chamber who will oppose the bill. Gibson says the political wrangling is preventing the girls from becoming good at a sport from which a collegiate scholarship could arise. Theyre getting frustrated and it breaks a fathers heart, Gibson said. But Im so proud of them for what theyre doing. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia declined to block a rule in three states that requires individuals to prove they are citizens when registering to vote using mail-in registration forms. The lawsuit was filed by a coalition of left-wing groups, including the League of Women Voters and the NAACP, earlier this month. Three lawyers representing the liberal organizations have given thousands in campaign contributions to Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton, who on numerous occasions has expressed opposition to voter identification laws on the campaign trial. The suit argues that the executive director of the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC), Brian D. Newby, violated the Administrative Procedure Act when he granted requests by Georgia, Kansas, and Alabama to modify federal forms to require voter applicants using a national mail-in form to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. The groups sought to temporarily halt the new requirement. Richard J. Leon, the judge presiding over the issue, denied the request. Plaintiffs ask this Court to issue a temporary restraining order enjoining defendants the EAC and Mr. Newby from enforcing his decisions and to take all actions necessary to restore the status quo ante Upon consideration of the parties written and submissions and oral argument, the court DENIES plaintiffs motion, the court order reads. Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon. A New York Times columnist apologized Thursday for a tweet that seemed to jokingly suggest the only way to end Donald Trumps presidential bid would be an assassination attempt. A lot readers were offended by my Trump/Dead Zone joke from yesterday. I can see why, and I've deleted the tweet. Apologies, Ross Douthat tweeted. A day earlier, Douthat tweeted a link to a YouTube video of a scene from the 1983 film "The Dead Zone," where Christopher Walkens character tries to assassinate a politician. The tweet said, Good news guys Ive figured out how the Trump campaign ends. Douthat faced a backlash for the comment, considering Trump reportedly has faced threats throughout the campaign. Douthat has since deleted the tweet. President Obama reportedly is considering nominating Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval to the Supreme Court to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. The nomination of a Republican would be seen as an attempt by Obama to break the Senate GOP blockade of any of his choices. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said his 54-member GOP caucus is opposed to holding confirmation hearings or vote on Obama's pick, insisting that the choice rests with the next president. The White House's consideration of Sandoval was first reported by The Washington Post and the Associated Press. The Post reported that Senate Republicans reaffirmed their vow to not consider any Obama nominee, regardless of party affiliation. "This is not about the personality," Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told the paper. McConnell said in a statement to the Post that whoever replaces Scalia "will be determined by whoever wins the presidency in the fall." Mari St. Martin, Sandoval's communications director, said Wednesday that the governor hasn't been contacted by the White House. "Neither Gov. Sandoval nor his staff has been contacted by or talked to the Obama administration regarding any potential vetting for the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court," she said. Sandoval met with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Monday in Washington while he was in town for a meeting of the National Governors Association. On Thursday, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said she thought it would be a good idea for President Obama to nominate a Republican. Before Sandoval, 52, became the state's first Hispanic governor, he was the state's first Hispanic federal judge. He supports abortion, a position that might assuage some Democrats nervous about the nomination of a Republican. But liberal groups swiftly came out against the idea. "Nominating Sandoval to the Supreme Court would not only prevent grassroots organizations like Democracy for America from supporting the president in this nomination fight, it could lead us to actively encouraging Senate Democrats to oppose his appointment," said Democracy for America. Limited to two terms, Sandoval's final term as governor expires in early 2019. He announced last year that he would not seek Reid's seat, in this November's election, a race in which Sandoval would have been a strong favorite. "My heart is here. My heart is in my job," Sandoval said at the time. On Wednesday, Obama laid out his wish list for a Supreme Court nominee, writing in a post on "SCOTUSblog" that his ideal nominee should "approach decisions without any particular ideology or agenda, but rather a commitment to impartial justice, a respect for precedent, and a determination to faithfully apply the law to the facts at hand." Obama also wrote that an ideal high court judge should view the law "not only as an intellectual exercise, but also grasps the way it affects the daily reality of peoples lives in a big, complicated democracy, and in rapidly changing times," a possible rebuttal against Scalia's doctrine of constitutional originalism. A White House official told Fox News Wednesday that an invitation has been extended to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, for a consultative meeting on filling the vacancy. Grassley's office said he has received the invitation and it is "under consideration." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Youve heard the battle cries over paying workers a living wage. Now, get ready for the next phase: Livable schedules. On the heels of Seattle passing a controversial $15 minimum wage law, the City Council there is now drafting an ordinance that aims to shift power away from employers when it comes to how workers are scheduled and paid. I think there is a sense among some workers that they are being abused, Seattle City Council member Lorena Gonzalez said. Gonzalez is leading the effort to impose new rules on how employers schedule their workers. The ordinance is still being written, but it is expected to include: A guarantee that workers get at least 11 hours of down time between shifts A requirement that workers get schedules a week in advance, or else be paid time-and-a-half if shifts are added inside that timeframe A requirement that employers pay employees for a few hours of work not performed if shifts are taken away Several of these components are being pushed by Working Washington, the same group that successfully fought for a $15 minimum wage in Seattle. Already, though, members of the business community are firing back against what they call the restrictive scheduling measures. Its unfortunate that the city of Seattle seems hell-bent on these one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approaches to wages and hour issues, said Patrick Connor of the National Federation of Independent Business. I think this is going to be one more straw that may soon break the camels back. The push to mandate at least 11 hours of downtime aims to end the practice of clopenings, when employees are asked to work until closing time, then open the shop the next morning. Seattles own Starbucks has been accused of relying on clopenings, especially when workers call in and say they cant cover their shift. Starbucks issued a statement which reads in part, Ensuring that we can balance predictability with flexibility in scheduling is an industry wide challenge we have been addressing with our partners (employees) directly. The predictive scheduling movement got a boost recently when several high-profile companies bowed to pressure from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Among the name brands that have ended on-call shifts are J. Crew, Gap and Victorias Secret. Schneiderman issued large retailers a warning letter saying on-call shifts may violate New York state law. Seattle venture capitalist and billionaire Nick Hanauer supports the effort. Most workers in our economy have very little leverage or bargaining power, said Hanauer, and owners and people like me have enormous amounts of power. But some economists and public policy experts warn that shifting more risk onto employers has a serious downside. Jacob Vigdor, a professor at The University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy, has been studying the effects of Seattles $15 minimum wage law and sees similarities for businesses in livable schedules. It makes it more expensive for them to get business done unless they find a way to get business done using fewer employees overall, Vigdor said. Despite the threat of unintended consequences, the Seattle City Council is expected to pass a livable schedules ordinance later this year. Donald Trumps rivals desperately are trying to sideline each other in a last-ditch bid before Super Tuesday to bolster their own numbers and mount a viable challenge against the billionaire front-runner -- each calling on the other to get out of the race, now. Ahead of a must-shine debate Thursday night, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich all claimed to be the only candidate who can derail Trump, whose momentum has intensified with three straight wins in the four previous Republican contests. Only Ben Carson has held back from the fray -- instead characterizing his distant finishes as evidence that "things are starting to happen." Ohio Gov. Kasichs campaign, despite performing poorly in the South Carolina and Nevada contests, even issued a defiant call Thursday for Rubio to drop out .@JohnKasich is the ONLY candidate who can beat @realDonaldTrump on 3/15. @marcorubio needs to do the right thing & suspend campaign, Kasich spokesman Chris Schrimpf tweeted, referring to the March 15 primary in Florida. The state is considered a must win for the Florida senator, but a new Quinnipiac University poll showed Trump leading Rubio 44-28 percent among primary voters there. Kasich adviser John Weaver also tweeted that with the Florida implosion, Marco Rubio needs to withdraw from the race and support Kasich. Thats not likely to happen. Rubio, despite not having won a primary contest yet, has been steadily racking up endorsements from fellow lawmakers and big-name Republicans, trying to position himself as the best candidate to win a general election in November and the best choice to take on Trump. Rubio, who has finished second in each of the last two nominating contests, acknowledged during a Fox News forum with host Megyn Kelly on Wednesday that Trump is "the frontrunner and I'm the underdog, but I've been an underdog my entire life." Rubio added that his campaign "would not allow the conservative movement to be defined by a nominee who isn't a conservative." The candidates square off Thursday night in Houston, for a CNN-Telemundo debate. For some, it could represent their last debate chance to define themselves as the anti-Trump candidate, as the field charges next into the more than a dozen states holding contests on Super Tuesday. Anything close to a sweep by Trump on Tuesday would be devastating for the other remaining candidates. Texas, Georgia and other delegate-heavy states are on the line that day. At the Fox News forum on Wednesday, Texas Sen. Cruz argued that he not anybody else is the best alternative candidate since hes the only other one who has won a primary contest, the Iowa caucuses. He said his campaign was "the only campaign that can beat Donald [and] has beat Donald." Trump, though, all along has argued against the conventional wisdom that if other candidates drop out, their support will gravitate to the other non-Trump candidates. Trump says he would pick up some of that support as well. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, sided with Trump in that regard. Trump will get a share. He might not get a majority, but hell get a share, he told Fox News. The pressure is strongest, though, on candidates Kasich and especially Carson, whose campaign has steadily fallen in the polls and has performed poorly in the first four contests. Carson, though, has appeared immune to the political pressure or the poor showings in South Carolina and Nevada. After placing fourth in Nevada, Carson nevertheless declared to supporters that things are starting to happen. Carson seemed to level a bit more with supporters in a fundraising email on Wednesday, saying without a strong showing on Super Tuesday, it's going to be very tough for my campaign. That's the honest truth." Kasich, though, told Fox News that the people calling for me to get out are the people who are inside the Beltway ... I'm certainly not listening to a bunch of lobbyist insiders." A top government watchdog on Thursday accused the central agency tasked with holding Veterans Affairs accountable of dropping the ball -- by failing to properly investigate whistleblower claims of secret wait lists at Shreveport, La., and Chicago hospitals where thousands of veterans languished up to 15 months without care. Further, Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner said the VAs Office of Inspector General even tried to discredit the whistleblowers who brought the allegations by focusing on a narrow aspect of the case. The OIG investigations that the VA submitted are incomplete. They do not respond to the issues that the whistleblowers raised, Lerner wrote to President Obama. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel reports directly to the president and investigates claims of whistleblower retaliation. It has no direct authority over the VA, but the letter sent to Obama and Congress on Thursday represents a stark challenge to the supposedly independent review conducted by the VA inspector general. Whistleblowers who originally brought the allegations and themselves faced a criminal investigation by IG officials after coming forward -- told FoxNews.com the OSC findings are vindication for them. Im glad the OSC has seen what is the obvious that the inspector general did not do a thorough investigation, said Germaine Clarno, one of the whistleblowers. The OSC letter, and an 11-page report, accused the inspector general of an inadequate review that failed to address legitimate concerns over patient care and how it could be fixed. As with other VA hospitals, whistleblowers had claimed supervisors told employees to violate scheduling rules while hiding delays in seeing patients. But Lerner said the IG tried to discredit the whistleblowers by focusing on the word secret, rather than reviewing the access to care issues identified by the whistleblowers OIG also denied OSC's request to review a copy of the complete investigation reports, undermining our ability to properly assess the VA's resolution of these issues. The VA, according to the special counsel, surmised the wait lists appeared to be an organizational tool to schedule patients and out of fear that some might get lost through the cracks. VA Chief of Staff Robert L. Nabors said in a 2015 letter to Lerner that investigators were told No veteran died as a result of waiting for an appointment, even though in Shreveport, the 2,700-person list had a tab labeled deceased with 37 names on it. The VA apparently made no effort to confirm if anyone had, indeed, died due to a lack of care but rather took employee accounts at face value, the report showed. Allegations of wrongdoing in the mental health divisions of Overton-Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport and Edward Hinds Jr. VA Hospital in Chicago surfaced in 2014 when social workers Shea Wilkes and Clarno went public. Both were told by the VA that they were under criminal investigation for obtaining patient lists a tactic used so that none of the reports would be public because criminal cases are confidential, said Wilkes attorney, Ricky John. The OSC stepped in last year and started an investigation of its own into how the VA was treating the pair. The VA has not responded to multiple requests for comment on Thursdays letter. This is vindication for myself and other whistleblowers who wont back down when the VA tries to intimidate us, Wilkes said. The VA was after me but ran into someone who wouldnt be bullied. In a 2014 letter to VA Secretary Robert McDonald, Lerner suggested the fiasco was created by managers who wanted to meet an appointment quota so they could receive bonuses. She closed by saying that Wilkes allegations show a substantial likelihood that the VA engaged in a violation of law, rule, or regulation, and a substantial and specific danger to public health. One year ago, President Obama toured the Phoenix VA, which is the site of the first whistleblower claims into secret wait lists. Weve got more work to do to ensure there is a culture of customer service, he said. Scientists have uncovered an extensive fabric collection from the era of Kings David and Solomon in an ancient copper mine located deep in Israels Arava Valley. This is the first discovery of textiles dating from the era of David and Solomon, and sheds fresh light on the historical fashions of the Holy Land. The textiles - tiny pieces of fabric that vary in color, weaving technique and ornamentation - also offer insight into the complex society of the early Edomites, the semi-nomadic people believed to have operated the copper mines at Timna. No textiles have ever been found at excavation sites like Jerusalem, Meggido and Hazor, so this provides a unique window into an entire aspect of life from which weve never had physical evidence before, Tel Aviv Universitys (TAU) Ben-Yosef, who led excavation team, said of the textiles that originated from bags, clothing, tents, ropes and cords. Related: 'Space archaeologists' show spike in looting at Egypt's ancient sites The wide variety of fabrics also provides new and important information about the Edomites, who, according to the Bible, warred with the Kingdom of Israel, he said in a statement. We found simply woven, elaborately decorated fabrics worn by the upper echelon of their stratified society. Luxury grade fabric adorned the highly skilled, highly respected craftsmen managing the copper furnaces. They were responsible for smelting the copper, which was a very complicated process. The mines were producing copper, a critical component in weapons and tools in ancient societies. To support huge mining communities in the middle of the desert, food, water and textiles had to be transported long distances. The textiles help unravel the trade practices and the regional economy back then, researchers said. "We found linen, which was not produced locally. It was most likely from the Jordan Valley or Northern Israel. The majority of the fabrics were made of sheep's wool, a cloth that is seldom found in this ancient period," TAU masters student Vanessa Workman said. "This tells us how developed and sophisticated both their textile craft and trade networks must have been." Related: Mysterious artifact discovered at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity The arid conditions of the mines have led to a trove of important discoveries in the past, including the remarkable preservation of 3,000-year-old organic materials, including seeds, leather and fabric, and other extremely rare artifacts. Along with the textiles, researchers also recently discovered thousands of seeds of the Biblical Seven Species at the site the two grains and five fruits considered unique products of the Land of Israel. Some of the seeds were subjected to radiocarbon dating, providing robust confirmation for the age of the site. Related: Archaeologists uncover 7,000-year-old settlement in Jerusalem This is the first time seeds from this period have been found uncharred and in such large quantities, Ben-Yosef said. With the advancement of modern science, we now enjoy research options that were unthinkable a few decades ago. We can reconstruct wine typical of King Davids era, for example, and understand the cultivation and domestication processes that have been preserved in the DNA of the seed. Apple, which is fighting an order to help hack the phone of a shooter in the deadly terror attack in San Bernardino, Calif, is reportedly working on an unhackable iPhone. Citing people close to the company and security experts, the New York Times reports that Apple engineers are developing new security measures that would make it impossible for the government to break into a locked iPhone using methods like those at the center of the current court battle. A senior executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the New York Times that Apple had started work on the security upgrade before the San Bernardino attack. Related: Apple CEO defends position in encryption dispute with feds Apple is resisting a judges order directing the tech giant to override security features on the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen who killed 14 people in the December terror attack. The order requires Apple to supply highly specialized software the FBI can load onto the county-owned work iPhone to bypass a self-destruct feature, which erases the phone's data after too many unsuccessful attempts to unlock it. Federal authorities have insisted theyre only asking for narrow assistance in bypassing some security features on the iPhone, which they believe contains information related to the mass murders. Apple argues that doing so would make other iPhones more susceptible to hacking by authorities or criminals in the future. Related: How much do Americans really value their online privacy? The New York Times reports that if Apple succeeds in upgrading its security, which experts say is likely, the company will create a long-running technical headache for law enforcement, even if the Obama administration wins the fight over the San Bernardino shooters iPhone. The report suggests that if the FBI wanted to access other iPhones in the future, Apple would need to create more so-called backdoors into its iOS software, fuelling more legal battles. In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday Apple CEO Tim Cook defended the iPhone makers position in its encryption dispute with the feds. In his first interview since the controversy erupted last week, Cook said that if his company complied with the FBIs demand to unlock Syed Rizwan Farooks encrypted phone it would be bad for America. "Some things are hard and some things are right, and some things are both. This is one of those things," Cook said. The interview came as both sides in the dispute are courting public support, through interviews and published statements, while also mustering legal arguments in the case. Related: Why Apple's security battle with the FBI is a PR masterstroke Suni Munshani, CEO of data security specialist Protegrity, told FoxNews.com that he expects Apple to tighten its iPhone security. Given how seriously Apple has taken the privacy concerns of its customers in recent years, I have no doubt they will be able to make it more difficult for anyone governments and criminals alike to gain access to data stored on Apple devices, he explained, via email. Rob Enderle, principal analyst at tech research firm Enderle Group, cited speculation that Apple could improve the iPhones biometric security and also make the self-destruct feature part of the devices hardware, as opposed to software. That way it reduces the chances of a false negative and it will be virtually impossible for even Apple to break into the phone, he told FoxNews.com, via email. I also expect they will explore letting companies host their own Apple communications servers like Blackberry does with BES and BBM so rather than coming to them with requests law enforcement will go to the companies or organizations who own the phones. Munshani adds that Apple may eventually have to disable, or give device owners the option of disabling, the capability that the tech giant currently has to update system software without needing the device owner to enter a password. That way Apple customers can decide for themselves the tradeoff between convenience and privacy, he noted. Related: Microsoft founder Gates backs FBI in encryption fight with Apple Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Wednesday defended the FBIs push to access the locked and encrypted iPhone, saying judges at all levels have held such companies must assist if it is reasonably within their power to do so. Lynch also suggested Congress does not need to get involved as Apple wants. Last week Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump jumped into the iPhone security row, calling for a boycott of Apple products until the tech giant complies with the judges order. Apple has not yet responded to a request for comment on this story from FoxNews.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers Employees inside the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office in Alameda, Calif., were quarantined Wednesday after a worker fell ill after opening a suspicious envelope. Emergency crews quarantined about 20 employees who were in the vicinity of the envelope, KTVU.com reported. Initial reports cited the presence of a powdery substance inside the envelope. A responding Hazmat team did not find any evidence of the substance. The incident occurred at about 2:43 p.m. local time. Two other employees also suffered a bad reaction and were treated at the scene. The quarantine was lifted around 3:30 p.m, KTVU reported. CBP officials said it was unknown whether the employee's illness was caused by the envelope in question. Baltimore County police have identified a man shot by an officer during a traffic stop last week and say he's been charged with drug and handgun offenses. Police identified the man in a news release Wednesday as 37-year-old George Willinger III of Middle River. Willinger was a passenger in a car that police pulled over in Essex last Thursday. Surveillance video shows that he had his hands up and then dropped them before an officer shot him. Police said the officer feared for his life after Willinger reached for his waistband and turned toward the officer. Police say they found suspected drugs on Willinger along with drugs and a gun in the car. Willinger has been ordered held without bond. Police say he'll be taken into custody after he's released from the hospital. Prosecutors said Wednesday a young woman who accused five teenage boys of chasing away her father and gang-raping her in a playground has recanted her story and they're dropping criminal charges against the boys. The boys had been charged with rape and other crimes following the Jan. 7 encounter in a quiet Brooklyn park. Prosecutors will ask a judge next week to formally dismiss the charges against Travis Beckford, Onandi Brown, Denzel Murray, Shaquell Cooper and Ethan Phillip, who range in age from 14 to 17, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson said. The boys also had faced criminal sex act, sexual abuse and other charges. Authorities have no plans to charge the 18-year-old woman. According to investigators, two of the boys said they found the woman having some type of sexual contact with a man, later identified as her father. The woman told police her father was driven off by the boys, then returned and was ordered out of the park a second time by a boy who pulled a gun. The father later flagged down a police car for help. The woman told police that before officers arrived she was raped by the boys. In a statement, Thompson said the woman provided "multiple inconsistent accounts" of the encounter when she was questioned by detectives. "That night, this young woman's father and the five young men engaged in conduct that was reprehensible and wrong, but because of the lack of reliable evidence, criminal charges simply cannot be sustained," Thompson said. The boys have said the encounter was consensual. Lawyers for the boys said a cellphone video showed the woman smiling, with her clothes partially removed, but it remained unclear when during the encounter that video was taken or what happened after the camera was turned off. Murray's attorney, Kenneth Montgomery, said he thinks the decision made by prosecutors illuminates what they were willing to do: investigate the case. "I'm thankful they didn't rush to judgment," he said. "My client and his family are elated." Thompson said the woman didn't want to pursue the criminal case against the boys anymore. "The complainant has recanted her allegations of forcible sexual assault and the existence of a gun, and she does not wish to pursue criminal charges against any of the defendants," he said. The Pennsylvania State Police academy revealed Wednesday that 29 cadets have been forced out of the program following a cheating investigation. Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Tyree Blocker declined to reveal further information about the probe into the academys 144th graduating class, citing an ongoing investigation. Nearly 70 other cadets are scheduled to graduate in mid-March. "We're working very diligently at bringing some closure to the investigation," Blocker told reporters. "However, I want to be clear. We will not leave any stone unturned when it comes to the integrity of the Pennsylvania State Police." Some of the 29 were dismissed and others resigned, he said. Cadets face a bevy of written tests during training. Blocker said a discovery by the academy staff prompted the investigation and that the testing process was compromised. He didnt specify the manner of cheating that is under investigation or what spurred the probe. Blocker first disclosed on Feb. 4 that the internal affairs unit was conducting a "full and comprehensive" investigation. He said the investigation began in December and involved dozens of interviews and an extensive collection of evidence. With more than 6,000 uniformed and civilian personnel, the Pennsylvania State Police is one of the nation's largest law enforcement agencies. According to The Patriot-News, cadets receive a $1,200 biweekly salary while at the academy. After they graduate from the program, cadets are assigned to a troop and start an 18-month probationary period. Whether they graduate or are dismissed, cadets are not required to pay back training costs, the paper reported. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Four college students are suing the city of Providence, Rhode Island, over an ordinance that bans them from living together in a single-family home. The Johnson & Wales University students are joined in the suit filed Tuesday by their landlord, and backed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The city council passed the rule in September after complaints about chronic, out-of-control partying by students in neighborhoods near the Roman Catholic school Providence College and the public Rhode Island College. There have also been complaints over the years about student behavior in other sections of the city around the Ivy league Brown University and the prestigious art school the Rhode Island School of Design. Democratic Councilwoman Jo-Ann Ryan, who pushed the rule, complained that renting single-family homes to students was eroding the character of the neighborhoods. The lawsuit argues that there is no reason to believe that restricting the number of students who live in a single-family home will lead to safer, quieter and cleaner neighborhoods. "On the contrary, the ordinance is an unconstitutional intrusion into the rights of college and graduate students to choose with whom they wish to live, and the rights of property owners to rent their homes to tenants of their choice," lawyers Jeffrey Levy and Charles Blackmun wrote. A spokeswoman for Democratic Mayor Jorge Elorza said the city does not comment on ongoing legal proceedings. Other college towns have passed such rules in the past, and some of those have been struck down, Levy said. A similar ordinance in Narragansett, Rhode Island, was held unconstitutional by a state superior court in 1994, as was one in Prince George's County, Maryland, in 1993. He said Boston enacted a similar ordinance in 2008, but to his knowledge it has not been enforced or challenged. Levy said his clients have not yet been the target of any enforcement action, and he is not aware of any actions against other student renters. He said the ordinance will have the worst impact on students from low-income and middle-income families who can't afford to pay more for rent. The Christian Post obtained an early copy of a letter sent to President Barack Obama from more than 100 organizations and individuals, including Hudson Institute, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Family Research Council, as well as Assyrian and Iraqi groups, urging his administration to declare Islamic State atrocities as genocide against all minorities, including Christians, and not just Yazidis. "There is a growing chorus of political and faith leaders, genocide scholars, human rights experts and numerous Iraqi and Syrian, Christian and Yazidi firsthand testimonies recognizing that the most accurate description for the atrocities unfolding at the initiative of the Islamic State is genocide," reads the letter sent Wednesday by International Religious Freedom Roundtable, an informal and diverse group of non-governmental organizations and individuals which meets in Washington D.C. The letter comes a week after Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill stated in their historic joint statement that "whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated." Earlier this month, the European Parliament passed a resolution declaring that the Islamic State terror group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, "is committing genocide against Christians and Yazidis (and) other religious and ethnic minorities." The letter, signed by numerous groups and individuals, including Nina Shea and Paul Marshall from Hudson Institute, Christian author and spokesperson for Middle Eastern Christians Johnnie Moore, Russell Moore from the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Tony Perkins from Family Research Council, Thomas Farr from Georgetown University's Religious Freedom Project, and Douglas Napier from ADF International among others. Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also used the word "genocide" to describe the Islamic States actions against Christians and other religious groups. She said on Dec. 29, 2015: "I am now sure we have enough evidence, what is happening is genocide deliberately aimed at destroying lives and wiping out the existence of Christians and other religious minorities." The signatories included representatives from Assyrian Patriotic Party in Iraq, Alliance of Iraqi Minorities, Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council, Yazidi Youth Union General Consul, Coptic Solidarity, Dwekh Nawsha Assyrian Army and many more. Click Here to Read the Full Story at ChristianPost.com When an initial report arrived saying the captain of the cargo ship El Faro had called ashore for help, the U.S. Coast Guard didn't believe the vessel was at risk of sinking and later had software problems while preparing a response plan. Still, Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew Chancery testified Wednesday at an investigative hearing in Jacksonville, Florida, that the ship's distress was soon clear and that software issues did not delay search efforts. The 790-foot SS El Faro sank in a hurricane Oct. 1 after losing propulsion near the Bahamas on its way from Jacksonville to San Juan, Puerto Rico. All 33 aboard died. Chancery said initial conversations with a representative for the ship's owner, Tote Inc., led the Coast Guard to believe early on that the ship was disabled, but managing to stabilize the situation. The morning that the ship sank, El Faro Capt. Michael Davidson told Tote's designated person ashore, Capt. John Lawrence, he thought the crew would be able to pump out water coming into the ship, according to testimony. Based on this information, Chancery told Lawrence he thought the ship might be able to anchor and ride out the bad weather. Even though El Faro was in 15,000 feet of water, Chancery said there were islands near where they thought the ship might be, and that the storm might push the vessel into shallower water. During these initial conversations, however, Chancery said he heard El Faro's distress alarm and became "very alarmed." When he plotted the ship's location and was unable to reach the vessel's satellite phone, Chancery knew the ship was in serious trouble. "I knew the general area was right in the middle of (Hurricane) Joaquin," he said. The Coast Guard had no aircraft that could reach the site in the storm, and the closest possible cutter was hundreds of miles away, Chancery said. The guard was able to get a hurricane hunter aircraft working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to send out a call to the ship. Another vessel in the same general area that was also experiencing trouble also called El Faro, with no reply, he said. Chancery said crews went into distress mode, but there were glitches with the software the Coast Guard uses to plan searches, called SAR-OPS. So, crews resorted to other methods including using paper charts. Later, they had to spend hours re-inputting data into the software system to use it, Chancery said. He said the software became instrumental later in the search. "In terms of response time, I don't think the loss of this system would affect it at all," Chancery said, saying all of the guard's assets were unable to reach the area immediately anyway because of the hurricane. Even with winds still high, the guard did send one plane in the next day which was damaged and experienced severe turbulence, Capt. Todd Coggeshall testified on Tuesday. The Coast Guard investigative board has been interviewing company officials, guard personnel and others to help identify any misconduct or other issues that may have played a role in the accident. After another round of hearings later this year, the Coast Guard will issue a report. The board can levy civil charges, and will forward any evidence of criminal misconduct to the U.S. Department of Justice. On Tuesday, the board's chairman, Capt. Jason Neubauer, told reporters he did not think the hearings had uncovered any such evidence thus far. An attorney for Davidson's widow thanked Chancery after his testimony. "On behalf of Theresa Davidson and the Davidson family, I want to thank you for all the efforts you made," attorney William Bennett said. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admonished some employees of the social media giant who had been crossing out black lives matter on the companys famous signature wall and writing all lives matter. Despite my clear communication at Q&A last week that this was unacceptable, and messages from several other leaders from across the company, this has happened again, Zuckerberg wrote in a private memo on the company announcement page viewed by Gizmodo. I was already very disappointed by this disrespectful behavior before, but after my communication I now consider this malicious as well. Facebook does not have rules restricting what people can write on the dry-erase wall at the companys California office, Zuckerberg wrote, but anyone crossing out a phrase was apparently also crossing a line. Regardless of the content or location, crossing out something means silencing speech, or that one persons speech is more important than anothers, he wrote. Facebooks staff is two percent black, according to USA Today. The Black Lives Matter movement rose out of a string of racially-charged incidents during the past several years, largely involving white police officers and black individuals. Some other activists have sought to change the words to all lives or blue lives, in reference to police officers. This has been a deeply hurtful and tiresome experience for the black community and really the entire Facebook community and we are now investigating the current incidents, Zuckerberg wrote. Facebook did not comment to USA Today or Gizmodo. Authorities in south-central Idaho say a 12-year-old girl required hospitalization after being accidentally shot at a gun range. Minidoka County Sheriff Eric Snarr tells The Times-News that the girl was shot Sunday afternoon at the Rupert Gun Range. Snarr says the girl was taken by helicopter to Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello. There is video of this incident, Snarr told the paper. You can clearly see that it is an accidental shooting. Snarr says the girl's mother said her daughter was in stable condition Monday. Police are investigating. The paper reported that a witness posted on Facebook that the girl was shot in the stomach while someone at the range was clearing a weapon. The round reportedly ricocheted off a metal table and hit the girl. The Associated Press contributed to this report Faculty dorm leaders who were previously called house masters at Harvard will now be called faculty deans. College officials announced the change on Wednesday following complaints that the title "master" had historical ties to slavery. The dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Michael Smith, said in a campus email that he has not seen any direct connection between the "master" title and slavery, but that "dean" fits the job better. Some on campus fought to keep the old title, sparking a heated debate. Harvard and other Ivy League schools assign undergraduates to residential houses led by faculty members long known as masters. But colleges across the country have been reconsidering names and traditions that critics call insensitive. In November, Princeton replaced the title "master" with "head of college." The Latest on a man who was found in Florida 55 years after disappearing from an Ohio prison camp (all times local): 2 p.m. An attorney has asked an Ohio board to grant parole to a man who disappeared from a prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter and was found last year in rural Florida. Frank Freshwaters wasn't at Thursday's hearing before the full state parole board in Columbus. But his attorney, Gordon Beggs, told the board Freshwaters has lived a clean life and never forgot the accident that led to his case. Investigators who tracked down Freshwaters last May say he was living off Social Security benefits under an alias at a weathered trailer in rural Brevard County, Florida. The 79-year-old widower was returned to Ohio and had a closed parole hearing in August. He was first caught in West Virginia in 1975 but wasn't extradited then. ___ 1 p.m. An Ohio board will hear arguments on whether to grant parole for a man who disappeared from a prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter and was found last year in rural Florida. Frank Freshwaters wasn't expected to attend Thursday's hearing before the full state parole board in Columbus. It was slated to hear from both sides, including an attorney for Freshwaters. Investigators who tracked down Freshwaters last May say he was living off Social Security benefits under an alias at a weathered trailer in rural Brevard County, Florida. The 79-year-old widower was returned to Ohio and had a closed parole hearing in August. He was first caught in West Virginia in 1975 but wasn't extradited, as the state's governor concluded Freshwaters had a "flawless 16-year residency" there. Its the place where military weapons go to die. Once a weapon is marked for destruction, it is sent to Anniston Army Depot where it will more than likely spend its final moments being chomped apart by the militarys Grim Reaper for guns: "Captain Crunch." The massive metal shredder has been in operation since the early 1990s and has used a pair of intertwined blades to chop up more than a million weapons during that time. There were days when approximately 2,500 weapons, mostly rifles that were deemed unserviceable, were shredded using Captain Crunch, said Susan Lowe, a public affairs specialist for the Defense Logistics Agency, the overarching government organization that oversees the demilitarization work done at Anniston. Approximately 500-600 pistols that were deemed unserviceable can be demilitarized in a day using Captain Crunch. Lowe said in an email to FoxNews.com that any small arm or light weapon in the military arsenal marked for destruction has probably passed through Anniston, which is the only small arms demilitarization center in the United States. Despite the huge number of weapons that flow into the facility, Lowe said Captain Crunch can be operated with a minimum of two people. The Army Depot sits on a 25-square-mile tract of land about 10 miles outside Anniston, Ala. and about 60 miles east of Birmingham. The facility does more that destroy; it also repairs all manner of combat vehicles. But inside the Nichols Industrial Complex sits Captain Crunch. No one seems to know who first coined the catchy moniker; however, its not difficult to imagine why it was devised. Completely intact weapons are loaded on a conveyor belt at the front of the machine, and by the time Captain Crunch spits them back out, theyve been deconstructed into small, jagged metal scraps. We have one guy that throws em in, feeds the Crunch, said one operator, Jason Nail, during an interview for the History Channel series Boneyard in 2007. At least two, if not three, other guys on the line make sure nothing dont go where its not supposed to go. All the little pieces that come off triggers, sights, bolts, etcetera get thrown into the box. We take the box at the end, when were done using Captain Crunch, bring it to the torch cutting stations and light em up. Rifles, though larger, are easier to destroy. Small weapons take more time because of the smaller parts and pieces that each must be sufficiently demolished. Two types of weapons are sent to the shredder: those deemed unserviceable and those that are obsolete. The determinations are made by the individual military services that used the weapons. Some items marked as obsolete are refurbished and sold to collectors through the Civilian Marksmanship Program in Anniston. Even some of the Captain Crunch operators, many of whom are gun enthusiasts in addition to gun destroyers, get a kick out of seeing some of the older weapons. Its like Christmas, property disposal specialist Jerrod Kirkpatrick said in a 2011 article for the Armys website. You open up a box and say, Ive never seen this before. What is this? The University of Missouri Board of Curators on Thursday fired a communications professor who was captured on video scrapping with a police officer and a student journalist during campus protests last year. The board voted 4-2 in favor of firing Assistant Professor of Communication Melissa Click, who had been suspended with pay from the school since Jan. 27. Click has the right to appeal the termination. The board respects Dr. Clicks right to express her views and does not base this decision on her support for students engaged in protest or their views, said Chairwoman Pam Henrickson, who voted against Clicks termination, in a statement viewed by The Columbia Tribune. However, Dr. Click was not entitled to interfere with the rights of others, to confront members of law enforcement or to encourage potential physical intimidation against a student. Click entered the public eye in November when video surfaced of her arguing with a student journalist covering campus protests regarding perceived racial issues. In that video, Click appears to grab the journalists camera and then requests muscle to help get the journalist to leave the area. A second video, taken during an Oct. 10 Homecoming Parade, surfaced earlier this month after The Columbia Missourian obtained police body camera footage of the event. In that tape, Click forces herself between a police officer and campus activists who had been blocking the parade route, telling the officers to get your hands off the children. She was charged with misdemeanor assault resulting from the November skirmish, but prosecutors said they would drop the charge in a year if Click completed community service. University of Missouri Interim Chancellor Hank Foley praised the boards decision. "The process the Board of Curators used to reach a determination about Dr. Clicks employment at the university is not typical but these have been extraordinary times in our universitys history, and I am in complete agreement with the board that the termination of Dr. Click is in the best interest of our university, Foley wrote in a statement obtained by The Missourian. Her actions in October and November are those that directly violate the core values of our university. I can assure you as Board Chairwoman Henrickson noted that there has been fairness in this process and investigation. But not everyone was pleased. In interviews with The Missourian, Faculty Council Chair and law professor Ben Trachtenberg called the decision to fire Click terrible and Faculty Council member Angela Speck said it was ridiculous that she should be fired without due process. Click attempted to justify her actions during an interview with FOX 2 earlier this month, however, she admitted she had made mistakes. But my intention was to, like other faculty and staff, to support a student group that was expressing that they had been excluded from MU, the MU community, she said. Click was not able to be reached for comment Thursday by numerous publications. Police in a town outside Cincinnati are searching for a bald man they say was involved in the theft of $847 in Rogaine and memory aids from at least three stores, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Authorities released surveillance images of the man appearing to hold up a shopping basket, the report said. Mount Healthy police have issued an alert for "a serial thief" they say recently took $847 worth of Rogaine and Prevagen products from a Walgreens store in the city just north of Cincinnati. Police say he is linked to similar thefts from retailers in nearby suburbs. Police say the man is believed to drive a white Jeep. They're not sure if he's using any of the products himself but suspect he tries to sell them online or at flea markets. Mount Healthy Detective Chris Jones tells WCPO-TV that police are "scratching our heads at this, no pun intended," over the Rogaine thefts. The Associated Press contributed to this report Storms systems brought tornadoes to the East Coast -- killing four in Virginia -- heavy snow that canceled hundreds of flights in the Midwest and power outages that left hundreds of thousands across several states in the dark. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency Wednesday night after tornadoes damaged homes and left thousands without power across the state. Elsewhere, officials in South Carolina said a man was killed Wednesday when a tree fell on him. In Virginia, the tiny town of Waverly took the brunt of the storm. The Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said a 2-year-old child and two men, ages 50 and 26, were killed there during the storm. Their bodies were found about 300 yards from their mobile home. At least five structures were damaged in the town of approximately 2,000 and roads leading into town had to be closed because of downed trees and debris tossed by winds gusting to 60 mph, Geller said. In Appomattox County, a funnel cloud left an 8- to 10-mile path of destruction, injuring seven people and killing one man, state police said. At least 15 structures were destroyed and 25 injuries were reported when the storm passed through Essex County and the town of Tappahannock, about 45 miles northeast of Richmond, state police said. The injuries ranged from minor to serious, but there were no confirmed fatalities. Data curated by WeatherDB In Waverly, witnesses said the storm swept through with little warning. Timothy Williams said a friend had just come by to take his new car for a drive when the storm hit. "It picked the car right off the ground, and put it right back on the ground," said Williams, 44. He said they remained in the car until the storm passed. The storm blew down electrical wires "in a big ball of fire, thrashing all about each other," Williams said. He said they both escaped shaken but uninjured. In South Carolina, Darlington County Corner Todd Hardee said in a statement that Michael Gaines Sr., 58, had stopped on a road near his home Wednesday to remove debris from the road when a pine tree fell on him. Sheriff Wayne Byrd said the victim was being a good Samaritan when he was killed. The line of storms moved across Pennsylvania and the New York City area Wednesday night, bringing strong winds and heavy rains that knocked down trees and caused scattered power outages. In the Midwest, a powerful storm brought heavy snow and biting winds, leading to mass flight cancellations at Chicago airports and school closings in several states. The Chicago Department of Aviation reported more than 1,100 flights had been canceled at the city's two major airports by Wednesday evening. Bill Bunting with National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center estimated 20 to 24 tornados hit from Louisiana to Florida on Tuesday. On Tuesday, one of the hardest-hit areas along the Gulf Coast was a recreational vehicle park in the town of Convent, in southern Louisiana. RVs were tossed about and lay on top of wrecked cars and pickup trucks. Two people were killed there, and 31 injured people were taken to area hospitals, St. James Parish Sheriff Willy Martin said. In Mississippi, 73-year-old Dale Purvis died of blunt-force trauma in a mobile home west of Purvis, Lamar County Coroner Cody Creel said. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said an apparent tornado in the Pensacola area significantly damaged more than 70 homes and 24 apartments, leaving three people with minor injuries. He stopped at The Moorings apartment complex, where winds ripped the roof off of at least two buildings. Residents in LaPlace, Louisiana, were cleaning up Wednesday after a tornado ripped up trees, tore roofs from houses and terrified local residents. Nearly 200 homes were damaged. Rose Fuselier, 80, had a gaping hole where her home's front window once stood. "The whole backyard is covered with trees, and then my shed is torn up, too. The roof is gone, and the siding is partially gone," she said. Still, she said others suffered damage even worse than hers: "I lucked out. I lucked out." A 16-year-old suspect was charged as an adult Wednesday after a robbery and shooting on a subway train in Washington, D.C. left one passenger wounded, investigators said. A suspected accomplice, 19, was also charged with armed robbery. The 24-year-old victim was in stable condition and able to talk to detectives after the Tuesday afternoon shooting, Metro spokeswoman Sherri Ly said. The suspected gunman, Hassan Graves, apparently opened fire after the man tried to retrieve the money that was stolen from him, investigators add. The shooting occurred on a Green Line train as it approached the Anacostia Metro station. Nobody else was hurt. It was the only Metro shooting the transit system's police chief could remember in the last two decades, The Washington Post reports. A lawyer for suspected accomplice Andre Broadie said court documents point the blame for the robbery and shooting on the 16-year-old, not on his client. There was no immediate comment from Graves' attorney. Ly said Metro Transit Police were seeking two other "persons of interest." Photos pulled from surveillance video enabled D.C. police to identify the suspects as they crossed the South Capitol Street Bridge near the Anacostia station, Ly added. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Internationally renowned televangelist and megachurch Pastor Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, recently revealed that he once wanted to take his life but love kept him from taking the plunge. "When I was being condemned from the four corners of the earth I had a moment where I wanted to kill myself and I was ready. What kept me was not a Scripture, what kept me was that every time I showed up here, you were here," he told his congregation to cheers, which quickly turned into a standing ovation, according to a recording from a sermon posted to YouTube on Sunday. Long doesn't say in the clip why he wanted to take his life but it appears his dark hour may have stemmed from allegations in 2010 that he coerced several young men into sexual relations. Four lawsuits resulted from those allegations according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but they were all subsequently dismissed "with prejudice" in 2011. As his congregation cheered and surrounded him prayerfully, Long began trembling and tears rolled down his face. "I would not take my life for the one mere reason. My family loved me. My church loved me and regardless of what anybody says. Love lifted me and carried me and you didn't judge me," he said. "There are folk here who understand this. You're alive because somebody loves you. They didn't give you a sermon. They didn't call you, they didn't question you before a council. When I look back over my life and I think about this Scripture 'for God so loved the world' it didn't say he so judged the world," Long continued. He then praised his congregation for being true disciples for showing love to him when he needed it and prayed that the love they showed him would return unto them. Click Here to Read the Full Story at ChristianPost.com Debate night for Republicans in Houston. Its the last debate before Super Tuesday. Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson and John Kasich will square off. They have no campaign events today as the prep. There are new polls out today at 11am on Florida likely GOP voters. Great lead for us for Larry Sabato. Many analysts say Marco Rubio needs to win Florida to convince voters he can be a viable candidate. Yesterday Rubio said he would win the Sunshine State but early polling suggests Trump could win. Heres the New York Times today on Marco Rubio, Senator Marco Rubio has persuaded wealthy donors, Republican Party elders and his colleagues in Congress that he represents their best chance to overtake the seemingly invincible force that is Donald J. Trump. He just cannot seem to persuade the voters." Texas is also likely a must-win for Ted Cruz. Beth Reinhard and Janet Hook write today in the Wall Street Journal, Three polls released this week show Mr. Cruz leading in Texas by margins of between one and 15 percentage points. But Mr. Trump's commanding win in the Nevada caucuses, his third victory in a row, means Mr. Cruz is going to have to fight that much harder on his home turf, starting with Thursday's debate in Houston. Trumps dominance so far have many Republicans now facing the reality he may become the nominee. Noah Biermanin writes in the LA Times today, Republican leaders who view Donald Trump as a pox on their party have finally settled on a strategy: Resist him as long as they can. Then figure out how to retreat gracefully. Most mainstream Republicans still worry that Trump, who has dominated early GOP nominating contests and is poised to scoop up an even bigger bounty of delegates next week on Super Tuesday, would make a bad president. And they hold deep concerns that his incendiary rhetoric and ideological smorgasbord of ideas could damage the party, both politically and philosophically, so profoundly that it might never recover. Former MA Governor and Presidential candidate Mitt Romney talked to Neil Cavuto yesterday and suggested Trumps tax returns may hide a bombshell. Romney is urging all the candidates to release their tax returns. Trump attacked Romney almost immediately. Bernie Sanders unveiled a new line of attack after it appears he gave up on competing in South Carolina. He is campaigning in Ohio and Illinois today. Hes criticizing her support for the Clinton era welfare reform passed in 1996. 1030EST -- Sen Sanders holsd a rally. Baldwin Wallace Univ, Berea, OH. LIVE via LiveU 1115EST -- Hillary Clinton holds a town hall meeting. Williamsburg County Recreation Center, Kingstree, SC. LIVE via LiveU New AP/Gfk polling suggests Americans like the idea from Bernie Sanders for Medicare for all. Until you tell them taxes would need to rise. Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes are likely again today from Florida to New York. Its the same system that killed at least seven across the South and unleashed more than 20 suspected tornadoes. Tornadoes are rare in February, but there have been twisters every day this week. Virginia has declared a state of emergency as thousands remain without power. Parts of the Midwest are going to get more heavy snow. Chicago got heavy snow and high winds forcing hundreds of flight cancellations. Lots of hearings to watch today. From the Fox News Agenda: In a rare, open intel hearing, CIA Dir Brennan, DNI Clapper, FBI Dir Comey, NCTC Dir Rasmussen, NSA Dir Rogers, and DIA Dir Stewart all testify on worldwide threats currently facing the US and its assets. One issue certain to come up is encryption and the ongoing battle between Apple and the fed govt over the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists. 0900EST -- House Intel Cmte holds hearing on "World Wide Threats." CIA Dir Brennan, DNI Clapper, FBI Dir Comey, NCTC Dir Rasmussen, NSA Dir Adm. Michael Rogers, and DIA Dir Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart testify. LIVE 1030EST -- Senate Appropriations Subcmte on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies holds a hearing "to review the FY2017 budget request" for the Dept of Justice. Atty Gen Lynch testifies. LIVE 0930EST -- House Foreign Affairs Cmte holds hearing on "Strengthening US Leadership in a Turbulent World: The FY 2017 Foreign Affairs Budget." Secy Kerry testifies. LIVE 1000EST -- House Appropriations Defense Subcmte holds hearing on the Dept of Defense budget. Secy Carter, Undersecy Mike McCord, and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen Dunford testify. LIVE 1000EST -- House Armed Services Cmte holds a hearing on 'Full Spectrum Security Challenges in Europe'. Eucom cmnder Gen Philip Breedlove testifies. LIVE WEBCAST 1000EST -- House Science Cmte holds a hearing on the need for stability at NASA through changing presidential admins. Fmr astronaut Col Eileen Collins (ret), fmr NASA Admin Michael Griffin, GAO Dir of Acquisitions & Sourcing Management Cristina Chaplain, and Rep John Culberson testify. LIVE WEBCAST 1045EST -- House Minority Ldr Pelosi holds her weekly media availability. LIVE 1130EST -- Speaker Ryan holds his weekly media availability. LIVE 1110EST -- POTUS participates in a panel discussion as part of the White House Precision Medicine Initiative Summit. EEOB South Court Auditorium. LIVE European stocks shrugged off a massive sell-off overnight in China. A key Chinese index was down more than 6%. The U.S. and China have agreed on new sanctions against North Korea over its nuke tests and missile tests. North Korea is urging its people to work harder with a 70-day campaign of loyalty. Thousands went to Kim Il Sung Square in a show of solidarity for the dictatorship. NATO unveiled a new plan to try and stop the flood of refugees into Europe. Berlin voted to approve a package of measures to speed up the processing of refugees. Last year, German got 1.1 million asylum seekers. Apple says it would like to make it even harder for the U.S. government to access suspects mobile phones. It comes as the companys lawyers are preparing a response to a court order compelling it to help the FBI unlock an iPhone used by the San Bernardino terrorists. For more news, follow me on Twitter: @ClintPHenderson Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who has gone into hiding amid an international outcry over his killing of a beloved African lion, also wanted to shoot a large elephant on the ill-fated hunting trip, his guide has told a British newspaper. Theo Bronkhorst told The Daily Telegraph Thursday that after killing the lion, known as Cecil, Palmer asked the guide if he could locate an elephant whose tusk weighed more than 63 pounds "which is a very large elephant." "I told him I would not be able to find one so big, so the client left the next day," Bronkhorst told the paper. Zimbabwean prosecutors have charged Bronkhorst with killing a lion not authorized to be hunted. The country's safari organization also said the way in which he was lured out of a national park was unethical and possibly illegal. If convicted, Bronkhorst faces up to 15 years in prison. Prosecutors have yet to charge a second suspect, farm owner Honest Ndlovu, who had been named as an accomplice and appeared in court Wednesday. More On This... Bronkhorst also told the Telegraph that Palmer's party never intended to hunt on the farmland where Cecil was killed, which is adjacent to a national park. He said he group was late getting started on the day's hunting because Palmer's luggage was late in arriving. "At the last minute I had to divert from a [hunting] concession about eight miles away," Bronkhorst said. According to the Zimbabwe Conservation task force, during the nighttime hunt, the Zimbabwean men tied a dead animal to their car to draw the lion out of a national park. Bronkhorst tells the Telegraph he first saw Cecil at around 10 p.m. on the night of July 1, describing him as "a magnificent animal." He said Palmer fired an arrow at the lion, which disappeared into some tall grass. "Bow and arrow wounds are different to gun wounds, and they dont show much. But we couldnt do anything that night," Bronkhorst said. The hunters returned the next day, when Bronkhorst says Palmer killed Cecil with a bow-and-arrow. Only then, when hunters examined the lion's carcass, did they notice Cecil's collar. "I was devastated," Bronkhorst said. "I could not have seen the collar at night. We would never shoot a collared animal. I was devastated, and so was [Palmer], we were both upset, and I panicked and took it off and put it in a tree. "I should have taken it to [the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlfe Management Authority], I admit that. ... We took the head and skin, as the client had paid for the trophy. Using bait to lure the lion is deemed unethical by the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe, of which Bronkhorst is a member. The association has since revoked his license. Zimbabwe authorities, however, have not announced any charges against Palmer, only saying they want to speak with him and the U.S. embassy was not aware of any extradition requests. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from the Daily Telegraph. Australia announced Thursday it was bulking up its military as China becomes increasingly aggressive in the South China Sea, including what is reported to be the biggest expansion to its Navy since World War II. Australia's government is ramping up defense spending by nearly $22 billion over the next decade, Reuters reports. Officials say they will add 12 submarines, 12 combat patrol vessels and nine anti-submarine frigates in what is its largest post-WWII Navy expansion, according to the New York Times. The spending, which is projected to reach $140 billion by 2021-2022, will also cover new fighter jets, drones, submarines and other military equipment purchases for Australias armed forces, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told an audience in Canberra. Tensions are soaring among countries in the Pacific as China is making claims to disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes each year. Turnbull said the plan was designed to reflect the changing nature of security in the region, including Chinas economic and military rise and a heightened U.S. focus on the Asia-Pacific, Reuters reports. "The United States will remain the pre-eminent global military power over the next two decades," he said. "It will continue to be Australia's most important strategic partner through our long-standing alliance, and the active presence of the United States will continue to underpin the stability of our region." Turnbulls announcement was met with criticism from Beijing, which expressed "dissatisfaction" with the "negative" remarks, according to Reuters. We hope the Australian side can correctly and positively view China's development and strategic intent," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press briefing. Click for more from Reuters. The international backlash against big game hunters triggered by last year's killing of a beloved lion named Cecil could spell doom for hundreds of the beasts who now roam a Zimbabwe preserve. The deafening criticism after Cecils death in July has created a chilling effect among many in the industry, leading to more hunters staying home, animal populations growing out of control and a more dangerous environment for guides, say experts. Far fewer hunters are going to Zimbabwe, said Steve Taylor, a former game ranger and current guide in Zimbabwe who is also associate director for International Safety and Security at Harvard University. Directly after the Cecil situation numbers declined precipitously. One Zimbabwean conservancy floated the idea of culling nearly 200 of its lions to fight overpopulation. That notion since tabled has drawn condemnation, but it highlights the desperation some conservancies face as lion and other animal populations go unchecked, say some conservationists. Efforts to move some of the more than 500 lions living in the confines of the Bubye Valley Conservancy have so far been derailed. But the issue of overpopulation received little attention until the cull proposal was mentioned. We were all talking about it: If you shoot a lion, your careers over. Steve Taylor I think this is their way of saying to the naysayers who have denigrated the whole concept of a conservancy, Somebody needs to step up to the plate, Taylor told FoxNews.com. Hunters will not do it anymore. Somebody needs to step up to the plate and finance the translocation of those lions. Its a great way to grab the media attention. Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer faced global scorn after he shot and killed Cecil with a compound bow. Palmer was lambasted on social media, had demonstrators protest outside of his office and even faced death threats. But he was never charged with a crime because authorities said he had obtained the legal authority to hunt Cecil. Bubye, located about 300 miles southeast of the Hwange National Refuge where Cecil was shot, relies on trophy hunting to support its operating costs. But since Cecils death and the outrage that followed there has been a slowdown of hunters willing to travel to Zimbabwe to bag big game. In addition to negative public opinion impacting decisions, hunters have also been hampered by several major airlines refusing to fly exotic animal trophies and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service listing species of African lions as endangered. Some have referred to the trend as the Cecil Effect. Brent Stapelkamp, a researcher who works at Hwange and studied Cecil, also said hes heard many, many hunters have cancelled trips since Cecils death. Now, whether that has to do with an awareness that things in the Zimbabwe hunting industry are not right, fear of being exposed on social media, restrictions on getting trophies home or what, we cant say, Stapelkamp told FoxNews.com. But I am sure that there has been a massive cancellation of hunts and the industry is suffering. Byron du Preez, the project leader at Bubye, said in an email that linking declining hunts to Cecils demise may be an overreach. In my opinion, the Cecil Effect doesnt even exist, he said. Hunters are not coming because there is a massive recession [in the U.S.]. But criticism has certainly reached Bubyes fences, and not only for the cull suggestion. A professional hunter familiar with Bubye attempted to set up a hunting raffle for the conservancy, with 100 tickets each selling for $1,500. The raffle would have provided economic benefits for Bubye as well as helped to thin the lion population. But advocacy groups quickly sounded the alarm and the raffle was cancelled. And theres another face of the so-called effect one thats far more dangerous for humans. Less than two months after Cecils death, an experienced guide was leading a tour group in Hwange when he was confronted by an aggressive lion named Nxaha and was mauled to death. Taylor speculates the criticism stemming from Cecils shooting may have caused the guide to hestitate in defending himself. We were all talking about it: If you shoot a lion, your careers over, said Taylor, who believes Swales may have been reluctant to shoot the beast for fear of public reprisal. This guy was a really successful guide, and he died by a lion. And I think thats the Cecil Effect. Guides in Zimbabwe are petrified of having the world turn on them. Taylor said he used to hunt, but hasnt for more than a decade. Still, he understands the benefits of controlled hunting for the environment. But even Taylor born in Kenya, raised in Zimbabwe, experienced in the industry isnt sure how the nation can change the Wests perception of hunting following Cecils death. Hunters in America now are even afraid to post photographs on Facebook and social media, he said. And with the groundswell of public opinion how do you combat ignorance? Egypts president admitted for the first time Thursday that the crash of a Russian passenger plane in the volatile Sinai Peninsula last October was an act of terrorism. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said the attack was intended to damage Egypts tourism industry and relations with Russia, according to the BBC. Russia previously has said the attack was caused by a bomb while Egypt had taken an opposite stance. In November, el-Sissi dismissed a claim by jihadists that they brought the plane down as propaganda. "Whoever downed that plane, what did he want? Just to hit tourism? No. To hit relations. To hit relations with Russia, el-Sissi said Thursday. The Airbus 321, operated by the Russian airline Metrojet, broke up in the sky on October 31. The plane was heading back to St. Petersburg with tourists returning from the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. Egypt has hired a UK-based consultancy to tighten security at airports in the wake of the attack, the BBC reports. Click for more from the BBC. The European Union's once-tight unity is being rapidly eroded as hundreds of thousands of refugees and other migrants walk a well-trodden path through the Balkans and into the bloc's heartland. Greece on Thursday took the tensions to a new level, recalling its ambassador from Vienna in anger after Austria and other Balkan nations held a meeting that could put more pressure on Athens to deal with the migrants. Diplomats saw no precedent in recent EU history for such a move. As some EU countries move to restrict new entries, those further south and east fear that thousands of migrants will get stuck and overwhelm their nations. That has prompted several to start acting unilaterally, showing little concern for coordinating with their EU partners. "Right now the unity of the union and lives -- human lives -- are at stake," said EU migration chief Dimitris Avramopoulos at Thursday's meeting of the bloc's 28 interior ministers to assess the rapidly deteriorating situation. The fear of crumbling unity has spread like wildfire throughout the EU in the last few days. Some see the lack of a common response to the continent's immigration crisis as a Litmus test for the bloc. EU President Donald Tusk has been warning about an unraveling of unity for weeks but the EU now seems to be unable to stop it. There are even fears that the migration crisis could even fuel the "out" campaign for Britain's EU membership referendum on June 23. The impact of increasing go-it-alone new border restrictions and refugee quotas was evident on the ground Thursday on Greece's border with Macedonia. Some 2,800 people massed to get into Macedonia but only 100 were allowed to cross. The bottleneck came after Macedonia severely restricted the number and nationalities of people it is allowing to travel across its territory and continue north toward more prosperous European countries. Macedonian officials have said the move comes in response to similar actions by countries further up along the route, including Serbia and Austria. "The police kept stopping us, but I couldn't wait," 23-year-old Syrian university student Walaa Jbara said near the border, clutching his smartphone. "I'm checking the news on Facebook, and I know the Macedonians are not letting people through." Greece is getting increasingly angry about such policies. The government recalled its ambassador from Vienna following a meeting there Wednesday where Austria and many regional European neighbors agreed to tighter border controls -- but did not invite Greece. The border closures are squeezing Greece between the Balkan nations to the north and Turkey, where most of the refugees are coming from. If northern nations did fully close their borders, Greece's refugee reception capacity could become overwhelmed within days. NATO is beginning a surveillance mission in the sea between Greece and Turkey and its decision to return any rescued migrants to Turkey could help relieve some pressure on Greek reception centers. But Greek Deputy Interior Minister Ioannis Mouzalas said his nation refuses to become "a warehouse of souls." He declared that, in the wake of border restrictions that were not common EU decisions, "Greece too, can take unilateral action." Mouzalas threatened to block decisions at a March 7 EU immigration summit if the sharing of the refugee burden was not made obligatory for member states. Hungary, increasingly a recalcitrant EU member since Prime Minister Viktor Orban came to power in 2010, has called for a national referendum on the EU's plan for mandatory quotas for refugees. The EU head office said it fails to understand how such a vote could affect a decision already made by all EU nations, including Hungary. The EU plans to share 160,000 migrants who have already arrived in overburdened Greece and Italy with other EU nations over two years. But so far, barely 600 people have been relocated, and only some EU nations have offered places for them -- fewer than 5,000 spots in all. An immigration dispute has even erupted between Belgium and France, two founding nations who have almost always stood side-by-side in the 60-year history of the union. On Thursday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve criticized its northern neighbor for tightening border controls over concerns about a flood of migrants from a camp in France. Belgium has sent up to 290 extra police officers to their common border after French authorities moved to close a migrant camp in Calais. Cazeneuve described Belgium's move as "a strange decision" and rejected fears that hundreds of migrants would soon move into Belgium. In Germany -- the destination of choice for many migrants -- lawmakers on Thursday approved a package of measures to speed up migrant processing and cut the number of newcomers. The package foresees special centers being set up to quickly process migrants who have little realistic chance of winning asylum. It also means some asylum-seekers -- likely including Syrians -- will have to wait longer to bring their relatives to Germany. Laws were also approved to increase the deportations of foreigners convicted of crimes. Germany registered nearly 1.1 million people as asylum-seekers last year and officials are keen to ensure that number is lower this year. A robbery suspect in Spain seems to have come down with a case of the midnight munchies. The careless guy stole seven legs of ham from a restaurant overnight Monday and led cops straight to his front door after leaving a trail of fat at the scene, The Local reports. The unnamed suspect allegedly broke into the Los Caracoles tapas bar in the northwestern city of Sanlucar de Barrameda and stole the pricey Iberico hams hanging from the ceiling, along with $551 in cash and a TV. After discovering the chaotic scene, the restaurants owner Domingo Infante, 34, called police and a locksmith to fix the damage. But before officers could arrive, Infantes wife and mother-in-law spotted a suspicious trail of grease outside. "There were traces of fat everywhere, on the pavement outside the property, the stairs and even the front door, Infante told the media outlet. The Spaniards followed the slippery slop to a house behind the tapas bar, where they caught the suspected thief. "We didnt know whether to laugh or cry, Infante added. Its like something out of a silly film. Inside the home, police found two legs of ham, along with the stolen cash and TV. The delectable meats were taken to the local police station as investigators tried to find the other missing legs, which are believed to be in the possession of the suspect's accomplices. Each leg is worth around $132. "Ive never imagined my wife and mother-in-law would turn out to be the detectives who solved this, Infante told The Local. But its not all sighs of relief for the family. Wed still like to get [the hams] back, Infante added. Irans new cash-incentive plan for martyrs who strike in Jerusalem is proof the Islamic Republic intends to spend billions reaped in the recent nuclear deal on terrorism, Israeli officials told FoxNews.com Thursday. Already identified as the worlds top state sponsor of terrorism, Iran will now pay the equivalent of $7,000 "to every family of a martyr of the intifada in Jerusalem, Irans ambassador to Lebanon said Wednesday at a news conference in Beirut. Whats more, Tehran will pay $30,000 to the family of any terrorist whose home gets bulldozed by Israel, a tactic the Jewish state has employed in the West Bank to deter attacks. Iran continues to sow terror throughout the world and is fueling the flames of Palestinian terror and incitement. Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to UN This demonstrates again Irans role in encouraging terror, Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman for Israels Foreign Ministry told FoxNews.com. Following the nuclear agreement, Iran continues being a major player in international terror." The Iranian diplomat, Mohammad Fathali, giddily unveiled the new scheme to benefit the families of terrorists involved in the ongoing uprising in Jerusalem, which began on Sept. 13, 2015. So far, 32 Israelis and one Palestinian have been murdered, and 357 people injured. The latest figures issued by Israel show 188 stabbings, 75 shootings and 39 vehicle attacks. More than 160 Palestinians have been killed during the same period by Israeli security forces and armed members of the Israeli public, with most reportedly shot while carrying out attacks. Attacks by Palestinians on Israeli civilians and military personnel continue to take place on a near-daily basis, and with no condemnation from either the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority or the Hamas government in Gaza. On the contrary, attackers are routinely referred to as martyrs in Palestinian state media, and many have had streets and public buildings named in their honor. Paying stipends to the families of terrorists killed attacking Israelis was pioneered by Saddam Hussein. The former Iraqi dictator told a TV audience in March 2002 he would pay $25,000 to the families of deceased Palestinian suicide bombers. Less than a week later, a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up in Jerusalems Moment Cafe, killing 11 Israelis and seriously wounding 16 more. Just three months later, the mother of the suicide bomber received a check from Hussein, as promised, for $25,000. Danny Danon, Israels ambassador to the United Nations, yesterday urged the international community to speak out against Irans latest plan. Iran continues to sow terror throughout the world and is fueling the flames of Palestinian terror and incitement, Danon wrote in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. If the UN is really interested in bringing calm to our region, they must cut off the flow of Iranian financial support of terrorism." Also on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon warned that Iran intends to sponsor terror on the streets of Europe and the United States. "The Iranian regime, through the Iranian Revolutionary Guard corps, is building a complex terror infrastructure, including [sleeper] cells that are stockpiling arms, intelligence and operatives, and are ready to act on order, including in Europe and America," Yaalon said. The U.S.-brokered agreement between six world powers and Iran, finalized earlier this year, gave Tehran access to an estimated $100 billion of previously frozen funds in exchange for Iran pledging to drop its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Israel has already charged Iran is shipping more weaponry to its Lebanon-based proxy army, Hezbollah, which is believed to have thousands of missiles both short and medium range aimed at the Jewish state. Albanian police have arrested an Italian man, accusing him of money laundering. The Interior Ministry said Thursday that Alessandro Donadon, 56, has been arrested and 450,000 euros ($495,000) that he had at a bank has been impounded. The ministry said in a statement said that Donadon had received different amounts of money from San Marino to his bank account in Albania, which he then tried to take back to Italy with false checks. If the charges of false documentation and money laundering are proven, Donadon faces up to 15 years in prison. Somalia's president says at least 180 Kenyan soldiers were killed in Somalia in an extremist attack on their base in January by Al Qaeda affiliate Al Shabaab. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, speaking in an interview on a Somali cable TV channel, said Wednesday that between 180 and 200 Kenyan soldiers were killed in the Jan. 15 attack. Kenya's military spokesman denied the figures given by the Somali President but declined to give an official death toll. The attack happened in the town of El-Ade, not far from the Kenyan border. Kenya has provided a major contingent to the African Union force that is fighting Al Shabaab, a Somali Islamic extremist group that is trying to overthrow Somalia's government. A French court on Thursday gave the state the green light to raze tents and lean-tos sheltering hundreds of migrants in a sprawling slum camp in Calais, where thousands dream of getting to Britain. The camp in the northern port city -- known as the "jungle" -- has been an embarrassing and often shocking chapter in Europe's migrant crisis, and the state announced this month that the densely populated southern half would be razed. Associations protesting the move took the issue to court seeking a postponement of a deadline reached last Tuesday for migrants to move out. The court in Lille ruled that the makeshift shelters used by the migrants can be destroyed -- but that common spaces like places of worship, schools and a library must stand. Demolition crews have been poised to start what officials say will be a better solution for migrants trapped in Calais with borders all but sealed by increasing security. Officials estimate the number of migrants who will be affected at around 800 to 1,000. Humanitarian organizations say over 3,000 migrants live there. Moving the migrants out of the mini-slum will be the most dramatic step by the French state to end Calais' years-long migrant problem, which has transformed the northern city into a high-security tension point, fueled far-right sentiment and defied British and French government efforts to make it go away. Critics contend that closing the camp may not solve the problem. The same court in Lille ordered the state in November to clean up the camp by adding running water, toilets and garbage bins, and counting the number of minors without families -- now 326 -- and help those in distress. Saving the migrants' temporary homes from bulldozers became a mass effort by volunteers, humanitarian groups and a dose of star power. British actor Jude Law paid a visit last weekend and 260 French figures signed a petition against destroying the camp. In announcing plans to close the camp, authorities cited security and sanitation concerns and the increasingly tarnished image of Calais, a city of nearly 80,000 that takes pride in drawing tourists to its Opal Coast. Its prime location -- with a major ferry port, Eurotunnel rail system and truck traffic crossing the English Channel -- has put it in the crosshairs of the migrant crisis. Residents have mostly learned to live with migrants in their midst. But tensions rose when the camp's population spiked to 6,000 last fall before dropping to 4,000 more recently. An increasingly vocal backlash is punctuated by militia-style violence. Truckers have grown exasperated or fearful of increasingly bold tactics by migrants trying to sneak rides across the English Channel. The area targeted for destruction is dotted with rickety shops, cafes, places of worship and schools, built by aid groups and the migrants, most of whom traveled from conflict zones like Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, or came to escape human rights abuses or poverty in African nations. A sense of anxiety mounted in the camp ahead of the court ruling. "Obviously, they are scared and concerned about what is going to happen," said Ed Sexton, of Help Refugees, one of numerous British associations working in the camp. "The people have been here months, living in terrible conditions, but they don't want their shelters destroyed." Weary travelers come to Calais driven by a dream -- circulated among migrants, peddled by smugglers -- that they will find peace and prosperity in Britain. Lacking papers, they have to sneak across the Channel, and at least 20 migrants have died trying since late June, according to authorities. Camp residents were offered the choice of being sent to temporary welcome centers around France, or staying in one of 125 heated containers set up last month in a fenced-in area behind the camp. "It's inhuman to live in the jungle. But certain associations, certain billionaire stars are telling us to leave things alone," the head of the region, conservative Xavier Bertrand, said during a visit last weekend. "That's enough. The jungle must be evacuated." Humanitarian workers predicted that those who refuse to leave would shelter in small groups elsewhere around Calais and the coast. "You're basically going to scatter a lot of people," said Maya Konforti of the association Auberge des Migrants. An Afghan who identified himself only as Jan said he would look elsewhere for a shelter if Calais were closed. "They are the government ... we can't fight with them," he said. Nearby Belgium, concerned about an influx of Calais evacuees, has implemented border checks. Another filthy camp known as a haven for smugglers, near Dunkirk, France, is being relocated to a more hygienic site with heated tents under the supervision of Doctors Without Borders. The prefecture, which announced plans to raze the camp on Feb. 12, said bulldozers would not touch the camp's makeshift churches, mosques and a just-opened school. Facing criticism of the eviction order, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve softened the ultimatum this week, saying the evacuation would be "progressive." Authorities view the razing of much of the camp as a turning point for Calais, but that's a far from certain outcome. A Red Cross-run camp in nearby Sangatte -- used during its three-year existence by some 68,000 refugees -- was shut down in 2002. Afterward, hundreds moved up the coast to set up small camps around Calais. Authorities periodically razed them, then opened a state-sponsored day center in April with showers, plugs to charge phones and a meal distribution center. That lured migrants chased from inside the city, who pitched camp nearby. Authorities allowed the camp to grow, and it evolved into a squalid slum town with some amenities of urban life that injected a sense of solidarity and conviviality into migrants' bleak lives. A United Nations draft resolution punishing North Korea would impose the toughest sanctions yet for its latest nuclear test and rocket launch, according to U.S. ambassador Samantha Power, who said Thursday, "The world will not accept your proliferation." The 22-page proposal would force inspections on all cargo going in and out of North Korea. It would ban the supply of aviation fuel, including rocket fuel, and would blacklist more individuals and entities tied to North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Speaking to the secretive regime, Power said, "There will be consequences for your actions, and we will work relentlessly and collectively to stop your nuclear program." Seven weeks have passed since North Korea claimed it conducted its first hydrogen bomb test. The U.S. and China agreed to the draft resolution Wednesday, Security Council diplomats told Fox News. A senior Western diplomat said a vote on the resolution could take place by this weekend. The U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China hold veto power over any resolution as permanent members. The agreement follows a flurry of activity in Washington, including meetings between China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday, and with National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Wednesday afternoon. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Rice and Wang agreed "on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through a U.N. Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions." "They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," Price said. Earlier on Wednesday, Kerry told a Congressional hearing: "We're on the brink of achieving a strong United Nations Security Council resolution." North Korea started off the new year with what it claims was its first hydrogen bomb test on Jan. 6 and followed that up with the launch of a satellite on a rocket on Feb. 7 that was condemned by much of the world as a test of banned missile technology. Over the past 10 years, North Korea has conducted four nuclear tests and launched six long-range missiles all in violation of Security Council resolutions. South Korea's U.N. Ambassador Oh Joon has urged the Security Council to adopt "extraordinary" measures to make clear to the North "that it will no longer tolerate its nuclear weapons development." The U.S., its Western allies and Japan, also pressed for new sanctions that go beyond the North's nuclear and missile programs. But China, Pyongyang's neighbor and supporter on the council, has been reluctant to impose measures that could threaten the stability of North Korea and cause the country's economy to collapse. Wang said Tuesday that a new U.N. resolution alone cannot resolve the North Korean nuclear issue and that dialogue was needed. He said China was urging a "parallel track" in which there were both talks on denuclearization the top priority of the United States and replacing the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a formal peace treaty, a key demand of Pyongyang. While the U.S. and China were discussing a new U.N. resolution, the United States took tougher steps of its own against North Korea, tightening sanctions and announcing it will hold formal talks with South Korea on deploying a missile defense system that China fears could be used against it as well North Korea. South Korea and Japan have also announced new measures against Pyongyang. Fox News' Jonathan Wachtel and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Bruegger's Bagels And Jamba Juice Launch Co-Branded Concept March opening in Melrose, Mass., is first of several planned for 2016. DALLAS, Feb. 25, 2016 // PRNewswire // -- Bruegger's Bagels, known for its authentic New York-style bagels and signature egg sandwiches, and Jamba Juice, a leading better-for-you specialty beverage brand, will open the first of several planned co-branded stores in early March in Melrose, Massachusetts. The partnership brings two great brands together under one roof. Guests can enjoy fresh-baked Bruegger's Bagels, 100 percent made-in-Vermont cream cheese, sandwiches, soups and salads alongside a great-tasting assortment of Jamba made-to-order smoothies, fresh squeezed juices, and Jamba Energy Bowls, a great-tasting, nutritious snack perfect for any time of the day. At the new Melrose location, Bruegger's Bagels will debut several new menu items including handcrafted cream cheese and new dessert options such as New York-style coffeecake, cheesecake brownies and Greek yogurt blueberry muffins. New coffee offerings include premium Rainforest Alliance Certified coffees, seasonal single-origin pour-over coffees, specialty espresso beverages and organic 20-hour cold brew coffee. "We tested the concept near the University of Connecticut campus, and it really demonstrated the power of this partnership," said Bruegger's Bagels President Paul Carolan. "With our Melrose location, we've expanded on what we've learned, adding a new service model and interior design, extended hours of operation, as well as premium menu extensions to enhance the guest experience even further." "Bruegger's Bagels' loyal following in the Boston area provides a great opportunity for us to introduce Jamba Juice in concert with a local favorite that has been serving the market for more than 30 years," said David Pace, CEO of Jamba, Inc. "The combination of the two brands will offer guests a unique variety and even more reasons to visit for breakfast, lunch, late afternoon snacks, dinner and beyond." Several other co-branded locations are currently under construction in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, with plans in the works for additional stores in the pipeline. About Bruegger's Bagels Bruegger's Enterprises, Inc. (BEI), a leader in the fast casual restaurant segment, operates 275+ Bruegger's Bagels bakeries in North America. Renowned for its authentic New York-style fresh-baked bagels, the chain also offers a wide variety of freshly prepared breakfast and lunch options made with high-quality, simple ingredients served with its unique brand of hospitality. Bruegger's Bagels is dedicated to the communities it serves and supports charitable causes locally and nationally. BEI's parent company, Groupe Le Duff, SA, is the world's second-largest company in the bakery-cafe sector. Founded in 1983, BEI is headquartered inDallas. About Jamba Jamba, Inc., owns and franchises Jamba Juice stores through its wholly owned subsidiary, Jamba Juice Company. Jamba Juice Company is a leading restaurant retailer of better-for-you, specialty beverage and food offerings, which include great-tasting, whole fruit smoothies, fresh-squeezed juices and juice blends, hot teas and a variety of food items including hot oatmeal, breakfast wraps, sandwiches, Artisan Flatbreads, Energy Bowls, baked goods and snacks. As of Sept. 29, 2015, there were 884 store locations globally. There were 94 company-owned and -operated stores and 720 franchise-operated stores in the United States, and 70 franchise-operated international stores. Jamba Juice Company expanded the Jamba brand by direct selling of consumer packaged goods and licensing its trademarks. CPG products for at-home enjoyment are also available online, through select retailers across the nation and in Jamba outlets in the United States. SOURCE Brueggers Bagels Media Contacts: Mike Fuccillo Jamba Juice Sr. Dir. Corporate Communications mfuccillo@jambajuice.com 510-596-0100, ext. 7 Alexis Harrison ICR for Jamba Juice Alexis.harrison@icrinc.com 203-682-8238 Sara Hundley or Heather Byrd For Bruegger's Bagels 24-hour Media Line: 817-329-3257 sh@spmcommunications.com heather@spmcommunications.com ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus FOCUS Brands Announces 2015 Franchisee of the Year Award Winners February 25, 2016 // Franchising.com // ATLANTA FOCUS Brands Inc., which is the franchisor and operator of more than 5,000 ice cream shoppes, bakeries, restaurants and cafes through its affiliate brands, announces its 2015 Franchisees of the Year, which recognize the leading franchise owners across the companys six brands: Auntie Annes, Carvel, Cinnabon, McAlisters Deli, Moes Southwest Grill, and Schlotzskys. The winners were honored February 16 at the 2016 FOCUS Brands Global Franchise Conference, held at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference brings franchisees and managers across the organization together with FOCUS Brands leadership and other industry professionals, to gain a deeper understanding of the food service industry, and to celebrate those who have made an impact within the organization. "We have an exceptionally talented roster of franchise operators within the FOCUS Brands family and were excited to recognize them through our Franchisee of the Year Awards program," said Paul Damico, President, FOCUS Brands North America. "This years winners reflect the success we experienced in 2015, and were excited for whats in store for them and all our franchisees this year as we work together to maximize growth potential and success for their business. The following are winners of the 2015 Franchisee of the Year Awards: Auntie Annes 2015 Franchisee of the Year (small) Crissy Parikh Crissy Parikh has been an Auntie Annes franchisee since 2012 and recently opened her second store in Louisiana. Parikh has quickly made an impression as a leading franchisee by embracing new ideas, building community relationships and treating her employees as family. 2015 Franchisee of the Year (mid-size) Mike Hatcher and Rick Taylor Ohio franchisees Mike Hatcher and Rick Taylor operate three Auntie Annes stores. Their organization is a pillar in the community, raising more than $122,000 for the local childrens hospital over the last 13 years, including $19,000 in 2015. Hatcher and Taylor are also dedicated supporters of the Girl Scouts, hosting pretzel tours for more than 800 girls last year. 2015 Franchisee of the Year (large) Linda Read A franchisee since 1994, Linda Read owns 10 Auntie Annes stores. Operating in the competitive Southern California market, she is constantly finding ways to elevate the brand over local competitors. Read identifies innovative and creative ways to market her business and build the brand, and serves on the Auntie Annes Franchise Advisory Council. Carvel 2015 Tom Carvel Franchisee of the Year Neil and Tracy Wallach A franchisee since 2014, Neil and Tracy Wallach were the first to open the Carvel 80th anniversary shoppe design and exceeded sales expectations in their first year. In their second year, sales increased more than 10 percent over the prior year. The Wallachs are amazing brand advocates and operators, and are involved with their local community, which has set the stage for additional new unit openings. Cinnabon 2015 Franchisee of the Year Vincent Au Yeung Vincent Au Yeung became a franchisee with Cinnabon three years ago and in that time has opened six locations from Raleigh, NC, to Brandon, FL. Au Yeung has been a pioneer in Kiosk operations and development with four kiosk locations, with one finishing 2015 at $3,000 per square foot in total sales. McAlisters Deli 2015 Franchisee of the Year Peak Restaurants, LLC Peak Restaurants had a standout year in 2015, with extraordinary achievements in new restaurant development, food safety, and overall guest satisfaction. The group owns 10 McAlisters locations in Tennessee and Virginia. Moes Southwest Grill 2015 Franchisee of the Year Mike Walsh Mike Walsh, a franchisee with Moes for more than 10 years, owns and operates nine Moes locations throughout Long Island, NY, some of the highest volume stores in the system. Not only has he delivered a strong financial performance, but his loyalty to his employees has led to many of them staying on board with him since day one. Walsh consistently builds awareness for the brand in the Long Island market though his grassroots focus and execution of community events, sponsorships and catering. Schlotzskys 2015 Don & Dolores Dissman Franchise Partner of the Year Cary & Jackie Albert Franchisees since 1994, Cary and Jackie Albert exemplify what it means to be a true partnership in business. The Alberts own 31 Schlotzskys locations in Dallas-Fort Worth and South Texas and every year their organization contributes significantly to the North Texas Food Bank through a donation system based on their catering business. To learn more about any of the FOCUS Brands restaurant franchises, please contact (800) 227-8353 or visit www.focusbrands.com to learn more. About FOCUS Brands Inc. Atlanta-based FOCUS Brands Inc., through its affiliates, is the franchisor and operator of more than 5,000 ice cream shoppes, bakeries, restaurants and cafes in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 60 foreign countries under the brand names Carvel, Cinnabon, Schlotzskys, Moes Southwest Grill, Auntie Annes and McAlisters Deli, as well as Seattles Best Coffee on certain military bases and in certain international markets. Please visit www.focusbrands.com to learn more. SOURCE FOCUS Brands Inc. Contact: Lauren Tweet Allison+Partners (404) 832-7182 Focus@allisonpr.com ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Giant Tiger to Build New Store in Longueuil, Quebec OTTAWA, ONTARIO - (Marketwired - Feb. 25, 2016) - Giant Tiger is excited to announce the opening of a new store in Longueuil, Quebec, scheduled to open on July 16, 2016. The new Giant Tiger will be located at 3630 chemin de Chambly and will have approximately 23,500 square feet of selling space. "We are excited to bring our outstanding value and fun shopping experience to Longueuil," said Thomas Haig, President and COO of Giant Tiger Stores Limited. "Residents of Longueuil have been asking for a Giant Tiger for some time now and we are happy to finally break ground here and are looking forward to being part of the community." To celebrate the grand opening on July 16, there will be community events and programming planned throughout the day. To keep up to date on the new store development, follow us on Facebook. facebook.com/LongueuilTG/ About Giant Tiger Giant Tiger is the leading Canadian owned family discount store, committed to providing on trend family fashions, groceries and everyday needs. Established in 1961 in Ottawa's ByWard Market, the privately held company has over 200 locations across Canada and employs over 7,000 team members. All Giant Tiger locations are locally owned or operated by a team member who knows the community. In 2001, the North West Company entered into a franchise agreement with Giant Tiger Stores Limited to open and operate Giant Tiger stores in Western Canada. The friendly local stores with the iconic yellow tiger logo are not only where Canadians shop more and spend less, but they help bring communities together. For more information on the company, please visit www.gianttiger.com or join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gianttiger and follow us on Twitter @GTboutique. Giant Tiger, a proud Canadian company since FOREVER! SOURCE Giant Tiger Stores Limited Contact: Sara Chesiuk Manager Public Relations and Community Activation Giant Tiger Stores Limited schesiuk@gianttiger.com ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus HomeVestors Announces New Sales Growth Milestone: 65,000 Houses and Counting DALLAS - February 24, 2016 - (BUSINESS WIRE) - HomeVestors of America, the largest professional home buying network of independently owned and operated franchisees, proudly announces reaching several impressive milestones at the end of 2015. First, the company added 202 new franchisees in 2015 bringing the total number of franchises to 660 franchises. Second, the We Buy Ugly Houses company officially purchased 65,000 houses. This announcement comes on the heels of the companys 2015 annual meeting award recipients. These milestones come 20 years after the establishment of HomeVestors. Reaching this milestone exemplifies the dedication each franchisee has put forth to accomplish this goal, said HomeVestors co-president, Ken Channell. Together, we are able to accomplish great achievements such as the two milestones we reached in 2015. As we are celebrating our 20th anniversary this year, it is especially rewarding to reach 660 franchises and 65,000 houses purchased, said co-president David Hicks. Our team has worked hard to achieve such success and Im proud to be a part of it. In addition to reaching two milestones, HomeVestors also recently celebrated being named a franchise among Franchise Business Reviews Top 50 Franchises, a distinction awarded to franchisors with the highest level of franchisee satisfaction. About HomeVestors Dallas-based HomeVestors of America, Inc. is the largest professional house buying franchise in the U.S., with more than 65,000 houses bought since 1996. HomeVestors recruits, trains and supports its independently owned and operated franchisees that specialize in building businesses based on buying, rehabbing, selling and holding residential properties. Most commonly known as the "We Buy Ugly Houses" company, HomeVestors strives to make a positive impact in each community. In 2015, for the tenth consecutive year, HomeVestors was among the prestigious Franchise Business Review's "Top 50 Franchises," a distinction awarded to franchisors with the highest level of franchisee satisfaction. In 2015, HomeVestors was recognized as the 19th fastest growing franchise by Entrepreneur Magazine and in 2016 the company is number 91 in the Franchise 500 by Entrepreneur Magazine. For more information, visit www.HomeVestors.com. SOURCE HomeVestors Contact: Stacey Gaswirth For HomeVestors 214-213-4675 sgaswirth@csdallas.com ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus N-Hance Wood Renewal Announces Release of Groundbreaking Technology Leader in Cabinet and Hardwood Renewal Introduces Anti-Microbial UV Finish to Keep Homes Healthy LOGAN, Utah - February 24, 2016 - (BUSINESS WIRE) - A new product has been released by N-Hance Wood Renewal that will transform the cabinet and hardwood floor renewal industry. Beginning February 2016, the leader in cabinet and hardwood floor renewal will incorporate the new, first of its kind, Lightspeed Plus anti-microbial Ultra Violet (UV) finish into its already innovative Lightspeed Instant-Cure system. The new Lightspeed Plus anti-microbial finish will keep homes safer and healthier after a home improvement project by reducing bacteria growth by 99 percent and effectively eliminating dangerous microbes such as E. Coli and Staph. The finish will be effective as long as it remains intact, as it is not water-soluble, and cannot be wiped-off with normal cleaning. In addition, by encapsulating the seams of the wood, the finished product is less likely to trap harmful germs and is easier to clean. The wood finish builds up the factory wear layer for added protection from foot traffic and other stains. The new anti-microbial wood finish is different than anything we have offered before because it allows us to give the customer a surface that inhibits the growth of bacteria, ensuring a healthier home, said Jesse Gibbs, Director of Product Development at N-Hance Wood Renewal. Very few refinishers have adopted this groundbreaking technology and even fewer offer the product in an Instant-Cure method. We expect this state-of-the-art service to have a very positive impact on our customers and the industry. The Lightspeed Plus UV finish cures within minutes and is recommended for wooden surfaces. With matte, satin, semi-gloss and gloss finishes available, most jobs can be completed in as little as one day. The Lightspeed technology eliminates the hassle of dust, mess or odor and saves customers time and thousands of dollars compared to alternative refinishing and refacing methods. A major plus of the system is its long-term effects, Gibbs said. Not only are customers living in healthy homes for long durations of time but theyll be saving money while doing so because they do not have to spend countless dollars on new refinishing projects. The new anti-microbial finish will be offered at all company franchise locations and will be the new company standard. N-Hance Wood Renewal has more than 380 locations in the United States and Canada and is the trusted partner of the Home Depot, holding a presence in more than 1,550 locations across the nation. About N-Hance Wood Renewal Based in Logan, Utah and founded in 2001, N-Hance Wood Renewal is the trusted partner of the Home Depot with a presence in more than 1,550 locations. Using a proprietary chemical abrasion and refinishing technique that requires no sanding, N-Hance Wood Renewal restores the natural beauty of hardwood flooring, trims and cabinets at one-third to one-fifth the cost of traditional re-facing or replacing of cabinets. The companys powerful Lightspeed U.V. curing technology shortens the refinishing process and produces less dust, mess and odor than traditional methods, making it ideal for homes and businesses. N-Hance Wood Renewal has more than 382 franchises across the United States and Canada and is backed by Harris Research, Inc., the same company that grew Chem-Dry into the worlds largest carpet cleaning company. For more information, please visithttp://www.buynhance.com or visit http://nhancefranchise.com/ to learn about franchise opportunities. SOURCE N-Hance Wood Renewal Contact: Mike Garabedian Fishman Public Relations 847-945-1300 MGarabedian@fishmanpr.com ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus In this rapidly developing topic, we aim to provide you with the ability to share your experiences, questions and news with us. Simply choose one of the options below and your story may be featured in this section. Learn More Essential Businesses Share Your Story Ask Questions Submit News Subscribe Makoshika is pure Montana. The documentary film by three Billings filmmakers director Jessica Jane Hart and producers Pete Tolton and Stan Parker explores the boom-bust cycle that most of our state has suffered through at one time or another. It highlights the chaotic cycle that is happening now in the Bakken oil fields of Eastern Montana and Western North Dakota. Sound designer Tarek Fouda, the lone member of the team who is not from Montana, brought an outsiders perspective to the wind-swept prairies east of Billings. During a screening of the film Monday in Missoula at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Fouda said he tried to summon the sound of emptiness in the 50-minute film. He got it just right by incorporating the sound of the wind. Any Montanan knows that sound well. Makoshika will be screened Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Babcock Theatre, followed by a Q&A session with filmmakers and an after-party in the Babcock Arcade. It will also be shown Monday, Feb. 29 at the high school in Richey and March 4-10 at the Art House Cinema and Pub. The film was shot in 2014, with some winter scenes taken when temperatures were below zero. Hart said her challenge was not to keep her cameras warm but not to let them warm up too fast. I kept my camera in a cooler and tried wrapping it in blankets, Hart said. The camera survived, and so did the crew just like the hardy farmers, ranchers and oil field workers who dress in what one man described as a bubble suit to stay warm in the harshest conditions. The film beautifully captures the cold and vastness of the plains with shots of iced-over, two-lane highways and snow blowing across stubble fields of cut hay. The scenic shots were balanced with interviews with some colorful characters. A crowd favorite on Monday during the screening was Cowboy Travis, who strums his guitar and sings a goofy, unfinished tune about the Bakken and his dog Jack. Theres a joke here that a good woman is behind every tree in North Dakota, Travis said. Shine your light over there and see if you can find any trees because there arent any. Hart said she set out to report on the Bakken in a way that looked at the historical cycle of boom and bust, but also one that goes beyond the headlines. It seemed like the news coverage was all about the drugs and craziness, Hart said. The title of the film is taken from a Lakota word that means badlands. Makoshika is also the name of a state park near Glendive, but that park is not part of this film. Makoshika utilizes old black-and-white photos of the homestead era, and historians in the film discuss the hardships pioneers faced trying to raise crops during the droughts in Eastern Montana. It felt good to see the names of dozens of Montana folks who contributed $13,000 to a Kickstarter campaign to fund the film. Humanities Montana also provided a $6,000 grant and the filmmakers poured everything they had into the film. There was a lot of nickel-and-diming out of our own pocket, Tolton said. The soundtrack features Montana musicians, including several names familiar to Billings folks, including Parker Brown and John Kemmick. The screening in Richey will undoubtedly be packed because the films strongest interviews came from that area, including the Senner family and the Lindquists. Makoshika also provides a Native American perspective using interviews with Native people from the Fort Peck Reservation struggling through contaminated soil from drilling. Sure, Makoshika is about the oil boom and the bust that will inevitably follow it, but it is also a Montana story of determination and gumption, despite the odds. Experts say Americans spend between 10 and 13 hours sitting every day. Thats a lot of time spent in some kind of seat. How much do we consider the pieces of furniture that support and sustain us in our waking hours? A new exhibit at the Virginia Historical Society invites us to do just that. The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design, through April 17, launches the humble chair into the spotlight with 43 unique designs created between 1810 and 2010. Who doesnt have a favorite chair? At home and in the workplace, we tend to claim them and guard them until others begin to identify us by them. Diane D. Jacobsen, Ph.D., has collected more than 50 favorite chairs. Shes sharing most of them in The Art of Seating exhibit, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, Fla. It has been traveling throughout the United States and Canada since 2011. A chair is so approachable, Jacobsen said. We all identify with a chair, we cant help it. It is true. The gallery is filled with deep cushions covered with lush fabrics of every variety, framed by all kinds of woods, metals, bamboo, formica, fiberglasseven corrugated cardboard, all silently inviting the viewer to have a seat. Yes, Ive sat in every one of them, Jacobsen smiled. But I dont allow anyone else to sit in them. Naturally. But we can imagineand we do, in such an innovative atmosphere. Imagine sitting, for example, in the Centripetal Spring Arm Chair from 1849, with its set of cast iron legs connected to a cast iron chair frame by eight semicircular springs, topped with a deep cushion in voluptuous red velvet, including arm rests, a back and head cushion. This is the precursor to both the easy chair and the office chair, designed for comfort and convenience, allowing the user to move laterally and rotate in any combination of directions. The designer was Thomas E. Warren, working for the American Chair Co. in Troy, N.Y. He patterned it after the spring system of train car seats to absorb shock, Jacobsen said. Or place yourself in the Texas Longhorn Arm Chair dating from 1890, designed and manufactured by Wenzel Friedrich. He saw all these horns laying around going to waste, Jacobsen said. He soaked them, bent them, filled them with cementits an incredible work of art, and very solid. The seat cushion and back are covered in a rich royal blue silk, with Tiffany casters on the end of each horned leg. There was a huge fascination with the American West at the time, Jacobsen said. Both Queen Victoria and the German Kaiser Wilhelm II got one of these chairs. You can even imagine yourself perching on a curious stool made of corrugated cardboard shaped something like a letter R, that actually looks like a piece of sculpture. Simply called High Stool, it was designed in 1971 by the legendary architect Frank Gehry, who later designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and many other buildings. We actually have an ad from the 1970s with three of those stools holding up a Volkswagen to show its strength, said Jacobsen. Its very durableit has a core of masonite. A PASSION FALLS INTO PLACE Jacobsen, a successful business executive, international affairs scholar, community leader and collector of American art, began her chair collection more than 10 years ago. In honor of her husband, Thomas, who died of leukemia in 2002, Jacobsen donated funds to build a new gallery in the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens near her home in Jacksonville. As I was looking for pedestals for the new gallery, a dealer said he had some Egyptian revival chairs and asked if I wanted to look at them, Jacobsen said. They were stunning! Jacobsen said she fell in love with them. One of those chairs, an 1875 Egyptian Revival Side Chair made of ebonized cherry, is included in The Art of Seating exhibit. It features a stunning carved, winged sphinx in profile on the chair back. Even then, Jacobsen didnt think she was starting a collection. But as she continued her work with other arts, she came across additional chairs, and her interest grew. Once youve bought three of something, youre hooked, youve become a collector! Jacobsen said. Also, the idea of exploring the history of American design through the medium of chair construction fascinated her. It is completely American, Jacobsen said. It is a work of art that serves a very practical purpose. It became a passion. Its something I really love! You have to be hands on, to get down, look underneath, see the craftsmanship, she said. And then theres the research, who made it, where and when, what kind of impact it hadall this is provided in the exhibit for each item, as well as a list of coinciding historic events to give the viewer context, and any art or architectural details that apply. Jacobsen is meticulous about finding the right fabrics, the passementerie (tassels, fringes and other trimmings), and the restoration and maintenance of each piece. Putting all this together has really been the effort of so many wonderful people, said Jacobsen. Everyone went out of their way to really get it right, they truly worked magic. Although averse to the idea of a favorite, Jacobsen did admit to at least a partiality toward one chair in the exhibit: the graceful Grasshopper Arm Chair with ottoman, designed in 1946 by Finnish-born American architect Eero Saarinen, who also designed the St. Louis Gateway Arch. I actually have one just like it in my office, Jacobsen said. I really do love it, now and then, to sit back low, put my feet up, drink a Pepsi or beer sometimes and just relax. Emily Jennings is a Stafford-based freelance writer. LAS VEGAS With Donald Trump's grasp on the Republican presidential nomination tightening, the billionaire businessman's rivals get one more chance to challenge the GOP front-runner on the debate stage before next week's slate of Super Tuesday contests. The situation is likely more dire for the other GOP candidates than they'd like voters to believe. Yet Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have so far shown little willingness to take on the former reality television star when the national spotlight shines brightest. That could change Thursday night in Houston. "The vast and overwhelming majority of Republicans do not want Donald Trump to be our nominee," Rubio told NBC, suggesting that Trump is winning only because the other candidates are splitting up the majority of the electorate. For his part, the New York billionaire predicted the relative civility between Rubio and himself is about to disappear. The ninth Republican debate of the presidential campaign will take place just a few days before 11 states hold GOP elections that will either cement Trump's dominance or let his rivals slow his march to his party's presidential nomination. "Time still exists, but not much," said Liz Mair, a Republican operative leading one of the anti-Trump movements. "The strategy of ignoring the front-runner is not working. Cruz and Rubio need to tag-team to cause Trump problems." How they do so is still to be determined. To date, Trump has proved largely immune to traditional political attacks, something he reveled in on Wednesday. "I seem to have a very good track record when to do go after me," the New York real estate mogul told NBC. The task is made more complicated by the shift from single-state campaigns to a new phase of the race, where the candidates must compete across several states at the same time. Next Tuesday features voting in a mix of states that include Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, Massachusetts and Virginia, with more to come in the weeks after. "Now these campaigns are in the position of having to use debates to try and shape or change voter perceptions across more than a dozen states in the space of 18 or 19 days," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden. "That's a daunting task." Trump won Nevada's presidential caucuses on Tuesday with more than 45 percent of the vote, scoring his third consecutive primary victory in dominant fashion. Rubio edged out Cruz for runner-up for the second consecutive race, with Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson far off the pace. As they seek to become the Trump alternative, Cruz and Rubio have significant liabilities of their own. Cruz comes into the debate at the weakest point of his presidential campaign after a staff shakeup and three consecutive third-place finishes. The Texas senator ousted a senior aide on Monday after the aide promoted an inaccurate news report that Rubio had condemned the Bible during a chance encounter with Cruz's father. The aide's dismissal helps legitimize Trump and Rubio charges that Cruz has been running an unethical campaign. Even while vulnerable, Cruz signaled an aggressive stance heading into the debate. He lashed out at Trump and Rubio as "Washington dealmakers" while talking to reporters in Houston on Wednesday. Rubio, Cruz said, had worked with Democrats to craft an immigration overhaul, while Trump has given money to Democrats and backed their priorities at times in recent years. "I don't think the people of Texas and I don't think the people of this country want another Washington dealmaker to go and surrender more to the Democrats, giving in to the failed liberal agenda," Cruz said. Rubio, meanwhile, is just one debate removed from a primetime meltdown. The Florida senator repeated himself several times in a New Hampshire debate less than three weeks ago, triggering what he now calls "the New Hampshire disappointment." He avoided a similar mistake in the subsequent debate, but critics in both parties will be laser-focused on anything that suggests the 44-year-old legislator isn't sufficiently prepared to move into the White House. But Rubio, who has been reluctant to publicly talk about Trump by name, stepped up his aggressiveness Wednesday. In an appearance in Houston, he criticized Trump for what Rubio said was a failure to strongly oppose the federal health care law derided by critics as "Obamacare." The Florida senator also said "the front-runner in this race, Donald Trump, has said he's not going to take sides on Israel versus the Palestinians because he wants to be an honest broker." Rubio said there was no such thing "because the Palestinian Authority, which has strong links to terror, they teach little kids, 5-year-olds, that it's a glorious thing to kill Jews." He also named Trump in accusing him of thinking "parts of Obamacare are pretty good" drawing boos. Emboldened by the recent departure of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush from the race, Rubio has fresh momentum after two consecutive second-place finishes. His team is convinced they must dispatch with Cruz before turning their full attention to taking down Trump. Rubio also said that he'd respond to Trump and Cruz if attacked in Thursday's debate, but that, "I didn't run for office to tear up other Republicans." And after eight debates, it's unclear what sort of attacks could work against Trump. As his resume would suggest, he's proven to be a master showman on primetime television. "It seems that the Trump people like Trump no matter what he says," said Republican strategist John Feehery. "This debate is all about who is the Trump alternative." After months of staying neutral in his partys primary, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is endorsing Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. A spokeswoman for the Nevada senator said Wednesday that Reid was making the endorsement, which comes four days after Clinton won his states caucuses. Reid participated but voted as uncommitted, saying he would remain neutral in the competition between Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders so he could not be accused of rigging the caucuses. The high-profile endorsement is a boost to Clinton and comes from the most senior Democrat in the Senate. Clinton also has secured the backing of Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the assistant Democratic leader in the House. The former first lady, New York senator and secretary of state narrowly won Iowa, suffered a double-digit loss to Sanders in New Hampshire and prevailed in Nevada. She leads in public polls ahead of Saturdays South Carolina primary. In an interview with CNN, Reid said the middle class would be better served by Clinton. I think that my work with her over the years has been something that I have looked upon with awe, he told CNN. He noted her work on health care, and said shes the woman to become the first female president of the United States. Elsewhere in the presidential campaign Tuesday: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is bristled over questions about whether hed be pressured to leave the GOP nomination fight if he does not win all of his home states 155 delegates on Tuesday. Cruz says he is curious how many reporters ask Marco Rubio, After losing four states in a row, so when do you drop out? He noted that Rubio hasnt won a state nominating contest while Donald Trump has won three in a row after Cruzs Iowa victory. John Kasich sent out a message to Republicans who think he should drop out of the GOP presidential contest: Forget about it. With Jeb Bush out of the race, Kasichs and Marco Rubios campaigns are in a fierce battle to become the so-called establishment alternative to front-runner Trump. Jeb Bush thanked his vast network of donors Wednesday and lamenting that he was unable to break through in a year of making a compelling case to people that were deeply disaffected and angry. Bush isnt saying who he will support or who his backers should get behind now that he is out of the race. Will Virginia voters help Donald Trump complete his hostile takeover of the Republican Party? Are there enough socialists in the commonwealth to give Bernie Sanders a boost against not-as-strong-as-expected front-runner Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination? Those two questions will be answered in next weeks primary. On Super Tuesday, Virginia joins 10 other states scattered across the nation in the presidential nominating sweepstakes thats likely to draw record turnout. The results could further winnow the field of five Republicans remaining in the fray and will show whether Sanders revolution has national appeal. Clearly, voters are disgusted with politics as usual a deeply divided federal government thats always headed to the next fiscal cliff; a sluggish economy that some say has a chance of slipping back into recession; and constant fights over immigration, national security, trade deals, you name it. Washington insiders and their gridlock have given rise to both Trump and Sanders. These outsiders have capitalized on frustration over stagnating middle-class wages and concern about the nations direction. The party establishments and big donors are complicit in this mess. Still, as voters from the Fredericksburg region prepare to cast their ballots in either the Republican or Democratic primary on March 1, we hope they will support candidates who seek practical, common-sense solutions that reflect the values of our nation and home state. We firmly believe that we need a president who can unite rather than divide people. With that in mind, we cannot support Trump, the foul-mouthed, billionaire bully who has turned the campaign into one interminable reality-TV show. Hes a political chameleon; a conservative of convenience who knows how to exploit opportunity. The Teflon that prevents his antics from sticking will wear thin sooner or later. True presidential material would never utter: I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldnt lose voters, as Trump did at a rally in Iowa last month. Thankfully, many Republican voters already know this. Though Trump has won three contests, his margin of victory isnt insurmountable if voters rally around another GOP candidate. KASICH IS BEST CHOICE; RUBIO RISING IN GOP FIELD We believe that the better choice for Republicans and the nation is Ohio Gov. John Kasich. He has significant experience on Capitol Hill as a deficit-cutting congressman from 1983 to 2001. As governor for the past five years, he has helped create jobs and cut taxes. He turned a state budget deficit into a surplus. He even placed the health concerns of poor people ahead of partisanship and expanded Medicaid there something Virginia hasnt done. Though behind in the delegate count and polls to Trump, Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, Kasich has the experience and temperament to get things done in Washington. Its worth noting that Republican presidential victories always include winning Ohio. If Kasich cant map a route to victory on Tuesday, Republican still have an option in Rubio, the first-term senator from Florida. Many past and present Republican leaders have endorsed his bid to stop Trump. Rubio would secure Americas borders and deal with illegal immigration rather than try to deport 12 million people as Trump has ridiculously proposed. Mass deportation is economically and physically impossible. Rubios measured-yet-determined approach to national security and defense is far better than the sound bites Cruz and Trump offer as policy. Cruz, a first-term Texas senator known for his combative, ultra-conservative stances, is not what the nation needs. HILLARY CLINTON RESILIENT DESPITE TROUBLES On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is the only reasonable choice to move the nation forward. Though Sanders has a knack of highlighting issues that resonate with disaffected voters, especially millennials, his solutions are far from fiscally sound or achievable in the current political environment. Unlike Sanders, we believe government should be limited and free enterprise should allow people with ideas and drive to achieve their dreams. Consider the costs and fundamental changes required for his single-payer healthcare system and free college plan. Clinton, on the other hand, focuses on solutions that arent so intrusive and have a chance of passage. On health care, she wants the government to have a role in setting insurance rates. She would expand Obamacare, but not attempt to create universal health care. On education, she would seek tax credits for college students by closing some tax loopholes. She supports funding universal pre-K. It must be noted that because of, or in spite of, her roles as first lady, senator and secretary of state, polls show that Hillary Clintons image among Americans remains largely negative, (51 percent in the latest Gallup survey). Investigations have long dogged the Clintons. The FBI has been examining the former secretary of states handling of email since last July, when an inspector general found that classified information could have been mishandled. Its anyones guess when the probe will end and whether there will be an indictment. At this point, there are no easy choices among the field of candidates seeking the presidency. But whatever your prescription is for our nations ills, its up to you to dispense it at the polls on Super Tuesday. To do that, you have to vote. 1 North Wealth Services Debuts New State of the Art Website 1 North Wealth is an investment advisory firm offering fee-only financial planning and investment advice. -- Jay Middleton, ChFC, and Jim Brennan, CFP, Principals of 1 North Wealth Services, LLC, located in the Annapolis Exchange on Jennifer Rd in Annapolis, MD, recently announced the launch of the firm's new, full-featured Dynamic website and corporate brand redesign. According to Jay Middleton, Principal, "The look of the site is more closely aligned with the company's strategic vision of the future. It offers a clean, state of the art design with its easy-to-navigate functionality and content-rich site experience." 1 North Wealth is an investment advisory firm offering fee-only financial planning and investment advice. The firm has worked with individuals, families and business owners seeking to achieve their financial goals and visions in the Annapolis area and along the East Coast for over 30 years. "We are very proud of the new website. Not only does it provide a useful, informative portal for our clients and prospects, it allows everyone to learn about what 1 North stands for as well," stated Mr. Brennan. For more information about us, please visit http://www.1northwealthservices.com Contact Info: Name: Jay C. Middleton Email: info@1northwealthservices.com Organization: 1 North Wealth Services Address: 1997 Annapolis Exchange Suite 250, Annapolis, Maryland, USA, 21401 Phone: 410-975-0099 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/1-north-wealth-services-debuts-new-state-of-the-art-website/104871 Release ID: 104871 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Ecosystem Market Analysis Report, 2030 : Radiant Insights,Inc RadiantInsights.com includes new market research report on "VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Ecosystem Market Size, Share And Trends Report To 2030 : Radiant Insights" to its huge collection of research reports. -- VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is a technology specification that lays down the procedures and standards for the delivery of voice and data over 4G LTE networks. It offers a way to create, provision, and manage high-speed services (voice, video, messaging) on 4G wireless network for portable devices including mobiles. This will greatly lower dependence on legacy circuit-switched networks. VoLTE cannot work on networks that are incompatible with IP multimedia subsystem. Moreover, it only supports packet switching. Global VoLTE ecosystem market would be valued at USD 121 billion by 2020. Volumes are expected to grow at a CAGR of 32% from 2015 to 2020. By 2020, more than 955 million units of VoLTE services would have been shipped globally. Browse Full Research Report With TOC On " The VoLTE (Voice over LTE) Ecosystem: 2015 - 2030 - Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies & Forecasts" at: http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/the-volte-voice-over-lte-ecosystem-2015-2030-opportunities-challenges-strategies-&-forecasts Mobile operators perceive VoLTE to be the long term solution for securing a completely native IP based telephony experience. They are migrating current mobile voice subscribers to LTE for refarming their 2G/3G spectrum. Some vendors are also integrating their VoLTE services with WiFi calling. This will enable them to offer voice services even in those areas where they have limited licensed spectrum coverage. The future will witness integration of virtualized VoLTE offerings with cloud platforms. The main reason wireless operators are replacing older 2G networks with 4G LTE networks is that it will result in more efficient use of their network resources. This will greatly reduce their operating costs and improve profitability. Consumers are expected to benefit from high-definition voice, RCS (Rich Communications Services), faster call setup times, better battery life, and device interoperability. When VoLTE services become truly interoperable, technology barriers will cease to exist. All carriers would deliver data and voice services via the same 4G LTE technology. Browse All Reports of This Category at: o Military Communications Market - http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/the-military-communications-market-2015-2030-opportunities-challenges-strategies-forecast o LTE, LTE-Advanced & 5G Ecosystem - http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/the-lte-lte-advanced-5g-ecosystem-2015-2020-infrastructure-devices-operator-services-verticals-strategies-forecasts About Radiant Insight Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. We assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. We have a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets. For more information about us, please visit http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/the-volte-voice-over-lte-ecosystem-2015-2030-opportunities-challenges-strategies-&-forecasts Contact Info: Name: Michelle Thoras Organization: Radiant Insights, Inc. Address: 28 2nd Street Phone: 14153490054 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/volte-voice-over-lte-ecosystem-market-analysis-report-2030-radiant-insightsinc/104890 Release ID: 104890 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) LARAMIE A Laramie man has been accused of making intimidating Facebook posts about a witness in his wife's felony child abuse case. Brad Herod, 32, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to felony witness intimidation. Police say Herod posted messaged on his Facebook timeline directed at a witness in his wife's child abuse case. The witness told officers she was frightened by the messages, which included comments about shooting the witness for having his child taken away. A trial has been scheduled for May 24. According to court documents, the charges against Herod's wife were dismissed in January. Madbury Road Launches Redesigned Website Madbury Road, one of the nation's leaders in outdoor patio furniture for residential and commercial uses, has launched a redesigned website in order to better cater to shoppers. -- Madbury Road, one of the nation's leaders in outdoor patio furniture for residential and commercial uses, has launched a redesigned website in order to better cater to shoppers. "The new website is much cleaner and easier for the user to navigate," said Tim Clement, co-owner and co-founder of Madbury Road. "The new layout clearly showcases Madbury Road's ability to provide a furniture solution at an unbeatable value for both the residential and the commercial shopper." According to Clement, the company's recent success necessitated a change to the website. The company has grown significantly, and the old website simply wasn't sufficient to keep up with the change the company has experienced. "The business has quadrupled in size since that last website was built which means it was made for a much smaller and different company," said Clement. "New collections have been added, as well as commercial indoor and outdoor furniture for restaurants and hotels. The new site captures all of those things in a clear, organized way," he added. Clement said the new website's features were inspired by things that the company needed to improve on. The new site is responsive which means it will adapt to the size of customers' screen. This will provide potential customers with an optimal experience, whether viewing on a desktop, smart phone, tablet, or any other device. "This will be the 3rd website since the company was founded. In each case, the team has taken the things that needed improvement and integrated them into the new site." Through Madbury Road's new website, customers can order a variety of outdoor furniture that can be shipped nationwide. For customers that live near the San Francisco, Rhode Island, or New Jersey locations, the furniture will be personally delivered. Additionally, through its new website, Madbury Road is now offering customers its Try Us At Home delivery service, allowing potential customers to see how the furniture would fit in his or her home, with no obligation to buy. According to the site, a Madbury Road representative "will bring [the] furniture right to your front door, open it up so you can touch, feel, and sit on it and even see how the set would look in your space." This service is now offered free of charge to customers located near one of Madbury Road's three locations. Contact Info: Name: Brady Bartlett Email: info@madburyroad.com Phone: (866) 331-6042 Organization: Madbury Road Source: http://www.prreach.com/pr/22615 Release ID: 104970 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global and Chinese Phenylalanine Market Research Report Published by Radiant Insights New Market Research Reports Title "Global and Chinese Phenylalanine Industry, 2015 Market Research Report" Has Been Added to Radiant Insights, Inc Report database -- The 'Global and Chinese Phenylalanine Industry, 2010-2020 Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Phenylalanine industry with a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Phenylalanine manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry. For further inquiries, about - Phenylalanine Market Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2010 - 2020, click on this link - http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-phenylalanine-industry-2015-market-research-report Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2010-2015 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Phenylalanine industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report then estimates 2015-2020 market development trends of Phenylalanine industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Phenylalanine Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2010-2020 global and Chinese Phenylalanine industry covering all important parameters. Some Related Reports of This Category by Radiant Insights: o Laminboard Market: http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-laminboard-industry-2015-market-research-report o Methyl Methacrylate(MMA) Market: http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-methyl-methacrylate-mma-industry-2015-market-research-report About Radiant Insight Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. We assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. We have a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets. For more information about us, please visit http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-phenylalanine-industry-2015-market-research-report Contact Info: Name: Michelle Thoras Email: sales@radiantinsights.com Organization: Radiant Insights Inc Phone: 1-415-349-0058 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/global-and-chinese-phenylalanine-market-research-report-published-by-radiant-insights/104892 Release ID: 104892 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) LHD Lawyers Re-brands and Expands Services LHD Lawyers has launched a brand new website, new logo and moved to a new office in Sydney's CBD. -- LHD Lawyers have been supporting thousands of Australians with compensation claims for over 25 years. Earlier this year, LHD lawyers rebranded their company's website, logo and even moved to a new location within Sydney's Central Business District. Over the years, LHD Lawyers have built a strong track record with 99% success rate supported by a "no win, no fee" deal with clients. In the past, LHD Lawyers focused more on compensation claims as their main priority, however, with the company rebranding they have extended their services into Commercial Law and General Law. Some of their key services introduced in 2016 are: - Criminal Law - Estate Law - Property & Conveyancing - Family Law LHD Lawyers have just launched their new website which gives a new look and feel, developed by a leading digital marketing agency based in Sydney. The website's new functionality includes location detection to serve you the best and most relevant content possible. As LHD Lawyers have four locations: Sydney, Brisbane, Port Macquarie and Taree. With each state law being different around content for lawyers, it's important to localise the content on the new website. This means, Queensland visitors for instance would only be served content relevant to them and their state. LHD Lawyers has also moved location within Sydney's CBD. Thier new office moved just down the road from Elizabeth Street to Castlereagh Street. See all LHD Lawyers office locations. For more information about us, please visit http://www.lhd.com.au/ Contact Info: Name: Marketing Manager Organization: LHD Lawyers Address: Level 8, 151 Castlereagh Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Phone: 1800 455 725 Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OggkUJTAtGE Source: http://marketersmedia.com/lhd-lawyers-re-brands-and-expands-services/104998 Release ID: 104998 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) SON (Self-Organizing Networks) Ecosystem Market Growth Report To 2030 : Radiant Insights,Inc RadiantInsights.com includes new market research report on "Global SON (Self-Organizing Networks) Ecosystem Market Size, Share And Trends Report To 2030 : Radiant Insights" to its huge collection of research reports. -- SON (Self-organizing networks) ecosystem technology eradicates the manual configuration of equipment in the period of the deployment and minimizes the lifecycle cost of running the mobile network. Furthermore, SON market revenue is expected to grow over $4 billion by the year 2014 despite, crossing over conventional mobile network optimization revenue nearly over 60%. This is during the time of deployment right through troubleshooting and dynamically optimizing the performance. Furthermore, this improves the Opex to revenue ratio and reduces the cost of operator's services. On addition, Mobile operators are eager to capitalize on SON amid expanding demand for connectivity for mobile broadband .This is mainly to minimize operations expenditure and rollout delays associated with their current HetNet and LTE deployments. . This is expected to impact the overall Self-organizing networks ecosystem market.SON technology is now utilized in mobile core as it is originally targeted (Radio Access network) RAN segment. Furthermore, it also being used in transport network and mobile core segments. SON ecosystem is undergoing convergence with other technological innovations like DPI, Big Data and predictive analysis. Browse Full Research Report With TOC On "The SON (Self-Organizing Networks) Ecosystem: 2015 - 2030 - Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies & Forecast" at: http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/the-son-self-organizing-networks-ecosystem-2015-2030-opportunities-challenges-strategies-and-forecasts SON basically replaces the manual steps of equipment by automated technologies. On addition, It helps solidify networks and cut down the cost of deployment by eliminating human error. Firm utilizing self-organizing have reported impressive level of progress in connecting. Self-organizing networks are sharpened as the demand for mobile broadband services has increased. Browse All Reports of This Category at: o M2M & IoT Ecosystem - http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/the-m2m-and-iot-ecosystem-2015-2030-opportunities-challenges-strategies-industry-verticals-and-forecasts o LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) Networks Ecosystem - http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/the-lpwa-low-power-wide-area-networks-ecosystem-2015-2030 About Radiant Insight Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. It assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. We have a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets. For more information about us, please visit http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/the-son-self-organizing-networks-ecosystem-2015-2030-opportunities-challenges-strategies-and-forecasts Contact Info: Name: Michelle Thoras Email: sales@radiantinsights.com Organization: Radiant Insights, Inc. Address: 28 2nd Street Phone: 14153490054 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/son-self-organizing-networks-ecosystem-market-growth-report-to-2030-radiant-insightsinc/105020 Release ID: 105020 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation Market 2016 Industry Size, Research, Trends, Review & Analysis Global Market News has released report on Global MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation Market 2016. Deerfield Beach, FL, United States of America February 25, 2016 /GlobalMarketNews.us/ The market report, titled Global MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation Market 2016, is an analytical research done by QY Market Research study based on the MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation market, which analyzes the competitive framework of the MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation industry worldwide. This report "Worldwide MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation Market 2016" build by the usage of efficient methodical tools such SWOT analysis, the MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation industrial 2016 study offers a comprehensive evaluation worldwide MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation market. Do Enquiry Before Purchasing Here : http://www.qymarketresearch.com/report/52737#inquiry-for-buying Global MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation Market 2016 report has Forecasted Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in % value for particular period, that will help user to take decision based on futuristic chart. Report also includes key players in global MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation market. The MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation market size is estimated in terms of revenue (US$) and production volume in this report. Whereas the MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation market key segments and the geographical distribution across the globe is also deeply analyzed. Various MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation market dynamics such as growth drivers, restrictions, and the future prospects of each segment have been discussed in detail. Based on that, the MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation market report determines the future status of the market globally. Get Free Sample Report : http://www.qymarketresearch.com/report/52737#request-sample This report covers every aspect of the global market for MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation , starting from the basic market information and advancing further to various significant criteria, based on which, the MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation market is segmented. Key application areas of MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation are also assessed on the basis of their performance. The MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation industrial chain, existing policies,and rules and regulations are studied in this MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation Market report. Key manufacturers, their manufacturing chain, products, MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation market price structures as well as the revenue. The report also evaluates the production capacity, dynamics of demand and supply, logistics, and the historical performance of the MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation market worldwide. About Us: QY Market Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations. Contact US: Joel John Suite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street, Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442 United States Toll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA) Tel: +1-386-310-3803 Website: QY Market Research Email: sales@qymarketresearch.com The post Global MALE UAV Flight Training and Simulation Market 2016 Industry Size, Research, Trends, Review & Analysis appeared first on Global Market News. For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Global Retro-Reflective Sensors Market 2016 Industry Size, Trends, Demand Review & Forecast 2025 (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Research on Global Quatrz Oscillator Market 2016 Industry Analysis, Review & Forecast 2020 (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Global Private Branch Exchange(PBX) Market 2016 Industry Size, Trends, Research, Demand & Forecast (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Global Print Mark Sensor Market 2016 Industry Size, Research, Trends, Growth & Analysis 2022 (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Global OLED Lighting Device Market 2016 Industry Trends, Demand, Analysis & Review Forecast 2020 (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Global Network Card Market 2016 Industry Size, Research, Trends, Demand Review & Forecast 2020 (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Global Engineering Machinery Tyre Market 2016 Industry Analysis, Review & Forecast 2020 Global Market News has released report on Global Engineering Machinery Tyre Market 2016. Deerfield Beach, FL, United States of America February 25, 2016 /GlobalMarketNews.us/ The market report, titled Global Engineering Machinery Tyre Market 2016, is an analytical research done by QY Market Research study based on the Engineering Machinery Tyre market, which analyzes the competitive framework of the Engineering Machinery Tyre industry worldwide. This report "Worldwide Engineering Machinery Tyre Market 2016" build by the usage of efficient methodical tools such SWOT analysis, the Engineering Machinery Tyre industrial 2016 study offers a comprehensive evaluation worldwide Engineering Machinery Tyre market. Do Enquiry Before Purchasing Here : http://www.qymarketresearch.com/report/52751#inquiry-for-buying Global Engineering Machinery Tyre Market 2016 report has Forecasted Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in % value for particular period, that will help user to take decision based on futuristic chart. Report also includes key players in global Engineering Machinery Tyre market. The Engineering Machinery Tyre market size is estimated in terms of revenue (US$) and production volume in this report. Whereas the Engineering Machinery Tyre market key segments and the geographical distribution across the globe is also deeply analyzed. Various Engineering Machinery Tyre market dynamics such as growth drivers, restrictions, and the future prospects of each segment have been discussed in detail. Based on that, the Engineering Machinery Tyre market report determines the future status of the market globally. Get Free Sample Report : http://www.qymarketresearch.com/report/52751#request-sample This report covers every aspect of the global market for Engineering Machinery Tyre , starting from the basic market information and advancing further to various significant criteria, based on which, the Engineering Machinery Tyre market is segmented. Key application areas of Engineering Machinery Tyre are also assessed on the basis of their performance. The Engineering Machinery Tyre industrial chain, existing policies,and rules and regulations are studied in this Engineering Machinery Tyre Market report. Key manufacturers, their manufacturing chain, products, Engineering Machinery Tyre market price structures as well as the revenue. The report also evaluates the production capacity, dynamics of demand and supply, logistics, and the historical performance of the Engineering Machinery Tyre market worldwide. About Us: QY Market Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations. Contact US: Joel John Suite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street, Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442 United States Toll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA) Tel: +1-386-310-3803 Website: QY Market Research Email: sales@qymarketresearch.com The post Global Engineering Machinery Tyre Market 2016 Industry Analysis, Review & Forecast 2020 appeared first on Global Market News. For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Global Retro-Reflective Sensors Market 2016 Industry Size, Trends, Demand Review & Forecast 2025 (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Research on Global Quatrz Oscillator Market 2016 Industry Analysis, Review & Forecast 2020 (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Global Private Branch Exchange(PBX) Market 2016 Industry Size, Trends, Research, Demand & Forecast (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Global Print Mark Sensor Market 2016 Industry Size, Research, Trends, Growth & Analysis 2022 (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Global OLED Lighting Device Market 2016 Industry Trends, Demand, Analysis & Review Forecast 2020 (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Global Network Card Market 2016 Industry Size, Research, Trends, Demand Review & Forecast 2020 (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Supremasea's Tan Enhancer Giving Competitors a Run for their Money Thermalabs recently launched Tan Enhancer appears to be causing a stir in the market. -- Tan Enhancer, one of the Thermalabs most recent product releases, is recording extraordinary growth in the marketplace. Thermalabs is a cosmetics firm best known for its premium self-tanning lotion, including the renowned Golden Standard Tanner, as well as the Glow2Go tanning towelettes. Introduced in the marketplace during New Year's Eve, Tan Enhancer was the first launch under Thermalabs Supremasea sub-brand. Thermalabs had launched Supremasea earlier last year. Identified as Thermalabs private collection of Dead Sea mineral-based products, Supremasea was seen as the company's way to expand its market influence by growing outside its traditional self-tanning niche. The new brand would oversee the production and marketing of great new formulations that would harness the multiple benefits of Dead Sea salts and minerals. The Dead Sea is known to have tens of thousands of different salts, which formed through a gradual process over millions of years. At least 12 salts found in this lake can't be found anywhere else. Dead Sea salts contribute to a healthy skin, and many other healing benefits for the mind and the human body in general. Thermalabs had promised to announce a string of products under its Supremasea brand this year. Although that is yet to be seen, the Tan Enhancer seems to be just the right move. The product is an innovative formula that revitalizes the hands and body. It contains a special blend of Shea Butter and vitamin E, which provide protection for the skin by shielding it from environmental pollutants and free radicals. This product is meant to be applied at least 4 hours after applying the company's tanning lotion. It helps moisturize the skin while at the same time leading to that radiant glow that most tanning fans are looking for. Thermalabs used a collection of unique ingredients in the formulation for this product. These include Mineral Oil, Shea Butter, Beeswax, Sea Salt, Sweet Almond oil, Vitamin E and Rosa Canina oil. Barely two months into its launch, Tan Enhancer is already wildly popular on major e-commerce marketplaces such as Amazon.com, as well as on the company's official website. The product is indeed causing a market stir as the must-have moisturizer to apply after a tan. So far, Tan Enhancer has scored an average five-star rating from tens of customers and sold thousands of units. Judging from the product's progress on the market ladder, it's on its way to joining the ranks of Thermalabs all-time bestselling products, such as Glow2Go and Ultimitt. Already, Tan Enhancer's rise has led some top-ranking competitors for this product to lower their prices in an attempt to curb its popularity. The formulation's ability to get results, and perhaps the company's focus on highly organic ingredients, are two of this product's major benefits. In the coming days, it'll be interesting to see what else Supremasea has up its sleeves! For more information about us, please visit http://www.thermalabs.com Contact Info: Name: Jennifer Parker Organization: Thermalabs Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJwHPui5Ak0 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/supremaseas-tan-enhancer-giving-competitors-a-run-for-their-money/104932 Release ID: 104932 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Perth Naturopathic Clinic Says Natural IVF Support Increases IVF Success With increasing interest in treating infertility issues naturally, the news of new IVF programs attracts significant attention. That's exactly the case with leading naturopathic clinic Perth Natural Fertility and their recent announcement that they are now offering three new Natural IVF programs. -- For a family doing their best to have a happy, healthy baby and are experiencing infertility issues, it's no surprise naturopathic clinics have a strong appeal. In Australia, a leading choice is Perth Natural Fertility, who have won acclaim for their effective and understanding care. Recently the clinic announced they have expanded their services with the launch of two new upgraded Natural IVF programs, which have been winning quick praise from patients. "We are passionate about helping our clients complete their family with a happy, healthy baby," commented a spokesperson from the clinic. "Our two new upgraded Natural IVF programs are a great resource in this area." Research and real world experience confirm that natural medicine improves the chances of success for couples going through IVF greatly, in a way that's safe for both the mother and the baby. Perth Natural Fertility are absolute experts in this area, with the clinic's Henriette Selch, ND, having over ten years of experience in the field of natural medicine, and comprehensive preconception, fertility, pregnancy and post-natal natural health care. Perth Natural Fertility guarantees that couples leave their consultation feeling confident about how they can improve their fertility at home. The natural fertility expert will also go through and explain the test results collected by the fertility clinic and which most often leaves couples confused and powerless. According to Perth Natural Fertility, they are happy to offer both in person and Skype consultations to discuss the issues a couple are facing and develop ideas on a natural program that will help the chances of pregnancy. Service available at the clinic, in addition to the two new upgraded Natural IVF programs, include: detox for fertility, weight loss for fertility, hair mineral analysis, support for all male and female reproductive disorders such as: polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, male fertility concerns and much more. For more information, be sure to visit Perth Natural Fertility For more information about us, please visit http://perthnaturalfertility.com Contact Info: Name: Henriette Selch Organization: Perth Natural Fertility Address: Unit 2, Palmerston Street, Perth WA 6000 Phone: 08 6102 5060 Release ID: 104576 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) HELENA Last year, Gov. Steve Bullock's office quietly helped rewrite Montana's political rulebook contributing edits, reviewing drafts, and nixing proposed changes to controversial regulations meant to implement the state's divisive Disclose Act. Hundreds of pages of correspondence obtained through a records request filed by the Independent Record detail two Bullock staffers' intimate involvement in the fraught rule-making process that followed the act's passage in April 2015. Only one of those staffers, chief legal counsel Andy Huff, was named to a 10-member public rule-making committee formed by Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl, the governor's appointee tasked with drawing up regulations to implement the act, which requires disclosure of dollars spent by anonymous "dark money" groups. But emails show another staffer, Bullock senior policy adviser Jim Molloy, also helped Motl craft key administrative rules, including some governing what qualifies as a reportable election activity and how those activities must be disclosed. Regulations the pair worked on went into effect Jan. 19 despite vocal opposition from critics both Republican and Democrat inside and outside Motl's office who feared elements of the provisions were "unconstitutionally broad" and could invite legal challenges from candidates and political committees. Finalization of the rules also came amid growing criticism aimed at Motl, a former nonprofit lobbyist and labor leader who critics have called a "partisan hack" engaged in a "witch hunt" aimed at Republican office seekers. Given the questions raised about Motl's motives, multiple lobbyists and nonprofit political advocates contacted by the Independent Record said they were concerned by emails detailing Bullock staffers' involvement in last year's protracted rule-making process, though none said they were surprised. At least one suspects the collaboration between Bullock and Motl's offices could, ironically enough, amount to a violation of their own campaign rules. "Incidentally, to the extent that some of these regulatory definitions are so preposterously open-ended and impact the definitions of 'coordination' and political 'contributions,' one could argue with a straight face that the commissioner's coordination with Governor Bullock on these regulations results in a campaign contribution (that is potentially excessive, prohibited, and/or not lawfully disclosed) from Motl to Governor Bullock," attorney Eric Wang, a senior fellow at the right-leaning Center for Competitive Politics, wrote in an email Feb. 10. An independent guy Motl, who has been called "the most important person in Montana politics," said there are no circumstances under which his coordination with Bullock's office would qualify as a reportable election activity. He had a harder time explaining how and why Bullock's top policy adviser wound up helping to rewrite the state's campaign finance rules. Motl recalled Molloy was only looped into the drafting process after a bruising legislative committee review of the proposed regulations and only at the request of Al Smith, executive director of the Montana Trial Lawyers Association and a foremost critic of several draft rules. That's not the way Smith remembers it. He said he thought Molloy was involved in the rule-making process from the get-go. "I wish we had that kind of sway, where we could tell people who to talk to," Smith added. Molloy said he was first "engaged" in the rule-making process "by the governor, on behalf of the governor," to figure out how to get the rules past an interim legislative committee granted oversight of the process. He sidestepped questions about why that process required the direct involvement of another governor's office staffer not previously appointed to Motl's public rule-making committee. "I think you're creating a hierarchy here that really doesn't reflect reality," Molloy told a reporter. "The commissioner's doing what he's doing. ... He's an independent guy." Influence questioned Motl's team first drafted a new, highly controversial definition of what constitutes an "electioneering communication" in June. Molloy made his first appearance in the rule-making process a month later, when Bullock attorney Huff asked him to review proposed changes to a pair of verbs included in that definition. An explanatory paragraph from Huff addressed to Molloy notes: "This approach is different from the reporting category we were thinking about, but I think it does the job and creates less bureaucracy." Only an hour earlier, Huff copied Molloy on a forwarded email that contained several revisions to the definition proposed by Smith. Those recommendations were not incorporated into final rules adopted last month. Molloy never sent a reply to the Smith email, nor to a note subject line: "Rules hearing" Motl sent a week later. In August, just three months ahead of a hearing seeking legislative approval for the rules, Molloy was called upon to review another controversial rewrite of language defining what constitutes a campaign contribution. Critics of the new definition have said it departs from the meaning of the term as laid out in the Disclose Act. A terse note from Jaime MacNaughton, general legal counsel for the commissioner of political practices, accompanying the draft contribution rule sent to Molloy reads: "Jon (Motl) asked that I send this to you." Granted so much access to the draft regulations and those that made them, opponents of the new rules found it hard to believe that the governor and his politics didn't play an outsized role in the rule-making process. "It does not surprise me that Mr. Motl and Governor Bullock worked closely on these regulations," said Brent Mead, executive director of the Montana Policy Institute, a conservative think tank. "It also does not surprise me that it has taken a while for this information to come out. "This administration has a habit of keeping the public in the dark. Good governance should mean transparency for government and privacy for its citizens. Unfortunately, what this endeavor is really about is allowing those in power to 'out' individuals with whom they disagree." Ripe for challenges Commissioner's office staffers expressed misgivings of their own over the draft rules. A May email from program supervisor Mary Baker highlighted her "constitutional concerns" with provisions requiring all potential incidental and independent political committees to file additional reporting paperwork, noting the additional disclosures "could be considered a burden and will be ripe for challenges." MacNaughton, too, seemed to sympathize with critics' wariness over Montana's broadened definition of coordinated campaign expenses, noting in a September email that she thought it was a good idea to delete language in the regulation that could run afoul of precedent set in a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Those warnings went largely unheeded by the rest of the rules committee, whose final regulations include a much expanded definition of "coordination" and tighter disclosure requirements on nonprofits and other membership groups who might engage in "reportable election activity." After countless revisions and months of public hearings, it took a legislative poll to answer the most persistent question dogging the draft regulations: Are they consistent with the spirit of the Disclose Act? A majority of polled lawmakers said they were, tamping down objections from the Montana Republican Party and nearly a dozen other groups who feared the rules went well beyond the clarifications and administrative guidance sought by the act. That poll, forced by Republican lawmakers who twice sought to block the rules, came only after opponents failed to defeat the regulations at a November meeting of the State Administration and Veterans Affairs Committee, which gave final approval to the rules. Some critics, including Smith and Montana Democratic Party attorney Mike Meloy, said they're mostly satisfied with the provisions now on the books. Motl said that's evidence the process worked. He said the rules weren't unduly influenced by the Democratic governor that appointed him and would not serve to favor candidates from one party or another. In Motl's view, Bullock's role in the rule-making process was precisely as large as it should have been, given that he sponsored the enabling legislation. Not everyone seems convinced. "In many other jurisdictions, the authority to regulate political speech is vested in bipartisan agencies so as to guard against this type of improper regulatory motivation," said attorney Wang, "but Montana's laws make the Commissioner a virtual one-man czar of political speech." A pair of local businesses on Tuesday unveiled an expanded in-house and on-site clinic that provides primary medical care to their employees. Officials from EBMS and TrueNorth Steel held a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new 1,400-square-foot miCare clinic, which sits across the parking lot from the EBMS building at 2147 Overland Ave. and doubles in size from the old clinic. "It helps us provide clinical services to our employees," said Kevin Larson, EBMS president. EBMS provides health risk management services, along with third-party administration of self-funded health benefit plans, while TrueNorth Steel has a large steel manufacturing facility on Billings' West End. Between the two companies, more than 300 employees and their dependents have access to the new clinic, which provides them with health care services and access to two doctors, a nurse practitioner and two LPNs. It also adds a third examination room with space to build another. "It's going to give us some more options," said Dr. Todd Ragar, who works in the clinic. "When our initial facility was built 10 years ago, it was in hopes that it was a good idea. And it was a great idea." On Tuesday, officials said that the miCare clinic, which has been operating since 2006, is a way to provide health care for their employees while keeping rising health care costs in check for the companies. EBMS also provides self-funded health care plans to its employees. Jerrod Weenum, COO of EBMS sister company miCare, said that the services at the clinic are provided free of charge to employees and eligible dependents encompassing about 80 percent of the care needs of patients and that the companies are purchasing the health care at reduced wholesale rates by providing it on-site. "It's a very lean, efficient delivery model," he said. According to EBMS, a miCare center in Montana saved in its first five years of operation 61 percent on office visits, 23 percent on prescription costs and 32 percent in lab costs. Patients and employees say that, for them, it provides a quick and efficient way to get good health care services. Kathi Schweigert, an analyst in EBMS' claims department, said that she uses the clinic for all of her medical needs. About five years ago, she learned after a visit to the miCare clinic that she had high blood pressure. Since, she and staff there have been able to work out a plan to manage and treat her blood pressure and any time she needs to visit, it's a two-minute walk across the parking lot. That, she said, is a big difference from having to spend half of a day leaving work, driving to another clinic, checking in, waiting, seeing the doctor and returning to work. "It's been wonderful to have the clinic right here," Schweigert said. "When you walk in, they know who you are. It's just nice." Patient wait times are only a few minutes from when they walk in the door and often get more face-to-face time with the doctor. Ragar said that the shorter times allow for better care and communication with his patients. "You get checked in with 60 seconds or a few minute, and that improves the face time," he said. "That improves the amount of time we can sit down and have that face time. When you have a limited patient population, you really get to know people well." Larson said that the medical staff puts a focus on preventative care, wellness and chronic disease management in an effort to build better long-term health and provide more specific and individualized care for patients who need more care. Since the clinic is in-house and employee health plans are funded by EBMS, they haven't seen much direct effect from the federal Affordable Care Act. However, Larson noted that it has made people more aware of the costs of health care and related services and possibly makes self-funded plans and on-site clinics more appealing to employers. "More, better and managed care and heightened awareness of the cost of health care," he said. "It's a very, very popular solution for many companies." MiCare has 10 employer-sponsored clinics serving 16 companies or groups in five different states. Included in those groups are Billings Public Schools, Laurel Public Schools and Wood's Power Grip. Adrian Grace, chief executive of Aegon UK, has ruled out buying more advice companies, and said he has only kept Origen as the intermediary takes up so little of his time. Speaking to Financial Adviser, Mr Grace said Aegon UK had no ambition to buy advice firms, adding he will let other people do that. He said: We absolutely do not see our role as providing advice to consumers through buying advice firms; it is just not what we do, he said, before emphasising that Aegon tried this before with Positive Solutions, which was sold to Instrinsic for 9.5m in 2014. He added: The culture and requirements of running an advice firm are very different to running a pensions or platform business, and therefore we have taken a decision not to buy into what is called vertical integration and buy advice firms. For us, the risk/reward doesnt work. You have to be a specialist and a professional in advice to make good money in that field. We are not specialists in advice. Mr Grace said the company had instead decided to focus on providing advisers with the right tools. He added: Let advisers do the job; we dont want to compete with advisers. Let advisers do the job; we dont want to compete with advisers. Adrian Grace He pointed out that the firm still owned Origen, but because the advice business had its own separate board and chief executive, he only spends about 30 seconds on it a year. When asked if the firm plans to hang on to Origen, Mr Grace said: We will keep if for the time being. It doesnt cause us any problems, and it is a very stable business, which is well-managed as far as I can see. In its full-year results released on Friday, Aegons UK arm added nearly 4bn in assets to the platform in 2015. He said Aegon was taking business from all competitors in the market, which he put down to the platforms three channels: corporate business, upgrade of business, and the adviser market. When Financial Adviser asked if Aegon would consider buying Cofunds as part of its plans to further increase platform assets, Mr Grace said: We never comment on market speculation. Adviser View Frances Kemp, independent financial planner at Norwich-based Nurture Financial Planning, said she expects there to be a considerable reduction in the number of platforms over the next couple of years. Ms Kemp said: Aegon is going to be tight-lipped as it would not want to put prospective investors off from placing funds on the platform until a deal was actually inked in. katherine.denham@ft.com Wealth management firm Gale and Phillipson is on the lookout for advisers and advisory firms to help it expand in London and Newcastle. A year after the merger of Jonathan Fry and Easby Gale and Phillipson , the firm has recorded revenue growth running at a record rate of 4.6m a year and has remained profitable during the internal investment and integration. Phil Morris, head of acquisitions and distribution, said there were challenges integrating back office systems and support services infrastructure, but an operations manager had been recruited to help harmonise the offices and get staff working on the same basis. He added that the easy bit was merging the two firms different capabilities in discretionary fund management and financial planning. Gale and Phillipson recently launched a new discretionary managed service the Discretionary Managed Portfolio which uses actively managed and passive funds to build diversified, risk-rated, cost-effective portfolios for clients. This will be rolled out to other firms on a white-labelled basis, as well as being used by in-house advisers. The firm already has offices in London, Newcastle, Richmond and Northallerton in North Yorkshire. Mr Morris explained that the plan was to recruit or acquire two or three additional advisers in both London and Newcastle. In the north a few retiring IFA deals have already been done, while in the south Mr Morris said he was in discussion with a few firms looking to sell up but continue advising clients. He said: The merger gave us a strong spine down the country, but were looking to continue growing through natural recruitment and small acquisition. Five additional members of staff have already joined across investment, para-planning and administration, increasing the workforce to 60. Also during the past 12 months, Gale and Phillipson opened a new office in Primrose Hill, North London, along with recruiting Robin Joyner Associates as an appointed representative of the firm in the South East of England. Gale and Phillipson now manages or advises on more than 700m in client assets and has plans to accrue at least 1.5bn funds under management within five years through acquisition and organic growth. peter.walker@ft.com I have always believed that personal finance is all about the personal. People, people, people. Equally, I strongly maintain that a personal finance journalist should be true to their job title. Think personal, be personal and write beautiful (and accurate) personal finance copy. It is why, over the years, I have always encouraged my team of reporters to get out of the office whenever possible, speak to readers fighting financial injustices or suffering financial detriment, and then take up the cudgels on their behalf. Proverbial bums on seats in the office to please the editor? No chance. Get out and about, smell the grass and tell the story. Sometimes, it might appear from the outside that it is just boring money issues that we write about (friends occasionally say that). Stories that come around again and again. Stock market booms and busts, house price bubbles and crashes, financial crises. But these issues are not boring. Real people lie at their heart. It is why I always try to embellish any consumer story I write with pictures of those I am reporting on. Putting the personal into personal finance. It is my view that personal finance journalists represent the very best that their profession has to offer. We personal finance journalists do more good than harm. We fight on behalf of the good old British personal finance consumer. With this emphasis on the personal, it is not surprising that over the years I have railed against anything that impersonalises the personal finance world. Over the years I have railed against anything that impersonalises the personal finance world Call me old fashioned. Call me a luddite I am, for better or for worse. But I passionately believe in local post offices and high street bank branches. They are essential components of what I call community, as are pharmacies, now under threat of mass closure as a result of NHS cutbacks. Take these core foundations away and the community starts to fracture. Close the bank and the high street starts to disintegrate as shoppers are given one more excuse to jump in their car and visit the local retail park with their collection of big brand chain stores and the obligatory Starbucks. It explains why, on many a winters morning, Ive got up at the crack of dawn to show my face at some local protest over an impending bank branch closure. I remember one particularly cold February morning in 2011 getting up at 4.30am so I could join a group of local residents, councillors, farmers and shopkeepers in Rhayader, Powys, angry over the axing of their Barclays bank. It was so cold that morning my hand stuck to the outside door handle of my rusting Renault Megane (sadly no longer with us). My frozen fingers then would not work, making note-taking extremely difficult. It took me a day to recover from the experience. A 39-year-old man was taken to the hospital Wednesday afternoon after he collided with a minivan on the South Side. A minivan had stopped at a stop sign, but the driver did not see the motorcyclist to her left, said Billings Police Sgt. Ronda Fox. The woman driving the minivan pulled forward and was hit by the motorcycle at Eighth Avenue South and South 28th Street. The crash happened at 4 p.m. The motorcyclist was wearing a helmet, but medics placed him on a backboard and took him to a hospital. The man's injuries were not life-threatening, Fox said. The driver of the minivan, a 29-year-old woman, was issued a traffic citation. The Financial Conduct Authority found a company set up to produce a film starring Peter OToole established and operated an investment scheme without authorisation. Katherine of Alexandria Ltd was set up to produce, market and distribute the film Fall of an Empire: Katherine of Alexandria, which was released in the UK in April 2015. In return for funds paid to Katherine of Alexandria Ltd to fund the films post-production, marketing, promotion and to secure distribution, investors were told they would receive a proportionate percentage of royalties from the film on its showings after release. In a statement the FCA said: We believe the investments offered by Katherine of Alexandria Ltd in the film are likely to constitute a collective investment scheme. Katherine of Alexandria Ltd is not authorised by the FCA so was in breach of the provisions of section 19 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. We have given very careful and measured consideration to the options available to us. Although we believe that Katherine of Alexandria Ltd established and operated a collective investment scheme without FCA authorisation, we do not believe it would be in the investors best interests for us to pursue legal or enforcement action at the current time to close down either the company or the film investment scheme. Instead of taking enforcement action, the FCA has said those who invested in the company may be entitled to recover any money paid or transferred under the agreement with Katherine of Alexandria Ltd and compensation for any loss sustained as a result of having parted with it. They may also wish to seek independent legal advice about their position under FSMA, the FCA said. The film was one of Peter OTooles last film roles and was about the life of St Catherine of Alexandria who was martyred by the Romans. MILLER Please accept my sincere thanks for the ones who sent cards for my 90th birthday and also the ones who planned the party at the Tower. Also, thank to... First details have emerged of a plan for British agriculture if the UK leaves the EU after a summer referendum. Fledgling policies including the possibility of area payments to farmers were outlined by Defra minister George Eustice to reporters and delegates during a session at the NFU annual conference in Birmingham on Wednesday (24 February). Mr Eustice said: You would probably keep something similar to an area payment but you might look at accreditation schemes that farmers could enrol on automatically rather than having the chaos of an annual application process with a hard deadline. See also: Have your say in our EU in or out poll This would avoid situations where farmers lost their entire support entitlement for the year when subsidy applications were lost in the post, said Mr Eustice. There are lots of things you could do differently, he added. The UKs in-out referendum will take place on 23 June. But many farmers will need far more detailed policy proposals when it comes to agriculture before they can make an informed decision about which way to vote. Mr Eustice unveiled his Brexit farming plan after announcing he would campaign for the UK to leave the EU a decision which puts him at direct odds with Defra secretary Liz Truss, who has warned that such a move would be a leap into the dark. The existing way of tackling agricultural and rural development policy would be completely scrapped if the UK left the EU, suggested Mr Eustice. My view is that you would probably dismantle the whole two pillar structure, he said. Cross compliance, which was bureaucratic and unnecessary, would be completely streamlined. Food security would be enhanced through investment in science and technology. The government would look at risk-management tools for farmers, such as insurance schemes. Mr Eustice said he would also like to see high levels of animal welfare on farms rewarded in the same way farmers are rewarded for undertaking environmental measures. Agri-environment schemes would continue but without the EU bureaucracy and reporting requirements, he said. We would do far better as a country if we ended the supremacy of EU law and actually shaped new, fresh thinking and created policies that would really deliver for our agriculture George Eustice, Defra minister Mr Eustice said he had wrestled with all sorts of EU regulation during his time as Defra minister. We would do far better as a country if we ended the supremacy of EU law and actually shaped new, fresh thinking and created policies that would really deliver for our agriculture. If the UK left the EU, there would be an 18bn a year Brexit dividend in savings, said Mr Eustice. Could we find the money to spend 2bn on farming and the environment? Of course we could. Would we? Without the shadow of a doubt. Concerns that the UK Treasury wouldnt support agriculture to the same extent as Brussels were ill-founded, suggested Mr Eustice. Ultimately the Treasury does what parliament tells it to do. If we took back control of agricultural policy, parliament would re-engage. Story Highlights 54% think the rest of the world views the U.S. favorably Views have been consistent since end of Iraq War in 2011 Majority dissatisfied with the United States' global position WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Slightly more than half of Americans, 54%, believe the rest of the world views the U.S. favorably, while 45% believe the world views the U.S. unfavorably. This is consistent with how Americans have perceived the nation's global image for the past several years. But it is a change from the last years of George W. Bush's presidency and the first year of Barack Obama's administration, when the majority thought the world viewed the U.S. unfavorably. From 2000 until 2004, strong majorities of Americans said the world viewed the U.S. favorably. This sentiment peaked in early 2002, five months after the 9/11 attacks, when 79% said the world had a favorable view of the U.S. and 20% an unfavorable view. But Americans' perceptions of the country's image slowly worsened as the U.S. entered the Iraq War with opposition from some in the international community. By 2005, slightly more Americans said the world viewed the U.S. unfavorably than favorably, the first time attitudes had tilted negative. Attitudes continued to sour and in June 2007, 40% said they thought the rest of the world viewed the U.S. favorably, the lowest such reading in the 16-year trend. This coincided with a sharp increase of U.S. ground troops in Iraq and followed earlier revelations of the U.S. military's poor treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the absence of weapons of mass destruction. Furthermore, in 2007 and 2008, Americans' views that the U.S. was rated unfavorably may have stemmed from a general weariness with President Bush and the war in Iraq. In 2010 and especially 2011, Americans were torn over whether the world viewed the U.S. favorably or unfavorably. But since the official end of the Iraq War in 2011, a clear majority of Americans have generally expressed the opinion that the world views the U.S. favorably. Part of the recent increase in perceived favorability may be related to Obama's foreign policy decisions -- which have largely favored opening relations with other nations, notably Cuba and Iran -- as well as a major new trade deal. Additionally, Obama's perceived popularity abroad improved this year and is generally up from Bush's popularity abroad during his second term. In the latest poll, more Democrats (68%) than Republicans (39%) believe the rest of the world views the U.S. favorably -- not surprising with a Democrat in the White House. A Majority of Americans Are Dissatisfied With U.S.'s Global Position At the same time that Americans believe the international community views the U.S. favorably, they are largely dissatisfied with the United States' position in the world. Currently, 36% are satisfied and 63% are dissatisfied. A majority of Americans have been dissatisfied since 2004, but the percentage who are dissatisfied is down slightly from its 2008 peak of 68%. Similar to the trend in Americans' views on how the world rates the U.S., satisfaction with the country's international standing was high in the early years of the 2000s and fell in the mid-2000s. Americans' satisfaction with the United States' position in the world spiked in the months after the Iraq War began, from 48% in February 2003 to 69% in March. It remained high at 67% in April 2003, though by February 2004, satisfaction was back down to 47%. Democrats (52%) are currently more likely than Republicans (19%) to be satisfied with the U.S.'s position in the world. Still, only a slim majority of Democrats are satisfied, suggesting some level of concern about the U.S.'s position even among members of the president's own party. Bottom Line Although Americans' perceptions of the United States' global image have been at least partially repaired since the height of the Iraq War, the public remains dissatisfied with the country's position in the world. The latter likely reflects public uncertainty stemming from a mounting number of complex international issues: terrorism, the Syrian refugee crisis, North Korea's rocket launches, and Russian and Chinese expansionism. Americans themselves have become less likely than they were a few years ago to say the U.S. is the No. 1 military power in the world. Furthermore, approval of U.S. leadership is down in both Africa and Asia, and U.S. leadership on average has never received majority approval from those polled globally. While a majority of Americans believe the world views the U.S. favorably, Americans have been consistently dissatisfied with the U.S.'s position in the world. This aligns with the views of most Republican presidential candidates this year -- who say the U.S., especially the military, is weak, while Obama strongly disagrees. The two Democratic candidates often spar over their respective votes about going to war in Iraq, but do not express much disagreement with Obama's foreign policy decisions. Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics. Survey Methods Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Feb. 3-7, 2016, with a random sample of 1,021 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. Story Highlights France's favorable rating rises five points in past year to 87% Increase in recent years driven by improved ratings from Republicans France now Americans' third-highest-rated country PRINCETON, N.J. -- France's favorable rating in the U.S. is now 87%, up five percentage points from a year ago and marking a record high for France in Gallup's 25-year trend. This continues the gradual improvement in France's image in the U.S. after that nation's favorability plummeted at the start of the Iraq War in 2003. This year's reading comes three months after terrorists associated with the Islamic State group conducted a series of deadly attacks in and around Paris, killing 130. The 82% of Americans viewing France favorably a year ago was recorded a month after terrorists killed 12 people in a mass shooting at the Charlie Hebdo magazine office building in Paris. The latest results are from Gallup's Feb. 3-7 World Affairs poll. France now ranks third in overall favorability with Americans among major countries the U.S. interacts with on the world stage. Only Great Britain and Canada earned higher total favorable scores this year. However, France still falls well short of those countries in the percentage of Americans viewing each very favorably. Its 29% "very favorable" score this year is similar to the 30% for Germany, which places fourth in overall favorability, but still trails Great Britain's 43% and Canada's 56%. Republicans' Rating Rises Most Since 2013 France's image fell much more steeply among Republicans than Democrats at the start of the Iraq War in 2003, stemming from that nation's opposition to Republican President George W. Bush's effort to win U.N. support for use of force against Iraq. Between February 2002 and March 2003, Republicans' favorability toward France dropped more than 60 points, from 81% to 20%, versus a 34-point decline among Democrats, from 79% to 45%. A sizable partisan gap in France's ratings persisted throughout the first decade of its image recovery, but during the past three years, the gap has nearly closed. That reflects Republicans' finally closing in on Democrats' high level of favorability toward France. This may be the result of France's support for the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State in Syria in 2013, as well as sympathy for France stemming from the recent terrorist attacks. Bottom Line After diplomatic differences in 2003 soured relations between the two countries, France and the U.S. have found a common interest in combating international terrorism, and the mission has become personal for both countries. This has helped bring about a major turnaround in how Americans view what Secretary of State John Kerry has called the United States' "oldest ally." France's image was already on the mend, but the significant increase in the percentage of Republicans viewing France favorably over the past three years has pushed its image to new heights. Survey Methods Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Feb. 3-7, 2016, with a random sample of 1,021 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. Spring is unexpectedly brighter at Montana State University Billings. City College as well as the main campus exceeded expectations for spring semester enrollment. The university made progress not because it recruited more students, but because it retained more of the students who enrolled for the fall semester. As a result, MSUB recently received $760,000 that it hadnt counted on in this years budget. This is money that the university became eligible for by meeting performance goals set by the university system. MSUB earned that funding by retaining 96 more full-time-equivalent students this semester than projected. Importantly, the spring 2016 enrollment reverses (at least for now) a trend of gradually lower spring enrollments. As Chancellor Mark Nook said in a campus presentation last week: This is good news for us. Under an agreement negotiated with the Legislature and Gov. Steve Bullock, the university units will receive performance-based funding if they improve certain measures by 1 percent per year. Those measures include the number of certificates and degrees awarded, retention rate, dual high-school and college enrollment, successful completions of college courses after remedial courses, and the percentage of students who complete 24 credits in their first academic year. Also in the good news category is the fact that Nook planned for what if MSU Billings gets unexpected performance funding? So there will be no spending spree. Instead, the university has a well-thought-out plan to use the performance-based funding to improve student recruitment and retention. The plan calls for strategically using $500,000 toward scholarships to bring students to MSUB and to keep students enrolled this fall. Most of the rest of the one-time-only funding is earmarked for other student retention efforts, including a program to detect struggling students before they fail, marketing, strategic planning, and comprehensive service excellence. Retaining students Last summer, the Student Success Committee created by Nook set a goal of increasing MSUBs freshman retention rate by 2 percentage points per year for each of the next five years. As of last year, its freshman retention rate of 55 percent lagged 10 percentage points below the rate for similar university units in this part of the country. Moving retention rates takes some real work, Nook told a Gazette reporter last week. Thats why were putting most of this money behind retaining initiatives. Nook and other MSUB leaders have drilled down into the shrinking enrollment numbers to understand the challenges of reversing that multi-year trend. As Nook said in his campus budget presentation last week, the downward enrollment trend has coincided with a downward trend in the number of Montana high school graduates. About 53 percent of MSUB students are residents of Yellowstone County. That makes local high schools, particularly the AA Billings schools, important recruiting grounds. Nook noted that Billings Public Schools has seen enrollment growth in lower grades, but increases in the number of high school graduates are still several years away. We need a bigger market share of the SD2 students, but that is going to be a big lift, Nook said. Billings autonomy Nook and Billings administration have great ideas for better meeting the needs of prospective students, as well as enhancing the universitys contribution to this region and the entire state. MSUB deserves the opportunity and resources to set its own course in the Montana University System. Last week, Nook was talking about the budget for the biennium that begins July 1, 2017 even as he explained how a spring windfall would be put to good use this year. Billings lawmakers and candidates seeking legislative office ought to be thinking about the biennial budget and how to ensure that MSUB has the authority and the autonomy to do what it must do to best serve Montanans. The Billie Jean King Main Library initially closed because of increased "mental health-related episodes" around the facility, official said. When Olga Sanchez was asked to write an original play about teens caught up in sex trafficking she wanted to ensure the story hit close to home. The playwright looked at creating a larger, international story, but realized the audiences served by the Teatro Milagro productions are predominantly high school and university students. I felt like, on an international level, its not something they can do anything about, Sanchez said. I narrowed it down, because its a problem closer to home. The Portland-based touring theater company will perform Broken Promises Monday, Feb. 29, at Oregon State Universitys Withycombe Hall Lab Theatre. Sanchezs bilingual play, directed by Francisco Garcia, follows a young woman, Adriana (Monica Domena), who comes from a broken family. She moves to a new town, and is desperate to find another family she can identify with. Adriana begins hanging out with three other teenagers, played by Geo Alva, Shen Telles, and Ajai Terrazas-Tripathi, a Corvallis native and OSU theater graduate. The four teens are unable to find work and need money, so they get the idea of doing online pornography. Adriana becomes a low-grade online porn star whom men want to date, Sanchez said. In essence, she is transformed into a prostitute. She has a hard time getting out of it, because of a relationship with her boyfriend, who has now become her pimp, Sanchez said. Adriana thinks she is growing up by making money for college, but cant trust that her boyfriend is really saving the money. She wants a way out, but doesnt know who can help her or what alternatives she has. The play raises these questions as it ends and transitions into a talk-back session for the audience with the cast and OSU faculty members. The session will include discussion about Adrianas options as well as resources available to OSU students. The students may see themselves or friends in this story, and through the conversation they can see they are not alone in this, Sanchez said. Despite the difficult subject matter, Sanchez says Broken Promises is often funny and charming, and students will appreciate that the actors are playing young people, not parodies. The hope is it opens up the conversation about the options for those young people. They see theres help out there, people to talk to and resources available, Sanchez said. Before the play, which tours nationally through November, cast members will present a Healthy Relationships workshop from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the OSU Womens Center. The goal of the workshop is to facilitate discussions about health and healthy relationships. There is a famous picture of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. standing on a second-floor balcony at the Lorraine Motel in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, just days before his assassination Standing with King were other civil rights figures: Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy. The other thing that they had in common besides their affiliation with the movement was their affiliation with historically black fraternities organized under the National Pan-Hellenic Council. The link between the African-American fraternities and sororities and the civil rights movement was explored Wednesday night during a panel discussion at the Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center at Oregon State University. Part of the universitys set of events to honor Black History Month, the presentation offered a different path through some of the most fascinating events and people of American history. Discussed were legendary icons such as King and Rosa Parks, but the crowd of more than 20 people also heard about less-prominent figures such as Arturo Schomburg, Carter G. Woodson, Mary McLeod Bethune and Eva Jessye: Schomburg (1874-1938), of Afro-Puerto Rican descent, collected literature and art produced by African-Americans and was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Woodson (1875-1950) was one of the first scholars of African-American history and his Negro History Week is considered the precursor to Black History Month. Bethune (1875-1955) was an educator who started a private school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida, that is now Bethune-Cookman University. Jessye (1895-1992) was a pioneering choral conductor and director who worked with George Gershwin on Porgy and Bess and organized and led the choir during the 1963 March on Washington. Terrance Harris, assistant director of the Harris Black Cultural Center and one of five presenters at the forum, noted the influence that civil rights figures and philosophies have had on modern-day movements such as Black Lives Matter. All of these newer movements stem from civil rights, but this is a new generation, Harris said. So many people did things in the past. Thats such an essential word movement. Change needed to happen and people needed to be moved to a different place. It's difficult for Ryan White to put into words the way everything came together for the birth of his and his wife's third child. That's in part because it happened so quickly. With the help of a trio of Miles City Fire and Rescue firefighters, they had to deliver a happy, healthy girl in the gravel parking lot of a rural post office outside of Miles City on Feb. 18. But it's also because of the gravity of the moment and how all of the moving pieces seemed to click at just the right time. 'Alia was not waiting': Baby, parents doing well after I-94 rest stop delivery After about an hour of driving and still 50 miles from Billings Marina Colbert gave birth to their daughter, Alia, in a car parked in a rest stop off Interstate 94. "Its hard to communicate the sense of calm and order," he said. "That was something that you cant mentally prepare for. Theres an overwhelming sense of order, a harmonious working-out. When you look back on it, you think, 'Wow that was a really beautiful event that took place.'" Bethany White said that she and her husband went to bed a little later than usual on Feb. 17 at their home. They live 11 miles outside of Cohagen a small community made up of little more than a post office and surrounding ranches about 60 miles northwest of Miles City. Early the next morning, around 1 a.m., she awoke to regular, close contractions. "They were so regular, I knew this was the real deal," she said. "I woke up my husband, and he asked how close they were. I said, 'I don't even know. We've just got to go.'" Change of plans The Whites called a neighbor over to watch their 2-year-old son, Wesley, and loaded into the family car with their 5-year-old daughter, Savanna she'd earlier insisted she be there for the birth of her sister, and her parents wanted to share the experience with her before hitting the road for Miles City. They'd planned on having a natural birth with their family doctor at Holy Rosary Healthcare in Miles City, but as the car bounced along the gravel road leading to Highway 59, which connects with Miles City, the uneven and jarring motion combined with the shortening contractions forced the family to stop several times and convinced Bethany they might not make it to town. So Ryan called 911 and emergency dispatch sent an ambulance crew from Miles City Fire and Rescue to meet them on the highway. Newly trained 911 dispatcher talks woman through birth on I-94 Jeff Urso recently finished up three months of training to become a dispatcher at the City-C Branden Stevens, battalion chief with the fire department; firefighter and paramedic student Sarah Lewin; and firefighter Justin Trethewey, on his very first shift with the department, took off in an ambulance to meet them and made a plan along the way. "We started discussing things as far as how it would go," Stevens said. "We do several of these a year, as far as people that are out of town and going into labor. Almost all of the time we can get the patient to the hospital or they deliver before we get there. This one was a little bit different." About 30 miles north of Miles City, Bethany told her husband to pull over along the side of the road. At the same time, they saw the lights of the ambulance cresting a hill in front of them. "It was like a sunrise, almost, of ambulance lights," Bethany White said. Relieved, they met with the ambulance crew, who after a quick assessment informed the expecting family that they'd probably have to deliver the baby in the ambulance and recommended they pull into a gravel parking lot at the Angela post office about a half-mile down the road. The Whites told the ambulance crew that they wanted to deliver naturally. Stevens said the crew agreed to respect the Whites' birth plan, with the condition that if anything went wrong, they could make adjustments to help. "They were so respectful and very considerate," Ryan White said. With her husband and daughter nearby, Bethany White told Stevens that she was ready. "Before we could even get gowned up to get ready to deliver, she started saying she had to push," said Stevens, who delivered the baby girl. "We started on that, and the delivery came pretty quick, a little quicker than anticipated. She did all of the hard work, and everything went amazing." Ryan White said he later learned his wife pushed maybe 1-1/2 times before their daughter, Cora Sage White, was born in the ambulance. He came away awed and impressed with how calm and clear everything was. "It wasn't like what you see in the movies, where everybody's panicked and rushing around," he said. "It was like meeting three friends on the side of the road." Rural areas After keeping an eye on both mother and daughter's vital signs and determining both were healthy, the ambulance crew drove them into Miles City with Ryan White and Savanna following close behind. After 24 hours at the hospital, mother and baby were allowed to go home. "To be honest, everybody was grinning from ear to ear as soon as that little girl started crying," Stevens said. "The family was really great. They made it really special and we were able to give the natural delivery that she wanted." The birth didn't go exactly as they'd thought it would, but with a healthy baby Cora joining the family and the story about her introduction, it couldn't have gone better given the circumstances. "You might make plans to have something go a certain way in life, and sometimes there's a higher power that has another idea for how that plan should look," Bethany White said. She added that the thought of going into labor in a rural and often remote area, like eastern Montana, can be scary for some but that birth is also a very natural process, especially in low-risk pregnancies like hers. "For me, it's just understanding that birth is a natural and normal process," she said, while also noting that some pregnancies do require much more care. "It comes instinctively almost, like blinking ... For these kinds of situations, its not a scary thing. Its not chaotic." Ryan White said that birthing their children naturally, and letting it happen in its own time, is important to the family. Along those lines, they appreciate the ambulance crew working to accommodate their requests. "That celebration of natural order and community has been most clear in our lives, when we've let the children decide their birthdays," he said. The call is one Stevens said will stick with him throughout his career and one that he believes could lead to a lifelong bond with the Whites. With help from firefighters, neighbors, hospital staff and others in the area, the Whites said the collective effort from so many people to help deliver their daughter safely is something they want others to know about and, hopefully, be inspired by. Allow us to return at least one more time to the topic of the Oregon minimum wage and the various legislative machinations that still are in play around it, because theres an important point to be made. This whole business, which includes new developments in Salem this week, offers yet another example of why complex measures like this just arent good fits in legislative short sessions. Its possible that you havent been tracking the new developments, so let us summarize: A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Tuesday announced a plan that would have overhauled the minimum wage increase that carried the Legislature last week and now awaits Gov. Kate Browns signature. As Republican Rep. Cliff Bentz of Ontario outlined the plan, it would have set a floor of $13.50 an hour for the Portland area, but would have given local officials there the ability to set the wage higher. The plan would have raised wages in rural Oregon to $12.50 the same level as in the bill the Legislature passed last week. (The plan would have kept wages in so-called urban counties such as Benton at $13.50, the same level as in the bill passed last week.) But the alternative plan would have given sizable tax breaks to farmers, loggers and other industries, in the form of tax credits to nonprofits, businesses with fewer than 50 employers and certain manufacturers. Its dramatically better than the bill the Legislature approved last week, Bentz said. It protects my area from economic devastation. But by the end of Wednesday, lawmakers already had dropped their plans to fine-tune the Portland-area minimum wage, and were concentrating instead on the tax breaks for businesses. Brown said shed be willing to take a hard look at the tax breaks if they passed the Legislature and suggested that such breaks had been part and parcel of the negotiations she held before the session to help craft her wage proposal. We know what happened to that proposal after she submitted it to legislators: it got ripped into pieces and refashioned into the three-tiered system the Legislature passed last week. The tax breaks and the revised minimum wage for the Portland area are ideas worthy of greater exploration. And they would have received that exploration in a longer session, in which ideas have the time and space to jostle and compete and bounce off each other and where all the parties to legislation, including the public, can examine them. Instead, weve seen this session pushing through at least two pieces of major legislation, using the reasoning that the Legislature needed to act now to forestall dangerous ballot measures. In other words: We legislators need to push through bad policy in a hurried, rushed manner in order to stop even worse policy from being enacted by the voters at the ballot. That is not an argument designed to encourage confidence in voters. We still think Oregon is too big and complex for the Legislature to manage in every-other-year sessions. But surely there is a better alternative than a session that almost assuredly ensures bad decisions will be made under the tightest of time constraints, with limited opportunities for public review. MISSOULA A Missoula man is being held on $100,000 bail after a "heinous" attack on a 16-month-old boy and his mother. Glenn Daniel Sipp-Angst, 23, is charged with aggravated assault and assault on a minor, both felonies. According to an affidavit, Sipp-Angst and his girlfriend were arguing shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday when the woman's 16-month-old son woke up and began to cry. Sipp-Angst allegedly became angry, picked up the child and began to yell at him, then began to stuff nearby items into his mouth in an apparent effort to make him stop. When his girlfriend tried to remove her son from Sipp-Angst, he allegedly punched her in the head then strangled her until she lost consciousness. When she came to and pushed him off her, he allegedly went back to the child, grabbing him near the throat and squeezing his face. The affidavit stated Sipp-Angst then took the child into a bathroom, locked the door, and threw the child around the room. When Sipp-Angst came back out, he hit the baby in the face repeatedly. Sipp-Angst allegedly repeatedly strangled his girlfriend until he fell asleep in a chair about three hours after the incident began. The woman then used a roommate's phone to call a family member, who picked up her and her son. Sipp-Angst was taken into custody Tuesday after a $100,000 warrant was issued for his arrest. In court Wednesday, Missoula County Criminal Attorney Selene Koepke said Sipp-Angst also threatened to kill his girlfriend during the incident, and represented a clear danger to his family and the community. Justice of the Peace Karen Orzech, who called the allegations "heinous," kept Sipp-Angst's bail at $100,000. At the request of a public defender representing Sipp-Angst, Orzech allowed him to be screened for pretrial supervision, but said she was doing so "against my better judgment." If he is released, Orzech said Sipp-Angst is not to possess weapons, or contact his girlfriend or her son. Sipp-Angst balked at the latter condition, saying his girlfriend was pregnant with his child. Orzech cut him off and reinforced how seriously she took that condition, adding that if he contacts her in any way, she will have him arrested and his bail would increase to $1 million. "I just think in the interests of the safety of the family he needs to be incarcerated at this time. It's absolutely imperative," Orzech said. If convicted, Sipp-Angst faces up to 25 years in prison and $100,000 in fines on the charges. New Years Eve : Cologne NYE: Three verdicts handed out Polizei verhaftet Brautigam am Kolner Hauptbahnhof Foto: dpa Cologne Of the 1,100 charges filed in the mass assaults that took place on New Years Eve in Cologne, the first three offenders have been sentenced. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken Three young men were given suspended sentences for stealing on New Years Eve in Cologne. One was charged with stealing a cell phone from a woman who was about to take a photo of the Cologne Cathedral. The other two worked in unison to steal a camera bag from Indian tourists who were on the Hohenzollern Bridge. At least 1,100 people have filed charges from that night of massive sexual assaults and thefts outside the Cologne central train station. These were the first three to face sentencing, but none of them were charged with sexual assault, only theft. All three young men are asylum seekers. The man who stole the cell phone is from Morocco, and he was also found with a small amount of amphetamines. He was given a 6 months suspended sentence and a 100 Euro fine. Of the two who stole the camera bag, one was apparently 17-years-old at the time of the crime, although there are different accounts as to his real name and when he was born, 1993 or 1994. One time he said he was from Algeria and another time from Tunisia. The other man charged in the camera bag theft said he was from Morocco. He also said the conditions in his asylum shelter in Dortmund were not good so he went to live with compatriots in an apartment. Asked by the judge why he went to Cologne on New Years Eve, he said it was a spontaneous decision. He has already been in trouble with the law for shoplifting at Ansons mens clothing store and at The Footlocker. He is also accused of stealing a suitcase on an ICE train. The judge asked the men why they dont return to their home countries when they realize that they wont be granted asylum here. They had asked through their translator for another chance to stay. The man accused of multiple thefts was given a suspended sentence to be served if he commits another crime. For the man whose real identity remains unclear, a 3-month suspended sentence was handed down. The two are required to check in with the Bureau for Migrants in Dortmund, to perform 60 hours of social work and to complete a German course. Leverkusen Pharmaceutical giant Bayer gets a new CEO who has extensive experience with the company. Baumann joined Bayer in 1988 and transferred to the Bayer division in Spain in 1991 to take the position of controller. He became assistant to the managing director in 1995. A year later he moved to the U.S. to Bayer corporation in New York. He returned to Germany in 2002 to become a member of the Executive Committee and Head of Central Administration & Organization at Bayer HealthCare. In 2003, he was appointed a member of the Board of Management and also served as Labor Director. He was responsible for helping to integrate Bayer Schering Parma AG into the subgroup. Until October 1, 2014, he served as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Uberfalle in Bonn : Raububerfalle auf dem Hardtberg spielten sich auf offener Strae ab The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation is seeking repayment of $146,000 it says it was overbilled for transporting pipe for use in a regional water project whose funding has been a target of fraud and questionable spending. The Rocky Boys Reservations Chippewa Cree Construction Corp. has been asked to refund the amount. The project, the Rocky Boys/North Central Montana Regional Water System, is to bring safe drinking water to the Rocky Boys Reservation and to 21 surrounding towns and rural water districts in seven north-central counties. The DNRC provides state funding to the North Central Montana Regional Water Authority, which contracts with the CCCC for work on the project. The majority of the projects funding comes from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The tribe created the CCCC to oversee the federally funded tribal portion of the project. The questioned invoice for shipping pipe occurred in March 2010, at a time when Bureau of Reclamation funding was being embezzled by the CCCCs then-executive director and state legislator Tony Belcourt, and other tribal and non-tribal persons who were convicted in a broad federal corruption investigation. Belcourt and the CCCC, through a series of financial transactions and multiple contractors, used federal stimulus money to pay for water pipe shipping in a scheme that inflated the cost and provided kickbacks to himself and others. The CCCC also billed the Authority for the same pipe shipment. The Authority has asked the CCCC to refund the $146,000. The tribe has responded that it doesnt believe there was an overbilling, said Larry Bonderud, the Authoritys president and also the mayor of Shelby. DNRC and Authority officials said their investigation regarding the pipe shipping costs determined they were not defrauded. Rather, the invoice resulted in an overpayment, they said. Checks and balances In the federal court case, prosecutors said Belcourt took bribes and kickbacks from consultants and contractors who were awarded federally funded contracts, including stimulus aid, from 2009 to 2011. The pipe-shipping invoice was part of corruption charges against Belcourt and a co-defendant, Tammy Leischner of Laurel, who was the sister of Belcourts business partner. Prosecutors said Leischner and her father formed T. Leischner Consulting, to which Belcourt awarded the pipe shipping contract. Leischner created a fraudulent invoice that inflated shipping costs to steal money in a kickback scheme, prosecutors said. T. Consulting billed through another contractor and sent about $163,000 to Belcourt, who used the money to buy a house and to start a company called MT Waterworks. Belcourt was sentenced in 2014 to seven and a half years in prison and ordered to pay $667,000 restitution, including $330,000 to the tribes water project restitution account. He pleaded guilty to theft, bribery and tax-evasion charges. Leischner was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $311,000 to the tribes water project restitution account. She pleaded guilty to theft charges. In the instance of the overbilling, DNRC Director John Tubbs said the state was not defrauded because it has more checks and balances in place. The state tracks expenses and pays bills as theyre incurred and documented, he said. The state verified that the pipe it paid for was installed, Tubbs said. The federal funding was disbursed in advance to the tribe, which then provided a report on how it spent the money, Tubbs said. The fraud, he said, happened on the federal side when the parties tried to claim the federal government should pay for the same pipe. Bonderud, with the Authority, said that based on information hes seen from the states accountants and lawyers, there was an overbilling related to shipping pipe. Thats all we honestly believe it was. The tribe does owe this, Bonderud said. The Authority is not dealing with the same tribal officials who were involved with the questioned invoice, Bonderud said. They may not understand what happened. Were going to talk to them, sit with them and the DNRC and the Authority, and demonstrate to them when and how this occurred, he said. A meeting of state, Authority and tribal officials to review the states documents regarding the overbilling is tentatively scheduled for later this week in Helena. CCCC officials could not be reached for comment. In June 2010, the state authorized reimbursement of a vendor contract that included a pipe-shipping expense of $495,000. Upon review, the actual shipping cost was $349,000, leading to a $146,000 overpayment, Tubbs said. The DNRC started reviewing its books as soon as it learned of the federal corruption investigation and worked with an attorney in the state Department of Justices Division of Criminal Investigation and with federal investigators, he said. The T. Consulting invoice was provided to the DNRC by federal officials during the states internal investigation, said John Grassy, DNRC spokesman. The DNRC, he said, did not receive the invoice as part of its authorized role in the project funding. In a December 2015 letter to the Authority, Tubbs said the tribe sent to the Authority an invoice dated March 26, 2010, that overstated actual pipe shipping costs by $146,000. The Authority then, in the usual course of business, sent the invoice to the DNRC for reimbursement. This overbilling needs to be addressed, Tubbs told the Authority. Clean water The pipe shipping invoice is part of an ongoing project that Congress authorized in 2002 to deliver potable water from the Tiber Reservoir to both the Rocky Boys Reservation and to communities in Chouteau, Hill, Liberty, Pondera, Teton, Glacier and Toole counties. Construction began in 2006. When its finished, a treatment plant near the Tiber Dam will send water through a main, 54-mile pipeline to the reservation and to communities through a smaller pipeline system. The project is divided into two main components, the Core and non-Core components. The Core portion is to build a delivery system to the reservation and is funded through the Bureau of Reclamation. The non-Core component is to provide water to an estimated 28,000 residents in off-reservation north central communities. The Havre-based Authority administers the non-Core system. Federal money pays for 80 percent of the non-Core capitals costs, while the remaining 20 percent is split between a grant from the state of Montana and loans obtained by the Authority. The states share is funded from the Treasure State Endowment Program Regional Water Fund. Although the DNRCs role is in the non-Core component, the state paid the shipping invoice for Core pipeline because some segments of the pipeline ultimately will benefit off-reservation users, Grassy said. Congress originally estimated the cost of the entire project at $228 million in 2002, but by 2014 that cost had ballooned to an estimated $375 million. Previous $13M In addition to the federal prosecutions, a 2013 audit by the U.S. Department of Interiors Office of Inspector General questioned the tribes spending of almost $13 million of some $52.7 million it had received from the Bureau of Reclamation from 2006 to 2012 for the water project. The Interiors audit was prompted by allegations and an investigation into possible misuse of the money. Last July, Bureau of Reclamation officials announced they had reached an agreement with the tribe for the tribe to reimburse $3.1 million of the $13 million in questionable costs. Tyler Johnson, a spokesman for Bureau of Reclamation, said tribal officials contacted the agency after the settlement seeking an alternative to immediate payment. The agency and the tribe reached a second agreement last December in which the tribe will make payments over 10 years, beginning in October. Annual payments for the first nine years will be $310,000, with the last payment of $305,264 in the 10th year, Johnson said. The tribe also will pay a small amount of interest totaling $9,804 over the last three years of the repayment plan, he said. The bureau, Johnson said, agreed to the 10-year repayment plan to avoid having the entire project stopped because a lump sum payment. The settlement also established new terms and conditions in the parties annual funding agreements, changed funding advances to monthly reimbursements and set up a separate joint bank account for withdrawing money approved for reimbursement. The changes are working and have improved the process to prevent a reoccurrence of something similar, Johnson said. 37-Yrs-Old Nigerian Drug Peddler Arrested In South Africa With Drugs Worth R25,000. clarajancita at 25-02-2016 12:16 PM (6 years ago) (f) A 39-year-old Nigerian drug peddler was arrested by the metro police's Germiston crime prevention task team in Kempton Park, SA. He was found in possession of five blocks of Cat estimated to be worth R25,000 on the street. Methcathinone also called Cat is a recreational drug and considered addictive. A 39-year-old Nigerian drug peddler was arrested by the metro police's Germiston crime prevention task team in Kempton Park, SA. He was found in possession of five blocks of Cat estimated to be worth R25,000 on the street. Methcathinone also called Cat is a recreational drug and considered addictive. It is either smoked, snorted, injected or taken orally. The Nigerian man with a life-partner permit that expired in 2014, was nabbed at the intersection of West and Central streets in the Kempton Park CBD around 11am on Thursday, February 11. A charge of possession of an illicit substance was registered at Kempton Park Police Station and the suspect is expected to appear in Kempton Park Magistrates Court soon. It is either smoked, snorted, injected or taken orally. The Nigerian man with a life-partner permit that expired in 2014, was nabbed at the intersection of West and Central streets in the Kempton Park CBD around 11am on Thursday, February 11.A charge of possession of an illicit substance was registered at Kempton Park Police Station and the suspect is expected to appear in Kempton Park Magistrates Court soon. Post Reply I am a metro reporter on Gistmania, I have been publishing news materials for over 5 years Posted: at 25-02-2016 12:16 PM (6 years ago) | Hero Slimchery at 25-02-2016 12:25 PM (6 years ago) (m) All of una dy blame Buhari, You be the judde,, "Some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back home, but they have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking. I don't think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can remain at home, where their services are required to rebuild the country." Posted: at 25-02-2016 12:25 PM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac All of una dy blame Buhari, You be the judde,, "Some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back home, but they have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking. I don't think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can remain at home, where their services are required to rebuild the country." Reply gogoman at 25-02-2016 12:33 PM (6 years ago) (m) UP BIAFRA!!! Posted: at 25-02-2016 12:33 PM (6 years ago) | Addicted Hero UP BIAFRA!!! Reply christianity at 25-02-2016 01:39 PM (6 years ago) (m) bad market Posted: at 25-02-2016 01:39 PM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac bad market Reply ujmaria at 25-02-2016 01:43 PM (6 years ago) (f) Hand don touch am Posted: at 25-02-2016 01:43 PM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac Hand don touch am Reply nwaafoigbo at 25-02-2016 04:32 PM (6 years ago) (m) up nigerian zoo zoo zoo Posted: at 25-02-2016 04:32 PM (6 years ago) | Upcoming up nigerian zoo zoo zoo Reply kison at 25-02-2016 04:43 PM (6 years ago) (m) NEXT TIME be careful,be very very careful, CAREFULLLLLLLLL............... Posted: at 25-02-2016 04:43 PM (6 years ago) | Hero NEXT TIME be careful,be very very careful, CAREFULLLLLLLLL............... Reply kp45 at 25-02-2016 04:46 PM (6 years ago) (m) Food is served. Posted: at 25-02-2016 04:46 PM (6 years ago) | Hero Food is served. Reply emma4love3 at 25-02-2016 05:27 PM (6 years ago) (m) mmm this is part of the reason the world tag us scammers....we shuld try and stay away from this crimes...is not good at all becos one day you wil be caught and tag as nigerian..... Posted: at 25-02-2016 05:27 PM (6 years ago) | Hero mmm this is part of the reason the worldtag us scammers....we shuld try and stayaway from this crimes...is not good at allbecos one day you wil be caught andtag as nigerian..... Reply Trueyarn at 25-02-2016 10:08 PM (6 years ago) (m) Naija I hail o,why can't they hustle legitimately? Posted: at 25-02-2016 10:08 PM (6 years ago) | Hero Naija I hail o,why can't they hustle legitimately? Reply Trueyarn at 25-02-2016 10:09 PM (6 years ago) (m) Naija I hail o,must they involve in shady business? Posted: at 25-02-2016 10:09 PM (6 years ago) | Hero Naija I hail o,must they involve in shady business? Reply imaria at 26-02-2016 12:16 AM (6 years ago) (f) Serve him right cool yourself in prison Posted: at 26-02-2016 12:16 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac Serve him right cool yourself in prison Reply AmazingMarie at 26-02-2016 01:52 AM (6 years ago) (f) why cart drugs when you know it is prohibited i don't understand people's mentality for easy ad quick money making Posted: at 26-02-2016 01:52 AM (6 years ago) | Hero why cart drugs when you know it is prohibited i don't understand people's mentality for easy ad quick money making Reply AmazingMarie at 26-02-2016 01:54 AM (6 years ago) (f) now that he is caught it is obvious he is an illegal immigrant. well let him face the penalty of the offence he committed. Posted: at 26-02-2016 01:54 AM (6 years ago) | Hero now that he is caught it is obvious he is an illegal immigrant. well let him face the penalty of the offence he committed. Reply princedafe at 26-02-2016 02:40 AM (6 years ago) (m) Another senseless act Posted: at 26-02-2016 02:40 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac Another senseless act Reply charisVEC at 26-02-2016 07:45 AM (6 years ago) (m) I seee....issokay Posted: at 26-02-2016 07:45 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac I seee....issokay Reply Eazyatumeyi at 26-02-2016 11:57 PM (6 years ago) (m) i sorry for you. Posted: at 26-02-2016 11:57 PM (6 years ago) | Hero i sorry for you. Reply dickieponga at 27-02-2016 01:57 AM (6 years ago) (m) Do the crime and do the time dats all... Posted: at 27-02-2016 01:57 AM (6 years ago) | Hero Do the crime and do the time dats all... Reply Pushkar-Gayathris Vikram Vedha showcases that a film can be made in any language or for any audience, can be told with the premise & outcome without deviating and keeping the narrative tight. CASPER, Wyo. The criminal case against Sublette County Sheriff Stephen Haskell should move forward, a judge ruled this week. Circuit Judge Curt A. Haws bound five charges against Haskell over to District Court on Monday after a preliminary hearing, court records show. Such hearings establish if there is probable cause a crime was committed. Haskell, who is accused of making unauthorized purchases with county money, will enter his pleas at an arraignment hearing. A date for that hearing has not yet been set. Cheyenne attorney H. Michael Bennett is representing Haskell. Natrona County District Attorney Michael Blonigen said he is serving as special prosecuting attorney for the case. Haskell turned himself into authorities in Sweetwater County on Jan. 19 after the charges were filed. He was booked and released on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond, which does not require him to put up money before leaving jail. Authorities say Haskell ordered more than $11,000 worth of equipment before taking office and then altered invoices to show he made the purchases after being sworn in. He faces charges of obtaining property by false pretenses, buying or receiving stolen property, false claim or voucher, public officer performing duty before qualifying and official committing an unauthorized act. The first three charges are felonies and carry a maximum prison sentence of 22 years upon conviction. The remaining charges are misdemeanors, and could result in up to $6,000 in fines. Court documents allege Haskell ordered uniforms and badges for deputies before taking over as sheriff on Jan. 5, 2015. He allegedly told Sublette County commissioners that he made the orders after he was sworn in, so the items would be paid for by the county. Haskell later asked the uniform and badge companies to doctor invoices to show he had purchased the items after Jan. 5, according to the court documents. The documents also allege Haskell had asked the Sublette County Commission to pay for his lodging during a trip to Baltimore. It was later discovered that the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police had already paid for his lodging. The documents state the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation was assigned to look into the matter in September after Sublette County commissioners wrote the agency asking for an investigation into criminal wrongdoing by Haskell. In a statement released last month by the Sublette County sheriffs office, Haskell said he looked forward to working through the judicial process in this regard and being cleared. CHEYENNE, Wyo. People who make homemade beer and wine would be able to share their creations with others at brewfests and contests, under a bill endorsed by a House committee. The House Revenue Committee voted 7-2 Wednesday to send the proposal to the full House for debate. The bill has already passed the Senate. Sen. Dave Kinskey, the bill's main sponsor, said current state law only allows noncommercial home brews for personal consumption. Kinskey, R-Sheridan, said his proposal would conform state law with federal law, which does allow for homemade beers, wines and mead to be consumed at contests and brewfest events. "All it allows these folks to do is bring their home brew to the show, dispense two or three ounce glasses, hopefully win a prize and go home," he said. Under the proposal, the homemade beer and wine could not be sold, and home brewers would be limited to how much they could make: 100 gallons a year for individuals and 200 gallons for a household with more than one adult. Members of the committee questioned whether the production limits were necessary, given that the homemade beer and wine can't be sold. Kinskey said people who exceed the bill's limits would need an operation that would put them on a scale of a microbrewery. Mike Moser, a lobbyist for the Wyoming Liquor Association, said some homemade craft brewers grow into microbreweries, which are subject to regulation, but the bill is intended for small homebrewers who don't reach that microbrewery threshold. "These people are really good hobbyists, and we'd like to keep it that way and keep those regulations off of them," Moser said. Dan Noble, director of the Wyoming Department of Revenue, said his agency supports the bill. Noble said his agency didn't initiate any enforcement action against homemade beer and wine. Rather, it arose when a licensed brewer or liquor dealer asked the agency about home brewers, he said. "There have been brewfests for a long time, and I think that this is one of those things where someone asked a question and obviously the answer, the way the law is currently structured, was that no it's only for personal consumption," he said. Noble noted that it would still be illegal for people to set up a still to produce distilled spirits. "People die from not knowing what they're doing when they distill spirits," he said. "For mead and beer and wine there isn't a process like that, it's just fermentation." Military Strikes Target ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release SOUTHWEST ASIA, February 24, 2016 U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today. Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports. Strikes in Syria Attack, fighter and ground attack aircraft conducted 14 strikes in Syria: -- Near Hasakah, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed three ISIL buildings, an ISIL mortar system and an ISIL fighting position and suppressed a separate ISIL mortar system. -- Near Hawl, seven strikes destroyed three ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL building, two ISIL heavy machine guns and two ISIL vehicles, suppressed an ISIL mortar system and an ISIL heavy machine gun and cratered two ISIL-used roads. -- Near Ayn Isa, a strike suppressed an ISIL vehicle bomb and an ISIL anti-air artillery piece. -- Near Dayr Az Zawr, two strikes struck an ISIL gas and oil separation plant and denied ISIL access to terrain. -- Near Manbij, a strike destroyed an ISIL fighting position. Strikes in Iraq Fighter aircraft conducted four strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government: -- Near Qayyarah, a strike destroyed an ISIL excavator. -- Near Ramadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit. -- Near Sinjar, a strike destroyed two ISIL weapons caches and five ISIL assembly areas. -- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike destroyed seven ISIL fighting positions. Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Part of Operation Inherent Resolve The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said. Coalition nations conducting strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations conducting strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Shadadi in Syria Expected to Be Liberated Soon, DoD Spokesman Says By Lisa Ferdinando DoD News, Defense Media Activity WASHINGTON, February 24, 2016 The Syrian town of Shadadi is expected to be liberated soon from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a Pentagon spokesman said. Syrian Democratic Forces have encircled and isolated the town in northeastern Syria, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters today. 'We continue to see very solid progress in Shadadi,' he said. Davis said the United States is enabling friendly forces in northeastern Syria as a 'central element to dealing a lasting defeat against ISIL.' The friendly forces have launched sustained offensive operations against ISIL with U.S. support and taken back ground, Davis said. Many ISIL fighters are fleeing, he said. There is still work to be done, the captain said. ISIL is expected to put up a fight, but Shadadi is expected to be liberated in the 'very near future,' he said. 'With our continued support, we believe these forces will eventually be able to isolate ISIL's stronghold of Raqqa, not long after that,' Davis said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address No Evidence Serbians Killed in U.S. Strike in Libya, Defense Official Says By Lisa Ferdinando DoD News, Defense Media Activity WASHINGTON, February 24, 2016 The Defense Department has not received any evidence to support the claim that two Serbian hostages were killed in the U.S. strike last week in Libya, a Pentagon spokesman said today. 'We, the United States government and with Department of Defense support, are in contact with the Serbian government,' Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters. Davis said officials have looked at the photos of the Serbian citizens who died and have received further information about the strike itself, including the extensive damage from the Feb. 19 operation. 'So far we have not seen any credible information that would indicate that these people were killed in the strike that we conducted,' Davis said. U.S. forces carried out a strike against an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant training camp and a senior leader of the terrorist organization, according to a DoD news release issued last week. The U.S. military goes to extraordinary lengths to limit the risk to civilians in the campaign to defeat ISIL, he said. 'Our forces watched this training camp for weeks leading up to the operation and never had any indication that civilians were present,' Davis said. 'We do continue to express our deepest condolences to the Serbian government and the family of those killed,' he said. 'We'll continue to share whatever information we can with them.' NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS William P. Lawrence Supports Pacific Island Region Economic, Environmental Stability Navy News Service Story Number: NNS160224-12 Release Date: 2/24/2016 2:09:00 PM By Lt. j.g. Jane M. Baird, USS William P. Lawrence Public Affairs WESTERN PACIFIC OCEAN (NNS) -- Guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence (DDG 110) supported two commercial fishing vessel boardings, off the coast of the Republic of Nauru this week, as part of the Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI). OMSI is a secretary of defense program that leverages Department of Defense assets transiting the region. This increases the Coast Guard's maritime domain awareness, ultimately supporting its maritime law enforcement operations in Oceania. Embarked aboard Lawrence is a law enforcement detachment, from U.S. Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team South, that conducted the boardings in support of U.S. and Pacific Island Nations (PIN) fishery laws. The boarding teams inspected documentation and fishing holds for illegal activity and conservation management compliance. PIN ship riders provide assistance, as the local authority within their respective Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). EEZ is an area defined by international law allowing each nation exclusive rights to the exploration and use or marine resources. Oceania contains 43 percent of the United States' EEZs. Boarding teams did not find any violations and reported that the fishermen were cordial and intrigued by U.S. presence in the region. 'They were all very receptive and curious about our mission,' said Ensign Daniel Cook. 'OMSI is still a relatively new program, but we were able to explain our presence to them with assistance from our organic translators and the PIN ship rider ... it was really rewarding to see we are making a difference and protecting their livelihoods, both in an economic and environmental capacity.' With crew sizes ranging from 14 to 30, the fishing vessels are capable of hauling up to 200 tons of fish. According to Cook, one of the vessels reported her last delivery exceeded 167 tons. The crew members of varying East Asian heritage -- Chinese, Fijian, Filipino, Indonesian, North Korean, and Taiwanese -- will spend an entire year at sea hauling their loads over thousands of miles from the PIN region to mainland Asia. 'Fishing is a $7 billion industry in the region, and an estimated $4 billion is illegal, unlawful, or unregulated,' explained U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Matthew Guanci. 'U.S. partnership with Australia, New Zealand, France, and PIN deters illegal fishing and promotes economic and environmental stability in the region -- this is the foundation for OMSI.' Upon completion of OMSI, the ship will continue operations in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. Commissioned June 4, 2011, Lawrence is named after Vice Adm. William P. Lawrence, a naval aviator, former Vietnam prisoner of war, and former commander of U.S. 3rd Fleet. Lawrence is a recipient of the Silver Star and the Distinguished Service Medal, the nation's third highest military award, for his inspirational leadership while in captivity. U.S. 3rd Fleet leads naval forces in the Pacific and provides the realistic, relevant training necessary for an effective global Navy. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China reaffirms self-defense legitimacy on reported radar deployment in South China Sea People's Daily Online By Yuan Can (People's Daily Online) 17:26, February 24, 2016 China on Tuesday reaffirmed its right to self-defense and refuted U.S. accusation as 'hyping with ulterior motives' after a U.S. think tank report said China might be installing radar on islands in the South China Sea. The deployment of defense facilities is within China's right to self-defense granted by international law, which is fully legitimate, said a press release from the Ministry of National Defense. The ministry's remarks came after a report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Monday saying satellite images showed China might be installing a radar system on the Nansha Islands. The radar system would significantly bolster China's ability to monitor surface and air traffic across the southern portion of the South China Sea, the report said. The ministry said the facilities including navigation and meteorological equipment are mainly for civil usage to provide public good for the international community. The ministry accused the U.S., which strengthened military deployment in the South China Sea, sent military vessels or planes to the region, and gathered allies to conduct joint drills or joint cruise with strong pertinence, of 'being the root' of militarization in the South China Sea. 'Someone turned a blind eye to the U.S. behavior, but criticized China's legitimate islands construction over and over again. It is deliberately stirring up trouble with ulterior motives and exaggerating the tension,' the press release said. In an interview with Global Times, China's military expert Zhang Junshe said that even if the U.S. report is real, it is reasonable for China to build defensive facilities on its territory. Zhang stated that to conduct territorial defense China should be capable to undertake detection and surveillance and to be aware of foreign threat. Furthermore, deployment of early warning maritime or air surveillance radars will not impose any threat to navigation and aviation, according to Zhang. Zhang also stated that the U.S. put a blind eye on countries like the Philippines who deployed missiles and antiaircraft guns. He also criticized American double-standard attitude on defensive facilities deployment for the country itself still arranges lots of radar on Guam, Hawaii and even Okinawa base. Ni Feng, a U.S. issue expert, told the Global Times that deployment of defensive facilities in the South China Sea is closely related to American actions. The U.S. always conducts close-up reconnaissance against China, especially after China began to construct relevant reefs and islands in that region, and the U.S. violates China's national interests claiming freedom of navigation. China's reaction has little difference with the American one on essence. An anonymous researcher told the Global Times that the U.S. has no choice but to exaggerate threats from China in order to have an excuse to put a finger in the South China Sea issue in aspect of geostrategy as they break the promise that they 'will not choose any side.' Ni told the Global Times that although strategic competition between the two countries is increasingly fierce, the two countries have a consensus that they will not confront each other. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South Sudan oppostion forces to deploy to capital Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 1:51PM South Sudanese soldiers allied with the country's former rebel leader, Riek Machar, will deploy to the capital, Juba, in line with a peace deal, a regional peace observer says. Festus Mogae, chairman of the Joint Monitoring and Evolution Commission (JMEC), said during a meeting late Tuesday that signatories of the peace deal between the government and opposition had agreed to the deployment starting March 1. 'It was agreed that we will bring first and second stages together and therefore bring 1,370, including 700 of the police, to Juba... as a compromise,' Mogae said. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Machar also confirmed that the opposition leader would be returning to the capital "during the first week of March." The country has been witnessing chaos since December 2013 when fighting erupted between troops loyal to the president and defectors led by the rebel leader. Machar, who was also the former deputy of President Salva Kiir, was eventually sacked. Under pressure from the United Nations and other states, both sides signed last August a failed peace deal to share ministerial positions. Last month, both leaders were threatened with sanctions in a report by the UN for failing to end the conflict. Earlier this month, the South Sudanese president handed Machar's former position as deputy back. Under the terms of the deal, a total of 4,830 troops are to be allowed inside Juba. Just over two-thirds of them, or 3,420 forces, will come from the government, while the remaining will be from the rebels. The forces will include joint guard, military police and national security service units. The violence has left tens of thousands of people dead, and forced almost two million people from their homes. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Egyptian forces kill 12 militants, arrest over three dozens in Sinai Peninsula Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 9:31AM Government forces in Egypt have killed 12 Takfiri militants and arrested more than three dozen others during security raids in the volatile Sinai Peninsula of the North African country. At least 12 members of the Takfiri Velayat Sinai terrorist group were killed and 10 others injured during operations south of the border town of Rafah, located 340 kilometers (211 miles) east of the capital, Cairo, Sada el-Balad news website reported. Egyptian troopers also engaged the extremists south of the town of Sheikh Zuweid, situated 334 kilometers (214 miles) northeast of the capital, and detained 38 of them. Sinai Peninsula has been under a state of emergency since October 2014, following a deadly terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 33 soldiers. Over the past years, militants have been carrying out anti-government activities and deadly attacks, taking advantage of the turmoil caused in Egypt after democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military in July 2013. Militants from the Takfiri Velayat Sinai group, previously known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, have claimed responsibility for most of the attacks, mainly targeting the army and police. In November 2014, the group pledged allegiance to the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, which is wreaking havoc in Iraq, Syria and in Libya. The government in Cairo views the volatile region as a safe haven for terrorists. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US strikes leave 25 Daesh dead in eastern Afghanistan, officials say. Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 7:57AM Afghan officials say more than two dozen Daesh terrorists have lost their lives in US drone strikes in Afghanistan's troubled eastern province of Nangarhar. Attaullah Khogyani, the spokesman for Nangarhar provincial governor, said the aerial assaults took place in the Achin district of the province, which is located 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the Afghan capital, Kabul. He added that 25 members of the Takfiri Daesh militant group were killed in the aerial assaults. Khogyani further said that a considerable amount of weapons and munitions were destroyed during the raids. Colonel Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, a spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial police department, said on February 18 that 15 people were killed in a US drone attack in Achin district. On February 3, at least 18 people lost their lives when US-led foreign forces carried out a string of drone strikes in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Paktika. The United States regularly uses drones for airstrikes and spying missions in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border. Washington has also been conducting targeted killings through remotely-controlled armed drones in Somalia and Yemen. Afghanistan, parts of which have long been considered a bastion of Taliban, has recently been seeing the emergence and limited expansion of Daesh. Nangarhar, in particular, is one area where Daesh has visibly gained a foothold. On June 16, 2015, the Afghan Taliban militant group warned Daesh ringleader, Ibrahim al-Samarrai, also known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, against "waging a parallel insurgency in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity more than 14 years after the United States and its allies attacked the country as part of Washington's so-called war on terror. Although the 2001 attack overthrew the Taliban, many areas across Afghanistan still face violence and insecurity. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Afghan Taliban 'Unaware' Of Peace Talk Plans, Says Preconditions Remain February 24, 2016 by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan The Afghan Taliban's office in Qatar has told RFE/RL that it continues to insist that all foreign troops in the U.S.-led coalition must leave Afghanistan before it will join direct peace talks with the government in Kabul. Mohammad Naim, the official spokesman for the Taliban's political office in Qatar, made the statement in an interview with RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan after a four-nation group trying to set up direct peace talks said it expects negotiations to start in Islamabad by the first week of March. The so-called Quadrilateral Coordination Group -- which includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and the United States -- announced its expectations after meeting in Kabul on February 23. But Naim said late on February 23 that the Taliban's Qatar office was 'unaware of plans for talks' and that it had not changed its preconditions for joining the peace process, which he had announced at the Pugwash research center in Doha during a conference that lasted from January 23 to January 25. The Taliban has long held that it would not join talks with the Afghan government in Kabul until all foreign troops in the U.S.-led coalition leave Afghanistan. At the Doha conference, Taliban representatives said in a statement 'the invaders should leave the country and give the Afghan people opportunity to determine their fate themselves.' Other Taliban demands announced in Doha in January included official recognition of the Taliban's political office in Qatar, the removal of the Taliban from a United Nations terrorist blacklist, a halt to the 'arrest and elimination' of Taliban fighters, and the release of Taliban inmates from prisons. The Taliban demands also included an end to what its Qatar office called 'poisonous propaganda' against the Taliban. The Afghan government said in late January that it could not accept the Taliban's preconditions for the resumption of the stalled peace talks. Kabul said negotiations should move forward only in line with the decisions of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group. Afghanistan's High Peace Council has urged the Taliban to avoid setting preconditions, saying the group should raise their issues at the negotiating table. The High Peace Council also warned that there will not be a breakthrough in the peace process unless there are face-to-face talks between government negotiators and Afghan Taliban representatives. Despite his insistence on the Taliban preconditions announced in January, Naim told told RFE/RL that the Taliban 'will take part in talks that end the foreign occupation and bring an Islamic government to the country.' Some Taliban delegates met in Islamabad during the summer of 2015 with Afghan officials for an initial round of peace talks. But the fledgling peace process was derailed by the revelation that the Taliban's founder and spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had been dead for more than two years. A power struggle between rival Taliban factions then emerged with rival field commanders expressing loyalty to different leaders. The Taliban's Qatar office says it is the only 'authorized and responsible entity' that can represent Afghanistan's Taliban at peace talks. With reporting by AP, Reuters, and Tolo-TV Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/afghanistan- taliban-unaware-peace-talks/27570852.html Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NATO Rotational Forces in Europe 'Intended to Create Effect of Permanence' Sputnik News 20:49 24.02.2016(updated 20:58 24.02.2016) The rotational deployment of US and NATO forces in eastern Europe is intended to produce the appearance of a permanent ground force to deter Russia, US Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told the press on Wednesday. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The rotational deployment of US and NATO forces in eastern Europe is intended to produce the appearance of a permanent ground force to deter Russia, US Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told the press on Wednesday. 'What we want to do is rotate armored brigades into Europe on a routine basis, heel to toe, to increase ground capabilities,' Milley stated. Asked if the troop rotations would be so close that they would be virtually permanent, Milley stated, 'That is the idea.' Russia has repeatedly warned that NATO's attempts to expand on its borders, as well as more recently amass troops and equipment, constitute provocative acts that are contrary to previous agreements and can undermine regional and global stability. For 2017, the US Department of Defense requested $3.4 billion in funds for the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI), a significant portion of which will be allocated to the US Army. Under the ERI, the US Army intends to move an armored brigade into Europe, on a rotational basis, to bolster the existing cavalry regiment and 173rd Airborne Brigade. The United States will also be prepositioning additional military equipment in Europe, including tanks, armored combat vehicles and artillery. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address CASPER, Wyo. An Idaho federal judge found the U.S. Forest Service in contempt of court Tuesday, concluding the Forest Service used a flawed study as the basis to ban domestic sheep and goats from some of its lands. The lawsuit came in 2015 after the Shoshone National Forest prohibited domestic sheep and goats from entering the forest to prevent the spread of deadly diseases to bighorn sheep. The contempt of court ruling, made by B. Lynn Winmill of the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, requires the Forest Service pay for legal fees for the Idaho Wool Growers Association and the North American Packgoat Association, the two plaintiffs in the case. It does not go as far as the groups requested by ordering additional fines and reversing the sheep and goat ban. Winmill deferred ruling on the specifics of the ban, instead ordering a status conference with the groups to discuss the issue. Packgoats are often used by backpackers and hikers to carry food and other supplies on backcountry trips. Andrew Irvine, a Jackson-based attorney representing the Packgoat Association, praised the judges decision. Obviously, this upcoming status conference with the court will determine what happens to the existing Shoshone Land Management Plan and the Forest Services decision to ban domestic sheep and goats on the Shoshone National Forest," Irvine said. "I am hopeful the Forest Service will be willing to sit down and work with NAPGA on a reasonable solution. The Forest Service received the ruling, and its Office of General Counsel is reviewing it, said Jace Ratzlaff, regional legislative affairs and SRS coordinator for the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Regional office. The North American Packgoat Association sued the Forest Service in 2015, claiming the Forest Service used a flawed, and illegal, study to ban domestic sheep and goats. That study came from 2006 in the Payette National Forest in Idaho. Groups sued over the report, stating it was completed without representation from "anyone engaged in domestic sheep management or behavior, according to Winmills ruling. A judge in 2009 sided with the groups, and added that the studys findings could not be relied upon by the Forest Service with respect to any future agency decisions. When the Shoshone National Forest released its final 2015 plan banning domestic sheep and goats, it used too many of the studys findings, including exact wording from portions of the document, Winmill found. The court order from 2009 was fairly black and white, and it said not to use these documents, said Steve Kilpatrick, executive director of the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation. Its unfortunate that the Shoshone cut and pasted so many of the documents and didnt cite additional research in its finding. The science behind disease transmission between domestic sheep and goats and wild sheep, and the merit of keeping the animals separate, is still sound, he said. Bighorn sheep herds, he added, continue to face die-offs across the West because of interactions with domestic livestock. The Packgoat Association plans to meet with the Forest Service and the judge, and Irvine hopes they can reach an agreement that allows recreationists to use pack goats in the Shoshone forest once again. US Must Retain Alaska Combat Brigade to Deter Russia in Arctic - Army Chief Sputnik News 20:17 24.02.2016 US Army Chief General Mark Milley thinks that the US should maintain the 4th Infantry Brigade Airborne Combat Team in Alaska to deter Russia in the Arcict and Northern Pacific. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The United States should maintain the 4th Infantry Brigade Airborne Combat Team in Alaska, the Arctic brigade, for at least another year to deter Russia in the Arctic and Northern Pacific, US Army Chief General Mark Milley told the US Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. 'I have concluded that Russia is not only acting aggressively in Europe, they are also asserting themselves in the Pacific and specifically in the Arctic,' Milley stated. 'So I think it would be contrary to US strategic national security interests to go ahead and pull out 425 [Arctic Brigade] at this time.' As recently as last month, the US Army was considering cutting 2,000 military personnel from the United States' only Arctic combat brigade, a measure that was strongly opposed by Alaska lawmakers. Milley argued against the proposal to cut personnel from the 4th Infantry Airborne Brigade in Alaska, noting the team provides to 'only airborne vertical insertion forced entry capability' available to the US Pacific Command. In a US Department of Defense assessment, Russia was deemed the most advanced nation in developing the Arctic militarily. Moscow has stated it has no intention to 'militarize' the Arctic, but maintains defense of the Arctic as among the main priorities for the Russian armed forces during peacetime. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Estonia Expects New NATO Units to Arrive in Coming Months Official Sputnik News 18:10 24.02.2016 Estonia expects NATO military presence in the country to increase with more Alliance units arriving in the coming months, Commander-in-Chief of the Estonian Defense Forces Lt. Gen. Riho Terras said Wednesday. TALLINN (Sputnik) Earlier in February, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on the Alliance's ministers to increase the military presence in Eastern Europe in order to send a 'powerful signal to deter any aggression.' 'In the coming months, we expect divisions from Germany, Poland and several other NATO allies to arrive in Estonia. This will further enhance the basis of the military deterrence,' Terras said, speaking at the opening of a military parade to celebrate the 98th anniversary of Estonia's independence. The commander-in-chief added that NATO aircraft had already started carrying out sorties from the Amari airbase near Tallinn, while in the city of Tapa, US soldiers are serving alongside Estonian troops. Since 2014, NATO has been building up its military presence in Europe, particularly in Eastern European countries bordering Russia, using Moscow's alleged interference in Ukraine as a pretext for the move. In September, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that any NATO advancement toward Russian borders would prompt Moscow to take counter-measures to ensure the country's national security. Russia has repeatedly expressed concerns over NATO's military buildup along its western borders, warning that the alliance's expansion undermines regional and global security. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Moscow Completing Firearms Delivery to Afghanistan Sputnik News 14:27 24.02.2016(updated 14:44 24.02.2016) Afghanistan received 10,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Russia. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Moscow is completing the delivery of a batch of firearms to Kabul under the latest contract between the two states, Zamir Kabulov, the head of the department in the Russian Foreign Ministry responsible for Afghanistan, said Wendesday. "Deliveries are underway. This morning, an official handover ceremony [for the batch of 10,000 AK-47 assault rifles] was held in Kabul with Afghan officials and our Ambassador [Alexander Mantytskiy] in attendance. So the deliveries are nearing completion," Kabulov told RIA Novosti. According to Kabulov, who is also the Kremlin's special envoy to Afghanistan, a new contract between the sides for firearms is not currently being planned. In October, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani asked Russia to supply artillery, small arms and helicopters to the central Asian country to aid it in its fight against Islamist insurgents. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Darfur: UN deeply concerned over thousands of newly-displaced people in region's north 24 February 2016 The top United Nations humanitarian official in Sudan said today she is deeply concerned about the plight of more than 85,000 newly displaced civilians in North Darfur state who have fled their villages in recent days as a result of an escalation of conflict in the region's Jebel Marra area. The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Marta Ruedas, said in a press release that this past Monday, she visited Tawilla, west of El Fasher on the fringes of the Jebel Marra, where more than 22,000 people, mostly women and children, have gathered in recent weeks next to an existing camp for displaced people. "Seeing hundreds of women and children in Tawilla and speaking to the local authorities there very much brings it home: that civilians continue to bear the brunt of conflict every day and their protection is our paramount concern," Ms. Ruedas stressed. The UN, along with international and national organizations, and the Sudanese Red Crescent Society, are delivering assistance to those in need, and more is on the way, but the massive influx of new arrivals in recent days has "put a strain on what was an already logistically complex operation," the UN official said. Ms. Ruedas also said an 11-truck convoy left El Fasher yesterday with more aid, including food, for Sortony, where there are more than 63,000 newly-displaced people taking refuge next to a UN peacekeeping site. To date, the United Nations and its partners have not been granted access to key locations reportedly affected by civilian displacement in Central Darfur, despite reports of wide-scale movement of people and potential emergency need. Calling for immediate access to all people in need so that those affected can receive the humanitarian assistance they require, Ms. Ruedas in particular urged all parties to the conflict to allow the UN and its partners to reach displaced people in Central Darfur. As of 20 February, there are 22,261 newly displaced people in Tawilla, of whom 18,974 are verified, and 63,223 newly displaced people in Sortony, of whom 41,530 have been registered, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). According to the Kebkabiya Smallholder Charitable Society, a non-profit organization, and Oxfam International, there are also 2,018 displaced people in Kebkabiya. This brings the total of displaced in North Darfur State as a result of the recent Jebel Marra hostilities to 87,502, the UN official said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Balkans border closures cause chaos as refugees find 'too few places' to go, UN agency chief warns 24 February 2016 Europe is backing into an even greater refugee crisis by tightening border restrictions on the hundreds of thousands fleeing conflicts elsewhere, the head of the United Nations refugee agency has said on a visit to the island of Lesvos in Greece. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, who took office on 1 January, visited the port and the refugees and migrants registration centres there on Tuesday, a day that at least 1,800 people made the dangerous crossing by rubber dinghy from Turkey. "I am very worried about the news we are getting about the increasing closures of the European borders along the Balkans route," Mr. Grandi said, adding that the situation will create further chaos and increase the burden on Greece, which is already shouldering a big responsibility managing these people. He emphasized the need to further promote the option of relocation, noting that while a system for distribution was in place, far too few places 1,200 are being offered by European Union countries and too few refugees are agreeing to take part in the scheme. The scheme would significantly reduce the numbers moving to Austria, Germany and Sweden and ease the pressure on Greece, he added. 'Europe has not shown much solidarity' Last year, more than 500,000 refugees first touched European soil on Lesvos. And so far this year, more than 50,000 have come to the island. Grandi noted that "Europe has not shown much solidarity, but here we see the best face of Europe" with the significant efforts made by the local community, local authorities, volunteers and non-governmental organizations. He also denounced what he called "the tendency to classify people along the route by nationality." Syrians and Iraqis can go through while others like Afghans, Somalis and Palestinians are blocked, he said. Mr. Grandi spelled out ambitions for a conference by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to be held on March 30 to promote legal avenues for Syrian refugees to reduce their dependence on criminal smuggler networks and regularize the flow. He said both Europe and the world must commit to taking many more Syrians, to relieve the burden on the principal refugee-hosting countries Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. "But we're not going to tell them, take a few [hundred] or a few [thousand] as is the case now. We're going to tell them to take hundreds of thousands. In fact our hope would be 10 per cent of the whole Syrian refugee population, almost half a million people." Mr. Grandi heard the stories of several refugees at the port and in the reception centre. Hallal said he fled his bombed home in Hamaa in Syria a year and a half ago. He spent $4,000 to make the dangerous crossing to Lesvos. His goal is to provide security and an education for his seven children. "I hope, God willing, the war will end in Syria, and we can return," he said. "My country is good, my country is precious to me. But because of my children, I was scared and I had to leave my country." In late afternoon, the High Commissioner spent a quiet hour in a quiet corner, which bears testimony to the tragedy that exile can bring. Grandi climbed to the top of St. Pantelaimonas cemetery where more than 150 were buried. Most of them drowned, many were children, whose short lives were marked by soft toys and simple words "unknown little one." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Prime Minister and Minister for Defence - 2016 Defence White Paper 25 February 2016 The 2016 White Paper is a comprehensive and responsible long-term plan to ensure Australias national security. It is the culmination of detailed analysis of our strategic environment, our defence priorities and objectives, and the capabilities required to achieve these outcomes. For the first time, the White Paper released today by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Defence Minister Marise Payne fully aligns strategy, capability and resources to make the Australian Defence Force (ADF) more capable, agile and potent. The Turnbull Government is increasing Defence spending by $29.9 billion over the next decade. The defence strategy and capability plans have been independently costed to ensure they are achievable and affordable. The Turnbull Government has also set a new benchmark for transparency and funding certainty by releasing an Integrated Investment Program and Defence Industry Policy Statement. The fully costed, ten-year Integrated Investment Program brings together all capability-related investment including new weapons, platforms, infrastructure and science and technology. The Defence Industry Policy Statement will transform Defences relationship with industry. The Turnbull Government will invest $1.6 billion over 10 years in programs to build industry skills, drive competitiveness and export potential while harnessing Australian innovation and expertise. These investments in Australian industry and technologies will generate benefits beyond the Australian defence industrial base which flow into the rest of the economy, delivering jobs and encouraging innovation for regional businesses and communities across Australia. The implementation of the First Principles Review of Defence and the organisations ongoing commitment to cultural reform will be critical to realising the Turnbull Governments White Paper goals. The White Paper recognises Australias security and prosperity is directly tied to the stability of our region and to the maintenance of a stable, rules-based global order. In the period to 2035, Australia will have greater opportunities for prosperity and development but it will also face greater uncertainty. We need to be prepared. The White Paper positions Defence to respond to a broader range of security threats to Australians at home and abroad. The Government will invest in new capability across the ADF including: A continuous naval shipbuilding program commencing with nine future frigates and 12 offshore patrol vessels. 12 new regionally-superior submarines, with the commitment to maximise Australian industry involvement in acquisition and sustainment, to be finalised through the Competitive Evaluation Process. Enhanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, space, electronic warfare and cyber capabilities. Advanced training, modern equipment, health care and logistics systems to support ADF personnel. Comprehensive upgrades to Defence infrastructure across Australia to support our larger future force, including key bases, training and testing ranges and fuel and explosive ordnance facilities. Modernised information management, operational communications, and command and control systems. Australians can be confident the Turnbull Government will continue to deliver on its most important task defending our nation and protecting and promoting our national interests. The 2016 Defence White Paper, Integrated Investment Program and Defence Industry Policy Statement are available at www.defence.gov.au/whitepaper. Media contacts: PMO: John Garnaut, 0481 463 891 Minister Payne: Henry Budd, 0429 531 143 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Long-Distance IS Threat Roils Bosnia, Top Islamic Cleric February 24, 2016 by Maja Nikolic Authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina are scrambling to provide extra security for the country's most senior Islamic cleric, Grand Mufti Husein Kavazovic, after a Bosnian thought to be fighting with the Islamic State (IS) militant group in Syria issued a threat via the Internet. In the clip, militant Amir Selimovic vows to 'cut the throat' of the grand mufti and warns, in front of an IS flag, that 'mujahedin are coming to Bosnia.' The threat, and the seriousness with which officials are treating it, highlight local fears that pockets of Bosnia are becoming hotbeds for militant Islamists as well as international concerns over the operational reach of IS and other extremist groups. Selimovic was said to be a member of the mainly Muslim Army of Bosnia during the country's 1992-95 war and earned daily wages as a handyman after the conflict. He is said to have left to join Islamist fighters in Syria in 2014. Villagers from Selimovic's hometown, Svojat, near the eastern city of Tuzla, recalled him to an RFE/RL correspondent as a reserved man but a problem drinker who alienated family before 'turning to radicalism' and pledging he would do 'something for which all of Bosnia would remember him.' One resident said that while Selimovic 'begged for money' and 'sold everything' to buy himself drinks, 'he was not a menace [and] never bothered anyone.' Former acquaintances painted a portrait of a man whose behavior drove his wife to take their two children and leave before he fell in with fundamentalist Wahhabi Muslims and eventually remarried, this time to a conservative woman from the central Bosnian town of Travnik, a hundred or so kilometers away. 'She came here all covered up [under an Islamic cloak], with only her eyes visible,' said a villager, adding of Selimovic's departure in 2014 with his wife and infant son: 'Before he left, two young men came,... they barely spoke our language. And then, after two or three days, he left too.' Sources close to Selimovic suggested he was recruited to join IS by a cousin who had already left for Syria, where he reportedly was killed late last year. Before traveling to Syria, one Svojat woman said, Selimovic visited a nearby village called Gracanica, where members of the Wahhabi community are thought to gather. A secretive Wahhabi community in another northern Bosnian village, Gornja Maoca, has been linked to terrorism in the past. A former friend in Svojat said he 'feel[s] sorry for Selimovic,' adding, 'He told me he needed to do something with himself; he told me he would do something for which all of Bosnia would remember him.' Kavazovic, the grand mufti who was the target of Selimovic's threat, has repeatedly denounced Islamic extremism and the radicalization of Bosnian Muslims. He asked the authorities for protection following news of the Selimovic video. Bosnian Security Minister Dragan Mektic told reporters the threat was 'serious' and the state was taking 'additional security measures' to protect Kavazovic. Officials in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Serbia have sought to combat the perception that they are growing exporters of jihadists and mercenaries to areas of conflict abroad, including Iraq and Syria, where IS controls swaths of territory and has carried out brutal mass killings and other atrocities. Authorities say at least 26 of the estimated 200 or so Bosnians who have joined extremist groups in Syria and Iraq have been killed, and around 50 others have returned home. Muslims make up 40 percent of Bosnia's population of nearly 4 million people. Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/bosnia-mufti- kavazovic-asks-for-protection-after-islamic- state-death-threat-/27570445.html Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address House Republicans Prepare Legal Fight to Stop Obama from Closing Guantanamo by VOA News February 24, 2016 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are preparing to take legal steps to prevent President Barack Obama from closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and transferring some detainees to the United States. House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Wednesday that lawmakers are preparing a legal challenge to ensure the prison remains open. He said lawmakers have the votes to block Obama's plan in Congress and enough votes to override any veto. On Tuesday, President Obama outlined plans to transfer roughly 35 of the 91 Guantanamo detainees to other countries while sending the remaining prisoners to a facility in the United States. Transferring detainees, closing facility Current U.S. law bans the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to locations within the United States. Some say those transfers could bring security concerns. The White House has left open the possibility Obama could use an executive order to close Guantanamo. The President has stressed the importance of closing the facility since taking office in 2009. A senior administration official said moving the prisoners from Cuba to the U.S. will save the Pentagon between $65 million and $85 million per year, and would offset the initial cost needed to move the prisoners within three-five years. The Guantanamo facility opened in 2002 under the administration of former President George W. Bush following the September 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington. Nearly 800 detainees have been held there at some point since then, many for long periods without being charged or put on trial. Most of the detainees have been transferred back to their respective home countries or other nations willing to take them in. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address DPRK warns to use strategic weapons against U.S.-S.Korean forces People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 07:22, February 24, 2016 PYONGYANG, Feb. 23 -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Tuesday that its strategic and tactical weapons are ready to be used for preemptive strikes on South Korea and the United States even if any 'small movements' were found among U.S.-S.Korean special forces, the official KCNA news agency said Tuesday. The first target of the attacks would be Chongwadae, South Korea's presidential office, as well as South Korean authorities, said the KCNA, citing a statement issued by the supreme command of the Korean People's Army (KPA). If the U.S.-S.Korean armed forces continued to make military provocations despite warnings from the DPRK, the KPA would enter the phase of its second round of attacks, which would target U.S. bases in the Asia-Pacific and even U.S. territories, the statement warned. The DPRK is accusing the United States and South Korea of attempting to bring about a 'collapse of the DPRK social system,' read the statement. The U.S.-South Korea OPLAN 5015 war plan reportedly includes preemptive strikes on the DPRK and plans to remove the DPRK's weapons of mass destruction. The 'beheading operation,' which targets the 'supreme headquarters of the DPRK,' means a preemptive strike for 'removing in advance the one empowered with the mandate of order' to deter the 'use' of the DPRK's nuclear and strategic weapons, the statement said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Military action against North Korea possible: Top US cmdr. Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 4:48PM The United States does not rule out a possible military action against North Korea, if Pyongyang continues to develop its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, says a top US military commander. On January 6, North Korea said it had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb, a move that outraged Washington and prompted Congress to hit back with more sanctions against the country. The standoff between Washington and Pyongyang further escalated on February 7, after North Korea successfully launched a long-range missile allegedly carrying an earth observation satellite. The missile was thought to have a range of over 10,000 kilometers, enough to reach the US mainland. Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Admiral Harry Harris, commander of US Pacific Command, said North Korea's nuclear test was a global threat and a US military action is possible if such moves continue. "I think they have posed a very distinct and real threat, not only to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula but globally," Harris said. Harris said he was not convinced that Pyongyang was in possession of thermonuclear weapons, but nonetheless, the latest atomic test posed a threat to US as well. "They are on a quest for nuclear weapons and a means to militarize them and the means to deliver them intercontinentally; they pose a real threat to Hawaii and to the West Coast of the mainland United States and soon to the entire US," the commander added. Harris also used the opportunity to point out the Pacific Command's shortage of weapons, saying "critical munitions shortfalls are a top priority and concern." Pyongyang will use WMDs if saw fit Also testifying before the panel on Tuesday, was General Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of US Forces Korea, who said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will not hesitate to use weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) if his leadership is challenged. If he 'thought his regime were challenged, he states that he would use WMD,' Scaparrotti said, noting that tensions on the Korean Peninsula have reached their highest level in more than 20 years. The recent surge in tensions between the two countries has prompted Washington to deploy more missile systems and advanced fighter jets to South Korea, drawing criticism from Russia and China. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address CASPER, Wyo. QEP Resources lost $149.4 million in 2015, the company reported Wednesday, as weak commodity prices eroded the Denver-based firm's earnings. Wyoming's third-largest natural gas producer saw revenues slump nearly 40 percent to $2 billion. And with natural gas and oil prices mired near multi-year lows, the company said it would reduce its 2016 spending to between $450 million and $500 million, or about half what it spent in 2015. In Pinedale, the company said it expects to reduce the number of rigs working in the area from three at the end of 2015 to one by the close of March. The Colorado company has nevertheless avoided the financial woes of its industry peers. Company executives boasted about the firm's cash position around $376 million in reserves and low debt load in a statement released following the market's close Wednesday. "Our high-quality, diversified (exploration and production) asset portfolio, combined with a year-end 2015 cash position of $376 million and an undrawn revolving credit facility, places QEP in an enviable position in today's challenging commodity price environment, said Chuck Stanley, who serves as the company's chairman, president and CEO. QEP has made efforts to diversify its production portfolio in recent years, acquiring oil acreage in the Bakken in North Dakota and Texas' Permian Basin. But a 25 percent reduction in realized prices on QEP's oil sales prompted oil revenues to fall from $1.4 billion in 2014 to $834 million last year. Natural gas production was similarly impacted. Pinedale production hit a new company record of 304 million cubic feet per day during the last three months of the year. That represented a 6 percent increase over the third quarter and a 7 percent increase over the same period last year. However, the average realized natural gas sale slumped from $3.93 per million British Thermal Unit in 2014 to $3.04 in 2015. Natural gas revenues decreased from $776.4 million to $468.5 million over the same time period. Sales of natural gas liquids, or condensates, were also down sharply. In 2014, QEP's NGL revenues were $223.3 million. Last year, that figure was $80 million. QEP shares were up 3.2 percent to close at $10.33 on Wednesday. Critics Warn N. Korean Sanctions Are All Pain, No Gain by Brian Padden February 24, 2016 A significant minority of South Koreans oppose Washington and Seoul led efforts to impose harsh economic sanctions on the Kim Jong Un government. These critics say this confrontational approach has fueled regional tensions and they warn that further punitive measures will only worsen the poverty stricken conditions in the North and greatly increase the risk of war. 'It's not only North Korea that creates the atmosphere of fear and anxiety. It is also the U.S. and South Korean governments and politics,' said Park Jung-eun with the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy. The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) speaks for a large number of critics of President Park Geun-hye's ruling Saneuri Party. It is a South Korean alliance of pro-democracy and human rights organizations often aligned with the political opposition in Seoul. Kaesong closing A recent South Korean public opinion poll found majority support for President Park's decision to close the Kaesong Industrial Complex following North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January and rocket launch this month. But a significant minority 42 percent of those polled opposed closing the complex. Park claimed that 70 percent of the wages for the 54,000 North Korean workers, and other funding paid to the Kim Jong Un government to operate the jointly run facility, were used to fund the country's nuclear program. Critics say the government has provided no evidence to support its assertion. Rather than cutting funds from North Korea's nuclear program or pressuring the Kim Jong Un government to comply with U.N. sanctions, they contend that closing Kaesong will disproportionally hurt hundreds of thousands of average people living in the region. "From a humanitarian perspective, the shutdown actually has imposed the greatest impact on workers of the complex and their families," said Father Park Chang-il, a Catholic priest with PSPD. Engagement versus pressure Washington also recently passed harsh new financial sanctions that could seize the U.S. assets of any company linked to illicit North Korean activities. Opponents of a punitive or pressure based approach to North Korea say Washington and Seoul's "uncompromising" stance is also contributing to an increasingly tense regional security situation. Demanding Pyongyang halt its nuclear program before international peace talks can begin and offering no incentives to comply, they say, only pushes the Kim Jong Un government to take a confrontational stance in return. "In order to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, we have to pay the corresponding price," said Lee Seung-whan with the PSPD's Civil Peace Forum. U.S. and South Korea responded to the recent North Korean nuclear test by bringing in nuclear capable aircrafts and ships. Critics say this show of force, along with this year's largest ever joint military drills, which include practicing pre-emptive strikes against targets in the North, will only strengthen the resolve and power of hardline leaders in Pyongyang. On Tuesday North Korea's People's Army threatened to strike the South Korean presidential office and U.S. military installations in retaliation for the joint military drills. South Korea's military responded Wednesday with a strong warning, saying any direct provocation would expedite the 'collapse of [Pyongyang's] dictatorial system.' Sunshine sunset Recent history undermines the position of advocates for peace through engagement. Public support in the rich, democratic South for basically paying for peace with the poor and repressive North, had dwindled in the last decade. Most aid and trade programs that began under Seoul's Sunshine policy in 2000, ended in failure in 2010 after an alleged North Korean attack on a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. North Korea's withdrawal from international nuclear talks in 2009 and refusal to comply with a 2005 agreement to dismantle its nuclear weapons program greatly increased public support for a more conservative and punitive approach to dealing with the Kim government. Also criticism that the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has been inflexible on North Korea is inconsistent with other recent foreign policy efforts by Washington, including the nuclear agreement reached with Iran and normalizing relations with Cuba. Prior to the January nuclear test, Washington says it agreed to a Pyongyang request to engage in peace treaty talks, reportedly without requiring the North to halt its nuclear program. However, the U.S. says it did insist that the nuclear issue be on the agenda and it was North Korea that rejected the compromise. Aligning with China The views of these South Korean critics align with Chinese leaders, who had been reluctant to support harsh international sanctions on North Korea for fear of destabilizing the country and triggering a surge of refugees across their border. However on Tuesday Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, at a joint news conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington, indicated the two sides are close to agreeing on new, stronger U.N. sanctions to impose on North Korea. China is North Korea's most important ally and largest trading partner. Without Beijing's support, measures being considered to cut off trade and aid to its ally will likely have limited impact. Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran sees new oil deals of up to $15 billion ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency Wed 24 Feb 2016 - 15:52 TEHRAN (ISNA)- Iran is expecting to sign $10-15 billion of oil deals within a year under a new contract model which is undergoing modifications, head of the top state oil company NIOC said. In September, the Iranian government approved a draft of the Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC), but NIOC Managing Director Rokonoddin Javadi said on Wednesday the formula still needs "correction, completion and final editing." "Therefore, it is expected that $10-15 billion of contracts will be signed under the IPC by the end of the next year (early 2017). However, the signing does not mean absorption since it will take some time for the resources to be absorbed," he said. Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh also said Iran needs annual investment of $40 billion in its oil industry in the next two years. "There are eight or nine main fields which produce 75% of the country's oil. They are now aged above 60 years and their yield is steeply declining and they need investment," the Shana news agency quoted him as saying. Zangeneh said Iran must raise its oil production to 4.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in the next two years. The country will also add another 1 million bpd to its gas condensate output and increase its gas production to more than 1.1 billion cubic meters a day in the period, the minister added. Gas exports in the next two years will rise to 200 million cubic meters per day provided that "no problem crops up politically," Zanganeh said, citing Iraq, Pakistan, Oman and some regional countries as the customers of Iranian gas. Iran is also aiming to invest $50 billion in its petrochemical sector, the minister said. "If $12 billion is invested a year in the petrochemical industry, it will create massive employment in the country." On Monday, the International Energy Agency said Iran is poised to raise output to 3.6 million barrels a day, an increase of 600,000 barrels a day, by the middle of this year. Zangeneh called a proposal by Saudi Arabia to freeze oil production "a joke" which puts "unrealistic demands" on Iran. "Some countries that are producing above 10 million barrels per day have called on Iran to freeze its production at one million bpd," he said on Tuesday. OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, abandoned its production target in December, allowing members to pump as much as they wanted. According to Bloomberg, Iran produced 2.86 million barrels a day in January, while Saudi Arabia pumped 10.2 million barrels daily in the month. On Tuesday, crude prices declined sharply after Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi ruled out cutting back on output to help alleviate the world's excess supplies. "There is no sense wasting our time seeking production cuts," Naimi told energy executives at the annual IHS CERA week conference in Houston, Texas. "That will not happen." April West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.52 to settle at $31.87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $1.42 to $33.27 a barrel. End Item NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US plans building new military bases in Iraq's Anbar Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 2:27PM The United States has decided to build new military bases in Iraq's Anbar Province in an alleged bid to counter Daesh Takfiri terrorists in the volatile region. An Iraqi military source said on Wednesday that the two bases will be set up in the Hamarah region northeast of the city of Fallujah and in areas close to the Iraqi-Syria border. Iraqi military and allied volunteer fighters managed to recapture Anbar's provincial capital of Ramadi in December, purging militants from the area nearly one year after it was blitzed by Daesh. The unnamed Iraqi source, who was described as an officer in the Anbar Operation Command, said that the US military claims the increased presence of its troops in the province is in line with countering the rising influence of Daesh. The officer added that US military commanders in Iraq have repeatedly declared in meetings with officials in Baghdad that Washington's strategy would be to increase its military presence in Anbar, a province hardly hit by violence and insecurity since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The US military has been running two other bases in Anbar's Habbaniyah and Ayan al-Assad regions. Washington has also been leading a so-called international coalition against Daesh, with warplanes of US and allies often carrying out sorties against the alleged positions of the group in Iraq and Syria. Daesh overran parts of Iraq in June 2014 with militants capturing the northern city of Mosul. Iraqi forces have managed to retake some key positions, including the cities of Tikrit and Baiji in the northern province of Salahuddin. Officials vowed after the liberation of Ramadi that the successful operation was to be a prelude to clearing all Iraqi territories from Daesh. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Deployment of Turkish Troops in Iraq Against Baghdad's Will 'Insolent' Sputnik News 21:53 24.02.2016 The Turkish forces' presence on Iraqi territory without Baghdad's approval was insolence and an attempt to distract Iraqi authorities from fight against Daesh, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry told Sputnik on Wednesday. BAGHDAD (Sputnik) In December, Turkey deployed about 150 troops and 25 tanks to a base in the Iraqi Nineveh province, without Baghdad's approval. Turkey said its troops had entered Iraq to protect Turkish instructors deployed at the base earlier to train local militias, fighting against Daesh, a terrorist group outlawed in a number of countries worldwide, including Russia. 'Frankly speaking, it was insolence, it cannot be explained. Iraq, as a sovereign country, a member of the UN, cannot accept it. The country is capable of defending itself, and this attempt to distract Iraqis from the crucial fight against IS looks really weird,' the ministry's spokesman Ahmed Jamal said. Jamal added that Turkish deputy foreign ministers visited Iraq to discuss the issue and provided the Iraqi foreign minister with guarantees of the troops' withdrawal. 'We were surprised when after return to Ankara, they said the troops were staying. Of course, this was contrary to the agreements, and prompted us to file a complaint with the UN Security Council,' the spokesman said. According to the spokesman, the withdrawal of Turkish troops is being discussed at bilateral talks and Turkey would have to leave 'sooner or later.' Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Local Libyan forces clear Sabratha of Daesh terrorists Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 1:56PM Libya's local military brigades have forced Daesh terrorists out of Sabratha after the Takfiri militants briefly entered the center of the northwestern city in the crisis-hit African country, authorities say. Sabratha's municipal council said in a statement on Wednesday that the fighting broke out after local brigades attacked suspected Daesh hideouts 15 kilometers (9 miles) south of the city. The Daesh elements then 'took advantage of the security vacuum downtown and spread out all over the city' before they were forced out by the local brigades, the statement added. Sabratha's mayor also stated late on Tuesday that the clashes had left at least four brigade members dead and five others wounded. However, local media reported that as many as 17 brigade troops were killed. Meanwhile, an unnamed security source from the western city of Zintan said authorities had agreed to treat the injured brigade members from Sabratha. Since August 2014, when militias seized the capital Tripoli, oil-rich Libya has had two parliaments and two governments with one, the General National Congress (GNC), run by the rebels in the capital, and the internationally-recognized administration in Tobruk. A UN-backed government of national unity is awaiting parliamentary approval. The city of Zintan has allied with the internationally recognized government while Sabratha supports the rival administration. On Friday, the US carried out an airstrike on a suspected Daesh training camp in Sabratha, killing almost 50 people, among them two Serbian diplomats abducted in Libya last November. Daesh took control of Libya's northern port city of Sirte in June 2015, almost four months after it announced its presence in the city, and made it the first city to be ruled by the militant group outside of Iraq and Syria. Since then, the group has been boosting its presence in the violence-wracked country, particularly after the Iraqi and Syrian army advances against militants. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pakistan army chief orders final phase of offensive against militants Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 2:59PM The chief of the Pakistani army staff ordered Wednesday the immediate launch of the last phase of a security operation to purge the remnants of terrorists from hideouts across the volatile tribal regions near the Afghan border. Pakistani military said in a statement that General Raheel Sharif issued the order during a visit to North Waziristan. The massive operation will be conducted along the restive border with Afghanistan as part of an ongoing major offensive to clear strongholds of the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants. While addressing Pakistani troops, General Sharif paid tribute to their resilience and sacrifice and commended their high state of morale. The chief of the army staff said sacrifices of soldiers will not be in vain and the ultimate goal of a terror-free Pakistan will be achieved. The visit by the army chief comes a day after the Pakistani forces killed at least 15 militants and destroyed eight militant hideouts during a series of airstrikes in the Alwara, Khar Tangi and Maizer areas of North Waziristan's tribal region. Pakistan has been carrying out a major offensive against militant hideouts across the troubled northwestern tribal regions since June 2014. The operations were launched after a deadly raid on the Karachi International Airport ended the government's faltering peace talks with the pro-Taliban militants. On December 16, 2014, a group of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants mounted an attack against Peshawar's Army School, where more than 150 people, mostly children, were killed. The massacre shocked and outraged the country already scarred by nearly a decade of violence. According to Pakistani officials, more than 3,100 pro-Taliban militants have been killed since the army intensified military operations following the school massacre. The military claims it has now cleared 90 percent of the region. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South Korea dismisses China warning about US missile system Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 8:46AM South Korea has rejected China's warning that a US missile system planned to be set up on Korean soil would harm relations between Seoul and Beijing. "The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is a measure of self-defense against growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea," presidential spokesman Jeong Yeon-guk said on Wednesday. Jeong said the matter would be "decided in accordance with security and national interests," adding that, "China will have to recognize the point." The remarks came after Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Qiu Guohong said on Tuesday that the installation of the THAAD system in South Korea could "destroy" Beijing-Seoul ties. "It has taken much effort to develop China-South Korea ties to this degree. But these efforts could be destroyed in an instant because of one issue," Qiu said, in reference to the planned missile system deployment. Earlier on Tuesday, South Korea's Defense Ministry said Washington and Seoul had put off the signing of a deal on setting up a joint committee to discuss the details of the deployment. THAAD is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in their terminal phase using a hit-to-kill approach. Washington says the deployment of the missile system to the Korean Peninsula acts as a deterrent against North Korea's ballistic missile program. Russia and China, however, say such a move would undermine stability on the restive Korean Peninsula. In another Wednesday development, South Korea's military warned the North to halt all "provocations," saying such actions would only accelerate the "collapse" of the government in Pyongyang. "We strongly urge North Korea to immediately halt provocative actions that are propelling it to destruction," Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The verbal volley came a day after the North Korean army, angry over forthcoming joint US-South Korean drills, threatened to attack South Korea's presidential Blue House. Pyongyang accuses Washington of plotting with regional allies to topple its government, and says it will not relinquish its nuclear arms unless the US ends its hostile policy toward North Korea and dissolves the US-led UN command in South Korea. North Korea declared itself a nuclear power in 2005 and carried out four nuclear weapons tests in 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2016. It also launched a long-range rocket earlier this month reportedly aimed at placing an earth observation satellite into orbit. However, the US and South Korea denounced the move as a cover for an intercontinental ballistic missile test. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South Korea issues North stern warning after threat to hit presidential residence Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 7:4AM South Korea has once again warned the North that its "provocations" risk speeding up the "collapse of its dictatorial system" following North Korea's threat to attack the South. The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff issued the warning in a statement on Wednesday, responding to an earlier threat by the North Korean military to blow up the presidential Blue House in Seoul, AFP reported. "North Korea must keep in mind that it will be responsible for all situations arising from its reckless provocations and we warn it will only speed up the collapse of its dictatorial system," it said. North Korea will face "stern punishment" if it ignored Seoul's warning, the statement added. The North Korean military had leveled the threat in response to the prospect of the South's annual joint war games with the United States. Code-named Key Resolve/Foal Eagle, the drills are to be held in their largest-ever proportions in the next month. Washington will dispatch 15,000 troops to the computer-simulated Key Resolve drill, up from 3,700 last year. The drill, which lasted 10 days in 2015, usually begins simultaneously with the Foal Eagle field exercise. Pyongyang charges that the exercises are a rehearsal for invasion, while Seoul and Washington describe them as defensive. North Korea, which is under United Nations sanctions over its nuclear tests and missile launches, accuses the US of plotting with regional allies to topple its government. Pyongyang declared itself a nuclear power in 2005 and carried out four nuclear weapons tests in 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2016. It also launched a long-range rocket earlier this month reportedly aimed at placing an earth observation satellite into orbit. Seoul and Washington have also announced a plan to install a controversial missile system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on South Korean soil as a means of countering North Korea's nuclear arms and missile capabilities. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia in ceasefire talks with Syria armed groups Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 6:19PM Russia has begun negotiations with militant groups operating in Syria on implementing a planned ceasefire in five Syrian provinces, the defense ministry says. The ministry said in a Wednesday statement that it has opened a coordination center in Syria that is 'already carrying out work with representatives of the groups in various settlements in the provinces of Hama, Homs, Latakia, Damascus and Dara'a.' According to the statement, agreement has been reached on some local ceasefires and some 'practical results' have already been secured in the north of Latakia Province as military action has been halted in several settlements there. The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said establishing ceasefire is not simple as it needs "not only phone talks but also trips to sites to implement the ceasefire agreements and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the people." The announcement of negotiations came a day after Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the center is located in Hmeymim airbase, adding that the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group and the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front militants are not among the groups taking part in the negotiations. The United States and Russia announced on February 22 that they had reached a deal for a ceasefire in Syria which would begin on February 27. The Syrian government said the following day that it accepts the terms of the ceasefire deal on the basis that military efforts against Daesh and al-Nusra continue. The Kremlin said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin discussed the deal with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad during a phone call and that the Syrian president has said his government is ready to pave the way for the establishment of a ceasefire in the country. The two presidents also highlighted the importance of continuing what they described as 'an uncompromising fight' against Daesh, al-Nusra and 'other terrorist groups' in Syria. UN announces first air drop of aid The United Nations on Wednesday announced its first humanitarian airdrop to help those civilians living in areas of Syria besieged by Daesh. According to UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien, a plane belonging to the World Food Program (WFP) dropped the first cargo of 21 tonnes of items into the eastern city of Dayr al-Zawr, adding that the pallets have reportedly "landed in the target area as planned." O'Brien said some 110,000 residents in the besieged areas have received aid and that a further 230,000 people are set to benefit from deliveries including through air drops. 'We are still waiting for approval for an additional 170,000 people. We expect those approvals to happen immediately,' he said. Earlier this month, more than 100 trucks carrying food and other basic goods delivered aid to 80,000 people in five besieged areas while two more convoys were sent to two besieged towns on Tuesday. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia urges appraisal of Turkey shelling of Syria Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 6:13PM Russia has called on international human rights organizations to appraise Turkish artillery shelling inside the Syria territory, denouncing as illegal Ankara's military campaign in the crisis-hit Arab country. Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov made the request in a statement released on Wednesday. 'Near-border settlements are shelled form large caliber artillery weapons from Turkish territory. We request Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders and other organizations to give their official assessment to these criminal actions of the Turkish armed forces,' Konashenkov said. Over the past few days, Turkey has been shelling the positions of fighters of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and its affiliated Democratic Union Party (PYD) in the northern parts of Syria. Ankara regards the YPG and PYD as allies of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. Elsewhere in his comments, the Russian official noted a recently brokered ceasefire agreement in Syria does not include Daesh, Nusra Front and other terrorist groups, adding that Moscow will continue its anti-terror airstrikes there "as usual." On Monday, Russia and the US said the truce has been planned to take effect in Syria on February 27. Russia launched its campaign against terrorists in Syria last September upon a request from the Damascus government. The air raids have expedited the advances of Syrian forces against militants. Furthermore, Konashenkov stressed that Moscow has begun taking steps towards cessation of hostilities in Syria and expects a similar approach from Washington. "We have started specific and complicated practical work towards the peace settlement in the Syrian Arab Republic. We expect that our American colleagues start taking specific steps instead of talking as soon as possible," he said. The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that it has started ceasefire negotiations with opposition groups in the Syrian provinces of Hama, Homs, Latakia, Damascus and Dara'a. The announcement came one day after Moscow opened a coordination center at its Hmeymim airbase in Latakia in an attempt to facilitate talks between Damascus and different opposing parties. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address CHEYENNE, Wyo. State lawmakers cut and then added back money for local governments during a whirlwind Wednesday that saw more than a dozen elected city and county officials from as far away as Evanston plead with lawmakers for funding at higher levels. In the morning, the Senate Appropriations Committee decreased to $90 million money for cities, towns and counties. But late Wednesday afternoon, the Senate voted to raise local government funding to $105 million. The money included in House Bill 51 has fluctuated between the two figures since the Legislature began Feb. 8 Whatever number lawmakers ultimately land on, the final amount to local governments will likely be lower than the $183 million the Legislature gave for the current two-year funding cycle. A downturn in oil, gas and coal is projected to result in a $477 million drop in state revenues through mid-2018, prompting lawmakers to cut and eliminate a number of programs. But local officials said their revenue streams are also decreasing, for the same reasons the state is hurting. Local governments raise money through sales and property taxes both of which are dropping. Were getting a double whammy: a possible reduction in the state distribution, as well as our local revenues going down, said Cheyenne Mayor Rick Kaysen, one of several local government officials who testified in the morning committee meeting. Laramie City Councilwoman Andrea Summerville said her city is looking at a $500,000 cut based on the bill advanced by the Senate Appropriations Committee. It will likely result in layoffs on a city staff with about 175 full-time employees, one of the smallest staffs per capita in the state, Summerville said. Depending on where funding comes out, we are looking at 15 to 20 positions, in addition to the hiring freeze in place, she said. Senate Vice President Drew Perkins, R-Casper, sponsored the amendment in the Senate Appropriations Committee that reduced the money. All Republicans on the committee voted for it. Sen. John Hastert, D-Green River, opposed the amendment and later voted against the overall bill. Members of Senate Appropriations did honor a request of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities and removed from the bill a new distribution formula that cities and towns dislike. The Wyoming County Commissioners Association largely did not find fault with the new formula and the Senate Appropriations Committee kept the new formula intact. Under HB51, $90 million in state money would bring almost $1.7 million to Natrona County over two years, while $105 million would bring just over $2 million, said Commissioner Rob Hendry. The current years budget was about $50 million, but this years is expected to be lower, he said. In Natrona just this last month, our sales tax was down 27 percent, he said. It looks like our assessed valuation would be down around somewhere near 20 percent. Robert Short, vice chairman of the Converse County Commission, said his county is experiencing a 49 percent decrease in sales tax receipts. Property tax figures are still being calculated. With $90 million in state funds, Converse County would receive nearly $82,000. With $105 million, it would receive $98,000, he said. Goshen County Commissioner Carl Rupp said sales taxes are down 19.5 percent. If the bill ultimately provides $90 million to local governments, Goshen County would receive $1 million over the two-year period. But that amount is boosted to $1.2 million if the bill ultimately ends up with $105 million in state funds. Laramie County, the states largest, would receive $2.3 million over the next two years if HB51 is passed with $90 million or $2.7 million if it's approved with $105 million in state funds, Commissioner Amber Ash said. Sales taxes will be down about 10 percent in Laramie County. Property taxes values havent been all calculated yet, she said. At a time when revenues are falling, the county is growing in population. That will put a demand on roads, water lines and other infrastructure, Ash said. We are going to be in a very difficult position in addressing how do we balance that out, she said. Laramie County recognizes the state budget is declining. But we think its important to look at how we invest in the community. Damascus pledges to preserve Syria's territoral integrity Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 4:43PM Syrian government has dismissed recent remarks by US Secretary of State John Kerry on the possibility of partitioning of Syria, voicing its determination to preserve the country's integrity and defeat terrorism. US Secretary of State John Kerry said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday that his country has a slew of "Plan B" options if the proposed cessation of hostilities in Syria fails to uphold. He stressed that partitioning of Syria was part of the Plan B. The US and Russia reached a draft deal on Monday, detailing a ceasefire to start in war-torn Syria on Saturday. Commenting on Kerry's statements, a source within the Syrian Foreign Ministry told Syria's official news agency (SANA) on Wednesday that Syria condemns these statements that contradict reality and truth. The source added that Syria and its people are looking forward to ending ongoing crisis as soon as possible and are determined more than ever to uproot terrorism, preserve Syria's unity and safeguard its sovereignty. The source also described Kerry's remarks as part of the US policy of diverting attention from crimes terrorists are committing in the Arab country. Syria also held the US responsible for the crisis in Syria through its continuous support for terrorists and its failure to fulfill its obligation as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in implementing the council's counter-terrorism measures. Kerry's statement echoed earlier remarks made by the director general of Israel's Intelligence Ministry, Ram Ben-Barak, and Israel's minister of military affairs, Moshe Ya'alon, who have called for the partitioning of Syria. The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared up in March 2011, has killed some 470,000 people and left 1.9 million injured, according to the so-called Syrian Center for Policy Research. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syria rejects reports of UN-backed commission Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 5:14PM The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations says Damascus does not recognize the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria as its reports are based on "fake" accounts. Bashar al-Ja'afari made the remarks at an informal session of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to hear a briefing from its members, the Syrian official news agency SANA reported. Criticizing the commission, Ja'afari said its reports and briefings "rely on fake narrations and misleading testimonies of some people out of the Syrian borders or fabricated reports of nongovernment (sic) organizations." He said the panel, on the other hand, has ignored the testimonies of thousands of Syrians who were victims of the crimes committed by the terror groups operating inside the Arab country as well as "the abundant information provided by the Syrian government to the United Nations since the beginning of the crisis through more than 600 official letters." The Syrian envoy described supporting terrorism as the "biggest violation of human rights" in Syria and said the issue of sending tens of thousands of terrorists into Syria "from more than 100 countries" must be the basic factor in the task of the commission. "If the committee was really committed to the human rights, why it doesn't accuse the international [community], Arab and regional countries, particularly Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey of supporting terrorism, and why it doesn't take deterrent actions against them," Ja'afari said. The commission, which was established in August 2011 by the UN Human Rights Council, has a mandate to look into all alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011 in Syria. Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. According to a recent report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country's pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders. Damascus accuses Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar of funding and arming terrorist groups in the country, including the Daesh Takfiri group. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US, allies reducing effectiveness of Syria truce deal: Russia FM Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 4:37PM Russia's foreign minister has criticized the US and its allies, accusing them of undermining a recently brokered ceasefire agreement in the conflict-ridden Arab country. Sergei Lavrov made the remarks in Moscow on Wednesday at a meeting with visiting Sam Nunn, co-chairman and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical arms. 'As soon as the presidents of Russia and the US approved the ceasefire initiative in Syria, voices from Washington and the capitals of US allies began expressing doubts as to the viability of the deal," Lavrov said. The top Russian diplomat noted that the doubts about the truce deal "sound like calls to war and not to peace.' On Monday, Washington and Moscow said the ceasefire has been planned to take effect in Syria on February 27. The Syrian government said the following day that it accepts the terms of the truce deal on condition that military efforts against terrorist Daesh and Nusra Front groups continue. Nunn, for his part, hailed the recent Russia-US cooperation on cessation of hostilities in Syria as "very important," highlighting the need for "a good faith" by Washington, Moscow and working groups "to really be able to properly execute the agreement." The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which started in March 2011, has claimed the lives of some 470,000 people and left 1.9 million injured, according to the Syrian Center for Policy Research. Since September 2014, the US, along with some of its allies, has been conducting air raids against what are said to be Daesh positions in Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. On the contrary, Russia's anti-terror campaign in Syria began last September upon a request from Damascus. Over the past few weeks, Syrian government forces, backed by Russia's air cover, have managed to retake major positions from the foreign-backed militants. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkey's Erdogan: Keep Kurds out of Syria ceasefire Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 2:22PM Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Syrian Kurdish forces must be excluded from a ceasefire agreement between the warring sides in Syria. Comparing the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and its affiliate, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), with Takfiri terror groups in Syria, Erdogan said if Daesh and the al-Nusra Front are kept outside the truce, "then the PYD-YPG must similarly be excluded from the ceasefire for it is a terrorist group just as they are." The Turkish president made the comments on Wednesday while speaking to local officials in the capital, Ankara, in a speech broadcast live. Ankara regards the YPG and PYD as allies of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The YPG, which is nearly in control of Syria's entire northern border with Turkey, has been fighting against Daesh Takfiri terrorists. The Turkish government is angered by the rapid advance of Syrian Kurdish fighters, who are taking advantage of Russian air cover in the region to capture territory near the Turkish border. The United States and Russia announced on February 22 that they had reached a deal for a ceasefire in Syria which would begin on February 27. The Syrian government said the following day that it accepts the terms of the ceasefire deal on the basis that military efforts against Daesh and al-Nusra continue. Syria has been in the midst of deadly turmoil since March 2011. More than 470,000 people have reportedly been killed and millions displaced over the past five years. Elsewhere in his comments, President Erdogan accused the Russian government of continuing to violate the Turkish airspace, three months after Ankara downed a Russian warplane near the border with Syria. Moscow and Ankara have been at loggerheads over the developments in Syria. Turkey seeks the overthrow of the Syrian government while Russia has been supporting Damascus in the fight against terrorism. Tensions between the two sides sharply escalated last November, when Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 fighter jet over Syria, claiming that it had entered the Turkish airspace, an accusation strongly rejected by Moscow. Following the incident, Russia suspended all military deals with Turkey and imposed a list of economic sanctions on the country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Militant rocket attacks leave 12 dead across Syria Iran Press TV Wed Feb 24, 2016 6:13AM At least a dozen people have been killed and 19 others injured in separate rocket attacks by foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants against residential areas across Syria. A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five children lost their lives and as many others were injured when several rockets fired by Takfiri terrorists struck the al-Zahra neighborhood of Aleppo, situated some 355 kilometers (220 miles) north of the capital, Damascus, on Tuesday, Syria's official news agency, SANA, reported. The projectiles also caused substantial damage to public and private properties at the targeted areas. Separately, five civilians, among them two children, were killed in a terrorist rocket attack on the al-Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood of Aleppo. Elsewhere, in the city of Dayr al-Zawr, located 450 kilometers (280 miles) northeast of the capital, two civilians were killed and 14 others injured when foreign-backed terrorists fired mortar shells at two residential areas on Tuesday. On February 3, at least 17 civilians lost their lives and 101 others were injured when several rockets fired by militants struck neighborhoods across Dara'a. The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has claimed the lives of some 470,000 people and left 1.9 million injured, according to the Syrian Center for Policy Research. Moreover, 6.36 million people have been displaced internally and more than four million others have fled the country since the beginning of the conflict. That accounts for 45 percent of the country's population, which has shrunk by 21 percent. Syria accuses Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar of funding and arming terrorist groups operating inside the country, including Daesh. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Over 50 People Work at Truce Center at Russia's Airbase in Syria Sputnik News 20:32 24.02.2016 More than 50 people are involved in the operations of the reconciliation coordination center in Syria at the Russian Hmeymim airbase, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The center was created on Tuesday, following the announcement of an agreement on a ceasefire in Syria between the country's government forces and armed opposition groups starting from February 27 by Russia and the United States. According to the deal, military action, including airstrikes conducted by Syria, Russia and the US-led coalition will continue against Daesh, al-Nusra Front, as well as other UN-designated terrorist groups. 'This center includes more than 50 people and consists of five functional units: a group for analysis and planning, a group for negotiating, a group for agreements and cooperation with foreign organizations, a group for information support, a group for providing humanitarian assistance to the Syrian population,' ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said. The Hmeymim base is the centerpiece of the Russian aerial campaign in Syria against terrorists which started on September 30, 2015 at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian Army Conducting Offensive Against Daesh Stronghold in Aleppo Sputnik News 20:08 24.02.2016(updated 22:40 24.02.2016) The Syrian army is conducting an offensive on the Daesh terrorist stronghold in the eastern part of Syria's Aleppo province, a military source said Wednesday. BEIRUT (Sputnik) The source added that armed clashes were continuing in Syria's strategic Khanaser settlement that controls supply routes to the city of Aleppo. 'The army is advancing to Al Bab the main Daesh stronghold in the eastern part of Aleppo province. A group of 10 militants was killed and three off-road vehicles with machine guns were destroyed,' the source told RIA Novosti. Earlier, it was reported that the Syrian army liberated strategically important towns located on the governmental supply line to the city of Allepo from Daesh terrorists. According to the source, 18 army soldiers died during the operation, while several dozen Daesh terrorists were killed. The Syrian army is continuing anti-terror offensive, which is supported by the militias allied with Damascus. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Warplanes Strike Almost 200 Terrorist Targets in Syria in Two Days Sputnik News 16:44 24.02.2016(updated 21:31 24.02.2016) Russian jets carried out 187 airstrikes on terrorist targets in Syria in the course of 62 sorties during the past two days, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said Wednesday. Areas where warring sides agreed to cease hostilities and start negotiations were not targeted, he emphasized. The Russian Aerospace Forces continue to attack militant groups in Syria which are not included in the cessation of hostilities agreement and are designated as terrorist organizations by the UN, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said. 'During the past two days, 187 targets in the provinces of Hama, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, Aleppo and Homs were struck in the course of 62 sorties.' A Su-34 bomber destroyed over 10 strongholds and neutralized more than 50 militants in the Hama province, he elaborated. 'The intensity of Russian airstrikes in Syria fell significantly in the past two days, especially in areas where local authorities and armed groups have agreed to cease hostilities and start negotiations. We are not targeting those areas at all,' Konashenkov said. The spokesman emphasized that airstrikes are conducted only against militant groups designated as terrorist organization by the United Nations. 'The agreement between Russia and the US [on cessation of hostilities in Syria] does not apply to Daesh, al-Nusra Front and other militants, designated as terrorist organizations by the UN Security Council.' On Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that an agreement on cessation of hostilities between the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad and the armed opposition factions had been reached. The agreement will come into force on February 27. Russia has been fighting terrorists in Syria since September 30 at President Assad's request. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Free Syrian Army Yet to Decide on Participation in Syrian Ceasefire Deal Sputnik News 15:02 24.02.2016 Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels remain undecided about upholding the ceasefire agreement due to come into force on February 27, a senior source in the FSA said Wednesday. DUBAI (Sputnik) On Monday, Russia and the United States announced that an agreement on the cessation of hostilities between the Syrian government and armed opposition factions had been reached. The agreement excludes Daesh, the Nusra Front and other groups designated by the UN Security Council to be terrorist organizations and outlawed in many countries, including the United States and Russia. 'Discussions are still taking place among the units. In principle, we agree to a ceasefire on the basis of a serious political decision, but we want everyone to keep to the terms of the ceasefire, not just one side. If we keep to the ceasefire while Russian planes continue bombing us, that would be an unwise move by us,' the source told RIA Novosti. According to the FSA source, the ceasefire agreement lacks international guarantees to ensure it becomes part of a political solution to the Syrian conflict. There are also no guarantees that the UN Security Council resolutions on ending the blockade of several cities by the Syrian army would be implemented, the source added, stressing that under such conditions fighting would continue despite the announced ceasefire. On Tuesday, a commander in the Ahrar ash-Sham brigade, which is allied to the FSA, stated that the group would not stop its hostilities unless the Nusra Front were included in the ceasefire deal. The Syrian government stated on Tuesday that the fight against Daesh and the Nusra Front would continue, while expressing readiness to continue its coordination with Russia to determine the areas and armed groups that fall under the ceasefire deal. On September 30, Moscow commenced airstrikes in Syria against Daesh and the Nusra Front, both outlawed on its territory, at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian Army in Tough Battle to Reopen Hama-Aleppo Supply Route Sputnik News 10:20 24.02.2016 The Syrian Army and its popular allies have launched a major operation to dislodge militant groups from the surroundings of the government forces' main supply line from Hama to Aleppo, Iran's Fars news agency reported. 'The Syrian army troops and the National Defense Forces, who captured a number of checkpoints along the Ithriya-Khanaser road, have launched a massive joint operation in both provinces of Hama and Aleppo to end ISIL [Daesh] and Jund al-Aqsa's control over chunks of the strategic road,' the army said, Fars News wrote. 'The Syrian Air Force and artillery units have provided very good coverage for the ground forces,' the army added. Earlier on Tuesday the army announced that government forces had recaptured several checkpoints in the region. 'The Syrian government forces have continued to hit the lines of defense of ISIL [Daesh] and Jund al-Aqsa terrorist groups along the Ithriya-Khanaser road at Rasm al-Nafal and al-Syria Tel region towards al-Sa'an,' the army said in a statement. It added that despite recapturing a number of checkpoints along the Ithriyah-Khanasser road, the Syrian army had failed to retake a number of strategic villages under Daesh control and reopen the supply route. Meanwhile, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stormed the militant groups' centers in the neighborhoods of the northern city of Aleppo and captured more city blocks, Fars News reported. The YPG and SDF fighters, backed by Syrian warplanes and artillery, pushed the Free Syrian Army (FSA) back from a complex of houses in several neighborhoods and inflicted a heavy death toll on the enemy. Also on Tuesday, the Turkish artillery shelled the Kurdish strongholds in the newly-liberated town of Tal Rifaat and the strategic Minaq airbase in the northern part of Aleppo to prevent rapid advances of pro-government forces against Ankara-backed militants. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Analysts: Assad's Ba'athists Would Win Electoral Landslide by Jamie Dettmer February 24, 2016 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party would win a landslide victory in any parliamentary elections held either in the next few months or during a political transition following a permanent cessation of hostilities in the war-ravaged country, election experts and diplomats warn. President Assad Monday announced parliamentary elections for April, issuing a decree for polls to be held for the country's 250-member legislature, known as the People's Council, which is elected for a four-year term from 15 multi-seat constituencies. The election announcement is being dubbed a PR gimmick by opposition politicians and election experts, who argue that even in the highly unlikely event the vicious five-year-long Syrian civil war ended abruptly in the next few weeks, any such election would fail to meet acceptable international standards. "It would not be in line with any standards," says Vladimir Pran, a consultant for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, a Washington-based non-profit that provides technical assistance for elections in new and emerging democracies. IFES frequently partners with the United Nations to organize post-conflict elections. "There would be several problems on so many different levels and that is even before you take into account the Assad regime wants to hold an election during wartime. No one in the international community will recognize the April polls, if they go ahead," he added. Aside from the April election proposal, Western diplomats are trying to get opposition politicians and Western policy-makers to think ahead, and more deeply, about a political transition in Syria. Election law They warn that without complete reform of the country's election law, which would prevent millions of refugees and Syrians displaced inside the country from voting, Assad's Ba'athists and allies would score a huge victory in a parliamentary poll due to a system of block voting. Russian diplomats appear to understand the quirks of Syrian election law they tabled a demand recently during behind-the-scenes international talks on a political transition for the war-torn country's election law to be left unchanged. "The Russians appear to be thinking several chess moves ahead of us," admitted a European diplomat based in Istanbul. "They are already maneuvering, trying to shape what happens to ensure that the regime remains in power, with or without Assad," he says. The diplomat asked that his name be withheld. Under Syria's current law, electors vote for multiple candidates with several seats assigned to each constituency. The voter has up to as many votes as seats available and the candidates with the highest vote totals win the seats. This gives an advantage to the more developed and established parties. "Even in a political transition with a free and fair environment, the block vote system would work against the opposition because it is so fragmented. Block voting would favor the regime with a disproportionate advantage, amplifying its vote, giving it an overwhelming edge while minimizing the representation of parties that have received sizable minorities of the vote. The party that has even a slight lead in the popular vote wins all the seats in the district," said Pran. "You saw the consequences of block voting in the Palestinian elections in 2006 when Hamas, on 44 percent of the vote, won the lion's share of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council, almost double what Fatah won, even though Fatah attracted 41 percent of the popular vote," Pran said. There are also other provisions in the current election law which would undermine any polls held under it being an accurate reflection of popular will. Refugees, displaced Syrians More than 2.3 million Syrian adults are refugees, and 3.3 million other voting-age Syrians are displaced within the country. Under the current law, they would have no right to vote, although the Vienna peace deal framework states that all Syrians, including the diaspora, should be eligible to participate in elections. At least 120,000 Syrian Kurds also have no eligibility to vote under a 1962 nationality law that stripped them of their Syrian citizenship. Some subsequently were given back their Syrian nationality under a 2011 presidential decree, but the number of disenfranchised Kurds could be much higher than in 1962 because of knock-on effects on the voting eligibility of offspring. Election experts worry also about the oversight powers provincial governors wield under the current law. Nomination committees vet candidates, deciding who can stand. The committees are appointed by the governors. "The Russians appear to be taking a leaf out of their Ukraine playbook," says another Western diplomat. "Assad's April election proposal and the Russians' early attempts to ensure block voting remains for any political transition reminds me of the sham separatist vote in Donetsk," he added. In May 2014, pro-Moscow separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions held a referendum on secession from Ukraine. Analysts and Western governments said the referendum was marred by fraud, criticized the process for observing no proper controls over ballot papers or voter lists and questioned the integrity of a vote that was held while separatist intimidation and abductions were going on. The referendum was viewed widely by the international community as a bid to polish the separatist agitation with an electoral sheen. The last time Syrians voted in parliamentary elections was in May 2012. The Assad regime proclaimed the election law adopted weeks earlier was a historic step for reform as it introduced for the first time a multi-party contest. Nine newly-licensed parties challenged the front dominated by the Ba'ath Party, which has ruled since 1972. The Financial Times accused the government of orchestrating the vote in a bid "to entrench its power." Opposition politicians said the government was using the poll as a way to avoid political negotiations; the Obama administration described the election as "bordering on ludicrous." The election announcement came on the day when regime forces launched a fresh assault on anti-Assad rebel strongholds in the country's northwest. The election result handed the Ba'ath party and allies 168 seats in the 250-seat legislature. The opposition received six seats with the remainder going to "non-partisans," most considered regime placemen. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN Aid Chief on Syria: No Winners, Only Losers by Margaret Besheer February 24, 2016 The U.N. humanitarian chief said Wednesday that a nationwide cessation of hostilities due to start in Syria on Saturday must not be squandered. "Enough is enough. This brutality must be brought to an end," Stephen O'Brien told the U.N. Security Council in his monthly update on efforts to get life-saving aid to millions of desperate Syrians. "In the Syrian conflict, there are no winners; everyone is losing," he said, calling for an end to the five-year old conflict. Since international talks in Munich earlier this month, aid access has improved to some hard-to-reach and besieged areas, but the need remains constant and urgent. Obstacles "Humanitarian operations cannot continue to be bogged down by unnecessary and unacceptable restrictions, obstructions and deliberate delays that are costing people their lives," O'Brien said. He noted that health supplies for 30,000 Syrians have been denied for aid convoys by the Ministry of Health. He also complained of lengthy bureaucratic delays and the need for "multiple layers of approvals" and "repeated rounds of negotiations" to approve aid deliveries. O'Brien said there are currently over 40 outstanding requests to the government for aid convoys to deliver assistance to difficult to reach areas. He also noted the excessive amount of time it takes to make deliveries once approved. He cited the town of Moadamiyeh, which, in peace time, is a 15-20 minute drive from central Damascus, but an aid convoy there this month needed 48 hours to clear all the checkpoints along the way. Deliveries The aid chief said that earlier Wednesday the U.N. had made a first air drop of 21 tons of aid items in the besieged northern town of Deir Ezzor. The Islamic State militant group seized much of that town last year. Air drops are an option of last resort because of their logistical complexity. O'Brien said that initial reports from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the town said the pallets of aid had landed in the intended target area. This month aid workers have had some success in reaching cut off areas of Syria with long-overdue aid to about 110,000 people. Deliveries have been made to 40,000 people in government-besieged Madaya and a thousand in Zabadani. In rebel-controlled Fouah and Kefraya humanitarian workers have reached 20,000 people. Aid has also been delivered to 10,000 people in Eastern Ghouta's Kafr Batna. They also reached 40,000 people in Moadamiyeh. Political process This week, a task force created by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) will meet to help monitor the planned cessation of hostilities. The U.N. Security Council will receive an update on the political process during a private meeting Friday. U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura will brief council members from Geneva in a video conference. "We welcome the agreement that the U.S. and Russia have forged and we look forward to the cessation of hostilities coming into force on Friday, and to the political talks starting the week after that," British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters. Envoy de Mistura suspended an initial round of proximity talks between the Syrian parties earlier this month. The Russian news agency Tass reported Wednesday that Russia wants a U.N. Security Council resolution supporting the cease-fire agreement. When asked about this by reporters, Russian deputy ambassador Petr Iliichev said "yes." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Obama Cautious on Whether Syria Cease-Fire Will Lead to Peace by VOA News February 24, 2016 President Barack Obama sounded a cautious note Wednesday on whether the impending cease-fire in Syria would lead to peace talks to end the country's five-year civil war. 'We are very cautious about raising expectations on this; the situation on the ground is difficult,' Obama said after meeting at the White House with Jordan's King Abdullah II. But the American leader added, 'If over the next several weeks we can see some lessening of the violence that's been wracking that country, then that provides us a basis to build a longer-term cease-fire.' He said the warring parties fighting for control of Syria might eventually be able to 'move forward on the political transition that ultimately is going to be necessary to bring an end to the civil war in Syria." Obama reached agreement earlier this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin on a truce set for Saturday, although it allows for continued attacks on Islamic State targets and forces fighting for Syria's al-Qaida affiliate, the al-Nusra Front. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Wednesday that he was ready to support the cease-fire. Syria's state-run news agency, SANA, said Assad told Putin in a telephone call that he endorsed the truce. But Syria's main opposition group, the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC), has yet to commit to the U.S.-Russian plan. Combatants are required to agree to the 'cessation of hostilities' by noon Friday local time, 12 hours before the truce is set to take effect. The HNC said its participation was contingent on the delivery of humanitarian aid and the end of sieges and airstrikes against civilians. No guarantee U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told a congressional hearing in Washington on Tuesday that the truce was the best path yet to ending Syria's civil war, but that 'we're not here to absolutely vouch it's going to work.' The top American diplomat said discussions are now under way about what to do if the peace talks fail. In Moscow, the Kremlin said Putin also talked with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Saudi Arabia's King Salman about the impending truce. Its statement said Putin and Rouhani, who both support the Assad regime, 'stressed the importance of a further cooperation' between the two countries in fighting terrorist groups in Syria. Moscow said Salman, who is supporting rebel groups fighting Assad, 'welcomed' the truce and voiced a 'willingness to work with Russia' to implement it. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Syrian Kurdish militia forces it considers terrorists should also be kept out of the scope of the cease-fire, just like Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front. Erdogan called the truce to halt five years of fighting that has left 470,000 people dead 'positive in principle.' But he said the notion that the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia should be given support in Syria because it is fighting Islamic State is a 'great lie.' The YPG is a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade war against Ankara for control of Kurdish southeastern Turkey. The PKK is recognized as a terror group by the United States and the European Union. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NATO Should Realize Erdogan 'Problem, Not Solution' - Assad's Aide Sputnik News 20:35 24.02.2016(updated 20:36 24.02.2016) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's actions pose problems for resolving the Syrian conflict rather than helping to find a solution, Bouthaina Shaaban, political and media adviser to the Syrian president, said Wednesday. MOSCOW (Sputnik) In recent days, officials from NATO member states have increasingly voiced concerns about the possible consequences of a continued escalation of hostilities between Turkey and Russia. Turkey is a NATO member. 'I hope that NATO and [the] West realizes that [the] Erdogangovernment is a problem, not part of the solution,' the Syrian presidential aide said at an experts meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow. On Friday, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said that NATO was against any military confrontation with Russia despite negative developments in the Ankara-Moscow conflict. Later, French President Francois Hollande stated that a conflict between Turkey and Russia must be prevented. 'This is the first time I hear Western countries realize Erdogan is a problem,' Shaaban said. Turkey is the key country through which terrorists travel to Syria, Shaaban stressed, adding that Turkey was now using refugees striving to get into the European Union to blackmail Europe. Relations between Russia and Turkey have been strained since November 2015 when the Turkish Air Force downed a Russian Su-24 bomber over Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the downing a 'stab in the back,' and imposed a set of economic measures against Turkey in retaliation. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Infighting? Turkey's General Staff Concerned with Erdogan's Syria Policies Sputnik News 20:18 24.02.2016 The former head of the General Staff of the Turkish Intelligence Agency told Sputnik that the Armed Forces have been growing discontent with the Syrian policy of the Turkish leadership. Ankara's policy towards Syria, in particularly, the statements by the Turkish leadership, indicating the intention to conduct a ground operation in Syria, directly affects the Turkish Armed Forces. The former head of the Intelligence Department of the General Staff of Turkey, Ismail Hakki Pekin, spoke to Sputnik in an exclusive interview saying that he was sure that the Turkish Armed Forces in Syria do not have those aspirations that guide Ankara. "Naturally, they are obliged to follow orders. But I can say with confidence that the Turkish Armed Forces have never supported the idea of a military operation against a neighboring state." Pekin further said that there is considerable opposition in the Turkish ranks towards the current situation. "There is an understanding that the overthrow of Assad, in fact, will not solve the problem. On the contrary, this step can cause more serious long-term instability in the region. In fact, it is in the interests of Turkey that Damascus strengthens its positions and establishes effective control and security at the border." According to the former head, stability in the region would help Turkey provide its own security. "For many it is clear that instead of getting involved in a useless, very expensive and protracted war it makes more sense and is much more profitable to strengthen the Syrian regime and move military operations away from Turkish borders." The former head of the Office of Intelligence stressed that Turkey's invasion of Afrin or Azaz can have very dangerous consequences. "The slightest move into Syria's inland threatens us with a clash with Russia. Even a small-scale ground operation will lead Turkey into a deadlock. Meanwhile, there are signs that preparations for such an operation are being carried out." Pekin said that the security measures inside the country are rising, and there are new methods being introduced in order to respond to external threats. "I think that if Turkey still dares to take this step and invade the territory of Syria, the consequences will be irreversible," the head concluded. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Military Command Found Linked To MH17 Downing February 24, 2016 by RFE/RL A team of open-source researchers investigating the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 has published a report it provided to Dutch prosecutors linking the commanders of a Russian military unit to the plane's downing. The latest report, released on February 24 by the British group known as Bellingcat, links higher-ups in Russia's military chain of command to the tragedy and adds other details building on earlier investigations into the July 2014 downing of MH17. Its previous reports had identified Russia's 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade as being the likely source of the missile that Dutch aviation officials say brought down the jet, killing all 298 people on board. But it adds to the growing body of circumstantial evidence suggesting Russian complicity. This includes personal information about Russian military officers and enlisted soldiers who Bellingcat alleges specifically knew of, and possibly even manned, the Buk-M1 surface-to-air missile system believed to have brought down MH17. Bellingcat in December provided a full version of the report to Dutch prosecutors, who said they would 'seriously study' the group's claim that its research identified up to 100 Russian military personnel who might have knowledge of the movements of the missile launcher that destroyed the Boeing 777. The group redacted most of these soldiers' names and blurred images of their faces -- culled from photographs and video published on social media and news sites -- in the public version it released on its website. MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, when it disappeared from radars over eastern Ukraine. Wreckage from the plane and its victims was found strewn over a wide area where Russia-backed separatists had been battling Ukrainian government forces. In October 2015, the Dutch Safety Board, a government agency charged with investigating aviation disasters, said the jet was downed by a surface-to-air missile, and identified the 320-square-kilometer area from which the missile was fired. The area was mostly controlled by separatists at the time. The board stopped short of assigning criminal blame, however, something the four-nation Joint Investigative Team has been charged with doing. The Joint Investigative Team did not immediately respond to an email from RFE/RL seeking comment. Russia has strenuously denied the fighters it supports in eastern Ukraine were responsible or that it supplied the missile system. A leading separatist commander initially appeared to take credit for firing a missile and downing a Ukrainian jet, but those claims on social media were later removed. Russian officials have also put forth myriad alternate theories, including claims that MH17 was downed by a missile fired from a Ukrainian fighter jet. Bellingcat has previously documented what it says is evidence that the Buk-M1 missile system purportedly used to shoot down MH17 was moved between June 23 and 25 to the Ukrainian border, near the town of Luhansk, and ultimately fired on the plane from a position near the Ukrainian town of Snizhne in Donetsk Oblast. It says that the convoy was largely made up of vehicles from the 2nd Battalion of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, based near the southern city of Kursk. The new report details the chain of command for this battalion. 'There is no direct evidence that soldiers or officers of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade were part of the crew of the Buk-M1 that likely downed MH17 on 17 July 2014,' the report notes, though it adds that a Russian crew may have moved together with the Buk-M1 across the border into Ukraine. Bellingcat said that if 'the Buk crew consisted of Russian soldiers and officers, they were likely selected by' a man identified only as 'Dmitry T.,' who was 'very likely' the battalion's commander, or the commander of the 53rd Brigade, Colonel Sergei Muchkayev. Bellingcat also said it explored the theory that Russian units transferred the Buk-M1 to separatists in eastern Ukraine. 'This scenario, however, seems unlikely, mainly because a Buk missile launcher is a very sophisticated and expensive weapon and it is very unlikely that Russia would turn it over unsupervised to a group of separatists without having adequate training,' it said. The chain of command that Bellingcat ties to the MH17 shootdown includes Muchkayev's superior, Colonel Aleksei Zolotov, who was promoted to Chief of the Air Defense Forces of the 20th Army, which encompasses the 53rd Brigade. But while Muchkayev may have made operational decisions regarding crews and the makeup of the Buk convoy, Bellingcat said the order more broadly to move military equipment across the border was likely made at top levels of the Russian military hierarchy, the Kremlin, and even by President Vladimir Putin himself. Bellingcat said that, if its conclusion about the Russian Buk missile launcher that allegedly downed MH17 is correct, the Russian Defense Ministry 'bears the main responsibility for the MH17 tragedy, shared with the military commanders and leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics,' the names of the separatist organizations in eastern Ukraine. Other international media, including The Associated Press, have pinpointed Buk-M1 systems in the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne on the day of the plane's downing, and accompanying soldiers who spoke with accents from Moscow and other regions in Russia. Cell phone conversations intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence services and subsequently released by the Ukrainian government show rebel commanders on the day of the jet's downing discussing the firing of a missile, thinking that the aircraft that was targeted was a military jet. The Joint Investigative Team is expected to release the results of its criminal probe sometime later this year. Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/russian- military-command-found-linked-mh17-downing- bellingcat-report/27570569.html Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine, Canada in Talks on Providing Kiev With Lethal Weapons Sputnik News 14:19 24.02.2016(updated 15:39 24.02.2016) Canada and Ukraine are in talks on providing Kiev with lethal weapons, the Ukrainian parliament's press service said Wednesday. KIEV (Sputnik) Since the start of the conflict, the United States and Canada have been providing Kiev with non-lethal military assistance, although Ukraine has repeatedly requested lethal aid. In April 2015, Washington sent 300 troops to Ukraine to train the country's National Guard while Canada decided to deploy 200 Canadian Armed Forces personnel to Ukraine as part of a training mission. 'We have raised the issue of lethal weapons and conducted more detailed consultations on non-lethal equipment needed in Ukraine,' the press service said, citing deputy parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy. The United States has been assisting Ukraine with economic and non-lethal military aid following the 2014 political crisis and Crimea's referendum to reunite with Russia. It has ruled out delivering lethal weapons to Ukraine on grounds that Kiev is capable of manufacturing lethal equipment independently. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Darrell Ehrlicks Feb. 21 column (Why public education matters most) deserves a response. As the superintendent of Montana Catholic schools effectively the seventh largest school district in the state of Montana I believe Ehrlick is a bit misguided in his criticism of private schools such as our Catholic schools. Catholic schools are not opposed to public schools. In fact, in areas such as Billings we have fruitful partnerships between excellent educators. We share the same dedication to the education of Montanans to become fruitful, productive citizens. Billings Catholic Schools, for example, have produced excellent citizens who have gone on to become valuable leaders and public servants. Where we differ, however, is our belief that education in a faith-based environment is the best kind of education. We believe in an excellent, rigorous education supported by our Catholic faith. We see our students come alive. Our faculty and staff are committed to our mission. Our parents are engaged and active. And, most importantly, our students are happy and are growing. Our Catholic schools are places where students thrive. The questions surrounding school funding are complex. Catholic school parents pay the same income and property taxes to support their local public schools. Their enrollment in private schools, in fact, saves the school district millions of dollars every year. We have supported efforts to set up scholarship organizations to provide tuition assistance because we believe that opens up possibilities for students in the middle and working classes. These efforts are not done at the expense of our public education system. Ehrlick suggests that Catholic schools can pick and choose their students. That is certainly true. The foundation of Catholic schools is parents committed to the mission parents committed to support the high behavioral and educational standards of our schools. He goes on to suggest that we dont accept students with special needs or students from poverty. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our Catholic schools enroll students with special needs who would qualify for special education. But the same funding available for students in public schools is not available for students in private schools. If the state were to allow that funding to travel with the student, we would see many students travel to faith-based schools. The notion that Montana Catholic Schools do not serve poverty students is ludicrous. Statewide more than a quarter of our students qualify for free/reduced lunch and our schools enroll more than 40 percent non-Catholics. In Billings, our schools are willing to work with any family committed to Catholic education. There is a financial sacrifice to enroll in our Catholic schools but there is a financial sacrifice for any familys priority. Show me how a family spends money, the old saying goes, and youll figure out that familys priority. Our priority is to provide excellent Catholic schools for Montana students and families in order to educate our future leaders. To the editor: We are nearing Super Tuesday (March 1) when there will be both a Democrat and Republican presidential primary in Virginia. We will go to the polls to cast our vote for our choice for president of the United States. This is a privilege that I regard highly and take it very seriously. We should feel free to support a candidate of our choice without harsh words or ridicule from those who support another candidate and we should respect the choice of our friends, family and colleagues. We are fortunate to live in a country where we are free to express our opinions, whether it be verbally, in writing, by volunteering for a particular candidate, or by placing signs in our yards. I know for a fact that permission has been obtained to place political signs on private property throughout Danville and Pittsylvania County. However, many of the signs have been vandalized or removed. I and other volunteers whom I have had the privilege of working side-by-side with know the rules and only place signs where permission is granted. There are significant costs and many hours of volunteer time involved in placing political signs throughout the community, and it is very disheartening to see how others disrespect this process. I would like to gently remind the community that there are consequences for those caught vandalizing or stealing these signs from private property. Pittsylvania County Commonwealth Attorney Bryan Haskins provided me with the following information. If the sign is on property with the permission of the owner of the property, then vandalizing a sign is misdemeanor property damage (Code of Virginia, 18.2-137), with a sentence up to 12 months in jail, or up to $2,500 fine, or both jail and fine. Stealing a sign is petit larceny (Code 18.2-96), with the same punishment options of a fine up to $2,500, up to 12 months in jail, or both jail and fine. BRENDA BOWMAN Dry Fork It was a simple error mistaking feet for meters. But that single false step by U.S. health officials managed to reignite the debate swirling around Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. and supposed dangers of its laminate flooring imported from China. The development is the latest twist in an almost yearlong saga that has pitted short sellers and the CBS News 60 Minutes program against the retailer. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this month that tests on the companys products showed minimal health risks, which renewed confidence in the chain as the stock rebounded. Now the agency has corrected those findings because of the math flub, saying formaldehyde exposure is three times higher than previously projected, although the risk of cancer remains low. In response, investors fled the stock, with the shares tumbling nearly 20 percent on Monday. The revised findings come just as Lumber Liquidators prepares to enter the time of year when spending on home improvement surges. It is really the last thing they needed, said Seema Shah, a retail analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. This brings formaldehyde back to the forefront. This is really not good news. The initial 60 Minutes report on Lumber Liquidators on March 1 was nothing less than devastating. It showed Chinese suppliers saying that flooring made for Lumber Liquidators wasnt compliant with California regulations even though it was labeled as such. A lawyer and an environmental advocate, who were both backed by short sellers, were featured bashing the company, along with Whitney Tilson, the investor who pitched the story idea to the show. The fallout from the story hitting a mainstream audience was massive. Sales tumbled and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission opened an investigation. The company had to spend heavily on lawyers, consultants and sending out test kits to customers. Less than three months later, the chief financial officer and chief executive officer were gone. The chain got a bit of a reprieve in December when Tilson said he had ended his short bet against the company because he believed that management was probably unaware of the formaldehyde problems. He declined to comment for this story, other than reiterating that he doesnt have a current position in Lumber Liquidators. Then on Feb. 10, the CDC, which has been working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, weighed in. After testing the same flooring 60 Minutes analyzed, officials found it had a low risk of causing cancer, though it could potentially trigger irritation and breathing problems. It was very reassuring, Shah said. But that goodwill evaporated when the CDC went back and checked its math after 60 Minutes raised doubts. This correction by the CDC was highlighted by 60 Minutes this past Sunday in an update to last years story. The CDCs error was on the calculation for ceiling height used to measure the intensity of formaldehyde exposure. So instead of using 8 feet as the standard height of a room, for instance, it used 8 meters, which is about 26 feet. In the initial report, the CDC said risks of cancer were as many as nine cases in 100,000 people. Now its increased that to as many as 30 people. But it said the recommendations on dealing with the level of formaldehyde will likely remain the same stressing taking steps to reduce exposure. It was an error, said Bernadette Burden, a spokeswoman for the CDC, who declined to elaborate further. Theres no timetable on when an updated report will be issued, she said. The chain is preparing to report fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 29. Analysts expect its sales to slide and losses to continue. The stock, down more than 80 percent in the past year, fell 13 cents, or 1.14 percent, to close Tuesday at $11.27. Lumber Liquidators will continue to be viewed poorly in the minds of the public with this new round of negative publicity, which will weigh on results at least in the near term, Seth Basham, an analyst for Wedbush Securities Inc., said in a research note. That is unfortunate, particularly as the business enters the key spring selling season. Lumber Liquidators said it supports the CDCs recommendations and that it is encouraged that the agency is reviewing its conclusions. The company also repeated that it has strengthened its quality-assurance procedures, suspended sales of Chinese laminate and offered free air tests to customers. We remain committed to operating with integrity and delivering quality flooring to our customers, the Toano-based company said in an e-mailed statement. Beyond potentially scaring away more customers, the increased risk assessment from the CDC also may make the civil lawsuits brought against the company more costly, even devastating, according to Basham. Should Lumber Liquidators have to pay compensatory damages for consumers health problems either in California or nationwide based on lawsuit outcomes, the company could be crippled in a worst case scenario, Basham said. New U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt has reversed most of an economic package announced by the government just weeks ago, including a planned cut in income taxes. Hunt said Monday he was scrapping almost all the tax cuts announced last month by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, and also signaled that public spending cuts are on the way. It was a bid to soothe turbulent financial markets spooked by fears of excessive government borrowing. The move raises questions about how long the beleaguered prime minister can stay in office, though Truss insisted she has no plans to quit. She vowed to lead the Conservatives into the next general election, but many in the party want her gone. TSXV: GGI OTC: GGIFF Frankfurt: RQM VANCOUVER, Feb. 24, 2016 /CNW/ - Garibaldi Resources is pleased to report that its newly-acquired Golden Bear claims, approximately 7 km southeast of the recently drilled Ultra 1 Zone discovery at Grizzly Central in the prolific Sheslay District, show evidence of gold-enriched structural zones broadly associated with highly anomalous copper geochemical anomalies. The 14 sq. km claim package acquired last year forms the Grizzly South regional target area and includes the historical Wolverine high-grade gold showing (ARIS 20945), a gold-rich 8-meter massive sulfide vein along the northern boundary, discovered during construction of the Golden Bear mine road in the late 1980's. Garibaldi's field program has identified new overlapping gold and copper-in-soil anomalies and expanded historical ones that measured at least 1.1 km in length and 700 meters in width over both the northwest and southern sections of the claims. A high priority target is the northwest area, approximately 1.2 km southwest of the Wolverine showing, where anomalous gold-in-soil (up to 1.1 g/t Au) sampled by Garibaldi crews is located within a broad north-south trending structural zone. Identifying the source of highly elevated gold-in-soil for a potential drill target will be the focus of upcoming work. Historically, various operators invested significant exploration dollars on geological, geochemical and geophysical surveys for the Golden Bear claims without ever drill testing any of the anomalous areas which Garibaldi will now follow up on. Steve Regoci, Garibaldi President and CEO, stated: "With seven regional centers covering 300 sq. km at Grizzly, we're building a big pipeline of high value targets from each sector. The discovery of the large-scale and exotic Ultra 1 Zone on first-ever drilling at Grizzly Central, 2 km from the Kaketsa 'heat engine', suggests the potential for multiple new finds. Grizzly South appears to be another style of exciting mineralization following the Ultra 1 Zone discovery of thick intersections of high-grade magnesium, nickel and scandium in widely-spaced drill holes, while Grizzly West is a well-defined copper-gold porphyry target. "We eagerly anticipate updating shareholders in the very near future with regard to the Ultra 1 Zone discovery as soon as important metallurgical information is received and reviewed," Regoci added. Visit the Grizzly section of the Garibaldi web site (www.GaribaldiResources.com) for additional information on the Ultra 1 Zone and the entire 300 sq. km project, and the following URL to directly view a map outlining the 7 Grizzly regional target areas: http://www.garibaldiresources.com/i/maps/Grizzly/Grizzly-regional-target-areas-feb2016.pdf Quality Assurance & Control Soil and rock samples were processed at the Bureau Veritas Commodities Canada Ltd. Lab located in Vancouver, B.C. The rock samples were pulverized to 200 mesh and analyzed using aqua regia digestion with ICP-MS analysis. All samples were subject to in-house QA/QC control checks performed by Bureau Veritas including running standard, blank and duplicate samples in line with the Golden Bear soil and rock samples. Qualified Person Adrian Smith, P.Geo., an on-site consultant for the company's Grizzly Project and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 regulations, has reviewed this news release and approved the contents thereof. About Garibaldi Garibaldi Resources Corp. is an active Canadian-based junior exploration company focused on creating shareholder value through discoveries and strategic development of its assets in some of the most prolific mining regions in Mexico and British Columbia. We seek safe harbor. GARIBALDI RESOURCES CORP. Per: "Steve Regoci" Steve Regoci, President Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of this release. SOURCE Garibaldi Resources Corp. PERTH, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwired - Feb. 24, 2016) - THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE U.S Western Areas Ltd. (ASX:WSA) ("Western Areas" or the "Company") today announces the Company's financial results for the half year ended 31 December 2015 (1HFY16). In a decade low nickel price environment, the average realised price for the Company fell 30% in Australian dollar terms versus the previous corresponding period (PCP), significantly impacting financial results with revenue falls going directly to the bottom line pre tax. The impact of the nickel price fall equates to an A$54.2m reduction in revenue. The Company's reported net loss after tax (NLAT) of A$20.0m has also been affected by expenditure, write-offs and impairments on certain non-core and non-Forrestania exploration related activities totalling A$12.2m after tax. Prior to these charges, the underlying NLAT was A$7.8m. Continued operational efficiency and cost reduction programs delivered a lower unit cash cost of production result of A$2.25/lb (US$1.63/lb) for the half year. This has seen Western Areas continue to deliver positive operating margins and cashflow from operations. This robust performance will enable the Company to continue through the current nickel price cycle and be well positioned to take full advantage of any potential future nickel price improvements. A presentation of the results has been released today and will be followed by a conference call at 9.30am AEDT, details of which were announced on 18 February 2016. Key Metrics: Sales revenue of A$105.9m (A$164.9m); Average realised price of nickel fell by 30% to A$5.70/lb (A$8.11/lb); EBITDA of A$18.6m (A$74.9m); Reported NLAT of A$20.0m (A$23.6m NPAT). Underlying NLAT of A$7.8m; Operating cashflow of A$14.6m (A$87.6m); Net cash of A$29.9m (A$53.7m); and Unit cash costs of nickel in concentrate A$2.25/lb (A$2.37/lb) (Comparisons in brackets refer to 1HFY15) Compared to the PCP, the greatest impact on revenue (A$59.0m reduction) and cashflow was the A$2.41/lb reduction in the nickel price, with a small sales volume variation of only 380 nickel tonnes. Regardless of this, the Company has been able to repay all debt in the half year, fund all of its capital expenditure and exploration expenditure activities, whilst also meeting the first instalment for the acquisition of the Cosmos Project from existing cash reserves. The after tax charges of A$12.2m referred to above, include write-offs of A$4.7m relating to a revaluation of a low grade stockpile and some regional exploration expenditure. The remaining A$7.5m is mainly associated with the impairment of historical exploration expenditure in the Company's 60% owned FinnAust Mining PLC. In light of the current nickel price, the Board and Senior Management have agreed to take a 10% reduction in Board fees and salaries effective 1 March 2016. This reduction in fixed costs follows an aggressive period of variable cost reductions which has yielded positive outcomes with the support of the Company's many service providers and suppliers. Consistent with previous Company commentary that dividends are fundamentally linked to nickel price, the Board has elected not to pay an interim dividend for the half year. Western Areas has an enviable track record of paying consistent dividends over the last five years, with close to A$107m paid to shareholders to date. The Board continues to have a desire to pay dividends and will make a judgement on the final dividend in August, based on full year results, the prevailing nickel price and future capital requirements. Western Areas Managing Director, Dan Lougher acknowledged the significant impact of the nickel price environment, however highlighted the Company's many achievements in safety and controllable costs. "Western Areas has previously experienced and seen through the challenges of a volatile nickel price. With the repayment of all convertible bond debt, the lowering of our corporate and operating costs and our ability to defer capital expenditure, the Company is well positioned to take advantage of opportunities and an anticipated recovery in the nickel price," said Mr Lougher. "Our underlying reported net loss of A$7.8m is entirely a function of the significant reduction in the nickel price, driving a reduction in revenue of A$59.0m. This reduction effectively drops to the bottom line and free cashflow before tax. Operationally, the Company delivered well for the year, with a lowering of our cost of sales by around $500 per tonne of nickel. We also continue to have positive cashflow from operations. "It has also been a busy half year on many fronts, with the repayment of A$125m in convertible bonds, the purchase and completion of the acquisition of Cosmos and the commencement of exploration at the Western Gawler project in South Australia. "Importantly, the Company has recorded ZERO LTIs in the six months and our LTIFR remains at ZERO. Our reporting of lead indicators continues to grow and I take this opportunity to congratulate all Western Areas' employees, suppliers and service providers for their commitment to safety. We remain of the firm belief that safety outcomes are intrinsically linked to strong production and cost performance. "The Company took decisive action in October 2015 by announcing the deferral of capital expenditure and some exploration activities into FY17. These decisions are only possible due to prior period investments in the business and reflect the operational flexibility we've built into the business model. "Given the circumstances, the Board has decided not to declare an interim dividend. We believe that our shareholders will understand that this is a responsible decision in the current environment. "The Company's strategy of continuing to invest prudently in our medium and long term growth at Forrestania, Cosmos and Western Gawler will ultimately deliver returns to shareholders. In this regard, we are about to embark upon a highly targeted diamond drilling program at Cosmos, whilst early work on the high grade Odysseus project is indicating significant opportunities for capital and operating expenditure reductions from the previous Xstrata studies. More news flow on the Odysseus project will be provided later in the year," said Mr Lougher. FY16 Guidance The Company is pleased to advise that the updated guidance announced on 7 October 2015 is materially unchanged, excluding an A$0.05/lb improvement in unit costs which reflects the first half outperformance in cost management: FY16 Guidance Updated Guidance Mine Production (Nickel in Ore - tonnes) 25,000 to 27,000 Nickel in Concentrate Production (tonnes) 24,000 to 25,000 Unit Cash Cost of Production (In Concentrate) A$2.25/lb to A$2.45/lb Sustaining Capex A$34.0m Forrestania and Regional Exploration A$11.0m Mill Enhancement A$7.4m Cosmos Exploration and Study Work A$4.0m FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT: This release contains certain forward-looking statements including nickel production targets. Often, but not always, forward looking statements can generally be identified by the use of forward looking words such as "may", "will", "expect", "intend", "plan", "estimate", "anticipate", "continue", and "guidance", or other similar words and may include, without limitation, statements regarding plans, strategies and objectives of management, anticipated production and expected costs. Examples of forward looking statements used in this report include: "We also continue to have positive cashflow from operations" and, "the Company is well positioned to take advantage of opportunities and an anticipated recovery in the nickel price". These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's ability to control or predict which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. This announcement does not include reference to all available information on the Company and should not be used in isolation as a basis to invest in Western Areas. Any potential investors should refer to Western Area's other public releases and statutory reports and consult their professional advisers before considering investing in the Company. PERTH, Feb. 25, 2016 - Mirabela Nickel Ltd. (Administrators Appointed) (Receivers and Managers Appointed) (Mirabela or the Company) (ASX:MBN) announces that it is relying on Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) Instrument 2015/251 (Instrument) which provides externally administered companies with relief from certain financial reporting obligations, including the lodgement of financial reports in Australia.In the case of Mirabela, it is not required to lodge its 31 December 2015 annual financial statements until 28 April 2016. A further extension of the relief beyond 28 April 2016 may be sought, if required.Mirabela is a reporting issuer under Canadian securities laws. Mirabela will file its annual report on SEDAR at www.sedar.com for the year ended 31 December 2015 when the same is lodged in Australia in accordance with the Instrument or as otherwise permitted by ASIC.SOURCE Mirabela Nickel Ltd. (Administrators Appointed) (Receivers and Managers Appointed)Telephone: +61 8 9324 1177info@mirabela.com.au VANCOUVER, Feb. 25, 2016 /CNW/ - Eureka Resources Inc. ("Eureka" or the "Company") (TSXV: EUK) and its joint venture partner, Nevada Sunrise Gold Corp. (TSXV: NEV) are pleased to announce that the companies have received the preliminary results from a time-domain electromagnetic survey ("TDEM") carried out on the Gemini Lithium Project ("Gemini") in Lida Valley, Nevada. A reconnaissance moving-loop TDEM survey over Gemini West and Gemini East has detected conductive zones within the sub-basins defined by recent gravity surveys. The results gained from the TDEM survey are interpreted to be conductive brines at depth located well below the non-conductive alluvium (sediments) at surface. A conductive layer 150250 metres deep appears to cover most of Gemini West and Gemini East, and several isolated strong conductive zones were interpreted at depths from 400 to 600 metres. The conductive layers and zones are indicative of brine solutions in porous aquifers and traps within each sub-basin. Michael Sweatman, President of Eureka stated "we are pleased that the ground survey has detected conductive layers coincident to the gravity lows that were previously located. Gemini appears to be a hidden gem and the next step is to drill into the conductive zones to determine the extent and lithium content of the interpreted brines". Gemini is currently the subject of an interim agreement with Nevada Sunrise Gold Corp. ("Nevada Sunrise") whereby Eureka can earn a 50% working interest in a joint venture at Gemini with Nevada Sunrise (see Eureka news release dated January 21, 2016). Nevada Sunrise acts as operator of Gemini. A diagram of the TDEM section pertaining to this release is available on the Company's website: www.eurekaresourcesinc.com About Gemini and the Lida Valley Gemini is located approximately 6 miles (10 kilometres) east of the town of Lida, Nevada, and currently consists of 247 placer claims totaling 4,940 acres (2,000 hectares). Gemini flanks the Gold Point Solar Energy Zone, a BLM land reserve for solar power generation. The Lida Valley is a flat, desert basin with a similar geological setting to the established Clayton Valley basin, which hosts North America's only producing lithium mine at Silver Peak, located 40 kilometres (26 miles) to the northwest. The exploration strategy at Gemini is to target desert basins, or playas, that exhibit similar geological and geophysical characteristics to the Clayton Valley basin where lithium brines are known to accumulate in faulted sub-basins, or "traps". Such sub-basins can be delineated by gravity surveys that detect strong gravity lows. A detailed gravity survey carried out in 2012 and 2013, indicated strong gravity lows within two, faulted sub-basins approximately 7 kilometres (4.5 miles) apart, each interpreted to be hundreds of metres deep. Nevada Sunrise made the decision to acquire claims covering the available land after reviewing the geophysical results in conjunction with favourable local geology, namely late Miocene felsic volcanic tuffs adjacent to Gemini. These rocks provide the source of lithium for trapped, lithium-rich saline ground-waters (brine) within the sub-basins. On completion of more detailed TDEM surveys, drilling into the conductive zones within the sub-basin for lithium-bearing brines is recommended. There are no known drill holes at Gemini. John R. Kerr, P. Eng., is the Company's designated Qualified Person for this news release within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. About Eureka Since its incorporation in 1981, Vancouver-based Eureka Resources Inc. has focused on the exploration and evaluation of mineral properties. Its flagship project, the Frasergold Project ("FG Project,") was the subject of a National Instrument 43-101 compliant technical report entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report Frasergold Exploration Project", dated July 20, 2015 and amended July 27, 2015, authored by K. V. Campbell, Ph.D, P.Geo, and G. H. Giroux, MA.Sc, P.Eng., and filed on SEDAR. The FG Project is located 100 kilometres east of Williams Lake, B.C. with good access by provincial highways and secondary roads. Eureka recently entered into an interim agreement which gives the Company the right to acquire a 50% participating interest in the Gemini Lithium Project located in the Lida Valley, Nevada. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to Eureka Resources Inc. ("Eureka") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, including statements that address future mineral production, reserve potential, exploration drilling, the future price of lithium, potential quantity and/or grade of minerals, potential size of a mineralized zone, potential expansion of mineralization, the timing and results of future resource estimates, or other study, proposed exploration and development of our exploration properties and the estimation of mineral resources. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "project", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intends", "believe", "potential", and similar expressions, or describes a "goal", or variation of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "should", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievement of Eureka to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to the interpretation and actual results of historical exploration at the Gemini property, reliance on technical information provided by third parties on any of our exploration properties, including access to historical information on the Gemini property, current exploration and development activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; current economic conditions; future prices of commodities; possible variations in grade or recovery rates; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; the failure of contracted parties to perform; labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals, financing or in the completion of exploration, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for the Year Ended October 31, 2015, which is available under Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Although Eureka has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Eureka disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and accordingly are subject to change after such date. Except as otherwise indicated by Eureka, these statements do not reflect the potential impact of any non-recurring or other special items or of any dispositions, monetizations, mergers, acquisitions, other business combinations or other transactions that may be announced or that may occur after the date hereof. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of our operating environment. Eureka Resources Inc. does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that are included in this document, except as required by applicable securities laws. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of accuracy of this release. The Securities of Eureka Resources Inc. have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to the account or benefit of any U.S. person. SOURCE Eureka Resources Inc. Discussion and possible action by the North Dakota Board of University and School Lands could lead to the suspension of future oil impact grant rounds and to the same result for approved grants to projects that arent yet underway. State Land Commissioner Lance Gaebe said Wednesday a three-prong approach will be proposed at the beginning of the boards meeting at 9 a.m. today at the state Capitol. Dollars expected to come into the Oil and Gas Impact Grant Fund for the 2015-17 biennium are $28.6 million. This is less than the $42 million already awarded so far this biennium. Lawmakers approved $140 million in oil gross production tax dollars for the fund last year; about $20 million has been collected so far. Were going to consider that we suspend grant rounds for the foreseeable future, Gaebe said. In addition, state payments on grants that have already been approved but where work hasnt begun yet are also to be considered for indefinite suspension. Gaebe said unused turnover dollars from grants from previous bienniums may be able to be freed up as a short-term patch for existing projects. Gaebe said North Dakota Department of Trust Lands officials made about 250 calls to all the political entities that could be impacted by the potential land board moves. They were also informed that, if a project that was awarded a grant is begun, the state might be unable to honor payment of the grants. Its frustrating; its a disappointment, Gaebe said. Cities, counties, airports, K-12 schools and hospitals may be among those impacted. He said the reaction to the news ran the full gamut from understanding, a large degree of disappointment and a small amount of anger. Gaebe said there are 443 open grants approved by the board in the past few bienniums combined. Its not pleasant decisions to make to be sure, Gaebe said. The cronut collection at Tella Balls Dessert Bar. Photo: Supplied It's here, hazelnut-chocolate-spread fans. Sydney's first ever Nutella-themed dessert bar is opening in Dulwich Hill on February 29. Co-owners Aki Daikos and Simon Kappatos are the guys who sent the internet into a global tailspin with their Tella Ball Shake - a Nutella-filled doughnut on top of a milkshake. That was Foodcraft Espresso, the Erskineville cafe that the pair has since sold to focus on giving sweet-toothed Sydneysiders exactly what they want with Tella Balls Dessert Bar. Tella Ball's icing-covered "Gelat-doughs". Photo: Stephen Claxton "We wanted to create a place that caters for people young and old, who want a one-stop shop to eat the most amazing desserts ever," says Daikos. "We're not serving anything savoury," Kappatos adds. "Although we do want to stress, we're not selling meal replacements either - just purely delicious desserts!" The menu isn't exactly short on sweets. There's crepes and waffles made to order, a Nutella 'lasagne' of layered mousse cake and fresh cream on a biscuit base, tiramisu pancakes, panna cotta, Ferrero cups, rice pudding, knafeh and a Nutella-injected ganache. The Tella Ball shake makes an appearance and is now joined by a cronut-topped counterpart. Tella Balls' ganache with an injection of Nutella. Photo: Stephen Claxton Gelato is made in-house and while you can eat it out of a cone, that seems pedestrian when you can instead have, ahem, a "Gelat-dough": gelato fashioned into a doughnut shape, whacked on a stick and covered with icing. "We'll be using a lot of other fun ingredients in our desserts other than just Nutella," says Kappatos. "Things like Kit Kats, Maltesers, Oreos and Mars Bars - things that we grew up eating ourselves. It brings us back to our childhood, and that's the best place you can be. When you're eating something sweet, and you're happy and smiling, life's good." Open daily 11am-11pm, from February 29. Crepes topped with smashed Oreos at Tella Balls. Photo: Supplied Shop 5, 370 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill

Devotees at the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Penn Hills, Pa., celebrate the Diwali Festival of Lights with a fireworks display in front of the temple. (Andrew Rush/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/MCT)

SHARE By Peter Smith Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Mct) PITTSBURGH Seated in front of the floodlit, intricately sculpted facade of their Hindu temple in Penn Hills, Pa., hundreds of people recently looked into the October night sky, their faces glowing with the colors of fireworks bursting overhead to mark Diwali, a sacred festival of lights marking a gods victory over darkness and ignorance. People travel from across North America to make pilgrimages to the Sri Venkateswara Temple there. Built in the mid-1970s and based on a much larger shrine in South India, the Pittsburgh version is renowned for its pioneering role in recreating on American soil the architectural grandeur and sacred sense of a major shrine in Hinduisms native land. Being able to make the regular trip there from his home in suburban Pittsburgh is so important to Srini Bellamkonda that the software engineer who was transferred by his company to the United States from his native India in 2001 and came to Pittsburgh in 2004 hasnt sought transfers anywhere else since. In fact, he knows of fellow Indian immigrants who left Pittsburgh for jobs in Texas or Florida only to return. This is important to us, definitely, said Bellamkonda, 40, after he helped a neighbors young son light a sparkler to celebrate Diwali. They might not like the weather so much (but) the temple is one reason why people want to stick to Pittsburgh. Of all the Pittsburgh areas immigrant groups, its 10,000-strong Indian-born community has made the most visible imprint on the citys diverse religious scene. Many immigrated since the 1960s to work as engineers in corporations such as Westinghouse and in the citys academic and medical centers. Indian-Americans have organized two major Hindu temples and other smaller Hindu institutions, as well as a Jain shrine, a Sikh temple and small Christian congregations, including a Catholic group worshiping in the ancient Syro-Malabar tradition. Muslim immigrants from India are also active in the regions mosques. Earlier in the Diwali festival at the Sri Venkateswara Temple, the full, sensory worship experience of Hinduism was much in evidence. Priests chanted in urgent tones to the backdrop of bells, drumbeats and declamatory notes from wind instruments known as nadaswarams. Worshipers prayed before the idol of the deity to whom the temple is dedicated Sri (Lord) Venkateswara, an incarnation of Vishnu, surrounded by consorts Lakshmi and Bhoodevi, goddesses of wealth and the earth. The deities were surrounded by such gifts as floral garlands, mango leaves and rice. From the temples modest origins, its grown, grown and we have a lot of devotees from all over the country now, current temple Chairman Ashok Sarpeskar said. In Monroeville, Pa., a few miles from the Sri Venkateswara Temple, the Hindu Jain Temple features elaborate turrets and other architectural flourishes. Inside are five major shrines to deities primarily venerated in northern India, one of them especially by Jains, followers of a religion historically connected to but distinct from Hinduism. Young people learn Hindu basics at temple Sunday schools and a summer camp. When we were young we never asked why, said Indian native Vijay Shah of Upper St. Clair, Pa., who is active in the Hindu Jain Temple. Today we have to explain, Whats the significance of this god? Why do I put a dot on my forehead? There is more value in that. Closely overlapping with the role of the temples are various Indian ethnic associations and educational institutions teaching classical Indian dance. I feel like Ive learned a lot about Indian culture and heritage by learning to dance, said Anika Roy, 16, of Monroeville at a recent Bengali Association of Greater Pittsburgh festival at the Hindu Jain Temple, where she performed an elaborate, ancient choreography depicting the goddess Durgas triumph over evil. The Pittsburgh Sikh Gurdwara was formed in the 1970s, also in Monroeville, by followers of the monotheistic religion, which emerged in India in the 15th century with distinct Scriptures, worship and traditions of dress. Indian religious leaders say they have been involved in interfaith efforts and find the climate generally friendly despite isolated incidents of prejudice. But national events, such as a massacre committed by a lone gunman at a Wisconsin Sikh temple in 2012, have prompted heightened security and educational efforts, such as giving temple tours and speaking to school and church groups. We need to work a little more on telling people who we are, said Chitratan Singh Sethi, who is active at the Sikh gurdwara. We definitely try our best with whatever opportunities come our way. Buddhist Noel Singleton prays in his home Wednesday. Singleton regularly gives presentations about Buddhism to world religion classes at HSU. SHARE Noel Singleton says a prayer while kneeling in front of his Butsudan, a Buddhist altar, at his home in Abilene. Singleton finds Buddhism compatible with his leanings toward science and rationalism. Buddhist Noel Singleton prays in his home Wednesday. The sect of Buddhism that Singleton eventually settled on a and has practiced for more than 30 years a garnered his attention in 1975, when he was 21 and living in Houston. Buddhist describes his spiritual journey By Brian Bethel Scripps Texas Newspapers About Buddha According to one account of his life, Siddhartha Gautama was born in 583 B.C.in or near what is now Nepal, the son of King Suddhodana and Queen Maya, who died shortly after his birth. At age 29, Siddhartha asked a charioteer to take him on a series of rides through the countryside, where he saw an aged man, a sick person and a corpse. He took no further pleasure in palace life, eventually leaving. He shaved his head, changed his clothes for a beggar's robe and began a quest for enlightenment. He sat beneath a sacred fig tree, known now as the Bodhi tree, and began meditating. Defeating Mara, a demon who represents passions that snare and delude, he became the first Buddha. About Buddhism Date founded: Circa 520 B.C. Place founded: Northeastern India Founder: Siddhartha Gautama, an Indian prince Adherents: 360 million, fourth-largest world religion Main locations: China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia Major divisions: Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana Sacred texts: Pali Canon (Tripitaka), numerous Mahayana sutras Original language: Pali Sources: About.com and ReligionFacts.com ABILENE ? Noel Singleton, 56, freely admits he's not the stereotypical picture of someone who has devoted his life to Buddhism. "Selfless, I ain't," he said, in a typical tone of gleeful self-derision. "Not all Buddhism is invested that much in extinguishing the desire or nullifying the self. It's maybe more of the quest for the ideal, true self." And he's quick to admit that the path that led him toward the 2,500-year-old faith/philosophy is somewhat circuitous, though one that clearly comes out of an early penchant for rationalism. "From the time I was about 9 years old, I was enthusiastic about science," he said. "They did that to us on purpose because of Sputnik and so forth. Boys, especially." Wrangles about the origin of life formed an early stepping-off point for Singleton's seemingly perennial love of debate. But the budding "science nerd guy," who believed strongly in evolution, first heard about what would become his spiritual journey from Thomas Hoover, formerly of Valera in Coleman County, where Singleton regularly spent time with his grandparents. Hoover would go on to write books with titles like "The Zen Culture" and "Samurai Strategy." "He was really thinking in terms of Zen when I was about 13," Singleton said. "He suggested not to write off all religion because there was a religion that was more rational and less invested in the supernatural or the superstitious." The sect of Buddhism that Singleton eventually settled on ? and has practiced for more than 30 years ? garnered his attention in 1975, when he was 21 and living in Houston. The Soka Gakkai sect of Buddhism, which according to the group's website "places the highest emphasis on the sanctity of life," introduced Singleton to a truth that, he said, didn't compromise his earlier convictions. "It was as compatible with rational, scientific belief as anything I'd ever heard of," Singleton said. Since attending his first meeting, Singleton has been "thoroughly committed," he said, though he admits he doesn't attend local meetings, frequented by about a dozen followers, as often as he might. When speaking to others, he often finds even well-meaning people carry "benign misconceptions" about his beliefs. "In this area, much of what you would hear about Buddhism would be in comparative religion classes in the Christian universities or a Christian take on it," he said. To Singleton, Buddhism isn't as much about the trappings of meditation or the desire for nullifying the self, though he admits there are as many takes on Buddhism as there are people to consider it. His sect's intentions are not to remove itself from ordinary, work-a-day reality, he said. Instead, his faith helps him overcome problems and work toward having a meaningful, successful life. "Enlightenment is the awareness of one's Buddha nature and decidedly relevant to one's modern life," he said, referring to the belief that all can become living embodiments of the teaching of the original Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. His daily practice consists of daily prayers in the morning and at night, with an additional edict of telling people about Buddhism, especially on a compassionate basis. But even that still resonates with his own penchant for debate, he said, and Singleton has through the years been a passionate writer of letters to the editor, something he has now taken to the Internet to satisfy his love of at-times intense discourse. That admitted contentiousness has cost him at certain times, he said. Born in Brownwood, he considers San Angelo his hometown. It was there that he wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper on the abortion debate that haunted him as he tried to get his nursing degree from Angelo State University. Upon graduation from nursing school, local hospitals remained cool toward him, he said. "But Hendrick was recruiting graduates from Angelo State," he said. "And my brother lived in Abilene, so I scampered back up here." He was hired in 1986 as a student nurse, eventually taking his boards and becoming a registered nurse. In time he left Hendrick, a career decision he still maintains was necessitated by religious differences he encountered at the Baptist-affiliated hospital. "They couldn't quite picture someone who was humanist and openly Buddhist rising up in the ranks," he said. But there has been a "lot of Budweiser under the bridge" since then, Singleton said, and meeting people through the Abilene Interfaith Council has helped him have more respect for all religions, even those he has had disagreements with in the past. "It's a great place to find common ground or parallels ? or to be cheerful about the differences and have something to discuss," he said. The Rev. Roz Thomas, an Episcopal priest and longtime member of the Interfaith Council, described Singleton as an "interesting character" ? and a "nice guy." "He holds some strong opinions but is totally consistent about them," Thomas wrote in an e-mail while visiting her brother in Vancouver, Canada. Hardin-Simmons University professor Rob Sellers said Singleton exhibits "tremendous discipline" in the practice of his Buddhist faith. "He daily chants and prays with great dedication," he said. "His beliefs make a genuine difference in the way he tries to live." Singleton said that he thinks Abilene in general is "moving and improving" when it comes to interfaith understanding, though he rankles at some perpetual misconceptions. He remembers an infamous row that started when some locals began blaming a period of drought on a Buddhist speaker who had visited The Grace Museum. The monk ended his visit by putting some grains of a colorful sand mandala ? a graphic symbol of the universe ? he created and destroyed while here into a nearby fountain. "I don't believe in the supernatural any more than I ever did, but I believe in the mystical," he said, reflecting. "And I believe all is mystical and wonderful, as opposed to there is no spiritual, there is no mystical. The universe itself is the wonderful truth." Judge Penny Roberts looks back at career on bench Long-time County Court-at-Law No. 2 judge said she's looking forward to life's next chapters but remembered a circuitous journey to the bench SHARE By Staff Report Angelo State University's Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Security Studies will host an Infrastructure Resiliency Workshop from Feb. 29-March 1 in the Houston Harte University Center, 1910 Rosemont Drive. Titled "Critical Infrastructure Protection: Energy Priorities for Today and Tomorrow," the workshop is designed to identify and discuss the threats and vulnerabilities of our regional and national critical infrastructure, and to establish a forum for increased security collaboration between various government and law enforcement agencies and energy and utilities providers, according to an ASU news release. Workshop sessions will run 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 29 and 8:30 a.m. to noon March 1 in the University Center's C.J. Davidson Conference Center. All sessions are open free to the public, and online registration is available. Texas law enforcement officers who attend the workshop are eligible for 12 hours of continuing education credit through the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. For more information, visit angelo.edu/css-workshop, call 325-486-6682 or email css@angelo.edu. SHARE Tim Edwards, San Angelo The people of Tom Green County are fortunate to have two capable candidates seeking election as judge of the 391st District Court. But the voters have a choice to make and I believe that choice should be Brad Goodwin. I practiced law in Tom Green County and in courts across West Texas for 40 years. In that time I came to have an appreciation for the difficult and sometimes thankless job our judges do. Being a judge requires legal knowledge, fairness and patience. It calls for a person of character and good temperament. And, to be effective from day one, a judge needs vast experience in many areas of the law. Brad Goodwin possesses each of those attributes and would bring such experience to the job of being a fair and qualified judge. Without hesitation, I support Brad Goodwin for 391st District Judge. Gail Barrow and others gather ahead of a Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump campaign stop, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, in Walterboro, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) SHARE Olivier Douliery/TNS Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a campaign rally in Walterboro, S.C. He is a front-runner, not unstoppable By Stuart Rothenberg WASHINGTON Most in the national news media are talking about how Donald Trump is now the clear Republican front-runner and will be nearly impossible to stop. They are only partially right. Trump, who won South Carolina (and all of its delegates) with a little under one-third of the vote, certainly is the front-runner. He has won two of the first three contests and has a clear lead in delegates. He should do well March 1, when many Southern states hold their primaries and more than 600 delegates are at stake. By definition, that makes him the front-runner. But the Palmetto State primary results, combined with recent national polls, suggest that Trump remains a tentative front-runner, not some kind of unstoppable favorite. Trump drew about 32.5 percent in South Carolina, a little less than the 35.3 percent he attracted in New Hampshire and about eight points more than the 24.3 percent he attracted in the Iowa caucuses. In other words, he did not do as well as the primary winners did in New Hampshire or South Carolina in 2008 or 2012. That's understandable considering the size of this year's field, but it raises questions about the eventual breadth of his appeal. Winning is good and losing is bad, but Trump's problem is that while he has a high floor of support (many of his supporters will continue to back him no matter what he says or does), he may also have a low ceiling. We will find out if that is true over the next month, now that the GOP field has winnowed further. Fox's Feb. 15-17 national survey found Trump at 36 percent on the ballot in the GOP's national race and almost with a 2-1 lead over Ted Cruz, who was in second place. But when respondents were asked for a second choice, Marco Rubio and Cruz showed strong second-choice appeal. Trump did not. That should not be surprising, given the controversy that Trump generates and his personal style. It's possible to win a primary with one-third of the vote, but it's difficult to win a two-way or three-way race getting one in three voters. And that is a problem for Trump. His ceiling may prevent him from being the second choice of many Republicans. The folks at CNN kept repeating on primary night that if another candidate had performed like Trump has so far, everyone would be saying that he is unstoppable. That's true, of course. But the point is that Donald Trump definitely is not like any other candidate. His language is not like a politician's, and many of his positions are not classic Republican. That certainly enhances his appeal to some, but it disgusts and repels others, limiting his ability to attract significant additional support. Most candidates who win multiple early contests have demonstrated broad appeal. In contrast, Trump remains a deeply polarizing candidate whose message obviously touches a certain kind of voter one who is angry, wants a political revolution and is looking for a political strongman to mount a campaign against perceived enemies. That describes many, but not necessarily most, Republican voters. The South Carolina exit poll found Trump doing very well among those voters who want a candidate who "tells it like it is" and well among those who want a candidate who "can bring needed change." But he does very poorly among those respondents who want a candidate who "shares my values" and runs a weak second to Rubio among those who want a candidate who "can win in November." Even as he presses his argument that he is the only candidate who can stop Trump, Cruz's showing in South Carolina has to be disappointing for him and his supporters. More than 7 out of 10 South Carolina GOP primary voters said that they were evangelicals, but Cruz carried only 26 percent of them. If Cruz can't do well among those voters, he is in trouble. Cruz did carry "very conservative" voters, another group at which he aims his message, but he must do better among evangelicals on Super Tuesday if he is going to remain a top tier hopeful for his party's nomination. Once the primary process moves north and west, Cruz's appeal wanes. Jeb Bush's exit from the race is a significant plus for Rubio, who after his South Carolina showing is now in a much better position to coalesce establishment support. That development is partially offset, of course, because John Kasich shows no sign of exiting the contest, thereby limiting Rubio's ability to unite pragmatists. As others have noted, the longer the establishment is divided, the more difficult it is to stop Trump from winning primaries and accumulating delegates. Those who believe Trump is unstoppable frequently note that no Republican who has won both New Hampshire and South Carolina has been denied the GOP's nomination. That's true, but I believe that we have already established that the old "rules" do not apply, so I am not sure why anyone should regard two primary victories this year as an iron law of Republican politics. None of this means that Trump can't now win the nomination. But to do so, he will need to broaden his appeal something that he has shown no inclination or ability to do, at least to this point. But South Carolina's results didn't change Trump's prospects in the Republican race very much. The outcome was more of the same, not an indication of his growing support in the party. Until that happens and it could happen or never happen the GOP nomination is very much up for grabs. Ironically, Trump's victory in the Palmetto State wasn't the most significant development Saturday. It wasn't as important as Cruz's disappointing showing or Bush's exit from the race. Those two developments could alter the dynamics of a very unpredictable race. We will see whether they do. Stuart Rothenberg wrote this for CQ-Roll Call Inc. WILLISTON An oilfield landfill south of Williston is the first facility in North Dakota to propose accepting radioactive waste under new state rules. IHD Solids Management LLC has submitted applications to the North Dakota Department of Health to accept radioactive waste thats a byproduct of oil development and is currently being shipped out of state. The facility, in McKenzie County along U.S. Highway 85, proposes to begin accepting waste with radioactivity levels of up to 50 picocuries per gram under new Department of Health rules that took effect this year. Health department staff plan to review the application materials, which could take at least two to three months, and then seek public comment on the proposal, said Scott Radig, director of the Division of Waste Management. Health officials also have been told a landfill in Williams County is close to submitting an application, Radig said. The IHD facility, which dates back to the mid-1980s but was significantly upgraded in 2011, will not require any design changes to accept radioactive waste, said Chris Kreger, environmental manager for the facility. The landfill will need to add some new operating procedures, including a radiation safety plan and additional training. The type of waste the facility proposes to accept known as technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material, or TENORM would include tank bottoms, sludge and filter socks that fall under the states limit of 50 picocuries per gram. Kreger said the level of radioactivity of the waste would be slightly above the radiation that a granite countertop gives off and below the radioactivity level of phosphorus fertilizer. The primary safety concern for the type of radioactive material the landfill would accept is if people handling it would inhale or ingest it, Kreger said. So our operations are going to need to be centered around avoiding that inhalation or ingestion concern, Kreger said. If everybody does what I train them to do, the chance that anybody or anything can get contaminated is really low. Kreger said he anticipates the facility will accept radioactive waste from about a 50-mile radius. We expect that were not going to be the only one that ends up getting this license, Kreger said. The process to get approval through the health department requires two steps. One application is to modify the landfills existing permit as an oilfield special waste landfill and a second application is for a radioactive materials license. The health department will seek public comment after doing an initial review of the application and will hold a public hearing if one is requested. Changing state rules to accept radioactive waste received public criticism, including from the Dakota Resource Council, which said it plans to continue its opposition during the public comment period for the landfills. People are really concerned if these landfills are going to go radioactive near them, said executive director Don Morrison. A legal challenge to the state rules is still being considered by the Dakota Resource Council and the North Dakota Energy Industry Waste Coalition. The two groups requested an attorney generals opinion in October on whether the State Health Council violated the open meetings law during the process to adopt the new rules. Before we move to another step, we need to see what the AG says, Morrison said. A dispute over the constitutionality of a 2014 state law restricting the use of abortion-inducing drugs is headed back to a lower court.The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday found the law constitutional on two grounds. The Supreme Court told an Oklahoma County judge to now determine the law's validity "under other constitutional provisions both state and federal."The law has not gone into effect because of the constitutional challenges. The Supreme Court said a stay will remain in place until the challenges are fully and finally litigated.Oklahoma County District Judge Patricia Parrish last year ruled the law unconstitutional. The Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed that judgment, ruling 6-1 the law doesn't violate provisions of the state constitution that prohibit special laws and the delegation of legislative authority.Writing for the majority, Justice Steven Taylor said, "It is not the place of this Court to question legislative wisdom."The law prohibits "off-label" uses of abortion-inducing drugs. The law says that these drugs used in medical abortions must be administered only in accordance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol.Taylor wrote that the label use of these drugs allows its use within 49 days after a woman's period. The off-label use extends it to 63 days."Oklahoma women should never be denied a safe way to end a pregnancy because politicians in their state are fixated on eliminating legal abortion," Autumn Katz, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said Tuesday in a news release. "Oklahoma politicians continue to ignore medical evidence and the very real harms that will befall women in the state if they are unable to access safe and legal care."We vow to stand with Oklahoma women in the face of these unconstitutional attempts to rob them of their health, their rights and their dignity."The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit in 2014 on behalf of the Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice and Reproductive Services, a nonprofit reproductive health care clinic in Tulsa.Opponents to the law say the off-label methods are safer and produce fewer side effects. Attorneys working for Attorney General Scott Pruitt have argued the off-label way of administering the abortion-inducing drugs is the least safe method, saying it creates a higher risk of infections."I am pleased the Oklahoma Supreme Court has chosen to uphold HB 2684," Pruitt said. "The off-label use of abortion-inducing drugs has resulted in catastrophic consequences for women nationwide, and I appreciate the Oklahoma Legislature's efforts to protect the health and safety of Oklahoma women over the interests of the abortion industry."Taylor noted that eight fatal bacterial infections have been reported in the United States where the women were administered the drugs by following the off-label protocol. The justice stated that the FDA has not established a casual connection between the off-label protocol and the deaths.While Justice Douglas Combs agreed the law does not violate the state constitution on the two grounds at issue and is a permissible special law, he still noted concerns in a concurring opinion."Once again, those who do not practice medicine have determined to insert themselves between physicians and their patients, with the insistence they know what is best when it comes to the standard of care," Combs wrote in his opinion. "It is undisputed that the FDA's final printed labeling does not restrict or control a doctor's practice of medicine or the use of medication once it is distributed."The FDA understands the role of physicians in adhering to the best possible standard of care. In the form of HB 2684, the Oklahoma Legislature has chosen to ignore this."The law does not prohibit all drug-induced abortions but "binds Oklahoma physicians and their patients to the FDA's final printed labeling, regardless of whether evidence and the judgment of the medical community indicate it is not the best method for providing medication abortion," Combs wrote.The opinion notes that 96 percent of medical abortions do not follow the final printed labeling."Further, the medical community should take heed: Now that the Legislature has declared itself willing to dictate medical protocol and practice within this limited context, what areas of the practice of medicine are next?" Combs wrote.In 2012, the state Supreme Court ruled that a bill banning drug-induced abortions altogether was unconstitutional. This 2014 law was created to overcome that objection. Earlier this month, West Virginia became the 26th state to enact a right-to-work law. It won't be the last.Right-to-work laws bar labor unions from requiring private-sector employees to join and pay dues. Such laws have been in place, primarily in Southern states, since the late 1940s. But over the past four years, states that were formerly union strongholds -- Michigan, Wisconsin and West Virginia -- have adopted the laws as well. Indiana also passed a right-to-work law in 2012."It's an old idea whose time has come," said Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.Increasingly, Republican governors are embracing right-to-work as a way to attract companies to their states."When we recruit, that is one of the first questions: What does your labor force look like and are you a right-to-work state?" New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez told the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce last month.Some companies won't consider a state for relocation or expansion if it doesn't have a right-to-work law. Supporters of right-to-work -- who are trying to rebrand the concept as "worker freedom" legislation -- claim such laws have improved the economies where they are in place.Labor unions, however, contend that right-to-work not only hurts them but workers in general. By making it harder for them to recruit, right-to-work laws diminish their ranks and thus make it more difficult for them to push worker-friendly policies, such as minimum wage increases and paid sick leave requirements."That's all right-to-work is about: trying to undermine the funding for unions to make it harder for them to be a factor," said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that receives financial backing from unions.The renewed enthusiasm for right-to-work comes as the U.S. Supreme Court considers the separate issue of whether government employees can be forced to pay union dues -- something 23 states allow. Given the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, it's unclear whether the issue will be resolved this term. State right-to-work laws have also had their days in court and survived challenges in Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.Unions can still organize in right-to-work states, but they have to convince individual employees that putting roughly 2 percent of their income toward dues is worthwhile.Under a right-to-work regime, "unions do have to work harder to maintain membership," said Jim Waters, president of the Bluegrass Institute, a free-market think tank in Kentucky. "They can't rely on union membership growth and dues simply because a company has a union presence."While overall union membership has stagnated in the last few years, it declined in the states that recently enacted right-to-work laws. Since 1983, when comparable data was first collected by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the total share of the workforce that belongs to unions has declined roughly 5 percentage points , from 20.1 percent to 14.8 percent.Advocates on either side of the issue come armed with studies that underscore the worth of their respective positions. Some studies suggest right-to-work states enjoy better job growth, while others indicate wages are driven down.The debate is as much about politics as it is about economics.In Missouri, legislators passed a right-to-work bill last year, but Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed it. Now, the state's gubernatorial candidates are weighing in."As governor, I will make Missouri the 27th right-to-work state," Catherine Hanaway, a Republican candidate for governor, wrote last week in a fundraising appeal.The surest defense against passage of right-to-work laws has been having Democrats control part of the political process. Despite Gov. Martinez' advocacy in New Mexico, the idea died in the Democratic-controlled state Senate last year and may not come back to life any time soon."I honestly think we're going to get a bigger majority of Democrats this fall," said John Henry, president of the New Mexico Federation of Labor. "This won't be a subject of conversation any more, not in New Mexico."But in Kentucky, Republicans hope they can erase the Democratic majority in the state House this year, which is the sole remaining obstacle to passage of right-to-work, a priority of GOP Gov. Matt Bevin. With the issue stalled at the state level, a dozen counties in Kentucky have passed local right-to-work laws. On Feb. 3, a federal judge threw out Hardin County's law, ruling that only states have the power to opt out of federal law governing collection of union dues.That decision will be appealed. But if Republicans are able to erase the Democrats' slender lead in the House, it won't matter either way because Bevin will sign a right-to-work law at the earliest possible opportunity."Unions won't like what is about to be said, but here it is: Kentucky will become a right-to-work state," theeditorialized after the Hardin County ruling. The White House is considering picking the Republican governor from Nevada to fill the current vacancy on the Supreme Court, scrambling political calculations in what is expected to be a contentious confirmation battle in which Senate Republicans have pledged to play the role of roadblock.President Obama is weighing the selection of Brian Sandoval, a centrist former federal judge who has served as governor since 2011, according to two people familiar with the process. Though the review process is in its initial phases and it is unclear whether the governor could ultimately emerge as the presidents pick, even the prospect of his nomination poses a difficult dilemma for Senate Republicans who have promised not to consider any nomination before Novembers elections.After The Washington Post published news of Sandovals consideration Wednesday, GOP leaders insisted that Obama nominating a Republican would make no difference.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who on Tuesday pledged no action on any Supreme Court nomination before the election, said in a statement that the nominee will be determined by whoever wins the presidency in the fall.The No. 2 Senate Republican leader, Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, said likewise: This is not about the personality.White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday he would not comment specifically on whether the administration was considering Sandoval because he did not want to get into a rhythm of responding to every report on a potential nominee. But he said that Obama was committed to finding the best person to fill the vacancy at the Supreme Court, regardless of party. A question buzzed through the Oregon Senate late Wednesday, an hour before a scheduled 5 p.m. floor session: Where are the Republicans?Staffers spotted empty parking stalls in the Senate garage. They also saw empty desks when walking through the warren of offices where lawmakers do their work. Some Republicans skipped committee hearings. Later, when the floor session started as scheduled, Democrats couldn't help but notice the 12 empty desks.Where were the Republicans? They were gone.With just 17 of 18 Democrats on the floor, and without at least one Republican, senators lacked the bipartisan 20-member quorum they need to convene."You've got to have a quorum to do the work of the Senate," a weary President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said from the dais at 5:13 p.m. as Democrats milled about the chamber. Some were bemused, others frustrated. A handful of House Republicans, gawking at the spectacle, had joined them.The coordinated no-show -- unheard of in recent memory -- threatens to send this session's partisan tensions to a new zenith. It also comes, crucially, as time runs out to pass bills before the Legislature's March 6 deadline to adjourn.Efforts to set new renewable power standards, along with measures on affordable housing, renter relief and gun control, all hang in the balance amid a growing backlog of bills.That backlog has accumulated thanks to another tactic Republicans have used with some relish this session: forcing bills to be read aloud before votes, some for hours. That read-aloud rule is part of the state's constitution. And Republicans and Democrats traditionally vote unanimously to suspend it.Not this year.Upset that Democrats had teed up a host of contentious subjects for the 35-day session, from the minimum wage to renewable power, Republicans have largely refused to provide that courtesy.That's softened in the House, after a major minimum wage increase moved to Gov. Kate Brown's desk last week. But Senate Republicans have held firm.Their insistence has added hours to the legislative process. It's also created a pileup of bills awaiting action -- leading Courtney to consider night and weekend sessions, like Wednesday's, and to think twice about moving bills that might spark further fights.By 5:20 p.m., Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, issued a statement acknowledging the walkout and admitting that a slowdown was precisely the point. If senators want to pass bills, he said, they'll have to do it during regular business hours."This session we've seen the Democrat majority put their partisan agenda ahead of both the needs of Oregonians and the law," his statement said. "Senate Republicans will not work late into the night to fast track an agenda pursued by the Democrat majority that features back room deals between Democrats and special interests and numerous broken promises of collaboration and compromise."Ferrioli also said his members would be back in the morning. Floor sessions typically start at 10:30 a.m."Senate Republicans will be back tomorrow to fight against this extremely partisan, destructive agenda," he said.Ferrioli's biggest target appears to be House Bill 4036, one of the most expansive pieces of environmental legislation in decades. Ferrioli told the Portland Business Journal earlier this week that he would do whatever it took to stop it.The bill would require that ratepayers at Oregon's two largest utilities, Portland General Electric and Pacific Power, stop paying for power from out-of-state coal plants by 2030. It would also require that utilities serve half their customers' demand with renewable power by 2040.To work around delays, legislative leaders have discussed stuffing HB 4036 into another bill that's already passed the Senate and gone to the House. That amended bill would still have to return to the Senate for approval -- but final votes on another chamber's amendments traditionally go to the front of the line.Republicans have also threatened to hold firm against land-use bills sought by developers as part of a deal on lifting Oregon's ban on affordable housing mandates. Lobbyists, worried their bills might die, followed Ferrioli to his office after a committee hearing earlier Wednesday.It's unclear what's in store Thursday morning when lawmakers return to work.As Courtney's 5:30 p.m. deadline passed, he stood up again and spoke. Instead of calling in the Oregon State Police to bring in wayward Republicans, he resignedly called it a night."I guess they're not coming," he said. "I want to thank you for being willing to do the work. This does not make me happy. This makes me sad." FARGOThe president of North Dakota State University is calling for an immediate revision of the school song due to troubling cultural and ethnic references in the third verse, he wrote in an email to campus on Wednesday. The third verse of The Yellow and the Green includes the sentence, Hushed upon the boundless prairies is the bisons thundring tread, and the red man passes with him on his spoilers bounty fed. President Dean Bresciani said in the email that he had never heard the song beyond its first verse, and when the third came to his attention, he felt the matter called for immediate attention. While some may initially find it an overstated concern, others will find it central to a deep and sober examination of our campus history, he wrote. He said the verse is troubling in its references to both minority and majority populations. After the line regarding the red man, the verse continues, But the Norse, the Celt and Saxon with their herd increase, and find mid these fields of green and yellow plenty een for all mankind. Bresciani is now ordering that all but the first verse be removed from NDSU websites and publications. He has also asked the provost and vice president for student affairs to form a group of students, faculty and staff to study the song and offer recommendations on the balance between our history and tradition of the song with contemporary concerns for its appropriateness. Bresciani said this issue was brought to his attention through NDSUs system for confidential reporting of bias issues. Robert Davis, a self-described corruption crusader who has also been jailed on embezzlement charges, has filed his latest lawsuit alleging faulty governmental practices.This one claims that his free speech rights were violated because his efforts to recall Gov. Rick Snyder were unanimously rebuffed by a state board.Davis is also claiming that Michigan's process for filing recall petitions is flawed, and he seeks compensatory damages for the violation of his rights.The dispute began earlier this month, when Davis tried to file his two separate recall petitions against Snyder over the handling of the Flint water crisis.Davis' requests went to the State Board of Canvassers, which is tasked with approving the language of the petition before it can be circulated for signatures. But the board unanimously rejected both petitions.Davis wasn't the only one. The board made news when it rejected a total of seven similar petitions, though it did grant one that sought to recall Snyder.But Davis wasn't satisfied. In the federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, he argues that the board should not be allowed to approve his own efforts to circulate a petition in the first place.Davis is no stranger to controversy.The self-proclaimed reformer has decried corruption in government and has filed a series of lawsuits in the past. He was among the most vocal opponents of the Detroit bankruptcy proceedings.In December 2014, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for embezzling $200,000 from Highland Park schools, where he was a board member. It was the very sort of crime he railed against.U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow concluded that Davis abused the public trust and acted out of greed.The prison sentence didn't seem to stop Davis from challenging authority. In September, while he was still in prison, he sent in a proposal for a petition to recall Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, according to the lawsuit. That petition was also rejected. The Obama administration is winning praise from conservative Republicans for initiating a change in federal policy that could encourage so-called sanctuary cities to abandon their stance against cooperating with deportation requests.The move could be politically awkward for Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, both of whom are aggressively courting immigrant communities while also expressing solidarity with President Barack Obama.Under the new policy, the federal Bureau of Prisons will put prisoners finishing their sentences into immigration custody by default when immigration authorities seek deportation, even if local or state officials want the immigrant for prosecution or to finish a state or local sentence. Immigration officials may sometimes defer to state or local authorities, but will take into account a locality's cooperation with federal deportation requests in deciding whether to hand over a prisoner.The new policy places the extra restraints on any city, county or state that chooses to adopt a so-called "sanctuary" policy, particularly a categorical one that bars all cooperation with immigration authorities. On Wednesday, in the morning, at the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital (RBWH) Education Centre, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC attended the RBWH Foundation 2016 Research Grant Awards and Supporter Recognition Ceremony, where the Governor addressed guests and presented awards. In the afternoon, at Government House, the Governor received the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Australia, His Excellency Dr Obaid Al Ketbi. In the evening, at Emporium Hotel Brisbane, the Governor attended the Wesley-St Andrews Research Institute Annual Achievements Function, where His Excellency addressed guests and presented awards. Shaking up the market No cost to San Francisco No timeline established Bridging digital divide (TNS) -- Nearly six years after Google began setting up cities with some of the fastest Internet in the country, the company will extend its lightning-fast gigabit fiber Internet service to its neighbor to the north, San Francisco Its news long awaited by a city that has struggled to bring reliable and affordable high-speed service to businesses and residents. In 2007, the city, Earthlink and Google failed to set up free wireless Internet access throughout San Francisco.When that deal failed, it sent a message to companies looking to expand that San Francisco was a hostile environment, Supervisor Mark Farrell said. Fast forward to today, and access to the Internet is no longer just nice to have it has become an economic right. Its something we should be viewing as a utility on par with water and electricity. No one can function in modern society without the Internet.Gigabit Internet speed is roughly equivalent to 1,000 megabits per second, or fast enough to download an HD movie in about seven seconds.Google is not the first company to announce its intention to bring this kind of service to the city AT&T, Comcast and smaller companies have already committed to start gigabit service in San Francisco. And it wont be a cure-all for the citys connectivity issues, Farrell said.But experts expect Google will still shake up the market, particularly given the power its brand name wields.Everywhere Google goes, the incumbent response is speeds go up and prices go down, said Blair Levin, former executive director of the National Broadband Plan.Since Google Fibers initial 2013 launch in Kansas City , the company has set up its fiberop network in five municipalities and announced its intentions to extend its reach to six more in recent months, including Huntsville, Ala.Googles approach to setting up in Huntsville a city of 180,000 and San Francisco will be similar in that the company will use existing fiber networks in both cities to introduce its high-speed Internet. The new service will come at no cost to San Francisco. Its a new approach for Google, which had traditionally built its fiber networks from scratch.Limiting itself to areas where fiber cables are already in place will restrict Googles reach, but also expedite the amount of time it will take to roll out the program which could position San Francisco as the first California city with Google Fiber connectivity.Were looking for more ways to serve cities of different shapes and sizes, Google Fibers director of business operations Michael Slinger said in a statement Wednesday. San Francisco has a long history of creativity, innovation, and development, with its iconic cultural centers countless startups , and dozens of colleges and universities. In thinking about how best to bring Google Fiber to some residents in this unique city, we considered a number of factors, including the Citys rolling hills, miles of coastline, and historic neighborhoods.Google did not immediately specify a timeline for when Google Fiber would begin its expansion to apartments, condos and affordable housing properties, or detail what fiber cables it would be co-opting for its San Francisco expansion.Low-income housing properties will be eligible to receive the service for free.A 2015 report by the cloud-service company Akamai Technologies put average peak speeds for Internet access in California at about 58 megabits per second the 10th fastest statewide rate in the country. Delaware has the fastest Internet in the country with 75 megabits per second a fraction of the speed of gigabit service.Last year, Comcast committed to bring 2-gigabit fiber-speed Internet to the Bay Area, and AT&T announced plans to expand its gigabit service, GigaPower, to parts of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. Lesser-known company Sonic, which provides business Internet and phone services to local companies like Uber, Lagunitas and the Golden State Warriors, built an at-home fiber network in the Richmond and Sunset districts of the city. AT&Ts gigabit Internet plans start at $70 per month, and Sonic offers gigabit Internet and unlimited home phone calling for $40 a month.Increased availability and variety are steps in the right direction, Farrell said, but not a solution to the citys main problem: universal Internet connectivity.We need to be focused as a city and looking long term and determining how were going to provide this kind of high-speed access to every home in San Francisco, Farrell said.Farrell helped author a report expected to be released this spring that details various plans for how the city can guarantee Internet access to every home and business within city limits.To help address the citys digital divide, Google and the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network will also extend its Digital Inclusion Fellowship to San Francisco. The program, aimed at increasing digital literacy and broadband adoption among low-income residents, minorities and non-English speakers would work with local community organizations to offer classes to teach people to set up email accounts, apply for jobs, access content across the web and more, according to Googles announcement.Those interested in getting Google Fiber can sign up for updates online. (TNS) -- Sacramento County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to require local candidates to file campaign disclosures online, a move that should make it easier for the public to track spending in political races.County staff members will draft a proposal requiring online disclosure starting Aug. 1. The Board of Supervisors is expected to formalize that requirement next month. It would apply to candidates for county offices, special districts and some school districts.Many counties and cities already provide the ability to search online for contributions made to political candidates and how the candidates spend the money. The company hired by Sacramento County to post the information, NetFile, provides the service to 56 counties and cities in California.Were not out there on the cutting edge for this, said Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli, urging supervisors to vote for the online requirement.After years of promising to put campaign finance reports online, Sacramento County started a trial program in March 2015, making it optional for candidates. A little more than half of the campaigns filed online reports during the trial period.Registrar of Voters Jill LaVine noted that online use increased over time. She said some users stuck to paper reports because they were still required, even for those who filed online.When online reporting becomes mandatory, filers will not have to provide paper reports.LaVine said users have found the online system easy to use and that she considered the trial program a success.Supervisors asked LaVine to come up with a way for candidates or their representatives to submit actual signatures, so the county doesnt solely rely on electronic signatures. They also wanted assurances that the website would be secure, so hackers could not alter the reports.LaVine said she and county information technology officials found the system secure, and said it met state requirements for security.Under the current system, the public has little ability to remotely access campaign finance records for candidates and committees in Sacramento County. In many cases, people who want to view records must go to the Sacramento County elections office in south Sacramento and ask staffers to pull records.The move toward electronic reports comes as the elections office faces questions about its performance. Some city clerks in Sacramento County complained about office errors in the 2014 elections, leading the county to commission an outside review.The county recently received a draft copy of the report from the Texas-based Election Center. The county denied a request for the report by The Sacramento Bee, saying releasing it would inhibit the free, frank and candid exchange of ideas.The publics interest in such discourse outweighs the publics interest in disclosure, said county spokeswoman Chris Andis. She said the county will make the report public when its completed. Policy: The First Line of Defense If Consumer Data is at Risk, so is Organizational Data Hollywood has been portraying the Internet of Things for decades. In, it took the form of Skynet, an artificial intelligence platform that decided humans were dead weight and subsequently nuked em. In, the connected landscape acted as both a protagonist and antagonist that was used to hunt down future murderers and, of course, eventually the main character played by Tom Cruise. And, in thefranchise, an old-school smart watch featured two-way voice communications and a TV picture.While Hollywood attempts to share with the masses a view of the Internet of Things (IoT), it skips over the inconvenient, real-world security implications posed by connecting everything to everything else in our homes and our workplaces, and on our bodies and the street.If we look back at the not-too-distant past and consider what the advent of the floppy disk meant for organizational security, or how connecting the Internet to every computer affected things, its not difficult to imagine how millions of devices from toasters to cellphones to T-shirts could throw a wrench in our nations best laid security plans.Not many people will argue that IoT is without convenience and the occasional bout of awe, but too often, we dont stop and consider the implications of surrounding ourselves with devices connected to the outside world. Consider for a moment what might happen if a smart television, located in a conference room, was breached and allowed someone outside to hear a privileged legal conversation. Weve already seen attacks against financial institutions routed through the IP address of connected refrigerators and the complete takeover of connected vehicles, so whats next?For those in government, IoT security is or should be of very real concern. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper already testified before a U.S. Senate Special Committee that the gelatinous and ever-expanding network could eventually be used to spy implying both risk and benefit for the American people.And as reported in January, a glaring example of some of the vulnerabilities lies in the fact that search engines have cropped up that specifically allow users to log in and view sleeping children through susceptible baby monitors.As organizational security goes, the experts will tell you a policy around connected devices in the workplace isnt the worst idea. In fact, its something you should probably consider.In the days before everything was connected, security officials had to worry about data leaving secured facilities on a laptop or disk. Today, that game is exponentially different.Tony Sager, senior vice president of the Center for Internet Security (CIS) and former information assurance professional for the National Security Agency (NSA), said the ever-expanding IoT poses a challenge to security professionals.The inexpensive and abundant nature of connective technology has made embedding everyday things with sensors and Internet access almost irresistible for companies without a security-minded background.It really costs you nothing, or almost nothing, extra to embed a lightbulb, a refrigerator, device, baby monitors, you know, everything being Internet accessible," he said. "The cost to do that is very negligible anymore and so, there this temptation to put everything online and that creates lots of problems."Whereas it was once simpler to define security boundaries, Sager said the new realities of technology make boundaries fluid and subject to change. Additionally, he points to the consumer nature of many devices as a potential pain point.You can be pretty certain that the creators of the software and the engineering did not come up in the defense and security business, he said. They're doing things mass-market, inexpensive, so they come with lots of potential security problems. Their designs didnt really anticipate the kinds of environments that they would be going into.Many of the devices jump between home, cell and work networks as they travel with the owner. This almost expected connectivity opens the potential for a connected device to become an attack mechanism if vulnerabilities are leveraged in the right environment.A lot of the stuff thats going on under the hood that is designed to make things simple for us also hide whats going on, by design, Sager said. From an intelligence perspective, if a target is carrying that technology, they are sort of carrying your attack system in with them.As consumers load up on the latest connected gadgets, the question of where data actually goes comes into play. The terms and conditions agreements are often skimmed if read at all and devices track our steps, our speech and, in some cases, even what we look like.From the perspective of Shahid Buttar, director of Grassroots Advocacy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the future of government intelligence collection is bolstered by the prevalence of networked consumer devices.But with the conveniences of these products, Buttar said it took many years before people began to realize that the ultra-convenient smartphone in their pocket was a potential tracking device with a wealth of personal information on it.Its incredibly convenient to have a communications device in your pocket that you can use to surf the Internet, but people dont think, for 10 years after theyve become widespread that what weve essentially got in our pockets is a personal tracking device, he said. You can tell almost anything you want from someones smartphone.The explosion of smart televisions, gaming systems, connected thermostats and even refrigerators also pose data gathering implications for consumers and organizations.Smart televisions create very similar problems as smartphones, because they can be two-way communications devices," Buttar said. "The Xbox Connect can basically map an array of a living room and monitor who comes through it at what time, and thats incredibly sensitive dataIn the workplace, he said policy and concern about potential data gathering and misuse are factors that must be taken into account.I think it would make a great deal of sense for those agencies to promulgate policies to ensure that they are using Internet of Things devices [and] that they are not being used to collect information for example on government operations. he said. Its not just the government that can misuse that data, any data anywhere is susceptible to being hacked.He said hacker and foreign intelligence agencies could try to leverage honeypots of data collected by IoT devices within homes and workplaces.A government agency CIO I would hope would be very concerned about the possibility that any data that the agency collects or is collected about the agency's operations through these devices could be susceptible not only to a hack by a hacker or a narco-trafficking syndicate, but also by the Mossad or Iranian [Ministry of Intelligence and Security]," Buttar said. "These are national security problems, as well as constitutional., and I would hope that the agencies get in front of it."Stephen Miles, affiliate researcher with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, agrees that there are risks associated with the gelatinous and widely defined Internet of Things, but he also points to the substantial benefits of its application.In a hospital, for example, he points to radio frequency tracking devices as a means of keeping tabs on access to restricted areas, pharmaceutical cabinets, medical equipment and even patient vitals. The researcher also said the technology can help to spur efficiencies in industries like power production, where data from smart thermostats can provide analytical data about peak energy consumption.If we step back and look at industry at a whole, to the extent that as industries, as companies, as consumers we are all looking for smarter products, by definition that means were looking for new, better ways to connect and interact with things, Miles said, adding that when we connect things, that brings a host of security challenges."To say on the one hand, are there security risks when you connect things? Yes. As we connect more and more of our infrastructure, are there risks? Yes. And are they challenging? Yes. And is it important? Yes, because somebody could take it down too. So you have to think through all of that."As the technology evolves, Miles said security professionals will need to be aware of the potential implications on their organizations and develop policies that secure their data, but provide the right functional balance.We know and are aware that there are lots of vulnerabilities in these things," he said. "So there are tremendous security risks, so risk management and how we think about BYOD [bring your own device], that is all very important information to have policies around and a challenging area because its always evolving. Not just a physical invasion: Russias dispute with Ukraine extended beyond sending soldiers to Crimea, as pictured here. Digital attacks believed to be from Russia disabled parts of Ukraines electricity grid. Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters Built-in vulnerabilities A new definition of war Disrupts the stock exchanges for two days, preventing any trading; Uses a digital attack to take offline a radar system intended to provide early warning of an aerial attack on America; Steals the plans to the F-35 fighter; Disrupts the Pentagons communication system; Introduces a latent piece of malware (a piece of malicious software that can be activated at a later date, sometimes called a logic bomb) into a radar station that can disable the station when triggered, but doesnt trigger it just yet; Makes a nuclear centrifuge run poorly in a nuclear production plant, eventually causing physical damage to the centrifuge; or Implants a worm that slowly corrupts and degrades data on which certain military applications rely (such as GPS location data). Introducing uncertainty Last week, revealed that the Obama administration had prepared a cyberattack plan to be carried out against Iran in the event diplomatic negotiations failed to limit that countrys nuclear weapons development.The plan, code-named Nitro Zeus , was said to be capable of disabling Irans air defenses, communications system and parts of its electric grid. It also included an option to introduce a computer worm into the Iranian uranium enrichment facility at Fordow, to disrupt the creation of nuclear weapons. In anticipation of the need, U.S. Cyber Command placed hidden computer code in Iranian computer networks. According to, President Obama saw Nitro Zeus as an option for confronting Iran that was short of a full-scale war.The reports, if true (to be fair, they have not been confirmed by any official sources), reflect a growing trend in the use of computers and networks to conduct military activity.The United States is not, of course, the only practitioner. One notable example from recent history involves the apparent Russian assault on the transportation and electric grid in Ukraine . That attack, which happened late in 2015, was a first of its kind cyberassault that severely disrupted Ukraines power system, affecting many innocent Ukrainian civilians. It bears noting that the vulnerabilities in Ukraines power system are not unique they exist in power grids across the globe, including the U.S. power grid and other major industrial facilities.The vulnerability of digital networks is, in many ways, an inevitable consequence of how the Internet was built. As then-Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn put it in a 2011 speech announcing our military strategy for operating in cyberspace : The Internet was designed to be open, transparent and interoperable. Security and identity management were secondary objectives in system design. This lower emphasis on security in the internets initial design gives attackers a built-in advantage.Among many factors, two in particular contribute to the growing sense of unease.One is the problem of anonymity. Those who seek to do harm can easily do so at a distance, cloaked in the veil of anonymity behind false or shielded identities in the vastness of the web. With no built-in identity verification, pretending to be someone else is as easy as getting a new email address or registering a pseudonymous Facebook account.Unmasking attackers is possible, but requires a significant investment of time and resources. It also often requires the good guys to use bad guy techniques to track the malefactors, because they need to hack the hackers to find out who they are. It took a Canadian company, using hacker techniques , more than a year to find out who had hacked the Dalai Lamas official computers it was the Chinese.In effect, this prevents targets from retaliating against attackers. Though most observers think Russia is behind the Ukrainian assault, there is no truly conclusive proof. It is very difficult to deter an unknown attacker. In addition, international coordination to respond to attacks that threaten global stability can be stymied without solid proof of the source of an assault.Second, and perhaps more significantly, the online world changes the boundaries of war. President Obama seems to think that cyberattacks are less than full-scale war (or so thereports). Is that realistic? Consider the following hypotheticals all of which are reasonably plausible.An adversary of the United States (known or unknown):Some acts, like stealing the plans for a new fighter jet, wont be considered acts of war. Others, like disrupting our military command and control systems, look just like what we have always thought of as acts of war.But what about the middle ground? Is leaving a logic bomb behind in a radar station like espionage, or is it similar to planting a mine in another countrys harbor as a preparation for war? What about the computer code Nitro Zeus allegedly placed in the Iranian electric grid? And what if that code is still there?These are hard questions. And they will endure. The very structures that make the Internet such a powerful engine for social activity and that have allowed its explosive, world-altering growth are also the factors that give rise to the vulnerabilities in the network. We could eliminate anonymity and restrict the potential for digital attacks, but only at the price of changing the ease with which peaceful people can use the Internet for novel commercial and social functions.Those who want both ubiquity and security are asking to have their cake and eat it, too. So long as this Internet is The Internet, vulnerability is here to stay. It can be managed, but it cant be eliminated. And that means that those who bear responsibility for defending the network have a persistent challenge of great complexity. (TNS) -- Police drones that disarm samurai sword-carrying suspects and drop nets on others were debated during a lively legislative session this week.The prospect put forth by Minnesota Sheriffs Association head Jim Franklin along with the question, wouldnt that be a good thing? prompted Rep. Scott Dibble, DFLMinneapolis, to respond: My blood runs cold when I hear testimony like I just heard.Dibble, who has sponsored a bill aimed at restricting drone use by law enforcement, referenced a prior debate about red-light cameras. He pointed out that if you demand a cop be present when you drop a traffic ticket on someone, you should probably have one around when you drop a net on someone, too.Franklin, challenging a provision in the bill that called for drones to have no weapons, asked, what do we define as a weapon? and launched into scenarios of threatening suspects such as somebody with a samurai sword that could theoretically be subdued with the new technology.That is a very very dangerous road to start stepping down, Dibble said.What quickly became apparent during a joint hearing of the House Public Safety and Senate Judiciary committees Wednesday was that agreement on a bill to put strict restrictions on when police can use drones is more distant at the forefront of this legislative session than it was at the end of the last one.Dibbles bill, debated last year and awaiting a vote of the full Senate, would require search warrants for all drone use, except in the case of an emergency situation that involves a reasonably likely threat to the life or safety of a person. The drone could only be used for targets outlined by the warrant.A court could also issue a permit for a law enforcement drone in a public area if there is a demonstrable, reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, and alternative methods of data collection are either too costly or risky. Drones could also be permitted to counter credible risks of terrorist attacks, and for rescue and recovery operations in the wake of disasters.The bill also prohibits the use of facial recognition or biometric matching technology. It called for all data to be deleted no later than 24 hours after collection.Franklin and Dibble clashed on whether law enforcement agencies currently have the right to use drones, with Dibble claiming they did. Franklin pointed out that not one law enforcement agency in the state is using drones, as none has received a license from the Federal Aviation Administration.Still, the two agreed on the requirement for warrants, and the exceptions.The bill was created, Dibble said, to thwart the specter of pervasive, suspicion-less, mass surveillance by law enforcement. Ben Feist, president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, added that unmitigated use of drones by law enforcement would turn on its head the principle that we dont watch innocent people just in case they do something wrong.Because it took place before the start of the legislative session, Wednesdays hearing was informational only, and no action was taken. (TNS) -- San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr on Tuesday offered his department as a test bed for smart guns once the technology is more fully developed.Suhr, speaking at an event sponsored by smart-gun technology proponents, said hed be willing to give tech-savvy officers the option of trying a weapon that can be fired only by its authenticated owner.Officer safety is huge, so you wouldnt want to compel that upon officers, Suhr said. But we have so many officers who are so into technology, I am all but certain there are officers that would be willing to do such a pilot.If technology can disable stolen mobile phones, he asked, why couldnt stolen guns be bricked?If we in law enforcement had guns that were only of use to the officer identified with the gun, that would be a good thing, Suhr said. What if every gun that fell into the wrong hands was of no use to anybody?Suhr spoke at a news conference preceding the San Francisco Smart Gun Symposium, which focused on a technology that so far has generated more hope and controversy than sales. The event was sponsored by the Smart Tech Challenges Foundation, which is funding smart-gun entrepreneurs, and Washington CeaseFire, an anti-gun-violence group.The conference comes in the wake of President Obamas recent 10-point executive order on gun control that included a call for research into smart-gun technology.The politically powerful National Rifle Association has consistently said it is not opposed to smart-gun technology. But the organization does oppose the government telling gun makers to install specific equipment on their products.We just think that it should be for the consumer to decide, NRA spokeswoman Amy Hunter told The Chronicle last month.Stolen or misplaced guns have become an embarrassment for law enforcement. Last week, a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in San Francisco reported that he drove off after leaving his loaded service weapon on top of his car.Suhr said there were four Bay Area murders last year committed with guns stolen in auto burglaries. Those included Oakland muralist Antonio Ramos, killed by a gun stolen from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, and Kathryn Steinle, shot on Pier 14 in San Francisco with a pistol stolen from a Bureau of Land Management ranger.What if those guns had been useless to the person who did those auto burglaries? Suhr said. Thats four people we know would be alive today.Smart-gun technology isnt about gun control, but about giving consumers the right to chose technologies that will make guns safer, said Margo Hirsch, Smart Tech Challenges Foundation president.The symposium focused on guns that use biometric technology to identify the proper owner, much like an iPhone gets unlocked by a fingerprint reader. However, designing a smart firearm is far more complicated than designing a smartphone, because its reliability in life and death situations is critical.Speakers at the conference said phone fingerprint technology is bringing smart guns closer to market. But smart-gun entrepreneurs said it could be two years or more before current prototypes are ready for testing, and three or four years until production might begin.To find a market, smart guns must prove to skeptical gun owners that they are as reliable as traditional weapons, said smart-gun designer Ernst Mauch, a former executive of German firearm maker Armatix.Im sure there are some people who want to replace their dumb guns, Mauch said. This is not a toy. It needs to do the job when a soldier or policeman needs it, but it does not need to kill friends.Established firearms makers, meanwhile, have shied away from smart-gun technology after the NRA led a 2000 boycott of Smith & Wesson over a deal with the federal government to install smart-gun features in some of its weapons. Within a year, Smith & Wessons revenue dropped by 40 percent.Silicon Valley venture capitalist and longtime gun-control proponent Ron Conway optimistically predicted that half the guns sold in 10 years will be smart guns because Silicon Valley will come to the rescue.Gun companies are an old-line industry who have decided they dont want to innovate, so we will help them out, he said. (TNS) -- The FBI hasnt made any headway in its standoff with Apple Inc., and the bitter feud isnt changing minds at competitors either.Several tech executives have voiced their support for Apple and are forging ahead with their plans for greater privacy, arguing that what consumers want is more control over their devices and no backdoors for governments.Thats bad news for the FBI, and signals that even as it battles Apple, pushback will persist from other tech companies, including social media giants, hardware makers and online storage providers.The government has shown no signs of backing down, though. Over the last week, FBI Director James Comey, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., former Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton and victims families have issued emotional pleas for Apples cooperation, arguing that investigators need access to an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino terrorists to aid in its investigation.To some, the FBI has made a compelling case for government intrusion into personal devices in extreme cases.But where the government wants reasonable paths into phones and databases for criminal investigations, it is instead being met with stiffer barriers.As much as they try to play up terrorism and child pornography and make an emotional play, we are going to see more encryption, said John Adams, director of security at San Francisco payments processing start-up Bolt and a former head of security at Twitter Inc.They try to use the horrors of the world to erode civil liberties and privacy, but the greater good having encryption, more privacy for more people is always going to trump small isolated incidents.In a post-Edward Snowden era, the nations tech businesses are sensitive to giving off the image that they are secretly funneling consumer data to authorities or that their products are susceptible to hacking. Companies have buttressed their security to mollify outraged and distrustful customers. Apple and Google made encryption a default on their devices, while app developers introduced two-factor authentication, so that users must enter a pair of codes to log in.Gaps still remain. More and more data are being put in the cloud, which means that companies still have access to it. But the end goal for many companies is to give users the only key, so that only they can decide who sees the trips theyve taken on Uber, the videos theyve shared on Snapchat and the documents theyve stashed on Dropbox. The FBIs appeal hasnt deterred that mission.Executives at Microsoft Corp., Facebook Inc. and Google have sided with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and said that government access to their consumers data needs to be closely vetted.We will continue to fight aggressively against requirements for companies to weaken the security of their systems, a Facebook spokeswoman said Tuesday.Despite Cooks lofty rhetoric about consumers right to privacy, the heart of the issue for all tech companies is money: Customers wont buy products if they dont trust them or the manufacturers, so designing the strictest privacy settings possible is a way to protect revenue. So Silicon Valley and the industry at large are unlikely to budge until any change in consumer attitude is reflected in diminished sales and profits.The impasse has led to heated debate on both sides.On Tuesday evening, Apple supporters organized by technology advocacy group Fight for the Future gathered at the companys stores and other locations across the country.At the Grove mall in Los Angeles, where about a dozen people gathered, Tiffiniy Cheng, 36, stood in front of the Apple store holding a sign that said: Dont break our phones.Allowing the government to hack into the iPhone once, Cheng said, would leave sensitive information vulnerable in other situations. Were talking about a skeleton key, she said. You wouldnt let the government have a skeleton key to every home.Not every prominent technologist is staunchly on Apples side. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates cited a need for more balance Tuesday during a Bloomberg interview.You dont just want to take the minute after a terrorist event and swing that direction, nor do you, in general, want to completely swing away from government access when you get some abuse being revealed, Gates said.Experts recognize that creating impregnable systems is impossible. Hackers and authorities can usually find loopholes.Technology providers just dont want to be the ones handing data over, and theyre extricating themselves by essentially not having a key to unlock users data.Google, Amazon.com Inc., Apple and other online services typically have the ability, if compelled, to look at the data they store, said Nick Doty, director of the University of California, Berkeleys Center for Technology, Society and Policy. It allowed them to provide functionality like password resets and speedy customer service.But in newer systems, the companies dont have a master key. Some features are lost, but the downsides will be fewer over time, experts say.The only strategy that makes long-term sense for vendors is to make sure their products are as secure as possible so that no one neither hackers, nor the government, nor themselves can access encrypted data, said David Cowan, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners who has invested in LinkedIn, Twitch and several cybersecurity companies.While Apple and larger companies are leading the way, start-ups are also looking for ways to improve security, investors and consultants said. Some are even partnering with the likes of Google.For instance, hundreds of thousands of people are spending $60 a year for a browser plug-in from Washington, D.C., start-up Virtru that encrypts Gmail messages so that neither Google nor Virtru can see their contents. It works with other email providers as well.Virtru-like services will only become more commonplace as people realize that they should do more to safeguard their online lives, especially people abroad, Cowan said.There are many individuals and companies in Europe who will not trust their data to Amazon or Google or Apple, Cowan said. If those companies dont find ways to satisfy them, then they wont be successful selling outside the U.S.In addition, the companies want to be freed from legal debates. University of Maryland law professor James Grimmelmann said technology companies do not want to be constantly responding to subpoenas, including those issued in civil disputes.New York University law professor Stephen Gillers, an expert in legal ethics, said Apple and its competitors have the right to create a pick-proof lock on electronic devices. Congress could act to change that, but for now they dont have an obligation to ensure that some future investigators will be able to unlock their phones, he said. Government workers, like the rest of us, are getting older. Now that the Great Recession is behind us, the long-predicted "brain drain" of Baby Boomers retiring from the public workforce may finally be upon us. Governments will need a strategy for replacing these workers. That strategy -- for budgetary reasons if nothing else -- must involve appealing to the millennial generation, and particularly those currently in college and graduate school.Unfortunately, government is falling short in its efforts to recruit millennials at the precise moment when recruiting them might be most important. A November 2015 study from Deloitte Consulting cites figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that put the percentage of millennials working for the public sector at less than one-fourth, compared to one-third of this age group in private-sector jobs.This is not because the idea of public service is inherently unattractive to this group. As a university professor and administrator, I spend a lot of time with millennials, and I can report that many are highly motivated to "do good." In fact, I see no difference in the level of this motivation from what I saw among my peers 40 years ago or from my previous students 20 years ago. There are, however, a lot more options for doing good than there were 20 or 40 years ago, and increasingly millennials looking to scratch their altruistic itch are going to work for consulting firms and nonprofits.Given these options, the question is whether they see government as a force for good and as a venue for them to take their passion for good and translate it into making a difference in people's lives. Older workers -- those now or soon to be eligible to retire -- were motivated by public service, but they also chose government employment for other reasons, including job security and more attractive and reliable pensions than the private sector provided. This is less of a motivation for today's younger workers, partially because public-sector jobs are less secure and benefits are less generous than they were 30 (or even 10) years ago.The key question, then, is what governments can do to make public service more attractive to this age group, and to encourage them to stay once they arrive. Here are five things that might be done to promote these goals:In a recent Governing article , Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene described many traditional government hiring systems as being in the "stone age," while outlining more flexible, modern systems being adopted by some states and localities. If, because of rigid civil-service rules, it takes six months to a year to make a decision on hiring, some potential workers will never apply, while many others will not be able to afford to wait.Government can be its own best advertisement. Students who end up with government internships often find the reality of government work attractive, and many end up working for the same or similar institutions after graduation. In many places, however, the paid internship, rather than being seen as a good investment in future workers, is viewed as an extravagance.News reports about the dysfunction of some governments do little to make it look like an attractive employer. Why would anyone, right now, want to work for the states of Illinois or Pennsylvania? These governments cannot even adopt budgets or pay employees and government beneficiaries in a timely and reliable way. And this kind of uncertainty encourages the people with options to leave government. There is evidence, for example, that the federal-government shutdown of 2013 resulted in the departure of some young employees from public service When politicians, such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, make political hay by attacking their own governments' workers and work to destroy their civil-service and union rights, it makes government less attractive to potential hires, especially the ones with other options.One of the byproducts of rigid personnel systems is that they fail to create incentives that motivate employees. A culture where performance is rewarded will likely attract and retain those who are motivated by government service. On the other hand, systems that are overly protective of poor performers (whether because of union-contract provisions, civil-service rules or other reasons) send a signal that performance doesn't matter.If government is to be effective, it cannot afford to ignore the need to make government service appealing to those who represent the future. Unless concerted efforts are made to attract these future workers and retain them, avoidable performance failures will be the inevitable result. That's a bad deal not only for governments and their workforces but also for the citizens they serve. (TNS) -- A bill supported by General Motors Corp. could block Tesla Motors Inc. from selling its cars in Indiana.The bill, authored by Rep. Kevin Mahan, R-Hartford City, could ban auto manufacturers from selling directly to consumers. The bill seems tailored to shut down Tesla, a manufacturer of all-electric vehicles whose direct sales strategy runs counter to the traditional franchise dealer model. Tesla operates a showroom at the Fashion Mall at Keystone.The House on Feb. 2 passed a version of House Bill 1254 that would send the issue to a study committee. But a proposed amendment to the bill would bypass a study. It "provides that a dealer license issued to a manufacturer expires after 30 months," causing Tesla's dealer license to expire in 2018. The Senate Commerce and Technology Committee is scheduled to take up the bill during a hearing at 9 a.m. Thursday "It's not about Tesla. It's about a level playing field," Mahan said. "Tesla just happens to be the only manufacturer in the state working under this situation. But the thing is, with the technology forthcoming, not only in the United States, you could have another manufacturer pop up any time. So I'm trying to close this loophole."Indiana lawmakers are pushing the bill as Tesla is planning to unveil a product that will compete with a new all-electric vehicle from General Motors. Tesla earlier this month announced it will begin accepting pre-orders for its Model 3 car on March 31, with an expected delivery of late 2017.The Model 3 is expected to cost $35,000 before tax incentives. That's significantly cheaper than Tesla's other all-electric vehicles, such as the Model S sedan and Model X crossover, which can cost more than $100,000. That price tag also puts the Model 3 in the same category as General Motors' soon-to-come Chevrolet Bolt , which is expected to sell for $30,000 after tax breaks."General Motors is trying to kick us out of the state for purely competitive reasons," said Todd Maron, general counsel for Tesla. "Their Chevy Bolt will be competing against our mass-market car, so they have timed this bill specifically so once we start selling the Model 3 against their Bolt, we can no longer sell in the state."In addition to dealerships, General Motors has four facilities and 49,000 employees and retirees in Indiana.Mahan, though, said the bill addresses a problem for all automakers that have dealerships in Indiana."It's not a GM bill," Mahan said. "Does GM have interest in it? Yes. Does Ford have interest in it? Yes. Does every dealer in the state of Indiana have interest in it? Yes."Chris Meagher, a spokesman for General Motors, said existing Indiana law is unfair to automakers other than Tesla because it prohibits companies from selling cars directly to consumers if they have existing franchise dealers. That means General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and other automakers couldn't use Tesla's business model in Indiana if they wanted to."GM believes that all industry participants should operate under the same rules and requirements on fundamental issues that govern how we sell, service and market our products," Meagher wrote in an email.Meagher also noted that Tesla could continue selling cars in Indiana even if HB 1254 passed."Tesla could open a franchised dealership with an independent operator in Indiana today, but instead they insist that the state must first provide them with unique rules and special exceptions to suit their own business interests," Meagher said.But Tesla has been unwilling to depart from its business model in similar battles across the U.S. The closest it has come was a 2013 compromise in Virginia in which Tesla agreed to apply for a single dealership license. The Palo Alto, Calif., company has faced similar struggles in Michigan and Texas. It is licensed to sell cars in 20 states, including Indiana.Tesla CEO Elon Musk seems to delight in his efforts to blow up the traditional auto sales model rather than operating within that system, said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book."They're really the rebel child, and they love that," Lindland said. "They are an incredible industry disrupter, and that has its pros and cons."Among the pros, she said, is that Tesla saves money by bypassing dealers and selling directly to consumers. But if Tesla is ever going to become more than a niche player, Lindland said, the company might have to use franchise dealers."The reality is when you sell millions of vehicles a year, you have to diversify," Lindland said. "You have to have those dealers. You've got to be able to service all of those clients. Looking down the road, does it make sense for Tesla to try and keep all of this? Other companies have tried, and they weren't able to."For now, Tesla's sales volume is a tiny fraction of the major automakers'. There are only about 500 Tesla owners in Indiana. HB 1254 could threaten the company's ability to expand its presence in the state."It's clearly singularly aimed at us because we are, as far as I know, the only manufacturer who's selling directly in the state of Indiana," Maron said. "This is a clear attempt to remove us from the marketplace." The efficient process was demonstrated on a plastic tailgate with a pre-impregnated (prepreg) glass fiber reinforcement and is particularly suited to tailgates, lower tailgates and semistructural parts. The main benefits of this process are improvements in weight, quality, cost and cycle times. Faurecia has won a JEC World 2016 Innovation Award for its one-shot manufacturing process for visible composite parts; the approach combines structure and aspect in a single part. The technology makes it possible to insert a pre-heated thermoplastic composite reinforcement into the injection mold and secure it in a stable position. Faurecia has earmarked composites as a key enabler for vehicle lightweighting and is concentrating its R&D efforts in two directions: developing affordable carbon fiber and reaching automotive industry cycle times of one part per minute. The one-shot project, led by Faurecia's Franco-German R&D teams, started in 2014. It is designed to produce visible and non-visible automotive parts based on three key goals: cutting, heating and installing the inserts for the flexible composite reinforcements (glass, carbon or natural fiber) in the injection mold; holding the reinforcement in position during injection; and injecting via a process that ensures the inserts hold their shape and position. The process took 3,000 man hours to develop and draws on the full range of Faurecia engineering and innovation expertise in design, laboratory, CAE, materials, simulation, validation and production. The originality of the one-shot process lies in combining shaping and injection stages in a single step, primarily to obtain a net shape part that requires no further modification to alter its appearance. The process also delivers properties compatible with automaker specifications for semi-structural parts through the use of reinforcements made from thermoplastic composite fibers, which are known for their mechanical and lightweight properties. Jacques Hoffner, Vice President R&D and Innovation at Faurecia Automotive Exteriors Following validation on a semi-automated pilot line indicative of mass-production cycles, the process successfully completed the different validation stages, involving torsion resistance, ability to withstand extreme temperatures (-30 C to +85 C) and durability (50,000 opening-closing cycles). The innovative approach can produce a standard tailgate that is around 30% lighter than a steel equivalent and is 100% recyclable (including polypropylene and glass fibers). Faurecia will be in a position to offer the new solution in response to customer consultations for tailgates, trunk lids, seat cushions and other semi-structural parts in the second half of 2016. Mass-production on an industrial scale is scheduled for the first half of 2018. The selection criteria for the JEC Innovation Awards include technical excellence, exemplarity of the chain of partners, market potential and originality. Faurecia will receive the award on 8 March at the JEC World 2016 trade show in Paris. JEC World has become the largest international show of the composite industry. Last year, Faurecia won the JEC Europe 2015 Innovation Award in the semi-products category with Flaxpreg, a lightweight composite sandwich reinforced with long flax fibers. Since the mid-1800s every pontifffrom Pius IX to Benedict XVIhas forthrightly condemned socialism. But could that trend be broken with Pope Francis? Could he be a closet socialist? Bernie Sanders seems to think so. In a recent interview Sanders was asked whether he thought Francis shared the senators socialist views: Well, what it means to be a socialist, in the sense of what the pope is talking about, what Im talking about, is to say that we have got to do our best and live our lives in a way that alleviates human suffering, that does not accelerate the disparities of income and wealth, Sanders tells Rosica, head of the Canadian Catholic network Salt and Light, in an interview that will be broadcast Tuesday. We are living in a world where greed has become, for the wealthiest people, their own religion, Sanders said. When [Pope Francis] talks about wealth being used to serve people, not as an end in itself, I agree with that, Sanders said. [] Sanders noted the popes critique of trickle-down economics. [H]e believes that in democratic societies, government itself should play a very strong role in protecting the most vulnerable people amongst us, Sanders said. That is a direct critique of conservative politics, and of course hes going to be attacked for that. Sanders isnt the first to make this claim. After the pontiffs trip last summer to Latin America, Bolivias president Evo Morales told the Associated Press after the visit that he thought that the Popes emphasis on a world without exclusion amounts to socialism: I dont know whether its communism, but it is socialism. Hes talking about community, about living in harmony. . . I feel like now I have a Pope. Could Sanders and Morales be right? Probably not. While the pope hasnt directly denounced all forms of socialism, he has directly rejected Marxism: [Francis] says that some of its tenets regarding the poor may sound similar to those of Christianity, but he firmly rejects attempts to equate the two. The Marxist ideology is wrong, he told Italian Vatican analyst Andrea Tornielli in a late 2013 interview when questioned about his economic views. Francis has said that he finds it strange that people make these accusations against him. If I repeated some passages from the homilies of the Church Fathers in the second or third century, about how we must treat the poor, some would accuse me of giving a Marxist homily, he said in an October 2014 interview. Mystified Outer Banks tourists witnessed a bizarre act of nature Friday, Oct. 14, as fish began flinging themselves onto the beach at Ocracoke Island. Multiple videos shared on social media show the ocean appeared to boil with fish as they tumbled over each other in the surf. The so-called bluefish blitz concluded with thousands of dying fish piled on the sand, flopping up and down as ... This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GREENWICH A fast moving storm system knocked out power for thousands and created havoc on area roads Thursday. With wind gusts of 40 to 60 miles an hour, compounded by heavy rains, trees and branches came tumbling down. One large tree landed on the home of Victoria Meskers in Old Greenwich around 12:30 a.m. on Thursday. It shook the whole house when it came down, it was quite an impact, said Meskers. It caused a fair amount of damage. Thank God nobodys hurt. Route 1 was closed for much of the day in Cos Cob after a low-hanging wire caused a hazard. A long line of cars snaked down Strickland and River roads in the morning and afternoon as a detour, until the Post Road was re-opened around 2:30 p.m. Power outages may linger in Greenwich and elsewhere through Friday, with most customers due to be restored by 11:30 p.m. Friday, said Eversource utility spokesman Mitch Gross. Were continuing to pour our resources and people into the effort, said Gross. We have Eversource crews from New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and contract crews from New York and Pennsylvania. At the height of the storm damage at 3 a.m. Thursday, some 89,000 power outages were reported across the state, with 32,000 without lights by midafternoon. More than 3,000 customers lost power in Greenwich. Beside the Route 1 shut-down in Cos Cob, there were road closures in numerous neighborhoods. Its kind of all over the place, said the town emergency-management director, Dan Warzoha. It was an equal opportunity storm. The combination of high winds and heavy rain are a one-two punch for tree damage. The wind gusts we were seeing were 40 to 60 miles an hour, and the heavy rain adds force. It causes trees and branches to come down, said meteorologist Bill Jacquemin of the Connecticut Weather Center. And the storms were just racing across the region, pressure on, pressure off, it weakens the trees. Its unusual for February, thunder storms and lightning. First Selectman Peter Tesei did a limited tour of the community. I think the town staff has gotten a handle on it, Tesei said Thursday morning. I think the town responded well. Tesei said he was interested in finding out more about staffing and personnel at Eversource, and whether the utility has enough crews allocated to address the scope of the problem, he said. Gross, the Eversource representative, said staffing levels were up to the task. We continue to pour everything we have into Greenwich and elsewhere. Its all hands on deck, were making good progress, he said. He noted that there were 1,600 locations that the utility had to respond to. In order to preserve food during a power outage, according to the Red Cross, it is recommended that the refrigerator door stay closed as much as possible. Perishable food should be consumed first. The Red Cross cautions the public to be extra vigilant about food that has reached room temperature for an extended period. Food that has spoiled does not necessarily put out an unpleasant smell, and the Red Cross advises food to be discarded if it has been left unrefrigerated. North Mianus School was closed Thursday because of a power outage. Public and private schools in the district opened two hours behind schedule as a result of the storm. Robert.Marchant@scni.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate HARTFORD Continued shortfalls in tax revenue have pumped up the states current budget deficit to $266 million, more than 10 times last months projection, according to the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis. Following a closed-door briefing with OFA officials, Republicans charged Thursday that the deficit is a repudiation of majority Democrats and could set the scene for another special session to cut spending just months before the fiscal year ends on June 30. They said that with a nearly $900 million deficit now projected for the next fiscal year, its time for Democrats to adopt some of the GOP structural changes that were rejected in recent months. Democrats acknowledged that the less-than-expected revenue is proof of what Gov. Dannel P. Malloy called the new normal in his budget speech this month, but said they would cope with the red ink. Last month the projected deficit was targeted at around $20 million. Collections of personal income taxes fell $200 million short of projections. An above-projected increase in Indian gaming payments of $2 million fell far short of making up the difference, although it was the first increase in that revenue stream since 2011. House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, told reporters during a hastily called afternoon news conference in the Capitol that Democratic leaders, including Malloy, are in denial. The best way I can explain it is, they hope every night before they go to bed that the revenues are coming in higher than everybody says theyre going to come in, she said. They spend money based on a hope and a prayer, Klarides said. We cant ask them to resign, but what we can ask the people of the state of Connecticut to do is see very clearly that (the Democrats) are not suited to lead the state. Every day, from top to bottom in this building, there are irresponsible, negligent and reckless decisions being made and the people of this state have to stand up and say its time for a change. Its an upsetting day in Connecticut, said Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven. Whats happening is really shocking. He said that after nine months of positive income-tax payments, fourth-quarter revenue fell sharply. The Democratic majority is incompetent to run the fiscal ship, Fasano said. On Dec. 8, a special legislation session was held to cut $350 million out of the budget, but revenue has continued to slide well below estimates. Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, said they are ready to do whats necessary to balance the current $20 billion budget, as well as the one that takes effect July 1. Todays projections reinforce the need to find additional efficiencies and savings across government, Looney said. Thats why we have already made structural changes to save half a billion dollars over the next two years. While we continue to increase jobs and see growth in the states economy, we are impacted by a slower international and national economy, said Duff. One only needs to look at the stock market averages to see the challenges we face. Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, said more structural changes are needed. This reflects the reality of an economy where families are working harder for less, he said. Savings and efficiency must be the priority, where accountability of state agencies for every taxpayer dollar is the new watchword. This is how the budget challenge we face will be met." Gian-Carl Casa, spokesman for the state Office of Policy and Management, Malloys budget unit, said he hopes the eventual budget solution will be bipartisan. Projections are going to vary from one set of numbers to another, Casa said. But what we should all agree on is that this is a new economic reality that requires a different solution. GREENWICH The Planning and Zoning Commission appears to be standing in the way of Teslas plans to showcase its luxury electric cars where no cars have been showcased before. I see this as something not on (Greenwich Avenue), commission member Margarita Alban said this week. Tesla has signed a lease for a 1,900-square-foot space at 340 Greenwich Ave., next to Restoration Hardware. Problem is, automobile businesses are classified group five in town zoning regs. And group five businesses are not permitted on Greenwich Avenue. Tesla has sought to get around the regulation and a state law barring it from directly selling its electric cars in Connecticut by proposing to open a gallery for its cars and products, not a dealership. More News Tesla seeks to open showroom on Greenwich Avenue Tesla is not licensed by the Department of Motor Vehicles to sell cars in Connecticut so they cannot sell a car, Thomas Heagney, the attorney representing Tesla, told commissioners this week. Use group five is for automotive sales, service and storage, none of which is going to be going on here. The Tesla gallery would educate people about the company and the benefits of electric cars, Heagney said. More Information Greenwich Tesla showcase 340 Greenwich Ave. See More Collapse But commission members who have not yet voted on the matter didnt appear to buy the explanation anymore than would-be customers would actually buy cars at the Greenwich Avenue location. They expressed a preliminary opinion Tuesday that Tesla would be fall under the broad definition of use group five, keeping it off the avenue in any form. Later in the week, Tesla officials made it clear they are not giving up. Theres a clear demand for Telsa both in Fairfield County and across Connecticut, and were going to continue to find ways to meet that demand, Will Nicholas, Teslas government relations manager, said in a statement Thursday. We appreciate comments from Planning and Zoning, and look forward to working with them in the coming months. Commission members appeared willing to welcome Tesla to town, just not where it wants to be. Alban pointed out brands like Mercedes and businesses like Miller Motorcars are not on Greenwich Avenue but doing well in town anyway. We sell all that stuff on the Post Road, Alban said. Why do you have to be on the avenue? I know it sounds cool but if you were selling fur coats it would be a different thing. Commission member Richard Maitland said he was worried about how much space would be devoted to the cars at the gallery, even if they are not for sale. Youre displaying things that cant be put for sale, Maitland said. Thats a key part of a retail use. If the cars werent there and you wanted to sell the other things that were around this it could certainly go there. Its kind of lonely without the cars, but it could go there. The cars are what is the problem. The discussion comes before the zoning commission when the future of Tesla sales in Connecticut is up for debate. A bill has been introduced in the General Assembly that would allow electric car companies to sell directly to consumers in in the state, without going through franchised dealerships. The bill is strongly opposed by the Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association, as was a similar measure that failed last year. CARA president James Fleming attended Tuesdays hearing to speak out against the Tesla gallery. CARA and its local car dealers in the town support the Greenwich Planning and Zoning Boards ... recognition of the illegality of Teslas plans to sell cars in Greenwich, he said in a statement issued Wednesday. Tesla not only wanted an exemption from the local zoning laws but is pushing a bill at the state capitol that also lets it operate outside of long-time existing state laws. They are demanding their own non-competitive playing field and will not commit to a dealer franchise system that is in the best interest of the consumer. The showroom would be Teslas first in the state, though the manufacturer operates a service center in Milford. Residents currently have to visit New York state where franchise laws dont exist to test drive and purchase the high-end electric car, which ranges in price from $70,000 to more than $100,000. There are about 1,000 Teslas registered in Connecticut, many of which were presumably bought over the state line in White Plains. Heagney noted the Tesla gallery would be between the Restoration Hardware and the Apple Store on Greenwich Avenue. I think its sort of apropos that you would have a high-tech store thats involved in both home and high-tech electronics between those two, Heagney said. When you want to test out a sofa or a chair you can go to Restoration Hardware and if you want to see powering your home or having a reduced carbon footprint on your transportation you can stop at the Tesla gallery. If youre interested in communication and data you can go to the Apple Store. I think theres a certain bit of synergy. kborsuk@scni.com Americans and Europeans are not against immigration; they are for integration. Americans are well aware they are descendants of millions of immigrants from Europe who searched for a better life. In two generations, they spoke, read and wrote in English and, adopting the American way of life, they blended into its culture of freedom and self-sufficiency. From hyphenated-immigrants, they became just plain Americans. These immigrants were essential to the development of the country from coast to coast. They formed one people, one culture. They watched the same movies, hummed the same hit songs, danced the latest steps. Europe is different. Each country has its own history, religion, politics, language, its own culture of books, music, songs, dance. Europe is an old continent going back to the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Europeans may be up to date on technology, but insofar as their particular culture is concerned, they do not take change lightly if at all. You will never take Strauss out of Vienna or the cafe culture out of Paris or the local pub out of an English village. It is what makes traveling through Europe so fascinating. It was a miracle when all these countries came together to form the European Union but only for economic reasons, not cultural or political. Then came the mass migrations. The first was to the United States from Mexico. They first came to work as agricultural workers then more followed to work in factories, hotels and other low-skilled jobs until today there are more than 55 million Latinos. They do work that most Americans shy from and bring vitality to the small business communities. The European immigrants plus the Latinos have kept America young and vigorous. While Americans are grateful for the contributions of Latinos there is one problem: the time it takes them to integrate into American culture, chiefly language. Americans resent having to press the No. 1 button on their phones to speak in English, No. 2 for Spanish meaning whatever company they are calling also does business in Spanish. Everywhere they go they see signs in Spanish indicating there is an interpreter nearby. The young women (born here) at the check-out counters speak in Spanish to one another. There are Spanish speaking television channel and newspapers including The New York Times new Spanish edition. When European immigrants first came, there were no signs in their native language, no school speaking their language. It was sink or swim and so they learned English quickly out of necessity so, they ask, why cant Latinos? One reason is proximity to their homeland. Mexicans can fly back to Mexico in just a few hours to visit their families. They have not turned their backs on their native land as did earlier European immigrants whose only choice was going by ship, taking weeks and expensive. They were Americans from the day they set foot on Ellis Island. And another reason comes from my housekeeper, born in Mexico, who came here at age 6, is an American citizen and speaks perfect English. Asked why Latinos do not learn English, she said Why should they? Wherever they go, signs are in Spanish, people are ready to speak Spanish to help them, every phone call can be made in Spanish. They would learn if they had to but why bother? Why indeed, they can vote using Spanish language forms, get a drivers license in Spanish and fill out government forms in Spanish, all of which costs the government millions of dollars. This sets them apart from the community as we see in the election campaign when candidates try hard to appeal to Hispanics as a separate group. No candidate appeals to the Italians or Germans. One reason some Hispanic children do poorly in school is because only Spanish is spoken at home, preventing them from gaining any proficiency in English. The second migration is taking place now in Europe, the largest since World War II. It seems as if the whole Middle East is moving to Europe escaping the nightmare of ISIS and Syrias tyranny. Over 70,000 have arrived in Europe so far this year and this is only mid-February. Last year, 1,250,000 arrived by sea alone, more by land. From welcoming them initially, Europeans now have had enough especially after incidents such as the one in Cologne, Germany where immigrants sexually abused a group of women, raping one of them. This raised the question of whether Muslims could ever integrate into European culture. Europeans badly need young workers to invigorate its economy meaning migrants are welcome but not at the cost of European culture. Secular Europeans cringe when they see Muslims kneeling to pray in public, women in veils or wrapped head to toe, many mosques going up, women treated as property. The Islamization of Europe is feared by the locals who want immigrants to integrate into their European culture not the other way around. Perhaps in time they will. That old saying is more valid than ever: When in Rome, do as Romans do. If migrants plan to make a new life in a new country, it is to their advantage to integrate into its culture, otherwise they will always remain the other. Greenwich resident Carla Wallach is an author of five books and writer of numerous articles in national newspapers and publications. Hamas Reaching Out to Iran, Analysts Say | Main | North Korean Leaders are Devoted to Freedom, Palestinian Official Says February 25, 2016 NPR Obfuscates and then Goes Silent on Possible Ethics Violation National Public Radio (NPR) has refused to discipline one of its reporters for apparently violating the organizations own guidelines on ethical reporting. As CAMERA previously reported (NPRs Former Israel Reporter Sad That Hoax Anti-Israel Agitprop Not Real,? Feb. 2, 2016), the networks former Jerusalem bureau chief, Lourdes Garcia-Navarro said on Twitter that she was sad? that a fake New York Times editorial distributed by anti-Israel activists wasnt real. The fake New York Times editorial apologizedabsurdly enough given the papers documented anti-Israel slant (see, for example, New York Times Tilts against Israel Whenever it Can,? CAMERA, Jan. 14, 2016)for a pro-Israel bias in its coverage. As CAMERAs Gilead Ini has documented, numerous journalists fell for the forgery despite it not appearing on The New York Times Web site and having several farcical advertisements with anti-Israel messages.? Lourdes Garcia-Navarro didntbut on Twitter she did tell a believing colleague, Matthew Bell of Public Radio, that the material was fake, sadly.? The editorial falsely claimed that during the period of September-October 2015, eighteen headlines depicted Palestinians, while none depicted Israelis, as instigators of violence.? Ini wondered: Does Garcia-Navarro really want to see New York Times headlines cast innocent Israeli men, women, and children stabbed by Palestinian terrorists as instigators of violence?? During her time as a reporter in Israel, Garcia-Navarro exhibited a pronounced anti-Israel, pro-Arab tilt as CAMERA has noted (see, for example, On Israel, NPR is No Perspective Radio,? July, 18, 2012). Unsure if the government-subsidized network was aware of the offending tweet, CAMERA contacted Elizabeth Jensen, NPRs ombudsman on February 3, pointing out that Garcia-Navarro seemingly violated the organizations social media policy. The guidelines state that journalists should refrain from advocating for political or other polarizing issues online? and should not express personal views on a political or other controversial issue that you could not write for the air or post on NPR.org.? Further, the guidelines insist, Our standards of impartiality also apply to social media.? CAMERA asked Jensen what NPR intended to do regarding Garcia-Navarros display of bias. The ombudsman passed on the following response from the newsroom: Lourdes Garcia-Navarro no longer covers the Middle East and does not shape NPRs coverage of the region. We do not think her two-word tweetfake, sadly?was advocacy. But it was subject to misinterpretation. Its particularly important to be careful when posting on social media.? NPR did not say how the tweet could be misinterpreted nor did it specify how it did not amount to advocacy. Moreover, as CAMERA pointed out to Jensen, the organizations claim that Garcia-Navarro no longer shapes NPR coverage of the Middle East due to her current posting in Brazil does not pass muster. Brazils domestic and foreign policy have components strongly related to the Arab-Israeli conflict. And the claim that Garcia-Navarro, from Brazil, no longer covers news relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict is patently false, as her December 30 report Brazil Rejects Israels Ambassador: Israel Threatens Relations Downgrade,? illustrates. Brazil, the reporter writes, Has made a point of its policies on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.? CAMERA noted these points to NPRs ombudsman, who said she took note of them. Here the newsrooms obfuscation turned to silence. By its silence, NPR has answered the question whether or not it will reprimand a staffer for an apparent violation of its own guidelines against political advocacy. The networks own written standards are explicit in this mattereven if enforcement of them is lacking. The next time listeners hear NPR invoke its commitment to impartiality, they would be wise to take it with a grain of salt. Or maybe the whole shaker. Posted by SD at February 25, 2016 12:28 PM Guidelines for posting This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material. Post a comment Whats up, kid? Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images Florida senator Marco Rubio is currently being crushed under the weight of the Trumpocalypse, and apparently some people wouldnt even notice it if they saw it. While in New Hampshire for the London Review of Books during the days leading up to the states primary, Christian Lorentzen (also New Yorks book critic) paid a visit to Manchester, New Hampshires hot spot of the moment: the bar at the Radisson. There he spoke with a waitress who had served Rubio and had no idea who he was. The unnamed but well-meaning server, in fact, wasnt even sure if the baby-faced senator was actually legal, so she had to card him, which must have been terribly embarrassing for all involved. If your server doesnt think youre allowed to drink, how can they want to have a beer with you? [London Review of Books] Nomas Rene Redzepi. Photo: Fabian Bimmer/Reuters/Corbis Michelin released its 2016 Nordic guide this week, and, for the first time ever, a Danish restaurant was awarded the guides coveted three-star rating. That restaurant is drum roll from Copenhagen and previously held two stars, but is not chef Rene Redzepis Noma, which, as tradition dictates, held tight with two Michelin stars. Instead, Denmarks best restaurant, according to the Michelin Man, is Geranium, which was opened in 2007 by Bocuse dOr winner Rasmus Kofoed and ex-Noma sous-chef Sren Ledet. (Oslos acclaimed Maaemo also achieved three-star status.) This is not to take away from those restaurants, which have done much to raise their international profile and have been universally lauded. Instead, its about the odd fact that Noma, which many consider one of the worlds most influential (and polished) restaurants, has never received Michelins top rating. When the restaurant was awarded its second star in 2008, it was the only restaurant in Copenhagen to achieve that mark. Eight years later, its been leapfrogged, even as its influenced a new generation of restaurants, including Geranium. In a mixed 2009 assessment, food blog Chuck Eats described that restaurant as an attempt to take Nomas ideals and civilize them edit and refine into a more minimalist haute experience. Meanwhile, Noma has topped the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants list four times in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014 but it seems the Michelin inspectors likely dont agree with this assessment, as there are 119 other restaurants in their various guides that rank above Redzepis. Nomas two-star status has become a regular part of the Michelin circus and a source of frustration for miffed fans. In 2011, Bloomberg critic Richard Vines wrote about Nomas failure to get its third star, quoting Michelin editor Rebecca Burr as saying, It will happen one day, Im sure, but that it still has a long way to go. Vines followed up in 2012 with a snappier headline that accused the guide of snubbing the restaurant. English newspaper The Telegraph wrote that same year that Danes were outraged, with Danish food critic Helle Bronnum Carlsen blaming a French bias. Af Ole Troels, another Danish food critic, said the two-star status was a result of positioning Michelins guide against the Noma-loving 50 Best. Michelin director Michael Ellis doubled down in 2014, saying in response to a question from Troels that Redzepi is a revolutionary. But were very strict and inflexible in our criteria, which did little to illuminate the real reasons for the perceived snub. Redzepi himself seems at peace with it publicly, at least and Nomas fate as a two-star restaurant may have gained reluctant acceptance, as Jesper Uhrup Jensen, editor of the food magazine Gastro, argued this year that Nomas dishes are too all over the place to get three stars. This speaks to the feeling among Noma sympathizers that its food does not jibe with Michelins gastronomic expectations. Then again, its also somewhat perplexing that there are only now two three-star restaurants in all of Scandinavia, given the outsize influence that the New Nordic movement has had over the global restaurant scene. Burrs prediction that the restaurant would one day achieve three-star status now looks unlikely, at least as far as the original restaurant goes. Noma 1.0 will close its doors for good after its New Years Eve service this year and will reopen, possibly next year, as an urban farm anchored by a restaurant. Once it reopens, Redzepi promises a menu shake-up and a much stricter, very ambitious-sounding seasonal approach. The world will have to wait to find out if Noma 2.0 is deemed worthy of joining Geranium as one of Denmarks three-star restaurants. 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May 14 (5) Apr 30 - May 7 (6) Apr 23 - Apr 30 (7) Apr 16 - Apr 23 (5) Apr 9 - Apr 16 (8) Apr 2 - Apr 9 (5) Mar 26 - Apr 2 (8) Mar 19 - Mar 26 (12) Mar 12 - Mar 19 (10) Mar 5 - Mar 12 (15) Feb 26 - Mar 5 (7) Weve all heard about Oneplus. It was the company who promised to sell a phone that was a flagship killer. The company got so much attention with the introduction of the Oneplus One. It was a $300 phone that was sold unlocked and designed to directly compete with the other leading flagships at the time like the more costly devices like the Nexus 5, Galaxy S5 or LG G3 while offering similar or better features that users look for in a phone like NFC, great camera, and long lasting battery life. In a CNET interview with Oneplus co-founder, Carl Pei stated that the US market will be very important for Oneplus this year with more traditional marketing methods. Could this mean that the invite system will be shelved for the new flagship? Perhaps. The company said it was very excited about the Oneplus 3 and thinks it will captivate interest like the Original One did, the Oneplus 2 wasnt as well received when someone decided to strip NFC from the phone altogether, thought it did sell more units than the OnePlus One. It was not all flowers and roses for the Chinese startup company at the beginning. The company decided to go unconventional and set up an invitation-only program to sell the OnePlus One. So for several months after the phones launch, it was still damn-near impossible to get your hands on one of these suckers. Oneplus was able to use all this positive (and negative) attention that itd been getting with the launch of the Oneplus One to build a reputation and customer base. The Chinese startup says it has 800,000 active forum users who support the Oneplus community and inspire the companys design choices for its smartphones. Source | Via Just over a month after there were reports that Foxconn is in talks to acquire Sharp, the deal has been sealed for a total of JPY 700 billion ($6.2 billion), according to Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei. Foxconn was earlier said to have made a $5.1 billion bid. It's worth mentioning that the Taiwan-based iPhone manufacturer, which was formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, was not the only bidder for Sharp - the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan was also in the race. The state-controlled fund, which was said to be interested in keeping Sharp ownership inside Japan, reportedly offered the Japanese company a JPY 300 billion injection as well as a JPY 200 billion credit line. No other details related to the deal, which is yet to be officially announced, were revealed. Via Yesterday Xiaomi announced the Mi 5 flagship - a genuinely impressive device with three different versions. It features either glass/metal or glass/ceramic build and packs a 5.15" IPS 1080p display, a Snapdragon 820 chip with 3GB or 4GB RAM, a 16MP OIS rear camera, a 4MP UltraPixel selfie snapper, 32/64/128GB storage, and a 3,000 mAh battery. It is also the first device to introduce the Marshmallow-based MIUI 7. Xiaomi's VP Hugo Barra announced the company's latest and greatest at a dedicated event held at the MWC. It quickly gathered lots of positive first impressions, not only for its specs but because of the hint of an international availability later on. As it turns out, the global launch may have been exaggerated. In a recent interview, Hugo Barra revealed Xiaomi only has plans for making Xiaomi Mi5 available only on the current markets it operates on. He confirmed Xiaomi is eyeing other markets, but "it's far too early to make any statements". Barra continued that he isn't withholding information; he honestly doesn't know how the things will pan out in the future. He wants Xiaomi to become officially available in Europe and the USA but this expansion is only on the wishlist for now. What he hopes for though is that the announcement event in Barcelona wouls help build up Xiaomi's brand internationally. Later this year the Mi 5 should hit Xiaomi's core markets - China, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, and probably, Brazil. We might see it in even more markets after that, but as of now it's rather unlikely. It seems the rest of the world is left to rely on gray imports. Source Haiti - Elections : Privert gives 48 hours to the backward sectors present in CEP Wednesday at the National Palace, the President a.i. Jocelerme Privert, met the 9 sectors involved in the formation of a new Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) under the agreement of February 5, 2016 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16533-haiti-politic-the-details-of-the-agreement-from-a-to-z.html The discussions focused on cooperation needed between sectors to appoint their representatives to the next CEP. This meeting allowed to observe that a large division prevailed in some sectors, which is a handicap to the appointment of their representative to the CEP. Also, the President a.i. Privert have invited them to show promptness given the deadline to transition and granted them a delay of 24-48 hours utmost to reach agreement on the choice of two representatives they must communicate to the Presidency. Moreover, the Head of State thanked the sectors that have already proposed the names of their representatives: private sector (Jacques Bernard [former director general of CEP in 2006) and Marie-Herolle Michel [former President of BED West in 1995]), union sector(Joseph Dorcely or Jean Philipe Marcelin), protestant sector (Pastor Frinel Joseph), voodoo sector (Jean Richard Joseph or Lamercie Charles Pierre) and the Press (Leopold Berlanger). See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16692-haiti-flash-meetings-at-the-national-palace-around-the-cep-and-the-new-pm.html HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping politics... Edgard Leblanc denied an agreement with the PHTK Wednesday, former Senator Edgar Leblanc Fils one of the favorite candidates for the post of next prime minister of the transitional government on Wednesday denied allegations that he concluded an agreement with the PHTK, the party of former president, Michel Martelly, of fact that the parliamentary member of PHTK and Bouclier that support in majority his candidacy... Edgar Leblanc Fils, is confident to be appointed Prime Minister by President a.i. Jocelerme Privert. The search for a PM "is a comedy" Wednesday, former President of the Senate Andris Riche considered that the President a.i. Jocelerme Privert could establish the Permanent Electoral Council, based on the three branches of government and do without the many sectors which he has appealed. Similarly he believes that the search for a prime minister is "a comedy" and that the Head of State could keep Evans Paul for short transition period. Registration of Majority Bloc of the Lower House Wednesday was held a plenary session for the inscription of majority bloc "Parliamentary Alliance for Haiti" (APH), comprising 48 deputies. Make the elections, difficult but not impossible Prime Minister Evans Paul, said it takes at least 70 days to carry out the elections, while acknowledging that it was not possible with political will. To this end he advocated the adoption of urgent measures by the authorities for the realization of this election, recalling that he had already made these remarks and proposal at the last Council of Ministers. The German Ambassador meets Privert Wednesday at the National Palace, the President a.i. Jocelerme Privert met the German Ambassador in Haiti, Klaus Peter Schick. It is not known about what. Carlos Hercules representative of the Catholic Church : Carlos Hercules was appointed by the Episcopal Conference as representative of the Catholic Church to the next Provisional Electoral Council. Leopold Belanger (Press area), Pastor Joseph Frinel (Protestant sector) and Carlos Hercule are sure to be part of the next CEP, as the sole representatives of these three sectors. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16709-haiti-elections-privert-gives-48-hours-to-the-backward-sectors-present-in-cep.html The Argentinian Ambassador visits the Lower House Wednesday, Argentine Ambassador to Haiti, Edmundo Alejandro Guillermo Escobar, visited the office of the Chamber of Deputies "The discussions focused on several points. We talked about the outcome of the electoral process, the political agreement of 5 February and cooperation between the two countries, "said Cholzer Chancy, President of the Lower House. For his part, Ambassador Escobar said his country brought its full support for democracy in Haiti and a transparent electoral process. HL/ HaitiLibre led retailer, Dick Smith, will close down its stores across Australia and New Zealand over the next eight weeks after its receivers failed to find a suitable buyer.301 stores in Australia and 62 in New Zealand will shut down. As a result, 2,460 workers in Australia and 430 workers in New Zealand will lose their jobs, pushing almost 2,500 candidates onto the retail jobs market.Affected employees would be paid in full, following their Australian employee entitlements, the receivers said.This is the latest in a chain of disastrous events for Dick Smith. Earlier in February, the Fair Work Ombudsman investigated the firm after evidence was found that it may have underpaid its employees.In January, the company went into receivership after generating cash and sales well below expectations in the busy December trading period. At the time, Dick Smith was unable to secure support from the companys bankers to purchase further stock.In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, receivers Ferrier Hodgson said the decision to close down the stores was disappointing.While we received a significant number of expressions of interest from local and overseas parties, unfortunately the sale process has not resulted in any acceptable offers for the group as a whole or for Australia or New Zealand as standalone businesses, receiver James Stewart said.The offers were either significantly below liquidation values or highly conditional or both. R manager has been charged with accessorial liability for making unlawful wage deductions and knowingly falsified employment records of cleaners working in Melbourne's Federation Square and Crown Casino.The Federal Circuit Court found the director and HR manager of recruitment and labour hire company OzStaff Career Services Pty Ltd were jointly liable for the breach.Judge Philip Burchardt found the company had falsified employment records provided to the FWO after a targeted audit in January 2012, and breached sections of the Fair Work Act by deducting administration fees from 102 employees and taking meal allowances from a further 44 employees.By deducting an administration fee and meal deduction of at least $25 a week from each employee, OzStaff was not complying with the Fair Work Act, the FWO claimed.The FWO alleged the deductions were unlawful because they were not authorized by the employees, nor did they serve to benefit the employees.The recruitment company was also in breach of the Fair Work Regulations for failing to ensure employee records were not false or misleading.While the company and its director admitted they knew the administration fee and meal deductions were unlawful, the HR manager initially denied knowledge or involvement, even though he was aware of the practices and processes of paying employee wages.However, the court held the HR manager jointly liable for the breach, with Judge Burchardt saying the evidence showed that it was more probable than otherwise that the HR manager knew that the company and its director were breaking the law by taking administration fees and meal deduction.The judge refused to accept that the HR manager was not aware that the deductions were being made, nor that he was ignorant of the fact OzStaff had intentionally supplied false and misleading records to the FWO, hiding the unlawful deductions."[The HR manager] was aware that the deductions were being made. He had knowledge of this, as I find, Judge Burchardt said.Being aware of a breach and not acting out to stop it will land HR managers in legal hot water, says Aaron Goonrey, Partner at Lander & Rogers.For you to be involved in a contravention of the Fair Work Act, you must have had knowledge of the essential facts constituting the contravention; you must have been knowingly concerned in it; and you must have been an intentional participant in the contravention based on your actual knowledge, Goonrey says.A key point to remember is that you dont even have to know that the actions in question constituted a contravention for you to be legally considered involved in that contravention, he says.He says HR managers are more likely to be involved in a contravention if they are involved in the day-to-day operations of the employer and have a higher degree of control.However, you need not hold any special or senior position - anyone can be liable, Goonrey cautions.Indeed, a person who knows of the contravention and takes no steps to correct it is clearly in some way, at least indirectly, a person who has in any way, by act or omission, directly or indirectly, knowingly concerned in or party to the contravention,, the judge said.He (the HR manager) was clearly involved within the meaning of s.550 of the FW Act," Judge Burchardt said.The judge also said OzStaff had given "false and misleading" records to the FWO, hiding details of the meal deductions and administration fee.The companys sole director was slapped with an accessorial liability charge, despite claiming that he was unaware of the unlawful practices."[It] is clear in my view beyond doubt that the [director] was knowingly involved with the contravention in the provision of false and misleading pay records," the judge said.A penalty hearing is set down for August.Lander & Rogers advice for HR to avoid accessorial liability includes:Because of the scope of accessorial liability, it is extremely important that you are aware of the obligations mandated by the Fair Work Act, modern award or industrial agreement.Ignorance of the law or wilful blindness will not excuse you from liability.It is important to be aware that seemingly menial tasks - such as typing up contracts or drafting letters - can result in a finding of personal liability if the contracts or letters contravene the Fair Work Act.Any actions undertaken at the direction of a more senior employee should be carefully considered. If, for example, a manager carries out an activity on the instruction of a director and does not consider the legal implications, the manager cannot later shift the blame to the more senior employee.To ensure minimum legislative and award / agreement obligations are being met, and include appropriate clauses to this effect in agreements with contractors.Relevant staff (including procurement teams) should be appropriately trained on their responsibilities under the Fair Work Act.Always seek professional advice if you are in doubt. The NCPO has produced a wrap-around advertising supplement in today's Bangkok Post, setting out its plans for "the Hope, Happiness & Harmony of the people". The same supplement was included in The Nation on Tuesday.Page one begins with an illustration of "Thailand's Vicious Cycle", claiming that the junta prevented Thailand from becoming a failed state. Chai-anan Samudavanija's book The Thai Young Turks (1982) included a very different model of Thailand's vicious cycle, which features a word entirely absent from the NCPO's supplement: ' coup '.The supplement also includes a guide to the differences between "Pseudo-Democracy" and "Genuine Democracy", effectively a criticism of Thaksin Shinawatra and Pheu Thai's policies. To say the least, it's profoundly ironic that a military junta would presume to explain the concept of democracy.Finally, a list of "11 Policies" features only three policies, ending with "access to gover" [] and two empty bullet points. The supplement folds out into a poster showing a hierarchical diagram of the NCPO's agenda, though it's so dense, and printed in such a tiny font size, that it's impenetrable.The Bangkok Post's editor, Pichai Chuensuksawadi, has written a note in the newspaper about the NCPO supplement. He explains that its inclusion was a commercial decision: "The advertisement that wraps today's newspaper, placed by our advertising department, does not represent the Bangkok Post's editorial position." Dear Editor, They have a right to do anything we cant stop them from doing. Catch 22 A recent Gallup poll finds that dissatisfaction with government, not guns, or terrorism, tops the list of concerns: guns/Gun control was considered the most important problem by 2%. The Constitution doesnt and cant grant rights: it recognizes them. Government never had any rights to grant to anyone. The state cant stop people from getting what they want. Those who ignore existing laws will ignore additional ones. Were told by our representatives that a majority want more gun laws, but those representatives ignore demonstrated majorities who want weed legalized, single payer health insurance and no overseas military adventures. The second amendment: the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed. A gun is a tool; No better and no worse than any other tool; printing press, a knife. A gun is as good or as bad as the person using it. Ownership of guns, like the printing press, is specifically protected by the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment protects your right to go deer hunting in the same way that the First Amendment is for protecting your right to publish poetry. The second amendment is about the citizens/militia, having weapons to confront tyrants that control government. Our government says you have a right to self-defense but controls access to the tools necessary for self defense while saying police have no obligation to provide individual protection. Our government claims it can take guns from criminals only if honest folks will give up theirs. When seconds count police are minutes away. In the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Korean shop owners, not cops, defended themselves and their property against rioters and looters. In that same riot, the truck driver pulled from his truck and nearly beaten to death on TV could have benefited from a pistol. Virtually every Swiss home has a gun. Their murder rate is a small fraction of the American rate, and is less than the rate in Australia, Canada or England, which strictly control guns. Switzerlands gun crime rate is so low that statistics arent kept. Americas murder rate is equally low when you remove gang crime statistics. Gun control zealots somehow believe signs, like gun free zone, will shape reality. How often have supposedly mentally unbalanced shooters opened fire at an NRA convention? Theyre not that crazy. They pick places where people arent likely to shoot back. The problem is some people with guns. Banning firearms or imposing difficult restrictions goes against the Constitution, and increases the odds that innocents will become targets like weve seen in gun-free areas such as Chicago, Paris and San Bernardino. Gun prohibition fails just like drug or liquor prohibition. Guns dont disappear because theyre banned. They go underground, like in Chicago, becoming easily acquired like prohibited drugs. No taxes paid or purchases reported with government background checks. If our government declares a war on guns that will be as successful as the war on drugs; A police state disaster that has done nothing beyond filling prisons while justifying the outrageous growth of police state agencies like the DEA. Were told an AR15 used by police is a personal defense weapon, a patrol rifle but the same rifle owned by you becomes an assault weapon. Government trusts Americans with all kinds of weapons when it sends them somewhere to kill foreigners, usually to benefit some corporations. When citizens take off their uniforms suddenly politicians dont trust them with a gun. Gun control isnt about crime. Its about government that fears and despises you. After a bombing, everyone blames the bomber, but after a shooting, the problem is the gun. It is known that Evil guns have a will of their own, which moves their owners to murder. Typewriters/keyboards can similarly motivate libel. A rifle can be used to destroy paper targets, stop an attacking bear, or murder your neighbor. The choice is entirely up to the user. If you get angry or drunk and run over someone with your vehicle, should your neighbor launch an organization to prohibit all vehicles? Guns or cars arent responsible for deaths. Making it difficult to buy a gun is penalizing somebody because someone else was stupid. Statistically most gun crime comes from the inner city gangs and their illegal guns in cities that have been influenced by sociologists, urban planners, social justice activists, community organizers and political fools for generations. Are you surprised that people stop caring about being a law-abiding citizen when they lose respect for the law and the people who inflict it on them? Chicago has extremely tough gun laws believing they discourage criminals. Gun violence is 90% concentrated in the urban kill zones, created by welfare policies since 1964. If youre willing to shoot someone, youll ignore any law. Do you think gang bangers get their weapons at gun shows? Whenever politicians discuss gun control, they avoid mentioning gangs whose body count is larger than that of the lone mass shooters who grab all the headlines. Crazy lone white guy spraying bullets around equals mental illness, and therefore, seize all the guns, but ghetto youths with guns spraying bullets equals we have to do something about conditions in the inner cities and racism. Were told our government will rescind the second amendment because of terrorists/crime, but cops, here in the Empire, have killed many more innocents than terrorists. Most accused group shooters passed background checks. Instead of demonizing the one hundred and fifty million people in America who legally own guns and dont shoot up the neighborhood, perhaps we should identify the causes of violence in our society and address them. Until Americans educate themselves on the cause of this violence, uninformed and corrupt lawmakers will continue to focus on controlling the symptoms. While the federal government attempts to limit your access to guns, Americas arms industry encounters no barriers: its the worlds leading weapons provider to tyrannical regimes and terrorist groups worldwide. America, the hypocritical merchant of death, simultaneously pushes to limit American citizens gun rights using the excuse of making consumers safer but its a steady move towards disarming American citizens. Those who give guns to moderate rebels worldwide lecture law-abiding Americans about selling guns to each other. Gun laws apply to sales between Americans but they dont apply to sales by Americans to those in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, or other friends. Want to avoid the hassle? There are several overseas locations to which you can relocate and if you promise to be a moderate terrorist, youll have access to an armory of weapons not legally available to you in the Empire. If you trust that our government will never infringe your rights, then I suppose youll find my argument senseless but if you see a future when drones fill the skies for the purpose of surveillance, intimidation, or worse, then you might see the need to own a couple of rocket launchers. Gun control will lower crime rates like Obamacare lowered insurance premiums and allows you to keep your plan/gun. If a politician wants to disarm the public, he should give up his own security protection to set an example. Obama said, If youre too dangerous to board a plane, youre too dangerous, by definition, to buy a gun. Like most government programs seeming, and being reasonable, are different things. The terrorist watchlist reportedly has over a million names on it, but no one knows, because its a secret and its unknown how and why your name can be added to these lists. Government completely repeals those individuals rights, without due process, no judge, jury or means for appeal. Liberty, to include gun rights, can only be taken away for just cause. The law has acceptable causes and process for denying any rights. A secret list thats collected by government agents without due process or means of remedy isnt due process. According to the Centers for Disease Control, drug overdose, with a death rate of 13.9 per 100,000, is four times more common as a cause of death than gun homicides (3.6 per 100,000). Death from prescription drugs (7.2 per 100,000) is twice as common as gun homicides. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. Thomas Jefferson Craig Dudley Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket The opposition leader argues on his blog that the rescission would be the right and ethical decision because the UAE is waging war and violating human rights by taking part in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. The Finnish Government granted the state-owned defence technology provider the permit to export 40 armoured personnel carriers to the UAE last March, according to Arhinmaki. Paavo Arhinmaki, the chairperson of the Left Alliance, has called for the rescission of the permit granted to Patria to export armoured vehicles to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Media reports suggest the United Arab Emirates has deployed infantry units in Yemen. It is therefore apparent that Finnish-made armoured vehicles could be used in warfare, he argues. Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general at the United Nations, pleaded with the United Kingdom earlier this month to stop supplying arms to Saudi Arabia. Yemen is in flames and coalition air-strikes in particular continue to strike schools, hospitals, mosques and civilian infrastructure, he said according to the Guardian. The Yemeni Civil War has already claimed the lives of over 5,000 civilians. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) warned last month that the food security of more than 14 million people in Yemen is at risk. There is an apparent possibility that Finnish-made armoured vehicles will be used against the civilian population in the Yemeni Civil War or for oppressive measures in the United Arab Emirates, which is why the [export] permit should be revoked, states Arhinmaki. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Vesa Moilanen Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi The nearly chaotic situation in Central and Southern Europe has resulted in every country developing their own measures. It is very questionable whether [those measures] are consistent with international agreements, he stated at a press conference on Wednesday. The situation in Central and Southern Europe is almost chaotic as several countries have taken matters into their own hands to resolve the migrant crisis, says President Sauli Niinisto. It may well be that the Nato solution that has been discussed in framework of the European Union is the solution that will yield the best results. However, also its consistency with international agreements will surely be subject to some debate, analysed Niinisto. Greece has asked Nato for assistance in its efforts to combat human trafficking across the Aegean Sea. The intergovernmental military alliance has already deployed naval patrols to monitor the situation in the Mediterranean. Niinisto also commented on the debate revolving around the military exercises conducted by the United States in Finland by emphasising that although the exercises are relatively large, they are not a means to re-define the security policy of Finland. They are technical exercises, he stressed according to Helsingin Sanomat. He declined to comment on the recent assessment of Alexander Stubb (NCP), the Minister of Finance, that Sweden, the United States and Nato are the most important partners for the Finnish Defence Forces. Niinisto revealed that a set of criteria for military exercises will be introduced to oblige the Defence Forces to disclose the details of any exercises meeting the criteria to the President and the Cabinet Committee on Foreign and Security Policy. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Jussi Nukari Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi For 60 years now, West Michigan Credit Union (WMCU) has embedded itself into the Grand Rapids community, providing an array of financial services. Though many changes have occurred throughout these 60 years, the common thread remains: its core values of not only effectively servicing its communities, but becoming part of them. The not-for-profit financial cooperative first emerged in Grand Rapids in 1956 as the impetus of state employees growing tired of receiving large fees from banks and not being eligible for loans. Together, they formed a way that assists everybody with savings and loans. These services are of course still here today, along with the full service you'd expect from a modern banking institution. "The core values haven't changed," said Jeanene Smith of WMCU. "We've just changed with the times." In addition to updating its services and technology throughout the years, WMCU has also changed by way of expansion. The credit union now services from locations in Big Rapids, Reed City and Cadillac. Both the Reed City and Cadillac locations are the most recent expansions, culminating from mergers. In 2004, WMCU merged with a small credit union that previously served as Osceola Community Credit Union. The merger helped bring new services to the area, as the previous credit union was rather small and lacked the many services and customer care WMCU keeps in its arsenal. The Cadillac merger occurred in 2005 with Northwestern Area Credit Union, which was very mutually beneficial. Both had comparable services, and the merger expanded the abilities the credit union could offer to members. With these locations, WMCU brings its members not only the financial solutions they require, but also quality, affable service along with it. Residents of seven counties in West Michigan are eligible to join the credit union. Both Smith and Renee Wawrzyniak, employees of WMCU, speak fondly of member interactions and how everyone knows each other's names. "The fact [the members] come in to see us and view us as friends and family and not just someone who gives them cash or loans is a wonderful feeling," Wawryzniak said. In acknowledgement of its 60th anniversary, WMCU plans to conduct special events, branch celebrations, product offerings and much more during 2016. Additionally, March 15 is WMCU's Annual Meeting and 60th Anniversary Celebration at 5:30 p.m. at the Big Rapids Office where all members are invited. Refreshments, hors d'oeuvres and desserts will be served. People who aren't members, but interested in joining, are also welcome. "It's crazy to think of where the credit union was 60 years ago and how it's changed throughout," Smith said. "Across the next 60 years, the care will still be there and we'll continue to evolve with the times. We have the foundation for that." Learn more at westmichigancu.com. A bank worker who blinded a medical student in one eye after assaulting him with a pint glass has received a suspended sentence of 18 months. Robert Jones (26) pleaded guilty to assault causing harm at Palace nightclub, Camden Street, Dublin city, on July 20, 2014. After the assault Jones told gardai that the victim, Brian Murphy, had repeatedly made "throat-cut" gestures at him, drawing his thumb across his throat. He said Mr Murphy then came close to him and made the gesture again. Jones said he instinctively threw his right hand at him and forgot he was holding a glass. He said he thought Mr Murphy was going to hit him and felt threatened. He said it was completely instinctive and he had a rush of adrenaline and a "fight or flight feeling". The victim told gardai he had done nothing to provoke Jones and had not spoken to him before the assault. In his victim- impact statement he wrote: "I did nothing to deserve this." Flashes Mr Murphy - of Ennis Road, Limerick - said that the assault changed his life forever. He lost sight in his left eye and still suffered flashes of light in his vision. The fourth-year Trinity college medical student said that he asked his own doctors soon after the assault if he would still be able to do surgery. Dominic McGinn SC, defending, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that two women who were in Jones' company on the night gave statements to gardai that the victim had been "lurking around", "drunk and messy" and had made the throat-cut gestures at Jones. Judge John Aylmer said he was making no determination on whether there was any provocation to the assault. But he said that having regard to some witnesses at the scene who stated there was provocation, he was legally bound to give Jones the benefit of that doubt. In sentencing Jones Judge Aylmer noted his previous impeccable character and said that there was no question of rehabilitation required as there was no likelihood of Jones - of Glenview Park, Tallaght, Dublin - re-offending. He said the assault was entirely spontaneous and not premeditated. Finally, as regards mitigating factors, he noted Jones had brought 8,000 to court as a token of remorse and that the victim was pursuing compensation in a civil action. He said Jones, who is employed by AIB, had a very promising career and would be "a mark for compensation in the future" for the victim to pursue. He pointed out that a custodial sentence would likely destroy Jones' career prospects, which would affect the victim's ability to seek civil compensation from him. Gerard Halpin was jailed for six and a half years for burglary. Photo: Courtpix A woman broke a Yankee candle over the head of an armed robber as he robbed a beauty salon while she was getting her nails done. Gerard Halpin (40) was jailed for six-and-a-half-years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for the robbery and for breaking into a house and telling the occupant not to scream or he'd kill her. Halpin of Corduff Grove, Blanchardstown, Dublin pleaded guilty to the burglary which occurred on December 19, 2013. He was convicted by a jury last week of the salon robbery and possession of a knife which occurred on December 23, 2014. Customer The court heard that Halpin entered the beauty salon Urban Dolls in Corduff Shopping Centre wearing latex gloves and armed with a kitchen knife. He grabbed the owner Sarah White by the neck and put a knife to her back before walking her towards the till. Halpin was wearing a scarf over his face but a customer, Emma Kelly, recognised him. Halpin ordered Ms White to open the till but Ms Kelly closed it and said "What the f**k are you at Gerard?" She told Ms White not to give him any money but Halpin raised the knife above his head and said "back off Emma." Ms Kelly then picked up a Yankee candle from a display case and smashed it over Halpin's head. Halpin fled with Ms Kelly close behind shouting his name. She followed him as he cycled to his father's home a few hundred yards from the salon. Garda Adrian Kildea told prosecution counsel Pieter Le Vert BL that a garda search of the house found the gloves in an open safe in an upstairs bedroom. The court also heard evidence of a burglary by Halpin at Castlecurragh Heath, Mulhuddart. He later admitted to gardai that he went out "looking for gear" and rang the bell of a house three times before breaking in. A woman was in one of the bedrooms and tried to stop Halpin getting in. He forced his way in and grabbed her phone from her. He told her "don't scream or I'll kill you" before taking her laptop and leaving. A woman who viciously slashed a journalist's face with a Stanley knife has been released early from prison after becoming pregnant while out on temporary release. Ruth Barry (36), of Moy Elta Road, East Wall, was sentenced to seven years, with 18-months suspended, for the vicious attack on award-winning journalist Jennifer Bray in 2012. Ms Bray, deputy political editor with the Irish Daily Mail, was in the queue at McDonald's on O'Connell Street with friends, Neil Callanan and Sarah Furlong, when a dispute occurred on June 25, 2010. Barry accused Ms Bray of punching her in the stomach during the minor spat. A short time later, Barry and her then boyfriend, Jonathan O'Brien, followed the three friends outside to where they had hailed a taxi. Barry then punched Ms Bray and headbutted Ms Furlong. Mr Callanan tried to stop the assault and mum-of-two Barry bit him. She then slashed Bray's face. In March last year, Barry was granted temporary release from the Dochas Centre to attend a family event. During her release, she fell pregnant and was released again in December to give birth. However, prison sources have revealed it is unlikely that she will see the inside of a cell again. "Ms Barry has been granted reviewable temporary release that will be looked at on a week-to-week basis," said a source. "She was due to be released at the end of the year, but as long as she doesn't mess up she is out for good now." Speaking to the Herald in 2012, Ms Bray described the 2010 attack. "I was thrown against a wall by the woman and her boyfriend, who I know now to be Ruth and Jonathan," she said. "I heard a click, closed my eyes and felt an ice-cold sensation across my face. "She [Barry] brought that rusty Stanley blade from the top of my nose, between my eyes, down under my left eye and in a semi-circle down my cheek. It eventually stopped just under my jawline. "When I opened my eyes, I looked down to see orange liquid pouring over my chest and on to my hands." Ms Bray then collapsed on the ground and was mugged by Barry, who stole her phone. News as we get it and please send your news basic Copyright of Royal Mail MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Suppose the FBI wins its court battle and forces Apple to help unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers. That could open all iPhones up to potential government scrutiny but it's not the end of the story. Turns out there's a fair bit both individuals and Apple could do to FBI-proof their phones and shield private information from investigators and cybercriminals alike. Those measures include multiple passcodes and longer, more complex ones. Of course, increased security typically comes at the expense of convenience. Most efforts to improve phone security would make the devices harder to use, perhaps by requiring you to remember more passwords. Making it more difficult for law enforcement to crack open iPhones could also spur legal restrictions on phone security, something that neither Apple nor other technology companies want to see. "They are walking a tightrope," says Mark Bartholomew, a law professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who specializes in privacy and encryption issues. Requiring longer passcodes might annoy most Apple users, he says, while boosting phone security "sort of amplifies the whole argument that Apple is making things too difficult and frustrating law enforcement officials." Apple had no comment on any future security measures. In a recent letter to customers, it noted that it has routinely built "progressively stronger protections" into its products because "cyberattacks have only become more frequent and more sophisticated." In the current fight, the FBI aims to make Apple help it guess the passcode on the work phone used by Syed Farook before he and his wife killed 14 people at an office party in December. The FBI wants Apple to create special software to disable security features that, among other things, render the iPhone unreadable after 10 incorrect guesses. Apple has resisted, maintaining that software that opens a single iPhone could be exploited to hack into millions of other devices. The government insists that its precautions would prevent that, though security experts are doubtful. Should the FBI prevail, it would take computers less than a day to guess a six-digit passcode consisting solely of numbers, the default type of passcode in the latest version of the iPhone operating system. Even with security features disabled, each passcode guess takes 80 milliseconds to process, limiting the FBI to 12.5 guesses per second. For security-conscious individuals, the simplest protective move would be to use a passcode consisting of letters and numbers. Doing so would vastly increase the amount of time required to guess even short passcodes. Apple estimates it would take more than five years to try all combinations of a six-character passcode with numbers and lowercase letters. Adding capital letters to the mix would extend that further. Changing to an alphanumeric code is as simple as going into the phone settings and choosing "Touch ID & Passcode," then "Passcode options." Another option is simply to pick a much longer numeric code. An 11-character code consisting of randomly selected numbers that means no references to birthdays or anniversaries that could be easily guessed could take as long as 253 years to unlock. But longer, more complex codes are harder to remember, and that's probably why Apple hasn't yet required their use. It could, however, easily do so. In fact, iPhones moved to six-digit passcodes from four last September. Apple may have other tricks up its sleeve. For instance, the company could add additional layers of authentication that would thwart the security-bypassing software the FBI wants it to make, says computer security expert Jonathan Zdziarski. Apple phones rely on a feature known as the "secure enclave" to manage all passcode operations. The software demanded by the FBI would alter the secure enclave, Zdziarski says. But the software couldn't do so if the secure enclave required the user passcode to approve any such changes. "This is probably the best way to lock down a device," Zdziarski says. Apple could also require a second passcode whenever the phone boots up; without it, the phone wouldn't run any software, including the tool the FBI is requesting. "It would be like putting a steel door on the phone," Zdziarski says. Currently, iPhones automatically load the operating system before asking for a passcode. For now, Apple CEO Tim Cook is focusing on winning the current battle with the FBI in a Southern California federal court while also trying to sway public opinion in the company's favor. The skirmish could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime, Apple is probably already working on security improvements for the next version of the iPhone operating system that it will probably announce in June and release in September. This bill hasnt passed, thank FSM, but the fact that its even being seriously discussed is horrible. Illinois state representatives Keith Wheeler and John Caveletto have proposed a measure to financially punish children whose mothers will notor cannotname the father on the birth certificate. If an unmarried mother cannot or refuses to name the childs father at the time of birth, either: (a) a father must be conclusively established by DNA evidence; or (b) within 30 days after birth, another family member who will financially provide for the child must be named, in court, on the birth certificate. If neither condition is met, a birth certificate shall not be issued for the child and the mother will be ineligible for any financial aid provided under the Illinois Public Aid Code for the support of the child. So in other words, if the police cant find your rapist and your family is unsupportive, sucks to be you and sucks to be your kid. It doesnt get much more anti-life than that. A tip of the hat to the Friendly Atheist for shedding light on this story. Unfortunately, the Friendly Atheist article was written by an abortion supporter who used this as an opportunity to discredit Illinois Right to Life. IRLs sin was to briefly mention Cavalettos co-sponsorship of a completely unrelated piece of legislation. I was unable to reach IRLs executive director for comment, but a thorough search of IRLs website gives no indication that it supports this bill. My friend and prominent pro-life spokeswoman Rebecca Kiessling was conceived in rape and works with Hope After Rape Conception (HARC), which provides aid to survivors and their children. I asked her for a quote about this travesty of a bill. She told me that, sadly, this has come up before. Several of the women HARC has assisted were cut off from receiving state aid because they were unable to name the rapist. In one instance, the rape survivor mother had been abducted by a pimp in New York City, sold to another pimp because she refused to submit to being trafficked as a prostitute, and then was raped by the second pimp. She managed to escape and months later, she discovered she was pregnant. Because she only knew his street name and could not identify him for a paternity suit, the caseworker chose to cut her off. After several months and working with Kiessling and state legislators, her assistance was reinstated. That was in Michigan, where theres no uniform policy on how to deal with rape survivor mothers. Kiessling says that besides working to pass laws to provide for the termination of parental rights of rapists, working with legislators to create such guidelines is another important project of HARC. Kiessling also recounts an Illinois HARC client who pressed charges against her rapist. The rapist sued for custody and said hed drop the custody case if she would drop the criminal charges. Because Illinois law doesnt protect mothers in this situation, she had no practical choice but to agree. But when the deal was made, the judge (apparently acting independently, but foreshadowing the proposed bill) refused to approve the settlement unless someone else was on the hook for child support. In the end, the clients own father agreed to be named on the birth certificategiving the false appearance of father-daughter incest. Rape survivors need laws that encourage the provision of resources for their children. Instead, they find just the opposite. Shame on Rep. Wheeler and shame on Rep. Cavaletto. May this bill die a quick death in committee. Six school board candidates compete for three seats There are six candidates for three Washington County Board of Education seats in the Nov. 8 election. Three incumbents face challengers. '' : Thank you so much for you... Nobel Prize winner, IU grad fondly remembers his time in Bloomington Philip H. Dybvig said he loves Bloomington and thought it was a great place to be an undergraduate. Turns out there's a fair bit both individuals and Apple could do to FBI-proof their phones and shield private information from investigators and cybercriminals alike. Those measures include multiple passcodes and longer, more complex ones. Of course, increased security typically comes at the expense of convenience. Most efforts to improve phone security would make the devices harder to use, perhaps by requiring you to remember more passwords. Making it more difficult for law enforcement to crack open iPhones could also spur legal restrictions on phone security, something that neither Apple nor other technology companies want to see. "They are walking a tightrope," says Mark Bartholomew, a law professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who specializes in privacy and encryption issues. Requiring longer passcodes might annoy most Apple users, he says, while boosting phone security "sort of amplifies the whole argument that Apple is making things too difficult and frustrating law enforcement officials." Apple had no comment on any future security measures. In a recent letter to customers, it noted that it has routinely built "progressively stronger protections" into its products because "cyberattacks have only become more frequent and more sophisticated." In the current fight, the FBI aims to make Apple help it guess the passcode on the work phone used by Syed Farook before he and his wife killed 14 people at an office party in December. The FBI wants Apple to create special software to disable security features that, among other things, render the iPhone unreadable after 10 incorrect guesses. Apple has resisted, maintaining that software that opens a single iPhone could be exploited to hack into millions of other devices. The government insists that its precautions would prevent that, though security experts are doubtful. Should the FBI prevail, it would take computers less than a day to guess a six-digit passcode consisting solely of numbers, the default type of passcode in the latest version of the iPhone operating system. Even with security features disabled, each passcode guess takes 80 milliseconds to process, limiting the FBI to 12.5 guesses per second. For security-conscious individuals, the simplest protective move would be to use a passcode consisting of letters and numbers. Doing so would vastly increase the amount of time required to guess even short passcodes. Apple estimates it would take more than five years to try all combinations of a six-character passcode with numbers and lowercase letters. Adding capital letters to the mix would extend that further. Changing to an alphanumeric code is as simple as going into the phone settings and choosing "Touch ID & Passcode," then "Passcode options." Another option is simply to pick a much longer numeric code. An 11-character code consisting of randomly selected numbers that means no references to birthdays or anniversaries that could be easily guessed could take as long as 253 years to unlock. But longer, more complex codes are harder to remember, and that's probably why Apple hasn't yet required their use. It could, however, easily do so. In fact, iPhones moved to six-digit passcodes from four last September. Apple may have other tricks up its sleeve. For instance, the company could add additional layers of authentication that would thwart the security-bypassing software the FBI wants it to make, says computer security expert Jonathan Zdziarski. Apple phones rely on a feature known as the "secure enclave" to manage all passcode operations. The software demanded by the FBI would alter the secure enclave, Zdziarski says. But the software couldn't do so if the secure enclave required the user passcode to approve any such changes. "This is probably the best way to lock down a device," Zdziarski says. Apple could also require a second passcode whenever the phone boots up; without it, the phone wouldn't run any software, including the tool the FBI is requesting. "It would be like putting a steel door on the phone," Zdziarski says. Currently, iPhones automatically load the operating system before asking for a passcode. For now, Apple CEO Tim Cook is focusing on winning the current battle with the FBI in a Southern California federal court while also trying to sway public opinion in the company's favor. The skirmish could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime, Apple is probably already working on security improvements for the next version of the iPhone operating system that it will probably announce in June and release in September. This domain has expired. If you owned this domain, contact your domain registration service provider for further assistance. If you need help identifying your provider, visit https://www.tucowsdomains.com/ Nepalese Prime Minister KP Olis six-day visit to India ended on Wednesday evening, but no joint statement was signed between the two sides due to differences over the constitutional process in the neighbouring country. Delhi ensured no stone was left unturned in matters of hospitality and optics during Olis state visit the Nepalese premier stayed at Rashtrapati Bhavan and made a joint press appearance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, through it all, India stuck to its line that Nepals constitution should be based on a broader consensus. Olis visit came in the backdrop of the Madhesi unrest, which according to India could blow up again and affect bilateral ties between the two countries. India has been advising Nepal to find an inclusive solution to its political problem in the Terai region. Through the visit, Olis government continued to put all its energy into selling its new constitution as a historic and progressive achievement barely acknowledging any resultant grievances. His team wanted Delhi to welcome the statute. But Modi, in a carefully constructed formulation, said that while the creation of the constitution was an important achievement for Nepal, its success depended on consensus and dialogue as well as the countrys ability to address contentious issues based on these principles. Read more: No misunderstandings now, says Oli as India and Nepal talk it out Going a step forward, foreign secretary S Jaishankar said Oli gave his assurance that the Madhesis grievances especially those pertaining to revision of provincial boundaries and citizenship would be addressed. If the PM of a country gives a public assurance to his own citizens, and to another government, that speaks for itself, he said. This distance between the two countries played out in the formulation of the joint statement. Modi had laid out Indias views on the Nepalese constitution, and there was little chance of going beyond that to welcome the statute. But there was a more important disjunct. Though Olis government was willing to make a vague commitment on addressing demands that crop up in the future, Delhi sought a more categorical acknowledgment that there were issues on the table that needed a speedy resolution. Olis reluctance to put this on paper led to doubts over his commitment to implement a roadmap that Kathmandu had laid out on its own last year-end. The Nepal government had proposed to Delhi in December that it would create a mechanism to revise federal boundaries within three months. Though Oli fulfilled the promise of creating the mechanism on the eve of his visit to India, it was done unilaterally without taking Madhesi parties on board. Modi enquired about the terms of reference of this mechanism during the talks, expressing the hope that it would soon start delivering results on the basis of dialogue and consensus. Bilateral ties between the two countries may be back on track, but Delhi has made two things clear to Kathmandu first, the Oli government must meet its constitutional commitments within the prescribed time frame, and second, India will be watching to see if it does. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A few hours after walking to freedom from Punes Yerwada jail, actor Sanjay Dutt suggested his celebrity status had worked against him. Quite to the contrary, the bare facts of the case show the Bollywood star is actually lucky to have escaped the stigma of being convicted under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, a stringent terror law. Indeed, all of the people who were convicted of transporting or storing the weapons that Dutt was convicted of possessing remain in jail, serving much lengthier sentences under TADA. The facts speak for themselves. Dutt was in close contact with Anees Ibrahim, brother of Dawood Ibrahim, both of who are the main conspirators behind the 1993 Mumbai blasts. The fact also is that despite possessing three licensed weapons, Dutt felt the need to procure AK 56 rifles for self protection. Read: Paroles, furloughs: How Sanjay Dutt walked in and out of jail in 5 yrs The court accepted Dutts self protection argument but never asked how this logic can possibly apply to hand grenades which too the star procured and kept at his home in Mumbais Pali Hill. Lets take other facts and these are all culled from court records and testimonies on oath: Dutt was waiting at his residence for the consignment of arms to arrive. It came hidden in the frame of a car. Dutt provided the tools to prise out the hidden weapons and told his guard to stand at a different location from where the car was not visible. Then, of course, there were phone records to prove he had indeed been in conversation with Anees Ibrahim and importantly, the disclosure came from Dutt himself. So, there were a few people including Baba Mussa Chauhan and Magnum video owner Samir Hingora who went to Dutts house to deliver the consignment of arms. Similarly, there were others like Manzoor Ahmed whose car was used to bring back the weapons from Dutts residence. Also, there was an old woman by the name of Zaibunissa Kazi who kept the consignment in a bag in her house for a few days. Read: Dad, I am free today and I love you: Sanjay Dutt Each of them - Chauhan, Hingora, Ahmed and Kazi - were convicted under TADA. Ironically, Sanjay Dutt, the man at the centre, who received the consignment and then kept an AK and then admittedly destroyed it, was sentenced under the Arms Act. Zaibunissa, at best a storer of weapons unlike Dutt, an active seeker of prohibitive assault rifles, is still rotting in an unknown cell in an unknown prison. Dutt, however, is back, as Munna Bhai. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt walked free Thursday after completing his five-year prison sentence for illegal weapons possession in a case linked to the 1993 terror attack in Indias financial capital Mumbai. As the actor reached Mumbai, his Bollywood friends and colleagues extended a warm welcome to him. Dutt, 56, is expected to resume his film career soon. Actor Sanjay Dutt coming out of Pune's Yerwada Jail after completion of his jail term. (IANS) Rishi Kappor: Welcome back to the grind! Make some memorable movies now! Mahesh Bhatt: Homecoming !!! Lord, Im one, Lord, Im two, Lord, Im three, Lord, Im four, Lord Im five hundred miles (NAAM). Satish Kaushik: Welcome Sanjay Dutt. Trauma is over... Law has taken its course... New man, New life... Congrats to the family. God is great. Read: Sanjay Dutt released from jail, visit mothers grave Juhi Chawla: Welcome back Sanjay! Very very happy for all the Dutt family! Wish Sanjay all gods blessings! Masaba Mantena: There is no easy walk to freedom... Indeed! A wonderful thought. Thrilled for Sanjay Dutt and this family. Must be an irreplaceable feeing. Sajid Khan: The ordeal is over. Debt to society has been paid...family, friends, fans have waited for this day. Welcome home Baba! Ranvir Shorey: Paying for ones mistakes is the kind of stuff heroes are made of. Welcome back, Munnabhai. Raveena Tandon: Sanju has and will always be my most favourite co-star. As a person, hes wonderful. I remember when we were shooting together, the entire unit, from the director to the spot boy, would have a blast all thanks to Sanju and his humour. It was when we were shooting in Mauritius that Sanju got arrested for the first time upon his return to the city. I remember him being very lost and in deep thought. While everyone was having fun on the beach, he was evidently worried, sitting at the far end looking at the sea. The law has to take its course and one cant question it. But the fact remains that Sanju never condemned the law, its decision or the police. He served his sentence, stayed a good inmate and Im happy that he will walk out a free man today. Im so happy for him and I wish the best for him. Now, I cant wait to see another Munna Bhai! Subhash Ghai: I have known Sanjay since he was 17 and I cast him opposite Dilip Kumar in Vidhata. Then I directed him as Khalnayak in 1993 when he was a star. I was always in touch with his lifes ups and downs and felt he was always alone. He has learnt a lot of lessons and is a matured man today. I am sure you will find a new Sanjay Dutt now. His fans love him for his innocent heart and the personality he carries. I look forward to make another good film with him. Actor Sanjay Dutt, who walked out of Yerawada jail on Thursday after completing his sentence in the 1993 bomb blasts case, will begin shooting for Siddharth Anands action film this summer. The Bang Bang director is teaming up with Dutt for the first time. We will be working on a film soon. Its an action film (yet to be titled) with elements of thrill. We will begin shooting in summer, Siddharth said. He revealed it is not a multi-starrer. The project is likely to be the first for the 56-year-old actor after his jail term. Read: Raju Hiranis Sanjay Dutt obsession continues, Munna Bhai 3 coming Asked if there is a leading lady romancing Dutt in the film, Siddharth chose not to give out any details. Dutt will also be seen in director Umesh Shuklas untitled film with a social theme, Indra Kumars third instalment of comic caper Dhamaal and third part of Munnabhai series. 3 Idiots director Rajkumar Hirani has been working relentlessly on the script of a yet-untitled Sanjay Dutt biopic that he will take up next. The much talked-about film will see Ranbir Kapoor playing Dutt. Initially, the film-maker wasnt kicked about the idea of the biopic. Read: Sanjay Dutt can now look forward to these 6 films, including his biopic Aside from the biopic, Sanjay Dutts name has been attached to a number of films that have been touted as his big comeback film but there is no official confirmation about any of the films from Dutts side. Marco Bhau: Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra told HT that his sister Shelly will be directing the actor in a film, to be made under his banner. Third part of Munna Bhai franchise: Rajkumar Hirani has confirmed that they are working on the third part of the hit film series that will be directed by Hirani. Khalnayak Returns: Madhuri Dixit was cast opposite Sanjay Dutt in Khalnayak. Talks have been rife that Subhash Ghai might cast Dutt in the remake of the 90s hit, Khalnayak but there has been no confirmation from anyone. Kaante 2: Kaante was a remake of Hollywood movie Reservoir Dogs. Rumour has it that Sanjay Dutts old friend Sanjay Gupta might be making a sequel to their hit film. Talks also came up a few weeks back that Gupta has signed Dutt for an action thriller with no official word from the concerned parties yet. Prabhu Devas directorial venture: Manyata Dutt reportedly signed the actor-director for a home production that is slated to star Dutt in the lead. Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt said on Thursday to be free is the most amazing feeling after serving 42 months in prison for possessing an AK-56 supplied by gangsters said to be behind a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993. After 23 years of struggle, I am happy that the wait has come to an end... I know it will take some time for me to convince myself that I am free, Dutt told reporters at his residence in Mumbai. To be free is the most amazing feeling, he added. anjay Dutt with his children, Iqra and Shahraan, after he was released from prison. (Pramod Thakur/ Hindustan Times) Dutt was arrested on April 19, 1993, for possessing and destroying an AK-56 rifle, which was a part of a cache of arms and explosives which landed in India prior to the serial blasts of March 1993. He spent 18 months in jail in 1993. On July 31, 2007, the TADA court in Mumbai sentenced him to six years rigorous imprisonment under the Arms Act and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000. In 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling but reduced the sentence to five years. See: Sanjay Dutts journey from jail to home I miss my father today. If my father would have been alive, he would have been the happiest. His only fight was to see his son free, he said. Dad, I am free today and I love you, he said looking up at the sky. Sanjay Dutt, right, shows a thumbs up sign along with his wife Maanyata after arriving at his residence in Mumbai. (AP) Dutt had kissed the ground as he walked out of the Yerwada jail in Pune after authorities decided to release him ahead of schedule for good behaviour. I love my country and the Tricolour is my life. After coming out of the jail, I kissed the ground and saluted the flag, he said as wife Manyata and his children looked on. Read: Sanjay Dutts controversial paroles and furloughs, a timeline One of the most important moments of my life was when judge PD Kode Sir told me that I am not a terrorist. There was nothing else that was bigger than that for me. Dutt had taken a chartered flight from Pune to Mumbai with wife Manyata and children Iqra and Shahran. He was greeted by fans at the airport and went on to pay obeisance at Siddhivinayak temple. He then visited his mother and late Bollywood actor Nargis Dutts grave. The 56-year-old actor said he is looking forward to spending time with his family and getting back to work. Dutts jail term has been controversial with accusations that he availed of irregular remission in his sentence and was accorded special treatment by the authorities. Authorities have denied the reports and maintained that Dutts remission days were calculated in accordance with rules and jail manual. During his imprisonment, he was granted parole of 90 days in December 2013 and again for 30 days later. Sanjay Dutt at the Siddhivinayak temple after completing his prison term following his conviction in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case in Mumbai. (HT Photo) The actors early release has come as a relief for the Dutt family which has undergone the ordeal of seeing him walk in and out of police stations, custody, court premises and jails from the day of his arrest in 1993. His friends in the industry were also happy at his release. While filmmaker Raj Kumar Hirani, who will shortly start shooting a biopic on the actor, said he was very happy, director Subhash Ghai also said he wants to make a film with Dutt. Sanjay Dutt walked free from Punes Yerawada Jail on Thursday morning after completing his prison term following his conviction in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. (HT Photo) For more news on Sanjay Dutts release click here. Follow @htshowbiz for more. Trains have always had a strong connection with Bollywood. From the climax scene of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) and the dramatic journey in The Burning Train (1980) to the crucial first half of Chennai Express (2013), there are many memories attached to them when it comes to cinema. As Indias railway minister, Suresh Prabhu, tables the Union Railway Budget today (February 25), we speak to a few popular Bollywood actors, who reminisce about their most memorable train journeys. Sushant Singh Rajput I remember travelling in the Rajdhani Express from Delhi to Mumbai back in 2006. For three years before that, I was nursing my dream of becoming an actor, but I had a lot of apprehension. When I eventually dropped out of college and packed my bags, with some money that Id earned, those few hours in the train were the most exciting and liberating for me. I walked out of that train without an iota of doubt, and with a lot of excitement. Anil Kapoor I have travelled in trains many times. Theres something very warm about them. I remember my journey to Kolkata for the shoot of Ek Baar Kaho (1980). Since I was among the background actors, we were sent by train. I vividly remember playing cards, getting down at all the stations, and standing on the footboard. Also, initially, my friendship with my wife, Sunita, grew stronger, thanks to the train journeys. Hrishikesh Mukherjee (director) would even say that making a film is like a train journey, when different people come together only to part at the end with a promise to meet again. Read: The secret to my happy marriage is Sunita: Anil Kapoor Kriti Sanon Apart from frequently taking the Delhi Metro when I was living in the city, I also used to enjoy long train journeys. Travelling to Jammu from Delhi in a train, with my cousins, was one of the most exciting journeys I have undertaken. We played antakshari, cards and ate amazing home food. Read: I wasnt the most confident kid in school and college, says Kriti Sanon Jacqueline Fernandez When I came to Mumbai for the first time, I was put up in a guest house at Churchgate. I would take a local train from Churchgateto Andheri to go for auditions. It was an amazing experience. It helped me know the city and its people better. Trains are a lot more than just a mode of communication in a city like Mumbai; they are its lifeline. Raj Kummar Rao When I was about 14 years old, I took a train from Delhito Kozhikode (Kerala) with my taekwondo team for a championship. I was representing my state, Haryana, and won a gold medal. So, the train journey that I undertook back to Delhi with the gold medal was a very special one. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Salman Khan and his Khandaan have always been a steady support to Sanjay Dutt and his family. To celebrate Dutts release from Yerawada prison on Thursday morning, Salman will be throwing a lavish party Dutt was released Thursday after completing his five-year prison sentence for illegal weapons possession in a case linked to the 1993 terror attack in Indias financial capital Mumbai. Dutts wife Manyata and noted filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani greeted the actor as he came out of the prison gate in the western city of Pune. Now, Salman has made a perfect plan to welcome the 56-year-old actor with a lavish party, which will be attended by family and close Bollywood friends of the duo at his Panvel farmhouse. Watch: Sanjay Dutt leaves Yerawada prison Sanjay Dutt, after reaching Mumbai and completing his pre-planned day-long schedule, will head to Salmans Panvel farmhouse with his family, where the Dabangg actor has made arrangement so that media and all kinds of intrusions are kept at bay. The 50-year-old actor too has plans to spend quality time with Sanjay before he leaves for Haryana to work on the next schedule of Sultan. Salman also sent four bodyguards to the Mumbai airport to escort Sanjay the whole day. Sanjay has reached Mumbai after serving the remainder of his five-year sentence for possession of illegal arms in the ?93 Mumbai bomb blasts case and now will be heading for Siddhivinayak. (ANI) They hired, then they fired, some even shut shops. After a rush to get funding and increase headcounts, a number of startups have been firing employees in the past few months. More than a thousand workers have lost their jobs in the layoffs. Seven to eight months ago, rating and food-ordering firms Zomato and TinyOwl have asked about 550 people to leave. Rival Foodpanda laid off more than 300 employees. E-grocer Localbanya has temporarily (according to its website) suspended operations, and asked 40 people to quit. Last year, real-estate platform Housing.com reduced its headcount by 800 people. The latest addition to the list is Snapdeal, Indias second-largest ecommerce firm. The company has put 200 employees in the contact-centre business on performance improvement programme (PIP). Many team members have opted for this opportunity to improve requisite skills set, some team members have desired not to undertake the PIP and have instead decided to move on voluntarily, a Snapdeal spokesperson said. But theres a background to the story. In March 2013, Snapdeal had 1,300 employees. It was to double its headcount in the next couple of years, but in anticipation of growth, it employee strength went up to 8,000. This was a result of mass hiring for example, 250 management trainees and 300 engineers were hired in one year. A former employee of Snapdeal said many of these people dont have enough work to do. But, Snapdeal doesnt have a pink-slip policy. This move is to rationalise headcount, the employee said. Market watchers said this was waiting to happen for a long time. Showcasing hiring is an indicator of size, but as businesses mature, venture capital firms look at profitability. Companies are focusing on performance and bottomline, said Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder and senior vice-president at staffing firm TeamLease. TinyOwl is looking at more job cuts, and has asked some of its employees in Mumbai to leave. In Delhi, it has shut down its Gurgaon office. Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal had told HT earlier: There was no downsizing in the sales team, but 300 people in the content team who worked on listing were asked to leave. Some part of the job cuts, Chakraborty said, is because more roles would be outsourced, including IT, logistics and packaging. Snapdeal has already started outsourcing. We have a healthy mix of in-house and outsourced facilities across functions, the spokesperson said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The police said no foreign funding was involved in the February 9 incident on the JNU campus where students allegedly raised anti-national slogans. Sources said the police came to this conclusion after JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, both charged with sedition in the February 9 event, were interrogated for 12 hours on Wednesday. The duo had surrendered before the police half an hour before midnight on Tuesday. Police sources said that the two were questioned in two phases and the interrogation was conducted in-camera. Later in the day, a magistrate was called to the RK Puram police station who remanded both the JNU students in police custody for three days. Officers privy to the investigation told HT that Khalid and Bhattacharya were questioned separately at regular intervals by a team of 10 officers, including two ACPs and three inspectors, While Khalid reportedly cooperated with the police, Bhattacharya remained silent on most of the questions, said sources. Khalid is learnt to have told police that organising the event to commemorate Afzal Gurus hanging was his idea. He reportedly said Bhattacharya prepared the posters for the event while Riyaz, another JNU student who is yet to surrender, arranged the sound system and publicised the event on social media. He named one Banjyotsana Lahiri as the coorganiser of the event. His claims are being verified, said police. Both said outsiders raised the anti-national slogans. Sources said the two students were asked about their whereabouts between February 12 and February 21 and who helped them evade arrest. They were asked why did they shout anti-national slogans. They were asked if there was someone who incited them against the country, police sources said. Was JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar assaulted when he was produced before the Patiala House court on February 17? There are varying accounts of the incident as per the Delhi Police and two probes -- one by the Supreme Court and the other by the Delhi high courts registrar general. The police denied that Kanhaiya was assaulted but both the Supreme Court team and the registrar general said the student leader was beaten up by people in black coats, quoting his lawyer. The registrar said he himself did not witness the incident as he was not present on the spot . According to his report, he was inside the magistrates court where Kanhaiya was to be produced to oversee the security arrangements. He learnt of the assault only after Kanhaiya told his advocate about it. The dispute over whether the police made an attempt to nab two unidentified men present in the courtroom also remains unsolved. According to Kanhaiyas lawyers, the police had violated the SC order by allowing the men inside because they had nothing to do with the case. Only the legal team representing the accused, police counsel, police personnel escorting Kanhaiya and five mediapersons were permitted there. One of the two had apparently assaulted the JNUSU president outside. The police in its defence said a proper search was launched to nab the two unidentified men but by then they had disappeared. In their report, the police said there were adequate security arrangements in and around Patiala court complex. There were enough policemen providing protection to Kanhaiya who was surrounded by two rings of police personnel. Lot of commotion followed but he was escorted safely to the court room by the policemen despite some hiccups, read the police report. The police described injuries sustained by Kanhaiya as minor abrasions on foot, tow and nose. It was also found that one of the lawyers of the accused was trying to dictate and influence the doctor, the police report notes. The registrar also confirmed to have alerted one of the deputy commissioners of police present on the spot. The panel of SC advocates, however, did not agree with the police version and said it was unbelievable that a man was not arrested despite the DCP chasing him in presence of many police personnel. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The nationalism debate which is raging at the moment has thrown up many ideas, some innovative and novel, some downright off-the-wall. The proposal to install an army tank on the premises of Jawaharlal Nehru University falls in the latter category. The suggestion comes from a group of army veterans who feel that this will inculcate a sense of patriotism in the students, some of whom are being accused of raising slogans that have been termed, without any legal basis, seditious. Whether they were or not is now for the courts to decide. However, there is now a tussle among various factions to project themselves as super patriots. So the proposal from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing on the BJP that a wall of honour to commemorate our fallen soldiers on campus might be the appropriate way to instil patriotism comes as no surprise. We can only wonder what next. Some military hardware in schools to promote patriotism from an early stage? It is a matter for concern that a modern, vibrant democratic state like India should need a display of tanks and stories of military sacrifices to bring out the patriot in people. Patriotism is not a value which can be inculcated by symbols of military might, it comes naturally to people and is loosely based on national pride. It could be pride in our cultural heritage, our technological prowess, scientific achievements, our thriving film industry, our great works of literature, the leaders who fought for our independence. It will vary from person to person and will depend on personal tastes. Some people feel an overwhelming sense of patriotism just listening to the national anthem. It is not something that can be implanted in a person by a show of the nations might. And certainly students across the world tend to abhor militaristic symbols as indicators of national pride. Such suggestions, perhaps well meaning, will vitiate the already fraught atmosphere further. The best thing would be to leave well alone and not try and add layers to the bitter controversy. India has much to recommend for itself and enough room for dissent, even a bit of nation-bashing at times. The gentle spirit of inquiry, dissent and debate and tolerance of all points of view barring incitement to violence are the best tributes to our patriotism, not the display of tanks and guns. The nationalism debate raging at the moment has thrown up many ideas, some innovative and novel, some downright off-the-wall. The proposal to install an army tank on the premises of Jawaharlal Nehru University falls in the latter category. The suggestion comes from a group of army veterans who feel that this will inculcate a sense of patriotism in the students, some of whom are being accused of raising slogans that have been termed, without any legal basis, seditious. Whether they were or not is now for the courts to decide. However, there is now a tussle among various factions to project themselves as super patriots. So the proposal from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP, that a wall of honour to commemorate our fallen soldiers on campus might be the appropriate way to instill patriotism comes as no surprise. We can only wonder what next. Some military hardware in schools to promote patriotism from an early stage? It is a matter of concern that a modern, vibrant democratic State like India should need a display of tanks and stories of military sacrifices to bring out the patriot in people. Patriotism is not a value which can be inculcated by symbols of military might, it comes naturally to people and is loosely based on national pride. It could be pride in our cultural heritage, our technological prowess, scientific achievements, our thriving film industry, our great works of literature, the leaders who fought for our independence. It will vary from person to person and will depend on personal tastes. Some people feel an overwhelming sense of patriotism just listening to the national anthem. It is not something that can be implanted in a person by a show of the nations might. And certainly students across the world tend to abhor militaristic symbols as indicators of national pride. Such suggestions, perhaps well-meaning, will vitiate the already fraught atmosphere further. The best thing would be to leave well alone and not try and add layers to the bitter controversy. India has much to commend for itself and enough room for dissent, even a bit of nation-bashing at times. The gentle spirit of inquiry, dissent and debate and tolerance of all points of view barring incitement to violence are the best tributes to our patriotism, not the display of tanks and guns. Students have a grouse. Many of them allege that whenever they have complained against unethical practices adopted by postgraduate diploma in management (PGDM) institutes to the All-India Council For Technical Education (AICTE), they have only received assurance that action will be taken. However, their issues have remained unresolved. According to AICTE rules, if a student wants to withdraw from a PGDM college before the beginning of a session, the institute should refund the whole amount paid as fee but my institute didnt do it. I emailed my complaint to AICTE but didnt get any response, says a student requesting anonymity. Another student who has complained to the AICTE is from the TA Pai Management Institute (TAPMI). He says, I wrote to the AICTE that TAPMI has not refunded one full years fee because I failed to score 4.4 CGPA in the first term. AICTE wrote a letter to TAPMI asking the institute to return my money in August last year, but I havent got it till now. Read more: Medical Council makes doctors of those it once rejected When HT Education wrote to Anil Sahasrabudhe, AICTE chairman, he forwarded the mail to AICTE official SK Patnaik who was not available for comments. However, SS Mantha, former AICTE director, when contacted, said such complaints were common in AICTE when he was heading the council till January 2015. These complaints are not new. In fact, from 2002 to 2006, AICTE stopped granting approvals to PGDM institutes for these reasons. They have even violated the Supreme Court order. SC has asked all the institutes to declare the admission process and fee structure on their website but some institutes are showing something on their website and practising something else, says Mantha. Any institute can get autonomous status either by the University Grants Commission or by a committee set up for that purpose. They cant be called autonomous institutes without following the due procedure to become autonomous, he adds. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The ministry of human resource development is inviting online applications from Indian nationals residing in India working in the public sector, private sector or for civil society organisations for the Commonwealth Scholarship for masters/PhD-level study in New Zealand. Click here to apply online. The application form can be downloaded by clicking here. The complete scholarship application form, along with the supporting documents must be submitted with the HRD ministry at the time of interview. The subject fields are agriculture development and renewable energy. Applicants should have completed bachelors degree or masters degree in the subject or allied fields with minimum 65% marks for masters or PhD respectively. Apart from general eligibility criteria, an applicant must be an Indian citizen. Indian citizens living abroad are not eligible. Read more: Scholarships for Indian students to study in UK Candidates will be assessed based on academic merit, examination results, among other parameters. Click here to know more. Students of Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal, for postgraduate diplomas in management in 2015, were in for a surprise when they received the institutes postgraduate diploma in management (PGDM) handbook. It said failure to secure 4.4 CGPA (Cumulative Grade Points Average, the average of grade points scored in all subjects) in the first term would mean cancellation of their admission. The standard practice in institutes is to evaluate students performance on the basis of three terms spread throughout the year. Those failing to get the required CGPA in their year-end score have to be readmitted in a new batch. Students allege that TAPMI made the handbook available to them only after they took admission and paid the full years fee of Rs 8.5 lakh. More trouble was in store for those who couldnt score 4.4 CGPA in the first term as TAPMI asked them not only to withdraw from the institute but also to repeat the course next year or lose the full first years fee of Rs 8.5 lakh. Those wanting to repeat the first term were asked to pay an additional amount of Rs 2 lakh. Surprisingly, these details were not mentioned in the handbook. Students from older TAPMI batches have similar complaints. I had scored close to 4.4 CGPA in the first term but the institute asked me to either repeat the full year or leave. My CGPA scores were low because I was not well and missed one of the lectures. The institute enforces 100% attendance, another factor which determines the CGPA. I opted to leave the institute and join another in 2015. The institute did not return the full years fee of Rs 8.5 lakh to me, says a student who had joined TAPMI in 2014. One of the (approximately) 10 students who had not cleared the first semester in 2014 said he had paid the additional amount of Rs 2 lakh for readmission in 2015. When contacted, RC Natarajan, director, TAPMI, admitted that all students failing to score 4.4 CGPA have to discontinue their studies and the full years fee is not returned to them. However, he contradicted the students statement about being informed about the CGPA rule only after securing admission at TAPMI. This is brought to the knowledge of the students and their parents at the time of admission. Our rules are in consonance with the prevailing practice in other prestigious management institutes. After knowing these rules when students opt to join our institute, they impliedly and expressly agree to abide by the same, he said. Asked why the information was not available on the TAPMI website, Natarajans response was: Not every aspect is put on the website. The institutes website, surprisingly, informs students that At the end of the first year, a student who doesnt meet the minimum standard is asked to withdraw from the programme. Natarajan also refused to share data on the number of students failing to score 4.4 CGPA in the first semester, saying, The number of students failing in different terms is not a matter to be disclosed to public. Only the regulatory body or the court has the authority to seek it (information) for clearly spelt-out purposes. Management experts contradict Natarajans claim that all prestigious institutes evaluate students in the first semester. I am in favour of full autonomy to PGDM institutes, however it shouldnt put students at a disadvantage, says Bakul Dholakia, former director, IIM Ahmedabad. Read more: What should govt do to save careers of many medical students? Pritam Singh, former director, IIM Lucknow, says asking students to withdraw after a term is extremely unreasonable and devoid of total human consideration. Its based on the concept of profiteering. Asked if PGDM institutes are misusing the autonomy granted by Supreme Court in 2011, Harivansh Chaturvedi, director, Birla Institute of Management Technology, says, Out of 450 PGDM institutes, if some are making mistakes, I will call it aberration rather than a prevalent norm. When AICTE received a lot of complaints from students, it issued a circular in 2010 to regulate admission processes, course duration, fee, etc but some PGDM schools challenged it in the SC in 2011 and the apex court stayed it by an interim order. Every year the case comes up for hearing and SC extends its interim order for the next year, says SS Mantha, former AICTE chairman. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Genderless fashion is the buzzword for many of todays top designers, highlighted at London Fashion Week by a string of androgynous touches on the catwalks. From Christopher Kanes heavy, dark, asymmetric tailoring to Burberrys parade of male and female models in military overcoats and aviator jackets, masculine styling repeatedly stood out in the womens autumn/winter collections. Read: Fashion resolutions for 2016 Its not just in London where designers are experimenting with preconceptions about gender and identity. (See all the runway and model photos from the Christopher Kane Spring 2016 Ready-to-Wear collection below) Gucci has sent men down the catwalks in pussybows and hot pink suits under new creative director Alessandro Michele while Jaden Smith, son of US actor Will Smith, was unveiled as the face of Louis Vuitton womenswear last month. Transgender models such as Andreja Pejic and Lea T are among the most sought after in the industry. Read: 10 top trends to try now One of its rising stars is US model Rain Dove, who, standing at six foot two inches with chiselled features, models in both male and female fashion shows. She attributes the change to the rise of social media, which mean that brands are having to be more diverse whether they like it or not. People are realising that they cant dupe people into thinking theres only one way to be, that a size zero is the most common thing in the world, that the only (person) that could ever afford a Chanel purse is white, she told AFP. Not just skinny white girls Dove, who calls herself a gender capitalist and came to modelling via firefighting and construction, says she got her big break when she was cast for a Calvin Klein underwear show by a director who thought she was a man. She walked in two womens shows in London this season and last year featured in both male and female shows in New York. All my life Ive joked that I was an ugly woman, she said. But as a male, they were like, this is top notch, hes male, hes over six feet tall, hes young, lets put him in. Read: Do men really embrace androgyny? With an activists attitude, last year she posed for lingerie shots copying a Victorias Secret campaign before photoshopping the models heads on to her body to highlight that women should not be ashamed of how they look. I dont have time to get in line and I dont have time to be hindered by inequalities, she said. If someone calls me sir or if someone calls me maam, I dont care as long as they have positive intentions. Read: When quirky feather headgears, androgynous frocks ruled AIFW Younger, up and coming designers in London seem to share her views, even if some at the top of the industry are still wedded to a more conservative viewpoint. Drop that label Claire Barrow, seen as among the most promising of Londons new generation of designers for her punkish, artistic style, insists that her clothes are always genderless. If somebody looks really good in something, Ill put them in it, she explained. I want to make sure that things change and its not just skinny white girls walking down the catwalk. While the rise of social media may be a large factor, some experts believe there is also wider change at play as people in Britain and in other countries become more accepting of different gender identities. Were trying to be more inclusive of difference, accepting diversity, accepting LGBT people and clothing to not just say whether youre male or female but about how you want to be as an individual, said Carolyn Mair, a reader in psychology at the London College of Fashion. Dove is hopeful that there could be even more fundamental changes in the industry soon. The next big step is to just drop that label of mens and womens, she said. Follow @htlifeandstyle for more. A Dalit medical student, who has failed to clear the final year of MBBS 20 years after being admitted to the course, has threatened to commit suicide if he is not declared passed this time. The student, Kapil Dev Chaudhary, 52, was admitted to Darbhanga Medical College (DMC) in north Bihar in 1995 for the medical course. For 20 years, hes been struggling to get the medical degree and become a doctor. Chaudhary said he has not been able to appear for the exam because of his poor health. He tried his luck in 2015 but in vain. He pointed out that his two sons and daughter have cleared the medical exam and are based in New Delhi. Moreover, his younger son is an IIT student. He has sent a series of SMSes to the head of the department of medicine, Dr BK Singh, threatening to commit suicide if he is not declared passed in the MBBS final year examination. One of the text messages read, Sir, kindly pass me. While the other SMS read, I have seen you for 20 years. No meeting now. Now you will meet my body. Fearing a Hyderabad University-like situation where Dalit scholar Rohith Vemulas suicide created nationwide furore, college principal RK Sinha has lodged an FIR after receiving the threat from Chaudhary. I was left with no other option. So, I called the police officials apart from informing the district magistrate about the SMS, said Sinha. Chaudhary filed an affidavit on Thursday declaring he would not commit suicide and instead appear for the examination once again this year. Darbhanga additional superintendent of police D Ahmad said hes looking into the matter and the investigation will proceed only after recording the statement of the student. Pakistans anti-terrorism court has finally recorded the statements of all Pakistani witnesses in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case. The anti-terrorism court (ATC) Islamabad which held the hearing on Wednesday at the high security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi recorded the statements of the final witness, concluding the process. Five witnesses have not recorded their statements despite a number of court summons. The court has declared them proclaimed offenders. All the Pakistani witnesses of the Mumbai case have recorded their statements. Now only Indian witnesses are left to record their statements, a prosecution lawyer told PTI. He said the trial would be concluded once the Indian witnesses record their statements. The prosecution lawyer said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the trial court that the interior ministry has written to the foreign ministry over summoning of the 24 Indian witnesses to Pakistan for recording of statements. The court adjourned the hearing till March 2. In the last hearing, the court, which is holding the trial of the seven accused including Mumbai attack mastermind and LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, had ordered the FIA to present all 24 Indian witnesses in court to record their statements. Besides, it had also ordered to bring back to Pakistan the boats used by Ajmal Kasab and other militants on the grounds that it is a case property and should be duly examined. A court official had said earlier that the statements of four key Indian witnesses recorded by the Pakistani commission in 2012 were not admissible in the trial court as the Indian government had not allowed their cross-examination. The 8-member Pakistani judicial commission had visited India on behalf of the Pakistani anti-terrorism court (ATC). The statements of the Indian witnesses were supposed to be used as evidence in the trial. However, Lakhvis lawyer had challenged the commissions proceedings because chief metropolitan magistrate SS Shinde did not let its members cross-examine witnesses. The trial court subsequently declared the proceedings of the commission illegal. Pakistani authorities have arrested seven LeT members involved with the planning of the attacks. Apart from Lakhvi, other arrested LeT men are Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Sadiq, Shahid Jamil, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum. A trial is underway against them at the ATC since 2009. Lakhvi, 55, secured bail in December 2014 and was subsequently released from Adiala Jail on April 10, 2015, after the Lahore high court set aside the governments order to detain him under a public security act. Three months after Maharashtra Police transferred 71 cases against deported gangster Chhota Rajan to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the agency has registered just one fresh FIR due to logistical issues. The delay is because most cases against Rajan are over 25 years old which make the task of collecting relevant police records, in coordination with local police authorities, time-consuming and challenging, said a CBI source. Some cases had reached the trial stages. Records pertaining to the original complainants and witnesses are to be gathered, said the source. There is no delay on our part. The Maharashtra government had transferred the 71-odd cases on November 19 to the CBI. The only case the CBI was able to take up pertains to the murder of Mumbai crime journalist Jyotirmoy Dey in June 2011 by bike-borne assailants. CBI said it registered the FIR in the Dey case on January 5 this year. Rajan has denied any role whatsoever in the case. The CBI brought Rajan via deportation from Indonesia ---on November six, 2015 ---where he was arrested by local authorities on the basis of a pending Interpol Red Corner notice against him. The requirement of translating police records from Marathi to English was also delaying the process of filing FIRs in the other 70 cases, another CBI source said. Some in the agency are also apprehensive that in a handful of cases, including those concerning extortion demands, the investigators might be waging a losing battle to retrieve the old documents, he said. In the Dey case, Mumbai Polices FIR didnt name Rajan but included him as one of the two absconding accused in a subsequent chargesheet submitted in a local court. CBI did not name him in its FIR, but could do so when it files a chargesheet if the probe proves his alleged complicity. On Rajans arrival via deportation, the agency took him in custody in the case registered by it related to his alleged fraudulent procurement of an Indian passport in 2003. The CBI submitted its chargesheet against Rajan on February 3. A total of 445 Indians, most of them fishermen, are currently lodged in jails in Pakistan, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday. In addition, 74 missing defence personnel, including 54 prisoners of war, are believed to be in Pakistani jails since 1971, minister of state for external affairs VK Singh said, in written reply to a question. Singh said 392 Indian fishermen and 53 other civilian prisoners are currently lodged in Pakistans custody, adding the government regularly takes up with Islamabad the issue of their early release and repatriation. On prisoners of war, Singh said Pakistan does not acknowledge their presence in its custody. The minister said a total of 1262 Indian fishermen were arrested in foreign waters in 2015. To a separate question, Singh said a total of 2,102 Indians were injured or killed in the last three years during various tragedies in foreign countries out of which 1,575 were brought back. This is in addition to 35,000 people evacuated from Nepal following the devastating quake in that country in April last year, he said. Replying to another query, Singh said India was ready to play a meaningful role in Syrias peace process, if required. He, however, added that Syrian government has not extended any invitation to India for its participation in the peace talks. When the CPI(M) central committee meet in New Delhi concluded last week, workers were seen distributing sweets in faraway Kerala. Why? The state unit had prevailed over a desperate attempt by its West Bengal counterpart to sew up an alliance with the Congress Party. The Kerala communists are aware that a tie-up in West Bengal would dent their electoral prospects in the state, one of the Lefts last bastions in the country. Relegated to oblivion in West Bengal, the Left is desperately trying to wrest power in Kerala. Going by the states poll arithmetic, which alternates between ruling coalitions every five years, it is time to turn Left. However, things may not be as easy this time around. The ruling Congress-led UDF is trying hard to rewrite poll history in the state, and distant third-runner BJP is set to give a tough fight to both the UDF and the LDF in at least one-third of its seats (totalling 140). So, with the stacks heavily loaded against all the three, they are busy wooing caste and community leaders. The shift in the Lefts tactics which has gone from preaching atheism to conducting secular yoga classes and taking an active interest in temple politics is a classic example of this. Despite setbacks in three by-elections, the Left proved that it was still a force to reckon with by winning 60% of the seats in the recent local body polls considered the semi-final before the assembly polls. Also read: Very strong at 87 Unlike Bengal, the cadre base of Keralas Leftist parties remains intact. For a change, the top leadership of the party is posing a united front opposition leader V S Achuthanandan and his bet noire, former secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, have buried their rivalry for now. As 92-year-old VS remains the partys biggest hope of victory, the party is no mood to antagonise him. Party general secretary Sitaram Yechury heaped praises on him after the local body polls, even stating that age was no criterion when it comes to contesting elections. Meanwhile, an intense debate rages over who will become the chief minister in case of a Leftist victory VS or Vijayan. While there is little doubt that VS will extract his pound of flesh, many in the party fear that there would be a tussle for the top post once the time is ripe. On the positive side, the CPI(M) has enough fodder to target its main opponents in the state. It plans to take on the UDF by using the charges against chief minister Oommen Chandy, finance minister KM Manis exit, the solar scam and the bar controversy to full effect. The state has never seen such a corrupt regime. The people are waiting for an opportunity to boot it out, said VS. Well, the answer will be known only once the polls begin. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday trained his guns at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi again asking him to clarify whether he justified alleged anti-India slogans raised on JNU campus in the name of freedom of speech. I want to know whether such seditious slogans can be passed as free speech, Shah asked party cadre after inaugurating the new-look party headquarters in Lucknow. Gandhi and his Congress party have come out in support of students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University who are protesting the arrest of their comrades on sedition charges over an event to protest Parliament attack convict Afzal Gurus execution three years ago. For six days, I have been asking Rahul Gandhi. But he is yet to reply. Now, I would request the media too to seek an answer from Rahul Gandhi on this, he said. Shah said the Narendra Modi government would come down strongly on anyone raising anti-India slogans. On Wednesday, Shah had demanded that political parties, particularly Congress, make their stand clear on the anti-national slogans allegedly raised in JNU. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi should clarify their partys stand on whether raising anti-India slogans was justified or it was anti-national (deshdroh). Please dont stoop so low for vote bank politics, he had said while addressing a public meeting at Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh. Three students, including JNU student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar, have been arrested and three more are wanted by Delhi Police for their alleged role in the event. Gyan Dev Ahuja, a BJP legislator from Rajasthan who has earned ridicule for suggesting the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was a sex den, said on Thursday that 50% of the cases of rape and molestation in New Delhi were committed by the students of the institute. The statistics are from the annual report of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), the MLA from Ramgarh in Alwar district, who drew flak earlier this week over claims that more than 3,000 used condoms and 2,000 liquor bottles are found daily at the JNU campus, said. Ahuja faced criticism on social media and beyond after he called JNU students anti-nationals and accused them of misdeeds with our sisters and daughters, saying more than 10,000 cigarette butts, 4,000 beedis, 50,000 bone pieces, 2,000 wrappers and 3,000 used condoms were found at the campus. The ensuing Twitter storm, where hashtags critical of the BJP trended for hours, prompted party chief Amit Shah to summon the 65-year-old to Delhi. Read: BJP MLA who said 3,000 condoms found in JNU caught in scandal HT reached out to him on Thursday to find out about the source of the information after he was seen reading out from a paper while making the bizarre condom-counting statement during a protest march in Alwar. Ahuja said his source was a secret but pointed out that there was a condom vending machine at the JNU campus. I fail to understand why an education campus should have a condom vending machine. I have pictures of the machine, he told HT, adding that he was collecting information for more revelations about the institute. On Wednesday, Ahuja landed in another controversy after purported photographs emerged showing him dancing with women and showering money on them. The images seemed to have been taken during Lohri celebrations in 2015. Some photos also showed him wearing a garland made up of Rs 500 notes. Ahuja has been associated with the RSS, BJPs ideological parent, since 1958 and has been a member of the ABVP, Hindu Jagran Manch and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) all bodies of the RSS for years before he took the plunge into politics in 1993 to prevent atrocities on Hindus. According to the Rajasthan assembly website, his educational qualification is BA (first year) and occupation is journalism. He dropped out after his first year in college because of his family conditions. People have mocked my education without knowing what the circumstances that forced the dropout, he said. I have been a trade unionist since 1977 till my first election in 1993 which I lost. The two-term MLA won from Ramgarh for the first time in 1998. He lost the 2003 polls but hasnt been defeated since. Read: 3,000 condoms, 4,000 beedis: BJP MLA calls JNU hub for sex and drugs . SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Amid increasing reports and comment in the Western media about recent events in India, foreign secretary S Jaishankar met editors of British newspapers and scholars during a two-day visit here this week. No details of the talks were available but a statement of the Indian high commission said: Foreign Secretary...interacted with a select group of scholars and editors on a range of topics, including Indias foreign policy and regional and global issues of contemporary importance. Jaishankar followed up decisions taken during the November visit here of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during bilateral meetings with Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Letwin and national security adviser Mark Lyall Grant. He attended the Extraordinary Meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, the high commissions statement said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON It was on August 26, 2015, when 56-year-old Sanjay Dutt was last released from jail on a 30-day parole. Dutt was last spotted at Khar police station sporting a black shirt and new haircut, at a time when the police officials were busy handling the controversial Sheena Bora murder case. It possibly was the last time the actor had to report to a police station. And Wednesday would possibly be the last time Dutt would spend time in a barrack as he readies himself to walk out of the Yerwada prison after serving a sentence of five years for being in possession of an AK-56 rifle and his connection with the 1993 Mumbai blasts. Read: There is no easy walk to freedom, says Sanjay Dutt after being released Here is a complete timeline of Sanjay Dutts relationship with the law since his arrest in 1993. Dutt convicted to 5 years or 60 months in prison Number of days spend in prison from 1993 to 2007: 551 days Number of days Dutt spend in prison since May 16 2013: 894 days Number of days out of parole: 120 days Number of days out on furlough: 44 days April 19, 1993 Sanjay Dutt was arrested under TADA and the Arms Act for his role in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. May 5, 1993 He was released on bail. July 4, 1994 His bail was cancelled and he was re-arrested. November 4, 1993: Nearly eight months after the serial blasts, primary charge sheet running to more than 10,000 pages were filed against 189 accused including actor Sanjay Dutt. October 16, 1995: Sanjay Dutt granted bail by Supreme Court. November 2006 - The TADA court found Sanjay Dutt guilty under Arms Act but acquitted him under TADA. July 2007 He was convicted and sentenced to six year jail term. August 2, 2007 He was re-arrested and taken to Yerwada prison in Pune August 20, 2007 He was granted bail by Supreme Court. March 21, 2013 Supreme Court sends Sanjay Dutt to five year in jail and asked him to surrender within four weeks. April 15, 2013 Dutts advocate made an oral request to court to allow the actor to directly surrender before the jail and not before the special court. April 17, 2013: the Apex court granted time of four weeks to Dutt to surrender before the special court. April 20, 2013: The Actor moved a review petition against the March 21 judgement of the apex court. May 10, 2013: The Apex court rejected the review petition of the actor. May 16, 2013: Dutt surrenders and is send to Yerwada Prison in Pune October 2, 2013: Dutt is granted furlough for two weeks, and is extended by two weeks till October 29 October 30, 2013: Dutt returns to prison December 6, 2013: Dutt granted parole for 30 days Watch | Sanjay Dutt walks out of Punes Yerwada jail as a free man January, 2014: Granted first parole extension of 30 days February 18, 2014: Granted second extension of 30 days December 23, 2014: Granted furlough January 10, 2015: Dutt returns to prison after his plea for extension is turned down August 26, 2015: Dutt is released of parole February 25, 2016: Dutt is released from Jail Read: Sanjay Dutt release: Trishala shares videos in celebration Charges on the actor Sanjay Dutt coming out of the Yerawada jail on a 14-day parole. Criminal conspiracy: Not guilty as conspiracy not established Section 3(3) of TADA: Not guilty as intention of aiding and abetting terrorism not established Section 5 of TADA Act: Not guilty as prima facie the possession has direct nexus with terrorist activities not established Section 6 of TADA Act: Not guilty as possession of arms and ammunition with intent to aid terrorists not established. Section 3 and 7 read with sections 25 (1-A) and (1-B) of Arms Act: Found guilty Speculation of sentence: Under section 7 read with section (1-A) of Arms Act, the minimum punishment is five years and a maximum of 10 years. Under section 3 read with (1-B) of Arms Act the punishment is from 1 to 3 years. In 1995, Dutt had made a representation before the advisory committee of the state that the charges of TADA against him should be dropped and if at all he is charged, he should be charged under Arms Act. More than five years after he had first recommended rejection of Afzal Gurus mercy petition, former home minister P Chidambarams grave doubts about the extent of Gurus alleged involvement in the 2001 Parliament attack provoked a sharp reaction from the BJP. Urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu wondered why the former home minister was being so sympathetic. He served as the countrys home minister and the execution took place during their (UPA) regime. The then government gave its nod to the same. Why this new sympathy, all of a sudden? As the Union home minister, Chidambaram had recommended rejection of Gurus plea in August 2011 to then President Pratibha Patil. Rashtrapati Bhavan, however, did not act on the recommendation and put it on hold. Guru was hanged after the mercy plea was considered afresh by Chidambarams successor in the home ministry, Sushil Kumar Shinde, and rejected. Guru was executed days later, on February 3, 2013, without reportedly giving him a chance to exhaust his legal remedies. Gurus execution has been a sore point with many in Kashmir and has been used by militants to inspire the youth to take to arms. There were grave doubts about his involvement (in the conspiracy behind the attack on Parliament) and even if he was involved, there were grave doubts about the extent of his involvement. He could have been imprisoned for life without parole for (the) rest of his natural life, Chidambaram was quoted as saying by The Economic Times. Chidambaram had said though the government at that time could not have held the court decision wrong, an independent person can hold an opinion that the case was not decided correctly. In the Rajya Sabha, finance minister Arun Jaitley referred to his distinguished former colleague supporting the arguments of those lauding Guru and asked the Congress not to respect anti-Indian protests. As Chidambaram came under attack from the BJP, the Congress quickly distanced itself from his views. Superstars are known to have crazy fans who idolise them and, sometimes, even imitate them completely. They keep a track of everything thats happening in their stars life, and they have just one dream: To meet the star personally some day. Sanjay Thakur, a 27-year-old from Indore (Madhya Pradesh) is a die-hard fan of Sanjay Dutt: He calls his wife Rajani Manyata, named his daughter, born in 2009, Trishala,has carved tattoos of his favourite star on his chest, and his mobile repair shop in Indore is called Sanju Baba. Read: Sanjay Dutt reaches Mumbai, visits Siddhivinayak temple Read: Sanjay Dutt can now look forward to these 6 films, including his biopic Thakur, who is called Sanjubaba in his native village, has made several trips to Mumbai to meet his idol, each time Dutt came to his Bandra residence on parole or furlough, but has not been successful in meeting him personally. Read: Yes, my lion comes home: Trishala on Sanjay Dutts release Read: Chicken Sanju Baba for free: Restaurant to celebrate actors freedom But that has not deterred Thakur who was back outside the Dutts residence on Thursday morning. His dream is to get an autograph from Dutt on his body. I have not had anything since morning and have decided that i will eat once my wish will complete. Without taking Sanjubabas autograph on my body i will not eat anything, said Thakur. Sanjay Thakur is a hit in Indore. (HT) My parents and relatives are fed up with my obsession, but I fought with my wife and father and came to Mumbai to meet him, said Thakur. Tackling food shortage, increasing crop yield and improving disease and drought resistance are key areas in an MoU signed by Indias department of biotechnology and a consortium led by the University of Cambridge. The agreement inked on Wednesday seeks to establish a joint UK-India crop science programme. It is also aimed at enhancing collaborative research, promoting knowledge exchange, and supporting capacity building to develop resilience in food security, a university statement said. The agreement was signed by Cambridge vice-chancellor Leszek Borysiewicz, K VijayRaghavan of Indias science and technology ministry, and Research Councils UK India director Nafees Meah on behalf of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Borysiewicz said: This collaboration builds on the close links already established between leading researchers in the UK and India and is another great example of both countries commitment to growing our partnerships in translational and applied research. This collaboration will create opportunities for leading experts in the UK and India to come together to tackle global challenges in the areas of food security, crop science and biotechnology. The agreement foresees joint projects on the fundamental science underpinning yield enhancement, disease resistance and drought resistance; research into crop re-breeding; and the translation of fundamental research into sustainable agriculture practice. It also contemplates the establishment of a joint Indo-UK Plant Science Centre in India, the statement added. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Prithvi Sridhar, a bright Indian undergraduate student of engineering at Queens College, Cambridge, who denied in court he raped a fellow student on the ground that he was too inebriated, has been cleared of the charge. After the jury at Cambridge Crown Court dismissed the complainants claims this week and found Sridhar not guilty of rape, his father, Sridhar, said: We are all extremely relieved and we are very, very happy. A statement released by the family added: Prithvi Sridhar and his family are grateful today for the jurys verdict clearing his name of these false allegationsSince he was first interviewed on the January 16, 2015, when these allegations were first put to him his life has been devastated. He has had to take a gap year from Queens College where he had achieved a first in his first two years and put his life on hold in order to prepare for his trial. Prithvi looks forward now to moving on with his life and completing his degree and studies at Queens College. Sridhar, 21, was accused by the complainant of forcing himself on her after returning to her room on November 4, 2014 and leaving huge love bites on her neck. But he denied the charge, saying he was too inebriated during a night out. Civilian deaths due to terrorism-related violence have come down by over 90% since the 1990s, according to government data released on Thursday. Categorised under four heads -- number of terror or insurgent-related incidents, civilians killed by terrorists in violence, security forces (SFS) killed by terrorists and terrorists killed -- the government data covering a period of 25 years shows that in 1990, there were 4,158 incidents of terrorist-related violence in which 461 civilians, 155 security force personnel and 550 terrorists were killed. By 2015, however, statistics reveal a drastic drop of 208 incidents of terrorist-related violence in which 17 civilians, 39 security force personnel and 108 terrorists were killed. Between January 1, 2016 and February 8, 2016, there were 16 incidents of terrorist-related violence in which no civilians or security force personnel deaths were reported. Ten terrorists, however, were killed. According to the data, terrorist or insurgent-related violence -- which commenced in 1988-89 -- peaked between 1992 and 1996, with the year 1996 recording the highest number of civilian deaths (1,341) followed by 1,031 civilian deaths in 1995. The year 1995 reports the highest number of terrorist incidents (5,938), followed by 5,829 in 1994. Civilian deaths started dropping from 2007. 158 civilians and 110 security force personnel were killed in 2007 while the death toll was 15 civilians and 15 security force personnel in 2015. According to the data, in the last 25 years (1990-2015), 13921 civilians and 4961 security force personnel have lost their lives to terrorist-related violence in Jammu and Kashmir. Over the same period, 21,780 terrorists have been eliminated. The roots of insurgency are tied to a perceived dispute over local autonomy. In 1987, a disputed state election served as a catalyst for the insurgency. In July 1988, a series of demonstrations, strikes and attacks on government institutions laid the base for insurgency, which during the 1990s, escalated into a major internal security challenge. The government had said it was committed to a policy of zero tolerance towards any human rights violations and will take deterrent action against anyone violating it. The police detained dozens of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Youth Congress (JKPYC) members who were holding a protest against the NDA government on Wednesday, in Jammu. JKPYC said that alienation among young generation is increasing due to the NDA governments policies. Led by JKPYC chief Pranav Shagotra, over 200 activists on Wednesday took out a procession against BJP-led NDA government for its failure on all fronts. As soon as the PYC activists marched towards Dogra Chowk from the Press Club area, they were stopped by the police. Police detained dozens of supporters and later let them off. Shagotra said the NDA government had promised to solve problems of border residents by providing them shelter at alternative places but the same promise was never fulfilled. He also expressed concern over ceasefire violations across the border in the last two years and said that Modi government has failed to deal with the situation in a befitting manner. In a democratic system like ours, BJP-led NDA government is trying to gag dissent voice by adopting oppressive means, he said. The Haryana government on Wednesday announced interim compensation for people whose properties were damaged in the Jat agitation. The state government invited applications with self-assessed details of the sustained damage, with an official spokesperson saying one could claim up to 25% of damage expenses now. The prescribed official request form is available on the urban local bodies departments website wwwuldharyana.gov.in, and also in the offices of deputy commissioner, sub-divisional magistrate, tehsildar and municipality offices. Claimants will need to provide details such as their Aadhaar number, bank account number along with the bank RTGS or NEFT code, their address, electricity account number (if meter is installed), date of law and order disturbance, and whether the damage was covered by an insurance policy. Read more: 72 men, 11 machines, a city on fire: Rohtak during Jat stir The government had announced full compensation on Tuesday, and an ex gratia amount of Rs 10 lakh for families of those who died in the agitations. Almost 30 people were killed and more than 200 were injured in Haryana in the protests that ensued for more than 10 days as people from the Jat community demanded reservations under the OBC quota. Read more: Country cannot be held to ransom by agitators: SC after Jat protest Read more: Jat protest: Reservation killed our sons and brothers As the BJP-led state government attempted to firefight the agitation, offering to bring a bill on declaring Jat as OBCs, the Supreme Court on Wednesay said it will lay down parameters to fix accountability for the losses incurred by the exchequer during the protests. Public property suffered major damage, including the Munak canal that is Delhis main water supply line, and roads connecting main cities like Rohtak. Protesters had dug trenches to prevent the army from reaching the protest sites and subdue the agitation. They had also rampaged through cities, setting fire to government buildings and vehicles. Read more: Delhi water crisis: After Munak blow, pollution to hit supply Read more: Jat stir: Khattar busy dousing fire, investor-wooing takes a back seat Security forces have arrested a Pakistani militant who was allegedly involved in an attack on an army camp near the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir three months ago, a senior police official told HT. Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, was arrested on Wednesday night after a two-day search operation, Garib Das, the deputy inspector general of north Kashmir, said. He was arrested from Kanishpora in Baramulla, Das said, adding the suspected Jasih-e-Mohammed militant confirmed his role in the attack on a Gorkha Rifles camp last year. Gujjar, alias Sadiq Mavia, is a resident of Sialkot in Pakistan, police said. He is from a well-to-do farmers family. Das said Gujjar was part of JeMs suicide squad that was formed after the hanging of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Security forces in J-K are on alert in the aftermath of the Pathankot air base assault allegedly carried out by JeM and the Pampore strike in the first two months of 2016. Read: 3 foreign militants killed in Pampore encounter, combing ops on Gujjar and three of his associates Hussain, Malik and Rizwan allegedly attacked the camp in Tangdhar town in north Kashmirs Kupwara district on November 25, 2015. Gujjar told interrogators that the group of four started their journey from Athmuqam in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on November 10, sources said. Hussain, Malik and Rizwan were gunned down by forces, while a civilian died in the ambush. Gujjar admitted to setting afire an oil depot inside the Tangdhar camp and destroying several vehicles, police said. He hid in a forest after the attack and reached Tanghdar in a taxi. He later travelled to Baramulla with the help of a few local residents. Police said the operation to catch hold of Gujjar was launched after tip-offs on the presence of a suspected JeM militant in Baramulla. Police said five local residents were arrested in the operation. There have been several instances of Pakistani militants being captured in India in recent years; the most high-profile being the case of Ajmal Kasab, who was caught during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Last year, security forces had captured two Pakistani militants in J-K. We busted a module earlier this month and got a lead that a Jaish militant is on the run. He (Gujjar) is a well-trained fidayeen who had infiltrated a few days before the attack, Das said. Police said Gujjar was in the process of creating a base in Baramulla. Read more: Pak militants attacked Pathankot airbase, Jaish operative tells HT SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A Delhi court on Thursday allowed police one day custody of Kanhaiya Kumar, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president, who has been arrested on charges of sedition. Metropolitan magistrate Loveleen allowed the cops plea to take Kumar ordered to stay in judicial custody till March 2 into their custody in order to confront him with co-accused Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. The court allowed the plea after the police said they needed to jointly interrogate the accused to ascertain the exact role played by each one of them on February 9, when anti-national slogans were allegedly raised at a rally organised at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Police said they had found inconsistencies in the statements of Umar and Anirban who had surrendered late on Tuesday night. Kumars presence was required to clarify the discrepancies in their statements. Sources said that the discrepancy was about who organised the February 9 rally. According to cops, Kumar told them that Umar organised the rally. However, the testimony of Umar differs as he claimed to be one of the protesters. A case of sedition was slapped on five JNU students by the Delhi Police after a video clip surfaced showing them allegedly raising anti-national slogans at a rally on the campus on February 9. The matter later turned into a controversy after Kumar was arrested and beaten up by a mob of lawyers while being produced at a city court. First the Tricolour. Now a battle tank. The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) may display a battle tank on its campus to instil nationalism among students of the institution, at the centre of a controversy over an event that allegedly glorified a terrorist hanged for the 2001 Parliament attack. A JNU official said on Thursday, the administration is actively considering showcasing a tank on its campus following a suggestion by a group of ex-servicemen who met vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar this week. If implemented, the tank will become the second symbol of nationalism to find a place on its campus after the Centres decision to fly the national flag prominently and proudly in all central universities to instill a sense of patriotism among students. Read: Irani slams Cong over Vemula suicide, JNU row; Modi tweets her speech The first Tricolour will be flown atop a 207-feet mast at the JNU, the scene of the face-off between the government and students over the arrest of its students union president Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of sedition. JNU registrar Bupinder Zutshi said besides the tank, the delegation of retired soldiers also suggested a wall of fame displaying the names of martyred soldiers who graduated from the university. These are good suggestions and we welcome them. We will consider these suggestions to give students feelings of nationalism and patriotism, he said. Read: Police say foreign funds not used for JNU event JNU students have been at the centre of a nationwide debate after anti-national slogans were allegedly shouted during the event on February 9 to commemorate the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Three students including Kanhaiya Kumar were arrested in the sedition case filed by Delhi police. The group of Army personnel said after the meeting with the V-C that they will not return their degrees as was being reported in a section of the media. Why should we return our degrees? It is our alma mater. We came to meet the V-C to express our concerns over the controversy. We have not raised any demands. Armed forces are not the people who do such things, retd lt general Niranjan Malik told reporters. A Delhi court on Thursday dismissed city polices plea to collect voice samples of JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, both accused of sedition. The police, who arrested the two students on February 23, had filed the application before metropolitan magistrate Loveleen seeking permission to collect their voice samples as part of their probe of an event on JNU campus in which anti-India slogans were raised. The magistrate, however, dismissed the plea. On Wednesday night, around 10 pm, Umar and Anirban were remanded to police custody for interrogation for three days. They would be kept in the South Campus police station near JNU which was turned into a makeshift court room following an order of the Delhi high court to maintain confidentiality during their remand proceedings. The high court had on Wednesday ordered the police to ensure that no one suffers even a scratch in the wake of the Patiala House court violence on February 15 and 17. The high court order had come during hearing on Kumars bail plea after it was informed that he and Umar and Anirban were concerned about their safety during production in Patiala House court for remand proceedings. Umar and Anirban had returned to the JNU campus last Sunday after going missing since February 12. Cops had issued a look out notice for them on February 20, along with three other students -- Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash. . Eighty-six students fell ill after allegedly eating the mid-day meal served at a government school in Palghar district. The students were rushed to local hospital after they developed symptoms of food poisoning. Dr Rajendra Kelkar, additional civil surgeon, who was present at the hospital, said, All the students are now stable. However, they would remain under observation till Friday morning. This is a serious matter. We will start an inquiry at the school about the meal that was provided to the children, said a senior government official. For decades the word coolie has been used for the men in red at railway stations across India, making a dash for every train halting at a platform to carry the baggage of travellers. Most Indians probably think little of using the word to hail the porters that are an intrinsic part of rail travel in the country but in some parts of the world, coolie is a pejorative that has its roots in the empire built by the British. Railways minister Suresh Prabhus announcement during the railway budget on Thursday about consigning the word to the dustbins of history--the porters will now be known as sahayaks (helpers)--has a lot to do with the shameful legacy of indentured labour from countries such as India and China who facilitated the rise of the British Empire. The coolies were usually unskilled labourers who were taken by Western merchants to South East Asia, the Americas, the Caribbean and parts of Africa to work on plantations and construction sites in British colonies. According to historical accounts, many of these illiterate men and women were hoodwinked or kidnapped by the merchants, who stepped in after the movement to abolish slavery from Africa created a worldwide labour shortage in the late 1840s. In most places, the coolies were treated with abject contempt. Many died of diseases such as cholera during the sea voyage to places like British Guiana, others were repeatedly flogged and barred from returning home even after they had completed their contracts and women were often sexually exploited by their supervisors. In South Africa, the word coolie became a catch-all reference to Asians, including Indians. In the US, it is a derogatory term used for lowly paid immigrant workers that has its origins in the Chinese workers who built the transcontinental railroad. Author Gaiutra Bahadur--who traced the life of her great-grandmother, a young woman who sailed from India to Guiana as an indentured labourer in 1903, in the book Coolie Woman--has described the word as a highly charged slur. In Indias popular culture, the coolie - as portrayed by Bollywood stars such as Amitabh Bachchan - was usually a guy with a heart of gold who triumphed over all odds through hard work and honesty. The reality usually has been that this is a marginalised group of workers who struggled to make ends meet by earning a few hundred rupees a day. The railways minister has hinted at other changes for the porters--they will get new uniforms and be trained in soft skills. Hopefully, the changes will go beyond the cosmetic to make a real change. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The town, which saw a long gun-battle between militants and security forces recently, remained shut for the sixth consecutive day on Thursday, and the curfew-like situation foiled the Hurriyats call for funeral service for the slain militants at a local mosque. Shops except for a few fruit-sellers offices and business establishments were all shut when the HT visited the town on Thursday, and there was heavy security deployment near the central Jamia masjid, where the funeral prayers were supposed to be offered. Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed on Monday after a 50-hour-long battle at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) building on the highway connecting Pampore and Srinagar. Thursday was the fourth day after the death of the militants and the hardliner Hurriyat (G) faction called for funeral prayers in absentia for the militants, saying it was a religious obligation to offer funeral prayers to any Muslim who dies or achieves martyrdom. Superintendent of police Awantipora Mohammad Irshad confirmed the detention of Hurriyat leaders and added that all is well in Pampore. (Waseem Andrabi/HT Photo) Residents of Pampore told HT that security personnel, who came in large numbers in the morning to the town, disallowed the gathering of people to offer funeral prayers to the militants. For the first two days, people were protesting perhaps with an aspiration that they will rescue the militants. After the militants were killed the town is shut to mourn their death the fourth day after a death is important in Islam, called chahrum, said Mohammad Azim, 58, a ladies tailor. The residents of Pampore had demanded that they should be allowed to offer funeral prayers, but security personnel told us that if a gathering comes out, there could be law and order problems, Azim added. Speaking to HT, Hurriyat (G) spokesperson Ayaz Akbar said, We had called for prayers but it was not allowed. Two of our leaders were picked up by the police from Pampore when they went to participate in the prayers and many other leaders are under house arrest. Superintendent of police Awantipora Mohammad Irshad confirmed the detention of Hurriyat leaders and added that all is well in Pampore. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Sanjay Dutt, who walked out of Punes Yerawada jail on Thursday, did not spend his entire five-year term incarcerated in jail. Thanks to paroles and furloughs, he left his prison cell several times in between to spend time with his family instead. For reasons as varied as his back ache to his daughters nose surgery, Dutt got out of jail at least on six occasions, spending a total of 164 days outside. The actor was sentenced to five years in jail for possessing an AK-56 supplied by gangsters involved in the serial blasts that rocked Mumbai in 1993. Of the 1,825 days he was to spend in jail, Dutt finally spent 1,445 days in prison. He walked free after being given a remission of 60 days for good conduct and having earned 156 leave while in jail. Both were deducted from his jail term. Furlough is the annual 14 days leave that prisoners are eligible for provided the police give a no objection certificate. It is normally given for attending urgent work and also done to keep the prisoner in touch with the outside world and his family. A parole is given to a prisoner in case of an emergency like attending the funeral of a family member. Critics say Dutt was given repeated paroles and furloughs because of his celebrity status, entitlements that are normally not extended to a vast majority of convicts crowding the countrys jails. In October 2013, Dutt first got out of jail for 14 days citing his back ache. It was extended by another two weeks. Two months later, in December, he got out again on parole for 30 days to attend to his ailing wife. He secured two extensions and stayed out of jail for 90 days. In December 2014, he was allowed to stay outside for 14 days for ringing in the New Year with his family. He sought an extension, but had to return hastily to the jail barracks after a public outcry. Union home minister Rajnath Singh backed the Delhi Police on Thursday for its handling of the JNU incident and the Patiala House assault on students and journalists in the face of criticism from the opposition in Rajya Sabha. Replying to a debate on the complete breakdown of law and order in Delhi recently, Singh said the incidents were handled in a professional manner. I am not in agreement that the law and order situation in Delhi has deteriorated during the recent past, the minister said. Congress leader Anand Sharma had initiated the debate through the calling attention notice. Last week, students and journalists were attacked by a BJP MLA and lawyers at the Patiala House court in Delhi during a hearing involving JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar who has been booked for sedition. The Delhi Police personnel deployed at the court were accused of inaction when the attack went on. The Delhi Police chief also drew flak for the sedition charges against Kumar and a number of other students. Kumar was charged with sedition on the basis of a doctored video, but real videos of violence led only to FIR and bail (for a BJP MLA and two lawyers) in 30 minutes, leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said. Why are they (the perpetrators of violence in Patiala House) out, why not in jail for five-ten years? he asked. Rajnath Singh responded by saying that it was for the courts to decide how long should an accused be sent to jail. He also said that the police was correct in not intervening during the assault since the situation would have led to a stampede. The duty doctor at the University of Hyderabad health centre has challenged the claim of HRD minister Smriti Irani that no doctor was allowed near the body of research scholar Rohith Vemula on the day he had died, either to revive him or remove him to hospital. Dr M Rajshree, the doctor on duty when Rohith committed suicide on Jan 17, said on Thursday she was the one who examined the body and had declared him dead. She said the body of Rohit was lying on a cot and police had reached 15 minutes after she had gone to the hostel room on the day he had died after she got information at around 7.20 PM that one of the students had attempted suicide. Police came after 15-20 mins. My role started arnd 7:30 in evening, cant say what happened before that: Dr. Rajshree pic.twitter.com/sUnuMCdzTY ANI (@ANI_news) February 26, 2016 During a debate in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday on Rohith Vemulas suicide and the JNU row, Irani had said nobody allowed a doctor near Rohith either to revive him or take him to the hospital. Nobody allowed a doctor near him. The police has reported that no one attempt was made to revive this child, not one attempt was made to take him to a doctor. Instead what was done was that his body was used as a political tool, hidden. No police was allowed till 6.30, the next morning. It is not me the Telangana police is saying this, the human resource minister had said. Narrating the sequence of events, Dr Rajshree said she rushed to NRS hostel after she got information at around 7.20 pm on January 17 that one of the students had attempted suicide in one of the rooms. The body was rigid and cold. I did the examination of the body. I found the body on a cot. The body with protruding tongue was rigid and cold. I checked for BP, for heartbeat. Then I came to the conclusion that he was dead. His body was cold. It took 10 to 15 minutes. Then I declared him dead and informed the security officer. I saw police personnel 10 or 15 minutes after I reached the spot Rajshree told PTI. She also said she was not prevented from examining the body by anyone. Rohit Vemulas suicide triggered a massive outrage and opposition parties launched a scathing attack on the Central government and demanded action against Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya, whose letters to Irani, were blamed for Rohiths suicide, and Irani herself. The HRD ministry has appointed a judicial commission to look into the issue. The police started Panchanama. They checked the laptop and phone and collected suicide note. Rigor mortis of a body starts only after two hours. That is the minimum time for a body to stiffen. Thats what I told the police that it the death occurred before two hours, said Dr Rajshree. When contacted, Dr Ravindra Kumar, Chief Medical Officer, said the duty doctor submitted a report in which he was declared dead. Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, convicted of possessing weapons supplied by gangsters involved in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, walked out of Punes Yerawada jail on Thursday to a heros welcome by his family and fans. Noise levels outside his Pali Hill home shot up to 109 decibels double the 55 decibel prescribed for residential areas - but the cacophony couldnt drown a few odd voices critical of the actor acclaimed for essaying the role of Khalanayak among others on screen. Spare a thought for Zebunissa Kazi, tweeted Preeti Sharma Menon, the Aam Admi Party spokesperson in Mumbai, referring to the widow also convicted of hoarding lethal weapons like Dutt. She didnt have fancy lawyers like Sanjay Dutt to lighten her sentence to Arms Act. So got TADA merely for having helped Sanjay Dutt dispose of a gun. No parole, no exit. Pradeep Bhalekar, an activist, challenged Dutts early release in the Bombay high court. His lawyer, Nitin Satpure, accused the authorities of double standards and said Dutt was given preferential treatment. While all citizens are equal before law, the state and administrative authorities seem to forget this often. Hence, while Sanjay Dutt has been granted a remission despite having jumped his parole twice, hundreds of convicts, some of whom are over 70 years old, or, some of whom suffer from terminal illnesses like AIDS, Cancer etc shown no leniency. They are not even granted parole, he said. Dutt was sentenced to five years imprisonment and should have served the entire sentence, he said. But the critics failed to dampen the spirits of Dutts supporters. Priya Dutt, Dutts sister and former Congress Member of Parliament said she didnt want to revisit the 23-year ordeal her family underwent. It was like a sword hanging on his head and he faced it all like a man. We all want to look forward for the life ahead. But I really wish my father was there to see this day, and we all miss him. Where ever he is, I am sure he will be very happy, he said. So were his friends from Bollywood such as director Subhash Ghai. I was always in touch with his journey of ups and down and felt he was always alone and still an alone man taking his life with his own mind and destiny. He has learnt a lot of lessons and is a matured man today to realize the truth of life. I look forward to make one good film with him under Mukta Arts soon. I wish him and his family all the happiness in life. . Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt reached Mumbai post his release from Yerawada prison on Thursday morning after serving 42 months for possessing an AK-56 supplied by gangsters behind a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993. Dutt kissed the ground as he walked free from the jail in Pune, after authorities decided to release him ahead of schedule for good behaviour. He then boarded a chartered flight to Mumbai with wife Manyata and children Iqra and Shahran. He was greeted by fans at the airport and went on to pay obeisance at Siddhivinayak temple. From there, the 56-year-old actor went to visit his mother and late Bollywood actor Nargis Dutts grave to offer his prayers. He was accompanied by his family. Sanjay Dutt in Mumbai's Marine Lines to visit grave of his mother Nargis pic.twitter.com/9fI0QDjmHo ANI (@ANI_news) February 25, 2016 Sanjay Dutt leaves from Mumbai's Siddhivinayak Temple pic.twitter.com/7P1IO30LyW ANI (@ANI_news) February 25, 2016 Watch | Sanjay Dutt walks out of Punes Yerwada jail as a free man Reports said that he would meet family and friends including Bollywood superstar Salman Khan later in the day. According to ANI, Salman Khan had sent bodyguards to the Mumbai airport to escort Dutt on his trip across the city. Dutt, with wife Manyata, at the Siddhivinayak temple on Thursday. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo ) A relieved Dutt told media at the Pune airport, There is no easy walk to freedom, my friends. He also thanked his fans and said he was here because of their support. He had earlier walked out of the jail with a bag of personal belongings and a file. Speaking to Hindustan Times, Dutts sister and former Congress MP, Priya Dutt said, I would not want to revisit the 23 years of ordeal my family and Sanjay had to undergo. We all want to look forward for the life ahead. But I really wish my father was there to see this day, and we all miss him. Where ever he is, I am sure he will be very happy. Read: Now that Sanjay Dutt is out, work can begin on these 6 movies Dutt was first arrested on April 19, 1993, for possession and destruction of an AK-56 rifle, which was a part of cache of arms and explosives which landed in India prior to the serial blasts of March 1993. He spent 18 months in jail in 1993. On July 31, 2007, the TADA court in Mumbai sentenced him to six years rigorous imprisonment under the Arms Act and imposed a fine of 25,000. In 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling but reduced the sentence to five years. Sanjay Dutt walks out of Yerwada central prison as a free man after serving 42-months sentence @htTweets @HTMumbai Yogesh Joshi (@ymjoshi) February 25, 2016 Sporting blue jeans, shirt and a tilak on his forehead, Dutt saluted the Yerwada jail after coming out of it @htTweets @HTMumbai Yogesh Joshi (@ymjoshi) February 25, 2016 The 56-year-old actors jail term has been controversial with accusations that he availed of irregular remission in his sentence and was accorded special treatment by the authorities. Authorities have denied the reports and maintained that Dutts remission days were calculated in accordance with rules and jail manual. During his imprisonment, he was granted parole of 90 days in December 2013 and again for 30 days later. Sanjay Dutt salutes jail after being released. (ANI) Read: My lion comes home, daughter Trishala on Sanjay Dutts release The actors early release has come as a relief for the Dutt family which has undergone the ordeal of seeing Sanjay Dutt walk in and out of police stations, custody, court premises and jails, since the last 23 years from his date of arrest in April 1993. Sources close to the family said that almost everyone including his sister Priya has been camping in Pune since Wednesday to bring the actor back home in a chartered flight to Mumbai. His Bollywood friends were also happy at his release. While Hirani, who will shortly start shooting a biopic on the actor, said he was very happy, filmmaker Subhash Ghai also said he wants to make a film with Dutt. Speaking to HT, Ghai said, I have known Sanjay since he was 17 and I cast him opposite Dilip Kumar in Vidhata. Then I directed him as Khalnayak in 1993 when he was a star. I was always in touch with his journey of ups and down and felt he was always alone. He has learnt a lot of lessons and is a matured man today who realises the truth of life. I am sure you will find a new Sanjay Dutt after he comes back who is maturer and enlightened. His fans love him for his innocent heart and the personality. I look forward to make one good film with him under Mukta Arts soon. I wish him and his family all the happiness in life. Read: Chicken Sanju Baba for free, how a restaurant will celebrate actors freedom SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Judge Kode took over as the special TADA court judge in 1996 and was instrumental in dishing out the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts judgement including the conviction of Sanjay Dutt. He was elevated and retired as the Bombay High Court Justice. Justice Kode spoke to HT on Sanjay Dutts release from jail and his conduct in prison. On Sanjay Dutts conduct A day before the final verdict, during the court hours, Sanjay came and asked for clarity. He asked whether he was a terrorist or not. He said he wanted it to be clarified because there were people who were maligning his name by referring to him as a terrorist. I had found that he was neither involved in the conspiracy or for any offence under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA). I told him, I have found that you are not a terrorist but found you guilty only under the Arms Act. Since the time I took charge of the case in 1996, Sanjay never misbehaved before the court nor did he portray he was a celebrity. He behaved like any other commoner, or a common accused, and was calm and quiet before the court and never indulged in any unwanted activity. He was humble before the court, and never protested before the court, which is what every accused should be like. But some of the accused were not, and, in fact, have been rude as well. As I recollect, he had asked for some exemption but I had told everyone this is a criminal trial and there would be no exemptions. On one occasion he had told the court that his work would suffer, to which I told him that I would see his conduct, and that he could work in night shifts. He accordingly worked in night shifts. When I found his request was genuine because he had already entered into a contract with somebody, he was given concession. But he was told to be present when evidence directly against him was being presented in the court. On a few occasions he was permitted to go abroad, but at no time was a blanket order given. Each occasion was treated differently and on merit. The case against Sanjay Dutt Dutt with his wife Manyata leaving his residence to return to jail after Yerwada Prison authorities rejected his plea for the extension of his furlough, in Mumbai on January 10, 2015. (Kunal Patil/HT Photo) The predominant thing in Sanjay Dutts case was that he had acquired the weapon much before January 20, 1993. January 20 was a crucial date because it was the day when the first meeting to conspire to conduct bomb blasts had occurred between Dawood Phanse and Dawood Ibrahim in Dubai. So Sanjay procuring a weapon prior to that could not be considered as part of the conspiracy, or to the bomb blasts. Also, there was no evidence placed before the court to link the weapons to the serial bomb blasts. Sanjay had received weapons from a lot which landed at Dighi village in Raigad coast on January 6. Part of the consignment was sent to Bombay, while the bulk was sent to Gujarat. Read: Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt walks out of Punes Yerawada jail The evidence against Sanjay did not transect beyond the fact that somebody had been to his house, and somethings were handed to him. And ultimately some persons had taken an AK-56 gun and pistol from his house and destroyed it. To link Sanjay with conspiracy of the bomb blasts, there should have been some evidence. But the evidence was wanting. There was no evidence that he used those arms anywhere. There was no further evidence that he was involved in the operation or conspiracy or either of acquiring training, going to Dubai or attending meetings in Big Splash hotel, Taj Mahal hotel etc. Neither was he involved in the surveillance or planting of the bombs or has gone to Memons house. Dutt being taken away from the Tada court at Arthur road prison on 2 September 1994. Beyond this he gave confession and the law of confession is settled to the effect that confession cannot be bisected. We believe the confession to be true and voluntary, and the whole has to be accepted. Sanjay gave his confession in which he said he was worried about the safety of his family, and during discussion with his friends they advised him to acquire an AK-56 rifle. He had said that because his father was a political figure there were threats to his family, and that he was scared because of which he agreed to his friends suggestion to get the assault rifle. He had taken only AK-56 rifle while the rest of the weapons and ammunition was given back to the persons who got it for him. His contention deserved to be accepted. He had proved that he had acquired it for a purpose other than commission of terrorist activity, so he could not have been convicted under TADA. It was a foolish thing on his part because he could not have used that weapon. Because the moment he had used the weapon he would have been detected. But since his confession was accepted his possession of contraband arms and ammunition was proved, now there could not have been any license for that as it was a prohibited weapon. He was charged under Arms act, and not TADA as it was not for terror activity. What about the other three students, will they also surrender? is a question doing the rounds with three Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students charged with sedition sent to police and judicial custody. But JNU Students Union (JNUSU) general secretary Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash asked, Why should we surrender? We have given the police our hostel number, room number and our contact details. It is up to the police to decide now, we are right here in the campus, said Prakash, former JNUSU vice-president. The three, members of the All India Students Association, went missing from the campus on February 12, after JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on sedition charges. Students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya also went underground after Kumars arrest. All five of them resurfaced on the campus on Sunday. Khalid and Bhattacharya surrendered before the police on Tuesday and were sent to three days police remand on Wednesday. The two surrendered after the high court asked them to do so, since they had gone to the court. But we did not approach the court and never did we file for an anticipatory bail, said Prakash. Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Prakash were also mentioned in the letter the police wrote to JNU vice-chancellor on February 12. The police requested that these students be produced for investigation over their involvement in anti-national activities. But a senior AISA leader said it was not their outfit that organised the event and that their members were being framed. From the time they resurfaced, the three lived in their respective hostels and attended events held on the campus. However, a high-level committee set up by the university debarred the three, along with Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya, from academic activities. Police said they considered Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya as the main accused. Now we will decide on who is to be questioned depending on the names disclosed by the three during interrogation, said a senior police officer. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Pune police on Thursday detained protesters opposing the release of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, from the Yerawada jail. Dutt walked free today after serving 42 months under the Arms Act in the 1993 Bombay blast case. The security outside the Yerawada jail was tightened in view of Dutts release. Meanwhile, a PIL has also been filed in Bombay High Court by social activist Pradeep Bhalekar, seeking a stay on early release of the 56-year-old actor. Watch | Sanjay Dutt walks out of Punes Yerwada jail as a free man Bhalekar has questioned the decision by prison authorities and the state to grant relief to the actor based on his good conduct in prison. Read: Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt released from jail after 42 months The PIL says several convicts secure good-conduct reports from prison authorities but are not granted remission or early release. Protest outside Pune's Yerwada Central Jail against actor Sanjay Dutt's release, detained by police pic.twitter.com/3joC3p751S ANI (@ANI_news) February 25, 2016 About 400 convicts in jails across the state have got such certificates, the plea says. The petitioner will state his PIL before a high court bench on Thursday morning. WATCH: Actor Sanjay Dutt released from Pune's Yerwada Central Jail in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts casehttps://t.co/Rt5kH3VD4I ANI (@ANI_news) February 25, 2016 Reportedly, the actor, son of former Congress leader and late actors Sunil Dutt and Nargis, who has been out on parole for 90 days in December 2013 and again in August last for 30 days for personal reasons, will be released 103 days ahead of his full prison term. Posters put up outside Actor Sanjay Dutt's residence in Pali Hill (Bandra, Mumbai) pic.twitter.com/w8dlIXsD8r ANI (@ANI_news) February 25, 2016 Meanwhile, Dutts family and friends could not be happier. His fans have put up posters outside his home in Pali Hill, Mumbai to welcome him. Posters put up outside Actor Sanjay Dutt's residence in Pali Hill (Bandra, Mumbai) pic.twitter.com/0LOTmkZ1ef ANI (@ANI_news) February 25, 2016 When 61-year-old Suresh Prabhu decided to ditch the Shiv Sena to become the Union railway minister in the Modi government, many regarded it as his best shot at political redemption. By then, the soft-spoken MP also a chartered accountant and a lawyer had spent many years of extreme disenchantment in the regional party. Nearly two years later, with Prabhu presenting his second Railway budget for the Modi government, the verdict is still out on his ability to deliver. As far as many in the BJP are considered, he may still be an outsider a tag that stuck to him through his stint in the Shiv Sena. Prabhus political career had quite an enviable start. It is said that Sena chief Bal Thackeray first met him when he was the managing director of the Saraswat Co-operative Bank. Impressed by his intelligence and capabilities, Thackeray made him contest from the safe seat of Rajapur, Konkan, in the 1996 general elections. (Illustration: Jayanto) Within a month of becoming an MP, Prabhu was picked to represent the party as its educated and articulate face an anomaly back then in the 13-day Vajpayee government. Later, in 1998, he again managed to find a berth in the BJP-led government without having to overtly sully his hands in politics. He went on to win from Rajapur four times in a row, purely on the basis of the Shiv Senas strength. However, as time went by, things took a turn for the worse. In the 2009 polls, his loss to Nilesh the son of Sena rebel and Congressman Narayan Rane marked the beginning of his political exile. Some would say that Prabhus disconnect with the Senas brand of politics had become obvious even earlier, during his stint as a Union minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government. Insiders say relations with his mentor, Thackeray, soured after he started showing more commitment to his ministerial responsibilities than party ambitions. Suresh Prabhus top six ideas to put Indian Railways back on track In 2002, he was famously asked by Thackeray to resign for the third time since 1998. The party supremo was reportedly upset with Prabhu for not doing his bidding, and promoting his clean image at the cost of party interests. However, Prabhu who was widely considered a non-corrupt and focused constituent of the government had by then become one of Vajpayees most favoured ministers. Crucial reforms introduced by him as the power minister, including the drafting of the Electricity Act-2003, opened up opportunities for private sector investments and augmented power generation. Prabhu also handled the environment and forests, chemicals and fertilisers, and the heavy industries portfolios during his tenure. Even after he lost his ministerial portfolio, Vajpayee put him in charge of the ambitious interlinking of rivers scheme. For a largely apolitical person, Prabhu knew how to maintain good relations with people from all sides of the political spectrum at one time, he was close to both Thackeray and Pawar. The lawyer-turned-politician endeared himself to Modi by turning down a Wharton invite in 2013, after the business school declined the Prime Minister his keynote address at the Wharton India summit. Much like Thackeray, Modi also picked Prabhu from political oblivion to put him in a position of recognition. Now, it remains to be seen whether he can turn the Indian Railways around, and consequently, earn the goodwill of the Prime Minister. The road ahead wont be easy. Prabhu will have to be a technocrat and a politician, all rolled into one, to succeed and prove his critics wrong. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Days after Jaipur got its first-ever woman qazis in Jahan Ara and Afroz Begum, Uttar Pradeshs Muslim community followed suit by appointing Hena Zaheer and Maria Fazal as shahr qazis judges who decide on matters within the community as per Sharia (Islamic law) of Kanpur. While Zaheer will be the qazi for Shias, Fazal will look into issues pertaining to the Sunni sect. They will be empowered to solemnise nikahs (marriages) and decide on matrimonial affairs such as talaaq (divorce) as well as mahr (mandatory price paid by the groom). The All India Muslim Women Board (AIMWB) made this announcement after its working committee held a meeting in Chamangunj on Wednesday. Zaheer and Fazal were made shahr qazis despite Kanpurs male clergy outrightly rejecting the appointments made in the Rajasthan capital earlier this month. Board chairperson Syeda Tabassum told Hindustan Times that the decision was part of a conscious effort to ensure equality for women in Muslim society, as per Islamic tenets. Many delegates at the Chamangunj meeting quoted from the Quran as well as other scriptures to establish their point that Islam treats women on a par with men, and allows them to perform qazi duties. Both Zaheer and Fazal had completed their Alimah course, where they learned about hadith (tradition), fiqh (principles of jurisprudence) and other religious disciplines, from the Madarsa Fatima-Us-Zehra in Kanpur. They rated best among the many candidates we analysed threadbare at the meeting, said Tabassum, adding, We will meet again in Kanpur next week to decide on the modalities. Hena Zaheer, who was appointed as shahr qazi along with Maria Fazal. (HT Photo) A lot remains to be done to secure equal rights for the Muslim woman, said Zaheer. We want justice. The rights and equality conferred by Allah on humanity 1,500 years ago havent been passed on to women, she said, adding that education could be used as an effective tool to empower them. Read more: Women qazis in Rajasthan: A sliver of light The AIMWB, established two years ago, shot into prominence three months ago when the Sunni Ulema Council demanded the abolition of the triple-talaq practice. While orthodox clergymen came out against the councils office bearers, members of the board headed by Tabassum staged a sizeable demonstration in favour of the demand. Kanpur has 10 male shahr qazis, four each in the Barelvi and Deobandi persuasion of Sunni sects and two in the Shia sect. Finance minister Arun Jaitley invoked the assassination of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi to turn the tables on the Congress as sparks flew in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday during a debate on the Jawaharlal Nehru University row. The minister mentioned the sacrifices of the two PMs who were killed by terrorists cited also by the Congress to thwart rivals questioning its nationalism and said, That precisely should have been the reason for you (Congress) to speak more vigorously against the offences in JNU. At least on this issue, we expected you to be with us. The JNU campus was not a sovereign territory like a foreign embassy that police could not enter, Jaitley said. Sedition has become free speech. Can hate speech ever be called free speech? Can sedition be free speech? Can you have a free speech to say I have the right to break the country into pieces? he asked the Opposition benches. In the Upper House, where the government is in minority, the Congress, Left parties, the NCP and other Opposition outfits lashed out at the government. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who cut his political teeth at JNU, charged the government with suppressing dissent on campuses to foist its idea of a theocratic, fascistic Hindu Rashtra on the country. Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad compared the BJPs bid to teach nationalism to a young bird that had seen snowfall for the first time and thought it to be the severest winter, despite the mother telling it that wasnt the case. Jaitley pointed to a Parliament question of 1983 in which the then (Indira Gandhi) government justified the entry of police in the JNU campus to arrest 350 students, including 50 women, as the vice-chancellor was gheraoed. The government has come under severe criticism for sending police to the JNU campus to arrest student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and slapping sedition charges on him. Jaitley targeted Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and maintained his visit to the JNU campus after the controversial protest provided respectability to a movement that had the aim to break India. The core question is, are we going to give respectability to those whose primary ideology is that they want to break this country? Jaitley said in an indirect reference to Congress leaders expressing support for protesting JNU students. Defending Gandhi who addressed students at JNU, Azad said, Nationalism is in his blood. Woh thodi hi naya naya mussalman bana hai ki pyaz khayega (He is not a new Muslim who has to eat onions to prove his faith), Azad said, triggering peals of laughter in the House. Yechury demanded a House committee be set up to examine the latest developments at various central universities. Please do not castigate the entire student community and the institutions. Please stop this tirade for advancing your brand of nationalism, Yechury said. Azad also spoke about the victimisation of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in great detail and said the atmosphere in educational institutions had changed after the BJP-led government came to power. Also Read | Watch: Smriti Irani take on Rahul over Rohith Vemula suicide issue Also Read | From Smriti to Anurag Thakur, BJP refuses to bow to Oppn pressure Also Read | Budget session: Yechury accuses govt of following Hindutva agenda The Bihar polls have cast a shadow over the Bengal elections. On Wednesday, a state Congress delegation met the full bench of the Election Commission (EC) and asked it to follow the highly-successful Bihar model of conducting polls in Bengal, a key element being the deployment of central forces in the state well ahead of the elections. As soon as the Congress leaders walked out of the EC office in Delhi, the Trinamool Congress built pressure on the poll panel, accusing it of crossing its jurisdiction. The reference was to reports that the EC would send in paramilitary forces as soon as the elections were declared, possibly by the beginning of March. While the Congress memorandum to the EC makes no mention of the Bihar model, Pradesh Congress president and Berhampore MP Adhir Chowdhury told reporters after meeting the panel led by Nasim Zaidi, We have requested the EC to replicate its Bihar model to ensure free and fair polling in Bengal. Earlier, BJPs sole MLA in the Assembly, Samik Bhattacharya, too, had urged the EC to replicate the Bihar model in Bengal. By Bihar model, Bengals opposition leaders meant the presence of central forces in all booths, no presence of state police personnel within 200 meters of the booths, area domination by central forces 15 days ahead of polling and, entry of only one voter in the booth at a time and installation of CCTV cameras both inside and outside the booths. In Bihar, the elections were held in five phases. Bengals opposition parties Left Front, Congress and BJP have already suggested the polls should be conducted in 5-7 phases. The Congress leadership also informed the EC panel that the state government is in the habit of picking up fights with the state EC. Meanwhile, on Wednesday the Trinamool lashed out at the EC, with party secretary general Partha Chatterjee accusing the panel of crossing its jurisdiction by deciding to send in central forces way ahead of the elections. About 100 companies (120 personnel comprise each company) of central forces are likely to arrive in early March though there has not been any official declaration in this regard. Chatterjees attack came a day after the partys national vice-president Mukul Roy met Bengals chief electoral officer and requested him to hold the polls as soon as possible. A seven-year-old boy died while two of his siblings were injured after being knocked down by a school bus on the Ghatkopar-Andheri Link Road on Thursday. The police have arrested the bus driver Jallauddin Shaikh, 25, for causing death due to negligence and rash driving. Students from RN Gandhi School, Ghatkopar were travelling in the bus when the incident occurred, but no one was injured, the police said. According to the police, the victim Ashok Sidhappa Murgan was with his brother Suresh,12, and sister Laxmi,10, when the accident occurred. The siblings studying in a municipality school at Laxmi Nagar in Ghatkopar were returning to their residence at Kamraj Nagar. Seven-year-old victim Ashok Murgans mother and sister after being informed of his death. (Prashant Waydande/) While they were crossing the road, the school bus knocked them down. The police said Ashok died on the spot. The injured were taken to nearby Rajawadi hospital. The incident led to local residents blocking the road for a while because they were demanding a subway. Vijaya Singh, principal, RN Gandhi School, said none of the students on board the bus were injured in the mishap. All the students on board the bus are safe, said Singh. We are shocked by the incident because we have never had any such troubles in the 20 years that we have been working with the contractor. The bus was one of six on-contract buses hired by the school. In fact, we had a meeting with the bus drivers and attendants a few months ago on safety measures, said Singh. School authorities said they would take additional steps to ensure the safety of students in the buses from now on. We are planning to evaluate the situation and take necessary steps to ensure that such incidents are not repeated, said Singh. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu, in his second railway budget on Thursday, made a provision of Rs631 crore to fund the ongoing projects under second phase of Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). Mumbai is the financial capital of India and needs a robust transport system. However, the suburban railway system, the lifeline of the city is over stressed. In principle approval of MUTP-III has been received from NITI Aayog to move forward, said Prabhu during his budget speech in Parliament. Read more: Rail Budget: Mumbaiites unhappy as big-ticket projects picked over their demands Prabhu also made a token provision of Rs5 crore for the third phase of the project, which was recently approved by the Niti Aayog. With this, the third phase of the project, which aims at upgrading the citys railway infrastructure and widening the existing suburban network, has been kick-started. MUTP is being executed jointly by the Centre and the state. The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) has the revised cost of the ongoing second phase at Rs7,012 crore and estimated the third phase at Rs11,441 crore. Prabhu had approved MUTP III in his maiden Railway Budget last year. Following Niti Ayogs nod, an approval from the cabinet committee on economic affairs is awaited and is likely to come through soon, MRVC officials said. Under MUTP-III, 47 new suburban trains will be added, 20 stations will be redeveloped and trespassing control measures will be undertaken. Prabhu allocated Rs631 crore for the ongoing MUTP-II. While Rs80 crore has been allocated for 12-car trains on the Harbour line, Rs40 crore each has been sanctioned for Belapur-Seawood-Uran railway line and Kalyan-Kasara third line and Rs12 crore for installing automatic signaling on the Virar-Diva-Panvel line. Along with laying the fifth and sixth lines between Thane and Diva stations and extending the Harbour line up to Goregaon, 72 new rakes will be procured under MUTP-II. Of those, 25 trains have already reached the city. Once all harbour line trains are converted into 12 cars from existing nine-cars, the passenger carrying capacity will go up by 33%, said a senior Central Railway official, who did not wish to be named. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The increasingly narrow-minded space where proclamations on what constitutes patriotism are occurring reminds me of similar discussions that defined a large part of my youth in the United States. In India today, through the din of self-declared patriotism lays a slippery slope towards dangerous and ultimately self-injurious policies. Over a decade ago, as the US responded to the September 11 attacks, I found myself organising fellow students as part of a critical mass that took to the streets to voice opposition to the domestic and foreign policies of the War on Terror. At the time, we were operating in a growing climate of intolerance for critical discourse. Following 9/11, a wave of patriotism swept the United States, fashioning grief and confusion into the mallets intended to beat the drums of war. Dissent was widespread; however, under the banner of nationalism, significant attempts were made to silence any criticism towards plans for two subsequent disastrous military interventions. Those who spoke out found themselves, while not alone, increasingly pushed to the sides and deemed anti-national for questioning the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the establishment of an expansive surveillance state, and the crackdown on civil liberties at home. Over a decade later, those same accusations of anti-nationalism and sedition ring familiar as they are being hurled at students and echo off the walls of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and campuses across the country. Kanhaiya Kumars arrest brings to light a disturbing trend in India to attempt to define the nation along strict majoritarian lines and brand those who question the agenda of the State anti-national. This is one part of a larger effort to re-define the nation through a politics of exclusion. Those who do not fall within the bounds and ideas of the proclaimed majority are pushed to the margins. And now, those who question such politics are branded seditious. However, as experiences from a decade ago on the other side of the world show, silencing critical voices under the guise of patriotism may lead to disastrous decisions, as well as run the run the risk of causing lasting damage to the political legitimacy of those in power over the long run. As an Indian-American, the heated debates over nationalism being fomented are reminiscent of a decade ago, when following tragedy and by harnessing fear, patriotism was peddled as the currency for justice through vengeance. What constituted patriotism and what represented traitorous utterances were defined as a line in the sand when then President George W. Bush stated, Either you are with us... or you are with the enemy. There is no in between. Bushs binary edict left no room for any uncertainty, or any dissent. And by publicly closing the issue, his words shrunk the democratic space for opposition. The similarities to the narrow debates in the Indian mainstream media on nationalism during the last few days are striking. In the US in the early 2000s, as we see in India today, the mainstream media largely acted as cheerleaders to divisive government policies, rather than occupying their role as intrepid journalists, and in turn blaring discussions on what constituted patriotism and who could be branded anti-national. Just as beloved film stars such as Aamir Khan are lambasted for their criticism of growing intolerance in India, in 2003, country music band The Dixie Chicks (from President Bushs home state of Texas) were declared unpatriotic for publicly criticising the invasion of Iraq. Speaking to students who marched through Delhi in protest against what they see as a crackdown on dissent and free speech, they describe a similar reality. Demanding people perform their nationalism in order to portray allegiance to the State draws clear lines of us versus them. They are trying to say who is Indian and who is not, says Ankush, an MPhil student at JNU. Indeed, the protests of the past week are specifically aimed at defending that democratic space required for critical dialogue. Students rejecting the tag anti-national say a difference of opinion is not synonymous with sedition. Rather, the space for dissent is necessary for a healthy democracy. There were many Indians at home and abroad that welcomed the BJP government, but it would be hard to see them willing to compromise on their beliefs in basic liberties such as freedom of speech or assembly, which appear as necessary conditions for a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, liberal democracy. As Professor Gopal Guru explained at a JNU rally last week, You cannot build a nation on the idea of stigma. The results of the Bush years in the US are hard to argue. When critical voices were silenced, the United States embraced the blind jingoism that was offered as the dominant narrative by the State. A decade and a half later we find irreparable damage to the countrys standing in the world, an economy bled by wars, and a viciously polarised political climate. The Republican Party has lost the last two national elections, and today features vitriolic candidates that evoke mixed feelings of sadistic amusement and disgust. On February 18, on a day of protest across India, it was announced that it would be now mandatory for all public universities to hoist the national flag at a height of 207 feet on their premises. Reminiscent of renaming French Fries as Freedom Fries, such a response tries to make a point out of what is seemingly a non-issue. While acknowledging the unique historical trajectories of each country, by drawing from the experiences of the past it seems doubtful whether the presence of the Indian flag will succeed in inculcating greater love for country that cannot be greater achieved through genuine respect for the Constitution and laws that form the backbone of Indian democracy. Gaurav Madan has a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs The views expressed are personal Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjit Singh GK on Wednesday said the Sikh community was looking up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for justice to victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. At a press conference here, the DSGMC chief, who is the face of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Delhi, also demanded Modis intervention to put the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into riot cases on the fast track. Responding to queries, GK said the Akali-BJP alliance would sustain if the Centre met the expectations of victims of the carnage and also expedited the ongoing CBI probe into these cases. He said the Arvind Kejriwal government had failed to meet the expectations of Delhi Sikhs, especially on the issue of giving logistic support to the special investigation team (SIT) announced by the NDA government to probe all unsolved cases related to the 1984 riots. Taking a dig at Kejriwal, GK said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had no Sikh minister despite the presence of four Sikh MLAs in the party. He also demanded a CBI probe into the episode of a lost file pertaining to riot cases. The DSGMC chief stated that there was an 11-month delay on the part of the Kejriwal government in disbursing ` 5 lakh each as compensation to riot-hit families and that funds for the purpose had come from the Centre. Kejriwal took undue credit on the compensation issue as the money was released by the Modi government, he said. He also accused the AAP government of not being able to control drug menace and liquor consumption in Delhi, while highlighting 402 deaths at night shelters due to drug overdose. Such deaths had doubled from the previous year, he added. Despite several efforts by the UT health department, a negligible decline in the prevalence of HIV infections among intravenous drug users is a major area of concern, said director, health services, Dr VK Gagneja. The data shared by the States AIDS Control Society (SACS) also reveals a steady increase in the number of HIV positive cases and deaths among total registered patients for treatment in the city over the past few years. In 2010, total 1,726 cumulative cases - alive and on Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) - were reported, of which 162 cases were from Chandigarh. The number rose to 2,103 (238 local) and 2,763 (321 local) in 2011 and 2012 respectively. In 2013, the number increased by around 500. Total 3,286 cases (364 local) and 3,778 (430 local) were reported in 2013 and 2014 respectively. In 2015, the number shot up to 4,232, out of which 498 were localities. As far as the status of death among total registered patients on treatment is concerned, the number has increased up to 24. In 2013 and 2014 the total number of deaths of Chandigarh population were 9, however, in 2015, total 24 deaths were reported. Dr Vineeta Gupta, Director, SACS said, Because of effective tracking programmes of the UT health department, more cases are being detected. When asked, why the number of deaths has shot up, she said, Most of the cases are detected at later stages or people who are reaching PGIMER often go at later stages. However the overall prevalence of HIV in the area has reduced, officials said. The UT health director informed, the prevalence of HIV in an area is measured by the positivity amongst pregnant women. In Chandigarh, this positivity has reduced from 0.27% in 2008 to 0.11% in 2015. Above 1200 IDUs are registered with two NGOs and the prevalence of HIV is 1.99%. Opiod Substitution therapy (OST) is also available at various centres for IDUs. Under this therapy, illicit drug users are given buprenorphine, which is usually administered orally in supervised clinical settings. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Various organisations have demanded a ban on a programme to be organised at a church at Behrampur Bet village in this district on February 26 and 27 alleging that the programme is being organised to hold conversions. The representatives of these organisations, including Youth Aggarwal Sabha, Sanatan Dharam Sabha, Ram Lila Committee, SS Jain Sabha, Mahavir Dal, Gau Raksha Dal, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal, Gopal Gaushala, Balmik Sabha and Bharat Vikas Parishad, submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner and senior superintendent of police. They alleged that Sikhs and Hindus are being converted to Christianity through allurements and by offering money. These organisations said that this year also, such a programme is being organised, which should be banned keeping in view the sentiments of people and for maintaining a congenial atmosphere. On the other hand, the organiser of the event, Pastor Norman Gray, refuted the allegation that the event was being organised for the purpose of conversion. He said it would be a normal worship service and had nothing to do with conversion, adding that anybody could come and see the proceedings. He said every community is free to organise its religious programmes as per its beliefs. He said many such programmes were organised in Chandigarh and there was no opposition there. SSP Varinder Paul Singh said they had told the organisers not to indulge in any objectionable activity, adding that the programme would be videographed. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener reached Mohali on Thursday. He was received by AAP leaders, including state convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur. Kejriwal, who arrived here on a regular flight from Delhi, drove immediately to Sangrur town in Punjab. I am starting my five-day trip of Punjab today. I will be visiting villages and meeting with common people, Kejriwal told the media after landing in Mohali. We will meet families affected by the drugs problem. We will try to understand their problems. We will meet families of farmers who committed suicide and understand their problems too. The AAP philosophy is that we meet people, listen to their problems and find solutions, he said. Other parties make their manifestoes in air-conditioned rooms. We go to villages and homes of people, Kejriwal said while taking a dig at other political parties. Kejriwal will travel to Punjabs three regions - Malwa, Majha and Doaba, during the visit, starting from Sangrur and Bathinda districts in the agriculturally-fertile south-west Punjab. Kejriwal will visit Ferozepur and Faridkot districts on February 26, Khadoor Sahib, Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts on February 27, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar districts on February 28 and finally go to Ludhiana, Fategarh Sahib and Patiala districts on February 29. He will interact with various sections of the society comprising families of distressed farmers who have been committing suicides, members of Dalit families and unemployed educated youth and know the concerns of the women folk about their safety and security, an AAP spokesman said. He will meet the business community, comprising traders and captains of industry, to know the problems faced by them in the state. The Congress in Punjab had earlier said that it will oppose Kejriwals visit if the Aam Aadmi Party does not change its agenda for the state. Kejriwal should not play with fire by instigating the sentiments of the people of Punjab. This is a very dangerous style of politics being done by the AAP, Congress leader and Ludhiana MP Ravnit Singh Bittu had said. Kejriwal had addressed a major AAP rally last month at the Maghi religious fair in Punjabs Bathinda district. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal with Sucha Singh Chhotepur at Mohali International Airport on Thursday. (Gurminder Singh/HT ) The AAP is posing a serious political challenge to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance and the Congress, which have dominated Punjabs political space for decades, in the run up to next years assembly polls. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener reached Mohali on Thursday. He was received by AAP leaders, including state convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur. The leader is on five-day visit to Punjab to take stock of poll preparations of the party in the state . According to reports, Kejriwal will emphasise on people-to-people meeting during his five-day visit, rather than holding mega rally in Punjab which goes to polls early next year. With the 2000-odd Post Graduate institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) nurses scheduled to go on strike on Friday surgeries have been postponed, OPD timings curtailed and people requested not to visit the institute. Health departments of adjoining states, too, have been requested to not refer critical patients to PGI on February 26 the day of the strike. Read more: Reasons behind the PGI nurses Feb 26 strike The nurses are going on a day-long strike to join a protest called by the All India Nurses Federation. The PGI Nurses Welfare Association announced that nurses will be joining the strike by taking a mass casual leave for a day from 8am on February 26 to 8am on February 27. PGIMER has cancelled all planned and routine surgeries, which go up to 200 a day (around 60 major and 150 minor surgeries). The OPD registration timings have also been curtailed from 8am to 9:30am on a normal day registration goes till 11am. The institute, however, will try to manage critical patients admitted using the assistance of nearly 450 nursing students from NINE. At any given point, nearly 500 patients are admitted in the emergency ward while 200 patients are present in the Advanced Trauma Centre. Dr YK Chawla, director, PGIMER said, We are going to take help from nursing college students and the ones who are senior will help doctors in ICUs and emergencies. We will also request all other hospitals in Chandigarh and adjoining states to not refer cases for at least a day. Chawla also appealed to the public to not visit PGIMER on Friday. We appeal to the public at large that they postpone their visit to the PGI OPD and Emergency unless it is an extreme emergency, said Manju Wadwalkar, public relations officer, PGIMER. A similar situation had arisen in 2012 when nurses went on mass casual leave for a day. They had presented 17 demands out of which 13 were accepted by the administration. This time, the protest is with regard to the implementation of the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission as only provisional pay fixation has been done for nurses whereas all other employees have been given a new salary scale. The association will take part in all actions called by the federation at an all-India level. The PGI administration has also not accepted the demand to frame a 6-hour duty roster for the newly-recruited nurses in the PGI, Lakhvinder Singh, president of the association, said. However as per officials, in AIIMS Delhi, nurses have called off their strike, I spoke to someone in the AIIMS administration, who informed that the strike has been called off, Dr YK Chawla said. PGIMER directors message- Dr YK Chawla said, The reputation of the institute should not get tarnish by the strike and related issues. They should all meet and solve it in a peaceful manner by sitting across the table and discussing it. They can just sit and discuss the problems, rather than going on strike and creating problems for everyone. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Former Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) militant Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar was on Thursday produced before the designated court hearing cases registered under the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) in the districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran during the period of militancy in Punjab. The summons to Bhullar for appearance were issued recently after the Batala police filed a challan in the TADA court in a case registered against the former militant on December 23, 1992, when terrorism was its peak in the state. The case was registered under Section 307 of the IPC (attempt to murder) and the Explosives Act at the Batala Sadar police station with Bhullar being named as one of the accused. Bhullar, along with his lawyer Jaspal Singh, was escorted under heavy police security from the psychiatry ward of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital of the Government Medical College here to the district courts complex. Neither his wife nor any other relative accompanied him to the court. However, a couple of doctors were with him. He was escorted by the cops before TADA court special judge SS Sawhney. The court did not hear any arguments in the case considering that the accused was undergoing medical treatment. The judge directed the defence and prosecution counsels as well as the police to present before the court a detailed medical status report of Bhullar on March 1. Proceedings in the case will commence only after reviewing the medical status report--that is whether he (Bhullar) is fit to stand trial in the case, the judge said. Bhullar was admitted to the psychiatry ward of the hospital on June 12 last year after he was transferred here on medical grounds from a hospital in New Delhi, where he had been admitted after he complained of depression and other psychiatric problems. He was under detention at the Tihar jail and was subsequently shifted to a hospital on the directions of the Supreme Court, which took note of his mental condition. Youth Cong headquarters blast case The former KLF militant was the main accused in the September 1993 bomb explosion case outside the headquarters of the All India Youth Congress (AIYC) in New Delhi that left nine people, including security personnel, dead. The target of the militants was the then AIYC chief Maninderjit Singh Bitta, who escaped with injuries. Subsequently, Bhullar fled to Germany and it was in 1995 that he was deported to India and was formally arrested in the AIYC headquarters blast case. He was awarded the death penalty by a lower court on August 25, 2001 and the decision was upheld by the Supreme Court. Mercy petitions filed by Bhullars family were dismissed. It was during his long detention at the Tihar jail that he complained of mental illness and depression. Taking a lenient view of his condition, the Supreme Court allowed him to be shifted to a hospital and later commuted his death penalty to life sentence. The court allowed the convict to be shifted to Amritsar after considering his plea that due to the nature of his illness he desired to be close to his family. Timeline December 1992: Bhullar booked under TADA by Batala police September 1993: Bomb explosion outside AIYC headquarters in New Delhi. Nine killed, Bhullar one of the main accused, flees to Germany 1995: Bhullar is deported to India from Germany and arrested in AIYC blast case August 2001: A lower court in Delhi hands out death penalty to Bhullar. Lodged in Tihar jail. Subsequently, death penalty challenged in various courts. All courts, including Supreme Court, uphold verdict and also dismiss mercy petitions Bhullar begins to undergo treatment for depression and mental illness from 2012 and is admitted to a hospital in Delhi On familys plea, Supreme Court allows Bhullar to be shifted to Amritsar. Transferred to Amritsar Central Jail on June 12, 2015 and on same day admitted to psychiatry ward of Guru Nanak hospital The inconvenience caused to thousands of commuters due to suspension of rail services following the Jat agitation in Haryana has once again brought the demand of Patti-Ferozepur railway link back into focus. The Congress leaders of Tarn Taran want the work on the construction of the link to be started at the earliest. While putting forward this demand, the Congress leaders have pointed out that the link had already been given a green signal by the Union Government. In 2013, the then railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal while presenting the Railways Budget in Parliament had announced the Patti-Ferozepur rail link. Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) members of the area Gurminder Singh Rataul and Harminder Singh Gill have appealed to railway minister Suresh Prabhu to take up this link on a priority basis. The link has become all the more vital after the recent Jat agitation in Haryana which led to suspension of both road and rail links to Delhi, which caused a lot of harassment to the people from the northern states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Had this link been there, rail traffic from Jammu and from Amritsar could easily have been diverted via Patti, Ferozepur, Bathinda, Ganganagar and through other cities of Rajasthan. Trains could then have reached the national capital via Rajasthan. This link will in particular be helpful for trains moving down south to Mumbai and other places as it will shorten the distance between Amritsar and the southern cities, the two leaders said while talking to HT on Wednesday. Rataul pointed out that the Patti-Ferozepur link was a mere 23.1 km stretch and the survey for this linkage was conducted in 2010. However, the survey report lay with the railway ministry until Bansal took it up in 2013 following a request from Rajya Sabha member and for mer union minister Manohar Singh Gill, whose ancestral village falls in the district. According to Rataul, the Planning Commission in 2013 even approved ` 149.7 crore for this vital linkage. However, nothing has moved at the ground level since then, he lamented. Gill said barring the construction of a rail bridge over the Satluj river near Sabrahawa village, the project will not take much time to complete. Patti is already linked to Tarn Taran and Amritsar by rail, he said while pointing out that by road it takes a minimum of two hours to cover the distance between Patti and Ferozepur and if this link is established it will take a mere 20 minutes or so. According to Rataul, this link can help decongest the AmritsarDelhi and Jammu-Delhi rail routes. Presently, all trains bound for Mumbai, Gujarat and other southern states from Jammu and Amritsar take the Delhi route. The southbound trains from Jammu and Amritsar can reach their respective destinations by using the Patti-Ferozepur link and viceversa. The link will shorten the distance between Mumbai and Amritsar by more than 200 km, Ratual added. This rail link will provide quick and smooth movement of traffic from Amritsar and Tarn Taran to Western Coast of India via Rajasthan and Gujarat by cutting short travelling time and decongestion of the main line to Delhi. It will also provide quick movement for defence personnel and army machineries during any emergencies. Besides, it will also shorten the distance to Gujarat port town of Kandla. The UT administration in a high-level meeting on Wednesday decided to postpone the car-free day from February 28 to March 13. The decision was taken in consultation with the neighbouring SAS Nagar and Panchkula authorities. The administration had received representations from several residents, stating that there were a large number of weddings scheduled for February 28. Moreover, a Punjab agriculture department exam is also scheduled for the same day. SSP traffic Manish Chaudhry said, It is now final that the car-free day will be observed on March 13 between 7am and 2pm. It will be mandatory for all city residents. However, senior citizens, cars carrying patients, emergency vehicles such as ambulances, police vehicles, fire department and buses will be exempted. A road map and plan for the car-free day will be issued in newspapers, radio and other mass mediums and shared with citizens online on mygov.in to seek feedback and suggestions. UT adviser Vijay Dev, who floated the idea, said, I was thinking of various ideas to prepare city for decongesting traffic and cleaning the city air. The task lies in preparing the city stakeholders for that day. Aim is to promote less car usage amongst citizens, motivate them to opt for public transport, cycles and avoid taking cars for inter-sector work and adapt to walking/running. The PGI Nurses Welfare Association announced that nurses will be joining the strike by taking a mass casual leave for a day from 8am on February 26 to 8am on February 27.The nurses are going on a day-long strike to join a protest called by the All India Nurses Federation. With the 2000-odd Post Graduate institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) nurses scheduled to go on strike on Friday surgeries have been postponed, OPD timings curtailed and people requested not to visit the institute. Health departments of adjoining states, too, have been requested to not refer critical patients to PGI on February 26 the day of the strike. The demands being made by the nurses include: 1) Nurses are demanding correct implementation of the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. They claim that only provisional pay fixation has been done for nurses whereas all other employees have been given a new salary scale. 2) The nurses are also demanding better shift timings as they say that the present timings are awkward. For a morning shift, some nurses have to start travelling to work by as early as 4 am. A day after taking cognisance of the alleged incidents of rape at Murthal during the Jat communitys protest for reservation, the Punjab and Haryana high court has invited the citizens to report sexual assault and damage to their property to the district legal service authority concerned through post or representation. The secretary of the district legal service authority, generally the chief judicial magistrate, will then report the complaints to the police. The Haryana police had denied the alleged rapes in Murthal and termed the report as false. Even the army denied having come across any such incident. A news report in an English daily on Wednesday had claimed that vehicles with women were reportedly stopped on the National Highway-1 near Murthal on Monday morning, and the woman occupants dragged out and raped in fields nearby. It said the number of such victims was at least 10. Justice NK Sanghi of the high court has written to the acting chief justice in this regard for further appropriate proceedings. The judge is learnt to have stated that it was painful that the senior officials of police allegedly chose to advise the families not to report the matter. He even sought an independent probe, it is learnt. But at a press conference in Hisar, the state director general of police (DGP), YP Singal, said that following the report the Haryana government formed a committee of a financial commissioner and an inspector general of police, which worked on every angle to find the facts, but found that the news is false. I still want to request to everyone that if something has happened, then come to the police, the DGP added. The Sonepat police too refuted the news report. Superintendent of police (SP) Abhishek Garg said: We talked to the people in the area, even those who were quoted in the report, but nobody told us about any sexual harassment by protesters. He said several officials of the district administration, principal secretary Devender Singh and inspector general of police (railways and commandos) Paramjeet Ahlawat reached Kurar village that was named in the report, and talked to several people, even the villagers and owners of dhabas (eateries), but they did not give any information about rape incidents and expressed surprise over the news report. We did not get any complaint, but investigations are on and we will act if anybody files complaint in this regard, he added. Even the Sonepat district administration issued a press release denying the incident and said even residents of the Kurar village helped the people who got injured in an attack by protesters. The villagers stopped the protesters involved in violence, read the press release. Member of the National Women Commission Ritesh Sharma also visited the spot and said she would investigate the matter. During my college days in the early 1990s, I visited my maternal grandparents place at a village near Pehowa in Haryana. It was my uncles marriage. After the ceremony was over, two of my uncles and four of us cousins decided to visit Mussoorie. Having had our share of the fun at the hill station, we were driving past Dehradun when one of the uncles thought of meeting an acquaintance at Clement Town, a military area on the outskirts of the city. My cousin turned the Maruti van into the air force area. It was a familiar territory as some time ago, I had failed here in the Service Selection Board (SSB) interview for entry into the National Defence Academy. Soon, we stopped at a small hut and were warmly greeted by an elderly gentleman. My uncle introduced us to RS Sodhi, a retired senior armed forces officer. I wondered what he was doing there in the modest hut. As we sat outside and started talking, it became clear that the man from a well-off family lived there alone of his own accord. I found that he was the father-in-law of film actor Joy Mukherjee as his daughter Neelam was married to the Love in Simla actor. The two had met at a book store at The Oberoi hotel in Delhi in 1965 and their interest in books had brought them together. The man told us that he was in touch with his family and often received letters from his maternal grandson, Boy Mukherjee, who was soon to star in a forthcoming film. Presently, he went inside the hut and fetched a few letters and photographs of Boys and showed them to us. I marvelled at the unassuming man who came from an illustrious family but had no airs. I told him that I went to a school with a defence background and had appeared at the SSB. He asked me to take a shot at the Combined Defence Services after college, adding that he would be only too glad to help me in any way, including putting in a word with the officers concerned. As we chatted, we couldnt help being impressed by the man who had voluntarily decided to live the life of a virtual ascetic, having successfully shouldered his household responsibilities. We didnt know how time passed in the company of this genial man and soon it was time to say goodbye. It has been more than two decades since I left the place completely floored by the man, never to meet him again, but his parting shot still reverberates in my ears. He asked us to remain in touch, and in case we found his name, RS Sodhi, hard to recollect, we were free to simplify it by associating R with Railway and S with Station. To this day, I cant forget how effortlessly Mr Railway Station Sodhi had walked into our hearts at Dehradun that October afternoon. Baahubalis Rana Daggubati is busy with another ambitious project these days, Ghazi, Indias first submarine-based war film. The actor recently shot some tough underwater scenes for the film. Rana, who plays a naval officer in the trilingual Ghazi, has been shooting non-stop ever since the movie went on the floors in January. The period drama revolves around the mysterious disappearance of Pakistans premiere sub, PNS Ghazi, near the eastern coast of India, en route to the Bay of Bengal, during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Being a certified diver, Rana didnt require any lessons to shoot the underwater war sequences for the film. However, he rehearsed a bit before canning the final shots. Read: Rana shoots for Ghazi, based on sinking of Pak submarine in 1971 In my divining suite in the middle of the night. Doing some cool underwater action for #GHAZI pic.twitter.com/B3TKtJePpJ Rana Daggubati (@RanaDaggubati) February 22, 2016 Talking about the experience, Rana said: We began shooting on January 3 with the schedule drawing to a close on Tuesday. Two submarines have been created in a large pool in Hyderabad. I am currently on a 12-day break and will resume shooting from March 10 for a start-to-finish schedule. Read: Rana Daggubati wants to go multi-lingual to bridge language barrier I am quite good at diving, but the last time I did it was around four years ago. It was shot over three days and required me to be underwater from six in the morning to two in the night. It was taxing but I was committed to giving it my best. The fact that its a first of its kind movie motivates me to keep working hard, he reminisced. Read: Rana Daggubati has a fondness for period films There may not have been heavy-duty physical preparation involved for the war drama, but Rana did have to lose a few kilos of his weight. I was quite bulked up for Baahubali, so I had to shed some weight. I also underwent agility training as part of my prep, he said. The trilingual, which is directed by Sanklap Reddy, is being shot in Hindi and Telugu and will be dubbed in Tamil. The actors research also involved meeting Indian naval officers, particularly those on board the Indian naval ship. My father helped me get in touch with many of them including those on INS Vikrant at the time, he added. ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop Sunday mornings were never the same after the first episode of Ramayan aired on television. The serial that brought the nation to a standstill, is still remembered for Arun Govils blissful smile, and creating unprecedented records, including being watched by over 650 million people worldwide. Shot in an aesthetic manner, Ramayan was a story about the victory of good over evil. The streets often wore a deserted look during the telecasts such was the shows popularity. Produced by Ramanand Sagar, Subhash Sagar and Prem Sagar, Ramayan was directed by Ramanand, Anand Sagar and Moti Sagar. The role of Ram was played by Arun Govil, Sita by Deepika Chikhalia, Lakshman by Sunil Lahiri, Hanuman by late Dara Singh, and Ravan by Arvind Trivedi. Indian television wasnt prepared for a mythological show like this, says Moti, adding, The film industry felt that television was a risk. Everyone was sceptical about this big-budget show. But (Ramanand) Sagar saab fulfilled his dream, and it paid off. Read: How the late Priya Tendulkar took the nation by storm in Rajani He wanted to make it as it would have maximum connect with the audience. But if it was a film, he wouldnt have been able to capture the essence and depth of the topic in just three hours. TV was the best bet. Casting actors for the characters was a tough task. There were over 200-300 auditions to help the director gauge who fit the bill. Govil says, I was rejected after the audition. Sagar saab chose someone else. He wanted me to play the role of Bharat, but I wanted to play Ram. Later, they called me back. I was happy to have landed the role. The toughest part of the show was to create the feel of a war in the absence of computer graphics. We had called 2,000 people to recreate the grandeur of the war. We got junior artistes from Umbergaon and as far as Ahmedabad (Gujarat), says Moti. The show was shot in Umbergaon. It was also the most expensive TV serial back then, with as much as `9 lakh being spent per episode. As many as 3,000-5,000 people would come over to watch the shooting, adds Sagar. Govil says, The biggest challenge was to emote without being too expressive. Ramji is never loud, physically or emotionally. He is always pious. One had to look like a human and a God at the same time. The actor shot for two and a half years for the show. Govil didnt build his body for the role, but he had a fit physique. Ram was a warrior, so he had to be fit even if he didnt have six-pack abs, he says. Watch the first episode here The makers knew that the series was a hit within a few episodes, even though the initial reaction wasnt positive. Within a month, the tide had turned. Once the shows popularity picked up, it kept growing soon becoming a household name. And the rest is history. Govil says, Elderly people would touch my feet, which made me very awkward. That reverence was unbelievable. I told people to bless me instead. But they believed that they were touching Lord Rams feet. One cant challenge such faith. People would pray in front of their TV sets. Once, a driver stopped a passenger train because he wanted to see the episode; he delayed a marriage party [in the process]. Another time, when the team visited Jaipurs Birla Mandir, over 40,000 people were waiting to see the cast. In Jammu & Kashmir, the power station was burnt down because an electricity cut co-incided with an episode. In a hospital, there was a heart patient who had been asked not to sit up. But when the telecast began, he got up from his bed and went into the waiting room, where the show was on. Another time, Ram and Lakshman were wounded by an arrow in the war, and two-three people who saw that got a heart attack and died due to shock. We heard many such stories, some strange and others unbelievable, from all over India and the world, reminisces Moti. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Parliament witnessed an acrimonious debate on Wednesday over the JNU row and the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula, with the Opposition accusing the government of mercilessly crushing the principles of democracy and the ruling side justifying the action against students. The charged discussion saw the entire House, including the Congress and the Left, condemning the alleged shouting of anti-national slogans in the university campus though the BJP attacked Rahul Gandhi for his visit to JNU to express solidarity with arrested student leader Kanhaiya Kumar. We list a few key takeaways from the debate that swung back and forth. A combative BJP From union human resource minister Smriti Irani to the young leader Anurag Thakur, the BJP showed no sign of bowing to the Oppositions pressure over the Jawaharlal Nehru University issue and the Vemula suicide. Chew these samples: My name is Smriti Irani. I challenge you to ask my caste, or You can behead me if you are not satisfied with my answers, and Are you (Rahul Gandhi) standing for Afzal Guru, are you with the people who attacked Parliament (in the 2001 attack) or with democracy? Aside from the Congress, the BJP came under heavy attacks from other Opposition parties like the Left, Janata Dal (United), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Trinamool Congress over the Dalit scholars suicide in Hyderabad University. The ruling party however managed to latch on to the first opportunity to hit back at its opponents. Offense, after all, is the best defence, and despite the string of electoral losses, the Modi government remains in counter-attack mode. Debate over disruption After washing out successive sessions with protests, the Opposition seems to have changed strategy. It is now looking to corner the government by raising points, not slogans, inside the House. Perhaps the Oppostion realised that repeated disruptions cannot be a routine form of protest. The principal Opposition party in the Lok Sabha, the Congress, even prevailed on the government to advance the debate on the students issue by a day despite its lowest ever-tally of 44 MPs. The debate also helped the Opposition. Powerful speakers like Jyotiraditya Scindia from the Congress and Trinamools Sugata Bose lambasted the government and the BJP. Youth power Be it Anurag Thakur or Jyotiraditya Scindia, most of the speakers who participated in the debate were the relatively younger faces of parties. This parliament has 314 first-timer MPs in Lok Sabha. Together, they constitute 58% of the strength of the House. While in some earlier debates the older members took on the responsibility of attacking the other side, the students issue saw more participation from younger MPs. These included Chirag Paswan, union minister Ramvilas Paswans son and a first time MP, who spoke on behalf of the Lok Janshakti Party, and Shiv Senas Arvind Sawant, also a first-time MP. Eye on state polls Wednesdays debate started off focused on the JNU row. But BSP chief Mayawati single-handedly managed to turn the Rajya Sabhas attention to the suicide of Rohith Vemula, the Dalit scholar from Hyderabad University. Though yet to spread its reach to southern states, the BSP rallied behind the highly-publicised debate. The Dalit issue has become a key point across states due for elections. If Behenji had next years elections in mind, BJPs Lok Sabha MP Meenakshi Lekhi was possibly thinking of the Kerala polls due in two months. Starting discussions on the motion to thank the President for his opening speech, Lekhi raked up the Communist Party of India (Maoist)s role in Kerala. She targeted the Left, calling it the witch in the fairy tale of Indias growth story. Silence of the two big leaders They attacked each other on several occasions in the past with many colourful references. But as the Parliament heated up on the Vemula suicide and JNU row, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi were conspicuously silent. The younger Gandhi has told media on Wednesday that he was not being allowed to talk. I will speak, but they will not let me speak. Because they are scared of what I will say, he said. Congress leader KC Venugopal was slated as the first speaker but passed on his turn to party colleague Jyotiraditya Scindia. Many wondered why Gandhi did not take the opportunity. His critics are likely to pick on this. Similarly, Modi, who has often faced accusations from critics for his silence on key issues, continued to avoid participating in the discussion. This indicates that he will talk when he chooses to and not under pressure from the Opposition. Defending him, parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu told Hindustan Times, Why should the PM speak every time something happens? We have other senior ministers and after all, the government is about collective responsibility. At least 180 Kenyan soldiers were killed in Somalia in an extremist attack on their base in January by al-Shabab, Somalias president said, which would represent a historically high battlefield loss for Kenyan forces. Between 180 and 200 Kenyan soldiers were killed in the January 15 attack, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said Wednesday. He was speaking in an interview on a Somali cable TV channel while attending a conference in Turkey. Kenyas government has concealed the death toll. You will be given all the details once a board of inquiry finishes its work, he said. The Kenyan government has managed to conceal the death toll of the attack because officials reached out to media house editors and asked them not to put out unofficial tolls as this would create fear, an editor with a leading radio station said. The editor insisted on anonymity given the sensitivity of the subject. The attack happened in the town of El-Ade in the Gedo region of southwestern Somalia, not far from the Kenyan border. Kenya has provided a major contingent to the African Union force that is fighting al-Shabab, a Somali Islamic extremist group affiliated with al Qaida that is trying to overthrow Somalias government. Responding to a question on the attack on the Kenyan military base in Somalia, Somalias president said: When 180 and above or nearly 200 boys (soldiers) who were sent to Somalia to pacify the country or help Somalis get peace were killed in one morning - thats not a normal situation. If the death toll provided by Mohamud is confirmed, it would be the Kenyan militarys worst battlefield loss and probably the bloodiest attack by al-Shabab militants to date. Al-Shababs April 2 attack on Garissa University in Kenya, in which 148 people, most of them students, died, had been considered the deadliest attack by the militant group. Al-Shabab has carried out attacks on three of five countries contributing troops to the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia. The group has also carried out many deadly attacks inside Kenya, including one on the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, the capital, in which 67 people perished in September 2013. Despite being pushed out of Somalias major cities and towns, al-Shabab continues to launch deadly guerrilla attacks across the Horn of Africa. President Xi Jinpings anti-corruption campaign is turning to the grave, with authorities drawing up plans to punish dead Communist Party of China (CPC) members whose funerals violate regulations. New diktats issued by the government say CPC members, including those who are dead, will be punished if they violate the latest regulations on funerals, including buying lavish tombs to bury the deceased. The new rules include a ban on unapproved burials and the purchase of oversized tombs, and CPC members are being urged to opt for environmentally friendly funerals. The new guidelines issued on Wednesday do not give details on how the dead, or the living, will be punished but clearly Xis determined effort to combat graft is going where no man has gone before. The civil affairs, science and technology and finance ministries are among the nine departments that issued the new regulations. The rules define environment friendly funerals as sea burials, burial or scattering of ashes at the bases of trees, and storage of ashes remains in boxes or urns. Party members are also urged to exhort close family members and colleagues to follow the guidelines. Those who violate funeral rules including deceased Party members will be corrected and punished, an unnamed official from the civil affairs ministry said in a statement. Many graves for officials are several times larger than the national standard of no more than one square meter. Plus, many have luxury decorations, and in some cases, a luxurious grave can serve as a bribe, Yang Genlai, a funeral management expert with Beijing Social Administration Vocational College, told state media. The Beijing News gave a particularly startling example of a lavish grave even the pharaohs would have been proud of. Ji Jianye a former mayor of Nanjing, East Chinas Jiangsu Province, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for corruption once bought a 150 square meter grave for 500,000 yuan ($76,550), less than the market price, the Beijing News reported. It added the crackdown might be easier said than done. Quoting an employee of a cemetery at Taiyuan in northern Shanxi Province, it said some officials purchased luxury tombs but did not carve their names on the tombstones for fear of being known publicly. In 2013, the State Council, Chinas cabinet, banned officials and CPC members from holding lavish funerals to collect money as is the custom. A group of hackers linked to the Islamic State has issued a video threatening Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey for cracking down on social media posts that promote terrorism. The Sons of the Caliphate Army posted a 25-minute video titled Flames of the Supporters on jihadi forums that features multiple images of Zuckerberg and Dorsey engulfed in flames and marked with bullet holes. The video, posted on Tuesday and first reported by Vocativ, has been authenticated by experts. It includes a direct threat to the heads of the popular social networks. To Mark and Jack, founders of Twitter and Facebook and to their Crusader government...If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete your sites, Allah willing, and will know that we say is true, states a slide that appears towards the end of the video. Zuckerberg and Dorsey were apparently targeted because their networks have cracked down on accounts and posts linked to jihadis, especially members of the IS, following pressure from governments round the world. They have deleted posts and suspended accounts and pages that promoted violence and extremism. Twitter, with 320 million monthly active users, recently announced it had suspended more than 125,000 accounts since last year for for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to ISIS. After two IS-linked shooters killed 14 people in San Bernardinoin December, Facebook removed the profile of Tashfeen Malik, one of two attackers. Zuckerberg has said that anything that incites violence or terrorism on Facebook, we just take down immediately. During his speech at the Mobile World Congress this week, Zuckerberg outlined Facebooks policy on helping fight terrorism online. We feel like we have a pretty big responsibility running this big networking community to help prevent terrorism and different kinds of attacks, he said. However, the video by the The Sons of the Caliphate Army claimed it had hacked more than 10,000 Facebook accounts, 150 Facebook groups and more than 5,000 Twitter accounts. Many of these accounts have been given to supporters and if Allah permits the rest of them will be distributed also, said a slide that was part of the video. Closer to home, the Indian government recently asked Twitter to act against the accounts of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and the Jamaat-ud-Dawah that were being used to promote violence against India. Accounts linked to the JuDs cyber cell had recently praised the LeT for the attack at Pampore in Jammu and Kashmir. While other terror groups have made some use of social media, the IS has embraced jihadi forums and platforms like Twitter and Facebook to recruit among Muslim communities round the world. Many of the Indian youngsters who travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the IS were recruited or indoctrinated online. The romance of the bygone steam engine era returned to London on Thursday morning as the iconic Flying Scotsman returned to the tracks for a run to York after a 10-year refit that cost more than 4 million. Thousands of steam engine buffs cheered as it went full steam ahead from Kings Cross station, with many more lined up along the tracks, while helicopters above recorded its journey. Built in 1923, it was the first locomotive to reach the speed of 100 miles an hour. Last November, the Flying Scotsman beat Indias Rajdhani Express and Shatabdi Express in a global survey of iconic railways conducted by the National Railway Museum (NRM), York, where it will remain for public viewing before going on a tour across Britain later this year. The Flying Scotsman became famous after it was selected to appear at the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley in 1924. It was the first to run a non-stop London to Edinburgh service, and clocked 100 miles an hour in a special run in 1934. It was retired in 1963. The Flying Scotsman steam engine passes over Digswell Viaduct as it makes it's official return after a restoration project, near Welwyn Garden City, southern England. (Reuters Photo) Hundreds of people posted videos and photos of the Flying Scotsman making its way and being overtaken by modern fast trains through the countryside to York. The enthusiasm prompted safety warnings. NRM and Network Rail urged fans to view the locomotive from a safe vantage point. In a joint statement, they said: It is vital that spectators do not venture on to the railway as a full timetable of regular services will be running. They added, In order to avoid overcrowding we are not publishing recommended viewing points or the timetable of when the train will be passing through specific locations. We wish those who are boarding Flying Scotsman an enjoyable experience. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON At least 15 people were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a Shia mosque in Baghdad on Thursday. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State terrorists who control large swaths in Iraq and Syria. Fifty other people were wounded in the blast in the predominantly Shia Shulaa neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital, police and medical sources said. The first bomber detonated his vest inside the mosque and the second blew himself up when security forces gathered at the site of the initial blast. Four of the victims were members of the security forces, the sources said. Islamic State, which controls swathes of Iraqs north and west, said the attacks targeted apostates - a term the ultra-hardline Sunni group uses to describe Shiite Muslims. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State terrorists who control large swaths in Iraq and Syria. Fifty other people were wounded in the blast in the predominantly Shia Shulaa neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital, police and medical sources said. The first bomber detonated his vest inside the mosque and the second blew himself up when security forces gathered at the site of the initial blast. Four of the victims were members of the security forces, the sources said. Islamic State, which controls swathes of Iraqs north and west, said the attacks targeted apostates - a term the ultra-hardline Sunni group uses to describe Shiite Muslims. Republican senator Rand Paul, who was a candidate for the partys presidential nomination until recently, has introduced a joint resolution in senate opposing the sale of F-16s to Pakistan. Paul joins a bipartisan position taken by leading members of the foreign relations committee of the US senate and the House of Representative in opposing the proposed sale. The US and Pakistani relationship has been a troubled one, Paul said in a statement on his joint resolution, which he introduced in the senate on Wednesday. He added: Though the government of Pakistan has been considered Americas ally in the fight against terrorism, Pakistans behaviour would suggest otherwise. While we give them billions of dollars in aid, we are simultaneously aware of their intelligence and military apparatus assisting the Afghan Taliban. He went on to call Pakistan duplicitous, a word used frequently by US lawmakers for the country, and brought up its support of terrorism and deplorable human rights record. The Obama administration announced its intention to sell eight new F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs visit to the US last October. Earlier this month, the US department of defence notified Congress, as is required for a deal of this size, of this possible sale that is estimated to cost $699.04 million. India expressed displeasure over the proposed sale, the day after, and said it disagrees with Obama administrations rationale that such arms transfers help to combat terrorism. As reported by HT before, four lawmakers chairmen and ranking members of the foreign affairs committees of both chambers of congress have said they will put a hold on the sale. They will deny the administration money, therein, to finance the sale subsidized through the Foreign Military Sale programme. Pakistan is free to buy them still, if they can pay for it. Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, called Pakistan duplicitous in a letter he sent to secretary of State John Kerry this month informing him of his intention to put a hold on the sale. I do not want US taxpayer dollars going to support these acquisitions, Corker told The Wall Street Journal. While were spending tremendous amounts of US dollars and certainly tremendous sacrifice in our men and women in uniform and by other agencies, they are working simultaneously to destabilise Afghanistan. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Thank you! You've reported this item as a violation of our terms of use. This content was contributed by a user of the site. If you believe this content may be in violation of the terms of use, you may report it. Everyone is sick right now. It's the end of February and the weather has been on a hellish roller coaster that has heads all over the world feeling cloudy and heavy. While we'd love to nurture our sort-of-sickly bodies with chicken noodle soup, chicken is expensive and we have vegetarians to nourish, too! Enter Provencal Garlic Soup. It's an incredibly simple soup to make, and it requires few ingredients and less than 45 minutes. The main flavors are garlic and sage, and it's "garnished" with a whole slice of crusty bread and an egg that's been poached right in the soup. Sixteen cloves seems like a ton of garlic, but it's being boiled into submission, so it won't be sharp and intense. Additionally, the food world loves putting eggs on everything these days, said AZ Central, so it's a wonder how this soup hasn't quite caught on. We're putting a pot on tonight! Provencal Garlic Soup with Poached Egg Recipe by David Tanis of New York Times Food: INGREDIENTS 2 heads new crop garlic, if available, about 16 medium cloves 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 12 sage leaves Salt Pepper 4 to 6 eggs 4 to 6 slices day old French bread, lightly toasted Chopped parsley, scallions or chives for garnish DIRECTIONS 1. Peel and slice or roughly chop the garlic cloves. Warm the oil in a heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and sage and let them sizzle a bit without browning, about 2 minutes. Season with about a teaspoon of salt and a few grinds of pepper. 2. Add 6 cups of water and bring to a boil over high heat, then lower to a brisk simmer. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning and adjust. 3. Ladle about an inch of soup into a skillet. Over medium heat, bring to a brisk simmer and, for each serving, poach an egg for about 3 minutes. 4. For each serving, place a slice of toast in a soup bowl. With a slotted spoon lift a poached egg onto each piece. Ladle the soup over it. Sprinkle with a little parsley, scallion or chive. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In a historic vote on Wednesday, the Australian Parliament agreed to initiate amendments to the nation's Narcotic Drugs Act, making the cultivation and use of medical marijuana fully legal in the country, according to Metro News. Thus, for the first time in the history of the country, cannabis can now be legally grown. However, the legal cultivation and use of the controversial plant only apply to those which are grown for medical and scientific purposes. Despite the milestone achieved by the Parliament ruling, recreational marijuana remains illegal in the country, reports CNN. Notably, the Parliament's decision comes exactly a year after Daniel Haslam, a 25-year-old terminal bowel cancer patient, lost his battle against the disease. During Haslam's stay in the hospital, he used medical marijuana to ease his pain and nausea, making his last days much more bearable. After his death, his mother, Lucy, founded an advocacy group called United for Compassion, which petitioned for the Australian government to make the medical use of marijuana legal, reports The International Business Times. In a statement to the Parliament on Wednesday, Australian Sen. Richard Di Natale brought up Haslam's story, especially how medical marijuana helped him during his final days. "It is incredibly fitting that today we are passing this bill which is one step towards making medicinal cannabis accessible to people like Dan. Thank you to Lucy for everything you have done. Please know that your family's grief, pain and suffering has not been in vain and this is a legacy that Dan will leave here in Parliament," the senator said. For more world news, click here. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Ramon Eusebio Castro, the elder brother of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and current president Raul Castro, passed away in Cuba Tuesday morning at the age of 91, according to The Washington Post. Cuban state media reported that his body was cremated and his remains would be transferred to his birthplace Biran in the eastern province of Holguin. However, the cause of his death was not revealed by state media. "He was always complementary of his brothers. He was family man. However, I never heard him get into a discussion on politics," his Florida-based farmer friend John Parke Wright told NPR. "He had a good sense of humor. Ramon Castro was fun to be with." The elder Castro was imprisoned by Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1953, according to Havana Times. He actively participated in the liberation war and helped in organizing supply networks for guerrilla groups in the eastern part of country. Ramon did not follow his younger brothers and largely kept a low profile throughout his life while staying away from political power. However, he was a founding member of the Communist Party of Cuba and served as a deputy in the National Assembly. Ramon was a farmer by profession and served as an adviser to the Ministers of Agriculture and Sugar. He also served as the director of the Genetic Special Plan at Valle de Picadura, according to Press Latina. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Rumors that Florida Gov. Rick Scott is likely to be selected as Donald Trump's Vice President candidate started making the rounds in Washington this week. That's predicated, of course, on Trump securing the Republican nomination for president, which certainly seems possible now that he's won three out of four primaries: New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Scott, who has not yet made his endorsement public, has been praising Trump. "I think what Trump has got going for him is the fact he had 14 years on 'The Apprentice,' and people think he's a successful business guy. And they want a business guy, they want someone who will help them get jobs," Scott had said to the Daily Caller in January. "I think he is capturing the frustration of many Americans after seven years of President Obama's very intentional government takeover of the U.S. economy," Scott had written about Trump in a USA Today, op-ed in early January. As soon as the speculations started, Scott chose to distance himself from the Trump campaign, saying only that it has been "fun to watch." "I'm focused on this job. I've got three more years in this job. I've been very clear the things that are important to me, the things that we've done here. I think we need to have a president who has a very specific plan on how we're going to get jobs going in this country, just as we've done in Florida... somebody who's going to be absolutely focused on destroying ISIS," said Scott, speaking to reporters, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Greece announced Thursday that it has recalled its ambassador to Vienna for "consultations" after Austria reportedly hosted a meeting with Balkan states about the ongoing migrant crisis but excluded it from the gathering. Calling the move an "unfriendly act," Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias recalled the ambassador in order to "safeguard the friendly relations between the states and the people of Greece and Austria," the ministry said in a statement, according to BBC News. Ministers from EU Balkan nations are meeting in Brussels to discuss the migrant issue, but 10 Balkan states meeting in Austria on Wednesday determined, without input from Greece, that they would coordinate action to limit the flow of migrants along their countries. The actions have the potential to place Greece in a difficult situation due to it being a main point of entry for hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the Middle East due its maritime border with Turkey and the close proximity of its islands to the Turkish coast, reported the Associated Press. By triggering a domino effect of national border controls limiting the flow of people northwards, the refugees become stranded there, placing burden on Greece alone. Greece condemned the actions taken by Austria and other Balkan states, saying they could "undermine the foundations and the process of European unification." "Unilateral initiatives to solve the refugee (crisis) and violations of international and European laws by EU member states is a practice which would undermine the very foundations of European unification," the Greek ministry said, according to Reuters. "Responsibility for dealing with the migration and refugee crisis cannot burden one country." @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Students at the Miami University of Ohio have been warned to take extra care with personal hygiene after a norovirus outbreak has affected at least 200 students across campus, according to the Associated Press. A number of students have tested positive for the virus since last Tuesday, when several students went to a school health center in Oxford, Ohio and complained of stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. University authorities are doing all they can to prevent further spread of norovirus, with the Environmental Services Department conducting a "deep cleaning" of common and dining areas across campus, according to Dayton Daily News. Jenny Bailer, the nursing director for the Butler County Health Department, told reporters that it was important to keep the public informed about how to keep themselves from catching the virus, as "it's pretty awful" and can "spread like wildfire." The original source of the virus is currently unknown, but the university administration has recommended that students use soap and water to wash their hands rather than antiseptic wipes and gels, which are not wholly effective in tackling the virus. Cynthia Traficant, practice manager at the Miami Health Services Clinic, told The Miami Student that university campuses are prime areas for viruses like this to spread. "Any time you have large groups of people living in close contact and sharing space, the chance of the spread of virus goes up," Traficant said. "Those factors make this the perfect storm for the virus to thrive." A small number of the students affected by the virus have gone to the hospital to get treatment for dehydration symptoms caused by the illness, Reuters reported. The outbreak at Miami University is the latest in a series of cases across the U.S., affecting students from Ursinus College and the University of Michigan, as well as a number of restaurants and other institutions. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Tonight the Republican candidates for president will face off again, just ahead of Super Tuesday, in the 10th debate hosted by CNN and Telemundo, in Houston at 8:30 p.m. EST. After Jeb Bush dropped out of the race on Feb. 20, the field was narrowed to just five candidates: front-runner Donald Trump, the slow-surging Marco Rubio, the somewhat slipping Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Ben Carson, according to Politico. Kasich and Carson are essentially dead in the water as of now, with the former under pressure from RNC leaders to drop out, according to CNN. Carson continues to claim he's in the race for the long haul despite not finishing in a single primary position to legitimize his continued run. Trump has taken some risks since the last debate, including accusing former President George W. Bush of lying about Iraq's WMDs and lauding Planned Parenthood for doing "wonderful things" aside from abortion reported MSNBC. He is coming off wins in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada and is projected to win at least three other states, Georgia, Alabama and Oklahoma, on Super Tuesday (March 1), according to FiveThirtyEight. Trump's goal will probably be to go for the kill and firmly grasp his lead over Cruz and Rubio, who are positioning themselves as an alternative to Trump. Cruz is in a precarious position heading into his home state's debate. After winning Iowa, Cruz has slid slowly backward, culminated in third-place finishes in both South Carolina and Nevada, CNN reports. On Monday, he let his communications director go after a controversial video was released by the Cruz campaign falsely quoting Rubio. He's projected to win Texas, but he'll need to inspire a surge to convey himself as the best "Trump alternative." Rubio has surged in recent weeks and has become the establishment and Fox News darling, yet he still cannot overcome Trump. He's projected to win Virginia and needs to step up his efforts on stage Thursday. He hasn't won a state yet and has focused solely on making false claims about Cruz rather than establishing himself as a contender who can run on his record. He's gained a few key endorsements lately, including Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslem, reported The Hill, but he needs to push in front of Trump if he plans to gain the nomination. What: The 10th GOP debate. When: The debate is set for 8:30 p.m. EST Where: The University of Houston's Moores Opera Center. Who: Moderators include Wolf Blizter as the primary moderator, Hugh Hewitt and Dana Bash of CNN, and Maria Arraras of Telemundo. Candidates participating 8:30 p.m. debate - Donald Trump will be center stage. To his left: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. To his right: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Rules To qualify, the candidates had to get at least 5 percent support in the Iowa or Nevada caucuses, and South Carolina or New Hampshire primaries. How To Watch The debate will be broadcast on CNN, and Telemundo will show it in Spanish. There will be a live stream on CNN's website. Online: Follow HNGN's President and editorial director Michael Bullerdick (@mbullerdick) for his live tweets during both events! Bullerdick's Predictions: Cruz, the only legitimate conservative on the panel and the only candidate who has a chance at beating Trump will again be Trump and Rubio's targets. Trump is hoping to knock him out on Super Tuesday and finish his run against the weaker Rubio, which explains why he's refrained from directing his cannons at the Florida senator. Trump and Rubio have both had some success smearing Cruz with false allegations, so expect more of the same. It is doubtful the moderators will question Trump about his philosophical flip-flops and convenient campaign conservatism. The same goes for long overdue questioning of Rubio about his decidedly non-conservative support of the TPP. Outcome: Most of the media will declare Trump the debate's winner no matter what happens. Drinking games! After a calculated, deep investigation, we found these sites' drinking games to be most exciting and fun for viewers, regardless of party affiliation. Or if you are solely watching to get drunk. Debate Drinking Sun Times National A word to the wise, though! Know your limit and drink in moderation, because as Surgeon General Vivek Murthy points out, "You simply can't drink every time one of these guys says something silly... It's just a formula for disaster." This the tenth of the 2016 presidential cycle. Many more are set to take place. Some have exact dates and sponsors already set, while others are still being planned. Check below to see all of the debates scheduled between now and election day 2016, courtesy of USPresidentialElectionNews.com. Remaining Debate Schedule March 3, 2016 Fox News Republican Debate Aired On: Fox News Channel Location: Fox Theatre in Detroit, Mich. Sponsors: Fox News Candidates: To be determined March 10, 2016 CNN/Salem Republican Debate Aired On: CNN Location: University of Miami, Fla. Sponsors: CNN, Salem Media Group Candidates: To be determined March 21, 2016 Republican Debate Aired On: To be determined Location: Salt Lake City, Utah Sponsors: To be determined Candidates: To be determined @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A personalized license plate reading "FMUSLMS" has made headlines in St. Cloud, Minn. after a photo was posted online on Feb. 20 and went viral, according to Fox News. State officials at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) have promised to revoke the plate and condemned its message as "offensive and distasteful." The license plate was first posted online by Haji Yusuf, a Somali-American Muslim whose friends had sent him a picture of the offending plate while they were driving in St. Cloud, according to NBC News. Yusuf is the community director and co-founder of #UniteCloud, an initiative that aims to use education and stories directly from the local community to help fight prejudice in the central Minnesota area, and the image was quickly shared more than 600 times. "The Department of Public Safety apologizes for this error," read a statement sent to the Washington Post on Tuesday. "The Driver and Vehicle Services Division is reviewing its process for approving personalized license plates today and will immediately provide additional review and oversight of applications." The anti-Muslim license plate wasn't the only controversial option that the person responsible put forward, with a partial application released by the DPS showing that "PETALOL" and "8LUGTHG" were the alternative suggestions, according to CBS. The identity of the driver in question cannot be released, but the explanation portion of the application shows that officials were told that the letter combinations were chosen because they are "names of the musical bands he is in." Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton has also condemned the plate, releasing a statement on Monday saying that he was "appalled" that it had been issued by the DPS, according to St. Cloud Times. "It is offensive, and the person who requested it should be ashamed," Dayton said in the statement. "That prejudice has no place in Minnesota." @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A 21-ton airdrop of food that was intended for starving Syrians in the besieged city of Deir el-Zour was damaged, lost or fell into an area covered with land mines, the U.N World Food Programme revealed Thursday. The delivery, which had been dropped at an altitude of 23,000 feet, would have been enough to feed 2,500 people for a month. But Instead of 10 of the 21 pallets which include foodstuffs such as vegetable oil, lentils, rice and salt landing in the city as planned, they "drifted away and are so far unaccounted for," U.N. World Food Programme spokeswoman Abeer Etefa said, according to NBC News. Officials know where the remaining 11 pallets dropped, but they were hardly better off. Four of them landed within the vicinity of the drop zone but became badly damaged because their parachutes didn't open, while the remaining seven are suspected to have landed in no-man's land. "This plane had to fly at a high altitude to avoid rockets, missiles and gunfire," the spokeswoman added. "We are disappointed that people who were anxiously waiting to receive this food did not receive it." The results of the operation are a far cry from what was initially reported by the U.N. who cited Syrian Arab Red Crescent teams on the ground who suggested that the first pallet had dropped over the city and landed safely, according to the BBC. However, the WFP later rectified the report and updated the status of the situation to reflect what we know now through a statement on its website that said the operation "faced technical difficulties and we are debriefing crew and partners in Deir Ezzor to make necessary adjustments." It continued, explaining that "high altitude drops are extremely challenging to carry out and take more than one trial to develop full accuracy." Deir el-Zour, a city with a population of about 200,000, lies in Syria's east and is consistently besieged by ISIS - one of the key players in the country's five-year civil war that has claimed at least 250,000 lives. Civilians living in the western side of the city are particularly at risk, and U.N agencies warned last month that its residents were facing "sharply deteriorating conditions." Wednesday's drop was the first high-altitude air delivery over Syria, but diplomats hope that a ceasefire scheduled to go into effect Saturday will allow aid workers to to deliver food and other services to the country's civilian population rather than rely on road deliveries or air drops which are used as a last resort. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. By Philippe Masset and Jean-Philippe Weisskopf, Assistant Professors and Pablo Charosky, Research Assistant at Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne, HES-SO // University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland Nowadays, most hotel groups maintain light asset structures and focus their full attention on their core business: hotel management. This context has led practitioners and academics to dedicate a particular attention to strategic and operational issues. Nevertheless, real estate still is at the very heart of the hotel industry. The recent subprime crisis, which has begun with the drop of housing prices followed by commercial real estate assets, demonstrates that issues related to hotel property valuation should not be underestimated. In this article, we use a comprehensive dataset of hotel transactions and take a deeper look into the US hotel real estate market. We examine three related questions: what is the typical value (per room) of a hotel? How has this value evolved since 2000? What are the most expensive and cheapest states and cities in terms of hotel value? What is the typical value of a hotel room in the United States? In fact, numerous factors affect the value of a hotel room. For an Upper Midscale mid-sized hotel, the estimated price per room can vary from $50.000 up to $150.000 depending on its location. The hierarchy between the various scales is generally well respected. Luxury properties are, by far, the priciest and their value strongly depends on the hotel chain they belong to: for example, a room in a Four Seasons is on average worth close to 350% more than a room in an ordinary hotel from the Upper-Midscale segment. Upper-Upscale and Upscale properties display a premium of respectively 40% and 30% compared to the Upper-Midscale segment, while Midscale and Economy hotels exhibit a discount of 20% and 35%. Furthermore, the impact of offering limited or full services depends on the standing of the hotel. For superior categories, being full-service has a positive effect on value, whereas for lower scale brands, the impact is often negative. The size of the property also matters. Smaller "boutique" hotels and large hotels (which generally offer extensive facilities) feature a higher value per room than, more common, mid-sized properties. Source: EH The figure reports the evolution of a hotel real estate price index (own estimates based on transaction data), a hotel REITs price index (own estimates based on all hotel REITs listed in the US) and the S&P 500. The hotel real estate price index has increased by more than 60% between 2000 and 2007. It has then severely declined during the financial crisis, rebounding in 2010 only. An indirect investment through hotel REITs has generally delivered higher returns than a direct investment in hotel properties, but the latter has been less volatile and also much less severely hit by the financial crisis. Overall, hotel investments have performed better than stocks but, since 2010, the S&P 500 seems to be progressively catching up with the hotel index. Source: EHL The table displays the 5 most and least expensive hotel markets, classified by cities and states. Only cities of at least 1 million inhabitants are considered in this analysis. The first observation that can be made is that the geographic location of a property has a strong impact on its value. Indeed, the same hotel could have its price more than doubled if sold in Detroit or Los Angeles. New York City leads the country, with a premium of about 53% compared to the price observed for similar properties in a rural place on the Pacific coast (used as a point of comparison). Several cities located in California or along the Boston-Washington corridor follow. At the bottom of the ranking, one finds mostly cities from the Midwest. The situation of Ohio, with three cities ranked amongst the cheapest in the USA, is quite striking. Hotel values in this state are on average 42% lower than in California (which serves as a point of comparison). Hawaii displays, by far, the highest hotel values of all states. It is followed by Alaska and New-York state. The District of Columbia, due to its particular status is not reported in this table, but it also displays one of the highest price levels in the country. The findings of our analysis underline the variability of hotel real estate prices and the factors that affect them. Investing in hotel real estate, directly or indirectly is therefore a delicate decision that requires a thorough analysis. Philippe Masset Ecole hotelire de Lausanne +41 21 785 14 12 EHL Shangri-La Hotel, Doha, the gleaming 50-storey property located in the commercial district of West Bay, celebrated its grand opening yesterday with His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, The Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior for the State of Qatar, local dignitaries and other city officials attending a unique ribbon-cutting ceremony that reflects the hotel's signature blend of Asian and Arabian hospitality. A life-sized portrait of His Royal Highness the Emir and His Royal Highness the Father Emir will also be unveiled. The hotel, designed to resemble a falcon's head in recognition of Qatari falconry the country's historic and elite pastime is adorned with museum-quality art pieces honouring the rich heritage of the Qatari peninsula which are on loan from the Sheikh Faisal Collection. Strategically located close to the business and diplomatic areas, Shangri-La Hotel, Doha offers a direct link to the City Centre Mall, the city's largest mall, and is only five minutes from the waterfront promenade. References to a traditional Arabian welcome begin when guests arrive at the hotel. In the driveway, a prodigious bottle tree greets visitors, while a falconer in traditional garb with the recognisable bird of prey perched on his arm shows the warmth of welcome intrinsic to this part of the world. Guests are presented with a cup of rich coffee, made by the hotel's specialist coffee maker according to a nomadic recipe, to reflect another warm Arabian gesture that is the hotel's signature blend of East meets East hospitality. Light-filled luxury accommodation includes 272 guestrooms and suites and 42 serviced apartments. The guestrooms, all with floor-to-ceiling windows and spectacular views of the city and Gulf, feature warm earth tones and amenities including a 47-inch Wi-Fi-enabled smart TV and Shangri-La's signature mattress. Complementing the chic interiors are spacious marble bathrooms fitted with premium toiletries, a deep-soaking tub and walk-in shower. Taking advantage of the 360-degree panoramic vista of the skyline and the glistening Arabian Gulf is the Horizon Club Lounge. Here in the private sanctuary, located on level 42 of the hotel, Horizon Club and suite guests can enjoy private check-in service, complimentary refreshments all day and a host of exclusive privileges. Travellers on business and holiday alike will be spoilt for choice by the hotel's leisure facilities. An aquamarine lagoon-shaped pool lies invitingly on the 2,000-square-metre deck dotted with loungers ideal for luxuriating in the year-round sunshine. A shaded splash pool is located nearby for little guests to frolic in. Surrounded by over 70 trees, the pool deck is a leafy, tranquil oasis in the middle of the urban cityscape. Next to the pool area is the Health Club that offers a fully-equipped 24-hour fitness centre, sauna and steam rooms. A haven of relaxation can be found at CHI, The Spa, the first luxury Asian-themed spa in Doha, where Asian wellness traditions are blended with botanical extracts, aromatic essential oils and natural Arabian elements to nourish the body and reinvigorate the senses. An outdoor hydrotonic pool and eight private treatment rooms are available. Shangri-La Hotel, Doha captures the essence of exceptional and international dining options with seven food and beverage outlets. Sridan provides an interactive all-day dining experience where distinctive arches, intricate lamps and vividly coloured tiles recreate a lively souq (market) atmosphere for guests. The excitement of the Argentine pampas is modernised at Fuego, the only restaurant in the city to offer certified Argentine Kobe beef. Decorated in deep burgundy hues with miniature horse sculptures displayed in the dining area and horseshoes dotting the wall, the informal and lively atmosphere is heightened by live folk music performed by an Argentine duo. Yabby, the seafood restaurant, takes its name from the popular Australian crayfish and showcases the largest live seafood selection in Doha, and is a spirited celebration of the ocean's remarkable flavours. The entrancing Shanghai Club, opening later in the year, will be located on level 42 and 43 of the hotel. At a height of 162.3 metres above ground, the venue will be Doha's highest Chinese restaurant with authentic food presentations for lunch and dinner, as well as after-work drinks. The Den, a European-inspired piano lounge, resplendent in polished wood and supple leather harks back to the glamour of a bygone era. Providing seamless event and meeting facilities are nine function spaces, including the hotel's grand pillar-less Shangri-La Ballroom that is classically inspired with high ceilings and six ornate chandeliers. Additional function rooms, located next to the Business Centre, provide plenty of versatility for a range of occasions and access to secretarial services. In celebration of its grand opening, Golden Circle members reserving the "Thrice the Welcome in Doha" offer, valid until 30 June 2016, will receive triple Golden Circle award points and a 25 per cent discount on the Best Available Rate, food and beverage and CHI, The Spa. About Shangri-La Group Shangri-La Group is one of the world's premier developers, owners and managers of hotel and investment properties which comprises office buildings, commercial real estate and serviced apartments/residences. The Group's other principal activities include hotel management services as well as property development for sale. It currently owns and/or manages over 100 hotels globally in 78 destinations under the Shangri-La, Kerry, JEN and Traders brands. Prominently positioned in Asia, the Group has a substantial pipeline of upcoming hotel and mixed-use development projects in Australia, Mainland China, Cambodia, and Japan. For more information, please visit https://www.shangri-la.com/group/. Christina Sham Public Relations Coordinator 852 2599 3359 Shangri-La It looks like you've reached a page that doesnt exist (anymore). Please use the navigation or search above to find content on Hospitality Net. Go back to home By David Chestler, Executive Vice President, Global Enterprise Sales & Business Development, SiteMinder With ITB Berlin 2016 less than two weeks away, it seems apt to not only reflect on how the hotel industry has evolved, especially as of late, but to look ahead to the change likely to come. For the purposes of this article, I want to draw specifically on the Independent Lodging Market Report, produced by Phocuswright and h2c, and co-sponsored by SiteMinder, which outlines the key shifts we can expect over the next two years. Some of the more startling shifts are in: Regional market growth The US market will grow more than six times faster than the European market, showing 6.8% compound annual growth rate compared to just 1.1% Chains v independent disparity European chain hotels will grow three times faster than independents between 2013 and 2017 Overall growth in online bookings In Europe, 39% of bookings will be made online by 2017, a rise of 5% from current figures. In the USA, the figure is 44%, a rise of 2% OTA market share OTAs will enjoy a majority share of the US market by 2017 (52%). Lets look at these in more detail. 1. Regional market growth One of the headline figures from the report demonstrates the increasing strength of the American hotel market when compared to its European counterpart. The US market is expected to grow at more than six times the rate of the European market between 2013 and 2017, with the US showing a 6.8% compound annual growth rate and Europe just 1.1%. We will see a resurgence of supply being built and enabled in the market, with limited and select service dominating the landscape. The larger, big box or full service properties will be slower and more strategic as required investment is cautious to build big luxury and meeting facilities versus limited service. 2. Chains v independent disparity Despite the slower growth overall, the report notes a number of positive trends in Europe. Chain hotels are the big winners, growing three times quicker than independents in the four-year time period. This will see the independents share of the total lodging market fall from 58% in 2013 to 56% in 2017. Again, the picture stateside is somewhat different, with the percentage split between independents and chain hotels remaining steady at 28:72. It is proving true that brands and big groups can perform better in the market by negotiating distribution deals and reducing costs for their operators and investors. And, because these benefits make it more likely to succeed as a viable business, it means banks like brands more, giving them even greater leverage. While the independent hotelier has more tools than ever before, the money right now is on brands, brands and more brands. The Marriott and Starwood merger is the perfect example of The Big Brand getting bigger by the minute to compete in the market and gain more negotiating power. 3. Overall growth in online bookings Of course, the primary catalyst for the evolution of the market has been, and remains, the changing nature of travelers. The rise of online bookings has increased consumer power enormously and changed booking habits almost entirely. In fact, research conducted by Nielsen for Google showed that customers spend an average of 53 days booking their trip, during which they view 28 different sites over 76 sessions, while more than half of travelers use social media for travel tips. In Europe, 39% of bookings will be made online by 2017, a rise of 5% from current figures and 8% from 2013. Online penetration is even bigger across the pond and will be close to becoming the booking choice of the majority in two years, with 44% booking online in the US by 2017, a rise of 2%. Mobile In almost every sphere of business, from news to music, mobile is rapidly becoming king and the hotel industry is no different. The statistics show that while only 8% of bookings are currently made on mobile devices, by 2018, that figure will stand at 35%, meaning mobile-friendly websites are critical for hotels wanting to drive up their revenues. Although hotels are generally becoming more savvy with their own websites in an attempt to drive more of that online business their own way, the rise of OTAs will continue over the coming years. OTAs will enjoy a majority share of the US market by 2017 (52%). A global distribution strategy Despite this, the range of choice, and increasingly travel-savvy nature of guests, means hotels must find the most effective mix of direct and indirect channels to meet expectation. The changing nature of travelers has led to a boom in international tourism, which brings both challenges and potential rewards for hotels. Figures from the UNWTO Tourism 2020 Vision report suggest that international arrivals will reach almost 1.6 billion by 2020. While this opens up ever larger markets for hotels, it also means they are competing in an ever-increasing marketplace and must adapt accordingly. Over the next few years, knowing your market will become ever more critical. 4. OTA market share As global bookings from OTAs continue to rise, those businesses who identify themselves as dealing with largely international travelers will increasingly rely on intermediaries such as OTAs and wholesalers, while their domestic-trade-based colleagues should still look to bricks and mortar sites and personal relationships. The report also picks up some trends specific to certain European countries that, to some extent, defy the wider trends our industry is seeing. Perhaps the most striking is the difference in the future use of OTAs among some of Europes travel powerhouses by 2017. Germany: 4% fall in use of OTAs 3% rise in direct website bookings France: 2% fall in OTAs 2% rise in direct website bookings Europe overall: 2% drop in OTAs 3% rise in direct website bookings Meanwhile, the UK bucks this trend significantly, showing a 4% rise in the OTA segment and a 3% drop in direct bookings. The ratios for Spain and the US are relatively static. The hotel industry may have been through more changes than most in the past decade or two, but the projections show it must continue to adapt in order to succeed. As the industry grows, so too do online bookings, with mobile bookings set to be the next major growth area. But hotels must also maintain traditional strengths such as brand value and customer service. It will also become increasingly important to know your business and your customers and tailor offerings to travelers, whether they be from the domestic market or further afield. I look forward to seeing you in Berlin. I am honored to be taking part in ETOAs panel discussion on Going Direct The Consumer Revolution In Self-Service Travel from 11.30am 12.00pm on March 9, and hope to continue this conversation there. Media contact: Maria Franco +61 410 233 735 media@siteminder.com About SiteMinder As the leading cloud platform for hotels, SiteMinder allows hotels to attract, reach and convert guests across the globe. We serve hotels of all sizes with award-winning solutions for independents and groups alike, wherever they are in the world. SiteMinders products include The Channel Manager, the industrys leading online distribution platform; TheBookingButton, a wholly-branded booking engine for direct bookings via the web, mobile or social; Canvas, the intelligent website creator for independent hoteliers; and GDS by SiteMinder, a single-point of entry to a six-figure network of travel agents and the worlds major GDSs. With more than 20,000 hotel customers and 400 of the industry's top connectivity providers as our partners, today we have presence in more than 160 countries on six continents. For more information, visit www.siteminder.com. Compared with January 2015, the Middle East subcontinent reported a 3.8% decrease in occupancy to 70.3%. Average daily rate for the month was down 6.9% to US$197.20. Revenue per available room dropped 10.4% to US$138.60. Hotels in the Middle East reported negative results, while hotels in Africa recorded mixed results in the three key performance metrics when reported in U.S. dollar constant currency, according to January 2016 data from STR Global. Compared with January 2015, the Middle East subcontinent reported a 3.8% decrease in occupancy to 70.3%. Average daily rate for the month was down 6.9% to US$197.20. Revenue per available room dropped 10.4% to US$138.60. The Northern Africa and Southern Africa subcontinents experienced a 5.4% decrease in occupancy to 47.9%. However, average daily rate was up 9.4% to US$111.48, and RevPAR increased 3.5% to US$53.41. Performance of featured countries for January 2016 (local currency, year-over-year comparisons): South Africa saw a 6.3% increase in occupancy to 57.4% as well as double-digit growth in ADR (+12.2% to ZAR1,254.81) and RevPAR (+19.3% to ZAR719.96). The countrys performance was pushed by solid demand growth (+7.2%) coupled with steady supply (+0.8%). Tunisia experienced a double-digit decrease in occupancy (-10.0% to 27.8%), but a significant rise in ADR (+22.0% to TND172.24) pushed RevPAR (+9.8% to TND47.96) for the month. Supply (-0.9%) remained fairly steady, but demand (-10.8%) decreased considerably. STR Global analysts believe Tunisia is still struggling to attract tourists after the Sousse attacks in June 2015 and that hoteliers are raising rates to compensate for a loss in demand. Tanzania reported an 8.2% drop in occupancy to 47.0% but major spikes in ADR (+34.2% to TZS315,869.17) and RevPAR (+23.2% to TZN148,335.46). Rate was the clear driver of RevPAR for the month as occupancy slipped to below 50% for the first time since 2010. Nigeria saw double-digit declines in occupancy (-14.7% to 40.7%) and RevPAR (-9.5% to NGN17,466.30). ADR in the country grew 6.1% to NGN42,911.30. STR Global analysts note that Nigerias economy is dependent on the oil market. Performance of featured markets for January 2016 (local currency, year-over-year comparisons): Muscat, Oman, reported an 8.7% decline in occupancy to 63.8%, a 9.4% drop in ADR to OMR80.98 and a 17.3% decrease in RevPAR to OMR51.68. Supply growth (+2.0%) outweighed demand performance (-6.9%) for the month, creating a slower-than-usual start to the year in Muscat. Casablanca, Morocco, posted increases in each of the three key performance metrics: occupancy (+8.0% to 58.2%), ADR (+8.7% to MAD1,062.66) and RevPAR (+17.4% to MAD618.35). Absolute levels in the market fell in line with usual January performance. Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, reported double-digit decreases across the three key performance indicators: occupancy (-54.7% to 24.8%), ADR (-18.9% to EGP406.16) and RevPAR (-63.3% to EGP100.92). Hoteliers cut prices in the market, but the decline in occupancy was too great to overcome. According to STR Global analysts, Sharm el-Sheikh has once again lost its attractiveness due to the October 2015 plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula. About Constant Currency Constant Currency methodology eliminates the effects of exchange rate fluctuations when calculating performance figures. STR Global utilizes Constant Currency to present the most accurate performance summary of a region comprising different local currencies. All ADR and RevPAR calculations use 31 January 2016 exchange rates. Download the Global Performance Review About STR Global: STR Global provides clients - including hotel operators, developers, financiers, analysts and suppliers to the hotel industry - access to hotel research with regular and custom reports covering Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and South America. STR Global provides a single source of global hotel data covering daily and monthly performance data, forecasts, annual profitability, pipeline and census information. Hotel operators can join the surveys on a complimentary basis and benefit from free industry data. STR Global is part of the STR family of companies and is proudly associated with STR, STR Analytics and Hotel News Now. For more information, please visit www.strglobal.com. Bringing an end to the so called War On Drugs would save the country hundreds of millions, bankrupt criminal gangs and prevent the alienation and imprisonment of a vast number of Irish citizens. So find out where your candidates stand on the issue and vote for those who are committed to supporting change. The War on Drugs and the War on Homelessness are on a collision course that no-one in the media or in public life are willing to acknowledge. Ostensibly aimed at decreasing the use of illegal drugs, the War on Drugs succeeds only in increasing homelessness. Thomas Szasz. Our smooth, svelte and glorious leader Enda Kenny was out canvassing the streets of Cork city on Friday, February 12, shaking hands, scaring babies, making promises, ignoring protestors and turning the first sod on some brand new building development (because were back, babies!!). Its a shame our electioneering Taoiseach didnt have time to pop into the university, where this Hot Press writer, independent drug researcher Tim Bingham and Graham de Barra of Help Not Harm (a campaign supporting a shift of drug policy from criminal justice to public health) were publicly discussing the pros and cons of the decriminalisation of drugs, at the UCC Journalism Societys eighth annual conference. Truth be told, throughout the three-hour session, neither ourselves nor the conference attendees could come up with too many cons. That the longstanding prohibitionist policy has been a complete and utter failure was highlighted by the front page of that days Irish Independent, which featured a large photograph of the late Sunday Independent journalist Veronica Guerin, gunned down by a member of a Dublin drug gang in 1996. Joel Schumacher directed the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced biopic Veronica Guerin in 2003, starring Cate Blanchett in the title role. At the end of that movie, galvanised by Guerins murder, the Irish government sets up the Criminal Assets Bureau, the drug cartels disappear overnight, and peace and calm descends all over Ireland. Without anybody smoking so much as a spliff. Sadly, while the CAB has certainly been effective in certain respects, there has been no such Hollywood ending in real life. In many ways, things have significantly worsened in the 20 years since Guerins death. Love/Hate was a drama, but it could almost be seen as a documentary. Most gangland activity is fully funded and fuelled by illegal drugs. They might be operating on a smaller scale than the Mexicans or Colombians, but Irelands drug cartels can be just as deadly. Guerins image was used by the Indo to highlight the fact that serious death threats had just been made against two of their journalists, reporting on the latest spate of gang warfare that has seen helicopters in the skies and heavily armed Gardai patrolling the mean streets of Dublin. Its an utterly unacceptable state of affairs in 2016. During my conference address, I recalled how myself and UCC law lecturer Tim Murphy had formed the Cannabis Legalisation Party in 1997 and stood in the Irish general election (Luke Ming Flanagan also ran in that election, although we werent associated). Our arguments for legalisation then were exactly the same as the ones that I was presenting from the podium almost 20 years later. Essentially, by legalising and regulating drugs, you largely eliminate the criminal market place; you starve drug gangs and cartels of cash; you massively reduce drug-related crime; and you also make the drugs far safer to consume. Tim Bingham had much to say about the recent death of Cork teenager Alex Ryan, who expired after snorting a synthetic powder initially reported to be 2CP, but later confirmed to be a substance called 250-NBOMe (N-Bomb) at a house party. That made the very misfortunate Alex yet another victim of drug prohibition. Would Ryan and his friends have taken N-Bomb if they could have accessed safe, regulated and legal MDMA? Our current crop of politicians are totally obsessed with the economy, so perhaps the most compelling argument for a change of drug policy is the inarguable fact that prohibition costs Irish taxpayers a fortune in justice, policing, prisons, health and crime. By treating a public health issue as a criminal justice one, the government are pouring tax money into fighting a long-lost battle. Money that should be spent on health, education and treatment is instead often being wasted on prosecuting otherwise law-abiding citizens. In his address, Graham de Barra recalled an unfortunate fellow student at UCC who had been busted and prosecuted for possession of 2 worth of cannabis (essentially the residual resin in a small plastic deal bag). The state prosecuted him, and he was taken before the courts and given a fine and a criminal record. That criminal record has seriously restricted his career and travel opportunities. Given that a reported 82% of Irish students have experimented with illegal drugs, this hardly seems fair or just (especially given that so many politicians cheerfully admit to youthful drug experimentation in their Hot Press interviews). And how much did it cost the Irish State to prosecute one of its own citizens? The reality is that most illegal drug use is recreational. The root causes of problematic drug use are poverty and despair. Prohibition is a useful smokescreen, when it comes to avoiding the real social and economic factors that lead people to develop serious problems. We need to address those underlying causes if were to reduce the numbers of problem users. Those problems will cost a lot of money to fix. In Colorado and Washington, theyre using the vast tax revenues from marijuana sales to build schools and hospitals. Thankfully, the pendulum is beginning to swing the other way, most especially with regard to cannabis. A total of four American states have now fully legalised marijuana, and the results have been so positive that many more seem set to follow. Uruguay became the first county in the world to fully legalise marijuana in May 2014, and that countrys criminal cartels have been seriously weakened as a result. Following the recent election of Justin Trudeau, Canada will shortly become the first industrialised nation to fully legalise marijuana. In a brave, bold and intelligent move, Portugal decriminalised all drugs in 2001. The country now has just three overdose deaths per million citizens, compared to the EU average of 17.3. Despite the positive Portuguese experience, some experts still argue that drug legalisation would be a dangerous experiment. The reality is that the current prohibitionist policy is the experiment and it has been an unequivocal failure. The hardline, and often barbaric, criminal justice approach to drug use has not diminished their presence in our society (or even in our prisons). Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. The worldwide War against Drugs has undeniably been well and truly lost at truly astronomical cost (estimated to be well over a trillion dollars in the United States alone), with literally millions of lives lost or ruined. To continue spinelessly applying the failed policy of prohibition is to pour petrol on an inferno: a criminally insane approach. Worldwide, political leaders are beginning to wake up to this. I expect to see marijuana, at the very least, completely legalised in Europe and the US within the next decade. Future generations will look back on its prohibition in much the same way as we look back bemusedly at alcohol prohibition. What the fuck were they thinking (although there are idiots in the anti-alcohol lobby here who seem to pine for the good old days when drink was outlawed)? Our current minister with responsibility for drug strategy, Aodhan O Riordain, is extremely well-versed in all of the arguments, and he appears convinced. He has been the most progressive-minded politician to ever tackle this burning issue. Unfortunately, theres absolutely no guarantee that hell still be in that office after this general election. Most politicians fear being perceived as being soft on drugs. If a less enlightened individual takes over O Riordains brief, which seems likely to happen, it could well be a case of two steps forward and five steps back for Irish drug policy. So remember, give whatever candidates turn up on your doorstep a grilling about their policy on drugs. And remember, O Riordain and Labour have led from the front on this hugely important issue. Annie Lennox, Gary Oldman and Lorde paid fitting tribute to the Thin White Duke Following Lady Gagas somewhat overwrought and showbiz-y Grammys one, the Brits last night kept its tribute to David Bowie simple with Lorde performing a gorgeous version of Life On Mars?, and Annie Lennox presenting his pal Gary Oldman with a posthumous Icon Award that will be passed on to Mr. Bs family. Lorde was joined on stage by Bowie band members Mike Garson, Gail Ann Dorsey, Earl Slick and Dubliner Gerry Leonard, his musical director, who paid touching tribute to the gaffer recently in the Hot Press with Aladdin Sane on the cover. The New Zealander's emotional take on the early '70s classic is available free from Google Play. He was the very definition, the living embodiment of that singular word, icon, Oldman reflected. Whether in music or in life, he emphasised originality, experimentation, exploration, and in his very unique way he also reminded us never to take ourselves too seriously. David was funny, hilariously so, and the laughs were many and massive and I shall miss them. I never once heard him complain. I can share with you that David faced his illness with enormous courage, dignity, grace and customary humour. Davids son Duncan Jones said afterwards: Just beautiful thank you! THE vodka is offering you a chance to get to THE hotel on the party island With Irish skies in typically overcast mode, you'd be forgiven for thinking ahead to sunnier times - and, with thanks to the good folk at Stolichnaya Premium Vodka, there's a dream getaway up for grabs. Stoli Ireland are offering two days on the party island of Ibiza, where you could be shaking a leg under the summer sun this May. Last year, Stoli became official partner of Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel - the premiere outdoor venue in Europe's party capital - and the prize includes flights, accommodation, and admission to the opening night of ANTS, the biggest underground house and techno night Ibiza has to offer. To be in with a chance of winning this superb prize, simply head over to [link]stoli-ireland.com[/link]; enter your details and you could be off on the trip of a lifetime this summer! As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. QEII Centre Set To Host Industry Acclaimed 'People Analytics 2016'Following the sell-out success of last year's conference, Tucana UK Ltd have announced London's QEII Centre as the venue for this year's 'People Analytics 2016'. Posted by Press Releases on Thursday, 02-25-2016 6:27 am Currently 0.0/5 Stars. 1 2 3 4 5 0.0 from 0 votes LONDON UK (PRWEB) FEBRUARY 23, 2016Following the sell-out success of last year's conference, Tucana UK Ltd have announced London's QEII Centre as the venue for this year's 'People Analytics 2016'. The annual HR event has previously received wide ranging praise from both HR professionals and industry commentators, with this year set to follow in the footsteps of the last year's success. This April will see professionals and experts from around the globe converge on the QEII Centre for what is expected to be one of the most important HR analytics conferences on the European calendar.'People Analytics 2016' is a multi-track event designed specifically for professionals and executives across HR, OD, HRIS and analytics. The conference acts as a stage for the latest thinking in HR analytics, workforce planning and employee insight, by bringing together those looking to become more data-driven in decision making processes. Attendees are able to personalise their experience by choosing their o... Close Forgot Your Password? Enter in your email address and we will send it to you. Send Email An HR.com member profile provides you with access to a multitude of information and education along with the opportunity to network with the largest HR community on the web. If you need any help, call .877.472.6648 and ask for our Member Experience Co-ordinator. Hi Please check your email for an activation link. If you do not receive your activation email within a few minutes, check your spam folder or call our Help Desk at 1.877.472.6648 For faster assistance, dial extension 4. Thank you! Continue Hi Verification error - Please enter the correct code above. Verified Wow! You have successfully verified the account Continue Hi your HR.com account is ready Your Profile completion: 30% Complete your profile United Benefit Advisors Announces New Partner Firm, Fredriksen Health InsuranceUBAs Global Network of Independent Employee Benefits Advisory Firms Welcomes First Idaho Partner Firm Posted by Press Releases on Thursday, 02-25-2016 6:19 am Currently 0.0/5 Stars. 1 2 3 4 5 0.0 from 0 votes INDIANAPOLIS, IN (PRWEB) FEBRUARY 23, 2016United Benefit Advisors (UBA), the nations leading independent employee benefits advisory organization, welcomes Fredriksen Health Insurance as its latest Partner Firm. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, Fredriksen Health Insurance is a locally-owned, family business that has been servicing that state for more than 35 years.We are thrilled to become a Partner of United Benefit Advisors, says Eric Fredriksen, Partner at Fredriksen Health Insurance. Through this partnership, Fredriksen Health Insurance will continue to provide the fantastic service only a local brokerage can offer that is now coupled with the horsepower of a national employee benefit corporation. The Idaho market is ready for a local brokerage to provide this level of service and expertise.Known as a leader in the health insurance marketplace in Idaho, Fredriksen Health Insurance specializes in employee benefit plans, individual health and life insu... Close Forgot Your Password? Enter in your email address and we will send it to you. Send Email An HR.com member profile provides you with access to a multitude of information and education along with the opportunity to network with the largest HR community on the web. If you need any help, call .877.472.6648 and ask for our Member Experience Co-ordinator. Hi Please check your email for an activation link. If you do not receive your activation email within a few minutes, check your spam folder or call our Help Desk at 1.877.472.6648 For faster assistance, dial extension 4. Thank you! Continue Hi Verification error - Please enter the correct code above. Verified Wow! You have successfully verified the account Continue Hi your HR.com account is ready Your Profile completion: 30% Complete your profile Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-02-24 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at CONTENTS [01] 'Vienna meeting' ends with declaration for 'close alliance' to restrict refugee flows along 'Balkan Route' [02] Gazprom, Edison, DEPA sign memorandum for ITGI project [01] 'Vienna meeting' ends with declaration for 'close alliance' to restrict refugee flows along 'Balkan Route' VIENNA (ANA-MPA/ D. Dimitrakoudis) -- The foreign and interior ministers of nine countries along the so-called "Balkan Route" - excluding Greece - have agreed to forge a "close alliance" to drastically reduce refugee flows, Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said here on Wednesday. The Greek government has sharply criticised the holding of such a conference without its participation and the prospect of unilateral decisions being taken, especially given that Greece is the first "target" of migrant smugglers operating from the western Turkish coast. Speaking during a joint press conference after the conference on migration, Mikl-Leitner referred to "stopping" migration flows. She said the countries at the meeting had agreed to coordinate their actions on refugee policy and adopt a common stance from here on, including fully supporting the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and joining to exert pressure for a European solution at the EU interior ministers' council on Thursday. The meeting, which has drawn criticism from the European Commission and Germany, as well as Athens, was called by Mikl-Leitner and Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz. The meeting ended with a 19-point declaration stating that "the migration flow along the Western Balkans route needs to be substantially reduced," and an agreement that all nations at the conference will refuse entry to all "without travel documents, with forged or falsified documents or migrants making wrongful statements about their nationality or identity. [02] Gazprom, Edison, DEPA sign memorandum for ITGI project Gazprom, Edison and DEPA on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding in Rome for the development of a natural gas pipeline project linking Greece and Italy, which will bring closer to completion a south corridor for the supply of Russian natural gas to Europe. The memorandum was signed by Gazprom's chief executive Alexei Miller, Edison chief executive Marc Benayoun and DEPA chief executive Theodore Kitsakos. The agreement reflects the interest of all three parties to transport natural gas from Russia through the Black Sea and third countries - to Greece and to Italy. DEPA and Edison have formed a joint company, Poseidon, with the aim to build an underwater pipeline linking Greece and Italy. With the agreement signed on Wednesdsay, the two companies declared they intended to take advantage and to exploit the project already been made by DEPA and Edison in the framework of the ITGI Poseidon project. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-02-25 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at CONTENTS [01] Greek, Norwegian economy ministers discuss financing from EEA [02] 1,352 refugees arrive at Piraeus port on Thursday [01] Greek, Norwegian economy ministers discuss financing from EEA Greece's financing from the European Economic Area (EEA) to tackle social exclusion, support youth entrepreneurship and migration were the main issues discussed in a meeting between Economy, Development and Tourism Minister Giorgos Stathakis with the Norwegian Minister for the European Economic Area and European Affairs, Elisabeth Aspaker, in Athens on Wednesday. The meeting was also attended by the Norwegian Ambassador to Greece, JArn Gjelstad and the minister's staff. "We had a very constructive meeting with Mr. Stathakis. We discussed the challenges facing the Greek government and we analyzed the sectors which we will fund through the programs of the European Economic Area," Aspaker said after the meeting. [02] 1,352 refugees arrive at Piraeus port on Thursday Blue Star ferry 1 with 1,352 migrants and refugees on board docked early Thursday at Piraeus port. The migrants and refugees were transferred to the port's passenger stations where they will be temporarily hosted while some of them are expected to be sent to the refugees' reception centers. Meanwhile, the Norwegian Minister of European Affairs Elisabeth Aspaker will arrive in Mytilene on Thursday noon and will visit the hotspot at Moria. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article Washington Members of the House Education and the Workforce Committee used their oversight hearing on the new federal education law Thursday to ask acting U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr., about overtesting, interventions in struggling schools, and how he would strike a balance between local control and federal protections for disadvantaged students. Republican members of the committee, including Chairman Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., also aggressively questioned King about comments made late last year by former Secretary Arne Duncan about the balance of power between the U.S. Department of Education and Congress. In his opening remarks, Kline said that ESSA represents a major shift in control over education policy that will appropriately empower states and local districtsand end what he called the misguided waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act promoted by President Barack Obamas administration, and the strait-jacket schools were put in by NCLB. The Education Department, Kline said, must adhere to that spirit when helping to implement the new law. If we learned anything throughout the process to replace No Child Left Behind, its that the American people are tired of Washington micromanaging their classrooms, Kline told King, who was scheduled to attend his confirmation hearing before the Senate education committee later that day. For his part, King stressed repeatedly that input from educators and other state and local education leaders will be a very important part of how the Education Department approaches developing regulations under ESSA and helping schools implement it. But he also asserted the federal governments role in making sure that guardrails for struggling and disadvantaged students are followed, a key issue on which he said states and local districts did not always have a good track record. We are a civil rights agency enforcing a civil rights law, King told lawmakers. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the committees ranking Democrat, clearly stressed the federal departments role under ESSA: This new law is a not a blank check. There are federal guidelines, Scott said. This is the second oversight hearing the House has held on ESSA. The first was before the education committees K-12 subcommittee earlier this month , and highlighted the tension between those who think ESSA prioritizes greater state authority over education, and those who want equity issues not to be overshadowed by any shifts in governance. Legitimate Concern There was some friction early on and throughout the meeting, particularly when King dealt with questions about the departments power and state control over accountability. Kline used his question time to highlight a comment Duncan made to Politico Pro last year that he was confident that Education Department lawyers could outfox Congress when it comes to secretarial power under ESSA. Noting that ESSA was explicitly written by Congress to curb federal authority over K-12 after years of what Kline deemed an overreaching Obama administration, Kline said, Statements like this from Arne Duncan merely reinforce this legitimate concern. King responded by expressing his desire to work with Congress to implement ESSA, and by stating that the department, for the moment, is focused on what officials hear from various individuals and groups involved with schools. At numerous points, he assured GOP lawmakers that the Education Department would abide by the law and make sure its work did not overstep the limits placed on the department. Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., chairman of the Houses subcommittee on K-12, asserted, The federal government is in no way capable of knowing what works best for everyone, and asked King directly whether education is primarily a state issue. King agreed. However, at other points in the hearing, King stressed the responsibilities that states have under ESSA, as well as their newfound flexibility, stating at one point, We believe the law is clear, that states have a responsibility to close achievement gaps. Kings controversial tenure as New York state education commissioner also came up. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said several teachers in her state had told her they were not really engaged or consulted as the state shifted to the Common Core State Standards and new teacher evaluations during his time as commissioner. (King served as commissioner from 2011 through 2014.) When Stefanik asked if he would have done anything differently in retrospect, King responded that New York wasnt alone as it struggled with major shifts in policies in recent years. There was, I think, in many states an unfortunate phenomenon of teacher-evaluation work and the work of raising standards being conflated together, King told Stefanik, although he also said teachers were closely involved in efforts in New York. ESSA prohibits the federal government from having any say in teacher evaluation systems developed by states. Thats a major departure from the Obama administrations NCLB waivers and its Race to the Top grant program. Testing, Low-Performing Schools King also dealt with questions from lawmakers such as Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., about what they said should be the federal governments reduced role in interventions in schools identified as underperforming. King agreed that states have more flexibility in several areas. But he also said they have a responsibility under ESSA to intervene in schools where graduation rates and other factors indicate problems, and must re-examine intervention efforts that dont produce results. He also said states have a chance to produce much more targeted interventions based on data on specific student populations. And King said that ESSA will allow states and schools to more broadly measure educational excellence by moving beyond tests and looking at indicators of social-emotional learning and students civic engagement. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., asked King how testing could be reduced in schools, citing problems in her home state. King responded by citing recent department guidance for states on how to cut back on tests. While he said there was likely a good bit of redundancy in terms of state and local assessment, he said that the data tests provide should not be ignored. We dont want assessment to crowd out good instruction, King said. Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-02-25 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at CONTENTS [01] Greece recalls its Ambassador in Austria [01] Greece recalls its Ambassador in Austria The Greek government has recalled Greece's Ambassador to Vienna Chryssoula Aliferi, the foreign ministry announced on Thursday. According to a foreign ministry announcement, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias decided to recall Aliferi for "consultations aimed at safeguarding the friendly relations between the states and peoples of Greece and Austria." "It is clear that the major problems of the European Union cannot be confronted via thoughts, attitudes and extra-institutional initiatives that have their roots in the 19th century, and nor can the decisions of the heads of state be supplanted by directives from police directors. The latter is a major problem for democracy. It points to the need for the European Union to be protected from various parties who are ignorant of history," the announcement said. "Unilateral initiatives for resolving the refugee crisis, along with violations of international law and the European acquis by member states of the EU, are practices that can undermine the foundations and process of European integration. "Responsibility for dealing with the migration and refugee crisis cannot weigh on one country alone. Common sense dictates that effective handling of this complex problem should be governed by the principles of solidarity and fair burden sharing. Greece is working in such a direction," it concluded. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article The Human Resources Institute of New Zealand held their annual awards evening last night with scores of top professionals in attendance sadly, not everyone could take home a coveted trophy.The full list of worthy winners can be seen below:Emerging HR Practitioner of the Year in association with Melbourne Business School Executive Education: Sarah Barrow HR Generalist of the Year in association with Melbourne Business School Executive Education: Laurent Sylvestre City of Calgary/YouTube Screengrab A piece of Calgary public art was "honoured" Wednesday after winning an award for being the most wasteful municipal spending of 2015. The Forest Lawn Lift Station features LED lights that map flows in the city's wastewater system, an initiative that Mayor Naheed Nenshi described as both beautiful and functional. Advertisement However, some residents were frustrated that the city spent $236,000 decorating what Paige MacPherson, Albertas head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, called a "pretty poop palace." Now, the city has been awarded a Teddy Award for the waste station's controversial artwork. Most people would agree that our waste water is something to manage discreetly, rather than celebrated with an expensive hilltop art project, said Aaron Wudrick, federal director of the taxpayers federation, in a news release. Municipal @taxpayerDOTcom Teddy Waste Award goes to Calgary's poop palace! Most expensive sewage related art. #yycccpic.twitter.com/aWedXWWSpo Paige T. MacPherson (@paigemacp) February 24, 2016 The Teddy Awards are named for Ted Weatherill, a former federal politician who was known for his ridiculously exorbitant expense claims. Advertisement Other nominees included Saskatoon, for building a parking system that doesn't work in cold weather. And Victoria, for installing musical sensors on stairway rails in a municipal parking lot. Also on HuffPost: Edmonton will move ahead with the construction of a hillside cable car, dubbed the "funicular," but the city's mayor and members of council still have concerns about the project. Council voted Tuesday to approve the project despite reservations about its cost and unclear benefit. If the project was voted down, the city would have lost funding from provincial and federal governments. Advertisement A funicular is a cable car that moves along a steep hillside. There are similar funiculars operating in Ontario and Quebec. Edmonton had an operating funicular between 1908 1913 according to the Edmonton Historical Board. Rendering of that new funicular. Construction scheduled to start March 7. #yegcc#ejlivepic.twitter.com/tLRpwWISGx Elise Stolte (@estolte) February 23, 2016 The new funicular would connect downtown Edmonton, near the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald, to the river valley's trail system below. Mayor Don Iveson said while he thinks the proposal is a beautiful project, he admitted the funds could have been better utilized. Advertisement If it was up to me, I might be doing something different. Is there another footbridge we could build? Are there other trail extensions we could build within the river valley? But really, this is the only thing we can do that will meet the timeline," Iveson told Global News. For the cost of one funicular, how many sets of ravine / river valley wooden stairs could be built, or rehabilitated? #yegcc#yeg@doniveson Jay Gauthier (@Tossy64) February 23, 2016 The project will cost $24 million, and will mostly be paid for by the River Valley Alliance, with help from provincial and federal governments. However, the project's operating costs have yet to be determined and could run anywhere between $500,000 and $1 million. It's a level of financial uncertainly that has Coun. Mike Nickel frustrated, who despite voting yes, told CBC News that use of the money for the project is "unacceptable." Advertisement Some of the project's defenders say the funicular will be a needed addition to the city. I have some sympathy for the mayors position, but this has been a long-standing wish for this city It does give us a pedestrian connection to the river valley and right now for anyone with any kind of mobility challenge, the only way to get there is by car," Coun. Ben Henderson said Tuesday, according to The Edmonton Journal. Construction on the funicular is expected to be completed in 2017. Also on HuffPost: When the house is quiet, you know the kids are up to something. Thats what one Australian mom thought when she hadnt heard a peep from her daughters for a while. When she found them, she discovered her eldest daughter had turned her younger sister into a zebra -- with the help of a permanent marker. Adelaide mom Amy Hermann posted a video to Facebook revealing the moment she caught her three-year-old daughter, Sovereign, in the act. In the short clip, Sovereigns 18-month-old sister, Pippin, is shown bare bottomed and covered in black lines. Advertisement When her mom asks her, What is this? the young girl says matter-of-factly, A zebra. Watch the hilarious clip above. Hermann remains remarkably calm in the video as she tells her daughter, Your sister doesnt need to be a zebra, babe. To which the girl responds, But I love being zebras. All the while, little Pippin couldnt be less concerned with her new look. The video was a hit on Facebook, garnering over 10.5 million views in just a few days. Many users couldnt stop laughing and praised the innocence of the little girl. This is so funny. The love for the Zebra is REAL, one user commented. Love her face to begin with as if mum, can't you tell she is a Zebra!? Get a clue! Just beautiful and beautifully frustrating. Hermann told Buzzfeed that she is a visual artist and photographer and often encourages her kids to be creative. However, she has no clue where Sovereign got the idea to turn her baby sister into a zebra. Advertisement Despite this, the mom joked with Daily Mail Australia, saying: We're a fairly creative bunch. We do lots of drawing and painting. I often paint their faces as their favourite animal, though we don't usually use a permanent marker! Also on HuffPost OTTAWA Canada defended its record on economic and social rights in front of a United Nations committee this week, arguing that the way it treats indigenous people, as well as those with limited access to food, housing and social assistance programs, isn't as bad as First Nations, human rights advocates, and poverty alleviation groups contend. Randy Fobister, deputy chief of the Grassy Narrows First Nation, told The Huffington Post Canada that his community in northwestern Ontario went to Geneva, where the UN's committee on economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights hearings took place, to put pressure on Ottawa to clean up a mercury contamination that in the past 40 years has poisoned fish, caused chronic health problems and killed the band's traditional way of life. Advertisement Grassy Narrows First Nation Chief Roger Fobister is pictured in front of portraits of former lieutenant-governors of Upper Canada at the Ontario legislature. (Photo: Chris Young/CP) "We need the support of the whole world to hopefully get things moving," Fobister told HuffPost. "The mercury still affects our community members, the youth and the newborns. It's very frustrating when you know every day the [water treatment] plant is unsafe. "That is a basic right to have clean drinking water and safe water." During the 1960s, Fobister said, the government of Ontario allowed a pulp and paper mill to dump about nine tonnes of mercury into the Wabigoon-English river system that flows through his community's land. There has never been a clean-up and its water remains unsafe even after boiling. Advertisement This week, Grassy Narrows was among 30 civil society organizations that took part in the UN's review of Canada's obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The independent check occurs every 10 years. No ministers, MPs in Geneva On Wednesday and Thursday, UN committee members took turns questioning Canadian public servants no ministers or MPs were on hand for the review on a range of issues from poverty, housing, and homelessness to indigenous issues, government spending on social expenditures, and gender discrimination. Canada came mostly under fire, however, for failing to allow the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to be used to enforce social and economic rights, several participants said. Committee members peppered the Canadian delegation with questions, wanting to know why Canada did not accept a more inclusive definition in the charter's section 7, the "right to life, liberty and security of the person." "It's time for Canada to take a step forward and set out a more ambitious, braver interpretation of the charter." "It's time for Canada to take a step forward and set out a more ambitious, braver interpretation of the charter to enable it to fully protect all ESC rights as enshrined in the covenant," Spanish committee member Mikel Mancisidor de la Fuente is quoted by Amnesty International as saying. Advertisement Without the charter's protection, the committee said, economic and social rights are relegated to a "secondary status," several individuals tweeted from the hearing. #CESCR2016 UN tells Govt of Canada it treats economic and social rights (e.g.: right to housing, food) as second class rights #EyesOnCanada Leilani Farha (@leilanifarha) February 24, 2016 "Someone who feels that their charter rights are being violated for example, their right to life because of homeless or acute poverty has no place to go in this country to make those legal arguments," Leilani Farha, executive director of Canada Without Poverty, told HuffPost. "To me, it is simply unacceptable that we would have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that is only available to people who have claims that are not related to poverty and homelessness." Advertisement Protection against homelessness not a charter right In her opening remarks to the 18-member committee, Canadian heritage assistant deputy minister Rachel Wernick said Canada's experience with "peaceful pluralism" had taught Canadians to accept that the strength of their society depends on the "full participation of all its citizens." She pointed to the courts and said Canadians have access to a "common base of human rights protections," according to her opening statement. "Where Canadians consider themselves to be subject to violation of their rights, their avenues to advocate, challenge, and seek redress are accessible and well-established," she told the committee. But in Canada's written brief and its responses to questions, the federal government made it clear that it does not consider protection against homelessness and poverty to be a charter right. "While the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (charter) mainly protects civil and political rights, it protects some aspects of the Covenant, namely, freedom of association, indigenous and treaty rights, mobility, language and minority language education rights," states Canada's response to the list of issues highlighted by the UN committee. Ex-NDP MP: 'You can't have it both ways' Craig Scott, a York University law professor, and former NDP MP, suggested Canada was perhaps being a bit more honest with the UN committee than it usually is. Traditionally, he said, the federal government demonstrates a lot of "hypocrisy" by letting the committee believe that the rights outlined in the covenant are included in the charter but argues the opposite in domestic courts. Advertisement "There is a dance going on, where on the one hand they are absolutely trying to minimize the impact of the covenant on charter interpretation, and on the other hand they are trying to maximize the impression before the committee that it is taken seriously," he said. "You can't have it both ways." Former NDP MP Craig Scott speaks in the House of Commons in 2014. (Photo: The Canadian Press) Ian McLeod, a senior adviser with the department of justice, told HuffPost that Canada's covenant obligations are implemented primarily through a large body of laws and regulations, at all levels of government, as well as a wide range of policies and programs. Canada is committed to the "progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights protected by the covenant," he added. For Farha, who spoke on behalf of the Canadian non-governmental organizations, that is not good enough. Advertisement "Where can people claim these rights? And if they can't claim them, then how are you sure that you are actually meeting your international human rights obligation?" A need for judicial enforcement? The UN states that "judicial enforcement of human rights is fundamental. A right without a remedy raises questions of whether it is in fact a right at all," it notes on its website. And while judicial enforcement isn't the only way to protect rights, the UN says, it plays a "clear role in developing our understanding of these rights, in affording remedies in cases of clear violations and in providing decisions on test cases which can lead to systematic institutional change to prevent violations of rights in the future." The covenant, which Canada became a party to in 1976, states that men and women must be treated equally; that all peoples have the right of self-determination; that "in no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence"; that all individuals have the right to work, to a decent living and have the right to form or join a union; the right to social insurance; the right to an adequate standard of living, including food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of their living conditions; the right to be free from hunger; the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; the right to education; and the right to take part in cultural life and enjoy the benefits of scientific progress. A country that becomes party to the covenant is expected to use "the maximum of its available resources" to progressively realize all the rights outlined. Advertisement Canadian NGOs say social expenditure spending in Canada hasn't increased, as a percentage of GDP, since 1949. "If we were to simply spend one per cent more of our GDP just one per cent more we would have at our disposal $19 billion, which could go some distance in solving poverty, homelessness, First Nations housing conditions, water conditions, and a violence against women strategy," Farha told HuffPost. Poverty group contacts justice minister On Monday, Canada Without Poverty and several other groups wrote to Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and a number of her colleagues to express their deep disappointment that Canada was taking the same position it had taken in 1998 by arguing that the charter does not protect a full range of economic, social and cultural rights. "In light of Canada's new commitment to respecting human rights and engaging with the United Nations, and in light of your government's new commitment to addressing the profound socio-economic disadvantage of indigenous peoples in Canada, this position is inconsistent and incoherent," the group wrote. "We are expecting new, different and more forward-looking positions from your government." Speaking to the UN committee, Wernick suggested the situation is improving under the new Liberal government. She highlighted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's gender-parity cabinet and noted that Canada plans to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and is moving forward with the creation of the national public inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Advertisement The federal government is also committed to strengthening social assistance programs and lifting more Canadians out of poverty, she said. The government is developing a national poverty reduction strategy, plans to support the Housing First initiative to help the homeless find stable housing, and is developing a new early learning and child care framework to deliver affordable, high-quality, fully inclusive child care in Canada. The federal government will also make post-secondary education more affordable for students from low- and middle-income families, Wernick said, and strengthen the employment insurance system, removing provisions for new entrants and re-entrants that disproportionately affect immigrants and younger workers. Wernick also noted how the Liberals had restored the interim federal health program for resettled refugees and asylum claimants. "They are playing with lives as if they are not important." Fobister, from the Grassy Narrows First Nation, said he thinks the Trudeau government is on the right track when it comes to indigenous issues, but he too believes the courts should be used to ensure the covenant's human rights. "The right to water is very important. Water is life. They are playing with lives as if they are not important," he said. "It's been a long battle and we are not going away," he added, referring to the 900 plus people most of them children - who live on his reserve. "This is our homeland, and we are here to stay, and as long as the mercury is in the water on our land, we will still keep fighting." Advertisement ALSO ON HUFFPOST: OTTAWA A close friend of Dominic LeBlancs met with Irving Shipbuilding a few days before joining the office of the Government House leader. The meeting took place between the company and Kevin Fram on January 20, 2016, while he was director of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, according to the registry held by the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada. Advertisement Dominic LeBlanc, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, answers a question at a meeting of the Atlantic premiers and members of the federal cabinet representing Atlantic Canada in Fredericton, Wednesday, Feb.10, 2016. (Photo: James West/CP) The House leaders office confirmed that Fram was hired as director of issues management for LeBlanc, a long-time friend, five days after the meeting in question. LeBlanc is required to avoid any ties with the Irving family, its companies and subsidiaries. Under the orders of Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson, he recently signed an agreement that will keep him out of decisions that involve one of the most influential and powerful families in Canada. 'Longstanding personal relationship' During question period on February 16, LeBlanc reiterated to the House of Commons that he had a "longstanding personal relationship" with the Irvings. Advertisement The Conservative opposition had posed a question about another meeting, which took place between the Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, and James D. Irving, President of J.D. Irving Ltd. in Moncton. LeBlanc denied there was any interference on his part. But Frams case raises question from Conservatives, who claim that criticism about ethics is keeping them "very busy these days." "For sure, it tarnishes this government's self-proclaimed virginity," said Steven Blaney, the member from Bellechasse-Les-Etchemins-Levis. "The current government has set very high ethics standards." "It tarnishes this government's self-proclaimed virginity." Steven Blaney When asked about the subject of the meeting, Irving spokesperson Mary Keith referred the Huffington Post Quebec to the commission's website. All the site says is that the subject of the meeting was related to industry. The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Hunter Tootoo, defended his former chief of staffs integrity in a statement. Advertisement "In the first hundred days of my mandate, I have travelled from coast to coast to coast and held numerous meetings with key stakeholders. At the time of many of these meetings, this fine individual was one of the many outstanding public servants working for the Department." "In his capacity as Acting Chief of Staff in my office, he facilitated and attended many of these meetings. He was simply doing his job and he did it well. All the rules were followed. The system works," declared Tootoo. LeBlanc's office stated he had no additional comments to make on the subject. Fram a friend of Irving family In 2003, The Globe and Mail reported that Fram had been invited on a trip to fish for salmon at an Irving family cottage. He was then chief of staff to the Minister of Natural Resources, Herb Dhaliwal. The friendship between Fram, a long-time Liberal, and the Irving family is well established. He met them when he was working for former MP Paul Zed, the former husband of Judith Irving. Under government guidelines at the time, all ministers and their employees had to declare gifts over $200. Fram did not feel he had to declare the trip, since he knew the Irvings since before he had started working for Dhaliwal. Advertisement LeBlanc was also on the trip, according to The Globe and Mail. He claimed to have declared the trip beforehand to then-Ethics Commissioner Howard Wilson. ALSO ON HUFFPOST: Washington Acting U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr., got a partisan-fireworks-free confirmation hearing from the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Thursday, including a series of collegial questions focused on how he will implement the brand-new Every Student Succeeds Act. For his part, King told lawmakers that, as a former classroom teacher, charter school operator, and state education chief, he recognizes that the best ideas come from classrooms not from conference rooms. In this new ESSA era, he said, the locus of decisionmaking around the most appropriate supports, interventions, and rewards in our schools is rightly shifting back to states and districtsand away from the one-size-fits-all mandates of No Child Left Behind, which preceded ESSA. At the same time, though, King sees a key and continued role for the federal government in ensuring that ESSAthe latest version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Actbuilds on the civil rights legacy of the 1965 law. By the time Kings predecessor, Arne Duncan, left office, he had a pretty strained relationship with Republicansand some Democratson Capitol Hill. But Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the panel, kicked off Kings confirmation hearing on a friendly note. He recalled that when he was nominated as President George H.W. Bushs education secretary 25 years ago, one senator told him that he had heard some disturbing things about the former Tennessee governor. Alexander had to wait for months for his confirmation. I dont suspect youre going to have any sort of problem [like] that today, Alexander said. (That bodes well for a swift agreement on Kings nomination.) And he ticked off Kings long resume, saying, You have seen our education system from nearly every angle. Alexander told King hed urged President Barack Obama to made it clear he sees King as a potential policy partner, not just on ESSA implementation, but also on college access and affordability. Later, though, Alexander reminded King that ESSA seeks to rein in the Education Department, in part because many in Congress felt that Duncan had taken executive authority too far, particularly in pushing for teacher evaluations through test scores and state adoption of the Common Core State Standards. King agreed that the law is clear on this point: that while he believes both policies have a lot to recommend them, the feds cant use federal money or new flexibility to push them. Alexander seemed to like that answerand he said he knows there will be gray areas in ESSA regulation. Still, he asked King to respect Congress consensus. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the committee and a key ESSA architect, said King has spent his career fighting on behalf of students so that they can get the chance to learn, grow, and thrive in the classroom and beyond. ... No one can question his passion for our nations young people. As he has in recent speeches, Kingwho is African-American and Puerto Ricantalked about his own background, growing up as the son of two educators in New York City. He was orphaned early on, and credits his teachers, especially Alan Osterweil, with helping him feel secure and valued. Alexanders first question was on the timeline for implementation of ESSA. He wanted to know exactly when the department expects ESSA regulations will be completed, and when states plans for accountability and federal spending will be due. And the education committee chairman got essentially the same answer the department has given everyone else , including reporters. King told him the department is reaching out to the education community and has already begun to think through the early stages of the regulation process. But he didnt outline a specific step-by-step plan spelling out exactly what will happen, or when. Alexander seemed satisfied with that answer for now, but asked King to respond promptly to any questions he, his staff, or Capitol Hill colleagues have as ESSA regulation is rolled out. (In turn, Alexander told King hed refrain from sending long, politically-motivated letters.) Murrays first K-12 question was on the teacher shortage: Why is it happening, and what does King think the department can do about it? King told her that conversations about the teaching profession have gotten hard, but that ESSA offers a chance for a reset. ESSA doesnt require states to adopt teacher evaluations based on test scores, as they had to under the Obama administrations NCLB waivers. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who helped lead the fight to include provisions for educational equity during ESSAs development , asked King how the department plans to make sure that states implement accountability systems that protect vulnerable subgroups of students. I think theres an opportunity here for states to have smarter interventions, King said. But, he added, if those interventions arent closing the achievement gap, the department may need to step in and ask them to try another solution. (Remember that tidbit, ESSA watchers.) And Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., a former champion of the NCLB law, asked King how he planned to handle testing opt-outs to ensure strong testing participation rates without forcing [the tests] down parents throats. King said that, as New York state chief, he took a hard look at the amount of testing required and asked districts to do the same thing. Both ESSA and the Obama administrations budget include provisions aimed at making it easier for states and districts around the country to audit their testing systems and eliminate tests that are duplicative or of low-quality. Hes optimistic that will help reduce tests and make students feel better about having to take them. Other tidbits: Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., asked King about the departments cybersecurity issues, after a federal audit found the need for improvement. (He did not, however, bring up the departments departing Chief Information Officer Danny Harris , whose tax and conflict of interest issues were cited by the departments Inspector General, and became the subject of a House Government Reform and Oversight hearing.) King told him that the department is making progress on improving security. , whose tax and conflict of interest issues were cited by the departments Inspector General, and became the subject of a House Government Reform and Oversight hearing.) King told him that the department is making progress on improving security. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., asked about the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program, which he would like to expand. King said hed like the funding to be used for students currently in the program, but he doesnt think vouchers are a scalable solution for the challenge of providing an equitable education to all kids Scott and King, however, had a meeting of the minds over charter schoolsthey are both fans. There were also plenty of questions on higher education, including from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who wanted to know how the department promises to deliver on the promises it has made to students from Corinthian Colleges, which closed last year in the wake of legal trouble. (More here .) So why the confirmation hearing? Obama had initially asked King to serve as acting secretary until the end of his term, but Alexander wanted an honest-to-goodness, confirmed secretary in charge of writing ESSA regulations. The committee will consider Kings nomination on March 9Alexander wasnt sure exactly when the full Senate would take it up. How did King think the hearing went? He sounded pretty happy in a quick interview afterward, saying it was a constructive conversation. (He even threw in the term bipartisan.) Photo: Acting Education Secretary John B. King Jr. testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Feb. 25 during his confirmation hearing as the Secretary of Education. Susan Walsh/AP Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . APEGA/ABACA USA Christopher Plummer pose in the press room at the 84th Annual Academy Awards held at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California on February 26, 2012. Captain von Trapp seizes the Nazi flag obscenely hanging on his front balcony for all to see -- and Christopher Plummer rips it down with the swift fury of a man who will not see his family befouled. He tears the offending symbol to shreds as his children return to greet him and his new bride, their former governess, Maria -- played flawlessly by Julie Andrews. The Nazi Party has taken advantage of Captain von Trapp's honeymoon, and Christopher Plummer will make them pay. It's an electrifying moment from The Sound of Music -- the most beloved Best Picture Oscar-winner of all time, and maybe the most beloved movie of all time. Advertisement The Canada connection -- Christopher Plummer, who played the proud Austrian naval hero Captain Georg von Trapp -- was born in Toronto and raised in Senneville, Quebec, on the western tip of the Island of Montreal. Plummer is the great-grandson of John Abbott, who was Canada's third prime minister, and the Abbott family raised the young Plummer after his parents divorced. The Sound of Music was cinematic solace in 1965, that frightened and helpless time right between president John F. Kennedy's assassination and Robert Kennedy's death in Los Angeles just a few years later. With the Vietnam war shifting into deadly high gear, families and neighbourhoods across the country lined up to buy tickets weeks in advance for the optimistic, song-filled big screen musical. Our entire family drove 44 miles to see it at the Warner Cinerama Theater in Fresno, California. Packed house. The Sound of Music won five Academy Awards exactly 50 years ago in 1966 -- with nominee Julie Andrews losing to Julie Christie's performance in Darling. To be fair, only a year earlier Andrews had nabbed the Best Actress Oscar for Mary Poppins. Advertisement Warner Brothers Studio had passed Andrews over that same year to cast Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady , the role Andrews had created on the Broadway stage. Holding her Poppins Oscar that year, Andrews impishly said, "Finally, my thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie and who made all this possible in the first place... Mr. Jack Warner." Cut to Jack Warner at his table wiping away crocodile tears and laughing. Hooray for Hollywood. Christopher Plummer was unhappy with his participation in the icky sweet musical, dismissing The Sound of Music in an interview with the BBC as "so awful and sentimental and gooey." He had just finished shooting an important epic, The Fall of the Roman Empire , with Alec Guinness and James Mason, and recently Plummer had received an Emmy nod for his title role performance in the BBC's acclaimed Hamlet at Elsinore co-starring with Michael Caine and Robert Shaw -- which much have been interesting during tea breaks. Given the sugary quicksand surrounding the popular Rodgers and Hammerstein stage version of The Sound of Music, Andrews gave Plummer credit for the success and balance of the movie, telling the Museum of Living History in Washington D.C., "It was his performance that was the glue, the vinegar that held the film together." Advertisement When Plummer sees the wild tribe of von Trapp children sail up in the family canoe while shouting ribald oaths and singing with Julie Andrews at the helm, Plummer plays it so subtly you don't know whether he wants to murder them or embrace them. He's that good in this movie. But things turn ugly faster than you can say "Do-Re-Mi." "Don't you DARE tell me about my son!" he thunders at Maria when she chides him for parental neglect after the children had left them alone. It's played as a boiling scene of poorly restrained rage and Andrews and Plummer carry it off perfectly. "I am not finished yet, Captain..." Maria asserts. "Oh yes you are, Captain!... er, fraulein..." Plummer retorts to Maria, Freudian slipping all the way, in frustrated, complicated triumph. "You brought music back into the house. I had... forgotten," he says later by way of apology after their fight. Plummer's performance as the Captain is said to be a lot sterner than real Georg von Trapp, by all accounts a warm family man. Director Robert Wise refused requests to soften Plummer's gruff authoritarianism and it makes Plummer's transformation near the end of the movie all the more rewarding. Advertisement Audiences have long assumed "Eidelweiss" is the Austrian national anthem -- but it's not. "Eidelweiss" was one of the very last songs from the partnership of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the lyrics and died only months after The Song of Music's Broadway debut. Plummer's vocal solo with guitar is the dramatic anchor in the climactic festival scene as the entire audience sings along with him in a powerful moment symbolizing Austrian loyalty to country and patriotism in the face of the recent Anschluss -- or unholy alliance -- with Nazi Germany. Austrian roads and borders closed by the Nazis? No problem. In real life, the von Trapp family simply boarded a train to Italy, but the inspiring finale for The Sound of Music sees them escape over the Austrian Alps. Ironically, that scene was shot on the Obersalzburg near Berchtesgaden -- site of Adolph Hitler's lair, the Eagle's Nest. The children? "They'll be all right," the Captain assures Maria. After all, they were raised with Christopher Plummer's boat whistle discipline. In his 2008 autobiography In Spite of Myself, Plummer at last came to terms with The Sound of Music's overwhelming worldwide popularity. In fact, Plummer's campaign for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in 2011's Beginners saw some expert cinematic fence-mending -- with Plummer reaffirming his appreciation for the movie he once dismissed as The Sound of Mucus. Advertisement Sure enough, the 82-year-old Plummer became the oldest person in Academy history to win an Oscar, purring to the award, "You're only two years older than me darling... where have you been all of my life?" Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook MORE ON HUFFPOST: franckreporter via Getty Images http://blogtoscano.altervista.org/tee.jpg Laura Pudas was amazed to hear her hosts describe how, in Finland and Sweden, indigenous Sami people have their own parliaments. "They are so far ahead of Canada on aboriginal issues," she exclaimed. Pudas, 21, is a student in aboriginal studies at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont. In 2014, she went on a one-semester exchange to Helsinki, Finland. She tells us she came home brimming with fresh ideas and international contacts, which will benefit her immeasurably in her future career as a lawyer working on Canadian aboriginal issues. Advertisement Across Canada hopeful high school students are already camping under their mailboxes, waiting for college and university acceptance letters. Something all these young Canadians and their parents can consider, as they make their final decisions: what opportunities does my future school offer to study abroad? Learning in another country adds value to an education that could never be gleaned staying at home. It also creates more employable citizens who are better equipped to lead Canada in a global economy. Despite that, Canada gets a dismal grade when it comes to sending our students abroad. A 2014 survey by Universities Canada found that, although 97 per cent of Canadian universities offer overseas experiences -- and 88 per cent have international degree programs -- only 3.1 per cent of Canadian undergraduates studied abroad in 2014, which is less than 50,000 students. By comparison, 30 per cent of German students, 13 per cent of Australians and 10 per cent of Americans will do at least part of their education in a foreign country. Most parents we talk to want their children to be more engaged in their education -- and have better prospects after graduation. Two Canadian experts on international education say that can be accomplished if we convince more students to study overseas, and make it easier for them to do so. Advertisement "Given our ever-globalizing world economy, we need young people who are genuinely inter-culturally aware," says John Plews, a languages professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, who has researched the impact of study abroad experiences on students. Those skills will benefit them in their careers, and they'll also benefit Canada, adds Tony Williams, Lakehead University's vice-provost international. A 2013 European survey of more than 80,000 employers and recent graduates found that, within five years of graduation, students who had international experience were 23 per cent less likely to be unemployed than their peers who hadn't studied abroad. Students with international experience make valuable employees for companies and organizations operating globally because they are better able to navigate other cultures, and often have built networks in other countries. "These little doors opened a whole new broader world for me, personally and professionally," Williams says of his own experience studying abroad. Plews and Williams also argue facing the challenges of living in a foreign culture boosts confidence and inter-personal and problem-solving skills. "Every exchange student I've met has come back a changed person -- more open to other people and cultures. It strengthens them," says Williams. So with all those benefits, why aren't more young Canadians studying overseas? The greatest barrier, unsurprisingly, is cost. When travel and living expenses are added to tuition, the price per semester can rise thousands beyond the cost of studying at home. Advertisement Language is another obstacle. The Universities Canada survey found that our youth overwhelmingly favour studying in English-speaking countries, as opposed to Asia, Africa, or South America. Plews and Williams say challenges, like costs and language, can be overcome. Many universities offer international scholarships, as do non-profits like the Trudeau Foundation, and the Canadian government offers a wide range of international bursaries. But modern language programs (Portuguese, Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi) need to be expanded, so students can more easily access opportunities in emerging nations. It's a circle: the more opportunities that exist abroad, the more Canadian students will see the value in learning second and third languages. Thanks to her experience, Pudas is now writing her honours thesis on what Canada can learn about aboriginal relations from Nordic states. "Studying abroad broadened my horizons," she says. Investing in international experience creates well-rounded young citizens and valuable workers who are better suited to secure good jobs and compete in the global economy. Advertisement Brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger founded a platform for social change that includes the international charity, Free The Children, the social enterprise, Me to We, and the youth empowerment movement, We Day. Visit we.org for more information. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook ALSO ON HUFFPOST: Shutterstock / wavebreakmedia The Special Joint Committee on Physician Assisted Dying is expected to report by February 26. The Committee must respect the Supreme Court of Canada's requirement that physician assisted dying (PAD) have stringent limits that are "scrupulously monitored and enforced". Who should monitor the limits to be placed on PAD? Quebec has legislated; and both the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying and the Canadian Medical Association have proposed the creation of new administrative agencies to monitor the PAD limits. These agencies would ensure that only those people who qualify to receive a physician-assisted death will do so, that further investigation will occur when needed and that data will be properly collected and reported. Advertisement But these goals can be achieved effectively and efficiently by the existing death experts: coroners and medical examiners. In fact, deaths caused by the administration or ingestion of drugs already trigger the involvement of coroners and medical examiners in most Canadian jurisdictions. The best way to monitor the new practice of death is to engage these death experts more fully. Coroners and medical examiners are central to monitoring PAD. As experts in accurate death reporting, they routinely engage in relevant oversight activities: they decide when a death requires further investigation, they report aggregate data concerning death and they make public matters of interest and concern regarding trends. Indeed, because physician-assisted deaths will probably occur because of the administration or ingestion of drugs, these deaths will be reportable to coroners and medical examiners in all but possibly three jurisdictions (Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland). (All physician-assisted deaths should be explicitly mandatorily reportable to the provincial and territorial coroner and medical examiner offices.) Using only coroners and medical examiner offices for physician-assisted dying oversight would avoid the problems of fragmentation of accountability and the confusion that comes from overlapping jurisdictions of multiple agencies. Advertisement Reporting a physician-assisted death only to the coroner or medical examiner's office is important for ethical reasons. Limiting the number of oversight offices would reduce the number of public offices that receive sensitive patient health information, and would permit family members to learn the truth about how their loved ones died. Coroners and medical examiners are dedicated to truth telling on medical certificates of death. Truth telling is an important value in itself, and is likely to increase public trust in the practice of physician assisted dying. Arguments for new oversight agencies presuppose that such new government expenditures are justified. But will public money be well spent on 14 new agencies -- one for each province and territory, and for the nation? The experience of other jurisdictions suggest that PAD in Canada will involve only between 0.23 and 4.6 per cent of all deaths. Coroners and medical examiners could probably monitor these relatively few deaths with only modest budgetary increases. The money saved by not creating new monitoring agencies could be spent on palliative care service delivery -- as requested by many physicians. We respectfully suggest that the Federal Government initiate and chair a meeting of all provincial and territorial chief coroners and medical examiners who, with the Forensic Pathology Section of the Canadian Association of Pathologists, might recommend how best to state cause and manner of death, and to agree upon a system to monitor the practice's limits. The provinces and territories could then opt in to the proposed recommendations, thus creating the national PAD monitoring system recommended by many. Coroners and medical examiners have unique expertise in accurate death certification and death investigation. The systems in which they operate are already in place. Creating new systems from scratch, staffed by people without the relevant training or expertise in death reporting and investigation, would not only be expensive but would probably fail to achieve the objective of scrupulous monitoring. Governments currently have a pressing problem: by June 6, they must decide how to assure Canadians that the new practice of assisted dying will be used only to relieve suffering according to law. An obvious solution is to fund adequately the coroner and medical examiner offices to monitor one more practice of death. Advertisement Juliet Guichon, Christopher Doig and Ian Mitchell are faculty members in the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Pauline Alakija is a forensic pathologist and clinical professor at the University of Alberta medical school, Pascal Thibeault is a Master of Laws student at the University of Toronto.. Michelly Rall via Getty Images CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - SEPTEMBER 21: Pro-Palestinian Protestors supporting the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, demonstrates ahead of Pharrell Williams concert outside Grand West Arena on September 21, 2015 in Cape Town, South Africa. Pharrell Williams has been criticised by Pro-Palestinian groups for being in partnership with Woolworths Stores, which has refused to stop buying Israeli products and services (Photo by Michelly Rall/Getty Images) For writing these words, I could be put in prison. I'm in France, where last October, the country's highest court ruled that advocating for the movement to boycott, divest and sanction (BDS) companies dealing with Israeli settlements is a criminal offence. Last week, the UK announced that it will penalise local councils and publicly funded bodies that support such boycotts, and in the US, several states have passed sweeping anti-BDS legislation. Advertisement Now, Canada has joined the widening backlash, with Parliament adopting a Conservative motion to condemn the BDS movement, saying it "promotes the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel." It calls on the government "to condemn any and all attempts by Canadian organizations, groups or individuals to promote the BDS movement." Parliament it seems, has been misled. The BDS campaign is a protest movement against the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, and a peaceful alternative to armed struggle. But Canada is the latest country to be swept up in the breathless propaganda spread by an Israeli government bent on quelling opposition to its continuing annexation of Palestinian land. (More than half a million Jewish "settlers" have occupied vast tracts of land in the West Bank alone.) The campaign of disinformation has been so effective that some call BDS "anti-Semitic." I would like to know how that might be, so I contacted a dozen Jewish Canadian organisations -a few of which have replied. "Today's call for anti-Israel boycotts is the direct descendant of the Nazi edict..." The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center sent me an opinion piece by Avi Benlolo, its President and CEO. "Today's call for anti-Israel boycotts is the direct descendant of Nazi edict 'Do Not Buy From Jews,'" he writes. "The true goal of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign," he adds, "is the end of Israel as a state." Advertisement Extremists on the Fringe The Canadian Jewish organisation, 'Jspace' replied to my inquiry that "BDS unfairly singles out Israel and is thinly veiled anti-Semitism." Conservative MP Peter Kent told the House of Commons last week that BDS is a "multi-dimensional hate campaign," which seeks to "demonize Israel with hateful, hypocritical anti-Semitic attacks." These are extraordinary claims, which may apply to some unsavoury individuals. But they stand in stark contrast to the movement's clearly stated goals. "Simply tarring people with the slur that they are anti-Semitic because they decry Israeli government policy is simple-minded slander mired in bad faith." BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti wrote in the New York Times that "Israel and its lobby groups often invoke the smear of anti-Semitism, despite the unequivocal, consistent position of the movement against all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism." Advertisement The BDS movement defines itself as a "campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights." Nowhere in its campaign literature or official statements does it call for "the elimination of the state of Israel" -- a ghastly and abhorrent claim, which, if uttered, should be met with reprobation and investigation. Universities, Churches, Human Rights Activists -- all Anti-Semitic? But the growing international movement, which includes universities, churches and Quakers, has so rattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he has appointed a special government department to monitor the campaign. A report last year estimated that the BDS movement could cost the Israeli economy more than $50 billion over the next ten years in diverted investments and pension funds, and hundreds of millions more in lost business and falling exports. It is true that an inordinate amount of attention is directed at Israel, whereas there is no shortage of despots that oppress their own people, not least in the Middle East. But Israel touts itself as a democracy. Advertisement As do Canada, the U.S., France and the U.K. But far from denouncing land grabs that are illegal under international law, they are attacking the human rights activists who oppose them. Simply tarring people with the slur that they are anti-Semitic because they decry Israeli government policy is simple-minded slander mired in bad faith. Accusers either fail to see the difference between critiques of Israeli policy and outright anti-Semitism, between the movement itself and extremist interlopers, or they are trying to cloud the distinction and crush dissent. Maligning Legitimate Dissent But they are also sowing the seeds of distrust, such that when actual anti-Semitic incidents occur, they risk dulling the public outrage we rightly feel whenever Jews are insulted, intimidated or abused. After all, people will be less likely to call their MP over headlines of anti-Semitic acts, when it's discovered the umbrella term now includes policy critiques of Netanyahu or calls to respect international law. It's often forgotten that prominent Jewish groups in North America and around the world support the BDS movement and condemn the bullying from Parliament Hill. Are they too, anti-Semitic? We are at risk of adopting a kind of group-think heckling that leaves no room for debate, nuance or alternative views. Advertisement Hemmed in and Running Out of Options Israel controls Palestinian ports, its water supply, even essential tax revenues - withholding them when Israel wants to make a point, such as last year when Palestinians joined the International Criminal Court. Palestinians are unable to respond in kind to a nuclear-armed neighbour whose economy is almost 30 times larger than their own. So no wonder that an international movement has sided with the underdog, however imbalanced it seems to some. Wielding economic pressure on behalf of an impoverished people is one of the few non-violent means of resistance that remains. We have every right to ignore the BDS campaign -- as most of us do. But if we are not going to help Palestinians, the least we can do is allow for peaceful protest and grassroots organisation. We must break from the all too common policy of protecting the strong while denigrating the weak. leolintang via Getty Images Puzzle head brain concept. Human head profile made from brown paper with a jigsaw piece cut out. Choose your personality that suit you When Michael Wilson was appointed as the new chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC), I did a blog skeptical of that appointment even though I have a great deal of respect for his advocacy. Wilson, a former cabinet minister whose son committed suicide, was announced as someone who would continue the role of "advancing the promotion of mental health -- and the prevention of mental illness." I pointed out that I had no idea what improving mental health meant nor how one could prevent something where the cause is not known. Regrettably, I may be right. Wilson has written a plea in the Globe and Mail for funding for a program of citizen gatekeepers all over Canada who can spot likely suicides and prevent them. Advertisement And, respectfully, this is a total waste of time and money. My blogging partner at Mind You Reflections on Mental Illness Mental Health and Life, psychiatrist Dr David Laing Dawson, has written two blogs on prevention. In his first blog, he points out that despite all the publicity campaigns and efforts "the rate of suicides in Canada, completed suicides, remains statistically unchanged." He went on to say that: We know the demographics of completed suicide. We know the risk factors. We know the specific and usually treatable illnesses that all too frequently lead to suicide. So if we truly want to reduce the actual numbers of people who kill themselves (not threats, small overdoses, passing considerations), then we need to stop wasting resources on "suicide prevention programs" and put them into the detection and treatment of those specific conditions so often responsible for suicide In his most recent blog that appeared on February 22, he said: We can talk about suicide prevention in general terms but the one and only time a health care clinician can actually prevent a suicide is when an at-risk individual is sitting in front of him or her. Your patient, new or known to you, at your office, in your clinic, at the hospital. It appears that the MHCC loves to set up programs that make people feel better but that have never been demonstrated to be effective. That is the case with Mental Health First Aid that the commission promotes and sponsors. As I pointed out in an earlier Huffington Post blog, the research on this simply demonstrates that those who have taken the course feel better about themselves for having taken it but there is no evidence that anyone else benefits. Advertisement That is the case with the proposed gatekeeper program being advanced by Wilson. I can't find any study that demonstrates that the existence of a gatekeeper program resulted in a decrease in suicides. One study at the Veterans Affairs Department in the US concluded that "Gatekeeper training for suicide prevention shows promise for increasing the capacity of VA staff to work with at risk veterans." People know more and that is it. There is no proven reduction in suicides. A study done in a school setting found that teachers learned about suicide but again there is no indication that anyone was prevented from committing suicide because of it. The RAND Corporation in the US published a review of Gatekeeping in 2015 done for the US Department of Defense. Among their conclusions was "The transfer of knowledge, beliefs, and skills learned in training to actual intervention behavior is largely unstudied" and that "Continued research is needed as to how knowledge, beliefs, self-efficacy, and reluctance are related to both intervention behavior and changes in suicide rates." (P 22 of the PDF). As Dr. David Laing Dawson mentioned in his blog above, treating the illnesses that lead to suicide is paramount and we can only do that if we have resources to actually do that. So, while Michael Wilson is sitting in Ottawa talking about gatekeepers, there are people in Ottawa (and the rest of the country) who cannot get those needed resources. Earlier this month, an Ottawa mother complained that her 17 year old suicidal daughter spent eight nights in hospital waiting for a scarce bed in the mental health unit of the Queensway Carleton Hospital and was then discharged while still suicidal. The young woman suffers with depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and severe anxiety. The hospital chief of staff said that emergency room visits for mental health rose 28% over the past four years. The money being spent on a gatekeeper program and on Mental Health First Aid could better be spent on hospital resources. Advertisement And it could be spent on providing doctors who can prescribe needed meds which Dawson also recommends. One study found that "There was greater than a five-fold increase in risk for suicidal behaviour after discontinuation of antidepressant treatment" . Another study of over 5000 people found that "Depression appears to be under treated in individuals committing suicide, especially in men and in subjects under 30 years of age." Another study found that "A 1% increase in adolescent use of antidepressants was associated with a decrease of 0.23 suicide per 100 000 adolescents per year." So, Mr. Wilson, do lobby for more federal money for mental health/illness but put that money towards more treatment resources for people who desperately need them and that actually have a chance of working. An ex-army recruitment sergeant who committed a string of sexual assaults on female recruits took one to a "private place" to rape her, a court has heard. Edwin Mee, 46, was convicted of 16 sexual offences following a trial at Londons Southwark Crown Court last year. He was jailed for 11 and a half years on Thursday. Judge Alistair McCreath said the series of sexual assaults "set the context for very serious offending" against one female recruit who was raped, The Press Association reports. Advertisement The victim had been taken to a "private place" and Mee "abused her dreadfully", the judge said. The Glasgow-born officer used his power to "abuse and bully" women as young as 15, mostly from abroad but based in Croydon, south London. The judge told Mee he had acted in a way that was "demeaning" and "distressing" for the victims, including one woman who had been abused "dreadfully". Mee, with long white hair and a white beard, showed no emotion as he was sentenced. Edwin Mee, pictured at an earlier hearing In total, he was found guilty of 13 sexual assaults, two rapes and one count of assault by penetration involving nine victims. Advertisement The divorced father-of-five carried out a series of sex attacks on women aged from 15 to their early 20s in 2010 and 2011. His campaign of abuse began by spanking women on the bottom and escalated to raping a vulnerable recruit. Judge McCreath said there no evidence that mental health problems Mee developed during his military career "had bearing at all on the offences that have brought you before me". He said: "The offences you committed were against nine young women, all of whom were seeking to join the Army. All came under your direct control as a recruitment officer. "It was a situation of real and important trust. What you did to each one constituted a serious abuse of that trust." Advertisement The judge added: "To slap a young woman on the bottom whether over the clothes or not is to invade their privacy and is to act towards them in a way that is demeaning and distressing to them." Jailing Mee, Judge McCreath said: "You will be registered as a sex offender for the rest of your life." Mee, of Tavistock Road, Croydon, served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Oman, Northern Ireland and Bosnia during his military career. Following a tour of Afghanistan, he returned to his base in Germany suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder and attempted suicide, the court heard. In mitigation, Jane Bickerstaff QC said Mee had also suffered a "psychotic episode" since his conviction in May last year. Advertisement She said: "A man who served his country for two decades in a distinguished way clearly suffered because of that. He continues to need treatment." Some California parents are fighting the release of 10 million student records, many of which include private information, ordered by a federal court in a special education lawsuit. But its unclear if parents requests will be met. And questions have been raised about why so much student information is collected in the first place. Parents and school district officials started complaining last week after news came out that Judge Kimberly Mueller, of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of California, ordered that data be handed over so plaintiffs in a lawsuit could determine if the state is meeting its federal special education obligations. The information could include Social Security numbers, addresses, health records, grades, test scores, and individualized education programs for disabled students, according to an Associated Press story by Christine Armario . Any student who has attended school since Jan. 1, 2008, would fall under the order. Neither side in the Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Association vs. California Department of Education case wants so many private details released. California Concerned Parents , one of the plaintiffs, posted a message on its website that it tried unsuccessfully to mediate with the California Department of Education to release pseudo names. Bill Ainsworth, the California education department's spokesman, said its attorneys have offered to provide redacted information, but that the offer was rejected. Since the news came out last week, the department has been bombarded with at least 2,400 calls in a four-day span, Ainsworth said. The state department put up a notice on its website , instructing parents how to object to their students information being released . The deadline is April 1. But the court order does not clearly state if the judge will block the release of data, despite parents objections, according to an EdSource story by Theresa Harrington . For now, the California State Parent Teacher Association is circulating information about how to object to the data release. School districts around the state are doing the same. We are complying with the court order, but were going to keep our options open, Ainsworth said. Were going to consider legal action to limit or prevent the release. The issue goes back to court on Friday. The lack of diversity at Wednesday nights Brit Awards didnt go unnoticed, but just minutes away from the O2 Arena, a number of the artists overlooked werent ready to let their lack of a nomination ruin things. Man of the moment Craig David is about to stage one of the most exciting musical comebacks of recent years (sorry, Adele), and after having his say on the #BritsSoWhite diversity row in the red carpet, he hosted his own bash the Beats by Dre party with Craig David, at The 100 Club. Advertisement Craig David and Big Narstie at The 100 Club At the packed invite-only bash, the Fill Me In star kicked things off with a TS5 party set, sharing the stage with Big Narstie, who features on his comeback single When The Bassline Drops. Guests including Damon Albarn and Jamal Edwards then saw garage pioneers DJ Luck and MC Neat take to the decks, before a performance from Kano, who welcomed special guest Giggs on to the stage. Meanwhile, across town in Shoreditch, Drake also ditched the main music labels swanky bashes, in favour of making surprise appearance on stage at Village Underground at a Section Boyz gig with grime artist Skepta. Advertisement Much has been said of the fact UK Grimes most prolific artists were omitted from this years nominations, and not much has changed since Kanye West invited a whole host of artists including Skepta, Krept & Konan and Stormzy to join him to debut All Day on the Brits stage in 2015. Ahead of the event, Brits bosses appeared to defend the lack of diversity by citing the fact many nominees are decided upon because of their commercial success, with a spokesperson stating: There are no individual awards for specific genres however, and since only a small number of Brits are awarded every year, the artists who are honoured tend to be those who have achieved the very highest levels of chart success. However, Craig was having none of it, and speaking shortly before presenting the Best International Artist award with Fleur East he told reporters on the red carpet: Sometimes some genres of music arent represented and this year it happened to be grime. Its very clear that it hasnt been. "So hopefully next year the way that the voting system is made the grime artists will be seen. "But being part of that scene, I know deep down that the grime and garage music and urban music it's winning in itself." Tap the photo below to launch the slideshow One of Britain's biggest 'Brexit' campaign groups has been caught flying the Union Jack upside down on one of its patriotic posters. Leave.EU, which is campaigning for an 'out' vote on referendum day, posted a message thanking its 500,000 Facebook followers for their support but with a picture of a hot air balloon incorrectly emblazoned with the national flag. The Union Jack was adopted in 1802 and does not have reflection symmetry - meaning it can't be flown either-side up - because of the slight pinwheeling of the St Patrick's (Irish) and St Andrew's (Scottish) white crosses. Advertisement In the picture, the thick white stripe appears above the thin wedge, which is instead how the flag is flown to be used as a naval distress signal. The campaign poster that sparked raised eyebrows Charles Ashburner, chief executive of the UK's Flag Institute, told HuffPost UK that when the flag was flown upside-down by people who should know better "it is insulting, it is wrong, and it is technically something we should be offended at". When asked to explain why the flag was depicted the wrong way round, a Leave.EU spokesperson had to check the post, then claimed it was in fact a cunning ploy. Advertisement "It's a tribute to the flag being flown upside-down when Mr Cameron was on his negotiation trip to Brussels," they said, adding: "That can be our comment." Last week, the British flag was flying outside the European Parliament as Cameron was inside negotiating his reform deal. All trains on the East Coast Main Line have been stopped because of a "huge number" of trespassers trying to see the iconic Flying Scotsman train on its journey from London to York. The Flying Scotsman itself was also stopped as Network Rail warned people not to trespass on the railway to try and get a better view. Advertisement The train arrived at King's Cross station in London today for its inaugural journey after a decade-long 4.2 million refit. We've had to stop all trains on the East Coast Main Line incl. #FlyingScotsman because of huge number of trespassers. Please, don't. Network Rail press (@networkrailPR) February 25, 2016 Thousands of rail fans were expected to line the tracks and bridges along the route as the famous locomotive, built in 1923, travels up the line. Network Rail said it had to stop all trains due to trespassers, warning that it was "hugely dangerous" to step onto the tracks. It has now restarted trains "at slow speed". Advertisement Lots of safe vantage points for pics of #FlyingScotsman - don't be tempted to trespass on the railway, hugely dangerous. Please, stay safe Network Rail press (@networkrailPR) February 25, 2016 Trains now running at slow speed as trespassers clear the tracks - please, enjoy #FlyingScotsman safely and stay off the railway Network Rail press (@networkrailPR) February 25, 2016 The train has been restored for 10 years and returned to its original 'British Rail green'. Named after the train service between London and Edinburgh, The Flying Scotsman was the first to travel the journey at 100 miles per hour. Once in York it will go on display at the National Railway Museum until 6 March before setting off on a tour around the country. The museum's head curator Andrew McLean said that seeing the train "looking exactly as she should, in steam and alive again" would be a "really special moment for many people". Advertisement Nick Clegg says the Conservatives are rigging the rules in its favour that could lead to a Tory Steve Parsons/PA Archive Nick Clegg has criticised the Conservatives for rigging the rules in its favour that could lead to a Tory "one-party state". Speaking to The Independent, the former Deputy Prime Minister joined the growing outrage over how a series of policies have been introduced that gives the incumbent government a huge advantage over their rivals. Advertisement He said: If you look at the way the Conservatives seek to hobble and neuter Westminster, the bullying swagger with which they treat the BBC, the general air of hubris, there is a feeling that politics is being reduced to the whims and mood swings of one political party. That is not healthy. A combination of US-style game playing by the Conservatives and Labours self-indulgence is conspiring to leave millions of British voters completely voiceless. His criticism comes as officials have announced details of how the UKs electoral map is to be re-drawn, but an analysis of the Boundary Commissions proposals suggest it could cost the Labour Party 10 MPs to the Conservatives at the next election. The plan to make each parliamentary seat roughly the same size, as well as reducing the number of MPs by 50 to 600, was ditched under the Tory coalition with the Lib Dems but has become a priority now the Conservatives have a majority. Advertisement The move follows hard on the heels of a series of announcements that will limit the opposition to the Government, from slashing party funding to reining in the House of Lords, and paves the way the Tories to increase its majority in the 2020 election. Labour's Gloria De Piero has accused the Conservatives of a "partisan plan to give the Tories an unfair advantage at the expense of democracy" Gloria De Piero, Labours Shadow Minister for Young People and Voter Registration, said the boundary review was another example of David Cameron and the Conservative Party trying to rig the system for their own political ends. This is all further evidence of their partisan plan to give the Tories an unfair advantage at the expense of democracy, she said. Advertisement Here are five instances where critics claim the Conservatives are stacking the deck in their favour. For a series of economic and social reasons, the UKs 650 constituencies vary wildly in size and a long-held ambition has been to equalise how many people are in each one. At the same time, a clamour to reduce the cost of politics has led many to call for the number of MPs in Westminster to be axed. But the Tory government has faced accusations of gerrymandering, manipulating the boundaries to their favour, as it pushes forward with the reform. While the independent Boundary Commissions in the various UK nations are doing the work, the terms have been set by ministers. Research for The Times carried out by political analyst Lewis Baston suggests Labour could face the loss of 24 seats compared to just 14 for the Conservatives. Labour already needs a 1997-sized lead to get a majority of just one seat. It looks as if its going to be even more difficult on these numbers, Mr Baston said. Boundary changes Lab lose 24 seats Con lose 14 SNP lose 5 LDem lose 4 Lab lose its one Scot seat Via @lewis_bastonpic.twitter.com/sKEg7vSnFN Gerry Hassan (@GerryHassan) February 24, 2016 Advertisement Opposition parties are given state funding to help with running costs, based on their share of the vote in the general election. The idea is to provide robust opposition to the government of the day, reflecting the wishes of the electorate. Its dubbed short money after a former leader of the House of Commons, Edward Short. As most attention was on David Camerons Brussels deal, ministers quietly published online a consultation on proposals to slash grants by 19% this year and freeze it thereafter until 2020. If adopted, it would mean a big cut in funds for UKIP and the Greens, as well as protections for a future Tory Opposition. The Tories were accused of being a so-called one nation party is trying to create a one-party nation. Watch MPs below accuse Tory ministers of trying to create a one-party state over plans to slash taxpayer funding to Opposition parties at Westminster Advertisement Last year, ministers failed in their attempt to force through controversial cuts to the tax credit top-up benefit after the plans were blocked by the House of Lords. In response, the Government installed Conservative peer Lord Strathclyde to review the upper chamber, and the swift audit resulted in him recommending it loses its power to veto statutory instruments - the device which allows governments to bring in measures without a full Act of Parliament. Labour warned the move paints a very unattractive picture of a Prime Minister and a Government that will not tolerate challenge; that loathes scrutiny and fears questioning. Proposals in the Trade Union Bill could see Labour lose 6m in income. It changes the way trade unionists pay into their union political fund, the only source from which unions can give money to Labour, and means each union member will have to agree in writing every five years to opt into paying the political levy, as opposed to opting out under the current system. While Labour has complained it has been targeted while no limits are placed on private business donations to the Tory party, even the former head of the civil service has attacked the plans. Bob Kerslake said the Bill marked a partisan and disproportionate attempt to improve the position of the Conservatives at the expense of Labour. The Government has changed the way people register to vote, which requires them to vote as individuals rather than as households. And the Electoral Commission has found almost 800,000 potential voters were deleted from the electoral register since the system was introduced. Advertisement David Cameron is simply "jealous" his clothes, Jeremy Corbyn has joked, after the prime minister angrily told him to dress smarter during PMQs on Wednesday. A video clip of Corbyn getting ready for a TV interview today show the Labour leader laughing as he tells the camera crew: "I've got to do the tie up." Advertisement Grinning, Corbyn says of the prime minster: "He's actually jealous of the jacket. You know what's really jealous of? That I can go shopping in the greatest shopping centre in the world, Holloway Road N7, and he's stuck with Bond Street." Yesterday Cameron angrily told Corbyn to "put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem" after Labour MPs heckled him about his mother. On BBC 2's Daily Politics this afternoon, presenter Andrew Neil pointed asked former shadow cabinet minister Chuka Umunna, recently chosen by GQ at the 29th best dressed man of 2016, if he had "any sartorial advice" for his leader. "My constituents don't give a monkey's how he dresses," the Labour MP insisted. "I don't care what he wears." Advertisement "My constituents don't give a monkeys how he dresses" says @ChukaUmunna of @jeremycorbyn appearance https://t.co/l5RTiFvHCI DailySunday Politics (@daily_politics) February 25, 2016 During the Labour leadership campaign, Corbyn revealed he buys his trademark vests from a Holloway Road market stall for 1.50. SEE ALSO: Junior Doctor Has Perfect Rebuttal For Tie Jibe A beauty blogger has publicly called out Maybelline for only catering to 'white women' with their makeup range in the UK. Nadia Gray, from Luton, wrote a blog post titled 'Why Is Maybelline Ignoring Women of Colour?', revealing that the brand's Dream Velvet Foundation is available in twice as many shades in America than in the UK. The 26-year-old discovered that on both Boots.com and Maybelline's website, only six of the 12 total shades are available - and all six are colours for light skintones. Advertisement Dear @maybellineNYUK explain to me how you can have the exact same foundation for sale in the US featuring black british model Jourdann Dun Nadia Gray (@nadiagray_) February 16, 2016 and with shades for black women, yet in the UK you choose to yet again ignore women of colour @maybellineNYUKpic.twitter.com/fufFq9DAfc Nadia Gray (@nadiagray_) February 16, 2016 "I, like so many other black women, have to buy high end foundations and concealer because billion dollar beauty corporations simply don't cater for us," she wrote. "They always make the same excuses saying there is no market for the product which is just not true. There is a huge population of black women in the United Kingdom. Advertisement "Maybelline has taken a black British woman and used her in their adverts to sell products but, Jourdan couldn't walk into Boots or Superdrug and buy the same product she is advertising." Gray also wrote a follow-up blog to clarify that she was not accusing the brand of racism. "I know that Maybelline have released makeup for darker skin tones," she wrote. "But I've noticed lately they have reduced the amount of shades in their new releases, they have not released a dark skin foundation for about four years now. "Maybelline was just picked on because I was particularly angry at the fact they used a black British model to sell a product that black women could not buy in the UK. "Other brands are actually far far worse than Maybelline in terms of product range and advertising. So my issue is not with Maybelline, but the high street/drugstore ignorance of ethnic women." Advertisement Gray isn't the only woman to speak out about the lack of diversity in the beauty world as of late. Models Leomie Anderson and Nykhor Paul both used social media to talk about how many makeup artists do not cater to black skin tones. Both revealed they had to carry their own foundation shades to Fashion Week and photoshoots. "Why do I have to bring my own makeup to a professional show when all the other white girls don't have to do anything but show up?" Paul wrote in her powerful open letter. HuffPost UK have contacted Maybelline for comment. Striding into the building clad in light-up neon shoes walks 6"2 US-based model Rain Dove. Androgynous in style and badass in attitude the Vermont-born catwalker flew into town for London Fashion Week. Advertisement Relatively unknown until a few years ago, Dove has been making headlines in the UK and across the world for her striking and chiseled look. But as we soon find out, she's much deeper than her image. Dropping by The Huffington Post UK office, the Native-American descendent tells us about diversity in the fashion industry, volunteering for the UN and her passion for water quality. When she landed in London the first thing she was given was a London Evening Standard with a front page headline that read: 'Designers want size zero models'. Advertisement "I have been to castings for a ton of brands so it's very interesting to see that there is some diversity in London, hairstyle for example," she said. "But not in skin colour and size. "In fact everybody was like no breasts and size zero and there's no age diversity at all. Everyone I saw looked like people who had barely left high school or were just barely getting to the frat years of college, that was it. "Fashion Week runways seem to be about just having this very clothes hanger kind of style - and I respect that, they are private industries and they have the right to present their art, their work in whichever way they want. "It's very interesting when you have such large brands which pull in such a high revenue and they have such a big responsibility to their advertising and their exposure to shape and to mould society through art, yet they have a hard time being able to do that. "So fashion brands, if you don't diversify it's very easy for people to find something else, and they will." Advertisement At 26-years-old Dove is wise beyond her years and speaks passionately about activism and helping people gather basic water rights, insisting that lack of water hygiene will become the lead cause of death in the world. "I have what some people consider to be a 'hippie' mentality," she explained. "I want to save the world and help them. "I saw how much money people spent in the fashion industry and I was like oh man if someone can spend this much on clothes they certainly can spend five dollars a month on causes. "So I was like okay if I get into this industry I can talk to people who normally would never listen. The end goal is to show people that there's more to life than being really ridiculously good looking." Advertisement Dove - who has a degree in genetic engineering - found it hard to break into the fashion industry, in part because of her androgynous looks. Walking in both womenswear and menswear, she says that some designers just want to work with her because she is perceived as edgy. "It was very difficult for me because of my height and the socio-political affiliation with my sexuality. "I believe that everyone who is human, is androgynous, but I don't think there are a lot of people that are presented as truly androgynous." Dove has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, including Calvin Klein, but says it has its downsides. Advertisement "I'm used as a gimmick a lot in this industry and I'm used as the shock factor and it doesn't demystify the fear of what it is to be someone who is different." She also touches upon sexuality and says despite many people assumptions she doesn't identify as a lesbian, but she prefers vagina as it's "easier to navigate". People's assumptions about Dove's androgynous appearance have also led to her finding herself in dangerous situations. Using the bathroom is one simple need that is difficult for Dove, who admits she has had shameful experiences in London and that she suffers from "bathroom anxiety". Advertisement "When I was in Camden about two months ago I was in a bar in the restroom, a security guard came in, unlocked the door and pulled me out with my pants down into the bar thinking I was a dude jacking off in the bathroom. "I wrote a letter to the bar and told them that I wanted proof that their staff was going through some kind of changes. "It's a complicated situation because you don't want to be judged on your appearance, but you have to understand that when it comes to the women's room there has been a lot of instances in places that serve alcoholic beverages where people have been abused sexually, so I do respect the need." Despite rough treatment in bathrooms - Dove says it can be different when she's walking down the street. "One of the benefits to me is that I look like a white guy. A tall, white guy with all his shit together. So I tend to be treated very respectfully everywhere I go, until I use the restroom. Advertisement "I find that people here may be abusive when you're walking by, but they won't be abusive if you confront them." But all that changes when Dove presents in a more feminine way. "When I walk down the street in a dress - people think I'm transgender. The issue isn't that I'm embarrassed to be thought of as transgender, the issue is that people treat transgender individuals so violently, especially if they think it's male to female. "That is hard because if you grow up in a very Christian background where they said you have to dress like this then,they are asking you to dress in a way that will put you in physical harm. "I'm very careful about wearing a dress to a bar or a place where alcohol is served. I think that if I'm in public wearing a dress then I will only talk to certain people." Formerly fighting fires in a rural town in the States, Dove's broad body type sees her cast and looked upon as a "butch" lesbian by people in the fashion industry - and she thinks this makes it tougher for her to be cast. Advertisement "I think that if you identify as a gay male in this industry, people don't care or question because it's very common, you know it's a very common affiliation for a gay male to be in the fashion industry. "It is also common for a 'lipstick lesbian'" to be in the fashion industry, but when you have a 'butch lesbian' it confuses people." Eyes-wide and with animated expression, Dove responds well to the curve-ball question I ask her about Donald Trump. "I have a theory about Donald Trump", she says, before flowing into a blissful conspiracy about the Republican presidential hopeful. Read her theory here. This February, HuffPost UK Style is running a month-long focus on our Fashion For All campaign, which aims to highlight moments of colour, size, gender and age diversity and disability inclusivity in the fashion and beauty world. Advertisement Natalie McGarry, SNP candidate for Glasgow East, as the SNP launch the SNP election campaign in Glasgow Central. Danny Lawson/PA Archive Scottish MP Natalie McGarry was "forcibly" detained by police in Turkey on Thursday. Reports in Turkish media say that McGarry, formerly of the SNP, was taken into custody by police while on a trade union delegation visit to the country. She was arrested in Diyarbakr, in the southeast of Turkey, around 127km from the Syrian border, but has since been released. Advertisement Diyarbakr, southeast Turkey, around 127km from the Syrian border A Foreign Office spokesperson said: A British national was briefly detained and released in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Our embassy staff were in close contact with local authorities. McGarry has since tweeted to confirm she was out of police custody and is "safe and absolutely fine". Thank you for any concerns, but I am safe and absolutely fine. Natalie McGarry (@NatalieMcGarry) February 25, 2016 Advertisement Her solicitor Aamer Anwar told the Press Association: "I can confirm that Natalie McGarry MP was questioned earlier on today but was released shortly thereafter and is grateful to everybody for their messages of support. "It appears that a member of the Turkish security forces became alarmed as Natalie had her mobile phone out near a security check point. "She was taken away for questioning and it was subsequently explained that she was simply recording the sound of bombs falling across the border in Syria." He said no further statement would be made and the MP would be returning home soon. The MP for Glasgow East resigned the Scottish National Party whip in November amid scrutiny of the accounts of an independence campaign she was affiliated to. The 34-year-old is also known for high-profile clashes with 'Harry Potter' author JK Rowling. During one Twitter spat the pair exchanged heated messages after the MP alleged Rowling supported "misogyny and abuse" on the social network. Advertisement McGarry quickly retracted her comments, but the ensuing furore saw Rowling deploy lyrics of hip-hop supreme Chamillionaire. Alamy She has been dubbed the "Queen of Scots" and ensured the SNP will dominate Holyrood for years, but Nicola Sturgeon now faces the greatest test yet of her abilities as a premier. The First Minister will take control of the UK and lead it in a battle against aliens, who have invaded the country and toppled both David Cameron's government and Westminster. Advertisement No it's not June 24, the day after Britain votes on whether to leave the European Union, but rather the plot of a new BBC Radio 4 play featuring Sturgeon, in which she will play herself. Sturgeon, not the Kraken Her appearance will be in a modern re-telling of John Wyndham's classic 1953 apocalyptic novel 'The Kraken Wakes', which has been adapted by the Scottish crime writer Val McDermid. The dramatist publicly backed a 'Yes' vote in the run-up to 2014s independence referendum and Sturgeon is known to be a fan of her work. Advertisement Ill leave it to others to guess if fending off creatures from outer space was any easier than dealing with some of my political opponents, she told The Herald newspaper. The new face of our national Parliament? Im well used to being in a radio studio but this was a bit different. I doubt Ill be moving into theatre any time soon." The up-coming two-part drama stars a couple on a cruise when they see strange lights falling out of the sky and into the sea. They discover the lights are in fact aliens who are invading Earth and trying to manipulate its environment by raising sea levels. Advertisement But Sturgeon taking to the air-waves will not be the only time Scotland's First Minister has made a foray into broadcast fiction. Her predecessor Alex Salmond famously appeared as a ghost in a Pakistani soap opera called The Castle. Tony Blackburn says he has been sacked by the BBC over his evidence to the Jimmy Savile sex abuse review. The veteran DJ has pledged to take legal action against the corporation, which he claims is making him a "scapegoat" for the "cover-up" of abuse of an under-age girl. Advertisement His shock departure comes ahead of the publication on Thursday of a report into the BBC's culture and practices during the years Jimmy Savile and fellow shamed presenter Stuart Hall worked at the corporation by former Court of Appeal judge Dame Janet Smith. Veteran DJ, Tony Blackburn, 73 Blackburn, 73, claims that "all relationships" he had with the BBC were "terminated with immediate effect" this week because his evidence to the review over an investigation in 1971 contradicts the BBC's version of events in relation to an allegation of assault by the mother of a 15-year-old who later committed suicide. He says he was never interviewed over the incident but claims the BBC says he was interviewed twice, reports Press Association. Advertisement In a statement he said: "Sadly what is happening to me now seems to be entirely in keeping with the past BBC culture of whitewash and cover-up. "Naturally, I am now left with no choice but to take legal action against the BBC. They have taken away a career I love and I will not allow them to destroy my reputation." Listings for Blackburn's two upcoming BBC Radio London shows on the BBC website say that fellow DJs Jaki Graham and Lemar will be sitting in for him. Information for his scheduled Radio 2 vintage chart Pick Of The Pops still states he will be presenting. The BBC declined to comment. Blackburn's full statement reads: "This week, two days before the publication of the Dame Janet Smith Report , the BBC informed me that all relationships I had with them were being terminated with immediate effect. Advertisement "I am told that the decision was taken, personally, by the Director General. Quite naturally, I am devastated. "The reasons for the BBC taking this decision are that my evidence to Dame Janet Smith shows, I believe, that a cover up took place - one that I had no knowledge of. "This goes against what the BBC believe. Story continues after slideshow... Jimmy Savile Abuse Timeline See gallery "In 1971 allegations were made by the mother of a 15 year old girl whose diary apparently contained suggestions that she had been seduced by celebrities including me. "I am told that the mother told the BBC, a few weeks after her initial complaint, that her daughter had withdrawn the allegation against me. "I have never seen the diary and neither has anyone at the BBC or the Dame Janet Review. "That same year this seemingly troubled teenager, tragically took her own life. "Dame Janets report makes no suggestion that I was guilty 45 years ago of any misconduct whatsoever with this girl. Advertisement "Nor did a Coroners inquest into her death or a subsequent police inquiry. The BBC have made clear that they are not terminating my relationship with them because of any misconduct. "They are destroying my career and reputation because my version of events does not tally with theirs. "I was not guilty of any inappropriate conduct; my lawyers will take immediate action against anyone suggesting that I was. "According to BBC records seen by Dame Janet, I was allegedly interviewed about the girls diary before her death in 1971 by a very senior figure at the BBC, Bill Cotton Jr. "I was also, supposedly, interviewed by Brian Neill QC as part of his report in to the Payola scandal at the BBC. Advertisement "I have repeatedly told Dame Janet and the BBC I was never interviewed by either man in this context and the BBC records are either very vague or have, conveniently, disappeared. "Regardless of these facts, the BBC is axing me after five decades of broadcasting. "Sadly what is happening to me now seems to be entirely in keeping with the past BBC culture of whitewash and cover-up. "In 1967, I proudly opened Radio 1 for the BBC. "Over the past 49 years I have enjoyed my time working for them immensely and I am grateful to my millions of listeners for their continued support over the decades. "Sadly, despite being aware of my evidence for many months, if not years, the BBC have decided to make me a scapegoat and have taken away any future opportunity I have to broadcast for them. "Naturally, I am now left with no choice but to take legal action against the BBC. Note: This week, contributers to the Smarter Schools Project will be guest-blogging. Today, our guest-blogger is Erin Green, a fifth grade language arts and social studies teacher at the University of Texas Elementary School in Austin, Texas. In my first year teaching I have experienced more than a careers worth of inspiring moments. My fifth graders fill the classroom with boundless curiosity. Thats why I am grateful to be starting my teaching career now, at a time when technology is bringing new opportunities to our students in ways not previously possible. Even in elementary school, students can now use technology to engage with the world around them. Exposure to current events, politics, and breaking news are now just one click away. My students are native to mobile devices and think Facebook is old newsto say theyre sponges for everything new is an understatement. As they connect lessons in the classroom to the world around them, theyre becoming lifelong learners who apply knowledge to make a positive impact. I have the privilege of teaching these kids at a pivotal age when theyre beginning to form their own opinions about the issues that affect them. Not surprisingly, they are hungry to engage with society. As the presidential election cycle continues and these important discussions unfold in national media, my students jump to participate and confront issues they care about. This is where technology platforms can help me harness their passion to drive their learning. We often use inquiry-based learning to identify trending topics that spark debate and discourse. We dig past the surface by asking questions like What do you think caused that? and How did we get here? Based on our discussions, I use a program called Newsela to assign reading and follow-up quizzes that are tailored to their specific ability levels on the topics and questions they are most interested in. This approach has increased engagement levels and led to higher reading comprehension. In addition to improving reading, this use of technology is helping cultivate the next generation of politically active adults. Today, ten-year-olds have unprecedented access to information and its right at their fingertips. The most informed generation has powerful potential and are ready to take the world by storm, but we have to give them the platform to do it. My fifth graders are outraged that they cant vote yettheyve even expressed an interest in getting a fake ID so they can show up at the polls. To help students explore their interest in elections (while avoiding voter fraud), we use Students Vote 2016, a project with Newsela and Rock the Vote to encourage students to get informed about and cast a ballot in the 2016 presidential election. They can also watch election results come in, track polling data, and stay as engaged as their parents throughout the entire political process. They can also log onto platforms like Twitter and Instagram to explore opinions and different points of view, a valuable learning experience that drives great conversations in the classroom. Deeply engaged students grow into active citizens. Technology allows them to feel included in meaningful conversations. Whether its understanding and discussing the election news or addressing persistent social issues, students need a platform to meaningfully share their voice. The more students feel enfranchised, the more we can look forward to an active voting population for the future. --Erin Green Winston Churchill's grandson has told parliament he receives "vile" abuse accusing him of betraying the wartime prime minister's memory. Sir Nicholas Soames is one of the most pro-EU Conservative MPs in the Commons. Speaking in a parliamentary debate on David Cameron's in/out referendum on Thursday he said: "I am daily on the receiving end of some vile emails and whatnot from people telling me that I am a traitor to my grandfathers memory." Advertisement Recalling the "tragedy" of the Second World War, Sir Nicholas warned it was only "in the winking of an eye" in historical terms that Europe had been at peace. Tory MP Steve Baker, one of the leading anti-EU Conservatives, told Sir Nicholas said he had the "utmost respect" for and that those who accused him of being a traitor "disgrace themselves with their insults". In recent weeks Sir Nicholas has gathered something of a cult following on Twitter, for his brutal put-downs of eurosceptic critics. On 5th June 1975, I cast my first ever vote in a referendum on whether or not Britain should remain within the European Common Market. Like David Cameron, Harold Wilson - the Labour prime minister of the time - had organised this ballot to manage his own party's factional squabbles rather than to determine the future of the nation. Then as now, the British establishment warned the electorate of the dire political and economic consequences of quitting the European project. Even the American government made unsubtle hints encouraging a Yes vote in this referendum. More than anything else, the pro-European cause was helped by the 'No' campaign's bizarre alliance of those on the Right who mourned the loss of empire and those on the Left who wanted Britain to become Cuba with worse weather. Why risk this leap into the unknown when its leading proponents couldn't agree on what would happen if they won the referendum? Not surprisingly, like 67 per cent of the British people, I decided for the better-safe-than-sorry option of 'Yes'. Ever since the 1975 result was declared, the losing side has been arguing for another referendum that would deliver a different outcome. In Britain as in other member states, the mainstream parties' hypocritical tactic of publicly blaming the EU for unpopular policies which they tacitly supported has encouraged a growth in Euroscepticism over the past four decades. For some of the Left, Tony Benn's warnings in 1975 about the European boss' club still seem prescient. The unaccountable EU technocracy is now imposing its austerity economics of welfare cuts, privatisation and financialisation on the whole continent. As the Greeks recently discovered, parliamentary democracy becomes meaningless when the most vital decisions are made in Brussels. Yet, apart from a dwindling band of Stalinists, the British Left's rejection of the EU's disastrous infatuation with neoliberalism hasn't recruited many of its leaders and activists to the anti-European side this time around. Instead, the 'No' campaign for the 2016 referendum is dominated by the isolationist Right. Ever since Margaret Thatcher's reign, Tory newspapers have regaled their readers with lurid tales of bureaucratic meddling and financial shenanigans by the EU institutions. As their readers' comments reveal, Europe has become the Right's symbol of everything that is wrong with modern Britain: mass immigration, political correctness, gender bending and military weakness. The EU is the EUSSR - a demonic federal superstate crushing the national sovereignty and cultural distinctiveness of the English race. As Thatcher discovered, handbagging the Brussels bureaucracy is an excellent method of securing these patriotic voters for the Tories. But, as her successors have also understood, the party of big banks and big business can never deliver the ultimate goal of its Europhobic supporters: the secession of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The insiders know that EU-bashing is just fun-and-games which no one should take too seriously. Advertisement Unfortunately for the Tory grandees, the outsiders on the Right truly believe in the Eurosceptic message. While the demands for a new ballot on EU membership by backbench MPs, constituency activists and newspaper columnists can be safely ignored, UKIP candidates threaten to split the anti-Left vote in both local and national contests. During the run-up to the 2015 general election, David Cameron dealt with this competition from the isolationist Right by promising to hold a new referendum which he knew that his LibDem coalition partners would never allow to take place. But, when the Tories won their unexpected outright victory, this clever wheeze no longer seemed so clever. Having profited from Eurosceptic rhetoric for decades, the British establishment is now assailed by those who want to turn its words into deeds. Worryingly, with the Euro in crisis, the Schengen Agreement disintegrating and the EU's borders overwhelmed by desperate refugees, selling the case against Brexit has become more difficult. However, the 'Yes' campaign still remains the favourite. Imitating Harold Wilson's successful strategy before the 1975 referendum, David Cameron is touring the continent's capital cities to put together a package of minor concessions which will enable ambitious Tory MPs to swap their erstwhile Europhobia for newly found Europhilia. Battle-tested in Scotland in 2014, the great-and-good's Project Fear will terrify the electorate with predictions of job losses, expensive mortgages and a falling pound if Britain leaves the EU. UKIP's supporters will be warned that the UK couldn't survive England voting 'No' and Scotland voting 'Yes'. The US president, the NATO Secretary-General and the Queen will express their concerns that the status quo must prevail. In the unlikely event of a 'No' victory, like when the Irish initially rejected the EU's Lisbon Treaty in 2008 and then were sent back to the polls in 2009 to correct their mistake, this political farce will be repeated until the British public sees sense and chooses 'Yes'. The Eurosceptics must learn that the Tory elite's words should never be mistaken for deeds. It is now four months to the day since I arrived in Calais to help out in the camp. Originally my plan was to come for 10 days to help out in a small way as an independent volunteer. After spending a short time in the camp I quickly realised that I would not be able to walk away from the conditions I was faced with and the sheer magnitude of trauma many people were experiencing. The story of how I initially ended up in the camp is a strange one but also one that reminds me that sometimes, as humans we are inspired to do something simply because it is the right thing to do. It was a Wednesday evening and I was in my apartment in the Southside of Glasgow, which I had been living in for almost a year, after I left my home in Northern Ireland to create a new life for myself away from the experiences I had grown up with as a child. I remember the anxiousness I was experiencing, as the realisation that my current work contract was ending and I was struggling to find a permanent employment solution. The dread that I was feeling was a direct result of desperately not wanting to admit defeat and return to the life I had so desperately fought to leave behind. Advertisement All I wanted to do was have a shower, unwind and try to come up with a new game plan. I turned on the shower and after about five minutes of waiting, I realised that the water wasn't getting hot. I remember feeling angry because at this moment, it was the last thing I needed. I made my way into my flatmate's bedroom where the boiler was situated, noticing that the pressure valve was below one. I thought this is an easy fix, all I need to do is turn the valve, the pressure will rise and I will be able to have my shower. As I turned the valve, I felt a rumble in the pipe and the next thing I knew the valve had shot off and the room was filling up with water. For the next 15 minutes I sat on the floor trying to hold the pipe together, waiting for my flatmate to return from the shop, while the room filled up with water. After what felt like a lifetime, we managed to get the water turned off at the mains supply underneath the building. Virtually everything in the room was ruined and I was in a total state of disbelief and shock. I remember lying in bed that night pondering the question many of us have at some point or another: Why do things have to be so difficult? I had been following the events of the unfolding refugee crisis quite closely and it suddenly dawned on me that here I was worrying about how bad things were for me when I had warmth, food, a roof over my head and a small amount of savings for the eventuality of needing to support myself while seeking longer term employment options. I could not help but remember that many people were fleeing their countries as a result of war and persecution, in search of a better life for themselves and their children. Advertisement I began to feel better about the circumstances currently unfolding in my own life but also inspired to do more for those less fortunate than I was. Sometimes we don't realise how lucky we are and I was certainly in a place where I had taken the luxuries afforded to me for granted. Although I have not had the experience of fleeing a country in fear for my life, I do understand the desperation people feel when they want to find new beginnings and better way of living. Having grown up in Northern Ireland, I remember what it was like to have the army patrolling the streets, to hear the noise of gunfire at night and also the terrifying sounds of explosions going off in the distance, an experience no child should ever have to go through. I was a member of an on-line group called Scottish Association for Refugees and decided to contact its founder Claire Macaulay and after a few brief messages between us I had agreed to leave in a week for Calais. I will never forget my first day in camp, the smell of untreated waste mixed with the smell of people cooking meals on little gas stoves, the sight of the tents people were living in and more importantly the sheer number of women and children living in the camp, a fact that had been overlooked by the British media. Over the next few days I could not shake the contempt I felt for the life I was fortunate to be living, while others were expected to live in mud and filth without any support to better their circumstances. After day three in the camp I knew I was not going to be able to leave, there was much work to do and not enough people to complete it. The first task I undertook in camp, was the building of shelters for women and children alongside Pete and Jack, who still build here in Calais. I remember feeling mixed emotions in those first few days, knowing that I was doing something to make a difference to the lives of venerable people while also realising that the team was a group of ordinary people with little or no building experiencing and frightened by the realisation that volunteers had become the only beacon of hope for residents living in desperate and inhumane conditions. As a group of individuals coming from many different walks of life, we have built community with each other, with the residents in the camp and continue to work hard to achieve what sometimes feels like the impossible. Advertisement I am now four months into my time in Calais and while here I have been part of the build team, the distribution team and now I coordinate volunteers alongside Emma, our new short term volunteer coordinator. Over the months I have seen so many things, some truly inspiring and others heart wrenching. An example of this is the fire we had a few months back when an estimated 250 refugees lost everything they had, which at this point wasn't much and had been provided by the goodwill of others. Standing on the site, watching as the fire ripped through the camp tore me up inside and affected many members of the team in such a devastating way. The sheer velocity of the flames and also the feeling of hopelessness in that moment when I was absolutely powerless to change what was unfolding will stay with me forever. The other side of this is how quickly the team of volunteers assembled and spent the next 36 hours, making emergency aid packs, clearing the land that had been ravaged by the fire and rebuilding. It really helped me to see the humanity in others and the need to pull together to make a difference within the fragile world we live in. I've never regretted giving up my life in Glasgow to work long hours in stressful situations. Like many, I balance the needs of the residents in the camp with ways to support myself so that I can remain there. Advertisement I'm not sure where this journey will end but one thing I am sure of is, I want to ensure that I am on the right side of history. In years to come children will ask, what did you do to help in the refugee crisis? I know that I will be able to say that I was part of a team of dedicated people who saw the inequalities currently being experienced by refugees. We stood together to show our solidarity with our fellow humans in the hope that one day everyone displaced by war and persecution will have a safe place to call their own. A virtue many of us take for granted. Since writing this, the French authorities have announced another eviction in the camp, with around half the inhabited areas being bulldozed along with key services such as medical clinics, places of worship, the women and children's centre, the youth centre, food and aid distribution points. When people in the UK vote on 23 June on their country's EU membership, it will have consequences for the whole of Europe. the European Parliament debated on Wednesday 24 February the possible consequences of the referendum. Most MEPs said the country would be better off in the EU, while others insisted it would benefit from leaving. The debate during the plenary session in Brussels was about the EU summit on 18-19 February dedicated to the refugee crisis and the UK referendum. Advertisement Agreement on reform of EU membership EU countries agreed on 19 February a deal in response to demands by the UK government for a reform of its EU membership. It contains concessions such as exempting the UK from the obligation to work towards a ever closer union, not giving migrant workers from other EU countries immediate access to in-work benefits and social housing as well as not requiring EU countries that do not have the euro to pay for the single currency. UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced afterwards that the agreement was sufficient for him to campaign for his country to stay in the EU. The agreement will only enter into force if people in the UK vote in favour of staying. During the plenary debate speakers disagreed on the merits of the settlement. Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission President said: "The UK Prime Minister got the most he could obtain and the other member states offered him as much as they could offer. Which leads me to say that the deal with UK is fair, balanced and complies with the great principles of the EU and takes into account the concerns, desiderata and suggestions of the United Kingdom." Manfred Weber, the German leader of the EPP group, said: "We support the core of the agreement. If the people of the United Kingdom choose to remain within in the EU then they will find a fair partner in the EPP in achieving the implementation." However, he also warned that this was the only agreement available and that there would be no follow-up negotiations. Advertisement Some politicians in the UK such as justice secretary Michael Gove and human rights minister Dominic Raab have claimed that the European Court of Justice would be able to annul the deal, but during the plenary debate Tusk insisted that the EU deal agreed last week was "legally binding and irreversible" and that it "cannot be annulled by the European Court of Justice". Gabriele Zimmer, the German chair of the GUE/NGL group, criticised the deal for reducing the EU's social pillar. She added that with the endorsement of a radical, Anglo-Saxon market model, Margaret Thatcher was being resurrected. The UK's role in the EU MEPs also stressed the positive role played by the UK in Europe. Gianni Pittella, the Italian chair of the S&D group, pointed out the UK contribution to defending European principles: "The UK has done so much, been a factor for peace and democracy. The best place to fight for these principles is the European Union." He also insisted that UK membership in the EU was more than a marriage of convenience: "UK is part and parcel of Europe. Without Britain, Europe would not be the same thing." Rebecca Harms, the German co-chair of the Greens/EFA group, said: "I think is very clear that we have to work together with the UK. The EU will be better with the UK on board". Consequences of a Brexit Several speakers warned about the possible consequences should the UK decide to leave. Council president Donald Tusk said: "It will change Europe forever and it will be a change for the worse. Of course this is my personal opinion. Prime Minister Cameron said in the House of Commons on Monday that now is not the time to split the West. I couldn't agree more." Advertisement "I will be supporting the campaign to remain in the European Union," said Ashley Fox, a UK member of the ECR group. "My reasoning is simple. Brittan's economic recovery, though good, is still fragile and I will not put it at risk by tearing us away from the single market. And I also believe that my constituency will be safer and my country more secure if we continue our cooperation with our European partners." Three MEPs have been charged with negotiating the UK's deal on the reform of its membership on behalf of the Parliament: Guy Verhofstadt, Elmar Brok and Roberto Gualtieri. Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian leader of the ALDE group, said: "The only ones who gain from a divided Europe are who, its people like Vladimir Putin,, like Bashar Al- Assad, IS and instead of discussing how to stand up to them we are showing for the moment is division, that we are weak." Brok, a German member of the EPP, said the UK had no opportunity for influence unless it acted together with Europe: "National states cannot achieve things alone. We either achieve things together or not at all." Meanwhile Gualtieri, an Italian member of the S&D group, said that the Parliament would not try to prevent or delay the implementation of the UK-EU agreement. "Politically speaking, this debate shows that the settlement commands a broad majority in this house. We will be fair, we will keep our word, now it is time for British citizens to safeguard their prosperity and their future." Advertisement However, other speakers said the UK would benefit from leaving. The referendum "is for the UK an opportunity to look back and to measure the benefits of joining up," said Marine Le Pen, the French co-chair of the ENF group. "If they decide that they want it, they can opt for freedom, for sovereignty and if they do that they will find the ways of solving the problems of the modern world." Nigel Farage, the UK co-chair of the EFDD group, suggested the UK would be safer outside the EU: "I have to say the British public will decide which is our safest option: it is safe to stay within an organisation whose own police boss tells us there are three to five thousand terrorists that are now coming to our continent through the migrant crises or it is safest to take back control of our own borders and our own democracy?" Diane Dodds, an unattached member from the UK, also spoke out in favour of leaving: "Our sovereignty will continue to be eroded and our security will continue to be at risk. We will continue to send billions more to the EU than we get back and the fundamental flaws of membership will remain." My father is a board member of Business for Britain. One of my three brothers, Nigel, is a regional Chairman for Vote Leave. If quitting can involve commitment the other two are also committed "quitters". In the "noughties" I campaigned with Business for Sterling to keep the pound, even sharing a platform with that other well known "Nige". As someone from a Eurosceptic family who has always been sceptical about certain aspects of the European Union myself, it's perhaps surprising that I'm fully signed up to the Remain campaign. Here's why I signed the Stronger In campaign's letter in the Times today. Of course, the European Union isn't perfect. Only a fool would deny it has major challenges around the Euro and the Schengen free movement area for example. But whilst the brickbats are flying about its weaknesses it's best not to forget the important benefits the EU has given to Europe and most importantly to the UK. In my judgment such advantages clearly outweigh any downsides. In the 1975 referendum people British people voted to join the Common Market, a free trade bloc. The 67% who voted yes to free trade then have not been let down. Customs barriers have been demolished, tariffs removed. It's much easier to run cross border European businesses and it's illegal for any member to discriminate against companies from another. Monopolies and rip-offs have been challenged, quality and safety rules have been standardised, we've absorbed low cost economies to the East and South of us but made sure those economies offer workers the same protections we'd expect over here. The EEC we joined has grown into a free market of 500 million people, the biggest economy in the world. It accounts for 45% of our exports worth 229 billion each year, sustaining 3 million jobs. Are we really prepared to reinstate the kind of trade barriers Switzerland and Norway face? As someone who has built two substantial European freight businesses in the UK and set up one in Finland I can't get my head around Britain wanting to take such a backward step. Advertisement In 1975 the second world war was only 30 years previous and Europe still bore the scars. We were in the midst of the Cold War. Spain, Portugal and Greece were emerging from dictatorships. At home we faced troubles of our own in Northern Ireland. Whilst no one's going to start a war if we leave the EU, the fact is the EU has brought peace to our continent, helped calm the conflict in Ireland, and assisted many countries to become successful democracies and market economies; good neighbours for us, great markets for our goods and services. The fact is that leaving the EU would make it harder for us to influence the future of our continent. And what a moment for us to stand aside. The European project is (unsurprisingly in my view) stuck in the mud. The global economy is creaking once again. Terrorism, conflict in the Ukraine, the migrant crisis and the risks of climate change show that there is still heavy lifting to do to keep Europe safe, prosperous and free. In or out we will still be affected by what happens on our doorstep, still losers if their economies don't grow, still impacted by decisions that we won't have made. And yet Britain, as one of Europe's biggest and strongest economies and most well connected and influential countries has such a great opportunity to lead. By re-shaping our relationship with the EU, David Cameron has shown it is possible to do so. Advertisement No other Prime Minister, not even Lady Thatcher, has succeeded in rolling back the tide on European integration. We now have a "special status". In Europe but not ruled by it. We're not signed up to "ever closer union", our currency is protected forever. So is the role of the City as the EU's principal financial centre, the main global centre for trading in the Euro ironically enough. We've stopped the abuse of our benefits system by a few and protected the real benefits of immigration for our economy. In short we've secured the best of both worlds. Some people have a deep reason to wish for the UK to leave the European Union, whether it is a frustration at the way the European institutions work, or the way they feel Brussels gives the orders and Britain just obeys, or maybe it is because they feel the government has no power to limit EU immigration... These reasons, whether right or wrong, are things real Eurosceptics feel deep in their heart. They dislike the EU, they cannot stand the idea of "ever closer union", they just hate the idea of losing the pound. It is a deep inward feeling, something literally visceral rather than subject to their personal ambitions. That is why they are usually good fits for TV debates and get invited to give their opinion on the EU and throw at the audience some impassioned speeches that will upset some and get others happy. Fair enough. Everyone can and should have a say. We live in a democracy and there is such a thing as freedom of speech after all. The likes of UKIP leader Nigel Farage or Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg to name just a few, well-known Eurosceptics who have been battling against the European Union for a very long time and are never short of harsh attacks on the EU and the 'failures' of its institutions, may have an opinion I totally disagree with, they have not suddenly changed their mind for the sake of a career move that could lead them to a seat in the cabinet or a top position offered for their loyalty to some donors or senior figures within the 'Leave the EU' campaign. Evelyn Beatrice Hall, famously misquoting Voltaire, wrote "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it," which absolutely applies to today's debate. Advertisement The debate on Britain's EU membership, however, poses a question that is not whether the UK should remain in or leave the European Union, but whether some politicians will dare put their personal agenda before the interest of a Nation and therefore hijack a referendum campaign because they dream of the top job that could become vacant if David Cameron fails to convince the British people that the UK should remain in the European Union. Boris Johnson does not have the interest of the United Kingdom in mind. The Mayor of London has repeatedly praised and celebrated the benefits the UK's membership of the EU brings to London. In 2009, for instance, Boris Johnson praised the European Investment Bank (EIB) for granting London a 1 billion loan for the Crossrail project, he happened to unveil yesterday with Her Majesty. At the time, the Mayor said: "Our good friends at the EIB have provided us with a billion more reasons to proceed with the unstoppable force that is Crossrail. It is one of the largest loans ever secured for a transport project and I am especially pleased to have this backing for our drive to provide London with the facilities required to keep the capital one of the world's leading cities." So at last we know. The starter's gate opens in April and the finishing line will be crossed on 23 June. The great Europe referendum, the apogee of David Cameron's term as prime minister, is finally in the sporting calendar. The government has produced its White Paper "The Best of both Worlds-Our Special Status in a reformed European Union" as an opening shot. It sets out the deals done earlier this month in relation to economic governance, competitiveness, sovereignty and welfare. Some of it is less than exciting. After all it is no big surprise to discover that we will be allowed to keep out of the euro. On the other hand it is reassuring to see some of the consequences of this written down, for example the exemption from Euro bail outs if the common currency goes pear shaped. Some of the welfare stuff is worth having too - such as the agreement that where we support the families of immigrants working in the UK, we only do so to the standards of the jurisdictions in which those families actually live. A tightening here, a clarification there, the White Paper will be criticised as making little difference by some, while others will regard things like the statement that we are not committed to ever-closer union as important political markers. There is some truth in both views but at least Mr Cameron has enough to claim that his negotiations achieved something. Advertisement Whether that claim is true does not matter. The referendum will not be about the changes themselves but whether membership of the EU, on these slightly adjusted terms, is or is not to the advantage of the British people. It is not a simple decision because a voter, before he makes his decision, will need to look at three separate questions. They are: a)whether the EU will succeed or fail; b)whether if it succeeds we are better off within or outside it; and c)whether if it fails we are better off within or outside it. Then he needs to stick his conclusions together to decide what to do. If that is beginning to sound like an exercise in higher statistics, I am afraid that it only gets worse because there are any number of different degrees of success or failure. At one end of the spectrum is the collapse of the free market, the imposition of tariffs between the member states. Slightly less bad is the preservation of a tariff free area but loss of the free movement of people. Then there is the possibility of a successful Euro or an unsuccessful one, successful sanctions against Russia or unsuccessful sanctions, completion of the market in financial services or preservation of the status quo. There are a lot of possibilities to play with and voters may need elaborate charts before the campaign is over, but for the moment let's keep it simple and look at the possibility of failure. Where would the UK want to be then? Let's not take failure as some dreadful cataclysmic event either, some event in which all the participants go up in smoke or fight a war but rather as a gradual disintegration: members disagree with each other, there are more and more opt outs and anti-European parties win majorities in an increasing number of jurisdictions. Gradually countries begin to leave the EU and its institutions and disciplines become gradually less and less effective. What then? What happens next? Well, if the EU just gradually dissolved and disappeared it wouldn't matter very much whether we were in it or not because we would still end up in the same place. What is much more likely, however, is that a much smaller international grouping would emerge made up of countries whose economies and social policies were better aligned, perhaps a bloc of the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Belgium say. If that were to happen we would have a much better chance of helping to mould it into something we would actually like (internally liberal: formidable to out siders) than if we had always stood apart. To an extent then, membership of the EU may give us some sort of option as to whether or not we wish to participate in whatever follows it. If you believe that the EU in its present form will atrophy and die that could be a reason for remaining within it.. Advertisement If the vote is to leave the EU, there will be two whirlpools of instability. First in EU politics where the fact that a country has left may lead others to follow. The negotiations for carrying through Brexit would not be pleasant. After all, the EU would not want it to be a painless process for fear that other countries would then follow our example. Then there would be instability in the UK where the consensus amongst establishment politicians would have been rejected by the electorate. Would Mr Cameron's government be able to continue? Almost certainly not. Elections would have to be held even though the normal five-year period had not expired. Who would benefit? Presumably the nation would expect tough anti-European politicians to lead the negotiation and they would be in a good position to take power. By: Inka Weissbecker, Global Mental Health and Psychosocial Advisor, International Medical Corps Around 350 million people around the world suffer from depression. Another 60 million people struggle with bipolar disorder and 21 million people live with schizophrenia. And it's getting worse. By 2030 depression alone will become the leading cause of disability globally. Every major natural disaster, public health emergency and armed conflict in the world carries with it a largely invisible yet often crippling mental health impact. Ebola, the Syrian civil war and the Nepal earthquake - all have left their indelible mark on the mental health of millions. Although the damage is often hard to detect, the economic and human costs of mental illness are enormous. We ignore them at our peril. A 2011 report by the World Economic Forum and the Harvard School of Public Health show that between 2011 and 2030 mental health conditions will account for the loss of $16.1 trillion in economic growth. The costs of addressing global mental health care needs are small compared to costs and consequences of ignoring them. Advertisement Simply put, more must be done to address this silent epidemic. As a global community we prioritise development projects and pump billions into work to help those who need it most - but current investments in mental health are woefully, and unacceptably, insufficient. Only 1 percent of the global health workforce currently works in the field of mental health, and it is the poor and vulnerable who are most likely to suffer alone. In low and middle-income countries only $2 per person per year are spent on mental health, compared to $50 in high-income countries. The desire to address this issue is there, as is the ability to do so. So why is it not happening? The answer lies in current practice: a largely siloed approach to fix an issue of extreme complexity. Smarter thinking is needed to address the rising mental health needs - an approach that builds or rebuilds health and social systems with mental health rooted in their very foundations. In short, don't ignore the mental health challenge, embrace it. When people access medical services, their mental wellbeing needs to be considered at the earliest stages at a community level, not months later and only in large cities and psychiatric hospitals inaccessible to large parts of populations. International Medical Corps today works in over 35 countries - training medical staff, helping strengthen health systems and build the tools which will help communities face the unexpected. We see the need for these integrated services in the field every day. Advertisement In 2015 our team in Iraq helped a 26 year old woman suffering from depression who had tried to take her own life. Physically disabled, forced to flee her home due to fighting, with few remaining financial resources and facing rising tensions within her family, she had tried to overdose on medication after her brother in law accused her of being a financial burden. While she was rushed to hospital for medical treatment, one of our psychosocial workers was by her side to provide support. In the days that followed, she was linked to our medical team and a treatment plan put into place which included psychotropic medications, support for her and her family to help them cope with the illness, keep her safe and find solutions for problems at home. All the while a psychosocial worker continued monitoring her symptoms and suicidal thoughts. She started gradually improving, formed stronger positive relationships with her family and new ones - including a new one with her sister in law. Treating her multiple problems separately would have failed this woman. The combined approach - the correct approach - of addressing social and health issues at the community level possibly saved her life and improved those of her family at the same time. But the most important dimension of this young Iraqi woman's story is that it is one of millions. With an estimated 60 million people now displaced in the world - the most ever recorded - her ranks are growing. Governments need to step forward, ramp up spending on mental health and make sure the funds are used correctly and efficiently. This week parliamentarians, technical experts and representatives from over 30 international non-governmental organisations have gathered in London to meet with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health and to discuss the barriers to addressing mental health needs and to debate what governments and donors can do. Advertisement If we are to truly aim for development through health, we need stronger investment in effective, integrated and low cost mental health programmes. Mental health is critically important to the overall health, economy and social development of whole communities and societies - not just the individuals experiencing mental illness. The necessary funding for effective integrated mental health programmes needs to be found, and we face a frustrating wait for nations to fully realise the consequences of not funding them. Teacher Shila Rani Talukder in her ActionAid child sponsorship funded classroom, Uttor Kalambaz, Bangladesh Bangladesh lost around US$14.5 million as a result of a single clause in its UK tax treaty in 2013. That's enough to pay the salaries of up to 18,000 new teachers in a country where more than 4 in 10 girls are not in secondary school. Advertisement Taxes are the building blocks of societies. They pay for the vast array of public services that societies rely on, and that people living in poverty so badly need. Yet the UK's global network of tax treaties is pushing down taxes in poor countries like Bangladesh. ActionAid's new 'Mistreated' report is for the first time shining a light on how poorer countries are tied into the global web of 3,000 tax treaties. Tax treaties - agreements between countries that divide up where multinationals should pay tax - may sound harmless but they have played a key role in many high-profile tax dodging rows, including the Google and Amazon cases. They provide a legal way for multinational companies to cut their tax bills. For example, if a UK company was operating in a developing country, a tax treaty would decide if and when that company would pay tax on its profits. ActionAid has produced an online map for exploring the network of treaties. The UK topped the global league table (alongside Italy) for the number of 'very restrictive' treaties with poor countries. It has 13 such treaties with Asian and African countries - more than China, USA, Russia and Germany. Advertisement For example, the UK's treaty with Zambia limits tax on dividends - money paid by companies in Zambia to shareholders in the UK - to 5%, one of the lowest rates in the world. That one clause risks costing Zambia millions every year. That is money that could help to fund essential public services. Bangladesh was the country found to have the most treaties with richer countries - 18 - which severely limit its ability to tax multinational companies operating on its soil. This is a country where 66 million people live in extreme poverty - less than US$1.90 a day. We want to see that money put to better use through investment in public services like schools and hospitals which are vital to tackling poverty. This is the first time a systematic analysis of the global tax treaty network and its impact on poor countries has taken place. What has been uncovered is truly shocking. On a global level it is clear that treaties with richer countries are often a bad deal for poorer countries. The rules are consistently being skewed in favour of wealthier countries. Worryingly, the deals struck are getting worse over time. Bangladesh and Zambia suffer big losses due to their treaties, but there are many more. The row over the tax affairs of big companies like Google and Starbucks shows how strongly the British public feels that multinationals aren't paying their fair share. Advertisement Tax revenue is a crucial part of the journey towards a world free from poverty - funding improvements in public services such as health and education. The communities that ActionAid works with around the world are demanding action. ActionAid is calling on the UK Government and governments around the world to revise these unfair treaties to ensure developing countries are able to collect a fair share of tax from multinational companies to support the fight against poverty. alexei_tm via Getty Images Anyone who has ever owned a pet knows they have the capacity for the kind of unconditional love that is seen otherwise only between a human and its offspring. The gentle nudge of a wet nose or a lick on the hand comes unbidden when we're upset or feeling down. The bounding dash to the door to greet us is also a demonstrable sign of the strength of the human - canine bond, in particular. A subtle change in our demeanor can be picked up and registered by our dogs or cats. Cats, although fiercely independent by nature, do possess the same capacity for love and nurture as my cat-owning friends can testify. Studies have shown that looking a dog in the eyes can boost levels of oxytocin - a hormone involved in social bonding. Studies have also shown that looking a dog in the eyes can boost levels of oxytocin (a hormone involved in social bonding), in both the person and the dog. It's not just 'cupboard love'. There is in fact nothing artificial that could ever replace that sheer authenticity of feeling. Dogs are the only species that, like a human child, runs to its human when it is frightened, anxious or just pleased to see us. It is also the only animal, aside from other humans, that actively seeks out eye contact with people, and truly wants to be with us. Cats too come to us when we are down and will show they are pleased to see us with a lick on the hand or a gentle purr to express their own feelings of contentment. Pets give people so much in terms of love and emotional support. Simply stroking a dog, cat, rabbit or even horse can lead to lower blood pressure and can combat stress. The feelings are reciprocated, as our touch can have therapeutic effects for our pets, particularly if they are feeling out of sorts. Companion animals can provide support and friendship to society's lonely, sick or elderly. They can be friends to those who do not easily understand the world around them. Autistic children for instance can be guided gently from their closed, confusing and isolated worlds by a patient and loving dog or cat. Anxiety disorders and depression also can be eased by the loving presence of a pet. Advertisement Sophie, my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, instinctively knows when I am under pressure or upset about something. She knows what a 'hug' and a 'stroke' mean; and offers both eagerly. She is aged eight now and suffers from an achy leg that is made worse by the UK's cold and wet weather, and she too calls for a cuddle when she's in pain. It's a reciprocal relationship that has grown even stronger over time. Companion animals can provide support and friendship to society's lonely, sick or elderly. The wider bond between people and dogs has strengthened over time, around 30,000 years to be precise. Canines have the unique ability to pick up on how we are feeling according to various studies, and similar research is being carried out with cats. For example, animal cognition scientists at Emory University in the US trained dogs to lie still in an MRI machine and used fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to track their neural responses to the smell of people and dogs, both familiar and unknown. Because dogs navigate the world through their noses, the way they process smell offers a lot of potential insight into how they interact with the world around them. Scientists found that dog owners' aroma actually sparked activation in the 'reward center' of their brains The scientists found that dog owners' aroma actually sparked activation in the 'reward center' of their brains, called the caudate nucleus. This effectively found that canines have the ability to distinguish between us and the huge amount of other olfactory stimuli around them. Advertisement In Budapest, researchers at Eotvos Lorand University studied canine brain activity in response to different human and dog sounds, including voices, barks and the meaningful grunts and sighs both species emit. Researchers discovered that happy sounds in particular light up the auditory cortex in both people and dogs. This strengthens the argument that humans and canines have a uniquely strong and resilient bond. Humans and canines have a uniquely strong and resilient bond. Many people rail against the increasing 'humanization' of our pets, but I think that's wrong. People aren't generally trying to turn their pets into little humans. They are instead seeing companion animals increasingly as loving, sentient creatures that, as even science has proven, truly love us. Our pets deserve human-grade food, a warm and safe place to rest, plenty of exercise and our unconditional love and attention. Perhaps it's a sign of the good side of our human nature that we are increasingly willing to provide these things? As Republican South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard decides whether he will sign a bill that would restrict transgender students access to school restrooms and locker rooms, he faces pressure from celebrities and national advocacy groups to veto it. HB 1008 would create the first state-level restrictions for such access. As I wrote last week, the bill would r equire students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their biological sex , defined as the physical condition of being male or female as determined by a persons chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth, even if that sex doesnt match the gender they identify with. Supporters say the bill will provide clarity for school districts about a complicated legal issue. Some lawmakers also argued that it is a concern for parents when children with different anatomy use the same facilities. Conservative groups whove voiced support for the bill include the Heritage Foundation. Dont believe the spin: This SD bill requires schools to create accommodations for transgender students. #HiFromSD //t.co/AZDWrGmyvA -- Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) February 24, 2016 So whos against the bill? For one, Caitlyn Jenner, who raised the profile of gender identity issues after her recent gender transition. For another, Orange is the New Black actress Laverne Cox. And last week, a group of national organizations signed onto an open letter calling on states, including South Dakota, to reject bills that they say unfairly target transgender youths . Transgender kids are already at heightened risk for violence, bullying and harassment, and these bills exacerbate those risks by creating a hostile environment in one of the places they should feel the safest and most supported. In addition, students who would be affected by these bills are among our most vulnerable to experiencing depression and engaging in self harm, including suicide, said the letter, which was signed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American School Counselor Association, the Child Welfare League of America, the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of Social Workers, and the National Education Association. Daugaard has until March 1 to decide if he will sign the bill , the Argus Leader reports. After saying hes never knowingly met a transgender person, Daugaard accepted an invitation to meet with a group of transgender students this week. It helped me see things through their eyes a little better and see more of their perspective, Daugaard told the paper. In a related video, two transgender students discussed meeting with the governor about the bill. Related reading: Follow @evieblad on Twitter or subscribe to Rules for Engagement to get blog posts delivered directly to your inbox. Petitions are fast becoming the nation's go-to place for creating change. If you're not happy about something you can do one of three things: complain, ignore, or start a petition - sparking a conversation and giving things a turnaround your best shot. In recent weeks we've seen big, breakout petitions gathering signatures at a record-breaking rate. Half a million Change.org users signed Maxine Berry's petition calling for an animal cruelty register in honour of chihuahua Chunky, while 329,000 are backing mum Marie McCourt's fight for Helen's Law. Meanwhile, Lee Booth's petition demanding the meningitis B jab for all children is the most signed petition in the history of the parliament petitions site. Lee's powerful story has shown how online campaigning gives anyone the chance to have their voice heard by the media, politicians and the general public. Advertisement But with the news filled with copy about mammoth petitions, it would be easy to assume petitions are just a numbers game, that 100,000 signatures are required for a Parliamentary debate, and that discussion among MPs is the only thing your campaign needs to win. None of these things are true. From the the media's point of view, petitions often work as an early warning system for important issues, where the freshness and authenticity of a story beats big numbers. At last year's Glastonbury Festival for example, sales of Native American-style headdresses were pulled after a petition on Change.org with just 65 signatures and a haul of media coverage - proof there's no magic number. At the other end of the spectrum, more than 257,000 signers helped Simon Andree win his campaign to release his dad Karl from jail in Saudi Prison and escape 350 lashes, and June Eric-Udorie won her campaign to get more female thinkers on the A-Level curriculum with 46,000 signatures. Just last week, 120,000 people helped halt the deportation of 92-year-old Myrtle Cothill after the Home Office agreed to give her and her lawyer more time to make their case. Crucially, all three petitions won without a parliamentary debate. And where parliament does debate petitions, they certainly don't need 100,000 signatures or the permission of the government's own platform. Advertisement In January, Stevie Martin's #SexistSurcharge petition calling on Boots to review its pricing on products for men and women. She and her supporters used social and traditional media to get the story in the public eye, before it was taken on by campaigning Labour MP Paula Sheriff who put it on the political agenda. Stevie forced a meeting with the CEO of Boots and last week the campaign won with 45,000 signatures on a Change.org petition. The question shouldn't be "do petitions work?" but "how do they work best?" It's all down to the power of a strong personal story that will help you build an army of supporters who you can call on to take action, every step of the way to victory. When we set out to look into student rents in the capital, we knew London was bound to be the most expensive place to be a student in the UK. But precisely how expensive still came as a shock. The priciest single room we found in official university accommodation was at the University of London halls in Gower Street, costing a staggering 437.50 a week. It doesn't even look that luxurious in the pictures: clearly they are expecting their wealthiest students to shell out for a Bloomsbury address. Advertisement That's an extreme example. But in 2015-16 the average weekly rent for students in university halls in London was 226, compared with 118 in the lowest cost region, Wales. Meanwhile several London institutions provide no affiliate accommodation at all, leaving even first-years at the mercy of our overheated private rental sector. They mainly go to the big student room providers - private companies not connected to the universities themselves but whose rooms are aimed at students only. "Welcome to a new kind of student living experience," says the marketing blurb for one of them - and by some accounts, that seems to be putting it mildly. I'm told that any room costing as little as 150 a week is usually too good to be true. There will be hidden catches - non-refundable deposits, extra months to pay for outside term-time - and horror stories abound. Rats, human waste in the showers, cleaners refusing to go near the place... No wonder the recent London student rent strikes, over poor value for exorbitant cost, have been making headlines round the world. After loans and fees, rents are the new way in which students are being impoverished and exploited in the 21st century. Student Living Rent But this week I'm announcing a plan to help them deal with it. To complement the idea of a London Renters Union I launched a few weeks ago, I'm promoting the concept of a Student Living Rent. Advertisement It's based on the principle of the Living Wage, where economists use an agreed formula to work out the annual cost of living in a given location. It's not binding but when my Green colleagues Darren Johnson and Jenny Jones successfully argued for its introduction to City Hall in 2004, they rightly predicted that the Greater London Authority could use its contract-awarding powers as an inducement for more employers to pay the Living Wage. More than 700 employers in London now pay it. My new idea, devised with the help of London Young Greens, is to establish an official figure for a London Student Living Rent on an annual basis. It will be calculated using the latest cost-of-living data, and the maximum loan and maintenance support that a student with no other support from family or grants could afford to pay, while maintaining a suitable balance between paid employment and studies. Again it won't be binding - but it will act as a moral benchmark, helping students tell their institutions what is affordable. We've initially estimated this year's Student Living Rent at 110 a week in London. We put in Freedom of Information requests to determine how much university accommodation falls within that. Ideally we'd hope it would be about 50 percent. But I was shocked to find that several of the biggest or best-known names - including the University of Westminster, King's College, the University of East London and the Guildhall - provide no rooms at all below that figure. According to our provisional analysis, the proportion across London academic institutions is between three and four percent. Hiked up One obvious response to that is that we've set the figure too low. But that's not what the students I talk to say. They say the universities have hiked up their accommodation costs in line with London market rent rises even though they have no financial need to do so. That must indeed be true of halls that have been there for decades, where the institution itself already owns the bricks and mortar. Advertisement Ah, say the universities, but we need the money to invest in new accommodation. Pull the other one, say the students. If you were really investing it in our rooms, how come so many of them are fetid? One student we spoke to said it never occurred to her to think about the cost of accommodation when she was choosing where to study. Who does think like that at the age of 16 or 17, when they've never had to stand on their own two feet financially? In any case, she says, she wanted to do a specialist degree which is why she ended up at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Are we really going to say that schools like SOAS should be off-limits to all but the wealthiest? But that's the way it's going, students in London warn. They have nothing against foreign students, but they say the entire system seems to be geared around their rich classmates from abroad. Do we really want great institutions like the London School of Economics and Imperial College to be effectively closed to our own young people because they can't afford to live in London? The struggle is finally over for LUU Exec candidate, Jack Palmer's campaign banner after it was returned by hostage takers demanding tickets to the Leeds University Union club night, Fruity. The demands were set out a week ago from the anonymous students, with a ransom demand of several Fruity tickets after stealing the banner for warmth from the freezing Leeds early morning conditions. The stolen banner was first brought to Jack's attention on anonymous social site, Yik Yak. Jack Palmer later claimed that he "doesn't negotiate with hostage takers" before calling them out in full Liam Neeson fashion. After a lengthy Twitter and Yik Yak war ensued, with #TakenBanner trending on both sites, Palmer said he was hopeful that the saga had brought interest to union elections for students that would otherwise feel alienated from them. Advertisement Almost all hope was lost for the banner's safe return when the @TakenBanner Twitter account proclaimed it was "Going to do the Lord's work". With most fearing a holy execution, or at the very least a burning sacrifice to the Gods of Fruity, the banner was seen hanging in its outside the Leeds University Union this morning looking as good as new. Nobody knows what forced the hostage taker's change of heart, but Palmer said "I would love to have the chance to meet them to tell them about my policies and convince them to vote for me". The war may be over but the causes run deep into the communication of the union with students, who were unaware that the campaign season had begun. This is something Jack Palmer seeks to improve, should he be victorious in his campaign to become the Leeds University Union Affairs Officer. A trio of brothers, known for staging hoax terror attacks around Melbourne, have appeared under police custody this morning. Victoria Police have confirmed that the three men, aged 20, 18 and 16, presented themselves at the Crime Command Complex around 8:35. Advertisement Counter Terrorism Command detectives have executed a warrant this morning in South Morang, Victoria Police told HuffPost Australia. Known as the Jalal brothers, the men are behind a series of online videos that depict fake bombings and shootings, in an attempt to make fun of social attitudes towards Middle Eastern people. The trio have 1.8 million followers on Facebook. In their most recent clip, the comedy trio fired a replica semi-automatic gun out of a car window, causing a man and his young daughter to flee. Advertisement The brothers have appeared in a series of media interviews, most recently on Channel Tens The Project on Wednesday night. Host Waleed Aly pressed the trio on the controversial skit after they claimed they did not mean to target the young girl in the prank and later apologised. Youre trying to create a scenario that makes people immediately think they are in the midst of a terrorist attack, thats the basis of the whole thing, Aly said. "Given that ... isn't it pretty damn irresponsible to ... make people think they are in the middle of a terrorist attack? The idea of a shooting like that and a terrorist attack like that is not a hypothetical, fictional idea right now. It's one that is very real." Group member, Max Jalals response: "That scene was pretty irresponsible, yes." According to Victoria Police, the men are currently in custody assisting with the enquiries and are under warrants related to an ongoing operation. Advertisement Its deplorable behaviour as Ive seen it on the internet -- absolutely horrid behaviour running around trying to terrorise members of the community dressed up in what they perceive terrorists look like, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton told 3AWs Neil Mitchell this morning. My view on that is we will charge them on whatever they can be charged with because this behaviour is just a ridiculous display and we dont want to encourage it in any way shape or form. Mr Ashton said the trio could lose any profits they made if it is found that a crime occurred. The trio also appeared on 3AW on Wednesday, defending the videos and vowing to "tone it down". ASSOCIATED PRESS An Indonesian man holds a banner made for a tourism campaign to encourage people to visit the country, outside the Starbucks cafe where Thursday's attack occurred, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016. Indonesians were shaken but refusing to be cowed a day after a deadly attack in a busy district of central Jakarta that has been claimed by the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) If you are planning trip to Bali in the coming weeks, read on. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) has updated its travel advice on website Smart Traveller, with a heightened securing warning. According to the website, "recent indications suggest that terrorists may be in the advanced stages of preparing attacks in Indonesia". Advertisement The update comes in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on January 14 by suicide bombers and gunmen in the capital city, Jakarta, that saw eight people killed. "We continue to receive information that indicates that terrorists may be planning attacks in Indonesia, which could take place anywhere at any time," the website reads. Since January 2016, a number of threats have reportedly been received by Indonesian authorities from groups purporting to be planning attacks. The Indonesian Government has increased security in response. Advertisement The recent update comes after the Australian government also warned of a possible attack in the Malaysian capital on Sunday. Despite this, the overall level of advice has not changed. The government advises Australians to maintain a high degree of caution across Indonesia, including Jakarta, Bali and Lombok. Central Sulawesi, Papua and West Papua remain high-risk provinces due to ongoing security operations by Indonesian authorities against terror groups. Travellers are urged to be vigilant during holiday periods -- most notably Balinese New Year ('Nyepi') that falls on March 9 and Independence Day on August 17. In planning activities, DFAT recommends consideration of places known to be terrorist targets and the level of security provided at venues. Local media should be monitored at all times. Advertisement Prescott/Flickr We arrived at the hospital at 2:00am after Amy woke up with REALLY strong contractions about 1:30. They'd started the morning before every 25 minutes, but these were 5 minutes apart now. When she arrived she was already 4 cms dilated, however the pain was too much to bear, so she asked for an epidural which happened about 5am. Things slowed down a little and by early afternoon she was ready to go but bub turned facing the wrong way. So in the end an emergency C-section was ordered and our little Elisabella Loiuse came into the world. I had a caesarean birth and I never rubbed my baby's face, mouth, skin, and anus with my vaginal juices. The amazing thing is that my son is 15 and nobody's even noticed how lacking his birth experience was. Vaginal seeding is not a brand-new concept, but it is making the news again after a small pilot study (and when I say 'small' I mean 18 children -- 11 born vaginally and seven born by caesarean section) was conducted at the University of Puerto Rico recently. The babies born by caesarean section were split up -- half of them received routine care (which I might have also described as 'normal') and half of them received vaginal seeding. Advertisement This seeding process involves inserting a piece of gauze into the mother's vagina an hour before the c-section takes place and then, after the baby is born, removing the gauze and rubbing it all over the baby (a job I hope I never have to perform). The thinking behind this, er, juice bath is that it will supply the baby with all the good vaginal bacteria they are losing by not making their way through the birth canal. While all this swabbing is right on trend, it hasn't been proven to be all that helpful. It's not recommended by professional medical societies and physicians aren't keen to carry it out. But medical facts have never stood in the way of making mothers feel that they have failed in some way. Cue scores of mothers asking their doctors to perform this routine when delivering via caesarean. It's all part of the struggle many new parents face in trying to raise those kids 'right' -- because, quite frankly, the 'mummy wars' make you feel like whatever you are doing, you're wrong. Advertisement If you're a parent, you know this already. You've probably encountered it at playgroup, read about it in the media and second-guessed hundreds of your own (very good) choices already. It seems that, far from becoming more accepting of each other's choices, we are coming up with new ways to compete -- whether it be through an unassisted outdoor birth or a placenta cake served at the baby naming or, you know, rubbing vaginal juices over our babies because we didn't have a vaginal delivery. And it's not like this practice of comparing and criticising stops after the baby is born. The battles between breast feeders and bottle feeders, controlled crying advocates and attachment parents, dummy suckers and self soothers rage on... and they find a ready battlefield online. We hungrily search for articles to validate what we're doing, we read blogs and websites and everybody seems to be following some technique or learned skill. We get frightened and confused and we forget to rely on ourselves as good and instinctive parents. We try and parent like the books say or the bloggers do or the lecturers demand. We often don't tend to our children the way our hearts dictate for fear it hasn't been proven to develop and enhance our kids brains and prevent their futures from becoming frazzled. Advertisement Perhaps it's time to stop taking the concept of the virtual village to raise a kid so seriously. Maybe we should just be supporting mothers to do what they believe is right for their kids. Even if it involves smearing their babies with vaginal juice. _____________ mattk1979/Flickr Farming coral -- this is what our addiction to coal is forcing scientists to explore, as we brace for a mass bleaching event in the Great Barrier Reef and more sobering ocean acidification research emerges. New data in Nature, collected on One Tree Reef in the southern Great Barrier Reef, provides the first in-situ evidence that ocean acidification, driven by global warming and carbon pollution, is stunting coral growth. Advertisement The researchers artificially reduced the level of ocean acidity to pre-industrial levels and found coral growth was about 7 percent faster than today. As concerning as this is, stunted coral growth is not the most immediate threat facing the Great Barrier Reef. Aerial view of Hardy Reef Scientists and divers are poised along the Reef's coastline for the devastation of a mass coral bleaching event. Advertisement Since the beginning of the year, ocean temperatures have sat below the "bleaching threshold" but they're now rising to abnormally high levels. According to Queensland scientist Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, unless there's a reprieve we're set for "very significant bleaching" in the next few weeks. The Great Barrier Reef Divers Group say they are on high alert -- ready to record the mass bleaching should our hopes for a cool-off be dashed. As Tony Fontes, a dive operator with 35 years' experience, says: "If the Reef gets lucky this year and avoids a devastating bleaching event, we are simply playing Russian Roulette with its future." To stop cooking coral in hot, acidic oceans we need to stop burning coal. But, in a cruel irony, millions of tonnes of coal is already being shipped through the Reef's waters. Advertisement Aerial views of Coal Ships off Gladstone Harbour And both the Queensland Labor Government and the federal Liberal Government want to dig up and ship out even more, with both having recently approved the Southern Hemisphere's largest coal mine in the Galilee Basin and the expansion of the coal port it would use, Abbot Point. Indeed, neither of the old parties have ever refused any coal mine or coal seam gas project, despite all the scientific evidence about dangerous global warming and the enormous job and economic opportunities from clean renewable energy. Despite the economic reality that the world is rapidly transitioning to job-rich clean energy, the old parties are wedded to coal and the political donations of this desperate industry trying to cling on through taxpayer subsidies. So instead of governments dealing with the cause of coral death, scientists are being left to deal with the impacts. Advertisement International researchers are meeting this week at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville to discuss 'human assisted evolution' of coral. The idea, which is in its early stages, is basically to farm coral to breed specimens that are more heat resistant. Introducing farmed corals into reefs is risky and controversial. According to AIMS scientist, Dr Madeleine van Oppen this would: "require careful ecological risk assessment together with a consideration of the ethical and socioeconomic implications." How on earth have we got to the stage where scientists have to consider introducing farmed coral in a World Heritage Area while we continue to burn coal to kill natural coral? It's a question that leaves me shaking my head in disbelief -- even more so considering that wiping out the Great Barrier Reef is, of course, only one part of the devastating future we face if we fail to rapidly transition to clean energy. Advertisement We have the knowledge -- we just need enough political will to tackle global warming and transition to clean energy, so we can save our precious Great Barrier Reef -- and the 63,000 jobs it provides. _____________ Five tons of ivory worth around 10 million euros ($14 million) wait to be burnt on June 27, 2011 in Libreville to mark his government's commitment to battling poachers and saving elephants. The pyre that was kindled in the capital Libreville represented the west African nation's entire government stockpile and would have required the killing of some 850 elephants. AFP PHOTO / WILS YANICK MANIENGUI (Photo credit should read WILS YANICK MANIENGUI/AFP/GettyImages) They say "perfection is the enemy of the good," and the quest for perfection in animal protection legislation is a numbing, head-banging concept. There are too many vested interests; too many antagonistic legislators; too many hurdles. But, in the past two decades, we have collectively become much more adroit in our approach to the political and legislative process as it pertains to animals. We've had success at the federal level and we've seen a raft of bills introduced across America in various states to address animal cruelty and conservation threats. The incremental changes we are making are building blocks and we can add to each accomplishment to produce an outcome that saves lives and prevents suffering. Every effort matters--and every step forward, no matter how small, is part of the path toward significant change. Advertisement Last year, more than 20 states introduced bills to ban or restrict the trade in ivory and rhino horn. Over and over, we were asked by legislators why these bills mattered, and how they could possibly help save animals thousands of miles away. And, despite resounding evidence that shutting down the ivory trade everywhere is important, most of these bills died. So, do we admit defeat and decide that passing this legislation is impossible in many states? Or, do we move forward with a little bit of compromise, with a willingness to meet legislators halfway on some issues, and a determination to get the best law we can on the books--even if imperfect? We move forward, always. Because, case after case shows us that we urgently need these laws on the books, even if not every element is ideal. The news last week handed us a crystal clear example. In a district court in Buffalo, New York, a 77-year-old man, Ferdinand Krizan, pled guilty to trafficking in elephant tusks bought from an auction house in Montreal, imported to New York, and then sold on, with others, to a buyer in Massachusetts. He also allegedly trafficked in narwhal tusks. New York has an ivory law, but Massachusetts does not yet. As long as there are states that allow the sale of ivory, elephants (and, indeed, other species) are going to be killed and their parts will be laundered into this deadly trade. Advertisement We know that this happens often. In 2014, an antiques shop dealer in Philadelphia was sentenced to prison for smuggling elephant ivory from West Africa into the U.S., staining the ivory brown to make it look older and therefore pass it off as antique. A few years earlier, someone in Nantucket was charged with importing elephant ivory and whale teeth into the U.S. together, presumably as a means of covering up the fact that he was trafficking in illegal ivory. These are, of course, only some of the incidents that we know about and that have been prosecuted. Presumably, there are many, many others that go undetected, where savvy criminals use the loopholes in the current legal system to ply their unscrupulous activity. We know that, often, the simple answer is the best answer--and that is to institute the strongest possible prohibitions on the trade in imperiled wildlife parts and products. Since January 2012, more than 141,000 elephants have been killed in Africa, suggesting that the poaching crisis is, once again, escalating out of control. Every effort matters in the fight to shut down the ivory market--in every nation, state, and city. There are efforts at the federal level to address some of these concerns, alongside bills in states such as Massachusetts, Maryland, Hawaii, Delaware, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. Successfully walking that tightrope in these states between ideal, unequivocal prohibitions and legislative reticence can mean the difference between life and death for animals who may be the victims of criminals who exploit current opportunities for trafficking. We may not walk away with a perfect outcome, but passing a law--even one with exemptions--means we will have a basis for further progress. And, we will always seize every opportunity for progress when that means we take a step closer toward keeping wildlife in the wild. As two extension deadlines came and went for the EB-5 Regional Center Program at the end of 2015, it became clear that meaningful reform for the program would have to wait. Ultimately, the program's fate was wrapped up in larger federal spending legislation passed at the eleventh hour, extending it--as is--through the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, 2016, with potential integrity measures on the horizon. In the weeks leading up to the decision, a flurry of articles and commentaries addressed this relatively tiny immigration program - a program that amounts to less than 2 percent of all legal immigration; in other words, less than 4,000 families per year. Despite the program's small footprint on paper, EB-5 touches tens of thousands of individuals each year, many of whom are waiting in an increasingly long line for the chance for their applications to even be considered. Because of numerical limitations on the program, the immense popularity of the visa among Chinese nationals and sluggishness on the Hill, Chinese investors currently face up to a six-year wait before being granted even a temporary green card. While our legislators are busy politicking, average Americans are missing out on millions of job-creating investment dollars that may soon start flowing to countries like Portugal and Australia, as Chinese investors tire of waiting in line to live the American Dream. Remedies for retrogression--the name for what's holding up so many investor applications--must be part of any future legislation to be effective. Advertisement The 19,000 Pound Gorilla The recent program extension, while certainly welcomed, has done nothing to solve the most pressing problem of the industry--thousands of eager investors are stuck behind a red light for no other reason than out-of-date quota numbers. The reality of retrogression is this: the pipe is blocked up. Despite a numerical cap of 10,000 EB-5 visas per year, only approximately 3,500 investor applicants are granted visas each year. This happens because an investor's derivatives, meaning their spouse and children that are allowed to immigrate with them, also count toward the cap. Applications in excess of this 3,500 are left to build up and wait for available visas, and at present, there over 19,000 individual investor applications in the pipeline. In fact, some industry members estimate that the backlog has swelled to about 20,000 I-526 petitions pending at USCIS and about 21,000 pending EB-5 visa applications. How did this happen: 1.The program is very popular among developers because it's a cheaper and covenant-lite source of capital. While cheaper, the capital is often essential for some projects as it often bridges gaps in a project's capital stack. A growing number of project developers are marketing more and more quality projects and subscribing investors eager to immigrate to the States. 2.Congress hinted (through proposed bills) that it intended to reform the EB-5 regional center program and increase the minimum investment amount to $800,000. Taking into account the economic growth that has occurred since the program's inception, the increase makes sense, but speculation surrounding the potential price increase caused a huge influx of applicants prior to September 30, 2015 who sought to be grandfathered into the $500,000 investment level. And while the $500,000 investment minimum remains available to EB-5 visa applicants, it's likely that the applications will continue to stream in and add to the already massive bottleneck. What does this mean for the program? Advertisement The anticipation of legislation increasing the cost of the EB-5 visa has clogged the drain, and this will likely only increase over the next year. Because the program was extended with no reform, current applicants are faced with the same annual numerical cap of around 3,500 families, with a waiting line nearly 20,000 families long. Based on that backlog, families that have just applied will have to wait for six years for EB-5 visas to become available. Six years is a long time to wait with at least $500,000 tied up, before an investor is even allowed into the United States on a conditional green card. What Could Happen Without Visa Backlog Relief? In the midst of reform debates ranging from the intricacies of Targeted Employment Area definitions to preposterous concerns over the use of the program by foreign spies, not enough emphasis is being placed upon perhaps the biggest threat to this job creation program: the visa backlog. Putting $500,000 or more at-risk and creating 10 jobs in order to obtain the EB-5 visa is already an extremely risky proposal for prospective immigrant investors. Who is to say how many are willing or able to make the investment and hold out for six years before their conditional green card becomes available? Suddenly, global investment immigration programs such as Portugal's golden visa, which allows access to the European Union, or Australia's Business Innovation and Investment visa, which does not subject investors to taxation on their global income, become more attractive alternatives to the United States investor visa program. Most rock n roll biographies end with a funeral. Bob Mehr's Trouble Boys: The True Story of The Replacements begins with one. It starts with the surviving members of The Replacements brought together by the death of their original guitarist Bob Stinson. Beloved by Replacements fans for his roaring guitar, his reckless childlike abandon and penchant for sometimes wearing a tutu during live performances Stinson was also the most troubled of the trouble boys that made up The Replacements. Tossed aside by his original father, sexually abused by his stepfather and in and out of mental institutions throughout his teens Stinson would find the seeds for both redemption and destruction in his beloved Rock n Roll. "We were just kids," a broken Paul Westerberg tearfully whispers into Bob Stinson's ex-wife's ear at his service. "We didn't know shit. We were . . .just kids." And so begins Trouble Boys, which follows those "kids" journey from their loud, raucous, dusty beginnings in a Minnesota garage to their gradual transformation into a left of the dial, disaffected voice of a generation and the accidental fathers of alternative rock. The Replacements were a band, who in their early days, intuitively railed against the institutions that they would come to embrace and that would slowly strangle the very life out of them. Seen your video Your phony Rock n Roll And we don't want to know -Seen Your Video/The Replacements The band's destructive, intoxicated escapades and drunken rock n roll hi-jinks that would come to define them and become part of their legend are all brought "lovingly" to life in Mehr's book: the band alienating MTV executives with bare bones black and white videos about teen suicide, the band pissing off producer Lorne Michaels and the cast of Saturday Night Live by swearing and drunkenly falling all over themselves during their live national television debut, and the band dumbfounding and enraging Tom Petty audiences for an entire summer by sucking on helium and singing in high-pitched Mickey Mouse-like voices after being given the "break" of their career by landing the opening slot for Petty's 1989 Strange Behavior tour. "Thanks," a dejected Westerberg sarcastically tells a tepid Petty crowd midway through the tour. "We'll be better by next week, but by then we'll be in Memphis." As bassist Tommy Stinson says "We may not have been great, but we were fucking special." There is no lack of truth in Stinson's declaration, but contrary to popular belief what made The Replacements "special" was not the blood alcohol levels that flowed through their veins but the bruised hearts they foolishly and fearlessly wore on their battered flannel sleeves. To the brown-eyed beholder, see the chip on your shoulder That fools everyone to believe That you're so hard to talk to and so easy to read through Yet nobody looks past your sleeve, yeah 'Cause they're blind They hold you too close to the light -They're Blind/The Replacements Mehr's exhaustive biography raises the squeaking garage door on the legend of The Replacements to shed some light and capture in vivid detail the pain, disappointment and heartache of a group of four disparate, self-loathing suburban misfits. And like so many other social outcasts who came before them they sought solace not in silent prayer and meditation but in shitty amplifiers and thrift store drum kits. . . . And the world was made better for it, even if only for a few of us and even if it was only for awhile. In my 11 years covering education and teachers, nothing has even come close to generating the level of sheer angst, anger, and high-pitched PR battles that have accompanied Vergara v. California, a case challenging nearly every aspect of Californias teacher tenure rules. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of a handful of California students, who argued that the states laws on teacher tenure, dismissal, and layoffs violated their right to an equitable education under the state constitution. In June of 2014, after a month-long bench trial, Superior Court judge Rolf M. Treu ruled for the students and overturned the laws. In a now-famous rhetorical flourish, he said that the effect of the laws on students shocks the conscience. The state and its teachers unions appealed, and on Feb. 25 will get their chance to make their case at the California Court of Appeals. Heres everything you need to know about the case, and the next stage in the litigation. What were the plaintiffs arguments in Vergara v. California? Who are the supporters? First, the plaintiffs argued that the two-year period for granting teachers tenure (which means they get the right to a due process hearing before being fired) is too short in which to ascertain a teachers effectiveness. In addition, they charged that the actual dismissal hearing, which occurs before a three-member panel and permits various appeals, takes too much time and costs so much that districts dont really try to dismiss poorly performing teachers. Finally, they contended, teacher layoffs are done by strict reverse-seniority rules rather than by whether teachers are any good at their jobs. In concert, these rules mean that schools with large populations of poor and minority students tend to get lower-quality teachers, depriving them of their right to an equal education, the plantiffs argued. The plaintiffs relied heavily on research based on value-added measuresan econometric method of estimating teacher effectiveness from student test scores. Those studies show that students taught by teachers with a track record of boosting scores have better lifetime earnings and outcomes, and that the reverse holds true, too. The case was funded by a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, David Welch, and brought by the group Students Matter , a California nonprofit that aims to use impact legislation to improve schools. Its donors are unknown. And who were the defendants? What did they argue? The states two major teachers unions, the Calfornia Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers, intervenors in the lawsuit, argued that nothing in the state laws prevent districts from enforcing teacher dismissal appropriately. Moreover, they said theres no clear line between the challenged laws and where teachers are placed, nor could the student plaintiffs prove that they had ineffective teachers as a result. The state, similarly, argued that the laws were necessary to recruit and retain teachers, and to keep a stable working force by preventing, for example, administrators from targeting higher-paid teachers during layoffs. Regarding layoffs, more senior teachers are generally more effective than novices, the defendants said, so the states layoff procedures make sense. They also attacked value-added measures as flawed and unreliable. (Theres actually a big difference between using value-added for research purposes and using it for individual teachers evaluations; this distinction got a bit murky during the trial.) The teachers unions, in particular, framed the case as an attack by well-heeled reformers who are trying to silence teachers voices and weaken unions. Where do education advocates stand on this lawsuit? Everyone and their brother has filed amicus briefs on both sides of the issue, from state school chiefs and district superintendents, to charter school advocates, to civil rights groups, to education scholars and economists who study teachers. Notably, former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan got himself in hot water with a statement in which he appeared to support the ruling, which ultimately led the National Education Association to call for his resignation. All in all, there are a lot of agendas at work here. Some supporters of this lawsuit have long argued that teachers unions hurt students and have a stranglehold on policy. But at the same time, there are other proponents, like the Education Trust, who support the rights of teachers to unionize and engage in collective bargaining. Conversely, there are other individuals, including some law experts, who are sympathetic with the complaints about the California rules, but think that the legal arguments underpinning the case are shaky. What were the Vergara rulings effects? In California, nothing happened, actually. Thats because the court stayed the ruling from taking effect as the appeals cranked through the legal system. That means that, right now, all of the original laws remain in effect. But two copycat lawsuits were filed in New York and were later combined into one , and there have been murmurings of other such suits elsewhere . Its not clear whether these suits will be as successful, since the constitutional rights afforded to students are different in each state. What will happen during the appeal? The appeals process is designed to determine whether the trial court reached an appropriate conclusion based on the evidence, not to adjudicate what came out during the original trial. So, although there will certainly be echoes of the original arguments on appeal, expect more analysis of the underlying legal reasoning. Has the state done anything to address these laws in the meantime? There was an opening following the ruling for state lawmakers to try to find a middle ground that preserved tenure, but addressed some of the plaintiffs concerns. California did pass a law that created an expedited dismissal process for teachers accused of egregious misconduct, such as sexual abuse of students. It also was supposed to speed up regular dismissals. Heres the catch: The state doesnt track which process was used to fire a teacherjust the outcomes. The overall number of dismissal cases reported by school districts and county offices declined from 731 in 2013-14 to 636 in 2014-15, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, so its unlikely that the legislation has done much to increase the total number. Also, because that body only tracks outcomes and not timelines, its impossible to say whether the bill has reduced the average time for a case. Frustratingly, almost everything we know about the timeline for dismissing a teacher in California remains anecdotal. The legislature hasnt made any major changes to how teachers are evaluated, to layoff procedures, or to the timeline for granting tenure, which still stands at two years. What happens if the Vergara defendants win on appeal? What happens if the appeals court upholds the ruling? In either case, the losing party will probably appeal to the state supreme court. Photo: Attorney Glenn Rothner, one of the attorneys who represented teachers unions, speaks during a press conference in Los Angeles on June 10, 2014, after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu ruled that key job protections for California teachers violate the states constitution. --Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/MCT Though Elijah McCoy was born to fugitive slaves, he trained as a mechanical engineer and became a prolific inventor, owning over 50 patents. One of these products was so superior to others of its kind, that other engineers began requesting it by name - they wanted "the real McCoy". Unfortunately, while the phrase is known the world over and still used today, the man behind it is still largely unrecognized, and that is a real shame. What is even more of a shame, however, is that there is a vast land of entrepreneurs, innovators and inventors of color doing amazing things today who are also unrecognized. We can't allow that to continue. We need these role models. But how do we raise their profile and build awareness of them, so that current and future generations are encouraged to be and do more? How do we paint a more accurate picture of the size, scope, social and economic impact of those already contributing, to let everyone (white execs and future entrepreneurs of color, etc.) know about our current successes? Advertisement We have the technology, almost everyone has access to information on the Internet, we just need to direct traffic and attention to it. The answers lie in the stories of others, like McCoy, who have achieved greatness and yet remain largely unknown. Sarah Breedlove, who later became known as Madam C.J. Walker, was also born to former slaves. That did not stop her from becoming the first female self-made millionaire in America. While running her successful company, selling hair products developed for black women, Walker spent a significant amount of time training other black women to become independent. The most powerful black institutions of her day invited her to speak on social, economic and political issues. At the time of her death, two thirds of her estate was donated to orphanages, institutions and individuals. Reginald Lewis, whose 1994 book Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? explained how he created a billion dollar company, the first African American to do so. His philanthropy extended to schools and museums, one of which highlights the history and accomplishments of African Americans. Lonnie Johnson graduated from an all-black high school to earn degrees in mechanical and nuclear engineering, but was often the only person of color in the room during his career. He now holds over 80 patents, the most famous of which is the Super Soaker. But he doesn't just focus on toys. He also works with major universities on creating clean energy, by turning heat into electricity. Advertisement Aisha Bowe is an aerospace engineer, yet it never occurred to her to pursue a science career until her father suggested she take a math class at community college. That was the beginning of her path to NASA, where she became a Mission Engineer. She went on to create the engineering and development company STEMBoard and is a passionate advocate for science, technology, engineering and math education. (STEM) Mae Jemison also worked for NASA, she was the first African American woman to go into space. She also is devoted to the arts, having been a professional dancer, as well. 17 year old Jaylen Bledsoe started his first company when he was only 13. By the time he was 15, it was worth $3.5 million dollars. His philosophy is that entrepreneurs need to take risks and failing at a really young age doesn't have many long term consequences. One of the most important lessons we take away from these stories is summed up by Mary Spio. She didn't even know what an engineer was while growing up, didn't consider it as a career until another engineer suggested it while she was in the Air Force. She then went on to work on satellites for both NASA and Boeing, as well as digital cinema technology at LucasFilm. Spio suffered the indignity of being forced out of her own company because the investor wanted a white male leading it. But even that has not held her back. She now has her own company once more, focusing on virtual reality development, and has written a book called It's Not Rocket Science: 7 Game-Changing Traits for Achieving Uncommon Success. Spio has been quoted as saying that mentor-ship is crucial, not only for the guidance it provides, but also the access, which many minorities lack. Almost all of these people contribute in some way to those who may follow, giving money or time or both, and we need more of this! Advertisement They also teach us that there need be no limits to what we set our sights upon. Whether it's beauty or science, the combination of arts and engineering or even toys; whether the challenges are of age, race or gender - or both, success is possible. Education awareness from early ages, particularly STEM, introduces children to possibilities that might never otherwise occur to them. Five years ago, Beacon Press published Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People, a book which provided a comprehensive examination LGBT people in the criminal legal system. Five years later, the Movement Advancement Project's new report Unjust makes a critical contribution to our collective understanding of the wide-ranging impacts of criminalization and mass incarceration. Unjust collects the latest research highlighting the experiences of LGBTQ people within the criminal legal and immigration detention systems, describes cutting-edge programs, and makes urgent recommendations for change. It comes at a time of unprecedented attention to the impacts of mass incarceration in the United States. It also comes at a time of unprecedented opportunity, as reflected by bipartisan efforts to reform key aspects of the criminal legal system and by the May 2015 report of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which recommended several measures that would specifically address LGBTQ experiences of profiling and discriminatory treatment. This report pulls together documentation by grassroots groups, national studies, and academic research to unearth and examine evidence of ongoing and pervasive discrimination against LGBTQ people throughout the criminal legal system, from entry to exit. It also highlights the latest chapters in the long history of LGBTQ people's resistance to criminalization, turning a spotlight on both individual experiences and collective organizing campaigns. Advertisement More recently, grassroots and national organizations from Streetwise and Safe (SAS) to Lambda Legal, BreakOUT! to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, the Young Women's Empowerment Project to the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Make the Road New York to the National Center for Transgender Equality, to name just a few, have conducted community-based research to further reflect the experiences of LGBTQ people in the criminal legal system. Simultaneously, a growing number of academics, service providers, government statisticians, and policymakers have focused on these issues, providing new data and perspectives. Thanks to this long legacy of work lifting up the lived experiences of criminalized LGBTQ people, we are in a time of unprecedented attention to LGBTQ people's experiences of policing, prisons, and immigration detention. This report also comes at a time of unprecedented policy advocacy rooted in the experiences of criminalized LGBTQ people. In 2013, over 50 LGBTQ, civil rights, racial justice, anti-violence and civil liberties organizations came together to develop a national LGBT criminal justice advocacy agenda. These recommendations were published in 2014 as A Roadmap for Change: Federal Policy Recommendations for Addressing the Criminalization of LGBT People and People Living with HIV by the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia University, the Center for American Progress, the Center for HIV Law and Policy and Streetwise and Safe (SAS). Since then, dozens of grassroots groups and national organizations have come together into a federal LGBTQ Criminal Justice Working Group to advance the Roadmap recommendations. Advertisement Most importantly, this report comes at a time of unprecedented mobilization by and for LGBTQ people directly impacted by policing and criminalization, as reflected by the Get Yr Rights Network, a national network of organizations sharing resources and strategies to challenge the criminalization of LGBTQ youth and their communities founded by Streetwise and Safe (SAS) and BreakOUT!, and by efforts to lift up the experiences of Black LGBTQ people targeted for police violence through the #SayHerName and #BlackLivesMatter campaigns. Unjust benefits from these legacies and builds on these groundbreaking efforts in this unique historical moment. The work that informed and made this report possible remains critically necessary, and continues to merit our attention, amplification, and resources in order to ensure that efforts to end the criminalization of LGBTQ people and our communities is both driven by and accountable to those on the front lines of the fight. In reading this report, two principles are essential to keep in mind, both of which draw directly on decades of work done by the organizations highlighted in the Historical Context sidebar on the next page. First, it is beyond dispute that the story of criminalization and mass incarceration in the United States is overwhelmingly one targeting Black people, people of color, immigrants, people labeled with mental illness or addiction, and low-income people--including the LGBTQ people who share these identities or characteristics. The reality is, as much of the research cited within this report confirms, that LGBTQ youth and people of color, transgender and gender nonconforming people, and low-income and homeless LGBTQ people make up the overwhelming majority of the individuals whose experiences animate these pages. The experiences of LGBTQ people are both similar to and distinct from those of the communities they are a part of. Their stories are inseparable from and an integral part of the larger story of race, gender, immigration, poverty, ableism and the criminal legal system. There is a distinct danger in understanding the criminalization of LGBTQ people as a process somehow distinct from and unrelated to these larger frameworks, affecting LGBTQ people in isolation, only through discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Conversations around criminalization of LGBTQ people should neither be framed nor read as an isolated, additional, or competing narrative, but rather situated in a broader systemic understanding of policing and punishment of gender and sexuality in service of maintaining structures of power based on race, poverty, ability, and place. The second core principle is alluded to in the report's conclusion: that the system is not necessarily broken at all, but rather working exactly as it is intended to. Put another way, policing and punishment along the axes of race, poverty, ability, gender and sexuality are intrinsic to the operation of the criminal legal system at every stage, and have been throughout its history. Of course, this understanding should not keep us from working to reduce the harms worked by the system on individual lives and communities, for instance by advancing the recommendations of this report. But it should give us pause, and urge us to confront the reality that the criminal legal system is in many instances structured to produce violence and punishment rather than to afford protection and safety for people of color and low-income people, including LGBTQ people. The hope is that this comprehensive examination of LGBTQ experiences from first contact with police through re-entry can both inform larger conversations about criminalization of the broader communities LGBTQ people are a part of, and simultaneously highlight the ways in which LGBTQ people's experiences must shift our overall strategies, goals, and outcomes. The hope is also that this report will inspire LGBTQ advocates to deepen their engagement in and support for broader struggles against mass incarceration, and against criminal legal responses to poverty, addiction, and mental illness. It is not enough to advocate for non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the application of criminal law, or to seek reforms specific only to LGBTQ people. It is essential to keep in view the broader harms experienced by all individuals targeted for discriminatory enforcement of criminal laws, all who experience violence and deprivation throughout the criminal legal system and all who face denial of opportunities upon re-entry. And it is essential to center the leadership and experiences of LGBTQ people-and specifically LGBTQ youth, people of color and low-income people-directly impacted by criminalization within larger efforts to radically re-envision safety and justice for all members of our communities. Advertisement It is presumably but days before President Obama goes before the cameras to do what presidents always do in nominating someone for an important position: giving us the name, describing why this person would be an admirable choice for the job, and introducing us to the nominee. But this is not the usual situation, and what is extraordinary in this situation requires the president to deliver a speech that goes beyond what presidents usually do for this sort of occasion. Advertisement For while the president is doing what presidents have always done, the Republican-controlled Senate has declared its refusal to do what Senates have always done. So instead of the usual process the Constitution calls for, the president faces a battle over whether the Republicans will honor that traditional process, or will reject it so as to cling to the power the loss of Justice Scalia would otherwise legitimately entail for them. The president has already admirably articulated his intentions with regard to choosing a nominee ("A sterling record. A deep respect for the judiciary's role. An understanding of the way the world really works. That's what I'm considering as I fulfill my constitutional duty to appoint a judge to our highest court."). In that statement, he makes no mention of those who are making war on his rightful powers. But it is greatly to be hoped that -- as the responsibility gets passed to the Senate -- the president will not shrink from the confrontation that has been thrust upon him. Advertisement For much is at stake in this battle the Republicans have forced upon the nation. It is a battle that must be fought and won, and one that is the president's job, above all, to lead. Here is what I'd have him say: It is my pleasure today to introduce to the American people the outstanding person I am nominating to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. But, unfortunately, before I get to that introduction, I need to talk about the threat that hangs over this confirmation process -- and indeed over the integrity of our constitutional system -- as a result of the announcement by the Republicans in the Senate that they will refuse to do what the United States has always done in this situation. Never in the more than two centuries of this nation's history has a Senate refused categorically to consider any nominee they receive from the person who is president when a vacancy opens up on the Supreme Court. Never. You would think that genuine conservatives would be the last people to do the unprecedented, and to trample on long-standing American political norms and traditions. Aren't real conservatives the people who are most likely to understand that the traditions are there for a good reason, and to hesitate to just sweep them aside. Advertisement There is no excuse -- no valid justification -- for what they are threatening to do. It's quite clear what the framers of our Constitution had in mind in setting up a system in which "The President...shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint... Judges of the Supreme Court.." And until this moment, the United States Senate has always honored what the framers had in mind. Yes, the Senate has on occasion rejected particular nominees, for one reason or another. But it has always ended up confirming a nominee from the president. What they threaten, for example, is like the Senate's rejection of Robert Bork at the end of Ronald Reagan's term. After the Senate rejected him (because they deemed him too far out of the mainstream of conservative jurisprudence), that same Democratic-controlled Senate confirmed another conservative judge nominated by President Reagan -- Anthony Kennedy -- by a unanimous vote, 97-0. And this being the final year of my term of office is irrelevant, too. Democratic-controlled Senates have confirmed nominees from Republican presidents in the last year of their presidency three times just in recent decades. Their unprecedented obstructionism -- having no justification -- stands exposed for what it is: a grab for power without regard for principle. This unprecedented obstructionism displays a lack of respect for our democratic system in which sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Advertisement The Republicans have recently declared, in a public letter, that they will execute their "constitutional authority" to postpone filling this vacancy until -- they hope -- they can get their president in office. I'm afraid "constitutional authority" is way too noble-sounding a name for what they are doing. No one believes that the framers of our Constitution intended for the Senate to use its role of "advise and consent" to nullify the president's role of "nominate...and appoint." While the Constitution does not explicitly forbid this power grab, they are violating our American system nonetheless. Not only is the sense of our founders about how the process should unfold quite clear here. But also, previous generations of Americans have supported the spirit of the Constitution with the establishing of traditions and norms to support the spirit of our founding document. The Constitution does not and cannot forbid all kinds bad behavior; inevitably it must depend upon a healthy political culture, developed over the generations, being honored by the people in positions of responsibility. Advertisement Once again, we must marvel at how different is the conduct of these Republicans from what we have always understood to be the special strength of conservatives. It has always been conservatives who have maintained that a good society is not just a matter of laws, that the laws have to be backed up by traditions and norms. The laws are the bricks that create our structures, but the norms and traditions are the mortar that hold it all together. No, it cannot be said that these Republican senators are using their "constitutional authority." Rather, they are abusing their constitutional role of advise and consent. There's good reason why this Republican power grab is unprecedented: with their chiseling away at the mortar our forebears created to make our system of government work well for the nation -- these Republican senators are threatening to degrade the system of government that we have all taken an oath to protect, support and defend. The Republicans have made their declaration. But that declaration is unacceptable, and I do not accept it. Neither should the American people. No one should be allowed to grab for power in a way that damages the system generations of Americans have fought to preserve. Advertisement I will insist that the Republicans relent and perform their duties as every other Senate in our history has done: play their proper role in the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice who has been put forward by the president whose job it is to nominate and to appoint. I will keep insisting until they fulfill their responsibilities, or until time runs out. And I encourage my fellow Americans -- liberal and conservative and in between -- to speak out to insist likewise. If these Republican senators should persist in putting their own power above the integrity of our constitutional system, I will encourage the American people to impose on them the appropriate political cost, come Election Day. And now that the Republicans have shown their hand, let me be clear about what is required of them. Given what they have told us about their intentions, we cannot be satisfied with their just going through the motions. They owe the nation more than a charade undertaken in bad faith, behind which they execute the same unjustifiable obstruction to protect their power at the expense of our constitutional order. I will insist that, besides holding hearings and conducting a vote, they confirm a nominee who meets every legitimate criterion for the Senate to apply to a potential Supreme Court justice. And I have set about my responsibilities in this process to make sure I send to the Senate such an exemplary nominee. I have previously expressed my determination to nominate someone who has "A sterling record. A deep respect for the judiciary's role. An understanding of the way the world really works." To which I will add: someone whose view of the law falls well within the American mainstream. Advertisement In other words, I have sought someone in whom the Senate will find no legitimate reason to refuse to confirm. Which brings me to introduce to you, with great pleasure, .... who meets every legitimate criterion with flying colors. Don Sebastian was on a roll, trying to explain to the large group gathered at his tree nursery business the depth of his transformation: "We always thought trees were a problem, only to be cut for corn crops and firewood--but now look!" He waved his arms proudly at the large tree nursery behind him containing almost 35,000 fast-growing native alder seedlings, as well as pine seedlings, avocado and peach tree "whips," and even a section for the delicate and endangered pinabete tree. I asked him how many seedlings he had left over from the previous year of sales, and he pointed to a small stack of larger seedlings: "Only those are left," he answered, smiling. In fact, his tree nursery had been so successful in 2015 farmers traveled from three neighboring states in Guatemala to buy from him, and Don Sebastian had sufficient profit to install an irrigation system and expand the nursery. Now the children of his extended family can pay the small tuition for high school, and the older sons no longer talk about immigrating to the US--they're too busy in the new family business. The reasons for this transformation were not workshops about reforestation, nor farmer manuals, nor "experts" from other countries paying farmers to plant trees. Rather, the change to a tree-planting culture occurred over a five-year relationship between Don Sebastian's family and the Guatemalan technicians from the Alliance for International Reforestation, Inc. (AIR) or as it is known in Guatemala, "AIRES". Furthermore, Don Sebastian's story is not unique in the 22-year experience of AIRES. In the third-year of training farmers, the AIRES technician will intentionally shift the focus to turning the AIRES tree-nursery into a microbusiness that the participants will own, to sell tree seedlings to their curious neighbors. The AIRES technician also teach participants to make natural products to sell in microbusinesses, such as aloe Vera shampoo or fruit jams. The technicians train and implement Sustainable Agriculture so that families have larger and more diverse food crops by terracing and farming with beneficial trees. Finally, AIRES technicians establish tree nurseries in the rural schools to reinforce all of the training with local youth. Advertisement The six technicians working for AIRES, with headquarters in Chimaltenango, Guatemala, have now trained groups of subsistence farmers--including many women farmers--and established tree nurseries in over 130 communities reaching over 2,800 families. Many of the community groups created micro-businesses to continue planting after the AIRES technician leaves. The technicians keep careful records and have calculated that over 4.4 million trees have been planted by hand during the training--mostly on steep mountain slopes to prevent erosion and deadly mudslides. However, because of the spin-off microbusinesses such as Don Sebastian's, the number of trees growing from the tree nurseries far exceeds 4.4 million. AIRES' success seems to be one of the best-kept secrets among the numerous reforestation efforts throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Billions of dollars have been poured into reforesting Haiti, for instance, with little success; well-funded efforts to protect the quickly-disappearing rainforest in northern Guatemala have also been thwarted by subsistence farmers using slash-and-burn methods because they know they must plant corn to survive but are skeptical or do not know Sustainable Agriculture methods. In contrast, it is worth examining just three key lessons from AIRES' 22-year track record: AIRES technicians are themselves indigenous Guatemalans, educated in agro-forestry and/or environmental engineering, so they are trusted and know the area intimately; AIRES uses a five-year model, recognizing that it takes time to see the benefits of specific trees. The microbusinesses then succeed because neighbors have had time to observe the positive impact of growing trees that prevent mudslides and replenish soil. AIRES reinforces the farmer training with a conservation curriculum and campus tree nurseries at the local schools so reforestation touches the entire community. Advertisement The scale of deforestation around the world often seems overwhelming, and a five-year training program may seem too slow given the urgency of combating climate change. The point is, however, that trees planted without years of training will most likely be cut within two or three years without re-planting, and the resulting devastation continues. Farmers must truly experience the benefits from the growing trees in order to change to sustainable agriculture--one of those benefits can be tree nursery businesses and even more trees planted. My students (and most in the world) are asking: why is the unlikely candidacy of billionaire Donald Trump on an apparent path of capturing the GOP nomination? My (non-partisan, outsider's) take is that Trump represents a combination of Andrew Jackson, Ronald Reagan, Sylvio Berlusconi and reality TV star. Which is another way of saying that Donald Trump is unique. Former US President Andrew Jackson is in many ways the founder of the modern Democratic Party. The hero of the Battle of New Orleans realigned American politics for at least a quarter of a century. He was fearless, populist, nationalistic, relished a fight and ceaselessly implemented his agenda. He owned slaves and clearly that kind of racism is not applicable to Trump (but not necessarily to some of his supporters in South Carolina). Andrew Jackson attacked elites without mercy. His fight against the National Bank is legion. He would do almost anything to protect the economic and physical security of his (white) base including a harsh approach towards Native Americans. Although injustices and racist undertones were palpable, it was probably the case that many Americans in frontier regions viewed Native American raids as the terrorist attacks of their day. When Trump attacks Wall Street, lobbyists and unfair trade pacts, he is seen to be standing for the interests of the average American like Andrew Jackson did. His avowed willingness "to bomb the [expletive] out of ISIS", build a wall on the border with Mexico (and have the Mexican government finance it, for good measure) and his undignified attacks on illegal immigrants can be seen as part of the Jacksonian tradition. If we want to do cliches, the milkman in Arkansas has a Trump bumper sticker on his truck. Advertisement The Donald's connection to President Ronald Reagan is even more clear. Both are unusually entertaining (but in different ways). Both cannot be accused of being intellectuals. But politics is not about reading or writing books (though a certain level of intelligence and intellectual curiosity are indispensable). After all, neither of the two greatest American Presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, had a college education. More importantly, Reagan tapped into an integral strain of the American psyche: optimism. "It's morning in America again" was his slogan. Trump is simply taking a page out of the Gipper's playbook when he declares: "Let's make America great again!" Republicans seem to instinctively respond to this in a positive manner. Trump is short on policy details; and Reagan almost certainly never mastered them, even after eight years in the White House. But five or seven point plans are overrated. The political class (and professors like myself) are sincerely interested if not obsessed with them. But does anyone think that the extensive party platforms are read by anyone, including the presidential nominees? Almost nobody cares about pre-election detailed policy positions because most think that this is an elaborate charade destined to be overtaken by events and the messy reality of checks and balances. So people actually look for character and more general principles; and what many Republicans see in Trump, at least so far, is someone outside the party system, outside even the traditional GOP, who promises to breathe new life into the American dream. It is no coincidence that Trump rallies always end with the chant USA! USA! USA!. Which brings us to Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. His party was named Forza Italia, in effect, the Italian version of the USA! chant. Like Trump, he was a billionaire and this fact allows them an argument that very few people can make in contemporary politics: "I do not need the money of anyone. I do not need the support of special interests. I can stand up to anyone because no one can own me." Although I am certainly no Berlusconi fan, there is something in this populist argument that is seductive in perilous times of global transition. Trump has so far stood up against Fox News, Apple, George W. Bush and even the Pope. While other candidates rely on Super PACS and big donors (with what everyone expects to be post-election commitments and constraints) Trump is reserving a giant middle finger for all of them (although he is accepting donations). In what is a delicious historical irony, this attitude brings plutocrat Donald Trump much closer to socialist Bernie Sanders. Both are attacking and taunting the Establishment and politics as usual. But Trump is doing a much better job of capturing headlines and insulting people. Advertisement This is where Trump the reality TV star comes in. Although still insufficiently understood (doctoral dissertations will inevitably be written about it), Trump clearly derived invaluable lessons from his apprenticeship (pun intended) on NBC. Somehow he figured out how to convey emotions, putdowns and messages to his viewers/supporters in a visceral and succinct way. He is the master of Twitter in an age where email and Facebook are oh so 2008. From plumbers to nurses -- technology will increasingly become part of every job. As Internet of Things (IoT) devices become more and more ubiquitous in the world around us, it seems only logical that they will begin to affect our jobs and workplaces. Think your job or industry is immune? Think again. Traditional jobs will become hybrids As Internet connected devices pop up in every field, we will begin to see the emergence of hybrid jobs -- think medical IT, robotics and agriculture, data analysis and human resources. New jobs will be springing up everywhere. A warehouse that never needed an IT department before will suddenly require one to keep its sensors up and running, and they will need a data analyst to help them understand what all those sensors are telling them. Your boss will be watching It's no surprise that now that we can put sensors on anything, people will put sensors on everything, including their employees. Products already exist that put sensors in employee ID badges and office furniture that can monitor not just productivity but employee interactions as well. Advertisement But even though employees will be more monitored than ever before, IoT devices can also work to their benefit. Warehouse workers for Tescos in the UK are wearing sensors that help them be more productive by planning their work tasks around efficiency. Sensors can also help monitor working conditions to keep employees safer. C-level executives will have a new focus Executives in every field will have new areas to focus on. Chief operating officers will be concerned with finding the best, fastest, and most efficient ways to put the new technology to use in their existing companies. Chief financial officers will be looking for the return on investment for these new technologies, and CEOs will have to be watching the big picture, looking at the data, and ensuring that the right questions are being asked to ensure that these innovations are having a positive impact Keep track of everything If you've ever worked in retail, you know the special "joy" of doing inventory manually: counting up row upon row of products and trying to make them tally with the inventory in the computer system. Soon, that sort of project may be a thing of the past. Hospitals already use geolocators to tag every piece of equipment so that workers can keep track of where things are in real time. This could easily be extended not just to office equipment (no more stealing Post-It notes or boxes of pens!) but also inventory. Advertisement Managing inventory, filling orders, even keeping track of equipment and workers in the field will become automatic. Improve your commute Today's Internet connected cars are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's possible. In the future, cars will be able to communicate with everything from the actual street to the traffic lights. Sensors that can detect traffic patterns and communicate with the cars to reroute vehicles around trouble spots could shave valuable minutes off your commute every day. In addition, as more jobs are done via computer, more people will be able and allowed to telecommute from home. Eventually, for many, the city where you live and the city where you work will not necessarily have even a time zone in common. Cheaper, greener manufacturing One upside of this tsunami of big data from sensors is that manufacturers will be able to optimize their processes to use less energy, produce less waste, and be as efficient as possible. This will eventually reduce the costs of manufactured goods, and will even facilitate the switch to renewable sources of energy for major manufacturers. Advertisement Save time and energy all day As more and more objects and spaces become Internet connected, your smart phone will act as a sort of remote control for your life. It will speed up transactions everywhere you go. Think about the mobile banking apps that already save you a physical trip to the bank by allowing you to deposit a cheque via a photo on your phone. Your phone will interact with sensors that you may not even be aware of to help gather data that will assist you through your day -- and even act on your behalf. The time is coming when your refrigerator may sense that you're low on milk and place an order with the local grocery delivery service so that you have fresh milk delivered without you ever having to interact with the grocer, or even a device. These sorts of innovations may hurt some jobs (fewer cashiers needed at the grocer, for example) but will create other jobs (like the grocery delivery person, or the stocker who fills the order). In short, as IoT devices become more and more ubiquitous, none of us will be able to escape their effects. Some will be positive, some negative, but hopefully the balance will ultimately be in our favour. Advertisement Senator Frank E. Moss brought me to Washington. He was the last Democrat elected to the Senate from Utah, serving from l959 to l977. Moss was a liberal in the most conservative state in the union. So when he announced his intention to run for the Senate he wasn't given much of a chance. Even after he easily won his party's nomination, no one took him seriously. The Democrats' Senatorial Campaign Committee was quick to write him off as a long shot. They saw no point in supporting his effort. But Moss was resolute. He organized a grass roots campaign, making his case door-to-door, community by community, across the state. And, to everyone's surprise, as the election approached Moss' determination began to pay off. He closed the gap to the point where polls showed him within the margin of error. Advertisement At that point even his biggest doubters began to realize he might win and the DNC decided they had better reconsider. The possibility of capturing a seat in Utah was too tempting to resist. They dispatched representatives of their Senatorial Campaign Committee to offer their support. They met Moss at the hotel where they were staying in Salt Lake City. They congratulated him on the quality of his campaign and told him they were prepared to give him whatever he would need for the media buys that would push him over the top and assure his success. But they said there was one condition. They said the money would come through Senator Long from the oil lobby. Moss had to promise that if he was elected they could have his vote any time they needed it. Moss said, "No." He refused their support and decided to stand on his own. Moss' meeting with the DNC was never publicized but everyone knew what had happened by the time he arrived in Washington to be sworn in. It earned him the respect of his colleagues and a reputation for integrity. Advertisement I can't help wondering what he would think of the current crop of Presidential candidates and their campaigns, the bitterness and bickering, and the charges of "liar, liar" flying back and forth. Louisiana, which has the highest incarceration rate in the country, no longer provides public defenders to all its people accused of crimes; within months over half its public defender offices are expected to become insolvent. "It's a nightmare," according to James Dixon, the chief Louisiana Public Defender. "You have people in jail that don't have lawyers. It's that basic." In Louisiana, public defenders are appointed to represent nearly 250,000 people each year. Dixon has been warning of a constitutional crisis for years due to inadequate funding. His office has recently been sued in a federal class action by the ACLU. The state public defender indicated that 24 of the 42 local public defender offices will become insolvent and restrict services in the next few months. Many already have broken down. Public defenders in 13 of Louisiana's 42 judicial districts are already restricting services. Advertisement For example, the Lafayette Parish public defender has laid off 35 of its 52 attorneys, and imposed salary cuts of 20 percent on those who remain. The constitutional guarantee of speedy trial is gone and death penalty cases are grinding to a halt. The remaining public defenders face caseloads of 1000 felonies a year, a rate more than five times as high as recent Texas legislature mandated caseload study which concluded that public defenders should represent no more than 175 felonies a year. New Orleans public defenders have been refusing to represent the most serious cases since January. The highly respected Marshall Project reports their budget has been cut from $9.5 million to $6 million in the past four years. That office, which represents 85 percent of those charged in criminal court, has already laid off lawyers, and cannot replace the many lawyers who have resigned because of a hiring freeze. The office handles 10,000 misdemeanors and 8,000 felonies a year. One public defender wrote in the Washington Post that brand new lawyers have to handle cases with life sentences, carry double the number of cases that the American Bar Association recommends, do not have the time to even see their clients and are forced to plead people out to felony convictions on the day they meet them. In an oped in the New York Times, the head of the Orleans Public Defender explained that Louisiana funds two-thirds of its public defender system with fines and fees from people convicted of traffic offenses and crimes. Advertisement Budgets for public defenders were small to begin with. In New Orleans, the budget of the public defender is less than half that of the prosecutor. The state spends somewhere around $3.5 billion on police, prosecutors, courts and jails, versus less than 2 percent of that on public defenders. Cardozo Law Professor Ellen Yaroshefsky told a New Orleans court that the New Orleans public defender's office was being run in an unethical manner. "I'm very troubled by the situation this public defender's office is in," Yaroshefsky testified. "To call this a 'justice system' is really a misnomer. ... I believe this entire office is operating as a conflict of interest. The lawyers here are compromising some clients in other to represent others. They make a decision to triage, and triage is a conflict of interest. This is a problem now that is a judicial problem, and I believe needs to be dealt with on that level." Meanwhile, Louisiana is facing a huge overall budget deficit of nearly a billion this year and double that next year due to fiscal problems left by departing Governor Bobby Jindal. In the early seventies I dated Mike Nichols. In the fall of 1971, we were introduced through a mutual friend Buck Henry who wrote The Graduate that starred Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross. Buck and I had met at the late night parties producer Lorne Michaels gave in his apartment at the mysterious and rumored to be haunted Osbourne after tapings of SNL. My good friend Heather Mac Crae who starred in Hair on Broadway would invite me to these parties. As a model, I just had been photographed for the covers of Cosmopolitan, New York Magazine and Newsweek in the same month. My modeling career was percolating. My social life as well. "Would you like to have dinner one night with me, Carole?" Mike said when he called me. I was thrilled at his invitation. We went to several unpretentious restaurants, then the Russian Tea Room. When Mike listened to me, I felt he cared. I felt my words meant something. I felt my thoughts and my opinions had worth. He actually asked my opinion. Mike bolstered my self-esteem about being opinionated which was needed as I was a model who had gotten a thick skin not for my opinions, but for my looks. Advertisement "Shut up and smile," is the frequent direction, maybe not in these exact words, given to a model during a photo shoot. Due to my appearance, stares from people were the norm, but few cared about what I had to say. In fact, often models were discredited because we were models and thus it was assumed we were vacuous, empty vessels of narcissism. While some models were, indeed, just that, others were busy developing their minds while their wallets were being filled by smiling for the camera. One night at dinner at the RTR, Mike said to me, "Would you like to go to Jackie Onassis's Anniversary for Ari at El Morocco? I would be flattered if you accompanied me." Of course I was excited to attend this historic event. I wore a black satin floor length gown from Norma Kamali and my tatty old Mongolian Lamb coat over my shoulders. Mink or high priced fur were not my thing. I had bought this coat in Paris in the late 60s when I was pounding the streets with my metro guide to Parisian streets in one hand while on go-sees to meet photographers. Mike arrived with his limousine on time and came to my door. "Shall we," he said sarcastically. "This should be something to remember." Mike Nichols' sense of irony and sarcasm were champion. Advertisement As we entered El Morocco, we were photographed by a barrage of paparazzi. Our enclosed photo was published in Life Magazine. We joined the line to greet Jacqueline Onassis. As I shook her hand, I was stunned by her warmth, her wit as noted by the twinkle in her eyes and her riveting attention which she gave to me and to all her guests. "Hello, Carole," she said. "So wonderful to meet you." When she shook hands with Mike, their eyes locked and winks were in order. There was magnetism between them. A deep, possibly erotic friendship. I was thrilled to witness this as I wanted so much for Mrs. Onassis, who had suffered so, to find happiness and to have found a good friend in Mike. I was shocked by her height. She towered over her guests and, of course, Mr. Onassis as she moved like a giant swan. Her neck seemed to go on for miles and so did her Mona Lisa smile. Her voice was kitteny soft as though she were speaking on cumulus clouds. Her kindness radiated despite her jewels and opulence. Oh, I never spoke at any length with her, but she helped dispel the myth that not all the rich and famous were, beneath the surface, the rich and dangerous. The guest list was naturally star-studded, but name-dropping seems inappropriate. After the dinner we went back to Mike's apartment in the Beresford where we met up with Jack Nicholson and his date. Jack was charming and had been bowled over by the event as we all had been. Advertisement When I reflected upon my friendship with Mike Nichols as I watched the HBO special Becoming Mike Nichols, I was most moved by his comments about directing the final scene of The Graduate. He said that he had told Dustin and Katherine he wanted big smiles as fifty policemen were following the bus and they had one take. Mike said he learned a lesson that as a movie is made each participant draws from his or her experience and this is the pay dirt in the acting. Mike said it was inappropriate for him to direct his actors in how to feel as an actor's feelings are the magic as are all feelings in the arts. I feel this about writing a review. Today I am a critic and a movie reviewer as well as a teacher. I teach my students to write with the TV on so that they are not intimidated by the people about whom they are writing. With the TV in the background I tend to write what I am feeling, what I remember, not what I think sounds good which is a trap in the literary community. I believe this is what Mike Nichols was saying. Truth is spoken viscerally. Truth is what it is all about. Truth about feelings is what an artist seeks. I feel Mike Nichols was the first glimmer of encouragement to my becoming a writer and no longer an object to be looked at -- either as a model or an actress. I tend to agree with Princess Grace to whom I was introduced by Sam Spiegel while my husband and I were on a cruise on his yacht, The Melahne. Sam Spiegel had sailed from St. Tropez to Corsica to meet Princess Grace as he had wanted her to star in Nicholas and Alexander. She refused his offer because she said that being an actress felt a bit like being a parrot. In 1990 to confirm my desire to no longer feel like a parrot, but to be a critic, Kurt Vonnegut, whom I had the privilege of interviewing, validated Mike Nichols observations by writing a letter for editors in support of my ability to observe. But the first person to give me confidence about my opinions was Mike Nichols and because of this I will always be grateful for his nurturing presence. Advertisement BLUFFTON, SC - FEBRUARY 17: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to voters on February 17, 2016 in Bluffton, South Carolina. Trump addressed the Sun City Republicans with three days remaining before the South Carolina Republican primary. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) Donald Trump just won his third primary, taking Nevada with a commanding 46 percent of the Republican vote. If you take a look back at his campaign so far, you will see a long trail of wishful Washington thinking that was proven wrong and had to be tossed to the side of the road. This started even before his campaign begun, as all the pundits confidently predicted he wouldn't even run. This was followed by a string of pronouncements that "Trump is now toast," after each of his ever-more-outrageous statements from the campaign trail (starting with his campaign announcement, where he called Mexican immigrants "rapists" and "murderers"). Each one was supposed to kill his chances dead, dead, dead. Instead, Trump has laughed all the way to where he is now -- the frontrunner and presumptive nominee of the once-proud Republican Party. He's getting tougher and tougher to beat, and his Nevada showing blew away the most recent wishful thinking from the Washington elites -- that Trump "had a ceiling" of perhaps 35 percent, above which he would never go. Toss that one on the ever-growing heap of things that have been predicted about how Trump's campaign was going to falter, none of which have panned out. Advertisement Democrats, meanwhile, have been mostly sitting on the sidelines, trying to contain their glee. Indeed, the common (and snarky) thinking on the left is that "it couldn't have happened to a nicer political party." They watch the wreckage of the establishment Republicans with amusement, confident that their nominee will handily defeat Donald Trump in November. To think any differently is to spit in the face of conventional political wisdom, after all. Except for one big thing they haven't even started to come to grips with yet: Donald Trump has gotten to where he is by continually spitting in the face of conventional political wisdom. It's what he does, and he's very good at it. Which brings us to our main point. If Donald Trump is so hard to beat in Republican primaries, is he really going to be all that easy for a Democrat to beat in November? This might seem to be a radical notion. Of course Trump will be easily beaten, Democrats tell themselves -- without ever considering whether that too might be one of those predictions that simply isn't going to come true this year. I'm not saying Democrats should be panicking. We've got a long way to go before the general election. But I do caution that both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders should at least be thinking about how they're going to take Trump on, should they become the nominee. Because it might not be the cakewalk everyone is now assuming it will be. Advertisement Right now it is looking like Hillary Clinton will become the Democratic nominee. Bernie still has a chance, but his path has gotten longer and steeper after losing Nevada. Assuming for the sake of conversation that Hillary does become the nominee, how hard is it going to be for her to beat Trump? Hillary is seen as a stronger candidate for the general by many, but even if Bernie Sanders wins the nomination, he'd then have his own problems (perhaps slightly different ones than Hillary) coming up with a strategy to take on Trump. Head-to-head polling shows Clinton ahead of Trump right now, but not by as much as you'd think. This early, such polling is almost meaningless, but it should inject a note of caution for those assuming Trump will be easy for Hillary to beat. If he's such a loser as a Republican nominee, he should be doing a lot worse in such polling, even this early. There is already a great deal of speculation about what Trump as GOP nominee would mean to general election voters. Again, Democrats are getting complacent by assuming there will be plenty of Republican voters who simply will not be able to vote for Trump in November. Some Republicans are sane enough to realize this is more than just a reality show, Democrats tell themselves, so they'll either hold their noses and vote for Hillary or they'll just stay home. Perhaps, but this ignores a few things. In the first place, while such crossover voting might happen, that road travels both directions. There are a lot of Democrats who might decide they can't vote for Hillary Clinton, and either hold their nose and vote for Trump, or stay home. Take a look at her ratings from the general public on questions of honesty and likeability to see how vulnerable Clinton is to such voter defection. Also, if Clinton beats Sanders for the nomination, there are going to be a whole lot of disappointed Bernie supporters, some of whom may decide they cannot vote for the woman who beat their guy. Add to this the segment of Democratic voters who are just flat-out sexist and wouldn't vote for any woman (to deny these voters exist is to deny reality, no matter how big this segment of Democrats may or may not be). Finally, there will also be some voters who see Clinton's progressivism as nothing more than a label of convenience for her, who might be susceptible to Trump's version of populism instead. Advertisement Again, I make no predictions about how big any of these groups may be, but merely point out that while there may be a stream of disaffected Republicans crossing over to vote for Hillary, there may also be a wave moving in the opposite direction to balance it out. Trump's appeal to working-class voters should also be cause for concern among Democrats. There are four states that Democrats are almost complacent about winning that could shift the entire election, all heavy with blue-collar voters. Three of them have sitting Republican governors (two of whom threw their hat in the GOP ring for president this election cycle). Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin could be the keys to a Trump victory, in fact. Their Electoral College votes (PA-20, OH-18, MI-16, WI-10) propelled Barack Obama to victory twice, but if he had lost those states in 2012 he would have wound up with only 268 Electoral College votes -- and Mitt Romney would now be running for re-election. Trump has one other thing going for him that few are exploring the ramifications of, at least so far. He's bringing a lot of new voters into the process. A lot of Republicans are voting, and a lot of them are first-time voters voting for Trump. Republican turnout has so far exceeded Democratic turnout in the early primary states. Even with all the excitement Bernie Sanders is bringing to the race, fewer Democrats are voting than in 2008 (using 2012 figures is an unfair comparison, since Obama ran unopposed for re-election). Low Democratic turnout combined with high Republican turnout should be a worrisome sign for Democrats. Bernie Sanders is bringing in a lot of new voters to the Democratic side, but if he fails in his nomination bid, how many of them will return to the polls to vote for Hillary in November? Maybe I'm being too alarmist. Voters will have time to make up their minds in the general election -- Republicans will have time to get used to the idea of voting for Trump, and Democrats will have time to rally around either Clinton or Sanders. To put this another way, perhaps the general election won't be so different than in other (more normal) years. Advertisement But watching Trump blow away expectation after expectation in the primaries should really make Democrats to think twice about how easy it'll be to beat him in the general election. So far, Republican after Republican has tried attacking Trump, only to see their poll numbers sink and Trump's rise. Ignoring him or sucking up to him hasn't done Ted Cruz all that much good, either. The establishment Republicans are now seemingly afraid to even attempt taking on Trump. Of course, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders will have no compunctions about attacking Trump, and from a direction he's not used to (at least, so far). Even if Trump becomes the nominee, it's still possible he will say something so outrageous (perhaps in a one-on-one debate with Hillary?) that he drives away the independent voters who usually provide the winning margin in presidential contests. It's certainly a possibility, and if it comes to pass it'll be cause for much amusement on the Democratic side. If Trump bombs in the general election race, Republicans won't have any "Plan B" to fall back on -- they'll be stuck with him. But such a meltdown is what Republicans have been hoping for all along, and it simply has not happened yet. Meaning it might not happen at all. Likewise, the firm belief that beating Trump will be a cakewalk for either Hillary or Bernie is also starting to look a little naive. It's just another version of the most-recent bad prediction -- the one that just got thrown on the rubbish heap of wrong Trump predictions. "Trump has a ceiling -- he'll never go above it" is really what Democrats are telling themselves now, regarding the general election. It's comfortable to think so, but Democrats should also not rely on it as being inevitable. So far, everything Trump has done has defied such expectations, so it would be risky to just assume this one will come true in November. Chris Weigant blogs at: Is It Illegal to Record Police Without Telling Them Why? Video recordings of police activity and arrests have become a hot topic over the past few years. Between the ubiquity of cell phone cameras and new calls for police to wear body cameras, the issue of who can record video of the police (and when, where, and how) has been constantly debated. And most courts have found that citizens have a First Amendment right to record the police. But most of those courts never addressed why citizens were recording police action. And in an odd decision last week, a federal judge ruled that the First Amendment right to record police only exists if the person is recording in order to challenge or criticize the police conduct and he or she asserts this at the time. Ruling Upstream As noted above, this ruling is an outlier. Nearly every court to hear the issue has said that it is legal to videotape or otherwise record police, so long as you are not interfering with them. Both the First Circuit and the Seventh Circuit have found police recording legal, and the Supreme Court declined to overturn either ruling. (And The Washington Post's Radley Balko points out the Fourth, Ninth, and Eleventh circuits have also explicitly recognized "a First Amendment right to record on-duty law enforcement officers.") But that didn't stop federal District Court Judge Mark Kearney from requiring more out of those who record police activity. Kearney asserts that only expressive conduct is protected by the First Amendment, and passive, unannounced recording "without any challenge or criticism" doesn't rise to that standard, and is therefore not protected speech. Critical Intent The case involved Richard Fields, a Temple University student who took a cellphone photo of about 20 police officers standing outside a house party, and Amanda Geraci, a trained legal observer, who tried to record an arrest during a protest. Judge Kearney found that because neither told the police why they wanted to record them, neither was protected by the First Amendment: "Applying this standard, we conclude Fields and Geraci cannot meet the burden of demonstrating their taking, or attempting to take, pictures with no further comments or conduct is 'sufficiently imbued with elements of communication' to be deemed expressive conduct. Neither Fields nor Geraci direct us to facts showing at the time they took or wanted to take pictures, they asserted anything to anyone. There is also no evidence any of the officers understood them as communicating any idea or message." This is an odd standard, given that the act of recording in and of itself could be considered expressive conduct, and that many police recordings are designed to monitor police action and possibly capture illegal police conduct, and announcing such an intention is likely to alter how police act. Both Fields and Geraci are represented by the ACLU, so an appeal is likely. But for now, you might want to tell police, or someone else nearby, that you are recording and why. And if you've been arrested for recording the police or had photos or video of police seized or destroyed, you should contact an experienced criminal defense attorney near you. Related Resources: He had grown up in a country run by politicians who sent the pilots to man the bombers to kill the babies to make the world safer for children to grow up in. Ursula Kroeber Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven A number of readers have written inquiring where cluster bombs can be conveniently purchased. At first blush one might think that the question is being asked by readers who are tired of the limited ability of the AK 47 to inflict harm on a lot of people in a short amount of time, that weapon being a favorite of those who do mass murders. The fact is that few of my readers are of that sort and so their inquiries are prompted by intellectual curiosity alone. It is a reasonable question since cluster bombs are once again in the news and some of my readers thought that cluster bombs had been banned and, that being the case, wondered why anyone would continue to make them and, to whom they would sell them. Those are both good questions and I am happy to be able to answer both of them. First, a word of explanation about cluster bombs is probably in order. Cluster bombs are described as anti-personnel and anti-armor weapons. They were used to tragic effect in Vietnam where they not only indiscriminately killed those within their purview, but in many cases failed to explode and were left lying in the countryside to later explode killing children and others who came into contact with them. According to one report, in Laos where they were also used, 80 million bombs failed to detonate and, long after the conflict there ended, have been responsible for countless injuries among those who encountered them. Because they are both lethal and unpredictable, 109 states signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions that was adopted in 2008. It prohibits the use, production and stockpiling of cluster bombs. Advertisement Although a treaty banning cluster bombs sounds like a great idea, only 109 states initially signed it. As of this writing there are 118 signatories. Among the more prominent states that have refused to sign, for reasons best understood by them, are Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States. Although the United States has not signed the treaty, it has proved sensitive to the tendency of the cluster bomb as a device to underperform. Many cluster bombs during the Vietnam war proved to have a failure rate of more than 1% and were used in areas where there were large civilian populations. Congress became concerned about this and, as a result, under the 2009 Omnibus Budget Bill, only cluster bombs that have a failure rate of less than 1% can be exported and they can only be used against "clearly defined military targets." A country that buys cluster bombs from the United States has to sign a statement stating that they will not be used "where civilians are known to be present." Notwithstanding these reassuring restrictions, cluster bombs acquired from the United States have been used by Saudi Arabia in its war with Yemen and, according to a lengthy and detailed report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) "Saudi Arabia is using them notwithstanding evidence of civilian casualties." According to Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch(HRW): "Recently transferred US-manufactured cluster munitions are being used in civilian areas contrary to US export requirements and also appear to be failing to meet the reliability standards required for US export of the weapons." By now, a reader (and perhaps a prospective buyer of a cluster bomb or two) probably wants to know who is supplying the cluster bombs that fail to meet the standards set forth in the omnibus bill so the reader can shop elsewhere. The answer is Textron Systems Corporation doing business as "Textron Defense Systems", of Wilmington, Massachusetts. Textron's website indicates that the cluster bombs (more formally known as SFW CBU-105 DF/ P31) made by it, exceed "stringent U.S. Department of Defense policy on multiple warhead systems by regulating unexploded ordnance (UXO) to less than 1 percent. SFW [sensor fuzed weapon] has demonstrated greater than 99.6 percent reliability with U.S. Government verified performance in combat operations and during more than 600 operational tests. In addition, SFW's redundant self-destruct features and self-neutralization mode ensure that battery power dissipates minutes after a smart Skeet is released, rendering it safe." In its Valentine Day's posting, however, HRW cites numerous examples of cluster bombs manufactured by Textron that failed to explode. Advertisement Whether the number of devices that failed to explode in Yemen are more or less than 1% of the cluster bombs used on that country is impossible to know. Whether HRW's report of civilian deaths is correct is also impossible for someone like this writer to know. And for obvious reasons, Textron cannot be held responsible for whether Saudi Arabia is careful not to use the bombs where civilians will be killed or injured. When you try to become more productive, you don't get there by mere willpower. In order to attain peak productivity, you've got to have a plan. In this article, you'll learn an easy-to-follow plan that will improve your productivity. The secret is simple -- discovering the best time of day to work. Productivity isn't just about cool email tricks or nifty time management strategies. Those are important, but it's more -- it's about harnessing energy and time to do more and better work. If you follow this plan, you will become more productive. It's just that simple. Here is the five-step process. Advertisement 1. Determine your optimal part of the day to work. The first step in discovering your best time is to do a careful self-analysis. In this step, your goal is not to set a strict schedule, but to find the broadest part of the day that you are going to be more productive. Here are two questions to guide you to this discovery. When during the day do I have the greatest amount of energy and concentration? When do you feel the most alive, energized, creative, optimistic, and enthusiastic? For me, this is the morning. For my wife, it's the evening. Our work schedules blend, allowing us to share childcare and household duties while still maintaining high levels of productivity. Discover when you're at your peak -- morning, afternoon, evening, etc. When do I have the fewest interruptions and distractions? Part of productivity is being able to shut out the distractions that cripple concentration. Now that you know when you have the highest amount of energetic output, determine when the major distractions are. These are the times when you should avoid scheduling a productive period. 2. Identify one, two, or three 90-minute periods for concentrated work. Now that you've determined the phases of your highest energy, it's time to carve out one to three 90-minute periods. These 90-minute sessions are your productive bursts. Advertisement Why 90 minutes? Work cycle research has shown that most people work best in 90-minute cycles followed by a reprieve. This principle is built upon our body's ultradian rhythms, and it's futile to fight against them even with artificial stimulants such as caffeine and sugary intake. As Drake Bauer wrote for the Fast Company, "The 90-minute cycle works." Obviously, you don't need to set a timer (unless that helps). Instead, use the 90-minute period as an approximation to measure your energetic output. What happens in between each cycle? That's up to you and your unique situation. What you should not do, however, is work -- or at least work like you've been working for the past 90 minutes. You should take a break -- a good, solid, get-up-and-move-around break. Most mornings, I have two 90-minute cycles, followed by a three and half to four hour break. After that, I finish out my workday in the late afternoon with a final 90-minute cycle. Advertisement 3. Do the right work at the right time. Not all work is equal. Different types of work require different levels of energetic output. Some work may be completely draining mentally. Other types of work might be energizing and exciting. You should do the most demanding tasks during your time of greatest energy, and distribute your less demanding tasks across your times of waning mental strength. It may seem counterintuitive to do your hardest and most challenging tasks first. Won't that leave you wasted for the rest of the day? Not exactly. As Brian Tracy explains in Eat that Frog, getting monumental tasks completed in the early part of the day is not enervating, but energizing. The sense of completion and success signals psychological reward centers in our brain that fuel further productive work. Rather than drain us, completing big tasks has the power to motivate us. Advertisement 4. Tolerate strategic interruptions. You have a life, and you need to factor that into your productive zone discovery. There are kids to care for, meetings to attend, meals to eat, and maybe naps to take. How do interruptions factor into your best time of day to work? As explained above, we work best in 90-minute cycles. You shouldn't try to power through the day in an uninterrupted productive blast. Instead, use your built-in cycles of energy to embrace your interruptions at the right time. My greatest and most enjoyable interruption happens around lunch. I come home to my family, enjoy a meal, play with the kids, and do some household chores. This may be an unorthodoxy for those who swear by the nine-to-five rule, but since such unorthodoxy gives me insane levels of productivity, it's okay. When I return from my three-hour hiatus, I'm energized, creative, and prepared for another 90-minute zone to finish out my day When you look at your day, find those times where the distractions are the lowest and your energy is the highest. Then look at your interruptions. Enjoy them. Use those interruptions to enhance your productivity, not hamper it. Advertisement 5. Be creative with your schedule. There is one universal limitation we all work with -- the twenty-four hour day. Within these allotted hours, we must find our most productive work times. If you discover that the traditional nine-to-five is your productive zone, so be it. However, there are many hours beyond this conventional timeframe that might just be your most productive. Confront your limitations, then discover your best time. To do that, you might just have to think outside the box. We all face other limitations that require creative solutions. When Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in a South African prison, he wrote his memoirs during the night and slept during the day. He was enormously productive in this secret project, completing a massive amount of writing during a very short amount of time. Some uber-productive people sleep late, goof off half the day, and step into their productive zone around 8 p.m.. Then, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. they hit their stride and churn out enormous amounts of work. What works best for you? Be creative. Conclusion Finally, be free to have fun. It's way too easy to become a slave to productivity, and forget about the freedom and fun that it allows! Productivity is a strategy that allows you to enjoy life, not become dominated by schedules and tasks. ImpactAlpha.com -- There are 18 million smallholder farmers in Indonesia with monthly incomes of less than 200,000 rupiah, or $58. Vasham, a social enterprise in Jakarta that provide financing, expertise and a guaranteed above-market price for their crops, serves 1,708 of them. That counts as proof-of-concept that Vasham can both raise farmers' income and turn a profit. Add a dedicated entrepreneur, a "closed loop" business model and a plan for serving 200,000 Indonesia farmers by 2018 and one million by 2023, and PT Vasham Kosa Sejahtera, as it is formally known, was able to attract seed-stage financing, including from the new Unitus Impact Fund, which typically invests between $500,000 and $2 million. The Vasham investment is the 10th deal for the Unitus Impact Fund, which has just closed the fundraising for its first fund, the $45 million Livelihood Impact Fund. That makes Unitus Impact one of the largest private equity funds focused specifically on improving livelihoods of the global poor and one of the few to target early-stage companies. Unitus Impact is also part of the small but growing venture-capital ecosystems in countries like Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia. Advertisement Beau Seil, Unitus Impact's managing director, said Vasham is a good example of what Unitus is looking for: supply chain improvements that lower costs, raise productivity and quality, and generate premium prices for producers; and distribution improvements that provide high-value, affordables services for low-income workers. Vasham, based in Jakarta, provides fair-market loans so farmers can plant and guarantees offtake at above-market prices. "We see significant income benefits when farmers are not caught in the company-store cycle," Seil said in an interview. "We think supply chains and distribution chains are broken and that means there are economic inefficiencies keeping people from making more money." Demonstration Effect The goal of the fund, part of the Unitus family of entities, is to demonstrate that raising incomes of the poor is an investment thesis that can draw in private investors. As an investment category, "livelihood" is making the jump from development funders (including Mercy Corps, Rockefeller Foundation, International Fund for Agricultural Development) to private equity fund managers. Livelihood Impact Fund, which promises "strong, risk-commensurate financial returns" and "long-term capital appreciation," is one of the first dedicated livelihood funds to attract outside private investors. The fund will measure the improvement in income among beneficiaries and customers of its portfolio companies. "We made it the focus of Unitus Impact and wanted to build a portfolio of companies focused on livelihoods to show that there are companies, not just one here and there, that are scalable and are strong investment opportunities," Seil said. Advertisement The impact fund's focus on southeast Asia, where 70 percent of its investments are targeted, also sets it apart. Sub-Saharan Africa and India have been impact investment hotspots. Large, young populations with high-density and significant poverty create the opportunity for high impact in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and even Cambodia, Laos and even Myanmar. Aavishkar recently raised an impact fund for southeast Asia, primarily from development donors, and LeapFrog Investments has recently moved into the region to identify later-stage deals. "We're picking sectors where you have large numbers of people engaged," Seil says. "The margins of this are low, so you're playing a volume game. We ask, 'How do we work with large numbers of farmers or factory workers?' As companies grow that base, they can generate small margins from lots of people, and help them make more money for the work they are doing." Unitus Labs, the nonprofit hub of the Unitus network, has spun off a number of separate entities since 2000. Unitus Equity Fund is now managed by Elevar Equity. Unitus Capital, an investment bank headquartered in Bangalore, has raised $1.5 billion in debt and equity for social enterprises. The Unitus Seed Fund, which invests in early-stage ventures in India is now part of Capria Impact, which also includes an incubator fund for impact fund managers. Livelihood Portfolio Even before it raised its fund, Unitus Impact completed five deals to prove out its livelihoods investment thesis. The fund's backers include wealthy individuals and family offices (who chose not to be identified) along with the Australian pension fund Christian Super, the eBay Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. The Livelihood Impact Fund is one of the first impact funds selected under OPIC's new Innovative Financial Intermediaries Program. OPIC, through its Portfolio for Impact program, also provided a $3.7 million loan to Big Tree Farms, another of Unitus Impact's portfolio companies. Big Tree Farms, based in Ashland, Ore., works with smallholder farmers in Indonesia to produce organic coconut sweeteners, coconut water concentrate, and cacao. Advertisement Unitus Impact expects to make one or two investments a year in each of its target countries, for a total of 10-12 additional investments. In addition to Vasham and Big Tree, the fund's current portfolio includes: iCare Benefits, in Vietnam, lets factory workers purchase life-essential goods and services at affordable prices via low-cost installment financing. RUMA's technology-based distribution platform provides products and services for low-income consumers in Indonesia, and increases the incomes of the small shopkeepers who act as agents. Kalibrr, in the Philippines, matches job candidates to openings based on skills, experience, and interest. Kinara Capital provides supply-chain financing to micro and small businesses in India without requiring any land or property collateral. Vasham was launched in 2013 as a response to food insecurity in Indonesia, which imports billions of dollars of staple foods such as soybean, rice, corn and sugar. So far, Vasham has made loans of 34.7 billion Indonesian rupiah (about $2.7 million). Chief executive Irvan Kolonas believes Vasham can bring about "a revolution, through innovative thinking, to lift the lives of many poor farmers in Indonesia and hopefully in the world." In today's hyper-partisan environment, true statesmen -- people who put the interests of the country above party loyalties -- are an endangered species. Long gone at the days when politics was civil; when you could respectfully disagree with another person without vilifying them as morally inept. Today, the only thing Republicans disagree on is whether President Obama is intentionally ruining their country, or if he's just too stupid to realize the consequences of his actions. Many Democrats, alas, damn their opponents as religiously obsessed bigots. Neither characterization seems fair. It is in this context that I am pleasantly surprised to hear reports that President Obama will to vet Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Sandoval is a Republican -- so it's hard for Republicans to claim partisanship in the decision. Likewise, Sandoval is a former federal judge who was confirmed unanimously in 2005 -- so he's hardly polarizing and definitely qualified for the job. If President Obama were to nominate Sandoval, it would demonstrate a sense of tact that is sorely lacking from politics today. It would be a breath of fresh air. For Democrats, Sandoval may be the ideal nominee. Though hardly a liberal, he probably stands the best chance of being approved by the Senate. That's a great hedge against the risk that a Republican is elected in 2016 and chooses to nominate someone of Scalia's ideological zeal. It's also politically brilliant -- because Republicans will probably block the nomination anyway. For independent voters, this will be another very public battle indicating just how irrational Republicans can be. And it will come just as the election season heads into full swing. Advertisement Most important for me -- as an undecided independent voter -- I think it will highlight just how nakedly partisan Republicans are. As I mull over the thought of Republicans rejecting Sandoval, I can't help but feel this sense that Republicans just aren't fit to govern. I mean if you seriously hate your opponents so much that you won't even consider a member of your own party -- a governor, no less -- for the Supreme Court, how can you be fit to run this country? Politics shouldn't be winner-takes-all. Yes, Republicans embarrass themselves all the time, but this feels different. To reject a Republican governor as a presidential nominee is just so blatantly divisive that it would make me trust Congress even less than I already do -- I mighty feat. I could be alone -- it's possible that our country is so numb to partisanship that Republican obstructionism would be taken for granted. And surely the Republican base would eat it up. I want my elected officials to be mature. Being President of the United States, after all, is an incredibly difficult job with serious consequences. And if nasty brawls between Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump aren't enough to remind us just how irresponsible and un-presidential the Republican candidates are, an all-out fight against a moderate Republican will be the nail in the coffin. To this end, Hillary Clinton would offer a stark contrast. Though she's dishonest, I have no trouble imagining Clinton as Commander-in-Chief; she's mature, levelheaded, and battle-tested. She may not be inspiring, but we know she can do the job. Worse for Republicans, rejecting Sandoval would be hypocritical. Republicans believe in the original intent of the constitution. Indeed, Justice Scalia was the strongest proponent of adhering to the constitution, even when we disagree with what it says. And the constitution is unambiguous on the topic of federal judge selection; the Senate's role is to advise and consent -- not to choose the nominee. Of course, there is precedent for opposing an overtly political nomination, but there is no defensible ground when the nominee is from your own party. In that case, there's no room for reasonable people to differ. Again, I wonder, whether such blatant hypocrisy would indicate that Republicans are unfit to govern. Advertisement Finally, we must consider the practical implications of a Supreme Court nominee. With the court now evenly divided between liberals and conservatives, the new nominee will have an important role to play in shaping future decisions. Such a nominee could have the potential to reverse Roe v. Wade or make gay marriage illegal. Indeed, that's what Republicans are calling for. I would feel much more comfortable voting for the GOP nominee if I knew these freedoms -- so overwhelmingly supported by young people today -- were protected. By contrast, if the Republican Party votes down a moderate Republican, then I fear they would nominate another Scalia -- who though brilliant, will be remembered as having been on the wrong side of many social issues. Democrats would use a rejection to galvanize their base, reminding voters that a Republican ballot is a vote to make abortion and gay marriage illegal. No matter what he does, President Obama will leave office at a time when our nation is more divided than ever before. But if he makes an overture and nominates Sandoval, he will have at least made an effort to reconcile with Republicans. He'll leave on a positive note, having been the bigger man. With Netflix about to unveil the Full House sequel whimsically called Fuller House, it's safe to say some fans of the original have wondered over these last 20 years how life was treating D.J. Tanner and her friends. Candace Cameron Bure, who played D.J. in the fondly remembered ABC sitcom, isn't one of them. Courtesy of Netflix "I didn't think about D.J. after the show ended," Bure told me at a press event in Pasadena last month. "I never gave it a second thought." Neither did Jodie Sweetin, who played D.J.'s younger TV sister Stephanie. "Fans always ask about that stuff," says Sweetin. "It's like we must go home and watch all 192 episodes every night. ... But honestly, Stephanie? I have no idea. I never thought about it." Advertisement Until the last year, when Bure, Sweetin and Andrea Barber, who played D.J.'s BFF Kimmy Gibler, agreed to come back as the featured stars in Fuller House, whose 13 episodes drop Friday on Netflix. Now, says Sweetin, all that benign neglect paid off, because they went into the new show with a blank slate. "We get to fill in 20 years of their lives," Sweetin says. "We start there and find out what happened in between." That sort of positive attitude bodes well for Fuller House, which hopes to build on Full House's enduring reputation for eight seasons of upbeat, wholesome, family-friendly situation comedy. Advertisement Fuller House starts with D.J., now a veterinarian, raising three children of her own. Her beloved husband Tommy recently died, and she's trying to figure out how she can keep working, which she now must do, while not neglecting her sons Jackson (Michael Campion), 13, Max (Elias Harger), 7, and infant Tommy Jr. (naturally played by twins, Dashiell and Fox Messitt). Courtesy of Netflix Bure says that's a situation to which many people of D.J.'s generation can relate. "I live in California, but I work in New York," says Bure, who's also a host on the daytime talk show The View. "I go back and forth every weekend. I feel the pressure. Millions of people constantly feel it. It just comes with the territory today." D.J., at least, has a sitcom-friendly solution. Stephanie and Kimmy agree to move with her and help raise the kids. As all Full House fans knows, sometimes it does take a village -- a village that also now includes Kimmy's 13-year-old daughter Ramona (Soni Nicole Brigas). Most of the rest of the crew from Full House will be dropping in from time to time. That includes the first episode, where the reunion feels like a group hug. Advertisement Courtesy of Netflix The huggers include John Stamos as Jesse Katsopolis, Bob Saget as Danny Tanner, Dave Coulis as Joey Gladstone, Scott Weinger as D.J.'s ex-boyfriend Steve Hale, and Lori Loughlin as Rebecca Donaldson-Katsopolis. Only the Olsen twins are MIA. Bure confirms the reports that there has been talk of a Full House revival for some time, but says earlier ideas were non-starters. "The problem was that no one wanted to do a movie or a reunion special," she says, "because they're never done well. ... This series gives us room to explore the characters." A number of popular shows have been revived in recent years, from 24 to The X-Files, with varying degrees of success. The Fuller House cast says their odds are good because they're taking a less traveled path: TV the whole family can watch. "We've gotten away from that," says Barber. "There's not a lot on TV that I even want my kids to watch. So much of it isn't about real experiences any more." Advertisement "All I want my kids to watch are a few shows like So You Think You Can Dance," says Bure. "That or sports. That's what's on at our house." And no, she doesn't think today's young viewers are so jaded they won't watch a "family" show. "Back in the day, Full House tackled serious issues," she says. "There's a lot to talk about that kids go through. Being a kid is a harrowing time, and you want the support of your family. Our show feels like family coming to visit." D.J., Stephanie and Kimmy are still the same people they were as kids, says Barber, but they've also got 20 more years under their belts. "And it's a different world," she says. "You get a sense of that just in the questions kids ask." Courtesy of Netflix The most telling result of last Saturday's Republican presidential primary in South Carolina was how white, evangelical Christian voters divided among the top three vote-getters (Trump, Rubio and Cruz). Instead of voting like a bloc, as the Cruz forces had hoped (and the Trump and Rubio campaigns' had feared), white evangelicals split, giving substantial chunks of their support to all three of those candidates. It has become a familiar pattern over the last few decades in the Republican presidential primaries, because there are different kinds of white, evangelical Christians. Though often depicted in the media as a monolithic group, there is a remarkable amount of diversity in their ranks. The most conservative and militant evangelicals tended to support Cruz, who seemed at the start of the contest to be the candidate most likely to win broad Christian conservative backing. Cruz, whose father is a pastor, knows how to strike a "church militant" chord with those kinds of voters. For Cruz and his backers, Christianity is a fighting faith, whose adherents need to win back government support for policies that support religion in general and the values of morally traditional people. In terms of foreign policy, that same martial impulse is expressed in terms of support for fighting Islamic extremism more intensely and successfully. Not every evangelical finds that kind of message the most appealing, however, which explains why Trump and Rubio finished ahead of Cruz in South Carolina. Trump's popularity with a substantial proportion of Christian conservatives appears, on its face, the most perplexing. Why would white, evangelical Christians be attracted to the candidacy of a thrice-married native New Yorker, a nominal Presbyterian whose clumsy efforts to sound familiar with scripture only reinforce a sense that he has never read it? While it's hard to be certain here, one suspects that Trump's appeal to such voters stems from his firm patriarchal persona, and his nostalgic, "back-to-the-future" agenda. Trump is a man's man who means business, and someone whose enormous wealth gives him a kind of independence from special-interest groups that his rivals do not have. Advertisement Trump's speeches also, in a way, hearken back to the 1950s and early '60s America in which he grew up, which is an era that older Christian conservatives miss. Trump's stand on immigration fits with that worldview, too, because the fraction of the American population that was foreign-born reached an all-time low then of about 5%. In Trump's youth, that trend was felt even in New York City, which historically had been home to the largest number of the newly arrived. What was going on there and in other northern cities during the 1950s and '60s was the assimilation of whites of varying ethnicities (whose parents or grandparents had emigrated to the USA earlier) into one great big and fairly homogeneous group. Never did Americans have more in common than they did then, and that is a world Donald Trump would very much like to revive. His stance on trade fits with that "back-to-the-fifties" vision as well, because sheltering Americans from low-wage foreign competition would, he argues, allow wages for American workers to rise back to the levels seen then, without undermining American industry. That those higher wages were paid during the 1950s mostly to American men is a key part of that vision - for if wages for working men were to rise substantially, the patriarchal vision of marriage and family that conservative Christians tend to favor would also become more realizable. Trump's call for more force and less diplomacy in dealing with foreign foes also strikes a resonant fifties' chord with those kinds of voters. Whatever one thinks of those goals, there's no question that many white, evangelical voters favor them, which explains why Trump can attract a significant fraction of their support. And then there is Marco Rubio, who tends, it seems, to do best with younger, suburban white evangelicals, the fraction of that constituency that seems the most "modern." His is a sunnier view of where America is today and will be tomorrow. Rubio's wholesome boyishness appeals to suburban squares who are bothered by a popular culture that is at odds with their values, but who are not as alienated as either Cruz's or Trump's supporters tend to be. For that reason, Rubio has emerged as the GOP establishment's last, best hope this year, the one person who could conceivably block the more disruptive Cruz and Trump candidacies now that the field had been winnowed to three serious contenders. Rubio would have enough appeal to white evangelicals to win their votes against Hillary Clinton, the GOP establishment tends to think now, without going so far in that direction as to alienate those less intensely religious voters who are usually inclined to vote Republican. Advertisement The basic problem with that view is that Rubio has yet to win a primary or caucus. In a three-man race, Trump remains the favorite, even though his slice of white evangelical voters seems unlikely ever to top one-third. The reason for that is that Trump's agenda also appeals to voters who are less religious but still patriarchal as well as economically populist and nationalist. By the middle of March, we should know for sure just how much conservative Christians have shaped the GOP presidential nomination. For now, the pattern that is emerging is one we have seen before: an influential constituency but one so divided as to be far from the decisive one. I don't like being the "well actually" guy. No one likes the well actually guy. I don't like the well actually guy. But when the rest of the internet seems to be plummeting off a cliff like lemmings, I can't help but turn around. Is Childish Gambino releasing a new album soon? No, no he's not. Has Kanye's The Life of Pablo been streamed 100 million times? No, no it hasn't. And now this... Last evening, Drake took to his Instagram to announce that he had "signed" to U.K grime label BBK (Boy Better Know), founded by English grime stars Skepta and JME. Advertisement There's really no other way to read that caption except that Canadian rapper extraordinaire Aubrey "Drake" Graham is indeed saying that he's now signed to BBK, and so predictably that's exactly what the internet has been reporting, which would be fine except it doesn't pass any basic test of logic. First, Drake can't just go around signing to other labels on a whim. The entire point of a label signing an artist is to prevent them from signing with other labels, and despite the persistent rumor, Drake is still very much signed to Young Money/Cash Money. That's the label that submitted his nominations for the 2016 GRAMMYs, that's the label that's listed as releasing IYRTITL and WATTBA, and that's the label that's listed as owning the copyright on even his more recent songs like "Summer Sixteen." We don't know how many more albums Drake has left before he fufills his deal with YMCMB, but we do know that he is currently signed. Of course, Cash Money could always just let Drake sign to another label, which... I'm sorry, I was laughing so hard beer came out of my nose and I had to stop typing. Yeah, like Birdman, a multi-millionaire who literally makes people give him back the change from McDonald's runs, would ever just let his superstar cash cow sign to another label out of the kindness of his heart. Some have suggested that maybe it's only a distribution deal. Nope, Cash Money (and therefore Drake) already has a worldwide distribution deal with Universal Music Group. Maybe it's a deal that only applies to the UK? Again, nope. As the term "worldwide distribution" deal might suggest, Universal has everywhere from England to Antarctica on lock when it comes to selling and distributing Drake's music. Advertisement Ok...so...maybe it's not a deal for Drake but for OVO? Again, nope. While Cash Money has Drake the solo artist under lock and key, Drake signed OVO to Warner Music Group, which again, already has worldwide distribution and isn't going to just casually step aside while one of the highest grossing artists on its roster breaks his contract with them to sign with another company. And let's for a moment pretend that Drake could sign to BBK, even though I want to stress that he's legally not able to under any way I've ever seen label, distribution and publishing contracts work. BBK is a truly indie label without a major distribution deal of its own, what would they possibly do for Drake? They don't have anything resembling the infrastructure to support an artist of Drake's size, Drizzy alone is magnitudes bigger than the entire label. Drake leaving Universal Music Group to sign with BBK would be like Rick Ross trading in his Maybach for a Honda Civic. (That's not a shot at BBK at all, let's just be realistic about the relative levels of business being done by multi-billion international media conglomerate UMG versus indie UK grime label BBK.) The idea of Drake actually, legally, literally signing to BBK is so absurd that there's no logical, rational, objective conclusion to draw but that no, no he's not actually signed. So what's going on? Unsurprisingly, I have some theories. First, BBK isn't only a label, it's also a "crew" in the same way that Pro Era and ASAP Mob are crews. Some of those crew members are also signed to the label, some aren't. It's kind of a rectangle-square situation. Advertisement So while Drake couldn't legally sign to BBK the label without being sued into oblivion by Cash Money and Universal, there's nothing stopping him from joining signing to a crew. And why would Drake want to join the BBK crew? Because he's the biggest wave rider in music, grime is finally making some waves in the U.S., and now if it fully arrives, once again Drake can take credit for its success. He's in so deep he even inked it so you know it's real. Plus, while it's almost inconceivable for Americans to think of Drake as anything less than an unstoppable monster, he hasn't had nearly as much success in the UK as in the States and could use a boost there. At the same time, Skepta and company get a major look from a major artist (even while the artists actually signed to OVO aren't nearly so lucky). It's a win-win that actually makes complete sense. So no, I don't have any definitive proof that Drake isn't signed, but I have a whole lot of logic and critical thinking behind me, which is more than I can say for most others. I'm so confident that I'm right that if Drake ever legally releases music through BBK I'll print out this post and eat it. Don't believe me just watch. Every so often, a state judge's conflict of interest in deciding a particular case is so extreme and antithetical to fundamental fairness that the Supreme Court needs to step in to cleanse the taint. The court did exactly that six years ago with its much-publicized opinion in Caperton v. Massey written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's swing justice. The modest but important decision struck a meaningful blow in favor of fair courts by declaring the obvious: The refusal of a member of West Virginia's Supreme Court to recuse himself in an appeal of a large damages award by someone who had just spent $3 million to help elect him created "an unconstitutional potential for bias." Lamentably, four justices on the court's right flank -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito -- couldn't bring themselves to say that, so the victory for due process, although still a big win, was just 5-4. Advertisement On Monday, February 29th, the eight-member post-Scalia Supreme Court will hear arguments in a new recusal case where the "potential for bias" is glaring -- arguably even more glaring than it was in the Caperton v. Massey situation. At a moment when the Supreme Court's own reputation for even-handedness isn't exactly pristine (and the farcical Republican antics over replacing Justice Scalia won't help that), it would be an especially positive departure for the disgraceful conflict of interest now before the court to be rejected by more than a single vote. Calling Chief Justice Roberts. The current case, Williams v. Pennsylvania, involves a Pennsylvania death row inmate named Terrance Williams who had been scheduled to be executed in March 2015 for a brutal homicide he committed at age 18, until Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Tom Wolf, declared a death penalty moratorium -- one of several dates with death averted over the years. (Mr. Williams also killed another person, when he was 17, for which he did not receive a death sentence, and which is not part of the current tangle.) But the real focus here, in any event, is not the death penalty, which remains a highly contentious subject on the court, as witnessed by last June's 5-4 opinion upholding Oklahoma's most recent method of lethal injection. Rather, just as in Caperton, the current case turns on a transcending principle at the core of the nation's justice system and the rule of law, one that should not be controversial -- namely, the right to a fair hearing before an impartial judge. Advertisement Mr. Williams was denied that right, by any reasonable reckoning, when Pennsylvania's Chief Justice, Ronald Castille, who is now retired, declined to recuse himself in a 2014 ruling by his court upholding Mr. Williams' death sentence, notwithstanding an astonishing conflict: He personally approved and oversaw Mr. Williams' prosecution and post-trial defense of the death verdict in his earlier role as Philadelphia's district attorney. Defenders of this parody of judicial neutrality attempt to portray Mr. Castille's prosecutorial involvement as merely a token administrative thing and of no consequence for the appearance and reality of justice. It doesn't cut it. A more realistic assessment is that Mr. Castille's conduct profoundly undermined the integrity of the judicial proceedings and eviscerated any idea of due process. Toss in, too, that Mr. Castille portrayed himself as a pro-death penalty warrior in his winning 1993 election campaign for the Keystone State's top court. He boasted to voters of sending to death row 45 defendants, including Mr. Williams, further committing himself publicly to Mr. Williams' guilt and the appropriateness of his death sentence. Some conflicts of interest make for tough calls. Not this one. Still, it seems unlikely that this non-recusal case would have reached the Supreme Court were it not for this astounding compounding factor: The decision that Mr. Castille was so insistent about participating in directly implicated his own record as district attorney and his own professional reputation. Specifically, the decision in question tossed aside a trial judge's ruling ordering a new sentencing hearing for Mr. Williams that was based on a finding of serious ethical misconduct by prosecutors working under Mr. Castille. Advertisement Mr. Castille, in other words, saw no problem passing judgment on a prosecution he personally approved and oversaw, and on a trial judge's strongly critical ruling on the conduct of lawyers he supervised. As judicial conflict of interests go, that's pretty basic. "No reasonable person could conclude that Chief Justice Castille could impartially evaluate the performance of his own colleague, acting under his leadership, because that evaluation would require -- both implicitly and explicitly -- a judgment about his own leadership and supervision." So sums up a valuable amicus brief filed by the Ethics Bureau at Yale, a legal clinic at Yale Law School, the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics at Fordham Law School, Hofstra Law School's James Sample and other experts in this area. After admirably taking the trouble to dig into the evidence (an exercise for which she was chastised by Mr. Castille in a separate concurring opinion), the state trial judge hearing Mr. Williams' request for a new sentencing trial concluded that Mr. Castille's former underlings at the D.A.'s office had "plainly suppressed" and "knowingly withheld" and misrepresented evidence indicating that the victim had sexually abused the teenage defendant, which might have avoided a death sentence by providing a mitigating factor in the killing. In rejecting the trial judge's findings and order for a new sentencing hearing, Mr. Castille and his colleagues said that Mr. Williams could have raised his sexual past with the victim at the time, but testified instead that he had never met the man. It may be that the immature defendant, lacking adequate counsel, was too embarrassed to talk about it. It is not unusual for victims of child sexual abuse not to be ready to confront what happened until many years or even decades later. But all of this is beside the point. Mr. Castille had no business ruling in the case and the denial of a new sentencing hearing, made with Mr. Castille's participation, must not stand. Advertisement Who knew new Miami Marlins Manager Don Mattingly was a hypocritical shame to his Mustached-American heritage? Indeed, such has been revealed to be the case as for the first time in Mattingly's major league career as a manager or player, his team has a policy of no facial hair. While the Marlins allowed players to have beards the past two years, that changed under an organizational policy adopted after Mattingly was hired this past offseason. "Initially not too many guys were happy about it," said fledgling reliever Mike Dunn to the Associated Press, who before reporting to spring training shaved off his goatee, which according to biblical texts including the Dead Sea Scrolls causes angels in heaven to die and fall to earth. "You can fight it, or you don't. Obviously, I shaved, so it's OK." Advertisement No, Mr. Dunn -- discrimination against peoples is not "OK," or perhaps understanding that requires more than a 2-5 record with an ERA of 4.50. In fact, according to the American Bar Association and United Nations policies on civil rights, the move violates the civil liberties of Marlins players -- even the non-American ones who are only marginally protected by the U.S. Constitution, particularly if Donald Trump is elected president. Embodying his former Mustached-American empowerment, Mattingly said he didn't care whether players were allowed to have beards, goatees or mustaches -- a gambit that might bump the team from the "Best Places To Work" listicles -- but strongly supports the new rule. "Guys will whine," the now barefaced Marlins skipper told AP. "Some guys like it, some guys won't. As long as we're consistent, I think it's not that big of a deal." Mattingly's body of work is a rare case in Mustached Americana in that as a player for the Yankees, while wearing a robust Chevron-style upper mouth brow, he failed to win anything (although he should qualify for the Hall of Very Good). In 1991, he was even benched for refusing to cut his Mississippi Waterfall-style mullet, suggesting his complaint was that the rule was not being enforced equitably among everyone on the Yankees. And his results were similar during a barefaced tenure as Dodgers manager -- flirting with high expectations yet always failing short while guiding a star-studded team that permitted facial hair. Advertisement For the often-embarrassing Marlins organization, the move marks a return to an era when the organization openly violated the civil liberties of its employees. The team previously had a strict facial hair policy in 2011, one that was abandoned under former manager Ozzie Guillen, a disciple of Joseph Stalin who is now in Venezuela. Yahoo! scribe Mark Townsend -- himself a barefaced mortal who does not accept a sexually dynamic mustached-American lifestyle -- suggests the organization's gambit might simply amount to nothing more than a, "... a silly, outdated line of thinking that will fall flat and make Mattingly look more like a dictator than a manager." Either way, Mattingly has turned his back on an opportunity to celebrate his Mustached-American roots and demonstrate the proven performance enhancing capabilities that come with lower nose foliage. Zenefits Could Face Criminal Charges Employees at the insurance brokerage Zenefits must not be feeling very Zen as the startup's shooting star comes crashing down like a house of cards. The company is under investigation in California and Washington and regulators warn that criminal charges could be filed against those who sold health insurance without proper licensing. Zenefits' new CEO, David Sacks -- who replaced the company founder Parker Conrad just last week -- has already stated that the company skirted compliance requirements in order for workers to sell insurance. According to The San Francisco Business Times, Sacks has said that controls "have been inadequate and some decisions have just been plain wrong." Now regulators are investigating the free human resources software service that makes its money selling employment benefits. A Star Is Born Up until just a few months ago, Zenefits was considered a prime example of the new business genius. The company's founder and CEO, Parker Conrad, managed to make his software-service-benefits-sales startup idea into a reality valued in the billions of dollars by investors. And he did it all in a t-shirt. But Zenefits' CEO stepped down last week and David Sacks, the new CEO, admitted that Zenefits assisted its brokers in obtaining certification improperly. Sacks said that many California sales representatives used a software tool that bypassed required pre-licensing training materials. Thus, Zenefits workers became insurance brokers. It may have seemed like a clever fix for the pesky business of compliance. But it's starting to look shortsighted now that regulators in two states are threatening criminal prosecution. A spokeswoman for the Office of the Insurance Commissioner in Washington told reporters Tuesday that a decision will come, "Within a month." Both individual workers and the brokerage as a whole could be on the hook. Selling insurance without a license can be a felony offense in Washington, so subject to prison time. Meanwhile, the brokerage could lose its license to do business in the state. Tech Startup Bubble? But is this action on the part of regulators too little, too late, given how many people have already been taken in by Zenefits? Perhaps more importantly is the Zenefits story an indication that other supposedly promising startups are built on spin? Last week, the Wall Street Journal pointed out that the Zenefits is no different than many other tech startups. Many of the new businesses ignore regulation until they succeed, according to the WSJ. In other words, sometimes the new genius is just old-fashioned cheating. Related Resources: Can a film change the world? If we believe in the power of one, that ability each human being carries around to make the environment around them better by simply adjusting their behavior, then films have the potential to change the world. I'd like to believe so. I know violence in movies seems to change my very essence, so perhaps great cinema can make our DNA just a little more kind towards our fellow humans. Italian filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi's latest masterpiece Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) was awarded the top prize at this year's Berlinale and jury president Meryl Streep declared the film "urgent, imaginative and necessary filmmaking," when handing him the Golden Bear. Fuocoammare also received the Ecumenical Prize and that jury released a statement saying that Fire at Sea is "a film that refuses to allow the status quo to go unquestioned." If that isn't changing the world through cinema, then I give up. But perhaps the beauty of Rosi's film is that it is, first and foremost, a great work of art, something wonderful, heartbreaking and spellbinding to watch. It's a bit like photorealism, where you can look at the images from a distance and think they are a photograph, but when you get closer and try to decipher their pixels, you are surprised by masterful brushstrokes instead. Rosi appears like a documentary filmmaker but he's really a wondrous storyteller, one who has created a genre all his own, and in the process changed us, the audience, to fit around it. To truly comprehend his genius I'm reminded of a quote I heard earlier this week. Advertisement While Italy has been mourning the death of Umberto Eco, the author and philosopher who is best known in the US for his novel-turned-movie The Name of the Rose, a lot of his wisdom has been published in the media. The one befitting of Fuocoammare, and all of Rosi's touching work actually, is his statement about serving his readers. "I don't know what the reader expects," Eco said, "I think an author should write what the reader does not expect. The problem is not to ask what they need, but to change them ... to produce the kind of reader you want for each story." Rosi produces the kind of audience his movies crave, to satisfy a very specific narrative of changing the world. If you think that in person Gianfranco Rosi is haughty and grand, strutting his intelligence around as someone of his artistic excellence very well could, you're wrong. When I meet him in Berlin, inside the Palast at the end of his day filled with long TV interviews and various photo calls, he's kind, generous with his answers and surprisingly soft-spoken. Himself the product of migrations that have carried him from Eritrea to Italy, to the US and from NYC back to Rome, I find his citizen-of-the-world ease not only refreshing but incredibly inspiring. Where Fuocoammare made me cry, and look at news headlines as the humanitarian crisis that it is, on all sides, Rosi himself manages to refresh within me the need to stand up for this world of mine. And do something. You seem prophetic in your film, because you had to have started filming before the recent migration crisis began... Advertisement Gianfranco Rosi: Yeah, one and a half years ago. Did you know you were being prophetic then? Rosi: No, when I started the film, the problem of migration, if we call this a "problem" was only on Lampedusa. Everything was there, happening from there. Now all this awareness has been created since this summer, basically the Balkan crisis, people arriving from Syria to Greece, discovering new paths and avoiding the sea. Because the sea has been a tomb for for these people, in the last 20 years. I say in my film 15,000 people but I've been told there are more, maybe 20, maybe 30,000 people who died. That 15,000 is a number that is "official" but who knows how many are the dead. So somehow we are facing a sort of disaster, an hecatomb, it's also like a slaughter. I believe that after the Holocaust, this is the biggest tragedy that Europe has ever faced. But this is a slaughter of which we are aware, and therefore also responsible for it, since we don't do anything to stop it. The people of Lampedusa do a lot! Rosi: On Lampedusa they say, "we are fishermen, we are people of the sea and we do accept everything that comes from the sea." Italians, they are doing a lot but this is a crisis that needs to be solved politically, it cannot be taken care of by a single country. This is something the whole of Europe, actually the whole world should join in on. They were able to join forces when they were talking about the climate crisis so they should be able to put together the forces that we have politically in order to face this as a global problem. It's not a problem about how Lampedusa is handling that, it's a problem of policies in the world. The United Nations have to intervene with a real policy, not just talk. But you see my film is not a political film, the issue is political. Mine is a film about sensations, it's a film about emotions, it's a film about encounters, it's a film about people and their small stories. Advertisement Why are you the director, the cinematographer and the sound man on your films? Rosi: Because for me it's important to create a single element and being alone I can create a very close intimacy with what I'm filming. If I had a sound man, a cameraman, an assistant, you know people around, I would break that intimacy. I always want to be invisible when I shoot. I'm able to create a relationship with all the characters by spending time, a long time there. Some people ask me "what is the difference between your film and a BBC documentary, or the news we hear every day?" You know, I arrived in Lampedusa not filming a tragedy, and I arrived at a tragedy after a year I was there... At that point, I stopped shooting. Usually people arrive just to film the tragedy and they stop there. So, I start with an emptiness and slowly, slowly it builds towards something in the film. I heard you talk about the film and you say you don't want to offer a solution. But you do present a catalyst, because after watching Fuocoammare, there is no turning back... Rosi: This is what I hope it can create, an awareness. But you know I don't think filmmakers can change the world, the policy has to change the world. Politicians can change the world, they have the power to. This has to become a political fight. And policies have to change, we can't solve anything by building walls. Walls, they never resist in history, they always collapse sooner or later. Now we are building mental walls, people are afraid, which are more dangerous than real walls. If you could get your wish, for your audiences to walk away with one message from your film, what would that be? Rosi: Hopefully say it's not possible that people die crossing the sea, escaping death and they have to face death within the sea because they are victims of human traffickers. Why don't we create a human corridor? Advertisement **The theatrical rights for Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) were just acquired by Kino Lorber for a US release later this year. By Paula Rogo When Boston schools superintendent Tommy Chang reconvened the district's committee meeting last month, he knew it would be unlike any other. But the attention was on two young, African American women, students who attend one of Boston's premier high schools. They stood face-to-face with some of the biggest powerbrokers of their city's school system to explain that the work being done to ensure a racially-harmonious educational environment is not enough. Days before, Meggie Noel, 17, and Kylie Webster-Cazeau, 18 -- both members of a student group called BLS B.L.A.C.K. (Black Leaders Aspiring for Change and Knowledge) released a YouTube video that highlighted what they say is a climate of racial insensitivity at Boston Latin School (BLS), one of the city's top magnet high schools and also America's oldest public school. In the video, the two launched their #BlackatBLS campaign that decried an openly racist school culture. They specifically pointed to a 2014 incident where administrators failed to listen to complaints of racism after students got into a public Twitter battle following the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. "It just felt like what we go through every day was completely disregarded," Noel told EBONY.com. "What is the oldest public school in the nation going to do, moving forward, to address these issues?" Advertisement The answer to her question is one that BLS and the Boston School Department are trying to respond to now. An investigation found that school administrators did not "adequately investigate" racial incidents that were brought to their attention, according to a report released last week. Coupled with news that enrollment of potential Black students at BLS has been declining for a while-- down 60 percent when compared to 20 years ago--and the city's struggles with recruiting a diverse teaching staff, the question really becomes whether the a top high school in a city that prides itself on its liberalism is also a barometer for how Boston officials handle diversity overall. "Black folks in Boston have always had to fight to get quality education, which is sad because Boston is considered the birthplace of pubic education," said Kim Janey, senior project director at Massachusetts Advocates for Children. A NATIONWIDE PROBLEM The student body at Boston Public Schools is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse in the nation where 87 percent are students of color, according to official numbers. And yet, the problems there are not unique. Education specialists and lawmakers across the country have grappled with the excellence gap, especially in balancing the socioeconomic and racial makeup of the best public high schools. While the percentage of White and higher-income students scoring at the highest levels on the National Assessment of Educational Progress is increasing, underrepresented minorities and low-income students have not made the same gains, with research showing that bright, low-income students actually losing ground as they progress through school without the right support. This is why magnet high schools are held at a higher standard. They not only attract the best students in their region, but they are guaranteed feeder schools to top tier universities. Advertisement Throughout the country, there are examples of magnet high schools that struggle with diversifying their student ranks. New York City's high schools are notorious for their lack of diversity. In 2014, only five percent of seats at the eight magnet schools were offered to Black students and seven percent to Latinos in a melting pot city where 70 percent of all public school students are either Black or Latino. At Stuyvesant High School, arguably the best in the city, just three percent of available seats in 2014 went to Black and Latino students. New York City's use of a test-only admission process for specialty high schools is said to be part of the problem since this gives White, Asian and male students a significant advantage, says New York University Professor Sean Corcoran who worked on a recent study that measured whether replacing the admission test would add more diversity (the study concluded that it has no significant effect). Corcoran says, however, that unless school admission officers take on a more "holistic approach" that considers more than just scores, they will continue to have issues adding diversity to their student body. Boston Latin for example uses test scores and grades for entry into the school, not taking into consideration where the prospective students are from nor if they have done their elementary and middle school years in the Boston Public School system. Nearly half the school is White as compared to the nine percent who are Black. Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation agrees that accounting for a lot more than just test scores and grades is important and that the places that have figured this out tend to be more successful in their diversity strategy. A great example has been Chicago's implementation of a selective enrollment system that looks at a student's socioeconomic status as well as their academic achievement. Kahlenberg worked with the Chicago school system to develop the program in 2009 and says that following this method is not only legal (some states cannot use race as an Affirmative Action option) but will allow for a more diverse makeup as well. And it works, says Timothy Devine, the head of the renowned Walter Payton College Prep in Chicago, the top school in both the city and state. Walter Payton is 17 percent Black, 22 percent Hispanic, 40 percent White and 10 percent Asian, which somewhat reflects the city's racial demographics. Advertisement PICKING THE RIGHT SCHOOL Aggressive recruitment of top students from all walks of life is a key part of Walter Payton's success. Devine says that they try to visit as many of the 500 elementary schools in Chicago (which go up to the 8th grade) each year to identify students with potential. Caryn Stedman of the Connecticut International Baccalaureate Academy (CIBA) in East Hartford, CT uses a similar tactic and has seen results. "Yes, being one of the best schools in the state will always attract the top students," she says, "but sometimes there are students that need a nudge." This is true especially for Black students. Those who have the grades to get into BLS will often decide to go to either Boston Latin Academy or John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics & Science, two other magnet schools in the city-- though not as prestigious-- because both schools have a more multicultural makeup. Many others drop out of BLS and re-enroll elsewhere, said Cazeau-Webster. "The most prestigious of the three schools and the one with the most cachet has the least diversity," said Janey. "What does that tell you?" Connecticut is unique, however, in that it is one of few states that forbid districts from letting any of their schools deviate from a more balanced racial makeup, ensuring there are always decent diversity numbers throughout all schools in the state, including their magnet schools. But not every state is like Connecticut, and places like Mississippi and Louisiana, where half of all students are Black, yet the best public schools are filled with mostly White students, still exists. Advertisement "I mean this comes down to the type of future we want? Do we want a racial divide around wealth? Unemployment? the job market?" asked Janey. "Or do we want to ensure we are preparing students to be creators of their own destinies." And these things matter. Sarita Thomas, a former BLS student and Boston Public Schools educator for 22 years, has a son who currently attends BLS despite Thomas dropping out of the school 30 years ago. She later enrolled in the O'Bryant School, where she says she thrived. "I am not at all surprised by the campaign," said Thomas, speaking of the #BlackatBLS push. "As a parent and educator in [Boston Public Schools], it is just sad to see that we haven't progressed much in 30 years." And as for why she sent her son to the same school: "He has things I didn't," she explained, "and now I know what it takes to survive there." Noel and Webster-Cazeau know it too, but they don't want the future generation of Black students to feel like they have to survive BLS. And the impact of their campaign is still in the works: the local NAACP chapter has asked for the resignation of the BLS' headmaster, Lynne Mooney Teta. "We just want to be students and not worry about race," says Cazeu-Webster. "That's what this all comes down to." Advertisement It wouldn't be an Iranian election without an American interjection. As Iranians head to the polls on Friday for parliamentary elections, three Republican congressmen have taken it upon themselves to seek visas from Iran to serve as election monitors. "We're the perfect people," Representative Mike Pompeo of Kansas told POLITICO, of himself and Lee Zeldin of New York and Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey. "The Iranians should be demanding that we come." The trio wrote a letter to go with their visa applications. Addressed to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, it reads like a proclamation from teenagers trolling their Model United Nations chapter. "The primary reason for our visit to Iran is to observe your elections scheduled for February 26, 2016," they write. "What a historic occasion. We look forward to seeing Iranian democracy in action. It would be a shame if there weren't any Americans present to validate that the elections were free and fair, for the first time in the clerical regime's history." The signatories' relative lack of stature may be beside the point for some in Tehran. The three congressmen are members of the far-right American tea party, and their blustery entitlement is pure propaganda for their far-right Iranian counterparts. Advertisement Ever since the 1953 American-backed coup overthrowing the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq, the perception of American interference in Iran has been prime political fodder for nationalists. The 1979 Islamic Revolution was the culmination of decades of resentment at being treated like a colonial sphere of influence. After Iran's 2009 presidential election ushered in another term for the conservative firebrand Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, protests erupted, which hardliners in Iran accused the United States of fomenting after even the most tepid statement of support from President Obama. Hardliners make hay from any evidence, no matter how tenuous, that their opponents are acquiescent to the West. After President Rouhani flew to France for post-sanctions trade talks, the conservative newspaper chief Hossein Shariatmadari wrote in his reactionary rag, Kayhan, that Rouhani had "shown contempt for the Iranian people" by letting the French foreign minister greet him at the airport, instead of insisting on President Hollande's presence on the tarmac. If bilateral meetings between unequal officials show "contempt for the Iranian people" it would be difficult to show more contempt than the congressmen have. Even the facetious (one must believe) supposition that Ayatollah Khamenei would be interested in meeting with three grandstanding congressmen is contemptuous. Even more so the request to visit Fordow, Arak, and Parchin - three contentious nuclear facilities - and for meetings with President Rouhani and the head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps to receive extraordinary assurances of Iran's good faith in its international agreements. It is in this atmosphere of sound and fury between sarcastic anti-Iranian, anti-Ayatollah rhetoric and histrionic anti-American, anti-Western bombast that Friday's elections are taking place. 290 seats in parliament are up for grabs, as are 88 spots on the Assembly of Experts - a clerical and judicial body responsible for appointing the supreme leader. (The latter takes on additional importance this election cycle because the 76-year-old Khamenei is reported to be in ill health.) The elections are the first since the historic nuclear agreement signed last year lifting sanctions, and are widely seen as a referendum on the relatively moderate Rouhani's policies of globalization and modernization. Advertisement It is difficult to overstate the difficulty Rouhani's allies will have winning seats in a parliament dominated by conservatives, or even getting on the ballot. Because Iran is not a direct democracy and (as in Hong Kong) candidates must be approved by a constitutional oversight body, only half of the original 12,000 candidates who wanted to stand for election were approved. The vast majority were disqualified for being too liberal, and analysts suggest that only 10% of those allowed to compete are moderate and pro-reform. The composition of the current parliament includes only 30 reformists. The same holds true in the council, where only 161 of 800 aspiring Assembly of Experts members were allowed to stand. Just when you thought that the level of mean-spirited arrogance directed toward President Obama could not get any more disgraceful, a new example comes along to add to a long list of blatant slights and disrespectful behavior. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia's body was barely cold before a civil war of words began to make the rounds throughout Washington and the nation at large. Anyone who follows politics or is not brain-dead has witnessed the verbal grenades that a number of Republican politicians have hurled toward President Obama. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell stated in no uncertain terms that the Senate would not even entertain the idea of considering voting for any Supreme Court nominee that President Obama would submit for confirmation. Imagine that, telling the leader of the free world to basically "forget it," we are not going to consider, let alone confirm any Supreme Court nominee you put forth. Ridiculous and disgraceful! There are conservative operatives such as GOP presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and others who have made largely unconvincing arguments by either inadvertently or purposely misinterpreting the Constitution in an effort to give credence to the position they have staked out in an effort to curry favor with their right-wing constituencies. It is a sad commentary for sure. Advertisement Needless to say, there is a more fundamental reason for the level of blatant disrespect and obstruction that has confronted President Obama during his tenure as the nation's first Black president -- race, period. It's that simple. From the minute he was sworn in as the nation's 44th president, this president (and, in some cases, his wife) have been the victim(s) of unrelenting vitriol from a segment of the population that has become emotionally unhinged at the reality of a Black man and his family residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. There are those who will argue that all presidents, particularly recent presidents, have been subjected to varied forms of disrespectful behavior from political opposition to the public at large. While there is some kernel of truth to this, the fact is that, in the case of our current president, such disrespectful behavior has been taken to an entirely new level. It has been more searing, deep-seeded, acidic. In some quarters, the president has been held in such ill regard that some journalists, political pundits, cultural critics and even fellow politicians have made it their duty to remind the public of such treatment. Well, I am doing the same. To refresh your memory here are examples of how our commander-in-chief has been treated with such contempt: The fraudulent birther issue led by Orly Taitz and championed by Donald Trump -- now the GOP front-runner for the presidential nomination -- that raised questions about the president's citizenship. Advertisement Mitch McConnell, at the time Senate minority leader, boldly announcing that the priority for the Republican Party was to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Congressman Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) yelling "you lie" at the president during his State of the Union speech in 2010. Tea Party signs that displayed blatant and venomous racism in their anti-Obama statements. The House GOP prompted by the Tea Party refusing to raise the debt ceiling in 2011. The House GOP -- before notifying the White House -- invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session to denounce negotiations with Iran on limiting its nuclear program. Former Arizona governor Jan Brewer directly shaking her finger in the president's face. Newt Gingrich referring to the president's "anti-colonial behavior." The list goes on and on. While naysayers can belabor the point of other presidents being targets of hostility, the fact is that no other president in recent memory has been subjected to such dishonorable behavior. It is clear that race has been the predominant factor. Recently on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Matthews had as his guest Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe. Both men said that there were a number of Republicans and segments of the White population who were determined to mark the Obama presidency with an asterisk, that they wanted future generations of Americans to view this president as somehow "illegitimate." Advertisement There certainly seems to be considerable evidence of such an argument. Even former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a Reagan nominee, has expressed her dismay with the actions of some Senate Republicans and makes a strong case for the process of choosing and confirming a justice to proceed quickly. The fact is that many Whites, particularly those over 60, came of age in an America where people like them, particularly White men, were the people who made decisions. Other people, especially non-Whites, were seen but not heard and were, oftentimes, invisible to the mind. Ever current shifting demographic trends over the past few decades have caused deep psychological anxiety among more than a few individuals. The days of pre-1980 yesteryears are increasingly becoming a distant and fading memory. That being said, it can be frustrating to see President Obama (too often as far as I am concerned) hold back from calling out such behavior for what it is. Rather, he often decides to engage in a form of an "it's partly my fault" position. It is as if he has become afflicted with a mild degree of Stockholm Syndrome. This is disappointing. The fact is that no one is perfect. That being said, we can spin, analyze, deflect, deny, decry, etc., but the truth will reveal that the majority of resistance and less than cordial treatment that the president has confronted has been due to his race, period. Something tells me that he is probably smart enough to know this. Elwood Watson, Ph.D. is Professor of History, African American Studies and Gender Studies at East Tennessee State University. He is the co-author of HBO Girls: And The Awkward Politics of Gender, Race and Privilege (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2015) By Benjamin Thom, MA Student at the College of Europe As a British student who has been studying in Europe for the last few years, this referendum really matters to me. I feel passionate about it, and I'm deeply worried that my younger compatriots may in future not be able to enjoy the same freedoms and opportunities that I've enjoyed across the European Union. I thus care profoundly about the referendum, as no doubt do voters on the other side of the argument, but there are also those who invoke the economic facts connected to Britain's membership within the EU. They point to the fact that Britain will be detrimentally affected by leaving, with a probable 2% reduction in GDP. They argue that jobs will be lost, as uncertainty linked to our continuing participation in the single market might lead companies to up sticks and move to the continent. There are, however, those who take the opposite view, and claim that Britain could prosper outside of the EU. It could, they say, negotiate its own trade deals, would be free of European-level regulation, and would still be able to enjoy the benefits of the single market. Of course, any membership in the single market would actually require the UK to adhere to its rules, without having any say in their formulation. Nonetheless, it is important to stress that there are people making economic arguments on both sides of the referendum debate. Indeed, the official referendum campaign to remain -- Britain Stronger in Europe -- is led by Lord Rose, an economic heavyweight and formerly chairman of Marks & Spencer's. On the other side, Vote Leave (perhaps the largest exit group) is chaired by the former chancellor, Lord Lawson. We therefore have two different economic opinions, promulgated by two Lords with extensive economic experience and financial acumen. Advertisement The situation we have here is that passionate voters are found on both sides of the argument, and economic considerations inform the remain and the leave campaigns. Therefore, undecided voters are left in a quandary as to who to believe. One issue which -- up to now -- has been relatively neglected, is the impact of a leave vote on the UK's geographically sovereign area, at home and abroad. Both passion and economics are involved here, as the EU referendum could have a profound impact on the identity, and livelihoods of millions of people living around the world. From Scotland, to Northern Ireland, and Gibraltar, people will be affected in a manner potentially far more pressing than the rise or fall of a few percentage points of GDP. Scotland is widely considered to be the most pro-EU part of the United Kingdom, and a recent poll showed that 66% of Scots desire to stay in the EU, whereas the same poll found that 51% of English people wanted to leave. As a result, a potential Brexit would occur against the will of a sizeable majority of people living in Scotland. A Brexit would risk precipitating a second referendum on Scottish independence, as the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, has stated that taking current polling suggests that a new Scottish referendum would generate a strong vote to leave the UK, with 54% of respondents stating that they would vote for independence. The direct effect of Brexit on Scottish voting intentions is plainly seen, as in the 2015 independence referendum 55% of Scots voted to stay in the UK. Advertisement The impact of these voting intentions is clear. In short, Brexit will in all likelihood lead to the break-up of the UK, and the end of a union which has lasted since 1707. Northern Ireland provides a less clear-cut, but potentially still more hazardous example of the dangers of Brexit. Ireland represents the UK's only land border with an EU country, a 300-mile stretch of land, and there are fears that post- Brexit, this could become a 'hard border'. The threat to the economic, cultural, political and historical ties which cross the border was also highlighted by Ireland's Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, who argued that Northern Ireland could face "serious difficulties" were a Brexit to occur. Indeed, the notion that the Irish peninsula would soon contain one of the EU's external borders, generates the very real worry that any form of customs controls or immigration checks could have a grave effect on the economies on both sides of the border, and on the particularly fragile balance between religious communities in the area. The Good Friday Agreement is now 16 years old, and some argue that Brexit would serve to isolate Northern Ireland from Ireland. This development could weaken the foundations of the peace agreement as concrete borders would have a profound impact on Unionists and Republicans alike. Ultimately, a new EU border, hard or not, would starkly emphasize the increasing differences between Britain and Ireland for citizens. In actual fact, the EU has been particularly active in Northern Ireland, with 180 million to integrate the Catholic and Protestant communities confirmed for the 2014-2020 period through the PEACE IV scheme. Furthermore, EU initiatives have facilitated people living near the border to go to whichever school or hospital is closest to where they live, regardless of whether these hospitals or schools are in their country of residence. Initiatives such as this might be halted should a Brexit occur, with the result that communities along the border would begin to have more and more experiences which define them as different. Advertisement Just as with Scotland, exiting the EU could be used as an opportunity by political parties pushing for independence from the UK. Sinn Fein sees this as a "constitutional opportunity" (Martina Anderson, Sinn Fein MEP). We are therefore not just dealing with Brexit, but with a referendum that may bring into question the continuing territorial integrity of Great Britain. Finally we have Gibraltar, a British overseas territory which joined the European Economic Community under the UK in 1973. Gibraltar has only one land connection, to Spain, and as a result it has a vested interest in maintaining relations with the EU. Indeed, ten thousand Spaniards cross into Gibraltar every day to work, whilst many more on both sides of the border travel next door for shopping or leisure activities. Gibraltar is not part of the Customs Union, Common Commercial Policy, Agricultural Policy, or Common Fisheries Policy, and is not obliged to levy VAT. Furthermore, like the UK, it is not a part of the Schengen Area. However, just as Spanish opposition played a role in Gibraltar's exclusion from the Customs Union in 1973, so too there is a fear that Brexit could leave Gibraltar adrift outside the EU, and cut off from the mainland. This has happened before, as the border, Gibraltar's lifeline, was closed for 16 years from 1969 by the Spanish government. The freedom of movement principle enshrined in the EU treaties now makes such a closure legally contentious, and yet were the UK to vote to leave, suddenly Gibraltar's border crossing might again be up for debate. It is, as a result, not surprising to note that Gibraltar's Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, asserted that the fact that Gibraltarians, who are noted for considering themselves more British than the British, are so concerned by Brexit, shows that this year's referendum on the 23rd June, would have a profound impact on Gibraltar, and on the identity of its inhabitants. Ceded at the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, The Rock (and its patriotic citizens) may well come to re-evaluate its relationship with a post-Brexit Britain, as the EU is so fundamental to its stability and wealth. Ultimately, we can see all too plainly that a potential Brexit would combine passions and economics, as lives are altered, identities changed and economies transformed. The question whether to leave or to remain, thus extends far beyond whether we are a member of the EU or not. It determines what it means to be British for voters from Scotland and Northern Ireland, to sunny Gibraltar. Advertisement Their sense of their Britishness could be fundamentally altered, and as a result the nature of this United Kingdom and its passport holders could be changed irreparably. The vote should ultimately be just as much about Edinburgh, Belfast, and Gibraltar as about Brussels. We may not have enjoyed the closest relation with the EU and its institutions, but our longstanding links to those who share our passport, language, culture and outlook is something that should not be underestimated. Voting to leave the European Union may also, in the long run, represent a vote to leave behind our compatriots who are so closely connected to our identity. The answer is so simple, and sad. Mr. Moore's latest eye-opening documentary, Where To Invade Next visited countries that have learned from and adopted our laws and policies, policies that no longer exist in the U.S. of A.; such as tuition-free public colleges (Slovenia), prison systems that rehabilitate rather than punish (Norway), where drug use is not a crime (Portugal), and eight weeks paid vacation is the law (Italy). His film shows America on the way to becoming a Third World country, somewhat lost in the last century and falling behind other developed countries and many developing countries, in caring for our citizens. Perhaps the most moving segment was our failure to secure women's rights. We who were not able to pass the Equal Rights Amendment that prevented discrimination against women in the 1970s, were imitated in countries like Iceland with the first democratically elected President in 1980, and where women's rights are enshrined in their constitution (Tunisia, a Muslim country). Advertisement For some reason, beginning in the 1970s, these countries began to give more rights to their citizens, while America, the world's oldest democracy, took them away. Germany has enshrined collective bargaining in their corporations, where 50 percent of the governing board has to be made up of its employees, whereas many states in the U.S. have either banned collective bargaining, or the paying of dues to support collective bargaining, in 25 right to work states. And Icelandic corporations must have at least 40 percent of each gender on their boards, which was made law after 2008 and the collapse of their banking system. The 3 largest banks all filed for bankruptcy, and some of their all-male executives went to jail, the result of "excessive, testosterone-driven risk taking" said a commentator on their trials. The result was a mass revolt by Iceland's women that demanded a greater role in the running of their own country. Michael Moore interviewed Iceland's special prosecutor for financial crimes, Olafur Hauksson, who said he had learned his prosecution techniques from Bill Black, a U.S. special prosecutor who had convicted bank executives resulting from our Savings and Loan scandal. But no U.S. executive has been prosecuted since, much less convicted, for their excessive risk-taking and disregard of financial regulations during the subprime meltdown and Great Recession. Why have such more modern democracies passed us by? Moore hints that maybe they have learned from their horrific past of religious and world wars to care better for their citizens. But the U.S. hasn't learned from the biggest stain on our democracy -- slavery. We still enslave mostly African Americans in our prisons, thanks to the war on drugs initiated by President Nixon, after President Johnson had signed the Civil Rights Act that finally gave our Black brothers and sisters the same rights as other American citizens. Advertisement While crime rates have gone down, the number of people incarcerated has gone up in U.S. prisons. According to Human Rights Watch, 2.3 million people were incarcerated as of 2007. The United States has the largest incarceration rate in the world with a staggering 762 per 100,000 residents. Compare this to the U.K. whose rate is 152 per 100,000 residents, or Canada whose rate is 102. So many prisoners create a large workforce. According to truth-out and the Left Business Observer, "the federal prison industry produces 100 percent of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98 percent of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93 percent of paints and paintbrushes; 92 percent of stove assembly; 46 percent of body armor; 36 percent of home appliances; 30 percent of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21 percent of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people." And why do we no longer have tuition-free public colleges? It perhaps began when Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California in 1966, UC Berkeley was a hotbed of protests, and tuition-free for California residents. Governor Reagan didn't believe such an education should be free for rebellious college students. His most infamous action of that time was the firing of the UC Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr for not following his orders to ban the student protests. Reagan vowed to "clean up that mess in Berkeley," warned audiences of "sexual orgies so vile that I cannot describe them to you," complained that outside agitators were bringing left-wing subversion into the university, and railed against spoiled children of privilege skipping their classes to go to protests, according to Dissent Magazine, in describing that time. "He cut state funding for higher education, laid the foundations for a shift to a tuition-based funding model, and called in the National Guard to crush student protest, which it did with unprecedented severity. But he was only able to do this because he had already successfully shifted the political debate over the meaning and purpose of public higher education in America." California was becoming more conservative, in other words. Instead of seeing the education of the state's youth as a patriotic duty and a vital weapon in the Cold War, Reagan cast universities as a problem in and of themselves--"both an expensive welfare program and dangerously close to socialism". He even argued for the importance of tuition-based funding by suggesting that if students had to pay, they'd value their education too much to protest. Reagan's assault against higher education was only the beginning of the neo-cons attack on our educational system. Their real purpose was an attempt to dumb down the electorate by crippling our public school and university systems. The fewer that were well educated meant the fewer could challenge the power of those that supported the so-called Reagan Revolution. So there is a reason our educational system ranks lower than 20 or more countries in the world in the major subjects. M Moore visited Finland to learn why Finland is ranked #1 in the world, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), "a standardized test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues." He interviewed teachers, students, and education officials. They all said their students' welfare came first, and standardized tests should be abandoned. They had learned from our educational system that once upon a time allowed more free time for social interaction, little or no homework, when music and art were an important part of our educational curriculum from elementary school onward. Perhaps that is the saddest revelation of Michael's film; how we could have come to undervalue the lives of so many American citizens; even our own women and children. Harlan Green 2016 Much has been said over the recent news that the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paid a $17,000 ransom in bitcoin to a hacker who seized control of the hospital's network. According to a 2015 Symantec report on ransomware which first appeared in 2005 with the Trojan.Gpcoder Trojan horse virus, the risk has only increased in frequency and reach with United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, and Russia most significantly impacted. Beyond the business decision on whether or not to pay the ransom, a strong reputational calculus needs to be vetted on the decision to pay or not to pay. If the ransom is paid, vulnerability to attacks and ransom demands increases, which can put targets in a seemingly never ending cycle of headline risk and financial peril. If the ransom is not paid, stakeholder trust and brand equity may be mortgaged because the enterprise appears to be putting its own interests above those of the customer--this is especially concerning when an organization's core commercial promise is in play, which was the case for Hollywood Presbyterian and its patients' in the context of safety and well-being. But the question remains open on the true impact of ransomware. As is the case with many frivolous lawsuits where settlement often makes more financial sense than protracted litigation, ransomware may represent the unsavory cost of doing business in an age of anonymity and untraceability. Conversely, this scourge may represent a clarion call for greater intelligence and investigative sophistication coupled with the innovation capacity necessary to keep pace with cyber criminals. Advertisement Have you ever wondered why ending the War on Drugs isn't as simple as passing a few laws in Congress? Well, it has to do with some pretty bad pieces of international law that tie the hands of national governments to policies that even they know kinda stink. Fortunately, there's a coalition of really smart people working at the highest levels to untangle what is a really bad knot. Here's what I mean... This April 19 to 21, many of the world's countries, together with human rights and advocacy organizations from around the world, will meet in New York at the United Nations to discuss global drug policy in an event called the "UNGASS," which is UN-speak for United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs. See, the reason so many drugs are harshly criminalized is because there are three international treaties - the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, and the Convention Against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 - that require countries who sign the treaty (including the United States, Canada, Mexico, and most of Europe), to "establish as a criminal offense" the "cultivation, production, extraction, possession, sale, distribution, purchase, and delivery" of several drugs and to "prosecute and punish," "particularly by imprisonment," individuals or groups who violate the terms of the treaties. Advertisement These treaties have thus established drug criminalization and the drug war as an "international norm," or a commonly accepted international standard of behavior, which means that because they signed the treaties, governments have to pass national laws in line with the treaty or face damage being done to their reputation on the international stage. Because of a principle in international law called pacta sunt servanda, which is Latin for "agreements must be kept," going against the treaty would, in theory, damage their "soft power," their ability to use their reputation and influence to achieve their foreign policy goals, without having to rely on hard power threats of military force. And because countries don't want to become known as not being good on their word when they sign treaties, they therefore enact the drug war at home. The global campaign we're all a part of is called Stop the Harm, referring to stopping the harm done by the war on drugs. And at April's UNGASS in New York, we will spend a week in meetings championing for reform to end the failed drug war. It won't end at UNGASS, but we're hoping that we can get some pretty influential governments like the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, and Switzerland to go on the record saying that the current status quo is pretty dumb, as it costs a lot of money and generates a lot of violence, bloodshed, and environmental damage for no demonstrable positive gains. Advertisement If you're going to be in the New York area April 18 through 21, there's also a series of side events relating to UNGASS that you can come and be a part of. SSDP will bring hundreds of students to New York to demonstrate their opposition to the drug war. They'll host art installations in Bryant Park on April 18 and hold events at Foley Square and the UN. The crowd will be joined by International Families Against the Drug War, a global coalition of family members that have lost loved ones to overdose, incarceration, violence, and other harms associated with drug prohibition. Families associated with Anyone's Child: Families for Safer Drug Control and Moms United to End the War on Drugs will join with others from Canada, Mexico, Kenya, Afghanistan and the Philippines to hold a press conference at the UN to tell global leaders, face-to-face, that their drug policies are harming our children and relatives. And the Caravan for Peace, Life, and Justice, made up of families whose loved ones have been killed in mindless drug war violence will travel from Honduras in March through Central America, and arrive in New York on April 18 for a protest, day of reflection, and prayer on the eve of UNGASS. UNGASS is going to be a big event, involving people from all over the world, including both world leaders and ordinary people who have been affected and harmed by the failed drug war. If you hate the drug war and think it's bad policy, pay attention to UNGASS, follow our campaigns, make your voice heard with our hashtags (#UNGASS2016, #StopTheHarm, #NoMoreDrugWar), maybe attend a protest or event, and know that there are people all over the world fighting to fix this awful global problem at its source. Hillary Clinton appears to be playing cynical racial politics again, as she did in 2008. Its just got a different look and feel. Today, Clinton is wrapping herself in the flag of Obama to appeal to Black voters, arguing that shes the candidate who will address the needs of Black people. Shes got her surrogates attacking her opponents civil rights bonafides, and shes built a large stable of Black establishment players to support her. Clinton is proclaiming that Black Lives Matter and offering bold promises to fight systemic racism and inequality. Advertisement But its hard to believe shes serious about fighting for racial justice unless you pretend her 2008 campaign against Obama never happened. If you remember that period, theres good reason to believe todays promises are nothing more than lip-service to a community she sees as key to winning the nomination. Clinton is now attacking Bernie Sanders for having criticized Obama, trying to take advantage of Black folks desire to defend the president. But it was Clinton herself who waged an incredibly nasty campaign of attacks and smears against Obama, going far beyond mere policy disagreements. A quick trip down memory lane reveals that Clinton has a history of employing race in a divisive, cynical manner. Based on what happened the last time Hillary Clinton ran for President, we should expect that at some point Black people will get thrown under the bus again, especially if it helps Clinton gain or maintain power. Painting Obama As Not Fundamentally American Throughout the 2008 election season, racist and bigoted smears about Barack Obama circulated online, and bubbled up into mainstream conversation about the campaign in the traditional news media. Two of the most prominent lies about Obama, which persist to this day, were that he is secretly a Muslim (playing on fear-mongering and bigotry about Islam), and that he was not really born in America. Both of these ideas paint Obama as other and outside the mainstream, drawing their potency from fears about Black people gaining power. People generally associate these memes with the right wing. But the truth is that for the entire Democratic primary, not only did Hillary Clintons campaign do nothing to push back against the racist fear-mongering about Obama, it actually fed this atmosphere and helped it grow. It was a part of their strategy from early in the campaign. Advertisement Back in March of 2007, Hillary Clintons chief strategist Mark Penn wrote a campaign memo that proposed painting Barack Obama as un-American or other: His roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values ... Every speech should contain the line you were born in the middle of America to the middle class in the middle of the last century ... Let's explicitly own 'American' in our programs, the speeches and the values. He doesn't. In December of 2007, Billy Shaheen, the co-chair of Clintons New Hampshire campaign, raised the issue of Obamas drug use as a young man, and the possibility that Obama could be attacked as a drug dealer. He said he was talking about how Republicans would attack Obama, but his statements had the effect of injecting racist stereotypes into the campaign: Itll be, When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone? There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It is a tried and true tactic: floating an idea to which you claim to not personally ascribe, with the effect of getting the idea to circulate. The next day, Clinton privately apologized to Obama for Shaheens comments and claimed she had nothing to do with them. Obama didnt accept the apology because he believed Clintons campaign was circulating emails claiming he was a Muslim. According to Reggie Love, Obamas personal assistant at the time: The candidate [Obama] very respectfully told her the apology was kind, but largely meaningless, given the emails it was rumored her camp had been sending out labeling him as a Muslim. Advertisement In February 2008, the Drudge Report posted a picture of Obama in traditional Kenyan/Somali clothes (including a turban, which helped reinforce the secret Muslim smear). Drudge said the picture was circulated by the Clinton campaign. David Plouffe, Obamas campaign manager called it the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we've seen from either party in this election. Initially, the Clinton campaign did not deny having sent the photo, instead playing dumb about the possible impact of the photo and attacking Obama over it: If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a member of Congress and Clinton surrogate, when asked about the circulation of the photo, implied that Barack Obama is native to Kenya: I have no shame, or no problem, with people looking at Barack Obama in his native clothing, the clothing of his country if were supporting a woman or an African American for president, we ought to be able to support their ability to wear the clothing of their nation. Then theres Hillary Clinton, herself, more subtly doing the same. In March 2008, in an interview on 60 Minutes, instead of defending Obama against the secret Muslim smear, Clinton carefully and strategically left room open for doubt, saying I take him on the basis of what he says, and then when pressed, saying hes not Muslim as far as I know. Clinton could have clearly and unequivocally denounced the smears against Obama, but she didnt. Advertisement In contrast, when presented with a similar question, the Republican front-runner John McCain unequivocally dismissed such claims, rebuking and taking the microphone away from a participant in a town hall who asserted she couldnt trust Obama because he is an Arab. He Would Not Have Been My Pastor Barack Obamas connection with his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, became a major controversy in the 2008 presidential campaign because of his strong, controversial, and sometimes radical statements on America and U.S. policy. Tapes were obtained showing the reverend saying God Damn America instead of the expected God Bless America, and speaking frankly about the treatment of Black people in America. Jeremiah Wrights sermons were reflective of what youd hear in a Black church anywhere in America, and despite the caricature perpetuated at the time, Wright was neither a separatist nor anti-white. While there is reason to believe that the Jeremiah Wright tapes may have come from those associated with the Clinton campaign, whats certain is that Hillary Clinton used guilt by association to further other Obama as un-American and downright scary to white people. It was also a way to attack the legitimacy of Obamas church and faith, working in conjunction with the secret Muslim smear. Hillary Clinton used the selective view of Reverend Wrights message to go in on Obama (watching the totality of Wrights sermon leading up to God Damn America paints a very different picture of the man and his message a raw, but truthful account of Americas failures on race, foreign policy, and much more, and not dissimilar from what youd hear today from Black Lives Matter activists). Clinton claimed that Wright blames America for 9/11. She went on to say that leaders have a choice of minister and that she would not have chosen to be a part of Rev. Wrights church. Further, she used the opportunity to try to link Obama to Louis Farrakhan, as well as Hamas. Advertisement She attacked Obamas association with Rev. Wright not once, but on several occasions. And she launched these attacks after Obamas deeply moving A More Perfect Union speech, where he both denounces some of Wrights rhetoric, while speaking to the reality of race in America and Black Liberation Theology. As Obama tried to move on from the manufactured controversy around Jeremiah Wright, the Reverend was thrust into the spotlight again with a highly publicized appearance at the National Press Club which, it turns out, was organized by a longtime Clinton ally. Hillary Clinton didnt mention that Jeremiah Wright had been Bill Clintons guest at the White House, at an event where Hillary Clinton was present. Appealing to Whites In 2008, Clinton had been counting on Black voters, much as she is now, as the primaries move to states with more diverse electorates. But after Barack Obamas victory in South Carolina in 2008 made it clear that most Black voters were supporting him, the Clinton campaign began making the argument that Obama was not electable because he was not winning enough support from white voters. The Clinton campaign implied, over and over again that, as a Black man, Obama could not attract the support of the white people (many of them racists, apparently) supporting Clintons campaign. Advertisement Just as South Carolinas polls were closing, Bill Clinton made the following statement when asked about the strength of Obamas campaign: Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice in 84 and 88, and he ran a good campaign. And Senator Obamas run a good campaign. The implication was clear. Jesse Jacksons presidential campaigns succeeded in garnering many Black votes, but never secured enough support from white voters to win the nomination or the presidency. By comparing Obamas campaign to Jesse Jacksons campaigns from 20 years earlier, Bill Clinton was dismissing Obama as the Black candidate who was perhaps running a good protest candidacy but could not possibly expect to win the nomination. It turns out this wasnt just an off-the-cuff comment it was an attack that Clintons chief strategist Mark Penn had suggested in a strategy memo earlier that day. Speaking in West Virginia (a state that is 94% white), Bill Clinton said: Florida won, and won anyway, because of people like you, in places like this. So dont let anybody tell you she cant win. They want you to vote in low numbers, so she doesnt get ahead in the popular vote. If you vote in high numbers, were gonna roll through this thing. Discussing this clip on MSNBC, David Shuster asks Pat Buchanan (who is notorious for pushing white supremacist ideas into the mainstream): Hey Pat, when he says people like you, and hes in West Virginia, what is he talking about? Buchanan: You mean thats directed at me? Hes talking about frankly hes talking about the white working class, the silent majority, the middle Americans. Governor Ed Rendell, a Clinton supporter and surrogate, said: "You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate." Advertisement By May, after most observers had already concluded that Barack Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton was still trying to undermine his candidacy by arguing that he wasnt getting enough support from white voters. She put that argument in the most explicit terms yet: There was just an AP article posted that found how Senator Obamas support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans is weakening again, and how the, you know, whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on. Clintons comments not only made the case that a Black candidate could not appeal to white voters; they also played on nasty stereotypes about Black people and other people of color by equating white Americans with hard-working Americans. Even after being widely criticized for these comments, Hillary Clinton continued to make the argument a few days later to voters in West Virginia. Im winning Catholic voters, and Hispanic voters, and blue collar workers, and seniors, the kind of people that Senator McCain will be fighting for in the general election. Now, some call you swing voters, I call you Americans. Did you notice which group of voters was missing from Clintons list? The Clinton strategy in West Virginia appears to have paid off. Clinton won West Virginia, and 21% of the voters were white people who said race was a factor in their voting, with that group supporting Clinton overwhelmingly, 84% to 9%. Advertisement Media Outlets and Political Leaders Called Clinton Out This pattern did not go unnoticed at the time. While many who might have otherwise spoken out likely limited their criticism not wanting to anger a powerful political dynasty many prominent Democratic and Black commentators and politicians did call it out. When Hillary Clinton attacked Obama for having weak support among white people in May 2008, her comments were denounced in no uncertain terms by many prominent Democrats and media commentators. Here is a sampling: The New York Times (which also endorsed both Clintons 2008 and 2016 campaigns): Mrs. Clinton will be making a terrible mistake for herself, her party and for the nation if she continues to press her candidacy through negative campaigning with disturbing racial undertones We endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and we know that she has a major contribution to make. But instead of discussing her strong ideas, Mrs. Clinton claimed in an interview with USA Today that she would be the better nominee because a recent poll showed that Senator Obamas support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again. She added: Theres a pattern emerging here. Yes, there is a pattern a familiar and unpleasant one. It is up to Mrs. Clinton to change it if she hopes to have any shot at winning the nomination or preserving her integrity and her influence if she loses. "Racists should decide the Democratic nomination," Issac J. Bailey wrote Friday in the Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Sun News. "Sen. Hillary Clinton didn't use those words in an interview with USA Today, but she came close." Advertisement On Salon.com, Joe Conason asked "Was Hillary channeling George Wallace? Hillary's reckless exploitation of racial division could split the Democratic Party over race a tragic legacy for the Clintons." From the NY Post: Muriel Offerman, a North Carolina superdelegate who has not disclosed her choice, said, That should not have been said. I think it drives a wedge, a racial wedge, and thats not what the Democratic Partys about. In isolation, many of these moments could be explained away as an innocent slip-up or a Clinton surrogate or supporter going off-message. But together, they form an overwhelming and unmistakable pattern (and I havent even mentioned some of Bill Clintons divisive remarks and many of the divisive and racially inflammatory statements made by Clinton supporters and surrogates like Andrew Cuomo, Bob Kerrey, Geraldine Ferraro, Harriet Christian, Bob Johnson, Lanny Davis, and others). Fast Forward Eight Years: Has Anything Changed? I cant easily forget this history. Ive spent 13 years working in progressive politics and have seen first-hand the strange dance between the so-called Black vote and the Democratic establishment. Black people are sold a promising bill of goods by a candidate who claims to be concerned about our interests. After the election, attention on our communities needs largely disappears until the next election comes around. Hillary Clintons decision to use race-based attacks to undermine Obama says something about who she is. Its one thing to miss the mark on policy to not foresee consequences of a policy you support 20 years into the future (Michelle Alexander and others have covered how Secretary Clinton's policy positions have been quite damaging to Black America). Its another to actively play upon prejudice and fear in the pursuit of power, and in the course of doing so help to perpetuate a destructive status quo that continues to wreak havoc on peoples lives. Advertisement In 2008, Secretary Clinton damaged Obamas candidacy by validating right-wing racist memes and smears, and she could have cost him victory against Republicans in the general election. She also helped hamstring the Presidents ability to battle racism by supporting and legitimizing the right-wing fear-mongering that Obama would have an agenda to work for Black people at the expense of everyone else. If we support Clinton in the primary now, without confronting this history, it excuses and rewards this behavior, affirming that there is no political cost to throwing Black people under the bus, and making it more likely that Hillary Clinton and other Democrats will continue to use racism for political gain. A Chance to Walk the Talk Over the last few months, Black activists took the streets among a chorus of people calling for Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, to resign. After Emanuel was implicated in the coverup of the brutal killing of Laquan McDonald (against a backdrop of his overseeing predatory and unaccountable policing in his city for years), Hillary Clinton had a decision to make. Would she stay out of the fray, support the push to hold Emanuel accountable, or use her credibility to validate him? She chose the final option, claiming she had confidence in Emanuel to handle the situation, saying He loves Chicago and I'm confident that he's going to do everything he can to get to the bottom of these issues and take whatever measures are necessary to remedy them. This move, which undermined the efforts of those working as a part of the Movement for Black Lives, came after Clinton embraced Black Lives Matter and claimed that she would work to increase police accountability. Of course, what Clinton did is what those in power too often do they protect those who are connected to them, who can help them maintain power. Acting otherwise is difficult, but its absolutely necessary if we are serious about addressing systemic racism and other ills in our society. Its necessary if were going to act according to a moral compass rather than that which is politically expedient. And its definitely the kind of leadership that Black America needs. Advertisement Should Hillary Clinton be the Democratic nominee, I would of course choose her over any of the Republicans running. But I would be doing so understanding who she is, with no illusions about her record and past actions. And today, while were in the context of the primaries, I dont know how Black Americans or those who care about resolving the scourge of racism in this country can cast a vote for Clinton, without an honest discussion of this history. In almost 20 years writing about environmental justice, few times have I dealt with such a heart-breaking story. The 100,000 residents of Flint, Michigan, especially its Latino population, are experiencing a profound sinking feeling. "What has been done here is completely shameful because there has been total indifference to the suffering of the community," says Art Reyes, a Flint native and activist with the Center for Popular Democracy. In Flint, an overwhelmingly poor community of color, the country has witnessed a catastrophic collapse of the fundamental duty of any government: guaranteeing the safety of the community it serves. Advertisement It all started in April of 2014 when Flint's emergency manager --an envoy arbitrarily appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to supervise the City Council-- approved switching the city's water supply from the Detroit System to the Flint River in order to save $5 million. After decades of serving as the local industry's sewage collecting system, the river's water turned out to be extremely corrosive. The ancient lead piping system started to erode and eventually the water acquired very high levels of lead, copper and cadmium. By October of 2014, the local GM plant stopped using the Flint water because it was corroding its auto parts. Almost two years later, and because of the negligence of a state government that refused to take action, the Flint residents have been exposed to alarming levels of lead poisoning. "While kids were in schools with water tainted with lead, they were more concerned with the public relations aspect of it than with the health concerns of the residents of this community," says Reyes. Advertisement This crisis is especially severe for the small, yet very vulnerable Latino community in Flint. Because many of them are undocumented and know little or no English, they were the last ones to find out they had been poisoning themselves by drinking the water and bathing in it. "When this made international news, relatives of these families from Mexico and other countries were calling asking what was going on, and in some cases that's how people found out about it," he says. Civic groups such as Reyes's started translating public notices warning the public that they were to drink only bottled water. Even so, and because an ID was required to collect bottled water and of rumors that undocumented families were being arrested, many rejected this option. Fortunately, local churches later began distributing drinking water without requiring any documentation. "After some 28 days, detecting lead in the blood is very hard, despite the fact that the damage can be severe", says Reyes. Independent testing in Flint revealed water lead levels up to 900 times higher than the federal limit. When a child suffers severe lead poisoning, the risk of permanent brain damage -- including learning disabilities, diminished IQ and violent behavior-- is enormous. And Flint residents are witnessing this unfolding tragedy powerless and frustrated by an inept and even cruel state government. Advertisement "The toxic water of Flint is one of the country's most expensive", says Reyes. "On average, it costs $140 a month". Reyes and Flint Rising --an alliance of civic groups working to bring relief and justice to Flint families-- are demanding immediate action to tackle this crisis, including the following: Replacing the water-piping infrastructure including that of all Flint homes. The initial savings of5 million will end up costing up to 1.5 billion, according to city officials. Providing medical and educational assistance, both in the short and long terms, for Flint's children affected by lead poisoning. Reassuring the terrified families of Flint that effective measures will be put in place. And making sure that those responsible for this scandal will be held accountable. Kesha Seeks Injunctive Relief: What Is That? Last week pop music fans around the country got passionate about contract law. It's an unusual occurrence prompted by the case of Kesha Rose Sebert against her producer Lukasz Gottwald. Kesha is seeking an injunction, or a court order, relieving her of her contractual obligations on the basis of sexual and psychological abuse by Gottwald, known as Dr. Luke. On Friday afternoon, a judge in New York denied the request for an injunction and #FreeKesha was trending nationally as fans demanded that she be released from the prison of her deal. Then Taylor Swift donated a quarter million dollars for Kesha's legal troubles and other pop stars opined widely on the matter. Let's take a look at the relief Kesha seeks. What is an injunction and what does the denial mean for Kesha? Injunction Defined An injunction is a kind of relief that people seek from courts in addition to or instead of monetary damages. It is a request that an action be taken or not taken, basically a court order dictating an approach to a particular problem. There are all kinds of injunctions that arise in numerous different contexts. For example, when someone seeks a restraining order, requesting that another person keep a particular distance and it is issued, that order is a kind of injunction. Similarly, in copyright infringement suits a plaintiff may request monetary damages for non-licensed use of their intellectual property, as well as an injunction barring the use from continuing in the future. Even states can be barred from acting with an injunction -- say a law is passed in a state and is successfully challenged in federal court, the federal court can enjoin the state from enforcing the new law. In other words, the court orders the state not to act. Kesha's Case Kesha is seeking an injunction, or an order, stating that she is not obligated by her contract with Dr. Luke. But as Bloomberg Business points out, Kesha's contract involves more than just her and Dr. Luke -- it also involves Sony and other parties. The judge did not see freeing Kesha as a simple matter. She expressed concern that granting relief would lead to a slew of requests by artists to be released from the obligations of heavily negotiated contracts like Kesha's. In other words, she's worried about setting bad precedent. Given the absence of evidence that the pop star was sexually or emotionally abused, the judge said, relief wasn't warranted. But the judge did say that Kesha can record with someone other than Dr. Luke under the terms of the contract, meaning she is, in a sense, already free. While the pop star's attorney argued that this is illusory, and that Dr. Luke's approval will be required. Whether or not that's true, Dr. Luke seemed satisfied with this answer, issuing a statement through his attorney that the court "found that Kesha is already 'free' to record and release music without working with Dr. Luke as a producer. Any claim that she isn't 'free' is a myth." Follow FindLaw for Consumers on Facebook and Twitter (@FindLawConsumer). Related Resources: For most of American history, evangelicals have alternated between two seemingly contradictory modes of political activism. The first is a crusading moralism that shades into xenophobia. At the dawn of the twentieth century, for example, evangelicals asserted the nation's right to "Christianize" the "backwards" peoples of Cuba and the Philippines. Evangelicals also led the fight for liquor prohibition, a policy designed to discipline the nation's growing ranks of Irish and Italian immigrants. And as late as 1960, many evangelicals insisted that the Catholic John F. Kennedy was unfit to occupy the Oval Office. But while evangelicals' history of xenophobia is well documented, any fair-minded account of American political history would also have to note the prominent role of evangelicals in movements to create a more compassionate and egalitarian society. It would be difficult to tell the story of women's suffrage or the fight to abolish child labor without reference to evangelical organizations and reformers. The Civil Rights Act, too, might well have failed if not for the intense lobbying efforts of Midwestern Protestants. Even Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty received a boost from the conservative evangelist Billy Graham, who produced a film highlighting rural poverty in Appalachia. Advertisement In recent decades, however, the compassionate half of the evangelical legacy has been increasingly overshadowed by its less appealing twin. At first glance, it may seem that the roots of the shift can be traced to 1980. That was the year that evangelicals abandoned Jimmy Carter -- himself a devout evangelical - in favor of Ronald Reagan. Historians disagree on why evangelicals became disenchanted with Carter and the Democrats. It may have been Carter's relative lack of interest in culture war issues such as abortion, school prayer, and pornography. Or it may have been the Carter administration's decision to deny tax-exempt status to Southern religious schools that engaged in racial discrimination. Whatever the reason, evangelicals would remain more or less loyal members of the Republican coalition from this point forward. Even after 1980, however, many evangelicals continued to exhibit a genuine commitment to aiding the less fortunate. As late as 2000, evangelical voters flocked to George W. Bush, a candidate who promised to govern as a "compassionate conservative." And evangelicals remained loyal to Bush as he pursued a policy agenda that included comprehensive immigration reform, education reform, new spending on faith-based social services, and massive increases in foreign aid to fight HIV and malaria in Africa. Upon close inspection, the real shift in the evangelical worldview likely took place in 2008 - the year that evangelical primary voters backed the upstart Mike Huckabee over John McCain. Although Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, was adept at weaving religious themes into his campaign speeches, his policy proposals bore little resemblance to those of earlier evangelical candidates. Indeed, his preferred method of generating headlines was to stoke conservatives' darkest fears. He promised to reject even the most anodyne of international agreements, lest the United Nations usurp American sovereignty. He warned of a coming clash of civilizations between "Islamofascism" and the West. He described Americans' increasing tolerance of homosexuality as a sign of cultural decay. And although he had once spoken respectfully of undocumented immigrants, he was the first of the 2008 Republican candidates to sign a "no amnesty" pledge. Advertisement The trend continued in 2012, when evangelicals backed Rick Santorum, a conservative Catholic, over Mitt Romney. Santorum, like Huckabee, rarely appealed to evangelicals' better angels. Instead, he promised to build a fence along the Southern border and to make English the official language. He promised to scale back social programs to prevent minorities from becoming dependent on "government handouts." And he warned that recognition of same-sex marriages would lead inexorably to the legalization of polygamy. And then came 2016. At present, evangelical voters appear torn between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. That significant numbers of evangelicals are backing a profane, thrice-married billionaire is, of course, worthy of note. But the more interesting development concerns the way in which Trump and Cruz are winning the evangelical vote. Indeed, both candidates appear to be reading from the Huckabee-Santorum script. America is under attack, we are told, and the attackers are legion - from Mexican immigrants, to "radical Islam," to Syrian refugees, to the United Nations, to a President who favors Muslims over Christians. And there is only one remedy: We must "take our country back" from the nebulous other. Trump's curious popularity among evangelicals -- the subject of so much media chatter -- can thus be seen as the culmination of a long-term trend. As evangelicals have gradually exchanged the Sermon on the Mount for the rhetoric of fear and exclusion, there has ceased to be anything distinctly evangelical about the "evangelical vote." To be sure, there are millions of Americans who call themselves evangelicals, and it is possible to measure these voters' preferences. But it is becoming harder and harder to distinguish evangelical voters from their secular counterparts on the Republican party's right flank. In the short run, it seems only natural for progressives to celebrate these developments. What progressive wouldn't relish the thought of Donald Trump as the Republican nominee? But there should be no sugarcoating the long-term dangers that an irreligious Republican party presents. Stripped of its genuinely compassionate instincts, American "conservatism" may well become indistinguishable from the ultra-nationalism that is currently making an alarming comeback in Europe. And that is a prospect that no one -- least of all progressives- - should welcome. Opposite the fashionable Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District in Manhattan sits what may be the new standard in global retail right now - Samsung 837. Named after its address at 837 Washington Street, the "store" (and Samsung shies away from calling it that) contains three floors of brand experiences in 40,000 square feet of space, with not a product for sale. Samsung 837 seemingly grew out of the Samsung Galaxy Experience permanent pop-up store, which existed for several years in SoHo, New York. But this has been reimagined on a far grander scale. (And in fact Samsung occupies the entire building - above the store is their North American headquarters). You can clearly see echoes of other great brand experience retailers in Samsung 837. The massive central screen is evocative of Burberry in Regent Street, London. The stadium seating feels like Prada in SoHo. The staircase and tall timber phone table displays conjure up Apple. Yet despite the echoes, the store does have a clear voice of its own. Advertisement To me, Samsung 837 checks off three trends in experiential retail. Me-Tail: Samsung 837 is a shrine to the temple of self in an era of narcissism. You can see it everywhere in the flagship: Selfie Station - right from the moment you enter the store, staff encourage you to snap your picture, which is then beamed moments later in pixelated form to the massive display (96 x 55-inch screens stitched together). It is you writ large and people love it. Galaxy 7 Photo Booth - step into the glass box and get your picture taken (again), this time against the Manhattan skyline. Then compare a Galaxy 7 shot versus one of the competitor's phone cameras. Social Galaxy - this is the biggest, boldest experiment. Enter your Instagram handle, then step into a mirrored tunnel, where the entire history of your feed surrounds you, complete with commentary on the places you've been and the people you know. Advertisement Even the ubiquitous VR experiences (and there are two dedicated zones) are all about immersing yourself in your own little world. "Being" Not "Buying": The emphasis in the store is on experiences and events - you can't actually transact at Samsung 837 (apart from the cafe upstairs, where you can use your Samsung Pay). It's about being exposed to the brand, and Samsung has clearly strategically separated the notion of "brand experience" from "purchase fulfillment". In line with that thought, the upper level of the store is a huge hang-out space, with plush lounges, high bars to sit at and charge your phone with free WiFi available (of course). The cafe not only serves gourmet food, but cocktails. The ground floor level features a glassed-in recording booth, where bands can record and stream the process onto the giant screen in front of a crowd in the stadium. There is also a professional edit suite, to instantly produce content from the store and upload to the web. Luxury for the Masses: The store fit-out is extremely high quality. In some ways Samsung has "out-Appled" Apple. Instead of glass, there is a marble staircase. The tiling is more high-end bar or apartment complex than a standard store. The pitch in this flagship is similarly elevated. The space is intended to be a cultural as much as a commercial experience. And so famous and emerging artists are featured in and around the product displays and installations. This is a dynamic time for retail. It is fascinating to see new models emerge, and new ways of telling brand stories come to life. In the midst of the retail revolution, Samsung 837 emerges as a brave example of how to do it right. Advertisement Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi prepares to speak during the India Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015. More than 40 African leaders are in New Delhi to attend the IAFS 2015, preceded by meetings of trade and foreign ministers from nearly all 54 African nations, to explore how Indian investment and technology can help a resurgent Africa face its development challenges. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup) On Monday, February 23, two Members of the Egyptian Parliament -- businessman Mahmoud Khamis and controversial TV anchor Tawfik Okasha -- physically attacked two reporters who were covering the running parliamentary session. According to Khamis, it was "impolite" of the photographer from Al-Watan newspaper to photograph Okasha, after he was expelled from the hall for repeatedly interrupting the parliamentary speaker. Okasha also criticised the speaker and called the journalists at the session 'police informers." The journalist syndicate responded the next day by calling on all reporters to boycott the parliament, as it is "the role of the people's representatives to defend citizens" rights, not to assault them and those who transmit the truth," adding that the syndicate will not tolerate the repetition of such violations. Newly elected Parliament Speaker, Ali Abdel-Aal responded by expressing his deep respect for the media, and urged the journalists syndicate not to boycott the parliament. Advertisement This is only the latest development in a quickly deteriorating situation of, arguably, Egypt's most important institution of modern times. Last month, precisely on January 12th, during only the third session under the newly elected parliament, speaker Ali Abdel-Aal announced the temporary ban of all live news broadcasts of the legislative body's sessions. This decision was made by the parliament following a quick vote, after the world and social media had witnessed in ridicule as the first two sessions of this institution's history were marred by insults, confusion and absolute chaos. This decision was also made by the parliament in spite of the fact that 81% of Egyptians, the people that the parliament represents, are in favor of live televised sessions, according to a recent Baseera poll. The ban arrived at a crucial time for Egypt, as the parliament, the first under the new constitution and under Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's presidency, was on the verge of beginning the process of reviewing and ratifying almost 340 laws and decrees issued in its absence during the past three years by the current President and former interim President Adly Mansour. Some of these laws carry huge significance for the future of the country, including the civil service law, the investment law, the law on the Suez Gulf economic zone and the criminal laws restricting freedoms and civil society. The decision to ban the broadcasts was met with widespread criticism and even a lawsuit by the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), citing Article 120 of the constitution: "The sessions of the House of Representatives are held in public. The House may hold a closed session based on a request by the president of the republic, the speaker of the House, or at least 20 of its members. The House will decide by majority whether the debate in question takes place in a public or a closed session ." However, Abdel-Aal denounced the performance of some cameramen at the sessions and defended the decision, claiming that it does not contradict the constitution, as select members of the media will still be allowed to cover the sessions, while the main parliament channel (Sawt Al Sha'ab or Voice of the People), owned by the state, will broadcast select recordings of the sessions. Advertisement After continuous waves of criticism by the media following the decision, Abdel-Aal assured that live broadcasts would only remain off-air for 15 days until the members of parliament reviewed the laws, after-which broadcasting would resume as normal. When after 15 days passed nothing changed, MP Mohamed Anwar El Sadat promised that live broadcasting would instead return on President al-Sisi's scheduled speech in front of parliament on February 7th, while MP Sahar El Hawary insisted that broadcasting would resume after the parliament's internal bylaws had been finalized. Nothing changed after President al-Sisi's speech on February 7, which means that the closest foreseeable date for the return of the broadcasts is the day on which the parliament finalizes its internal bylaws. As you can imagine, these bylaws will be critically important in determining how the parliament will function for years to come. Egypt's cabinet was supposed to present the government's programme to the parliament either by the end of February or in early March when the bylaws are agreed upon, but according to Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Magdy El-Agaty, the date of this critical session will probably also be postponed, as the parliament is extremely slow in approving the new bylaws. According to Article 146 of the constitution, the cabinet, led by the prime minister who was appointed by president al-Sisi, must present its programme to the parliament during its preliminary session (after approving the bylaws). A majority vote of confidence in the cabinet and its program is required within 30 days of its formation. If a majority vote is not reached, the president appoints another prime minister based on the majority party or coalition. If the parliament does not agree on the plan of the new prime minister, then the parliament is dissolved and new parliamentary elections take place. This indicates that the parliament has a huge task ahead of it. In addition to ratifying the almost 350 laws, approving the internal bylaws and voting on the cabinet's program, all within a couple of weeks, the legislature also has a host of other issues to deal with. MP Tawfik Okasha is being investigated for insulting the Speaker of Parliament on Monday. Fellow controversial MP Mortada Mansour is wasting crucial time attempting to have one of the most popular political talk shows on Egyptian TV, AlQahera Al Youm, suspended for personal issues with the host, Amr Adib. Furthermore, the president has just ordered the Interior Ministry to submit urgent legislative amendments to parliament within 15 days that will address increasing police abuse against citizens, after several protests against police violence erupted last weekend in response to the murder of a taxi-driver by a policeman. Former MP Sirri Siam also had his resignation accepted, becoming the first MP to resign from his post in the new parliament. All of these events have occurred during the past week only, and it doesn't seem likely that they will be stopping any time soon. Advertisement It is extremely important that the parliament, despite the chaos that it is trying to hide from the eyes of the world, resumes broadcasting its sessions live for the public to view. Egypt is going through a critical period that will define its future path and determine its success or failure. The laws being ratified and the bylaws being approved will exist for the unforeseeable future, and it is only right that the public take part in this process. It is ridiculous to allow the parliament to pick and choose what it would like the public to see. This almost guarantees the withholding of facts and the manipulation of the information that is being released to the public. Even the select journalists allowed to cover the sessions are being intimidated by MPs, something inconceivable in any democracy around the world. A public discussion and debate must take place around the present talks in parliament, as isolating the people from their representatives will only serve to increase anger and resentment in the streets. Egypt is facing the problem of making the concept of citizenship a part of the democratic process, and this is directly linked to developments in communication. Parliamentary channels are key to democracy and the full exercise of citizens' rights -- and it is therefore imperative that transparency be restored to the legislative body that represents the people. It is worth mentioning that Egypt is not the first country to face this dilemma. In 1979, when the United States House of Representatives first began televising coverage of its daily sessions on the network C-SPAN, the Senate originally opposed live televised coverage. Many Senators expressed concern that televising proceedings would significantly change the conduct of the legislative process. In 1986, however, Senate floor leaders officially proposed live television coverage of the Senate and in June of that year, daily proceedings began broadcasting on the C-SPAN 2 network. The US has never looked back, as its public became more involved in the political process, while members of congress took their job more seriously, in knowledge that their constituents are actively watching them. Today, live sessions are also available on TV or online in most developed and developing countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, Holland , and, shockingly, even the Palestinian Territories. Advertisement In June 2006, "the importance of providing more information on and increasing coverage of parliamentary activities was underscored by some 200 participants from 80 countries at the Conference on Broadcasting of Parliamentary Business through Dedicated TV Channels and Public Broadcasting Systems ", which was convened in Geneva. This only serves to confirm the notion that allowing the public to view parliamentary sessions on air is a crucial ingredient for any successful democracy. Unfortunately, there is a wave of opposition against the return of broadcasts from within the parliament. MP Mustafa Bakri was quoted by Shorouk newspaper as saying: "The decision was made to limit disturbances and to prevent some MPs from exploiting live coverage to put on a show." Meanwhile, MP Osama Heikal has insisted that the ban on broadcasting will continue, while claiming that: "No parliament in the world broadcasts its sessions live, but rather, they allow media to attend the sessions and deliver reports on them to the public." This is, clearly, a lie. It is imperative that the Egyptian people not allow a few MPs to ruin any progress that might come out of this parliament. It was never an expectation that MPs like Mortada Mansour, Tawfik Okasha and Mostafa Bakri would offer much in respect to freedom of speech to this country, but it is scary to see these radically right-wing conservative individuals dominating the parliament and deciding the direction it will take in drawing Egypt's future, without any kind of public resistance or awareness. If the people of this country are again denied the right to define their own future and select their own path, then it is very likely that history will repeat itself. It is up to the liberal and moderate factions within the parliament to put an end to the increasing elements of fascism and totalitarianism that were not even present during the Brotherhood-controlled legislature of 2012. Let's not forget that even then, the public was allowed to view every single minute of parliamentary sessions live on TV -- so this decision represents, even by those low standards, a huge step back. Laws must be written for the people by the people, and without the public's oversight, private interests will almost definitely influence the performance and voting of MPs who will have no one to answer to. After all, how are constituents expected to evaluate the performance of their representatives, and base their following vote on it, if they are clueless as to how the latter are performing in session? Advertisement Donald Trump is in the driver's seat, speeding toward Super Tuesday and the Republican nomination to run for president. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio share the front seat, making the regular GOP passengers uneasier than ever. They are holding onto their doors for dear life, praying that the Republican bus doesn't veer off the road and crash. How did this disastrous journey become the current reality? There are many answers, from voter anger at political establishment to yearning for an outside driver who finally will take charge once and for all. And to be effective, that chauffeur must remain separate from the GOP oligarchy, which has been relegated to screaming back-seat drivers. The media, once the navigator of these quadrennial trips, is now the "navigator" -- criticizing without having a clue of what to do. When I first wrote Obama on the couch I opined that President Obama would drive the GOP crazy, mostly because of his ability to tolerate cognitive dissonance -- a capacity to entertain differing attitudes and arguments about a single policy decision. For many years up to 2008, starting under Reagan and dramatically augmented by George W. Bush, Americans became incapable of tolerating a both/and approach to political life, again becoming an either/or nation reminiscent of ancient Civil War divisions into Blue and Grey, or North and South. Advertisement Reagan had said, "Government is not the solution to our problem, government IS the problem." Twenty years later Bush said, "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists." But Obama offered something new and different: he said, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America -- there is the United States of America." I wrote that many forces in Obama's life pushed him toward his vision of bringing opposing groups together. He was a bi-racial child who tried to heal that fundamental division both within himself and in his relationships. The other primary force was that his parents divorced when he was an infant, leaving him to spend much of his life trying to understand what happened as well as yearning for them to reunite. He worked to connect different parts of himself, as well as to relate to diverse groups of people by trying to find common ground. As president, he tried to compromise so relentlessly that I wrote that he suffered from "obsessive bi-partisan disorder." The things he accomplished as president were not possible without making major concessions. For example, he made what liberals felt were disastrous compromises with insurance and pharmaceutical companies in order to get his Affordable Care Act made into law. Advertisement His perspicacity drove many in the GOP to create the Tea Party -- a party that sees everything as good or bad, not good and bad. Republicans have spent the better part of two Obama administrations trying to repeal what they call "Obamacare". Being certain is calming, and helps people manage their anxiety -- their fears that too much thinking will result in inner chaos. Because of this, Obama's capacity for complex thought makes people uncomfortable who feel absolutely, for example, that Russia is bad and America is good. President Obama was bound to cause discomfort in others, and not simply because he was black. And it is his attitude, often successful, that put the GOP at risk. The current roster of bizarre Republican candidates proves the point -- the party establishment fears Obama's intellectual and emotional strength and his capacity to think, resulting in their own fractured state of disarray. They are unable to say yes to anything he suggests. The mystery of sleep: We desperately try to avoid it as kids, but as we age, enter the workforce -- and for many -- become working parents, we wish for peaceful, uninterrupted nights of rest. As the years go on, we begin to crave sleep more. We are established in our careers and less likely be socializing until four in the morning (like our young adult lifestyle). We no longer negotiate for "5 more minutes" like we did as kids but rather think, "Can I please go to sleep now?" But just as life would have us believing we are in the clear, another change in our sleep patterns occurs: We become parents. It's understandable: Your adorable, little bundle of joy becomes your entire world. They may wake you up at any hour of the night with no regard for a consistent sleep schedule and you are happy to oblige. But you still need to try to get proper sleep, and your children do too, so that the whole family stays healthy. Advertisement Sweet Dreamzzz, Inc. Executive Director Nancy Maxwell's sleeping patterns changed when she became a parent and her experience with one of her daughters having sleep apnea inspired her to share her story with others at Sweet Dreamzzz. "We didn't anticipate one of our daughters having sleep issues," she said. "She woke up nightly, realized she was alone in the dark and wanted to climb in our bed. We thought it was because she was scared. We got used to it and dealt with the routine." "She also shared a bedroom with her younger sister, who complained that she, too, could not sleep because of the snoring from the older one. We had ear plugs made for the younger one, and assumed the problem was fixed. Lack of sleep ran rampant and we became accustomed to the pattern. We were not yet educated on the miracle of sleep." But her daughter's sleep issues were not just affecting nighttime; they were affecting her throughout the day too. Advertisement "Our sleep-deprived daughter started to struggle in school, working incredibly hard to just keep up with her classmates," Maxwell said. "We gave her as much extra support as possible. Her focus was all on school, with little time for extra fun. She continued to wake up in the middle of the night, which concerned us, but we thought it was more a result of her character and nighttime fears than a medical concern." Nancy recalls sitting in a Sweet Dreamzzz work meeting with Dr. Ron Chervin, Director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of Michigan, when it hit her. Her daughter had Sleep Apnea -- a sleep disorder characterized by snoring, obstructed breathing and jolting awake in the middle of the night in order to breathe. Once Nancy and her family realized the root of the issue, they sought help to get it fixed -- and it positively impacted the entire family. "After having tonsils and adenoids removed, she slept through the night -- and every night since. Her learning improved. She grew two inches in a year. She finished high school with honors. She went to college," Maxwell said. "The incredible part of all of this -- the only change was sleep. We were beginning to understand this simple miracle, and how underrated sleep really was." Advertisement Most parents don't realize that symptoms such as snoring or consistently waking up in the night could be a sign of a more serious medical condition. Preschool is the peak time for sleep issues and these are things you should be on the lookout for: Insomnia Nightmares Night Terrors Sleepwalking Restless Leg Syndrome Snoring Sleep Apnea These sleep issues are often caused by sleep deprivation, inconsistent sleep schedule, sleeping in a new environment, discomfort and/or stress. Nancy and the Sweet Dreamzzz team have tips that will help you and your child sleep better. Hopefully this will help you get that good night's sleep you've been craving. The simple solution of sleep is possible with parenthood! Our Sweet Dreamzzz sleep tips for healthy sleep for children: Humans need different amounts of sleep based on their age. According to the National Sleep Foundation, newborns need 14-17 hours of sleep every day, infants need 12-15 hours, toddlers need 11-14 and preschoolers need 10-13. Elementary-age children need 9-11 hours of sleep every night, teenagers need 8-10 and adults need 7-9. Make sure children relax before bed by reading a book, coloring, journaling, completing a puzzle or craft or listening to calming music. Children should not be exposed to excess light stimulation from the TV, computer, tablet or cell phones within an hour of bedtime and should not run around and play too close to sleep either. Advertisement It's hard for children (or any of us) to fall sleep on a full stomach. Make sure your kids eat a light, healthy snack before bed like cheese and crackers, a fruit smoothie, apples and peanut butter or cereal, rather than a greasy, sugary, filling snack. Try to get to sleep and wake up within an hour of the same time every day, including weekends. This routine may be hard to get the hang of at first, but a consistent sleep schedule leads to a much healthier lifestyle! If your child is experiencing stress and fear from being in a dark or new sleeping environment, try a nightlight (not too bright) or a stuffed animal for comfort and security. Feb. 29 is a rare day, dedicated to an important cause called Rare Disease Day. It's okay if you haven't heard of it -- the day is dedicated to some of the world's least known diseases, after all. Although these conditions seem few and far between, they're quite common when you step back and observe them as a whole. In the United States alone, 30 million people are living with a rare disease ("rare" defined as affecting 200,000 Americans or fewer at any given time). That's one in 10 Americans. That can't be true, you must be thinking. Where are all these people? Sadly, about 50 percent of those afflicted by rare diseases are children. According to advocacy organization Global Genes, rare diseases are responsible for a startling 35 percent of deaths in the first year of life, and 30 percent of children with a rare disease will not live to see their fifth birthday. So while the issue isn't always visible in our day-to-day lives, rare diseases impact many children and families here in the U.S. and beyond. Global Genes estimates that 350 million people worldwide suffer from a rare disease. If all those people lived in the same place, it would be the world's third-largest country -- a staggering thought. As a genetic counselor that has worked with many families who learned they were at risk of passing down a rare genetic disease, this issue holds a big piece of my heart. If you'd like to contribute to the cause, here are three things you can do. Get DNA Testing Even for more common genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis, 80 percent of affected children have no prior family history of the disease. That's why it's important even for healthy couples to know that they could be at risk of passing down a rare disease. Several companies are now offering more comprehensive and affordable ways for couples to screen for hundreds of rare diseases -- something that was barely possible only a decade ago. Advocate for Change Despite the evidence in support of expanded carrier screening, most family planning guidelines only recommend routine screening for Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) and a handful of inherited conditions. Yet, researchers from my company found that the rare diseases we screen for are collectively more common than Trisomy 21. Now that we have the means, medical organizations should be advocating for more thorough screenings. Couples planning a family have the right to know if they might pass on a rare disease to their children so they can make choices that are right for their family, such as finding a specialist, pursuing prenatal diagnosis or visiting with a fertility specialist. And in some cases, early identification can help avoid a medical odyssey and improve quality of life. If you're looking for ways to get involved in rare disease advocacy, checking out this resource is a great start. The National Organization for Rare Disorders, the official sponsor of Rare Disease Day in the U.S., is also doing excellent work educating the healthcare industry on changes and innovations that need to happen. Spread the Word According to the EveryLife Foundation, 95 percent of rare diseases do not have a single approved drug treatment. Fortunately, as advances in genomics and clinical research continue, we will have more and more tools available to combat these conditions. You may suffer from a rare disease, or know someone who has. Just as plausibly, this is the first time in your life you're hearing about this issue. Whatever the case, I'm thankful you took a moment to learn more about it. If you want to help spread the word, use the hashtag #RareDiseaseDay in a post this week. It will mean something to many people -- more than you might think! At the end of the Sixteenth Century a group of wealthy merchants formed a group they called "The Adventurers" and successfully petitioned the Crown to grant them a license to sail to India. This enterprise eventually became known as the British East India Company. By the year 1610 the company had an army of private mercenaries and the support of the Crown in its battle for the spice trade with Dutch and Portuguese merchants who also had Imperial patronage. Over the next century, the trading posts of the British East India Company became important footholds for the British Empire and played a crucial role in the eventual conquest of India by the British. Since the days of the East India Company, corporate colossi have continued to run amok across the globe in the name of capitalism and entrepreneurship. Everywhere imperialism has gone, they have accompanied it. They have pumped the oil, sold the diamonds and stolen the land for which war has been waged. Fast forward to 1953. United Fruit, a large American Corporation, owned large tracts of land in Guatemala and was the largest employer and producer of fruit in the country-among these, bananas. After the 1944 revolution and the formation of a Democratic Government land and tax reforms were implemented both of which affected United Fruit. After a period of relentless lobbying of Congressmen, Senators and the White House, Eisenhower authorized the CIA to engineer a military coup in Guatemala to overthrow the government of President Jacobo Arbenz, a socialist who had been elected in a landslide in 1951. Thus arose the term "Banana Republic". A lesser known precedent is that of Honduras where in 1911 the Cuyamel Fruit Company (that later purchased United Fruit) used a mercenary army to effect a coup d' etat. Part 3: The Holistic Approach In the first two parts of this series, we talk about the implications of trauma and student behavior and how to create a trauma informed school. The success of creating a trauma informed school weighs heavily on the school and community embracing the holistic approach. At Los Angeles Education Partnership, we achieve this through our Community School model. As former teachers, we are aware that the more we pile on our teachers, the less effective the approach becomes. We're not trying to create another silo for teachers to integrate. Instead we're teaching an approach that integrates understanding trauma and strategies to react, think, communicate and teach more compassionately. It's similar to how a person would accept an alternative way to improve his lifestyle as a long-term change, and not as a quick fix. That long-term change transpires through the involvement from all levels, including principals, administration, teachers, students, parents and the community. With each member of the school represented in the voice, the mindset of the school evolves into a community-like setting. A trauma informed lens is applied to the academic and social emotional support in each classroom. But that lens is not a standalone. It integrates understanding behavior and the stress triggers that come from high poverty communities, and includes strategies that mitigate those triggers. Once teachers and staff can come from a place of understanding and not consequence, it shifts the power to the students to work at their best potential. Advertisement Take for example Social Justice Humanitas Academy Pilot School (SJHA) in Los Angeles where teachers have a voice alongside parents, administrators, students and other stakeholders on lesson planning and school culture. SJHA began as a Community School in partnership with LAEP in 2011. According to a recent report called Community Schools: Transforming Struggling Schools into Thriving Schools by The Center for Popular Democracy, "Teachers, in partnership with LAEP, created the design for the school and the curriculum, which is fully social justice focused. This focus, along with a deep understanding of the importance of student-centered pedagogy, has created remarkable levels of engagement on the parts of students." When LAEP helped write the teaching plan for their pilot program, the focus was on the school's academic and social emotional needs. What we've seen at SJHA is increased student engagement and leadership. Student councils and personal growth workshops were created to allow students to self reflect and share challenges. Mentor programs were structured so that upper grade students mentored lower grade students, providing mentees peer-to-peer academic and emotional support. In the case of the student facing challenges, be it personal or academic, teachers took a positive approach to resolving the challenges. By highlighting the student's successes and working with the student to identify stress triggers and ways to mitigate them, students learned problem-solving behavior and emotional intelligence. The results: In just the past year, Social Justice has raised its graduation rate from 83 to 93.9 percent and its suspension rate remains at only .2 percent of students in the last two years. Furthermore, 75 percent of students are passing college prerequisite classes; and 93 percent of students and 95 percent of parents feel safe. This is thanks to its model practices around restorative justice, interdisciplinary teaching, relevant curriculum, and relationship building. The program also received an award from the Coalition for Community Schools as well as a new network, Teacher-Powered Schools. Advertisement The beauty of creating a trauma-informed community school is it's messy and not "cookie cutter" in the sense that we look at empowerment, engagement, solutions, heart, passion, and community issues to determine a personalized outcome for the school. We recognize the value of different approaches working for different schools, so no two infrastructures are the same. (Photo credit: Nicholas Lundgard, www.forsvarsgalleriet.dk) Are you going to watch the Oscars on Sunday? I'm quite excited about the Danish movie 'A War'. It is nominated among best foreign language films. 'A War' depicts the tough split-second decision for Danish soldiers in Afghanistan. The movie is screened right now in US theaters. The movie is just one glimpse into the long-standing Danish commitment to Afghanistan. For over a decade, Danish civilian aid combined with military assistance has helped Afghans move towards a better future than their past under oppressive Taliban-rule. 43 Danish soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan. Compared to our population, it gives us a sad record among allied nations. We continue to honour those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Advertisement Why does Denmark, a small country want to be get involved far beyond its borders? I'm often greeted with interest and sometimes surprise about Denmark's broad international engagement. Also here in the US where I proudly serve as the Danish Ambassador. After all, with 5.6 million Danes, we roughly correspond to a smaller US State like Wisconsin. So let me try and explain why Denmark insists on 'punching above its weight' internationally. In short, it is because we care about international security and because we firmly believe that we can make a difference. Since the end of the Cold War, successive Danish governments of different political leanings have pursued an active and engaged foreign and security policy. Denmark is committed to promoting a just and rule-based global order based on international organizations with the UN, EU and NATO as the pinnacles. And we insist on playing an active role in all of these settings. I have served in the Danish Foreign Ministry for many years. And I have had the privilege to see with my own eyes what difference a small country can make. Danish flags waving on the main square in Benghazi, Libya! That was an unexpected sight, and made a lasting impression on me. I was there in June 2011 - shortly after NATO had intervened in Libya to protect civilians in the dying days of the Qaddafi-regime. Danish F-16 fighters were among the first to come and the last to leave. They made a real difference. But the images from Benghazi also remind me, that the international community has a continued responsibility to stabilise Libya so the country doesn't descend into chaos again. Advertisement We have not seen many encouraging developments in the devastating civil war in Syria. But in 2013 there was a rare international agreement that the Syrian regime's chemical weapons must be destroyed. In close cooperation with the US, Denmark led the maritime operation. I was on our support ship HDMS Esbern Snare in early 2014 and saw first-hand how we managed to navigate a rare international cooperation between not only close allies like the US and Norway, but also with countries like Russia and China. The mission was a success. Just ponder the nightmare scenarios if those chemical weapons had still been around now with the terror organisation Da'esh creating havoc in Syria. Talking about Da'esh, Denmark was among the original 8 members of the coalition against Da'esh. Danish military trainers are installed at the Al Asad base, training Iraqi forces together with their US colleagues. Our humanitarian assistance is channelled to the many vulnerable refugees fleeing the devastating war in Syria. And our fighter planes went in to target Da'esh in Iraq. From October 2014 to October 2015 the Danish F-16 flew 1112 flights on 547 missions over Iraq. I visited them in early 2015. And I am confident when saying that it would be difficult to find more dedicated and professional soldiers than the ones I met at the base in Kuwait from where the Danish fighters were flying. As I write these words, Denmark is preparing for a new and even stronger contribution to the international coalition against Da'esh. One of the most shocking experiences I have had was visiting Sierra Leone during the outbreak of Ebola. I will never forget driving through the capital Freetown and witnessing this normally vibrant city in total lock down. The human, social and economic cost of the Ebola crisis is beyond comprehension. In the middle of all this - just outside a small town named Port Loko, 40 miles north east of Freetown, I visited a little piece of Denmark - an effective and professionally run field hospital managed by Danish nurses, doctors, and the Danish Emergency Management Unit. Together with hundreds of international health workers, they put their lives on the line trying to contain Ebola and care for the ill. Like finding the right piece which fits into the puzzle, my examples show how even a small country in the global ranking can make a difference. There are many other examples. Fighting pirates of the coast of Somalia, stabilising Mali and the Sahel region, and standing by our eastern European allies when faced with an unpredictable and threatening neighbour. I think it is fair to say, that Denmark has proved, that small dedicated countries can make a real difference. Advertisement I went back to my hometown, Philadelphia, to report a story on runaway and homeless youth for Al Jazeera America. It was a difficult story to report because I was one of those kids. I was 14 the first time I knocked on a shelter door. The women who answered promptly turned me away because I was too young to help. When those needing a safe place for the night are unaccompanied homeless minors, the city says its adult and family shelters cannot provide them an emergency bed. Even though that was more than a decade ago, I was appalled to learn that homeless teens still don't have a reliable overnight haven in the City of Brotherly Love today. There simply aren't beds available for them. Advertisement Philadelphia is not unique. According to the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children, there are more than 1.7 million unaccompanied homeless youth in this country. America is failing to help hundreds of thousands of kids who have no safe place to go each night. The support systems that are supposed to protect them aren't working. The youth I met while reporting the story were honest about what they experienced, willing to open up about their lives. They talked about how they were treated by their guardians and the city's child welfare, housing and juvenile justice systems; how they struggled with addiction, violence, sexual abuse, unemployment and dropping out of school because they were homeless. When I started reporting, every service provider I spoke to used the same adjective to describe homeless youth: invisible. They argued that there isn't an easy way to count homeless youth, which makes it harder to advocate for resources to help them. One director even admitted that there isn't an adequate count because if the city doesn't know how bad the problem is, they aren't required to fix it. When it comes to prioritizing line items on the budget, deniability is better than accountability. Advertisement The truth is, these kids aren't hard to find. I had less than two weeks to report on the ground, enough time to interview more than a dozen homeless youth. They are not invisible. We just don't want to see them. The youth I talked to made it a point to tell me they weren't perfect. But the point is, they shouldn't have to be. Kids should never have to earn a safety net. They aren't bad kids. They just lost the family lottery. At the very least, youth need adequate emergency resources. They deserve access to a safety net, even if all that can be offered at the moment is the bare minimum, the very basics of survival: a safe place to sleep, access to food, medical and mental health care, the chance to stay in school. Check the BBB Scam Tracker Ahead of Online Deals We book rooms in people's houses rather than stay in hotels, and we get rides from strange drivers in their personal vehicles instead of grabbing a cab, so of course we buy stuff online, too. With new technology making it possible, every year we grow more accustomed to doing deals a little differently. But the ease with which we now exchange with strangers also makes us more susceptible to scams. Enter the Better Business Bureau's Scam Tracker. The online tool allows people to report suspected illegal schemes or frauds, and warn others what to watch out for when they've been scammed. A Cautionary Tale Here's an example reported by the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan, a South Dakota news paper reporting on a scam that stemmed from a Nebraska Craigslist posting. A woman in Nebraska saw a 2010 Ford pickup advertised for $8000 online and contacted the seller by email. The seller responded that the vehicle was in Omaha, that she had five days to test it before she paid for it, and that she had an option to return it at the seller's expense if she was unsatisfied with the car. The sale would go through eBay, and the woman provided the necessary information via the site. Immediately she got a message from what looked like eBay with information regarding the purchase. She was soon instructed to send a $2,800 deposit to someone in Mississippi. The woman sent the deposit through a Money Gram wire transfer done at a Walmart, where an employee did question her about the transaction. She showed the Walmart worker her convincing looking eBay receipts and the money was wired via MoneyGram. The next day, this woman received a request for another $2,750 to cover insurance for the pickup. At this point, she became suspicious. She didn't send the money and she did report the scam to eBay, MoneyGram, Craigslist and on BBB's scam tracker. Unfortunately Common The story was not news to the BBB. "This is a fairly common scam that we've been warning folks about for years," BBB CEO Jim Hegarty said. "The scammers are very good at social engineering. They create correspondence that appears as if it's coming from legitimate sources, and are masters of illusion. It's easier than most people imagine to be drawn into one of these traps." But Hegarty says that the more common the scheme, the more likely it will be listed on the scam tracker. What that means is that you can check out the scam tracker before you make any deals with strangers, and be alerted to illegality in advance. Alternatively, if you have been scammed, make sure to report it, warning others so that they don't fall prey. Talk to a Lawyer If you have fallen victim to an illegal scheme and want advice on what you can do about it, consult with counsel. Many lawyers consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to discuss your situation. Related Resources: "My imagination just makes me do whatever I feel like," said a thinking seven-year-old after he made a sculpture of wood and fabric swatches. He was old enough to contemplate the process of the artistic project and how it affected his mood and mind. After saying that on the fly, he went to his Legos with his brother and they invented a detailed story with the figures they'd made and the setting they'd created. This boy and others in his age group learn from within--whatever comes to mind is fodder for their inventions. They understand being "in the zone" of artistic creation. Their imaginations are unstructured, unplanned, and brilliantly innovative. We need to provide more opportunities for these experiences . When kids go to school they mostly focus on structured activities tailored to teach them reading, writing, and math along with some science and history. Clearly this is important for their future learning and giving them a well-rounded education. However, it leaves opportunities for creativity to special schools who prize this wealth or parents like ourselves who realize the potential for learning it gives. Advertisement The seven-year-old noted above has great role models for creativity. His grandmother is a painter. His grandfather a sculptor. His father is an engineer with outstanding drawing capabilities. His mother creates by cooking from scratch while rebuilding her house and helping others creatively in her chosen profession. But modeling isn't something we all can do successfully. So, if we know the importance of encouraging our children's imagination, we can provide these opportunities for learning and immense growth. 6 Ways to Provide Outlets for Imagination 1.Keep all kinds of materials at hand from crayons, to all kinds of paper such as watercolor paper, sand paper, construction paper, fabric, left over pieces of wood, etc. Keep a stock of generally unwanted item s that kids can recycle in their projects. 2.Encourage time spent on imaginary play. Children love toy figures of all types they invent stories about. They learn that stories have beginnings, middles, and endings and flow in a sequence that crescendos in a climax and then has some resolution. They do this naturally. What a remarkable learning experience, so different from being taught this directly in the classroom. 3.Ask questions when you read them stories. Ask them more about what they imagine the characters are thinking and feeling. Improve their vocabulary about feelings. Let them guess the end of the story before they hear it. This furthers their inventive capacities. Advertisement 4.Take your kids to museums, especially designed for children. Let them stare at a painting and offer their view of what it's about. Let them imagine a title and figure out how the painting was constructed. Stretch their views without giving them information from you. 5.On the beach, go swimming but also go collecting. See what interests them. Beyond shells, they may find scraps of old glass, weathered wood, and other finds that they can later put together in some kind of project. All it takes is a suggestion to do so, and they're off having a grand time. 6.Make a walk in a park a scavenger hunt. Don't plant things for them to find, just make a list of ideas like find a good place to sit, find a walking stick, find kindle for a fire, discover a new animal, etc. They love these adventures and their creativity soars. These are just six suggestions but you get the idea. Your encouragement and engagement with your kids about creative exploits furthers their ability to think in these expansive ways. They become explorers, adventurers, artists, writers, expanding their thinking capacities over and over. The more they do these kinds of things, the more they think and reflect along these lines always learning, always stretching their imaginations. "First rule of maintaining a healthy marriage while parenting an infant is nothing thats said between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. can be held against you." (Photo credit: Olaf Speier) Anyone with kids knows that trying to limit electronics use is harder than cracking the DaVinci Code. So it's surprising that many parents don't wait as long as possible before springing for an iPhone. The awakening is rude and swift. They learn that smartphones are the devil. Their worst nightmare. All efforts to reach their plugged in offspring become exhausting and stressful. Some don't see their kids for days on end. But fear not, dear parents. There is a bright side. Removing the phone from the child's possession is an effective disciplinary tool. When taking this Draconian measure, blood curdling screams can be heard 'round the world. The behavior is changed. (At least for a while.) As they say, all good things must come to an end. Some teachers are embracing smartphones for class work, so taking them away may not be an option for some parents. In a recent feature article in The Wall Street Journal, it was reported that kids at Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School in N.C., are allowed to use their gadgets for homework and quizzes. Other states jumping on the bandwagon, include North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York and California. As a result of this emerging trend, kids will become even more dependent on their smartphones. And this is not a good thing. It is well documented that overuse of electronics is detrimental, especially for children. Even Steve Jobs didn't let his kids use an iPad. Chris Anderson, former editor of Wired also had strict rules on electronics use at home. When asked why, he said, "because we have seen the dangers of technology firsthand. I've seen it in myself, and I don't want to see that happen to my kids." Advertisement The Learning Habit, published in 2014, reveals that grades, sleep, social skills and emotional balance begin to decline after just 45 minutes of media use. A 2015 study by the London School of Economics found kids banned from using phones at school did much better on test scores than those who were allowed to use them. The impact of banning the devices was equal to an extra hour a week at school or a five-day increase in the school year. At a time when adults are talking about balance, stress management and Internet overload, our children are increasingly hooked on technology. Classrooms should be a safe haven from distractions and a focused learning environment, but teachers are caving in to their students' desires. Comedian Paula Poundstone said it best. In reference to excessive smartphone usage, she said, "Some kids like heroin. Does that mean we're going to give it to them?" Many people defend the use of smartphones in class. John Kim, a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School, told the WSJ, "The teaching profession has yet to catch up with how students are using the devices." Really? Apparently our underfunded, dedicated teachers don't have enough to do. Certainly the Internet is a superb research tool (except when the student looks up the per capita income of Uganda and gets sidetracked by Snapchat). But will writing a paper on a smartphone make the topic stick better? Why is technology driving the content of the learning? At what cost and to whose benefit? Something is wrong with this picture and a crusader in Boston is trying to do something about it, one school at a time. Joni Siani is an outspoken and passionate advocate of media literacy education in schools and working with Media Literacy Now to pass legislation in all 50 states. She is also the author of Celling your Soul: No App for Life. (This book has been made into a movie by her students and was named best documentary at the Boston International Kids Film Festival.) Siani believes that using smartphones in the classroom is not only counterproductive, but downright "insane." Assignments done on a gadget is "homework in tiny chunks of thought with little reflection" says the author/filmmaker. She adds, "The objective of the learning is different from the technology itself." Advertisement Most importantly, encouraging more gadget use is not what many students want, according to Siani. And she should know. During the past seven years, Siani has interviewed thousands of kids and parents about the effects of digital communication. The response has been eye-opening. Young people are desperate for relief from the demands of 24/7 connectivity. After a recent screening of her documentary at a Boston area high school, a student asked Siani if she could just "vent" about the pressure from distractions. Last year, 25 students at another school sat with Siani for two hours after watching the film, waiting to be heard. Some of the kids were in tears. She says this happens after nearly every showing. "Parents and kids look to their schools for leadership," says Siani. Therefore, it's important for superintendents, teachers and other educators to help kids unhook from their gadgets, instead of making them more dependent. Right now, policies vary about smartphone usage state by state, school by school, teacher by teacher. Consistent, digital communications policies in classrooms are needed that benefit the children. Not Samsung, not Apple or Verizon or Sprint, or the many other companies that provide the technology. What many may not realize is you don't need to be a judge or even a lawyer to be appointed to our nation's highest court. Maybe Powell is exactly what this Court needs to break the many logjams on controversial issues before the Court. Right now, the swing vote is Justice Anthony Kennedy. Too much power for too long has been concentrated in just one man, Justice Kennedy, as the sole swing vote on the court. It's uncomfortable, to say the least, knowing that so many rights hang in the balance based upon the proverbial which side of the bed Kennedy gets up on any given morning. President Obama, in the final year of his eight-year presidency, has yet to appoint an African-American to the U.S. Supreme Court. What is he waiting for? Is that what our first African-American president wants his legacy to be? Never having appointed an African-American to the bench in three picks. Republican President Bush appointed the sole African-American sitting on the bench at present, Justice Clarence Thomas, who is not representative of the views of the majority of African-Americans. Gen. Colin Powell is the perfect pick. Do it, Mr. President. Please! Photo by Marienna Pope-Weidemann I've seen the images of kids' fingers and toes, swollen and blackened with frostbite. I've watched the videos of children lifted off rubber boats filled with freezing seawater, because winter winds had pushed waves over the sides. I've read the first-hand accounts of volunteers dressing kids traveling without winter clothes or shoes. Seriously, some kids are walking through winter in flip-flops, shoes too big to be warm, or barefoot. I've also peered inside my own kids' closets, overflowing with winter clothes that are now too small. We can easily send money overseas, but what about the wealth of gear sitting, unused, in our closets? Advertisement Enter Carry Me Home, a nonprofit that supports children fleeing war by shipping supplies to refugees throughout Europe. Founder Vedrana Greatorex, a nuclear plant operator from Vermont, was moved to take action when the body of 3 year-old Alan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach. Her son sleeps in the same position as Alan was found, and it touched a nerve. Carry Me Home has become her way of helping a crisis that feels close to home, even though it is happening far from Vermont. Since September 2015, Vedrana and her team have shipped over one ton of desperately needed items to Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Greece -- countries that have seen countless families migrate through on their quest to find a safe home. Carry Me Home has also forged strong relationships with trusted aid organizations that direct their shipments both in terms of what they should ship and how they should organize it. Advertisement This last point offers a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes workings of the volunteer relief effort. When I met with Leslie Meral Schick -- Newton, MA resident; organizing partner of Carry Me Home; and soon-to-be volunteer in Greece -- she emphasized how they customize each shipment for how it'll be used. For example, first-responder volunteers greeting refugees on the beach will bring cars filled with clothing they hope will be sufficient to warm an entire boat's worth of possibly hypothermic people. For these volunteers, Carry Me Home sends pre-packaged outfits labeled by the age of the child it will fit. To better understand how these outfit packs are used in real time, Leslie directed me to friend Sandra Juliachs, who volunteered in Chios, Greece, late in January 2016 -- a month the island greeted over 11,000 refugees. She noted they "were wet from at least the waist down. And that was the best-case scenario." While she was there, it could reach 20 F with the wind chill. "The faster you can dress them," she said, "the better." So Carry Me Home's outfit packs are shipped in a waterproof bag, organized how you would dress your child if their life depended on it: underwear and socks on top, followed by a shirt, a warm sweater or fleece, two layers of pants, a down jacket, hat, and gloves. Each pack also includes a small toy and a note from the person who packed it. Advertisement Outfit for a 3-year-old girl. Photo by Leslie Meral Schick. Their effort sounded fabulous and seductive as I thought about the piles of winter gear I've been longing to send. But I was hesitant. Isn't it more effective to donate money to organizations overseas so they can buy exactly what they need right when they need it? Not necessarily. Carry Me Home's guiding principle is to not send items that can be purchased in-country for less than it costs to ship. Leslie walked me through the math: All clothing donations are free, so they pay only the shipping cost and packing materials. An outfit pack ranges in cost from $8.75-$16.32, a baby carrier packed with a scarf for the parent and a toy for baby costs $6.50, and a pair of boots packed with two pairs of socks averages $7.13. Kostas Tanainis, a restaurant owner in Chios, Greece, spends almost all of his time helping refugees as an independent volunteer. He has received 40 boxes from Carry Me Home and told me via Facebook chat, "We could never make such a nice outfit for that money. Things are very expensive here. The cost of a child's winter coat is around 40 Euros ($44 US)." Fair enough. But how do you know that your clothes are going to be shipped directly to refugees? This was a fear Vedrana also felt when she first set up shop. So she has focused on building a network of volunteers who tell her what they need, and a separate network of trusted organizations that can verify that the needs are real. Advertisement She also points to the photos she receives when a shipment reaches its destination, which she posts on Carry Me Home's Facebook page. She warns that the shipments are so large that it's unlikely you'll find your own child's hat on the head of its recipient. I'm still planning to stalk their Facebook page next week, when the shipment that includes my donations will land in Greece. I might not be able to help refugee children in all the ways I wish I could, but knowing that my kids' clothing will help keep them warm creates a tangible connection between our family and theirs. Sometimes the best we can do is send love in the form of warm wishes and mittens. HOW YOU CAN HELP Donate money: Carry Me Home needs money to ship your warm fuzzies! Your tax deductible donations go towards shipping and packing materials. If they exceed their fundraising goal, they will use surplus funds to support refugees with other pressing needs. Carry Me Home needs money to ship your warm fuzzies! Your tax deductible donations go towards shipping and packing materials. If they exceed their fundraising goal, they will use surplus funds to support refugees with other pressing needs. Donate your gently used clothing: See their pinned Facebook post for a list of collection sites and their most needed items. See their pinned Facebook post for a list of collection sites and their most needed items. Donate time: It takes many hands to sort and pack. Collection sites in MA and VT need tons of help. It takes many hands to sort and pack. Collection sites in MA and VT need tons of help. Tell your friends! I'm a baby boomer and went to UC Berkeley and was part of the Vietnam anti-war movement. It seems that our generation's protest over what our government was doing did have an impact. Why should it be so strange that Millennials would now be protesting what our government is failing to do? If my generation could stop a war, why should we be surprised when our children believe they can stop government as usual? Advertisement And with regards to our being in Vietnam because we had to stop the "evil empire" from spreading, it doesn't appear that our fears or concerns were justified. Regarding the present election and what we need in leadership, what I would love to see happen is the creation of "Build Upon Leadership." I have been discussing that with my friend and former Mayor of Augusta, GA, Deke Copenhaver. We don't have an answer but we both agree that it would be a great and much needed change in government if whatever changes occur during someone's term in office could be so noble, uplifting, practical and serving the greater good that they could be "built upon" instead of repudiated, criticized and the target of subsequent administrations to tear apart. For example, Obamacare is obviously flawed, but it has been a successful effort to get a foothold in providing healthcare to the uninsured, certainly something that the "most free" nation on earth should be ashamed to not provide. A foothold, even a toehold, is not something to be thrown away. Why not revisit what is good about Obamacare and build upon that and jettison what is not working and what cannot be turned around. Advertisement Eater Austin recently published a piece by Matthew Sedacca, a writer based in New York City, in which Sedacca discussed the history of the Texas breakfast taco and the city of Austin's central place in that history. Miraculously, he did this without using the phrases "San Antonio" or "Rio Grande Valley" even once, though he was kind enough to mention that "Taco makers and food experts alike concur that the breakfast taco's origins lie in the kitchens of immigrant Mexican families living in Texas". The article was grandiloquently entitled "How Austin Became the Home of the Crucial Breakfast Taco". This little bit of cultural analysis didn't sit well with many. If you look up references to the article on Twitter, you'll find many critical tweets about it. The article also spawned various response pieces, including in Texas Monthly, the OC Weekly and even a Change.org petition to have Sedacca exiled from Texas. Advertisement The issue is well-described by Gustavo Arellano in the aforementioned OC Weekly article as an example of Austin, once again, claiming some aspect of Texas culture as its own and acting as though the rest of Texas is an afterthought at best. As Arellano writes, "[Austin is] a fine dining city, and its obsession for breakfast tacos is admirable -- but it's like a teenage boy proud that he just got chest hair." The Change.org petition goes even farther, with this blast against Austin's pretensions on this topic (and by extension, other topics): More absurd is the notion that 'breakfast taco culture' was either codified or normalized by a generation of birkenstock-clad tech-jockeys and university incubatees majoring in Phish and Social Safety Net Surfing, and not by the laborers who spent the last century waking up at 5 am, breaking their fast on huevos con papas outside a truck, to build the aforementioned demographic's luxury condos. Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark. To people who aren't from Texas or aren't familiar with the local culture, the intensity of opinions on this may seem incomprehensible. But for those of us from Texas who don't think of Austin as the center of the universe, especially those of us who trace our heritage in Texas back to the Spanish colonial era (like your humble narrator here), the Sedacca piece came off like an extreme example of the unique mixture of provinciality and hipster arrogance that Austin has become infamous for. Advertisement Make no mistake, I love Austin. It's a wonderful city with a great university, exciting nightlife and thriving cultural scene. Austin is definitely one of the top five or six best cities in Texas. But the idea that Austin has been central to the development of a cuisine that has been common in the Latino parts of Texas for decades is off-putting at best. Austin has a lot of great things it can lay claim to. But the breakfast taco isn't one of them. Also on HuffPost: New York is rocketing to the forefront of clean energy and climate leadership. In January, Governor Cuomo pledged to move New York off coal for good, an announcement that came after years of advocacy and hard work by leaders at all levels across the state. This isn't just a victory for New Yorkers. Governor Cuomo has set a new standard for climate leadership. And mark my words - if grassroots advocates keep the pressure on, this will be the first of many such acts of leadership we will see in 2016 to keep the US moving forward on clean energy and climate. Even as the Clean Power Plan, stalled by the Supreme Court, makes its way through the legal process, New York concrete, historic step forward should reassure everyone that the US will continue to make progress toward our Paris climate commitment. In New York, the real-world changes on the ground are already unfolding. Just this week, facing pressure from communities in and around Lansing, home to one of the state's four remaining coal plants, the New York Public Service Commission chose a electricity transmission upgrade plan instead of approving a costly proposed plan to co-fire the Cayuga coal plant to burn both coal and gas. Advertisement "The PSC took a major step today to protect ratepayers, ensure reliable electricity, all while protecting our environment," said, Irene Weiser, councilwoman in the Caroline, New York. "The commission's decision today shows that Governor Andrew Cuomo and his administration are serious about meeting the State's ambitious climate goals, while protecting the ratepayers of New York." This comes on the heels of Governor Cuomo's January commitment to a full phase out the state's coal-fired power fleet by 2020. At that time he also doubled down on his promise to rapidly usher in a new energy economy fueled by renewable energy, requiring that 50 percent of the state's power from renewables by 2030. New York's Beyond Coal activists should be proud of their work over the past few months and years. They've helped push and persuade the Governor and his administration to take these bold steps to end coal's dirty legacy in New York once and for all, while also ensuring that communities and workers are provided with a just and fair transition away from coal to a renewable energy economy. And they've kept power prices affordable for New York families and businesses. Governor Cuomo has now joined the ranks of international climate leaders and set a new bar for other governors. In addition to his leadership on coal, his administration's Reforming the Energy Vision initiative, known as REV, has been heralded as a revolutionary plan to transform the state's power utilities so they can accelerate the transition to clean, distributed energy. And the state's NY-Sun program is a $1 billion initiative that's increasing the use of solar across the Empire State. What's more, the Governor has also moved forward with a bold $5 billion Clean Energy Fund, that supports the rapid deployment of energy efficiency and distributed renewable energy. Advertisement Now, Governor Cuomo has additional opportunities at his fingertips to ensure New York becomes a model - even a gold standard - for clean energy and climate leadership. At the state level, New York is already ahead of the pack by being a member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and Governor Cuomo can raise their ambition, by leading the RGGI states to set stronger goals to cut carbon pollution and invest in smart clean energy and transmission options. He can also provide the necessary support for offshore wind to be built off the Atlantic Coast to power the state and provide high quality jobs. The Governor can commit to a long term, large scale offshore wind program for New York. New Yorkers across the state are pushing hard for offshore wind. Just last week more than 150 activists from a diverse range of community and state groups rallied on the steps of New York City's City Hall to call on Mayor de Blasio to make offshore wind power a critical part of meeting the city's 100 percent renewable energy and carbon reduction goals. State Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago, and primary challenger Juliana Stratton When we last checked in on the Democratic primary race in the 5th Illinois House District, incumbent Ken Dunkin had received $240,000 in campaign help from a Super PAC connected to Gov. Bruce Rauner. His opponent, Juliana Stratton, had received $70,600 in direct donations, mostly from unions. In a race that's become a test case in the Michael Madigan vs. Bruce Rauner proxy war over unions and the political balance of the Illinois House, the $240,000 spent on Dunkin's behalf by the IllinoisGO committee -- which, as a Super PAC, can't coordinate with or donate directly to a candidate -- meant that campaign contribution limits no longer applied in the Dunkin-Stratton race. That was on Jan. 31. We should have waited a day to run those numbers. On Feb. 1, Dunkin, a seven-term incumbent who angered his fellow Democrats last summer and fall by not supporting two bills important to them, received a $500,000 donation from the Illinois Opportunity Project, which describes itself as "an independent research and public policy enterprise that promotes legislative solutions in advance of free markets and free minds." Advertisement What's a conservative, Libertarian group doing donating to a traditionally liberal Democrat like Dunkin? "IOP decided that a substantial financial commitment is warranted to support State Rep. Ken Dunkin against the onslaught he is facing from House Speaker Mike Madigan and his public sector union allies in the March primary election," the IOP wrote on its website. The Illinois Opportunity Project is not a Super PAC. It's a 501(c)(4) non-profit, and is not prohibited from direct donations to candidates. And because the IllinoisGO Super Pac had spent more than $100,000 in support of Dunkin, the state's $10,800 limit on corporate donations to candidates no longer applied. (To complicate things, IllinoisGO has a companion 501(c)(4) that can donate directly to candidates.) Stratton, meanwhile, also benefited handsomely from the lifting of contribution limits. On Jan. 31, she had received $70,600 in union support. Since then, campaign records show nine donations totaling more than $586,000 for a total campaign fund of $715,000. Advertisement The largest donation was $138,900 from AFSCME Council 31's political action committee. Dunkin's non-vote on a bill to limit Rauner's power in contract negotiations with AFSCME Council 31 was among the actions that earned Dunkin the enmity of Madigan and many of his fellow Democrats. The campaign funds of Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago, and his primary challenger, Juliana Stratton, recorded some of the highest donations of the 30 days before Feb. 24, 2016. (IllinoisSunshine.org) Under Illinois' campaign contribution limits law, union donations to candidates normally are limited to $10,800. Another front on the Rauner-Madigan proxy battle is in the downstate 50th Illinois Senate District, which includes part of Springfield and stretches south and west to the Mississippi River. Incumbent Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview, angered Rauner in August when he was the lone Republican to vote in support of a bill to weaken Rauner's position in negotiating with AFSCME Council 31. (It was the same bill that Dunkin refused to support in the House.) McCann defended his vote, saying he has more public union members in his district than any other state senator. Advertisement Rauner has endorsed McCann's challenger, Bryce Benton. Rauner's Super PAC, Turnaround Illinois, in January gave $1,818,000 to Liberty Principles PAC, which reports having spent more than $1.35 million in support of Benton. Liberty Principles PAC has spent more than $1.35 million on behalf of Bryce Benton in the 50th Senate District Republican primary. (IllinoisSunshine.org) There's a connection between the support for Dunkin and Benton: Dan Proft, a conservative talk radio host and 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidate, is chairman of Liberty Principles PAC (which is providing heavy support to Republican Benton) and co-founder of the Illinois Opportunity Project (which gave $500,000 to Democrat Dunkin). Unions have gotten behind McCann, though their donations don't compare to the support Liberty Principles PAC has given Benton. McCann reports $337,000 on hand, $227,000 of which has come since Jan. 1 and mostly from unions. Last week, the campaign finance website Illinois Sunshine summed up the money situation through mid-February: Advertisement Just one month before the March 15th Illinois Primary, both political parties in Illinois have amassed major war chests to aid their goals of upsetting (or defending) the balance of power in state government. The Democratic side, consisting of Senate, House, Leadership, and Party Committees, currently holds over $34 Million. Illinois Republican funds, consisting of those plus the Governor's committee, currently have over $28 Million ready to spend. The top three Super PACs in the state, each with an individual balance of over $1 Million, have a total of $16 Million in the bank. This all amounts to nearly $80 Million in cash on hand between both parties. This is in addition to the $17 Million already spent in the first month and a half of 2016. And we're not even in the stretch run to the March 15 primary yet. The Dunkin-Stratton race already has broken the record for spending in a primary. As the Rauner-Madigan proxy war moves to the general election season after March 15, expect to see numbers like you've never seen in Statehouse campaigns. Last week, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, was in Poland meeting with civil society and government leaders ahead of the NATO Summit scheduled for July 8 and 9. Poland welcomed the opportunity to shore up its request for a greater NATO military presence on its territory to protect against Russian incursions. For her part, Nuland emphasized that the upcoming NATO conference is not just about providing more security in the east and south of Europe, but also about defending the Organization's "free democratic way of life" against autocrats, terrorists, forces of disunity and xenophobia. Her references to the "family of values" shared by NATO were aimed at Poland's Law and Justice Party, which has systematically threatened these values since it came to power in October 2015. Idolizing fellow Visegrad authoritarian Viktor Orban, Law and Justice immediately began rolling back institutional protections for the rule of law and against corruption, ironically, putting Poland on track to emulate the malevolent and threatening Russia it seeks protection from. If it seeks to emulate Hungary's - and Russia's - backsliding toward authoritarianism, Poland's new government is succeeding. It has ignored its own civil society, which protested loudly against a radical takedown of the Constitutional Tribunal (equivalent to the Supreme Court) that began on December 22, 2015, when the new government reneged on the appointment of three judges approved by the former administration, packed the court instead with five Law and Justice party members, and then passed new laws requiring a super-majority for decision-making AND that the court review cases only in chronological order, thereby preventing review of any Law and Justice policies until the Tribunal's backlog has been completely cleared. It thus removed any check on its power that could come from the judicial sphere. Advertisement Having thus neutralized judicial checks on its power, the new government proceeded to grab more. After four former agents of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau were pardoned, including Mariusz Kaminski, who had been charged with abuse of power for charging innocent people with corruption, Prime Minister Beata Szydlo immediately appointed him to serve as coordinator of intelligence agencies in her cabinet, making him responsible for drafting the program for combatting abuse in public institutions - like the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau. Again against the backdrop of nationwide protests in mid-January, the government passed a new surveillance law giving the government broad access to an individual's online content without a warrant, using legislation that - in draft form - had previously been deemed "incompatible with the constitution" by the Constitutional Tribunal. In the middle of it all, on January 7, the government passed a law giving the treasury minister the power to hire and fire broadcasting chiefs in TV and radio, as well as civil service directors. Law and Justice Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has a track record for sowing xenophobia, claiming that Muslims have imposed Sharia law in parts of Sweden, and that they carry parasites that don't affect them, but could harm Europeans. His party's threats to immigrants, rule of law, free expression, and basic human rights are playing into Russian interests in a weak and divided Europe that will refuse immigrants from Syria, fail to agree on a Mid-East policy, repeal EU sanctions against Russia, and allow Russia to exert greater cultural and economic power in the region, as it already seeks to do through media spin, energy dependence, and leadership of a "traditional values" agenda. Poland's shift away from rule of law observance is therefore concerning, not only because Poland has been the poster-child for democracy in Eastern Europe, but also because it tips the scales away from democracy and pluralism in the Visegrad region, which includes Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, and threatens to do so in the EU as a whole. The four Visegrad countries have now - right on cue - banded together to oppose Germany's plan to apportion acceptance of refugees, and are instead seeking to themselves seal off the Balkan route to Europe. Advertisement The EU has already expressed concern about Poland's trajectory, initiating the Rule of Law Mechanism of the Council of Europe on January 13 to hold a hearing on Poland's actions. The Rule of Law Mechanism allows the EU to review threats to democratic governance and human rights in a member state, and to impose consequences if a country is found to be out of line with the Union's democratic values. It can go so far as to deprive Poland of voting rights in the EU Council, a body made up of representatives of all EU states that makes EU policy-decisions. The Venice Commission, including American representative - former Columbia Law Professor Sarah Cleveland - just completed a visit to Poland on February 8-9, with the goal of reviewing the amendments to the Act on the Constitutional Tribunal referenced above. Its report on the change in the law is due out in March for adoption by the full Venice Commission, though Poland's government has already dismissed its opinion, pointing out that the visit amounts to an intervention of "non-elected people" into the governance of Poland. The U.S. has also expressed concern, with Senators McCain, Cardin, and Durbin having last week written a letter urging the government of Poland to consider the effect of its actions on rule of law, prosperity, stability, and tolerance. Kaczynski, responded that the American senators did not understand Poland and that the sentiments in their letter smacked of Stalinist rhetoric. Ironically, within a day of this reference to U.S. concerns about pluralism and tolerance as Stalinist, Poland's Defense Minister Waszczykowski, in Washington this week, made his own plea for U.S. and NATO support, again referencing Poland's need for military reinforcements to shore up its eastern flank against threats of Russian aggression, stating that the U.S. and Poland are "close friends and allies with a shared history and values." Advertisement Considering the "game-changer" status of Poland's politics in the EU, the U.S. should take assertive action in response. President Obama should use the opportunity of the NATO Summit to remind Poland of its need to uphold the "shared values," it likes to claim. U.S. officials, like Nuland should push for legal and policy changes prior to the Summit to head off presidential criticism. Modifications to the laws that have hamstrung the Constitutional Tribunal should be a priority. The EU should also take note. The Rule of Law Mechanism alone is pretty ineffective, but combined with other actions could call Poland's government to account, and could spark real change. The EU Parliament should follow up the Rule of Law Mechanism with its own inquiry into Poland's actions, and the EU should seriously consider following through on the Rule of Law investigation by instituting Article 7 proceedings under the Lisbon Treaty. A message sent to Poland would resound in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and might even result in some newfound EU backbone on Hungary. Six years after 'Laura' catapulted Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, and director Otto Preminger to Hollywood's A List, the trio reunited for another film noir, Where the Sidewalk Ends. Though both movies take place in New York City, deal with murder, and focus on a police detective's attraction to a beautiful woman, they're worlds apart in location, tone, style, and storyline. No ritzy Park Avenue penthouses, scintillating repartee, or ultra-sophisticated gentry grace Ben Hecht's taut screenplay. In Where the Sidewalk Ends, Tierney and Andrews walk on the wild side, stealing tender moments in cramped, dingy apartments and rundown restaurants while reciting terse dialogue. Preminger infuses the film with a gritty toughness that matches the shady characters and underworld plot, and this time around more fully embraces noir's inimitable stylistic elements. The result is a tidy, tense, and totally satisfying thriller that's never quite gotten the recognition it deserves. In Laura, Andrews portrays Mark McPherson, a detective lieutenant with a chip on his shoulder; here, he's Mark Dixon, a detective sergeant with the same chip on his shoulder, as well as the same square jaw, piercing gaze, and bleeding heart. The similarities, however, end there. Dixon has finely honed his reputation as the 16th Precinct's resident loose cannon by systematically roughing up suspects and mouthing off to his superiors. Fed up with his behavior, Inspector Foley (Robert Simon) sternly admonishes Dixon and orders him to employ a kinder, gentler approach or risk a demotion to beat cop. Such pussycat tactics go against Dixon's grain, and while he's investigating the murder of a high roller at a floating crap game run by gangster Tommy Scalise (Gary Merrill), drunken suspect Kenneth Paine (Craig Stevens) slugs him. Instinctively, Dixon retaliates with a punch of his own, sending the man to the floor. And killing him. For reasons revealed later, Dixon decides not to report the accidental death, choosing instead to dump the body in the river and pin the crime on Scalise, who's beaten a host of murder raps in the past. But when Dixon starts falling for Paine's widow (Tierney), and the police label her father (Tom Tully) the prime suspect, his deceitful game begins to spiral out of control. At first, Where the Sidewalk Ends seems like a standard gangland mystery, but the film takes a startling and tantalizing detour when Dixon throws his lethal right cross. Rarely does a noir cop find himself on the wrong side of the law, and it's fascinating to watch Dixon sweat out the consequences of his violent outburst. In an ironic twist, not only does he pursue the bad guys, he's one himself, and seeing him walk a moral tightrope while forging a hopeless romance with Tierney provides viewers with a rich and substantive cinematic experience. In the half-dozen years since Laura, Andrews matured as an actor and developed a serious drinking problem, and in Where the Sidewalk Ends he uses both his talent and his vice to craft a strong, memorable portrayal. He looks weathered and beaten, and adopts a sour demeanor to hide an underlying sensitivity. Much of the film relies on his reaction shots and close-ups to convey myriad emotions, and Andrews admirably rises to the challenge, sucking us into his agonizing dilemma yet never losing our sympathy. Often dismissed as merely a virile, dependable leading man, Andrews proves here he's on a par with Bogart, Mitchum, Robert Ryan, and Richard Widmark as the quintessential noir actor. Tierney is always a welcome and beautiful (make that gorgeous) presence, but Hecht's screenplay gives her little to do, except appear glamorous and dewy-eyed. None of Laura's mystique or duplicity creeps into the disenchanted wife she very adequately portrays. In fact, seldom has a noir film featured a more bland and uninvolved heroine. Trivia buffs, however, will get a kick out of one of Tierney's early scenes, in which her real-life husband at the time, fashion designer Oleg Cassini, makes a cameo appearance as what else? a fashion designer. Stark locations, deep shadows, and the sparing use of music contribute to the harsh atmosphere Preminger creates. The director cleverly combines components of classic noir with the flavor of a new movement sweeping through Hollywood realism and the marriage works. Where the Sidewalk Ends is a model of this new recombinant form, and proof that the success of Laura was no fluke. Preminger, Tierney, and Andrews don't exactly go home again, but this darker side trip is definitely a journey worth taking. The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats 'Where the Sidewalk Ends' arrives on Blu-ray in a limited to 3,000 edition packaged in a standard case. An eight-page booklet featuring an essay by film historian Julie Kirgo, several black-and-white scene shots, and a full-color reproduction of the film's poster art is tucked inside the front cover. Video codec is 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 and audio is DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0. Once the disc is inserted into the player, the static menu without music immediately pops up; no preview or promos precede it. BERLIN, GERMANY - FEBRUARY 11: Meryl Streep attends the International Jury press conference during the 66th Berlinale International Film Festival Berlin at Grand Hyatt Hotel on February 11, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) Something wonderful happened at the Berlin Film Festival this past weekend, something about which American audiences may be unaware or indifferent. In Fire At Sea, which won the top prize, Gianfranco Rosi takes a hard look at the overloaded boats filled with despairing, half-dead immigrants from Africa who land on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa en route to Europe. Those who are not drowned at sea encounter the overwhelmed and dedicated people of the island, whose simple actions are evidence of the best in human nature, where one part of the human family helps another. Advertisement The Silver Bear for Best First Film went to a Tunisian, Mohamed Ben Attia, whose film Heditells the story of a diffident but dutiful second son, who runs away from a proscribed future into the complicated present. Set in this Islamic North African nation so recently tested by bombings of its museum and tourist sites, it brings the big issues of irreconcilable differences tenderly down to a human level. Another Silver Bear went to the 8.5 hour A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, Lav Diaz's saga of the Philippine people's journey to independence from their colonial past, and the Cinematography Award went to Crosscurrent, a brilliant, elegiac film from China, directed by Yang Chao. The lede was buried in the story of the Berlin festival, the largest in the world. These stories of people from China, Somalia, Mali, Sudan, and Tunisia -- testaments to the impact, importance and diversity of global cinema -- have been smothered in the U.S. by the volume of attention given to five words of mine at an opening press conference, which is too bad. The German director of the Berlin festival convened his jury, of which I was president, and this one consisted of Polish, Italian, French, British, German and American people. As with any artistic jury, even as president, I had no input into who would serve with me. Advertisement Contrary to distorted reporting, no one at that press conference addressed a question to me about the racial makeup of the jury. I did not "defend" the "all-white jury," nor would I, if I had been asked to do so. Inclusion -- of races, genders, ethnicities and religions -- is important to me, as I stated at the outset of the press conference. In a longwinded answer to a different question asked of me by an Egyptian reporter concerning the film from Tunisia, Arab/African culture, and my familiarity with Arab films specifically, I said I had seen and loved Theeb, and Timbuktu, but admitted, "I don't know very much about, honestly, the Middle East, ...and yet I've played a lot of different people from a lot of different cultures. And the thing I notice is that we're all -- I mean there is a core of humanity that travels right through every culture, and after all, we're all from Africa originally, you know? We're all Berliners, we're all Africans, really." I was not minimizing difference, but emphasizing the invisible connection empathy enables, a thing so central to the fact of being human, and what art can do: convey another person's experience. To be in Berlin is to see proof that walls don't work. Talking to a family member who is currently serving in a role of pastoral care, I was surprised to hear him talk openly about the many, many members of his ward who came to him with massive problems: divorce, infidelity, financial ruin, children with disabilities, deaths, and every tragedy you can probably imagine. "How do you fix problems like that?" I said, since I've never been in a position like this, except perhaps occasionally as a parent. He said something like this: "I don't. That's the first thing I learned in this job. The impulse to fix is almost irresistible, but it's not my role to solve other people's problems. It's my job to listen to them, to comfort them, to condole with them, to pray for them, but never fix things that are their lives. It would be disrespectful for me to try to do more than that. If they can't fix it themselves, how could I, who knows so much less about their lives, fix it for them? And if God hasn't fixed it, then perhaps it's not supposed to be fixed." Advertisement I have thought a lot about this conversation in the last few months, about the impulse to fix things for other people and how much a part of religion that can often be. I think that part of my anger at God in many years of depression was because I wanted my life to be fixed. I wanted bad things not to happen to me. I had imagined that life was about choosing the right path so that I avoided sin and all the consequences of sin. I did not want to accept that life might be about dealing with tragedies that had no cause and had no easy solution. I had spent my whole life up to that point being very good at seeing problems and fixing them. It truly stopped me in my tracks to try to see the world in a different way, not as a series of problems to be fixed, but rather a series of experiences to sit with and ponder. When someone comes to me with a problem, they are often frustrated with me if I tell them it's not my place to fix their problems for me. But on the other hand, they are just as frustrated if I offer them a list of simple solutions that from my perspective seem like the right answers. The truth is that someone else's life is not my life. It's not my purpose to fix their problems, just as it is not my purpose to judge them for not solving their problems the way that I think that they should. Yes, people have problems. Yes, we are called as Christians to help others. But to me, this often means helping them to see their own problems and their own capacities to fix them in a loving and non-judgmental way--because this is the state we are all in. We all have beams in our own eyes and tend to see motes in other people's eyes. Perhaps the best we can do is remind each other about our own flaws and inability to see clearly. Advertisement My father, who served for a number of years as a Mormon bishop, told me that one of the things he had learned was about money problems. He said this after I had narrowly escaped declaring bankruptcy and losing my home. It was his experience that once people realized that they had a problem with money, it was almost immaterial how deep they were in debt. If they stopped saying that they were making all the right choices already, that there was nothing else to be done but what they were doing, then making changes was easy. And once they had a budget in place that meant they had stopped spending more money than they took in, financial solvency happened quickly afterward. Because people started solving their own problems once they saw them clearly and realized they had the power to do something about these problems. I don't think that it's helpful to point out other people's problems to them from an imagined place of superiority. The truth is, I'm not sure that I often see what other people's problems are anyway. But sometimes having a loving conversation, mirroring their own words back to them, asking questions, and sharing some of my own experiences that might or might not relate, without any pressure on them to do anything, can lead to people seeing for themselves how they want to change their lives. And that is what I think is really helping other people. This is why I don't often give advice to others. I am not sure how much my advice to someone else's situation can help. I have never had an experience where I thought that someone was facing exactly the same situation that I had faced previously. Even if I had, I'm not sure that I would necessarily know if my choice had been the only right one. If I had chosen badly, I have no confidence that I could now choose the right choice for someone else in a different time. It's not as if there are ever really only two choices. Advertisement Ultimately, I have stopped even wishing that I could solve problems for other people because I believe that if God hasn't fixed the problems for them, there is a reason for that. This doesn't mean that I turn my back and shrug when people need help. I donate regularly to our local food kitchen and to global causes I believe in. I regularly carry cash to offer to the homeless, trying not to judge them if they ask for help. And I recently invited my sister and her son to come live with us for a couple of years while they worked out some financial and emotional problems. In 1957, then-senator John F. Kennedy published Profiles in Courage, a book describing acts of political integrity by eight U.S. senators through history. Nearly 60 years later, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Senate Republican leaders are starring in a sequel that could only be called Profiles in Cynicism. Rather than work to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, they have put politics ahead of their responsibility under the Constitution by refusing even to hold hearings. This extreme obstructionism is both an unprecedented dereliction of duty and politics at its worst. This is not a complicated issue. President Obama has a constitutional responsibility to make a nomination. The Senate has a constitutional duty to consider and then act on that nomination. Supreme Court justices have been confirmed during presidential election years on six different occasions since 1900. Consider this quote from one Senate leader: "We need to recommit ourselves to the 200-year principle that in a democracy an up-or-down vote should be given to a president's judicial nominees. It is simple. It is fair. It has been that way for over two centuries. And it's served us well." That was Mitch McConnell, in 2005. Advertisement Somehow, the Majority Leader has forgotten what he once knew: That this is a democracy, and democracies have rules. Elections have consequences. As this editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette points out, McConnell's assertion that refusing to move forward will "let the people decide" does not wash: "The arrogance of this stand is stunning, and it ignores the inconvenient reality that the people did decide: They elected Mr. Obama for a full second term, not for a term that would expire when the election campaign for his successor got really hot." Any president's Supreme Court nominee deserves a hearing and a vote. If senators do not support that candidate, then they are fully within their rights to reject that nominee. But to refuse a vote, hearing, or even any meeting borders on childishness. Holding your breath and stamping your feet is neither leadership nor good governance. It's also likely to backfire. If the Republican leadership wants to gamble that Americans don't care whether senators do their jobs, then they have a surprise in store. Vulnerable Republican senators such as New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte, Ohio's Rob Portman, Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey, and Wisconsin's Ron Johnson could end up handing the Senate back to the Democrats in the next election. Look, everyone knows we are living in a time when our government is not just divided but highly polarized. It's understandable that one party would feel threatened by the prospect of losing a key voice on the Supreme Court, possibly for decades. But there's an even greater issue at stake here. Will we allow extreme obstructionism to become the new norm for our government? Because if we do, we will have crippled our democracy in a way that makes coming together to solve our nation's real problems next-to-impossible. With that outcome, everyone loses. Advertisement So how will this get resolved? Hopefully, cooler minds will prevail. But that's likely to require some pressure. And that's where we all have a responsibility. Democracy shouldn't be a spectator sport. I've said many times that the power of the Sierra Club is in our people, and now is a time for us to use it. So along with our allies, we're mobilizing our grassroots to urge the Senate to stop obstructing our democracy. Two weeks ago, the Israeli Labor Party unanimously approved opposition leader Isaac Herzog's plan for separating from the Palestinians, which strives to advance a two-state solution. Elaborating on the plan, Mr. Hertzog said that "the victory of Zionism will be that the world recognizes the blocs, and foremost among them Gush Etzion... Those who don't want a peace deal forced on them must adopt my deal--a separation deal--(in which) we are here and they are there, and a red line divides us." We all want peace, but in my opinion this is not the way to get there. First, even if we build a wall between the two countries we will not be able to seal off the border; it's simply impractical. Second, and more important, today's terrorism is done not only by physical penetration of perpetrators, but also by ideological penetration of ideas, primarily through the internet. The San Bernardino killer, who murdered 14 co-workers, was described as "normal" before becoming radicalized through social media. Advertisement Another example is how ISIS recruits volunteers from around the world using the internet as a means of persuasion. Between the middle of 2014 and the middle of 2015, nearly 30,000 people entered Syria to join ISIS. All of them were indoctrinated into radical Islam either entirely or primarily through the internet. In today's flow of ideas it is impossible to stop Arab Israelis from being radicalized, as well. The deadly terror attack in Tel-Aviv perpetrated by the Arab Israeli, Nashat Milhem, indicates that violent radical Islam is already entrenched in Israel, rendering any proposal for separation between the two nations unrealistic, if not naive. I think that if we want peace, we have to take a completely different approach to Mr. Hertzog's. It may sound counterintuitive, but what I think we should do is focus on unity among us instead of constantly trying to please and appease the world. In fact, throughout our history as a nation we've been told that when there is unity among us we are not only strong, but there is peace in the world, so there is no need to fight. This is the strength we should be searching for--the strength of unity and love of others. There is no way we can win the world's favor unless we learn how to unite and extend that unity to the rest of the nations. And since the world will not be able to force peace on our people, it will blame us for every war that will occur henceforth. We keep thinking that the world should thank us because of our contributions to science and culture. But the world does not think so. Actually, a big part of humanity regards us as the world's worst punishment, more sinister than any tyrant and more destructive than any earthquake. With few exceptions, the only people counting our merits are we, while the rest of the world keeps track of our faults. Advertisement But if there is one thing for which the world would thank us it is unity, provided of course that we have unity to offer. We coined the maxim "love your neighbor as yourself" and it became a cornerstone in the building of both Christianity and Islam. In fact, the Golden Rule (a milder version of "love your neighbor as yourself") appears in nearly every religion, belief system, and ethical tradition. But clearly, we haven't a clue how to implement this rule, much less its "hardcore" version: "love your neighbor as yourself." The ancient Hebrews knew it but they're gone. What's left is us, and the rest of the world that's drowning in vileness and blames it on us. So the solution I see to our problems is to learn how to unite and extend it to the rest of the world. With military solutions being impossible, and with diplomatic efforts failing, we can either separate from the Palestinians or learn how to live with them. As I just explained, we cannot really part from them so our only option is to learn how to live with them. To do that we must first learn how to live with ourselves, and subsequently share this learning with our neighbors. We have to change our attitude toward the Palestinians: They will be our enemies just as long as we are our own enemies. Excluding necessary life-saving preventive measures, we should leave them alone and focus on internal unity. When we achieve it we will diffuse all the bombs without risking another person's life, on any side of the border. I am writing this on the eve of our annual gathering here in Tel Aviv where 6,000 people from 64 countries come together to experience this unity in person. They then take this example back to their respective countries and partake in building a better tomorrow. And yet, Israel must go first in order to provide the world with the right example. Rejoice, Boston: your goddess has come home. One of the least known - and most beloved - works in the collection of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts has returned to offer her compassionate gaze to her many followers. She is a 900-year old wooden Guanyin, a Buddhist bodhisattva of mercy, first displayed at the MFA back in 1920. She attracted hordes of quiet pilgrims until she suddenly went into storage in 1999. "Even goddesses need a break once in a while," says Nancy Berliner, the MFA curator who created the one-room installation where the statue now resides. Advertisement The practically life-size sculpture sits in what scholars call "the pose of royal ease." She leans forward slightly, casually and slyly smiling as she rests on her perch, one leg dangling forward, a hand balanced loosely on her other knee. It's hard to think of any sculpture, from her times to ours, with such a relaxed pose. She looks peacefully downward, in traditional Chinese fashion, watching the reflection of the moon in water only she can see. The message of where she focuses her attention: the moon's reflection is an illusion, is as all reality. That contemplative mien was enough to captivate generations of Bostonians, who would come to the MFA to experience the sense of maternal comfort the goddess exudes. And then, suddenly in 1999, the lady vanished, languishing, inaccessible for 15 years, in a storage room. Advertisement Berliner says that two years ago, a donor wanted to do something special for the MFA and wondered what might be an intriguing option. Berliner suggested paying for the conservation of the Guanyin, to which the patron quickly agreed. It took 18 months for the goddess to get her groove back. She was bathed in ultra-violet light, revealing a heretofore unseen inscription describing a prior restoration in China many centuries ago. A fragment of the wood from which she was sculpted went under radiocarbon examination, dating the tree felled to create her to the period of 1033 to 1155 C.E. The goddess endured her most recent sprucing up in 1956, when she was to appear in a "color television" program. An x-ray revealed that metal parts were added to her interior back then. Her third eye? A plastic decoration. Plastic? On a goddess? Well, what do you expect from TV? The MFA's conservator, Abigail Hykin, found the Guanyin sitting) in a pile of paint flecks. Hykin lovingly reattached each, after additional paint, determined to have been added over the centuries, was carefully removed. Advertisement The metal parts, circa 1956? Gone. The plastic decoration in her third eye? Ever so artfully dislodged. A wood fungus, detected in the conservation process, rendering the old lady dry and fragile? Replaced by inert material to stabilize her for the next 900 years. The conservation process revealed layer after layer of gold and green paint applied through the centuries to keep the goddess looking her best. Positive karma attaches to those who restore statues of Guanyin, Buddhism suggests. The role of Guanyin in Buddhist culture is to help people achieve nirvana. The name Guanyin actually implies "hearing the cries." A nearby painting depicts an 11-headed Guanyin, those extra heads permitting her to hear still more cries. The appeal of this particular Guanyin, so strong in the Song Dynasty when she was created, remains undiminished in our times. On Chinese New Year, February 6, she met her public for the first time in 16 years. More than 7,000 visited the MFA, many of whom collected the karma that comes from experiencing the bodhisattva's gaze. Why is she so appealing to moderns? "She expresses compassion and empathy," Berliner says. "The Song Dynasty was a time of realism in art, a little bit like the European Renaissance. Images of deities become more and more human." Advertisement Not every Song artist believed in such precise reproductions of the human form, however. The contemporaneous critic Su Dongpo derided representations of the physical form. His opinion, Berliner suggests, presages our own era of abstract impressionism. Surrounding the Guanyin in her new installation are fewer than 20 other pieces, including scrolls, dishes, and paintings, many of which followed Su Dongpo's dictum of attention to attractive brush stroke and calligraphy. One scroll was so attractive to a later Qing era emperor that he actually added his own calligraphic approval of the piece, visible to MFA visitors in the Guanyin's new digs. Berliner chose to set off the Guanyin with such a small array of Song treasures in order to keep things simple and spiritual. The room could have been packed with dozens of high quality pieces, each competing for the attention of the museumgoer. Keeping it simple, Berliner believes, provides the visitor with a more enduring experience of the lady whose calmness reminds us that all is illusion. Since the statue's return, Bostonians of a certain age have posted online of their delight and have told of the bond they enjoyed with the Guanyin in decades gone by. Now the goddess has begun a new era of soothing her visitors' souls. If you're passing through Boston and your heart is heavy, come gaze upon this gorgeous Guanyin. You might even make it a habit; you will hardly be the first. Advertisement LAS VEGAS, NV - FEBRUARY 23: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a caucus night watch party at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on February 23, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The New York businessman won his third state victory in a row in the 'first in the West' caucuses. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) There's been a theme in some of the media, and certainly among some gay Republicans -- as I focused on a few weeks ago -- that implies Donald Trump isn't so bad on equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, or is at least better than most of the other GOP candidates. It's absolutely false -- he's as extreme as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and will do nothing for LGBT rights -- and it's time to disabuse the media and everyone else of this notion once and for all. First, we need to see how it got started, emanating from a technique Trump uses to stellar effect. Trump very publicly, often in large media forums, offers up vague hopes about attaining justice (on a whole range of issues, with his "make America great again" mantra), without explaining how he'll do that. He has in the distant past said that he supports non-discrimination laws that protect gay people, and even said last year, when asked on Meet the Press, that gay workers shouldn't be fired from their jobs because of their sexual orientation -- though didn't offer support for laws barring such discrimination, and certainly didn't say he'd pressure Congress to pass such a law. He offered more vagueness with an ounce of hope when asked by a lesbian reporter on the campaign trail in New Hampshire about LGBT rights, saying simply, "we're going to bring people together." Advertisement Trump has been much less vocal when the media spotlight is on him, however, about his opposition to gay marriage. Certainly he's much less vocal about it than he is about, say, immigration policy, so we're not hearing his anti-gay positions as much or at all in mainstream media, or in his speeches, while he continues talking very publicly about building his wall on the border. But he is definitely speaking forcefully on his anti-gay positions to evangelicals on their media platforms, in their language, using the dog whistle on LGBT rights even if he's using the fog horn on other issues. Trump is much smarter than many give him credit for. By speaking with the fog horn on many issues it gives the impression that he places low priority on the issues with which he's using the dog whistle. In fact, he's calibrated what to speak about under the radar and what to take big, no matter that the positions may be equally extreme. In his Nevada victory speech, he said, "I love the evangelicals!" Only looking at Christian evangelical media forums, however, would you understand why they have reason to love him back: Last week in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody, Trump called the Supreme Court's Obergefell marriage equality ruling "shocking" and told evangelicals to "trust me" on the issue, telegraphing that he would get the marriage equality ruling overturned. Advertisement On Fox News Sunday, Trump in fact said he'd consider appointing judges who would overturn the Obergefell ruling, taking up a position that Marco Rubio had announced weeks earlier. Trump came out in support of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), which anti-gay Republicans introduced in Congress last year. It would allow government entities, non-profit organizations that receive government funds and businesses contracted with the federal government to discriminate against gays. Basically, it would allow for the kind of exemption on a whole variety of issues that the Kentucky clerk Kim Davis was demanding. While Trump had initially criticized Kim Davis in the mainstream media for not doing her job, he later quietly backtracked in talking to evengelical Christian-focused media outlets, and when pressed in an interview with me at the Values Voter Summit last fall, he expressed support for Davis and her position. Trump has attacked Chief Justice John Roberts -- who voted against LGBT rights consistently -- as insufficiently conservative, and recently promised in a Christian Broadcasting Network town hall with Pat Robertson at Robertson's Regent University that he would put far right extremists on the court who would get Roe v. Wade "unpassed." At a South Carolina forum he suggested Justice Clarence Thomas, who is as anti-gay as Justice Samuel Alito and the late Justice Antonin Scalia, is a model for his own appointees if he becomes president, calling Thomas "very strong and consistent." This has huge implications considering the GOP will block President Obama from replacing Scalia and the next president may have that opportunity. All of the above is consistent with Trump's tweet in response to the Obergefell ruling last June: Once again the Bush appointed Supreme Court Justice John Roberts has let us down. Jeb pushed him hard! Remember! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2015 Advertisement Even if Trump is serious about supporting anti-discrimination laws, he's not only not shown any evidence that he'd actually push Congress to pass them, but since he also supports FADA he'd be in favor of broad religious exemptions included within any such laws, which would allow those who want to discriminate to continue to discriminate. As we've seen, Trump is a master of manipulation (of media and of constituencies) who learned that on the gay issue he could give mixed signals, implying "tolerance" of LGBT rights while on the campaign trail but then speaking to anti-gay bigots within their forums and telling them exactly what they want to hear. Unlike on immigration, where he sees the swirling energy of the extreme right and its demand for a very loud voice, he knows evangelicals, who've suffered defeats, will accept someone who more quietly makes promises -- as long as he's a winner. And they're intent on making him a winner and holding him to those promises. What's not to love about a classic burger? Sometimes there's nothing better than a juicy patty on a warmly toasted bun topped with melted cheese, lettuce, tomato and tasty condiments. Here are 14 All-American burgers that'll make you wish it was barbecue season already: (San Francisco) Photo provided by Cafe du Nord. Photo by the LP. The burger at Cafe du Nord is as classic as the restaurant -- which has been serving San Francisco almost continuously since 1907 -- with sharp cheddar, lettuce, pickles and secret sauce plus a side of fries. (Chicago) Photo provided by Sink Swim. Sink Swim puts its own spin on the traditional burger, drizzling its housemade "Sink Sauce" over a double patty with American cheese and onion rings. Advertisement (Los Angeles) Photo provided by Plan Check. At Plan Check, the PCB (Plan Check Burger) comes with delicious toppings -- Americanized dashi cheese, ketchup leather, schmaltz onions and mixed pickles -- on a perfect "crunch" bun. (Boston) Photo provided by Alden & Harlow. Photo by Jennifer Che. Alden & Harlow's Burger -- offered with limited availability -- is made with an 80z Creekstone patty, a house-made roll and "your faith" in the chef. The burger remains a mystery until you take the first bite, but it looks darn good to us! (San Francisco) Photo provided by Mason Pacific. Mason Pacific delivers a juicy patty on a pretzel bun with smoked tomato and pickled red onion, plus optional gourmet toppings such as mushroom confit, white cheddar, egg and gorgonzola. (New York) Photo provided by Ai Fiori. Photo by Evan Sung. Ai Fiori's White Label Burger -- an eight-ounce LaFrieda prime patty served with bacon marmalade, slices of white American cheese, McClure's pickles and a side of pommes dauphines (crisp potato puffs)-- is the epitome of a power lunch. Advertisement (Los Angeles) Photo provided by Sunny Spot. Sunny Spot's cheeseburger -- with American cheese, crispy buttermilk onions, tomato, housemade pickles and fancy sauce -- is a great dish to enjoy hand in hand with its Caribbean style side dishes like avocado mash, salt and pepper fries, and rice and beans. (San Francisco) Photo provided by Alta CA. A perfect fit for the restaurant's European-influenced American menu, Alta CA's burger comes with cheddar cheese and bacon on a sesame bun with a side of crisp potatoes in garlic oil. (New York) Photo provided by Edi and the Wolf. Photo by Andreas Kurzahls. A delicious lunch to cozy up to with an Austrian beer, the Wolf Burger at Edi & the Wolf is prepared with the restaurant's signature Pat LaFrieda blend, gruyere and both grilled and crispy onions, with egg and bacon offered as additions. (Chicago) Photo provided by Gemini Bistro. A staple on its modern American menu, Gemini Bistro dishes out a prime beef with its applewood bacon cheeseburger on a homemade bun with a side of fries. (Los Angeles) Photo provided by Cerveteca. The perfect complement to their fantastic beer selection, Cerveteca's burger can be ordered with a beef, turkey or veggie patty and is garnished with red leaf, tomato, grilled or fried onion, housemade "not so secret sauce" and a choice of pimiento or cheddar cheese. Advertisement (New York) Photo provided by Landmarc. Photo by Cedric Angeles. Landmarc offers standout cheeses to top off its hamburgers or chicken burgers -- American, gruyere, blue, cheddar, mozzarella and smoked mozzarella are all on hand -- to make yours ooze with delight. (San Francisco) Photo provided by Fog City. A reimagined version of a historic destination, Fog City delivers food that strikes that same traditional yet updated balance, featuring a burger topped with smoked tomato aioli, housemade American cheese, tomato, onion and dill pickle on a brioche bun. (Los Angeles) Photo provided by Dudley Market. Dudley Market's Burger Diane, a lunchtime favorite, is a gourmet take on a classic dish, prepared with gruyere, melted onions, mushrooms, pickles and Dijon. On Super Tuesday, voters will indicate the direction of the country for the next four or eight years. The Presidential Primary election will reveal whether they think small incremental steps are sufficient, given the major issues we face as a nation. The issues are especially acute for young people: lack of stable, middle-class jobs disparity between the haves and have-nots growing larger every year the health care system, although improved by the Affordable Care Act, is still run by insurance and drug companies whose billing procedures make no sense, and where costs for minor procedures or prescription drugs run into the tens of thousands of dollars need for criminal justice reform, and the ongoing issues of racial profiling and the use of lethal force against unarmed black people, which gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement enormous costs of a college education, threatening families with financial ruin, and the debt a constant source of stress among Millennials There are solutions to these problems, but they will never be enacted unless we harness the collective will, as expressed in our elections, for larger-scale, non-incremental solutions and in ongoing citizen engagement with the political process. Advertisement Lessons from Copenhagen and Keystone XL For climate change voters, important lessons can be found in the Obama Administration's response to two of the biggest leadership tests on climate change over the past eight years: the UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December 2009, and the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline proposal. The results are not comforting to environmentalists looking at the "status quo" candidate in 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. After Copenhagen, the White House's story was that President Obama swooped in on the last day and "saved" the talks. But the supposed saving did not do much for anyone or anything. Six precious years of climate action were irretrievably lost until the Paris talks, which finally achieved what Copenhagen should have. The main difference between Copenhagen and Paris was that under Secretary Hillary Clinton's watch, the State Department was not committed to success at the international climate talks. Some think their actual goal was to scuttle the talks. Paris succeeded where Copenhagen failed because this time the Administration conducted bilateral talks with the Chinese in advance and spent political capital when it counted. Perhaps this is because President Obama is now more concerned with his green legacy, or he is no longer as afraid of Republican opposition as he was in 2009. But some credit for Paris' success is due to Secretary of State John Kerry, and some blame for Copenhagen is due to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. On Super Tuesday voters should ask themselves, how many more years will be lost if a status quo candidate who cannot articulate a clear vision for international climate action is elected president. The other major issue, the Keystone XL pipeline, was a no brainer if you care about climate change. Until just a few months ago Secretary Clinton still had not taken a position. Maybe the fault lies with President Obama's "all of the above" energy policy. If Secretary Clinton was fine with it before, will she continue with "all of the above" for another four or eight years? Waiting so long to take a position on Keystone XL looks plain cowardly in retrospect. Bill Clinton's presidency was known for his constant political calculations while liberals waited for him to reluctantly do the right thing after all other options were exhausted. Advertisement Perhaps it was President Obama's, Rahm Emanuel's, or another political operative's idea to leave the environmental constituency hanging out there in limbo for so long, so that the party could raise funds from Tom Steyer and his wealthy green friends. Meanwhile, climate activists were deluged for seven long years with countless online petitions, email alerts, and clogged inboxes from 350.org and others, just so he could finally make an obvious decision he should have made years before. Super Tuesday will be a referendum on whether this status quo approach is acceptable to voters anymore. We have no time to waste. The business as usual scenario will use up the global carbon budget by 2030. At that point, the climate science would mandate imposing a ban (not just a cap and tax) on fossil fuel extraction. A ban would put all fossil fuel companies immediately out of business and likely cause a global recession, to be followed by a political backlash that returns us to the business as usual environmental catastrophe scenario. A better plan would be a carbon price under a declining cap, with revenues returned to households as a climate dividend. In 2013 Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (along with Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)) introduced a bill that returns 60 percent of carbon revenues to households. A bold policy like that would only succeed if pushed by a bold President. THE LOOK OF SILENCE is the latest film by Joshua Oppenheimer. It's companion film; THE ACT OF KILLING was nominated for an Oscar in 2013. When I first saw these films I knew I was watching something that went beyond anything I'd seen in documentary filmmaking. I wasn't just moved by the story I was in awe of the filmmaking itself. I wanted to know the process the methodology. They were different and certainly confounding. They are also brilliant. I sat down with Joshua for about twenty minutes. He explained his thoughts and form. It's as if he already knew what I wanted to ask without me having to ask him. In 1965 there was a massive genocide in Indonesia. Over a million people were killed. This film is about it's survivors and the killers who are still in power today. This interview has been edited for clarity. Molly: You're being nominated for an Oscar. Were you also nominated for a BAFTA? Joshua: I wasn't, no. It's funny, because The Act of Killing won the BAFTA, and it won for its uncut version. I don't know if you know, but The Act of Killing is in two versions. There is the US theatrical version, which is about two hours long, and then there was the full version, which was the theatrical version everywhere else, two hours and 40 minutes long. Advertisement Molly: I saw it on Netflix. Joshua: Oh, so then there were two versions, something called the director's cut and something called the theatrical cut. Molly: So should I go back and see the director's cut? Joshua: You should, if you haven't seen it. Werner Herzog and I just did a dialogue in Sundance, and he announced, "It's not 40 minutes longer, it's 15 miles deeper." That was his comment about it. I'm not even sure it's a documentary anymore, especially if you're interested in form. I think it's kind of a fever dream in a way that even the shorter version is not. Molly: I am interested in form, what is your form? Joshua: I think that one way of answering that is talking about method. I think what I do is I take these long journeys together with characters whom I feel are at sort of the epicenter of some enormous problem -- usually involving pretense, involving deception, involving lies that people tell to justify a situation which is intolerable. Together with these characters, I take a long and intimate journey where we actually create new realities that wouldn't exist before. We create situations that, in the case of ... I think both The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence are in some ways historical, in the sense that there's never before been these confrontations between survivors and perpetrators in Indonesia, or indeed in film -while the perpetrators are still in power. I don't just try to show you the process from a distance. As a viewer, I try to immerse you in the space that's created. I think, in terms of form, what I'm trying to do is ... I don't think of myself as a storyteller. I think of myself ... I think that storytelling is a kind of somewhat inaccurate analogy, especially in what you called branded documentary, when we were chatting before. It's a kind of inaccurate analogy for the experience I have when I watch a movie that moves me ... That truly shakes me deeply, that shakes me to the core. What I try to create out of this material is a series of experiences, moments, spaces, in which you don't just perceive a physical space but you perceive the poetic truth of a space, the hidden. In the case of The Look of Silence, for example, the fear, the silence, the ghosts that would not be immediately visible if you walked into an Indonesian village. I try to create tones, and in succession, cumulatively, these constitute an experience for a viewer, and change the viewer. There's a reason that things are invisible, and it's usually that people are afraid or uncomfortable to talk about the things that need to be talked about. These realities inevitably push everybody -- viewer, filmmaker, and participant -- beyond their comfort zone, within the overall safe space of watching a film or making a film. I think it's in that sense that I try to create experiences where, in a sense, nothing quite feels safe, and where the experience is overwhelming; a little bit like a tsunami, where you get the sense that everyone involved -- the participants, the filmmakers, and the viewers -- are somehow overwhelmed by something that's unleashed, and yet that's very, very necessary. Advertisement Molly: Before you approached this story, did you know you were going to do it this way? Joshua: Methodologically, it emerges as you go along. You have a sense of metaphor that guides you like a pole star. The perpetrator who actually we don't ever see in The Act of Killing but we see in The Look of Silence, who presents me with that illustrated memoir, after he took me down to the river and showed how he killed, he said to me at the end of the day, "Oh, I could have done this so much better. I'm a theater director, an amateur theater director. Why don't I make a play of this book?" And I thought, "My god." This metaphor of a death squad that makes a musical was maybe a metaphor that guided the creation of The Act of Killing, but I never at that point imagined that Anwar Congo, whom I hadn't met yet and wouldn't meet for another year and a half and his friends would want to propose dramatizing what they'd done, and their feelings about what they'd done, in the styles of their favorite Hollywood movies. If you choose a metaphor correctly, that gets at the essential moral and poetic truth of a situation, invariably, if you dig gently, it seems like things come round to that metaphor by themselves, because the metaphor was well chosen. Similarly, with The Look of Silence, I had the idea of Adi doing the eye exams. Adi was the one who wanted to confront the perpetrators, and at first I said no, it would be too dangerous. Adi convinced me to try, and we found a way of doing it safely. Actually, it would serve a series of simple practical purposes: one, it would build an instant intimacy -- physical intimacy -- between Adi and the perpetrators, where it was clear to the perpetrators that Adi saw them as human beings, which was essential if Adi was going to have any chance getting the reconciliation for which he was hoping. And then all the questions of editing grammar, and where you leave space, and where you allow awkward pauses to linger, and where commentary comes in, and where I interrupt with questions from behind the camera; whether there should be music, when there should be this ... And there's almost no music in my films, no score. I was inspired by Bresson's point, "Don't use a score. Let the sounds be the score." Molly: Let the sounds be the score. It felt like I was there in a way. Joshua: I want to just say one more thing about those choices about sound and so on, just to tie it into your question. It was that those are choices you make as you go, and when you get that wrong -- and I don't think you can ... You can learn by studying film and studying the grammar of film, and being rigorous in your study of film, and thinking what's working and what's not working, but always in that study you have to guide yourself from what feels wrong. When I make a wrong choice in the editing room, which I do when I'm trying things, it feels like a dagger to the heart. It feels like, "Oh no, that's awful." It's like the tiniest detail, and my editor will say, "Oh, that's just ... It's okay, we can deal with it later," and I'm like, "No, we have to fix it now because I can't watch it. It's sort of sickening." I think one thing I'm particularly allergic to is sentimentality. Sentimentality exists to basically ... To reassure the viewer. Kundera described sentimentality as a second tear. He says you cry a first tear when something's sad; you cry the second tear because you know the whole world is crying the first tear with you. That's sentimental. It's kitsch. It's escapism, because you escape from the pain of the first tear in the fellowship of the second tear. It's a tear of self-pity. Advertisement Molly: Music can manipulate the audience, and it can - Joshua: Music isn't always sentimental. It can open up whole new layers of meaning that are -But these feelings are there in the editing. With this film, music felt wrong because it becomes a layer of comment from a filmmaker, from a storyteller, that even at its most effective somehow distances you from the raw immersion in the moment. Molly: You're a great filmmaker. Joshua: Oh, thank you. Molly: A man in the film says, "We deserve a trip to America, because the Americans taught us to hate Communists." What does that mean? Joshua: The Americans did arm the death squads, fund the death squads, train the death squads. The details of that lie in the archives of the CIA, and the Defense Department, and the Defense Attache documents, and the CIA job documents from the period. All of those remain classified, even though fifty years has gone by. Despite numerous Freedom of Information Act requests, they are still classified. Historians -- and I've been party to some of these appeals -- have appealed those denials of our FOIA requests. They still ... Appeals get denied. We participated in this genocide. It's American history. We see also in the film, maybe just as powerfully as that, that Goodyear was using ... We see this reported almost admiringly on an NBC documentary that Adi Rukun is watching in the film. We see that Goodyear was harvesting the rubber that went into its tires using slaves drawn from a death camp. This is of course what German corporations -- in fact, IG Farben was doing on the periphery of Auschwitz only twenty years earlier to make synthetic rubber. This is a pretty profound stain on America's record as a force for freedom and democracy in the post-war world, and should give us pause, leading us to wonder to what extent ideological anti-communism was the real motivation for American participation in the 1965 killings -- or in so many other Cold War interventions -- or to what extent was that an excuse, so that American perpetrators could do what they had to do or wanted to do on behalf of their corporate clients in just the same way that Indonesian perpetrators we see in my films have their excuses that they cling to, but which also might be self-deception. Molly: You didn't focus on that. That could be - Joshua: A whole other film. Molly: I wonder if there's something that you want to say that you haven't been able to say because no one's asked you. Joshua: If there's something I want to say, I'm pretty good at working it into my thoughts. What's best in an interview is when I try to just be present and come across new ideas as I go, and that happens. Even ... I think it happened once in this interview, although I don't remember what it was. Molly: The death squad leaders descriptions of how they killed people are very graphic. How can you help me understand the psychology of this culture? It's so a matter of fact no emotion no remorse. Joshua: The psychology of his graphic boasting? Molly: It's so graphic, they did heinous things to people, and yet they are... Joshua: I think it's this - Molly: But they're not serial killers, but yet ... That's the part I need to understand. Joshua: I think, first of all, politically, even if they were Machiavellian James Bond villains they would have found that going around boasting about their crimes would effectively shore up their power, because it would make everyone afraid of them. Inong, the first man who talks about drinking blood in the film, tells the story of drinking blood with these red test lenses on his face, looking really like he's dangling this awful truth in front of the audience. Then Adi asks him very calmly, "Are people afraid of you?" And he says, "Yes, everyone around here is afraid of me." You realize in that moment, they're afraid of him not because of what he did, but because of the way he's been talking about it ever since. First of all, the boasting about atrocities is a weapon of terror. It serves to ... A tool of intimidation. It keeps everybody afraid, and builds the power of the perpetrators. Now, part of that threat is, "Don't challenge our version of these events, because if you challenge our claim that this was right ..." First of all it would undermine the legitimacy of their power, but also, how would they live with themselves? That comes to a seemingly opposed account of the explanation of the boasting of the perpetrators, which I think is actually indistinguishable from what I've just said. I think every perpetrator I filmed lives their life in kind of a manic flight from a cloud of guilt and shame that follows them everywhere they go, and they probably outrun it by day. Some of them may have successfully kind of killed off their own conscience -- numbed themselves, as Adi says about one of the perpetrators in The Look of Silence -- so that they can live with themselves. But most of them, at night, when they stop to sleep, this cloud of guilt and shame catches up with them and insinuates itself into their dreams and gives them terrible nightmares. Yet, because they've never been removed from power, they still have available to them a victor's history that justifies what they've done, and so they do the human thing. They cling to that victor's history. They try to take these bitter, rotten memories of atrocity and sugarcoat them in the sweet language of heroism, the sweet language of this victor's history that justifies what they've done. That accounts for the boasting. That accounts for why they don't merely say, "We eliminated the Communists and it was heroic," but they have to go into the grisly details. How else can you account for the need to go into the unseemly, grisly details, apart from the fact that those are the most bitter memories for them to swallow. Those are the ones they need to somehow make okay, by first of all declaiming them, dissociating themselves, almost, from ... Recounting them not in the kind of mode of remembrance, but rather in the mode of performance, which can be a kind of mask, but also to frame them in this heroic language so they can sugar-coat these most painful memories so they can live with themselves. Molly: Can you forgive them like Adi hopes? Or it's not about that... Joshua: It's not about that, for me. I think that they have escaped justice. Some of them, at least; Anwar Congo, I do not think has escaped punishment. Even ones who are not racked by guilt I think have escaped punishment, because in order to live with what they've done they've had to hollow themselves out, and what kind of life is that? It was Socrates who said the unexamined life is not worth living. Well, these men are either tormented or completely hollow, and don't think it's my place to forgive people who haven't taken responsibility. I think that if they could acknowledge what they've done was wrong, and sincerely and consistently said, "This was wrong," I would understand the survivors like Adi being ready to forgive. There are some people in this country who are mad as hell. Armed with a delegate vote, they are using that vote as an expression of their anger at American politics. If you doubt their anger, FoxNews.com contributor, John Fund, wants you to know that their anger is real. In describing reasons behind Donald Trump's recent win in Nevada, Fund's latest article reads: "Trump wins Nevada: Voter anger is real, and it's propelling The Donald forward." According to John Fund, these voters are angry at wage stagnation, immigration paralysis, and phony politicians. These voters are Trump supporters and they have not been hiding their anger from us. So it was not a surprise to read 'voters', 'anger', and 'Trump' in the same article. What was surprising to read was an acknowledgement that some group's anger was real. Advertisement It's been a long time since I heard those words. I honestly do not remember the last time I heard those words. During the recent protests against police brutality as well as protests against racial injustice on college campuses, protestors were indeed angry. Protests are usually motivated not only by a desire for change but anger at injustice. But I don't recall many articles describing the protestors' anger as 'real'. Criticisms of the anger of Yale students protesting the racial climate on campus consisted of referring to their anger as irrational and their feelings as 'sensitive'. Their anger was not described as real. Richard Lowry, a contributor for the National Review, claimed that the rioters in Baltimore weren't angry at all. Instead, they were having the times of their lives. Describing someone or some groups' political anger as real is more than a headline or a property of an emotional state. It is an acknowledgement that the anger exists AND perhaps we should pay attention. It is recognition of a group as well as recognition of their concerns. To say that someone's anger is real is to say it is not imaginary, made up, or something used to irrationally justify actions. Instead, this acknowledgement conveys the judgment that this is something we all should take notice of and even perhaps do something about. It may even lead to acknowledging our own complicity in the injustice. If anger arises out of self-respect and recognition of a moral wrong, acknowledging the realness of that anger acknowledges our fellows as humans who may have reasons to be angry. In a liberal democracy, acknowledgment and recognition is not merely lip service but they are civic virtues that build trust and friendship. The question is, are only certain groups worthy of that friendship? Advertisement What has been problematic about the use of anger in the media these days is the asymmetry that exists: we tend to view the anger of privileged groups (whites or male) as real and the anger of disadvantaged groups (women and minorities) as irrational or imagined. This is not new but part of a long history of emotional dismissal and the privileging of different groups to feel outlaw emotions (i.e. anger) while policing and shunning other groups (usually minorities) for feeling the same. When only some people's anger is acknowledged and others are not, we fail at offering civic responsiveness to those whose reasons align with our country's democratic values. Instead of showing that they are our fellow comrades whose anger is not simply in their heads, we show them that they are not worthy of being acknowledged nor worthy of our concern. I cannot wait for that day when we consider all of humanity as well as their anger at injustice, as real. For now, I will be watching Caucus outcomes as well as the general elections. It seems that anger these days are only considered real when its expressed in the voting booths. As a result, I predict that the new stage for angry protests will take place not on the public streets but behind a veil at your nearby public school, library, community center, or firehouse. It may be the case that after it's all said and done, certain people's anger will still be considered unreal. The media may credit the victory of Clinton to women voting for women and not because of women's anger at a republican party who believes its their right to control women's bodies. They may credit the victory of Sanders to Jews voting for Jews or young women voting for Sanders in order to please boys and not because of an anger at wealth inequalities and a criminal (in)justice system. Some people's anger may never be acknowledged as real but this will not change the truth that it is. For just as Morpheus says to Neo in describing the real: " I didn't say it would be easy... I said it would be the truth." Advertisement You may have to value the truth of your own and your fellows' anger for now. When the political matrix no longer succeeds at blinding others from the content of marginalized and oppressed citizens' anger, the acknowledgment will come. Insecure desktop operating systems (and even server/CMS vulnerabilities) has led to the creation of enormous, powerful botnets comprised of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of machines and thanks to the law of supply and demand, it's remarkably cheap and easy to rent time on a botnet and blast any site of your choosing off the Internet. This problem will only get worse, as badly secured smart lightbulbs and networked rectal thermometers are compromised en masse and put into botnet service. DDoS attacks are sometimes used for petty revenge (say, against an opponent who trash-talks you on a game's chat channel); sometimes for extortion (shutting down betting websites just before the Superbowl); sometimes for political action (see, e.g., the Anonymous raids on Paypal in retaliation for blocking payments to Wikileaks), but increasingly, DDoSes are deployed by governments and political movements to shut down news sites that are critical of them. This is especially hard on independent news sites in autocratic and developing nations, where the governments they criticize are able to buy state-level cyberweapons (often from western companies like Hacking Team and Blue Coat) and use them to attack shoestring operations. It's not just the developing world, either the Catalan independence movement in Spain was targeted by "advanced persistent threat" attacks more commonly used by governments to attack other governments. This is where Google's Project Shield comes through: sites pre-register with Google to "reverse proxy" their traffic through Google's cloud platform. By making a change in DNS, publishers can route all their traffic through Google. This means that a DDoS attack has to be sufficiently robust as to take down Google's cloud (much harder than taking down a WordPress install on a rack in a commodity hosting provider). It also means that Google gets to man-in-the-middle the traffic to the publisher, decrypting and re-encrypting it in transit. Google says it only uses data from its proxy service to improve the service and provide usage stats to publishers. Routing your traffic through Google also means that your site will be unavailable in countries whose censorship regime blocks all Google IP addresses. Importantly, Google Shield is free. Publishers can already sign up for other cloud platforms, from Cloudflare to Amazon, to protect themselves from DDoS. But those services charge by the byte, meaning that an "unsuccessful" DDoS can succeed anyway, by bankrupting small publishers with bandwidth bills. Google says you can sign up for Shield in 10 minutes. This is an example of what Bruce Schneier calls feudal computing, where individuals and groups swear allegiance to a large and powerful "lord" who protects them from bandits and opposing lords. I'm not saying that feudal security is all bad. For the average user, giving up control is largely a good thing. These software vendors and cloud providers do a lot better job of security than the average computer user would. Automatic cloud backup saves a lot of data; automatic updates prevent a lot of malware. The network security at any of these providers is better than that of most home users. Feudalism is good for the individual, for small startups, and for medium-sized businesses that can't afford to hire their own in-house or specialized expertise. Being a vassal has its advantages, after all. For large organizations, however, it's more of a mixed bag. These organizations are used to trusting other companies with critical corporate functions: They've been outsourcing their payroll, tax preparation, and legal services for decades. But IT regulations often require audits. Our lords don't allow vassals to audit them, even if those vassals are themselves large and powerful. Yet feudal security isn't without its risks. Our lords can make mistakes with security, as recently happened with Apple, Facebook, and Photobucket. They can act arbitrarily and capriciously, as Amazon did when it cut off a Kindle user for living in the wrong country. They tether us like serfs; just try to take data from one digital lord to another. Protecting news from digital attacks [Google] (via /.) EDIT: This morning, Governor Sandoval announced he has no interest in being nominated to the Supreme Court. If you're curious about what would have happened in the parallel universe where this didn't happen, read on: A little over a month ago, I stood in the boarding line at the Las Vegas airport and saw Nevada's governor, Brian Sandoval. I grew up in Reno, and had met Sandoval in high school, so I figured I would go shake hands and say hello. Though my politics don't line up with Sandoval on most issues, I had always respected him for his moderate and unifying approach to governing. We talked for a few minutes, and then parted ways. Perhaps I should have stayed in touch. According to news broken by the Washington Post, Sandoval is among the candidates being considered by President Obama to replace the vacant seat created by the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Sandoval, who served for two years as Nevada's attorney general before becoming a federal district judge for just under four years, is widely considered to be the most conservative option on Obama's short list. Advertisement Sandoval is certainly not the only nominee being considered by Obama, but quizzically, his is the only name who has been definitively linked (according to the Post, by "two people familiar with the selection process") with the search to replace Scalia. There is more to this than meets the eye. That Sandoval's name in particular has appeared in the press, at the same time top Senate Republicans like Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX), and Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have said they will not even hold hearings on any nomination, is not a fluke. Per the Washington Post, "It is unclear how many potential nominees are under White House consideration for the high court vacancy left by Scalia. Obama was seen last week carrying a thick binder of materials on potential picks to review." Floating a candidate now, just eleven days after Scalia's death, is historically early for Obama. As I wrote last week, Obama took a month to nominate Justice Elena Kagan after Justice John Paul Stevens announced his retirement, and he took 26 days to nominate Justice Sotomayor after Justice David Souter's retirement plans leaked to the media. But neither of them died mid-term, and neither of them stepped down in an election year, which may explain the rush now. Last week, SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein summarized President Obama's goals in nominating Scalia's replacement as twofold: Advertisement First, fill the Scalia seat by getting a nominee confirmed. The stakes could not be higher: the appointment could flip the Supreme Court's ideological balance for decades. Second, gain as much political benefit as possible and exact as heavy a political toll as possible on Republicans, particularly in the presidential election. A Sandoval nomination certainly satisfies the second objective. For Republican senators to reject one of the most popular Republican governors in the country, and a Latino to boot, all under the shadow of a presidential election, could be potentially catastrophic with the moderate electorate. Strangely, nominating Sandoval makes less sense from the perspective of the first objective, "flipping the court's ideological balance for decades." "He's obviously no Scalia, but he could be a risky choice from a liberal perspective," Bob Shrum, a veteran Democratic political consultant, told me. "While he could be pro-choice and pro-gay marriage, he might not necessarily think they are Constitutional rights." Critics on the left have also raised eyebrows over his friendly attitude for big business and anti-public union stances. So why is Sandoval's name the only one to be thus far confirmed on the shortlist? I suspect it is because Obama purposely leaked Sandoval's name to test the waters of GOP obstruction in the Senate. While Sandoval is by no means the only person being vetted, he is probably the most conservative candidate Obama is considering. In this instance, leaking Sandoval's name makes sense for two reasons. First, if Sandoval's name gets support, at least to the extent necessary to get Senate republicans off of their "we will not consider anyone" perch, Obama will leak a few more names and nominate a more liberal choice, knowing he has Sandoval as a backup plan. As it stands, that's unlikely. On Tuesday, McConnell said "no action" would be taken on a nomination, and added that Scalia's replacement "will be determined by whoever wins the presidency in the fall." Advertisement His second-in-command, Majority Whip John Cornyn, agreed. Dealing with your doctor and managing your everyday health by smartphone isn't just an emerging trend--it might help you maintain a healthier lifestyle and save money. Many innovators think that the future of medicine lies in the smartphones, smart watches and tablet computers you carry around every day. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is driving innovators in healthcare and technology to develop apps and devices that offer greater access to healthcare services at a lower cost. It's called telehealth or telemedicine, referring to the increasing use of Internet-connected devices to communicate diseases, symptoms and other health data. From showing your doctor a cut or scratch on your arm to finding the cheapest price on a prescription while commuting, this new way of managing health is becoming a reality. In fact, the global telehealth market is expected to grow from $440.6 million in 2013 to $4.5 billion by 2018, according to Colorado-based research firm IHS. Advertisement So how could this new technology save you money? You've likely seen smartphone apps that help you track how much you eat or how much you walk each day. Some medical and technology experts believe that in the future you'll see downloadable apps that enable real-time cost comparison on prescriptions and procedures as well as ones that could enable physicians and other health professionals to accomplish remote examination and diagnostic procedures by smartphone. Here's an overview of telemedicine categories that might save you money in the future: Handheld physical activity and vitals tracking. While many major health systems and hospitals allow you to download apps to schedule appointments, see lab results and even communicate by email or text with your doctor, those offerings often have no diagnostic value...yet. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently released policy statements on what it calls "mobile medical apps" that will actually allow tracking of vital health data for direct interpretation by trained health professionals. But regulators appear to have plenty of work to do with regard to the effectiveness, safety and privacy issues associated with such future technology. Medicine by GPS. Let's say you need to fill a prescription. Where is the cheapest place to buy it within a 10-mile radius? Using technology similar to the restaurant, movie and services-finding sites you probably use now, developers are considering similar models for medical and prescription pricing data that might save you money in real time. Diagnosis by selfie. Someday, using your smartphone to take a selfie might improve your health. A new technology uses an algorithm to process your photo of a non-life-threatening injury or rash, evaluates it and texts back a diagnosis. Cuts, bruises and rashes might be early fodder for such visual-based diagnosis experiments; apps dealing with more serious illnesses and conditions will likely take longer to develop. But based on what developers come up with in the way of sensors to collect symptom- and condition-related health data in the future, maybe physicians on the other end of the line will one day have more to work with than a mere photo. Advertisement Virtual appointments. The move to Accountable Care Organizations (ACO)--unique groups of doctors, hospitals and other health care providers created by the ACA with the purpose of boosting care and cutting costs--is also expected to spur use of handheld devices to create 24/7, real-time communication between patients and practitioners. In a 2014 report, consulting firm Deloitte said that there could be 100 million health "eVisits" globally in the future, potentially saving over $5 billion in costs compared to traditional physician visits. These are exciting developments. But as such solutions emerge, it's important to do some research before downloading. Ask yourself the following: Who made this app and what do its developers really know about my needs or condition? How do I double-check the particular information I'm receiving from this app to learn its accuracy? Are there any benefits associated with this app like spending points or related rewards, similar to the choice of a particular credit card? What about privacy? What's in the app's terms of use and privacy policy and how safe is the payment, prescription or medical data required to use the app? What does my primary care doctor or my insurer think about this app's safety, privacy and any potential effects on my insurance coverage? What does it really cost to use the app and how might it affect data charges on my smartphone or tablet bill? Bottom line: Telemedicine--using smartphones, portable computers and tablets to evaluate and diagnose health conditions--is new today but might become routine tomorrow. Before you use any digital healthcare solution, check its privacy provisions and whether it could interfere with current medical advice or insurance coverage. Nathaniel Sillin directs Visa's financial education programs. To follow Practical Money Skills on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PracticalMoney Advertisement This is what broke me open. The heart attack didn't do it. The complications from the heart cath and stent of a 90 percent blocked major artery didn't do it. A hole in my femoral artery didn't do it. My disbelief and anger at being told it was all in my head didn't do it. This tiny bottle did. The moment I saw it today after John brought home all my new prescriptions, I could see my hands fly to my mouth as if in slow motion, and feel the sobs start. This is what broke me open: a bottle of nitroglycerin pills that I will carry in my purse, my blue jeans pocket, my car, my suit jacket, my beautiful hand-painted silk tunic, for the rest of my life. Advertisement The tears were immediate, hot, unrelenting. I held my incision to reduce the pain from my sobs moving my abdomen up and down, causing paroxysms of hotness. John walked in, wondering, and I held up the bottle, and tried to speak: "This is what Daddy had. This is what he had in his pocket when he died. I found it in the pocket of his blue jeans when we got home from the hospital after he was dead. And I kept it. I kept everything he had in his pockets that day, in a little box. With a tiny bottle of nitroglycerin just like this one." My words rushed together, largely unintelligible because of the crying. John stood still. I had been young when I carried his clothes home from that hospital, but old enough to recognize the lunging desire to capture mundane everyday life when it becomes so, so precious. So I smelled his clothes for months after he died, until the scent faded, and I would catch my mother doing the same sometimes. I hid away in my room the tiny box with the things he carried: nitroglycerin, a small pocket knife, loose change, his wallet, a receipt for a Mother's Day card he had bought and signed early for my mom, which we found in the trunk of the car with a gift to her. He died on Mother's Day. I sobbed. I sobbed for the fact that if the technology that saved my life this week had existed then, he would have lived. I cried because of the vulnerability inherent in this good Southern family man tucking a tiny bottle of nitroglycerin into his jeans pocket, his dress suit pocket, his nightside table, his car; suddenly faced with my own bottle of it, I recognized him in a way I couldn't when I was 19, and couldn't since. Advertisement This feels like resurrection, like being able to fully identify with his pain at leaving so young, younger than me now. It feels like a reunion, like a nudge from him to carry on and do my best work now, my best living now. There is no doubt it feels like a beautiful, poignant, hotly difficult and beautifully circular camaraderie of two people who have been having a conversation for all these years, and finally meet up in a hospital operating room. This little bottle is what broke me open. We can never really be sure what will do that breaking open, can we? Or when. Because we suspect it will be something big, something we have been broken open by before, or an anniversary when breaking open is expected and even demanded, but it surprises us and confounds us when the breaking appears in a pharmacy bag or in a receipt for a Mother's Day card he would never be able to give her. When I was in college, just after Daddy died, Mama sold a prized collection of "First Ladies" by Madame Alexander, a set of dolls of Presidential wives that were housed in their collectible blue boxes. Daddy had bought them for her, but she sold them to pay for me to study in Munich for a semester before graduating. She used the same proceeds to visit me there at the end of the semester, a sheer miracle for someone who had never flown or left the United States until she boarded a plane alone to come to me. When I had first arrived in Munich, I went on a class hike with a German hiking club, not understanding that this is a national sport in Germany, and that Germans three times my age would kick my butt on those mountains. Finally we reached the monastery at the top of a long uphill hike, and commenced with the drinking of the German bier, which by any measure is approximately 10 times more volatile than any American beer I had ever tasted. Suddenly, my pidgin German seemed fluent to me. I was charming and fluent! And I felt drunk from the hot sun, the drink, the hike. As we left that mountaintop and started down to the buses far away, a man twice my age from the hiking club asked if I would like to hike down a different way with him and see the most beautiful lake. Advertisement Of course I did. Only later when friends expressed shock that I would hike for 5 hours to a lake with an unknown German while drunk did I realize that I might have been in danger of being chopped up into tiny pieces in the Black Forest. My naivete is charming, isn't it? Let us assume that "trust" is another word for naivete. Nothing untoward happened. We hiked. And hiked. That damn lake was very far away, like hiking from Memphis, Tennessee, to York, Pennsylvania, or so it seemed. But it was as beautiful as he said. And so, at last, the lake, and a coffee in the brisk, beautiful day. He asked if I had a photograph of my father. Surprised by the request, I slid the one I carry with me across the table to him. He looked at the photo for a long time. Among many other things he said to me, he said this: "Your father was a man far larger than his circumstance, He was a man with the heart and soul of a world traveler. He had an understanding of the world that was far larger and deeper than who he was and where he was." I sat, exhausted by the hike, sunburned, looking at him as he spoke truths I thought only I knew about my father. All of this is what broke me open today. LAS VEGAS, NV - FEBRUARY 23: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a caucus night watch party at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on February 23, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The New York businessman won his third state victory in a row in the 'first in the West' caucuses. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) The closed-door meeting in Texas in December at which dozens of Religious Right leaders agreed to rally around Ted Cruz for president was in some ways a big payoff for years of work by Republican political operative David Lane. Lane believes America was founded by and for Christians and has a national mission to advance the Christian faith. He sees politics as spiritual warfare against the evil forces of secularism and pagan homosexuality. Lane has been building an army of conservative evangelical pastors to run for office and turn their churches into get-out-the-vote operations for Republican candidates. Advertisement Lane believes that conservative evangelicals split their votes in the 2008 and 2012 Republican primaries and were stuck with nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney, vowing that this year would be different. Conservative evangelicals would be inspired into action by politically engaged pastors and would choose a presidential nominee who shared Lanes Christian-nation vision. They would elect an evangelical president who would help lead the nation to spiritual and political renewal. But 2016s campaign is different in ways Lane could not have anticipated. In South Carolina, the divinely anointed Cruz campaign took third place, with Donald Trump sweeping the most heavily evangelical parts of the state and beating Cruz handily among evangelical voters. Many of the states Republican leaders threw their support not to Cruz, but to Marco Rubio; chief among them was Gov. Nikki Haley, who had hosted one of Lanes political prayer rallies last summer. Trump won by an even bigger margin in the Nevada caucuses. Shortly before the South Carolina primary, Cruz was in Spartanburg to meet privately with hundreds of pastors and their wives at a meeting sponsored by David Lanes American Renewal Project. Cruzs appearance was supplemented by a softball interview with Lanes good friend David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network. In that interview, Cruz made a version of his standard pitch for a presidential run based on turnout of evangelical Christians. Cruz told Brody, "If we allow our leaders to be selected from non-believers we shouldn't be surprised when our leaders don't share our values. So what I'm working to do more than anything else is energize and empower the grassroots and do everything we can for Christians to stand up and vote biblical values. After the election, Brody acknowledged that Trump had beaten Cruz among the states evangelical voters. Brodys explanation? Evangelicals are upset with the Republican Party too. Theyve felt like cheap political pawns for years, constantly being used by the GOP to get out and vote and then having nothing to show for it. With Trump, many of those evangelicals feel like theyve found the politically incorrect mouthpiece to channel their inner frustration. Is he the most righteous man to carry the torch? No. Is he the most transparent and authentic one? Clearly, they believe so. Journalist Sarah Posner has written about the ways that Trump divides the Christian Right. Trump has been endorsed by Jerry Falwell, Jr. even though the candidate is unabashedly ignorant of the biblical imperatives that form the foundation of evangelical culture and politics. Trumps support indicates that many evangelicals do not, in fact, share the culture-war priorities of the movements leaders, Posner suggests, adding that Trump is the candidate who most resembles a prosperity-gospel televangelist who portrays wealth as a sign of Gods favor. Says Posner, Trumps supporters -- both evangelical and not -- apparently are willing to believe that worshiping self-serving hype will somehow produce a miracle for them. Along similar lines, Russell Moore of the Southern Baptists Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission said in January that Ted Cruz was leading in the Jerry Falwell wing of the evangelical movement, Marco Rubio in the Billy Graham wing, and Trump in the Jimmy Swaggart wing. In a recent article for In These Times, Theo Anderson also took a look at the great puzzle of evangelical Christians flocking to Trump, the Republican candidate most out of step with evangelicals on social issues and the most tin-eared regarding religion. Anderson concludes that Trumps success reflects many evangelicals desire for an anti-establishment candidate as well as what he calls Trumps performance of a prophetic style of politics practiced by conservative radio preachers who encourage their listeners to stand against the corruptions of the world: Trumps speeches and social media output are a stream of falsehoods that speak to the certainty - the higher truth - that white Christians, and the nation they love, are being betrayed and targeted. Advertisement Trump, for his part, has embraced the Religious Rights claims that Christians in America are under assault, particularly from department stores and coffee chains that dont show due reverence to Christmas, and that Muslims pose an existential threat to the country. Trumps success among evangelicals is maddening to some of Cruzs backers. Glenn Beck, who believes God has called Cruz to save America from the abyss, had urged his viewers to fast on Cruzs behalf before the Nevada caucuses. Beck says he fears that Trump is the embodiment of The Bubba Effect, in which a group of people are pushed over the edge into violence by an overbearing government. Beck says that only the election of Ted Cruz can save America from violent revolution, warning that the country will not be able to recover if it elects a socialist, authoritarian, or member of the status quo. Speaking of authoritarians, political scientist Matthew MacWilliams wrote recently that the single most significant predictor of a voters support for Trump is their level of authoritarian inclinations, which suggests that support for Trumps blustery strongman routine is detached to some degree from a voters ideological or theological leanings. Thats one reason Trumps campaign frightens some conservatives who see Trumps insistence that hed be a fix-it strongman (to some commentators, a would-be Mussolini), as undermining conservatives political and intellectual campaign against a strong federal government. The campaign for the GOP nomination isnt over, but Religious Right leaders must be wondering how it is that their Chosen One has faltered and seems to be losing ground to the charlatan Trump. In fact, National Review reported on Wednesday that Religious Right leaders who rallied around Cruz are talking amongst themselves about abandoning him for Rubio if Cruz doesnt do well on Super Tuesday next week. If Trump is the nominee, many religious conservatives will vote for him because he is the Republican candidate. But it could be a bitter pill, one that some may not be able to swallow. In National Reviews seemingly ineffectual issue devoted to making a case against Trump as the Republican nominee, Russell Moore of the Southern Baptists Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission wrote: Trump can win only in the sort of celebrity-focused mobocracy that Neil Postman warned us about years ago, in which sound moral judgments are displaced by a narcissistic pursuit of power combined with promises of winning for the masses. Social and religious conservatives have always seen this tendency as decadent and deviant. For them to view it any other way now would be for them to lose their soul. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION REAL CLEAR DEFENSE If we are not yet at war with a rapidly militarizing China, we may soon be. This is an obvious conclusion to draw if we simply connect the flood of news dots now coming out of Asia. Just consider this sampling of last week's news clips from two of my favorite China compilations (besides Real Clear Defense!) - Jim Fanell's Red Star Rising blog and the Caucus Brief from US Congressman Randy Forbes' office. Advertisement In Fanell, we read some old news - that China is buying a squadron of advanced Sukhoi SU-35 Russian fighter jets. The new analytical twist was Vassily Kashin's observation that: "Even a single regiment of Su-35s may be enough to affect the balance of power in Taiwan. [The fighter's] Irbis radar systems can detect airborne targets at a range of up to 400 kilometers, which will allow Beijing to monitor Taiwanese airspace from Mainland China." A report in the People's Daily also claimed China's Phased Array Radar is now able to detect America's premier jet fighter, the F-22 - a key chess piece to ensure air dominance in a theater like the Taiwan Strait. A related report featured in the Caucus Brief quoted Pacific Air Forces Chief General Lori Robins as warning that China's military is closing the technology gap with the U.S. How many times do we have to hear that before we believe it? This last week, we also were besieged by a dirge of articles about China's surface-to-air missiles in the South China Sea. In one, Beijing threatened to introduce even more missiles and planes into the theater after the US sent a destroyer within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in a second "freedom of navigation patrol." Even more shrilly, a research fellow at Peking University urged Chinese forces to "fire warning shots or even deliberately collide with American warships that sail close to the Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea" in order to "teach the US a lesson" while a high-ranking Chinese military officer called for dredging deep-water ports and building more airstrips in the Spratlys and Paracels. Advertisement In their sobering counterpoint, Michael Green, Bonnie Glaser, and Zack Cooper waxed eloquent in the Caucus Brief on two strategic implications of Chinese SAMs running amuck in the Parcel Islands: "First, it shows that Chinese leaders are militarizing South China Sea features despite efforts to convince Beijing to do otherwise. Second, recent history suggests that Chinese developments on disputed features in the Spratly Islands often mimic those on Woody Island, indicating that similar steps may be ahead in the more strategically important Spratlys. In last week's news flow, Fanell's blog also reminded us of China's "growing empire of ports" - Colombo in Sri Lanka, Gwadar in Pakistan, Chittagong in Bangladesh, and various ports in Myanmar. The eternal question - the answer to which will likely come too late for effective US strategic action - is whether this "string of pearls" is merely a boost to peaceful trade or part of the globalization of China's navy. On the hacking front, we likewise saw a report from the Internet security firm CrowdStrike. This two-alarm fire indicated a significant expansion of Beijing's state-sponsored cyber espionage in the wake of a US-China "truce" on the cyberwar front. The Christian Science Monitor described Beijing's two-faced brazenness in this way: In the first three weeks after the US and China agreed to halt economic espionage, CrowdStrike in October detected several Chinese attempts to steal intellectual property and trade secrets from American companies in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors - including those by Deep Panda, a hacking group that has been linked with the military. In this same week, Bill Gertz broke yet more news. This time of Beijing's new plan to further build up its cyber warfare capabilities in response to the buildup of US cyber forces - which of course are being built up because of relentless Chinese attacks. Can anybody spell "escalatory spiral"? And how about connecting this news dot: The Naval Academy is once again teaching its officers to "sail by the stars" in the event of cyberattacks. Could that have anything to do with the growing skills and capabilities of "usual suspects" China and Russia? Advertisement As for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) - that's the Kleptocracy in the North, not the real democracy to the South - China's unruly vassal fired a rocket that buzzed Okinawa; and the satellite it carried wound up passing over Levi's Stadium in San Francisco shortly after Super Bowl 50 ended. Message received. The North Korean army also fired an artillery round into the sea near a disputed maritime border with South Korea while a report in the Korea Herald warned of impending DPRK terror attacks on South Korea. Children in diapers have more discipline then Kim Jong-un, and Beijing's old men at Zhongnanhai Communist Party headquarters are certainly no "Tiger Moms" when it comes to reigning in their wild DPRK child. What may be most escalatory is Beijing's propaganda response to the possible deployment of America's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) in South Korea. In particular, in the Global Times - the tabloid version of the People's Daily - we got this spin: "The push to deploy the THAAD missile system and other strategic military tools into this region is not only aimed at deterring North Korea but at the bigger target, China." Incredibly, we also learned from Fanell's blog that North Korea has restarted its plutonium reactor and expanded a nuclear enrichment facility capability of generating weapons grade fissile material. These proliferations will not only help replenish Kim Jong-un's basket of nuclear tricks. The facilities will generate fissile material that will likely spread to other rogue nations and possibly terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS. Advertisement In another news items - and in a tip of the cap to its "Three Warfares" doctrine - Beijing coercively urged the Aussie government not to buy a new batch of Soryu submarines from Japan but instead opt for the German or French alternatives. Beijing's gambit here is obvious: it seeks to deny the Japanese defense industry the ability to benefit from the economies of scale that would come from increased submarine production - while bolstering Japan's own defense capabilities. In fact, this decision should a "no brainer" for the Aussies. The Japanese Soryu submarine is undeniably "best in class," and the purchase would help strengthen the Asian alliance. That's why the US is supporting that choice - but oh so meekly in the style the Obama administration has led us to become accustomed to. And speaking of America's lame duck, the Obama administration last week also announced its opposition to a bill by Senator Ted Cruz to rename the area in front of the Chinese embassy "1 Liu Xiaobo Plaza" in honor of the Nobel Laureate now rotting in a Chinese prison. Don't want to ruffle any authoritarian feathers, now do we? And how about this on the Chinese political front from Fanell's blog: It highlighted an opinion piece warning of a back to a Maoist future of one-man rule by the emerging strong man President Xi Jinping. The military catch here is that Xi may be pushing to place China's nuclear forces on alert, meaning that the "weapons would be ready to fire on command." Explained author Michael Sheridan: "That would be a shift of position for a nation that affirms it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons in any conflict." All of this news was reported in just a single week -- and this is just a partial list compiled by two blogs. Moreover, in terms of the flow of news, it was a "normal" week in the Asia-Pacific -- as any careful read of Real Clear Defense on a regular basis would confirm. Advertisement Here's the broader point and very big problem: When looked at in its totality, the news gestalt coming out of Asia paints a very clear picture of rising Chinese aggression and belligerence; a North Korea that is rapidly spinning out of nuclear holocaust control; a Goebbels world of spin, counter-spin, and escalatory spirals; and a steadily shifting of the balance of power in a region of the world where more than half the population lives and 70% of future economic growth will likely occur. The underlying message should be this: We as analysts, journalists, and scholars must do a much better jobs of connecting the China news dots than we are currently doing. Otherwise, we will not fulfill our mission of informing the public, policymakers, and political leaders we purport to serve. Nor will our coverage ultimately help keep the peace. By: Nikki Prendergast My whole adult life has been dedicated to children. From training as an early childhood teacher straight out of high school, to opening the very first New Shoots Children's Centres with my business partner Michelle Pratt, I have lived and breathed this work. Michelle and I have always been passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of every child we encounter, and we have spent a lot of time designing and developing a special and unique place to teach young people - to enable them to create, explore and enjoy the world around them. The way children look at the world is pretty magical and they continue to amaze me with the way they think and act, even after two decades in this industry. Seeing children getting a good start in education, and knowing where this can take them in life, has made me determined to ensure every child has this right. Advertisement Child Labor Free was born when we stumbled across a startling reality - the children's resources we used in our early childhood centres for the benefit of so many New Zealand children, could of in fact have been made by another child a world away. Being the people we are, Michelle and I set out on a furious search to find a label or system that would ensure the things we purchased not just for our centres, but for ourselves, were free of child labor. But we couldn't. Instead we discovered over 150 million children all around the world were currently engaged in child labor. This year, two years after our journey into the realm of child labor started, we successfully launched the worlds first global accreditation system to certify supply chains as free of child labor. We believe through a sustainable conscious consumer led movement, we can make real progress in changing the way businesses act, and consumer's buy. In our early childhood centres, we work to ensure we are developing a sustainable community of people, dedicated to the future of the children we care for day in and day out. And to us, sustainability means so much more than clean and green, but about our behaviour towards others - Is the way we treat other human beings right now through the way we consume, sustainable? Advertisement Often children are in labor to support their family after a parent's death, or in response to poverty or sickness. Families often have no other choice in order to survive. When we started our Child Labor Free journey, we were not just passionate about influencing the business world through our social enterprise, but determined to make an impact on the lives of every child who has not had access to an education and freedom to be a child. I hope our work impacts this considerably. We always knew we would be more than a business, and the Child Labor Free Foundation will work to assist children found laboring, as well as their family and community. Through out my life I have learned the right decision is not often the easiest, but making this decision is often worth it. We are joining a journey that so many have already started, the road already paved for progress in the world of poverty and exploitation. We are offering a hand to businesses that want to be sure they are operating in an ethical space, while enabling consumers to be aware of the world around them - information is power, and so is honesty. Pioneers for Change is a seed-bed for innovative thought. An activator of personal potential. A catalyst for collective energy. A community to drive social change. Our annual, international Fellowship is open to anyone aged 28 - 108 years old. We gather change-makers -- a business person, a community person, an investor, a thinker or doer -- who are willing to harness their talents, energy and resources as a force for good. Pioneers for Change is an initiative of Adessy Associates. Advertisement Adessy Associates believes a better world is possible, and inspires and equips organizations and individuals to make positive change happen for the benefit of people, planet and profit. Our bespoke services harness sustainability, innovation, consciousness and purpose. We are B Corp certified. Liberals should lose the smugness and get busy. A catalogue of recent Republican behavior reads like the devil's handbook: Obstruct always and everywhere. Blacken the president's name with such a barrage of foul and farcical attacks and disputes of his legitimacy that even calling him a patriot provokes denunciations from right-wing radio. Belittle the best-prepared and most seasoned candidate by unleashing every sexist trope and suggesting that the only possible reason anyone could support her is that she is a woman. Drill down into our subterranean sea of bile until the nation gushes with misogyny, racism, xenophobia, sectarianism, homo-hatred and anti-transgender panic. Deflect every frustration away from pilfering plutocrats and onto the most downtrodden. Disparage every expert. Mock every decent impulse. Stoke every source of overseas strife to justify more and more ruinous militarism, while gutting protections for the public safety and health. Deny the president's right to do the job for which he was duly elected. Blame the resulting chaos on the Democrats. This may not be "America the Beautiful," but it has brought the GOP close to total domination of the machinery of power. Spare me glib and fanciful assurances that the Republican Party is dead. I will believe the radical right is finished after Democrats regain the House, Senate, a majority of state legislatures and governorships. Advertisement Let us not distract ourselves with facile revolutionary rhetoric that is all cloud castles and no plan. Avoid high fives while watching the Republican parade of lunacy. Even if Democrats retain the presidency, our ability to enact our policies will depend on down-ballot races that too many of us ignore. Republicans have a turnout advantage in non-presidential elections. The right hardly needs its voter-suppression tactics when millions of progressives disenfranchise themselves by sitting out midterms. We need to awaken ourselves to the danger our nation faces: A shrinking group of privileged bullies seeks to extend and secure its power by keeping the rest of us at one another's throats. Rejecting incremental efforts in favor of instant magical perfection will only hand reactionaries an undeserved win. If you doubt Republicans' contempt for the general welfare, look at Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's handling of the water crisis in Flint caused by his own reckless, undemocratic policies. Weigh his party's demand for profligate military spending against its refusal to repair crumbling infrastructure. The GOP is the student slacker who entertains his way to being elected class president without ever showing a learning curve on any subject. Why do we allow this degradation of our country to continue? Either we are more sympathetic to the rampaging bigotries than we wish to acknowledge, or we are afraid to challenge them. Perhaps we think the madness will run its course, like a 24-hour virus; or we whistle past the graveyard, assuring ourselves that if worse comes to worst, our own privilege will protect us. Advertisement We ignore at our peril our adversaries' structural advantages: liberals are clustered in large cities. Gerrymandering turns "the will of the people" into a mockery. The allocation of Senate seats gives disproportionate power to rural and conservative states. Another advantage the right enjoys is how gullible we are. How in the world can so many voters believe that both parties are equally responsible for government gridlock when it was Republicans who vowed from the outset to block everything Obama did, and Republicans who turned their primaries into a festival of intolerance and scapegoating? America's founding values were the fruit of the Enlightenment, but were never self-implementing. We must make them real in each generation. Virtue is not a lifeless object that can be passed down like an heirloom. Our character and prospects are harmed when we are blind to the struggles of others. Greatness becomes a slogan on a hat. If you seek a particular outcome, embrace the work and respect those who are doing it. Do not posture self-righteously while snubbing potential allies, as Black Lives Matter Chicago leader Aislinn Pulley did to President Obama. She called his Feb. 18 White House meeting with civil rights activists a sham, while issuing a long list of utopian demands. In happy contrast was Campaign Zero co-founder Brittany Packnett, sitting between the president and the attorney general, using her place at the table. At the political level, the burgeoning evidence movement in education is running smack dab into a growing focus on state and local control of education. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) emphasizes state and local control and it's easy to see why. Educators, local and state policy makers, and the general public are tired of being micromanaged from Washington. But where does local control leave evidence? Does it make sense to have each state and locality select its own standards of evidence? First, it is important to note that evidence-based reform and local control need not be in conflict. In fact, ESSA balances its emphasis on state and local control with an emphasis on evidence-based reform. It establishes criteria for strong, moderate, and promising evidence of effectiveness. If there are established lists of proven programs as defined by ESSA standards, then state and local education leaders can choose to use the proven programs they think best for their schools and students, hopefully highlighting them when they make decisions. If this is how evidence is applied, then there is no conflict at all between evidence-based reform and local control. Advertisement While ultimate decisions are up to state and local leaders, it is entirely appropriate for the federal government to incentivize use of proven programs, as I've often urged in this space. For example, I've argued that in federal competitive grants, applicants could receive competitive preference points if they promise to adopt proven programs. This would involve a federal definition of "proven programs" for schools and districts that want the extra points. ESSA does exactly this with at least seven competitive programs. Locals need not seek the preference points, and they need not apply for discretionary grants at all. Ideally, incentives should not be necessary to motivate state and local leaders to adopt proven programs. They care about their students and want them to learn, so why should they not actively seek the best approaches? Yet evidence has played so small a role in educational policy and practice up to the present that federal incentives may be necessary for a period of time to raise state and local awareness of approaches found to be effective in rigorous evaluations. A young, much-beloved woman was gang-raped three years ago on a bus in Delhi and a culture exploded. The documentary India's Daughter, which addresses the horrific rape-murder and its aftermath, is part of that explosion of awareness, aimed straight at the heart of India's cultural dismissal of women as full-fledged members of society and full-fledged human beings. It opens up a world where people can still say: "A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock. A girl is far more responsible for a rape than a boy." Remarkably, it also does more than that. It envisions the sort of peace that looks squarely at the worst of who we are ... and calls, not for more scapegoating, but for collective responsibility. The stories of the six young men convicted of the crime are also part of Leslee Udwin's documentary. Their lives, just as the victim's life, are embraced with compassion and openness. And India's Daughter is just one of 25 films that will be featured at the eighth annual Peace on Earth Film Festival, an event I am proud to say I've been a part of since the outset. Advertisement The Festival, presented in partnership with Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs, will take place March 3-6 in the Claudia Cassidy Theater at the Chicago Cultural Center. As always, it's free of charge. This year's event, as well as featuring both a directors' panel and a peacemakers' panel, will also give a special focus -- on Saturday evening, from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. -- to women's and children's rights and the "invisible" global problem of sexual exploitation. The evening includes five internationally diverse films, including India's Daughter. Other films are set in Guatemala, Israel and the United States. There will also be a special panel discussion, moderated by Milissa Pacelli, called Actions: Implementation to Aid and Rectify Injustice. What always amazes me about the festival is the quality of the documentaries, which cut deep to the heart of complex issues. This is what I call peace journalism -- journalism that never surrenders to cynicism, never dehumanizes, never shrugs at the necessity of collateral damage. Nor does it ever ignore a glaring wrong. At the center of India's Daughter is 23-year-old Jyoti Singh, who, in December of 2012 was on the verge of a medical career. She had just completed classwork and was about to embark on a six-month internship. Advertisement "'Mum, Dad, now you don't need to worry about me. Your little girl is a doctor. Now everything will be fine.'" So remembers Jyoti's mother, whose grief and torment over her daughter's death are palpable. She adds: "It seems God didn't like this. He ended everything right there." On the evening of Dec. 16, 2012, Jyoti and her boyfriend decided to go to a movie, possibly in celebration of the end of classes. On the way home, they boarded what they must have thought was an ordinary bus but was, in fact, an off-duty tour bus with six young men inside who apparently were simply cruising the streets of Delhi for the purpose of having fun that night. The film goes into excruciating detail about what happened on the bus, including interviews with one of the arrested young men, along with a police officer and the doctor who treated Jyoti after the incident. The boyfriend was knocked unconscious and the young men, all of whom have been convicted of rape and murder, proceeded to "teach Jyoti a lesson," as Mukesh, the driver of the bus, put it in a remarkably frank interview from his jail cell. Jyoti was violated with so much savagery the whole country -- indeed the whole world -- was horrified when the news became known. The two victims were eventually thrown from the moving bus. They were still alive. Jyoti lived for 13 days. Advertisement "Why did she have to bear all this?" said the doctor. "The question remained on my mind for months." After the incident, the country convulsed in protests, footage of which, including police clubbings and water hose blasts, recalls the civil rights demonstrations in the U.S. half a century ago. "It was like a dam bursting, the accumulated anger that burst out," said Kavita Krishnan of the All India Progressive Women's Association. "Not a single woman didn't feel the pain that woman went through." Along with the protests and the fury, and the calls for the execution of the arrestees, India also convened an investigation of its judicial system and the way it deals with rape. Five of the six suspects were sentenced to death (one of whom died of apparent suicide while in custody), and the sixth, a juvenile, was sentenced to three years in prison. The film portrays all of it: the horror and the fury and the humanity. Jyoti's father at one point laments, speaking of his daughter's killers: "To call them human is to give humanity a bad name." Moments later in the film, Gopal Subramaniam, co-author of the report that came out in the wake of the crime, declares: "These men are ours! Society has to take responsibility for them." Both messages come through in India's Daughter, which posits a truth that is bigger than anger without in the least minimizing the legitimacy of the anger and the grief, or minimizing the wrongness of what happened to Jyoti. Indeed, the film includes extended interviews with some of the accused men's parents and a compassionate look at the poverty they grew up in. Ironically, Jyoti herself had stood up in her life to the hell of India's enormous poverty. Advertisement A friend of hers at one point tells a story of how a boy once stole her purse. A police officer caught the boy and began beating him. She begged the officer to stop, the friend says, then asked the boy, "'Why do you do this?' 'I also want new clothes like you people,' the boy said. 'I want shoes. I want a hamburger.' Jyoti bought him everything he asked for. She said, 'Promise me you won't do this again.'" This beautiful young woman was raped, tortured, murdered. The wrongness of this is soul-wrenching. But thanks to the film about this terrible incident, I can still hear her voice. I can feel her determination to make this world a better place for everyone. Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. His book, Courage Grows Strong at the Wound (Xenos Press), is still available. Contact him at koehlercw@gmail.com or visit his website at commonwonders.com. Almost 1,000 small business owners and workers, mostly of Chinese and Korean descent, are traveling to Albany for the first time on February 29, 2016. For most of them, this is their first taste of advocacy and civic engagement at the state capitol. They will be supporting a new legislation, Transparency in Enforcement Act, that will require state agencies to track and report the race, gender, and location of the owner of every business it inspects and penalizes. Mostly first generation immigrants, these owners and workers have invested everything they have into their small businesses. They've bought into the alluring American Dream, one that promises an equal opportunity for success for those who work hard and abide by the rules. Unfortunately the immigrant small business community has unwittingly become the safest sacrifice for an apathetic governor in need of some quick political points to score with labor groups. Under the guise of protecting workers, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo used his unilateral emergency powers to target, punish and make examples out of the predominantly Asian-owned nail salon industry, even as no data exists to support a higher level of misconduct or mistreatment of employees in these businesses compared to others. As a historically unorganized and un-vocal group of immigrant-owned small businesses, nail salons are the perfect targets. Even as the bill I sponsored and passed in the state legislature curtailed the governor's ability to selectively police the nail salon segment of the greater beauty enhancement industry, the governor bypassed the law, using emergency regulations to impose unreachable mandates to just this one community. The administration's selective crackdown was based on a political calculation that few groups would come to the defense of immigrant-owned small businesses. When immigrant nail salon owners, who were not native English speaker, pled their case with the governor's office, they were often intimidated and mocked by the governor's staff. In one meeting, the Governor's own counsel yelled, "How dare you speak up! We could shut you down tomorrow if we want!" These small business owners surely received less respect and attention than the other powerful industries when they lobbied against overregulation. The same independent investigation and careful diligence that usually occurs before the government implements any new business regulation is casually bypassed. The immigrant nail salon owners' difficulty or inability to obtain sensibly priced wage bonds due to lack of credit history was simply ignored. The fact that immigrant business owners are the biggest providers of employment opportunities to immigrants is discredited. The catastrophic consequences to immigrant workers when the nail salon industry is decimated due to unattainable government mandates is brushed aside. Clearly protecting immigrant workers was less the objective than scoring a political point. After nine months of targeted crackdowns by the state, 54% of nail salons have laid off employees and 17% have closed based on an industry survey of 194 stores. The demise of the industry is also supported by numerous anecdotes reported to my office on a daily basis. Hopefully the bill I introduce, co-sponsored by Senator Jesse Hamilton, will result in more transparency to the state's inspections and prevent selective enforcement of the law to immigrant minority-owned businesses. Growing up, my parents ran a small grocery store in upper Manhattan. They worked 14 hours a day and never took vacation. They were powerless to fight back against years of targeted enforcement by government agencies, and had no choice but to file for bankruptcy. Look around today and you rarely see the Korean-American owned grocers that used to populate our neighborhoods. Today, when you stop by the corner of where my family once owned our piece of the American Dream, there is a big chain retailer. I often wonder if all of my parents' sacrifices and hard work could have led to success if only they had a fair shot. Protesters gathered in Seoul this week, the night before South Korean President Park Geun-hye's third anniversary in office, to condemn his administration's growing crackdown on free speech. But these protesters were life-size hologram "ghosts," and they marched over a transparent screen facing an old palace gate in the city's historic Gwanghwamun Square. "Promise us democracy! Promise us freedom of assembly!" the holographic figures chanted. From National Public Radio: The "ghost protest," organized by Amnesty International in Korea, followed the world's first-ever hologram demonstrations in Spain. Last April, thousands of virtual demonstrators marched in Madrid to protest the controversial Citizen Safety Law, which set extreme fines for demonstrators convening outside government buildings. From the Korea Times: Recently I had the good fortune of listening to a serious, substantive and sensitive Palestinian Arab of Israeli citizenship in Jerusalem. It was as refreshing as it was unusual. MK Ayman Oudeh is the head of the Joint List, the third largest party in the current Knesset which is a new amalgamation of 4 parties -- 3 Israeli Arab political parties (Balad, the United Arab List, and Ta'al) and one Arab-Jewish party (Hadash). He spoke to a packed audience of foreign and local journalists and bloggers at the Jerusalem Press Club at Mishkenot Sha'ananim a few weeks ago in Jerusalem. It was an important and enlightening briefing for everyone who was there, including myself. Mr. Oudeh is a breath of fresh air on Israel's political scene. A successful lawyer from Haifa, he was active in local politics for many years, representing the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) from 1998-2003 on the Haifa City Council. He has been serving as the Secretary-General of Hadash since 2006, and is currently a member of the Knesset House Committee, the Knesset Committee on Labor, Welfare and Health, as well as the chairman of the Cultural Affairs parliamentary group. Last year, he was listed among Foreign Policy magazine's Top 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2015, and now that I have heard him speak I am not surprised about this award. Advertisement Why do I say that hearing Mr. Oudeh was refreshing and unusual? The answer is that he was not vituperative or vicious in his criticism of many of the policies of the current Israeli government (as are many of his colleagues in his political party). Rather, he was calm, cautious and careful in all of his statements, which demonstrated substance, sensitivity and sensibility. I found him to be a respectful and responsible representative of his community, the Israeli Palestinian minority of Israel, which comprises 20 percent of the population of the state of Israel. Mr. Oudeh began by quoting a famous statement by the well-known Palestinian author Emil Habibi: "I am a Palestinian from Israel." This clearly stated that he is a member of the Palestinian People at the same time that he is a citizen of the state of Israel. This was an important statement of identity. He wanted us to understand that he is no longer just an "Israeli Arab"; rather, his identity includes his belonging to the Palestinian People at the center of his being, just as many Jewish citizens of Israel see their belonging to the Jewish People as essential to who they are. The second major point that Mr. Oudeh made very clearly and coherently is that in the complex situation of Palestinian Arabs living in the same country with the Jewish majority, we should not give simplistic answers to complicated issues. Rather, "All answers should look for the common interests of both peoples (Palestinians and Jews)." This point of view is one that has characterized Mr. Oudeh and the political party which he comes from (Hadash) for a long time. It is not an "us against them" philosophy but an inclusive and cooperative one. His third main point in his introductory remarks also succinctly expressed his main dual concerns as a Palestinian person and an Israeli citizen: "We support a Palestinian state for the Palestinian People and we struggle for equality for the Palestinian Arab minority within Israel." Once again, it was not "either-or" but "both-and". Advertisement After presenting clearly his basic world view as a Palestinian Arab political leader in Israel, he then was carefully -- and correctly, in my view -- critical of some of the positions and statements of the current Israeli government towards his community. In particular, he was visibly upset with recent actions and statements of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "He is the leader of the incitement against the Arab population of Israel and its leaders," he said. "After the recent attack of a lone Palestinian Arab citizen in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu gave an inciteful speech against that whole Palestinian Arab population in Israel," he added. In Mr. Oudeh's view, there are many examples of the Prime Minister's incitement against the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. He believes that Netanyahu sees the Palestinian Arab Israelis as a threat to his regime, since they represent twenty percent of the society! In his view, the Prime Minister and many of his colleagues do not really want to see his community as having a legitimate political voice in the country. They continue to defame the community over and over again, and are not serious about granting equal rights or equal opportunity to the Palestinian Arabs of Israel. Even though they sometimes give lip service to these ideas, they don't actually believe in them and they certainly do not do very much to advance these ideas in actual practice. With an audience of journalists in attendance, Mr. Oudeh was naturally asked some challenging questions. For example, does he think that Palestinians who kill Israelis are "martyrs"? His answer was "No!" He condemns these acts and his condemnation conveys a message to his community. He is against harming innocent civilians! Another challenging questioner asked if he recognizes the right of the Jewish People to a state of their own. I found his answer to be amazingly forthright and focused. He said clearly: There is a Jewish People that has a right to self-determination. But the state has to be a democratic state, with equality for all of its citizens. He also went on to make a plea for multiculturalism in Israel society, advocating that it will be better for all of us: Advertisement We need to realize that having more than one culture in this county is good for everyone. I know Israeli Jewish culture [he quoted Tchernichovsky!] and the Jews of Israel should know our culture too! We should live in a multicultural society. If we talk more about the content of our culture (rather than just the symbols), we can solve many problems. I deeply appreciated the opportunity to meet and hear from such a reasonable and responsible Palestinian Arab Israeli politician. I found that his style and his substance were both constructive and committed to finding real solutions which will strengthen Israeli democracy for all of us, Jews and Palestinians alike, who are all citizens and share the same country. I appreciated his pragmatism as well as his political philosophy, and I found his current critique of the contemporary handling of key issues in majority-minority relations to be right on the mark and worthy of careful consideration. Over the past year and a half, we watched as residents of several communities across this nation -- moved by long-simmering frustration and anger -- took to the streets to protest the killings of unarmed black people by members of law enforcement. The protests in places such as Baltimore; Ferguson, Mo., Staten Island, N.Y., Waller County, Texas; and Chicago were triggered by violent encounters with law enforcement and the enduring effects of poverty, racism and disinvestment in those communities, calling to mind the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s powerful admonition: "A riot is the language of the unheard." In 1967, a similar rebellion here in my city, Newark, was sparked by police abuse and decades of crushing poverty and a lack of opportunity. Ultimately, the Newark rebellion claimed the lives of 26 people and left hundreds more seriously injured. Advertisement King penned his last book, Where Do We Go From Here, the same year as the Newark rebellion and the year before his assassination. In it, King posits that, given the challenges we face, we have only two options: to embrace chaos or community. King argued that true equality would not be realized until black people, in coalition with other poor people, could secure meaningful employment and earn a living wage. Nearly 50 years later, we have much work to do in bending our neighborhoods toward a community in which economic equality is achieved. Indeed, a recent Brookings Institute study vividly demonstrates that, in terms of economic opportunity, there are still two Americas, sharply divided by race. First, the study explains that upward mobility from the lower end of the income distribution is substantially less likely for black than white Americans, as half of black Americans who are born poor stay poor. Second, even for black Americans born in the middle class, an incredible seven out of 10 will fall below as adults. As a result, the Pew Research Center reports that gaps in the already-wide wealth divide have grown, with the median wealth of white households now 13 times greater than that of black households, the largest gap in a quarter of a century. This means that about one-quarter of black families have less than $5 in savings, as compared with $3,000 for low-income white families. Advertisement Here in Newark, the poverty rate for black people is a striking 33 percent, more than double the national average for all races. This poverty is tied to a lack of reliable income through full-time work. In Newark, 95 percent of people living in poverty do not have a full-time job. It is therefore not uncommon to see Newark residents on weekday mornings waiting in an unemployment line that spans nearly a city block, while on the other end of the same street, the city is in the middle of a construction boom, with over $1 billion dollars of construction projects recently completed, underway or in the pipeline. And yet, notwithstanding this major construction, new businesses coming to the city and expansions of several industries, local residents hold fewer than 20 percent of all jobs in Newark. Put differently, 80 percent of those who work in Newark -- from corporate employees to first responders to educators to those who work at the Newark Port -- do not live in the city. We simply cannot empower healthy urban communities where so few local residents are employed in the city. Just as local residents share in the challenges associated with living in Newark, so too should they be empowered to share in its prosperity. Consistent with King's vision for economic equality, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, in close collaboration with community partners, Mayor Ras Baraka and the city of Newark, is launching an ambitious initiative to combat poverty by connecting unemployed Newark residents to work. Through community engagement, cutting-edge research and writing, public education, advocacy and other strategies, our ambitious initial goal is to eliminate the unemployment gap between Newark, one of the poorest cities in the state, and New Jersey, one of the wealthiest states in America. Advertisement Our ultimate charge is to ensure that the maximum possible number of Newark residents are competitive candidates and receive due consideration for positions in each industry. This remains the great unfinished business of the civil rights movement: empowering people of color through economic equality and mobility. And that's what this moment requires of us: that we embrace King's vision of social justice and economic equality, and commit to bending our neighborhoods toward the beloved community. It's tough getting the attention of Millennials these days. The best of them are mesmerized by the Googles and Facebooks and dazzling upstarts of the world, and of course why wouldn't they be? Preeminent global giants and small but hot groundbreakers that are scorching the marketplace - these are the companies that dominate the public's imagination and social media sphere (especially when they are the social media sphere.) How's a little ol' company like yours -- not the Homecoming King, nor the coolest kid in class -- supposed to compete for the attention of the newest generation of employees? Here's the answer: develop a superb employer brand. Without drawing a sharp line around your mission and values, your odds of attracting top Millennial talent are about as good as your odds of reversing gravity. And if you don't attract Millennials- - which comprise the largest percentage of today's workforce compared to Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers -- then your company will find itself gradually becoming obsolete. Advertisement So, here's the next question, and it might be a little awkward. Do you know what your company's mission and values are? You do? Cool. What about your employees? *silence.* Don't worry, the good news is that you're not alone. Turns out that only 42% of employees know their organization's vision, mission, and values. Why? Because too few executives are communicating and reinforcing their company's guiding principles, especially when it comes to their company's social mission. Millennials care deeply about your social mission, even if it's sometimes an afterthought to you. Study after study over the past few years has borne out this fact. One report showed that the third top consideration for Millennials applying for a job is the company's involvement with causes, and more than 50% of Millennials accept a job based upon a company's involvement with causes. So put yourself in the headspace of a Millennial. As part of a generation that places an enormous priority on working for companies that are making a positive impact in the world, what's it going to look like to accept a position with a business that isn't engaging in their community in meaningful ways? Quality candidates are going to steer clear of your company's selfish vibe, and the candidates that sign on may be embarrassed to do so. Advertisement Et voila - one more reason why your company should approach corporate philanthropy with the utmost seriousness of purpose. Of course, behaving as a diligent corporate citizen is, first and foremost, the right thing to do. But creating a culture of giving back is also the key to attracting Millennials, not only by providing them with a sense of purpose but also with an answer to the question, "Why do you work there?" Through the lens of job searching, giving back also exposes your brand to a wider audience. How? Well, first you're obviously doing an excellent job of telling your impact story, right? (ahem.) So right up front on your website and social media channels, job candidates can understand the connection between your business mission and social values, and how this is being translated into action. Next, you should be wrapping social purpose engagement into all of your company's job descriptions. Sure, volunteering is voluntary, but candidates should understand that the position comes with a wealth of options to get more purposeful with their work and help everyone at the C-suite on down in realizing your company's social consciousness. You might even try incorporating some of this social value emphasis into job titles, making it clear that your company embraces a culture of community impact and every job is a part of the impact story. This will become a key part of the decision-making process for candidates, so put it all up front in clear language. As you move towards a more pronounced vision of social responsibility, you'll find that your employees will be doing further recruiting for you, spreading the word about your compelling culture and values. This sort of authentic advocacy from employees creates priceless PR that can't be beat, bolstering your brand in the marketplace and creating kinetic buzz. For example, Causecast's client Pearson recently a campaign where about 1200 employees donated to the cause... and 900 social media interactions were generated from employees. All of these tweets and posts boasted, "I donated $X to (the nonprofit). Thanks @pearson for matching it!' Imagine asking 900 employees to tweet something nice about your company; it just wouldn't get done. But volunteerism and giving triggers a sense of pride in the employee's part of their company's mission. Pair that with a volunteer platform (like Causecast's) that practically automates the social media process, and you'll see this outpouring of company love happening all the time. Advertisement All of this feeds into the aforementioned storytelling, so that you can keep evolving your narrative around how you're engaging your employees with their communities. To facilitate this process with thousands of employees, Causecast created something I call Story Capture. Your stories are best told through the perspectives of your employees, and you can't tell those stories unless they're harnessed. So we offer mobile capture of photos and videos and text as employees volunteer in the field, which helps document the joyous experience of giving back and inspire others to get involved. Through their storytelling, these employees will not only create a viral enthusiasm for the causes you're championing and your brand as a whole, they'll be less likely to leave your company. Which is quite a feat when it comes to Millennials. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Millennials have an average job tenure that's anemic compared to the median for their older colleagues: the average time on the job for those between 20 and 24 years old is less than 16 months, and for those between 25 and 34 it's three years, about two years less than for older generations. Holding on to Millennials is a challenge these days, and a strong social mission is one way to keep their interest. In the weeks since I returned from the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, I've been reflecting on an important issue -- the 'business imperative' for LGBT inclusion. I believe this is critical to the business world which is supported by the fact that it was on the official WEF agenda this year for the first time. This was underlined at a breakfast event hosted by Microsoft, where a report titled Out In The World was unveiled. The report examines the status and evolution of LGBT rights in the workplace and the findings will make interesting reading for any business -- particularly large multi-national companies. The authors, Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Kenji Yoshino uncovered a strong case for inclusion of LGBT individuals for companies on business grounds and companies that fail to support the inclusion of LGBT individuals could see this directly impact recruitment and retention. Advertisement While it would be a fair assumption that LGBT individuals would check the inclusion and diversity credentials of a new employer, the research shows that 72 percent of allies are more likely to accept a job at a company that supports LGBT rights. This massively increases the impact that inclusion -- or lack of it -- can have for a business when recruiting and retaining the best people. For many LGBT employees surveyed, loyalty to their employer was directly impacted if they had to hide their LGBT identity. But it is not just employees that can be impacted. Consumer companies failing to support LGBT inclusion could jeopardize their sales, with the global LGBT consumer market estimated at $3.7 trillion. This number is even higher if you factor in the spending power of allies. With 71 percent of LGBT respondents and 82 percent of allies more likely to purchase from a company that supports LGBT equality, can business really afford to not support inclusion and LGBT equality? Another finding that is pertinent to business leaders in Davos with a global workforce is the ability to deploy and move employees around the organisation. Global companies need to be able to move their high-performers, including the LGBT talent, safely between international locations. This cannot be successful without global policies that provide LGBT protection. This was discussed in part during a live panel at Davos. A fourth reason why it makes business sense to support LGBT inclusion relates to innovation. Business innovation requires a diverse workforce to bring a range of insights. The research suggests a direct correlation between 'cultures that are LGBT supportive' and those that 'have the elements essential to sparking creativity and sustaining innovation.' Advertisement The research unsurprisingly shows that LGBT employees are more likely to speak up and offer views and inputs -- and believe they are heard -- in companies that support LGBT inclusion. Nearly half of LGBT employees at unsupportive companies don't feel free to express their views. How much innovation is being lost at these companies as a result? Other reports have come to similar conclusions. Open For Business, a collation of global companies including Accenture, published a report, Open For Business: the Economic and Business Case for LGB&T Inclusion, which shows that successful businesses thrive in open, diverse and inclusive societies. The good news is that companies are recognizing the positive impact that diversity can have. Human Rights Campaign (HRC) measures the US's largest companies, often with a global footprint, for levels of equality in the workplace, assessing LGBT-inclusive policies, benefits and practices. In 2002, only 13 businesses scored 100 percent; the latest report shows this has increased to 407. In addition, the number of rated businesses with protection for transgender employees shot up, from five percent to 87 percent. His son, Ron, and I were close friends after Vietnam. Alan Klemp was my friend's dad...the guy whose hand you shook and said, "Nice to see you again, Sir." I knew he'd been in WWII and that's all I knew. When he found out I was a Vietnam vet it was as if I suddenly spoke a language that he knew. That particular war had been seen as it unfolded, almost in real time, on television. For the first time millions of Americans saw war up close. Maybe he knew I'd seen some of what he'd seen. From then on he talked easily to me about his experiences, lapsing into a new story every time I saw him. Mr. Klemp had been a Marine stationed in the Pacific. He'd seen combat on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Tinian and Saipan. Places that I'd only read about in U.S. History. He'd come under friendly fire and lived through malaria and dengue fever; he'd lain dehydrated on a beach where a mortar shell landed so close to him it lifted him off the ground. In the heat and high humidity, he'd snagged a case of iced pineapple to take back to his buddies. The stories tumbled out of him as each memory opened up another. Two things stood out for me. First, his experience of anti-Semitism in basic training. This is not to suggest that every drill instructor or fellow recruit maligned him. But here's the thing: it only takes one. It had happened to him several times throughout his military service. It's nothing short of shocking to hear him tell about it now. Advertisement The second thing would have been easy to miss. After his stories of being a Marine, he talked about getting married, being recognized for his service at a special event. He spoke of a photograph that had been taken of him and some of the Marines he served with in the South Pacific. Certain ones he knew had been killed in combat or had died later. But there were those whom he could not find, and he wanted the photograph to go viral so the families of those men could see them. Alan Klemp is in the second row on the end at the right. The photo was taken right before they were called back to Guadalcanal. Afterward, he'd been assigned to accompany soldiers who had gone AWOL to prison in Idaho. Explaining how he got this detail, he said simply, eyes downcast, "I was having some trouble with my nerves." And that's all he said. I knew immediately what he meant. I thought of all of us who have seen combat or been close to those who have. We know now to call it PTSD. But when Alan Klemp and men of his generation came home, there was no language for it. No understanding, really. Nobody wanted to talk about it. So for years he didn't. He barely mentioned it in a long, recent interview. That's how unacceptable it was. A lot's changed since then, but what hasn't changed is how the experience of war changes lives. 22 suicides a day. Some of them are our older vets; that's a lifetime of suffering. They deserve better. They deserve to be heard and to be offered whatever will help them h eal. As they heal, the nation heals and becomes stronger. If you know a veteran who needs help, here's our LifeLine for Vets crisis number: 888.777.4443. It's the only one of its kind...vets talking to vets. And that's what made the difference to this WWII Marine who finally talks about his experiences. Advertisement Australia has always been a mecca for all travelers - business, and leisure. Its natural beauty includes lush rainforests in the north, the remarkable Outback, and the Great Barrier Reef. I interviewed Australian Travel Specialist Alicia Saba of Departure Lounge for her advice before planning your trip to Australia to maximize your experience. Australia's Landscapes Are Very Diverse Australia is the 6th largest country in the world and spans multiple climactic zones. Since it's in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are reversed from countries in the Northern Hemisphere, such as Canada, Mexico, and the U. S. Alicia informs, "Rainfall differs dramatically from the tropical north to the temperate south, while temperatures at one end of the country are often very different from the other." In the red center of Australia, the temperature can fluctuate 80F in one day, so pack for all conditions if you're visiting Uluru (Ayers Rock). The area surrounding the Great Barrier Reef experiences two distinct seasons, the wet season and dry season. The summers are hot and humid and the winters are dry and warm. In Tasmania, the island off the coast of Australia, the winters can get quite chilly. Advertisement Don't Worry Too Much About The Wildlife - But Still Be Cautious "Although Australia is notorious for its dangerous wildlife, that danger is embellished," says Alicia. "It's true some of the more venomous creatures on earth can be found both inland and on the coast." Alicia encourages travelers to avoid driving at night, in outlying areas, to avoid hitting kangaroos, wallabies, and other wildlife. 'Stinger Season' is in the summer in Queensland when jellyfish can be seen on the beaches. During this time, it is necessary to wear a stinger suit or only swim in beaches with stinger nets. Alicia advises, "If you plan on frequent swimming or surfing, buy a suit at a local store on your first day rather than renting numerous times. Always obey the wildlife warning signs." Strict Biosecurity Regulations A frequent traveler, Alicia advises, "Australia has one of the strictest bio-security regulations in the world regarding the transport of biological entities." These include food, plant material, and animal products - items we like to bring as gifts such as chocolate, fruits, and jams. Failure to declare them can lead to a hefty fine. Alicia informed me "Australia has been threatened by invasive species before, such as the cane toad, which has become a serious threat to crops and food production. If unsure, always declare it at customs - or leave it at home." Bring non-food gifts made in your home country like books, golf balls, luxury soap, tea towels, or bookmarks. U. S. Citizens Must Apply for an Electronic Travel Authority Before Entering Australia United States citizens must apply for an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA), which provides authorization to enter Australia and is electronically linked to your passport. The ETA grants permission to visit Australia unlimited times in a 12 month period for up to three months at a time. There is an AUD20 service fee. Before purchasing your airfare, secure your ETA by applying here: https://www.eta.immi.gov.au. Aussie Phrases and Language "One thing that always takes visitors off guard, especially on their first trip to Australia, is the unique Aussie slang and the speed that the Aussies speak," says Alicia. A few key common phrases to keep in mind include: Thongs (flip-flops), Sunnies (sunglasses), Cuppa (A hot beverage), Good on ya (Great job), Heaps (A lot), Bottle-O (liquor store), and Mozzie (mosquito). In restaurants, what are listed as "Appetizers" in the U.S. are "Entrees" in Australia, and "Entrees" are listed as "Mains." Advertisement Extremely Powerful Sun Alicia cautions that, "another important factor to consider, especially for travelers coming from more temperate regions, is the sun. A fact that surprises many visitors: there are several holes in the ozone layer above Australia. The UV index can routinely reach dangerous levels." Always carry sunscreen with an SPF rating of 60 or above, and do your best to stay out of direct sunlight, especially mid-day. Know your body limitations and drink enough fluids. If you feel dizzy or lightheaded, find shade immediately and rehydrate. Tipping is Discretionary Tipping in Australia is a controversial topic. Some Australians suggest tipping and others advise to never tip under any circumstances. If you tip at a restaurant, 10 percent is sufficient and only to reward good service. At restaurants, the bill is settled in the front of the restaurant, unlike the in U.S. where the bill is brought to the table. So when finished dining, arise, and pay at the front. Tour guides do not expect a tip, but a few dollars is always appreciated. The position of Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) in Urban America has only been in existence for little more than a year, but already there are at least 14 CROs in the United States thanks to an ongoing grant from the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities Program. And what is a CRO, exactly? He or she is a top-level advisor that reports directly to the city mayor, and is tasked with establishing a compelling resilience vision for his or her city, working across departments and with the local community to maximize innovation and minimize the impact of unforeseen events on anything involving city operations, from budgets to buildings. We wanted to speak to one of the first CROs in the country - Jeff Hebert of New Orleans - to find out what his first year in office was like. On January 24, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded New Orleans $141.2 million from the National Disaster Resilience Competition. The award is the second largest among the 13 total awardees, making nearly $1 billion available to states and counties/parishes to fix damage from presidentially declared disasters in 2011, 2012, or 2013. Advertisement A graduate of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning, Hebert has been on the job since November 2014. Here's our edited discussion: Q: As one of the first - if not THE first - CROs in the country, you have a unique vantage point. During the first year, what were your major challenges? What did you learn that other CROs might benefit from across the country? A: We have two big accomplishments. The first was the development of New Orleans' first resilience strategy and to have it done in time for the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Its main goal was to move New Orleans from thinking of recovery to thinking through the lens of resilience, which means looking forward. We were also developing our proposal for the National Resilience Disaster competition as soon as we got the strategy done. Then just last Thursday we were announced as one of the recipients of National Disaster Resilience Competition - the second largest award in the country. Those were two key wins that were big down payments on the future of the city. Q: What was so hard about putting together the resilience strategy? A: The strategy is not a regular plan; it's much more far reaching. It's really a holistic view of the shocks and stresses that the city will encounter in the future as well as a holistic list of tasks to try to work within that structure. A big challenge was outlining guiding principles and collaborative actions that could be applied across city government. This strategy goes beyond traditional public sector silos, serving as a call to action on generational issues. Advertisement Q; Can it be a template for other city governments to use? A: Yes. New Orleans was the first city to finish using this approach. Norfolk, Virginia was the second. We designed the strategy to be transferrable to other places - such as Porto Alegre in Brazil, Melbourne, Australia and San Francisco - and as a template to other cities around the world. Q: What other challenges have you faced in your first year? A: The CRO position is a new position. It has a cross departmental mandate. The challenge is how to deliver value to other departments so that they can engage in the process. In city government, bureaucracies operate in silos and the whole purpose of a CRO is to disrupt those silos. There's an inherent tension inside of municipal bureaucracies. I and some of my colleagues are in the position of having worked in city governments for a while but some other colleagues - not so much. Your portfolio is how to connect things together and how to innovate new ideas. A lot of our work will be green infrastructure-based but we have a huge need for jobs for underemployed people - how do we connect the jobs to the people...how do we focus those workforce development programs on really innovative green infrastructure work. That kind of work is challenging - which is not me sitting in my office doing my own thing - it's sitting with people in economic development, public works and the sewage and water board. It's a process that takes a lot of coordination. Q: How do you prove your worth? A: It's the ability to work together to prepare for what's coming in the future, by highlighting areas of weakness or gaps that we can fill. For example, we've been focusing a lot on disaster recovery and rebuilding the city after Katrina. What we haven't been focusing a lot on is our carbon footprint and our greenhouse gas emissions. The city's come back gangbusters from Katrina, but we haven't attacked the root cause of climate change - what we're putting into the atmosphere - even though we are one of the most vulnerable cities in the world to the effects of climate change. My job is to find a solution. With our NDRC grant, I would hope someone would think that we brought some value - particularly monetary value - because that's what a lot of people are judged by. Just rainfall for us can be an issue, which is why we've focused so much on storm water management as a large part of our resilient strategy. Q: How helpful has the 100 Resilient Cities been to this effort? A: It's been transformative for us in New Orleans in terms of moving the focus from just the past to how do we make the city more resilient in the future. It's pushing us to think about the future: if this is where we want to be, then how do you back up to today. That's not something we were doing. How do we rebuild after Katrina isn't our only problem - such as how we build our levees stronger and our houses better - it's also about sea level rise calculation that will affect New Orleans, Miami, Norfolk, New York and Boston. We have to have a different eye to the future. The support we've gotten - particularly on the technical assistance side - has been tremendous. Q: How do imagine that design and architects can address some of the challenges we've talked about? A: I'm a designer myself; the way the design profession has an impact on this kind of work is that we're trained as design thinkers, and design thinking is a very multi-disciplinary kind of process, in a way that is foreign to us. I have a different approach to my work because I am used to working in teams and the iterative process of design. What you learn through design training is a process which is all about continuing to improve something - you start with one design, you continue to improve it. That's not something that everyone is trained to do. Q: What is your biggest challenge for 2016? Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during the centenary celebration of missionary organisation the Gaudiya Math and Mission at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on February 21, 2016. AFP PHOTO / Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP / DIBYANGSHU SARKAR (Photo credit should read DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Images) NEW DELHI -- India's university campuses are places of lively student politics. Sometimes it gets nasty. And indeed it did on the Hyderabad Central University campus recently, where two student organizations found themselves at loggerheads. One, the Ambedkar Students Association, is composed largely of Dalit students. Their bete noire on campus is the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of India's Hindu nationalists. Advertisement Disagreement between the two groups turned violent recently. The university expelled a student named Rohith Vemula and several others from the hostel, and cut off their fellowships, which made it difficult for them to pursue their studies. The university was reportedly under pressure to do so from the education ministry in New Delhi. Depressed and dejected, Rohith Vemula died by suicide on Jan. 17, leading to nationwide protests. The ABVP and the Modi government have come under continuing attack for persecuting a Dalit student. Many shades of red The BJP's ascent to power in the national government has emboldened the ABVP, which is flexing its muscles on university campuses across the country. But one campus where it finds it difficult to do so is Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. A leftist bastion, the students' union elections in JNU are usually contested between different factions of communist student organizations. One far-left strain of thought among students at JNU is focused on questioning Indian nationalism and nationhood and the violence that is perpetrated on people in the name of the Indian flag in remote, heavily militarized border areas like Kashmir, the northeast and in tribal areas of central India. Advertisement Student activists sit near a banner before a protest against the BJP government near Jadavpur University on Feb. 23. (DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Images) It was some such students who had held an event on Feb. 9 to mark the third anniversary of the execution of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri convicted for a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001. Many people feel he was innocent and wrongly framed. Some of those at the event reportedly raised slogans calling for India's destruction and disintegration. Activists of the ABVP immediately ran to the police and the home minister of India, Rajnath Singh. Then, on Feb. 12, the police arrested Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of the JNU students union, on the basis of a doctored video aired by a news channel that morphed his speech to make it appear that he was calling for Kashmir's secession from India. Kumar said he was framed. Activists from the ABVP during a protest march in New Delhi on Feb. 24. (Virendra Singh Gosain/Hindustan Times via Getty Images) We are all seditious now The Modi government's handling of the controversy at JNU has been embarrassing. A fake tweet in the name of a wanted Pakistani terrorist, Hafiz Saeed, who is accused of masterminding the Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008, was used by the home minister to link JNU students with Pakistani terrorists. The Delhi police looked away as journalists, activists, JNU teachers and students have been assaulted on several occasions, including twice inside a court compound. Kumar was beaten up by right-wing lawyers while he was being taken by the police to court. The Delhi police has been accused of letting the self-appointed guardians of nationalism beat up the alleged "anti-national elements." The government and its supporters are branding as "anti-national" anyone who is defending JNU and its students' right to free speech. The ABVP is happy that it has managed to deflect attention from Rohith Vemula's suicide in Hyderabad, where it appeared to be persecuting Dalit students. Hindu nationalists, the core voter base of the BJP, want dividends for helping the BJP win. They want their ideology to get more mainstream acceptance, for Hindu nationalism to earn greater currency among voters who care more for caste divisions and the economy. Kumar being taken to court on Feb. 17. (Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times via Getty Images) The Hindu nationalists, who want India to be a Hindu state rather than a secular state, are happy to have made a point. They have shown who the boss is, who will decide the boundaries of acceptable political behavior. They have long complained about leftist domination over India's academia and intelligentsia. Advertisement It is curious that the Modi government seems to have sought out a confrontation with students at this time. Modi's grand "Make in India week," a global call to investors to participate in the country's manufacturing push, was under way when the police entered the campus of one of India's best universities. Modi, who is very particular about grabbing the headlines, lost a big public relations exercise to the JNU controversy. The JNU controversy has also clouded the ongoing budget session of the Parliament, for which the government needs the cooperation of the opposition. Modi himself has said very little on this controversy -- like other controversies his fellow Hindu nationalists cause seemingly every other day. For the champions of Hindu nationalism, when would they do this if not now? Time is running out, with the government having nearly completed two of its five years in power already. There is a palpable sense that Modi is unable to deliver. There is little doubt that these student protests come in the way of Modi achieving his governance goals, in addition to denting his image around the world, which he has been careful in cultivating. The only obvious conclusion one could come to is that Modi is using the nationalism card to deflect political discourse away from his failures. Modi became India's prime minister in May 2014 with Obama-like promises of change. The good times are about to begin, his campaign had claimed. But now he has lost key state elections, the economy is faltering and there is a palpable sense that he is unable to deliver. If this speculation is correct, then the situation may soon get worse. The next general elections are in 2019. Who knows how many of us are going to be arrested for sedition, called terrorist if we are Muslim or beaten up by lynch mobs before then. Advertisement Earlier on WorldPost: Some of you may have read my recent piece Silicon Valley: The Next Decade in which I discuss the evolution of Silicon Valley toward a place that has a spirit that is more in tune with the liberal, performing, and visual arts, a sharper focus on human-centric computing, and a vision for a new renaissance that fuses ideas from information technology with those from the arts. The piece was earlier published on my blog and triggered many interesting discussions, both online and offline, one of which happened in France over a lovely lunch at a small village called La Garde-Adhemar in Drome during one of our trips to Provence. These discussions and our recent travels have given me reason to revisit the subject, although with a slightly different perspective. While I have focused on Silicon Valley's next renaissance, coming at it from the technology side and seeking an infusion of the arts into the region, it may be just as reasonable to seek an infusion of technology into robust, thriving arts and culture communities, especially in Europe. Why especially in Europe? In my experience, Europe preserves, packages, and markets culture better than any other place in the world. And the French may be the best at this, including from a policy point of view. To give you an example, last week we were at a small village called Grignan that just finished its annual letter-writing festival: Advertisement The fame of Grignan is of a literary nature; this Provencal village cannot be disassociated from her, who made it famous through her correspondence, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne. "The prettiest girl in France marries, not only the most handsome boy, but the most honest man in the kingdom." When Francoise Marguerite married the Count of Grignan in 1671, she went to live with him in Grignan. It was the start of a long series of correspondence between the mother, who stayed in Paris, and the daughter. The letters of the marquise de Sevigne are a masterpiece of literature, known by all schoolchildren in France. (Avignon-et-Provence.com) In honor of the marquise and her letters, Grignan hosts its Festival de la correspondence each year. The post office mails all hand-written letters free. Charming, isn't it? In Avignon, as we visited the magnificent Palais des Papes where Pope Clement V moved the seat of the papacy from Rome in 1309, we saw posters for the annual arts festival everywhere. What a celebration of the performing arts it is! Advertisement The Festival d'Avignon is an annual arts festival founded in 1947 by the actor and director Jean Vilar, it is the oldest extant festival in France and one of the world's greatest. In 2008, some 950 shows were performed during three weeks. Since 1980, the festival has been organized by a nonprofit organization, which is administered by a board of trustees composed of the French state, the city of Avignon, the Departement du Vaucluse, the Region Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, and seven public figures competent in the field of theater. Among other places, the shows are performed in the Cour d'Honneur - the honor courtyard - of thePalais des Papes, the place of residence of the Avignon papacy during most of the 14th century. [Wikipedia] And on our last night, in Orange, we listened to a spellbinding performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Roman theater as part of the famous music festival that also takes place every year and is largely focused on opera. In 1869, the theater was restored, and it has been the site of a music festival for many years. This is just a representative sample of what happens in Europe during the summer. Many more major and minor celebrations of the arts and culture take place all over Europe, every day. In London, for instance, theater is still a way of life. Industry research indicates that in recent years theater attendance has been very strong even though film has come to dominate over the past several decades. On this trip, we saw one of the best plays we have ever seen (although I say that with care, having seen a few other equally spectacular plays in London over the years). "War Horse" was simply magical. Not only was it a beautiful story of a boy's beloved horse that had been sold to the cavalry during the First World War, it is also a show of great innovation. Life-size horses charge on stage. They gallop, snort, and buck. But they are puppets strong enough for the actors to ride. Advertisement Today, Europe is in trouble economically. Chronic debt crises, stagnating GDPs, staggering unemployment - all point to a bleak future. The future belongs to the Chinese, the Indians, and the Latin Americans. But does it, really? Isn't there an innate intelligence and resilience in the European way of life? Europe cares greatly about keeping farmers in their villages, fostering a decentralized policy that encourages, through farming subsidies, a healthy, natural way of life that is rooted in sustainability and quality of life, not rampant and mindless urbanization. As a result, if you go to the farmer's markets at small Provencal villages like Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux, Nyons, and Grignan, they are full of both small producers and customers. You will find there great fruits, vegetables, cheese, fish, and meat - most of it local or at least regional. And the farmers are actively engaged at these markets. In France, of course, food is a religion, so these markets are also religious experiences that are a touchstone of society. Agriculture is a major force in France's economy, and almost 25% of the EU's total agricultural products are produced in that country. The government provides subsidies to the agricultural sector, and the development of this sector is likely to give export activities a further boost as a global food shortage looms. Further, as the rest of the world becomes increasingly sophisticated, the demand for products for which France is famous, such as cheese and wine, is increasing. Advertisement And then, of course, there is tourism. Apart from trade, tourism is also a big contributor to France's GDP. Indeed, France rules the tourism industry: More than 82 million tourists visit the country each year for its rich heritage and culture, which are immaculately preserved by the government and beautifully packaged and marketed to the rest of the world. And therein lie some of the answers and opportunities for the next European renaissance. Whether it is in Silicon Valley, China, India, or Latin America - the lure of European destinations, the sites and sounds, the classical architecture, ruins, historical monuments, and for some, the way of life that so elegantly serves up arts, culture, food, and wine - will always be a powerful draw. If today 82 million tourists visit France, in a decade, that number will rise to 150 million. If today French wine exports are just getting back to prefinancial crisis levels, in a decade, as more Chinese and Indians learn to appreciate wine, the numbers will inevitably rise. Bottom line, the wealth that is being generated in Silicon Valley, India, and China will need to be spent, invested, and enjoyed, and Europe will continue to be a major influencer in that process. My real question, however, is: Can Europe be more? Remember, we started this discussion with the premise that the next renaissance will be at the confluence of technology and the arts. By "technology," I am referring primarily to information technology and computing. As for other technologies, there are significant expertise and major industries such as automotive and aeronautics in Europe. German brands like Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Audi are market leaders. Airbus is a massive aircraft maker that leads the market alongside Boeing in America. The industrial machinery industry is also strong in both Germany and Italy. Advertisement But I am thinking primarily about the potential of IT and computing to set in motion a new renaissance, and even more specifically, the Internet and mobile computing technologies. With that in mind, let's take a look at an example of a concept that started in France in 2001. France is arguably the capital of the fashion and luxury industries, and it is not a surprise that the notion of hosting online private sales for fashion and other luxury products was born there. The company that invented the concept was Vente-Privee. In 2000, Jacques-Antoine Granjon and his team began to experiment with the sale of previous seasons' stock through limited-time sales events on the Internet. The principle was to fulfill supplier's needs to quickly sell old stock without harming the brand or competing with other distribution channels, while generating maximum revenue from the sales. Over the past decade, more than 30 other websites built on this concept have emerged in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the United States. Some regular e-business websites have moved to the private sales as part of their offers (e.g., cdiscount.com and rueducommerce.com). In the United States, Gilt Groupe has emerged as the leader in private sales. It has more than $500 million in revenue, compared with$1.5 billion for Vente-Privee. Other players in the sector include Rue La La,Ideeli, One Kings Lane, HauteLook, as well as more traditional retailers like Saks, and online players like Blue Nile. Everyone is now offering private sales and daily deals to create excitement and bring traffic to their sites. Advertisement For consumers, scouting for deals on fashion and luxury products has become infinitely easier, and even designers now have additional and efficient channels through which to connect to them. For the fashion industry as a whole, this innovation has been a large step forward using human-centric computing. What is interesting about this particular trend is that it was born in France, not in Silicon Valley, and even its American replication has happened in New York, not in Silicon Valley. Why is that relevant? Well, New York and Paris are centers of fashion where a deeper understanding of how that industry works is readily available. The technology, in this case, is relatively simple, but the innovation comes at the cusp of that deeper understanding of the fashion business and the possibilities of electronic commerce. Another example of a business born out of an amateur photographer's love for high-quality photo books is Blurb. Eileen Gittins founded the company because she was unable to get any printer to print high-quality, limited runs of books based on her photography. This business is based in Silicon Valley, but again, the technology itself is relatively less complex than what Silicon Valley specializes in. The important point is that these are innovations in two arts-related fields - fashion and photography - and for such innovation to happen, knowledge and understanding of the arts is critical. Advertisement My hypothesis is that Europe continues to be a mecca of culture, and there is adequate technical expertise on that continent to come up with more significant concepts that may become drivers of major trends in the same way that Vente-Privee has been the starting point for such momentum in the fashion and luxury sectors. I am, of course, extremely curious to see what some of those new trends will be. Developing ideas and insights that create major shifts and trends, solve humanity's important problems, improve the quality of life for people around the world, lead to prosperity, and result in lasting achievements - this is our quest. The question we are exploring is whether Europe's recognized enthusiasm for culture in its various forms - food, music, architecture, literature, and many more - and greater commitment to the preservation and promotion of such expressions of culture would offer a good platform for generating new and important ideas given that the enabling technology may not need to be quite that complex. My sense is yes, they would. Among other things, if innovators in Silicon Valley and elsewhere immerse themselves in the cultures in Europe, my hypothesis is that they will gain access to different perspectives and insights with which to approach their own entrepreneurship. Their tastes will, I imagine, become more mature and sophisticated. The resulting fusion of cultures - ethnic, interdisciplinary, cross-functional - all of it, my instinct says, will lead to exciting possibilities. Advertisement Here are some ideas I would be interested in seeing explored as part of this experiment: French and Italian designers collaborating with Indian artisans to produce global e-commerce brands in fashion, home furnishings, furniture, and so on, thereby lifting large masses of people out of poverty. Those interested can read my book Vision India 2020, especially the following chapters: Urja, Oishi, Gagori, Palanquin, and Patami. The same concept would apply to Africa, East Asia, and Latin America. Innovative chefs from Europe setting up world-class restaurants in Silicon Valley to further develop the palates of the Valley's affluent. Aided by TV shows like "Top Chef," there is increasing interest in the culinary arts, and at the higher end of the market this could translate into opportunities for chefs. The question I am interested in is, What innovations await at the cusp of food and information technology? I developed one idea in this domain in Vision India 2020 called Thakur. However, I have several other ideas as well. And concepts like Yelp have already started to revolutionize the marketing of restaurants. Culture enthusiasts, art dealers, and entertainment industry visionaries from Europe investing in and developing a commitment to and passion for arts and culture around the world, both to develop new markets and to explore opportunities for fusion. For example, I would love to have a theater festival akin to the Avignon festival here in Silicon Valley, but for something like that to become commercially viable, the taste of the community as a whole needs to be developed. Online marketing concepts like Groupon and Facebook may well be the secret sauce in building more culture 'scenes' around the world. Preservation experts playing a role in restoring historical monuments, architecture, and ways of life around the world such that China doesn't bulldoze its built heritage and India doesn't just build poor-quality concrete structures in place of majestic buildings. In Vision India 2020, I have a chapter called Renaissance, and on this blog, a series called As India Builds for those interested in learning more about the subject. Already, we have seen TripAdvisor and AirB&B play a role in marketing hotels and other travel accommodations. Online travel continues to be an active category for innovation. Some of these experiments have already begun, for example, a collaboration between the French and Cambodian governments has resulted in Artisans d'Angkor, a wonderful lifestyle brand where French designers are working with Cambodian artisans producing beautiful clothes and home furnishings. With time, such experiments will blossom into bigger, more comprehensive industrial phenomena. So, the role I see for Europe is in reaching out to the rest of the world and taking a leadership stance in developing taste. Whether it is educating the Chinese market about French and Italian wines, or packaging culture for the consumption of Silicon Valley's geeks, there is a European renaissance possible. But it will likely not be one concentrated in Paris or Florence; rather, it will be an international renaissance whereby Europe exports its strengths in culture, preservation, cuisine, and style to a world growing in wealth and sophistication. Advertisement The by-product of that kind of wide-ranging taste-making will also yield gains for Europe on its own soil. Like me, people who are seduced by the European way of life, the cobblestone streets of Toledo, the joys of discovering designers like Sarah Pacini or Alfredo Dominguez before they were well known, and the pleasure of a three-hour lunch in the Provencal village of Vinsobres, will always come to visit. They will come to Europe to look for the real thing - the je ne sais quoi missing from their everyday lives in Shanghai or San Francisco. The new year always brings hope, change, and promise. It's a chance to recreate yourself and to take strides towards improving who you are and to commit to where you're going. Whether that's expanding your wardrobe or deciding to sweat a little more, 2016 is a chance to recharge, restart and refocus. At Michael Stars, we're welcoming the new year by choosing to empower and support others -- something that resonates deeply with me. I devote my time, energy and resources towards organizations that empower women and girls to build a better world, not only for themselves and their peers, but for their children and for future generations. To get this movement going, I've rounded up a list of causes that are near and dear to me, and I'm hopeful that you'll find one -- or a few -- that resonates with you. Choose your cause, and go for it. You'll realize the happiness you receive through giving; there's nothing quite like it. Advertisement Six Head-Turning (and Worthy) Causes Women Thrive strengthens women's capacity to advocate local, national and global policies that help women to break free from poverty, violence and inequality. By connecting members from more than 200 women's rights organizations in 50 countries, Women Thrive Worldwide has advanced women's economic empowerment. For 17+ years, Women's Thrive has worked with grassroots women, proving through their successes that local women are, in fact, best positioned to identify solutions to prominent development challenges. The Ms. Foundation has been an incredibly prominent and influential part of my life. The foundation is a forceful, effective voice and champion for women's progressive causes that work towards empowering females -- especially those in marginalized communities. I am both honored and proud to support this group, that funds over 100 U.S. organizations. Prosperity Catalyst is an organization that provides vital tools for women in Iraq and Haiti. The hope is that these women are empowered to become skilled entrepreneurs and leaders. I've served on their board for two years, and I've seen the importance of training women not just to act, but to lead. They launched candle-making enterprises, structured to allow women to create paths to entrepreneurship and independence. Advertisement We Advance is a non-profit that was co-founded by my dear friend, Maria Bello. We Advance has a mission to advance the health and well-being of Haitian women. I fell in love with We Advance and their dedication to the women Haiti, and I chose to partner with Maria in founding We Advance University. The University is an online, educational library with specific playlists that are both intellectual and entertaining. Good friends Maryse Penette-Kedar and Caroline Sada, founded PRODEV that provides free education to Haitian children. I've been invested since the beginning -- taking trips to Haiti, visiting these schools and their children. It's been incredible to see how far they have come, and how their advancements are truly changing the lives of these kids. I can remember being at the school site with nothing but bare ground, handmade desks and only a tarp covering it in the poorest slum of Haiti, Cite Soleil. I am continually amazed by PRODEV's dedication to proving accessible free education to these underserved communities. Upon meeting Lysa Heslov, founder of Children Mending Hearts, I was instantly drawn to her cause. Fast forward a few years, and I'm currently an advisory board member. It's a powerful organization that positively impacts disadvantaged youth through education and the arts. Change starts at the root; it's identifying the problem and creating a lasting, sustainable solution to that problem. By empowering disadvantaged youth -- the youngest members of the community -- we'll ultimately affect change in both their lives and communities. So as you start 2016 and work towards those new year resolutions, keep these organizations in mind. Let them inspire you to start off this year -- and finish it -- by getting involved in a cause that you're passionate about. You may be one, but you're one of the many, and together change is inevitable. "Creating People On Whom Nothing is Lost" - A high school English teacher in Colorado offers insight and perspective on education, parenting, politics, pop culture, and contemporary American life. Disclaimer - The views expressed on this site are my own and do not represent the views of my employer. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died among high-ranking members of the International Order of St. Hubertus, an Austrian hunting society that began in the 1600s. The members jetted in on private planes to meet at Cibolo Creek Ranch in Texas, owned by multimillionaire businessman John B. Poindexter. From Washington Post: Members of the worldwide, male-only society wear dark-green robes emblazoned with a large cross and the motto "Deum Diligite Animalia Diligentes," which means "Honoring God by honoring His creatures," according to the group's website. Some hold titles, such as Grand Master, Prior and Knight Grand Officer. The Order's name is in honor of Hubert, the patron saint of hunters and fishermen. . The International Order of St. Hubertus, according to its website, is a "true knightly order in the historical tradition." In 1695, Count Franz Anton von Sporck founded the society in Bohemia, which is in modern-day Czech Republic. The group's Grand Master is "His Imperial Highness Istvan von Habsburg-Lothringen, Archduke of Austria," according to the Order's website. The next gathering for "Ordensbrothers" and guests is an "investiture" March 10 in Charleston, S.C. The society's U.S. chapter launched in 1966 at the famous Bohemian Club in San Francisco, which is associated with the all-male Bohemian Grove one of the most well-known secret societies in the country. Across America, groundbreaking research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) alone adds millions of dollars to our economy every year. In fact, NIH funding generated an estimated $58 billion in economic output nationwide in 2014. NIH funding spurs economic growth by supporting jobs in research and by generating biomedical innovations that are turned into new products. NIH-supported innovations also influence improvements in health that can bolster the economy, improve productivity, and reduce illness and disability at home and across the globe. But, budget cuts and inadequate funding for NIH in the past decade have put both medical innovation and our next generation of researchers at risk. Today, the average age of a first-time NIH researcher is 42-years-old, up from 36 in 1980. In addition, more biomedical PhDs linger in postdoctoral training for five to eight years before achieving research independence. Unfortunately, too many of our talented young scientists are deciding to do something else, or are leaving the country to pursue their research. Simply put, scientific and medical innovation depends on our ability to foster, support and invest in these new researchers. That is why I have worked across party lines with Senator Susan Collins of Maine and introduced the Next Generation (NextGen) Researchers Act. Our bipartisan legislation builds opportunities for new researchers, helps address the debt burden that young scientists face today, and invests in the future of research, science, and innovation. This commonsense proposal, which cleared Senate committee consideration this month, would create the "Next Generation Researchers Initiative" within the NIH Office of the Director to coordinate all current and new NIH policies aimed at promoting opportunities for new researchers and earlier research independence. The legislation also directs the NIH to consider recommendations from a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) comprehensive study and report on fostering the next generation of researchers. Finally, we must demonstrate a commitment to our future scientists who, like so many of their peers pursuing other fields, are struggling with crushing student loan debt. Our plan would also increase the amount of loans that can be forgiven through the NIH's loan repayment programs to better account for the current debt load of new scientists. Higher education should be a path to prosperity, not suffocating debt, and this provision not only helps make higher education more affordable, but can help give new researchers a fair shot at pursuing their dreams. In March 2015 testimony before Congress, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins highlighted the current challenges facing young researchers saying, American classrooms do not talk frankly about teenage love or emotional intimacy. Brett Sayer, CC BY-NC Last month, Tom Porton, an award-winning, veteran Bronx high school teacher, handed in his resignation after colliding with the school's principal. Porton had distributed HIV/AIDS education fliers listing nonsexual ways of "Making Love Without Doin' It" (including advice to "read a book together"). What does it say when a teacher who encourages students to discuss nonsexual ways to express love causes controversy? And how do discussions at school about sex affect teenagers? Do adults lose teenagers' trust when they are not allowed to speak frankly about how to create healthy intimacy? Advertisement My cross-national research on adolescent sexuality shows a profound discomfort in American society not just with teenage sex, but with teenage love. And the silence among adults that results - in families, schools and the culture at large - may take a particular toll on adolescent boys. What does love have to do with it? Political battles have raged for decades about whether and how public school students in the U.S. should be taught about condoms and other forms of contraception even though the majority of American youth lose their virginity during their teenage years. The United States has seen more political strife and cultural controversy around adolescent sexuality than many other countries that went through a sexual revolution in the 1960s and '70's. The Netherlands is an interesting comparative case: Like the U.S., Dutch society was culturally conservative in the 1950s. But Dutch society emerged from the sexual revolution with a more positive approach to adolescent sexuality, one that center-stages love. American curricula tend to focus on physical acts and dangers - disease and pregnancy - often eschewing positive discussions of sexual pleasure or emotional intimacy. Advertisement Feminist scholars have critiqued American sex education for its overemphasis of danger and risk, noting the cost to teenage girls. Scholars have argued that the "missing discourse" of girls' desire impedes their sense of power in and outside of relationships, leaving them poorly equipped to negotiate consent, safety and sexual satisfaction. But scholars have paid less attention to the missing discourse of teenage love in American sex education, and its effects on boys, who confront a broader culture that provides scant recognition of, or support for, their emotional needs. Discussion on teenage sexuality is lacking nonsexual ways to build intimacy. Joao Paulo de Vasconcelos, CC BY-SA In comparison, sex education in the Netherlands tends to frame boys' and girls' sexual development in the context of their feelings for and relationships with others. Curricula include discussions of fun and exciting feelings. They also validate young people's experience of love. Advertisement For example, the title of a widely used Dutch sex education curriculum is "Long Live Love, which is notable both for the celebration of sexual development, and for couching that development in terms of love. Another example is of a PBS News Hour video, which shows a Dutch teacher engaging a group of 11-year olds in a conversation about what it feels like to be in love, and the proper protocol for breaking up (not via text message). After watching the video, a male student at the University of Massachusetts spoke wistfully about what was missing from his own sex education experiences, stating, with a hint of outrage in his voice, No one talks with us about love! 'Dirty little boys, get away!' The differences between American and Dutch sex education curricula reflect broader cultural differences in the ways adults talk about young people and their motivations. In interviews I conducted with Dutch and American parents of high school sophomores, the Dutch parents spoke about teenage sexuality in the context of their children falling in love. Advertisement One Dutch mother recalled that her son was "interested in girlfriends at a very early age and then he was also often intensely in love." Her son would not have been unusual. Ninety percent of Dutch 12- to 14-year-old boys, surveyed in a national study, reported that they had been in love. By contrast, American parents were very skeptical of love during the teenage years. They attributed adolescent sexuality to biological urges - particularly with regard to boys. I found it to be so, across the political spectrum. Parents portrayed boys as slaves to their hormones. One self-described liberal mother said, Most teenage boys would fuck anything that would sit still. A conservative father, who was anxious about his daughter's dating, stated: I'm a parent of a teenage cheerleader. I'm very concerned: "Dirty little boys! Get away! Get away!" What do boys want? I found that boys in both cultures are looking for intimacy and relationships, not only sex. But they differed in how much they believed they fit the norm. The Dutch boys thought that their desire to combine sex with relationships was normal, whereas American boys tended to see themselves as exceptionally romantic. What parents don't know about teenage boys. Davidlohr Bueso, CC BY Says Randy, an American boy I interviewed: If you ask some guys, they'll say it's mainly for the sex or whatever [that they get together with a girl], but with me, you have to have a relationship with the person before you have sex with her.... I'd say I'm exceptional. Randy is far from exceptional. In one U.S. survey, boys chose having a girlfriend and no sex over having sex and no girlfriend by two to one. Other research too has shown American teenage boys - across racial and ethnic groups - crave intimacy, and are as emotionally invested as girls are in romantic relationships. American boys end up paying a price for a culture that does not support their needs for intimacy. For the issue is that while boys crave closeness, they are expected to act as if they are emotionally invulnerable. Among the American boys I interviewed, I observed a conflict between their desires and the prevailing masculinity norms - if they admit to valuing romantic love, they risk being viewed as "unmasculine." Unrealistic and unfair expectations about boys' lack of emotional vulnerability, in turn, make it harder for them to navigate both platonic and romantic relationships. One study found that as boys move through the teenage years, masculinity norms (beliefs that men should be tough and not behave in ways marked as "feminine"), particularly the stigma of homosexuality, make it harder to maintain close same-sex friendships, leaving boys lonely and sometimes depressed. With less practice sustaining intimacy, boys enter romantic relationships less confident and less skilled. Ironically, many boys end up less prepared for, but more emotionally reliant on, heterosexual contacts. Advertisement Talk to us When I asked my students to brainstorm about ideal sex education programs, based on research, they recommended focusing more on relationships. These young men suggested that having older boys mentor young boys, showing that it is normal for boys to value relationships could challenge the idea that it's not masculine to need emotional closeness. Certainly, such peer mentoring might go a long way to counteract the gender stereotypes and rigid masculinity norms that research has shown adversely affect boys' sexual health. The flyer Porton distributed invited an intergenerational conversation about emotional intimacy that is missing from most classrooms and boys' lives. And it's a conversation boys appear eager to have. Crowd of people in awe at computer code in sky By Resolution Fellows Jean Paul Laurent, Hannah Dehradunwala, Samir Goel Our parents' generation wouldn't recognize what we call entrepreneurship today. What's more, they probably wouldn't have viewed start-ups to be a legitimate career choice for a college graduate straight out of school. Entrepreneurship (and, more specifically, social entrepreneurship) requires the courage to innovate to change something for the better. A new idea and the tenacity to make it happen are the key ingredients, along with a lot of resources and effort. We are three young social entrepreneurs, and in the midst of growing our ventures every day, we wanted to share our reflections on what it means to be a young entrepreneur with a heart. "You are a leader of the future," we often heard in school. "Someday, when you have the right experience, you might start something great," went the narrative. When would it be time? Could our passion projects ever get off the ground, make a difference, and allow us to make a living? Having the power to address pressing social issues attracts millennials like us to entrepreneurship in the first place. Gaining traction in the rapidly burgeoning community of social entrepreneurs around the world makes that prospect even more exciting. So millennials who have ideas are making a choice, and it's not just because fewer "old economy" jobs await us. Advertisement Corporate and social endeavors often seem like opposites, vying for the resources and great people needed for growth. The mind should pull toward profit and comfort while the heart should seek to help others, right? Joining an organization or starting one presents an equally stark choice. The decision is neither simple, nor is there a single broad answer. Many of us will rise in an organization and walk time-honored paths successfully, gaining experience and capacity for future endeavors. Most would suggest taking on less risk, at least initially. Undoubtedly, social enterprise at a young age provides no guarantees of success, a paycheck, or even impact that lasts. But the reality, now, is that both ways are open and collaboration occurs more frequently than ever. Investing in an early stage idea, feeding it with resources, and nurturing it with a network are enormous factors that contribute to many young people's ability to pursue the entrepreneur's path. It eliminates the idea that there is some perfect time at which it is best to chase an idea for social change. A decade ago, there were fewer resources for aspiring young entrepreneurs trying their hand at innovation around the world. Today, a huge ecosystem surrounds us as we shift away from traditional career paths. Organizations like The Resolution Project, where we are Resolution Fellows, influence our first steps and our growth as social entrepreneurs. Resolution invests in early stage, student-led social start-ups, providing a strong combination of funding, mentorship, services, credibility, and a community of peers that makes entrepreneurship so much less lonely. Resolution is not alone; along with organizations like Echoing Green, Ashoka, and others, these early stage social entrepreneurship launchpads provide us with a safe space, rich in resources, advice, and support, so we can test models and push innovation. It comes down to seeing a problem that you think is solvable and employing all of the resources within your reach towards developing a sustainable system to tackle it. We have made our choice; we are social entrepreneurs and our organizations got the support we needed to launch even while we remained in school. Initially, we didn't envision ourselves as social entrepreneurs, but when you find yourself with an idea that you think you can run with, you run. So we started two social ventures: Transfernation, run by Samir and Hannah, and The Unspoken Smiles Foundation, run by JP. Transfernation is a technology-driven non-profit organization which ensures extra food from corporate events goes to supporting underserved communities. The Unspoken Smiles Foundation is a non-profit organization which provides dental care and hygiene education to rural communities in Haiti. To date, Transfernation has rescued 12,000 pounds of food and Unspoken Smiles has helped well over 1,000 children in Haiti, and we're just getting started. We didn't exactly intend to be social entrepreneurs, but thanks to organizations like Resolution, we began to understand how we could drive social impact and make careers out of it. Advertisement Being a young social entrepreneur demands creativity, resourcefulness, and hard work. It requires evolution, reinvention, improvisation, and accepting that you're not going to know exactly where you're going or how exactly you'll get there (or whether you'll even know you've made it!). It wouldn't be called innovation if it had already been done before. It involves looking at a problem in an unconventional way, while facing conventional criticism. That said, the quality of your work, the amount of time you're willing and eager to put into it, and the satisfaction of working for something bigger than yourself is incredibly rewarding. The beauty of entering the business of impact is that the necessary knowledge and skills become accessible as you go, and your ability to create collaborative systems becomes more of a lifestyle than a job. It's important to note that we don't measure our success in dollars alone. Sure, a social business can and often does scale and generate significant investor returns. But social impact is the ultimate end goal of social entrepreneurship; creating a change in society. Impact can be measured in the pounds of food redistributed, or the number of people who now have access to dental care, but it cannot start without an individual who sees him or herself as an active part of the problem, but more importantly as an active driver of the solution. We don't need to ring the bell on the stock exchange floor, but we have started to see social ventures do just that. As stark as our choices early in life may be, the pathways and sectors are merging around us. So yes, our parents might not have had the chance to consider becoming young social entrepreneurs, but the world has changed. We have the passion and the vision; we have the innovation and the solutions; we have the ecosystem of support and unprecedented collaboration between sectors; and we have each other. It seems like now is as good a time as any. Advertisement Amy Glass is an I.C.U. nurse in California's Central Valley. Working in the heart of the valley for more than fifteen years, Glass has seen more than enough rural poverty for a lifetime. The often undocumented Mexican and Central American immigrants who make up the Valley's agricultural workforce live in atrocious conditions. They're often housed in broken down trailers without running water that bake to unbearable temperatures in the irrigated desert's sun. These women, men, and children find themselves in Glass's care after being stricken with massively high rates of cancer and asthma caused by pesticide exposure, as well as more mundane maladies like debilitating back issues and chronic fatigue syndrome that occur far earlier than they do for most Americans. As a professional caregiver to some of the poorest people in America, Glass did not think she could be shocked by rural inequality and dislocation. That is, she did not think she could be shocked before she came to South Carolina. Talking to Curtis Dixon, a collard green picker in Clarendon County, Glass was brought to tears by what she saw. Working twelve hours a day and paid by the box of greens he picks, Dixon described to her how it was virtually impossible to put even make the minuscule South Carolina minimum wage of $7.75 per hour. Despite his twelve-hour days, he struggled to put food in his children's mouths while keeping his lights and water on. As he told Glass, "no one in America should have to do this for that amount." Advertisement "It just felt different," Glass told me. The conditions in the Valley are horrible for sure, but the people I treat there have hope. They came here for a better life and while they are realistic enough to know that they might not live long enough to see it they think their children will at least have more opportunities than they have had. For Glass, this was the big distinction between what she sees every day in the Valley and what she's seen in South Carolina. The poverty, inequality, and health crises are the same. The difference though, was that despite the horrible conditions she's come to see every day in California, the undocumented migrants she treats maintain a hopefulness for a better tomorrow, while families like Curtis Dixon's are representative of a disintegrated American dream, a disintegrated dream that for poor black farmers in South Carolina has likely never existed. Glass came to South Carolina with a team of nurses from around the country as part of the Vote Nurses Values campaign for Bernie Sanders. Pundits and Democratic Party elites are skeptical, if not downright derisive of what Sanders terms "political revolution." For Glass and her colleagues who are on the frontlines of treating the ill effects of the more than 33 million Americans lacking health insurance and the millions more whose wages barely cover it, political revolution is not an abstract concept though. As Bessie Gray, a nurse from Kansas City, told me, political revolution means "coming together and actually making sure the government helps people where they're hurting." The derision with which comfortable Democratic elites and pundits who have likely never gone without health insurance have greeted Sanders' call for political revolution is palpable. From the perch of a Manhattan loft or Washington D.C. townhouse, Sanders' campaign and groups like these nurses he is inspiring is one of "ideological purity," a "magic unicorn" that offers naive hope. For such operatives and writers, the solidarity demonstrated by nurses like Glass, Gray, and Dixon is inconsequential. Politics, they tell us, is about incremental change and what they define as the "achievable possible." It's what's practiced in $2,000 dollar-a-plate donor dinners, in speeches in front of corporate executives, and by "responsible" party leaders and analysts. What they fail to recognize is how Sanders' message of universal health care, access to higher education as a right, and living wages for all Americans inspires the kinds of conversations and encounters like what occurred between Glass and Dixon on Monday. Sanders' political revolution is not built on slogans or wishful thinking. It's not about ideology or loudly proclaiming how much smarter his supporters are than those of other candidates. Advertisement It is in fact, built on diametrically opposite grounds. It is about commonality and shared interests. It is about Americans of all stripes recognizing that despite their myriad differences, when they get down to it, most agree that hard work should be able to provide a decently comfortable life for them and their families -- a life that includes health care, not worrying what your children are going to eat at night, and giving them a real opportunity to follow their dreams. In the final analysis, it is about precisely why Glass, Gray, and other nurses came to South Carolina. They came here to do what nurses do -- talk to people about where they are hurting -- and find ways to work with them to truly fix it. It has been more than a week since the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Power Plan, and states are now beginning to indicate how they will approach the resulting uncertainty the decision brings. Although the stay removes the September deadline to submit compliance plans to the EPA, several continue to move forward. A poll by ClimateWire indicates that 20 states are pressing on with discussions about how to meet carbon emissions limits for power plans, 18 have stopped planning and nine are weighing whether to stop or slow down planning (subscription). "The stay is just that--it's a stay--so we need to be mindful that a potential outcome could be that the courts uphold it," said Glade Sowards, Utah Division of Air Quality's Clean Power Plan coordinator. "We don't want to be caught flat footed." In an event hosted by the Brookings Institution on the Clean Power Plan, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions' Climate and Energy Program Director Jonas Monast also pointed out to attendees that what states are coping with now is bigger than just the Clean Power Plan. Advertisement "The Clean Power Plan created a forcing mechanism to bring utility regulators and air regulators and utilities and affected stakeholders to the table to really start engaging about what we want the future of the electricity sector to be," Monast said. He noted that discussion of that future would not necessarily be organized around the Clean Power Plan. Study: Frequency, Intensity of Heat Waves Will Increase Due to GHG Emissions If anthropocentric greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue unabated, once-every-20-years extreme heat waves--lasting three or more days--could become annual events across 60 percent of Earth's land surface by 2075, says a study published in the journal Climatic Change. But only 18 percent of land areas might experience such yearly events by the last quarter of the century if measures to cut GHG emissions are put in place, according to authors Claudia Tebaldi of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Michael Wehner of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in research that looks to quantify the benefits of avoiding extreme heat events. The Department of Energy-funded study also suggests that by 2050 extreme heat waves would be 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than they might be today for 60 percent of land areas and nine degrees hotter for another 10 percent, with serious health impacts, particularly for the young, the old, and the sick and in places with historically little temperature variability (subscription). "The study shows that aggressive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions will translate into sizable benefits, starting in the middle of the century, for both the number and intensity of extreme heat events," Tebaldi said. "Even though heat waves are on the rise, we still have time to avoid a large portion of the impacts." Advertisement The study used an NCAR climate model to examine how the odds of today's 20-year events--those with a 5 percent chance of occurring in any given year--would change in a business-as-usual scenario and in scenarios in which emissions were cut to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius (4 degrees Fahrenheit) of pre-industrial levels. "Even under more dramatic mitigation scenarios . . . future heat wave frequency and intensity increase very dramatically," Wehner said. But "we do have a choice about how dangerous the future will be." January Continued String of Record-Warm Months January became the ninth consecutive record-breaking month for heat according to data released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). That agency, the Japan Meteorological Agency, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has been keeping weather records for 137 years, agree that the month's highs were unprecedented, Bloomberg reported. If the rest of the year is as warm as January, 2016 could top the record set in 2015. According to NASA, last month was 2.03 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. But some parts of the Arctic had temperatures averaging as high as 23 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for the month, leading the region's sea ice to decrease to a new record low for January. It averaged only 5.2 million square miles for the month--90,000 square miles fewer than the previous record set in 2011, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Preliminary data from February indicate that Arctic sea ice continues to set daily record lows. January's temperature increases reflect the combination of accelerating manmade global warming and a record strong El Nino. Advertisement The Blog Ultimate Oscars Feast Inspired by the 2016 Best Picture Nominees Whether you want to recruit a group for pot luck, cobble together a small feast in honor of your favorite films or commit to making it all for the big night, here it is: The ultimate 2016 Oscars feast. It's probably best, since nothing actually happens until it happens, to wait till next week, when the human-scale presidential nomination contests of February suddenly morph into the multiple-state extravaganza of this year's "Super Tuesday," to proclaim the ascendancy of Donald Trump over the Republican Party. Which is not so much the "hostile takeover" as many would like to have it as it is the stunning yet utterly logical product of powerful trends in Republican politics and the dominant media culture. Trump's big win in the Nevada Republican presidential caucuses dispelled yet another myth about his presidential candidacy; that he has a ceiling of little more than a third of the vote in the Republican contest. In the Silver State, the most representative contest so far, where rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio each had bigger organizations to turn out caucus participants -- the lack of which was Trump's big pitfall in his opening Iowa loss -- Trump, with 46 percent, garnered more votes than the two senators combined. Here's how strong Trump is in the Republican contest. In South Carolina, Trump won handily even after melting down in the debate there and getting into a fight with the Pope. Advertisement In Nevada, Trump won big even though he routinely mispronounces the state's name. Ivanka Trump, shown in this Trump for President ad on how to support her father in the Nevada Republican presidential caucuses, carries on The Donald's practice of mispronouncing the state's name. He won in a landslide anyway. Nevadans usually take that seriously. For example, when Nevada moved to the opening tier of nomination contest states for 2008, I was on hand in its homey little capital of Carson City for the very first candidate forum of the 2008 Democratic presidential race. The Nevadans there were absolutely thrilled, as you might suppose. Right up to the moment when moderator George Stephanopoulos, the ABC News star, opened the proceedings and mispronounced their state's name with a soft "a." (Like most pronunciations of Spanish place names in the US, Nevada is completely Anglicized. Or, as we say here in the West, Westernized.) It wasn't a huge surprise that an East Coast media personality didn't know -- or bother to find out -- how to pronounce Nevada. It was a surprise that a former Clinton White House communications director didn't know how. Advertisement But the cries of dismay and disapproval that greeted Stephanopoulos in 2007 weren't replicated for Trump in 2016. It turns out that the billionaire bully boy -- who owns a big casino hotel on the Vegas Strip -- can call Nevada whatever he wants. Why? Because the notorious Obama birther and greenhouse denier is saying what a huge swath of Republicans wants to hear. Media entrance polls indicate that most Nevada participants are angry and made their presidential choice long ago. With only three days between South Carolina and Nevada, Trump didn't have time to blow up in another debate or get into a fight with the head of another major world religion. Which, let's be clear, only cost him a handful of points in his otherwise big win in the Palmetto State primary. Back in July of last year, I had thought that Trump, a chicken hawk Vietnam War draft dodger who ludicrously says he feels like a vet because he went to military school as a kid, might have finally blown it when he claimed that John McCain isn't a war hero. While I not infrequently disagree with McCain, who is arguably the most famous Vietnam War hero and whom I backed for president in 2000, as I noted when I wrote about Trump's appalling attack, Trump can't even carry John McCain's jock strap. Yet he got away with his shamefully ludicrous dissing of the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman and 2008 Republican presidential nominee. Advertisement So it quickly became apparent that Trump was so effective at appealing to the huge backlash constituency that Fox News and Republican operatives have so assiduously cultivated over the years that there was little the canny opportunist could do to screw it up. Just as long as he kept acting like an entertaining proto-fascist, that is. I'm convinced it is fundamentally an act on Trump's part, by the way. After all, we once backed the same Democratic presidential candidate. (The good news about Trump's ascendancy is there's so much to discuss in coming months.) But let's not forget that people often become what they pretend to be. Trump has been greatly aided in his ascendancy by the nature of his competition. Loudly hailed by much of a rather clueless national media establishment as one of the strongest fields of candidates in recent memory, it was actually a collection of mostly empty suits and hollow wannabes. Just as Trump, rather to his credit, took great glee in pointing out. Ladies and gentlemen, consider the emperor who sallied forth with no clothes, John Ellis ("Jeb!") Bush. A hundred and fifty million bucks got him bupkis. Then there are the only effective opponents to our ultimate "reality" TV star, that would-be Joe McCarthy, ultra-rightist Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and a slick chameleon-on-plaid and ex-Bush protege, Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Advertisement Cruz dropped to third in Nevada right after having to fire his communications director, who foolishly tweeted about a supposed video clip of Rubio saying the Bible holds few answers. Dude, don't be a dunce. Why would Robo-Rubio, of all pols, say anything like that?? Naturally, he didn't. In fact, as you might suppose, Rubio said the opposite, that the Bible holds all the answers. But of course. Because the Republicans have become a party that spreads religion over everything, like ketchup over mystery meat in a bad diner. The seeming irony is that it is Trump -- the New York sybarite who brandishes his ex-supermodel wife and beautiful daughter as major weapons in his arsenal of symbols -- who is winning the battle for evangelical voters. That makes no sense at all, right? Unless you think sociologically. What fundamentalist religionists the world over have in common, as we've seen to our horror in the Middle East, is followership in authority-based, triumphalist creeds. Trump can't even be bothered to learn how to say the name of his supposedly favorite biblical passage. But it doesn't matter because he so vividly presents himself as an authoritarian leader catering to the prejudices of a self-anointed elect. The will to power dominates. Advertisement Are the Republican pros finally going to put a stop to Trumpism, as they've been intimating for many months now? Unlikely. They are, as the Brits say, hoist by their own petard. But let's save a full post-mortem till after next week's Confederate (excuse me, "SEC") primary. Kristopher B. Jones is a prominent internet entrepreneur, investor, public speaker, and best-selling author. In 2008 Kris wrote a book on Search Engine Optimization that is currently in its third print for Wiley (2008, 2010, 2013) and has sold nearly 100,000 copies. Kris is the founder and former President and CEO of Pepperjam (sold to eBay), managing partner of KBJ Capital (13 companies), and the founder and CEO of LSEO.com and APPEK Mobile Apps. The grand vision of Walt Disney -- one of the most innovative entrepreneurs of all time -- was simply to make people happy. Walt further believed that if you can dream it, you can do it. While the priorities and technologies have changed, it was Walt's original vision that led to Disney's greatest innovations. Think about them: from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world's first full-length animation feature (1937), to Tiki Room opening and introducing the first electro-mechanical robots (1963), to modern Disney stores adopting Apple Pay. Advertisement Each of these accomplishments and decisions was rooted in the fundamental innovation of Walt and his namesake company. And this innovation ultimately began with the two prerequisites of being innovative: vision and passion. Having vision is the first step. The easiest way to understand vision is by example. Think about these entrepreneurs and not what they have only done for their companies, but also what they did to positively impact the world. For instance, early in his career, Steve Jobs had a vision to put a computer in the hands of everyday people. That simple idea became the vision for Apple computers, which today is one of the most valuable companies in the world with a market cap over $500 billion (as of February 2016). Another one is Mark Zuckerberg, whose vision for Facebook was to simply connect the world. And with a reported 1.4 billion users and counting, Mark's vision led to innovation that ultimately made him one of the most powerful and wealthy entrepreneurs in the world, right along with Amazon's Jeff Bezos and investing guru Warren Buffett. Zuckerberg recently traveled to China and India to meet with Facebook users. While in China, he gave a 45-minute presentation completely in Mandarin. While in India he participated in a town hall meeting that was broadcasted globally via Facebook. According to CNBC, during this meeting, he was asked why he cared so much about India. His answer: "We feel a deep responsibility to service the 130 million Indians who use Facebook, and we care about connecting the 1 billion Indians who do not yet have access to the Internet." Advertisement Then, we have the roots of the place you likely found this article - Google. In the late 1990s, while doctoral students at Stanford, Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched the search engine Google with a vision to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. In turn, Google has become one of the most innovative and profitable companies of the 21 century. It also gave me my current job as founder and CEO of search engine marketing company LSEO.com. Without feeding into my vision, I wouldn't be in my position. From my very first company, an affiliate marketing agency called Pepperjam, which was sold to eBay, to my latest adventures in LSEO.com and APPEK Apps, it all begin with a vision to do things differently. My vision for Pepperjam was not only to build a huge company, but do so in an area that was once looked down upon due to lack of opportunity. Even though I sold the company to eBay, the rebranded eBay Enterprise remains in Wilke-Barre, Pa., and continues to employ over 100 people. While it's true that all great innovators have a clear vision of what they desire to achieve, the actualization of that vision requires people like you and me to take the vision and make it a reality. For true innovation, we - like all of the above entrepreneurs - must have also have another trait: passion. This is the force that drives people toward solutions that are not achievable in their current mindset. When you are passionate about solving a problem or making the world a better place, you will find solutions or die trying. As Sir Richard Branson has said, "There is no greater thing you can do with your life and your work than follow your passion in a way that serves the world and you." Advertisement Like vision, passion is a prerequisite to innovation. The more passionate you are about solving a problem or achieving a result, the more likely you will be successful -- whether that's entering a crowded industry with an innovative solution to an old problem, or taking a leap of faith to open a new office in an unfamiliar market because you know they need your product or service. Remember - vision and passion are the roots of innovation, and innovation is the root of successful entrepreneurship. If any of the entrepreneurs mentioned in this article didn't have these traits, the world would be a completely different place. ASSOCIATED PRESS Indian Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt watches during an event in Mumbai, India, Sunday, May 5, 2013. Dutt has appealed to India's Supreme Court to give him some more time before he begins a prison sentence for a 1993 weapons conviction linked to a deadly terror attack. Dutt filed his appeal Monday, April 15, 2013 saying he needed time to complete his film commitments. The court sentenced Dutt to five years in prison for illegal possession of weapons supplied by Muslim mafia bosses linked to the terror attack that killed 257 people in Mumbai. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) The Morning Wrap is HuffPost India's selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers. Subscribe here to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning. Essential HuffPost The Rajya Sabha proceedings were disrupted by MPs shouting slogans over Hyderabad student Rohith Vemula's death and the JNU controversy. However, the highlight of the day was the heated argument between HRD Minister Smriti Irani and BSP chief Mayawati. Advertisement The Haryana government refuted a report by The Tribune that at least 10 women were allegedly raped near the National Highway in Murthal during the Jat agitation, calling it "totally false, misleading and not based on facts. The Punjab and Haryana high court have meanwhile taken suo moto cognizance of the media report, referring the matter to the court of the acting chief justice. At a time when the medias role has come under scrutiny for inciting passions in the JNU row, a journalist in Agra asked for arrested JNU students to be raped in jail. Later, he claimed it was not his post and removed it. A small plane crashed in Nepal due to bad weather, killing all 23 people on board, a police official said. This is the country's second air disaster in as many years. Donald Trump, the controversial Republican presidential front-runner, has added India to the list of countries that he says are ripping off jobs from the US and has pledged to bring them back if elected president. Advertisement Main News While JNU student president Kanhaiya Kumars bail plea was adjourned till February 29, art students painted the walls of his house at his native, Masnadpur in Bihar, with slogans demanding freedom from feudalism, capitalism and Brahmanism. Illegal Indian immigrants in the US could be among the worst affected if Donald Trump implements harsh anti-immigration measures as the next President, says a recent study. A report concluded that one-third of all Asian illegal immigrants who were detected while attempting to enter the US, between 2007 and 2015, were from India. In a green move that will also cut down expenses, the Railway Ministry will be using 12 lakh A4 sheets less in presenting its Budget for the next fiscal, and would rely on IT tools instead to convey the information. Expressing concern over damage to public and private properties during violent protests, the Supreme Court said it would lay down parameters to fix accountability for losses on organisers as the country cannot be held to ransom. Among the articles actor Sanjay Dutt will carry home after walking out of Punes Yerwada Central Prison today will be a clutch of paper bags he prepared while serving time. Dutt, jail sources say, wants to show these items to his family as he considers them to be his most valued possessions. Advertisement Off The Front Page A Mainpuri villager is shelling out Rs 10,000 to save sparrows. Mahendra Singh is all set to spend this money to buy 50 custom-made nests and distribute them free of cost among the locals, to be installed outside their houses in a bid to attract sparrows. At an inter-college in Agra, a young parent was caught taking the Maths exam in the place of his son. My son is weak in Maths and I wanted to help him, he explained. A government-run technical training institute near Hyderabad does not have a single functional toilet on campus. As a result, its 476 girls are forced to make a dash for the college field, terrace or an abandoned classroom, each time they need to relieve themselves. A young couple's sexual adventure in a speeding car ended in tragedy after the man lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a truck, leaving him dead on the spot. The woman is recuperating in hospital with severe injuries on her head and a broken leg. Opinion I forged two of my most enduring friendships more than 30 years ago. The friendships, which were made on my university campus in Nagpur, have transcended time, ideology and death, writes Sujata Anandan in the Hindustan Times. I would like to think it was the free atmosphere at the university, uninterrupted by government ham-handedness, that shaped both my friends politics and liberalism. They did not have to choose between one or the other. They could be both religious and liberal. We were never in the league of the JNU but the NSUI and ABVP were even then bitterly opposed to each other. Advertisement In Pampore, military personnel were called on to carry out a room-intervention operation in a building housing civilians a task for which they are neither intensively trained nor equipped. The NSG was put in charge at Pathankot a very different kind of operation, involving cordoning large areas. Gurdaspur demonstrated, to all willing to see, exactly what happens when a police force which cant even meet its fuel bills, let alone train at a firing range, meets well-resourced enemies, writes Praveen Swami in The Indian Express. For some time now, free speech and dissent have been on the retreat in Chhattisgarh. The official excuse for this has been the ongoing civil conflict between the state and Maoist insurgents. But the fact that individuals who have no connection with the conflict are being forced out, suggests a larger anti-democratic agenda at work, according to an editorial in The Hindu. Advertisement Photography by ShankhaSD via Getty Images The Bride and the groom holding hands as a part of their wedding ceremony as seen in a traditional Bengali wedding. The 'Ghot' or earthen pitcher seen below is sacred and part of the ceremony. In violence-torn Rohtak, the epicentre of the Jat stir in Haryana, a distressed bride found help from unlikely quarters. Slated to get married on 22 February, the Rohtak bride found herself unable to even step outside her home, thanks to the violent protesters. Her fiance's shop had been vandalised and destroyed by the agitators and people were scared to step out of their homes. The family resides in Gurcharanpura, allegedly one of the worst-hit parts of Rohtak. The police too, were unable to assist 23-year-old Neha Makkad. Advertisement However, the army stepped in to make the marriage happen. According to a Times of India report, the Army stepped in on humanitarian grounds after a soldier from the 3/5 Gorkha Rifles battalion got to know about the the woman's predicament. Not only did an entire column of soldiers escort the bride and her family to the gurdwara, they also stood guard outside, while the nuptials took place. The brides mother and her husband expressed gratitude to the soldiers saying that the family was indebted to the army, as they could not have postponed the wedding due to religious purposes. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also See On HuffPost: HuffPost Staff The last time Deepu Sebastian Edmond spoke to Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, the professor of Marathi in Aligarh Muslim University who was persecuted for his sexual orientation, it was with some amount of impatience. In April 2010, the Allahabad High Court had passed an order reversing Sirass suspension from the university after hed been caught having consensual sex with a younger man a rickshaw puller in his home. Edmond, who had been following up on the story as a reporter for The Indian Express in New Delhi at the time, was rebuked by his editor for missing out on the story (The Times Of Indias Allahabad edition printed it first) and called up Siras immediately, mildly annoyed that he hadnt been given a heads up. After all, hed written a number of stories about the case, which had come in the wake of the Delhi High Court striking down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code in July 2009, which criminalised homosexuality (this historic judgement would later be overturned by the Supreme Court in December 2013). Advertisement We were quite friendly by then, so I called him up and said, Sir, you shouldve told me this but he said he hadnt told them, recalls Edmond, 28, now a special correspondent with The Hindu in Chennai. Then we ended up speaking for 45 minutes. When he would be in the mood, he could really talk a lot. I had a deadline so I kept saying okay, very good, thank you to hurry things up before making a plan to visit him on his first day back at AMU. The next morning, Edmond left for Aligarh, about four hours away at the time, and got there by 11 am. Sirass phone was off an unusual occurrence. He would then spend nearly two days going from pillar to post searching for him no one seemed to know where he lived barring one man who had helped him find a new residence, and even he was cagey about revealing any information. More than a day later, Edmond would find out where Siras lived. Hed witness police officials, forensic experts, and curious journalists crowd around Sirass corpse. It was the first time hed ever seen a dead body. It was also the first and last time hed ever see Siras who, reportedly, had taken his own life by consuming poison, traces of which were found in his blood. Advertisement His life and Edmonds work became the inspiration for Hansal Mehtas latest feature Aligarh, which releases nation-wide on Friday. Starring Manoj Bajpayee in the role of Siras, Edmond is essayed by Rajkummar Rao and is a pivotal character, as the films conscience. Aligarh, which had its world premiere at the 20th Busan International Film Festival in October last year, takes many creative liberties. In the film, Raos character is shown to have many meetings with Bajpayees Siras, including an intimate conversation about love during a boat-ride, which ends with the two taking a selfie together. I dont even think selfies were a thing back then; I barely ever take them now, he says, with a laugh. Edmond, who hails from Kollam, Kerala, holds a bachelors degree in English Literature from Chennais Loyola College and a post-graduate degree in journalism from the Asian College of Journalism. Both helped him develop a rapport with Siras. Ours was a student-teacher sort of relationship, he says. I wouldnt cross certain lines and he would reply to questions in a roundabout manner. He would often start talking about poetry or literature, which I think he thought I would understand given my background. But I think this was his way of talking about it. In one of his interviews to Edmond, Siras described his homosexuality as an uncontrollable feeling, like poetry. Siras was reluctant to reveal much about his sexuality or his relationships, and he had no desire to be an activist, he says. The word LGBT wasnt in his lexicon, I think. He was very protective of the rickshaw-pullers identity because he understood that he, being Muslim and from a lower social class, had a lot more to lose. Advertisement The idea to do a film based on Sirass life came from Ishani Banerjee, who contacted Edmond a couple of years ago and said she was researching the case for a film. I thought it was some small documentary and met her and sent across all the unedited drafts of the stories Id done. However, a few months later, he realised that this was a bigger deal. Multiple drafts were written and writer-editor Apurva Asrani (Satya, Shahid, Citylights) took over scripting duties. He was told that that hed be a major character in the film. Rao came on board and had several phone and Whatsapp conversations with him to try and capture his Malayalam-accented Hindi and mannerisms. I think it helps that he, coincidentally, talks fast, just like me, he says. As journalists, were always taught to tell the story never be the story. So I dont think of this character as me, but simply a tool for the filmmakers to tell the story a replica of me. As for Bajpayees portrayal of Siras, he says, You know, he doesnt look like him, but I dont think that should be important at all. When I saw the film especially this one scene in which he is at a party and reciting poetry I felt like that he had truly captured the spirit of Siras. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also see on HuffPost: Hindustan Times via Getty Images NEW DELHI, INDIA - FEBRUARY 12: Prime Minister Narendra Modi talking to HRD Minister Smriti Irani during the Akhil Bharatiya Prachaarya Sammelan organized by the Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan at Vigyan Bhawan on February 12, 2016 in New Delhi, India. The Prime Minister addressed principals of about 1,300 senior secondary schools on the key role of principal in social and academic scenario. (Photo by Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times via Getty Images) Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Iranis sensational statement in Parliament that Rohith Vemula could have been revived has been challenged by the doctor who examined the dead body of the Hyderabad Central University student. Irani said on Wednesday in Parliament that the Telengana Police had told the state High Court that no doctor was allowed near Vemulas body until 6.30 am the next morning. Advertisement "This is how politics was played on this child and his dead body. Nobody allowed a doctor near him. The police has reported... Not one attempt was made to revive this child. Instead his body was used as a political tool," Irani had said. The doctor says she had reached moments after a call was made at 7:30pm the same evening when Rohith was found dead. "Around 7.30 pm I got a call from the hostel. I reached within 4 minutes. The body was already put on the cot. I examined for pulse and BP, despite knowing he is probably dead. There was no pulse or BP. His body was cold, stiff and rigid. His tongue was protruding and rigor mortis had set in," the doctor told NDTV. Hours after Iranis statement, a student named Zikrullah Nisha posted a video on his facebook page and wrote that he was the first person to call for a doctor upon learning about Vemula's suicide and that the Chief Medical Officer of the university reached the spot within five minutes. Advertisement Dr Rajashree P reached the spot and she checked the pulse and declared him dead. Telengana police was also present there, he wrote and posted a video of the doctor examining Vemulas dead body. Rohith Vemula was found hanging in a hostel room on the Hyderabad Central University campus on January 17. Vemula's suicide sparked off protests across the country with the opposition parties accusing the central government of being anti-dalit. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also See On HuffPost: ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2011 file photo, a sign with Facebook's If you've ever tried to express something other than admiration or approval over someone's post on Facebook and come up short, these new reaction buttons the social media platform is rolling out are just for you. fter the announced global rollout, Facebook reactions are availble in India from today. Facebook has replaced its iconic 'Like' button with emojis called reactions -- Love, Haha, Angry, Sad and Wow. Advertisement Company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a post on the social network that "Reactions are a new way to express yourself. Not everyone is happy with a moment. Sometimes you want to share something sad or frustrating." Today is our worldwide launch of Reactions -- the new Like button with more ways to express yourself. Not every moment... Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, February 24, 2016 "People wanted to express empathy and make it comfortable to share a wider range of emotions", he added. For using the reactions, one just has to hold the like button and scroll through the emojis to post the one they want. There has been a strong demand of a dislike button on Facebook for quite sometime. Especially after tragedies like Nepal Earthquake and Paris Attacks, users of the social network didn't want to 'Like' posts related to the events. Advertisement Facebook's product manager Sami Krug detailed out the Reactions in a post. He said, "News feed is central to a user to get updates from the family, friends and all of the world. We've been listening and we thought there should be more ways to express how you feel about something in the newsfeed." ALSO READ: Facebook Rolls Out Live Video Streaming In The App The company has been testing this feature for a year. They had already rolled out the reactions in countries such as Spain, Ireland and Portugal. Facebook's design lead Chirs Cox had been working on the reaction buttons since 2015 to understand various possibilities as well the impact of replacing the iconic like button. Some of the news apps like Appygeek had various reactions to a news and even categorized them accordingly. Buzzfeed also has article categories such as LOL, WTF, OMG, Cute, Fail. But the change is pretty massive and could take some time to get used to. Also, the introduction of reactions could mean that technology like 3D touch from apple can implement something fun around it. Although, Facebook has said the rollout of reactions is worldwide, a lot of users in various countries are not yet able to see the new emojis under the like button. We reached out to the Facebook and they said that, "Even though it is a global roll out it we update our systems phase wise over a couple of days. So the users will see the reactions soon". Advertisement Contact HuffPost India fredericknoronha/Flickr Photo copyleft by Frederick FN Noronha. Creative Commons, 3.0, attribution, non-commercial. May be copied for non-commercial purposes. For other purposes, contact fn at goa-india dot org or +91-832-2409490 or +91-9822122436 The popular tiatr (a type of musical theatre), usually used as a voice of people to protest against the government and politicians, is taking a new turn in Goa. This year, Goa's Department Of Information and Publicity, in collaboration with the Tiatr Academy, is organising a competition--Konkani Kantaram Utsav--where the contest is to sing songs praising the government. Advertisement The poster by the Goa government that is doing the rounds on social media says this: "A special Kantaram singing competition based on achievements of the present government and emphasizing the schemes implemented by this government for the welfare of the state in order to bring awareness among the people." There are rewards too. The winner of the competition gets Rs 25,000. The first and second runner up get Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively. There are prizes for the best lyricist too. "This is an initiative by the Goa government. We want to propagate schemes at the grass-root level," John Aguiar, Information Officer, Department of Information & Publicity told HuffPost India. Advertisement Aguiar said that this is the first time the government is organising something like, but they want to do it every year. "We are also doing this to promote good, young talent," Aguiar added. The information officer said that they have getting good response and a lot of people have applied to participate in the competition. What is ironic is 'kants', the songs that are integral to the play, usually revolves around social, religious and political themes--mostly critical of the establishment. Most of the themes of tiatr are concerned with social problems confronting the people. This time it's going to be just the opposite. Jess Luz, the Junior Culture Assistant of Tiatr Academy of Goa, said that though tiatr is a historical art form, this is the first time that they are hosting a competition to praise the government. "Tiatr is a very old art form. It is considered to be a mirror of Goan culture. We take pride in it," he said. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also See On HuffPost: PTI A day after the Haryana government denied a news item that said at least 10 women were raped during the Jat agitation, a news channel on Thursday spotted womens undergarments strewn across fields in Murthal close to the spot where the crime was said to have taken place. The news channel showed images of strewn undergarments that it spotted near Sukhdev dhaba close to the national highway in Murthal. Advertisement Following a news report in The Tribune on Wednesday that said women passengers were dragged out of their vehicles and raped in fields near Murthal in Haryana, an official spokesperson of the state government denied it. The spokesperson had issued a statement that the Principal Secretary Devender Singh and Inspector General of Police Paramjit Ahlawat visited the area and established that no such crime had occurred. As per The Tribune report which quoted eye witnesses, the state officials had urged the families of raped women to keep mum for the sake of their honour, reasoning that what happened could not be undone. The report said that at least 30 goons stopped attacked commuters travelling towards the national capital region, set their vehicles on fire and raped the women in them. Meanwhile, Justice N.K. Sanghi of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has written to the acting Chief Justice, Justice Shiavax Jal Vazifdar, recommending a probe by a premier investigating agency" into the alleged incident. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also See On HuffPost: Hindustan Times via Getty Images NEW DELHI, INDIA - JANUARY 18: Army tanks move during the rehearsals for the Republic Day parade at Raj Path, on January 18, 2015 in New Delhi, India. Republic Day is celebrated every year on 26 January to commemorate the date and moment when the Constitution of India came into effect. To mark Republic Day in a memorable and significant way, a grand parade is held that starts from the Raisina Hill in the neighbourhood of the majestic Rashtrapati Bhawan and passes along the Rajpath thus ending at India Gate. (Photo by Virendra Singh Gosain/Hindustan Times via Getty Images) NEW DELHI -- With everyone out to prove their "nationalism" credentials, Jawaharlal Nehru University is "actively considering" displaying a tank on its campus. The Indian Express reported today that this suggestion was made at a meeting of army veterans and JNU Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar, this week. Advertisement The veterans met the administration yesterday and made a few suggestions. Having an Army memorial to commemorate the memories of soldiers who lost their lives fighting for the country is one such suggestion that the administration is actively considering," JNU Registrar Bupinder Zutshi told IE. "We will be looking at various ways to do this. Having a wall of fame with soldiers names and photographs, showcasing a military tank or artillery there are different things we will look at. We are also planning regular interactions between students and defence personnel," he said. The meeting was held two hours before JNU students, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who are charged with sedition, surrendered to the police. During the JNU row, army veterans have expressed their anger and sadness at the "anti-national" slogans allegedly raised on the JNU campus, and they have opposed the event which was allegedly organized to mark the third anniversary of Afzal Guru's execution. Advertisement Afzal Guru was convicted for masterminding the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament. At an event organized by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad, a right-wing students' group, Major General G.D. Bakshi mocked recent remarks about free speech made by U.S. Ambassador to India Richard Verma. Challenge Verma to allow celebration of Osama in any university in the US. Disappointed to hear that terrorism is being passed off as free speech, he said. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also on HuffPost India: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR via Getty Images Indian Leftist student activists carry torches and shout slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led union government during a protest near Jadavpur Unversity on February 23, 2016. A bitter row over a student's arrest for sedition at a prestigious Indian university has exposed deep divisions between liberal intellectuals and the nationalist government in the world's biggest democracy. Student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar is accused of shouting 'anti-India slogans' during a rally at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi to mark the anniversary of the execution of a Kashmiri separatist leader. Thousands of students and teachers have since protested around the country against his arrest, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government of misusing the British-era sedition law to stifle dissent. AFP PHOTO / Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP / DIBYANGSHU SARKAR (Photo credit should read DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Images) From the very beginning, it has been amply clear that the people who raised anti-India slogans at the Jawaharlal Nehru University on 9 February were Kashmiris. Yet, the Delhi Police has not even been looking for them, because arresting Kashmiri students in Delhi will finish any remaining chance of saving the PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir. Arresting no one was not an option given the nationalist hysteria whipped up by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the ABVP. As a result, Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya are in jail even though they raised no anti-India slogans. If anything, they tried to douse that fire. Advertisement Kashmiri voices Initial eyewitness accounts made it clear that it was Kashmiris--who were neither students nor teachers at JNU--who had raised anti-India slogans. It is common for some Kashmiris living in Delhi to attend Kashmir-related events in Delhi, sometimes even raising azadi slogans. On 9 February in JNU, however, activists of the ABVP tried to block the event which they saw as an effort to paint terrorist Afzal Guru as a martyr. As ABVP activists provoked the Kashmiris with slogans such as Kashmir hamara hai, saara ka saara hai, the Kashmiris responded with equal provocation. "The organisers Umar Khalid, Banjyotsna Lahiri and Aswathi intervened twice to stop the students from chanting such slogans. Here are two such eyewitness accounts. JNU student Talha Chowdhry told Tehelka: The Kashmiri students chanted slogans for AzaadiTum kitne Afzal maroge, ghar ghar se Afzal niklega, Afzal hum sharminda hei, tere khatil zinda hain. The ABVP activists retaliated by shouting, Doodh mangoge kheer denge, Kashmir mangoge cheer denge, and Jo Afzal ki baath karega, wo Afzal ki mauth marega. In between, the Kashmiri students chanted slogans such as Bharat ke barbadi tak jang rahegi to which the organisers objected. The organisers Umar Khalid, Banjyotsna Lahiri and Aswathi intervened twice to stop the students from chanting such slogans. Advertisement Harshit Agarwal, another student present at the event wrote, In the meeting, there was a whole group of Kashmiri students which had come from outside JNU to attend the meeting. If you would even look closely at the video that is being circulated, you will only see these students who had formed a circle in the center of the gathering. And trust me, not one of whom was from JNU! I was present during the event for some time, and I could not recognise a single face from that group as being from JNU. This group of students who belonged to Kashmir, and had faced the wrath of the AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) for decades, were angered to see the ABVP disrupt their meeting, and started shouting the slogans against India, like: "Bharat ki barbaadi tak, jung rahegi, jung rahegi!", "India, Go Back". In my almost 2.5 years of stay in JNU, I have never heard these slogans shouted anywhere. These are nowhere even close to the ideology of any left parties, let alone DSU. Indeed, some of these slogans are common on the streets of the Kashmir Valley, and they are not the sort of slogans that the extreme left organisations like the Democratic Students Union raise. The Indian extreme left is not into Indias destruction, they are more interested in taking over the Indian state, but they do support the right to self-determination for Kashmiris. This meeting was not even called by DSU, but by its former members. It is curious that despite the presence of police at the 9 February event, the Delhi Police relied upon videos from news channels to arrest JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar. The videos turned out to be fake, but what did the police witnesses see that was not used to find and arrest the people who actually raised those slogans? The answer is Kashmiris. Indeed, some slogans are common on the streets of the Kashmir Valley, and they are not the sort of slogans that the extreme left organisations like the Democratic Students Union raise. After watching video clips of the event, Nilofer Qureshi, a Kashmiri writer, felt the slogans had the unmistakable Kashmiri accent and the distinct style of delivery that one hears during protests in Kashmir! Arrest the Indians, leave the Kashmiris Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya could at best be accused of organizing the event that saw Afzal Guru as a martyr, Kanhaiya Kumar not even that. While these students have fallen to the larger ABVP game-plan of discrediting JNU and leftists, the PDP subplot has meant that the whole case looks bizarre. The Kashmiris who raised the slogans are nowhere in the public discourse over laffaire JNU, and the issue at hand has been conveniently diverted to JNUs leftists, not the Kashmiris. Speaking today in the Rajya Sabha, I&B and finance minister Arun Jaitley admitted the presence of outsiders in JNU that day, but failed to explain why the Delhi Police has not been able to find these outsiders, 16 days later. The Delhi Police calls them foreign elements. Ahmed Ali Fayyaz, a Srinagar-based journalist well-known for stories based on intelligence sources, has written in State Times that the Ministry of Home Affairs has verbally asked the Delhi Police to not arrest Kashmiri students, but put them under surveillance and make detailed profiles of them. Advertisement Fayyaz writes, Sources in New Delhi told State Times that officials of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs communicated verbally to senior officials of Delhi Police that none of the Kashmiris, particularly the students, even if found involved in organising or attending the recent anti-India demonstrations, should not be immediately booked in any FIR or arrested. Reasons behind withholding the action have not been specified. However, sources added, it was being done only to protect churning out of BJPs possible coalition with Mehbooba Muftis PDP in Jammu and Kashmir. "Reports in Hindustan Times and The Economic Times have also hinted at the governments reluctance to go after the Kashmiris present at the 9 February event. Reports in the Hindustan Times and the Economic Times have also hinted at the governments reluctance to go after the Kashmiris present at the 9 February event. The confusion over Umar Khalids links with the Jaish-e-Mohammed also stems from the need to go slow against Kashmiris. While the intelligence agencies suspect a Kashmiri named Omar with links to Pakistan to have been present in JNU, one news report confused him with Umar Khalid, who hails from Delhi. This is also what explains why Kahsmiri students in JNU and other parts of Delhi initially feared a witch-hunt, but have calmed down since then. Advertisement I was having tea and as the situation worsened, I left the campus and stayed with a relative for three days. When I realized that Kashmiri students are not targeted, I decided to return," one Kashmiri student at JNU told The Times of India. The Delhi Police has questioned many Kashmiris, but did not arrest any of them. Mehbooba draws the red line On 17 February, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav took a secret flight to Srinagar along with an Intelligence Bureau official to meet the PDP chief Mehboba Mufti. By this time it was clear that the JNU issue had become a new stumbling block in forming afresh a BJP-PDP government after Mufti Mohammed Sayeeds death. When Afzal Guru was hanged in 2013, the PDP had called it a travesty of justice and said the "constitutional requirements and processes were not followed in hanging him out of turn". It is also the partys stated position that Afzal Gurus mortal remains, interred at the Tihar jail, be returned to his family. Nevertheless, the PDP has exercised restraint in not using the JNU row to issue any fresh statements on Afzal Guru. The BJP has kept its part by not arresting Kashmiri students. Advertisement Two days after Ram Madhav met Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar, top separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani issued a statement in which he slammed the PDPs silence on the issue. As the Kashmir Valley saw protests saying Thank You, JNU, it became difficult for the PDP to continue the silence. Breaking her silence, Mehbooba Mufti told journalists on 22 February, I hope and I will request the Government of India that nothing should happen that would have a negative impact on Jammu and Kashmir, where the situation is already bad. She also revealed she had asked Home Minister Rajnath Singh to make sure Kashmiri students are not harassed, and that she had asked PDP leaders Haseeb Drabu and Amitabh Mattoo, both alumni of JNU, to be in touch with Kashmiri students at JNU. Mehboobas position is understandable, as the separatists in Kashmir have already called for protests on Friday and a shutdown on Saturday to protest the JNU incident, as well as the arrest of Delhi University professor SAR Geelani. If the Kashmiris who raised anti-India slogans in JNU were to be arrested, it is certain that Kashmir would see large-scale protests that would make it impossible for the PDP to form government with BJP support. Three days later, Rajnath Singh gave a public assurance that innocent students wont be harassed--ironic, as Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya are having to pay the price for the Kashmiris that the Modi government does not want arrested. ASSOCIATED PRESS Undated portrait of Neerja Mishra, (Neerja Bhanot), the Pan Am flight attendant and senior flight purser killed in the Karachi hijacking, that has been hailed as aheroine of the hijacka in Indian newspapers shown Sept. 9, 1986. She reportedly warned the cockpit crew of the gunmen, allowing them to escape and strand the jet on the tarmac. She died on Friday, September 5, 1986, two days before her 23rd birthday. (AP Photo) The film Neerja revives the memory of the Pan American World Airways Flight 73 hijacking. The flight from Mumbai to New York via Karachi and Frankfurt was grounded in Karachi. You probably know the story by now. The film Neerja has done us a great service by memorialising the memory of the flight purser Neerja Bhanot. Of the 380 passengers and crew, 22 died. Had it not been for Neerja, nobody would have survived. One needs to be thankful to the filmmakers particularly because Western documentation and representation of the hijacking has focused mostly on the British and Americans, giving less attention not just to Indians, who were a majority of the victims, but also noting Neerjas contribution as a formality. Advertisement "What we victims really want is to tear this man apart one limb at a time. But we believe in a system of laws." The four hijackers planned to blow up themselves, and the plane, but they couldnt do so because the lights went out after 16 hours. They were arrested and jailed in Pakistan. Their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment because they were Palestinian Muslims fighting for their homeland. While the others escaped, the lead hijacker, Zayd Hassan Abd al-Latif Masud al-Safarini, was handed over by Pakistan to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States FBI, in 2001. He was taken to the US in 2004 and sentenced to jail for 160 years. As in India, his crime attracted capital punishment in the US. Unlike India the United States has plea bargain. In exchange of pleading guilty and co-operating with the trial, he would not be hanged. Advertisement "I am so sorry at what happened, so very very sorry I take the responsibility for all the pain. My sorrow is from the depth of my heart. If you do not believe I am a person who has a heart, I accept that. I wish I had died on that plane. The man who was prepared to blow himself up in 1986, wanted to live in 2004. During the hijacking in 1986, he had said, "It doesn't make any difference to us whether we die or live. On the contrary, we seek no more than death and martyrdom." David Headley, who recently answered an Indian courts question via video conferencing, also took the advantage of plea bargain. Safarinis trial in the US is worth another movie. Around 50 survivors of the flight, along with family members of some of those who died, flew down from five countries to attend the trial in Washington. Over two days, many of them got a chance to directly address Safarini and speak their mind to him. Then, to everyones surprise, Safarini addressed the court. One flight attendant, Sunshine Vesuwala, told the court that before killing a US citizen, Safarini asked him, Are you a man? Vesuwala added: "What makes a man? A weapon? He's no man. He hid behind flight attendants when the plane door was open." Advertisement Prabhat Krishnaswamy, whose father was killed in the hijacking, said, "What we victims really want is to tear this man apart one limb at a time. But we believe in a system of laws." CNN has a detailed account of the two days long courtroom drama. Survivors called him names one after the other, one called him a beast, another the personification of evil. Safarini did not look them in the eye. But after they had finished, he decided to speak the first time in 18 years that the world would hear from him. He took the the witness chair so that he could be face to face with the survivors and families of the dead. This is what he had to say: "I am so sorry at what happened, so very very sorry I take the responsibility for all the pain. My sorrow is from the depth of my heart. If you do not believe I am a person who has a heart, I accept that. I wish I had died on that plane. I am suffering ... I sit in my cell. I have no hope. No feeling. I known I will die by myself, that I will never see my family again I don't hate America. Actually, I admire this country's customs, their traditions, their freedom ... When I did this, I believed I was helping the Palestinian people's dream of a homeland. Now I quite believe that the organization (Abu Nidal) -- this was not their aim. I know I was used, and so were the others. I was wrong. I was at fault. I was wrong, and the victims who fell were innocent people. I was brainwashed." The judge then invited survivors to respond to this. Most didnt buy it, neither did the judge. Gargi Dave, who was travelling alone as a child on that flight, now a law student, felt differently. "I think he has a heart, she said, He's a human being just like we are. I don't think he's a monster. Safarini was put in solitary confinement with no chance of parole. Hes as good as dead. But by not executing him, what the American justice system managed to achieve was to give many of the victims a sense of closure. The justice system managed to make him repent and express remorse, and that means a lot in a world full of terrorists willing to die for their cause. Advertisement "I don't know if I believe him or not," British survivor Michael Thexton said, "If he could somehow be used to get the message across to other terrorists, then that would be a powerful force of good." Safarinis remorse was that message. This is yet another example of why we need to abolish the death penalty in the United States, as well as in India. Also See On HuffPost: ASSOCIATED PRESS India's Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram waits for arrival of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before their meeting at Abe's official residence in Tokyo Monday, April 1, 2013. Chidambaram arrived in Japan Monday for a three-day visit. (AP Photo/Issei Kato, Pool) NEW DELHI -- Even as six university students are facing a sedition charge for allegedly raising slogans in favor of Afzal Guru, Congress Party leader P. Chidambaram has told The Economic Times that there were "grave doubts about the extent of his involvement" in the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament. "I think it is possible to hold an honest opinion that the Afzal Guru case was perhaps not correctly decided," Chidambaram, who served as the Home Minister and then the Finance Minister in the United Progressive Alliance government, told ET. Advertisement "But being in government you cannot say the court has decided the case wrongly because it was the government that prosecuted him. But an independent person can hold an opinion that the case was not decided correctly," he said. Afzal Guru was secretly hanged and buried in Tihar Jail in Delhi by the Congress Party-led government on Feb 9, 2013. His conviction and execution has been a subject of controversy because there are those who believe his role in the attack did not merit the death penalty, while others argue that he was given a fair trial by the Indian judiciary. The Congress Party-led government was criticized for pulling Afzal Guru out of the death-row queue and executing him out of turn, without even informing his family. The Congress Party was accused of trying to appear tough on terrorism in the run up to the national election. Advertisement Recently, six students from Jawharlal Nehru University, who allegedly organized an event to mark the third anniversary of Afzal Guru's execution, and raised "anti-national slogans," have been charged with sedition by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government. "There were grave doubts about his involvement in the conspiracy behind the attack on Parliament, and even if he was involved, there were grave doubts about the extent of his involvement. He could have been imprisoned for life without parole for rest of his natural life," Chidambaram told ET. Also on HuffPost: ASSOCIATED PRESS Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt waves as he arrives at his residence in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007. Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt was released from prison Thursday after India's top court granted him bail pending an appeal against his conviction for possessing illegal weapons, an official said. (AP Photo/Gautam Singh) Her name is not Sanjay Dutt. Thats why we do not know who she wrote letters to from her jail cell. We do not hear if her daughter posts cute heartwarming messages on Instagram. Like Im so excited and thrilled for you, I love you, and I cant wait to see you! There will be no touching stories about visiting her mothers grave after release or the number of paper bags she made in jail or the friends who are setting their son's wedding dates in accordance with her release. We do not know if she had a one-on-one chat with Baba Ramdev like Dutt did. But then she didnt meet the yoga guru at a Ganeshotsav celebration while out on parole and keep in touch the way Dutt did. And there will certainly be no chartered plane, no welcoming banners, no battery of journalists awaiting her in breathless excitement for those first moments after release photographs, no plans to write a book about her experiences. Advertisement Sanjay Dutt leaving for Yerawada Jail following a 15-day furlough in May 2015. As he dramatically saluted Yerwada Central Jail, with a khaki bag on his shoulders, did our Munnabhai remember Zaibunissa Anwar Kazi? Did any in the swarm of media covering the event ask him about her? Or was everyone too busy wanting to know where he would go first, what he would eat first, what film he would take up first? Thats news. The plight of a woman in her seventies, sitting in jail, is a buzz-kill. Zaibunissa Anwar Kazi and Sanjay Dutt were basically convicted of the same crime hoarding illegal weapons. Both also received the same quantum of punishment five years. But Dutt was acquitted by the TADA court, Kazi was not. But their storylines are inextricably bound together. The bag of weapons she had held on to at Abu Salems request, without knowing what was in it she claims, had come from Sanjay Dutts house. When the initial outpouring of support for Sanju-baba happened, from Digvijaya Singh to Jaya Prada, Kazis daughter had said, I wish I was a celebrity or my mother was a celebrity or a sister of an MP. Even my mother would have got the kind of support Sanjay Dutt is getting. If it is on humanitarian grounds then why only Sanjay Dutt, why not Zaibunissa? Isnt she a human? Isnt she a citizen of this country? Advertisement Sanjay Dutt before leaving for the TADA court to surrender in 2013. Unlike Dutts high-profile well-wishers, Zaibunissa Kazis daughter asked the media not to use her name. She was scared of the repercussions. Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju who had appealed for a pardon for Dutt, eventually also appealed to the President and the Governor of Maharashtra to pardon Zaibunissa Kazi as well on humanitarian grounds. I am of the firm opinion she also deserves a pardon, he wrote. I make no distinction between a celebrity and a non-celebrity. Alas, the story of Kazi and Dutt shows that everyone else does. According to Scoopwhoop, Kazi received parole once for a month in 2014 and 14 days of furlough in 2015. She has been operated for a malignant tumour on her kidney and her family has pointed out that with her medical condition makes jail even harder on her. Advertisement Dutt has received parole and furlough multiple times. He has spent 155 days of his sentence in the comfort of his home. He got parole in August 2015 for 30 days for his daughters nose surgery. That was extended to 60. He even got parole to attend New Year celebrations. He went to jail in May 2013 and was back home for the first time on furlough in October. Now he is being released 103 days early on grounds of good behaviour. No one is alleging that the law is being twisted here, no one is saying his behaviour was not good, or he does not deserve an early release. The only question is does Zaibunissa Kazi deserve it any less? In January this year, as Dutt got ready to leave jail, Kazis daughter also applied for early release on grounds of good conduct and medical history. But she refused to speak on camera saying If my appeal is under consideration then I dont want to simply ignite controversy. Keeping my fingers crossed. Good conduct is good but good connections are much better. Ramdev and a section of Sanjay's supporters in the BJP, including his lawyer Hitesh Jain who is also an RSS activist, have been instrumental in securing the actor's early release, reports The Telegraph. When you dont have such heavy-hitters batting for you, then all you can do is keep your head down and your fingers crossed. The law does allow for concessions like parole, furlough, early release but as Arun George writes in Scoopwhoop when your name is Zaibunissa Kazi and not Sanjay Dutt, theres a good chance that your file is forgotten among the thousands who may be seeking an early release due to good conduct in jails. Good conduct is good but good connections are much better. There is no easy walk to freedom, my friends, Dutt told the media at the Pune airport. True enough, but Zaibunissa Kazi knows that much better than him. If anything let the celebrations over Dutts return remind us once again of Zaibunissa Kazi. Easy or not, Sanjay Dutt just walked to freedom. Zaibunissa Kazi has not even taken a step. Advertisement Also see on HuffPost: An honest essay has numerous characteristics: original thinking, a good structure, balanced arguments, and plenty more. But one aspect often overlooked is that an honest essay should be interesting. It should spark the readers curiosity, keep them absorbed, make them want to stay reading and learn more. An uneventful article risks losing the readers attention; whether or not the points you create are excellent, a flat style, or poor handling of a dry subject material can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The matter is that a lot of students think that essays should be like this: they believe that a flat, dry style is suited to the needs of educational writing and dont even consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to search out the essay interesting. You might want to have online essay editor service to boost your confidence in writing with an error-free output. Academic writing doesnt need to be and shouldnt be bland. The excellent news is that there is much stuff you can do to create your essay more attractive, while youll be able only to do such a lot while remaining within the formal confines of educational writing. Lets study what theyre. Have an interest in what youre writing about Dont go overboard, but youll be able to let your passion for your subject show. If theres one thing bound to inject interest into your writing, its being fascinated by what youre writing about. Passion for a subject matter comes across naturally in your essay, typically making it more lively and fascinating and infusing an infectious enthusiasm into your words within the same way that its easy to talk knowledgeably to someone about something you discover fascinating. Include fascinating details Another factor that may make an essay boring maybe a dry material. Some topic areas are naturally dry, and it falls to you to form the article more interesting through your written style and by trying to seek out fascinating snippets of knowledge to incorporate, which will liven it up a small amount and make the data easier to relate to. A way of doing this with a dry subject is to create what youre talking about that seems relevant to the critical world, as this is often easier for the reader to relate to. Emulate the fashion of writers you discover interesting When you read lots, you subconsciously start emulating the fashion of the writers you have read. Reading benefits you a lot, as this exposes you to a spread of designs, and youll start to require the characteristics of these you discover interesting to read. Borrow some creative writing techniques Theres a limit to the quantity of actual story-telling youll do when youre writing an essay; in the end, essays should be objective, factual and balanced, which doesnt, initially glance, feel considerably like story-telling. However, youll apply a number of the principles of story-telling to create your writing more interesting. consider your own opinion Take the time to figure out what its that you think instead of regurgitating the opinions of others. Cut the waffle Rambling on and on is dull and almost bound to lose the interest of your reader. Youre in danger of waffling if youre not completely clear about what you wish to mention or havent thought carefully about how youre visiting structure your argument. Doing all your research correctly and writing an essay plan before you begin will help prevent this problem. Editing is a vital part of the essay-writing process, so edit the waffle once youve done a primary draft. Read through your essay objectively and eliminate the bits that arent relevant to the argument or labor the purpose. employing a thesaurus isnt always a decent thing Avoid using unfamiliar words in an essay; theres too great a likelihood that youre misusing them. You may think that employing a thesaurus to seek out more complicated words will make your writing more exciting or sound more academic, but using overly high-brow language can have the incorrect effect. Avoid repetitive phrasing Please avoid using the identical phrase structure again and again: its a recipe for dullness! Instead, use a variety of syntax that demonstrates your writing capabilities and makes your writing more interesting. Mix simple, compound, and complicated sentences to avoid your paper becoming predictable. Use some figurative language Using analogies with nature can often make concepts more accessible for readers to know. As weve already seen, its easy to finish up rambling when youre explaining complex concepts mainly after you dont know it yourself. One way of forcing yourself to think about a couple of pictures, present it more simply and engagingly is to form figurative language. This implies explaining something by comparing it with something else, as in an analogy. Employ rhetorical questions Anticipate the questions your reader might ask. One of the ways ancient orators held the eye of their audiences and increased the dramatic effect of their speeches was by using the statement. A decent place to use a statement is at the top of a paragraph, to steer into the following one, or at the start of a replacement section to introduce a brand new area for exploration. Proofread Finally, you may write the top interesting essay an instructor has ever read. Still, youll undermine your good work if its plagued by errors, which distract the reader from the particular content and can probably annoy them. Gun seized from student at HMS-7 Friday morning Tip led to police being on the scene as the student entered the school. Classes were in brief lockdown. Is Google Acquiring Spotify? There Are Signs That Its True Is Google seriously considering acquiring Spotify? Several tech and music industry pundits are speculating that a sale is in the works, and there are some real signs that they may be right. __________________________________________ It's no secret that Spotify loses money quarter after quarter, and that those losses accelerate with each new ad-supported user. There have also been recent signs that the major labels, who as Spotify stockholders would gain millions after a purchase, are becoming almost as restless as musicians are over the size of their Spotify checks. Now, there are signs that Google could come to the rescue by purchasing the worlds most popular music streamer, and that Spotify would welcome the move. A few days ago Spotify announced that it had moved it's streaming back end Google with a tantalizing headline Announcing Spotify Infrastructures Googley Future. its rare that we get to talk about the exciting world of technical infrastructure the real power behind the music but today is special. Today we are announcing that were working with the Google Cloud Platform team to provide platform infrastructure for Spotify, everywhere What really tipped the scales towards Google for ushas been our experience with Googles data platform and toolsGoogle has long been a thought-leader in this space Were pretty excited about our Googley future and hope youll find it interesting too." That led respected technology commentator and investor Om Malik to tweet, First step towards acquisition by Google." First step towards acquisition by Google. Also, how much do you want to bet that Google gave it for almost FREE. https://t.co/1U6vPKYkzy Om Malik (@om) February 23, 2016 Chris Castle of the industry blog Music Technology Policy also believes that a Spotify sale to Google is in the works. Castle postulates that a soft IPO market limits the options for investors, who have pumped $1.56 billion into Spotify over 12 rounds, to exit before the cash runs out. Nervous Investors + Google Acquisition = Happy Investors. Omid Kordestani Castle also points to the 2014 addition of former Google top exec Omid Kordestani to Spotifys Board Of Directors as further proof. Kordestani continues to sit on the Spotify board. What's Next ? So there both technological and financial incentives for Spotify to sell to Google. And its hard to argue that the tech giants repeated forays into music have been disjointed and not particularly successful. The next indications that a Spotify sale to Google is in the serious discussion stage will likely come via public encouragement from major label executives salivating over a possible multi-million payday. Stay tuned Share on: Let's talk about diversity.Through my travels, Ive met many people from various ethnicities, ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. This has given me a great understanding of how diversity can play an important role in your companys successes and failures.Im an excellent case study for the importance of diversity in your business success. I grew up in a conservative, predominantly white part of north central Oregon. My understanding of diversity had to grow by leaps and bounds when I entered the industry. For most of my life, all I knew was the white, small-town, conservative experience which of course meant I could relate mostly to other white, small-town, conservative people.I could either choose to market to white, small-town, conservative people effectively limiting my business reach or I could make connections with people of various ethnicities, genders and economic backgrounds, and learn how to market and work with just about anyone. I chose the latter. In doing this, I also made the decision to build my practice with employees from all walks of life. This has provided my business with many advantages, and it can help your business as well.Lets talk about race, since thats generally what comes to mind when people say diversity. As I mentioned, my past life experience was built out of a white, small-town, conservative neighborhood.In my town, we had two African-American families, a handful of Samoan-American families and two Native American reservations nearby. Visible minorities werent commonplace. While we shared some similar trials, I could never understand the racism, bias or struggles any of these families might have endured in their lives.How can I expect to offer solutions tailored to these people if I dont understand their cultures or past experiences? The truth is, I cant. However, if I employ a Native American agent, he or she might understand the challenges that come along with growing up on a reservation, for example. Theres no way I could ever imagine what thats like and, quite frankly, Id never want to be so disingenuous to try.I find it not only beneficial to hire diversely, but imperative to my businesss long-term success. Sure, I could hire only white, small-town, conservative types, and conversely market to that group of people. But not only is this small-minded, its also extremely limiting to my practice in the long run.Most of us prefer to work with and be around like-minded people, which is probably why your clients work with you in the first place. Aside from your service, they probably like you based on some common ground you share be it race, gender, age, or possibly that youre both veterans or grew up in the same neighborhood. In the end, that client chose you for something you are or something you represent. It only makes sense, then, to make your business as diverse as possible. The return on the so-called investment of diversity is a stronger and more profitable business that can relate to a diverse set of clients.Im sure youve heard the saying the riches are in the niches, but you should think of diversity in your business as a way to appeal to multiple niches. When your business appeals to a broader set of people, the result is a broader client base from which you can pull. And its that broad client base that affords you the ability to build a more successful long-term business.Just look at the makeup of the United States our population is becoming much more diverse. For your businesss long-term success, it makes sense to reflect this by hiring a diverse range of employees. It means you will be able to relate to people from a broad range of ethnicities, genders and socioeconomic backgrounds.In the end, deciding to either hire diversely or stick to what you know is up to you. Ive made the decision to hire diversely, and I know my business will be here for the long haul, in part because of it. I feel it makes my business stronger and better suited to handle the changing makeup and economic concerns of our existing and future clients.Eddie Besaw is the founder and CEO of Timberline Wealth Strategies. He and his firm provide solutions to pre-retirees and retirees, including retirement income, Medicare, social security and legacy planning. The North American division of global wholesale, underwriting management and reinsurance broking group Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford has been sold. The deal was announced last November and has now been completed with US broker BB&T paying $500 million for the Swett & Crawford broking business, reinsurance unit and agencies including JH Blades & Co.Canadian agent Creechurch International Underwriters is not part of the sale and the Latin American operation of CGSC, based in Miami, will also continue to be part of the firm. The deal is subject to regulatory approval.French-based global insurance firm AXA has announced its 2015 full-year results which show the companys highest-ever underlying earnings, up 2 per cent to 5.6 billion Euros (U$6.17 bn). Total revenues hit 99 billion Euros ($109.1 bn) and net income increased 3 per cent to 6.6 billion Euros ($6.17 bn). There was growth across all business sectors with international insurance revenues especially strong with an increase of 7 per cent.Life and health insurers in Quebec are calling for pharmacies in the province to charge the same fees whether they are covered by the public or private component of the province's general prescription drug insurance plan. Industry body ACCAP-Quebec says that the 60 per cent of Quebecers who have private insurance coverage pay 17 per cent more than those covered by the public portion of the general plan for the same drug bought at the same pharmacy.ACCAP-Quebec president Lyne Duhaime says pharmacists fees are to blame: "Since pharmacists' fees are not regulated, fees charged to the private insurance industry can be twice or even three times higher than those billed to the public plan, for the exact same drug and service.UnitedHealth Group has been ranked top for the sixth consecutive year in the FORTUNE 2016 Worlds Most Admired Company in the insurance and managed care sector. The company ranked No. 1 in eight key attribute categories innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment, and quality of products and services. For the seventh consecutive year, the company was rated No. 1 in innovation. Former Councilor Alan Marden tells the City Council citizens have had a comment period for 25 years. PreviousNext Not All North Adams Councilors Happy With Commenting Rules NORTH ADAMS, Mass. Two city councilors are concerned that keeping a forum for audience members to speak will cause problems. The new Rules of Order restore hearing of visitors at the beginning of City Council's meeting, allowing vistors to speak for up to two minutes on agenda items or matters of municipal concern. It also allows the audience to speak on agenda items after the council has debated. The rules, as amended at a General Government Committee early this month, were passed to a second reading. Councilor Keith Bona said his concern is that visitors may refer to individuals or businesses who would not be able to respond and that changes in Open Meeting Law limit councilors' ability to speak on issues. "We can't discuss anything at the meeting that is not on the agenda," he said. "Our visitors, our guests get more freedom than we do at our own meetings." That opened the door to potential slander, he said. "I may oppose this whole thing based on this alone." The Rules of Order were presented by Council President Benjamin Lamb at the council's organizational meeting Jan. 1 and referred to General Government. Lamb proposed eliminating Open Forum at the end of the meeting and instituting Hearing of Visitors at the beginning to allow for the audience to speak on agenda items. "It's to get the concerns out there early on so when we are discussing something we already have the comments from the community in our wheelhouse so we can work with that rather than hearing there concerns after we've discussed the topic," Lamb had explained at the Feb. 2 committee meeting on switching to "hearing of visitors." The committee and councilors attending that meeting agreed, also noting that residents wishing to simply comment on muncipal items had to sit through the meeting to speak to their piece. But most balked at his proposol to limit residents to three turns at the microphone for 9 minutes total. Instead it was recommended that residents be able to comment during agenda items, as had been done in the past. "I'm a big proponent of people in the audience, constituents, being able to speak," Councilor Robert M. Moulton Jr. had said at the General Government meeting, recalling when as an audience member he had information the council could have used but couldn't speak on it. "There might be some pertinent information that can be brought forward, or a question." At Tuesday's meeting, Councilor Ronald Boucher, who, along with Moulton, was re-elected after several years' absence, thought audience members should be allowed more interaction. "I think people have that right as taxpayers," he said. "I think they should be able to voice their opinion, with respect." A tree crew removed a pine that fell on a house on Galvin Road early Thursday morning. Trees down in a yard on Galvin Road. Dick Pellerin had trees covering his garage. Panels blown of the nursery. A tree down on a home on Main Street in Williamstown. A PVC fence was blown apart on Hamel Avenue. Damage to the roofline of a house on Massachusetts Avenue. Image taken by Wendy Champney of a home in Williamstown. Fence parts found by Champney in her yard. The tree on the Galvin Road home earlier Thursday morning. PreviousNext High Winds Take Down Trees in Williamstown & North Adams NORTH ADAMS, Mass. A possible microburst blew through North Adams and Williamstown early Thursday morning, uprooting trees and cutting power. "I was sure my windows were going to blow out," said Wendy Champney, who tracked the damage from a plastic fence that blew in her back yard on State Road from a home on Hamel Avenue in Williamstown. The National Weather Service had issued a several severe thunderstorm warning just before midnight on Wednesday for Western Massachusetts, with wind gusts of up to 60 mph. Thunderstorms hit the area around midnight. "We had heavy rain at quarter after midnight and 13 minutes later was our first call," Fire Director Stephen Meranti said. "We were bouncing around the West End for a little while." The first call came in for a burning wires on Leonard Street and firefighters arrived to find a tree on the line. That was followed in short order by calls about trees on wires on Ashton Avenue, Galvin Road and then Massachusetts Avenue. About 1:19 a.m., another tree fell on a building at 1585 Massachusetts Ave. "It was all over by 2 a.m.," said Meranti. The building department and Wire & Alarm also responded the incidents to check structural damage and wiring. No utility poles were damaged; the electrical issues came from trees falling on wires and, in a couple case, pulling the wiring off the houses. Police Director Michael Cozzaglio said the Massachusetts Avenue was closed for a brief period because of downed trees and minor flooding. The town of Williamstown posted that "following last night's rains, Bee Hill, Berlin and Petersburg Roads all sustained some damage. The Highway Department is working on ensuring that all are passable, but please use caution on all of these roads as they continue to restore them." Rose said he hadn't heard the wind but Champney said it was very loud and the rain "was swirling around." "My neighbor said she couldn't hear the trees falling because the wind was so loud," she said. The storm or microburst appears to have started somewhere near Frenier Avenue, cut across to Hamel, knocking down a tree on a house on Main Street directly across from the Spruces, then down Main Street into North Adams and along Galvin Road and ending across the river on Massachusetts Avenue. Dick Pellerin, at the end of Galvin Road, woke to find his garage "covered with trees." "It sounded like the house was coming apart," he said. Updated at 4 p.m. with correct time of the storm and comments from the fire director. Four More Shots Please S3 Review: This Old Wine In New Bottle Doesn't Get You Drunk As Easily Anymore The content you are trying to view is exclusive to our subscribers. To unlock this article: Imperial Valley News Center Navy Announces 2016 Navy Week Schedule Millington, Tennessee - From Phoenix to Baton Rouge, America's Navy will come home to 15 cities across the country in 2016 as part of the Navy Week program. Navy Weeks, coordinated by the Navy Office of Community Outreach (NAVCO), are designed to give Americans the opportunity to learn about the Navy, its people and its importance to national security and prosperity. Since 2005, the Navy Week program has served as the Navy's flagship outreach effort into areas of the country without a significant Navy presence, with 181 Navy Weeks being held in 68 different U.S. cities. "Navy Weeks are designed to help Americans understand that their Navy protects and defends America on the world's oceans, that their Navy is deployed around the world around the clock, and is ready to defend America at all times," said John Wallach, NAVCO's deputy director. "Because the Navy is concentrated primarily on both coasts, we're challenged to communicate our mission away from fleet concentration areas. The Navy Week program helps us do that." The 2016 Navy Week cities are: - Phoenix, March 21-27 - Knoxville, Tennessee, April 11-17 - San Antonio, April 18-24 - St. Louis, May 9-15 - Roanoke, Virginia, May 16-22 - Syracuse, New York, June 6-12 - Dayton, Ohio, June 13-19 - Milwaukee, July 4-10 - Sioux Falls, South Dakota, July 18-24 - Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 15-21 - Boise, Idaho, Aug. 22-28 - Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sept. 12-18 - Sacramento, California, Sept. 26-Oct. 2 - Houston, Oct. 17-23 - Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Oct. 31-Nov. 6. Navy Weeks bring a variety of events, equipment and personnel to a single city for a weeklong series of engagements with the public, key influencers and organizations representing all sectors of the community. "During a Navy Week, 75-100 outreach events are coordinated with corporate, civic, government, education, media, veterans, community service and diversity organizations in the city," said Lt. Cmdr. Brett Dawson, NAVCO's event planning department head. "We bring in as much of the Navy as we can. The Blue Angels, the Navy Parachute Team, bands, divers, Seabees, EOD teams, crews of ships and submarines that are named after a city or state or have a tie to the area, hometown Sailors, medical personnel, environmental displays, USS Constitution Sailors and equipment, and Navy recruiting assets all have participated in the Navy Week program." Navy Week cities are chosen based on a variety of factors, including Gallup data on Navy knowledge and awareness, Navy recruiting data, demographic information, namesake ties of ships and submarines, past outreach history in the market and geography, to ensure events are dispersed across the country. Last year's Navy Week program helped commemorate the Navy Reserve Centennial. There were 12 Navy Weeks across America that reached nearly 100 million Americans through more than 1,500 individual outreach events. For more information on the Navy Week program, visit http://www.outreach.navy.mil. Imperial Valley News Center NSC Spokesperson Ned Price on National Security Advisor Susan E. Rices Meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China Washington, DC - National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice met today with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the White House. Ambassador Rice and Foreign Minister Wang affirmed their commitment to expanding practical bilateral cooperation while also addressing and, where possible, narrowing differences. They highlighted important areas of ongoing bilateral cooperation, including on climate change and implementation of the Iran nuclear deal. They also agreed on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Koreas provocations, including through a UN Security Council Resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions. They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state. Ambassador Rice and Foreign Minister Wang candidly discussed maritime issues, with Ambassador Rice urging China to take concrete steps to address U.S. and regional concerns. She emphasized strong U.S. support for upholding the principles of respect for international law, unimpeded lawful commerce, freedom of navigation and overflight, and peaceful resolution of disputes. Ambassador Rice also raised U.S. concerns about human rights developments in China. President Obama joined the meeting to underscore his interest in building a durable, constructive, and productive U.S.-China relationship. He expressed the importance of the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC, on March 31-April 1, 2016. He noted he looked forward to welcoming President Xi and Chinas delegation to the Summit and to working together towards its success. Nigiri Project mixing salmon and rice fields now in fifth year Sacramento, California - An annual experiment to plant salmon in Yolo County rice fields aims to better explain how floodplains support strong salmon populations. Dubbed the Nigiri Project for its sushi-like marriage of fish and rice, the research is a collaborative project among the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, the California Department of Water Resources and nonprofit organization California Trout. For the first time this year, the agricultural floodplain habitat experiment will compare food web productivity and fish growth in three different kinds of river habitat. For the course of the experiment, a group of juvenile Chinook salmon will be held in underwater pens on flooded rice fields, as in years past; a second group will be held in pens floating in an agricultural canal; and a third group will be held in floating pens nearby in the Sacramento River. The experiment began on Feb. 19, and the fish will be released after approximately four weeks. At this point, we feel confident that giving native fish access to the food-rich environment of the floodplain will play a critical role in recovering imperiled salmon, said Carson Jeffres, field and lab director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. Now we are interested in how food made on the floodplain can benefit the entire river and Delta. Floodplains a bug buffet for salmon Born in the gravel of mountain streams, Central Valley salmon migrate to the ocean where they grow for one to three years before returning to rivers to spawn. Juvenile fish that are larger and healthier when they enter the ocean have better odds of returning as adults. Floodplain habitats are essentially a bug buffet for small fish, said Jacob Katz, Central California director for California Trout. Our previous results have shown that the food-rich floodplains appear to act as an important pit stop for juvenile fish, where they can fuel up on their downstream journey to sea. Unfortunately for hungry salmon, more than 95 percent of natural floodplain wetlands have been eliminated by the development of the Central Valley for farms and houses. In previous years, the Nigiri Project has shown that off-season agricultural fields can provide critical floodplain habitat for endangered fish. Fish have little opportunity to reap the benefits of floodplains because they are nearly all cut off from river channels, said Louise Conrad of the California Department of Water Resources. The Yolo Bypass is one of the last remaining active floodplain areas in the Central Valley. Enhancing the opportunity for salmon to access and use its floodplain areas could make a huge difference for salmon while also helping to recharge groundwater and improve flood safety. Four years of fast-growing fish For four consecutive winters, experiments conducted on rice fields at the Knaggs Ranch property on the Yolo Bypass documented the fastest growth of juvenile Chinook salmon ever recorded in the Central Valley. These results suggest that through better planning and engineering, farm fields that produce agricultural crops in summer could also produce food and habitat for fish and wildlife during winter when crops are not grown. The experiment suggests that floodplains on farmland can also be thought of as surrogate wetlands that can be managed to mimic the Sacramento River systems natural annual flooding cycle, which native fish species evolved to depend upon. Agricultural runoff water is used to flood the fields for the duration of the experiment. This recycled water fuels the floodplain food web before being flushed back into the Delta ecosystem through agricultural canals, adding to the food supply for all fish living in the system. No new water is used to conduct the experiment. This natural process of slowing down and spreading out shallow water across the floodplain creates the conditions that lead to an abundant food web. Sunlight falling on water makes algae, algae feeds bugs, and bugs feed native fish and birds. In contrast, very little food to support aquatic life is produced when rivers are narrowly confined between levees. Californias water supply for both people and fish will be more secure when our water policy works with natural processes, instead of against them, Katz said. This work leverages ecology as technology and points us toward efficient and cost effective real-world water solutions that support both fish and farms. The project was funded this year by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, California Trout, and California Department of Water Resources. CDFA Board to discuss proposed programs regulating agricultural discharges on irrigated lands Sacramento, California - The California State Board of Food and Agriculture will be hearing from state officials and agricultural organizations on proposed programs regulating agricultural discharges on irrigated lands. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, 1220 N Street Main Auditorium, Sacramento. We have seen continuous improvements by farmers and ranchers in protecting water quality and the agricultural sector remains a strong partner in ensuring and promoting a safe drinking water supply said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. The public process on the proposed revisions to the discharge requirements is an opportunity for farmers and regulators to come together on practical solutions. Earlier this month the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) announced a public comment period concerning proposed revisions to agricultural waste discharge requirements for the Eastern San Joaquin River Watershed. These proposed revisions, if adopted by the SWRCB, would serve as a precedent for protecting water quality in irrigated lands throughout the state. In addition to the discussions on the irrigated lands regulatory programs, the Board will also hear a water update from the California Department of Water Resources and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Invited speakers include: Director Mark Cowin, California Department of Water Resources; Stafford Lehr, California Department of Fish and Wildlife; Samuel Boland-Brien, SWRCB; Jeanne Chilcott, Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board; Dr. Charles Burt, Chair of the Agricultural Expert Panel SWRCB; Darrin Polhemus, SWRCB; Dr. Barzin Moradi, California Department of Food and Agriculture; Parry Klassen, East San Joaquin Water Quality Coalition; Abby Taylor-Silva, Grower-Shipper Association of Central California; Daniel Merkley, California Farm Bureau Federation; and Lester Snow, California Water Foundation. As farmers we deal with a variety of water related issues that are largely unnoticed by consumers, said Craig McNamara, president of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture. Communicating this information is critical to help improve the understanding that farmers not only produce food and fiber, but are also promoting a healthy environment. The California State Board of Food and Agriculture advises the governor and the CDFA secretary on agricultural issues and consumer needs. The state board conducts forums that bring together local, state and federal government officials, agricultural representatives and citizens to discuss current issues of concern to California agriculture. This meeting will be streamed online at: http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/LiveMediaStream.html Governor Brown Announces Appointments Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments: Jennifer Neill, 45, of Elk Grove, has been appointed chief counsel at the Board of Parole Hearings. Neill has been a senior assistant attorney general at the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General since 2012, where she served as supervising deputy attorney general from 2003 to 2012 and deputy attorney general from 1998 to 2003. She was a hearing officer at the Institute for Administrative Justice, Special Education Hearing Office from 1997 to 1998. Neill earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $157,500. Neill is a Democrat. Marivel Barajas, 34, of Stockton, has been appointed deputy director of legislation at the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Barajas has been a legislative consultant in the Office of California State Senator Lois Wolk since 2008. She was campaign coordinator at Lois Wolk for State Senate in 2008 and a capital fellow in the Office of California State Senator Alex Padilla from 2007 to 2008. Barajas was an administrative aide in the Inglewood City Clerks Office from 2005 to 2006 and a project manager and marketing assistant at Imagen LLC from 2004 to 2005. She earned a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Southern California, Sol Price School of Public Policy. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100,176. Barajas is a Democrat. Ambassador Catherine Russell Travels to San Francisco Washington, DC - Ambassador-at-Large for Global Womens Issues Catherine Russell will travel to San Francisco on February 26 to launch the Womens Entrepreneurship Fund and attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council (ABAC) Womens Forum. Ambassador Russell will join representatives from Kiva and the Multilateral Investment Fund, which is a member of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, at Kiva Headquarters to launch the Womens Entrepreneurship Fund. The Fund seeks to leverage Kivas crowdfunded capital to address a global lack of access to finance that limits womens ability to start or expand their own businesses and fully participate in economic, social, and political life. Following the launch of the Fund, Ambassador Russell will participate in a panel discussion at the ABAC Womens Forum. The panel will focus on how to increase womens participation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and encourage adolescent girls to consider careers in these fields. California Ranks 5th Nationally in Advanced Placement Exam Scores Sacramento, California - State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced today that California was fifth in the nation in the percentage of 2015 graduates who earned a score of three or higher on an end-of-course Advanced Placement (AP) exam taken during their high school careers. Among California graduates, 30.2 percent of seniors earned a score of three or more on an AP exam, which can allow them to earn college credit, compared with 18.6 percent in 2005. This represents a substantial increase of 11.6 percentage points over the past decade. For 2015, California students' AP exam performance is 7.8 percentage points above the national average of 22.4 percent. Last year, California was sixth in the nation in this category. "I'm so pleased that California continues to be among the national leaders in the percentage of students scoring competitively on rigorous Advanced Placement tests," Torlakson said. "It shows we are making great progress in our efforts to encourage students to take courses that will challenge them, give them a greater understanding of a wide variety of subject matters, and help prepare them for college and 21st century careers." State education officials attribute California's continued success to a sustained statewide focus on expanded college-going opportunities for students, particularly for students from underserved communities. California's steady annual increases in AP course enrollment and test performance numbers are a direct result of past state investments in Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) and AP expansion. Torlakson also praised Arroyo Valley High School in the San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) for winning the 2015 Gaston Caperton Opportunity Award, which is given by the College Board for especially dramatic improvements in AP exam participation and performance rates among traditionally underrepresented student populations. Arroyo Valley High School, one of four schools nationwide to receive the award in 2015, has received a $25,000 award to apply toward programs that encourage more students to attend college. The AP exam participation rate at Arroyo Valley High School is 35 percent, a marked increase from just 13 percent in 2011. "I applaud SBCUSD's sustained dedication in encouraging more students to enroll in AP courses and to providing these students with the effective academic support services needed to perform well on the tests," Torlakson said. California is also outpacing the national average in advancing opportunities for students who come from low-income families. Of the 56.3 percent of the state's K12 students eligible for the free or reduced-price lunch program in the Class of 2015, 44.2 percent took at least one AP exam. Nationally, 51.3 percent of U.S. public school students were low income, and 29.8 percent of them took at least one AP exam. California receives federal funding to pay a portion of the AP exams for income-eligible public school students. For the May 2015 testing cycle, the California Department of Education (CDE) reimbursed $10,078,333 to 393 local educational agencies for 245,813 AP exams for income-eligible students. End-of-course AP exams are usually given in May. Success in AP courses is one measure of pupil achievement, which is one of eight state priorities addressed under the new Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). For more information on the operation of the College Board's [https://www.collegeboard.org/] AP program in California, please visit the CDE AP Web page. Wildlife Conservation Board Funds Environmental Improvement and Acquisition Projects Sacramento, California - At today's quarterly meeting, the Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) approved approximately $14 million in grants to help restore and protect fish and wildlife habitat throughout California. Some of the 17 funded projects will benefit fish and wildlife including some endangered species while others will provide the public with access to important natural resources. Several projects will also demonstrate the importance of protecting working landscapes that integrate economic, social and environmental stewardship practices beneficial to the environment, landowners and the local community. The state funds for all these projects come from initiatives approved by voters to help preserve and protect Californias natural resources. Some of the funded projects include: A $410,000 grant to the County of Fresno for a project to extend an existing boat launch and provide shade pavilions for boaters in the City of Shaver Lake on privately owned land, approximately 45 miles northeast of the City of Fresno. $282,720 for the acquisition in fee of approximately 185 acres of land by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for the protection of core wildlife linkages and endangered species habitat, located near the community of Jamul in San Diego County. A grant of up to $3.5 million to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFIRE) under the California Forest Legacy Program Act of 2007, to assist with the acquisition of three separate conservation easements, totaling approximately 15,620 acres. The easements will protect significant forest, natural, ecological and open space conservation values on lands located near Willits in Mendocino County. A $407,000 grant to the California Rangeland Trust for a cooperative project with the Natural Resource Conservation Services to acquire a conservation easement over approximately 1,547 acres of land for the protection of oak woodlands, deer and mountain lion habitat, watersheds and wildlife corridors located in Bear Valley in Colusa County. A $332,500 grant to the California Rangeland Trust for another cooperative project with the Natural Resource Conservation Services to acquire a conservation easement over approximately 2,507 acres of land for the protection of oak woodlands, deer and mountain lion habitat, watersheds and wildlife corridors located in Bear Valley in Colusa County. A $1 million grant to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) for a cooperative project with the California State Coastal Conservancy and the Santa Clara River Trustee Council to remove non-native invasive plants and restore riparian habitat, on TNCs Hanson property, located two miles southwest of the City of Santa Paula in Ventura County A $3.3 million grant to the San Diego Unified Port District for a cooperative project with the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Division of Boating and Waterways to replace the Shelter Island Boat Ramp, located on land held and maintained in a public trust by the District within the City of San Diego. For more information about the WCB please visit www.wcb.ca.gov. Imperial County Supervisors to Hold Board Meeting in Imperial Imperial, California - Tuesday, March 1, the Imperial County Board of Supervisors will hold their regularly scheduled board meeting in Imperial. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. at the Imperial Unified School District Board Room. The Board of Supervisors would like to invite the community of Imperial and residents of neighboring areas to attend the Board of Supervisors regular meeting. This meeting is designed to give the community an opportunity to provide feedback to your county government on the programs and services provided for the community in order to better serve the residents of Imperial County. At Tuesdays meeting, Board members will provide a report on county happenings and meetings they attended on behalf of the County throughout the previous week. Aside from conducting county business, the meeting will also provide a forum for members of the community to provide input on county programs and services. Residents of the Imperial Valley interested in receiving more information about services provided by the County are encouraged to attend. President Obama Announces His Intent to Nominate Carla D. Hayden as Librarian of Congress Washington, DC - Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Carla D. Hayden as Librarian of Congress. President Obama said, Michelle and I have known Dr. Carla Hayden for a long time, since her days working at the Chicago Public Library, and I am proud to nominate her to lead our nations oldest federal institution as our 14th Librarian of Congress. Dr. Hayden has devoted her career to modernizing libraries so that everyone can participate in today's digital culture. She has the proven experience, dedication, and deep knowledge of our nations libraries to serve our country well and thats why I look forward to working with her in the months ahead. If confirmed, Dr. Hayden would be the first woman and the first African American to hold the position both of which are long overdue. Carla D. Hayden, Nominee for Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress. Dr. Carla D. Hayden is CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland, a position she has held since 1993. Dr. Hayden was nominated by President Obama to be a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board in January 2010 and was confirmed by the Senate in June 2010. Prior to joining the Pratt Library, Dr. Hayden was Deputy Commissioner and Chief Librarian of the Chicago Public Library from 1991 to 1993. She was an Assistant Professor for Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh from 1987 to 1991. Dr. Hayden was Library Services Coordinator for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago from 1982 to 1987. She began her career with the Chicago Public Library as the Young Adult Services Coordinator from 1979 to 1982 and as a Library Associate and Childrens Librarian from 1973 to 1979. Dr. Hayden was President of the American Library Association from 2003 to 2004. In 1995, she was the first African American to receive Library Journals Librarian of the Year Award in recognition of her outreach services at the Pratt Library, which included an afterschool center for Baltimore teens offering homework assistance and college and career counseling. Dr. Hayden received a B.A. from Roosevelt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago. Watch: This Video Of Woman Failing At Archery, Hitting Arrow On Head Is Hilarious Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Two artists have covertly 3D scanned the iconic 3,300 year old bust of Queen Nefertiti and produced a practically identical replica for a Cairo museum. Nora al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles visited the Neues Museum in Berlin and secretly scanned the bust using Microsoft Kinnect scanners hidden under scarves, before 3D printing a replica and donating it to a Museum in Cairo. The artists also released the information to the public so that anyone could download and 3D print their own Nefertiti. The scanning was an act of protest against Western museums taking artefacts from abroad and claiming them as their own. The bust was discovered in Egypt by German archaeologists, and the German government has since insisted that it is German property rather than Egyptian. The artists believe that the bust should be Egyptian property, and requests from Egypt to have it returned, at least on loan, for display should be approved by the German government. The Berlin museum monopolises the bust and thus continues an imperial practice, instead of allowing open access to Nefertiti, especially for Egyptians, Nelles told The Times. Culture news in pictures Show all 33 1 /33 Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures 30 September 2016 An employee hangs works of art with "Grand Teatro" by Marino Marini (R) and bronze sculpture "Sfera N.3" by Arnaldo Pomodoro seen ahead of a Contemporary Art auction on 7 October, at Sotheby's in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 29 September 2016 Street art by Portuguese artist Odeith is seen in Dresden, during an exhibition "Magic City - art of the streets" AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 Dancers attend a photocall for the new "THE ONE Grand Show" at Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, Germany REUTERS Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 With an array of thrift store china, humorous souvenirs and handmade tile adorning its walls and floors, the Mosaic Tile House in Venice stands as a monument to two decades of artistic collaboration between Cheri Pann and husband Gonzalo Duran REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A gallery assistant poses amongst work by Anthea Hamilton from her nominated show "Lichen! Libido!(London!) Chastity!" at a preview of the Turner Prize in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A technician wearing virtual reality glasses checks his installation in three British public telephone booths, set up outside the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The installation allows visitors a 3-D look into the museum which has twenty-two paintings belonging to the British Royal Collection, on loan for an exhibit from 29 September 2016 till 8 January 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 An Indian artist dressed as Hindu god Shiva performs on a chariot as he participates in a religious procession 'Ravan ki Barat' held to mark the forthcoming Dussehra festival in Allahabad AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Air Power', 1984, is displayed at the Bowie/Collector media preview at Sotheby's in New York AFP/Getty Culture news in pictures 25 September 2016 A woman looks at an untitled painting by Albert Oehlen during the opening of an exhibition of works by German artists Georg Baselitz and Albert Oehlen in Reutlingen, Germany. The exhibition runs at the Kunstverein (art society) Reutlingen until 15 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 24 September 2016 Fan BingBing (C) attends the closing ceremony of the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival at Kursaal in San Sebastian, Spain Getty Images Culture news in pictures 23 September 2016 A view of the artwork 'You Are Metamorphosing' (1964) as part of the exhibition 'Retrospektive' of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo at Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition runs from 25 September 2016 to 1 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 22 September 2016 Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery. The new exhibition features works by Degas, Chardin, Francis Bacon and Sarah Lucas, showing how flesh has been portrayed by artists over the last 600 years PA Culture news in pictures 21 September 2016 Performers Sean Atkins and Sally Miller standing in for the characters played by Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell during a photocall for Tim Burton's "Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children" at Potters Field Park in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A detail from the blanket 'Alpine Cattle Drive' from 1926 by artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is displayed at the 'Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum for Contemporary Arts' in Berlin. The exhibition named 'Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Hieroglyphen' showing the complete collection of Berlin's Nationalgallerie works of the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and will run from 23 September 2016 until 26 February 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A man looks at portrait photos by US photographer Bruce Gilden in the exhibition 'Masters of Photography' at the photokina in Cologne, Germany. The trade fair on photography, photokina, schowcases some 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and runs from 20 to 25 September. The event also features various photo exhibitions EPA Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A woman looks at 'Blue Poles', 1952 by Jackson Pollock during a photocall at the Royal Academy of Arts, London PA Culture news in pictures 19 September 2016 Art installation The Refusal of Time, a collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Galison, which features as part of the William Kentridge exhibition Thick Time, showing from 21 September to 15 January at the Whitechapel Gallery in London PA Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Artists creating one off designs at the Mm6 Maison Margiela presentation during London Fashion Week Spring/Summer collections 2017 in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Bethenny Frankel attends the special screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to celebrate the 25th Anniversary Edition release on Blu-Ray and DVD in New York City Getty Images for Walt Disney Stu Culture news in pictures 17 September 2016 Visitors attend the 2016 Oktoberfest beer festival at Theresienwiese in Munich, Germany Getty Images Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Visitors looks at British artist Damien Hirst work of art 'The Incomplete Truth', during the 13th Yalta Annual Meeting entitled 'The World, Europe and Ukraine: storms of changes', organised by the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation at the Mystetsky Arsenal Art Center in Kiev AP Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Tracey Emin's "My Bed" is exhibited at the Tate Liverpool as part of the exhibition Tracey Emin And William Blake In Focus, which highlights surprising links between the two artists Getty Images Culture news in pictures 15 September 2016 Musician Dave Grohl (L) joins musician Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage onstage at the Forum in Inglewood, California Getty Images Culture news in pictures 14 September 2016 Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I AP Culture news in pictures 13 September 2016 Visitors look at artworks by Chinese painter Cui Ruzhuo during the exhibition 'Glossiness of Uncarved Jade' held at the exhibition hall 'Manezh' in St. Petersburg, Russia. More than 200 paintings by the Chinese artist are presented until 25 September EPA Culture news in pictures 12 September 2016 A visitor looks at Raphael's painting 'Extase de Sainte Cecile', 1515, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during the opening of a Raphael exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia. The first Russian exhibition of the works of the Italian Renaissance artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino includes eight paintings and three drawings which come from Italy. Th exhibit opens to the public from 13 September to 11 December EPA Culture news in pictures 11 September 2016 Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd perform during Otis Redding 75th Birthday Celebration - Rehearsals at the Macon City Auditorium in Macon, Georgia Getty Images for Otis Redding 75 Culture news in pictures 10 September 2016 Sakari Oramo conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers at the Last Night of the Proms 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall in London PA Culture news in pictures 9 September 2016 A visitor walks past a piece entitled "Fruitcake" by Joana Vasconcelo, during the Beyond Limits selling exhibition at Chatsworth House near Bakewell REUTERS Culture news in pictures 8 September 2016 A sculpture of a crescent standing on the 2,140 meters high mountain 'Freiheit' (German for 'freedom'), in the Alpstein region of the Appenzell alps, eastern Switzerland. The sculpture is lighted during the nights by means of solar panels. The 38-year-old Swiss artist and atheist Christian Meier set the crescent on the peak to start a debate on the meaning of religious symbols - as summit crosses - on mountains. 'Because so many peaks have crosses on them, it struck me as a great idea to put up an equally absurd contrast'. 'Naturally I wanted to provoke in a fun way. But it goes beyond that. The actions of an artist should be food for thought, both visually and in content' EPA Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures It is not clear whether the artists have committed any kind of offence, and they have so far not been charged with a crime. Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Where are you now and what can you see? I'm sitting in my writing room in Majorca overlooking the Bay of Palma. To my right is the city of Palma with the Tramuntana Mountains in the distance, in front and to my left, sea, sea and sea. What are you currently reading? Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend. I couldn't have imagined that a book about two girls growing up in Naples could appeal to me, but it's magnificent. Ferrante does for Naples what Dickens did for London. Choose a favourite author and say why you admire her/him Stefan Zweig's Beware of Pity combines great storytelling with wonderful prose. It's among my favourite books, and if you've not come across the Austrian author, you have a thrill to look forward to. Describe the room where you usually write My writing room in Majorca overlooks the sea, and is about 20 by 12 feet. The back wall is lined with bookshelves. I have a large desk, on which there are six pens, six pencils, an eraser and a pencil sharpener. On the right of the desk is a picture of [my wife] Mary taken in Rome, and to the left photos of my two sons and two grandsons. Which fictional character most resembles you? I'd like to believe Richard Hannay in The Thirty-Nine Steps, not least because I'm such an admirer of John Buchan, but I fear I'm more like Toad in Toad of Toad Hall. Who is your hero/heroine from outside literature? George Mallory. Any man who wants to conquer the highest mountain in the world and only has a grainy black and white photograph to inspire him is quite a guy. But the fact that he had to walk the last 100 miles before he even reached the base of the mountain, lets you know his strength of character. Jeffrey Archer's 'Cometh the Hour' is published by Macmillan Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} When I interviewed the Norwegian literary sensation Karl Ove Knausgaard in 2013, the second in his six-volume My Struggle series of autobiographical novels (A Man in Love), was receiving rapturous reviews and attracting a devoted readership. The novel described in hypnotic detail Knausgaard's life as a middle-aged husband, father and writer. Subsequent volumes have focused on his childhood and youth. "After Book Two, I needed to go into my past so the reader would have more knowledge of the narrator," says Knausgaard when we meet to discuss Book Five, Some Rain Must Fall (Harvill Secker, 17.99) "The books were getting attention [by then] so I started being kinder about the people who appear as characters." As we talk, I refer to "the narrator" of My Struggle, in part because the stylish man sitting opposite me looks far removed from the insecure twentysomething we read about in his new novel. "He's still inside me," says Knausgaard when I ask if, at 47, he feels like the same person as his narrator. "I have more experience but the same core. It's the closest I've managed to get to myself in writing. The challenge was to write about my past as if I didn't know what was going to happen and without irony. It involves getting into character through language." Culture news in pictures Show all 33 1 /33 Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures 30 September 2016 An employee hangs works of art with "Grand Teatro" by Marino Marini (R) and bronze sculpture "Sfera N.3" by Arnaldo Pomodoro seen ahead of a Contemporary Art auction on 7 October, at Sotheby's in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 29 September 2016 Street art by Portuguese artist Odeith is seen in Dresden, during an exhibition "Magic City - art of the streets" AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 Dancers attend a photocall for the new "THE ONE Grand Show" at Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, Germany REUTERS Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 With an array of thrift store china, humorous souvenirs and handmade tile adorning its walls and floors, the Mosaic Tile House in Venice stands as a monument to two decades of artistic collaboration between Cheri Pann and husband Gonzalo Duran REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A gallery assistant poses amongst work by Anthea Hamilton from her nominated show "Lichen! Libido!(London!) Chastity!" at a preview of the Turner Prize in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A technician wearing virtual reality glasses checks his installation in three British public telephone booths, set up outside the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The installation allows visitors a 3-D look into the museum which has twenty-two paintings belonging to the British Royal Collection, on loan for an exhibit from 29 September 2016 till 8 January 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 An Indian artist dressed as Hindu god Shiva performs on a chariot as he participates in a religious procession 'Ravan ki Barat' held to mark the forthcoming Dussehra festival in Allahabad AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Air Power', 1984, is displayed at the Bowie/Collector media preview at Sotheby's in New York AFP/Getty Culture news in pictures 25 September 2016 A woman looks at an untitled painting by Albert Oehlen during the opening of an exhibition of works by German artists Georg Baselitz and Albert Oehlen in Reutlingen, Germany. The exhibition runs at the Kunstverein (art society) Reutlingen until 15 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 24 September 2016 Fan BingBing (C) attends the closing ceremony of the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival at Kursaal in San Sebastian, Spain Getty Images Culture news in pictures 23 September 2016 A view of the artwork 'You Are Metamorphosing' (1964) as part of the exhibition 'Retrospektive' of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo at Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition runs from 25 September 2016 to 1 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 22 September 2016 Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery. The new exhibition features works by Degas, Chardin, Francis Bacon and Sarah Lucas, showing how flesh has been portrayed by artists over the last 600 years PA Culture news in pictures 21 September 2016 Performers Sean Atkins and Sally Miller standing in for the characters played by Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell during a photocall for Tim Burton's "Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children" at Potters Field Park in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A detail from the blanket 'Alpine Cattle Drive' from 1926 by artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is displayed at the 'Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum for Contemporary Arts' in Berlin. The exhibition named 'Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Hieroglyphen' showing the complete collection of Berlin's Nationalgallerie works of the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and will run from 23 September 2016 until 26 February 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A man looks at portrait photos by US photographer Bruce Gilden in the exhibition 'Masters of Photography' at the photokina in Cologne, Germany. The trade fair on photography, photokina, schowcases some 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and runs from 20 to 25 September. The event also features various photo exhibitions EPA Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A woman looks at 'Blue Poles', 1952 by Jackson Pollock during a photocall at the Royal Academy of Arts, London PA Culture news in pictures 19 September 2016 Art installation The Refusal of Time, a collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Galison, which features as part of the William Kentridge exhibition Thick Time, showing from 21 September to 15 January at the Whitechapel Gallery in London PA Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Artists creating one off designs at the Mm6 Maison Margiela presentation during London Fashion Week Spring/Summer collections 2017 in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Bethenny Frankel attends the special screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to celebrate the 25th Anniversary Edition release on Blu-Ray and DVD in New York City Getty Images for Walt Disney Stu Culture news in pictures 17 September 2016 Visitors attend the 2016 Oktoberfest beer festival at Theresienwiese in Munich, Germany Getty Images Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Visitors looks at British artist Damien Hirst work of art 'The Incomplete Truth', during the 13th Yalta Annual Meeting entitled 'The World, Europe and Ukraine: storms of changes', organised by the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation at the Mystetsky Arsenal Art Center in Kiev AP Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Tracey Emin's "My Bed" is exhibited at the Tate Liverpool as part of the exhibition Tracey Emin And William Blake In Focus, which highlights surprising links between the two artists Getty Images Culture news in pictures 15 September 2016 Musician Dave Grohl (L) joins musician Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage onstage at the Forum in Inglewood, California Getty Images Culture news in pictures 14 September 2016 Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I AP Culture news in pictures 13 September 2016 Visitors look at artworks by Chinese painter Cui Ruzhuo during the exhibition 'Glossiness of Uncarved Jade' held at the exhibition hall 'Manezh' in St. Petersburg, Russia. More than 200 paintings by the Chinese artist are presented until 25 September EPA Culture news in pictures 12 September 2016 A visitor looks at Raphael's painting 'Extase de Sainte Cecile', 1515, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during the opening of a Raphael exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia. The first Russian exhibition of the works of the Italian Renaissance artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino includes eight paintings and three drawings which come from Italy. Th exhibit opens to the public from 13 September to 11 December EPA Culture news in pictures 11 September 2016 Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd perform during Otis Redding 75th Birthday Celebration - Rehearsals at the Macon City Auditorium in Macon, Georgia Getty Images for Otis Redding 75 Culture news in pictures 10 September 2016 Sakari Oramo conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers at the Last Night of the Proms 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall in London PA Culture news in pictures 9 September 2016 A visitor walks past a piece entitled "Fruitcake" by Joana Vasconcelo, during the Beyond Limits selling exhibition at Chatsworth House near Bakewell REUTERS Culture news in pictures 8 September 2016 A sculpture of a crescent standing on the 2,140 meters high mountain 'Freiheit' (German for 'freedom'), in the Alpstein region of the Appenzell alps, eastern Switzerland. The sculpture is lighted during the nights by means of solar panels. The 38-year-old Swiss artist and atheist Christian Meier set the crescent on the peak to start a debate on the meaning of religious symbols - as summit crosses - on mountains. 'Because so many peaks have crosses on them, it struck me as a great idea to put up an equally absurd contrast'. 'Naturally I wanted to provoke in a fun way. But it goes beyond that. The actions of an artist should be food for thought, both visually and in content' EPA Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Some critics were disappointed by Book Three but it contains the best writing on childhood I've read this side of James Joyce. Book Four was baggy and meandering but Some Rain Must Fall, which chronicles his student years in Bergen through to his first marriage, is Knausgaard at his best. "Each book can be read as a standalone novel," he says before explaining that he wrote the 660-page fifth volume in eight weeks in 2010: "Being in the flow feels close to joy but writing this book was painful because I felt embarrassed and ashamed of what's in it." The narrator spends his caffeine-fuelled days writing stories and reading, among others, Paul Celan, Dante, Thomas Bernhard. As Knausgaard pours our coffee, I ask how many cups he drinks per day: "Many. But I don't keep count." My Struggle can be hilarious but, in the new novel, the narrator's boozing gets out of control. He upsets his girlfriends, alienates friends and vandalises his neighbourhood. Yngve, his older brother, insists: "You've got to stop drinking." Has Knausgaard followed Yngve's advice? "More or less. My problem is that after two beers I get the hunger for more and get terribly drunk." What does Knausgaard think of the way he treated women in his twenties, cheating on his girlfriends for example? "I don't know," he says. "There's innocence about the male immaturity I'm describing but its results can be hurtful." His classmates at the Bergen Writing Academy mocked his stories and later he envied two friends who published well-received debuts, so did he ever stop believing he would succeed as a writer? "Yes," he says, "in my mid-twenties everything I wrote felt untrue." His first novel, Out of the World, however, appeared in 1998: "I don't know where the change in my writing came about. It was probably part of growing up." Does he still suffer from self-doubt? "Yes, I'm writing four books now, they're named after each season, but they lack the feeling of authenticity." Knausgaard's terrifying father, whose death dominates Book One, is a diminished figure in volume Five. "This man who had once had the strength and magnetism of a king There was nothing left of him," writes Knausgaard and today he says: "I used to be unable to forgive my father for making me afraid of him but now I think there's nothing to forgive." I wonder if Knausgaard's anguish about his father is connected to a broader desire for other men's approval. In an essay about Knausgaard and gendered literature, Siri Hustvedt, an early champion of My Struggle, writes: "Male status, pride, and dignity revolve around what other men think. Women don't count." For all he's written about his father's withholding of affection, could Knausgaard's loving mother be his books' overlooked hero? "'Hero' is a strong word," he says, "but I like that idea. My father was taking from me whereas my mother gives me something. It's harder to write about what people give you." How did his first wife, Tonje, react when My Struggle appeared after they divorced? "Tonje was upset by reading about things I did while we were married that she didn't know about," says Knausgaard. "She made a radio programme about being part of this project. That was a good way of taking back control. There was conflict when the book came out in Norway but, last year, I met Tonje in Bergen and it was good to talk with her." In Some Rain Must Fall, their marriage falls apart after the narrator betrays Tonje by sleeping with a woman whose boyfriend accuses him of rape. The allegation is unfounded but was, Knausgaard says, "very, very unpleasant to write about." We go out on the terrace so Knausgaard can smoke and, as rain speckles his Chesterfield, I mention his narrator's taste in music. In one memorable scene, he vomits at a party at Bjork's apartment in Reykjavik, but his passion is for Manchester bands of the early-1990s. "Growing up, listening to British music was my way out into the world," says Knausgaard. Recently, he and Yngve reformed their old band, Lemen: "The only advantage of my books doing well is that people come to our gigs," says Knausgaard who plays drums but, at 6ft 5 ins, looks like a bassist. Don Bartlett's English translations of My Struggle have appeared annually since 2012. Next year's final volume will bring the series full circle by charting the fallout from the publication of Book One and contain 400 pages about Adolf Hitler's childhood (and inclusion of Anders Breivik). It's a rare novelist who writes about student bars and the Happy Mondays at the same time as yearning for spiritual salvation. "What I experience in art is a substitute for religious ecstasy," says Knausgaard and My Struggle offers its readers similar rewards. He's revolutionised autobiographical fiction and reached more readers than he ever anticipated: "People relate My Struggle to their own lives," he says. "When they read it memories come back to them. It seems like we have all had the same life." Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} West Wycombe Park, the National Trust property in Buckinghamshire that was built for the 18th-century libertine Sir Francis Dashwood, founder of the Hellfire Club, is still managing to look spectacularly elegant in the drizzly winter murk. Perhaps there will be little surprise that this Palladian pleasure palace is the setting for the first new drama written by Julian Fellowes following the closure of Downton Abbey. Doctor Thorne is Fellowes's adaptation for ITV of Anthony Trollope's 1858 novel of the same name, the third in Trollope's Chronicles of Barchester series. It stars Tom Hollander in the title role of a country physician and follows his attempts to secure the romantic and financial fortunes of his illegitimate niece, Mary, who is beloved by the scion of her aristocratic but impoverished neighbours. But this young man's mother (played by Rebecca Front) wants him to marry a rich American heiress, played Alison Brie Trudy Campbell from Mad Men. The cast also includes Ian McShane, Phoebe Nicholls and (much to the excitement of certain sections of the media because she used to date Prince Harry) Cressida Bonas. When I catch up with Fellowes later, I ask him why he chose Trollope's story for his first post-Downton television project. "I wanted to allow television makers to see that they don't have to do Jane Austen and Charles Dickens every time," he says. "And his dialogue is very modern and jumps on to the screen I mean most of the dialogue in this is him not me. Culture news in pictures Show all 33 1 /33 Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures 30 September 2016 An employee hangs works of art with "Grand Teatro" by Marino Marini (R) and bronze sculpture "Sfera N.3" by Arnaldo Pomodoro seen ahead of a Contemporary Art auction on 7 October, at Sotheby's in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 29 September 2016 Street art by Portuguese artist Odeith is seen in Dresden, during an exhibition "Magic City - art of the streets" AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 Dancers attend a photocall for the new "THE ONE Grand Show" at Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, Germany REUTERS Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 With an array of thrift store china, humorous souvenirs and handmade tile adorning its walls and floors, the Mosaic Tile House in Venice stands as a monument to two decades of artistic collaboration between Cheri Pann and husband Gonzalo Duran REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A gallery assistant poses amongst work by Anthea Hamilton from her nominated show "Lichen! Libido!(London!) Chastity!" at a preview of the Turner Prize in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A technician wearing virtual reality glasses checks his installation in three British public telephone booths, set up outside the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The installation allows visitors a 3-D look into the museum which has twenty-two paintings belonging to the British Royal Collection, on loan for an exhibit from 29 September 2016 till 8 January 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 An Indian artist dressed as Hindu god Shiva performs on a chariot as he participates in a religious procession 'Ravan ki Barat' held to mark the forthcoming Dussehra festival in Allahabad AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Air Power', 1984, is displayed at the Bowie/Collector media preview at Sotheby's in New York AFP/Getty Culture news in pictures 25 September 2016 A woman looks at an untitled painting by Albert Oehlen during the opening of an exhibition of works by German artists Georg Baselitz and Albert Oehlen in Reutlingen, Germany. The exhibition runs at the Kunstverein (art society) Reutlingen until 15 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 24 September 2016 Fan BingBing (C) attends the closing ceremony of the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival at Kursaal in San Sebastian, Spain Getty Images Culture news in pictures 23 September 2016 A view of the artwork 'You Are Metamorphosing' (1964) as part of the exhibition 'Retrospektive' of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo at Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition runs from 25 September 2016 to 1 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 22 September 2016 Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery. The new exhibition features works by Degas, Chardin, Francis Bacon and Sarah Lucas, showing how flesh has been portrayed by artists over the last 600 years PA Culture news in pictures 21 September 2016 Performers Sean Atkins and Sally Miller standing in for the characters played by Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell during a photocall for Tim Burton's "Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children" at Potters Field Park in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A detail from the blanket 'Alpine Cattle Drive' from 1926 by artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is displayed at the 'Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum for Contemporary Arts' in Berlin. The exhibition named 'Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Hieroglyphen' showing the complete collection of Berlin's Nationalgallerie works of the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and will run from 23 September 2016 until 26 February 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A man looks at portrait photos by US photographer Bruce Gilden in the exhibition 'Masters of Photography' at the photokina in Cologne, Germany. The trade fair on photography, photokina, schowcases some 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and runs from 20 to 25 September. The event also features various photo exhibitions EPA Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A woman looks at 'Blue Poles', 1952 by Jackson Pollock during a photocall at the Royal Academy of Arts, London PA Culture news in pictures 19 September 2016 Art installation The Refusal of Time, a collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Galison, which features as part of the William Kentridge exhibition Thick Time, showing from 21 September to 15 January at the Whitechapel Gallery in London PA Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Artists creating one off designs at the Mm6 Maison Margiela presentation during London Fashion Week Spring/Summer collections 2017 in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Bethenny Frankel attends the special screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to celebrate the 25th Anniversary Edition release on Blu-Ray and DVD in New York City Getty Images for Walt Disney Stu Culture news in pictures 17 September 2016 Visitors attend the 2016 Oktoberfest beer festival at Theresienwiese in Munich, Germany Getty Images Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Visitors looks at British artist Damien Hirst work of art 'The Incomplete Truth', during the 13th Yalta Annual Meeting entitled 'The World, Europe and Ukraine: storms of changes', organised by the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation at the Mystetsky Arsenal Art Center in Kiev AP Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Tracey Emin's "My Bed" is exhibited at the Tate Liverpool as part of the exhibition Tracey Emin And William Blake In Focus, which highlights surprising links between the two artists Getty Images Culture news in pictures 15 September 2016 Musician Dave Grohl (L) joins musician Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage onstage at the Forum in Inglewood, California Getty Images Culture news in pictures 14 September 2016 Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I AP Culture news in pictures 13 September 2016 Visitors look at artworks by Chinese painter Cui Ruzhuo during the exhibition 'Glossiness of Uncarved Jade' held at the exhibition hall 'Manezh' in St. Petersburg, Russia. More than 200 paintings by the Chinese artist are presented until 25 September EPA Culture news in pictures 12 September 2016 A visitor looks at Raphael's painting 'Extase de Sainte Cecile', 1515, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during the opening of a Raphael exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia. The first Russian exhibition of the works of the Italian Renaissance artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino includes eight paintings and three drawings which come from Italy. Th exhibit opens to the public from 13 September to 11 December EPA Culture news in pictures 11 September 2016 Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd perform during Otis Redding 75th Birthday Celebration - Rehearsals at the Macon City Auditorium in Macon, Georgia Getty Images for Otis Redding 75 Culture news in pictures 10 September 2016 Sakari Oramo conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers at the Last Night of the Proms 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall in London PA Culture news in pictures 9 September 2016 A visitor walks past a piece entitled "Fruitcake" by Joana Vasconcelo, during the Beyond Limits selling exhibition at Chatsworth House near Bakewell REUTERS Culture news in pictures 8 September 2016 A sculpture of a crescent standing on the 2,140 meters high mountain 'Freiheit' (German for 'freedom'), in the Alpstein region of the Appenzell alps, eastern Switzerland. The sculpture is lighted during the nights by means of solar panels. The 38-year-old Swiss artist and atheist Christian Meier set the crescent on the peak to start a debate on the meaning of religious symbols - as summit crosses - on mountains. 'Because so many peaks have crosses on them, it struck me as a great idea to put up an equally absurd contrast'. 'Naturally I wanted to provoke in a fun way. But it goes beyond that. The actions of an artist should be food for thought, both visually and in content' EPA Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures "That and also his understanding of the importance of money, that in the end, people may claim 30 generations of sceptred knights, but what matters is how much money they've got. And again that's very contemporary." Notable TV adaptations of Trollope include the BBC's 1974 series The Pallisers, scripted by Simon Raven and starring Anna Massey and Jeremy Irons; The Barchester Chronicles from 1982, with Alan Rickman, Geraldine McEwan and Susan Hampshire; The Way We Live Now (2001); and a 2004 version of He Knew He Was Right, scripted by Andrew Davies (War and Peace, Pride and Prejudice). "I read in the papers today that Andrew Davies is doing The Pallisers for the BBC, so hopefully now Trollope's ship is under steam again," says Fellowes. "There is an intellectual snobbery about liking Trollope, the sort of literary luvvie brigade always like to patronise him because he's so popular, I think, and that makes him populist in their eyes." Is this something Fellowes can identify with after all the success of Downton Abbey was accompanied by a chorus of detractors? "Someone was writing an article about Laura Carmichael [the actress who plays Lady Edith in Downton Abbey], who's doing The Maids next and they said this must be a big step for her because she's been "tootling her way through six years of Downton". You think, God, here is this woman who's been breaking hearts in every land and that's "tootling her way through it". Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up "So I suppose I do slightly sympathise with Trollope being dismissed, although I wouldn't like to put myself on his level." Julian Fellowes: 'Television makers dont have to do Jane Austen and Charles Dickens every time' (Getty) (Getty Images) Downton Abbey was itself accused of snobbery probably most famously by the historian Simon Schama. "I don't think it was snobbish to people who watched it," says Fellowes. "I think when you heard of it and it was about an earl and his servants, it sounds snobbish. But the key to the programme I think is that all of the characters within it were given the same weight dramatically. So you were no less involved with the kitchen maid than you were with Edith Crawley, and I think that was actually the key to its popularity. "We didn't patronise the servants or we didn't make the family horrible and all the servants gallant, we just made them a group of people trying to get through it and I think that's what people connected with. I hasten to add that Mr Schama is fully entitled to his own opinion a man of whom I am a big fan." Back inside West Wycombe Park which has provided a backdrop for countless period dramas, including Downton Abbey itself, to the Keira Knightley film The Duchess, Effie Gray and W.E. Tom Hollander and Rebecca Front are filming a scene together. For Hollander, the drama is a chance to be reunited with Fellowes, with whom he worked on Robert Altman's 2001 movie Gosford Park (which Fellowes scripted). "He's obviously been on a huge journey since Gosford Park," says Hollander, "where he was very much subordinate to Robert Altman. But now he's Lord Fellowes of Trumpington or wherever it is... somewhere in Dorset [his title, bestowed in 2011, is actually the Lord Fellowes of West Stafford]. "The first day we shot Doctor Thorne was a Tuesday afternoon at a house called Wrotham, up in Barnet, and we shot Gosford Park there. So the first day he was there and I was there and it was 17 years later, and it was very touching. I am proud to be playing the lead for him in his high period". "Tom is a revelation in this," says Fellowes in return. "I always thought of him as a fantastic comic actor because that's almost all that I've seen him in including Gosford Park, in which he was a tragic figure but a funny tragic figure. In Doctor Thorne he has a different quality, his role is to be the kind of decency at the centre of the story... and it's quite challenging because it is very hard to find charismatic niceness. I think now Tom will have the choice a great many more straight roles." And when it comes to acting, Fellowes knows of what he speaks. Before finding his metier and winning an Oscar for his first screenplay for Gosford Park, Fellowes was a jobbing character actor for the best part of 25 years. The insecurity of that profession has stayed with him, he says. "When you've been an actor, the use of 'no' rather goes out of your vocabulary," he says, "because you have so many long days when you just someone to want you for something." Stefanie Martini as Mary Thorne in 'Doctor Thorne' (ITV) Is there also an element of making hay while the sun shines, especially as, now aged 66, he was such a late bloomer as a writer? "Yes, there is an element of that. If I was 30 I would have years ahead." What he has said "yes" to is a new original drama for NBC in the United States, a sort of American Downton Abbey set in 1880s New York, called The Gilded Age. As soon as he has finished publicity for Doctor Thorne, he will be knuckling down to write the scripts. "I'm rather looking forward to The Gilded Age", he says. "It was an extraordinary society and didn't last all that long. It really got going around about 1880 and was over by the end of the 1920s... certainly by the Second World War. You had this curious almost civil war between the East Coast aristocracy, most of whom were descended from the sons of the gentry of England and Holland, and these new families the Vanderbilts, the Jay Goulds, the Whitneys and so on." The clash of old and new money this time in 1840s London is also the subject of a Fellowes's recently completed Belgravia, a serialised novel in the style of Charles Dickens that is married to new technology: an app. "You tune in and you see the real house, you meet the characters, and it says something like 'Waterloo' and you press Waterloo and you get 'Waterloo was a battle fought on the 18 June 1815...' I think it seems rather a laugh." He's also been in New York writing the book for School of Rock, a new Broadway musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted from the 2003 Richard Linklater movie. School of Rock aside, I wondered whether Fellowes had a yearning to return to a contemporary (albeit still rarefied) social milieu, such as the ones depicted in his 2004 satirical novel Snobs or his follow-up fiction, Past Imperfect. "It's difficult to say until I get to the end of Gilded Age, but I have a feeling that at the end of that I will try to do something contemporary. Separate Lies [Fellowes's 2005 screenplay, which he also directed] is probably my own favourite piece of my work, is contemporary, so I imagine I would go back to that. But you know, sufficient unto the day... I've got enough for the time being to keep me out of mischief." 'Doctor Thorne' is on ITV in early March Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} For a programme billed as going Inside Buckingham Palace, this new three-part Channel 5 series did nothing of the sort. Even scenes that looked like they could have been filmed inside the London landmark were labelled as reconstructions. So not, as the title suggested, a fly-on-the-wall documentary about life inside (one of) the royal residences, this was instead a potted history of royal gossip brought to life via interviews with those on the peripherals and some very strange dramatisations. We all love a bit of gossip and the Royal Family has generated a fair few scandals in its time. Whether this programme offered insight into any new ones or not probably depends on your knowledge to begin with. I'm happy to admit my own understanding of the subject is slim to none (veering more towards none) so it was pretty much all news to me. Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Show all 62 1 /62 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II on a walk-about in Portsmouth during her Silver Jubilee tour of Great Britain, 1977 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The future Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (R) pictured with her younger sister Princess Margaret (L) in 1933 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The 9-year-old Elizabeth attends an aristocratic wedding with her mother and younger sister. Later in that year with the death of her Grandfather and the Abdication of her Uncle Edward VIII she became first in line to the throne, 1936 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The coronation of King George VI in 1937, Elizabeth aged 10 became the heir apparent to the throne Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth and her sister arrive at Waterloo station to say goodbye to their parents as they leave to tour Canada. Elizabeth was thought too young to escort her parents on the tour and was described as "tearful" as they departed. She and her parents made the first ever transatlantic telephone call during their time away, 1939 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The 13-year-old Elizabeth and her sister Margret address children who have been evacuated from the cities on BBC's 'The Chilrens Hour' She said "We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well", 1940 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Just before the end of the war Elizabeth took part in training to become an ATS officer. She is pictured learning to change a tire, 1945 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The official announcement of Princess Elizabeth and Phillip Mountbatten's engagement. The pairing was incredibly controversial as Prince Phillip had no financial standing and he was foreign born, the prince of Denmark and Greece (though he served Britain in the war and was given British Citizenship), 1947 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II (in coach) and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh are cheered by the crowd after their wedding ceremony, on 20 November 1947, on their road to Buckingham Palace, London Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth smiles at her first child, a month old Prince Charles. Charles was born on 14 November 1948 Corbis Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The couples second child Princess Anne was born in 1950 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Arriving back in England upon hearing the death of her father King George VI. The Kings health had been in decline for a number of years and Elizabeth had been filling in for him on an official visit to Australia by way of Kenya. As his heir Elizabeth became Queen aged 26 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth's coronation took place on 2 June 1953. It was the first ever coronation to be aired live on television, being one of the most watched events in history with millions gathering around their TV sets to see the new monarch Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II standing next to her daughter Princess Anne, 1960 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II President Eisenhower (centre) with the British Royal family (L-R) Prince Philip, Princess Anne, HM Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Captain John Eisenhower, at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, 1959 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II as she turns to smile and talk to an unidentified officer, during the Trooping of the Colour by the First Battalion of the Jamaica Regiment at Up-Park Camp, Kingston, Jamaica, 1966 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II walking cross country at the North of Scotland Gun Dog Association Open Stake Retreiver Trials in the grounds of Balmoral Castle in 1967 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the Chelsea Flower Show in London, a regular fixture in the royal calendar, 1971 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh during their traditional summer break at Balmoral Castle. The highland retreat is one of the Queen's favourite places, each year, she heads off to Scotland for the summer. "It is rather nice to hibernate for a bit when one leads such a moveable life," she once said, 1976 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II during a walkabout in Muscat while visiting Oman, 1979 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II with some of her corgis walking the Cross Country course during the second day of the Windsor Horse Trials. The monarch is responsible for introducing a new breed of dog known as the "dorgi" when her corgi Tiny was mated with a dachshund "sausage dog" called Pipkin which belonged to Princess Margaret, 1980 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II (L-R) the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William, Prince Harry and the Prince and Princess of Wales after the christening ceremony of Prince Harry, 1984 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II taking the salute of the Household Guards regiments during the Trooping of the Colour ceremony in London, 1985 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Diana, Princess of Wales and Queen Elizabeth II as they smile to well-wishers outside Clarence House in London, 1987 AP Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II, with Chief Instructor, Small Arms Corp LT Col George Harvey, firing the last shot on a standard SA 80 rifle when she attended the centenary of the Army Rifle Association at Bisley, 1993 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II South Africa's President Nelson Mandela greets Queen Elizabeth II as she steps from the royal yacht Britannia in Cape Town at the 1995's official start of the her first visit to the country since 1947 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II smiles as she visits Bowring Park in St. John's, Newfoundland, on the third day of a 10-day official visit to Canada, 1997 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh make their way into St. George's Chapel at Windsor for the annual Garter ceremony, 1999 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Pope John Paul II as they meet at the Vatican, 2000 AP Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother leaving church by horse drawn carriage on the Sandringham Estate, Norfolk, 2000 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth rides her horse in the grounds of Windsor Castle, 2002 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth arrives for the world premiere of James Bond movie "Casino Royale" at the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square in London, 2006 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth boards a scheduled train at Kings Cross station in London, 2009 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II planting a tree at Newmarket Animal Health Trust, during a royal visit which marked her 50th year as the charity's patron, 2009 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II talking with Pope Benedict XVI during an audience in the Morning Drawing Room at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh during a four day visit by the Pope to the UK, 2010 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II visiting the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 2010 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II receives flowers from the crowd during her visit to Federation Square in downtown Melbourne, 2011 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth watches a preview of her Christmas message wearing a pair of 3D glasses, studded with Swarovski crystals in the form of a "Q", at Buckingham Palace in central London, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Members of Britain's royal family (front L to R) Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles cheer as competitors participate in a sack race at the Braemar Gathering in Braemar, Scotland, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Britain's Prince Charles kisses the hand of his mother Queen Elizabeth at the end of her Diamond Jubilee concert in front of Buckingham Palace in London, 2012 Reuters Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge laughs as Queen Elizabeth gestures during a visit to Vernon Park in Nottingham, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip attend a service for the Order of the British Empire at St Paul's Cathedral in London, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II meets young people during an official visit to The Shard building in central London, 2013 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Actress Angelina Jolie is presented with the Insignia of an Honorary Dame Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1844 Room at Buckingham Palace, London, 2014 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red evolving art installation at the Tower of London, 2014 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the State Opening of Parliament, 2015 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II (L-R) Britain's Princess Anne, Princess Royal, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge holding his son Prince George of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry (back), Prince Andrew, Duke of York (back), James, Viscount Severn (front), Princess Beatrice of York (back), Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Eugenie of York (back) stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace waiting to view the fly-past during the Queen's Birthday Parade, 'Trooping the Colour,' in London, 2015 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Trooping of the Colour is an annual celebration marking the Queen's birthday, 2015 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Britain's Queen Elizabeth II stands with Kate the Duchess of Cambridge whilst pushing Princess Charlotte in a pram as they leave after attending the Christening of Britain's Princess Charlotte at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, 2015 AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II arrives at the Broadway Theatre in Barking, 2015 Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II greets wellwishers during a 'walkabout' on her 90th birthday in Windsor in 2016 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Members of the Royal Family during trooping of the colour in 2017 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Queen waves at Prince Harry and Meghan after their wedding in 2018 POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex gesture during their visit to the Storyhouse in Chester, Cheshire in 2018 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Prince Charles reacts as he sits with his mother Britain's Queen Elizabeth II during an event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, in Portsmouth in 2019 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are joined by her mother, Doria Ragland, as they show their new son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, to the Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle Chris Allerton/Sussex Royal/PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II reacts as she visits the Haig Housing Trust in Morden in 2019 POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II takes her seat on the The Sovereign's Throne in the House of Lords next to Prince Charles, before reading the Queen's Speech during the State Opening of Parliament in 2019 POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II looks at the coffin of Britain's Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh during his funeral service at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales pose alongside the tree which they planted to mark the start of the official planting season for the Queen's Green Canopy (QGC) at the Balmoral Cricket Pavilion, Balmoral Estate in Scotland POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Britain's Queen Elizabeth II cuts a cake to celebrate the start of the Platinum Jubilee during a reception in the Ballroom of Sandringham House, the Queen's Norfolk residence on February 5, 2022. - Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday will became the first British monarch to reign for seven decades, in a bittersweet landmark as she also marked the 70th anniversary of her father's death AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Westminster Abbey accompanied by Prince Andrew, Duke of York for the Service Of Thanksgiving For The Duke Of Edinburgh on March 29, 2022 in London Getty I delighted in hearing how the Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, caused shock waves by trying to marry a divorced servant although disappointed to learn that, under pressure from her sister and her aides, she eventually called it off. The details about a 1974 assassination attempt on Princess Anne which resulted in her bodyguard Jim Beaton taking three bullets before a passer-by intervened were worthy of a Liam Neeson film plot. The Channel 5 dramatisation, however, was slightly less exciting. I think my favourite snippet came from journalist Christopher Wilson though. He claimed that Prince Philip chased the Queen Mother out of the palace by turning the central heating off in her rooms. "She was gone within a week," chuckled Wilson. The suggestion that when Charles finally takes the throne he will ditch Buckingham Palace altogether and hand it over to the British public was, once again, news to me. Apparently, he's not too keen on paying for the 150m repair job that it's in desperate need of. Sadly for us taxpayers though, we'll end up footing it either way. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Tim Cook has said that the US government is asking Apple to create the software equivalent of cancer. The Apple boss has hit out at the FBI and the Obama administration in perhaps his most passionate interview yet. The two sides have been locked in a public and often impassioned argument about the security of the iPhone, after a court ruled that Apple must create a weakened version of its software so that law enforcement could get access to a terrorists iPhone. "The only way to get information at least currently, the only way we know would be to write a piece of software that we view as sort of the equivalent of cancer, Mr Cook said in an interview with ABC news. We think it's bad news to write, he said. We would never write it. We have never written it and that is what is at stake here. We believe that is a very dangerous operating system." Apples dispute with the government revolved around a phone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. The FBI cant get into the handset because of security systems that stop people from repeatedly guessing a passcode, but the court order asks that Apple override that system and give up access. Mr Cook argued that writing such a piece of software could set a precedent that would allow law enforcement to weaken security and damage iPhones for any other investigation. Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty If a court can ask us to write this piece of software, think about what else they could ask us to write maybe it's an operating system for surveillance, maybe the ability for the law enforcement to turn on the camera," he said in an interview with World News Tonight. "I don't know where this stops. But I do know that this is not what should be happening in this country." Mr Cook said that the company had helped get access to all of the information on the phone that it could, and that if it could safely unlock the phone it would do so. But getting access to the rest of the information would expose hundreds of millions of people to issues, Mr Cook said. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Apples next iPhones could be engineered so that it would be impossible for governments to break into them. The company is currently in a public and passionate feud with the US government and the FBI over whether it should help unlock a phone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple argues that it shouldnt unlock the phone because doing so would weaken security everywhere and set a dangerous precedent. But the company also hopes to stop such debates by making future phones unhackable, according to reports. It would mean that the only way that that US government could get access to phones is passing laws making it illegal to have such security measures. It isnt clear exactly how Apple could strengthen the phones security. But it could mean building the hardware specifically so that people cant get access to the phones contents, and that Apple is unable to modify the phone in such a way as to overcome it. The company has already added such systems to newer phones. Those that come with Apples TouchID fingerprint sensor, for instance which the iPhone 5c in the San Bernardino case does not have already store some of their most sensitive information in a secure enclave that is almost impossible to get access to without actually having the fingerprint of its owner. But future updates could help install even more, similar features. They could encrypt the phones operating software so that it was impossible to make changes, for instance, and so that none of the data on the phone was accessible without the passcode or a fingerprint. Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty The new phones might also add new checks to stop them from being tampered with, too. The company was criticised earlier this month for its Error 53, which shut down phones if they thought that they had been changed, but similar features might stop the law enforcement from replacing parts of the phones and adding components that give them access to the information inside. One potential weakness in existing handsets, for example, is a troubleshooting tool that is built into the phone and allows it to be updated without the users password. That was built to help Apple staff repair the phones, but it is the same tool that the FBI hopes the company can use to break into the phone used by the San Bernardino killer. Apple is likely to fix that problem in future phones, according to experts. But it probably wont be able to do so through a software update and so the weakness is likely to live on in older models. Apple iPhone 6S Walkthrough - David Phelan The competing demands between Apple and the US government could mean that there will be an arms race as Apple looks to strengthen security and law enforcement and politicians try to stop them, according to experts. That will continue until Congress decides to clarify who has what obligations in situations like this, Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the New York Times. But Apple must also make a trade-off because encrypting and securing all information on phones and in its iCloud servers also makes it impossible for users to get hold of them in the event of problems. For all Apples commitment to security, it might find it hard to explain to customers that their personal photos have been lost because they forgot the password and its systems are so secure, experts said. Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A court ruling that Johnson & Johnson must pay $72million in damages after a claim that a womans death from ovarian cancer was linked to her use of talcum powder has provoked concerns over the product. For over 35 years, Jacqueline Fox claimed she used Baby Powder and Shower to Shower as feminine hygiene products. She was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, and died in October aged 62. Jurors in Missouri decided that Johnson & Johnson must pay $10million in actual damages and $62million in punitive damages to Foxs family, court records show. Jere Beasley, the Fox familys lawyer, said that the firm were aware of the risk of such products since the 1980s. However, Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said: We sympathise with the plaintiff's family but firmly believe the safety of cosmetic talc is supported by decades of scientific evidence. The case has sparked concerns about talcum powder and cancer. Baby Powder and Shower to Shower are made of talc: mineral rocks that contain magnesium, silicon and oxygen, while some contain asbestos. However, products sold in the US have not contained asbestos since the 1970s, according to Reuters. Health experts have sought to allay fears surrounding the product and any supposed link to cancer. Paul Pharoah, Professor of Cancer Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, said that the courts decision was flawed. He stressed that ovarian cancer is a varied disease, with serous, endometrioid, clear cell and mucinous being the most common. All of these have different risk factors. The main risks come from hormone replacement therapy, being overweight and having endometriosis. Smoking has also been linked to mucinous ovarian cancer one of the rarer forms. He explained that proven links between using talc near the genitals and ovarian cancer is weak, and that even if the association existed it would be unlikely that a cancer would arise from a woman using talc. Professor Pharoah said that a recent control study of over 8,000 cases and 9,000 control studies found that perineal talc use was linked to a 20 per cent rise in the risk of all forms of ovarian cancer. However, he warned that such studies where women who used talcum powder are compared with those who do not can be biased as subjects can unintentionally wrongly recall how much of a product they used. Two other prospective studies, which are widely accepted to be less prone to bias, also found a significant association with the serous form of ovarian cancer, while another found a non-significant increase in risk of the serous type of ovarian cancer, he said. The association is biologically plausible. Talcum powder applied to the genital area might get into the fallopian tubes and onto the ovaries and cause inflammation, which in turn could cause ovarian cancer. On balance, I think that it is more likely than not that there is an association between genital talc use and risk of some types of ovarian cancer, however its important to remember the size of the possible risk a 20 year old woman in the UK has a risk of getting ovarian cancer at some point in her life of 18 in a thousand; a 20 per cent increase in this risk would raise this to 22 in a thousand (assuming that the association were real). A woman with a fault in the BRCA1 gene has a lifetime risk of ovarian cancer of about 400 in a thousand. Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty Dr Daniel Cramer is an epidemiologist at Harvard University and was a consultant for the plaintiff lawyers in the trail against Johnson & Johnson. He has published a number of studies on the potential links between talc and ovarian cancer, with his first in 1982. His studies show that expose to talc raises the risk of ovarian cancer by 30 per cent. Dr Cramer told Reuters that randomised clinical trials, which are the least vulnerable to bias, need to be carried out to prove conclusively whether talc and cause cancer. However, this is not possible due to ethical concerns, he said, as researchers would have to expose women to the product and wait to see if they develop cancer. Dr. Ranit Mishori, an associate professor of family medicine at Georgetown University, told Reuters that she does not believe there is any proof that there is a link between talc and cancer, but simply said as the product is not necessary: "if you are concerned, just don't use it. Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Vital HIV prevention and support services are facing closure after being earmarked for cuts by local authorities across the country, leaving potentially thousands of people with the virus cut adrift at the very time the transmission rate is increasing. Users typically turn to these units for help with their medical treatments, counselling and mental health assistance, peer support and legal advice while many support centres also provide HIV prevention services for those most at risk of transmission, such as gay men. But some services are now set to shut down. So far, six councils Oxfordshire, Bexley, Portsmouth, Slough, Bromley and Bracknell Forest have proposed a decommissioning of HIV support services, effective from 1 April. In Oxfordshire, the county council will cut the entire annual funding for its Community HIV Prevention and Support service after 16 years in operation. According to the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), the charity that runs the centre for the council, 500 people living with HIV or at risk of the virus accessed the service in 2015. The council hasnt organised any contingency plans for support, says Debbie Laycock, head of policy and parliamentary affairs at THT. This will mean that more than 200 people living with HIV in the county will be without support from 1 April. The THT service is a lifeline for a lot of people. A 15-minute patient slot with a GP is just not adequate for people who need these support services. Case study: This was my lifeline Anna* first accessed THTs Oxfordshire centre after her diagnosis 10 years ago. They provided comprehensive specialist advice and support during what she describes as a traumatic time. They were unbelievable; they were just a lifeline, says Anna. If there was a crisis like how do I tell my family? who do I need to tell? if I was going on holiday would I be able to get travel insurance? they were there. Without their help and support initially I dont think I would be still here really. When Anna fell pregnant, the service centre advised her on the additional medication she would require and supported her throughout her pregnancy. The cuts are so short-sighted because that was such specialist care, she says. Without that support we might have had another person that had HIV. *not her real name A spokesperson from Oxfordshire county council said: It is felt that nationally and internationally the nature of HIV has moved into a more chronic, long-term condition due to the advances in medical management. More people are living longer, healthier lives with HIV and there is less stigma attached to the condition. As a result, the funding of 150,000 was considered no longer appropriate, as service users could avail themselves of other support services provided locally by the county council and their health needs are met by the NHS. Other councils have also claimed that the NHS meets the needs of those living with HIV, but health workers say a large proportion rely on the support provided by the services at risk. Public Health England have surveyed a representative sample across HIV clinics of people living with HIV, and in a 12-month period over a third of them had to access support services, says Yusef Azad, the director of strategy at the National AIDS Trust. Politicians have talked about the importance of these services, but it isnt clear who has responsibility to commission them. And, as a result of that accountability gap people with HIV are suffering. More than 103,000 people in the UK are living with HIV and the latest figures show that in 2014 there were 6,151 new diagnoses, a rise from the 6,032 in 2013. Metro HIV Support currently operates in seven local councils, including Bexley, where it has been told it potentially stands to lose all 33,847 of its funding despite being the only service of its kind in the area. Cllr Peter Craske, a cabinet member for community safety, environment and leisure at Bexley, said: We have been consulting on changes resulting from reductions in the public health budget but no final decisions have been made at all, and indeed we have only just completed reading the responses. Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty But one of its users, a 50-year-old care worker who did not want to be named, said the changes should not be considered. Metro is like a home for us, she said. They advocate for us in various issues like housing benefits and other social services. I dont think we will have anywhere else to go where they will accept you. When you are in this situation, sometimes you need someone You want someone to talk to who listens to you. But these other services dont have time. The NHS doctors are just there to give you the medication and the treatment or whatever; they dont have time to talk to you. The charity Positive Action, which helps people across South-east England, has also been told it faces funding cuts and, in one area, a complete decommissioning of its services. It currently holds five contracts across the region, but from 31 March all funding for its Portsmouth operation will be withdrawn. There will be no future funding available to us, so theoretically the service we are providing in the city will be completely removed, says Donna Bone, the chief executive of Positive Action. This wasnt done by any means of a consultation; there was no equality assessment impact undertaken at all. Positive Action is now looking to secure independent funding from other sources, and has been assuring service users in Portsmouth that there will be some form of ongoing support from the organisation, particularly with regards to peer-to-peer support. Portsmouth City Council is yet to respond to The Independent. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A yes vote in the EU referendum would lead to very significant uncertainty for years for UK businesses that could have a chilling effect on the economy, according to Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary. Hammond made the comments during an MP debate on Europe on Thursday. He warned that if Britain votes to leave the EU the mood of goodwill towards Britain will evaporate in an instant. European politicians would have no desire at all to show that Britain can prosper outside the EU, he added. But how much does Britain rely on the EU? Almost half of British exports go to the EU, according to date from the Office of National Statistics. In December, that proportion slipped to 38 per cent. But over the past 18 months it has ranged from 38 per cent to 49 per cent. The proportion of total imports from the EU is 55 per cent in December 2015. Over the same period, this has ranged between 49 per cent and 55 per cent. Chart: Statista If the UK left the EU, its likely the UK would negotiate access to the single market, so it doesnt lose its biggest trading partner. Part of that negotiation is likely to include playing by the same rules as the rest of the EU. But by leaving, the UK would no longer have a say in what those rules are and how they are set. Rajesh Agrawal is the founder and CEO of RationalFX, an online brokering company, who also advises Sadiq Khan MP, Labours candidate for London mayor. He said that EU membership is the best way to give the City of London a voice in Europe. Britain could of course go it alone, do things our way, tell the Eurocrats where to go. But rather than regaining sovereignty, the truth is wed end up with less ability to pursue our interests, Agrawal said. In the debate on Thursday, David Cameron said jobs would be at risk if Britain voted to leave the EU, noting that three million UK jobs are linked with the EU. Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year. This three million figure is based on the assumption that the share of UK employment linked to trade with the EU is equal to the share of total UK GDP generated in the production of goods and services exported to the EU. But it is not the estimate of the number of jobs dependent on the EUs membership. The Government once admitted this in response to a Freedom of Information request, telling Open Europe that the figure was not an estimate of the impact of EU membership on employment. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} One of Goldman Sachs senior investment bankers has left the institution amid an ongoing corruption scandal in Malaysia linked to a state investment fund the bank previously advised. Tim Leissner, who was chairman of Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia division, left the firm in early February, the bank confirmed yesterday. Mr Leissner had previously been reported to have been on personal leave. His exit comes amid growing protests against Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his ties to the countrys sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). The fund, which was set up by Mr Razak in 2009, spooked investors last year by missing interest payments on $11bn (8bn) worth of debt. The Wall Street Journal subsequently said it had seen evidence showing $680m had been transferred from 1MDB into Mr Razaks personal bank account. 1MDB and Mr Razak deny any wrongdoing. Goldman has become embroiled in the scandal because it helped 1MDB issue bonds and took an unusually high fee from the deals. As chairman of Goldmans operations in the region, Mr Leissner was a pivotal figure in helping build the banks presence in Malaysia. The German-born banker has also come under the spotlight due to his marriage to Kimora Lee Simmons, a fashion designer. She is the former wife of the Def Jam record label co-founder Russell Simmons, who helped popularise rap stars such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys. They both live in Los Angeles and are a regular fixture on the glamorous Hollywood party circuit. Rumours of close connections between Mr Leissner and the Razaks were fuelled when Ms Lee Simmons posted a picture online of her and Mr Razaks wife, whom she called her friend. Mr Leissner joined Goldman in the late 1990s before becoming a partner in 2006. At the time he was heading investment banking in Singapore. He was named Southeast Asia chair in July 2014. Goldman reportedly earned bumper fees from 1MDB on a number of bond deals it structured for the bank in 2012 and 2013. One issue worth $3bn netted Goldman about 10 per cent of the bond issue in fees, an unusually high level for such a deal. Biggest business scandals in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Biggest business scandals in pictures Biggest business scandals in pictures Volkswagen emissions scandal VW admitted to rigging its US emission tests so that diesel-powered cars would looks like they were emitting less nitrous oxide, which can damage the ozone layer and contribute to respiratory diseases. Around 11 million cars worldwide were affected. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Martin Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals Martin Shkreli became known as the most hated man in the world after his drug company, Turing, increased the price of a 62-year-old drug that treated HIV patients by 5,000% to $750 a pill. He was charged with illegally taking stock from Retrophin, a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. Shkreli, who maintains he is innocent, and says there is little evidence of fraud because his investors didn't lose money. Biggest business scandals in pictures Panama Papers: Millions of leaked documents expose how worlds rich and powerful hid money - April 2016 Millions of confidential documents have been leaked from one of the worlds most secretive law firms, exposing how the rich and powerful have hidden their money. Dictators and other heads of state have been accused of laundering money, avoiding sanctions and evading tax, according to the unprecedented cache of papers that show the inner workings of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which is based in Panama. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Google's tax avoidance Google reached a deal with the HM Revenue and Customs to pay back 130 million in so-called back-taxes that have been due since 2005. George Osborne championed the deal as a major success. But European MEPs have since called for the Chancellor to appear in front of the committee on tax rulings to explain the tax deal. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Rogue trader A French court cut the damages owed by rogue trader Jerome Kerviel from 4.9bn (4.2bn) to just 1m (860,000). The court ruled on that Kerviel was partly responsible for massive losses suffered in 2008 by his former employer Societe Generale through his reckless trades. Kerviel has consistently maintained that bosses at the French bank knew what he was doing all along. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Barclays CEO under investigation for trying to identify whistleblower - Monday Paril 10 Authorities have launched an investigation into Barclays chief executive officer Jes Staley for trying to identify a whistleblower, the bank said on Monday. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are both investigating Mr Staley after the bank notified them that Mr Staley had tried to identify the author of two anonymous letters, which were sent to the board and a senior executive in June 2016. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures UK to crack down on bank money laundering after reports of 65bn Russian scam, City minister says - March 2017 The Economic Secretary to the Treasury has vowed that the Government will crack down on money laundering practices, after several of the UK's biggest banks were accused of processing money from a Russian scam, believed to involve up to $80bn (65bn). Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Former HBOS bankers convicted of bribery and fraud over 245m loan scam - February 2017 Two former HBOS bankers were among six people found guilty of bribery and fraud that cost customers and shareholders hundreds of millions of pounds, the BBC reports. Lynden Scourfield, 54, a manager at HBOS, forced struggling clients to use the services of his friends David Mills, 60, and Michael Bancroft, 73. In return, the two businessmen arranged sex parties, cash and lavish gifts. On Monday, the three were convicted at Southwark Crown Court on accounts including bribery, fraud and money laundering. Mark Dobson, another manager at HBOS, Alison Mills, and John Cartwright were also convicted. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Lloyds chief apologises for damage caused by affair allegations - August 2016 Antonio Horta-Osorio, the chief executive of Lloyds Bank, has broken his silence over allegations about his private life admitting he regrets any "damage done to the group's reputation". In a message sent to the bank's 75,000 employees, the banker said that anyone can make mistakes while insisting that staff had to maintain the highest professional standards. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Christine Lagarde faces court over 340m Bernard Tapie payment - July 2016 The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, must stand trial in France over a payment of 403 million (now 340m, then 290m) to tycoon Bernard Tapie, a France's highest appeals court has ruled. The court rejected Ms Lagarde's appeal against a judge's order in December for her to stand trial over allegations of negligence in her handling of the affair. Ms Lagarde could risk a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros if convicted. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures HSBC senior manager arrested in FX rigging investigation at JFK airport in New York - July 2016 A senior executive at HSBC has been arrested at New York's JFK airport for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to rig currency benchmarks, according to reports. Mark Johnson, global head of foreign exchange cash trading in London, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday. He will appear before a federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Bloomberg said. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Former PwC employees found guilty in 'Luxleaks' tax scandal - June 2016 Two ex- PricewaterhouseCoopers staffers were found guilty in Luxembourg of stealing confidential tax files that helped unleash a global scandal over generous fiscal deals for hundreds of international companies. Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet face suspended sentences of 12 months and 9 months and were ordered to pay fines of 1,500 (1,230) and 1,000 (822) for their role in the so-called LuxLeaks scandal. Despite the minimal sentences, the ruling was described by Deltours lawyer as shocking and a terrible anomaly. The ruling puts on guard future whistle-blowers, Deltour told reporters.The LuxLeaks revelations sped beyond Luxembourg, causing European Union regulators to expand a tax-subsidy probe and propose new laws to fight corporate tax dodging, while EU lawmakers created a special committee to probe fiscal deals across the 28-nation bloc. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Goldman Sachs dealmakers lavished Libyan officials with prostitutes to win contract - June 2016 A former Goldman Sachs dealmaker trying to persuade Gadaffi-era Libya to invest $1 billion with the investment bank procured prostitutes and invited Libyan officials to lavish parties in the hope of winning the business, the High Court heard on Monday June 13.The Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund is suing Goldman Sachs for inappropriately coercing its naive staff into giving its sovereign wealth fund cash to the bank to invest in products they did not understand. The products were designed to generate big profits for Goldman, the LIA claims.Goldman denies wrongdoing and says the LIA was treated as an arms-length customer Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Former boss of BHS said his life was threatened - June 2016 Darren Topp, the former boss of BHS, has said former owner Dominic Chappell threatened to kill him when he challenged him over a 1.5 million transfer out of the business. MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee asked Mr Topp about a 1.5 million transfer Mr Chappell made from BHS to a company called BHS Sweden. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley admits paying workers below the minimum wage - June 2016 Mike Ashley admitted paying Sports Direct employees below the minimum wage at a hearing in front of MPs. The company founder said that workers were paid less than the statutory minimum because of bottlenecks at security in an admission that could result in sanctions from HMRC. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Mitsubishi admits improper fuel tests - April 2016 Mitsubishi has admitted to using false fuel methods dating back to 1991. The scale of the scandal is only just coming to light after it was revealed in April that data was falsified in the testing of four types of cars, including two Nissan cars. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Quindell, the scandal-ridden insurance firm Quindell was once a darling of AIM but its share price fell in April 2014 when its accounting practices were attacked in a stinging research note by US short seller Gotham City. In August the group was forced to disclose that the 107 million pre-tax profit it had reported for 2013 was incorrect, and it had in fact suffered a 64million loss. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Toshiba Accounting Scandal The boss of Toshiba, the Japanese technology giant, resigned in disgrace in the wake of one of the countrys biggest ever accounting scandals. His exit came two months after the company revealed that it was investigating accounting irregularities. An independent investigatory panel said that Toshibas management had inflated its reported profits by up to 152 billion yen (780m) between 2008 and 2014. Biggest business scandals in pictures FIFA Corruption Scandal Fifa, football's world governing body, has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption since the summer of 2015, when the US Department of Justice indicted several top executives. It has now claimed the careers of two of the most powerful men in football, Fifa President Sepp Blatter and Uefa President Michel Platini, after they were banned for eight years from all football-related activities by Fifa's ethics committee. A Swiss criminal investigation into the pair is ongoing. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Libor fraudster City trader Tom Hayes, 35, has become the first person to be convicted of rigging Libor rates following a trial at London's Southwark Crown Court. Hayes worked as a trader in yen derivatives at UBS before joining the American bank Citigroup in Tokyo. He was fired from Citigroup following an investigation into his trading methods. He returned to the UK in December 2012 and was arrested following a two-and-a-half year criminal investigation by the SFO. Getty 1MDB unnerved markets at the end of December 2014 after it missed interest payments to bond holders on another $560m bridge loan. 1MDB was set up as a state entity by Mr Razak in a bid to boost foreign direct investment into the country as well as invest in the nations ageing infrastructure. It agreed a number of joint ventures with Chinese and Middle Eastern investors to work on co-development projects in the years after it was founded. A Malaysian parliamentary committee is currently looking into the allegations against 1MDB, while the countrys auditor general is set to release a report on the funds activities this week. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Johnson & Johnson has responded to concerns by women that longterm use of talcum powder could cause ovarian cancer. The multinational pharmacy group has posted a fact sheet on its website about Baby Power to try and reassure customers that the product is safe after it was ordered to pay more than 50 million to the family of Jacqueline Fox, who claimed that her ovarian cancer was linked to use of talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for several decades. Fox claimed she used Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for feminine hygiene for more than 35 years before she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer three years ago. She died in October aged 62. Around 1,000 lawsuits concerning cancer linked to talc products have been filed in Missouri and another 200 in New Jersey, according to Reuters. But Johnson & Johnson has said that research papers since the 1990s have shown that talc is safe to use on genitals. "With over 100 years of use, few ingredients have the same demonstrated performance, mildness and safety profile as cosmetic talc," Johnson & Johnson said. The company said that talc is approved as safe for use in cosmetic and personal care products by the European Union, Canada and many other countries around the world, among them Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Israel, South Africa, Turkey and Indonesia. The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC), which identifies potential risk factors for many diseases, has not identified talc as a risk factor for ovarian cancer. Jere Beasley, a lawyer for Fox's family, claimed that Johnson & Johnson knew about an association between talc and ovarian cancer since 1979. Carol Goodrich, a spokeswoman, said Johnson & Johnson were disappointed with the outcome of the trial. We sympathise with the plaintiff's family but firmly believe the safety of cosmetic talc is supported by decades of scientific evidence, Goodrich said. Biggest business scandals in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Biggest business scandals in pictures Biggest business scandals in pictures Volkswagen emissions scandal VW admitted to rigging its US emission tests so that diesel-powered cars would looks like they were emitting less nitrous oxide, which can damage the ozone layer and contribute to respiratory diseases. Around 11 million cars worldwide were affected. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Martin Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals Martin Shkreli became known as the most hated man in the world after his drug company, Turing, increased the price of a 62-year-old drug that treated HIV patients by 5,000% to $750 a pill. He was charged with illegally taking stock from Retrophin, a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. Shkreli, who maintains he is innocent, and says there is little evidence of fraud because his investors didn't lose money. Biggest business scandals in pictures Panama Papers: Millions of leaked documents expose how worlds rich and powerful hid money - April 2016 Millions of confidential documents have been leaked from one of the worlds most secretive law firms, exposing how the rich and powerful have hidden their money. Dictators and other heads of state have been accused of laundering money, avoiding sanctions and evading tax, according to the unprecedented cache of papers that show the inner workings of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which is based in Panama. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Google's tax avoidance Google reached a deal with the HM Revenue and Customs to pay back 130 million in so-called back-taxes that have been due since 2005. George Osborne championed the deal as a major success. But European MEPs have since called for the Chancellor to appear in front of the committee on tax rulings to explain the tax deal. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Rogue trader A French court cut the damages owed by rogue trader Jerome Kerviel from 4.9bn (4.2bn) to just 1m (860,000). The court ruled on that Kerviel was partly responsible for massive losses suffered in 2008 by his former employer Societe Generale through his reckless trades. Kerviel has consistently maintained that bosses at the French bank knew what he was doing all along. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Barclays CEO under investigation for trying to identify whistleblower - Monday Paril 10 Authorities have launched an investigation into Barclays chief executive officer Jes Staley for trying to identify a whistleblower, the bank said on Monday. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are both investigating Mr Staley after the bank notified them that Mr Staley had tried to identify the author of two anonymous letters, which were sent to the board and a senior executive in June 2016. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures UK to crack down on bank money laundering after reports of 65bn Russian scam, City minister says - March 2017 The Economic Secretary to the Treasury has vowed that the Government will crack down on money laundering practices, after several of the UK's biggest banks were accused of processing money from a Russian scam, believed to involve up to $80bn (65bn). Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Former HBOS bankers convicted of bribery and fraud over 245m loan scam - February 2017 Two former HBOS bankers were among six people found guilty of bribery and fraud that cost customers and shareholders hundreds of millions of pounds, the BBC reports. Lynden Scourfield, 54, a manager at HBOS, forced struggling clients to use the services of his friends David Mills, 60, and Michael Bancroft, 73. In return, the two businessmen arranged sex parties, cash and lavish gifts. On Monday, the three were convicted at Southwark Crown Court on accounts including bribery, fraud and money laundering. Mark Dobson, another manager at HBOS, Alison Mills, and John Cartwright were also convicted. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Lloyds chief apologises for damage caused by affair allegations - August 2016 Antonio Horta-Osorio, the chief executive of Lloyds Bank, has broken his silence over allegations about his private life admitting he regrets any "damage done to the group's reputation". In a message sent to the bank's 75,000 employees, the banker said that anyone can make mistakes while insisting that staff had to maintain the highest professional standards. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Christine Lagarde faces court over 340m Bernard Tapie payment - July 2016 The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, must stand trial in France over a payment of 403 million (now 340m, then 290m) to tycoon Bernard Tapie, a France's highest appeals court has ruled. The court rejected Ms Lagarde's appeal against a judge's order in December for her to stand trial over allegations of negligence in her handling of the affair. Ms Lagarde could risk a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros if convicted. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures HSBC senior manager arrested in FX rigging investigation at JFK airport in New York - July 2016 A senior executive at HSBC has been arrested at New York's JFK airport for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to rig currency benchmarks, according to reports. Mark Johnson, global head of foreign exchange cash trading in London, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday. He will appear before a federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Bloomberg said. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Former PwC employees found guilty in 'Luxleaks' tax scandal - June 2016 Two ex- PricewaterhouseCoopers staffers were found guilty in Luxembourg of stealing confidential tax files that helped unleash a global scandal over generous fiscal deals for hundreds of international companies. Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet face suspended sentences of 12 months and 9 months and were ordered to pay fines of 1,500 (1,230) and 1,000 (822) for their role in the so-called LuxLeaks scandal. Despite the minimal sentences, the ruling was described by Deltours lawyer as shocking and a terrible anomaly. The ruling puts on guard future whistle-blowers, Deltour told reporters.The LuxLeaks revelations sped beyond Luxembourg, causing European Union regulators to expand a tax-subsidy probe and propose new laws to fight corporate tax dodging, while EU lawmakers created a special committee to probe fiscal deals across the 28-nation bloc. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Goldman Sachs dealmakers lavished Libyan officials with prostitutes to win contract - June 2016 A former Goldman Sachs dealmaker trying to persuade Gadaffi-era Libya to invest $1 billion with the investment bank procured prostitutes and invited Libyan officials to lavish parties in the hope of winning the business, the High Court heard on Monday June 13.The Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund is suing Goldman Sachs for inappropriately coercing its naive staff into giving its sovereign wealth fund cash to the bank to invest in products they did not understand. The products were designed to generate big profits for Goldman, the LIA claims.Goldman denies wrongdoing and says the LIA was treated as an arms-length customer Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Former boss of BHS said his life was threatened - June 2016 Darren Topp, the former boss of BHS, has said former owner Dominic Chappell threatened to kill him when he challenged him over a 1.5 million transfer out of the business. MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee asked Mr Topp about a 1.5 million transfer Mr Chappell made from BHS to a company called BHS Sweden. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley admits paying workers below the minimum wage - June 2016 Mike Ashley admitted paying Sports Direct employees below the minimum wage at a hearing in front of MPs. The company founder said that workers were paid less than the statutory minimum because of bottlenecks at security in an admission that could result in sanctions from HMRC. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Mitsubishi admits improper fuel tests - April 2016 Mitsubishi has admitted to using false fuel methods dating back to 1991. The scale of the scandal is only just coming to light after it was revealed in April that data was falsified in the testing of four types of cars, including two Nissan cars. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Quindell, the scandal-ridden insurance firm Quindell was once a darling of AIM but its share price fell in April 2014 when its accounting practices were attacked in a stinging research note by US short seller Gotham City. In August the group was forced to disclose that the 107 million pre-tax profit it had reported for 2013 was incorrect, and it had in fact suffered a 64million loss. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Toshiba Accounting Scandal The boss of Toshiba, the Japanese technology giant, resigned in disgrace in the wake of one of the countrys biggest ever accounting scandals. His exit came two months after the company revealed that it was investigating accounting irregularities. An independent investigatory panel said that Toshibas management had inflated its reported profits by up to 152 billion yen (780m) between 2008 and 2014. Biggest business scandals in pictures FIFA Corruption Scandal Fifa, football's world governing body, has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption since the summer of 2015, when the US Department of Justice indicted several top executives. It has now claimed the careers of two of the most powerful men in football, Fifa President Sepp Blatter and Uefa President Michel Platini, after they were banned for eight years from all football-related activities by Fifa's ethics committee. A Swiss criminal investigation into the pair is ongoing. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Libor fraudster City trader Tom Hayes, 35, has become the first person to be convicted of rigging Libor rates following a trial at London's Southwark Crown Court. Hayes worked as a trader in yen derivatives at UBS before joining the American bank Citigroup in Tokyo. He was fired from Citigroup following an investigation into his trading methods. He returned to the UK in December 2012 and was arrested following a two-and-a-half year criminal investigation by the SFO. Getty Ovarian cancer charity Ovacome have looked extensively at the evidence and found that out of the millions of women in England and Wales, many of whom use talc, only a very small number will develop ovarian cancer each year. "Even if talc does increase the risk slightly, very few women who use talc will ever get ovarian cancer. Also, if someone has ovarian cancer and used talc, it seems unlikely that using talc was the reason they developed the cancer," said Dr Adam Rosenthal, a senior lecturer and consultant in gynaecological oncology, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Cybercrime is expected to affect over half of British firms in the next two years, according PriceWaterhouseCoopers. PwCs latest Global Economic Crime Survey 2016 said that cyber attack will become the UKs largest economic crime by 2018. More than half of UK organisations have been the victim of an economic crime, an illegal act committed by an individual or a group to obtain a financial or professional advantage, in the last two years, outstripping countries such as the US and China. Cybercrime is the fastest growing fraud with a 20 per cent rise since 2014, in comparison to some of the traditional forms of economic crime, including bribery, asset misappropriation and procurement fraud, which have declined. The survey suggests that many companies are not proactive enough when it comes to cyber threats. A third of UK organisations admitted they have no response plan to protect themselves from an attack. Only 12 per cent of respondents believe that law enforcement authorities have the necessary skills to help. Cloud based storage and the growing popularity of the web are some of the reasons for this years steep increases in cybercrime in the UK. Hackers are now more ambitious than ever. Their aim goes beyond targeting financial information to include a companys crown jewels customer data and intellectual property information, the loss of which can bring down an entire business, said Mark Anderson, global corporate intelligence leader at PwC. Anderson warned that the threat is now a board level risk issue but companies do not take it seriously enough. Biggest business scandals in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Biggest business scandals in pictures Biggest business scandals in pictures Volkswagen emissions scandal VW admitted to rigging its US emission tests so that diesel-powered cars would looks like they were emitting less nitrous oxide, which can damage the ozone layer and contribute to respiratory diseases. Around 11 million cars worldwide were affected. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Martin Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals Martin Shkreli became known as the most hated man in the world after his drug company, Turing, increased the price of a 62-year-old drug that treated HIV patients by 5,000% to $750 a pill. He was charged with illegally taking stock from Retrophin, a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. Shkreli, who maintains he is innocent, and says there is little evidence of fraud because his investors didn't lose money. Biggest business scandals in pictures Panama Papers: Millions of leaked documents expose how worlds rich and powerful hid money - April 2016 Millions of confidential documents have been leaked from one of the worlds most secretive law firms, exposing how the rich and powerful have hidden their money. Dictators and other heads of state have been accused of laundering money, avoiding sanctions and evading tax, according to the unprecedented cache of papers that show the inner workings of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which is based in Panama. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Google's tax avoidance Google reached a deal with the HM Revenue and Customs to pay back 130 million in so-called back-taxes that have been due since 2005. George Osborne championed the deal as a major success. But European MEPs have since called for the Chancellor to appear in front of the committee on tax rulings to explain the tax deal. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Rogue trader A French court cut the damages owed by rogue trader Jerome Kerviel from 4.9bn (4.2bn) to just 1m (860,000). The court ruled on that Kerviel was partly responsible for massive losses suffered in 2008 by his former employer Societe Generale through his reckless trades. Kerviel has consistently maintained that bosses at the French bank knew what he was doing all along. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Barclays CEO under investigation for trying to identify whistleblower - Monday Paril 10 Authorities have launched an investigation into Barclays chief executive officer Jes Staley for trying to identify a whistleblower, the bank said on Monday. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are both investigating Mr Staley after the bank notified them that Mr Staley had tried to identify the author of two anonymous letters, which were sent to the board and a senior executive in June 2016. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures UK to crack down on bank money laundering after reports of 65bn Russian scam, City minister says - March 2017 The Economic Secretary to the Treasury has vowed that the Government will crack down on money laundering practices, after several of the UK's biggest banks were accused of processing money from a Russian scam, believed to involve up to $80bn (65bn). Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Former HBOS bankers convicted of bribery and fraud over 245m loan scam - February 2017 Two former HBOS bankers were among six people found guilty of bribery and fraud that cost customers and shareholders hundreds of millions of pounds, the BBC reports. Lynden Scourfield, 54, a manager at HBOS, forced struggling clients to use the services of his friends David Mills, 60, and Michael Bancroft, 73. In return, the two businessmen arranged sex parties, cash and lavish gifts. On Monday, the three were convicted at Southwark Crown Court on accounts including bribery, fraud and money laundering. Mark Dobson, another manager at HBOS, Alison Mills, and John Cartwright were also convicted. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Lloyds chief apologises for damage caused by affair allegations - August 2016 Antonio Horta-Osorio, the chief executive of Lloyds Bank, has broken his silence over allegations about his private life admitting he regrets any "damage done to the group's reputation". In a message sent to the bank's 75,000 employees, the banker said that anyone can make mistakes while insisting that staff had to maintain the highest professional standards. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Christine Lagarde faces court over 340m Bernard Tapie payment - July 2016 The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, must stand trial in France over a payment of 403 million (now 340m, then 290m) to tycoon Bernard Tapie, a France's highest appeals court has ruled. The court rejected Ms Lagarde's appeal against a judge's order in December for her to stand trial over allegations of negligence in her handling of the affair. Ms Lagarde could risk a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros if convicted. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures HSBC senior manager arrested in FX rigging investigation at JFK airport in New York - July 2016 A senior executive at HSBC has been arrested at New York's JFK airport for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to rig currency benchmarks, according to reports. Mark Johnson, global head of foreign exchange cash trading in London, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday. He will appear before a federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Bloomberg said. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Former PwC employees found guilty in 'Luxleaks' tax scandal - June 2016 Two ex- PricewaterhouseCoopers staffers were found guilty in Luxembourg of stealing confidential tax files that helped unleash a global scandal over generous fiscal deals for hundreds of international companies. Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet face suspended sentences of 12 months and 9 months and were ordered to pay fines of 1,500 (1,230) and 1,000 (822) for their role in the so-called LuxLeaks scandal. Despite the minimal sentences, the ruling was described by Deltours lawyer as shocking and a terrible anomaly. The ruling puts on guard future whistle-blowers, Deltour told reporters.The LuxLeaks revelations sped beyond Luxembourg, causing European Union regulators to expand a tax-subsidy probe and propose new laws to fight corporate tax dodging, while EU lawmakers created a special committee to probe fiscal deals across the 28-nation bloc. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Goldman Sachs dealmakers lavished Libyan officials with prostitutes to win contract - June 2016 A former Goldman Sachs dealmaker trying to persuade Gadaffi-era Libya to invest $1 billion with the investment bank procured prostitutes and invited Libyan officials to lavish parties in the hope of winning the business, the High Court heard on Monday June 13.The Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund is suing Goldman Sachs for inappropriately coercing its naive staff into giving its sovereign wealth fund cash to the bank to invest in products they did not understand. The products were designed to generate big profits for Goldman, the LIA claims.Goldman denies wrongdoing and says the LIA was treated as an arms-length customer Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Former boss of BHS said his life was threatened - June 2016 Darren Topp, the former boss of BHS, has said former owner Dominic Chappell threatened to kill him when he challenged him over a 1.5 million transfer out of the business. MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee asked Mr Topp about a 1.5 million transfer Mr Chappell made from BHS to a company called BHS Sweden. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley admits paying workers below the minimum wage - June 2016 Mike Ashley admitted paying Sports Direct employees below the minimum wage at a hearing in front of MPs. The company founder said that workers were paid less than the statutory minimum because of bottlenecks at security in an admission that could result in sanctions from HMRC. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Mitsubishi admits improper fuel tests - April 2016 Mitsubishi has admitted to using false fuel methods dating back to 1991. The scale of the scandal is only just coming to light after it was revealed in April that data was falsified in the testing of four types of cars, including two Nissan cars. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Quindell, the scandal-ridden insurance firm Quindell was once a darling of AIM but its share price fell in April 2014 when its accounting practices were attacked in a stinging research note by US short seller Gotham City. In August the group was forced to disclose that the 107 million pre-tax profit it had reported for 2013 was incorrect, and it had in fact suffered a 64million loss. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Toshiba Accounting Scandal The boss of Toshiba, the Japanese technology giant, resigned in disgrace in the wake of one of the countrys biggest ever accounting scandals. His exit came two months after the company revealed that it was investigating accounting irregularities. An independent investigatory panel said that Toshibas management had inflated its reported profits by up to 152 billion yen (780m) between 2008 and 2014. Biggest business scandals in pictures FIFA Corruption Scandal Fifa, football's world governing body, has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption since the summer of 2015, when the US Department of Justice indicted several top executives. It has now claimed the careers of two of the most powerful men in football, Fifa President Sepp Blatter and Uefa President Michel Platini, after they were banned for eight years from all football-related activities by Fifa's ethics committee. A Swiss criminal investigation into the pair is ongoing. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Libor fraudster City trader Tom Hayes, 35, has become the first person to be convicted of rigging Libor rates following a trial at London's Southwark Crown Court. Hayes worked as a trader in yen derivatives at UBS before joining the American bank Citigroup in Tokyo. He was fired from Citigroup following an investigation into his trading methods. He returned to the UK in December 2012 and was arrested following a two-and-a-half year criminal investigation by the SFO. Getty Nearly half of UK respondents say that cybercrime would have no impact on their reputation and almost 60 per cent are not concerned about the potential for theft of intellectual property. Andrew Gordon, PwCs Global & UK Forensics leader, said businesses need to focus on risk assessment and should collaborate against the growing threat. Business needs to minimise the opportunities for economic crime through rigorous fraud risk assessment, supported by a culture based on shared corporate values and robust policies and compliance programmes, he said. Company leaders know collaboration is necessary to combat cybercrime but are reluctant to share information according to another recent survey by IBM, a technology and consulting corporation, which gathered answers from more than 700 top senior executives globally. Sharing information in a responsible manner can help reduce risk and response time. As more CEOs see the benefits of collaborative defence against cyberattacks, it is likely to increase their willingness to participate in threat sharing, said Greg Davis, managing associate partner for security business at IBM UK & Ireland told the Independent Cyber security breaches were a regular occurrence in 2015. The TalkTalk hack and Wetherspoons leak exposed a lack of expertise at UK companies and poor cyber skills in the workforce. Many customers had their personal details exposed. In December, Wetherspoons, the UK pub chain, said that 650,000 people might have had their personal details leaked, and that the card details of 100 people had been compromised. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A lawyer representing the victims of Jimmy Savile has described a report into BBC responsibility for his crimes "an expensive whitewash". Dame Janet Smith's report found there was a culture of "reverence and fear" towards celebrities at the corporation, but there was no evidence BBC bosses were aware of the widespread sexual abuse carried out by Savile himself. Liz Dux, a lawyer at Slater and Gordon representing 168 of Savile's many victims, told The Independent managers would only have had to "scratch at the very surface and a lot of Savile's offending would have been revealed". She said: "All the Savile and [Stuart] Hall victims have ever wanted from this report is truth and accountability. Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures July 1964 Jimmy Savile poses next to his Rolls-Royce car Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures February 1965 Jimmy Savile stands by a portrait of himself, painted by a friend, while enjoying his regular breakfast of coke and a cigar in the Bloomsbury hotel room which he has made his home Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures February 1965 Jimmy Savile with his new Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III Drop Head Coupe and bicycle Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures 1965 English radio disc jockey, television broadcaster and charity worker Jimmy Savile on his new motorcycle at Brand's Hatch Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures December 1969 Jimmy Savile in his motor home Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures February 1972 Jimmy Savile holds a newly-printed 'Lucky Jim' poster, outside BBC TV Centre, London Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures March 1972 Jimmy Savile with his mother ('the Duchess') at Buckingham Palace, London Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures 1972 Jimmy Savile arrives in London, on his way to Buckingham Palace where he is to be awarded an OBE Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures 1972 Jimmy Savile sporting his OBE after his investiture at Buckingham Palace, London Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures May 1976 Jimmy Savile with members of the London Fire Brigade at Fire Show Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures September 1978 English disc jockeys Kid Jensen (left) and Jimmy Savile (right) present the prize for 'Britain's Top Young DJ' to 21-year-old Graham Thornton, during the final of the 'Sounds Alive with Tea' competition at the Empire Ballroom, Leicester Square, London Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures February 1980 Jimmy Savile poses for a photograph with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at an NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) fundraising presentation Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures September 2003 Jimmy Saville during the BUPA Great North Run held in Newcastle Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures September 2004 Jimmy Saville meets fans as he passes over the Tyne Bridge during The Bupa Great North Run in Newcastle Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures October 2006 Jimmy Saville prepares for The Bupa Great North Run in Newcastle Despite millions having been spent on the inquiry my clients will feel let down that the truth has still not been unearthed, and many will feel it is nothing more than an expensive whitewash. It is unfortunate that Dame Janet had no power to compel senior managers to give evidence, giving the impression that the whole picture of who knew what has not been revealed." She added: "With 117 witnesses giving evidence of concerns and rumours, its implausible to suggest that this did not reach the upper echelons of the BBC." Dame Janet's independent review, which was launched in 2012, found Savile carried out sex attacks in "virtually every one of the BBC premises in which he worked". She said her findings made for "very sorry reading" for the BBC and that she had identified "some serious failings" in the organisation's culture. No individuals were named as personally responsible. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} In a moment of rare contrition, the leaders of the BBC have apologised for the organisations direct culpability in allowing the sexual abuse of Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall to take place on its premises. Speaking at the publication of a highly critical 1,220-page report on BBC culture at the time the attacks were carried out, Lord Hall, the BBC Director-General, said he was deeply sorry for the pain suffered by the many victims of the two presenters. A serial rapist and a predatory sexual abuser both hid in plain sight at the BBC for decades, he admitted. Rona Fairhead, the chair of the BBC Trust, suggested that the broadcaster would struggle to ever recover from the damage caused to its reputation. These events will forever be a source of deep regret and shame, she said. The BBC had failed the victims of Savile and Hall, she said. It failed, not just them, but the public, its audiences and its staff. It turned a blind eye, where it should have shone a light. And it did not protect those who put their trust in it. They were responding to the findings of an independent review carried out by Dame Janet Smith, a former judge, who identified the complicit effect of entrenched BBC culture in enabling the monstrous behaviour of the two presenters. Rona Fairhead, the chair of the BBC Trust, suggested that the BBC would struggle to ever recover from the damage caused to its reputation (AFP) She exposed a flawed complaints procedure undermined by BBC staff having a reluctance to rock the boat and by a management structure that was not only hierarchical but deeply deferential. She found a macho culture, where women feared to report sexual harassment and celebrities were treated with kid gloves and were virtually untouchable. A solemn-looking Lord Hall said that he had been particularly disturbed by a passage of Dame Janets report which recounted that one of Saviles survivors had been told: Keep your mouth shut, hes a VIP. Lord Hall said this made clear the unique culpability of the BBC in the Savile scandal. This hit me because it made it so very clear that we did that. We, the BBC, did that. Jimmy Savile committed many crimes in many places. But, uniquely, it was the BBC that made him famous. We made him a VIP. Publishing her report, produced over three years at a cost of 6.5m, Dame Janet was scathing of the decisions of BBC managers to repeatedly give Savile a platform when he was boasting in the press of his past associations with violent criminals and having a prolific, casual sex life with young women many decades younger than himself. Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures July 1964 Jimmy Savile poses next to his Rolls-Royce car Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures February 1965 Jimmy Savile stands by a portrait of himself, painted by a friend, while enjoying his regular breakfast of coke and a cigar in the Bloomsbury hotel room which he has made his home Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures February 1965 Jimmy Savile with his new Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III Drop Head Coupe and bicycle Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures 1965 English radio disc jockey, television broadcaster and charity worker Jimmy Savile on his new motorcycle at Brand's Hatch Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures December 1969 Jimmy Savile in his motor home Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures February 1972 Jimmy Savile holds a newly-printed 'Lucky Jim' poster, outside BBC TV Centre, London Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures March 1972 Jimmy Savile with his mother ('the Duchess') at Buckingham Palace, London Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures 1972 Jimmy Savile arrives in London, on his way to Buckingham Palace where he is to be awarded an OBE Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures 1972 Jimmy Savile sporting his OBE after his investiture at Buckingham Palace, London Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures May 1976 Jimmy Savile with members of the London Fire Brigade at Fire Show Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures September 1978 English disc jockeys Kid Jensen (left) and Jimmy Savile (right) present the prize for 'Britain's Top Young DJ' to 21-year-old Graham Thornton, during the final of the 'Sounds Alive with Tea' competition at the Empire Ballroom, Leicester Square, London Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures February 1980 Jimmy Savile poses for a photograph with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at an NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) fundraising presentation Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures September 2003 Jimmy Saville during the BUPA Great North Run held in Newcastle Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures September 2004 Jimmy Saville meets fans as he passes over the Tyne Bridge during The Bupa Great North Run in Newcastle Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures October 2006 Jimmy Saville prepares for The Bupa Great North Run in Newcastle She said: It is amazing that it never occurred to them that Savile was not a suitable role model for the young audiences of Jimll Fix It. She identified 72 people who had been sexually abused by Savile on BBC premises (57 females and 15 males), including 34 under the age of 16. The attacks included eight rapes and 47 indecent assaults. The findings come at a time when the BBC is desperate to protect its public reputation ahead of a Government White Paper on its future. Dame Janet Smith was scathing of the decisions of BBC managers to repeatedly give Savile a platform (Getty) Dame Janet gave the BBC six months to respond to her on how it had improved its procedures as a result of her findings. Lord Hall said that the BBC would be calling in the NSPCC to provide advice on how it can improve its child protection policies. It will also work with the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) to highlight the damage caused by abuse. A BBC1 documentary, The Abused, will give a voice to victims who gave evidence to Scotland Yards Operation Yewtree into child sex abuse by Savile and other prominent individuals. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Ramon Castro's death might have gone unnoticed in the world, even in his native Cuba, had his little brother Fidel not become one of the most famous, most admired but at the same time most disdained men in modern history. Fidel would no doubt say that a simple farmer, as his big brother was, deserves the same recognition as a prince or president. That is an honourable ideal which the decades-long Cuban leader had some trouble living up to, as shown by the hundreds of thousands who fled, or tried to flee, his Caribbean island's Soviet-style "lock-in". Ramon Castro, who has died aged 91, two years older than Fidel, was in most ways the opposite of his brother. He was happy to tend his horses, cattle, sugar cane and orange groves regardless of whether a US puppet dictator or his own Marxist brother was in power. Not for Ramon to put the world to rights or get involved in the killing of human beings that revolutions by nature entail. And unlike Fidel, Ramon wasn't one to go out much. For one thing, passing Habaneros (Havana city folks) and tourists would inevitably take a snap of him because he was a bearded, cigar-chomping dead-ringer for his younger brother. And that resemblance could have cost him his life during the decades when Fidel was Public Enemy #1 for the CIA, who are said to have tried to kill the Cuban leader dozens of times. When passing strangers confronted Ramon with "Comandante?" or "Fidel?" he would reply: "No, soy Mongo, pero si, el Comandante me parece un monton [No, I'm Mongo, but you're right, the Commander does look a lot like me]." Mongo, probably a children's jokey reference to Mongolia in Cuba's multi-ethnic society, was his nickname from childhood. People often took his photo anyway, sometimes passing them off as pictures of Fidel to impress their friends. Not a few foreign journalists made the same mistake, or used the same misunderstanding in their favour without confessing to their editors. Notable deaths in 2016 Show all 42 1 /42 Notable deaths in 2016 Notable deaths in 2016 Debbie Reynolds was an American actress, singer, businesswoman, film historian, and humanitarian. She died on December 28 in Los Angeles Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Actress Carrie Fisher died on December 27 aged 60 Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Comedian and Actor Ricky Harris died on December 26 aged 54 Rex Notable deaths in 2016 British singer George Michael died on 25 December aged 53 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Rick Parfitt OBE was an English musician, best known for being a singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist in the rock band Status Quo. He died on December 24 in Marbella, Spain Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Lord Jenkin of Roding died at the age of 90 on the 21 December PA wire Notable deaths in 2016 Rabbi Lionel Blue died on the 19 December Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Zsa Zsa Gabor died on December 18 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Leonard Cohen died on 7 November Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Grand secretary of the Orange Order Drew Nelson died on 10 October aged 60 after a short illness PA Notable deaths in 2016 Aaron Pryor, the relentless junior welterweight died Sunday, Oct. 9, at the age of 60 at his home in Cincinnati after a long battle with heart disease AP Notable deaths in 2016 Polish Director Andrzej Wajda died on October 9, aged 90 Reuters Notable deaths in 2016 Stylianos Pattakos has died following a stroke on 8th October. He was 103 years old. AP Notable deaths in 2016 Dickie Jeeps, was an English rugby union player who played for Northampton. He represented and captained both the England national rugby union team and the British Lions in the 1950s and 1960s. He died on 8th October. He was 84 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Duke of Westminster Billionaire landowner the Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor has died on 9 August, aged 64 Rex Features Notable deaths in 2016 Christina Knudsen Sir Roger Moores stepdaughter Christina Knudsen has died from cancer on 25 July at teh age of 47 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Caroline Aherne The actress Caroline Aherne has died from cancer on 2 July at the age of 52 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Christina Grimmie Christina Grimmie, 22, who was an American singer and songwriter, known for her participation in the NBC singing competition The Voice, was signing autographs at a concert venue in Orlando on 10 June when an assailant shot her. Grimmie was transported to a local hospital where she died from her wounds on 11 June Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Kimbo Slice Former UFC and Bellator MMA fighter Kimbo Slice died after being admitted to hospital in Florida on 6 June, aged 42 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Muhammad Ali The three-time former heavyweight world champion died after being admitted to hospital with a respiratory illness on 3 June, aged 74 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Sally Brampton Brampton who was the launch editor of the UK edition of Elle magazine has died on 10 May, aged 60 Grant Triplow/REX/Shutterstock Notable deaths in 2016 Billy Paul The soul singer Billy Paul, who was best known for his single Me and Mrs Jones, has died on 24 April, aged 81 Noel Vasquez/Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Prince Prince, the legendary musician, has been found dead at his Paisley Park recording studio on 21 April. He was 57 Notable deaths in 2016 Chyna WWE icon Joan Laurer dies aged 45 after being found at California home on 20 April Notable deaths in 2016 Victoria Wood The five-time Bafta-winning actress and comedian Victoria Wood has died on 20 April at her London home after a short illness with cancer. She was 62 Notable deaths in 2016 David Gest The entertainer and former husband of Liza Minnelli, David Gest has been found dead on 12 April in the Four Seasons hotel in Canary Warf, London. He was 62-years-old PA Notable deaths in 2016 Denise Robertson Denise Robertson, an agony aunt on This Morning for over 30 years, has died on 1 April, aged 83 Notable deaths in 2016 Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Hadid, the prominent architect best known for designs such as the London Olympic Aquatic Centre and the Guangzhou Opera House, has died of a heart attack on 31 March, aged 65 2010 AFP Notable deaths in 2016 Ronnie Corbett British entertainer Ronnie Corbett has passed away on 31 March at the age of 85 2014 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Imre Kertesz Hungarian writer and Holocaust survivor Imre Kertesz, who won the 2002 Nobel Literature Prize, has died on 31 March, at the age of 86 REUTERS Notable deaths in 2016 Rob Ford Rob Ford, the former controversial mayor of Toronto, has died following a battle with a rare form of cancer. The 46-year-old passed away at the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto on 22 March Notable deaths in 2016 Joey Feek Joey (left) passed away in March after a two-year cancer illness. She was part of country music duo, Joey + Rory, with her husband Rory (right) Jason Merritt/Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Umberto Eco Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco died 19 February 2016 aged 84 EPA Notable deaths in 2016 Harper Lee Harper Lee, the American novelist known for writing 'To Kill a Mockingbird', died February 19, 2016 aged 89 2005 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Vanity Vanity, pictured performing in 1983, died aged 57 REX Features Notable deaths in 2016 Dave Mirra The BMX legend's body found inside truck with gunshot wound after apparent suicide aged 41 Notable deaths in 2016 Harry Harpham The former miner became Sheffield Labour MP in May after many years as a local councillor. He died after succumbing to cancer, at the age of 61. Notable deaths in 2016 Dale Griffin The Mott the Hoople drummer died on January 17, aged 67 REX Notable deaths in 2016 Rene Angelil Celine Dion's husband and manager Rene Angelil has lost his battle with cancer on 14 January, aged 73 2011 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Alan Rickman Legendary actor Alan Rickman has died on 14 January at the age of 69 after battle with pancreatic cancer. He is largely regarded as one of the most beloved British actors of our generation with roles in Love Actually, Die Hard, Michael Collins, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and an illustrious stage career 2015 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Maurice White The Earth, Wind & Fire founder died aged 74. The nine-piece band sold more than 90 million albums worldwide and won six Grammy awards Notable deaths in 2016 Lawrence Phillips Former NFL star found dead in prison cell on 13 January in suspected suicide, aged 40 AFP/Getty Images Ramon Castro Ruz was born on the family finca (large farm and plantation) in Biran, eastern Cuba, in 1924, to Angel Castro, a successful immigrant cattle farmer from Galicia at the north-western tip of Spain, and his second wife, Lina Ruz. When Ramon was born, he already had two siblings from his father's first marriage. The Castros were a Catholic family, as yet unmoved by the communist revolution in imperial Russia which many years later would motivate Fidel to make a stand against his island's figurative "big brother" the US, as close to Cuba as Birmingham is to London. Ramon became a member of the communist party and supported his younger brother discreetly when Fidel plotted his revolution in Mexico and sailed back to Cuba in the famous, overloaded family cruise boat Granma with his younger brother Raul and a young Argentinian junior doctor called Ernest Guevara. As with most Argentinians, Guevara became known as "Che", or "buddy". One of the few foreigners to "find" Ramon, although he wasn't exactly in hiding, was the journalist Sally Quinn, who wrote a somewhat drooling but informative article in the Washington Post in 1977: "Physically, he is stunningly like his brother Fidel, an enormous, heavy-set, gruff bear of a man, with a scraggly beard, a red face, a blustery manner, a ready teasing smile and bright dancing eyes." At the time, American tourists had difficulty getting to Cuba but that article about Ramon set the switchboards of American travel agents alight, especially from women of a certain age. While Fidel was in Mexico City, downing coffee and rum with Raul and Guevara, Ramon helped them quietly with money and propaganda while still longing to retain the peaceful life on his farm. He sent his brothers cigars when they were in jail during their first insurrections before the revolution. Following the revolution, Ramon often worked as a consultant for the government ministries of agriculture and sugar. In the early 1960s he oversaw sugar production in eastern Cuba, where he helped increase output. He founded several state companies, including ones that handled sugar cane transportation and orange production. Though he wielded little power, he was a founding member of the Communist Party of Cuba and served as a deputy in the country's parliament, the National Assembly. Although Fidel gave up smoking cigars in the mid-1980s, Ramon maintained the habit. "Is it true that he never smoked again?" he asked in 2002, during an international cigar festival, about his younger brother's former love of the island's fabled product. "As for me, I haven't given it up." Ramon Castro Ruz, farmer: born Biran, Cuba 14 October 1924; twice married (children); died Havana 23 February 2016. Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Aboriginal Australians have been genetically isolated from the rest of humanity for 50,000 years with no direct evidence that they had ever intermarried with South-East Asians about 4,000 years ago, as some scholars have suggested, a DNA study has revealed. A detailed analysis of the male Y chromosome from 13 Aboriginal men found no traces of DNA from other ethnic groups, such as people from the Indian sub-continent who were thought to have migrated to Australia about 2000BC. Geneticists have calculated from mutations present in the Aboriginal Y chromosome that the first inhabitants of Australia had separated from other members of Homo sapiens living elsewhere in the world about 50,000 years ago probably long before our species had arrived to live in Europe. The findings of the study, however, fail to explain the arrival of the dingo wild dog in Australia, which is not a native species and was almost certainly brought by humans to the continent from other parts of south-east Asia. Previous genetic studies, along with archaeological evidence of imported tools and a change in language, had suggested that the dingo had arrived with south-east Asians who had settled in Australia and interbred with local Aboriginals. However the latest study, published in the journal Current Biology by an Anglo-Australian team of researchers, rules out any interbreeding with non-Aboriginals, at least down the male line of descent, said Chris Tyler Smith, an evolutionary geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge. We have disproved interbreeding with south-east Asians at least for the Y lineage of the male chromosome but we have not yet been able to prove that it had not happened in the non-Y lineage but it seems unlikely, Dr Tyler Smith said. It was known that Australia and Papua New Guinea geographically known as Sahul were populated very early in human history, but the extent of the geographic and genetic isolation is only now becoming apparent with genome analysis. We have discovered that there is a very deep, 50,000-year-long history that is specific to the Y-chromosome of Aboriginal Australians. This deep split essentially shows we have two rungs of human evolution after 50,000 years one in Sahul and one in the rest of the world, Dr Tyler Smith said. The researchers liaised closely with Aboriginal communities to carry out the DNA analysis and have already shared their results with them, he said. Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary We were effectively telling them what they already knew. They were the least surprised by the findings, Dr Tyler Smith said. Lesley Williams, an Aboriginal elder, said that science has confirmed what our ancestors have taught us over many generations that we have lived here since the Dreaming. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Asian-born sex abusers will be stripped of their UK citizenship and deported at the end of their sentences under a new Home Office drive, The Independent can reveal. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is planning to significantly increase her departments use of legal powers that allow serious criminals with dual nationality to have their British citizenship withdrawn, Whitehall sources say. Until now, the powers have predominately been used to remove the UK passports of terrorists and terrorist sympathisers. Recommended Read more Two charts that show the shocking reality of sex abuse in the UK today But senior department sources told The Independent that in response to the series of Asian sex abuse gangs uncovered in towns across the country in recent years there is likely to be an acceleration of passport strike-outs and potential deportations. British-Pakistani members of the gang of six men and women from Rotherham who were convicted on Wednesday of offences including rape, forced prostitution, indecent assault and false imprisonment are expected to face action to strip them of their UK citizenship after they are sentenced today. Legal proceedings seeking their potential deportation to Pakistan are likely to follow. From the left: Brothers Arshid, Basharat and Bannaras Hussain, who have been found guilty of a range of offences involving the sexual exploitation of teenage girls in Rotherham (PA) The abuse of predominantly white girls by networks of Asian men has led to prosecutions across the North of England and the Midlands. More trials are imminent. David Greenwood, head of the child abuse department at Switalskis solicitors in Sheffield, who represents almost 60 victims subjected to sexual abuse by the Rotherham gang between 1996 and 2012, said: This trial is just the first of many and is the tip of a very big iceberg. From the work I have done, it appears that gangs of Asian men have been operating to sexually abuse young white girls in Rotherham, Oxford, Keighley, Bradford and Rochdale. Although amendments to British nationality laws in 2014 making it easier to strip dual nationals of citizenship were primarily aimed at terrorists who could undermine the UKs security, the Home Office is now using the same legal sanctions to target serious crime, including sex abuse. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2022 Undergraduates at the University of St Andrews take part in the traditional Pier Walk along the harbour walls of St Andrews before the start of the new academic year PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2022 The Massed Pipes and Drums parade during the Braemar Highland Gathering at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2022 Number 12 Company Irish Guards at Wellington Barracks, central London, before commencing their first Guard Mount at Buckingham Palace PA In a sign of the departments new approach, the Home Office recently took legal action against the British-Pakistani ringleader and members of a child sex gang in Rochdale who were convicted in 2012. A special immigration tribunal in Manchester has just completed hearing appeals against Ms Mays decision to end their British citizenship and begin deportation proceedings. Vinesh Mandalia, counsel for the Home Office at the tribunal, told the hearing that the decision by Home Secretary to deprive the men of their British citizenships was based on the need to express societys condemnation of those who have gained the benefits and privileges of British citizenship, but go on to become involved in serious organised crime. The tribunal will deliver its verdict next month. Police on Rotherham conviction One Whitehall legal adviser said: There are no limits. It is not just potential terrorists who face losing their UK citizenship. Those involved in serious or organised crime, and who hold dual nationality, can expect similar justice. Use of the enhanced deportation powers in 2014 led to a British-born man and his three sons being stripped of their British citizenship because of alleged terrorism links. Theresa May is planning to significantly increase her departments use of legal powers (EPA) In another case, a man holding joint Afghanistan-British citizenship, was stripped of his UK passport and left stranded in Pakistan after being accused of involvement in Islamist extremism. Since 2000, an estimated 37 people have had their British citizenship revoked. Their nationalities include: Russian, Somalia, Yemeni, Australian, Pakistani, Afghan, Albanian, Egyptian, Lebanese, Sudanese, Vietnamese, Iranian, Iraqi and Nigerian. The individuals held British passports from birth, or by application. It is much more difficult to strip UK nationality from foreigners who are not recognised as a citizen of any other country, as this would render them stateless. Human rights campaigners have criticised the extended powers used by the Home Secretary to withdraw British citizenship and enforce deportations as a form of medieval exile. There has also been criticism that in many of the terrorism-related cases, those who face losing their British citizenship or their legal representatives will not be shown the evidence against them. The Home Office has not yet responded to a request from The Independent for comment. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A manhunt for one of the UKs most wanted fugitives has switched to Australia. Kevin Parle, who is wanted for questioning in connection with two murders, has been on the run for more than a decade. Now police are investigating claims he has been living in Perth, western Australia. Merseyside police, who want to question Parle, 35, for the murder of 16-year-old Liam Kelly shot dead in a Liverpool street in June 2004 as well as the murder of young mother Lucy Hargreaves, 22, who was shot dead at her home in the city a year later. Ms Hargreaves murder was later described by police as one of the most brutal and callous acts seen on Merseyside. Detectives believe Parle left the UK on a false passport shortly after she was killed. It is believed he went to Spain where he had contacts on the Costa Blanca. He reportedly lived in the Torrevieja area of Alicante but vanished before Spanish police, acting on a tip-off, could arrest him. A European arrest warrant in his name has been issued. Now the hunt for him has switched to western Australia after police received credible information he had been living in Perth. One witness told Australian police he thinks he had a drink with Parle in a Perth waterfront bar. In a bid to try and capture Parle, Australian Federal Police (AFP) issued a series of digitally altered images of him together with an appeal for anyone who might have seen him to come forward. But they also have warned the public not to approach Parle if he is spotted, as he is considered highly dangerous. Merseyside police confirmed they had supplied a number of images to the AFP following a request. The computer-generated images were produced with the help of Liverpool John Moores University and the National Crime Agency to show what Parle might look like now. The pictures were issued to mark the 10th anniversary of Lucy Hargreaves murder last year. A mother of three, Ms Hargreaves was shot at her home in Liverpools Walton district. Three masked men who burst into her home are believed to have been looking for her boyfriend Gary Campbell. They shot Ms Hargreaves after discovering her sleeping beneath a duvet on the downstairs sofa. They then poured petrol around the house and set fire to it despite hearing the cries of one of her young children upstairs. The child only escaped when the victims partner jumped to safety from an upstairs window with her. Two men, Anthony Downes and Kirk Bradley stood trial for Lucys murder in 2007. Both were acquitted after being told they had no case to answer following a four-week trial. Both men were subsequently jailed for running what was dubbed a guns for hire gang, which attacked criminal rivals in a series of gun and grenade attacks. A third man accused of stealing the vehicle the prosecution said was used to flee the scene was also cleared. Parle, who was educated at a private school, was on bail having been arrested for the murder of Liam Kelly the previous year. Police say the teenager was shot in the arm and chest after being approached by two armed men from different directions when he got out of a car. He was shot as he tried to get into a nearby house. He died at the scene. Parle, who also goes by the name Joseph or nickname Hemp, was arrested for the shooting, but jumped bail. Three other people have also been convicted for the murder and jailed, police said. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Scores of pensioners in Cumbria have been convicted for committing crimes over the past 12 months, according to police figures. Crimes executed by dozens of over-60s, dubbed the Saga Louts, include theft, fraud, shoplifting, drink-driving and sexual offences. An 84-year-old man is one of the oldest of the 64 pensioners to have been convicted in the region in the past year, Cumbria Police revealed. Theft was the number-one offence committed by south Cumbrias silver-haired criminals, followed by assault, having a dangerous dog and harassment. The most common crime among OAPs in the west of the county was also theft, followed by assault and causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress. The spate of crimes committed by people in this age bracket could be a direct result of being plunged into poverty, according the UKs largest charity for older people. "The majority of elderly people are on a fixed income yet rent and bills and other outgoings continue to riseThey live in destitution and then end up in A&E, said Hugh Tomlinson, deputy chief officer of Age UK South Lakeland. Mr Tomlinson said the number of elderly people seeking welfare advice and being directed to food banks had spiked in the past 18 months. People are desperate," he added. A spokesman from Cumbria Police said: "We work to keep people safe and remove from our communities anyone who poses a threat or causes harm. The spokesman added: "Our teams of officers and detectives work hard to trace these offenders and bring them to justice, and age is no deterrent to prosecution." Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Every year the betting industry pays for the rehoming of some 1,300 retired racing greyhounds. Unfortunately for Many Memories, the bookmakers largesse did not extend as far as her. Weighing just 14kg half that of a healthy female greyhound she was removed in a pitiful state from its owner last month by a dog warden in Doncaster. The rescue charity which took in Many Memories, who last raced a year ago, said it was the single worst case of emaciation it had seen in its 20-year history, adding: It is entirely possible she may not make it. MPs are now drawing attention to continuing problems with welfare in greyhound racing, despite the introduction of new legal safeguards in 2010, and warned the gambling industry is failing to do enough to protect the dogs. Many Memories was removed from her owner weighing less than half a healthy weight The amount contributed by bookmakers towards the welfare of greyhounds under a voluntary levy scheme has fallen by nearly 50 per cent in the past decade despite the industry making profits of 237m from the sport in 2014 according to the House of Commons environment, food and rural affairs select committee. At the same time, up to 3,700 dogs are going unaccounted for each year. In a report on greyhound welfare, the MPs said the Government should consider imposing a compulsory levy on bookmakers, after hearing evidence that profits from online and overseas betting were not included in contributions. One online exchange, Betfair, announced in 2013 it was stopping its voluntary contribution of about 800,000 a year. Neil Parish, chairman of the committee, said: Bookmakers who profit from greyhound racing should contribute to welfare standards regardless of whether the profits are from high street stores, online or overseas betting. The welfare of racing greyhounds shouldnt be at the whim of bookmakers who can simply choose to contribute or not. The fate of greyhounds once they finish their racing careers has long been a vexed topic, with animal welfare campaigners raising concerns that thousands of dogs go unaccounted for each year amid reports of routine use of euthanasia. Figures provided to the committee showed that 1,086 greyhounds raced at tracks licensed by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain were either put down or suffered serious leg injuries in 2014, accounting for 0.33 per cent of all dogs raced in the UK. The MPs said this figure was considerably lower than figures provided by welfare groups and called on the industry to be more transparent. In a statement, the Association of British Bookmakers said: 90 per cent of betting shops contribute to the British Greyhound Racing Fund contributions which come to 7m a year. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} There is no evidence BBC bosses were aware of the widespread sex attacks carried out by Jimmy Savile in which children as young as eight were abused. Dame Janet Smith's independent review of the BBC culture in the years that Savile and fellow presenter and sexual predator Stuart Hall worked there found there was a culture of reverence and fear towards celebrities at the corporation and that an atmosphere of fear still exists today in the BBC. The report finds that Savile carried out sex attacks on 72 victims in virtually every one of the BBC premises in which he worked. It states that no senior manager at the BBC ever found out about any specific complaint relating to Savile's inappropriate sexual conduct in connection with his work for the BBC. However, it says some junior and middle-ranking staff were aware of Savile's "inappropriate sexual behaviour". In total, 117 witnesses who had worked at the BBC had "heard rumours" of Savile's activities. The report's key findings state: Of the 72 victims, 57 were female and 15 were male. 21 of the female victims were under 16 and 36 were 16 and over; 13 of the male victims were under 16 and two were sixteen and over; Eight victims were raped (six female and two male) and one female victim was the subject of an attempted rape; The youngest victim of sexual abuses was aged just eight 47 victims were the subject of indecent/sexual assault excluding rape (34 female and 13 male); Top of the Pops and Jimll Fix It were the programmes relating to which victims were most frequently assaulted (with 19 victims being assaulted in relation to Top of the Pops and 17 in relation to Jimll Fix It); The majority of victims (44) were assaulted in the 1970s, with 10 in the 1960s and 17 in the 1980s. Dame Janet found that staff missed a string of opportunities dating back to the late 1960s to stop Savile, who died in October 2011 aged 84 never having been brought to justice for his crimes and is now believed to be one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders. Her report states: In summary, my conclusion is that certain junior and middle-ranking individuals were aware of Savile's inappropriate sexual conduct in connection with his work for the BBC. However, I have found no evidence that the BBC, as a corporate body, was aware of Savile's inappropriate sexual conduct in connection with his work for the BBC. She said her findings made for very sorry reading for the BBC and that she had identified some serious failings in the organisation's culture. There seems to have been a sense that, once a girl had reached the age of 16, anything went, Dame Janet said. The report cited 72 Savile victims (57 female and 15 male), 34 of whom were aged under 16, all attacked in incidents connected with his work at the BBC. It recorded six rapes of females and two of males, and 47 incidents of sexual assault. Some 19 attacks were associated with Top of the Pops and 17 with Jim'll Fix It. Other attacks were linked to Savile's Travels, Clunk Click and the Radio 1 Roadshow. But, surprisingly, Dame Janet said she would not make detailed recommendations on how the BBC could take steps to ensure that any repetition could be avoided in future. She said it does not seem to me to be sensible or practicable to attempt to do so. The events and shortcomings I have described occurred many years ago. They occurred against a particular social background. Much has changed since then. The BBC has been given six months to respond setting out procedures in areas criticised in the report. A separate report found that BBC management was aware that Stuart Hall, a presenter with Radio 5 Live, had been involved in inappropriate sexual conduct on BBC premises but was allowed to continue working. The report's author, Dame Linda Dobbs, found that BBC management in the north-west ought to have been aware of what Hall later did on BBC premises. In 2014, Hall was sentenced to two and a half years for indecent assault of a 13-year-old girl, having previously served 30 months in jail for similar offences. Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures July 1964 Jimmy Savile poses next to his Rolls-Royce car Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures February 1965 Jimmy Savile stands by a portrait of himself, painted by a friend, while enjoying his regular breakfast of coke and a cigar in the Bloomsbury hotel room which he has made his home Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures February 1965 Jimmy Savile with his new Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III Drop Head Coupe and bicycle Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures 1965 English radio disc jockey, television broadcaster and charity worker Jimmy Savile on his new motorcycle at Brand's Hatch Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures December 1969 Jimmy Savile in his motor home Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures February 1972 Jimmy Savile holds a newly-printed 'Lucky Jim' poster, outside BBC TV Centre, London Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures March 1972 Jimmy Savile with his mother ('the Duchess') at Buckingham Palace, London Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures 1972 Jimmy Savile arrives in London, on his way to Buckingham Palace where he is to be awarded an OBE Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures 1972 Jimmy Savile sporting his OBE after his investiture at Buckingham Palace, London Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures May 1976 Jimmy Savile with members of the London Fire Brigade at Fire Show Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures September 1978 English disc jockeys Kid Jensen (left) and Jimmy Savile (right) present the prize for 'Britain's Top Young DJ' to 21-year-old Graham Thornton, during the final of the 'Sounds Alive with Tea' competition at the Empire Ballroom, Leicester Square, London Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures February 1980 Jimmy Savile poses for a photograph with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at an NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) fundraising presentation Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures September 2003 Jimmy Saville during the BUPA Great North Run held in Newcastle Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures September 2004 Jimmy Saville meets fans as he passes over the Tyne Bridge during The Bupa Great North Run in Newcastle Jimmy Savile: Life in pictures October 2006 Jimmy Saville prepares for The Bupa Great North Run in Newcastle Dame Janet said that most of the incidents of rape and attempted rape that she investigated in relation to Savile took place on BBC premises. I heard of incidents which took place in virtually every one of the BBC's premises at which he worked, Dame Janet reported. These included the BBC Theatre at Shepherd's Bush (in connection with Jim'll Fix It and Clunk Click), Television Centre (in particular in connection with Top of the Pops), Broadcasting House...Lime Grove Studios and various provincial studios including Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow. She found that within the BBC no complaints about Savile's behaviour were made to the BBC Duty Office, the standard procedure for such concerns. Eight complaints were made by other means, from the late 1960s onwards, with three reports made by people outside the BBC and five from within. BBC presenting stars Louis Theroux and Mark Lawson were among those who said they were aware of allegations around Savile's behaviour. After Theroux made a documentary on Savile, When Louis met Jimmy, he was approached in 2001 by a woman who told him that Savile had intercourse with her when she was 15. Dame Janet did not criticise Theroux for reporting the information. Lawson, the report said, saw Savile assault a young woman who was working on BBC Radio 4's Front Row, on which Savile appeared in 2006, when he was nearly 80 years old, to discuss the last edition of Top of the Pops. Savile died in 2011 and the BBC's failure to broadcast an expose of his activities by its own Newsnight programme in 2012 precipitated an unprecedented crisis at the BBC which ultimately led to the resignation of former Director-General George Entwistle and later the ordering of Dame Janet's much-delayed report. Dame Janet said she was making one overarching recommendation to the BBC, which was that it needs to demonstrate to the public that it has taken the current criticisms seriously, and has made, or is making, such changes as are necessary and appropriate to ensure that these terrible events cannot occur again. Examining the question of whether a predatory child abuser could operate at the BBC today, Dame Janet said such behaviour had become even harder to detect. The power of celebrity and the trust we accord it, which show no real sign of diminishing in our society, make detection of a celebrity abuser even more difficult. She noted that Savile was intelligent, charismatic and extremely manipulative. Addressing society at large, she warned: We need now to ensure that the message is passed to the younger generation. We need them to complain straightaway if they are abused before the abuser has the chance to abuse again and again. The report took two and a half years to compile, following contact with more than 800 people. More than 380 witnesses were interviewed. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A man has been detained by police following a hostage situation at a Bella Italia restaurant in Leicester Square. Police arrived at the scene at 8:50pm and have cordoned off part of the square. It is not believed to be terror related. A Met Police spokesman said officers responded to "a man with a knife who is holding a woman against her will in a restaurant in Irving Street". Heart Radio's James Robinson has shared this image of the police cordon between Leicester Square and Charing Cross Road. Officers surrounded the building and were negotiating with the man. Two other people were also believed to be in the restaurant and it is understood the people were known to each other. The incident has since been resolved and a man has been detained, Met Police have confirmed. There are no reported injuries. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A police force has referred itself for investigation after its traffic officers deliberately ran down a dog that was running across a dual carriageway. It comes after the incident was condemned by the public and animal groups. The officers from North Wales Police ran down and killed the dog on the A55 near Llandudno in the early hours of Monday. North Wales Police said their overriding concern had been the safety of the road users. The force said that firearms officers had been sent to the scene but there was concern they could not get a safe shot and that the owner supported the polices decision and accepted that given the risk to human life, the officers made the correct decision. The incident sparked backlash and thousands of complaints were made by the public, including calls for the officers involved to face criminal charges. Peta condemned the officers actions and said they desperately need a crash course in humane animal control. North Wales Police has now referred the incident to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) for investigation. Chief superintendent Sacha Hatchett said the decision by the officers was difficult and was not taken lightly. "The force has voluntarily referred the incident to the Independent Police Complaints Commission because of the level of public concern. It is also being reviewed by the force to ensure we examine options available to officers and we will liaise with RSPCA Wales and others in doing this." Winston Roddick, the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, said: These were highly unusual circumstances and it was a difficult judgement to make I will be raising the matter with the force and I will be asking a number of questions because it is important to ensure the matter is looked into fully. RSPCA Wales said it welcomed the police referring the incident to the IPCC. We understand the Force is undertaking an internal review into how such incidents are dealt with and look forward to engaging with this work. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Among Scots and tourists alike, the bonny banks of Loch Lomond have long been renowned as a relaxing place to enjoy some of the country's most beautiful scenery. But the area could soon become associated with an altogether more tangible commodity: Scottish gold. An Australian company which has spent most of the last decade developing a gold mine in the dramatic surroundings of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park has finally announced plans for an ore processing trial. If approved, the mine could be producing Scottish gold within months. Scotgold Resources said it was ready to begin processing 2,400 tonnes of ore which have already been extracted at its Cononish mine at Tyndrum. The project is already attracting interest from high-end jewellers eager to get their hands on the first batch of purely Scottish gold, which is expected to be particularly sought-after by couples who want unique wedding rings. Recommended Read more The price of gold has soared as equity markets plunge Although a gold mine at Tyndrum has been discussed as far back as the 1980s, Scotgold only began working on the idea of a commercially viable project eight years ago. Since then it has been busy conducting lengthy feasibility studies and securing the relevant planning permissions, but Richard Gray, the company's chief executive, told The Independent that producing gold was now tantalisingly close. It's always been there on paper, but it's not managed to produce anything so far, he said. The significance of what we're doing now is that we'll actually have some trial equipment up on site taking some of the ore, the gold-bearing material, and we're going to produce some gold. It's a huge step because we're at last now doing something tangible. The company does not know exactly how much gold it will be able to get out of the ground during the six month trial, but is hoping to secure around 500 ounces with the aim of selling a significant quantity to Scottish jewellers. If and when the mine enters full production, its aim is to produce 23,000 ounces of gold a year. Mr Gray said the first Scottish gold could be produced as early as May and would be converted into jewellery as soon as possible. The firm has already sounded out several high-end jewellers who are willing to pay a premium for the gold, in anticipation of high demand due to the rarity of the product. There's a huge market in Scotland for people coming up to get married here in Scottish castles, he added. A bit like the way De Beers markets diamonds, once people know that Scottish gold is available and you can get a wedding ring made from pure Scottish gold, I think the market will grow for it. The development of the mine has not been without controversy, with local campaigners voicing concerns that the infrastructure and waste created by the operation could damage the national park. Before the ore processing trial can begin, planning permission will have to be granted. A spokesperson for the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority said: Any planning application we receive is assessed against a bespoke set of policies to ensure that any new development does not result in unacceptable environmental impacts. Where possible we look for development to deliver environmental gains, not least because of our National Park status. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} New figures showing an annual rise in net migration to the UK have provoked fierce debate but many myths persist about the effects of immigration. Here are some of the most common misconceptions: 'Migration is higher than ever before ' Annual net migration actually dipped in the year to September compared to the record-setting figures on the 12 months to June, from 336,000 to 323,000. Although the latest number is still a rise on 2014, only 2,000 more people immigrated to the UK in the latest period analysed. The latest increase in net migration was not statistically significant compared with 2014, a spokesperson for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Migration has fallen from record levels recorded in the year to June 2015 (Getty Images) This net increase was the result of a decrease in emigrationand immigration being at a similar level to the previous year. Net migration from the EU, 172,000, saw a slight increase on 2014 and the figure for non-EU citizens was also slightly up at 191,000. In real terms, EU immigration was up from 246,000 to 257,000, while non-EU immigration was down from 289,000 to 273,000. The ONS said the changes were not statistically significant for either group, although a 15,000 jump in immigration from EU2 countries Romania and Bulgaria was notable. 'The refugee crisis is pushing immigration out of control' As stated above, the main cause of the rise in net migration is not immigration itself but a drop in emigration. Asylum applications also rose for the fifth successive year in the UK according to the ONS, but the increase is negligible in light of the arrival of more than 1 million refugees in Europe. The number of applications lodged in the year to September 38,878, an annual increase of 20 per cent, the figure is nowhere near the UKs 2002 peak of 103,000. Germany, by contrast, had taken more than 353,000 applications in the year to October, while Hungary was on 204,000 and Sweden on 94,000. The rate of asylum seekers per million people in the UK was 185, lower than Ireland, Iceland and Switzerland. Most refugees arriving in Britain last year came from Eritrea, followed by Iran, Pakistan, Sudan and Syria. An additional 1,200 Syrians granted humanitarian protection under the Governments resettlement scheme, which was introduced after David Cameron refused to sign up to EU quotas, were not counted in the figure. Rates for granting applications varied widely across different nationals, with almost 90 per cent of Syrians being accepted as refugees compared to just a fifth of Pakistani nationals. Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily. 'Immigrants are coming here for benefits' One of the most frequently raised allegations about immigrants entering the UK is that they aim to exploit the national welfare system, despite numerous studies showing European migrants pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits. David Cameron once called public concern about benefits tourism widespread and understandable but research has not found a statistical foundation for the fears. Recent immigrants have made a net contribution of 20 billion to the UK over the last ten years, according to a UCL study, and foreigners are barred from several types of benefits without having permanent residency in the UK, unlike those on work visas, students and asylum seekers don't qualify. In 2013, a spokesperson for the European Employment Commissioner said the British Government had completely failed to come up with any specific evidence to show that its welfare system was being abused and that EU nationals pay more in tax and other contributions than they receive in benefits. In that same year, a European Commission report showed that unemployed EU migrants made up less than 5 per cent of migrant claimants across the bloc and that fewer than 38,000 were claiming Jobseeker's Allowance. A leaked Home Office document later admitted that the Government keeps no figures on how many EU nationals claim welfare payments. A study by University College London estimated that migrants coming to the UK since 2000 have been 43 per cent less likely to claim benefits or tax credits compared to the British-born workforce. Immigrants, especially in recent years, tend to be younger and better educated than the UK-born and less likely to be unemployed, the Centre for Economic Performance at LSE concluded in a separate report. EU migrants not after benefits 'Immigrants are taking our jobs' The latest ONS statistics show that employment rates for arriving migrants are high. Of the 290,000 people who immigrated for work in the year to September 2015, almost 60 per cent had already secured a job and the share rose to two thirds for Romanians and Bulgarians. Around 165,000 EU citizens came to the UK for work-related reasons, with 96,000 arriving to a definite job and 69,000 looking for work. Around two million non-British EU nationals are currently working in the UK, as well as 1.2 million non-EU nationals and 28.3 million Brits, according to the latest statistics from the Labour Force Survey. Visas granted for skilled work and other working visas were on the rise but those for study fell slightly following policy restrictions brought in by the Conservative government. Britains rising immigrant stars Show all 8 1 /8 Britains rising immigrant stars Britains rising immigrant stars Sportsman Al Bangura is helping Sport for Freedom and the Premier League raise awareness to stop child trafficking Anna Huix Britains rising immigrant stars Novelist and lm-maker Xiaolu Guo came to London on a scholarship to the UKs national film school and has settled in east London with her partner and child Anna Huix Britains rising immigrant stars Comedian Sajeela Kershi tells her own stories about being a Muslim immigrant Anna Huix Britains rising immigrant stars Campaigner Meltem Avcil says: I want Yarls Wood closed. These people are not criminals Anna Huix Britains rising immigrant stars Fashion designer Marta Marques has launched her own womenswear label with her partner Paulo Almeida Anna Huix Britains rising immigrant stars Scientist Aarti Jagannath won a scholarship from the British Council to study in Britain Anna Huix Britains rising immigrant stars Food entrepreneur Edin Basic started Firezza in 2001 with a friend from Mostad Anna Huix Britains rising immigrant stars Actor Noma Dumezweni will play an adult Hermione Granger in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child from July Anna Huix But the figures do not necessarily mean new arrivals are taking British jobs, experts have cautioned. In its 2015 General Election briefing, the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics observed: There is still no evidence of an overall negative impact of immigration on jobs, wages, housing or the crowding out of public services. Any negative impacts on wages of less skilled groups are small. One of the largest impacts of immigration seems to be on public perceptions. Its research found that immigrants tend to be better educated and younger than their UK-born counterparts, while their share of the market for new jobs has remained broadly the same. Jonathan Portes, Principle Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, suggested employment fears may stem from the fact that areas with high immigration, such as London, also tend to be where the job market moves more quickly Its fairly obvious that wages are generally higher and jobs easier to come by in areas of high immigration like London, while many low migration areas have relatively depressed labour markets, he added. Itstrue that, if an immigrant takes a job, then a British worker cant take that job but it doesnt meant he or she wont find another one that may have been created, directly or indirectly, as a result of immigration. UK unemployment fell to its lowest rate in almost a decade in December (Getty) 'Migration causes crime' Anti-immigration groups have used fears of criminality as a key focus, particularly following the sex attacks in Cologne and reports of increased crime rates in areas of Europe being directly affected by the refugee crisis. A report by LSE in 2013 found that crime actually fell significantly in areas that had experienced mass immigration from eastern Europe, with rates of burglary, vandalism and car theft down since 2004. The research concluded that there was no causal impact of immigration on crimecontrary to the immigration causes crime populist view expressed in some media and political debate. Brian Bell, a LSE research fellow, told the Guardian: The view that foreigners commit more crime is not true. The truth is that immigrants are just like natives: if they have a good job and a good income they don't commit crime. A 2008 report for the Association of Chief Police Officers found that national crime rates have continued to fall despite rising net migration over a number of years. The research found that offending rates among Polish, Romanian and Bulgarian communities were in line with the general population. (Getty Images) 'It puts a strain on public services, hospitals and schools' UCLs Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration at University College London found that European immigrants to the UK pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits, effectively subsiding public services. A key concern in the public debate on migration is whether immigrants contribute their fair share to the tax and welfare systems, co-author Professor Christian Dustmann wrote. Our new analysis draws a positive picture of the overall fiscal contribution made by recent immigrant cohorts, particularly of immigrants arriving from the EU. While school places and hospital beds are under pressure in many areas, much of the change arises from rising birth rates, the effects of an ageing population and other factors that local and national government has failed to respond to by expanding provision. Additionally, figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre showed that 11 per cent of NHS staff are not British, including more than a quarter of doctors. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Wales could lose up to a quarter of its MPs and northern England could see 15 parliamentary constituencies abolished, under plans to redraw the electoral map of Britain. The Government wants to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600 in time for the 2020 General Election, in plans that ministers say will make each constituency more equal in population. However, the reforms are likely to benefit the Conservative vote and Labour has accused the Government of seeking an unfair advantage in elections. Boundary Commissions for the four UK nations announced they had begun work on redrawing constituency boundaries, following the publication of new official electoral register figures. Boundary changes will be based on a mathematical formula to create constituencies of equal sizes, reflecting population changes in recent years. Initial proposals would see the number of Welsh MPs reduced from 40 to 29, while England will lose 33 of its 532 constituencies, 15 of them in the north, nine in the East and Midlands, and nine in London and the South. The reforms will be carried out on the basis of December 2015 electoral register figures, published by the Office for National Statistics, which put the size of the electorate at 44,722,004. However, Labour protested that this figure was down by more than 600,000 on the previous year, with the decrease a result of rushed changes to the way voters are registered. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2022 Undergraduates at the University of St Andrews take part in the traditional Pier Walk along the harbour walls of St Andrews before the start of the new academic year PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2022 The Massed Pipes and Drums parade during the Braemar Highland Gathering at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2022 Number 12 Company Irish Guards at Wellington Barracks, central London, before commencing their first Guard Mount at Buckingham Palace PA Voters are now registered as individuals, rather than by household. Voters in poorer areas and students both seen to be more likely to vote Labour are thought to be more likely to have dropped of the register, which Labour fear could skew the electoral arithmetic in the Conservatives favour. The Government claims that the falling size of the electorate is caused by a reduction in ghost voters, who are incorrectly registered at an address, have died, or never existed in the first place. But Gloria de Piero, Labours shadow minister for voter registration, said the Government was shamelessly taking an opportunity to redraw constituency boundaries based on an electorate that is far lower than it should be. John Penrose, minister for constitutional reform, said that equalising the size of constituencies would mean every vote will carry equal weight. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Michael Gove is "facing the sack" as Justice Secretary after he came out against Britains continued membership of the European Union. David Cameron is reportedly being urged by his ministerial allies to remove Mr Gove from the Cabinet after he decided to oppose the Prime Ministers bid to keep the country in the union. Following a renegotiation with other EU leaders in Brussels last week, Mr Cameron announced he would become the leader of the Remain campaign ahead of the referendum on 23 June. Mr Gove said on Wednesday that the European Court of Justice stands above every nation state and claimed the agreement - which restricts EU migrants claiming benefits and promises to prevent UK becoming involved in ever closer union - was not legally binding. He also attacked Mr Cameron on immigration, saying the EU stopped Britain having control over the type of people that we want in this country. The Telegraph reports Mr Cameron is furious with Mr Gove after his ally assured him he would keep a low profile during the campaign. David Cameron is reportedly furious with Mr Gove after he promised to keep 'a low profile' during the campaign (AFP) But other sources told the newspaper Mr Cameron would be urged to keep Mr Gove in the Cabinet in a bid to secure post-referendum party unity. The Prime Minister previously said ministers would be able to campaign for Brexit without having to resign their positions. He is also expected to offer a job to Boris Johnson - despite rebuking him for his pro-Brexit stance in the House of Commons on Monday and suggesting he only joined the Out campaign to become Conservative Party leader. What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence. An ally of Mr Cameron's said: "It is untenable to have a Justice Secretary after the referendum who opposed the legal basis of the Prime Minister's deal. It just won't work." But friends of Mr Gove suggested Mr Cameron will have a serious fight on his hands if he attempts to sack him. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Out campaigners have seized on new migration figures showing that the Government is still failing to make headway cutting the number of EU migrant workers coming to live in Britain. Statistics from the Office for National Statistics revealed that net migration to the UK is running at 323,000 a year three times above the Governments self-imposed limit of 100,000. David Cameron claimed that the target could still be met if action was taken right across the board, and insisted that the agreement to limit in-work benefits would contribute to cutting numbers. But in a sign of the new reality of the Government stripped of collective responsibility, his employment minister, Priti Patel, criticised the failure to tackle EU migration. Once again, net migration has gone up putting pressure on our jobs, housing, and our public services, she said. More than half have come from the European Union showing that we cannot control our borders while we remain members of the EU. [Mr Camerons] proposed deal will do nothing to reduce the level of immigration from the EU, and will leave unelected politicians in Brussels and judges from the EU Court in control of our borders. The only way to take back control is to vote Leave. EU referendum timeline - What happens if Britain gets the deal The figures also showed: Net migration from the EU was 172,000 in the year to September, down from 180,000 for the year ending in June 2015, but higher than the 158,000 in the 12 months to September 2014. An estimated 165,000 EU citizens came to Britain for work-related reasons. Of those, 58 per cent had a job and 42 per cent came looking for work. There was a statistically significant rise in immigration from Bulgaria and Romania against the year before, up by 15,000 to 55,000. These migrants account for 21 per cent of EU immigration. What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence. But Jonathan Portes, of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said that while the statistics showed gross EU immigration was 260,000, in the same period there were 650,000 national insurance numbers issued to EU citizens, casting doubt over the official estimates accuracy. This was highlighted by the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage. He accused ministers of pulling the wool over our eyes, adding that the ONS figures use the International Passenger Survey [for] their figures, a survey regarded as deeply flawed by most responsible statisticians If as they claim only 260,000 EU nationals arrived, then how is it possible 650,000 [NI] numbers have been given to foreign nationals? Mr Portes himself said both measures were flawed and called on the Government to publish the data that could reconcile the figures. Speaking to staff at BAE Systems in Lancashire, Mr Cameron conceded that the immigration numbers were still too high. First of all we have got to take more action on migration from outside the EU, so that means making sure there are fewer bogus students coming, making sure there are tough rules to encourage businesses to train people here rather than bring them from abroad, he said. Inside Europe we need to fix this issue of welfare but of course we have now got this agreement that people cannot get 10,000 the minute they arrive in the UK and work. He added: We are also going to tighten up on the free movement rules. We now have got the ability to tighten up on criminals, sham marriages, fraudsters ... all those things. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The European Parliament has voted in favour of an EU-wide embargo on selling arms to Saudi Arabia. A resolution calling for a ban on all weapons sales to the country was passed by 359 votes to 212, with 31 MEPs abstaining. The non-binding motion calls on member states to stop selling weapons to the country, which is currently conducting a widely-criticised military operation in neighbouring Yemen marked by high civilian casualties. Recommended Read more Ministers attend arms trade dinner hours after Saudi sales ban call Saudi Arabia is intervening in Yemen to fight Houthi rebels, who control the countrys capital but are not internationally recognised as its government. Criticism of the countrys military operation have however included the bombing of multiple hospitals run by the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres and the deaths of thousands of civilians, including 130 at a single wedding. While international observers have recognised abuses on all sides, in late December UN human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein said that a disproportionate number of attacks of civilians in Yemen had come from the Saudi-led invasion force. I have observed with extreme concern the continuation of heavy shelling from the ground and the air in areas with high a concentration of civilians as well as the perpetuation of the destruction of civilian infrastructure in particular hospitals and schools by all parties to the conflict, although a disproportionate amount appeared to be the result of airstrikes carried out by Coalition forces, Mr Zeid said. The UN has also said Saudi Arabia is contributing to a humanitarian disaster in Yemen. Figures reported by the Independent in January showed British arms firms cashing in on the conflict, with sales of bombs and missiles to the autocratic regime surging from 9 million to 1 billion in just three months last year. The Government must approve all arms exports by UK companies abroad. Overall UK licences granted to military equipment to the country are 6.7 billion since David Cameron took office in 2010 and 2.8 billion since the bombing of Yemen began. Recent opinion polling by Opinium found that 62 per cent of UK adults oppose arms sales to Saudi Arabia, with only 16 per cent supporting them. Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade said the sale of European weapons to the region was fuelling the war in the region and that EU member states should listen to the European Parliament. The European Parliament has sent a clear, strong and much needed message to governments like the UK, that have been complicit in the destruction of Yemen, he said. The toxic combination of arms sales and political support has helped to fuel, facilitate and legitimise the humanitarian catastrophe that is taking place. Alyn Smith, a Scottish National Party MEP involved in the tabling the motion, said Europe had a duty to the civilians of Yemen being killed by Saudi Arabian weaponry. An MSF hospital at Haydan in Yemen after a Saudi Arabian air strike (MSF) I have a close association with Saudi Arabia. I grew up there and I am sensitive to the realities of the Saudis and appreciate that the Saudis have concerns in their neighbourhood, Mr Smith said. But our duty is to the civilians in Yemen, and given widespread and very valid concerns over the conduct of the war by Saudi forces, our call for an EU-wide arms embargo is proportionate and necessary. Mr Smith, who is a lawyer by profession and who sits on the EPs foreign affairs committee, said he believed EU-made weapons being exported to Saudi Arabia were breaching international law. Earlier this year lawyers from the Leigh Day firm, representing Campaign Against the Arms Trade, took steps towards a legal challenge of the British Governments arms sales. Richard Howitt, a Labour MEP who is the Socialist group's foreign affairs spokesperson, said Europe had a legal duty to work towards the end of the crisis in Yemen. The European Parliament (Creative Commons) "This is a clear humanitarian appeal to end the bloodshed in Yemen, and call on Saudi Arabia to pursue a political rather than a military solution to the conflict," he said. "Europe and the world must not ignore the unacceptable death toll in Yemen, and the European Parliament voted today that the allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law by Saudi Arabia in Yemen are now so serious that continuing arms sales would constitute a breach of the EU's own legally-agreed Code of Conduct." Parliaments International Development Committee earlier this month said the UK should suspend all arms sales to Saudi. David Cameron has defended British support to the operation, arguing that the UKs relationship with the petro-state was important for our security. Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond said in November that he wanted to sell even more munitions to Saudi Arabia. 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty Wed always like to do more business, more British exports, more British jobs and in this case very high end engineering jobs protected and created by our diplomacy abroad, he told the BBCs Newsnight programme when asked about the issue. He admitted that the weapons were being used in Yemen but said that Saudis deny there have been any breaches of international humanitarian law. A Government spokesperson said of arms exports to Saudi Arabia: We operate one of the most rigorous and transparent arms export control regimes in the world with each licence application assessed on a case by case basis, taking account of all relevant information, to ensure compliance with our legal obligations. No licence is issued if it does not meet these requirements. We regularly raise with Saudi Arabian-led coalition and the Houthis, the need to comply with international humanitarian law (IHL) in Yemen. We monitor the situation carefully and have offered the Saudi authorities advice and training in this area. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Scrapping the Human Rights Act will help protect human rights, the Attorney General has argued. Jeremy Wright, the Conservative MP who acts as the chief legal advisor to the Government, argued that replacing the Act would strengthen humanitarian protections. The Government is moving to enact a Conservative manifesto promise to scrap the 1998 Act, which implements the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law and binds public bodies to follow its principles. Recommended Read more Scottish Government to block Human Rights Act repeal for whole UK It is not the case that human rights and the Human Rights Act are the same thing, he told MPs in the House of Commons. It is possible to protect human rights without the human rights act, and in fact to do so better thats what this government intends to do. Mr Wright also told MPs he did not want to get rid of any human rights included in the Human Rights Act but that he wanted to change the way they were interpreted. The Government aims to replace the act with a so-called British Bill of Rights, though it has yet to come up with specifics about what such an act would contain. Suggestions before the general election from former justice secretary Chris Grayling that the UK might leave the European Convention on Human Rights have been set to one side in recent months. A report released earlier this week by Amnesty International UK however warned that the UK was setting a dangerous precedent by scrapping the Act, arguing that the move was a gift to dictators who wanted to abuse their populations with impunity. Theres no doubt that the downgrading of human rights by this government is a gift to dictators the world over and fatally undermines our ability to call on other countries to uphold rights and laws, said Kate Allen, the organisations director. Human rights attacks around the world Show all 10 1 /10 Human rights attacks around the world Human rights attacks around the world China Escalating crackdown against human rights activists including mass arrests of lawyers and a series of sweeping laws in the name of national security. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Egypt The arrest of thousands, including peaceful critics, in a ruthless crackdown in the name of national security, the prolonged detention of hundreds without charge or trial and the sentencing of hundreds of others to death. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Gambia Torture, enforced disappearances and the criminalisation of LGBTI people; and utter refusal to co-operate with the UN and regional human rights mechanisms on issues including freedom of expression, enforced disappearance and the death penalty. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Hungary Sealing off its borders to thousands of refugees in dire need; and obstructing collective regional attempts to help them. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Israel Maintaining its military blockade of Gaza and therefore collective punishment of the 1.8 million inhabitants there, as well as failing, like Palestine, to comply with a UN call to conduct credible investigations into war crimes committed during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Kenya Extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and discrimination against refugees in its counter-terrorism operations; and attempts to undermine the International Criminal Court and its ability to pursue justice. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Pakistan The severe human rights failings of its response to the horrific Peshawar school massacre including its relentless use of the death penalty; and its policy on international NGOs giving authorities the power to monitor them and close them down if they are considered to be against the interests of the country. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Russia Repressive use of vague national security and anti-extremism legislation and its concerted attempts to silence civil society in the country; its shameful refusal to acknowledge civilian killings in Syria and its callous moves to block Security Council action on Syria. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Saudi Arabia Brutally cracking down on those who dared to advocate reform or criticise the authorities; and committing war crimes in the bombing campaign it has led in Yemen (pictured) while obstructing the establishment of a UN-led inquiry into violations by all sides in the conflict. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Syria Killing thousands of civilians in direct and indiscriminate attacks with barrel bombs and other weaponry and through acts of torture in detention; and enforcing lengthy sieges of civilian areas, blocking international aid from reaching starving civilians. Getty Images Mr Wright rejected the accusation, however, arguing that the group had overstated its case. We will continue to passionately advocate the protection of human rights both in this country and abroad, he said. Its quite wrong to say that this government in common with its predecessor does not challenge those other states with a doubtful human rights record we continue to do that. In October Prince Zeid Raad Al Hussein of Jordan condemned the UKs new policy on human rights, arguing that it was profoundly regrettable. If Britain a key member of the human rights council, a founding member of the UN and a privileged, permanent member of the security council is considering a move that will potentially weaken a vital regional institution upholding fundamental human rights guarantees, this would be profoundly regrettable; damaging for victims and human rights protection; and contrary to this countrys commendable history of global and regional engagement, he said. Moreover, many other states, where civil society is currently threatened, may gleefully follow suit. Surely this is a legacy no British government would wish to inspire. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} David Cameron knows that the campaign to stay in the EU is about more than so-called Project Fear and where better to make that point than standing in front of the conical nose of the worlds most advanced fighter jet? On Thursday it was the staff of BAE Systems in Lancashires turn to have their factory floor shut down so they could all hear how important the EU referendum is for British business. Come June there will scarcely be a production line anywhere in the country that wont have been switched off so that David Cameron can stand in front of it and stare down the barrel of the news cameras and proclaim how without him, British manufacturing will grind to a halt. This business is very important for our country, he told them. You make the ships that are vital to our Navy. You make the planes that are vital to our Air Force. The plane he was standing in front of had Royal Air Force of Oman written on the side, and the others in the room are all bound for Saudi Arabia. But the point still stands. Safety has now firmly established itself as one of Camerons top three reasons we must stay in the EU. Here, he was preaching to the converted. In two foot high letters high above the hangar was a poster reading THINK SAFETY FIRST, which is quite rightly the motto for those involved in the manufacture of figher aircraft. Always bomb responsibly. In a break with tradition, Cameron kept his jacket on for the speech. Usually, he likes to whip it off as he stands up, a sotto voce nod in the direction of his imagined view of manual labour. But the day after having told Jeremy Corbyn to wear a proper suit his preferred sartorially reductive flourish was wisely off limits - at least until the Q and A. And BAEs staff were merciless in their interrogation. One chap waited patiently for the microphone in order to "congratulate the Prime Minister on the deal he has secured." Had Kim Jong Un dreamt up this tactic - a question and answer session in which employees are both being broadcast live on television and supervised by their bosses, who more of than not are Tory donors - it would be an international joke. Another wanted to know why he hadnt heard anything about this renegotiation? Weve published a paper on it, Cameron told him. I can send you a copy. That certainly shut him up. Its often said the Queen must think the world smells of fresh paint. Our Prime Minister must think that factories are places where people gather round and sit in silence in front of switched off machines. And if you happen to work anywhere near one, you can be sure Dave will be coming to see you too. As Franklin D Roosevelt once almost said, the only thing you have to fear is Project Fear itself. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An Uber taxi driver who went on a killing spree that left six people dead and a 14-year-old girl critically injured in Kalamazoo, Michigan was a regular at gun shops in the area. Jonathan Southwick said that Jason Dalton was often at his store and that he bought a jacket with an inside pocket designed for a handgun hours before he went on his murderous rampage. I asked how he was doing because I hadnt seen him for a while, he told US broadcaster WWMT. He said he was doing good and enjoying the weather. Mr Dalton was captured on surveillance video on Saturday "laughing and joking" and giving the manager a "one-armed hug" before buying his jacket. Authorities believe that the 45-year-old used a 9mm semi-automatic handgun to carry out the killings, and although authorities have not revealed where he acquired the weapon, Southwick insisted it was not from his shop. Jeff Cramer, who owns the On Target gun shop, told The Associated Press that Mr Dalton had purchased long guns from the store, but he does not know if he ever sold him a handgun. He added that he would feel "uncomfortable" if the gun Mr Dalton allegedly used in the killings had come from his shop. On Monday Mr Dalton sat emotionless throughout a brief video arraignment held at the courthouse next door to the church, as a district court judge rattled off the list of charges filed against him: sixteen felony charges, including six counts of murder and two for assault with intent to commit murder. He also declined to address the court when prompted by the judge, but his family, in a statement issued Monday evening, said this type of violence has no place in our society. Prosecutors said that Mr Dalton, 45, admitted to the killings by saying he took peoples lives. Mr Dalton was denied bail and faces six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder, which carry a mandatory life sentence. Federal agents seized several firearms from his home. A spokesman from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said there is no indication that Mr Dalton was prohibited from possessing the weapons. Uber confirmed that Mr Dalton passed their background check to become a driver, and admitted it received several complaints about the killer, one specifically citing erratic driving. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Mississippi man has been indicted for the burning death of Jessica Chambers. Quinton Tellis, 27, faces a capital murder charge for allegedly setting the 19-year-old on fire in 2014. Tellis is currently being held in Louisiana on charges relating to the 2015 stabbing death of 34-year-old Meing-Chen Hsiao, AL.com reports. This has been the most unusual case I have ever dealt with, Panola County District Attorney John Champion said at a press conference on Wednesday. Obviously the way she died was very brutal, very horrendous. Ouachita Parish Sheriff Shortly after the word of the indictment let out, Ben Chamber said that his daughter's killer should never have been allowed out on the streets. I'm happy in one way and in one way I really don't know what to say. I'm so tickled they finally caught [Tellis], he told People Magazine. It's just one step now in a long process to get him back and get him tried. I don't know [Tellis]. I know by his record or whatever that he never should've been out on the street," he said. "The system failed, I know that. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Charges against five black teenagers accused of gang-raping a young woman in a Brooklyn park have been dropped after investigators said their inquiries suggested the sexual encounter with the woman was consensual. Prosecutors have also said that they suspect the woman was having sex with her father in what are the latest twists in the strange and disturbing story that will likely trigger intense debate both about the way the case was handled and the social mores surrounding it. Investigators said the young woman had had a troubled history in foster care and was intoxicated at the time. They added that the fathers claim that the youngsters had been carrying a gun was not true. Brooklyn prosecutor Ken Thompson said he had decided to drop the charges (AP) The alleged attack sent shockwaves through the city when news first broke in January. But investigators said their efforts to find out what happened ran into immediate problems as the story told by the young woman changed. On Wednesday evening, prosecutors said that as they had learned more about the young womans childhood in foster care, they had decided the case could not go forward. Brooklyn prosecutor Ken Thompson, said that he would ask a court to dismiss the charges. That night, this young womans father and the five young men engaged in conduct that was reprehensible and wrong, but because of the lack of reliable evidence, criminal charges simply cannot be sustained, Mr Thompson said in a statement. The New York Times said that lawyers for the young men welcomed the decision. Some expressed differing views on his suggestion that the conduct of the teenagers that night was reprehensible and wrong. I have great respect for him, but I respectfully disagree with that characterisation he put forth there, said Spencer Leeds, the lawyer for one of the young men. Another lawyer, Ken Montgomery, did not fault the choice of words. I think that is a way, from a policy and social standpoint, to say, Young men should exercise a little bit better judgment in dealing with certain things, but what they did didnt rise to criminality, he told the newspaper. I would agree, in a sense, that we live in a country and a world where we have a lot of unhealthy ideas of what appropriate sexual relationships are. Mr Thompson said the young woman had recently been reconnected with her estranged father via social media. He said she had recanted the testimony she gave and did not wish to proceed with charges against anyone. She also refuses to cooperate with any prosecution against her father, who was engaging in sexual conduct with her, he said. It is my fervent hope that this young woman gets all the support that she needs going forward. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} President Obama has put an end to an 85-year old loophole which allowed the US to import items that have been produced by trapped and enslaved workers overseas. The bill, signed on Wednesday, prevented the US from importing fish caught by slaves in Southeast Asia, gold mined by children in Africa and garments sewn by abused women in Bangladesh. It also bans other products that were unethically produced, from cocoa to electronics. Previously US customs laws which banned imports produced by forced or child labour went ignored due to consumptive demand, which meant that imports were allowed if there was not sufficient supply to meet domestic demand. It was called the US Tariff Act of 1930. Recommended Read more Nestle is closer to being sued for allegedly using child labourers The US recently freed more than 2,000 enslaved Thai fishermen, arrested traffickers and seized millions of dollars worth of seafood and vessels after it discovered Thai companies were importing fish products produced by slaves. The International Labour Organization estimates that 20.9 million people are victims of forced labor globally and the illegal industry is estimated to generate $150 billion in profits per year. The Guardian also reported in 2015 on abuse suffered by Rohingya migrants who were trafficked through jungle camps to work on Thai fishing vessels as slaves. Costco and CP Foods are facing a lawsuit in California to prevent the sale of Thai prawns and shrimp which are thought to have been unethically produced, which adds to Thailand's $3.7 billion seafood industry. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who fought to scrap the exception in that customs law, said he is already asking Customs and Border Protection to make sure they enforce the new rules when the law takes effect in 15 days time. It's embarrassing that for 85 years, the United States let products made with forced labor into this country, and closing this loophole gives the US an important tool to fight global slavery, he said to the Associated Press. A WWF study from 2015 found that more than 85 per cent of the worlds fish stocks are at significant risk of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. The trade is also associated with slave labour, drugs and arms smuggling. The Obama administration also signed the Port State Measures Agreement in early February. The agreements bars foreign vessels from accessing ports if suspected of illegal fishing. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump, rarely misses a chance to declare himself smart. Ted Cruz, one of the men looking to catch him, doesnt bother. As a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, a one-time professor of law at the University of Texas and then the states Solicitor General, his intelligence is rarely in question. He has his reference texts, the Bible and the US Constitution mainly. But at a rowdy Republican county dinner in Houston, Mr Cruz turned to the Victory or Death letter written by William Barret Travis, the defender of the Alamo against Mexican troops a letter every child in the state is supposed to know by heart. Recommended Read more Ted Cruz fires spokesman over video claiming rival insulted Bible Today, just like the brave heroes of the Alamo, Mr Cruz, 45, said as supporters dined, we are besieged by a government that is undermining our basic constitutional rights. And I believe now, just as in 1836, it will be the people of Texas who stand together and say: Enough is enough! But where will they turn for salvation? Mr Cruz hopes it is his campaign, which has faltered since its victory in Iowa on 1 February. He has posited its very survival on bagging several, if not all, the southern states that are among the 11 that will vote on Super Tuesday next week. Among those is Texas. Mr Cruz certainly knows how to play such a crowd, having been raised in Texas, and he has been a favourite son of his party since winning a US Senate seat in 2012. Possibly the only Republican more popular than Mr Cruz in Texas is its Governor, Greg Abbott, who ahead of the dinner event on Wednesday gave him his endorsement. It is his most important to date. Texas matters, moreover, because of its size, with a huge pot of 155 delegates for the taking on Tuesday. Hes a native-son candidate, Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist in Austin, remarked. Support for him is very strong. But is it? Mr Cruz has placed third in every contest since Iowa, each time denied second by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. The two men continue to split what remains of the vote that is not going to Donald Trump, to the latters great benefit and to the chagrin of party elders. A loss to Mr Trump in Texas, let alone another third-place result, could be fatal to Mr Cruz. A poll from an ABC News station in Dallas this week showed the two men tied at 32 per cent each. There was better news in a Monmouth University poll that put him 15 points ahead. Recommended Read more Ted Cruz campaign removes advert featuring adult film actress I believe we are poised to have a very good night on Tuesday, Mr Cruz averred in a press conference announcing the Governors endorsement. Showing irritation when asked if he would fold if he didnt win all 155 of the Texas delegates, he said it was curious how many reporters ask Marco Rubio, After losing four states in a row, when do you drop out? After eight years of relentless attacks on our values from this White House, its our duty as Texas conservatives to support a leader we can trust to restore our values and move this country forward, Mr Abbott said in an endorsement video. His support was hardly unexpected. He was attorney general in Texas when he appointed the fast-rising Mr Cruz as his Solicitor General. In pictures: US Elections 2016 Show all 15 1 /15 In pictures: US Elections 2016 In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to supporters after rival candidate Hillary Clinton was projected as the winner in the Nevada Democratic caucuses Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton takes photos with workers at her campaign office in Des Moines, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, second from left, prays before lunch with supporters at Drake Diner in Des Moines, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and former Maryland Governor. Martin O'Malley, speaks during a campaign stop in Waterloo, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks, as his wife Jane OMeara Sanders looks on, at a campaign event at Iowa State University Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio speaks at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks at a campaign event at Fireside Pub and Steak House in Manchester, Iowa. Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum visiting supporters at a house party in West Des Moines, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican candidate Ted Cruz campaigns at Greene County Community Centre in Jefferson, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Senator Rand Paul speaks during a Caucus rally at his Des Moines headquarters in Iowa Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican candidate Jeb Bush speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa AFP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin introducing the arrival of Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 A portrait of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders at his campaign headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Campaign badges on sale ahead of a Trump rally at the Ramada Waterloo Hotel and Convention Centre in Waterloo, Iowa Getty It was in that post that Mr Cruz built his support base among hard-core conservatives nationally, seizing on a series of hot-button issues and arguing no fewer than nine cases before the Supreme Court. He successfully defended the right of states to display the 10 Commandments in public places and attempted but failed to expand the death penalty in Texas to child rapists. Best remembered was a case that pitted him against the White House of George W Bush, for whom he had been a domestic policy advisor during the 2000 election race against Al Gore. Washington had taken the side of Mexico arguing that a Mexican national on Texas death row, Jose Medellin, should be spared the death penalty because he had not been given access to his national consulate at trial by the Texas judiciary. The Supreme Court sided with Mr Cruz; Medellin was executed. That record of non-compromising conservativism has secured him the support of a quarter of all Texas members of the US House of Representatives and a welter of state Republicans elsewhere where there will be voting on Tuesday, including Arkansas, Tennessee and Georgia. He has also built an unmatched grassroots machinery, boasting 27,000 volunteers canvassing from him in his own state alone. Yet Mr Cruz knows, like Lieutenant Colonel Travis did, that his victory-or-death moment is nigh. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} SUPER TUESDAY Its taking place on March 1 a Tuesday, naturally - and the presidential campaigns are sprinting towards it. A total of 14 states and territories in play, including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma,Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming. (Reuters) HUGE HAUL Usually held in February or March, Super Tuesday is when the candidates have a chance to win more delegates towards capturing their partys nomination than on any other single day. This year, 880 delegates are up for grabs. Candidates are vying to accumulate the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the nomination SUPER OR SUPER-DUPER? Some years more states join in than in others. In 2008, no fewer than 24 states opted to hold primaries or caucus voting on that day, with roughly half of all delegates up for grabs for each party. This year wont be quite so unwieldy; fourteen states and territories are involved. Hillary Clinton is hoping for a huge haul on Super Tuesday (AP) A BIG DEAL? Aside from giving everyone the chance to rack up serious delegate numbers, Super Tuesday, with so many states taking part in so many different parts of the US, is a first test of every candidates national appeal. We arent in Iowa any more, Ted. A TRUMP ROMP? Well, maybe. He hasnt had the time to stage huge rallies in all the big cities that matter like he did in earlier state contests, but if you argue that a TV and media presence gets more important as the race turns national, then you also have to accept that Trump is likely to have an edge. CLINTON PULLS AHEAD? She probably does, but delegates are awarded proportionally, rather than on a winner-takes-all basis, and so Bernie Sanders could bag plenty of delegates also. Not only that, he thinks he has a good chance to win in a few states like Massachusetts, Colorado and Minnesota. Click here to take the 'Who Said It: Candidates vs Beauty Queens' quiz For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An Indonesian mayor has suggested poor nutrition is responsible for homosexual or transgender children. Speaking at a pregnancy seminar in Tangerang city health office, city mayor Arief R Wismansyah told the audience: To create Indonesian children that are healthy smart and competitive, the most important thing is, from the beginning, to provide them adequate nutrition, especially breastfeeding. So, its no wonder that recently there are more LGBT. The story, reported on Indonesian website Okezone, said the mayor also told the seminar: Allah created the creatures of his right pair, Adam and Eve, not Adam and Asep. Although homosexuality is legal in Indonesia, the country has seen a shift towards more conservative attitudes, and Mr Ariefs remarks are just the latest in a string of high profile comments on LGBT in the country. Jakarta Post said the Indonesian Psychiatrists Association, the countrys leading body, had recently classified homosexuality as a mental disorder. Suzy Yusna Dewi, a member, said: We really do care about them. What we are worried about is, if left untreated, such sexual tendencies could become a commonly accepted condition in society. According to the associations Mental Health and Mental Disorder Diagnostic Guidelines, homosexuals and bisexuals are classed people with psychiatric problems and transgender people have mental disorders. She also suggested a persons sexuality is similar to an addiction, saying: Without constant intervention, a person can easily return to their previous sexual tendency once he or she experiences withdrawal. Ms Dewi said same-sex marriage is not accepted in Indonesian culture, adding: We should not bow to the influence of foreign values that may not fit in with our values. Meanwhile, according to Indonesian news website Republicka, Indonesias Information and Communication Ministry spokesman Ismail Cawidu announced the government would be banning LGBT-themed Emojis. He reportedly said: No social media may show items that smack of LGBT. Because we have our own rules, like religious values and norms, which they must respect. And Pink News reported the countrys plans to ban Tumblr because of its LGBT content under the 2008 pornography law. The Communications and Information Ministrys e-business director Azhar Hasyim reportedly wrote to Tumblr demanding the removal of explicit content. He said: If Tumblr then agrees to block pornography and LGBT content from being accessed in Indonesia, we will open [access to] the website again. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A French court has approved plans to clear part of the Jungle refugee camp near Calais but ordered the French government to spare the makeshift huts used as schools, a cinema, kitchens and places of worship. The administrative court in Lille gave the authorities permission to flatten the southern part of the sprawling camp in dunes north of Calais which houses Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan and east African migrants seeking to enter Britain. Ten local charitable organisations and pressure groups and 250 migrants sought a court order on Tuesday to prevent the French government from clearing part of the camp. They argued that the residents 1,000 according to the police, 3,450 according to the inhabitats had nowhere else to go. The court decided that the expulsions were justified but refused authorities permission to demolish social areas such as schools, kitchens and a mosque. The decision means that French police can, in theory, begin to clear the southern part of the camp on Friday. In practise, the demolition is likely to be spread over many days. Recommended Read more Calais Jungle eviction delayed over risk to hundreds of lone children Officials said that there would be no forced expulsions. Efforts would be made to persuade the inhabitants that it was in their own interest to move into official shelters in the northern part of the camp or accommodation elsewhere in France. The interior minister, Berbard Cazeneuve, said that the court decision, was a recognition of the truth of the situation in Calais not the postures and manipulations of pressure groups supporting the migrants. Michel Janssens from the charity Medecins sans Frontieres said migrants cleared from the camp would end up squatting or sleeping rough elsewhere. It's not human to do that, he said. We are not fighting for them to keep the camp but for the occupants to be given adequate and humane lodging. Recommended Read more Glastonbury Festival volunteers flock to Calais Jungle to offer help The government announced earlier this month that most of the Jungle must be cleared by the end of March. Only the official part of the camp containing shipping containers converted to shelters for men and a hostel for women and children would be allowed to remain. This would give space only for 1,500 of the 3,000 to 4,000 asylum seekers now officially said to be living in the whole of the Jungle. Pressure groups put the total population at around double that figure. Migrants will be offered places in transit camps in other parts of France where they can start the procedure for seeking French asylum if they wish. In the past, most have refused do so and made their way back to Calais. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Greece has recalled its ambassador from Austria amid warnings that the EUs failure to show unity over the refugee crisis threatens its very survival. Ministers are meeting in Brussels to consider plans drawn up by Austria and nine Balkan countries, during talks to which Greece was not invited, that include fingerprinting entrants and turning back anyone without legitimate documents. The move to recall the envoy from Vienna was for "consultations", Greece said, designed to "safeguard friendly relations between the states". But at the same time, the Greek foreign ministry criticised "unilateral unitiatives to solve the refugee crisis", describing them as "undermining the very foundations of European unification". "Responsibility for dealing with the migration and refugee crisis cannot burden one country," it said. On Wednesday, Hungary announced it would hold a referendum on the introduction of refugee quotas, while Austrias interior minister described anti-migrant measures as a chain reaction of reason. That has provoked an angry response from the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, who said Greece would not accept a union where everyone will do as they please. We will not accept turning the country into a permanent warehouse of souls with Europe continuing to function as if nothing is happening, he said. Addressing the European Parliament, European Council president Donald Tusk warned members must end disputes within the bloc before EU ministers hold a special migration summit with Turkey on 7 March. Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily. And he said the perception of how the EU was dealing with the crisis would be of key significance to the outcome of the UK referendum on whether to leave the bloc in June. All those who want to keep the unity of the European Union, the unity of the whole of the West ... should back such a common plan with the fullest determination possible, the former Polish premier said. If this emerging unity of action on the migration crisis is violated -- by anyone -- they may in fact contribute to the UK leaving the EU. It comes after the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said more than 100,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe so far this year eight times the rate seen during the same period in 2015. More than 410 migrants and refugees have died during the same period, mostly in the stretch of the Aegean where Alan Kurdi drowned last year. On Thursday morning, the Netherlands migration minister said Hungary has the right to organise a referendum on migrant quotas. Klaas Dijkhoff, whose nation currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency, said: "Every country has the right to organise referenda. It seems to be quite popular these days on European issues. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Health officials across the EU have protested to France about the secrecy of investigations into the drug trial in Brittany last month which killed one volunteer, while five others fell ill. Reports in France also claim that a number of dogs apparently died when exposed to the same drug in earlier trials. Three separate investigations are under way but European authorities are angry that information is not being shared. The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology is to publish an article next month on the fatal trial in Rennes which is expected to be severely critical. One of the co-authors of the article, Professor Adam Cohen, of the Centre for Human Drug research in Leiden in the Netherlands, told Le Figaro: I am shocked by the lack of transparency displayed by the French national medicine agency [the ANSM]. Much of the information uncovered by the ANSM and the French social affairs inspectorate has been denied to colleagues in other countries on the grounds that it is covered by medical secrecy and industrial property rights. Recommended Read more The troubled history of clinical drug trials Professor Stephen Senn, of the Luxembourg health institute and the Royal Statistical Society in London, said: You cant justify allowing industrial secrecy to come before avoiding other potentially serious problems for patients in other drugs trials. The trial of the drug, code-named BIA 10-2474, saw one 49-year-old man die days after being given the drug. Five others fell ill. According to Le Figaro, the drug had previously been tested on dogs. Several of them were said to have died. Biotrial, the company which conducted the trials for Portuguese pharmaceutical company Bial, said that they had not been involved in the earlier tests on dogs and other animals. These tests had involved much higher doses. Nothing suggested that a smaller dose would be dangerous to human volunteers, the it said. A preliminary report into the human trial absolved Biotrial, Bial and the ANSM, which approved the trial, of wrongdoing. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Italys Senate has voted to allow civil unions for same-sex couples, after the country had languished for years as the only Western democracy without such legislation. The final deal was so watered down by conservative and Catholic senators, however, that liberal parliamentarians and equality campaigners branded the resulting law a disgrace and one that left Italy in the Middle Ages. The bill, which passed by 173 votes to 71, came after a farcical and unedifying series of squabbles and U-turns. After the Senate vote, a vote in the lower chamber, where Matteo Renzis centre-left Democratic Party has a comfortable majority, is the only remaining hurdle. Thanks in part to protests by New Centre Right, the conservative junior in Mr Renzis coalition government, the right of gay people in Italy to adopt the child of their partner dubbed stepchild adoption by its critics has been scrapped. Thus the child could instead be placed in a care home in the event of the death of the parent. Recommended Read more Gay Chinese man launches legal bid for right to marry in landmark case Stepchild adoption, which exists in other European countries, could encourage gay people to seek children from surrogate mothers in exchange for money, according to conservative critics including the interior minister, Angelino Alfano. In addition, all wording, including a commitment to fidelity, that might in any way equate gay unions to marriage, had been carefully removed. Mr Renzi said that the deal was a historic event. His reforms minister, Maria Elena Boschi, said the accord would finally mean that the life together of two people of the same sex would not be less valued than that of a man and a woman, and that there would no longer be second-class citizens in Italy. However, activist and film-maker Gustav Hofer, director of Suddenly Last Winter, a documentary about gay rights in Italy, told The Independent: The Italian LGBT community is not celebrating this law, even though we have been waiting for 30 years since its first discussion. Its a disgrace. The Catholics are the ones cheering tonight. They have won and the rights of children have been sacrificed on the altar of their bigotry. Mr Alfano had also led calls to deny gays and lesbians the right to inherit their partners pensions. This amendment was ditched, however. Maria Elena Boschi said same-sex couples would no longer be second-class citizens (AFP/Getty) Nonetheless, Massimo Cervellini, a senator in the left-wing SEL party, said the compromise with conservatives had left Italian civil rights stuck in the Middle Ages. Until 10 days ago, the bill had been heading for approval in its entirety, with the support of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement sufficient to overcome conservative and Church opposition. But when the Renzi government tried to speed things up with a sweeping guillotine measure to axe about 500 amendments introduced by right-wing parties, the M5S senators withdrew their support. The underlying rancour between Mr Renzi and the M5S led to the government proposing a compromise acceptable to conservatives and the bishops. However, six liberal Catholic priests have condemned the Catholic Churchs overtly political lobbying that has watered down the bill. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Personal safety is one of the key components for living somewhere with a decent quality of life. And so Mercer, one of the world's largest HR consultancy firms, releases its Quality of Living Index each year, part of which ranks the safest cities to live and work in. The list is one of the most comprehensive of its kind and is carried out annually to help multinational companies and other employers to compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments, according to Mercer. The 30 most dangerous cities in the world Show all 30 1 /30 The 30 most dangerous cities in the world The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 30. Teresina, Brazil Teresina had 42.64 homicides per 100,000 residents. According to the Mexico Citizens Council for Public Security's annual ranking of the world's most violent cities in 2015) The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 29. Goiania y Aparecida de Goiania, Brazil Goiania has 43.38 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 28. Detroit, Michigan, USA Detroit had 43.89 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 27. Feira de Santana, Brazil Feira de Santana had 45.5 homicides per 100,000 residents. The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 26. Belem, Brazil Belem had 45.83 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 25. Guatemala City, Guatemala Guatemala had 47.17 homicides per 100,000 residents. The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 24. Cumana, Venezuela Cumana had 47.77 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 23. Manaus, Brazil Manaus had 47.87 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 22. Cuiaba, Brazil Cuiaba had 48.52 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 21. Sao Luis, Brazil Sao Luis had 53.05 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 20. Barquisimeto, Venezuela Barquisimeto had 54.96 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 19. Baltimore, Maryland, USA Baltimore had 54.98 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 18. Maceio, Brazil Maceio had 55.63 homicides per 100,000 residents. The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 17. Culiacan, Mexico Culiacan had 56.09 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 16. Joao Pessoa, Brazil Joao Pessoa had 58.40 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 15. St. Louis, Missouri, USA St. Louis had 59.23 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 14. Salvador, Brazil Salvador had 60.63 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 13. Natal, Brazil Natal had 60.66 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 12. Fortaleza, Brazil Fortaleza had 60.77 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 11. Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela Ciudad Guayana had 62.33 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 10. Cali, Colombia Cali had 64.27 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 9. Cape Town, South Africa Cape Town had 65.53 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 8. Palmira, Colombia Palmira had 70.88 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 7. Valencia, Venezuela Valencia had 72.31 homicides per 100,000 residents AFP/Getty Images The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 6. Distrito Central, Honduras Distrito Central had 73.51 homicides per 100,000 residents. The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 5. Maturin, Venezuela Maturin had 86.45 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 4. Acapulco, Mexico Acapulco had 104.73 homicides per 100,000 resident The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 3. San Salvador, El Salvador San Salvador had 108.54 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 2. San Pedro Sula, Honduras San Pedro Sula had 111.03 homicides per 100,000 residents The 30 most dangerous cities in the world 1. Caracas, Venezuela Caracas had 119.87 homicides per 100,000 residents Mercer says the personal-safety ranking is based on the cities' "relationship with other countries, internal stability, crime, and law enforcement." In other words, it should come as no surprise that war-torn cities or those rife with crime rank the lowest. Mercer looked at 450 cities and then made a list of 230 cities that are the safest for workers. While a host of European cities are listed as being among the safest in the world, others surprisingly rank very low in the index. This may come as a surprise that some of Western Europe's biggest and most affluent cities are not leading the list for being the safest cities on earth but this is mainly due to a number of terrorist attacks and threats over the last year that have dragged them down the rankings. Other issues like petty crime or threats to national security have also made an impact on some of the cities. Business Insider went to the bottom of the list to find the 17 most unsafe cities in Europe. The cities around the globe most at risk of terror attack 17. Milan The city slipped in the ranking to No. 63 this year after the FBI warned that St. Peter's Basilica, the Duomo, and La Scala were under threat of a terrorist attack. (Getty Images) 15 (tie). Barcelona, Spain The city is known for being one of the pickpocket capitals of the world, pushing it into rank 64th on the personal-safety index. The British foreign office says under the safety and security section (crime) "there has been an increase in the number of thefts from hire cars; remove all valuables or store items out of sight." (Getty Images) 15 (tie). Belfast, Northern Ireland The city, ranked 64th, has a relatively low violent crime rate compared with other towns and cities in Northern Ireland. But the proportion of people living in poverty is the highest in Belfast, rocking social stability and increasing petty crime. (Getty Images) 13 (tie). Tallinn, Estonia The picturesque walled city has relatively low violent crime but ranked 66th in the list because of drug and human trafficking from organised Russian syndicates. Tallinn Town Hall is a top tourist attraction in the city. 13 (tie). Warsaw, Poland The city has one of the lowest crime rates in the country but ranked 66th because of the number of political protests being held in Poland. (Getty Images) 12. Paris The city ranked 71st after a series of terrorist attacks. In November, suicide bombers and gunmen attacked multiple locations in France's capital, including cafes, restaurants, and a music venue, killing 130 people and injuring hundreds of others. (Getty Images) 11. London It may be a surprise to see London in the list, but Mercer ranked Britain's capital 72nd. Ellyn Karetnick, head of Mercer's International Mobility Practice in the UK, said, "In Europe and beyond terrorist attacks and incidences of civil unrest are closely monitored and analysed, and any impact on quality of living for expatriates is reflected in the rankings." (Getty Images) 10. Bucharest, Romania Violent and organised crime is quite low in Romania's capital, but the city ranked 79th because of widespread corruption and petty crime. (Getty Images) 9. Zagreb, Croatia Like Zagreb's other major Eastern European counterparts, corruption drags the city down it ranked 79th. (Getty Images) 7 (tie). Riga, Latvia Apart from anti-immigration protests starting to dominate the streets, Riga is ranked 82nd on the index for its thriving organised crime and prostitution syndicates. The Dome Cathedral is the city's top tourist attraction. (Getty Images) 7 (tie). Rome The city dropped to 82nd after Rome, and other Italian cities, were put on high alert for terrorist attacks similar to the Paris attacks in November. (Getty Images) 6. Madrid The city ranked 84th in Mercer's list for its social unrest resulting from countrywide austerity measures that led to massive unemployment levels, especially among its youth population. (Getty Images) 5. Budapest, Hungary The city dropped to 93rd in the index after a massive increase in social unrest in the city since the refugee crisis. Chaos at train stations and protests in the streets have erupted several times as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has tried to curb the flow of migrants in and through the country. The Matthias Church is the city's top tourist attraction. (Getty Images) 4. Sofia, Bulgaria A high level of social unrest has pushed the city into 118th. People in Bulgaria, which is the European Union's poorest member, continually protest against the government over benefit and pension cuts as well as against corruption. (Getty Images) 3. Athens, Greece After extensive and prolonged austerity measures, poverty and crime has increased giving Athens a ranking of 124. Furthermore, "the recent political and economic turmoil in Greece, which resulted in violent demonstrations in Athens and other cities in the country, has undermined its safety ranking," says Mercer. The influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants is also exacerbating the city's safety position. File image of Athens: Police said there was no evidence of a break in 2. Belgrade, Serbia Violent crimes are low in the city, but Belgrade sinks to 131st in the index for its wide-scale corruption and bribery issues as well as from theft and vandalism. 1. Kiev, Ukraine The country's capital ranks 189th because of civil unrest and its pugilistic relationship with Russia. Though the UK foreign office says Kiev is "calm" compared with the Russian-annexed region of Crimea, Kiev is rife with theft, vandalism, and violent protests that have killed or injured hundreds of people. (Getty Images) Read more: The rise of the richest man in Britain Lloyds bankers now get a max of 4,600 in bonuses UK Treasury: We have no Brexit contingency plan Read the original article on Business Insider UK. 2015. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} In Isis-controlled areas of Iraq and Syria, women are treated as property. They are beaten, whipped and killed as punishment for a range of crimes. They are forbidden to leave the house without a male relative, threatened with punishment if they don't wear "appropriate" clothing and regularly denied their rights. Those deemed to be pagans, such as the Yazidis, are bought and sold as slaves. Writing from Iraq, Patrick Cockburn reported on descriptions of "the Biter" or "Clipper" - a mental instrument introduced by Isis officials to punish women whose clothes they claim to not completely conceal their body. Reports from those inside areas controlled by Isis and others who have escaped expose the terror group's brutal treatment of women. The fatwa on female sex slaves Swedish teenager describes Isis experience In December, Isis issued a fatwa detailing how and when its fighters can rape female sex slaves - "one of the inevitable consequences of jihad". The document lists 15 rulings, which go into explicit detail prohibiting discourse if a slave is menstruating or is pregnant, and banning forced abortions. Many of the injunctions deal with rape within families, or the "sharing" of slave children. Some 2,000 Yazidi women were captured and forced into sexual slavery when Isis raided Mount Sinjar in 2014. One nine-year-old Yazidi girl became pregnant after she was taken as a sex slave and raped by 10 militants. They have also burnt a woman alive for refusing to engage in an "extreme" sex act. The pamphlet with tips for taking, punishing and raping female captives The Organisation of Womens Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) believes that thousands of Yazidi woman have already been sold into enslavement (AFP) Isis released a pamphlet providing its followers with guidelines on how to capture, keep and sexually abuse female slaves. It says it is "permissible" to take non-Muslims captive, making particular mention of "People of the Book" - Jews and Christians. The pamphlet says "unbelief" in Islam is all that is required to make someone a slave. One rule says it is "permissible" to rape a female slave "immediately after taking possession of her" and that it is "permissible to have intercourse with the female slave who hasn't reached puberty if she is fit for intercourse. Shutting down women's clinics Veiled women walk past a billboard that carries a verse from Koran urging women to wear a hijab in the northern province of Raqqa (REUTERS/Stringer) In another assault on the rights of women, Isis ordered the closure of all women's clinics supervised by male doctors in its Syrian heartlands. The terror group drastically restricted the work of male gynaecologists in accordance with its leaders' belief that men and women should be kept separate at all costs. Public whipping and stoning Since Isis forces stormed Mosul in June, life in the city has rapidly deteriorated with fear and anger commonplace, according to the many refugees who have fled into Kurdish-controlled Irbil (AP) Women are sentenced to being whipped in public for various offences, such as breast feeding in public or not being fully veiled. Others are sentenced to death by stoning, often as a punishment for adultery. Kurdish activists have speculated that some women have been stoned to death after being raped by Isis fighters themselves. "The biter" Timeline: The emergence of Isis Show all 40 1 /40 Timeline: The emergence of Isis Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2000 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (pictured here) forms an al-Qaeda splinter group in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Iraq. Its brutality from the beginning alienates Iraqis and many al-Qaeda leaders. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2006 Al-Zarqawi is killed in a U.S. strike. Al-Zarqawis successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, announces the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2009 Still al-Qaeda-linked ISI claims responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 155 in Baghdad, as well as attacks in August and October killing 240, as President Obama announces troop withdrawal from Iraq in March. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2010 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes head of ISI, at lowest ebb of Islamist militancy in Iraq, which sees last U.S. combat brigade depart. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2012 In Syria, protests (pictured here starting in Daree) have morphed into what president Assad labelled a real war with emergence of a coalition of forces opposed to Assads regime. Syria group Jabhat al-Nusra are among rebel groups who refuse to join, denouncing it as a conspiracy. Bombings targeting Shia areas, killing more than 500 people, spark fears of new sectarian conflict. Sunni Muslims stage protests across country against what they see as increasingly marginalisation by Shia-led government. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2013 Al-Baghdadi renames ISI as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Isis, as the group absorbs Syrian al-Nusra, gaining a foothold in Syria. In response, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri (Bin Ladens successor) concerned about Isis expansion orders that Isis be dissolved and ISI operations should be confined to Iraq. This order is rejected by al-Baghdadi. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - January Isis fighters capture the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, giving them base to launch slew of attacks further south. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis declares itself the Caliphate, calling itself Islamic State (IS). The group captures Mosul, Iraqs second largest city; Tal Afar, just 93 miles from Syrian border; and the central Iraqi city of Tikrit. These advances sent shockwaves around the world. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Around the same time Isis releases a video calling for western Muslims to join the Caliphate and fight, prompting new evaluations of extremists groups social media understanding. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis take Baiji oil fields in Iraq - giving them access to huge amounts of possible revenue. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August James Foley is executed by the group as concerns grow for second American prisoner, fellow reporter Steven Sotloff. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August Obama authorises U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, helping to stall Isis along with action by Kurdish forces following the deaths of hundreds of Yazidi people on Mount Sinjar. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release video showing Steven Sotloffs murder prompting Western speculation his executioner is same man who killed Mr Foley. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Obama tells us that America will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release a video appearing to show David Haines, who was captured by militants in Syria in 2013, wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in the desert while he reads a pre-prepared script. It later shows what appears to be the aid worker's body. Rex Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Peshmerga fighters scrabble to hold positions in the Diyala province (a gateway to Baghdad) as Isis fighters continue to advance on Iraqi capital. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Aid worker Alan Henning is killed. Self-imposed media blackout refuses to show images of him in final moments, instead focuses upon humanitarian care. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Isis raise their flag in Kobani, which had been strongly defended by Kurdish troops. The victory goes against hopeful western analysis Isis had overextended itself, while alienating much of the Muslim population through the murder of Henning. Victory causes fresh waves of Kurdish refugees arriving in Turkey. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - November American hostage, who embarced values of Islam, Peter Kassig and 14 Syrian soldiers are shown meeting the same fate as other captives. But intelligence agencies will be poring over the apparently significant discrepancies between this and previous films. Seramedig.org.uk Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis has released a video revealing the murder by burning to death of a Jordanian pilot held by the group since the end of December 2014. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have released videos which appear to show the beheading of Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February American aid worker, Kayla Mueller was the last American hostage known to be held by Isis. She died, according to her captors, in an airstrike by the Jordanian air force on the city of Raqqa in Syria, though US authorities disputed this. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have posted a gruesome video online in which they force 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian hostages to kneel on a beach in Libya before beheading them. Egypt vowed to avenge the beheading and launched air strikes on Isis positions. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February The British Isis militant suspected of appearing in videos showing the beheading of Western hostages has been named in reports as Mohammed Emwazi from London. Rex Features Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - March Isis triple suicide attack has killed more than 100 worshippers and hundreds of others were injured after the group members targeted two mosques in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Iraqi forces have claimed victory over Isis in battle for Tikrit and raised the flag in the city. EPA/STR Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan that killed at least 35 people queuing to collect their wages and injured 100 more. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis media arm released a 29-minute video purporting to show militants executing Ethiopian Christians captives. The footage bore the extremist groups al-Furqan media logo and showed the destruction of churches and desecration of religious symbols. A masked fighter made a statement threatening Christians who did not convert to Islam or pay a special tax. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis has been "incapacitated" by a spinal injuries sustained in a US air strike in Iraq. He is being treated in a hideout by two doctors from Isis stronghold of Mosul who are said to be "strong ideological supporters of the group". Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis has also claimed responsibility for killing 300 of Yazidi captives, including women, children and elderly people in Iraq AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis attack on Prophet Mohamed cartoon contest in Texas was its first action on US soil. Two gunmen were shot and killed after launching the attack at the exhibition. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi have been named as the attackers at the Curtis Culwell Centre arena in Garland. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isiss deputy leader, Abu Alaa Afri, a former physics teacher who was thought to have taken charge of the deadly terrorist group, has been killed in a US-led coalition airstrike. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May US special forces have killed a senior Isis leader named as Abu Sayyaf in an operation aiming to capture him and his wife in Syria. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Iran-backed militias are sent to Ramadi by the Iraqi government to fight Isis militants who completed their capture of the city. Government soldiers and civilians were reportedly massacred by extremists as they took control and the army fled. Charred bodies were left littering the city streets as troops clung on to trucks speeding away from the city. Ramadi is the latest government stronghold to fall to the so-called Islamic State, despite air strikes by a US-led international coalition aiming to stop its advance in Iraq and Syria. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis rounded up civilians trapped in Palmyra and forced them to watch 20 people being executed in the historic citys ancient amphitheatre. The Unesco World Heritage site was overrun by militants, threatening the future of 2,000 year-old monuments and ruins. Thousands of Palmyras residents fled but many are still living within the city walls, while the UN human rights office in Geneva said it had received reports of Syrian government forces preventing people from leaving until they retreated from the city. Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May A group of Isis-affiliated fighters have captured a key airport in central Libya. The militants took control of the al-Qardabiya airbase in Sirte after a local militia tasked with defending the facility withdrew from their positions. Affiliates of Isis, already control large parts of Sirte, the birthplace of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and a former stronghold of his supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June The US Air Force has destroyed an Isis stronghold after an extremist let slip their location on social media. According the Air Force Times, General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said that Airmen at Hulburt Field, Florida, used images shared by jihadists to track the location of their headquarters before destroying it in an airstrike. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Kurdish forces captured a key military base in a significant victory in Raqqa as well as town of Tell Abyad. YPG fighters, backed by US-led airstrikes and other rebels, consolidated their gains, when they seized the key town on the Syria-Turkey border. They are now just 30 miles to the north of Raqqa and have cut off a major supply route deep inside Isis-held territory. Ahmet Silk/Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has released gruesome footage claiming to show the murder of more than a dozen men by drowning, decapitation and using a rocket-propelled grenade as it seeks to boost morale among its fanatical supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has begun carrying out its threat to destroy structures in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, blowing up at least two monuments at the Unesco-protected site as Syrian government troops made advances on the Islamists positions. AFP Sources described the "the Biter" or "clipper" an instrument causing agonising pain by ripping off pieces of flesh. Other witnesses described it as operating like an animal trap, or a metal jaw with teeth that cut into the flesh. Isis insists women are fully veiled, wear loose or baggy trousers, socks and gloves. They also say women must be accompanied by a male relative whenever they step outside their homes. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A British jihadist has announced his intention to become a suicide bomber in Syria in a documentary exposing a two-year waiting list for radicals wanting to blow themselves up. Lucas Kinney, 26, is the son of Hollywood film-maker Patrick Kinney, who has worked on blockbusters including Braveheart, Twilight and Indiana Jones. He is among the members of Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaedas affiliate in Syria, filmed for a Norwegian documentary. Im originally from Britain, I was born in London, he tells the camera. My father is American, my mother English. My dream is to make a martyrdom operation, inshallah (God willing). Kinney, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Basir Al-Britani and has featured in propaganda films, is shown preparing for military operations and discussing martyrdom with his fellow fighters. He is seen smiling as another man tells him hes being deployed as a suicide bomber in an attack on a hospital allegedly used as a defence post by regime soldiers. The physical action is very easy - you go, you drive, you press the button, Kinney says. But how many can actually press the button knowing that youre departing to the meeting with Allah. This is something very heavy. In pictures: Syria conflict Show all 40 1 /40 In pictures: Syria conflict In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrians carry children amid debris following a air strike by government forces in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian man carries a girl on a street covered with dust following a air strike by government forces in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrians react as they stand amid debris following a air strike by government forces in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian man carries a girl amid debris following a air strike by government forces in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis An injured Syrian man walks out from the rubble of a destroyed building following a air strike by government forces in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian woman makes her way through debris following a air strike by government forces in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis People stand on the rubble of collapsed buildings at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in the Al-Fardous neighbourhood of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrian residents stand amid the rubble of destroyed buildings In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian resident grasps a mattress amid rubble in the al-Firdous neighborhood of the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A view taken from Tel al-Sawadi shows a large explosion allegedly at the Wadi Deif Syrian army base in northwestern Idlib on May 14, 2014, which opposition fighters have been trying to capture for more than a year. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamist rebels detonated explosives planted in a tunnel under the army base killing or injuring dozens. AFP In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A bullet-riddled parking sign stands amid debris in a deserted street leading into the old city of Homs In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A general view shows abandoned buildings on a deserted square in the old city of Homs after Syrian government forces regained control of rebel-controlled areas In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A military vehicle that belongs to the Free Syrian Army is seen in Al-Amariya district in Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A mosque is pictured through shattered glass in the old city of Homs, as rebel fighters withdrew from the city centre in line with a negotiated withdrawal deal with the government after having held out under tight siege for nearly two years In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Buses carrying Free Syrian Army fighters leaving Homs. Exhausted and worn out from a year-long siege, hundreds of Syrian rebels left their last remaining bastions in the heart of the central city of Homs under a cease-fire deal with government forces. The exit of some 1,200 fighters and civilians will mark a de facto end of the rebellion in the battered city, which was one of the first places to rise up against President Bashar Assad's rule, earning it the nickname of "capital of the revolution" In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrian government forces hold up a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad (L) while others raise the national flag on top of a pole in the old city of Homs In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad run through Aleppo's Bustan al-Qasr crossing after their release by rebels. They were freed as part of a larger deal which saw the last remaining Syrian rebels in central Homs city evacuate their positions and free captives in several locations in northern Syria In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian woman and two children walk past heavily damaged buildings in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A man carries a wounded girl following a reported bombardment with explosive-packed "barrel bombs" by Syrian government forces in the al-Mowasalat neighborhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A wounded man sits as he is treated at a makeshift hospital following a reported bombardment with explosive-packed "barrel bombs" by Syrian government forces in the al-Sakhour district of the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Debris rises in what Free Syrian Army fighters and Islamic rebels said was an operation to strike Al-Sahaba checkpoint, which is considered a gateway to Al-Dayf valley, and remove forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad in Maarat Al-Nouman, Idlib province In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Men try to put out fire at a site hit by what activists said was an air strike by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the town of Azaz, north of Aleppo, near the border with Turkey In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Civil Defence members try to put out fire In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Survivors react at a site hit by what activists said was an air strike by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the town of Azaz, north of Aleppo, near the border with Turkey In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Residents queue as they wait to receive food aid distributed by the UNRWA at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, south of Damascus In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Belongings of Syrian rebels inside a chapel at Crac des Chevaliers, the world's best preserved medieval Crusader castle in Syria. The village was destroyed in fighting between the government and rebel forces while the castle, listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, also has been damaged over the past two years In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Hosen Sabah, a 16-year-old student is comforted by his mother at a hospital in Damascus. Nosen was wounded by a mortar outside his school, while 14 other students were killed and over 80 wounded In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Free Syrian Army fighter works on a locally made launcher before firing it towards forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad in Mork town In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrian policemen and citizens inspecting the site of a car bomb at the entrance of Moadhamiyet al-Sham neighborhood in rural Damascus. According to Syria's Arab News Agency (SANA), a car bomb explosion has gone off in the countryside of Damascus and initial information say there are casualties, where a car rigged with explosions was remotely detonated at the entrance of Moadhamiyet al-Sham neighborhood in rural Damascus during engineering units it was trying to dismantled it In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Opposition fighters carrying a rocket launcher during clashes against government forces in the Sheikh Lutfi area, west of the airport in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian man helps a woman to make her way through debris following reported air strikes by government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian man reacts as he carries the body of injured boy following reported air strikes by government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 33 civilians were killed in the attack In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrian rescue workers carry the body of a woman following reported air strikes by government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian woman walks past the burning wreckage of a car following reported air strikes by government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A man and two children run to a safer place following reported air strikes by government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A man holds an injured child after, according to activists, two barrel bombs were thrown by forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad in Hullok neighbourhood of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis An injured man talks on a walkie-talkie after, according to activists, two barrel bombs were thrown by forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad in Hellok neighbourhood of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A man walks inside a mosque damaged by, according to activists, a barrel bomb thrown by forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad in Old Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrians gather at the site of reported air strikes by government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Rebel fighters carry their weapons as they run to avoid snipers loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the town of Morek in Hama province His Syrian wife was pregnant during filming last year and is since believed to have given birth. Kinney admitted suicide bombing was not an easy subject after receiving news that he would be a father, but believed his choice was being tested by Allah. The documentary, called Dugma: The Button, was made by Pal Refsdal and explores the motivations and doubts of suicide bombers as they prepare to die. He spent six weeks embedded with Jabhat al-Nusra for filming, telling the AFP news agency the terrorist group uses suicide bombers far less than its rival Isis. Several weeks can go by in between two operations, Mr Refsdal said. They're not like Isis, which they are also fighting which sends car bombs one after the other with very young drivers dying en masse. The journalist converted to Islam while being held by Afghanistan's Taliban in 2009, The Local reported, and said his film was not trying to tell people what to think. Fighters from Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front drive in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo flying Islamist flags as they head to a frontline (Fadi al-Halabi/AFP/Getty Images) His documentary is due to air on Norwegian television in early March. At least 700 British men and women are believed to have travelled to join Isis, Jabhat al-Nursra and other extremist organisations in Syria and Iraq. Several of those are known to have been used as suicide bombers, including 20-year-old Fatlum Shakalu, known as Abu Musa al-Britani, who killed himself during Isis assault on Ramadi in May. A report released yesterday by the Conflict Armament Research (CAR) group revealed the extent of the so-called Islamic States manufacture of improvised explosive devices using civilian equipment from around the world. James Bevan, executive director of CAR said the group was continually experimenting, refining and creating new types of IEDs ranging from suicide and car bombs to landmines, booby traps and improvised mortars. Its on a larger scale than weve seen in recent conflicts, he added. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Four Coptic Christian teenagers have been convicted for contempt of Islam after they appeared in a video mocking Muslim prayers. Three of those convicted in Egypt will serve five years in jail, while a fourth defendant, aged 15, was sent to a juvenile detention centre for an indefinite period. The 30-second film was shot on a mobile phone in January 2015 when the three defendands sentenced to jail were between 15 and 17. It showed one of the students kneeling on the floor while reciting verses from the Quran and two others standing behind him and laughing. One waved his hand under another's neck in a sign of beheading. The video was filmed by the students' teacher, also a Christian, who was sentenced to three years in prison for insulting Islam in a separate trial. Members of the Egyptian police special forces patrol streets in al-Haram neighbourhood in the southern Cairo Giza district on 25 January, 2016, in order to head off potential protests against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government (Getty) The teenagers' lawyer, Maher Naguib, said his clients hadn't been detained and didn't appear in court for the trial. He described the ruling as "unbelievable" and said the judge should have just punished the teenagers with a fine. Christians make up approximately 10 per cent of Egypt's population. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led the military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, has vowed to purge extremism from the country's religious discourse. However, Egypt has witnessed a surge in blasphemy charges in recent months. The writer Fatma Naoot was sentenced to three years in prison in January after she was found guilty of contempt for Islam over a Facebook post critizing the slaughter of animals for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha. She has appealed the ruling. Additional reporting by AP For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} When Dolce & Gabbana unveiled its new hijab range for the Middle East in a neutral colour palette of luxe black and sandy beige last month, it no doubt had one eye on the Iranian market. Trade with one of the regions most populous nations has been greatly boosted by the easing of sanctions that followed the nuclear deal with international powers. The new line is yet to appear at the fashion chains branch in Tehran, however, and Homa Soroush rather doubts that it will be much of a seller. Maybe it would do well in the Gulf States, but here? I dont think so, clothing is much freer here, she said, shaking her head only just covered by a pink scarf she had bought while visiting the Indian state of Rajasthan. The 28-year-old wife of a businessman based in the US was examining a red coat with gold buttons but concluded that, with its price tag in rials equivalent to 2,400, it was something for which she would have to save up. Recommended Read more Iran election campaign ignites as reformers try to thwart hardliners Ms Soroush was among a small crowd of shoppers in the Sam Centre in Fereshteh Street, a shopping mall filled with luxury stores. A sign outside announced that other brands were arriving imminently, Gianfranco Ferre being one. Roberto Cavalli, another fashion house, has opened a store in the nearby Zafaraniyeh district. Even while sanctions were still biting over the past two years, top-end items trickled through. The Dolce & Gabbana store had goods impounded by Iranian customs. They said we didnt have permission to import such expensive things, said a shop assistant. But we got it through after paying a special tax. The problem was that people did not have money to buy much. Now, we hope, with foreign businesses coming in the economy will improve there will be liberalisation and the ladies can take advantage. Apart from brief purges, Iran under religious rule has been more relaxed about the need for modest female attire than some other states. But liberalisation has been extremely slow in the sphere of politics. The country faces defining elections on Friday, but the number of women candidates remains woefully small. Iran prepares to vote This is not due to lack of female political ambition or interest in the two polls, one of which is for Parliament, the other for the Council of Experts which from time to time is called upon to select Irans Supreme Leader. Rather, it reflects the attitude of the Guardian Council, another body that vets all candidates for every election, and that refused hundreds of women the right to run. Of the 12,000 Iranians who hoped to stand for parliament, some 1,400 were women; but only 584 were approved. All 16 of the women who wanted to stand for the Council of Experts, among 801 applicants, were rejected. Ms Soroush was very disappointed by that decision. These elections are meant to show the outside world how Iran is changing. But this sends a weak signal, she said. A lot of my friends are not into politics, they are more keen to see what new fashions are coming in. A friend, Assieh Mahmoudieh, interrupted. We are not just into Western fashion, there are some very good new Iranian designers as well, like Neda Sadeghi and Orchid Ganji. But it is true, we have lost interest in politics. Ms Soroush continued: But I am interested in politics and I will be voting. Of course we should have more women in parliament. They have been there for a long time, but progress has been very slow. Recommended Read more Young voters have power in Iran and must take part in elections A few miles away at Irans parliament, the Majlis, Fatemeh Rahbar, was describing her work as chair of the Observational Committee, which liaises with the public. There were very few female MPs when she first won her seat 12 years ago, and the situation has changed little since. What female MPs have neglected to do, critics say, is to fight hard enough for womens rights. They could have done a lot more, that is one of the reasons young women are disillusioned about politics, said Asa Ozarpour, a 30-year-old activist. Fatemeh Rakei, an equality campaigner, added: Most of the women MPs in the current parliament have not only failed to achieve anything remarkable in the field of womens rights, but they have supported anti-women ideas. They either remained silent about such things or they approved them. A bill introduced in Parliament which would have freed men from the requirement to register temporary marriages, or to obtain the consent of their first wife to marry a second one, was supported by several conservative women MPs. One, Laleh Eftekhari, declared: Based on Gods order and sharia, a man doesnt need his wifes consent to marry again. What's life really like in Iran? Films offer rare insight Another, Zohre Elahian, called the bill progressive and echoed Ms Eftekharis call not to succumb to international pressure to end gender discrimination. Ms Rahbar, herself a conservative who wears a black abaya to work, rejected any suggestion that she ignored womens welfare. If re-elected, she said, she would put forward a bill to guarantee government loans for housewives. She would also press for female civil servants to be allowed to go to work and leave 40 minutes earlier than their male colleagues so that they could look after their children. A campaign was launched last autumn to raise the number of female MPs from the current nine. President Hassan Rouhani, the reformist President, has spoken about empowering women in politics but has done little to make this a reality. Indeed, reformist figure Ali Motahhari summoned the interior minister to the Majlis to complain about women wearing leggings in public. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty He castigated the Rouhani government for sliding into the same level of laxity on womens dress as did that of the previous president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It is one of the dichotomies of Iran that the great foe of political liberalism took a relaxed view of the need to wear the hijab head covering, and of men and women appearing together in public. Let the people be happy, the hardline president would tell his critics. The Dolce & Gabbana store was only opened after Mr Ahmadinejad had lost the presidency, however. His name just brings back bad memories there was a lot of violence when he was re-elected, Ms Soroush said. We managed to get away to Europe until things calmed down. A group of teenagers, three girls and two boys, were standing outside the Sam Centre, smoking furiously. They were not that interested in the elections, or in the number of women MPs they said. One girl, Nilufer, gave their collective view. You cannot trust politicians, it does not matter what party or whether they are men or women, they are all the same. They were more interested in a current Instagram hit, part of an international genre in which affluent young people in cities around the world flaunt their wealth The Rich Kids of Tehran. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Iranians will vote on Friday in elections of great significance for the country and the wider international community amid grim warnings of Western plots to subvert the results and after the sudden mass resignation of candidates. This is not, however, a slide back to the days of turbulence which led to divisions within the country and international isolation. Rather it is a sign of the anxieties being caused by the closeness of the fierce contest between the reformists and hardliners for the future of this nation of 77 million people. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iranians not to be manipulated into turning against each other by the US. The perfidy of the plot was such, declared the Supreme Leader, that sometimes even the infiltrators dont know they are part of it One of the enemys ruses is to portray a false dichotomy between a pro-government and anti-government parliament. As the Ayatollah was expressing his disquiet, it was announced that 1,385 of the 4,884 candidates standing at the polls had pulled out, with the vast majority asking their followers to switch to others candidates. That still meant 17 people fighting for each seat, but was an attempt to enable votes to be focused on better-known contenders, with both the hardliners and reformists seeking to consolidate their support in a complicated system of counts. The manoeuvres seemed unnecessary even a few days ago. The Guardian Council, which vetted all candidates, appeared to have sidelined the reformists by disqualifying thousands of them from standing at the two elections taking place, one for parliament, the other the Council of Experts, which can elect the Supreme Leader. New York protests against Iran nuclear deal Show all 10 1 /10 New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York A woman holds a poster as she takes part in a rally on Times Square in New York opposing the nuclear deal with Iran New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York An inflatable mushroom cloud stands among demonstrators during a rally apposing the nuclear deal with Iran New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York Protesters rally against the nuclear deal with Iran in Times Square New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York A member of the Neturei Karta Orthodox Jews sect is escorted away by New York City Police during a rally near Times Square to demand that Congress vote down the proposed US deal with Iran in New York New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York A woman shouts slogans during a rally against the nuclear deal with Iran in Times Square in New York New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York A protestor holds a placard during a demonstration and rally apposing the nuclear deal with Iran in Times Square New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York Some of several thousand protestors crowd into 7th Avenue at 42nd street as they demonstrate during a rally apposing the nuclear deal with Iran New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York A woman holds a placard as she joins several thousand other protestors to demonstrate during a rally apposing the nuclear deal with Iran New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York Protesters rallied against the Iran nuclear deal in New York's Times Square KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York Protestors shout slogans as they demonstrate during a rally apposing the nuclear deal with Iran But the reformists mobilised, allying with conservatives who had become alarmed by the reactionary rhetoric of the hardliners in order to give them the best chance of victory. Their hope is that President Hassan Rouhani, having concluded the recent nuclear agreement with world powers that should free the economy from international sanctions, will now secure parliamentary backing to proceed with a programme of further liberalisation. Recommended Read more Iran election campaign ignites as reformers try to thwart hardliners Hardliners reacted belligerently, accusing President Rouhani and his supporters of collusion with the West. The head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, demanded vigilance to thwart attempts by the US and Britain to control the polls. Unfortunately the enemies of the Islamic system have always tried to harm the Islamic revolution over the past 37 years, he said. General Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of staff of the military, declared: If those being supported by Britain and the United States do not condemn these two countries meddling in Irans elections, they are considered convicted. The nuclear deal, as with any important decision involving Iran, would not have been possible without Ayatollah Khameneis approval. He was criticised by the hardliners for giving the go-ahead. His pronouncements on the elections, so far, have been even-handed and indeed helpful to President Rouhani. He urged every eligible Iranian to vote and stressed that wives did not need their husbands permission to do so. A high turnout is expected help the reformists. However, the Ayatollah does not want the liberals to hold too much sway, so made a point of slapping down President Rouhani, who objected to the inflammatory language being used against his supporters. When I talked about a US infiltration plot, it made some people in the country frustrated. They complain about talk of infiltration all the time. But this is a real plot, the Supreme Leader said. Recommended Read more Young voters have power in Iran and must take part in elections It is difficult to gauge what impact the talk of a malignant foreign influence will have on the voting. There are no opinion polls to show how things stand, but it is commonly said that a sizeable proportion of the Iranian electorate makes up its mind in the last 90 minutes. It was, in fact, such a very late surge which took Mr Rouhani to victory in the 2013 presidential elections. At meetings held by Gholamali Haddad-Adel, the hard-line leader in Tehran, there were ritual denunciation of the US and UK. A huge poster in one of the capitals main thoroughfares, Karimkhan Street, displays the US flag with skulls instead of stars and falling bombs for stripes. But reminders of past imperialist iniquities strike a chord with liberal voters as well, and Britain, Little Satan, is deemed to be as guilty as America, Great Satan. Coming out of a mosque in south Tehran, where the imam had spoken about Mohammed Mossadeq, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran overthrown in a British-American coup, Pervez Safavi said: Hearing that name makes me angry, makes me think of what was done to us. I wasnt even born when they got rid of Mossadeq [1953] but we were taught about him at school; my father told me about what happened. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the countrys enemies were fostering division within Iran (AP) Mr Safavi, a petrochemical engineer, added: The coup was carried out by the CIA, but it was British intelligence which planned it, we know all that. So how can you separate the two? He is going to vote for the reformist list because we need to modernise the country and Rouhani is the man to do it, he said. But he added: We certainly do not want the Americans or the British to think they can get back to the old ways. His companion, Mohammed Haidari, had read that the Obama administration was going to abandon measures to prevent people who had visited Iran from using the visa-waiver programme to enter the US. It shows they are trying to mend relations, he said. Mr Safavi, however, was having none of that. They know there is a big market here now and they are losing out to the Europeans and the Chinese. Its just self-interest, he insisted. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} It was two years ago this month that Ahmed al-Zarkani, head of intelligence in Mosul, first warned the Iraqi government in Baghdad that the Islamist group Isis was planning something big. But from that alert, in February 2014, to his final plea for the air force to bomb Isis fighters as they gathered on the eve of their attack, his warnings were repeatedly ignored and so were those of other key political figures. The published section of the official Iraqi parliamentary report into the fall of Mosul focused heavily on the many military failings that allowed Isis swiftly to overrun the city of two million people when it attacked five months later, first liberating scores of imprisoned Sunni jihadists and then on 10 June taking complete control. The terrified Iraqi army fled with hardly a fight. But unpublished testimony from the inquiry, and accounts given the The Independent by key figures at the time, reveal another failing. The government, led by the then Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, brushed aside increasingly urgent calls for help in the run-up to the surprise Isis attack. The testimony also reveals the growing frustration of Mr Zarkani that his detailed warnings to Baghdad were being ignored. It was from arrested Isis members that Mr Zarkani first discovered that an attack was being planned for June. On 25 February, according to his evidence to the commission of inquiry, he informed his bosses in Baghdad. Soon after that he discovered what he described as something abnormal happening towards Mosul, with training camps set up, according to the leaked testimony report. By May, he had supplied Baghdad with a wealth of information about six Isis training camps outside the city, But although the Iraqi air force conducted surveillance missions and confirmed the camps locations, it did not respond to Mr Zarkanis request to bomb them. On 18 May, he received new information that Isis was preparing an attack on the right side of Mosul, and phoned the commander in charge of military operations in the city to alert him. A few days later he discovered that the attack would start on 6 June at 6am. Again warning Baghdad, he noted that Isis was planning to switch its efforts from Anbar province to Nineveh, whose capital is Mosul. He told them the name given by the jihadists to the coming operation: Al-Eres, or the wedding party. Vehicles had been obtained, weapons acquired and new locations established. All their senior commanders will take part, as they have been planning for a long time, he reported. Scenes of destruction in Mosul soon after Isis seized power in June 2014 (Reuters) More than a dozen times over the weeks and months he sent warnings, in documents and phone calls to military intelligence in Baghdad, to Mr Malikis office, to the Mosul provincial council and to military commanders in both his own city and in Baghdad. And yet, the Mosul commander in charge of military operations went on holiday on 3 June three days before the predicted attack. Recommended Read more Former Isis sex slaves take up arms to wage war on their captors Mr Zarkani phoned him and begged him to return. When I told him why, he seemed to be shocked, he later said to the commission of inquiry, although only two days earlier he had informed him in person about the Isis plans. On 5 June, intelligence established that Isis planned to enter Mosul the next morning from two different directions on either bank of the River Tigris, using between 700 and 1,000 fighters among them nine foreign suicide bombers. The attackers, made up of various nationalities, would wear military uniforms, similar to those of the Iraqi army. The intelligence chief sent a final document to his bosses and informed Mosuls military commander that terrorists were now gathering in the village of Sheikh Younis, six miles from the city. I gave the co-ordinates of the village, but nobody took any action, he told the commission. I told them the attack will be on 6 June at 5am... There would be four explosive cars on the right side and four on the left side [of the river], and nine suicide attacks... on the right side of the city. He added: The attack happened on the day we said and from the places we mentioned. If they took only 10 per cent seriously, we would not have had the battle. Recommended Read more Isis executes 300 Iraqi army troops and civilian activists in Mosul So why was the information given to Baghdad ignored, instead of being used to prevent an attack? As well as being Prime Minister, Mr Maliki was in charge of two key departments, the ministries of defence and of internal affairs. The latter was responsible for domestic intelligence, The parliamentary commission put most of the blame for the fall of Mosul on Mr Maliki. But it also apportioned part of it to Mosuls governor at the time, Atheel al-Nujaifi, who has since been sacked. The committee mentioned six points against me, Mr Nujaifi told The Independent in his office in the Kurdistan capital, Erbil, where he fled when his own city fell. Only two of them directly relate to the fall of Mosul. They said that I did not inform the Prime Minister that Mosul would fall. But at the same time, Malikis chief of staff said in his testimony that I was the only man who phoned him, to say that Mosul was falling and I needed more weapons. Maliki had answered this was not the job of the governor. Mr Nujaifi, himself a Sunni, blames sectarian tensions between Iraqs Shia and Sunni, the two main strands of Islam, for the near absence of communication between his office and the government in Baghdad. He says Mr Maliki even instructed his own people not to share information with him. Yet Mr Nujaifi says that he in fact already knew from his own sources what was being planned by Isis known locally as Daesh but that he, too, was unable to secure any help. The reason, he says, was Mr Malikis apparent reluctance to give succour to Sunni politicians who might be linked to the Baath party that had ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Maliki thought I had ties with the Baath party and that if he gave me his support, Baath would be a major power in the city, he said. He believes that Mr Maliki and his Shia followers were so afraid of the Baath party that they preferred Isis. They knew that if there was a Sunni political power centre in Mosul, nobody would help them fight it but with Daesh, all the world would help. To them, any Sunni power acceptable to the international community was more dangerous than Daesh. It was clear that some disillusioned former Baathists were active in Isis, Mr Nujaifi says, but Mr Maliki thought they were not the major power. For him, Baath politicians were far more dangerous. Based on his contacts with the Iraqi military command in Mosul and plans he heard of for bombing the city if it fell into Isis hands, Mr Nujaifi thinks that Mr Maliki meant to set a trap. He wanted the right side of Mosul to fall in the hands of Daesh, and then to surround and bomb it, and all those who stayed inside it with Daesh. He did not think of lives lost. Maliki wanted Mosul to fall. It would give him a chance to reorganise politics. The people would need him more after that. Bashar Kiki, the Kurdish head of provincial council of Mosul and member of the largest Iraqi Kurdish party, the KDP, considers it possible that Mr Maliki thought the fall of Mosul could be politically advantageous, so he could then present himself as its saviour. But Mr Kiki prefers to think ignorance was to blame The military commands and the political leaders in Baghdad did not realise that the threat was real, he said. A lot of information was not taken seriously, because they were not professional enough. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blamed the Kurds (AFP/Getty) A month before Mosuls fall, Mr Kiki, too, presented information about Isis activities to military commanders, but said: They had no attention to spare for it, because they were busy with other things a reference to the armys notoriety for extorting money from civilians, receiving bribes and getting payments for ghost soldiers who never showed up. Finally reacting to all the reports he had been sent, Mr Maliki sent two generals, Abud Kambar and Ali Ghaidan, from Baghdad to Mosul, where Mr Kiki was eventually able to meet them. They assured me that everything was under control, but in fact the opposite was true, he said. Mr Kiki points out that it was well known that extremist Muslim groups, some of them tied to al-Qaeda and later to Isis, had been active in Mosul for years, and controlled surrounding villages. Many Sunni residents of Mosul had been unhappy at changes within Iraq after Saddams fall in 2003, leading some to support the Sunni extremists. Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to the Kurdish President, Masoud Barzani, said that Kurdish authorities also offered Baghdad information, warnings and even help and passed the information to US officials as well. My president telephoned around eight months before the fall and spoke to both Ammar al-Hakim [leader of a prominent Shia party] and to the American ambassador in Iraq, he said. A month before it fell, he phoned Maliki to say the situation in Mosul was dangerous. Maliki did not take it seriously. He said to my president: You can care about Kurdistan; I will look after the rest. Just days before the attack, President Barzani offered to send Kurdish peshmerga troops to help defend the city, as its governor, Mr Nujaifi, had implored, according to Mr Hussein. Again Mr Maliki refused. When, on the night that Mosul fell, Mr Hussein phoned one of Mr Malikis most trusted colleagues to repeat the offer, his call was never returned. Maliki thought he had all the power and his officers and soldiers were strong enough to defend the city, he said. He did not want our help for fear that we would consider Mosul as Kurdish. All those interviewed by The Independent regard Mr Malikis distrust of other groups as a major issue. He did not trust the intelligence chief of Mosul, even though he was working for Baghdad intelligence. The Iraqi Prime Minister ran a one-man show, said Mr Hussein, He made all the decisions. And he trusted other reports that he received, better than he trusted ours. One reason may be that few believed Isis really wanted to capture Mosul. According to Mr Hussein, the impression was that the group merely wanted to liberate its comrades from the citys Badoosh prison. In pictures: The rise of Isis Show all 74 1 /74 In pictures: The rise of Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters of the Islamic State wave the group's flag from a damaged display of a government fighter jet following the battle for the Tabqa air base, in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from Islamic State group sit on their tank during a parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from the Islamic State group pray at the Tabqa air base after capturing it from the Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from extremist Islamic State group parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping A video uploaded to social networks shows men in underwear being marched barefoot along a desert road before being allegedly executed by Isis Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Haruna Yukawa after his capture by Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Khalinda Sharaf Ajour, a Yazidi, says two of her daughters were captured by Isis militants Washington Post In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Spokesperson for Isis Vice News via Youtube In pictures: The rise of Isis A pro-Isis leaflet A pro-Isis leaflet handed out on Oxford Street In London Ghaffar Hussain In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Isis Jihadists burn their passports In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A man collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A woman collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid Local civilians queue for aid administered by Isis. Since it declared a caliphate the group has increasingly been delivering services such as healthcare, and distributing aid and free fuel In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces detain men suspected of being militants of the Isis group in Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Mourners carry the coffin of a Shi'ite volunteer from the brigades of peace, who joined the Iraqi army and was killed during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Samarra, during his funeral in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Shiite Turkmen family fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, arrives at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi A photograph made from a video by the jihadist affiliated group Furqan Media via their twitter account allegedly showing Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivering a sermon during Friday prayers at a mosque in Mosul. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamist caliphate in the territory under the group's control in Iraq and Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Smoke and debris go up in the air as Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul. Images posted online show that Islamic extremists have destroyed at least 10 ancient shrines and Shiite mosques in territory - the city of Mosul and the town of Tal Afar - they have seized in northern Iraq in recent weeks In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq A bulldozer destroys Sunni's Ahmed al-Rifai shrine and tomb in Mahlabiya district outside of Tal Afar In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces celebrate after clashes with followers of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi, in front of his home in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi at his home after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A vehicle burns in front of a home of a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman holds her exhausted son as over 1000 Iraqis who have fled fighting in and around the city of Mosul and Tal Afar wait at a Kurdish checkpoint in the hopes of entering a temporary displacement camp in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees Displaced Iraqi women hold pots as they queue to receive food during the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, at an encampment for displaced Iraqis who fled from Mosul and other towns, in the Khazer area outside Irbil, north Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A militant Islamist fighter waving a flag, cheers as he takes part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic "caliphate" after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters travel in a vehicle as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade with a missile in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from an al-Qaida splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from the splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters hold a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A member loyal to the Isis waves an Isis flag in Raqqa In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi anti-government gunmen from Sunni tribes in the western Anbar province march during a protest in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The United Nations warned that Iraq is at a "crossroads" and appealed for restraint, as a bloody four-day wave of violence killed 195 people. The violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of the Shiite-majority country more than four months ago, raising fears of a return to all-out sectarian conflict In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces hold up a flag of the Isis group they captured during an operation to regain control of Dallah Abbas north of Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Isis fighters parade in the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony after completing their field training in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Kurdish Peshmerga troops fire a cannon during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Jalawla, Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference Iraqi Prime Minister's security spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference about the latest military development in Iraq, in the capital Baghdad. Iraqi forces pressed a campaign to retake militant-held Tikrit, clashing with jihadist-led Sunni militants nearby and pounding positions inside the city with air strikes in their biggest counter-offensive so far In pictures: The rise of Isis A police station building destroyed by Isis fighters An exterior view of a police station building destroyed by gunmen in Mosul city, northern Iraq. Iraq's new parliament is expected to convene to start the process of setting up a new government, despite deepening political rifts and an ongoing Islamist-led insurgency. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree inviting the new House of Representatives to meet and form a new government In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Smoke billows from an area controlled by the Isis between the Iraqi towns of Naojul and Tuz Khurmatu, both located north of the capital Baghdad, as Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces take part in an operation to repel the Sunni militants In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An elderly Iraqi woman is helped into a temporary displacement camp for Iraqis caught-up in the fighting in and around the city of Mosul in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Christian woman fleeing the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kms east of the northern province of Nineveh, cries upon her arrival at a community center in the Kurdish city of Arbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman, who fled with her family from the northern city of Mosul, prays with a copy of the Quran AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq The body of an Isis militant killed during clashes with Iraqi security forces on the outskirts of the city of Samarra Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi civilians inspect the damage at a market after an air strike by the Iraqi army in central Mosul EPA In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Members of the Al-Abbas brigades, who volunteered to protect the Shiite Muslim holy sites in Karbala against Sunni militants fighting the Baghdad government, parade in the streets of the city AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Shia tribesmen gather in Baghdad to take up arms against Sunni insurgents marching on the capital. Thousands have volunteered to bolster defences AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A van carrying volunteers joining Iraqi security forces against Jihadist militants. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the Iraqi government would arm and equip civilians who volunteered to fight AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters of the Isis group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An Islamist fighter, identified as Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain (R), speaks in this still image taken undated video shot at an unknown location and uploaded to a social media website. Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals have called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the new video released by the Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Al-Qaida inspired militants stand with captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint belonging to Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The fighting at Beiji comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Isis group. While U.S. President Barack Obama has not fully ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes, such action is not imminent in part because intelligence agencies have been unable to identify clear targets on the ground, officials said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinein Baiji as they pressed an offensive that has seen them capture swathes of territory, a manager and a refinery employee said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants from the Isis group parading with their weapons in the northern city of Baiji in the in Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A smoke rises after an attack by Isis militants on the country's largest oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and said they regained partial control of a city near the Syrian border, trying to blunt an offensive by Sunni militants who diplomats fear may have also seized some 100 foreign workers In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group stand next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. For militant groups, the fight over public perception can be even more important than actual combat, turning military losses into propaganda victories and battlefield successes into powerful tools to build support for the cause In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An injured fighter (C) from the Isis group after a battle with Iraqi soldiers at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis aiming at advancing Iraqi troops at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group taking position at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group inspecting vehicles of the Iraqi army after they were seized at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq One Iraqi captive, a corporal, is reluctant to say the slogan, and has to be shouted at repeatedly before he obeys Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group force captured Iraqi security forces members to the transport In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group transporting dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A major offensive spearheaded by Isis but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein has overrun all of one province and chunks of three others In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis rebels show their flag after seizing an army post AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants waving an Islamist flag after the seizure of an Iraqi army checkpoint in Salahuddin Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Demonstrators chant slogans as they carry al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. In the week since it captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work Mr Maliki has blamed the fall of Mosul on an unlikely plot by Kurds working with Isis to capture the city. What happened in Mosul was a conspiracy, it was planned in Ankara and then the conspiracy moved to Erbil, Mr Maliki wrote on his Facebook page. Far from it, says Iraqi MP Khasro Goran. Maliki became very arrogant, he said, and he believed his generals were right, and informing him. He wanted to be the hero, thats the only conspiracy. That is also the finding of the Parliamentary Commission on Security and Defence, says its head, Hakim al-Zamily. We investigated about 100 people and we did not discover any conspiracy, he said. The only clear result was that there was a lack of professionalism and an absence of the right people in the right places. The fact that unprofessional commanders were chosen was the main reason that the forces were not doing their job. They were chosen arbitrarily, based on their loyalty. The report adopted in August last year by the Iraqi Parliament blames Mr Maliki as well as some 30 other officials including the former Mosul governor and Saadoun al-Dulaimi, the acting Defence Minister at the time. It concluded that Mr Maliki had an inaccurate picture of the threat to Mosul because he chose commanders who engaged in corruption and failed to hold them accountable. Its main conclusion was that Mosul fell because the military operation had no clear leader. The army was ill prepared for the battle, and when the generals left the soldiers followed suit. But it does not focus on the missed opportunities of the litany of intelligence warnings that were ignored. Mr Malikis office, contacted both by phone and email, repeatedly declined to respond to The Independents request for a comment on any of the allegations made against him. He has previously criticised the findings of the Iraqi MPs investigation. The report's main conclusion was that Mosul fell because the military operation had no clear leader (AFP/Getty) There is no value in result that came out from the parliamentary commission about the fall of Mosul it was dominated by political differences and it was absent of objectivity, he said. Mr Zamily also blames the Americans for failing to act on the information they received. Under the strategic agreement with Iraq they should have prevented the Iraqi forces from losing this way, he said. They should have supplied Iraqi forces with all the information they had, and protected them. Would Mr Maliki have agreed to the US bombing of those suspected Isis camps? He should have. But at the very least they had to supply the information. Fuad Hussein is certain the Americans did pass on what they knew, but says they could not act without an Iraqi government request. Once again, it was Mr Maliki to blame, he said. Maliki should have said to them: Come and help us. But he did not. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} People in Mosul call it the Biter or Clipper a metal instrument newly introduced by Isis officials to punish women whose clothes they claim do not completely conceal their body. A former school director, who fled from the city earlier this month, describes the tool as causing agonising pain by clipping off pieces of flesh. Fatima, a 22-year-old house-wife who does not want to give her full name, said she had finally escaped from Mosul after several failed attempts because her children were starving and Isis had become more violent and sadistic compared with a year ago, especially towards women. The Biter has become a nightmare for us, Fatima said after reaching safety in Mabrouka Camp for displaced people near Ras al-Ayn in Kurdish-controlled north-east Syria. My sister was punished so harshly last month because she had forgotten her gloves and left them at home. Isis insists that women be fully veiled, wear loose or baggy trousers, socks and gloves, and be accompanied by a male relative whenever they step outside their homes. Fatima said that a month after the use of this metal tool to punish her sister the bruises and scars are still visible on her arm. She quoted her sister as saying that the biting punishment is more painful than labour pains. Other witnesses describe the Biter as operating like an animal trap, or a metal jaw with teeth that cut into the flesh. It is difficult and dangerous to escape from Mosul, which Isis has held since capturing it from the Iraqi army in June 2014. But people from the city, who have had themselves smuggled across the border to Syria and then to Kurdish-controlled territory known as Rojava in the past two months, all confirm that living conditions have deteriorated sharply. There are serious shortages of almost everything including food, fuel, water and electricity. Timeline: The emergence of Isis Show all 40 1 /40 Timeline: The emergence of Isis Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2000 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (pictured here) forms an al-Qaeda splinter group in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Iraq. Its brutality from the beginning alienates Iraqis and many al-Qaeda leaders. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2006 Al-Zarqawi is killed in a U.S. strike. Al-Zarqawis successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, announces the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2009 Still al-Qaeda-linked ISI claims responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 155 in Baghdad, as well as attacks in August and October killing 240, as President Obama announces troop withdrawal from Iraq in March. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2010 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes head of ISI, at lowest ebb of Islamist militancy in Iraq, which sees last U.S. combat brigade depart. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2012 In Syria, protests (pictured here starting in Daree) have morphed into what president Assad labelled a real war with emergence of a coalition of forces opposed to Assads regime. Syria group Jabhat al-Nusra are among rebel groups who refuse to join, denouncing it as a conspiracy. Bombings targeting Shia areas, killing more than 500 people, spark fears of new sectarian conflict. Sunni Muslims stage protests across country against what they see as increasingly marginalisation by Shia-led government. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2013 Al-Baghdadi renames ISI as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Isis, as the group absorbs Syrian al-Nusra, gaining a foothold in Syria. In response, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri (Bin Ladens successor) concerned about Isis expansion orders that Isis be dissolved and ISI operations should be confined to Iraq. This order is rejected by al-Baghdadi. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - January Isis fighters capture the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, giving them base to launch slew of attacks further south. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis declares itself the Caliphate, calling itself Islamic State (IS). The group captures Mosul, Iraqs second largest city; Tal Afar, just 93 miles from Syrian border; and the central Iraqi city of Tikrit. These advances sent shockwaves around the world. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Around the same time Isis releases a video calling for western Muslims to join the Caliphate and fight, prompting new evaluations of extremists groups social media understanding. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis take Baiji oil fields in Iraq - giving them access to huge amounts of possible revenue. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August James Foley is executed by the group as concerns grow for second American prisoner, fellow reporter Steven Sotloff. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August Obama authorises U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, helping to stall Isis along with action by Kurdish forces following the deaths of hundreds of Yazidi people on Mount Sinjar. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release video showing Steven Sotloffs murder prompting Western speculation his executioner is same man who killed Mr Foley. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Obama tells us that America will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release a video appearing to show David Haines, who was captured by militants in Syria in 2013, wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in the desert while he reads a pre-prepared script. It later shows what appears to be the aid worker's body. Rex Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Peshmerga fighters scrabble to hold positions in the Diyala province (a gateway to Baghdad) as Isis fighters continue to advance on Iraqi capital. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Aid worker Alan Henning is killed. Self-imposed media blackout refuses to show images of him in final moments, instead focuses upon humanitarian care. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Isis raise their flag in Kobani, which had been strongly defended by Kurdish troops. The victory goes against hopeful western analysis Isis had overextended itself, while alienating much of the Muslim population through the murder of Henning. Victory causes fresh waves of Kurdish refugees arriving in Turkey. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - November American hostage, who embarced values of Islam, Peter Kassig and 14 Syrian soldiers are shown meeting the same fate as other captives. But intelligence agencies will be poring over the apparently significant discrepancies between this and previous films. Seramedig.org.uk Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis has released a video revealing the murder by burning to death of a Jordanian pilot held by the group since the end of December 2014. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have released videos which appear to show the beheading of Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February American aid worker, Kayla Mueller was the last American hostage known to be held by Isis. She died, according to her captors, in an airstrike by the Jordanian air force on the city of Raqqa in Syria, though US authorities disputed this. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have posted a gruesome video online in which they force 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian hostages to kneel on a beach in Libya before beheading them. Egypt vowed to avenge the beheading and launched air strikes on Isis positions. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February The British Isis militant suspected of appearing in videos showing the beheading of Western hostages has been named in reports as Mohammed Emwazi from London. Rex Features Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - March Isis triple suicide attack has killed more than 100 worshippers and hundreds of others were injured after the group members targeted two mosques in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Iraqi forces have claimed victory over Isis in battle for Tikrit and raised the flag in the city. EPA/STR Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan that killed at least 35 people queuing to collect their wages and injured 100 more. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis media arm released a 29-minute video purporting to show militants executing Ethiopian Christians captives. The footage bore the extremist groups al-Furqan media logo and showed the destruction of churches and desecration of religious symbols. A masked fighter made a statement threatening Christians who did not convert to Islam or pay a special tax. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis has been "incapacitated" by a spinal injuries sustained in a US air strike in Iraq. He is being treated in a hideout by two doctors from Isis stronghold of Mosul who are said to be "strong ideological supporters of the group". Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis has also claimed responsibility for killing 300 of Yazidi captives, including women, children and elderly people in Iraq AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis attack on Prophet Mohamed cartoon contest in Texas was its first action on US soil. Two gunmen were shot and killed after launching the attack at the exhibition. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi have been named as the attackers at the Curtis Culwell Centre arena in Garland. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isiss deputy leader, Abu Alaa Afri, a former physics teacher who was thought to have taken charge of the deadly terrorist group, has been killed in a US-led coalition airstrike. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May US special forces have killed a senior Isis leader named as Abu Sayyaf in an operation aiming to capture him and his wife in Syria. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Iran-backed militias are sent to Ramadi by the Iraqi government to fight Isis militants who completed their capture of the city. Government soldiers and civilians were reportedly massacred by extremists as they took control and the army fled. Charred bodies were left littering the city streets as troops clung on to trucks speeding away from the city. Ramadi is the latest government stronghold to fall to the so-called Islamic State, despite air strikes by a US-led international coalition aiming to stop its advance in Iraq and Syria. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis rounded up civilians trapped in Palmyra and forced them to watch 20 people being executed in the historic citys ancient amphitheatre. The Unesco World Heritage site was overrun by militants, threatening the future of 2,000 year-old monuments and ruins. Thousands of Palmyras residents fled but many are still living within the city walls, while the UN human rights office in Geneva said it had received reports of Syrian government forces preventing people from leaving until they retreated from the city. Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May A group of Isis-affiliated fighters have captured a key airport in central Libya. The militants took control of the al-Qardabiya airbase in Sirte after a local militia tasked with defending the facility withdrew from their positions. Affiliates of Isis, already control large parts of Sirte, the birthplace of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and a former stronghold of his supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June The US Air Force has destroyed an Isis stronghold after an extremist let slip their location on social media. According the Air Force Times, General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said that Airmen at Hulburt Field, Florida, used images shared by jihadists to track the location of their headquarters before destroying it in an airstrike. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Kurdish forces captured a key military base in a significant victory in Raqqa as well as town of Tell Abyad. YPG fighters, backed by US-led airstrikes and other rebels, consolidated their gains, when they seized the key town on the Syria-Turkey border. They are now just 30 miles to the north of Raqqa and have cut off a major supply route deep inside Isis-held territory. Ahmet Silk/Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has released gruesome footage claiming to show the murder of more than a dozen men by drowning, decapitation and using a rocket-propelled grenade as it seeks to boost morale among its fanatical supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has begun carrying out its threat to destroy structures in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, blowing up at least two monuments at the Unesco-protected site as Syrian government troops made advances on the Islamists positions. AFP Isis was violent from the start of its rule 20 months ago, but public whippings and executions have become far more common in recent months. Mosul residents say that Saudi and Libyan volunteers, who have joined Isis, are the most likely to impose penalties for minor infringements of regulations in the self-declared caliphate. Swedish teenager describes Isis experience It is as if Isis fighters and officials are compensating for setbacks in the war by showing that they still have power over the population under their control. Ibraham, a 26-year-old pharmacist who left Mosul on 16 January, said that there is little food and only a limited supply of medicine left in the city. My pharmacy became half empty, he said. Pharmaceutical factories around Mosul have stopped production and there are fewer medicines being imported from Syria. Simple painkillers like Panadol that cost $1 (70p) for a bottle last year now cost $8, according to Ibrahim. There is a shortage of food and what is available is very costly. The caliphate is increasingly cut off from supplies from Turkey and the rest of Syria. It also has less money to spend because of air attacks on its exports of crude oil, combined with the fall in the price of oil. Iraqi security forces in Baghdad on Monday, preparing to travel to Mosul to fight Isis (Reuters) The Baghdad government continued to pay the salaries of public servants in Mosul even after Isis took over, but Ibrahim said that money stopped coming through nine months ago. I have spent almost all my savings, he said. Last year, $500 a month was enough for a family to live on, but now even $1,000 is not enough because prices are twice or even five times what they used to be. Refugees speak of starvation spreading throughout the city under the impact of this economic siege. For me, I could stand the bad treatment and lack of food, but when my toddler of 11 months began to starve it became impossible to stay, said Fatima. Baby milk has not been available for six months and other foodstuffs are prohibitively expensive. Rice costs $10 a kilo. Nor are these problems confined to Mosul. Farmers are leaving their fields because there is no electricity to pump water so they cannot irrigate their crops, according to Ghanem, 25, an unemployed plumber who is now in north-east Syria. Isis supporters march past the provincial government offices in Mosul (AP) He insists that the main reason he fled Mosul was not the bad living conditions, but Isis poking their noses into the details of peoples daily lives with their arbitrary fines and punishments. He speaks of the increasingly harsh treatment of women, with the Biter being used as a punishment on women deemed to have shown too much skin. Popular revulsion against Isis within the caliphate does not necessarily translate into resistance or mean that its rule is fatally undermined, however. There have been few anti-Isis armed attacks in Mosul and Isis uses its well-organised and merciless security arm to target real and imagined opponents. Where tribes have risen up against Isis in Iraq and Syria their members have been hunted down and slaughtered in their hundreds. Whatever the shortages affecting the ordinary population in Isis-held territory, officials and fighters will not go without food or fuel though falling revenues does mean that their salaries have been cut in half. The Caliphate is under heavy attack from its numerous though disunited enemies, the most important of which are the Syrian and Iraqi armies, the Iraq Kurdish Peshmerga and the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG). These armies are not very large, but their fire power is greatly multiplied by the close support they receive from US and Russian air strikes. This makes it impossible for Isis to hold fixed and identifiable positions without suffering serious casualties. But Isis can still act as a skilled and experienced guerrilla force, attacking vulnerable roads such as that linking Syrian government-held Homs and Aleppo, which the group cut this week. Even so, there are clear signs of growing corruption and disorganisation within Isis. The very fact that so many people have escaped from Mosul, despite strict rules against leaving, shows that Isis is less capable of enforcing its regulations than previously, for all the terror that it still inspires. The former school director, who does not want to give his name, says: They threaten to kill us if we go outside Mosul. Smugglers commonly charge between $400 and $500 to secretly transport someone to safety, though some of this may go straight to Isis which is desperate for money. Ghanem said he was frightened at first as he left Mosul for Syria, but a smuggler reassured him saying: Dont worry. Money makes everything possible and they [Isis] will take their share. Isis was always a paranoid organisation, seeing traitors and spies everywhere, and this is growing worse. Anything can be grounds for suspicion: one woman, who eventually reached safety in Erbil, mentioned casually that her brother-in-law had been arrested and executed because he had once been a member of a police unit that specialised in protecting the oilfields. Wisam, a 19-year-old student, had worked in a minor capacity as a photo editor in the local TV station and for news agencies, an activity he thought might put him at risk. I spent more than a year working in the bazaar selling vegetables, he said. I could not work online because the internet is heavily monitored by Isis. Recommended Read more Rescued Swedish teenager claims she was tricked into joining Isis Mosul is returning to a pre-modern era without electricity or drinking water, say its former inhabitants. During the first year of its Caliphate, Isis made great efforts to ensure that public services worked as well as, or better than, under the Iraqi government, but it appears to have abandoned the attempt. We only get drinking water once a week, said Wisam. Pipes are broken and need repair, but the administration in Mosul has become careless and confused over the past five months. The mains electricity supply has likewise almost stopped and people rely on private generators, either their own or those owned by local businessmen who sell the power. This can be too expensive for many families. Fatima said that most areas of the city are dark and Mosul has become like a ghost town. Dependence on generators means reliance on locally produced fuel, which is of poor quality since US air strikes have destroyed the refineries in Syria that were controlled by Isis. The fuel cannot be used in cars and damages the motors in generators, which often stop working. Isis tried a coupon system to ration fuel but later abandoned it. Ghanem said that we feel we are living in the Stone Age: no mobiles, no TV, no cars, even no lighting. Exclusive: Inside the world of Syria's life-savers The pressure of war on many fronts, combined with the tightening economic blockade, has undermined the Caliphates attempt to show Sunni Arabs that it is better able to administer a state than the Iraqi or Syrian governments. When its fighters captured Ramadi in May last year they got credit from local people for swiftly reopening the local hospital, something the Iraqi government had failed to do, by bringing in doctors from Syria. They also brought in large generators to provide electricity. In much of eastern Syria, Isiss draconian regulations were preferable to the criminality and insecurity which had flourished previously under other armed opposition movements. The testimony of refugees is inevitably biased against those who forced them to abandon their homes and flee and, while the accounts of their suffering are undoubtedly true, they cannot speak for those who stayed behind. Isis still has fanatical supporters and there is no mass exodus of deserters from its ranks, even though they are being bombed by the two largest air forces in the world. Isis was always infamous for relating to the rest of the world solely through violence and, as the tide turns against it on the battlefield, it is not surprising that this violence is becoming steadily even more extreme. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A university in South Africa has been forced to close one of its campuses after students clashed with security, incited violence, and burned down buildings amid a row over the institutions student representative council (SRC). Administrators at the North-West Universitys (NWU) Mafikeng campus, in the city of Potchefstroom, have announced in a statement students have been advised to leave the campus immediately for their own safety and return home. Campus spokesman Koos Degenaar added: It is likely to take a considerable period of time to restore operations. Students will be given at least a months notice of the re-opening of the campus. According to local media reports, the universitys decision last month to dissolve the SRC and replace it with a new council resulted in students protesting. Images on social media show chaotic scenes as a vehicle and university buildings have been set alight. Mr Degenaar explained how, on the morning of 24 February, an event was scheduled during which the newly-appointed Campus Student Representative Council (CSRC) was inaugurated. He added: Just before the proceedings were about to start, a group of students - allegedly from the Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFF) and supporters of the dissolved CSRC - started to disrupt the event. He said the initial demonstrations had started outside the campus Great Hall - where the inauguration was taking place - after which protesters entered inside, and disrupted the event by singing and shouting while speakers were addressing the student crowd. After the event, the temporarily-suspended CSRC president, Mr Linda (Benz) Mabengwane, arrived on campus and began to speak with a group of students, when on-campus security dispersed the crowd, leading to clashes between both parties. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Mr Degenaar said security had to use teargas and rubber bullets to get the situation under control. He added: The students were pelting security with stones, which led to further reactions by them. In the late afternoon, the situation flared up again and incidents were reported where students set fire to a motorcycle belonging to a staff member as well as a trailer belonging to the security company. It was also reported the staff cafeteria was looted. Students then went on to allegedly set fire to other buildings on campus, with the administration building being the main target. Mr Degenaar continued: This building was completely destroyed, along with all official records. Damages are estimated to run into millions of rands. The spokesman said he believed arrests had been made, but that no formal account could be given in this regard yet. He also dispelled rumours that a student was killed after on-campus security intervened. He did, however, say it was suspected that students were hurt during the clashes. Responding to the allegations, EFF - which says its basic programme is the complete overthrow of a neoliberal anti-black system and the realisation of students power - released an online statement and said the university management has no-one to blame but themselves. The groups spokesman, Peter Keetse, said: Following the protest, we must say they have invited anarchy when it was not necessary. They have arrogantly and unconstitutionally removed the democratically elected Student Representative Council from office. The wrath of students of NWU comes after the managements decision to appoint its own interim SRC. The students demanded their legitimate president Linda benz Mabengwane whom they have elected in the previous elections. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} British Airways has flown generations of solo children around the world, with flying nannies looking after under-12s travelling alone. But in BAs latest move to cut costs, the airline is ending its Unaccompanied Minor (UM) service - angering parents who face flying thousands of miles to pick up or deliver their offspring. The airline has not publicised the move widely. Instead, BA told passengers with children booked to fly as UMs that, while existing tickets will be honoured, no new bookings will be accepted. The message read: The airline will continue to take bookings for 12 to 18-year-olds who wish to fly independently. However, children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult aged 16 or over. A spokeswoman for BA told The Independent: Despite the overall growth in our customer numbers over the last decade, demand for our unaccompanied minor service has declined by two thirds, falling by 21 per cent in the last year. Until this week, the airline charged $125 (90) for what it called its Skyflyer Solo service on a European or domestic flight, and $150 (108) for a long-haul trip, on top of the fare. Of the five-to-11-year-olds who currently fly with BA, more than 98 per cent are accompanied by an adult. While the airlines UM service was available to children aged between 12 and 18, only one in 10 in this age category travelling alone made use of it. BAs spokeswoman said: We have concluded with regret that we can no longer offer this service. British Airways operates far more non-stop long-haul services from the UK than any other airline, so the move is likely to hit thousands of families. A London travel agent, Hillgate, tweeted: Terrible news - British Airways no longer accept a child under 12 travelling alone. It urged parents to use Virgin Atlantic where possible, since BAs rival is continuing its UM service. The writer and historian, Juliet Barclay, was a UM as a child. She recalls: I flew regularly between London and the Caribbean with my younger brother and a crowd of other children on BA flights. Sometimes we were allowed to help distribute meal trays. We all belonged to the Junior Jet Club. Almost always we were taken onto the flight deck. We had logbooks which the Captain would fill in and sign on each flight, and every time you notched up another 25,000 miles the airline sent you a very elegant certificate. Winston Churchills grandson, also Winston, boards a plane to return to school in Switzerland in 1951 (Getty) Jamie Bowden, a former BA Customer Service Manager at Heathrow, said the demise was predictable: There are no longer the huge numbers of UMs flying between London and the traditional expat communities such as Hong Kong, Kenya or the Caribbean that there used to be 30-40 years ago. Offering a discrete service is no longer viable. Juliet Barclay is now a parent, and uses Virgin Atlantics UM service: Its terrific. My daughter has flown out several times to join me when I've been working in Cuba. But Jamie Bowden sounded a warning about long-term prospects for the concept: British Airways have long had a link to UM travel, but I suspect now they have made this decision, it will not be long before other carriers follow suit. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Trams, Camberwell Green, 1940s. Via Old London. What was notable about Prime Minister's Questions yesterday was not just that David Cameron expressed what millions of non-political people think about Jeremy Corbyn: "I know what my mother would say. She would look across the Dispatch Box and say, 'Put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem.'" But that Corbyn for once had a pointed response delivered with some rhetorical force. "My late mother would have said stand up for the principle of a health service free at the point of use for everybody." His mistake of technique was to wait too long 35 seconds for the noise to subside. The Speaker isn't going to intervene because he annoys MPs by doing so, so Corbyn should have simply ploughed on: the microphones will pick up what he says even if the noise in the Chamber sounds impossible. Corbyn compounded his error by tweeting an after-the-event response to Cameron's comment about his appearance, in the form of a quotation that has been unconvincingly attributed to Albert Einstein but never verified: If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies." I think Corbyn and Cameron both misjudged the serious question that prompted their yah-boo. Corbyn because he appeared to be trying to brush aside the problem of excess weekend deaths in the NHS, and Cameron because he was provocative in asserting that the only thing wrong with Jeremy Hunt's claim was that his figure for excess deaths was too low. Patients admitted at weekends tend to be more seriously ill, so some increase in deaths is to be expected and is found in healthcare systems around the world. But there almost certainly is a problem of poorer care at weekends as well (Tom Chivers has a good summary of the evidence here) and it is depressing to see the Labour Party and the British Medical Association trying to make excuses for it. Depressing as it may be, it was tactically inept of the Prime Minister to make over-emphatic assertions about excess deaths that is likely to push the junior doctors further into defensive intransigence. The question of Europe didn't come up at PMQs until right at the end, when the Speaker called Owen Paterson, the former cabinet minister. He was unhappy about the guidance for ministers and civil servants on the EU referendum, which he thought failed to provide for equality between "the supporters and opponents of the proposal being voted on". Cameron was having none of it: The Government have a position on this issue: the Governments position is that we would be better off in a reformed European Union. Ministers are able to depart from that position, and campaign in a personal capacity. That is, I think, a very important statement. It is right in terms of how we go about it, but it does not mean that the Government are neutral. It does not mean that the civil service is neutral. That last sentence will provoke amateur constitutionalists, but is absolutely right and often misunderstood. Of course the civil service must be impartial, in that civil servants must not express their own views and must serve the government of the day. But they are there to serve the government of the day. That means that it is their job to implement the policy of that government. It was Harold Wilson who invented the device of suspending collective ministerial responsibility to allow ministers to campaign against government policy, but the Government still has a policy. Paterson can look up the rules, which are set out in the Civil Service Code, based on the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. Yesterday was a big day for Conservative MPs "clarifying" where they stand on the EU referendum. In the past 24 hours, the numbers of those backing "In" have risen by 11 to 162, just four short of a majority of the parliamentary party. Those backing "Out" have gone up one to 140, with 28 still to declare. Cameron had hoped to keep the "Outers" down to about 70, but having a majority of his MPs backing his position is at least something. In 1975, when Harold Wilson was managing a similar split in his party, 137 Labour MPs were for the Common Market in a House of Commons vote in April, with 145 against, and 33 not voting. Thanks to Mr Memory for the numbers. Wilson's Cabinet split 14 for Yes, seven for No (Cameron's is 17 to 5). And finally, thanks to Moose Allain for this: "My business politely checking eggs is ticking ova nicely." Sign up here to receive a daily "Catch-Up Service" email (9am Sunday to Friday) with links to new posts by John Rentoul. If you prefer to use a feed reader (I recommend feedly), the RSS is http://www.independent.co.uk/author/john-rentoul/rss You can also use this to send yourself an "as-it-happens" email whenever I post something, through IFTTT (If This Then That: search for RSS to email), a wonderful service, which I also recommend. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} After his Nevada win, Donald Trump preened and affectionately recounted the numbers that added up to his huge victory. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated," he said. My Twitter timeline was splattered as suddenly and thoroughly as a windshield in a Florida downpour. That last sentence was repeated in laughing disbelief. What does Trump think about the poorly educated? A man who might be President just said I love the poorly educated. I love the poorly educated is the drop-the-mic ending to America's superpower status. I grew up in New York, and have been unhappily acquainted with Trumps brand of glitzy racist megalomania for decades. This campaign has distilled and revealed him: liar, misogynist, ableist, xenophobe, wannabe war-mongerer. As the man himself might say, Trump is a terrible candidate and person! Sad! But please, stop the titters and eyerolls about his poorly educated line. First, his fans - the Trumpkins - already believe Democrats and journalists are snotty elitists. In this case, the cut-ups are proving the Trumpkins right. Donald Trump: "I love the poorly educated" What is funny about saying I love the poorly educated? Of course Trump loves poorly educated voters. Who else would be asinine enough to buy his tripe? But some of the same people who have been laughing because he said he loves the poorly educated also denounce voter ID laws. Why? They disenfranchise Americans who are disproportionately lower-income workers, minorities and poorly educated. They denounce the laws because they believe rightly that an education is neither necessary nor sufficient for thoughtful democratic participation. Of course, I love the poorly educated is ostensibly funny because what politician actually says something like that? Any politician who thought for half a second before speaking would say, Im grateful for the support of working class Americans. But Trump does not tiptoe. That is at least partly because, unlike many of the candidates and most of the media, he actually loves the poorly educated. He is not laughing at them or ignoring them or wishing them away or informing them that they are wrong about what is really best for them. Trumpkins say they love how Trump speaks his mind. Maybe some admire his outspoken bigotry. But maybe others also like the way he talks about them. Straightforwardly. Acceptingly. As a friend tweet-stormed, If you self-identify as undereducated and feel bad about it...the guy loves you (after a fashion) and wants to be greedy for you. A February 24th poll shows Trump beating Hillary Clinton by 46 to 40 among voters without college degrees in the must-win state of Ohio. Meanwhile, the highly educated scratch their heads and cannot understand why he is not imploding like they keep predicting. Click here to take the 'Who Said It: Candidates vs Beauty Queens' quiz Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Everyone from the boss of Vodafone to the chief executive of the Waterloo Tea Company wants Britain to stay in the European Union. Quelle surprise, you may well groan. After all, big business has always been in favour of Europe for good, and, sometimes, less honourable reasons. Large transnational companies do more business across more borders than ever before and in virtually every economic activity they conduct, from manufacturing cars and armaments to processing financial transactions and designing buildings, the idea of having to navigate tariff walls, customs declarations, work visas, different standards and any other of the myriad barriers to trade must be depressing indeed. For this is what the single market, the free movement of labour and capital, and the spirit of the EU is all about making pan-European business work better for all. If Britain were to place itself outside that market then such flexibility and efficiency would be badly threatened. The chances are that Britain would lose out especially so in manufacturing, where so much inward investment depends on easy and trouble-free access to a large and prosperous, albeit slow-growing, European market. It is possible, as the anti-EU lobby maintains, that trade means so much to the Europeans that they would never erect barriers to UK firms. But think back to the situation before 1973, when we belatedly joined the European project. In the 1950s and 1960s, Britain was also a tempting market for fast-growing European firms, but their governments still kept us out to protect their own industries and farmers, maybe at some economic loss to themselves. Governments, like people, sometimes operate outside the bounds of strict economic rationality. One powerful argument the EU would have is that the UK would no longer operate the Social Chapter, so why should they allow this sweatshop island with poor worker protection to undercut their own workers? A compensatory tariff to eliminate such a competitive advantage would probably be irresistible. It is also fair to point out that some complex operations could simply not take place in such an environment, and would gravitate towards the larger market: the 500 million Europeans rather than 60 million Britons. Their support for the EU is at least a welcome signal that the corporates wish to operate where workers do enjoy basic rights. Where these businesses may be a little complacent is in underestimating the need for EU structural reform, and overstating David Camerons success in delivering that in his so-called renegotiation. As most can see, it was nothing of the sort. The problem of competitiveness in world markets lies behind much of the economic dislocation that has afflicted the EU for almost a decade. Leaving the bloc would not necessarily mean a successful refocusing on faster-growing economies such as India or China if indeed they continue to grow as quickly as they have and trade with the EU doesnt prevent trade with the rest of the world. Exporting has never been a zero-sum game. The reason for Britains relatively lacklustre record in selling to China, for example, has little to do with being in the EU, as the rampant success of German efforts amply demonstrates. The last time a European referendum was held, in 1975, big business was also in favour of membership, many mistakenly taking it to be a panacea for an ailing economy. Now we seem ready to fall for a different myth that Europe, with its eurozone and migrant crises, is the source of all our misfortunes. The EU has its problems, but leaving will make no business, big or small, better off. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The simplified storylines are being wheeled out once again. Impoverished women sold into sexual slavery. Drug ravaged sex workers selling sex for 2. Seedy punters cluttering the streets, causing havoc for the local community. In each one, the atypical is presented as the typical experience of sex work. Through the Home Affairs Select Committees inquiry into prostitution, the anti-prostitution ideologues have found another opportunity to speak on behalf of sex workers. Now theyre pushing for a Sex Purchase Law for England and Wales: one that criminalises the client, while treating the sex worker as a victim. So why is it that some people are so concerned with criminalising sex between two consenting adults? At first glance this seems a well-intentioned, perhaps even noble, attempt to protect vulnerable women. But our research at the University of Leeds shows that those who voluntarily work in the sex industry are made more vulnerable to violence by the laws that criminalise commercial sex. And rather than reduce levels of trafficking, the Sex Purchase Law will create an environment in which it can flourish. But the UK has a rapidly-growing rescue industry: one that makes its living from identifying and creating victims of sexual slavery. It is in its interest to find them. Lots of them. In a sort of sex industry neighbourhood watch scheme, some Christian organisations send their congregation out on to the streets to search for sex workers that they can impose victim status upon. Other organisations have infiltrated university campuses. Theres even a Slave Detective offering anti-trafficking consultancy. In the face of mounting evidence that theyre doing more harm than good, people recklessly continue on their rescue missions. They continue to rescue women from an industry many do not wish to be saved. If theyre a migrant sex worker, their rescue can result in deportation. This deportation may be back to communities where they are shunned or worse still, put to death for bringing shame to their family. Far from helping people involved in the sex industry, the actions of the rescue industry limit the freedom of sex workers. Ive heard about women having their mobile phones confiscated in trafficking safe houses, to ensure they cant sell any more sex. There are even self-styled slave rescuers who buy girls from traffickers in order to rescue them! Such is the extent of the harm caused by anti-prostitution zealots that we must question whether their actions are fundamentally any less harmful than those they are seeking to save women from. Their actions appear altruistic. They effectively create the illusion that they are protecting women. But the Sex Purchase Law is about imposing upon sex workers the rescue industrys view of what is morally right and wrong. They have taken it upon themselves to decide what parts of the body can and cant be used to make a living. By positioning the sex worker as a victim, and not as an active decision-makers, it is easier to feel in control. All the while, the rescuers continue to disguise their interfering as benevolence and dont seem to understand why sex workers arent grateful. Wouldnt an approach that really sought to help sex workers meaningfully consult them about how best to regulate the industry they work in? But then of course, the picture of commercial sex that the rescue industry has so carefully painted would fall apart. And it would bring down with it the entire rescue industry since, without a steady supply of victims, it would be surplus to requirement. Laura Connelly is a researcher at the University of Leeds, specialising in human trafficking, the sex industry, migration, and policing Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Ever since the Prime Minister emerged from the European Council boasting of having secured a special status for the UK and confirming referendum day as 23 June, Ive had an overwhelming sense of deja vu. Judging from social media, its a feeling shared by many involved in the Scottish independence debate of 2012-14. The first casualty of a constitutional referendum is the truth or, at least, generally accepted boundaries for political debate. Faced with a choice between In or Out, there is little place for nuance; both sides reach for the box marked hyperbole. It has already begun: warnings that the UK will be more vulnerable to terrorist attacks in (or out) of the EU, that migrant camps might relocate to the south of England, and so on. Others pedal deliberate falsehoods to bolster a flimsy case, conflating the European Convention on Human Rights with the EU, and speaking as if the UK were somehow being dragged into crises (eurozone and migrant) from which it actually stands aloof. Meanwhile, the Brexiters, who just two years ago rejected utopian depictions of what Scotland might be like outside the UK richer, fairer and freer now wield remarkably similar arguments in favour of British independence. In Scotland, most (but not all) politicians spent two years conspiring with large chunks of the electorate to have as desultory a debate as possible while congratulating themselves about dispelling voter apathy. The referendum raised big questions as does its EU corollary but tended to deal with them in a very small way. Complex points about economics and sovereignty were boiled down to often meaningless debating points. Then theres the media bashing. The BBC has the hardest job, pressurised to abandon impartiality weighing up arguments on the basis of empirical evidence in favour of balance, which means presenting both sides as if theyre equally credible. The independence referendum brought out both the best (disputatiousness) and the worst (tribalism) in Scots, and theres a strong chance the EU referendum will do the same. Perhaps the more limited time frame Cameron has clearly learnt one lesson from the independence referendum will limit that, but I have my doubts. Also not to be underestimated is the personal dimension. Although journalists and politicians tend to possess thick skins, the two year-long Scottish debate took its toll. I was shocked at the effect it had on friends and colleagues with differing views, with whom Id hitherto been able to spar with humour and respect. Of course, passions run high when big constitutional questions are at stake. Many clearly viewed the Scottish Question as an existential one that cut to the very heart of who they were. The same is true of the UK and the EU. None of this is an argument against referendums I happen to think the prime minister deserves credit for attempting to draw a line under two long-running issues but it is a plea for realism and restraint. Referendums are subject to the law of unintended consequences, and theyre not always good. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Too often, programmes that aim to promote a more tolerant, liberal form of Islam lack purchase in Muslim communities. Tony Blairs latest project seems to fall into this category. It aims to counter violent extremism, but includes just four members with Islamic heritage on a panel of 24, and only one who lives outside the West. During the panels launch, a US State Department official said, addressing Mr Blair: You yourself noted that this was largely a struggle within Islam If theyre the target audience it seems to me half the commission should be Muslim. Mr Blair struggled to answer. And there is little that can be said in his defence. The Muslim community does not lack voices in favour of reform: Mr Blair could have leafed through the pages of Critical Muslim, a British journal, to find any number. It is imperative to highlight voices who share the Islamic faith of the people they are speaking to, rather than treat it as an inescapable part of the problem, to be rolled back where possible. That is not an indulgence of radical Islam, but a more effective way to undermine its messengers. A public figure respected by the regulars at Birmingham Central Mosque, or even heard by those who pray at the Dome of the Rock, will do more good than one who however much the non-Muslim world may admire them has few bridges into these demographics. The business is a finely balanced one. It is also true that conservative Muslim groups, such as Cage, exaggerate the oppressiveness of counter-extremism projects, trying to win support by claiming spuriously that they are fundamentally Islamophobic. There is, of course, a simple way for governments and think-tanks to block off such criticism. Seek out, support and hire people who have conspicuous roots in the places their projects aim to reach. Garda Margaret Byrne (left) and presiding officer Majella Harkin carry a ballot box to the polling station on Inishfree Island Maureen O'Sullivan, right, prepares to cast her votes as Garda Margaret Byrne and presiding officer Majella Harkin look on at a polling station on Inishfree Island Maureen O'Sullivan first came to Inishfree in 1963 to live with her late husband. The widow returned to the "magical" Donegal island where she had many happy years to vote. She was one of only two. The rest have left. A whitewashed cottage with a roaring fire and piles of fruit scones was transformed into a polling station after the ballot box was transported from the mainland by powerboat, a 10-minute journey. It was lifted gingerly from the vessel onto a perilous seaweed-strewn slipway by boatman Oscar Duffy. He put it down to help Garda Margaret Byrne from the boat, taking her by the arm as he walked her up the treacherous walkway. She and election presiding officer Majella Harkin made the 10-minute trek with the box along an uneven sandy track to the polling station, passing the skeleton of an old stone house with only gable walls remaining. The vote was held at the family home of Philomena Currid, who had made the scones and hot tea. Nallah the St Bernard stood guard outside. Modern polling literature was pasted incongruously on the front door and around the cottage, jarringly contemporary. The room where the vote took place was only a metre or two wide and dark. Mrs O'Sullivan is from South Wales originally. She moved to Inishfree aged 22 with her husband Donal, whose family was from the island. Elderly women with long skirts and shawls were the main inhabitants. They cooked bread over stoves. Mrs O'Sullivan said: "It was like a story book - it got you and you were hooked. "It kind of stuck with me and I never wanted to leave. It was a different world, a few boats, a few men fishing. "Everybody had made cups of tea and the scones they had cooked on the fire, it was just magic." She has written 16 chapters of a book about her life there. In the 1980s the main inhabitants were members of the Atlantis Commune, the Screamers, who believed in healing grief through primal screaming as a form of therapy. But they have gone too, from Inishfree to Colombia, according to Mr Duffy. Mrs O'Sullivan enjoyed many happy years with her husband, living on the mile-wide island and bringing up their children. They owned a couple of houses and some of the rocky land. She was widowed in 2001 - her husband died from a heart attack aged 61 - and finally left Inishfree for Burtonport three years ago. She said the ritual of voting there helped to keep the place on the map. Philomena Currid, 50, was the other voter. The poll was held in her mother's home, where she was born. She was brought up in the US, one of six children, after her family emigrated but returned to Ireland in February 1968 and went to school on the island for a few years. Ms Currid now lives in Burtonport but returns for the summer holidays. She said it was a special place. "I come up here on my own and there is no-one, myself and the animals," she said. "I feel more safe here on my own on the island, there is always something to do here and I am never bored." She was gloomy about the future. "Emigration I am thinking," she said. "There is absolutely nothing here, especially in Burtonport, every factory has closed, every shop, we have one shop left, pubs, there is no employment, absolutely no transport if you don't have your own car. "I am not very hopeful, I am not. "I have thought over and thought over about this and I have thought maybe America, it is time to go back. "Maybe it is just the small area I am living in but they just need something for a boost." Cherrywood's Strategic Development Zone in Dublin 18 has received a second fillip in 10 days with the news that process engineering company APC is to double its office space to 60,000 sq ft in Block G2 in the business park. It follows from last week's announcement by Hines Ireland of its 30.5m deal to sell up to three SDZ sites to developer Cairn Homes with the potential for 300 new homes. Cairn has purchased two lots for 21.5m, with an option to purchase a third lot for 9.2 million. The latest APC deal will provide a particular boost to the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council (DLRCoCo) as its wholly-owned company, DLR Properties Ltd, owns Block G2 and another office block in Cherrywood. DLR Properties also owns development land at Cherrywood SDZ, and it recently made a submission to DLRCoCo setting out an urban form development framework for its Town Centre site. Late last year APC signed a lease for 30,000 sq ft in Block G2, and has now agreed to take a further 30,000 sq ft from Q1 2016 at a rent believed to be about 20 per sq ft. Conor Whelan of agents QRE says the APC letting marks a further milestone in the development of Cherrywood into a leading office location for international employers. APC was founded in 2011 and provides process engineering services to the pharmaceutical and chemical sectors. DLR Properties' Cherrywood buildings comprise the 60,000 sq ft Block AA as well as Block G2 which extends to 120,000 sq ft. Joint agents QRE and BNP Paribas Real Estate are quoting 25 per sq ft for the remaining space in G2 which comprises 30,000 sq ft on each of the ground and first floors. Mr Whelan says rents for Grade A office space in the south-east Dublin suburbs have risen from around 15 to 16 per sq ft in 2013 to 23 to 25 per sq. ft today. He says there is good activity in the suburban office sector as occupiers are either expanding within this market or are relocating from city centre locations to take advantage of lower occupancy costs. "Typically total occupancy costs in prime suburban locations, which include rent, rates and service charges will be half of those for prime buildings in the city centre. Suburban buildings, which also tend to be very efficient in terms of floorplate size and depth, are therefore attractive to larger scale occupiers, particularly if well served by good public transport infrastructure," he adds. Pam Kearney, chairman of DLR Properties said: "Cherrywood continues to fulfil its original vision of developing a major business hub outside the city." Dr Mark Barrett, managing director APC said: "this substantial premises could be designed to meet our precise requirements in such a well-connected location". The Andrea Roche modelling agency is expanding and now represents Ireland's most popular 'social influencers' in the areas of fashion, travel and fitness. Buoyed by the success of models and bloggers Roz Purcell and Pippa O'Connor in the publishing world, Agency managing director Andrea Roche, inset, yesterday said the agency now represents Ireland's most popular social influencers. She said they work in the fields of fashion, beauty, nutrition, fitness and lifestyle blogging and vlogging. Ms Roche established the Andrea Roche Model Agency in 2010. Last year it enjoyed its best year to date after recording combined revenues of almost 1m in its first two full years. Until now, the agency has been focused on representing models and Ms Roche said that the host of social influencers in the areas of Fashion, Travel, Fitness, Lifestyle and beauty now being represented by her firm include Rosie Connolly, Grace Mongey (Faces by Grace) Lorna Weightman, Ciara O'Doherty Tara O'Farrell, Brittany Mason and Maeve Madden. Ms Roche said that she hopes that income from the 'social influencers' will soon represent 20pc of revenues at the agency. She said that social media has altered the balance of power between consumers and brands. Dublin, which has risen two places in FT city rankings, is home to nine of the 10 most important tech companies in the world. Photo: Bloomberg Dublin is now in a position to become one of Europe's top cities, according to the latest fDi European 'City of the Future' rankings. The capital rose two places in the list to third with the 'Financial Times' magazine applauding it for its heavy emphasis on software and IT investment. According to the rankings, the software and IT sector accounted for 45pc of all the city's foreign direct investment between the years of 2010 and 2014. London topped the poll with Paris second. Dublin was also ranked among the top three European cities for economic potential and for business friendliness. It also ranked fourth for FDI strategy. The head of enterprise at the Local Enterprise Office in Dublin City, Greg Swift, said the business culture that has been created in the city is very positive. "Dublin, the driver of Ireland, Europe's fastest-growing economy, is an ideal location from which to access the European Union's 500 million customers. "In addition to being the only English- speaking country in the Eurozone, the business climate that has been created is very favourable and this is evidenced by Dublin being the second best Major European City for Business Friendliness in these rankings," Mr Swift said. "The strong infrastructure for FDI, which exists in the city and region enhances the ease with which companies can establish themselves in Dublin," Mr Swift said. According to Dublin City Council, Ireland's attractive tax system and its government agencies help make it an attractive location for FDI. Dublin is currently home to half of the world's top banks, 250 global financial institutions, 10 of the world's top 20 insurance companies, nine of the world's top 10 pharmaceutical companies, and 17 of the world's top medtech companies. Dublin also plays host to nine of the 10 most important tech companies in the world. Outside of national incentives, a number of activities being encouraged by Dublin City Council and the Local Enterprise Office are helping the city up the rankings. Among the ongoing activity is a six-year plan, the 'Dublin City Local Economic and Community Plan', which is due to be delivered by stakeholders with a remit in the city. Outside of this the Dublin Economic Monitor provides quarterly updates on the economic growth of the city and allows for active measurement of the city's economic health. The council is looking to build on the encouraging rise up the table with the launch of Dublin.ie. It hopes that the new website it says will help attract talent and investment to the county. The council says the site will provide all information on living, working and investing in Dublin and is due to be launched soon. Gaelectric owns 13 windfarms in Northern Ireland and nine in the Republic. Photo: Keith Arkins Irish energy firm Gaelectric is eyeing a sale of a stake in, or all of its operational windfarms, in a deal that could place a 750m enterprise valuation on the assets, it's understood. The enterprise value includes debt and equity, but even with the debt attached to those assets stripped out, the assets could still have an equity value of between 250m and 350m, the Irish Independent understands. Any proceeds would be used to further develop Gaelectric's other renewable energy assets and projects, which include energy storage, solar and bioenergy, as well as energy trading. A sale could include part or all of about 200 megawatts of wind energy output, spread over about 23 windfarms that are owned by the company. Gaelectric, which was founded in 2004, owns 13 windfarms in Northern Ireland and nine in the Republic. Yesterday, it announced the completion of the acquisition of the 46MW Cloghboola windfarm in Co Kerry for 60m from Enercon, using hybrid project financing secured through Nord/LB. It comprises 16 turbines, and can generate power for almost 30,000 homes. That windfarm is also among the assets being pitched to potential buyers of Gaelectric's operational estate, it's understood. Industry publication 'Sparkspread' first revealed this week that Gaelectric has tasked investment bank Rothschild to examine potential deals. An actual auction of the assets hasn't yet formally begun, it noted. A spokesman for Gaelectric, which is headed by co-founder and chief executive Brendan McGrath, declined to comment. The Irish Independent understands that Gaelectric could decide to sell all its operational windfarms, however, and that it could continue as an operator and maintenance provider under sales terms. However, the final make-up of a deal would probably depend on whether or not a buyer is an institutional investor or in the trade. It was recently reported that US private equity giant Lonestar now has an 8pc stake in Gaelectric after the American firm acquired debts owed by Gaelectric's co-founder, Eamonn McGrath, to IBRC. However, it's believed that would not pose any obstacle to a sale of the operational windfarms. Gaelectric has a target of having 400MW of operational windfarms by 2017 - but that includes the 200MW of so of assets it is currently lining up for a sale. Last year, Gaelectric signed an agreement with Irish firm Oriel to develop a 15MW offshore windarm in the Irish Sea at a cost of 80m. That's part of a much bigger planned project called the North Irish Sea Array, which could eventually extend to being a huge 870MW windfarm. Gaelectric is also developing a major energy storage project in Larne, Northern Ireland. The scheme involves the creation of two vast storage caverns more than 1.4km beneath the Antrim coast. The storage project, which uses compressed air, will be able to generate up to 330MW of power for up to six hours, and will create demand for 200MW of power during its compression cycle. Gaelectric also has interests in the United States. The company is one of the largest owners of wind development rights in Montana. It has over 30,000 acres under option for lease agreements for its proposed 235MW Jawbone wind project in the State. Here are the main business stories from this morning's papers: Irish Independent * Irish energy firm Gaelectric is eyeing a sale of a stake in, or all of its operational windfarms, in a deal that could place a 750m enterprise valuation on the assets, it's understood. The enterprise value includes debt and equity, but even with the debt attached to those assets stripped out, the assets could still have an equity value of between 250m and 350m, the Irish Independent understands. Any proceeds would be used to further develop Gaelectric's other renewable energy assets and projects, which include energy storage, solar and bioenergy, as well as energy trading. * Glanbia boss Siobhan Talbot said she would like to see the UK remain part of the EU, but stressed that the UK accounts for less than 10pc of the group's 3.6bn in revenue and so is not a material market for the company. However, speaking to the Irish Independent as Glanbia released a set of strong full-year results, Ms Talbot said stability remains essential for businesses. "Like any corporate, uncertainty is something we'd prefer not to have," said the group managing director. * Dublin is now in a position to become one of Europe's top cities, according to the latest fDi European 'City of the Future' rankings. The capital rose two places in the list to third with the 'Financial Times' magazine applauding it for its heavy emphasis on software and IT investment. According to the rankings, the software and IT sector accounted for 45pc of all the city's foreign direct investment between the years of 2010 and 2014. London topped the poll with Paris second. Dublin was also ranked among the top three European cities for economic potential and for business friendliness. It also ranked fourth for FDI strategy. The Irish Times * Google's tax settlement has been criticised as 'disproportionately small' according to the UK Public Accounts Committee. The committee said the payment made by Google was small in relative terms to the settlements made in Italy and France. As part of a six-year inquiry the committee found that Google makes use of the 'Double Irish' tax mechanism. * Ryanair has called on the UK to vote to stay within the European Union in this June's upcoming referendum. The airline said that reform was needed in order to reduce bureaucracy and that staying in the EU was the best way to conduct such reform. Michael O'Leary said that it was "absolutely clear" that the UK's prospects would be stronger as a member of the European Union. * A big majority of small businesses in the North are in favour of staying in the EU according to research from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). While the FSB's stance is neutral, it says that the remain element of its members outnumbers the leave side by almost two to one. The FSB's head of external affairs, Robert Pollen, said that the group couldn't predict the impact of a British exit from the EU. Irish Examiner * Glanbia's expansion is to continue in 2016 by means of organic growth and acquisitions according to the firm's managing director, Siobhan Talbot. The global nutrition group posted increased pre-tax profits of 271m for 2015, up 10.5pc. Ms Talbot said that the firm was "in constant growth mode" following the publication of strong figures for 2015. * US crude oil stockpiles have hit an 86-year high, causing oil prices to decline even further. Yesterday stockpiles of crude oil grew by 3.5 million barrels, bringing the total stockpile up to 507.6m barrels. Prices continued to fall after ministers from both Iran and Saudi Arabia announced they would not curtail their production of oil. * Four directors at top head- hunting agency Merc Partners shared a pay pot of over 1m last year. The Dublin firm was appointed by the Department of Finance in 2015 to identify candidates for the post of Central Bank Governor. The firm is currently involved in the search for a new Director General for RTE. New accounts filed by Merc Partners Ltd with the Companies Office show profits rose by 99,823 last year. Four directors at top head- hunting agency Merc Partners shared a pay pot of over 1m last year. The Dublin firm was appointed by the Department of Finance in 2015 to identify candidates for the post of Central Bank Governor. The firm is currently involved in the search for a new Director General for RTE. New accounts filed by Merc Partners Ltd with the Companies Office show profits rose by 99,823 last year. The profit for the 12 months to the end of May 31 last is down sharply on the profits of 204,869 achieved in the prior year. The fall is mainly due to expansion costs as the numbers employed grew. The firm is led by managing partner Ruth Curran, and other directors are listed as Finbarr O'Connor, John Glenny and Kieran Duff. The directors' pay last year was made up of 772,940 in emoluments and 248,384 in pension payments. Pay and pension payments totalled 968,055 in 2014. Finance Minister Michael Noonan confirmed last year that Merc Partners was paid 45,100 for its work in the search for the new Central Bank boss. The firm has also been employed to identify candidates for a chief executive post in Ibec; secretary general in the Department of Finance; group chief executive for Bord Gais Eireann and executive director roles for The Samaritans and Trocaire. The firm took on two staff last year, bringing the total to 16, made up of ten in management/administration, three consultants and three in research. Costs rose from 1.593m to 1.769m. Accumulated profits last year increased from 943,162 to 1.042m. The cash pile during the year increased from 485,342 to 555,758. The legal showdown between Apple and US law enforcement over encryption, no matter the outcome, will likely accelerate tech company efforts to engineer safeguards against government intrusion, tech industry executives say. Already, an emerging industry is marketing super-secure phones and mobile applications. An Apple executive said the company will strengthen its encryption if it wins its court battle with the federal government, which last week secured a court order requiring Apple engineers to help extract data from a phone associated with the mass shootings in San Bernardino, California. The executive spoke on condition of anonymity. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment publicly. If Apple loses the court case, the legal precedent could give the US government broad authority to order companies to assist in breaking into encrypted products. But even a government victory could have unintended consequences for law enforcement, potentially prompting a wave of investment by US tech companies in security systems that even their own engineers can't access, said Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of Harvard University's Berkman Centre for Internet & Society. "A success for the government in this case may further spur Apple and others to develop devices that the makers aren't privileged to crack," he said. The fast-growing online storage provider Box has already made it a priority to give customers sole custody of data, said Joel De la Garza, chief information security officer at the company. The intent is to make it impossible for the company to access its customers' data - even under a government order, he said. "Our goal is to achieve a `zero-knowledge' state" for the company, he said, "where our customers have total control over their data." It's unclear whether Apple can - or would even want to - make phones the company can't access. Two Apple employees familiar with the company's security strategy said the company had no such plans. One immediate beneficiary of the US government's case against Apple is the niche industry that has sprung up to design apps and phones to thwart snooping by governments, business rivals and criminals. In the more than two years since former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden revealed widespread spying via US companies, a handful of companies have released secure phones with names such as BlackPhone, RedPhone or Priv that trumpet security as a prime selling point. Phones such as Boeing's Black target government customers. Blackberry markets the Priv, an Android device, to corporate clients seeking more security. Others include Silent Circle, with launched its Blackphone 2 late last year, and Turing Robotic Industries, whose Turing Phone is due in April. Many more apps, such as Signal and Wickr, encrypt calls or texts messages. Telegram, the mobile messaging application popular for its security features, has surpassed 100 million users, the company's co-founder Pavel Durov told the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The service is currently conveying 15bn messages a day, up from 12bn in September, Durov said. While that's less than the 45bn messages sent daily by the 1bn people on Facebook's rival messaging service WhatsApp, Durov said that given Telegram's smaller user base, its "engagement" was actually four times greater. US law enforcement officials have long fought for new laws to maintain access to private information that is harder to capture as people move to digital devices from traditional phone lines - which by law must be tappable. Most recently, the tech industry has fought off numerous efforts to get encryption legislation through Congress, including an attempt last year that died after President Obama declined to support it. FBI Director James Comey has been particularly outspoken in arguing that law enforcement efforts are hobbled by encryption, which he calls a safe haven for terrorists. Other law enforcement officials have said the tech industry fears are exaggerated, or in Apple's case, even a marketing ploy. Apple, Google, Facebook and other companies also have accelerated efforts to implement encryption in the wake of Snowden's disclosures about US spying - including a program called Prism that culled private data from some of the largest US tech companies. The revelations prompted companies to fight the perception that they were arms of the government and dented the overseas sales of companies including Cisco and IBM as countries such as China shunned US products. iPhones now have longer passcodes tied to underlying encryption, making them far harder to hack. Facebook's WhatsApp and others have adopted protocols under which they don't have the means to unlock user communications. (Reuters) The Irish Venture Capital Association's recent Venture Pulse Survey for 2015 showed a substantial increase in the level of capital being raised by young Irish companies. While this is encouraging, it would be a mistake to expect it to automatically continue. Recent months have shown that the global venture capital community is not immune to negative macro-economic developments. There have been sharp falls in stock markets and commodity prices while there is continued uncertainty surrounding the future of Europe. Many companies and investors we work with don't assume that further funding will be readily available once the cash raised in 2015 has been spent. While the circumstances for every firm are unique, five rules are generally applicable to most young companies who have raised - or hope to raise - venture capital in this climate. 1. Respect your cash There is a conflict between your ability to grow rapidly and conserving your levels of cash. Your investors expect you to grow your business exponentially. This will likely require significant expenditure on product development, recruitment and marketing. But until your company becomes sufficiently cash flow positive, the faster you spend your cash, the sooner you will need to return to the venture community for more of their capital. As that capital starts to become more scarce, consider whether you need to adjust your approach to fostering growth versus conserving cash. 2. Know your investor Does your current investor have the necessary funds at its disposal to re-invest in your company? Most investment funds have a pre-defined life-cycle for (i) raising their funds (ii) investing those funds in companies like yours and (iii) disposing of those investments, hopefully for a profit. What stage is your investor at in this cycle? If they are in the final stage, is it reasonable to assume that they will have the resources available to continue to invest in you? Even if they have the necessary funds, do they still share your vision for the business and have faith in the management team to execute your strategy? If not, you need to start exploring alternative sources of funding quickly and, in the meantime, lengthen your 'runway' by slowing your cash burn. 3. Leverage your VC If you chose wisely (or got lucky) when picking your existing investor, you selected them not just for their capital but for their experience in your sector and their industry contacts. Make the most of this now. Most investors prefer to see fellow investors involved in your company as it both validates their decision to back you and provides an additional potential source of capital and network of contacts. Ask your VC to help you identify other potential funders and, if appropriate, to make introductions. 4. Be prepared to adjust your expectations Capital is no different to any other commodity when it comes to the laws of supply and demand. The less availability there is, the more it costs. If we are moving into a phase where venture capital becomes increasingly scarce, expect to have to 'pay' more for it by achieving a lower valuation for your company than you might formerly have hoped for. But beware of 'down rounds' - check the legal agreements you put in place with your existing investor to see if they will become entitled to some form of compensation if you raise money at a low valuation. If this is the case, start a discussion with them now about whether this is something they would be willing to waive, even partially. Their reaction will help inform your approach to your next fundraising. 5. Don't Delay The fundraising process can be an unwelcome distraction from your core goal of building your business. Inevitably, it will prove to be a drain on management resources. It is tempting to ignore the reality that you are going to need to go through it again. But by leaving it until you are nearly out of cash, you are eroding your bargaining power with your investor who will know you are desperate for their funds. It is amazing the number of times we are told, as advisors on a VC deal, that the company needs to close the deal asap or otherwise it will be unable to make payroll at the end of the week or month. There currently appears to be an abundance of Irish sources of venture funding for promising young companies. The Venture Pulse Survey reveals that this was matched last year by increasing interest from international funds. However, global trends over the last three to six months indicate that the international venture capital market might be entering a period of relative weakness. When coupled with the fact that many large Irish funds are at the end of their investing stage and are embarking on their own new fundraising rounds, it is not far fetched to expect that 2016 could prove to be a more challenging fundraising environment for young Irish companies. If this turns out to be the case, by following the above rules you will ensure that you are in the best possible position to negotiate your next round of finance. Stephen Keogh is a partner in William Fry's corporate department and is head of its London office Mobile World Congress 2016 is coming to a close so we've rounded up the best tech and gadgets from the show floor Mobile World Congress 2016 is drawing to a close, with the biggest smartphone show of the year finishing its run in Barcelona, Spain. Its a time when major manufacturers from around the world come to show off their latest wares, with all manner of phones, accessories and super strange concepts battle for attention in press conferences and at stalls among the thousands of attendees. Weve been keeping a careful eye on everything from the show and have compiled a list of the top 5 products to look out for in the months ahead. LG G5 and FriendsLG made a huge impression with their conference, showing off one of the most exciting new flaghship phones in years with a new modular design. With most companies sticking to tried and tested designs its really refreshing to see a move like this from a major player. A compartment at the bottom of the phone slides out, letting you install other components like expanded camera controls or an audio decoder. LG has more in the pipeline including a VR headset and a handy 360 degree camera as well as the very cute Rolling Bot which you can control from anywhere. And it doesnt hurt that the phone itself looks great and has impressive specs, including dual cameras on the back. Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 EdgeIt was always a sure thing that Samsung would be revealing its latest high end device and the Galaxy S7 delivered as promised. Its a gorgeous looking device with a large 5.1 inch screen and high quality specs, including the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. And theres a new camera too, with a 12 megapixel shooter on the back thats features larger pixels for better low light performance and plenty of other tricks. The S7 is joined by the S7 Edge with similar specs and a larger 5.5 inch curved screen and a bigger battery. We love the look of the edge and its bound to turn some heads. Both phones are waterproof and theres also dinky 360 degree camera in the works called the Gear 360. Huawei MatebookChinese company Huawei may be associated more with phones in recent years but they went out big at Mobile World Congress with a major new 2 in 1 tablet release. The Huawei Matebook is a 12 inch tablet that easily converts into a very capable notebook computer. Its slim and light and has a massive screen resolution of 2160 x 1400, which should make it perfect for work or play. The gizmo is powered by Windows 10 and has a keyboard/cover for those laptop moments. Theres also a stylus, called the MatePen, which can work as a laser pointer and presenter remote. There are lots of different configurations available, with pricing starting at $699. Sony Xperia X and Xperia XASony Mobile tried something different at Mobile World Congress this year, introducing a new Xperia X range of smartphones. Theres word that the Z brand has been discontinued but no official confirmation as yet. In the meantime the Xperia X and Xperia XA will be point of focus for the near future. Theyre both 5 inch devices with neat designs the X is a higher spec model and the XA moves into the upper end of the mid range. The X has a class leading 23 megapixel camera with new tech that can track a moving object to eliminate blur while theres a 13 MP shooter on the XA. Sony is also introducing new smart products including the Xperia Ear which combines a Bluetooth headset with voice search functionality. Xiaomi Mi 5Another Chinese company with another impressive device, a sleek and svelte 5.15 inch offering in the form of the Mi 5. With almost no bezel and premium glass materials, the Mi 5 looks great and it has the specs to match including a Snapdragon 820 processor and up to 4 gigs of RAM. Its a very speedy animal indeed, and also includes high quality features like a lightning fast 16 megapixel camera with advanced image stabilisation. The best news is that the phone could start at as little as $260 and $350 for the faster model, half the price of many flagship phones. Thats a real statement of intent from Xiaomi, with the only disappointment being that a European release has yet to be confirmed. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End's story trailer was released yesterday, but one of the most interesting bit is a throwaway shot...that uses Assassin's Creed art. Uncharted 4's story trailer was released yesterday and set tongues wagging. But perhaps for the wrong reasons... It seems that Naughty Dog included artwork from Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag in its trailer for Uncharted 4. Ubisoft Montreal employee Azaizia Aymar, who works as Assassin's Creed's head of content, called attention to the shot on Twitter. Woooow Uncharted 4 using one of ACIV artwork in their trailer... I get the "thief" title now! lol at 1:36 February 24, 2016 There's a painting hanging on the wall at the 1:37 mark in the Uncharted 4 trailer. Take a look at it and then compare it to the concept art from Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag (via Eurogamer). The Uncharted version doesn't feature the pirate, but otherwise the similarity is striking. German millennials are happiest with their political system. Speaking to Independent.ie, a representative said that Irish millennials "are not hugely different from their international counterparts" but that "issues specific to Ireland, such as the debates around the Eighth Amendment or Irish Water, have emerged as focal points". They said that the interest in the referendum earlier this year has not transferred "to the political parties in the way they would have hoped", with just twelve percent reporting themselves as "very interested" in politics. Politics came second-last among Irish interests, just beating religion. Music, film, cinema, cooking and using social media all ranked at the top of the list. When asked to rank a number of items in order of importance, "taking an interest in politics" came last, in seventeenth place, after good health, "being happy" and spending time with friends and family. 85 percent of those surveyed reported being happy with their lives and eighty percent were "optimistic for the future". 73 percent agreed that "the views of young people are largely ignored by most politicians" and 44 percent agreed that "most politicians want to control and restrict young people". Only seventeen percent agreed that "most politicians want the best possible future for young people". 61 percent of respondents voted in the Marriage Equality referendum, and 66 percent said they vote 'tomorrow'. Sinn Fein was the most popular party among respondents, with sixteen percent of the vote. Fine Gael were second, with eleven percent, and Independents came third with nine percent. Renua Ireland and the Worker's Party came last with one percent each. 62 percent said they have not changed their voting preferences since the last election, almost five years ago. 38 percent reported that they had changed. 30-34 olds were the most likely to have changed their vote, with 42 percent reporting a change. The number one reason millenials claim they don't vote is due to a "lack of trust in politicans". Read the full report here. The survey was run by Millennial Dialogue and surveyed over a thousand millennials in a number of countries. Overall, the survey found that German millennials were happiest with their political system and current leader. 95 percent reported that the country's politicians were "ensuring equality of opportunities for all" and 91% said hey were "ensuring the well-being of the elderly". They reported that "the state of the environment" was the most important issue to them. Millennials in Italy and Poland reported feeling let down by politics and their politicans. Italian millennials reported that the only thing their politicians had delivered on was "building and maintaining a strong military force", which ranked last among their list of priorities. Austrian millennials were the happiest, with 92 percent reporting that they were happy, followed by the US and Germany tied on 89 percent. Canada, Poland, the UK, Italy and Hungary finished out the polls. The survey found that just 16% of US 15-34 year olds considered themselves 'very interested' in politics. Seven percent said they took part in "occasional" political meetings and eleven percent said they had taken part in protests. 72 percent said that, despite their low interest, if asked to vote 'tomorrow' they would do so. In the UK, seventeen percent reported themselves as "very interested" in politics, while eighteen percent said they were "not at all interested". "Taking an interest in politics" came last in their list of priorities, coming in at seventeenth place after "making money", "being connected to friends via social media" and "being free to do and say what I want". Seventy percent said that they felt politicians "ignore the views of young people". 41 percent reported that their generation is, in their opinion, less interested in politics' than their parents'. Just six percent reported taking part in political meetings compared to 31 percent who take part in team sports. Tthe Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) and the Center for American Progress (CAP) began the Millennial Dialogue, to understand the aspirations, key issues and values of those aged between 15 and 34 and how these affect their interaction with politics. They engaged the services of AudienceNet to use innovative research methods and connected technologies to give voice to the millennial generation across four continents, providing the most comprehensive international survey of its kind. The Irish round of the project has been completed just in time for the General Election. The road to the Oscars has been as long and eventful as ever. Before the little gold men are handed out, we reflect on the highs and lows of this years campaign ahead of the ceremony on Sunday, February 28. Best Director Nominees: Lenny Abrahamson - Room Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - The Revenant Expand Close The Revenant's director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and its star Leonardo DiCaprio with their Baftas for Best Director and Best Actor. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Revenant's director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and its star Leonardo DiCaprio with their Baftas for Best Director and Best Actor. Tom McCarthy - Spotlight Adam McKay - The Big Short George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road Expand Close Adam McKay, left, kisses Christian Bale as he accepts the Critics' Choice Award for best comedy for The Big Short. (Invision/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Adam McKay, left, kisses Christian Bale as he accepts the Critics' Choice Award for best comedy for The Big Short. (Invision/AP) These final two categories look set to have everyone in the Dolby Theatre on edge. In Best Director, the Academy tends to favour technically audacious filmmakers, which means Tom McCarthy and Lenny Abrahamson could suffer here. Although there seems to be a lot of love for Room in the Academy (it picked up four nominations), a win for Abrahamson seems, if not impossible, then very unlikely. His nomination surprised Oscar pundits, who had been expecting Ridley Scott to get a nod for The Martian. He may be the underdog here, but its undeniably a turning point for the Irish film industry. As well as making sure the film gets seen and that influencers in the industry know Abrahamsons name it will hopefully make it easier for the Irish director to get the green light on his future films. Another director who could potentially struggle is Tom McCarthy. His Oscar campaign has highlighted the amount of research he did for the film, spending time with the Boston Globe reporters who initially covered the story, and that it is an important film that gives tribute to the journalism and the courage of the survivors. Expand Close LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: (L-R) Actor Liev Schreiber, director Tom McCarthy, and actor Mark Ruffalo attend Vanity Fair and Barneys New York Private Dinner Celebrating "Spotlight" Director Tom McCarthy at Chateau Marmont on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for Vanity Fair) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: (L-R) Actor Liev Schreiber, director Tom McCarthy, and actor Mark Ruffalo attend Vanity Fair and Barneys New York Private Dinner Celebrating "Spotlight" Director Tom McCarthy at Chateau Marmont on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for Vanity Fair) Video of the Day To do that, McCarthy works to ensure nothing distracts the audience from the story, and his direction doesnt draw too much attention to itself. That subtlety could be a liability here, when compared to the flash and spectacle of the other nominees. Back in 2007, Adam McKay and Will Ferrell broke the internet with their Landlord sketch for Funny or Die, starring McKays two-year-old daughter Pearl. Before that, they had created huge comedy hits including Anchorman and Talladega Nights. The idea that McKays work might one day earn him an Oscar nod was unlikely, but he has proven hes capable of working with both comedic and dramatic material. In taking on an adaptation of Michael Lewiss The Big Short, McKay managed to find not only accessible but extremely gripping cinema in an ostensibly banal and un-cinematic subject. While he missed out on the Directors Guild Award, the screenplay he adapted from Lewiss book (along with Charles Randolph) has been picking up a slew of awards. Hes got a shot at Best Director, but may have better luck in Adapted Screenplay. Expand Close (L-R) Director George Miller, cast members Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy pose on the red carpet as they arrive for the screening of the film "Mad Max: Fury Road" / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (L-R) Director George Miller, cast members Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy pose on the red carpet as they arrive for the screening of the film "Mad Max: Fury Road" So really, it looks like its between George Miller and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. The latter won last year for Birdman, and is back in the running with another technically audacious feat. Leonardo DiCaprios Oscar narrative about the extreme difficulty of the film seems to have spread to Inarritu. His campaign suggests it was a miracle he made the film at all: his entire cast and crew suffered through freezing conditions, long, gruelling days as he insisted on shooting in natural light, as well as a long break in filming and change of location in search of snow. Inarritu picked up the Directors Guild Award, usually the best predictor of an Oscar win. Could he pull off two in a row? The Academy likes to make history, and clearly the film is beloved by audiences and on the awards circuit. However, Inarritus film wasnt the only one that proved difficult to make. A potential spoiler here could come from Australian director George Miller, who last attended the Oscars in 2007, when the film he directed, Happy Feet, won Best Animated Feature Film. It would certainly make a nice double feature, but on top of that, Millers Mad Max sequel/quasi-reboot has been in development since 2001. That nearly 15-year journey results in a truly startling film: all of the incredible stunts were done old-school, without CGI, they provided the cast with a storyboard rather than a screenplay, and Miller shot 480 hours of footage that his wife and editor Margaret Sixel took down to a breathtaking two hours and in doing so, set a new standard for blockbuster action films. This is the first nomination in this category for the 70-year-old veteran, and he was leading the race up until Inarritu scooped the DGA. Its been an unpredictable awards season, and this is one category that will keep us on the edge of our seats. This might be encroaching middle-age or something, but Ive come to a rather shocking realisation: I dont find slagging off the past as amusing as I once did. Tonights Apres Match Presents Election 82 (RTE 1) was pretty good fare, with its Reeling in the Years-spoofing graphics, spot-on celeb impersonations, and funny juxtaposition of real footage with faked dialogue. A few years ago Id probably have shouted the house down laughing I used to love this stuff. Used to These days, I think Ive become a bitbored of it. A bit jaded. Whatever I dont seem to laugh at it as much. Yes, people had funny-looking hairstyles in 1982. Yes, their clothes were cheap and crappy-looking, their cars were bockety old wrecks, all the houses looked drab and shabby. Computer graphics were laughably primitive. All the technology was laughably primitive. People seemed simpler, less sophisticated, than us suave hipsters of 2016. And thats kind of funny, on one level, sure. But on another level much like those oh my God these are the worst family photos EVER there can be an element of mean-spiritedness about some of this stuff. Like, were basically pointing out something that we feel is somehow beneath us, from the modern-day standpoint, and going, Ha ha ha, you look different and sort of stupid, lets all laugh at the rubes back in 1982. Im not sure theres even a joke in this type of joke, if you know what I mean beyond stating the obvious and then chuckling, well, just because. However and this is an important however Apres Match Presents Election 82 was saved from the worst of this by its sheer silliness. There was some lets have a good giggle at the plebs of the past, alright. But mostly the comedy was surreal, daft, playful and childish (in a good way). It could have been written about any topic, in any era, and remained as enjoyable. Gary Cooke, Barry Murphy and Risteard Cooper are top-class writers, even better actors/impressionists, whove been working together for so long that theres an unforced ease and smoothness about the end result. And they produced some superb gags in this show. The running joke about colour (how the country was relentlessly brown, even the grey bits were tinged with brown, and Church hitmen would shoot dead any woman caught wearing read. In the election, Labour promised less brown and more blues and pinks. People growing beards at the weekend just for something to do. The pastiches of old adverts, especially Maurice Pratt and Darth Vader. To be a politician, all you needed was to own a suit. A youthful Dave OLeary describing Dublin as a voting town. Technical problems in turning on RTEs election count computer. The young Pat Kenny is always good value too, and a bearded Fintan OToole, 1982 version, made me laugh out loud with his proclamation that he would overthrow the whole systemby writing an article in Magill. So yeah, pretty good fare all round. But I do prefer when the Apres Match tackle Ireland in the present day. The past may be another country, as someone once said, but its also a too-easy target. Proud: Arthur French with a photo of his grandfather, Colonel George Arthur French - 'I'm enormously proud of him because he saved bloodshed in Enniscorthy' With its thousands of casualties and city centre devastation, Easter week 1916 in Dublin underlines the brutal truth that most conflicts are remembered in direct proportion to the scale of human suffering they entail. In that light, events in the capital overshadowed the simultaneous rising in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford that concluded in a far less bloody manner. That it did not end in carnage was in large part due to the humane actions of a local farmer and retired British army colonel who found himself recalled to service in response to the Rising. Famously immortalised as a key site of the 1798 rebellion, County Wexford rose again in Easter week when local units of the Irish Volunteers took control of Enniscorthy. It was in these potentially explosive circumstances that retired Colonel George Arthur French (1864-1950) received a telegraph from the British War Office instructing him to take command of crown forces in the model county. Looking back on the events of that fateful week, his grandson Arthur recalls that Colonel French had settled back in the family seat in Newbay after retiring from the army. Considered too old for active service when war broke out in 1914, that changed when the Enniscorthy Rising occurred. For five days, hopes of victory had been high as 1,000 volunteers mobilised throughout the county. But as the British authorities prepared their response, the potential for heavy loss of life was very real. Another commander might easily have razed Enniscorthy in retaliation, but Colonel French is said to have treated the rebels with courtesy. Crucially, he arranged a military escort for Captains Seamus Doyle and Sean Etchingham to visit Padraig Pearse in Arbour Hill Barracks, Dublin and return with his written order to surrender. On May 1 1916, Colonel French received their unconditional surrender in Enniscorthy and over the following days 375 people were arrested in Co Wexford, many of whom were subsequently detained in prisons in England and Wales. "Possibly because he was Irish, and a Wexford man through and through, he was favourably disposed to the people in his community, and they to him," says Arthur. It's said there were up to 2,000 Crown troops under Colonel French's command, but according to Arthur, it didn't start out that way. "He had only a handful of cadets from the local army, no more than grown-up boys, but by the end of the week reinforcements arrived as the War Office had promised. "More were likely on the way and George knew he had to act fast. Had some hardline English commander been in his position, I have no doubt he would have knocked the whole place flat. But my grandfather didn't want to see Enniscorthy blown sky high - he lived there; this was his own community - so he reached a gentlemen's solution with the Irish Volunteers. "It also helped that the people conducting the Rising in Enniscorthy were well organised. If as a military officer you're dealing with a riot with no visible person in charge, negotiation is impossible. But these were people George Arthur clearly felt he could reason with. They had a chain of command and took responsibility for their actions." Coming from a long line of military officers, it's not surprising that Arthur also made a career in the British Army. He joined the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1954 - "I wouldn't consider any other regiment!" - and his first posting was to Kenya. The army life clearly gave him an understanding of his grandfather's actions in 1916. "I'm enormously proud of him, because he saved bloodshed in Enniscorthy, not to mention the needless destruction of property. Above all, he was a good, honest, decent man. "He organised a British Legion parade for the soldiers returning at the end of the war, many of whom had fought at the Somme. It must have been very difficult for them when they came back to a changed Ireland, in which many were not well received." The French family's lineage dates back to the Normans who landed at Bannow Bay, Co Wexford, under the command of Robert Fitz-Stephen. "My grandmother's family, the Jefferies, migrated from Wexford to South America after 1798. Having done quite well for themselves in Montevideo, Uruguay, her parents returned with a herd of cattle and bought Newbay House in 1869. Annie Elizabeth (Koten) remained in Uruguay for another 20 years before coming to Ireland. She married my grandfather George Arthur in 1899 and Newbay House passed into the French family." Arthur spent holidays there as a child - his mother had taken her children to Scotland at the outbreak of World War II, and he went from there to school in England - but although he settled in Hampshire, he doesn't consider himself English. "I'm neither English or Anglo-Irish. In fact, I've got no English blood whatsoever. My mother's family was entirely from Scotland and my father's entirely from Ireland, so I'm half-Irish, half-Scots." "The Easter Rising was too early in terms of achieving independence for Ireland, so it ended up being a bit of a shambles, but it had to happen," he says. "It was just ahead of its time." Jeremy Clarkson punched Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon (pictured) after he was told he could not order a steak dinner at a hotel. Photo: BBC Worldwide/PA Wire Jeremy Clarkson has issued a formal apology to the Irish 'Top Gear' producer he punched in a deal to settle a racial discrimination and personal injury claim against him. A settlement - understood to be more than 126,000 - was also paid to Oisin Tymon, who launched the action against Clarkson and the BBC after the presenter gave him a bloody lip in a bust-up last March. The settlement means there will not be an employment tribunal hearing. Clarkson reportedly flew into a rage after being told he could not order steak after a day of filming, calling Mr Tymon a "lazy, Irish c***" during the fracas at a North Yorkshire hotel. In an apology issued through Mr Tymon's law firm, Slater and Gordon Lawyers, Clarkson said: "I would like to say sorry, once again, to Oisin Tymon for the incident and its regrettable aftermath. "I want to reiterate that none of this was in any way his fault. "I would also like to make it clear that the abuse he has suffered since the incident is unwarranted and I am sorry too that he has had to go through that. "I am pleased that this matter is now resolved. Oisin was always a creatively exciting part of 'Top Gear' and I wish him every success with his future projects." No details of the settlement, which Clarkson and the BBC both contributed to, were given. Sad The BBC sacked Clarkson (55) from 'Top Gear' following the bust-up, prompting his co-presenters James May and Richard Hammond to quit the show. Last June, Clarkson tweeted that he was "so sad and sorry it's ended like this" after his last 'Top Gear' show with Hammond and May was screened. The trio have signed up to launch a rival show on Amazon's TV service, while Chris Evans is filming a new series of the BBC's 'Top Gear' show with guest presenters including Matt LeBlanc and Eddie Jordan. Mr Tymon's lawyer, Paul Daniels, said the action involving Mr Tymon has been concluded. "Oisin is keen to put the matter behind him now that it has been brought to a close. Oisin greatly appreciates all of the support he has received, including from the BBC. He remains focused on the creative work he loves at the BBC," he said. A BBC spokesman said: "Oisin is a valued member of the BBC who behaved with huge integrity in dealing with the very difficult circumstances... We are pleased that matters have now been resolved. "Oisin has made an important contribution to the BBC in his 12 years with us and we hope to see him continue to realise his potential in his role as a development executive. "We believe Oisin has a very exciting future at the BBC." A law lecturer wanted in Britain for possession of pornographic images of children will be extradited to face sentencing, a judge at the High Court ruled today. Evidence supplied by Ipswich police stated that Julian Myerscough (54), formerly of Alexandra Road, Lowestoft in Suffolk, was found guilty by a jury of 13 counts of possession of indecent images of a child at Ipswich Crown Court on September 30, 2015. He was also found guilty of three counts of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order that had been placed on him following a previous conviction for a similar offence. Although Mr Myerscough had been in court the day he was found guilty, the Court heard that he did not return after lunch when the jury reached its verdict. He was convicted in his absence and police applied for a warrant for his arrest. Once the arrest warrant was issued police alerted the port and airport authorities and contacted gardai as they feared he would flee to Ireland. That night gardai confirmed that Mr Myerscough was on board a ferry from Holyhead in Wales heading to Dublin. Mr Myerscough was arrested on October 2 at a hotel in Dublin on foot of a European Arrest Warrant. At his hearing in the High Court on Thursday, Kieran Kelly BL, representing Mr Myerscough, said his client should not be extradited because he had not received a fair trial in Britain. In an affidavit handed into the court, Mr Myerscough claimed that a key police witness, whose testimony was used to convict him, was not available for cross examination during trial. Mr Kelly said this was a breach of his client's right to a fair trial under Section 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Mr Myerscough also claimed that he had been spat at and threatened in the street after his home address was revealed by the media. He said he lived in fear of death and that police in Britain were not able to protect him. Mr Kelly also raised issues about the European Arrest Warrant, which he said had been completed in a hurry and contained numerous errors and omissions. Passing her judgment, Justice Aileen Donnelly described as "self-serving" a further argument that Mr Myerscough had not been convicted, even though the jury had found him guilty. Mr Myerscough, who is a former law lecturer, had argued in an affidavit that his conviction was not complete until a "Certificate of Finding" was issued by the court. Ms Donnelly said this is "not a requirement and never has been". She also questioned Mr Myerscough's expertise, saying that although he is a former law lecturer, he had not told the court what area of law he lectured in. "A law lecturer is not an expert in every aspect of law," she said. Justice Donnelly also dismissed the concerns raised regarding the arrest warrant saying a "technical failure" does not impinge on the application and she is satisfied that no injustice has been caused. Regarding his right to a fair trial, Ms Donnelly said that the British court had already examined his case and dismissed his claims. She said there is no reason for her to refuse to surrender Mr Myerscough to the British authorities. She said she will make the order for his surrender on Monday and remanded Mr Myerscough in custody until then. The man suspected of killing schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson was a police informant, an inquest has been told. The dramatic claim was made by a friend of convicted child killer and rapist Robert Howard - the last person to see the teenager alive in August 1994. Patricia Quinn also told Belfast coroner's court that when she challenged police about Howard's alleged status years later, an officer had replied: "I put my hands up". She said: "He was an informer and everybody knows that", adding that she and her daughter were "scapegoats for the police". Expand Close Patricia Quinn arrives at Laganside Court complex in Belfast where the Arlene Arkinson murder inquest continues / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Patricia Quinn arrives at Laganside Court complex in Belfast where the Arlene Arkinson murder inquest continues "That's why they put him in my house - to keep an eye on him and then me and Donna (Quinn) are scapegoats for the police - for the CID." The long delayed inquest is in its eighth day of evidence at the Laganside court complex. It emerged that Ms Quinn, a mother of three, had provided a bail address for Howard when he was accused of a serious sex attack on a teenage girl in 1993. He had lived in their house and slept in Ms Quinn's bed but she strongly refuted any suggestion they were a couple. In an angry outburst she told the court: "The CID let him into my house knowing what he was. "I didn't know what he was like at that time, but they knew." Expand Close Kathleen Arkinson at a memorial stone to her sister Arlene / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kathleen Arkinson at a memorial stone to her sister Arlene Read More Ms Quinn conceded she had not been pressurised by police but believed Howard had another girlfriend in Antrim or Armagh who may have been able to accommodate him. "It was the CID who asked me," she added. "They asked me would I let him out on bail and now I know why. "When they asked me, I thought that he was all right." Judge Brian Sherrard, who is presiding over the high profile case, has yet to rule on a controversial police request not to disclose some confidential information to the inquest. Grounds for Public Interest Immunity application include matters of national security or the protection of police methodologies such as the use of informers. And while the Government has obtained such immunity on sensitive papers relating to legacy terrorist cases in Northern Ireland, doubt surrounds why such issues would be at play during an inquest into the death of a missing schoolgirl. Judge Sherrard said the contentious issue was expected to be dealt with when the case resumes next week. Read More Fifteen-year-old Arlene, from Castlederg, vanished after a night out at a disco across the Irish border in Co Donegal on August 13, 1994. Robert Howard was acquitted of her murder in 2005 by a jury which was not told of his conviction for killing a south London teenager several years earlier. However, the 71-year-old remained the prime suspect in the Arkinson case until his death in prison last year. Meanwhile, it also emerged that Howard did not return home until 9am on the morning after he was last seen with Arlene. He told Pat Quinn not to say he had been out, it was claimed. Ms Quinn, who was later arrested and interviewed by detectives investigating the teenager's disappearance, said lying was the "stupidest" thing she had ever done. "It was the biggest mistake of my life," she said. "I have regretted it since." When pressed by a lawyer about her reasons for not telling the truth, she added: "He was out on bail in my house and if he broke his bail that was it. He was not supposed to be out past 9 or 10pm. "It would be me get into trouble, too. "But I know now it was stupid. I shouldn't have done it but it's no good pretending anything else." The court was told that several days after Arlene's disappearance, two of her brothers and sister went to the Quinn family home to enquire about her whereabouts but were told nothing. Read More A short time later, police were on the case. Ms Quinn added: "I did not know what to believe when the police came but I knew something was badly wrong." Barrister, Frank O'Donoghue QC, counsel for the Coroners Service, asked if she had thought Howard killed the schoolgirl. "You had a man in your house who you knew was a paedophile; who you knew was attracted to young girls and who told you not to say that he was out on the Saturday night and had been in Arlene's company when she was last seen." "Did you think at that time, when the Arkinsons came through your door, did you think 'he's killed her? he said. Ms Quinn replied: "I did not know what to think. "I was that shocked that she was not back; that she was missing." On a number of occasions, Ms Quinn insisted she was being as helpful as possible to the inquest and said she hoped Arlene's body would be found. In 1994, she claimed to have been fond of Howard in 1994 because he had been good to her. It was claimed they "kissed and cuddled" occasionally and that Howard had slept in her bed but there was no sexual contact. She had never seen him with his clothes off, the court was told. Ms Quinn said: "I never had no relationship with him and I want that clear today." Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the inquest was told that police had been tipped off that Ms Quinn and Robert Howard were seen in a forest with spades after Arlene went missing. Ms Quinn insisted the pair had never gone out digging. "No, definitely not and that's the honest to God's truth. I never went out with him that way," she said. The case has been adjourned. Victoria Fox struck on face by plastic bottle which was knocked from overhead luggage on Ryanair flight. (PIC: COURTPIX). A woman is suing Ryanair after she was left with a scar on her nose when a bottle from an overhead locker fell and hit her. Mother of two, Victoria Fox, told the High Court she had to cancel her 40th birthday party celebrations after she was left with a wound on her nose and black bruising around her eyes in the incident last year. Liability has been conceded and the case is before the court for assessment of damages only. Ms Fox had just returned for a few days in Rome and had landed at Dublin Airport when the accident happened on March 24, 2015. Ms Fox from Primrose Street, Ringsend, Dublin, said a whole week of events around her birthday had to be cancelled as a result of the accident. She said she was sitting on Row 24 on an aisle seat and talking to her husband after the flight, which had been delayed leaving Rome, had landed and came to a halt. She said a passenger jumped up to get his bag from the overhead locker and she was commenting on that when a bottle of duty free dislodged and fell hitting her in the face. "The bottle came straight down and hit me in the face. I let out a scream. There was blood all over my head." She said the bottle may have fallen out when the man moved his bag , but the bottle did not belong to him. Ms Fox said she later suffered "whoppers" of headaches and had black eyes for a couple of days. "It was embarrassing . I was super conscious of how I looked," she said. She had been told to expect headaches but did not expect them to be so prolonged or severe. She found it difficult studying for her psychiatric nursing exams in college. Mr Justice Bernard Barton, who will next week put a figure on the level of damages, said Ms Fox has been left with a scar, while not a significant disfiguring scar, is discernible. He said for all the conversation in our society about equality, the fact remains that external appearance, such as the face, remains a matter of significance mainly for women rather than men and there was nothing surprising about that. The case resumes next Tuesday. Daly is charged with committing the 1998 Real IRA atrocity in the Co Tyrone market town A bricklayer accused of murdering 29 people in the Omagh bombing has appeared in court in the town for the first time. Seamus Daly, 45, sat in the dock of Omagh Magistrates' Court as a hearing commenced to determine whether there is enough evidence to proceed to Crown Court trial. Daly is charged with committing the 1998 Real IRA atrocity in the Co Tyrone market town and a number of other terror offences. He has been on remand in prison since his arrest in April 2014 when he appeared in court in Dungannon. Subsequent hearings have been conducted by video-link from Maghaberry high security prison near Lisburn, Co Antrim. Relatives of a number of those killed in Omagh watched from the public gallery of the courtroom as Daly, from Kilnasaggart Road, Jonesborough, Co Armagh, sat yards away in the glass-enclosed dock. Expand Close Seamus Daly / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Seamus Daly At the outset the accused stood as the names of his alleged victims were read out as each individual charge was put to him. At the conclusion, he answered "no" when asked if he objected to the holding of the hearing. District Judge Peter King is assessing evidence to determine if it is of sufficient strength to warrant trial. A number of witnesses are set to give evidence over two days. Legal restrictions prevent media outlets reporting details of any evidence heard during the preliminary investigation (PI). As well as the 29 murder counts, Daly faces charges of causing the August 1998 explosion and possession of a bomb with intent to endanger life or property. He is further charged with conspiring to cause an explosion and having explosives with intent in connection with a separate dissident republican bomb plot in Lisburn in April that year. Bereaved relatives Michael Gallagher, Cat Gallagher-Wilkinson and Stanley McComb were among those who were present at the start of the first day of the hearing. Health Minister Leo Varadkar has described former IRA leader Thomas 'Slab' Murphy as a "thug" and a "gangster" and said Sinn Fein will always be associated with murders and bodies buried in bogs. Mr Varadkar made the charges during a heated head-to-head debate with Sinn Fein's deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald on Newstalk. Under questioning from broadcaster Pat Kenny, Ms McDonald claimed each political party "has their past and has their legacy". Mr Varadkar replied: "Oh come off it, where's my party's past or legacy of people who were murdered, bodies buried in bogs, or people still living today who were maimed, who are still carrying the scars and burns?" The angry exchanges between the pair continued as Ms McDonald, a TD for Dublin Central, defended her party leader Gerry Adams. "A fair and objective assessment of Gerry Adams would recognise absolutely the fact of his involvement in the peace process, the very considerable risks he took, including injury to himself, his own safety and that of his family," she said. Mr Varadkar accused Sinn Fein of trying to take full credit for the peace process - despite the fact the party is associated with murders. He also referred to Thomas 'Slab' Murphy as a "gangster" - prompting an angry response from Ms McDonald. "Don't be so cheap to be comparing me or my colleagues to gangsters," she said. Mr Varadkar continued and described Murphy as a "thug". "Do you not agree that Slab Murphy is a thug and a gangster?," he asked. Prison Ms McDonald responded: "Slab Murphy needs to fix his tax affairs and settle his affairs with Revenue." Murphy faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced at the Special Criminal Court for tax offences tomorrow. He had denied nine charges of failing to comply with tax laws, but was convicted on all counts after a 32-day trial. The prosecution alleged he did not furnish a return of income, profits or gains or their sources over eight years. During a major search operation in the border area in March 2006, the Criminal Assets Bureau and its Northern counterparts uncovered evidence of a hidden economy worth hundreds of millions of euro. The gang war between the Christy Kinahan cartel and the Hutch mob will not end until Daniel Kinahan is shot dead. The grim warning was made this week by a major criminal who is believed to be one of the three hitmen who were disguised as gardai in the Regency Hotel murder of rival mobster David Byrne. Daniel Kinahan, the son of cartel boss Christy Kinahan, was the chief target of the Regency attack but he escaped from the hotel unharmed. The chilling threat stands in contrast to the statement the Hutch family issued after the funeral of Eddie Hutch Snr, calling on everybody for this cycle of violence to stop and to stop now. Expand Close Daniel Kinahan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Daniel Kinahan The Herald can reveal that Daniel and his brother Christopher, as well as David Byrnes thug older brother Liam, have all left Dublin and are currently based in London where they are believed to be plotting their next move. They flew out to London City Airport a number of days ago, and things are calmer now theyre not in Dublin, a source said. Detectives are concerned by the hardened attitude displayed by members of the mob connected to slain Gary Hutch, despite this weeks massive raids on the gang at 11 locations in the capital. Read More We will not rest until Daniel Kinahan is dead. He caused all of this it wont end until he is in his grave, the gunman said. Expand Close Chirsty Kinahan Jnr / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Chirsty Kinahan Jnr This notorious north inner city criminal is a feared hitman who is suspected of carrying out the murders of Paul Kavanagh last year, as well as Eamon The Don Dunne in 2010, on behalf of the Kinahan cartel. However, he cut ties with the gang after the murder of his close pal, Gary Hutch, and is now their sworn enemy. Expand Close Christy Kinahan Snr / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christy Kinahan Snr In the aftermath of Garys murder, sources revealed that the hitman refused to attend a number of meetings which the cartel attempted to organise with him because he was disgusted and heartbroken about what happened to his pal. Of major concern is that up to 40 of the killers associates are of the same frame of mind. Expand Close COVERED UP: Gerry The Monk Hutch keeps his cap tugged down over a grey wig as he attends his brothers funeral / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp COVERED UP: Gerry The Monk Hutch keeps his cap tugged down over a grey wig as he attends his brothers funeral Some of these lads have fled, others have not. The people who are around do not seem to mind at all they are not worried about the gardai. They are only interested in the cartel, a source said. It is understood that the Dublin criminal, who is aged in his early 30s, is now based in the Coolock area. Expand Close FUNERAL: Mourners carry the remains of slain taxi driver Eddie Hutch Snr after he was gunned down in an attack at his Ballybough home in Poplar Row, Dublin by a four-man hit-team following the murder of David Byrne in the Regency Hotel / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp FUNERAL: Mourners carry the remains of slain taxi driver Eddie Hutch Snr after he was gunned down in an attack at his Ballybough home in Poplar Row, Dublin by a four-man hit-team following the murder of David Byrne in the Regency Hotel While his arch rival Daniel Kinahan and former pal Liam Byrne are based in London, it is understood that their close pal Fat Freddie Thompson remains in the capital. Read More Byrne, from Raleigh Square in Crumlin, is one of the capitals most feared criminals and has convictions for firearms and a savage assault. Daniel Kinahan, who does not have previous convictions, was one of the main targets and was arrested in 2010 as part of Operation Shovel the international police probe against his fathers criminal empire. He spent a number of weeks in custody before being released without charge. Yesterday, the Herald revealed that the six-man hit team that were involved in the Regency attack were collected in six separate cars close to where they burnt out their getaway van after escaping the scene. The silver Ford Transit van was torched by the gang at the Charlemont estate in Marino, and it has emerged that the cars included a number of taxis. Tensions remain high in the capital, with armed gardai still patrolling the streets. The fire began in the bedroom of this house Dublin Fire Brigade have highlighted the dangers of using electric blankets after they put out a fire in south Dublin yesterday. The fire service tweeted an image of a burned out bedroom where a fire is believed to have originated at the home in Esker, Lucan. It is understood that an electric blanket was left pulled in for a number of hours, sparking the blaze which gutted the bedroom. Three fire engines attended an emergency call at 4pm yesterday evening and brought the blaze under control, said a spokesperson for the Dublin Fire Brigade. [These] photographs act as a safety message, they added. Read More Leaving a charging phone or a hair dryer on your bed could lead to a fire in your home, the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) said after a home blaze in Dublin was caused by a phone charger left overnight on a bed. Electrical products like hair straighteners, hairdryers, laptops and phone chargers can be incredibly dangerous if left on beds or sofas, said a spokesman. We attended a domestic fire in Esker. Believed the fire started by an electric blanket being left on. No injuries. pic.twitter.com/YMM8jYb4c0 Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) February 24, 2016 Although duvets and quilts often undergo flammability tests, accidents like this can still occur, said the spokesman. At the time, Dublin Fire Brigade also issued a warning to the public on the danger of using chargers on beds. Expand Expand Previous Next Close The damage caused by a phone charger fire in Dublin last month The damage caused by a phone charger fire in Dublin last month / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The damage caused by a phone charger fire in Dublin last month They endorsed the following rules when powering up gadgets, especially mobile phones. This week, we look at an important question facing transition year and third year students as they make decisions that may influence their post-Leaving Cert choices. Many people wrongly believe that if a student does not study a language for the Leaving Cert they will not be able to attend university or any third level institution. However, this is not the case. Some schools allow students not to take a language at Leaving Cert, however, the decision to drop a language should not be taken lightly. Not having a language in the Leaving Cert can greatly impact on choices in the future. Most third level colleges do not require entrants to have a European language in order to meet the matriculation requirement. At Trinity College Dublin students are required to pass English and another language, and maths or Latin. The matriculation requirements for Dublin City University are maths and English or Irish. University of Limerick requires students to present English, maths and Irish or another language. So, a student who does not take a foreign language at Leaving Cert should meet the requirements for these universities as long as they take Irish, or have an Irish exemption. Institutes of technology generally expect students to have passes in English and maths so not choosing a language should have no impact on a candidate's ability to attend one of these institutions. Post-Leaving Cert (PLC) colleges do not require students to have taken a language. The NUI universities - University College Cork, NUI Galway, University College Dublin and Maynooth University - require students to have passes at ordinary level English and Irish. Students must also pass a third language to take courses in the arts, human science, law, social science, commerce, medicine and health sciences and some other degrees. Students are not required to pass a language for entry to engineering or agricultural science. A modern European language will also be required for application to cadetships in the defence forces. So, while not choosing a language will not affect entry to the majority of third level institutions, it will restrict choice, as students will be excluded from the majority of courses in the four NUI universities. A student with an Irish exemption may apply for an exemption from the requirement to present Irish as a matriculation subject from their chosen institution. They may also apply to NUI for an exemption from the requirement to take a third language. All Level 8 courses require students to achieve two C3s at higher level and four D3s at ordinary level, while Trinity College Dublin requires students to achieve three C3s at higher level and three D3s at ordinary level. Aoife Walsh is a guidance counsellor at Malahide Community School, Co Dublin Important dates Today Accounting Boot Camp - Maynooth University (2 days) Open Day - Roslyn Park College , National Learning Network Accounting Boot Camp - University College Cork (2 days) Tomorrow UCAS Extra Opens February 26 Closing Date for first round interviews - Ormonde College of FE February 27 HPAT Ireland March 1 Deadline for amending course choices (10 fee) - CAO Deadline for completion of online HEAR/DARE Forms - CAO Open Day - St. John's Central College March 2 Open Day - Griffith College Dublin Open Evening - Irish College of Humanities & Applied Sciences Open Day - Mountbellew Agricultural College Information Sessions Roslyn Park College, National learning Network Question: I am a person with a minor disability and interested in studying in Denmark. How do I to find out about grants etc.? Answer: In Ireland the main source of financial support for a third level student is the SUSI grant. If you qualify, you may bring this grant with you to study in Europe. There is additional support available to students with disabilities through the student assistance fund (more information on studentfinance.ie). There is also a grant available in the Danish system called the supplementary disability grant. You will be eligible for a supplementary grant if your disability makes it difficult or impossible for you to take a student job in addition to your studies. To be eligible you must be able to document that your disability is permanent. You can find more information on studying in Denmark and financial support at Eunicas.ie. If you choose to pursue third level in Denmark it would be advisable to discuss your situation and possible assistance with the university. Communications Minister Alex White; Tanaiste and Labour leader Joan Burton; and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin outside their election headquarters on Sir John Rogersons Quay yesterday. Photo: Steve Humphreys Joan Burton coughed and pointed to her throat and, as if by magic, a Labour Party worker appeared with a glass of water and after another significant gesture, a Strepsil. It was a necessary remedy - because she had a lot to say. Fresh from her triumph in the final leaders' debate before polling day, the Labour Party leader was in fighting 'Joan of Arc' mode. The polls have been progressively more dire - but is it possible at this late stage for her to rise like a phoenix from the ashes, carrying her party under her arm? Asked if she was disappointed deputy leader Alan Kelly could not be there, Joan's tone was bright. "Well, I was talking to Alan yesterday and he's canvassing in Tipperary and I think, like most Labour candidates, we'll be canvassing until 10 o'clock on Friday night. I'm perfectly happy with that." Brendan Howlin did not pull any punches. "Everybody knows, every Labour deputy is fighting for their political lives and we want to talk to as many of our own constituents as we can. "Obviously, we're part of the national campaign but everybody is doing their own thing too," he said. Enda Kenny's "whinger" gaffe was mentioned. "Well, I think the Taoiseach has set out his stall very clearly," said Joan. "No more than myself, there are moments in all campaigns, no matter how wonderful and bright and shining you are, when language can become awkward. "I don't agree for instance with the 'whinger' comment. I said that. The Taoiseach has withdrawn it and explained the context. "You know all politics is local and the local opposition can be quite irritating when they don't recognise your wonder as much as your own party supporters might. I assume that that was one of those moments," she added. In a canny appeal to "progressive voters" - as if anyone considers themselves to be otherwise - Joan urged them to "think twice before you cast your vote". And she warned that with a possible Fianna Fail/Fine Gael coalition on the cards, "we could stumble by accident into the most conservative government of recent decades". Labour have winnowed their manifesto down to three key commitments they hope will swing the electorate back to the status quo. They say they will invest most in schools, health and childcare, cut the USC for low and middle income earners, and deliver a referendum on the 8th Amendment. And if a leadership challenge should arise after the election? Joan's answer was crisp. "Well, I'm not anticipating that it will arise because we're fighting for every seat and the campaign has experienced a huge amount of warmth around the achievement of marriage equality," she said. She says that Labour will score "above the expectations". She said she has seldom seen an election where the people have remained "very, very thoughtful". There are many undecideds out there who she feels will not make up their minds until tonight or before they walk into the polling station tomorrow morning. With one last fighting thrust of her sword, Joan hopes to convince them. Gerry Adams has condemned the death threats made against Fine Gael TD Regina Doherty after she took part in a fiery debate with the Sinn Fein leader on their local radio station. Gardai are investigating a threat made to Ms Doherty that her throat would be "slit" after the show on LMFM. "I absolutely condemn it and people should be free to give their opinions," Mr Adams said yesterday. However, he said her comments on radio after he spoke about fatal attacks on his own family gave an "insight" into how establishment parties view victims of the British army and unionist paramilitaries. "If the unionist parties in the North behaved the way some politicians behave here on these issues, or if Sinn Fein in the North behaved in the same way on these issues, there would be no peace in the North, there would be no political institutions, there would be no coming together to work on issues of mutual advantage to people,"he said. "The politicians here, those who take up this position, and they are perfectly entitled to state whatever position they want on these matters, need to be mindful of what Ian Paisley, Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster are prepared to put up with and that we in Sinn Fein are willing to put up with for the common good," he added. While its advisable to check at polling stations before bringing your dog on election day, taking a selfie with your ballot paper is a no-no, though not specifically covered under Irish electoral law. While its advisable to check at polling stations before bringing your dog on election day, taking a selfie with your ballot paper is a no-no, though not specifically covered under Irish electoral law. Photo: Collins Ahead of tomorrows general election, Dr Theresa Reidy guides you through the voting system with important advice on how to avoid spoiling your vote. So whats PR and STV again? The electoral system is the set of rules used to convert votes cast at the election into seats in the Dail. General elections in Ireland are conducted using an electoral system called Proportional Representation by the Single Transferable Vote (PR-STV). The system has been used at elections since 1922 and is enshrined in the 1937 constitution. It is an unusual system and the only other country in Europe which uses it for general elections is Malta. 158 TDs will be returned to the next Dail from 40 constituencies. Between 3 and 5 TDs are elected from each constituency and the decision on the geographic boundaries for each constituency and the number of TDs to be elected is made by an independent commission which is bound by the population rules set out in the Constitution and the electoral laws. Expand Close Fianna Fail Leader Micheal Martin during the last TV Debate on RTE Prime Time. Photo: Tony Maxwell/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Fianna Fail Leader Micheal Martin during the last TV Debate on RTE Prime Time. Photo: Tony Maxwell/PA Wire The use of the word proportional in the name of the system is the critical part. It means that there should be a close relationship between the percentage of votes a party gets and the percentage of seats it wins. In theory, when a party gets 10pc of the votes, it should get around 10pc of the seats. In practice the system, does not work out as perfectly proportional, no system does. But it is generally agreed that the system is fair and it provides for the election of small parties and independents which leads to a diverse Dail and allows communities to have a strong voice at national level. Expand Close Taoiseach Enda Kenny during the last TV Debate on RTE Prime Time. Photo: Tony Maxwell/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Taoiseach Enda Kenny during the last TV Debate on RTE Prime Time. Photo: Tony Maxwell/PA Wire Read More How secret is a secret ballot? Your vote is secret. When you have finished marking your ballot, you should fold it over and place it in the ballot box. No selfies! There are no specific laws about taking selfies but it is an offence to reveal the content of your ballot in the polling station so no posing with it, no matter how much you want to. For the same reason, voters should not write any messages or slogans on their ballot. Expand Close Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. Photo: Collins / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. Photo: Collins Again, it may reveal the identity of the voter and could result in the vote being deemed invalid and thus excluded during the counting process. UK voters at their last general election sparked a big trend on social media by bringing their dogs with them to vote. Photos of voters posing with their pooches at polling stations were covered in newspapers across the world. The electoral law in Ireland does not cover dogs at polling stations but health and safety could strike so best to check whether your dog is welcome before you arrive together. Expand Close Tanaiste Joan Burton pictured at Labour HQ / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tanaiste Joan Burton pictured at Labour HQ How do I vote? Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm. A polling card is not required to vote but voters may be asked for identification so it is important to have some with you. Voting under the PR-STV system is a straightforward process. Each voter will be given a ballot paper for their constituency. There is a lot of information on the ballot to help voters. A photograph of each candidate is included along with information on any political party affiliation, their address and occupation. Each voter ranks the candidates in order of their preference by placing 1, 2, 3. in the box alongside the candidate. The number of candidates on the ballot will vary from one constituency to the next. Laois has just 6 candidates, Donegal has 15 and Dublin South West has 21. You may express a preference for every candidate, voting all the way from 1 to 21 if you are in Dublin South West or for as many candidates as you want to express a preference for. The great advantage of PR-STV is that it is an intuitive system allowing the voter to express an opinion on all of the candidates if they want to. It is often said, that whilst a person has one vote, they can offer many choices. How do I avoid spoiling my vote? Many voters choose to express only a few preferences, often voting from 1 to 5. The important thing is to express a clear preference. If you would like to vote for just one candidate, put the number 1 next to their name. Returning officers usually accept a single X next to a candidates name as a clear preference. But you should not put multiple Xs on the ballot as this will result in your vote being spoiled. The same would be true if you put the number 1 next to a few candidates. The vote cannot be counted as the returning officer cannot be sure about the order of the preferences and it will be deemed invalid. Dr Theresa Reidy is a lecturer in the Department of Government at University College Cork. This Saturday: All over bar the counting. Read the dummy's guide to the highly complicated count. Liam, Edmund and Keith Walsh from Walshs Butchers in Donegal town met Pat The Cope Gallagher when he called in on his canvas of the area. Photo: Brian McDaid He's old Fianna Fail, but Pat 'the Cope' Gallagher is marching, running at times, around businesses off The Diamond in Donegal town. It's a cold February day, with the winter sun barely raising temperatures above 5C. So where does a man of 67 get all this energy from? Local people in Dungloe, where he lives, talk of a man who can be seen most mornings around 7.45am pounding the roads like a man half his age. "I'm two months younger than Hillary Clinton and she wants to run the United States. I'd be happy just helping to run the parishes of Donegal," says the Cope. Anyone in party headquarters who didn't want Gallagher on the party ticket in the five-seat Donegal constituency - and some of them didn't - would have been astonished at his popularity here in this part of Donegal. County party secretary Brendan Byrne, recovering from a battle with cancer, is alongside the Cope with party stalwart Michael Naughton. "Five years ago we had to run the other way," says Byrne, remarking on the difference in the reception Fianna Fail is getting this time around. "But that's the Cope. They're always happy to meet the Cope. He has always been available to the people, 24/7, even since he lost his MEP seat. People know he will do a job for them." Warm handshakes, pledges of support and hugs greet Gallagher inside and outside every shop, bar and business. The Cope is darting around the town at a rate of knots, party supporters breaking into jogs to keep up. Father James Sweeney, the parish priest of Bruckless, is among those to shake his hand. "He has been helping the people of this county for 30 years and I wish we had more like him," says Fr Sweeney. Age isn't a factor, he says. "I call that experience," says Fr Sweeney, "sure my own boss Pope Francis is a dozen years older." Butcher Liam Walsh is upset, however. His business is in Donegal town but he lives near Ballintra, which has been moved into the Sligo/Leitrim constituency. "I'd love to vote for Pat," he says, "but someone in Dublin has cut us out of the county." Minutes later, the Cope is chatting to a Polish woman. He carefully notes the name of her son for a passport, a treble-barrelled affair, with the last name of 'McFadden'. "No problem at all," says the Cope. "I'll help you get that sorted." He adds: "I always got a buzz out of helping people." Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been forced to explain his latest campaign gaffe, insisting that he didn't personally make a controversial appointment to a State board and saying: "I'm human." Mr Kenny was responding to questions on the 2014 appointment of by-election candidate John McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in a bid to boost Mr McNulty's credentials ahead of his bid for a Seanad seat. On Tuesday night's leaders' debate, Mr Kenny appeared to confirm he was directly responsible for Mr McNulty being installed in the role. "What I did was make an appointment that did not need to be made," Mr Kenny said on the debate as Miriam O'Callaghan was grilling each leader about 'cronyism'. 'Whingers' Speaking afterwards, Mr Kenny said it was Arts Minister Heather Humphreys who had made the appointment. It was the latest in a series of campaign gaffes, from the length of time it took him to rule out a post-election deal with Independent Michael Lowry, to his "whingers" remark. The Irish Independent asked which gaffe he would erase from voters' memories if he could. "Actually, you deal with all these things. I'm human, the same as everybody else. I make mistakes but I'm man enough to acknowledge and accept responsibility for all these things. I think the hallmark of leadership is how you move on from issues that arise," he said. Asked if he had misspoken about the McNulty appointment on the RTE debate, he replied: "No...The appointment was made by the minister. It's a line appointment but I, as Taoiseach in the Dail, I said I accept responsibility for that." He said the rules for State Board appointments have since been changed. "You will not now become a member of the lawnmower committee for a department unless you apply through the public appointments service." Meanwhile, Mr Kenny denied he's "blown it" by not calling the election last November, saying if he had it would have "ruptured the link with the Labour Party". He also said there are three problem areas that he would like to fix if he is returned to power. "One is the housing and homeless situation, two is the health issue and three is specifically mental health and the challenges that so many people face." From left: Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin and Tanaiste and Labour leader Joan Burton before their final TV debate, on RTEs Prime Time. Photo:Tony Maxwell/PA Wire To truly forgive, you have to be prepared to forget - and Irish voters aren't there yet. Fianna Fail might be on the rise but Micheal Martin is frank in his belief that it's not a sign people have moved on from the economic crash. In fact, he says he doesn't "get the sense" that people have forgiven his party at all since they were unceremoniously booted out of government in 2011. "I don't think people forget. I think they are cautious about all politicians and I'm very conscious of that. I'm under no illusions about people having gone through very tough experiences," he says. However, the Corkman argues that in the 21 long days since the Dail was dissolved, he has positioned himself as an alternative Taoiseach to Enda Kenny - even though to achieve that he will need a depleted Labour Party to dramatically switch allegiances after polling. And ahead of a canvass on the streets of Newbridge, Co Kildare, last night, he made a direct appeal to Labour supporters, telling the Irish Independent his party will offer them "parity of esteem" and not seek to "humiliate them like Fine Gael". Mr Martin recalls the infamous Tesco-style advert that Labour took out before the last election promising not to hike DIRT, VAT, the price of wine, car tax, reduce child benefit or introduce water charges. "It was like somebody in Fine Gael put the ad up on a wall and said, 'We'll do every one of these now just to put Labour in their box'. "And that's what they did. It's hard to credit it," he says. Expand Close Taoiseach Enda Kenny during the last TV Debate on RTE Prime Time. Photo: Tony Maxwell/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Taoiseach Enda Kenny during the last TV Debate on RTE Prime Time. Photo: Tony Maxwell/PA Wire Read More "Every one of them was done over two or three budgets. It was like somebody in Fine Gael was doing it to punish them for daring to do that ad. It's argued that ad deprived them of an overall majority the last time out." Labour leader Joan Burton has spent much of the campaign attacking Mr Martin and Fianna Fail over their legacy in government. But he says Labour made a big mistake "hitching its wagon to Fine Gael again and failing to carve out an identity for itself" ahead of the election. And yet he will offer Ms Burton a place in the next government if the numbers stack up. Expand Close Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Joan Burton. Photo: Mark Condren / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Joan Burton. Photo: Mark Condren "We believe in parity of esteem and respect for who we work with," he said. He says the Right2Change-affiliated politicians won't have a credible base to form a cabinet and he completely rules out the much-talked about 'grand coalition' with Fine Gael. Expand Close Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. Photo: Collins / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. Photo: Collins He believes it would not be in the "national interest" and "this idea that nothing divides us is erroneous". "We're not going into government with Fine Gael. We were very clear that we wanted to create this choice and it's there," he said. "The Fine Gael manifesto is actually risky in that it's getting rid of an entire tax. They haven't learned the lessons of the past. They are jeopardising the revenue too much. "I don't think they get it. They are interested in a core 20pc of the electorate. They have tailored their election manifesto to that 20pc." Mr Martin singles out health and education as two areas where he believes their policies are at total divergence. "Fine Gael's education document has escaped scrutiny in this campaign. What they are proposing is straight out of the Tory playbook." Read More In spite of his criticism of Fine Gael, Mr Martin does accept the recovery "is coming" - but adds that the Government parties "didn't adjust the message" after discovering it wasn't resonating with people. "Statistically, there is no doubt in terms of employment [that there is a recovery] but then there is the issue of the quality of jobs. That was surfacing a lot, particularly among younger people," he says. "People are anxious to know if we have learned lessons from the past. Have all politicians learned lessons from the past?" He describes as "an interesting phenomenon" the fact that people are not buying the promises of any party. "In this campaign, and I have to be straight up, there is a sense of weariness about promises. There is a realism among the electorate that may not have been there in the past." On the forgiveness question, he says: "I think people are willing to give us an opportunity. I think people do take on board that we have reconnected with communities and that we are engaging with the issues and making a genuine effort." Mr Martin says Fine Gael have tried a different approach and it has backfired. "The one thing you should not do is start scaremongering and creating fear. I think that has the opposite effect. That kind of approach can boomerang. "Whoever their strategists were that decided 'we'll scare the life out of people', it was the wrong way to go." He accepts that becoming the next Taoiseach is still a long way away but if it does happen, his first 100 days will be focused on his old department of health. Read More "I would immediately look at the health situation. We've been told that we are 100m short for hospitals. "That needs to be dealt with upfront or we're going to have chaos in our hospitals in 2016. That would be the first major one," he says. "At the end of the five years, we would want a fairer country and more progress on attracting quality jobs to the country." But if Fianna Fail aren't in a position to form a government, will he lead the Opposition for another five years? "I'm prepared in whatever capacity to go forward for the next five years as leader of Fianna Fail. We obviously want to be the lead party in government." Tanaiste Joan Burton & Taoiseach Enda Kenny meet on the last day of campaigning to stress importance of Government stability and balance at Herb Street, Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2., Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins Tanaiste Joan Burton & Taoiseach Enda Kenny meet on the last day of campaigning to stress importance of Government stability and balance at Herb Street, Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2., Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins Tanaiste Joan Burton & Taoiseach Enda Kenny meet on the last day of campaigning to stress importance of Government stability and balance at Herb Street, Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2., Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins Tanaiste Joan Burton & Taoiseach Enda Kenny meet on the last day of campaigning to stress importance of Government stability and balance at Herb Street, Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2., Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins Enda Kenny and Joan Burton met for tea and scones today before making a final plea to electorate to give them five more years together. The Taoiseach and Tanaiste both said a small shift in the polls towards Fine Gael and the Labour Party would ensure the return of the Government. And they promised if voters do give them enough seats they will see out a full five years together. Mr Kenny said tomorrow would mark a crucial decision for Irish people and he hoped a clear signal will be given and a clear decision. Its been a privilege to have been Taoiseach and to work in conjunction with the Labour Party to put together a programme that has brought our country in the right direction, he said. Read More One of the ways they can avoid confusions and instability and the consequential dangers in that is to support the government that has been in office for the past five years. Expand Close Tanaiste Joan Burton & Taoiseach Enda Kenny meet on the last day of campaigning to stress importance of Government stability and balance at Herb Street, Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2., Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tanaiste Joan Burton & Taoiseach Enda Kenny meet on the last day of campaigning to stress importance of Government stability and balance at Herb Street, Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2., Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins That government is on offer for the people, to provide stability and continued progress on implementing a strategic plan that will bring further propensity to our country, Mr Kenny said. He again ruled out the idea of a grand coalition with Fianna Fail. Expand Close Tanaiste Joan Burton & Taoiseach Enda Kenny meet on the last day of campaigning to stress importance of Government stability and balance at Herb Street, Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2., Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tanaiste Joan Burton & Taoiseach Enda Kenny meet on the last day of campaigning to stress importance of Government stability and balance at Herb Street, Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2., Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins I have no intention of doing a deal with Micheal Martin. His party wrecked the economy after 14 years in power, he said. Speaking in Hanover Quay in Dublin, Ms Burton also stressed the importance of stability and rejected any suggestion that she would be interested in a coalition with Fianna Fail. Expand Close Tanaiste Joan Burton & Taoiseach Enda Kenny meet on the last day of campaigning to stress importance of Government stability and balance at Herb Street, Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2., Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tanaiste Joan Burton & Taoiseach Enda Kenny meet on the last day of campaigning to stress importance of Government stability and balance at Herb Street, Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2., Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins Its a great privilege to live in a democracy where people will exercise the ultimate power, she said. Read More Notwithstanding the fact weve made great progress theres the potential for choppy waters ahead. A small shift in voting intentions in terms of both parties would actual return a stable government for the next five years. A government that would be able to do all of those things that people have said they desire. She added: Weve worked together over five at times turbulent but transformative years. Tough years but also achievement years. We want to see the opportunity and that achievement realised over the next five years. Mr Kenny made reference to the 1989 coalition between Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats that former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds described as "temporary little arrangement". The arrangement between Fine Gael and the Labour Party was never a temporary little arrangement. Its gone the full five years and weve come through some calamitous and turbulent times, the Taoiseach said. A former commander of the Provisional IRA is to be extradited from Spain to face charges in Ireland relating to the sexual abuse of a child. Spanish police arrested the former Provo chief last night on foot of an extradition warrant issued by the Irish authorities. It is understood he faces four charges relating to the sexual assault of the girl in Dublin more than two decades ago. Spain's National Police confirmed the man was detained by officers in Alicante on the Costa Brava. The one-time IRA commander and former senior Sinn Fein activist, who moved abroad a number of years ago, has been under investigation by gardai in Dublin for almost two years. The investigation was launched when the woman made a formal complaint to gardai alleging she had been abused as a minor by a powerful figure in the IRA. Detectives took detailed statements from both the woman and members of her family. Last year, two senior officers flew to the former IRA commander's home on the Continent after he agreed to be interviewed by them. He was questioned over several hours and is believed to have denied the claims. He has not been active in Sinn Fein for many years. But he was one of the top IRA men in Dublin at the time the abuse is alleged to have occurred and has republican connections. As a top IRA commander during the 1990s, he was responsible for sanctioning all IRA operations carried out on this side of the border. Gardai believe the man was a member of the IRA's so-called southern command in the mid-1990s, when Det Gda Jerry McCabe was shot dead during an aborted raid on a postal van at Adare, Co Limerick, in 1996. It was alleged at the time that the killing had been carried out by a rogue unit which did not have sanction for the shooting. Four members of the unit were subsequently convicted of killing Det Gda McCabe. Shortly after the shooting, the suspect left the country and moved abroad, where he has lived for almost two decades. The ex-IRA man's arrest and extradition will come as a serious embarrassment to Sinn Fein on the eve of polling day by focusing unwelcome attention on alleged IRA child abusers. Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has faced a storm of criticism over accusations that the party covered up child abusers and paedophiles in its ranks. Senator Mairia Cahill has publicly claimed she was subjected to an IRA kangaroo court after she was raped as a teenager. And Paudie McGahon claimed he was also raped by an IRA man and subjected to an IRA kangaroo court after he complained to a Sinn Fein councillor. Gardai are now investigating more than 30 alleged IRA abusers. It is understood that the man now facing extradition was already under investigation by gardai when Ms Cahill first highlighted the alleged cover-up of IRA child abusers on BBC's 'Spotlight' programme. The 'Sunday Independent' first reported on the ongoing investigation last year. Gardai are continuing a manhunt this evening following two armed robberies in the city. A lone male entered the Centra Store on the Main Street, Rathfarnham armed with what has been described as a handgun. The shocking incident occurred at approximately 5pm, with the store located just 100 metres down the road from Rathfarnham Garda Station. The assailant threatened workers and pointed the weapon at a member of staff before forcing them to handover an as of yet unknown amount of cash. He subsequently fled the scene, with uniformed and detective Garda units responding to the scene. A helicopter from the Garda Air Support Unit was also dispatched in an attempt to catch the suspect, but no arrests have yet been made. A separate robbery robbery occurred in the Dun Laoghaire area earlier today, but the incidents are as of yet not believed to be connected. Officers from Rathfarnham Garda station are investigating the incident, and are appealing for anyone with information to contact them. Irish Rail said they found vomit and other fluids throughout the train Irish Rail was forced to take a train out of service for 24 hours after it was wrecked by some 300 DCU students on their way to an event in Galway. During an outing on Monday, hundreds of members from two societies at Dublin City University boarded a train specifically chartered for them heading to Galway City. Those on-board were allowed to bring their own alcohol, and according to reports, there were only two security guards presence to deal with the mass of students. The train was left in a dreadful state, said a spokesperson for Irish Rail. The train was not able to enter service on Tuesday as it had to be deep cleaned on Tuesday and overnight on Wednesday before going back into service. According to the rail service vomit and other fluids where discovered throughout the train. Expand Close The train needed to be taken out of service for 24 hours of "deep cleaning" / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The train needed to be taken out of service for 24 hours of "deep cleaning" First reported in the College View, DCUs student newspaper, the Engineering Society and Science & Health Society took 300 students from Dublin to Galway City on the train. According to the newspaper, only two stalls were in working order during the journey, though a student on the train claimed It was more like one. We were locked in there with one toilet between 300 people, said Josh, speaking to RTEs Liveline. I don't know what they expected. There was no where for anyone to get sick. Expand Close Some 300 students were on-board the journey to Galway City / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Some 300 students were on-board the journey to Galway City Asked about the behaviour on-board the train, the student said that while everyone was a little bit drunk there was no one acting up or looking to cause trouble or damage to the train. It was carnage in Galway City but on the train, everyone was well behaved. Addressing the claims that there was not enough working stalls on the chartered journey, Irish Rail said when the train left Heuston Station in Dublin there was 5 out of 6 toilets operational. One toilet went out of service on the way to Galway so there were 4 operational toilets on the train. We regularly have student charters from Trinity and have never had a problem with the condition that the train was left in, the rail service added. Irish Rail told Independent.ie that they would be seeking payment for the cost of cleaning the train from DCU authorities. "The University has been liaising with Irish Rail since Tuesday when it was made aware of an incident involving a Clubs & Societies event on an Irish Rail train earlier this week," a DCU spokesperson told Independent.ie. "A small number of individuals behaved in an irresponsible manner which greatly inconvenienced Irish Rail as a result. The University strongly disapproves of such actions which reflect neither the ethos of the university nor the typical behaviour of our student body. "We have been working closely with Irish Rail to get an assessment of any damage that may have been caused, the cost of which will be met by the Societies responsible for organising the trip." A teenager who drowned after trying to save a friend who fell into a river has been remembered as a fun-loving boy. Oisin Quigley (13) was among a group of up to four teenagers walking on the banks of the Lyreen River at Maynooth, Co Kildare, when the tragedy happened on Tuesday. Fr Liam Rigney, parish priest in Maynooth, said Oisin's death has deeply shocked and saddened everyone in the parish and the wider local community. "The tragic death of a fun-loving young boy, at that time in life when we are full of hope and dreams and plans for the future, is especially difficult," he said. "In this dark moment, we offer our prayers and support to his family. "We especially remember Oisin's two friends who were involved in this tragedy with him and we pray for their continued recovery. "Our thoughts and prayers are also with Oisin's friends, fellow students and teachers in Maynooth Post-Primary School who I know are coming together to support each other." Oisin's funeral will be in the Church of St Mary in Maynooth on Saturday morning. Read More The tragic accident happened in a remote area on the Kilcock Road near a concrete bridge that crosses the Lyreen River. The friends raised the alarm and paramedics were quickly on the scene. Oisin was rushed to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin but was later pronounced dead. Gardai in Maynooth have launched an investigation but are not treating the incident as suspicious. It has been described as an "awful tragedy". Johnny Nevin, principal of Maynooth Post-Primary School, said Oisin's death was a terrible tragedy for the Quigley family, the school, Maynooth Community College and the community. "We are deeply saddened by these events. Our thoughts are with the Quigley family and friends and the other students involved in the incident," he said. "Oisin was a second-year student and will be greatly missed by all who knew him." He has two siblings in the school - David in transition year and Caoimhe in sixth year. "Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time," Mr Nevin added. Two men have been arrested Two men have been arrested after two suspected pipebombs and a fully loaded glock pistol were discovered in a car on a motorway in the midlands. A man in his 40s and a teenager were arrested at the scene, on the M7 near Mountrath. The men are believed to be Polish and are currently in custody in Portlaoise Garda Station following the discovery The Army Bomb Disposal are en route to the scene and are expected to arrive shortly. The discovery was made on the M7 close to Portlaoise shortly before 6pm. It is not known if the devices are viable - this will be determined upon examination by the Army Bomb Disposal Team. The incident has seen the M7 closed in places. The M7 Limerick/ Dublin Rd northbound is closed at J21 Borris-in-Ossory due to the incident and diversions are in place. Southbound on the M7, the road is also closed at J18 Portlaoise West due to the garda presence. Those travelling southbound on the M7 towards Cork will be diverted off at J17 Portlaoise Centre and those heading to Limerick will be diverted off at J18 Portlaoise West. Motorists travelling on the M8 Cork/ Dublin Rd northbound will be diverted off at J3 Rathdowney. An inspirational student with seriously impaired vision has written a touching Facebook post warning against cuts to Special Needs Assistants. Thousands have shared the remarkable post in support of 24-year-old Cork woman Jessica Ni Mhaolain, who on Wednesday received a Masters in Government from University College Cork. Writing hours before her graduation, Ms Ni Mhaolain said until SNA were introduced, she couldnt learn like other kids [because] of my sight; I relied on sound alone. Every child has a right to education, and it's near impossible for a child to learn if they rely on sound alone. She continued: When I eventually got the invaluable resource of an SNA's help, I had the help to do things I couldn't; notes, explanations, descriptions of what was going on in class. Simply put, I would not have finished primary school without the help of my SNA. I definitely would not have sat either my Junior or Leaving Cert without an SNA. Having an SNA put me on a level playing field with my classmates, simple as. Tomorrow morning at 10am I will be conferred with a Masters in Government in UCC. This is my second conferring in two... Posted by Jessica Ni Mhaolain on Tuesday, 23 February 2016 The detailed post has already been share more than 6,000 times and has been liked some 27,000 times in the last 48 hours. Ms Ni Mhaolain was born with Oculocutaneous Albinism, which makes it difficult for her to see beyond five feet. She also has nystagmus, an involuntary movement of the eyes, which makes it difficult for her eyes to focus. Beyond five feet, life is a blur. Glasses don't help, laser won't improve my sight. On top of that, I struggle to focus. Imagine yourself sitting in a classroom, surrounded by other students and a teacher relying only on sound to learn how to spell, add and subtract, read, and write. Speaking out against cuts to SNAs, Ms Ni Mhaolain continues, saying she feels in a position to speak about the issue because she has required SNA help throughout her academic life. What is wrong with this society when it is deemed ok for a SENO or Department official to cut an SNA from a child for the sake of a financial bottom line? Because while I'm graduating tomorrow morning, there will be children and parents in Cork who were where my parents once were. "And they will be wondering whether their child will achieve an education like I have, because an SNA and a chance to learn equally as others do has been taken away from them for the sake of saving money. Chemotherapy should be kept to a minimum to avoid unstoppable cancer cells developing Managing cancer with low doses of chemotherapy could be more effective than attempting to kill the disease, scientists believe. The controversial approach suggests that cancer patients may have a better chance of survival if they live with their illness long term. Current cancer treatments often involve aggressive treatment with high doses chemotherapy in an attempt to wipe out as many tumour cells as possible. But complete eradication of cancer is rare, and the toxic side effects of chemotherapy can be highly destructive - not only leading to hair loss, nausea and extreme fatigue, but also crippling the body's immune system or triggering anaemia. Some experts believe high-dose chemotherapy may actually worsen cancer by exerting a natural selection pressure that helps drug-resistant tumour cells to become more abundant which means if cancer returns it will be fatal. The new strategy is designed to prevent drug-resistant tumour cells getting a handle. Rather than trying to eradicate a tumour, the treatment stabilises it by deliberately allowing a small population of drug-sensitive tumour cells to survive. A team of US scientists led by Dr Robert Gatenby, from the H Lee Moffitt Cancer Centre and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, conducted tests using the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel to treat mice with two different kinds of breast cancer. Standard chemotherapy initially shrank the mouse tumours, but as soon as the treatment stopped they grew back. However giving an initial high dose followed be regular lower doses controlled cancer growth. In fact the treatment was so effective that the majority of the mice were weaned off the drug completely over an extended period of time without suffering relapses. Writing in the journal Science Translational Medicine, Dr Gatenby said: "Our results suggest that this adaptive therapeutic strategy can be adapted to clinical imaging and can result in prolonged progression-free survival in breast cancer. "Finally, we note that the evolutionary principles that govern AT may be applicable to a wide range of breast cancer treatments including hormonal manipulation and immunotherapy, although they will need to undergo further testing in those settings." Rachel Rawson, senior clinical nurse specialist from the charity Breast Cancer Care, said the proposed treatment was an exciting avenue to explore. "The potential to reduce gruelling side-effects of chemotherapy, while increasing the treatment's effectiveness, could dramatically improve the lives of people with breast cancer. This is an exciting avenue to explore, she added. "Chemotherapy can mean women live with debilitating sickness, fatigue and extremely distressing hair loss for many months, making every day a challenge. "However there remains a long road from this study on mice to any potential changes in clinical practice. And we want to reassure anyone concerned, the treatment currently out there has been successfully trialled on thousands of patients." Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Janette Benaddi, (51), Frances Davies, (47), Niki Doeg, (46) and Helen Butters, (45) ave set a new Guinness world record as the oldest all-female crew to row across an ocean. Photo: Janette Benaddi Facebook. Four mothers have set a new Guinness world record as the oldest all-female crew to row across an ocean. Janette Benaddi, (51), Frances Davies, (47), Niki Doeg, who celebrated her 46th birthday on the water, and Helen Butters, (45), took just over two months to complete the 3,000-mile Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. They arrived in English Harbour, Antigua, on Thursday, 68 days after leaving La Gomera in the Canary Islands on December 20. The crew, who became friends after meeting on the school run, encountered a hurricane, power failures, attacks from flying fish, seasickness and injuries to complete the endurance challenge, dubbed the world's toughest rowing race. They also made headlines when they revealed they had to row naked after running out of clean clothes. They were greeted as they set foot on land in the Caribbean harbour by huge crowds including members of their families. In the team's latest blog post last week, Mrs Benaddi, from Burn in North Yorkshire, said an equipment failure had left them steering by hand and one rower down at all times. She said: "I think these may be our longest days, we are so eager to get to land now and it still seems far away." The friends formed the plan to take part in the race around three years ago at a boat club dinner. Speaking before they left to start the race, Mrs Butters, from Cawood, North Yorkshire, said: "We've always had the same aim. It's more important to us to enjoy it and get to the other side than to fall out and be competitive and want to beat other people." And their blog confirmed that the team had achieved their aim, with Mrs Benaddi paying tribute to the "three amazing women" she is sharing the 8m by 1.5m boat with. Mrs Benaddi described Mrs Butters as "reliable, strong, determined and a very positive influence", Ms Doeg as "very special, kind, generous, caring and very, very safety conscious" and said Ms Davies "is understanding, empathetic and has a wonderful laugh". She wrote: "So these are my crew, the best crew in the world that has moved us thousands of miles across this big blue ocean and the crew that makes this adventure special in my heart and soul." The women all had to fit in their training alongside working full time and stocked up their freezers with family meals before setting off. Whether religious or not, following in the footsteps of Saint Teresa is a great way to see this beautiful part of Spain. Pilgrims - many of them Irish - have walked the Route of St James along the Camino for centuries. In recent years, it has become a bucket list must-do for tourists and a financial boost locally, particularly along Spain's northern coast. Now, a new pilgrimage trail is up and running. It came to the fore last year to celebrate the 500th anniversary this year of the birth of St Teresa (also called Saint Teresa of Jesus), one of the country's most famous historical and literary figures. This trail is different because she founded 17 convents in cities throughout the country, so travelling by car or public transport (not walking, as with the Camino) is required. Pilgrims decide their own route and receive a special card as a recognised pilgrim (see factbox) when they've visited a minimum number of cities and finished up in the beautiful town of Avila. Never heard of Saint Teresa? Briefly, she was a prominent Spanish mystic Carmelite nun during the Counter Reformation and an accomplished author of religious books. Aged 15, her mother died so she was placed in the care of the Augustinian nuns in Avila where she became very ill. It is reported she then had a vision which subsequently changed her life. In 1535, she joined the Carmelite Order. Becoming disillusioned and longing for a stricter, less worldly, life she set about founding the convents. On her journey, she joined up with another mystic and scholar, St John of The Cross (working parallel with the Carmelite monks), and reformed the Carmelites into the Discalced Carmelites Order. She died in 1582, was beatified by Pope Paul V in 1614 and canonised by Pope Gregory XV in 1622. Expand Close Avila Spain deposit photo / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Avila Spain deposit photo For dedicated pilgrims, it's an enchanting trail of ancient convents and monasteries. For us tourists, an interesting way to see some undiscovered areas of Spain. I don't consider myself to be particularly religious and heading out to Spain knew precisely nothing about St Teresa. But by day two, I had become fascinated and seriously impressed with all she achieved in her short life. The illness, the long journeys, the aggression from existing Carmelite Order - a remarkable story. A most moving moment... This was meeting and talking to a nun of today through a hatch with double grilles in one of the convents, apparently a rare event. Sr Anna Maria, originally from Australia, qualified as an architect but in her 20s received a calling to follow in St Teresa's footsteps. Travelling to Spain, she joined the Order and closed herself off from her family and the outside world. Softly and calmly, she described life in the convent. Her cheerful voice and infectious laugh will remain with me for a long time. The route... The 'Footsteps of St Teresa' route, which was designed to mark the 500th anniversary, is also about attracting tourists to 17 cities. We managed five, starting from the lovely walled city of Avila (an hour from Madrid). Fab views from top of the ancient walls containing nine separate gates to city. The old part of town is particularly interesting. Be sure to take a ride on the tuk-tuk - a half-bicycle half-bus driving around the tourist spots. Next morning, we took the scenic route along a new road known as the 'high road' to Toledo. The first capital of Spain and for those who enjoy their sweets, the home of marzipan. The four Towers of The Alcazar dominate the skyline. The enormous cathedral is the second largest in Spain with 27 chapels. Look for works by El Greco in the sacristy. On to Malagon, where the Saint Joseph cloister convent was purposely built, (other convents founded were adapted in existing buildings). The actual stone where the saint sat watching building in progress can be seen. In the local church the confessional booth used by St John of the Cross has the original clay tiled floor. Beas de Segura This historic and pretty town (tiny streets bedecked with flowers) is gateway to the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Nature Reserves. The impressive Monastery of San Jose del Salvador was St Teresa's 10th foundation. Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia The final stop and close to the coast. This is definitely seaside territory and much less crowded than the Costas. A steep hill in the city ends at the Basilica-Sanctuary of The True Cross (not to be missed). Down in the old town the lovely and well preserved Baroque church adjoining the closed-up convent (nuns left city in 2004), is worth seeing. And did I mention the fantastic scenery, olive trees as far as the eye could see, excellent food and local wines encountered along the route? I returned home much wiser and full of admiration for St Teresa and as a tourist pleased to have visited some beautiful parts of Spain away from the more usual hotspots. Expand Close Statue Saint Teresa of Avila ( Avila,Spain). Photo: Deposit / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Statue Saint Teresa of Avila ( Avila,Spain). Photo: Deposit Get there You can obtain a card to be recognised as a pilgrim who has taken the Footsteps of Saint Teresa route in Spain. It's available from tourist offices in the towns and villages along the route, or you can download it at huellasdeteresa.com. You only have to visit a minimum of four cities in at least two regions (choose from Andalusia, Murcia, Castile-La Mancha, Madrid and Castile-Leon), and finish your route in Avila, where you can collect your distinction at the Pilgrim's Office (visitor reception centre). George Keegan travelled to Spain with the Spanish Tourism Office (spain.info). He stayed in the four-star Parador in Avila, Convento de Carmelitas Descalzos (Espiritu Santo) in Toledo and Hospederia de Los Padres Carmelitas, Caravaca de La Cruz Useful websites: avilaturismo.com; toledo-turismo.com; malagon.es; beasdesegurura.e; turismocaravaca.com. Icelandic low-cost carrier WOW air is to boost capacity on its direct flights between Dublin and Reykjavik by 70pc. The airline is set to increase the number of flights it operates from Dublin Airport to five weekly from May 30, it announced today. WOW currently operates three direct flights a week between Ireland and Iceland, with lead-in rates quoted from 69pp each way. Over 26,000 Irish people have flown on its Dublin-Reykjavik route since it launched last June, the airline says. The new flights will operate on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday a 70pc increase on current seat capacity on the route. WOW also operates a one-stop service from Dublin Airport to several US destinations, including Boston, San Francisco and LA. The flights include a stopover of approximately 1.5 hours in Reykjavik, though passengers can also book longer stopovers, adding a couple of days in Iceland to their transatlantic trip at no extra cost, the airline says. "Our Ireland-Iceland service has exceeded our expectations with continued strong bookings on the route since our first Dublin flight only seven months ago," said Skuli Mogensen, CEO and Founder of WOW air. Dublin Airport welcomed the route expansion. "The decision to add an extra return flight every week is clear evidence of the strong market for the route," said its Managing Director, Vincent Harrison. WOW air allows one cabin bag of up to 5kg free, with checked bags of 7-12kg charged at 15-31 per flight, and bags of 12-20kg charged at 31 to 38. The airline uses Airbus A320 aircraft. Read more: A Jamaican busker brought some sunshine to a dreary Dublin day with his powerful voice and mix of creole, soul and blues music. The cheerful busker stopped shoppers in the tracks on Dublin's Drury Street as they stood in the rain to watch him perform. "I thought somebody had a ghetto blaster in the street or something when I heard him singing," said Michael from Balinteer. "I was in the barbershop and came out to see where the music was coming from. I couldn't believe it was a busker. It sounds so professional. He's great, isn't he? "It's lovely, it really just cheers you up as you're going about your business. I'd listen to him all day if it wasn't raining." Bam, the busker, is from Jamaica but travels around Ireland with his blend of creole, soul and blues music. "I love Ireland but the damp weather can be tough on my voice," he told the crowd, before quietening them with his velvet-smooth vocals. Brendan Keenan: 'Better laws and foreign money needed to overcome worrying homes shortage' There is a district in Belfast known as the Holy Land. Not because of its religiosity, but because the streets - Jerusalem Street, Damascus Street and so on - are called after places in that region. Once, there were others; Little Crimea, India, and so on. Seemingly, houses were built so quickly for the city's huge expansion in the 19th century that it was too much trouble to think up original names. They eventually gave up altogether, so far as names were concerned. The Shankill area got First Street, Second Street etc, all the way up to Tenth. Premium John Downing Opinion Pension reforms are dicey territory but grand plan by minister Heather Humphreys just might win through Pension system changes all across the western world have a great propensity to infuriate those most feared by politicians: the grey brigade. And when the oldies take to the streets, they usually play for keeps. Having joined the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) 17 years ago, Tina Selby is a prime example of how a nurses career can progress there A State body under the auspices of the Department of Health, the Irish Blood Transfusion Service employs a total of 580 people nationally. Some 300 of these are based at its headquarters in Jamess Hospital in Dublin with the remainder at the Munster Regional Transfusion Centre in Cork and at six other centres around the country from which it organises mobile clinics. Every collection clinic is nurse-led, which is empowering for nurses. Each clinic is managed by a clinical nurse manager [CNM] and staffed with registered general nurses and donor attendants, explains IBTS practice development co-ordinator Tina Selby, who is based at the National Blood Centre at the IBTS headquarters. I started out working in mobile clinics which meant I went to parts of the country I hadnt been to before and got to meet a lot of lovely people. As one of the first CNMs to go out and run nurse-led clinics in 2002, I worked my way up to a nurse management position. The IBTS provides very good opportunities for CNMs. In my own experience as a CNM I developed a lot of leadership and management skills because of the autonomy of the role. The main difference between working for the IBTS versus a hospital or healthcare setting is that youre dealing with healthy people who are coming in to do something for someones elses benefit. This can be refreshing change from healthcare where nurses are treating sick people, says Selby. We need to collect about 2,400 units of blood a week to meet demand which means we generally need almost 2,800 people to attend a clinic on a weekly basis. At present only 3% of the eligible population in Ireland donate blood while one in four people will require a blood transfusion at some stage in their lives. The IBTS recruits registered general nurses and donor attendants on a regular basis and there are vacancies nationally at present. Once recruited, a registered general nurse receives a full two-week induction and training on whole blood collection and there is a full clinical supervision programme in place. Staff are very well supported and there is a lot of ongoing training provided. The IBTS is very supportive of continuous professional development and there are opportunities to participate in further education and attend relevant study days and conferences, notes Selby. One of the challenges for IBTS staff can be the unsocial hours as often it has to run mobile clinics in the evenings, but on the flip side nurses never have to do night duty. In hospitals rotas for nurses will always involve night duties and weekends. We dont run clinics on Fridays or Saturdays or national holidays so staff can achieve a good work-life balance, says Selby. For more information go to www.giveblood.ie. Jimmy Savile's abuse of youngsters could have been spotted and action taken as far back as 1969 if the alarm had been raised, Dame Janet Smith said. Her report highlights five clear "missed opportunities" among a wider number of complaints and concerns about the Top Of The Pops presenter and fellow sex criminal Stuart Hall's behaviour during the 1970s and 1980s, when they were at the peak of their popularity. They included: 1969: Savile groped a female BBC worker. When she told her bosses their reaction was "no surprise and to suggest it would have been more surprising if Savile had not tried to touch her". 1969: A 16-year-old girl was molested by Savile while standing next to him on a podium during the filming of Top Of The Pops (TOTP). She complained to a man with a clipboard but was "ejected from the building and left on the street". 1973: Douglas Muggeridge, controller of Radio 1, launched an inquiry into rumours of Savile's behaviour and also asked a press officer to investigate whether the rumours were known to Fleet Street. Savile denied the allegations and the inquiry was closed. Mid-1970s: Ian Hampton, the bass player in electro-pop band Sparks, told the BBC about rumours he had heard that "Savile had sex with under-age girls". He also saw Savile leave TOTP with young girls on two occasions but was told "not to be silly" when he reported it. Mid-1970s: A young male BBC trainee was molested when he went into Savile's dressing room to fit a microphone on him. 1976: Savile molested another young girl on camera while filming TOTP. The girl complained to a BBC employee who dismissed it as "just Jimmy Savile mucking about" and ordered her out of the way of the camera. 1978/79: Savile's Radio 1 producer Ted Beston invited a 19-year-old waitress to a drinks party involving Savile. The star sexually assaulted her in a curtained off area. She ran out and told Beston, who "treated her as if she was being silly" and suggested she go back in. Video of the Day Mid 1980s: Savile made a lewd comment to a female studio manager but no action was taken after she reported it to her line manager and the personnel department. 1988/89: Savile sexually assaulted a junior female staff member at Television Centre. She was told: "Keep your mouth shut, he's a VIP." Dame Janet said that of these incidents, the assaults on two girls on TOTP and Mr Muggeridge's investigation could be classed as three "missed opportunities", saying: "I can't say that proper investigation of those complaints would have resulted in prosecution. But the BBC would at least have become aware of Savile's nature." She was also critical of the BBC's response to a scandal after the News Of The World published a 1971 story about under-age girls being picked up for sex and pornographic images being made, as well as suggestions of corruption over the choice of records played. There were also two chances to stop Hall's offending at BBC Manchester in the 1970s, Dame Janet said. Raymond Colley, the regional television manager at BBC Manchester from 1970 to 1986, challenged Hall about rumours he was having sex in his dressing room soon after taking up the post. Dame Janet criticised Mr Colley for warning Hall about his future conduct but failing to follow this up by checking on the star's behaviour. Dame Janet said: "He overestimated his own authority and he underestimated Stuart Hall's duplicity. Had Mr Colley kept a watch on Hall it is likely he would have been stopped." She was also critical of Tom German, the news editor in the 1970s who has since died. Dame Janet said he was "probably aware" Hall was having sex on BBC premises, but had not known children were involved. She added: "If he was it seems to me he should have shared his concerns with Mr Colley. He did not do so and this may well have been the fifth missed opportunity." A US federal judge has ruled that State Department officials and aides to Hillary Clinton should be questioned under oath about whether the former secretary of state's use of a private email system was an effort to skirt open records laws. The ruling by Emmet Sullivan is likely to add to the uncertainty hovering over Mrs Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for the November US presidential election, about the legal consequences of her decision to exclusively use a private email server in her New York home for her government work. The State Department and Judicial Watch, the conservative watchdog group that sought the depositions as it sues for records about the employment of a senior Clinton aide, must agree on a plan for the depositions by April, Mr Sullivan said in his order on Tuesday, according to court documents. Mr Sullivan, a judge in federal court in Washington DC, said there was at least "a reasonable suspicion" that open records laws were undermined, the 'Washington Post' reported. Mr Sullivan, who was appointed by Mrs Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, said he may order the department to subpoena Mrs Clinton to return all records connected to her private email server, the newspaper reported. She returned about 30,000 emails to the State Department in 2014, but said she deleted thousands of others her staff deemed not to be work-related. Judicial Watch told the court it wanted to get sworn testimony from several senior State Department officials and Clinton associates who set up or knew about the system or dealt with requests from the public for copies of Mrs Clinton's records, according to court documents. That could include Patrick Kennedy, the department's under secretary for management, and Cheryl Mills, Clinton's former chief of staff at the department, among others, the group said. In a statement to the media, the group said it may later seek to have Clinton testify under oath. The State Department said it was reviewing the order but could not comment further on ongoing litigation. The department may appeal the ruling. Mrs Clinton, who apologised last year for the set-up, believes at least some of the inquiries into her emails were politically motivated. "This is one of several lawsuits filed by the same right-wing group, which will stop at nothing in pursuing the Clintons, just as they have done since the 1990s," said a spokesman for Mrs Clinton. Clinton's rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, has declined to criticise Clinton's email arrangement while campaigning. Republican opponents have not held back, with several urging that Clinton be prosecuted for mishandling government secrets. What do you call a politician who never commissions opinion polls? Who never uses focus groups to test ideas or language because they are part of the whole "politics as usual" which has alienated voters? A politician who chooses to communicate directly with the electorate, refusing to buy adverts. Naive? Misguided? Admirable? Quixotic? None of these. You'd call that politician Donald Trump. Having won three straight primary victories, Trump not only has the momentum but also has the look of the favourite. He is the one to beat. But how? That is the only question the Republican leadership can think of at the moment. Everything else is subordinate until that is resolved. What can they do? The first step is to stop being spooked. Panic is no good. What is needed is a proper analysis of why Trump triumphs - from that will flow a strategy to combat and stop him. It may have been a shock to many political observers to see Trump speed ahead. But like many overnight successes, this has been a long time in the making - it was last summer when Trump overtook Jeb Bush and he hasn't looked back since. Trump should have been treated seriously a long while ago. The problem for the Republican establishment is that Trump is not the cause of a crisis within Republicanism; he is the product of one. In 2008, when Obama ran for the presidency, the Republicans could look back over the previous 40 years and see something approaching hegemony - seven wins interrupted by only three Democrat victories. From the vantage point of 2016, it looks very different. Four of the last six presidential elections were won by the Democrats and one of those Republican wins was awarded by the Supreme Court. A seemingly unchallengeable supremacy has disappeared. Worse, the consequence has been someone Republican politicians see as a living affront to their politics - Obama. The response, fuelled by the rise of the Tea Party, the strength of the conservative movement, and the power of donors like the Koch brothers, has been a Republican move to the right. Doubling down is a traditional political move. It can clearly be depicted as playing to your strengths and offering a real choice. It has shifted the Republican debate to the right and against that backdrop has led to the most substantial charge against Trump being that he is a RINO - a Republican in Name Only. That is true when you look at almost all his policies (immigration and border control excepted). In domestic policy, Trump is an unalloyed fan of government itself. He believes it can get things done. The only challenge is to put the right people in charge - successful business people and the "smartest" people. This is no conservative distrust of small government. Socially, Trump has been pro-choice and is now anti-choice. But he also robustly defended New York against Ted Cruz's attack on its "values". On economic policy, Trump favours US industry protected by tariff barriers rather than free trade. None of these fit the post-Tea Party settings of the Republican Party, but the voters in the primaries don't care. They are angry about change - actually about globalisation and its impacts - and Trump is the one that channels that anger. His neo-protectionist, interventionist instincts aren't being ignored; they are part of his attraction. This is key to any attempt by the Republican establishment to wrench the nomination away from him. What is needed is a two-step plan. First, just one candidate is needed. It should be Rubio, because he embodies best the sense that Republicans can speak about the future. And his own story embodies the sense of optimism and aspiration that the public are responding to in Trump. Except that Rubio is the real thing, a child of refugees who risked their lives to achieve the American dream. Second, there needs to be a brutal differentiation from Trump. Nikki Hayley, Governor of South Carolina and a Rubio backer, showed the way when she responded to Obama's State of the Union speech. Hayley denounced those, like Trump, who would only express anger and rage. Rubio needs go further. He has to pick a fight with Trump in his most extreme propositions - the wall and the ban on Muslims visiting the US - and call them out. He needs to say to registered Republicans - "I get you, but this guy has gone too far." It's the political equivalent of Muhammad Ali's rope-a-dope strategy. Rubio has to come out swinging. It's his only chance. ( Daily Telegraph London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Prime Minister David Cameron launches the Conservatives IN campaign to stay in the EU Britain has registered David Cameron's reform deal to try to keep the UK in the European Union at the United Nations . The world body's British ambassador Matthew Rycroft said that under the UN Charter, member states had to register treaty-level decisions. "That puts beyond doubt that the deal that the Prime Minister agreed is legally binding and irreversible in international law," he said. The agreement was key to Britain's announcement of a referendum on June 23 on whether it should remain in the EU or leave the 28-nation bloc. Mr Cameron said the deal with the EU would give Britain more control over its future, lessen welfare payments to migrants, and protect the country from being absorbed into a feared European "superstate". The referendum is expected to be hard-fought, especially because Mr Cameron's Conservative Party is divided and the "out" campaign has the support of popular London mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative and possible future prime minister. EU president Donald Tusk, who oversaw the deal Mr Cameron brokered with the 27 other EU leaders, insisted that an "out" vote in the British referendum would "change Europe forever. And it will be a change for the worse". Mr Rycroft said there was an issue about when the agreement with the EU came into effect, because part of it applies only if Britain votes to remain in the EU. "But officially it has entered into force now, and it has effect on June 23 if indeed the UK votes to remain in the EU," he said. BBC staff failed to report disgraced presenter Stuart Hall indulging in "inappropriate sexual conduct" partly because he was seen as an "untouchable" celebrity, a report found. Staff at BBC Manchester knew the former It's A Knockout host was taking women into his dressing room for sex, although not that some of them were under age, a report by former High Court judge Dame Linda Dobbs found. The report said he had 21 female victims at the BBC, with the youngest aged 10, between 1967 and 1991, but no complaints were passed on to senior management. Hall, now 86, was released in December after serving half of a five-year jail term for historical indecent assaults against girls aged between nine and 17. In an interview in Thursday's Sun, he hit out at his accusers, saying: "To go from being a national treasure to the bottom of the pond has been very difficult. "The vindictive, malicious people who have impugned me will think again. I'm hoping for fairness from everybody." The report said people who were interviewed gave various reasons for a failure to report him, including it being nothing to do with them, fears they were too junior to interfere or might lose their job, or that it was up to management to take action. Summarising Dame Linda's report, Dame Janet Smith said: "There were also concerns that management would not deal with it because of Hall's importance to the success of his shows and his celebrity status; he therefore became 'untouchable'." The reports said Hall's actions had to be seen in the context of the behaviour standards of the time, but added: "It is difficult not to conclude that, in view of the unusual opportunities for the abuse of young girls that some of the BBC's work generated, it should have put in place measures designed to prevent such abuse. "Whether such measures would have prevented some or all of the especially inappropriate conduct committed by Hall in connection with his work for the BBC is difficult to say. It is likely at the very least that they would have prevented those incidents with which the Hall investigation is primarily concerned, namely those which took place on the BBC's premises in Manchester." The report said young female visitors to BBC Manchester were jokingly referred to as "Hall's nieces" who had come for "elocution lessons". It also referred to Hall's "laddish sexuality, characterised by risque banter and often unwanted tactility". The report criticised Ray Colley - regional television manager at BBC Manchester in the 1970s, and one of freelancer Hall's bosses - saying that while there was no evidence he had known about Hall's activities, he should have done. Mr Colley, the report said, gave Hall a dressing down about his conduct after the former arrived at BBC Manchester in 1970, suggesting rumours about Hall's sexual activity were circulating even then. However he failed to take any subsequent "positive steps" to check if Hall was behaving. The report said: "Mr Colley underestimated Hall. Given that Mr Colley was aware that Hall was a womaniser, and he was aware of the real possibility that Hall had been having sex on the premises previously, I would have expected any prudent manager, even in the culture of those days, to follow up to ensure that Hall was not conducting himself inappropriately on the premises." In June 2013, Hall was jailed for 15 months after he admitted indecently assaulting 13 girls, before the sentence was doubled by the Court of the Appeal, which ruled it was "inadequate". Last May he received an additional 30 months in jail - to run consecutively - for two indecent assaults on another girl. Police use pepper spray against supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida after New Years Eve, in Cologne. Photo: Reuters Most of those responsible for the Cologne sex attacks may never be brought to justice, the city's police chief has said. Jurgen Mathies told the BBC he "could not exclude" the possibility that most of the perpetrators will never be caught. The admission came as an asylum seeker became the first person to be convicted in connection with the events of New Year's Eve. But the Moroccan man, who has not been named under German privacy laws, was charged with theft rather than sexual assault. "The CCTV footage is not good enough to clearly identify sexual assaults. We can see some thefts but that's all," Mr Mathies, who took over as police chief in the wake of the attacks, said. "We are relying on witness accounts and victims identifying their attackers." Of the 14 suspects arrested so far, only one has been charged with sexual assault. The rest are being held on suspicion of theft. That is despite the police identifying 593 separate cases of sexual assault carried out in the area around the city's main train station on New Year's Eve. In the first case to come to court, a 23-year-old Moroccan asylum seeker admitted stealing a woman's mobile phone amid the chaos of the sex attacks. He was given a six-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay a fine of 100. Angela Merkel has been under pressure over her "open-door" refugee policy since it emerged many of the suspects in the sex attacks are asylum seekers. Police have so far identified a total of 73 suspects in connection with the events of the night - most of whom remain at large. ( Daily Telegraph, London) DJ Tony Blackburn, who says he has been sacked by the BBC over his evidence to a sex abuse review Tony Blackburn says he has been sacked by the BBC over his evidence to a sex abuse review. The veteran DJ has pledged to take legal action against the corporation, which he claims is making him a "scapegoat" for the "cover-up" of abuse of an under-age girl. His shock departure comes ahead of the publication on Thursday of a report into the BBC's culture and practices during the years Jimmy Savile and fellow shamed presenter Stuart Hall worked at the corporation by former Court of Appeal judge Dame Janet Smith. Blackburn, 73, claims that "all relationships" he had with the BBC were "terminated with immediate effect" this week because his evidence to the review over an investigation in 1971 contradicts the BBC's version of events in relation to an allegation of assault by the mother of a 15-year-old who later committed suicide. He says he was never interviewed over the incident but claims the BBC says he was interviewed twice. In a statement he said: "Sadly what is happening to me now seems to be entirely in keeping with the past BBC culture of whitewash and cover-up. "Naturally, I am now left with no choice but to take legal action against the BBC. They have taken away a career I love and I will not allow them to destroy my reputation." Listings for Blackburn's two upcoming BBC Radio London shows on the BBC website say that fellow DJs Jaki Graham and Lemar will be sitting in for him. Information for his scheduled Radio 2 vintage chart Pick Of The Pops still states he will be presenting. The BBC declined to comment. One of Jimmy Savile's victims was a 12-year-old girl from Scotland who persuaded her aunt to take her to see Top of the Pops. The girl had travelled to London to visit the relative, who agreed to accompany her to the studios in December 1973. She and a 10-year-old boy ended up being taken to a dressing room to meet Savile, who still had on the Womble costume he had worn to present the show. The woman, who now lives abroad, told the review that after chatting for around 15 minutes Savile raped the boy before sexually assaulting her. Afterwards the presenter put an arm round each of them and told them that what had happened was a "secret". The victim said she remembers walking to the Tube station and telling her aunt they had seen Slade and had had pop and biscuits with Savile. The report said: "She did not tell anyone what had happened. Read More "She thought it was her fault and that she might go to hell for what she had done." Savile was a regular visitor to Scotland and owned a cottage in Glencoe which was sold after his death. The woman came forward after seeing a newspaper advertisement placed by a firm of solicitors, inviting victims of Savile to make contact. The man who had been in Savile's dressing room with her had instructed the same firm and one testimony supported the other, with Dame Janet Smith saying "I accept their accounts as true". The review heard evidence that Savile would on occasion bring an entourage of middle-aged men with him to the studios. Describing the man who escorted the two children to his room, the report said: "If the man with the earring was one of the entourage, it would explain first why a boy of 10 and a girl of 12 were let into the studio. "Second, if the man with the earring was keeping guard outside the dressing room, the risk which Savile took by behaving as he did with these two children would be much reduced." A man has been arrested after a woman was taken hostage with a knife at a restaurant in London's Leicester Square. Scotland Yard said the woman had been held against her will by the man in a branch of Bella Italia and two other people were inside. Situation between Leicester Square and Charing Cross Road. Lots of police and people trapped in restaurants. pic.twitter.com/vpsEqc4LKf James Robinson (@jamesrobinson) February 24, 2016 Officers with riot shields arrived at the scene and surrounded the building after the incident was reported at 8.50pm. Parts of the busy tourist area were cordoned off and nearby diners were ordered to stay indoors. The Metropolitan Police said the man was "intimating" he had a knife and had been "holding a woman against her will". The force said the incident was "not terror-related". The man was detained shortly before 10.45pm and there were no reported injuries. He was seen being led from the restaurant by officers into a waiting police van, which was driven away. Officers at the scene said the man had been found with a knife in his pocket and he had been arrested. Three brothers and their uncle are among six people convicted of the sexual exploitation of teenage girls in Rotherham, England. Arshid, Basharat and Bannaras Hussain - known as Mad Ash, Bash and Bono - formed a violent, gun-toting, drug-dealing family who appeared to operate with impunity in the South Yorkshire town, a court heard. Women described how they were raped, beaten and passed between abusers and used as prostitutes by a gang led by the three men, who "owned" Rotherham. Arshid (40) and Basharat (39) were found guilty of multiple rapes and indecent assaults following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court. Bannaras (36) had admitted 10 charges including rape, indecent assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm at the start of the trial. Their uncle, Qurban Ali (53), was convicted of conspiracy to rape. Karen MacGregor (58) and Shelley Davies (40) were found guilty of conspiracy to procure prostitutes and false imprisonment. Brothers Majid Bostan (37) and Sajid Bostan (38) were cleared of all charges. Some of the 15 women who were abused by the gang watched the verdicts from the public gallery overlooking the packed court, some holding hands with each other. Arshid Hussain, who was portrayed as the gang's ringleader and claims to be paraplegic, appeared from his bed at home via video link and looked asleep. Judge Sarah White told the jury of six men and six women that Arshid's wife had called an ambulance during the verdicts and he had been taken to hospital, despite his bail being revoked. Michelle Colborne QC, prosecuting, said this appeared to be a deliberate attempt to frustrate the judicial process. Ms Colborne said: "Mr Hussain is en route to Scunthorpe Hospital. I understand he is unwell. He's not speaking to the police with him. "I have instructed the police to ask him directly whether he's willing to attend court or whether he determined to disobey your honour's order." The six convicted people will be sentenced tomorrow. The abused women described how they were were targeted in their young teens and subjected to brutal treatment as they were passed around men who raped and beat them. Some of the victims said they were trafficked, locked up, physically assaulted and threatened with death. Lawyers for Arshid, who the court heard had children with seven women all over England, said he had been bed-ridden for the last two years following a shooting in 2005. One of his victims told the jury she was glad he got shot, calling it "karma". Israel's prime minister has criticised David Cameron after comments he made in the Commons over Israel's occupation of east Jerusalem. Responding to a question from an MP, Mr Cameron said that the "effective encirclement of east Jerusalem" by Israeli settlements was "shocking". The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state. On Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu said Mr Cameron "forgot a few basic facts about Jerusalem". He said that "only Israeli sovereignty" can protect Jerusalem's holy places from ruin by "the Islamic State and Hamas". He said that Israeli sovereignty over the city "protects the rule of law for Arab residents". Student look through the entrance at the remains of the Science Centre at the North-West University in Mahikeng South Africa (AP) Protesting students in South Africa burned down several buildings at a university, forcing administrators to close the campus and telling students to leave, a spokesman has said. An administration block that included a science centre was burned down at the North-West University's campus in the city of Mahikeng on Wednesday night, said university spokesman Koos Degenaar. Student protesters also burned down the residence of a dormitory supervisor. The violence comes as student protests have erupted on college campuses across South Africa, often aimed at pressing for lower tuition and more student housing. On Thursday the university was quiet as students still in dorms were being evacuated, Mr Degenaar said. The university in South Africa's North West province is shut indefinitely. The violence there started after a Students Representatives Council meeting was disrupted by protesters, Mr Degenaar said. A suspended student leader was addressing his supporters when private security tried to disperse the crowd using rubber bullets and tear gas, the university said in a statement. Students then pelted security guards with stones and burned a vehicle that belonged to the private security company, the statement said. In chaotic scenes posted on social media, large police vehicles rolled on to the campus to restore order. Students retaliated by setting fire to campus property. The university had previously obtained a court interdict barring disruptions on campus, in the wake of ongoing student protests throughout the country, Mr Degenaar said. Donald Trump's rivals will get one more chance to challenge the Republican front-runner's grasp on his party's US presidential nomination in a head-to-head debate before next week's key Super Tuesday contests. Billionaire businessman Mr Trump's momentum is surging and the situation looks to be more dire for the other Republican candidates than they would like voters to believe. A candidate must have 1,237 state delegates to win the Republican nomination at the National Convention this summer. So far, Mr Trump has 82, Senator Ted Cruz 17 and Senator Marco Rubio 16. Mr Rubio and Mr Cruz have so far shown little willingness to take on the former The Apprentice TV star when the national spotlight shines brightest. But that could change in Houston, Texas, on Thursday night local time. "The vast and overwhelming majority of Republicans do not want Donald Trump to be our nominee," Mr Rubio told NBC, suggesting that Mr Trump was winning only because the other candidates were splitting up the majority of the electorate. For his part, the New York tycoon predicted the relative civility between Mr Rubio and himself was about to disappear. The ninth Republican debate of the presidential campaign will take place just a few days before 11 states hold the Super Tuesday primary elections that will either cement Mr Trump's dominance or let his rivals slow his march to his party's presidential nomination. Mr Trump has proved largely immune to traditional political attacks and the task is made more complicated by the shift from single-state campaigns to a new phase of the race, where the candidates must compete across several states at the same time. Next Tuesday features voting in a mix of states that include Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, Massachusetts and Virginia, with more to come in the weeks after. "Now these campaigns are in the position of having to use debates to try and shape or change voter perceptions across more than a dozen states in the space of 18 or 19 days," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden. "That's a daunting task." Mr Trump won Nevada's presidential caucuses with more than 45% of the vote, scoring his third consecutive primary victory in dominant fashion. Mr Rubio edged out Mr Cruz for runner-up for the second consecutive race, with Ohio governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson far off the pace. As they seek to become the Trump alternative, Mr Cruz and Mr Rubio have significant liabilities of their own. Mr Cruz comes into the debate at the weakest point of his presidential campaign after a staff shake-up and three consecutive third-place finishes. On Monday The Texas senator ousted a senior aide who promoted an inaccurate news report that Mr Rubio had condemned the Bible during a chance encounter with Mr Cruz's father. The aide's dismissal helps legitimise Mr Trump's and Mr Rubio's claims that Mr Cruz has been running an unethical campaign. Even while vulnerable, Mr Cruz signalled an aggressive stance heading into the debate, lashing out at Mr Trump and Mr Rubio as "Washington deal-makers" in Houston on Wednesday. Mr Rubio, Mr Cruz said, had worked with Democrats to craft an immigration overhaul, while Mr Trump had given money to Democrats and backed their priorities at times in recent years. "I don't think the people of Texas and I don't think the people of this country want another Washington deal-maker to go and surrender more to the Democrats, given in to the failed liberal agenda," Mr Cruz said. Mr Rubio, meanwhile, is just one debate removed from a prime-time meltdown. The Florida senator repeated himself several times in a New Hampshire debate less than three weeks ago, triggering what he now calls "the New Hampshire disappointment". He avoided a similar mistake in the subsequent debate, but critics in both parties will be laser-focused on anything that suggests the 44-year-old legislator is not sufficiently prepared to move into the White House. Emboldened by the recent departure of former Florida governor Jeb Bush from the race, Mr Rubio has fresh momentum after two consecutive second-place finishes. His team is convinced they must dispatch Mr Cruz before turning their full attention to taking down Mr Trump. Mr Rubio said on Wednesday he would respond to Mr Trump and Mr Cruz if attacked, but added: "I didn't run for office to tear up other Republicans." On the Democratic side, former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is looking for a commanding victory over rival Bernie Sanders in Saturday's South Carolina primary to give her a boost heading into Super Tuesday. Polls show her with a huge advantage among African-Americans and that bodes well for her prospects in the southern states that vote next week. Meanwhile Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has endorsed Mrs Clinton for the presidential nomination. PHOTOS BY SEFTON IPOCK/INDEPENDENT MAIL With a long line of voters waiting in the background, poll worker Pamela McConnell assists a voter at Palmetto Middle School in Palmetto. Problems with voting machines and a lack of poll workers led to long lines for voters in Anderson County in the South Carolina presidential primary. SHARE By Kirk Brown of the Independent Mail A Clemson University poll released Thursday shows Hillary Clinton with an overwhelming lead over Bernie Sanders in South Carolina's Democratic presidential primary. Also Thursday, Anderson County Elections Director Katy Smith said she is taking steps to try to make sure voters won't face the long waits on Saturday that marred last weekend's Republican primary. Clemson's Palmetto Poll found that 64 percent of respondents said they will vote for Clinton, compared to 14 percent for Sanders. Twenty-two percent said they were undecided. Other polls have indicated that Clinton has a comfortable though considerably smaller lead over Sanders, who is a U.S. senator from Vermont. The telephone poll was conducted from Saturday to Thursday. It involved 650 voters who said they intend to vote in the Democratic primary and have voted in two of the last three statewide primaries. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. "After a razor-thin victory by Clinton in the Iowa caucuses, a blowout by Sanders in the New Hampshire primary and a small victory margin by Clinton in the Nevada caucuses, Clinton is perched on the cusp of her own significant primary victory in the Palmetto State," said Bruce Ransom, a Clemson political science professor who oversaw the poll with fellow professor David Woodard. Woodard said the poll found that many black voters support Clinton. In a conference call with reporters on Thursday, South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison said at least half of the ballots in the primary likely will be cast by black voters. Unlike their Republican counterparts, Clinton and Sanders have not campaigned in Anderson, Oconee or Pickens counties. GOP candidates made more than 20 stops in the three counties, which are considered to be the most conservative area in South Carolina. Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, who is the former mayor of Charlotte, came to Anderson on Clinton's behalf and Chelsea Clinton campaigned for her mother at Clemson University. Anderson County Democratic Party Chairman Mike Kay said he is not surprised that Clinton and Sanders are spending their time campaigning in other parts of the state where there are more Democratic voters. Sanders and Clinton each have offices in Anderson. Kay said volunteers for both campaigns are working hard to reach supporters. "I think we are going to have a pretty good turnout," Kay said. He also expects a close race between Clinton and Sanders in Anderson County. Statewide, Harrison is predicting that between 350,000 and 400,000 voters will go to the polls Saturday. His estimate falls between the 292,000 votes cast in the 2004 South Carolina Democratic primary and the record-breaking turnout of 532,000 voters in the 2008 primary that Barack Obama won on his path to the White House. A total of 20,561 voters in Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties took part in the 2004 Democratic primary, compared to 32,990 voters in 2008. Last Saturday, 73,552 ballots were cast in the three Upstate counties during the GOP primary, which was won by Donald Trump. Voters waited in long lines at numerous polling places in Anderson County during the Republican primary. Smith is hoping to avoid a recurrence of those problems on Saturday. Smith said more laptop computers will be available than were initially in use last week to verify voters' identities and addresses. Last Saturday, some busy precincts were each equipped with only one laptop. Extra ones were sent out later, but well after lines had formed. Smith also said supervisory clerks are still trying to recruit more poll workers in selected precincts. Last weekend, some of the busiest precincts were each staffed with only a couple of poll workers. At a meeting Thursday, members of the Anderson County Voter Registration and Elections Board discussed the difficulty of recruiting poll workers. "It's hard to get younger people and even young retirees to be poll workers," said board member Peggy Taylor. "By the time you work all day for $60, it's a volunteer job." In South Carolina, poll workers are generally paid $60 to attend a training session and then another $60 for working the day ballots are cast, meaning they can earn $120 per primary or election. Oconee County supplements poll workers' pay by an extra $25. "People with families and young kids don't want to work on a Saturday primary, either," said Anderson County board member Craig Isom. "That's their family time." Follow Kirk Brown and Nikie Mayo on Twitter @KirkBrown_AIM and @NikieMayo Zachary Covington SHARE By Independent Mail coverage partner WSPA News Channel 7 The assault case against former Walhalla police officer Zachary Covington has been reopened by Westminster Magistrate Will Derrick. Covington's case was dismissed last week after no representative of the solicitor's office showed up to a hearing. State investigators say Covington was on duty when he beat a man, Matthew Lowell, who was in handcuffs. Lowell said he was never resisting arrest the night he was taken in by Walhalla police. Instead, he said, the arresting officers got rough, even flicking his unlit cigarette out of his mouth. "The other officer pulled me down. (He) slammed me down (and) he hit me like 6 times," Lowell said. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said Covington hit Lowell in the head three times, and it was all caught on dash cam. Lowell said SLED investigators visited him in jail. "They said they watched the tapes, and 15 minutes later they told me he (Covington) was being arrested," Lowell said. The newest court hearing date for Covington has not been set yet. Covington's father is Seneca Police Chief John Covington and his brother is Adam Covington, a former police officer who worked at four departments in four years before resigning from the Seneca force and pleading guilty to stealing confiscated drugs. According to SLED files, Adam Covington bought drugs from Matthew Lowell. In an October interview with the Independent Mail following the altercation with Zachary Covington, Lowell said the altercation had nothing to do with Adam Covington or drugs. SC Supreme Court hears challenge to 6-week abortion law The SC law, temporarily blocked until the court considers its fate, is being challenged on the grounds that it violates privacy rights in constitution. SHARE By Liz Carey South Carolina Superintendent of Education Jim Rex says he will ask state legislators to remove some unfunded mandates to help schools survive the budget crisis. Speaking before reporters during a mid-year workshop in Columbia on Thursday, Rex projected cuts of between 10 and 15 percent, beyond the already deep cuts schools have in place now. "One of our challenges this year, at the state level, is to survive any additional cuts," he said. "I plan to go to Legislature ? and ask them to consider suspending or removing some mandates." Rex gave testing as an example. "We do more testing than is required by No Child Left Behind," he said. "Without some of those extra tests, it would save us some considerable money." Rep. Mike Gambrell, R-Honea Path, agreed. He said he has been asking school districts to give him lists of unfunded mandates for two years so the Legislature's budget committees could look at eliminating them. "I think this year, we have to look at everything and make some hard decisions," Gambrell said. "There are some things that were necessary at one time, but that aren't needed now. This is not the year to be spending money on things we don't need." Gambrell said the state requires schools to teach driver's education, but does not fund it for the local schools. And he pointed to programs like one that pushed teachers to become media specialists by offering to pay off their student loans. Only one school district, Abbeville County, has provided him with a list, he said. Rex said the Legislature should also look at whether the Education Oversight Commission was still a necessary expense. "The EOC was a great idea, and I use the past tense there," he said. "I'm not sure it is still needed. The way accountability was looked at a decade ago is very different from now." Rex said accountability for the EOC could be handled by other departments of the state government and estimated it could save the state more than $1 million. On Thursday, the House passed a school fiscal flexibility act to help schools with their budgets. Rex said the measure allows districts to shift funds to deal with more budget cuts. "Representatives Dan Cooper and Phillip Owens are due special thanks for expediting this legislation that helps our schools in the struggle to maintain services to students despite dwindling resources," Rex said. "I hope the Senate will also put flexibility on the fast track." Rep. Brian White, R-Anderson, said that to balance the budget, everything would be put on the table. "I just don't think we can hold education harmless anymore," White said. "Education constitutes 52 percent of our budget. We will have to look at everything." By Charlie Bauder, WNEG AM- Special to Independent Mail TOCCOA, Ga. A South Carolina man faces charges from both the Stephens County Sheriff's Office and Toccoa police after a car theft and chase Monday night. Authorities said that 24-year-old Barry Joel Mullinax, 24, of Pickens County, South Carolina, faces multiple charges. Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley said Mullinax met Monday night with people at the Toccoa Walmart about a black 2006 Ford Mustang the victims had put on craigslist.com to sell. Mullinax went with the victims in the vehicle for a test drive and then he pulled a semi-automatic pistol on the driver and tried to get the driver to turn left off Ga. 17, even though there was nowhere to turn left, Shirley said. The driver tried to pass his own gun to the other victim in the back seat but could not, and when the victim in the back seat tried to lean forward, Mullinax aimed the pistol at the person in the back seat and threatened to "blow his brains out." The driver pulled into a business on Ga. 17 and Mullinax told the victims to hand over their personal belongings, which included wallets and an undisclosed amount of cash, Shirley said. Mullinax then told the victims to get out of the vehicle and drove off. At that point, about 8 p.m., authorities received a 911 call and an alert was put out for the vehicle. "Sgt. Matt Mealor spotted the vehicle on Big A Road and saw it turn on Doyle Street," Toccoa police Chief Tim Jarrell said. "Once Mealor turned on Doyle Street, they were not able to locate the vehicle. Other officers converged on the area, and they then saw the vehicle on Mitchell Street turn on Doyle Street." The chase then picked back up, Jarrell said. "The Mustang attempted to pass a patrol car and in doing so, lost control of the vehicle, striking one of the patrol cars in the driver's side," he said. The Mustang went through a yard on Doyle Street, clipped a telephone pole, went across another driveway, struck two mailboxes, and then struck a large tree with the front passenger corner of the vehicle. That caused the vehicle to go airborne and flip over onto its top, coming to rest in the middle of Doyle Street near Regions Bank, Jarrell said. Mullinax was caught while attempting to flee on foot following the crash. No injuries were reported, but a patrol car received some minor damage, the chief said. The sheriff said Mullinax faces charges from his office of two counts of armed robbery, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and possession of a firearm by a felon. Police have also charged Mullinax with possession of methamphetamine, fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, obstructing a police officer, reckless driving, criminal trespass by motor vehicle and driving while license suspended or revoked, Jarrell said. Shirley said Mullinax remained in custody Wednesday at the Stephens County Jail. Investigators have learned since the incident that another vehicle and person may have been involved and are currently following leads at this time, Shirley said. As the budget day nears, most people are discussing about its impact on their personal as well as countrys finances. Mostly, people are divided between the 2 camps. One is pro-growth and wants the government to give up the idea of fiscal prudence and spend more to revive sagging growth. Other camp is of view that not sticking to lower deficit targets might not translate to higher growth.But the government seems to be in favor of taking a balanced approach. This will mean that it will be presenting a budget that is growth-oriented and maintains the growth momentum without spending more than what is necessary. This will address the concerns of corporates about government not spending enough in view of falling private investments. It is also expected that most big-ticket announcements will be to facilitate job creations.The government might not be spending a lot given that it had already set a target of keeping the deficit below 3.5% in next fiscal. It might still go for 3.7%-3.8% deficit and increase spendings. But anything more would threaten the financial stability of the economy. So expectations of a big-bang investment led reforms will not be realized in this budget.RBI has also made it clear that it is in support of government not breaching the deficit target of 3.5%. But there are many who believe that the emphasis should be on growth and not fiscal consolidation. One of the key drivers of the budget will be governments ability to raise money from various sources. In a slowing global environment, India is being seen a symbol of growth. The budget should therefore focus on retaining Indias position as a place of economic stability and also, of one which is working hard towards ensuring a sustained future growth. Infosys, a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, today announced that its Infosys Information Platform (IIP) is now available on Amazon Web Services Marketplace (AWS Marketplace). This will enable businesses to gain robust data insights quickly, while tapping into the flexibility and the lower cost of a cloud-based platform. Enterprises can now test IIP on AWS free of cost for a one-day trial (AWS usage fees apply), giving them the opportunity to experience in real-time how the solution can operationalize their data. For example, Hersheys LLC, North Americas largest chocolate manufacturer, recently used IIP on AWS to analyze retail store data. The company wanted to gain valuable, revenue-generating insight faster than a traditional analytics implementation could deliver Phil Lerro, Senior Director, Enterprise Information Service, Infrastructure and Workplace Solutions, Hersheys LLC "We needed to establish our Hadoop landscape and extend our analytics and big data capabilities quickly. Partnering with Infosys, we had the landscape up and the data lake seeded for our analysts in less than a week. Using the Infosys Information Platform on AWS accelerated our deployment by weeks, if not months." Dave McCann, Vice President, AWS Marketplace, Amazon Web Services, Inc., "At AWS Marketplace, we are always looking to offer innovative solutions that help our customers harness the power of the AWS Cloud. By making IIP available in AWS Marketplace, Infosys is reducing the cost and complexity of gaining access to powerful, enterprise-class open-source technologies that enable data-intensive enterprises to innovate efficiently for their needs today and in the future. This solution can be deployed in minutes and tested, then purchased." Abdul Razack, Senior Vice President and Head of Platforms, Infosys, "IIP on AWS is helping our clients realize the real promise of big data analytics faster. Over 200 clients have already experienced the power of IIP on AWS and seen that speed-to-insight does not have to come at the cost of expensive, inflexible proprietary approaches." The scrip opened at Rs. 1765.05 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 1798 and Rs. 1765.05 respectively. So far 161746(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 79395.18 crore. The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 2127 on 06-Oct-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 1589.4 on 14-May-2015. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 1820 and Rs. 1733 respectively. The promoters holding in the company stood at 46.53 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 43.56 % and 9.92 % respectively. The stock is currently trading below its 200 DMA. Lupin stock was up by 2% at Rs. 1792. Report says that the company is planning to make significant investments in Japan. : State Bank of India's Rs. 11,700 crore worth loans have been locked up as non-performing assets as nearly 1,160 defaulters have willfully decided not to repay, acording to reports.: Tata Motors reclaimed the number one position in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment during the December-January period, reports a business daily.Tata Steel is likely to be disqualified in the e-auction conducted by the Odisha government for allotment of iron ore mining lease under the new MMDR Act, as the company is found to be ineligible under one criteria relating to lease area held previously in the state, reports a business daily.: An arbitration tribunal in Singapore has ruled in favour of the GMR group in the legal dispute with the Maldives government on an airport project, reports a business daily.TVS Motor is aiming 20% market share in India's two-wheeler market over the next three years, according to reports.: Bharti Telecom Ltd is planning to raise its stake in Bharti Airtel to over 50 per cent through open market purchases, according to reports.: Ramco Systems, the global Aviation software provider on Cloud, Mobile & Tablets, partners with Aeroxchange, industrys leading electronic business network supporting all MRO business processes for buyers and sellers within the aviation industry.The company reported Q4 Profit after Tax was up by 29.7% to Rs.615.2 crores as against Rs.474.5 crores during the same period in the previous year.: Spicejet, Jet Airways and Indigo Airlines announced pre-summer sale.SpiceJet will kick start its Pre-Summer Sale with red hot fares across its domestic network.Jet Airways announced special offers on Economy and Premiere fares for guests travelling on the airlines international network. IndiGo also joined the race of discounting tickets.Book till 25 February for travel between 1 March to 13 April 2016 and enjoy unbelievable low fares starting Rs.737, IndiGo reportedly said.: The company has bagged Rs. 308 crore order for construction of luxury villas in Dubai, the UAE.: Infosys has extended the tenure of its chief Vishal Sikka by nearly two years, till March 2021, saying his initiatives have helped the company move towards reclaiming its industry leadership position.: The Reserve Bank of India has today notified that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)/Registered Foreign Portfolios Investors (RFPIs)/Qualified Foreign Investors (QFls)/Non Residential Indians (NRIs)/Person of Indian Origin (PIO) can now invest up to 49 per cent of the paid up capital of Ponni Sugars Erode Limited under the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS).: Indian mining giant Adani Groups 16.5 billion dollar controversy-hit coal mine project in Australia has inched closer to getting its mining lease after it struck a compensation deal with a local government body.: The company to invest some US$500mn in their San Cristobal joint venture, the South American company's president said.The company is looking to raise up to Rs10bn through issuance of non-convertible debentures on private placement basis.: Eicher Motors Royal Enfield announced launch of its first retail operations in Thailand. Inspirational tales of down-on-their-luck people turning their lives around and attaining success are easy to find in movies and on TV, but not so much in everyday life. It can be hard to find a relatable role model in those idealized, often entirely fictional, plotlines. But locally, you can look to Hazel Owens. The Indianapolis resident currently spends her workdays at a nonprofit that empowers young girls, where she serves as volunteer partnership coordinator. Beyond her day job, Owens runs a blog called Cocos Couch, which wears the tagline embracing and empowering perfectly imperfect women. The success of her blog has led to opportunities to speak at churches, womens conferences, workshops for teens and more. Owens admits that, though she considers herself a success and a role model now, she didnt have a straight path to her current status. You look at your life and you think about the mistakes youve made and the challenges youve faced and the things you didnt quite do right, and youre like, Gosh, I dont want anybody to model after that. Owens list of mistakes and challenges isnt short. Getting her bachelors degree, for one, was a 10-year journey that began in 2001 when she enrolled at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) as a pre-dental major. She was eventually kicked out for poor grades. There were other things happening with me that I didnt even realize were happening, from an emotional and spiritual standpoint, she said. But youre young, you dont think about these things. I was just partying and loving college too much. Owens resigned herself to joining the workforce without a college degree, though she eventually tried going back to IUPUI, first studying social work, then education. But balancing her full-time job with classes wasnt working because, she said, IUPUI didnt have many adult learning options at the time. It didnt work out. I ended up leaving school and didnt return. She settled into the corporate world working in student loans as a call center representative. Six years after first enrolling in college in the time it takes many people to earn both a bachelors and a masters degree Owens decided it was time to try college again. By that point, there wasnt any pressure to finish, because her family and friends had just accepted that she was done trying. I wanted to prove to everybody else I could actually do it, she said, and I needed to prove to myself that I could do it. Owens had a supervisor and a friend who were each attending Indiana Wesleyan University and recommended the school to her, but she had her doubts. I was hesitant at first, because its a faith-based school, and although Im a Christian, and Ive been a Christian for most of my life, I wasnt sold on the Christian school, she said. Though she still had her reservations, Owens said she decided to give the school a try, and she enrolled in a business management program. It was a little weird at first, because you pray in class and do devotion and all that, she said. Finding that she could immediately apply her classroom knowledge at her job boosted her motivation, which carried her to earning a bachelors degree in 2011. Next thing I know, I end up getting my masters in human resource management (in 2013), she said. Thinking back over her journey, Owens recalls how difficult it was. In addition to the typical stresses of work and school, she dealt with a bout of depression and had family matters to address. I worked full-time, I went to school full-time, but I also took care of my father, who lived three hours away. There were some challenges with that, she said. Not only was I taking care of a sick parent, I was taking care of a parent who was not in my life I had to overcome some anger and some bitterness and really seek forgiveness in my relationship with him. On top of everything else, Owens dealt with issues related to being a young woman of color in a white, middle-aged male-dominated corporate position. She had to be aware of how she presented herself and how that might reflect on her race. There are some things that, as a woman of color, I have to be very careful of, because Im going to feed into the perception of another angry Black woman, she said. African-Americans, especially African-American women, were very passionate, but our caucasian counterparts see it as anger. One of my biggest struggles was how I speak, and this happens even in my role today. I have to be careful with the tone of my voice, because I dont want people to perceive me as angry when really Im just passionate about what Im talking about. She also said in addition to knowing her job like the back of her hand, she had to work hard to exude confidence. Owens said peoples doubts used to make her doubt herself, but thats no longer the case. Eventually, I just got to a point where I was like, I know what Im doing. I know Im doing fine, Owens said. As women, we strive for perfection in so many areas of our lives, and when we dont get it right, we tend to feel defeated and give up. Owens admits there were times she wanted to quit, and she acknowledges she was afraid, but she said her faith helped guide her. In addition to her spiritual beliefs, Owens said surrounding oneself with positive people can make a world of difference. You have to have the right people around you, the right people who are going to support what youre doing and encourage you and push you along, she said. But whether those individuals are there or not, you have to push yourself. You have to find that fire within you, whatever it is that keeps you going. You have to dig deep. A few days ago, Major General (Retd.) G.D. Bakshi broke down on a news discussion show discussing the criticism of the government's rule for universities to hoist the national flag. He was so moved after the discussion that he wrote a Facebook post about how he felt. Now a man from Manipur, Chinglen Kshetrimayum has written an open letter to the general, expressing how he feels. He has some arguments to make about what it is to be an Indian and the much debated AFSPA. Here's a link to his open letter which has also been published here verbatim. Hello Sir, My name is Chinglen Kshetrimayum, I am from Manipur and I am not a threat to anyone. I studied in Sainik School Imphal for 5 years and I have hoisted the Indian flag. I used to proudly sing our national anthem (even though there is nothing about Manipur or North-east in our national anthem). Once when we were in 9th standard, we were having assembly and it was announced that we can go for Diwali vacation just after the assembly. So we were very happy and at the end when we sang national anthem, we sang very loudly. My father who was waiting outside the school gate, was surprised to hear students singing so loudly and beautifully ask me is there any good news? I said we can go home now itself. So he was also proud and I was also proud. When I was in Manipur, I thought I was an Indian. After I came out from Manipur to other parts of India, I realized I am less Indian. Suddenly my very existence became a threat to them. They are ready to wipe me out. But the thing is, I, happened to be born in a place that lie in the political map of India so, what I thought was I am also an Indian. Thats when I slowly started realizing that there are certain types of people who doesnt like diversity. They think whoever is different from them whether it is their food habits, dressing sense, hair style, or looks is a threat to them. They want only certain types of things to be followed. They think that only their identity should be accepted. Reuters Mr. Gen Bakshi, in Manipur University, there is something much more than your national flag. There is an Assam Rifles camp inside the university campus. So dont worry, you people are winning. There are also two Assam Rifles camps on both the side of my town. So I am pretty much under your control. Well I will tell you something. You all are animals. Animals who live in jungle. Jungle where the only rule is might is right. The only reason you are putting laws like AFSPA in north-east or Kashmir is just because you are strong. Tell me Gen Bakshi, if you say that the situation is not right to remove AFSPA, then when is the right situation going to come. Is it going to come today, or tomorrow or after 100 years? I dont think you have answer for that. So tell me, what according to you is the right situation? Is it killing all the men so that you can rape every women? Reuters You cried in the debate and Smriti Irani felt sad and call you. What about a lady who had been fasting for more than 15 years simply asking for the AFSPA to be remove-an act that gave the armed forces the right to kill anyone on mere suspicion and doesnt even give the people right to go to the court. The reason why people are against Indian flag is because you identify yourselves with the Indian flag and proud to be an Indian whereas when we identify ourselves as Indian we get racist comments. So naturally we feel bad and you also know that we feel bad, so to keep us under your control you put a law called AFSPA. Sir, if you are against British people for passing laws like Armed Forces Special Power Ordinance, then why are you putting that law, that is more dangerous than the one Britisher put against you, against us. And you expect us to keep quiet. Every human being will react against that. And when we react against you, you branded us as terrorist. Thats why I say you all are animals. Nothing less than animals, who used only physical power to keep people under control. If you say that, raising voice against Indian army or national flag is anti-india, then I think the whole Manipur and Kashmir is anti-india. If so then, what the hell is Indian army doing in the land of Manipuris and Kashmiris and what is Manipur and Kashmir doing in the political map of India? Mr. Arnab Goswami, you host a debate and ask a yes or no question to the people and you want only yes. If you want only yes then whats the point of hosting that debate at the first place. Reuters I dont believe in giving long speech or making people listen only to me. So I will wait for your reply and I will give my views again. From A Human Being Indiatimes doesn't subscribe to any views in this open letter. sify If looks could deceive, so can Pradhuman Singh. We know he must've given Al-Qaeda a run for its money when the film Tere Bin Laden came out six years back. And mind you, dreaded terrorist Osama Bin Laden was still alive then! Pradhuman who has a striking resemblance with Osama brought him his first Bollywood break to play his look-alike in Tere Bin Laden, which also starred Pakistani actor Ali Zafar. And because of massive adulation and popularity which his character received making the movie a surprise hit, its makers have now come out with its sequel Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive. The satire comedy franchise this time, features actors Manish Paul and Piyush Mishra in major roles. youtube So what's new about the second installment? Its plot is set against Osama's mysterious death followed by counter reports claiming he is alive. The US now wants to prove to the world that they shot him dead while a terrorist arms dealer wants the world to believe he is alive (all is fiction ofcourse!) An excited Pradhuman who now awaits the audience response on the second film, says he has worked really hard to get the perfect timing in this movie. glamgold " When people watch me, they should say this guy has nailed it. I want that." - Pradhuman Singh A treat for his fans, Pradhuman is reprising the role of a man who under circumstances ends up playing a 'fake' Osama, fooling the world to believe that he is the real one! Excited already? Read more to know who exactly is Pradhuman in real life and how much he connects with the real-life terrorist! 1. 31-year-old Pradhuman Singh Mall hails from Noida in Uttar Pradesh. He completed his education in Punjab. pandolin "I was a corporate man working for Wipro, in its business development team. I don't have a theatre background. When I passed out of school, Abhishek (director of Tere Bin Laden) had graduated from the National School of Drama. We were part of a workshop, and then we made a short film and a documentary. I was 19 at that time and we weren't in touch for 3-4 years, but then he contacted me one day saying he'd want me to try for this role. I was never convinced that I looked like him, but everyone else felt the resemblance was uncanny." - Pradhuman Singh 2. While preparing for his first film Tere Bin Laden, Pradhuman lived with a rooster for one month! He runs a village poultry farm in the film. india-forums 3. After his debut, he did small films like Dilliwali Zalim Girlfriend and Life Ki Toh Lag Gayi. He played a drug addict Bengali rockstar in the latter. He says working in such films helped him pay off his debts. timesofindia 4. An AR Rahman fan, he also loves the music of Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. He follows Dev Anand and Johnny Depp too. facebook 5. Pradhuman has co-written Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive, along with director Abhishek Sharma. indicine 6. While Pradhuman got a plum role in the sequel, Ali Zafar ended up with a cameo in the film. chinkipinki 7. The actor had kept the details of playing onscreen Osama, under wraps. His family was excited when they got to know about it. "No one knew I was part of the movie. I'd kept it under wraps since I didn't want anyone to worry that I was doing something like that. None of my friends or family knew about it, not even my mother. I told them that I'm doing something different. The day the trailer came out on Youtube, I sent the teaser to some of my friends and told my mum about it, and made her watch it. She was very excited while watching the trailer, but after it ended, she asked me, "Where are you in this?" She was ecstatic but was expecting me to play "kissi bade actor ka dost type ka role". She wasn't expecting me to be part of something like this." 8. Pradhuman says the character of Osama is larger than life. True that! ibn "It's been a very weird association. Can you imagine this? The day news broke out that he had been assassinated, people called me to ask for my reaction! As if I was his brother! I was flooded with phone calls from 7.30 in the morning. I even ended up shouting at a reporter." - Pradhuman Singh Well, a lot of effort goes behind changing Pradhuman into Osama. The actor might come across as any other guy in real life, but when he is all dressed up in his character, nobody can believe he is actually NOT the particular terrorist! These pictures will tell you how he transforms into Osama! dailybhaskar dailybhaskar daily bhaskar Here is the trailer of Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive. Take a look before you watch Pradhuman's hilarious act in the film. Aishwarya Rai made news in Punjab. No, it wasn't for shooting her upcoming Bollywood film Sarabjit. Ash went out of her way to spend time with the Indian army. She was also caught clicking selfies with the BSF jawans at the Attari border. All this to get into her character of Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in the biopic. Check out the pictures. Facebook Facebook Facebook Sarabjit Singh was an Indian farmer who was convicted of terrorism and spying in Pakistan. He was sentenced to death. While serving in Lahore prison, he was attacked by inmates in April 2013. He died of the injuries a few days later. The biopic is from his sister Dalbir's point of view, who struggled immensely to get her brother released. Aishwarya who apparently took just 15 minutes to sign on the project thinks that her role is demanding. She said she could "see herself in the role". Randeep Hooda is playing Sarabjit. The film also stars Richa Chaddha and Darshan Kumar. This year's Oscar nominations consist of pretty exciting movies. From Leonardo DiCaprio's survival flick The Revenant, to Steve Jobs biopic with Michale Fassbender, to the super cute animation flick Inside Out, they all seem to stand out. Odds are that you might not have watched these films, or not even have heard about some of them. But these films are the frontrunners at the Oscars this time, and definitely are a must a watch before you catch the awards on your TV screens! 1. The Revenant nofilmschool Everybody is hoping that finally this is the film that might just break Leo's Oscars jinx! Even after doing one amazing flick after another, Oscars have still escaped him, and this time, he better get it! Besides that, of course, this survival tale inspired by true events is ruthless, crisp, and totally Oscar worthy. 2. Steve Jobs imdb After Ashton Kutcher's failed attempt at Steve Jobs biopic, Michael Fassbender seems to have done a brilliant job in this one. This movie focuses more on Job's personal life, with the backdrop of his career, and it'll keep you engaged throughout. 3. Spotlight vanityfair The crime drama film is based on the true story of how Boston Globe's 'spotlight' team uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation in the Boston area by numerous Roman Catholic priests. It is based on a series of stories by the real Spotlight Team that earned the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. 4. The Bridge Of Spies telegraph It's a Steven Spielberg flick guys, plus it stars Tom Hanks. Come on, it's got to be a great movie just by the virtue of that actor-director combination! The historical drama-thriller flick takes you back to the era of cold war, where an American lawyer defends an arrested Soviet spy in the court. The film has done exceptionally well in the US, and is a must watch if you like thrillers. 5. The Danish Girl vanityfair This one is an Eddy Redmayne movie, the same guy who had won the Best Actor Oscar Award for The Theory of Everything. This one is a pretty gripping tale about the first man ever to have known to gone through a sex change operation. And Redmayne's portrayal of Lili, in this biographical drama will surely take your breath away! 6. Joy telegraph Jennifer Lawrence did a great job in this biographical drama, based on the life of Joy Mangano, who had hit rock bottom, yet became a millionaire after inventing the miracle mop. Let's see if this one can fetch the young actress yet another Oscar! 7. Suffragette telegraph Well, looks like there are a lot of biographical movies nominated this year! Suffragette is yet another historical period drama film based on the British women's suffrage movement in the late 19th and early 20th century. With powerhouse performers like Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter, the film is definitely a must watch. 8. Carol indiewire Starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, Carol, explores the romantic relationship between an older woman and young clerk. Only catch? Both of them are women, that too in the New York of the 1950s. The film received a tremendous response from the audience, including a ten-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival. 9. The Hateful Eight vanityfair This masterpiece from Quentin Tarantino tells the tale of a bounty hunter and his prisoner, who find shelter in a cabin. A cabin which is already inhabited by criminals. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, this film too will appeal to those who have an acquired taste for Tarantino's style of film-making. 10. Room wired With a pretty gripping storyline, Room is about a young girl and her 5-year-old son who are held captive in a single room for years, while their captivator rapes the girl all these years. It explores what happens to the kid and the young girl once they manage to escape from the 'room'. 11. The Martian popsci Well, odds are that you might have seen this one since this film got a pretty big release in India too. Starring Matt Damon, the film was based on this astronaut's quest to survive on Mars. Based on Andy Weir's 2011 novel by the same name, the film has received much critical acclaim at various international film festivals, and Damon's work is definitely worth a watch! 12. Mad Max: Fury Road wired This one is a total action packed film, so those who enjoy this genre are in for a treat here! With Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult in it, this gripping tale is about a woman who rebels against a tyrannical ruler in postapocalyptic Australia. Sounds fancy, right? 13. Inside Out forbes How can the list be completed without an animation flick, right! Inside Out is probably the cutest film you'd ever come across. This animated film follows the journey of young Riley and her emotions which are in a state of haywire because of moving to a new city. The best part about the film is that they have made characters for various emotions like fear, joy, sadness, and anger. The scenes between them are simply amazing! After a flag, the next patriotic thing that Jawaharlal Nehru University might install is a battle tank, according to an Indian Express report. JNU is "actively considering" a tank on campus, after it was suggested during a army veterans and JNU Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar, this week. The veterans met the administration yesterday and made a few suggestions. Having an Army memorial to commemorate the memories of soldiers who lost their lives fighting for the country is one such suggestion that the administration is actively considering," JNU Registrar Bupinder Zutshi told the Indian Express. "We will be looking at various ways to do this. Having a wall of fame with soldiers names and photographs, showcasing a military tank or artillery there are different things we will look at. We are also planning regular interactions between students and defence personnel," he said. The meeting was held two hours before JNU students, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, surrendered to the police. Army veterans have expressed their anger at the slogans allegedly raised on campus during an event allegedly organized to mark the third anniversary of Afzal Guru's execution. The Jat community in the district has urged protesters across the state to end agitation and maintain peace, since the government had accepted their demands. Hindustantimes The Jat Sangharsh Committee also announced that it will give Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the families of those who died in the clashes. The government has also declared a compensation of Rs 10 lakh. TOI The committee also criticized the role of the miscreants who resorted to vandalism in the name of the Jat community. "No member of the community robbed any dwelling or set anything afire in the district. This is done by anti-social elements who want to divide the society. We want the government to take strict action against such people," said Azad Singh Pawar, national convener of Jat Sangharsh Committee. Home minister Rajnath Singh and the state government have agreed to give Jats the status of special backward class in Haryana and propose a bill in the budget session regarding the reservation. The unrestrained, brute violence in Haryana's Rohtak district between February 18 and 21, which caused massive damage to private property when rioters demanding OBC quotas went berserk, had a dark underside: Fear of one's identity. business-standard Many non-Jats, who claim that their establishments were singled out by violence-mongers, now identify themselves only by their first names while introducing themselves. Udayveer Sawhney of Rohtak's Qila Road gave the reason for the caution. "It's because of the riots and the way they (rioters) behaved. If the person talking to you is a Jat, he may feel offended by our words. The situation is not good." Lovleen Tuteja, who is also part of BJP's media cell, confirmed that people were wary of telling strangers their surname. indianexpress The way our homes and shops were targeted, we want to be doubly sure that the person in front won't harm us. It's only after we are satisfied that we share our surnames," Loveleen said. Prativindhya Saini, a management student, said differences had cropped up between classmates and that suddenly friends from the Jat community aren't friendly anymore. "The way things are now, there's fear regarding even good friends from the community," Prativindhya said. The dropping of surnames is just not restricted to non-Jats even Jats are uncomfortable about revealing their caste these days. A Jat couple, after initial reluctance to disclose their surname, "After the recent violence, we're not sure what the other person will think about us and what kind of reception we will get." The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which controls close to 70% of the life insurance market, has introduced the third gender as an option in its proposal forms in line with Supreme Court 2014 verdict recognising it. Till now, policy buyers could choose between 'male' and 'female' as gender options. Now transgender applicants can opt for the 'third gender' category. manikarthik Though the National Pension System also recognises the third gender, other insurance companies and mutual funds do not seek this information. The knowyour-customer (KYC) process, a prerequisite for making investments or opening bank accounts, also does not accommodate the third gender as an option. Incidentally, the option was included in Indian passports more than 10 years ago in 2005. "The honourable Supreme Court, in a landmark judgement lauded by human rights groups, called on the government to ensure their (third gender) equal treatment. We have taken up the advice for implementation," said SK Roy, chairman, LIC. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) has approved the new proposal form. For most insurance companies, introducing the option may be a trifle difficult. LIC does not have differential premiums based on gender. unmultimedia But other companies have lower premiums for females because of their longer life expectancy. These companies will have to grapple with the issue of pricing premiums for the third gender. While hailing it as a "welcome" development, Pallav Patankar, director of programmes at the Humsafar Trust, said, "It is a step in right direction, but at present, members of the community do not look at insurance as a viable instrument." The nearly two week long agitation by the Jat community in Haryana was one of the most violent one of its kind in recent times. PTI Protesters who ran riot for days torched a number of vehicle, commercial establishments and other infrastructure. The days long blockades also meant that over a thousand trains were cancelled and road traffic, in and out of the state was also hit badly. This included thousands of trucks and other commercial vehicles. PTI The worst hit areas like, Rohtak and Hisar it is said that the cities were taken to a decade back, due to the amount of destruction. This has taken a toll on the economy, not just of Haryana, but many other parts of the country too. PTI According to a the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry the agitation has cost Rs 34,000 crores to the economy. "Based on inputs received from various industry stakeholders across the states, we estimate that these states may face Rs 34,000 crore loss of economic activity due to the Jat agitation during the last few days," PHD Chamber president Mahesh Gupta said in a statement. Now let us put this Rs 34,000 crore into some context *The Road Transport and Highways Ministry this month approved 37 highway projects across the country with a total investment of about Rs 34,000 crore. *In November Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Rs 34,000 crore would be spent on upgradation of the Srinagar-Jammu national highway. *In 2015 the total amount allocated for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme by the finance ministry was Rs 34,699 crore. *In September, Rs 34,000 crore was granted by the Transport Ministry to Kerala, for one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the state. *The annual electricity bill of the Indian Railways is over Rs 34,000 crore. *In 2011, the then UPA-II government estimated that the amount of black-money held by Indians abroad at Rs 34,000 crore. *Rs 34,000 crore was the annual plan approved by the then Planning Commission in 2013-14. *Maharashtra government plans to spent Rs 34,000 crore in a period of five years as relief package for drought-hit farmers. *According to SEBI, Sahara Group headed by Subrat Roy owes Rs 34,000 crores to its investors. Taking note on the developments, the Supreme Court of India had come down heavily on the protesters, saying that "No one can take the country to ransom during agitations". The Army came to the aid of a beleaguered bride in violence-hit Rohtak on Monday. They escorted the girl and her family to a gurdwara, where soldiers stood guard outside allowing Neha Makkad, 23, to tie the knot. Preparations for the wedding had been on for months PTI But when violence, arson and blockades hit large parts of the state due to the Jat agitation, the family ended up cooped up inside their house, unable to make it to the wedding venue barely kilometres away. The house is located in Gurcharanpura, the worst hit part of Rohtak. With the police also unable to provide any assistance, Neha's family grew desperate. Fortunately for them, a 3/5 Gorkha Rifles battalion heard of their plight and helped Neha marry Gaurav. Santosh Makkad, Neha's mother, said: "We are indebted to the Army. We could not afford to postpone the wedding due to religious reasons." "While rioters roamed freely on the streets, the Army unit escorted us to the venue," she said. Sources said that more than 10 columns from the 22nd Infantry Division, headquartered in Meerut, had been dispatched to Rohtak. About 500 troops were air-dropped in Rohtak on February 19. Later, 200 more joined them via road. The Commanding Officer of 3/5 Gorkha Rifles, Col Suraj Chambiyal, told TOI over the phone: "When we reached Rohtak, and particularly Gurcharanpura, we found that what had started as an agitation by the Jats had turned into inter-caste violence. Jat protesters were targeting non-Jats. Shoot-at-sight orders were in force and here was a family trapped in their home with a daughter set to be married." Chambiyal added: "Maj Aman Kumar, who had already spent 24 hours in the area, had developed a bond with the locals. On Monday, the Makkad family approached our column. So, on humanitarian grounds, the column under Maj Kumar escorted the family to the gurdwara." The groom, Gaurav, was also grateful to the Army. "My shop in Model Town was gutted by rioters," he said. "Had it not been for the Army, my fiancee would never have been able to reach me safely. Though I am financially ruined, at least she is with me now. We will rebuild our lives." A 200 year old condom has been found to be the world's most expensive. Sold at a whopping 460 (or about 44,000 Rupees), the 18th-19th century contraceptive isn't made from latex, but sheep intestine. It's one of the few from a bygone age, where condoms were made from the intestines of sheep, pigs, calves and goats Condoms were only enjoyed by the wealthy as it took time (and animal guts) to craft one. It wasn't until inexpensive rubber condoms came about in the 19th century that sheep intestines went out of fashion as contraceptive material. The 19 cm (7 inches) condom was found in France, and was auctioned, to be sold to a bidder from Amsterdam mirror Catawiki, the auction site commented: "An ancient condom made of sheep gut is truly remarkable. In addition, the artefact provides further insight into our history and the way we have evolved over time. Therefore, during the auction there was a lot of interest from various museums. Forty Iranian media outlets have raised $600,000 to add to Salman Rushdie's fatwa that was originally issued against his controversial novel The Satanic Verses. The proclamation comes 27 years after the fatwa was issued against the British-Indian writer by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had called for Rushdie's assassination for publishing the book in 1988. A Booker Prize finalist, The Satanic Verses was accused for its blasphemous content and mockery of the Muslim faith. Rushdie became the target of many failed assassination attempts and has been in exile ever since. sify The Iranians have now raised a new death bounty that was issued in 1989. "Imam Khomeinis fatwa is a religious decree and it will never lose its power or fade out," said Seyed Abbas Salehi, Irans deputy culture minister to Fars. The book is banned in countries like India, Bangladesh, Sudan, and South Africa. Follow us on government scraps surcharge on card digital payments New Delhi: The Union Cabinet has given its approval for withdrawing surcharge, service charge and convenience fee to promote payments through cards and digital means, aiming reducing cash transactions. The Cabinet meet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also approved mandating payments beyond a prescribed threshold only through a card or digital mode. "The essential features of the proposals for promotion of payments through cards and digital means include steps for withdrawal of surcharge, service charge and convenience fee on card and digital payments currently imposed by various government departments, organisations...," according to an official statement. "The promotion of payments through cards and digital means will be instrumental in reducing tax avoidance, migration of government payments and collections to cashless mode," it added. The move primarily discourages transactions in cash by providing access to financial payment services to citizens to pay through cards and digital means and shifting payment ecosystem from cash dominated to non-cash or less cash payments, the statement said. Among other measures aimed at reducing cash transactions include rationalisation of Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on card transactions and a differentiated MDR framework for some key segments. Other features include introduction of formula-linked acceptance infrastructure by the stakeholders of certain card products, rationalisation of telecom service charges for digital financial transactions and promotion of mobile banking. Creation of necessary assurance mechanisms for quick resolution of fraudulent transactions and reviewing the payments ecosystem in the country have also been approved. Several short-term (to be implemented within one year) and medium-term measures (two years) for implementation by the government ministries, departments and organisations were approved, the statement added. The infrastructure of card or digital payments is growing but remains modest in comparison to cash payments, the statement noted. In order to further push digital payment, it should be made simpler and readily available, and should not impose any undue financial burden on merchants and users, it said. Moreover, cash transactions should offer an appropriate level of security, the statement said. It further said that while the payment system initiatives taken in the form of Electronic Clearing Service Scheme, National Electronic Funds Transfer, Real Time Gross Settlement Scheme have been impressive, the benefits of modern card and digital payment systems are yet to reach all sections of the society and be accepted across the country. "Current experience and evidence indicates that the penetration and success of modern card and digital payment products and services is concentrated to a large extent in the tier-I and tier-II locations of the country and mostly to those citizens who have access to the formal banking channels," it said. The RBI has also approved licences for setting up of Payments Banks with the objective of greater financial inclusion. With Agency Inputs Latest Business News Follow us on ringing bells announces cash on delivery option for freedom 251 New delhi: The craze for the world's cheapest phone, Freedom 251 is slowly fading away with everyone waiting to see if Ringing Bells can really deliver a 3G smartphone at Rs 251. Customers were worried about sharing financial details to buy Rs 251 smartphone so the company has announced a cash on delivery' payment option. Ringing Bells revealed that almost seven crore phones have been registered, but only 50 lakh handsets will be sold 25 lakh online and 25 lakh via offline channels. Ringing Bells has announced this payment option on its Facebook page, saying that it will only be available for the first 25 lakh people who have registered for the Freedom 251 online. It also said that a customer will only need to pay for the handset when it arrives at their doorsteps. Cash on delivery is the payment option everyone was looking forward as it doesn't require any card details. Ringing Bells is under a lot of pressure to deliver the smartphones as the telecom ministry has ordered investigations, considering a smartphone like this will cost a minimum of Rs 2,300. Ringing Bells director, however, had claimed that the company will make a profit of Rs 31 on each Freedom 251 unit sold. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had already warned the company that strict action will be taken if it failed to deliver the smartphone. The company's announcement follows, Dear Customer, In furthering our service to you, we, at Ringing Bells, have decided to offer Cash on Delivery terms vs the previous Offer of via Payment Gateway !! By this, you, our esteemed Customer, will be required to make payment only when the phone is delivered to you. We are in the process of compiling the emails and issuing these to first 25 Lacs registrations very soon. We express our sincere gratitude for your kind support and look forward to your continued patronage. Assuring you of our best intentions Regards, Freedom 251 Team Latest Business News Follow us on sanjay dutt reaches mumbai visits siddhivinayak and mother s grave Pune: Veteran actor Sanjay Dutt walked out of Pune's Yerwada Jail today amid heavy security and huge media turnout. While coming out of jail the 56 year old actor saluted the national flag and calmly waved hand to the crowd. Dutt's wife Manyata and director Raj Kumar Hirani received the actor outside jail. Speaking to reporters, Dutt said "It is the support of fans that have led to my release.There is no easy way to Freedom my friend ." Rajkumar Hirani also captured Sanjay Dutt's exit from prison in camera.The shot will be a part of the Sanjay Dutt biopic that the filmmaker is working on. The actor was released after he served 42 months, as a part of his five-year sentence after being convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case. On reaching Mumbai, he visited Siddhivinayak Temple and post that visited Marine Lines to pay respects to deceased mother Nargis. After his arrest in 1996, Dutt spent 18 months in jail during his trial before getting bail. Dutt will have a busy day today as he is likely to use a chartered plane to travel to Mumbai owing to security reasons and to avoid a huge media turnout. As a semi-skilled worker, the 56 year old actor earned a salary of Rs 38,000 over a five-year prison term but, having spent most of it on daily use items, he would be taking home a much smaller amount when he is released. So, Dutt will be paid the balance amount of Rs 450 on the day he is released, said a senior prison officer. Sources said his pay was calculated after excluding the days of leave on parole and furlough granted to him on several occasions since 2013. His sentence was also shortened by 105 days on account of his good behaviour. In last two years, the actor has already been out of the jail for around five months. Actor's frequent parole and furlough applications and their subsequent granting has been the butt of controversy and generated considerable media storm. The Vaastav actor has come out of the jail at least half a dozen times after availing parole and furlough and allegations that he was being given preferential treatment because of being a celebrity and belonging to a political family. In last two years, the actor has been out of the jail for around five months. In October 2013 Dutt was granted a furlough of 14 days, which was extended to another 14 days to treat his leg pain. In December 2013 was granted a parole for 28 days, extended to another 28 as his wife was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Then in January 2014, he was granted parole for 30 days, which was extended for 60 day. He was controversially granted a 14-day furlough in December 2014 by the State prison authorities to enjoy the New Year with his family in Mumbai which was not extended after massive criticism in the media. Dutt received another 30-day furlough in August 2015 on account of his daughter's nose surgery. With his parole grant, the 56-year-old actor's frequent leaves and furloughs exceed four months of jail sentence, From May 2013 to May 2014, Dutt spent over 118 days on parole or furlough. An inmate can get a minimum respite of 114 days if they have behaved well during their imprisonment term. Citing sources, the report claims that the jail authorities are checking the details of this clause. In March 2013, the Supreme Court upheld Dutt's five-year sentence, 18 months of which he already spent in jail during the trial.He was convicted under Arms Act for Illegal possession of an AK-56 before the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and was transferred to the Yerawada Central Jail in Pune for serving the remaining prison term of 42 months. Dutt's third wife Manyata and their twin kids Shahraan and Iqra, sister Priya Dutt and brother-in-law Owen Roncon besides a host of friends are expected to be present outside the high-security prison, when he walks out. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on first look akshay kumar looks stunning as navy officer in rustom New Delhi: Actor Akshay Kumar's first look from his upcoming movie Rustom' has been released today. The Airlift' actor is playing a navy officer in the thriller that is being directed by debutant Tinu Suresh Desai. He posted the first look on Instagram this morning, and captioned it saying Decorated officer. Devoted family man. Defending his honour. His name? RUSTOM. Know his story on 12th Aug 2016. Dressed in the white navy uniform, Akshay is looking hot and amazing in the picture. The trademark moustache defines his character while the expression of valour on his face is unmatchable. Rustom Pavri is the name of the character Akshay will portray on the silver screen. The movie also stars actress Ileana D'cruz who debuted in Bollywood in 2012 with Anurag Basu's Barfi'. Rustom will hit the screens on August 12 2016. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on pics salman khan spotted holidaying with rumoured girlfriend iulia vantur in dubai New Delhi: Superstar Salman Khan and his rumoured girlfriend Iulia Vantur have been spotted holidaying in Dubai recently. The two were spotted by fans at the airport and couldn't escape the flashing cameras of the shutterbugs. The Bajrangi Bhaijaan' star seems to have taken out some time from his Sultan' schedule and spend lovely time with his rumoured lady love. Salman, however, has never accepted his relationship with Iulia in public. But from what we see there's definitely something cooking between the Dabangg' actor and Romanian beauty, seeing her presence at all important functions hosted by Khan' family. Few days ago, Salman even promoted Iulia's show The Farm' on his Twitter account, calling for more speculations. The couple will be next seen in Indian version of this international show very soon, if reports are to be believed. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on good husband sanjay dutt gives rs 440 to best half manyata New Delhi: Actor Sanjay Dutt today held a press conference at his residence after his release from Yerwada jail. The actor has completed his five year jail term in connection with possession of illegal arms. Talking to the media, Sanjay Dutt said that he is feeling amazing after coming out of the jail and is missing his father a lot. My biggest relief was when court said 'you are not a terrorist'. Miss my father who wanted to hear this all his life, Sanjay further expressed that he was awaiting this freedom from last 23 years, however, he is not been able to realize it right now. It's still not sinking in; it feels like I am on furlough. I know it will take some time for me to convince myself that I am free, he said. When asked on why he touched the soil and saluted the national flag, Sanjay said, I am proud to be an Indian that is why I kissed the earth and saluted the tricolour when I came out, Sanjay Dutt in his 28 month term earned Rs 440 in prison by making paper bags. When asked what he did with the money, the Munnabhai' of Bollywood said that he gave it to his wife Manyata. I gave the money earned Rs. 440 in the jail to my wife, as a good husband, said Sanjay. He further added that Manyata has been his pillar of strength in the trying times. Sanjay said, She is not my better half, but my best half. Manyata is my strength. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on sanjay dutt shares his last day experience in yerwada jail watch video New Delhi: Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt is a free man today. The actor was serving a sentence in Pune's Yerwada Jail, after he was convicted under Arms Act. It was indeed a tough time for the Munnabhai' actor; and obviously he is quite happy that he is finally out of the prison. On reaching Mumbai Sanjay Dutt visited the Siddhivinayak Temple soon after his release. The actor also interacted with the press for the first time post his release from the Yerwada Jail. During his media interaction, Sanjay Dutt shared his feelings about his last day stay at Yerwada Jail. The actor confessed that that he was really anxious to be out jail. Sanjay not just had sleepless last night in prison, but he also didn't eat for four days because of his anxiety. The Khalnayak' actor confessed how he was counting minutes and was eager to meet his family. While talking to media Sanjay also stated that he has been waiting for this day from last 23 days. The actor, who was missing his father today, feels that to be free is the most amazing feeling. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on sanjay dutt walks a free man will he be able to break the tragedy jinx of his life New Delhi: 56-year old Sanjay Dutt's life journey has no dearth of content for a Bollywood flick. Perhaps, this is why his close friend filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani has decided he will make a biopic on him. Munnabhai, as he is popularly called, will finally be able to bury all his skeletons from the past, as he walks out of Yerwada prison today. Born to veteran actors Sunil Dutt and Nargis on 29th July 1959, Sanjay was lambasted for being a wayward son. Though, entering into the glitzy tinsel vile was a cakewalk for him, surviving in it wasn't. Born with a sliver spoon, Dutt's preliminary acting years were surrounded by controversies with many around him complaining of his star-kid tantrums. Despite him running into a gamut of controversies, almost everyone close to Sanjay has agreed that the boy with the golden heart flipped after his mother Nargis's death. Nargis fell prey to cancer only five days before his first release, Rocky in 1981. It was blockbuster but the actor whose debut looked like a promising chose a dark to get over the pain of his mother's loss. He became a drug addict and was sent to rehabilitation in United States by father Sunil. Speaking about those dark days he had once said, I wasn't on hard drugs, but I was quite deep into them. What I started out of sheer curiosity and style became a serious addiction with me. On returning from United States, many predicted his Bollywood career died. But, Sanju Baba, as a well established truth isn't known to be the one who gives up. He worked towards rebuilding his career and then Khalnayak happened in 1993. Along with Khalnayak the serial blasts of Mumbai too- an incident which changed his life. Three weeks prior to the release of Khalnayak, he was arrested for possessing arms illegally. He was found guilty for accepting a delivery of weapons at his house from Abu Salem and co-accused Riyaz Siddiqui. He had a 9mm pistol and AK-56 rifle with him, which his lawyers claimed he kept with him to protect his sisters and family. On April 19, 1993 he was arrested and released on bail in October 16, 1995. Between 1993 and 1995 and for a few weeks again in 2007, he was in jail for almost 18 months. It was being said that his father Congress MP Sunil Dutt sought help from Shiv Sena leader Balasaheb Thackrey for his release. It was in United States that he met actor Richa Sharma and married her in 1987. When the couple welcomed daughter Trishala in their lives in 1988, Sanjay was on cloud nine. Alas his bliss was short lived as Richa was diagnosed with brain tumour two years later. She passed away in 1996, leaving Sanjay with a bitter courtroom battle with his in-laws. Misfortunes made way through his life after he lost the custody battle of his first born and most of his movies bombed. In 2006, the TADA court acquitted him in all cases related to Mumbai's serial blasts, but found him guilty under Arms Act. In 2007, the court sentenced him to six years rigorous imprisonment. It was in 2013, that the Supreme Court took a tough stand on his case and asked him to surrender to authorities to finish his remaining three and a half years of sentence. The SC had reduced his jail term from six to five years. On May 22nd, 2013 he was taken to Yerwada Jail and was out on parole till December 21, 2013. It was extended until March 2014 raising serious concerns about the parole laws. Sanjay Dutt comes out of jail before almost eight months or 256 days before the end of his term on account of his good behaviour. Much has happened in Sanjay's life since 1982. Tina Munim who is now Tina Ambani, left him for more promising pastures, Richa Sharma died of brain tumour, his second wife Rhea Pillai called quits with him the same year (2005) his father Sunil Dutt died, he married Manyata and became a father of twins at the age of 50. For his entire bad boy image, everyone close to the Khalnayak has always asserted that he is anything close to his famous screen name. And fans would still hope and pray that he finds his peace, happiness and light at the end of the otherwise joyless tunnel that spanned Sanjay's life in the last five decades and a half. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on shahid kapoor birthday special 7 unknown facts about the r..rajkumar of bollywood New Delhi: B-town is all about glamour, hard work and competition. One needs to be the best in order to survive. While it is always considered that it's the three Khans Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir, who are ruling the industry these days, there are some actors who have successly carved a niche for themselves despite not belonging to the Khan' squad. One such actor is Shahid Kapoor. The actor with the chocolaty looks has been winning the hearts from the day he first entered the silver screen, be it in the music video Aankho me tera hi chehra' by Aryans or his debut movie Ishq Vishq'. An amazing dancer, brilliant actor, Shahid often makes everyone woo with his hot looks and his to die for' smile. This handsome hunk broke a lot many hearts when he married Delhi girl Mira Rajput in July 2015. However, he and his lady love turned out to be one of the cutest couple of the glam town that often ends up giving relationship goals to people. So as Shahid Kapoor turns 35 today, we bring to you some of the lesser known facts about chocolaty actor. 1. Though, Shahid Kapoor made his first debut as an actor with Ishq Vishq' in 2003, he was also a child artist and was seen in advertisements especially in Complan' ad. 2. We all know that Sasha is a strict vegetarian. But not many people know the reason for Shahid Kapoor turning vegetarian. It is said that his father Pankaj Kapur tried his level best to turn his son into a vegetarian, but it was all in vain. But things changed for Sasha after he read the book named Life is Fair' by Brian Hines and he eventually gave up non-veg. 3. While Shahid Kapoor is a supporter of PETA, this handsome actor has also won the PETA's India's Sexiest Vegetarian contest in 2009. In fact, he was also named as PETA Asia-Pacific's Vegetarian Man in 2011. 4. Shahid belongs to the family of renowned artists. He is the son of veteran actors Pankaj Kapoor and Neelima Azmi. His stepmother, Supriya Pathak is a renowned name in the film fraternity. Interestingly, veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah is his step-uncle. Shahid's great grandfather K. A. Abbas is also an acclaimed film director, screenwriter, novelist and journalist. 5. Shahid Kapoor's official name is Shahid Khattar. Yes! The actor still uses his stepfather Rajesh Khattar's surname. 6. Shahid Kapoor has studied in Gyan Bharati School, Delhi till class IV before he shifted to Rajhans Vidyalaya in Mumbai. 7. The Haider' actor, had rejected some big budget movies like Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalis', Prakash Jha's Satyagraha' and Siddharth Anand's Bang Bang'. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on central government employees demand minimum salary of rs 26 000 New Delhi: Government employees have demanded a minimum salary of Rs 26,000 as against Rs 18,000 recommended by the 7th Central Pay Commission while threatening to go on strike if demands not met. "Minimum Pay needs to be revised to Rs 26,000 per month and the minimum pay of Rs 18,000 as recommended by 7th CPC is not acceptable," said Minutes of the meeting of Joint Secretary (IC) with the members of the Staff-side of the Standing Committee (National Council-JCM). Secretary, Staff-side, Standing Committee (National Council-Joint Consultative Machinery) said Staff-side is "not at all happy" with the recommendations of the CPC and, in fact, "no section of the employees is satisfied", as the Commission has recommended a minimal pay increase as compared to the previous Pay Commissions. The Secretary further stated that an amicable and mutually negotiated settlement of these demands is necessary as "non-acceptance would further cause resentment in the employees". The Secretary "informed that Staff-Side has already made their stand clear to go on strike from April 11, 2016 if their demands are not considered and no amicable settlement happens", the Minutes said. The meeting was held to discuss the issues raised by the National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) in their letter addressed to the Cabinet Secretary, regarding their Charter of Demands on the recommendations of the Pay Commission. The Staff-side also said the central government employees need to be excluded from the National Pension Scheme (NPS), a long pending demand The fixed monthly medical allowance for pensioners who are not covered by CGHS and REHS needs to be increased from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000 is another major demand. The Joint Secretary (Implementation Cell) assured the Staff-Side that the concerns and demands made by them would be placed before the Empowered Committee of Secretaries for consideration after examining the same in the light of the recommendations of the Commission. The scheme of Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) is a platform for constructive dialogue between the representatives of the staff side and the official side for peaceful resolution of all disputes between the Government as employer and the employees. Demands are submitted to the Implementation Cell, created in the Finance Ministry, to work as Secretariat for the Empowered Committee of Secretaries headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha. The Pay Commission recommendations when implemented would have bearing on remuneration of 47 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners. Subject to acceptance by the government, the recommendations will take effect from January 1, 2016. Latest India News Follow us on doctor contradicts smriti irani s claim over rohith vemula s death Hyderabad: The doctor at the University of Hyderabad health centre has rejected the claim of HRD minister Smriti Irani over Rohith Vemula's death. Irani lashed out at opposition by saying, no doctor was allowed near the body of research scholar Rohith Vemula on the day he had died, either to revive him or take him to hospital.'' Dr M Rajshree, the doctor on duty when Rohith committed suicide on Jan 17, said on Thursday that she was the one who examined the body and had declared him dead. She said the body of Rohith was lying on a cot and police had reached 15 minutes after she had gone to the hostel room on the day he had died. She got the information at around 7.20 PM that one of the students had attempted suicide. During a debate in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday on Rohith Vemula's suicide and the JNU row, Irani had said nobody allowed a doctor near Rohith either to revive him or to take him to the hospital. Nobody allowed a doctor near him. The police has reported that no one attempt was made to revive this child, not one attempt was made to take him to a doctor. Instead what was done was that his body was used as a political tool, hidden. No police was allowed till 6.30, the next morning. It is not me the Telangana police is saying this, the human resource minister had said. Narrating the sequence of events, Dr Rajshree said she rushed to NRS hostel after she got information at around 7.20 pm on January 17 that one of the students had attempted suicide in one of the rooms. The body was rigid and cold. I did the examination of the body. I found the body on a cot. The body with protruding tongue was rigid and cold. I checked for BP, for heartbeat. Then I came to the conclusion that he was dead. His body was cold. It took 10 to 15 minutes. Then I declared him dead and informed the security officer. I saw police personnel 10 or 15 minutes after I reached the spot Rajshree told PTI. She also said she was not prevented from examining the body by anyone. Rohith Vemula's suicide triggered a massive outrage and opposition parties launched a scathing attack on the Central government and demanded action against Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya, whose letters to Irani, were blamed for Rohith's suicide, and Irani herself. The HRD ministry has appointed a judicial commission to look into the issue. The police started Panchanama. They checked the laptop and phone and collected suicide note. Rigor mortis of a body starts only after two hours. That is the minimum time for a body to stiffen. That's what I told the police that it the death occurred before two hours, said Dr Rajshree. When contacted, Dr Ravindra Kumar, Chief Medical Officer, said the duty doctor submitted a report in which he was declared dead. (With inputs from PTI) Latest India News Follow us on india to make fresh bid at un seeking ban on jem chief masood azhar New Delhi: Having faced disappointment over its attempt to get the Jaish-e-Mohammed chief banned by the UN the first time around, India is set to make a second bid at getting Masood Azhar banned by the global body. The last time around, China had scuttled the move by India to get the Pathankot mastermind banned by the UN. However, India today said that it will again move the UN with the demand soon. The UN had banned JeM in 2001 but India's efforts to ban Azhar after the Mumbai terror attacks did not fructify as China, one of the five permanent members of the UN group with Veto Powers, didn't allow the ban apparently on the behest of Pakistan. "We will be moving to 1267 Sanctions Committee to also include the name of Masood Azhar on the sanctions list. It is a great anomaly that the organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed is listed but not its leader," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said here. He also noted that India has already submitted to the UN's Sanction Committee a fresh list of 11 terrorists from Pakistan -based terror groups affiliated to al Qaeda, Taliban and other outfits responsible for terrorism in the country. On February 18, a fresh submission of 11 individuals and one organisation linked to terrorism in India, was submitted to the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (Da'esh) and al Qaeda Sanctions Committee. (With PTI inputs) Latest India News Follow us on jnu row court dismisses delhi police s plea to collect voice samples New Delhi: A Delhi court today refused to allow Delhi Police to collect voice samples of two JNU students -- Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, arrested in a sedition case. According to court sources, Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen dismissed the application of Delhi Police, which had arrested both the accused students after they surrendered on the night of February 23, seeking permission to collect their voice samples for investigation in the matter. Umar and Anirban were last night sent to three days police remand at the South Campus Police Station near JNU which was turned into a makeshift court room following an order of the Delhi High Court to "maintain confidentiality" during their remand proceedings. Police had demanded seven days' custody of the duo, who had allegedly organised a controversial event at JNU on February 9 where anti-India slogans were alleged to have been raised. Police yesterday also applied for production of JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar so that all the three students can be interrogated together. The Delhi High Court had yesterday ordered maintenance of "confidentiality" during the remand proceedings of Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban and directed police to ensure that no one "suffers even a scratch" in wake of the Patiala House court violence on February 15 and 17. The high court order had come during the hearing on Kumar's bail plea after it was informed that he and Umar and Anirban were apprehending threat to their safety and security during production in a Patiala House court for remand proceedings. According to police before being arrested, Umar and Anirban were questioned for at least five hours in which police inquired about their whereabouts during the phase when cops were on a look out for them. Police also inquired whether two of them were the main organisers of the February 9 event against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, and whether they were involved in alleged anti-India sloganeering. The duo had returned to the JNU campus last Sunday after going missing since February 12. Delhi Police had issued a look-out notice on February 20 against Umar, Anirban and three other students -- Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash. Latest India News Follow us on let jem get candid support from pakistan army chief New Delhi: Days after suspected LeT operatives struck in Pampore in Jammu and Kashmir, Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag today said that Pakistan was giving 'candid support' to terror groups like JeM and LeT as he called on the international community to join hands in combating the menace. "Terrorist groups like LeT and JeM get candid support from across our western borders," he said at a seminar organised by army think tank CLAWS. The attack at Pampore left three army personnel dead, including two Captains of the Special Forces. Two CRPF personnel, too, were killed by three heavily armed 'foreign' terrorists who were shot dead after a fierce 48-hour-long gun battle. Pakistan based terror Lashkar-e-Taiba has claimed that the three militants who died in the Pampore gunfight avenged the death of two Kakapora civilians by killing army captain Pawan Kumar. Suhag also said that the spreading influence of Islamic State, in particular through social and other forms of media, has thrown up challenges of global and regional security. "What is worrying is that these groups can no longer be dismissed as regional manifestations of violence," he said. Noting that such jihadist outfits take advantage of the international connected systems of finance, commerce and transit to stay flexible and reach any part of the globe, Suhag said it was "necessary for international community to fight this menace as one by sharing of intel and adoption of training techniques from each other". He added that the 9/11, 26/11 and recent Paris attacks have changed the perception among world leaders regarding the threat from terrorism. The Army Chief said, "We need to address not only the methods but also the factors that contribute to the spread of terrorism. The main threat comes from fundamental ideology and twisted interpretations which are promoting radical thinking." BJP leader and spokesperson M J Akbar, who also spoke at the event, termed Pakistan a "sanctuary of jihad". With PTI Inputs Latest India News Follow us on prasar bharati board picks doordarshan air heads New Delhi: Tamil Nadu-cadre IAS officer Supriya Sahu and senior broadcaster F Sheheryar are set to head Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) respectively as they have been selected by the Prasar Bharati board, officials said on Wednesday. "Members of the Prasar Bharati board chose Sahu to head Doordarshan and Sheheryar to become the AIR Director General. The proposal recommending their appointment would be sent (to the I&B Ministry) soon," a senior official said. Sheheryar at present heads AIR as its acting chief. According to official sources, the Prasar Bharati board interviewed around 10 candidates for the top positions at Doordarshan and AIR today after which the two names were chosen. Both AIR and DD have been under acting heads for more than a year as regular appointments were delayed. The Prasar Bharati board will now forward these names to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and the final clearance would come from the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. Sahu is a 1991-batch IAS officer who had earlier served as a Joint Secretary in the I&B Ministry. Sheheryar, a senior officer of the Indian Broadcasting (Programme) Service who joined AIR in 1981, has an extensive programming background. He has also served as the Station Director of Radio Kashmir. In the meeting, Prasar Bharati Chairperson A Suryaprakash, CEO Jawhar Sircar and other members were present. However, Bollywood actor Kajol who was recently appointed as a part-time member did not attend the meet. Latest India News Follow us on rajasthan police launch massive search after former minister s dog goes missing Jaipur: Six months after having faced flak for launching a massive search operation for the missing dog of Rajashtan's Health minister, the state police is at it once again. This time around, it is the Labrador of the former Minister of State for Jails, Moolchand Meena. For the last 24 hours, Rajasthan police personnel are busy searching for the pet canine of a senior Congress leader. As per the complaint lodged with the police in Jaipur, thieves broke into Meena's house and stole his dog on Monday night when he was away with his family. Moolchand Meena, a two-time Rajya Sabha member and currently a member of the AICC, went to his brother's house along with his family on Monday. When the family returned the next day, it found the locks broken and the dog missing, the complaint read. According to the police, the thieves didn't steal anything else in the house except the dog. No jewellery, cash or valuables were stolen from Meena's house. While filing a complaint at the Shipra Path police station in Jaipur, the ex-minister's nephew Nawal Meena told the police that the missing dog is of Labrador breed, which presently costs up to Rs 1 lakh. In Sepetember 2015, a similar search operation was launched by the Rajasthan police to find the missing dog of state Health minister Rajendra Singh Rathore. Latest India News Follow us on triumphant donald trump looks ahead with confidence at super tuesday Washington: With three straight victories in nomination contests, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is looking ahead with confidence at March 1 Super Tuesday primaries in 12 states as rivals trained their guns on him. As Republican nomination appeared within reach, the real estate mogul joined issue with 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney over his tax returns and indicated that an insider would probably be his vice presidential pick. "I do want somebody that's political, because I want to get lots of great legislation we all want passed," Trump said Wednesday. "We're going to probably choose somebody that's somewhat political." Trump declined to name any names, saying it's "too early," although he did say some of the other Republican presidential candidates might make the short list. Trump said the "main quality" he would seek in a running mate would be someone who could be a "great president" if something were to happen to require that person to step in - but after that, it's about balancing his political outsider status. Calling Romney whom he had endorsed in the 2012 "yesterday's news", Trump rejected the Republican leader's suggestion that his tax returns could contain a "bombshell". "There is no bombshell at all other than I pay a lot of tax and the government wastes the money," he told CNN Wednesday just hours after Romney's surprise comment. Trump said he will "make a determination over the next couple of months" as to whether he will release his tax returns. "Romney's biting attack hinted at clear signs of alarm in the Republican establishment at the billionaire's tightening grip on the party's presidential race," CNN said. Trump also attacked his two main rivals, Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, saying he will "pick up a lot" of the support his current rivals enjoy as the field narrows. Trump called Cruz a "nervous wreck" and accused him of "changing his stance" on immigration to better compete with him. The billionaire, however, held his fire against Rubio for now. Meanwhile, Trump Wednesday picked up his first congressional endorsement from fellow New Yorker House member Chris Collins. "We need a chief executive, not a chief politician," Collins, who was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2012 told CNN. Latest World News Follow us on f 16 deal with pak will affect aspects of indo us ties top american commander Washington: Amid India's strong protest over the deal, a top American military commander has said that the United States' decision to sell eight nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan would affect "some aspects" of Indo-US relationship. "With regard to the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, while I don't have a professional opinion on that sale itself, certainly it will affect some aspects of our relationship with India," the US Pacific Command (PACOM) Commander, Admiral Harry Harris, who will visit India next week, said. "I know that I will be asked about it when I go to India, and I hope to be able to tell them that that sale is just one aspect of many military sales that we make across the world, and that we view our relationship with India very importantly," Harris told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing yesterday. "I hope that we can work through this sale, and their perception of it, to continue to improve our relationship with India," Admiral Harris said, responding to a question on F-16 from Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard, the first ever Hindu Congresswoman elected to the US House of Representatives, expressed serious concern over the Obama Administration's decision to sell the fighter jets to Pakistan. "There's a potential sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan that I and other members of Congress have expressed very serious concerns about, given the fact that Pakistan has long harboured and given safe haven to various terrorist groups that continue to launch destabilising attacks within India, as well as Afghanistan," she said. "The recent release of Hafiz Saeed, one of the masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, where six US citizens were killed, even at the protests of the United States -- there are a number of other concerns that we have," she said. "But in particular, I'm wondering if you can talk about how, as you and others have spoken of the importance of this opportunity to strengthen our relationship with India, as we head into a strong partnership into the future and the benefits that that brings us, what impact could this sale of F-16s have on our relationship with India and the work that you and others are doing to strengthen that?" Gabbard had asked. India had summoned US Ambassador Richard Verma to convey its "displeasure and disappointment" over Obama Administration's decision to sell eight F-16 fighter jets worth nearly USD 700 million to Pakistan. India disagreed with the US' rationale that such arms transfers help Pakistan in combating terrorism and believes the US military aid to Pakistan goes into anti-India activities. The Pentagon had said that the F-16 aircraft will facilitate operations in all-weather, non-daylight environments, provide a self-defence/area suppression capability, and enhance Pakistan's ability to conduct counter-insurgency and counter terrorism operations (With PTI inputs) Latest World News Follow us on hand sanitizers removed from sweden after teenage abuse Stockholm: Pharmacies in Sweden have taken hand sanitizers off their shelves after they discovered that teenagers had been intoxicating themselves by drinking these. "Young people come in to the emergency room with alcohol poisoning and say they have drunk hand sanitizer," police official Stefan Sund told public broadcaster Swedish Radio on Wednesday. "The youths are mixing drinks from sanitizer gels and orange juice," he added. Pharmacy chain Apoteket AB asked all staff across Sweden to be extra careful when vending alcoholic disinfectants, while other chains said they intended to follow suit. "At the same time, we are in one of the worst cold and influenza waves, so demand for these products is very high. It's problematic since one does not know what the customer intends to use the products for," said Andreas Rosenlund, spokesperson for the pharmacy chain Kronans Apotek. Hand sanitizers must contain at least 70 percent alcohol in order to fully disinfect. Latest World News Follow us on pakistan doing just about enough to resume india talks daily Islamabad: Pakistan is looking to do just about enough for India to resume the dialogue process, said a Pakistani daily today. An editorial "All For Show" in The Nation said that an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday sentenced two Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) members to 10 years in prison, for raising funds for the banned outfit. "With relations between India and Pakistan balanced on a knife's edge, one wonders if this crackdown is a strategy to improve relations between both as a form of appeasement to India, or a genuine effort to limit terrorism in Pakistan," it said. The conviction of Kashif Siddique and Rashid Iqbal makes it potentially the first time that members of JeM have been convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The daily said that the state wants to convey that dialogue resumption between India and Pakistan is a priority for the Nawaz Sharif government. "The past few days has seen the government pick up its pace with regards to the Pathankot investigation. While the two convicted seemingly had nothing to do with the attacks themselves, Pakistan is looking to do just about enough for India to resume the dialogue process. "It remains to be seen whether India will take this bait, however. This action is not likely to soften the Indian government's expectations of Pakistan." The editorial said that it must be remembered that bringing JeM down "may help in the talks process, but benefits Pakistan more in the way of eliminating a prominent terrorist outfit". "It is axiomatic that Pakistan cannot hope to eliminate terrorism from its soil and leave such groups unscathed," it said and added that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) looks likely to visit India to continue its investigation, but the journey will be futile if the investigators are denied entry into Pathankot airbase. Latest World News Follow us on iran arrests 80 yr old father of an american prisoner Washington :Iranian authorities have arrested a US citizen whose son has been detained in Iran for the last four months, friends and family have said, describing what would be the first such action against an American national in Iran since last month's prisoner swap between the two countries. Baquer Namazi, whose son Siamak has been held since October, was arrested on Tuesday, his wife wrote in a Facebook post. She said she was told he is now in Tehran's Evin prison. "I must share the shocking and sad news that Baquer was arrested," Effie Namazi posted. "Now both my innocent son Siamak and my Baquer are in prison for no reason. This is a nightmare I can't describe." She said she and a lawyer have been unable to get more information or see her husband, who suffers from "serious heart and other conditions" that require medication. Appearing at a Senate panel hearing yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry said he was engaged on the matter but couldn't comment because of privacy considerations. "We are aware of reports that a US citizen was detained in Iran," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. "The US Department of State has no higher priority than the protection of US citizens overseas. We take our obligation to assist US citizens abroad seriously." Haleh Esfandiari, a friend of the family and a Mideast expert at the Wilson Center, said Namazi is more than 80 years old and a dual US-Iranian national. "I'm in a state of shock," said Esfandiari, who was detained herself in Iran for more than three months in 2007. Her take: "They want Siamak to make concessions that he wasn't willing to make." Namazi, she said, worked for the United Nations and at one point as a World Bank consultant, while also being a civil society activist. She described him as a "not at all political" person who consistently spoke out against US-led economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The family lived outside New York for a period after the Islamic Revolution that toppled the US-backed shah in 1979, though later returned to Iran, she said. According to a Daily Beast article last year, the family has played a key role in trying to bridge ties between the long-time foes. It said Namazi was a governor of the oil-rich province of Khuzestan under the shah who was allowed to emigrate to the US in 1983. Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman who similarly advocated a warmer US-Iranian relationship, is thought to have been arrested in October. Latest World News Follow us on arunachal cm kalikho pul set for floor test today Itanagar:The newly installed government in Arunachal Pradesh will face a test of its strength in the Assembly on Thursday with Chief Minister Kalikho Pul today receiving a shot in the arm as eight Nabam Tuki loyalists extended their support to him. Governor Jyoti Prashad Rajkhowa today summoned the seventh session of the Assembly from tomorrow till February 27. Pul was sworn in as the eighth Chief Minister of the state on February 19 after over three months of political instability. With the joining of the eight MLAs, the strength of the Pul camp rose to 41, including 28 Congress members, 11 BJP MLAs and two Independents, in a House with an effective strength of 58, though the original strength was 60. The Supreme Court had uphold the judgment of the Gauhati High Court in resignation of two Congress MLAs Gabriel Denang Wangsu and Wanglin Sawin which was accepted by former Speaker Nabam Rebia. The eight are former ministers Takam Pario, Gojen Gadi, Jomde Kena and Thirong Aboh and former Parliamentary Secretaries Punji Mara, Jambey Tashi, Gum Tayeng and Tapak Taku. Parliamentary secretary Likha Saaya also had joined the Kalikho Pul camp On February 20. More MLAs are going to support my government as they have realised that the causes for which I am fighting for the last several months, Pul said. Deputy Speaker Tenzing Norbu Thongdok said a new Speaker would also be elected as the seat was lying vacant since December 16. He said the customary Governor's address was also scheduled for tomorrow. The Cabinet had on January 24 last recommended for imposition of President's Rule and it was imposed on January 26. It was lifted less than a month later on February 19. Follow us on arvind kejriwal to go on five day punjab visit from tomorrow New Delhi:Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal will start his five-day visit to Punjab from tomorrow to take stock of poll preparations of the party there. "The Delhi Chief Minister will visit Punjab tomorrow and stay there till February 29 during which he will take stock of the poll preparations by the party," said an AAP functionary. Party sources said Kejriwal will emphasise on people-to-people meeting during his five-day visit, rather than holding mega rally in Punjab which will go to polls early next year. AAP had successfully organised a mega rally in Muktsar last month. The party hopes to sweep the state polls next year and is locked in a tussle with resurging Congress and the ruling SAD-BJP combine. In October, Kejriwal had visited Punjab, which was hit by protests due to desecration of Guru Granth Sahib. The party has been raising its voice against the issue of drug addiction and farmers suicide and alleged irregularities in buying pesticides. After having made its presence felt in the state during the Lok Sabha elections, AAP had recently made structural changes in the state unit, which irked many in the party. AAP had opened its account in Lok Sabha by winning four seats in Punjab in 2014 general elections. However, two of its MPs - Dharamvira Gandhi and Harinder Singh Khalsa - have been suspended on the charge of anti-party activities. Follow us on centre targets electrifying 7 000 villages by march New Delhi: The central government has fixed a target of electrifying 7,000 un-electrified villages by the end of the current fiscal on March 31, Power Minister Piyush Goyal has said. "The village electrification target for 2015-16 was 2,800 villages, which I set to 5,800. Now my officials told me that they would be able to electrify 7,000 villages by March end. I'm sure that we would be able to achieve this target," Goyal said at The Power Focus Summit here on Tuesday evening. "The figure, as we speak, of villages that have already being electrified is 5,542 villages, that's one-third of the total. There are another 1,390 villages, where electrification work is done, they are under energization," the minister said. "Officials have themselves fixed their target to electrify 7,000 villages by March end. I'm sure that we would be able to achieve this target", he added. Referring to the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), Goyal hoped that more states would join the discoms' debt restructuring scheme. "The agreements signed with the states specify the timelines and the reduction in losses to be achieved. The central government will monitor their work very religiously and I am sure more states including Kerala and Karnataka will join UDAY." Bihar became the sixth state to sign the Uday MoU here earlier this week. Follow us on government slams congress for stalling gst bill in rajya sabha New Delhi: Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Wednesday accused the Congress of stalling the Goods and Services Tax Bill to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from getting the credit for its passage. Taking part in a debate on the motion of thanks on the President's address, she said that job creation could be boosted with the passage of the GST legislation. The Shiromani Akali Dal's Lok Sabha member from Bathinda said many bills were pending in the Rajya Sabha. "Who does not let the house function, does not allow GST?" she said, without naming the Congress. The GST bill is pending in the Rajya Sabha with the Congress insisting that the government meet its demands of including a cap on the GST rate at 18 percent, deletion of the provision for one percent tax by additional levy and an independent dispute resolution mechanism. Harsimrat Kaur said every kind of "disruptive" tactic was being used to stall the bill because the prime minister will get credit if it was passed. She said discussing student politics for hours will not create employment but passage of the GST bill will take the country forward. The minister said though the "disruptive politic" was targeted at the prime minister, it was actually disrupting progress of the country. She also highlighted the government's achievements including increased pace of road construction in comparison to work done during the tenure of Congress-led United Progressive Alliance. The debate was initiated by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi who said India had become the fastest growing economy. "Our governance paradigm seeks to undertake development for each and every section of the society. Our goal is to reach out to the poorest of the poor and to the remotest corner of the country and ensure delivery of services," she said. She said that economic development with social justice needs coordination between all stakeholders including the states, local governments, businesses, NGOs and the people. Follow us on jnu row hate speech can never be free speech says arun jaitley in rs New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley today put forth a strong counter to the opposition's allegations that the government was cracking down on students because it didn't agree with their views, saying hate speech can never be free speech. Vandalism is condemnable but sedition is free speech? Vandalism is terrible but in the name of academic freedom how can hate speech become freedom of expression? he said in Rajya Sabha while speaking in Parliament's debate over unrest in Hyderabad University, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and other institutions. Jaitley was commenting on sedition cases being filed against JNU students for alleged anti-national slogans and lawyers attacking them in Delhi court. Initiating the debate on Thursday, Left leader Sitaram Yechury accused the government of charging students with sedition because it couldn't tolerate dissent and wanted to enforce its ideology on everybody. We all know what Afzal Guru represented... He was not protesting against Manuvaad, capitalism, or Brahmanism that they will raise slogans against Manuvaad and capitalism on his martyrdom day, the minister said, referring to an event organised on February 9 at the JNU where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. Can there ever be an argument in democracy like ours that there should be only one ideology and one idea which must emerge? Obviously not. Let us set this debate at rest; neither NDA, BJP nor this government ever subscribes to this philosophy that only one idea must grow and mature in this country, Jaitley said. In a reference to the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar of Hyderabad University, Jaitley said, We are entitled to be criticised. I have no difficulty with that. If some student belonging to a weaker or deprived section of society suffers a mental distress that issue has to be squarely addressed and we can all speak in the same language because humanity demands our concern must be the same. In universities youngsters do many things which upon growing up they realise were probably not an ideal behaviour at that time. Some amount of radical romancing can also take place in academic institutions... But the core question is: Are we going to give respectability to those whose primary ideology is to break this country? said the minister. What has happened in this case of two persons alleged to be involved in terrorist action and convicted by the highest court, he said, referring to Afzal Guru, the parliament attack convict, and Maqbool Bhat of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, whose deaths by execution were commemorated at JNU. The minister said the Indian system is fair and the accused were given fair trials. He also said some outsiders came into JNU wearing masks and anti-national slogans were raised by the crowd. You must realise the issue is not that some (university) course is being tinkered with and some politicisation is taking place. You have a situation where slogans against integrity of India are being raised, the minister added. (With IANS inputs) Follow us on mamata banerjee playing with fire on illegal bangladeshi immigrants A dangerous situation may arise in the country if Mamata Banerjee's demand for granting citizenship to Bangladeshi immigrants living in India for more than five years is conceded. The West Bengal chief minister has called for restoration of the district magistrates' former rights to grant citizenship which, in effect, may facilitate further immigration from Bangladesh. The situation in West Bengal is so grim that as early as in the 1980s T.V. Rajeswar, a former IB director and former governor of the state, was forced to write in a mass circulation daily cautioning against heavy infiltration from Bangladesh. His article averred that in the 1981 census the total population growth rate for West Bengal was 23.2 percent while that of the minority community was 29.6 percent. In the same census the overall yearly population growth of the state was 2.3 percent. But in the districts bordering Bangladesh the figures were higher: 2.7 percent in 24 Parganas, 3.3 percent in Nadia, 2.55 percent in Murshidabad, and 2.66 percent in both Malda and Jalpaiguri. The same pattern continued in the 1991 census. The average population growth rate of West Bengal was 24.73 percent - quite an abnormally high figure. But the districts bordering Bangladesh showed even higher figures: North Dinajpore (34 percent), North 24 Parganas (31.69 percent), South 24 Parganas (30.24 percent), Murshidabad (28.20 percent) and Nadia (29.95 percent). This proved that illegal immigration from Bangladesh was continuing. It is continuing unchecked even today. The issue is sensitive and must be handled with statesmanship. Banerjee is playing this card a bit rashly with an eye on the coming election as she has reasons to be somewhat worried about a probable Left Front-Congress electoral understanding. But she has picked up the right point from this complicated maze of population movement. Although Rajeswar had mentioned the abnormal rise of minority population in the 1981 census, he had missed one vital point: exodus of the Hindus from Bangladesh since the birth of that nation. The hard truth is that both Hindus and Muslims are emigrating from Bangladesh to India and there is no point in giving it a communal character. The only logical reason behind Banerjee's demand for granting citizenship to illegal Bangladeshi immigrants may be her fright that a significant quantum of votes which the BJP could garner in the last parliamentary election may be transferred this time to either the Left or the Congress. In the last municipality elections, the BJP's share of votes had dwindled by about 50 percent and this portion had found its way to the Left kitty. As most of these municipalities are situated in the Indo-Bangladesh border areas, playing the "citizenship for the immigrants" card may have temptations. It is likely that the BJP, too, will lap up this issue. During the last parliamentary poll campaign, Narendra Modi held out promises in this regard. Some time back Rajnath Singh, the union home minister, had lamented about the centre's inability on the issue as the BJP does not enjoy a majority in the Rajya Sabha. The issue has now become a double edged weapon. On the one hand, voting patterns in large numbers of constituencies in 24 Parganas (North) , 24 Parganas (South), Kolkata, Nadia and several districts of north Bengal may be affected by majoritarian sentiments arising out of the issue. On the other hand. the minority community can also influence results in 60-odd constituencies. West Bengal is now sitting on a powder keg and no one should try to disturb the fragile equilibrium that is still holding the social fabric together. There is no point in crying over Muslim immigration from Bangladesh. Hindus are also coming. In 1951, East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, had 22 percent Hindus. Now the number has come down to a mere seven percent. Where are they going ? The natural answer is India. Moreover, Bangladesh being a Muslim majority country, it is but natural that there will be a considerable number of Muslims among the emigrants. Trying to give a communal colour to it will be unjust. In 1951, West Bengal's population had 79.40 percent Hindus and 18.63 percent Muslims. In 1981 the number of Hindus decreased to 77.10 percent while that of the Muslims increased up to 21.55 percent. In 2001, the share of the Hindus in the total population further came down to 72.90 percent, but the Muslims' share jumped upto 25.37 percent. As per the 2011 census, Hindus now constitute 72.5 percent of the population of the state. No doubt it shows a decline. This declining trend is noticeable in the minority community's share of the total population also at 25.2 percent. But the rate of decrease is slower. Many experts have however expressed reservations about the sharp decrease in the population growth rate in West Bengal during 2001-2011. According to the 2011 census the growth rate was 17.84 percent in 2001 but nosedived to 13.84 percent in 2011. Any attempt to give citizenship to Bangladeshi illegal immigrants may seriously jeopardize the political, social and economic life of the country as well as its security scenario too. West Bengal or the north eastern Indian states can no longer accommodate the Bangladeshis. So neither Mamata Banerjee nor any other political party should tinker with such an explosive situation. (IANS) Follow us on rajnath singh on jnu row no innocent student will be harassed New Delhi: Amid raging controversy over JNU, Home Minister Rajnath Singh tonight assured the Lok Sabha that no innocent student will be harassed and said the issue of sedition charge slapped against some students should be left for the courts to decide. Singh also told the House that those found guilty of attacks on media in Patiala House Court will not be spared. The Home Minister also answered criticism for making a remark that LeT founder Hafiz Sayeed had expressed support to JNU students, saying he never makes any comment which is "baseless or not backed by any direct or indirect evidence". He, however, refrained from going into details citing confidentiality. Replying to a day-long debate on the JNU issue, he said the government had not hand in the action taken against the students. He said police is taking action with regard to allegations that anti-India slogans were chanted there. "If slapping of sedition charge was right, the court will uphold it, if it was wrong, the court will quash it. But let the court take a view on it," he said. At the same time, he said, "Under no circumstances will any innocent student be allowed to be harassed." Insisting that he never considered JNU as a "centre of anti-national activities" as alleged by the opposition, the Home Minister said he was appreciative of the contribution of its "highly-talented" alumni in different fields. He said students have the freedom of expression and that nobody should have a problem with dissent. "But there is a limit to the freedom of expression. If that is transgressed, it cannot be condoned by a vigilant society," Singh said. While asserting that nobody is in agreement with the slogans that were raised in JNU, the Home Minister also made it clear that those who indulged in violence in Patiala Court will not be spared. The Home Minister, who spoke after the reply of HRD Minister Smriti Irani, showered lavish praise on her saying her speech will be an eye-opener not only for Parliament but the entire nation. Follow us on satyamev jayate tweets namo on smriti irani s speech in parliament New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has praised HRD Minister Smriti Irani for her powerful speech which she delivered in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the recent incidents concerning Dalit student Rohith Vemula's sucide and some central universities. "Do hear this speech by @smritiirani. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v3PlGs8...Satyamev Jayate," Modi tweeted from his personal handle on Wednesday. Irani delivered a spirited and emotional speech in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, strongly refuting allegations concerning her ministry over the rows concerning the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Hyderabad University. Irani insisted that her ministry had no role in Rohith's death and the deceased himself had said in his suicide note that nobody should be held responsible for his action. Replying to the charged day-long debate on recent incidents in JNU and Hyderabad University during which the government faced Opposition onslaught, a combative Irani said she was being targeted by Congress for contesting against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi Parliamentary constituency. At the same time Irani pointed out that during last 20 months as minister she tried to do justice to students by trying to address their complaints without asking for their "caste or religion". Rejecting the charge of saffronising education, she said, she would quit politics if it was established she made any attempt to do so. On the other hand, citing documents, she said, report by JNU's security people observed that some students were indulging in anti-national sloganeering even though the students had sought permission to hold a "poetry" event. Those involved in the programme which include Umar Khalid, Kanhayia Kumar and others, she said, were suspended by the JNU authorities though they were allowed to stay on the campus till completion of the inquiry. Follow us on full text suresh prabhu s rail budget speech 2016 17 New Delhi: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today presented his second budget for 2016-17 in parliament on Thursday. Prabhu announced a number of initiatives that the Indian Railways will be taking to make the public sector undertaking work smoothly In a big relief to the common man , Prabhu announced that passenger fares will not be increased. Here goes the full text of Suresh Prabhu's Rail Budget speech: Madam Speaker, 1. I rise to present before this August House the Statement of Estimated Receipts and Expenditure for 2015-16 for Indian Railways. 2. At the outset, let me thank the Hon'ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi ji, for infusing all Indians with a renewed sense of pride and refreshed the dream of prosperous nation. At a more personal level, I wish to express my gratitude towards him for giving me this opportunity to serve the people of India through the medium of Railways which is his priority. The Prime Minister established the principle of governance when he asked what government was for if not for the welfare of the poor. He challenged us with an inspirational objective when he said that the age of poverty alleviation was over and that the era of poverty elimination had begun. Indian Railways will play its part in this historic mission. 3. Madam Speaker, the railway map of India is a network of veins that pump life-giving blood into the heart of India's economy. Indian Railways is a unique integrator of modern India, with a major role in its socio-economic development. It is an organization that touches the hearts and existence of all Indians, even Mahatma Gandhi. Bapu decided to undertake a voyage of discovery of India before launching himself into the national freedom movement. And he conducted this Bharat Darshan on trains, always travelling in third class. 4. Unfortunately, Railway facilities have not improved very substantially over the past few decades. A fundamental reason for this is the chronic underinvestment in Railways, which has led to congestion and over-utilization. As a consequence, capacity augmentation suffers, safety is challenged and the quality of service delivery declines, leading to poor morale, reduced efficiency, sub-optimal freight and passenger traffic, and fewer financial resources. This again feeds the vicious cycle of under-investment. 5. This cycle must be put to an end. Once it does, the gains to the economy will be immense: better services, improved connectivity for all citizens including the poorer segments of our society, lower costs and improved competitiveness. Investment in the Railways will have a large multiplier effect on the rest of the economy and will create more jobs in the economy for the poor. Investment in Indian Railways is also necessary for environmental sustainability and well being of future generations. 6. Madam Speaker, the Indian Railways carry a heavy burden of expectations. Citizens who demand better railway services are often not aware of the constraints that the Railways operate under. I wish to flag two; there are 1219 sections on the high-density network, which can be roughly equated with tracks connecting the metros. Out of these, 492 are running at a capacity of more than 100% and there are another 228 that are running at a capacity of between 80% and 100%. If a section is over-stretched, the entire line is over-stretched. There is no slack available for maintenance and train speeds slow down. On a single track, the Indian Railways have to run fast express trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi, ordinary slow passenger trains as well as goods trains. Is it surprising that though Rajdhani and Shatabdi are capable of doing 130 km/hour, the average speed does not exceed 70? Is it surprising that the ordinary passenger train or a goods train cannot average more than around 25 km/hour? 7. In the next five years, our priority will be to significantly improve capacity on the existing high-density networks. Improving capacity on existing networks is cheaper. There are no major land acquisition issues and completion time is shorter. The emphasis will be on gauge conversion, doubling, tripling and electrification. Average speed will increase. Trains will become more punctual. Goods trains can be timetabled. "Par mere man mein sawal uthta hai- hey Prabhu yeh kaise hoga? Prabbhu ne to jawab nahin diya, tab yeh Prabhu ne socha ki Gandhi jis saal Bharat aye the, unki satabdi barsh mein Bharatiya Railway ko ek bhet milni chahiye, ki paristhiti badal sakti hai Raste khoje ja sakti hai, itna bada desh, itna bada network, itne sare resources, Itni vishaal manpower, itni strong political will, to phir kyon nahin ho sakta Railway ka punarjanm...." 8. I am reminded of a novel by Shubhada Gogate titled "khandalyachya ghatasaathi". The novel is a fictionalized account of India's first railway line being constructed crossing the Sahyadri range. You build a section at a time. You build a tunnel at a time. You then move on to the next section and the next tunnel. You build bit by bit. We must restore the strength of Bhartiya Rail as the backbone of our country's transportation infrastructure. Bhartiya Rail must substantially regain the market share of freight transport. Rail transport must be made reliable, comfortable and safe and benchmarked to global standards. "Kuchh naya jodna hoga, kuchh purana todna hoga, kuchh engine badalne honge, Kuchh purj repair karne honge, kuchh takate dikhane hongi, kuchh kamzoriyan mitane hongi, kuchh raste badalne honge, kuchh dishayein kholne padegi... I am convinced we can deliver. But we cannot deliver overnight. We will build bit by bit, incrementally. The legacy of past decades will take some time to neutralize. 9. I believe that good governance emerges out of participative government. In a very short span of time I have visited most of the states; tried to interact with many employees, stakeholders and customers. I took the initiative to connect directly with the users through social media. I am glad to inform that over 20000 suggestions were received and we have already started working on the feasible ones. You may also find some incorporated in this budget. This experiment gave me an insight into how involved people are with the Railways and their will to see it getting better and reaffirming its position as the growth engine of this country. 10.We have prepared a forward-looking agenda. Over the next five years, IR has to go through a transformation. We have fixed four goals for ourselves. a) To deliver a sustained and measurable improvement in customer experience. We are launching initiatives that will systematically address customer concerns about cleanliness, comfort, accessibility, service quality and speed of trains. b) To make Rail a safer means of travel. c) To expand Bhartiya Rail's capacity substantially and to modernise infrastructure. Given the importance of rail travel for our citizens we will increase our daily passenger carrying capacity from 21million to 30 million. We will also increase track length by 20% from 1,14,000 km to 1,38,000 km, and we will grow our annual freight carrying capacity from 1 billion to 1.5 billion tonnes. d) Finally, to make Bhartiya Rail financially self-sustainable. This will mean generating large surpluses from our operations not only to service the debt needed to fund our capacity expansion, but also to invest on an on-going basis to replace our depreciating assets. This will require material improvement in operating efficiency, tighter control over costs, greater discipline over project selection and execution, and a significant boost to Railways' revenue generating capacity. 11.These goals will also ensure that Railways is an integral part of all the flagship programmes that our Prime Minister has launched for improving the quality of life of the downtrodden, from Swachh Bharat to Make in India, and from Digital India to Skill India. 12.How will we achieve this? Our execution strategy will have five drivers: a) Adopting a medium-term perspective: Any organization must address short-term priorities without glossing over the long-term and medium-term vision. As Vinoba Bhave once said, "You will stumble if you look close to your heels and would certainly fall if you ignore the vision of the long road." Madam Speaker, this Railway Budget is part of a trilogy of documents that chart out our vision for the future. The first in the series is the White Paper that has been placed today for the information of the House. The second part is today's Budget for the year 2015-16. This will be followed by a Vision-2030 document that we intend to bring out later this year. The proposals contained in this Budget should, therefore, be seen as the beginning of a Five Year Action Plan to transform the Railways. b) Building Partnerships: Transforming the Railways will require us to partner with the key stakeholders. First, consistent with the Prime Minister's vision of cooperative federalism, we will work closely with the States to make the Railways the backbone of national connectivity. Their economies and citizens will benefit dramatically from an improved railway system. The voice of the locals will reverberate through the State Governments in the planning and execution of railway projects. They will also be able to raise financing through special purpose vehicles that we will create with them. Most of them have already expressed a keen interest to make the improvement of the Railways a joint endeavour and a shared success. Second, we will partner with PSUs to ensure that sufficient capacity is built to transport critical commodities like coal, iron ore, and cement, etc., from where they are extracted or imported to where they are consumed or processed. Third, we will partner with multilateral and bi-lateral organizations and other governments to gain access to long term financing and technology from overseas. Finally, we will partner with the private sector to improve last mile connectivity, expand our fleet of rolling stock and modernize our station infrastructure. Here I must mention that Rail will continue to be our precious national asset. It will continue to serve the common man. The people of India will always own Railways. c) Leveraging additional resources: Over the next five years, we envisage an investment of Rs. 8.5 lakh crore. A broad indicative five-year investment plan is attached as Annex 1 to the speech. Budgetary support is the quickest and easiest option to finance the plan but the Ministry of Finance also faces challenges of competing demands although a small initial contribution to Railways can be catalytic. But the scale of our investment needs is such that it will require us to seek multiple sources of funding. We will tap other sources of finance. Multilateral development banks and pension funds have expressed keen interest in financing new investments. Their time horizon is aligned with ours. They seek sources of predictable and recurring revenue, which we can provide through the issuance of long-term debt instruments to fund revenue generating railway projects. d) Revamping management practices, systems, processes, and re-tooling of human resources: To get the most out of the additional resources that we will be investing, we will need to ensure the highest standards of operational and business efficiency. I am happy to report an improvement on our financial performances in the year 2014-15 relative to what we had anticipated earlier. I propose the operating ratio for 2015-16 at 88.5% as against a targeted operating ratio of 91.8%in 2014-15 and 93.6% in 2013-14. I am pleased to state that not only will this be the best operating ratio in the last 9 years but the best after the VIth Pay Commission. The Railways will not be able to deliver sustained improvement in operating efficiency unless changes are made to speed up decision making, tighten accountability, and improve management information systems. Our people are our biggest asset. Even in the short term that I have held this portfolio I have seen the enthusiasm and dedication of Railway personnel across the country. For our transformation journey to succeed it will be very important to harness the talent of our employees through training and development. e) Setting standards for Governance and Transparency: The Railways belongs to the whole nation. Its functioning must conform to the highest standards of governance and transparency. Indian Railways' decisions must be fair to all our stakeholders; from our poorest customers, to our employees and our business partners. My first decision as a minister was to delegate all my tender approving powers to the level of general managers. Transparency has many dimensions. It requires better quality of information gathering within that system and improved norms for disclosure of that information. It requires reduction of discretion and standardization of procedures. It requires accountability. Studies have shown that greater transparency and accountability are pro-poor instruments, since the relatively poor suffer more from lack of transparency. Apart from delegation of powers, I am proposing to undertake measures with a view to bringing in transparency in the day-to-day activities benefitting the common man. 13.Let me now turn to the details of eleven major thrust areas of our action plan: A. Quality of life in journeys: 14.I have not increased the passenger fares. We are directing our efforts to make travel on Indian Railways a happy experience with a mix of various initiatives. Cleanliness 15.Cleanliness is a major area of dissatisfaction. Ensuring higher standards of cleanliness is of utmost priority for us. We want to make Swachh Rail the driving force behind this Government's flagship programme - Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Hence, we now work on-Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat. 16.We propose to create a new department for keeping our stations and trains clean. Integrated cleaning will be taken up as a specialized activity, which will include engaging professional agencies and also training our staff in the latest cleaning practices. Railways plan to set up 'waste to energy' conversion plants near major coaching terminals to dispose waste in an environment-friendly manner. One pilot plant will be set up, to begin with, followed by more plants in a phased manner. 17.The condition of toilet facilities in our stations and trains needs major improvement. We will build new toilets covering 650 additional stations compared to 120 stations last year. Bio-toilets are being fitted in coaches. So far we have replaced the existing toilets with 17,388 bio toilets. This year we intend to replace another 17,000 toilets. Research, Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) has also been tasked with making available within a period of six months a design for vacuum toilets. 18.Even as the quality of Indian Railways' On-board Housekeeping Service (OBHS), presently available in 500 pairs of trains, is being re-looked to make it more effective, we will take simple steps immediately to address customer concerns. The feasibility of a disposable bag along with bedroll for the purpose of collecting their garbage is being considered. The coverage of built in dustbins will be extended to non-AC coaches as well. 19.I take this opportunity to appeal to my fellow citizens that Indian Railways is your travelling home! Please help us to keep it clean. Bed linen 20.We will launch a programme to improve design, quality and cleanliness of bed linen within the next six months. We have approached NIFT, Delhi for designing bed linen. Additionally, the facility of online booking of disposable bedrolls at select stations is being extended to all passengers through the IRCTC portal on payment basis. We will increase the number of mechanized laundries. Help-line 21.Every responsive organization should have a system to address grievances from its valued customers. An all -India 24X7 helpline number, 138, will become functional to attend to the problems of passengers on a real time basis. Passengers will be able to call up for complaints while on trains. A mobile application to redress Railway-related complaints is also being developed. We intend to start this facility on a pilot project basis on Northern Railway from 1 stMarch 2015. Based on the experienced gained and the feedback received from passengers, this will be extended to all Railways soon thereafter. Further, keeping in mind the criticality of security related issues, we have dedicated a toll-free number 182 for receiving security related complaints. Railways would utilise resources from the Nirbhaya Fund for augmenting security of our women passengers. Ticketing 22.Today one of the biggest problems faced by the common man intending to travel in unreserved class is purchasing a ticket. We are introducing 'Operation Five Minutes' to ensure that a passenger travelling unreserved can purchase a ticket within five minutes. Provision of modified 'hotbuttons', coin vending machines and 'single destination teller' windows will drastically reduce the transaction time. For the differently-abled travellers, a special initiative is being launched whereby they can purchase concessional etickets after one-time registration. It is also proposed to work towards developing a multi-lingual e-ticketing portal. We will move towards crediting all refunds through the banking system. 23.In Central Railway, Western Railway and Southern Railway suburban sections, we have already started a pilot project of issuing unreserved tickets on smart phones. We hope to extend this facility progressively to all stations. Automatic ticket vending machines with smart cards and currency options have also been installed at many stations. It is proposed to proliferate this further and also to introduce debit card operated machines. Introduction of integrated ticketing system on the lines of rail-cum-road tickets on Jammu - Srinagar route will be expanded. 24.For the benefit of all our brave soldiers, a Defence Travel System has been developed for elimination of Warrants to make travel easier. This facility has been commissioned in 600 locations out of about 2,000 locations. This facility will be further expanded. Catering 25.To provide freedom to our valued passengers to select their meals from an array of choices including local cuisine, ecatering has been introduced in 108 trains on an experimental basis from January this year. Food can be ordered through the IRCTC website at the time of booking of tickets. We are working to integrate the best food chains in our country into this project. Depending on the response from our customers, the facility will be extended to cover more trains. It is also intended to set up Base Kitchens in specified Divisions to be run by highly credible agencies for serving quality food. 26.At the moment water vending machines are sparse. We will expand this to cover most Railway stations. This will ensure availability of clean drinking water at very low cost to the people apart from being an environment friendly measure. Leveraging technology 27.Hand-held terminals will now be provided to Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs), which can be used for verification of passengers and downloading charts. This system will help us to move towards paperless ticketing and charting and expedite finalization of refund claims apart from saving reams of paper. We are also exploring the idea of extending the facility of SMS on mobiles as a valid proof of travel for PRS tickets as well. 28.We are putting in place an integrated customer portal, which will be a single interface for the customers to access different services. Seamless navigation would be possible across different websites of Railways. 29.A centrally managed Railway Display Network is expected to be introduced in over 2,000 stations over the next two years which will aid in providing information on train arrival/departure, reservations, general and emergency messages and also any other information of interest to citizens. This facility will promote "Digital India Campaign" and also unlock huge advertising revenue potential. 30.We propose to introduce an "SMS Alert" service to inform passengers in advance the updated arrival/departure time of trains at starting or destination stations. Similarly SMS alert would be sent 15/30 minutes in advance of arrival of the train at the destination. Surveillance 31.For the safety of our women passengers, surveillance cameras will be provided on a pilot basis in selected mainline coaches and ladies' compartments of suburban coaches without compromising on privacy. Entertainment 32.I am happy to announce that our Delhi Division is taking up a project for introducing on-board entertainment on select Shatabdi trains on license fee basis. Depending on the response, the facility will be extended on all Shatabdi trains. 33.Mobile phone charging facilities would be provided in general class coaches and the number of charging facilities would be increased in sleeper class coaches. Station facilities 34.So far, 1052 stations have been identified for upgradation of Passenger Amenities at Station under Adarsh station scheme. It is proposed to include 200 more stations under this scheme. 35.Wi-Fi at all A1 and A category stations is being provided. Further, as part of Digital India initiative, Wi - Fi will be provided at B category stations as well. 36.Online booking of retiring rooms has already been initiated. The facility of self-operated lockers would also gradually be made available at stations. It is proposed to provide concierge services through the IRCTC at major stations for the assistance of passengers for their pick up and drop. We will also provide a facility for online booking of wheel chair on payment basis for senior citizens, patients and the differently-abled passengers through IRCTC on select stations. Train capacity enhancement 37.More berths will be made available through increase in number of coaches to meet the growing demand for confirmed seats on the trains. We will achieve this through efficient utilization of assets. Trains, which are fully patronised throughout the year, will be augmented with additional coaches from trains which have relatively lower occupancy levels. Further, capacity in identified trains will be augmented to run with 26 coaches from the existing 24 coaches. More General class coaches will be added in identified trains to benefit the common man. 38.It is also proposed to introduce air-conditioned EMU service on the Mumbai suburban sections after comprehensive assessments of ongoing trials. Comfortable travel 39.We will replace the present ladders used for climbing upper berths, which are uncomfortable with user friendly ones. We have approached the National Institute of Design for this purpose. As a short-term measure however, we propose to increase the quota of lower berths for seniorcitizens. TTEs would also be instructed to help senior citizens, pregnant women and differently-abled persons in obtaining lower berths. Folding ladder would be made available in coaches for easy climbing. The middle bay of coaches will be reserved for women and senior citizens for reasons of safety. 40.For better customer experience we would focus on superior coach design and interiors. IR is collaborating with NID to develop ergonomically designed seats. We also intend to progressively replace all coaches with LHB design coaches. 41.With a view to providing superior riding experience and about 20% savings in journey time, it is proposed to introduce a very modern train system called train sets. These are similar to bullet trains in design and can run on existing tracks without an engine to haul them. For the Railways it would imply higher capacity, greater energy savings and increased throughput. We hope that the first set of these trains would be running on our system within the next two years. Based on the experience, train sets will be considered for manufacture in India. It is our endeavour to expand jobs for Indians at every level. 42.Lifts and escalators have been planned at major stations to facilitate easy movement of the elderly and differentlyabled passengers. An amount of Rs. 120 crore has been provided for this purpose which is about 76% more than the final allotment in the current year. All newly manufactured coaches will henceforth be Braille enabled and Rail Coach Factory has been asked to explore the possibility of building wider entrances for the ease of differently-abled passengers. 43.IR has been trying to provide better passenger amenities at all stations. I am happy to inform the House that this year we have increased the funds allotment for passenger amenities by 67%. I request all corporates, NGOs, charitable institutions and religious institutions to come forward and invest generously for passenger amenities from their CSR fund. I also request all MPs to use part of their MPLAD funds in improving facilities at Railway stations. It is with gratitude that I mention the names of Shri P C Mohan, MP from Bengaluru Central and Shri Gopal Shetty from North Mumbai who have donated Rs. 1 crore and Rs. 1.5 crore respectively from their MPLAD funds for passenger amenities. 44.Madam Speaker, our Hon'ble Members of Parliament represent a vast number of people and could serve as an important link between Railways and the people. Local representatives are in the best position to offer solutions to satisfy the local aspirations. We propose to create Divisional Committees in each Railway to be chaired by Members of Parliament, which will serve as an important link between Railways and the people of India. B. Station Redevelopment 45.IR caters to all sections of society, especially the poor. Our Prime Minister has very rightly said that our Railway stations should be best of the breed. Indian Railways has been attempting redevelopment of stations, but the effort has not met with much success. Such an idea needs the power of imagination, combined with a stable business sense. A transformed station can change the skyline of small and medium cities and bring in revenues, and become an incubator of local economy. 46.While the process for development of the already selected stations would continue, for the rest of the stations, we propose to revamp the station redevelopment policy completely and simplify processes for faster redevelopment by inviting open bids from interested parties. The present stations will be available for development on "as is where is" basis, to exploit the space and air rights on concession basis. Land will not be sold. Anyone can participate in this bidding with their designs and business ideas by providing the operational requirements of Railways for running trains at these stations. All approved bids will be processed by independent experts and uploaded on the web and integrated with best bidding practices. For quick decision-making, the Zonal and Divisional offices will be empowered. A monitoring cell will be constituted to ensure adherence to timelines. We want our Railway stations to be iconic structures with architecture reflecting the culture and character of the city. We invite the state governments and the local bodies to be our partners in this endeavour. 47.Most of the Railway terminals located in big cities are amidst very congested areas. We propose to develop Satellite Railway terminals in major cities with the twin purpose of decongesting the city as well as providing service to passengers residing in suburbs. The satellite terminals will have modern facilities for originating and terminating trains, which will also briefly stop at the existing major terminals. Ten select stations will be taken up in 2015-16 for this purpose. C. Capacity Augmentation Network expansion 48.The key objective of our action plan of transforming the Railways is to significantly expand our network capacity. Our high-density networks are congested, over-strained and capacity-constrained. Our customers are dissatisfied. Our key customers like the coal, steel, and cement industries need new lines to transport their wares. Decongesting these networks with a basket of traffic generating projects is a priority. 49.There are inherent advantages in creating more capacity on the existing network. It requires shorter completion time. Since most of the land is already available it is less expensive. And it generates incremental revenues quickly. These revenues can then be used to invest in other lines. Additional benefits include higher average speeds for trains, timetabling of freight trains, improved punctuality of passenger trains and increase in carrying capacity. 50.While last mile connectivity projects continue to be accorded the highest priority, we intend to fast track the sanctioned works on 7,000 kms of double/third/fourth lines and commission 1200 km in 2015-16 at an investment of Rs. 8686 crore. This budgetary allotment under Capital is 84% higher than 2014-15. We also intend commissioning 800 km of gauge conversion. Additionally, we have sanctioned 77 projects covering 9,400 km of doubling/tripling/quadrupling works along with their electrification at a total cost of Rs. 96,182 crore which is over 2700% higher in terms of amount sanctioned in 2013-14, 2014-15 being a Plan holiday. The priority for undertaking projects has been determined by a designated committee for capacity enhancement, revenue generation and decongestion. Negotiations are on with financial institutions for funding of these projects through extrabudgetary resources. Hon'ble Members would be happy to note that these projects cover almost all States. 51.Traffic facility works like construction of longer loops, creating smaller block sections, building by-pass lines, making crossing stations, augmenting terminals and removing permanent speed restrictions is our utmost priority. These are small expenditure works but they provide huge operating benefits in a short time to de-bottleneck and create additional capacity. In the year 2015-16 works with outlay of Rs. 2374 crore will be taken up. 52.Madam Speaker, Indian Railways is committed to provide rail connectivity to all the North-Eastern states. I am happy to announce that Meghalaya has been brought on the Railway map of India and direct connectivity to Delhi has been provided to Arunachal Pradesh. Further, the Barak Valley will be brought on broad gauge by March this year. The work for connecting the remaining states of this region is progressing well. 53.Indian Railways is committed for faster rail network growth in Jammu & Kashmir. The rail connectivity between Jammu region and the Kashmir valley through the Banihal tunnel provides all-weather connectivity with the rest of the country. The commissioning of UdhampurKatra was like a dream come true for millions of pilgrims. 54.The implementation of two dedicated freight corridor projects on Eastern and Western routes is gathering pace. We will target to award 750 km of civil contracts and 1300 km of system contracts in 2015-16. Durgawati-Sasaram, a 55 km section of Eastern DFC is proposed to be completed in the current year. Preliminary Engineering cum Traffic Survey (PETS) for four other DFCs is in progress and will be completed this year. We intend to explore the idea of construction of DFC feeder routes through private participation. 55.In order to achieve fuel economy and also to enhance traffic output, it is necessary to accelerate the pace of Railway electrification. As against a sanction of 462 route kms in 2014-15, a length of 6,608 route kilometers has been sanctioned for 2015-16. This constitutes an increase of 1330% over the previous year. Expansion of freight handling capacity 56.Indian Railways must expand freight handling capacity in tandem with the expansion of freight carrying network capacity. We propose to set up a PSU - Transport Logistics Corporation of India (TRANSLOC), to develop common user facilities with handling and value-added services to provide end-to-end logistics solution at select Railway terminals through Public Private Partnerships. In the initial period, it has been proposed to upgrade 10 existing goods sheds of Indian Railways and develop 30 small multimodal logistic parks where Indian Railways has surplus land. 57.For the benefit of our farmers, a state of the art Perishable Cargo Centre is under completion at the Azadpur Mandi with a scientific banana-ripening Centre. We have taken steps to develop the air cargo sector to facilitate and integrate the movement of air cargo between ICDs and the gateway airports. 58.To facilitate the rapid development of a network of Private Freight Terminals (PFT), a policy was issued in 2010 and revised in 2012 to invite private investment in this space. Certain issues have emerged which are discouraging further investments in PFTs. We intend to address these urgently so that the proliferation of these terminals is not hampered. We will, in the next three months, review the Wagon Leasing Scheme, Special Freight Train Operator Scheme, Private Freight Terminal Scheme and Liberalised Wagon Investment Scheme for making them more liberal, broad-based and attractive to our partners from the private sector. We will also consider new and lighter design of wagons for better fuel efficiency and carrying capacity. Railways will also work out modalities to facilitate provision of spare Railway land and redundant goods sheds on nominal licence fee to private developers for development of such facilities. 59.In an effort to reduce empty flows of wagons, an Automatic Freight Rebate Scheme for traffic loaded in Traditional Empty Flow Direction has been launched in October 2014 as a pilot project on NF Railway and Southern Railway. We propose to launch the scheme on an all-India basis. 60.Long haul freight operations, where two or more freight trains are combined into a single train formation, will be used extensively. Towards this end, the construction of long loop lines will be expedited. Further, the pace at which distributed power systems are to be provided on locomotives deployed on long haul trains will be speeded up. Improving train speed 61.The speed of 9 railway corridors will be increased from the existing 110 and 130 kmph to 160 and 200 kmph respectively so that inter-metro journeys like DelhiKolkotta and Delhi-Mumbai can be completed overnight. This will involve the upgradation of track including turnouts and rolling stock to higher standards as well as the adoption of improved methods of track recording, monitoring and maintenance. The average speed of freight trains, both in empty and loaded conditions, will be enhanced. A policy of attaining speeds of 100 kmph for empty freight trains and 75 kmph for loaded trains is being put in place. In pursuit of the objective, to maximize loading in every train, the loading density on all major freight bearing routes of Indian Railways will be upgraded to 22.82 tonne axle loads. Bullet train 62.Madam, we will continue to pursue with vigour our special projects like High Speed Rail between MumbaiAhmadabad. The feasibility study for this is in advanced stage and report is expected by the mid of this year. Quick and appropriate action will be taken once the report is available with us. Regarding the other high speed routes on the diamond quadrilateral, studies are being commissioned. Upgrading manufacturing capability 63.The transformation of Railways offers huge opportunities for Make in India initiative. With increasing capacity, Indian Railways would require more locos, more wagons and more coaches. The 'Big ticket' manufacturing ideas include High Horse Power and green technology locomotives, commodity specific wagons like auto carriers, signaling systems and train protection systems and track laying and track maintenance machines. All this will result in creation of job opportunities. 64.Functioning of Indian Railways Production Units and Workshops would be reviewed with a view to providing them a cutting edge in the manufacture of their products. Measures for technological upgradation and enhancing productivity would be undertaken to make them selfsustaining. Spare capacity in these units can be used for external customers. We propose to get a study conducted to examine these issues. D. Safety: 65.Safety is of paramount importance. The loss of even a single life is too high a price to pay. I offer my deepest condolences to the families of all accident victims and Railway personnel who have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. Indian Railways have safety concerns on account of unmanned level crossings, manned level crossings, derailments, collisions, and fire. An action plan is being prepared for each of these areas. 66.We are preparing a five-year corporate safety plan by June 2015 indicating annual quantifiable targets. We will examine all pending recommendations made by High Level Safety Review Committee headed by Dr. Kakodkar Committee by April 2015. 67.Our ultimate objective is to eliminate all unmanned level crossings by construction of Road over Bridges (ROBs) and Road under Bridges (RUBs). In the short term, RDSO has been asked to develop a suitable device with reliable power supply system based on theft-proof panels/batteries in consultation with Indian Space Research Organization, using geo-spatial technology for providing audio-visual warning to road users at unmanned level crossings. Further, a radio based signal design project has been taken up with IIT Kanpur for warnings at unmanned level crossing. 68.Keeping in view the critical need to facilitate the construction of ROB/RUB's, a web based application has been commissioned with user-friendly measures for online submission and approval of drawings within 60 days and an MOU has also been signed with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in this regard. I am happy to announce that in the next financial year 970 number of ROB/RUBs and other safety-related works to eliminate 3438 level crossings at a total Railway expense of Rs. 6,581 crore have been sanctioned. This is more than 2600% higher than the sanctioned number of ROBs/RUBs during the current year and the highest ever in recent times. These projects cover almost all States of our Union. 69.To prevent fire in coaches and also prevent coaches from climbing over each other during accidents, RDSO has been asked to develop new systems. We also propose to install Train Protection Warning System and Train Collision Avoidance System on select routes at the earliest. 70.To curb derailments, modern track structure consisting of sleepers and heavier rails are being used while carrying out primary track renewals. Better welding techniques would also be promoted. Further, analogue machines for testing of rails are being replaced with digital type machines, which are more reliable. E. Technology upgradation 71.Every dynamic and thriving organization needs to innovate and re-invent its practices. In accordance with the vision of Hon'ble Prime Minister for Innovation, Technology Development and Manufacturing, we intend to set up an innovation council called "Kayakalp" for the purpose of business re-engineering and introducing a spirit of innovation in Railways. 72.We need to invest in fundamental and applied research for seeking solutions to rail-specific issues. We intend to set up a technology portal to invite innovative technological solutions. 73.We have decided to strengthen the RDSO into an organization of excellence for applied research. RDSO would collaborate with institutions of repute. We will set up in 2015-16 four Railway Research Centers in select universities for doing fundamental research. GOI has conferred Bharat Ratna on Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. To mark the centenary celebrations of Banaras Hindu University, we propose to set up 'Malaviya Chair' for Railway Technology at IIT (BHU), Varanasi. This Chair will help in development of new materials to be used in all assets of Railways. 74.A consortium of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Science And Technology and Industries on an Investment Sharing Model is being set up as part of Technology Mission for Indian Railways to take up identified Railway projects for research. 75.We will shortly unveil an IT vision for the Railways. Online information on latest berth availability on running trains, an integrated mobile application including station navigation system, etc. will be made available. Customer friendly freight movement initiatives such as introduction of bar coded/RFID tracking of parcels and freight wagons, automated parcel warehouses, customer relationship management system, etc., will be undertaken. There will be an integration of train control and asset management applications. 76.IR proposes to move from preventive to predictive maintenance. It is proposed to explore the possibility of completely mechanized integrated track maintenance, which could bring in more efficiency. We intend to bring in state of the art equipment for even routine examination of tracks. F. Partnerships for development 77.We will revamp the existing PPP cell in the Ministry to make it more result oriented. PPP will help in creating more jobs in the economy besides augmenting capital for improving Railways. 78.Railways have launched new Model Concession Agreements recently for many of the participative models, and guidelines for this have been issued. Projects for rail connectivity to many ports and mines are being developed under participative models. Standardisation of contractual framework that ensures a level playing field, simplification of procedures and consistency of policy will be ensured. 79.Technology intensive and complex projects like speed raising and station redevelopment require lot of handholding by a specialized agency in terms of preparatory work, exploring technology options and managing bid processes. Indian Railways have signed in the past MOUs for technical cooperation with number of foreign railways or their entities. We propose to launch "Foreign Rail Technology Cooperation scheme", in order to achieve the higher quality service for our nation. 80.The suburban rail networks are the lifeline for metro cities of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. To meet growing demand there is an urgent need for integrated transport solutions. We will work with all states towards this end. We propose to take up MUTP III for Mumbai. 81.Expansion of railway network to remote and backward areas serves as an engine for growth and brings overall socio-economic development in the region. We propose to set up joint ventures with States for focused project development, resource mobilization, land acquisition, project implementation and monitoring of critical rail projects. I am happy to share that most of them have conveyed their acceptance to our proposal. 82.Railways have a big shelf of projects, which require to be executed at a fast pace. The expertise of Railways PSUs will be used by leveraging their balance sheets to expedite the completion of identified projects within specified time lines and to undertake a higher volume of activities. 83.It is also proposed to set up JVs with our major public sector companies who are our customers for meeting their requirements of new lines. Such focused execution of works will ensure faster completion and ultimately provide the much needed path for them to transport their produce and at the same time generate revenues for Railways. G.Improvements to Management Processes and Systems 84.Madam Speaker, for the delivery of the action plan, Indian Railways will require new governance structures, new delivery mechanisms, extensive management reforms and transparency across the board. For quick decision-making I have already delegated the power in respect of stores and works tenders to General Managers. I intend to further delegate, de-centralise and de-regulate. Rules and regulations governing freight business will be simplified and made more customer friendly. For example, we have abolished the system of obtaining Rail Transport Clearance from the Ministry. We also intend simplifying the entire process of construction of private sidings. 85.Delegation and empowerment should be accompanied with accountability and responsibility and also monitoring from the apex to ensure that the organisation's objectives are being met. Towards this end, we propose to get a systems audit conducted for review of all processes and procedures being followed in Zonal Railways. 86.An exercise in identification of global benchmarks for key operating and maintenance activities is being carried out. 87.We intend to improve upon the existing appraisal mechanism for the selection of projects and introduce simulation tools for project planning and decision-making. Further, it is proposed to introduce the EPC system of contracting all over Indian Railways with a view to timely completion of projects. 88.Madam Speaker, we have limited resources and thus must ensure that all public expenditure results in an optimal outcome. We, therefore, intend to set up a working group to modify the present system of accounting, to ensure tracking of expenditure to desired outcomes. The data on costing would be available online including costs incurred on constructing, augmenting, maintaining and operating railway lines. This would also help in undertaking post commissioning evaluation studies. 89.We also propose to have the train operations audited with a view to increasing productivity and bringing in transparency. 90.We are also proposing to expand paperless working in our material management system. In line with focus on ease of doing business, we will digitally integrate our vendors through Vendor Interface Management System to provide single window interface to vendors. H. Resource Mobilisation 91.Madam Speaker, IR today is resource-light. This is unsustainable. Let alone capital investment, there is not even enough for depreciation. Conventionally, we have looked for Gross Budgetary Support from the Union Government. But this is business as usual. This is neither viable nor necessary. 92.First, the Union government's financial resources are themselves over-stretched. Second, internal generation of resources will pick up once the Railway reforms start, GDP growth occurs and the Railways begin to attract traffic that has moved elsewhere, especially to the road transport sector. Third, for remunerative projects, it should be possible to generate resources through market borrowings, routed through partnerships with Railway PSUs and IRFC. Fourth, there are several areas where resources can be generated through PPP. Fifth, moving away from debt, some projects can be equity-driven, through partnerships with State governments. All these lead to a simple proposition. One can leverage the resources one possesses better. 93.The size of the Plan Budget has gone up by 52% from Rs. 65,798 crore in 2014-15 to Rs. 1,00,011 crore in 2015-16. Support from the Central Government constitutes 41.6% of the total Plan Budget and Internal generation 17.8 %. In view of the fact that it would be a challenging task to initiate the mobilization of extra-budgetary resources, it is proposed to set up a Financing Cell in the Railway Board, which would seek the benefit of advice from experts in this field. 94.For financing remunerative projects through market borrowings, it is intended to tap low cost long term funds from insurance and pension funds, multi-lateral and bilateral agencies which can be serviced through incremental revenues. Railways will create new vehicles to crowd in investment from long-term institutional investors and other partners. These may include setting up an infrastructure fund, a holding company and a JV with an existing NBFC of a PSU with IRFC, for raising long term debt from domestic as well as overseas sources, including multilateral and bilateral financial institutions that have expressed keen interest in working closely with Railways in this endeavor. We will monetize our assets rather than sell them. 95.I wish to state that encroachment on Railway land is a serious issue. To counter this, digitized mapping of land records has been initiated and responsibility will be fixed on officials for any encroachments. 96.Madam Speaker, we are drawing up a comprehensive policy to tap the latent advertising potential. The new strategy would harness all avenues including offering stations and trains for corporate branding. 97.We are launching a Coastal Connectivity Program this year where Railways in partnership with the concerned ports will deliver rail connectivity to Nargol, Chharra, Dighi, Rewas and Tuna. This programme is expected to mobilize investments of approximately Rs 2000 crore. 98.We propose to launch projects worth Rs 2500 crore through BOT/ Annuity route. These include Wardha- Nagpur 3rd line, Kazipet-Vijaywada 3rd line, Bhadrak -Nargundi 3rd line and Bhuj- Nalia Gauge Conversion. 99.Scrap disposal policy of the Indian Railways will be reviewed for speedier scrap disposal. I. Human Resources 100. I strongly believe that the workforce of Indian Railways is its strength. To prepare them for the future and for enhancing organizational performance, systematic Human Resource Audit would be undertaken. As part of the focused Human Resource strategy, measures would be adopted to raise employee productivity in line with global standards. It is also proposed to pursue creation a separate accounting head for HRD and develop ERP based Human Resource Management System. 101. Our frontline staff is the first point of contact with the public. We intend to start a special training module on soft skills for them so that our customers feel welcomed. Training in yoga will be imparted to our staff, especially from RPF. 102. We are in the process of setting up a full-fledged University during 2015-16. 103. We will take up the work of repair of staff quarters and also of RPF barracks. We will also improve the delivery of health services to our employees. For the recreational pursuit of our staff we have decided to upgrade four Holiday Homes, to begin with. J. Energy and sustainability 104. Madam Speaker, we have set up an Environment Directorate in Railway Board to give increased focus and thrust on environment management. 105. Indian Railways is the largest consumer of electricity and thus has substantial potential for reducing energy consumption through various energy conservation measures. Thrust will also be given for adoption of energy efficient LED luminaries, appliances, etc. as a part of an energy conservation drive. A detailed energy audit will reveal huge potential for energy saving. 106. Although a bulk consumer, Railways pays extremely high charges for traction power. It is proposed to procure power through the bidding process at economical tariff from generating companies, power exchanges, and bilateral arrangements. This initiative is likely to result in substantial savings of at least Rs. 3,000 crore in next few years. 107. To reduce dependence on fossil fuels, it is intended to expand sourcing of Solar Power as part of the Solar Mission of Railways. Work is in full swing at the solar power plant at Katra station and is slated for completion in March 2015. Further, 1000 MW solar plants will be set up by the developers on Railway/private land and on rooftop of Railway buildings at their own cost with subsidy/viability gap funding support of Ministry of NonRenewable Energy in next five years. 108. We have launched a mission for water conservation. Water recycling plants will be set up at major water consumption centres after conducting water audit. Expansion of water harvesting systems will also continue. 109. All our workshops are in the process of getting accredited for environment management. This will be extended to the loco-sheds, and major coaching and wagon maintenance depots. 110. Madam Speaker, the House will be happy to note that CNG based DEMUs have been introduced on Northern Railway and it is proposed to convert 100 DEMUs to dual fuel - CNG and diesel. Locomotives running on LNG are also currently under development. 111. We are making efforts to bring noise levels of locos at par with international norms. We will demonstrate our sensitivity to the wildlife by factoring in concerns related to their environment. 112. Madam Speaker, we need to invest in Indian Railways also because it is necessary for our ecological sustenance. The annual consumption of fuel by the Railways is just about 7% of the annual fuel consumption by the road sector. The energy consumption is about 75%- 90% less for freight traffic when compared to road. The carbon dioxide emission is about 80% less than road. Investment in Indian Railways is an investment in our future. It is an investment in our sustainability. It is an investment for posterity. K. Transparency and Governance initiatives 113. As the Hon'ble Members of the House are aware, Indian Railways recruits various categories of employees through its 21 recruitment boards. As a major transparency initiative, the system of on-line applications has been introduced for two categories as a pilot project. It is proposed to extend this further to include all future recruitments. 114. Corruption at all levels continues to affect the common man. We will explore all possible solutions to address this menace. 115. In order to provide a thrust to transparency, eprocurement value chain is being expanded to cover all Divisions, Depots and Workshops. 116. Indian Railways currently is the only rail-based trans-city infrastructure provider and operator in the country. Therefore, for the purpose of orderly development of infrastructure services, enabling competition and protection of customer interests, it is important to have a regulation mechanism independent of the service provider. Initially it was contemplated to set up only a Tariff Regulator, however, it is now proposed to set up a mechanism, which will be entrusted with making regulations, setting performance standards and determining tariffs. It will also adjudicate on disputes among licensees/private partners and the Ministry, subject to review in appeal. Social initiatives 117. Even as we pursue this transformation agenda, Indian Railways will continue to honour its wider obligations to the nation. With this in mind and in keeping with our Government's high priority on skill development, Indian Railways, with its vast spread, will contribute by making available its infrastructure like stations and training centres for skill development. Indian Railways has a huge talent of skilled personnel and their services are also available for this national cause. 118. To encourage self-employment, we will promote products made by Self Help Groups, consisting mainly of women and youth. Konkan Railway (KR) has already launched this programme in three states during the past three months. KR expects to generate employment for approximately 50,000 persons from this scheme in the next few years. Tourism 119. Tourism holds a great potential for job creation and economic development of a region. Indian Railways will join this effort Incredible Rail for Incredible India. We have successfully experimented on Konkan Railway tourism promotion through training of auto-rickshaw and taxioperators as tourist-guides since they are the first point of contact for our passengers. We intend replicating this at major tourist stations. 120. We propose to explore the possibility of offering some coaches in select trains connecting major tourist destinations to travel agencies on a revenue sharing model. 121. Madam Speaker, I have the honour to recall that this year we are celebrating 100 years of the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to India. IRCTC will work on promoting the Gandhi circuit to attract tourists to mark this occasion. To help farmers to learn about new farming and marketing techniques, IRCTC will work on Kisan Yatra, a special travel scheme. 122. The Financial Performance for 2014-15 and Budget Estimates of Receipts and Expenditure for 2015-16 are at Annex II. Conclusion 123. At present, due to over-utilised line capacity and backlog in track renewals, there are speed restrictions, which lead to delay in running more number of trains. The review will be completed soon so that we can announce new trains and increased frequency in this session. 124. Madam Speaker, the actions in the eleven thrust areas, which I have described, cannot remain mere policy pronouncements. Railways cannot function in a 'Business As Usual' mode. We have to gear up to face future challenges. Madam, I will ensure that Indian Railways delivers quantifiable and visible improvements. Our most critical initiatives will be pursued in mission mode under the direct oversight of designated senior officials in the Ministry of Railways as Mission Directors. A similar structure will be replicated in all Zonal Railways. I will personally monitor on all major thrust areas. I am confident that I have the support of 13 lakh dedicated men and women in this endeavour. 125. Swami Vivekanand once said, "Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success." For me, that idea is the transformation of Indian Railways. We can, and will, turn the Railways around. We will fulfil the Prime Minister's vision for the Railways. We seek the support of all of you in this national endeavour which holds the key to the transformation of India itself into Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat. With these words, Madam Speaker, I commend the Railway Budget for 2015-16 to the August House. Page 48 of 53 Annexure I PROPOSED INVESTMENT PLAN (2015-2019) Item Amount (Rs. In crore) Network Decongestion (including DFC, Electrification, Doubling including electrification and traffic facilities) 199320 Network Expansion (including electrification) 193000 National Projects (North Eastern & Kashmir connectivity projects) 39000 Safety (Track renewal, bridge works, ROB, RUB and Signalling & Telecom) 127000 Information Technology / Research 5000 Rolling Stock (Locomotives, coaches, wagons - production & maintenance) 102000 Passenger Amenities 12500 High Speed Rail & Elevated corridor 65000 Station redevelopment and logistic parks 100000 Others 13200 TOTAL 8,56,020 Annexure II Now, Madam Speaker, let me place before this August House the Financial Performance of 2014-15: FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE 2014-15: Madam Speaker, Passenger Earnings were budgeted to increase by 22.2%. This has been scaled down to 17.7% keeping in view the persistent negative growth trend, particularly in nonsuburban non-PRS segment of travel. There is a net reduction in Gross Traffic Receipts by Rs 917 crore in RE compared to the BE of Rs 1,60,165 crore. Ordinary Working Expenses (O.W.E) in BE were provided for at an increase of 15.5% over 2013-14 which has been scaled down to 11.7% in the RE. Taking into account the likely savings accruing from drop in prices of HSD (high speed diesel) for traction partly offset by higher requirements under certain heads for maintenance, safety and cleanliness activities, the budgeted O. W. E. of Rs 1,12,649 crore have been decreased in the RE 2014- 15 to Rs. 1,08,970 crore i.e. by Rs 3,679 crore. BE provided for an appropriation of Rs 28,865 crore to Pension Fund. However, based on trend, the pension outgo has been assessed to be higher than the provision made in BE. Page 50 of 53 Accordingly, appropriation to the Pension Fund has been increased to Rs. 29,540 crore in RE. Internal resource generation also improved and accordingly the appropriation to DRF has been scaled up to Rs 7,975 crore in RE from the BE 2014-15 provision of Rs 7,050 crore. After taking into account the above, "Excess" of receipts over expenditure stands at Rs 7,278 Were excited to announce that indmin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com. A new look and an improved experience means you can still stay ahead of this fast-moving market with price data, news and market intelligence right here on Fastmarkets. Discover more than 2000 prices, news and analysis in primary and secondary metals markets. We cover base metals, industrial minerals, ores and alloys, steel, scrap and steel raw materials. If you already have a Fastmarkets account, youll still have uninterrupted access to your markets by logging in with your current details. Syria: A First Major Win Due To The Cessation of Hostilities Agreement By Moon Of Alabama February 25, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Moon Of Alabama " - The Russian/Syrian agreement to the cessation of hostilities in Syria is seen critical from a military point of view. It would have been better to use the current momentum and to proceed fighting instead of giving respite to the enemy. But the agreement has one huge advantage. It excludes the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra. Every "western" media report on the agreement and its likelihood to proceed now has to admit what has long been denied. That the unicorn U.S. supported "moderate rebels" are in deep alliance with al-Qaeda. Even the grey lady now concedes: many of the anti-Assad groups aligned with the United States fight alongside the Nusra Front The readers of such piece note that the U.S. is actually supporting the terrorists it claimed to be fighting for the last 13 years. Somehow that does not compute. This will put pressure the Obama administration. It can hardly blame Russia and Syria for continuing a campaign against Al-Qaeda even during a cessation of hostility with U.S. supported "moderates". The U.S. lauds itself over killing alleged Al-Qaeda followers in drone strikes all over the world. How can it blame Russia for doing like in Syria? But not only "western" media are now exposed. The new situation compels the actors behind Nusra/al-Qaeda to reveal their positions: "The PYD is supported because it fights against ISIL. Nusra Front is also fighting against ISIL. Why is it bad?" [the Turkish President Erdogan] asked. "AIDS also kills ISIL? Why is it bad?" Just in time the BBC is reporting what everybody watching the war on Yemen already knew. Al-Qaeda is fighting together with Saudi and other Gulf troops in their assault on the city of Taiz. Since 9/11 the "western" public has been conditioned to see Al-Qaeda as the evil enemy. I do not think that it is possible to eradicate that within a few weeks or month. With the push for the cessation of hostilities the Russian/Syrian side has won a major point in the public relation position. It is becoming clear to even average "western" reader that they are fighting real terrorists while the U.S. and its allies support at least associates to terrorists, if not the terrorists themselves. Regime Change in Ankara? More Likely Than You Think By Mike Whitney February 25, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Counterpunch " - On Friday, the United States rejected a draft resolution by Russia that was intended to prevent a Turkish invasion of Syria. Moscow had called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to address its growing concern that Turkey is planning to send thousands of ground troops and armored vehicles it has massed on its southern border, into Syria to protect Turkish-backed militants and to block the Kurdish militia, the YPG, from establishing a contiguous state in northern Syria. Moscows one-page resolution was a thoroughly-straightforward document aimed at preventing a massive escalation in a conflict that has already claimed the lives of 250, 000 and left the country in ruins. According to Russias deputy U.N. envoy, Vladimir Safronkov, The main elements of this Russian draft resolution are to demand that all parties refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of Syria, that they fully respect Syrias sovereignty and independence, stop incursions, and abandon plans for ground operations. The resolution also expressed Moscows grave alarm at the reports of military buildup and preparatory activities aimed at launching foreign ground intervention into the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic. There was nothing controversial about the resolution, no tricks and no hidden meaning. The delegates were simply asked to support Syrian sovereignty and oppose armed aggression. These are the very principles upon which the United Nations was founded. The US and its allies rejected these principles because they failed to jibe with Washingtons geopolitical ambitions in Syria. Quashing the resolution confirms in the clearest terms that Washington doesnt want peace in Syria. Also, it suggests that the Obama administration thinks that Turkish ground troops could play an important role in shaping the outcome of a conflict that the US is still determined to win. Keep in mind, if the resolution had passed, the threat of a Turkish invasion would have vanished immediately. Why? Because the Turkish military has publicly stated that it is not willing to send troops across the border without U.N. Security Council approval. (Washington Post) Many people in the west are under the illusion that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dictatorial powers and can simply order his troops into battle whenever he chooses. But that is not the case. While Erdogan has removed many of his rivals within the military, the top brass still maintains a certain autonomy from the civilian leadership. Turkish generals want assurances that they will not be prosecuted for war crimes in the future. The best way to do that is to make sure that any invasion has the blessing of either the US, NATO or the UN. The Obama administration understands this dynamic, which is why they quashed the resolution. Obama wanted to leave the door open so Turkish troops could eventually engage the Russian-led coalition in Washingtons ongoing proxy war. This leads me to believe that the Washingtons primary objective in Syria is no longer the removal of Syrian President Bashar al Assad but the bogging down of Russia in a never-ending conflict. Just hours after the US defeated Moscows draft resolution at the UN, closed-door talks were convened in Geneva where high-level U.S. and Russian military officials met to discuss the prospects for ceasefire. The cease-fire, which is typically referred to as a cessation of hostilities, is aimed at temporarily stopping the fighting so the battered jihadists and US-backed rebels can regroup and rejoin the war at some later date. Both Moscow and Washington want to deliver humanitarian aid to war-torn cities across Syria, and to move towards a political transition although both sides are deeply divided over Assads role in any future government. According to the Washington Post: One of the many problems to be overcome is a differing definition of what constitutes a terrorist group. In addition to the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaedas affiliate in Syria, Russia and Syria have labeled the entire opposition as terrorists. Jabhat al-Nusra, whose forces are intermingled with moderate rebel groups in the northwest near the Turkish border, is particularly problematic. Russia was said to have rejected a U.S. proposal to leave Jabhat al-Nusra off-limits to bombing as part of a cease-fire, at least temporarily, until the groups can be sorted out. (U.S., Russia hold Syria cease-fire talks as deadline passes without action, Washington Post) Repeat: Russia was said to have rejected a U.S. proposal to leave Jabhat al-Nusra (al Qaida) off-limits to bombing as part of a cease-fire, at least temporarily, until the groups can be sorted out. In other words, the Obama administration wanted to protect an affiliate of the group that killed 3,000 Americans in the terror attacks on 9-11 and that is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Syrian civilians whose only fault was that they happen to occupy country that these Wahhabi mercenaries wanted to transform into an Islamic Caliphate. Naturally, Moscow refused to go along with this charade. Even so, Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced on Sunday that he and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, had reached a provisional agreement in principle for a temporary truce in the Syrian civil war and that it could start within days although no one really knows how the cease-fire would be enforced and how breaches would be resolved. Consider how hypocritical it is for Obama to reject Russias draft resolution at the UN and, just hours later, try to put Al Qaida under the protective umbrella of a US-Russia brokered ceasefire. What does that say about Americas so called war on terror? Meanwhile in Turkey, Erdogans threats to invade Syria have intensified following a car bombing in Ankara last week that killed 28 and wounded 61 others. The Turkish government blamed a young activist, Salih Neccar, who had links to the Turkish militia (YPG) in Syria of being the perpetrator. But less than 24 hours after the blast, the governments version of events began to fall apart. In a story that has been scarcely reported in the western media, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed full responsibility for the bombing according to a statement on its website. (The Freedom Hawks are linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK.) Then, on Monday, the Erdogan regime was slammed with more damning news: DNA samples demonstrated conclusively that Neccar was not perpetrator, but rather Abdulbaki Somer, a member of the group that had claimed responsibility from the beginning. (TAK) As of this writing, the government still hasnt admitted that it lied to the public to build their case for war. Erdogan and his extremist colleagues continue to use thoroughly discredited information to threaten to invade Syria. As he said on Saturday at a UNESCO meeting in Gaziantep: Turkey has every right to conduct operations in Syria and the places where terror organizations are nested with regards to the struggle against the threats that Turkey facesNo one can restrict Turkeys right to self-defense in the face of terror acts that have targeted Turkey. This explains why Turkey has been shelling Syrian territory for the last week. It also explains why Erdogan has given Sunni jihadists a free pass to traverse Turkey and reenter the war zone in areas that improve their chances of success against the Syrian Army. Check this out from the New York Times: Syrian rebels have brought at least 2,000 reinforcements through Turkey in the past week to bolster the fight against Kurdish-led militias north of Aleppo, rebel sources said on Thursday. Turkish forces facilitated the transfer from one front to another over several nights, covertly escorting rebels as they exited Syrias Idlib governorate, traveled four hours across Turkey, and re-entered Syria to support the embattled rebel stronghold of Azaz, the sources said. We have been allowed to move everything from light weapons to heavy equipment, mortars and missiles and our tanks, Abu Issa, a commander in the Levant Front, the rebel group that runs the border crossing of Bab al-Salama, told Reuters, giving his alias and talking on condition of anonymity. (Syrian Rebels Say Reinforcements Get Free Passage via Turkey, New York Times) The Obama administration knows that Erdogan is fueling the conflict, but has chosen to look the other way. And while Obama has (weakly) admonished Turkey for shelling Syrian territory, he has, at the same time, acknowledged Turkeys right to defend itself, which is an expression the US reserves for Israel when it conducting one of its murderous rampages in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. Now, Obama has bestowed that same honor on Erdogan. This alone speaks volumes about the duplicity of Washingtons approach. So what is Washingtons gameplan in Syria? Is the administration serious about defeating ISIS and ending the hostilities or does Obama have something else up his sleeve? First of all, Washington is not the least bit concerned about ISIS. The group is merely a straw-man that allows the US to conduct military operations in a region that is vital to its national interests. If the ISIS boogieman disappeared tomorrow, the White House would conjure up some other phantomlike the drug war or something equally ridiculousso it could continue its depredations uninterrupted. What matters to Washington is breaking up the strong, secular Arab governments that pose a long-term threat to US-Israeli ambitions. Thats what really matters. The other obvious goal is to control critical resources and pipeline corridors to the EU and make sure those resources continue to be denominated in US dollars. We continue to believe that the US-Kurdish (YPG) alliance does not really advance US strategic interests in Syria. The US is not interested in Kurdish statehood nor do they care if jihadist militias control the northern quadrant of Syrias border-region. The real purpose of the US-YPG alliance is to enrage Turkey and provoke them into a cross-border conflict with the Russian-led coalition. If Turkey deploys ground troops to Syria, then Moscow could face the quagmire it has tried so hard to avoid. Turkish forces would serve as a replacement army for the US-backed jihadists and other proxies that have prosecuted the war for the last five years but now appear to be in full retreat. More importantly, a Turkish invasion would exacerbate divisions inside Turkey seriously eroding Erdogans grip on power while creating vulnerabilities the US could exploit by working with its agents in the Turkish military and Intel agency (MIT). The ultimate objective would be to foment sufficient social unrest to incite a color-coded revolution that would dispose of the troublemaking Erdogan in a Washington-orchestrated coup, much like the one the CIA executed in Kiev. It is not hard to imagine Obama secretly giving Erdogan the greenlight, and then pulling the rug out from under him as soon as his troops crossed over into Syria. A similar scam was carried out in 1990 when U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, gave Saddam Hussein the nod to invade Kuwait. The Iraqi Army had barely reached its destination before the US launched a massive military campaign (Operation Desert Storm) that forced Saddam to speedily withdraw along the infamous Highway of Death where upwards of 10,000 Iraqi regulars were annihilated like sitting ducks in a vicious and homicidal display of American firepower. That was the first phase of Washingtons plan to overthrow Saddam and replace him with a compliant Arab stooge. Is the same regime change trap now being set for Erdogan? The Russian-American Agreement on Syria? Yet Another Huge Victory For Russia By The Saker February 25, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Unz Review " - The recent agreement between the USA and Russia really solves nothing, it does not even end the war, and both sides are expressing a great deal of caution about its future implementation. And yet, this is a huge victory for Russia. While it is too early to say that the Russian won in Syria, I think that it is now fair to say that the Russian position on Syria has won. Here is why: First: nobody is suggesting anymore that Assad will be ousted or Damascus taken. That, in turn, means that everybody has now recognized that Syrian Arab Republic, backed by Russia, has successfully repelled the aggression of the huge coalition the AngloZionists built to overthrow Assad. Second: Russia has forced the UNSC and the USA to admit that the vast majority of those who fight Assad today are terrorist. Of course, this is not how this was declared, but if you look at the organizations which the UNSC has already declared as terrorists then you already have an absolute majority of the anti-Assad forces. This means that the moral and legal legitimacy of the anti-Assad forces is lies in tatters. Third: regardless of what Erdogan does actually try to do next, there are now clear signs that neither NATO, nor the EU nor even the Turkish high military command want a war with Russia. And that means that Erdogans gamble has not paid off and that his entire Syria policy is now comprehensively dead. Keep in mind that following the treacherous attack on the Russian Su-24 the Kremlin made it a policy goal to Saakashvilize Erdogan. This goal is now almost reached and Erdogans future looks very, very bleak: everybody ( except maybe the Saudis) is sick and tired of this maniac. The best thing which could happen to Turkey now would for the military to get rid of Erdogan and to replace him with somebody willing to repair all the damage he did. Fourth: all the threats to impose a no-fly zone or to occupy Syria have now been invalidated by an agreement which basically declares that anybody not respecting the cease-fire is a legitimate target for engagement and destruction. Fifth: the USA had to accept the humiliation of having to agree to all of the Russian terms for the current ceasefire. Yes, of course, the USA can, and probably will, try renege on part, or all, of this agreement, but the precedent has been set and it will be very hard, if not impossible, for the USA to openly return to the pre-2016 policies. Sixth: does anybody still remember the rhetoric of Hillary Clinton about Syria and Russia? Her position was crystal clear: Assad must go and those who support him punished. Even after the Russian military offensive began, the US refused to tell the Russians where the good terrorists were and where the bad terrorists were. No exchange of information with Russians was acceptable. Now the Americans had to agree to work with the Russians on a map of Syria designating where the participants of the ceasefire and were those who were not included in the ceasefire were deployed. In other words, the US will now have to share with Russia all the info it previously refused to share and work with the Russians on a daily basis. Seventh: Russia has basically co-opted the so-called Free Syrian Army. How? By basically forcing every single faction in Syria to chose between one of two possible statuses: being a terrorist (and a fair target for destruction) or being a participant in a political process entirely designed by Russia. The Russians are now even opening a Truce Center at the Khmeimin airbase near Latakia which will now render assistance to all the parties to the ceasefire. This, for the time being, mainly a diplomatic victory, of course, but a Russian diplomatic victory made possible by a Russian military victory. A tiny Russian military contingent has basically completely neutralized the plans of an entire worldwide Empire. That, in itself, is an amazing achievement. The other big winner here are, in my opinion, the Kurds who, according to British officials, appear to be coordinating their military operations with the Syrian army and the Russian Aerospace Forces and who now might well even achieve their dreams of joining the Iraqi and Syria regions of Kurdistan. Which is just about the worst nightmare for the Turks come true, hence the still remaining risk of a Turkish military operation ostensibly to create a buffer zone but really to save face. That kind of intervention will remain a possibility for as long as the Turks can continue to hope to commit aggression against their neighbors under the protection of NATO and the USA. And that aint gonna change anytime in the future. And then there are the Saudis. They are very, very angry. They are angry to the point of making not so subtle threats about using nuclear weapons to deal with their adversaries. See for yourself: Actually, since Pakistan got The Bomb, I would not dismiss any Saudi claims of having a number of nuclear devices. But what does that really mean? Absolutely nothing. It is quite possible that the Saudis have the know how for a nuclear device. And it is quite possible that they even got their hands on enough nuclear materials for a few bombs. They might even have succeeded in purchasing a few nuclear devices from the Pakistanis or Israelis. But even if that is true, the reality is that the Saudis dont even have the military capability to deal with the poorest Arab country on the planet (Yemen) and that they most definitely dont have the military capability to engage their nuclear devices in a way which would allow them to achieve any kind of military advantage. After all, what are we talking about here? Using nuclear weapons against the Syrian military? Against Iran? Against Russia? This is absolutely ridiculous. The reality is that whatever nuclear capabilities the Saudis might or might not have, the fact that they would make nuclear threats is just a sign of weakness and fear, not a sign of strength. This is why nobody is impressed by these statement, least of all the intended targets of such threats. While it is quite true that the latest agreement between the USA and Russia does not mark the end of the war in Syria, it is a turning point, a kind of a Minsk-2 Agreement which nobody really wants to comply with, but which seals the defeat of the AngloZionist plans in Syria as much as Minsk-2 meant the defeat of the Ukronazi dream. Time is now on the Russian/Syrian side. With each passing day the Russian task force in Syria will become more powerful, as will the Syrian Armed Forces. That, by itself, will not be enough to defeat Daesh, and we can expect a stiff resistance from the Takfiri crazies, but the writing is on the wall for all to see: the more the Russians and the Americans become directly and jointly involved, the less Turkey and Saudi Arabia will be able to determine the outcome of the war. In other words, while this is far from being the end of Daesh, it is the beginning of the end for Daesh in Syria. Yet again the nay-sayers and Putin-haters have been proven wrong. To be honest, so have I: I would never have guessed that the Russians could have achieved so much with so little and yet they did pull off this extremely dangerous gamble and they won. Only an extremely skillful combination of military, economic, diplomatic and political means could have yielded such a remarkable result but Putin, apparently, found this perfect mix. The path ahead remains extremely dangerous, for sure, but the outcome of the 20 week long Russian military intervention in Syria is nothing short of remarkable. The Rape of East Timor: "Sounds Like Fun" By John Pilger Watch John Pilger's film Death of a Nation - The Timor Conspiracy February 25, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Secret documents found in the Australian National Archives provide a glimpse of how one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century was executed and covered up. They also help us understand how and for whom the world is run. The documents refer to East Timor, now known as Timor-Leste, and were written by diplomats in the Australian embassy in Jakarta. The date was November 1976, less than a year after the Indonesian dictator General Suharto seized the then Portuguese colony on the island of Timor. The terror that followed has few parallels; not even Pol Pot succeeded in killing, proportionally, as many Cambodians as Suharto and his fellow generals killed in East Timor. Out of a population of almost a million, up to a third were extinguished. This was the second holocaust for which Suharto was responsible. A decade earlier, in 1965, Suharto wrested power in Indonesia in a bloodbath that took more than a million lives. The CIA reported: In terms of numbers killed, the massacres rank as one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century. This was greeted in the Western press as a gleam of light in Asia (Time).The BBCs correspondent in South East Asia, Roland Challis, later described the cover-up of the massacres as a triumph of media complicity and silence; the official line was that Suharto had saved Indonesia from a communist takeover. Of course my British sources knew what the American plan was, he told me. There were bodies being washed up on the lawns of the British consulate in Surabaya, and British warships escorted a ship full of Indonesian troops, so that they could take part in this terrible holocaust. It was only much later that we learned that the American embassy was supplying [Suharto with] names and ticking them off as they were killed. There was a deal, you see. In establishing the Suharto regime, the involvement of the [US-dominated] International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were part of it. That was the deal. I have interviewed many of the survivors of 1965, including the acclaimed Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who bore witness to an epic of suffering forgotten in the West because Suharto was our man. A second holocaust in resource-rich East Timor, an undefended colony, was almost inevitable. In 1994, I filmed clandestinely in occupied East Timor; I found a land of crosses and unforgettable grief. In my film, Death of a Nation, there is a sequence shot on board an Australian aircraft flying over the Timor Sea. A party is in progress. Two men in suits are toasting each other in champagne. This is a uniquely historical moment, babbles one of them, that is truly, uniquely historical. This is Australias foreign minister, Gareth Evans. The other man is Ali Alatas, the principal mouthpiece of Suharto. It is 1989 and they are making a symbolic flight to celebrate a piratical deal they called a treaty. This allowed Australia, the Suharto dictatorship and the international oil companies to divide the spoils of East Timors oil and gas resources. Thanks to Evans, Australias then prime minister, Paul Keating who regarded Suharto as a father figure and a gang that ran Australias foreign policy establishment, Australia distinguished itself as the only western country formally to recognise Suhartos genocidal conquest. The prize, said Evans, was zillions of dollars. Members of this gang reappeared the other day in documents found in the National Archives by two researchers from Monash University in Melbourne, Sara Niner and Kim McGrath. In their own handwriting, senior officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs mock reports of the rape, torture and execution of East Timorese by Indonesian troops. In scribbled annotations on a memorandum that refers to atrocities in a concentration camp, one diplomat wrote: sounds like fun. Another wrote: sounds like the population are in raptures. Referring to a report by the Indonesian resistance, Fretilin, that describes Indonesia as an impotent invader, another diplomat sneered: If the enemy was impotent, as stated, how come they are daily raping the captured population? Or is the former a result of the latter? The documents, says Sarah Niner, are vivid evidence of the lack of empathy and concern for human rights abuses in East Timor in the Department of Foreign Affairs. The archives reveal that this culture of cover-up is closely tied to the DFAs need to recognise Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor so as to commence negotiations over the petroleum in the East Timor Sea. This was a conspiracy to steal East Timors oil and gas. In leaked diplomatic cables in August 1975, the Australian Ambassador to Jakarta, Richard Woolcott, wrote to Canberra: It would seem to me that the Department [of Minerals and Energy] might well have an interest in closing the present gap in the agreed sea border and this could be much more readily negotiated with Indonesia than with Portugal or independent Portuguese Timor. Woolcott revealed that he had been briefed on Indonesias secret plans for an invasion. He cabled Canberra that the government should assist public understanding in Australia to counter criticism of Indonesia. In 1993, I interviewed C. Philip Liechty, a former senior CIA operations officer in the Jakarta embassy during the invasion of East Timor. He told me: Suharto was given the green light [by the US] to do what he did. We supplied them with everything they needed [from] M16 rifles [to] US military logistical support maybe 200,000 people, almost all of them non-combatants died. When the atrocities began to appear in the CIA reporting, the way they dealt with these was to cover them up as long as possible; and when they couldnt be covered up any longer, they were reported in a watered-down, very generalised way, so that even our own sourcing was sabotaged. I asked Liechty what would have happened had someone spoken out. Your career would end, he replied. He said his interview with me was one way of making amends for how badly I feel. The gang in the Australian embassy in Jakarta appear to suffer no such anguish. One of the scribblers on the documents, Cavan Hogue, told the Sydney Morning Herald: It does look like my handwriting. If I made a comment like that, being the cynical bugger that I am, it would certainly have been in the spirit of irony and sarcasm. Its about the [Fretilin] press release, not the Timorese. Hogue said there were atrocities on all sides. As one who reported and filmed the evidence of genocide, I find this last remark especially profane. The Fretilin propaganda he derides was accurate. The subsequent report of the United Nations on East Timor describes thousands of cases of summary execution and violence against women by Suhartos Kopassus special forces, many of whom were trained in Australia. Rape, sexual slavery and sexual violence were tools used as part of the campaign designed to inflict a deep experience of terror, powerlessness and hopelessness upon pro-independence supporters, says the UN. Cavan Hogue, the joker and cynical bugger, was promoted to senior ambassador and eventually retired on a generous pension. Richard Woolcott was made head of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra and, in retirement, has lectured widely as a respected diplomatic intellectual. Journalists watered at the Australian embassy in Jakarta, notably those employed by Rupert Murdoch, who controls almost 70 per cent of Australias capital city press. Murdochs correspondent in Indonesia was Patrick Walters, who reported that Jakartas economic achievements in East Timor were impressive, as was Jakartas generous development of the blood-soaked territory. As for the East Timorese resistance, it was leaderless and beaten. In any case, no one was now arrested without proper legal procedures. In December 1993, one of Murdochs veteran retainers, Paul Kelly, then editor-in-chief of The Australian, was appointed by Foreign Minister Evans to the Australia-Indonesia Institute, a body funded by the Australian government to promote the common interests of Canberra and the Suharto dictatorship. Kelly led a group of Australian newspaper editors to Jakarta for an audience with the mass murderer. There is a photograph of one of them bowing. East Timor won its independence in 1999 with the blood and courage of its ordinary people. The tiny, fragile democracy was immediately subjected to a relentless campaign of bullying by the Australian government which sought to manoeuvre it out of its legal ownership of the sea beds oil and gas revenue. To get its way, Australia refused to recognise the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the Law of the Sea and unilaterally changed the maritime boundary in its own favour. In 2006, a deal was finally signed, Mafia-style, largely on Australias terms. Soon afterwards, Prime Minister Mari Alkitiri, a nationalist who had stood up to Canberra, was effectively deposed in what he called an attempted coup by outsiders. The Australian military, which had peace-keeping troops in East Timor, had trained his opponents. In the 17 years since East Timor won its independence, the Australian government has taken nearly $5 billion in oil and gas revenue money that belongs to its impoverished neighbour. Australia has been called Americas deputy sheriff in the South Pacific. One man with the badge is Gareth Evans, the foreign minister filmed lifting his champagne glass to toast the theft of East Timors natural resources. Today, Evans is a lectern-trotting zealot promoting a brand of war-mongering known as RTP, or Responsibility to Protect. As co-chair of a New York-based Global Centre, he runs a US-backed lobby group that urges the international community to attack countries where the Security Council rejects a proposal or fails to deal with it in a reasonable time. The man for the job, as the East Timorese might say. Follow John Pilger on twitter @johnpilger - www.johnpilger.com Balkanizing the Middle East The REAL Goal of America and Israel Shatter Syria and Iraq Into Many Small Pieces By WashingtonsBlog February 25, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " WashingtonsBlog " - The hawks in the U.S. and Israel decided long ago to break up Iraq and Syria into small fragments. The Guardian noted in 2003: President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt predicted devastating consequences for the Middle East if Iraq is attacked. We fear a state of disorder and chaos may prevail in the region, he said. *** They are probably still splitting their sides with laughter in the Pentagon. But Mr Mubarak and the [Pentagon] hawks do agree on one thing: war with Iraq could spell disaster for several regimes in the Middle East. Mr Mubarak believes that would be bad. The hawks, though, believe it would be good. For the hawks, disorder and chaos sweeping through the region would not be an unfortunate side-effect of war with Iraq, but a sign that everything is going according to plan. *** The skittles theory of the Middle East that one ball aimed at Iraq can knock down several regimes has been around for some time on the wilder fringes of politics but has come to the fore in the United States on the back of the war against terrorism. Its roots can be traced, at least in part, to a paper published in 1996 by an Israeli thinktank, the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies. Entitled A clean break: a new strategy for securing the realm, it was intended as a political blueprint for the incoming government of Binyamin Netanyahu. As the title indicates, it advised the right-wing Mr Netanyahu to make a complete break with the past by adopting a strategy based on an entirely new intellectual foundation, one that restores strategic initiative and provides the nation the room to engage every possible energy on rebuilding Zionism *** The paper set out a plan by which Israel would shape its strategic environment, beginning with the removal of Saddam Hussein and the installation of a Hashemite monarchy in Baghdad. With Saddam out of the way and Iraq thus brought under Jordanian Hashemite influence, Jordan and Turkey would form an axis along with Israel to weaken and roll back Syria. Jordan, it suggested, could also sort out Lebanon by weaning the Shia Muslim population away from Syria and Iran, and re-establishing their former ties with the Shia in the new Hashemite kingdom of Iraq. Israel will not only contain its foes; it will transcend them, the paper concluded. *** The leader of the prominent opinion makers who wrote it was Richard Perle now chairman of the Defence Policy Board at the Pentagon. Also among the eight-person team was Douglas Feith, a neo-conservative lawyer, who now holds one of the top four posts at the Pentagon as under-secretary of policy. *** Two other opinion-makers in the team were David Wurmser and his wife, Meyrav (see US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy, August 19). Mrs Wurmser was co-founder of Memri, a Washington-based charity that distributes articles translated from Arabic newspapers portraying Arabs in a bad light. After working with Mr Perle at the American Enterprise Institute, David Wurmser is now at the State Department, as a special assistant to John Bolton, the under-secretary for arms control and international security. A fifth member of the team was James Colbert, of the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (Jinsa) a bastion of neo-conservative hawkery whose advisory board was previously graced by Dick Cheney (now US vice-president), John Bolton and Douglas Feith. *** With several of the Clean Break papers authors now holding key positions in Washington, the plan for Israel to transcend its foes by reshaping the Middle East looks a good deal more achievable today than it did in 1996. Americans may even be persuaded to give up their lives to achieve it. (Before assuming prominent roles in the Bush administration, many of the same people including Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, John Bolton and others advocated their imperial views during the Clinton administration via their American think tank, the Project for a New American Century.) Thomas Harrington professor of Iberian Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut writes: [While there are some good articles on the chaos in Iraq, none of them] consider whether the chaos now enveloping the region might, in fact, be the desired aim of policy planners in Washington and Tel Aviv. *** One of the prime goals of every empire is to foment ongoing internecine conflict in the territories whose resources and/or strategic outposts they covet . *** The most efficient way of sparking such open-ended internecine conflict is to brutally smash the target countrys social matrix and physical infrastructure. *** Ongoing unrest has the additional perk of justifying the maintenance and expansion of the military machine that feeds the financial and political fortunes of the metropolitan elite. In short divide and rule is about as close as it gets to a universal recourse the imperial game and that it is, therefore, as important to bear it in mind today as it was in the times of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, the Spanish Conquistadors and the British Raj. To thoseand I suspect there are still many out therefor whom all this seems too neat or too conspiratorial, I would suggest a careful side-by side reading of: a) the Clean Break manifesto generated by the Jerusalem-based Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS) in 1996 and b) the Rebuilding Americas Defenses paper generated by The Project for a New American Century (PNAC) in 2000, a US group with deep personal and institutional links to the aforementioned Israeli think tank, and with the ascension of George Bush Junior to the White House, to the most exclusive sanctums of the US foreign policy apparatus. To read the cold-blooded imperial reasoning in both of these documentswhich speak, in the first case, quite openly of the need to destabilize the region so as to reshape Israels strategic environment and, in the second of the need to dramatically increase the number of US forward bases in the region . To do so now, after the USs systematic destruction of Iraq and Libyatwo notably oil-rich countries whose delicate ethnic and religious balances were well known to anyone in or out of government with more than passing interest in history, and after the its carefully calibrated efforts to generate and maintain murderous and civilization-destroying stalemates in Syria and Egypt (something that is easily substantiated despite our medias deafening silence on the subject), is downright blood-curdling. And yet, it seems that for even very well-informed analysts, it is beyond the pale to raise the possibility that foreign policy elites in the US and Israel, like all virtually all the ambitious hegemons before them on the world stage, might have quite coldly and consciously fomented open-ended chaos in order to achieve their overlapping strategic objectives in this part of the world. Antiwars Justin Raimondo notes: Iraqs fate was sealed from the moment we invaded: it has no future as a unitary state. As I pointed out again and again in the early days of the conflict, Iraq is fated to split apart into at least three separate states: the Shiite areas around Baghdad and to the south, the Sunni regions to the northwest, and the Kurdish enclave which was itching for independence since well before the US invasion. This was the War Partys real if unexpressed goal from the very beginning: the atomization of Iraq, and indeed the entire Middle East. Their goal, in short, was chaos and that is precisely what we are seeing today. *** As I put it years ago: [T]he actual purpose was to blow the country to smithereens: to atomize it, and crush it, so that it would never rise again. When we invaded and occupied Iraq, we didnt just militarily defeat Iraqs armed forces we dismantled their army, and their police force, along with all the other institutions that held the country together. The educational system was destroyed, and not reconstituted. The infrastructure was pulverized, and never restored. Even the physical hallmarks of a civilized society roads, bridges, electrical plants, water facilities, museums, schools were bombed out of existence or else left to fall into disrepair. Along with that, the spiritual and psychological infrastructure that enables a society to function the bonds of trust, allegiance, and custom was dissolved , leaving Iraqis to fend for themselves in a war of all against all. What we are witnessing in post-Saddam Iraq is the erasure of an entire country. We can say, with confidence: We came, we saw, we atomized. Why? This is the question that inevitably arises in the wake of such an analysis: why deliberately destroy an entire country whose people were civilized while our European ancestors were living in trees? The people who planned, agitated for, and executed this war are the very same people who have advanced Israeli interests at Americas expense at every opportunity. In A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, a 1996 document prepared by a gaggle of neocons Perle, Douglas Feith, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was urged to break out of Israels alleged stagnation and undertake a campaign of regime change across the Middle East, targeting Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Iraq, and eventually Iran. With the exception of Iran and that ones still cooking on the back burner this is precisely what has occurred. In 2003, in the immediate wake of our Pyrrhic victory in Iraq, then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared to a visiting delegation of American members of Congress that these rogue states Iran, Libya, and Syria would have to be next on the War Partys target list. (Indeed.) And Michel Chossudovsky points out: The division of Iraq along sectarian-ethnic lines has been on the drawing board of the Pentagon for more than 10 years . What is envisaged by Washington is the outright suppression of the Baghdad regime and the institutions of the central government, leading to a process of political fracturing and the elimination of Iraq as a country. This process of political fracturing in Iraq along sectarian lines will inevitably have an impact on Syria, where the US-NATO sponsored terrorists have in large part been defeated. Destabilization and political fragmentation in Syria is also contemplated: Washingtons intent is no longer to pursue the narrow objective of regime change in Damascus. What is contemplated is the break up of both Iraq and Syria along sectarian-ethnic lines . The formation of the caliphate may be the first step towards a broader conflict in the Middle East, bearing in mind that Iran is supportive of the al-Maliki government and the US ploy may indeed be to encourage the intervention of Iran. The proposed re-division of both Iraq and Syria is broadly modeled on that of the Federation of Yugoslavia which was split up into seven independent states (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia (FYRM), Slovenia, Montenegro, Kosovo). According to Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, the re division of Iraq into three separate states is part of a broader process of redrawing the Map of the Middle East. The above map was prepared by Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters. It was published in the Armed Forces Journal in June 2006, Peters is a retired colonel of the U.S. National War Academy. (Map Copyright Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters 2006). Although the map does not officially reflect Pentagon doctrine, it has been used in a training program at NATOs Defense College for senior military officers. (See Plans for Redrawing the Middle East: The Project for a New Middle East By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Global Research, November 2006) Breaking Apart Syria Similarly, Neooconservatives in the U.S. and Israel have long advocated for the balkanization of Syria into smaller regions based on ethnicity and religion. The goal was to break up the country, and to do away with the sovereignty of Syria as a separate nation. In 1982, a prominent Israeli journalist formerly attached to the Israeli Foreign Ministry allegedly wrote a book expressly calling for the break up of Syria: All the Arab states should be broken down, by Israel, into small units . Dissolution of Syria and Iraq later on into ethnically or religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon, is Israels primary target on the Eastern front in the long run. It is well-documented that in 1996 U.S. and Israeli Neocons advocated: Weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria . As Michel Chossudovsky points out: Destabilization and political fragmentation in Syria is also contemplated: Washingtons intent is no longer to pursue the narrow objective of regime change in Damascus. What is contemplated is the break up of both Iraq and Syria along sectarian-ethnic lines. In 2013, former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas said: Let them both [sides] bleed, haemorrhage to death: thats the strategic thinking here. As long as this lingers, theres no real threat from Syria. Indeed, in May 2015, one of the key architects of the Iraq war John Bolton said: The Arabs divided between Sunnis and Shias I think the Sunni Arabs are never going to agree to be in a state where the Shia outnumber them 3-1. Thats what ISIS has been able to take advantage of. I think our objective should be a new Sunni state out of the western part of Iraq, the eastern part of Syria run by moderates or at least authoritarians who are not radical Islamists. Whats left of the state of Iraq, as of right now, is simply a satellite of the ayatollahs in Tehran. Its not anything we should try to aid. In September 2015, Pentagon intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart said that he has a tough time seeing either Iraq or Syria really coming back together as sovereign nations. Dan Sanchez noted last week: In general, Israel ideally prefers regime changes that result in the installation of stable puppets. That is Plan A. But Plan B is to balkanize. Better to divide and conquer than to countenance a rogue (independent) neighbor. So it is noteworthy that Israel is endorsing its Plan B for Syria just when its enemies are making it plain that Plan A (Assad Must Go) is not happening any time soon. And SecState John Kerry confirmed just yesterday that Plan B is to break Syria up into different states. Benjamin Netanyahus government in Tel Aviv is drafting legislation that ought to resolve in observers minds the question of whether Israel is the democracy it proudly claims to be. The bill empowers a three-quarters majority of the Israeli parliament to oust a sitting MP. It breathes new life into the phrase tyranny of the majority. But in this case, the majority will be Jewish MPs oppressing their Palestinian colleagues. Mr Netanyahu has presented the bill as a necessary response to the recent actions of three MPs from the Balad faction of the Joint List, a coalition of parties representing the often-overlooked fifth of Israels citizens who are Palestinian. He claims the MPs sided with terror this month when they visited Palestinian families in occupied East Jerusalem who have been waiting many months for Israel to return their relatives bodies. The 11 dead are among those alleged to have carried out what are termed lone-wolf attacks, part of a recent wave of Palestinian unrest. Fearful of more protests, Israel has demanded that the families bury the bodies in secret, without autopsies, and in plots outside Jerusalem. There is an urgent moral and political issue about Israel using bodies as bargaining chips to encourage Palestinian obedience towards its illegal occupation. The three Palestinian MPs also believe they are under an obligation to help the families by adding to the pressure on Mr Netanyahu to return the bodies. Israels Palestinian minority has a severely degraded form of citizenship, but it enjoys more rights than Palestinians living under occupation. When a video of the meeting was posted online, however, the Israeli right seized the chance to attack and disenfranchise the MPs. A parliamentary ethics committee comprising the main Jewish parties suspended the three MPs for several months. Now they face losing their seats. This is part of a clear trend. Late last year, the government outlawed the northern Islamic Movement, a popular extra-parliamentary political, religious and welfare organisation. Despite Mr Netanyahus statements that the movement was linked to terror, leaks to the Israeli media showed his intelligence chiefs had advised him weeks before the ban that there was no evidence to support such accusations. At the time many Palestinians in Israel suspected Mr Netanyahu would soon turn his sights on the Palestinian parties in the parliament. And so he has. Balad, which decries Israels status as a Jewish state and noisily campaigns for democratic reform, was always likely to be top of his list. In every recent general election, an election committee dominated by the Jewish parties has banned Balad or its leaders from standing, only to see the Israeli courts reverse the decision. Now Mr Netanyahu is legislating the expulsion of Balad and throwing down the gauntlet to the courts. It wont end there. If Balad is unseated, the participation of the other Joint List factions will be untenable. In effect, the Israeli right is seeking to ethnically cleanse the parliament. For those who doubt such intentions, consider that two years ago the government raised the electoral threshold for entry to the parliament specifically to exclude the Palestinian factions. The intention was to empty the parliament of its Palestinian representatives. But these factions put aside their historic differences to create the Joint List. Mr Netanyahu, who had hoped to see the back of the Palestinian parties at last years general election, inadvertently transformed them into the third biggest party. That was the context for his now-infamous campaign warning that the Arabs are coming out in droves to vote. The crackdown on Palestinian parties may finally burst the simplistic assumption that Israel is a democracy because its Palestinian minority has the vote. This argument was always deeply misguided. After Israels creation in 1948, officials gave citizenship and the vote to the few Palestinians remaining inside the new borders precisely because they were a small and weak minority. In exiling more than 80 per cent of Palestinians from their homeland, Israel effectively rigged its national electoral constituency to ensure there would be a huge Jewish majority in perpetuity. A Palestinian MP, Ahmed Tibi, summed it up neatly. Israel, he said, was a democratic state for Jews and a Jewish state for its Palestinian citizens. In truth, the vote of Palestinian citizens was only ever meant as window-dressing. David Ben Gurion, Israels first prime minister, assumed that the rump Palestinian population would be swamped by Jewish immigrants flooding into the new state. He miscalculated. The Palestinian minority had a far higher birth rate and maintained a level of 20 per cent of the population. None of that would matter had the Palestinian representatives quietly accepted their position as shop-window mannequins. But in recent years, as Mahmoud Abbass Palestinian Authority has grown ever weaker, confined to small enclaves of the West Bank, the Palestinian MPs in Israel have taken up some of the slack. That was why the Balad MPs met the Jerusalem families. The PA, barred by Israel from East Jerusalem, can only look on helplessly on this issue. This month Mr Netanyahu said he would surround Israel with walls to keep out the neighbourhoods wild beasts. In his view, there are also wild beasts to be found in Israels parliament and he is ready to erect walls to keep them out too. - See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-02-23/israel-is-on-the-brink-of-a-tyranny-of-the-majority/#sthash.0WCRwj8w.dpuf - See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-02-23/israel-is-on-the-brink-of-a-tyranny-of-the-majority/#sthash.0WCRwj8w.dpuf Israel is on the Brink of a Tyranny of the Majority By discrediting and disenfranchising Palestinian parliament members, Israels democracy is being exposed as a facade By Jonathan Cook February 25, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Benjamin Netanyahus government in Tel Aviv is drafting legislation that ought to resolve in observers minds the question of whether Israel is the democracy it proudly claims to be. The bill empowers a three-quarters majority of the Israeli parliament to oust a sitting MP. It breathes new life into the phrase tyranny of the majority. But in this case, the majority will be Jewish MPs oppressing their Palestinian colleagues. Mr Netanyahu has presented the bill as a necessary response to the recent actions of three MPs from the Balad faction of the Joint List, a coalition of parties representing the often-overlooked fifth of Israels citizens who are Palestinian. He claims the MPs sided with terror this month when they visited Palestinian families in occupied East Jerusalem who have been waiting many months for Israel to return their relatives bodies. The 11 dead are among those alleged to have carried out what are termed lone-wolf attacks, part of a recent wave of Palestinian unrest. Fearful of more protests, Israel has demanded that the families bury the bodies in secret, without autopsies, and in plots outside Jerusalem. There is an urgent moral and political issue about Israel using bodies as bargaining chips to encourage Palestinian obedience towards its illegal occupation. The three Palestinian MPs also believe they are under an obligation to help the families by adding to the pressure on Mr Netanyahu to return the bodies. Israels Palestinian minority has a severely degraded form of citizenship, but it enjoys more rights than Palestinians living under occupation. When a video of the meeting was posted online, however, the Israeli right seized the chance to attack and disenfranchise the MPs. A parliamentary ethics committee comprising the main Jewish parties suspended the three MPs for several months. Now they face losing their seats. This is part of a clear trend. Late last year, the government outlawed the northern Islamic Movement, a popular extra-parliamentary political, religious and welfare organisation. Despite Mr Netanyahus statements that the movement was linked to terror, leaks to the Israeli media showed his intelligence chiefs had advised him weeks before the ban that there was no evidence to support such accusations. At the time many Palestinians in Israel suspected Mr Netanyahu would soon turn his sights on the Palestinian parties in the parliament. And so he has. Balad, which decries Israels status as a Jewish state and noisily campaigns for democratic reform, was always likely to be top of his list. In every recent general election, an election committee dominated by the Jewish parties has banned Balad or its leaders from standing, only to see the Israeli courts reverse the decision. Now Mr Netanyahu is legislating the expulsion of Balad and throwing down the gauntlet to the courts. It wont end there. If Balad is unseated, the participation of the other Joint List factions will be untenable. In effect, the Israeli right is seeking to ethnically cleanse the parliament. For those who doubt such intentions, consider that two years ago the government raised the electoral threshold for entry to the parliament specifically to exclude the Palestinian factions. The intention was to empty the parliament of its Palestinian representatives. But these factions put aside their historic differences to create the Joint List. Mr Netanyahu, who had hoped to see the back of the Palestinian parties at last years general election, inadvertently transformed them into the third biggest party. That was the context for his now-infamous campaign warning that the Arabs are coming out in droves to vote. The crackdown on Palestinian parties may finally burst the simplistic assumption that Israel is a democracy because its Palestinian minority has the vote. This argument was always deeply misguided. After Israels creation in 1948, officials gave citizenship and the vote to the few Palestinians remaining inside the new borders precisely because they were a small and weak minority. In exiling more than 80 per cent of Palestinians from their homeland, Israel effectively rigged its national electoral constituency to ensure there would be a huge Jewish majority in perpetuity. A Palestinian MP, Ahmed Tibi, summed it up neatly. Israel, he said, was a democratic state for Jews and a Jewish state for its Palestinian citizens. In truth, the vote of Palestinian citizens was only ever meant as window-dressing. David Ben Gurion, Israels first prime minister, assumed that the rump Palestinian population would be swamped by Jewish immigrants flooding into the new state. He miscalculated. The Palestinian minority had a far higher birth rate and maintained a level of 20 per cent of the population. None of that would matter had the Palestinian representatives quietly accepted their position as shop-window mannequins. But in recent years, as Mahmoud Abbass Palestinian Authority has grown ever weaker, confined to small enclaves of the West Bank, the Palestinian MPs in Israel have taken up some of the slack. That was why the Balad MPs met the Jerusalem families. The PA, barred by Israel from East Jerusalem, can only look on helplessly on this issue. This month Mr Netanyahu said he would surround Israel with walls to keep out the neighbourhoods wild beasts. In his view, there are also wild beasts to be found in Israels parliament and he is ready to erect walls to keep them out too. Jonathan Cook is a Nazareth- based journalist and winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism - http://www.jonathan-cook.net In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information ClearingHouse endorsed or sponsored by the originator.) Privacy Statement Brexit and Good Riddance By Finian Cunningham February 25, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Sputnik " - For many European citizens, the 28-member-state Union has turned out to be a huge disappointment. It is far from the progressive, socialist bloc that many had once envisaged. One of the reasons for the EUs historic failure is Britain. Ever since the United Kingdom joined the European project, it has been a largely negative force, carping about workers rights, equality laws and the principle of inter-state solidarity. Now it is to vote on whether to finally leave the Union the so-called Brexit. When Britain first applied to join the then six-member European Economic Community back in 1963, it was rejected by co-founder France under President Charles De Gaulle. De Gaulles shrewd reasoning was reportedly that the British are fundamentally hostile to the European initiative. With the French leader later out of office, Britain finally got its way and acquired membership in 1973. But you would wonder why it ever wanted to join? For in the more than four decades of membership, Britain has been running a continual battle of dissent against Brussels, the Belgian capital where the blocs administration is centered. The EEC has since evolved into the European Union which now comprises 28 states. AFP 2016/ EMMANUEL DUNAND British complaints towards the EU have always been most vocal from its pro-business, rightwing Conservative party, which tends to be the more dominant governing party. A recurring protest from the Tories is that British sovereignty is being undermined by the plurality of European states. Britain, it seems, wants to be part of Europe for partial economic benefits, but when it comes to any other issue, London has always wanted to go it alone. Britain didnt join the single currency system, and it was never part of the passport-free travel arrangement that most of the EU have participated in. It wants special exemptions for the City of London as a free-wheeling financial centre, and, as shown in Prime Minister David Camerons latest deal with Brussels, Britain has arrogated a new raft of opt-out privileges, giving it a special status within the EU. This British dissent has been a hallmark under avowedly socialist Labour governments too, albeit less vituperative, which shows that there is something inherently frigid about Britain towards Europe. De Gaulle was right after all, it seems, in his assessment that British rulers were congenitally hostile to all things European. Britains malign influence on the EUs development is perhaps best seen in the area of foreign policy, and in particular in its subservience towards Washington. Europe has shown itself to be nothing more than a collection of vassal states that kowtow to American demands. Rather than pursuing an independent, critical stance on world affairs, the EU is just a pathetic branch of Washingtons global reach. A classic illustration of this obsequious syndrome is the impasse over the past two years with Russia. Instead of growing as natural partners with Russia, Europe is in throes of a bizarre standoff. This is because Washington has accused Russia under Vladimir Putin of all sorts of ridiculous transgressions, including being a threat to European security, and the EU unblinkingly follows the Americans. Many European citizens, workers and businesses do not agree with this demonization of Russia. Indeed, they see it as a travesty and a reckless drive to war. Yet the EU leadership has toed Washingtons belligerent line towards Moscow and adopted a host of self-defeating economic sanctions. These sanctions have hit European citizens much harder than Americans. But the EU in its subordination to Washington persists with this futile and unnecessary hostility toward Russia. This irrational deference to the US by the EU can be traced to Britains ardent Atlanticist affiliation. Notice that in the confrontation over Ukraine, for example, it is Britain that typically echoes Washingtons hardline on Moscow, which has the effect of cohering the other EU governments behind a US-British spearhead. What the Americans and British call the special relationship is really this: British governments perform as Washingtons stalking horse in Europe. Britains function was spelled out in a recent article by Richard Haass, who is president of the influential Council on Foreign Relations, based in Washington. On the possibility of Britain leaving the EU, Haass said it was highly undesirable. He wrote: One reason why the US values its ties to the UK as much as it does is the UKs role in Europe. Britain is important not just as a bilateral partner, but because more often than not it can be counted on to argue for and support positions in Brussels consistent with, or at least not far from, those of the US. Put another way, if Britain were not a member of the EU, then Washingtons influence on European policies would be greatly diminished. And that is why Washington is now urging Britain to remain within the Union as the forthcoming British referendum on its future with the EU looms on June 23. There are many other illustrations of how Britain has served as Washingtons malign surrogate in shaping the EU to conform with its geopolitical ambitions. One is how Britain is a staunch supporter of the US-led NATO military alliance. Disturbingly for independent-minded Europeans, the EU has almost become a clone of NATO. Most of the alliances 28 members are European. And it is Britain that has eagerly pushed for its expansion into eastern Europe, with bogus jingoistic claims that Russia poses an existential threat. Then there is Americas rampage of illegal wars for regime change over the past two decades. In every one of these, from Iraq to Afghanistan, from Libya to Syria, Britain has ridden shotgun with its American boss. This British complicity has, in turn, contaminated Europe with Washingtons global criminality. And bequeathed Europe the fallout from these wars, in the form of terrorist blowback and an unprecedented refugee crisis. Of course, it is not all Britains fault. European leaders like Germanys Angela Merkel and Frances Francois Hollande have shown odious servility towards Washington in relation to Russia. Europe needs to grow a political backbone. Nevertheless, it seems fair to say that Europe would be a far more progressive and constructive, independent power were it not for Britains continual dragging it back into a reactionary, pro-Washington fold. The EU has indeed gone badly awry from the vision of a democratic, independent confederation. It has become, perhaps irredeemably, a vassal of American one-percent-type capitalism and warmongering imperialism. Maybe the people of Europe need to break up this lily-livered leviathan and to rebuild again. One start to reconstructing a new Europe would be for Britain to exit. How can a viable Europe be ever built with such a delinquent force in its midst? A so-called Brexit may herald the break-up of the EU as we know it. Thats not necessarily a bad thing as the EU has lost its way over many years. A shake-up is long overdue right down to the core. Paradoxically, carping old Britain, by leaving, may actually do Europe a favor in that it will presage a proper reconstruction of the EU one that is independent in foreign relations and not just a lapdog to Washington. And in this new EU, Britain would be excluded. So, lets have a Brexit. And good riddance! What a lot of people know about February is that it is the month of love All thanks to Valentines Day on February 14th. However this isnt the only thing the second and shortest month of the year possesses. Before the month comes to an end, INFORMATION NIGERIA would like to tell you some interesting facts about February that we are sure you never knew 1. February is named after the purification ritual Februa, which was a sort of early Roman spring cleaning festival. 2. In Old English, February was called Solmonath (Mud month) or Kale-monath (Kale or cabbage month). 3. February frequently occurs in lists of the most commonly misspelt words in the English language. So true right? An aspirant to the Ondo State Government House and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has called on leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to present a formidable candidate for the forthcoming governorship election in the state. Akeredolu, who contested the 2012 governorship election in the state on the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, said his experience showed that the party needs to be formidable to defeat any candidate presented by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Speaking at an event where he declared his governorship intention, the aspirant said APC needs adequate planning and preparation to wrest power from the PDP. He also explained that his decision to give the governorship seat a second shot was borne of his desire to serve the people and end maladministration in the state. The APC aspirant said he would end all forms of ill-governance in the state. Akeredolu, who solicited for support, rated himself as the best of all the 30 aspirants jostling to pick the ticket of the APC. He expressed optimism that the party would emerge victorious in the election. The former National President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, assured that the party would do well and deliver the state from its present position. Akeredolu, who promised to turn the state into an Eldorado within the first two years of stay in office, said his administration will partner international organisations to develop the state. Earlier, the Ondo APC Chairman, Isaac Kekemeke, described Akeredolu as a committed and steadfast politician. He has remained resolute in the ideology of progressive politics since he ventured into politics. Mr. Kekemeke also assured that the partys candidate will emerge through a transparent system, and will be acceptable to all members. The senator representing Kaduna Central District on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, Shehu Sani, has reignited hopes that the abducted Chibok schoolgirls can be reunited with their families and loved ones but the Federal Government must negotiate with some persons to extract the girls from their current danger. He also said that unfolding events in the polity had revealed that the seven year bloody campaign of the Boko Haram Terrorists was fueled by the greed of a few, who profited from the situation. Sen. Sani spoke in Akure on Wednesday as a discussant at a symposium held as part of the 40thAnniversary of Ondo State and the seventh anniversary of the Olusegun Mimiko-led administration. Something that has bothered some of us here in line with the insurgency is, when the Chibok girls will be freed, he said. In veiled reference to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the senator said Someone said the Chibok girls will never be free, but I can tell you that they will be free and they are alive. Mr. Sani had in the past led a private initiative to open a line of dialogue between the federal government and the terrorists but the proposed negotiation did not see the light of day. A civil rights activist at the time, the Kaduna senator later accused former President Goodluck Jonathans government of not showing sufficient commitment to the proposed talks. Speaking in Akure, the Ondo State capital, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign and Domestic Debts noted that in addition to the use of force, government must explore other options of rescuing the Chibok girls, who have spent close to two years in Boko Haram captivity. There are two ways to get them: the first is to use force to free them and before you apply force, you have to know where they are. You also have to weigh the consequences of raiding the camp with such number of persons, because the insurgents have nothing to lose, he said. The second option is to explore ways of extracting them out through negotiation and negotiation is still possible. There are a few people, not a panel of eminent Nigerians or a panel, there are a few people who the government needs to reach out to, he said. The senator also explained that the girls could be rescued in the first instance, because the parties could not make concession. They said they were going to free the girls on the condition we freed their people. And when we came to the negotiating table, and the government said it cannot free the terrorists because they have done a lot of harm, he recalled. Mr. Sani also said that Boko Haram is a terrorist group with a leadership and a theocratic agenda. For those who have been following events in the last six to seven years, we have seen how some of us from the north, particularly myself, I tried to find an alternative means of addressing the problem of the insurgency, he said. I took the risk of reaching out to the insurgents and initiating a process of dialogue, about three to four times and it was sabotaged by those who were benefitting from the bloodshed and I think the unfolding events in the country clearly shows to all Nigerians that there were people who see that seven years of bloodshed, of mass murder, of genocide as an opportunity for them to amass wealth. It is not possible to say that an insurgent group or people not more than two to three thousand have proved so difficult for a nation of 175 million people to crush. A nation like ours with a reputable armed forces and have performed creditably well in peace keeping missions in Liberia and Sierra Leone and Congo and other countries of the world. It was so clear that some see it as an opportunity, like the Chinese saying, some people see crisis as a struggle, others see it as an opportunity. That is why it dragged on for so long, but I hope with the present administration, at least progress has been made in terms of degrading the capacity and ability of Boko Haram to take up territories. The civil rights activist-turned politician further explained that the initial strategy of the insurgents was to send terrorists to bomb targets, but they metamorphosed into an ISIS group, taking over territories and imposing their Islamic rule, but now have been forced to return to hitting soft targets. A Lugbe Grade 1 Area Court in the FCT on Wednesday sentenced three labourers to two months imprisonment each for stealing 67 tubers of yam. The convicts are Isiaka Hassan, 21; Aminu Amodu, 25; and Sani Isah, 25 all residents of Kapwa Village, Airport Road, Abuja. The judge, Garba Ogbede, however, gave the convicts an option of N6, 000 fine each. He warned them to desist from committing crime and ordered that the 67 tubers of yam should be returned to the owner. The convicts could not pay the fines and were taken to Kuje Prisons. The trio had pleaded guilty to the charges of stealing and conspiracy and begged for leniency. Following the guilty plea by the accused, the prosecutor urged the court to try them summarily under Section 347 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015. Earlier, Prosecutor Ndidi Ukaoha told the court that the complainant, Sakoma Yeyeyi of Lugbe Primary School, Airport Road, Abuja, reported the incident at Lugbe Police Station on Feb. 17. She said the accused went to Yeyeyis farm near River Park Estate, Abuja, and harvested 67 tubers of yam. Hassan and his colleagues were apprehended and handed over to the police immediately on Feb.17. The offences contravened the provisions of Section 79 and 287 of the Penal Code, Laws of the Federation. (NAN) A suit filed by National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Olisa Metuh, challenging his arraignment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for allegedly destroying evidence and receiving money from the Office of the National Security Adviser, has been dismissed by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja. In a ruling on Thursday, Justice Okon Abang dismissed the case for lack of diligent prosecution and ordered the PDP spokesman to pay N20,000 to four out of the six defendants, including the EFCC. The beneficiaries of the cost which Metuh was ordered to pay, apart from the EFCC, are the Attorney General of the Federation, the Inspector General of Police and Nigerian Immigration Services. Other defendants to the suit but who were not to be paid by Metuh are the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission and the Department of State Services. It would be recalled that the case with file number FHC/ABJ/CS//20/2016, was on February 9 adjourned till Thursday, but when it came up for hearing, neither Metuh nor any of his lawyers was present in court. The EFCC was, however, represented by Mr. F.A Jirbo during the proceedings. The absence of the PDP spokesman and his lawyers forced Justice Abang to dismiss the case on Thursday on the grounds of lack of diligent prosecution. Metuh had filed two suits which were consolidated into one. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Thursday said that the Federal Governments war against corruption was a panacea for development. Mohammed said this in an interview with newsmen shortly after a courtesy visit to Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State at the State House, Alausa, Ikeja. Corruption is eating deep not just into the fabric of our moral but is preventing development. The emphasis of this government today is not just to talk about figures of how much has been embezzled, he said. Mohammed said that the Federal Government was also more concerned about letting Nigerians know how corruption had affected them. More importantly, what the government wants to do is to let Nigerians know the cost of what corruption has done to them. When we had a news conference in January and disclosed that 55 people allegedly stole N1.34 trillion between 2007 and 2013, what we tried to emphasise then was what one third of that money could have done to Nigeria, Mohammed said. He said that this money would have been used to bring more development to the country. Speaking on the essence of his visit, Mohammed said it was to solicit the support of the Lagos State Government on the redevelopment of the National Museum at Onikan and the National Arts Theatre in Iganmu. The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, on Wednesday said the ministry would investigate claim by South African mobile telecommunication giant, MTN that it has paid 50 billion naira into governments coffers towards a possible settlement of the dispute with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). According to the minister, the firms claim that it has withdrawn the matter from court is also being investigated by government. The Special Assistant on Media Affairs to the Minister, Mr. Victor Oluwadamilare, told The Nation that governments position on the matter has been made clear, but MTN went to court for reasons best known to it. Governments position on the matter is sacrosant, MTN secured 25 percent reduction on the fine imposed by the regulatory body. Suddenly, it proceeded to court to challenge the government. Now we are told they have withdrawn the case from court and have paid 50 billion naira to government. Well, I can tell you on behalf of the Minister of Communications and Technology that we are studying the situation. If it is confirmed that they have withdrawn the case from court and have paid the said amount, then the government would make its position known on the matter, the ministerial aide said. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has fixed dates for the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States, later this year. The INEC spokesman, Nick Dazang, on Thursday said the commission had slated September 10 and November 26, 2016 for election into the Edo and Ondo States governorship seats respectively. The INEC under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu will be looking to redeem itself in the eyes of Nigerians and indeed, the international community after the controversies that trailed the governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States almost marred the gains of the 2015 general elections, which has been adjudged as one of the freest and fairest. The tenures of the governors of the two states; Adams Oshiomhole of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Olusegun Mimiko of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, end this year. They are serving out their two term tenures. Life in Iraq under the Islamic State is hard, a 16-year-old Swedish girl who was rescued by Iraqi Kurds told an interviewer. The interview was seen Tuesday on Kurdistan 24, a broadcast news channel based in Erbil, Iraq, the headquarters of Kurdistans Region Security Council. Speaking in English, the teenager said she was 15 and pregnant when she dropped out of school and joined her radicalized boyfriend as they traveled by bus and train through Europe to Turkey, Syria and then Mosul, Iraq. First it was good together, but then he started to look at ISIS (IS) videos and speak about them and stuff like that. Then he said he wanted to go to ISIS and I said OK, no problem, because I did not know what ISIS meant or what Islam was, nothing. She added they were living in a house provided to them by IS which lacked electricity and running water. In Sweden we have everything, and when I was there, I did not have anything. I did not have any money either. It was a really hard life. When I had a phone I started to contact my mum and I said I want to go home,' she said. He mother contacted Swedish officials, who notified Kurdish authorities, the Kurdistan Region Security Council, a military opponent of IS, said in a statement. Kurdish officials said Tuesday that the teenager was located in Iraqi Kurdistan andwould be given to Swedish authorities. At the end of the interview, the girl thanked Kurdish officials for her rescue and for making it possible for her to see her family again and have a happy life. UPI. The joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Banking and Currency yesterday queried the nations apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for allegedly spending N1.062 trillion revenue above the N482.167 billion proposed income for the year 2015. CBN is developing a culture of spend as I earn attitude, the lawmakers said, arguing that the bank should have remitted N400 billion operating surplus to governments treasury. The lawmakers also queried an alleged astronomical increase in staff cost from N158.134 billion in 2015 to N408.808 billion as proposed in 2016 budget; and non-inclusion of commission for brokers, Dutch income, in its budget proposal. They wondered why the CBN should spend N780 million on the dealing room, N226 million for recruitment, N1.5 billion on research, N75.980 billion loss incurred from SWAP, N.8 billion on data collection and about N1 billion on Entrepreneurial Development Centre. The committee, therefore, demanded for CBNs financial statement, nominal roll, details of foreign and domestic investments, among other contentious issues raised at the meeting. A 25-year-old casual worker, Raphael Nwoye, on Tuesday allegedly went on the rampage in the Ajao Estate area of Lagos State, stabbing his 33-year-old colleague, Ifeanyi Onuoha, to death for insulting his lover, and injuring two others who tried to make peace. PUNCH Metro learnt that 33-year-old Onuoha was stabbed in the neck and in the back at about 8am on Niyi Ogunbameru Street after the suspect claimed that Onuoha had been rude to his lover, identified only as Ngozi, on several occasions. Our correspondent gathered that Nwoye, who was one of the casual workers who usually offloaded containers, had had an altercation with Onuoha a few weeks back over Ngozi and had warned the deceased to desist from insulting his lover. It was learnt that on Tuesday, when Onuoha, also a casual worker, came into the area to see whether there were containers to offload, there was a fresh argument over Ngozi. It was said that Nwoye, who had a knife in a bag he carried, rushed at Onuoha and stabbed him in the neck and in the back. The deceased reportedly moved away while two bystanders, one of them identified only as Kenneth, tried to hold the suspect to prevent further attack. An angry Nwoye was said to have allegedly stabbed the two peacemakers, prompting a resident to quickly alert the Ajao Estate Police Division to the bloody fight on the street. Onuoha, Kenneth and the third victim, whose name had yet to be ascertained, were said to have rushed to the Isolo General Hospital. While Onuoha died before reaching the hospital, the two others were said to be receiving treatment. The suspect was thereafter arrested by the police. When PUNCH Metro got to the area on Wednesday, most residents were not willing to talk about the incident. A security man, Chukwu Ebuka, however, told our correspondent that Onuoha and Nwoye were friends and labourers in the area, until they became rivals over a girl. Ebuka added that there was a third friend, Tony, who had tried to help the duo settle their differences. He said, The girl in question is afraid. She has left this area since yesterday. Apart from Ifeanyi (Onuoha) and Raphael (Nwoye), there is a third labourer Tony. Sometime in January, Nwoye had raised the issue that Ifeanyi was misbehaving with his girlfriend because he insulted her, but they settled the quarrel. Yesterday, Tony had called Ifeanyi to come to the area as there were containers to be offloaded. When Ifeanyi arrived, there was a fresh argument over the girlfriend, and Raphael became angry and brought out a knife. After killing his friend, Raphael was about escaping when people stopped him that he must not escape. During that process, Raphael stabbed two more persons. They were also bleeding but fortunately, we rushed them to a hospital, and they are still alive. We do not know Raphaels family. He is one of those men who do menial jobs on the street. He had been moving about with the knife in his bag for days before the incident. A factory worker, who declined to give her name, said she saw Onuoha writhing in pains as she came to work on Tuesday. She said, I heard the man shouting, He has killed me o, help help as I was coming to work. Blood was all over the place. Both of them do not stay on this street. They only come to work if there are containers they can offload. People were shocked that the fight over a girl degenerated into killing. The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, said the case would be transferred to the State Department of Criminal Investigation for further investigation. She said, Nwoye was arrested for allegedly stabbing Onuoha to death. The deceased is of a yet-to-be-known address. He was stabbed in the neck and in the back, and he died on the spot. His corpse was deposited at the Isolo General Hospital Morgue for a post mortem examination, while the suspect had been arrested. He will be transferred to the SDCI for further investigation. Source: Punch A former New Jersey mayor returned an overdue library book 72 years later, after his daughter discovered it in his attic. Frank Ryan, 84, former mayor of Bound Brook, returned the book Football Through the Years to Bound Brook Memorial Library in a special ceremony on Tuesday. The book was found by Ryans daughter Karen when she and his son Frank Jr. discovered a large barrel in their attic in December, shortly after Ryans wife died. We always wondered what was in that barrel in the attic, Karen Ryan told MyCentralJersey.com. Who knew it was an overdue library book? Ryan didnt return the book until February because he feared hed be thrown in jail. I knew it didnt make sense, but that was my first thought, he said. I didnt know what was going to happen. Im ready now to return it. The ceremony was attended by Karen, Ryans grandson Ross, current Bound Brook Mayor Robert Fazen and former borough Police Chief Anthony Cimino who joked with Ryan about his fear of being arrested. The book was finally returned to the library in excellent condition and Local History Librarian Mary Nelson said they were happy to place it in their archives. We are happy to have it back, she said. It will be catalogued as part of the collection. While people wont be able to take it out of the building, they can look at it here. UPI. The Cuban Ambassador to Nigeria, Carlos Sosa, has said that a very large population of Cubans originated from Yorubaland and that the Ooni of Ife is the spiritual father of most of his countrymen all over the world. Mr. Sosa spoke Tuesday while hosting The Ooni, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, at the embassy of the Republic of Cuba in Abuja. Ooni is the Spiritual father of most of us Cubans all over the world because 90 percent of Cubans are black Africans and a very large portion of us originated from Yorubaland which is spiritually headed by Ooni of Ife, said Mr. Sosa. Mr. Sosa said the Cubans originated from Ile-Ife, a town they call their ancestral home and which they cannot wish away. He spoke of the tourism potentials of Nigeria, particularly in Ile Ife, describing the ancient town as home to numerous tourist attractions, which he said if developed to international standards, would boost Nigerias economy. The coordinator of the event and Chief Executive Officer of La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort, Lagos, Wale Akinboboye, called on Nigerian investors to join hands with the federal government in developing tourism potentials as a way of attracting more foreigners to the country. Sally Mbanefo, the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, said the Nigerian government would give credence to tourism business in the country, adding that tourism was Nigerias untapped goldmine. The first thing is to diversify the economy, then the Public Private Participation be encouraged; we need to fight for domestic tourism, we have the population as our greatest strength, Mrs. Mbanefo said. If 20 million out of 170 million Nigerians travel to explore tourism activities, will that not translate to huge revenue generation because you cant stop Nigerians from travelling? What about private organization such as telecomm companies, they make so much money but are they giving back to the society? Government cannot do it alone, they need to come in. Though some of these states are ready like Lagos, Ogun, Nassarawa, Abia, even Kaduna state are all ready to go. Collaboration is all we need; collaboration with other government agencies success, the NTDC boss added. Four policemen who were on guard duty in the residence of President Goodluck Jonathans uncle and foster father, Mr. Inengite, are in custody due to their connection to his abduction. Sources at the Bayelsa Police Command said on Wednesday that the policemen were being interrogated as part of an investigation into the kidnap incident. Police Spokeman for Bayelsa Command, Asinim Butswat, (DSP) informed media source that the police launched a manhunt for the kidnappers. It will be recalled that Mr. Inengite, who was abducted on February 17, 2016, was previously kidnapped on February 28, 2014, in his house and was freed by security forces on March 10, 2014. A relative of Mr. Jonathan, Samuel Oki, who was kidnapped alongside Mr. Inengite, was shot dead and found floating in the Otuoke creeks. Mr. Igbogiamini Paul, a family source, regretted that the policemen were not on duty when the kidnappers invaded Mr. Inengites residence. He said if they had been on the ground the old man would not have been so easily abducted. The family source added that the arrangements for the burial of Mr. Oki were being made. Meanwhile the kidnappers have yet to establish contact with the family, raising concerns about the fate of the 72 year-old. Source:SaharaReporters Some members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday called defiant senator, Kabiru Marafa, to order over his continued desecration of the sanctity of the legislature. Marafa, the senator representing Zamfara Central on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, is an outspoken critic of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki. A report of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, which investigated the Zamfara senator for allegedly disparaging the upper legislative chamber in a newspaper interview, has been submitted and awaiting action. Mr. Marafa, however, denied the allegation, and accused members of the Senator Samuel Anyanwu-led committee of lying against him and being afraid of him because of their atrocities. Eleven members of the lower legislative chamber in a statement on Wednesday, urged Mr. Marafa, a member of a group of anti-Saraki senators known as the Unity Forum, to allow popular will of the senators, who elected the leadership of the Senate, override his personal interest. The lawmakers said they became vested in the matter after realizing that Mr. Marafas attacks on Mr. Saraki, were misconceived. The statement said the attacks had started to cast a slur on the integrity of the entire National Assembly over which the Senate President presides as chairman. It is indeed regrettable that eight months after the contest for leadership in the Senate ended, Marafa and his group have remained in electioneering mode, they said. According to the statement, Mr. Marafas claim that there were fifth columnists working against the interest of the executive in the Senate, was not in order. The statement said that any right thinking Nigerian would know that the budget as presented had a number of challenges which needed the collaborative efforts of both arms of government to sort out. According to the statement, Mr. Marafas suggestion that the National Assembly was behind the current budget hiccup was unfortunate. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that those who signed the statement are Kabir Ajanah, Mustafa Dawaki, Gaza Gbefwi, Supo Adeola, Adamu Kamale, Rita Orji, and Chukwueke Anohu. Others are Zakari Mohammed, Gabriel Onyewife, Ali Issa and Victor Nwokolo. (NAN) The Senate committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions on Thursday recommended the issuance of a warrant of arrest against the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, over alleged diversion of N1 trillion recovered by the commission. The recommendation was made by Chairman of the Committee, Senator Samuel Anyanwu (PDP, Imo East) while submitting the report of his Committee on the petition by one Mr. George Uboh on the alleged diversion of the recovered funds. Mr. Uboh had in his petition laid on the floor by Senator Peter Nwaoboshi (PDP, Delta North) accused the former EFCC boss of diverting 95 per cent of the commissions recoveries in foreign currencies. He also alleged that EFCC under Lamorde colluded with real estate companies to undervalue seized assets before they were sold off to their cronies. According to him, half of the assets seized from suspects by the EFCC during Lamordes tenure were not reflected in the commissions exhibit records. Sen. Anyanwu revealed that while the petitioner appeared before his committee to substantiate his claims, the former EFCC boss was nowhere to be found. He said having waited for the appearance of Lamorde since 24th November, 2015, his committee came to the conclusion that the former EFCC boss was evading investigation hence, the recommendation to declare him wanted. Consequently, the committee reasoned that the way to get the former EFCC chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde to appear before it was to invoke the powers of the Senate in section 89 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and compel his attendance. Unless this is done, the National Assembly might be drawn into consequential disrepute in the future, he said. But the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu raised a point of order, citing sections 88 & 89 of 1999 Constitution, saying the issue should not be discussed on the floor. So what is required here is for the committee to issue a warrant of arrest and then the President of the Senate will direct the Police to effect the arrest. It is not the business of the senate during the plenary to do so. Otherwise, we will be offending this part of the constitution, he said. Ekweremadus point of order was sustained by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who asked the committee to oblige. On this day in 1925 Alh. Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari, Turakin Sakkwato, was born. He served as the President of Second Republic (19791983). .. Also on this day in 2007, riot police were deployed to quell communal clashes that have claimed several lives in the southern oil-rich Ogoniland. Anti-riot policemen were sent to contain the violence in Bodo and Mogho, in Rivers State, where several people have been killed in the past four days, and dozens of houses and vehicles destroyed. In Buni Yadi, Yobe State, on this day in 2014, gunmen from the Islamist group Boko Haram stormed a boarding school and killed 59 people, many of whom died in flames as the school was burned to the ground. Some of the students bodies were burned to ashes but female students were spared in the attack. The attackers went to the female dormitories and told the young women to go home, get married and abandon the Western education. The Nigerian Army said gallant troops on Wednesday foiled an attempt by Boko Haram Terrorists to wreak havoc at the Internally Displaced Persons camp located at Dikwa, Borno State. However, a soldier paid the supreme sacrifice in the process of foiling the attempted attack. A statement by the acting Director, Army Public Relations, Sani Usman, said the terrorists, while fleeing from the defense put up by the troops, ran into the hands of the Armed Forces Special Forces, who had already mounted blocking positions. The army spokesman said the terrorists were decisively dealt with by the Special Forces, who succeeded in killing many of them and recovering a vehicle, arms and ammunition. Usman, a colonel, added that a member of the Civilian JTF was seriously injured and a military vehicle damaged by a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) suicide bomber. The statement said The troops recovered 26 bodies of the Boko Haram terrorists, while others escaped with gunshot wounds, destroyed 3 VIED, 1 MBIED and 2 Gun trucks. Items recovered from the terrorists included 1 Gun truck mounted with an Anti-Aircraft Gun, 1 Dushka Anti-Aircraft Gun, 1 Browning Anti-Aircraft Gun, 1 Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) Tube. Others include 1 General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), 4 AK 47 Rifles, 3 RPG Bombs, 36 Hand Grenades, 1 Smoke Grenade and 8 AK-47 rifles magazines, 236 rounds of 12.7mm ammunitions, 396 rounds of 7.62mm ammunitions and 101 rounds of 762mm (Special), ammunitions. The casualties have seen been evacuated while the troops have been pursuing those terrorists that escaped with gunshot wounds, it added. Col. Usman noted with encouragement that in spite of the loss of a colleague and a vigilante, the troops maintained dominating presence in the general area and are more than ever before committed to ridding the area of remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists. The immediate past acting national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, was arrested Tuesday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for illegally receiving 23 luxury vehicles valued at N310 million from controversial businessman, Jide Omokore, PREMIUM TIMES is reporting. The online newspaper quotes a source at the EFCC as saying the vehicles included a Mercedes Benz G63 and a Range Rover Autobiography. His (Mr. Secondus) name popped up while we were investigating Jide Omokore who lifted crude oil repeatedly through his Atlantic Energy but failed to remit the money to the government, said the source. It would be recalled that just recently Mr. Omokore, a close associate of the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, was compelled to pay $14 million crude oil royalty his company, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited, failed to remit to the federal treasury. It was gathered that Mr. Secondus, who only on Monday handed over the reins of leadership of the PDP to a substantive chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, was picked up by the anti-graft operatives the following day after investigators suspected he had served as a conduit for laundering Mr. Omokores funds. Mr. Omokore distributed money and gifts to politicians and investigators are suspicious that actually those money and vehicles might have passed through him (Mr. Secondus) to other politicians, the source said. Mr. Secondus is currently undergoing interrogation at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja. Meanwhile, the PDP has criticized the federal governments oppressive and unfair treatments of its key leaders. In a statement on Wednesday by its National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwon, the party said the arrest of its former acting chairman was part of the governing All Progressive Congress-led governments grand plot to decimate the opposition. We are also aware that plans have been perfected by the federal government to arrest and detain the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio and other leaders of the party on imaginary charges. Indeed, intelligence available to the party shows that the federal government, using its various agencies, is bent on destroying any opposition to the ruling party as all indications show that the government is more interested in humiliating the PDP than fighting corruption, Mr. Kwon said. Authorities in California said a woman accused of trying to take a parked train on a joyride was arrested after sounding the locomotives horn. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department said deputies were dispatched to the Victor Valley Transportation Center in Victorville after 2 a.m. Sunday on a report of a trains horn sounding for more than 10 minutes. Investigators said Shawna Marone, 45, refused to exit the cab of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe train, which was running when deputies arrived. A deputy entered the cab and arrested Marone, who allegedly told investigators she had intended to take the train for a joy ride. A BNSF representative said Marone would not have been able to move the train past the yard due to safety equipment. Marone was booked into the High Desert Detention Center on suspicion of illegally moving a locomotive with possible injury or death. She was issued a citation and released later in the day Sunday. The sheriffs department said deputies were still investigating whether Marone moved the train before they arrived. UPI. Grain Spreads: Bean Demand Walsh Trading - 20 minutes ago Exports For Future Shipment Surge Coffee Prices Under Pressure on Improving Supply Outlook Barchart - 38 minutes ago December arabica coffee (KCZ22 ) on Friday closed down -0.15 (-0.08%), and Nov ICE Robusta coffee (RMX22 ) closed down -44 (-2.15%). Coffee prices on Friday extended their month-long slide, with arabica... KCZ22 : 190.90s (-0.08%) RMF23 : 1,996s (-2.20%) ^USDBRL : 5.16052 (-1.00%) Sugar Prices Mixed as Supply Concerns Ease Barchart - 47 minutes ago March NY world sugar #11 (SBH23 ) on Friday closed down -0.01 (-0.05%), and Dec London white sugar #5 (SWZ22 ) closed up +5.10 (+0.97%). Sugar prices Friday settled mixed, with NY sugar falling to a 2-week... SBH23 : 18.38s (-0.05%) SWZ22 : 533.00s (+0.97%) ^USDBRL : 5.16052 (-1.00%) Cocoa Prices Settle Mixed on Uneven Global Cocoa Demand Barchart - 49 minutes ago December ICE NY cocoa (CCZ22 ) on Friday closed down -22 (-0.95%), and December ICE London cocoa #7 (CAZ22 ) closed up +5 (+0.26%). Cocoa prices Friday settled mixed. Signs of mixed global cocoa demand... CCZ22 : 2,306s (-0.95%) CAH23 : 1,907s (+0.32%) Coffee Prices Fall as the Supply Outlook Improves Barchart - Fri Oct 21, 11:44AM CDT December arabica coffee (KCZ22 ) this morning is down -0.50 (-0.26%), and Nov ICE Robusta coffee (RMX22 ) is down -47 (-2.30%). Coffee prices this morning are moving lower, with arabica falling to a... KCZ22 : 190.90s (-0.08%) RMF23 : 1,996s (-2.20%) Crude Oil Pushes Higher on Dollar Weakness Barchart - Fri Oct 21, 11:24AM CDT Dec WTI crude oil (CLZ22 ) this morning is up +0.23 (+0.27%), and Dec RBOB gasoline (RBZ22 ) is up +1.40 (+0.57%). Nov Nymex natural gas (NGX22) is down by -0.393 (-7.33%). Crude oil and gasoline prices... CLZ22 : 84.93 (+0.50%) RBZ22 : 2.4623 (-0.15%) 3 Dividend Paying Tech Stocks Sure Dividend - Fri Oct 21, 11:23AM CDT Tech stocks are not normally known as dividend payers, but these 3 dividend stocks have solid yields and long-term dividend growth. Hogs Mostly Higher at Midday Barchart - Fri Oct 21, 11:21AM CDT Lean hog futures are printing $0.50 to $1.92 gains through the Friday midday. The deferred summer 23 months are red by 2 to 12 cents on the board. The CME Lean Hog for 10/19 was $93.76, up by another... HEZ22 : 89.125s (+2.41%) HEJ23 : 93.850s (+0.78%) KMZ22 : 98.000 (+1.16%) Cotton Market Mixed Mostly Higher Barchart - Fri Oct 21, 11:21AM CDT Midday cotton prices are stuck within 15 points of UNC. December is up by 15 points, with the deferred months also gaining 4 to 9 points. Midday March contracts are down by 4 points so far. December has... CTZ22 : 79.13s (+2.24%) CTH23 : 78.55s (+1.67%) CTK23 : 78.15s (+1.44%) Bowdoin College recently received a $10 million gift from David and Barbara Roux toward a new environmental studies building tentatively named the Roux Center for the Environment. The space will bring faculty from a number of academic disciplines together to "encourage collaboration and creativity in the teaching and scholarship of the environment." We keep a close eye on environment-related gifts and grants to colleges, and for good reasons. There is a lot of money flowing for environmental philanthropy right now, both from foundations and individual donors, and issues of sustainability are also of intense interest to college students (and faculty) these days. Many schools dream of landing big green money, but how does that happen? Most funders in this area tend to focus their funding in ways that more directly engage environmental battles: backing policy advocacy work or preserving tracts of unspoiled land. How do schools sell donors on the value of giving for campus-based efforts? Well, let's take a look. Bowdoin has well positioned itself in recent years for a big green ask. Environmental studies at Bowdoin is already interdisciplinary, involving departments such as biology, legal studies, and history. Bowdoin is even home to an Arctic studies center. The Maine-based liberal arts school also taps into the environment surrounding the school. There's the Bowdoin Scientific Station on three islands in the Bay of Fundy and the Coastal Studies Center on Orrs Island in Harpswell, Maine. It makes sense that a liberal arts school like Bowdoin, which has an active and respected environmental studies program, would draw in more gifts building on this work. Donors David and Barbara Roux illustrate this point, and as David puts it, We are delighted to have the opportunity to support Bowdoin and, in particular, to provide an opportunity for the College to build on its many strengths and accomplishments as a leader among liberal arts colleges in the study of environmental issues. Our gift is not about the building itself, but rather about the opportunities for the critical work that can be done there." I've also remarked before about how these elite schools are often based in pristine natural settings, which might leave a deep impression on a student turned alum donor. Consider hedge fund billionaire Louis Bacon and his steady support of his alma mater Middlebury, home to another esteemed environmental studies program. Bacon helped bankroll a preservation fund at Middlebury. Related: Shelling Out Green for Green: The Alumni Donor as Conservationist Neither David nor Barbara Roux attended Bowdoin, though, and the couple is based in Virginia. A Harvard and Cambridge graduate, David Roux is a co-founder, and former CEO of Silver Lake Group, a technology investment firm. A number of Roux family members have attended Bowdoin, however, including David's father, brother, sister, and the couple's daughter. Additionally, Barbara is the owner and operator of a horse breeding farm in Virginia and David sits on the board of the National Audubon Society. These works suggest an interest in the environment. David also chairs the board of Jackson Laboratory in Maine. A few years ago, the Roux couple gave $5 million to Jackson Laboratory to support research and find cures for genetically based diseases. The couple's work with Jackson Laboratory is yet one more force that has pulled this mid-Atlantic based couple within Bowdoin's orbit. In the past, we've described the NewSchools Venture Fund as "Silicon Valley's favorite ed reform group." The fund was developed by social entrepreneur Kim Smith and Silicon Valley venture capitalists Brook Byer and John Doerr. All three believed that visionary education entrepreneurs with sufficient access to capital could make big breathroughs, just as business entrepreneurs have done for decades. NewSchools Venture Fund aims to transform public education, especially in underserved communities, using practices similar to venture capital firms. It evaluates investment opportunities much as VCs might, looking at the strength of the idea, the team behind it, and its likelihood to become financially sustainable. This philanthropic intermediary, which raises and regrants funds, has a three-pronged strategy: innovative school models, tools and services, and diverse leaders. It also has a DC Schools Fund that seeks to bridge the achievement gap in the public education system in our nations capital. Since its founding in 1998, NewSchools Venture Fund has invested over $250 million to support 450 new schools and 40 education technology companies whose products reach an estimated 60 million students. Weve written before about the prominent role NewSchools plays in charter school funding, with the help of major funders such as the Broad Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Walton Foundation, as well as wealthy individual donors (Laurene Powell Jobs is on the board). We also explored how NewSchools branched out from charter funding to other education-related projects. Tonika Cheek Clayton, managing partner of the NewSchools Tools & Services division, told Inside Philanthropy that traditional school models have reached their growth potential, so new models are needed to produce greater gains. While one fund is investing in education entrepreneurs with innovative ideas for school models, Claytons Tools & Service team is paving the road for that transition by introducing technologies that will enable new ways of learning in existing classrooms. We want all kids to be able to attend a school where they feel inspired and challenged and engaged, and at the same time be progressing towards the path where they can graduate from college ready to achieve their most ambitious dreams, Clayton said. NewSchools Ignite, an initiative out of the Tools & Services division, is investing up to $15 million over the next five years with 10 challenges for EdTech entrepreneurs. The virtual accelerator program is creating an opportunity to fast-track development of tools designed to meet needs being voiced by teachers and students across the United States. The inaugural challenge launched in October of last year and funded 15 companies developing tools to spark students interest in science and education. The second of 10 planned funding opportunities got underway in February with the Middle & High School Math Challenge. Up to $1.5 million is on the table for companies creating tools that will support math learning in new and exciting ways. From start-ups to established companies, including for-profits and nonprofits, anyone with a prototype can apply to receive $50,000 to $150,000 grants designed to push math EdTech products to market. Applications are due March 14. In late summer 2016, a third challenge will focus on English Language Learning. Clayton admitted that math didnt initially seem like an obvious choice for a funding focus given the high volume of existing products. But after listening to teachers and students, NewSchools realized that the available tools were woefully inadequate: Many were aimed at elementary school kids, relied simply on memorization instead of conceptual understanding, or failed to connect with students from diverse cultural backgrounds. We need graduates that arent just memorizing their times tables, they need to be able to approach problems creatively and also have the conceptual math needed to be critical thinkers, Clayton told us. Grant recipients will participate in a six-month program that includes management assistance, product testing and evaluation, and a small-scale research study. Successful applicants will have a viable business plan with the potential to create a sustainable revenue model. NewSchools is open to the possibility of further funding for promising products. As we see it, the two biggest challenges are getting schools to buy the tools and engaging the students who will use them. We've written before about the pitfalls of ambitious technology-based learning projects, some of which have gone spectacularly awry. The devil lies very much in the details. Still, while winning the approval of teenagers is a difficult endeavor, integrating technology and targeting diverse cultural backgrounds may just do the trick. Related: When Walter Burke took over as chairman of Denison Universitys investment committee in January 2009, the financial markets were in free fall. Even before his first board meeting, Burke huddled with committee members to make sense of the devastation suffered by the schools endowment, which had dropped in value from $693 million at the end of 2007 to $536 million just 12 months later. We decided the plan was to hunker down and focus on shoring up liquidity, Burke says. Unlike most university endowment committee chairmen typically, alumni with financial or business backgrounds Burke is a clinical psychologist and has spent most of his career as a professor in the division of psychiatry at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Given the market devastation in January 2009, I thought that it might make sense to have a psychologist in the chair position, jokes Burke, a member of the Denison class of 1971 and a trustee since 1997. It was no joke when Denisons return came in at a dismal 19.6 percent for the academic fiscal year ended June 30, 2009. Yet the small, Granville, Ohiobased liberal arts school with just 2,185 undergraduates emerged from the market meltdown in better shape than Harvard University, whose once-$36.9 billion endowment lost 27.3 percent, or Yale University, which saw its $22.9 billion fund fall by 24.6 percent. Even more unexpected: Tiny Denison continued to outperform Harvard, Yale and many of the U.S.s largest educational endowments over the next four years. Denison is not alone. A select group of 20 midsize endowments with $500 million to $1 billion in assets schooled their larger peers from June 2007 through June 2012. Annualized returns for the high performers ranged from 1.86 percent to 5.36 percent, besting both Harvard (up 1.24 percent a year) and Yale (up 1.83 percent). The midsize stars outshone the 1.7 percent median return for endowments with more than $1 billion in assets, according to the Washington-based National Association of College and University Business Officers (Nacubo). At first glance, it is easy to dismiss the outperformance of midsize endowments during the fateful 200809 fiscal year as the result of being in the right place that is, the right asset classes at the right time. Entering the financial crisis, endowments with $500 million to $1 billion in assets had, on average, more money in fixed income and less in private equity, hedge funds and other illiquid alternatives than their larger brethren did, according to Nacubo. For big endowments20082009 was a disaster, says Andre Perold, co-founder and CIO of Boston-based HighVista Strategies, which manages $3.6 billion in endowment assets. Perold, an emeritus professor of finance and banking at Harvard Business School, points out that big endowments take a lot more risk to get high returns and that there are periods when theres a cost to that. Charles Skorina, founder and president of an eponymous San Franciscobased executive search firm specializing in financial services and asset management, says the successes of the smaller schools are usually overlooked because their returns are generally not reported in any prominent way. His view is supported by an October 2012 report by Vanguard Group that found that from 2009 through 2011 an investor was nearly ten times more likely to see a story about one of the ten largest endowments than to read one about any of the others. In the first half of 2013, Skorina dug into the 2012 Nacubo-Commonfund Study of Endowments (NCSE) to identify the top midsize performers and he shared his data with Institutional Investor. Why are so many smaller endowments, with their more modest resources, punching above their weight, and why hasnt anybody noticed? he asks. The five years that followed the financial crisis have been challenging for all U.S. college and university endowments, which managed to eke out only low-single-digit returns. Still, Stephen Nesbitt, CEO of alternative-investment consulting firm Cliffwater, based in Marina del Rey, California, believes that more midsize schools have been positioning themselves to outperform the largest schools since the crisis. Midsize endowments had been a little sleepy, and 2008 was a wake-up call, explains Nesbitt, who consults with a dozen endowments averaging $750 million in assets. As a result, schools are allocating more resources to their endowments: establishing professional investment offices, changing compensation to attract and retain investment staff, upgrading investment committees and hiring top-notch consulting advice. It turns out that great contacts and investment committees are not exclusive to the Ivy League. How you structure your committee, who you recruit thats a very important, often forgotten element, says John Griswold, executive director of Wilton, Connecticutbased Commonfund Institute, the educational arm of Commonfund, which manages $25 billion for 1,400 nonprofit organizations. If you dont get the governance process right, its going to be very difficult. The benefits of being smaller often go unnoticed. Having fewer assets can work in an endowments favor, as Paula Volent has observed in her 13 years as senior vice president of investments at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Small endowments are often by necessity entrepreneurial, explains Volent, who worked in the Yale Investments Office under its longtime CIO, David Swensen, first as an MBA student in 1996, then as a full-time staffer from 1997 through 2000 before moving to Bowdoin. Small staffs need to be generalists, and that gives them a lot of market knowledge and close relationships with asset managers, she says. In addition, when a top asset manager offers a $5 million allocation in its fund to an investor, for example, a smaller school can make good use of an investment that would be too little to put a dent in the portfolio of a multibillion-dollar institution. Volent says she learned everything she knows about endowment management from Swensen. But for the five years following the financial crisis, the pupil bested the teacher: Bowdoins endowment had an annualized return of 3.10 percent. As schools like Bowdoin apply the lessons learned from the Yale model and their own individual circumstances, the results have been impressive. Theres been a view that [midsize endowments] have to be more aggressive, observes Cliffwaters Nesbitt, who began consulting with Denison after being introduced to the school in 2005 by Jack Meyer, former head of Harvard Management Co. If there was a skill gap between the largest and midsize endowments, it has closed significantly. Colleges and universities in the U.S. have long depended on endowment funds to help cover the steep annual costs of running institutions of higher education. The largest schools have the largest endowments and aim to keep them that way by hiring the smartest investment professionals they can find. One of the very smartest is Yales Swensen, who has headed the investment office at the New Haven, Connecticut, university since 1985. Swensen developed an investment style whose hallmark is seeking out the newest untried investments, then adding these emerging alternative asset classes to Yales increasingly diversified portfolio. His 2000 book, Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment, was a runaway bestseller among endowments, foundations, pensions and asset managers of every stripe. Swensens success decades of consistently high returns became the model for other schools to copy. It also became the bogey to beat. Following the Yale model, schools large and small began to heap alternative investments into their endowment portfolios. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2002, institutions with more than $1 billion allocated about a quarter of their portfolios to domestic equity, compared with 40 percent at midsize schools, according to NCSE. By the end of 2012, the biggest schools had halved that allocation, to 12 percent, while the midsize schools cut it even more, down to 18 percent. At the same time, allocations to alternatives, already high at 44 percent at the largest schools, increased to 61 percent; midsize schools brought their alternatives allocation from 23 percent in 200102 to 48 percent in 201112. It all came crashing down when the financial crisis slammed schools in the 2009 fiscal year. The largest schools, whose allocations to illiquid private partnerships averaged 40 percent of their portfolios, were hit the hardest, caught without enough liquid assets to meet their obligations to the schools operating budgets, scholarships and other necessities. Smaller schools, which had about a quarter of their assets tied up, had more room to maneuver. In the five years since then, the Yale investment model has been turned on its head. Though much has changed in the 28 years since Swensen took up the CIO reins at Yale, one thing in particular has provided an opportunity for smaller schools to add alpha to their portfolios: the increasing importance of manager selection to portfolio performance. In 1986, Gary Brinson, L. Randolph Hood and Gilbert Beebowers seminal paper Determinants of Portfolio Performance established the long-held theory that asset allocation was responsible for 90 percent of fund returns. Last year Swensen, writing in Yales annual endowment report, officially acknowledged the end of that theory. As more investors have crowded into the newest asset classes, observes the report, opportunities for returns have diminished. Yales research shows that in the 20 years ended June 30, 2012, only 20 percent of Yales outperformance (relative to the average endowments monitored by investment consulting firm Cambridge Associates) was attributable to portfolio asset allocation, whereas nearly 80 percent resulted from the value added by active managers. If hiring top asset managers has become the key to endowment success, securing a talented CIO to head the endowment office is also critical. In October 2008, three months before psychology professor Burke took over the leadership of the investment committee at Denison, the school recruited its first CIO, aiming to professionalize its endowment management. Adele Gorrilla, a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Goldman Sachs Group alum, was hired away from her post as director of investments at the University of Minnesota just as the financial system was crashing. The assets had grown to a point where the committee could only do so much, and we needed to get a full-time, talented staff, Burke explains. Denisons need for a healthy endowment is particularly acute given that a full 96 percent of its undergraduates receive some kind of scholarship or financial aid funded by the school. The crisis led to some great opportunities, says Gorrilla, who got down to work with the committee and a team of two investment professionals and one analyst. The Denison CIO has a different take on using the Swensen model. Whereas most endowment watchers point to it as an asset allocation recipe that includes a boatload of alternative investments with a lower than average level of liquidity, Gorrilla views Swensen chiefly as a role model for endowment leadership: If it means you are being a leader and first in all ways in endowment investing, then it will never be dead. In early 2009, Denison hired new managers and continued to put money into real estate and energy, coinvesting in private investments with existing managers. We saw that Adele and her team could dive in and hunt down good managers, reports Burke. She does the whole thing now, he adds. Today the committees major responsibility to the board is to oversee the asset allocation, with help from Nesbitts Cliffwater. They have a very good team approach, says Nesbitt, describing how the staff, investment committee and outside advisers work together. Part of their solution was organizational, delegating greater authority to staff, staff pulling the trigger and flexible decision making. Gorrilla is modest about having posted a five-year 4.1 percent return, the second highest among midsize endowments for the 200712 period. Its still a function of the trust of the committee and relationship they have with the internal team and the market environment, she says. Its not something you just turn on like a switch. As endowments grow into the midsize range, it is not unusual for trustees to hand the reins of fund management to CIOs like Gorrilla and Carleton Colleges Jason Matz. Despite this trend, however, there are still successful endowments run by investment committees with help from consultants or an investment director without discretion. Four such schools appear on the list of top midsize endowments: No. 1-ranked Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, in New York; Colorado College (No. 5) in Colorado Springs; Vassar College (No. 9) in Poughkeepsie, New York; and Mount Holyoke College (No. 11) in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Their success is a function of superior teamwork and access to top managers. Mount Holyokes committee chairman, Betsy Palmer, agrees with Bowdoins Volent that being small has its advantages. One of the advantages we have is that we dont have to identify quite as many good managers as Harvard and Yale, notes Palmer, speaking of the now-$623 million Holyoke endowment. A 1976 graduate of one of the last bastions of all-women education, Palmer, who is also a Mount Holyoke trustee, stresses the importance of a highly functional committee that includes at least two trustees. Unlike most, however, this committee is made up of nine women and one man, the parent of a current student. This is a group that works extremely well together, says Palmer, a Columbia Business School graduate and head of North American marketing and client services at London-based investment manager Lindsell Train. With a committee dominated by women, its a different culture. As chairman, Palmer sees her role as making sure every view is heard and all board members participate and generate broad opinions. The other element in Mount Holyokes success is its relationship with longtime consultant Cambridge Associates and a team that includes a Holyoke alumnus. The committee is currently trying to streamline the manager-hiring process, handing more discretion to its consultant. I think the key driver for us has been manager selection, Palmer says, referring to the endowments 2.6 percent annualized return over five years. With help from committee contacts, the school was early into funds at Kensico Capital Management Corp. in Greenwich, Connecticut; London-based Cedar Rock Capital; and Jack Meyers Convexity Capital Management in Boston. Vassar, meanwhile, banged out a 2.7 percent annualized return over five years. Henry Johnson, class of 1988, became chairman in 2009 when Jeffrey Goldstein left both Vassars board and private equity firm Hellman & Friedman (which he has since rejoined) to work for thenTreasury secretary Timothy Geithner. We dont have a CIO but a very active and engaged committee, says Johnson, who is president and CEO of Fiduciary Trust Co. International in New York. A self-described financial aid kid, Johnson points to the importance of delivering returns to pay for scholarships. One of the things that gets lost in the investment story is how colleges are grappling with meeting their mission when the need and cost for that has never been greater, he says. Johnson credits much of Vassars success to an investment committee that includes Christianna Wood, former senior investment officer at the California Public Employees Retirement System; Steven Tananbaum, managing partner and CIO of GoldenTree Asset Management; Robert Tanenbaum, a partner in Maryland real estate firm Lerner Enterprises and an owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team; and John Arnhold, chairman and CIO of New Yorkbased First Eagle Investment Management. Johnson is very clear about the source of Vassars returns. I think one of the great things that Dave Swensen says and is often forgotten is, the Yale model is built for Yale, he notes. It doesnt work for everybody. Without hospitals or a major sports program to generate revenue and only $800 million in assets, Vassar cant take the same risks as bigger schools. With help from Anne Casscells of Menlo Park, California and New Yorkbased Aetos Capital on marketable alternatives, which make up close to a quarter of the total portfolio, and Commonfunds Susan Carter on the private portfolio, targeted at 10 percent, Vassar has taken a more conservative view on sources of return. Despite having a team of consultants that includes Russell Investments for long-only asset allocation, Johnson believes that endowment portfolios are largely in the hands of economic fate. In a period of robust growth and stability in the global economy, schools like Harvard and Yale will thrive, he says. In periods of uncertainty schools that are more defensive will do well. Wallace Weitz was a value investor, even before he opened the doors of Weitz Investment Management in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1983. Today, Weitz oversees $5.3 billion in mutual funds just five miles down the road from Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway, whose shares he has held for 35 years. According to Chicago-based data provider Morningstar, the $913 million Weitz Partners III Opportunity Fund delivered an annualized return of 15.87 percent for the five years ended August 31, 2013, putting it in the No. 1 position in its midcap fund universe. Weitz also oversees a $650 million pool of assets unrelated to his firm. As chairman of the Carleton College investment committee since July 2003, the 1970 graduate who met his wife at the Northfield, Minnesota, school and sent their three children there has had a hand in his alma maters top performance. Carletons 2.6 percent annualized return for the five years ended June 2012 placed it above the 1.2 percent median for schools the same size. Back in 2000, when Weitz took a seat on the investment committee, the small liberal arts college was heavily invested in technology stocks. As with many endowments that had tech-laden portfolios, Carleton put up outsize returns, peaking at 24.7 percent in 2000, compared with a 12 percent median return for the Nacubo universe that year. Then the tech bubble burst in March 2000, and Carletons endowment dropped from $681 million in fiscal year 2000 to a low of $452 million three years later. We held the stocks too long and were at the bottom of the rankings for a few years, then had average returns for five years, recalls Weitz. It was traumatic after being at the top of the charts. The lesson wasnt lost on Weitz. After looking at options like outsourcing the endowment, and speaking with D. Ellen Shuman, then CIO at Carnegie Corp. and a Yale endowment alumna, in 2004 the school hired its first CIO, Jason Matz. Carleton also hired consulting firm Hammond Associates (acquired by Mercer in 2009), whose mandate spanned the two-year transition to an investment office. To make the new model work, the investment culture had to change from being committee-led to handing discretion for manager selection and portfolio rebalancing to Matz and Andy Christensen, head of private markets. Committee members who wanted to touch and feel the managers got off the board, explains Matz. We can help Jason have the courage to lean against the wind and the courage to do things that dont look popular, Weitz says. That includes giving him cover to rebalance away from strategies that are working and adding more to those that are unpopular or scary. With the freedom to reallocate the portfolio, Matz brought it more in line with larger schools but stopped well short of an oversize chunk in private, illiquid partnerships. He cut public equity from 61 percent in March 2004 to 35 percent in June 2013. Private equity was increased from 12 percent to 18 percent, fixed income dropped from 20 percent to 7 percent, and marketable alternatives were raised from 8 percent to 29 percent (now spread among nine hedge funds). A real-asset portfolio was launched that is 10 percent of the total. There must be a balance between the race for returns and the need to do what is best for each school, warns Weitz. Most of the 20 midsize schools depend on their endowments for 30 percent of their annual operating budgets. If youre competing in the wrong race, you might get to the wrong place, he says. But Weitz acknowledges that its difficult to avoid focusing on competition among schools given the pressure from rankings like U.S. News & World Reports annual best colleges, in which one of the criteria is endowment per student. There are finer points of the Swensen model that work for smaller schools. Weitz points out that asset classes have streaks and Swensen is good at rebalancing. Its all about rebalancing to take advantage of the bargains, he says. Its not just if you have a Noahs ark of asset classes that you win. For his part, Matz believes that Carletons success its ability to bounce back from a steep 19.2 percent loss in 2002 to the top of the charts by June 2012 rests on manager selection. If youre not able to source superior managers who put the intent of the client ahead of themselves, if youre not in the network, youre probably going to get into trouble, says Matz, pointing to the fact that only one of Carletons then-14 hedge funds gated the schools assets that it had in that fund in 2008. Manager selection is also key at Bowdoin, where CIO Volent has carved out a special place in the portfolio for what she calls a farm team. In a formalized, now-ten-year-old program, she has invested with small, emerging managers, mostly hedge funds that spin out of larger firms. A big university may not be able to do that, Volent notes. Its a rounding error for them. Whereas many large hedge funds have become institutionalized, smaller managers are hungrier. Thats driven a lot of our returns, she adds. Volent was the first investment professional when she was hired in 2000. As the Bowdoin portfolio has grown, the school has added staff, most recently opening a satellite office in New York to cover real estate, hedge funds and private equity; Volent can be found there two days a week. If you are Harvard or Yale, investment managers are coming to see you all the time, she explains. If you are in Brunswick, Maine, youre not going to see the flow. Like most of the top midsize endowments, Bowdoin is responsible for providing 30 percent of the schools annual operating budget, making liquidity a top concern. Our focus is on capital preservation and accessing really good managers, says Volent. Unlike schools with CIOs or committee-led investment programs, some midsize institutions have chosen to outsource portfolio management. Although outsourcing has been gaining popularity, only two of the top 20 midsize endowments outsource their investment offices: Middlebury College (No. 4) and the University of Colorado Foundation (No. 20). Outsourcing sends a strong signal that schools want to follow the traditional Yale model, which requires greater resources than a midsize endowment can muster. The number of outsourced CIOs, or OCIOs, has grown with the demand. What started as a trickle in 2003, when Alice Handy left her CIO position at the University of Virginia to found Investure, has almost a decade later reached a flood, with some 50 firms identifying themselves as OCIOs, according to Darien, Connecticutbased consulting firm Casey, Quirk & Associates. Among the latest OCIOs are Matthew Wright, who vacated Vanderbilt Universitys CIO spot earlier this year to set up Disciplina Group in Nashville, and Shuman, who with Nina Scherago, former deputy CIO at the Investment Fund for Foundations, is currently in the process of building out Edgehill Endowment Partners in New Haven. The OCIO business has become very competitive, and services vary widely. Whereas the early firms followed Handys original model of individualized attention to a small group of schools and foundations, todays OCIOs will accept all or just a portion of endowment portfolios and include the largest money managers, such as J.P. Morgan Asset Management, where $40 billion in endowment and foundation assets are overseen by practice head Monica Issar. According to research conducted by Commonfund, by June 30, 2012, 38 percent of colleges and universities were outsourcing some or all of their endowment portfolios, for fees that ranged from 0.3 percent to 1.0 percent of their assets under management. The University of Colorado Foundation officially became outsourced in 2009, when its CIO, Christopher Bittman, was hired by New Yorkbased Perella Weinberg Partners to start an OCIO practice. Colorados 1.86 percent five-year return on what are now $770 million in assets just squeaked ahead of Yales 1.83 percent return but is solidly above the 1.7 percent median return for the largest endowments. Bittman, who has remained in his Denver office, recently picked up a new client, the ASU Foundation for a New American University, which oversees the $553 million Arizona State University endowment. According to Virginia Foltz, treasurer and CFO of the ASU Foundation, the seven-member ASU investment committee felt its time might be better spent discussing the higher-level concepts of asset allocation, spending and investment policy and global market impacts rather than the day-to-day management of the fund. Foltzs own time is constrained by multiple roles that include responsibility for the organizations financial operations, including reporting, treasury, debt management, risk management, planning and budgeting, payroll and benefits, gift reporting, building operations and oversight of six subsidiary organizations. She also points to the increasing need for nimble investment decision making. Vermonts Middlebury, with a 3.5 percent annualized return over the five-year period, was an early adopter of the outsourcing model when it selected Handy to be its OCIO. Churchill Franklin, an emeritus Middlebury board and investment committee member who now holds a nonvoting seat on the committee, continues to be pleased with the decision. You can only make this kind of change at certain points, says Franklin, CEO of Acadian Asset Management in Boston. That point was reached at Middlebury when the head of the investment committee moved on to become chairman of the board of trustees. Outsourcing is still a very difficult decision for schools to make, according to a Greenwich Associates report published in early 2013. The study of 30 endowments and foundations uncovered scads of fears about the outsourcing model, starting with the surrender of day-to-day control of the investment process. Other concerns included uncertainty about costs, worries about oversight and monitoring, a possible lack of transparency about fees, fear of violating fiduciary responsibility, geographic distance between the fund and the OCIO, and potential conflicts of interest. Regardless of whether smaller schools go the OCIO, investment office or committee route, Carletons Weitz is sanguine about their chances to outperform, as long as their investment teams avoid getting carried away with the latest hot idea and stick with quality investments, even if they are not working at the time. I dont despair of keeping up investmentwise with the Harvards, he says. Theres more to endowments than investment size. Perhaps the most vocal believer in the ability of midsize schools to be successful with their own version of the Yale model is Cliffwaters Nesbitt. Youve got a lot of good talent at the midlevel now, he explains. It wouldnt surprise me if the group of 20 does better than the Ivies in the next five years. Read more about U.S. college and university endowments in a companion piece, Does Size Matter for Successful Endowment Investing? Read more on endowments and foundations. Cyclists given access to insurance products and services and other benefits Lawyers for a gun maker and families of some Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims squared off in a Connecticut courtroom Monday over whether a federal law prevents the families wrongful death lawsuit targeting the AR-15 rifle used to kill 20 children and six adults in the 2012 shooting. Judge Barbara Bellis in Bridgeport, Connecticut, heard arguments but didnt issue a ruling Monday. She said she would rule within the next two months on whether the lawsuit should go forward toward trial or be dismissed. The families of nine children and adults killed at the Newtown school and a teacher who survived the attack say the AR-15 is a highly lethal military weapon that should not be sold to the public. Theyre suing Freedom Group, the Madison, North Carolina, parent company of Bushmaster Firearms, which made the AR-15 used in the school shooting. Lawyers for Freedom Group said the company is protected by a 2005 federal law that shields gun manufacturers from most lawsuits over criminal use of their products. They said Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act after determining such lawsuits were an abuse of the legal system. Joshua Koskoff, a lawyer for the victims families, said their lawsuit is believed to be the first to be filed under an exception listed in the federal law that allows litigation against companies that know, or should know, that their weapons are likely to be used in a way that risks injury to others. The families are seeking unspecified monetary damages and hope the lawsuit persuades gun companies to not sell AR-15s to the public. This is an instrument of war designed for the battlefield that is marketed and sold to the general public, said Mark Barden, whose son Daniel was killed in the massacre. Were just asking for accountability. Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan died in the shooting, said the plaintiffs are hoping to prevent AR-15s from being used in other mass shootings. He chose the AR-15, she said of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza, because he was aware of how many shots it could get out, how lethal it was, the way it was designed, that it would serve his objective of killing as many people as possible in the shortest time possible. State police say Lanza, 20, killed his victims with a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle, an AR-15 model, on Dec. 14, 2012. Lanza killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their Newtown home with a different gun before going to the school a few miles away, and then killed himself as police arrived. Nancy Lanza legally bought the rifle, state police said. Debate over the 2005 law has resurfaced in this years presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton has criticized fellow Democrat Bernie Sanders support of the 2005 law when it passed. Sanders is now backing a bill to repeal the law. Gun rights advocates posted to social media and gave interviews with traditional media Monday criticizing the Newtown families lawsuit. It is unconscionable for plaintiffs to assert that a company who manufactures a legal product would do so with any fore-thought that it was somehow acceptable to commit murder with their products, Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, told Hartford-area station WFSB-TV. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Gun Liability Connecticut Rhode Island transportation officials say 45 people died on the states roadways last year, a steady decline from previous years. Most victims were in a motor vehicle. Nine were riding bicycles and eight were pedestrians. Transportation Director Peter Alviti says hes pleased the fatalities are declining. He says one life lost is still too many. Sixty-seven people died in Rhode Island automobile crashes in 2010. Each subsequent year had more than 60 deaths until 2014, when the number of deaths dropped to 51. Health Director Nicole Alexander-Scott says one reason for the decline is increased seat belt usage, which last year reached an all-time high of 87 percent. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Auto Some residents and businesses in seven New Jersey counties affected by last months blizzard might be eligible for low-interest federal loans to help with recovery efforts. Eligible homeowners and renters can borrow up to $200,000 for repairs or replacements from the U.S. Small Business Association. Businesses can borrow up to $2 million for physical damages and economic injuries. Applications for physical property damage must be sent by April 22. Economic injury applications are due by Nov. 22. Feet of snow fell across Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Ocean counties on Jan. 22, causing severe flooding in some counties. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had called for federal disaster aid earlier this month, saying the state and counties couldnt adequately respond to the storm. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics New Jersey RSA chief Stephen Hester said a British exit from the European Union could have a negative impact on the insurers business and investment returns, underscoring a warning from top executives about the impact of withdrawal. Hester was one of 36 CEOs of companies in the blue chip FTSE 100 index who this week signed an open letter saying that leaving the EU would put the British economy at risk, though some Brexit proponents seized on the lack of other CEO names from the list. Half of our market value comes from our European businesses, and in all of our markets, some of our major competitors are European, Hester told Reuters. A level playing field between European competitors and ourselves is valuable to us in the long run. The possibility of Brexit was also likely to cause market turmoil, Hester added, speaking after RSA reported a 43 percent rise in operating profit [to 523 million pounds, or $730 million]. Other groups to have warned over the impact of Brexit include the drug sector which said exit would threaten scientific research and jeopardize the system of regulation. RSA, best known in Britain for its More Than brand, also ratcheted up its return targets and cost-cutting plans following last years abandoned takeover bid from Zurich Insurance , helping boost its shares nearly 8 percent and making them among the top gainers in the FTSE 100. Former RBS boss Hester was brought in two years ago to turn around RSA. He previously called the aborted 5.6 billion pound ($7.8 billion) takeover by Zurich a distraction. Hester told a media call the group had received no other approaches after the Zurich bid fell away. RSA said it expected to make cost savings of 250 million pounds [$348.9 million] by 2016, a year ahead of schedule, and was targeting more than 350 million pounds [$488.5 million] in gross annualized savings by 2018. It said it was targeting the upper half of its medium-term goal of an underlying return on tangible equity of between 12 and 15 percent by 2017. The company also said it had almost completed its disposal program, though Hester said it was not close to selling its Middle Eastern business, given difficult market conditions. Operating profit of 523 million pounds [$730 million] was well above analysts consensus of 481 million [$671.4 million] in a company-supplied forecast. The firm also published a solvency capital ratio of 143 percent under new European capital rules, prior to the completion of the sale of its Latin American business, and a target ratio of 130 to 160 percent. A solvency ratio of 100 percent means an insurer has set aside enough capital to meet underwriting, investment and operational risks. RSA said it would pay a final dividend of 7 pence, taking its total payout to 10.5p, up 425 percent and compared with a forecast 10.4p. ($1 = 0.7181 pounds) (Editing by Rachel Armstrong and David Holmes) Topics Europe Marsh Captive Solutions announced with immediate effect the appointments of Will Thomas-Ferrand as Strategy & Operations leader, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific, and Stephen Portelli as head of office in Malta. Both report to Ian Clancy, Marsh Captive Solutions practice leader, EMEA and Asia Pacific. In this newly created role, Thomas-Ferrand will work closely with Ian Clancy and Chris Lay, president, Marsh Captive Solutions, to develop consistent policies, practices, and platforms across Marsh Captive Solutions. Thomas-Ferrand has relocated to the UK from Marsh Captive Solutions in Malta, where he was head of office from 2010. He previously led a team in Marshs captive operations in Bermuda. Succeeding Thomas-Ferrand, Portelli will lead Marsh Captive Solutions operations on Malta, which provides strategic captive management advice to Marshs captive clients globally. Portelli will be supported by David Galea as deputy head of office. Portelli and Galea have both worked for Marsh for nearly 10 years. Chris Lay, president, Marsh Captive Solutions, commented: More and more companies are viewing their captive insurance programs as strategically important corporate assets, as they raise the visibility of risk management costs and serve as an effective control tool. Will brings tremendous experience to this newly created role, and I look forward to working with him to deliver innovative captive insurance programs to our clients globally, regardless of their size, industry, or geography. Source: Marsh Middleton, Wis.-based wholesale broker and managing general agent, Compass Specialty Risk LLC, has added Matt Huczek as assistant vice president and broker. Based in Middleton and focused on casualty lines with an emphasis on construction and environmental, Huczek will concentrate on growth in the upper Midwest. Huczek was previously an underwriter with Arch Insurance Groups Surety division where he helped launched the surety operations in their Chicago office. He began his insurance career with Arch Insurance Group working in the companys Executive Liability division while in college. He is the past president of the Surety Association of Illinois. Source: Compass Specialty Risk LLC Topics Agencies Excess Surplus Michigan and California, vying for control of our driverless future, are each proposing crumbling World War II military sites as ideal locations to test robot cars. Michigans secret weapon? Better potholes. The Great Lakes state plans to make a test track out of a 330-acre (134-hectare) industrial ghost town near Ypsilanti, where Rosie the Riveter built B-24 bombers during World War II. Backers contend that tough winters make the Willow Run factory site a better proxy for the imperfect world of driving than Californias decommissioned Navy base in Concord. California is not the real world they dont have four seasons, said Debbie Dingell, the Democratic congresswoman representing Ypsilanti. Weve got real potholes. Its a much more real-world scenario. The states are competing for a chunk of almost $4 billion in federal funding that President Barack Obama last month proposed for development of self-driving cars. While Congress has yet to approve the funding, the dangled money sets up a test-track showdown mirroring the larger struggle between Detroit and Silicon Valley for control of the connected car. Were going to compete for that $4 billion you can plan on that, said Randy Iwasaki, executive director of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority. The group oversees the California site, now called GoMentum Station, where munitions were stored underground during the war. May the best organization win. Selling Points Each site has advantages. GoMentum Station has an arid 2,100 acres where 20 miles (32 kilometers) of roads weave around empty barracks, a mess hall, gymnasium and bowling alley. While it doesnt have any state or federal funding, it already has one client: Honda Motor Co. Willow Run, by contrast, has a triple-level overpass and, nearby, underused lanes on U.S. Highway 12 where planners say test cars from multiple makers could travel in squadrons, reaching 75 miles per hour and negotiating tight turns, bridges and tunnels. Backers intend to leave some parts of the site rugged, to mimic real-world conditions, while paving new roads and erecting fake storefronts to create urban and highway environments. The factory itself was torn down last year. The state of Michigan has put up $20 million to start developing the site and to buy the property from Racer Trust, an entity created after General Motors 2009 bankruptcy to dispose of its former factories. The Willow Run factory became a GM transmission plant after serving as part of Detroits famed Arsenal of Democracy, spitting out one shiny B-24 Liberator bomber every hour. Among its 42,000 wartime employees was Rose Will Monroe, celebrated in bond-sales films as Rosie the Riveter, based on the iconic poster and song. Automaking Center The planned $80 million conversion of Willow Run is key to efforts by Michigan business leaders and politicians to keep Detroit at the center of automaking. The mission has taken on added urgency as Google dominates development of self-driving cars, with Apple Inc. and Tesla Motors Inc. also in pursuit. U.S. safety regulators this month told Google its artificial-intelligence system can be considered a replacement for human drivers and are fast-tracking efforts to establish new rules of the road for autonomous autos. As with any real estate discussion, location is key and backers of each site say theirs prevails. For California, its access to technology companies. GoMentum Station has one attribute that trumps everything Michigan has to offer, Iwasaki said: Were literally 39 miles north of Silicon Valley. The Michigan team touts its access to a wide number of automakers and more than a century of experience. Three-quarters of the industrys research and development money is spent in Michigan, or about $8 billion, said Kevin Kerrigan, a senior adviser to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. The site would work in conjunction with the University of Michigans Mcity, a 32-acre faux town just 12 miles from the Willow Run location, has been booked solid with autonomous testing since opening last summer. Common Language Connected vehicles do not work unless a General Motors car can talk to a Honda, said Gary Peters, a Democrat and Michigans junior U.S. senator, who is pushing for federal funding. They all have to be in the same test facility, running their cars. Willow Runs backers are also pitching the site as a place where federal regulators could test driverless cars to ensure they meet safety rules. In the end, supporters say the rugged roads, spotty infrastructure and cold weather for which Michiganders get chided may be the very selling points needed to win the day, since autonomous technology can be afflicted with snow blindness. If you cant test cars in snow and ice, Peters said, youre in trouble. Photo at top: Willow Run test driving site in Michigan; Copyright Bloomberg. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Topics California USA Michigan Three months after it announced it would sell its North American operations, U.K.-based wholesale and reinsurance broker Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford (CGSC) has a buyer. North Carolina-based BB&T Corp. has agreed to acquire CGSC North America Holdings Corp. for $500 million in cash. CGSC North America consists of the wholesale broker Swett & Crawford, which had merged with Cooper Gay to become Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford in 2010; specialty managing general agencies including J.H. Blades & Co and Creechurch International Underwriters; and a U.S. reinsurance broker. However, the specialty managing general agent Creechurch, which operates in Canada, is not included in the sale. This transaction excludes all Swett & Crawfords non-U.S. business which accounts for less than five percent of its total revenue. The transaction is expected to add more than $200 million in annual revenue, or an additional 15%, to BB&T Insurance. John Howard, chairman and chief executive officer of BB&T Insurance, said the deal represents a compelling opportunity to further build BB&T Insurance and add a team of industry specialists. Retire Debt CGSC announced last November that, following a strategic review of its group businesses, the company would pursue a sale of its North American business unit. According to Standard & Poors, CGSC has indicated that it will likely use the proceeds from the sale to lower or eliminate corporate debt. The North American division, Swett & Crawford, was doing pretty well. It was pretty much the international group that had troubles, said Julie Herman, associate director, Financial Services Ratings at S&P, in November when CSGC revealed its divestiture plan. And because of that, the companys capital structure became completely unsustainable. Their leverage was 11 times as of the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2015. So we knew the management was going to take action. For the first nine months of 2015, the North American division comprised 60 percent of group revenues and 78 percent of group profits, according to S&P. Thus the sale of this division and use of proceeds is expected to have a material impact on the groups credit profile, S&P said. Herman called the sale a drastic move but one that will allow the management team to focus attention on their international operations. Since purchasing Swett & Crawford, the company has experienced steep declines in revenues and earnings primarily from the groups international division while the North American business unit has remained relatively steady, according to S&P. Steve Hearn, CGSC Group CEO, said the proceeds of the sale will provide CGSC with the resources it needs to transform the business and build for the future with a fresh outlook. He said the impact of the sale on the CSGC will be profound but it can now build a business, centred on innovation, expertise and service, which is fit to challenge established markets and that will become a leading force in our chosen sectors. About BB&T BB&T said it expects to record approximately $500 million of goodwill and intangibles as a result of this acquisition. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the first half of 2016. BB&T Insurance Holdings, the fifth largest insurance broker in the U.S. and the sixth largest internationally, is a wholly owned subsidiary of BB&T Corp. BB&T Insurance Holdings operates more than 200 insurance agencies through subsidiaries BB&T Insurance Services, BB&T Insurance Services of California, McGriff, Seibels & Williams, CRC Insurance Services, Crump Life Insurance Services and AmRisc. Currently, BB&Ts wholesale insurance operations include property/casualty broker and managing general agent CRC Insurance Services, Crump Life Insurance Services and managing general underwriter AmRisc. Topics Mergers & Acquisitions USA Agencies Insurance Wholesale Human Resources The demise of Googles online insurance comparison site Google Compare is being hailed by some in the industry as a victory for the traditional agency system. But agents may want to hold off on breaking out the champagne. Leading online insurance shopping sites say they are not deterred by Googles missteps in the online insurance shopping space. In fact, they are just ramping up and have big plans to expand their reach through partnerships with companies outside of the insurance industry. Insurance is not the reason Google Compare shut down, said Keith Moore, CEO of online insurance compare, quote and buy site CoverHound.com, which was a partner of Google Compare that connected its users to CoverHounds platform to purchase policies. Moore said Google Compares issues had nothing to do with the industry or the CoverHound platform, which he says has been steadily growing since it first opened for business in 2010. CoverHound reported premium growth of 117 percent quarter to date year over year, and says it has already delivered 428,000 customer quotes through 30 carriers on its platform in 2016. Moore also said that CoverHounds Net Promoter Score used to measure customers level of engagement, satisfaction and loyalty to a brand was up overall by 32 percent to 78 (out of 100) and it had a rating of 81 for Google Compare shoppers who went through the CoverHound platform. We are seeing very positive trends in online insurance shoppingAll comparison shopping sites are seeing positive growth right now, he said. [Google] will not directly impact the positive momentum in digital insurance shopping. Compare.coms CEO Andrew Rose said his companys comparison shopping model has also been successful and its former partner Google Compares exit is in no way an indictment of the potential. Comparison is the intersection of the internet and insurance, and youve got to know both sides to make them work, he said. Let the Best Online Insurance Site Win Moore predicts the insurance comparison shopping experience will continue to be refined and enhanced to offer more efficient multi-channel connections, such as through texting and e-mail. It is going to catch up with what other shopping categories have done in the last five years. The timeline has been a little different for insurance, Moore said. Jeff Chesky, CEO of Insuritas, the agency behind Overstock.coms online insurance sales, also expects online sales of insurance will continue to evolve because there is a need for insurance companies to find a new way to distribute their products. But he doesnt think online comparison sites are the ones that can do it. Carriers are desperately seeking a new platformbut there has been no consumer call to action to support any lead generating model, he said, referring to insurance comparison shopping sites. Insuritas business model works by setting up online insurance agencies through local banks and credit unions nationwide and providing a complete quote to buy experience. In 2014, it expanded to online retail with its Overstock.com partnership, which consumers have been slow to embrace. The platform has helped build an extended relationship with the Overstock constituency, 100 percent of which buy insurance, Chesky said. He said Insuritas has been very successful in setting up what he calls meta agencies inside an ongoing business that have access to all of the customer data that carriers want when underwriting a risk such as credit score, income level and claims history. That is an element that comparison shopping sites are lacking, he said, because they dont have a complete insured profile and cant complete the policy transaction. The key ingredient to a successful meta agency is that the company where we set up the agency, or the insurance aisle, has access to nonpublic information, Chesky said. So Whats Next? Moore says CoverHound is set to announce partnerships with companies in the automotive, real estate and finance verticals. Moore would not divulge which companies the partnerships are with, but said they will allow customers to seamlessly integrate an insurance-related offering as part of their transaction through the CoverHound platform. Through the 24 percent stake the new Chubb has in the company announced last September when it was still ACE CoverHound also plans to launch small business insurance offerings later this year. Insuritas has plans to expand its online agency reach in the months ahead as well. Chesky said his firm will be setting up new meta agencies that have access to large pools of potential insureds with complete data packets on those customers. And dont count Google out. Moore said that Googles move was part of a larger plan that also included shutting down its other financial service sites for mortgages and credit cards. The search engine giant plans to retool and relaunch so it can offer a better, more user-friendly experience for financial products, Moore said. Google Compare as a brand will never exist again but they will have an insurance, mortgage and credit card offering again, he said, adding that their partnership is still in place and CoverHound plans to work with Google again at some point in the future. Chesky and Moore agree that agents have a place in the future distribution equation whatever that turns out to be. I think considering the size of the overall industry, we can both exist efficiently. We are just addressing a new era and offering a service for that, he said. Chesky believes consumers still want a trusted advocate; however, he thinks technology has made the traditional insurance agent voice irrelevant. The emerging insurance distribution models require a new generation of agents who can access and control customer data, and who can connect a customers risk appetite to carriers digitally. The situation begs the question of what model will survive and bring digital engagement from the one product that every customer in America buys every single year, he said. Don Jergler contributed to this report. Related: Topics Trends Agencies Google The ailing coal industry must face the costs of cleaning up spent mines even as companies get pushed toward bankruptcy, the U.S. Interior Secretary said this week. The mining industry is responsible for restoring old mine sites but a taxpayer subsidy called self bonding has allowed some of the largest companies to forego a large share of cleanup insurance. Bankrupt Alpha Natural Resources and Arch Coal have sought to jettison cleanup liabilities in bankruptcy court and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said officials will not tolerate such maneuvers. Even at a time of financial distress, it is still the responsibilities of these companies to do the reclamation that they signed up for, Jewell told reporters after a meeting of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. We need to make sure that those companies are held accountable. Senator Maria Cantwell, the most senior Democrat on the energy panel, pressed Jewell on self-bonding during the hearing. How are we making sure that the taxpayer isnt left on the hook? the Washington lawmaker asked during one round of questioning. Jewell said federal officials were committed to shielding taxpayers from $3.6 billion in self-bonding liabilities across the country but coal-producing states have largely been left to manage the issue so far. In some cases, the state has settled for much less money than needed to finish the cleanup work. In a bankruptcy court in St. Louis on Tuesday, a federal judge approved a deal between Wyoming regulators and Arch Coal that earmarked just $75 million to cover self bond liabilities that top $450 million. Wyoming reached a similar deal with Alpha Natural Resources with $61 million promised to cover $411 million in future cleanup now covered by self bonds. Of the roughly $2 billion in future cleanup costs facing Peabody Energy Corp, $1.47 billion of that is self-bonded and has no concrete backing. Those costs could fall to taxpayers during bankruptcy. Investors have lately worried whether a call to replace self-bonds with costly surety bonds could push struggling Peabody closer to bankruptcy. A spokesperson for Peabody Energy said the company is a good steward of mined land and complies with mine-reclamation rules. (Additional reporting by Sue Britt in St. Louis; Editing by Chris Reese and Alistair Bell) Topics USA Mining North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin announced the arrests of five Wilmington women in connection with an alleged staged auto accident ring. Investigators allege that over the course of three separate vehicle crashes, the women provided false statements to law enforcement and insurance companies in an effort to receive insurance benefits. Doris Canty, 61, was charged with one count each of obtaining property by false pretense and insurance fraud. Canty was arrested on Feb. 8 in New Hanover County and placed under a $5,000 bond. Jessica Denise Goodman, 39, was charged with three counts each of attempting to obtain property by false pretense and insurance fraud, two counts of felony conspiracy and one count each of misdemeanor conspiracy and misdemeanor child abuse. Goodman was arrested on Feb. 11 in New Hanover County and placed under a $100,000 bond. Extase Shyneice Pollock, 21, was charged with two counts of felony conspiracy and one count each of injury to personal property, insurance fraud and misdemeanor conspiracy. Pollock was arrested on Jan. 29 in New Hanover County and placed under a $5,000 bond. Shaquetta Sade Washington, 20, was charged in New Hanover County with one count of aiding and abetting to obtain property by false pretense. Washington was arrested on Feb. 16 in New Hanover County and placed under a $5,000 bond. Investigators seek an additional suspect in association with this case. Teresa Halsey Pollock, 42, is wanted for two counts of felony conspiracy and one count each of attempting to obtain property by false pretense, insurance fraud and misdemeanor conspiracy. The group allegedly staged accidents occurred on Aug. 4, Oct. 10 and Dec. 4, 2015, and involved Repwest, Wilshire and Allstate insurance companies. NCDOI employs 20 sworn state law enforcement officers dedicated to investigating and prosecuting claims of insurance and bail bonding fraud. Topics Fraud Property The owner of a Georgia-based insurance firm is requiring all of his employees to get permits to carry concealed weapons and providing each of them with a handgun. Lance Toland of Lance Toland Associates said Tuesday that the slaying of his uncle several years ago influenced his decision to implement the policy for the 10 women and two men who work in the companys three offices. None of the employees objected to the policy, Toland said. I said, `Were all going to get firearms, and it was a unanimous, 100-percent participation, no dissenters whatsoever, Toland said. Its about protection, No. 1, but its really about us as citizens of this great country enjoying and using our right to bear arms. Toland is a pilot, and his business provides aircraft insurance risk-management services with offices in the Georgia cities of Griffin and Chamblee, and on St. Simons Island. He said he gave each of his employees a Taurus Judge revolver, which can fire shotgun shells. It can fire the shot in a relatively wide range, increasing the chances that the ammunition will make contact, Toland said. This Judge, if someone comes into the room and you aim in that direction, youre going to get a piece of them, Toland said. He added that the gun is the perfect weapon for anyone who is not a seasoned marksman. A representative for Everytown for Gun Safety, a national group that advocates gun control, declined to comment. Tolands employees receive training from National Rifle Association instructors, he said. One of them, Andrea Van Buren, said the mandate would be a great idea for other companies, as long as they are willing to commit to training and also you have to commit to being ready to use it if you have to, Van Buren told WSB-TV. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Georgia Gun Liability The organizers of Salt Lake Comic Con and San Diego Comic-Con say theyre getting closer to settling a court battle over naming rights. Attorneys for the two pop-culture conventions say they have been able to resolve many of their disagreements and are working on the remaining sticking points. Court documents filed in California show they asked a federal judge to give them more time to work on a possible agreement. San Diego Comic-Con, considered the flagship of the popular convention circuit, filed a trademark violation lawsuit against the rapidly growing Salt Lake convention in August 2014. San Diegos organizers say they have legal ownership of the term comic con in all its forms, but Salt Lake says its a general term used around the country. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office is currently withholding judgment. Related: Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. (Bloomberg) -- MetLife Inc., the life insurer that is reshaping its business mix to limit government oversight, is in talks with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. about a possible sale of MetLife Premier Client Group, the companys U.S. adviser force. There can be no assurance that an agreement will be reached or that a transaction will be consummated, New York- based MetLife said Thursday in a statement. MetLife Chief Executive Officer Steve Kandarian is weighing the possible sale, spinoff or public offering of a U.S. retail unit after his company was declared by regulators as a systemically important financial institution, a too-big-to-fail designation that can bring tighter capital rules. The discussions with MassMutual are tied to the separation plan, MetLife said in Thursdays statement. A separate U.S. proposal for stricter rules on retirement- product sales is pushing some insurers to evaluate whether they keep broker-dealer operations. American International Group Inc. said last month that it was selling AIG Advisor Group to funds affiliated with Donald Marrons Lightyear Capital LLC and PSP Investments. Its a business we are not the best owner of, particularly in the light of potential Department of Labor rules, AIG CEO Peter Hancock said at the time, citing regulations that would require advisers to put their clients best interests first for retirement accounts. With the new DOL rules, that was a big factor in thinking whether this was better owned by somebody independent of us. Policyholder-owned MassMutual said in a separate statement that it entered into discussions about a possible deal and that no timetable has been set for any agreement. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Thursday on the Springfield, Massachusetts-based companys talks with MetLife, saying the business has roughly 4,000 salespeople. --With assistance from Sonali Basak and Lily Katz. Join ITR and TMF Groups tax experts at 2pm CET (1pm GMT) on November 15 as they discuss how finance leaders are increasingly faced with doing more with less, and how CFOs should adapt. Un ottobre da sogno per Antonio Conte: lex ct della Nazionale italiana, attualmente alla guida del Chelsea, nelle ultime quattro gare di Premier League ha collezionato solo successi, conditi da 11 reti segnate e addirittura nessuna incassata. Numeri da record che non sono certo passati inosservati alla Federazione inglese, la quale ha conferito al tecnico leccese lambito premio di Manager del mese. Unavventura oltremanica iniziata in sordina, quella di Conte, pur a fronte di tre vittorie nelle prime tre gare di campionato. A far vacillare, anche se solo per un momento, le certezze del patron del club londinese, Roman Abramovich, i risultati conseguiti tra la 4a e la 6a giornata, coincisi con un pareggio sul campo dello Swansea City e, soprattutto, con le due pesanti sconfitte subite dal Liverpool, sul terreno casalingo di Stamford Bridge, e dallArsenal. In particolare, la debacle interna coi Reds, aveva irritato non poco il numero uno russo, poiche occorsa proprio nel giorno della sua 250esima partita da presidente della societa. Come detto, solo un momento. Dopo lincontro dellEmirates, il tecnico salentino cambia modulo, adottando un piu equilibrato 3-4-3 e inserendo elementi di corsa come lo spagnolo Pedro. Una svolta totale perche, di li in poi, il Chelsea inanellera solo e soltanto vittorie: 2 gol allHull City e al Southampton in trasferta, 3 ai campioni dInghilterra del Leicester e 4 allo United in casa, con un meraviglioso numero zero nella casella delle reti subite. Un fantastico poker, ottenuto tra l1 e il 29 ottobre. Un cambio di marcia sbalorditivo, confermato dal 5 a 0 rifilato ai toffees dellEverton nel primo match di novembre, e una scalata che, man mano, ha portato i blues al secondo posto in classifica, a soli 2 punti dal Liverpool capolista. E allora, non poteva mancare il riconoscimento di migliore allenatore del mese, ottenuto surclassando tecnici del calibro di Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) e Mark Hughes (Southampton). Tanta, ovviamente, la soddisfazione: E un grande onore e voglio condividerlo con i giocatori e con la societa ha dichiarato Conte sul sito ufficiale della Premier League -. E la prima volta che lavoro in un altro Paese, con una cultura diversa, e portare la propria filosofia non e facile, ma ora sono contento di questa scelta. A completare la festa, la premiazione del fantasista belga, Eden Hazard, come miglior giocatore di ottobre. Due risultati importanti per il club, ottimo incentivo per la rincorsa al trono dei campioni, occupato dal Leicester di Ranieri. Il prossimo appuntamento per l11 di Conte sara al Riverside Stadium, tana del Middlesborough neopromosso. Il tempo di festeggiare e gia finito. Robo-advisors provide more accessible investing and money management options at a fraction of the cost historically available in traditional models, empowering more individuals to save, invest, and grow money towards financial freedom. But there are several factors to consider when searching for the right robo-advisor to both give you a holistic sense of your total financial picture and help keep you on track toward reaching your financial goals during turbulent market conditions. To make it easier, this unbiased, comprehensive comparison of the top robo-advisors is based on our own proprietary rating methodology that measures cash management, goal planning tools, fees, portfolio management, mobile functionality, socially conscious investing, portfolio construction, and other pertinent variables. Best Robo-Advisors Wealthfront: Best Overall and Best for Goal Planning 4.8 Account Minimum : $500 : $500 Fees: 0.25% for most accounts, no trading commission or fees for withdrawals, minimums, or transfers. Read full review Best Overall: Wealthfront is a leader in the robo-advisor space and takes the crown for Best Overall platform on the market. With a comprehensive suite of investment management tools and products, Wealthfront stands above the rest for those looking for an automated financial solution. Best for Goal Planning: Wealthfront is also our pick for the Best for Goal Planning thanks to extensive goal-setting options, free digital financial planning tools, and robust progress trackers available throughout the platform. On Friday, September 2, 2022, Wealthfront announced that, together with UBS, the companies have decided to terminate the pending acquisition, leaving Wealthfront to remain an independent company. Pros Outstanding goal setting and financial planning tools Variety of account options including 529 plans Tax-loss harvesting applied on a daily basis External account aggregation Path and Self-Driving Money tools let you evaluate tradeoffs of saving for multiple goals and automatically allocate excess cash towards them Cons Fractional share trading is not supported No human advisors are offered Limited chat and service options Overview Wealthfront was one of the first automated investment platforms in the robo-advisor space, launching in 2008 and becoming an industry leader by providing an exemplary digital portfolio management experience. Wealthfront's strength lies in its fully digital experience through a variety of portfolio customization tools and daily tax-loss harvesting. Wealthfronts portfolio management is paired with strong goal setting and financial planning tools such as Path and Self Driving money at a low cost of 0.25%. The competitive price point and high quality of the platform mean that Wealthfront has one of the strongest overall robo-advisor offerings available. One of the most impactful features of Wealthfronts platform is the account aggregator tool. Using this feature, you can see your financial picture in one place and leverage Wealthfronts powerful financial planning, goal setting, and progress tracking tools. This type of comprehensive goal support can make a large difference in helping you achieve financial success. This aspect of Wealthfront is specific to your situation as the model changes to account for changes in your personal financial life. Wealthfronts product suite also includes checking account and spend options so that you can manage more of your money in one place. This includes direct deposits, automating transfers, payments, and mobile deposits. All of this is available whether you use the investment management product or not. A borrow feature is also available through a line of credit for users with a minimum of $25,000 invested to round out the platform. Wealthfront is making a strong pitch for being an all-in-one financial solution for its users, and not just an automated portfolio manager. Interactive Advisors: Best for Socially Responsible Investing and Best for Portfolio Construction 4.2 Account Minimum : $100 - $50,000 : $100 - $50,000 Fees: 0.08-1.5% per year, depending on advisor and portfolio chosen Read full review Best for Socially Responsible Investing: Interactive advisors is our top choice for Socially Responsible Investing, given the significant number of investment vehicles, pre-built portfolios, and screening tools to let you invest in the world you envision. Best for Portfolio Construction: Interactive Advisors is also our winner for Portfolio Construction as it offers the widest range of investment options in the robo-advisor space that serve investors who use several different portfolio strategies. Pros Extensive universe of investment vehicles, including fractional shares More than 50 portfolio strategies Strong investment research and screening tools Socially conscious focus includes sustainable funds, pre-built portfolios, and screeners Cons Some portfolios have high minimums and management fees Website navigation, account opening, and funding is not as intuitive as other robo-advisors No tax-loss harvesting Overview Interactive Brokers is a powerhouse when it comes to serving traders and active investors. The broker launched its robo-advisor platform, Interactive Advisors, in 2007 to serve investors who prefer access to wide-ranging investment options and portfolio strategies while automating the portfolio management portion of their finances. Interactive Advisors offers a unique blend of portfolio options, with self-selection from an extensive investment vehicle catalog at one end of the spectrum to mimicking professionally managed portfolios on the other end of the range. Investment options include mutual funds, stocks, ETFs, fixed income, REITs, ESG, non-proprietary funds, and managed portfolios. The socially responsible focus of the platform allows you to extensively customize your portfolio's focus, such as blocking individual companies that do not align with your values or selecting existing socially conscious strategies from a wide variety of established fund managers like Vanguard, BlackRock, and Wisdom Tree. Interactive Advisors stands out among robo-advisors for portfolio construction on two fronts: One, the portfolios often contain fractional shares of stocks rather than operating solely through ETFs to create stock exposure. Two, you can choose to mirror actively managed portfolios, an option very few robo-advisors offer. Combined with the ability to screen out unwanted stocks and see the impact the omission would have using historical returns, Interactive Advisors is definitely one of the most customizable robo-advisors in the industry. Betterment: Best for Beginners and Best for Cash Management 4.5 Account Minimum : $0, $10 to get started : $0, $10 to get started Fees: 0.25% (annual) for digital plan, 0.40% (annual) for the premium plan Read full review Paid non-client of Betterment. Views may not be representative, see more reviews at the App Store and Google Play Store. Learn More about this relationship. Best for Beginners: Betterment wins our Best for Beginners category due to a very user-friendly experience combined with no Account Minimum ($10 to start investing), practical education resources, and intuitive guidance. Best for Cash Management: Betterment also receives our top choice for Cash Management as its checking account and cash reserve products give users the best option for accessing and moving money in a seamless way. Pros Straightforward onboarding and funding process Aggregation of external accounts No account minimum to maintain, $10 to get started FDIC insured checking and cash reserve account Full transparency into investment strategy before funding Cons Relatively high fees for human advice relative to competitors (Starting at $299 per consultation) Investment options limited to ETFs Overview Betterment is one of the original robo-advisors to challenge traditional investment managers, launching in 2008 and growing to $33 Billion of assets under management. The platform has been intentional about user and asset growth, acquiring Wealthsimples US business in April 2021. Betterments platform is built to attract new investors with $10 to get started, but no account minimum to maintain, while providing a seamless signup experience. Its also easy to set goals, monitor progress, and leverage a variety of straightforward planning tools. Cash management options are very attractive as well, with Betterment Checking and Cash Reserve accounts covered by FDIC insurance and providing transaction functionality similar to traditional banks. The investment platform is able to support many goals and time horizons with different accounts, each with its own investment strategy to ensure you stay on track. This also includes the option to link external accounts to Betterments platform and use financial tools to give you a holistic sense of your financial picture. While Betterment is built with a digital first approach, human advisors are available to provide added guidance for an additional fee. Betterment also pairs a checking account and cash reserve options alongside their investment offering to provide a more complete financial experience. For new investors, Betterment offers a simple solution to manage your money in a larger sense beyond just your investment portfolio. Cash Reserve is only available to clients of Betterment LLC, which is not a bank, and cash transfers to program banks are conducted through the clients brokerage accounts at Betterment Securities. For Cash Reserve (CR), Betterment LLC only receives compensation from our program banks; Betterment LLC and Betterment Securities do not charge fees on your CR balance. Checking accounts and the Betterment Visa Debit Card provided and issued by nbkc bank, Member FDIC. Checking made available through Betterment Financial LLC. Neither Betterment Financial LLC, nor any of their affiliates, is a bank. Betterment Financial LLC reimburses ATM fees and the Visa 1% foreign transaction fee worldwide, everywhere Visa is accepted. Personal Capital: Best for Portfolio Management 4.2 Account Minimum : $100,000 : $100,000 Fees: 0.89% to 0.49% for accounts over $1 million Read full review Best for Portfolio Management: Our choice for Best Portfolio Management platform is Personal Capital, due the firms outstanding tax optimization strategies and unique approach to diversification in the robo-advisor space. Pros Wide range of free investment management tools Account aggregation for holistic asset management Access to advisor or advisor team (depending on account balance) Excellent tax optimization features Strong variety of portfolio strategies and investment vehicles Cons Very high $100,000 account minimum Management fees are significantly higher than industry average starting at 0.89% annually for accounts with at least $1 million Mobile experience lacks some of the desktop functionalities Overview Personal Capitals platform was launched to investors seeking a balance between a digital-only experience and a traditional financial advisor model by pairing smart portfolio automation with access to human consultants as part of the experience. Personal Capital continues to expand its reach as it was acquired by Empower Retirement in August 2020 to pair with one of the leaders in group retirement services. It is worth noting that Personal Capital is aimed at high net-worth investors, with an account minimum of $100,000 and the top tier service for accounts over $1 million. Although it may be out of reach for many new investors, it still scored highest in terms of both automated portfolio management and true diversification. Personal Capitals strength lies in its approach to portfolio management, particularly tax optimization strategies. While tax-loss harvesting is a key aspect of the platform, Personal Capital goes further by considering different account tax statuses when placing assets and featuring tax-optimized retirement withdrawals. Much of Personal Capitals goal planning is geared around retirement which is exemplified by its Smart Withdrawal tool being a primary goal setting focus. Other financial tools such as the Recession Simulator can be used to explore the impact of a market pullback on a wider variety of investment goals. A key aspect of the platform is access to human advisors who can provide holistic guidance across the spectrum of financial planning topics and additional portfolio customization. Personal Capital puts your portfolio plan into action by including a variety of securities such as stocks, bonds, ETFs, alternative investments, cash, and private equity. Separate from cash held in your portfolio, Personal Capital's Cash account doesnt require you to be an investing client and is protected by FDIC coverage up to $1.25 million. This account offers flexible money movement including direct deposit and payments features. M1 Finance: Best for Sophisticated Investors and Best for Low Costs 4.2 Account Minimum : $100 ($500 minimum for retirement accounts) : $100 ($500 minimum for retirement accounts) Fee: 0% Read full review Best for Sophisticated Investors: Our pick for the platform best suited for sophisticated investors goes to M1 Finance because of the extensive portfolio customization options, including investor discretion to choose from over 60 different pre-built portfolios or build their own. Best for Low Costs: M1 Finance also wins the Best for Low Costs category with no fees charged for trading or account management, putting more of your dollars to work by investing. Pros No fees for trading or account management High level of portfolio control Spending and borrowing options complement portfolio management Variety of screening tools to fine-tune your portfolio Expansive portfolio customization options Cons No tax-loss harvesting Limited financial tools and calculators No aggregating of external accounts Overview M1 Finance entered the robo-advisor space in 2015 and achieved $5 Billion in assets under management in 2021, highlighting continued user and asset growth since inception. M1 also has a premier Plus tier that was improved in 2021 by adding a unique credit card product to go alongside other spending and borrowing product options. While M1 stands out for its wide variety of portfolio customization options and investment vehicles to choose from, it also excels in cost containment with no fees for trading or account management. While there are other minor miscellaneous fees for specific account management requests, M1s focus on driving down costs leaves investors with more money in their pockets. On the downside, there are limited financial calculators and goal-setting options available on the platform. There is also no access to human investment consultants, if that is important to you. In lieu of human support, M1 Finance provides a great option for self-directed investors to automate some of the investment management processes without sacrificing portfolio flexibility and control. The extensive portfolio customization features available through M1 are complemented with other account management elements such as a spend option, a credit card, and a smart transfers tool that helps allocate excess cash. Most importantly for this category, the robo-advisors commitment to cost containment and reduction keeps fees from eating into your returns. Merrill Guided Investing: Best for Education 4.4 Account Minimum : $1,000 or $20,000 with an advisor : $1,000 or $20,000 with an advisor Fee: 0.45% annually of assets under management, assessed monthly. With advisor0.85%. Discounts available for Bank of America Preferred Rewards participants. Read full review Best for Education: Merrill Guided Investing receives our top choice in this category by leveraging its expertise to provide a deep educational library of videos, articles, tools, and a goal exploration process that is valuable to investors of all backgrounds. Pros Robust initial goal setting and course correction prompts to keep you on track Expert education resources Excellent planning tools Cons No tax-loss harvesting Proposed investment allocation not viewable until funding is complete Slightly higher than average annual investment fee of 0.45% Overview Merrills Guided Investing platform was launched in 2017 to provide a stand-alone robo-advisor offering that built upon Merrills extensive investment history. Merrill added to this platform by creating a Guided Investing with an Advisor service in 2019 to pair a human element with investing. Merrill Guided Investing takes the Best for Education category thanks to a superb educational catalog that can be tailored to investors of all experiences, backgrounds, and goals. The educational content is offered in a variety of formats, including videos, articles, and goal exploration. Merrill Guided Investing aims to elevate investor knowledge so you can get the most out of the platforms tools and achieve your portfolio goals as well as your broader financial goals. The platform provides education around a variety of planning areas including retirement, saving for a home, travel, general investing, and several other goals. Investors can gain confidence in the likelihood of accomplishing their goals by using tools to simulate investment performance, savings strategies, and financial outcomes. The educational content, tools, and automated investing strategy are available through Merrills Guided Investing digital-only service for an annual fee of 0.45% and on Guided Investing with an Advisor tier for a higher annual fee of 0.85%. Both services allow investors to use ETFs and mutual funds to accomplish their goals. E*TRADE Core Portfolios: Best for Mobile Experience 3.9 Best for Mobile Experience: Our pick for the top mobile platform is E*TRADEs Core Portfolios, given the mobile apps seamless experience and sleek design, including access to the full complement of Core Portfolios features available through your smartphone. Pros Quick, easy sign up process Current E*TRADE users new to Core Portfolios receive expedited onboarding Socially Responsible Investing options Low fees and fund expense ratios Cons Limited goal setting when creating portfolio No tax-loss harvesting No external account syncing Overview E*TRADE is a well-known industry leader in the discount brokerage space, launching their Core Portfolios robo-advisor offering in 2017. When E*TRADEs platform was acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2020, an already robust offering became even deeper. The Core Portfolios mobile experience leverages the expertise of an established brokerage industry expert to provide an easy-to-use automated investment platform. As a result, investors are empowered with the tools needed to manage their portfolios directly from their mobile devices in a way that stands out from the rest of the robo-advisor field. E*TRADEs Core Portfolio manages to bring a streamlined mobile experience by reducing goal setting, questionnaires, and time horizon options. This is an intentionally designed approach so you can quickly and simply manage your investments without extensive portfolio and goal customization. Youll be able to choose a portfolio containing a diversified basket of ETFs. Auto-rebalancing is applied to help keep your portfolio on track, although no tax-loss harvesting is available and customers are unable to consolidate their outside accounts. Investment advisor support is also accessible to help answer questions for both existing and prospective customers. This all comes wrapped up in a very competitive 0.3% annual management fee. Final Verdict There are several strong robo-advisor offerings with strengths in different key areas to help manage your money. When considering which of these platforms might be the right fit, keep in mind your personal preferences, goals, and needs. One significant factor that wasnt part of our rating methodology was investment returns. This was left out due to different portfolio risk levels and allocation strategies between robo-advisors. While many platforms follow passive investment strategies attempting to match the overall growth of the market, offerings that provide additional customizations let you invest in a more dynamic, personal way. Its also helpful to consider platforms that allow for external account aggregation if your investments are held at more than one institution so you will have aligned tax optimization, investment strategies, and goal tracking. We found that Wealthfront offers the best overall experience balancing these options. Next, well look at side-by-side comparisons of the companies we reviewed so you can see where each platform shines through. For companies at every stage of development, accurately measuring profitability is crucial to the creation of effective business practices and financial management. When you know how to calculate profitability and evaluate the profit for startups, no matter the sector, you can become a successful angel investor. Businesses, accountants, and financial analysts use numerous metrics to measure profitability in different contextsnet income is probably the most well-known of these metrics. From startups to blue chips, every company needs to keep a close eye on the bottom line. Net income reflects the amount of revenue that remains as profit after accounting for all expenses, debt, income streams, and taxes. However, while it gives a bird's eye view of profitability, sometimes the devil is in the details. Key Takeaways For startups, it is especially important to measure and track profitability as the company grows. Employing several metricsincluding net income, marginal revenue, and gross profitis important when thinking about how to calculate profitability and ultimately a startup's success. What Is the Best Way to Calculate Profitability for Startups? At the most basic level, startups should assess profitability on an item-by-item basis. The goods or services, and in what quantities, that a company produces or delivers largely determines its revenue. Of course, without any revenue, there is unlikely to be any profit. Marginal revenue is the amount of increased revenue generated by each additional item produced. If a company produces one more widget than it did the week before and sells it for $10, the marginal revenue for that widget is $10. Maintaining healthy marginal revenue is crucial to ensuring a company's primary operations are not draining its finances unnecessarily. If the marginal revenue does not equal or exceed the marginal cost, there is little benefit gained by increasing output. Monitoring marginal revenue helps businesses of all sizes to ensure optimal production levels. How to Calculate Profitability for Startups However, there is a lot more to running a business than just adding up sales figures. Producing goods and services costs money before it makes money. Gross profit is a measure of profitability that accounts for the cost of creating products for sale and is calculated by subtracting the cost of goods sold (COGS) from total revenue. COGS includes all expenses directly associated with producing goods for sale, such as the cost of raw materials, labor to create or assemble products, shipping, and freight costs. If a product generates a huge amount of revenue but costs almost as much to produce, there is little profit left over to invest in future growth. A startup with inefficient production will quickly find itself floundering. At the next level, it is important to ensure day-to-day operations are not an unnecessary drain on cash flow. Operating profit measures the amount of revenue that remains after accounting for operational expenses, such as rent, utilities, wages, and insurance, in addition to COGS. This metric informs business owners about the degree to which their potential profits are being eaten up by just keeping on the lights. If there is a large gap between gross profit and operating profit, it may be an indication that overhead expenses are too high. Startups can use this metric to inform their decisions about property location, business hours, and personnel changes. Special Considerations For startups especially, calculating profitability at various levels is the best way to ensure optimal financial practices at every stage, paving the way for future growth. Startups should use all profitability metrics to establish how and where they are making and losing money. From which products to sell, to how many people to employ, or how much debt to take on to fund future growth, assessing profitability at multiple levels enables business owners to make more informed decisions across the board to drive their businesses forward. For ambitious, high-performing economics and finance students, investment banking and asset management offer lucrative career paths. Entering either of these fields often means making a lot of money right out of school, and it confers a great deal of clout, as well. The term "master of the universe" was coined during the 1980s to describe young, wealthy finance professionals, and while the fallout from the Great Recession has somewhat reshaped the public perception of Wall Street, the fact remains that investment banking, asset management, and related financial fields retain plenty of prestige, particularly in big cities such as New York. Though investment bankers and asset managers are ultimately cogs in the same machine, their job duties and day-to-day lives vary greatly, and the two careers cater to different personality types. The starkest difference is that, for the most part, investment bankers operate on the sell side, while asset managers are on the buy side. Investment bankers sell financial products and asset managers buy them to manage for their clients. Often, the two professionals are on opposite ends of the same transactionan asset manager, on behalf of his client, purchases an investment product from an investment banker. Typically, investment banking requires greater sales skills, while asset management requires greater quantitative and analytical skills. That said, the most successful professionals in either career have a good mix of both traits. Key Takeaways Investment banking and asset management are both potentially lucrative financial careers. Investment bankers work with companies to raise capital or acquire companies through M&A. Asset managers build and maintain investment portfolios for individuals and organizations. Investment Banking Investment banking is a specific division of banking related to the creation of capital for other companies, governments, and other entities. Investment banks underwrite new debt and equity securities for all types of corporations; aid in the sale of securities; and help to facilitate mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, and broker trades for both institutions and private investors. Investment banks also provide guidance to issuers regarding the issue and placement of stock. Investment banking positions include consultants, banking analysts, capital market analysts, research associates, trading specialists, and many others. Each requires its own education and skills background. Investment bankers help with corporate finance needs, such as raising funds or capital. Companies and governments hire investment bankers to facilitate complicated financial transactions, including: Debt issuance such as a bond offering New securities underwriting Mergers and acquisitions Initial public offerings (IPOs) Investment banking can involve equity and security research and making buy, sell, and hold recommendations. Investment banking firms are also market makers, which provide liquidity or connect buyers and sellers to "make" the market. Almost every investment banker starts out as an associate or analyst and hopes to put in enough years to reach a role as a vice president or managing director. Asset Management Asset managers help clients reach their investment goals by managing their money. Clients of investment managers can include individual investors as well as institutional investors such as educational institutions, insurance companies, pension funds, retirement plans, and governments. Investment managers can work with equities, bonds, and commodities, including precious metals like gold and silver. Along with high-net-worth individual portfolios, asset managers manage hedge funds and pension plans andto better serve smaller investorscreate pooled structures such as mutual funds, index funds, or exchange-traded funds, which they can manage in a single centralized portfolio. Asset managers can have varied roles and responsibilities, depending on the firm, which can include: Financial statement analysis Portfolio allocation such as a proper mix of bonds and stocks Equity research and buy and sell recommendations Financial planning and advising Estate and retirement planning as well as asset distribution Education Required Unlike medicine, law, or public accounting, neither investment banking nor asset management imposes rigid, across-the-board educational requirements. An advanced degree is seen as an asset in either field, but many successful investment bankers and asset managers begin their careers with only a bachelor's degree. On occasion, you can find someone who did not even finish college, though these people are the exception, not the rule. Whether entering with an advanced degree or a bachelor's degree, a vast majority of new investment banking and asset management hires come from prestigious schools, such as Ivy League schools, the University of Chicago, or Duke University. These schools all serve as fertile recruiting grounds for investment banks and asset management firms. Second-tier universities and party schools, by contrast, rarely attract these kinds of companies to their job fairs. While schooling is flexible, licensing is often mandatory depending on job duties. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) requires anyone engaged in the sale of securities to maintain specific licenses for each security. These licenses include Series 7, Series 63, and Series 3. Beyond this, the individual firms doing the hiring for each career may impose their own educational and licensing requirements. Skills Needed Investment bankers must have strong people skills, a tireless work ethic and a love for the markets. While many of the big banks have worked to reshape their corporate culture since the Great Recession, making it less cutthroat and more family-friendly, the fact remains investment banking is a demanding career best suited for aggressive, high-energy professionals. Because 80- and 90-hour weeks are an investment banking norm, particularly during the first few years, new hires cannot be scared of hard work and long hours. Phone conversations with a diverse mix of client personalities are constant during these long hours, so good people skills and the ability to establish rapport and speak persuasively are a must. Investment bankers need a strong quantitative acumen and a keen understanding of, and love for, the markets. Asset managers are tasked less often with selling and more often with the technical work of managing clients' portfolios. While people skills are still important, as clients want to be comfortable with the person managing their money, more important is an almost preternatural ability to track the markets and spot lucrative investment opportunities. For students who excel in math and statistics but may not have elite sales skills, asset management often confers an ideal fit in the finance world. Starting Salary The average starting salary for an investment banker at major banks such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo was $101,000 as of October 2022, according to the online finance community Wall Street Oasis. Bonuses, most of which are based on performance, frequently bring a first-year banker's total income to around $151,000. Keep in mind the hours required to earn this money are often more than double what a typical office employee works, so an investment banker's pay broken down by the hour is not as lofty as the annual figure makes it sound. After two to three years as an investment banking analyst, the person transitions to an associate position, which has an average annual salary of $163,000, plus an average of $93,000 in bonuses (less for first years and more for third years), before getting in line to become a vice president and then director or managing director, eventually earning several hundred thousand a year in salary and bonuses. Asset manager salaries range in 2021 from $62,000 to $141,000, according to Glassdoor, based on the type and size of assets under management (AUM). Many asset managers are fee-based; the bonuses they earn on top of their base salaries represent a flat percentage of the money they manage and do not vary based on the performance of that money. A reputable asset manager with a lot of money under management makes several hundred thousand dollars per year. Work-Life Balance Investment bankers are expected to prioritize work. This is not a Monday to Friday, 9-to-5 gig. Employees who are not comfortable with 80-hour weeks rarely last long in the industry. Almost every Saturday is spent at least partly at work, and even Sundays are not guaranteed off days for an investment banker. Work-life balance is a misnomer in investment banking because work is life. Asset managers keep more reasonable hours. While a person's exact working hours vary based on their employer, 40-to 50-hour weeks are pretty standard in the industry, with occasional Saturday work required but weekends off for the most part. Anyone who places work-life balance at the top of their priority list for choosing a career has an easy choice between these two careers. Which One to Choose Both careers are lucrative, prestigious and selective. Receiving an offer in either field means you have done something right. Which career is a better fit between the two comes down to your skill set and priorities. Professionals who are more aggressive, have great persuasive skills and live for their jobs tend to do better in investment banking. Those who are more cerebral, quantitatively inclined, affable but not natural-born salespeople and prioritize a healthy work-life balance are probably better off as asset managers. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. Ride-sharing and ride-hailing services are becoming increasingly popular among commuters. And their popularity is poised to rise even more. In fact, the number of ride-sharing users is estimated to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 16.6% by 2026. Some of the biggest names in this industry include Uber and Lyft. But there is a growing list of names that are trying to gain a foothold in the global market, including China's DiDi Chuxing. This article looks at a brief history of the company including its financial backers, key mergers, management, as well as its financial prospects for the future. Key Takeaways DiDi Chuxing is a mobile transportation company headquartered in Beijing. It has sometimes been referred to as China's Uber. The company was founded in 2012 and has 13,000 corporate employees. DiDi operates across Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, and Russia. It has acquired a series of rivals in China, including Kuaidi Dache and Uber China. DiDi went public in June 2021 on the NYSE. DiDi Chuxing: An Overview DiDi Chuxing is a mobile transportation company headquartered in Beijing. Known simply as DiDi, it is now one of the world's largest ride-hailing companies, serving more than 493 million users across Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, and Russia. DiDi was founded in 2012. Founder Cheng Wei, who named the company DiDi Dache, intended it to be a smartphone app for people who wanted to immediately hail cabs. Since then, it expanded to offer a broad range of services for travelers beyond taxis, including private cars, car rentals, buses, and chauffeurs, as well as delivery services, and bike-sharing. The company uses new technologies such as artificial intelligence to deploy its resources more efficiently. Since its creation, the company has raised more than $23.2 billion in 26 rounds of funding before it went public via an IPO in June 2021. The company has also made strategic investments in other global companies such as Lyft, Bolt, and Grab. DiDi Chuxing has almost 13,000 corporate employees around the world as of 2022 and dominates the Chinese ride-sharing market. $20.64 billion DiDi's market capitalization as of February 2022. DiDi's Management Ranks The management team behind Didi's success boasts alums from Goldman Sachs, Alibaba, and other major enterprises. Will Wei Cheng is DiDi's founder and chief executive officer (CEO) and has extensive technology experience. After graduating from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Wei held several jobs before joining the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Over eight years, he worked his way up to become vice president for Alibaba's online payment service, Alipay. Jean Qing Liu is the company's director and president. She joined the company in 2014 and has played a key role in DiDi's rapid growth. She has an undergraduate degree in computer science from Peking University and a master's degree in computer science from Harvard. Before joining DiDi, she worked for Goldman Sachs for more than a decade and became managing director in Asia for the investment bank. 15,000,000 In 2021, DiDi had an estimated 15 million drivers worldwide, compared to Uber's 5 million drivers. DiDi Was Built on Mergers DiDi has undergone a series of key mergers and acquisitions (M&A) since 2012most notably with key rivals who vied for market share in China. According to Crunchbase, DiDi had made five acquisitions by 2018. Reuters reported that DiDi was locked in a price war with rival Kuaidi Dache, resulting in major losses for both companies. While DiDi claimed about 55% of the Chinese market, Kuaidi controlled much of the remaining 45%. The 2015 merger resulted in one of the largest ride-sharing apps, with the newly-formed combined company valued at about $6 billion at the time. DiDi also competed aggressively against international companies that tried to corner the Chinese market including Uber China. After Uber lost an estimated $2 billion in a market share battle, it brokered a truce with DiDi. Uber China sold its business to Didi and became a minority investor. DiDi, in turn, invested $1 billion in Uber as part of the deal. DiDi has also made key investments in other companies, including $100 million in Lyft, Uber's major rival, forming a partnership to share technologies and marketing expertise. DiDi operates three different business segments: China Mobility, International, and Other Initiatives. DiDi's Early Investors DiDi had raised a significant amount of capital to expand through 26 rounds of financing before it went public. The company has a total of 48 investors, 14 of which are considered lead investors. The last was a debt financing round on April 9, 2021, which consisted of six investors. These names included: Morgan Stanley JPMorgan Chase HSBC Goldman Sachs Citi Barclays Together, these names invested a total of $1.5 billion in DiDi. DiDi also raised $500 million from SoftBank and another company called For Good Ventures in a venture round of financing in May 2020. Toyota invested $600 million in July 2019 in a corporate round of financing. DiDi Goes Public (and Then Delists) DiDi went public in an initial public offering (IPO) on June 30, 2021, when shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol DIDI. The company sold 316.8 million American Depositary Shares (ADS), raising a total of $4.4 billion or $14 per share. The offering was larger than expected because the IPO was oversubscribedDiDi originally intended to sell 288 million sharesmaking it the largest listing by a Chinese company in the United States since Alibaba went public in 2014. Post-IPO Delisting Since DiDi went public in June 2021, its shares have dropped significantly from its $14 IPO price to around $4 per share as of February 2022. Part of these losses also stems from the company's about-turn announcement to de-list its shares from American exchanges in December 2021, under pressure from the Chinese government to do so. Instead, the company will re-list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The de-listing remains an ongoing matter and it is unclear if an ADR will exist following the eventual de-listing. What Is Chinas DiDi Chuxing? DiDi Global Inc. provides ride-hailing and other services in the People's Republic of China, Brazil, Mexico, and internationally; as well as enterprise business ride solutions, bike and e-bike sharing, intra-city freight, food delivery, and financial services. The company was formerly known as Xiaoju Kuaizhi Inc. and changed its name to DiDi Global Inc. in June 2021 went it IPO'd on the New York Stock Exchange. What Is the Difference Between DiDi Chuxing and Uber? Both company's offer ride-hailing services. DiDi actually bought Uber's China operations in 2016, so Uber no longer operates in China. At the same time, DiDi does not operate in the U.S. As the saying goes, nothing is certain except for death and taxes. While taxes are certainly unavoidable, having a wealth of online resources at your disposal can relieve some of the stress and the confusion that many people face when dealing with their tax returns. Don't waste your time wading through the slew of private and corporate tax websites out there, especially when your goal is to get a basic, fact-based appraisal of your tax situation and filing options. Go straight to the source: the United States Internal Revenue Service has put together a surprisingly easy-to-navigate website that offers instructions and information for both the tax-savvy and the utter neophyte. The Homepage Familiarize yourself with the organization of the IRS.gov website: on the homepage, you'll find a menu at the top of the page that delineates each major category of information. Click on each heading for category-specific information, whether you're looking for instructions on refunds or payments, credits and deductions, or links to forms and publications. There's also a specific page on filing, from whether you need to file to a list of filing options, from free tax help to instructions of e-filing through commercial software and professional tax preparers. Can't find the category you're seeking? The Search window in the upper-right hand corner should help you. Payments and Refunds Unsurprisingly, the IRS provides a can't-miss link where individual taxpayers can make their payments directly online. For those who enroll, another option remains the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. One handy link is the "Get Transcript" tool that shows you both your overall balance as well as whether your payment has posted. On the right hand side of the screen, you'll find answers to questions such as "What if I Don't Pay?" (Short answer: while the collection procedures listed on this link are complex, its always best to be prompt and forthright when communicating with the IRS. If you can't pay your taxes in full, there are several links to information about payment plans.) It doesn't hurt to look over the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, in order to familiarize yourself with the legal rights you possess. The refund screen is simple: there's a convenient linkWhere's My Refund?that you can begin to check 24 hours after the IRS has received your e-file return, or four weeks after mailing in your paper return. Credits and Deductions Don't skip this page: to making sure you're paying the correct amount of tax, you'll want to ensure that you're taking the correct number and type of credits and deductions. The information on this page will help you ascertain how your individual circumstancesfrom business deductions to adoption credits to charitable contributionsqualify you to receive specific deductions from the tax you owe. Make sure you read the fine print in this section: remember, it's fraud to claim deductions for which you do not legally qualify. Conversely, you might be surprised at what kind of deductions you might unknowingly qualify for: for instance, do you have a plug-in electric vehicle? If you do, Uncle Sam wants to reimburse you for your environmentally sound purchase by giving you a qualified electric vehicle tax credit. Forms and Instructions This menu on the website is where you will find all of the links for the essential forms you will need, along with printable publications for those who prefer to read their fine print in hard copy form. Forms, in printable PDFs, are listed by popularity: youll find the most commonly used forms, such as the Form 1040 (the Individual Income Tax Return), toward the top of the list. Confused about what is the most appropriate form for you? Click on the link for the Interactive Tax Assistant (ITA); there's also an explanatory publication called "Which Form 1040, 1040-A, or 1040-EZ?" that offers clear delineation of the differences between the forms. On this page, youll also find the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator, which can assist you in deciding whether your withholding status with your employer is correct. For instance, you may want to increase your employer's withholding in order to reduce your tax balance due. Once you have utilized this tool, you'll fill out a new Form W-4, or Employee's Withholding Certificate, to give to your employer. Help and Resources While there are an abundance of helpful tools and information at the IRS.gov site, it's easy to miss taking advantage of a resource when you're not aware of its existence. In addition to a plethora of resources for individuals, the IRS.gov site features specific resources for active military and veterans, charities and nonprofits, businesses, parents, international taxpayers, seniors, students, and the self-employed. Victims of identity theft or tax scams, participants in the Affordable Care Act, and first-time homebuyers will all find tailored resources and assistance at their disposal. While some tax issues will require professional advice, the ITA is an excellent tax law resource for those in need of quick answers. For example, you'll see topics addressed ranging from "How Do I File a Deceased Person's Tax Return?" to "Is My Residential Rental Income Taxable and/or Are My Expenses Deductible?" The IRS even caters to gamblers, with a handy link for information on tax liability for gambling winnings. While you are required to report your gambling winnings, you might not know that you can sometimes deduct your gambling losses. According to the ITA, gambling losses should be deduced as "Other Itemized Deductions" on Schedule A (Form 1040 or 1040-SR). The IRS does stipulate that your deducted losses cannot exceed your wins. Just make sure to keep a written record of your cash losses and wins on your next trip to Las Vegas. If you're audited, you might need it. The Bottom Line While paying taxes may remain among the tasks you file under "Drudgery," the IRS.gov website takes some of the painor at least the complicationout of this inevitable responsibility. The best, and worst, aspect of the site is its sheer depth and breadth of content: youll need time and patience to sift through the site content. While its fairly well organized, it helps to make a written list of the questions and topics for which you need assistance. While its likely the majority of the information you seek will fall under one of the major headings on the IRS.gov homepage, keep in mind that the ITA can help point you in the right direction to your more complex or obscure questions. As a small business owner, you are completely responsible for your own retirement planning. If you have employees, you may feel responsible for helping them plan for a successful retirement. The considerations and retirement savings plans that work you, as a small business owner, should be paramount when planning for both your own retirement and that of your employees. Choose a Traditional Retirement Strategy There are some traditional options other than using your small business to fund your retirement, such as IRAs and 401(k)s, that function as additional sources of retirement income other than liquidating your small business. Establish a SIMPLE IRA: The savings incentive match plan for employees, or SIMPLE IRA, is one retirement plan available to small businesses. In 2021, employees can defer up to $13,500 of their salary, pretax, (rising to $14,000 in 2022), and those who are 50 or older can defer up to $16,500 by taking advantage of a $3,000 catch-up contribution. However, employees who participate in other employer-sponsored plans can contribute no more than $19,500 in all employer-sponsored plans combined (rising to $20,500 in 2022). Employers can match employee contributions to a SIMPLE IRA up to 3% of the employees compensation. Conversely, employers can contribute 2% of each eligible employees compensation of up to $290,000 in 2021 (rising to $305,000 in 2022). Employer contributions are tax-deductible. 1:16 Small Business Owners on Retirement: Remington, IN Set up a SEP IRA: A simplified employee pension (SEP) is another type of individual retirement account (IRA) to which small business owners and their employees can contribute. In 2021, it lets employees make pretax contributions of up to 25% of income or $58,000 (rising to $61,000 in 2022), whichever is less. Like a SIMPLE plan, a SEP lets small business owners make tax-deductible contributions on behalf of eligible employees, and employees wont pay taxes on the amounts an employer contributes on their behalf until they take distributions from the plan when they retire. Almost any small business can establish a SEP. It doesn't matter how few employees you have or whether your business is structured as a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation or nonprofit. Each year, you can decide how much to contribute on behalf of your employees, so you arent locked into making a contribution if your business has a bad year. Owners of the business are also considered employees and can make employee contributions to their own accounts. Overall, the SEP plan is a better option for many small businesses because it allows for larger contributions and greater flexibility. IRAs and Solo 401(k)s: If youre in a competitive field and want to attract the best talent, you might need to offer a retirement plan, such as the two described above. However, employers are not required to offer retirement benefits to their employees. If you don't, one way you can save for your own retirement without involving your employees is through a Roth or traditional IRA, which anyone with employment income can contribute to. You can also contribute to an IRA on your spouses behalf. Roth IRAs let you contribute after-tax dollars and take tax-free distributions in retirement; traditional IRAs let you contribute pretax dollars, but youll pay tax on the distributions. The most you can contribute to an IRA in 2021 and 2022 is $6,000 ($7,000 if youre 50 or older). Finally, if your small business has no eligible employees other than your spouse, you can contribute to a Solo 401(k). Develop an Exit Strategy for Your Business It might seem strange that developing a business exit strategy should be one of your first considerations when planning for retirement. But consider this: the small business you spend your life building might become your largest asset. If you want it to fund your retirement and to stop working youll need to liquidate your investment. To prepare to sell your small business one day, it needs to be able to operate without you. Its never too early to start thinking about how to accomplish that goal and about how to find the best buyer for your small business. Market conditions will affect your ability to sell your business. You might want to build flexibility into your retirement plan so you can sell your stake during a strong market or work longer if a recession hits. You definitely want to avoid a distress sale: One problem youll encounter if you wait until the last minute to exit your business is that your impending retirement will create the impression of a distress sale among potential buyers and you wont be able to sell your company at a premium. The Bottom Line Many small business owners say that they don't want to retire, or at least not retire fully. But even if youre among the many small business owners who plan to keep working, establishing a retirement plan for your small business is a good idea because it gives you options and having options means youll feel more satisfied with whatever path you choose. What will Social Security look like when you retire? Many Americans have lost hope that there will be much left to see. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 40% of those surveyed said they worry about the Social Security system a great deal, while 31% said they worry about it a fair amount. Among those not yet retired, 33% were still counting on Social Security to be a major source of retirement income. So what will Social Security realistically look like in the future? Should workers be concerned? Key Takeaways Social Security does not provide enough income for a comfortable retirement, nor is it likely to do so in the future. Without a legislative fix Social Security trust funds are expected to deplete their reserves by 2035, when the projected tax receipts will cover only 80% of scheduled benefits. The burden of restoring Social Security to long-term solvency may fall disproportionately on younger and higher-income workers. Start saving for retirement as early as possible by contributing to a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account (IRA). The Future of Social Security Social Security may look drastically different in the next few decades, especially since the Social Security Administration's 2022 Trustees Report estimates the Social Security trust funds will be depleted in 2035. At that point, the system will have no cash reserves, while projected receipts will be covering 80% of scheduled benefits. Social Security's surplus of more than $2.8 trillion as of Q1 2022 is the result of decades of contributions from the huge Baby Boomer generation. As the boomers retire they are causing benefit outlays to swell, while leaving fewer payroll tax contributors to support each beneficiary. 73% The proportion of the long-term Social Security shortfall that would be addressed by the repeal of the cap on annual income subject to Social Security taxes with no corresponding increase in benefits for high-income taxpayers, according to the Social Security Administration. Changes must be made. Many have been proposed, and the Social Security Administration regularly releases estimates of the effect of the various legislative proposals on the balances of the Social Security trust funds. Polling shows the majority of Americans favor eliminating the income cap on Social Security taxes, and means-testing benefits. What Social Security looks like after 2035 will be determined by Congress rather than opinion polls, however. In the past, lawmakers have opted to increase payroll tax rates and, much less frequently, to raise the age of eligibility for benefits, in order to ensure the program's solvency. The age of eligibility for full benefits was increased from 65 to 67 for those born in 1960 or later under program changes passed by Congress in 1983. Meanwhile, the Social Security tax rate has increased from 1% originally to 6.2% since 1990. Who Will Be Affected Most? Social Security benefits keep 18 million Americans 65 and older out of poverty. The 20% reduction in benefits that would be required to balance outlays with receipts from 2035 would hit hardest those just above the poverty line, as well as the 9.5% of Social Security recipients older than 65 already living in poverty. The Social Security Administration projects the poverty rate for beneficiaries age 60 and older would leap from 4.5% in 2034 to 7.4% in 2035 as a result of such a cut to benefits. Of course, all future beneficiaries would face the cuts, while younger and higher-income workers in particular could end up paying higher taxes as part of a solution. Social Security Is Not Enough for Retirement Even if Social Security gets a huge makeover from Congress, workers should not consider the program a sufficient retirement plan. Even now, Social Security barely covers living expenses for recipients. According to the Social Security Administration, Social Security benefit payments to 65 million recipients totaled $1.14 trillion in 2021. This might seem like a lot, but break down those numbers: in 2021, retirees received $1,555 per month, on average, and disabled workers $1,280 per month. That's not far above the official poverty line, which was roughly $1,132 a month for a single person in 2022. If you are planning to retire in the next decade, it is important to use the time you have left wisely. Boost your retirement savings as much as possible while paying down debt and keeping spending low. Social Security payments alone will not cover a typical mortgage or living expenses when you are saddled with debt. Secure Retirement, Your Way So what can someone do when retirement is 20, 30, or even 40 years away? The best plan is to start saving now. Take advantage of the time you have and save as much as you can in your 401(k) or individual retirement accounts (IRAs), traditional or Roth. The typical 401(k) plan automatically deducts your pre-tax contribution from gross earnings in each paycheck, reducing taxable income for the year. 401(k) plans also defer taxes on the accumulated gains until the money is withdrawn. Be sure to contribute enough to get your employers full match, even if it is a small percentage. Otherwise, youre passing up free money. Even if your company does not match contributions, 401(k) plans are a good deal. You get a tax break on the contribution, your funds grow on a tax-deferred basis, and you'll be able to deposit much more than you can in an IRA. IRA Contribution Limits The maximum amount that you can contribute annually to any combination of traditional IRA and Roth IRAs is $6,000 in 2022. Those age 50 and older can contribute an additional $1,000 as a catch-up contribution. Meanwhile, the maximum 401(k) contribution is $20,500 for 2022. Those 50 or older can contribute an additional $6,500. Roth IRA Income Limits Contributions to Roth IRAs are limited and can be phased out, depending on how much income you earn and your tax filing status. The income phase-out range for single filers is $129,000 to $144,000 for 2022. For married couples filing jointly, the income phase-out range is $204,000 to $214,000. So if a married couple earns more than $214,000 in 2022, they can't contribute to a Roth. Start Early As early as your 20s, you should make every effort to start saving for retirementeven if you feel you cannot afford it or youre not in your dream job. If possible, have retirement savings deducted automatically from your paycheck. This way, you wont miss the money. Another strategy is to learn to live off of 98% of your paycheck and invest the other 2%, then gradually increase the percentage each month while cutting back on spending. The Bottom Line Many people worry about whether Social Security will be available when they retire. Although it's unlikely that Congress will leave the system relying solely on incoming receipts to pay reduced benefits, the solutions could include cost-saving measures such as delaying the age of benefit eligibility or means tests. Everyone who can should build their own retirement savings and not plan to rely on Social Security benefits as the chief source of retirement income. That's not a good idea now and won't get any better in the future. Earlier this week, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Since Samsungs flagship Galaxy handsets are launched six months after Apples iPhones and six months before a new iPhone is due, they not only need to be better than Apples existing offering but also compete with the upcoming models. There are many features on the Galaxy S7 and its curved sibling, the S7 edge, that makes them better than the iPhone 6s, and I wish that Apple ended up including a similar such feature on the iPhone 7 that is due to be unveiled later this year. Wondering what these features are? Read below and find out for yourself. #5 Wireless Charging While most OEMs include wireless charging on their devices, Samsung has gone a step ahead of them and included fast wireless charging on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. This allows the companys latest Galaxies to charge almost as fast wirelessly as a wired fast charger. Apple is reported to be working on a true wireless charing technology for future versions of iPhone, but until it manages to find a working solution, I hope the company considers adding Qi wireless charging to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Yes, the current form of wireless charging is not truly wireless, but putting your phone on a pad to charge is still more convenient than plugging a cable into it. RELATED :Apple Facing a Pair of Class Action Lawsuits Over iPhone 7 Audio Issues #4 Fast Charging At this point, I am just sick and frustrated with my iPhone 6s Plus taking ages to charge and using a 2A charger only helps things to a certain extent. Android OEMs have been some form of fast charging technology in their devices since the last couple of years now, and at this point, even a $199 Android smartphone is capable of charging faster than the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, despite coming with a bigger battery than both of them. To add insult to injury, Samsung has added fast wireless charging to the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, which means that even when charged wirelessly these devices can charger almost as fast as an iPhone if not faster. Samsung states that the Galaxy S7 can be charged wirelessly from 0-100% in around 90 minutes, which is faster than the time taken by the iPhone 6s to charge to full using a wall charger. So, heres hoping that Apple finally gets around to implementing some form of fast charging technology on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus this time around to greatly reduce their charging times. #3 Waterproofing Samsung tried its hand at waterproofing with the Galaxy S5 in 2014, but failed miserably at it. Samsung went about waterproofing the handset from outside, which led the company to introduce ugly flaps to protect the microUSB port. Learning from its mistakes, Samsung this year has gone about adding IP68 certification to the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge this year from the inside, which ensures that there are no ugly flaps this time around to protect any opening or ports on the phone. As for the IP68 certification, it means that the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge can be immersed in up to 1-1.5m of fresh water for an unlimited period of time without any side effects. It also means that the internals of the handset are sealed tight to avoid any dust ingress. Rumors about Apple adding waterproofing capabilities to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have been circulating since last year, and if there is any feature from this list that I am sure will show up in the next iPhones, it has to be some waterproofing. https://youtu.be/r0epWiMGAkc #2 Always-On Display The improvements in Super AMOLED technology has allowed Samsung to introduce an always-on mode for the display on the Galaxy S7. As its name suggests, the display on the Galaxy S7 remains in an always-on state to display the date/time and other relevant notifications. This is a special low-power mode where only certain pixels are lit up on the display, so as to ensure that the impact on battery life is minimal. This feature might seem like a gimmick at first to many, but as an ex-Moto X owner, I can vouch for the fact that it is extremely useful to have. Apple is rumored to switch to an AMOLED display with a future version of the iPhone, but it is unlikely that this change will happen with the iPhone 7. While it is possible to implement an always-on display with an LCD display by modifying the IC and drivers as LG has done with the G5, I am not sure if Apple will take the trouble here. Nonetheless, here is hoping against hope that Apple ends up including this feature on the iPhone 7. #1 Hybrid SIM Most smartphones users in the United States will be unaware of this, but in China, India and other neighbouring markets, smartphones with dual-SIM slots are selling like hot cakes. As the name of the feature implies, you can have two different SIMs running on your smartphone at any given time without any issues. These two SIMs can be from two completely different operators: say one with cheaper calling plans, while the other one with better LTE network coverage. Looking at consumer demands in regional markets, many companies release modified versions of their smartphone with this feature built-in. Samsung did this last year with the Galaxy Note 5, and this year with the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, it is including a hybrid SIM card slot. This slot allows the S7 and S7 edge to accept one SIM card and one microSD card or a second SIM card, depending on your needs. Hybrid SIM can also be a boon for international travellers. They can put a local SIM and pay local rates instead of paying expensive international roaming rates. There is no denying the fact that there is a demand for dual-SIM iPhone in markets like China, though the question is whether Apple will give in to that demand and include a similar hybrid SIM slot on the iPhone 7 or not. And one feature that I wish Apple does not remove from the iPhone 7 after looking at the Galaxy S7 Apple is rumored to ditch the 3.5mm audio jack with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in favor of its own lighting port and to further slim the phone down. The company has in the past played a key role in quickly replacing inadequate technologies from its products with something better. While I am not denying that the 3.5mm audio jack is ancient, I dont think replacing it with a lightning jack is a good idea. Sure, it will lead to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus offering better music quality and other new features that were previously not possible, but that does not undermine the fact that it will also make iPhone 7-compatible audio accessories incompatible with other devices out there. Yes, you can always use an adapter, but we all know that they are clumsy and you will likely lose them sooner than later. Plus, it is not like Apple has opened the lightning connector for other OEMs to use in their devices. If there is one feature that Apple should not eliminate from the iPhone 7 after looking at the Galaxy S7, I hope its the 3.5mm audio jack. Perhaps, the company can look at replacing lightning altogether with USB Type-C interface, which will eventually replace almost every connector out there. What do you think about the above features? Or do you think there are other features in the Galaxy S7 that Apple should include in the iPhone 7? Drop in a comment below and do let us know about them. In a recent interview with Bravo , Kim Fields talks about this week's explosive episode of. Kim reveals exactly what she felt when Kenya Moore accused her about being fake about her life and on her apology. Check it out below!Kim Fields: Amused. All I know how to be is myself. All the world has known of me since my childhood is me being true to myself. I'm so grateful to have an incredibly full and #BlessedLife. Blessings are not fake. Fascinating to witness 'Unhinging in Jamaica,' the mini-series.KF: Only time can tell if an apology is sincere, based on the actions in the wake of the apology.What do you think about Kims blog?airs Sunday nights at 8/7c only on Bravo. For International TV ListingsSource/Photo Credit: Bravo In a recent interview with Bravo , Sheree Whitfield talks about this week's explosive episode of. Sheree Whitfield explains why she brought up the rumor about Kim Fields' husband. Check it out below!Sheree Whitfield: Being away from the ladies and coming back into the circle, I definitely have gained a different perspective on how to handle conflict. I believe there are certain subjects that should be off limits in our circles, our families being one of them. It was unfair and borderline cowardly of Kenya to attack Kim's marriage and family by bringing up these rumors to the group without Kim being there to defend herself. I just didn't understand how Kenya discussing rumors about Kim's marriage helps an already strained relationship.SW: It was actually a really fun time! After seeing how emotional the trip had made Cynthia with the whole BFF drama, I was glad that I was there to support in any way possible. NeNe Leakes and I had an opportunity to observe the different dynamics at play. Bob is a natural comedian and goofball and stole the show with his silly antics! I especially loved that I was able to help in accessorizing the ladies as I am, after all, a fashion designer, LOL! #NeverForget #ShebyShereeSW: It was simple, Kim deserved an opportunity to respond and defend the rumors that Kenya brought to the group. I've come to learn that in these type of instances if an issue isn't addressed it festers and lingers, so I figured I'd lay it all out on the table.Mind you, none of these ladies, with the exception of Cynthia, had an issue going in on Chris outside of her presence. They laughed and made jokes of the rumors, and then we all sit down together with Kim and these same women go on to exchange pleasantries and sing his praises!!! I just couldn't take it! Can you say #fake, #phony, #fraudulent, or all of the above? LOL! #BottomLine: #IamAllergicToFakeSh-- and I felt it would be best for us to just discuss what was said and involve Kim in the conversation and allow her to put an end to it if she saw fit...or not!Until next time...Xoxo,ShereeWhat do you think about Sherees blog?airs Sunday nights at 8/7c only on Bravo. For International TV ListingsSource/Photo Credit: Bravo In a standing room only gathering at the Irish Consulate last Wednesday that the official New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade website described as joyous, parade board member Frank McGreal gave a warm welcome to the Irish gay group Lavender and Green Alliance, which will take its place in the march up Fifth Avenue for the first time this year. The Irish LGBT organization, co-founded by Irish community activist Brendan Fay in 1994, was excluded from one of the worlds most famous marches for 25 years, and last Wednesdays gathering in honor of Lavender and Green and officially supported by the New York City march would have been unfathomable 12 months ago. A change in the parade boards leadership last June the board is now led by Dr. John Lahey, president of Quinnipiac University has ushered in a new era of inclusiveness and cooperation. Members of the Fifth Avenue parade board attended the event hosted by Consul General Barbara Jones in honor of Lavender and Green and its annual St. Pats for All parade in Queens. McGreal offered a warm welcome to Fay and Kathleen Walsh DArcy, the co-chairs of Lavender and Green, and to all the groups members. Fay told the Irish Voice that he expects at least 300 participants to march with the Lavender and Green Alliance on Fifth Avenue, a contingent that will include LGBT members and the Irish community leaders who have been their longtime supporters and advocates. It will be a historic moment and people are contacting us from around the country and even from Ireland who want to fly in and participate on the day, Fay said. From March 1 on the Lavender and Green website you will be able to contact us to request to participate. We want to reach out to everyone who has been part of this movement and effort over the past 25 years. Lavender and Green is not planning on printing a free pass for each person who expresses an interest in marching, however. The emphasis will be placed on inviting those who have participated in their organization and efforts over the decades. Among the well known names confirmed to march with the group on Fifth Avenue will be former grand marshals of the St. Pats for All parade in Sunnyside-Woodside such as Peter Quinn and Malachy McCourt. A number of New York City Council members will also stand behind the Lavender and Green banner, and, as the Irish Voice recently reported, so will New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Meanwhile, the grand marshals for the 2016 Sunnyside-Woodside parade in Queens on Sunday, March 6 are philanthropist Loretta Brennan Glucksman and best-selling Irish author Colum McCann, who both spoke at last Wednesdays consulate event. Brennan Glucksman reminded the gathering of just how meaningful to Irish American families and to herself personally the lifting of the ban on Irish gay marching groups on Fifth Avenue is, adding that those celebrating will include her own son and his husband. McCann added that the ban had hurt not just gay people but their friends and family, and in that sense its lifting should be celebrated by all the Irish. From the podium, I looked out at the crowd of supporters old and new, and saw the entire New York Irish community represented and all of them cheering. It was a night I will never forget, DArcy told the Irish Voice. This year the parade marks the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, McGreal said in his remarks. In 1916, a small group of Irish men and women dared to act on their deep desire for freedom. Their vision and sacrifices created an Irish Republic that cherishes, all the children of the nation equally. We stand on their shoulders whenever Irish men and women gather to honor St. Patrick and to celebrate our shared Irish culture, McGreal said. He concluded his remarks by saying, To Brendan Fay and the Lavender and Green Alliance, I say, Cead Mile Failte, one-hundred thousand welcomes. Read more: Timeline of the NYC St. Patricks Day Parades LGBT controversy The evening was a reminder that Fay's long journey toward full citizenship has been Ireland's and Irish America's too. When he immigrated to America in the 1980s it was still illegal to be gay in Ireland thanks to a Victorian era law imposed by the British and retained by the new Republic. But in the late 1980s something was already changing. America was teaching Fay, now 57, that he belonged to a distinctive and powerful community and culture, the Irish. At the same time the city's influential gay community was showing the then closeted school teacher the same inspiring lesson. It was only when Fay and others wanted to combine and celebrate those twin identities on March 17, 1990 on Fifth Avenue that the Irish community said no, you will have to choose. You can be Irish or you could be gay, but you cannot march as both. For Fay, a longtime Irish community activist, and for other members of the then Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization (ILGO), it was as if they were being asked to participate and stay home simultaneously. Fay did not know it at the time but that crafty Catch 22 would play itself out over 25 years. These days, Fay, DArcy and their vast array of supporters couldnt be prouder to be both Irish and gay on March 17. We have crossed this extraordinary threshold and people are feeling it, Fay said. The Irish community is feeling it. There's no going back. Sinn Feins Martin McGuinness has called on Northern Irelands Secretary of State Theresa Villiers to resign following her public support for a U.K. exit from the European Union. McGuinness, who is the Norths deputy first minister, said the implications of a U.K. withdrawal from the European Union -- known as Brexit -- would be absolutely enormous for Northern Ireland. He was speaking after British Prime Minister David Cameron negotiated a special status deal last week for his country with other EU leaders. The deal, negotiated after much public pressure in Britain, includes changes in child benefit payments to migrant workers for children living overseas, and a seven-year emergency brake on welfare payments to be applied in the event of exceptional levels of migration. The deal is to be put to a national referendum in Britain on June 23. Already the ruling Conservative Party is split on whether it should be accepted with Britain continuing within the EU, or rejected and Britain opting for Brexit. A number of ministers, including Villiers, are supporting a no vote. They are backed by London Mayor Boris Johnson who is viewed as a star campaigner for Brexit. Read more: Sinn Fein would win Irish election comfortably if only Irish Americans were polled Anybody that has examined our relationship in the North with the EU over the course of many years, cant fail to recognize enormous benefits there have been for the community and voluntary sector, farmers and business community, McGuinness said. I believe that right across the community -- Unionist and the broad Nationalist/Republican community -- the majority of people place great value on our membership of the European Union and they want that to continue. Isnt it odd that Theresa Villiers should now be advocating withdrawal from the EU when clearly the benefits for the North are very, very obvious. A spokesperson for Villiers described calls for her to resign as ludicrous and ridiculous. Sinn Fein, the SDLP and the Alliance Party will campaign for the U.K. to remain in the EU. The Ulster Unionist Party has said its ruling executive will meet next week to decide its position on the issue. The Democratic Unionist Party are backing Brexit. Read more: Martin McGuinness says Queen A very positive force for peace process The Irish people will elect the 32nd Dail Eireann (lower house of Irish parliament) this Friday. The most recent polls have defied what was conventional wisdom just a few weeks ago and have produced some contradictory findings. On this last point, the figures in the polls released last weekend were virtually impossible to reconcile. The lead party in the 31st Dail, Fine Gael, has failed to cash in on a globally heralded economic recovery and has stagnated or sunk, rather than surged. Its percentage of support hovers in the high 20s. Fine Gaels partner in government, the Labour Party, has not enhanced its own standing most polls show it either mired in the high single digits or even a bit lower. Fianna Fail, on the other hand, has had a better than expected campaign and has improved 3-4 percentage points to approximately 22% in the polls. Sinn Fein has not benefitted to the extent some would have expected from the anger and frustration felt by so many whose economic situation and quality of life have not improved in the past five years; they remain stuck at or around 17% in the polls. Instead, the beneficiaries and hence the big story have been independents and others from newly formed parties and groupings. Together, they enjoy the support of roughly 28% of the electorate. Looking back on what has been a very short and equally volatile campaign and looking ahead to the scenarios this general election may engender, here are some takeaways. Read more Irish politics stories here First, Fine Gael made a serious error at the outset of the campaign by claiming too much credit for an economic recovery and by overstating how broadly it has been felt. Many Irish people, who have absorbed a series of significant pay cuts and tax increases since 2008 or so, believe that their hard work and sacrifice are responsible for the countrys firmer footing. They clearly resent the implication that politicians were the ones who did the heavy lifting. Furthermore, Fine Gaels lets keep the recovery going slogan has been belied by a recent poll, not to mention a plethora of anecdotal evidence, revealing that more than half of the Irish people havent experienced good fortune. The party is said to have sought advice from consultants in the US and the UK, utilizing focus groups and availing of the latest in political intelligence. Yet an unqualified emphasis on the recovery, as well as some incongruent messaging on fiscal prudence and substantial longer term tax cuts, indicates that the partys main thinkers did not appropriately interpret the advice they received to account for historic and current Irish political realities. That experts managed to get it so wrong is, frankly, astonishing. Second, the major debates of party leaders have had a real impact. Many observers are prone to argue that debates do not matter, unless there is a truly memorable positive or negative moment for a candidate. Although none of the three debates has produced any such moment, it is clear that Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martins solid, confident performances have paid dividends for his party. Conversely, Joan Burtons lackluster outings in the first two debates certainly havent helped her Labour Party. She was much stronger in the final debate, however. It remains to be seen whether Labour will rebound in the last couple of days as a result. Fine Gael has shrewdly downplayed expectations for its leader, Enda Kenny, arguing that debating is not his forte. He has exceeded these low expectations, but has probably converted few, if any, voters. While Gerry Adams has been somewhat better than he was in a debate for Sinn Fein before the 2011 general election, he has been largely ineffective and actually quite poor when responding to probing questions about the details of some of Sinn Feins proposals. The television audiences for the debates have been enormous and each partys standing in the polls, thus far, gels with the general consensus as to how the party leaders acquitted themselves in the debates. Indeed, the polls showed boosts for the minor parties and groupings whose leaders participated in the second debate and were well-received. In sum, people have tuned into debates and a lot of them are making up their minds based on what they see and hear. Third, it has been said repeatedly as the campaign draws to a close that it is anybodys guess who will win the final seat (or even the final two seats) in each of the 40 constituencies. The all politics is local maxim rings true again. Around the country, it is likely that the winner of these final seats will be determined on the basis of a vast array of local issues, or on the personalities of the candidates, or on constituency geography. Despite an unprecedented amount of media coverage during this campaign, including many constituency debates on national media outlets, it is nearly impossible to reliably gauge who has the edge without having a good ear on the ground. Accordingly, it should be fascinating to watch as the vote counts unfold and some of these counts could take days. Finally, given what the polls now show, the political classes are already speculating in earnest about a second election in the not-too-distant future in the event either that the parties and/or independents arent able to form a coalition government or if a coalition were to collapse in the coming months. Insiders have long regarded this as a distinct possibility. Some take the view that another election would actually concentrate voters minds on the need for stability and benefit at least one of the political parties (i.e., whichever party gets the least amount of blame for an unstable situation). My own view, derived from numerous conversations with friends and neighbors who cant wait for this general election to be over and from manifestly falling levels of support for the traditional parties, is that a second 2016 or early 2017 election is in no party politicians interest and might truly be independents day. I suspect that an angry electorate would blame all of the parties, albeit to varying degrees, if they are forced to endure another campaign in short order, especially in light of the fact that it will be eminently possible for them to form a governing coalition after the votes are counted on Friday. Specifically, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, the old foes whose ideologies arent wholly divergent, will have more than 80 TDs (members of Dail Eireann) between them and could govern. But whether they can overcome the resistance of their respective memberships (Fianna Fail, in particular) in addition to a myriad of political considerations and form a sustainable partnership is a different matter. At any rate, this is going to be a long weekend for us political watchers. Its going to be an even longer one for many candidates awaiting a most uncertain fate. Larry Donnelly is a Boston attorney, Law Lecturer at NUI Galway and regular contributor to IrishCentral.com and other media outlets on politics, current affairs and law. Read more Irish politics stories here Ted Cruz noticeably toughened his stance on immigration this week, vowing to deport the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently living the US, and using a story of Tommy OMalley from Co. Cork as an example of the way in which hell use Immigration and Customs Enforcement to track down illegal immigrants in their homes. This is despite the Texan senator, who has Irish roots on his mothers side, previously stating that the rounding up of all the countrys undocumented was impractical and authoritarian. Following in the footsteps of Republican front-runner Donald Trump, and coming just a day before Trumps third consecutive victory, this one in Tuesdays Nevada caucus, Cruz outlined a tougher stance on immigration, promising to round up and forcibly deport all the undocumented people living in the US, including the estimated 50,000 Irish living in the US illegally. Speaking on the Fox News program The OReilly Factor on Monday evening, Cruz went one step further than the billionaire front-runner, in fact, by announcing that he would not allow those who had previously lived in the country illegally to re-enter the US by legal means after their deportation. He claimed that Trumps policy involved allowing those who previously broke US immigration laws to return to the US on another visa. Read more: Why GOPs Ted Cruz is no John F Kennedy Fox commentator and self-proclaimed Irish American Bill OReilly pressed Cruz on these policies during the appearance, asking the conservative senator how he would deal with a fictional Irishman Tommy OMalley who had settled illegally in New York State. So Tommy OMalley from Co. Cork in Ireland is over here and he overstays his visa and he has got a couple of kids and he has settled into Long Island, OReilly put to the first-time Senator. And you, President Cruz, are going to send the Feds to his house, take him out and put him on a plane back to Ireland? Cruz, who only took a feeble third place in Nevada on Tuesday, replied: You better believe it. Right now, we actually cant do that because we dont have a biometric exit-entry system so we dont know when, in your example, Tommy goes home. Cruz continued to pledge that during his Presidency he would introduce a system by which authorities would be informed as soon as an immigrant overstayed their visa, allowing federal agents to travel to their homes and begin deportation proceedings. Challenging Cruzs ability to put these policies into practice, OReilly questioned the Senator on whether a US federal court would not be able to put a stop to him immediately deporting said Tommy OMalley. I spent my entire life as a constitutional lawyer, 45-year old Cruz answered. So federal law right now requires a biometric exit-entry system on visas. The Obama administration refuses to enforce federal law. As president I will put that in place so we will know the day someone overstays their visa and be able to send law enforcement to apprehend them and send them home. Cruzs new hard stance on immigration appears to have evolved from Trumps success in New Hampshire and South Carolina where his tough approach toward illegal immigrants appealed to voters. The Texan senator is now following suit, despite showing reluctance to support Trumps policy as recently as last month and despite his family's own immigration history. The Canadian-born son of a Cuban immigrant and a mother with Irish and Italian roots, Cruz argued in an interview with CNN in January that going to the homes of illegal immigrants and instantly deporting them was not the best way in which to enforce immigration law. Read more: Black Irish Ted Cruz may face birther questions of his own At the time he argued that only those apprehended would be deported. No, I don't intend to send jackboots to knock on your door and every door in America. That's not how we enforce the law for any crime, he told CNN. "We don't have any system that knocks on the doors of every person in America. We also don't have people going door-to-door looking for murderers. We don't live in a police state. We do have law enforcement." Donald Trump has since dismissed Cruzs remarks that he would allow those deported to re-enter the country. Ted Cruz said on @oreillyfactor that illegals sent out of country by my administration would come right back as citizens. Another lie-crazy! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 23, 2016 Marco Rubio, who came in second in Nevada and is Cruzs closest rival, although still some 20 points behind Trump, slammed Cruzs change of position, stating that the hardening of policy was only happening as his campaign is under duress. "There are people that are going to be deported. There are people who are being deported now. If you're here illegally in this country and you have a deportation order, you are going to be deported, especially if you are a dangerous criminal," Rubio said. But I don't think this country is going to support nor do I think we need to pursue a military-style roundup of people in America." It is estimated that there are currently 50,000 undocumented Irish living in the US, 30,000 in the New York city area alone. Cruz has often referred to the Irish wit of his political hero Ronald Reagan while on the campaign trail and spoke to the Irish Times earlier in the year about his own Irish connections. When asked if he liked to use his Irish roots to his advantage in his political career, the Texan told the Irish paper: I certainly do my best. Being half-Irish, that is a part I need to channel more and more every day. James and Emily were the most popular names for babies born in Northern Ireland 2015. Based on a list compiled by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, traditional names are on the rise, and there are a few Game of Thrones inspired surprises too. This is the first year since records began that James reached the number one spot, although the name has consistently been in the top five. Emily has held the top spot three times before, the last time was 2013 when it shared the title with Grace. Emily was also the most popular girls name in the Republic of Ireland last year. Ella was second on the list of girls names, perhaps inspired by Ella Henderson topping the music charts and Ella Woodward in the food world. Jack, which has been most popular in NI for the past 12 years, dropped to second place in 2015. Harry, another name rising in popularity, came in eight place, just as One Direction star Harry Styles and Prince Harry hit headlines last year. READ MORE: The top ten Irish language baby names for girls The Belfast Telegraph reports that Rosa was the biggest climber among girls' names, up from 147th in 2014 to 53rd in 2015, while Jackson climbed the greatest number of places in the boys list, moving from 145th in 2014 to 75th in 2015). Not all parents followed the traditional route, with names inspired by popular TV programs like Game of Thrones showing up on the list. For girls, Arya was some parents choice, while Jon, Theon, and Tyrion appeared on the list of boy names. The Disney movie Frozen has given inspiration to some parents, with Elsa and even Olaf appearing on the last years list of registered births. Between 2014 and 2015, many names fell out of the top 100 names lists:Sam, Ruairi, Daire, Kian, Kyle, Corey, Elijah, Rhys, Christopher, Eoghan, Jay, Connor and Robert fell out of the top 100 boys' names. Aine, Lucia, Nicole, Lara, Madison, Darcey, Darcie, Lydia, Lacey, Bethany, Eliza, Jasmine, Tilly and Laura fell out of the list of popular girls' names. Last year, there were 1,629 different boys' names and 2,207 different girls' names registered in Northern Ireland, compared to the 1,227 boys' names and 1,795 girls' names registered in 2005. READ MORE: The top ten Irish language baby names for boys According to the agency, the difference in figures demonstrate that parents have become more imaginative in the first names they give to their babies, with a wider variety of girls' names than boys' names being used. The 2015 list saw 980 new names that had not been registered before. Of these, 381 were boys' names, including Aaren, Christiano and Dani, and 527 were girl's names, including Alexah, Fathima and Lolly. 10 most popular boys' names in NI: 1. James - 300 babies 2. Jack - 261 babies 3. Noah - 225 babies 4. Charlie - 213 babies 5. Daniel - 188 babies 6. Oliver - 186 babies 7. Matthew - 168 babies 8. Harry - 166 babies 9. Thomas - 157 babies 10. Jake - 141 babies 10 most popular girls' names in NI: 1. Emily - 233 babies 2. Ella - 197 babies 3. Grace - 192 babies 4. Sophie - 179 babies 5. Olivia - 153 babies 6. Anna - 152 babies 7. Amelia - 149 babies 8. Aoife - 147 babies 9. Lucy - 146 babies 10. Ava - 141 babies Greece's foreign ministry said it is recalling its ambassador to Austria back to Athens for "consultations". The move comes a day after Austria held a meeting with officials from Balkan countries to discuss how to limit the numbers of refugees flowing into Europe, but excluded Greece. The partnership comes hot on the heels of the Dublin-based firm launching its FraudStrike software designed to help mobile operators tackle a 10bn a year International Revenue Share Fraud IRSF issue just last week. Under the deal, Xintec will supply the software to Emirates Data Clearing House, EDCH, which will see it used by more than 80 mobile operators across the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. Last year, the Dublin firm was appointed by the Department of Finance to identify candidates for the prestigious post of governor at the Central Bank, while the firm is currently involved in the search for a new director general for RTE. New accounts filed by Merc Partners Ltd with the Companies Office show the firm last year recorded a profit of 48,422. The profit for the 12 months to the end of May is down sharply from 204,869 posted in the previous year and is mainly due to expansion costs as the numbers employed at the firm grew during the year. The firm is led by managing partner Ruth Curran. Other directors are listed as Finbarr OConnor, John Glenny, and Kieran Duff. The directors remuneration last year was made up of 772,940 in pay and 248,384 in pension payments. Pay and pension payments to directors totalled 968,055, in 2014. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan last year confirmed Merc Partners was paid 45,100 by his department in the search for the new governor of the Central Bank, as Professor Philip Lane beat off competition from 16 other candidates for the post. The firm was also in the past employed to identify potential chiefs executive at business group Ibec and to help fill the secretary general post the Department of Finance. It was also involved in identifying candidates for the group chief executive post at Bord Gais Eireann, as well as helping find executive directors at The Samaritans and Trocaire. The firm last year expanded by employing an additional two staff bringing its headcount to 16, including 10 managers and administrators, three consultants, and three people working in research. The drop in profit at the firm comes as staff costs last year increased by 176,000 to 1.769m. The companys accumulated profits last year increased from 943,162 to 1.042m, and its cash pile increased from 485,342 to 555,758. Shareholder funds at the end of May stood at 1.058m. As far as our country is concerned, back taxes concerning this company amount to 1.6bn, the official said. A spokeswoman for Google France declined to comment on the amount when contacted by Reuters, saying only that the company obeyed tax rules in all countries where it operated. The finance ministry also declined to comment. An unsourced 2012 media report mentioned a claim for 1bn by French authorities, which Google denied at the time. Emblazoned on banners hung along the citys main thoroughfare La Rambla are the words: Liberty, equality, fraternity, and technology for all. Exalted company for a few phones and gadgets, you might think except the banners were hinting at something much bigger. As a product of the Age of Enlightenment and a guiding principle of the French Revolution, the phrase could hardly have been more appropriate as the modern day technology revolution continues apace. For an industry sometimes seen as insular, inclusion has been very much to the fore at its showpiece event. When Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg took the stage to address attendees earlier in the week, he had a clear message for the major mobile players: Help those without internet connectivity before improving the lot of the technologically well-off. We believe that everyone should have access to the Internet, and its kind of crazy that were sitting here and 4bn people in the world dont, Zuckerberg told the audience. It was a theme developed by Unicef executive director Anthony Lake in his keynote address yesterday. A somewhat unlikely guest at a mobile conference, Lake quickly showed the true value of technological advancement. Mobile, he said, has helped his organisation tackle disease, fight poverty, and even protect children fleeing the ravages of war. Mobile technology provides access to information, opportunity, and choice for even the most marginalised children. Give children access to information and theyll be prepared to shape the world around them, said the former US diplomat. When ebola wreaked havoc across swathes of Africa last year, Unicef was able to issue specific, local information to communities via mobile, in a way radio or television couldnt, which helped stem the spread. When tackling HIV in Nigeria, the agency was able to determine how much locals knew of the virus and their own HIV status with one simple question sent to hundreds of thousands of Nigerians via its U-Report text messaging platform, through which it communicates with those most in need of its help. The same system was used in Uganda, said Lake, when a banana-leaf blight struck. Even when the tide of refugees fleeing war-torn Syria hit Europes shores late last year mobile was on hand to help. Despite often leaving with little more than the clothes on their backs, the Syrian children who Lake encountered clutched, almost without exception, a mobile phone; playing games when they could as an escape from their harrowing experience. It was somewhat of a lightbulb moment that led to tech hubs being introduced to refugee centres. They gave children somewhere to charge their phones and Unicef a vital line of communication to their families which it used to warn of dangers and advise of services along their treacherous journey. Viewed through that prism, La Ramblas banners take on a different significance thats a little harder to smirk at. Liberty, equality, fraternity, and technology for all, indeed. In April 2015, the energy sectors biggest annual conference was abuzz with speculation when oil prices might bottom and the idea prices could hover below $60 for years after tumbling from over $100 seven months earlier was considered a sobering one. This time, with prices near $30 and last years lower for longer catch phrase replaced by even lower for even longer, oil executives attending the IHS CERAWeek conference are more solemn and guarded in their predictions. This year we are in a survival mode, Juan Carlos Echeverry, chief executive of Colombias national oil company Ecopetrol told the conference. John Hess, chief executive of Hess Corp, one of the independent US shale producers, said the industry appeared to be only halfway through its downturn. Its probably a three-year process and were in the middle of that rebalancing now, he said. Stephen Chazen, CEO of Occidental Petroleum, agreed, but warned hopes to see the market rebound can make people too optimistic. Usually you get a false bottom, or two or three or four, Oxys CEO said. The industry experienced one such false dawn last year when oil prices rallied in the second quarter only to give up gains in the second half of the year before tumbling further to fresh lows at the beginning of this year. Now, executives are pinning their hopes on forecasts global oil demand will continue to rise. However, with the International Energy Agency now predicting such rebalancing to start next year and continue in 2018, the chilling message is many oil companies, primarily among the US shale producers, may not live to see that recovery. Mark Papa, former head of EOG Resources who pioneered drilling in shale for crude oil, said this was the worst downturn he has seen since 1986 and one that would leave bodies and companies all over the place. I think you will see a much more stable and more balance-sheet focussed industry emerge from the ashes, but its going to be really, really ugly to get through this valley, said Mr Papa, who is now a partner at private equity firm Riverstone Holdings. On Tuesday, Silver Run Acquisition, an investment vehicle sponsored by Riverstone, raised $450m (408m) in an initial public offering to fund acquisitions of energy companies seen as available at discounted prices. More than 40 US energy companies have declared bankruptcy since the start of 2015, with more expected to come. * Reuters Now, 15 years after stepping down from the role and with stints at Vodafone and Digicel under his belt since, the UK native is back in Ireland with his sights set on some major projects. His first steps back into the Irish tech scene came a few years back when he teamed up with Enterprise Ireland, which sought to put his experience and expertise to use on both sides of the Irish Sea. The last four or five years Ive been doing work both in the UK and here for Enterprise Ireland and they introduced me to relevant companies in software, mobile, telecoms and I try to help them build markets, particularly in the UK but also beyond that as well. Obviously the UK is a great market because its English speaking and just across the pond so I can help them go there, Brewer says. One of those relevant companies was iMob Media, the location-based digital marketing startup he joined as chairman. Having announced a significant partnership with Three in the Irish Examiner at the beginning of the week, its been a productive visit to Barcelonas Mobile World Congress for iMob and the future looks bright. iMob Media was one of those [companies]... We deal with brands like Guinness and Audi and Coca-Cola and so on. It helps get your messages to the right customers. Its an interesting project and I think the software development, particularly in the telecoms world in Ireland is world class. Not alone have his roles with Enterprise Ireland and iMob given him a new direction professionally, it has also rekindled his love for Ireland so much so that he has chosen to live here. My wife is Irish and Ive been coming backwards and forwards here for the last 20 years and decided now to come and live here. I also have a little boy and I think the education in Ireland is world-class and we will settle here and have my son educated here and its just another step in my love of Ireland. For a guy who, along with his late brother Michael, sold almost all his earthly possessions to fly to New York and twist Steve Jobs arm into letting his company be the first distributor of Apple products in the UK, Brewer has a track record when it comes to peering into the future. With so much competition in the mobile market at present, he says the operators that differentiate themselves from the rest will be the ones to come out on top. To do that customer service will have to play a big part. Customer service is coming back in a big way, he says. As markets get saturated hanging onto that customer, managing them in the right products and services: thats what its all about. The companies that do that best are the ones that are going to win and Three are demonstrating that very well indeed. We do not know if we will have a real and sustainable government come Saturday night. How did we arrive in a situation where we, possibly, stand on the brink of a hung parliament? After all, its the worst possible time that this could occur. Yet, its been coming for a long time. A teenager suggested a few days ago to Tanaiste Joan Burton that she should shove her water charges up her fiscal space. It said it all. It speaks to disrespect. That is the disrespect that people have for politicians and those who have apparently gained unseemly from the nations successes which were achieved on the back of the efforts of the ordinary people. It also speaks to the apparent disrespect that our politicians have for the ordinary people of Ireland. Joan Burton was happy to stand in and have a selfie with the teenager, but when his questions on Irish Water apparently became too awkward, she chose to walk away. Unfortunately, most of us cannot simply walk away. We have invested our lives directly or indirectly in this economy and we have paid dearly for the privilege. Some would argue that they have paid far more than their fair share whilst they see others who seem to have led a charmed life. The tens of thousands of young people who will have the opportunity to vote tomorrow will have grown up in a world that is far more materialistic than the one many of us grew up in. They have had access to things many of us could not even dream about. They are also more idealistic and probably even more fair minded than us older folk. What types of governments have we had over the last 30 years? How successful have they been in ensuring the poor, the sick, and the weak are looked after? We do not have to look very far for the answer. The end result could be that tomorrow night, we will be in a unique position for this country in that we may well not even be able to cobble together a government, never mind one that will be able to overcome the considerable problems that our economy faces. Just when we need strong government we might end up with a terribly weak one whose cohesion may depend on the whim of an individual politician. We will have, in effect, an unstable government. Our economy is substantially sustained on the thousand or so multinational companies that have made Ireland their base for accessing the European market and further afield. We, the people of Ireland through government agencies, have worked hard to attract these companies to these shores and to keep them here. However, instability in the way the country governed, in the way decisions are made, and uncertainty in the type of decisions that will be taken, will go a long way to curtail any future investment and even result in existing investment being moved elsewhere. Already a massive part of our exports, our balance of payments, comes from a few of these multinational sectors. Indeed, it could be argued that we are too dependent on these companies and sectors. It is something we need to work on for the future but right now we must protect what we have. Our economy is not irreversibly fixed. Politicians might like us to believe that it is, or that it is if we elect their particular brand of government, but it is far from it. We continue to borrow extensively to stand still. We have massive public and private debt. The Chinese economy is in trouble, global share prices tumbled recently again and Britain is on the verge of withdrawing from the EU. Our economy does not ever need instability, but right now it could be compared to lemmings running over the top of a cliff. It may seem overly melodramatic but tomorrow your vote will be very important in deciding the future direction of this country and the continued success of our economy on which your job or your job prospects will depend. Use it wisely. As Lord Kitchener said over 100 years ago: Your Country Needs You. SIMON COVENEY became Minister for Agriculture in March 2011. Now, almost six years on, he speaks to the Irish Examiner on his term as Minister. Looking back on your term as Minister how would you sum it up? Did you do a good job? Ill let someone else judge that, I dont feel comfortable judging myself. We tried to do a number of things for agriculture in terms of strategic change, creating a new optimism and positivity around the Agriculture and Food industry and indeed Seafood. If you look at the number of young people choosing the agriculture and food industry as a career now, it has dramatically increased. Agriculture colleges are a good example of that, less than 10 years ago people were talking about how many Ag colleges would have to close. Now all of the Agriculture colleges are full there is certainly a lot more confidence in farming and agriculture and we have worked hard to try to generate that. The big test for me during the last five years was renegotiating a CAP that was good for Ireland, I think we did that. Certainly, the big objectives we set for ourselves were achieved. We had to dramatically change the EU Commissions proposals effectively to redesign the CAP in a way that suits progressive agriculture and the kind of agriculture we have in Ireland- family farming. It was agreed under the Irish presidency and I had the opportunity to chair the negotiations and I think we got a very good deal. We had some testing times in terms of potential setbacks for farming and agriculture, the horsemeat crisis that we had to deal with, I think Ireland has come out very strong from that. What has been the highlight of your term? Probably renegotiation the CAP, I was and am very conscious that my negotiation has direct impact on the income of every farm family in the country. I was really determined to get an outcome that was fair, progressive and would help to modernise agriculture but also get a very good deal in terms of money and financial support not just for the big farms but also for farmers in disadvantaged areas. We then matched EU funds in terms of the Rural Development Programme almost fully with exchequer funds. We have now a certainty that for every year between now and 2020 the Ag budget is going to increase. I think this is an example of Fine Gael and Labour in government prioritising agriculture and the food industry as the heartbeat of rural Ireland but also the most important sector in the Irish economy. I hope the biggest thing I have done is change the perception of agriculture to an agriculture and food sector that is highly dynamic. Would you accept that you have been a minister more so for the dairy sector at the expense of other sectors? Absolutely not, the facts just dont bare that out. If you look at what we have done with the CAP we have deliberately prioritised beef thats why we have a 300m Beef Genomics Scheme, thats why we set up the Beef Forum and why we are now setting up Beef Producer Organisations to negotiate collectively on behalf of farmers to get them better deals. The biggest winners in the redistribution of Single Farm Payments in the CAP has been the sheep sector. In the last five years the sheep flock has increased in size and stabilised. The perception around me that because I have been part of the dairy quota abolition and because I am ambitious for the dairy sector thats all I have been doing, actually when you look at the policy changes, taxation changes, CAP changes and the rural development programme the sheep sector has been a big winner. In our manifesto we are making a commitment in the mid term review of the CAP to look at a new support programme similar to the BDGP for the sheep sector we may do something more on beef but we are committed to sheep. Overall we have prioritised small family farmers as well as bigger ones and certainly disadvantaged ones. Minister Coveney on supporting the pig and poultry sector Poultry farmers are universally supportive of government at the moment because for the first time ever the poultry sector has TAMS support which never happened before. We negotiated compensation payments from the EU Commission because pig meat prices were terrible last year and we also renegotiated the reintroduction of the Aid to Private Storage for pig meat. Ive also introduced TAMS for the pig sector, which I think they are reasonable happy with. Tillage sector We have applied for an amendment to the Rural Development Programme to the EU Commission for a new arable specific TAMS scheme to support farmers in terms of putting better storage and drying systems in place as well as putting one pass systems in place. Beef Forum Farm organisations want to keep the Beef Forum going we solved a huge amount of problems, there was a total breakdown of trust and communications between farming organisations and factories. The Beef Forum is a meeting that has to achieve consensus its not a lobbying exercise The Forum was never there to set prices or conditions. At end of 2014, we got a written agreement between processors and farming organisations to do a whole range of things and this was to last 12 months which it did. At the end of the period processors decided that they would no longer apply what they had agreed to for 12 months which was to apply no penalties on weight. Of course, I would like them to continue to apply no penalties on weight but I cant force that. Beef price: There is no dual pricing, there is a grid system there is a single base price which we agreed in the forum and which factories have an obligation to implement. If there are bonuses or penalties attached to the base price that is an issue for factories and farming organisations ABP proposed takeover of Slaney Meats and Irish Country Meats: It has been refereed to the CPCC and I have written to the CPCC expressing the concern of farmers and asked them to take a robust look at whether this proposal would impact on the competition in beef markets. Priorities if electorate votes to return Fine Gael to government Would you hope to return as Agriculture Minister if Fine Gael is re-elected? I would love to, Im very passionate about this portfolio and this industry. "Irish farmers are very good at what they do but we can get better. Rural Ireland needs a vibrant agriculture and Agri Food industry and we are well on out way to achieving that. "I can assure farmers that if Fine Gael are re-elected agriculture will be a big priority in government I genuinely believe that its in the best interest of farmers and agriculture to vote Fine Gael. What would be your principal priorities if you were to return as the Agriculture Minister? We have a clear plan for growth and expansion and sustainability in agriculture called Foodwise 2025. We want to increase our food exports by 85% in value terms in the next 10 years to 19bn. Its also about protecting farm incomes supporting them on innovation and better ways of doing things. Supporting rural areas? We introduced a new CAP and strong supports for young farmers. Look at tourism, we have rolled out one of the most innovative tourism projects that rural Ireland has every seen along the Wild Atlantic Way. We have prioritised the most important industries across rural Ireland tourism and Agri- Food. We are generating jobs and looking at ways of growing new business in rural areas. Every school, house and business in rural Ireland will have high speed broadband within the next five years. Final message? When I went to Ag college when I was younger, I left UCC I went to Gurteen Ag College and knew very little about agriculture at the time. I was fascinated by it and really interested in it and I never thought then that some day I would be Minister for Agriculture for a really crucial period in terms of the Irish economy and for Irish agriculture. It has been an extraordinary privilege for me to be working with farmers and their families for the last five years. I hope I have earned their trust and respect, I have certainly done everything I can to try and do that over the last five years. Judge Sinead Ni Chulachain in the Circuit Civil Court granted EBS Mortgage Finance a possession order for Ms Brownes family home at 136 Killala Road, Cabra West, Dublin 7, but restrained the bank from executing the order for a year. The judge said, in the meantime, the court expected Ms Browne to try and come to some arrangement with the bank about the debt which had now reached just over 330,000. Ms Browne, who has been representing herself at all court hearings over the last few years, was told by Judge Ni Chulachain her sole defence of lack of jurisdiction against a possession order had collapsed with the recent High Court finding of Mr Justice Michael White. I have jurisdiction since the High Court has ruled that any jurisdictional challenge applies only to houses built after 1977 and your home was built before that year, Judge Ni Chulachain said. She told Ms Browne, who said she had two children and the property was their family home, that she was granting an order for possession for No 136 in favour of the bank but putting a stay on the order for a year. Judge Ni Chulachain said the court had noted not a single penny had been paid off the mortgage since February 24, 2011. Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the last repayment against the loan that had been taken out by Ms Browne and her partner Darren Mahoney in 2006. The order for possession had been sought against the pair whose address was stated to be 257 Bannow Road, Cabra West, Dublin 7. Judge Ni Chulachain made an order for costs against Mr Mahoney in favour of the bank but made no costs order against Ms Browne. Ms Browne told the court she had always engaged with the bank but had been unable to reach an agreement with them. She said her former partner Darren Mahoney had neither engaged with the bank or the court. This has been my family home and has been my mother and fathers family home and the family home of my grandparents before them, Ms Browne told the court. Judge Ni Chulachain told Ms Browne this had been coming upon her for a long time and, while she accepted she had engaged with the bank, not a penny had been paid off the debt. She said the court had given Ms Browne opportunities in the past and she was giving her a final opportunity to try and reach some agreement with the bank. The matter would not be coming back before the court but her stay would continue for a year. Ms Browne told the judge: It is not very easy to do anything. I have been in a dark place but I am stronger now than I have been. I will try and negotiate with the bank. The jury took less than two hours at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to reach their unanimous verdict against Anthony Kelleher, aged 42, on the charge of assault causing serious harm to Siobhan Kelleher, aged 36, at Curraheen, Raleigh North, Macroom, Co Cork, on June 12, 2014. As well as suffering numerous fractures and bruising as well laceration to her liver, the victim went on to suffer a stroke. Tom Creed, defending, asked for Kelleher to be allowed on continuing bail to put his affairs in order. The prosecution did not oppose, but Judge O Donnabhain refused bail saying: His status has irrevocably changed in view of the verdict of the jury. The accused chose not to give evidence. Ms Kelleher, in effect, did not testify either, but the prosecution went on in the absence of oral testimony. Ms Kelleher walked slowly to the witness box with a walking stick on February 17. She swore on the bible and replied to the first question asked by Siobhan Lankford, prosecuting: I want to withdraw my complaint. Following legal argument in the absence of the jury at that point, the prosecution was allowed to go ahead by presenting to the jury three statements taken down in writing from Ms Kelleher following June 12, 2014. Four days afterwards from a bed at Cork University Hospital, she said: Last Thursday, June 12 2014, my husband came home from work at about 5.15pm. I had a glass of wine before Anthony came home to calm my nerves. He started ranting and raving and said I was staggering around. I went to bed for an hour. Anthony dragged me out of bed by the hair and threw me across the corridor and down the stairs. The next thing I knew I woke up in hospital. Anthony Kelleher at Cork Circuit Criminal Court She added in a second statement: We were having pork chops that day. I put the dinner on the table. He would never say thanks. He complained that the pork chops were cooked in the oven. He wanted them fried. He is a perfectionist. [After a brief exchange of words] I went to bed and covered my head with the blankets. He came after me and asked me what did I say. I said, Nothing, Im sorry. I put my hands to my face to save my head. I didnt want bruises. I had my hair in a ponytail and he pulled me out of bed by the ponytail. There were clumps of hair coming out. He dragged me by the hair and threw me down the stairs. He kicked me on the way down twice in the ass. I got to the first landing and he kicked me the rest of the way down. I was out cold and I dont remember anything else until I woke in hospital with a tube down my throat. Anthony came in to the hospital with my slippers and pyjamas. He started crying and said, If you had died I would have thrown myself in the river. I couldnt look at him. In a third statement 10 months later, she withdrew the previous statements, said she fell at the clothes line, and that her husband never laid a hand on her. Anthony Kelleher told gardai: I believed she had a drink problem. Siobhan fell down the stairs at our home. She smokes an odd cigarette now and again. She would get very unsteady on her feet if she has a cigarette. (Later) She fell against the wall. He denied beating his wife within an inch of her life. Professor Stephen Cusack, who testified he co-wrote CUHs policy on responding to domestic violence said: All of the injuries are consistent with a fall from a height. The injuries included numerous fractures to ribs, spine, finger, wrist and arm, laceration to liver and bruising to buttocks, thighs, trunk, and abrasions to her face. Prof Cusack said he had often seen alcoholics with such injuries. The pair were held for several hours in the custody area of Ennis courtroom after being told the 13-year-old did not attend school in the past two weeks. Judge Patrick Durcan had previously warned the parents would go to jail. Daragh Hassett, for the boys mother, said her client was powerless as the boy will do nothing for her. The mother had lost complete control, he said, and the boy refused to co-operate at any level. He said the boys mother did everything she could to bring the boy to school bar putting him over her shoulder and placing him at the schoolgate. The boy has her heart broken. Mr Hassett added: The boy is now quite aggressive to her and she cant handle him as things stand. I never seen a case like this where there is a 100% refusal by a child to go to school even though he has been told by you, the Child & Family Agency, his principal, his father and mother and myself that the parents will go to jail unless he goes to school. The boys father yesterday apologised for missing previous court hearings in the case, saying he had just returned from honeymoon in Australia with his new wife. Judge Durcan said: There may be another honeymoon coming up for you now because you are aware of the seriousness of the problem. The judge then told the boy: Be clear on this young man, if you dont perform, unfortunately your mother will have to go away. The boy has a 90% absenteeism rate from school in the year to date. Judge Durcan placed the parents in custody to allow a solicitor for the Child and Family Agency to get further instructions. I want action in this case today and if I dont have action, I will have to make a decision and order which I will deeply regret having to make. Kevin Sherry, solicitor for CFA, said: It is the fifth time that the case has been in court and the child is no closer to attending school. Judge Durcan said he would like other avenues to be pursued for the welfare of the boy and adjourned the case to March 9. Jessica Ni Mhaolain, 24, from Cork, who struggles to see beyond five feet, told the Irish Examiner: Simply put, I would not have finished primary school without the help of my SNA. Cutting SNA hours is taking away the chance for a child to learn properly and thats just not right. The more you cut in the early years, the more is lost to society in the long-term. Jessica, who completed a bachelors of science in public health two years ago, studied the effects of legislation on special needs education at second level for her masters in government. She is now considering applying for a PhD. Her Facebook post on SNAs, from Tuesday night, has gotten over 21,000 likes and 5,000 shares. She said she hoped it would underline the vital need for SNA hours to be maintained, even when funding is tight. Jessica was born with occulocutaneous albinism, which makes it difficult for her to see clearly beyond five feet. She also has nystagmus, an involuntary movement of the eyes, which makes it difficult for her eyes to focus. For the first six years of her primary education at Gaelscoil an Teaghlaigh Naofa, off Kinsale Road, Jessica had to rely only on the sound of her teachers to learn. SNAs were introduced by former minister Micheal Martin in 1999 and she got SNA support from fourth class on. Jessica had to wait until third year in Colaiste an Phiarsaigh before she got further SNA support. I had the help to do things I couldnt because of my sight: notes, explanations, descriptions of what was going on in class, she said. Having an SNA put me on a level playing field with my classmates. Every child has a right to education, and its near impossible for a child to learn if they rely on sound alone, simple as. She praised the level of support provided to her at UCC, with assistive technology, extra tuition, and grinds. But she warned politicians to prioritise and protect SNA hours; What is wrong with this society when it is deemed ok for a special educational needs organiser (SENO) or department official to cut an SNA from a child for the sake of a financial bottom line? Because while Im graduating, there will be children and parents who were where my parents once were. And they will be wondering whether their child will achieve an education like I have, because an SNA and a chance to learn equally as others do has been taken away from them for the sake of saving money. Her comments come as parents on the northside of the city are mounting a campaign to prevent cuts to SNAs at several primary schools. Astra Construction Services Ltd describe the plans as the first phase of development on lands at Shannonpark, where a public transport interchange with 50 car parking spaces is included among details of the plans. The main element is the planned construction of 283 detached, semi-detached and terraced houses, and 14 apartments. A neighbourhood centre proposed by the applicant firm would include two shops, a pharmacy and office/medical unit at ground floor of the three-storey facility. Also to be included are a two-level creche, and first-floor medical/office unit, with the entire development to be accessed by a planned spine road from Carrigaline Road. The applicants also propose a new signalised junction opposite the existing entrance to the Carrig na Curra development. * A scheme of more than 100 new homes has been approved on Dublins northside. The plans relate to a mostly-overgrown site adjoining the Marino Institute of Education on Griffith Avenue, between Drumcondra Road and Malahide Road. The proposal for 79 houses and 22 apartments was approved by Dublin City Council last September, six months after being submitted by Argentum Property Holding Three Ltd. * After considering third-party appeals, An Bord Pleanala this month gave permission for a scheme under a set of conditions that vary from those first proposed by the local authority. Cork City Council has granted permission for 31 new homes in the southside suburbs at Blackrock Road. The decision follows an application in August last year from Targeted Investment Opportunities PLC. It sought permission to build 15 detached and 16 semi-detached houses at Cleve Hill, and to landscape the site and provide access and internal roads. After receiving final applicant responses in January to further information requests, the council gave the go-ahead on February 12 subject to 16 conditions. * Permission has been granted, with revised conditions from those previously attached to local authority approval, for a scheme of 30 new houses near Douglas in Cork. In September 2015, Cork County Councils approval of the development at Moneygourney, Ballyorban was referred to An Bord Pleanala. Into the Future Ltd, a company related to Rockforest Homes, had applied almost a year earlier to amend plans for the site that were first lodged in 2006, by changing the layout and increasing density of the development. The appeals board approved the plan subject to new conditions earlier this month. * Plans to replace an existing Lidl supermarket with a larger outlet on Corks northside were due for a decision by the city council this week. Shortly before Christmas 2015, the application was lodged in relation to the German retail chains store at Mount Agnes Road in Churchfield. Lidl Ireland is seeking permission to demolish the existing 1,776 square metre shop and to build a new and modernised licensed discount foodstore totalling 2,860sq m facility, as well as three separate neighbourhood commercial/retail units totalling 189 sq m on the 2.5-acre site. The latest news is that the company is set to expand its roster even further, this time with their first original German production. It's set to be a family drama with supernatural elements called Dark and will be written in German and filmed there. That's an important move for the company as they seek to appeal to local audiences around the world, helping to draw them into the subscription model. And it also makes things simpler for Netflix too as they won't have to license this content. In the future its likely that much of what Netflix shows will have been created by them specifically for the platform and given the quality of their original content to date, from House of Cards to Bloodlines, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Orange is the New Black and a whole heap more we're not going to complain about what they're managing to create. And we're totally on board for checking out something with subtitles too. The beautifully worded introduction to the 1995 legislation establishing Irelands civil legal aid scheme says that it is dedicated to ensuring that persons of insufficient means have access to legal services. Its clear purpose therefore was that those who could not afford to pay privately for legal help would be supported by the State in getting access to the law. This would in turn advance the ideals on which the State is founded ideals of equality and social justice in a democratic State governed by the rule of law. If this intent had been realised, we would now have a comprehensive civil legal aid scheme which would allow redress to anyone who is wronged, but too poor to stand up for their rights. The voices heard in the legal system would not just be those who can afford to pay for it. Fundamental human rights and the values of our societies would be vindicated. You dont need to be a lawyer to know that we dont have that system in Ireland. Everyone knows of cases where people could not get the legal advice or the court representation they needed and deserved simply because they could not afford it. People challenging the authorities to vindicate their rights have felt the freezing chill factor of potentially enormous legal costs. Flacs latest report, Accessing Justice in Hard Times, shows that the inadequacies of our state-funded legal system, already constrained by low budgets and a somewhat narrow mandate, were intensified during the recession. As a result, many people were denied access to lawyers when they needed them and so were denied access to justice. Pressure grew on the voluntary services provided by Flac and Citizens Information Services countrywide. A remarkable trend we noticed on our own telephone phone line as did Flac volunteers all around the country was that legal questions became more complex during the recession. Debt issues led to family stresses. Unemployment or reduced work hours led to debt. People faced multiple legal issues. Like all other public services during the recession, legal aid services were cut. But rising poverty meant more people became eligible for help from the state Legal Aid Board. Inevitably, therefore, and despite the dedication and hard work of its staff, the boards capacities were severely diminished. Numbers waiting on a first appointment with a Legal Aid Board solicitor rose more than 335% from 1163 in 2007 to 5067 in 2013. Back in 2007, a person might wait for a maximum of six months for their first appointment. That rose to over 15 months during the recession; even today, people in some parts of the country may wait nearly nine months for a first consultation with a state-funded solicitor. The cost of civil legal aid rose, with serious implications for people reliant on social welfare payments as well as victims of domestic violence, who are particularly vulnerable during austerity. No one at risk of violence should be deterred by legal fees from getting the protection that they need. Flacs report recommends that fees should not be charged in these cases. The recession revealed that the legal aid schemes restrictive nature had a particular impact. Flacs own data showed that in austerity, people needed increased legal help in relation to social welfare, mortgage arrears, housing repossessions and terms of employment. However, these matters are largely excluded from the Legal Aid Boards remit, forming a real barrier to justice for poor people and those living on societys margins. Ultimately, the recession laid bare fundamental flaws in Irelands legal aid system. In the absence of an efficient, accessible and sustainable scheme, people could not access badly needed legal help; and restrictions, cuts and delays disproportionately impacted on those who were vulnerable. While many people remain marginalised and live in poverty, the worst of the recession is over. Now is the time to take stock and make the civil legal aid scheme fit for the purpose laid out in legislation ensuring that people of insufficient means have access to legal services. By acting now, we can build a civil legal aid scheme that really works. Flacs report has many suggestions for action. If we fail to fix our system, the next crisis will again see people on low incomes let down by unwieldy structures that deliver services too late, in a way that is not only ineffective for them but also for everyone around them: their families, the other people involved in the legal problem, the gardai, the lawyers working in the legal aid system, the courts. Our whole society is damaged when one section cant access the legal system, and it is an even greater problem if that section is always just those who lack resources. A problem for those affected, but also a problem for all of us who like to think that everyone can hope for access to our justice system. Noeline Blackwell is the outgoing Director General of FLAC (Free Legal Advice Centres) which promotes equal access to justice for all www.flac.ie Despite all the posters, leaflets, door knocks and media coverage, the likelihood is that one in three of the electorate will not cast their vote tomorrow. Turnout was a high 70% at the last general election in 2011, but in the previous four elections dating back to 1992, it was 67%, 63%, 65% and 67%. That means around one million potential voters stayed away. Emigration, illness and other unavoidable absences will have played their part but what about the repeat abstainers? Are they driven, or rather stalled, by apathy or antipathy, or are they being kept at bay by other factors? The Disability Federation of Ireland (DFI) is fairly certain a large porportion of the people it represents are among the non-voters. Its not just the physical barriers people with disabilities can face in accessing polling stations, or that if youre blind there isnt the option of a ballot sheet in braille or an audio version. Its also that people with intellectual disabilities have often been assumed unable to vote and their carers and family do not always feel equipped to support them in doing so. Toni Gleeson, a support officer with DFI, wants to turn these assumptions on their head. What we are trying to do in all our work with people with disabilities is build up a culture of independence from an early age, she says. For more election news, analysis and general banter join us HERE Using your vote is an act of independence and its your right. We go on so much about the fight for rights for people with disabilities. This is a right that, as citizens, is already afforded them. They dont have to fight for it, so we say go ahead and exercise it. She doesnt accept the argument that a person with an intellectual disability may not fully understand the electoral process or be able to sufficiently evaluate the candidates. If they only tick the box of the person who looks the kindest to them, thats a valid choice. We dont follow any other voter into the polling booth to see how theyre making a decision. We dont quiz people on their political knowledge and say, you dont know enough, you cant vote. Maybe the vote will be spoiled but a presiding officer has no right to pursue anyone else into the polling booth to see they dont spoil their vote. And they will be recorded as having turned up and availed of their democratic right. They will have been counted and thats very important. According to the National Intellectual Disability Database which records those using specialised services, there are 17,500 adults with an intellectual disability, but the 2011 Census, which has a broader base, puts the number at 39,000. Either way, its a sizeable group at risk of being discounted. There may be concerns that an intellectually disabled person could be manipulated into voting a certain way but Ms Gleeson points out that the presiding officer can be asked to assist in the polling booth instead of a companion. In the same way, you can ask for assistance if a physical disability makes it difficult for you to vote whether because you cant see the ballot paper or you cant hold a pen. The presiding officer is bound to preserve the secrecy of that vote. Its not ideal in that its not entirely the private act that voting is meant to be but its better than being denied the vote. Hugh Friel of the Donegal Travellers Project says Travellers are also under-represented at polling stations. He doesnt know how many of the countrys 25,000 adult Travellers use their vote but notes: Weve about 320 families in Donegal and I would say about 45 would regularly vote. The problem is partly related to literacy issues and nomadic lifestyles but these are not as big a factor as they might have been in the past. The biggest thing is that Travellers dont see the importance of voting because they cant see how their vote would make a difference. Most of the candidates stay away from the community because were not vote-catchers. They dont have Travellers on their agenda because it does them little or no favour. Votes are around the settled population. That was his own view when he first became eligible to vote. I left school at 11 so I didnt know a whole lot about it. It can be very daunting. Even the language used by politicians, if theyre talking about the economy, its like they want to exclude you. We have a quick guide on how to vote for first time voters this Friday on our Snapchat (irishexaminer) #GE16 pic.twitter.com/6KzsUJmKww Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) February 24, 2016 I understand now that if I dont use my vote, it doesnt count and if my vote doesnt count, I wont get any attention from politicans. What I tell people is, the more of you vote, the more they [politicians] will take notice. They know who votes and what areas voted and they focus on those people. If youre not registered to vote, they wont be round your door. That feeling of being isolated from the political process is one Sr Bernadette McMahon has heard described repeatedly in her work with the Voter Education Programme run by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice for the past 19 years. Hundreds of community groups have participated in the programme in that time, learning to navigate the electoral process directly as well as producing trainers to spread the word locally. Sr McMahon says while many of the barriers to voting persist, she is optimistic for a high turnout tomorrow. There was a very good turnout with the marriage referendum, particularly of young people, [it was 60% compared to below 40% in the three previous referendums] and I think that has sparked off a greater understanding or appreciation of what the vote means. I am hoping that that will show up in the coming election, she says. But you still have disadvantaged communities who feel let down by politicians and empty promises. There is still a group who feel, whats the point of voting? Sr McMahon says there needs to be a more concerted public awareness campaign to get people registered to vote, starting with Leaving Cert students. We got a lot of telephone calls before the marraige equality referendum from people saying they didnt know if they were on the register or how to check or how to get on the register and those issues have arisen again now. Its simple if you know how but if you havent come from a tradition of voting, it can be confusing. It needs to be as easy as possible. Sr McMahon says people are generally happy to go through the register checks and form filling once they have an appetite for voting so as well as practical assistance with registering, her workshops focus on the value of the vote. We would bring attention to the time when people who didnt have property couldnt vote, when women couldnt vote, to the struggles in South Africa, to the regimes in some Muslim countries and we ask the question, suppose tomorrow morning you were told you could not vote how would you feel about that? For more election news, analysis and general banter join us HERE All of the political parties and candidates are going to end homelessness. Thats if the pledges and promises are to be believed. All advocate for the right of everybody to have a place they can call home. However, beyond the usual platitudes and pledges of money not yet in place, there is precious little in the way of explanation as to how such a dream will be realised. In the first instance, the extent of the problem isnt even officially recognised. This week, it was revealed that more families became homeless in Dublin in January than in any other month on record. In a time of economic recovery, 135 families, including 269 children, presented themselves as requiring emergency accommodation last month. The official figure for the number of homeless children in the capital now stands at 1,570, from 768 families. This is a 100% increase in the space of 12 months. Yet those stats do not tell the full story. As revealed in this newspaper last month, the actual number of people living in emergency accommodation could be up to 50% greater than the official figures. This was uncovered by a whistleblower in the social services, Joe OBrien, who is running in the general election. Mr OBrien discovered that large numbers of non-nationals are not being included in the official figures. In 2013, the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive stated that 4,613 people used emergency accommodation in the city, but this did not include a further 2,756 non-nationals who were referred onto another government unit. This leads to an under- assessment of the funding and resources required to adequately deal with the homeless and housing crisis, Mr OBrien wrote in a report for Crosscare, the organisation he was working for at the time. His work has been questioned by the Homeless Executive yet nobody has refuted the basis for his figures. This leaves open the scenario that the homeless crisis is much worse than the worst figures that have been presented. Finding solutions to the problem is another matter. The housing crisis is probably the greatest failing of the outgoing government, but how much better would an alternative administration tackle the problem as it now stands. When the new figures were released on Monday, the two main opposition parties reacted with righteous indignation. In government, Sinn Fein will end this scandal by delivering 5 billion in capital spending on housing over the next five years to ensure the delivery of 36,500 new social and affordable homes, Gerry Adams stated. This solution throw money at the problem and some will stick is the sole answer of most of those who claim they would do a better job. We have a quick guide on how to vote for first time voters this Friday on our Snapchat (irishexaminer) #GE16 pic.twitter.com/6KzsUJmKww Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) February 24, 2016 Fianna Fails Barry Cowen did reference the Governments refusal to increase rent supplement payments as a contributing factor in the crisis, but went on to declare: The next government has to make the speedier construction of new social homes their number one priority. If elected, Fianna Fail will do this and build an Ireland for all. Cue trumpets. If either or both parties get into government, they will find the solution to the problem far from easy, irrespective of how much money is allocated. The current government has made many mistakes in housing not least its failure to heed warnings about the impending crisis but the problems are deep-rooted. For instance, just this week it was revealed that plans to impose a vacant site levy on land that is being hoarded or unused will not come into effect until 2018. The levy was designed to free up land for the supply of housing. Now it emerges that even when it does come into effect, a process will follow before the levy is charged, and it would be no surprise if legal loopholes emerge which will see the whole matter thrashed out in the High Court, necessitating further delay and, if form is anything to go by, most likely seeing the levy abandoned at some point. The price of building land is also a barrier to supply in other ways. Just last year, Minister for the Environment, Alan Kelly brought in new regulations for the size of apartments in order to make the construction of units viable for developers. These regulations were criticised by a number of architects and social policy analysts as lowering standards. Yet the departments own analysis of the new sizes came to the conclusion that an investment of 2.2 million in building a block of apartments would reap a profit of 15,000 under the new regulations. This represents a return of 0.7% on the capital invested, which might prompt any developer to put the money on deposit altogether for a better return. Those are just two of the myriad issues now facing anybody attempting to tackle the housing crisis. If any entity is serious about tackling it, the model on which houses and apartments are built will need to be examined to see if it can be made sustainable. It may well arise that somebody will have to grasp the nettle of a constitutional amendment on property in order to ensure that building land is affordable. This issue was first raised in the Kenny report in 1973 but no government has yet had the stomach to grasp it. Yesterday, on foot of the latest statistics, Fr Peter McVerry called for an emergency cabinet meeting to be assembled to discuss the crisis. He also pointed out that promises of 35,000 social houses over the next five years are completely unrealistic under the current model. He, along with others who work in the housing and homeless sectors, warned over two years ago that this was coming down the line. One can only hope that his current warnings are being heeded by all who aspire to be in the next government. So far in the general election campaign there is precious little evidence that this serious crisis is receiving anything like the attention it so badly needs. THEYRE calling it the chocolate fountain. Whenever theres heavy rainfall the Dodder Valley sewer overflows through the manhole beside Balrothery Weir in Firhouse in Dublin 24. Local residents have shown me pictures of a sewage lake and a sewage river flowing towards the River Dodder where it is at its most beautiful. Theres a mound of toilet paper stuck to the bank to prove the point. I still feel worried even walking down here, but theres been a lot of rain, says the local man whos showing me the bank. But the thing that really worries him is seeing kids playing in the stones which have been bathed in the overflow. He says the Councils response was to surround the manhole with a temporary fence which wasnt exactly effective against rushing water. We know from the Environmental Protection Agency that a third of our rivers and more than half of our lakes are polluted. We know that the number of pristine water sources has declined steeply in recent years. We know that inadequately treated sewage disgorges into the sea in some of our most attractive locations, from Clifden to Youghal, from Arklow to Crosshaven. Yet it is still shocking that the River Dodder is allowed to continue in this state, flowing as it does through some of the most populated areas of south Dublin, within pea-shooting distance of the EPA headquarters on the UCD campus. The EPA staff dont even have to walk out at their lunch-break to get an idea of what the Dodder Valley sewer can do after heavy rain because there is a manhole on campus in UCD which has been known to blow off and scatter waste water within a range of 10 metres. But Irish Water doesnt seem to have any problem with the Dodder Valley sewer, even though you only have to open your eyes to see the sh*t. Right through January, every time I walked the banks I was arrested by the vision of an overflow grille into the Dodder just beneath the Windy Arbour playground in lower Dundrum, swathed in toilet paper and all things toilet. My husband made a video of the seagulls in a feeding frenzy as the effluent burst into the river. Irish Water has not as yet responded to my request for information on the origins of the sh*t but the water quality lobby group SWAN Ireland elicited the response that this pollution must come from a private source. This is described by Redmond OHanlon of the Dodder Anglers as rubbish. He says the said grille has been regularly swathed in toilet paper for 30 years at least its an overflow from the Dodder Valley sewer which cant cope with its load when theres heavy rain. One of their members has seen the effluent bursting out of the grille, leaping the river and hitting the opposite wall. OHanlon argues that flood water must be given a different escape route than the public sewers. He adds that the effluent currently going into the Dodder doesnt kill the fish. The river is certainly at its cleanest in living memory. But theres no denying that the phosphates and nitrates in waste water are among the most serious causes of pollution in our rivers, a hazard for wildlife and humans alike. It seems no-one gives a toss. Its like its just not happening. Irish Water is not aware that up at Balrothery Weir theres a planning application in for the second time for 70-plus apartments which would have nowhere to send their sewage except into the aforesaid Chocolate Fountain. Planning was refused last year for a range of reasons but the sewage load was not one of them. The decision is now being appealed and some locals are organising to try to highlight the sewage issue as best they can. Further down the river at Rathfarnham there is talk of taking a case to Europe on the basis of the EUs Water Framework Directive. You cant blame them. Ireland is already two years late with implementing the directive, having come up with the recession as an excuse, the same one we used at the Paris Climate Talks. We are fed the promise that Irish Water will take a comprehensive approach to targeting investment in and improving the management of urban waste water infrastructure. Except that Irish Water cant see the sh*t running past its door. Its hard to escape the conclusion that as a society we have closed our eyes to our own crap. We create quangos and we produce reports but if they say something we dont want to hear we ignore them. Right back in 2005 the Greater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study clearly said that the Dodder Valley sewer was at capacity and outlined the development that was needed. It stressed the flooding risk at Firhouse, Dundrum, Goatstown, Clonskeagh, and the UCD campus. The recession meant that development eased. Just try to imagine the sh*t which is going to flow when development gets going seriously again in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford, and all points in between. Then mix it with climate change which means once in 100 year flooding events happen all the time. A US study this week predicted a sea level rise of up to 1.5 metres if we dont implement the Paris Agreement. But climate change was not an issue at all in the campaign for tomorrows election. It wasnt mentioned in any of the debates. The Environmental Hustings hosted by the Irish Environmental Network and Young Friends of the Earth in Dublin attracted Green Party, Fianna Fail and AAA candidates but not one single General Election candidate from either Government party. And the only issue related to water which has gained any political traction is how quickly, how completely, and how absolutely the said politician will axe Irish Water and any meaningful link between wasting water and paying for it. And while were at it, lets axe a few billion out of the general taxation which might go some way toward fixing our broken water system. In her 2008 book about human waste the writer Rose George called Ireland a rich country with an infrastructure more suited to a poor one. We have been led down the dark sewer of our native greed by politicians looking for the easy vote when we could have been inspired to look at the sky; to take ownership of our beautiful country and the rivers which flow through it; to fight for clean water in our taps, in our lakes, in our seas. We could have been inspired to love our country. Tomorrow is another day. Chocolate, anyone? He was fulfilling an election promise but, like many politicians before and after him, he failed to make it happen. Seven years on, the controversial military prison remains open. But one of Obamas most admirable qualities is his persistence. He showed it with health reform and now he is making one final attempt to persuade Congress to close Guantanamo, despite strong opposition from legislators who do not want detainees transferred to the United States. Jurors in St Louis awarded the family of Jacqueline Fox $10m in actual damages and $62m punitive damages. Johnson & Johnson faces claims that, in an effort to boost sales, it failed for decades to warn consumers its talc-based products could cause cancer. About 1,000 cases have been filed in Missouri state court, and another 200 in New Jersey. Fox, who lived in Birmingham, Alabama, claimed she used Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for more than 35 years before being diagnosed three years ago with ovarian cancer. She died in October at age 62. Jurors found Johnson & Johnson liable for fraud, negligence, and conspiracy, the familys lawyers said. Deliberations lasted four hours, following a three-week trial. Jere Beasley, a lawyer for Foxs family, said Johnson & Johnson knew as far back as the 1980s of the risk, and yet resorted to lying to the public, lying to the regulatory agencies. He spoke on a conference call with journalists. Carol Goodrich, a Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman, said: We are disappointed with the outcome of the trial. We sympathise with the plaintiffs family, but firmly believe the safety of cosmetic talc is supported by decades of scientific evidence. Trainee teacher Lorna Moore, 33, originally from Northern Ireland, was one of a number of British Muslims accused of being intent on travelling to the war zone. Following a trial at the Old Bailey, Moore was convicted of failing to tell authorities her supply teacher husband Sajid Aslam, 34, was poised to join Islamic State. Her co-defendant, Ayman Shaukat, aged 27,was found guilty of helping Aslam and Muslim convert Alex Nash, 22, on their way to fight. At the time of Aslams departure in August 2014, Moore had taken the rest of the family on a Butlins holiday in Skegness. As Aslam crossed into Syria, he sent a triumphant coded message to Shaukat in the form of a video link to a song called Made It. Within months, Moore had booked flights to Majorca, but her final destination was given away in a text from Nashs wife in Turkey saying see you there. But in evidence, Moore said she would never put her childrens lives in danger. She insisted she had been planning to take them back to her familys farm in Omagh, after finishing her teacher training a claim backed up by her mother. Her relationship with Aslam ended after he became abusive and they only lived together for the sake of the children, the court heard. She told jurors that when she turned to a Muslim cleric for a divorce, he said she must take her husband back. She said Aslam should return to Britain and explain himself if he is innocent and got nothing to hide. A goat caused a commotion when it was spotted in the drivers seat of a vehicle in a Massachusetts parking lot, flashing its owners lights. The Boston Globe reports passer-by John Miller noticed the horned animal and filmed it with his phone. Mr Miller posted the video on social media where it was discovered by the goats owner, Ashley Robertson. Ms Robertson says she was on her way home with her new goat when she stopped at Home Depot. She didnt think the goat would climb into the front seat because of its size. She says the goat turned on her hazard lights, drank an old cup of lemonade, and defecated on the seat. She says shes amused and a little embarrassed about the goats internet fame. Fit to be tied Britain: David Cameron has been accused of launching a nasty personal attack on Jeremy Corbyn during a heated clash in the Commons. Heckled by Labour MPs over what his mother, a critic of local council cuts, would think about problems in the health service, the prime minister turned his fire on the Labour leader. Mr Cameron said: Ask my mother? I think I know what my mother would say. I think she would look across the despatch box and she would say Put on a proper suit, do up your tie, and sing the national anthem. The attack delighted Tory backbenchers who cheered uproariously for more than 30 seconds. But Labour MPs were quick to condemn Mr Cameron for hitting a new low during prime ministers questions. Holy smoke US: New York City transit officials say a passenger angry that a bus driver told her to stop smoking took the vehicle for a brief joy ride. Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Kevin Ortiz says the bus driver noticed the woman smoking, asked her to extinguish her cigarette, and asked her to get off the bus . Ortiz says the woman became irate and the driver began transferring riders to another bus. But he says the woman jumped into the drivers seat and started driving off. Ortiz says the bus went about four blocks before a dispatcher managed to reach through the window and shut it off. The woman was taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation. Charges are pending. Vital signs US: A Maine womans unorthodox approach to finding a kidney donor has paid off. Linda Deming was so desperate for a kidney transplant that she posted signs along the side of the road and advertised from her car. At least 50 people have reached out to her and she eventually found two matches. The Pownal woman got the green light from her doctors last week and her surgery is scheduled for next week. Her donor is 37-year-old Amber McIntyre, a married mother of four from Kenduskeag. The Bangor waitress says she saw Demings story on Facebook. She will meet Deming the night before the surgery. Fear factor Britain: Fear of dangerous predators is itself a key factor that helps keep ecologies in balance, a controversial study suggests. The findings lend support to campaigners who want to see British forests rewilded with reintroduced wolves, lynx, and bears. Scientists in Canada carried out an experiment involving raccoons on British Columbias Gulf Islands which have been decimating populations of songbirds, crabs and sea fish. They suspected that the raccoon problem originated from the elimination of wolves and cougars from the islands a century ago. Asia Amnesty Criticizes India for Intolerance of Dissent Amnesty International has joined a growing chorus accusing India of supporting a climate of intolerance by cracking down on dissent. NEW DELHI Amnesty International has joined a growing chorus accusing India of supporting a climate of intolerance by cracking down on dissent through arbitrary arrests, caste-based discrimination, extrajudicial killings and attacks on freedom of expression. The rights group said in its annual global report, published Wednesday, that Indias Hindu nationalist government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed to prevent hundreds of incidents of communal violence, usually involving members of the Hindu majority pitted against Muslims or other minorities. Instead, ruling party lawmakers and politicians were fueling religious tensions with provocative speeches and justifications for the violence, it said. Amnestys report also highlights the governments continued harassment of civil society groups critical of official policies over the past year, as well as government legal action aimed at controlling foreign funds for nongovernmental organizations. Over 3,200 people were being held in January under administrative detention on executive orders without charge or trial, the report said, adding that state authorities used anti-terror laws to illegally hold activists and protesters in custody. The report is the latest criticism to be leveled at Modis government after a year fraught with communal tension as members of Indias governing Bharatiya Janata Party try to impose their brand of hyper-nationalism. Dozens of Indian authors, scientists, historians and film industry workers have returned national awards to protest the trend, which has seen arrests of student protesters, the murder of three atheist scholars and mob killings over rumors of cow slaughter. Among Indias majority Hindu population, cows are considered sacred. On Monday, both the New York Times and Le Monde newspapers ran editorials lambasting Modis government. The Times editorial board said the ongoing confrontation between Hindu nationalists and free-speech advocates raises serious concerns about Modis governance and may further stall any progress in Parliament on economic reforms. Last week, a group of 133 university professors from around the worldincluding linguist Noam Chomsky, Nobel-winning novelist Orphan Pamuk and economist James Galbraithsaid the recent arrest of a student leader on sedition charges is further evidence of the present governments deeply authoritarian nature, intolerant of any dissent, setting aside Indias longstanding commitment to toleration and plurality of opinion. Modi and his government have remained largely unmoved by the criticism, saying little in response other than to denounce it as anti-government propaganda designed to distract from the governments agenda. Meanwhile, Modi has insisted he is prime minister for all of India, and not just Hindus, and urged the nation to instead focus on growing the economy. The Amnesty report also said that prisoner safety remained a serious concern, and that over 282,000 prisoners68 percent of the total prison populationwere pretrial detainees. Most prisons are badly overcrowded, while torture and abuse in police or judicial custody led the countrys Supreme Court last year to demand that state governments install closed-circuit television cameras within the next two years. It questioned the Indian Parliaments defeat of legislation to decriminalize same-sex relations, noting that the country was still adhering to a colonial-era law that makes homosexuality a crime punishable by up to a decade in prison. The Ministry of Information has also been sending alerts to mobile phones. Farmers with land on sand banks, as well as anyone operating boats, ships and fast crafts, should be particularly cautious, as the water could rise suddenly, state media said. The department warned that the water level could increase by 5-6 feet in the coming days in areas of Sagaing and Mandalay divisions, including Myinmu and Nyaung-U; and by 4-5 feet in the next 5-10 days in parts of Magwe, Irrawaddy, and Pegu divisions, including Aunglan, Chauk, Hinthada, Minbu, Pakokku, Pyay and Sidoktaya. Over two days, the river was higher than normal by 6 feet in Kachin States Bhamo town and by 3 feet in Sagaing Divisions Katha. Reports said that within a 16-hour period on Monday, the Irrawaddy River rose 12 feet in Kachin States Myitkyina Township, though the water level receded 5 feet on Wednesday. RANGOON The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology issued a weather alert in state media on Thursday about potentially dangerous water levels in parts of the country. The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology has issued a weather alert in state media about potentially dangerous water levels in parts of the country. The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology has issued a weather alert in state media about potentially dangerous water levels in parts of the country. Ye Htuts Take on 59(f) Criticized as Conjecture over Presidency Rolls On US Wants Leadership Role for India in Asia-Pacific To Court or Clamp Down? The NLD and Burmas Cronies On the Frontline of the TNLA, SSA-S Divide Former Thai PM Thaksin Warns on Economy, Says No Deal with Military Silence May Not Be Golden as Indias Modi Lays Low During Unrest Behind the Lines: Shan Soldiers on Patrol in Kyaukme Locals to Resume Protests over Dumping of Mining Waste in Hpakant We do not encourage viewing this site in this width. Please increase the size of your window. Burma Have the Wa Cornered the Global Tin Trade? A recent paper concludes that a new tin mining operation in UWSA controlled territory has helped elevate Burma to the worlds third-largest producer of tin. A recent paper published in the journal Resources Policy concludes that a new tin mining operation located in a corner of northern Shan State controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) appears to be responsible for elevating Burma in just a few years from being a bit player in the global tin industry to the status of the Worlds third largest tin producing country. What the authors call a potential black swan event represents a 4900.00 percent increase in tin production over a five year period, from 2009 to 2014, according to figures provided by the UK based International Tin Research Institute (ITRI), a not for profit group with close ties to the mining industry. Tin mining in Myanmar: Production and potential, published in December and authored by Oxford University professor Nicholas J. Gardiner and three others, suggests that the massive increase in tin production from Burma is a development completely unforeseen by commodity analysts and one that has had significant ramifications for the tin industry worldwide. According to the paper, the Wa-controlled tin production is centered at the Man Maw mine which is said to be some 90 km from Panghsang (also known as Pangkham). The authors suggest that the high level of tin production at the Man Maw mine will not last long but due to a lack of hard data from the area it remains far from clear how much tin remains to be mined. According to a person familiar with Man Maw cited by the papers authors, the mine site is about 100km2 with a number of small mining companies in operation at the site. Annual production of tin from Man Maw was estimated to be nearly 30,000 tons in 2014, making it one of the largest tin mining sites in the world. The giant San Rafael mine in Peru was the Worlds single biggest tin mine producer, until the apparent recent rise of the Man Maw mining complex, the paper says. The Wa territory has no tin smelting capacity of its own and everything mined in Man Maw appears to be destined for China which, according to the papers authors, in 2014 imported 177,950 tons of tin ores and concentrates, 97 percent of which came from Burma. Tin is most widely used for solder, a key component in electronics manufacturing. The ITRI, which describes itself as being supported by the worlds most important tin producers and smelters, reports that thanks to tin concentrate imports from Wa controlled territory, China for the first time in 6 years became a net exporter of refined tin in 2014; a development with major implications for the industry worldwide. If the low cost production from Myanmar is maintained this has the potential to re-shape the industry cost curve, leading to longer-term lower tin prices, the authors contend, predicting lower prices could lead to less production in other mining areas where production costs are increasing. The low cost of tin globally continues to be an issue for mining firms worldwide. A quarterly report released in July of last year by the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)-listed firm Kasbah Resources Limited, singled out the rise in tin exports from Burma and tin from UWSA territory in particular, as one of two major factors behind a fall in global tin prices in 2014. The availability of low cost ore and concentrates from Myanmar (particularly the Maw Maw mining area in the Wa County) and its proximity to the Yunnan Province in China has been problematic for the tin market, said the firm, which is focused on developing tin mining concessions in Morocco. This rapid growth of tin concentrate imports from Myanmar provided an opportunity for traders and Chinese tin producers to purchase lower cost and higher grade material to refine to metal in China, then export that metal to the international market. Similarly, the 2014 annual report of the Malaysia Smelting Corporation (MSC), which bills itself as the worlds second largest supplier of refined tin, cited the large amounts of tin mined in UWSA territory as a worrying development. While tin demand has remained relatively stable, recent reports on the high artisanal production from the Wa State in Myanmar is a major concern to the industry, the report noted. Past its Peak? But it is far from clear how much metal there is left to mine. An update released by the ITRI last June predicted a future decline in tin exports from UWSA territory citing public comments made by a senior official from the Yunnan Tin Company (YTC) whose firm had recently visited the Man Maw mine. At the ITRI China International Tin Forum in Shanghai, YTCs General Manager, Zhang Fu, outlined the companys belief that Myanmars 2014 tin production was a peak, and that resource and grade depletion at Man Maw will result in a progressive decline in production in the following years, the update noted. Despite this prediction, tin production from Burma actually went up in 2015 compared to the previous year, according to estimates provided by ITRI in an update released last August. Stefan Ljubisavljevic, a commodities analyst with the Australian bank Macquarie Securities recently told a trade publication that in fact he expects tin exports from Burma to increase. Due to the unstable political situation in Myanmars major tin mining locations, what has been produced and exported so far is the low hanging fruit of production and with less uncertainty tin production could continue to rise in the coming years, Ljubisavljevic told Platts Metals Daily in November. His bank estimates that since 2012, Burmas share of global tin production has grown to over 10 percent of global production from less than 2 percent. There are other significant sources of tin in Burma, most notably in Dawei in Tenasserim Division and at Mawchi in Karenni State. The latter was once one of the biggest tin mining areas in the world during colonial times, but neither source appears to be producing at levels anywhere near what is being produced in UWSA territory. The fact that the worlds tin prices are being affected in part by the policies set by a reclusive group of ex-communist rebels in a remote corner of northern Shan State has so far received little attention, apparently even among those following the Burmese mining sector. There was no mention of the Man Maw areas significant contribution to the global tin trade in the recently released Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) report for Burma, which included other significant tin mining operations in the rest of the country, in an otherwise detailed overview of the countrys mining industry. Wa Control The UWSA was formed in 1989 following the dramatic implosion of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), which was then headquartered in Panghsang. As the CPBs ageing leadership fled to China, Burmas then biggest armed group split several ways with a faction that eventually became the UWSA emerging as the biggest grouping that quickly reached a ceasefire with the military regime. The senior leadership of the UWSA, many of whom were previously mid-ranking officers in the communist party who took part in a rebellion against the CPBs almost exclusively Burman leadership, maintain good relations with China, ties that were formed when Beijing was strongly backing the CPB in its armed struggle against Burmas leader Ne Win. Chinese is taught in UWSA run schools and is spoken widely throughout the UWSA territory which is officially called Shan State Special Region No 2, but which the UWSA often refers to as Wa State. The significant amounts of tin being mined and exported from UWSA territory to China adds an extra dimension to the UWSAs relationship with the Chinese government, who consider the continued supply of tin and other minerals known as rare earths used in electronics, to be of major importance to the countrys economy. The Wa, who are recognized as a distinct ethnic group by both the Burmese and Chinese governments, were known historically for their headhunting prowess. At the time of Burmas independence, few would have predicted that the Wa, most of whom resided in remote areas largely ungoverned by colonial authorities, would go on to form Burmas strongest ethnic armed group. While it remains unclear how much tin remains to be found in the Wa hills, any interruption to the UWSAs 26 year-long ceasefire with the central government would likely affect mining and thus impact global tin prices overall. The UWSAs well-equipped ranks are estimated by some to be between 20,000 to 25,000 strong, bigger than the standing armies of several European nations. Its hefty army helps maintain a status quo in which the central government has little if any authority over a large swath of UWSA territory running along the Chinese border and a smaller area along the Thai border that the UWSA took control of in the late 1990s and early 2000s. A series of indictments filed by US authorities over the years against the UWSA leadership, including Chairman Bao Youxiang, for their alleged involvement in the global drug trade have helped keep the Wa territory largely cut off from western visitors. The group has long denied these claims which it says are part of a smear campaign. We, the UWSA, are wholeheartedly engaged in the fight against drug-dealing, the groups spokesperson, Aung Myint, told The Irrawaddy in a 2013 interview. For seven years since 2005, there have been no poppy fields and no poppy plants in our region. This has finished. Thats why the world should recognize us. The UWSA has also been identified as a major player in the jade trade in a series of reports issued by Global Witness last year. Global Witness alleges that Wei Hsueh Kang, often described as the UWSAs banker, and his associates have used a web of opaque company structures to build, and disguise, a jade empire. Wei Hsueh Kang, who has rarely been seen in public since the US government put a $US2 million dollar bounty on his head, is considered to retain influence in the group, particularly within the 171st Brigade, which controls the UWSAs territory along the Thai border. Though they officially remain in a ceasefire, the UWSAs relationship with the central government has been strained for some time. The UWSA has been wary of the armys attempts to drive their allies the Shan State Army-North from their positions near Wa territory which have served as a buffer between them and the government. The UWSA were notably absent from the signing ceremony for the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) last October, hosted by President Thein Sein in Naypyidaw. The group instead hosted a summit in November of its own that included other non NCA signatories, including the Kachin Independence Organization, the Taang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army, just before the election. That meeting and a similar summit held in Panghsang in May were seen by many as something of a coming out party for the UWSA, who for the most part had avoided high profile gatherings of ethnic armed groups. Burma Locals to Resume Protests over Dumping of Mining Waste in Hpakant Residents of Lone Khin in Kachin States Hpakant Township said Thursday they would resume protests against the dumping of mining waste in the area. MANDALAY Residents of Lone Khin in Kachin States Hpakant Township said on Thursday they would resume protests against the dumping of mining waste in the area after mining companies allegedly failed to comply with an agreement reached last week. Protests were staged earlier this month in several villages of Hpakant Township over the continued dumping of waste soil from nearby jade mines in or around communities, which locals said were dangerous and impacted local waterways. On Friday, the protests, which had involved preventing company trucks from reaching areas to dump waste, were reportedly suspended after authorities and villagers negotiated an agreement. Officials said that local authorities, representatives from mining companies and concerned villagers signed an agreement stipulating that the mining companies would halt the dumping of waste soil from jade mines in areas near local villages. However, most locals said they were not aware of the apparent settlement. According to local protesters, the stipulations of the agreement were not being followed by mining companies or officials. Until now, they keep dumping waste soil and no action has been taken yet, as promised. Thats why we decided to resume the roadblock protest, said Nung Lat, a local involving in the protests. We lifted the roadblock [on Friday] as they promised they would avoid village areas and would clean up the mess as soon as possible. But they signed the agreements without the knowledge of locals and then spread news that the protests were ended. Protesters said officials or company representatives were yet to respond to the news that protests would resume. Ethnic Issues Aung Min: I Will Continue My Peace Work Burmas chief peace negotiator speaks to The Irrawaddy about the future of the MPC and his plans to establish a new organization focused on building peace. CHIANG MAI, Thailand Burmas chief peace negotiator and the head of the Myanmar Peace Center (MPC), Aung Min, recently held a series of meetings with leaders of ethnic armed groups in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. The outgoing presidents office minister spoke with The Irrawaddy, at the tail end of his visit, about his recent discussions with Aung San Suu Kyi, what he envisions for the future of the MPC, and his plans to establish a new organization focused on building peace. As an experienced peace negotiator heading the Myanmar Peace Center (MPC) and the Union Peacemaking Working Committee, will you stay involved in the peace process? I would like to focus on our MPC, [which is] a necessary organization Myanmar has not had national reconciliation before, even though it is necessary for our country. We cannot move forward to nation building without peace. Thus, we must engage in peace building, which is the MPCs priority. The journey has reached this far: we were able to sign the [nationwide ceasefire agreement, or NCA] with eight armed groups. The remaining armed groups have also agreed to the NCA text. The only reason they could not sign is because of [demands for] all-inclusiveness. When you recently met with Aung San Suu Kyi, did you discuss an ongoing role for the MPC? I met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi twice. When we met, she said the MPC should continue to exist as it is and [asked me] to help her regarding the peace process, if necessary. This is exactly what she said. She also wants peace and expressed that she wants the MPC to keep going. Although you were asked to help out in the future, when the new government comes in, your position may be changed. Do you feel you would lose the work that you initiated? There is so much more to do in the peace process. The process is taking longer due to the lack of manpower and those who are in the process also lack experience. We can still be involved in the peace process wherever we are, whether the MPC still exists or not We will help to work for peace, therefore, I told [Suu Kyi] that I would help in any way necessary. How do you respond to criticism of the MPC in terms of funding and its approach to the peace process? Firstly, we could not do anything without money. Before the help from international organizations, we had to spend our own money. We need to spend money for travel and for the countless negotiation meetings. Later, the international organizations started to support us, as they believed in our work. When they do that, we cannot use the funding without [conditions]. They have internal audit teams who review our proposals and implementation work. Not only us but other organizations are also receiving funds from international organizations. It is not proper to say that the MPC misused international support. They support us until the end of March [2016]. We will have to stand on our own feet later. Will you separately establish a peace foundation, as has been speculated? I value peace a lot and I want my country to benefit from it. For Myanmar, it is key, as without peace, we cannot continue to develop as well as [pursue] national reconciliation. Therefore, I will continue peace building wherever I am. I am thinking to form a peace foundation, like a think-tank. As an independent foundation, we could point out if there is any wrongdoing, either by the government, by the opposition or by the ethnic [armed groups]. Then, we could lend our help whenever they need it. Thus, we are preparing to establish a foundation. Will plans to form a peace foundation continue if you were to keep working as head of the MPC under the new government? I have decided that I would continue it [regardless]. Whether the new government will ask me or not depends on them. There could be limitations if they do. [People] think that many stakeholders have put all their efforts into the peace process. But the process has been mainly driven by the current president Thein Sein, Aung Min and the MPC. I have negotiated with the ethnic groups and the president assumes accountability for the negotiations I have done. Thus, the peace process was able to move forward. I am not sure whether the new government will do the same as Thein Sein has. If they do, the peace process will keep going. If not, I will face difficulties. Therefore, it would be difficult for me to dedicate myself to it as before. Thus I said I would help from the sidelines. What other plans do you have, apart from establishing the peace foundation? I will not be able to dedicate myself fully to the affairs of the country. But I will be supporting from the outside. For the peace building to be sustained, we must think of development. When I form the foundation, I am thinking of naming it the Peace and Development FoundationI could work for peace as well as focusing on regional development. Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma Army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing have met several times since the election, with the peace process said to be on their agenda. Do you think the process would benefit from these high-level dialogues, or should it be channeled through intermediaries such as the MPC? When we negotiate for peace, we have to primarily negotiate with the Tatmadaw [Burmas armed forces] as making peace is between the armed groups of both the Tatmadaw and the ethnics. So the new government would also have to obtain the Tatmadaws view on the process. Peace would be nowhere unless there is negotiation with the Tatmadaw. Is your current trip to Chiang Mai the last during the term of the outgoing government? Was there anything specific, either from the president or the commander-in-chief, passed on to the leaders of the NCA non-signatory groups? The leaders of the ethnic armed groups are mainly based in Chiang Mai. So it is not to say that this is the last time. We may have work in the future. Therefore, we may have to come again. I came here to share details of the Union Peace Conference, held in January. We invited them [non-signatory groups], but they did not join for various reasons. During the Union Peace Conference, participants from various ethnicities were able to talk about anything and it was a successful conference. I told these eight groups that if they want to sign the NCA, I would make it happen. If they dont, it is their desire. This weeks trip has been longer than previous ones, why? Yes. We met many groups We came here to clarify issues of the Palaung [of the Taang National Liberation Army] and the RCSS [Restoration Council of Shan State] conflict. Then we met with other ethnic armed groups individually. Thus, it took a three night trip. As far as we understand, you met with the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), but did you also meet with each group individually? Our meeting was not with the UNFC. I came here to meet with the leaders of the ethnic armed groups. Whatever the ethnic leaders of the UNFC said, I came and met with the leaders of the ethnic armed groups, not the UNFC. What would be your advice to your successor if the MPC continues? I would say to the new leader [of the MPC], you need to have good intentions and be a patient and tolerant person. In addition, they must try to understand the ethnic armed groups. I would say whoever keeps these points in mind would succeed. We have to listen to them. And we have to keep our promises, and be open-minded. Peace should prevail anywhere and anytime and it must be done. I will continue my peace work. [gallery type="slideshow" ids="107155,107156,107157,107158,107159,107160,107161,107162,107163,107164,107165,107166,107168,107169,107170,107171,107172"] KYAUKME TOWNSHIP, Shan State The Shan State Army-South (SSA-S) is estimated to command between 6,000 to 8,000 troops. In October last year, the SSA-S, also referred to by its political wing, the Restoration Council of Shan State, was one of eight armed groups that signed the so-called nationwide ceasefire agreement with Naypyidaw. Earlier this month, fighting between the SSA-S and the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), which first flared in November, intensified in northern Shan State, displacing thousands of villagers in Kyaukme and Namkham townships. The Irrawaddys photographer JPaing recently spent time with SSA-S troops in the villages of Ta San, Nyaung Pin Hla and Nyaung Maung in Kyaukme Township that have been affected by recent fighting. Thursday, February 25th, 2016 (7:42 am) - Score 3,658 The telecoms regulator has today published its preliminary proposals as part of a major Strategic Review of the United Kingdoms Digital Communications market, but the big news is theyve decided NOT to completely split BT from its national broadband and phone network (Openreach). Openreach was setup a decade ago after Ofcoms original review in 2005, which among other things forced BT to open part of their network to competition (functional separation) and introduced Local Loop Unbundling (i.e. allowing rival ISPs to install their own kit in BTs telephone exchanges, giving them more control over ADSL broadband and phone). Since then the market has evolved and the new fibre broadband (FTTC) services dont offer the same kind of control or price flexibility as the older LLU ADSL solutions. Meanwhile many of BTs rivals feel as if the operator still has too much control over Openreach and arent investing enough in their infrastructure, which they claim has damaged competition and performance. By comparison BT say theyve invested billions into the national infrastructure, are delivering a good level of service (i.e. meeting Ofcoms targets) and claim that their rivals seek a free ride off the back of all their hard work. BT has also warned that splitting Openreach could damage their plans to invest in future ultrafast G.fast broadband upgrades and the 10Mbps USO (details). Furthermore there were also fears about the risk from a protracted legal battle, concerns over how BTs huge pension deficit and group debt would be split and uncertainty over who would provide Openreachs future investment. On the other hand BTs rivals believe that an independent Openreach could have fostered investment into superior FTTH/P technology and made the market more open and fair for everybody. Ofcoms job in all this was to navigate the maze of conflicting claims and decide what the market should look like for the next 10 years. The result is a compromise rather than total separation. Not that the outcome is good news for BT and indeed some of the measures look like painful medicine. Ofcoms Decision In the end Ofcoms review did find evidence to show that Openreach still has an incentive to make decisions in the interests of BT, rather than BTs competitors, which can lead to competition problems. It also said that other telecoms companies have not been consulted sufficiently on investment plans that affect them, which they believe is something that needs to change. Summary of Key Changes (inc. non BT areas) * A new strategy has been proposed to promote the large-scale roll-out of new ultrafast broadband networks, based on cable and fibre optic lines, as an alternative to the partly copper-based technologies (e.g. FTTC). Openreach will be required to open up its telegraph poles and cable ducts, which must also be made much easier for competitors to access. * Openreach must provide comprehensive data on the nature and location of its ducts and poles. Using these, rival ISPs will be able to build their own fibre networks, connected directly to homes and offices. * Ofcom claims that Openreachs governance lacks independence from BT Group and as a result they will overhaul it, which should allow Openreach to take its own decisions on budget, investment and strategy. The new management would be required to serve all wholesale customers equally, and consult them on its investment plans. There will also be greater transparency over how costs and assets are allocated between Openreach and the rest of BT. * Ofcom will introduce even tougher minimum service requirements to push Openreach into repairing faults and install new lines more quickly. * The regulator will also introduce new performance tables on quality of service, identifying the best and worst operators on a range of performance measures so that customers can shop around with confidence. * Consumer broadband, phone and mobile operators will also have to introduce automatic compensation when things go wrong, such as due to a loss or reduction of service (this is a feature that used to only be offered alongside business products). * Future auctions of radio spectrum, specifically those that will go to mobile network operators, will include new obligations to help improve rural mobile coverage. * Ofcom will also work to make switching mobile operators easier and will soon publish a new consultation. * Ofcom also said they would work to help the Government design a 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation for broadband, but then we already knew they would. The regulator claims that the new model of Openreach governance (detailed proposals on this are expected to surface later in the year) might require the company to become a ring-fenced, wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group, with its own purpose and board members. Ofcom also said that they would reserve the right to spin-off Openreach as an entirely separate legal entity, with its own shareholders, albeit only if BT doesnt play ball with their proposals. But first the regulator will need to address this proposal with the European Commission (EC) and no doubt BT will object. Sharon White, Ofcom Chief Executive, said: People across the UK today need affordable, reliable phone and broadband services. Coverage and quality are improving, but not fast enough to meet the growing expectations of consumers and businesses. So today weve announced fundamental reform of the telecoms market more competition, a new structure for Openreach, tougher performance targets, and a range of measures to boost service quality. Together, this means a better deal for telecoms users, which will improve the services and networks that underpin how we live and work. The result is unlikely to please everybody and indeed we could well be back here again in the future because the issue of BTs status in the market is a bit like the playground pinata; every now and then a group gets together to take a bite out of the seemingly unmovable object, such is the reality of being an incumbent Telco in todays market. Meanwhile theres the question of what impact Ofcoms changes will have upon the market, assuming all of their proposals survive the inevitable bickering match between warring operators. History tends to show that big changes need a year or so to solidify before ISPs start to take advantage of them, but some (e.g. greater access to Openreachs network) may simply be too attractive to go unused for that long; assuming they can get the prices right (thats a big question). At this point wed say that BT can already grant access to their cable ducts and poles through the Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) solution, but this cant be used for connecting businesses and suffers from other limitations that have limited its uptake. Hence Ofcom are proposing something much more significant. Similarly theres the other question of how all this will affect the price that consumers pay, particularly in regards to the impact of Ofcoms new quality standards and a move towards automatic compensation. Both could add extra costs on to both ISPs and Openreach, which may end up being passed on to consumers (it will be difficult to do this on the cheapest ISPs without raising prices). No doubt ISPs will also want Openreach to help cover the cost of compensating for any related service outage, which in the past has often been a big bone of contention. At this point weve only had a chance to glance at the report and will come back to highlight other details as the day continues. In the meantime the big question mark is over how BT will react and indeed whether or not they might find the adjustment so tough as to prefer a spin-off, but we view the latter outcome as being very unlikely. We expect their response to come at around 9am. Finally, its worth saying that the changes will all be introduced gradually through Ofcoms periodic reviews (e.g. the next Wholesale Local Access and Wholesale Broadband Market Reviews) and not in one big bang. In other words it could take a couple of years before all of todays proposed changes are fleshed out and become real for the market. Ofcoms Strategic Review (Initial Conclusions) http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/policy/digital-comms-review/dcr-feb-16/ UPDATE 8:13am Reading through the document we note that Ofcom are not yet proposing to make any firm changes to the pricing of Openreachs FTTC (VDSL) fibre broadband service, which will disappoint TalkTalk and Sky Broadband. Ofcom reasons that this could happen in the future, but it also wants to encourage rival ISPs to build their own alternatives. Competing providers should be incentivised to build their own networks where this is viable. It must not be too easy for competitors to rely on buying access to anothers network when there is the potential to invest in their own, said Ofcoms report. However Ofcoms notes that their position may change, particularly when they come to begin their next wholesale local access review that will cover the 2017-2020 period. By 2020 superfast broadband services are predicted to account for the vast majority of broadband connections. Pricing flexibility will have been applied to BTs FTTC investment for 10 years. For this market review, there will be a variety of arguments in favour of reduced pricing flexibility, including potentially reaching the original date for expected payback. In this context, we may be coming toward the end of the fair bet, which could result in a transition to some form of charge controls, concluded Ofcom. UPDATE 8:26am BT has now given their response and it appears to include a proposal for Openreachs new governance structure, although were not given any detail and thus cant see how it compares with Ofcoms approach. Gavin Patterson, CEO of BT Group, said: The UK is ahead of its European peers when it comes to superfast broadband and we want it to maintain that position. That is why BT is keen to make significant additional investments over the next five years and beyond. We want to build an even faster network and we also plan to address slow speeds in the final five per cent of the country. It is also important that we give small businesses further options aside from dedicated lines, which suit many but not all. Customer expectations have increased dramatically in recent years and we are keen to work with Ofcom and industry to meet those expectations. We all want to improve service. Openreach is already subject to regulated service standards and we are happy to work with Ofcom to improve them. Our plans would help ensure the UK remains the leading digital nation in the G20 and we are keen to get on with the job. They involve large scale investment however and that requires a high degree of regulatory clarity and certainty, something that is missing at present. Ofcom have today explained why breaking up BT would not lead to better service or more investment and that structural separation would be a last resort. We welcome those comments. The focus now needs to be on a strengthened but proportionate form of the current model and we have put forward a positive proposal that we believe can form the basis for further discussions with both Ofcom and the wider industry. Our proposal includes a new governance structure for Openreach as well a clear commitment on investment. Openreach is already one of the most heavily regulated businesses in the world but we have volunteered to accept tighter regulation to bring matters to a clear and speedy conclusion. We are happy to let other companies use our ducts and poles if they are genuinely keen to invest very large sums as we have done. Our ducts and poles have been open to competitors since 2009 but there has been little very interest to date. We will see if that now changes. We are keen to understand and address Ofcoms concerns so we will review their paper in detail. A great deal of what they are proposing is already in place and we are open to discussions about how the current rules can be amended and updated. A voluntary, binding settlement is in everyones interests and we will work hard to ensure one is reached. The Independent Networks Co-operative Association, which represents a number of alternative network operators, has also given their feedback. Malcolm Corbett, INCAs Chief Executive, said: We are disappointed that Ofcom hasnt gone further to challenge the control BT exercises over the communications market, but pleased that Sharon White and her team have recognised the need for significant changes. INCA members build new fibre and wireless networks, often in the most challenging areas of the UK. For too long they have struggled to make sense of the rules and restrictions surrounding access to BTs ducts and poles. A few stout-hearted companies are having a go notably Warwicknet, Callflow Solutions and Hyperoptic so steps to make it it easier for competitors to use the existing infrastructure are welcome. It means faster deployment of the high speed, affordable broadband services that consumers and businesses need. Oh and heres one from rival ISP Hyperoptic. A Hyperoptic spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk: Hyperoptic, the U.Ks leading 1 Gb provider, welcomes Ofcoms decision to force Openreach to properly open its duct and pole network to allow other operators to rollout competing infrastructure services. Having already trialled using those ducts to offer our 1 Gb service, we will be able to reliably and affordably offer our market leading 1 Gb service to even more consumers. We also advise Ofcom to ensure that all customers of Openreach have a voice in future network decisions and not just those that resell the plain old vanilla FTTC services it is those that are truly innovating that offer the UK the best chance at a digital future. UPDATE 8:53am Now a statement from Sky UK. A Sky Spokesperson said: We welcome Ofcoms recognition that the current Openreach model is not working and that fundamental change is required. BT must now be held to account for improving service and enabling delivery of fibre to Britains homes and businesses. Ofcoms actions today are not the end of the debate but a staging post towards delivering the network and service that Britain needs. We believe the simplest and most effective way to fix the current broken market structure is for Openreach to be completely independent. We are pleased to see that separation is still on the table. We will work with Ofcom to deliver change at Openreach and we look forward to playing a positive role in helping make Britain a digital world leader. UPDATE 9:41am Look out, more comments from the industry. Meanwhile BTs share price is currently hovering up by +2-3% today. Dido Harding, CEO of TalkTalk, said: Ofcom has done well in identifying many of the worst problems, including recognising, finally, that BTs control of Openreach creates a fundamental conflict of interest which hurts customers. But having accepted all this, Ofcom has produced 100 pages of consultation with little concrete action behind it. The risk is that we end up with 10 more years of debate and delays, rather than facing into the problems and delivering improvements for frustrated customers now. Matthew Hare, CEO of Gigaclear, added: The focus on quality and performance underlying the conclusions in the Ofcom SDR are welcome. Gigaclear continues to invest in building new FTTP networks, and regardless of whether Openreach stays within the BT Group, intends to bring Gigabit Internet to tens of thousands more rural homes and businesses this year. The support for a stable investment climate will help us reach hundreds of thousands in the years ahead. Eli Katz, Chair of ITSPA, said: This once in a decade review has confirmed ITSPA members views that Openreach has not delivered the performance that the communications industry or the UK needs. We believe that Ofcoms proposals for further scrutiny and an increased focus on service quality will ensure a fairer marketplace for all Openreach customers whilst also supporting vital investment in faster broadband services. We also support the proposals to encourage the roll out of new fibre to the premise networks by ensuring competitors have better access to BTs mast and duct infrastructure. This will improve competition, drive up performance and service levels as well as reduce costs for both individuals and businesses in the UK. UPDATE 10am: Now its Vodafones turn. A Vodafone Spokesperson said: We welcome Ofcoms move to tighten its regulation and governance of BT Openreach and leave structural separation on the table. We also welcome the move to open up BTs ducts and poles, which we have successfully used in other countries such as Portugal to provide customers with fibre to premises. However, BT still remains a monopoly provider with a regulated business running at a 28% profit margin. Therefore, we urge Ofcom to ensure BT reinvests the 4 billion in excess profits Openreach has generated over the last decade in bringing fibre to millions of premises across the country, and not just make half-promises to spend an unsubstantiated amount on more old copper cable: we agree with Ofcom that fibre is the future. We look forward to engaging with Ofcom as they implement these important regulatory changes. UPDATE 10:15am: Another one.. A CityFibre spokesperson said: It is clear from Ofcoms key strategic proposals that Openreach cannot and will not be allowed to remain solely responsible for delivering the fit-for-purpose infrastructure essential to fulfil the UKs digital potential. Healthy competition and continued investment in fibre from multiple companies is vital. Ofcoms strategy to encourage fibre investment, improve competition, and to ensure meaningful and usable access to BTs physical infrastructure, creates a unique opportunity for alternative providers, such as CityFibre, to accelerate and extend new and existing roll-outs of next generation, ultrafast, fibre to the premises infrastructure projects nationwide. Alternative infrastructure providers, such as CityFibre, play an increasingly crucial part in the landscape and we are encouraged to see the report explicitly reference its support for the large-scale deployment of ultrafast networks. Innovative infrastructure builders are already responding to demand from businesses and consumers for ever increasing demands for pure fibre infrastructure and companies like ours are central to a shared goal of enabling the UK to compete and succeed in a digital age. Ofcom also recognises that at a technological level, BTs continued strategic reliance on and investment in copper-based infrastructure often masquerading as fibre is inadequate to meet the soaring demand driven by new services and increased usage habits that the market continues to observe. With major metro fibre networks in 36 UK towns and cities as well as our York project rolling out fibre to the home with Sky and TalkTalk, CityFibre is the only wholesale competitor to Openreach. We will continue to respond to market demand and play a vital role in addressing the fibre connectivity needs for mobile operators, ISPs, the public sector and consumers. The recommendations put forward in Ofcoms strategic review today only serve to strengthen our position and ability to respond to demand for our services across the UK in the near term. UPDATE 11:22am: Finally we have a comment from Virgin Media and by finally we mean theres already enough commentary above and this will be the last one we add. Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media CEO, said: The best way to provide competition against BT and its inherited advantages is to support infrastructure investors like Virgin Media. We are challenging the incumbent with 3bn of investment in new network and providing choice. Ofcom has done the right thing by resisting separating Openreach, which would have sent a negative signal to infrastructure investors. UPDATE 12:34pm: Ok fine.. just fine, have some more comments, but truly this is the last lot. Giles Phelps, Managing director of Spectrum Internet, said: I broadly welcome the review the industry has dramatically changed over the past ten years and so it was in much need. However, I would certainly say that the devil is in the detail. The 112 page review outlines OfComs plans but nothing has yet been confirmed about the key issues and actions that will be taken that the industry faces. For example, Openreach does need reforming, which OfCom acknowledges. Its very positive to read that it will undertake a review of 8 possible models of separation these range from improving the governance up to a complete structural separation from the rest of BT. I would have liked OfCom to have gone further into the quality of service that communication providers should expect from Openreach too. I believe we need to move away from copper infrastructure as much as possible in order to see an improvement. Copper lines are just outdated and not fit for customers needs of broadband today. This domain name expired on 2022-10-16 00:20:10 Click here to renew it. Revenue for 2015 was A$328 million, a lift of 10% on the full year 2014, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was up 19% to A$153 million. CEO Tim Reed says the revenue performance reflected strong growth across all segments of the business and he was confident about the year ahead. 2015 saw MYOB return to the ownership of public investors, undertaking the largest technology IPO in the history of the ASX. We enter 2016 with great momentum. We believe the accounting industry is transforming, with transaction processing, compliance and advisory services converging into one connected business process. We see this transformation and are preparing by developing a MYOB single platform, which will offer accountants, bookkeepers, small businesses and their consultants unparalleled ability to drive business success.MYOB declared a final dividend of 5.0c a share, which it says reflects the companys pleasing results, strong cash flow and forward growth pipeline.Business unit results were:SME Solutions (63% of total revenue) Revenue up 14% to A$205 million (FY14: $180 million), including from the acquisitions of Ace Payroll and IMS Organic revenue up 12% to A$202 million, driven by strong uplift in recurring revenue and growth in online users Online users up 46% to 170,000, driving:- 8% growth in the Paying User base to 545,000- high and stable retention rates of 80%, and- 5% growth in Average Revenue per Paying User (ARPU) to $379 per yearMYOB Chief Financial Officer Richard Moore said the company had made record investment in 2015 in technological innovation while delivering double digit pro forma revenue, EBITDA and NPATA growth, all exceeding IPO forecasts.In 2016 we continue our strategy of targeted investment for future growth and reaffirm June 2016 prospectus guidance. EFA executive officer Jon Lawrence lashed out at the MP for what he says were his hard-line views on national security issues and his apparent disdain for civil liberties, suggesting that he is unlikely to bring a balanced and objective perspective to the important work of this committee. Independent and objective oversight of Australias security and intelligence laws and agencies has never been more important to ensure that the civil liberties of Australians are not unnecessarily sacrificed in the name of national security, Lawrence said. Lawrence reconfirmed that the EFA has previously called for greater independence and an expanded scope for the Intelligence and Security Committee, including oversight of operational matters. Lawrence cited the Committees equivalent in the United Kingdom parliament, which he says has significantly more expansive powers, has recently demonstrated its own newfound independence from government by tabling a report that is scathing in its criticism of the UK governments draft Investigatory Powers Bill, specifically that the bill appears to have suffered from a lack of sufficient time and preparation and the Committee called for an entirely new section dedicated to privacy protections.While the UKs Intelligence and Security Committee has recently found itself defending the privacy and civil liberties of UK citizens in the face of significant government overreach, it is very difficult to imagine Australias Intelligence and Security Committee taking a similarly independent position with Mr Nikolic in the chair. This is appointment is particularly disappointing given Prime Minister Turnbulls previously-expressed support for civil liberties.Lawrence also took a swipe at both the Labor Party and the Coalition.EFA is also disappointed that both Labor party and Coalition senators yesterday voted against a motion moved by Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, which called upon the government to support the continued development and use of strong encryption technologies, resist any push from other governments to weaken encryption on personal devices, and work with law enforcement to develop alternative avenues to obtain information through warrants and targeted surveillance that does not put every Australian at greater risk of identity theft.Just last week, the EFA, along with hundreds of other organisations from over 40 countries, signed an open letter to world leaders calling on them to support the safety and security of users, companies, and governments by strengthening the integrity of communications and systems.Lawrence said that in doing so, governments should reject laws, policies, or other mandates or practices, including secret agreements with companies, that limit access to or undermine encryption and other secure communications tools and technologies.Its disappointing that both major parties have chosen to reject the opportunity to commit to privacy and strong encryption. These are critical enablers of digital communications and commerce, and calls for them to be undermined in the name of national security are fundamentally misguided and dangerous. The SAP solution is the new backbone for the Reuters Polling Explorer and SAPs Mobile Platform is being used to build Reuters new White House Run mobile app that lets voters simulate the role of a presidential candidate. The partnership also sees Reuters editorial teams now have access to SAP Lumira software, which can be used for analytics and insight to allow journalists to explore data and easily create visual stories. Jennifer Morgan, president, SAP North America, said the media landscape is experiencing a significant digital transformation and a wide array of technologies has changed how society has access to information, how it is delivered and how journalists can use technology to write deeper, more accurate and timely stories. She said data journalism allows media organisations to help deliver compelling and in-the-moment coverage and, through the partnership with Reuters, SAP is licensing its technology to Reuters as the company navigates the shift.Digital technologies are transforming the American voter into the digital voter, and redefining how media organisations create engaging content and experiences, Morgan said.With SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud as the new backbone for Reuters Polling Explorer, Reuters can shape data-driven stories about the 2016 US presidential election faster. And with SAP Mobile Platform behind its new interactive voter experience app, Reuters can give consumers its fact-driven news experience anywhere, anytime.The U.S. presidential election is one of the most important events this year, and data plays a key role in understanding it, said Daniel Mandell, chief revenue officer of Reuters Media.Voters rely on our coverage to make informed decisions. Partnering with SAP has allowed us to build a technological platform that enables our editorial team to quickly and efficiently sort through a mountain of data. This technology will let us deliver to readers the independently produced, unbiased news and information that they expect from Reuters. The push-to-talk communications is used to create a way for traditional radio communications to integrate and extend via LTE broadband networks. As well as concept testing in Australia, the technology will be progressed through collaboration in standards forums globally to develop an industry solution that will meet the requirements of public safety users. The partnership brings together Ericssons flexible and efficient network infrastructure, Motorola Solutions depth of experience in providing mission-critical communications for public safety, and Telstras vast network resources and expertise in defining and deploying next-generation communications standards and capabilities. Mike Wright, Telstra Networks Group Managing Director said Telstra plays a leading role in developing and defining the standards for services including next-generation push to talk. In the future this technology will provide a platform to deliver greater multi-media communications to front line responders.Providing a leading LTE public safety capability is a key objective for Telstra with its Telstra LANES (LTE Advanced Network for Emergency Services) advanced network solutions. A mission-critical push to talk capability is part of our vision for public safety communications via LANES and delivers our mission-critical customers a compelling solution to extend voice to more of their staff.The companies say next-generation push-to-talk is an important component of emerging LTE-based public safety agency solutions, and the technology will complement the mission-critical capabilities provided by the Land Mobile Radio (LMR) networks that agencies depend on today and extend those networks to a greater number of users carrying smart phones and other devices.Bruce Brda, executive vice president Products and Services with Motorola Solutions said his companys involvement in the initiative would advance both the standards and technologies needed to extend the reach of public safetys mission critical LMR networks.This project is part of our vision for smart public safety, Next-Generation Mobile Intelligence, that is helping agencies deliver better community safety outcomes through a dynamic mix of technologies. Connecting a greater number of public safety officials will help to increase situational awareness and efficiency among first responders in the field.Per Narvinger Head of 4G/5G RAN, Ericssons said, We are pleased to be working with our partner Motorola Solutions and to support Telstras early trials and introduction of next-generation push-to-talk to the Australian market. Ericsson has long supported LTE as the best path forward for public safety agency communications and this is another important step in this direction.The collaboration will provide standards-based features important to public safety users including: Optimised push-to-talk latency to deliver voice communications with minimal delays Flexible talk group management integrated across both radio and broadband networks Call preemption for LTE devices such as smart phones, tablets and desk top computers. The Australian Communications and Media Authority is consulting on the proposed changes to the IMR standard. The ACMA says the proposed changes will: Enable service providers to provide mandatory on-arrival roaming information to travellers in a single SMS, rather than in multiple texts Allow service providers to offer travelling customers more methods to decline mobile roaming services at no or low cost Allow service providers to offer their customers the ability to opt out of receiving roaming usage alerts Delay requirements on mobile virtual network operators to provide charging and spend management information (originally due to come into effect from 23 May 2016) until January 2019.And, since the development of the IMR Standard, the ACMA says there have been several positive developments in the roaming market, including: The introduction of travel packs and/or roam like home options for overseas data use by major Australian providers The cost of calls, SMS and data (particularly as part of travel packs and/or roam like home options) has reduced in many cases A 65% drop in the number of complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman about mobile roaming issues between the September quarter in 2013 and the September quarter 2015.The IMR Standard came into effect from 27 September 2013 and has been progressively phased in since then, except for the final tranche of rules for mobile resellers (companies other than Optus, Telstra or Vodafone), which were due to begin on 23 May this year. The move to a cloud-based ERP system forced Skullcandy to rethink its global network, which ultimately led to the decision to migrate to an offering from Aryaka. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently discussed the migration with Systems Manager Yohan Beghein. Skullcandy Systems Manager Yohan Beghein What WAN problem were you having that encouraged you to go looking for an alternative? Three years ago when I joined Skullcandy as a Network Architect, the task at hand was to address a major WAN challenge deliver a consistent, stable, reliable and latency-optimized WAN to implement better global productivity and collaboration for Skullcandy. With offices around the globe (U.S., Europe, Canada, Asia, Mexico) and the adoption of SaaS -- specifically SAP ByDesign -- I had a huge job ahead of me that was going to involve MPLS diversity, WAN optimization boxes, VPN backup, etc. After a lot of research I came across Aryaka, which has globally distributed points of presence (POPs), offers connectivity in less than 24 hours, and its network is optimized, even for Cloud/SaaS. We did a proof of concept with them with two of our sites, one being Skullcandys headquarters in Utah and our office in Shenzhen, China. We were up within a week and there was immediate improvement. Internal users in China told me, Wow! What did you do to the network? So traffic from the office in China climbs on the Aryaka network locally? Yes. Since Aryaka has global POPs, we just build standard IPSec VPN tunnels to their POPs from our sites. That one tunnel, which has active/passive redundancy built in, allows us to talk to HQ, our data center, and cloud/SaaS resources. Since SAP ByDesign is a cloud ERP app, Aryaka was the best choice to address the connectivity needs for our global users, especially those in China, which used to be a major WAN problem. Today with Aryaka, when a user types sapbydesign.com into their browser the traffic automatically routes to Aryaka and is optimized and routed to SAPs datacenters. Aryaka also enables an SSL proxy to further optimize the connection and overcome latency and WAN efficiency troubles Was your existing network all MPLS? It was basically 90% percent MPLS, and only one carrier. We have eight locations and more to come. However, many things were challenging with MPLS. When we opened our office in Canada, it took several months to get the bandwidth and the circuit in place. Now, I basically talk to Aryaka and in three days we are live. That quick solution, combined Aryakas outstanding 24x7 support, gives us a powerful, scalable solution. For Aryaka, do you need any hardware on premise or just the Internet pipe? You just need an Internet pipe, or you can use their Aryaka Network Access Point (ANAP). For locations like China we are using an ANAP. Its basically just an appliance you put in front of or behind your firewall that basically creates a redundant connection to their POP. You can do it directly from your router if you want, but in locations where we dont have a tech in place it was just easier to have Aryaka ship an ANAP and let them manage it. So for me its almost like having 24/7 network support even in China, where thats pretty hard to get. In summary, you dont need their hardware but a company should strongly consider it. They ship it, they manage it, it is included in their base price, and one is able to realize their full suite of services -- including bandwidth scalabilitywith their patented compression algorithms. Aryaka dashboard portal What capacity access do they require? It can be anything. In China, for example, I used to have a 100Mbps interface but only 20Mbps of bandwidth access. I replaced it with four 6Mbps Internet connections. With Aryaka you basically can go 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10Mbps, because they offer a more efficient solution. With Aryaka, most of our locations only require 2Mbps because they only have 40 users. I cannot imagine trying to serve 40 users on a 2Mbps MPLS service, without Aryaka. I love the efficiency of the Aryaka service. So you use the network to support ERP, what else? We have a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) application hosted in our data center in West Valley, Utah, where we wanted to optimize access. When I went with Aryaka, right away the team in China said they were seeing a lot of improvement. When I saw that I said, You know what, thats the solution for all our locations. So I started looking to see when each MPLS contract expired and started swapping in Aryaka. Today we also use Aryaka for Telepresence (global executive and employee conferencing) and VoIP. So all of your backbone voice traffic is going over this as well? Yes, thats correct. We have SIP gateways at each location so when someone does a four-digit dial to someone in the U.S., it goes over the Aryaka network. Were also using it to support Microsoft CIFS and SMB file transfers, SQL server access, and SharePoint. And all of that benefits from the TCP optimization, caching and other WAN optimization tools that are built into the service. When you subscribe you get all of that, regardless if you use 2Mbps or 20Mbps of bandwidth. How do you quantify the gains? Obviously performance is a big one. Yes, definitely performance, because basically its almost having a WAN accelerator at every location but without that physical appliance and the associated cost. Aryaka is a subscription model. With other hardware solutions you buy it and its great, but in three years its obsolete and your investment is sunk. The Aryaka service gives me a lot of flexibility. Ill give you an example. Were moving an office in San Francisco and with MPLS I would have had to plan three months out to move the circuit, activate the circuit, etc. Now, I take my Aryaka connection, go to the next location, bring it up and its done. The flexibility of the bandwidth is another plus. Basically, I can increase bandwidth at any location in a matter of 30 minutes to an hour. I was not able to do that with another provider. In simple terms, our world boils down to time and money. Aryaka delivers more of both than any other WAN vendor I know out. It is a great service that gives us a lot of flexibility. In addition, the tech support is great. I have been working with networks for almost ten years. With most providers I end up working with Tier 3 technicians and have to escalate things to get them done. When I call Aryaka about an issue, I get a CCIE on the phone. Skullcandy Whats amazing to me, to be honest, during the POC I thought the service was great because they were bringing in all the best people for the sale. But basically once I was working with them I received exactly the same level of support. Its just nice and I dont have to touch the network anymore. How about on the cost side? I dont know what I can say regarding the cost, but basically we had significant savings. Its about 40% percent less than MPLS, and that includes two new locations that we didnt have before. So Im really happy with the implementation cost-wise. One of the reasons people use MPLS is the reliability factor. How is Aryaka in that regard? That was one of my concerns. But for less money than MPLS, I can support each location with at least two Internet pipes running to different POPs. So instead of paying something like $2,000-$2,500 for a secondary MPLS circuit, I basically spend $200 on a 50Mbps or 100Mbps local Internet link. So I have more redundancy, better bandwidth and full support. And I get a report every week showing me latency, availability, and similar matters. Aryaka offers 99.99% uptime. And it has not gone down since I brought on the service at each location, so I would say the reliability is better than anything else out there. There is a lot of talk today about software-defined WAN tools that let you augment your MPLS links with Internet capacity. Did you look at any of those tools? I looked at some bandwidth aggregation tools, but they are mostly local to a country, so they werent a fit for me. None of them addressed the full needs of the WAN. Aryaka has a truly Software-Defined WAN, but they also combine a global private network, WAN Optimization and cloud acceleration along with bandwidth aggregation, Split Internet Edge, management and orchestration capabilities. In summary, Im just trying to optimize the use of time and money for Skullcandy, and the solution we have in place is holistic, scalable, powerful, and I feel really confident about it. Seven months before Microsoft first released Windows 10 last summer, Neeraj Rajpal, CIO of legal giant Morrison & Foerster, said the pain of upgrading roughly 2,000 users to a new OS outweighed the potential benefits to the company. I need a compelling reason, (and right now) I dont see it, he told CIO.com in January. Today, more than 200 million devices run Windows 10, including 22 million in business and education, according to Microsoft. Rajpal has also since changed his mind and expects to eventually deploy the new OS across his organization, thanks to a number of notable improvements, including better power management, Windows search, tablet mode, the Cortana voice assistant, and Office 2016 integration. There are a lot of things [that are better in Windows 10,] he says. Windows 10: To upgrade or not to upgrade? Its difficult to accurately gauge the temperature of the entire business community, but interviews with a sample of senior IT executives indicate that unlike the troubled Windows 8 upgrade cycle, the shift to Windows 10 in large organizations is much less painful and often without a lot of drama. Were surprised at how well the upgrades have gone, says Stanley Morency, interim CIO of the Kent School District in the state of Washington, which includes 28,000 students and more than 26,500 Windows devices, roughly 1,000 of which currently run Windows 10. Morency expects to finish the massive upgrade by September. [Related: 10 hurdles to Windows 10 adoption] Among the leading reasons to upgrade to Windows 10, according to the IT executives we interviewed, are enhanced security, the return of the Start menu and the need to replace aging hardware. There are pain points, of course. Jacky Wright, Microsofts vice president of strategic enterprise services, concedes that the applications ecosystem has been a bit slow, as software developers and manufacturers struggle to finish work on drivers and ensure app compatibility with the OS. For Rajpal, this lack of proven app compatibility with Windows 10 is a major concern, and he says he wont deploy the OS across Morrison & Foerster until he is sure the firms critical applications will run smoothly. However, the CIO also emphasized that he is sold on Windows 10 and will upgrade his workforce as soon as developers deliver what the company needs, likely by next year. Though Microsofts Edge browser has garnered generally positive reviews, its lack of support for extensions is another common user complaint, according to Wright. Microsoft said in October that Edge would support browser extensions at some point this year. Windows 10 upgrade a competitive advantage for SAIC When Department of Defense (DoD) CIO Terry Halvorsen declared that the millions of Windows PCs within the Pentagon and other agency installations around the world had to be upgraded to Windows 10 by the end of 2016, Robert Fecteau knew he faced an important opportunity and a challenge. Fecteau is the CIO of SAIC, a technology and engineering company that works closely with the DoD and other defense contractors. Because so many of his clients will eventually move to Windows 10, developing expertise with the OS early on was a competitive advantage for the company. Because we are a federal systems integrator, we need to have experience we can transfer to our customers, he says. SAIC and Fecteau are currently in the early stages of upgrading roughly 9,600 computers from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Although some enterprises including Microsoft choose to upgrade without wiping hard drives, Fecteau opted for clean installs, a choice that gives his IT staff more control over configuration but also results in more downtime while images are installed on thousands of systems, he says. The Kent School Districts IT team wanted to get familiar with Windows 10 as quickly as possible, so it participated in an early adopter program. It was a good learning experience, but working with an OS that constantly receives regular updates and changes regularly is a challenge, according to Leslie Binions, the districts lead technical support manager. The teams experience moving from Windows XP to Windows 7 was somewhat simpler, because the OS was mature when the district deployed it, he says. [Related: Should you migrate to Windows 10 in 2016?] Some IT executives, though, are intrigued with the concept of OS as a service and embrace the regular updates. I like the new philosophy, says Matt Cochran, IT manager for Hendrick Motorsports. However, Cochran says he still put some critical devices on a long-term servicing branch so IT could update them manually to ensure there arent any glitches. Businesses that run the enterprise edition of Windows 10 can also use the system center configuration manager to turn off auto updates and make sure new code is tested before it goes live. The last thing wed want is for one of our planning or buying systems to suddenly be incompatible, says Sam Chesterman, worldwide CIO of IPG Media Brands, whose team manages more than 7,000 Windows machines. Chesterman and his staff are currently piloting Windows 10 on between 70 and 100 devices, he says, and the company plans to eventually upgrade all of its machines to the new OS. While hes generally satisfied with Windows 10 so far, Chesterman say he is concerned about data privacy and wonders if Cortana will eventually run afoul of European privacy regulations or the Safe Harbor agreement that regulates data transferred between Europe and the United States. If I cant be absolutely sure that data collected in Europe by Cortana wont become a problem, Ill simply disable it, he says. Microsoft said last month that 22 million businesses and educational organizations run Windows 10. However, thats still a small fraction of all Windows PCs in the global enterprise. In other words, plenty of time exists for serious problems to emerge, but for now the move to Windows 10 looks like Microsofts smoothest major OS transition in years, albeit a slow one. Apples refusal to help the FBI unlock an iPhone 5c used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino, California attack on Dec. 2 has prompted the Maricopa County attorneys office in Arizona to ban providing new iPhones to its staff. Apples refusal to cooperate with a legitimate law enforcement investigation to unlock a phone used by terrorists puts Apple on the side of terrorists instead of on the side of public safety, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said in a statement on Wednesday. Montgomery described as a corporate public relations stunt Apples positioning of its refusal to cooperate on privacy grounds. The evidence obtained through searches using warrants to unlock encrypted smartphones, including iPhones, have proven critical to the investigation and prosecution of defendants charged with drug trafficking, sexual exploitation, murder and other serious offenses, he added. The county prosecutor's decision is more symbolic and is unlikely to impact Apples sales as there are 564 smartphones deployed throughout the office, 366 of which are iPhones. But it could be an indication of the various levers available to law enforcement agencies in the U.S. to try to get Apple to come around to its point of view. "If Apple wants to be the official smartphone of terrorists and criminals, there will be a consequence, Montgomery said. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ordered Apple last week to provide assistance, including by providing signed software if required, to help the FBI try different passcodes by brute force on the locked iPhone 5c, without triggering an auto-erase feature in the phone. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an email to employees that it was possible to do what the FBI was asking, but added that the company believes it "too dangerous to do," as it would undermine the security features of the device. The companys decision hasnt gone down well with many other people, besides Montgomery. A study released Monday by the Pew Research Center found that 51 percent of respondents said they think Apple should unlock the iPhone to help the FBI with its investigation, while 38 percent opposed it. Eleven percent of the respondents had no opinion either way. The decision by the Maricopa County attorney's office, first disclosed to the relevant staff on Sunday, was made public on Wednesday. The county office will discontinue providing iPhones as replacements or upgrades for existing employees. It has over 900 full-time employees. Library bond unanimously approved Voters waited in line for 45 minutes Tuesday to participate in an eight-minute meeting that resulted in the unanimous approval of a $600,000 bond to help renovate the North Road... Ferryboat business told to halt operations The ferryboat company operating from the municipally owned docks at East Ferry is illegally using that space, according to correspondence mailed to business owner Bill Munger. Town Administrator Jamie Hainsworth... A DOGGONE NEW BUSINESS A former business that used to clean peoples clothes is reopening as a groomer to tidy up the fur of those peoples four-legged companions. The defunct laundromat at the McQuades... Medical Cannabis is a legalized business in Michigan since 2008 and cannabis pharmacies operate under different laws across the state counties, according to a BBC news report. As the state enforces new laws for this segment more stringently, many of the operating stores, like the 420 Dank in Detroit, face the threat of closure. Fresh cannabis dispensary laws by the local government in Detroit require such stores to be located a minimum of 1,000 feet or 305 m away from schools, fast food restaurants and strip clubs. 420 Dank run by Kim Gaetano a medical marijuana seller, who owned similar businesses in Colorado and Washington before moving to Detroit where her family lives, is located near abandoned buildings line in Gratiot Street. She sells edible products, cannabis flowers and round the clock drive-through sale especially during the winter, to patients. The location of the dispensary, close to fast food restaurant and 371-ft distance from an off-licence has Gaetano fighting for survival. She claims immunity for her store as it is compliant with most of the other codes such as fire safety, ID evaluation apart from strong ties with the local community. Further local code changes ask that mediacal cannibis stores like her's not to operate their stores until 10 am. Gaetano alleges such a rule would affect sales as many night shift workers would not have access to the dispensary. The ad-hoc legal laws and the regulatory changes are affecting medical cannabis businesses in Michigan. States such as Colorado and Washington have legalized the use of marijuana for adults aged 21 years and above. The revenue the states are generating from the industry is phenomenal. In 2015, Colorado earned as much as $72 million from cannabis sales, while Washington's revenues too were similar at $67.5 million. Detroit with over 200 such dispensaries could generate high revenue through "Smart Tax Regulation," speculate Michigan's political leadership. Congressman Jeff Irwin proposed a bill where smart taxation will "break the black market" through regulation and taxation. Facebook has announced the addition of the emotions of love, haha, wow, sad or angry in addition to the blue thumbs-up 'like', according to USA Today. Facebook users, particularly those accessing their accounts on their mobiles, have been lobbying for a while now. The 'Like' button, according to users, is just not enough to express even a smaller sample of the range of emotions needed to convey expression on a post or image. The new symbols were first tested by the giant social network in October, letting only some areas use the emotions of convey love, laughter, happiness, shock, sadness, and anger as a test. The Reactions which consist of the five emoting emojis will roll out to Facebook's almost 1.6 billion users around the world starting Wednesday. Facebook Product Manager Sammi Krug wrote in a blog post that they had been tuned in to how people felt about the issue of only being able to express 'Like' on one click. . "We've been listening to people and know that there should be more ways to easily and quickly express how something you see in News Feed makes you feel," he said. The way to use them is also in tune with requests from users - hold down the 'Like' button on your Facebook page on your mobile - or hover on it. Then choose the emoji you want to post. The symbols were first tested in the fall in Spain and Ireland. They were also introduced in Chile, Portugal, the Philippines and most recently Japan. The emojis, once posted, will come on friends' updates and Pages/accounts that you follow. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been considering, upon popular request, incorporating a 'dislike' button on Facebook feeds. However, Facebook also clarified that the symbols' intention was not to trash or troll friends on the Internet, but instead to help people express positive emotions in a much quicker and easily accessible way than typing a comment. Zuckerberg complemented this when he wrote in a Facebook post that not all emotions to be shared are happy. "Sometimes you want to share something sad or frustrating," he wrote. "Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years, but not because people want to tell friends they don't like their posts. People want to express empathy and make it comfortable to share a wider range of emotions." According to Zuckerberg 'Love' has been the most popular emoji as of yet. MKE Diner News and notes on the restaurant scene from dining critic Carol Deptolla SHARE By of the Jennifer Lyden, whose new Vintage 38 wine bar has opened in Greendale, came to love and learn about wine accidentally, while studying abroad as a college student in Dijon in France's Burgundy region. "I basically started tasting with the best wines," she said. Back home in Los Angeles, she continued tasting and learning, visiting California's wine country. Later, she moved to Wisconsin to raise her children; she bought a house in Greendale after becoming smitten with its downtown. She decided to open the wine bar she calls it a wine lounge, with its couch and other soft seating on a whim. "I wished I personally had a place (like this) to drink downtown" in Greendale, she said, and told herself, "I can keep on complaining that there's not a spot, or I can make one." She quietly opened the door to the wine bar about a month ago at 5648 Broad St., in Greendale's downtown shopping district. Vintage 38 now is keeping regular hours of 4 to 10 p.m. daily; Lyden expects to expand the hours in summer and add outdoor seating She also plans to add seating inside; besides the couch and upholstered chairs, the lounge has 10 stools at the custom-made hickory bar. Chandeliers hang over part of the space; the walls serve as a gallery for works by Grafton artist Emiko Franzen. Behind the bar, Lyden keeps about 30 wines on hand. Lyden said she seeks out "what I call wine done the right way no shortcuts taken." Her focus is on Old World wines from small producers, but she also stocks bottles from California and other New World wineries. Most of the wines are biodynamic or organic. "My devilish plan is to get people to drink good wine," and to expand their wine horizons, she said. If a customer usually drinks Chianti, Lyden might suggest a Montepulciano. Every wine in stock is sold by the glass or the bottle (the bar doesn't sell bottles retail). Lyden said she wants to serve higher-end wines at accessible prices; wines by the glass start at $7 and currently go to $12 for a Saint-Emilion Bordeaux. Vintage 38 also has eight craft beers on tap, and it's developing a menu of light small plates. For now, customers can order a cured meats and cheese plate that changes weekly, with selections from Bavette La Boucherie in Milwaukee's Third Ward. Vintage 38's name is a reference both to wine and to Greendale, where the "greenbelt" homes developed by the federal government opened in 1938. The lounge is on Facebook. Photo courtesy of Vintage 38 By of the The candidates for a Milwaukee County circuit court judge's job this week touted major new endorsements with press releases. Challenger Janet Protasiewicz, a veteran state prosecutor, now has the official support of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, while incumbent Judge Rebecca Bradley touts her endorsement by her opponent's old boss, retired District Attorney E. Michael McCann. We need judges that will put the law first and fight for Milwaukee families . . and I am proud to support her, said Barrett said in the Protasiewicz release. "Janet has walked the streets with police officers, prosecuted criminals and been there for victims. I know she will bring her 25 years of courtroom experience to the bench and be a great judge for our community. Protasiewicz also notes U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) and District Attorney John Chisholm in her camp, as the endorsement list comparisons begin to heat up in the last weeks before the April 2 election. McCann, a Democrat who retired in 2006 after 38 years in office, called Bradley the best candidate. She was an accomplished and respected attorney, and she will continue to be an intelligent and impartial judge," he said in the campaign's release." I am proud to endorse Judge Bradley because she is a person of integrity who is committed to treating all participants in the justice system with dignity and respect. Bradley also has the support of Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr., who invited her to call in when he hosted the Mark Belling radio talk show last week. Clarke, also nominally a Democrat, attracts much conservative support for his tough-on-crime and recent public service announcements encouraging residents to consider a gun for their own personal safety. That came up at a candidates' forum Wednesday, when an audience member questioned Bradley about aligning herself with such a polarizing figure who critics say is encouraging vigilantism. Bradley responded that she was proud of diverse support, quickly noting that Clarke's chief nemesis, County Executive Chris Abele, has also endorsed her. She said she clearly doesn't agree with all the viewpoints of everyone who supports her, and couldn't address Clarke's gun views specifically because that would touch on issues that might come before her as a judge. Protasiewicz said she found it "troubling" that Bradley would tout Clarke's support, and brought up her appearance while he hosted the Belling show as evidence that she's more closely aligned with the sheriff than she has suggested. Bradley responded that she gets invited on many talk shows -- she appeared on the recently defunct Eric Vonn show -- and accepts whenever she has time. "I don't turn down any opportunities," to speak to voters, she said. You can check up on the growing endorsements for Bradley and Protasiewicz on their campaigns' websites. Gov. Scott Walker told state senators they should focus on improving Wisconsin's economy and not pass a bill to fine so-called sanctuary cities. Credit: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel By of the Madison -- Gov. Scott Walker told state senators Wednesday that they should focus on improving Wisconsin's economy and not pass a bill to fine so-called sanctuary cities. "I dont think theyre going to and Im just fine with that," Walker told reporters. A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said last week that GOP senators were unlikely to take up the bill passed by the state Assembly last week. An estimated 20,000 Latino and pro-immigrant demonstrators converged on the Capitol last week to protest the controversial legislation, which would impose financial penalties on local governments that block police from asking criminal defendants about their immigration status. Two conservative GOP senators, Duey Stroebel of Cedarburg and Steve Nass of Whitewater, have called on Fitzgerald to hold a vote on the bill. It's unclear whether any cities in Wisconsin actually meet the definition within the bill and would be affected by it. Walker said that last week's demonstration marked one of the few times that the issue has come up for him. "Thats an issue other than last ThursdayI've got to tell you, one way or the other I hadnt heard anything from anybody, at least in terms of employers, talking about it," Walker said. By of the Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. has never liked former U.S. Attorney Eric Holder. But the sheriff has resorted to using a schoolyard taunt in his latest attack. Earlier this week, Holder told the "Frontline" series on PBS that he'd be "ashamed" if Congress doesn't pass new legislation curbing prison sentences for nonviolent offenders. Holder also called for federal officials to reclassify marijuana so it doesn't have the same status as heroin. Clarke responded on Wednesday night by calling Holder an "a-hole" on his Twitter feed. https://t.co/u5lAZQF6lz This A-hole should be ashamed as THE only sitting cabinet member and US AG to EVER be found in contempt of Congress. David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) February 25, 2016 More than 250 people had retweeted the post by Thursday afternoon. In the past, Clarke has attacked Holder in appearances on Fox News and at the confirmation hearing for Holder's successor, accusing the nation's former top law officer of siding with "cop haters." Then last year, the Milwaukee County sheriff confronted Holder during a joint gathering of the Major County Sheriffs' Association and the Major Cities Chiefs Association at the JW Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C. Clarke took the microphone to criticize Holder for his response to the police shootings in Ferguson, Mo., where a grand jury cleared a white officer who shot and killed an unarmed black man, and elsewhere. In response, sources have said, Holder jokingly asked, "What's up with the hat?' Clarke was wearing his white cowboy hat during the meeting while most others were in uniform or business attire, according to one source. The sheriff has said he adopted the cowboy look to emulate his uncle, who was a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys. A new Marquette University Law School poll shows a tight race in Wisconsin between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. On the Republican side, businessman Donald Trump is leading Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Credit: Associated Press By of the Wisconsins presidential primary is shaping up as a legitimate battleground in both parties, a place where neither front-runner Democrat Hillary Clinton, Republican Donald Trump is in a truly commanding position. But Wisconsin doesnt vote until April 5. To take advantage of their opportunity here, the candidates desperately chasing Trump and Clinton are going to have to survive a brutal gauntlet in March, much of it on less favorable turf than Wisconsin. If the two races are still going (by April), were going to have a lot of fun, said pollster Charles Franklin Thursday. His latest Marquette University Law School poll shows Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Clinton in a virtual tie here, and businessman Trump with a 10-point lead over his nearest GOP rivals. The poll released Thursday suggests that Wisconsin is one of Sanders best opportunities to defeat Clinton. He leads her by 1 point in the Marquette survey, 44% to 43%. Sanders leads by 30 points among independent voters, who are allowed to vote in the Democratic contest because there is no registration by party in Wisconsin. But first Sanders has to survive the next five to six weeks, which feature a number of states that are much friendlier to Clinton because their primaries exclude independents, or because their Democratic electorates are less liberal than Wisconsins or more racially diverse. Clinton leads Sanders handily nationwide among African-American voters, who make up a large share of the Democratic vote in South Carolina Saturday and in states like Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina that follow. By contrast, Wisconsins electorate is overwhelmingly white. On the Republican side, Trump has widened his lead here from 6 to 10 points since last months Marquette poll. He leads the GOP field with 30%, followed by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 20%, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 19%, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 8% apiece. But Trumps position is far from dominant. He remains polarizing in his own party. Among GOP voters in Wisconsin, 45% view Trump positively, 45% negatively. Trumps negative rating has jumped 10 points since January (when 35% of this states Republicans viewed him unfavorably), even though Trump has widened his lead over the same period of time. Trumps image is much more negative than that of his top rivals: 59% of Republicans view Rubio favorably and only 13% view him unfavorably; Cruz has almost identical numbers. Trumps standing in Wisconsin reflects a broader paradox throughout this race: the New York developer has flourished despite high negatives because he has a solid core of support and his opponents have divided the rest of the GOP vote. Going forward, Trump could keep expanding his base of support here by winning new converts in the party, as he has done in some other states. Or he could find his lead in the state threatened if either Rubio or Cruz emerge as the undisputed alternative to Trump and can finally exploit his high negatives. But both men are in a race against time in that endeavor, as Trump threatens to carve out a daunting delegate lead in March, when roughly 60% of the GOP convention delegates are chosen. Sanders faces even more urgency in the Democratic race, because Clinton has a huge built-in edge among so-called super delegates, the party officials and activists who are free to support the candidates of their choice regardless of how their states vote. As Democratic pollster Paul Maslin noted Thursday, Wisconsin is friendly to Sanders on paper, because of its racial makeup, liberal tradition and open primary. But Im not sure hell win here if the nomination is perceived to be decided already, said Maslin. The Wisconsin poll shows why this state is a golden opportunity for Sanders, and why he arguably should be doing even better here than breaking even if he wants to make up for his disadvantages in many other states. Independents make up a sizable share of the Democratic vote (more than a quarter of the vote in the 2008 Wisconsin Democratic primary). And independents in Wisconsin are quite pro-Sanders: 49% view him positively and only 27% view him negatively. By contrast, they are very cool toward Clinton: only 31% view her favorably and 58% view her unfavorably. Sanders has led Clinton in the last several Marquette polls among not just independents, but men, the most liberal voters, voters under 30, and voters in the Madison media market. Clinton has led among women, self-described Democrats, more moderate voters, voters over 60, and voters in Milwaukee. Clinton clearly has her vulnerabilities in this state, where she lost to President Barack Obama by 17 points in the 2008 primary. But she is buoyed by the fact that despite her weakness among independents, she remains very popular with Wisconsin Democrats. The new Marquette poll shows surprisingly little change in both parties in Wisconsin since January. But things are about to accelerate dramatically. More than two dozen states will vote between now and Wisconsins April 5 primary. Depending on what happens in the next month, Wisconsin will either loom as a potential trap for the party front-runners, or it will come too late to matter. The Wisconsin poll offers one other sign of weakness for Trump and Clinton. In hypothetical fall matchups, Trump does much worse against the Democrats than Rubio and Cruz do, trailing Clinton by roughly 10 points and Sanders by 20. And Sanders does much better against the Republicans than Clinton does, routing them each by roughly 20 points. General election polls that are done before the nominees are decided are a notoriously poor guide to the future. But in this case, they do reflect the high negatives both front-runners have with independent voters. Almost 6 in 10 Wisconsin independents in the poll said they were uncomfortable with Clinton as president, and 4 in 10 said they were very uncomfortable. Trumps numbers were even worse: just over half of independent voters in Wisconsin said they were very uncomfortable with Trump as president. If the two parties end up nominating Clinton and Trump, said Franklin, were going to have quite a few uncomfortable voters in the fall. Follow Craig Gilbert on Twitter @WisVoter Graphics: Clinton-Sanders dividing line | Presidential candidate matchups Kohls will close 18 stores this year, but has not yet announced the locations. Credit: Mike De Sisti SHARE By of the Kohl's Corp. will close 18 stores this year as the company seeks to cut costs and find the proper balance between its extensive brick-and-mortar presence and its increasingly important online business. The as-yet-undisclosed stores to be shuttered represent a small slice of Kohl's nationwide portfolio, but the move is an unusual step for a retailer that throughout the 2000s pursued aggressive expansion. Closing the underperforming locations, however, will free cash that can be invested in more-promising initiatives. "We need to really place our bets on the things that are working and acknowledge where we have assets or resources in things that are not working as well," CEO Kevin Mansell said in an interview. He said the stores that will be closed account for less than 1% of the company's sales. Kohl's announced the plans Thursday as it formally released its fourth-quarter financial results. The company earlier had already signaled that its full-year earnings per share would be less than expected, and that it would post only modestly higher same-store sales for the quarter and the year. Thursday, the firm said revenue for the three months ended Jan. 30 totaled $6.39 billion, up 0.8% from a year ago. Net income was $296 million, down 20%. Earnings per share for the quarter came in at $1.58, down from $1.83 a year ago, but 2 cents better than analysts' average estimate. Kohl's expects 2016 earnings of $4.05 to $4.25 a share, compared with $4.01 last year. The company projects same-store sales, an important retailing benchmark, to be flat or to increase no more than 1%. Shift to online a challenge Like many retailers, Kohl's is wrestling with the growing shift of shopping to online outlets. Its digital business has been growing rapidly, too, but not rapidly enough to lift its sales from the lackluster level of the last few years. Since 2011, Kohl's annual revenue has grown just 2.1%. The company has launched a sweeping series of initiatives the "Greatness Agenda" intended to lift its performance. While the effort has notched some successes, it has fallen well short of the pace needed to achieve Kohl's stated goal of raising revenue by $2 billion, to $21 billion, in 2017. Investors, meanwhile, have punished the firm. After Kohl's signaled earlier this month that its earnings would be less than expected, its share price dropped nearly 19% in one day. Thursday, during a conference call with analysts, Mansell acknowledged that the company probably won't hit its 2017 revenue target. "Though I do believe we'll achieve that goal within a short time after," he said. Kohl's is far from the only legacy retailer searching for a path in the digital forest, and not the only one closing stores. J.C. Penney closed 40 last year, and will shutter seven more in 2016. Macy's said in January that it will close 40. Sears, easily the most troubled department-store chain, said this month that it will accelerate previously announced closings of 50 Sears and Kmart locations. Kohl's will announce by the end of March which of its stores will close, and will close them by the end of June. All employees at those locations will be offered jobs in nearby Kohl's stores "without exception," Mansell said. Eighty to 100 people work at an average store. Kohl's has 1,164 stores in 49 states. The company added an average of about 75 stores a year over the last decade but dialed back amid the recession and slowing sales. Even then, however, closings were the great exception typically one or two a year. But Mansell said Kohl's is feeling the mounting impact of online shopping and the mix of digital and brick-and-mortar commerce that retailers call "omnichannel." With the increase in online shopping, the company may be able to reach the same number of customers in a given market with fewer stores, he said. Robert W. Baird & Co. analyst Mark Altschwager said the store-closing decision isn't surprising. "This is occurring across the retail sector," he said in an email. "The reality of today's retail marketplace is that consumers are shopping more online and less in physical stores." Online sales jumps 30% While Kohl's store sales fell nearly 5% in the fourth quarter, online sales jumped by 30%, and their numbers will only move higher in the foreseeable future, Altschwager said. "Over time this will mean fewer traditional Kohl's stores," he said. Analyst Brian Yarbrough of Edward Jones credited Kohl's for closing underperforming locations but asked, "Is 18 even enough?" "If not today, there are going to be more by the end of this year, and probably next year," he said. At the same time the retailer is closing stores, it will boost capital spending this year by 20%, to $825 million. "This is not a company that's pulling back," Mansell said. The great majority of the spending increase, however, comes from a shift in the timing of information-technology purchases. Among other areas of investment will be construction of a fifth e-commerce fulfillment center, a $200 million project. The company also plans to open seven new stores that, at 35,000 square feet, will be about 40% the size of a typical Kohl's. The smaller stores they'll be a bit bigger than a T.J. Maxx or Marshalls will give Kohl's options in areas where the market isn't big enough or real estate costs too much for a full-sized store. In addition to the small-format stores, Kohl's will open 12 Fila apparel and footwear stores in outlet malls the first time Kohl's has ventured into outlets. The company also will continue experimenting with its Off/Aisle discount venture, adding two stores under the brand in Wisconsin. The closings of the underperforming full-sized stores, which have much higher expenses relative to sales than an average Kohl's location, figure into a drive to cut costs. A recent reorganization that saw three upper-level executive positions cut is also part of that effort. Mansell said the goal of the reorganization is to identify ways to run the business more efficiently, "but most importantly, create more speed and be more agile, more nimble." Kohl's estimates the store closings will generate annual savings of about $45 million in cash and $10 million in depreciation. First, though, the company expects to incur $150 million to $170 million in one-time costs stemming from the closings and the corporate reorganization. Kohl's will book the expenses in the first two quarters of 2016. Mansell also sought to squelch speculation, touched off by a report last month in The Wall Street Journal, that Kohl's directors are considering such options as going private. The board routinely assesses the company's decisions and structure to ensure they are in shareholders' long-term interest, he said. "There's nothing going on right now, nor has there been anything going on, other than the same thing we've done for years," Mansell said. "I've been on the board of directors of Kohl's for 17 years. We have looked at our business this way as long as I've been involved in it" Also this week, the board approved a quarterly dividend of 50 cents a share, up from 45 cents. The company began paying dividends in 2011, starting at 25 cents a share. The apology from Lands End followed criticism from customers, and a pro-life news agencys article about the companys feature with longtime feminist Gloria Steinem. Credit: Getty Images By of the Lands' End quickly backpedaled this week from an association with feminist Gloria Steinem after hearing complaints from customers and the publication of an article by a pro-life news agency. With customers taking to the company's Facebook page to voice objections centered on Steinem's support for abortion rights, Lands' End on Tuesday removed a feature on Steinem from its website. Company CEO Federica Marchionni had interviewed Steinem to kick off the Lands' End "Legend Series" on "individuals who have made a difference in both their respective industries and the world at large." On Wednesday afternoon, the Dodgeville-based retailer of traditional clothing issued an apology. "We understand that some of our customers were offended by the inclusion of an interview in a recent catalog with Gloria Steinem on her quest for women's equality," the firm said in a statement. "We thought it was a good idea and we heard from our customers that, for different reasons, it wasn't. For that, we sincerely apologize. "Our goal was to feature individuals with different interests and backgrounds that have made a difference for our new Legends Series, not to take any political or religious stance." On Tuesday, LifeNews.com reported that Lands' End had published the interview and photo-shoot with Steinem and was launching a yearlong campaign "to honor (the) pro-abortion feminist" by donating to one of her organizations. LifeNews describes itself as "an independent news agency devoted to reporting news that affects the pro-life community." A few hours later, Lands' End removed references to Steinem from its website, LifeNews staff writer Micaiah Bilger said in an interview. LifeNews on Wednesday posted a second article by Bilger about the Steinem interview being removed. Opponents of abortion rights peppered the Lands' End Facebook page Wednesday with vows never to shop with the firm again. A few Steinem supporters also weighed in, but they appeared to be far outnumbered by the critics. Beyond possible issues with individuals, Lands' End conceivably could face a more serious problem in its school-uniform business, which includes private, religious schools as customers. At least two School of the Ozarks and Fr. Tolton Catholic High School, both in Missouri said Wednesday that they would no longer buy uniforms from Lands' End. In August 2014, before Marchionni's arrival at Lands' End, the retailer also apologized after riling many customers by rewarding their patronage with subscriptions to men's magazine GQ, and the first issue featured a nearly naked model on the cover. Milwaukee rapper IshDARR dropped an intense new track Alpha Wednesday, two days before performing at the free Wisconsin Bands to Watch concert at the 88Nine Radio Milwaukee Studios. Credit: Dino Black SHARE By of the Two days before he'll perform at the Journal Sentinel's free Wisconsin Bands to Watch concert, Milwaukee rapper IshDARR has dropped a new track on SoundCloud, "Alpha." And he most definitely lives up to the title. Produced by Millz Douglas and Lehvi, the track features the 19-year-old rapper's most intense, tongue-twisting rhymes yet over crisp, simmering, wavy production. And then at the three-minute mark, "Alpha" out of nowhere undergoes a thrilling transformation into an uplifting anthem set to vintage '70s soul horns. IshDARR, born Ishmael Ali, made the Journal Sentinel's annual Wisconsin Bands to Watch list in January, after netting more than three million SoundCloud and Spotify streams in 2015 for his songs, and an Apple Music Best of 2015 playlist placement, alongside tracks from Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj and other A-listers. Then last month, IshDARR dropped another single, "Time Shawty," which has already been heard more than 130,000 times on SoundCloud. He'll be featured at Friday's free Wisconsin Bands to Watch concert, at the 88Nine Radio Milwaukee Studios, 220 E. Pittsburgh St. It's his last concert in town for the foreseeable future; next month, he'll be doing shows in California and in Austin, Texas during South by Southwest. Andi & Alex, identical twins from Green Bay who competed on "The Voice" last fall, are also on the bill Friday, as is Tenement, whose 2015 release "Predatory Headlights" was selected as one of the 10 best albums of the year by The New York Times' music critic Ben Ratliff. Doors for Friday's all ages show open at 8 p.m. While the concert is free, capacity is limited, available on a first-come, first-served business. For more information and to RSVP, visit the event's Facebook page. Find out about the week's must-see shows, concert tickets and more in the newsletter "Piet Levy's Music Picks." Subscribe at jsonline.com/newsletters. Piet talks about concerts, local music and more on "TAP'd In" with Jordan Lee, 8 a.m. Thursdays on WYMS-FM (88.9). Punk trio Tenement, featuring members from Appleton and Milwaukee, will perform at the free Wisconsin Bands to Watch concert Friday at the 88Nine Radio Milwaukee Studios. Credit: Mike De Sisti SHARE By of the Every Thursday at 8 a.m. on WYMS-FM (88.9), RadioMilwaukee program director Jordan Lee and I talk about shows to see, local music you'll love and more on "TAP'd In." But in case you missed it on air, you can hear the latest episode below. On Friday, Jordan and I are co-hosting the Wisconsin Bands to Watch concert, taking place at the 88Nine Radio Milwaukee studios (220 E. Pittsburgh St.), and sponsored by the Journal Sentinel. I'm naturally biased, but it's a sweet lineup, with three rising acts from my Wisconsin Bands to Watch list this year: punk trio Tenement, identical sister act Andi & Alex, and rapper IshDARR. Jordan and I look at what these acts have been up too since the list came out last month, and offer a preview of what's in store Friday. We also talked about a Wisconsin band I wrote about for the Journal Sentinel this week that's already made it big--Kinto Sol. But despite the fact that the trio has its own headquarters (with a video editing suite, recording studio and warehouse full of merchandise), Kinto Sol isn't widely known, or frequently seen, in its hometown. And we look ahead to Bruce Springsteen's BMO Harris Bradley Center show March 3, his first in town since 2009. SHARE By of the A Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office investigation Thursday morning caused a commotion near Mitchell International Airport amid reports of gunfire and arrests, and some streets were shut down while investigators combed there area. The southbound lanes of S. Howell Ave. were closed near the airport for about three hours, according to automated alerts from the state Department of Transportation. Milwaukee police officers and Milwaukee County sheriff's deputies had swarmed the area around the Motel 6 and Clarion Hotel on Howell Ave., WITI-TV reported. A WISN-TV report cited unnamed Milwaukee police sources as saying shots were fired at a deputy, but that has not been confirmed by either agency. A spokeswoman for the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office confirmed southbound S. Howell Ave. was shut down in front of the airport, but she said she wasn't yet prepared to release information on the incident when she was reached just after 11 a.m. Ryan McAdams, a spokesman for Mitchell International, said the airport is open and operating normally despite the heavy law enforcement presence in the area. McAdams urged anyone headed to the airport to avoid Howell Avenue and use the Airport Freeway spur off Interstate 94 to reach the airport. Mitchell International was reporting no delays as of noon. Heavy police activity near @MitchellAirport. Small portion of Grange closed to traffic. @WISN12News pic.twitter.com/Wxu39TysJG Melinda Davenport (@WISN_Melinda) February 25, 2016 Large police presence seen near Howell & Edgerton on Milwaukee's south side https://t.co/RzEeFbfGKO pic.twitter.com/RbszEw8GlA FOX6 News (@fox6now) February 25, 2016 Joe Taschler of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report. SHARE West Bend Superintendent Ted Neitzke is seen in a portrait released by the school district on its Facebook page. West Bend School District By of the West Bend School District's superintendent is stepping down at the end of the school year to take a top job with a regional educational service agency, the district said in a news release. Superintendent Ted Neitzke has served as superintendent for the past five years. He joined the district in 2004 as principal of Badger Middle School and later served as an assistant superintendent, focused on curriculum, instruction and communication. "It will be extraordinarily difficult to say goodbye to Ted," school board member Therese Sizer said in the news release posted to the district's Facebook page. "He is that rare individual who can embrace challenges and remain optimistic in his resolve to provide the best education for our children." Neitzke begins his new job as chief education officer for CESA 6 on July 1. The Oshkosh-based cooperative agency provides educational services to 42 public school districts in eight counties. The Board of Education plans to meet next week to begin the search for a new superintendent. SHARE Senior citizens benefit, too As a retired school district business manager, I read with some amusement the letter from Arleen M. Schindler asking for relief from school referendums for retired senior citizens ("Referendums and retirees," Crossroads, Feb. 21). This is something I would hear every year. She talks about the struggle that was incurred putting their children to school, but forgets that there were retired senior citizens paying for the schools then on their "fixed incomes" which, by the way, might well have been fixed at a nice level. Forgetting those who pay for the schools who never use them, those who have used the school system to educate their children did not pay anywhere near in school taxes to cover the actual cost of educating their children. Others retired seniors included made up the difference. The school property tax on an average home for 13 years does not come anywhere close to covering the cost of educating one child K-12, let alone more than one child. Someone else is helping to cover that deficit. I knew of countless families whose children received fantastic educations who, after their children graduated, began to tell me that we best "tighten our belts" on school spending. Education is expensive, but we all benefit from having a community of citizens that is well-educated. That includes retired senior citizens. James Paschen Mequon Don't blame educators A writer on Feb. 21 laments the school funding referendums currently in play and the increased tax burden those referendums, if passed, will place upon people living on fixed incomes ("Referendums and retirees," Letters). A very serious concern, of course, but when she asks if teachers "have no concern for those who no longer are able to work" and want "no cuts in pay or perk packages," we once again go down the sadly well-trod path of blaming public educators for budget crises not of their making. The primary reason for the untenable budget shortfalls currently faced by so many of our state districts is decreased funding due to the funneling of public tax dollars to "voucher" schools. Just as those on fixed incomes struggle with increased expenses, school districts with largely fixed expenses will struggle with continued cuts in revenue and, thus, go to referendums. And need I remind anyone that, with the passage of Act 10, public educators already have taken very significant cuts to pay and "perks"? I respectfully suggest to the writer that she contact her state and local legislators and ask them to restore appropriate funding to public education. Cheryl Peterson Brookfield Pope vs. Trump? The Pope vs. Trump debacle generates much more heat than light because the media overlooks crucially important factors. Pope Francis answered a reporter's question with two disclaimers. He was not going to name any particular candidate or comment on current American politics. Instead, he made a moral statement to guide discussion about immigration challenges facing disciples of Jesus. "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges is not Christian." The adverb "only" is key. Christian theology calls civil authority to deliberate and decide on specific measures needed to protect the common good. Border security and just laws that codify visitation and citizenship rights are basic to that process. So is hospitality. Welcoming the stranger is a biblical imperative. Politicians led by the Gospel must balance walls with bridges. Prudent steps to strengthen national security must include an ordered policy to share with new members of the human family the God-given blessings they also seek. Francis told the Mexican bishops to be more of a "prophetic voice," which by definition shakes things up. On his flight home he practiced what he preached. Father John G. Yockey Nashotah Please email your letters to jsedit@jrn.com, or mail them to Letters to the editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, P.O. Box 371, Milwaukee, Wis. 53201-0371. Letters are generally limited to 200 words and are subject to editing. Officials in 2013 abandoned pursuing charges against a juvenile inmate at Lincoln Hills School for Boys after his roommate accused him of sexual assault, even though the worker who led the probe believed they had a strong case. Credit: Mark Hoffman SHARE By of the Madison Despite what a former state employee called a strong case, officials in 2013 abandoned pursuing charges against a juvenile inmate accused of sexually assaulting his roommate at a secure Northwoods facility now at the center of an investigation into sexual assault, prisoner abuse, child neglect and other crimes. "It blew me away that no one was charged," said James Townsend, the former supervisor at Lincoln Hills School for Boys who investigated the March 2013 incident. Townsend was fired a month after he conducted his investigation, in part because he refused to modify a report on his investigation at the request of supervisors. Townsend, who is African-American, is fighting his termination, which he contends was based on racial discrimination and retaliation for how he responded to practices at Lincoln Hills. Department of Corrections officials deny he was fired for those reasons. Details of the matter are surfacing amid a wide-ranging probe of Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau in Irma. The state Department of Justice started the probe in January 2015, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation recently took the lead on it. Even before the probe started, the handling of sexual assaults at the prison had come under scrutiny. In 2012, Racine County stopped sending juveniles to Lincoln Hills after a botched response to a sexual assault prompted a judge to write Gov. Scott Walker a memo saying, "this sordid tale is absolutely inexcusable." That earlier case shares some similarities with the one Townsend investigated. On March 15, 2013, Townsend was called to investigate when an upset juvenile claimed his roommate had just sexually assaulted him, according to records obtained under the state's open records law. Townsend separated the two, interviewed them and preserved their clothing and bedding so DNA evidence could be gathered. The juvenile said his roommate had come into his bed around 1:30 a.m., rubbed his penis, stood him up, pulled down his pants, rubbed against him and attempted to penetrate him. The other juvenile declined to talk about the matter, the records show. Townsend said he found the teenager to be credible and thought charges should be filed. The juvenile had immediately reported the incident and was crying and shaking when Townsend arrived, he said. Both were under 18, and any sexual contact between them would constitute a crime. Later that morning and 20 minutes after Townsend's shift ended another resident told a worker he witnessed the sexual activity between the two and suggested their encounter was consensual. The teenager who said he was a victim had been "rhythmically thrusting his hips," according to the witness. Once the witness came forward, the juvenile who said he was victimized was moved to a more secure cottage on the prison's grounds, which is frequently used as a way to discipline inmates. Four days later, on March 19, supervisor Dusty Meunier told Townsend to rewrite two reports about the incident at the behest of the facility's security director at the time, Bruce Sunde. Townsend declined to rewrite one of them because the witness hadn't come forward until after his shift ended and he didn't have personal knowledge of it. He questioned what the witness could have seen at 1:30 a.m. through the window of the two juveniles' room. Overnight, residents are locked in their rooms, though they are allowed out to use the restroom. The report about what the witness saw didn't say whether he was in his room or passing through the hall at the time he saw the sexual activity. "The witness wasn't really a witness," Townsend said. Asked how someone outside the room could have known whether the sexual activity was consensual, Townsend said: "That's the amazing question for me." Sunde declined to comment on the handling of the case. Townsend said he was later informed by an investigator from the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office that no charges would be filed. The county's chief deputy, Nathan Walrath, did not respond to a request for comment. Lincoln County District Attorney Don Dunphy said he did not have any records about the alleged perpetrator, which suggests nothing was forwarded to him to consider charges. Dunphy is assisting with the ongoing probe of Lincoln Hills. Department of Corrections spokesman Jeff Grothman had no comment Wednesday on the handling of the incident. He said he was gathering information in response to questions from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, including whether the two juveniles' parents had been notified about the incident. A month after the incident, Townsend was fired, in part because he balked at writing one of the reports. "I said, 'I don't know what this is about. I wasn't here at the time.' I did balk at it," Townsend said. The termination came just before Townsend's yearlong probationary period ended. He has challenged his termination, saying it was racially motivated at a facility that has a nearly all-white staff. He also has argued it was retaliation because he said he was unwilling to go along with practices at Lincoln Hills that he found inappropriate. The state Equal Rights Division upheld his termination in April, finding his claims were unsubstantiated. He has appealed that decision and a hearing was held on the matter Tuesday. State officials say Townsend's firing was not because of his race or a form of retaliation. They contend in state records he was late too often, couldn't perform basic supervisory functions and mishandled his response to a worker when she was confronted with sexually explicit comments from inmates. In that incident, the worker asked for help when the inmates made their comments. Another staffer said Townsend told her the male inmates had likely "sniffed her out" because she was female and downplayed the matter because "boys will be boys." Townsend's attorney, Stan Davis, said the employee's claim was false. Inflation is a top issue for voters, but candidates can do little about it elections Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin employee Angie Schaetzke (right) helps distribute food items. During the most recent five-year span, poverty increased significantly in 31 of 72 Wisconsin counties, including 11 of the most populous counties. Credit: Mike De Sisti By of the Poverty in Wisconsin hit its highest level in 30 years during the five-year period ending in 2014, even as the nation's economy was recovering from the Great Recession, according to a trend analysis of U.S. census data just released by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers. The number of Wisconsin residents living in poverty averaged 13% across that post-recession time frame the highest since 1984, according to the analysis by UW-Madison's Applied Population Laboratory. In 1984, the poverty rate peaked at 15.5% as the nation was recovering from a double-dip recession. The UW-Madison analysis dovetails with an unrelated study that identified pockets of the country faring worse as the economic recovery gains some traction, released Thursday by a national nonprofit research group in Washington, D.C. That study, by the Economic Innovation Group, found the gap between the richest and poorest American communities widening, and ranked Milwaukee the seventh most distressed city in America, with 52% of the population considered economically distressed. Poverty increased more dramatically across Wisconsin than in many other states, though 46 of the 50 states saw a significant increase in total population living in poverty between the five-year periods ending in 2009 and 2014, according to the UW-Madison analysis. A five-year rolling average is considered more reliable and precise data than a year-to-year comparison. Five-year estimates also are the only census data available at the county and neighborhood level; one-year estimates are available for the state as a whole and the city of Milwaukee. Using the five-year measure, poverty went up in both urban and rural parts of Wisconsin. It went up at every level of educational achievement, and across the employment spectrum. Perhaps most significant, the poverty gap between blacks and whites grew here as the average gap was flat across the nation. The state's child poverty rate also went up significantly, fueling concerns about the future for many of the state's youngest residents. "There is some good evidence that living in poverty and experiencing issues like food and housing insecurity can cause changes in the brain that can lead to behavioral issues and low performance in school, as well as chronic disease later in life," said Malia Jones, an assistant scientist and social epidemiologist at UW-Madison's Applied Population Laboratory. It's no coincidence that two-thirds of students who cannot read above a fourth-grade level end up either in prison or on welfare, several literacy studies have shown. Question on data A UW-Milwaukee associate professor of economics contacted by the Journal Sentinel questioned the accuracy of the analysis because he believes the 2014 poverty rate Jones used was incorrect, and skewed the results higher. Jones used a 2014 poverty rate of 13.3% from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, which provides detailed information about the population and workforce. Scott Adams, the economics professor and chair of UWM's economics department, pointed to a 2014 poverty rate of 10.9% from the Current Population Survey, considered a primary source for labor statistics. Jones said she chose the American Community Survey because it's a larger sampling. The years leading up to a recession and recession recovery naturally would look different, said Adams, who served as a senior economist for labor, welfare and education on the president's Council of Economic Advisers at the end of George W. Bush's presidency and the start of Barack Obama's first term. He argued that poverty after the early 1980s recession was much worse than poverty after the most recent recession. Jones said poverty is rising now because those at the bottom of the economic totem pole aren't benefiting from economic improvement. "Inequality is certainly worse now than in 1984," she said. The growing poverty gap between blacks and whites in Wisconsin also caught Adams' eye. "What it reflects is the black population in Wisconsin was left completely out of the recovery," he said. The racial poverty gap, coupled with Milwaukee's high ranking among the most distressed American cities, "signals we have tremendous concerns," Adams said. Statewide issue "Poverty's not a Milwaukee issue; it's a Wisconsin issue," said Charles McLimans, president and CEO of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, which works with a network of pantries, soup kitchens, meal programs and homeless shelters to distribute food in 36 counties in eastern Wisconsin. "Because Milwaukee is such a segregated city and problems are concentrated in southeastern Wisconsin, people outside (the area) don't see and fully understand the issue," McLimans said. "This certainly helps to shine a light on it." The Applied Population Laboratory analysis found: Poverty went up significantly in 31 of 72 Wisconsin counties, including 11 of the 15 most populous counties, during the most recent five-year span. Estimates show about 738,000 Wisconsin residents were living in poverty during the 2010-'14 period, compared to 605,000 in the 2005-'09 time frame. Nearly one in five Wisconsin children was living in poverty during the 2010-'14 time frame 239,000 children in all, or 18.5% of all children. That's up dramatically from 14.6% in 2005-'09, and represents another 50,000 children. Only 10 states had faster rates of increase in child poverty than Wisconsin. Twenty-five of Wisconsin's 72 counties had a significant increase in child poverty. No county had a significant decrease. The highest childhood poverty county remains Menominee, which went up from 35.1% to 44.8% of residents under age 18 living in poverty. Milwaukee County, the state's largest urban center, went from 26.4% to 33% child poverty and is now tied for second highest with Sawyer County in northern Wisconsin, where Hayward is located. Other Wisconsin counties with child poverty rates above the national average (21.9%) for 2010-'14 included: Kenosha, Rock, Vilas, Forest, Adams, Clark, Vernon, Monroe, Burnett, Ashland, Rusk and Jackson. Racial disparities in poverty are bigger here than in the U.S. as a whole, and are growing faster. The poverty gap between African-Americans and whites grew 4 percentage points in Wisconsin, while the national average did not grow, Jones said. Wisconsin's poverty rate was 39% for blacks and 28% for Latinos, compared with 11% for whites significantly wider gaps than in the rest of the country. Nationally, the analysis reported the gap between blacks and whites was 16 percentage points, and for Latinos and whites, 13 percentage points. Significant changes in poverty occurred among adults at every level of educational achievement in Wisconsin. For those with less than a high school education, poverty rose from 20.5% to 24.5%. The impact was mitigated by a decrease in total population with low educational attainment, which dropped from 380,000 to 337,000. For those with a high school education, poverty rose from 8.9% to 11%. It increased from 6.6% to 8.9% among those with some college. Poverty also touched those with bachelor's degrees or more, rising from 3% in 2005-'09 to 3.6% in 2010-'14. Poverty cut across various levels of employment in Wisconsin. Among the unemployed, poverty increased from 27% to 31.6%. The number of unemployed adults grew by about 35,000 people between the five-year periods ending in 2009 and 2014. Increases were also seen among the working poor. Among employed adults, poverty rose from 6% to 7%. It increased among those employed full-time from 2% to 2.4%. UW-Madison's Applied Population Lab is housed in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. UW-Madison's Institute for Research on Poverty each year produces a single-year census data comparison called the Wisconsin Poverty Report. That report is due later this spring. Reddit Email 0 Shares By Cory Doctorow | ( Boing Boing | Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles, an Iraqi/German artistic duo, covertly scanned a famous looted Egyptian treasure, the Bust of Queen Nefertiti, from its contested perch in Berlins Neues Museum. The hi-rez 3D file is now free to download and print the artists have printed their own full-size epoxy resin replica. The original is the crown jewel of the Neues Museum, but Egyptian curators have long agitate for its repatriation to Egypt it was looted from an Egyptian site in Amarna in 1912 by German archaeologists. The artists have donated their replica bust to the Cairo museum. The Neues Museum is believed to have made its own scan of the bust, but it does not share 3D models of its collection as a rule, and has a generally guarded posture towards such data. Museumshack: museumshack from jnn on Vimeo. Its possible that the artists violated the museums conditions of admission by making their scan, but the bust itself is not in copyright. Its my belief that trafficking in the 3D model by people who never agreed to the museums terms (that is, people whove never bought a ticket) is perfectly legal, though it may enrage the museum and possibly prompt legal action against the artists, whom, I suspect, would relish the fight. As scanning becomes easier and more reliable (its already possible to produce high quality scans from 2D photos shot from multiple angles, using algorithms that infer geometry from the stills), museums will have to contest with this kind of action more often, since banning scanners will soon be synonymous with banning cameras and before long, that will be synonymous with banning assistive devices for patrons with visual impairments. . . Read the whole thing at Boingboing.net Republished under a Creative Commons License Reddit Email 0 Shares By Farhang Jahanpour | (Inter Press Service) | Farhang Jahanpour is a former professor and dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the University of Isfahan. Prior to that he was a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard University. Currently he is a tutor in the Department of Continuing Education and a member of Kellogg College, University of Oxford. OXFORD, Feb 22 2016 (IPS) Iran will hold two crucial elections on February 26, 2016, which could decide the fate of the Islamic Republic for many years to come. Earlier this month, Iranians celebrated the 37th anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution. During that period, the country experienced revolutionary upheavals, a disastrous eight-year war with Iraq that killed and wounded nearly a million Iranians, eight years of populist rule by a hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and crippling Western sanctions. Yet, despite all these crises and upheavals, not only has the Islamic Republic survived, it could be argued that Iran is now the most stable country in the region. This year the election for the 290-seat parliament (Majles), which will serve for four years, coincides with the election of the 88-member Assembly of Experts, which has a eight year term. The Assembly of Experts is in charge of selecting the next Supreme Leader. The current leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is 76 and ailing, and the next Assembly will likely select his successor. In view of the importance of the role that the Supreme Leader plays in Iranian politics, the person who is chosen will decide the direction that the Nizam (the establishment) will take in the coming years. At the moment, the country is split between the reformists and the moderates on one side, and the hardliners on the other. Whether the next parliament and more crucially the next leader are reformist or extremist will have a major impact on the course of Irans domestic and foreign policy. This is why the forthcoming elections are so critical. There have been regular, if flawed, elections in Iran since the revolution, but the fairness of the elections has been compromised by the enormous power that the right-wing Guardian Council wields in vetting the candidates. The Supreme Leader appoints six clerical members of the Guardian Council, and the head of the Judiciary, who is appointed by Khamenei, appoints six jurists to the Council. Therefore, the Council acts as a rubber stamp for the wishes of the Supreme Leader and the clerical establishment. On the eve of the forthcoming elections, the Guardian Council rejected the qualifications of the vast majority of reformist candidates, while the majority of the so-called Principleists, or right-wing extremists, have been allowed to contest the elections. Initially, there were more than 12,000 candidates from the three main political movements, the hardliners, the reformists and the moderates. In total, about 6,200 candidates including 586 women have now been cleared to run, while the rest have been disqualified. Nine moderate parties issued a statement complaining that only 30 of the 3,000 reformist candidates had been allowed to run. In the absence of organized political parties, anyone can put his or her name down for election. There is certainly a need for a body to vet the candidates and make the elections more manageable, but the problem with the Guardian Council is that it functions in a very partisan way. In 2009 election, there was widespread support for the reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Musavi, but the Guardian Council declared Ahmadinejad the winner, and Khamenei put his full support behind him. That controversial decision led to the biggest demonstrations and protests since the early days of the revolution, which were brutally put down. A number of protestors were killed, and hundreds, including the leaders of the Green Movement, were arrested and most of them are still either in jail or under house arrest. The hardliners had hoped to repeat the success of their candidates in the last presidential election in 2013, but the rightwing candidate Saeed Jalili received only 11.3% of the vote. When Hassan Rouhani declared his candidacy, opinion polls put his popularity at only 5%, but an energetic campaign with the promises of greater freedoms at home and a policy of engagement with the West, brought more than 72% of the electorate to the polling stations, and he won in the first round with nearly 51% of the vote. It was hoped that after the successful implementation of the nuclear deal with the P5+1, President Rouhanis supporters would have greater success in the forthcoming election and that he would face a less hostile Majles. However, as the result of massive disqualifications of reformist candidates, the Guardian Council has dashed all those hopes. Ayatollah Khomeinis grandson, Hassan Khomeini, who is a reformist and who had supported President Rouhani in the last election, has been barred from running for the Assembly of Experts, and Morteza Eshraqi, another grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, was prevented from running for Majles, as were former President Hashemi-Rafsanjanis son Mohsen and daughter Fatemeh Hashemi. These disqualifications have given rise to a great deal of anger and criticism. Speaking at a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of Khomeinis return to Tehran on February 2nd, Hashemi-Rafsanjani criticized the Guardian Councils decision to disqualify Hassan Khomeini. Rafsanjani said: They disqualified the grandson of Imam Khomeini, who is the person who is closest to his grandfather. Addressing the hardliners, Rafsanjani said: Who has given you the right to judge others? Who has given you the right to take all the guns, have all the podiums, have Friday prayer platforms and radio and television? This criticism is extremely significant because it is not directed only at the Guardian Council but at the entire clerical establishment, and at the IRGC that holds all the guns. He is also indirectly criticizing the Supreme Leader who appoints the heads of the IRGC, the Friday prayer leaders and the head of the state-run broadcasting. President Rouhani too strongly criticized the hardliners. Speaking on Tuesday 9 February, referring to the IRGC, Ruhani said: If an organization possesses intelligence, weapons, money, newspapers, news agencies, and if other tools of powers were put altogether in the hands of one organization, even if they were saints they would become corrupted. He said that if Iran wants to move forward, we should get rid of monopolies and move towards real competition. The sanctions were not the only chains tying our hands. Bureaucracy is also a chain that we must remove from our hands one day. These strong criticisms of the Guardian Council, the IRGC and implicitly the Supreme Leader, show that the forthcoming elections are going to be tense. However, despite all these obstacles put in the path of the reformers, former reformist President Khatami, while expressing disappointment that capable and deserving figures have been disqualified, urged the people to vote because your vote is your voice. At this election, there are around 53 million voters, 30% of whom are under the age of 30, and 70% under the age of 50. The balance of power in Iran has shifted to a younger, more cosmopolitan and more reform-minded generation. The forthcoming elections will set the stage for major changes in Iran. Via Inter Press Service Related video added by Juan Cole: France 24: Iran: meet the women campaigning for change in parliamentary elections Reddit Email 0 Shares Leanne K Simpson | (The Conversation) | Violence against women, especially in war, is so pervasive around the world its often not considered news. But the barbaric treatment of women by the group known as Daesh or Islamic State [group] (IS) has for once managed to attract some specific attention. When IS overran the city of Mosul and much of northern Iraq in June 2014, it abducted more than 5,000 women and girls of religious and ethnic minorities (the vast majority being Yazidi, Turkmen and Christians). They were systematically isolated from their families and many watched other family members being murdered, particularly men and older women. Women often bear the brunt of war, but IS is responsible for some of the most egregious treatment of women in recent history, with girls and women effectively becoming weapons of war. These young women and girls (some as young as 12) are being systematically raped and assaulted nearly to the point of death, with many being forced into marriage and religious conversion, sold or given as gifts. Initially, IS and its supporters denied that the women abducted were being sexually exploited. But in an October 2014 issue of its publication Dabiq, the group publicly acknowledged it was keeping sex slaves. Justifying it with a predictably narrow and self-serving interpretation of Islam and Islamic law, it stated it considers these women the spoils of war. It states that these apostates are legitimately enslaved, declaring that Islam allows it and we will do it. The group even says that slavery and rape will benefit the girls and young women, as it exposes them to the true Islam. Its not uncommon for them to attempt suicide in captivity in a bid to end their suffering, and due to the conservatism of their communities, many who do somehow return home are ostracised. They may even face death at the hands of male family members eager to avenge their familys loss of morality a womans purity and chastity are linked to a familys honour. This also contributes to the problem that the actual number of victims is unknown, as many rapes go unreported out of stigma and shame. Sexual violence and physical abuse is one of ISs key psychological weapons. It has driven thousands of families from the north and west of Iraq, expanding their territory in their wake. Some more cynical observers also argue that the promise of sex slaves, cars and houses is a ploy to attract young men from countries where they have no prospects of marriage or wealth thanks to inequality and unemployment. Psychological impact Several hundred of the captured young women have since escaped or been liberated from multiple locations across northern Iraq and eastern Syria. Those who have returned are in dire need of physical assistance associated with sexual abuse (including unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV) and psychological support. These women and girls are in a very unstable mental state, suffering from acute levels of stress, anxiety and depression with many showing strong suicidal tendencies. Many victims are unable to comprehend the barbaric treatment they have experienced and witnessed and are unable to sleep more than a few hours at a time due to nightmares and intrusive thoughts. The precarious and monotonous conditions in the refugee camps are not contributing positively to their mental states either, with many feeling under constant threat of being captured. Because of this, many are desperate to leave Iraq, where they are constantly reminded of their time in captivity. Desperate for help Plenty of public attention is given to the physical needs of those affected by the conflict in the Middle East, but this often overshadows the scourge of serious psychological trauma. There is little psychological assistance available for these destitute young women. One organisation thats stepping in to help is WADI the Association for Crisis Assistance and Solidarity Development Cooperation. This Iraq-German based nonprofit focuses on womens rights in the Middle East and is providing psycho-social assistance to the traumatised female survivors of ISs abuse. WADIs Dohuk teams consist of committed young women who visit refugee camps to offer psycho-social support. WADI has also established a womens activity centre in Dohuk that provides a safe all-female environment and a break from the miserable conditions in the refugee camps. The centre aims to make the women feel at home, empowering them and encouraging them to have a say in the peace and reconciliation process. The centre also offers referrals for much needed psychological aid and health care. Awareness training into womens rights is also available. Sadly, the current efforts are merely the beginning, and funding for such projects is scarce. Every day more women become victims; mental health is a taboo topic in many Arab countries, and efforts to help sufferers are therefore very poorly resourced. Although there has been an international response, its been direly inadequate given the scale of the challenges and needs. And all the while, even though IS has lost some ground in Iraq and Syria, theres no indication that this horror story will end any time soon. Leanne K Simpson, PhD Student, School of Psychology | Institute for the Psychology of Elite Performance, Bangor University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Related video added by Juan Cole: RT: Victims of ISIS: Terror survivors share their stories (RT Documentary) Reddit Email 0 Shares By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | Amid ongoing talks in Geneva around a cessation of hostilities in Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday night in a joint telephone call with other diplomats, It may be too late to keep it as a whole Syria if we wait much longer. The cessation of hostilities worked out by diplomats has little chance of succeeding on the ground. It excludes Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) and al-Qaeda, two of the major forces engaging in combat, and the remnants of the Free Syrian Army often have battlefield alliances of convenience with al-Qaeda. Those in besieged East Aleppo have allegedly begun cooperating with Daesh against the regime, a big change on the ground since earlier they had helped the US target Daesh. Russia and the regime could only demonstrate their bona fides in this ceasefire by agreeing to dicker with the rebels in East Aleppo and by allowing humanitarian aid into that half of the city. If they make a full court press to take it (at which point they will have won the war for all intents and purposes), then the agreement will obviously fall apart. It would be in Russias interest to dicker with the Free Syrian Army groups in Aleppo and to try to bring them into the elections now scheduled for April. While Russia might be able to bomb them into submission for the moment, likely a sullen and subdued population that had won its freedom from the sordid Syrian police state would go on mounting underground resistance into the future. A fragile reconstituted state, similar to what has happened in Algeria, could be one outcome of such a situation. Another possible scenario would be Afghanistan, where the central government is just very weak in some provinces and constantly battling insurgents in a low-intensity conflict. A break-up of Syria, however, on a South Sudan model, seems unlikely to me. What would be the territory involved in such a break-up? In the far east, the Kurds now have most of Hasaka province, along with some local Arab allies. In the medium term, the Syrian Kurds need allies against Daesh and need to guard against a forceful Turkish intervention They know Turkey would not put up with an independent Syrian Kurdistan, and say they want a postwar federal system a la Canada. They sometimes cooperate with regime forces against Daesh. For all of Ankaras fears about this northeast tip of Syria breaking off, I dont think thats what local actors actually have in mind. The regime has reconquered northern and western Latakia. It has most of Hama and Homs, and certainly the big urban populations, though there are eastern pockets of resistance in smaller villages. It has most of Damascus province. Freemen of Syria and Army of Islam Salafi jihadis north and west of Damascus have been pushed back. In the far south and the far north, the regime still faces serious challenges. In the north, Idlib is in the hands of an al-Qaeda-led coalition. East Aleppo is in the hands of a mix of Free Syrian Army factions, along with some al-Qaeda. Raqqa and Deir al-Zur provinces in the east of the country are Daesh territory. Daesh wont be allowed to keep them. Eventually the Iraqi government will take back Mosul, isolating the small city of Raqqa and cutting off any aid or money from Iraq. Already last weekend Sunni clansmen in Fallujah staged a rebellion against Daesh. Could Syrian Daesh lands fall to other Sunni factions? Maybe, but the best fighters among them are al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda wont be allowed to take these towns from Daesh (or in some instances, back from Daesh). Russia and Iran can and will prevent this outcome, and nor would NATO or Baghdad or Erbil want it. Suwayda, Deraa and the Golan Heights in the far south are in the hands of a mix of factions, including al-Qaeda. What is likely to happen if things go on as they have been for the past two months is that the regime will take East Aleppo militarily. (As I said, I think that would be a mistake, not to mention horrible for its people, but that is where things are going). If Aleppo falls to al-Assads forces, and he keeps control in Latakia, then Idlib becomes an isolated Army of Conquest enclave, cut off from eastern, western and southern supply routes and solely dependent on Turkey; and likely will also fall. The southern opposition is in easy reach of the capitals crack troops and would be unlikely to be able to hold out if Aleppo and Idlib fall. If al-Qaeda and Daesh are defeated on the battleground and deprived of territory, it is true, they could devolve into terrorist organizations again. But that pathway does not lead to a break up of Syria. In short, I think that the geography, military logistics, and trade and other routes in Syria all tell in favor of a unified victor in the war. It was never likely to be Daesh or al-Qaeda, given the religious and ethnic diversity in Syria (I figure about 60 percent of Syrians are Sunni Muslims, and over half of them are secular-minded people who are siding with the regime against the hard line theocrats). Had Russia not intervened last fall, then a partition might well have occurred. But now it seems that the momentum is on the side of Restoration, however horrible that outcome is (and I wouldnt have believed it, but it is a slightly less horrible outcome than the worst of what could have happened, i.e. a Daesh or al-Qaeda takeover of Syria). So I think Kerry is bluffing when he speaks of partition. He is just trying to get the regime to make peace with the remnants of the Free Syrian Army, which is in fact the best road forward for Syria. We have had enough, in the Middle East, of the anti-Mandelas who reject reconciliation and insist on total victory and vicious reprisals. That path just ensures violence and turmoil into the next decades. - Related video added by Juan Cole: Euronews: Syria could fall apart if fighting continues, warns Americas Kerry TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb. 25, 2016) - Teranga Gold Corporation ("Teranga" or the "Company") (TSX:TGZ)(ASX:TGZ) is pleased to report its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2015, along with 2016 guidance and updated life of mine plan cash flows. "Full year earnings before the impairment charge were better than the prior year, despite lower gold prices and production, due to our sharp focus on margin improvement through improved productivity and cost reductions," stated Richard Young, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our updated life of mine plan incorporates these materially lower costs and higher throughput, which significantly improves our long-term free cash flow profile of our business." "2016 is off to a strong start as we benefit from high grade mill feed deferred from last year and record throughput," added Mr. Young. 2015 Highlights 3 months ended December 31, Year ended December 31, (in millions except per share amounts) 2015 2014 2015 2014 Net profit (loss) attributable to shareholders (excluding impairment)(1) ($1.7 ) $27.7 $19.6 $17.8 per share ($0.00 ) $0.08 $0.05 $0.05 Net profit (loss) attributable to shareholders (including impairment) ($71.8 ) $27.7 ($50.5 ) $17.8 per share ($0.19 ) $0.08 ($0.14 ) $0.05 Net loss attributable to shareholders (excluding impairment) (1) for the quarter decreased from a profit recorded in the prior year quarter, largely due lower gold prices and lower production combined with the reversal of a $16 million non-cash inventory write-down in the fourth quarter 2014 that was recorded in the second and third quarters of 2014. for the quarter decreased from a profit recorded in the prior year quarter, largely due lower gold prices and lower production combined with the reversal of a $16 million non-cash inventory write-down in the fourth quarter 2014 that was recorded in the second and third quarters of 2014. Net profit attributable to shareholders (excluding impairment) (1) for the full year increased slightly from the prior year, largely due to lower costs that were offset by lower gold prices and lower production. for the full year increased slightly from the prior year, largely due to lower costs that were offset by lower gold prices and lower production. Net loss (including impairment) for the quarter and year included a non-cash impairment charge related to long-lived assets and recorded goodwill of $77.9 million, net of tax effects. The impairment charge was triggered primarily by the effect of changes in the Company's long-term gold price assumptions. Production shortfall largely deferred into 2016 Met or beat 2015 cost guidance - delivered total cash cost savings of $20+ million, or $100+ per ounce Significantly improved liquidity Cash balance increased by $8.6 million to $44.4 million; pro forma cash balance of $57.6 million including VAT receivable Approximately $5.0 million in VAT refunded in February Newly negotiated six-year VAT exemption effective February 2016 and expiring May 2022 Successfully put in place a $30 million revolver facility, of which $15 million has been drawn down Completed a $17.5 million private placement with new cornerstone investor Industry-leading health and safety record continues with 2.5 years without a lost time incident Replaced proven and probable reserves and significantly improved life of mine plan free cash flows Added high grade mill feed through the conversion of high grade underground resources to reserves Removed lower margin ounces to maximize average annual free cash flows commencing in 2016, reducing life of mine all-in sustaining costs to approximately $900 per ounce over the 13.5-year mine life (over $200 per ounce lower than the previous life of mine plan) Advanced high-return organic growth initiatives: Mill optimization to increase throughput by more than 10 percent and lower costs is on track for completion in fourth quarter 2016 Completed heap leach pre-feasibility study, which concludes that heap leaching is technically viable for processing low-grade ore Continued to advance mine licence and regional exploration programs with encouraging results Navin Dyal, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer stated, "The impairment charge related to long-lived assets and goodwill and was triggered primarily by the effect of changes in long-term gold prices. The impairment charge, which was non-cash, does not detract from the strength of our balance sheet and the long-term free cash flow ability of our operations." Balance Sheet Review The Company's cash balance at December 31, 2015 was $44.4 million, $8.6 million higher than the balance at the start of the year, primarily due to cash flow provided by operations of $30.4 million and financing activities of $25.9 million partly offset by capital expenditures of $47.7 million. As at December 31, 2015, $15.0 million was drawn from the $30 million Revolver Credit Facility. Including the VAT receivable from the Republic of Senegal, the Company's pro forma cash balance at December 31, 2015 was $57.6 million. The trade and other receivable balance of $15.7 million includes $13.2 million in VAT recoverable. In February, the Company received a total of approximately $5.0 million in VAT refunds. The remaining December 31, 2015 balance of $8.2 million is expected to be refunded over the balance of 2016. In February 2016, the Company successfully negotiated an exemption for the payment and collection of refundable VAT. This exemption is governed by an amendment to our mining convention and is enforceable for the next six years, expiring on May 2, 2022. Financial and Operating Highlights A copy of Teranga's complete financial statements and Management's Discussion & Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2015 are available on the Company's website at www.terangagold.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com/terangagold. (US$000's, except where indicated) Three months ended December 31, Twelve months ended December 31, Operating Data 2015 2014 2015 2014 Gold Produced (ounces) 51,292 71,278 182,282 211,823 Gold Sold (ounces) 52,939 63,711 193,218 206,336 Average realized gold price ($ per ounce sold) 1,099 1,199 1,161 1,259 Total cash costs ($ per ounce sold)1 668 598 642 710 All-in sustaining costs ($ per ounce sold)1 969 711 965 865 Total depreciation and amortization ($ per ounce sold)1,2 249 240 256 298 Three months ended December 31, Twelve months ended December 31, Financial Data 2015 2014 2015 2014 Revenue 58,235 76,553 224,620 260,588 Profit (loss) attributable to shareholders of Teranga2 (71,824 ) 27,693 (50,543 ) 17,776 Per share2 (0.19 ) 0.08 (0.14 ) 0.05 Operating cash flow 9,755 30,677 30,434 49,009 Capital expenditures 12,307 4,105 47,682 18,913 Free cash flow3 (2,552 ) 26,572 (17,248 ) 39,096 Free cash flow per ounce sold3 (48 ) 417 (89 ) 189 Cash and cash equivalents (including restricted cash) 44,436 35,810 44,436 35,810 Net cash (debt)4 30,986 31,864 30,986 31,864 Notes: - Results include the consolidation of 100% of the OJVG's operating results, cash flows and net assets from January 15, 2014. 1 Total cash costs per ounce, all-in sustaining costs per ounce and total depreciation and amortization per ounce are non-IFRS financial measures that do not have a standard meaning under IFRS. Prior year amounts include adjustments to net realizable value. Please refer to Non-IFRS Performance Measures in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A"). 2 In 2014, the Company reassessed the accounting for deferred stripping assets to include amortization of equipment directly related to deferred stripping activity. The impact of this adjustment has been applied retrospectively from January 1, 2012. The twelve months ended December 31, 2015 includes the impact of restating the deferred income tax expenses related to temporary timing differences. 3 Free cash flow and free cash flow per ounce are defined as operating cash flow (excluding one-time transaction costs related to the acquisition of the OJVG) less capital expenditures. 4 Net cash (debt) is defined as total borrowings less cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash. 2016 Outlook In deriving its 2016 production guidance, the Company has taken steps to mitigate a production shortfall, including the build-up of higher grade stockpiles of approximately 40,000 ounces, which will provide a buffer against any future operating shortfall. The Company's outlook for 2016 is as follows: Production: 200,000 to 215,000 ounces (2) Total cash costs: $600 to $650 per ounce (3) All-in sustaining costs (including all new project development costs): $900 to $975 per ounce(3) 2016 production is based on ore sourced from Masato, Golouma (new deposit) and Gora, as well as existing stockpiles. The current phase of Masato will be completed in Q1 2016, with Golouma production commencing in Q1 2016. Kerekounda waste stripping is scheduled to commence in Q3 2016, while mining at Gora will continue throughout the year. The Company expects to generate positive free cash flow in 2016 using a $1,100 per ounce gold price assumption. The following table outlines the Company's estimated 2016 summary production and cost guidance: Year Ended December 31 2015 2016 Actual Guidance Operating Results Ore mined ('000t) 7,748 2,000 - 2,500 Waste mined ('000t) 23,883 34,500 - 36,000 Total mined ('000t) 31,631 36,500 - 38,500 Grade mined (g/t) 1.22 2.75 - 3.25 Strip ratio waste/ore 3.10 13.00 - 15.00 Ore milled ('000t) 3,421 3,700 - 3,900 Head grade (g/t) 1.79 1.80 - 2.00 Recovery rate % 92.3 90 - 91 Gold produced 1 (oz) 182,282 200,000 - 215,000 Total cash costs (incl. royalties)2 $/oz sold 642 600 - 650 All-in sustaining cash cost 2 $/oz sold 965 900 - 975 Mining ($/t mined) 2.42 2.20 - 2.40 Mining long haul ($/t hauled) 5.35 4.00 - 4.50 Milling ($/t milled) 14.01 11.00 - 12.00 G&A ($/t milled) 4.82 4.25 - 4.50 Mine Production Costs $ millions 142.1 145 - 155 Capital Expenditures Mine site sustaining $ millions 4.4 8 - 10 Capitalized reserve development $ millions 4.8 5 Project development costs $ millions 23.9 17 - 20 Total Capital Expenditures 3 $ millions 33.1 30 - 35 Exploration (Expensed) $ millions 2.5 3 Administration & CSR Expense $ millions 16.0 15 - 16 Notes: 1 22,500 ounces of gold production are to be sold to Franco Nevada at 20% of the spot gold price. This production guidance is based on existing proven and probable reserves only from the Sabodala mining license as at December 31, 2015. 2 Total cash costs per ounce and all-in sustaining costs per ounce are non-IFRS financial measures and do not have standard meanings under IFRS. All-in sustaining costs per ounce sold include total cash costs per ounce, administration expenses (excluding Corporate depreciation expense and social community costs not related to current operations), capitalized deferred stripping, capitalized reserve development and mine site & development capital expenditures as defined by the World Gold Council. Please refer to Non-IFRS Performance Measures in the Company's MD&A. 3 Excludes capitalized deferred stripping costs, included in mine production costs. This forecast financial information is based on the following material assumptions for 2016: gold price: $1,100 per ounce; Brent oil:$40/barrel; Euro:USD exchange rate of 1.1:1 Other important assumptions: any political events are not expected to impact operations, including movement of people, supplies and gold shipments; grades and recoveries will remain consistent with the life-of-mine plan to achieve the forecast gold production; and no unplanned delays in or interruption of scheduled production. Life of Mine Schedule Appendix 1 represents a life of mine schedule developed from proven and probable reserves. The pit sequencing schedule is based on optimizing the material movement capability with the mine mobile fleet and the availability of high grade ore within the various ore bodies. This pit sequencing schedule represents one of a number of possibilities that can be adjusted as economic conditions change. The schedule emphasizes lower annual material movement (not exceeding 40 million tonnes per annum) utilizing the existing fleet in a low gold price environment to deliver the highest cash flow profile for the first five years of mining (2016 to 2020), with flexibility for design changes as economic conditions change. Based on the detailed annual capital and operating costs in Appendix 2 and 3, all-in sustaining costs are expected to be in the $900 per ounce range over the five year period from 2016 to 2020, as well as, over the 13.5 year mine life. Over the 13.5 year life of mine, the Franco-Nevada stream is expected to add a further $73 per ounce to costs resulting in free cash flow per ounce of over $100 per ounce, after income tax and minority dividends at $1,100 per ounce gold. A presentation going into more detail on the life of mine will be available on the Company's website later today. Endnotes (1) Net profit (loss) attributable to shareholders before the effects of the impairment charge is a Non-IFRS performance measure. Please see Non-IFRS Performance Measures in the Company's MD&A. (2) 22,500 ounces of production are to be sold to Franco Nevada at 20% of the spot gold price. This production guidance is based on existing proven and probable reserves only from the Sabodala mining license as at December 31, 2015. (3) Total cash costs per ounce, all-in sustaining costs per ounce, and total depreciation and amortization per ounce are non-IFRS financial measure and do not have standard meanings under IFRS. All-in sustaining costs per ounce sold include total cash costs per ounce, administration expenses (excluding Corporate depreciation expense and social community costs not related to current operations), capitalized deferred stripping, capitalized reserve development and mine site & development capital expenditures as defined by the World Gold Council. Please see Non-IFRS Performance Measures in the Company's MD&A. Forward Looking Statements This release contains certain statements that constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Teranga, or developments in Teranga's business or in its industry, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, all disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or results of operations, future economic conditions and courses of action, the proposed plans with respect to mine plan, anticipated 2015 results, mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates, anticipated life of mine operating and financial results, and the completion of construction of the Gora deposit related thereto. Such statements are based upon assumptions, opinions and analysis made by management in light of its experience, current conditions and its expectations of future developments that management believe to be reasonable and relevant. These assumptions include, among other things, the ability to obtain any requisite Senegalese governmental approvals, the accuracy of mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates, gold price, exchange rates, fuel and energy costs, future economic conditions and courses of action. Teranga cautions you not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. The risks and uncertainties that may affect forward-looking statements include, among others: the inherent risks involved in exploration and development of mineral properties, including government approvals and permitting, changes in economic conditions, changes in the worldwide price of gold and other key inputs, changes in mine plans and other factors, such as project execution delays, many of which are beyond the control of Teranga, as well as other risks and uncertainties which are more fully described in the Company's Annual Information Form dated September 1, 2015, and in other company filings with securities and regulatory authorities which are available at www.sedar.com. Teranga does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change. Nothing in this report should be construed as either an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy or sell Teranga securities. About Teranga Teranga is a Canadian-based gold company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:TGZ) and Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:TGZ). Teranga is principally engaged in the production and sale of gold, as well as related activities such as exploration and mine development in Senegal, West Africa. Teranga's mission is to create value for all of its stakeholders through responsible mining. Its vision is to explore, discover and develop gold mines in Senegal and West Africa, in accordance with the highest international standards, and to be a catalyst for sustainable economic, environmental and community development. All of its actions from exploration, through development, operations and closure will be based on the best available techniques. For more information, please refer to www.terangagold.com. APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: LIFE OF MINE (2016 TO 2029) LOM 2016-2020 AVG 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 Sabodala Ore Mined Mt 3.9 0.3 1.5 2.0 Ore Grade g/t 1.44 1.11 1.33 1.58 Contained Oz Moz 0.18 0.01 0.07 0.10 Waste Mt 31.0 11.1 15.0 5.0 Masato Ore Mined Mt 21.4 0.5 0.7 0.4 1.1 2.8 5.0 4.3 6.7 Ore Grade g/t 1.06 1.10 0.74 0.70 0.86 0.93 1.00 1.02 1.27 Contained Oz Moz 0.73 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.03 0.09 0.16 0.14 0.27 Waste Mt 110.2 0.2 16.2 5.8 19.4 27.2 21.5 11.6 8.2 Gora Ore Mined Mt 1.5 0.7 0.7 0.1 Ore Grade g/t 4.78 4.00 5.15 7.90 Contained Oz Moz 0.22 0.08 0.12 0.02 Waste Mt 32.2 17.9 14.1 0.2 Kerekounda Ore Mined Mt 0.8 0.0 0.5 0.3 Ore Grade g/t 3.44 0.99 3.39 3.74 Contained Oz Moz 0.09 0.00 0.06 0.03 Waste Mt 18.2 3.6 13.0 1.6 Golouma Ore Mined Mt 4.5 1.2 0.9 2.4 0.1 Ore Grade g/t 2.28 3.08 1.98 1.99 2.24 Contained Oz Moz 0.33 0.12 0.06 0.15 0.00 Waste Mt 49.6 14.8 18.4 16.4 0.0 Niakafiri1 Ore Mined Mt 9.0 1.5 4.0 3.5 Ore Grade g/t 1.09 1.05 1.10 1.10 Contained Oz Moz 0.31 0.05 0.14 0.12 Waste Mt 26.6 6.2 12.5 7.9 Maki Medina Ore Mined Mt 0.9 0.9 Ore Grade g/t 1.17 1.17 Contained Oz Moz 0.03 0.03 Waste Mt 2.9 2.9 Underground Ore Mined Mt 2.1 0.1 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.2 Ore Grade g/t 5.01 5.00 4.95 4.63 4.33 4.39 5.55 5.36 5.52 4.76 Contained Oz Moz 0.35 0.02 0.05 0.05 0.04 0.01 0.03 0.06 0.07 0.02 Summary Ore Mined Mt 44.1 3.1 2.3 1.6 3.4 4.7 3.5 3.0 5.3 8.6 10.4 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.2 Ore Grade g/t 1.59 1.94 2.91 3.74 1.51 1.42 1.63 1.09 1.22 1.20 1.29 4.39 5.55 5.36 5.52 4.76 Contained Oz Moz 2.25 0.20 0.22 0.19 0.17 0.22 0.19 0.10 0.21 0.33 0.43 0.01 0.03 0.06 0.07 0.02 Waste Mt 270.6 36.3 36.4 38.2 35.9 35.4 35.8 27.2 21.5 24.2 16.1 Movement Mt 314.7 39.5 38.7 39.8 39.3 40.1 39.4 30.2 26.8 32.8 26.5 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.2 Stockpile Ore Balance Mt 13.7 11.1 10.1 10.4 9.4 7.9 8.7 12.9 18.9 14.5 10.2 6.2 2.1 Stockpile Grade g/t 0.82 0.84 0.76 0.73 0.70 0.68 0.67 0.66 0.68 0.66 0.66 0.66 0.66 Contained Oz Moz 0.36 0.30 0.25 0.24 0.21 0.17 0.19 0.27 0.41 0.31 0.22 0.13 0.04 Ore Milled Mt 59.3 4.3 3.9 4.2 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.4 4.4 4.4 4.4 4.4 2.3 Head Grade g/t 1.38 1.66 1.93 1.85 1.56 1.54 1.46 0.99 1.35 1.73 2.06 0.82 0.85 1.06 1.09 0.94 Oxide % 21 % 27 % 37 % 25 % 26 % 31 % 19 % 28 % 16 % 29 % 0 % 17 % 19 % 18 % 18 % 18 % Produced Oz Moz 2.376 0.207 0.215 0.229 0.202 0.200 0.190 0.128 0.173 0.225 0.263 0.104 0.109 0.135 0.139 0.063 1 The schedule summarized Niakafiri from "Niakafiri Main" and "Niakafiri SE". The portion of Niakafiri SE to be mined lies outside of the Sabodala Village area and assumes relocation is not required. The estimated ore reserves underpinning the production targets (as defined in the ASX Listing Rules), set out in Appendix 1 above, have been prepared by Mr. Paul Chawrun, who is a Competent Person, in accordance with the requirements of the 2012 JORC Code. This production guidance is based on existing proven and probable ore reserves from the Sabodala mining license as at December 31, 2015 Stockpile balances at January 1, 2016 included 15.3 Mt at 0.79 g/t for 0.39 million contained ounces APPENDIX 2: LIFE OF MINE CAPITAL EXPENDITURES Sustaining Capex Unit LOM 2016-2020 AVG 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 Open Pit Mining USDM 29.9 3.7 4.9 3.5 4.0 1.5 4.7 6.0 3.0 1.5 0.8 - - - - - Underground Mining USDM - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Processing USDM 18.9 2.1 2.4 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.5 0.5 0.5 - Admin & Other Sustaining USDM 8.8 1.3 2.8 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 - Community Relations USDM 25.0 0.2 1.0 - - - - 2.0 15.0 7.0 - - - - - - Total Sustaining Capex USDM 82.5 7.2 11.0 6.5 7.0 4.5 7.2 10.5 20.5 9.8 2.1 1.3 0.8 0.8 0.8 - Capital Projects & Development OJVG & Gora Development USDM 4.3 0.9 3.3 0.8 0.3 - - - - - - - - - - - Underground Equipment & Development USDM 102.1 4.9 - - - - 24.4 23.4 8.9 2.4 0.8 8.5 18.2 10.4 4.1 0.9 Other Projects & Development USDM 21.8 2.9 11.3 1.9 1.4 - - 7.2 - - - - - - - - Total Projects and Development USDM 128.2 8.7 14.6 2.7 1.7 - 24.4 30.6 8.9 2.4 0.8 8.5 18.2 10.4 4.1 0.9 Combined Total (USDM) USDM 210.8 15.9 25.7 9.2 8.7 4.5 31.6 41.1 29.4 12.2 2.9 9.8 18.9 11.1 4.9 0.9 APPENDIX 3: LIFE OF MINE OPERATING COSTS Activity Unit LOM 2016-2020 AVG 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 Open Pit Mining USD/t mined 2.25 2.25 2.24 2.27 2.25 2.20 2.29 2.19 2.31 2.17 2.36 - - - - - Underground Mining USD/t milled 72.23 - - - - - - 76.30 74.94 73.32 77.25 79.72 76.46 66.49 64.35 78.11 Processing USD/t milled 10.33 10.16 10.83 10.02 10.00 9.93 10.09 9.97 10.14 9.95 10.84 10.63 10.60 10.61 10.61 10.60 General & Admin. USD/t milled 2.56 3.39 3.81 3.47 3.29 3.28 3.15 3.12 3.06 3.08 2.01 1.88 1.43 1.23 1.00 1.81 Mining USDM 702 88 86 91 89 87 89 66 61 71 62 - - - - - Underground Mining USDM 155 - - - - - - 7 22 26 20 7 13 24 25 12 Processing USDM 613 44 42 43 45 44 45 44 45 44 48 47 47 47 47 25 General & Admin USDM 144 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 13 13 8 8 6 5 4 4 Refining & Freight USDM 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 Byproduct Credits USDM (4 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) (0 ) Total Operating Costs USDM 1,622 147 142 148 148 146 148 132 141 154 139 63 66 77 76 41 Deferred Stripping Adjustment USDM (129 ) (13 ) (26 ) (6 ) - - (35 ) (35 ) (25 ) (1 ) - - - - - - Royalties(2) USDM 145 13 13 16 12 12 11 8 10 14 16 6 7 8 8 4 Total Cash Costs(1) USDM 1,639 146 130 158 161 159 124 104 127 167 154 69 73 85 85 45 Total Cash Costs(1) USD/oz 690 706 602 691 798 792 655 810 730 741 587 660 668 629 607 711 Capex USDM 211 16 26 9 9 5 32 41 29 12 3 10 19 11 5 1 Capitalized Deferred Stripping USDM 129 13 26 6 - - 35 35 25 1 - - - - - - Capitalized Reserve Development USDM - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Corporate Admin USDM 130 14 16 14 14 14 12 10 10 10 6 6 6 5 4 4 All-In Sustaining Cash Costs(1) USDM 2,108 189 196 187 183 177 203 190 191 190 163 85 98 101 94 50 All-In Sustaining Cash Costs(1) USD/oz 887 914 912 819 908 882 1,072 1,483 1,103 843 621 812 897 748 671 788 VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA / TheNewswire / February 25, 2016 - MGX Minerals Inc. ("MGX" or the "Company") (CSE: XMG / FKT: 1MG) is pleased to announce Spring 2016 on site operations have commenced ahead of schedule at MGX's Driftwood Creek magnesium project. Layout and design of the haul road has been completed including flagging, centerline, right of way, and grade control. The haul road development and improvement is being done by Dominion Excavating in support of the current 100t bulk sample program. Bulk Sample Testing & Off-take The purpose of the bulk sample program is to provide definitive grade and run of mine representative samples for testing in the milling and calcination processes, including pilot plant scale calcination at 800C, 1000C and 1800C for production of light burned CCM (caustic calcined magnesia), hard burned CCM, and DBM (dead-burned magnesia) respectively. Multi-tonne samples will be available to end-users for the purpose of finalizing off-take agreements and used internally by MGX in the development of MgO (magnesium oxide) wallboard. MgO Wallboard Production A portion of material from the current bulk sample program will be used in trial production of MgO wallboard. MGX continues to evaluate the development of a value-added MgO wallboard plant utilizing feedstock from Driftwood Creek. MgO board is known to be environmentally friendly and similar to a light cement board as well as fire, water, and mold resistant with superior acoustic qualities and a very smooth finish as compared with conventional drywall. MgO board is significantly stronger than conventional wallboard and is heavily used in Asia, including the interior of Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world. While MgO board is widely used outside of North America there are currently no Canadian or US based manufacturers and all board is imported, significantly increasing the price to contractors and developers. A vertically integrated North American based manufacturer could potentially cut the cost of MgO board to domestic markets, providing a superior product at a similar price. The wallboard market is diverse and the opportunity in specialized board may be the greatest as specialized fire-resistant Type X board (1.39B sq. ft.) and water resistant board (390M sq. ft.) make up 40% of the 4.39B sq. ft. annual US wallboard sales (United States Department of Interior 2014). About MGX Minerals MGX Minerals (CSE: XMG) is a diversified Canadian mining company engaged in the acquisition and development of industrial mineral deposits in western Canada that offer near-term production potential, minimal barriers to entry and low initial capital expenditures. The Company operates the Driftwood Creek magnesium project located in the East Kootenay Region of British Columbia. MGX has recently received approval of a 20 year mining lease for Driftwood and bulk sampling is currently underway. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.mgxminerals.com. About Dominion Excavating Dominion Excavating is a quarry mining and construction company located in Invermere, BC. MGX has entered into a comprehensive development agreement with Dominion for the road and mine construction at the Driftwood Creek magnesium project. Dominion is an MGX Minerals equity partner and a First Nations owned company. Contact Information Jared Lazerson Chief Executive Officer Telephone: 604.681.7735 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "potentially" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors. The reader is referred to the Company's public filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. Golden Dawn Minerals Inc., (TSXV: GOM) (FSE: 3G8A) (the "Company" or "Golden Dawn") announces that it has signed a letter of intent with Huakan International Mining Inc. ("Huakan") with respect to an option to acquire the mineral properties and assets generally known as the Greenwood Gold Project, located in the Greenwood Mining Division, South Central British Columbia, 500 km east of Vancouver, Canada. The binding letter of intent "LOI" grants the Company the option to acquire all of the rights, title and interest in the Greenwood Assets subject to certain terms and conditions. Consideration for the acquisition consists of cash payments totaling CAD$4,035,000 and 2,000,000 units of Golden Dawn Minerals Inc., consisting of a share and a warrant exercisable at $0.20 for two years, and 600,000 shares of Golden Dawn Minerals Inc.. The option agreement incorporating the principal terms of this LOI shall be entered into by the parties within two weeks of the date of the LOI or any other later date mutually agreed to by both parties. The Greenwood Assets consist of the Greenwood mill and all associated buildings, including a 600,000 tonne tailings facility, all real property and property rights, mineral claims comprising the Lexington-Grenoble and Golden Crown mines and Zip claims, all equipment, supplies, vehicles, permits, reports documents, and other associated assets. The previous investment made in developing these assets by Merit Mining Corp. (subsequently acquired by Huakan) was approximately $40 million. Under the terms of the agreement: (a) 1045061 B.C. Ltd. (the Vendor) was incorporated on August 6, 2015 by all the existing shareholders of Huakan with the authorized capital of an unlimited number of common shares. A Spin-off Agreement will be entered into between Huakan and the Vendor prior to the Closing, pursuant to which Huakan will transfer and assign the Greenwood Assets to the Vendor on an as is, where is basis in exchange for an aggregate of 45,091,939 common shares of the Vendor. Upon completion of the Spin-off and due exercise of the Option, the Purchaser (Golden Dawn Minerals Inc.) shall acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares (the Vendor Shares) of the Vendor (being 45,091,939 common shares) from the shareholders of the Vendor pursuant to a Share Transfer Agreement. (b) At the time of the execution of the LOI, Mr. Wolf Wiese, CEO of Golden Dawn Minerals Inc., will advance 600,000 shares of this Company on behalf of the Company as the first consideration (c) Sixty (60) days after the execution of the LOI, Golden Dawn shall make a non-refundable deposit of CAD$30,000 to the Vendor, and issue 1,000,000 Units of the Golden Dawn Minerals Inc. to Huakan (or its designate), each Unit comprising of one common share of Golden Dawn and one warrant that entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share of Golden Dawn at a price of CAD$0.20 for a period of two years from the date of issuance (the Second Tranche Securities Consideration). (d) Upon Closing (no later than 120 calendar days after the execution date of this LOI), the Golden Dawn shall make a payment in the amount of CAD$2,900,000 in cash to the Vendor and issue 1,000,000 Units to Huakan or its designate, and refund to Huakan or the Vendor (as the case may be) an amount of CAD$435,000 that is equal to the reclamation bond held by the Government of British Columbia, that was previously posted by Huakan. This transaction is subject to all regulatory approvals. (e) An ongoing and post-Closing periodic payment of CAD$700,000 (the Net Revenue Payment) shall be accumulated and paid to the Vendor on a semi-annual basis for a period of no more than 30 months after the Closing. (f) Pursuant to a Royalty Agreement, the Lexington-Grenoble and Golden Crown mines shall be subject to a net smelter return royalty (the NSR) of 3% NSR payable on all proceeds of ore material mined and processed, subject to the Purchasers right to repurchase the NSR at any time at a price of $700,000 during the Payment Period. If, in every 6 months during the Payment Period, the amount of net revenues received by the Vendor is less than a benchmark amount of CAD$140,000, the Vendor may have the option to accept the payment of balance in securities of the Purchaser. If the Vendor does not elect the foregoing option, the Purchaser shall still make the payment in cash for the remaining balance up to the Benchmark Amount in such 6-month period. The Purchaser will have the option to accelerate the cash payment of all or part of the Net Revenue Payment. The parties shall negotiate in good faith and enter into definitive agreements on or prior to June 22, 2016. The definitive agreements shall incorporate the principal terms of this LOI and contain customary provisions that are similar to the transactions contemplated herein. This transaction is subject to TSX.V approval. The acquisition includes two properties with mineral resources, namely the Lexington and the Golden Crown. The Lexington property is comprised of a series of contiguous patented Crown-granted properties, located mineral claims, reverted Crown-granted mineral claims, and mining leases covering an area of approximately 2,060 hectares. Part of the property is subject to a 2.5% net profits interest. The claims are located within the western half of the Greenwood Mining Division in south central British Columbia, Canada. This property covers the Lexington deposit, developed as an underground copper-gold mine by Merit Mining Corp. with production for 9 months in 2009 of 5,418 ounces gold, 3,196 ounces silver and 861,281 pounds of copper (Huakan Mining International Inc.). The remaining resource estimate, based on a total of 232 drill holes, is given in the table below. Also included in the acquisition is the nearby Golden Crown property. The Golden Crown property is composed of a number of contiguous claims totalling approximately 1,017 hectares. The Golden Crown claims are located 4 kilometres east southeast of Greenwood, BC and 1 kilometre south of the historic Phoenix open pit. Huakan owns 100% interest in the Golden Crown Property subject to various underlying royalties. Infrastructure on the property includes a mill rated at 200 tonnes per day capacity, waste disposal area and tailing facilities, all fully permitted and under care and maintenance since operations ceased. This mill was constructed by Merit Mining in 2008 to process material from the Lexington mine. On the Golden Crown property, small scale historic underground gold-copper production took place in the early 1900's. In 1985, a 1,070 metre long exploration drift was developed to access the multi-vein system. A total of 229 surface drill holes and 53 underground drill holes have been completed on this property in various programs. P&E Mining Consultants Inc. was recently engaged by Golden Dawn to update the Lexington and Golden Crown resource estimates on behalf of Huakan as indicated in the tables below. Table of Updated Resource Estimates for the Greenwood Gold Properties (February 1, 2016). Lexington Deposit Resources Cut-Off 3.50 g/t Au Eq Au Cu Au Eq Classification Tonnes g/t % Oz. Measured 58,600 7.71 1.30 18,200 Indicated 295,800 6.65 1.03 77,900 Measured + Indicated 354,400 6.82 1.08 96,100 Inferred 41,300 5.56 0.95 9,300 Golden Crown Deposit Resources Cut-Off 3.50 g/t Au Eq Au Cu Au Eq Classification Tonnes g/t % Oz. Indicated 135,200 12.07 0.63 56,600 Inferred 62,100 10.36 0.54 22,300 (1) Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, or other relevant issues. It is noted that no specific issues have been identified as yet. (2) The quantity and grade of reported Inferred resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these Inferred resources as an Indicated or Measured mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an Indicated or Measured mineral resource category. (3) The mineral resources in this report were estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and Guidelines prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by the CIM Council. (4) The 3.5 g/t AuEq resource cut-off grade was derived from the approximate Jan 31/16 two year trailing average Au price of US$1,200/oz and Cu price of US$2.75/lb,US$ /C$ exchange rate of 0.83, 90% & 85% respective Au and Cu process recoveries, C$35/t process cost,C$75/t mining cost and C$30/t G&A cost. AuEq g/t = Au g/t + (Cu% x 1.5) (5) Effective date of the resource estimate is Feb 1, 2016. Golden Dawn intends to complete due diligence on the Greenwood Assets within 60 calendar days after the date of signing the LOI. This will involve a multi-disciplinary review by a number of parties on behalf of Golden Dawn. P&E Mining Consultants Inc. of Brampton, Ontario and Vancouver BC, will provide an updated Technical report to be filed within 45 days of this news release to support the updated resource estimates. P&E previously reported on the resources on both properties. APEX Geoscience Ltd. will provide a review of the existing permits, the geological setting and mineralization, the exploration potential and the status of the agreements with local First Nations groups. Mr. Frank Wright, P.Eng. will review the metallurgical process data for the two deposits and make recommendations for improvements and potential expansion of the process plant. Mr. George Sookochoff of Junior Resource Media will provide presentation materials and 3D animations. This work will be coordinated by Dr. Mathew Ball, P.Geo. as Chief Consulting Geologist for Golden Dawn. Golden Dawn is strategically interested in the property for several reasons: the evaluation of the gold-copper mineralization reported to remain in the Lexington mine in the light of the much higher current precious metals prices; the exploration potential on both properties, including possible expansion of the Lexington deposit at depth, possible discovery of additional gold-copper resources at the Golden Crown deposit, and the potential for production from the Golden Crown deposit. In addition, there is a potential synergy with Golden Dawn's current project in the Greenwood area. The Huakan mill facility is located only 10 kilometers by road from the May Mac mine, which is located west of Greenwood, and where Golden Dawn is currently in the advanced exploration stage. Golden Dawn recently completed surface diamond drilling on the Greenwood Precious Metal Project, 5 km west of the City of Greenwood, in the historic Boundary Mining District. The Company plans to resume work on this property with surface drilling once the snow pack has melted, to test further extensions of the Skomac vein system in the May-Mac Mine and the surrounding three historical adits located 1000 meters south of the mine. Underground exploration involving rehabilitation of the May-Mac #7 Adit and construction of underground diamond drill stations is also planned for 2016. Underground drilling will be done to accurately locate the Skomac vein and test the mineralized zones at, above, and below the 7th level of the May Mac mine. This work will identify locations for underground mine development and bulk sampling. If bulk sample material could be processed at the Huakan mill complex there would be no requirement to refurbish the May Mac mill. Technical disclosure in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Eugene Puritch, P.Eng. of P&E Mining Consultants Inc, an Independent Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. An NI 43-101 updated mineral resource estimate technical report will be filed on SEDAR within 45 days of this news release. On behalf of the Board of Directors: GOLDEN DAWN MINERALS INC. "Wolf Wiese" Wolf Wiese Chief Executive Officer For further information, please contact: Corporate Communications 604-221-8936 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. THIS PRESS RELEASE WAS PREPARED BY MANAGEMENT WHO TAKES FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS CONTENTS. NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CERTAIN FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS WHICH INVOLVE KNOWN AND UNKNOWN RISKS, DELAYS, AND UNCERTAINTIES NOT UNDER THE COMPANY'S CONTROL WHICH MAY CAUSE ACTUAL RESULTS, PERFORMANCE OR ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COMPANY TO BE MATERIALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE RESULTS, PERFORMANCE, OR ACHIEVEMENTS IMPLIED BY THESE FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS. WE SEEK SAFE HARBOR. NEWSLETTER Sign up Tick the boxes of the newsletters you would like to receive. Just Drinks Daily News The top stories of the day delivered to you every weekday. Just Drinks Weekly News A weekly roundup of the latest news and analysis, sent every Monday. Just Drinks Magazine The industry's most comprehensive news and information delivered every quarter 240216LOW STOCK By Tom Kathoa The Moratorium or ban on the harvesting and processing of sea cucumber has been extended for the time being. This message was relayed to the people of Bougainville by officials from the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) touring all Maritime Provinces conducting awareness on the product and other marine resources throughout the country. The officials explained that the lifting of the ban hinges on NFA meeting next month. This board meeting could cancel or lift the ban imposed because of the low stock of the product. They explained that the ban was to allow the sea cucumber population to grow to an acceptable number that would warrant the lifting of the ban. Research Officer with NFA, Mr. Sai Ungufa told New Dawn that the number of mature or harvestable sea cucumber is very low. Ends 240216NO DROP OUT ACCEPTANCE By Tom Kathoa The oldest and only girls high school in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Asitavi will only accept students who passed and were selected to continue their educational studies at the school. The schools Headmistress, ELAINE BARIS said the school will not accept other students apart from those selected to continue at her school. The school is asking parents of children not selected not to waste time going to the school because they will not be allowed in. Meanwhile, the school has just been lifted to Secondary School level, with the first enrolment of its first Grade 11 students this year. Today, the school hosted a gathering of parents and guests help raise some money for the schools operations. Ends 250216 KAMUAI CONDOLENCE By Aloysius Laukai The former ACP for Bougainville Police, PAUL KAMUAI has sent his condolences to the family and relatives of the late STEVEN PIRIKA. The late member for South Bougainville, STEVEN PIRIKA passed away in the Philippines last weekend. In giving his condolences, MR KAMUAI said from RABAUL that he was sad to hear of the late members passing. He said that the former member contributed immensely to the re-establishment of Law and Order in South Bougainville by building Police establishments in South Bougainville. MR. KAMUAI said that the Allocating of Police Vehicles in all District Centers of South Bougainville was a morale booster for the hardworking Policemen and women working in the rural areas. He said that his efforts to develop South Bougainville and Bougainville as a whole will not be forgotten for many years. Ends 250216 St Mary Secondary School Asitavi appeals to her Ex Students for any form of donations By Joe. Elijah In conjunction with St Mary Secondary School Asitavi celebrating 60 years of education this year, Head Mistress Ms. Elaine Baris, made a special appeal to all former students to assist the school in any way they can. The only girls Secondary in the region will celebrate its 60th anniversary in September this year 2016. Ms. Baris was presented with some infrastructural Development projects by the ABG Education Department and the Catholic Dioceses officials worth three million kina. She said her school has been upgraded to a level 6 status this year, and she urgently needs three additional staff houses, another 2 x 40 men dormitory, 3 x 6 men ablution blocks and text books for the school library. Ms Baris said while other former students were contributing towards the developing and upkeep of their former school, there is no reason why ex Asitavi students cannot do the same. This is all for the betterment of the people of the region to have a highly educated population. A former ex student from Asitavi High School who requested for anonymity said, all ex Asitavi High School students should organize themselves and come forward with plans on how to assist their former school. Having a school only for the girls is unique and every assistance must be given to it to make their learning environment conducive. Ends Efforts are underway again to expand Medicaid in Nebraska. To date, the Legislature has wisely rejected three previous attempts. Expanding Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, would cost almost $1 billion for Nebraska taxpayers. Last week, Sen. John McCollister of Omaha brought before the Health and Human Services committee LB1032, which would require Nebraska to significantly expand eligibility for Medicaid. To determine the cost of this proposal, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) commissioned an actuarial analysis of LB1032. The analysis found this expansion would add nearly 126,000 people to Medicaid or state support by June 2019, including more than 60,000 individuals who already have private insurance today. This represents a 50 percent enrollment growth in the program. A similar plan in Arkansas has resulted in 40 percent of their state population now being on Medicaid. As outlined in the bill, not only would expanding Medicaid require nearly $1 billion in new state spending in its first 10 years, but those costs could quickly rise to more than $600 million a year in Nebraska state general funds if Congress ever required the state to fund the program at its traditional Medicaid matching rate. Supporters of the bill claim the legislation requires automatic termination of the program should that ever occur. In the past, however, termination of a state-managed entitlement program has resulted in lawsuits and court-ordered reinstatement of state benefits. On two occasions in the early 2000s, the state reduced eligibility for Medicaid in the face of significant budget challenges. These actions resulted in lawsuits that required the state to continue providing services, and the state of Nebraska ultimately reinstated Medicaid for some individuals. The increased government spending for this expansion of an entitlement program will impact generations of Nebraska taxpayers. Today, every American shares in a national debt of more than $19 trillion amounting to nearly $60,000 per person. Our country has an unfortunate history of borrowing from our children to fulfill the promises we do not have the resources to pay for today. We dont do that in Nebraska. This growth in spending would also threaten our ability to meet the commitments to our current Medicaid enrollees, which primarily include children, pregnant women, elderly and people with disabilities. The current effort to expand Medicaid would require the state to buy private health insurance for the vast majority of the newly eligible individuals, which promises better access through broader networks and higher reimbursement than Medicaid. Because of better reimbursement rates, there is a built-in incentive for care providers to serve these able-bodied enrollees rather than our truly vulnerable Nebraskans who rely on Medicaid. The state should not prioritize the needs of able-bodied working-age adults over our truly vulnerable, Medicaid-dependent populations. Supporters of LB1032 claim this is a conservative, or private-market, version of Medicaid expansion. The reality is that this approach will prove costly to taxpayers. The Government Accountability Office has already raised serious concerns over a similar program in Arkansas, estimating that it will cost more than $778 million more than projected in its first few years. Projections are proving true: The Arkansas plan was $137 million, or 61 percent, over budget in its first six months. Additionally, Iowa has already abandoned a similar plan. Taking a gamble on this unproven model isnt worth the risk for Nebraska taxpayers. Its an especially risky gamble when you consider that Medicaid spending in Nebraska has already doubled since 2000from $983 million to more than $2 billion today or from about 12 percent of our budget to nearly 20 percent. Our citizens need tax relief. They are demanding we exercise the highest possible restraint in growing the size and cost of government. We cannot be lured into committing future generations to the cost of expanding Medicaid in return for a fleeting promise of free federal money. I urge you to contact your senator and thank him or her for protecting us from this unreasonable risk or express your concerns that Medicaid expansion is something that Nebraska cannot afford. Pete Ricketts is governor of Nebraska. 250216DONA ON NGOS By Aloysius Laukai The chairman of the Central Bougainville Combined Chairmen, JOHN DONA today called on NGOs to concentrate more on supporting rural communities instead of running Trainings after Trainings. Speaking from Arawa today, MR. DONA said that the people were sick and tired of Trainings but want to see some tangible developments carried out by these Non Government Organizations. MR. DONA said that it was about time NGOs came with some funds and worked with the people on projects that can be sustainable in the future. He also warned NGOs recruiting outside of Bougainville stating that Bougainville has professionals that can be utilized by these Non Government Organizations. Ends * Agreement amending the mutual support agreement of mutual logistic support, supplies, and services between the United States of America and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, signed The 74 Shares Share I recently told you of my admiration for Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the Michigan pediatrician and epidemiologist whose strong research and advocacy was able to finally bring a shining light to the problem of lead in the water supply of Flint. Continuing with a theme, I now bring you the story of Dr. Adriana Melo of Campina Grande, Brazil. Dr. Melo is an OB-GYN who subspecializes in maternal-fetal medicine (MFM), the branch of obstetrics that deals with high-risk pregnancies. She lives and works in northeast Brazil, which is less populous and more economically challenged than the southern, more well-known parts of the country (including Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo). Dr. Melo noted an uptick in the number of fetuses with small heads on ultrasound which is the main tool used by MFM doctors to diagnose babies in utero. How much of an uptick? A rough look at the statistics shows one hundred times the normal rate of babies born with microcephaly, the medical name for the condition. Dr. Melo had a suspicion that the mothers giving birth to these babies all had a common trait: Theyd all told her that theyd had the characteristic rash associated with the mosquito-borne Zika virus. When she tested the mothers for evidence of the Zika virus in their blood, the tests were negative. Not deterred, she convinced public health authorities to test the amniotic fluid of mothers carrying microcephalic fetuses. And indeed, a strong correlation was found between exposure to Zika and microcephaly. Its this story of a doctor in a somewhat out-of-the-way place using her clinical insight to prove a correlation which I find inspiring. Dr. Melo could have been content to merely diagnose and treat these poor mothers and babies, perhaps simply reporting up her findings on the increase in microcephaly. Instead, she decided to push against the inertia of daily medical practice because what she was seeing really bothered her and as a mother of young children herself, she felt the urge to get to the bottom of the new trend. If you follow health news, you no doubt have heard a lot about the Zika virus in the last few weeks, including warnings from both the CDC and the World Health Organization. As is often the case with warnings from these organizations, a certain amount of panic ensues such as women in Latin America feeling that theyre being told not to get pregnant, for example. I want to make it very clear that though there is a strong association between the rise in cases of Zika in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere and a concurrent rise in babies born with microcephaly, we must remember: Correlation does not equal causation. The public health agencies issuing travel and birth control warnings, while sounding dire, are making best guesses for us all to minimize our chances of harm. But drowned out in the response is the fact that we dont yet know for certain that Zika is the cause of microcephaly. That work is ongoing. For example, many experts think something else may be the cause perhaps the use of dangerous pesticides in Brazil (that are banned elsewhere). That also sounds plausible since pesticides are used to control the mosquito vector. Its entirely possible that microcephaly is occurring because of a chemical effect. For now, we must wait and hope that science can show us the true cause of the uptick in microcephaly. I also think its important to remind ourselves of two things about Zika virus: Weve known about it since the 1940s, when it was discovered in Africa so though if feels new, its really not. Secondly, at least for non-pregnant people, it only appears to cause mild flu-like symptoms and be a self-limited illness (not more than a few days at most). My advice: Better to save your anxiety for the never-ending presidential race. John Schumann is an internal medicine physician who blogs at GlassHospital. Image credit: Shutterstock.com A journal of a [former] Peace Corps Volunteer's time in the Warm Heart of Africa intended to inform friends, family, and lonely blog-readers. (Kitco News) - Analysts appear to be looking past last months weak Chinese gold imports, dismissing the data as a simple season anomaly. According to Chinese trade data released last overnight, gold imports from Hong Kong totaled just 17.6 tonnes, down sharply compared to Decembers gold imports of 111.3 tonnes and Novembers imports of 71.6 tonnes. This is the lowest level of gold imports since 2011. Chart courtesy of Capital Economics However some analysts note that imports from Hong Kong are becoming less reliable as an indicator for overall gold demand as the country has started importing gold directly from other countries. Simona Gambarini, commodities economist at Capital Economics noted that last months gold imports from Hong Kong was down 57% year-over-year; but at the same time imports from Switzerland were up 121% compared to January 2014. However, she added that total demand last month was down a total of 20% from last year. That said, the Lunar New Year always distorts Chinas trade data during the first quarter of the year, so we will have to wait a few months for a clearer picture of 2016s trends to emerge, she said. Bernard Dahdah, precious metals analyst at Natixis, is also dismissing the surprise drop in Hong Kong gold imports. He said that the volatility is too high to be a trend. December saw the highest imports in two years and then January sees the lowest imports since 2011. That is just too big a spread to be meaningful, he said. I think this could be a case of over-stalking ahead of the New Year celebration, he said. Dahdah said that he would expect to see Chinas Hong Kong imports to even out for the rest of the year, expecting gold shipments of around 60 and 70 tonnes. However, Dahdah added that one uncertainty could be the gold price. Chinese consumer might end up buying less gold if prices continue to climb. Every time we see major gold imports into China it is when the price drops so we will have to see what is going to happen, he said. Gambarini said that markets should prepare for another potential drop in Februarys gold imports as premiums on gold throughout the country as fallen. However she also noted that this weakness should prove to be temporary. Erica Rannestad, senior analyst at Thomson Reuters GFMS, said that her firm is also seeing evidence of weak gold demand. Jewelry demand did not do well during the [Chinese New Year] and were seeing somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% declines in demand at present from last years levels, she said in an email to Kitco News. By Neils Christensen of Kitco News; nchristensen@kitco.com Follow me on Twitter @neils_C (Kitco News) - While there are still a lot of unknowns and question in the marketplace, it appears that the Shanghai Gold Exchange is preparing to launch a yuan-denominated gold fix within two months. According to media reports, quoting unnamed sources, China is planning to launch its yuan gold fix April 19 and draft rules have been sent to 10 participating banks. However, there has been no official comment from the SGE on the new Chinese gold benchmark. News reports from the summer said that the SGE was planning to have a yuan gold fix up and running by the end of 2015. Although there is no confirmed fixed date analysts are not surprise of an approaching yuan-gold fix as China fulfills its goal to become an international gold-trading hub. Jeffrey Nichols, senior economic advisor for Rosland Capital LLC, said that the fix topic came up during a recent conference in Shanghai earlier in the week. However, he said that no fixed date was actually mentioned. I think the plan is to launch something by the middle of April, he said. But the date of the launch is not actually that important. The fact is, it is coming soon. There is a definite shift in power in the gold market towards China and this is just another part of it. The media reports named the 10 banks that will be the market makers for the fix: ICBC, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, China CITIC Bank, China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank Co., Bank of Ningbo and ANZ (China). If accurate, ANZ would be the only international bank participating in the new auction process. Bernard Dahdah, precious metals analyst at Natixis, said that although the idea of a yuan-gold fix has been talked about since early 2015, he has not heard of any official launch date. However, he added that he is not surprised that China is moving forward with its plans to create its own benchmark. China is the number one gold producer in the world, they are number one in consumption; they clearly have ambitions to be a gold hub, he said. Dahdah added China, even if it does launch a yuan-gold benchmark, will still have a long way to go to overtake the influences London and New York have in the global gold market. He added that he doesnt see a lot of international financial institutions participating in the yuan fix. I think this is going to be more of a domestic market, he said. International companies will be hesitant to join the fix as there are still some legality issues in China and question of how potential disputes would be resolved, Nichols added that not only is China continuing to develop its own benchmark but Chinese banks are also trying to broaden their international reach, which could eventually lead to arbitrage opportunities between the East and the West. I think the creation of a yuan-gold fix will make the world gold market a lot more efficient, he said. By Neils Christensen of Kitco News; nchristensen@kitco.com Follow me on Twitter @neils_C (Kitco News) - The still-new chief executive of Centerra Gold Inc. (TSX: CG) is enthusiastic about taking over a company that he says is on track to double its production to 1 million ounces of gold in half a decade. The Canadian company generated cash flow of $158.4 million in 2015 from its Kumtor mine in the Kyrgyz Republic, which is considered the largest foreign-owned mine in the former Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the company is working to advance projects in Turkey, Mongolia and Canada. While doing so, Centerra had a cash balance sheet of $542 million as of the end of 2014. Scott Perry Chief Executive Officer Scott Perry, who succeeded Ian Atkinson as chief executive officer in November, outlined the status of those projects during an interview with Kitco News Thursday. He spoke the day after Centerra released its fourth-quarter and full-year 2015 earnings report, as well as announcing a quarterly dividend of 4 Canadian cents per share payable on March 24 to shareholders of record on March 10. Weve got three key assets that we are moving forward, Perry said. As these assets come to fruition over the next five years, its going to double the companys profile by which we should be producing 1 million ounces a year. Output in 2015 was 536,920 ounces, although this was down from 620,821 in 2015 due to lower grades at Kumtor and as mining at Boroo in Mongolia winds down. The new projects are in several parts of the world, allowing Centerra to gain more diversification geographically. Probably the most important for the short-term future is Oksut, Perry said. He described this as a conventional open-pit operation in Turkey. Its inexpensive in terms of capital, Perry said, estimating the cost of construction around $221 million. The first gold pour is expected in the third quarter of 2017, and Perry called this a high rate-of-return project of around 43%. Expectations are for annual output to average around 110,000 ounces per year at an all-in sustaining cost of less than $500 per ounce. The estimated mine life is eight years, although Perry added that company officials are cautiously optimistic that exploration efforts will expand the lifespan. Officials are looking forward to advancing the Gatsuurt project in Mongolia, since they can utilize an already-existing mine, Perry explained. Reserves have been depleted 55 miles away at Boroo, but the infrastructure remains in place. Thus, the Boroo mill can be utilized whenever the open-pit Gatsuurt deposit comes on line. Gatsuurt passed one hurdle last month when the Mongolian Parliament passed a resolution setting the state ownership interest. The key thing weve been waiting on is to negotiate our investment and development agreements with the government, Perry explained. Those negotiations are taking place as we speak. Once the agreements are finalized, which should take place this year, thereafter its a very quick 12 to 18 months for us to bring Gatsuurt into production. The company is in the process of finalizing an updated technical report for the project. In the meantime, Perry said, officials have been expecting annual output of some 150,000 ounces per year with an AISC below $1,000. Meanwhile, Perry characterized the Greenstone gold property in Ontario as one of the largest undeveloped open-pit gold mines in Canada. Centerra is a 50-50 joint-venture partner on this project with Premier Gold Mines Ltd. The resource estimate is more than 4 million ounces, Perry noted. A final feasibility study which will include production, capital costs and more is expected somewhere around the middle of 2016, Perry said. This is obviously in a top-tier jurisdiction, added the CEO. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com Maria and Bill McDonald died in Tuesdays house explosion on Soholt Road. SHARE By Chris Henry, chenry@kitsapsun.com PORT ORCHARD The shock of losing Bill and Maria McDonald was still raw for family and friends who gathered Wednesday at St. Gabriel Parish for a commemorative mass. The couple died together Tuesday morning in a massive explosion at their home on Soholt Road. The cause is under investigation. Their remains were positively identified Wednesday, said Deputy Scott Wilson, spokesman for the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office. No criminal activity is suspected in their deaths. The McDonalds, longtime members of the church, were well known in South Kitsap through Maria's work at Kitsap Bank, Bill's involvement with the Knights of Columbus fraternal order, and their affiliation with the Guamanian community. "I couldn't even begin to tell you what nice people they were," said Sharon Lajoie, religious education secretary for the church. "Bill always had a smile on his face, and she was a sweetheart, too." The McDonalds raised their five children in Port Orchard. They opened their home and hearts to many, who at the mass recalled their generosity, community involvement and enjoyment of any celebration large or small. Whether it was Bill cooking for the Knights of Columbus breakfast or Maria baking birthday cakes, one a month for a year, for members of the Guamanian Club of Bremerton & Vicinities, the McDonalds were known as great cooks, who loved to feed others. "We used to have a lot of parties," said Julian Mendiola, a longtime friend. "Everywhere we'd go, Bill and Maria were always there helping." "This is surreal," said Dorothy Mae Frank, echoing a communal sense of disbelief that the McDonalds are gone. Recently, Maria was helping organize a Lenten soup supper at the church, said Frank, who chairs the Guamanian club's board of trustees. Maria was the club's secretary. At a board meeting not long ago, she came laden with a large tray of finger food. "The loss today, I'm sure for you children and grandchildren is huge," Frank said, speaking to the McDonald family during the mass. "But please know that I for one will always remember your mother, your grandmother as a very caring, loving woman. ... One day I hope to grow up to be someone like her." Members of the Knights of Columbus recalled Bill's willingness to serve on fundraisers and other charitable endeavors. Always ready to help, he finished everything he started. He was reliable, cheerful, honest and straight up. Bill McDonald, 70, was an Air Force veteran who served during the Vietnam War, according to the resume on his company's website. Bill began his career in the satellite communications industry in 1972. Since 2008, he's been president and owner of WBMSAT, a company providing consulting services in the industry. Maria McDonald, 65, had worked at Kitsap Bank since 1994, most recently as a senior client service specialist, according to Shannon Childs, the bank's senior vice president and marketing director. Warm and gracious, Maria welcomed customers to the bank with a smile. "I would call it an infectious smile," Childs said. "She had the kind of smile that would make you feel like smiling, too." When Maria didn't show up for work Tuesday, there was worry. When the news came that she and Bill were victims of the explosion heard and felt early that morning throughout Kitsap, the bank closed early. "A lot of our employees were very, very close to her," Childs said. "It was a very, very hard day." Today, there is a heavy sadness, Childs said, but also an outpouring of support from the community. People have stopped by with flowers or just to say they're sorry. "It's just so heartwarming to see the community come together around her and her family," Childs said. At the mass, several people spoke about how close Bill and Maria were to one another, how alike they were in so many ways and how fitting that they would die together. "There's something about them that sets them apart from many others in a special way, that is in the way they connected with everybody here," said Jarrod Roth of the Knights of Columbus. "In a loving way, in a selfless way, in an always friendly, cheerful, uplifting way, it was a very humble way of living their lives. In a way it made them larger than life. ... They've touched all of us. They're gone, but they're not forgotten, because they live on in part of them that we all carry." The McDonalds' children are Gwen McDonald Papenhausen, Bill McDonald, Anjie McDonald Reed, Eric McDonald and Jenni McDonald Collins. The family lived in Guam and California before moving to Port Orchard. LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN Undeveloped land near the existing McCormick Woods neighborhood has been sold to a Kirkland developer, who plans to proceed with building. SHARE By Tad Sooter of the Kitsap Sun PORT ORCHARD A Kirkland-based firm has purchased the remaining vacant land within the McCormick master plan area and will push ahead with development this year. Newly formed McCormick Communities LLC bought more than 1,100 acres from Gem 1 LLC at the end of December for $18 million, according to county assessor's documents. The 33 parcels include the undeveloped sections of McCormick Woods, the expansive McCormick West plat, and McCormick properties north of Old Clifton Road. More than 2,000 lots have been platted for the land, all of which was annexed into Port Orchard in recent years. McCormick Communities shares ownership with Kirkland-based Windward Real Estate Services, a development firm that has worked on a number of master planned communities in Washington. Windward President Jim Tosti said the strengthening real estate market at the south end of the Kitsap Peninsula made the McCormick properties attractive. "We bought the property because we think it's a wonderful opportunity," Tosti said. "We're really pleased with the quality of homes around there." The land previously was held by Gem 1, a corporation formed by McCormick Land Co. and Granite Land Co. McCormick Land President Doug Skrobut did not return a call for comment on the sale. Tosti said McCormick Communities intends to stick with existing plans for the property as much as possible. Site work will begin early this year on Lot D of McCormick Woods, a 73-acre parcel platted for about 170 lots. Tosti said Windward is in discussion with contractors interested in building homes at McCormick. "We're talking to all the major builders in the Northwest," Tosti said. Development on the McCormick properties slowed during the recession, though land-use approvals and annexation plans marched ahead. The city annexed McCormick Woods in 2009, bringing about 1,200 residential parcels and 2,000 residents into the fold. The 600-acre McCormick West properties, approved for 1,500 homes, were annexed in 2011. The sale of the McCormick properties could add to a wave of residential construction in South Kitsap. Quadrant Homes has built and sold most of the houses in its 170-lot McCormick Meadows neighborhood off Feigly Road. Freestone Communities is at work on 250 houses along Anderson Hill Road. Between those two developments is the plat for Sinclair Ridge, which developers hope to scale back to 343 homes. 'Streatery' program to continue in Poulsbo Council members voted 4-3 to extend the program and boost the fees the city charges. SHARE By Rachel Seymour of the Kitsap Sun BAINBRIDGE ISLAND A former Bainbridge Island woman is believed to have bilked more than $66,000 from trust funds throughout the state that she was managing, according to Bainbridge Island Police documents. The 71-year-old woman, who is now believed to be in California, managed a Bainbridge-based company called The Washington Trustee, using her client's trusts to pay for her personal credit card debit and other items, including a roof for her house. A letter about the thefts was written to the Kitsap County Prosecutor's Office in 2010, by Tom O'Brien, executive director of Guardianship Services of Seattle. The Prosecutor's Office handed it over to Bainbridge Island Police to investigate. The investigation's report and information has now been turned back over to the Prosecutor's Office for review, recommending first-degree theft charges. SHARE Lucy Johnson Silverdale, WA Sept. 25, 1924 to Dec. 04, 2015 Lucy Johnson, formerly Lucy Grey Black, died on Dec. 4, 2015, age 91. Born in Philadelphia, she attended local schools and graduated from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts in 1943 with a B.A. in English. Her interest in literature and the arts led her to the publishing industry in New York City. Working as a publicist for Alfred A. Knopf, in 1948 she met and married W. Pyke Johnson Jr. This began a 57-year marriage and lifelong partnership in letters, social activism and community involvement, and seeking the warmth and goodness in everyone they met. Lucy and Pyke settled in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. Lucy stopped full-time work for wages after the birth of their twin sons. Through the local Quaker meeting she participated in the Religious Society of Friends; she was a longtime Democratic Party stalwart; she volunteered in local public schools and became both a para-educator and elected school board member; she served on Connecticuts Permanent Committee on the Status of Women and with Greenwich Fair Housing; she found time to travel the USA and the world, and always returned with excellent photographs and fine collections of art and beads for jewelry making. In 2003, the Johnsons moved to Silverdale, Washington to live near relatives. Lucy dove right in to the same activities and rebuilt a large social network of friends, neighbors, and fellow activists. Through the death of her husband in 2005 and years of declining health and mobility, Lucy kept her keen intellect and independence. She was seeing plays, volunteering, managing her own affairs, and enjoying her great-grandson right up to the very end. Lucy Johnson is survived by her brother, Macknight Black of Oakton, Virginia; sons, Mack and Tom; a large number of relatives, and an infinite circle of kindred spirits who loved her and miss her deeply. A memorial celebration will be held at Country Meadows Apartments, 12169 Country Meadows Lane NW, Silverdale, WA 98383 at 1:30 p.m. on March 19, 2016. Memorial donations may be made to the American Friends Service Committee at afsc.org. Honda employees polish vehicles while setting up for the 2016 Knoxville News Sentinel Auto Show at the Knoxville Convention Center on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL) SHARE Adam Foster, AutoNation Honda new car manager, right, directs vehicles while setting up for the 2016 Knoxville News Sentinel Auto Show at the Knoxville Convention Center on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL) Adrian Pearce, advertising promotions manager, left, directs vehicles while helping set up for the 2016 Knoxville News Sentinel Auto Show at the Knoxville Convention Center on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL) Workers install signage for the 2016 Knoxville News Sentinel Auto Show at the Knoxville Convention Center on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL) Honda employees polish vehicles while setting up for the 2016 Knoxville News Sentinel Auto Show at the Knoxville Convention Center on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL) By G. Chambers Williams Iii, chambers.williams@knoxvillebiz.com The auto show is back in town. This Friday through Sunday, more than 200 new cars, trucks, SUVs and crossovers will be on display at the 28th annual News Sentinel Auto Show at the Knoxville Convention Center, representing 23 vehicle brands. The show will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and from noon until 6 p.m. on Sunday. "The coolest thing about it is that people can see all of these cars in one place, under one roof, when otherwise it could take you days going all over town to see them," said Mike Hatmaker, a sales manager with Jim Cogdill Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram in Knoxville, one of the participating dealers. About 120,000 square feet of floor space will be covered with new vehicles for show visitors to see, and there will even be an opportunity for licensed drivers over 18 to test some of Toyota's new vehicles, such as the Camry, Highlander, Prius and Tacoma, outside the Convention Center, said show coordinator Nicole Taylor. "It's going to be a great show this year," Taylor said. "Last year, we had to survive the ice storm, but the weather looks to be much better this time. It's also the first year Toyota has done the ride and drive event." Most of the cars, trucks and sport utilities on the market for model year 2016 will be on display at the show, along with a few 2017 models that aren't even available at dealerships yet, Taylor said. The participating brands are BMW, Mini, Subaru, Cadillac, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Ford, Lincoln, Fiat, Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, Honda, Hyundai, Lexus, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Smart, Nissan, Toyota and Scion. The Knoxville Electric Vehicle Association also will have a booth, showing off a Tesla electric car and a kit-built custom electric vehicle, Taylor said. Booths will also be set up to represent a variety of local businesses, including home improvement, chiropractic, travel, storage and health care. "It's just a great way to get all of our cars out there and for a different, diverse group to come and see our automobiles," said Gary Hughes, general sales manager at Lexus of Knoxville. "They can see the luxury lines along with all of the other brands collectively in one building." And for visitors, one of the best features is that no sales are allowed on the show floor, so they can browse the vehicles at their leisure, Hughes noted. "Based on the environment, there is no sales pressure," he said. "We do staff our area just to provide product knowledge and answer consumer questions, but no one will be trying to sell anything. It's a happy place to gather information." Manufacturers' representatives will be on hand at many of the booths to provide product information, Taylor said. There will also be some prizes for show visitors, including a $5,000 cash grand prize, Taylor said. Admission to the show is $8, but kids 12 and under are admitted free all weekend. Also, people 65 or older can get in free on Friday; students with a valid school ID can get in for no charge on Saturday; and military personnel with ID can get in free on Sunday. The Global Outlook Cafe, located at 716 20th Street, offers a safe space for UT students to worship in creative ways. If they have a gift of worship dance, of playing an instrument, novice or professional, they need a place to share this experience with others in an open-mike and open-floor organized venue, says co-founder Tim James of South Knoxville. SHARE A South Knoxville couple has opened a Christian coffeehouse just off the University of Tennessee campus, as both a ministry to college students, particularly international ones, and a space to hold special events. "The Global Outlook Cafe is open per specified events and venues," explains Tim James, who co-founded the coffeehouse with his wife, Belle James, founder and artistic minister of Arts of Faith International. "It's not a business, not a church, but rather a safe venue for creative meeting and unity-building ventures that help students and glorify God." Throughout the week, the Global Outlook Cafe, located above Stefano's Pizza at 20th Street and Cumberland Avenue, hosts a Greek sorority meeting on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, a campus outreach on Thursdays and, on Fridays, a ministry that focuses on helping families with loved ones in prison. Weekends bring an opportunity to host special events such as a Dec. 26 Kwanzaa celebration that was organized by Felecia Outsey's Divine Urban Expressions dance team. "We like the idea, 'Globalizing the Locals, and Localizing the Globals,' and finding a new place to truly belong and network no matter how long or short we stay," says Tim James. "I have seen global Christians around the world living some of the most blessed, exciting lives of true love and service, even giving their lives helping others, and nothing can substitute for the unspeakable joy of such a life lived well. We hope people come, explore and discover something new they have never seen before, a life blessing spoken of in Ezra 9:8-9." This weekend, the Global Outlook Cafe will host a three-day prayer and worship event that is free and open to the public. Christian churches of all denominations, worship teams, intercessory prayer groups, musicians, bands and other performing artists are invited to help lead participants in prayer, worship, music, Christian dance and other forms of creative artistic worship. The focus of the event, which will begin at 3 p.m. Friday and conclude with a prayer breakfast Sunday morning, is praying around the clock for revival in America and around the world. Participants will include Divine Urban Expressions dance team, various UT student organizations, and worship and prayer teams representing many cultures and ethnicities. Belle James will lead musical prayers using instruments and voice. "The problems facing our country going forward seem unsurmountable," says Dr. Ruth Ann Manning, co-coordinator of the event with Sandra Fugate. "Without revival and reformation, America will be doomed." Manning says she was inspired to organize this event by 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." "We need to pray for revival in America before it's too late," Tim James agrees. "With the diversity of worship and prayer teams, musicians and other artists that will lead us during this event, we hope to attract many UT students, especially international students, to attend." Participants may feel free to stay for a limited time or spend the entire weekend. For more information or to schedule a time to lead in prayer, worship, music, Christian dance or other forms of creative artistic worship visit www.TennesseePrayforAmerica.org or find Tennessee Pray for America on Facebook. A flier for this weekend's event also may be downloaded from the website, Belle James says, and shared with others. The site lists other upcoming events as well, but worship goes beyond these special times, Tim James stresses. "Worship is not an event; it's a lifestyle, an attitude of a 'cleansed heart,'" he says. "So often hearts become scarred, calloused, in order to protect them from further pain, and they cannot feel the love of God or even of others. True worship brings healing and true joy, a reviving of the spirit, a strength of courage to choose life, to care again, to slow down and not be busy with nonessentials. Worship opens the door to listen so the Holy Spirit can speak into your spirit for yourself and for the sake of others." Michaella (Bates) Keilen poses with her husband, Brandon Keilen, during their honeymoon in Montana and Wyoming. SHARE By Maggie Jones of the Knoxville News Sentinel Life has been full of changes lately for Michaella (Bates) Keilen, the eldest daughter of Rocky Top-based mega-family the Bates, who have 19 children. Keilen had to help in planning her wedding, got married in Knoxville at Wallace Memorial Baptist Church on Aug. 15, 2015, went on a honeymoon in Montana and Wyoming and traded East Tennessee for Illinois when she moved to Chicago for her husband Brandon's job as a videographer for the Institute in Basic Life Principles. Along with all of it being documented on her and her family's reality show, "Bringing Up Bates" (9 p.m. Thursdays on the UP Network). Keilen and Brandon's wedding, honeymoon and new life in Chicago have provided several storylines for the show's current season. Balancing all of these changes while being on "Bringing Up Bates" at the same time sounds stressful, but Keilen says that the show's film crew has become like family, and she doesn't really pay much that much attention when they are around. Keilen said she hopes people can be blessed and encouraged from watching the show. "I guess every big event that happens at home tends to be ... the main center of attention," she said. "It was kind of neat just being able to share everything that we were going through with people who sent comments and letters and notes and messages on Instagram. It was really fun to be able to share that and hopefully encourage people and be a blessing as they're going through maybe the same things we are. "I hope it can be a blessing because, yeah, it is challenging sometimes, everything that happens, and just putting it all together and keeping God the center focus and still enjoying family time in the midst of the business and hopefully it can be an inspiration." Living in an small apartment right outside the city of Chicago has been a transition, according to Keilen, who previously lived with her parents and most of her siblings. She said her home is a lot quieter in Chicago without a bunch of kids running around, but she baby-sits often so things don't get too quiet. "It's definitely different from being at home at a farm in the mountains, but I'm loving it," she said. "It's definitely an adjustment. The cold's very new, but I love married life. We've found a church that we just love, and it's been great." While her husband works, Keilen stays busy by spending a lot of time studying and taking online classes from Roane State to finish up her degree in liberal arts with a minor in health science. She isn't sure what she wants to do with her degree yet. "I loved to volunteer on the ambulance back home," she said. "I love the medical field, helping out in nursing homes and children's hospitals ... right now I'm just focusing on finishing." Several members of the Bates family have visited Keilen and Brandon to help them decorate their apartment. They have made the trip back to Rocky Top for her brother Zachary Bates' police academy graduation, and the Bates' Valentine's Day Banquet, where she found out her younger sister, Erin (Bates) Paine, is pregnant with baby No. 2. Zachary Bates' wife, Whitney, is also pregnant, and both babies are due in the summer. "I wish I could tell you that we had good news, but we don't yet," laughed Keilen, referring to her sister and sister-in-law's pregnancies. "So Whitney and Erin are both expecting ... and other than that, Carlin graduates in April, but no other baby news ... it's definitely an exciting family to have. I love them more than anything." SHARE Eric Mikels By News Sentinel Staff NASHVILLE The state has charged a Knox County man with fraudulently obtaining TennCare benefits by falsely claiming a child as a dependent. The state Office of Inspector General on Wednesday announced the arrest of Eric Scott Mikels, 47, of Knoxville. He is charged with TennCare fraud and theft of services over $10,000. An indictment says Mikels obtained TennCare health care insurance by claiming a minor child lived with him; without a dependent, he would not have been eligible for TennCare. TennCare fraud is a Class E felony carrying a sentence of up to two years in prison. Theft of services over $10,000 is a Class C felony punishable by up to six years in prison. To date, more than 2,542 people have been charged with TennCare fraud. To report suspected TennCare fraud, call 1-800-433-3982 or visit www.tn.gov/tnoig/ and follow the prompts that read "Report TennCare Fraud." MaKayla Dyer, 8, killed by a shotgun blast Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015, in White Pine. An 11-year-old boy is charged with her murder. (GOFUNDME.COM) By Richard Locker, locker@knoxnews.com NASHVILLE Democratic lawmakers unveiled a bill Thursday to deter gun owners from leaving loaded guns accessible to children and named it "MaKayla's Law" after the 8-year-old Jefferson County girl killed by an 11-year-old neighbor with his father's shotgun. MaKayla Dyer's mother, Tasha Patterson of White Pine, and grandfather, Robbie Huddleston of Illinois, agreed to have MaKayla's name on the bill and support the effort, said Beth Joslin Roth, policy director for the Safe Tennessee Project, which is helping push the bill. See also: "MaKayla's Law" If approved, the bill would make it a violation for a person to "recklessly place, leave or store in plain view and readily accessible to a child under 13 if the gun is left unattended," not under the owner's control, and either contains ammunition or ammunition is in the immediate vicinity unless the gun has a trigger lock or similar device or is in a locked container or cabinet accessible only by the owner or the owner's spouse. A violation would be: A class A misdemeanor if a child under 13 gets the gun under those circumstances but does not fire it or permit another to fire it. A class E felony if the child fires the gun or permits another to and the discharge causes bodily injury to the child or another. A Class C felony if the discharge results in the death of the child or another. Senate Bill 2294/House Bill 2058 was filed by state Sen. Sara Kyle, D-Memphis, and state Rep. Sherry Jones, D-Nashville, and is set for review Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee and Wednesday in the House Civil Justice Subcommittee. A Jefferson County Juvenile Court judge found Benny Tiller, 11, delinquent by reason of first-degree murder in MaKayla's Oct. 3 death and ordered him held in state custody until age 19. No one else has been charged. Law enforcement officials say the girl was killed by a shotgun blast to her chest after the boy got his father's 12-gauge shotgun in their mobile home near White Pine and fired it through a window. MaKayla was standing outside with two other girls who were not hit. Citing figures compiled by Safe Tennessee Project, Kyle said last year in Tennessee there were at least 25 shootings reported involving children, "resulting in 10 tragic, preventable deaths. Among them was MaKayla Dyer, who was shot and killed by an 11-year-old boy, her neighbor. "An analysis of these tragic deaths shows that they were 100 percent preventable had the guns been stored safely. Will passing this bill prevent all these tragedies? Of course not. But this law will mean more when we hold parents responsible and they think about how they store their guns and the consequences of leaving them available so children have access. "The point is not to fill our prisons with irresponsible parents, just like our DUI laws are not to fill prisons with irresponsible drinkers. It's a deterrent, a criminal consequence to make a parent or others to think twice leaving their guns out accessible to children that could possibly lead to a deadly mistake." Jones cited the January death of a 7-year-old boy in Crossville when four children were left in a car outside a cellphone store while adults paid a bill. One child found a pistol in the car and accidentally fired it. "And in Davidson County, a 5-year-old boy was shot in the head after his father left a loaded handgun on the coffee table," Jones said. "Just before the shooting, they had watched their dad use the laser sight and play with the gun with the family cat. Safe storage would have saved those lives." She said similar laws have passed in 27 states. "We believe it is time for criminal penalty for reckless storage," Jones said. "We don't have it now." Roth said Tennessee ranks ninth among states for accidental shootings, with 21 so far this year. "In all of 2015, we logged 52. We are not off to a good start," she said. "Last year 10 Tennessee children died as a result of irresponsible gun storage. Another 14 were injured, some in serious life-changing ways." Roth cited safe-storage guidelines she said were issued by the National Rifle Association and other groups. "This bill is not in any way an anti-gun bill. This bill is a pro-responsible gun ownership bill. Responsible gun owners support this type of legislation," she said. The bill also requires licensed gun retailers to post signs in 2017 warning it is a criminal offense to leave a loaded gun accessible to children younger than 13. SHARE The Douglas Henry State Museum Commission is barreling toward a possible violation of the state's Open Meetings Act, which would be an affront to all Tennessee citizens. The commission, which governs the Tennessee State Museum, has scheduled a private eight-hour workshop for March 28 to discuss the selection of a new museum executive director to eventually succeed Lois Riggins-Ezzell. Commission member and former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, never one to shy away from a policy fight, objected to plans to close the meeting to the public in an exchange of emails with Tom Smith, who heads the commission's committee on succession planning. Ashe has been critical of Riggins-Ezzell's management of the museum, but the purpose of the workshop is to discuss the process of hiring her replacement when she retires. If the public is barred from access, the meeting would appear to violate the Open Meetings Act, also known as the sunshine law. The statute stipulates that meetings of public policy-making boards be open to the public. There are exceptions to the law panels may meet in private to discuss ongoing lawsuits with counsel, for example but meetings to discuss personnel matters are not among them. Ashe recently was appointed to the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government's board of directors, making him an appropriate champion for greater sunshine on the commission. The News Sentinel is a member of the coalition, which is composed of news organizations and other advocates for government transparency. The Tennessee Legislature created the Museum Commission to run the Tennessee State Museum, which is in the process of raising funds to build a new home on the Capitol grounds in Nashville. Lawmakers have allocated $120 million of taxpayer money toward construction of the new facility scheduled to open in December 2018 with the board overseeing the construction process. The purpose of the Museum Commission workshop is to "engage in an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as it relates to staff talent. All commissioners have been invited to relay and analyze the brutal facts of the talent pool and engage in a competency sort," according to an email sent to members by Danielle Whitworth Barnes, deputy commissioner and general counsel to the state Department of Human Resources. Smith said in his email that there would be no deliberation at the workshop, though "feedback is encouraged and I assume will be confidential." Discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the "talent pool" for the executive director's position is, in fact, deliberating toward a decision on Riggins-Ezzell's replacement, even if no votes are taken at the workshop. Eight hours of kicking around possibilities for future action can be interpreted only as a deliberative meeting; drawing any other conclusion strains credulity. Even if a legal rationale can be found, Smith should heed Ashe's advice to open the meeting to the public. The museum belongs to the people, and its governing board must be accountable to the citizens of Tennessee. SHARE As a co-owner of the Little River Trading Co., I want to thank U.S. Rep. Phil Roe for investing in our state and my company's future by introducing a House companion to Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker's Tennessee Wilderness Act. The bill would preserve areas within the Cherokee National Forest as wilderness. Since my business depends on people being able to hike, camp, climb and paddle, it is good to know that Roe understands the value of protecting East Tennessee's big backyard. Without legislation to safeguard wilderness within the Cherokee, we could lose one of the state's greatest assets. This includes our scenic views, clean water, huge trees and abundant wildlife that people travel across the country to see. The Cherokee National Forest is brimming with life and outdoor recreation opportunities. The forest is home to brook trout, black bear, bobcat, white-tail deer, turkey and migratory birds. It is also loved by hikers and bikers, hunters and anglers, and climbers and birdwatchers. Whether folks live in East Tennessee or are just here for a visit, people come to stores like mine before they venture out into the forest. Outdoor recreation is big business in Tennessee, but don't just take my word for it. According to the Outdoor Industry Association, outdoor recreation in Tennessee generates $8.2 billion in consumer spending each year and supports 83,000 direct jobs. It is good to know that Roe knows that protecting the Cherokee National Forest is good for business. He should be applauded for standing up for Tennessee's economy and all of our employees who support it. Congress should act quickly to pass this important bill. Greg Rowe, Maryville 10:52 a.m. February 25, 2016 Corker Urges U.S. Leadership to End Modern Day Slavery WASHINGTON In a hearing on Wednesday, February 24, Senator Bob Corker urged the U.S. to assume a greater leadership role in ending modern day slavery. The hearing coincided with END IT day which helps shine a light on slavery and human trafficking. A former human trafficking captive, Evelyn Chumbow, testified about her experience as a child. When Chumbow was 10 years old, she was trafficked from Cameroon to Silver Spring, Maryland. She told about how she was abused by her adoptive family and about her experiences in forced labor captivity. Chumbow eventually escaped. She earned a degree and was later able to support other victims. Traffickers were able to enslave her by convincing her parents that she would receive a better education in the United States. At the hearing, Chumbow emphasized education and awareness of human trafficking as key to preventing vulnerable populations from succumbing to these false promises. Many victims come from impoverished areas where there is little to no opportunity for advancement, Chumbow said. They have a skewed reality that a foreign country will offer more opportunity, however many find themselves enslaved. Additionally, those that have even escaped from their situation find themselves re-victimized due to lack of job opportunities. Today with this hearing we are marking the annual effort to draw attention to these horrific circumstances inflicted on girls and boys, women and men, said Corker. End It Day is an opportunity for us to say enough is enough. More importantly, its a day for us to not just understand what is happening but to do something about it. Cindy McCain, co-chair of the Human Trafficking Advisory Council at The McCain Institute, stated There are increasing numbers of people dedicating their lives to fighting trafficking every day and some NGOs that do outstanding work, said McCain. The McCain Institute has had the honor of partnering with THORN, Digital Defenders of Children, to help get their innovative Spotlight tool into the hands of over 2,000 police departments in 49 states. THORNs work on the pervasive use of the internet to buy and sell human beings for sex, using the brightest minds in technology to disrupt trafficking networks, and save victims one at a time is making a difference. The global battle against human trafficking has many shifting fronts and there are a variety of weapons, like the Spotlight tool, available to combat it. Free the Slaves Executive Director Maurice Middleberg presented his organizations successful Community Based Abolition Model that involves four primary components: (1) educating and mobilizing vulnerable communities; (2) enhancing legal protections; (3) increasing access to basic social and economic services; (4) and liberating and reintegrating slaves. Middleberg said With proven methods of intervention available, the primary challenge facing the anti-slavery movement, is the need to bring these and other global efforts to scale, which demands a relatively modest investment in additional resources and U.S. and global leadership to raise the issue on the international agenda. Dedicating just two-cents for every dollar earned annually by traffickers, Middleberg suggested, would substantially improve international assistance for anti-slavery groups. We must match the nobility of our intentions and words with the actions and resources that will change the lives of millions. There is no better place than the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to create a political environment conducive to bold action. On February 24, 2015, Senator Corker introduced bold, bipartisan legislation known as The End Modern Slavery Initiative Act, which will help eliminate slavery and human trafficking worldwide. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously passed the legislation last year. In December 2015, the Senate passed the fiscal year 2016 omnibus appropriations bill, which included funding for the initiative. It is time for us to work together to move this bipartisan piece of legislation to passage and enactment, Corker added. Those interested in Corkers efforts to end modern slavery can join the conversation online using the hashtags #EndSlaveryAct and #EndItMovement. They also can show support by posting a photo of themselves holding up their hand marked with a red X. Published February 25, 2016 Shoppers tour Shinsegae's department store in southern Seoul during a pre-opening event, Thursday. The flagship store today will officially open an expanded, renovated area housing shops selling foreign luxury goods and premium fashion and household items. / Yonhap By Lee Hyo-sik Shinsegae has completed the renewal and expansion of its flagship department store in southern Seoul, the first of its six core projects this year to attract more consumers seeking a premium shopping experience. The day before the grand opening today, the country's third-largest department store operator held a media event to showcase what the store at Seoul Express Bus Terminal offers. "We have no doubt that our renewed and expanded store in Southern Seoul will become a shopping landmark in the capital," said Jang Jae-young, CEO of Shinsegae's department store business. "The flagship store will soon become Korea's top integrated shopping center in terms of sales, brands and product lineups. It will provide comprehensive lifestyle products for today's consumers." Shinsegae began constructing the additional structure at its southern Seoul location in September 2014. The expanded space will house four "specialized" showrooms named Grand Shoe, Contemporary Archive, Shinsegae Home and Little Shinsegae. The department store has also renewed its underground levels, attracting premium retailers offering a wide range of consumer products. Grand Shoe consists of 150 shoe brands, while Contemporary Archive offers fashion and other lifestyle products. Shinsegae Home deals with kitchenware and other household times and Little Shinsegae offers premium products and services for newborns and their mothers. "Through our renewal and expansion work, the store's floor space was extended to 86,500 square meters from the previous 55,500 square meters, bigger than Lotte Department Store in downtown Seoul," Jang said. "The department store now has 1,000 brands, up from the previous 650. To become Korea's top department store, we will continue to upgrade facilities and introduce new brands." Shinsegae also plans to complete the expansion of its Centum City Mall in Busan next month. Throughout the year, it plans to open three new stores in Daegu and Gimhae in South Gyeongsang Province and Hanam in Gyeonggi Province. It will open a duty free shop at its downtown Seoul store in May. "Currently, we are the country's third-largest department store chain in terms of sales, after Lotte and Hyundai, but if everything goes as planned, we will surpass Hyundai by the end of the year," the CEO said. "Our expanded southern Seoul store is expected to earn 1.7 trillion won in sales this year, up from last year's 1.3 trillion won. In 2019, the figure is expected to reach 2 trillion won, despite the continued sluggish consumer spending." An aerial rendering of Samsung Raemian Guui Park Suites in Gwangjin-gu, eastern Seoul. / Courtesy of Samsung C&T By Jhoo Dong-chan New mid- and small-sized apartments with easy access to downtown Seoul and Gangnam will soon be on the property market. In the Guui area of Gwangjin-gu, eastern Seoul, Samsung C&T demolished older housing there and is now building the Raemian Guui Park Suite. The new complex will accommodate a total of 854 households and apartments are already being sold. The apartment complex will consist of 12 buildings, each with three floors of parking below ground and 10 to 23 floors of apartments above ground, said a Samsung C&T official on Thursday. A total of 352 apartments are reserved for previous residents of the area before urban renewal. Ninety percent of the apartments are smaller than 84 square meters and are specially designed to attract young and small families. The greatest advantage of the apartment complex is its location. It's only a 10 minute walk to Achasan Station, Seoul Subway Line 5. Surrounded by major traffic routes including Cheonho Bridge, Olympic Bridge and Jayang-ro, the complex also provides easy access to downtown Seoul and the Gangnam area. A number of schools including Kyungbok Elementary, Gwangjang Middle and Gwangnam High are all located within one kilometer of the apartments as well as many amenities such as Star City Mall, Lotte Department Store, E-Mart and Gangbyun Bus Terminal. "The apartment is drawing huge attention from home seekers for the convenience of the area featuring good schools, leisure activities and good transportation," said a Samsung C&T official. Samsung C&T opened a "Welcome Lounge" for prospective customers where housing consultants explain the apartment's characteristics and help them complete a housing contract. The Welcome Lounge is located on the third floor of the Grace Building, 478 Achasan-ro in Gwangjin-gu, eastern Seoul, and is open from 10 a.m. through 6 p.m. every day. A model apartment of the Raemian Guui Park Suite will be set up inside the Munjeong Raemian Apartment Complex in Songpa-gu, southern Seoul, by the end of February. And residents will be able to move into their apartments beginning in early 2018. A bowl of spring salad with horse meat tataki / Courtesy of Hyatt Regency Jeju By Kim Se-jeong If you are curious about horse meat or wanting to go to Jeju Island for an authentic vacation experience, Hyatt Regency Jeju is the place to be. The hotel's Terrace Cafe is launching a horse meat menu on March 1. The menu includes spring salad with horse meat tataki, braised horse rib with abalone, carrot and ginseng, bibimbap with horse meat and spring vegetables and spaghetti with horse meatballs. "It's a widely-held perception that horse meat is tough and not so juicy," Jun Kwan-soo, the hotel's head chef, said. "But, that's not completely true. I am hoping my food will ultimately change people's perceptions." The chef procures the meat from the Jeju local government, which operates a small horse shelter. At the shelter, which is part of the government's efforts to expand the horse business, the horses are fed, slaughtered and packaged for sale. Jeju is one of the few places with horses on the entire Korean peninsula, and the islanders have long been eating horse meat. History shows that horse meat from Jeju was first served at the king's dinner in 1276 under Wang Geo. The island is also home to two breeds of horses. With the new western breed horses, the total number of horses on the island is now almost 1,500. Most of the horses are raised for racing and some for tourism. Riding horses is one of the must-do activities in Jeju Island. The horses that are too fat, old or injured are sent to the shelter. "What we do is feed them with animal stock for about six months so that their muscles will be tender," Lee Wan-hee from local government said. He also said he is confident with the meat's unquestionable quality. A horse meat meal starts at 66,000 won, including tax and service charges. For more information and reservations, call (064) 733-1234 or visit jeju.regency.hyatt.com. By Jun Ji-hye An agreement between the U.S. and China on a draft U.N. resolution for sanctions against North Korea is expected to affect talks between Seoul and Washington on the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here, officials and analysts said Thursday. Depending on the Washington-Beijing deal, South Korea and the U.S. may delay indefinitely or cancel their THAAD talks, although their militaries are eager to start them as soon as possible, they said. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Washington, "We have made it very clear that we are not hungry or anxious to deploy THAAD," and that, "If we can get to denuclearization, there is no need to deploy THAAD." Wang also said that "important progress" was made on a new U.N. resolution targeting the North's nuclear weapons program during his talks with Kerry, and that an agreement on the resolution would be possible "in the near future." Their remarks suggest that the two powers apparently made a "big deal" in Washington Beijing is believed to have demanded that Washington withdraw its plan to deploy the THAAD on the Korean Peninsula in return for its cooperation on producing a U.N. resolution containing stronger and more effective sanctions against Pyongyang. Kerry's remark is seen as leaving open the possibility for the U.S. to reverse its decision to deploy THAAD on the peninsula in an effort to encourage China to play a greater role in reining in the repressive state, given that Beijing is one of five veto-holding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), and the main provider of food and fuel aid to the impoverished North. China has long been opposed to the deployment of a THAAD battery on the peninsula, out of concerns that its radar could be used to spy on Beijing's military activities. The country is also apparently concerned that the deployment would expand American influence within Northeast Asia. Militaries of the U.S. and South Korea have said that the THAAD is necessary on the peninsula to better deter threats from the North, and their working-level talks on deployment of the system are set to begin at the earliest possible date. But the allies abruptly delayed the signing of a terms of reference for the Joint Working Group (JWG) on the THAAD deployment just hours before a ceremony, Tuesday, when Wang visited the United States for talks with Kerry. The JWG was supposed to hold its first meeting to discuss details of the deployment including possible locations after the signing. At the time, the Ministry of National Defense said the signing would be put off by one or two days, but at the time of writing, the ministry has still failed to clarify if this would take place. The government is still sticking to the necessity of THAAD deployment despite concerns over worsening relations with China, Seoul's No. 1 trading partner. It stressed that whether to host a THAAD battery is a sovereign right of South Korea, and the issue is not linked with Beijing's participation in the U.N. sanctions. "The signing is being delayed as communication between the U.S. government and the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) is still ongoing," deputy ministry spokesman Col. Na Seng-yong said at a regular briefing, Thursday. "The JWG will start its operations soon, once the terms of reference are signed." For his part, the USFK Commander Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti told the House Armed Services Committee, Wednesday, that the allies are expected to hold the first meeting of the JWG "within a week." He also noted that it will take some time to deploy the THAAD system to South Korea because the working group has to determine the right location and other details. "THAAD is a complex system. It's going to take some time for us to find the right location because where you locate it makes a difference on how effective it is," he said. Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye By Kang Seung-woo United Nations (U.N.) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would still beat any other candidate in next year's presidential election, according to the latest poll. The poll, by the Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times, shows Ban enjoys high popularity among Korean voters as a potential candidate although he has never showed any public interest in running for the presidency. The survey found that Ban was a runaway leader with 21.5 percent. The former foreign minister is trailed by Rep. Moon Jae-in, a former chairman of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, with 12.6 percent and ruling Saenuri Party Chairman Rep. Kim Moo-sung with 7.9 percent. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and Ahn Cheol-soo, leader of the People's Party, received 7.4 percent and 4.8 percent support, respectively. Ban, 71, had balanced support from all age groups ranging from 17.2 percent among voters in their 40s to 29.8 percent among those in their 50s. He also drew 29.2 percent approval from Saenuri Party supporters and 19.7 from People's Party supporters. The poll is the latest indicator that Ban is the most favored potential candidate for the 2017 presidential election. Since late 2014, Ban has emerged as favorite among a field of potential candidates who might stand during the next presidential election. His U.N. tenure is scheduled to end in December this year. However, in contrast to his repeated denials, Ban recently sparked further speculation that he may seek to be elected the Korean president. Late last year, he sought to visit North Korea, which was seen as the beginning of his election campaign. Also, during President Park Geun-hye's trip to U.N. headquarters in September, Ban had several private talks with her, prompting speculation that she may endorse him if he stands for the presidency. Last month, Ban also met former Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, President Park's close aide, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Opposition parties disappointing At the same time, the poll revealed that Korean voters intend to express their displeasure with the opposition's lackluster legislative activities more than with President Park's performance in the April 13 general election. According to the poll, 46.6 percent of respondents said the opposition party should be judged for its non-cooperation with the government's pursuit of state policies, compared with 41.2 percent who claimed the government should be judged on its poor administration of state affairs. So far, Park's repeated calls on the public to punish the National Assembly's negligence on passing economy-related bills seem to be working, the survey concluded. Park entered the fourth year of her five-year single-term presidency, Thursday, and nearly half of Koreans believed that she handled state affairs well, the poll added. A total of 48.5 five percent of respondents approved of Park's job performance over the past three years, with 45.8 percent disapproving. The result, in which approval is higher than disapproval, is rare for Korean presidents, with two years remaining in their terms. The ratings for Park's predecessor Lee Myung-bak at the end of his third year were 44.7 percent in favor to 53.6 percent against. A total of 50.4 percent of respondents approved of the possible deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area system here to combat increased North Korean threats; while 55.5 percent said it was a good decision to shut down the Gaeseong Industrial Park in response to Pyongyang's recent nuclear test and rocket launch. One thousand adults were surveyed on Sunday and Monday, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. By Chung Ah-young The Constitutional Court has ruled that the government's order to ban English immersion programs for first and second graders in private elementary schools is constitutional. The court ruled unanimously on Thursday that the ban could be seen as the proper means of preventing the negative impact of excessive private tutoring. Parents of students at Younghoon Elementary School, a high-profile private school, filed a petition in December 2013 asking the court to review the constitutionality of the ban. Under the English immersion curriculum, the school taught most subjects, such as mathematics and science, in English. "The government's instruction was designed to prevent parents' excessive zeal over private education for English so that young children could grow as well-rounded people," the court said. The court said that because English was included in the elementary education curriculum in 1995, elementary schools did not teach English to first and second graders. "Such rules are based on experts' opinions that early English education can hamper young children from developing Korean language skills," the court said. The court also said that the autonomous curricula of private schools were allowed only within the government's educational policy. "If private schools violate this, it will bring inequality of education and spur social polarization," it said. The case goes back to 2013 when the Ministry of Education clashed with parents of students at private elementary schools after announcing the ban in December 2012. Under the ban, the schools were required to limit English courses to two hours a week for third and fourth graders and three hours for fifth and sixth graders, and none for first and second graders. Parents of private school students including those at Younghoon strongly opposed the measure. "The government's claim that English education can prevent the lower graders from developing Korean has no objective or scientific grounds," a group of parents said. "Given that international schools are not subject to such rules, it is a breach of rights." South Korea's finance minister will attend the Group of 20 meeting for top economic policymakers in China later this week to discuss a variety of global issues such as increased market volatility and toughened economic conditions, the finance ministry said Thursday. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho, who doubles as the deputy prime minister for economic affairs, will attend the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting to be held in Shanghai, China, on Friday and Saturday. The ministers and governors of the world's top 20 economies will discuss issues such as the slowdown in China and emerging markets, uncertainties in monetary policies, low oil prices and widened volatility in the global financial market. "Finance Minister Yoo will call for stronger policy coordination among the G20 nations on dealing with the recent global financial turmoil and suggest some detailed action plans in his official remarks," the finance ministry said. Yoo is also expected to hold bilateral talks with his U.S., Chinese and French counterparts during the two-day meeting. (Yonhap) Defense Minister Han Min-koo inspected the combat readiness of the military's special counter-terror units Thursday as the government recently warned of possible terror attacks by North Korea. Han visited the Special Warfare Command's counter-terror unit and a special chemical warfare battalion to check the forces' battle preparedness earlier in the day, the ministry said in a statement. The defense chief instructed the troops to maintain a "thorough readiness position" against possible terrorist attacks from North Korea, the statement said. Han is "aware of the seriousness of the current state where North Korea's terror threats are increasing after (leader) Kim Jong-un ordered increased terrorist forces against South Korea," the statement also noted. Last week, President Park Geun-hye warned of possible terror or cyberattacks by North Korea. "New types of threats such as terror (attacks), cyberattacks or biological weapons could occur anywhere," Park said in a meeting with mayors and governors. On Tuesday, North Korea threatened to launch a "pre-emptive strike" on the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae and the United States mainland in a statement by the Supreme Command of the (North) Korean People's Army as it denounced joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington, slated to start early March. (Yonhap) By Yi Whan-woo Three North Korean government organizations that carry out intelligence operations and develop nuclear and ballistic missile technology are believed to be the targets of U.N. resolutions drafted by the U.S. and China, sources said Thursday. The draft bill, which awaits the U.N. Security Council's (UNSC) approval, also bans exports of crude oil and jet oil to North Korea, widening the scope of sanctions against the Kim Jong-un regime for its latest nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. Other punitive measures include prohibiting imports of North Korean coal and minerals, and banning North Korean ships and planes from entering territorial seas and airspace governed by U.N. members. Analysts said Thursday they were optimistic that the draft resolution would be implemented, pointing out that China North Korea's largest benefactor and also a permanent UNSC member voluntarily agreed on the bill. "The bill will certainly paralyze the Kim regime if the bill's key points are applied," said World North Korea Research Center chief An Chan-il. He claimed that the North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau, the Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry and National Aerospace Development Administration were "essential elements" for Pyongyang's military ambitions. They are believed to be among a new group of 30 individuals and entities that the U.S. and China have blacklisted. "No ministries or equivalent government organizations from foreign countries would want to engage in a dialogue or cooperate with those three organs, meaning Pyongyang's isolation will worsen," An said. Handong University international relations professor Park Won-gon has a similar view. "The new bill is apparently aimed at supplementing the last UNSC resolution 2094 and cutting off what are seen as routes for the Kim regime to earn cash and continue its military ambition," he said. "And Beijing clearly showed that it's willing to press Pyongyang in line with international demands." Park pointed out that North Korea had relied heavily on oil imports from China to operate its military assets. He also said minerals accounted for 42 percent of annual trade between North Korea and China. University of North Korean Studies professor Yang Moo-jin said Chinese cities were major destinations of Air Koryo, Pyongyang's state-owned national flag carrier. "Banning any North Korean-flagged planes from entering China's airspace means Pyongyang will face mounting pressure in its international isolation." China has been criticized for being reluctant to press Pyongyang because of Beijing's concern that such measures might lead to the repressive regime to collapse, causing chaos on the Chinese border. An opposition lawmaker set the record for the longest filibuster in Korean history Wednesday, delivering a 10 hour and 18 minute address on the parliamentary floor to block the passage of an anti-terrorism bill. Rep. Eun Soo-mi of the Minjoo Party began giving her address before a largely empty National Assembly at 2:30 a.m. and got off the podium at 12:48 p.m., replacing the record set more than 40 years ago. The previous record was set by Park Han-sang in 1969, a then-opposition lawmaker, who gave a 10 hour and 15 minute address against the constitutional amendment drive by the Park Chung-hee government. On the podium Eun reiterated the opposition's concerns over a potential abuse of power by the National Intelligence Service (NIS), South Korea's top spy agency. "I feel pain in many parts of my body including the back and legs," Eun told reporters after her filibuster. The first-term lawmaker said she tried to make her points clear why the anti-terrorism law entailed problems during her address. The filibuster rule allows a lawmaker to speak endlessly in order to delay a bill. The filibuster session by the Minjoo Party followed National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa's decision a day before to take the bill to the floor for a vote by invoking his authority. The anti-terrorism law has been stalled for more than a decade. Since the first draft was filed with the National Assembly following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 to effectively combat terrorism, no major progress has been made. The bill's passage has gained urgency following North Korea's nuclear test and long-range rocket launch early this year. Under the bill, an anti-terrorism center will be set up under the Prime Minister's Office, but the NIS will have the power to gather the relevant information on possible terrorists and attacks. The ruling Saenuri Party slammed the Minjoo Party for its filibuster to thwart the bill's passage and urged it to end the ongoing discussion on the floor. "The opposition's filibuster to block the anti-terrorism law at a time of heightened tensions is an act of terror against the safety of the people," said Saenuri floor leader Won Yoo-chul during a party meeting. Won also called on the opposition to act in a bipartisan manner to ensure national security by voting on the long-stalled law. Calls among ruling party lawmakers for the bill's swift passage have become more acute after North Korea threatened to strike Cheong Wa Dae, South Korea's presidential office, on Tuesday night in its usual harsh rhetoric. While the rival parties continue to lock horns over the contentious bill, police arrested two civic activists on charges of violating the law on assembly and demonstration Wednesday. The police said the two, identified only by their surnames Kim and Yoon, picketed and chanted in protest of the law in front of the National Assembly at around 3:15 a.m. The two were released hours later after questioning. (Yonhap) A U.S. attack on Libya last week aimed at terrorists in an Islamic State group camp unfortunately killed two Serbian hostages. The F-15E jet strike in Sabratha, west of Tripoli, took at least 49 lives. The principal target was Noureddine Chouchane, a senior operative who was suspected of organizing attacks in Tunisia and who U.S. officials believe died in the bombing. Tragically, two Serbian embassy officials who had been taken hostage in November, communications officer Sladjana Stankovic and driver Jovica Stepic, died while being held at the camp. Last year a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan killed two other Western hostages, Warren Weinstein, an American contractor, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian aid worker. Since the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, Libya has been in chaos, with no generally recognized government. Two rival groups pretend to be the legitimate authority, one based in Tobruk in the east and another in Tripoli, the former capital. Numerous militias, either tribally or locally based, are scattered about the country, all claiming sovereignty over their territory. The United Nations has been laboring mightily, so far without success, to obtain these groups' agreement to a government of national unity. Special forces from France, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States are also in Libya, trying to disrupt the rising influx of Islamic State fighters, about 6,500 of whom have come from Iraq, Syria, Yemen and, of course, Libya. They are largely based along the Mediterranean coast and centered on the city of Sirte. The various Libyan authorities do not welcome the foreign presence for the most part and the Tripoli-based government vigorously criticized the U.S. attack on Sabratha. Serbia has demanded an explanation. With no declaration of war or other legal justification, the United States unleashed its attack last week, with the hope of crushing a terrorists' nest. But didn't American intelligence know the Serbs were being held at the camp? The Pentagon says it kept close watch for weeks on the site and noticed no civilians. The fact that its information was wrong is even more disturbing. This editorial appeared on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. By Marc Herbermann Under huge external pressure, German society is rapidly changing. Yet, the static part of Germany's current social, economical and political problems derives from an arrogant and short-sighted political elite which is incapable of learning. Angela Merkel and her government have achieved quite important things for Germany. As a chancellor for more than 10 years, Merkel's pragmatic policies helped to stimulate the economy and to tone down the European debt crisis. Germany's unemployment rate fell from 12 percent in 2005 to less than 5 percent in 2015, whereas its GDP rose from $2.8 trillion to $3.9 trillion in the same period at current prices, according to figures from "Economy Watch." The current governing grand coalition paved the way for green energy consumption. Last but not least, under Merkel's tenure, Germany's military did not participate in several disastrous NATO campaigns. And yet, it is high time to bid farewell to her and her government. Let us have a closer look on some political trends in Germany during the last two decades. Political debates have become oppressive. Those who are not in line with the official doctrine are quickly silenced and branded as extremists by the elite. Of course, it is easier to call a political opponent xenophobic, Nazi or a conspiracy theorist than to check his or her arguments carefully. Citizens fear to express their views and they are forced to apologize even if there is nothing to apologize for. After North African immigrants and asylum seekers sexually harassed dozens of women in Cologne on New Year's Eve 2015, the mayor, a woman, expressed her regrets for her suggestion that women should keep their distance from strangers. Merkel and her policies are taking the German society hostage for social experiments. Up until five years ago, she used to declare that a multicultural society is not possible. Now, with all floodgates open for months, a tangible restriction of the immigration influx is not under way and she still refuses to work out a feasible immigration policy. In spite of its dangers and its irrationality the open border policy is hypnotizing many do-gooders in Germany. Immigrants who enter a country from a secure third state do not need to be accepted as asylum seekers according to German and EU regulations (GG Art. 16a, Dublin regulation No. 604/2013). Nevertheless, the German government is systematically and haughtily ignoring these regulations. Let us be clear: people from various cultures regularly enrich human coexistence. The uncontrolled influx of millions of immigrants from remote aristocratic societies, however, disintegrates a modern host community and further destabilizes the countries of origin. But what are the reasons behind Merkel's immigration policy? Time magazine praised Merkel's "humanity, generosity" and "tolerance" and declared her person of the year in December 2015. Merkel who grew up in a Stalinist state wants to remove walls. Social scientists have also brought forward economic and demographic arguments. We can find two main motives, however. Merkel attempts to prescribe a national psychotherapy for Germany's past which in effect means that Germany vanishes forever. The other reason is "engineered migration as a tool of warfare" (Kelly M. Greenhill). Political agents nowadays use every means available to enforce their will. Through massive advertising campaigns on social media sites American NGOs lure hundreds of thousands of migrants into Germany. German troops did not fight in Iraq, nor did they fight in Libya; but through absorbing substantial parts of the Syrian middle class, Germany also takes part in the Syrian war. The parliament can remove the chancellor from office by a vote of no confidence. Other influential people in the Cabinet could replace her and follow a more rational approach. These two options are unlikely however under the current power structures. So it is the voters' turn to get rid of Merkel and her government. Marc Herbermann is an assistant professor at the German Language & Literature Department at Kyonggi University in Suwon. He can be reached at marc.herbermann@gmail.com. Three goals pivotal to taming NK A new United Nations resolution in response to North Korea's recent nuclear and rocket tests is now in the offing after the United States and China reached an agreement on Tuesday. At a U.S. State Department news conference, Secretary of State John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi talked about the "important" progress they have made, and their expectations of a U.N. resolution soon, while Kerry predicted that it would "go beyond anything that has been passed." The draft, once finalized, will be submitted to the 15-member Security Council for a vote. China and the U.S. will likely brief North and South Korea respectively about the outcome. Reports have it that the new resolution may include wide-ranging punitive elements ranging from freezing the North's finances, suspected of being diverted for nuclear and missile development and strong interdiction of "banned" goods in transit, while a Chinese newspaper reported the cessation of coal imports from the North, worth about $1.05 billion or about 42 percent of the North's total exports to China. About 90 percent of the North's exports end up in China. It remains to be seen what will be included but the success of the latest U.N. resolution depends on how best it will promote three goals a moratorium on the North's nuclear and long-range rocket tests; nonproliferation of related technologies and materials and, finally, a "proper level" of punishment. First, the moratorium, whether stated or de facto, is of great importance because it would restore the sense of peace and stability on the peninsula that has been disrupted by the North's brinkmanship by fears over its weapons of mass destruction. As a result, inter-Korean tensions are high; Japan is finding an excuse for remilitarization and China is in a superpower rivalry with the U.S. Overall, the deepening mistrust among the states concerned perpetuates the atmosphere of a Cold-War style standoff in order to enable the North to continue to thrive. On a practical level, a halt on WMD testing would prevent the North from finessing its weaponry further and, if upheld for a period of time, would make it as good as obsolete. The North stands at the threshold of perfecting its arsenal so a moratorium could do serious damage to its efforts. Second, nonproliferation is two-pronged: the North must be stopped from exporting WMD technology to thwart the creation of other nuclear rogue states. Additionally, a stranglehold should be put on flows of cash by client states to the North. One exemplary case was Syria in 2007 when the North helped the Bashar al-Assad regime build a nuclear power plant. The project was stopped by an Israeli attack that also killed a number of North Korean engineers. The North is also suspected of helping Iran's rocket development program before Teheran recently struck a nuclear deal with the West. Third, the forthcoming resolution should be punitive enough to force the North to stop testing nuclear weapons and agree to nonproliferation but prompting a collapse of the regime should not be an immediate goal. The North has a population of close to 25 million, larger than Syria's. If North Korea did collapse, it would cause a refugee crisis one 10th in scale of what is currently happening in Syria. It is unclear how the South and China, two contiguous states, could cope with such an outcome. China would be in a greater pinch because the likelihood is that North Koreans would head north, where the border is not so closely monitored, than dare to cross the heavily militarized inter-Korean border to the south. All things considered, for the time being, the international community would prefer that the North is considerably less dangerous than it is now, possibly causing them to put their wish to see the demise of the rogue state on ice. The United States and China were expected to reach final agreement Wednesday on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests, diplomatic sources said. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a joint news conference with Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday that Washington and Beijing made "important progress" in their sanctions negotiations. Kerry also said the two sides have come up with a draft and were reviewing it. Final agreement is expected when Wang meets with U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice, the sources said. Other sources said that the draft calls for blacklisting three key state agencies overseeing Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs as well as espionage operations -- the General Reconnaissance Bureau, the Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry and the National Aerospace Development Administration. They are among about 30 individuals and entities to be sanctioned by the new resolution, according to the sources. Also to be blacklisted are North Korean trading and financial firms accused of involvement in illicit activities, they said. The General Reconnaissance Bureau has been accused of masterminding a series of provocations, including the 2010 torpedoing of a South Korean warship and the 2014 cyber-attacks on Sony Pictures, while the other two agencies are in charge of the North's nuclear and missile programs. Other possible sanctions could include restricting oil provision to the North, including a ban on jet fuel supplies, and banning imports of coal, iron and other mineral imports from the North, one of the biggest sources of hard currency for the impoverished nation. Following final agreement between the U.S. and China, the Security Council is expected to circulate it among the other 13 council members for review. Unless any objection is raised, the draft will be referred to a formal council meeting for adoption. It usually takes about three days to complete the process, the sources said. After the North's Jan. 6 nuclear test, the Security Council pledged to adopt significant sanctions, but has not been able to do so because China has balked at imposing harsh measures on Pyongyang. Amid the deadlock, the North flouted the Security Council again with a banned missile launch on Feb. 7. Beijing has condemned the North's nuclear and missile tests but has been lukewarm about calls for a stern response. Analysts have long said Beijing fears that pushing Pyongyang too hard could lead to its collapse, instability on its border and the ultimate emergence of a pro-U.S. nation. Chinese cooperation is key to putting together any meaningful sanctions and its implementation as it is one of the five veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council and the main provider of food and fuel aid to the impoverished North. (Yonhap) Popular Hangeul calligrapher Kang Byung-in demonstrates various calligraphy styles for the Korean character "Kkot," or flower in English. In the back row from left are Austrian Ambassador to Korea Elisabeth Bertagnoli, Singaporean Ambassador Wei Kiat Yip, Malaysian Ambassador Rohana Ramli and Alexandra Prasetio, the spouse of the Indonesian ambassador. / Korea Times photo by Kim Jae-heun By Kim Jae-heun Renowned Korean calligrapher Kang Byung-in gave a speech and lesson on Korean calligraphy to foreign diplomats at the invitation of the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI), led by President Choi Jung-hwa, at the residence of Malaysian Ambassador Dato Rohana Ramli, Tuesday. "I am honored to introduce Korean calligraphy to foreign ambassadors tonight," said Kang. "We tend to limit Korean letters as phonograms, but Hangeul can also express the meaning of the letters through calligraphy. I wanted to show the value of Korean letters, especially to foreigners who may only know Hangeul as a means to deliver information." After an hour-long speech, Kang wrote diverse styles of the word "kkot" (flower) in Korean calligraphy _ some of which looked like actual flowers. Malaysian Ambassador Ramli and Singaporean Ambassador Yip Wei Kiat volunteered to try their hands at the calligraphy first. "This is my first time trying Korean calligraphy but I knew calligraphy from before because we also have calligraphy for Arabic letters in Malaysia," said the Malaysian envoy. "But I am afraid that in my national language, we don't have the stroke. We use the Roman alphabet. Stroke is important (for Korean calligraphy) when you write from top to bottom and from left to right." The Singaporean Ambassador agreed that experiencing Korean calligraphy was completely new although he has studied the Korean language before and did Chinese calligraphy at school when he was young. "I had fun," said the Singaporean envoy. "I was impressed by the way Kang wrote flower in a more artistic form, which evolved into a picture from what could be just a normal Korean character. It was interesting." The event was held as a part of CICI's Korea Culture Quotient (CQ) program, which brings together more than 60 foreign diplomats posted in Korea. By Kim Yoo-chul BARCELONA, Spain After a year of struggles, U.S.-based Qualcomm fully normalized its business tie-ups with Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. Qualcomm said at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC), here, that the company's flagship Snapdragon 820 processor was being used for Samsung Electronics' latest smartphones the Galaxy S7 (S7) and S7 with a curved design (S7 edge). Given that Samsung has the largest smartphone market share, the tie-up will be beneficial, according to officials. "With Samsung, this year will be better for Qualcomm than last year, when it was excluded from several batches of Samsung's Galaxy S6 smartphones," an official said Thursday (KST). "The partnership with Samsung will be constructive in the future and be expanded into new projects." The 820 chip adopted Samsung Electronics' 14-nanometer processing technology and will be used in the two latest Samsung smartphones for the U.S. and Europe. Samsung said it would use the company-owned Exynos-branded mobile application processors in the smartphones for Korea. Due to overheating problems, which Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf later admitted, the U.S. company was in deep trouble last year. It ordered its engineers to address the issue and to immediately customize chips for different handset models. Because, unlike Samsung, LG Electronics does not have its own factories to produce mobile application chips, the "Qualcomm trouble" forced the company to change plans for the release of its flagship models. But the Qualcomm CEO appeared at LG's mobile event for the G5 to praise LG's successful development of its first modular smartphone. During the LG event, more than 14 seats were reserved exclusively for Qualcomm officials. "Qualcomm has high hopes for good sales of the G5," an LG official said. "Qualcomm apologized again to LG for the instability of the early version of the 820 chips. However Qualcomm promised to expand the partnership into the automotive business, which is promising." LG Electronics earlier said it was planning heavy promotional campaigns to increase its global share. Qualcomm said the smartphone industry would grow and that its own growth would be in accordance with industry growth. It stressed that its decision to invest in joint ventures and TDK was also aimed at strengthening its presence in the smarpthone industry. According to GSMA Intelligence, smartphones will account for half of all mobile connections this year as the main focus switches to the developing world. "Affordability is a major factor influencing smartphone adoption, especially in the developing world," said GSMA Intelligence forecasting unit analyst Gu Zhang. "Smartphone prices are expected to fall due to increasing competition, a drop in the cost of materials and improvements in software. China will remain the biggest smartphone market this year, in which Samsung is one of the top-tier players. But Qualcomm hopes Samsung will introduce more budget variants of its Galaxy-branded models for India, which is set to replace the U.S. as the world's No. 2 smartphone market from the second quarter of this year. SAP employees demonstrate connected car technology at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016 in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday. The demonstration was organized in collaboration with Spanish automaker SEAT and Samsung Electronics. / Courtesy of SAP By Kim Yoo-chul BARCELONA, Spain A senior executive at SAP, a German-based software company, said its decision to form an alliance with Samsung and Spanish car manufacturer SEAT for the development of connected vehicles will help it gain more traction in the world of "mobile connectivity." "The partnership with Samsung Electronics for the development of connected vehicles is perfect," said Gil Perez, senior vice president handling SAP's Internet of Things (IoT) division, in an interview with The Korea Times on the sidelines of this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC), Thursday (KST). "This is part of our long journey and there are a lot of business areas that the two companies should cooperate in." Perez said mobile connectivity enables customers to create and manage a universal digital identity via a single login, offering new business opportunities to leading software and hardware companies. "SAP is telling our key business partners on how you connect all technologies to back in systems," the executive said. "Collaboration is the key and we are all in the same direction. With SAP's vehicle networks, Samsung's mobile payment and mobile security systems will grow." Perez said the German company is seeking markets where Samsung Pay is available. "Those are the countries that we are going to focus on. The idea is how we create connected vehicles with greater focus on mobility services. It's an issue of interaction. All user experience is combined." SEAT created a technological alliance with Samsung and SAP to develop future connected car projects. The partnership is calling for SEAT to gain greater access to a global parking inventory of connected "on-street" and "off-street" parking, whereby drivers can make payments via Samsung Pay and Samsung Knox. Abhinav Gupta, director of Global Knox Solutions at Samsung Electronics America, said the alliance will be beneficial to help the Knox security platform rise. "This is really meaningful," said Gupta. "Samsung's Knox system added steady improvements for strengthened security. Hardware is getting together with software." Dr. Tanja Rueckert, executive vice president of SAP's IoT business, stressed the global software company is now in a "co-innovation stage" with Samsung Electronics, adding that the two companies are conducting other joint projects to deliver new services. Perez said he was surprised to see Samsung Electronics' Gear 360 as the release of consumer-side gadgets with wholly new features helps enterprises such as SAP see new business opportunities. "We are not a consumer-side company. If somebody looks at new industries, then we can help them. For example, virtual reality has endless possibility. In the world of digitization, SAP is taking our customers. We help companies such as Samsung redefine their businesses and able to connect," said the executive. SAP hopes to join with Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors on the co-development of future connected vehicles, though Perez didn't specify on what type of business partnership is being considered. In a question over its efforts for "smart factory" initiatives, Rueckert said SAP is in a "unique position" to make conventional manufacturing factories smarter and more efficient by supplying the right software. "This is a matter of a supply chain, not just for single products," Rueckert said. By Kim Yoo-chul BARCELONA, Spain Cisco Systems, the U.S.-based networking giant, has approached Samsung Electronics to acquire the latter's network business division, a person familiar with the matter told The Korea Times. "Despite repeated denials by the two companies about the issue, Cisco is still interested in purchasing Samsung's network business division," the official said on the sidelines of this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC), Thursday (KST). "Samsung was contacted several times by Cisco." According to the official, Cisco's previous attempts to purchase Samsung's network unit had failed as its bidding price was "too low," given Samsung's increased presence in that business in some key markets. He said the growth of Samsung's network business means the U.S. company will have to spend more if it wants to close the deal. Cisco, however, hopes to spend less but things have become complicated, said the official. While Samsung isn't a major player by market share in the network equipment business, the company's growing presence in target markets is noticeable, analysts said. By last year, Samsung Electronics was found to be the top long-term evolution (LTE)-based wireless network equipment supplier in India, while the company increased the portion of its overseas sales to 11 percent between 2013 and 2015. In Korea where Samsung is the sector leader, efforts by telecom operators and network infrastructure companies to invest more in fifth-generation (5G) technology ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics will be accelerated in line with the Korean government's plan to make the country the test-bed for the high-speed technology. By supplying the needed equipment, foreign network companies that operate in Korea, from Nokia-Alcatel Lucent and Huawei to Cisco, plan to use the Winter Olympics as the springboard to apply their 5G technologies for business expansion in other countries. "If Cisco were to buy Samsung's network business, then it could get a significantly strong foothold in Korea, India and countries in Western Europe, as well as the United States, as all leading technology firms are planning to expand their 5G," said the official. For Cisco, the Samsung deal, if completed, could also help it offset investors' concerns that its networking business may be challenged further due to the rise of competitors. Additionally, given Samsung's presence in the enterprise sector across the world, the acquisition will also help Cisco raise its profile in the business-to-business (B2B) sector. As seen in the smartphone industry, a new order prevails also in the global network equipment industry. Nokia closed its deal to purchase Alcatel-Lucent in order to put itself in a competitive position to challenge Chinese competitors Ericsson and Huawei. The official said Huawei's steep growth in the market may hurt Cisco's sustainability. In 2014, Cisco signed a cross-licensing deal with Samsung Electronics, allowing both firms access to each other's patent war chests. "Chinese companies are unable to buy from Samsung's network equipment business division because of a de facto U.S. government restriction on Chinese vendors winning contracts with top-tier U.S. carriers over security concerns," he said. This year's MWC highlighted tech companies' passion for 5G, which is essential to mission-critical Internet of Things (IoT) applications such as remote-controlled robots and products supporting virtual reality (VR) technology, in addition to immersive media services. GSMA Intelligence said subscriber growth in the mobile market is expected to slow over the next five years as markets approach saturation, pressuring mobile operators and others to find new opportunities in areas such as 5G. "This means new business will come from developing to developed markets," the official said. By Lee Min-hyung A U.S. proxy-voting advisory company has urged CJ HelloVision (CJH) shareholders to vote against SK Telecom's proposed takeover of the cable TV operator, expressing concerns of a possible "dilution risk." "The proposed buyback price of 10,696 won ($8.65) carries no premium over the closing share price of 11,600 won at the date of this report," Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) told investors in a report dated Feb. 12, 2016. "If the right of withdrawal is not exercised, shareholders may lose the opportunity to cash out a premium that may exist subsequent to the meeting date." The company called for shareholders to exercise their right of withdrawal. This advice comes amid heated debate over the takeover plan, for which CJH plans to hold a shareholders' meeting on Friday. The deal, if approved, will allow SK Broadband, SK Telecom's Internet protocol television (IPTV) subsidiary, to merge with CJH. CJH's major shareholder CJ O Shopping is expected to vote in favor of the deal. "Shareholders are advised to reevaluate the premium that the proposed buyback plan price carries, and take necessary steps to exercise the right of withdrawal by submitting a written notice of intention of dissent before casting an against vote," the report said. The ISS also voiced worries that the merger deal may hurt investors if the merged entity issues additional shares. "The concern lies with the proposed changes to the merged company's Articles of Incorporation bundled into this resolution, which, if approved, would enable the board to issue convertible securities in excess of 20 percent of outstanding shares without shareholder approval, posing significant dilution risk to shareholders," the report said. On Nov. 1, SK Telecom announced its decision to buy a 30 percent stake in CJH held by CJ O Shopping for 500 billion won ($405.51 million). The next day, CJH disclosed that its reference share price was determined at 10,680 won. The company then notified its shareholders the buyback price would be 10,696 won per share. CJH claimed this would not pose a huge risk to shareholders, because they could choose to sell or continue to build their stocks, regardless of whether the value went up or down. "The stock price has increased ever since we announced the takeover plan early last November," a CJH official said. "This reflects a favorable response to the merger. As of now, the buyback price comes with no premium, but the price was previously set in accordance with the law. Individual investors do not have to sell their stocks, regardless of the results of the shareholders' meeting." SK Telecom cited a Daishin Securities report which reads, "Our price target on the stock of the merged company will be around 16,000 won, given the new value created after the merger." The takeover plan has remained a hot topic in the nation's media industry, causing a strong backlash from SK Telecom's rivals KT and LG Uplus. The deal requires approvals from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP), the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) and the Fair Trade Commission (FTC). The MSIP has held two rounds of talks this month, collecting opinions from various sectors within the media industry. But nothing has been decided over when the screening processes will be finalized. CJH has said the result of the shareholders' meeting will be invalidated if the government agencies reject the deal. CJH closed at 11,650 won on the Seoul bourse, Thursday, down 2.92 percent from the previous day. Shim Sang-soo, second from left, the head of SK Telecom's network business division, holds a trophy with Accedian CEO Patrick Ostiguy, center, after SKT was named the Best Technology Enabler at the GSMA Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday (KST). / Courtesy of SK Telecom By Lee Min-hyung SK Telecom, the nation's largest mobile carrier, said Thursday that it has been named the best network monitoring solutions provider at an award ceremony held on the sidelines of this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. The company said in a statement that its virtualized network monitoring solution co-developed by Canada-based network equipment maker Accedian won the top prize in the "Best Technology" category at the GSMA Global Mobile Awards. The network solution was recognized for an outstanding feature, the ability to monitor Internet traffic problems and take immediate measures to resolve problems in real time, according to the company. "SK Telecom puts priority on the quality-of-service (QoS) and the quality-of-experience (QoE) in running our network system," said Lee Jong-bong, executive vice president at SK Telecom's network division. "Our years-long partnership with Accedian helped develop the network solution which we believe will be a building block to offer the best fourth-generation (4G) network service for our customers." SK Telecom has partnered with eight companies including Samsung Electronics, Cisco and Huawei to supply the network system to major cities across the world since August last year. The mobile carrier is pushing to build a nationwide network monitoring platform and export the system to more countries down the road. Accedian CEO Patrick Ostiguy also expressed excitement upon receiving the award. He said the company will strengthen alliance with SK Telecom, pledging to add to more values to mobile carriers across the world. The Hallyu Wave has hit the land of Russia as locals establish an organization supporting Korean culture. Calling themselves "K-Culture Supporters," the 17-membered Russian group aims to make cultural exchanges with South Korea by attending programs that help spread and promote Korean film, music, literature, and other studies. Officially establishing their organization on Tuesday, Feb. 23, members of the K-Cultural Supporters consists of figures from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Convervatory and the Russian Film Makers Association as well as K-pop bloggers, college students and individuals learning the Korean language. As reported by Korea Herald, the organization will work with the South Korean Embassy in Moscow for any events that supports the spread of Korean culture. For their first event, the supporters will hold free screenings of Korean films on the third day of each month beginning Mar. 22. The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary Read more PRESS RELEASE The Economist Goes Berserk Against Kerry-Lavrov Syria Efforts Feb. 24, 2016 (EIRNS)The Economist, the mouthpiece for the British Imperial crowd, is furious at the successful efforts by John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov to hammer out a ceasefire agreement for Syria. The Economists line of attack, echoed by U.S. neocons almost verbatim, is that, with the Russian intervention, Syrian President Assad has been saved, and now the rebels are on the verge of being crushed. Therefore, there is no way the Russians will abide by the ceasefire that Kerry and Lavrov have worked so tirelessly on achieving. Since Russias intervention at the end of September, supposedly to attack IS and JAN [Jabhat al-Nusra], the dynamics on the ground have been transformed, The Economist complained. Once close to collapse, the regime of Bashar al-Assad is now confident of its survival and intent on regaining control of more territory. Pro-Assad forces are encircling the rebel-held parts of Aleppo, once Syrias biggest city. Why should he and Mr Putin stop now? The Economist went on to attack Kerry: The only puzzle is what John Kerry, Americas Secretary of State, thought he could achieve through his agreement with Mr. Lavrovexcept, perhaps, to expose Russian cynicism. As John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee put it: This is diplomacy in the service of military aggression. And it is working because we are letting it." The other Economist spin, is that the Kurds are really out to establish an independent Kurdish state, under the control of the YPD, called Rojava. PRESS RELEASE Financial Control Board for Puerto Rico Would Create Government Of, By, and For the Hedge Funds Feb. 24, 2016 (EIRNS)Were a financial control board of the kind imposed on New York City in the 1970s and Washington, D.C., in the 1990s, be imposed on Puerto Rico, it would create a new government "of the hedge funds, by the hedge funds, and for the hedge funds," that would "destroy the Commonwealths ability to provide essential services to its people." So warned Puerto Rican Senator Ramon Luis Nieves, of the governing PPD party, in an article published in The Hill today. Nieves also faulted the Obama administration for offering only "technical assistance" and paying "lip service," rather than providing real solutions to a dire crisis. The argument that a control board is required when governments are unable to make painful policy decisions, doesnt hold water in Puerto Ricos case, Nieves states. The Garcia Padilla administration has made many painful and politically-costly decisions, imposing austerity, reforming the pension system, etc., in order to pay debt. The bottom line, Nieves asserts, is that "hedge funds and institutional bondholders want to get paid in full." Given big upcoming debt-service payments, a control board "could bypass our local Constitution in order to pay bondholders, while slashing government spending on essential services." In remarks published in El Nuevo Dia Feb. 23, Gov. Garcia Padilla affirmed that he would not accept the imposition of any control board that eclipsed the rights of local elected officials to approve the budget or other fiscal measures. He repeated what he had written to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) earlier this week, that the only solution to the debt crisis is the establishment of a broad legal framework for restructuring all of Puerto Ricos debt. He told El Nuevo Dia that hes willing to introduce emergency legislation to declare a debt moratorium, should it be deemed necessary. It would take Apple Inc. two to four weeks and up to 10 employees to help the FBI unlock the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, an Apple official said in the companys much-anticipated court filing Thursday. Erik Neuenschwander, manager of user privacy at Apple, stated in the court filing that the design, creation, validation and deployment of new software sought by the FBI which Apple has dubbed GovtOS would require six to 10 Apple employees to give a very substantial portion of their time for two weeks at a minimum, and likely as many as four weeks. The team wouldnt just be removing a few lines of software code, he said. Theyd have to overcome new challenges, including slimming the iOS operating system that powers iPhones so that it can run on a smaller memory chip. The FBI has requested that functionality to reduce the chance of damaging the storage space where Farooks data sits. Advertisement The new software also would need testing because changing one feature of an operating system often has ancillary or unanticipated consequences, Neuenschwander wrote. The potential for such consequences increases with the number of changes to the operating system. His comments are part of Apples challenge to a federal court order that requires the company to develop software to circumvent iPhone security features that the FBI says is hindering its ability to extract data from Farooks smartphone. Apple is arguing to a federal judge that helping the FBI would be unduly burdensome, a legal overreach and a violation of its constitutional rights. It is asking the judge to vacate a court order that compels Apple to cooperate. The FBI can use a program to decrypt the iPhones contents by automatically guessing a passcode, but attempting that process without Apples help carries a major risk of making the data permanently inaccessible. One reason is that after a certain number of failed attempts to guess the passcode, the iPhone imposes an infinite time delay between attempts to the point that the device will refuse to accept any further passcode entries even if an automatic data erasure feature isnt turned on, Neuenschwander wrote. The FBI argues that files, photos, messages and other information on the iPhone could help the agency fully track the movements of Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, on Dec. 2, when they stormed a work gathering at the Inland Regional Center, opened fire and later died in a gunfight with authorities. Investigators also say they want to better understand if the couple received help in planning the attack. FULL COVERAGE: Apples fight with the FBI >> In Thursdays filing, Neuenschwander called out Farooks employer for not using so-called mobile device management software. With that, Farooks managers at the San Bernardino County Public Health Department could have cleared the passcode and changed settings on his phone without any input from him, Neuenschwander said. Apple has already provided investigators with Farooks online backups, including copies of his emails, and other customer information in response to four court orders, according to Thursdays filing. But Apple specifically designed new security settings in recent years to make some data on the iPhone less susceptible to intrusions, including from authorities. It left a gap, though, to reset the phone without user consent for troubleshooting purposes, and thats the hole the FBI wants to exploit. The standoff has riled privacy rights advocates who say forcing Apple to unlock one phone would undermine security best-practices and open the door to requests from governments from around the world to unlock phones. Politicians, law enforcement agencies and victims families say technology companies should not obstruct crime-fighting. Some have called for Apple to make exceptions for terrorism cases. Neuenschwander said in the court document that creating the circumvention software even once is problematic. For one, destroying virtual goods is difficult, he said, because the people who created it will know how to do so again. In addition, Apple would need to preserve a description of its process for potential use in court. The government, or anyone else, could use such records and logs as a roadmap to recreate Apples methodology, even if the operating system and underlying code no longer exist, Neuenschwander said. If Apple fulfills the San Bernardino request, there will be more, the company has argued. Each request would require almost just as much as work as the first because the software would need to be adjusted for an individual phones settings. And Apple would have to protect the underlying circumvention software the same way it does its most sensitive trade secrets, Neuenschwander said. Apple has vowed to take the San Bernardino case to the Supreme Court if needed. Microsoft Corp., Facebook Inc. and Google-parent Alphabet Inc. are expected to file briefs supporting Apple in the case. Meanwhile, Apple and Microsoft have called on Congress to debate the level of access that authorities should get into the devices and online accounts of their users. Chat with me on Twitter @peard33 See more of our top stories on Facebook >> MORE ON APPLE VS. FBI Apple court papers: FBI is seeking dangerous power that violates its constitutional rights FBI director calls Apple case hardest question in government Whether Apple or FBI is winning the PR war depends on which poll youre looking at Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the Obama administration should have done more to work out a technical solution with his company before seeking a controversial court order in the San Bernardino terrorism investigation. In an interview with ABCs World News Tonight Wednesday, Cook said there should have been more dialogue between the company and the government before he learned from the media last week that a federal magistrate was compelling Apple to provide tools to unlock the iPhone of a shooter in the deadly terrorist attack. Investigators and Apple had been collaborating for weeks to get into Syed Rizwan Farooks iPhone, but the courtroom battle thats now unfolding apparently blindsided Cook. Advertisement I dont think thats the way the railroad should be run, Cook said in the interview. I dont think something this important to the country should be handled in this way. The Justice Department didnt have immediate comment. FULL COVERAGE: Apples fight with the FBI >> Apple is expected to formally respond to the court order on Friday, arguing that the magistrate has overreached in her use of an obscure law and infringed on the companys 1st Amendment rights in issuing the order. The company has called for a federal commission to debate the privacy and crime-fighting issues raised by the case. Apple is forcefully fighting the order because doing what the FBI wants could expose people to incredible vulnerabilities, be bad for America and also set a bad precedent that I think many people in America would be offended by, Cook told ABC. He described the FBIs proposal as the software equivalent of cancer. People probably carry more information about themselves on their phones than they store in their house, Cook said. In that environment, opening a backdoor for the government protects both privacy and public safety, he said. Cook called each of the potential consequences of helping the FBI knowns. And when comparing them to the evidence investigators might be able to get from the iPhone, I think we are making the right choice, Cook said. Join the conversation on Facebook >> Authorities have all but pieced together the San Bernardino terrorists movements between the time of the attack and their deaths in a wild firefight with police hours later, but they cannot account for the couples whereabouts during an 18-minute period. The FBI is also probing whether the couple received any help in plotting or carrying out the attacks. FBI agents turned to Apple for help unlocking the device because several security measures introduced to iPhones in recent years have made data difficult to extract. Farook was a San Bernardino County health inspector who was issued the phone for his use on the job. Cook said the FBI waited too long to get the Apple involved. There was a crucial missed opportunity to get some possible additional data when investigators had the county reset a password for Farooks online back-up system. I wish they would have contacted us earlier, Cook said. Heres everything you need to know about the fight between Apple and the FBI in two minutes. Chat with me on Twitter @peard33 Times staff writers Maura Dolan and Joel Rubin contributed to this report. MORE ON APPLE VS. FBI Whether Apple or FBI is winning the PR war depends on which poll youre looking at Watch why Apple is fighting the FBI over iPhone security Chinese tech execs side with Apple -- or maybe just against the FBI White House officials met with representatives from the tech, advertising and entertainment industries Wednesday to discuss how to combat activities of terrorist groups online. Representatives from at least 49 companies including Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Google, Mediacom and Edelman were invited to meet with officials from the Justice Department, the United Nations, the British Embassy and the Department of Homeland Security. The meeting was called the Madison Valleywood Project, in reference to the participation of industries on Madison Avenue, in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, according to documents from the meeting reviewed by The Times. Advertisement See more of our top stories on Facebook >> The agenda included talks by the assistant attorney general for national security, John P. Carlin, and a panel discussion about the militant group Islamic States media strategy and ways to scale counter-narratives and optimistic messaging. The agenda also detailed activities such as Storyboarding the Opportunity, in which teams of eight people of interdisciplinary skills determined where their companies could have the greatest effect. They then prepared their ideas for a presentation. In Huddle to Roadmap Next 100 Days, teams came up with a plan for things they could do for the next 100 days. The meeting comes at a time when the technology industrys cooperation with the government is under heavy scrutiny. Apple in particular is facing increasing pressure from the FBI to provide assistance in hacking an iPhone that belonged to San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. Apple has steadfastly refused to cooperate, citing customer privacy concerns. Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said the goal is to take every action possible to confront and interdict terrorist activities wherever they may occur, including in cyberspace. We are using this engagement and others to enlist the help of industry leaders and experts in our effort to ensure we bring the most innovative private and public sector thinking to all aspects of combating terrorism, the DOJ official said. Meanwhile, Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch told a House Appropriations subcommittee Wednesday that companies must comply with court orders to search devices. Without mentioning Apple, Lynch repeated the governments position that companies should take extra steps to help law enforcement execute warrants. If the government needs the assistance of third parties to ensure that the search is actually conducted, judges all over the country and on the Supreme Court have said that those parties must assist if it is reasonably within their power to do so, she said. And that is what we have been asking, and we owe it to the victims and to the public whose safety we must protect to ensure that we have done everything under the law to fully investigate terrorist attacks on American soil. Twitter: @traceylien ALSO How the iPhones security measures work Chinese tech execs side with Apple -- or maybe just against the FBI Apples Tim Cook disappointed with Justice Departments handling of San Bernardino case The great Russian piano tradition includes the likes of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Horowitz and Sviatoslav Richter. Now another is vying to join those illustrious ranks: Daniil Trifonov, 24, star of a recital Friday night in Walt Disney Concert Hall. Trifonov is one of the hottest young pianists in the world. In 2011, he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Rubinstein competition in Tel Aviv. His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon have earned three Grammy nominations, including one for his latest, an all-Rachmaninoff disc that includes a luminous rendition of Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Yannick Nezet-Seguin. See more of Entertainments top stories on Facebook >> Advertisement In November, Trifonov was elected to the New York Philharmonics board of directors, joining pianist Yefim Bronfman and violinists Joshua Bell and Itzhak Perlman. Last year he performed with violinist Gidon Kremers trio in Disney Hall (Times critic Mark Swed called the performance pure magic) and gave a thrilling recital at the Soka Performing Arts Center in Aliso Viejo that included all of Liszts spectacularly challenging Transcendental Etudes. His predatory manner of hovering over the keyboard has proved unforgettable. Trifonovs Hollywood Bowl debut in 2013 in which he performed Rachmaninoffs Piano Concerto No. 2 played out on the venues giant screens, sweat flying from his brow. It depends on the repertoire, Trifonov said by phone from Florida this week, recalling that September night at the Bowl. But its about concentration, which forces certain physical postures. During a performance, it allows me to be aware only of the music, and not the environment. Like the elder Marc-Andre Hamelin and the younger Conrad Tao, Trifonov is distinguished among his peers by being one of the few pianists who composes as well as performs. Daniil is what we used to have the Rachmaninoffs, Bernsteins and Previns a tradition of pianist-composers going all the way back, said Joel Smirnoff, who recently retired as president of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where Trifonov studied from age 16, receiving a masters diploma in January. Smirnoff recalled watching a YouTube clip of Trifonov to help decide if the young pianist should be admitted to the institute. It took about 20 seconds to say, Lets go full scholarship, Smirnoff said. Trifonov spent his childhood in Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow, and began composing at age 5. Both my parents are musicians who play piano, Trifonov said. My father is a composer, and I was first drawn not to an acoustic piano but a synthesizer, which my father used for his compositional work. Trifonovs father was also a punk-rock guitar player, which may help explain why his son is so naturally tuned into pop culture. He gets the big picture, Smirnoff said, how music integrates into society. So far, Trifonovs works include a piano concerto, which was commissioned by the Cleveland Institute, and a double concerto for violin, piano and chamber orchestra. He also composed Rachmaniana, a lyrical suite for piano solo, which is on the new disc. Trifonov said composing makes him more sensitive to the problems of interpreting a score. Things seem easier, but at the same time there are complications, he said. For example, even when marking a score, such as a crescendo, its difficult to precisely explain how you want it to be played. Its a difficult process of trying to find what the composer meant. For me, being a composer helps with the organization of a score and learning not to take a composers marks literally, but in the context of a piece. For his Disney Hall program, Trifonov will perform the Bach/Brahms Chaconne (for the left hand), Schuberts Piano Sonata in G (D.894), Brahms Paganini Variations (Book I) and Rachmaninoffs Piano Sonata No. 1. The Bach/Brahms is not as well known as Busonis more romantic one for two hands, Trifonov said. Brahms rendition is closer to the original violin version. He almost doesnt add anything to the original score. Trifonov noted the structural complexity of Rachmaninoffs first sonata. Out of only two motives, he builds this incredible 34-minute-long symphonic poem for piano, he said. The Schubert sonata fits naturally between the Chaconne and Paganini Variations. Its one of his most lyrical in the vocal quality of every movement, even its more dramatic parts. In upcoming seasons, Trifonov plans to play more Brahms learning the composers two concertos are a top priority and expand his repertoire to include works by 20th century composers, including Olivier Messiaen, Aaron Copland, Gyorgy Ligeti and John Corigliano. Trifonov said he values spontaneity highly, which may explain why he prefers the concert hall over the studio. The level of nervousness can be slightly higher, Trifonov said, but at the same time, theres no substitute for a live performance. There is an analogy my teacher used to express: There is a butterfly in a museum, behind a glass. It can be very beautiful in its shape and color, but its static. The same butterfly in open nature amazes us so much more. Look for Sweds review of the recital later and follow The Times arts team @culturemonster. When an ardently feminist college professor accuses a male student of plagiarism, she engages in prejudice of the grossest stripe, almost destroying a young life in the process. Third, Wendy Wassersteins final play, at Actors Workout Studio, was produced just a few months before the Pulitzer-winning playwrights death at age 55. And although the work is larded with simplistic philosophical exchanges more appropriate to CliffsNotes than a mature dialectic, it is an enduring example of Wassersteins deeply humanistic feminism -- a balanced perspective that sometimes sparked outrage among her more stringently ideological peers. A star in the female studies field, college professor Laurie Jameson (Dolores Aguanno) deplores the male power hierarchy. Her new student, the straight white male college wrestler Woodson Bull III, aka Third (engaging Drew Hellenthal), seems the embodiment of everything she deplores. Advertisement Unable to accept that Third has written a brilliant thesis on King Lear all by his lonesome, Laurie accuses him of cheating and drags him in front of the school ethics committee to prove her allegations. Ultimately and ironically, Laurie must confront that she has become as oppressive as the sexist males she has devoted a lifetime to fighting. The cast includes Irene Muzzy as Lauries desperately ill colleague and friend, whose support of Third is viewed by Laurie as the worst kind of betrayal. Taylor Solomon, alternating in the role with Allegra Williams, plays Lauries daughter, Emily, who is driven to rebel against her mothers intellectual stringency. Stephen Mendillo, alternating with Christopher Pennock, plays Lauries father, an appropriately Lear-like figure slipping into dementia. Director Robert Cicchini turns in a thoughtful and mostly dynamic staging, but evident line lapses hamper his otherwise well-paced production. Thats a shortcoming that doesnt detract from the pure pleasure of Wassersteins swan song -- a clarion warning against ideological extremism that is particularly apropos now, when any blunder into political incorrectness, however unwitting, can engender viral and virulent outrage. ----------- Third Where: Actors Workout Studio, 4735 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood When: 8 p.m. Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Also 8 p.m. Feb. 26. Ends March 6. Dark Feb. 28. Tickets: $20 Info: (800) 838-3006, third.brownpapertickets.com Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes ------------ Follow The Times arts team @culturemonster. Emma Sulkowicz, the young woman who made international headlines by carrying a mattress around Columbia University as a work of performance art, will open her first solo art exhibition this weekend at Coagula Curatorial in Los Angeles. The exhibition, titled Self-Portrait, will of course include some performance. Namely, the artist sitting on a pedestal, where viewers are invited to step up and ask her whatever they want. It also will include a life-size cast mold of Sulkowicz dubbed the Emmatron, which will respond to a set of pre-set questions the artist doesnt want to answer. Viewers will be able to interact with the sculpture via an app. You can have a conversation with Emma about the weather or her visit to L.A. or anything, says Coagula founder Mat Gleason. But if you bring up the things that people have consistently asked, she will send you to the Emmatron. These are all the things she was already asked by the media when she was doing her performance at Columbia. Advertisement Gleason invited the artist to do a show after he met her through mutual friends in Los Angeles last spring. To me, the mattress piece was such an epic statement, he said. I followed every story in the news. ... And when I met her, I could tell in a short conversation with her that she is someone who thinks deeply about her art. Emma Sulkowicz poses with the mattress she carried around Columbia as part of a yearlong art project in September 2014. (Andrew Burton / Getty Images) Sulkowicz achieved fame in 2014 after she began staging a performance at Columbia titled Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight). The piece, which served as her senior thesis, also was a protest against sexual assault on campus. Specifically, it stemmed from what Sulkowicz alleges was her own rape at the hands of a fellow student, whom a university disciplinary panel ultimately declared not responsible. For the work, Sulkowicz stated she would carry the mattress until the male student left or was expelled. He remained in school, so she carried her mattress throughout the year and even at graduation drawing the attention of the media, including one of the chief art critics at the New York Times. (The young man she accused is now suing Columbia for failing to protect him from what he alleges was an act of gender-based harassment. The university has filed a motion to dismiss the suit.) Since she graduated, Sulkowicz has continued to draw attention and generate controversy. Last summer, she created an online video titled Ceci Nest Pas Un Viol (This is Not a Rape), an eight-minute performance that purportedly showed the artist having consensual sex that turned violent. I am interested in what the public does with it, Sulkowicz told Artnets Cait Munro of that work at the time, which begins with the way they deal with it from the moment its disseminated. Now the artist is unveiling her first solo gallery exhibition and another performance that will no doubt also generate assiduous coverage on both social and regular media. In addition to the pedestal performance and the Emmatron, the show will feature a series of small 3-D printed replicas of the artist, dubbed In-Action Figures, available as part of an edition of 20. Gleason says Sulkowicz is playing with her own celebrity for the purpose of the exhibition. Theres a positing of questions there, he said, of can one move beyond the celebrity? Can an artist make art after trauma? I have complete confidence that she will move beyond that, he added, that she will move beyond the mattress thing. Emma Sulkowicz, Self Portrait, opens at Coagula Curatorial at 7 p.m. Saturday and runs through April 3. 974 Chung King Road, Chinatown, Los Angeles, coagulacuratorial.com. Find me on Twitter @cmonstah. MORE: Mattress Girl at Columbia: Victim art turns everyone into a critic Ava DuVernays Oscar-week gift: a rare screening with the Broad of Haile Gerimas Ashes and Embers Keanu Reeves stars in the art book Shadows by L.A. artist Alexandra Grant You dont need a weatherman, Bob Dylan has famously pleaded with us, to know which way the wind blows. But its not a bad idea to have a pianist around. Water, fire, earth and air motivated Vicki Rays Piano Spheres recital Tuesday night. A pianist is forced to spend a lot of time indoors, she wrote in her program note, and her response has been to try to bring the natural world into the practice room and then, as she did at REDCAT on this occasion, into the concert hall. Hers is a surprisingly common enterprise, surprising because the piano is no friend of the elements. Water, for instance, can be for a pianist both problem and obsession. Humidity is an enemy of the keyboard, and the evocation of fluidity is a physical impossibility on a percussion instrument over which the player has no control of the sound once the strings are struck or plucked. The pianists mission is to create the illusion of one note connecting to the next, artistic magic convincing us that we can hear what physics says we cant. Advertisement SIGN UP for the free Classic Hollywood newsletter >> Nothing stops pianists. From the start, liquidity was a keyboard ideal, and an ocean of music evoking water has been written over the centuries for harpsichord, clavichord, fortepiano and modern grand. Inspired by Luciano Berios 1965 encore piece, Wasserklavier (Water Piano), French pianist Helene Grimaud has a new water-theme CD based on her New York recital last year in which she played in a pool of water as part of an art installation/concert. Wasserklavier was also a motivator for Ray, who began her recital with that and three other elemental Berio encores: Luftklavier, Erdenklavier and Feuerklavier, for air, earth and fire. Ray brought to each a sonic immediacy so that you almost didnt need to read the program to know which way the wind was blowing. A good thing too because she added tasteful tintype projections of nature photography by Lori Pond that required a darkened room and prevented the audience from easily keeping track of what was being played. Still, the idea of a pianist needing nature, defying physics and somehow bringing the outside world inside, as the best California architects have done, dominated. Berios own motivation for Wasserklavier was to show how quotes from Schubert and Brahms might flow, if with an intoxicating consistency of the wine the great Italian composer made on his estate in Siena rather than spring water. For Toru Takemitsu, water stood for, in the tradition of Japanese art and religious devotion, a wellspring of life. Rain Coming, Rain Spell and many other of his rain-themed instrumental works would make for a good concert conjuring the delinquent El Nino. Ray turned to Takemitsus piano trio, Between Tides, written for violinist Pamela Frank, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Peter Serkin in 1993 yet inexplicably neglected. Takemitsus tides were the ocean that separates East and West. Somewhere in between, harmonies he admired in Duke Ellington are allowed to flow into patterns he learned from traditional Japanese court music or the lush textures he loved in Messiaen. In an attempt to avoid any sense of sogginess, the performance with violinist Sarah Thornblade and cellist Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick was maybe less misty than it might have been, but it nevertheless made a strong case for one of the most alluring piano trios of the late 20th century. Other than John Luther Adams 2007 Nunataks, a short sequence of stunning granitic chords, the rest of the program was new. Dominique Schafers Aufwind (Up-draft) and Mu-Xuan Lins Pale Fire were Piano Spheres commissions for the occasion by composers, Swiss and Taiwanese, newly relocated to Southern California. Aufwind also needed no weatherman, with thick harmonies in great gusts up and down the keyboard. Pale Fire was not about fire but a play on Vladimir Nabokovs novel of deconstructed poetry transferred to a postmodern realm in which Shostakovich had some connection. At least thats what the composers program note said. The reality of Pale Fire was something more akin to John Cages Water Music, with a pianist up to all kinds of shenanigans on and around the piano. Electronics were employed. It was not easy to tell whether the equipment manipulated the piano, or the pianist manipulated the electronics. Everything was fragmented. Sounds came before or long after Rays hands hit the keys or did whatever it was she did to the strings inside the piano or made vocal sounds. The end result, however, was fascinating. The other premiere was Rays own Four Elemental Songs, sumptuously sung by soprano Elissa Johnston and with texts from a variety of sources including a poem by Margaret Atwood and Sanskrit scripture. Here too much of the piano accompaniment was made by Rays intriguing fiddling with the strings inside the piano. In each song Ray got the essence of a basic rhythmic or melodic or sonic idea, and each became something to take notice of. The texts, unfortunately, got away from us, as they couldnt be followed in the darkness. For an encore, there was one more premiere. In memory of Steven Stucky, the beloved composer who died last week, Ray gave the first public performance of an airy little prelude he had once given her as a gift. In a few wispy phrases, it released an exquisite, otherworldly breeze beyond the scope of any weathermans barometer. mark.swed@latimes.com Growing up in South Central, Joanne Tomita often dreamed of being a star. As a young girl, she was once cast on Kids Say the Darndest Things, and a limousine came to whisk her away from the home she shared with six siblings to the glitzy CBS studio lot. The experience made her feel special, and she started imagining what it would be like to be famous. Four decades later, her fantasy has become reality well, in a way. Advertisement OSCARS 2016: Full coverage This week, Tomita will stand onstage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and accept an Academy Award. Except the actress has never appeared in an Oscar-nominated film. For more than 20 years, shes worked as a professional rehearsal actor, standing in for awards show presenters and nominees as the programs producers plot out the telecast. 1 / 11 Scenic artist Rick Roberts touches up the Oscar statue props that are slated for placement on the red carpet and at the Dolby Theatre amid preparations for Sundays Academy Awards in Hollywood. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 11 Scenic artist Virginia Belloni puts the finishing touches on Oscar statues that will be placed on the red carpet and at the Dolby Theatre for Sundays Academy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 11 Arrivals team Frank Roach, right, hoists an Oscar statue while Kevin Crowley spots him during preparations for Sundays Oscars in Hollywood. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 11 Scenic artist Dena D Angelo, right, and Virginia Belloni touch up a giant Oscar statue on the Oscars red carpet in Hollywood on Tuesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 11 Pedestrians walk past crews working on the Oscars red carpet along Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Dolby Theatre. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 11 Scenic artist Derek Medevic gets one of the many Oscar statue props in top condition ahead of Sundays Academy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 11 Scenic artist Dena D Angelo, right, and Virginia Belloni work on a giant Oscar statue at the entrance to the Dolby Theatre amid preparations for Sundays Academy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 11 The Dolby Theatre is the site of the 88th Academy Awards coming up Sunday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 11 Workers install signs in preparation for the Oscars in Hollywood. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 11 Workers set up the red carpet along Hollywood Boulevard in preparation for the Oscars in Hollywood. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 11 The Oscars red carpet is rolled out Wednesday morning in Hollywood as preparations continue for the 88th Academy Awards on Sunday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Theres no other situation where you could be this close to A-list actors. I feel so lucky to have this job, said Tomita, who on Wednesday portrayed Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lawrence, a sound mixer on The Martian and a Star Wars android. Tomita is part of a community of a few dozen working actors who make their living as stand-ins, partaking in rehearsals for everything from the Emmys to the Grammys to American Idol. On Tuesday, she and four of her colleagues gathered at Hollywood & Highland where Oscar preparations are well underway for Sundays big event to share war stories and behind-the-scenes tidbits from their years in the business. Veteran stage managers and awards show producers like Debbie Williams, Gary Natoli and Louis J. Horvitz know which stand-ins they like, and theyll give a list of names to a shows script department for hiring purposes. Typically, awards show gigs last three days, except for the Oscars, which rehearse for five days. (And come Oscar night, the stand-ins watch just like the rest of us plebes: At home, on the couch, with a big bowl o popcorn). The five rehearsal actors Larry Blum, Renee Gentry, Nicholas Shaffer, Mindy Brandt and Tomita have worked on at least 10 Academy Awards. Its not an especially high-paying job: Rehearsal actors make $25 per hour and are guaranteed five hours of work per day. 1 / 20 Hollywoods top players are usually flawless on screen, but at the Academy Awards, theyre bound to say or do the unexpected. Weve compiled a list of squirm-in-your-seat uncomfortable moments from past Oscar ceremonies. (From left: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times; Stan Honda / AFP / Getty Images; Sebastian Artz / Getty Images; Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 20 When Sean Penn opened the envelope to announce the best picture at the 87th Academy Awards, he asked, Who gave this son of a ... his green card? before revealing Birdman as the winner. In a year when the Oscars were being scrutinized for the lack of diversity among the nominees in the top categories, some felt Penns joke about director Alejandro G. Inarritus nationality fell flat. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 20 After hosting the Emmys and the Tonys, jack-of-all-trades Neil Patrick Harris took over Oscar duties in 2015 with mixed results. In addition to butchering actors names and making an ill-advised joke about Edward Snowdens absence, Harris strained the patience of even the most faithful viewers with a running gag involving a magic box holding his winners predictions. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 20 During a red carpet interview actress Melanie Griffith admitted she had not yet seen daughter Dakota Johnsons performance in Fifty Shades of Grey, implying she was uncomfortable with some of the scenes she would see. When Griffith continued to refuse even the possibility of watching the film, a flustered Johnson responded All right! You dont have to see it! (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 20 John Travolta was tasked with introducing Idina Menzel to perform the Oscar-nominated (and later Oscar-winning) song Let It Go from Frozen at the 86th Academy Awards. Unfortunately, he ended up introducing Adele Dazeem in what would become the flub of the night. Ever the professional, Menzel still nailed her performance. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 20 Host Ellen DeGeneres rounded up high-profile celebs for a selfie that set records for retweets. What fans missed was Minnelli joining from behind, too short to be seen. Later, Minnelli tried to hug winner Lupita Nyongo before some of Nyongos cast members could. (Jason Merritt / Getty Images) 7 / 20 The academy took a gamble by having Seth MacFarlane host the 85th awards. Some people thought the many moments that MacFarlane relied on jokes about race or women were inappropriate for the occasion, including his cringe-worthy opening number, We Saw Your Boobs. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 20 Jennifer Lawrence proved she is just as human as the rest of us when she tripped on the stairs on the way to accept her best actress Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards. After making it to the stage to a standing ovation, she confronted the situation head-on by saying, You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell and thats really embarrassing, but thank you. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 20 Sacha Baron Cohen walked the red carpet of the 84th Academy Awards in character as General Aladeen from his film The Dictator. He also carried a gold urn he claimed contained the ashes of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, which he dumped over Ryan Seacrest. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 20 The 84th Academy Awards hit a hurdle when producer Brett Ratner resigned and his planned host, Eddie Murphy, stepped down too. Billy Crystal seemed like a safe choice to host. But Crystal fell back on an old bit impersonating Sammy Davis Jr. and later made racially charged joke. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 20 James Franco and Anne Hathaway were paired to host the 83rd Academy Awards. Unfortunately, most people agreed the show was a bust. Hathaway gave an honest effort, and even looked like she was trying to overcompensate for Franco, who at best could be described as not mentally present. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 20 Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston ended their five-year marriage in 2005 amid reports that linked Pitt romantically to Angelina Jolie. The 81st Academy Awards was the first time all three were publicly present in the same room. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 20 When Glenn Hansard and Marketa Irglova won the award for original song for Falling Slowly at the 80th Academy Awards, both were overcome with emotions. Hansard took the mike first. When Irglova leaned in to give her own thanks, the show cut her off. Host Jon Stewart later called her back. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 20 Ryan Seacrest wanted to interview Laura Linney and Jennifer Garner, but Gary Busey was not having it. Busey first called out to Seacrest, delaying the start of the interview. Later, Busey surprised Garner with a hug and a kiss on the neck. (Stan Honda / AFP / Getty Images) 15 / 20 The 77th Academy Awards assigned stand-up comedian Chris Rock to the hosting post, foreshadowing a night of ruder-than-usual digs at celebrities for laughs. Take this for example: Who is Jude Law? Perhaps actor Sean Penn thought that Law forgot his armor, stepping onstage to defend his peer. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 20 Apparently, when overcome with happiness, actor Adrien Brodys primal instinct tells him to latch his lips onto the pretty lady who gave him the news. Brody took everyone by surprise (especially Berry) when he kissed her after winning a lead actor Oscar for The Pianist. (Brian vander Brug / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 20 Most winners dont even have time to finish their thank-yous before the cut-off music switches on, but filmmaker Michael Moore managed to squeeze in a whole political rant after snagging a best documentary win for Bowling for Columbine. The boos and cheers were very, very audible. (Lee Celano / AFP / Getty Images) 18 / 20 Gwyneth Paltrows skimpy 2002 Oscar outfit seemed to be missing some vital components. (Was she not cold? Look at how bundled up everyone else is outside the Vanity Fair after-party.) In later years, the actress admitted that she wished her bits were covered better, citing the mistake as one of her worst red carpet looks. (Sebastian Artz / Getty Images) 19 / 20 That Oscar trophy wasnt the only one smooched by Angelina Jolies famous lips at the 72nd Academy Awards. The actress planted a kiss on older brother James Haven with a force that set rumor-mongers atwitter with word of an incestuous relationship. It didnt help that the excited Jolie launched into her acceptance speech for lead role in Girl, Interrupted with an ode to the sibling: Im in shock, and Im so in love with my brother right now, she giggled. He just held me and said he loved me and I know hes so happy for me. (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 20 To open the 1989 Academy Awards, an off-key Rob Lowe sang a duet with actress Eileen Bowman as Snow White as part of an elaborately hokey musical medley that lasted more than 10 minutes and left seated stars such as Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr. and Sigourney Weaver scratching their heads in confusion. How bad was it? Disney filed a lawsuit against the academy for unauthorized use of its character. (Randy Leffingwell / Los Angeles Times) It can also be quite stressful. Its only when they show up for Oscar rehearsals that they learn whom they are standing in for. And because the film academy is so worried about spoilers leaking out from the rehearsals, no one is allowed to use a phone inside the Dolby. Which means that during breaks, the majority of the 31 stand-ins will rush outside to start googling information about the people theyre playing. Lets take Tomita, for example. She might know enough about Winslet or Lawrence to give a believable fake acceptance speech, but that sound mixer from The Martian? Hell likely require a bit of rushed research. If we have an assignment to win an award, its always better if we can thank the actual production company, or what have you, because its more believable, says Brandt, the only one of the five who also does nonacting work, running a property tax consulting business. They love when we refer to the others who were nominated in the category, so the cameramen can cut to them. See what goes into catering the 2016 Oscars Governors Ball with Wolfgang Puck. The director will call out from the booth, Great job, stand-in! added Blum, who is working on his 26th Oscars telecast this month. Ill often write down notes, but I dont read them, said Tomita, who added that she is sometimes asked to drag out her speeches so the producers can practice playing off verbose winners with music. You can take inspiration from the introduction too. If they say This is your 10th nomination and first win, youre like, Im gonna talk about that. Do you know how many dresses I had to buy? All for nothing? You pull that information in. While theres room for play, the stand-ins know never to take it too far. Once, they saw a colleague pretend to be overcome with emotion and fall down on the floor while accepting a faux prize; she was promptly fired. And accents? Those are a no-no. Keep your Alejandro G. Inarritu impressions to yourself, thank you very much. 1 / 44 Writer-actor Sylvester Stallone, star of the Oscar-winning film Rocky, congratulates Peter Finchs widow, Eletha, center, after Finch was posthumously awarded the lead actor award at the 1977 Academy Awards. Faye Dunaway, right, won for lead actress. (Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 44 Jack Palance uses molar power to pull Oscar onstage at the 65th Academy Awards, as Billy Crystal enjoys the ride. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 44 Oscar winners Tom Hanks and Jessica Lange at the Governors Ball in 1995. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 44 David Letterman with Oscar dog in 1995. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 44 Susan Sarandon accepts her lead actress Oscar for Dead Man Walking in 1996. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 44 Bjork on the red carpet at the 73rd Academy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 44 Julia Roberts wins lead actress for Erin Brockovich, at the 73rd Academy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 44 Adrien Brody surprises presenter Halle Berry with a kiss after he wins lead actor for The Pianist at the 75th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 44 Charlize Theron wins lead actress for Monster, at the 76th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 44 Jamie Foxx hugs Halle Berry as daughter Corinne looks on, after winning lead actor for Ray, during the 77th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 44 Presenter Julia Roberts wipes her lipstick kiss off Clint Eastwoods face as he accepts his Oscar for director for Million Dollar Baby, during the 77th Academy Awards. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 44 Jamie Foxx, who won lead actor for Ray, is congratulated by Charlize Theron onstage at the 77th Academy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 44 Ben Stiller reads the winner of the visual effects award during the 78th Academy Awards show at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 44 Actors Will Ferrell, left and Steve Carell present the Oscar for makeup during the 78th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 44 Reese Witherspoon kisses her then-husband, Ryan Phillippe, after hearing her name announced as the lead actress winner for Walk the Line, during the 78th Academy Awards. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 44 Steven Spielberg snaps a photo of Ellen DeGeneres and Clint Eastwood while Beyonce looks on during the 79th Academy Awards. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 44 Leonardo DiCaprio congratulates Helen Mirren at the 79th Academy Awards. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 44 Javier Bardem is embraced by his mother, Pilar, after winning supporting actor at the 80th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 44 Presenter Helen Mirren and Daniel Day-Lewis onstage after he won lead actor at the 80th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 44 Forest Whitaker escorts Marion Cotillard off the stage after presenting her the Oscar for lead actress at the 80th Academy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 44 Hugh Jackman opens the show at the 81st Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 44 Ben Stiller and Natalie Portman present at the 81st Academy Awards. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 44 Phillipe Petit balances the Oscar after winning for documentary feature for Man on Wire as James Marsh looks on at the 81st Academy Awards. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 44 Seal, left, and Mickey Rourke during the 81st Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 44 Actor Ben Stiller, as an Avatar blue man, backstage before an award presentation at the 82nd Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 44 Kathryn Bigelow backstage at the 82nd Academy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 44 Mauro Flore is congratualated for winning for cinematography for Avatar at the 82nd Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 44 Jeremy Renner, from left, Brian Geraghty and Anthony Mackie of The Hurt Locker rejoice after the film in which they co-starred won best picture at the 82nd Academy Awards. Screenwriter Mark Boal is at lower right. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 44 Natalie Portman after winning lead actress for Black Swan at the 83rd Academy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 44 Actor Colin Firth and his wife, Livia Giuggioli, react after Tom Hooper wins best director for The Kings Speech, at the 83rd Academy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 44 Jean Dujardin, after winning lead actor for The Artist, walks off the stage with Uggie the dog at the 84th Academy Awards. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 44 Muppet characters Kermit and Miss Piggy at the 84th Academy Awards. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 44 Presenters Rose Byrne, left, and Melissa McCarthy at the 84th Academy Awards. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 44 Sandra Bullock at the 84th Academy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 44 Sacha Baron Cohen and entourage on the red carpet at the 84th Academy Awards. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 44 Jennifer Lawrence slips on the stairs when going up to the stage to receive her lead actress Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 44 Channing Tatum dances with actress Charlize Theron as host Seth MacFarlane looks on during the 85th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 44 Anne Hathaway watches as her Oscar for supporting actress is engraved at the 85th Academy Awards the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 44 The cast and crew of best picture Argo at the 85th Academy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 44 Legendary actor Sidney Poitier and actress Angelina Jolie chat backstage. Jolie was the recipient of the 2014 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 44 Actors Liam Neeson and J.K. Simmons, right, chat backstage at the 87th Academy Awards after Simmons won a supporting actor prize for Whiplash in 2015. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 44 With Star Wars reintroduced to a new generation by The Force Awakens film, it seemed only fitting to have droids R2D2 and C3PO grace the Academy Awards stage once again. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 44 Brie Larson is ecstatic as she walks off the stage with the lead actress Oscar for her role in Room. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 44 In a Titanic meetup, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet kiss backstage at the Oscars. DiCaprio won the lead actor Oscar for his role in The Revenant. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Still, the actors say, the perks are plentiful. All of those nerve-racking auditions and callbacks? Not a necessity once youre a trusted stand-in. And in an industry where everyones fighting for their next gig, a steady paycheck carries with it serious peace of mind. At first, this was almost like supplementary money, admitted Shaffer, an Indiana native. But when I got into it, it was so enjoyable, and it was steady work so I started to let the other work go. I see the younguns coming in and I tell them, Dont get trapped doing this if you really have another dream just because its constant work. To be honest, Ive given up my dream but I still feel so blessed to do this. Despite their proximity to Hollywoods biggest names, all five actors still get giddy recounting their brushes with celebrity. While none would dare walk up to a star or, shudder, ask for a selfie they all love engaging in conversations with presenters and nominees if theyre approached. Once, Blum got to play with Suri Cruise backstage as her famous father cradled her in his arms. Dustin Hoffman insisted on tying Gentrys shoelace. And Brandt got a great hug from Brad Pitt. During the 75th anniversary of the Oscars, they brought out 59 past winners, recalled Shaffer. I was playing Cliff Robertson, and in front of me were Mickey Rooney and Olivia de Havilland, who had done A Midsummer Nights Dream together but hadnt seen one another in years. And when their eyes met, he started reciting the lines from the movie. They hugged and there were tears in their eyes, and for me as a movie buff, getting to see these legends? It was overwhelming. These kinds of stories, not surprisingly, mean the rehearsal actors are often popular guests at Oscar viewing parties. They often possess juicy, behind-the-scenes gossip. Like when John Travolta infamously mispronounced Idina Menzels name as Adele Dazeem on the Oscars in 2014? Blum, whod served as his stand-in during early rehearsals, wasnt altogether surprised. Blum recalled that when he went onstage to read from the teleprompter, he was distracted by a light shining on the screen. Blum said he told the stage managers about the problem, but still wonders if the bright light caused Travoltas gaffe during the telecast. So, yes, while being a stand-in means you get to avoid the public humiliation that Travolta experienced, you also dont get to bask in the actual glory of being on television. Privately, all five stand-ins said, they wonder what it would be like to really win an award to do more than just pretend. But, you know, when youre up there pretending to win and you hold a real Emmy or SAG Award its got some energy in that thing, said Brandt. It kind of heightens your feeling. It puts you into the place. I would like to win one of each I want an Oscar, I want a SAG Award, an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Peoples Choice Award, Gentry said with a laugh. But we know how wonderful it is, said Brandt. Just holding that thing is amazing. ALSO: Oscars 2016: Who will win the acting categories? Count on Leo. In the other three ... Take a sneak peek at the 88th Academy Awards stages 70s glam concept Revenant vs. Spotlight vs. Big Short: Best picture front-runners sharpen their Oscar pitches Why the Oscars keep disqualifying Alejandro Inarritus movies from its original score competition Good morning. It is Thursday, Feb. 25. It took this flash mob six weeks to prepare for its performance of Justin Biebers Sorry outside San Franciscos Ferry Building. Heres what else is happening in the Golden State: TOP STORIES Unusual friendship Advertisement Cab driver Long Ma became a minor celebrity in Little Saigon when the news broke that he had been taken hostage by three inmates who escaped from Central Mens Jail in Orange County. Now, hes taken to visiting one of those inmates, Bac Duong, who helped him escape the hostage situation. My son, as long as I am still here, I will rescue you like you rescued me, Ma said during one of the jailhouse visits. Los Angeles Times Corruption probe San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascons probe into corruption at City Hall is ongoing, but who is his target? Hes already filed bribery and money-laundering charges against three of Mayor Ed Lees fundraisers. Is the D.A. going to go after a sitting mayor or a sitting supervisor? asked Public Defender Jeff Adachi. That is a very difficult proposition for any elected official to be in. Los Angeles Times Pacific Boulevard in Huntington Park used to be a prime shopping destination for Mexican and Central American immigrants. Now, storefronts are empty and business is slow with a younger generation rejecting their parents preferences. If you look around the clothes look the same like they did in the 90s. Its stuck in time, said a 26-year-old shopper from Rialto. Los Angeles Times DROUGHT AND CLIMATE Stranger in strange land: El Nino brought a Pacific seahorse to Alamitos Bay. Its rare, I would say, in normal years. But I would say in the past year, because of the warm water influx weve had, it isnt that rare, said Sandy Trautwein with Aquarium of the Pacific. Long Beach Press-Telegram Devastating conditions: The sea lion population is dwindling thanks to an ongoing fish famine. The dearth of food across the ocean isnt harming the adult sea lions as much as the pups. But the warmer waters are pushing the typical prey out of the mothers feeding range, forcing them to get creative. Los Angeles Times L.A. AT LARGE Recall results: Preliminary results show Carson voters want City Clerk Jim Dear out of office. The recall effort was prompted by allegations of instability, racism and intimidating behavior. In the past, Dear has defended himself by saying the rumors were fabricated by jealous political foes. Final results wont be certified until March 15. Los Angeles Times Hot dog time: The Tail O the Pup hot dog stand will make its return to La Cienega on May. 1. Unlike the previous version, this stand will not offer hot dogs for 45 cents. Instead, the owners plan to introduce higher end sausages. Curbed LA POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT Mall measure: The outcome of Measure A, which would allow a luxury shopping mall and open-space destination on the shore of Carlsbads Agua Hedionda lagoon, was still too close to call Wednesday. Developer Rick Caruso appeared to be losing by just 186 votes. Disclosure forms showed he spent $10.5 million over the last nine months in support of the project. San Diego Union-Tribune Short stays: Anaheim city officials want to gradually phase out short-term rentals in their city. New rules that clamp down on the practice could be approved by June. I dont want to live in a resort area, and I dont want to live in a business area, said one resident who opposes the practice of renting out private residences. Orange County Register At the ballot box: In the town of Lindsay, one 18-year-old girl is her familys only voice when it comes to voting in elections. But that doesnt mean Amy Huerta is ready to participate in the political process. Especially cuz right now, the generation is at a point where they dont care. Most of us are not going to vote, we dont care, Huerta said. KQED CRIME AND COURTS Sentenced to prison: Former state Sen. Leland Yee was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday for trading political favors for campaign contributions. He was also fined $20,000. The crimes that you committed have resulted in essentially an attack on democratic institutions, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer told the politician. Los Angeles Times No charges: Prosecutors declined to file charges against a 23-year-old man arrested on suspicion of firing the shot that killed 1-year-old Autumn Johnson in Compton. Prosecutors asked police for a further investigation into Ray Howard Patterson. Johnson was killed Feb. 9 when someone fired a shot into the converted garage she called home. Los Angeles Times Bizarre crash: A plane that crashed Monday in Pacoima was registered to a man accused of stalking actress Sandra Bullock. Joshua J. Corbett was not flying the aircraft at the time as he is currently in Twin Towers on charges of first-degree residential burglary, stalking and possession of a machine gun. Daily News Salesman killed: A 28-year-old man was allegedly under the influence of drugs when he crashed a Corvette into a tree during a test drive, police said. A CarMax salesman was killed in the collision. Police believe Alex Mark Demetro was driving at least 70 mph at the time of impact. Los Angeles Times EDUCATION Back in court: Should teachers have job protection? An appeals court is expected to weigh in today on the 2014 Vergara v. California decision that tossed out teacher tenure. The case quickly made California the center of a national debate over how to protect students from ineffective teachers and how they should be defined. Los Angeles Times Generous donation: Nike co-founder Phil Knight will donate $400 million to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program at Stanford University. The program will allow students to pursue an interdisciplinary education at Stanfords graduate schools for a three-year period of time. Los Angeles Times Helping students: Educators at Fresno State are stepping up efforts to help undocumented students. They plan to open the Dream Outreach and Success Centers. Lives are changed and dreams of generations are realized when Dreamers have the opportunity to succeed, said Fresno State President Joseph I. Castro. Vida en el Valle CALIFORNIA CULTURE #OscarsSoWhite: Twenty-seven Hollywood insiders talk about what its like to work in the industry when theyre not straight white men. Its always a weird conversation when youre trying to explain how a film about kids from Inglewood can be mainstream, but you dont have the same conversation about a very specific set of kids in suburban Chicago or South Boston, said writer and director Rick Famuyiwa. New York Times Long weekend: The 36 Hours feature makes its way through Pasadena. New York Times Graveyard shift: What happens to BART tracks after dark? A lot of maintenance work, as this video shows. CityLab CALIFORNIA ALMANAC Los Angeles will be sunny with a high of 82 degrees. San Diego will be sunny and 78. In Riverside, there will be sunshine and a high of 85 degrees. Sacramento will be sunny with a high of 73. San Francisco will have sun and a high of 66. AND FINALLY Todays California Memory comes from Brenda Kitchen: I moved to Defoe Avenue in Sylmar at 9 years old. My friend Patti moved up the street at the same time. Such a carefree time. We took off for hours on Halloween night alone and roamed all over Glenoaks Boulevard, up and down Hubbard Street in our matching cigarette-girl outfits. We were in awe of the cigarette girls at Ciros. We had not a care in the world and returned around midnight. Both of our mothers had left the front doors unlocked so we could come in and not wake anyone up. 1955 was an innocent Wonder Years time to grow up in the north valley. Patti and I are still best buds. If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.) Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Alice Walton or Shelby Grad. For those who win an Academy Award, that gleaming, iconic Oscar represents a validation of filmmaking excellence that money cant buy. Or can it? If Oscar winners or their heirs ever try to sell the gold-plated statuette bearing their name be it Robert DeNiro, Jennifer Lawrence or Meryl Streep they will hear from the academys lawyers. And the attorneys will make them an offer they cant refuse: Sell it back to the academy for $10. Advertisement If they dont, the Oscar goes to ... court. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Attorney John B. Quinn, the academys general counsel, said it is important for the academy to prevent anyone from trying to exploit the significance of the award and dilute its artistic value. They shouldnt become items of commerce that can be purchased and sold on the market, he said. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences places strict rules on those who are bestowed the honor and has aggressively pursued anyone who tried to sell the Oscar. It is part of a broader strategy to protect the Oscar brand by attempting to quash all attempts to infringe the Oscars copyright and trademark. The approach has resulted in critics accusing the academy of using strong arm tactics to legally bully people into submission. The academy has shut down party rentals of 8-foot faux Oscar statuettes, sued a North Hollywood chocolatier for making candy in the shape of an Oscar and forced websites that use the Oscar moniker, such as trivia site Oscarwatch.com, to change its name or shut down. The efforts were bolstered by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in 1991 that the award was protected under federal copyright laws and was not part of the public domain. We conclude that the academys sleek, muscular gold statuette known as Oscar, which is recognized worldwide as a distinctive symbol of outstanding achievement in film ... is entitled to protection, the ruling said. As for the sale of statuettes, the academy won a major legal victory last year when a Los Angeles County judge affirmed an academy rule that forbids any winner (or whoever comes to possess a statuette) from selling the trophy without first offering it to the academy for the tidy sum of $10. During nearly 30 years, Quinn and his Los Angeles law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, have filed about a dozen lawsuits on behalf of the academy to halt sales of Oscar statuettes. The firm has also sent about 100 letters to would-be sellers; some are gentle reminders of the rules and others are cease-and-desist demands, which usually do the trick, Quinn said. Since the first Academy Awards in 1929, 3,001 Oscars officially known as the Academy Award of Merit statuette have been handed out at the star-studded annual celebrations. The academy, its members and the many film artists and craftspeople whove won Academy Awards believe strongly that Oscars should be won, not purchased, the academy said in a statement to The Times asking about its legal stance. Every recipient since 1951 has signed an agreement that gives the academy the right of first refusal. That agreement was also made part of the academys bylaws so that every Oscar winner who has been an academy member is subject to the same rule, no matter when he or she received an Oscar. That in turn has sharply narrowed the supply of Oscars that legally can be sold, even while the demand among collectors and others remains intense. The 1939 best picture statuette for Gone With the Wind, for instance, was bought in 1999 for $1.54 million by Michael Jackson. The 1941 best screenplay Academy Award for Citizen Kane, presented to Herman Mankiewicz, was sold in 2012 for $588,455. Magician David Copperfield bought the Oscar won by director Michael Curtiz for Casablanca and kept it in his bedroom for inspiration before later selling it. Steven Spielberg, a multiple Academy Award winner in his own right, bought three Oscars to donate them back to the academy. In 1996, he paid $607,500 for Clark Gables best actor Oscar for 1934s It Happened One Night. He also bought a pair of best actress Oscars awarded to Bette Davis, paying $578,000 for the statuette won for the 1938 movie Jezebel and $180,000 for the award given for the 1935 film Dangerous. In 2007, three heirs of Mary Pickford, the silent-movie star known as Americas sweetheart, attempted to auction the best actress Oscar presented to Pickford in 1930 for the melodrama Coquette. The three people who inherited the Oscar along with another honorary Oscar that Pickford received in 1975 came into possession of the statuettes through the estate of their aunt, the second wife of actor Charles Buddy Rogers, who was Pickfords husband when she died in 1979. The academy sued, arguing that because Pickford signed the agreement after receiving the honorary Oscar, and because she remained a member of the academy until her death, the 1930 Oscar fell under the rule retroactively. In court papers, an attorney for the heirs said that under the guise of protecting the Oscar statuette, the academy uses threats and heavy-handed litigation to bully the heirs of academy members and has strong-armed heirs of Oscar winners. The heirs were obligated to fulfill the terms of their aunts will, which directed them to donate the proceeds of the Oscars sale to charity, the attorney wrote. A Los Angeles County jury sided with the academy, barring the sale. In 2014, the academy sued Carol Surtees, daughter-in-law of the late cinematographer Robert Surtees, who won the cinematography award for the black-and-white film The Bad and the Beautiful in 1953. The academy accused her of attempting to sell the statuette on eBay for $40,500. In an interview, Surtees said she mentioned to a friend that she had considered selling the Oscar for retirement funds. The friend then listed the statuette on eBay without her knowledge, she said. Surtees and the academy reached a settlement in which she kept the Oscar and agreed not to sell it. The statuette now sits on an end table in her living room, Surtees said. But the academy won perhaps its strongest weapon to guard against the sale of Oscars last year, when it fought to halt the sale of the 1942 award for color art direction given to Joseph Wright for his work in the film My Gal Sal. After his death in 1985, the Oscar was transferred to Wrights nephew, who consigned it to Briarbrook Auctions, a Rhode Island auction house. The statuette was then bought by Nate D. Sanders Inc., a Los Angeles auction house, for $79,200. The academy sued both Briarbrook and Nate D. Sanders Inc., alleging that the auction house intended to sell the Oscar for a higher price in Los Angeles. The academy argued that because Wright remained an academy member until his death, his Oscar fell under the 1951 rule. The rules apply even after a statuette is inherited or otherwise given to someone else, the academys lawyers said. A judge agreed. Now we have the law on our side, Quinn said. In the lawsuit, the academys attorneys wrote that Nate Sanders, the owner of the auction house, was well aware of the academys rules because he was sued years earlier for attempting to sell an Oscar awarded to Judy Garland in 1939, a miniature statuette given for her work as a juvenile actress, including her iconic role of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. The sale of that statuette, the academy wrote, was stopped. stephen.ceasar@latimes.com Twitter: @sjceasar MORE Oscars 2016: Who will win the acting categories? Count on Leo. In the other three ... Revenant vs. Spotlight vs. Big Short: Best picture front-runners sharpen their Oscar pitches Why the Oscars keep disqualifying Alejandro Inarritus movies from its original score competition During his swearing-in last month, San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascon pledged to rein in misconduct in the public realm. He cited a San Francisco prosecution a century ago that nearly brought down a mayor. At some point, said the elected prosecutor, a former LAPD assistant chief, every D.A. has to hold powerful people accountable. Gascons words that day provided the first hint that a long-running political corruption probe here might not be over and that some of the citys elected officials might be under scrutiny. Advertisement Two weeks after the speech, Gascon filed bribery and money-laundering charges against three former fundraisers for Mayor Ed Lee, sending shudders through City Hall and fueling speculation about who might be next. Gascon said the investigation into local corruption was ongoing but he refused to identify potential targets. His office asked for a protective order to keep the evidence secret, prompting San Franciscos elected public defender to question whether the evidence is a time bomb waiting to explode. The FBI began an undercover investigation into corruption and racketeering several years ago. It netted more than two dozen people including former state Sen. Leland Yee, a San Francisco Democrat. Most of the accused pleaded guilty in federal court, including Yee, who was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison. Gascons entry into what had been a federal matter took many lawyers in the case by surprise. Nathan Ballard, a Democratic strategist and Lee ally, accused Gascon of having made veiled threats against the mayor at his inauguration as a way to get publicity. If the D.A. has the goods on Mayor Lee, he already would have come out with it, Ballard said. There has never been one credibly sourced allegation of pay-to-play being brought forward. The mayor did not attend Gascons swearing-in, and Gascon did not attend the mayors. Lees name first surfaced in the federal corruption probe when lawyers for a former Chinatown gang leader alleged in court papers that the mayor had taken bribes. The motion argued that the gang leader, who later was convicted, had been selectively prosecuted. The lawyers contended Lee had met with an undercover FBI agent, who was posing as a businessman, after the agent gave $20,000 to Lees fundraisers. Everybody is waiting for the next act in this play. Supervisor Aaron Peskin A federal judge presiding over the case said he saw no evidence that Lee had violated the law. Lee also denied wrongdoing and said he could not even remember meeting the undercover agent. He has urged Gascon to vigorously pursue prosecution of his former fundraisers, a mayoral spokeswoman said. Based on public statement and events, it clearly would be appropriate for the mayor to follow the matter closely, said James D. Brosnahan, a prominent San Francisco lawyer who represented one of the defendants ensnared in the sting. Lee apparently is doing just that. He spent $19,000 last year on a criminal-defense firm, according to his campaign records. A spokeswoman said the mayor retained the firm to ensure full cooperation and appropriate communication with the government. The legal papers filed by the gang leaders lawyers said that other elected officials had also been scrutinized. Is the D.A. going to go after a sitting mayor or a sitting supervisor? asked Public Defender Jeff Adachi. That is a very difficult proposition for any elected official to be in. Gascon, 61, has been considered a possible future candidate for state attorney general or San Francisco mayor, though he said he has given no thought to such matters. The Cuban immigrant grew up in East Los Angeles, where his parents worked in factory jobs. After dropping out of high school and joining the Army, Gascon earned his diploma and a college degree and landed a job with the L.A. Police Department. He rose through the ranks, becoming assistant chief and chief of operations and earning a law degree. He was police chief of Mesa, Ariz., when former Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed him to head the San Francisco Police Department. Newsom later appointed Gascon district attorney to succeed Kamala D. Harris after her election as attorney general. Last week, Gascon and David J. Johnson, the FBI special agent in charge in San Francisco, announced the formation of a criminal task force to target corruption. We are really trying to stamp out corruption, Gascon said in an interview, and it is has been going on for some time. City Hall is paying attention. Everybody is waiting for the next act in this play, said elected Supervisor Aaron Peskin. It is a question of how long it will take. Lee, a former city bureaucrat, was catapulted into the mayors office in 2011 when Newsom became lieutenant governor. Lee promised the Board of Supervisors he would not run for election at the end of Newsoms term if the board appointed him. But the genial, unassuming Lee proved popular in the city and changed his mind. He has twice been elected mayor. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> Lee did not respond to a request for an interview submitted to his press office. His spokeswoman said in an email that Lees mayoral campaigns met the highest ethical standards, and all campaign contributions were thoroughly vetted. The Ethics Commission even conducted a comprehensive audit of the campaigns finances and determined there was full compliance, the spokeswoman wrote. The Lee fundraisers who were charged are former San Francisco Human Rights Commissioner Nazly Mohajer, former commission staffer Zula Jones, and political consultant Keith Jackson. They are accused of accepting bribes from an undercover FBI agent in exchange for political access and possible future city contracts. Jackson already had pleaded guilty to other charges in federal court and was sentenced Wednesday. Mohajer and Jones were implicated, but not charged, in federal court. It is unclear why Gascon and not federal prosecutors brought the new charges. Gascon said his office and federal prosecutors have been working together to decide ""who has the more appropriate statutes to deal with the appropriate violations. Peskin, the supervisor, described Gascon as pretty careful and suggested that future charges might depend on whether any of the former fundraisers implicate others. It really is going to be a function whether these individuals roll and whether anybody is going to drop the dime, Peskin said. John W. Keker, a lawyer for Jones, said he sees no indication that Lee is a potential target. Sure sounds to me like they are not going to get there, Keker said of the investigation. Keker also downplayed the chance that the three defendants might implicate Lee. They are not going to do it as far as I can tell, Keker said. I dont believe they have anything. Although a major economic powerhouse, San Francisco has many attributes of a small town. Connections run deep at City Hall, where everyone knows everyone else. Former Mayor Willie Brown still remains a potent force in local politics, a representative of the citys so-called moderate element, and both Lee and Gascon have been considered part of that political establishment. Peskin said he was not surprised at allegations of corruption in City Hall. There are many, many city employees, department heads and elected officials who are virtuous, Peskin said. But there also is a culture that permeates the body politic that is less than honorable. maura.dolan@latimes.com Twitter: @mauradolan ALSO How easy should it be to fire bad teachers? A landmark case may decide for California Huntington Park looks to bring shoppers back to Pacific Boulevard With most of City Hall facing criminal charges, whats next for Crystal City, Texas? Im Davan Maharaj, editor of the Los Angeles Times. Here are some story lines I dont want you to miss today. TOP STORIES The Cabbie and His Captor, Together Again Advertisement Last month, three men escaped from an Orange County jail, kidnapped a cabdriver and held him captive for a week. But one of the fugitives helped save the drivers life, and now they have formed an unexpected friendship. My son, as long as I am still here, I will rescue you like you rescued me, the cabbie told prisoner Bac Duong during a visit to jail. Read on to see why hes buying Duong books, giving him money and vowing to bring his fiancee to see him. Five Stages of the GOP Elites Grief As we told you yesterday, many Republican leaders see Marco Rubio as their best hope to defeat Donald Trump. Except the billionaire keeps winning, winning, winning, as he said in Las Vegas. Like it or not, the GOP elite is having to get used to the idea of a Trump candidacy. Heres their strategy for possible acceptance. Something Rotten in San Francisco? San Franciscos seen a lot lately. An FBI investigation into corruption and racketeering several years ago. The sentencing of former state Sen. Leland Yee to five years in prison Wednesday. And the citys top prosecutor filing bribery and money-laundering charges against three former fundraisers for Mayor Ed Lee. Heres a look at whats rumbling through the City by the Bay. An Oscar Season Like No Other Sunday is Hollywoods biggest night of the year, but the talk of the town mostly hasnt been about which film will win best picture or whether Leonardo DiCaprio can finally walk away with a little gold man. On the Oscar campaign trail, self-congratulation has taken a back seat to self-examination over questions of race and discrimination. Will it take the glitz off the ceremony? The Nat Turner Story Revisited Consider the tale of Nat Turner, a slave who led an uprising in 1831 against white landowners in Virginia. When William Styron, a white novelist, wrote about him 50 years ago, the book won a Pulitzer but became the target of black intellectuals. A movie version of it was scuttled. Now, Turners tale is back in the new film The Birth of a Nation from black filmmaker Nate Parker, to widespread acclaim. It also revives the question: Who has the moral authority to speak about slavery? Those Who Paved the Way Meet the L.A. resident who in 1918 became the first known African American in the West to hold statewide office. The black workers who built the canals of Venice but were not allowed to live in the beach town. The Pan-African studies professor at Cal State L.A. who is a force behind the Black Lives Matter movement. As Black History Month winds down, heres a look at some civil rights pioneers who have made a difference in Southern California. CALIFORNIA -- How difficult should it be to fire a teacher? -- An L.A. councilman blocks a DWP move, even as he advocates less political meddling at the utility. -- Prosecutors decline to charge a man held in the killing of 1-year-old Autumn Johnson. -- Huntington Park looks to bring shoppers back to Pacific Boulevard. NATION-WORLD -- While Hillary Clinton talks about race, Bernie Sanders turns elsewhere to reach minority voters. -- The prospect of a Trump-Rubio rumble and three other things to watch for in the Republican debate. -- Peru has copper. China wants it. And now Beto Chahuayllo is dead. -- A look at whats at stake in Irans elections. -- The earliest-known medieval Muslim graves are discovered in France. HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS -- Winning an Oscar is priceless, but selling it gets you exactly $10. -- We asked five actors what its like to be a stand-in for the stars at Oscars rehearsals. -- Do the hustle? Take a sneak peek at the Academy Awards stages 70s glam concept. -- Video: Caviar, avocados and gold dust go into Wolfgang Pucks menu for the Oscars Governors Ball. -- The franchise that probably wont be: A weak debut is expected for the $140-million Gods of Egypt. -- TV review: Fuller House is a group hug of a show, full of inside jokes and cuteness. -- At odds with Netflix, many theaters refuse to screen the sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. BUSINESS -- An appeals court rules that businesses cant make workers share tips. -- Whether Apple or the FBI is winning the PR war depends on which poll youre looking at. -- Chinese tech execs side with Apple ... or maybe just against the FBI. -- How is everyone liking, loving or wowing the new Facebook reactions? SPORTS -- The college basketball difference: The game ball can change from game to game. -- The Rams immediate to-do list includes getting players settled in L.A. WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING -- The Daily Pennsylvanian explains what happened with that Marco Rubio blog post. -- A case of art forgery exposed because of cat hair. (Science) -- Sorry, but ... do the British say sorry a lot? (BBC) ONLY IN L.A. It was a pretty much a given that L.As bid to bring back the Olympics in 2024 would have a star-studded video and promises of good weather. Now, L.A. 2024 is getting its own Snapchat geofilter from the Venice-based company. How does it work? Post photos or video from select neighborhoods where Olympic events would take place, and you affix an L.A. 2024 angel logo to them. Weve seen dogsnaps and dadsnaps, so why not Olysnaps? Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj. In a push to reform the Department of Water and Power, Los Angeles City Councilman Felipe Fuentes has argued that council members should have less sway over its decisions. Fuentes has championed a proposed ballot measure that would stop the City Council from routinely approving contracts, real estate deals and other decisions made by the DWP board part of an overhaul that he says would reduce political meddling in the operations of the utility. Yet recently, when the department sought to extend key deadlines for solar energy companies that have deals with the city, Fuentes effectively blocked the move, exercising his power as a council member. Advertisement Under the existing system, I would not be doing my job if I allowed a flawed agreement to move forward, Fuentes said in a written statement, explaining why he hadnt put the matter before a council committee he leads. Utility staffers are now trying to amend their plan to address his concerns, eyeing a looming deadline that could cost the solar companies millions of dollars. Critics say that by blocking the original plan, Fuentes has continued to flex his muscle over the DWP as a council member, even as he advocates to scale back some of those powers. Its in stark contradiction with what hes trying to do, said Walker Foley, Southern California organizer with the consumer and environmental advocacy group Food & Water Watch. Foley has raised concerns about how Angelenos would hold the utility accountable if council oversight were weakened. Fuentes disagreed with the idea that there was any contradiction. The dispute has erupted amid larger questions about how far his proposed measure would ultimately go to curb council involvement. Under his proposal, many day-to-day utility decisions would not automatically go to the council, but the council would retain the power to step in and override DWP board decisions. The council should give up that power if you really want to make the board and department much freer of interference by elected officials, UC San Diego professor of political science Steve Erie said. But the City Council is loath to do that. The solar agreements are part of the Feed-in Tariff program, which enables energy companies to sell the solar power they generate to the utility. Two years ago, the city struck deals to pay SunEdison and Hecate Energy to develop a total of 50 megawatts of solar power. Under agreements with the city, those companies have to meet a string of deadlines for putting solar power into operation. If those deadlines arent extended by the end of March, the firms could have to pay as much as $10 million and lose their rights to sell energy to L.A. under the deals, according to utility officials. The DWP board backed the planned extensions. So did the city ratepayer advocate. Utility officials said it made more sense to grant the extensions than collect damages from the solar companies, citing development challenges that delayed their progress. There were all these city delays, said Mary Leslie, president of the Los Angeles Business Council, an advocacy group that supports the Feed-in Tariff program. For instance, Leslie said, the city decided that such solar arrays needed to obtain a certain kind of planning permit that took more time. Fuentes said the department had already postponed a first deadline by six months because of those city delays, before the companies sought a second extension to the agreed-upon deadlines. If DWP were to allow these companies to miss deadlines without penalty, it would set a costly precedent, signaling that its contracts have no teeth, Fuentes said. Fuentes added that if his suggested reforms were adopted, the utility would have a professional, full-time board that would be better positioned to scrutinize and fix such proposals. SunEdison and Hecate Energy declined to comment on the proposed extensions. Councilman Paul Koretz, who sits on the committee that Fuentes leads, said he didnt believe that the firms should be penalized. We want to support the companies that are moving us toward higher use of solar and not disincentivize them, Koretz said, mentioning some of the city delays that had hampered their progress. Even if Fuentes is doing the right thing, this points up the problem with how the utility is now overseen, former DWP board member Richard Moss said. The staff says, Hey, we should be doing this. The board goes along with that. Now the City Council has to approve it its like, Who is responsible? Moss said. Outside consultants have argued that the DWP is too vulnerable to political interference. Fuentes has said his proposed measure would help minimize such City Hall meddling by giving up key powers that the mayor and council hold over the department. That has troubled some critics who fear the utility would become less accountable to the public. The way to improve government is scrutiny, openness and criticism thats what the council got elected to do, said Julie Butcher, a retired city union leader. However, Fuentes said he would retain a process, set forward in the city charter, that lets the council veto decisions made by the DWP board and other city commissions. Lawmakers have used that power, called a 245, to block rate increases in the past. Fuentes said that would allow the council to step in, with discretion, if it felt the utility was not acting in the best interest of ratepayers. Two-thirds of its members must agree to veto a decision. Others worry, however, that the process would allow continued council meddling. Youre going to get reform in name but not in practice, said Moss, the former DWP board member. emily.alpert@latimes.com Twitter: @LATimesEmily One of the countrys most prestigious universities is aiming to bring even more cachet to its California campus. Stanford University unveiled plans Wednesday for a program similar in style to Oxford Universitys Rhodes Scholarships but more than three times as large in scope. The program would cover all academic and living expenses for 300 or more graduate students whose studies could help solve some of the worlds most vexing problems, including climate change and poverty. The program was made possible by a $400-million gift from Nike Inc. cofounder Philip Knight, who earned his MBA from Stanford in 1962. Outgoing Stanford President John L. Hennessy, who dreamed up the program, will serve as its founding director after he steps down from his current post at the end of the summer. Advertisement John and I dream of a future 20, 30 or 50 years from now, when thousands of graduates who can think outside the box as skilled problem-solvers will be working together for a more peaceful, habitable world, Knight said in a statement. The first class of Knight-Hennessy Scholars is expected to enroll at Stanford in fall 2018, according to the university. Students who are accepted into the program will receive three years of funding to study law, business, medicine, engineering, humanities, education and environmental sciences. They can apply for additional funding if their degrees take longer than three years to complete, Stanford officials said. Students must be nominated by their undergraduate universities. One-third of the slots will be earmarked for U.S. students and two-thirds will be set aside for international students. Stanfords program will be among the largest of its kind 32 Americans are named Rhodes Scholars every year and could be particularly attractive to students interested in using business principles to tackle global problems. If youre interested in entrepreneurship and thinking outside the box, Id imagine Stanford and the Silicon Valley would be really attractive, said Kathleen McCarthy, the director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the City University of New York. Knights gift is the largest cash donation Stanford has received, and its among the biggest donations ever made to an American university. Hedge fund manager John A. Paulson gave $400 million to Harvard University in 2015, and Columbia University received $400 million from broadcasting mogul John W. Kluge in 2007. The funds from Knight will be augmented by $350 million in additional gifts from other Stanford alumni, including Steven Denning, chairman of the schools board of trustees, and his wife, Roberta. Knight, who previously gave $105 million to Stanfords business school, joins a growing list of philanthropists whove endowed scholarship programs. Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman of private equity firm Blackstone Group, donated $100 million in 2013 to found the Schwarzman Scholars program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. And in 2000, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave $210 million to establish the Gates Cambridge Scholarship at Cambridge University in England. The Knight donation comes amid a historic period in university fundraising. Last year, donors gave a record $40.3 billion in cash, art and other property to U.S. colleges and universities, according to the Council for Aid to Education in New York. jason.song@latimes.com Twitter: @byjsong The sides squaring off in a Los Angeles appeals courtroom on Thursday in the landmark case of Vergara vs. California agree on this: Teachers are key to whether students founder or thrive, and far too many students are failing or falling behind. The debate over how to address that problem has erupted into a pivotal fight over the competing and complementary rights of students and teachers. The people who slammed the state with this high-stakes lawsuit have a straightforward prescription: Make it easier for schools to get rid of bad teachers. Advertisement Follow the Times education initiative to inform parents, educators and students across California >> Their opponents, including Gov. Jerry Brown and the states powerful teachers unions, characterize this solution as simplistic and even dangerous. In 2014, L.A. Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu sided with the diverse group of nine students who brought the suit with support from a number of wealthy backers who want to see schools become more businesslike. Treu threw out the states tenure and seniority systems, saying they harmed all students, but especially poor and minority students, leading to outcomes that shocked the conscience. If that ruling holds up under appeal, teachers at unionized schools will no longer be entitled to a level of job security thats rare, even in the public sector. Theres been a tendency to say in the past that whats good for teachers must be good for kids. This case, I think, exploded that argument. Eric A. Hanushek, a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution of Stanford University Other rules making it difficult and expensive to fire teachers would disappear as well. And when districts lay off teachers, those whove been around longest would no longer be guaranteed that theyll be the last to get pink slips. Instead, districts could use a teachers performance to decide who to let go. Timothy Daly, former president of a group called the New Teacher Project, applauds the lawsuit, saying that those challenging the state are trying to prove that the laws make it impossible for districts to do the right thing for kids. This viewpoint holds that employment laws pushed through by unions which are the states largest contributors to political campaigns are depriving young people of the education to which the state Constitution entitles them. Poor children and students of color, this side argues, are disproportionately harmed because the worst teachers tend to wind up at poorly performing schools. Opponents of the lawsuit, however, insist that the approach endorsed by the Superior Court judge would result in a lower-quality teaching corps. They say that the profession would attract and retain fewer of the sort of talented people who have other career options. Ensuring high-quality teaching starts with recruiting, supporting and retaining great teachers for all our students, particularly students who are most at risk and in need, Michael Powell, a top official with the American Federation of Teachers, wrote in a memo released Wednesday. From the beginning, this case has been about more than the specific rules in question. Pro-Vergara partisans sued, at least in part, to break a political stranglehold that state teachers unions have held over much of education policy through their lobbying presence and campaign cash their cause made easier by the publics generally positive view of teachers. The California Teachers Assn., which is pushing the appeal, is one of the states most powerful interest groups. Its allies include such elected officials as Gov. Brown and state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, who have signed their names to efforts to overturn the ruling. The union opponents, on a panoply of education issues, are hardly powerless victims. They include L.A.-based philanthropist Eli Broad, former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Walton Family Foundation, endowed by the Wal-Mart heirs. The Vergara case itself is paid for through the group Students Matter, founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Welch. Some on the anti-union side have ties to business interests that would benefit from a changed legal landscape. Others have an anti-union agenda they are pursuing on multiple fronts. Vergara backers say the case has broken through both legally and in the public consciousness. Theres been a tendency to say in the past that whats good for teachers must be good for kids, said Eric A. Hanushek, a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution of Stanford University. This case, I think, exploded that argument. You have to say: Why is this policy for people who work in schools consistent with a policy that emphasizes student achievement? You have to make that case, said Hanushek, who testified for the plaintiffs. But both sides face hurdles before the appeals court, said Michael Petrilli, president of the Washington-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education think tank. For the unions, I just think that its going to be hard to make the case that these policies arent having a disparate impact on minority children, said Petrilli, who is regarded as an ally of pro-Vergara advocates. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> While unions are wary of weakening job protections on principle, many educators are not moved to defend the two-year tenure system at all costs. And providing teachers with a higher level of protection than other government and school district employees could continue to prove a hard sell in court, let alone the court of public opinion. Teachers defend their special status as necessary to academic freedom, to being able to speak up on behalf of students without fear of retribution. They point out, too, that the ranks of teachers in California are declining. The Vergara attorneys also face hurdles before the court, Petrilli said. Plaintiffs have to demonstrate that their preferred solutions are going to make a difference in reducing that inequity, and I think thats going to be tricky, he said. At the original 2014 trial, the Vergara attorneys offered testimony from students describing their personal experiences with bad teachers. They put experts on the stand who have researched the impact of effective versus ineffective teachers, claiming that students with grossly ineffective teachers lose out on two to four months of learning per year. And they presented an economist whod studied the impact of a good education concluding that one year with a terrible teacher can decrease a classrooms collective lifetime earnings by $250,000. In its appeal, the unions lawyers will argue that Judge Treu waded into a political and ideological debate and essentially landed on one side, relying on unproven assumptions and research findings that remain controversial. We think it will be overturned, said Eric C. Heins, president of the California Teachers Assn. Nobody wants a bad teacher in front of a student, least of all any other teacher, because we end up picking up the slack. This case is not about that. The three-judge panel hearing the appeals arguments on Thursday has 90 days to reach a decision. Both sides anticipate the case will then move to the California Supreme Court. If the ruling stands, the Legislature could try to approve other, more limited job protections for teachers. howard.blume@latimes.com Twitter: @howardblume joy.resmovits@latimes.com Twitter: @Joy_Resmovits Editors note: Education Matters receives funding from a number of foundations, including one or more mentioned in this article. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles administer grants from the Baxter Family Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the California Endowment and the Wasserman Foundation. Under terms of the grants, The Times retains complete control over editorial content. MORE EDUCATION NEWS The problem with slut shaming in schools Why L.A. Unifieds graduation rate is expected to soar this year Thanks to Nikes Phil Knight, Stanford is planning an ambitious graduate scholars program A black filmmaker puts his acting career on hold, raises nearly $10 million and makes a movie about the rebel slave Nat Turner. His film receives a rapturous reception at a major festival, a bouquet of awards and praise from Hollywoods elite. A white novelist writes a bestselling account of Nat Turners life. Critics call it a major accomplishment, and the book wins the countrys top literary prize. But black intellectuals denounce it as racist. Hollywood scuttles a plan for a movie, and the writer, wounded by the accusations, retreats. Fifty years separate the experiences of Nate Parker, the filmmaker, and William Styron, the novelist. Yet the controversy over who has the moral authority to speak about the experience of slavery in this country seems ready to start up again. Advertisement During interviews last month at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, Parker took a moment to distinguish his film, The Birth of a Nation, from Styrons book, The Confessions of Nat Turner. He called the novel a defamation, as if borrowing a page from the debate that dominated critical circles in this country half a century ago. By the time Styrons ink dried, he said, Turner was an impotent and cowardly self-hating Uncle Tom whose ambitions regarding rebellion had little to do with the rampant torture and degradation of his enslaved people, but instead was steeped in his desperate sexual desires for white women. Parkers vision of Turner is distinctly different. He describes the rebel slave as a measured, self-determined man of faith, whose courage and sacrifice left him a martyr. He calls his movie the black Braveheart. No one can really know who Nat Turner was, but these divergent portraits are reminders of the role slavery continues to play in shaping race relations in this country, leaving black and white Americans struggling to find a common language for this largely unspoken tragedy. The films reception at Sundance instant rapture, by one account has been explained in part as a reaction to the allegations of exclusion and discrimination that have fueled the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. Yet the Nat Turner story has never failed to inspire a passionate response. Join the conversation on Facebook >> Suspect account What little is known about Nat Turner the preacher and slave who in 1831 led a bloody two-day revolt in southern Virginia is suspect. Accounts from the time estimate about 60 whites were killed in the insurrection, and in the weeks that followed, many more blacks were killed in retribution. Turners confession was published by Thomas Gray, a white attorney who interviewed him not long after his capture and just days before his hanging. It is hardly a credible document, believed to have been written mostly to calm white fears that a greater insurrection might be at hand. The mystery of Nat Turner has done little to dislodge him from the popular imagination. A reference point for rappers, inspiration for novelists, he provided an opportunity for Parker to present an honest confrontation with slavery, an injury that were still tethered to. On the interview circuit, Parker, 36, speaks eloquently about the shortage of heroism in the history he was taught as a child growing up in Virginia. Not until college did he learn about Turner, and he was dismayed to find out the revolt occurred less than 100 miles from his home. Determined to tell this story, he put his acting career on hold two years ago and began to line up investors. Styron, who died in 2006 at age 81, came to the story with the same idealism. He too grew up in Virginia, near the site of the revolt, and wanted to portray an era of history which we are now beginning to understand to our enormous heartbreak and misery. He started writing in 1962, turning Turners confession to Gray one of the most haunted slave narratives, half a zealots accounting of faith and half a terrible reckoning of the revolt into a meditation on history. Anyone who sees this film should leave the theater and feel compelled to be a change factor with respect to relations that are taking place in this country. Nate Parker, filmmaker Turner, according to Gray, was a man in the thrall of his beliefs, which bordered on apocalyptic millennialism. Given to fasting and prayer, he had visions, one of which he recounted to his attorney: white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle, and the sun was darkened the thunder rolled in the Heavens, and blood flowed in streams When a solar eclipse passed over Virginia on Feb. 12, 1831, Turner considered it a sign to rise up. When Gray asked him in jail, Do you not find yourself mistaken now?, Turner replied: Was not Christ crucified? To have written a historical novel, Styron argued, would have limited him to the facts of the confession, and Turner would have emerged as a ruthless and perhaps psychotic fanatic. The novelist instead wanted to represent what the human spirit could achieve in overcoming the most ruinous and despotic form of human bondage that men have ever imposed on other men. He told Turners story in the first person, assuming the voice and presuming to understand the life and psyche of a slave. His Turner is literate and devout but ineffectual. During the revolt, he seems incapable of violence. Kill him! one rebel shouts as they storm the home of their first victim. But I was not ready, Turner thinks to himself. His sole victim comes later: a young white woman whom he desires but knows he can never have. Published in 1967, The Confessions won a Pulitzer Prize and the film rights were acquired for more than $600,000 by 20th Century Fox. When awarded an honorary degree at the historically black Wilberforce University in Ohio, Styron was greeted with thanks and praise. But black intellectuals hammered Styrons account as a lie, arguing that only the truth about black people, and the endless system of degradation and oppression to which they have been subjected will set us all free from our racial nightmare, as the chairman of the newly formed Black Anti-Defamation Assn. wrote in a 1968 letter to The Times. Later that summer, Beacon Press issued William Styrons Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond, a collection of essays that assailed popular reception of the novel. Its writers were angry and forthright. Why has the book received so much applause from the established press and a large number of well known scholars? asked its editor. Have they failed to see Nat Turner as a hero and a revolutionist out of fear that they might have to see H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael the same way? Even as the New York Review of Books published a defense an analysis of the attacks and an assessment of the Black Power movement Styron began to retreat. The movie to be produced by David Wolper and directed by Norman Jewison and starring James Earl Jones stalled. Styron stopped getting calls. In typical Hollywood fashion, he told The Times in 1982, they knuckled under pressures, and they were preparing a bastardized version with the help of two black historians. When the filmmakers went to scout locations in Virginia, they were met with dissent from blacks and whites, who didnt like Styrons portrayal of them either. The project was abandoned. Styron, unrepentant, admitted to being lacerated and hurt. Ten years later, he came out with Sophies Choice. Parker shot The Birth of a Nation in Georgia. Changing times The Confessions had born the brunt of a cultural shift in America. As Styron later wrote, the dream of amity, concord and the hope of mutual understanding from the civil rights movement had turned to the politics of confrontation. The death of Medgar Evers, Bloody Sunday, Birmingham, bombings and churches set on fire demanded nothing less, and a country that had little experience talking about race and in particular, slavery struggled to find the right words. The old images no longer work, said actor and social activist Ossie Davis during a discussion in Beverly Hills on May 28, 1968. In a cabaret on Roxbury Drive, Davis shared the stage with Styron and their mutual friend, the black novelist, essayist, poet and playwright James Baldwin. The old language no longer holds water, Davis said. What is really happening is that the black community is speaking in a new language to which it hopes the white community will respond in a new fashion. Time would eventually make these conversations easier, especially as popular culture began to wear down the sharp edges. When Alex Haleys portrait of slavery, Roots, was turned into a miniseries in 1977, an estimated 130 million Americans tuned in. Fans of Styrons Confessions also began to speak up. Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., an African American, called the novel brilliant and disputed the premise that a white man lacks the authority, the authenticity, the moral claim to write responsibly about an event in African American history. Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice, and its just as disgusting when blacks do it as whites, Gates told the New Yorker in 1999. African American culture, it has been argued, has formed around resistance to racism in America, and Parker seems ready to follow in this tradition. Resistance lives in the air in this current moment, he said. Anyone who sees this film should leave the theater and feel compelled to be a change factor with respect to relations that are taking place in this country. Columbia University historian Eric Foner, an authority on slavery and 19th century America, argues that Turner occupies a different place in the nations consciousness than such rebels as Crazy Horse because the conversation about slavery has been either one-sided or muted, saddled with either guilt or recrimination. Foner points out that there is only one museum to slavery in this country, in Wallace, La., and that public memorials to Turner are mostly limited to road signs in Southampton County, Va., site of the revolt he led. Slavery was not a footnote in the history of American freedom, Foner says. It is an essential part of American history, and until we grapple with what that means to our society, watching a movie about slavery or electing a black president is not going to solve that problem. In discussing Styrons book, Davis chided the black community for not writing Turners story itself. He called for another portrait, of a majestic, forceful and intelligent leader. I need from Nat Turner and the facts of his history to make that thing which glorifies blackness in a society which is horrified by blackness, said Davis. Whether Parkers portrait of Turner will answer this call remains to be seen. The need for a hero is different than the need for a historical reckoning and an understanding of what fostered this brutal revolt. thomas.curwen@latimes.com Twitter: @tcurwen ALSO Snapshots of L.A.'s black history Nate Parker hopes The Birth of a Nation challenges privilege and comfort #OscarsSoWhite? Maybe not in 2017. Heres an early look at promising contenders from upcoming films A man died and three other people were seriously injured late Wednesday after they were swept into the ocean by powerful waves while hanging out on a break wall in Redondo Beach, fire officials said. It is unclear what the group was doing on the wall at King Harbor, but shouts for help began about 11:13 p.m., said Division Chief Mark Winter of the Redondo Beach Fire Department. Fire officials believe strong waves pushed the group from the break wall into the sea, then back into calmer waters in the harbor. A Harbor Patrol boat responded, and a rescue swimmer dove into the ocean to tend to two women and two men, who were found at the bottom of the break wall. The men and women were in serious condition, he said. Advertisement They were clinging to rocks, Winter said. As the rescue swimmer worked to gather the group, strong surf pounded against the rocks and swept over the group, pushing them out to sea once again. A rescue boat eventually reached the rescue swimmer and the group and loaded them onto the boat. The women and a man were taken to an area trauma center to be treated for various injuries. The other man was declared dead onshore. Firefighters try to keep people off the break wall, but they cant stop them outright because its not against the law. It is not uncommon to find people fishing there at night, Winter said. We do our best to advise people to stay off the break wall, he said. Two sets of long-period waves were headed to the West Coast this week, triggering high-surf advisories for Central and Southern California beaches through Thursday evening, according to the National Weather Service. Surf could reach 14 feet near Ventura Harbor. Forecasters warned that the dangerous surf could cause beach erosion, produce sneaker waves and strong rip currents. The next round of strong surf is expected to pound the coast next Friday and Saturday. Swimmers were advised to never turn their backs to the ocean, stay off rocks and stay back from the water. For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA ALSO Female inmate firefighter suffers major injuries while battling Malibu brush fire Earthquake: Magnitude 3.6 quake strikes near Big Pine Transient held in stabbing of Irvine man on bike trail The man who allegedly posed as a Roman Catholic priest at Los Angeles-area parishes and sold bogus trips to see Pope Francis pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of grand theft, prosecutors said. Erwin Mena, 59, entered his plea in a downtown courtroom and was sentenced by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David M. Horwitz to one year in county jail and one year of mandatory supervision. As part of his plea agreement, Mena must pay about $53,700 in restitution, L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Tracey Stevens said. Advertisement More than two dozen other counts filed against him -- mostly misdemeanor and felony theft charges -- were dismissed, the prosecutor said. Finalized on the day Mena was scheduled to be arraigned, the plea deal marks a swift resolution to the case. According to an affidavit filed by a Los Angeles police detective, Mena posed as a priest at St. Ignatius of Loyola parish in Highland Park for about five months starting in January 2015. Parishioners said he delivered uplifting sermons, and he carried out the typical duties of a priest, such as officiating baptisms, confession, funerals and weekly Mass. He also officiated one Mass at St. Bernard parish in nearby Glassell Park, according to the churchs pastor. Police said that Menas clerical role was a ruse. Since 2008, Mena has been on a list of people who are not authorized to perform the duties of a priest in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, according to a diocesan spokeswoman. After Mass, Mena would sell a video for $25, a price some found to be high, recalled one parishioner who asked not to be identified. An organization loaned about $16,000 to Mena for recording and producing CDs about Pope Francis, LAPD Det. Gary Guevara said. Investigators concluded that Mena had pirated the video, which was originally produced in Madrid. But Menas biggest scam, police contended, was a trip to see the pontiff during his visit last fall to New York and Philadelphia. Guevara said Mena solicited between $500 and $1,000 from more than two dozen people who wanted to travel and see the pope. The money was supposed to cover airfare and lodging in convents, the detective said. After speaking with the religious sisters who operate the convents, police learned that none had a reservation from Mena, according to court papers. The convent near Philadelphia was a six-room facility with very small rooms and could not have accommodated a tour group such as Menas, the detective wrote in his affidavit. When some pressed Mena for more details on the trip -- including flight itineraries -- he stalled, said Michelle Rodriguez, a legal secretary who paid Mena more than $900 cash for her place on the trip. He used us, he stole from us, and thats it, Rodriguez said. Following a months-long investigation, LAPD detectives arrested Mena on Feb. 2 in Elysian Park. At the time, he was living out of his car, police said. In a statement issued late Wednesday, the archdiocese said, We are grateful that this case has been resolved and for the Los Angeles Police Departments work in ensuring that Erwin Mena was brought to justice. The archdiocese also said that it is compiling information on those who lost money from Mena before moving forward with a plan to compensate the victims. For breaking news in California, follow @MattHjourno. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> ALSO Man is accused of using Instagram photos to burglarize college sorority members in Fullerton and Orange CarMax salesman killed during test drive; suspect allegedly on prescription drugs Prosecutors decline to charge man held in killing of 1-year-old Autumn Johnson The man who allegedly smashed a Corvette into a tree during a test drive, fatally injuring a CarMax salesman, was driving on a suspended license, police said Wednesday. The driver, 28-year-old Alex Mark Demetro of Union City, was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and felony driving under the influence of drugs, said Sgt. Jeff Higbee of the Ontario Police Department. Demetro was cooperating with investigators, police said. Demetro was released from a San Bernardino County jail shortly before 5 a.m. Wednesday after posting $100,000 bail, according to jail records. He has not been charged. Advertisement Its unclear why Demetros drivers license was suspended or when the suspension occurred. He could not be reached for comment and its unknown if he has an attorney. Theres no forgiveness. When you take drugs, you know what youre doing. Dennis Smale, victims father At the time of the crash, which happened about 12:45 p.m. Tuesday, Demetro was on more than one prescription medication, Higbee said. Investigators are awaiting the results of toxicology tests before releasing further details, he said. The crash occurred on Mercedes Lane near Concours Street in Ontario. Witnesses told police that the driver lost control of the Corvette and rammed into a tree, Higbee said. Witnesses told KTLA-TV Channel 5 that the vehicle appeared to reach speeds of up to 70 mph. Both men were wearing seat belts. The salesman, 43-year-old Warren Smale of Montclair, was taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to the San Bernardino County coroners office. He was later pronounced dead. Smale had worked in CarMaxs Ontario store since June 2013, according to a statement provided by the company. He is the first CarMax salesperson to die during a test drive, the company statement said. The company did not specifically respond to inquiries from The Times about whether its procedure for checking customers before a test drive is under review. Under CarMaxs current procedure, the company inspects a customers drivers license to verify it matches the identity of the customer and is not expired. Before a test drive, the company also uses a scanner to determine whether the license is a valid state-issued ID and not the work of a forger. CarMax also keeps a copy of the license on file for record-keeping purposes, the company statement said. In addition, CarMax has procedures and personal safety guidelines that encourage associates to seek a managers assistance if they have concerns for their safety at any time, the company statement said. The crash left family and friends of Smale saddened and stunned. His father, Dennis Smale, told KABC-TV Channel 7 that he had harsh words for the driver of the Corvette. Theres no forgiveness. When you take drugs, you know what youre doing, Dennis Smale said. At the crash site, friends and colleagues held a prayer circle for Smale and shared memories of him. He was a good human being. He was a very loving, uplifting person, Robert Sotela of Rancho Cucamonga told the San Bernardino Sun. CarMax said in a statement Tuesday night that it was working closely with police in the investigation. For breaking news in California, follow @MattHjourno. ALSO Woman killed after falling from 18th floor, lands in hotel laundry chute A violent hit when 4.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Californias Central Valley Two killed in collision that spills 20 tons of lemons on Highway 126 near Castaic For breaking news in California, follow @MattHjourno. After a six-decade hiatus, passenger rail service will return to the traffic-choked Westside in May. The $1.5-billion, 6.6-mile extension of the Expo Line will begin running to Santa Monica on May 20, marking the first time that passenger trains have traveled between downtown Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean since the demise of Los Angeles Countys extensive streetcar network in the 1950s. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority sees the Expo Line, which will run through some of the Southlands most congested areas, as key to its goal to draw Angelenos out of their cars and onto public transportation. The light-rail line will connect the Pacific Ocean and the employment centers west of the 405 Freeway to L.A.s steadily expanding mass transit network. Advertisement The extension, primarily built on an abandoned Southern Pacific right-of-way, curves through Palms, Sawtelle and West Los Angeles, a route roughly parallel to the 10 Freeway. Its terminus, at Fourth Street and Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, is a block from the Third Street Promenade and a half-mile from the ocean. It gives folks an opportunity to get out of the soul-sucking gridlock that is endemic in the Westside, said Mike Bonin, a Metro board member and Los Angeles City Councilman who represents the Westside. Folks are hungry for that option. The 15-mile ride from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles will take about 46 minutes, which Metro officials say is a competitive alternative to morning and evening rush hours on the 10 Freeway. Trains will run every 12 minutes for most of the day. See the most-read stories this hour >> Metro officials say the full Expo Line will handle about 64,000 boardings on an average weekday by 2030. Currently, the first half of the line from Culver City to downtown Los Angeles sees about 30,000 boardings per day. The extension will add seven stations to Metros growing rail network: Palms, Westwood/Rancho Park, Expo/Sepulveda, Expo/Bundy, 26th Street/Bergamot, 17th Street/Santa Monica College and Downtown Santa Monica. The May 20 ribbon-cutting will be Metros second in three months. The first is an 11.5-mile extension of the Gold Line, which runs east from Pasadena through Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte and Irwindale, ending near Azusa Pacific University. Once the Gold Line and Expo Line extensions begin service, Metro will operate more than 100 miles of light-rail and subway lines. Both projects were largely funded through Measure R, the half-cent sales tax hike that the Los Angeles County electorate approved in 2008. Three other Measure R-funded rail projects are underway, through South Los Angeles, downtown Los Angeles and the Wilshire Corridor. Four of the Expo Lines seven new stations will not have parking for riders, and some residents and officials have voiced concerns that not being able to drive to the station will be a barrier to using the rail network. Santa Monica officials say they are working to close the gap between the train stations and destinations or homes that arent within easy walking distance. City Manager Rick Cole said the city will encourage riders to walk, take Uber or Lyft, take the bus or use the citys new bike-share system, designed for short, point-to-point trips. Metro, Culver City and Santa Monicas Big Blue Bus are reconfiguring routes to better connect to the stations, he said. It used to be you had two choices, the car or the bus, Cole said. Now were jumping on all the manifold choices that Angelenos have, and thats going to change the way that people think about trips. Bonin said he hopes to encourage developers who want to build near Expo Line stations, such as the Expo/Bundy station, which is in his council district, to include parking exclusively for Metro commuters. He added he hopes Metro will also gather data from its planned partnership with Lyft on trips that start and end at the Expo/Bundy station. That could show transit planners when and where Metro patrons are choosing to hail a ride, rather than walk, bike or catch another bus. Folks I talk to on the Westside use Uber and Lyft all the time, and thats not a behavior change for them, Bonin said. But for a lot of folks, using the bus is. Still, Bonin said, his constituents are eager to ride the trains, which, eventually, will help them become more open to using the rest of the Metro system. For more transportation news, follow @laura_nelson on Twitter. NEWSLETTER: Get essential California headlines delivered daily >> ALSO L.A. councilman blocks DWP move even as he advocates less political meddling at utility Huntington Park looks to bring shoppers back to Pacific Boulevard California cuts water use 17.1% in January, falling short of target A headless torso discovered in a Bay Area levee may belong to a woman who was reported missing last week and whose husband committed suicide by jumping off the San Francisco Bay Bridge late Tuesday, authorities say. Shelly Tichener, 57, of Brisbane, was last seen shopping at a department store on Feb. 15, according to authorities. Her husband, Paul Titchener, 62, is believed to have committed suicide just hours after he conducted a TV interview on his wifes disappearance. While we cannot confirm the body found is that of Shelly Titchener, we also cannot rule it out, the Fremont Police Department said in a statement. Advertisement In a statement on Facebook, the couples son, James Titchener, confirmed that his father and mother were dead. He asked for privacy for him and his family. My mother Shelly Titchener and father Paul Titchener have recently passed, he wrote on Facebook. I hope that you will all respect the privacy of my family and I. Thank you to everyone who supported us in the search for my mother. The Alameda County Sheriffs Office Coroners Bureau has referred all questions about the found torso to Fremont police. The case of the missing woman took a macabre turn when people fishing near Dumbarton Pier reported finding a female torso about 8:16 p.m. Sunday, Fremont police said. Officers who responded to the call said they found the remains on a levee near Marshlands Road in Fremont. As investigators pursued the case, they began looking into Shelly Titcheners disappearance. At the time she went missing, Brisbane police said Shelly Titchener voluntarily left her home over the weekend and indicated she would be with a friend for a couple of days. But after a few days, her friends and family never heard back from her. Her son later created a Facebook page hoping to draw leads about her disappearance. In a TV interview Tuesday, Paul Titchener told a KRON reporter the night she disappeared the couple had had a disagreement. Maybe it was a red flag that her thinking wasnt that clear, he told the reporter. She was a little upset at the time. On Wednesday, the day after Paul Titcheners body was recovered, police conducted a search of the couples residence. Fremont Police also said that Tichener was considered to be a person of interest in his wifes disappearance, although they did not name him as a suspect. We understand you are very concerned, however, please be aware this case is still under investigation, Brisbane Police wrote in a short note on Facebook. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA ALSO 10-year-old girl is killed while saving toddler from runaway SUV Falling rock seriously injures female inmate firefighter at Malibu brush fire 1 dead, 3 hurt after powerful waves pound break wall in Redondo Beach A former Marine pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court Wednesday to fatally stabbing his girlfriend, dismembering her body and dumping her remains in the Panama jungle. Brian Brimagers admission came three weeks after an FBI laboratory concluded that blood found under the handle of a machete he owned matched the victims DNA. He pleaded guilty to second-degree foreign murder of a U.S. national, a rarely used charge that must be approved by the Justice Department. To bring the charge, both the defendant and victim must be U.S. citizens, and the defendant must have left the country where the crime was committed. Advertisement Brimager, 39, admitted to stabbing former Dana Point resident Yvonne Baldelli, 42, in the back on Nov. 27, 2011, and using the machete to dismember her body, stuffing the remains in a green military-style backpack and hiding it in the jungle on Isla Carenero in Panama. The couple had moved to the island in September 2011 after Brimager left the Marines. An examination of Baldellis computer from which prosecutors said Brimager sent emails in order to conceal her disappearance included a search for washing mattress blood stain. Brimager told authorities that he had dumped a bloody mattress from their hostel in the ocean after the slaying, gotten rid of Baldellis dog and given away many of her belongings. He also allegedly gave a neighbor his machete, which was put up for sale online. After returning to the U.S., Brimager married a woman with whom he already had a child. They settled in Vista and had a second child. Two years after Baldelli disappeared, a farmworker clearing brush in a swampy part of the island uncovered her remains. With Brimager pleading guilty to all the things he did, it was good for us, Baldellis father, James Faust, said after the hearing Wednesday. Its been 41/2 years of torture not knowing what really happened. The plea agreement calls for a recommended sentence of 20 to 30 years, although U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller has the discretion to sentence Brimager to life in prison. Sentencing has been set for May 25. Davis writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> ALSO Ex-state Sen. Leland Yee gets 5 years in prison in corruption case Defense attempts to discredit DNA evidence in Grim Sleeper trial CarMax salesman killed when Corvette crashes in test drive; friends hold prayer circle An overflow crowd at a state appellate courtroom in Los Angeles listened attentively Thursday to the latest round in an ongoing argument about the intersection of students rights and teachers rights. There probably isnt anybody in this room who didnt have a bad teacher sometime, presiding Justice Roger Boren remarked to the court a point that may help explain why the case has drawn so much attention. A judges 2014 ruling in the case, Vergara vs. California, holds that several key job protections for teachers are so harmful to students that they deprive children of their constitutional right to an education. Advertisement Follow the Times education initiative to inform parents, educators and students across California >> Lawyers representing the state of California and its powerful teachers unions argued Thursday before a three-judge panel that the decision should be reversed and that the laws in question do not violate students rights. The justices are reviewing the ruling of L.A. County Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu that nullified the states system of awarding strong protections for teachers including tenure, which takes effect at the end of their second year on the job. These statutes, Treu concluded, make it almost impossible to fire a veteran, unionized teacher. The result, he wrote, is that bad teachers remain in the classroom, hurting students, especially black and Latino students and those from low-income families. Treus decision would end tenure as well as the practice of last-in, first-out, which typically results in districts laying off less-experienced teachers during budget cuts regardless of how well they do in their job. And Treu also threw out rules that provide teachers a longer and more complex system to challenge dismissals. First to take on Treus ruling was Deputy Atty. Gen. Nimrod P. Elias. He said the trial judge erred in not balancing the benefits of state rules with any drawbacks caused by them. Yes, there are bad teachers who have rights under California law that can prolong their time in front of students, he said. But these job protections also help the state attract and retain high-quality teachers, a benefit to students. He argued that the current laws are being applied in a constitutional manner, without any discrimination. This point brought the first question from one of the 2nd District Court of Appeal panelists, Associate Justice Brian M. Hoffstadt. Regardless of intent or wording, doesnt real-world impact matter? If these statutes were harming students, could not a case be brought against them? Elias conceded the point, but said that no rigid connection between the statutes and harm to students had been proved. Attorney Michael Rubin was up next, representing the California Teachers Assn. He expanded on Elias points, and also asserted that the other side relied heavily on anecdotes of students describing a bad teacher. That wasnt enough to demonstrate that the teacher protections are unconstitutional, he said. Arguing on behalf of the original decision was Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., who is also a lead attorney representing Apple as it tries to resist government efforts to unlock the iPhone used by one of the terrorists in the mass shooting in San Bernardino. Boutrous called laws protecting teachers pernicious and harmful to students in L.A. and across the state. But Associate Justice Judith Ashmann-Gerst quickly cut him off to question an argument in his legal brief a comparison of the Vergara decision to an earlier case in which advocates successfully sought more money for schools in low-income areas. In that case, it was clear that wealthier communities were providing much more money to their schools and that something needed to be done about the inequities for less well-to-do students, she said. A case involving teacher-employment rules seemed different, she suggested. Boutrous disagreed. The common ground, he said, was that in both cases there was a practical, harmful effect on students and that is what matters in deciding whether the teacher protections are legal under the state constitution. Justice Hoffstadt noted that some districts seem to manage well under the current laws. Boutrous responded: There are still problems even in those school districts. He insisted that everyone knows what a grossly ineffective teacher is and that everyone knows they remain in the system. He reminded the justices that Judge Treu had written that the status quo shocks the conscience. He called California an outlier compared with other states. Doing the right thing for students was an easy call, he said. Its two plus two equals four, he said, adding that students are depending on the court. This is make-or-break for their lives and our society. After the hearing, each side expressed optimism. Rubin, the teachers representative, said he believed the justices questions focused on the law rather than on responding to anecdotal accounts of harm caused by individual bad teachers. He added that the laws may be imperfect and could be improved, but they are not unconstitutional. And it is up to the Legislature to decide how and whether to make them different. Boutros also said he felt good about how things went. These appellate arguments, you can never draw too much from the questions, he said. Theyre trying to get information.... I was very pleased with the fact that the judges knew the record here, knew the key issues. They asked very good questions on both sides. howard.blume@latimes.com | Twitter: @howardblume joy.resmovits@latimes.com | Twitter: @Joy_Resmovits MORE EDUCATION NEWS The problem with slut shaming in schools University of Missouri fires instructor after student run-ins L.A. schools have given up the last of their Defense Department-issued rifles The legal fight between the FBI and Apple over unlocking an iPhone in the San Bernardino mass murder case will impact other investigations in which law enforcement is seeking access to encrypted devices, FBI Director James Comey said Thursday. The FBI has asked Apple for help opening 13 other devices in cases across the country. Since the fall, Apple lawyers have balked at taking additional steps, including writing software, to unlock password-protected phones and tablets. This is the hardest question Ive ever seen in government, Comey told the House Intelligence Committee at a hearing on national security threats facing the United States. Advertisement Join the conversation on Facebook >> The public needs to debate whether law enforcement should be able to access encrypted communications with a court order, and how to balance that with technological advances designed to protect customers privacy from hackers and unwarranted government surveillance, he said. Comey said the central question is who do we want to be, and how do we want to govern ourselves? Apple has refused to comply with a federal magistrate judges order to build a software program that would circumvent the password protection on the work phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook before the Dec. 2 massacre at the Inland Regional Center that killed 14 people. U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Riverside, Calif., has given Apple until Friday to respond to her order. Whatever the judges decision in California, however it ends up, will be instructive for other courts, Comey said. Privacy advocates and Apple executives argue that agreeing to hack Apples security features in this case would establish a precedent that federal, state and local law enforcement could use in other investigations. Meeting the FBIs demand could expose people to incredible vulnerabilities and also set a bad precedent that I think many people in America would be offended by, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook told ABCs World News Tonight on Wednesday. The FBI cannot unlock the iPhone on its own, Comey said. Heres everything you need to know about the fight between Apple and the FBI in two minutes. Sometimes we are not as attractive or as technologically talented as we appear on TV, he said. The FBI must do a competent investigation of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Comey said, and we will use whatever lawful tools are available to us. Apple has been very helpful in the investigation, Comey said, but the company balked when the FBI asked its technicians to write special software so the FBI could obtain the password to open Farooks iPhone 5c. In court papers, the FBI has said the device may contain text messages, photographs, location data and other information from Oct. 19, when it was last backed up to the iCloud, until the shooting nearly seven weeks later. Court documents filed in a separate drug case in Brooklyn, N.Y., show Apple faces federal court orders to access data on at least 13 other locked devices around the country. Twelve of the devices were listed in a Feb. 17 filing by Apple in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York. The Justice Department added another device to the list in a letter to the court. The requests include federal courts in California, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York. Eleven of the devices are iPhones, one is an iPad 2 Wifi, and another device wasnt identified. The list does not include any devices in local law enforcement investigations. Manhattan Dist. Atty. Cyrus Vance has said that his criminal investigators have possession of 175 Apple devices they are unable to open. brian.bennett@latimes.com Follow me @ByBrianBennett on Twitter MORE ON APPLE VS. FBI Chinese tech execs side with Apple -- or maybe just against the FBI In the fight to unlock iPhones, the U.S. government has more to lose than Apple Apples Tim Cook disappointed with Justice Departments handling of San Bernardino case An Islamic State cyber team has threatened two Silicon Valley tech titans, posting a 25-minute video online that shows bullet holes over the faces of Twitters Jack Dorsey and Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg. Both companies recently stepped up efforts to block postings and accounts that promote violence and Islamic State propaganda after White House officials complained that social media companies werent doing enough to smother extremist recruiting online. The potential peril for two social media pioneers is the latest worrying intersection of extremist ideology and the fast-evolving digital technology and online global presence that Twitter and Facebook represent. Advertisement Islamic State displays unprecedented online proficiency, James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, warned the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday at a hearing devoted to national security threats. President Obama met with his national security team at the State Department on Thursday to focus on the broader threat from Islamic State. Later, he told reporters that the diplomatic push for a cease-fire in Syrias civil war wont hamper U.S. airstrikes against the groups leaders and assets. We can hit them anywhere, any time, Obama said. The U.S. is taking them out, day in and day out, one after another after another. Though the video probably does not signify an ongoing plot, it could prompt an Islamic State supporter to target employees of the social media giants, according to Rick Ozzie Nelson, a former U.S. counter-terrorism official now at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. I think it does increase the risk to the employees of those companies, particularly from a homegrown extremist, Nelson said. Thats what concerns me the most. In addition to organizing or sponsoring deadly terrorist attacks in Europe, Canada, the Middle East and North Africa, Islamic State and its affiliates have used social media to recruit followers and encourage lone wolf attacks on the United States and its allies. The married couple who shot and killed 14 people in San Bernardino on Dec. 2 pledged allegiance to the Islamic State leader that morning on Facebook, for example. But they had no known contact with the group. In May, however, Islamic State claimed direct responsibility for the attempted attack on a prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas. Both gunmen were shot dead. Last fall, FBI bulletins warned that Islamic State was promoting attacks against law enforcement personnel, members of the news media and the U.S. military. It urged service members to review their online social media presence for any information that might attract the attention of violent extremists, including home addresses. The latest video, purportedly created by pro-Islamic State hackers calling themselves Sons of the Caliphate Army, was shared on the messaging app Telegram and was first reported by the online media company Vocativ. If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete you sites, Allah willing, and will know that we say is true, reads English-language text in the video. Twitter announced on Feb. 5 that it had suspended more than 125,000 accounts since mid-2015 for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, mostly related to Islamic State. Its not clear how effective that effort has been. Islamic State supporters have been known to quickly replace deleted accounts with new Twitter handles. Twitter declined to comment Thursday, pointing to the Feb. 5 statement that begins, We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism. Facebook, which also declined to comment Thursday, has taken an aggressive approach to identifying and blocking content and users who promote terrorist groups or sympathize with Islamic State. Speaking Monday at a telecommunications conference in Barcelona, Spain, Zuckerberg said his company was working with governments to prevent terrorist attacks. We feel a pretty strong responsibility to help make sure that society is safe, he said. Apple also has assisted the government in scores of terrorism investigations. But it is fighting a federal magistrates order to write software so the FBI can access a locked iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers. Doing so, Apple argued in a motion filed Thursday, would create a backdoor to defeat the encryption on the iPhone, making its users most confidential and personal information vulnerable to hackers, identity thieves, foreign agents, and unwarranted government surveillance. The Obama administration has launched a concerted campaign to press social media companies to take bolder steps to prevent extremists from using the Internet to recruit fighters, inspire attacks and publish threats to U.S. officials. Senior White House officials met with tech executives in San Jose on Jan. 8 to seek their help in thwarting terrorist attacks and preventing online recruitment. Secretary of State John F. Kerry met with Hollywood studio executives this month to discuss ways filmmakers could counter Islamic States online recruitment and exhortations to violence. On Wednesday, representatives from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Microsoft and other companies attended a three-hour meeting at the Justice Department. The session was billed as the Madison Valleywood Project because it brought together Madison Avenue advertising firms, Silicon Valley tech companies and Hollywood film and television studios. One panel examined Islamic States media strategy from a marketing perspective and discussed how to counter the extremist message, according to one attendee who spoke on condition he not be identified. Federal agencies have struggled to prevent recruitment over social media, John P. Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security, told the group, attendees said. The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Nick Rasmussen, said some social media platforms had taken aggressive steps to take down accounts used by terrorist groups. Megan Smith, national chief technology officer; Jen Easterly, senior director for counter-terrorism at the White House; and George Selim, head of community outreach for the Department of Homeland Security, also attended. The Obama administration is committed to taking every action possible to confront and interdict terrorist activities wherever they may occur, including in cyberspace, Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi said in a statement. brian.bennett@latimes.com Times staff writers Christi Parsons in Washington and Paresh Dave in Los Angeles contributed to this report. The University of Missouri fired an assistant professor on Thursday who had been suspended after run-ins with student journalists during protests last year, including a videotaped confrontation in which she called for some muscle to remove a videographer from the Columbia campus. Top university administrators announced Melissa Clicks dismissal during a conference call. More than 100 state lawmakers had called for the dismissal of the 45-year-old assistant communications professor. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> Advertisement A video clip that went viral showed Click calling for some muscle to remove a student videographer during protests on Nov. 9 that were spurred by what activists said was administrators indifference to racial issues on campus. Click was later charged with misdemeanor assault, but a Columbia prosecutor ultimately agreed to drop the case if Click completed community service. More recently, police body camera footage from the October homecoming parade shows Click telling police to get their hands off students and cursing at an officer who grabbed her. Demonstrators had blocked then-University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfes vehicle, and the video shows Click telling police to get your hands off the children and cursing at an officer who grabbed her shoulder. As Columbia police pushed protesters onto the sidewalk, Click hugged students and spoke with them before stepping between Missouri graduate student Jonathan Butler, who later went on a hunger strike, and an officer. Click, who was suspended last month, has said she regretted her actions. Interim Chancellor Hank Foley said earlier this month that the homecoming parade footage showed a pattern of misconduct. Her conduct and behavior are appalling, and I am not only disappointed, I am angry, that a member of our faculty acted this way, he said. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval took himself out of consideration Thursday for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, a day after his name surfaced in speculation to fill the vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia. Earlier today, I notified the White House that I do not wish to be considered at this time, Sandoval said in a brief statement issued in Carson City, Nevadas capital, adding, The notion of being considered for a seat on the highest court in the land is beyond humbling and I am incredibly grateful to have been recommended. Sandoval, who is serving his second and final term as Nevada governor, was an intriguing possibility for the court, in good part because of the politics that would surround his selection, especially in light of GOP lawmakers vow to block any nominee until after the presidential election. Advertisement See more of our top stories on Facebook >> He is a Republican, which could have placed GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill in the position of opposing one of their own and a prominent Latino, as well, at a time the party is already suffering from a poor image within that fast-growing segment of the electorate. Moreover, Sandoval has broken with the partys conservative orthodoxy on a number of issues, taking moderate stands on taxes, abortion, healthcare and same-sex marriage. At the same time, several Democrats and party interest groups rose up in opposition after the Washington Post reported Wednesday that Sandoval was under consideration for the seat that opened when Scalia died Feb. 13. Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, weighed in earlier Thursday at a campaign stop in South Carolina, saying Sandoval had done some good things as governor. But, she went on, I sure hope the president chooses a true progressive. At the White House, press secretary Josh Earnest declined to say whether Sandoval had been under consideration for nomination to the high court. The list is not final, he told reporters. The work is ongoing. Sandoval, 52, is long believed to harbor interest in someday serving on the Supreme Court. He stepped down from a lifetime appointment to the federal bench to run for governor in 2010. The candidate he defeated, Rory Reid, is the son of Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader who, despite their political differences, has a strong relationship with Sandoval. Twitter: @markzbarabak ALSO What you need to know about the search for Scalias successor Obama says if GOP wont consider his Supreme Court pick, the entire judicial system is at risk Republican elite are shifting their thinking on Donald Trump: You know, this could happen GOP has a shot with Latinos, but not if Trump is nominee, poll finds (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) About a third of the nations Latino voters could be up for grabs in the next election, but not if Republicans nominate Donald Trump as their candidate, a new poll indicates. Half of Latino voters nationwide say they are certain to vote for the Democratic candidate in November, the survey for the Washington Post and Univision found. Just over one-in-eight say they will certainly vote Republican. But about one-third of Latinos say they are uncertain about which party to back, and Latinos overall express ambivalence about President Obamas policies, the poll found. That suggests Republicans could have an opening. The GOP faces two huge hurdles to taking advantage of that potential, however. One is Trump. The billionaire New Yorker, who has based much of his campaign around denunciations of illegal immigrants and pledges to build a wall along the Mexican border, is wildly unpopular among Latinos. Almost three-quarters of those surveyed said they had a very unfavorable view of him. Overall, 80% had a negative view of Trump; 16% viewed him favorably. No other candidate comes close to that deficit. Both Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders had strongly positive images, while opinion on the other GOP candidates is closely divided. Trump has bragged about the finding of an entrance poll of Nevada Republican caucus voters, which found him winning among Latinos there. The number of Latinos voting in the caucuses, however, was very small, meaning that the entrance poll figure comes with a big margin of error and, in any case, says little about the preferences of Latino voters overall. The other problem for the GOP is that the issue on which Latino voters have the most negative view of the Obama administrations policies is deportations. The administration has deported a record number of people in the country illegally. The Republican candidates, however, have nearly all pledged to deport more people, not fewer. Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas have vowed to deport all 11 million people currently in the U.S. without legal authorization. The poll was conducted Feb. 11-18 among 1,200 Latino registered voters nationwide. It has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points. In the next couple of weeks, Michael R. Bloomberg will decide whether to launch an independent bid for the presidency. Thats an enticing prospect, since the continuing strength of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders threatens to force a radical choice between two extremes. Nevertheless, before succumbing to centrist temptation, the former New York City mayor should take a hard look at the Constitution. He will find that his run for the White House could precipitate one of the worst constitutional crises in American history. The problem is the 12th Amendment. Enacted in 1804, it establishes the rules for presidential selection if no candidate secures a majority of 270 electoral votes a distinct possibility should Bloomberg enter the race. The sphere of competition will then move from the states to the House of Representatives, where Bloomberg will confront formidable challenges. He will have to persuade Republican and Democratic lawmakers to betray the tens of millions of loyalists who voted for their partys nominee. But hell have to do more than gain a majority of House members. Under the amendments special rules, each state delegation casts a single vote, and the winning candidate must convince 26 delegations to support him. Even if Bloomberg carries a few key states in November, his fate will be determined by representatives from regions that rejected his candidacy. In addition, there are 11 states with only one or two House members and their idiosyncratic views will have a disproportionate say in the final choice. Join the conversation on Facebook >> Advertisement Worse yet, if a states delegation is equally divided, it cant vote at all. This means that the process will degenerate into a free-for-all as rival candidates engage in desperate efforts to nudge one or another fence-sitter in their direction. At this point, a final factor will make for more melodrama. If the House cant pick a chief executive by Jan. 20, the amendment provides an interim remedy. It says that the new vice president will become acting president while the political bargaining continues. The three vice presidential nominees will be in the same position as their running mates none will have gained a majority of the electoral college. Anticipating this eventuality, the authors of the 12th Amendment designed another system for resolving the vice presidential contest. The 12th Amendment [sets] the rules for presidential selection if no candidate secures a majority of 270 electoral votes--a distinct possibility should Bloomberg enter the race. Under this secondary scheme, its the Senate, not the House, that does the deciding, and a simple majority of senators suffices to make the choice. But the Senate can choose only between the top two, not the top three, candidates. As a consequence, Bloombergs running mate might be barred from the competition from the start. In any event, the major party in control of the Senate will almost certainly install its own candidate, not Bloombergs. Suppose, for example, that the Democrats regain control of the Senate and put Sanders running mate, Elizabeth Warren, into office. This might shock the previously paralyzed House into action: Perhaps the Republicans would abandon Trump and support Bloomberg in a desperate effort to save the country from Warren? The emergence of a Bloomberg-Warren pairing illustrates a larger point. Given the arcane constitutional rules, the only way for Bloomberg to win is by manipulating procedures that will be utterly mysterious to the overwhelming majority of ordinary citizens. If the multibillionaire does succeed in backroom deals that procure him the presidency, his ascent will serve only as a dramatic display of the power of Wall Street to lord it over the American people. Such a victory will have devastating consequences. Consider how the tea party pressured congressional Republicans to make life difficult for Obama. Life will be even more difficult for Bloomberg, who will also contend with the disappointed political revolutionaries among the Democrats inspired by Sanders. As the struggle between Congress and the president escalates, ordinary Americans will turn away in despair. This massive wave of alienation will permit the extreme right and the far left to become even more powerful forces in the next presidential election with Trump and Sanders, or their successors, taking over both parties and competing with each other in their radical programs to sweep away the Washington elite. The time for Bloomberg to consider this grim future is now. He has always presented himself as a thoughtful pragmatist who disdains ideological posturing. But only the blindest follower of Antonin Scalia the most adamant constitutional originalist can fail to recognize that the 12th Amendment, passed during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, cant cope with the realities of modern politics. If Bloomberg is a true patriot, he will not allow his personal ambition to throw the United States into a grave constitutional crisis. Bruce Ackerman described the historical origins of the 12th Amendment in his book The Failure of the Founding Fathers. He is a professor of law and political science at Yale and was a spokesman for Al Gore before the Florida Legislature in 2000. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook ALSO Horsey: Trumps simple message may carry him to the White House Despite big gains in LA County, voter registration is lagging across California Is Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval eminently qualified for the Supreme Court? It depends To the editor: Donald Trump continues to roll in the Republican presidential primary contest with an easy victory in Nevada. The theme again was the angry voter, and perhaps thats a good thing for the Grand Old Party. (Republican Partys disruption laid bare in Trumps Nevada victory, Feb. 24) For months, the GOP establishment has been looking for ways to beat Trump. Its time for the party to embrace what he brings to the election: a surge of angry voters who will vote against the Democratic machine. Past elections have been decided by a handful of swing states. Angry voters could change those outcome in states like Ohio, Florida, Virginia and beyond. And that would make all the difference. Advertisement Selby Jessup, Glendale .. To the editor: It appears that Trumps road to the Republican Party presidential nomination is clear. This is a remarkable feat for a man whose approval rating has been at around one-third of his partys voters. I tuned into the broadcast of a recent town hall meeting with Trump, and his performance was poor. When he wasnt evading answering a question, he was demonstrating his total lack of any workable plans (such as his promise to replace the Affordable Care Act with something terrific). He also lied. He stated that he did not recall saying George W. Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, when everyone watching that particular debate heard him do so. He talked about Michael Jacksons cosmetic surgeries and other irrelevant subjects. Its going to be fascinating to watch Trump face off with Hillary Clinton. Many Republicans and Democrats were certain that Trump would self-destruct long before now. But what if he wins the nomination and then implodes on his way to the election? Marcia Goodman, Long Beach .. To the editor: At last someone has gotten millions of working-class Republican voters to reject the ideas that cutting taxes for rich people and increasing military spending by cutting programs that serve the rest of us are going to improve their lives. No matter who wins in November, Trump will have performed a great national service. Michael Olson, Pasadena Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Im Christina Bellantoni, todays Essential Politics host, as we follow several threads of news on the presidential campaign and here in the Golden State. A BLOW TO BROWN: JUDGE BLOCKS PAROLE INITIATIVE Gov. Jerry Brown was dealt what may be a major political and policy setback late Wednesday afternoon, when a judge blocked his much talked-about ballot initiative to change prison parole rules and revamp the juvenile justice system. Advertisement As Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers reports, the judge took aim at Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris for allowing the governors plan to be grafted onto a proposed initiative that was already on the homestretch of the formal vetting process. Campaign lawyers said they may appeal directly to the California Supreme Court. And the reason for that is the calendar: A complete do-over of the process could mean Brown and his political allies wont have enough time to gather voter signatures. Most campaign experts say turning in signatures to elections officials later than early May could be too late. IF YOU CANT BEAT HIM, JOIN HIM? It seems as if Republican leaders who view Donald Trump as a pox on their party have finally settled on a strategy: Resist him as long as they can. Then figure out how to retreat gracefully. Noah Bierman talks to party insiders who suggest if Trump wins the nomination, his combative relationship with the establishment will end in an embrace, though perhaps an uneasy one. But theres a certain Super Tuesday ahead, and in between the newly slimmed-down group of five candidates will meet in Houston, the most diverse setting yet for a Republican debate. Lisa Mascaro identifies fiery attacks on Trump borne of desperation and other things to watch for tonight. Well be covering the debate live on Trail Guide and follow @latimespolitics for the latest. TRUMPS FIRST CONGRESSIONAL BACKER IS FROM CALIFORNIA Sarah Wire has been keeping up with the endorsements from Californias delegation. While most of the Republicans are staying neutral so far ahead of our June 7 primary, Trump earned his first nod from Congress from Rep. Duncan Hunter (Alpine). Who gets the support of your member of Congress? TRACK THE DELEGATE RACE Our data team is keeping tabs on each and every delegate. See how far the candidates have to go to earn enough delegates for the nomination. DIRECT TO THE VOTERS If Hillary Clinton manages by the end of this campaign to dramatically improve her image, she can credit the cable TV networks and the town halls they have aired incessantly for weeks, Cathleen Decker writes as she evaluates how Clinton has done. SOUTH CAROLINA HIGHLIGHTS CANDIDATES AND RACE Chris Megerian and Evan Halper take stock of the starkly different approaches Clinton and Bernie Sanders have taken to try to win over black and Latino voters. The candidates divergent paths, on display as they woo a Democratic electorate in the South Carolina primary that is majority black, reflect the competing priorities of minorities at the ballot box. Another data point: Clinton lauded police when asked about Beyonces Formation video at a Democratic town hall event Tuesday night. FIVE YEARS FOR YEE Former state Sen. Leland Yee was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison and a $20,000 fine for trading political favors for campaign contributions. Yee admitted in a plea deal that he was part of a racketeering conspiracy that involved exchanging official acts for money, conspiring to traffic in weapons and money laundering. Maura Dolan and Patrick McGreevy have the story. FATHER OF SLAIN WOMAN SPEAKS IN GUN CONTROL PITCH Phil Willon reports that the father of slain UC Santa Barbara student Veronika Weiss, one of six people killed during a violent rampage in Isla Vista in 2014, has come out in support of Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsoms proposed gun control initiative. Read Bob Weiss argument, made on what would have been his daughters 21st birthday. ITS OFFICIAL Harris took the formal step of filing paperwork to run for the U.S. Senate Wednesday. See the photos. NEW POT POLL Nearly 60% of likely voters support legalizing marijuana for recreational use, according to a new survey taken in anticipation of an initiative to do so appearing on the November ballot. The telephone survey of 1,000 likely general election voters was conducted by Probolsky Research. It had a margin of error of 3.1%. TODAYS ESSENTIALS Mike Memoli writes about President Obamas criteria for a Supreme Court nominee, and the presidents insistence that if the GOP doesnt consider the person, it threatens the entire judicial system. It could take more than a year to confirm Justice Antonin Scalias successor. Colleen Shalby breaks down that process. Things are getting even more bizarre in Carson. Brittny Mejia has the story of the city clerk recall election. LOGISTICS Miss yesterdays newsletter? Here you go. Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox daily. And keep an eye on our politics page throughout the day for the latest and greatest. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics? Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com. Gov. Jerry Browns ballot measure to speed up the parole of some California prisoners was blocked from signature gathering on Wednesday afternoon, after a Sacramento judge ruled that the public should have been given additional time to review it. The ruling, which a spokesman for Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris said will be appealed, threatens to either derail the governors high-profile attempt at major reform or force his political team to spend millions of dollars on a last-minute dash to collect voter signatures. Judge Shellyanne Chang sided with Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert and the California District Attorneys Assn. in finding that there was no substantial compliance by Harris and her staff with the 2014 state law that governs late changes to proposed ballot measures. Advertisement The political impact of Changs ruling is clear. If Brown and his political allies must now start from scratch on a criminal justice initiative, they may not be able to begin gathering voter signatures until the end of March, at best a timeline that could be too late for collecting the more than 585,000 valid signatures he needs to qualify a proposal for the fall ballot. See the most-read stories this hour >> Brown unveiled his sweeping plan in late January to allow for early parole of those convicted of a nonviolent offense, with the decision based on an inmates behavior while behind bars. The crux of the legal challenge centered on his decision to join the backers of an existing initiative, one focused on juvenile crimes, and combine all of the policy changes into a single amended ballot measure. But the backers of the legal challenge argued in court that Browns changes were so sweeping that they amount to creating an entirely new proposal, one they suggested was intentionally designed to be a shortcut in the normal initiative process. He should have just stood in line like everyone else, said attorney Tom Hiltachk, representing the district attorneys who filed the lawsuit, in describing Browns actions. He said that when the governors parole proposal was added as an amendment to the existing juvenile justice initiative, it should have triggered a brand new top-to-bottom review. Attorney James Harrison, representing the official proponents of the amended initiative, said there may now be an appeal for emergency relief directly to the California Supreme Court. The voters should have the opportunity to decide whether to qualify it for the ballot, he said in court. The case is one of the biggest tests to date of a 2014 law designed to improve Californias initiative process by, in part, allowing amendments to a proposed ballot measure after its formally filed with state officials. During the hourlong hearing in court, Chang repeatedly criticized the decision by the attorney general to accept Browns numerous changes to an initiative on which the public comment period had already endned. The purpose and intent of the 2014 initiative reform law, Chang said in her ruling, has been violated. john.myers@latimes.com Follow @johnmyers on Twitter, sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter and listen to the weekly California Politics Podcast MORE POLITICAL COVERAGE Preliminary election results favor recall of Carsons controversial city clerk Ex-state Sen. Leland Yee gets 5 years in prison in corruption case Why a congresswoman from Los Angeles is talking about Africa Scientists who flew an airplane equipped with sensors through the plume of natural gas leaking into the Porter Ranch area have found that at its peak, the nearly four-month leak released roughly 100,000 tons of methane effectively doubling the methane emissions rate of the entire Los Angeles Basin. The findings, published by the journal Science, cement the leaks position as the largest methane leak in U.S. history and highlight the need for rapid scientific response if and when such disasters do strike. Aliso Canyon will be, certainly, the biggest single source of the year, said co-lead author Stephen Conley of UC Davis and Scientific Aviation. Its definitely a monster. Advertisement The leak from a failed well at an underground natural gas storage facility in Aliso Canyon was detected by Southern California Gas Co. on Oct. 23. Since then, the invisible plume has filled homes in the Porter Ranch area with fumes, leading residents to report symptoms such as headaches and nausea. (The California Air Resources Board says it was not notified of the leak by the company until Nov. 5.) Join the conversation on Facebook >> Conley had been working with the California Energy Commission on a project to look for pipeline gas leaks in November when the agency asked him to head down to Los Angeles and study the gas pouring from the failed Aliso Canyon well. This was just a fortuitous event, that the California Energy Commission realized the importance of the Aliso Canyon situation, the atmospheric scientist said. Conley piloted a single-engine plane rigged with methane and ethane sensors through the plume and analyzed it during 13 different research flights between Nov. 7 and Feb. 13, with the last readings taken just two days after the well was temporarily halted. (The well was permanently sealed Feb. 18.) With each flight, he would start very low perhaps a couple hundred feet off the ground fly through the plume, turn around and go back through at about 100 feet higher. He would do this until he reached the top of the plume, which could take anywhere from about 16 to 35 passes. Adding these slices up would give him the total emissions from the plume at that time. Even after the first flight, the methane readings alarmed him. It was 20 times larger than anything else wed ever measured it was just kind of a shock, said Conley, who recalled thinking, What in the world was this big? Conley would typically send his measurements to the state Air Resources Board within two hours of leaving the site. They very much helped us understand the scope of what we were looking at, that this was far beyond any previous leak that we had dealt with, Air Resources Board spokesman Dave Clegern said of the measurements. Conley and colleagues also had help from UC Irvine atmospheric chemist and study coauthor Donald Blake, who used sampling canisters both on the ground and in flight to store some of the plume and take the contents back for analysis. Flying through the plume was not fun, both Conley and Blake said. The odorants in the plume alone could induce nausea, but Conley had to make very sharp turns in part because of the narrow range of land they had permission to fly over. Blake even became physically ill during one of the flights in the tiny planes cramped quarters. Ive flown a million miles, and thats not an exaggeration, with NASA and Ive never gotten sick, Blake said. But Steve Conley made me sick. Thank you, Steve, he added, jokingly. I took one for the team. The researchers were able to calculate that, over the 112-day event, the well released about 97,100 tons of methane, a greenhouse gas that is many times more potent than carbon dioxide, as well as 7,300 tons of ethane. Those amounts are equal to 24% of the methane and 56% of the ethane released in the entire Los Angeles Basin over a full year. The leak is likely to hobble Californias attempts to meet the years greenhouse gas emission targets, they added. The radiative forcing from this amount of CH4, integrated over the next 100 years, is equal to that from the annual GHG emissions from 572,000 passenger cars in the U.S., the study authors wrote. Thanks to Blakes canisters, the researchers were also able to quantify the amount of benzene released in the plume. Though methane is not known to have serious long-term health effects, benzene is a known carcinogen. The levels came out to just a few parts per trillion for every part-per-million of methane which, while elevated, were still very low in concentration, Blake said. 1 / 7 The Southern California Gas Co. leaking well forced thousands of residents in and near Porter Ranch to temporarily relocate. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 7 Signs and gates on the Porter Ranch hillsides indicate the boundary of Southern California Gas Co., where an ongoing gas leak has prompted hundreds of complaints. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 7 Porter Ranch resident Jaimee Choi prepares for her first day at work as a manager at a restaurant while her father, Francis Choi, hugs the family dog in a Burbank hotel after they were displaced by a gas leak near their Porter Ranch home. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 7 Lori Choi, right, and her daughter, Jaimee Choi, walk their dogs outside the Burbank hotel where they are staying after they were displaced by a gas leak near their Porter Ranch home. Weve come to Burbank for the clean air, Jaimee joked. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 7 Jaimee Choi prepares for her first day at a new job by studying work material in a Burbank hotel where she is staying with her family. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 7 Parents pick up their children at Porter Ranch Community School in the North San Fernando Valley just south of the Southern California Gas Co. Aliso Canyon Storage Facility. Filters are being installed in the schools ventilation system to help with the smell caused by a nearby gas leak. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 7 The entrance to the Southern California Gas Co. Aliso Canyon Storage Facility sits at the intersection of Tampa Avenue and Sesnon Boulevard in Porter Ranch. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) The results, which appear to be the first published since the well was plugged, are a piece of the puzzle that state officials say they have to put together to more fully understand the effects of the emissions from the Aliso Canyon leak. The flights that Steve Conley made provided good periodic measurements, snapshots of what was going on at a given moment, Clegern said. We need to figure out some very large gaps though, before we can really say what the overall impact is. The findings underscore the need for infrastructure that enables a rapid scientific response in these types of disasters, which are not uncommon in the U.S., the scientists said. Its not the first time this has happened in the country, said Conley, in reference to other natural gas leaks such as the dramatic Moss Bluff leak in Texas in 2004. The atmospheric scientist also lamented missing the first two weeks of the Aliso Canyon leak. I hope that one of the lessons learned is we need to have [some] sort of a rapid response methodology in place, Conley said. Somebody needs to be there in hours, not weeks. Follow me on Twitter @aminawrite and like Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook. MORE SCIENCE NEWS: Five ways scientists are going after the Zika virus Earliest known medieval Muslim graves are discovered in France Scientists survey an Orange County neighborhoods nonnative lizard populations A devastating refugee bottleneck has left thousands of men, women and children languishing on blankets and cardboard in public parks in Greece and has brought diplomatic tensions in Europe to new highs. The new phase of Europes migrant crisis emerged in recent days after some Balkan nations began to impose their own border controls in the face of continued inaction by the European Union. EU ministers gathered in Brussels on Thursday to discuss how each country was responding to the crisis and attempted to forge a cohesive path forward. Advertisement But the lack of unified action has exacerbated existing divisions between member states and threatens to do irreparable damage to the future cohesiveness of the 28-member bloc. Right now the unity of the union and lives, human lives, are at stake, said European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, who is from Greece, as he entered the Brussels meeting. This is a moment of great responsibility. Afghan migrants are the main casualty of the new border controls. Macedonia, bordering Greece and used as a pathway to Northern Europe, declared Sunday that it would allow only refugees from Iraq and Syria to pass through. At least 5,000 refugees from Afghanistan have become stuck at the border and at least 2,000 were put on buses bound for Athens. As European countries have been under more pressure to accept Iraqi and Syrian refugees because of the conflict involving Islamic State, some governments have begun to classify people from other countries including Afghans, who make up one-third of asylum seekers in Europe as economic migrants, meaning they cannot gain political asylum. Afghans say that they are fleeing violence in their country and that the European policies are discriminatory. Nasim Lomani, who works for a Greek organization providing social services to refugees, said Afghans found themselves rushed onto buses with no information about the conditions they would be returning to in Greece. They were separated from the Iraqis and Syrians, then quickly forced onto the buses, Lomani said. Everyone was afraid that they would be put in detention. The Macedonian decision followed announcements last week by Austria and Slovenia that they would cap the number of migrants allowed in daily. Austria hosted a meeting with Balkan countries in its capital, Vienna, on Wednesday to discuss how to stem the seemingly endless flow of people. Greece expressed outrage at not being invited to the talks and withdrew its ambassador from Vienna in response. In a statement, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said the decision was made in order to safeguard the friendly relations between the states and the people of Greece and Austria, but it appeared to have an opposite, chilling effect. Tensions are mounting across Europe more generally, which is putting new strain on the already fraught relations between members of the EU, which has been reeling from crisis to crisis for months. Just last week, Europes leaders were gathering around conference tables late into the night securing a deal that gave key concessions to Britain ahead of a June referendum on its EU membership. Now they have the migrant crisis to deal with and no more time for indecision. As the winter chill begins to thaw, there are renewed concerns about how many people will attempt to make the crossing into Europe from war-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Already this year, more than 100,000 migrants have made the perilous journey and at least 400 have died, according to the International Organization for Migration. Even for migrants who have already made it to some of the wealthier, Northern European countries, life is becoming more fraught. A French court Thursday said the so-called Jungle camp in Calais, home to thousands of migrants who hope to come to Britain, could be razed. In anticipation, Belgium introduced checks and 290 extra police officers along its western border with France out of fear that many of those displaced from the sprawling slum will attempt to relocate there. Austria announced last week that it would limit the number of people entering to 3,200 a day and accept only 80 new asylum seeker applications each day. Slovenia said it would introduce its own quota. Germany, which registered 1.1 million asylum seekers last year, is facing pressure to reduce the numbers of new arrivals. It has introduced measures to speed up the time spent processing claims from migrants who are unlikely to get asylum. These newest restrictive measures risk violating EU law and undermine efforts for a comprehensive and coordinated approach to deal with the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement. Greece has not taken kindly to the tightening of borders and has threatened to block all EU decisions at a summit next month if countries do not accept their allocated quota. In September, the EU announced plans to relocate 120,000 migrants from Greece, Italy and Hungary in addition to the 40,000 it pledged to relocate from Greece and Italy in May. In reality, barely 600 have been relocated and fewer than 5,000 places have been offered. Since Sunday, Greek authorities have established four camps to accommodate those turned away from the Macedonian border, most of whom are Afghans. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras alluded to the burden placed on his country when he tweeted that the European Union must treat the refugee crisis as an international problem, saying, Greece will not accept unilateral actions. In the final months of 2015, as more than 200,000 Afghans crossed into Europe by sea, Victoria Square Park in central Athens was mainly a way station for refugees looking to enter Macedonia. At the time, local tour agencies marketed luxury buses that for about $30 would transport them to the Macedonian border. Now the situation in the park resembles the years before Europes refugee crisis, when Afghans would spend months or years trying to leave Greece sometimes by hiding in the backs of freezer trucks to seek asylum in the more prosperous economies of Northern Europe. In those years, Greece became a haven for human smugglers as Afghans struggled to find a path to a country that would accept them. With Europe increasingly closed off, more Afghan refugees could end up in Turkey, where tens of thousands already live illegally because the Turkish government does not recognize new asylum seekers or maintain refugee camps. The camps in Greece are temporary and refugees are supposed to stay for only four days, during which they are expected to be registered and classified as either a refugee or economic migrant. Aid workers and former refugees say that process is likely to take much longer. Theres no way the registration and initial assessments can be made in four days time, said Arash Bayat, who works as a translator and advisor to Afghan refugees. Special correspondents Latifi and Boyle reported from Kabul, Afghanistan, and London, respectively. MORE WORLD NEWS A look at whats at stake in Irans elections Peru has copper. China wants it. And now Beto Chahuayllo is dead. South Korean lawmakers try first filibuster since 1969 to block anti-terrorism bill After a bitter and drawn-out fight, Italys senators voted Thursday to grant legal recognition to same-sex couples. The nation is the last in Western Europe to take such action. But whatever victory came in the vote was denounced quickly by LGBT activists who said the legislation had been grossly watered down with the elimination of a clause that would have cleared a path for gay adoption. One group described the vote as an ugly page in the history of our countrys civil rights. After promising to respond to pressure from the European Court of Human Rights to recognize gay unions, Matteo Renzis reform-minded government won the Senate vote by 173 votes to 71 late Thursday. The bill now goes to the lower chamber of Parliament, where Renzis more solid majority should ensure passage. Advertisement But to win enough votes in the Senate, Renzi needed backing from Catholic members of his own Democratic Party, as well from his conservative coalition partner Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, who forced the adoption clause to be scratched. It would have allowed one partner in a same-sex union to adopt the biological child of the other partner. We have blocked a revolution that would have been against nature and anthropology, Alfano said on Thursday before the vote. Catholic opponents of the bill also introduced wording to distinguish gay unions from heterosexual marriages. Pope Francis has not directly intervened in the debate, but Catholic politicians mounted a furious campaign against the adoption clause, arguing that children need a mother and a father. On Thursday, a group of 28 Italian LGBT groups denounced the bill as a sellout, stating, We didnt wait 30 years for this. Activists staged a noisy demonstration outside the Senate on Wednesday and vowed further protests. Same-sex couples who seek to have children through surrogate mothers are currently forced to go abroad because the practice is illegal in Italy. We heard some horrible speeches in the Senate about genetically modified children during the debates, said Flavio Romani, the head of gay rights group Arcigay. To keep left-wing supporters in his own party from abandoning the bill, Renzi turned the vote into a confidence vote, meaning a defeat would have forced the government to resign. Monica Cirinna, the Democratic Party senator who prepared the bill, said that dropping adoption was a serious damage to the legislation. But its still a good law and puts us on par with Europe, she said. The last government in Italy to try to introduce gay unions, in 2007, failed amid widespread protest led by Catholic bishops, and later collapsed because of internal bickering, partly prompted by the bill. Cirinna noted that the new legislation does permit judges the discretion to allow partners in same sex unions to adopt their partners children. The Senate has decided not to decide and leave it to the judges, who are luckily coming round to our way and Europes way of thinking, said Romani. The end result is that Italys politicians have missed the train again. Supporters of same-sex civil unions demonstrate at the Piazza delle Cinque Lune in Rome. (Filippo Monteforte / AFP/Getty Images) Senators belonging to the anti-establishment Five Star Movement founded by comedian Beppe Grillo pledged to back adoptions, ensuring the clause would pass, but backed out at the last moment, drawing accusations they had sought to sabotage Renzi. That left Renzi depending on Alfano, a skilled political operator who was groomed for politics by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. One government official, who declined to be named, said the watered-down bill was not a defeat for Renzi, claiming he had sensed that Italian voters were not comfortable with gay adoption. Renzi may now emerge unscathed, he said. Kington is a special correspondent. ALSO Manny Pacquiao apologizes for comparing gay people to animals BBC missed opportunities to stop sexual predator Jimmy Savile, inquiry finds In Athens, thousands of Afghan refugees are living in public parks as their path north is blocked If 10th-graders took Luciano DiNardos high school English class, it was a sure bet they were going to read To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lees classic novel about racial injustice in rural Alabama. DiNardo also gave them assignments to write about civil rights and prejudice. He showed them such classic films as Mississippi Burning, to provide them with the history of racial segregation in the Deep South. DiNardo always wondered whether Lee knew how much her words meant to young teenagers in faraway Canada. One day, in 2007, he decided to let her know. He mailed her a two-page typewritten letter, telling her about all the things that had happened to her book in the hands of teenagers in Canada. Advertisement See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Based on his assignments, he said, some had written new endings for the book, imagining what might have happened to Scout when she grew up. Others wrote subplots, or prequels imagining how Atticus Finch had met his wife. (Only later, with the publication in 2015 of Lees Go Set a Watchman, would DiNardo learn that Lee had penned alternative scenes for her characters.) He hardly hoped for a response. I told teachers at the school what I did and they all thought I was crazy, said DiNardo, a married father of two sons who lives in the east Ottawa suburb of Orleans. They said there was no way she was going to write back to an English teacher in Canada. They were wrong. That same month, DiNardo received a reply from Lee, handwritten on paper monogrammed with the initials NLH (her first name was Nelle) and sent from her hometown in Monroeville, Ala. She wrote that his letter brought much joy to my heart, that it was humbling to know that TKAM (as Lee abbreviated the book title) was being taught in schools. I should be forever grateful just for that, but your imaginative use of it really makes me indebted to you for the rest of my days, Lee continued on the other side of the page. Your gifts as a teacher should be proclaimed throughout the land. She signed it, Sincerely yours, Harper Lee. DiNardo, who retired in 2010 after a 28-year teaching career, said he was surprised when he received the letter from the reclusive author; he figured she must have been intrigued by fan mail from as far away as Canada. He was content to leave it at that; he wasnt going to write her back. I didnt want her to think, This guy is getting in touch with me because he wants a literary connection, and just wanted her to know that teachers have benefited wildly from her timeless work, DiNardo explained. It was also only the second time he contacted the author of a book. About 18 months later, DiNardo was getting ready to replace his well-worn copy of the book. Its spine was cracked, its pages either filled with underlined passages and notations or falling apart. He was transcribing his notes from the old copy into the new one, which he was going to throw away, when he had an idea. All of a sudden, I thought, how about I bubble-wrap it and mail it to Harper Lee with a short note telling her this is evidence of what her novel meant to me, and all the work I was able to do with it in the classroom, he said. In less than two weeks, DiNardo received a reply. This time the letter was shorter and the penmanship shakier, which could have been the result of a stroke she had suffered the previous June. Lee thanked DiNardo for sending her his copy of the book and wrote that she enjoyed seeing what the students have done with it. She praised his classroom notes about assignments and essays, written inside the book, as most creative. My vision is very poor now, but I have had no trouble reading your kind letters. Sincerely yours, Harper Lee. The second reply left DiNardo stunned. But it also gave him an opportunity to show his students words handwritten by the author of a novel that has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. DiNardo keeps both letters, wrapped in plastic and sealed with Scotch tape, in a filing cabinet in his home office. See the most-read stories this hour >> Occasionally some people want to handle them, so if they were in a frame, I couldnt let people do that, he explained. There will be no more letters. Lee died last week at age 89. And DiNardo has retired from his high school teaching job. But he likes to think that his brief correspondence with Lee helped inspire his new career as a novelist. His first book, The Angels Kissing Spring, launched last week, is set in a small town in an unnamed northern U.S. state in 1942. It features a disreputable young woman whose 3-year-old son is found dead in a neighbors well. She spends the next three years visiting her sons grave, and one day meets a homeless man sleeping near the tombstone and begins a relationship with him. DiNardo said he wouldnt have sent Lee a copy of the novel; it contains sexually explicit material that could have offended her sensibilities. However, he might have shared with her a literary nod he inadvertently made to To Kill a Mockingbird in his novel. Lees novel spotlights the hypocrisy of a group of women in a missionary circle who raise money to help poor blacks in Africa but who also have racist views about blacks in their own community of Maycomb, Ala. DiNardos book depicts the duplicity of women in a ladies auxiliary who show disdain toward his protagonist, yet seek to engage in charitable work. When I finished that chapter, it seemed similar to the missionary circle in Harper Lees book, DiNardo explained. But it was subconscious. Something inside me was at play there. Guly is a special correspondent. MORE ON HARPER LEE Rare Harper Lee audio interview unveiled by UCLA Author Harper Lee quietly buried in her Alabama hometown after private funeral Harper Lee was my David Bowie: How Mockingbird changed one writers life When the Chinese took over the Las Bambas copper mine here in the Andes Mountains in 2014, Beto Chahuayllo at first barely noticed the change. He kept on painting buildings at the mine, a job hed been doing for four years in hopes of saving enough to leave his village and his dirt-floor hut and move his family to nearby Cuzco, where the houses have electricity and his children could attend a better school. The new owners, a conglomerate of Chinese state-owned companies, bought the mine while it was still under construction, paying $5.85 billion to the Swiss firm that had started developing it. Advertisement The Peruvian government welcomed the new investors, predicting that Las Bambas a gray gash across the mountains set to be second biggest copper mining operation in the world would boost Perus gross domestic product by 1.4% once production began. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> The deal was part of Chinas dramatic expansion into Latin America over the last decade, a relationship that has brought enormous benefits to both sides. But Chinas investments in the region have increasingly met resistance from the people whose voices register least in the global economy. One day, in the nearby provincial capital of Tambobamba, graffiti appeared on a white construction barrier. In bold red letters, somebody wrote: Say no to the Chinese. It was an early sign of the trouble that would soon engulf the communities around the mine. The protests against it would eventually cost Chahuayllo his life. :: Chinese ownership of a Peruvian copper mine. It seemed a perfect match. In Latin America, China found a new supply of commodities to help fuel its monumental economic growth. And in China, Latin America found a way to ride the coattails of that growth. Between 2001 and 2013, Chinas total investment in Latin America and the Caribbean grew from $1 billion to $86 billion, as state-owned companies slurped up oil from Ecuador and Venezuela, soybeans from Argentina and Brazil and copper from Chile and Peru. The investment helped drive the strongest economic performance that Latin America had seen since the 1970s, with GDP growth averaging roughly 3% a year. Finance ministries loved it, and so did the heads of state, said Kevin Gallagher, a professor at Boston University who studies Chinese investment in the region. That was especially true in the wake of the world financial crisis of 2008, when exports to the United States and Europe fell. China became this new growth pole, Gallagher said. But as China and Latin America have deepened their relationship, not everybody has been so welcoming. In Honduras in 2013, the indigenous Lenca people blocked access to the Chinese-backed Agua Zarca dam, which they said was in their territory, sparking clashes with local security forces. Honduran police shot and killed a protest leader, and Sinohydro the worlds biggest hydropower contractor eventually terminated the project. In Ecuador in 2014, an indigenous leader battling a $1.4-billion Chinese-backed mine disappeared the day before a scheduled protest over deforestation and displacement of indigenous people. Four days later, his bound and battered body was discovered in an unmarked grave. And since the Chinese state-run firm Shougang acquired an iron mine in 1992 in Marcona, on Perus southern coast, the project has been beset by near-constant unrest over environmental concerns and labor conditions. Last May, police killed a labor organizer during a protest. The conflicts in some respects reflect growing pains. Many Chinese companies are still learning how to navigate diverse, politically complex countries far from home, said Cynthia Sanborn, vice president for research at the University of the Pacific in Lima, Perus capital. When youre in countries that are both democratic and tumultuous those that have diverse civil societies with diverse needs you have to deal with them, she said. The learning curve is steeper, and they have to learn things that other companies learned generations ago. China believed its newest copper mine was a test it could pass. Las Bambas was supposed to be the poster child for responsibility in new mining, Sanborn said. :: Agustine Llusca Aguilar, 35, the widow of Beto Chahuayllo, outside her house in Arcospampa, Peru. (Noah Fowler / For the Los Angeles Times) Chinas interest in the mine is clear. The country is addicted to copper, last year gobbling up as much as the rest of the world combined to cast into pipes for new cities and wire into consumer electronics to ship around the globe. Peru, the worlds third largest producer of the metal, is one of the biggest beneficiaries of that addiction. While China still invests far less than the U.S. in Latin America and the Caribbean on the whole, its stake in Peru is three times larger. Las Bambas was to benefit not only Peru but also the communities around the mine. In some ways, it has. Starting under Swiss ownership, the mine has boosted the local economy and helped modernize the region. When we got in there in 2004, there wasnt even currency people would exchange goods in the market, said Luis Rivera, a Peruvian and Las Bambas vice president of operations. No banks, no phones, no IDs. We had to establish a bank, mobile phones, the Internet. The mine became the largest employer in the Apurimac region, which has one of Perus highest poverty rates. It put 18,000 people to work directly and indirectly during its construction. The new owners led by 62.5% stakeholder MMG, a Melbourne, Australia-based subsidiary of China Minmetals Corp. built a town known as Nueva Fuerabamba for villagers displaced by the mine. Compared with the surrounding villages, it is a model of progress, with freshly paved roads, 441 sturdy yellow houses, a health clinic, running water and three churches, each for a different Christian denomination. We also give them a relocation bonus compensation for the lifestyle they have to leave, said Socrates Cornejo, a Las Bambas community relations officer. But the mine has brought little benefit to many others who live near it, and their discontent was mounting. Chahuayllo, a leader of the committee that represented his tiny village in meetings with mine officials and the government, started hearing concerns that pollution from the mine could threaten the local fishing and farming industries. Residents were worried about the possibility that chemicals might seep into surrounding rivers and the mountainsides. They seized on two major changes the new owners with the blessing of the Peruvian government made to the original plans. First, the Chinese added a second factory to process deposits of the mineral molybdenum, and it seemed precariously close to the Challhuahuacho River. Second, rather than build a pipeline to send the copper concentrate to the Pacific port of Matarani, the company decided to haul it by truck, raising fears of endless dust and toxic spills along the 450-mile route. More immediate than those complaints was another: Once the mine started producing copper, more than three-quarters of the jobs created during the construction phase would disappear. The company came with many promises of money, opportunities and work, said Roselle Chihualro, Chahuayllos brother. But we have been cheated. A local politician, Rodolfo Abarca, accused the mine of failing to provide infrastructure and agricultural investments it had promised. Why do we have this big project here this very important project and we are still poor? he said recently. Chahuayllo started attending meetings of workers. They wondered how they could have their voices heard, either by their own government or the Chinese executives who spent most of their time outside of Peru. :: The Las Bambas mine in Peru. (Noah Fowler / For the Los Angeles Times) Brewing anger turned to a labor strike and open protest last year. For three days in September, 36-year-old Chahuayllo, his brother and thousands of other poor Peruvians gathered on the outskirts of Challhuahuacho, a ramshackle town at the foot of the mine. His wife, Agustine Llusca Aguilar, stayed home with the five children to tend their horses, lambs and guinea pigs. The shouts of the protesters echoed in the surrounding hills, swelling into a dull roar. Some waved sticks and slingshots. A few flicked cigarettes into the dry grass, sparking small fires that sent wisps of smoke into the bright blue sky. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Perched above the throng at the entrance to the mine, about 1,500 Peruvian police officers stood guard. On the third day of the protests, as tensions rose, they fired tear gas into the air. Some people were trying to run away, some people were crying, and some were insisting on attacking the policemen with the slingshots, Chihualro recalled. He said his brother trudged uphill toward the police, raising his hands and chanting with the crowd, Lets negotiate. Then shots rang out, and he fell. When his brother reached him, blood was gushing from a bullet wound on his right side. Brother, wake up, please, Chihualro said he pleaded. Chahuayllo died that evening at a nearby clinic, one of at least three protesters villagers say were shot and killed by police. :: Nueva Fuerabamba, a newly constructed town built by MMG for Peruvians displaced by Las Bambas mine. (Noah Fowler / For The Times) The next day, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala dispatched military patrols throughout the region, placing four Andean provinces under a state of emergency that would last for a month. Soldiers patrolled the streets in major towns and cities. Political gatherings were banned. A few thousand people led by a few cannot stop a project of this size, the interior minister, Jose Luis Perez, told reporters. A week later, community leaders reached an agreement with the Peruvian government, officially ending the strike. The government promised to end the state of emergency and compensate families of those injured or killed during the protest. Later that month, the chief executive of Minmetals, He Wenbo, met with the Perus deputy minister of mining in Beijing. According to the company, he promised that MMG would fuel the development of the local communities in Peru. Rivera, the Las Bambas executive, said that the protesters had some legitimate grievances about labor and environmental issues, but he declined to go into detail. The Peruvian government has agreed to hold workshops in the area to discuss local communities environmental concerns. Several dozen locals have refused to leave their old stone-and-mulch homes and move into Nueva Fuerabamba, the newly built neighborhood. One of the holdouts, Porfirio Gutierrez Paniura, said the compensation package was too small. We have more land, more animals, and more things to lose, way more than the people who left, he said. We were OK with the mine, Paniura said. But we want them to understand that we have our richness, and that it has its price. Conveyor belts transport raw material from the Las Bambas open pit to processing facilities. (Noah Fowler / For the Los Angeles Times) Chinas demand for copper continues to rise, even as its economy has been slowing, driving down world commodity prices and rippling through Latin America economies, which are expected to contract slightly this year. Last month MMG announced that Las Bambas made its first shipment, sending 10,000 tons of copper concentrate to China. The mine is expected to produce 450,000 tons of copper annually for the next two decades. MORE WORLD NEWS Murder, torture, drugs: Cartel kingpins wife says thats not the El Chapo she knows President of Egypt says he would sell himself if it would help the economy South Korean lawmakers try first filibuster since 1969 to block anti-terrorism bill As most of the discussion of immigration within the GOP has focused on deploying more border patrol agents and building a wall along Mexico, Republican candidates have spent far less time discussing changes regarding the nations long standing policy on Cuban immigrants. The United States currently gives Cuban migrants special treatment enjoyed by no other group of immigrants. Under the so-called wet-foot, dry-foot policy, which was initiated in 1995 as an amendment to the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, any Cuban migrant who makes it to U.S. shores immediately qualifies for permanent legal resident status and is set on a path to U.S. citizenship. Any Cuban migrant who is apprehended in the water between the two nations must be sent back to Cuba. As relations between the U.S. and the communist country continue to normalize, Cuban migrants fear that the preferential treatment they have enjoyed upon entering the U.S. will soon come to an end. As Latin Post previously reported, the last three months of 2015 saw 1,536 Cubans attempting to sail to the U.S.. According to the Pew Research Center, over 43,000 Cubans entered the U.S. at ports of entry in the 2015 fiscal year. Conservative Candidates on Wet Foot, Dry Foot Policy Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has been adamant about dismantling the Obama administrations more open policy toward Cuba, has expressed interest in modifying the Cuban Adjustment Act. As reported by The Associated Press, Rubio described the current policy as hard to defend. "When you have people who are coming and a year and a day later are traveling back to Cuba 15 times a year, 12 times, 10 times, eight times, that doesn't look like someone who is fleeing oppression," said Rubio. "And other people turn to us and say, 'What's the justification for this special status?' That's a very legitimate point." Rubio said it was a major problem that Cuban migrants enjoy the benefits of America while continually returning to Cuba. As Latin Post previously reported, in January the candidate filed a Senate bill called the Cuban Immigration Work Opportunity Act that would seek to remove special benefits from Cuban immigrants in the U.S. "It is outrageous whenever the American people's generosity is exploited. It is particularly outrageous when individuals who claim to be fleeing repression in Cuba are welcomed and allowed to collect federal assistance based on their plight, only to return often to the very place they claimed to be fleeing," said Rubio. Fellow Cuban-American candidate Ted Cruz supports keeping the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act intact just the way it is. As the Miami Herald reports, Cruz sees the preservation of policy as an admission that the U.S. still views Cuba as a dangerous Marxist power. The CAA is a recognition of the oppressive communist regime in Cuba that engages in political repression, torture and murder, he said. I look forward to the day when the Cuban Adjustment Act is no longer necessary because a free Cuba will have returned. Donald Trump, who has built his campaign around a tough anti-immigration stance regarding Mexicans and Muslims, has revealed that he feels the wet foot, dry foot policy is not fair to immigrants who are not Cuban. As reported by the Tampa Bay Times, Trump said, "You know, we have a system now for bringing people into the country, and what we should be doing is we should be bringing people who are terrific people who have terrific records of achievement, accomplishment. You have people that have been in the system for years (waiting to immigrate to America), and it's very unfair when people who just walk across the border, and you have other people that do it legally." An Outdated Policy? The immigration policy offered to Cubans is based upon Cold War politics. Immediately after Marxist leader Fidel Castro took control of Havana in 1959, Cubans who reached the U.S. without immigration visas were allowed to stay. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson all admitted Cubans on temporary visas or visa waivers. In 1966, Congress passed the Cuban Adjustment Act, which entitled Cubans who reached the U.S. a temporary parole status, which could then become permanent legal residency and then citizenship. Susan Eckstein, a professor of international relations and sociology at Boston University, explained in a piece for Reuters that the special treatment offered to Cuban migrants was intended to win over Cubas best and brightest. She added the policy was designed to show Cubans' preference for American capitalism over their home country. Cuba blames the U.S. and its decades-old immigration policies regarding Cuban migrants for the increase in Cubans trying to make the often dangerous journey to America. In 2015, Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Relations stated that the U.S. policy contradicted the efforts to renew relations between the countries. As reported in The Associated Press, the Cuban statement read, "This policy encourages illegal emigration from Cuba to the United States and constitutes a violation of the letter and spirit of the migration accords." Lenovo will release a new smartphone with augmented reality features. The device was developed under Google's Tango Project, according to Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing's interview at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Google's Project Tango is a technology that allows mobile devices to comprehend motion tracking, depth perception and area learning. With these abilities, the smartphone can potentially carry augmented reality features. Augmented reality software overlays text or graphics on the real-life image afterwards. The software shouldn't be confused with virtual reality, which is a technology that simulates real-world views. The Chinese tech company's new smartphone was first announced in January at the CES 2016 in Las Vegas, with a release date scheduled in July. Expecting Big Lenovo expects that the upcoming smartphone will have a positive presence in China and will make the company's presence more prominent in mature markets like North America. "If you want to access the mature markets you need two things: innovative products and a premium brand," Yuanqing said. "So far we haven't done very well on both things. But with a couple of years of preparation, I think now we are ready to attack that market this year." According to data from research company Canalys, the smartphone market in the North American region has plummeted slightly (by 0.4 percent) compared to last year's sales. Earlier this month, it was reported that Lenovo's third quarter income plummeted 8 percent to $12.9 billion due to sluggish "global demand and weaker smartphone sales." Research group IDC said Western markets contribute meagerly to Lenovo's sales. Lenovo purchased Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.9 billion in 2014. The acquisition made Lenovo the world's fourth largest smartphone manufacturer, following Huawei, Apple and Samsung, according to research and advisory company Gartner. Western markets only accounted for just 0.3 percent of the company's total earnings last year. Meanwhile, 35 percent of Motorola smartphones were sold in Western Europe and North America. New Devices Lenovo launched new laptops, a smartphone and a hybrid tablet during the MWC 2016. The new laptops, which both run using Windows 10, are the YOGA 710 and 510. Both of the YOGA 710's 11-inch and 14-inch models can flex into four different styles due to its flexible hinge: as laptop, tablet, in triangular tent mode and in stand mode for presentations. The YOGA 510 now boasts of a slimline makeover to make it more portable than its predecessors, while the 10-inch MIIX 310 hybrid tablet has optional 4G connectivity. Lenovo's newest 5-inch smartphone, the VIBE K5 Plus, has a Snapdragon 616 octa-core processor and a 2,750 mAh replaceable battery. The device comes with a 13MP rear-facing camera and a 5MP front-facing one. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating 14 new cases of sexually transmitted Zika virus in the US. US health and federal authorities are investigating new reports about the Zika virus being sexually transmitted, including to pregnant women. "CDC and state public health departments are now investigating 14 new reports of possible sexual transmission of Zika virus, including several involving pregnant women," the CDC said. "In two of the new suspected sexual transmission events, Zika virus infection has been confirmed in women whose only known risk factor was sexual contact with an ill male partner who had recently traveled to an area with local Zika virus transmission; testing for the male partners is still pending." In the 14 new infection cases, the virus was confirmed in two women who had not traveled to Zika-affected countries but had sexual intercourse with a male partner who had returned from countries where the outbreak is present. Four women tested positive in the preliminary lab test but are waiting for the final results. The virus has been linked to a pregnancy birth defect called microcephaly, which causes unusually small heads and neurological disorders in babies. It is also suspected of causing a paralyzing condition called Guillan-Barre syndrome. CDC Deputy Director Anne Schuchat was surprised at the numbers. She said that the possibility of Zika being spread through sexual transmission may be possible. It could lead to complications in terms of preventing the virus from being spread, especially among couples. "Like previously reported cases of sexual transmission, these cases involve the possible transmission of the virus from men to their sex partners," "At this time, there is no evidence that women can transmit Zika virus to their sex partners; however, more research is needed to understand this issue." Schuchat adds that it is unclear why men who are infected with the Zika virus are the only ones who can transmit the virus to their partners. Researchers determined that it can stay in the man's semen but it is not known how long it will stay there. However, this could be a good thing as the virus is not yet spread through mosquitoes, so it makes it easier to identify sexually transmitted cases in the country. Earlier this month, the sexual transmission of the virus to the sexual partner of a Texan individual who traveled from a Zika-infected country was confirmed. A press release advised the public to use condoms or practice abstinence to protect against the virus and other sexually transmitted diseases. Maria Felix, one of Mexican cinema's most influential stars, will be honored in a new film about her life, with a cast that features newcomer Elsa Ortiz in the coveted role as Felix. Felix, also known as "La Dona," appeared in over 45 films between 1942 and 1971. The film "Dona Barbara" inspired her nickname, but she also starred in others like "Enamorada" and "Maclovia." The star's fame expanded beyond Mexico and her resume includes 14 films in Europe. According to People en Espanol, the film is to be directed by Fausto Alatorre, who cast Ortiz, and is expected to begin filming at the end of the year. Ortiz, a model and actress from Jalisco, Mexico, shared the news of her casting on Twitter and expressed her excitement over getting the role of a lifetime. She was excited to play the actress, who has inspired several Latinas, including Eva Longoria, who recently named Felix as one of her heroes. Me da una enorme felicidad y un gran honor el poder interpretar a la senora de senoras eternamente Maria Felix!! pic.twitter.com/n9HGeYd8xT Elsa Ortiz (@Elsaortizr90) February 20, 2016 "It is a great honor to be able to represent this woman...she is beauty, intelligence, personality. It's a great opportunity that I'm enjoying to its fullest" Ortiz said. The actress also shared a few photos on Twitter of herself dressed as Felix as part of a promotional photoshoot for the film. The iconic role could just be the one that puts Ortiz on the map. Here is what we know about the actress so far. She's a Telenovela Actress Ortiz has been building acting credits in supporting roles on telenovelas in Mexico. Since April 2015, she has been playing the role of Tamara on the Azteca-produced telenovela "Uepa! Un escenario para amor." "Uepa!" is a remake of the 2001 telenovela "Como en el cine" and is known for its comical drama and romance. She Models for Magazines and Fashion Shows Ortiz has appeared in several fashion magazine spreads in Mexico, including Avenue and Reforma. She has also walked the runway during presentations of bridal collections by "Expo Tu Boda." She's a Music Video Star The actress has expressed her love for music on her social media accounts, but her interest doesn't end there. In 2015, she made an appearance as the female lead in the music video for Paulino Monroy's song "Disparaste a Matar." The video follows a couple after a painful breakup. A new look at an old problem in demography: when people no longer identify with their ethnic group. Given all of the anti-immigrant -- and specifically anti-Mexican -- rhetoric coming from Republican presidential primary candidate Donald Trump, it may seem odd when he wins the Latino vote in a heavily Hispanic state, such as he did this week in Nevada. Part of the confusion comes from unclear demographic definitions, especially when it comes to the term "Latinos" in contemporary America. When is a Latino no longer a Latino? That was the focus of new research coming from the University of Colorado and University of Texas, which Quartz recently spotlighted. Fluid Self-Identities The Latino population in the U.S., the research found, is quite fluid, especially from generation to generation. Survey data about Latinos -- as categorized by birthplace or the countries of origin of parents and grandparents -- produces different results than surveys that categorize by self-identification. For one big example, when self-identification is taken out of the picture, the Latino demographic turns out to be in a much better economic situation as a whole. Latinos under this definition are actually more educated on average than suggested by standard demographic profiles like the U.S. Census Bureau. This could be because second and third-generation Latinos by ancestry choose not to self-identify as "Latinos." The trend is known in demography as "ethnic attrition." "To some extent we're understating the progress of later-generation Hispanics," said Stephen Trejo, co-author of the latest working paper and economics professor at the University of Texas, Austin, to Quartz. "And we're probably overstating the progress of Asians," he added, commenting on the differences in demography statistics that can arise from varying cultural standards of self-identification. "But the question is how much." Nearly all first-generation immigrants identify with their country of birth, a full 99 percent according to the research. But second-generation and especially third-generation Latinos are often left out of that demographic when asked to self-identify their ethnicity. Measures of Ethnic Identity Matter The factors that underpin this ethnic attrition vary from the psychologically loaded to the mundane. Interracial or interethnic marriage, for example, is one factor. Another is "how Latino one feels" as an assimilated or bi-cultural Hispanic. There are interesting correlations to be drawn from the data based on later generations that didn't identify as Latinos. Second-generation Latinos who didn't self-identify averaged nine months more education than those who did identify as Hispanic, and that trend only becomes more exaggerated in later generations. Economic success, social status and other quality of life factors are tied to education, so when later-generation Latinos are excluded from the demographics by not self-identifying, the data in those other areas gets skewed as well. The relative demographic chaos created by the subjective nature of self-identifying ethnicities is enough of an issue that the U.S. Census Bureau has decided to make changes to the survey to more accurately pin down ethnic backgrounds. But for now, as the political primaries inspire obsession over the direction of the powerful Latino vote, various measures of just who is Latino and who is not will likely continue to be imprecise. So as the Democratic and Republican primaries continue into more diverse and Latino-heavy states such as Texas, it's best to take the pollsters with a grain of salt when looking at who's winning the Latino vote. There can be a lot of variation depending on what questions are asked. United Airlines is considering an earlier retirement of its Boeing 747 jumbo jets. The airline company is looking to replace it with newer and more efficient planes that run on two engines. "We are contemplating an accelerated retirement plan for the 747s. If we do decide to head in this direction, we plan to accelerate widebody deliveries to replace this capacity," Senior Vice President of Flight Operations Howard Attarian said. The Boeing 747 is scheduled to be replaced by 2020, but the recent memo indicates that it might happen as early as 2018. "As you know, this is an aging fleet that many operators are beginning to exit from service, and as this happens, support for the aircraft, especially in our spokes, gets more difficult," Attarian added. Queen of the Skies The Boeing 747 made its debut on the aircraft market in 1970 as the first wide-bodied plane that increased the demand for international travel. Nicknamed the "Queen of the Skies," the aircraft is complete with four engines that require more fuel. United still has 22 of the Boeing 747-400s at its hubs in San Francisco and Chicago. The plan is to end its service in Chicago starting February 2017 and completely phase it out by 2018. Many airline companies have already retired their 747 planes including Delta Airlines. According to Vice President of Network Brian Znotins, United is planning to use the Airbus Group SE A350s. There is also the possibility of using other versions of the Boeing 777 and 787 once the 747 is officially retired. Replacements The Chicago-based airline recently ordered 35 large Airbus Group SE A350 jets that can seat 350 people. United can also add more 777-300ERs as Boeing is planning on increasing its sales for 2018 and 2019. It can harbor 398 passengers with United already buying a unit last year as a plane replacement. United is also close to finalizing a new deal with Boeing regarding a 40-plane order worth $3.2 billion. The new Boeing 737-700 planes will be available for service by 2017. A company executive also said that United is looking for additional aircraft. The new 737-700 is an updated version of the 737, which was first introduced back in 1969. United opted for these Boeing jets rather than those from Bombardier because pilots will not need re-training. "Our customers have a preference for an improved travel experience, including first class seats, Economy Plus and Wi-Fi. These aircraft are an efficient way to meet those needs while reducing 50-seat flying," United's acting CFO Gerry Laderman said. The Museum of Latin American Art will be celebrating its 20th year anniversary on Feb. 27. The first day is an opening reception for many of its members while it will be open to the public starting Feb. 28. The exhibit is open to the public until Jan. 1, 2017 with an admission fee of $10 for adults and $7 for students and senior citizens. The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and admission is free every Sunday. It is also celebrating the accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, the highest national recognition for a museum in the United States. "It's a great moment for the museum and for the community.Some people don't realize this museum has been here for 20 years and don't recognize the importance of this museum," museum CEO Stuart Ashman said. In the 20 years of its existence, the museum has featured more than 130 exhibits of artwork by Fernando Botero, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Frida Kahlo, Wifredo Lam and Diego Rivera. History MOLAA was founded by Dr. Robert Gumbiner, MD in 1996. Its location in Long Beach, California is the former building of the Balboa Amusement Producing Company. MOLAA is the only museum in the United States that was established just for modern and contemporary Latin American art. Its collections include works of Carlos Cruz-Diez, Roberto Matta, Los Carpinteros, Rufino Tamayo and Tunga. The founder Dr. Gumbiner was not only a practicing physician and HMO manager but also a collector, patron and philanthropist of Latin American arts. Before establishing MOLAA, he contributed to different art galleries such as the Huntington Beach Arts Center, the CalState Art Museum and the Bowers Museum. The museum's mission is to "[expand] knowledge and appreciation of modern and contemporary Latin American art." It has various art collections, cultural events, educational programs and exhibits available for interested artists and visitors. 20th Anniversary Program The exhibition will include about 150 paintings, photographs, prints and sculptures from more than 20 countries. It is part of the personal collection of Dr. Gumbiner that also includes Chicano and U.S. Latino artworks. Among the pieces are from Ecuador's greatest artist Eduardo Kingman and Nicaraguan painter and poet Omar d'Leon. The museum will be divided into two areas, the MOLAA collection and New Directions. The MOLAA collection focuses on contemporary Cuban art, contemporary photography, Mexican art and printmaking. On the other hand, New Directions will showcase Chicano and U.S. Latino art. The MOLAA is expecting about 70,000 visitors this year, an increase from the previous year's record high of 63,000. One of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's main cartel rivals pleaded guilty of drug trafficking in the United States and other South American countries on Feb. 23. Alfredo Beltran Leyva, who was captured in Mexico back in 2008, was extradited to the United States two years ago. "Yes, Your Honor, I helped my brother Arturo and I conspired with my brother Arturo. I was only a member of the organization," Beltran Leyva confessed. He faces a minimum of 10 years in prison, while a life sentence is the maximum punishment. His sentencing is scheduled on June 6, while he remains in prison. "For decades, Alfredo Beltran Leyva helped to lead one of the world's most notorious drug cartels, causing widespread violence and disrupting lives. With this guilty plea, justice has been done, and Beltran Leyva will be held accountable for his crimes," Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said. 'El Mochomo' Alfredo Beltran Leyva, also known as "El Mochomo" or "The Fireant," is the leader of the Beltran-Leyva cartel along with his three brothers. Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency Chuck Rosenberg said that "El Mochomo" and his organization destroyed "families and communities." He was largely responsible for the distribution of cocaine and methamphetamine in the streets of the United States. Beltran Leyva was indicted back in August 2012 before pleading guilty to U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon of the District of Columbia. The 45-year-old drug cartel leader was also a former ally of "El Chapo" before they became bitter rivals. He allegedly helped Guzman build the Sinaloa cartel into one of the biggest drug trafficking organizations in the world. He is also part of Guzman's extended family because he is married to one of "El Chapo's" cousins. He and his brothers split from the Sinaloa cartel sometime in 2008. Beltran Leyva has also accused Guzman of setting up his arrest for the alleged murder of Edgar Guzman, the son of "El Chapo." Key Witness There is a high possibility that "El Mochomo" will become a key witness if ever Guzman gets a trial in the United States. Previous Mexican drug lords who pleaded guilty in the United States courts often become witnesses against other cartel leaders. However, his lawyer A. Eduardo Balarezo said, "After considering many personal and legal factors, my client decided to plead guilty to the indictment without an agreement with the government." On the other hand, "El Chapo" may be tried in the Eastern District of Brooklyn since he is facing charges of drug trafficking in seven states. Several of the charges include illegal distribution of cocaine, money laundering, murder and kidnapping. The presidentiables are very busy with their campaigns for the upcoming elections. It is at this time when the candidates and their supporters need to proclaim the remarkable achievements of the presidential aspirants to gain more support. However, it looks like the followers of one politician have issues on recounting his victories. Getting to Know Marco Rubio Marco Rubio was born in Miami, Florida in 1971. His parents were Cuban immigrants who fled from their native land before Fidel Castro governed the country. He earned his law degree from the University of Miami and started his political career in 1998. Eleven years later, he won a seat in the U.S. senate. His victory in 2009 was both impressive and surprising. Many did not expect that the underdog politician would take the Senate seat, especially since he was behind in the polls. However, many were impressed with his dedication to winning the race and his enthusiasm in being part of the changes to make the system better. Rubio initiated the proposal for "100 Innovative Ideas for Florida's Future." Over fifty percent of the items in the said proposition were turned to law but the others didn't survive. The politician from Florida also lobbied for property tax reforms and sales tax increase. Hardy Fails to Name one Accomplishment Representative Cresent Hardy is one of the politicians who showed his support for Rubio's political race. In fact, he was impressed with Rubio's work on the Gang of Eight immigration legislation in 2013. Unfortunately, the said bill did not survive. Last Wednesday, Hardy had an interview with MSNBC's Thomas Roberts. The host asked the politician to name one accomplishment that Rubio did in the past that demonstrates that the candidate has what it takes to be a president. Unfortunately, Hardy's answer is not a good force to bank on for Rubio's campaign because he failed to give one. "On the hill I have not seen that, he's been running for the presidential race most of this year," he said. Kasich's Campaign Criticized the Incident Some other candidates took advantage of the not-so-glorious moment. John Kasich's campaign poked fun at his opponent's shortcomings and even shared the clip of Hardy's interview on Twitter to highlight that Rubio has no accomplishment to deserve the presidential seat. Rubio endorsee Rep. Hardy was asked about Sen. Rubio's accomplishments this AM. The answer was what you'd expect. pic.twitter.com/yxKKzLQuNt Team Kasich (@TeamJohnKasich) February 24, 2016 "It's weird to send surrogates out without them being able to list one achievement but at least they are being honest," said Trent Duffy, Kasich campaign's national spokesman said. Will Hardy's interview pull-down Rubio's presidential race? What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comment section below. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker doesn't think that the United States' embargo on Cuba will be lifted under Barack Obama's presidency. "It's not going to happen this year," Corker told reporters at an event prepared by the Christian Science Monitor. "It's something that could happen as we move into a new president." The Tennessee Republican stressed that there are "still tremendous human rights abuses that take place in Cuba," and these mistreatments would make it hard for lawmakers to advance the process for the lifting of the embargo. However, he said that Congress could still push through with the process "if Cuba were to evolve its behavior." The United States' economic embargo on Cuba was imposed in the early 1960s. Despite President Obama's decision to normalize relations with Cuba in late 2014, the embargo remains in place and only an act from Congress can lift it. Since embassies reopened in Havana and Washington, the United States removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Both sides have held discussions about increasing travel and business opportunities. Last week, Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz, Cuba's minister of foreign trade and investment, promised Congress that American firms would not face discrimination if they attempt to enter the Cuban market. "I believe the roads we have started to walk on is the right one," Malmierca Diaz said at a press conference. "No matter what, we're going to maintain the disposition to normalize our relations with the U.S." U.S. Politicians' Divided Views Corker said that he recently met with a Republican senator who is in favor of lifting the embargo and an investor considering business opportunities in Cuba. Corker noted that he thinks the United States-Cuba relations will "gradually" move along this year. The Treasury and Commerce departments have rolled out a series of rule changes to convince U.S. companies to invest in Cuba. This month, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx signed a deal with Cuban Transportation Minister Adel Yzquierdo to resume scheduled airline flights to the island for the first time after 53 years. Politicians in Florida, however, are opposed to lifting the embargo. These include some influential lawmakers like GOP presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who are both Cuban Americans. Former Florida governor and Republican Jeb Bush also doesn't favor lifting the embargo. Obama will visit Cuba from March 21 to March 22. The trip makes him the first sitting United States president to visit Havana in nearly 90 years. The president said in his weekly address that his visit will include a meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro to discuss business and easier access to trade and the Internet. The Colombian government is doing its best to prevent the spread of Zika virus and microcephaly. One of their strategies to combat the disease is to screen pregnant women. Zika and Microcephaly As the Zika virus spreads in Latin America, the rate of children born with microcephaly also increases, which makes health professionals think that there is a link between the two. The Brazilian authorities confirmed over 1 million cases of Zika. Meanwhile, about 4,000 microcephaly cases were reported, which could be associated with the virus. Due to the alarming rate of children born with microcephaly, El Salvador officials advised their people to delay pregnancy if possible. Other Latin American countries are also encouraging couples in the region to do the same. What is Microcephaly Microcephaly is a birth defect where the baby is born with a smaller head circumference. Babies with this condition have smaller brains that may or may not have developed accordingly. Microcephaly comes in different spectrums: severe microcephaly is the extreme case. Depending on the severity of the condition, the challenges include developmental delay, hearing and vision impairment, difficulty in balancing and movement and seizures to name a few. Colombia Screens Pregnant Women In Colombia, over 3,000 pregnant women were reportedly infected with Zika. However, the country did not report any case of microcephaly at the time. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed that Zika has affected over 25,000 citizens in the country and the rate may even rise to 600,000. To help the country prepare for microcephaly, Colombia has made it a standard procedure to follow the pregnancy developments of expectant moms who are suspected of having the disease. The procedure includes scanning the image of the fetus on the screen to check for any signs of microcephaly. However, measuring the head at one glance might not be enough to entirely determine the condition. Dr. Samuel Bautista, a specialist in delicate pregnancies, disclosed that he also checks if there are bright spots in the skull, which is the first sign of brain damage. However, the screening during the early part of pregnancy is something that pregnant women shouldn't bank on for having a healthy baby because the signs of microcephaly or brain damage only show up during the second or third trimester. Thus, expectant moms should return for another round of ultrasounds. If possible, pregnant women should have one every month until their baby is born to guarantee the child's health. Microcephaly May Hit Colombia Although there are no microcephaly cases in Colombia yet, many are still concerned that the condition will hit the country. If the link between Zika and microcephaly is confirmed, there are chances that the next wave of birth defects will be in Colombia. "Suddenly we've found ourselves in the eye of the hurricane," Fernando Ruiz admitted. Donald Trump apparently won in this week's caucus in Nevada where a significant number of voters are Latino. Despite his infamous comments against the Latino community, particularly the undocumented Mexican immigrants, Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump claimed that he won over the Hispanic voters in Nevada. Trump apparently won over 45 percent of the Latino vote in the Nevada Caucus, while Colombian-American Presidential Candidate Senator Marco Rubio only placed second. In his victory speech, Trump states that he loves the "poorly educated." "We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated!" he said. "We're the smartest people, we're the most loyal people. You know what I really am happy about, because I've been saying it for a long time: 46 percent with the Hispanics, 46 percent, number one with Hispanics. I'm really happy about that." However, according to experts, Trump shouldn't rest on his laurels for winning the Nevada entrance polls because this doesn't necessarily mean that Latinos are now in favor of him. Latin politics experts say that there are several factors that could explain Trump's victory in Nevada. Senior Analyst David Damore said that a lot of Nevada Latinos are Democrats and that the entrance poll only has a small count of Latino Republicans, which make it unreliable from the start. Latinos have been moving away from the Republican Party over the years, especially during the time between Sharron Angle and Harry Reid when immigration was a hot topic. Additionally, the marjority of Latino voters dislike the GOP overall after Trump's statements against Mexicans and immigrants. Trump's words made big-name companies such as ESPN, NBC and Univision cut business ties with him. In a popular speech last year, he called immigrants "rapists" and perpetrators of other heinous crimes. "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us," Trump said. "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." It is not Trump's first time to claim that Latinos "love him and he, them" and that he will break through and get their votes from them. "I have a great relationship with the Mexican people. I have many people working for me -- look at the job in Washington -- I have many legal immigrants working with me. And many of them come from Mexico," he said last year in an interview ,taking a hit at Hillary Clinton's stance on inclusive immigration. "They love me, I love them. And I'll tell you something, if I get the nomination, I'll win the Latino vote." The HIV diagnoses rates are not looking good and it's on track to some alarming numbers. A study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that if trends persist, one out of four Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) are projected to get HIV in their lifetime. The study also said that one out of two black MSM are expected to continue in the same vein. The analysis of the CDC was presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston. This marks the first time there have been a national estimate of HIV lifetime risks for certain demographics. However, the future is not as totally bleak as the numbers indicate. Director of CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and Tuberculosis Prevention Jonathan Mermin, M.D. spoke up saying it's time to do something to combat the continuous rise of HIV, particularly in the gay community. "As alarming as these lifetime risk estimates are, they are not a foregone conclusion," Mermin explained. "They are a call to action. The prevention and care strategies we have at our disposal today provide a promising outlook for future reductions of HIV infections and disparities in the U.S., but hundreds of thousands of people will be diagnosed in their lifetime if we don't scale up efforts now." The study, which analyzed diagnoses and death rates from 2009 to 2013, offered projections for the lifetime risk of HIV diagnosis in the country by sex, race and ethnicity, state and HIV risk group. Right now, the overall lifetime risk of HIV diagnosis in the United States is one out of 99. The study found that gay and bisexual men are still the most vulnerable to HIV in the United States. with one out of six MSM projected to get HIV in their lifetime. While Latinos and black men have direr numbers, white MSM are still very much affected with a lifetime HIV risk of one in 11. In terms of racial and ethnic groups, African Americans are the most affected. Meanwhile, people who inject drugs were found to be more at risk compared to the general population. The research also revealed that those from the South had a higher lifetime risk of HIV than other Americans, but the highest states at risk were Washington D.C. at one in 13, Maryland at one in 49, Georgia at one in 51, Florida at one in 54 and Louisiana at one in 56. Health officials continue to work for HIV protection, which includes tools like vaginal rings and PReP pills to help combat the disease around the world. Although U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson previously said deportation raids may occur under his discretion, he has revealed enforcement policies will not occur in Flint, Michigan. Homeland Security's Public Notice: No Raids Due to Water Crisis The city of Flint has been dealing with a water crisis as a result of corroded lead pipes. The problem started in April 2014 when Michigan's emergency manager decided to swap Flint's water source to the Flint River. The swap was meant to save costs but toxic water began to affect Flint's water pipes. Volunteers have been distributing free water bottles to Flint's residents, but one demographic has shown fear. Undocumented immigrants have been wary of opening the door to volunteers or visiting a facility for free water bottles due to lacking documentation and risk deportation. This fear isn't only affecting the water bottle distribution but also stopped undocumented residents from visiting health care institutions for lead poisoning tests. In a statement released on Wednesday, the DHS, the federal department responsible for three immigration-related agencies including the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), announced it will not conduct enforcement operations at or near clean water distribution facilities in Flint and surrounding areas affected by the water crisis. "Moreover, DHS officials do not and will not pose as individuals providing water-related information or distributing clean water as part of any enforcement activities," the Homeland Security statement noted. "Amongst the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's top priorities in the current water emergency in Flint is to support State and local government efforts to distribute clean water and related supplies to individuals in communities who are impacted by the emergency. During the emergency, DHS and its component law enforcement agencies are focused on life-saving and life-sustaining activities and maintaining public order. We stand ready to assist those in need and to support State and local authorities quickly, safely, and efficiently," DHS continued. January's Deportation Campaign The deportation concerns heightened in early January when Johnson confirmed ICE agents conducted raids and 121 immigrants were apprehended, most residing in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas. "This should come as no surprise," said Johnson on Jan. 4. "I have said publicly for months that individuals who constitute enforcement priorities, including families and unaccompanied children, will be removed." The Homeland Security secretary said the apprehensions, which were conducted the weekend following New Year's Day, focused on three aspects: 1. Were apprehended after May 1, 2014 crossing the southern border illegally; 2. Have been issued final orders of removal by an immigration court; 3. Have exhausted appropriate legal remedies, and have no outstanding appeal or claim for asylum or other humanitarian relief under our laws. In the Jan. 4 statement, he confirmed further deportation raids will continue but under his discretion. The Obama administration has been criticized for conducting the raids, including presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, 146 House Democrats and senators and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights -- an independent federal agency led by Michael R. Castro, who was appointed by President Barack Obama. "As the nation's civil rights watchdog, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission cannot stand by silent while our federal government deports refugee women and children whose due process rights may have been deprived in the first instance, to potentially life-threatening situations in their home countries," said Castro in a statement in late January. "To continue these deportations to proceed is counter to our values as Americans." __ For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) will now be granted the option of taking recently released federal inmates targeted for both deportation and further criminal prosecution directly into custody. The new legal access grants ICE officials complete priority over local law enforcement agencies in the handling of such inmates. Local law enforcement agencies seeking to prosecute the same person for other offenses will now be required to provide assurances to immigration officials that once their prosecutions have ended the designated inmates will immediately be returned to the custody of immigration officials. Attorney General Loretta Lynch Makes Annoucement The change in policy was announced by Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Feb. 24, before a House Appropriations Subcommittee. "This may have the effect that there may be local cases that may not be able to be prosecuted because, again, the person will be taken into ICE custody and then deported," she said. "And if a jurisdiction has a concern over that, we will talk to them, but we would have to have assurances that ICE would also then be able to get the individual back." The Obama administration's actions come roughly six months after 32-year-old Kate Steinle was shot to death in broad daylight on a San Francisco pier by an undocumented immigrant who should have been deported. Prior to the deadly incident, immigration officials had requested Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez be detained by local authorities for the purposes of deportation. Republican Texas Rep. John Culberson championed the policy shift, insisting the change and increased pressure now being felt by cities and counties everywhere to cooperate with ICE officials in order to access federal grant funding could make all the difference. Center for Immigration Studies director Jessica Vaughan also welcomed the change, telling the AP the biggest challenge could come in making certain targeted suspects don't evade prosecution by being too quickly being deported. She stressed local prosecutors will need to start being more clear and direct in fingering individuals they want to see turned over to ICE. While hinting that she is hopeful the change won't impact too many cases, National Day Laborer Organizing Network litigation director Jessica Bansal told the AP she is convinced better communication will be now be needed between those factions working in immigration and the criminal justice system. Immigration a 2016 Presidential Race Hot Issue The issue of immigration has been out a hot button issue throughout the 2016 race for the White House, with Republican front-runner Donald Trump insisting he will quickly move to deport as many as 11 million immigrants in as little as 18 months if elected president. Meanwhile, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has vowed to advance further legislation calling for immigration reform during her first 100 days in office if she is tabbed as Barack Obama's successor. Government is turning more and more to for-profit corporations to house large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers, with many of the facilities having histories of being plagued by widespread allegations of abuse and scandal. Western governments across the globe long ago turned to the practice of outsourcing prisons to privately held companies and, in more recent times, the trend has spread to immigration detention centers. At the Dilley Center in Texas, it's estimated that as many as 2,000 mothers and their children are detained by ICE at any one time on the 50-acre facility. The center is owned by the Corrections Corporation of America, the largest privately owned prison and detention center operation in America. But records reveal the company's trail of abuse and scandal at its various facilities looms just as large. In 2008, the Idaho Department of Corrections found that a local prison the company ran experienced four times as many prisoner-on-prisoner assaults as the state's seven other prisons combined. ACLU Sues Corrections Corporation of America In 2012, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued CCA, arguing facilities were understaffed and it falsified billing records it turned in to the state. Roughly a year later, the Dawson State Jail for nonviolent offenders the company ran was labeled the "worst state jail in Texas" after seven inmates died over a nine year period. In 2014, an ACLU report concluded detention centers run by the government as opposed to private companies can make a world of difference for detainees when it comes to such basic issues as human rights and more humane treatment. Specifically, the probe found state-run institutions in the U.S. were less crowded and offered far easier access to educational programs and quality medical care. In what has become a multimillion-dollar global industry that shows little signs of slowing anytime soon, the complaints voiced about how such operations are ran have become eerily similar. Just two years ago, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron awarded security firm Serco a $100 million contract for running Yarl's Wood immigrant detention center, which since then has been so over-fraught with substandard conditions one doctor declared the center was "reminiscent of Guantanamo Bay." Meanwhile, advocates of private immigration detention centers continue to argue such operations result in huge savings for taxpayers. But recent reports even call that contention into question. U.S. Spends More on Immigration Detentions Than a Decade Ago Reports are the U.S. government spends more on immigrant detention today than it did a decade ago when the number of border crossings was higher. All the while, the issue of accountability seems to have slipped further and further away from being a part of the equation. Meanwhile, CAA and other similar operations have endlessly lobbied the government to keep more people behind bars than deporting them and as of 2014 Congress required that at least 34,000 people be housed daily in detention centers. All the while, the job of tracking what comes to many of the detainees housed in these facilities has become harder to track. With many of them now privately owned, more and more the government maintains little or no oversight over them, leaving journalist with less access to records and the like. Oxford University political scientist Matthew J. Gibney is convinced that might not be a coincidence. "When something goes wrong - a death, an escape - the government can blame it on a kind of market failure instead of an accountability failure." The Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents continue to operate its peer-to-peer sharing websites despite anti-piracy moves threatening to shut them down for good. They are two of the most popular torrent sites freely accessible to users on the internet. However, popular television show 'The Walking Dead' has disappeared from their list of downloads after a legal move by copyright holder AMC Studios. Two of the biggest piracy sites online continue to operate despite threats of being shut down. According to the International Business Times, European users can once again access The Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents after the torrent sites shifted from an HTTP connection to an HTTPS one to evade web blockades. The United Kingdom previously ordered six of the nation's biggest internet service providers to block numerous websites promoting illegal download activity. According to Torrent Freak, the ISP block used by companies such as Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk by targeted over 1,000 torrent websites including The Pirate Bay, Kickass Torrents, RARBG and Torrentz. However, the domains continue to be freely accessible for illegal media downloads. Meanwhile, Australia is following suit by requiring its ISPs to block torrent websites as well. The new court order was issued by Village Roadshow and cable television provider Forxtel. It is considered the first legal action of its kind after new copyright infringement regulations were passed in government in June 2015. The new court order is targeting The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, IsoHunt and TorrentHound. The move is part of the strategy restricting peer-to-peer file sharing of popular Australian television shows including 'Real Housewives of Melbourne', 'Wentworth' and 'Open Slather'. Village Roadshow is particularly looking to block the torrent site SolarMovie and ordering telecommunication firms such as Telstra and Optus to take action. American horror television series 'The Walking Dead' is one of the most popular shows downloaded from the torrent sites. According to News.com.au, the series was pirated 6.9 million times in 2015, making it the second most downloaded series after HBO's 'Game of Thrones'. AMC Studios immediately worked to take-down whole seasons of 'The Walking Dead' from the torrent sites, operating under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents are among the top sites pushing illegal media downloads including movies, television shows, music and books. They continue to operate despite legal action threatening to shut them down. Since Kentucky's retirement funds had been recognized as the nation's worst-funded state pension, it is now pushing back a bill requiring them to disclose performance fees pad outside asset managers. They also vowed to use more transparent methods when selecting those managers. According to Bloomberg, Kentucky's worker retirement plan has been recognized as U.S.'s worst-funded state pension. The pension is hitting its downfall even after a three-year rally in stocks. A 15.5 percent return in 2014 was not allegedly good enough to boost Kentucky Employees Retirement System, which serves 119,735 workers and retirees. Officials have also been diverting the cash elsewhere, leaving KRS with only 21% of funds, which is needed to pay the promised benefits in 2014 as distributions went beyond the revenue. Reuters reported that the disclosure bill has already been passed by the state Senate. The two pension plans, the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System or KTRS and the Kentucky Retirement System or KRS, have made their stand against the bill. The two systems dispute about more disclosure and additional conditions could slow down the investment process. They also put off the idea of outside fund managers doing business, and leave funds at a disadvantage. Moreover, the bill specifies that advisors doing business with Kentucky's pension funds would be required to adhere to a strict code of conduct. But it will also be requiring them to divulge the potential conflicts of interest, including referral fees paid by the third parties. Transparency is becoming the main issue in the severely deficient $3.5 trillion U.S. public pension sector fund. The current methods mean some contracts are not available to state auditors or other oversight bodies, which includes the legislature. But the bill would make the state's public pension systems more transparent in the transactions made unanimously passed in the state Senate and Local Government Committee. CN2 claimed that the Senate Bill 2, which is sponsored by Senator Joe Bowen, R-Owensboro, would also hold the pension systems more accountable in how they handle contracts with third parties for services. It would also ensure that the governing boards have the investment experience needed to lead the organizations effectively. Meanwhile, Kentucky's transparency legislation stalled before a House committee. But there are certain concerns that the bill would die quietly prior to getting a vote. Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge devices in the UK and Netherlands are reportedly getting the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow update. Several carriers, Telus and T-Mobile, confirmed release dates for their Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge units. Android Marshmallow is coming to Samsung Galaxy S6 devices in Europe. International Business Times reported that Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge units under Vodafone in the UK have started receiving Marshmallow. The update with build number "XXU3DPB8" is available only to S6 phones with model number SM-G920F and S6 Edge devices with model number SM-G925F. Owners of these devices should expect to receive Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow very soon. It was reported that Marshmallow has arrived to Vodafone devices in the Netherlands. The update in this region has the build number "XXU3DPB8". Samsung stated that it will announce the Marshmallow release schedule for its devices depending on the condition of the market and the carriers. According to GottaBeMobile, several carriers have scheduled release dates for their Samsung Galaxy S6 units. Telus tentatively set the Marshmallow release along with a security update for its Galaxy S6 Edge Plus devices in March 9. Meanwhile, T-Mobile said that its Galaxy S6 series will get Android Marshmallow updates. However, these are still on the pre-testing stage. Additionally, it seems that all major carriers in the U.S. will roll out Marshmallow to the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Lawyer Herald previously reported that a leaked Samsung Android 6.0 release guide was spotted online. The leak revealed that Marshmallow will hit Galaxy devices in 3 phases. The first devices to receive the update, aside from the S6 series, are the Galaxy Noted Edge and Galaxy S5. Currently, Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge units in South Korea are being upgraded to Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The software update brings enhancements and new features, such as the Internet 4.0 app that enables browsing in Samsung Gear VR. Junior doctors has announced another three 48-hour strikes in an attempt to stop a new contract to be imposed without their consent. The three strikes are scheduled to begin on March 9, April 6 and April 26 from 8 am. These will follow two 24-hour strikes already held this year that caused a number of operations to be cancelled. Dispute over pay, working hours and patient safety have been cited as the cause of the strike, according to the British Medical Association (BMA). Junior doctors contend that the government failed to perform equality impact assessment (EIA) required under the law before deciding to impose the unilateral contract, Independent reported. Under the existing contract, junior doctors are paid at a premium rate for working between 7pm to 7am from Monday to Friday and weekends. However, should the new contract be implemented, the working hours of 7am to 5pm on Saturdays will be counted as a normal working day, Evening Standard reported. Junior doctors argued that the small rise in pay under the new contract will be at the expense of patient care because it will remove safeguards that prevent junior doctors from working dangerously long hours. As a result, it may impair their performance and morale. "The fact is, junior doctors already work around the clock, seven days a week and they do so under their existing contract. If the Government wants more seven-day services then, quite simply, it needs more doctors, nurses and support staff, and the extra investment necessary to deliver them," said BMA's junior doctor committee chief Dr. Johann Malawana. In response, National Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told The Guardian that the new contract is "substantially closer to what the BMA were asking for." National Health Service chief Danny Mortimer urged doctors to scrutinize the final contract in detail before taking part in any future action. He believes that the final contract creates a win-win situation for the parties involved. A Pennsylvania judge is defending his ruling to dismiss Bill Cosby's motion for a pretrial appeal in his sexual-assault case. Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven O'Neill claimed that the 78-year-old comedian has no ground to appeal on his ruling. The disgraced TV personality and movie actor is pursuing a motion that would discharge his sexual assault case in Pennsylvania prior to his trial, Billings Gazette reports. Cosby claimed that his former lawyer and past prosecutor District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. had a non-prosecution agreement in 2005. According to Cosby, the deal would prevent him from being charged over the sexual assault allegations filed to him by Andrea Constand in 2005. However, Judge O'Neill remained firm that there's no evidence of such an agreement. Judge O'Neill argued that Cosby's motion for an appeal does not involve questions of basic human rights, and is not an issue of great public importance, according to Philly. He added, if Cosby would be permitted to make an appeal in the higher court, it would just only delay the sexual assault case filed by Constand. The judge claimed that Cosby could contest that the deposition he made in 2006 could not be utilized as a criminal proof because of a promise made that he won't be ever charged. "Not only will his claims not be lost," O'Neill wrote, "they will also be subject to further review by this court even before review by appellate courts if he is ultimately convicted." The judge said that there's no pint of delaying the case despite Cosby's appeal. He reiterated that Camille's husband could file a post-trial appeal if he would be charged in the sexual assault case. Earlier this month, Cosby sued his accuser Constand just before his key pretrial hearing in Pennsylvania. He claimed that the 42-year-old massage therapist infringed their confidential civil suit in 2005 after she gave evidences to the police last year, NBC Philadelphia claims. On Monday, Cosby's wife, Camille gave her deposition over the defamation lawsuit filed by seven women in Massachusetts. Cosby's next court appearance would be on March 8. Feb 25, 2016, 1:32pm ET GM's anti-Tesla bill stalls in Indiana Senate Tesla Motors has succeeded in making legislators nervous for supporting the measure. General Motors' efforts to block Tesla Motors from selling cars in Indiana have hit a snag. The Detroit-based automaker allegedly authored and pushed for a bill that would effectively ban Tesla from selling cars directly to customers in the state. An early draft of the proposal had received nearly unanimous support from the state Senate. After learning of the bill, Tesla rallied owners and supporters to contact legislators and complain. The efforts appear to have been successful, as the state Senate Commerce and Technology Committee has voted to stall the bill until it can be reviewed in a summer study session. Republican state Senator Jim Buck claims to have encountered 'incivility' from critics, while the bill's author, Republican state Rep. Keven Mahan, has heard that constituents view the legislation as 'anti-free market,' according to statements published by IndyStar. GM appears to have confirmed its role in the initiative. Rather than backing down, the company has vowed to step up its efforts to push for direct sales across the country. "GM is very pleased that we were able to elevate the issue of disparity impacting our dealer partners in Indiana, that this received as much attention as it did, and that this issue advanced as far as it did. We appreciate the Indiana legislature for taking this on, debating, and helping raise the profile of this important issue, which demonstrates the inequity of different competitors having different rules in the marketplace," the automaker said in a statement. Federal Trade Commission officials have suggested direct-sales bans are bad for consumers. In many states, such proposals have been met with bipartisan resistance from eco-conscious Democrats and free-market Republicans. Feb 25, 2016, 3:31pm ET VW negotiations over diesel scandal are "progressing," lawyer says VW may finally be making headway in its diesel scandal. Volkswagen's ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Justice Department, the EPA and the state of California regarding its massive diesel scandal are "progressing, the automaker's lawyer told a federal judge on Thursday. Robert Giuffra, a lawyer representing VW, made the proclamation earlier today in federal court in front of U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer. "The discussions are progressing, he said, according to Automotive News. VW is scrambling to come to a settlement over its use of cheating devices in nearly 600,000 diesel-powered vehicles sold here in the United States. The embedded software allowed those diesels to pass EPA testing but spewed as much as 40 times the legal level of greenhouse gases during regular driving. Breyer urged VW to have a solution to the problem by March 24, when the German automaker is scheduled to meet with the EPA about a fix for the affected vehicles. "It seems to me six months is long enough to determine whether or not there is an engineering process that can be utilized by Volkswagen and will be acceptable to the U.S. government, Breyer said. VW has already presented one possible fix to regulators, but that idea was shot down. The Justice Department sued VW over the emissions scandal last month. The automaker could be facing fines totaling as much as $46 billion. The company is also open to lawsuits from disgruntled owners and dealers. Connect with ustoday! Considering your options as an engineering student and trying to get a sense of life as part of Lehigh's engineering community? Or maybe you are a member of the community interested in research and educational success around the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science. Subscribe to our e-newsletter Rossin Connection to stay current with all things Lehigh Engineeringwith updates on student, faculty, and alumni achievement, campus events and programs, and more! Subscribe to Rossin Connection >>> A Lehigh County judge should know by April if a former Allentown police officer accused of repeatedly kicking suspects or using a stun gun on them will be heading to trial. Ryan Alles appeared in court Thursday for a status conference before Lehigh County Judge James Anthony. Following a private meeting in the judge's chambers, the attorneys requested a new status date for April 1. Anthony said the two sides needed time to see if they could "work something out." Defense attorney Eric Dowdle would only categorize the talk as discussions, and not plea deal discussions. Alles, who is charged with three counts each of aggravated assault, simple assault and official oppression, remains free on $50,000 bail. The three accusers testified about their assaults at Alles' preliminary hearing in May. The city fired Alles last March. Raul Alejandro Roman Rivera said that in December 2014, he was handcuffed and lying on his stomach when he was punched and kicked in the head by a police officer. A fellow officer previously testified it was Alles who assaulted Rivera. Rivera was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital, where he received three staples in his head and both eyes were swollen. Robert Fontanez previously testified that on June 12, 2014, he was hit with a stun gun and kicked between 10 and 15 times. He received five sutures near his left eye and treatment for the cuts, bruises and "kick marks" on his head. Daniel Hargrove testified that on Dec. 29, 2103, Alles struck him in the back with a stun gun, smashed his face into the parking lot macadam, and then kicked him in the middle of his back. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Bethlehem police seized 120 packets of heroin during a Thursday morning drug raid in the 800 block of Hess Street. (file photo) The Bethlehem Police Department's Special Operations Bureau/Vice Unit, the Northampton and Lehigh County Drug Task Force and the Bethlehem Police Department's Emergency Response Team obtained a search warrant shortly after 6 a.m. to raid the home of Jose Luis Rodriguez, 30, a suspected drug dealer. Officers found Rodriguez in an the attic bedroom. A search of the attic yielded 70 packets of heroin in a knotted plastic bag held together with rubber bands, a cellphone, documents pertaining to Rodriguez and $1,447 in cash, according to court records. Police also searched Rodriguez's rental vehicle and seized another 50 packets of heroin in a knotted plastic bag held together by rubber bands. The vehicle was parked in front of the home, police said. Rodriguez is charged with felony possession with intent to deliver drugs, felony criminal use of a communications facility and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. He was arraigned before District Judge Nancy Matos-Gonzalez, who set bail at $200,000. In lieu of bail, Rodriguez was taken to Northampton County Prison. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Bethlehem wants a judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging a rezoning of Martin Tower that makes it easier to tear down the building and aims to spur the site's redevelopment. A group of city business owners and residents sued city council in January over its December vote to rezone the 53-acre site. The suit filed in Lehigh County Court argues that the city did not follow protocols for planning commission review, thus voiding the rezoning. The city argues in its Feb. 19 response that the nine plaintiffs have no standing in the case. The majority of the businesses in question, except Taylor Family Market, which owns a nearby gas station and convenience store, are not even near Martin Tower, the response states. "A person is not simply 'aggrieved' simply because he claims that a land use decision will result in a decreased profitability for his business," city solicitor William Leeson writes in the lengthy response. The lawsuit was filed by the Hotel Bethlehem; Donegal Square; the Taylor Family Partnership; Rocco and Electra D'Amato; Steven and Barbara Diamond; Deni Thurman-Eyer; Robert Romeril; and Clint and Sonia Walker. Downtown merchants argued throughout the rezoning process that the city was effectively creating a third downtown business district sitting in the City Revitalization and Improvement Zone. With the rezoning and CRIZ designation, Martin Tower businesses would have an unfair advantage, they said. The rezoning allows developers to tear down the tower and paves the way for a mixed-use development of the site including homes, retail and offices. The rezoning was necessary to eliminate the requirement that the landmark tower be reused in any redevelopment, which was enacted in 2006. The plaintiffs claim the city did not comply with the Municipal Planning Code's 30-day review window for the city planning commission to weigh in on any changes. The city sent a draft to the planning commission on Nov. 12, just 26 days before city council's Dec. 8 hearing on the rezoning, the plaintiffs argue. Council then voted Dec. 15. This procedural mistake should nullify the zoning, according to the plaintiffs. Leeson contends that Bethlehem met all requirements. The changes were drafted by the city's planning department and properly forwarded to the commission. Notice was actually given Nov. 5, when City Clerk Louise Kelchner notified Planning Director Darlene Heller of the changes in a memo, Leeson argues. Heller is also the planning commission secretary. Planners were to meet Dec. 7 and review the rezoning. But Chairman James Fiorentino cancelled that meeting after correspondence surfaced showing the administration and developer discussed details of the proposal months before it was made public. A Right-to-Know request by blogger Bernie O'Hare showed involvement by owners Lewis Ronca and Norton Herrick as early as January 2015. The rezoning proposal was not announced publicly until July 7, when city council was told it was going before the city planners later in the week. In January, Fiorentino slammed the city's administration for not telling "the complete truth" about the site's rezoning. Fiorentino said he believed, in light of the correspondence, that the administration failed to disclose details of the rezoning to the commission when asked. Some of the plaintiffs felt that Mayor Bob Donchez's administration withheld the role of the site's owners in the drafting of the rezoning. Some even said it was payback for political contributions. Donchez denies the rezoning was a political payback but acknowledges the developers asked for the city's help to jump start the site's redevelopment. The rezoning was drafted by the city administration, he said. Leeson also argues in his response that the plaintiffs filed their appeal under the wrong statute, the Municipal Code, not the Judicial Code, making it void. Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Several pedestrian bridges and at least one road were closed Thursday morning after heavy rain caused significant flooding in Bethlehem's Colonial Industrial Quarter. Yellow police tape blocked access to bridges that span the Monocacy Creek, the source of the flooding. Conestoga Street remained closed to traffic as of about 9:30 a.m. Mike Alkhal, Bethlehem's public works director, said crews cleaned debris off Conestoga and were preparing to reopen it by about 11 a.m. He said another trouble spot in the city was at the intersection of Elizabeth Avenue and Mauch Chunk Road. The creek flooded the area, forcing road closures that have since been lifted thanks to receding waters, he said. There's little crews can do at this point in the Colonial Industrial Quarter. They need to wait for waters to recede there. Once they do, they'll start cleanup, according to Alkhal. The industrial quarter, home to several historic structures built centuries ago by the Moravians and the site of several Musikfest venues every August, has been prone to flooding over the years. It was not the only area in the Lehigh Valley hit with flooding. Roads also closed because of flooding in Easton, Bethlehem Township and elsewhere in the Valley. A flood warning issued by the National Weather Service for the region is set to expire at 1:45 p.m. Thursday. Nick Falsone may be reached at nfalsone@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickfalsone. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Nicholas Labar broke his leg sledding at 14 and was prescribed opioid painkillers. The Bangor area native remembers sitting there with a Monster Energy in one hand and two Percocets in the other and thinking he'd found his calling, what he wanted to do with the rest of his life: using opiates. Nine months later the metal inserted to help his bones fuse was removed, and he was cut off. "I kind of went crazy. I didn't know you could physically withdraw," Labar told a forum Wednesday in Lehigh County on heroin. His neighbor introduced him to heroin at 15. It wasn't until his 14th treatment center at age 21 that he finally got sober, on Dec. 30, 2013. "The reason why I wanted to come up here is to offer hope," Labar said during the event at Whitehall High School. "You can recover. You got to do the work. I can't do that for you. I can only lead you to the path. You got to do it. But I tell you what: When you do do it, life gets a lot better." Some in the audience weren't so lucky, as they mourn the loss of their daughters, a son, a cousin. There is no one answer to the growing plague of heroin in the Lehigh Valley and elsewhere across the United States, panelists said at the forum hosted by state Rep. Daniel McNeill, D-Lehigh. It starts with education and with prevention, being the nosy neighbor on the lookout for signs of addiction in others, including your children or their friends, participants said. Donna Jacobsen spoke of her daughter, now 4 1/2 years sober, but once hooked on heroin that she turned to after becoming addicted to the prescription anti-anxiety medication Xanax. Jacobsen recalled being shocked when a counselor referred to addiction as a disease. "I didn't think it was a disease," Jacobsen said. "I thought it was a moral failing." Help is available, including for those without insurance, said Layne Turner, Lehigh County's administrator for drug and alcohol treatment. For those with insurance, his office helps navigate the options available. His office, he said, is Lehigh County's best-kept secret, and he invited those in need of treatment to call there at 610-782-3555. The number for the equivalent office in Northampton County is 610-829-4725. Lehigh County has seen five overdose deaths over the last few days, District Attorney Jim Martin said. County Chief Deputy Coroner Andrew Kehm reported 117 such deaths in 2015 and 21 suspected overdose deaths so far this year that are pending further investigation. Investigations can be costly, starting out at $2,500 to $3,000, and it can be difficult to pry information out of families who may not want to cooperate. The parents of two young women who they said died of overdoses Sunday interrupted Kehm from the audience, saying they're more than ready to help and fear they aren't getting the chance. "If we don't act together, you guys can't beat this," one of the fathers said. "You need us, so let's find a formula. We have to stand together and take our streets back." The father at his side, who also lost his daughter, said testing showed his daughter had fentanyl in her system, an opiate more powerful than street-level heroin that has been turning up in doses sold to unsuspecting users throughout the region. Martin, the district attorney, said the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office monitors prescriptions to check for overprescribing physicians or pharmacists distributing suspicious quantities, and will bring issues to the attention of local prosecutors. But the fentanyl may be skirting checks and balances, hitting the streets from Mexico, said Devin Reaves, a former substance abuser himself who now counsels users through Young People in Recovery in Philadelphia. Wednesday's forum also touted naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan and available to anyone through pharmacies. If administered promptly, it can reverse an opiate overdose. Dr. Matthew Cook, an emergency medicine toxicologist for Lehigh Valley Health Network, cautioned that the effects of opiates may outlast those of Narcan, so medical care is required even if someone who is overdosing gets the antidote by injection or nasal spray. Then there are the complications that come from delaying treatment, Cook said: organ failure from going too long without oxygen, limbs that must be amputated because of how an overdose victim crumpled up and lay that way for extended periods. The stories of Labar, from Bangor, and Jacobsen's daughter represent the more common trajectory of how heroin users find themselves hooked after getting started with prescriptions, Cook said. "I thought I failed as a parent," Jacobsen said. "I thought I did something obviously wrong: How did my daughter end up being a heroin addict? "I did nothing wrong. I was a good parent. I'm still a good parent. But I didn't know that it was a disease and I didn't know how it was going to affect my daughter when she was first introduced to the medication." Looking ahead, McNeill, who is facing a re-election battle this year, said he is looking for approval from Gov. Tom Wolf to start a drug caucus in Harrisburg with his colleague, Rep. Ed Gainey, D-Allegheny. Lehigh County Sheriff Joe Hanna said he's spent 37 years in law enforcement, including heading up vice during part of his 34-year tenure with the Allentown Police Department. He said he'd never seen anything like the problems with opiates, heroin in particular, that he's witnessed over the last year and a half. "I can assure you that as the sheriff, we are going to heed this call to action and our office is going to do whatever we can to work with you and curb this devastating epidemic that we have going on," said Hanna, who was sworn-in last month. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A report on the Fort of Maryborough would be issued shortly, Chairman Michael Parsons told the Laois Heritage Society annual general meeting in Portlaoise last Thursday night. The centrally-located Fort, incorporating the site of the former Odlums Mill and bounded by some of the original town wall, is of major historic importance. Mr Parsons said it was Irelands first plantation fort. He vowed: There will be no messing with that fort. Architect Richard McLoughlin has compiled the report on the structure, with funding from the National Heritage Council and Laois Heritage Society. Michael Kerry, a member of a long-established Portlaoise family, stressed the importance of having a museum/heritage centre in the town. He added: Odlums is down there and theres nothing only lorries in it. Six years ago a shopping centre was going to be built there. Chairman Parsons: I could not agree with you more. The County Council have responded very positively to the report. We have met the new County Manager and I believe he is sincerely listening to what we are saying. The traders had also come on board, stated Mr Parsons, and were planning to hold a festival next June centred on the Fort. Mr Kerry: Now its election timehas anybody approached the TDs? None of them has done nothing for us. Theres not enough being done. I am not going to come here and listen to bullshit. Its either going to be done or not going to be done. Chairman Parsons said the Society would form a sub-committee to work towards getting a heritage centre/museum, and he hoped Mr Kerry would be in a position to serve on that body. Society President Teddy Fennelly: We have been pushing the need for a heritage centre/museum. We are being listened to, at least. Earlier, Mr Parsons had welcomed everyone to the well-attended agm and said a lot of good work had been done during the year. He added: We are delighted to have attracted a lot of new members. Secretary Dolores McEvoy said membership had risen in the year from 27 to 58. The Society now had a website and was on Facebook, she revealed. Its Schools Heritage Project had attracted 40 projects and 80 essays. It was also involved with the 1916 centenary programme, she added. Treasurer Jim Keller reported on a successful financial year. Officers: President, Teddy Fennelly; Vice-presidents, Jack Hyland, Canon Sean ODoherty and Col Donal OCarroll; Chairman, Michael Parsons; Vice-chairman, Jim Fleming; Secretary, Dolores McEvoy; Asst secretary, Margot Coogan; Treasurer, Jim Keller; and PRO, Kathleen Culliton. Committee: Pat Delaney, Michael Dowling, Noel Hume, Mary Lalor, Andy McQuillan, Roy Meredith, Sean Mullins, Sean Murray, Fr Jack Walsh, Shane ORourke, Owen OSullivan and Ronnie Matthews. If hardwork gets you elected then Thomasina Connell believes she has done what it takes to get elected. Added to the Fine Gael ticket late last year, Thomasina says she has knocked on as many doors as she can and met close to 10,000 people over the last four months. A decision by the Fine Gael Laois strategy committee meant the second Fine Gael candidate wasn't allowed to put posters up in Portlaoise, which Ms Connell says has made things more difficult for her. It has been difficult at times, I dont have paid stuff, I dont have an office. Everyone that is out with me is volunteering and really want to deliver change and want to help me get there. Ms Connell continues: The divide on postering, hasnt helped me. It was a decision made by the strategy committee of Fine Gael in Laois. I didnt agree with it and I've had to to work twice has hard as every other candidate to get my name out there. Along with the traditional door to door canvas, Ms Connell has also been using social media to get her name out there. I put a video online last week and its had over 14,000 views already, she says. But she doesn't think that social media can replace the canvas. You have to have an awareness that although you are in the election zone, it's not that person's priority at that moment. But for me as a first timer, it's about getting to as many people as I can. Ms Connell is quick to dismiss any suggestion that she is only part of the race to make up the numbers for Fine Gael. She says any suggestion at the start that as a female candidate she was part of a gender quota, just made her work harder. Perhaps all of that at the beginning made me acknowledge that I would have to work twice as hard as anyone else, which is unfortunate that that is the way society would think. That as a woman your just making up the numbers or part of the quota. But I think because I worked so hard I dont think anyone can say that I am a token anything. I got out before all of the other candidates because I had to raise my own profile - let people know who I am. Ms Connell thinks that reforming the Dail and making it more 'family-friendly' would do more for encouraging women into politics than any gender quota would. That's one of the things that I would really like to reform. Whatever political parties have done to encourage women into politics , it hasn't happened organically and now we've introduced gender quotas. If we just made the Dail more family friendly it would go a long way in raising awareness of women getting involved and being able to get stay in it. Ms Connell continues: I'm here stepping out of my own life too and I'm not taking a seat from a parent, but I think when you make that decision to do it - you know what's ahead of you. I think some people whose family were involved are more reluctant to go into it, because their parents were away or it's a 24-hour job and perhaps we have to get away from that. A solicitor by profession, Ms Connell feels that she has something different to offer the electorate of Laois and South Kildare compared to the other candidates. I think I am people's best chance to make changes - Im not superwoman, but I have experience. Im energetic and enthusiastic. Im 33 so Im going to be around for a long time and Im 100% committeed to dealing with the problems. While some candiates might just test the water on their first time out, Thomasina truly believes she can win a seat and become the first woman to represent Laois in Dail Eireann. I'm really confident that I'm going to get elected. For me it's a matter of getting out and meeting people. If people have only read about me or seen my poster, they can't get a feel for who I really am. We have never elected a woman here in Laois and I really want to be the first one. I believe I've so much to contribute. The main issues in this constituency, as Ms Connell sees it, are the hospital and jobs. I find it difficult to reconcile with the fact that we are a first world country with such a poor health service. But I really want to contribute as part of the next Government to getting it right. I think the government have to be 100% committed to Portlaoise, its not good enough just to keep it open, it has to have the services too. I dont think its too late. There is money there, we need to put it into Portlaoise Hospital. The Fine Gael candidate would also like to see a focus group investigate the low rate of Laois students attending third level education. We're only 50 minutes from Trinity College and UCD yet only 39% of Laois students attend third level college. This needs to be looked at. People here are smart, we have excellent schools so whats stopping us from progressing to 3rd level. Ms Connell continues: A lot of people are fed up commuting, we all know the government doesnt create jobs, a government just creates the framework to do that. I think its regrettable that so many people are commuting to Dublin, like I was. We have to do something about it, but we cant always be looking to the IDA. We have the transport links and we definitely have the people. High-speed broadband, Ms Connell say, needs to be delivered earlier than 2018, as promised by her party. Fine Gael are committed to rolling out high speed broadband by the end of 2018. I think thats too long for us to wait here in Laois, we need to focus on getting that as soon as possible. It's one of the biggest factors an industry will look at when coming to set up here. Ms Connell also feels that extra gardai should be part of the National Security Plan rather than a political decision. And in relation to the rising crime figures, she says that the courts and deterrents need to be looked at also. When asked if she thought Fine Gael would go into partnership with Fianna Fail to form the next Government, Ms Connell said this was a matter for the voters to decide. It's not up to me, it's not up to Enda Kenny to stipulate either. It's a matter for the Irish people. At the end of the day, it's all about mathematics. Traditonally, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael would have had opposing policies but nowadays we're not so far apart. It's up to everybody who votes and what the results of the election will be. Ms Connell continues: In terms of stability for the country, we're looking for people to re-elect the current Fine Gael/Labour Government. We want to be at the forefront of the Government. Things have got better because the Government put in the framework for that to happen. But it was the people who worked away and paid more so we could get back on our feet. I'd really like to see the same Government get back in for another five years to get us really going again. General Elections used to be plain sailing for outgoing Government Minsters. Years in office delivering to their constituents meant topping the poll was often a foregone conclusion. That all changed in 2011 when the Fianna Fail and the Green Party Government was filleted by voters on the back of the country's crash. Fine Gael Ministers have spent five years mainly in cutback mode. This means that there is a much smaller election war chest. Charlie Flanagan faces the added problem that he has only been a Minister since 2014. As Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade, he has been out of the country many times and his department does not have much of a budget for domestic or local projects. He believes local voters will understand these challenges. I'm very proud to have served as a cabinet Minister conscious of the fact that this Government was faced with a huge and daunting challenge to bring the country back from bankruptcy to a sound economic footing. We committed to fixing the economy in 2011 and we have done that to some measure, he said. He wants to continue the job of getting people back to work and to make work pay. He is aware that austerity has meant that services have not benefited but insists the Goverment was unable to invest because it was handcuffed by the the Troika for the first three years of office. But, he says Ireland now has strong economic growth and 135,000 jobs created. He says Laois lost 4,000 jobs during the crash. He accepts that public sector workers have suffered hardship. He hopes FG can give back to these workers if returned to office, but he makes no promises. I don't do stunt politics or make wild promises. I am accountable for the committments I have made and I don't have the luxury, that perhaps some of the other candidates have, of making promises that ultimately I can't deliver, he said. He admits that the campaign has been difficult owing to austerity and he rejects the notion that it will be an easier campaign because there are just six candidates. The Government has not sorted out the health services, and the continued wisdom of reconfiguring hospitals by removing some services like Portlaoise's A&E holds sway in the HSE. The Minister admits that the future of services at Portlaoise hospital is coming up on many doorsteps. He concedes that people want specific answers on what is happening. He says he has been criticised nationally for taking a 'local view' to keep services at Portloaise hospital. I make no apologies for this. I will continue to be a strong advocate for services here in Portlaoise, especially when the hospital was so badly treated in the past by Fianna Fail in particular, he said. He says maternity services have improved through partnership with the Coombe Hospital. He wants local people to look to the positives, such as the cranesnow building the new Medical Assesment Unit. As to the A&E's future he makes no commitments on what services will be there in future, but he believes it is important that it be retanied There are various reports in the course of preparation, the most pressing of which is Dr Susan O'Reilly's (CEO of the Dublin Midland's Hospital group). I would like to see that published and put out for consultation among the stakeholders, he said. Minister Flanagan said they took seriously the views that there is no reduction of A&E services in Portlaoise. He regretted that Dr O'Reilly has not met with the Laois GPs He declined to comment specifically on warnings from consultants that what the HSE is planning is unsafe and risky for patients. There were 750 people in there (the A&E) in January there are between 35,000 and 40,000 visitors every year. This is proof positive to me that the A&E in Portlaoise is vital. Having said all that there is an acceptance on behalf of the people of Laois that complex surgery will not be performed and hasn't been for many years, he said. He pointed to the challenges and opportunites for Portlaoise in linking up with Dublin hospitals in the hospital groupings. Overall, the Minister has big problems with the performance of the HSE on both the A&E and the maternity issues. He acknowledges that it should have been scrapped as promised. I regret that in the past five years that we haven't abolished the HSE. I want to see it reconfigured. I am not happy with HSE, the decision making unit or the accountability, he said. Job creation is a mantra for FG in this election and there is a long way to go in Laois. Outside the public service, retail and farming there is no big sector. Minister Flanagan, who had the job of promoting trade abroad, said he remains disappointed at the IDA's marketing of Laois, despite the fact four overseas companies visited Laois in 2015. He said there are 1,300 jobs in Irish owned Enterprise Ireland supported firms in Laois. He said the Laois Local Enterprise Office is also taking on an intensive role in helping business. As to whether Laois has been left behind in job creation, Minister Flanagan pointed to a fall of 20 per cent in the live register. People are returning to work but of course that needs to happen in greater numbers. I am concerned that thousands of people are commuting to Dublin each day but it is better than seeing them emigrating to Sydney. But, of course, what we should be doing is bringing jobs to people, rather than bringing people to jobs, he said. He believes the State can afford to lose 4billion by abolishing the USC. He believes all jobs lost in the crash can be restored by 2018. Achieving both will have a spin-off for prison officers and other State employees. People (public servants) want to see a benefit in their pay packet. The squeezed middle includes thousands of public servants who have made the sacrifices. Now that the economy is in recovery mode, it should be a priority of the Government to acknowledge and relieve that hardship, he said. Fine Gael has worn the badge of the law and order party for many years and catching criminals is a policing issue influenced by political decision. Since 2011 gangs have exploited policing cuts to roam the countryside. Laois towns are, arguably, less safe . Minster Flanagan accepts that motorways have opened access to criminals. He said Gardai will and have been equipped to deal with these, with extra cars and more new gardai. However, he refuses to committ to reopening smaller garda stations or restoring a 24-hour station in Abbeyleix. For rural crime I would far prefer to see rapid and regular patrols at night on motorcycles, cars or checkpoints. I think we can offset any downsides of closures. I firmly believe that it is more important to have gardai out of offices than in them. he said. The Minister does not foresee an FF/FG deal. I don't believe we can go back to the old days of Fianna Fail. It would be a disaster for our country to undo, by short-term promises and stunts, what has been an extremely difficult endeavour to be in charge of our affairs again,he said. He does not deny that there is a view in FG that a deal could be done with FF, but he would find it tough to stomach. He conceded that voters are in charge. I would find it extremely difficult to work with people who presided over the wrecking of an economy. I don't see it as being an option. I am working towards maximising the FG vote and seats. Ultimately the people are sovereign, he said. Minister Flanagan worked in Northern Ireland to hammer out a deal between the DUP and Sinn Fein. He sees no parallels between SF and the DUP and FF and FG. He admitted that stable government was the key result, but he could not see this achieved by working with FF. Stability is the most important thing that the Irish people want out of this election but we cannot go back to the spend and splurge days of Fianna Fail, he said. However, when pushed on what he would like to see happening if FG was left with a choice between FF or Sinn Fein as partners, he would not be drawn for a comment. Sinn Fein is just a vehicle for social change, according to Brian Stanley, and hes realistic enough to acknowledge that it could take a few terms in government for his party to change Ireland into the country its people deserve. We have to try to get some measures for fair recovery and sustainable economic recovery, not just boom and bust, by improving public services in the areas of health, education, childcare and policing, he tells the Leinster Express. It will take two full terms in government to do that. Promising to deliver a progressive, fair society, the outgoing Deputy Stanley believes that Ireland needs to start taking responsibility for its own governance rather than remaining an outpost of Brussels where the power of the EU extends into every house in Ireland, into every corner of the land, into every bog drain, into every hen house. Is that healthy that thats happened? What about the people we elect here? Decisions have to be taken as close to the people, or democracy falters, he states. Laois man Stanley prides himself on being very much a man of the people, regularly taking time to listen to the problems of local people bringing a variety of issues to his constituency office on Church Street, Portlaoise. Indeed, there is something of the confessional box about the intimate inner office, complete with small wooden pew for supplicants to sit, where he listens to his constituents troubles. Top of the agenda at the moment is health, both physical and mental. With some 460,000 people waiting to access hospital treatment, health provision is one of the redline issues in Election 2016, here in a country which spends more on healthcare than any other except America, when one factors in taxes, consultants fees, and the cost of going to chemists and GPs. Mental health has come up more times on the doorsteps than any previous election, Deputy Stanley reveals, something which he attributes to the stress and grind of modern living. Naturally, the hospital in Portlaoise is one of the main issues being raised, and he slams the current Government for presiding over a situation where an internal report was commissioned which could lead to the emergency department being closed. The report was to be published in September, and the Labour/FG government have pushed it under the cushion under after the election. Why wasnt it published in September? I was told it was sent off to officials; we should see it, were the elected representatives. Why isnt it being given to TDs, local press? Its a massive issue. He says that Labour/FG have failed and fallen completely flat on their face in relation to the hospital, and accuses the Government of also having no plan for Abbeyleix hospital or Shaen. A recent statement promising to keep Abbeyleix hospital open is nothing but a fig leaf to cover up the Governments failure to secure the future of Abbeyleix and Shaen, he declares. On Mountmellick, what do we get? A promise of a public/private partnership that will be delivered in 2021, that could be two or three governments away, he says. The other parties are continuing with that mix of private and public, Fianna Fail want to continue with that, were saying something very different, we should have a national health system, a universal health system, which is the cheapest, says Deputy Stanley. The reform of health will take two terms, he says, claiming that Sinn Fein will put 86m extra into A&Es and 30m extra into medical cards. On education, the party has budgeted for 1,000 extra teachers to reduce class sizes by one: Thats not enough, we recognise that, but were realists, he admits. We cant do it in one year, but were committed to doing it progressively. Our opponents are pulling figures out of the air, what theyre putting forward is fantasy, quick fixes. It cant be done like that theres no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Indeed, the public pot of gold seems to have been plundered quite ruthlessly by the recapitalisation of the banks, and Deputy Stanley restates his partys line that we should have let Anglo-Irish go under. The Sinn Fein economic plan would favour taking more tax from people who are extremely well paid and giving tax rebates to people who are on lower incomes, such as those on the minimum wage. If youre earning over 100,000, we would say pay 47 percent only on the portion of income over 100,000, he explains. He laments the totally unsustainable, bankrupt economic Fianna Fail policies which led to the wild west nature of lending and wild west capitalism that caused the crash. You and me and people on the streets, theyre paying debts for other people. People on minimum wage, people who struggled, the disabled, theyre paying for it, the ordinary people were hit with this. What the Government are doing is really keeping the burden going on the Irish people. While Deputy Stanley paints his party as very much looking to the future, it is the past that perhaps has been most problematic. Describing efforts from certain quarters to dredge up Sinn Feins connections with the IRA as an attempt to smear and distort Irish history, Deputy Stanley invites his Sinn Fein opponents to consider the wider historical details of the States brutal, bloody birth. Will we discuss Michael Collins having people carried out of hospital on a stretcher and a revolver being put in their mouth and shot? Men being shot in their beds beside their wives in 1920, 1921, 22, 23, do we want to discuss that? he challenges. The problem for these people is to recognise that Republicanism won the war in terms of forcing the British to negotiate, and smashing the Orange state. Im sure our opponents will never be able to get over that. There was a conflict and terrible things happen in a conflict. My own opinion, is always try to do things in a peaceful way, war is the last option. He says he is amused by the number of people who claim to have had relatives in the GPO, Im amused by the rush by establishment to commemorate the 1916 Rising, although he is quick to welcome such commemoration, as the Rising belongs to everyone, the legacy of 1916 belongs to the Irish people. Highlighting the importance of getting back to a better quality of life for everyone, Deputy Stanley asks: Unless we deal with quality of life issues, whats it all about? Hopeful of a strong showing for his party in the forthcoming election, following three candidates elected in the constituency last time round, Deputy Stanley promises that first and foremost he will remain committed to fighting for a fairer society for all. Here in Laois, Ive tried to operate a huge constituency service for the last five years, and if re-elected I will continue to do that, but hopefully in the next Dail, he vows. As a first time candidate, Emo's Sinead Moore is realistic about her chances of being part of the next Dail. The Green Party candidate is running in Laois and South Kildare to avoid the crowded Dublin ticket and ensure the party get more of a share of the vote to get national funding. Its an experiment in a way, but obviously if I was elected I would be delighted and honoured and I believe I would do a really good job. She continues: I joined the Green Party over the issue of complex minerals in the Congo, and I really pushed that. I would be really serious about advocacy and I would be a good advocate. She says there are two reasons for running in this constituency. There's a couple of reasons why I didn't run in Dublin. Roderic O'Gorman, who is chairperson of the Green Party is running in Blanchardstown, so that wasn't an option for me. Every area of Dublin is taken up. But I'm not that naive that I think I'm going to get elected first time round. But I would just love to see the Green party revitalise . The other reason Ms Moore is running is to help the party achieve 2% of the national vote in order to get funding. The Green Party needs 2% of the national vote in order to get funding again, because it has no funding, all of us are doing this voluntarily. I believe that we need a green voice in Government. Controversially, Ms Moore says she is pro-life, a question that she has been faced with on the doorsteps. While canvassing, the first question someone asked me at the door was are you pro-life and the answer to that is yes, I am. The party have a different view, they think its ok to have an abortion in cases of foetal abnormality, rape and incest. Ms Moore acknowledges that it is a complex subject, but she says the unborn child needs to be protected. She admits she left the party at first over her views. I did leave the Green Party over this issue. Eamon Ryan is being brave and allowing me to express my view on it. I have sleepless nights about this because its so difficult. It still is a human nonetheless. I love life and I love the environment. I think the Green Party for me is standing up for life. Ms Moore says she knows what it is like to have a crisis pregnancy, falling pregnant at 20 years of age while living in England. But having her daughter made her feel empowered. When I gave birth to my daughter I felt empowered, I turned into a she-woman when I gave birth. When I saw her face it was love at first sight. If Id had an abortion she wouldnt be here. As a Green Party candidate, Ms Moore is also of the view that political posters are not necessary and banning them would make it a more level playing field for everyone. She continues: Id prefer if we had a notification saying these are the people that are running. Portarlington is poster free and its brilliant. It makes it a level playing field for everyone. A secondary school Religion teacher and a mother of two, Ms Moore says she has been 'triple-jobbing' over the last number of months and admits this has put her at a disadvantage to the other candidates. I have two children and I'm teaching full time as well as doing this, so I'm triple jobbing. I come down during the week and on weekends. I don't like canvassing people's houses on Sunday's so I just go to the shopping centres and outside Mass. It's a very humbling experience. Among the issues she has been faced with on the doorsteps, Ms Moore says wind turbines has been a huge issue in rural areas. I think we need community based approach to this and we need to make sure there is an environmental impact assessment done to make sure this is the right place. We need to make sure that they won't affect the water tables. She continued: It's counter-productive and going against nature if you put in wind turbines in areas that have delicate habitats. Maybe we need more co-operatives. The Green Party are saying at least 15% of windfarms should be community owned. I think this is the way to go. We also need a mix of solar, wind and so on. The research hasn't been great so far so we need to up our game more on that. There are lots of other options. Wind should be in the mix, but on a much smaller scale and that everyone's involved so that the community benefit from it and actually make money from it. Ms Moore says there is one common theme to the issues she is being confronted with on the doorsteps. The commute is a big thing and the cost of commuting, so I think we really need to lower prices. If we really want people to use public transport we can't make it really expensive. Also emigration is a big issue. I'm meeting people and all their children have left because there are no jobs in the area. There is a lack of local jobs - it's all linked. Ms Moore thinks people need to think outside the box when it comes to job creation. There is massive potential in the by-products from oil, all the plastics. Maybe farmers could get involved in bio-plastics. Hemp is another material that is fantastic. IT's much healther than cement. We need to look at these kind of things. These areas need research and development, but are worth looking into. There's a great urban/rural divide too. It would be great to bring children out to the country and maybe get the farmers to exchange their skills - teach them how to grow things. We're losing out on a connection with nature. My view is if we look after the environment then the planet looks after us and we need to reconnect with it, Ms Moore says passionately. The Green Party candidate says it is a disgrace that the hospital's hours could be reduced. The people of Laois and surrounding areas are being punished on the double. It was under resourced in the first place. So now it has to be downgraded because it's not up to scratch. It just doesn't make sense. Where are people going to go. The prison officers are worried about their health and safety if they have to being a prisoner to Naas in the middle of the night. It's a real worry. Crime is a massive issue. The resources just aren't there. I think all the issues are interlinked. People commuting mean houses are empty for most part of the day. So many great shops have been boarded up, there is a sense of neglect and money isn't being put in. I think what people are noticing is that there hasn't been investments in the roads, in business. Ms Moore says she would be relentless in getting more Government funding to improve the county. I would be an advocate for the people here, I would be saying this is simply just not good enough. I don't know what else I could do but I would be relentless with it because it's not good enough. It's very Dublin centric. It just makes sense to get the IDA to invest here in Laois to create jobs for local people and I will be advocating for that if I am elected. John Whelan first entered the electoral fray in 2011 as a freshman candidate for the Labour Party. In that other February election, he garnered a first preference share of 5,802 votes. In the wake of that performance, the Labour Party perceived a viable performer for the future, and implored the former newspaper editor to run for the Seanad. Election duly followed, and a five year term in the upper house. Whelan has been a prolific Senator, and has been vociferous on a number of issues. As polling day looms, he makes the point that he is the nearest to an Independent minded candidate in the constituency, and points to a number of issues relating to Eirgrid, the HSE and the EPA to support this. However, he remains a strong proponent of working within the party structure to achieve results . I am no lapdog. You can achieve more results within the party system, than being outside it. I network with Ministers, colleagues and people across the political spectrum to get things done. He is emphatic on the point that he is in the hunt only for a Dail seat. It's a Dail seat, or nothing, he states. I won't be running for the Seanad again. This straight up candour is something Whelan puts a lot of stock in, and is something which he believes the public responds well to. I would rather tell the truth, than mislead anyone. I will stand up and be counted, he states. It is a stance he assumes on any myriad of issues, and in recent times it has been most evident in relation to the future of the 24/7 A&E service at Portlaoise Hospital. If elected, I will hold the next government to account to protect the A&E in Portlaoise, regardless of the personal and political consequences, he vows. And, during the course of this campaign, the Senator has found that concerns over the future of the Portlaoise A &E service is the number one issue on the doorsteps. It is, in many ways, the singular defining issue of this campaign. It is not only me saying it. The GPs have no political axe to grind, they are the lynchpins of their communities. They have made it clear that the future of Portlaoise hospital is at stake and at risk if 24/7 A&E is taken away from the hospital. The HSE double cross is on the cards. A&E is under huge pressure. There is no capacity in Tallaght, Tullamore or Naas. And with all respect, Portlaoise is not Roscommon. Portlaoise hospital is catering for a population of 250,000. There are 2,000 babies born in the Maternity unit every year, and paediatrics is very busy. A large volume of people attend outside the 9-5 time period. People do not get sick only between 9am and 5pm. And this is not even bringing the huge volume of traffic and the prisons into the equation. We are now at a defining moment for the hospital in this community. Closing the A&E has profound implications for GPs practice, and nursing homes. Abbeyleix hospital also needs a 50 bed long stay unit. A long stay, step down and respite centre is imperative. On the doorsteps the fear of losing A&E, and its implications, is palpable. Closing it will have a knock on effect on maternity and paediatrics. This is the busiest hospital outside of Dublin. The Labour Party has put forward ten reasons to retain and invest in the hospital. There is a way of stopping this from happening. There is no point crying about it after it has happened. This time around the Senator finds people are more familiar with him. They know my form and the way I work. It's accepted that I do not just go through the motions. I take a strong, robust perspective on issues. The new redrawn constituency is something that makes the contest more intense, he finds. There are only six candidates in the field, but that makes it more competitive. Look, the outcome of any election is determined by the final number of seats. There is a defined result for the first two seats in Laois. Sean Fleming and Charlie Flanagan are a foregone conclusion. The third seat is a dogfight. What happens in any number of these final seats is hugely significant, both locally and nationally. We are putting forward credible, constructive and coherent policies. It is not the politics of negativity and protest that is Sinn Fein. Senator Whelan feels that the boundary review is advantageous to him. The boundary review brought in Monasterevin, Kildangan, Nurney, Kilberry and Castlemitchell. I'm from St Evins Park in Monasterevin, my mother still lives there, and my sisters are married in the town. My late father Paddy was involved in everything in Monasterevin, from the GAA to Community Games, the campaign to re-open the train station to the town park. He was one of the first people to set up a residents association anywhere in the country in the mid-1960s. The Labour vote is strong there. This is Joe Bermingham and Jack Wall country. In the local elections it elected two Labour Councillors. Ok, a lot of people in Monasterevin are not over the moon about voting in Laois. However, it does represent an opportunity. I am one of their own. I have pledged, if elected, to open a full time constituency office in Monasterevin. As it is, I am one of the few Senators in the country currently with a full time constituency office in Portlaoise. There is a sense of Monasterevin been marginalised. People want it addressed in terms of health services, we got two new schools in the pipeline, and more amenities and facilities are needed. He remains an enthusiastic advocate of the Garryhinch resevoir project. We have to take the initiaitive. Not only would it create jobs, it would be an eco park, recreation centre and an anchor for tourism in this region. It will create hundreds of jobs. The construction phase alone would see up to a 1,000 jobs. We cannot wait for the IDA. They have failed over the past 20 years. We have to take responsbility ourselves. The Coillte mountain bikes trail, if realised, would bring 50,000 to 75,000 visitors a year to this area. Eight million tourists will visit Ireland this year. I think we have been bypassed in Laois. The tourism product is there. Projects such as these have the potential to transform our economic landscape. Senator Whelan has also been an opponent of windfarms. Kildangan Stud, which employs 200 people, have said that they will close up if windfarms are put on top of them. There are no jobs, no co2 benefits in windfarms. They are a corporate driven pyramid scheme. I am in favour of renewables such as bio-energy, anaerobic digestion, and the District Heating System. It is these kind of projects we should be championing. On law and order, he believes that garda stations in towns like Portarlington and Mountmellick need to be open on a full time basis. A Sergeant should be in situ in these towns, and they need to be properly staffed. Policing cannot be done remotely, or by a door buzzer or text alert. Senator Whelan believes he can benefit from an independent vote on Friday. Time will tell. It will cost an estimated 3 million to turn a landmark shop in Portlaoise into the towns new library, but it will not be open until at least 2017. It will cost an estimated 3 million to turn a landmark shop in Portlaoise into the towns new library, but it will not be open until at least 2017. Laois County Council bought the former Shaws department store on lower Main Street for 450,000 in late 2013, but there was no money from the government to convert it in 2014, nor will there be in 2015. The council are hoping 2016 will be their year. Officials met Minister of Environment, Community & Local Government Alan Kelly last month to explain their plan. We are optimistic of hearing from him. We looked for approval in principal to go ahead to design stage and Part VIII. We will go to tender probably in twelve months, and then construction could start next year, said Director of Services Anna-Marie Delaney, giving the update at the February council meeting, requested by Cllr Mary Sweeney. Chairman Cllr John Joe Fennelly will be surprised if an announcement is not made by late summer. The minister was well briefed on Portlaoise, he said it was one place he would like to see a new library, he said. It would replace the current library upstairs in Lyster Square, and be bigger, with easier access, a community and exhibition space, study and research area and upgraded ICT facilities. Construction will last about one year. The council have to foot a quarter of the cost themselves. Cllr Willie Aird wants to go ahead with drawings regardless of budget approval. If we have it ready to roll, we would get funding. I am hugely optimistic that money is being spent again. There is going to be an announcement before the general election, it would be good housekeeping to have plans ready, he said. We put our argument strongly to go ahead and prepare. I agree 100 percent with you, said acting county manager Gerry Murphy. We dont want to end up with a derelict site, we have to push that this is important for footfall on Main Street, said Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald. The council will consider temporary uses for the empty building, such as a market. There was good news for Port library last week, with the signing of contracts to upgrade and extend it into the courthouse, to cost 362,000. It is due to be completed in August. It will create a library of over 360sqm, vastly improving services for Portarlington, said acting County Librarian Bernie Foran. Infighting and intraparty spats havel certainly livened up the election in Kildare South. South Kildare, with a population of almost 88,000 and an electorate of about 60,000, is both more rural and poorer than its neighbour to the north. But thats not to say the constituency does not share the commuter-belt concerns of Kildare North M7 motorway towns Newbridge, Kildare town and Monasterevin have their share of Dublin dormitory workers, with the attendant concerns over transport, housing and the pressure on social housing. Kilcullen, Athy and, to a lesser extent, Rathangan, also share those issues, thanks to a population influx during the boom, attracted down by the promise of easy commuting to the capital. Employment and agricultural issues are of concern the further south you get. Athy and Leixlip may share the Lilywhite designation, but they are worlds apart in terms of prosperity and the urban/rural divide. Kildare South lost over 7,000 voters between Monasterevin and Churchtown to the new Laois constituency during the 2013 boundary shake-up. That wont have done any favours for either Labour or Fianna Fail. On the other side of the coin, the good voters of Monasterevin, Kilberry and the likes have seen a plethora of strange new faces such as Stanley and OConnell hanging from their lamp-posts in recent weeks. There is a strong anti-austerity bent in the south of the county, with protesters on water charges, property tax etc seeming to have made more of an impact here. Local issues such as education are also making an impact, with a squeeze on school places, particularly at second level. A bustling Newbridge has well overtaken the virtually abandoned Naas town centre as the countys commercial heartland, but there is still a significant lack of either native or foreign direct investment in the south of the county that would create jobs for locals. The state of play Electorally, the constituency tends towards the conservative. Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Labour hold the bulk of local government seats in its municipal districts, with a smattering of Independents and Sinn Fein representatives. The three-seater has also always, correspondingly, voted in big party candidates. Fianna Fail lost one of its two seats in Kildare South in 2011, when young Crookstown farmer Martin Heydon topped the poll for Fine Gael with a third of first preferences votes. Fine Gaels mistake was not running a second candidate in the constituency and wiping out Fianna Fail totally. 2007 poll-topper Sean O Fearghails vote collapsed and he scraped in by the seat of his pants, pushed, surprisingly, all the way by popular Newbridge Independent candidate Paddy Kennedy. Long-standing FF TD Sean Power, now a county councillor, bowed out of national politics with less than 10 percent of the vote his transfers were all that ensured Fianna Fail retained the one seat. In terms of the 2016 election, Heydon, at least, is home and hosed. Its hard to see the personable, popular young politician being unseated. While not setting the political world alight, unlike some of his other debutant government colleagues, he has also rarely put a foot wrong. Hes worked hard for the south of the county, claiming credit for the delivery of schools and road funding projects, and is likely to be rewarded at the ballot box. He also has strong GAA ties with St Laurences, which wont hurt either. Last week, he became a national viral media star with his appearance, alongside Fine Gael Councillor Darren Scully, in a Back To The Future video spoof, imagining what the future of South Kildare would be like were he not returned to the Dail. And while its unlikely that if the politics doesnt work out that hell be treading the boards for a living, it showed that he can take the mick out of himself when the occasion requires a trait likely to appeal to young floating voters. Whether or not theres a seat to play for in South Kildare depends on if Labours Mark Wall can keep going the Wall Machine, the party apparatus his retiring father Jack has established in Athy. The much-liked Jack has held the Labour seat in Kildare South since 1997. Mark himself is a long-standing councillor for Athy. The Walls are firm believers that all politics is local, and the party office is very efficient at sorting out local issues for constituents. But, although name recognition will obviously be a boon for Mark, against him is the national disillusionment with Labour and the question of whether his own popularity in Athy will translate to towns such as Newbridge and Kildare, where he is not as well known. The Wall homeland of Castlemitchell is also among the townlands lost to Laois in the boundary redrawing. There are strange parallels between the second Fianna Fail and Fine Gael candidates, serving councillors Fiona OLoughlin and Fiona McLoughlin Healy. Confusing name similarity aside, both are Newbridge-based; both were brought on board with an eye to fulfilling the gender quota and, though they have different political priorities and approaches, both are likely to appeal to female and urban voters looking for a change whilst remaining with the safety of their chosen party. Fine Gael grassroots in Kildare were unhappy with the addition of the outspoken, business-focused, debut councillor McLoughlin Healy to the ticket, although the party at a national level were forced to openly declare their support for her after this paper pointed out last year that theyd effectively ignored her since she was added to the ticket. The Fianna Fail convention decided to run just one candidate, O Fearghail, and the widespread addition of long-serving councillor OLoughlin to the ticket was delayed without explanation, provoking speculation of unhappiness within the grassroots. Neither Fianna Fail nor Fine Gael seems to have established a competent vote management strategy in South Kildare, with Newbridge, in particular, seeming like a free-for-all battleground. Thats a pity for them, because the pair of candidates that worked together more efficiently might have a better shot at returning a second seat for theirparty. Of the other candidates, Sinn Feins Patricia Ryan a surprise pick after local party members declined to put forward party-favoured Naas councillor Sorcha ONeill has come out of the woodwork in recent weeks, but is unlikely to register. Declan Crowe, a serial campaigner on social issues, will make some noise for the Independents, but is unlikely to make much serious impact. The tragic death of Newbridge councillor Willie Crowley before Christmas an Independent who had declared his intention to run for the Dail must also be mentioned, as he would have attracted independent and protest votes from across the county. Back in the early days of the Dail the Kildare Constituency regularly moved be-tween a three and a four seat constituency, it was an era when Kildare joined up with Carlow and Wicklow at variouos times. In 1948 Kildare was back as a standalone constituency, a three seater, as the 13th Dail was formed following the general election of that year and returned Tom Harris (FF), William Norton (Labour) and Gerry Sweetman (FG). Three elections in a row between 1948 and 1957 returned the same TDs before the 1957 election saw a change with Paddy Dooley (Athy) taking a seat for Fianna Fail. Prior to the 1961 election Kildare become a four seater (with a piece of Meath added in), Brendan Crinion and Paddy Dooley (FF) took two along with William Norton and Gerry Sweetman. The 18th Dail (65-69) saw Terry Boylan and Brendan Crinion elected with Paddy Norton (Lab) taking back his fathers seat (lost in a by-election following his death) along with Gerry Sweetman. The election of 1969 saw Paddy Power make his first entry into Dail Eireann along with party colleague Terry Boylan, and Gerry Sweetman as Kildare reverted to a three seat constituency (minus that area of Meath). The election of 1973 saw Joe Bermingham make the breakthrough along with Paddy Power and Paddy Malone (FG) the latter taking Gerry Sweetmans seat following his untimely death. Another change came about for the next election when Kildare was made a five seater for the election held in 1981 (22nd Dail) and returned two TDs in particular who were to have major influences on the national stage, Charlie McCreevy (FF) and Alan Dukes (FG), with Joe Bermingham, Paddy Power and Bernard Durkan (FG). That government lasted just 11 months before the voters were out again; this time four of the five were re-elected, with Gerry Brady (FF) taking Bernard Durkans seat. These were turbulent times and the 23rd Dail lasted a mere nine months before the posters were back up again in a bid to elect the 24th Dail in November 1982. It proved a short lived sitting for Fianna Fails Gerry Brady who lost his seat back to Bernard Durkan, with the other four being returned. And so on to the 25th Dail in 1987; Emmet Stagg made his first appearance in The House along with Durkan, Dukes, McCreevy and Power. That particular Dail had just a two-year life span before the polls opened again in 1989. Paddy Power retired and his seat was held by his son, Sean Power, the rest were all re-elected. The 27th Dail was formed after the 1992 election with the five outgoing TDs elected. By the time the next election came around in 1997 the constituency had again been changed. This time into Kildare North and Kildare South, three seats in each. In Kildare South, Jack Wall (Lab) was elected for the first time, along with Alan Dukes and Sean Power; Kildare North returned Bernard Durkan, Charlie McCreevy and Emmet Stagg. After a full term the election of 2002 saw Sean O Fearghail (FF) making his first appearance in Leinster House, the one to lose out however was no less a national figure than Alan Dukes with Sean Power and Jack Wall holding on to their seats. Kildare North returned the same three outgoing TDs, McCreevy, Durkan and Stagg. Charlie McCreevy headed to Europe in 2005 thus necessitating a by-election and in a surprise result, Fianna Fail failed to hold on to the seat, Catherine Murphy (Ind) captured it for the first time. The 2007 (30th Dail) election saw Kildare North gain an extra seat, where Michael Fitzpatrick (FF) ousted Murphy being elected along with Aine Brady (FF) Bernard Durkan and Emmet Stagg. In Kildare South, Sean O Fearghail, Sean Power and Jack Wall were returned. In 2011 Fianna Fail got a scutching throughout the county (and country). Sean Power lost his seat to Martin Heydon while Sean O Fearghail held on with Jack Wall. In North Kildare Michael Fitzpatrick and Aine Brady, lost out when Fine Gael took two, Bernard Durkan and Anthony Lawlor return-ed while Emmet Stagg held his seat; Catherine Murphy regained the seat she had lost to Michael Fitzpatrick in 2007. Each country has its own culture. I am Turkish and I am fond of my countrys culture. In Turkey, people are more welcoming, you can feel that you belong to a great family with all those people surrounding you. In Europe, when you meet people for the first time, they are more prejudiced. For example, if you are slightly more dark-skinned and you have a beard, most people tend to think immediately that you are Arab, a Muslim and perhaps a terrorist. I tried hard to explain that I am not Arab but Turkish and that all Muslims are not necessarily terrorists. I was amazed to hear that people think we use the Arabic alphabet or a similar alphabet at least. However, when you get to know them more in depth, you can see how friendly, nice and respectful of the others views and identities these people can be. Seriously, what is the world coming to when in the Mother of Parliaments, the most powerful politician in the country invokes his own mother to castigate the Leader of the Opposition. Heres their exchange: The Prime Minister: I am very proud of the NHS in Oxfordshire and everyone who works in it. Having met the head of the Oxford Radcliffe trust recently, I know that he supports the move towards more seven-day services. That is absolutely vital. Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab): Ask your mother! The Prime Minister: Ask my mother? I know what my mother would say. She would look across the Dispatch Box and say, Put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem. Jeremy Corbyn: If we are talking of motherly advice, my late mother would have said, Stand up for the principle of a health service free at the point of use for everybody. That is what she dedicated her life to, as did many of her generation. Corbyn comes out of this with some credit, but this rather personal criticism comes from the Prime Minister comes just two days after the Commons collapsed in hilarity over a Tory MPs jibe. Corbyn heckled during EU debateWho are you?A Conservative MP berates Jeremy Corbyn in the House of Commons during EU debate. Posted by Channel 4 News on Monday, 22 February 2016 Labour MPs are more than capable of being just as rowdy. Remember what they used to do to Julian Huppert every time he got up to speak. Ill never forget the time when Willie Rennie was called a Scottish Git by Tory MPs while a Labour frontbencher smirked. He was introducing a bill enabling driving instructors to be suspended from the national register and explaining how hed been motivated to do so by his constituents experience of being sexually assaulted by her driving instructor. When alls said and done, the Commons is a workplace and surely the Speaker has a responsibility to ensure that it sets an example to the rest of us. Name-calling, shouting, belittling, demeaning colleagues is not how it should be. Yet again, I am inspired by a Liberal Prime Minister from across the Atlantic. Yesterday was Pink Shirt Day, a national anti-bullying day in Canada. Heres his message: Pink Shirt Day / Journee du chandail roseOn Pink Shirt Day, we stand up to bullying and vow to spread kindness.Durant la Journee du chandail rose, nous disons non a lintimidation et nous nous engageons a repandre la gentillesse. Posted by Justin Trudeau on Wednesday, 24 February 2016 Our Tim Farron was far from impressed with yesterdays shenanigans. When #PMQs descends into a series of Your mum comments it shows all politicians up. Its school-ground antics that demeans @HouseofCommons Tim Farron (@timfarron) February 24, 2016 What was extraordinary is that while Speaker Bercow huffs and puffs about peoples behaviour, he never actually does anything to stop it. It is surely time for him to take control and start throwing people out when they behave badly. He wouldnt have to do it very often. This is all most people see of the Commons and its not exactly edifying. Nobody should have to put up with public humiliation at work. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings As many of you know Tim Farron and I have been fighting for months to persuade the government to apply for EU solidarity funding for flood victims. The European Commission had confirmed to me last December that this money was there for the taking, so it was flabbergasting that the government had so far refused to apply on the flimsy grounds that it would not offer immediate help (an application takes a few months to process). The real reason I suspect was that the government was worried about upsetting its eurosceptic backbenchers by asking for help from the rest of Europe in a time of need. So it came as something of a shock to find out today that finally the Conservatives have U-turned and will be making a last-minute application. This is a huge victory for the Liberal Democrats, who have been piling the pressure on the government on this issue from day one. And of course it is fantastic news for the communities across the North of England and Scotland whose lives were turned upside-down by the floods and who will finally get the additional funding they deserve. Last week Tim Farron came to Brussels and together we handed over a petition signed by over 2000 of his constituents to senior MEPs, who promised they would approve a grant once an application is made. So the groundwork has already been laid. Ill now be working hard in the European Parliament to ensure we can get the funding signed off and given to the people on the ground who need it as soon as possible. This money can be used to offset the costs of clean-up operations as well as the rebuilding of vital infrastructure. We now need to make sure it gets to the local authorities who have been affected by the floods and isnt siphoned off by the Treasury. Im delighted that weve been able to deliver for all those who signed Tim Farrons petition calling on the government to apply. This shows that when people get involved in politics and make their voice heard, they can make a real difference. Thats what Liberal Democrats are all about, empowering local communities and fighting for a fairer deal for those the Tories would rather forget about altogether. * Catherine Bearder is a Liberal Democrat MEP for the South East and Leader of the European Parliament Liberal Democrat Group. At around 50 minutes to the 11th hour, the Government finally agreed to Tim Farrons request that they apply for EU funding to help with the aftermath of the flooding that hit Cumbria and other areas of Northern England as a result of Storm Desmond on 5 December. The EU Solidarity Fund is there to help out when natural disaster strikes. Accountancy firm KPMG has estimated the total cost of the flood damage at 5bn, which means that the UK could be eligible for up to 125 million of, of which 10% would be made available immediately. In 2008, the UKreceived 134 million from the fund to help deal with the aftermath of major floods the previous year. In order to qualify the Government must apply within 12 weeks of when the natural disaster first hit. As Storm Desmond struck Northern England on 5th December, the deadline to apply is Saturday 27th February. A week ago, Tim Farron handed over a petition signed by 2063 constituents calling for a grant for the EU Solidarity Fund to MEPs from the Regional Committee, which would have to approve any application. And today, the Government has finally agreed to apply for the money. Tim said: Kirsty Williams came out fighting in a BBC Wales pre-election interview at around 15 minutes in. The introduction contained a very gloomy forecast from an academic. Kirsty pointed out that they same forecasts had been made about our performance 5 years ago in the early days of the Westminster coalition. She talked about how her group of 5 AMs had punched well above their weight in the last 5 years and cited times when they had stood up against the establishment, being the only party to vote against a pay-rise for AMs. She talked about how she had had to drag the Labour Party kicking and screaming into putting money into a Welsh version of the Pupil Premium and how her Bill would ensure safe nursing levels on Welsh hospital wards. She also talked about the abortive attempt by Plaid Cymru to form an electoral pact. * Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary in print, on air or online. Former Lib Dem MEP Edward McMillan-Scott has written for the Yorkshire Post, unsurprisingly on the subject of the forthcoming EU Referendum. He compares and contrasts this referendum with the last one in 1975: Todays media will play a decisive role in shaping the debate but is far more diverse both in attitudes and structure than in 1975. Then there were a handful of radio and TV channels whereas now there are hundreds; then only the Morning Star and the Spectator opposed Britain remaining in, but now the print media are much more evenly split. The role of social media has exploded in recent years and knows no constraint, political or personal. Today, largely thanks to the EU, low cost airlines carry Britons routinely to airports which have sprung up in every corner of the continent and its islands. There we have learned new cuisines and cultures. However, the most fundamental difference in Europe between 1975 and today is the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 and the subsequent enlargement of the EU to embrace its emerging democracies. Our generation has had the happy task of creating the worlds largest Single Market within a democratic framework. The roles of Nato and the EU in the fall of the Berlin Wall are often discussed, but their close relationship was foreseen in their earliest years. Today, they are stronger not just because they are both located in Brussels, but also because there is a plethora of working arrangements between them, such as a shared 24-hour situation room. He also says that as well as a positive, hopeful message, Remain campaigners should not shy from pointing out the negatives of leaving: There is no doubt that the fear factor contributed to Camerons winning the general election through the portrayal of Ed Miliband, untrusted on the economy, in the pockets of Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond. Fear on the economy and use of the pound were also major factors in the Scottish referendum. While fear is a legitimate political strategy, there is much hope to be positive about. A young Labour activist who was campaigning for Remain over the weekend told me that many older voters, while mentioning immigration levels as an issue, said that their children or grandchildrens future weighed more with them. You can read the whole article here. * Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary in print, on air or online. Our place to talk an independent website for supporters of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK. The most-read independent website by and for Lib Dem supporters. Not paid for by trade unions or millionaires. Steve checked off a bucket list item: Hiking rim to rim of the Grand Canyon. Nearly 24 miles, they descended below the north rim, crossed the mighty Colorado River, and climbed back up the south rim in just about 12 hours. There was a group in our neighborhood/church taking it on together and Steve wasnt going to miss out. He spent weeks and weeks training. He followed a specific schedule as to when he should walk and when he should hike and when he should do the stair climber. He really worked hard to prepare. Several people went with their spouses and asked why I didnt join. The truth is I could have done it physically with some training but I didnt have any desire. Although I am a very active person, I dont particularly care for working out and I wouldnt have enjoyed the training. Even watching Steve train, I knew I made the right decision! But luckily Steve didnt have to hike alone, Hunter joined him with no preparation! I was a little concerned because I watched Steve train so hard and Hunter didnt. But evidently Hunter didnt need to because soccer was enough training for him and he made it just fine. Oh to be young and energetic again. They went up on a Friday and stayed in cabins at the north rim and enjoyed some pre-hike views. They had a 5:00am start time and an even earlier wake up call. The first couple miles were in the dark with a headlamp and it was cold. But they just endured it with minimal layers because they knew they were going to be hot and sweaty just a few hours later. Hunter said about half way through they stopped for lunch and put their feet in the river. It was about this point in the hike he was second guessing his decision to participate. He was tired and ready to be doneand he still had 12 miles ahead of him. But after lunch, he had a renewed sense of energy and he was ready to go. According to him, he hiked his dads speed but he could have easily made it out faster. Im glad he felt obligated to hike with his dad. They both made it out with plenty of food to spare, but very little energy. Steve hasnt decided if he ever needs to hike this again although some in the group think it should be an annual activity. I figure its like someone asking you if youre going to have another baby when you have a newborn in your arms too soon to ask. They were both a little sore after, although Hunter went to soccer practice two days later and managed okay. More than anything, I am so happy Steve was able to work at this and check it off his list. He loves the Grand Canyon and what better way to see it than to hike 24 miles through it. GARDAI have issued a warning to motorists that tech-savvy criminals are utilising modern technology to break into parked cars. A number of signal blocking devices have been seized in recent weeks by gardai investigating break-ins to cars. These devices are used by criminals to block signals used in the remote locking mechanism of vehicles, warned Sergeant Justin McCarthy. The divisional crime prevention officer is advising all drivers to make sure they properly lock and secure their vehicles when they are parking. A number of incidents have occurred recently where members of the public have found their cars broken into and property removed, all without any overt damage being caused to their vehicle, he said. He confirmed that a number of signal blockers, which have an effective range of up to 50 metres have been seized by gardai investigating such incidents in recent weeks. The driver may be distracted when leaving their car and assumes they have locked it without hearing the alarm cues. But unknown to them, their car key signal has been blocked and the car remains unlocked, said adding that criminals can then freely gain access to the vehicle without raising suspicions. Motorists are being advised to take additional precautions to ensure their cars are secured properly when they are parked on public streets or outside private homes. Secure all of the doors, close all of the windows and put on your car alarm even if it is only for a short period of time. Double check your door is closed after you have engaged your alarm and manually lock the car with the key if in any doubt, said Sgt McCarthy. Motorists are also being advised not to leave any valuable property in parked cars and to be wary of people who may be loitering and operating jamming devices in the vicinity of where they are parking. Any incidents or suspicious activity involving parked cars should also be reported to gardai as soon as possible. EDUCATION minister Jan OSullivan has called for more transparency in how the Arts Council allocates funding to regional groups. The Labour TD was replying to a question from actor Liam OBrien at a hustings in the Belltable, organised by the National Campaign for the Arts, to debate arts policy and what the candidates policies would be should they get elected. Mr OBrien pointed out that Limerick has not had a funded, professional theatre company since Island folded in 2008, and asked the candidates for the city constituency what they would do to rectify this situation. We want to double the funding to the Arts Council and I think we all value the independence of it, said Minister OSullivan. It is independent and rightly so, the money is given and then allocated, but I do think there is a problem of transparency, in terms of how it is allocated. I think there is a need to understand why money is given in such a sporadic way and why, suddenly a company for example that has been funded in whatever arts they are involved in, finds itself without funding. I think also we do need to see some kind of a regional approach, because there doesnt seem to be a consistency about how money is allocated. And certainly theatre in Limerick has not been funded in a way that theatre has been funded in other parts of the country. This was one of several key points raised during the hustings, to which all of the city candidates were invited this Monday lunchtime. Organiser Deirdre Flynn, a lecturer in MIC, noted that Council of Europe data showed that in 2012, Ireland spent just 0.11% of GDP on the arts and culture, compared to a European average of 0.6%. The Arts Council allocated close to 1.8m through its three main funding strands, rising to almost 1.85m through a number of other strands, for Limerick in 2016, yet the body has itself seen its own funding cut heavily over several years. Of the city candidates standing for election, seven turned up Willie ODea of Fianna Fail, Jan OSullivan of Labour, Independent Des Hayes, Green Party candidate James Gaffney, Social Democrat Sarah Jane Hennelly, Sinn Feins Maurice Quinlivan and AAA-PBP candidate Cian Prendiville. Each candidate was given three minutes to outline their policies for the arts before the debate ensued, and did so with vigour. All stressed the importance of the arts to the economy and community, with various proposals as to how to boost support and funding presented. Interestingly, just two of the candidates Jan OSullivan and Maurice Quinlivan made reference to the fact that the Belltable had been re-opened and the name returned to use. There were also a number of passionate contributions from those in attendance. Eleanor McSherry said that not one of the candidates have come to the arts community save for today, while Lime Tree manager Louise Donlon expressed surprise at Sarah Jane Hennellys proposal to create another quango to manage arts funding. Ms Hennelly said the party was open to ideas, but was advocating for a new advisory body to be involved in the arts funding and management process. Liam OBrien stressed that, since Islands demise, the Arts Council had funded just five full scale theatre productions in Limerick. Yet there was much praise for City of Culture and the effect it had on the city and the arts community, with hope expressed for the success of the 2020 bid. Independent Des Hayes noted that that the Abbey Theatre used to tour to Limerick every 12 months. That was then and this is now. But a couple of years ago, some previous government we wont apportion any blame now decided to carve up the arts, he said. Willie ODea said a sustainable funding model for the region needed to be found, while Ms Hennelly suggested looking to other countries and how they fund the arts. Green Party candidate James Gaffney stressed that the arts community was not looking for handouts, but it needs support and advocated for long term planning on funding for the sector. Speaking after the debate, Deirdre Flynn said: We are not getting funded and we need the politicians and people who are representing us in government to know that this funding (situation) is happening, and what it means down here on the ground. Limerick is not getting what it deserves in relation to the funding that is coming out and this is something that needs to be hit home to the politicians that are supposed to represent us. And to make sure that we are funded on a national level and represented strongly at a national level. Asked if she hoped that the candidates had taken some of the issues discussed on board, she said: I think some did. I think that maybe when they do come to the door, you can say whats your policy on this or when is the funding going to come and maybe they will be ready for it and better informed when they do or do not get elected. I think it was interesting, there was a good turnout both from candidates and the local community and I think that is really, really important. Because I feel that people think it is not something that is appearing on their campaign leaflets, you are not getting stuff about the arts and it is a really important conversation, that people need to have, she said. While Michael Noonan had declined to attend, Kieran ODonnells secretary had told Ms Flynn that there was an election on this week" and could not attend as a result. Nora Bennis of the Christian Democrats had also indicated that she was unable to attend. I think it is telling that there was nobody here from Fine Gael, I think that is really, really disappointing, said Deirdre. Particularly as they are a party that probably feels they are going to get right back in there, so they dont need to listen to our artists. Hopefully that will tell on the ballot sheet in Limerick and other places where these campaigns have been held, where they havent shown up or have been weaker in their policies. Barney Sheehan, who runs the popular White House Poetry Night, demanded to know of each candidate what their plan was for King Johns Castle and in particular, Nicholas Street, the heart and soul of Limerick, as he referred to it. Mr Sheehan has long campaigned on this issue and did not suffer equivocal responses from the candidates. Maurice Quinlivan said he wanted to see Nicholas Street developed, shops opened and a proper link made between the Castle and Cathedral, while Cian Prendiville suggested that studio space for artists might be included in any prospective plans. DORAS Luimni has been working with new Irish citizens in Limerick ahead of Fridays election, reminding them that for those who are registered there is power in their vote. More than 300 new citizens in Limerick have registered to vote over the past few months. Spokesperson for the city centre organisation, Aideen Roche said that new citizens in Limerick make up a considerable proportion of the electorate. However, she added that despite the size of the population, political parties continue to disregard immigration and migrant-related issues in their manifestos. There has been a significant increase in awareness of refugee protection concerns and the scandal of Direct Provision among the general public too, and we hope that the next Government will take swift and effective action on these areas as a matter of priority. According to Ms Roche, Doras Luimni, which is located on OConnell Street, has been implementing a project that aims to increase voter registration and participation, through voting information sessions. She said that for people with limited social networks and who are non-native English speakers, registration and the election system can be a challenging task. While many new citizens living in Limerick are well aware of the process, there are a growing number of new eligible electors that benefit from tailored information and assistance. Ireland has a complicated and unique election process, not helped by the usage of Irish language terminology in politics. Very few have been approached by canvassers or candidates and there seems to be a misconception that people who look or sound different could not be eligible to vote. Ireland has changed and we now live in a diverse country comprised of people from a wide variety of backgrounds. We hope to see that diversity represented in politics in the very near future. She said that the first-time voters are showing excitement ahead of Fridays election. We have been helping people to navigate the system, and there has been a real sense of empowerment, throughout that work, and people are now starting to realise that they do have a voice, she enthused. On February 7, Doras Luimni held a voter registration day for new citizens, who received assistance with forms, while a local Garda was present to sign and stamp the forms. During the information day, University of Limerick lecturer Dr Maura Adshead and the politics department facilitated a workshop to explain the election process. Dr Adshead said: Using a mock-election we demonstrate in an informal and friendly way, how the Irish electoral system works and how voters can make their vote work for them. Our aim is to encourage participants to consider each candidates positions on topical issues and, ultimately, to take those positions into consideration when making their final decisions on who they will vote for in the upcoming election. Ms Roche said that the issues of concern to new citizens are very much the same as the rest of us. There is a priority on economy, jobs, but there are other issues that obviously would be of particular concern to new citizens, such as anti-racism, focus on integration supports and the development of an integration strategy, and issues relating to Direct Provision, and the immigration system more broadly would also be of concern. She added that there has been nothing done on Direct Provision by the Government over the past few years. According to Doras Luimni, since 2011, nearly 100,000 new Irish citizens will be voting for the first time, across the country. Doras Luimni is a non-profit organisation based which promotes the human rights of migrants through campaigns. AS voters in Limerick City prepare to go to the polls on Friday, it appears that at least three candidates will fight it out for the last two seats. In what is shaping up to be the most unpredictable general election in recent times, only a small number of votes may end up separating those who are elected in the city and those who miss out. Bookmakers and political commentators have tipped Fianna Fail TD Willie ODea and Finance Minister Michael Noonan to comfortably retain their seats in the four-seat constitutency. But the destination of the final two seats remains far from certain just hours from election day, with Sinn Fein councillor Maurice Quinlivan, Fine Gael TD Kieran ODonnell and Education Minister Jan OSullivan expected to fight it out to the finish. There have also been predictions in some quarters that Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit councillor Cian Prendiville could also take a seat in the city. Party canvassers are expected to step up their efforts in the final days of the election campaign to convince wavering voters to back their candidate. Speaking to the Limerick Leader, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said it would be unfair to try and predict the destination of the four seats in Limerick City. I am as vulnerable as anyone else, so I dont want to be putting myself in a position of calling seats. It is up to the people now to decide it. He also said he believes there is still clear blue water still between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, despite a narrowing of the polls between the two largest parties in recent days. In terms of Fianna Fail, Mr ODea says he has been surprised by his partys performance, especially locally, saying that in hindsight, perhaps more consideration could have been given to fielding a second party candidate in the city. The reaction has been surprisingly good. I think we are in a much better position locally than I think we anticipated, the former Defence Minister said. In another development, Mr ODea this Wednesday released a statement distancing himself from comments by one of own canvassers in the Leader last week that ODea supporters were being encouraged to give their second preference to Ms OSullivan, in a bid to lock out Cllr Quinlivan. He said: My position has always been the second preference vote is a matter for each individual voter. I am only interested in maximising my vote and Fianna Fails vote. Ms OSullivan admitted she is in a battle for the final seat, saying: This is the toughest election I have ever fought. Meanwhile, Mr ODonnell described the three -week election campaign as intense, but played down a drop for Fine Gael in opinion polling, saying: For me, elections are based on the day people vote. And Cllr Quinlivan said: Limerick needs a new TD who will be a real advocate for the people and for the constituency. Fine Gael has ran a campaign based on fear. They want the people to feel changing the government is too big a risk. The reality is Limerick cannot afford another five years of Fine Gael and the Labour party riding roughshod over our communities, he said. Cllr Prendiville said he believes the government is on course to lose two seats in the city, predicting: Labours national wipe out will be reflected in Limerick City. This, along with Fine Gaels drop in the polls and our experience campaigning so far, suggests we are definitely contenders to take a seat. Elsewhere, with the margins so tight, Ms OSullivans director of elections Kieran Faye has confirmed the Labour Party will double the number of Impersonation Agents it will have on duty on polling day to weed out people who may be using someone elses polling card to cast their vote. It is understood Fine Gael are taking a similar approach. Under electoral law, all candidates are permitted to deploy an impersonation agent at every polling booth in the constituency. Ms OSullivan said: It is something we will watch insofar as we can. It is not always easy. It is something I certainly hope would not happen. It is not how the democratic process should be. But as a party, we always try to ensure we watch out. Mr Faye confirmed eight officers who are empowered to intervene when someone presents in a polling station will be deployed around the city. This is up from four in 2011. Mr ODea said he is concerned about certain discrepancies in the electoral register, adding: From the stuff I have heard, there seems to be quite a number of differences. With the best will in the world, the register is never really spot on. There seems to be quite a number of discrepancies this time though. We just have to hope people in the polling centres are vigilant. But it is particularly dangerous when there are one or two seats at stake and it could be decided by a small margin. Returning officer Pat Wallace said the recommendation to polling centre staff is that a quarter of people presenting to vote are asked for additional identification to what is already expected. He said: If the presiding officer and the poll clerk are not satisfied with the identity of the person who presents for voting, they are entitled to question that person and ask for further identification. Counting will begin at the UL Arena from Saturday afternoon, with a first declaration expected by early evening. How the electorate has voted will become clearer from mid-morning, with tallymen examining in detail the performance of candidates and the destination of vote transfers. Editorial, page 20 TENSION is running high among the four front-runners in this Fridays general election in the Limerick constituency. Political observers are shy of calling who the eventual three winners will be but the bookies are not. The dead cert candidate, according to Paddy Power, is Fianna Fails Niall Collins and they are backing Independent Cllr Emmett OBrien as the second favourite. Outgoing Fine Gael TD, Patrick ODonovan, at 2/7, and his party colleague Cllr Tom Neville at 4/9 are battling it out, with Deputy ODonovan seen as having the edge. Meanwhile, the odds have shortened on the Social Democrat candidate Sen James Heffernan, down from 10/1 to 5/1. Cllr Seamus Browne, the Sinn Fein candidate, and on Cllr Richard ODonoghue, Independent Fianna Fail, have also attracted support this week. John OGorman, Independent is 100/1 as is Mark Keogh, Direct Democracy while the Green Partys Alexander Storey-Cosgrave is 80/1. But experienced observers are not all agreeing with the bookies predictions. And one Fine Gael source who correctly predicted the outcome of the British election warned that the polls could be wrong here as they were in Britain. He also recalled how the polls here were wrong about the last general election, underestimating Fianna Fails collapse. If the Fine Gael vote is tightly managed, and divides evenly, they could take the two seats in the county, he said. The return of West Limerick to the county constituency would also help Fine Gaels Patrick ODonovan, he added. Success for Cllr Emmett OBrien would depend on winning over disaffected Fianna Fail voters and floating voters, he argued and he believed that Cllr Richard ODonoghue would affect this. He will take some of that vote, he said. Cllr OBrien was also hemmed in territorially, and very close to Cllr Neville. There is still a big lump of disgruntled Fianna Fail voters, a Fianna Fail source said. And he predicted Cllr ODonoghue would benefit from that. In 2011, Niall Collins, against all odds, only suffered a small decrease in his first preference vote when seats all around the country were being lost. One Fine Gael source predicted he would increase his vote by 40% this time out but another source argued that his vote in the east of the county would be down, as a result of party infighting. He has lost a lot of good people in the east, he said. But nobody was in doubt that he would win the seat. Sen James Heffernan narrowly lost out on a seat in 2011 and his new party, the Social Democrats, is getting favourable mention. But in a tight contest he may not have built up enough momentum to survive to the last fight. Sinn Fein will be hoping to consolidate their local election vote and build on it as springboard for the next election. Direct Democracy candidate will, like Sen Heffernan, get some votes over the Gortadroma controversy while Alexander Storey Cosgrave and John OGorman are also very much issue-based candidates. The mood among voters across the constituency however remains low-key. And many remain undecided which has raised the possibility of a low turn-out. In 2011, the turn-out in the county constituency was 69% but few expect this to be achieved this time out as anti-government sentiment, while discernible,is not as strong as in 2011. Bad weather on Friday could also have a bearing on how many of the 83,835 people entitled to vote actually do so. See also pages 4-9 A COUNTY Limerick man has been remanded in custody after he appeared before the Special Criminal Court charged with firearms offences. John Costello, aged 59, of Glenashrone, Abbeyfeale is accused of possession of more than 700 rounds of ammunition. At an out-of-hours sitting of the Special Criminal Court late last night, Detective Garda Michael Herlihy gave evidence of arresting the defendant in Abbeyfeale on Wednesday afternoon. He told State Solicitor Liam Mulholland that he made no reply when he was arrested. Mr Costello is charged with possession of 450 rounds of .38 special calibre ammunition and 329 rounds of 9mm calibre ammunition at Main Street, Abbeyfeale on Sunday last, February 21. He is also charged with possession of three rounds of 9mm calibre ammunition at his home address the following day. Dean Kelly BL, representing the defendant, said his client was not seeking bail but may do so when he appears before the court again, next Tuesday, March 1. Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, sitting with Judge Flann Brennan and Judge William Hamill, remanded Mr Costello in custody until Tuesday. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page. Translating Ananthamurthy is a political act: Vivek Shanbhag The Kannada writer on comparing himself to the best of writers right from his first short story as a teenager, and how his day job at Hindustan Lever provided the seed of the story of 'Ghachar Ghochar' /news/talking-point/translating-ananthamurthy-is-a-political-act-vivek-shanbhag-111651818468963.html 111651818468963 story In English-language publishing, the new toast of the town is Kannada writer Vivek Shanbhag. A translation of his novella, Ghachar Ghochar, by Srinath Perur has found him many new admirers among English readers. Ghachar Ghochar looks at a tight-knit middle-class family, and how a sudden increase in wealth imbalances their relationships. For readers of this work in English, theres a bonus. Shanbhag has added a few key passages, including one where, after the narrator drops off his wife at the railway station, he returns home, opens her cupboard, and breathes in the smell he has come to associate with her. But as he picks up individual saris, the smell seems to recede. A translation, he says, is similar; only if you understand the whole will you be successful. In an interview, Shanbhag explains why Ghachar Ghochar is successful in English, his early efforts not to write like Kannada writer Yashwant Chittal, and tells us about his translation of his father-in-law U.R. Ananthamurthys last book, Hindutva Or Hind Swaraj? Edited excerpts: What did you think of Srinath Perurs translation of Ghachar Ghochar? I have myself done translations from English to Kannada. Also, I am working with Keerti Ramachandran to translate U.R. Ananthamurthys last book, Hindutva Or Hind Swaraj?, into English. So I have experience in translation. And in this particular case, it has worked very well because Srinath is also a creative writer. His mind works in a particular way, like a fiction writer. So he is excited by certain usages, certain possibilities. A translation is not about getting the meaning of one sentence in another language. Its about bringing that unsaid (element). That has happened well here. He has understood what the unsaid in Kannada is and has brought that in. If I look at (the English and Kannada versions), I feel they are two different works. Though sentence by sentence, it is the same thing in English, but it has to be born in that language. How did this translation come about? Many people have been asking me (to translate my works), but I never felt that I could get into a translation like this. Very few Kannada writers are engaged in their own translations. The only exception is Girish Karnad. (When I am translating a work), I always feel the need to have the writer next to me; it always helps. That is the reason why I have not got into this so far. A lot of my stories were translated into English, but I have not really spent time (on it). This time I felt I must spend time with the translator, and we must really make it into something worth spending the time. When I met SrinathIve known him for four-five yearsI felt hes probably the best person to do it since he is also a creative writer. I asked him, he was very happy; he had liked the story. And that is how it started. Then it was all Srinath. He tried a few pages and we talked about it. The way he went about it, the first section or so, he did it again and again and again... he wanted to get that tone. Once he got it, he was comfortable. And now Penguin Books USA will publish it internationally? As far as I know, this is the first Kannada book to find a US publisher. This book is small, but its taken us 18 months, end to end. There is a lot of hard work in translation; it never ends. If I look at it again, Im sure I will change a word here or there. (Writer A.K.) Ramanujan famously said of translations that he has never felt a translation is complete. He said, I stop when I am tired of it." And do you feel that is true of your fiction writing too? No, till I feel it is complete, I wont publish it. Youve been writing since you were very young I first published when I was 16-17 years old. My first story got an award in a competition, and when I was 22, my first book was published. Its been 30 years of writing. And this is not my first book. After Ghachar Ghochar, I published a novel in Kannada. Apart from this, there are three other novels; it so happened that this is the one that is available in English. Otherwise, there is a bigger world of my writing. You studied to be an engineer. So when did you know you wanted to be a writer? I was 14-15 when I felt I should be a writer. And I was convinced that I was a writer from my very first story. And I dont know whether it was arrogance or confidence, at that time I was comparing myself with the best of writers, and trying to see where the gap is. And becoming an engineer, really it was a lack of exposure. I came from a very small place. Everybody went into science so I went into the science field. And everybody went into engineering; I got high scores, so I got a seat very easily. So it happened without me thinking much about it. But my professional career, once I started working, it interested me a lot. It brought me in touch with a lot of people. Ghachar Ghochar, for example, the seed of the story is when I went for my sales training with Hindustan Lever (now Hindustan Unilever). I went to some small places all across the country. Once, I spent a day with this salesmans family. It was a tiny place and he took me to his house because there was no good hotel to eat. And I realized how close-knit that family was, so involved in what he was doing. That was the seed. You are extremely well known in Kannada literary circles. How does this extension in the geography of your fame feel? One is the fame (and) more people reading. But more important to me is the response of people from different backgrounds, different cultures, different languages. A writer can learn from that. I value that feedback very much. Whats the feedback you got for Ghachar Ghochar? Somebody told me there is very little physical description of the narrator. And I had not got this feedback even from my Kannada readers. Also, I have a set of readers in Kannada, I know how far I can go in terms of being subtle. I write in an environment, in a cultural context, so when I write, I evoke certain memories, I take certain things for granted. When it gets translated into English, that is also a challenge and (the response) also tells me how far I am successful. Going beyond language is always interesting. But this is not my first experience going across languages. My stories have been translated into other Indian languages. But English is different. The kind of memories we share in Indian languages are common. It is not so with English. For example, some proverbs and phrases, a Malayali or a Tamilian may understand easily. That way, this is a new experience. Several reviews of Ghachar Ghochar have referred to it as an Indian novel. By that, they seem to be referring to this same shared experience and cultural context. I have been writing about this kind of thing (a specific Indian experience) for many years. I grew up in a very tiny town in coastal Karnataka, a very beautiful place, and I studied in a government school, in Kannada medium. It is culturally very rich. What happens when you grow up in a small town, you have access to a lot of things in that town, you have access to every house. And children have access to everything. So that is a very rich world. That is one part of my life. After my 17th year, I moved away. I lived and worked in different parts of the world, in different cities in India . So that is another world (that I inhabited), a world of liberalization, globalization, etc. I also worked for an FMCG (consumer goods) company, Hindustan Lever (I quit my job two months back to be a full-time writer. That has nothing to do with this book, I had anyway planned it that way). All these things have, knowingly or unknowingly, given me exposure to what is happening to this country and I see it from a particular perspective. That experience of the last 20 years is what I have felt intensely; also I have seen the impact of the change in my hometown, how things are changing as a result of things which are taking place so far away. That is also probably one of the reasons for this (perspective). Judging by this one book, it seems to be a pessimistic perspective. Not really. Actually, if that is what you have felt, then I have not succeeded. In the sense I didnt want to be judgemental about anything or with people or with anything. I am trying to just talk about that experience. Not to say it is good, bad, or that money is good or bad, Im not saying that at all. I am just saying this is what happened. And even the relationships of people, it is very complex, it is not possible to point a finger and for me to say anything about them. Youve written short stories, plays and novels. Which do you enjoy the most? I have written a lot of short stories and I have always enjoyed doing it. In the recent past I have started liking long writing. Apart from this, I have published three other novels. I like long writing because I feel we have a lot of space to go really deep. Im not saying its not possible in short stories, but its limited by its size. A novel has enormous possibilities. In the recent past, I have stayed with this form. But Ghachar Ghochar was initially included in a collection of short stories. Yes, this was a long piece. The publishers felt that it is better if I add other stories. So I added four-five other stories which were not very long. It was more to add pages to the book. Maybe I should not have combined, because what happened then was that the focus was lost because it was neither a story collection nor a novel. It was very odd. Has your experience with Kannada and English publishers, too, been different? It is different. There is no formal editing process in Kannada. And it is not that every publisher has an editor or a set of editors. Many of our writers, including me, we share what we have written with a few friends, and they respond. In my case, the publisher himself is my close friend and also a writer. I take their feedback very seriously. Until recently, you had a day job as well, so do you follow a writing schedule? Because of the day job, I had to find some way to do literature. And literature is not just about writing, it is also readingI read a lot. For that I had to find some time. I get up very early in the morning, around 4.30am when everybody is asleep, so I get 3 hoursand 3 hours every day is a lot of timewhen I read and write. That is the time I spend on literature, And that is how I have managed two lives. Because this gave me a lot of joy and I was passionate about it, I never felt it was a trouble to get up in the morning. You are U.R. Ananthamurthys son-in-law. I believe you had a kind of fanboy moment with him when you were a teenager? I first fell in love with him and then with my wife (laughs). I was very young, 17, when I met him. And till he passed away, we had a very close relationship. Did he have a strong influence on your writing? Not really, his was a different kind of writing. In fact I was more influenced by Yashwant Chittal, to whom I have dedicated this Ghachar Ghochar. And I had to struggle to get out of it. The reason is he is from my place; his hometown was just a few miles away from where I come from. And my mother tongue is Konkani, it is not Kannada. His mother tongue is also Konkani. So we shared a common culture, language and community. Hence his writing was a great influence. I was 16-17, it was so easy to fall into that trap, to write like him and get recognized. Fortunately for me. I was aware that I was influenced by him, and I carefully worked on it. In those days, if I wrote something, then I would edit and cut out all the words he would use, all the phrases, the style he would use. I would change it, I wanted to get out of it. After some time, it was easy... In the case of Ananthamurthy, this is not so. Also because I met him later in my life. Of course, he has influenced me in terms of many thoughts, we used to have many discussions on literature. You were quoted somewhere as saying that his politics made you nervous. What did you mean by this? I hope I am not misquoting you. The context is this: Some of the things that he said were almost so prophetic, and I was nervous that it should not come true. I was nervous in that sense. I was not nervous because of what he said. And the reason was, I had explained an incident which was a long time back, during the Karnataka elections, two years before (H.D.) Deve Gowda became the prime minister. On the day of counting, Gowda came home and he spent almost 4 hours with Ananthamurthy, and the single-point agenda was to convince (former Janata Dal leader Ramakrishna) Hegde that he (Gowda) should become the chief minister. At that time, Ananthamurthy told Hegde that politics was going to change, there will be a void at the Centre. So it was almost prophetic, it came true. So when he started talking about (Narendra) Modi, I felt that many of these people did not think so at that time. In that context, I said I was nervous. Similar thing he had said was about the Reddys (G. Karunakara Reddy and G. Janardhana Reddy) of mining, he was the first one to raise a voice against them, when nobody thought they were so evil and menacing. That is when I said I am nervous because I hope it doesnt come true. Are you as politically vocal? Not as much as him. Every writer, we are into politics in some way or the other. Some express it directly, some do it differently. So to that extent, yes I do. I am very much into the thick of it. But Im not as active as Ananthamurthy was. He has come from a different background, the socialist movement. I am not that kind of a person. For instance, I am translating his last work, Hindutva Or Hind Swaraj? I think it is a political act even to translate it. Has translating this been an emotional experience for you? No, it is not emotional. While he was very much opposed to Modis politics, unlike what many people think or believe, this book was not against Modi. It is about the choices the country has made in the last 100 years. That is why it is called Hindutva Or Hind Swaraj? So he is really comparing the choices that we made with (Mahatma) Gandhis ideology and (Veer) Savarkars ideology. How all of us are responsible for the situation today, including himself. I think it is a very important book. It is not an academic essay, it is a creative response to a certain situation that the country is going through. Thats why I felt it important that it must be translated well. It is a work of non-fiction but since he is a fiction writer, he has written it that way. It is also not easy to translate. What happens is that many times he throws lots of images, and Ill give you an example. He says in some place that Medha Patkar and Teesta Setalvad did not loosen their pallu. Im loosely translating it. In Karnataka, people who wear a sari, they tighten their pallu in a particular way when they work or when they fight. Now it is very difficult to translate this in English, it will not communicate what he is trying to say. As a result, what happens is that we can only translate the meaning of it, and the image is lost. These kinds of difficulties I have faced all through this translation. Kannada has a vibrant literary environment. You contributed to it with your literary magazine, Desha Kaala. Why did you stop publishing it? What happened was I did it for seven years, and as part of my job, I had to travel a lot: 15 days in London and 15 days in Bangalore. So I just couldnt manage it. Thats why I stopped it. And now I dont want to start because it is over. This was one phase and I did it with such intensity. I am very proud about what I produced in those 28 issues in seven years. I had brought in a lot of new writers, I got a lot of old writers to write. For example, I made Girish Karnad write his story, his autobiography was first published in Desha Kaala. So I made a lot of people write and I created a lot of excitement about literature. Its all important for a literary environment. There was a lot of opposition for Desha Kaala also. So much so that somebody has also produced a book against it. If somebody has done that, it means it is important. And coming to new writing, there are a lot of new writers. Theres Dalit writing, and second-generation Dalit writing, which is very interesting. There is gay writing, which is rare in Indian languages. Someone called Vasudhendra; again, I first published him in Desha Kaala. There are a lot of very good women writers. One can see a lot of energy. The only thing lacking is the rigour required for writing and the craftsmanship. That has to be something the young writers need to spend a lot of time on and that is where hard work comes in. Publishing has become easy in Kannada, a lot of newspapers and a lot of space and opportunities to publish. If nothing else, they have space on the Net. But a writer doesnt write just to get published. There is something more to it, that more comes with rigour. Personally, I value that a lot. OTHERS : On 18 February, a luminary of Hindustani classical music, Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan, died at the age of 107. A Sangeet Natak Akademi and Padma Bhushan awardee, Khan belonged to the Gwalior gharana. In 2015, New Delhi-based film-maker Niharika Popli made a feature-length documentary on Rashid Khans life, Rasan Piya, that received a special jury mention at the Mumbai International Film Festival in January. She began to follow the maestros music after attending a performance in Jammu, nine years ago. Read Poplis tribute below and watch a clip of the film. Last week, hundreds of us lost our father, our guru, our beloved Baba, Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan. A great musician and poet, yet the simplest of men, he lived his life as an offering to his pir, Muhammad Shah Naeem Ata, a Sufi saint from Babas ancestral village of Salon (located near Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh). It was befitting that in his final journey, he was carried through the crowded narrow by-lanes of Salon, in the midst of the celebration and chaos of a melaBaba chose to leave this world on the day of his pirs Urs. My journey with him began in late 2012, almost five years after I had first heard him. There was something about his music that was pure, simple yet profound; even for someone like me, who had absolutely no connection with classical music, it was impossible not to be touched by his voice. I vividly remember how I and most others who heard him that night had tears in our eyes. Never before had I heard a voice so truthful, full of love, a voice that had the power to light up your mind and your heart. If a child or anyone else has to be introduced to classical music, I think they should first listen to Baba. It was towards the end of 2012 that my friend Akshay Madan and I decided to make a film on his life. We spent the next two years travelling with him for his concerts across India and to his village, at times living with him, observing and talking to him, and listening to his endless stories, music and poetry. Very soon, we became a part of his family. We were not the only ones. His heart and his house were open to anyone who wished to visit. It is the house of a fakir, he would say, Everyone is welcome here. He was almost 105 years old when we met him, but his zest for life was unparalleled. I remember an incident in his village where a woman had come to seek his blessings for her 10-year-old daughter, who was interested in music. Baba asked that girl to sing for him. She sang one of his compositions and he was so impressed by the little girls voice that he told her mother: Your daughter sings very well. You bring her to me in Kolkata. I will train her for 10 years and send her back. Khan teaching his student Mehtab in a hotel room Such was his dedication as a guru that even till the very last day of his life, he taught his students. On the evening of the 17th, he taught me a beautiful composition in raga Marwa, Arrey main kaise ji paaungi bina praanpati, says Srilekha, one of his students in Kolkata. For the past 23 years, he had been teaching at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata, where he lived with his daughter Pammi and grandson Bilals family. During my research for the film, I met many of his studentsfrom the 1950s and 1960s in Salon, from the 1970s to the mid-1990s in Raebareli, and after that in Kolkata, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Varanasi. I realized that his style of teaching had remained the same over the years. In keeping with the traditional seena ba seena (heart to heart) taleem of our ancient guru shishya parampara, he taught one student at a time. He had always been the most loving guru and there has not been a single occasion when I spoke to any of his students and they did not get emotional about being away from him. When Anjana, one of his students from Raebareli, says, The only place of sukoon (peace and comfort) was near him, she echoes the sentiments of all his students. Baba was a Krishna bhakt and just like Krishna, to all his students, he was their beloved, child and sage, at the same time. Baba was an eternal optimist and it was very easy to make him happy. I would offer him his favourite sweet, gur laiyya (made of puffed rice and jaggery) and he would break into a smile. But he was happiest among his students, surrounded by music. Even when he was not teaching and there was no one around, you could see him writing down a new bandish, humming the notes of a raga. I completed the film in July 2015 and became his disciple. I am extremely fortunate to have been part of his life but there is more that I wanted to learn from him, so many more stories I wanted to hear. I think he went too soon. The martyr who cleans your drains Thousands of sanitation workers die every year in India while cleaning sewers. Are their deaths any less than the sacrifices of our armed forces? /news/talking-point/the-martyr-who-cleans-your-drains-111651818421166.html 111651818421166 story All Arabic words have a three-letter root. Once the root is recognized, the words it forms are easy to pick out. S-J-D is the root for bowing in prayer. From it we get words like sajda (to prostrate in prayer), sajid and sajida (he who and she who lies prostrate in prayer) and also masjid (the place where S-J-D happens). Almost always the three letters are consonants. Sometimes they are not; for example, the word for light is noor, but the name for luminous is anwar. Where did the O go? Actually it is still there, because in Arabic the letter for O is interchangeable with W. Similarly, the SH-H-D root stands for martyrdom. From it we get shaheed and shahid, but also shahada. We know shahada, because it is the testimony La ilaha ill Allah, Muhammad Rasulullah", meaning that there is only one god, Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet. The meaning of shaheed and shahid is he who is witness" to this testimony. So what is the relationship between the words martyr and witness? Why are they the same thing? This is something unique to the Abrahamic faiths. Indian languages do not have the word martyr" and Ill come to that in a moment. Martyr is from the Greek word marturia (the letter YUpsilonis pronounced U in Greek). Marturia or martyr also means witness, and here the witnessing" is to the fact of the word of God. And so we arrive at the understanding that the word doesnt mean what we usually think it to meani.e., sacrifice. It means someone who to the end insists that the testimony is true. My Hindi and Gujarati dictionaries translate martyr as shaheed, an Arabic word. This is because there is no revelation to witness" in Hinduism. Marathi uses hutatma, but here to me the word indicates the afterlife, and is closer to the sacrificial aspect of martyr than the testimonial. I am writing about this because we are going through days in which martyrdom is being mentioned a lot. Ten soldiers died in Siachen a few weeks ago and one of them, Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad, is a hero because he almost survived the calamity. Some days later, five men from the security forces died in an attack in Kashmir but two of them, Captains Pawan Kumar and Tushar Mahajan, were singled out for praise because they were officers. I want to talk about other martyrs. What is the most lethal work in India? It is done by those who know that their work is dangerous and that the chances of death or injury are very high. The work kills 2% of those who do it in Delhi, meaning 100 deaths annually in a community of 5,000, according to a 2014 story on the Zee News website. If this ratio were to be applied to the Armed Forces, we would be looking at 40,000 dead soldiers a year, and there would be no end to the news coverage. But these martyrs that I am referring to find no coverage and no honour, because they work in our sewers. A January 2014 study by the non-profit Praxis India called Down The Drain!", on the occupational and health hazards and the perils of contracting faced by the sewerage workers of Delhi, shows that every year 100 sewerage workers die after entering drains and manholes with high temperature, slippery walls, floors and toxic gases, in Delhi. The report says that most sewerage workers, due to lack of medical attention, suffer from several dreaded diseases like cardiovascular degeneration, musculoskeletal disorders, infections, skin problems and respiratory ailments. It adds: Apart from health hazards, the other issues they face are low pay, caste-based discrimination, prejudice, lack of occupational safety and apathy of government agencies. How do we treat these people? The report says that in many cases, the sewerage workers are hired on a contractual basis but are removed before the completion of the tenure and not paid in accord with the agreement. Writing for The Hindu (Deaths In The Drains", 4 April 2014) publisher S. Anand said: According to an estimate I made in 2007, at least 22,327 men and women die in India every year doing various kinds of sanitation work. Figures are hard to come by since this concerns the deaths of a section of population that most of India refuses to see. Santosh Choudhary, then chairperson of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, had told me in 2007 that at least two to three workers must be dying every day inside manholes across India." These are staggering numbers and the fact that we are ignorant and totally unconcerned about a sacrifice of this magnitude says much about our society, none of it good. For most of us, the idea of martyrdom is limited to the deaths of uniformed men. The emotion we feel is linked to this. Their actions are seen as protecting us from evil, and their sacrifice is seen as deliberate, making it sacred. I cannot resist pointing out here that at midnight on 14 August 1947, we inherited a mercenary army that till a minute before had been available for hire from the time of Herodotus. General Dyer only gave the order at Jallianwala Bagh: The aim was taken and triggers pulled by the Gurkha Regiment and Baloch Rifles. But even so, all deaths in service require our respect and our admiration, and so it should be for our soldiers. It is just that there are many more of us who rise to the task and offer themselves, deliberately, silently and without recognition, to the nation. Aakar Patel is executive director of Amnesty International India. The views expressed here are personal. Also read | Aakar Patels previous Lounge columns Raise a child who gets into trouble Be a fearless parent. Raise a child like Kanhaiya Kumar, like Umar Khaled, like Soni Sori /news/talking-point/raise-a-child-who-gets-into-trouble-111651818445223.html 111651818445223 story Raise a child like Kanhaiya Kumar. Like Umar Khalid. Like Soni Sori. First of all, be a fearless parent. Kanhaiya Kumar is the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students Union and will have been in prison for 17 days before his next bail hearing. He has been charged with sedition on the basis of a video that television channels have claimed to be fake and doctored. Audio and text graphics of slogans like Pakistan Zindabad" had reportedly been edited on footage of Kanhaiya Kumar and other JNU students at a rally on the campus. He has been beaten up by lawyers inside the Patiala House court complex despite being surrounded by policemen who should have protected him. A video of Kanhaiya Kumar addressing students at JNU went viral on the Internet a day before his arrest. Transcripts of his speech have been published in various newspapers. We are of this country and love the soil of India. We fight for those 80% of this countrys people who are poor. For us, this is desh bhakti," said Kumar. Raise a child who is articulate and inclusive. Who is not afraid to be a leader. Who includes those people who have been marginalized and forgotten when he talks about freedom, development and progress. Of which Bharat Mata do you speak if my mother is not part of this Bharat Mata?...My mother is an anganwadi worker. My family survives on 3,000. And they are abusing my mother. I am ashamed that the mothers of the poor, workers, Dalits, farmers of this country are not part of Bharat Mata. I will hail Bharats many matas (mothers), fathers, sisters, farmers, workers, Dalits, Adivasis." Raise a child who remembers his mother when he is talking about justice and belonging. Raise a child who turns his vulnerability into his inspiration. Raise a child like Umar Khalid. Khalid is a PhD scholar of JNU. He is among five other students who have also been charged with sedition. Khalid has been consistently singled out of the list of students and targeted by various television news channels. He is alleged to be a terrorist sympathizer who has travelled to Pakistan and Kashmir to connect with terrorist organizations. After days in hiding, Khalid returned to the JNU campus and spoke to his fellow students. My name is certainly Umar Khalid, but I am not a terrorist." I did not find it funny when I played the video on my computer the next day, but how can I complain when Khalid was laughing as he opened his speech with this line? Raise a child who laughs in the face of fear. A child who respects his parents and protects his family even when he disagrees with them. It is the easiest to be an anti-national these days," Khalid says, as he quotes another student, Anirban Bhattacharya. The minute you start thinking, you would immediately be labelled anti-national." Khalid refers to Rohith Vemula, the Dalit scholar of the Hyderabad Central University who committed suicide, and says, ...the script is the same, but there will not be any more Rohiths". Khalid and Bhattacharya surrendered to the police the next day. People outside have to carry on the struggle," said Khalid to his friends as he left. We will be fighting from inside." He smiled a wide smile again. Raise a child who is not afraid of his own voice. Who does not hide to stay safe, especially when his silence can be used to target and hurt others. Raise a child like Soni Sori. Soni Sori was admitted to the intensive care unit of Indraprastha Apollo hospital in Delhi, with chemical burns on her face, last week. If you dont behave yourself, we will do this to your daughter as well," her attackers are alleged to have said. Soni Sori was a schoolteacher, an Adivasi woman in Chhattisgarh when she was first arrested for acting as a conduit for Maoists". From her prison cell, Soni Sori sent letters to her lawyers, womens rights organizations and to the Supreme Court, recounting the painful and humiliating sexual torture she had endured. She has named the police officers who raped her and inserted stones in her vagina and rectum. Medical reports confirmed the torture. Soni Sori received thousands of postcards in jail from people expressing solidarity. Whenever I am heartbroken I take out each postcard and read it," she said. They give me strength and empower me to fight." After her release from prison, Sori chose to join the Aam Aadmi Party and contest elections to transform the system. Sori did not win, but she refuses to fade into the background either. She cannot not represent her people and land. It is my children who give me the courage to fight," says Sori, a mother of three. My fight is not about caste or religion but about the rights of all women." Raise a child who cannot be broken by defeat. Soni Sori has become a political activist because she could not bear to remain a victim. The more she is oppressed, the stronger her spirit becomes. How can one keep hope and inspiration alive when one is feeling fear and despair? How does one raise children to be fearless when we are afraid that it may get them into danger? We learn from our children, from the youth and from those who rise from the ashes of their oppression. Look into their eyes and recognize the hope, energy and promise in them. See how they act with courage despite threats to their safety. Give your children the confidence to belong. Allow them to grow up, to know that their opinion matters. We know we belong to a family, institution, community or nation when we are allowed the space to challenge and defy norms. When we can dissent and disobey. When we can change, influence and heal systems. Raise a child you are willing to learn from. A child you might have to hold protest rallies to protect one day. A child you will defend. A child you might have to hold candles to commemorate one day. Raise a child unattached to her social status. Unafraid to lose her privilege. Create a world that has spaces for rebellion. A world that is not threatened by dissent, that nurtures differences. Only parents who can change this in themselves can raise a child like Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and Soni Sori. Natasha Badhwar is a film-maker, media trainer and mother of three. She tweets at @natashabadhwar and posts on Instagram as natashabadhwar. Also read | Natasha Badhwars previous Lounge columns. A phenomenon called "marijuana tourism" may be leading to an uptick in marijuana-related emergency-room visits in Colorado, one of the few states where recreational use of the drug is legal, a new report finds. Since it became legal to sell marijuana in Colorado in 2014, the number of emergency-room visits possibly related to marijuana has increased more among out-of-state residents, compared with Colorado residents, according to the report. The data match what doctors have been reporting seeing, anecdotally, in emergency rooms, said Dr. Howard Kim, an emergency medicine physician at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, and an author of the report. (Kim previously worked in Colorado.) [11 Odd Facts About Marijuana] For example, at one urban hospital in Colorado, the rate of all emergency-room visits by out-of-state residents that were possibly related to pot use doubled from 2013 to 2014, increasing from 85 per 10,000 visits to 168 per 10,000, according to the report, which was published today (Feb. 24) in The New England Journal of Medicine. The rate of all emergency-room visits by Colorado residents that were possibly caused by pot, on the other hand, did not change significantly in this period, increasing from 106 per 10,000 visits in 2013 to 112 per 10,000 visits in 2014, according to the report. The researchers also looked at the rates of emergency-room visits in the state as a whole. For out-of-staters, the rate of possible marijuana-related visits to the emergency room increased from 112 per 10,000 visits in 2013 to 163 per 100,000 visits in 2014, according to the report. For Colorado residents, the increase was smaller, rising from 86 per 10,000 visits in 2013 to 101 per 10,000 visits in 2014, according to the report. It's not surprising that the rates of emergency-room visits also increased for Colorado residents, Kim told Live Science. When you legalize marijuana, you expect more people to use it, and therefore, you'd also expect more people in the emergency room, he said. What is much more notable are the dramatic increases in the rates among the out-of-staters, Kim said. Kim noted that it did not appear that people were necessarily traveling to Colorado specifically to use marijuana, but rather happen to use the drug while visiting the state for other reasons. In the report, the researchers did not look specifically at how people were using marijuana; however, it's possible that edible marijuana may have been a culprit behind the rise in ER visits, Kim said. People often underestimate the effects of edible marijuana because it has a delayed onset, he said. So instead of waiting to feel the effects, a person may eat more, thinking it hasn't worked, he said. While Colorado has started public health initiatives to inform people of the drug's potential side effects, these messages may not reach people in other states, and some visitors may even come from other countries, Kim said. Instead, the researchers stressed the importance "point-of-sale" education, Kim said. In other words, when a person buys marijuana in Colorado, the salesperson (or "budtender") should clearly outline any health risks to the buyer, he said. People who are traveling to visit states where marijuana is legal should be aware of the side effects, and exercise moderation, Kim added. The vast majority of people who use marijuana do not experience symptoms that require a trip to the emergency room, Kim said. Follow Sara G. Miller on Twitter @SaraGMiller. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science. Although experts recently declared the world's largest Ebola outbreak over, many people who were infected with the virus are still experiencing neurologic problems, according to a new study. Researchers found that, among a group of 82 Ebola survivors in Liberia, nearly all had some neurologic problems at six months or longer after they were infected. "While an end to the outbreak has been declared, these survivors are still struggling with long-term problems," study author Dr. Lauren Bowen, a neurologist at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, said in a statement. More than 28,600 people were infected with the virus in West Africa during the outbreak, and 11,300 of those people died, Bowen said. In the new study, the researchers wanted to find out whether, among the 17,000 survivors of the infection, there were people still experiencing brain or other neurological health problems, she said. [Where Did Ebola Come From?] The researchers looked at 82 people in Liberia who were infected during the outbreak. Each patient in the study underwent a neurological examination. The researchers also asked the participants about their neurological symptoms, both while the individuals were being treated for Ebola and after their treatments were over. The neurological exams showed that about two-thirds of the participants had abnormalities in the way their eyes followed moving objects. Such abnormalities "normally indicate a subtle degree of damage in the brain," Bowen told Live Science. One-third of the people had tremors, abnormal reflexes and other sensory abnormalities, and 17 percent had certain reflexes that are typically signs of disorders affecting the frontal lobes of the brain. Other common neurologic symptoms reported in the study were headaches, depressed mood, weakness, muscle pain and memory problems; 21 people in the study said they'd had hallucinations. Twenty people in the study experienced meningitis (inflammation of the tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord), either while they were being treated for Ebola or after they left the treatment unit. And 14 people had been in a coma at some point, Bowen said. Some of the most common symptoms the people were experiencing at the time of the study included weakness, headaches, memory problems, depressed mood and muscle pain. Two people said they felt suicidal. The researchers said there is not enough known about these problems to say with certainty which of them might be due to Ebola. And the scientists noted that the study did not have a control group, which would be a group of uninfected patients. Further research that does include a control group is ongoing, the researchers said. They are also going to follow up with the survivors for several more years to see if their neurologic symptoms persist, or whether the people's conditions improve over time, said study co-author Dr. Bridgette Jeanne Billioux, a neurologist in Baltimore, Maryland. It is also not clear how Ebola may contribute to these neurologic symptoms, the researchers said. However, the symptoms may be related to the significant blood loss that often occurs in Ebola patients, and the effects of this loss on the brain, Bowen said. The new results will be presented in April at the American Academy of Neurology's 68th Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada. The findings have not been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Follow Agata Blaszczak-Boxe on Twitter. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science. Many wearable devices can track your heart rate, steps, body temperature or sleep, but a new class of wearables aims to move beyond tracking the physical to tracking the mind. The makers of these "brain wearables" which come in the form of headsets with electrodes claim the devices can improve your focus, detect stress and even let you play video games with your brain. The devices work by detecting the brain's electrical activity, or brain waves, using electroencephalography (EEG). But do they really work? Independent experts say that, in theory, brain wearables could indeed do what they claim. Research over the past several decades has shown that EEG signals are related to concentration, memory, attention and even thoughts about moving different parts of the body. But questions remain about how well some commercial brain wearables can detect brain waves in "real world" circumstances, which aren't controlled as precisely as those in a laboratory. Brain signals themselves are rather weak, and even the most advanced and expensive laboratory tools can have trouble detecting them, or can be fooled from time to time. "If it's difficult to detect those tiny signals in the laboratory with high-quality and expensive equipment clearly this issue is going to face even greater challenges" in an uncontrolled environment, said Gerwin Schalk, a neuroscientist at the New York State Department of Health's Wadsworth Center. Industry experts acknowledge the limitations of commercial brain wearables, but they say that they've been able to design software that partly makes up for these shortcomings. [Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies] Detecting brain waves The Mindwave Moblie, from NeuroSky (Image credit: NeuroSky) One of the first commercial brain wearables was released in 2009 by a company called NeuroSky. The device was an EEG headset that could be used to play a game called Mindflex, from Mattel, in which users move a ball around a small obstacle course using their "brain power." Increased concentration raises the ball in the air, via a motorized fan, and relaxation lowers the ball, the company says. NeuroSky now also markets another EEG headset, called MindWave Mobile, directly to consumers. The company says the device can be used with a number of apps that claim to harness EEG signals to let users play games, reduce stress, increase attention and even help with learning. Another brain wearable, called Muse, from InteraXon, claims to measure brain waves to help people meditate, giving them a better idea of how "active" or "calm" their mind is. And the makers of a recently released brain wearable called Melon say the device can improve your focus. Schalk said it's certainly possible that such commercial brain wearables do measure people's brain waves, in certain circumstances. But the problem is that all EEG devices also pick up signals from other sources, like muscle movements or other electrical devices, that can look like EEG signals. In laboratories, scientists can reduce this "noise" by having subjects sit still in a controlled environment, and by applying a conductive paste to the electrodes so called "wet electrodes" to improve the strength of the signal coming from the brain, which can't be done with commercial wearables. But commercial brain wearables use "dry electrodes." Although these have improved in recent years, and the most advanced types are now as good as wet electrodes, there's still the problem of filtering out all that noise, said Jaime Pineda, a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego. Filtering noise To distinguish between brain signals and other electrical "noise," it helps to use a lot of electrodes. In lab studies, researchers who study brain activity place electrodes all over the head, so that a person might have anywhere from 20 to 200 electrodes on his or her scalp. Commercial brain wearables, on the other hand, typically have just one to five electrodes. That may be an issue, because the more electrodes that are used, the easier it is to apply algorithms to filter out the noise, or "artifacts," Pineda said. "If you have 30 electrodes, it's a lot easier to know" whether a signal is a true brain signal or a signal from some other source, Pineda said. With just one or two electrodes, it would be "impossible or very unlikely" to distinguish between things like muscle movement and brain activity, Pineda said. The NeuroSky headset MindWave Mobile has one electrode that is placed on the user's forehead. Pineda said he was skeptical of this setup, because there is often a lot of muscle activity that is picked up on the forehead. "Unless you're sitting very still, most of what you're going to pick up is artifact," Pineda said.The Melon headband has two electrodes, but the company says it uses an "electrode configuration" that reduces noise. The Muse headband (opens in new tab) has four electrodes. Schalk agreed that, due to the limitations of commercial wearables, "most of what they detect will be signals from other sources," he said. One commercial brain wearable company called Emotiv, which markets some of its products to researchers, has a commercial device with 14 electrodes. A 2015 study from researchers in Spain found that this 14-electrode device could detect changes in the brain when people were shown images intended to elicit positive emotions, and these changes were in line with what would be expected from earlier research studies. Getting more with less Graeme Moffat, director of scientific and regulatory affairs at Muse, acknowledged that more electrodes are better for interpreting EEG data. "You're always going to get a better signal with more channels," Moffat said, referring to electrodes. "If you could convince someone to put on a 64-channel cap, you would be able to parse brain activity more effectively than with a four-channel system," Moffat said. [9 Odd Ways Your Tech Devices May Injure You] But having 64 electrodes isn't practical for a portable EEG system because it would be difficult to transmit all of the data wirelessly, and consumers probably wouldn't want to wear such a device. "The more electrodes you can squeeze into a portable system, the better off you are," Moffat said. "But if it's a big clunky thing, you've limited yourself in market." But Moffat said that portable EEG can be an effective technology in certain settings, mainly those where a user is sitting relatively still. One way that commercial EEG systems can make up for having fewer electrodes is to study data from thousands of users, Moffat said. "You collect an awful lot of data from an awful lot of people, and you get good at characterizing noise and brain signal," and at distinguishing between the two, Moffat said. This can help companies improve their algorithms and "get more out of less," he said. Participants in Muse's volunteer research programs "share several orders of magnitude more data in a single month than a typical EEG laboratory would collect in a decade," Moffat said. But even with these sharpened algorithms, a portable EEG system still won't be able to do all of the things that a wired EEG system can do in the laboratory, he said. Therefore, companies have to be careful not to overpromise or make claims that are ahead of the technology. InteraXon is now working with app developers to help them better understand the data collected from EEG systems and the limits of this technology, Moffat said. The company wants to "encourage, not just our own developers, but the community, in thinking about what the headsets can do and can't do, so the experience isn't disappointing for users," Moffat said. NeuroSky and Melon did not respond to Live Science's requests for comment. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. A colorful cuttlefish wows visitors at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C. These remarkable squidlike creatures are known as "sea chameleons" because of their ability to rapidly change colors and blend in with their surroundings. Cuttlefish use this natural camouflage to protect themselves from predators. [Related Gallery: Photos of Color-Changing Cephalopods] Vast communities of migrating deep-sea marine life are the culprits behind a mysterious, low-frequency humming sound in the ocean, made as the creatures swim to and from the surface at feeding time. The discovery, made by University of California, San Diego assistant research biologist Simone Baumann-Pickering, answers a long-standing question. The source of the hum has for years vexed marine biologists, as NPR reports. They knew the sound wasn't consistent with whale calls or other marine mammals, such as dolphins, communicating. VIDEO: Satellites Map Entire Ocean Floor With Gravity Assist Now, thanks to high-sensitivity undersea audio recordings, Baumann-Pickering says it's animals such as fish, jellies, shrimp, and squid living in what's known as the ocean's mesopelagic zone a range 200 to 1000 meters (660 to 3300 feet) below the surface that are behind the sound. Creatures in the mesopelagic neighborhood live deep down, in a dark world where the sun barely shines and there's not exactly a bounty of food. So each night, with the safety of darkness, they venture up to the surface where food is more plentiful. And when they head up top (or back down) the hum about 3 to 6 decibels louder than ocean background noise kicks in. "It's not that loud," Baumann-Pickering said in a statement. "It sounds like a buzzing or humming, and that goes on for an hour to two hours, depending on the day." (Check out a sound clip of the humming here.) Mix Of Species Gain Haven In New Marine Reserve: Photos The purpose behind the sound is still an open question. Baumann-Pickering said it could be a signal to the entire group to head up to the surface or back down. While it's neat to think that such communication could be happening among the animals, there could also be a less high-minded reason for the hum. It turns out the creatures might just be passing gas, as their swim bladders regulate their buoyancy. "It's known that some fish are considered to be farting," Baumann-Pickering told NPR, "that they emit gas as they change depths in the water column." Sea Squirts, Slugs Among 100 New Marine Animals If the denizens of the mesopelagic are engaging in communication of some kind, then learning more about the messages being conveyed and which specific animals are doing the conveying would help scientists come to a better understanding of the ecosystem they inhabit, according to Baumann-Pickering. It could also tell researchers more about the predators that feed on the mesopelagic animals if the hunters are listening in, then the hum may tip them off that food is nearby. Baumann-Pickering presented her findings at the Ocean Sciences Meeting being held in New Orleans. Originally published on Discovery News. An artist's impression of two black holes circling each other, creating gravitational waves. A new theory posits that double black hole systems could form from a single star. Could a single, dying star give birth to not one, but two black holes? Stranger things have happened in space. About 1.3 billion years ago, two black holes merged into one, creating ripples in the fabric of space-time known as gravitational waves. Those ripples were recorded by detectors on Earth, scientists announced on Feb. 11 the first time gravitational waves had ever been directly detected, marking a significant achievement for physics and astronomy. Scientists have long held different ideas about how black holes of this size get close enough to collide, but another proposal has just entered the ring: that the black holes were created, shortly before their collision, from one, massive star as it was collapsing in on itself. [No Escape: Dive Into a Black Hole (Infographic)] This new hypothesis posits that the merger of these two black holes would produce light including, possibly, a burst of gamma-rays, the highest-energy form of light. That possibility is now under investigation by scientists, who are following up on the historic gravitational-wave detection in a variety of ways. Making two black holes from one star "It's the cosmic equivalent of a pregnant woman carrying twins inside her belly," astrophysicist Avi Loeb, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), said in a statement, talking about his proposal that two black holes can form out of the same dying star. The internal furnace of a massive star is powered by the fusion of hydrogen into helium, but even stars run out of fuel eventually. When a massive star (tens of times larger than the sun) reaches the end of its resources, it will explode as a supernova. With no engine pushing the star's remaining material outward, that matter will collapse down into a superdense, leftover nugget. Sometimes, this collapse forms a black hole. But Loeb's new paper, which has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, shows that if the star is spinning extremely rapidly as it collapses, the infalling material could split into a dumbbell configuration, and create two black holes. It was Albert Einstein who first predicted that space and time together make up a single cosmic fabric, and that two black holes spinning around each other and merging would not only bend that fabric, but also send ripples through it. For decades, scientists have tried to detect these ripples directly, but the first team to succeed was the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) group, which used big detectors in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana. Both detectors spotted the gravitational-wave signal in September 2015, and the LIGO team vetted the find for five months before announcing it to the world. Loeb told Space.com in an email that researchers have investigated the dumbbell process in other contexts. That includes star formation, in which a cloud of dust collapsing down to form a star could be spinning fast enough to split into two new stars. "I had this idea in my head for about a decade," Loeb said. But he said it was the Feb. 11 announcement of the black hole collision that inspired him to put the hypothesis down on paper that, and the possible detection of a bright burst of light from the same region of the sky. A flash of light in the sky Living up to their name, black holes don't radiate any kind of light. However, many black holes can be "seen" because they are surrounded by material that is accelerated and heated by the black hole's gravity, causing the matter to emit light. But two black holes with masses a few tens of times that of the sun are not expected to be surrounded by material as they circle around one another and eventually collide. Loeb's hypothesis offers a possible case in which the two black holes could release a gamma-ray burst. Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light, and gamma-ray bursts are caused by very energetic events. The bursts can occur when a single star collapses into a black hole, Loeb said. "In order to produce a gamma-ray burst, one needs to feed a black hole at an enormous rate of somewhere between the mass of a planet and the mass of the sun every second," Loeb told Space.com. As a star begins to collapse into a black hole, the "infall of matter can lead to the production of a jet that drills a hole through the envelope of a star and produces a gamma-ray flash for an observer that happens to lie in its direction." Assuming the dying star could split into two black holes, it follows that such a star might also produce a gamma-ray burst. Thankfully, a gamma-ray telescope was looking at the sky at the same time that LIGO detected the black hole collision. Scientists with NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope announced that the space-based observatory may have seen a flash of gamma-ray light "in the same region of the sky" as the LIGO detection, only 0.4 seconds after LIGO detected its signal. Fermi scientists are still working to confirm whether the signal was real, or if it was a false alarm in the detector. [Record-Breaking Gamma-ray Burst Capturedby Fermi (Video)] "I think that the Fermi/GBM detection is unlikely to be real (there are a variety of objections floating around the community)," Edo Berger, a professor of astronomy at Harvard University, told Space.com in an email. "This does not mean that Avi's paper is wrong (since it is just a theoretical model)," Berger added. "But right now there are no specific tests of the proposed model. Whether the process he's suggesting actually happens in nature remains to be seen with future observations. Luckily, LIGO and Virgo will find many more of these binary black hole mergers when they turn on for the next science run." Virgo is a facility in Italy that will soon join the LIGO detectors in the search for gravitational waves. And even if the Fermi detection was real, there's still a question of whether or not the gamma-ray burst came from the black hole merger. LIGO can currently only narrow down the location of the merger to an area on the sky measuring 600 square degrees. (The full moon covers 0.2 square degrees of the sky). "I am rather doubtful that the Fermi report is indeed associated with the [gravitational wave] source; it is of relatively small statistical significance, and the sky patch associated with the [gravitational wave] source is huge," Vicky Kalogera, a black hole scientist at Northwestern University in Illinois and a member of the LIGO team, told Space.com in an email. Black holes are so bizarre, they sound unreal. Yet astronomers have found good evidence they exist. Test your knowledge of these wacky wonders. Black Hole Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of Nature's Weirdest Creations Kalogera also wondered why only gamma-rays would be detected if the black hole merger created light, she said. Other instruments searching in different wavelengths did not see a signal at the same time as the gravitational wave detection. There is still the possibility that the Fermi signal was real, and that it did indeed come from the black hole collision. But even if this particular black hole event wasn't an example of Loeb's dumbbell hypothesis, he said there could be other events that LIGO detects in the future that involve twin black holes, born from the same stellar mother. Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. In an ancient settlement on the banks of the Tigris River in Turkey, archaeologists have made a strange discovery: 17 butchered soft-shelled turtles in the grave of a woman and child. These river turtles were not a typical Mesopotamian menu offering 2,500 years ago, but the researchers think that, in this case, the animals may have been eaten in a funeral ritual before being buried with the dead. The grave was discovered at an ancient mound site called Kavusan Hoyuk, near the modern town of Bismil in southeastern Turkey. The archaeological record suggests the site was occupied for a very long time from the late third millennium B.C. to the 14th century A.D.but now, it's about to disappear. Once the controversial Ilisu Dam project is finished, Kavusan Hoyuk and several other historic sites like Hasankeyf (opens in new tab) will be flooded with a new reservoir. [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries] Ahead of this hydroelectric project, salvage excavations took place along the banks of the Tigris to save and study the archaeological materials that are soon to be underwater. At Kavusan Hoyuk, digging took place from 2001 to 2009. The top and bottom of a turtle shell (known as the carapace and plastron) from the burial at Kavusan Hoyuk. (Image credit: R. Berthon) In the 2008 season, archaeologists discovered three ancient silos that had been dug into a mud floor dating back to the post-Assyrian period, around the sixth century B.C. These silos would have originally been used for grain or cereal storage, but one of them was repurposed for a grave. At the bottom of it, excavators found a woman and a child, buried directly on top of each other. Surrounding them were the carapaces (shells) and other skeletal remains of 17 Euphrates soft-shelled turtles (Rafetus euphraticus). "It was really something unexpected," said Remi Berthon, a zooarchaeologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, who was tasked with studying the animal remains. Turtle shells and, more commonly, tortoise shells have been found in graves in the Near East before. But finding Euphrates soft-shelled turtles, and so many of them, was a surprise. What's more, Berthon saw clear evidence that the turtles had been butchered. The cut marks on the bones suggest the turtles were placed on their backs and were cut open for the meat inside; their limbs were cut off as well, the researchers said. The Euphrates soft-shelled turtle (Rafetus euphraticus) is still alive, but endangered, today. Here are a few basking on the shore of the Tigris River. (Image credit: courtesy of S. Turga) Berthon said he hasn't tasted soft-shelled turtle meat himself, and he'd probably be in trouble with conservationists if he did: The Euphrates soft-shelled turtle is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Despite its precarious status, the species was not held in much regard locally. Though ethnographic sources suggest the turtles are sometimes sold at fish markets, the animals have no economic function in the region today. "I think that fishermen are not really happy with this species because they think they are too aggressive and destroy the fishing nets," Berthon said. There is evidence from other archaeological sites that turtles and tortoises may have been seen as guides to the afterlife in some cultures. For example, the shells and skulls of green sea turtles were often found on graves at the Ra's al Hamra 5 cemetery, in Oman, which dates back to the fourth millennium B.C. "We knew already that, in the Near East, the turtles and tortoise have a special role that is usually linked with life after death," Berthon explained. What's surprising here, he said, is that these special powers may have been applied to soft-shelled turtles, an overlooked animal today. As there are no marks of trauma or injuries, it's not clear how the two people buried with the turtles died. But the strange burial and the evidence for a possible funeral feast might also indicate that these two had high social status or symbolic status. The findings were published online Feb. 17 in the journal Antiquity. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. The gas leak that forced the evacuation of 1,800 homes in the mountains above Los Angeles late last year was the largest methane leak in U.S. history and shows the climate risks of aging natural gas infrastructure, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The Aliso Canyon leak near the Porter Ranch neighborhood was so big that it emitted 97,100 tons of methane the equivalent of the annual greenhouse gas pollution from 572,000 cars, according to the study, which used aircraft to measure methane concentrations in the atmosphere near Aliso Canyon during the leak. Though the global climate impacts of the leak were minimal, it showed that aging and degraded natural gas wells and pipelines in the U.S. could be at risk of emitting millions of tons of methane into the atmosphere, with significant implications, the study's authors say. "If you look at it in the spectrum of all the individual (methane) sources, it's a monster," said study lead author Stephen Conley, a University of California-Davis atmospheric scientist who owns Scientific Aviation, a company that uses private aircraft to measure pollutants in the air. Study Ties U.S. to Spike in Global Methane Emissions Huge Methane Emissions Hot Spot Found in U.S. Determining Methane Leaks Is Key to Climate Goals Methane is 86 times more potent as a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide over the span of 20 years, or about 35 times as potent over a span of a century, a characteristic known as global warming potential. The U.S. has played a major role in an increase in global methane emissions in recent years. Research published this month shows that the U.S. may be responsible for between 30 and 60 percent of the growth in emissions since 2002. The Aliso Canyon leak was discovered Oct. 23 at the Aliso Canyon Storage Facility, one of about 400 underground natural gas storage reservoirs nationwide. The facility stores natural gas in depleted underground crude oil formations, serving millions of homes in the Los Angeles area. The leak was fully stopped on Feb. 18. The blowout, which leaked about 5 billion cubic feet of natural gas into the atmosphere, was the largest methane release in U.S. history with an asterisk. A 2004 collapse of an underground gas storage facility near Moss Bluff, Texas, released 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas, but the gas exploded, preventing the methane from reaching the atmosphere. The Aliso Canyon leak could have been much worse, the study says: Though it continued for five months, it emitted into the atmosphere only 3 percent of the storage facility's natural gas stockpile. SoCalGas CEO Dennis Arriola said in a Feb. 18 letter to Aliso Canyon-area residents that the company will cooperate with California regulators in an ongoing investigation into the cause of the leak and find a way to offset its greenhouse gas emissions. Numerous studies have shown that landfills and power plants are urban sources of methane, and natural gas fields and pipelines serving major metro areas have been found to leak large amounts of methane into the atmosphere partly because of aging and degrading infrastructure. UC-Davis researcher Stephen Conley pilots the aircraft he used to measure methane concentrations in the atmosphere near the Aliso Canyon gas leak. (Image credit: UC-Davis) A 2014 study found 5,900 urban methane and other gas leaks in aging pipes in Washington, D.C., and an unrelated study published this week shows that the Los Angeles basin has 213 methane leak "hotspots" from landfills, cattle growing and oil and gas facilities. The Aliso Canyon leak was particularly notable because a rupture in a well that taps the underground storage facility leaked about 9 percent of California's annual methane emissions roughly the same annual methane emissions of some small European countries. "Compared to the worldwide methane budget, it's small," said study co-author Thomas Ryerson, leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's tropospheric chemistry program in Boulder, Colo. But, he said, the Paris climate agreement signed last year requires countries to do their part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions the best they possibly can, and the Aliso Canyon gas leak shows that one single leak can eclipse the annual greenhouse gas emissions of a country such as Austria. "In the post-COP21 world, rapid evaluation of episodic releases of GHGs like the Aliso Canyon blowout will be an essential contribution to meeting these requirements," the study says, referring to the Paris climate negotiations. Scientists unaffiliated with the study emphasized that the Aliso Canyon leak was serious, but not necessarily for its climate implications. Rob Jackson, an earth system science professor at Stanford University whose research has focused in part on methane leaks from natural gas infrastructure, said the Aliso Canyon leak was unprecedented in size, but small in a global context. "Its biggest legacy will be in displacing thousands of people," Jackson said. "Aliso Canyon highlights the vulnerability of our natural gas infrastructure and the opportunity we have to reduce all leaks." Gabrielle Petron, an atmospheric scientist at NOAA and the University of Denver who studies pollution near oil and gas operations, said the Aliso Canyon leak and others like it shouldn't distract the U.S. from focusing on reducing carbon dioxide emissions. She said there is a risk that making large investments in the improvement and expansion of natural gas infrastructure may be setting the U.S. on a trajectory of increased fossil fuel consumption. But, she said, she is unsure if the U.S. can meet its greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals with the natural gas infrastructure currently in place. "There is no silver bullet to reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Petron said. "Methane is a significant player in the short term, but carbon dioxide is the dominant driver of climate change." You May Also Like: Study Calls For Leaner 'Carbon Budget' to Slow Warming These 9 EU Countries Are Leading the Renewable Charge Low Oil Prices Force Slowdown of U.S. Tar Sands Project Obama Confident in Climate Plan Despite Court Setback Originally published on Climate Central. Fictional botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) tends his garden on Mars in the movie "The Martian." Actor Matt Damon may have only been playing a botanist in the 2015 film "The Martian," but his scientific turn in the hit movie has inspired real-life researchers. They recently named a new Australian plant species after his character. In "The Martian," Damon plays a fictional NASA astronaut who accidentally gets left behind on Mars when a mission goes terribly wrong. The intrepid botanist uses his training, skill and considerable determination, however, to survive against all odds. Damon has already garnered a Golden Globe, a Critics' Choice Award, and the British Association for Film and Television award for Best Actor for the role, but now his character, Mark Watney, has received yet another accolade. Scientists named a new species of bush tomato Solanum watneyi, describing it in a study published online today (Feb. 25) in the journal PhytoKeys. [StarStruck: Species Named After Celebrities] "Something extraordinary" Chris Martine, co-author of the study was thrilled to see the Mark Watney character confront danger and adversity, and triumph by using science, proving that "botanists can be cool, too," Martine wrote in a blog post in September 2015. Martine is a biology professor at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The researcher was so moved by Damon's portrayal that not only did he decide to name the new bush tomato species after Watney, but he also extended an invitation to Damon on behalf of the Botanical Society of America, inviting the actor to join their ranks as an honorary member. "Scientist heroes are already unusual in Hollywood," Martine wrote, "but a space-deserted protagonist who studies plants as a profession is something extraordinary." A bush-tomato specimen of the newly discovered species Solanum watneyi. (Image credit: Christopher T. Martine) All in the family Bush-tomato shrubs are widespread in Western Australia, growing in arid regions and producing large, purple flowers and a round, yellowish fruit that measures about 0.8 to 1.2 inches (2 to 3 centimeters) in length. Martine pointed out that Solanum watneyi was an especially appropriate name choice, because the plant is a member of the same genus as the potato plant that Watney coaxed into growing on Mars: Solanum tuberosum. Andy Weir, author of the novel "The Martian" (Crown, 2014), on which the movie was based, and creator of the Mark Watney character, said he agreed wholeheartedly with Martine's decision. "What higher honor could a botanist like Watney ask for than to have a plant named after him?" Weir wrote on his Facebook page. "And to have it be a relative of the potato as well? Perfect!" Follow Mindy Weisberger on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. The time has arrived ready or not, vacation recap posts times twenty is headed your way. I wasnt kidding the other day when I said I took 897 photos. I have this phobia on vacation that if I dont photograph it, I wont remember it. And because I like everything about vacation, I want to document everything on vacation. Im hoping that there is a support group for this because this woman needs some serious help. Because this post would extend all the way to China [not even exaggerating] if I crammed all of our vacation in one post, Im going to break it down day by day for you. Or maybe thats for me. Regardless, here we go. Sunday our first official day in California. Thanks to Southwest Airlines for being awesome and having zero flight change fees, we decided to head out Saturday evening rather than Sunday evening so we would have an extra full day of sunshine. When you live in Indiana you will go to drastic measures for Vitamin D in the month of February. After waking up in sunny San Diego, it was time to make the one hour drive to our destination for the first part of our trip, Lakehouse Hotel and Resort in San Marcos. Because we werent in a real hurry, we decided to stop off in La Jolla to visit with all of our beloved seal friends who smell so good. La Jolla is one of those magical places to me that I never want to leave. Well, until the seals start smelling not so good. Before departing town we stumbled upon this giant love affair of blow-ups and being that it was Valentines Day I couldnt help but get a little romantic with the ginormous bear that was telling me that it loved me. Love you too boo. Next up, duh. IN-N-OUT. If you travel out West and dont eat here at least once, we cant be friends. Double-Double animal style and twenty thousand calories later we were satisfied. Finally we arrived to our first home for the week, one of our favorite spots in Southern Californa, the Lakehouse Hotel and Resort. We had stayed here one other time and loved every second of our time so it only made sense to go back. I think what I love so much about this place is that its really quite simple. The property isnt extravagant however they nail the details that they do have. Its warm, inviting, clean, and super chill. Not to mention its in an awesome central location you are about an hour North of San Diego, 20 minutes from several cute beach towns [Carlsbad, Oceanside, Encinitas, Cardiff-by-the-Sea,etc] and then a quick one hour drive to Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Balboa Island, etc. You can do as much or as little as you want staying here which is totally our jam. If you are traveling with kids, this is also a great spot as it is close to LEGOLAND and Safari Park. The other huge benefit to this place is that it sits on a lake [hence the name] meaning you can kayak, rent a pontoon, paddle board and more. We stayed in a Lakeside Lounge room which was huge, super clean, super cozy and had an awesome view of the lake. The yellow Adirondack chairs they have on every balcony is another favorite touch of mine. After getting completely settled, we ventured off to the pool for some R&R and awkward open mouth sleeping. Before we knew it was time to get cleaned up, enjoy a beer on our balcony while watching all of the lakers and then head out for dinner. And that completes our first day of vacation. Come back tomorrow for a new round of thirty million photos and commentary. It will be fun, promise! ps. if you have any questions about our trip or things to do, places to eat, etc just ask! id love to help a sister out! Betty West Rodriguez was called by the Lord to her resting place in heaven on Monday, Feb. 22, 2016. She was born on Feb. 2, 1931. Betty was the proud mother of eight children. She was dedicated to the Lord, her savior. She would begin and end her day in prayer. Her strength came from her belief in the Lord, which she professed daily. Our beloved mother was loving, caring and generous. She always looked for opportunities to help others. She instilled strong values in her children and was the happiest when she was surrounded by her family, especially when everyone gathered for the holidays. She was also very fond of her white miniature poodle Skippy. Mother had the ability to make you smile when you were sad, and was always ready to offer a shoulder to lean on. The family cherished the moments when mom sat with them to share her life experiences. She was an incredible role model for both her children and grandchildren and was grateful for the numerous blessings that the Lord gave her. Her legacy will live on forever. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Luis A. Rodriguez Sr.; her children, Luis Rodriguez Jr., Robert Bobby Rodriguez and Betty Marie (Daniel) Gonzalez; as well as by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. QD West. Betty is survived by her daughters, Mary (Fred) Shepherd, Cordy (Eddie) Martinez and Leslie (Oscar) Garcia; sons, George (Magdalena) Rodriguez and Carlos (Maggie) Rodriguez; 22 grandchildren; 26 great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandson; and sisters, Luceil West and Maria Reva West. She is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews, other loved relatives and friends. The family will receive condolences Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Joe Jackson North Funeral Chapels, 1410 Jacaman Rd., where a Rosary will commence at 7 p.m. Funeral services will be conducted Friday, Feb. 26, 2016, departing at 10 a.m. from Joe Jackson North Funeral Chapels to Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church for a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 a.m. Interment will follow at the Calvary Catholic Cemetery. You may express your condolences to the family online at: www.joejacksonfuneralchapels.com. Arrangements have been entrusted to the care and direction of the funeral service professionals at Joe Jackson North Funeral Chapels, 1410 Jacaman Rd., Laredo, Texas 78041; (956) 722-8850. School & Education, Press Releases By Allison Gayne Published: February 25 2016 Gersh Management Services is currently in talks to assume the administration and management of Child Development Center of the Hamptons after the current school year. Kevin Gersh, Founder and CEO of Gersh Management, recently led an English-Spanish bilingual presentation at Child Development Center of the Hamptons, joined by Gersh Managements Sheila Fridman, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Gersh International Puerto Rico, who provided Spanish translation of the presentation. February 24, 2016 Pending approval of the State University of New Yorks Charter School Institute, the Child Development Center of the Hamptons (CDCH) intends to engage Gersh Management Services, Inc. (Gersh Management) to assume the administration and management of CDCH at the end of the current school year. CDCH is comprised of a charter school (the Charter School) and a separate preschool (the Preschool). The Charter School is a public charter school serving general education, special education and gifted students in kindergarten through fifth grade. As a public charter school, students attend the Charter School free of charge and transportation is provided for most children by their home school districts. The Preschool offers services for children from birth through five years of age. The Preschool is an authorized Preschool Evaluation Site equipped to provide services to children who meet the New York State eligibility criteria for early intervention or preschool special education. When we learned that CDCH and Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, Inc. (FREE) were considering a change in management, we reached out to FREE and developed a plan for us to take over management of the schools. Once we receive all necessary state and education agency approvals, our goal is to begin the transition to be completely integrated by the end of the current school year, said Kevin Gersh, Founder and CEO of Gersh Management. Gersh Management operates the highly regarded Gersh Academy and the Gersh Experience for children and adults on the autism spectrum. Gersh Academy and the Gersh Experience utilize approaches that have resulted in positive outcomes for thousands of children with autism and/or with other learning disabilities. These respected programs were created by Mr. Gersh, an advocate for special needs education, and focus on tailoring specific methods of learning to what each student requires. The programs customized student curriculums are an example of this methodology, which will be implemented at both the Charter School and Preschool. Gersh Management also operates West Hills Montessori School, West Hills Day Camp and other educational programs for children. Programs at CDCH will continue to be provided by experienced, certified teachers and other professionals. There may be administrative and leadership changes, but most of the staff and teachers are expected to remain. The Charter School will continue to provide support and related services to both general and special education students, including counseling, occupational and physical therapy, speech therapy, social skills and Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), with an emphasis on character education and empathic practices. Where appropriate, classes will be integrated to provide for the best learning environment for all students. The Charter School will remain a public charter school open to all children free of charge. During a recent bilingual presentation to parents at CDCH, Mr. Gersh stated we encourage families interested in the charter school educational environment and our successful approaches working with children with disabilities to become familiar with our programs and the enhancements that will be taking place. We have a strong track record working with children of all ages, both on the autism spectrum as well as general education students. Our mission is to prepare all students for academic success and equip those with specific needs with the necessary social and life skills to succeed as well, said Mr. Gersh. Gersh Management will begin conducting a regional awareness campaign which will offer information sessions for parents to learn about CDCH. The campaign will include radio, print and social media to inform and educate the public about the benefits of a CDCH education. We anticipate a seamless transition in this interim period; services will not be disrupted in any way. We anticipate a strong increase in enrollment because of increased awareness and greater demand for these types of programs. The successful approaches that Gersh Management developed over the past two decades will be integrated into the curriculum. We encourage every family from the East End of Long Island to explore all we have to offer. Please contact us and schedule a tour or meeting with CDCH, added Mr. Gersh. The Charter School is currently accepting applications for enrollment for the 2016-17 school year. Parents should apply and let their school districts know by April 1, 2016, which is also the deadline to apply for free school district transportation to the Charter School (applications for the Preschool will continue to be accepted for so long as spots remain open). To receive an application call (631) 324-0207 or e-mail info@cdch.org. For more information about CDCH, please visit cdch.org. For information about the nationally respected programs and services offered by Gersh Management, please visit: GershAcademy.org. School & Education, Nature & Weather, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: February 25 2016 Port Jeffersons own Maritime Explorium has been announced as a semi-finalist in the 2016 Long Island Imagine Awards. Port Jefferson, NY - February 25th, 2016 - Port Jeffersons own Maritime Explorium has been announced as a semi-finalist in the 2016 Long Island Imagine Awards. The Imagine Awards recognize innovation and leadership in non-profit businesses, and the Maritime Explorium was entered into the competition because of the organizations innovative approach to fundraising by linking it to learning and family fun. The Explorium board sought a way to hold an event that would appeal to all ages and was in keeping with our educational approach, says Explorium director, Dr. Lauren Hubbard. For such a museum, a Maker Faire was a perfect match. In 2015, the Maritime Explorium hosted the first ever festival of invention on Long Island - the Eastern Suffolk County Mini Maker Faire. The first Maker Faire was held in San Mateo, California in 2005, and has since spread rapidly in cultural hubs across the country. It was designed to be forward-looking, and showcases makers who are exploring new forms and technologies and the celebration allows these advances to be more accessible to people of all ages. Visitors are encouraged not to be passive observers, but to take part in challenges and experiment with different forms of technology. The Explorium is a great host for the event because we love to create opportunities for people to create, explore and innovate solutions. That's exactly what happens at a Maker Faire! commented Dr. Hubbard. At the Mini Maker Faire hosted by the Maritime Explorium and presented in collaboration with KIDOYO, visitors checked out 3D printers, met professional scientists, experimented with computer coding, explored the MacGyver Playspace, and even observed a hologram machine. Nearly 100 makers from across Long Island joined in on the celebration, with sponsors including Stony Brook University, Hofstra University, Port Jefferson Village, the Rinx, The Science Academy Camp at Park Shore, Long Island Parent, and PSEG. The 2nd Eastern Suffolk County Mini Maker Faire will be held at the Explorium on June 4, 2016. The Imagine Awards are presented by Cerini & Associates Certified Public Accountants. Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: February 25 2016 The Fugitive Squad reports an arrest for a Fugitive from Justice on Wednesday, February 24, 2016 at 1:20 P.M. in Lakeview. Lakeview, NY - February 25th, 2016 - The Fugitive Squad reports an arrest for a Fugitive from Justice on Wednesday, February 24, 2016 at 1:20 P.M. in Lakeview. According to detectives, The Fugitive Squad, Fifth Squad and Special Victims Squad assisted the U.S. Marshall Service (Trenton NJ), New Jersey State Police and Essex County Prosecutors in placing Christina Fitzpatrick, 20, under arrest at a Utah Place home in connection with the kidnapping of an 11 month old child in East Orange New Jersey on February 23, 2016. Fitzpatrick is being charged as a Fugitive from Justice and will be arraigned on Thursday, February 25, 2016 at First District Court in Hempstead.